WCW: Thunder
February 12, 1998
Oklahoma City, OK
The Myriad

The current WCW champs are as follows:
WCW World Champion: Vacant (1/8/1998)
WCW U.S. Champion: Diamond Dallas Page (12/28/1997)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (2/9/1998)
WCW World Television Champion: Booker T (12/29/1997)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Chris Jericho (1/24/1998)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Lee Marshall.

Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff dare to be seen in Oklahoma City and start off this program. They are waging war on WCW and everyone from Ted Turner on down to the people who water the plants at the CNN Center belong to the nWo. Hogan brings up Bret Hart and says if it wasn’t for Bret, he would still be the champ and wouldn’t have to have this rematch with Sting. He plans to beat up Bret Hart whenever and wherever he can get his hands on him. Next up, Hollywood Hogan wants Randy Savage to come down. Savage meets Hogan in the ring to a pretty nice babyface reaction. Hogan says he’ll admit when he’s wrong and feels an apology is in order. Never truly intending to apologize, Hogan tells us Bischoff has booked the following tag match for Nitro six days before Superbrawl VIII: Randy Savage and Hollywood Hogan against Lex Luger and Sting. Before Savage is told to show Bischoff his appreciation for booking this match, Hogan tells Savage that he had “allusions of grandeur” about the pecking order of the nWo and felt Savage completely dropped the ball. He wants Savage to apologize to *him* for not living up to his expectations. Savage apologizes for not punching Hogan in the face sooner. He decks Hogan and Bischoff and then runs out of the ring before he can get nailed by a chair. Randy Savage is like our Stone Cold Steve Austin!

The Myriad is mic’d a little too well as you can clearly hear a kid drop the F bomb when we switch over to the announcers table. That’s live TV for ya!

WCW MOTORSPORTS! WHO CARES!

• Kidman (w/Lodi) vs. Prince Iaukea
  

We’re told Louie Spicolli chased away Lee Marshall to take over his chair. When Tony makes a comment about the Mega Powers versus Lex Luger and Sting Nitro match being made official and how it’s a “bombshell”, Spicolli tells Tony he shouldn’t say “bombshell” in OKC. HA! Tony has no comment for that. In the middle of the match, we go backstage to see Raven and Riggs hanging out. Raven tells Riggs to go get Hammer when Mortis walks by him. Raven invites Mortis to leave his costume behind and join the Flock. The only other requirement to get into the Flock is that he defeat Diamond Dallas Page tonight. Yeah, no biggie. Back to the match, Iaukea is making a comeback on Kidman with superkicks and various babyface moves. Kidman comes off the top and gets taken over with a powerslam. Not as pretty as it should have been, but effective nonetheless. He misses a flying legdrop and takes the springboard bulldog by Kidman to set up the SHOOTING STAR PRESS for the win. (5:22) Spicolli wonders why Kidman is always scratching his face. *½

DDP puts over “They Live” starring Roddy Piper coming up next after Thunder on TBS!

Tony announces another rematch between the new WCW world tag champs the Steiner brothers and the Outsiders for Superbrawl VIII.

• Meng (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Hugh Morrus
  

Louie wants to know why these Dungeon of Doom guys are wrestling each other. Tony doesn’t respond and goes back into Superbrawl hype mode. Louie even mentions that Heenan managed Meng at one time. It seems nobody wants to discuss these interesting topics with Spicolli though. However, Tony doesn’t mind dropping a bomb (I know, not in OKC) on Louie informing him that he’ll now be facing Larry Zbyszko at Superbrawl VIII. As for the match, I’ll just skip ahead to finish. Jimmy Hart rolls Meng away from NO LAUGHING MATTER allowing Meng to apply the TONGAN DEATH GRIP for the win. (3:13) When Meng won’t release the hold, Jimmy Hart waves out Barbarian to help. Meng puts him in the TONGAN DEATH GRIP as well for trying to stop him. Don’t touch Meng when he’s like this! Jimmy grabs Meng and gets chased away as the crowd wants to see Jimmy get sacrificed. THEY WANT BLOOD! ¾*

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it – IF YOU WILL! 6:05PM eastern time! TBS! Davey Boy Smith teams up with Jim Neidhart in tag action! The Awesome Meng will be there! In the feature bout, the Steiners battle Konnan and Vincent! Scott Hudson and Mike Tenay have taken over commentary, but it’s still the MUTHASHIP!

Lee Marshall now returns to the commentary table. Either his time was up or he was being too interesting.

• WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Diamond Dallas Page vs. Mortis (w/James Vandenberg)
  

Mortis just makes DDP’s offense look so good. Thanks to Vandenberg, DDP misses a corner charge to allow Mortis some offense. He sits DDP in the corner and gives him a neckbreaker to the mat for a nearfall. DDP escapes a chinlock and mounts his comeback to hit the DIAMOND CUTTER off the ropes for the win. (3:47) Out comes the Flock. Hammer and a few others go down to the ring to pick up Mortis and carry him over to Raven. When Mortis presents himself before Raven, he gets an EVENFLOW DDT on the ramp. You know I’m looking through the TV results in 1998 and this may be the last we see of the Mortis character on TV. *

They show clips of the McMichael-Davey Boy Smith feud. I don’t know why they keep giving this more attention than it’s worth.

• Steve McMichael vs. Jim Neidhart
  

Total brawl here. Mongo picks up some steps and tries to hit Neidhart. Looks like somebody missed their cue as McMichael just stands there with the steps staring at Neidhart until Davey Boy Smith runs down for the DQ. (1:43) These two just don’t like each other. Can you imagine leaving the WWF after having a really great year in 1997 to come to WCW for a feud with Steve McMichael? ½*

Chavo Guerrero Jr. hypes “They Live” starring Roddy Piper. You better watch it because he is.

• Buff Bagwell (w/Vincent) vs. Chris Adams
  

Bagwell shines to start laughing and pointing at Adams. When Adams fires back on him, Buff shoves Adams and slaps him only serving to anger him more. Adams misses a charge up against the ropes though and gets crotched. Bagwell beats on Adams and gets up in the ref’s face. Splash off the ropes hits knees and Adams mounts a comeback with a series of suplexes. He even hits a piledriver for 1-2-NO! Sensing Buff is in trouble, Vincent gets up on the top rope. Adams SUPERKICKS him down. Bagwell jumps Adams from behind and puts him away with the BUFF BLOCKBUSTER at 4:37.

After Tony reiterates that Hogan is declaring war on Bret Hart, we go to a Juventud Guerrera montage reminding us that he’ll be putting his mask up against Chris Jericho at Superbrawl VIII over the WCW Cruiserweight title.

• WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
  

Jericho continues doing what he did on Nitro when he continued wearing the belt after the bell. He only takes it off when ref Billy Silverman gives him an earful. Chavo starts off hot against Jericho, but misses a charge into the corner. Pair of suplexes by Jericho gets two. Chavo comes back with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors and snaps Jericho’s neck on the top rope. Jericho calls out to the cameraman for help. TORNADO DDT is tried, but Jericho shoves him off. He runs into a clothesline though as Chavo covers him for 1-2-NO! Guerrero wants another tilt-a-whirl headscissors, but Jericho counters and locks on the LIONTAMER for the tapout. (3:10) After the bell, Juventud Guerrera heads down to break up the hold. Jericho press slams Guerrera and tries to take the mask off, but Juvi kicks him away and dumps him out. Guerrera wants to dive on him, but Jericho grabs his belt and goes home. *

Roddy Piper! “They Live”! Movies for Guys Who Like Movies! TBS!

• Davey Boy Smith vs. Sick Boy (w/Lodi)
  

Eric Bischoff comes out and kicks out Lee Marshall to complain about TBS showing a Roddy Piper film. It’s a conspiracy against the nWo! Meanwhile, Davey Boy gets kicked around a little bit and comes back with the RUNNING POWERSLAM for the win. (3:09) Naturally, Steve McMichael storms down to the ring for another fight with Davey Boy.

They replay DDP destroying the Flock last week on Thunder

• Raven’s Rules: Raven vs. Chris Benoit
  

Raven attacks Benoit in the aisle during his entrance. A chair gets involved. Naturally, both guys live and die by the chair. With the chair wedged in the corner, Benoit takes a NASTY bump into the chair once Riggs jerks Raven out of harm’s way. It only seems to hurt Benoit for a moment as he goes into a fit of Rolling Germans. The Flock attacks and Benoit catches Kidman in mid-air for the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE. I guess ref Charles Robinson is throwing the match out. (4:16 or so) Diamond Dallas Page scares away Raven and beats up the rest of the Flock while Benoit is caught in the RINGS OF SATURN. When it comes down to Saturn and DDP, Saturn takes a few punches and then hightails it out of the ring. Fun stuff. It’s just a shame their matches on Thunder so far have been so short. **

• Bill Goldberg vs. Glacier
  

Goldberg backflips away from Glacier’s legsweep and drops Glacier with a swinging neckbreaker. The Spear and the one-armed JACKHAMMER ends Glacier in 1:05. He needed a match like this after Regal on Nitro.

• Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair
  

So whether or not he actually asked for the time off, Ric Flair didn’t show up last week for Thunder. Here he is against one of his top rivals over the last ten years. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective), it’s almost the same match they have been doing since 1988. Luger slams, Flair begs off, Luger poses, Flair cheats. Wash, rinse, repeat. When Lex goes for the TORTURE RACK, Flair’s feet knock down ref Randy Anderson. Flair chopblocks and FIGURE-FOURS Luger. WOO! Luger sells for a moment, but then turns the hold over. With Luger in trouble, Randy Savage runs down and jumps Luger for the DQ. (5:46) Savage nails Flair as well. Next thing we know, Hollywood Hogan runs down and attacks Savage! Konnan, Vincent, and Buff Bagwell head out to put the boots to Luger and Flair until Sting makes the save. The fight continues into the aisle as we close the show with all the attention on Sting beating up Hogan and Luger beating up Savage. **

TOTAL BELL-TO-BELL TIME: 36:08 shown.

Until next time, so long for now!

WCW/nWo Superbrawl VIII LIVE ON PPV premieres February 22 from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA.

MAIN EVENT for the vacant WCW world title:
Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan
WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship: DDP (c) vs. Chris Benoit
WCW World Tag Team Championship:
The Steiner Brothers (c) vs. The Outsiders
WCW Cruiserweight Championship – Title vs. Mask:
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera
No-DQ Match: Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage
Larry Zbyszko vs. Louie Spicolli