Raw/Nitro February ‘98 (Week 1)

Monday Night Raw 2/2/98 (2.25 Stars)

Segment- DX State of the Union address. DX mockingly promised not to curse or use any ‘slurs’ in order to please the various networks carrying the show.

Segment- DX in-ring promo. DX campaign for ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin to face Mike Tyson at WrestleMania instead of Shawn Michaels! Austin interrupts, saying while he does want Tyson, he won the Rumble and is owed a title shot, before adding that Shawn's ‘ass belongs to him!’

Match 1- Cactus Jack Vs Chainsaw Charlie ended in a no-contest (No Holds Barred Match)

Segment- The New Age Outlaws padlock Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie inside a dumpster, before pushing it off the stage!

Segment- The New Age Outlaws are interviewed backstage. The Outlaws seem regretful for pushing Jack and Charlie off the stage, until DX starts yelling at them as they insist that they “push the bar higher!”

European Championship 

Match 2- (c) Owen Hart def ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gunn via DQ 

Match 3- Marc Mero def Mosh 

Segment- Barry Windham backstage interview. Windham calls out Bradshaw, before putting over the NWA Champion Jeff Jarrett. Bradshaw responds angrily, demanding a match against his former tag partner!

Segment- Tiger Ali Singh promotional video. Singh says he wants to be recognised as the “greatest fighter of all time”.

Match 4- Chainz def Faarooq via count-out

Match 5- Bradshaw & Flash Funk def Barry Windham & Jeff Jarrett 

Segment- The NWA faction (Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Jeff Jarret & Barry Windham) attack Bradshaw post-match!

Segment- Michael Cole calls into the show ‘live' in order to give an update on Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie. Cole says security have been called to the hospital following an incident! 

Segment- WWF personnel Wink Collins in-ring promo. Collins announces that WrestleMania XIV is sold out and was the fastest sell-out in the history of WrestleMania. Kane interrupts, leading to Vader confronting Kane before he can hurt Wink Collins. Vader challenges Kane at In Your House: No Way Out, before spraying him with a fire extinguisher!

Match 6- ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin def Road Dogg via DQ

Analysis 

The show kicked off with D-Generation X delivering what now is known as quite a famous segment with their ‘State of the Union address’. They promise, tongue in cheek obviously, not to say certain swear words, all while actually saying them.

But the interesting part comes when I learnt that allegedly, this was a Vince Russo idea. Russo stated that he wanted to have “fun” with the USA network, who were becoming anxious in relation to the more adult content the WWF were showcasing on Monday Nights.

I did enjoy this segment, however I've seen it so many times before I can practically recite it word for word at this point, so the effect was lost on me slightly. The way Shawn delivered the final line of “I did NOT sleep with that young intern, as a matter of fact I was UP…ALL…NIGHT” always stuck with me for some reason. That alone gives this segment a few points. Anyway…on to the show!

Segment 

DX cut an in-ring promo as balloons dropped from the ceiling as they continued the presidential jokes donned in tall red, white and blue hats carrying placards. This show took place shortly after the Bill Clinton controversy where he ‘allegedly’ slept with one of his interns, hence all of the political references.

DX campaigned for Tyson to fight Austin at Mania in favour of Shawn Michaels. Austin interrupts, shutting the duo down telling them he WILL take the WWF Title from Michaels…and that's the bottom line…’cause Stone Cold Said So!’ Nice segment to warm up the crowd and display two of the biggest stars in the company face to face.

Match 1

Chainsaw Charlie faced his friend Cactus Jack in a no holds barred match! A pre-recorded interview shows the pair of them sitting with J.R as they explained their reasoning for having the match in the first place! Mick Foley (aka Cactus Jack) stated that he was told ‘no-one would care about him’ and that he would be in a wheelchair by the time he's 30! If that was to be the case, then he wanted to go down swinging and be remembered as the iconic, hardcore ‘Cactus Jack’ Chainsaw Charlie (aka Terry Funk) added that whoever won this match would be known as ‘King of the Hardcore’ and that's how he wants to be remembered! The two close the interview with a handshake showcasing mutual respect…

As previously stated, Cactus Jack was set to face Chainsaw Charlie in a no holds barred match. My only gripe here was that Charlie should have popped some of the leftover balloons from the DX segment during his entrance, in order to sell the fact he was actually wielding a FULLY FUNCTIONAL CHAINSAW! I mean…come on!

The match eventually ended as The New Age Outlaws locked both Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie inside a steel dumpster before pushing it off the stage!

 “GOOD GOD THERE'S PEOPLE IN THERE…THERE'S PEOPLE IN THERE …WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT THAT!” was a phenomenal call by J.R for this particular spot! It was delivered with anger, conviction and perhaps most importantly…believability!

These two have had FAR better matches than what was on display here, but it was utilised more for the dumpster spot and angle advancement between the Outlaws and Jack/Charlie rather than any attempt to showcase a classic. We still saw a couple of fun spots, but the image of a steel dumpster crashing over 10 feet off the stage was ultimately what people would remember when all was said and done!

Vince McMahon and various members of the WWF roster even came out personally to check on Jack and Charlie, sparking a brawl between them and the Outlaws, further selling the potential seriousness of what we just saw!

As a match it felt slightly paint by the numbers, but as an overall segment it was EXCELLENT!

Post-match we saw a quick backstage interview with The Outlaws, where they showed some regret admitting that maybe they DID take things too far. DX interrupted them, saying they needed to continue pushing the envelope and if it wasn't Jack and Charlie, the same thing could have happened to them!

Rather unusually, that completed the first hour. With only one match and one segment, at least the pacing was better. A strong start to the show, but hopefully we can still see some actual wrestling during the second hour…

Second Hour/WarZone 

WarZone kicks off with the New Age Outlaws to a chorus of boos. That's the kind of heat that would make Al Snow himself proud! Billy Gunn took on the newly crowned European champion Owen Hart in title action.

The pair were actually working a decent match until it ended via DQ thanks to a run-in from D-Generation X. While I usually hated these cheap finishes it further solidified The Outlaws connection with DX and made sense to do it here.

WWF officials stopped the Outlaws from swinging Owen Hart and tossing him off the stage! Sadly, knowing what we do now about Owen's death, this was difficult to watch, but at the time I can only imagine how effective it was as a ‘shock moment’. They actually had me believing Owen would be tossed off the stage onto the concrete floor below. While I didn't enjoy it for all the previously mentioned reasons, I have to admit it was compelling TV (at the time anyway)

Main-event 

‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin took on Road Dogg in the main-event. We didn't get to see Austin actually wrestle on TV much, if at all during this time period, so this felt like a real treat…

Psych! The match was INSTANTLY waved off due to shenanigans from The Outlaws and D-Generation X! Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie seemingly escaped from the “local medical facility” to help out their old pal Steve Austin, as well as gain a measure of revenge on the dastardly New Age Outlaws! 

Fun fact…the reason wrestling shows (or in this case, the WWF in particular) always referred to hospitals as “local medical facilities”, was in order to prevent fans from calling up or even stopping by in person in an attempt to check on their favourite WWF superstars! The more you know…

Summary 

This was a strange one. Exceptionally angle heavy with the stuff involving The New Age Outlaws, but with a PPV right around the corner and the aforementioned team being in the main-event for it, it was a FANTASTIC way to drive up interest in what was initially (on paper) another run of the mill tag match. 

Some interesting things to note about this particular angle are, that while it is true that Jim Cornette wanted to bring in Terry Funk initially, Vince Russo believes that Funk and McMahon had some previous issues that led to Funk being ‘repacked’ as Chainsaw Charlie. This part doesn't make much sense to me, as he was referred to as Terry Funk on commentary, and during interviews with Mick Foley, they openly talked about their history of working deathmatches together in Japan. But what would make sense however, is that Vince McMahon could be so cruel and egotistical, the thought of showcasing a true star that A) Wasn't his own creation and B) In his eyes, was seen as passe and outdated, could have caused Vince to try and intentionally sabotage the ‘funkster’. In Terry Funk's own words on an episode of the Hannibal TV podcast, Funk stated that Vince McMahon set out to “destroy his popularity and image around the nation!” Strong words indeed, and if true, luckily he didn't succeed in doing so as Terry Funk is still recognised as one of the most iconic and beloved pro-wrestlers of all time!

In addition to this, it has been said that it was also Vince McMahon's idea to create the ‘New Age Outlaws’, in order to bolster the existing stable D-Generation X, in the hopes that they could better compete with the numbers that the nWo were pulling in on Nitro! 

Speaking of pulling in numbers, The faction warfare stuff between The Nation of Domination and The Disciples of Apocalypse was truly some of the WORST STUFF on TV at the time across both shows! The Nation was a decent enough faction and I enjoyed the controversial undertones the group had, but D.O.A were truly dire. Bland, poor in-ring and they had zero selling points other than being bikers.

In addition to this, the visual of seeing Vader spray Kane with a fire extinguisher was dumb, as it didn't fit the Kane character whatsoever to be involved in what was, essentially a comedy spot. Plus…HE WAS WEARING A MASK ANYWAY! Stupid on a few levels.

Overall, this was a poor episode that ironically set up the PPV very well. If they had chosen to add in a bit of, you know, WRESTLING, this could have been a really good episode. As it stood, if you took away the dumpster spot it was as bare as the toilet roll aisle during a global pandemic!

Over to Nitro…

WCW Nitro 2/2/98 (2.25 Stars)

Match 1- Juventud Guerrera def Psychosis 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews DPP in-ring. DDP says that Chris Beniot is one of the most “underrated wrestlers on the planet” before explaining his open challenge to Beniot scheduled for WCW Thunder. Page says that he wants to know if he can beat Beniot.

Match 2- Ultimo Dragon def Billy Kidman 

Segment- The Flock attack Ultimo Dragon post-match!

Segment- Kevin Nash in-ring promo. Nash lambasts WCW for allowing Billy Kidman to hit a ‘Tiger Bomb’, while he was arrested last week for using what was virtually the same move! Nash says that he will happily accept any and all fines going forward, as he will continue to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it!

Segment- Chris Jericho in-ring promo. Jericho says that he doesn't need to apologise, and instead he should be thanking all of the “Jericho-lics” for supporting him.

Cruiserweight Championship 

Match 3- (c) Chris Jericho def Super Calo

TV Title 

Match 4- (c) Booker T def Steve Regal

Match 5- Konnan def Hugh Morrus 

Segment- Scott Hall ‘survey says’ promo. Hall also says that it is unfair the way his title shot at SuperBrawl was revoked by Roddy Piper, with newest nWo member Dusty Rhodes adding that despite the setbacks, the “New World Order will go on forever!”.

Match 6- Scott Hall def Jim Neidhart 

Segment- Louie Spicolli attacks Jim Neidhart leading to The British Bulldog running down to make the save!

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Lex Luger in-ring. Luger promotes his upcoming match against Randy Savage at SuperBrawl VIII.

Match 7- Goldberg def Mark Starr (23-0)

Segment- Mongo in-ring promo. Mongo calls out Davey Boy Smith ahead of their match!

Match 8- Davey Boy Smith Vs Steve ‘Mongo' McMichael ends via double countout.

Segment- Davey and Mongo brawl towards the announcers table and through to the backstage area!

Segment- ‘Hollywood’ Hogan and Eric Bischoff in-ring promo. Bischoff declares Hogan as the ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World!’. Hogan adds that Kevin Nash is the man watching his back, and as a result, he is happy to bankroll him if he continues to injure his opposition, agreeing ahead of time to pay any ‘fines’ on his behalf. Hogan also says that he will make light work of Sting, but complains over the fact Nick Patrick can't officiate the match. Hogan closes by saying Savage is “on his own” against Sting.

Match 9- Raven def Disco Inferno (Raven's Rules)

Match 10- The Steiner Brothers def Kevin Nash & Buff Bagwell 

Segment- The Steiner Brothers argue in the ring after Scott Stiener refused to tag in his brother Rick.

Match 11- Sting def ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage via DQ

Analysis 

This was a 25 K house from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas! Impressive numbers from WCW.

Matches 1 & 2

Juventud Guerrera defeated the Cruiserweight champion Psychosis in non-title action to open the show.

Not a great deal of psychology or intrigue in this one as it was essentially 6 minutes of spot wrestling. Still, it got the fans in attendance going, and was an entertaining way to kick things off. 

While I enjoyed the cruiserweight division, I almost feel as if they had outgrown the whole ‘go out there and warm up the crowd’ gimmick. They had interesting characters and most importantly, they could ALL WORK really well! Give them some storylines that showcased their background and told us their history. Why were they in WCW, what did they want to ultimately achieve? 90 percent of them never spoke so it was hard to get invested in a match if you didn't connect with them in any meaningful way.

We were then shown footage from WCW Thunder, as DDP put over Chirs Beniot, saying he wasn't seen as a “main-eventer” and was being held back as a result. DDP offered Beniot a shot at his U.S Title. It was a real shame this match wouldn't happen on Nitro, because it sounded like an absolute banger!

DDP cut a quick in-ring promo whereby he addressed the reason for calling out Beniot in the first place! Honestly, I didn't feel as if Page did a great job here, and was in real danger of burying himself. He put Beniot over for the entirety of the promo, before saying he wanted to know whether he can make him “feel the bang!”. 

Now, If he came out and said everything in pretty much the same way, but with the added caveat of promising to embarrass Beniot and USING HIM in order to further cement his own legacy, you've got some free and easy heat headed into the match! Make it as respectful as you want if you're keeping Dallas as a babyface. But with him glazing Beniot as much as he did, only to add in the uncertainty of whether he had what it took to actually retain the title, it all came across as slightly strange (to me anyway)

We then saw Ultimo Dragon take on Billy Kidman who was still utilising his gimmick of a heroin addict…nice! Well, not nice…but here's the thing. Remember what I was saying about the cruiserweight division earlier? Well, at least Kidman can speak English (presumably) and being a so-called heroin addict would mean he would also be more than familiar with the concept of heat! Hey, if they could literally call his finishing move the ‘7 year itch’, then I can make a bad joke about heat…relax guys! Oh yeah, and ‘just say no’.

Anyway, I actually enjoyed this one slightly more than the opener. Even if only for the presence of The Flock being at ringside, adding a bit more in the way of telling an actual story. They would constantly do whatever they could to give Kidman the advantage, but ultimately it would prove to be futile, as Ultimo Dragon would win via submission. Better luck next week kid, don't forget your spoon! 

(Post-match, The Flock jumped Ultimo Dragon, just in case you cared about that carefully curated bit of angle advancement)

In terms of pacing, the first hour was actually really well done, with 3 matches and only one segment. It all felt nicely balanced. Nothing blew me away but I also didn't lose any interest. Using Kevin Nash to cut a quick promo towards the top of the hour was smart, as I can't imagine too many people switching over when he was being showcased. Moving on….

Second Hour

Chris Jericho successfully defended his Cruiserweight Title against Super Calo in a middle of the road match-up. The main thing I didn't understand is what Super Calo achieved to warrant a title shot in the first place? Admittedly I don't watch WCW Thunder, so maybe he was on a 10 match winning streak that I didn't know about. I also wasn't a fan of Super Calo's attire as it seemed far too casual. From the ridiculously oversized shirt to his bottoms that resembled jogging pants someone would wear for comfort on a Sunday morning while hungover, nothing about him screamed ‘star’.

At least we were treated to back to back title action, as Steve Regal took on the TV champion, Booker T.

From a physical standpoint, Regal looked massively out of shape here. Sadly this time period also coincided with the height of his struggles with addiction. These same issues would eventually cost Regal his job in WCW as he would be released later the following week! To his credit, Regal has been incredibly honest and open about his various struggles, and lives a life of sobriety to this day. His book ‘Walking a Golden Mile’ 2005, is a fantastic read and comes highly recommended. 

All of those issues aside, this STILL had the potential to be a really good match. Sadly they only gave it a few minutes, as Booker T eventually retained his title via a Harlem Sidekick. If this was a 10-15 minute match on PPV, most likely it would have worked much better. Regal's style was to try and tell a story, and while he was very accomplished in-ring, he also wasn't what you'd describe as a ‘flashy’ worker, so perhaps ill suited to the shorter format of TV matches. As a side note, Regal's bout against Fit Finlay from Uncensored ‘96 was a certified classic and the definition of a hidden gem. Well worth a watch!

Match 6

I won't review this segment because as a match there's not an awful lot I can say, but it's still important to note that this was the first ‘heel’ sighting of Dusty Rhodes on WCW Nitro since he had formed an alliance with the nWo! He was in Scott Hall's corner as he took on Jim Neidhart, which saw Scott Hall win via pinfall of an impressive ‘Razors Edge’. Hall did a great job of hitting the move cleanly and safely considering the sheer size of Neidhart. 

The second hour overall had been pretty underwhelming, with only Jericho/Calo standing out in any meaningful way.

Let's see if they could manage to finish on a high, with the promised main-event of Sting Vs Randy Savage! Ohhhh yeah, DIG IT! 

Third Hour

Hour number 3 opened with a ‘Hollywood’ Hogan in-ring promo. This was as good of a Hogan promo as you'd ever see (which isn't saying much admittedly) Hogan agreed to pay Nash's fines going forward, before cementing the fact that Randy Savage would be “on his own” against Sting. If we actually got to see Savage/Sting in a clean match on TV with no run-ins, I'd be absolutely STUNNED! Only time will tell.

As usual, unless something noteworthy happens, I'll rejoin you all for the main-event!

Main-event 

Here we go. Savage Vs Sting in the main-event.

Before we get to the match itself, I NEED to talk about Sting's entrance (this one was special guys, trust me). Using his iconic ‘Crow’ theme, he descended some 40 feet from the rafters of AlamoDome into the heart of the crowd. The visual was truly stunning and as a one off thing, this entrance ALONE may have been one of the best things I'd ever seen on Nitro to this point!

This would only be Sting's second featured bout in Nitro history to this point (this was referencing the main-event spot presumably, as I'd seen him wrestle plenty in 95/96) Random line from ‘stat boy Tony' but there we go.

My word of the day is going to be…HEAT! As this match had it in abundance, sending the raucous Texas crowd into a frenzy whenever the two men so much as batted an eyelid at one another! 

Annoyingly, this makes the finish even more disappointing, as it ended by way of a needless DQ, as Hogan broke up the count as he proclaimed “I'm the only one who can pin Sting clean BROTHER!”. Well, not quite, but you get the idea. Sting then cleaned house of the incoming nWo members, as Lex Luger also ran down to assist him, before the show went off the air!

Okay, so I understand that they were trying to further the Sting/Hogan angle, but surely there were 1001 better/more creative ways to do so. The ending fell completely flat as a result. Hogan literally DID NOTHING, outside of just being there. He didn't touch anyone, he didn't cut a promo. He just waltzed in, ruined the match and left. Poor way to end what was an already underwhelming show!

Summary 

Ok, before I go on with my summary, I need to get this off my chest. Hugh Morrus was the most POINTLESS in-ring performer I have ever seen! I couldn't imagine him being over in ANY METRIC whatsoever, so the fact he was still employed by WCW at this time was truly baffling.

As for the show itself, this edition was the perfect example of 3 hours being entirely overindulgent on WCWs part, but the main-event was well advertised and the show did feel FAR more balanced in comparison to the utter chaos that was being produced towards the back end of 1997.

Yet, the words I'd use to describe the bulk of this show would be uninspiring and uneventful. Nitro would have taken the victory this week by way of default if the main-event did…well anything at all. But sadly, it didn't.

That being said, Sting's entrance gave the show a quarter star increase on its own. Absolute CHILLS! It was just a shame that Hogan single handedly took that moment away, ruining the finish and making any bonuses that you could add to this show as a result of the main-event completely redundant!

My final scores result in a tie for both shows as they underwhelmed this week, albeit for different reasons.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next edition where we cover the go-home show for IYH: No Way Out, as well as a shocking moment on Nitro that involved Goldberg's toughest test date…but for all of the wrong reasons!