Original Airdate: September 10, 1998
From Lexington, Kentucky; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan, with Lee Marshall (first hour), and Mike Tenay (second hour)
nWo Hollywood are out to open the show, and there’s literally nothing here. Just Hollywood Hulk Hogan doing last minute hype for WarGames, while everyone else just laughs and mugs in the background
Backstage, Chris Jericho posits that, since WCW is primarily a television company, and since he’s the Television champion, he deserves the same star treatment as Goldberg, and therefore he wants a private security team to escort him to the ring for matches. Jericho continues to be incredible during this period
WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Juventud Guerrera v Silver King: They get into a shoving match at the bell, and Guerrera pounds him into the corner. Cross corner whip, but King reverses, and tries a side suplex, but Guerrera blocks. A criss cross allows King a pop-up dropkick, and a vertical suplex allows him a springboard flying moonsault, but Guerrera dodges. Guerrera with a dropkick to send the challenger to the outside, but King dropkicks a chair at him when Juvi follows, and the referee calls a DQ at 2:01. What a stupid finish for a nothing TV match, but it did lead to a pay per view match between the two, so you can’t say it was pointless. ¼*
Tony brings JJ Dillon out to announce Scott Hall v Konnan for Fall Brawl
Backstage, Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart jump Lex Luger as Lex is coming into the building
WCW Television Title Match: Chris Jericho v Wrath: As promised, Jericho now has a security escort from his dressing room - but they’re not the professional crew Goldberg has, and keep getting lost on the way to the ring. They end up going outside, and getting locked out, so no match. Wrath gets pissed and storms backstage, then to the outside to go after Jericho out there, and we get an unintentionally funny bit, as the camera tracks them for too long (around one corner too many), and we see them just stop running when they thought they were no longer in the shot. Whoops.
Clips of Jim Duggan at a live event earlier in the week (actually a Saturday Night taping) announcing that he’s been diagnosed with cancer, and will be having surgery later this week. He’s legitimately emotional as he makes the announcement, and it’s great to know now, with the benefit of hindsight, that he makes a full recovery, and is still alive and well here in 2024
Kanyon v Nick Dinsmore: Kanyon doesn’t feel that Nick is in his league, and refuses to work the match. Instead, he wants Lodi to send Saturn out to wrestle Nick in his place. Saturn comes out, but reveals that Lodi is not in the house, and since he’s only obligated to take orders from Lodi, he kicks Kanyon’s ass. That draws the Flock out, but Saturn fights them all off, and he and Raven cut promos at each other to end the segment. This was a solid segment, but doing two matches in a row that don’t happen is poor booking.
Steve McMichael v Curt Hennig: Okay, are we sure then? The opening bell actually sounds, so call your friends. Steve hammers him into the corner right away, and a cross corner whip is followed in with a clothesline. Steve with a bulldog, and he dumps Hennig into the corner to pound. A corner high knee misses, however, and Hennig goes right to work on the leg. Mongo fights him off and goes on the comeback trail, but Stevie Ray shows up for the DQ at 3:42. Buff Bagwell joins them for an nWo beatdown, but Dean Malenko and Arn Anderson make the save. Arn then announces that he’s had enough, and he’s going to reform the Horsemen, with the return of Ric Flair imminent. That draws Eric Bischoff out to play the boss card and pour cold water on the idea, until Arn decides to simply choke him out. Eric decides to make him an offer: arm wrestle each other for it next week - if Arn wins, Flair can return and the Horsemen can reform. ¼*
Lodi is out, soaking wet, and carrying a trout - complaining that Saturn dumped him in a river before the show to keep him away from the show
Handicap Match: Lex Luger v Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart: Lex is alone here, but takes both guys out with ease. He isolates Neidhart, and unloads in the corner, before tagging him with a backelbow. Lex with a bodyslam to set up a pointed elbowdrop, so Jim tags out. Lex takes Bulldog into the corner to pound on, but Davey manages to shoves Luger into the heel corner, and Neidhart chokes him. That draws Bret Hart out, and he’s welcomed with open arms by Smith and Neidhart - only to attack them both! So now it’s a tag match, I guess? The dust settles on Lex holding Neidhart in a wristlock, and he passes to Bret to give Jim a Russian legsweep. Hart with a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop, and he passes back to Luger to put Neidhart away with the torture rack at 4:02. And this nothing, barely tag match would mark Bret’s last match with both Bulldog and Neidhart. It’s too bad they couldn’t at least have worked one token Hart/Bulldog sequence in it. DUD
Disco Inferno v Konnan: Disco and Alex Wright offer to join the Wolfpac, but Konnan is… not into it. They attack, but Konnan fights them off, and hiptosses Disco. Konnan adds a sitout facebuster, and a rolling clothesline leads to the tequila sunrise at 1:05. The pre-match angle was good for a laugh, if nothing else. DUD
Earlier today, Tenay tried to talk to Scott and Steve Armstrong, when Ernest Miller interrupted, and beat them both up because he wanted the time. That draws Norman Smiley out to go after him, but security steps in before they can fight it out
Tony brings Roddy Piper out, and Piper doesn’t want to be a team with anyone in the WarGames. Considering it’s effectively not a team match this year, he’s not wrong. But Diamond Dallas Page disagrees, and tries to talk him into being teammates. In a match where only one make can win
WCW World Title Match: Bill Goldberg v Rick Fuller: Fuller tries attacking, but Goldberg shrugs him off, and takes Rick down for mounted punches. Spear, but Hollywood Hogan and Disciple run in before he can deliver the jackhammer. The referee somehow misses this, and Goldberg has the time to fight them off, and finish Fuller with the jackhammer at 1:38. DUD
Kevin Nash v Stevie Ray: Stevie slugs him into the corner, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and Nash follows in with a clothesline. Kevin bootchokes him, and he uses a cross corner whip of his own, but the charge in gets blocked this time. That allows Stevie a kick, and he hammers on Kevin from there. Stevie with a snapmare to set up a pointed elbowdrop for two, and he works a chinlock. Nash escapes, plants a big boot, and delivers a powerbomb - only for Vincent to come in for the DQ at 4:05. This was a joke. Afterwards, Scott Hall runs in to attack Nash, and the nWo beat Kevin down to end the show. But then, when they head back to their dressing room to celebrate, they find more Warrior graffiti sprayed on their wall. The guy’s a menace. -¼*
BUExperience: I usually like Thunder because it’s a lot more wrestling focused than the angle heavy Nitro, but that wasn’t the case this week. Very angle focused, and very little wrestling (total time between bells clocked in at only seventeen minutes). Not a bad episode, but not really what I wanted out of it.
