XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

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XIV
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XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by XIV » Mar 25th, '19, 09:04

So I've decided I want to go back with fresh eyes 20 years later and watch WCW, and I figure I'd take you along for the ride with me! As often as I can, I'm going to watch the Monday Nitro's, beginning at April 13th 1998 (the first night WWE beat WCW in the ratings in a substantial period of time).

So to build the current picture ready to move forward, the current standing Champions are
WCW Champion - Sting (Won on February 22 1998 beating Hulk Hogan at Superbrawl VIII for the Vacant championship. Title was made vacant on the January 8th episode of WCW Thunder due to controversy over the finish at Starrcade on December 28 1997 where Hogan had pinned Sting, but guest referee Bret Hart accused Nick Patrick of making a fast count and restarted the match which Sting then won by submission.)
WCW US Champion - Diamond Dallas Page (Won at Starrcade on December 28 1997 defeating Curt Hennig)
WCW Tag Team Champions - The Outsiders (Won at Superbrawl VIII on February 22 1998 defeating the Steiner Brothers after Scott Steiner turned on Rick to join the NWO)
WCW Cruiserweight Champion - Chris Jericho (Won at Souled Out on January 24 1998 defeating Rey Mysterio Jr)
WCW Television Champion - Booker T (Won at Superbrawl VIII February 22 1998 defeating Rick Martel)

And this transpires to be the go home show before Spring Stampede 1998, which now I'm also going to have to watch...

Cold Opening - Good
Roddy Piper promo from previous week calling out Hulk Hogan suggesting he's going to turn him into a drag queen by
telling him "by the time I'm done with you, you'll be auditioning for Ru Paul"

Nitro girls are in the ring dancing - Pointless. Lovely... but pointless.

We cut back to the commentary table with Mike Tenay, Mike Shiavone and Larry Zbyszko who literally leaves the commentary position to get himself a pop from the crowd while Tenay & Shiavone lay out the programme. They discuss the ego of the NWO while Zybysko continues to get pops from the crowd by waving.

Fit Finlay vs Scott Steiner (1.5 / 5)
Finaly is boo'd. Steiner comes out using the NWO ring music and is cheered.
Vincent comes out ahead carrying a trophy and begins pointing at Steiner's ass calling him Big Poppa Pump.
Shiavone then says "does anyone know the story behind the trophy being carried" and Zbyszko says "Ixnay" and they discuss it no further. Already seeing why this show lost the ratings that night.
Steiner then randomly argues with Larry Hennig who is in the crowd for no apparent reason.
Steiner wins clean with the Steiner Recliner in a matter of minutes.

Bret Hart Interview - Poor
Talks about a promoter saying "he screwed himself" and said that he's bored of it and he doesn't want to hear it, so now he's going to do something about
it and that he's going to protect people he sees being screwed.

Mene Gene Okerlund is on the stage and promotes the hotline. (Which the Network takes the time to blur out, but Okerland says the number anyway)

Lenny Lane vs Ultimo Dragon (1.75 / 5)
Lenny Lane looks like a Cruiserweight Luger. However, Lenny Lane does a good job getting heat from the crowd through taunts and dirty tactics
Ultimo Dragon wins with a Dragon Sleeper at the second attempt following a botched first attempt.
The match is not very long at all.

Bret Hart Interview - Okay
Says he wants to win the WCW championship and wants a fair shot at it.

Zbyszko / Tenay / Shiavone hype the Piper vs Hogan feud - Good

Gene Okerlund interviews Roddy Piper backstage - Good
Roddy Piper is smiling and made Kevin Nash vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan for tonight and says once that's finished he's going to come and stare Hogan in the eye and rid the wrestling world of him. He's promptly attacked by Hogan & The Disciple.

Gene Okerlund interviews The Giant in the ring - Awful
The Giant came out without music, but got pyro. Okerlund asks The Giant what Piper's condition is and The Giant says he'll be fine for Spring Stampede. The Giant then puts the NWO on notice and hypes the upcoming match at Spring Stampede against Kevin Nash. Poor execution from The Giant, he definitely got a lot better at promos as time went on.

Johnny Grunge vs Chavo Guerrero Jr - (1 / 5)
This match made me want an "Eddie Guerrero is my favourite wrestler" T-Shirt.
Johnny Grunge wins with a sit pin in approximately 3 minutes.

Bret Hart Interview - Awful
"Nash is scum & Hogan is worse, nothing would make me happier than seeing them two kill each other off" that was the whole promo.

Kevin Nash promo - Sting wants Nash to have a bunch of stuff
Says he just saw Hogan run out the back door "because Hollywood knows he wants no part of Big Sexy".
He states Hogan isn't in the building, but Sting is and claims he should be WCW Champion.
Sting comes to the ring followed by JJ Dillon, Sting says he wants Nash to have a World Championship match against him tonight and gives him his bat screaming "I want you to have the match, here take my bat, I want you to take my bat".
JJ Dillon makes the match for the main event.
Sting then says Kevin Nash can have his powerbomb reinstated "I want you to have that powerbomb".
JJ Dillon says the powerbomb is legal for the WCW Championship match tonight.
Sting finishes off by crotch chopping towards Nash and walks off.

Glacier vs Chris Benoit (2/ 5)
Shiavone describes Benoit as "the one man who can destroy anyone regardless of their size" this is some ominous foreshadowing.
Benoit wins with the Crippler Crossface is the longest match of the night thus far (but still less than 10 minutes)

NWO Bagwell promo from previous week - Okay
Says he's "the one and only true package" and says he'll beat Lex Luger.

At this point Shiavone says "can you believe we've only been on an hour?" No. No I cannot.

Video package from Thursday Thunder - Dud
NWO Steiner attacks Luger, Rick Steiner then suplexes Bischoff onto the ramp.
Who the hell is feuding with who??

Buff Bagwell w/Eric Bischoff promo Okay promo, but it raised too many questions
Bagwell says he cannot predict the future, says he shouldn't have challenged Luger but should have challenged Rick Steiner instead because he hurt Bischoff. He does poor impressions of both. Bischoff takes the mic and says Rick Steiner is lucky Hollywood isn't here to take care of him tonight but Hollywood won't be facing Rick tonight because he's doing Leno... But... wasn't Hogan supposed to face Nash? Was he also supposed to face Rick Steiner too?

Buff Bagwell w/Eric Bischoff vs Lex Luger - (1.5 / 5)
Luger tells the ref before the match "Watch him (Bischoff) watch him good". Needless to say the ref didn't watch Bischoff and he proceeded to get involved in different ways. Luger gets Bagwell in the Torture Tack before Bischoff enters and kicks Luger three times before Luger sells it.
Luger wins by DQ.
Luger then gives Bischoff the Rack until Scott Steiner interferes. Rick Steiner then comes out for the save.

Bret Hart interview - I don't even know what these are anymore.
Giving Macho Man advice to drop the NWO. Stupid quote: "If you play with pigs, you're gonna get dirty"

Nitro Girls - Pointless. Lovely... but pointless.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match
Super Calo vs Chris Jericho (C)
(2.5 / 5)
Pre-match, Y2J cuts a promo saying that Super Calo is actually Prince Iaukea and asks for the ref to remove Calo's mask. The ref seeks to verify Calo's ID and y2J cheap shots to start the match.
Good for the time it got. Y2J wins via the submission with the Liontamer, he keeps the hold applied until Prince Iaukea comes out for the save.
Hilariously Jericho drops out of the ring and says to the camera "I didn't know Prince Nakamacky had a twin brother".

Bret Hart interview - Stop, now, it's boring.
He talks about respecting Benoit, The Giant, DDP and Sting. He offers his help to Sting anytime. Spoiler alert.

Hammer vs Saturn (1.5 / 5)
Saturn has hair!
Anyway Saturn wins with the Rings of Saturn in quick time.

Rocco Rock vs Goldberg (0.5 / 5)
Rocco Rock carries a table to the ring with him and sets it up outside. Crowd loses their mind for Goldberg. He's currently 71-0 we're told. You don't need me to tell you this was a squash match, however Rocco Rock gets in a little offense before being murdered.
FLAWED FINISH - Rocco Rock dropkicks Goldberg into the ringsteps and then takes the table into the ring and sets it up against the turnbuckle, he then
turns around gets speared by Goldberg through the table before giving him the Jackhammer and getting the victory...this was not a no DQ match, so even though Rocco Rock sets up the table... this surely should be a DQ win for Rocco Rock?
Anyway, into the aftermatch Saturn starts walking out but Raven comes in and pulls him back, then we cut back to the ring where Kidman jumps onto Golberg but gets caught and military pressed.

Cut to commentary table and Zbyszko has been relaced on commentary by Bobby Heenan. No reason given as to why.

60 Seconds with Goldberg video package - Good
It showed Goldberg hitting people, roaring and hitting people some more.

I'm told we're only now entering the third hour. WCW appear to be doing pyro to celebrate each hour of the show.

Nitro Girls - It's not even lovely anymore. Yawn.

Video package covering someone's Nitro Party at their house - AWFUL / POINTLESS

Yuji Nagata w/Sonny Onoo vs Curt Hennig w/Rick Rude (1 / 5)
Rick joins commentary for a second to draw attention to the fact that his and Curt Hennig's fathers are in the front row of the crowd.
Match had a good opening 45 seconds before TYPICAL WCW BULLSHIT took over - Hennig is somehow not disqualified despite Rude openly holding Nagata in view of the referee. Rick then helps Curt Hennig hold Nagata again this time so that Larry Hennig could taunt Nagata with a "Hennig Rules" shirt before the match goes back into the ring where Hennig wins with the Perfectplex. Rude and Hennig then cuff Nagata to the ropes before Jim Neidhart runs out to make the save and gives chase back to the locker room area.

WCW Television Championship Match
Booker T (C) vs La Parka
(3 / 5)
Match was good for the time it got, there was no stupidity, no f*ck finishes. The commentators did a good job of building towards the Booker T vs Chris Benoit match at Spring Stampede.
Booker T won after a botched missle dropkick from the top rope. Benoit comes in after the match and attacks La Parka with a headbutt before shoving Booker T to the floor, the two face off and the crowd is into it.

DDP / Raven feud video package - Good
The package did a good job of filling me in about the DDP / Raven feud and built towards the PPV match.

Diamond Dallas Page vs Robbie Rage (2 / 5)
DDP's music at this point is horrific. He's also the United States Champion at this point and does not bring the belt with him to the ring, thankfully the announcers told us this is because Raven stole it. DDP is wearing tape across the ribs.
DDP wins with the Diamond Cutter.
Raven then immediately comes out onto the stage with the Flock wearing the belt. He screams "what about me!" alot and puts down his time in ECW. Page attacks The Flock while Raven continues to taunt Page. A fan then jumps the guard rail and ABSOLUTELY WIPES OUT Raven before security take the fan down.
Page smashes through The Flock but Raven is long gone.
Dallas should've checked the third row where the fan sent Raven.

Konnan w/Vincent vs Rick Steiner w/Ted DiBiase (2.5 / 5)
So, earlier Bischoff said "Rick's lucky Hollywood isn't here". But it was Konnan all along that Rick was facing?
It's just occurred to me that Heavy Machinery's Otis is doing voice impressions of Rick Steiner.
The announcers bring up the history between Vincent and DiBiase.
To the match, it was good for the time it got, again the fans were into it. Vincent attempted to push Steiner off the rop rope, but DiBiase intervened and laid in a few punches Rick Steiner won with a bulldog from the second rope.
The accouncers then proclaimed that Rick Steiner is undefeated streak against the NWO.

The announcers are on screen talking up the importance of the WCW World Championship - Good.
This is what you should do.

Video package - Okay
A Red and yellow Dodge Viper leaves the car park and Randy Savage is down in the car park. Various NWO members gather around. The announcers tell us the various injuries Savage received. STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTE ALERT Tenay then said "It took a long time for the EMT's to move Savage because of neck injuries, concussion, a separated shoulder and damaged knee ligaments". Shiavone followed this with "Savage is lucky not to receive any neck or back injuries".

We then cut to another video package about the power struggle between Nash & Hogan. - Excellent
Its an amalgamation of promos where Nash accuses Hogan of being the one who hurt Savage and Hogan downplays talk of a power struggle and insists everything is okay.

WCW World Championship Match
Kevin Nash vs Sting (c)
(2 / 5)
Before the match starts, Nash snatches the belt from the referee and poses with it before Sting snatches it back. This looked nothing short of childish.
This was a fairly decent match which told a decent story of Nash wanting to be considered the top guy, the leader of the NWO and that his dominance over the champion during the match proves this. The announcers did a good job of putting this over and explained how it would affect the Spring Stampede card to have
Nash win. Nash called for the jacknife powerbomb on various occasions, but instead did other moves which resulted with impact on Sting's back. Heenan did an amazing job to state that this was to "soften the back" for maximum impact when Nash does go for the Jacknife. Whether Heenan was saving a bad section of match
or this was intentional I do not But then the match soured because...
TYPICAL WCW ALERT
Here comes the F*ck finish! Savage limps down the walkway and sends Elizabeth to distract the referee while he hits Sting with the cast. Sting kicks out of the resulting pin. Fans are absolutely littering the ring with cups and sh*t (which represents the garbage that is transpiring). Nash then hits the Jacknife, but Bret Hart comes and pulls the ref out before a 3-count can be made.
Bret Hart attacks Nash but gets overrun by 8 NWO goons but somehow continues to clear the ring, keep the ring clear and keep himself standing to end the show.

Summary:
- This was an exhausting show to watch because I was trying to keep up with who's feuding with who, the only obvious one was DDP & Raven.
- The NWO music was played so often it was no longer nostalgic.
- Bret Hart's constant interviews got worse as each one passed AND that culminated in him fighting off 8 guys but he still didn't look good doing it.
- Highlights of this show were Jericho, Benoit, Booker T
- 7 Matches finished clean. Seriously, however many had something that followed immediately afterwards that made it feel a f*ck finish. Therefore it became annoying.

Not a good show by WCW, there are flashes of good work, but absolutely shoddy writing throughout with focus clearly on the NWO and nothing else by this point. None of the matches are rated particularly highly because none of the matches got enough time to build properly.
At this stage, WCW is clearly already soured, there are far too many NWO members that I had to pause to take note of who's who, there's the power struggle which got some focus, but the NWO seems pretty solid and no-one took sides, but I don't know who's aligned to who or even who's feuding with who and I was none the wiser after the show. You can definitely see why at the time the WWF was the more attractive show which took place at a different pace and had better production values. This truly feels like the turning point for WCW into the downward spiral.

Tale of the ratings:
WWE Raw 4.6
WCW Nitro 4.2
Have A Nice Day!

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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by NWK2000 » Mar 25th, '19, 09:52

NWK Reviews is closed for business for now.

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XIV
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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by XIV » Mar 25th, '19, 10:40

NWK2000 wrote: Mar 25th, '19, 09:52 Re: the Eddie t-shirt
https://www.prowrestlingtees.com/catalo ... gory/4876/
No way!?
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Big Red Machine
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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 26th, '19, 19:18

I like your format a lot. It's perfect for a retro WCW review.
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XIV
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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by XIV » Mar 26th, '19, 22:07

Big Red Machine wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 19:18 I like your format a lot. It's perfect for a retro WCW review.
I appreciate the feedback, to be fair... it's basically your format! lol.
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Big Red Machine
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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 26th, '19, 22:14

XIV wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 22:07
Big Red Machine wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 19:18 I like your format a lot. It's perfect for a retro WCW review.
I appreciate the feedback, to be fair... it's basically your format! lol.
The color-coating is a very good touch, and the "f*ck finish alert" is the sort of creative thing you can only do with a product where f*ck finishes are so expected that pointing them out in a way that fakes them funny makes it much easier to read turning the negative of "yeah it's another frustrating DQ, so don't even bother watching this" into something positive.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
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XIV
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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by XIV » Mar 26th, '19, 22:15

Big Red Machine wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 22:14
XIV wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 22:07
Big Red Machine wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 19:18 I like your format a lot. It's perfect for a retro WCW review.
I appreciate the feedback, to be fair... it's basically your format! lol.
The color-coating is a very good touch, and the "f*ck finish alert" is the sort of creative thing you can only do with a product where f*ck finishes are so expected that pointing them out in a way that fakes them funny makes it much easier to read turning the negative of "yeah it's another frustrating DQ, so don't even bother watching this" into something positive.
Then I'll keep it going! :)
Have A Nice Day!

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Big Red Machine
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Re: XIV Reviews WCW Nitro (April 13th 1998)

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 26th, '19, 22:41

XIV wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 22:15
Big Red Machine wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 22:14
XIV wrote: Mar 26th, '19, 22:07

I appreciate the feedback, to be fair... it's basically your format! lol.
The color-coating is a very good touch, and the "f*ck finish alert" is the sort of creative thing you can only do with a product where f*ck finishes are so expected that pointing them out in a way that fakes them funny makes it much easier to read turning the negative of "yeah it's another frustrating DQ, so don't even bother watching this" into something positive.
Then I'll keep it going! :)
I can't wait until you get to late 99. There will be colors all over the place.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
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