WCW Thunder (February 18, 1999)

 

Original Airdate: February 18, 1999

From Salt Lake City, Utah; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan

Backstage, Stevie Ray approaches Booker T about the nWo, but Booker isn’t interested in being Hogan’s gopher like Stevie is. Disco Inferno steps in at the wrong moment of the heated conversation, and gets his ass kicked

An unseen man enters Torrie Wilson’s hotel room, and she’s pleased to see that he’s brought a taser with him

They repeat the segment from last week (which itself was a repeat of a segment from Nitro) where Kanyon shows up at Raven’s mom’s house, where mom has asked him to come by because Raven is depressed. But, it turns out that it’s all a work, and he’s actually having a great time riding around in his Ferrari - he just wants his mom to think that he’s depressed 

Scott Hall and Disco Inferno are out to mock Roddy Piper, complete with Hall wearing a kilt, and coming out to Piper’s music. This segment dragged, and the crowd was silent for it. I get that they want to give the Piper/Hall match some quick build, but this feels like a poor way to go about it

More repeats, as Raven and Kanyon go to the bank, where Raven withdraws $10,000 in one dollar bills. “What are those for?” wonders Kanyon. Yeah, I’ll bet no acting was needed there

Chavo Guerrero Jr v Lash LeRoux: We’re about half an hour into the show, nice that we’re getting a match. Lash takes him down into an armbar right away, and they criss cross, but we cut away from the match, because Lex Luger is arriving in a limousine, and taunting Rey Mysterio Jr (who happens to be walking by). That triggers Rey to slam the car door on him like Raging Bull, and then the announcers tell us that this took place ‘earlier this afternoon.’ So why the fuck are we cutting away from a match to watch it? Back to action, as they spill to the outside, where Guerrero whips Lash into the guardrail. Inside, Chavo delivers a side suplex for two, and he works a chinlock from there. Chavo hangs him in a tree of woe, but won’t let off the attack, and Guerrero is disqualified at 6:55. Afterwards, Chavo keeps attacking, but Billy Kidman makes the save. ½*

Raven takes Kanyon to the mall, where he wants to get him some goodies at Versace 

Scott Steiner pulls up in his limo, but is hesitant to get out until a crew worker assures him that Diamond Dallas Page isn’t around

Raven and Kanyon come home, and get back to looking depressed, just as mama arrives

Brian Adams and Horace Hogan have had the toughest road in the tag title tournament. According to them anyway. And they’re ready to get to SuperBrawl by beating the Horsemen later

Chris Jericho v Juventud Guerrera: They posture, with Jericho dominating, and outmoving Guerrera. He instructs Ralphus to kiss him, but that sets Guerrera off, and Ralphus gets beat up. Jericho tries to punish him with a pop-up powerbomb, but Guerrera counters with a rana into a cradle for two. A facebuster gets another two, and he corners Chris for a ten-punch count. Jericho shakes him off and tries for the Liontamer, but Guerrera counters to a cradle for two. A reversal sequence ends in Jericho countering a rana into the Liontamer for the win at 5:07. Most of the match was lost to a commercial break. It wasn’t bad, just way too rushed. ¾*

Scott Steiner/Diamond Dallas Page hype video

Scott Steiner v Bobby Blaze: The WCW Television title isn’t on the line here. Meanwhile, Steiner cuts a promo on DDP before the match, adding a stipulation to their match at SuperBrawl that if he wins, he gets Kimberly for 30 days. I don’t remember that being a part of the presentation at SuperBrawl, so we’ll see, I guess, kid. Scott with the camel clutch at 1:16. DUD

Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr v Hector Garza and Silver King: Rey starts with King, and runs right into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Garza comes in with a missile dropkick, and a standing moonsault gets him two. They double up on Mysterio, but Konnan gets the tag, and runs wild. Roseanne Barr the door, and Rey hits King with a dive at 2:40. Too short to be worth anything. ¼*

Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit reflect on their path in the tournament thus far

Booker T v Jerry Flynn: Booker squashes him, but Disco Inferno shows up before he can put it away, and hits a jawbreaker on the floor. He rolls Booker in, and Flynn capitalizes with a spinkick for the pin at 4:26. DUD

Gene Okerlund brings Ric Flair out to discuss his attempted murder on Monday night, and Flair thinks it wasn’t cool

Back at the hotel, the sex has been had with Torrie Wilson

WCW World Tag Team Title Tournament Semifinal Cage Match: Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit v Brian Adams and Horace Hogan: This is the weirdest tournament ever. Dean and Horace start, and they trade off. Tags all around, and Benoit takes Adams down in an armbar. Adams fights free, so Benoit hits him with a leg-feed enzuigiri, then takes Brian into the corner for chops. Adams fights back with a powerslam for two, and the nWo cut the ring in half on Benoit from there. Chris gets a tag off, and Malenko runs wild. He goes for the Texas cloverleaf on Adams, but Hogan saves. That draws Benoit back in, and Roseanne Barr the door! Benoit gets Horace in the crippler crossface, but Adams saves, as Vincent shows up at ringside, wielding a chair. Meanwhile, the heels spike piledrive Malenko for two, and then chuck Benoit into the cage. The referee gets bumped, allowing Vincent to slide a chair in, and the heels dump Benoit out of the ring to isolate Malenko. They beat on him with the chair, but there’s no referee to count a pin. Benoit fights Vincent off on the outside, and he climbs back in, good and pissed now. He dives off the top of the cage with a flying headbutt drop on Adams at 12:33. Wow, that was one of the craziest spots ever, and it was surprisingly forgotten, even before 2007. * ¼ 

BUExperience: There was a lot of non-wrestling content, and making it worse, the majority of it was replays from Nitro.