Holy crap, no LIMO~! to start off the show!
Eddie Guerrero Vs Rick Martel
First appearance of Eddie on Nitro 1998 
. And his opponent is MARTEL? I can absolutely get behind this! Eddie jumps him before the bell and this match is none stop action for the first minute or so until Martel makes a comeback and Eddie rolls to the outside to get away. Crowd are HOT for the match too. ARMDRAGS~! Not quite Steamboat quality, but damn good by Martel! Eddie is a scumbag heel here, using the referee to get between him and Martel, then dropkicking the leg out of the model. EDDIE SUCKS chants. But he can’t hear them apparently 
. SPINEBUSTER OUTTA NOWHERE from Martel, and the QUEBEC CRAB submission gets him the win! Wish this was given more time, but for what we got it was really good. Martel can absolutely still go in 1998!
THUNDER FLASHBACK. Apparently DDP was attacked last week leaving Nitro, so he was unable to compete in the tag with Lex against Nash and Savage. All was going well for the NWO until Nash and Savage started having problems again and Luger takes charge. TORTURE RACK ON HOGAN. TORTURE RACK ON NASH. Savage comes off the ropes to try and hit Nash but hits Luger, then Hogan and Savage try some double team shit only for Hogan to hit Savage, and more problems arise. THE GIANT shows up and CHOKESLAMS Hogan since he can’t touch Nash! All hell breaks loose with the NWO showing up in full force, but Sting and Luger help out and clear the ring to end the show.
BISCHOFF AND HOGAN come out to the ring. Bischoff presents Hogan with Sting’s bat which he took… at some point. 
the bat looks so fucking fake up close . Hogan is gonna face THE GIANT tonight, to prove that he’s a fighting champion, even though he isn’t champion no more. Fan in the background holds up a sign upside down and its hilarious watching as he realises its upside down .
Marty Jannetty Vs Chris Benoit
Another interesting match on paper! Wow, Souled out PPV is on SATURDAY because the Superbowl is on the Sunday. Odd that WCW chose that weekend for the PPV lol. Benoit is as crisp as ever on offense and Jannetty is bumping around like crazy for him and making him look fucking great, which is just what Benoit needs going into a big PPV match with Raven. Great spot with Benoit preventing a suplex from Marty and countering it with his own. Usually the guy doing the move tries to lift the other guy, and then puts him down after lifting him like a foot off the mat etc. Benoit really hooks his leg around Marty’s leg and it looks like a legit counter. Raven and his flock show up but Benoit locks in the Crossface and gets the win, the begins to take out flock members one by one until only RAVEN remains. Saturn attacks from behind but Jannetty comes in for the save, leaving Lody to take a Diving Headbutt! Good match and fun build to the PPV afterwards too. Benoit looked as good as ever and Marty was on top of his game too. A shame Marty had his problems, otherwise he could have been killing it in the ring for years.
Jerry Flynn Vs The Cat
2 legit martial artists gonna go at it! Shame they both suck at pro wrestling . The Cat is NOT the crazy dancing character he would become either. He’s pure martial artist charisma vacuum. match starts and Flynn kicks Cat right out of the ring immediately . BOOOORING chants a minute in . They trade kicks and submissions and nobody gives a fuck, myself included. This is so bad.
30 minutes into this show and NO MEAN GENE INTERVIEW SEGMENT. But we do have a Scott Hall segment! Another survey and another win for WCW! He cuts a promo on Larry Z, shitting on his AWA title run because he was the boss’ son-in law, and the company went out of business. Larry ain’t happy and heads to the ring! Then returns during the break .
Buff Bagwell & Konnan Vs The Steiner Brothers
Bagwell officially going by BUFF now. Why is DiBiase the manager of The Steiners? He never seems to actually DO anything. Buff starts with Scotty and gets murdered. Tags in Konnan who also gets murdered lol. Scotty is ON FIRE. FUCKING HELL. Steiner gets clotheslined out of the ring and it looks fucking BRUTAL. He crashes down on the apron chest first before falling to the floor. Match is doing a good job continuing the Steiner Bros problems, with Scotty refusing to tag his brother in and taking all the glory for himself. He takes a little beating but mostly dominates both Buff and Konnan for the win while Rick is stood on the apron wondering what the fuck is happening. Rick stares down Scott but Scott fucks off. Fun stuff.
MEAN GENE!!! Hour 2 kicks off with an in ring interview 
. His guest is none other than THE GIANT, who later tonight takes on Hollywood Hogan. He’s got a CHOKESLAM for Hogan tonight. And speaking of… here comes Hogan and Nash. Nash has a coffee pot. I think I can guess what happens here. Especially since I remember the finish to their Souled Out match lol. As Nash gets in Giant’s face, SAVAGE shows up! Hogan tells him to feck off and… Savage listens? Nope! He shoves Hogan into Nash who falls into The Giant, and apparently The Giant can hit Nash if Nash hits him first? They never made that clear last week lol. COFFEE TO THE FACE AND BASEBALL BAT TO THE BACK and The Giant is down, so out comes Sting to lay out Hogan and take back his bat. Because he can’t possibly get another bat. Anywhere. They stopped selling them in 1998 due to the worldwide bat shortage. Was a sad time for baseball fans. And people who liked to hit people with bats. Like Sting.
Mortis Vs Booker T – WCW TV Championship Match
Its James Mitchell! Well, he has a different name here but I can’t spell it and I cba going back and seeing how its spelt during his entrance. Oh god. Nitro goes 3 hours from next week. I thought it wasn’t while April. Anyway, this match. No idea if the title is on the line. They don’t make these things too clear most of the time. Ok, towards the end of the match they seem to imply that it is indeed a title match. I’ll add that in to the match title. So when you read my earlier comment about me not knowing, you’ll think “but he wrote it as a title match”. Yeah, well, fuck you. I just wrote it now. So there. Booker T kills Mortis with a powerbomb from the second rope, then continues to beat on him before finishing it with the Harlem Hangover. Match was ok. Wrath comes out afterwards and levels Booker. Martel comes out to make the save. He has a title shot coming up at some point so he wants a healthy opponent. Or to earn Booker T’s trust so he can screw him over. Martel asks for his shot at Souled Out, and Booker agrees. Might check that out.
MEAN GENE AGAIN~! WOOOOOOOOOOO Ric Flair time! Commentators hype up FLAIR VS BRET as a dream match. No guys. No it is not. Especially after it already happened and it sucked. Flair wonders what he’ll be called after he beats Bret Hart and proves himself as the best. Bret comes out and looks like he couldn’t give a shit. Bret sucks up to Flair, while the fans chant USA at him . He respects him, thinks he’s good blah blah blah but he’s still gonna beat him at Souled Out. He does finish his promo strong though. Flair fucks up and says Sunday instead of Saturday, then does a good job of saving himself, but Bret has a big grin on his face cos he knows he fucked up . Werid that there isn’t much heat here after Flair tried to cripple Neidhard last week…
Chris Jericho Vs Juventud Guerrera
Last week Jericho attacked Rey before his CW title match. However, on Thunder, Rey won it anyway, so Souled Out will feature Jericho Vs Rey. Jericho keeps getting dominated, but tries to keep his cool and be a “nice guy” in the match. Juvi opens up the ropes to let him in at one point, so Jericho returns the favour later on… then kicks Juvi and locks in the Walls for the win. Mostly a nothing match. He tries to apologise to Juvi after the match, but beats him up instead, which brings out Mysterio for the save they double team Jericho!
Scott Hall Vs Lex Luger
Hall came out earlier with his tag belt for a promo. Now he’s got a match and… no belt? Hall throws the toothpick in Lex’s face and laughs, so Lex slaps the smile off his face! Man, Luger is SO OVER at this time. Hall raises his arm for a test of strength, and Luger just stands back for about 30 seconds thinking about it, and then ONE LOOK at the crowd and they erupt and want him to lock up. Shame it was all a ruse and Hall kicks him . They don’t do that much here, mainly just Hall applying Submissions and Luger getting out of them and using it on Hall, before the comeback and finish. But the crowd are behind Luger all the way and overall its a well worked match. Luger wins via DQ when Savage shows up, but Lex handles both guys for a while until the numbers game catches up to him. Eventually LARRY Z runs down but he gets taken out the second he enters the ring. Luger eventually chases them off with a chair. Good stuff!
MAIN EVENT TIME~!
Hollywood Hogan Vs The Giant
Hogan comes down to the ring with a neckbrace on. Guess the attack from Sting earlier has injured him. Oh dear, what a pity, never mind! Bischoff tries to cut a promo, but The Giant reaches over the ropes, pulls Hogan onto the apron and suplexes him into the ring to start the match! Nash comes out to watch. Hogan has got nothing in so far, but a distraction allows Hogan to attack from behind, then Nash got his shot in too. The referee catches Nash getting involved and sends him to the back and the commentators don’t even acknowledge it . BODY SLAM TO THE GIANT~! LEG DROP~! 1… 2… referee stops counting cos Savage has jumped on the top rope . Chokeslam to Hogan, Giant wins, and for some reason Savage just crawls in the ring and to the other side . Nash is back and going after Savage! Luger saves Savage from Nash, only to beat up Savage himself . Rest of the NWO come down to attack everyone while a fan puts the Torture Rack on another fan . STING~! HE’S VERY SLOWLY DESCENDING FROM THE RAFTERS~! Sting gets in the ring and attacks Hogan while everyone else watches . Sting got his bat back earlier but… doesn’t bring it with him here? Team WCW clear the ring to end the show. Match wasn’t very good, and the aftermath was just a mess tbh.
Another good show overall. They cut down on Mean Gene interviews which was good, and they gave us some real interesting matchups that mostly delivered as well!
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