WCW: Thunder
May 14, 1998
Durham, NH
Whittemore Center Arena

The current WCW champs are as follows:
WCW World Champion: Hollywood Hogan (4/20/1998)
WCW U.S. Champion: Bill Goldberg (4/20/1998)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (2/22/1998)
WCW World Television Champion: Fit Finley (5/4/1998)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Chris Jericho (1/24/1998)

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

After that little piece of business airs, they air another video now with Mando Guerrero giving his insight on how his little brother Eddie is tearing up the family by the way he’s treating their nephew Chavo straight from his La-Z-Boy chair.

• Reese vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (w/Eddie Guerrero)
  

Tenay announces that Ultimo Dragon will face Eddie Guerrero at Slamboree with Chavo’s freedom on the line. Since the Guerrero family wants Eddie to go easier on Chavo, Eddie went out and hand-picked his opponent tonight. Eddie claimed Chavo’s opponent was the same size and skill level, but that was a lie. Reese throws Chavo around to start. Chavo avoids a corner charge and springboard kicks Reese down though. Chavo heads up top, but flies down into a CHOKE BOMB to end this one in 1:28. While Eddie is berating Chavo for the loss, Ultimo Dragon comes down and puts Eddie into the DRAGON SLEEPER. On Nitro, Chavo helped Eddie escape that hold, but not tonight. He walks out on his uncle as refs run down to get Dragon off of Eddie.

MFGWLM HYPE: Fit Finley, “Kickboxer 2” (1991) starring Sasha Mitchell and Peter Boyle.

WCW Saturday Night! Watch it – IF YOU WILL! 6:05PM eastern time on TBS! Hacksaw Jim Duggan will be in action! Plus, Fit Finley defends the TV title against Chavo Guerrero Jr! In other action, the US champ Bill Goldberg meets Yuji Nagata! It’s the MUTHASHIP! Take it to the PAY WINDAH, baby!

Really long video look airs concerning the Diamond Dallas Page and Raven feud to hype their “Bowery Death Match” for this Sunday at Slamboree.

In the arena, Raven comes out to the ring with his riot squad to call out Diamond Dallas Page. Ask and you shall receive. DDP comes in through the crowd with the bull rope around his neck. He leaps from the top rope over the riot squad to get at Raven, but he’s quickly beaten with clubs. Tony and Mike are surprised that the riot squad guys are actually helping Raven. DDP gets hung with the bull rope over the side of the ring just like what was done to him.

After the break, Tony announces that Goldberg will compete in a gauntlet match with the Flock. If he cannot beat everyone in the Flock, he will have to return the U.S. title to Raven.

• WCW World Television Championship: Fit Finley (c) vs. Kaos (w/Rage)
  

Finley is so fun to watch. Every blow he delivers means something and looks so painful. He’s adamant about working the mid-section of Kaos here. Finley gives Kaos a pump splash and a sit-down splash that rocks the ribs. He tries the pump splash one time too many though as Kaos brings up the knees. Despite the best effort of Kaos, he can’t keep a man like Finley down. Rage helps his partner Kaos avoid the Finley Roll on the floor. Rage then whips Finley into a clothesline by Kaos. The ref just stands there and watches this go on. It’s all for naught though as Finley comes right back with the Finley Roll inside the ring and puts away Kaos with the TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER for the win. (5:24) Strange match for High Voltage. They have been working kinda heelish lately trying to get a big victory and yet they are still working like a babyface. Nothing seems to be exactly clicking for them. *

And for our latest WrestleCrap moment — where pro wrestling and corporate interests meet – a giant man dressed like a medieval times cartoon villain named “Ruber” comes down the ramp to promote the latest Warner Bros Animation’s full-length feature film entitled “Quest for Camelot” by handing out t-shirts to the kiddies in the front row. I looked it up and found that the voice of Ruber in this film was done by Gary Oldman. Unfortunately, this film lost money at the box office and currently sits with a 36% score on RottenTomatoes. Anyways, take a gander at what the guy looked like and how this segment went down below because even for WCW, it’s pretty hard to believe there was a time this was happening.

• WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship: Bill Goldberg (c) (83-0) vs. Sick Boy (w/the Flock)
  

Here’s a preview for Slamboree. I wonder how they will turn this around into a Goldberg versus Saturn match which is what actually goes down instead of this Flock gauntlet match. Sick Boy bum rushes the show and grabs a hold of Goldberg’s traps. They seem too large even for Sick Boy’s hands. Maybe he’s got Donald Trump hands. Who knows. When Goldberg starts to get up, Sick Boy tries a springboard back elbow only to be swatted away. A big walkaway press slam sets up the Spear and the JACKHAMMER. (2:30) Poor Sick Boy. Whenever he takes that spear, he looks so awkward going down. If he just jumped a few inches, it would look so much better. As the Flock surround the ring, Riggs (he’s back!) jumps Goldberg from behind only to be tossed aside. Goldberg holds onto Riggs as if to say he’ll snap this guy’s neck if the rest of the Flock makes a move towards him. ¼*

Randy Savage comes out to the ring. He wishes Buff Bagwell well and wants him in the nWo Wolfpac when he returns. Savage talks about Bret Hart being Hollywood Hogan’s best pal who helped him once again hold onto the world title, but there’s nothing new left to talk about with Bret. He brings up Roddy Piper telling him to not even show up because he and Bret don’t need a referee. It’s going to be a wild one! Bret Hart appears at the ramp and calls Savage a big chicken. Bret claims the only reason Savage has the guts to face him is because Randy has got the referee in his back pocket. While Bret continues to call Savage gutless and a coward, Savage starts to go after him only to be held back by WCW security. Gah, those are insults I miss hearing in professional wrestling.

They are actually carrying this superkick dispute with Glacier further. Is this really going to make the people pay money to see him get beat up? Following up on what went down on Nitro, Saturn gives his thoughts about how stupid this whole thing is.

• Saturn (w/Kidman) vs. Chris Adams
  

Speaking of superkicks, now we get these two masters. Kidman gives Adams the choice to lose to either the Rings of Saturn or the Death Valley Driver. Hammer appears in the aisle wanting to get to Saturn, but WCW security holds him back. Kidman says they have decided Adams will lose to the Death Valley Driver and it’ll be set up by the Cryonic Kick. Yeah, Glacier. Take that. Some feeling out stuff to start leads to an enziguri kick from Adams that lands Saturn straight down on the top of his noggin. And even though Saturn might be concussed now, Adams is smart enough to keep the match going while working on the neck with a back suplex and a piledriver. He misses a flying headbutt though allowing Saturn to take control of the match. He throws Adams away and gets a chair from Kidman. While Adams is in the corner, Saturn runs and jumps off the chair to dropkick Adams. He even sits down in the chair calling out to the crowd as Adams recovers. Awesome. He jumps off the chair again and collides into Adams sending him over the top rope into the guardrail. Back in, Adams gets a little bit of a comeback until he misses a charge up against the ropes. As he rolls back inside, he staggers up into a standing side kick to set up the DEATH VALLEY DRIVER for the three-count. (4:28) That’s how it’s done, Snow Man. Crowd was dead though except for when Saturn sat in the chair. *½

THIS WEEK IN WCW MOTORSPORTS. Save it for Saturday Night, guys.

• Chris Benoit vs. Rage
  

Man, High Voltage have some tough opponents tonight. Schiavone announces that Monday Nitro this coming week will be for one hour at 7PM EST. He says they will have one hour that airs before the Lakers/Jazz game and one hour after the game wraps up, but that ended up not happening and the hour after the game just ended up being the replay of the one hour that did air at 7PM EST.
Headlocks and shoulderblocks to start. Benoit fires back with chops, but then Rage gives him a good old fashioned press slam with ease. Rage gets a two-count on Benoit after a release belly to belly suplex. He grabs a stepover toehold, but doesn’t hook the face. Rage runs Benoit into the corner, but then misses a flying splash. Benoit hits the Swandive Headbutt and applies the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE for the win. (3:15) A more straight-forward glorified squash match here. This crowd is dead though. ¾*

MFGWLM HYPE: Public Enemy, “Kickboxer 2” (1991) starring Sasha Mitchell and Peter Boyle.

Eric Bischoff heads down to the ring to remind Vince McMahon that he’s challenging him to a fight at Slamboree. Yeah, like he’s watching Thunder. Bischoff pulls out a letter he received from McMahon’s attorney. Naturally, Vince has Irish lawyers. The letter reads that McMahon will be not be appearing at the PPV and that Bischoff has no authority to even suggest he will do so. Bischoff says he never suggested he would – in fact, he only suggested McMahon didn’t have the guts to show. The letter wraps up saying that McMahon is one of Titan’s leading TV personalities and is responsible for it’s highest ratings ever. Bischoff suggests that the rest of the WWF guys will be happy to hear that little tidbit. Regardless, the invitation is still open for McMahon. WCW security will be there to assist him and walk him to his dressing room should Vince change his mind. Hope to see you in Worcester, Vinnie Mac!

• Kevin Nash & Dusty Rhodes vs. Public Enemy
  

At the beginning of the show, Tony hinted that Public Enemy would be receiving a shot at the WCW world tag titles tonight. With virtually no teams left in WCW besides High Voltage and Jimmy Hart’s guys, Public Enemy *would be* the #1 contender to the tag belts. Anywho, this suggests that Scott Hall is going to appear hoping to be a ratings grabber. No Scott Hall because Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff won’t allow him in the building for live TV. He does confirm Hall will be at the PPV on Sunday. Nash talks about how sexy he is trying to get that phrase over and then brings out Dusty Rhodes. He’s got the evil goatee going a little bit there and will be only be Nash’s corner man for this handicap match. Nash hardly breaks a sweat with these two, but he does let them double-suplex him. Dusty pulls out Grunge and gives him an elbow on the top of his head. After a JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB to Rocco, Dusty takes the tag and drops the BIONIC ELBOW on him for the three-count. (3:07) And there ya go. Tony says that Dusty is 1-0 as a member of the nWo Wolfpac. Whatevs. ¼*

• Randy Savage vs. Sting
  

We are only sixteen episodes deep into Thunder and these two have main-evented against each other twice. Sting and Savage brawl in and out and back in the ring until Bret Hart appears armed with a chair. (2:23) Savage was waiting for it to happen and levels Bret as soon as they touch. As Savage heads up top to give Bret the Macho Elbow, the Giant (and Sting’s partner for Slamboree) shows up and catches Savage in mid-air for a bearhug. Kevin Nash saves Savage by grabbing the chair and whacking Giant in the back. He wants to give Giant a JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB, but Sting is there to whack Nash with the chair. Once everybody clears out but the Giant and Sting, Giant gets on the stick to explain why he defected back over to the nWo. Giant made a decision and says if they win the tag belts at Slamboree (which he’s pretty sure will happen), Sting will then have to make a decision hinting that he will have to go over to the dark side to hold onto the gold. Giant then hands Sting an nWo Hollywood t-shirt and Sting seems to be pondering switching sides. Sensing a horrible situation brewing, Lex Luger heads down to talk Sting out of whatever it is he’s considering as the Giant returns to the locker room. N/R

The Eric Bischoff challenge video. One more time. Come on, Vince. Have you got the guts?

Tony thinks it’s a good thing Sting didn’t make a decision here. The very idea that it seems Sting is even pondering switching to the nWo should be freaking them out. Right? I mean, why bother winning the tag titles with a guy that can’t be trusted and who just switched over to your rival organization?

And with that, we are outta here.

WCW/nWo Slamboree LIVE ON PPV premieres May 17 from the Centrum in Worcester, MA.
MAIN EVENT
WCW World Tag Team Championship:
The Outsiders (c) vs. The Giant & Sting
WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship:
Gauntlet Match (If Goldberg loses, the U.S. Title will be returned to Raven):
Goldberg (c) vs. The Flock
WCW World Television Championship:
Fit Finley (c) vs. Chris Benoit
Winner faces Chris Jericho for the WCW Cruiserweight Title:
15-man Cruiserweight Battle Royal
Special Guest Referee – Roddy Piper:
Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage
Bowery Death Match:
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Raven
Chavo’s Freedom On The Line:
Ultimo Dragon vs. Eddie Guerrero
Lex Luger vs. Brian Adams and/or Scott Steiner