Raw/Nitro February '98 (Week 2)

Monday Night Raw 9/2/98 (2.25 Stars)

Segment- ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin in-ring promo. Austin calls out Shawn Michaels for his actions last week! Austin says at ‘No Way Out’ he's going to get his revenge, but adds he doesn't want to wait until Sunday! 

Michaels replies on the titon-tron, saying he ‘punked Austin out’. Michaels adds that if he wants to fight him, he does it on his time and not the other way around. Shawn Michaels demands Austin to give him one good reason for him to come out. Austin reveals he's stolen Shawn's title, so if he wants it back, he'll have to take it from him by force!

Match 1- Jeff Jarrett & Barry Windham def Legion of Doom via DQ

Match 2- Henry O. Godwinn def Pierre 

Segment- Chyna backstage is on the hunt for Steve Austin! She seemingly forms a partnership with Los Boricuas.

Match 3- Brian Christopher & Pantera def Taka Michinoku & Aguila

Segment- Paul Bearer in-ring promo with Kane. Bearer says Kane has manhandled Vader with ease! Kane sets fire to a clock with Vader's face on it. Paul Bearer reminds the audience that The Undertaker is quite literally ‘dead’ after Kane locked him in a casket and set fire to it! 

Match 4- The Rock & Faarooq def Ken Shamrock & Chainz

Segment- Ken Shamrock ‘snaps’ out of frustration, as he clears house of The Nation of Domination before suplexing the referee as well as his own teammate Chainz! The Disciples of Apocalypse manage to calm him down.

Segment- Footage from the WrestleMania XIV Press Conference. Vince McMahon announces that Mike Tyson will be the ‘special guest enforcer’ for the main-event between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.

Segment- Chyna and Los Boricuas search for Steve Austin backstage.

Match 5- Steve Blackman def Recon 

Segment- Jackyl descends from the ceiling of the arena on a podium during the Blackman/Recon match. Jackyl says that the WWF vilified him, but he should be thanked as he transformed the entirety of the Truth Commission into killers and winners. Jackyl then slaps Recon for losing, and tells him to get his act together. 

Segment- The New Age Outlaws mock Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie by replaying the footage of them being thrown off the stage in a dumpster last week, before re-enacting it in real time with another dumpster containing blow up dolls!

Segment- Steve Austin locks Los Boricuas in the hallway as Chyna continues her search for him.

Match 6- Thrasher def The Artist formerly known as Goldust

Segment- D-Generation X in-ring promo. Shawn Michaels says that he refuses to wait until Sunday night to retrieve his stolen title, although Austin will still get an ‘ass kicking’ at the PPV. Steve Austin comes to the ring to confront Michaels face to face. DX runs away, before The New Age Outlaws surround the ring outnumbering Austin. Chainsaw Charlie cuts through underneath the ring mat, with Cactus Jack and Owen Hart standing alongside Austin in support. Chyna takes Shawn's title back, before The Outlaws and DX are eventually chased off by Austin, Hart, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie!

Summary

Weird and random cold open with Sunny singing Happy Birthday to ‘Classy’ Freddie Blassie in the style of Marlyn Monroe before the opening credits. She popped the ratings at the time, so maybe the logic was that if Sunny was the first thing the viewers saw, they'd stay tuned. Anyway, onto the show itself.

It began with the Rumble winner Steve Austin cutting an in-ring promo as he called out Shawn Michaels for his attack last week. This was a simple yet clever angle. Austin ‘stealing' Shawn's title ahead of the PPV was a great way to generate heat and excitement for a potential face to face between the pair ahead of the PPV. Short, sweet and effective. Thumbs up! 

Matches 1 & 2

Jeff Jarret and Barry Windham faced L.O.D in a continuation of the NWA storyline. As misplaced as this angle was at the time, it was an enjoyable break from the general chaos of the rest of the show. The match itself was surprisingly passable, especially considering the limited mobility of Animal, Hawk and most likely Barry Windham. The workrate was never going to be through the roof, but they made the most of it for the time they spent in the ring with some good spots.

Bradshaw’s run-in triggered a DQ as well as a multitude of run-ins! The overreliance of this made it exceptionally hard to keep track of the show. Slower pacing could have made a singular run-in from Bradshaw far more effective. That being said, until the DQ finish I was able to enjoy the match for what it was

Next, Pierre, one half of the Quebecers, faced Henry Godwinn in singles action, stemming from the Godwinns’ interference in the Quebecers’ match on Shotgun Saturday Night. (I’m not watching that show, so I’ll take Michael Cole’s word for it!) 

A quick aside: Pierre’s partner, Jacques Rougeau, once endured harsh hazing from Dynamite Kid, who wrongly blamed him for a prank. Dynamite Kid was a backstage terror, completely plummeting morale for the boys. Damaged clothing, itching powder, and even canceled flights were fair game for him—the meaner, the better! Nothing was off limits for the Hart Dungeon graduate (The wrestling school ran by Stu Hart, notorious for grinding out some of the most technically proficient and successful wrestling stars of its era)

Jacques Rougeau however, had finally seen enough, retaliating by busting Dynamite’s nose with a roll of quarters and knocking out multiple teeth. On a somewhat more positive note, the two men worked professionally in a battle royal afterward. 

Anyway back to the match. Pierre showed similar fire in the ring, impressing with a suicide dive and a top-rope senton bomb, remarkable for a 6-foot, 300-pounder! Henry Godwinn, however, offered little offense. Phineas’ brutal slop bucket shot secured Godwinn’s win, building heat for their upcoming In Your House pay-per-view clash. For a match I cared little about, it wasn’t half bad and I appreciated them trying to add some heat to the angle.

Quick segment with Chyna speaking Spanish and allegedly striking up a deal with Los Boricuas as she was on the hunt for Steve Austin. Just thought I'd mention it as it will probably be relevant later on in the show…

The light heavyweight match was the highlight of the hour, which saw Brian Christopher and Pantera defeat Taka Michinoku and Aguilla in tag team action. 

This was a fast-paced spot fest (for its time) that made a beat-by-beat breakdown pointless. Drawing from Maven’s YouTube insights on the pressures of live performance, Aguila’s effort at just 19 was remarkable. Sadly, my taped footage cut to a break, so I missed the finish. The breakdown from Wrestling Bios’ notes that it was a high-energy clash worth checking out if you can find the full match.

Overall, this first hour should’ve been rough but had its moments—Pierre’s agility and the light heavyweight action stood out. Onto the WarZone!

Second Hour/WarZone

Chainz & Ken Shamrock teamed up to take on Faarooq and The Rock. If you're confused, A) I don't blame you but allow me to explain. Essentially ‘The Nation’ were messing with Shamrock for some reason, so D.O.A decided to back him up. Quick side note, but this was by far the LOUDEST I'd heard the ‘Rocky Sucks’ chants. The man was either doing his job as a heel or the crowd were trying to tell us something…

Look, I hated this whole ‘faction warfare’ angle as I've noted many times already. However this tag match gave us the opportunity to see The Rock face off with Ken Shamrock. Let's see if that actually happens or if they managed to screw it up by way of tomfoolery. We did get to see some interaction between the pair (albeit limited) but that was enough for me. I've come to terms with the TV format now because I have no other choice and ultimately, it will provide a much more enjoyable experience if I accept the fact I'm not likely to see 10-15 minute matches for ‘free’ every single week…

Chainz was clearly the ‘weak link’ (no pun intended) and we also saw The Rock use his patented ‘People's Elbow’ long before it would become his finish. Rock cracked Shamrock in the face with an unprotected chair shot (something that's more difficult to stomach knowing what we do in the modern era) seeing Faarooq get the pinfall victory for his team. Despite my reservations concerning the unprotected chair shots, I did enjoy the finish and the match itself wasn't actually terrible. Much like the Jarrett & Windham/L.O.D match earlier that evening, it set the table for the 10-man warfare match at the upcoming PPV, even if I still had no interest in seeing it…

Post-match, I didn’t buy Shamrock suplexing Chainz to show ‘frustration.’ It made Chainz and D.O.A look weak when they just accepted it. A smarter angle would’ve been Shamrock locking the referee in an ankle lock, refusing to let go until D.O.A intervened—same vibe, better logic. This costs the match a quarter star for sloppy storytelling.

That being said, the footage from the WM XIV press-conference was GOLD. Tyson and Austin interacted really well, and this set up the bout between Shawn and Austin beautifully. They get a huge thumbs up from me for this segment alone! 

Main-event 

Thrasher pinned The Artist formerly known as Goldust via rollup, after Sable slapped Goldust, before also going after his manager Luna! Why did she do that I hear you ask?

Goldust was set to tag with Marc Mero at the PPV, and Sable was finally snapping back at Mero’s emotional abuse. Oh, and she was a ratings magnet…

As a main-event this was underwhelming. Not to say it was inherently bad as a match, but it felt like a throwaway segment with no heat.

The real draw however was the final segment, and it delivered. The Austin-Michaels face-off simmered all night, building anticipation like a prizefight—a lost art in today’s promo-heavy wrestling. This to me is far more preferable than the common tactic of oversaturation, and seeing two guys come face to face and cut countless promos for weeks on end before they eventually face off at whatever PPV is booked for that particular month.

Overall it felt special, and the return of Cactus and Terry Funk was a feel-good moment that likely sent fans home happy.

Summary 

This show was average at best. Lackluster wrestling and a main event (Goldust vs. Thrasher) screamed roster depth issues—WCW’s star-heavy TV matches were outshining WWF’s faction filler. The refusal to book big names in meaningful TV bouts likely hurt ratings. IYH: No Way Out’s card, headlined by a non-title 8-man tag, felt inconsequential (see my February week one review for why PPV main events need stakes). Still, the hot angles—especially Austin vs. Michaels—had me cautiously excited for the PPV, even if I wouldn’t pay $20 to watch it live. Below average, but somehow they still managed to build relatively well towards a PPV I had little to no interest in. Hopefully the action starts to pick up the closer we get to WrestleMania!

WCW Nitro 9/2/98 (2.5 Stars)

Segment- Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff in-ring promo. Bischoff says that he's always ‘followed’ the rules. But the rules he followed were Hogan's. Hogan then addresses the rumours that the nWo is falling apart and that Randy Savage is ‘leading the way’. Hogan states that he will show Randy Savage who's in charge by beating him later tonight. Savage accepts Hogan's challenge of a 1-1 match! 

Match 1- Steve ‘Mongo' McMichael def Glacier

Segment- WCW commenter Louie Spicolli is carrying a briefcase on behalf of Larry Zybysko 

Match 2- Konnan def Norman Smiley 

Segment- Mike Tenay interviews Brad Dillon of G.M motorsports. Brad announces a partnership between WCW and motorsport driver Lance Hooper.

Segment- J.J. Dillon tells Nick Patrick he can't referee this match as he's still suspended. Patrick says that no formal charges have been brought against him, and denies any wrongdoing. Nick Patrick is escorted out of the ring by security! 

Match 3- Disco Inferno def Yuji Nagata 

Segment- Post-match La Parka attacks both men with a steel chair!

Segment- Mike Tenay interviews Lex Luger. Luger says he's sick of both Hollywood Hogan and Lex Luger. Luger promotes his match against ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage at SuperBrawl saying he'll be ready for him!

Match 4- Eddie Guerrero & Chris Jericho def Chavo Guerrero Jr & Dean Malenko

Segment- Promo package highlighting tensions between The Steiner Brothers.

Match 5- Juventud Guerrera def El Dandy 

Segment- Post-Match, Chris Jericho attacks Juventud Guerrera. Juventud then challenges Jericho, agreeing to put his mask on the line for an opportunity at his Cruiserweight Title!

Match 6- Goldberg def William Regal (26-0)

Match 7- Chris Adams def Louie Spicolli via DQ

Segment- Post-match, Larry Zybysko chases away Louie Spicolli. Larry Zybysko accuses Spicolli of messing with him, stealing from him as well as switching his limo driver leaving him stranded. Zybysko accuses the nWo of putting him up to it, before adding the only reason he's with the nWo in the first place is because ‘no-one else wants to join!’

Match 8- Perry Saturn def Ultimo Dragon 

TV Title Match

Match 9- (c) Booker T Vs Raven ends in a no-contest (Raven's Rules Match)

Match 9- Randy Savage ends def Hollywood Hogan via DQ

Segment- Lex Luger in-ring promo. Luger calls out ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage who answers the call before Savage is attacked by Sting. A net then falls on Sting trapping him, allowing The nWo to launch an assault!

Tag Team Championships

Match 10- The Steiner Brothers def The Outsiders (c) 

Summary 

Live from El Paso, Texas (Eddie Guerrero's home town) I wondered what kind of reception he'd get.

The show started with Hogan calling out Randy Savage to a match, which Savage accepted! I have to give WCW credit here, this was an INSANELY hot start to the show! Obviously we most likely wouldn't see a clean bout, but I didn't care about that. The angle was RED HOT (even if it wasn't my cup of tea) and this segment progressed it really well. WCW was well known for hyperbole, but this legitimately had a claim to be one of their biggest main-events of the Nitro era! edit, they would wrestle but not in the main-event. Figure that one out!

Matches 1 & 2

Steve McMichael defeated Glacier in singles action. Anyone remember when they were pushing Glacier to the extent he was unbeaten in singles action for an entire year as well as spending tens of thousands of dollars on his entrance? Don't worry, I didn't either. For anyone unfamiliar, Glacier was WCW's Martial Arts gimmick with a pricey laser entrance.

Reflecting on McMichael’s career, it’s heartbreaking to note that he sadly passed away in April 2025 after battling ALS (a form of motor neurone disease)

As a person, I'll always love Mongo. He's a genuine Chicago Bears legend and I've come to the realisation that I was perhaps unfair to him initially. I'll always have fond memories of him calling the action behind the desk for WCW.

He was an entertaining character, but I have to be honest. He was never a good wrestler. 

One thing I’ll give him credit for however is his finisher, the Tombstone—a dangerous move. Despite admitting he wasn’t the most technically proficient, he executed it with exceptional safety, never injuring anyone, unlike Goldberg.

Post-match Mortis attacked Steve McMichael, who fought back before clearing the ring of James Vandenberg and hitting Mortis with his finisher! 

Next, Konnan made quick work of Norman Smiley, locking in a Tequila Sunrise (single-leg Boston Crab) for the win. Smiley’s crisp arm-drag sequences showed off his technical skills, but Konnan’s relentless pace shut it down. This fast paced contest highlighted Smiley’s talent, although WCW’s obsession with ‘star power’ meant he’d never get a real push. 

A semi entertaining first hour that flew by and set up the rest of the show nicely. I also didn't have Norman Smiley being the highlight of hour one on my bingo card, but there you go! In the interest of fairness, the match quality on display wasn't any better or worse than Raw’s first hour, but the action seemed much quicker, with the segments flowing seamlessly. As a result, it was a MUCH easier watch than Raw, which seemed boring and laboured in comparison. Good start for WCW!

Second Hour

The second hour exploded with hometown hero Eddie Guerrero teaming alongside Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho to take on Dean Malenko and Chavo Guerrero Jr in tag team action. This match was nothing short of phenomenal—a masterclass from four of WCW’s finest technicians.

Simply put this was four of the best workers in the company just doing their thing. As a TV match with time constraints, it was always a tall ask to be a match of the month contender, but I wouldn't be shocked if it proved to be the best match of the night, if not the best TV match of the month as a whole!

Extremely frantic pace so it was hard for me to write a beat by beat breakdown, but it advanced the story of the division chasing Jericho and his Cruiserweight Title, with the inclusion of Chavo's nephew Eddie Guerrero on the other side of it all also being a nice touch.

Match 7

Between his last victory against Mark Starr and this match, Goldberg defeated Disco Inferno and Jim Powers on WCW Saturday Night and Thunder, respectively. His bout with William Regal on WCW Nitro, however, would prove to be his “most competitive” yet—though not for the right reasons. Regal allegedly set out to expose Goldberg’s lack of in-ring ability and reportedly took liberties with him. This led to Regal’s firing after a verbal lashing from Eric Bischoff backstage, though, contrary to popular belief, that’s not the full story.Let me start by admitting I’m no wrestler. Outside a four-hour open day with Chris Hero, I’ve never stepped in a ring and have little knowledge of how to execute a professional match, beyond my fandom and countless hours watching the sport. As the saying goes, knowing how chicken should taste doesn’t mean you can cook it. That said, I’m a huge Regal fan and familiar with his work, so when he said he was told to deliver a six-minute segment during which Goldberg “froze up,” something clicked. Having rewatched the match an hour ago, I can see exactly what he meant.Regal opened with stiff kicks and a European Uppercut, which Goldberg completely no-sold—didn’t even blink. It looked absurd, honestly. I’ve seen Regal deliver moves like that countless times, and no one’s complained before. But this match just felt off. Booked as a typical Goldberg squash, the chain-wrestling sequences were jarring and out of place, making both men look ineffective. According to Regal, he even told Bischoff, “What do you want me to do, Eric? I can’t hit me-self.” Classic Regal.Goldberg was never a mat technician—that’s not why WCW hired him. So, Regal trying (and failing) to trade wrist locks and leg bars made both wrestlers look bad. If anyone deserved a talking-to, it was the agent who thought pairing a technical master like Regal with a green Goldberg was a good idea. The goal was likely to show Goldberg could “work,” but it only highlighted his limitations at this stage of his career. This was an awful match by every metric, so in lieu of discussing it any further, instead I’ll leave you with the iciest quote from Blackpool’s finest: “If I wanted to take liberties with Bill, Bill wouldn’t have walked out the ring that night.”

Third Hour

We saw some highlights from WCW Thunder which was always useful, as I didn't actually follow the show and some major angles took place on it, despite it very much being the ‘B show’. We saw clips of DDP putting over Chris Beniot saying he wants him ‘at his best’ before his U.S Title match against Beniot was thrown out due to interference from The Flock.

Speaking of The Flock, Raven took on Booker T for his TV Title. Raven says the TV Title belongs to Perry Saturn, so The Flock will teach him a lesson. The match would be contested under ‘Raven's Rules’ meaning run-ins a plenty. The run-ins proved to be so extreme that it was waved off before it even began. Booker T suffered a 7 on 1 beatdown with former champion Perry Saturn trying to break his arm for good measure. I enjoyed this segment as it built tension between Booker T and The Flock, as well as adding plenty of heat to a future match between the pair.

Match 9

For some reason, Hogan vs. Savage wasn’t the main event, which felt odd, but given how the show played out, WCW probably made the right call placing it earlier.

The match started hot with Randy Savage jumping Hogan during his entrance, as both men brawled their way to the ring. Miss Elizabeth stopped Hogan from using a chair, giving Macho Man the chance to utilise it instead, followed by his patented Elbow Drop. Before Savage could secure the pin, Buff Bagwell pulled the referee out, sparking an nWo run-in and a customary beatdown on Savage. Savage battled back, leaping onto Hogan, but then the cameras cut away.

I was actually enjoying the match for what it was until the predictable none-finish. No one expected a clean Hogan/Savage match on free TV, but their star power and aura kept me glued. Seeing them clash on Nitro felt fresh, and Savage’s nWo defection angle still held some intrigue. That said, it was mostly a punch and kick fest with a few back body drops thrown in for good measure, so rating it as a match felt harsh. Overall it was still an engaging segment, and I understood the justification for wanting to close the show with something else.

Post-match, Lex Luger called out Savage, which made no sense—didn’t he just see Savage get destroyed by the nWo? The logic felt off, almost as if the segments were shot out of order. This was the kind of sloppy and careless booking that would come to bite them later down the line!

Savage answered anyway, only to attack Luger, prompting Sting to make the save.

What happened next was seemingly ripped straight out of a Looney Tunes episode. The nWo's plan: they rigged a military-grade webbed net before the show just to drop it on Sting and trap him! Hilariously, the net missed—sort of. It covered Sting, but the heavy part, the bit that actually looked like it could pin someone, completely missed him. He could’ve just stood up and strolled away. I’ll chalk up his kayfabe flop to sheer shock—who’s ever had a giant net dropped on them! But would this work in real life? Maybe. A net could tangle someone up. But would any sane person in the 21st century try to neutralize a 6-foot-tall adult this way…probably not!

Main-event 

Tag Titles on the line as The Outsiders defended the gold against your favourite tag team and mine…The STEINER BROTHERS!

Nash teasing the newly ‘banned’ power-bomb was beautiful work. A throw back to how effective angles and storytelling can get a finisher over, sadly a lost art these days. The match itself didn't light the world on fire, and as much as I enjoyed Hall and Nash separately, they always seemed chronically bored as a team in WCW (probably were, let’s be real) 

But the important part was…TITLE CHANGE! Rick Steiner hit a flying Bulldog off the top rope to pin Scott Hall and win the titles back. Scott Steiner looked pissed off initially but eventually hugs his brother for a feel-good moment before Nitro goes off the air. See, not everything needs to be a ‘Swerve bro!’ 

Analysis 

This was a fun show, however 3 hours was starting to test my concentration as well as my thumbs!

I've covered plenty already so I'll give a brief overview. Norman Smiley/Konnan, the tag match between Jericho/Malenko and the Guerrero's, as well as (perhaps surprisingly) Hogan Vs Savage were all pleasant highlights of the show.

It loses some marks for the Regal fiasco and the weird placement of the Sting/Luger run-in. In my opinion that should have been entirely disconnected from the earlier Savage/Hogan match, as it took the shine of it slightly and felt like ‘Shotgun booking’. It gets some bonus points back for the fun title change at the end, even if as a match it was poor to average. I love the Steiners but I was DONE seeing them face off against The Outsiders. 

In summary, Nitro wins this week. I'll even be kind and add a quarter star to my final rating for the smart booking decision of putting the straps back on The Steiners. 

As of writing, sadly Terry Bolea aka Hulk Hogan passed away only 5 days before me publishing this piece. If you would like to read a retrospective or my general thoughts on the situation, as well as what it means to the wrestling community and me as a fan, you can find a separate article previously posted. As always, thank you for reading