XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 20th 1998)

[XIV]

So at this point we're hot off Spring Stampede. So to quick summarise that...
- Goldberg is 74-0 and facing the US Champion tonight.
- Ultimo Dragon def. Chavo Guerrero (because Chavo refused to cheat to please Eddie Guerrero)
- Booker T def. Chris Benoit to retain the Television Championship.
- Curt Hennig def. The British Bulldog British (followed by an NWO beatdown on Bulldog)
- Chris Jericho def. Prince Iaukea to retain the Cruiserweight Championship
- Lex Luger & Rick Steiner def. Scott Steiner & Buff Bagwell
- Psychosis def. La Parka
- Kevin Nash & Hulk Hogan def. Roddy Piper & The Giant in a Bat (on a pole) match, but Hogan hit Nash with the bat afterwards cementing the NWO split.
- Raven def. DDP to win the United States Championship thanks to constant Flock interference.
- Randy Savage def. Sting to win the World Championship with back and forth interference from Hogan and Nash with Nash and Hogan staring each other down from ring to ramp to finish.

Right, now that's done it is on to WCW Nitro!

Opening - Okay
They show unseen footage from after the PPV which showed Hogan and the Disciple attack Kevin Nash & Randy Savage as they get to the stage. Scott Norton and other NWO members quickly come out and try to remind Hogan that the Championship and therefore the power is back with the NWO. Hogan & The Disciple then leave.

Time with the announcers Tenay, Shiavone & Zbyszko - Okay
Tenay & Shiavone hype Goldberg vs Raven for the US title while Zbyszko leaves the commentary position to soak up crowd adoration. Was this a weekly feature?

Hogan / Disciple / Bischoff Promo - Good
Eric Bischoff starts the promo by saying he loves and respects Hogan, but he hates what happened last night (don't we all? But probably for a different reason). Hogan then gets the mic and says that the Championship is his, he calls Savage scum and says that there's no doubt that he's in charge of the NWO. He then calls out Savage for a World Championship match tonight. He talked up how owning the Championship meant that you owned the power, which was good.

Backstage segment - Fine
Goldberg is pacing and slapping himself.

Time with the announcers Tenay, Shiavone & Zbyszko - Good
They clarified Hogan's challenge and talked about the NWO divide and begun to speculate who's side different NWO members would choose and made it feel that Hogan & The Disciple were largely on their own.

Well over 20 minutes into a wrestling show and as yet... not a single piece of wrestling...

Randy Savage Promo - Okay
Savage comes out and says that he's not here to gloat, he's here to fight. He promises to end Hogan's world and accepts Hogan's challenge. The people popped for it. He introduced Kevin Nash as the new leader of the NWO. So we get...

Kevin Nash Promo - Good
Nash came down and said that Step 1 is complete to ending Hulk's career, he says that Savage will beat Hogan and promises jacknifes for The Discple & Bischoff if they get involved.

Wrestling match now? .... NOPE! We get...

Raven promo from a shower cubicle - Good
Remember when Raven could talk cryptic shit and it still made sense to the viewer? This happens here. He says he won't be Goldberg's 75th.
Bray Wyatt should watch some old Raven promos.

WE FINALLY GET SOME WRESTLING! And it's...

Konnan w/Vincent vs Chris Adams - 1 / 5
I was so happy to finally be getting some wrestling, and then immediately felt let down. Konnan claims a bit of hair pulling from Chris Adams to the referee which made me laugh, and then Konnan won a very short match with a Half Boston Crab. But a nice clean finish with no f*ckery.

Backstage segment - Fine
Goldberg is still pacing and slapping himself. Only this time, he's huffing and puffing.

Barbarian w/Jimmy Hart vs Wayne Bloom - 0.5 / 5
A very quick match where the finish comes from Hart grabbing Bloom's leg as he hits the ropes and gets hit with the big boot to finish.

Backstage segment - Fine
Raven is still in the shower. Claims the streak is over.

Chris Jericho promo - Okay
This is the famous Jericho promo where he was the framed picture of Malenko in the ring. It's funnier in hindsight, because we know from Y2J's podcast that he was actually flying from town to town with a rolled up picture of Malenko and the easel and buying a frame in each town until he was finally told he could use it.
Anywho, Jericho says Dean has retired and has had an interview at a burger joint. This leads into...

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match
Juventud Guerrera vs Chris Jericho (C) - 3.75 / 5
A great match for the time it got. Good back and forth cruiserweight action.
Jericho won with the Liontamer. Guerrera didn't tap, he just passed out and the ref called it. Which I feel put the Liontamer over really well as doing more than just spinal damage

Michael Buffer introduces the US Title Match - Excellent
As always, him just being there, gave it a huge match feel...

WCW United States Championship Match
Raven (C) vs Goldberg - 3 / 5
Raven had no music, which I felt was odd. But apparantly we're told this match is Raven's rules. I don't know what that is, but at least it's announced this time.
The match has some really good back and forth action, and for the second time in two days, Goldberg has a legit match which lasts more than 3 minutes.
Raven finds different ways to use a chair on Goldberg and has the best of the match before Goldberg hits a spear out of nowhere. After this The Flock attempt to interfere but Goldberg sweeps them aside. Raven then tries to leave through the crowd, but they pick him up and put him back over the guardrail.
Spear, Jackhammer, 1,2,3 New Champion.
This match was doing really well until The Flock's interference.

La Parka vs Ultimo Dragon - 1.5 / 5
Good cruiserweight match until Eddie distracts the referee and Chavo costs Ultimo Dragon the match by pushing him off the turnbuckle. I guess Chavo is ready to use Uncle Eddie's tactics after all.

Chris Benoit vs Curt Hennig w/Rick Rude - 2 / 5
Rick Rude joins commentary and talked up his and Hennig's friendship, he also refused to pick a side in the Nash/Hogan debate.
Benoit spends the match targetting Hennig's braced knee.
WCW OVERBOOKING ALERT
A good match is totally ruined by Rude leaving commentary and getting himself involved, Benoit wins when Rude breaks up the Crossface. An assault then happens, which leads to Booker T coming out to make the save. Hennig and Rude then leave. Booker T then leaves, but Benoit catches up to him and starts wailing on him and they brawl to the back.
Wasn't it Hennig & Rude that just assaulted you? Why you taking it out on Booker? I bet Hennig & Rude never get comeuppance from Benoit either...

In ring interview - Excellent
Mean Gene Okerlund calls out Roddy Piper and he is SUPER over with the crowd.
He cuts a great promo which starts with a typical brilliant Piper line. "I had a ball last night at Spring Stampede! Unfortunately Hogan has a bat". I miss the Hot Rod.
He announces that tonight's title match will be No DQ, no run ins and no run outs.
Piper announces that once Savage is done with him, Hogan is his.
He left and the crowd was FIRED UP, so he did his job perfectly well.

Hammer vs Saturn - 2 / 5
These two are both members of the same stable, and begun fighting before even getting to the ring. But it did eventually get into the ring and it was decent action for the time it got, it felt like a fight. At one point, they were outside the ring for about 90 seconds, and a 10 count wasn't made. Eventually the referee calls a count-out and they brawled to the back. I'm actually enjoying these two, so I hope it is leading to a gimmick match of some kind.

Public Enemy vs Scott Steiner & Buff Bagwell - 1.5 / 5
This was a decent tag team match, the announcers did a good job of putting over Scott Steiner as being afraid of Rick Steiner which furthers that feud.
Johnny Grunge plays the babyface in peril, finally gets the tag to Rocco Rock who immediately gets cut off killing that heat.
WCW FINISH ALERT
For some f*cking dumbass reason, Rocco Rock decides to put Bagwell through a table, but they botch it. I cannot even describe the botch, but it looked like shit and both Grunge and Rock go through the table.
It was f*cking stupid and Bagwell got his team the win with the Blockbuster.

WCW Television Championship Match
Psychosis vs Booker T (C) - 3.5 / 5
This was a fairly decent back and forth match which mostly went Psychosis's way whilst he worked Booker's knee.
Booker T won with the missile dropkick from the second rope, the issue I have with this as a finisher is that the Harlem Side Kick he used 10 seconds before looks 10x the finisher. So it's a bit of a let down of a finisher.
But it was the best match of the night, and there was nothing screwy about it, no run ins and no WCW bullshit whatsoever.

Brian Adams w/Vincent vs Lex Luger - 2.5 / 5
This was not a bad match by any means, but it wasn't spectacular and the ending dragged it down.
I popped for Vincent interfering and getting racked, followed by Konnan immediately trying to then interfere and getting racked... Luger then beats Adams with a simple flying forearm which felt like an underwhelming finish for this, especially after how cool Luger had just looked.

Michael Buffer introduces WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match - Excellent
This could could be announcing a main event between a sponge and a lamp and I'd get on the edge of my seat. It's that distinctive Buffer family voice and the match already feels a million dollars.

No Disaqualification WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Hulk Hogan w/The Disciple vs Randy Savage (C) - AWFUL
CAUTION, THIS MATCH STINKS OF WCW
If this match is supposed to be no run-ins... why is Disciple allowed to accompany Hogan?
This match took AGES to get to any actual action.
The Disciple then did a naughty choke behind the ref's back on Savage... so where's Nash with that Jacknife he was promising?
Macho did keep forgetting which leg to sell, which made me laugh, it should have been obvious as one of them had a giant brace on it.
And then, for no real f*cking reason, The Disciple gives the referee a neckbreaker. He gave the referee, in a NO DQ match a neckbreaker when there's nothing he could actually do to stop him as Piper never told us what the consequences were for getting involved. So why bother bumping the ref!?
Eventually, Nash comes out to do as he promised, but before he can do anything Eric Bischoff slides in and grabs Nash's legs. Nash manages to fight everyone off and gives Hogan the Jacknife and gets Savage to cover Hogan. BUT WE'RE NOT DONE, THE WCW GIFT KEEPS GIVING. So now Bret Hart comes out and hits Nash with the title belt and pulls Hogan onto Savage for the 1,2, 3.
BUT WAIT... There's more!
Roddy Piper comes out and confronts Bret Hart, who hits him and starts smiling.
What. A. Clusterf*ck.

Summary
- This show was less exhausting, but there's so many major and minor feuds overlapping that it's ridiculous. Hogan appears to be feuding with Savage, Nash & Piper all at the same time, while Savage will now undoubtedly have an issue with Bret Hart, who already has a problem with most of the NWO but he's backed up by Nash, who's feuding with Hogan, The Giant and somewhat Sting all at once. And that's me just covering bits of the NWO / WCW uppercard clusterfuck.
- Want to know how many times the NWO music was played on this show? 14. 14 times the same theme music was played.
- Both Raven and Savage lost their championships after 24 hours. Which leads me to think, why? Why bother? Goldberg beating DDP would have been a bigger deal, so leaving the belt on DDP and having him drop it to Goldberg would have been better for all involved.
- This highlights of the show were again on the undercard. Booker T vs Psychosis, Saturn vs Hammer, Jericho was generally enjoyable too.
- I have never realised that everytime a champion in WCW competes... it appears to be with the title on the line. Certainly has been so far in the viewing I've done. Jericho has made 3 defenses as has Booker T.
- Where the f*ck are the Tag Team Championship belts? I know the champions are Hall & Nash.. come to think of it... where the f*ck is Hall? Has he eloped with both title belts?

I've now watched two Nitro shows and one PPV. And it is very apparent that the undercard really is what holds the show up. Once again the NWO is the focus and for the short time at Savage and Hogan were actually 1 on 1 it looked like two guys refusing the let the limelight go, and that's talking in 1998. The main event was horribly overbooked. But subjectively it was more enjoyable than the previous week's show and I actually find myself looking forward to the next show... (the jury is out as to whether or not this is because of the lingering nostalgia or actual enjoyment).

Tale of the ratings:
WWF Raw 4.4
WCW Nitro 5.1

This would be the last time that Nitro ever beat Raw in the ratings...