WCW Thursday Thunder - Thursday, 01/08/98

By Bill

Trivia Question: What was nWo Sting's ring name even before he was Cobra?
I've got a big treat for some of you...a DDT Digest Exclusive! For those of you who are fans of Krusher Krushchev, Demolition Smash, Blacktop Bully, Repo Man, or Barry Darsow himself, I have his e-mail address for you. No, I'm not violating his privacy, as this is his public e-mail address. And, this is "pedigree" information, as I got it from Barry himself. I ran into him after the Baltimore Nitro, told him about DDT Digest, and he wanted me to pass the e-mail address he gives out to wrestling fans to all of you. So, if you are interested, e-mail him at brassnucs@aol.com. Make sure to tell him I sent you. As a side note, if you are a fan of his, check out this Repo Man Tribute that somebody's got out there.
The new line up has Chan and Charlie taking over Monday Nitro and me taking Thursday Thunder. I may be going back on the road. If so, it is possible I will not have the Thursday reports posted until Friday morning for a while. We'll have to see, but I really want to keep doing those reports myself, even if it does make them late. Eric Ehrhardt takes over C&C's spot on Sunday {Pro} for however long {Pro} stays on the air.
The mailbag:
- From Wade:
  I'm thinking that, with nWo Monday Nitro, they're going to need some new angles to keep viewers interested. How about recycling the ill-fated "Candyman" Brad Armstrong gimmick? Can't you just see the new, kid-friendly nWo member, "Ice Cream" Konnan?
  "Arriba La Sprinkles!"
- From Glen Bowman, referring to the 12/29 Nitro:
  Bill:
  I thought you might be interested in a tidbit I caught last night on Nitro. People -- yourself included -- have long lambasted Glacier's inordinately long entrance. Usually his matches are longer, though not by much, than his introductions. Not last night. I taped the first fifteen minutes of the replay of Nitro just to check which was longer: the entrance or the match.
  Here are the numbers:
  ENTRANCE: 1:26
  SQUASH: 1:00 (exactly sixty seconds--more like 1:00.00)
  For those who have been waiting for Glacier to do some serious jobbing, last night's match was the equivalent of nirvana. I can't think of a more thorough, more timely job than last night's match. In his tacky blue and gray costume, standing next to Goldberg, Glacier looked more like a wintry version of Doink the Clown than a serious "martial-arts" expert (or whatever). That shoulder tackle, on the taped slow-mo replay on my VCR, looked truly painful (the risks of jobbing to a guy right out of wrestling school). Nevertheless, I can't say that I have any particular malice toward the man. I guess that it isn't his fault that WCW gave him such a stupid gimmick and a totally inappropriate push. At least he is doing the job. Of course, his push would have more appropriate if it had been given to bonafide workers such as Mortis, Chris Benoit, Buff Bagwell, or Disco Inferno. But at least Arn Anderson never had to job to Glacier. In any case, "the push" is indeed over. Hopefully, WCW's bookers will learn that a push, no matter how strong, does little good to something that doesn't have any wheels.
- From Breusnspet:
  Scoops had an interview with Glacier, and the interviewer asked him when he'd be coming to the Internet. I'll assume that's referring to a Glacier web page. Man, that is scary! Based on his entrance, can you imagine how long it would take his page to download?
- From David Arwood, on the 1/5 Nitro:
  Enjoyed Chan & Charlie's Nitro report! The funniest thing I saw last night that they did not mention was at the beginning of the DDP/Jericho match when a shot of Mr. & Mrs Chief Jay Strongbow was shown. As Jericho was entering the ring, Strongbow's wife turned to the Chief & appeared to say, "Who is that?", to which Chief Jay shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know." Gotta love live TV!
- From J"C"T answering my question about what the deal was with the Andre The Giant page:
  That page is either a tribute to, or the creation of, two independent filmmakers/performance artists (forget their names, sorry), who made a documentary detailing the proliferation of copies of an old (judging from the fact that said sticker mentions the Brain as his manager, early-to-mid 80s, anyway) sticker picturing Andre (if the original was a WWF product, Titan ought to sue, damn it, they need to make the dough Chuck Austin scammed off them back) called "Andre the Giant Has a Posse".
  Interesting little flick, actually, but no real connection to the sport. So, it's neither a tribute (although in the film, one of its creators mentions he was a fan) or a crass commercial enterprise (I mean, we all know modern artists are above that. :) )
Best signs from the 12/22 nWo Nitro:
- From Rob, a sign being held by Lodi: "X-mas wish list (1) A win (2) More TV time (3) the Nitro girls (4) hair gel"
- Roger Williams sent me a bunch, most of which I saw, but two good ones I missed: "Raven's Chicken Farm" and "Throw Me A Nitro Girl"
I thought I might have been a little harsh saying that first (and hopefully only) nWo Nitro "sucked ass", but every piece of mail I got on the subject concurred.
If anyone could let me know where I could get some pictures of La Parka, preferably during his ring entrance, that would be really helpful.
I got a bunch of e-mail on Rick Rude's injury. Actually, the injury was supposedly to has back, not his neck, and it is claimed Sting did it, although Sting doing it may be a work.
And, now, on to the show...

Replays from Nitro to start the show.
In a big upset, "Gentleman" Chris Adams pinned Randy "Macho Man" Savage after Lex Luger came tearing out of the dressing room and brained Savage with a chair when the referee wasn't looking. It would later be reversed by Dillon to Savage winning by DQ.
- Elizabeth had to have had implants. Man, she's got a rack.
Bischoff and Hogan came to the ring to give a speech. Sorry, but I got home late, I'm getting up early, I'm watching a videotape, so I fast forwarded through it.
Tenay interviewed Dillon, and Dillon reversed the decision on the Savage/Adams match. Pity he didn't do that after Road Wild. Luger came out all pissed off that WCW's not sticking together and he's going to do when he needs to do. Hmmm, a not-so-subtle hint of a heel turn.
Rick Martel made Louie Spiccoli submit to the Quebec Crab.
- Rick Martel's music really sucks.
- Raven's band of freaks take their seats during the match. Maybe Kidman will slap a fan around again.
Replay of the Giant and Hall at Starrcade.
Tenzan pinned Ohara w/Sonny Ono following a Benoit-style flying headbutt. Does anybody care?
- Tenzan, of nWo Japan, came out to the nWo "B" music.
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair made "Lionheart" Chris Jericho go to school with the figure-four leglock. He uncled him.
- Jericho does his "I'm not a heel" speech again before the match and gives Penzer another suit jacket. Maybe next week he'll start waving a little American flag like the heel Rougeau Brothers used to do.
- First ever singles match between Flair and Jericho.
- The ref held the ropes so Flair could enter the ring.
- During the match, Flair fakes an injured ankle to sucker Jericho in for an eye poke.
- Flair Flop, and Flair gets nailed on the apron with a dropkick.
- Jericho misses the Lionsault and Flair gives him the foreman in between the wickets for his trouble.
- Schiavone says this is one of the biggest wins in Flair's career. What????!!!!!
- After the match, Jericho rips off Penzer's jacket and throws another tantrum. The announcers start calling him a baby.
The Giant pinned Meng following a chokeslam.
- The ending was kind of silly. The Giant had Meng set up for the chokeslam and supposedly Meng couldn't reach Giant's throat to put on the goozle. Only problem was that Meng's arms were obviously long enough to reach.
"Undefeated" Bill Goldberg pinned Steve "Mongo" McMichael after the Jackhammer in a clean job.
- To start the match, Mongo did a sort of suicide dive onto Goldberg. Yikes.
WCW World Tag Team Champions defended their titles by defeating Konan and Buff Bagwell when Scott Steiner pinned Konan following a top rope Frankensteiner.
- Lee Marshall: "You can lead a Steiner to water, but you can't make him think".
- Schiavone: "The Steiners are a lot more smarter than people give them credit for". They have better grammar, too.
- Just like Monday, Rick Steiner went to the top rope for the finisher, and Scott decided to finish the match by himself, leaving Rick to look like a jerk. Teasing about a split, I guess.
Replay of Zbyszko/Hall match from Starrcade. Read the Starrcade report if you need details.
Tenay interviews Zbyszko.
Ray Traylor pinned Scott Hall after a Traylor Trash.
- Scott Hall has the early advantage.
- Ref takes a poke in the eye. While he's out because of that, Traylor and Hall are outside the ring, and Hall nails Traylor with the bogus title belt.
- After that, Traylor powers out on the pin attempt, Hall nails a bulldog from the middle turnbuckle, and again only gets a two-count.
- Zbyszko comes to the apron, distracts Hall, enabling Traylor to catch Hall with a Traylor Trash. Didn't that happen at a pay-per-view a few months ago with Luger instead of Traylor.
In a big upset, Juventud Guerrera cleanly pinned Ultimo Dragon following a 450 splash to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship. Cool.
- Air Juvy earned this title shot with a win over Psychosis on last Monday's Nitro.
- There has been a $5,000 fine levied against Scott Steiner for slapping a referee on Monday Nitro. Uhhhhh, I don't think the fine was for hitting the referee, it was for something else. (Read Chan and Charlie's report if you don't know what I'm talking about.)
- Moonsault onto the floor by Dragon and Juvy doesn't catch him. Good thing for those pads.
- I just noticed Superman is at ringside again.
- Air Juvy winning is pretty cool, but as you know, I'd rather it was La Parka.
Mike Tenay interviews Bret Hart in the ring and announces the Flair/Hart match at nWo Souled Out 2. Bret says it's nothing personal when he says "best there is...". But, he wants to prove himself. That brings Ric Flair to ringside. Flair says people want Hart to say his little phrase one more time to Ric Flair's face. Hart does it while poking his finger in Flair's chest. Flair starts going absolutely nuts, quoting the maniacs he's wrestled and the crowds that have rioted, etc., etc. etc. They look like they are going to come to blows, but don't.
- Bret looked a little lost during his monologue. He must have visited Curt Hennig's trailer.
"The Total Package" Lex Luger made Scott "Flash" Norton submit to the Human Torture Rack.
- Norton goes right to work on Luger. Marshall theorizes it's due to the fines that J.J. Dillon levied on him.
- Luger will be facing Savage at Souled Out 2.
- Luger becomes (supposedly) the first man in history to power out after Norton's Shoulderbreaker.
- After the match, Bagwell gets a ride in the Torture Rack and gets dumped on Savage, who was about to chair Luger.
Replay of Sting/Hogan footage from Starrcade.
- Yep, I definitely agree it was not a fast count. But, Hogan definitely does submit after the match is restarted. And, Giant's pants almost fell off as he came to the ring for the celebration.
Replay of Monday Sting/Hogan footage from Baltimore Nitro on the 29th.
- When Nick Patrick makes the three-count on Sting at Nitro, that was not a fast count, either. I saw on another web page that someone timed it and it was actually 3.26 seconds. Sorry, I don't have a stopwatch.
- After the replay, Tenay interviews Dillon to get the WCW Executive Committee's decision. Before announcing the decision, Dillon calls Hollywood Hogan to the ring. Hogan arrives with (I think) the faction of the nWo that came out of his limo last week.
- After they come to the ring, Nash makes like he's blowing snots out of his nostril on Dillon. That's mature.
- The big decision is that the title is being held up. (For once, I got a prediction right!) Sting takes off the belt, throws it onto the canvas and grabs the mic. Pointing his bat to Dillon: "You...you've got no guts!" Pointing his bat to Hogan: "You...[soft giggle]...you're a dead man." Sting has spoken!
WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion "Diamond" Dallas Page defeated Kevin Nash via DQ when Hollywood Hogan punched Page as he was setting Nash up for a Diamond Cutter.
- Schiavone is bragging how they will hang into overtime for this match if necessary. That's a pretty stupid thing to say after the 12/29 Nitro.
- This is Nash's first match back after his injury.
- It occurred to me during this match that they need to book DDP and Saturn for a match for the Battle of the Tattooed Men.
- Schiavone comments that Nash hasn't lost a step. Nash should be more worried about gaining a step.
- Vinnie Vegas, I mean Nash, hits DDP with the Snake Eyes.
- Hogan and Nash start to doubleteam Page. Giant comes to the ring to stare down Nash. Giant and Nash start mixing it up. Hogan jumps in. Fade to black.

Sharon Z. sends the following arena report:

Luger got a big pop when he chaired Savage and an even bigger one when he said "From now on we're going to do what we want to do."
Goldberg got a very respectable pop when he came out. He seems to be getting more and more popular.
Biggest pops of the night: DDP, Giant, and Flair.
They showed the footage from Nitro and the Zybszko/Bischoff match. But for some reason Tony and Tenay sounded like the chipmunks. No idea why.
Twice during commercials, Lodi and Kidman got into the ring and held up signs amidst "Lodi sucks" chants. One of the signs said "We hate Daytona" and another was "Please, shut up." At one point Lodi tried to climb up the turnbuckle and tripped.
Interesting incident during Hart/Flair interview. When Hart was first announced he got a huge pop. But when Flair came in, the response to Hart cooled rather quickly.
Loud chant of "Bullshit" when Dillon stripped Sting of the belt. Big pop when Sting pushed Dillion with the bat. Dillion quickly made himself very unpopular with the crowd that night, what with this and fining Luger.
Now for when the cameras went off:
- The Giant attacked Nash and they traded blows for a while. Hogan tried to interfere but the Giant simply pushed him away knocking him down. After that Bagwell rushed the ring and him and Nash attacked Giant. Several more nWo guys ran in while DDP and Hogan brawled to the back and Steiners and Traylor made the save on the Giant. The nWo held back Nash physically and WCW members did the same thing to the Giant. After a few seconds of Giant and Nash trying to get free, the nWo guys simply left.
- After that there was a match between Hogan and Sting. The match had been announced before the show went on the air. Since the title had been held up, it was a non-title grudge match. Hogan dominated in the beginning after attacking Sting when he was getting in the ring. After a while Sting starting no-selling and Hogans blows didn't affect him. Sting punched Hogan down and dominated for a while. Then they went outside and Hogan starting to bounce Sting off the rails. Sting recovered, however, and did the same thing to Hogan.
  Finally, Sting delivered two Stinger Splashers and made Hogan submit to the Deathlock for the clean win. The first Hogan/Sting match with a clean ending. Probably the best of three so far, mainly because it wasen't so hyped and that it didn't have a screwy ending. After the match, Sting celebrated, hit the turnbuckle with the bat a couple of times and then left.

Trivia Answer: Thunder

WCW Thursday Thunder - Thursday, 01/08/98

By Bill

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