WCW: Thunder
June 11, 1998
Buffalo, NY
Marine Midland 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: vacant (6/4/1998)
WCW World Television Champion: Fit Finley (5/4/1998)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (5/17/1998)

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

Our esteemed commentators send us back to Monday Nitro where just as Diamond Dallas Page appeared to be joining the nWo Wolfpac, Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman ambushed him with STEEL CHAIRS~!

While sitting on the side of the stage, Eric Bischoff and the handful of nWo Hollywood members left surround him at a fancy table which include Miss Elizabeth, the Giant, the Disciple, Bret Hart, Vincent, and a bunch of whores interrupt the show. He refers to Elizabeth as his assistant in charge of helping him “reorganize the company” if you get his drift. If you don’t get what he means, basically Bischoff is saying he’s plowing Elizabeth. Now over to the Giant, he trash talks Sting and tells us what he’s going to do to him before announcing who his partner will be when he wins at the Great American Bash: the Disciple. He and the Disciple will take on anybody who dares challenge them from the nWo Wolfpac here tonight. Apparently, the nWo attorney has put a stop to the announcement that was supposed to be made by the PR department concerning Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman. Ho ho, bait and switch.

• Dean Malenko vs. Riggs
  

Malenko outwrestles Riggs to start, but a bump-up in the corner turns things around for Riggs. He concentrates on the arms of Malenko outside of some heel tactics like choking him in the ropes and whatnot. Malenko catches Riggs with the jumping heel kick and tries the Texas Cloverleaf. He settles for a back suplex and gets two. Riggs stuns Malenko with a vertical suplex and heads up top, but Malenko falls into the top rope and the knee of Riggs gets twisted up. Seizing the moment, Malenko applies the TEXAS CLOVERLEAF for the tapout. (6:03) Malenko screams out the name of Jericho. *

GOLDBERG! HYPE!

Chris Jericho comes out onto the ramp to talk about what great lengths he has gone to in order to get his Cruiserweight title back from Dean Malenko. He wants JJ Dillon to push himself away from the dessert table for five minutes and come out here to give him his belt back. Jericho refuses to leave Buffalo until justice is served.

• Kidman (w/Lodi) vs. Juventud Guerrera
  

Say what you will, this match up never seems to get old. Apparently the nWo B&W aren’t interested in this match and head to the back. Tony just thinks they are “scheming” for some reason. Headlocks and shoulderblocks to start. Juventud sends Kidman to the floor for a pescado, but Lodi pulls Kidman out of harm’s way causing Guerrera to splat himself. Kidman drops him on the guardrail and continues the ringside violence with an SSP off the apron. That must have knocked the wind out of Juvi because they go back inside and hook on a chinlock for a bit. Guerrera tries to come back, but gets caught with a wheelbarrow suplex. He finally hits Kidman with a flying spinning heel kick for two. Kidman stuffs him with a powerslam and a BK Bomb. That isn’t enough to stop Guerrera tonight. Juventud flips out of a German suplex and lands on his feet to then catch Kidman with the JUVI DRIVER followed by the 450 SPLASH to get the win. (7:08) Not one of their better encounters. **

Tony Schiavone brings out the top nWo Wolfpac recruiter Lex Luger. He’s here to answer the challenge of the Giant earlier in the show. He says he and Randy Savage will be glad to take on the Giant and the Disciple in tonight’s main event.

MFGWLM HYPE: Jimmy Hart, “The Longest Yard” (1974) starring Burt Reynolds.

Before the next match, Eric Bischoff and Bret Hart come back out to talk. As the head of recruiting for the nWo B&W, Bret now wants Chris Benoit. He doesn’t try to convince Benoit to join their crew by enticing him. Instead, he makes it seem as though Benoit owes him to join the nWo B&W not just for being a fellow Canadian, but because the Hart family got Benoit into the business. Bret wants to know what Benoit’s decision sooner than later.

• Best of 7 Series – Match 7: Booker T (3) vs. Chris Benoit (3)
  

Bret Hart and Eric Bischoff hang around to watch the match. Chris Benoit stops and gives Bret and Eric a look, but nothing that would say he’s made a decision. Stevie Ray comes out with his brother Booker, but Booker sends him back to the dressing room. Benoit controls the opening portion of this match. Once Booker starts with the kicks, Benoit shuts him down with a dragon screw leg whip and starts working over the left knee. Commercials! When we return, Benoit is still focusing on the left knee with more of the same. Booker gets in some well-timed desperation offense, but nothing that would signify a comeback. The ultimate part of the match is when Benoit locks in the MUTA LOCK. He pulls back on the chin at one point, but then pulls back on the arms at another point. Pretty SWANK~! Booker manages to reach the ropes as we go into commercial again. When we come back, Booker has now delivered some sort of big blow to Benoit and starts going through his usual. As he goes for the Harlem Side Kick though, Benoit ducks and gives him the Hat Trick of Germans for 1-2-NO! He goes up top and hits the Swandive Headbutt for 1-2-NO! Benoit gets pushed back by ref Nick Patrick while he’s stomping Booker down into the corner. Just as Booker stands up again, Bret Hart appears and whacks Booker with a chair from behind. DOWN GOES BOOKER! Benoit saw the whole thing. He considers taking the countout win, but he stops Nick Patrick’s ten count and tells him what happened. Nick Patrick then rings the bell and awards the match to Booker via DQ. (11:07 shown) So as of right now, Booker has won the best of seven series on a DQ and will go on to meet Fit Finley at the Great American Bash for the TV title. Looks like Bret Hart and Eric Bischoff got their answer, too. I like this from the perspective of the overall story arc of the seven matches, but I can see people crapping on it if you watched it as an individual match because it was so one-sided. ***

Over to Tony Schiavone, the WCW Cruiserweight champ Dean Malenko meets with JJ Dillon in the aisle. Malenko is sick of the whining and crying by Chris Jericho and turns over the CW belt to JJ feeling confident it will get Chris Jericho back in the ring so he can finish what was started at Slamboree and that one day he will win it back the right way. Right after this happens, Dean Malenko leaves and Chris Jericho comes out wanting JJ Dillon to return to him the belt. Well, JJ isn’t going to just give Jericho the belt. He states that Jericho and Malenko will meet at the Great American Bash for the CW title to settle this once and for all. As Jericho pitches a fit, his father and former NHL player Ted Irvine appears and reprimands Jericho as though he were still a child. BE A MAN, CHRIS JERICHO!

This Week in WCW Motorsports! Zzzzzz…

• Konnan vs. Scott Putski
  

Mike Tenay is out here now replacing Lee Marshall. Top U.S. title contender Konnan must get through Scott Putski before he goes to the Great American Bash. Yep. It should be a tough, TOUGH challenge. I mean if any wrestler can get him ready for Bill Goldberg, it’s Scott Putski. Right? The 187 sets up the TEQUILA SUNRISE for the win in 4:06.

MFGWLM HYPE: Jimmy Hart, “The Longest Yard” (1974) starring Burt Reynolds.

• Saturn (w/Lodi) vs. Glacier
  

So last week, Saturn jumped Glacier behind right after his entrance. This week, turnabout is fair play as Glacier does the same to Saturn. Raven and his riot squad head down to ringside. It goes back and forth between these two until Lodi gets up on the apron. Glacier kicks him down and then goes for the CRYONIC KICK on Saturn, but Saturn hits the deck and kicks Glacier in the balls while the ref was attending to Lodi. Ha! One DEATH VALLEY DRIVER later and Saturn is your winner. (3:43) OK, this should be the end of this Saturn and Glacier feud. Raven gets on the mic and fires the riot squad provided to him by JJ Dillon because they can’t keep Kanyon away from him. After he drops one of them with the Evenflow DDT, another one takes off his riot helmet to reveal that it’s MORTIS. Before Saturn can see him, there’s the FLATLINER to Raven! Mortis (or Kanyon) pulls off the mask, drops it on top of Raven, and runs away through the crowd as the Flock sprint down to the ring. Wild stuff! *

Back over to Tony Schiavone, JJ Dillon has now reviewed the ending of the Chris Benoit/Booker T match. JJ brings out Booker T. Stevie Ray follows him. Booker puts over Benoit and wants to give him one more match to decide the top contender to the TV title. JJ Dillon throws out tonight’s decision, grants Booker T and Chris Benoit one more match, and then the winner will face Fit Finley for the TV title later in the night. Stevie Ray isn’t the least bit happy about what Booker T has done here. This is pretty interesting. While Stevie Ray was out injured, Booker T has turned into a super babyface.

After the break, Eric Bischoff and Miss Elizabeth come out. He makes a Viagra joke at Randy Savage’s expense. He then gives Liz a moment to speak her peace about Savage. She’s the one who left Randy Savage, not the other way around. She says she’s the best thing that ever happened to Randy Savage and he wouldn’t be Randy Savage without her. She then admits that the REAL Macho Man is Eric Bischoff. Bischoff tells Savage to bite him and walks off telling Buffalo how much he loves them.

They replay bits and pieces of the Randy Savage and Roddy Piper confrontation from Monday Nitro.

• The Giant & The Disciple vs. Lex Luger & Randy Savage
  

There’s only about two minutes left in the show. Heel miscommunication ensues in the first twenty seconds as the Giant drills the Disciple. Whoops. Eric Bischoff and Elizabeth show up again to mess with Savage. That leaves Luger all alone with the Giant and the Disciple. As Savage goes after them, Bret Hart and Hollywood Hogan come out of the limo that’s been there all night to beat up Randy Savage. Ref Mark Curtis just throws the match out at 1:11. Kevin Nash tries to save Savage from Hogan and Bret. He does just fine until the Giant shows up. Of course, Roddy Piper is nowhere to be found and why should he show up to help Savage. Hogan and Bret go back to beating up Savage as we run out of time.

THE GREAT AMERICAN BASH IS NEXT! Until then, so long for now.

Castrol Syntec presents WCW/nWo: The Great American Bash
Sunday, June 14, 1998 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD @ 7PM EST
MAIN EVENT: Hollywood Hogan & Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage & Roddy Piper
WCW U.S. Heavyweight Championship: Bill Goldberg (c) vs. Konnan
WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting vs. The Giant
WCW World Television Championship: Fit Finley (c) vs. Chris Benoit/Booker T
WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho
Best of Seven Series – Match #7: Chris Benoit (3) vs. Booker T (3)
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Juventud Guerrera vs. Reese