Monday
Nitro #155
Date:
September 21, 1998
Location:
Fleet Center, Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance:
15,144
Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
So
the Horsemen returned a week ago and three days later they were
outsmarted by Bischoff and Bagwell in an arm wrestling match on
Thunder. Due to that loss, Flair is never allowed to wrestle again,
which I'm sure will hold up. Other than that we're coming up on
Halloween Havoc and Nitro has turned into a bad horror movie with
Warrior kidnapping Disciple last week. Let's get to it.
Hall
arrives and yells at Doug Dillinger about wrecking his car while
holding a bag which sounds like it's full of bottles.
Nitro
Girls.
The
announcers do their opening chat, mainly talking about Page vs.
Goldberg.
The
ring fills up with smoke and Disciple is unconscious on the mat.
This brings out the Black and White but more smoke fills the ring and
the NWO can't just walk through it and grab his body for some reason.
Warrior appears in the rafters under the Warrior Signal with the
unconscious Disciple. Hogan says come and finish what you ran away
from eight years ago and to tell the people that Warrior lives in
fear.
Warrior
says he's been running to reappear and take away all of Hogan's
valuable possessions. Tonight he starts with the Disciple, who
kneels beside him because he hasn't been instilled with the Warrior
powers. Warrior promises that the plot will thicken tonight. I know
the blowoff match is horrible, but the build for it is somehow even
less interesting.
Opening
sequence.
Finlay
vs. Barry Darsow
They
circle each other until Darsow hammers him into the corner but Finlay
uppercuts him back. We hit an early nerve hold on Barry followed by
a simple pull of the face but Darsow comes back with choking and a
chinlock. Finlay counters a piledriver attempt and the tombstone is
enough to pin Barry.
Rating:
D. Pretty boring brawl for the
most part here with Darsow not being interesting at all. Finlay was
a decent enough midcarder but he needed more to work with out there.
I've never understood the mentality behind booking these meaningless
matches in the first hour. You have an uncontested hour with no Raw
and this is how you use it?
Clips
of Flair returning last week.
Clips
of Warrior's speech from earlier because wrestling fans can't
remember something from fifteen minutes ago.
Nick
Dinsmore vs. Wrath
Dinsmore
is more famous as Eugene. Wrath
throws him into the corner to start and sidesteps a dropkick.
Meltdown ends this squash quick.
More
Flair clips.
Video
on Goldberg vs. Page which plays up a battle of the finishers. The
match is for the WCW/NWO World Title, making me shake my head all
over again.
Rick
Fuller vs. Rick Steiner
It's
a brawl to start with Steiner pounding Fuller down to the mat.
Steiner catches a jumping Fuller in a kind of belly to belly, setting
up the bulldog for the pin in less than a minute. That was a
dominant squash.
Steiner
gets on the mic and says Goldberg is 146-0 but he's 9000-0 against
his brother.
The
evil laughter starts up again.
Here's
the Black and White to continue the nonsense. Hogan wants to take it
to the streets with Warrior so he says come to the ring and face him
like a man. Warrior appears on the stage and says follow him if you
have the courage. The Black and White goes after him and after
pausing for the smoke, goes into Hogan's locker room and finds a
burning Warrior symbol and Disciple unconscious in the bathroom.
Smoke fills the bathroom and Disciple disappears.
We
look at Saturn telling the Flock to go their own ways last week.
Kanyon/Raven
vs. Los Villanos
Raven
says loyalty is dead and someone has to pay before blasting the
Villanos in a fast start. Kanyon loads up a powerbomb on IV with
Raven adding a neckbreaker, only to drop IV on the back of his head,
causing the match to stop immediately. Raven was checking on IV and
looked terrified so I can't imagine this was fake.
The
trainer comes out to check on IV and you can hear the fans gasp as
replays are shown. Thankfully it looks like it was his shoulder that
landed first. IV is able to sit up and very slowly walk away from
the ring, getting a nice ovation from the crowd.
We
see Disco Inferno trying to make weight for a Cruiserweight Title
shot tonight.
Hour
#2 begins.
Alex
Wright comes out and shouts in German before saying we're dumb
Americans. He speaks very slowly for us, saying that he can't stand
America and Diamond Dallas Page is even worse.
Alex
Wright vs. Diamond Dallas Page
Page
is taping his hands up on the way to the ring. Alex stomps him down
in the corner to start and knocks him back with a dropkick. A
missile dropkick puts Page down again but Page counters a whip into
the corner and loads up a belly to back suplex. Wright backflips out
but walks into the Diamond Cutter for the pin. I think Page was
supposed to catch him during the backflip but couldn't get his hands
up in time, which is hardly a criticism as that would have been very
difficult and the way they did it looked fine.
Post
match Page says he and Goldberg are different animals with Goldberg
rocketing to the top while Page took forever to get there. He's
bringing everything he has at Halloween Havoc and will make Goldberg
feel the BANG.
The
Nitro Party winner of the week is from a bunch of guys who forgot to
include their names.
More
Nitro Girls.
Clip
of Ernest Miller being arrested last week.
The
Cat vs. Lenny Lane
Lane
is given five seconds to leave without getting beaten up and actually
takes Miller up on the offer. Cat stops him and kicks Lane in the
chest before talking even more trash. Another kick to the face drops
Lenny as Scott Hall staggers down the aisle. Miller has a chinlock
on Lane as Hall says it's party time Boston style. Dusty Rhodes
returns from wherever he's been for the last few months to yell at
Scott, saying he's throwing his career away. The Feliner ends Lane
to wrap up the stuff in the background. We only saw about 45 seconds
of the match.
Disco
is exhausted and covered in sweat but has made weight. So Matt Hardy
in 2003 was ripping off Disco Inferno?
Back
from a break with more evil laughter.
We
look at Jericho getting lost over and over again. Last week Jericho
thinks Goldberg is scared of him and declares himself a unified world
champion.
Jerry
Flynn vs. Saturn
Saturn
easily takes him down before hitting a Thesz Press and a quickly
broken choke. Flynn tries a leg lock but Saturn is in the ropes
before too much damage can be done. Saturn kicks him in the head a
few times and loads up a table on the floor. Flynn hits a nice dive
to take Saturn out but walks into a northern lights suplex, which
Tony says is out of Curt Hennig's playbook. More kicks from Flynn
set up a cross armbreaker but Saturn rolls out. They head outside
and Flynn accidentally kicks the post twice in a row, setting up a
splash through the table and the Death Valley Driver for the pin.
Rating:
D+. WAY too much offense from
Flynn here, especially so soon after Saturn's big win over Raven. It
was nice to see Flynn do anything other than kicks, but at the end of
the day he's still the same stupid mullet wearing karate guy he's
always been. Why the table spot wasn't a DQ is never explained.
Monday
Night Jericho ad, featuring voiceovers talking about people becoming
Jericholics. The lights come on to reveal that it's Jericho himself
in a funny bit.
Here
are Bagwell and Scott Steiner to brag about their physiques and make
fun of Boston for losing everything. They've
been sent here to find out where Bret Hart stands and
demand that he come out here right now, fake knee injury or not.
Bret comes in for the showdown but the NWO guys beat him down until
Sting makes the save. Rick
Steiner sneaks up on Scott and gets in a few good shots as Bagwell
runs.
Cruiserweight
Title: Disco Inferno vs. Kidman
Disco
is defending but is already tired coming in. Kidman has no sympathy
and dropkicks him down for a fast two and a slingshot legdrop gets
the same. A nice running clothesline gets two more but Disco grabs a
headlock to get a breather. They run the ropes and Disco collapses
from exhaustion. Kidman
hooks a chinlock and drops another middle rope legdrop for his fourth
two count before we take a break.
Back
with Kidman still in control as Lodi comes to the ring with signs
saying they need to reform the Flock. Disco uses the distraction to
hit a quick jumping piledriver but takes too long to cover and only
gets two. He slams Kidman down but stops to dance, wasting even more
energy. A middle rope elbow misses and Kidman comes back with a
middle rope bulldog for two. Disco
comes back with a neckbreaker but stops to dance before trying a
powerbomb, allowing Kidman to counter into a faceplant. Kidman
scores with sitout spinebuster and the Shooting Star for the pin.
Rating:
B-. Nice match here with a good
one night angle to back it up. It wasn't anything original or ground
breaking but it gave the match an extra dimension and made Disco look
a bit better. It also helps that Kidman was only in trouble once off
that piledriver which only connected because of a distraction.
The
evil laughter starts up again as Disco is still in the ring.
Nitro
Girls with Tygress getting a solo.
More
Flair stuff from last week.
Chavo
Guerrero Jr. vs. Konnan
Konnan
does his schtick and Chavo does the same thing, showing that he's as
loveable as Konnan is. Chavo thinks he should be in the Wolfpack too
and wants to talk to Nash about it. Instead it's Konnan taking him
down with a pair of clotheslines and scoring with the low dropkick.
Chavo bails to the floor for a meeting with Pepe before coming back
with a very elaborate arm wringer before pulling on his trunks.
Konnan
gets taken down by a dropkick and Chavo stops for a ride on Pepe.
The delay lets K-Dawg come back with a gorilla press drop before
sending him face first into the buckle. We hit the chinlock for a
bit but Chavo fights back with
a running forearm in the corner. Now it's Chavo with a chinlock for
a few seconds until we take a break.
Back
with Konnan still in the chinlock as Heenan is talking a mile a
minute. Chavo cranks on
Konnan's arms before missing a charge into the post to change
momentum. Konnan takes him outside and whips him into various metal
objects before bulldogging him down for two. The usual stuff
finishes for Konnan.
Rating:
D+. This match died after the
break with both guys laying around and resting far too much. That's
the problem with having a guy like Konnan go long when he mainly
wrestles in squash matches. Not a terrible match due to the comedy
at the start but it didn't work for the most part.
We
see Eddie being sent to Japan last week.
Here
are Liz and Bischoff with the latter being way too happy given what
was happening with Disciple. Bischoff brags about building an empire
and being responsible for everyone being in their seats tonight. He
built up everything you see here and none of the credit can go to Ric
Flair. Eric talks about all the mistakes Flair made last week and
reminds Flair that just because he has a contract, it doesn't mean he
has the right to wrestle. Flair and Anderson should never wrestle
again since this is Bischoff's company and he gets to make the
decision.
This
brings out the Horsemen in black (save for Arn in stripes) to the
AWESOME galloping horse music. Security stops the Horsemen in the
aisle but Flair has a quick chat with Doug Dillinger and the Horsemen
get to come to the ring. Flair can't talk due to the ovation at
first which brings a smile to my face. Bischoff lied when he said
Flair wasn't here and lied again when he said the Horsemen were dead.
Flair goes through every member of the Horsemen and why they're all
great but says Bischoff gets to live tonight.
Only
Anderson wants to get his hands on Bischoff worse than Ric does, and
on his worse day he could roll Bischoff
up, smoke him, then stomp on him like a cockroach. Bischoff offers
Flair a free shot. Ric: “Yeah I want it and she wants Space
Mountain but she's not getting it tonight.” Flair says the only
reason he won't hit Bischoff is he doesn't have another two million
bucks.
Ric
brings up Reid's wrestling tournament that caused the original
suspension (never mentioned on TV before I don't think) so Bischoff
can suck it. Bischoff has said that the Horsemen are too old but
Flair says he's just too good. Flair says he didn't save his money
but he made it by being the best. The only reason Bischoff is living
like he is now is because of people like Flair, Sting, Luger and
Dusty Rhodes.
Ric
keeps ranting about selling out arenas from coast to coast while
Bischoff was in a bathroom buying his first condom. Space Mountain
may be the oldest ride in the park but it still has the longest line.
While Bischoff is puffing his chest, why doesn't he tell the people
who introduced him to Hulk Hogan.
Bischoff
says it was just because Flair wanted to carry Hogan's bag. Ric
calls Hogan a guy that went on fourth every night to beat the crowd
and says the Horsemen will be in Norfolk for Thunder but Bischoff
warns them not to show up. The Horsemen back Bischoff into a corner
and show him the fingers to end the segment. No one can rant like
Ric Flair, period.
Giant/Stevie
Ray vs. Kevin Nash/Lex Luger
The
graphic says Stevie Ray/Scott Hall which is due to Giant subbing in
for the drunk Hall. Stevie and Luger start us off and do very little
before Hall comes up to the announcers' desk and wants to know why so
many people want to see him fight Nash. Scott says there's no
alcohol policy in WCW and his back hurts from carrying Nash this many
years. Luger stomps Stevie down in the corner as Hall nearly falls
down while talking.
Hall
comes down and gets on the apron before throwing the referee to the
floor. Nash gets the tag as Tenay plugs a boxing show tomorrow
night. Hall tries a right hand and falls down, allowing Giant to
come in and beat down Nash. Luger cleans house with a chair and the
match is thrown out. No rating due to the lack of action as this was
more storytelling than wrestling.
Hall
wants to fight Nash but falls to the floor on a charge. Nash is
disgusted by what he's seeing and says that he's lost his best friend
because he doesn't know who Hall is anymore. Scott yells that he's
lost everything and Nash wasn't there but Nash says he won't fight
for free. A challenge is thrown out for Halloween Havoc and I guess
Hall accepts.
Here's
the Black and White for the final Warrior showdown of the night.
Hogan says get Warrior out here so he can send him back to the
promised land. Warrior shows up in the entrance and Disciple is
behind him. Hogan is thrilled but Disciple turns around to reveal an
OWN vest, sending Hogan into a rage as we go off the air.
Overall
Rating: D. This
was pretty much a throwaway show with one good match out of ten.
Even modern day Raw can give you a better ratio than that. The best
part of the first hour were those right hands that Rick Steiner threw
at Fuller. Let that sink in for a minute: some right hands, the most
commonly used move in wrestling, were the best things in an hour of
wrestling.
The
Horsemen segment was good with Flair explaining his issues with
Bischoff to the crowd who probably didn't know most of the details.
However, Bischoff didn't come off as scared or intimidated in the
slightest. He was defiant, bold and standing up to Flair, which
makes the Horsemen look far less intimidating than they should.
That's the problem with Bischoff at the end of the day: he almost
never got any punishment for what he did, save for the occasional
moment like losing to Jay Leno or Larry Zbyszko about ten months
earlier. Other than that, Bischoff gets to be this big macho guy who
never gets what's coming to him.
Finally
there's the big story of the week. Based on what we've seen since
Fall Brawl, it's very clear that the real main event of Halloween
Havoc is Hogan vs. Warrior and Goldberg vs. Page is about five
notches lower on the card. I understand the concept of a dream match
being bigger than the world title once in awhile, but this is the
fourth straight PPV (meaning every one since he won the title) where
Goldberg isn't in the featured match. The
title is being treated like it's an afterthought and that's not good
at any time. This company
is on the verge of big trouble and the signs have been there for
months.
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
Time paradox!
ReplyDelete"They’re grateful to be on TV. To be recognized in airports. To get what they get. If McMahon defecated in their hat, they’d put it back on and say “thanks.”"
ReplyDeleteI am 100% sure that this has happened.
The fact that the champion isn't even on the show this week is a bad sign.
ReplyDeleteI need to thank Cult, as I found this off his link below.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I go to find said link.
ReplyDelete(Pulls out "List of guys who shit in Lawler's crown. Adds "Vince McMahon" to said list.)
ReplyDeleteIt's not too far down, about 15 posts below here.
ReplyDeleteIf they ever do build a physical HOF then all of the toilets need to be crowns, gym bags, or sandwiches.
ReplyDeletePooping in unusual places is as "wrestling" as it gets.
Didn't this Havoc do an above average buyrate?
ReplyDeleteYeah, and a fair bit of that money went right back into refunds after the infamous "We tried to pack a 3:10 show into a 2:50 frame" incident caused most of the buyers to miss nearly all of Goldberg/DDP... which was not helped by them REPLAYING THE ENTIRE MATCH for free on Nitro the next night.
ReplyDeleteGoldie's best WCW match... cut off PPV for time constraints. WCW, ladies and gents.
Lita's going in the Hall of Fame? Oh, TAG.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Nitro Girls performed at least three times, Alex Wright fought Finlay, wrestlers came out to talk about their matches later in the night, and Buff Bagwell tried to convince Rick Steiner that he really had given up on the NWO.
ReplyDeleteAnd Hogan and Warrior got... fourteen minutes, of which maybe fourteen seconds was "acceptable wrestling." Also, Kevin Nash needed another fourteen minutes to powerbomb Scott Hall twice, walk off, and get counted out.
ReplyDeleteSeemed like that was WCW circa 1997-1998. The champion was rarely on the TV shows or defending the title on PPV.
ReplyDeleteThis Knicks vs heat game got real good in 4q. Rudy gay fucked up a open 3 but hit a mid range to tie it up. Jimmy fredette is probably playing his best game as a pro in msg right now
ReplyDeleteKing have foul to give. Wonder if the Knicks just have melo jack one up here. 20.8 seconds so knicks could miss and lose too
ReplyDeleteSmart foul by Jason thompson. Right when Carmelo made his move. Good timing
ReplyDeleteWow Tim hardaways kid is gonna inbound, dafuq is mike woodson doing switching inbound sides
ReplyDeleteI'm a Carmelo Anthony fan but that was terrible. Rudy gay was all over melo. Did he really need to shoot that with rudy gay up in his jersey while he's 20 feet from the rim. The only guy in the league that could hit that shot at a even respectable clip is Kobe and while I don't blame melo for trying to get his Kobe on but that was exactly what the kings D wanted,
ReplyDeleteI don't care who wins, I'm just waiting for this to end so I can watch splash city beat the heat
ReplyDeleteThe champion was regularly on the shows but almost never the focus. Halloween Havoc will be the first time since April that the world title goes on last.
ReplyDeleteJimmer dribbles right on the sidelines while facing the bench/crowd. He keeps doing it over and over. That's shit we got benched for in highschool.
ReplyDeleteWait when did rudy gay get good on defense? Is this really happening?
ReplyDeleteI'm just trying to live the gimmick for bayless. I tried watching that celts vs spurs game but I couldn't even get into it
ReplyDeletehttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RKwgE6Dy0_Y
ReplyDeleteWhat are you going to review when you run out of these Nitros and Thunders?
ReplyDeleteWoah woah woah they are making a beast wars transformers???????
ReplyDeleteI thought this Tyler dude was Alan Houston for a second
ReplyDeleteENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING TIME OUTS KINGS COACH
ReplyDeleteIf I miss the opening tip because nba league pass can't play a game being shown on nba TV and nba tv won't switch from this fucking Lincoln/Douglas debate of a ball game I'm going to consider stealing nba games online next year
ReplyDeleteI'm considering random years of Raw/Smackdown but I haven't decided yet.
ReplyDeleteTyson Chandler just blew a rotation big time forcing the wrong guy to switch on Thomas when he (inevitably) blew by felton which left some other dude wide open
ReplyDeleteIsiah Thomas 2.0 you are cold blooded
ReplyDeleteWhat a disgraceful loss by the Knicks. Kings on a 7 game losing streak and cousins hurts his ankles, and they beat nyk. Wow. Rudy gay looked like Ron artest out there and oh yeah jimmer fredette just dropped 24 on the Knicks LOL
ReplyDeleteAustin first brought it to my attention on the Jim Johnston podcast, but damn, Shinzaki's song really is like an antithesis to Undertaker's theme.
ReplyDeleteBoggles my mind still how they fucked that up. People crush the build for the Warrior/Hogan match but I remember the fans being pretty into it.
ReplyDeleteI still love him for when he went apeshit, making Justice Pain cower helplessly in a corner, after pain nearly dropped him on his head over the top rope.
ReplyDeleteVintage jobber!
ReplyDeleteI was listening to that podcast, paused it to youtube Hakushi's theme and found this match in related videos.
ReplyDeleteI still loved hearing 70,000 book the living shit out of Flo-Rida (no clue ufo that's how its spelt)
ReplyDeleteYanks will regret that contract in two years.
ReplyDeleteCertainly the HHH of the top 5.....
ReplyDeleteIt's just a random coincidence. If I was really in bizarro world I'd know how to speak Portuguese and you'd be constantly complaining about how cold it is.
ReplyDeleteThe Villano IV neck injury was very legit and I believe caused his retirement.
ReplyDeleteIts been awhile. Didn't want to lose my touch
ReplyDeleteWikipedia implies it put him out of action until 2000. At least he came back. The way he was walking out of the ring made him look to be about 90 years old.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, Havoc 98 might be one of the most stacked cards ever based solely on names/matchups, not match quality, etc. obviously
ReplyDeleteHogan/Warrior
Sting/Bret Hart
Hall/Nash
Goldberg/DDP
Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner
Chris Jericho/Raven
Sure over half of them blew, but matchup wise that card is just nuts
Ugh, what does that even mean?
ReplyDeleteHe was generally rated as one of the worst defensive shortstops. It probably cost the Yanks some games. Sorry.
So, how exactly does a company disband the Flock? It's not like the Flock members signed contracts, they're a cult. What's stopping them from just hanging out together again and listening to Raven?
ReplyDeleteIt does indeed sound good on paper but the fans were clearly catching on to WCW's tactics. That was always going to catch up to them in the end.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Baseball-Reference.com, the players who cost their teams the most runs on defense over their careers compared to an average defender at their position:
ReplyDelete1. Derek Jeter: -236 runs
Baseball-Reference rates Jeter's worst years as -27 in 2005, -24 in in 2007 and -23 in 2000. He rates as plus defender twice: +2 in 1998 and +4 in 2009
From an ESPN article.
Omg curry is out of this world
ReplyDeleteWord is they shortened The Miz down to just "Mi" (pronounced as "meh").
ReplyDelete"We're gonna have a whole lot of nuthin' to do if we only get a couple of inches tonight/tomorrow."
ReplyDeletethat's what the sisters said
ronnie garvin revealing savage and poffo were brothers in memphis?
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Very stacked card. Especially since WWF's show that month was Judgment Day with Undertaker/Kane fighting over the vacant title, which would remain vacant due to special referee Steve Austin. A great triple threat cage match between Mankind, Rock and Ken Shamrock. And, I don't really remember what else was on that card.
ReplyDeleteEven at 18, I was still a bit of a mark, and thought Halloween Havoc would crush with all of the "dream matches", I was most intrigued by Bret/Sting, yet other than Raven/Jericho and Goldberg/DDP, the show blew.
The Triple Threat Cage match was a month earlier at Breakdown. Shamrock and Mankind wrestled each other and Rock jobbed to Mark Henry.
ReplyDeleteShamrock and Mankind had a really good match though.
Shows how much I remember. But yeah, other than the main event I don't remember much of that card.
ReplyDeleteMy interest for Havoc went:
Sting/Bret
DDP/Goldberg
Hogan/Warrior (just to see what the hell would happen)
Jericho/Raven
Hall/Nash
That Halloween Havoc set was great as well that year.
I remember the Raven/IV botch like it was yesterday. I knew he took the bump badly, but seeing Raven of all people break character like that made me realize just how bad it was. The only other thing I remember from this episode was the ending with the Disciple going over to Warrior's side.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, they did sign contracts.
ReplyDeleteAt the time the Warrior/Hogan angle was stupid and lame but looking back on it, it was kind of awesome in a bad horror movie way.
ReplyDeleteNot to be "that guy" but this particular incident was actually the fault of the cable companies.
ReplyDeleteIt was reported in the Observer at the time that WCW requested a long show a few weeks in advance and were granted it. The problem was due mostly to cable companies with fully automated systems and nobody to override them on a Sunday I'd venture.
WCW DID issues with the PPV cutting off too early previously though -- most notably at Halloween Havoc 1996 (Piper's speech getting cut off as he ran way long) and Road Wild 1997 (cutting off right after Hogan's pin on Luger).
Yeah the buy-rate (0.78%) was considered a huge disappointment at the time. WCW was publicly expecting a 1.5% - 1.7% IIRC, so basically among the highest buyrates they ever did.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but imagine paying $30 to see the payoff to that horror movie.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really want to is who was more overrated: Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady?
ReplyDeleteYeah, Hogan/Warrior at Wrestlemania VI was like the Freddy vs Jason we had been hoping for, and imagined as kids. Their Halloween Havoc match was the Freddy vs Jason we ended up with instead.
ReplyDeleteI did and I hated it. Watching it now on the network? I'll probably enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteUpvote for the rare nwa88 run in!
ReplyDeleteSurvivor Series '88 Co-captains, reunited!
ReplyDeleteOkay...but couldn't he just restart the Folk and called in the Murder or something? What's preventing Raven from doing the exact same thing again? They're crazy cultists, right?
ReplyDeleteWhy does a wrestler run when he is thrown into the ropes?
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me I won't.
ReplyDeleteThat Powerbomb/Neckbreaker was an AMAZING move, but I don't think they ever tried it again after nearly slaughtering that poor Villano. He eventually recovered to wrestle again, but since they were bottom-tier Jobbers on WCW programming, nothing ever came of it.
ReplyDeleteIn kayfabe terms, they'd probably just not be allowed to hang around together or interfere in each other's matches. Not sure how that'd actually get enforced (it's not like WCW enforced many OTHER rules), but everyone sure treated it like it was legit... except Kanyon didn't count as a Flock member I guess.
ReplyDeleteI remember the other Villano coming in to kick the heels, and Kanyon abruptly tossing him out, in some kind of attempt to keep kayfabe.
ReplyDeleteMomentum, dude.
ReplyDeleteI get in kayfabe how you can kick people out of companies by losing matches. Or not wrestling for title matches. But how does a "You can't be friends with this guy" stipulation works?
So they all lose their managers licenses?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't they just get rid of Raven's rules...or make Raven get a normal contract without all the special exceptions?
Did they have licenses in the first place? I have no idea how it was supposed to really work with that stable. Half the time they just seemed to buy seats!
ReplyDeleteThat's fascinating. Only a handful of wcw ppvs popped a 1.5 or over. Did they really think warrior round pop that huge of a number? Could he have if they used him better? I don't know. They got my 30 bucks for the show. Looking back on it, the build for most of these matches were awful but iirc the fans were actually really into the warrior/Hogan and DDP/Goldberg stuff. .78 was down from the previous years Havoc and only above average for what they'd do in 98, ppv wise.
ReplyDeleteThis guy really likes to give D grades
ReplyDeleteUgh, I hate that. People have first names.
ReplyDeletehaha thanks! I've been picking up steam a little here lately lol
ReplyDeleteYeah IIRC they thought Warrior/Hogan was money for sure, but Goldberg was a seriously hot commodity as well, plus an undercard with Steiner vs Steiner, Nash vs Hall and Bret/Sting (a dream match at the time) would clean up. I bet it would have had it taken place about a year earlier too.
ReplyDeleteThey got my $30 too -- overall I found the show pretty fun back in the day with the exception of Hogan/Warrior. Sting/Bret was very disappointing though at the time.
Gonna have to think about that one for awhile. I don't think mcgrady is so much better than carter as many people would think
ReplyDeleteDue to WCW liking to put on awful TV matches.
ReplyDeleteYeah...so if they're just breaking the rules anyway to be out there...why can't they just break them again?
ReplyDelete