Original Airdate: July 27, 1998
From San Antonio, Texas; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (first half) and Bobby Heenan (second half)
Nitro Girls. You know, I’m dying to know which episode it was where Shawn Michaels saw his future wife dancing and fell hard
nWo Hollywood are out, though sans Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, so don’t bother paying attention, it’s probably not important. And it really isn’t, as the only thing to come out of this is Brian Adams challenging Bill Goldberg for the WCW World title tonight
The Flock is out, but Saturn interrupts Raven’s bellyaching. But before Saturn can get his hands on Raven, Kanyon comes out to attack Saturn, and the Flock just walks away. This angle continues to be extremely confusing
Jim Duggan v Barbarian: They measure each other early, and Duggan puts him down with a clothesline, so Barbarian bails. Inside, Duggan slugs him down again, but telegraphs a backdrop, and gets clobbered. Barbarian unloads in the corner, and a bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop, but Jim dodges. Into the corner, Duggan delivers a ten-punch count, and Hacksaw uses a bodyslam of his own. Cue Jimmy Hart for interference, but it backfires, and Duggan schoolboys Barbarian at 2:38. Afterwards, Hugh Morrus runs in on Duggan, but Meng makes the save. DUD
An old beater is parked in a reserved spot outside of the arena
Eric Bischoff and Miss Elizabeth are out for Eric’s Tonight Show spoof, complete with Monica Lewinsky monologue. Well, it wouldn’t be 1998 without one. I know this is going somewhere, but these segments are insanely long and masturbatory. Especially at the time, when we didn’t really know where this was going, if anywhere. Listening to Bischoff’s podcast, he’s a very sharp guy who understands a lot about the entertainment business, which makes this crap all the more shocking of a miss. After going on and on and on, he finally brings Hollywood Hogan out, and he just takes some jabs at Jay Leno. This segment was death
Nitro Girls
Nitro Party video
Gene Okerlund brings Diamond Dallas Page out, and they really should have slotted another match in here first, after that horrible Tonight Show segment. The first hour is nearly over and we’ve had less than three minutes of wrestling. And he has nothing of note to say, either, just challenges Hogan to a match tonight
Scott Hall and Dusty Rhodes swing by the announce desk, telling Larry that he’s under a ‘gag order.’ I consider this a babyface turn for the nWo
Jim Neidhart v Scott Norton: We’re in the second hour now, and this is only the second match. One hour, one match. Easy. And it’s a complete squash, with Norton just wrecking him with a single move (powerbomb) at 0:16. DUD
Bill Goldberg music video
Backstage, Goldberg’s locker room has been vandalized
WCW United States Champion Bret Hart is out, and he wants to be friendy friends with Sting
WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Chris Jericho v Dean Malenko: Jericho with a baseball slide before the bell, and he hits Dean with chops on the floor, before whipping him into the guardrail. Chris with a dive on the way back in, but Malenko blocks him with a dropkick. Another dropkick, but Jericho dodges. Jericho tries a cradle, but Malenko rolls through, into mounted punches. Dean with a 2nd rope sunset flip, but Jericho rolls through into the Liontamer, though Dean has the ropes before Chris can get it applied. Jericho with a springboard dropkick to knock Dean to the outside for a tope, and Chris puts the boots to him on the way back in. Backdrop, but Dean blocks, and throws a leg lariat. Dean with a corner whip, but the charge in misses, triggering a reversal sequence that ends in Malenko delivering a German suplex for two. Dean with a cross corner clothesline to set up a suplex, but Jericho counters to an inverted vertical suplex to set up a Lionsault for two. Chris goes for another suplex, but Dean blocks, and a reversal sequence ends in Malenko delivering a butterfly powerbomb. Texas cloverleaf time, but Jericho has the ropes right away. Dean with a bodyslam to set up a dive, but he’s too slow, and Chris crotches him. Jericho tries a superplex, but Malenko counters with a DDT on the way down for a dramatic two. Chris wisely bails, and finds a set of knux, but misses with them. Malenko with a side suplex, causing Jericho to drop the weapon, and Dean pops him with it for the DQ at 8:23. This was quite good, but the finish was a downer. ** ¾
Backstage, Okerlund is outside of Goldberg’s dressing room, where Bill has locked himself inside, fuming. Take it easy dude, it’s not like you have a mortgage on the place. It’s a locker room. I can’t even imagine how this guy feels about hotel rooms
Steve McMichael v Curt Hennig: Curt attacks at the bell, but McMichael fights him off, and a biel leads Curt to bail. Steve tries dragging him back, so Curt snaps his throat across the top rope, and Hennig puts the boots to him. That knocks McMichael to the outside for Rick Rude to abuse, but Mongo fights Hennig off on the way back in. Mongo with a running powerslam, so Rude interferes again, allowing Curt to recover with a bridging fisherman suplex at 1:36. Nothing to this one at all. DUD
Hollywood Hogan is out to accept DDP’s challenge for a match tonight
Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone v Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman: From Bash at the Beach on July 12 in San Diego California. Why are they showing this here? Malone and Rodman start, and Rodman stalls him. Not much of note other than Karl dumping him out of the ring, and it’s over to Hogan. Karl gets him in a cobra clutch right away, and a bodyslam gets a big pop. Tag to DDP, but he wants Rodman, and the heels oblige. We’re six minutes into this, and it’s been all posturing thus far. And more of that to come, as that’s all Page and Rodman do for several more minutes. Tags all around, and Malone dominates Hogan with an overhead wristlock, so Rodman comes in with a cheap shot, and that’s enough to put the heels in control, some ten minutes into the bout. That should at least give this some direction and story. Don’t get me wrong, I get why they did a lot of posturing in the early going, and it’s good booking, but it didn’t need to last ten minutes. And they kind of lost the crowd by going too long with it. The heels cut the ring in half on Malone, but sadly, they’ve lost the crowd, and it’s an uphill battle now. And since Malone isn’t a regular worker, it’s all very basic stuff. Karl slips away from Hulk long enough for the hot tag to Page, and DDP runs wild, but gets nailed by Rodman on the ropes, and Hogan clotheslines him. Another heat segment on Page, and this one drags as well. Hulk misses the legdrop, allowing the hot tag to Karl, and the reaction is pretty muted. Karl runs wild, getting the crowd back into things. He hits Hulk with a big boot, and passes back to Page to drop Hollywood with the Diamond Cutter. Cover, but the referee is distracted with Rodman (who misses his mark). Karl hits Rodman with a cutter of his own, but Disciple sneaks in to attack Page, and he puts Hulk on top for the pin at 23:44. That whole ending sequence was a pretty big mess, and putting the heels over was a head scratcher. This whole thing was pretty bad, honestly. The issue was that you had a couple of non-wrestlers, but they booked it as a straight match, instead of using all kinds of smoke and mirrors like the WWF might have. Twenty four minutes without a bunch of smoke and mirrors is a lot for the level of workers involved - Hogan included at this stage in his career, really. -½*
Gene brings Goldberg out for his first ever interview. And he doesn’t say much, really… just kind of rasps that he’ll accept Brian Adams’ challenge for tonight
Gene brings Arn Anderson out to explain why he was so hard on Dean Malenko when Dean tried to ask him about reforming the Horsemen. Arn uses Dean and Mongo’s earlier matches as his explanation. So, basically, they suck. Fair
Scott Hall v Sting: Sting unloads on him to start, and Hall ends up on the outside as a result. Inside, Hall with a fallaway slam for two, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and Sting follows in with a pair of Stinger Splashes. Into another corner for a third one, and the inverted DDT sets up the Scorpion Deathlock, but Bret Hart is out. Sting lets off the hold to go after the Hitman on the outside, so Curt Hennig and Vincent run out, and the referee counts Sting out at 3:09, despite watching the nWo willfully assaulting him on the outside. At least Kevin Nash and Lex Luger make the save afterwards. This was bad, both as a match and as a segment. DUD
Okerlund brings Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell out, and Buff is back in the wheelchair again, before popping out to mock everyone again. Steiner and Bagwell are hilarious together, just naturally funny. JJ Dillon comes out to ruin the party, and announces Scott against Rick Steiner for Road Wild
WCW World Title Match: Bill Goldberg v Brian Adams: Vincent distracts the champion to allow Adams a sneak attack, and a flying shoulderblock gets him two. Brian with a vertical suplex for two, but Bill counters another suplex with a neckbreaker. Spear (though poorly executed), so Vincent runs in, but Goldberg spears him, too. Goldberg with a second (better) spear on Adams, and the Jackhammer finishes at 1:31. DUD
Diamond Dallas Page v Hollywood Hulk Hogan: They’re putting this over as the third part of a ‘triple main event’ tonight, which is laughable, considering the other two parts totaled less than four minutes combined. Hulk attacks before the bell, and unloads. Page turns the tables in the corner, so Hogan goes to the eyes, and delivers a side suplex for two. Hulk goes to a chinlock from there (complete with horribly worked, loose punches along the way), and a clothesline gets him two. Hogan with a bodyslam to set up an elbowdrop, but Page dodges, and throws a series of punches to set up a discus clothesline. Another clothesline sees Hogan fail to take a bump over the top, and he’s forced to go out underneath the bottom rope instead. Dallas follows to continue the attack on the outside, but Disciple gets involved, and Page has to take it back inside. Page tries a cross corner whip, but Hulk reverses, and follows in with a clothesline. Hogan with a big boot, but he wastes time showboating, and falls prey to the Diamond Cutter. Cover, but the nWo run in for the DQ at 4:18. This was really bad, with Hogan in particular working very poorly, and then a bad finish on top of things. Afterwards, we get the obligatory nWo beatdown, but the Wolfpac runs out to make the save - backed up by Goldberg. -¼*
BUExperience: A pretty terrible episode, where even the two negative-star matches were honestly the least of their troubles. I’m surprised this managed such a strong rating, all considered. RAW was the vastly superior show this week. It just goes to show that WCW still could have turned things back around at this point, though this unfocused episode wasn’t there creatively.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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