Nitro opening up with a LIMO~! NO WAIT! 2 LIMOS! And the NWO are in em. Except they don’t seem to be happy with each other. Guess this is the beginning of the Black & White Vs Wolfpac shit. Yey.
So, last week they did Hogan/Sting Starrcade rematch and they went off the air before the finish because that’s what WCW do lol. BUT THEY CAN’T SHOW THE FOOTAGE COS NWO FILED AN INJUNCTION lol. Basically Sting retained the title anyway. But they’ve spent 5 minutes explaining this between the commentators, and then Mean Gene interviewing JJ Dillon about it.
Wait, they are claiming they will be able to show the footage… ON THE FIRST EPISODE OF THUNDER 
. THIS is what they are trying to lure fans to watching Thunder with?
Here comes Jericho! With his WWE Theme playing lol. He’s brought a steel chair and a suit with him. You know that clip of Jericho smashing a chair against the ring post they always use in WCW documentaries to show people being frustrated with the company? Yeah that happened last week and he’s sorry for what he did. The chair and suit are for Penzer. Ok.
Chris Jericho Vs DDP
Both men are happy and friendly here, going back and forth each gaining a slight advantage. When DDP gets the better of Jericho, Jericho is all smiles and shakes DDP’s hand. Jericho gets the better of DDP and we get another handshake… then Jericho knocks down DDP using the hair and acts all “my bad, sorry” and goes for another handshake only to turn it into an arm bar. DDP gets back to his feet and BANG. Diamond Cutter for the win. Well. That was quick lol. Was looking to be fun too.
Mean Gene with another interview, this time with Nick Lambrose(?), who is some attorney. He has a written statement to read. If people break the rules they will get fined or something. Did this really need to happen?
Goldberg Vs Stevie Ray
Goldberg is nowhere near as over as he would be later in the year, especially in this very arena (Georgia Dome). Chief Jay Strongbow is in the crowd and they show him and his wife in the audience, neither looking like they give a shit. His wife askes him something and you clearly see him say “I don’t know”. She was probably asking him who Goldberg was .
Wow, Stevie actually gets a couple of moves in! This is not a typical Goldberg squash. He even applies a modified chin lock which looks out of place for him to do.
Wow, Stevie getting in MORE offense! He actually has Goldberg down in the corner, but the referee gets in the way, distracts Stevie, and we get one of the worst spears from Goldberg. Jackhammer and done. And Stevie Ray gets right back up and no sells it so he can argue with the referee .
Nitro girls dance. Highlight is when one of their hats comes off.
John Nord Vs Barbarian
IF YOU DON’T LIKE ME, THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU. That’s on Nord’s t-shirt. He used to be The Berzerker in WWF. And also went by “Barbarian” in Mid-South too. So we have BARBARIAN VS BARBARIAN here 
.
There two big beefy bastards go right at it, slugging it out and running into each other until Nord knocks Barb out of the ring. From here they battle outside, using the ring post, ring steps and guard rail as a weapon. The crowd are pretty hot when they fight on the floor… but once they get back in the ring they are utterly silent 
.
BOOT TO THE FACE sends Nord backwards and right over the ropes and Barb is back in control of this match. Biggest pop comes with Nord knocks Jimmy Hart down .
Strange version of a camel clutch by Nord and he wins by submission! Match was… watchable. Odd that these two got like 5 minutes while DDP/Jericho got 1.
Mean Gene with another interview now lol. Its with Eric Bischoff this time. There are no problems within the NWO. He claims WCW is holding the tape from last week, and they are keeping it from being shown because it proves Hogan wins. Sure, Eric 
. Aaaand now he claims be beat Larry Z and didn’t have anything in his foot pad or something. Footage of that also on THUNDER. Man, I wish I could watch that first Thunder episode to see all this week old footage!
Juventud Guerrera Vs Psychosis
Winner of this gets a shot at Ultimo Dragon’s CW title. Commentators talk about this match for maybe 20 seconds in total. Meanwhile they discuss the exact same shit as they have been talking about all night so far, and has been discussed through various interviews too lol. They keep bringing up the footage of the fast count at Starrcade and how it’ll prove that Sting is champ. Not sure how they gonna do that since the count was botched and Nick Patrick counted normal .
Oh hey, the commentators finally talking about the match some more! Fun match overall. They dish out some cool moves to each other and do pretty much what you’d expect.
They show footage from APRIL 1997 to show that the NWO are having problems .
Wanna guess what they are doing next? MEAN GENE INTERVIEW SEGMENT~! The TV Champion Booker T. Absolutely nothing said worth mentioning.
Booker T Vs Prince Iaukea
OH MY GOD THE COMMENTATORS ARE STILL SAYING THE SAME SHIT. Speaking of shit, Booker T is here 
. A missed kick and a couple of awkward spots here. Aaaand another missed kick . HARLEM HANGOVER for the win.
Back to the commentators as they talk about THE SAME SHIT AGAIN.
Marcus Bagwell, Scott Norton & Konnan Vs The Steiner Brothers & Ray Traylor
Wow, Konnan starts the match with Traylor and doesn’t suck for like 2 whole minutes! at Scotty coming in and just running over Konnan and beating the shit out of him. Looked like a fucking shoot . Weird as hell seeing Scotty with the BIG POPPA PUMP body but still with black hair. Amazing how different he looks with blonde hair lol. Rick Steiner is a fucking hoot. His whole crazy, potentially has a mental age of someone younger than he is, stchick makes for some fun in the ring. He runs around, he barks, he mocks Bagwell’s poses, and he looks like he’s the happiest person going. He ends up taking a beating as the FIP, before his brother comes in and fucks everyone up . They do a spot where one guy gets closelined outside, followed by the guy who did the clothesline etc etc until only Scott and Konnan remain in the ring. STEINER SCREWDRIVER on Konnan and damn, that looked brutal. Win for WCW! This was one hell of a fun tag!
Nitro girls are out in the crowd dancing and some kids are trying to dance along and its fucking hilarious how stupid they look .
Brad Armstrong Vs Rick Martel
Poor Brad. Comes out to zero reaction. Rick doesn’t fair any better. Also… the fuck is Martel doing here? Had no idea he showed up in WCW in 98. The fans just don’t care about either man and that means they don’t care about the match either, sadly. Shame because this is a very solid wrestling match.
Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael Vs Perry Saturn & Scotty Riggs
Raven and his flock are sat in the crowd still. They’ve been there all night. Young emo Billy Kidman looks hilarious. Shockingly the commentators again talk about Starrcade and Thunder. Which is nice because I forgot all about what went on at Starrcade for like, 10 seconds! Solid tag match here, but man you can really tell how green Mongo is still. THE FLOCK interfere, DDT from Raven and Saturn gets the pin on Benoit.
Time for another Mean Gene interview because we haven’t had enough of those yet lol. WOOOOOOOOOOO its the Nature Boy Ric Flair. He’s out here to shit on Bret Hart . Bret comes out and Flair wants him to say that he’s the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be with HIM standing in the ring. Bret says it and adds he wants to do a woo at the end of it. Flair totally carries this entire interview segment because Bret just doesn’t seem to have the mic skills any more. He did great work the previous year but after the screwjob… he seems to have lost it all. Mic skills, passion, and most of his in ring ability. It ends with nothing happening and Mean Gene saying they gotta go to a commercial break. Ok then.
MAIN EVENT TIME.
Lex Luger Vs Randy Savage
Nick Patrick is here to referee, but JJ Dillon comes out with a new referee to replace him because Patrick is still under investigation for his “fast count” at Starrcade . All night WCW have been hammering in the point that Patrick did a fast count . Boy are they gonna look stupid come Thunder when they show the footage again .
Norton and Bagwell attack Luger on the outside at the start of the match while Savage distracts the referee. Good start, Lex! Savage beats on Lex, mainly with punches and kicks, and its nothing special. Lex comes back with clotheslines and at least the fans are into it lol. Savage uses Liz to gain an advantage again. Liz looks incredible btw. Inside cradle OUTTA NOWHERE and Luger wins. Well that was… a main event, apparently .
Savage goes crazy after the match, and ends up absolutely decking Bischoff, which brings down Hogan and Nash. Savage slaps Hogan, so Nash levels Savage. Hogan is trying to get everyone back on the same page. Nash fucks off to the back, but everyone else plans to take out Luger 4 on 1 until STING shows up. The NWO jump in the ring aaaand the show ends.
So that was the first Nitro of 1998. First time I’ve seen it. Gotta admit it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting. Some iffy matches for sure, but also a couple of good ones. Swap the time given to a few matches and it would have been even better. A few less Mean gene interviews too, perhaps. Some of them were utterly pointless. Main event was about as main event worthy as Barbarian Vs Nord. Only got the main event spot because it was 2 NAMES. Which I suppose is how most main events go lol. But fuck me, they didn’t build it up during the night at all, and other than it being a WCW guy vs an NWO guy, there was no reason for it. Oh well. NEXT EPISODE!
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