WCW Road Wild 98'

WCW Road Wild 98'

Sturgis, South Dakota - August 1998

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Bill Goldberg is the reigning WCW World Champion, the United States Championship is held by Bret Hart, the Television Champion is Stevie Ray (he was awarded the title by his brother), and Chris Jericho is the Cruiserweight Champion. The World Tag Team Championships are held by Scott Hall and The Giant.

COMMENTATORS: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan

Meng vs. Barbarian is the opening contest, Meng coming in as the babyface seeking revenge on his former tag partner and ex-manager, Jimmy Hart. This is precisely what one would expect - stiff striking and power moves and absolutely nothing else. A match like this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea and even I, someone who generally enjoys watching Meng destroy people, felt this one was too slow for an opener and that Meng needs a stronger finish (the Tongan Death Grip might legitimately kill someone, but as a wrestling hold, it doesn't work for me). The post-match is also a mixed bag. Hugh Morrus comes in and hits his No Laughing Matter on Meng and it looks brutal, but WCW booked one of the least interesting characters on the roster to make the save - "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan - and this entire angle, in no time flat, becomes something I want to avoid when, initially, it piqued my interest. (1.5/5)

Public Enemy take on The Dancing Fools, Alex Wright and Disco inferno (with Tokyo Magnum) next. The match starts off as a straight-forward competition, but soon devolves into a hardcore match because, well, no reason is given and the referee doesn't feel like doing his job, I guess. You would think the addition of weapons would allow for Public Enemy to do what they do best - but based on this match, they don't do anything best. Inferno and Wright save this from being a 0 by their sheer charisma, but its not like they bring it up too far - especially when Inferno sells a ladder shot a good 2 feet away and Wright inexplicably forfeits the match after Tokyo Magnum bumps him by accident and with seemingly no effect. The final spot is convoluted and stupid. (1/5)

Next up, another match that desperately needed a road agent in charge of it. This is the match you get when you put three guys in the ring who put too much emphasis on innovation over basic structure and story - Raven vs. Kanyon vs. Saturn. As a fan of all three guys, it pains me to say that this match features the worst each guy has to offer, but that's what it essentially is. Early on, Kanyon and Saturn team up to punish Raven, but then, inexplicably (as there is nothing tangible on the line), they gripe over who gets to make the final pin rather than them, say, organically coming to blows via a miscommunication or show of disrespect. Similarly, multiple times in the match we have moves like a "double sleeper" - not because applying the hold makes sense, but because its "never been seen before." They deserve credit for trying new things, but all the innovation becomes a distraction and the basic story gets muddled to the point that this match is rendered meaningless. The finish is overbooked (and features Horace Boulder in a spotlight cameo), but it may be my favorite stretch of the entire bout. (1.5/5)

Oh how I wanted the next match to be great - Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis. These two had one of my favorite matches ever a year or so earlier (maybe even two?) but this one just never wowed me. Compared to everything that came before it (and even most of the matches we get today), its at least average just because of how sympathetic Mysterio is and how sharp his offense (even on an off night) could be, but Psicosis almost seems injured here, avoiding anything resembling the high spots he routinely performed a year or so prior. Considering they actually get a fair amount of time to perform, it is doubly disappointing. (2.5/5)

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Stevie Ray for the TV Championship is next. The story going into this is that Chavo has been claiming he is the TV Champion, while Stevie Ray actually has the title in his possession (he was given it by Booker T in July). Guerrero arrives his "horse" Pepe and proceeds to get on the nerves of not only his opponent but every biker in attendance. I'm on the fence about Guerrero's work - on one hand, he is supposed to be irritating and annoying, but on the other hand, he's so irritating and annoying that the intended comedy is just too broad for me - like how Jerry Lewis is supposed to be a doofus in The Nutty Professor, but to me, he's such a doofus that my eyes get stuck in a perpetual roll. That being said, the in-ring story is almost as clever as Chavo's character is overbearing. Chavo tries to tire out Stevie Ray by making him chase him in and out of the ring and its a sound strategy, but the Harlem Heater ends up cornerning Chavo anyhow and beating him in swift fashion. The arrival of Eddie Guerrero in the post match is an extra twist that makes this a surprisingly solid albeit very minor piece of storyline advancement. The fact that something this trivial doesn't warrant negative stars and actually works as at least "average"-level entertainment is actually quite an accomplishment. (2.5/5)

The next segment is not nearly as effective as Rick Steiner shows up to take on his brother, nWo member Scott Steiner. Based on the pre-match comments by Tony Schiavone and the subsequent angle, it seems this match was fully advertised to happen - but it doesn't and the crowd is none-too-happy. There's probably a number of reasons for this. First, a quick scroll up this review reveals that the Steiners, up to this point in the show, were arguably the first real "name" talents on the card - especially to an older crowd of bikers and their wives. Second, this match had been in the works since February. Bait-and-switching a crowd of bikers who had been waiting fairly patiently for some "real wrestling" featuring "real stars" and had sat through multiple comedy matches was shit planning. The segment itself, for what it is, wouldn't have made a bad 5-minute sketch on the Nitro or Thunder before this show, but on PPV? When the company already the audience's cash? Awful. (-1)

Just when you feel like a WCW show can't get worse, you get a match like this next one - Brian Adams of the nWo versus Steve "Mongo" McMichael. Nearly everything but a Crush spine buster in this match and the Tombstone is executed poorly. The crowd is completely and justifiably dead for this. The commentary tries somewhat, but even they can't get a match this bad and meaningless over. The finish is comical - with Vincent's chair shot looking soft as butter and telegraphed and then the former Virgil holding the chair directly in front of his face so Mongo can punch it. Here's your zero. (0/5)


Dean Malenko makes his way down the aisle as he'll be serving as the referee for tonight's Cruiserweight Championship match between Chris Jericho and Juventud Guerrera. Jericho cuts a pretty good pre-match promo, insulting the crowd by calling them "weekend warriors" and claiming he is the true biker. Lengthy match with Malenko calling it down the middle for the most part. Jericho controls the majority of the match with Guerrera hitting the occasional hope spot, including a Juvi Driver for two. Jericho's character work is good throughout, but this match went just too long with too few changes in momentum for it to keep my interest (or the interest of the crowd). It also suffers from some kickout-for-kickouts sake moments, including the aforementioned Juvi Driver and a title belt shot. The eventual finish gets the biggest pop of the match (and deservedly so), but could've come 5 minutes earlier and I don't think it would've taken anything away from the match. (2/5)

It is now time for the nWo/WCW Battle Royale, with Tag Champs Scott Hall and the Giant showing up first, followed by Curt Hennig and Scott Norton. Hall takes a survey and nWo Hollywood loses. The Wolfpack arrive next - Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger, and Konnan. When the nWo Hollywood/nWo Wolfpack feud started, it was all about Nash vs. Hogan, but months later, that's not even a talking point as Hogan, after dropping the WCW World Title, ended up in main events against celebrities. Bret Hart, meanwhile, wasn't doing much of anything as far as I know. Anyway, the final entrant in this 9-man battle royale is WCW World Champion, Goldberg. When the bell rings, the rival factions go after each other, Goldberg the odd man out at first until he ends up going after The Giant. Hall is the first to go and is followed out by Nash, who eliminates himself to get at his former best friend. Goldberg spears Hennig in the ring while Sting jumps on The Giant's back to apply a sleeper. A "Goldberg" chant starts up and dies, the match in desperate need of some eliminations to freshen things up. Goldberg tosses Konnan but ends up double-teamed in the corner by Giant and Hennig. Giant lifts Goldberg out of the ring and hits him with a back suplex, which makes very little sense in a battle royal (considerably less sense than the spears Goldberg dishes out). Goldberg then eliminates Hennig, Sting, and Norton in one fell swoop before spearing Luger. Down to Giant and Goldberg, the Champ gets hit with a chokeslam, but sits up Undertaker style. Goldberg hits the big man with a spear for a massive pop! Goldberg hits the Jackhammer for an even bigger pop...as a referee rolls into the ring and counts 3! What a stupid finish! Not only did they miss an opportunity to make The Giant look like a real challenger, they ended the battle royal with an inexplicable pinfall! Good work, WCW, you just blew away any allure that a Goldberg/Giant match could've had for absolutely no reason. (1/5)

Main event time - Hogan and Bischoff vs. DDP and Jay Leno (with Kevin Eubanks). Hogan and DDP start and DDP actually gets a decent reaction, though, Hogan has plenty of supporters himself. This is one of those celebrity matches that is about as good as one would think it would be on paper. Leno can't do anything well in the ring (I was more a Letterman guy too), but he doesn't have to as DDP and Hogan really do all the heavy lifting. The crowd is into things, but there's really nothing creative in anything that happens - plus, without a lightning rod of controversy like Dennis Rodman around, there's no added excitement or "big moment" feeling to any of this, just the general sense that WCW and The Tonight Show wanted to do some cross promotion and that this was the (unfortunate) culmination point, that the build-up was going to make for much better TV than the event it was building up to and everyone knew it so why bother trying to actually deliver a better-than-expected match? This is not a historically bad match as it is a historically bad main event to cap off a show without a single above-average match. (0.5/5)


With a Kwang Score of 1.28-out-of-5, Road Wild 98' is the worst PPV I've reviewed out of close to 200 pay-per-views. Even if you take away the minus-1 for the bait-and-switch of Steiner/Steiner, this show would still rank well below shows like SuperBrawl V and the forgettable-by-design Rebellion 2002. What might be most shocking is that, at this time, WCW's roster was stacked with talent. Where's Bret Hart? Chris Benoit? Booker T? Even if they were on the card, though, would they actually deliver? Mysterio and Jericho get plenty of time to shine but their matches are sub-par and an indifferent crowd can only take so much of the blame. The "hardcore" matches might feature a good spot here or there, but they occur in the midst of intelligence-insulting convoluted stories. Then there's just boring, tedious not-even-TV-level garbage like Mongo vs. Brian Adams. Avoid this show. 

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville