Released: November 6, 2012

DISC THREE:

• Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Diamond Dallas Page – Las Vegas Death Match (WCW Halloween Havoc, 10/26/97)
  

Fancy name, but it’s really just a last man standing match. The hatred between these two has come to a fever pitch as this long feud will be resolved once and for all. Match starts out on the floor in a brawl. Page’s ribs are taped. VINTAGE DDP! Back in, Savage cuts him off and pummels him in the corner, which leads to Page jumping up off the mat, and getting in his own offense in the corner. It’s a one-man clubberin’, says Dusty. DDP hits a swinging neckbreaker and fails at the Diamond Cutter as Savage shoves him away and heads to the floor. DDP follows him out with a pescado leading to some guardrail action. Savage comes back and hits the Flying Double Ax Handle on the floor. They end up in the crowd and fight past Raven’s Flock. Over at the Havoc stage, Savage tumbles through some foam tombstones while DDP beats him with some other types of plunder. Page kicks Savage back down the aisle, but then Savage reverses a whip and sends DDP into the guardrail. Ribs! Savage sends Page into the steel steps a few times. Pretty nasty. Now Savage steals cameraman Jackie Crockett’s camera away from him. Survivor Series 1996, much? When Savage goes to whack Page, Savage gets the camera kicked back in his face. As the ref Mickey Jay starts the ten count, Elizabeth breaks a serving tray over his head. WHAT. Now she’s choking DDP with an extension cable, which cues Kimberly to head down and take Liz by the hair backstage! Shady Ref Nick Patrick replaces Mickey Jay as DDP mounts his big comeback. Inverted atomic drop and the Pancake Slam sets up the Diamond Cutter, but again Savage counters this time by hooking the top rope. Savage delivers a couple MACHO ELBOWS, but Page keeps getting back up. He goes for a third, but DDP slips out of the slam and hits the DIAMOND CUTTER while also knocking out Nick Patrick. Oh wait, he’s back up. As both get up at eight, Savage counters the next Diamond Cutter with a low blow that takes DDP all the way out to the floor. While Savage grabs hold of Nick Patrick, a fake Sting (you know best as Hollywood Hogan) comes down to ringside and whacks DDP with a bat to keep him down for the ten-count to give Savage the win. (18:07) This was good, but probably my least favorite of the three. The Spring Stampede match was the most dramatic, the Great American Bash falls count anywhere was a better fight, and this one was just kind of there. They didn’t really try anything new here. ***

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan – (WCW Monday Nitro, 12/29/97)
  

Due to the controversial ending of the Sting-Hogan match the night before at Starrcade, Hogan immediately gets his title rematch. But let’s not kid ourselves here – the real reason this is happening is because TV ratings have officially superseded PPV buy rates. Did you ever get a PPV main event the next night after any other PPV? Never. You may have gotten the main event of a PPV a WEEK before in the case of Hogan-Luger (which is bold, I might add), but at least you hadn’t bought the PPV just yet, and it added an extra element to the PPV match.

Hollywood Hogan beltless just looks weird. He’s got nothing to strum. Sting BUM RUSHES THE SHOW, but Hogan controls to start. He chokes. He slams. He elbow drops. Eventually, Sting NO-SELLS and beats Hogan to the floor. Hollywood thumbs Sting in the eye to take over. Corner clothesline gets two. Big Boot only gets two as well. They double-KO, which lands Sting into what’s left of Hogan’s balls. Hogan tries the LEGDROP, but Sting moves and starts his Superman comeback until we are out of time. Lucky for us, they show us what we missed on what I believe is the inaugural episode of Thunder. Anyways, Hogan pulls ref Randy Anderson in the way of a Stinger Splash. Sting hooks on the SCORPION DEATHLOCK. Ref Nick Patrick (who was involved in the controversy at Starrcade) says something that really pisses off Sting to the point he lets go of Hogan and puts his hands on Patrick. Hogan decks Sting from behind and schoolboys Sting. With a handful of tights, Patrick delivers the three-count. Crowd goes NUTS in favor of Hulk. Sting considers that decision BS and clotheslines Patrick to the floor. Back to work on Hogan. He reapplies the SCORPION DEATHLOCK as ref Randy Anderson wakes up and signals the bell to give Sting the win. (around 8:00) Crowd not quite as happy. Head of WCW Executive Committee JJ Dillon appears and raises the belt in the air. Out comes Eric Bischoff, who knees Dillon in the gut. Sting grabs Bischoff and makes him pay with a SCORPION DEATHDROP. Here comes some of the nWo boys. Bret Hart leads the way for WCW and the locker room empties as we close the show with a huge brawl in the ring. Only slightly better than what we got at Starrcade, to be honest. ¾*

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs. Hollywood Hogan (w/The Disciple) – No-DQ Match (WCW Monday Nitro, 4/20/98)
  

So Randy Savage regained the WCW world title from Sting the night before at Spring Stampede. Now Savage has got Hogan to deal with while the rest of the nWo is in shambles mostly because of Randy Savage. Does anybody else look better with the WCW championship belt than him? He just looks *right* with it – and yet, he had such short title reigns. Four-time WCW champion, only 53 days total. Savage is pretty badly injured at this point between his knees and shoulders. Standard eye-ripping and boot-choking from Hogan to start. Disciple gets his shots in here and there. When Savage tries to come back, Hogan goes to work on the knee. The weight lifting belt comes off and Savage gets whipped and choked. By the way, Nick Patrick is the referee, so expect shenanigans. Savage avoids the LEGDROP and gets his turn with the weight lifting belt. MACHO ELBOW connects, but he jars his knee and can’t cover. Hogan applies a figure-four until Savage reaches the ropes. Now he comes up to Hogan and starts choking into the corner. Nick Patrick gets thrown aside. Hey, it’s no-DQ! In comes Disciple to wipe out Nick Patrick with a neckbreaker. This turns into a double-team assault on Savage’s knee. Once they get tired of that, Disciple puts the WCW title belt on his shoulder and gives Savage the APOCALYPSE. You know better as the Stone Cold Stunner. Crowd wants Kevin Nash, and that’s what they get. He gets a leg grabbed by Bischoff and then gets attacked, but ducks a belt shot from Hogan that nails Disciple. Nash wants to JACKKNIFE Hogan and Bischoff tries to stop him. That fails and he eats a right hand. Now there’s the JACKKNIFE. He puts Savage on top of Hogan, but here comes Bret Hart sprinting towards the ring. He nails Nash with the title belt and turns Hogan over on top of Savage. WHAT. Now he drags Nick Patrick over who counts the 1-2-3 to give Hogan his fourth WCW title run. (14:44) Roddy Piper runs down and wants to know why Bret did what he did. At first he just avoids the questioning, but then he punches Piper in the face as he lands on Savage’s bad leg. Bret smirks at the crowd as the program fades to black. ¾*

• Sting vs. The Giant – Control of the WCW world tag belts (WCW Great American Bash, 6/14/98)
  

So Sting and Giant were partners at Slamboree a month before and won the tag belts, but the Giant rejoined nWo Hollywood while Sting joined up with the nWo Wolfpac. Well, don’t you know that just created a real problem. The situation here is whoever wins this match gets the belts and chooses their own partner LIVE on the next night on Monday Nitro. Giant lights up a ciggy poo on the way to the ring, because that’s what heels do. He blows the smoke into Sting’s face and takes a slap for it. Giant charges Sting, but misses and lays out on the turnbuckle for some well-placed kicks and a Stinger Splash. He tries again, but runs into a boot. Giant takes over, but Sting comes back with a series of Stinger Splashes before giving him the scoop and slam. It’s like WrestleMania 3, folks! Scorpion Deathlock fails, but a SCORPION DEATHDROP gets two. Giant wants the Chokeslam, but Sting hits him with another SCORPION DEATHDROP only for another nearfall. Since nothing on the mat will work, Sting has to go to the second rope and hit the SCORPION DEATHDROP from there in order to get the pinfall and the tag belts. (6:40) Hooray. Sting swerves us all and chooses Kevin Nash as his partner over the obvious choice of Lex Luger. ½*

• Hollywood Hogan & Eric Bischoff (w/The Disciple & Elizabeth) vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno (w/Kevin Eubanks) – (WCW Road Wild, 8/8/98)
  

WCW has done a lot of stupid things specifically under the Eric Bischoff regime and especially in 1998 and 1999, but this was quite possibly the stupidest main event in the entire history of the company to this point. Why not do DDP v. Hogan with Leno and Bischoff in their corners? After some posing and such, DDP and Hogan start us off. Shoulder butts and a swinging neckbreaker sends Hogan retreating. Eubanks gives Hogan a weak posting and then sends him back inside. REALLY? Tag to Bischoff, he kicks Page and then runs into a boot in the corner. Leno gets the tag and scares Bischoff back into his corner. Now we get Hogan and Leno. He dodges a couple lunges from Hogan and tags DDP. He winds up an arm wringer on Hogan and tags Leno to take control of the wristlock. Such a low point in wrestling history. Tenay – “Ya gotta love it!” Double clothesline on Hogan. Bleh. On the floor, Eubanks slams a chair back in Hogan’s face. Back inside, Bischoff kicks DDP from the apron to turn the tide. During the face in peril segment, Hogan whacks Page with some taped knux and puts Bischoff on the cover for 1-2-NO! Big Boot connects, but Hogan forgets to do the LEGDROP. Discus clothesline from DDP sets up the hot tag to Leno. Yeah, it doesn’t even deserve all caps. He meets Bischoff for a low blow, some clotheslines, and turnbuckle smashes. In comes Hogan for the distraction. Bischoff grabs Leno from behind and Hogan charges, but Leno ducks and Bischoff gets nailed. Page runs over and a clothesline to the floor takes them both out. Meanwhile, Eubanks hops inside the ring and drops Bischoff with a Diamond Cutter. While DDP gives Disciple and Hogan a double noggin knocker, Leno crawls over and jumps on Bischoff for the 1-2-3. (14:34) It only gets worse from there once David Arquette comes on the scene. Putting celebrities in WCW is like putting Kate Upton in the same room with a 13 year old boy. The kid wants it to happen, but he wouldn’t have any idea what to do with it. I will say though it did seem like Leno wanted to be there, even if he had no business being there. For that reason alone, I can’t give this a complete crap rating. ¼*

• Team WCW vs. nWo Wolfpac vs. nWo Hollywood – Wargames Match (WCW Fall Brawl, 9/13/98)
  

As a fan of the old Wargames matches, this one disgusts me. Winner gets a WCW world title shot at Halloween Havoc, which negates the whole reason for teams. This is the first Wargames match where that is a stipulation, the first one where pinfalls are allowed, and the first one where the match can end at any time. In other words, you don’t have to wait until everyone is in the ring to officially start Wargames like every other one. It’s first pinfall wins, which is STUPID. Team include Team WCW (DDP, Roddy Piper, and WOYAH), nWo Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart, and since no one else will job: Stevie Ray), and the nWo Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Sting, and Lex Luger). DDP and Bret start the match. Since there is three teams, shouldn’t a member from the Wolfpac start too? I don’t know why I’m trying to make since of WCW at this point. DDP controls for the first half of the initial five minute period while Bret gets a few of his Five Moves of Doom during the second half. Stevie Ray enters the match now. Forget about being fair, how does that even make sense?! Two minute periods from here on out. Bret rests a little while Stevie Ray puts a hurting on Page in the corner. In comes Sting. Stevie Ray is there to meet him at the door. He beats Stevie Ray back and leaps from one ring into the other on him. With Stevie Ray in between the ropes and the cage, Sting gives him a couple splashes. Of course he tries one too many times as Stevie Ray ducks and Sting eats the cage. Roddy Piper joins the match now. He beats up on everybody. Sting tries to stomp Stevie Ray between the rings reminding us of the Wargames of old. Lex Luger is next. Piper tries to put away Stevie Ray with the SLEEPER. Kevin Nash joins us now, but Hollywood Hogan sneaks down into the cage about a minute too soon and knocks out EVERYBODY but Bret and Stevie Ray with a slap jack. Stevie Ray is just there to help out. Next thing you know, even Bret Hart gets clipped from behind by Stevie Ray. Imagine Michael Scott doing improv and shooting everybody with a gun. That’s what this feels like now. Hogan starts dishing out LEGDROPS to Nash. Meanwhile, smoke fills the ring and it’s WOYAH. Hogan is ready for him though and beats him down to the mat. Next thing you know, Hogan is left holding his jacket, but NO WOYAH! Oh wait, here he comes running down the aisle. Warrior beats up Hogan who escapes out the door thanks to the Disciple, leaving Stevie Ray to take the punishment. Now Warrior spots Hogan and tears through the cage to go after him! However, security manages to hold off WOYAH while Hogan and Disciple exit to the back. Meanwhile, Stevie Ray misses DDP with the Slap Jack and whacks Bret instead. Now he’s done. Everybody else is still knocked out cold. DDP leaps at Stevie Ray and drops him with the DIAMOND CUTTER for the 1-2-3. (20:06) At least Sting tried to cheer me up doing the old spots, but otherwise this was just ridiculous. ½*

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash – No-DQ Match (WCW Starrcade, 12/27/98)
  

And like all good things, it must come to an end. Both guys take turns showing off how popular they are. By crowd reaction alone, Goldberg wins by a long shot. Strong tie-up finds Nash in the corner. Goldberg manages a back suplex to escape a headlock and Nash rolls out. Back in, Nash pounds Goldberg into the corner and delivers his famous knees and elbows. Goldberg pushes the BOOT CHOKE away and grabs a kneebar, but Nash makes the ropes. Nash gets knocked on his butt and pulls Goldberg into the corner. Goldberg ducks the Big Boot and comes back around to hit Nash with the Spear! He grabs Nash for the Jackhammer, but he uppercuts the balls. Nash gets the Side Slam for two. He follows up with the Bossman Straddle for another nearfall. Short-arm clotheslines gets two. Goldberg counters the suplex with a spinning neckbreaker. Double-arm suplex sets up a reverse kick. Powerslam off the shoulder gets two. Here comes Disco Inferno. Spear to Disco. Bam Bam Bigelow runs in and attacks Goldberg, but he takes a clothesline out to the floor. As Goldberg sets up for a Spear on Nash, Scott Hall dressed in a security shirt jabs a cattle prod in Goldberg’s chest! See ya later, Scott. With Goldberg “stunned”, Nash easily delivers the JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB for the 1-2-3. (11:20) The streak is over and Nash wins his first WCW world title. **½

• Bret Hart vs. Goldberg – Winner gets the WCW world title (WCW Monday Nitro, 12/20/99)
  

Before the match, they show Jeff Jarrett backstage sitting in front of a TV monitor apparently not watching Monday Nitro because he would just be watching himself right now. Anyways, he’s sitting back enjoying a can of Surge: the soda for people who aren’t slapnuts. This is the night after Bret and Goldberg was the main event at Starrcade and Goldberg kicked Bret’s head off to unknowingly end his career. Bret had vacated earlier in the night because of the finish at Starrcade, now we’re getting the rematch to hopefully settle this once and for all. Goldberg overpowers Bret all around the ring to start. Bret goes for the knees, but Goldberg punches him back and puts the boots to him to send Bret walking on the outside. Goldberg follows him out and continues the beatdown. Bret tries a whip into the guardrail, but Goldberg reverses. Back inside, he hits the Press Powerslam and then grabs a kneebar. Bret makes the ropes and goes back to the knees. “Goldberg” chants go out. Goldberg chokes and backs up Bret as he limps across the ring. The ref eats a back elbow, so Bret kicks Goldberg between the goal posts. Bret hooks on a figure-four and here comes the world tag champs Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. What do you know, they’re armed with baseball bats! Just when it appears they’re going to nail Bret, they start unloading on Goldberg! SWERVE~! Bret then lets loose of the figure-four and uses Nash’s baseball bat on Goldberg. SUH-NAP! Roddy Piper comes out to save, but he gets nailed by Nash. As Piper lays on top of Goldberg to protect him, ref Billy Silverman counts the pinfall. (5:44) What is going on. Well, that somehow gives Bret Hart the win as he becomes a two-time WCW world champ. The U.S. champ Jeff Jarrett joins the crew and KA-BONGS Piper. Jarrett pulls out some spray paint and as Piper and Goldberg get tagged, the nWo 2000 are here. Tony never saw this coming. Just so YOU know. ½*

• The Rock & Steve Austin vs. Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash – (WWF Raw, 3/11/02)
  

This is just three weeks after Rock was literally plowed by a semi-truck while he was injured inside of an ambulance. What resilience! It’s got to be supplements or something. I need to get on some of that. Obviously, Rock is a HOUSE OF FIRE to start. Nash nails him from the apron though and that causes Rock to go down. Nash tags in and hits a Side Slam for two. Snake Eyes follows and now that Rock’s down, Hogan wants a tag. He wears out Rock with a running clothesline and a barrage of punches. Tag to Hall, Rock fights out of the corner and tags Austin. He takes out everybody and hits the Lou Thesz Press on Nash. Spinebuster to Hall and Austin whips him into Nash to set up a staggering double-clothesline. Nash fights back with a Big Boot and tags in Austin’s WrestleMania x8 adversary. Hall hits the Fallaway Slam for two. Back to Nash, Austin stops his silly hotdog moves in the corner with right hands. Knee to the gut stops Austin though. Hogan gets a tag and now we have witnessed WWF history as the two biggest draws ever collide for just a few moments. Hall and Nash go back to doing the work. RAZOR’S EDGE attempt, but Austin backdrops him away and goes for the STONE COLD STUNNER. Hall shoves him off into Nash, but still manages to cut off Austin with a clothesline. HOT TAG TO ROCK! He lays the smackdown on Nash and hits a DDT on Hall. Still being outnumbered, Nash nails Rock with a clothesline. Tag to Hogan! He’s super confident with Rock laid out on his back, but Rock KIPS UP! Nash decks him from behind before he can get any payback on Hogan. Rock attempts another comeback, but this time Hall stops him with a forearm. That brings Austin in as the match breaks down. Hall and Nash double-team Austin on the floor while inside the ring, Hollywood delivers the Big Boot and the LEGDROP to Rock for the 1-2-3! (9:13) After the match, Hall and Nash save Hogan from an Austin beating by giving Austin a beating. Hall with the Stunner! Can’t believe this was a Raw main event. After WrestleMania, it could have never happened afterwards, so it had to happen when it did. It’s a huge star-studded markout affair no matter how you look at it, so the in-ring work can be pretty forgivable. Certainly not quite the atmosphere or the scale of what Rock v. Hogan meant to WrestleMania x8, but there is something really cool about this match. **

Final Thoughts: Some pretty crappy special features on these last two discs, I must say. What makes a good DVD set to me are good matches that don’t require context. You don’t have to be in the moment to understand why it’s important or why it’s a good match, because they are great matches by themselves. Most of the individual wrestler sets come across that way, but an nWo DVD set I would say is in the ‘less is more’ category of DVDs. The first one was perfect the way it was: one disc, a very basic retelling of the nWo story, and a few matches people would still want to see even if they didn’t watch at the time or maybe didn’t watch as closely as others did. To me, this set didn’t seem necessary. You may have got some new interviews out of some people you didn’t expect, but does this really warrant a whole other DVD set? I don’t believe so. Pick up the first one on Amazon instead. While it’s not just plain worthless, it’s not a must-have for your collection. If you are going to pick this up, spend the extra money and get the Blu-Ray if you can. It’s got a great Legends of Wrestling roundtable piece that to me is more interesting than most of these extras. Thumbs in the middle for nWo: The Revolution.