House Show Results from Asheville, NC, Thursday, April 23rd, 1998
House Show Results from Asheville, NC, Thursday, April 23rd, 1998
by Jay R. and Fish
Jay R.'s report:
- This was reported on the WCW website as a Thunder taping, to be aired next Wednesday. We didn't know until Schiavone mentioned it the night before that there would BE no Thunder at that point. But I drove a good ways to see the show anyway.
- The Barbarian pinned Bobby Eaton
- This included a lengthy chinlock spot in the first two minutes. Finish came when Eaton missed a
fist drop off the top, then he got up and ate some Barbarian shoe leather.
- Juventud Guerrera and Ciclope defeated La Parka and Psychosis when Juvy pinned Psychosis with the Juvy Driver (tm)
- By FAR, the best match of the night. I usually love the Luchadores for their workrate, but they work a crowd as well as anybody. Not incredible workrate (though still the best of the night), but great crowd heat. La Parka has fallen in love with the crotch chop. Parka hit Psychosis in the back of the head with a chair after the match. Your referee, by the way, was Mark Curtis, referred to as Barney Fife by the kids behind me in the arena.
- Remember the "but wait, there's more" comment? Try this on for size...
- Hacksaw Jim Duggan pinned Reese of Raven's Flock
- One of the worst matches you'll ever see. Duggan (whom I hate with unbridled passion) was his usual bad self, but Reese may be worse. He's
big and clumsy and tries to sell (to his credit) but can't do it very well.
- Diamond Dallas Page pinned Raven
- A good 10-minute match that went up the aisle once, then came back. Both sides got in low blows, Page won with the Diamond Cutter.
- Lex Luger pinned Scott Steiner
- Scotty is good at getting crowd heat, but you can call this match "for medicinal purposes only," as much juice as there was coursing through the veins of these two men. Finish came when Rick came down to ringside, distracting Scott just enough for Luger to roll him up from behind for the three count. Scott Norton then came down and punked Rick from behind, leading directly into...
- Rick Steiner pinned Scott Norton
- When after about 10 minutes, Scott Steiner came to ringside and onto the apron to try to distract Rick. Norton tried a clothesline, Rick ducked, Norton hit Scotty, and the Gremlin rolled him up for the three.
- Sting defeated Kevin Nash via DQ
- Nash did the survey before the match, and he was either half-asleep or trying to do an impression of John Travolta in his "cool" persona. Then the match started, and the votes for "half-asleep" began to rise. This was pretty bad, but had heat. At the finish, Sting hit the splash once, then went for it again, but Scott Steiner and Scott Norton ran in for the DQ. They were going to spike-piledrive Sting, but Nash stopped them. He then got on the mic and told Sting he didn't want to punk him because "my problem's not with you, it's with Hogan. Just stay out of my business, and I'll stay out of yours." Sting, and Luger and Rick Steiner, who had come to Sting's aid, seemed to agree to this, as they stood there and let Nash leave.
- The two most over people with this crowd were not in the building. No. 2, at least to look at all the t-shirts folks wore into the arena, was Steve Austin. But No. 1, far and away, was Goldberg. There were chants for him between EVERY match, and they sold a ton of his T-shirts. One of the biggest pops of the night came when the announcer said they would replay his U.S. title win in its entirety on Saturday Night. And one of the biggest boos came at the end, when he wasn't there. (He was never advertised.)
- Anyway, in front of a crowd of about 6,000 (a near-sellout) that's it from here.
Fish's report:
- The show didn't start until 7:30, but I showed up at 1:00, just in time to see them unloading the merchandise. I started talking to the guys who
were in charge of that and he seemed like a pretty cool guy, but here is what he had to say on some things.
- Buff was supposed to wrestle, but is being replaced by Reese at house shows because Buff is going to have to have a spinal tap soon to see the extent of the injury... but he's fine for now.
- Don't expect to see Goldberg for the next few house shows...they are giving him his well-deserved time off now.
- Lastly, they were given instructions to go ahead and sell what Flair stuff they had left...all they had left were a few flags/banners stuff, but hey...they are still selling Wolfpack crap with Syxx on it... What's up with that????
- Now on to the results and the interesting things about the matches...
- In the first match, the Barbarian beat Bobby Lane
- Only interesting thing about this was that everybody was rooting for Lane... which is about all you could do...
- In the second match, Juvy and the halloween looking guy (can't remember
his name) beat La Parka and Psychosis
- Great match... I never knew what fun it was seeing this live.
- After the match was over, La Parka "chaired" Psychosis and did his little strut... you'd be proud bill :)
- In the third match, Hacksaw Jim Duggan beat Reese (originally supposed to be Norton, but I'll explain that later)
- Not much to say about this match except that Reese needs to learn how to sell a move... or is it that Hacksaw needs to learn how to give one... hmmmm...
- Nw we start the main eventers...
- DDP beat Raven after a "sweet" Diamond Cutter
- This was the coolest match of the night... they used barrels and everything that they could get their hands on, but the only problem about this match is that they stalled starting the match for about 8 min. What's up with that???
- n the next match, Lex Loogie beat Big Gay Poppa Pump after Rick Steiner helped Loogie
- Scott is one hell of a heel, he came out to the ring giving everyone the finger, then during the middle of the match he did something that made me do a major spit take on the person in front of me (God help them). He told Loogie that he must be from Asheville because he's being an asshole like everyone else in the building... It was classic!
- After that match was over, Norton (taking Buff's place, see I told you I would explain) was beat by Rick Steiner
- Average match, but a good show of power on both sides...
- In the main event, Sting beat Nash after Scott and "Flash" Norton ran in.
- Real quick question, how in hell did Norton get the nickname "flash?" I'll go ahead and tell you now, he's not as fast as some may think...
- OK... Nash gave the survey to the crowd and I have to say that even though everyone booed Nash, they all said NWO and so I would guess that they crowd's NWO... but that's Asheville for ya...
- After a few moves where Sting got in some good punches, he grabbed the mic and did a reprisal of his speech he gave on Thunder on Wed. but the cool thing is where Sting gave his crotch chops and Nash replied with his own... nice to see that Nash still does that... (sorry... I think it's funny.. geez)
- When the match came near a close, Scott and "Flash" ran in to save Nash, but Nash stopped them from beating up on Sting and told them to go back to the back. That's when Rick and Loogie came down. Before leaving, Nash had this interesting tidbit to say... "The reason I pulled them off of you is I don't have a bone to pick with you... it's Hogan I want!"
- This was a good house show... could've been better.. but for my first time I really liked it.
- This has been Fish... Go Western Carolina U. Catamounts!!!! For all of your wrestling needs, just read the WCW wrap-up with me, Fish,
and you'll know all that you need to know about WCW and wrestling in general. Look for it in the Carolinian at Western Carolina University!