World War 3 '98

Legacy Review

World War 3 '98

November 22, 1998 from The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, MI

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

After a four year run this would turn out to be the final World War 3 60 man three ring battle royale. The concept never really took off, mainly due to too many people being involved and it lacked the hook that the Royal Rumble had with surprise entries during the match. The November PPV would become Mayhem starting the next year.

The opening video actually tries to list off every single wrestler that'll be in the big battle royale. They're making more of an effort than I will. Then we get footage of Goldberg arriving in his limo. They want to prove he's in the building since he inexplicably doesn't have a match scheduled tonight. In the open Tony mentions that Hogan is strangely *not* in the building tonight. It's not strange for Hogan to miss a B PPV, but it is strange he's missing a chance to earn a world title shot. Mean Gene forgot his bow tie, which is a weird look.

One more thing before we dive in, it's difficult to pinpoint exact dates for these things and reports conflict based on who's telling them, but multiple sources say this is the first PPV with Kevin Nash officially on WCW's creative team. Based on how things play out here and the shows immediately after I'd say that's likely accurate.

Wrath def Glacier in 8:22- Glacier's getting back on PPV for the first time in exactly a year, and it's right back against one of his old foes from one of '97s biggest Feuds That Will Never End. Wrath has been getting a return from injury undefeated push, mainly thanks to his new finisher the Meltdown (a nod to his WWF days as Adam Bomb). The crowd reactions show the face/heel alignments have swapped since the previous feud, confirmed by Glacier stalling like hell at the start. Lockup and Wrath pushes Glacier right out of the ring. More Glacier stalling on the floor. Wrath no sells some shots and hits a big chop. Glacier powders again. A running knee sends Glacier off the apron into the guardrail. Wrath then whips Glacier over the barricade into the crowd. Chops in the crowd. Clothesline with a 360 sell back in. Mudhole stomps in the corner. It continues to be all Wrath while commentary gushes over all his body parts. Another clothesline for 2, and for some reason Wrath puts his feet on the ropes for leverage. Why? Back to the floor and Wrath chokes Glacier with a TV cable. I've got a lot of questions for whoever laid this match out. Glacier ducks in the corner and gets a hook kick in that Wrath actually sort of sells. Another kick that barely makes contact. An Ice Pick attempt is blocked. The Meltdown hits and we're done here. Complete and total squash. I give it two more months max before this big Wrath push stalls out. 1/4*

Extended Bret Hart video package where he rants about everyone he hates (in WCW) that desperately tries to channel awesome '97 heel Bret Hart but never gets anywhere close.

 

Stevie Ray (w/Vincent) def Konnan by DQ in 6:55- NWO Hollywood vs NWO Wolfpac here. Both guys play to the crowd before locking up. Ray quickly pounds Konnan down in the corner. Konnan pops out with his rolling clothesline. Basement dropkick and Konnan wraps Ray up on the mat with a sort of sitting abdominal stretch. Ray superkick that Konnan clearly blocks half a foot from his face. Clothesline for 2. Konnan gets tossed out and Vincent gets some shots in. Ray kills time with a chinlock. Konnan slowly works his way into a backslide for 2. Another Ray clothesline. Konnan dodges an elbow drop to kick off the comeback. Vincent gets on the apron. Whip reversal and Ray gets hit with the SLAPJACK OF DEATH. Konnan doesn't cover, instead choosing to lay in some extended ground and pound on Ray. He ignores the ref's call to break, and quick trigger ref calls for a DQ. Missed the slapjack shot, DQ's over some punches. Sheesh. Booker T, back from injury, runs in and backs Konnan off. Booker helps his brother up, but Ray shoves him off, says he doesn't need his help, and walks away. If you told someone "Stevie Ray vs Konnan" and nothing else this would be pretty much what they'd expect, with the added bonus of a stupid shit finish. DUD

 

Ernest "The Cat" Miller and Sonny Onoo def Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi in 8:04- It's a borderline miracle Saturn isn't wrestling ex-Flock members anymore. I have no idea what the story is here and why manager Oono is in the match but I'm confident in saying it's not worth remembering. From what I can glean from commentary Hayashi was aligned with Miller but turned on him to turn face, and Saturn is the rando not doing anything else he picked up as a tag partner tonight. Works for me. Oono and Miller have their own karate entourage with them but they thankfully never become involved in the match. Miller and Hayashi start. Miller does his stupid "you have five seconds to leave before I beat your ass" thing. Saturn swaps in while Miller's back is turned. Miller turns around into a Saturn punch and quickly bails. Hayashi tags in and wants Oono. Oono still has sunglasses and a towel on while on the apron. He doesn't want to get in. Hayashi says screw it and attacks Miller. Miller hits a slam and celebrates. Back kick from Miller. Another slam and now Oono tags in, still with sunglasses on. He lays in some kicks that Hayashi no sells. Oono pulls some money out and offers it to Hayashi. Hayashi kicks it out of his hands. Oono crawls through Hayashi's legs and tags out. Miller kicks Hayashi back into his corner and he tags Saturn in. Chops and half and half suplex from Saturn. Miller does some more heel punchy kicky stuff and acts like it's something amazing. His sweep kick underneath a Saturn high kick attempt wasn't bad, I'll give him that one. Miller tags Oono. Oono wants nothing to do with Saturn. Miller forces him in. Oono hits one kick and tags back out! Miller refuses to get in so I guess it's no tag. Oono walks into a Saturn STF. Now Miller gets in. Guess it was a tag. Double dropkick on Miller from the faces. Miller begs off to give Hayashi an eye rake. Oono gets a bunch more kicks in on Hayashi. Commentary has no idea who's supposed to be legal on the heel team as Miller kicks Hayashi from the apron. Hayashi jawbreakers Miller and tags out. Saturn snap suplex on Miller. Hayashi tags right back in and immediately ends up in the heel corner again. Even commentary says that was a dumb move to tag back in so quickly. Hayashi rolls away from Oono fist drops and tags Saturn. Oono begs off. Miller tries to come from behind but takes a belly to belly suplex. Saturn grabs Oono. Miller hits Saturn with a roundhouse kick to the face, Oono falls on top of him, and gets the pin. Freaking hell what a mess. DUD

We're off to a rocking start tonight, folks. I don't think this will break WCW's recent streak of bad PPVs.

Mean Gene stops Juvy during his entrance for the next match to check out the shirt he's wearing as a cape and sees it's an LWO shirt! LWO leader Eddie Guerrero comes out and says Juvy has seen the light and joined the group. Rey Mysterio, also an LWO member, then comes out pissed off thinking this is the reason Juvy got a title shot instead of him. Eddie asks Mysterio if he has a family and kids, Mysterio says he does, and Eddie says sometimes you make sacrifices for them. He tells Mysterio this is what's best for the LWO family. Mysterio still isn't convinced and leaves in a huff.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Kidman def Juventud Guerrera (c) in 15:27- Juvy defeated Kidman for the title on the last Nitro, the third title swap between these two since August. The crowd isn't sure what to make of Juvy after that last bit. Some basic back and forth to start. Juvy bragging over a shoulderblock leads to some slugfest. Fameasser from Juvy. He's definitely trying to heel it up with the crowd. Juvy dodges Kidman in the corner and gets a flying headscissors, but then runs into a Kidman spinebuster. Slam and slingshot legdrop from Kidman for 2. Counter roll up from Juvy for 2. Alabama slam and elbow drop for 2. Kidman reverses a corner whip with Juvy doing a Bret bump and Kidman follows up with a clothesline. Top rope fight. Juvy fights Kidman off. He goes for a tornado DDT. Kidman blocks it so Juvy snaps him over the top rope instead. Juvy tries coming off the top rope but Kidman dropkicks him in midair for 2. Kidman tosses Juvy out. Plancha! Juvy goes up top and flying headscissors Kidman off the apron to the floor! Slow cover back in for 2. Juvy hits a brain buster for 2. Basement dropkick. Springboard missile dropkick and Kidman goes to the floor again. Juvy kinda weak springboard dive to the floor. They were on the wrong side to do too much. Slingshot legdrop back in from Juvy for 2. Juvy tosses Kidman into an adjacent ring. He DOUBLE springboards into a dropkick! He damn near slipped off the second rope but managed to keep it together just enough. Pop up dropkick from Kidman. He hits a back suplex for 2. Juvy dodges a wild corner dive. Inverted atomic drop. He calls for the 450. Juvy starts to climb one side, then decides to walk across to the other corner and Kidman has to follow. Commentary tries to say he was adjusting to Kidman's rolling away but Juvy definitely moved first. Kidman crotches Juvy on the top rope. He uses the ropes to headscissors Juvy back to the middle ring! That's why Juvy had to move. Now Kidman walks across both sets of ropes into a crossbody for a LONG 2. Juvy backdrops Kidman over the top rope and he lands gut first on the adjacent ring's top rope! Juvy walks across the ropes into a hurricanrana off the top. Kidman kicks out at ONE! Juvy calls for the Juvy driver. Kidman counters, Juvy recounters and hits the driver! Juvy takes forever to get up then doesn't cover. He drags Kidman to the corner. He goes for the 450, sees Kidman dodging and lands on his feet. Hurricanrana with a cradle from Juvy for another very long 2 that I'm not sure Kidman really kicked out of or not. Juvy let go before 3 as much as Kidman kicked out. Juvy argues with Lil' Naitch and even slaps him a little. Kidman counters a powerbomb into a faceplant for 2. Wheelbarrow German from Kidman! He drags Juvy into the corner. Kidman goes up top for the SSP but gets crotched. Mysterio sneaks behind while Juvy positions on the top. Mysterio grabs Kidman's pants to keep Juvy from hurricanranaing him! Shooting star press! Kidman gets the pin and wins the title back! The first half of the match was a bit disjointed due to Juvy trying to play heel now but they got rolling good like they know how in the second half and using all three rings was a nice touch. ***1/4

The entire LWO comes out to see what the hell's going on. Man, I don't remember there being this many in the group. They always did keep a lot of Mexican wrestlers on the roster though. Pissed Eddie gets a mic and tells Mysterio either you're in or you're out, tell me now. Mysterio tears off his LWO shirt and throws it in Eddie's face! He runs away as the whole LWO chase him to the back. See, if Mysterio had just learned to sacrifice for the sake of family a bit better in these early days maybe Dom wouldn't have turned out so bad. Eddie tried to teach him. Multiple times.

The next scheduled match is, once again, Rick Steiner vs Scott Steiner. This match has become Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Scott makes his entrance with his platonic partner Buff Bagwell, in one of his silly hats, and also some goof in a ref shirt that also has a whistle and is wearing a ref beanie that I guess Scott's hired to ref this match that somehow got WCW's permission. Rick's music hits and no Rick. We cut to the back and the rest of NWO Hollywood are beating him down. Giant drags Rick to the ring and Scott and Bagwell do a two on one beatdown on him with the ref goof hopping around and blowing his whistle. Rick gets some shots back on Scott. The ref pulls him off and Scott low blows him. The beatdown on Rick continues and I wonder why the hell this is still going on. This ref guy somehow is managing to be even more annoying than Bagwell. That's a hell of an accomplishment. Finally GOLDBERG runs in to make the save! Scott gives him a middle finger! Goldberg spear! He hooks up for the jackhammer. Bagwell hits him with a chair from behind. Bad move, dumbass. The ref leaps on Goldberg's back and tries to choke him. Goldberg easily fights him off, presses him and tosses him into the adjacent ring. Rick and Goldberg hug and end scene. If this was at the start of the feud this might have been OK, but it's been MONTHS of this shit. Any way to try to avoid Rick and Scott having a proper one on one match they've taken. Yes they got one in at Halloween Havoc but it was so interference filled it barely counts. The only positive thing about this is it would be the last time they'd try to fool us that this match might actually happen. And it showed that Scott vs Goldberg is a potential money match.

Didn't like the last bait and switch "match"? Well here's another one. NWO Hollywood's music hits again and Scott Hall comes out. He's scheduled to take on former Outsiders partner and NWO Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash again, a rematch from Halloween Havoc where Nash had the match won but walked away and took a countout loss for no discernible reason instead. He's got all of NWO Hollywood with him. After they all get in the ring Eric Bischoff comes out. He and Hall had been butting heads lately. Bischoff says it's survey time, and survey says.....GET HIM! NWO Hollywood attack Hall! Nash runs out to save his buddy. He clears the ring out with Hall's help until they're the last two in the ring. The crowd chants "Outsiders". Nash and Hall look at each other. Hall puts up a too sweet. Nash thinks about it, shakes his head, and walks away. Hall's a sad red nosed puppy. Seriously, how much did he drink before the show? This was the first real sign the NWO civil war was starting to peter out.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Chris Jericho (c) (w/Ralphus) def Bobby Duncum Jr in 13:22- Duncum had just made his WCW debut the week prior and defeated Jericho by countout, signalling the potential for a big introductory push. He didn't exactly have a huge pedigree, having spent time in GWF, ECW and All Japan but never doing much of note. He's got a look that's kind of a cross between Barry Windham, Stan Hansen and Magnum TA. His dad was also a wrestler, a longtime territory heel in the '70s and '80s and was even part of the early Heenan Family in the AWA. That lets Heenan gush about Duncum Sr from the booth. Jericho has some fantastic maroon red tights for this match. Lockup and Duncum gets a slap in. Another lockup and Duncum tosses Jericho out, where he takes solace in the large folds of Ralphus. Standing switches and Jericho gets a leg takedown. He rolls Duncum into a bow and arrow. Another stalemate reset. This feels like an '80s match, but not in a good way. Jericho tries to flippydo out of an arm wringer but Duncum takes him out with a clothesline. Apron suplex from Duncum. Jericho jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Kick exchange that Duncum wins. He straight up tackles Jericho into the ropes. Jericho gets tossed to the floor. Duncum grabs his bullrope, decides he'd rather not, then pushes Jericho over the guardrail. Jericho diving clothesline off the guardrail! Missile dropkick from Jericho back in for 2. Duncum lifts chinlocking Jericho on his back and drops him on the top turnbuckle. Shoulderbreaker from Duncum for 2. He starts working on Jericho's arm and tries a cross armbreaker. Jericho locks his fingers and gets to the ropes. Jericho gets a hot shot. Springboard dropkick! Jericho gives Duncum some shots on the floor and runs him into the stairs. Arrogant cover! Jericho hooks on a front facelock that's barely on the face. Duncum pops out of the corner with a clothesline for 2. Jericho hits some chops in the corner that wake Duncum up. He responds with his own chops. Faceplant and clothesline on Jericho for 2. Duncum blocks a sunset flip and spinebusters Jericho for 2. Clothesline from Jericho. Quick Lionsault! That gets a 2 count. Senton. I like the "Jericho 4, Goldberg 0" sign someone has. Facts are facts. Duncum hits a superplex for 2. Roll up from Jericho into a Liontamer attempt! Duncum is able to fight him off and flat *plants* Jericho in the corner. Vader bomb elbow drop for 2. He lifts Jericho up. Ralphus grabs Duncum's foot, causing Duncum to drop Jericho on the top rope and down to the apron. I'm not sure Ralphus did Jericho any favors there. He was always a bit thick. Duncum grabs Ralphus but has a hard time lifting all of Ralphus' girth up. Jericho comes from behind, nails Duncum with the belt, and gets the pin. Man, that was as unmotivated as I've ever seen Jericho outside his recent elder years. Duncum did not look ready for prime time either. He'd be depushed pretty quickly before the West Texas Rednecks came together in early '99. **

 

World War 3 Battle Royale- First time the WW3 match doesn't main event the show. As in previous years the winner of this match will earn a World title shot, and this year it will take place at Starrcade. An added rule this year like other battle royales WCW has had this year is you can be eliminated by pin or submission as well getting tossed out of the ring, over the top rope or not. Good luck with that with so many guys in the rings. It never happens anyway. As always I'm not going to list everyone in this thing, it's the whole damn roster and there's no notable ringers that have been brought in this year. As usual with so many guys and the total chaos that brings I'll just skim the match until we get down to the final 10. For the first time ever there's a counter on the screen to show how many guys are left. An overdue idea, but I'm dubious how well it'll work. Things get going a little quicker this year, thanks to Kevin Nash almost singlehandedly clearing out his entire ring, tossing over a dozen guys himself in a serious Superman run. Did I mention that Nash is on the creative team now? Just thought I'd bring it up again. No reason. After that things bog down again like usual. I like how Giant gently sets Alex Wright on the apron and commentary is amazed that Wright "held on" to keep from being eliminated. Everyone left in Giant's ring try to gang up on him but he fights them off. When it gets down to 20 the bell rings and everyone is told to go to the center ring. They're sticking to that better than previous years. Giant eliminates a bunch of guys then tosses Kidman on top of them. Nash and Hall team up to pound away on Giant to the delight of the crowd. Slowly we get down to 10: Nash, Hall, Giant, Lex Luger, Chris Benoit, Wrath, Booker T, Konnan, Dean Malenko and Scott Steiner. Bam Bam Bigelow comes in through the crowd! Everyone gangs up to get him out of the ring and security come out to get rid of him. Goldberg runs in and attacks Bigelow! There's a massive scrum of Bigelow, Goldberg and about 20 security guys. While that's happening the counter went from 10 to 8. Commentary says it was Wrath and Steiner eliminated. Heenan then praises the camera work. The camera work that completely missed those two eliminations? Security is still dragging Bigelow away. Booker gets eliminated, again missed by the cameras. Everything stops again as those remaining break up into their respective groups: three Wolfpac, two Horsemen, and Giant and Hall. You'd think Hall would be a little more peeved at Giant after his Hollywood excommunication earlier. Or maybe he drunk enough in between he doesn't remember it now. Hall ducks and Konnan pretty much eliminates himself. Nash calls for everything to stop again. He wants everyone to gang up on Giant. They do and, despite Giant's best efforts, dump him. The crowd was happy about that. Five left. Luger finally takes his shirt off. Guess he's serious now. Luger and Nash eliminate Benoit. Hall tosses Malenko. It's down to Nash, Luger and Hall. The Wolfpac guys try to corner Hall....until Nash hits Luger right before Hall attacks. No alliances here. Luger puts both Nash and Hall down with the formerly steel plated forearm. Torture Rack attempt on Hall. Nash charges from behind and knocks both of them out! Nash wins and will get the title shot! He's never gotten a real World title shot in WCW yet so it's not a horrible pick, even taking his role in booking into account. The match overall was a pretty typical WCW battle royale, as in nothing special at all. It's not the *worst* World War 3 match at least. 3/4*

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Diamond Dallas Page (c) def Bret "Hitman" Hart in 18:31- After coming oh so close to dethroning Goldberg at Halloween Havoc DDP turned his attention to the US Title, defeating Bret for the title on Nitro. As I mentioned in my Halloween Havoc review, I would have had DDP win WW3 to get a rematch and then be the one to take Goldberg down at Starrcade because the crowd was clearly wanting it. DDP comes in with the belt on upside down. If this was Bret Hart from just a year or two prior this would have the potential to be a classic, but a year into WCW it's clear Bret is mentally broken from what happened in Montreal and would never be the same again. Bret tries to stall on the floor so DDP kicks things off with a plancha! Guardrail shots for Bret. Slugfest back in that DDP wins. He tosses Bret out again and we get some more ringside knockaround before switching rings. Bret snaps DDP over the top rope. Elbow to the back of the head. DDT from Bret for 2. DDP blocks a suplex into a small package for 2. Bret does some more heel WCW punchy chokey stuff and hooks on a chinlock. DDP blocks a hiptoss and hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Bret quickly escapes from a Diamond Cutter attempt. DDP goes for a baseball slide. Bret kinda dodges, eye rakes DDP and gives him a stair shot. Inverted atomic drop and clothesline back in. Russian leg sweep. Bret scoops for a tombstone. DDP reverses and hits it for 2. Backbreaker from Bret, followed by the snap legdrop for 2. Gut headbutt. European uppercuts. Whip reversal and soft Bret bump. DDP grabs a waistlock. Bret tries to fight it but DDP hits a belly to belly suplex. Discus clothesline and front piledriver from DDP. Bret ducks a clothesline and slow motion Cactus clotheslines DDP out to the floor. Bret gets something out of his tights. DDP comes in with a tackle off the top rope for 2. The international knucks fall off and Lil' Naitch picks them up. DDP gets Bret down and hooks on his own Sharpshooter! Or at least tries to. Still better than Rock's though. Bret gets to the ropes. DDP limps around a little bit. Bret straight low blows DDP to get free in the corner. Come on Naitch. Gut stomp. Bret starts working on DDP's knee, which commentary reminds us Bret had previously injured. Post shot for the knee. Post wraparound figure four! A Bret Hart staple. After some more softening up Bret hooks on the figure four proper in the ring. With some extra rope leverage that Naitch quickly catches. The knee work continues. DDP uses that to push Bret over the top to the floor. Another stairs shot for Bret. DDP put on the post wraparound figure four! After he figures out which side goes where. DDP gets a chair and brings it into the ring. Naitch grabs it away and Bret pushes both DDP and Naitch down. Bret gets the knucks back. Oh hell, that freaking goon with the ref gear from the Steiners thing is back in trying to take the chair away. After DDP gets rid of him Bret waffles DDP with the knucks. Sharpshooter on. The NWO ref calls a submission and THE FREAKING BELL RINGS?! For frak's sake there is no way this guy is an official ref. Fire that damn timekeeper. A proper ref runs in takes the belt away from Bret. Diamond Cutter! Naitch counts 3! Mostly OK match with a way overcooked ending. Bret would stay on DDP and defeat him to win the title back on Nitro a week later. **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The run of crap PPVs continues. Only one borderline good match, several duds, and if that wasn't bad enough they pulled a full bait and switch on not one but two previously booked matches, and not minor ones either.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+