WCW: Road Wild
August 8, 1998
Sturgis, SD
Sturgis Rally & Race

The current WCW champs are as follows:
WCW World Champion: Bill Goldberg (7/6/1998)
WCW U.S. Champion: Bret Hart (7/20/1998)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Giant & Scott Hall (7/20/1998)
WCW World Television Champion: Booker T (6/14/1998)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Chris Jericho (7/13/1998)

HOGAN! BISCHOFF! LENO! PAGE! nWo! ROAD! WILD!

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan. Gene Okerlund does another “American Ironhorse” live ad.

• Meng vs. The Barbarian (w/Jimmy Hart)

THE FACES OF FEAR FINALLY EXPLODE~! We get some sumo action to start. Lots of chops. Barbarian gives Meng a throwaway belly to belly suplex. Meng backdrops away a piledriver and hits one of his own. He does have a nice piledriver. Barbarian avoids a flying splash, but eats a kick from Meng. He heads up top again, but Barbarian is there to meet him and throws Meng down to the mat. That gets two. Meng reverses a whip into the ropes and drills Barbarian with a powerslam. Jimmy Hart distracts Meng which allows Barbarian to jump him. They exchange chops and headbutts. To the floor they go, Barb smashes Meng’s face off the steps. Back inside, Barbarian delivers a backdrop and loads the boot, but then turns around into the TONGAN DEATH GRIP. Once Barbarian hits the mat, Meng is able to get the three-count. (4:49) Jimmy Hart is able to annoy Meng off Barbarian, but here comes Hugh Morrus to beat on Meng. Barb joins in on the fun. Hart even does a splash from the top rope. Meng NO-SELLS and starts clubbering. Morrus, Barbarian, and Hart get him down again. Morrus delivers NO LAUGHING MATTER. Now Jim Duggan is here and cleans house with his 2×4. Not your usual hot athletic start to a WCW PPV, but HOOOOOOOO! ¾*

• Street Fight: Public Enemy vs. Disco Inferno & Alex Wright (w/Tokyo Magnum)

This is a main event for WCW Saturday Night if there ever was one. Rocco Rock and Wright start us off. Rocco works a wristlock on the mat and Alex does his fancy kip-ups and dropkicks him down. Tag to Disco, he schoolboys Rocco for two, and then heads to the floor for high fives from his other Dancing Fools. Back in, Grunge starts clubbering. Disco knocks him down with a clothesline off the ropes. Wright tags in and lands the missile dropkick for two. Too much dancing from Wright costs him and he gets double-teamed. Disco tries to help out and he takes a double flapjack. Tokyo Magnum gives Wright a trash can to whack the PE boys. Our esteemed commentators have no idea whether this is a street fight or not. Tenay confirms. Heenan likes it. Not to be outdone, Rocco Rock brings a ladder to the ring and whacks Wright and Disco. The Dancing Fools leave and come back with a table even though there’s already a table set up at ringside thanks to Public Enemy. Disco gets on the mic and he’s ready for a street fight. Even Dave Penzer announces that this match is now a street fight. Okay, then. It’s settled. Public Enemy leaves and comes back with more plunder. There’s kitchen sinks and cookie sheets and mailboxes and toilet seats. Eventually, Tokyo Magnum gets inside the ring and winds up nailing Wright by mistake. The director changes cameras when Wright nails Tokyo Magnum. Wright and Magnum leave one by one – thus leaving Disco all by himself. They do the potentially dangerous teeter-totter ladder spot into Disco’s face, but they miss the spot like crazy. We’ve now got a TRIPLE DECKER tables set up and Rocco Rock splashes Disco through all three tables. Back in the ring, Grunge covers Disco and Tokyo is back out to splash Grunge, but lands on Disco. Grunge then covers Disco again and gets the three-count. (15:26) This was not good at all. ½*

Over at the WCWWrestling.com website table, Dean Malenko is talking to Lee Marshall about being an impartial referee tonight in the Jericho-Guerrera match.

• Falls Count Anywhere: Raven (w/Lodi) vs. Perry Saturn vs. Kanyon

Raven stands on the apron and orders Kanyon to jump Saturn. Oh boy. HE WAS RIGHT. Saturn knew it was coming and goes right to taking control. Raven throws Kanyon a chair, but Saturn shoves the chair back in his face. To the floor we go, an angry Raven sends Kanyon right into the ringpost. I guess he’s already given up on their relationship. Raven stays in the ring while Kanyon and Saturn brawl. Once Raven has waited long enough, he strikes Saturn through the ropes and runs him into another ringpost. Raven throws both guys in the ring and sits in the corner while Saturn and Kanyon exchange punches. Eventually, they get tired of Raven sitting there doing nothing and start going after Raven. Working together, they give Raven the Dudley Boyz and the Eliminators finish. ECW! ECW! ECW! Kanyon knocks Saturn to the apron using Raven and then gives Raven ROLLING RUSSIAN LEGSWEEPS to set up a flying legdrop from Saturn. He covers Raven, but Kanyon breaks up the pin. There’s a rolling Hennigplex from Kanyon for two. Saturn breaks up the pin. They go back to brawling and Raven knocks them both down with a chair. Tenay calls it a “doubleheader”. Heenan likes it. To the floor again, Kanyon wipes out Raven and Saturn with a pescado. Now we get some brawling up the aisle and onto the ramp. Saturn and Kanyon both try and pin Raven, but can’t get the three-count. Raven dropkicks Kanyon back down the ramp. As Raven goes after him, Saturn flies in with a double clothesline off the stage. Back to the ring, Saturn catches Raven with a T-bone suplex for two. Kanyon makes the save because he wants the pinfall. Saturn grabs a sleeperhold on Raven and Kanyon joins in for the TRIPLE SLEEPERHOLD spot. Of course, Raven hits the mat and we get jawbreakers all around. Raven covers Saturn for two. There’s the TOWER OF DOOM spot. Raven wants a DOUBLE EVENFLOW DDT, but Kanyon hooks the top rope to avoid the move. Kanyon yanks Raven out to the floor for a suplex and a splash off the scaffolding, but misses. The commentators try to cover for Lodi missing the spot. Lodi helps Raven back in the ring, but Raven gets pulled into the DEATH VALLEY DRIVER. Lodi stops the pin, but takes a Tazzplex for his efforts. HORACE is out and goes to whack Saturn with a giant stop sign, but Lodi thinks of throwing powder in Saturn’s face at the same time. When Saturn ducks, Horace takes the powder in the face. Pissed off and blinded, Horace whacks Lodi in the face. Raven gets pulled into another stop sign shot. Saturn then takes out Horace with a throwaway German suplex. Another DEATH VALLEY DRIVER to Raven and Saturn gets the W. (12:27) I feel like there is an effort put into Saturn leaving the Flock and the mind games Raven plays with Kanyon, but it never really gets the attention or clarity it needs to make fans care. All we really get is Raven is a spoiled brat who complains all the time, but never dig into the sole reason for having the Flock in the first place. It’s just all so forgettable. It’s unfortunate. Maybe in a smaller universe, this would get the attention it deserves. Maybe if you think about it, all of these guys should have remained or should have went to ECW. *½

• Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis

The winner gets a cruiserweight title shot at a later date. They go to the mat right off the bat with Psychosis applying a chinlock. Okay then. Psychosis armdrags Rey and applies an armbar. Mysterio manages an escape and dropkicks Psychosis to the floor. Back in, Psychosis puts Mysterio back on the mat with a knucklelock. Mysterio fights out and surprises Psychosis with a sunset flip for two. Psychosis shuts him down with a clothesline for two. Sitout gourdbuster from Psychosis scores another nearfall. He’s starting to get MAD with ref Charles Robinson. He continues with the offense whipping Mysterio real hard in the corner. Psychosis launches Mysterio and then follows up with a snap suplex. Taking his time, Psychosis heads up top and eats a boot on the way down. Mysterio starts smashing Psychosis off the turnbuckle – three smashes from top to bottom and then one on the mat. Beautiful headscissors sends Psychosis to the floor. Rey won’t fly out here with this elevated stage. Back in, Mysterio hits a flying crossbody for two. Psychosis cuts off a headscissors with a sitout powerbomb. BOTH MEN DOWN! Psychosis covers Rey for a two-count. He starts shoving Charles Robinson around because of the cadence of the count. Nerve hold time. Psychosis gets Mysterio up in an electric chair drop and bridges back for a pin, but Rey kicks out at two. Back to the floor, Psychosis delivers a running dropkick. In the ring, Psychosis applies a half crab. Finally, he’s working on the giant knee brace. Now they go to the corner where Psychosis hits a headscissors for two. Psychosis decides it’s time to go back to the bad knee. Obviously it wasn’t enough because Rey hops up and dropkicks Psychosis as he was trying to go up top. Nice bump to the stage. Mysterio flies out and lands a springboard somersault splash. Back inside, Mysterio delivers a springboard sunset flip for two. Rey follows up with a whirling Rocker Dropper. The split-legged moonsault gets two. Psychosis cuts him off with a spinebuster, but then he misses a charge up against the ropes and does that bump where he falls on his neck. With Psychosis stunned, Mysterio hits the SPRINGBOARD HURRACANRANA right on the horns for the win. (13:38) So Rey gets the winner of the Chris Jericho and Juventud Guerrera match, which never happens IF YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT. These two could have felt limited with the ring on the raised stage off the ground, but this was the wrong match in front of the wrong crowd. **

• Stevie Ray vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (w/Pepe)

We pick up where we left off on Thunder where Chavo used Stevie Ray’s stolen notary stamp and wrote up a contract to make himself the TV champ. Stevie Ray comes out with the TV title. I refuse on principle to call him the TV champ after the seven match series Booker T went through to get the TV belt back in May and June. Anyways, there’s no word on how Booker feels about any of this. Pepe can talk to Chavo now. Oh boy. Chavo starts to do the bit from “Blazing Saddles” where Sheriff Bart attacks himself. The stick and move approach could work for Chavo, but eventually Stevie Ray gets his hands on him. Chavo decides to run in and out of the ring hoping to tire out Stevie Ray, but Stevie Ray decides to stop running around and let Chavo come to him. SLAPJACK. That’s all. (2:39) Stevie Ray starts challenging all the bikers at Sturgis and shoves ref Mickey Jay down. When Stevie Ray starts to whack Chavo with the TV belt, EDDIE GUERRERO appears to save his nephew. WHY. He checks on Chavo while Stevie Ray leaves with his brother’s TV belt. CRAP

Over at the WCWWrestling.com table, Chris Jericho tells Deano Machino will not be able to cheat his way out of this one. As for Juventud, Jericho has already embarrassed him and tonight he will be finished. THE CONSPIRACY ENDS TONIGHT.

• Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner (w/Buff Bagwell)

JJ Dillon says Scott Steiner isn’t medically cleared to wrestle for two weeks because of the chairshot Rick gave him at Nitro. Next thing we know, Buff brings out Scott Steiner on a gurney wearing a collar and an IV hooked up to him. Hilarious. JJ Dillon says the contract stated that if the match doesn’t happen at Road Wild, it will have to happen within 45 days. JJ Dillon then says that the match is going to happen at FALL BRAWL on September 13 in Winston-Salem. Crowd cries bullshit. If Scott Steiner doesn’t show up for the match, he’ll be barred – FOR LIFE. With that announcement, Scott Steiner jump up off the gurney mad as hell. Rick Steiner runs after them to end the segment.  N/A

• Steve McMichael vs. Brian Adams (w/Vincent)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Tenay mentions that Mongo has his mind set on bringing back the Four Horsemen. These two have no business being in the same city together – much less in the same ring. They have a hard time doing a shoulderblock spot and Mongo hits a weird DDT. McMichael tries a big boot in the corner and gets slam dunked by Adams. Nerve hold time. To the floor, Vincent dumps Mongo into the steps. He tries brawling with McMichael, but he’s not phased. Adams saves the day and takes the “action” back in the ring for a backbreaker. He misses a flying knee drop off the second rope. McMichael delivers a back suplex and starts with the football leg tackles. Oof. Adams tries a piledriver and Mongo kicks the ref in the balls by mistake. Vincent brings a chair in the ring, but whacks Adams by mistake. How many screw-ups from secondary people have happened tonight? Mongo picks up Adams and lands the MONGO SPIKE for the win. (6:34) This one was #9 on the ten worst matches of the year according to the 1998 WON Awards. In other news, Mongo looks straight at the camera and says he will see to the return of the Four Horsemen. CRAP

Another “American Ironhorse” live ad from Gene Okerlund. He’s got the “American Ironhorse” girls with him.

• WCW Cruiserweight Championship with Special Referee Dean Malenko: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera

Since losing the match in February, Juventud Guerrera got the big cruiserweight push and started racking up a bunch of wins – including a few PPV matches with Reese and Kidman from Raven’s Flock to lead into his Cruiserweight title return match with Jericho. Of course, Jericho had his own problems with Dean Malenko throughout the spring and into the summer of 1998 after talking junk about Dean’s dead father. That whole feud turned Dean Malenko from the Iceman into the Fireman! Get it? Because he was MAD! Oh man, I’m a riot. Yeah, so let’s move on. The reason I mention Dean Malenko is because he is *YOUR* special guest referee for this match. This is the only way Dean can get at Jericho now that he lost that “last chance to EVER wrestle Jericho” match. With those kinds of odds, is there any chance Jericho walks out with the title? Jericho berates the bikers, which isn’t a very hard thing to do. Juvi gets beaten down early on – to the point where he falls out to the floor. Malenko warns Jericho, so he responds with “Shut up Deano Machino”. That fires up Dean as he yanks Jericho back into the ring by his golden locks. You know, just to show him who’s the boss. It’s not Tony Danza by the way, it’s DEAN FN MALENKO. Jericho begs off into the corner while Dean thinks about how much fun it would be to tear into Jericho right now with his best Humphrey Bogart impression. He’s so film noir and he doesn’t even know it! Juvi comes back with a missile dropkick that takes Jericho to the floor. Jericho begins to teeter off the edge of the stage. After a few chops, he flies down chest-first onto the guardrail. Juvi goes airborne with a HUGE springboard plancha on Jericho. I mean, he had to jump really far for that one just to clear the stage. Back in, Juvi hits a slingshot legdrop for two. Springboard crossbody from Juvi gets two. No fast counts from Malenko. Jericho catches a second flying bodypress and drills Juvi with a tombstone piledriver. That gets two. Tony thinks it’s a slow count. Tenay disagrees. Jericho hits the stalling suplex and the “COME ON BABY!” boot cover gets two. Hmm, Juvi takes a walk on the outside. Jericho meets him coming in with a boot and slams him for a running senton splash for two. Still no fast or slow counting from the Machino. Juvi escapes a chinlock and counters a suplex. That doesn’t stop Jericho though. Lionsault hits knees, Juvi delivers a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. He connects with a flying spin kick for two. Juvi flips out of a German, but runs into a Double Powerbomb! I haven’t seen him do that in a long time. Instead of capitalizing, Jericho decides to pose and then kicks Juvi to the apron for a springboard shoulderblock. Back in, Jericho cuts off Juvi with a clothesline and covers for two. He thinks he had Guerrera pinned and gets in Dean’s face. Juvi counters a powerbomb into a DDT! He hits the Juvi Driver and looks to finish Jericho off, but he’s crotched for a top-rope superplex. Both men are down, but Juvi turns over on Jericho for 1-2-NO! Jericho tries his double-underhook into a backbreaker. Juvi tries to counter with a hurracanrana, but Jericho counters *that* with the LIONTAMER! Juvi makes the ropes. Jericho plays his game where he tries to convince the ref his opponent, but Dean’s not falling for that. Didn’t you know that he’s the boss, Chris? Juvi avoids a corner charge and starts unloading on Jericho. He accidentally nails Malenko, which allows Jericho to grab his title belt and NAIL Juvi in the face. Jericho slaps Malenko before covering. Malenko hesitates, but then does his job and counts 1-2-NO! Juvi kicks out. They start slapping each other back and forth until Juvi staggers Jericho and puts him on the top turnbuckle. Malenko pulls Juvi off him for some reason. Jericho kicks Malenko back, but then Guerrera charges at them both. Malenko grabs Juvi and launches him into Jericho for a headscissors. Juvi covers for 1-2-3! (16:25) Good solid match with a great finish. Juventud finds retribution for Jericho costing him his mask by taking Jericho’s Cruiserweight title away from him. If WCW were smart, this would have been the beginning of something greater for Jericho, but it’s not. Not really. ***½

• 9-Man nWo Battle Royal (w/Goldberg!)

Originally an eight man battle royal because battle royals are always divisible by two for some reason. With Goldberg, there’s now nine guys in this match. You can also win by pinfall, submission, or the traditional way in a battle royal. From the nWo Hollywood crew, we have Scott Hall, the Giant, Curt Hennig, and Scott Norton. From the nWo Wolfpac, we have Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger, and Konnan. Scott Hall does a survey and of course thinks he’s won one more for the good guys. Kevin Nash kills more time telling us that the Wolfpac is in the house. Konnan lets us know that Sturgis and the Wolfpac are bowdy bowdy and rowdy rowdy. Bring out Goldberg. Let’s get this over with here. With the nWo crews fighting, Goldberg stands off to the side letting them go. We get a brief showdown between the Giant and Goldberg. When Nash kicks Goldberg, Hall attempts the Outsider’s Edge on Goldberg near the ropes and takes a backdrop to the floor to be eliminated. Nash eliminates himself and gives Hall the Snake Eyes onto the apron. SPEAR to Hennig! He then decides to leave Hennig alone. Okay. When Giant is stepping on Sting, Goldberg goes after the Giant. Big chop from Giant. He corners Goldberg and then delivers a Russian legsweep. Hennig tries to throw out Goldberg, but Goldberg just walks away. WHAT IS HAPPENING. Konnan tries to climb the Giant in the corner, which is dangerous. Giant throws him away and Goldberg SPEARS Konnan. Now Goldberg throws out Konnan. Hennig goes after Goldberg again. Giant joins in and helps Hennig. He gives Goldberg a back suplex. Another SPEAR to Hennig. He then throws out Hennig. While Norton and Sting are fighting, Goldberg runs at them and clotheslines both guys to the floor. Goldberg, Lex Luger, and the Giant are left. Luger punches Giant in the corner, but then turns around into a SPEAR from Goldberg. Giant dumps out Luger and then goozles Goldberg. CHOKESLAM! Goldberg then does the Undertaker SIT-UP and runs Giant down with the SPEAR. There’s the JACKHAMMER for the win. (7:57) There’s really two potential money matches for Goldberg. Naturally, there’s the rematch with Hollywood Hogan and then a showdown with the Giant. No one else on the heel side of the nWo even comes close. It’s too soon to have the rematch with Hogan and building a showdown with the Giant at Starrcade would have been great. Even if Giant was not considering resigning with the company, which I’m sure he never was and wanted to get out of WCW as soon as he could, having that PPV main event on the biggest show of the year before leaving for the WWF would have shot his worth to them through the roof. Instead, Goldberg is NO-SELLING his finish and putting him in the Jackhammer like he does everybody else. Really dumb booking decision, but this is such a truly forgettable show, I’m not sure it truly matters over the long term. ¾*

• Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno (w/Kevin Eubanks) vs. Hollywood Hogan & Eric Bischoff (w/The Disciple & Elizabeth)

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. Hogan, Bischoff, and the Disciple jump DDP, Leno, and Eubanks. That brings out Goldberg to save the day and celebrate with the good guys to close out the show. ¼*

TRAVIS TRITT IS NEXT, but that’s not wrestling.

Final Thoughts: We have a *new* worst PPV of the year candidate. Bash at the Beach was bad, but not this bad. Jay Leno in your main event is just mind-bogglingly bad. With these PPVs going in the wrong direction quality-wise, I’m real concerned for Fall Brawl, folks. But to put this show into perspective, leaving the main event out, as a full card, this is *still* better than Great American Bash 1991.