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Road Wild 1998

Road Wild 1998
Date: August 8, 1998
Location: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sturgis, South Dakota
Attendance: 8,500
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenany, Bobby Heenan

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

The summer of celebrities continues with one of the worst ideas I can imagine: Jay Leno as a professional wrestler. I still don't get who this is supposed to attract. Fans of the Tonight Show don't seem like the kind of people that are going to drop $30 to see something they know is going to be a goofy comedy bit and wrestling fans aren't going to buy it because it's Jay Leno as a wrestler. On top of that there's one match that has been pushed at all here and it's a battle royal. Why they can't just do NWO vs. NWO and Goldberg vs. Giant is beyond me but I'd bet politics were involved. Let's get to it.


The opening video is a collection of Tonight Show clips which still do nothing to change the fact that it's Eric Bischoff and Jay Leno in the main event.

I'll give Road Wild this much: no show comes close to having such a unique atmosphere.

The announcers don't look as ridiculous this year. Tenay in a jean jacket is still ridiculous looking though.

Gene is sitting on a motorcycle to start and brags about 200,000 bikers being here in Sturgis. Not at the show mind you but I'm sure that's what will be claimed.

The ring and mats are up on a platform instead of level ground.

Meng vs. Barbarian

This is going to be a long show. The fight starts at the bell with both guys pounding on each other and screaming a lot. They fight over a sumo lockup before trading some chops in the corner. Meng takes over with a hard clothesline even though it didn't knock Barbarian down. Barbarian comes right back with a belly to belly superplex but Meng pops up and piledrives him.

Meng misses a middle rope splash, no sells it, and goes up top again. Barbarian catches him in a belly to belly superplex as Tenay talks about 350,000 people being at the biker rally this week. A powerslam puts Barbarian down but he gets right back up for some chopping. Meng staggers him with some headbutts but gets pulled to the floor. Barbarian sends him into the steps and heads back inside, only to have Meng put on the Tongan Death Grip for the pin.

Rating: D. It sucked as a match but this wasn't the worst idea for an opening match. A crowd of bikers is going to respond to two monsters beating each other up for five minutes and they seemed interested here. It doesn't do much for the wrestling fans, but this show was never for them in the first place.

Meng won't let go of the hold so Jimmy Hart comes in for the save. That goes as well as you would expect so here's Hugh Morrus for the second save. Meng gets triple teamed, including a top rope splash from Hart, so Jim Duggan makes the final save, drawing a big pop from the bikers that might have watched a few wrestling matches ten years ago.

Tenay's estimates are now up to 360,000.

Disco Inferno/Alex Wright vs. Public Enemy

Tokyo Magnum is here with the dancers. Wright rolls away from Rocco to start before hiptossing him down and dancing. They fight over a wristlock until Alex dropkicks him down and tags in Disco. He's not quite ready to fight yet though and drops to the floor for a three way high five with the other dancers. Back in and Disco takes Grunge down with a clothesline before bringing Wright back in for a missile dropkick. Alex stops for some dancing and turns around into a Rocco clothesline.

A double flapjack puts Inferno down and Tokyo throws in a trashcan out of nowhere. Grunge gets cracked over the back as the referee is cool with all of this. Rocco brings in a ladder and that's too much for the dancers who go for a walk. Tokyo doesn't want to leave but his partners come back with a table. Disco grabs a mic and says let's make this a street fight. Tony states the obvious: “Haven't we already made it one already?”

The referee is fine with that so Public Enemy goes to the back to find a toilet seat and a kitchen sink. Grunge pounds on Disco on the floor as Tony hypes up a cookie sheet. Wright suplexes Rocco through a trashcan but Grunge blasts Alex with the sheet for the save. Rocco loads up the flip dive through the table but Disco makes a save to prevent Wright's demise. The kitchen sink is brought in and nearly broken over Grunge's back. The fans want to see the table but they get Tokyo Magnum thrown inside instead.

Public Enemy throws the dancers into each other and give them stereo atomic drops, only to have Wright come back with a leg lariat to Grunge. Tokyo hits Magnum by mistake as Grunge blasts Disco in the face with the ladder. Alex walks away as Rocco see-saws a ladder into Disco's hair. Now Tokyo walks away, leaving Public Enemy to set up three tables on top of each other next to the platform. Grunge climbs a ladder to put Disco on the top table, allowing Rocco to climb the scaffolding for a huge elbow drop. Grunge has to throw Disco back inside, avoid a top rope splash from a returning Magnum, and get the pin.

Rating: D+. The match was fun and the spot at the end was good (though also odd looking with a delay before each table broke) but it took over fifteen minutes to get there. The wrestling stuff at the beginning was a waste of time and they should have just gone to the street fight stuff from the beginning. Not horrid though.

Dean Malenko says he'll be a fair referee.

Raven vs. Kanyon vs. Saturn

Under Raven's Rules, meaning hardcore. Raven's music is so awesome that it doesn't belong on a show like this. The question coming into this is whether Kanyon is under Raven's control or not. Raven stands on the apron and tells Kanyon to get Saturn, only to have Perry take over with some kicks. Raven comes in with a chair to Saturn's back and sends Kanyon into the post before Saturn falls to the floor as well.

Saturn and Kanyon get in a fight on the floor as Heenan tries to figure out the story of the match as only he can. Raven sits in the corner while the other two fight in the ring but they finally realize what's going on. Kanyon dropkicks Raven low and Saturn belly to back suplexes Raven into a Kanyon neckbreaker. Kanyon throws Raven into Saturn and hits rolling Russian legsweeps on Raven for two in a nice move. Saturn breaks up the cover with a guillotine legdrop on Raven for two and the Moss Covered Three Handled Family Credenza gets the same on Raven.

Kanyon gets in another fight with Saturn so Raven blasts them both in the head with a chair, only to be sent to the floor. Saturn follows him out so Kanyon dives on both guys, giving us our first breather in awhile. They get off the platform where Kanyon whips Raven HARD into the barricade. Raven comes back with a suplex to put Kanyon down on the ramp (designed like a road) but Saturn clotheslines Raven down for two. Kanyon piledrives Saturn on the stage for two more before Raven dropkicks Kanyon down the stage.

They fight back to the ring where both guys drop down to avoid a charging Raven before Saturn catches him with a t-bone suplex. Saturn puts Raven in a sleeper but Kanyon puts one on Saturn as well before a jawbreaker puts everyone down. We get a Tower of Doom with Kanyon superplexing Saturn and Raven putting Kanyon in an electric chair.

Raven tries a double DDT on both guys but only puts Saturn down. Kanyon and Raven head outside with Raven getting suplexed onto the floor. Kanyon misses a splash off the scaffolding but Saturn catches Raven in the Death Valley Driver. Lodi makes the save but Horace comes in to lay out Saturn. Horace picks up the stop sign but gets blinded by Lodi's powder. He caves Raven's head in and a Death Valley Driver to Raven gives Saturn the pin.

Rating: C. This was a mess but it was supposed to be. I'm still not sure where they go with this story now but it would seem to still be Raven vs. Saturn. Kanyon was just there to keep spots going and he did a good job, but that doesn't mean he helped the story or really changed anything.

Psychosis vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

Bonus match and the winner gets a Cruiserweight Title shot at a date to be determined. Since that's not important, the announcers talk about Leno being nervous. Psychosis takes him to the mat with a headlock followed by an armbar. Rey tries to get up but gets taken back down by the wrist. The crowd is dead for this which shouldn't shock anyone. Back up again and Rey can't hook a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker so Psychosis clotheslines him down for two.

A sitout front suplex gets two for Psychosis and he whips Rey from corner to corner. Rey's arms are wrapped around the ropes in the corner as this somehow gets even slower. It's not terrible mind you but it's the completely wrong style for these two to be working. Psychosis suplexes Rey down and goes up top, only to do the most obvious “I'm going up here to jump into his raised boots because I'm jumping straight down instead of doing ANY kind of move at all” spot I can remember in a long time.

Rey FINALLY realizes that he's the king of cruiserweights and cartwheels at Psychosis before jumping onto his shoulders for a spinning hurricanrana. Believe it or not, the crowd actually responds to the high spot. After nothing of note on the floor, Rey hits a big cross body for two but has his hurricanrana countered into a sitout powerbomb. That's enough of the big spots though and it's nerve hold time. Rey fights up onto Psychosis' shoulders but gets dropped back into a suplex for two.

They head outside again where Psychosis....does nothing. Back inside with Psychosis putting on a half crab before going up top for a super Frankensteiner for two. Psychosis goes up again but turns his back to Rey, only to get dropkicked out to the floor. Rey follows him out with a nice dive before throwing him back inside for a springboard sunset flip for a close two.

Mysterio hits something like a Fameasser with both legs across Psychosis' back followed by a slingshot moonsault for two. Psychosis comes back with something resembling a Fameasser of his own for two but Rey avoids a charge and West Coast Pops his way to the #1 contendership.

Rating: D+. This felt like a car that was low on gas. You could get it going for a few moments, but eventually it would sputter and die. These two are capable of having some awesome matches but instead they were happy with just laying around and doing nothing most of the time. Rey was trying but Psychosis looked horrible.

TV Title: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Stevie Ray

Before the match Chavo shows off another hand made and stamped document saying that he's the TV Champion, so Stevie needs to come out here and give him his belt. Chavo tries to do the handshake bit again but Stevie runs away because he doesn't want to win a match by submission for some reason. Instead Stevie just punches him in the head and blocks a sunset flip with a choke. Chavo bails to the floor as the announcers call this a version of the rope-a-dope. Guerrero tries to sneak in but gets caught in the Slap Jack (lifting Pedigree) for the quick pin. This was a nothing squash.

Eddie saves Chavo from a further beating post match.

Jericho promises to keep the title and warns Malenko to be good tonight.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Rick is in jeans and a t-shirt...and here's JJ to say hang on a second. Apparently Scott is too injured to wrestle and here he is on a stretcher with his arm and leg in casts, a neck brace, and on an oxygen tube. Rick's chair shot to Scott was so bad that even Buff's neck is reinjured. The match is rescheduled for Fall Brawl, and the fans are LIVID. If Scott doesn't fight at Fall Brawl, he's suspended for life. Scott jumps up but runs away from a charging Rick to end this stupid bait and switch.

Brian Adams vs. Steve McMichael

Another bonus match which is about as welcome as 847 angry yellowjackets pouring buckets of boiling tar on your back and injecting you with needles filled with herpes while a blind monk with a bad case of the shakes checks you for a hernia. They shove each other around to start before not having a test of strength. We get the ugliest mistimed sequence this side of Tough Enough as Adams misses a clothesline and they just kind of run into each other and McMichael putting on a front facelock.

Adams slams him down and drops a pair of legs for two. We hit the nerve hold for a LONG time before Adams hits a backbreaker and bends Mongo over his knee. Mongo avoids a middle rope knee drop and comes back with a belly to back suplex. A few three point shoulders take Adams down but he shrugs them off and loads up a piledriver, only to have the referee kicked in the face. Vincent tries to bring in a chair but cracks Adams by mistake, setting up the tombstone for the pin.

Rating: E. As in ebola, which sounds a lot better than sitting through this match ever again. On to ANYTHING else please.

The Nitro Girls are around Gene on the motorcycle.

Cruiserweight Title: Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera

Dean Malenko is refereeing and Jericho is defending. Jericho comes to the ring in a purple kimona because that's the kind of guy he is. As always, he wants us to want him but opts to tease the bikers instead. I wonder if there are any Aces and 8's in the crowd. Jericho takes him into the corner to start and Malenko tears him away as he's supposed to do. Juvy takes out Jericho's legs and chops away but Jericho elbows him in the face to take over again.

Juvy is sent to the floor and Jericho loads something up but Dean pulls him to the mat by the hair. Well at least according to Tenay, as the camera was on Juvy the entire time. Back in and Juvy slams Jericho onto the mat and a missile dropkick sends the champion outside. Guerrera chops him off the platform and into the barricade before going inside for a HUGE placha over the platform and into Jericho into the barricade.

Back in and Juvy gets two off a springboard cross body but Jericho catches another cross body attempt into something resembling a Juvy Driver for two. Dean's count was noticeably slow and the count off a delayed vertical suplex is even slower. Juvy rolls out to the floor while Jericho yells at some fans before getting hit with a backsplash for two. We hit the chinlock on Guerrera before Chris stomps away and talks trash.

The Lionsault hits knees and Juvy comes back with chops and a hurricanrana. A top rope spinwheel kicks gets the same......slow......two......count from Dean but Jericho counters a running hurricanrana into a powerbomb. Jericho kicks him out to the apron instead of covering and kicks Juvy onto the floor. Back in and a clothesline gets two on Guerrera as the crowd is trying to care about this.

A Jericho powerbomb is countered into a DDT to wake the fans up a bit and the Juvy Driver gets a two count. Jericho is dazed but still manages to crotch Guerrera on the top and superplex him back down. Juvy rolls over for two but has another hurricanrana countered into the Liontamer. He's right in front of the ropes though and Jericho is getting frustrated.

Juvy pounds away in the corner and Dean seems to have been poked in the eye. A belt shot lays out the challenger but Dean's slow count means it's only for two. Jericho is all ticked off and goes to the middle rope. He kicks Dean in the chest and that makes Malenko snap. Well snap as much as he's capable of. Dean launches a charging Juvy into a middle rope Frankensteiner for the pin and the title.

Rating: B-. The match was good but it's running with the anchor of this entire show. Maybe the heat of the day has something to do with it but these matches have all been incredibly sluggish. Juvy was trying here and Jericho was his usual great self but they could only get so far. Again though, why didn't they just have Dean take the title himself?

Battle Royal

Goldberg, Scott Hall, Curt Hennig, The Giant, Scott Norton, Sting, Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Konnan

You can be eliminated either over the top or by pin/submission. Hall interrupts the ridiculously long entrances with the survey to keep this show going even longer. The NWO factions brawl while Goldberg hides in the corner. That lasts about fifteen seconds before Goldberg goes after Giant, which should have been a regular match tonight in the first place. Again that doesn't last long and the match breaks down into a regular battle royal.

Hall loads up the Outsiders' Edge on Goldberg but gets backdropped out. Nash eliminates himself (you can't make up jokes like this) and goes after Hall as Goldberg spears Hennig down. Things get slow again with no one trying for an elimination. Goldberg finally pounds on Giant but gets headbutted back against the ropes. The fans chant for Goldberg as Giant takes him down with a Russian legsweep. Norton breaks up a Scorpion attempt on Hennig to keep the crowd bored.

Goldberg spears Konnan and throws him out before getting kicked in the corner by Giant. The NWO keeps fighting and Goldberg goes right back to the corner to wait for the next victim. It's a short wait this time as he spears and eliminates Hennig before clotheslining Sting and Norton to the floor as well. We're down to Luger, Giant and Goldberg but there's a spear to Luger so Giant can dump him. A chokeslam puts Goldberg down but he does the Undertaker sit up and it's a spear and Jackhammer for the win.

Rating: F. Holy sweet goodness how did WCW survive this long? There were eight eliminations in this match and Goldberg had six of them. The other two were a self elimination and someone Goldberg knocked out cold. There were, conservatively, five PPV title matches in there and Goldberg beat them all in less than eight minutes. You could have easily had someone throw Goldberg out and set them up as the challenger but instead let's just have him destroy EVERYONE (except Nash of course because Nash losing would just be silly) and leave you with no challengers. But hey, a bunch of bikers cheered right?

Jay Leno/Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eric Bischoff/Hollywood Hogan

Thank goodness they don't have another video package to set this up. The one good thing about this: Liz ROCKING some jeans and chaps. Leno is apparently here to defend his title as King of Late Night. Kevin Eubanks is at ringside. Leno throws water at Hogan and Bischoff on the floor to show how serious he is. Hogan and Page start (thank goodness) and we get the usual non-action headlined by a wristlock.

Page drives in the shoulders and hits a big right hand, knocking Hogan into a left hand from Leno. Hogan is sent to the floor and the ripped Kevin Eubanks sends him into the post. Leno leads a chant against Hogan and is at least into the match. Bischoff comes in and Jay tries to go after him but gets held back. Page shrugs off some kicks to the chest and it's off to Leno. Bischoff runs away to Hogan and Jay stays in. He points at his chin and makes fun of Hogan's baldness which is about what you would expect. Leno avoids a pair of right hands and tags in Page.

Hogan clotheslines Page down and it's back to the driving shoulders. Leno comes back in to grab the wrist and in one of the most painful things I can remember seeing as a wrestling fan, Hogan sells it. He wouldn't sell for Sting at Starrcade but he's selling for Jay Leno. Hogan shoves him into the corner and drives in a knee but Leno grabs the wrist again. A double clothesline puts Hogan down and Leno gets two before nearly collapsing into a tag to Page. Ok to be fair to Leno, he did his job and was actually trying. Points for that.

The wrestlers head to the floor and Eubanks steals a chair from Hogan to keep Page in control. Back in and Bischoff gets in a kick to the back of Page's head to change momentum. Bischoff gets in his shots to make himself feel important before Hogan gets in a shot with a foreign object to give Eric a two count. There's the big boot but Page gets up before the legdrop and takes Hogan down with the discus lariat.

Leno gets the hot tag and we get the showdown with Bischoff.....who drops Leno with a poke to the eye. Jay comes back with a low blow and some right hands before sending Bischoff into some buckles. Leno is totally gassed and everything breaks down. Hogan hits Bischoff by mistake and Eubanks hits a very good looking Diamond Cutter on Bischoff to give Leno the pin.

Rating: D. Of course that's on an adjusted scale. This match wasn't horrible but it was incredibly stupid. Again I'd like to reiterate that Leno did his job to the best of his ability. He did his comedy stuff, took a few shots from Hogan and got the pin on Bischoff. He was bad, but you knew that was going to happen as soon as this was announced. As for the booking, there were a bunch of other ideas they could have gone with here and this was probably the worst possible outcome.

You could have gone with the Battle of the Billionaires idea with Leno backing Page against Hogan in a singles match and done the showdown with Bischoff that way. You could have swapped in Goldberg for Page and done Goldberg vs. Hogan II with the same Leno vs. Bischoff outside stuff. Do that and put Page in the battle royal to get Goldberg's next challenger. You could have done any of those things and gotten a better result, but it wouldn't be WCW if they had gone that way.

Hogan and Bischoff get in more cheap shots until Goldberg comes in for the save. The good guys pose to end the wrestling part of the show.

The announcers talk and we get a video on Fall Brawl.

Gene interviews some fans as Travis Tritt gets ready.

The announcers wrap things up as the concert starts to end the show.

Overall Rating: F. There's no other way to put it: this show sucked. The ONLY good match is the Cruiserweight Title match and maybe you could argue the triple threat, which was done on Nitro just a few weeks earlier. WCW is in a creative tailspin here and it's not looking any better. Depending on your tastes, things are about to get either a lot more fun or a lot worse as the product is going to go from dull to awful in a hurry.



Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Comments

  1. Thank god Vince isnt a big motorcycle aficionado....

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  2. Nope, he just loves him some ass.

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  3. So when do we get a big PPV from a big Ass rally?

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  4. They're booking this like Daniel Bryan's WHT reign.

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  5. Had he aimed higher and kicked him in the ass this wouldn't have happened!

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  6. I stopped feeling bad for Weidman the moment he started running around and celebrating when the fight ended like that.

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  7. And the people that did watch that PPV didn't even get to see it happen.

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  8. That NCAA tourney one this year was absolutely brutal.

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  9. They did play it around 100 times on nitro the next night.

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  10. Thus reassuring fans that, in the unlikely event that anything newsworthy accidentally happened on a WCW PPV, they would be able to see it for free the following night

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  11. Sid says Silva would need four years to recover. I trust his opinion over anyone else I've heard opine on the matter thusfar.

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  12. I still don't get who this is supposed to attract.

    Show did one of the biggest buyrates in wcw history.

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  13. Yeah, that explains why you can't show Super Bowl highlights the day after.

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  14. I recall Hogan calling Leno's black band member a little midget and some people thought he dropped the "N word". Hogan was later cleared of saying said word, but can you imagine the shit storm that would cause today.

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  15. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka - "You know it Brudda!"

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  16. Rowsey's use of "Bad Reputation" may also be the most perfect use of intro music for a fighter or wrestler ever.

    Rowsey is a much better fighter than Tate, but for Tate did a heck of a job hanging on for more than two rounds. The throws, flips, and escapes in that fight were a great contrast to the men's matches where that kind of agility and flexibility just doesn't exist. WWE should pay attention and realize what they could do in terms of wrestling with women who aren't barely trained models.

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  17. Yeah, they have to protect the Super Bowl PPV buyrate.

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  18. They won't even let the results be in the paper for a week.

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  19. Doesn't matter. If you fuck around when you shouldn't and get tagged, that's your fault 100%. If you throw a kick and the guy checks it, resulting in a snapped limb, that sucks, but it's not like you broke your leg delivering a kick that put a guy on his ass and could have set up a TKO.

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  20. Anyone remember that one guy on RSPW with the dollar-based rating system, who basically thought the Disco triple-table spot was the better than the entire rest of 1998 on WCW and WWF PPV combined?

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  21. And not only is he 2-0 against Anderson, he's won all four of the rounds he fought against him. In the first fight, Weidman tried to fight the first round while Anderson popped and locked. Second round, Anderson kept Jazzercising and ate his teeth as a result. This time, Weidman dominated the first round with elbows and takedowns and then checked the leg kick in the second.

    Is Weidman the GOAT? Who knows, but it's hard to argue he isn't better than Silva.

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  22. Thats ridiculous.....its not like he put the figure-four on him lol

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  23. My guess is how they did promote it on the tonight show, and Leno did have a big following in the 90's. So im guessing some upper middle class wasps didnt have an issue shelling out $30 to see Leno involved in a wrestling match with Hulk Hogan who they watched as kids in the mid 80's.

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  24. It's shows like this that demonstrate how near-sighted WCW was.
    1) How much money did WCW get off of ticket sales and other merchandise off this show? Zero
    2) As Tommy mentioned, destroying 5 future PPV challengers for Goldberg in one match.
    3) At least have the winner of the battle royal get something like a shot at Goldberg that night or future PPV.
    4) If goldberg lost in the battle royal by being ganged up, they can count that in breaking the undefeated streak and he doesn't look bad at all.

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  25. Yet another example of why tommy should stick to judging work rate and not try to analyze booking or entertainment value. Because he's awful at it.

    I'm just glad that he doesn't refer to barbarian vs meng as a Samoan civil war. At least he is capable of learning.

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  26. They didn't sell any merchandise?

    This battle royal argument makes no sense. It's like saying that the winner of the royal rumble has proven everyone else in the match is not worthy of a title shot ever again.

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  27. Who did Goldberg ever defend against on ppv?
    Next ppv, no match.
    Havoc, ddp who wasn't in the match
    ww3: wasn't there
    Starrcade: Nash who eliminated himself in this match
    Thus, they could have had the winner of the battle royal face goldberg at the next ppv but they didn't.

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  28. Regarding how much money they made: they didn't see 1 ticket at the road wild events. Because of who was the the ppv, they probably made zero or very little in terms of merchandise.

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  29. In other words, you have no idea what they sold in merchandise.

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  30. What exactly does that have to do with what I just said?

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  31. No... Weidman just let Silva break his own leg against the newly crowned "Shin Of God".

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  32. You seem awfully attracted to it.

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  33. You're the minority, though. If the history of the popularity of women's wrestling in the US means anything,

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  34. I'm sure those big buy rates made up for the complete lack of ticket sales.

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  35. I do? FTR, I would never buy this show, but saying it was a failure is just incorrect.

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  36. This did a .91 buy. Not close to record breaking but I'd bet it's in the top 20-25 buyrates they ever did

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  37. How many tickets did wm 5 sell?

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  38. according to wikipedia, 18,946

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  39. Well in fairness, that had nothing to do with Leno wrestling. That had to do with the yearly setting. (And I do agree that not charging for tickets is... peculiar to say the least)

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  40. No, that's the attendance. That's not the same thing.

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  41. "I'll
    give Road Wild this much: no show comes close to having such a unique
    atmosphere."

    My personal favorite was Bash at the Beach 1995, on an actual beach. (Same problem of no ticket sales, but what an incredible visual)

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  42. We already got weeks of live television where he forced people to literally kiss his ass.

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  43. You're reaching. You seem to be implying that one Jay Leno headlined show in front of bikers killed WCW.

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  44. Nope. The corporation that bought the corporation that owned them didn't want to own a wrestling company.

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  45. No, but it's one of many things that caused them to lose millions in a single year.

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  46. ...because that wrestling company wasn't profitable.

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  47. But keep in mind, they did the exact same type of show in 1996 and 1997, where they made huge profits both years. So I'm just saying that particular show had nothing to do with anything.

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  48. No, because they didn't want wrestling on their tv channels. Same thing happened to the Beverly hillbillies.

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  49. Try all of the above, you two.

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  50. What the fuck is wrong with wrestling promoters... holy shit this was a rough show

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  51. Analyzing entertainment value for adults:

    King of comedy > empire strikes back

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  52. Its a small bone but I'll take it

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  53. You'd just illegally stream it anyways

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  54. The whole 'losing millions' thing is a bit dubious anyway. While that's what the ledger says, they didn't get the ad revenue they should have due to being owned by the same company that owned the channel they were on. Wwf could always negotiate how much they got from ads, wcw never had that luxury.

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  55. I have to agree with Dougie on this. First of all, WCW went out of business in 2000. To claim that was caused by a PPV 2 years earlier is ridiculous. Yes, it was an example of short-sided booking that wasn't cost effective in the long run, but that was going to be their downfall regardless of whether Leno showed up.

    WCW not being profitable wasn't why it went out of business. It had gone through stretches before where it wasn't profitable.

    At the end, WCW was still drawing decent ratings for cable, even if they were way down from their peak. AOL/TW could have sold it to Bischoff's group to cut the losses and still gotten whatever profits were available from it being on TV in terms of ad revenue. However, they decided they didn't want pro wrestling on their networks, regardless of ratings because it didn't fit the direction they wanted to go with their channels. Without a TV deal, nobody other than Vince was going to be interested in buying it.

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  56. I would say that basically everything about this show is exactly indicative of why the Bischoff/Hogan era first squandered the should-have-been-bulletproof NWO-to-Goldberg run they went on...and then ultimately went out of business as the WWF went on to one of their best time periods ever.

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  57. Tommy is exaggerating quite a bit by saying '5 future PPV challengers'. Do you really think anyone was going to buy a PPV for Konnan, Hennig, or Scott Norton vs. Goldberg? Due to the face/heel alignments at the time and where the various guys stood on the card, the only ones that you could make a legitimate case for are Giant and Hall. Nash, Sting, and Luger are possibilities, but would have involved someone turning heel. Nash, Sting, and Goldberg were too popular, and Luger had turned so many times that it would have no impact.

    I do think having Goldberg give the Giant the spear/jackhammer treatment in this was a waste - the question about whether Goldberg could lift up Giant for the Jackhammer could have been part of a PPV build for a singles match.

    I'm not quite sure where you get zero tickets = no merchandise sales. I could make a plausible case that since people didn't pay for tickets they might be more likely to buy merchandise. I have no idea if that's the case, but you also have no idea whether or not anything was sold either.

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  58. If the venue costs were lower and you popped a big buyrate, I could see it washing out if nothing else. The problem with Road Wild was always how horribly the crowd fucked everything up, and for the first one at least the ring set up was downright frightful.

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  59. m not quite sure where you get zero tickets = no merchandise sales. I could make a plausible case that since people didn't pay for tickets they might be more likely to buy merchandise. I have no idea if that's the case, but you also have no idea whether or not anything was sold either.

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  60. Yes, it is indicative of the problems WCW put themselves. But it was also 2 years before they shut the door. So you can't day that this one show is the reason WCW went out of business. I'd agree it is an example of the decisions WCW made that caused them to collapse. It was not the sole reason WCW collapsed, which is what Mar Solo implied.

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  61. I don't know enough about WCW pre-1995 or so to include all of those shows...but I will say that this may well be the absolute worst PPV they ever did from the beginning of the NWO period on. That it might also not even be in the top five says...a lot.

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  62. This was about the point that they started to totally bleed money, though, and definitely right about the time that the WWF pulled away from them for good (Summerslam 1998 and the apex of McMahon/Austin coming up).

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  63. How did Silva expect to beat Weidman with that rubber leg of his?

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  64. If the company was profitable/still drawing huge ratings, they would have made due. Either that or another network (FOX/Universal) would have bought them/quickly made Bischoff an offer for a television deal when he was set to buy the company. The problem was that a) there was no way to turn the company around financially, b) the brand itself had become a total joke, especially in direct comparison to WWF, and no one wanted to be associated with it.

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  65. Well, Nash, Giant, and Sting are givens, as is Hall if he could keep his shit together long enough for it. Luger might be stretching it, but if you had something else double main eventing with it (Bret/Hogan at Superbrawl or something) you probably could have used it as a placeholder match for Goldberg.

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  66. Porn-Peddling Jef VinsonDecember 29, 2013 at 10:43 AM

    The wearing of black and white helps but as we stated before she needs to start cutting heel promos. This is where watching wrestling helps. She should watch some of the Rock's promos.

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  67. But why so soon? And what's this whole Cat Zingano faces the winner? Shouldn't Cat have to fight someone considering she's the one who's been out with injury?

    Can we assume they're doing this because Rousey may be doing film work in the spring?

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  68. But it's the same thing in the UFC. Gina Carano was popular because she was hot and could fight. Now Rousey and Tate have been the draw because they are both decently attractive enough. That's why there's no clamoring for someone like Cyborg.

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  69. Now THIS is how Brock Lesnar should be booked

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  70. This whole period blew my mind and still does. They have this super-hot commodity in Goldberg, they hot-shot the title win on a Nitro, then proceed to give him hardly anything on two of their most promoted ppvs ever. Seriously, as terrible as the Malone/Rodman/Leno matches ended up being, they were drawing BIG mainstream press coverage. Prime opportunity to draw in some viewers and really showcase their new top guy. Instead, Goldberg gets Hennig at BATB and gets filed away in a meaningless battle royale at Road Wild. I still contend that bringing in the celebs and athletes would have been worth it if it was all geared toward putting eyes on their new champion. Instead, Goldberg was just a guy and didn't end up in a true PPV main event until Halloween Havoc. By Starrcade it was over

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  71. Such a great opportunity to rope in viewers with the "special attraction" match AND showcase their talent. Instead, they forgot the second part

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  72. This was a big reason Goldberg didn't pay off nearly as well as he could have. A rationale given for hot-shotting the Goldberg win onto that Georgia Nitro is usually that they were striking while the iron was hot. However, they turned around after rushing the title win and didn't do a thing with their new champion. He got Hennig at BATB, the shitty nWo/Wolfpack battle royale at Road Wild, filed away at Fall Brawl, then the face-face match with DDP at Halloween Havoc. Starrcade was the first really hyped up ppv main event he had and by then it was over

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  73. He could have just said he learned it from Booker T. ;-)

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  74. Even more mind-boggling is that they didn't even give him a main event program until the Starrcade match...and then basically never again after that other than the Bret feud.

    Booking this in hindsight is absurdly easy, too: stick with the Goldberg/Green vs. Hennig/Giant match at BATB, use that to set up Goldberg/Giant at Road Wild, and then book a Hogan/Andre-esque match that culminates with Goldberg Jackhammering Giant and everyone flipping out. Then put him in War Games and have him do something brutal in the cage.

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  75. "Show did one of the biggest buyrates in wcw history."

    This is...overstating things quite a bit. Plus, with the lack of a gate and all the money they must have paid Leno for the appearance and promotion, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they lost money on it.

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  76. Silvia's comeback fight is going to do a monster butyrate, especially when he faces a returning GSP.

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  77. No. No it isn't. Did it do one of the biggest buyrates in wcw history? Yes it did. That's not overstating.

    And all the other stuff that you say, you're just guessing. How much did Leno get paid? You don't know. Did the organizers of the biker rally pay for the show? You don't know. Did wcw get a cut of the concessions sold? You don't know. Did somebody sponsor the show like slim Jim sponsored Halloween havoc?

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  78. "No. No it isn't. Did it do one of the biggest buyrates in wcw history? Yes it did. That's not overstating."

    Of course it is, because you're ignoring the equivalent of business cycle context. This show only did the 5th highest buyrate of 1998 for WCW (it was outdrawn by Age in the Cage ferchrissakes) which is certainly not good for a show in which they dropped as much on a big celebrity appearance as they did with Leno. This argument works for Rodman/Malone at BATB, but not at all here (which had a buyrate over 33% less than BATB).

    And I never said I wasn't guessing, but then again the fact that you can't even confidently assert that they made money on this show with "one of the biggest buyrates" in the company's history is in itself a pretty glaring indictment of how poorly they were running the business at this point (and even for all you're trolling, I doubt that even yoou would be willing to say that this wasn't a part and parcel of how WCW went from the top of the mountain/building Goldberg to losing eight figures a year and going out of business less than 5 years after the NWO formation).

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  79. Did it do one of the biggest buyrates in wcw history?

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  80. Sorry dude, your problem is that I don't suffer bullshit artists like you, and am not going to accede to your trollish framing of questions. If you want to argue that paying a bunch of money to get a mainstream celebrity to do an appearance, getting advertisements on one of the most iconic television shows in American popular culture as a result, and then subsequently failing to get a buyrate that even cracks the top 1/3 of your PPVs for the year and quite possibly losing money on the whole event is a success...by all means go right ahead and say so.

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  81. Did it do one of the biggest buyrates in wcw history? Yes or no.

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  82. Troll on, man, troll on.

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  83. Beats me. I don't know how much merch they sold. I don't know how much sponsorship money they got. I don't know how much Leno got paid. But I do know that it got one of the highest buyrates in wcw history.

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  84. So, in other words, you agree that despites "one of the highest buyrates in WCW history" you can't confidently say that WCW made a dime on it.


    I'd say we're done here, then.

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  85. I've never said anything other than it did one of the highest buyrates in wcw history. You take issue with that. You have no argument at all because it did, as a matter of fact, do one of the highest buyrates in wcw history. I'm sorry you can't back up your argument with any sort of facts at all.

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  86. Of course I have an argument for it. I'm sorry that you don't understand the idea of context and comparing a show to what other shows in the time period instead of, say, five years prior or when the promotion was on its deathbed, but it doesn't change the fact that I do have an argument (namely that this show didn't even do "one of the best buyrates" of the calendar year, which isn't even considering the adjustment you have to make for the promotion and celebrity factor).

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  87. Hall, Nash, Sting, Luger, Giant.

    Goldberg fought at least three of them on PPV and would have fought Giant at some point had he not left. That's leaving out Hennig who he did fight on PPV already.

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  88. I think you're confused. I made a factual true statement. You are arguing with the statement. You are incorrect. You should go back to tilting at windmills.

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  89. And a segment of his being buffed and polished. That still haunts my nightmares.

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  90. It's unbelievable how much money WCW left on the table with the streak. Bischoff could have been arrested for stealing Turner's money at that rate.

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  91. I never disputed your statement regarding nominal buy rates. I pointed out that, in the context of the buyrates they were drawing for other shows that year and the amount of publicity this show got, there's no way a 0.91 can be considered anything other than a total flop, and very possibly might have left the show unprofitable.

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  92. The amount of publicity is why (say it with me) it got one of the highest buyrates in wcw history.

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  93. Being promoted on the Tonight Show is why it drew a lower buyrate than Halloween Havoc 1997, Souled Out 1998, Superbrawl VIII, Uncensored 1998, Starrcade 1998, and Superbrawl IX?

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  94. He became popular so quickly they couldn't figure out what to do with him, IMO. They were focused on the NWO Wolfpac vs. NWO Hollywood angle, and couldn't figure out a way to fit him in. Not to mention the politics and the fact the difficulty in getting top guy to job to him.

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  95. Nash/Sting/Luger vs. Goldberg.

    Who exactly is the heel in those scenarios?

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  96. Luger could have been. Sting and Nash would have both been faces.

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  97. All of that is true. They made a lot of bad booking and business decisions, and this PPV is an example of that.

    But again - WCW went out of business 2 years after this PPV. So you still can't claim that this PPV was the sole reason WCW went out of business. Or do you guys actually believe that Jay Leno's appearance is the only reason WCW shut it's doors?

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  98. I don't think anyone is/was saying that this show alone put WCW out of business...but it's certainly the beginning of the end, and what DID put them out of business was basically the same thing that made this show a failure.

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  99. Well Nash/Goldberg did the second biggest buyrate of 1998, and I don't think you'd have much problem selling a Sting/Goldberg face/face match.

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  100. I guess. I'm not sure another Luger heel turn would have been accompanied by the sound of anything other than crickets chirping. I'm not sure they could have turned Sting heel easily either. Nash they could (and did) - but the chance of him jobbing cleanly to Goldberg was pretty much non-existent anyway.

    Regardless, what is clear is that they had no idea what to do with him.

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  101. "He became popular so quickly they couldn't figure out what to do with him, IMO."


    If you meant to say "they wanted to be sure he didn't threaten Hogan/Nash's place on the card or their ability to run Flair/Hogan main events forever, then I agree.

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  102. Yeah Sting as a heel just doesn't work. It never has but promoters keep trying to do it.


    That is indeed very true.

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  103. Nash jobbed cleanly to Goldberg at Spring Stampede 1999.

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  104. Honestly, this is kind of a cop out of an analysis anyway, since it's not like it's hard to figure out what to do with Goldberg. Give him the Giant at Road Wild, have him dominate a War Games match, then figure out how you want to end the streak/go from there and, in the meantime, feed him every other potential draw of a match you have. They could have bought their own printing press at that rate.

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  105. I remember on the "Rise and Fall of WCW" DVD, Jericho talks of how he couldn't understand Leno just standing there doing armdrags, then realized he was posing for the cameras of newspapers and felt embarrassed for his profession in that moment.

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  106. I agree that the Goldberg phenomenon probably caught them off guard and they already had some sort of long-term plans in place, but there is no reason Goldberg could not have had legitimate main events

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  107. There's a ton of clamoring for Cyborg. The issue is that she can't make 135 because it would require her to stop with the 'roids.

    Also, if hotness were paramount, Rousey's first title match wouldn't have been Carmouche (who is far from unattractive, but not as attractive [objectively/conventionally] as Tate).

    In the WWE, as a performance sport, beauty is paramount. Physical ability is a nice thing to have, but not necessary. In the UFC, as a competitive sport, it's exactly the opposite.

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  108. Exactly. He had basically the DDP feud and then Nash. Then an upper-midcard deal with Bigelow to draw him away from the nWo stuff. Gets his win back against Nash when the whole thing had already cooled off, then disappears from the title/main event picture. Then Sid before the injury and a semi-memorable Steiner feud before the death of the company. That's basically it.

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  109. It's a none fact that Bischoff didn't charge the bikers anything.

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  110. And while the DDP match closed out HH, basically the entire build to the show was focused around Hogan-Warrior.

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  111. They didn't want wrestling on their channels because the wrestling wasn't profitable for them anymore.

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  112. A company like WWE, or even WCW at this point in time, could afford to toss off one show for free in a venue like this. Granted, it still should've been a random Nitro or RAW to minimize losses, but whatever. I love the way WCW would seek out venues that offered interesting visual aesthetics, like this, or BATB and the Spring Break shows, or the first Nitro in the Mall of America. My favorite WWE shows are also the outdoor shows they've done, like Summerslam '92 which has this weird otherworldly feel to it. I honestly wish WWE would run shows like that more often.

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  113. Yep. I loved that match, but it really wasn't treated like the main event

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  114. As long as you had the streak in tact, the face/heel dynamic didn't really make any difference. If you need to book a face/face match with Goldberg and Sting/Flair/Hart/whoever, you just write the entire build around the idea of Opponent X wanting to be the guy who ends the streak (and takes the belt), and create enough belief that he might actually get the best of Goldberg at the PPV. People would have eaten that shit up, and you didn't need any elaborate reason for the match to be happening other than that this guy wanted their shot at ending the streak and winning the belt.

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  115. And then a great many of us didn't even get to see the match until the next night due to WCW screwing up the ppv time.

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  116. The last quarter of 1998 was pretty much the epitome of Eric Bischoff as a wrestling executive, wasn't it?

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  117. Well I was certainly watching less and less Nitro and more and more Raw by that point.

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  118. That's about as stupid as most of the other shots everyone with an ax to grind took at WCW in that hatchet job. It's fucking show business, and by this time everyone knew it was fake anyway. Who cares how silly the celeb attraction looks if it's making you extra money?

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  119. Use the tagline from Summerslam 93 about Yokozuna: Somebody has to stop him.

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  120. More or less. Plus, the fact that you had guys who were already big names and credible threats would sell itself. How hard would it be to build a Goldberg/Sting match for, say, Superbrawl? The best would be Flair, since he could play up all the World titles, being the dirtiest player in the game, and he could toss in classic heel tactics during the match even if he was being booked as a face.


    Literally all you had to do with Goldberg was get a rough idea of who you wanted to end the streak, and then feed him every other money making match you could put on before you pulled the trigger on that. Unbelievable how fucking stupid wrestling companies can be sometimes.

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  121. The battle royal is the real low point of the show for me -- it looks like a house show battle royal. Everyone except probably Giant, Goldberg and maybe Luger are INCREDIBLY lazy. None of those guys do a lot offensively, but at least they do it with some energy. There are maybe three whole bumps in the match and almost all of the eliminations are very lame.

    Hennig in particular seems to have no clue what he's doing out there and looks a mess. His timing is totally off, he doesn't sell anything and can't even take the spear properly.

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  122. Jay leno can't outbox Mayweather. He can't outdunk Jordan. He can't beat Tiger Woods in a game of gold. He can't beat Usain Bolt in race.... SO WHY THE FUCK CAN AN OUT OF SHAPE 50 YEAR OLD TALK SHOW HOST OUT-WRESTLE THE MOST POPULAR WRESTLER OF ALL TIME? WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH WCW? I can imagine that the WCW locker room had to be pissed of at this.

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  123. I get what you're saying, but this is a sport where dudes get knocked out and bleed all over the place. It's a bit strange to say - "Oh well, showing a replay of a broken bone is too far". Had Weidman snapped his leg intentionally, then you're getting into more of a gray area, imo.

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  124. I was googling the participants of that celebrity match cause I have no real idea who Kevin Eubanks was and I gotta say he's at least kinda jacked. Why couldn't he beat up Hogan?

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  125. I think this sort of thing was what Greg Valentine was trying to accomplish by wearing his shin guard. It all makes sense now 20+ years later. The Hammer was an inovator!

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  126. You're giving Goldberg too much credit. By this point he couldn't carry or be carried in a match beyond 5 minutes. That's why they put him in matches with the Giant because they wouldn't last too long.

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  127. That's a valid point. Plus New Line Cinema lost many more millions than WCW could ever dream of losing yet Time Warner still keeps them around to this day so Time Warner was obviously not too concerned about some of their companies bleeding money.
    WCW went under because Time Warner did not want a wrestling company to be associated with their channels anymore, it's as simple as that.

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  128. 2 1/2 months from this point he was going 15-20 minutes with DDP in a 4* match.

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  129. I will agree with your assessment that his match with DDP at Halloween Havoc '98 was excellent; however, DDP carried the match with his extremely-detailed, heavily scripted style. It's neither a knock on DDP nor Goldberg, but you can credit DDP for that match.

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  130. Regardless of who you "credit", it goes to show that Goldberg absolutely could do a proper main event. Credit DDP 90/10 if you wish, but that's why two guys are in there. Who cares if Goldberg needed to be heavily protected and carried?

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  131. They had plenty of guys who could do the token 10-minute main event with him. They hadn't put on a great workrate main event in years by then, so it's not like people expected Bret/Shawn/Flair level stuff to close out the show. In fact, the WCW crowd was particularly conditioned at that point because of Hogan's shitty main events. Nothing had to be a 20+min main event in '98.

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  132. When your world champion needs to be carried your promotion looks second-rate. While Goldberg was the placeholder for the WCW title for most of the second half of '98 SCSA and the Rock were showcasing Main Event style for the Attitude Era and getting much bigger returns for it.
    As a WCW enthusiast I embrace their time as #1 from May '96 to April '98 but their drop from glory was a deep one and they remained a solid #2 until the days the doors closed in 2001.

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  133. Oh I certainly agree that Goldberg was far from the ideal top guy in the workrate sense. WCW also didn't HAVE a Rock or Austin, so that comparison isn't really fair. Goldberg was still very green and never did really evolve into anything special in the ring. However, he was their hot act and the reactions he was getting warranted the main event position he had. If you need to put him in there with guys who can protect/carry him, then so be it. He was never going to be Rock or Austin, but neither was anyone else on the WCW roster in '98

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