Original Airdate: August 31, 1998
From Miami, Florida; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay, with Larry Zbyszko (first half) and Bobby Heenan (second half)
nWo Hollywood is out to open the show, and Hulk Hogan announces his two teammates for WarGames: Bret Hart and Stevie Ray. One of these is not like the others. Hogan then says that he can’t wait for Fall Brawl to get his hands on Warrior, and demands his presence right now. Warrior is quick to answer the call, but before much can happen, a cloud of smoke fills the ring, and Warrior just disappears. And that’s it. That’s the end of the segment
Earlier today, Bill Goldberg showed up at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, signing autographs, and hanging out with Mark McGwire
Wrath v Jim Powers: Wrath goes to town in the corner, so Powers tries slugging, but takes a sidewalk slam. Wrath continues dominating, and the pumphandle-slam finishes at 3:12. The crowd was into Wrath. DUD
Nitro Girls
Gene Okerlund is at a Nitro Party at some high school in Ohio. A little too old to be going to high school parties, aren’t you, Gene?
Norman Smiley v Scott Norton: Norton comes in hot, and railroads Smiley into the corner right away. A powerslam gets two, and a shoulderbreaker gets two - Norton pulling him up both times. Scott with a powerbomb to properly finish at 1:28. A complete squash, but I like the intensity. Afterwards, the lights flicker, and we see Warrior watching from the rafters. So, we’re just openly redoing the Sting angle from 1997? ¼*
Earlier tonight, Saturn and Lodi arrived, with Saturn carrying his bags, as a result of losing the match that put him into servitude to Lodi
nWo Wolfpac are out, and man, Lex Luger looks weird with a goatee. Especially since it’s a different color than his hair. They also announce their three guys for WarGames: Kevin Nash, Sting, and Luger
Schiavone brings JJ Dillon and Arn Anderson out, and Dillon unveils a clip of Arn’s introductory vignette prior to Anderson’s debut some fifteen years ago. And it’s amazing. And then Dillon asks Steve McMichael and Chris Benoit to join them, so JJ can try and guilt Arn into reforming the Horsemen, but Anderson walks out. That’ll teach them to try an intervention without Dominic Palladino present, gosh
Eddie Guerrero v Brian Adams: The lights flicker again during Brian’s entrance, and Warrior is seen watching from the rafters again. At least Sting didn’t mess with the lighting. He was much more considerate. Eddie drops down and tells Adams to pin him (as a response to Eric Bischoff forcing him to wrestle this match), but Brian won’t cover. Eddie gets up and tells him to hit him, and Adams takes the bait, with Eddie refusing to fight back. Brian biels him out of the corner, and Eddie stays down, begging to be pinned. Adams finally takes the bait, and covers at 2:22. This was all storyline. And that’s fine for TV. DUD
Riggs v Ernest Miller: Riggs dominates early, working on the arm, and a dropkick knocks Miller out of the ring. Riggs is on him with a plancha, but Miller pokes him in the eye on the way back in, and throws a superkick. Miller with a short-roundhouse kick, and a corner whip leads to a spinning roundhouse kick for two. Miller with another corner whip to set up another spinning roundhouse, for the pin this time at 2:37. What was up with the double finish? This was pretty terrible, and the crowd was completely disinterested. DUD
Nitro Girls
Jim Duggan joins Okerlund at the high school Nitro Party
Marty Jannetty v Konnan: Marty looks all cleaned up here, and he’s even got gear on that isn’t just something he pulled out of his closet from 1990. Konnan wins the opening exchange, and Marty ends up on the outside to regroup. Inside, Konnan with a snapmare to set up a seated dropkick, and a cradle gets a one count, so Konnan holds him in a mat-based headscissors. Marty escapes, and wins a reversal sequence with a superkick, and a turnbuckle smash follows. Marty lands a jumping backelbow for two, and he goes to a chinlock from there. Konnan fights up, so Jannetty hammers him with mounted punches, and a standing dropkick gets him two. Jannetty with a fistdrop, and a snapmare allows him another chinlock. Konnan escapes, so Jannetty throws a knee to cut a comeback attempt off, and another snapmare allows him a kneedrop. Back to the chinlock, and he snaps Konnan’s throat across the middle rope. A fistdrop gets Marty two, as the announcers rehash everything that’s happened tonight, and don’t even acknowledge the match for minutes at a time. Marty with a flying bodypress for two, and a vertical suplex sets up yet another fistdrop for two. Konnan wins a criss cross with a sitout facebuster, however, and the tequila sunrise finishes at 9:05. This was surprisingly long. ½*
High Voltage v Saturn and Lodi: Lodi orders Saturn to not lay hands on either Raven or Kanyon, and they immediately start fucking with him, knowing he can’t do anything about it. Robbie Rage starts with Lodi, and powers him around, so Lodi tags out. Rage press-slams Saturn, but Saturn comes back with a clothesline, followed by a suplex. Lodi wants a tag, but Rage tags Kenny Kaos, and Lodi changes his mind. Saturn eats a powerbomb from Kaos, and Rage tags back in to overhead suplex him for two. High Voltage hit a combo for two, but Saturn suplexes Kaos, and fallway slams Rage to buy time. Kaos throws a clothesline to cut him off, and they continue to work Saturn over. Saturn manages a death valley driver on Rage, and suddenly Lodi is insisting for a tag, and pins Robbie at 4:57. This got the storyline across, but the actual match was a nothing burger. Not an issue for TV though, the segment had a point, and made it. You might argue that it took a little longer than it needed, though, as they could have just as effectively told this story with a three minute match. ½*
Schiavone brings Diamond Dallas Page out, and he just rambles about little league baseball in New Jersey, or whatever the fuck. I zoned out. Anyway, he brings Roddy Piper out, and if you thought Page was rambling, stand the fuck back. So all this draws Giant out to attack them, and he’s a huge babyface to me for interrupting Piper’s ramblings about Bret Hart winning the Intercontinental title, or whatever. So Giant beats everyone up, until security intervenes, and that’s the segment. Another winner. Bring on hour three!
Scott Steiner is out with his doctor, but they both feel Scott needs even more advanced medical attention, so we get Buff Bagwell out as a rastafarian healer. And boy, this segment just dies. I mean, dead air. Which is odd, because they’re usually very entertaining together. And then Rick Steiner shows up to chase them away, and we see Warrior watching from the rafters, since this involves nWo Hollywood
WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Juventud Guerrera v Evan Karagias: They feel each other out to start, and Guerrera has an edge, though the crowd is distracted with something going on in the stands, and ignores the match. Evan with a press-drop across the top rope, and he tags Juvi with a jumping backelbow. Evan with chops in the corner, but Guerrera reverses a cross corner whip, and dives with a springboard flying dropkick. Guerrera with a cross corner whip, but now Evan reverses, and delivers a powerslam for two. Evan throws a clothesline for two, and a standing dropkick sends Guerrera to the outside. Guerrera stalls out there a bit, but walks into a bodyslam as he climbs back in, and Evan adds a kneedrop. Evan with a snapmare into a chinlock, but Guerrera dumps him to the outside to escape, as the restless crowd continues to ignore it. Guerrera with a flying bodypress on the floor, and a flying legdrop looks to finish on the way in, but Guerrera gets messed up on the landing, and the cover is delayed - Evan able to recover enough to kick out at two. Guerrera with a cross corner whip, but a corner dropkick misses, and Evan flapjacks him. Evan goes to a stepover-toehold, but lets off for no real reason. That allows Guerrera to slug him, and the champ snapmares him into a chinlock, as the crowd continues chanting for random women in the stands to take their tops off. Guys, it’s not RAW. Evan with a front-powerslam, but a trip to the top ends in him getting crotched, and Guerrera brings him down with a rana. Guerrera goes up, but now Evan crotches him, and uses a rana to bring him down as well, covering for two. Evan with a slam, but a springboard moonsault misses. That allows Guerrera to try for a suplex, but it turns into a reversal sequence, ending in Guerrera delivering the scoop sitout brainbuster at 9:29. They were working hard here, but the crowd just could not have cared less, and it didn’t really work as a result. * ½
Nitro Girls. I don’t think this crowd is going to be satisfied by a little disco dancing
Back at the Nitro Party, Gene brings some cheerleaders in to dance with the Nitro Girls
WCW Television Title Match: Chris Jericho v Disco Inferno: What did I just say about disco dancing?! A criss cross to start, ending in Disco landing a swinging neckbreaker for two. Disco stomps a mud hole in the corner, but Chris fights him off, and throws chops. Disco cuts him off with a bodyslam, but a fistdrop misses, and Jericho delivers a bodyslam of his own for two. Chris tries the Lionsault, but Disco blocks, and delivers an atomic drop. Disco with a clothesline for two, and a spinebuster is worth two. Disco tries a side suplex, but Jericho counters to a bridging German suplex for two. A criss cross ends in Disco dropping him with a jawbreaker for two, but a follow up gets blocked, and Jericho goes for the Liontamer at 3:15. They were working well together, and everything looked good and crisp, but this was way too short to make a proper impact. They were giving lots of time to the weirdest stuff on this show, but this gets nothing? *
WCW World Title Match: Bill Goldberg v Al Greene: Kevin Nash is out to do guest commentary on this one. Greene tries a sneak attack, but Bill fights him off in the corner, and kicks him in the head. Goldberg with a backdrop, and a crisp front-powerslam, so Al bails. Goldberg chases, so Greene tries poking him in the eyes, but he gets reversed into the post. Inside, Al tries hammering on him, but now Goldberg is just getting mad, and shrugs off a sleeper. Spear, jackhammer, 2:16. Nothing, but entertaining anyway. DUD
Bret Hart and Hollywood Hulk Hogan v Sting and Lex Luger: Well, this is certainly a marquee match, if nothing else. Hart and Luger start, as Tony puts Lex’s recent US title reign as a ‘short, but great one.’ He held it for three days. They posture, and Lex gets him into the corner, unloading. Tag to Sting, but Bret gets away from Luger during the switch, and passes to Hulk. Hogan hammers Sting into the corner, and ropeburns him for good measure. Sting slugs back, and sends Hulk into the babyface corner for some pinballing. Lex corner whips Hogan, but the charge in hits a boot, and Hulk clotheslines him. Hulk chokes Lex against the turnbuckles, and he passes to Hart to continue the beating in the corner. Hart with a Russian legsweep for two, as the nWo cut the ring in half on Lex. Sting gets the hot tag, but misses a corner splash on Hogan. That allows Hulk to unload with the weight belt, but Bret rips it away from him, and walks out. Hulk chases after his partner, and they’re counted out at 10:40. These used to be four of the best wrestlers in the world. Once upon a time. Afterwards, Hogan chews Hart out, until the ring fills with smoke, and Warrior appears. All the nWo guys pass out from the smoke, except for Hogan, who just runs away. ¼*
BUExperience: This episode felt like it was fifty hours long. It’s notable for drawing Nitro’s highest rating ever (before or after this), and the highest that either show had done to this point (and only a week after Nitro hit another record high, to boot), though it was unopposed. And it was nyet good.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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