Souled Out '98

Legacy Review

Souled Out '98

January 24, 1998 from the Hara Arena in Dayton, OH

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

The first Souled Out in '97, presented as a fully NWO run show, was a complete disaster but the name stuck for the January PPV, only now as a normal show instead of an NWO run one. There is a new branding thing starting with this show though. For the next year all WCW PPVs will be co-branded as presented by both WCW and the NWO. Speaking of disasters, we're coming off the epic all time disaster that was Starrcade '97. Instead of going through with one of the easiest decisions in wrestling history, Sting winning the World title and taking over as the face of the company as the fans clearly wanted, WCW screwed the whole thing up by burying it in layers of their beloved controversy to the point that the only reaction they could get out of the fans was apathy. As of this show the World title is still vacant and has been for nearly a month, a situation that will be addressed tonight. Not settled, addressed.

I do like the stage setup here. The big video board is a bit more up front with a cool backdrop behind it, and they've taken some notes from Raw and gotten a raised entrance ramp.

Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo, Chavo Guerrero Jr and Lizmark Jr def La Parka, Silver King, El Dandy and Psychosis in 9:30- Lucha rules here so tagging and selling are optional. Mike Tenay checks into the booth for this one. Ref Lil' Naitch wants nothing to do with Parka's chair before the bell. Calo and Psychosis start. Calo counters a powerbomb into an armdrag that sends Psychosis to the floor. Psychosis comes back in with chops. Calo flips over and hits a powerslam. Lizmark misses a dropkick and takes a King superkick. Chop exchange. Lizmark hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker. King responds with a huge DDT. Chavo gets a monkey flip and flying headscissors on Dandy. Dandy hiptosses him against the ropes and both guys go over and out. Parka and Juvy hit stereo baseball slides on the opposite team member then shove each other on the apron. Parka catches Juvy on a crossbody attempts, carries him across the ring with a little strut, then puts him down on his feet. Juvy goes into super spinny mode. Flying headscissors off the top and Parka goes to the floor. Juvy's dive attempt is cut off by a Psychosis clothesline. Lizmark hits a crazy springboard moonsault. Near fall exchanges as more guys swap in and out. King lifts Calo on his shoulders and gives him a modified airplane spin. There's a guy in the crowd holding up a sign that says "Lucha wrestling means bathroom break". I notice he's out here in the crowd watching and not flashing that sign in the bathroom. Hypocrite. Juvy hits King with the 450 splash! The pin gets broken up. Parka hits a sit out powerbomb. Psychosis hits a falcon arrow and legdrop off the top rope. Outside Calo dodges a King dive and King splats on the floor! It's that time of the match. DIVE! DIVE! DIVE! They stay with one camera for the entire diving sequence, a fantastic move. Chavo and Psychosis are the last two in the ring. Chavo dodges a Psychosis (in ring) dive in the corner, goes up, hits the tornado DDT, and that gets the pin! After the bell Parka takes everyone out with his chair because he's nuts, opponents and teammates alike, and gets a pretty nice pop from the crowd for it. Fantastic lucha spotfest craziness that was perfect to open things up and did its job of getting the crowd amped up. Other than bathroom break sign guy I presume. ***3/4

Next up is an ad for Boston Brawl, a very unique show. It's basically a house show that WCW will be streaming online, the first one ever, but due to the limitations of the internet at the time it will be audio only. "Pay per listen" as WCW calls it. They would do a few more of them as the year went on, but the idea of paying to listen to a radio broadcast of a show online didn't stick even in the early internet days of the late '90s. Free, maybe, but definitely not as a PPV. PPL. Whatever. I can only guess how long you had to wait for Real Audio to buffer before it would work anyway. Probably half the show. You kids have no idea what it was like back then.

 

Hours of my teenage life wasted waiting for this bloody thing to stop buffering. It was amazing when it worked though. LIVE AUDIO BROADCASTS on a COMPUTER!

Mean Gene is out with tonight's Hotline shill, which is pretty much the same as it's been for months, he's seen guys backstage and has names on the Hotline. They really need to come up with something new. Even Okerlund is phoning that pitch in by now, no pun intended.

 

Raven's Rules: Chris Benoit def Raven in 10:36- Raven comes out with the whole Flock, who have mock fan signs with them like "Benoit's not over". Huge "Raven sucks" chant during his musicless entrance. Mike Penzer reads an order from WCW that Raven MUST wrestle in this match (he'd been ducking Benoit for months and making him wrestle everyone else in the Flock), and the Flock is BANNED from ringside. Raven dropkicks Benoit as Benoit is first getting into the ring. Barricade whip and Benoit goes into the stairs. Back in Raven hits a trio of snap mares. Benoit counters another one with a backslide for 2. Raven drops elbows to keep Benoit down. Knee to the gut. He goes for another one that Benoit counters into a roll up for 2. Back to the floor and Raven gives Benoit a chairshot. Snap mare onto the chair in the ring. Bulldog on the chair! Benoit gets a foot on the rope, then Raven repositions for a 2 count. Benoit reverses a whip and drop toe holds Raven into the chair! Big shot with an even bigger sell. Chops from Benoit. Big clothesline. He suplexes Raven onto the chair. Dusty wants to make it very clear that Raven hit "the bars", AKA the chair legs. Benoit rips Raven's shirt off! That right there probably did more damage to Raven than anything else so far. More corner chops. Raven goes out and Benoit hits a baseball slide. They go up the ramp and Benoit hits a suplex up there, then kicks Raven back down the ramp. Another suplex onto the chair back in. Benoit puts the chair over Raven's face and stomps it! He calls for the headbutt off the top. It hits, right into the chair! Both guys are out. Benoit gets moving at 8 and covers Raven for 2. He hooks up for a northern lights suplex. Raven counters it into a DDT! Both guys are down again, and again Benoit stirs first at 8 to cover for 2. Raven hooks up for the finish him off DDT. Benoit counters into the crossface! Raven's laughing while he's in it! Sick freak. He goes out, the ref gets three arm drops and it's over. Fantastic match, hard hitting, intense and nonstop. Easily one of Raven's best. ****

After the bell Billy Kidman runs in. Dean Malenko comes in to cut him off! The whole rest of the Flock runs in. While the others are fighting Benoit and Malenko Hammer carries Raven out. The rest of the Flock leave. Benoit and Malenko seem to signal mutual respect while commentary wonders why Malenko decided to help Benoit.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho def Rey Mysterio Jr (c) in 8:22- Tenay's back in for this one. Jericho's had his heel turn that would carry him in his peak WCW months and turn him into a full fledged star whether WCW wanted it or not. He comes out wearing a Mysterio shirt. Mysterio has a knee brace on his eternally problematic left knee that was playing him up again here, both in story and real life. After the bell Jericho does a little height comparison, then gives Mysterio a quick eye poke on a rope break just to annoy him. Mysterio fires back with a slap that Jericho sells in full Flair style. Forearms from Mysterio. Jericho runs him over with a shoulderblock. They do an extended dodging sequence with Mysterio hitting a flying headscissors that sends Jericho out. Mysterio does the 619 dive tease, but tweaks his knee on the landing. Jericho tries to sneak behind to take advantage but Mysterio was ready for him. Jericho lifts Mysterio up, which Mysterio turns into a victory roll for 2. He pulls Jericho down by the hair! Jericho catches a leap and gives Mysterio a hot shot from the apron. He sets the stairs up on the floor, then runs up them and leaps off with a flying knee to Mysterio. Back in Jericho hits some mocking humiliation kicks. Mysterio fights back. Jericho flips over in the corner and gets knocked to the floor. Mysterio springboard senton! Jericho gets dropped on the stairs. Mysterio goes for another springboard but Jericho hits the ropes to knock him down. Both guys do some maneuvering on the ropes. Mysterio goes for the springboard hurricanrana. Jericho blocks it into the Liontamer! Mysterio, with the hurt knee, instantly taps out and we have a new champion! There's enough in there to make it good, though they got a bit shafted on time compared to other Cruiserweight title matches and Mysterio's knee was a bit of a hindrance. ***

Jericho takes a mic and is SHOCKED the people are booing him. He says "I'll give you a reason to boo" and rips Mysterio's knee brace off! He ties Mysterio's knee up on the stairs, then hits his knee with a steel box! Jericho, ever the true Canadian, says "sorry" as he walks off. Mysterio would miss the next five months after one of his many left knee surgeries.

Mean Gene is in the ring with JJ Dillon and the Big Gold Belt for the announcement on how the World title mess is going to be cleaned up. Hopefully. Dillon brings out Roddy Piper, apparently still interim commissioner and making his first appearance since Halloween Havoc. Piper claims he was the one that put the original Hogan/Sting match together behind the scenes so this is his responsibility. He calls out Sting, Hogan and Scott Hall. Naturally, Eric Bischoff is with the NWO contingent as well. First Piper addresses the fact that Hall, as the winner of World War 3, was scheduled to get a title shot at Superbrawl. Piper says Hall deserves that shot and he is #1 contender, but it's hard to do when there's no champion so he's going to have to wait. I appreciate that they're taking the time to explain that, normally WCW would just pretend it never happened. Piper then, after teasing handing the belt back to Hogan as Hogan wanted, books one final match between Hogan and Sting next month at Superbrawl. Hogan's pissed and teases getting into it with Sting. Hall then walks out on Hogan. Hogan and Bischoff immediately bail. By the time that match came around all the momentum that had been built for Sting the past year and a half was completely gone, flushed right down the toilet with the giant shit that was Starrcade.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Booker T (c) def Rick Martel in 10:50- Perhaps in response to recent TV title runs by young guys who were clearly not ready or would never be ready for the spotlight (Alex Wright, Prince Iaukea), we've now flipped the pendulum the other direction and have the recently WCW signed 20+ year veteran Rick Martel challenging for it. Former AWA World and WWF tag champ Martel hasn't wrestled full time or for a major company since he left WWF in the summer of '94. On the other side a Stevie Ray injury meant that Booker is getting the first singles push of his WCW career. He defeated Disco Inferno for his first TV title right after Starrcade. This is face vs face. They go nose to nose after the bell but no Code of Honor handshake. Long, rough lockup that ends with a clean break. Arm wringer tradeoff. HUGE shoulderblock hit from Booker. Another speed run and Martel gets a roll up for 2. Hammerlock exchange with Martel flipping out. He tries to block a Booker hiptoss but gets clotheslined for 2. Booker hooks on an ARMBAR. Jericho's turned heel, that means we're getting really close to the List of 1004 Holds. Martel tries a suplex but Booker blocks it and hits his own. Dodged elbow drop, spinaroonie and Booker hits the Harlem side kick for 2. Martel gets a knee up in the corner and hits a clothesline off the second rope for 2. Booker counters into a hook kick for 2. More corner dodging and Booker gets a deep armdrag. Martel leapfrogs on a speed run. Booker doesn't duck and runs right into him head first! Right on the waistline. Booker backs off because it was accidental, but once Martel recovers that sets off that French Canadian temper. He pummels Booker with slaps and stomps in the corner. Elbow drop to the back. Gutwrench suplex. Spinebuster from Martel for 2. He stays focused on the back, typical Martel strategery to set up for the Boston crab. Oh, Quebec crab as apparently WCW is calling it. Booker gets a roll up out of the corner for 2 but Martel is quickly back on the back. Booker ducks a couple of clotheslines and hits a flying forearm. Martel dodges a dropkick. Location unspecific crab! They're too close to the ropes and Booker quickly grabs one. Booker hits a couple of setup kicks. Scissors kick! Side suplex. The Harlem Hangover hits! Well, in theory. Landed in the general vicinity. That gets the pin. After the bell Martel takes the belt from the ref and teases a big turn, but then hands the belt to Booker and they shake hands. After Booker leaves Saturn comes in from the crowd to attack Martel! Booker runs back in to make the save. Hell of a pleasant surprise there. Booker's singles breakout is on, the start of the path that will see him develop into one of the best in-ring workers of the era and about the only thing worth watching in end of life WCW. The real surprise was Martel, who looked fantastic despite his age and lack of recent regular or high profile work. ***1/4

 

Larry Zbyszko (w/Dusty Rhodes) def Scott Hall (w/Louie Spicolli) in 8:09- Oh yay. This is continuing. Zbyszko had been feuding with the NWO for months. First from commentary, then he came out of retirement to have a match with Bischoff at Starrcade that was atrocious almost beyond description. Spicolli is the former short lived Rad Radford in WWF and had recently come into WCW as Hall's lackey after an equally short ECW run. Hall is once again half of the WCW World tag champs, he and Nash won the titles back from the Steiners after Starrcade. During Zbyszko's entrance Dusty leaves the booth to join him, the mystery corner man for Zbyszko that had been teased all show. After some jockeying Zbyszko gets a leg takedown, then a fireman's carry takedown. Hall loses an arm wringer tradeoff and hides in the ropes. They both cautiously wave hands at each other until Zbyszko slaps Hall. That leads to shoving. Zbyszko gets an abdominal stretch on. Escape and it's on again. Hall escapes again but misses an elbow drop. Zbyszko gets a waistlock takedown that looks like an attempted German suplex that was aborted mid-move. He goes for the front chancery that was somehow suddenly his move of instant death even though I can never remember him ever using it before. Hall quickly gets a rope break, then goes into usual Hall punchy/chokey mode. Spicolli gets a shot in and Dusty chases him off. Hall corner clothesline. He wraps Zbyszko's legs up and stretches him out. Huge "Larry sucks" chant from the crowd. Commentary plays it off by saying there's some NWO fans here. Hall hits a clothesline. Another section of the crowd has a counter "Hall sucks" chant. I'd say it's probably 60/40 to 70/30 in Hall's favor. Hall hits the fallaway slam and calls for the Razor's Edge. Zbyszko backdrops out. He unloads a flurry in the corner until the ref stops him. Hall clotheslines him over the ref. Over to the opposite corner and they do the exact same thing again, only this time Zbyszko does his spin kick but it takes out the ref instead of Hall. While Hall tries to revive the ref Zbyszko plays dead. When Hall covers him he hooks the chancery on! Spicolli runs in for the cheap DQ. Dusty comes in. He takes Spicolli out with the bionic elbow! HUGE pop from the crowd for that. They're bonkers for Dusty getting back in. Zbyszko holds Hall for Dusty to hit. Hall dodges and Dusty elbows Zbyszko! It looked 100% accidental. But then, Hall does his trademark point to Dusty. Dusty takes his top shirt off....and there's an NWO shirt on underneath. Commentary is very slow on the uptake. Only when Dusty drops an elbow on Zbyszko do they realize what's happening. And they're disgusted. So Dusty taking Spicolli out was all part of the plan? I guess so. This is a true "jumping the shark" moment for WCW. Dusty turning makes zero logical sense. The entire NWO angle he's been Mr. WCW and Mr. Tradition, but now after a year and a half now he says "eff it, I guess I'll join them"? It's only there to be a turn for the sake of having a turn and nothing else. The match wasn't great but also wasn't the disaster it could have been. *1/4

Seriously, that's probably one of the top 5 dumbest heel turns of all time to me. Still, silver lining is it did get Dusty out of commentary. Good or bad it also killed the crowd, who had been really hot, for the rest of the show.

 

The Steiner Brothers and Ray Traylor (w/Ted DiBiase) def Team NWO (w/Vincent) in 12:20- This is a partial rematch from Starrcade, where the team of the Steiners and Traylor lost to the NWO team of Savage, Scott Norton and Vincent. This time it's Norton, Konnan and Buff Bagwell. While everyone is in an endless staredown before the bell Heenan says Tony left and it standing with his face in a curtain. I suppose that's one way to smother yourself. Dusty's heel turn was bad, but not THAT bad. Tony gets back before the bell rings. Scott wants to start with Bagwell. Apparently they've had a thing going for a while over who has the biggest....muscles. Muscles that can be viewed in polite society. Makes sense, between the two of them they probably have three brain cells to rub together, and they're all Scott's. It's like watching two cavemen fight over who has the biggest club. But wait. Rick wants to start and he and Scott are arguing about it. Oh yeah, we're here. Scott's heel turn to become Big Poppa Pump is coming. Rick wins the argument and gets the start. Commentary mentions that on a previous Nitro Scott worked a whole match by himself without tagging anyone in, like a basketball diva that never passes the ball, so now Rick and Traylor are conspiring to keep him out. Bagwell goes right into mocking Rick and being his general "as annoying as a tropical skin disease" self. Tenay takes Dusty's old spot in the booth, not just for the rest of the show but thankfully for the foreseeable future. Bagwell gets a leg takedown on Rick then hides in the ropes. Rick mocks Bagwell's flex. Bagwell, unshockingly, takes that as the greatest insult known to man. Rick hits a powerslam. Steinerline. Traylor hits Bagwell with an avalanche. Tony calls Scott a "glory hound". Bagwell continues to be pounded around by Rick and Traylor, who refuse to tag Scott in. Bagwell gets a shot in on Traylor and tags Norton. Norton and Traylor do some back and forth stuff. Norton hits a powerslam after Konnan hits Traylor from the apron. The NWO team keep Traylor trapped. Konnan seems to be in a contest with Bagwell on who can be the most annoying person in the match. Possibly on the planet. Konnan's trying but he's not taking that crown. Bagwell hits a dropkick for 2. Norton and Traylor double clothesline each other. Traylor initially goes to the wrong corner, then tags Rick. Hot tag run from Rick, until Konnan hits him with a DDT. Scott pulls the ref down to the floor and gets into with him it for some reason. Per commentary Scott has also been racking up fines for getting physical with refs on Nitro. Rick gets beat down on the floor, then we get a looooooooong Rick in peril run in the ring that goes on for what feels like half an hour. While that's going on Scott has gotten on the same side of the ring as Traylor trying to get in tag position and they argue over who should stand where. Scott runs in at one point to open the door for more NWO double teaming. Eventually Rick dodges Konnan in the corner, Steinerlines Bagwell, and tags...Traylor, but Scott reached for it too and they both come in. DONNYBROOK! DiBiase even gets into it with Vincent on the floor. Nice callback for WWF fans. Scott hits a dragon suplex on Konnan. He gets on the apron to Traylor can finally tag him in for real. Steiner Screwdriver on Konnan! That gets the pin. After the bell Scott and Bagwell continue their measuring contest, to the chagrin of Rick and DiBiase. This was nothing more than an overly long and very dull vehicle to continue the push to Scott's full heel turn. 1/2*

 

Kevin Nash (w/Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff) def The Giant in 10:47- This was originally supposed to take place at Starrcade and was hyped up as the #2 match on that card, only to have Nash no-show on the night. He claimed to have a "legitimate medical scare". I think the medical term is jobophobia. They go nose to nose before the bell, and with Nash's height it's actual nose to nose. Long lockup stalemate into a Nash headlock. Giant side suplexes out. Elbow drop. He does an Andre style squash of Nash in the corner. Nash powders while Hogan throws a fit. Back in Nash gets shots in and hits a corner clothesline. Giant responds with his own corner clothesline and high kick. Nash just barely leapfrogs over Giant, which is still impressive, and hits a big boot. He 360 clotheslines Giant to the floor with Giant landing on his feet! Nash with a plancha! Again, just barely, his feet almost caught the ropes, but he made it. Giant catches him! He posts Nash's stomach. While Giant's getting back in Hogan comes over and whacks him in the back with a chair. Giant barely beats the count back in, to the point Nash argues it was 10 and Tenay even has to get the rule book out for Tony and Heenan. I just got done watching this year's G1 so I'm wondering why he rushed and didn't wait until 19. Nash lays some elbows in. Giant stops selling and hits a clothesline. Double big boot! Both guys are down. Nash crawls over and covers for 2. Vintage Nash corner elbows. Giant counters mounted punches with an inverted atomic drop. More Giant clotheslines. Big boot. He points at Hogan after that, but sadly doesn't go for the legdrop. Slam on Nash and Giant calls for the chokeslam. Hogan and Bischoff get on the apron. The ref takes Hogan while Giant chokeslams Bischoff into the ring. Nash has a pot of something or other Hogan gave him. He throws coffee in Giant's face! Apparently this is something that's been going on during the feud. It's supposed to be hot coffee and Giant is blinded and burned. But wait, who's keeping a pot of hot coffee at ringside? I never see anyone drinking it. Is there a hot pad somewhere in there keeping it hot? Isn't that a violation of fire codes? Nash hooks Giant up, then hits the infamous HORRIBLE botched jackknife that plants Giant right on his head for everyone to see. Commentary instantly reacts to it. Nash covers and gets the pin. Medics quickly run in for Giant. They work on bandaging his eyes because of the coffee, but they're really checking to make sure his neck isn't broken. Nash, to his credit, does stop to check what's happening before leaving without trying to be obvious about it to keep character. There's a huge splat of coffee in the ring that needs to be cleaned up before the next matches. During the replay run we get a full slo mo replay of the botched jackknife. TWICE. 1/4*

 

"Hitman" Bret Hart def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 18:06- Now we're talking. This is Bret's first match with WCW, and they're getting him in there with Flair. True neither man are at the top of their game mentally for various reasons, but it's still Bret vs Flair. This is not their first encounter. Bret defeated Flair to win the WWF Championship for the first time in late '92 when Flair was wrapping up his initial WWF run. It was a phenomenal match, but hardly anyone saw it because it was taped at a house show and only released as a Coliseum Video exclusive on the very unfortunately titled video "Smack 'Em, Whack 'Em". Sounds like something you had to go behind the red curtain at the video rental store for. Bret's WCW music is a *huge* downgrade. More than usual. We get some Slick Ric mind games to start out, with a "WOOO!". Bret grabs a headlock out of the lockup. Shoulderblock, slam and back to the headlock. Surprising clean break in the corner. Flair hits the jets again and gets a shoulderblock. Bret then gets a drop toe hold. He goes for a figure four! And gets it on! Flair quickly grabs a rope, but message sent. Suplex from Bret for 2. Top wristlock leverage fight that Bret wins. Flair gets back up. Shoving! Slapping! Flair powders to cool down. Back in Bret reverses a whip and hits a backdrop. More Bret headlock. Flair gets him into the corner and gives him the casual one thumb eye poke. Corner jabs from Flair, followed by the first chop and it's a belter. Huge arena echo. Bret hooks on a sleeper! Back suplex counter from Flair. Flair aska the ref to check the time, then gives Bret a quick low blow while his back is turned! Dirtiest player in the game. The master. Snap mare/kneedrop combo for 2. Chinlock with rope leverage. More big chops. Bret slugs back in the corner. Swinging neckbreaker. Bulldog for 2. Super casual legdrop. Always loved that from Bret, he's just standing there and BOOM, legdrop done before you even knew what was happening. Bret starts working on Flair's knee. He goes to the post for the corner figure four. Flair pushes out and Bret goes into the guardrail. Back in Flair drops an elbow for 2. Kneebreaker! He JERKS Bret's leg right out of the socket! Bit of a strut and another kneebreaker. He goes for three. Brett counters with an enzuguri! Flair's still up first and goes for the figure four. Bret small package counter for 2. Backslide for 2. Flair clips the knee. Figure four! Bret fight, and fights, and finally gets a reversal. Flair breaks and goes up top. Bret slams him off. Corner whip reversal and we get a Bret bump, though not nearly as hard as usual. Probably getting adjusted to WCW turnbuckle pads. Flair goes for another back suplex. Bret blocks into a Russian leg sweep. Another Flair chop. Bret puts the straps down! He wants more! Flair begs off. Mounted punches from Bret, then he blocks Flair's inverted atomic drop counter. Headbutt and it's FMOD time. Superplex from Bret! Sharpshooter! Flair submits! Not quite on the level of their WWF Title match, but still fantastic and probably as good as we were going to get from these two at this particular difficult point in time for both of them. ***3/4

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) in 7:07- The only reason this is main eventing over Bret vs Flair is this is an NWO match and that one wasn't. Savage hops right out after the bell and tries to get Luger to chase. Elizabeth distracts and Savage hits Luger from behind in the aisle. Double ax handle off the top in the ring for 2. Clothesline for 2. Commentary talks about how Savage is causing all kinds of problems in the NWO right now, setting up for the big NWO civil war that's coming. Savage back suplex for 2. He whips Luger around and hits a back elbow for 2. Elizabeth chokes Luger with Savage's bandanna. Finally Luger gets a boot up in the corner to break Savage's momentum. Elizabeth grabs his boot and Savage runs in with a knee to the back. Double ax handle off the top to the floor. Elizabeth slaps Luger! That gets Luger's attention. Savage AGAIN gets Luger from behind! Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me three times I might as well give it up. Luger gets dumped over the guardrail and we go into the crowd brawl. Savage takes some shots on an arena wall. Back in Luger hits a series of clotheslines. Running no more steel plate forearm. Scott Hall comes out with a chair, with Hogan is behind him. Well behind him. Luger hits a powerslam and calls for the Torture Rack. Hogan and Hall argue while Hall is on the apron. Luger whips Savage into Hall and Hall goes down. Savage gets Racked! That's been a move of instant death for a while so of course he immediately submits. 3/4*

Hogan jumps Luger after the bell to kick off an NWO beatdown, minus Hall. Sting runs in and the faces fight the goons off. Luger Racks Nash, Sting puts Hogan in the Scorpion Death Lock, end show.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- I can't think of a better microcosm of the crossroads WCW was at. Everything that didn't involve the NWO was universally good to great. Everything that did involve the NWO was universally bad to terrible. What would WCW take from that? MORE NWO!

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+