WCW/nWo Souled Out 1998

Hey man, people need content. Time to get back in this reviewing game.

In the opening Eric Bischoff says some cryptic shit in a haunted house while a Giant/Nash package runs in the background.. via Snickers. So you know… WCW stuff
A little bit of personal backstory, this was the first PPV my Grandpa let me get at their house. The Giant and Nash match had me sold.

January 24, 1998

Dayton, Ohio

Commentary: Tony, Dusty and The Brain…sometimes Tenay.

8-man Tag: Juventud Guerrera, Super Caló, Lizmark Jr. and Chavo Guerrero Jr. v La Parka, Psychosis, Silver King and El Dandy

This was surprisingly better than I remembered. This was essentially just a modern indie match in 1998. Like almost the entire match structure was the same. Lizmark and Silver King were miles ahead of where I remember them being as in ring talents. Everyone else did great as well. Well almost, Super Calo still sucks. 1 for 1

Winner: Chavo pins Psychosis after tornado DDT.

After the match La Parka murders EVERYONE because he was the man and stuff.

On Jan 31 check out the Boston Brawl IPPV for only $7.95

Gene shills the hotline. He knows shit that you can only get for $1.69 a minute. BIG shit.

Raven’s Rules: Raven v Chris Benoit

The Flock is banned from ringside. Benoit had been fighting through the Flock for months to finally get to Raven. Benoit was noticeably less juiced here and his mullet was a thing of beauty. This was a great hard hitting fight. Benoit easily slid himself into Ravens style of match and the results were fire. Can’t recommend enough if you can get past Benoit being there. 2 for 2

Winner: Benoit takes it after Raven passes out in the Crossface with a creepy smile.

The Flock returns only to be met by Dean Malenko. Malenko and Benoit team up to run them off.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: (C) Rey Mysterio Jr. v Chris Jericho

Jericho comes out to his WWE music which throws me the hell off. This was another really good contest between these two. It was a bit slower paced with Rey favoring his knee. Jericho playing the jerky opportunist really helps the story with this one. This show is starting off way better than I expected it to honestly. 3 for 3

Winner: Chris catches a Lion Tamer out of top rope Rana attempt.It looked great.

Jericho destroys the knee after the match when the crowd boos him. Tony acting all indignant is hilarious after he has seen WCW guys get murdered by the NWO every week for the past year plus.

Gene is with JJ Dillion. Thankfully they call out Piper to carry the entertainment part of that. Roddy gets to make the decision on the World title because WCW was run by storyline morons. Piper then brings out Sting, Scott Hall and Hollywood Hogan (w/Bisch) out to the ring to give his ruling. Hall is named Number 1 contender for winning World War 3. That was the consensus anyway so no new ground there. He then acts like he going to hand the title to Hogan before nailing a Borat like “NOT”. Like Piper is funny usually, how did he not nail the timing on that? So we really get Hogan v Sting at Superbrawl. Hogan then tried to start shit but Hall bails and ruins his idea. Hogan and Eric badly act their way out of the situation while Sting awkwardly crotch chops. Like…how was that in character at all?

WCW Television Championship: (C) Booker T v Rick Martel

1998 Handsome Dad Rick Martel was awesome, he and Booker were both on their games at this point. This was nothing that you would call a match of the year or anything but was just a solid match. From beginning to end it was two really good dudes keeping the crown engaged and telling a great story. This show continues to deliver and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. 4 for 4.

Winner: Booker retains with the Harlem Hangover.

Martel teases a turn after but instead they show sportsmanship. Clearly Vince Russo wasn’t here yet. Saturn attacks Martel afterwards but Booker saves.

Scott Hall (w/ Louie Spicolli) v Larry Zbyszko (w/ Dusty Rhodes)

Tony being a dick to Brain on commentary is starting to get on my nerves a bit. This was solid but slow due to the fact that it’s Larry. The crowd was super hype for it though and lost their minds for the ending with big Dust. Poor WCW barely got to look good huh? I honestly wouldn’t watch it all the time but it was fine for what it was. 5 for 5

Winner: Larry gets the DQ after the big Dusty turn that really didn’t help anyone.

Tony leaves the booth to work on being a sad boy or some shit. Boohoo someone joined the NWO.

6-Man Tag: Scott Norton, Buff Bagwell, Konan (w/ Vincent) v The Steiners, Ray Traylor (w/ Ted DiBiase)

This drug on wayyyy too long. The story with Scott being too selfish for the team made zero fucking sense. “Oh, great our partner keeps winning matches without us! Let’s not tag him and get beat up…that’ll show him!”. Pretty dumb. Also the crowd was dead until the end when Scott got the tag and Tony sucked on commentary. Blah. 5-6

Winner: Scott gets the Screwdriver for the win on Konnan proving that his partners were dead wrong.

Steiner and Buff pose off while the bayfaces ask dumb questions. No wonder WCW always lost.
Another Boston Brawl plug.

Giant vs Giant: Kevin Nash (w/ Hogan and Bischoff) v The Giant

Man I was HYPE for this back in the day. Sad. This was a basic big man match really. The only real highlights before the ending were a Nash leapfrog and then him getting caught after diving over the top. I’m here for Lucha Nash always. It was really basic shit other than that though which is disappointing considering it was supposed to be a blood feud with both men having to put up a million plus dollars to make it happen. 5-7

Winner: Nash gets the win after a low blow, a pot of coffee in the face and dropping the Giant on his damn head via combination of fatigue and a 500 lb dude being soaking wet. Maybe not the best time to try a Jackknife.

The crack WCW crew then starts bandaging the dudes eyes over fake coffee like he didn’t get dropped on his head and shit.
Superbrawl VIII commercial featuring DDP and a weird guy in a tattoo shop. Riveting stuff to be sure.

Ric Flair v Bret Hart

Never let it be forgotten how bad Bret’s WCW themes was. Trash. Also um…how was this not the main? I like Mach and Lex but come on. Plus if Tony doesn’t leave Brain alone I may create a time machine so I can go back and throw hands. This was a damn fine match. No gimmicks, no run ins, just two dudes working their asses off to show who the better man was. I really forgot how great this thing was. Really top notch stuff. 6-8 and almost an extra point added just for funzies and because I can.

Winner: Bret after a Sharpshooter.

Michael Buffer out for the main. Totally not a waste of money.

“Macho Man” Randy Savage (w/ Liz) v Lex Luger

Man Liz was aging in reverse during the 90’s. Also “Evil” Liz helps this match out immensely. It was decent enough and nothing to really sneeze at it was just kind of short for a main event on a show as good as this was. I’m still going to give it a point because Macho controlled most of it and Luger was super over at the time. 7-9

Winner: Lex gets the win with the Rack after Savage ran in to a distracting Scott Hall. Hogan was all about causing Macho to lose and helped out again on this one.

After the win. The NWO attack Luger but Sting runs down and beats up like 8 guys. Luger racks Nash and Sting gives the Scorpion to Hogan so WCW gets to stand tall at the end of a show for the second PPV in a row.

Overall Thoughts: Hell man, I really enjoyed this. Never thought it would get a 7-9 but here we are. Even the stuff that I didn’t really enjoy was more boring than overall bad. Probably going to stick with WCW for a bit. This was more fun than I imagined it would be this many years later.

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