WCW Thursday Thunder - Thursday, 02/05/98

WCW Thursday Thunder - Thursday 02/05/98

By Bill

Trivia Question: What WCW Title has Raven held?
I've got a ton of e-mail in my in box. Please don't be offended if your e-mail to me goes unacknowledged for another week or two.
The mailbag:
- An interesting e-mail from Steve W. It doesn't get any more timely than this. This is why I don't do rumors on my page. The last thing I want to do is get Kevin Sullivan pissed off...
  WCW is in my town (Beaumont, TX) for Thunder tonight. I am a member of the local World Gym and was there working out this morning as usual, when who do I see but Kevin Sullivan. He may be short, but his legs are huge. He was very nice to talk to, though I seemed to hit a sore spot when I said that I heard on the Net that he was back booking. This is what he said about the Net, and the dirt sheets : "About 20% of what you read is true. You can read those things and right away know who gave them the information. It's these guys who haven't been in the business long, who haven't traveled for years on the road and paid their dues. If you give them information you're a good guy, but if you don't you're a bad guy." Very insightful stuff.
  Anyway, we shook hands and I went back to my workout. Ten minutes later who walks in but Bill Goldberg! Let me tell you, he is huge. We spoke briefly about his career, and his ongoing training. He said " you haven't seen anything yet" when I asked him about new moves he was working on. He was very approachable, and extremely polite. As I was leaving, I saw Lodi and Sick Boy heading into the gym, but didn't get a chance to speak with them.
- From Hastings, on a lighter note:
  I've noticed that Arn Anderson now has a book out, and Ted DiBiase also has a book out called "Every Man Has His Price." But what a lot of people don't know is Lex Luger's autobiography is now available! It's titled "A Tale Of Two Moves" with a foreward by Bill Goldberg.
  Glacier also has one coming called "A Journey To The Center Of The Ring." It's the story of one of Glacier's long entrances to the ring.. It's about 1000 or so pages...and it's also been edited for boredom.
I think this whole powerbomb being banned thing is stupid. Rumors on the Net say that it was instigated by Nash himself to stop others from "diluting" his move. Contrary to most of the rumors I usually read, it actually sounds pretty plausible. The whole thing is so ridiculous given that the brainbuster and Steiner Screwdriver are both infinitely more dangerous. The first time I saw a powerbomb was about twelve years ago, and it was a WWF videotape. Believe it or not, it was actually a women's match! At the beginning of the match, the voiceover said you were going to see a finish that was so incredible, you wouldn't believe it. And, all it was was a powerbomb, which in that day was a big deal, I guess. They called it the "drip dry".
If you haven't already seen it, Scoops has an interview with Arn Anderson in their Powerslam profiles. You should definitely check it out as they cover some new ground. It's a really great interview.
A number of people let me know that right before Dusty spoke on last week's Thunder, someone in the crowd yelled out loud and clear "Your son's a faggot!".
In my humble opinion, the angle Dusty may be really poorly timed. Best as I can figure, the impetus behind it is Ted Turner buying WCW and ending the "tradition" of the company Dusty built, which I am presuming Dusty mean's the NWA. Seeing as the WWF is now getting in bed with the NWA, or what's left of it, Dusty's referring to the NWA as "tradition" may not be such a hot idea for WCW right now.
As you've probably noticed, WCW is having a Bruise Cruise in May. They will have info on their official site soon, but as of tonight, it's not up yet. I have stuff on the site about the WWF Wrestle Vessel. I would assume it's going to be similar. If anyone goes, let me know, I'd love to get a report. Also, if you send me pictures, I'll refund your postage and some of your developing costs.
I rented a tape of Superbrawl I from 1991 for kicks this week. It happened a little under eight years ago. My observations:
- Randy "Pee Wee" Anderson was really skinny.
- El Gigante made Sid Vicious look like a midget.
- Ron Simmons bladed. I miss those days.
- The Steiner Brothers defended their tag titles against Luger and Sting in a face/face match. Scott Steiner had a habit of using the F-word even back then. Nikita Koloff interfered at the end. I'd forgotten that Nikita was ever a heel again after Magnum's accident.
- The highlight of the tape actually had nothing to do with wrestling. They had a segment with Missy Hyatt going into the men's locker room hoping to get an interview with Z-Man (Tom Zenk). I'm guessing it was part of an existing angle where she was hot for him. Anyway, Terry Taylor was sitting on a bench, she talked to him for a bit, and she heard someone in the shower. Thinking it's Tom Zenk, she goes to step in. But who should step out but a soaking wet Stan Hansen clad only in soaking wet boxer shorts! He's got a huge wad of dip in his mouth and there's tobacco juice all over his face. She screams in horror and he starts bawling her out and starts to spank her. He then starts kicking her in the ass, kicking her all the way out of the locker room. I didn't expect it at all and I was in absolute hysterics.
I can't take credit for finding this, I got it off Scoops. If you played Mat Mania in the arcades 12 or 13 years ago, check out this site. (If you never played Mat Mania, don't bother...you won't find it funny).
I don't generally do double takes, but I did one on Sunday. I was looking through some pay-per-view histories, and I saw that at Spring Stampede '94, in a dark match, Danny Bonaduce (Danny from The Partridge Family) beat Christopher Knight (Peter from The Brady Bunch). Can anyone out there give me some information on that "match"?
And, now, on to the show...

We are live in Beaumont, Texas with Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Lee Marshall. The Steiners will be in action against the nWo again tonight. *yawn*
"The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus pinned "The Chairman of WCW" La Parka following his No Laughing Matter.
- La Parka is so over with that entrance of his. He did a great one tonight. Literally, I was doing it along with him.
- To start the match La Parka sits down in the middle of the ring.
- La Parka shoves Morrus, does the strut, the one-legged hop, and gets clotheslined for his trouble.
- Lee Marshall calls the dance the "La Parka Polka". First useful thing I've ever heard Lee Marshall say.
- Oooh, that hurts!!! On the No Laughing Matter, Hugh Morrus hit headfirst on La Parka's cojones. And I don't think it hurt Hugh Morrus.
- After the match, La Parka showed us all why he's the chairman. He chaired Morrus and then set up the chair and did his dance on the chair. Then he did the Karate Kid crane on the chair. Hah!
Bill Goldberg pinned Jim "Juice" Powers following the jackhammer.
- Hearing Jim Powers' music served to prove that the talent on Thunder isn't as good as Nitro. Oh, wait, he's just tonight's human sacrifice for the Bill Goldberg match.
- Goldberg towers over Powers.
- Goldberg got a nice "Buh!" on his jackhammer from the crowd. Actually, go back about ten years, and the crowd was much better about that. Another tape I rented was Starrcade '86, and every time a punch landed, the crowd went "Buh!" loud and clear.
Kidman pinned Juventud Guerrera following a shooting star press.
- The entrance included the Flock, sans Saturn and Raven. Nice earring, Hammer.
- Wow! Kidman on the apron, Juvi on the top turnbuckle, and Juvi gives Kidman a Frankensteiner onto Lodi who is standing on the floor. Wow!
- Even scarier, Juvi gives Kidman a running reverse piledriver. Yikes. Good thing it wasn't a powerbomb. ;-)
"The Professor" Mike Tenay interviews DDP. DDP talks about being focused, wanting to fight the best, yadda, yadda, yadda. The words were right, but DDP seemed distracted.
Silver King and Los Dos Villanos (IV & V) defeated "The Man With The Glued On Sunglasses" Super Calo, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., and Lizmark, Jr. when Silver King pinned Chavo Guerrero, Jr. following a Guillotine Leg Drop from Psychosis in a Lucha Libre rules match.
- Man, Silver King was winded after just walking to the ring. Too many burritos.
- Interesting that at least four out of the six guys in the ring are second-generation wrestlers.
- An another genetic note, Los Dos Villanos one of three legitimate brother teams in WCW. If we could just get the Mulkey Brothers back, we could have a great eight-man tag match. :-)
- You know, I'm pretty hard on Chavo but he really is good. He just needs some charisma.
- Psychosis came out of nowhere to interfere.
The Steiner Brothers defeated Buff Bagwell and Konnan via disqualification when Scott Hall interfered.
- Dusty came out with the nWo, and kicked Lee Marshall out of the announcing booth. At first, I was psyched to have Lee Marshall booted, but Dusty was horrible.
- Bagwell Pearl Harbored the Steiners as they came to the ring. DiBiase started mixing it up with Vincent.
- Hey, Scott never took his do-rag off.
- Rick's getting beaten on in the ring, and Scotty keeps trying to make the save, of course distracting the referee so the nWo could administer a worse beating.
- Scott Hall pushed Rick off the top turnbuckle into Scott Steiner. Scott Steiner blamed Rick, thus the subject of tonight's break up tease.
- John Goodman and Dan Ackroyd did a commercial where they tried to act like wrestlers. I cannot imagine a movie that I would less want to see than Blues Brothers 2000. Dan Ackroyd hasn't made a funny movie since John Belushi carried his ass in the original Blues Brothers.
Raven pinned Marty Jannetty following a DDT.
- If Marty Jannetty fights Greg Valentine, will they come out to the same music?
- Didn't Jannetty and Raven just have a match a week ago or so? Oh, Schiavone just said this is a return match.
- Twice, Jannetty went back for a cover immediately after Raven powered out. I've been watching wrestling religiously for 12 years, and I've never seen that work.
- The announcers talk about Raven's tongue piercing.
- By the way, before the match, Jannetty hit Lodi with a superkick. Ten minutes later, Lodi's still flat on his back unconcious on the walkway into the ring.
- Raven was frothing again after the match.
Saturn made Disco Inferno submit to the Rings of Saturn in a really weird finish.
- Lee Marshall says that if Saturn gets one more ear or eye ring, someone's boing to hang a shower curtain off him. Hah! That's two good ones from the man whose picture is on the Dorito Bag.
- Tony wonders why no wrestler has yanked on those rings. Yeah, Tony, you and me both.
- Saturn is on the top turnbuckle about to do a move, and Tony Schiavone says the referee is making a five-count on him. Huh? I five-count is for breaking an illegal hold. I always assumed that the count the ref was making while you were up top is a ten-count because you are technically not in the ring and subject to a count out.
- Disco scores a Chartbuster, but it too out of it to make a cover. By the time he rolls over onto Saturn, Kidman puts Saturn's foot on the ropes.
- A lot of two-counts leading up to the end.
- In a really weird ending, Disco Inferno is face down in the center of the ring. Saturn is leaning back on the ropes. Kidman shoves Saturn, and Saturn falls onto Disco Inferno. Then, there's like a long, awkward pause. Referee Billy Silverman then starts to count a pin even though Disco Inferno is face down! Saturn, of all people, yells out "No!" and the ref stops. Another long, awkward pause. Then Saturn puts on the Rings Of Saturn and gets the win.
- The TV Champ Booker T. makes the save on Disco Inferno after the match.
- Ha, ha, ha! Raven does a promo for Blues Brothers at 10:05 and calls Dan Ackroyd a washed-up hack comedian. Right on, bro!
Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart defeated Louie Spicoli via disqualification when Scott Hall interfered.
- Before the match, Scott Hall offers to put up the tag titles against the Steiners on Monday Nitro. As a result, he has Spicoli take his scheduled match against Neidhart.
  - I hope that the Steiner angle finally goes somewhere on Monday.
- When Scott Hall interfered, Neidhart was choking Spicoli out with an international object he pulled out of his tights.
- So, Scott Hall made the save on Spicoli, Davey Boy Smith made the save on Niedhart, and Mongo came out and attacked Smith. Smith and Niedhart clotheslined Mongo out of the ring.
U.S. Heavyweight Champion "Diamond" Dallas Page and "Crippler" Chris Benoit went to a no contest when Raven and the Flock interfered.
- DDP is all business coming to the ring. Staredown to start the match.
- DDP seems to be the crowd's favorite as the match starts.
- Like the first match tonight, the ring is really smoky from all the pyrotechnics.
- Benoit gets the Crippler Crossface on early...only problem is that DDP's too far from the ropes. Subtly, Benoit moves DDP over a little bit so he can reach the ropes.
- My girlfriend asks, "Why is it so smoky?"
- Another staredown.
- Benoit gives DDP a kidney punch. First heelish move of the match.
- Benoit stomping DDP in the corner. Crowd starts to chant "DDP".
- DDP comes back and the crowd cheers.
- DDP hits a running DDT.
- Schiavone says someone just ran by the back of the ring.
- Oh, now I get it. The Flock interferes and ends the match. They beat up DDP and Raven gives Benoit a DDT. Lame!
- DDP clears the ring and the Flock retreats.
- Benoit is pissed! I've never seen him look that angry.

Trivia Answer: The WCW World Light Heavweight Title from 6/20/92 to 7/5/92 as Scotty Flamingo. He won it from Brian Pillman and lost it to "The Candyman" Brad Armstrong.

WCW Thursday Thunder - Thursday 02/05/98

By Bill

Back to DDT Digest