Road Wild '97

Legacy Review

Road Wild '97

August 9, 1997 from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, SD

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

 

Personal note: I know reviews have been a bit more sporadic lately, but there's a good reason for that. Since the day it was released I've been plowing through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and just finished it. What an absolute gaming masterpiece. It's going to be a very long wait for the final installment (which I would put money on being called Reunion). When it's all done the FF7 Remake trilogy might stand as the greatest accomplishment in the long and storied history of the Final Fantasy series.

 

Now I need to play through the original FF7 again. But enough about that, on with the show.

 

The show name has changed from Hog Wild to Road Wild, but the venue is the same: the largest motorcycle rally in the world, AKA Biker Heaven. Like last year the ring is set up in a field outside, but unless I'm remembering wrong I think they're using a different location this year inside the town limits, and the entire crowd is bikers using their bikes at seats, occasionally revving their engines if they're excited about something. Or mad. Or bored. It's a unique atmosphere to say the least. Not particularly good unique.

The big story going into this show is this past Monday on Nitro Lex Luger cashed in his long delayed World title opportunity and, in a major shock, finally dethroned Hollywood Hogan as World champ, ending Hogan's reign at just shy of one year. Ratings pop! Because of that the NWO is considered to be fully on their heels, and most of the matches on this show are WCW vs NWO in an attempt to finish the NWO off once and for all. Yeah, right.

 

Harlem Heat def Vicious and Delicious (w/Vincent) in 10:20- Vicious and Delicious are the NWO team of Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell. Harlem Heat get a much better reception than the previous year in Sturgis. Bagwell and Booker start with some basics. Booker blocks a belly to belly suplex, both guys hit hiptosses, Bagwell dropkicks both Heat members and hits Booker with a clothesline. Norton squashes Booker in the corner then misses on the other end. Booker hits a hook kick and tags. Norton side suplexes Ray. Booker kicks Norton in the back from the apron and Ray hits him with a bicycle kick. Booker maneuvers into suplexing Norton. Norton is being outpowered by both Heat guys, very unusual for him. Booker hits an ugly flying forearm and Bagwell breaks the pin attempt up. Norton grabs a kick swinging Booker, slams him and tags. Bagwell hot tag run. Ray pulls the top rope down and Bagwell tumbles out of the ring. Weird dynamic so far in this match with Heat clearly playing the heels despite having been tweeners at worst for a while, and even more strange the NWO team are wrestling like faces. Bagwell's turned the annoying meter almost down to zero. Must have been almost physically painful for him. Bagwell goes in peril with Heat wearing him down for a while. Booker hits the scissors kick, takes forever to cover and gets 2. Bagwell gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Ray cuts the tag off and hits a northern lights bomb for 2. Someone's been watching Kensuke Sasaki tape. Jacqueline makes her way out to the ring. The bikers start revving because a woman is in view. She goes straight to Heat's corner as Bagwell hits a crossbody for 2. Vincent is less than pleased at Jacqueline being there. Bagwell flips out of a Booker powerbomb attempt and hits his own. Norton tags in (and already halfway in the ring when he does) and starts unloading the power moves on everyone. DONNYBROOK! Ray gets into it with Vincent on the floor. Norton hits Booker with his Shoulderbreaker of Death. Jacqueline jumps on Norton's back! Booker absolutely decapitates Norton with a hard leg lariat, covers, and Jacqueline holds Norton's boot down while Booker gets the pin. Now we know who Sherri's replacement is. *1/2

 

Mexican Death Match: Konnan def Rey Mysterio Jr in 10:20- Mike Tenay checks in for this one. This is listed as a Mexican Death Match on all the cards online, but is never called that on the broadcast and it's worked more like a regular no DQ match, though the only way you can really tell is the ref not enforcing rope breaks. The freshly NWO joined Konnan hurt Mysterio's knee to set this up, a knee that's clearly still bothering Mysterio as he walks to the ring. Jump start and Mysterio is flipping around early. Springboard dropkick. Flying headscissors. Konnan drops Mysterio on the top turnbuckle and chop blocks his bad knee. He goes to work on it, wrapping Mysterio up in a sort of reverse Tequila Sunrise. Mysterio gets to the floor to recover. He hits another flying headscissors from the apron going back in the ring. Konnan hits another chop block and wraps the knee up again. After a bit Mysterio gets some shots in and hits a clothesline. He can't get back up and Konnan's on the knee again. He starts untying Mysterio's mask, hits a powerbomb, and gets the mask off! Mysterio fights away and gets it back on with his face never being fully exposed. He hits a dropkick and gives Konnan a couple of legdrops. He goes for a double springboard moonsault but misses and hurts his knee again. Mysterio wheelbarrows Konnan into an armdrag. Konnan hits a belly to belly. Mysterio works into a roll up for 2 and dropkicks Konnan's knee. He slowly goes up top, doing a great job of selling the knee, barely able to climb up. Konnan catches him coming off and DDTs him. The Tequila Sunrise is on in full, and Mysterio taps out. Konnan is slow to break but finally does. The medical team runs out with a leg brace for Mysterio. Psychologically sound match and a great resilient performance from Mysterio. **

Mean Gene shows off his new Sturgis tattoo, then has tonight's hotline shill: there's TWO new managers in WCW, including one "former world champion". Film at 11. Hope they gave refunds if one of those two was Jacqueline.

 

Elimination Match: Steve "Mongo" McMichael and Chris Benoit def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett and Dean Malenko (w/Debra McMichael) in 9:36- Benoit's finally done with Kevin Sullivan and the Dungeon of Doom, just in time to join Mongo in his feud with former Horseman Jarrett. At the last PPV Mongo's wife Debra turned on him to join Jarrett. Malenko is a 100% hanger on here. I wish I could say this is part of the angle that leads to Malenko becoming a Horseman, but that's still over a year away. After posing a lot Jarrett starts with Benoit. Benoit outwrestles him, but Jarrett manages to fire off an armdrag and, of course, struts. That's enough work as he tags Malenko in. Benoit gets a quick shoulderblock and Malenko thinks about it. They go into a great extended speed/counter run that's as good as you'd expect from these two. Malenko drops Benoit on his head while small packaging him for 2. Double clothesline and no one moves. Mongo tags in and runs into a drop toe hold. Benoit kicks Malenko from the apron, Mongo hits a tiltawhirl slam, and Malenko goes in peril for the majority of the match. Benoit hits some chops. Mongo knocks him around while the crowd chants "Jarrett sucks". Benoit hits a back elbow for 2. Side suplex from Mongo. Benoit snap suplex for 2. Mongo hits a powerslam. He goes for the 3 point stance tackle, but Malenko dodges and tags Jarrett in! Here we go. Jarrett wants nothing to do with Mongo but Malenko barely has any HP left on the apron. Jarrett eye pokes Mongo, gives him a jawbreaker, then pulls Mongo on top of him and lets Mongo pin him! Jarrett's eliminated, and he celebrates as he leaves thinking he's a genius. Malenko is left to the wolves. He gives it a go, but the numbers are just too much. Benoit hits a tombstone and the headbutt off the top, then Mongo hits his own tombstone and gets the pin. Kinda dumb, but given Jarrett's character it makes some sense. Not like we didn't know it before but we definitely need a Benoit/Malenko singles match. *3/4

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Alex Wright (c) def Chris Jericho in 13:03- Wright is a far cry from his Das Wunderkind days when he was on every PPV, but was getting a bit of a renewed push thanks to a recent heel turn and upset Jericho for the title a couple of weeks prior on Nitro. Oh hell Wright's dancing again. Funny thing is he's dancing the exact same way he used to as a face and now it's getting legit heel heat instead of go away heat because of how bad it is. At least they've gotten more self aware with him. Tenay checks in again for this match. Wright hides in the ropes after a hammerlock exchange and gets booed. A chant I can't make out sets Wright off. Wright snap mares out of a lockup and celebrates. He hits some chops in the corner after a break and that pisses Jericho off. Armdrags and chops from Jericho and Wright powders. After some stalling he runs into a Jericho drop toe hold. Wright goes to some heel 101 hair pulls. Speed run and Jericho hits a spinning heel kick. Both guys flips out of suplex attempts and Wright gets crotched on the top rope. Jericho springboard dropkicks him off to the floor. Springboard plancha! Wright gets slammed on the ring platform. Whip reversal and Jericho goes into the steps. Wright suplexes him on the platform. Back in Wright goes up top but Jericho slams him off Flair style. Dropkick, armdrag and Jericho works the arm for a bit. He hits a whole bunch of forearms while commentary calls him out for not knowing what to do next. It does seem like they lost their place a bit. Wright hits a spinning heel kick. He hits a stomp off the top rope and does some more of what can loosely be called dancing. Jericho dodges a moonsault off the top. Bunch of running corner clotheslines from Jericho. Lionsault! Senton follow up for 2. Jericho hits a double powerbomb with a slow cover for 2. He goes up top. Wright falls against the ropes and Jericho is crotched. Wright hits a superplex for 2. Jericho blocks a German suplex and gets a roll up for 2. Side suplex for 2. He goes for another cradle. Wright reverses it, grabs a handful of tights, and gets the pin. Jericho would get another rematch in a couple of weeks on Nitro and take the title back then. The match was fine but not up to the usual standard set by the Cruiserweight title. Jericho was still learning and Wright was Wright. **3/4

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Syxx in 11:06- We're finally getting some payoff for Syxx distracting Flair out of a tag match with Piper back at Great American Bash. Both guys play some mind games early and Flair gives us a strut. Syxx hits a shoulderblock and celebrates, including a DX style crotch chop. They can't stop shouting out their old buddies. Flair hooks up an arm and hair pulls Syxx down, with Syxx kiping back up. Flair switches to chops. Syxx back elbows out of a hammerlock. Flair dodges in the corner and Syxx flies over the top and tumbles down to the floor. Back in Syxx tries to flip out of a top wristlock but Flair chops him down to the mat. Another chop and Flair gives Syxx a crotch chop! Syxx ducks a clothesline and hits a roundhouse kick. He legdrops Flair right on the side of the head. Corner kick combo. Syxx hits the bronco buster. Tony tries to explain the buster is really a wrestling move because it "hurts the shoulders". Yeah, not buying that for a second. Syxx hooks on a chinlock and the match stops dead as Flair, very un-Flair like, just lays there for a bit. More corner kicks. It's hard to tell with the way Flair sells but it looks like one of those might have legit caught him flush on the jaw and knocked him a bit loopy. Setup slam from Syxx and he hits a legdrop off the top for 2. Slugfest and another Syxx heel kick. Back to the chinlock. Flair Flip! He shoulderblocks back in. After some chops they seem to lose their place for a second before Flair hits a kneebreaker. He holds onto the leg and Syxx responds with an enzugrui. Flair dodges a senton off the top. Chop block to the knee. Figure four! Syxx quickly grabs a rope. He goes for the Buzzkill (a crossface chicken wing) but Flair fights it off before it's fully applied. He falls in the corner and Syxx goes for the bronco buster again. Flair gets a boot up in Syxx's crotch! He cradles, puts his feet on the ropes, and gets the pin! Never try to outcheat the old master. The match was fine but could have been much better. I think Syxx was at about 50% effort at best his whole WCW run, and Flair seemed off here too even before the possible kick to the jaw. **3/4

 

Curt Hennig def Diamond Dallas Page (w/Kimberly) in 9:41- DDP's taking some time away from his blood feud with Randy Savage to get some revenge on Hennig, who turned on him during a tag match at the last PPV. For the record Hennig has not joined the NWO, yet. The sun is starting to set as we're getting into the latter part of the show. Hennig leads a chase around the ring and knees DDP every time he tries to get in the ring. DDP pulls him out, pounds on him a bit, and slides him back in the ring. Now the bell rings to officially start things. Hennig does a hair pull and DDP laughs at it. He gets Hennig in the corner, pulls his singlet straps down, and lays in some elbows and chops. Hennig tumbles through the ropes off a chop. DDP gives him the hair swing Hennig always took. Hennig gets crotched on the post. He tries to fight back with some back elbows while DDP pulls his tights down, exposing his undertights. Off a DDP punch Hennig sells as much as he can anymore. 5 years ago that would have been a 360 sell. DDP goes up top and gets crotched. Hennig chokes him with his towel. He hits DDP with a clothesline....punch....not sure what that was supposed to be. Clothespunch? Punchline? Kneelift and big chop from Hennig. He does the snap mare/neck snap combo. That's the one move he's got that still looks as good as his heyday. A back elbow cuts off a DDP comeback. Hennig kneedrops DDP's knee and hooks on a spinning toe hold. DDP eye pokes out. Sleeper from Hennig. DDP quickly jawbreakers out. He flips around Hennig into a cradle for 2. Hennig hits another clothespunch/punchline and does a jackknife cover for 2. DDP clothesline. The ref gets squashed on the kickout. Hennig goes over and starts to take the top turnbuckle pad off. That's a MUCH tougher job in WCW than it was in WWF. He manages to get it mostly off. DDP gets run into the exposed buckle and is out in the middle of the ring. Hennig goes over near the corner and it sure looks like he's sucking wind. Finally he gets out, plays around with the knocked out DDP, and hooks on the Perfectplex. DDP kicks out! He blocks another buckle shot and Hennig goes into it with another attempt at a 360 sell that fails miserably. The camera goes wide as DDP is bleeding, probably from the earlier buckle shot. He goes for the front piledriver. Hennig's leg hits the ref and he goes down again. Ric Flair runs in! He comes off the top but DDP catches him. Diamond Cutter on Flair! But that gives Hennig an opening to hit another Perfectplex, and that gets the pin! Not the prettiest match as Hennig continues to look like a shell of his former self, and the end run was a bit ugly. Why the hell did Flair get involved, and go for DDP instead of Hennig? Well as we'd find out after, Flair's recruiting old pal Hennig for the Horsemen. **

Ad for the next PPV, Fall Brawl: WAR GAMES! No one will ever be able to read that in anyone but Regal's voice now.

 

The Giant def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) in 6:05- Really not much of a story to this one other than "WCW vs NWO". Savage stalls like crazy outside the ring after the bell. When Giant turns around to talk to the ref Savage runs in and knees him in the back. He tries to slam Giant, which goes about as well as anybody would expect. Giant scrapes Savage off the mat with a spatula then chops him in the corner, then tosses him across the ring. He rips Savage's shirt off and forearms him in the back. Savage rolls out for a breather. He uses Elizabeth as a shield. Giant lifts her up and places her out of the way. Savage charges in, but Giant presses him! He dumps Savage back in the ring. Savage ducks a big boot and a clothesline and chop blocks Giant's knee, then posts the knee. Sadly instead of making the match more interesting the next few minutes is nothing more than Savage stomping the knee about 50 times, then his ADD kicks in and he moves on to doing weebles wobble clotheslines on Giant. Crossbody off the top from Savage for 2. He comes off the top again. Giant catches him with a goozle, chokeslams him, and just like that it's over. Nitro match. 3/4*

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers def The Outsiders (c) by DQ in 15:29- Back at the start of the year the Outsiders lost the titles to the Stieners, only to have Bischoff in the most obviously corrupt way possible give the titles back to the Outsiders on a technicality. TWICE. Since then the NWO has continuously screwed the Steiners out of getting another title shot until now. The Steiners finally getting another crack is in no small part thanks to DiBiase's face turn, turning on the NWO and joining the Steiners. Guess the NWO didn't need his money anymore. The Steiners make their entrance on their motorcycles. Hall and Scott start with a lockup stalemate and some shoving. Scott slaps Hall! Hall slams Scott and works his arm a bit with humiliating back of the head slaps. That pisses Scott off. Steinerline! German suplex! Double underhook powerbomb. Everyone runs in, the Steiners clear the ring and pose. Reset and Rick gets set loose. Nash also tags in. Nash knocks Rick around. Rick pushes out of snake eyes and hits a back suplex. Hall hits Scott from the apron. Every tag match tonight that's happened. Rick turns around and gives Scott a receipt, but when he turns back around he runs into a Nash big boot. Scott blocks a Hall hiptoss. Hall uses that position to hit a chokeslam. The NWO do some double team choking as Scott goes Steiner in peril. Hall fallaway slam for 2. Nash side suplex for 2, followed by his vintage corner elbows. Hall hits a clothesline from the apron. Rick gets in and the Outsiders swap without a tag. Hall hooks on an abdominal stretch with leverage help from Nash. After a bit former evil NWO ref Nick Patrick catches them and Scott hiptosses out, but Hall dodges an elbow drop. More heel double teams follow. Nash hits snake eyes, then goes after Rick all the way to the floor in a bit that goes nowhere. Scott fights out of the heel corner but gets held back from tagging. Nash does a neck crank. Scott hooks on a double chinlock. Scott lifts him up in an electric chair and drops him. Again the tag gets cut off. Nash short clothesline for 2. Scott dodges in the corner and Nash gets crotched. Hall manages to once again cut the tag off! Crazy. Hall crotch chops at Rick, yet again former Kliq guys shouting out their friends in the other place. Bulldog off the second rope from Hall. He calls for the Razor's Edge. Patrick hops out to keep Nash and DiBiase away from each other, so Rick runs in with a Steinerline! Scott hits a belly to belly. Again Hall grabs him to keep him from tagging. After a long fight Scott gets free and tags Rick! Rick runs wild and quickly everyone's in. Nash gets tossed to the floor. Doomsday bulldog on Hall! Nash pulls Patrick out of the ring at 2! Patrick immediately calls for the bell and raises the Steiners' hands. The Steiners think they got the pin and DiBiase brings the belts in. Patrick has to take them away and explain it was a DQ. DiBiase's pissed as once again the NWO screws the Steiners. Word is the Steiners were supposed to finally win the titles for real here, but backstage politics savant Nash used his pull to get it put off again. Having Scott in peril for so long with so many near tags was actually a nice old school nod to classic '80s NWA tag wrestling (though a cynic could rightly point out that Nash and Hall just aren't interested in selling), but they cut out the whole second half of the match, and the amount of time the NWO screwing the Steiners has been going on is reaching almost AWA levels. That's bad. *1/2

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hollywood Hogan def "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) in 16:15- Hogan does some light shoving before the bell. Luger runs Hogan over with a shoulderblock, annoying Hogan. On a corner break Hogan hits some knees and chops. Heenan has to bring up Dennis Rodman. Fortunately no one runs with it. Another Luger shoulderblock and Hogan is more annoyed. Hogan goes into some arm work, even whipping out his usually Japan only drop toe hold. Luger uses the POWER to reverse an arm wringer. He whips out a couple of armdrags and Hogan slides out for some breathing room. Stall time. Pretty big "Hogan sucks" chant from the usually pro-NWO Sturgis crowd. Back in Hogan does a bit of pillar to post beating. Back rake! Pure viciousness. He flips out at some more "Hogan sucks" chants and chokes Luger. Luger comes back with the machine gun buckle shots. Hogan drags him out, eye rakes him, and gives him a stair shot. TV cable choke. More generic heel Hogan offense back in. Backbreaker for 2. Bear hug time. He decides to knucklelock Luger and twist his hands. I would have stuck with the bear hug. Luger hulks up and turns the knucklelock. Hogan gives him a quick low blow to get out. Hogan back suplex for 2. Big boot! Cover for 2. A suplex fires Luger up. Hogan poses while Luger sneaks behind him. Turn around shock! Luger clothesline and Hogan begs off. He hides in the corner and the ref pulls Luger off. Hogan uses that for another eye rake and is back in control. He rolls Luger up for 2. That was different. Setup slam. Luger dodges the legdrop! The running forearm hits. Here comes the NWO goons. Luger fights them all off. Nash gets the ref tied up. The obvious fake NWO Sting is out again. They barely put him on camera to try to make it less obvious it's not the real Sting. Luger goes for another running forearm. "Sting" hits him in the back with the bat! Legdrop! Hogan gets the pin and I hope you enjoyed the six days Hogan wasn't champion because it's back to normal. Also hope the one week ratings pop was worth it. It's not the *worst* NWO Hogan match, not like that's saying much. 1/4*

 

The show must have run short because there's a TON of pointless time killing after the main event.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Most of the show isn't outright bad, but none of it is particularly good, and those last couple of matches kill any hope that WCW might be ready to move on from the usual NWO shtick after a year of it. Sturgis is always a weird venue too.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+