WCW: Thunder
February 19, 1998
Birmingham, AL
BJCC

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: Rick Martel (2/16/1998)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Chris Jericho (1/24/1998)

WEIRD! Instead of showing actual footage of what went down in the main event and the aftermath on Nitro from this past week, they show us still shots.

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Lee Marshall. Tony announces tonight’s main event will be Sting versus Randy Savage.

Earlier in the day, an interview with Chris Jericho conducted by Mike Tenay outside the BJCC was cut short as the nWo jumped Lex Luger and Randy Savage (who were communicating for some reason) out in the parking lot in front of a bunch of fans waiting to get into the building. Not sure what all that was about. Anyways, Savage is grabbed and carried into the building by the Hollywood Hogan-led nWo while Lex Luger is left lying on the sidewalk.

• Bill Goldberg vs. Fit Finley
  

This is an interesting match-up because Finley’s offense looks VERY legit to me – whether it’s headbutts to the stomach or uppercuts, he makes his moves look really good and mean something. With his offense having no effect on Goldberg though, it makes Goldberg look as strong and unstoppable as they need him to look. Finley does a great job looking frightened begging off in the corner. Goldberg takes over on offense for a minute or so and he’s still pretty rough. The people just want to see the Spear and the JACKHAMMER, which they do, and Birmingham pops huge at 2:35.

• Psychosis vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
  

You could say these two are mildly feuding because they have wrestled a few times on the weekly TV shows a few times since Souled Out, but I don’t think anyone is really paying attention. Psychosis corners Chavo to start, but Chavo fires back with a jumping forearm. Chavo charges into a powerslam though. Psychosis misses a corner charge and takes a nasty bump on the floor, allowing Chavo to execute a somersault plancha. Back in, that gets two. Psychosis catches Chavo with a clothesline and they go to the apron where Psychosis dropkicks Chavo down to the guardrail. In the ring, Chavo catches Psychosis flying with a standing dropkick. He nails Psychosis with a springboard bulldog for 1-2-NO! He follows up with a missile dropkick to the back of the head this time. Over to the corner, Psychosis shoves Chavo down from the top rope and lands the GUILLOTINE LEGDROP for the win. (4:43) **

Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff comes out to the ring. If I’m not mistaken, Hogan is debuting his winged-skull t-shirt here tonight. He tries to convince everybody that Randy Savage has seen the light and he’s back under the good graces of the nWo. Hogan wants Savage to save him a piece of Sting for SuperBrawl VIII when he gets his WCW world title back. He wants everybody to realize the controversy will be dead. Last time he and Sting fought, two people were robbed: Hogan and Nick Patrick. Hollywood, Bischoff, and the nWo are all behind him to ref the biggest rematch in wrestling history. Like it was, like it is, and like it always will be after SuperBrawl, the nWo is just too sweet. It’s like they have skipped ahead to the build for UnCeNSoReD.

DELTA FORCE II STARRING CHUCK NORRIS! MOVIES FOR GUYS WHO LIKE MOVIES! 10PM EST TONIGHT ON TBS!

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it – IF YOU WILL! 6:05PM eastern time! TBS! The tag champs the Steiner brothers meet the Blue Bloods! The U.S. champ Diamond Dallas Page takes on Sick Boy! In the feature bout, Curt Hennig battles Ric Flair! Scott Hudson and Mike Tenay have taken over commentary, but it’s still the MUTHASHIP!

• Booker T vs. Riggs (w/Lodi)
  

Marshall says Booker is going to try out a new move tonight on Riggs: the 110th Street Slam. We’ll see what happens. Lodi’s sign says “OMEGA – watch and learn”. Riggs bum rushes the show, but Booker comes back with a running forearm. Hook Kick gets two. He follows up with the 110th Street Slam. Marshall doesn’t bother to mention, but Tony is busy talking about the TV title situation. Booker takes Riggs to the floor for some guardrail action. Lodi gets nailed, but Booker turns around and receives a pescado from Riggs. Back in, Booker reverses a vertical suplex. Riggs misses a flying elbow smash. Booker fires back with a spinning heel kick and a back suplex. SPINAROONIE! Harlem Side Kick! AXE KICK. Cover, 1-2-3. (3:59) Saturn just sits there in the front row and whines as Lodi falls back over the railing into the Flock. HA! *½

We go to the back with Mike Tenay. He’s in a training room with Lex Luger trying to figure out why he was talking with Randy Savage earlier. Luger is hurting and getting his ribs taped up. He has nothing to say about the situation and scares away Tenay.

• Kidman (w/Lodi) vs. Juventud Guerrera
  

Lodi sign = “Kidman – cruiserweight expert”. Tony, Lee, and Bobby continue to speculate about Lex Luger. Juventud is full of headscissors moves for Kidman to start. Kidman counters a victory roll with a wheelbarrow suplex. Guerrera headscissors Kidman out of the ring though. On the other side of the ring, Lodi trips up Juvi and holds him in place for a pescado from Kidman, but Guerrera moves and Lodi gets wiped out. I tell ya, the guy should just give up. Back inside, Juventud has several counters for Kidman and delivers the Juvi Driver to set up the 450 SPLASH for the win. (3:20) Juventud’s opponent for SuperBrawl VIII – the WCW cruiserweight champ Chris Jericho – comes out and tries to unmask him, but he’s wearing TWO masks tonight. Guerrera missile dropkicks Jericho out of the ring to end the segment. **

THIS WEEK IN WCW MOTORSPORTS. Zzzzz.

• The Outsiders (w/Dusty Rhodes) vs. Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom
  

Both Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are wearing Syxx t-shirts out to the ring. Hands down, WCW wins the survey tonight. Nash is wondering where the Giant is and tells him to come to the PPV to announce his retirement thanks to Kevin Nash. I don’t know what a “rubber hammer velvet mama” is, but Nash feels Syxx is that. The Destruction Crew is back together. Lee Marshall doesn’t make a peep about it since they obviously aren’t the stars here. Hall takes a bump from Enos, but that’s all the offense the former Beverly brothers are allowed. Tag to Nash, he wants to plant Bloom with the JACKKNIFE. He punches ref Mickey Jay down and then JACKKNIFES Bloom. Ring the bell, somebody. Destruction Crew wins via DQ. (2:17) They have really done something here. They have made the Jackknife Powerbomb probably the most over move in WCW next to the Diamond Cutter and the Scorpion Deathdrop. It is getting reactions it clearly did not a year ago. On his way to be handcuffed, Nash grabs one of the security guys and puts a finger gun to his head. Awesome. Doug Dellinger and some other guys cuff him and send him off to jail. ATTICA!

Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, and Brian Adams laugh at Bret Hart calling himself the best. That’s when Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart head out to shut them up.

• Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart vs. Brian Adams & Curt Hennig (w/Rick Rude)
  

IMPROMPTU MATCH~! How “impromptu” can it be though when ref Charles Robinson came out to the ring behind Bulldog and Anvil? Here is the WCW in-ring debut of Brian Adams. Early on, Davey Boy gets sent out to the floor by Adams. Rude then picks him up and throws him into the steps – leaving Neidhart all alone. Rude continues to get involved choking out Bulldog and Neidhart with his tie. Crowd wants Bret. HEART PUNCH to Neidhart! They go to the floor where Rude again chokes Neidhart. Robinson finally calls for the bell. (2:00) Some WCW security guys come out, but we break for commercial and never see what happens next. If I were booking, this match would have been at the PPV instead of Mongo and Bulldog.

They show us what happened during the commercial break with Hennig and Davey Boy having to be separated by security.

Mike Tenay brings out the Steiner brothers for an interview. Rick is so optimistic about their match with the Outsiders. Scott doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t look smug or anything.

They replay the incident we saw at the beginning of the show.

• La Parka vs. Super Calo
  

Lee says he’ll go find out some more information and leaves his seat hole for Mike Tenay. Mike says Lex Luger and Randy Savage were talking when he and Jericho met up for their interview. He offers no new information and only speculation as to what they were talking about. THAT’S WRESTLING SOMETIMES. La Parka plays around with his chair to start. Calo knocks him around a little bit. La Parka fires back with a clothesline and attacks him in the tree of woe. Calo comes back by flipping La Parka off his shoulders face first on the top turnbuckle. La Parka stops the Calo Headscissors finish attempt and kicks him down to the floor. He still manages to get crotched dancing on the ropes like an idiot. Calo delivers a double-jump headscissors to take La Parka down to the mat for 1-2-NO! Back on the apron, Calo kicks La Parka through the ropes and delivers a flying senton on the floor! Disco Inferno comes out and throws La Parka’s chair into the ring. I don’t really understand what his interference was trying to accomplish, but La Parka hits Super Calo with a CORKSCREW MOONSAULT for the win. (4:03) After the bell, La Parka nails Disco Inferno with the chair and dances a jig. *½

We get a video package on DDP versus Chris Benoit for SuperBrawl VIII.

• WCW Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko
  

Jericho cuts a very 1998 promo for him. He calls his fans Jericholics and refers to Juventud Guerrera as Quasimodo who should be going by the names Air Quasi and Quasi Juice. When he beats Juventud this Sunday at SuperBrawl VIII, he may let him keep the mask on because he’s so ugly. Once you’ve seen it, you will never EVVVERRR want to see it agayne. Jericho is still doing the bit where he won’t take his belt off before the match. He’s forced to take it off though when Malenko is stomping him down in the corner. Jericho comes back with a reverse suplex and kicks Malenko in the head with the toe of his boot more so to just disrespect him. He delivers a vertical suplex and grabs a chinlock. When Malenko fights out, he runs into a knee. YEAH BABY pin gets two. Backbreaker and a slam set up the Lionsault, but Malenko moves out of the way. A shot at the O’Connor roll puts Jericho on the floor and Malenko beats him back inside the ring. After they reverse each other, Malenko nearly gets the TEXAS CLOVERLEAF when Jericho makes the ropes. Malenko puts Jericho in a cool rollup move, but only gets two. He tries the butterfly powerbomb that usually sets up the Cloverleaf, but Jericho backdrops him over and rolls through into the LIONTAMER for the tapout victory. (6:04) Fun little match that will be forgotten in no time. **½

• Raven’s Rules: Diamond Dallas Page & Chris Benoit vs. Raven & Perry Saturn
  

If there was a best of Thunder DVD put out by WWE (I know, can you imagine?), this would have to be on it. The crowd is molten hot for DDP. He starts off against Saturn and puts him over the hiptoss block and belly to belly suplex. Raven tries to jump DDP and gets a DDT from DDP! Crowd EXPLODES. Benoit knocks Saturn to the floor while DDP does the same to Raven. As they circle the ring, they bump into each other and turn around with their arms cocked. After Raven and Saturn regroup, Benoit gets a tag and chops Raven back into his corner. Saturn blind tags and superkicks Benoit when he’s not looking. Commercials! When we return, Benoit is still under the control of Saturn. Out of nowhere, he finds the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE on Saturn only for Raven to break it up. Hot tag to DDP, he flying clotheslines Raven down. The man can do no wrong tonight in Birmingham. He nails Lodi off the apron and goes for the Diamond Cutter on Saturn, but Riggs jabs a chair in his ribs from the floor. Raven and Saturn make some very frequent tags trying to keep DDP in their corner. They do a variation of Total Elimination at one point. The heat and energy is just off the charts here. They do a false tag spot for the babyfaces. A chair gets set up in the ring as DDP takes the face bump. Thinking he’s knocked out, Saturn tries to put DDP away with a flying moonsault and misses. He hits the chair with his boot or something though. Ouch. Saturn lets the tag to Benoit come as he’s armed with the chair, but Benoit punches the chair back in his face. Raven runs into the ring and takes TWO snap suplexes on the chair. Saturn breaks up the pinfall, but then Benoit starts up with the Rolling Germans. The match breaks down as Benoit gets whipped into Raven by mistake. DDP calls for the Diamond Cutter, but Saturn kicks him low and applies the RINGS OF SATURN! Benoit saves the day with the SWANDIVE HEADBUTT. Raven walks over and picks up DDP for the Evenflow DDT, but DDP pushes him back into the corner and drops him with the DIAMOND CUTTER. Meanwhile, Saturn runs into the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE and Benoit taps him out for the win. (8:45 shown) I’m almost certain this will end up being a top five Thunder match for me. So much heat from the crowd, so much energy from the wrestlers. Just a lot of fun and a PPV quality tag match out of these four. ***½

• Sting vs. Randy Savage
  

No match. The nWo carry out Savage’s lifeless body to the ring and they have him wearing a Sting mask. Are the nWo going to actually sacrifice Randy Savage tonight? Bischoff holds the mic for Hollywood Hogan. He apologizes that the match between Sting and Savage won’t happen. Hogan is under the assumption that there’s so much brotherly love right now in the nWo. He tells his nWo-ites that they will just have to tune into SuperBrawl this Sunday night instead to see him beat up that coward Sting. And with the whole nWo out here, there’s no way that yellow belly would show his face here tonight. Well, of course Sting does and beats up most of the crew. Hogan keeps his distance until the time is right. That’s when Lex Luger runs down and helps out. Eventually, the nWo decide to bail. Tony wonders if Luger came out here to help not just Sting, but Sting AND Randy Savage. Either way, Savage is still lying there out cold in the middle of the ring as we close the show.

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 World TV Championship: The TV Champion vs. Perry Saturn
WCW World TV Championship: Rick Martel (c) vs. Booker T
WCW Cruiserweight Championship – Title vs. Mask:
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera
No-DQ Match: Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage
Steve McMichael vs. Davey Boy Smith
Disco Inferno vs. La Parka