World Championship Wrestling (WCW) returns to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the third straight year in front of a crowd of 11,528 on September 13, 1998.
Match 1: The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart defeated The Dancing Fools (Alex Wright and Disco Inferno) - Tag Team match (11:03) - Typical tag match nothing special, both Bulldog and Neidhart look aged and gassed especially Bulldog who looks badly out of shape, which is sad considering he was 35 during this match. It also made matters worse that there was a trap door hidden in the ring for the Ultimate Warrior, he landed on it awkwardly twice and the result was a spinal infection that nearly paralyzed him, hospitalizing him for six months, and giving him an addiction to pain killers. 3/10
Match 2: Chris Jericho (c) defeated "Goldberg" (impersonator) by submission - Singles match for the WCW World Television Championship (01:15) - This barely is even a match so on that regard its crap, but on the other note this is great stuff from Jericho who was wanting this to actually build up between he and Goldberg for a supposed feud that never really happened because of Goldberg's "big head" at the time. This is probably what led Jericho to make the impending jump to WWF the following year. 1/10
Match 3: Ernest Miller defeated Norman Smiley - Singles match (05:04) - Another blah match, Miller had been built up over the weeks as a decent mid card heel who didn't really wrestle but was able to win with his karate moves. 2/10
Match 4: Rick Steiner fought Scott Steiner (with Buff Bagwell) to a no-contest - Singles match (05:30) - This match had been building for weeks and I was pretty stoked to see how it went as did the fans in attendance as it was the first one of the nights they got hyped for. Sadly, as soon as it gets going, they throw it out as a no contest because of a kayfabe neck injury to Buff Bagwell which turns out to be a trick. I get they didn't want either of these guys to loss at this point and they probably did what was the best thing even though there's still nothing here to recommend. 3/10
Match 5: Juventud Guerrera (c) defeated Silver King - Singles match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship (08:36) - Leave it to the cruiserweights to give you an actual wrestling match on a wrestling show. Sadly, the fans chant "boring" and even "taco bell" during this, showing you the quality of the North Carolina education system at the time. Guerrera does hit a beautiful 450 splash that gets a great pop from the crowd. 6/10
Match 6: Saturn defeated Raven (with Kanyon and Lodi) - Raven's Rules match (14:04) - This was a fun match with a lot of obstacles which saw Saturn finally overcome the menace of Raven and his flock to be set free after pretty much being a prisoner to the group, this had been building on Nitro and Thunder the following weeks. It worked very well and got Saturn over with the crowd and had some nice spots with Lodi receiving a brutal Death Valley Driver threw a table to the outside. 7/10
Match 7: Dean Malenko defeated Curt Hennig (with Rick Rude) by disqualification - Singles match (07:38) - These two would have a better match the previous week on Nitro in a steel cage. This is mostly just 80% of Malenko on offense targeting Hennig's leg with Rude interrupting at the end for a DQ. Arn Anderson rushes to the ring to get beat up himself. So yeah, pretty crappy the best thing about it is how good Hennig sells his injuries he was truly a pro. 4/10
Match 8: Konnan defeated Scott Hall (with Vincent) by submission - Singles match (12:03) - Hall returns after being off television for the last couple of weeks this was in part due to his actual substance abuse in real life. So, this started their grand idea of working the man's personal issues into an angle. As figured, it's a blah match with a lot of Hall stumbling around and acting drunk. 3/10
Match 9: Team WCW (Diamond Dallas Page, Roddy Piper and The Warrior) defeated nWo Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart and Stevie Ray) and nWo Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Sting and Lex Luger) - WarGames match (20:06) - An extremely underwhelming event they hype the match up that it could end at any time, but you know everyone's going to be out by the time it's over. It's mostly just a showcase to continue the feud between Hogan and Warrior.
Overall, WCW was still competitive at this point, but its PPVs like this that showcased that they were heading in the opposite direction that the WWF was trending in. They had already spent most of the whole summer losing the ratings war, and after a bump back mostly from the Ultimate Warrior's return they would just beat Vince two more times after this. 4/10.
Match 1: The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart defeated The Dancing Fools (Alex Wright and Disco Inferno) - Tag Team match (11:03) - Typical tag match nothing special, both Bulldog and Neidhart look aged and gassed especially Bulldog who looks badly out of shape, which is sad considering he was 35 during this match. It also made matters worse that there was a trap door hidden in the ring for the Ultimate Warrior, he landed on it awkwardly twice and the result was a spinal infection that nearly paralyzed him, hospitalizing him for six months, and giving him an addiction to pain killers. 3/10
Match 2: Chris Jericho (c) defeated "Goldberg" (impersonator) by submission - Singles match for the WCW World Television Championship (01:15) - This barely is even a match so on that regard its crap, but on the other note this is great stuff from Jericho who was wanting this to actually build up between he and Goldberg for a supposed feud that never really happened because of Goldberg's "big head" at the time. This is probably what led Jericho to make the impending jump to WWF the following year. 1/10
Match 3: Ernest Miller defeated Norman Smiley - Singles match (05:04) - Another blah match, Miller had been built up over the weeks as a decent mid card heel who didn't really wrestle but was able to win with his karate moves. 2/10
Match 4: Rick Steiner fought Scott Steiner (with Buff Bagwell) to a no-contest - Singles match (05:30) - This match had been building for weeks and I was pretty stoked to see how it went as did the fans in attendance as it was the first one of the nights they got hyped for. Sadly, as soon as it gets going, they throw it out as a no contest because of a kayfabe neck injury to Buff Bagwell which turns out to be a trick. I get they didn't want either of these guys to loss at this point and they probably did what was the best thing even though there's still nothing here to recommend. 3/10
Match 5: Juventud Guerrera (c) defeated Silver King - Singles match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship (08:36) - Leave it to the cruiserweights to give you an actual wrestling match on a wrestling show. Sadly, the fans chant "boring" and even "taco bell" during this, showing you the quality of the North Carolina education system at the time. Guerrera does hit a beautiful 450 splash that gets a great pop from the crowd. 6/10
Match 6: Saturn defeated Raven (with Kanyon and Lodi) - Raven's Rules match (14:04) - This was a fun match with a lot of obstacles which saw Saturn finally overcome the menace of Raven and his flock to be set free after pretty much being a prisoner to the group, this had been building on Nitro and Thunder the following weeks. It worked very well and got Saturn over with the crowd and had some nice spots with Lodi receiving a brutal Death Valley Driver threw a table to the outside. 7/10
Match 7: Dean Malenko defeated Curt Hennig (with Rick Rude) by disqualification - Singles match (07:38) - These two would have a better match the previous week on Nitro in a steel cage. This is mostly just 80% of Malenko on offense targeting Hennig's leg with Rude interrupting at the end for a DQ. Arn Anderson rushes to the ring to get beat up himself. So yeah, pretty crappy the best thing about it is how good Hennig sells his injuries he was truly a pro. 4/10
Match 8: Konnan defeated Scott Hall (with Vincent) by submission - Singles match (12:03) - Hall returns after being off television for the last couple of weeks this was in part due to his actual substance abuse in real life. So, this started their grand idea of working the man's personal issues into an angle. As figured, it's a blah match with a lot of Hall stumbling around and acting drunk. 3/10
Match 9: Team WCW (Diamond Dallas Page, Roddy Piper and The Warrior) defeated nWo Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart and Stevie Ray) and nWo Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Sting and Lex Luger) - WarGames match (20:06) - An extremely underwhelming event they hype the match up that it could end at any time, but you know everyone's going to be out by the time it's over. It's mostly just a showcase to continue the feud between Hogan and Warrior.
Overall, WCW was still competitive at this point, but its PPVs like this that showcased that they were heading in the opposite direction that the WWF was trending in. They had already spent most of the whole summer losing the ratings war, and after a bump back mostly from the Ultimate Warrior's return they would just beat Vince two more times after this. 4/10.
