Happy Wednesday Everyone!
I decided to review this episode of Thunder from February 1999 as the Main Event intrigued me and apparently Juventud Guerrera has a ***+ match on the undercard according to Big Davey Meltz, which isn’t bad for an episode of Thunder.
You can view the card by clicking below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=6311&page=3
The event is emanating from Salt Lake City, Utah on the 18th of February 1999
Calling the action are The Great Tony Schiavone, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and The Iron Professor Mike Tenay
We get clips from Nitro, where Hollywood Hogan challenges Ric Flair to a World Title match even though Flair isn’t there, leading to Roddy Piper coming down and wrestling Hogan instead. Piper almost wins, but then Scott Hall attacks him with a stun gun (the item, not the move) for the DQ.
Stevie Ray tries to get his brother Booker T to join him in nWo Black and White, but Booker T isn’t interested. This leads to The Disco Inferno coming over to annoy Booker and getting choked for it.
Torrie Wilson does a to-camera promo, where the person holding the camera gives her a stun gun (the item, not the move) which she finds funny. This ended up being David Flair I believe.
Kanyon visits Raven at his palatial home (Oh my goodness, it’s THAT episode of Thunder?!?!) where Raven’s mum asks Kanyon to check on him. Raven is of course not as depressed as he’s making out, but he’s just pretending to be because he knows it drives his mum nuts. That leads to Raven and Kanyon heading out in a sports car.
The Disco Inferno joins us in an nWo Wolfpac shirt, drawing boos from the crowd. Disco getting added to the faction always seemed odd to me, as they presented it as him still being a goof but the Wolfpac were still tolerating him anyway for some reason. I mean, if they tried to give him a cooler gimmick and used the Wolfpac membership as a way of establishing it then I would have got what they were going for. Anyway, Scott Hall joins us in a kilt in order to make fun of Roddy Piper as he’d be wrestling him at SuperBrawl IX for the US Title. Disco also gets some insults in at Booker T in order to hype up his SuperBrawl IX match as well. I don’t think either promo would have made me slap down the cash for the pay per view, which is kind of the point of promo segments on the go-home show.
Raven and Kanyon visit the bank and withdraw a shedload of money, with Raven rolling his eyes at the camera whenever Kanyon seems dumbstruck by what is taking place. I’m not sure if these segments are actually any good, but you can tell both guys are having fun with it, which makes it oddly entertaining.
Opening Match
The Rajun Cajun Lash LeRoux Vs Chavo Guerrero Jr
Lash was still super green at this stage, with him rocking massive sideburns to go alongside his Cajun character. Chavo had been doing the Al Snow “crazy man who is way too friendly with an inanimate object” gimmick, but his wooden horse had recently been destroyed by Nor-Man Smi-Lay. The commentary team talks about the Jay Leno show because Goldberg is going to be on it, which led to Goldberg doing a super lame challenge to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Goldberg could not have been less enthused making the challenge and I don’t know why they made him do it.
Chavo will be getting a Title shot at Kidman’s Cruiserweight Title at SuperBrawl IX, so the result here isn’t really going to be in doubt, although this is WCW so who even knows. Chavo isn’t really doing his crazy shtick here and mostly wrestles normally, whilst we see footage from the car park where Lex Luger and Miss. Elizabeth make fun of Rey Mysterio Jr, leading to Rey attacking Luger and seemingly injuring Luger’s arm by slamming his elbow into the door.
Meanwhile, there’s a match going on, with Chavo getting the best of it and Lash mostly getting beaten up. Lash does a decent job selling for everything, whilst Chavo shows some good intensity in order to get him across as a serious character again, which I believe led to Chavo working the match with Kidman at the pay per view completely straight. Lash eventually makes a bit of a comeback following a nice looking back suplex, and he shows some charisma, even though all of his execution isn’t totally on point, which is understandable for a rookie.
Lash tries heading up top with something, but Chavo stops whatever Lash has planned and then hangs Lash in the Tree of Woe before beating him up for the DQ. Oh my word, when I talked about Chavo possibly losing here I was JOKING. I suppose he was DQ’ed for kicking too much butt at least, but still, what a lame way to build up a challenger for a pay per view Title shot.
WINNER BY DQ: LASH LEROUX
RATING: *3/4
Thoughts: This was fine for a TV match until the lame finish knocked it down a bit. Lash was pretty green here but he showed some potential and Chavo did a solid job at being all intense, with his offence mostly looking good and his mannerisms being on point.
Cruiserweight Champ Kidman runs down to the ring to rescue Lash from more punishment, leading to an energetic scrap between Chavo and Kidman, which ends with Chavo giving Kidman a DDT out on the floor.
Meanwhile, Kanyon doesn’t know how to pronounce Versace, but Raven still buys him some clothes anyway, leading to the “trying on clothes” montage.
On Nitro, Eric Bischoff has to be Ric Flair’s chauffeur, but he ends up driving Flair to an ambush where Flair gets beaten up by the nWo. Amazingly no one is arrested for this, even though there are multiple cameras shooting it, including a chuffing helicopter with a spotlight. The nWo are wearing masks but they take them off, which seems to defeat the purpose of wearing masks in the first place if you ask me. This was a very expensive skit, and the commentators were infamously told to pretend they didn’t see it, which meant that when Flair showed up later they didn’t know why he was all dishevelled. Amazingly, despite getting beaten up and left for dead in a field, Flair STILL lost the match at the pay per view to Hogan, because WCW.
Scott Steiner arrives and asks a staff member if DDP is going to be there tonight, where he’s told that DDP will not be appearing.
Raven and Kanyon return from a fun day out, where his mum tells him that WCW have been on the phone and want him to return to work.
Brian Adams and Horace Hogan cut a promo to hype up their match with Benoit and Malenko later on tonight. It’s a pretty generic promo, but it achieves what it needs to and makes you want to see the babyfaces beat the Heels up.
Match Two
The King of Loopholes Chris Jericho w/ Ralphus Vs The Juice Juventud Guerrera
These two had been feuding on and off for over a year at this stage, although Jericho’s main rival at the time was Perry Saturn whilst Juventud was kind of just bumming around the Cruiserweight division looking for something to do. Jericho had defeated Saturn recently in order to make Saturn have to wear a dress, which Saturn apparently requested so that he could start doing a Marylyn Manson themed gothic gimmick. Before this match, Jericho brings out Ralphus (his chunky bodyguard and lackey) in a pink dress, which has the aim of insulting Saturn somehow.
Ralphus is really into wearing the dress actually and it’s quite funny. These two regularly had good matches with one another, and this one is no different, with them doing a good mix of wrestling and comedy, such as when Jericho tries to tee up Ralphus for a kiss on Juventud, only for Juventud to foil it and get some quick pin attempts. The crowd is really into the action, as WCW fans would generally be happy if you gave them a good wrestling match with minimal nonsense. Sadly the match isn’t very long, but what we get is good fun, as Jericho counters a rana into the Lion Tamer for the clean win.
WINNER: CHRIS JERICHO
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: Good fun for what we got, but the match wasn’t really long enough, especially when you consider how much filler we’ve had on this show thus far. I think Dave Meltzer was being a tad overgenerous with his rating, possibly because he was watching so much wrestling at the time and was starved for something watchable?
We get a video package to hype up the Scott Steiner and DDP feud, which really kicked into a higher gear when Steiner threw DDP’s wife out of a moving car. Well I should chuffing hope so!
Buff Bagwell joins us for some promo time, where he says that he’s been cleared to wrestle finally after a long injury layoff when Rick Steiner broke his neck. This leads to Buff introducing Scott Steiner, who was the TV Champ at the time but he’s neglected to bring his belt with him. Steiner insults the fans and DDP, making comments about DDP’s wife for good measure. It should shock no one to learn that DDP got absolutely clobbered at SuperBrawl IX despite this being such a one sided feud up to this stage, because babyfaces getting demolished was kind of WCW’s thing at the time. Steiner demands that he gets 30 days with DDP’s wife if he wins on Sunday, which I don’t think they made into an official stipulation for the bout.
Match Three
WCW World Television Title
Champ: Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner w/ Buff The Stuff Bagwell Vs Bobby Blaze
Steiner was in the midst of a big push at the time and had been feuding with Diamond Dallas Page. Blaze is perhaps best known for working in Smoky Mountain, with his WCW career mostly seeing him fulfil the role of enhancement talent. He did manage to make it into the WCW Mayhem game as a hidden character though. Blaze doesn’t even bother taking his t-shirt off here; possibly because it has “Blaze” written on it and he’d be worried we wouldn’t be able to tell him and Steiner apart without it? Steiner just demolishes Blaze here with his usual array of suplexes and power moves, with Blaze taking some nice bumps until the Steiner Recliner ends things.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SCOTT STEINER
RATING: SQUASH
Thoughts: This served its purpose, as it made Steiner look like a killer
Steiner continues to beat up Blaze following the contest, with Buff making fun of Blaze whilst Steiner does the beat down. Fair play to Blaze, he took his lumps there in order to get this over.
Match Four
Hector Garza and Silver King Vs The K-Dawg Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr
Konnan and Rey were prepping for a match against Kevin Nash and Lex Luger at SuperBrawl IX, where Rey’s mask would be on the line. Garza and King were both big stars south of the border, with Garza getting a run in TNA in the early 00’s until he got arrested and it ruined his push. Sadly both Garza and King have since passed away. Garza and King quickly cut off Rey-Rey and work him over, but K-Dawg eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, with the crowd losing their minds for it. This has been a hot crowd for pretty much all of the wrestling thus far. Sadly they haven’t had much actual wrestling to watch tonight. Konnan and Rey eventually pick up the win with a nice double team, as Konnan monkey flips Rey into a rana on King for the three count.
WINNERS: KONNAN AND REY JR
RATING: **
Thoughts: This was another match that was way too short, but what we got was a lot of fun, as the crowd was super hot for Konnan and Rey, and they lost their minds whenever the babyfaces were on top.
Malenko and Benoit cut a promo ahead of their match later. This was solid stuff.
We get clips of the nWo beating up The Horsemen from an episode of Nitro, although we also get clips of Bret Hart losing the US Title to Roddy Piper when Will Sasso from MAD TV gets involved.
Match Five
Jerry Flynn Vs Booker T
Flynn was a martial arts guy who had actually wrestled on an early FMW show before rocking up to WCW in the late 90’s. He had decent size and was a reasonable in-ring performer, but he didn’t really have much in the way of charisma and never really broke out of the pack. He did manage to give Goldberg an early challenge though. Booker was feuding with The Disco Inferno at the time and would soon be back in the TV Title mix.
They work a solid match here, with the crowd being into Booker and making good noise whenever Booker is on the offensive. The crowd doesn’t really care as much about Flynn, but he’s fine in his role as Heel here. The Disco Inferno joins us to cheer on Flynn seeing as he was feuding with Booker at the time, whilst Flynn works some heat on Booker with kicks and punches. Booker sells all of that well and Flynn’s offence looking fine.
Flynn eventually decides he doesn’t care for Disco either and kicks Disco off the apron, but that gives Booker a window to make the comeback, leading to the Axe Kick and the 110th Street Slam. Disco gets involved again though, and low bridges Booker out of the ring before getting a Stunner whilst Flynn distracts the ref. Flynn gets a spinning kick back inside the ring and that’s the three.
WINNER: JERRY FLYNN
RATING: **
Thoughts: This was competent pro wrestling. I’m not that annoyed with the result as they were kind of trying to push Flynn at the time and Booker was one of the rare examples of a babyface that actually got revenge on his nWo opponent at SuperBrawl IX, so I’ll let the cheap finish slide as it actually led to something
Ric Flair joins Mean Gene Okerlund in the ring for some promo time, with Flair’s face being bandaged up due to the attack on Nitro. Flair cuts quite a subdued promo by his usual standards, which helps lend some gravitas to the situation at least. Flair kind of rambles a bit at points, but he eventually gets a pop by firing up and saying he’s going to kick Hogan’s butt at the pay per view (he didn’t).
Torrie Wilson continues flirting with the cameraman in a hotel room before being given some tickets to SuperBrawl IX.
Main Event
WCW World Tag Team Title Tournament
Steel Cage Bout
Brian Adams and Horace Hogan Vs Crippler Chris Benoit and The Iceman Dean Malenko
This seemed like a really interesting match and it’s got some decent feedback, so I was intrigued to see it. WCW were having a double elimination tournament for the Tag belts at the time, so the winner of this bout will advance to the Championship match with Curt Hennig and Barry Windham at SuperBrawl IX. Adams had previously been Crush in the WWF, whilst Horace had made his name working in FMW as a partner for Mike Awesome before getting a gig in WCW in 1998.
They work this one as a standard tag match, but just one that’s in a cage so that no one can interfere. Benoit and Malenko shine on their bigger opponents to start, with both Adams and Horace being willing to take some bumps for their smaller opponents. Adams actually lets Benoit pummel him in the corner at one stage, although he shakes it off reasonably quickly with a back breaker for the cut off.
Benoit becomes babyface in peril following that, leading to Adams and Horace cutting off the ring and working Benoit over. Benoit sells that really well of course and his opponents look good on offence as well, so it’s an overall well-executed heat segment. Benoit eventually manages to send Horace into the cage and gets a suplex before making the hot tag, leading to the bizarre visual of Dean Malenko running wild on Brian Adams, although they kind of make it work.
Things break down following that, with all four wrestlers in the ring and going at it. The crowd starts getting into it quite a lot at this stage, with Vincent coming down to cageside in an effort to help his fellow nWo brethren. Referee Charles Robinson ends up taking a bump from a stray leg on a body slam, which leads to Vincent breaking into the cage in order to help his buddies. At least they waited for the ref to go down before making a mockery of the stip I guess.
Benoit and Malenko keep fighting despite being outnumbered, with Benoit eventually scaling the cage after taking out Vincent. Malenko kicks a chair back into Adams’ face and Benoit comes off the cage with a big Head Butt for the three count in order to end a pretty darn good match!
WINNERS: BENOIT & MALENKO
RATING: ***1/2
We don’t stick around following the three count as we’re desperately out of time!
In Conclusion
They were trying to do the hard sell for SuperBrawl IX here, with the wrestling being at a premium as a result, which is a shame as the crowd came alive whenever wrestling was taking place but didn’t care as much for the promos and angles. The matches were all too short, but there was nothing I thought was especially bad. When matches were in the ring this was a relatively easy watch, but the extracurricular stuff started making it a bit of a drag, so it ended up being a mixed bag here.
WCW was actually getting kind of hot again at this stage and SuperBrawl IX ended up doing a good buy rate. However, WCW then delivered a miserable show where all of the babyfaces got clobbered and all of the momentum was squandered in one night. WCW tried making it right with Uncensored by having the babyfaces rally a bit, but the damage was already done by that point.
The Main Event here is a lot of fun and I’d recommend watching that, but you don’t need to watch anything else here