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WCW Monday Nitro 10/26/98
Hogan and Warrior had a terrible match, Bret and Sting had a bullshit match, and DDP/Goldberg had a great match. Due to 10-20% of cable providers cutting out on Halloween Havoc, they will be showing Goldberg vs DDP in full at the 9PM hour. Tony tells us that the competition has been saying this was a ploy by WCW just to have a ratings spike. Tony says this is not the case at all. Larry then talks about the "2KY" bug.
Stevie Ray vs Kenny Kaos
What a great thing to start a show with after 20% of your paying audience got dicked out of the main event the night before. Kenny was about to win when Buff ran down, distracted the ref, and threw the slapjack to Stevie. Slapjack and Slapjack for the win. They continued a beat down until Rick Steiner made a save. He's wearing a t-shirt under his singlet for some reason. Rick spits out that he won the tag titles last night (this is at least the second time this year that a wrestler won the tag titles without a tag partner) and WCW is making him choose a partner tonight. He picks Kaos. What about Rage? This dude already has a tag partner.
Kanyon vs TAFKATAFKAPI
LOL at Tony saying Hogan/Warrior "...turned..ugly..". What he meant to say was "turned shitty, sorry folks!". Prince starts the match out in a hurry and hip tosses Kanyon to the floor. Kanyon tries a pildriver on/off the steps, but gets backdroped off. Prince comes back in the ring with a springboard flip and a mountain bomb. Kanyon comes back with the Flatliner for the win. BANG!
The Nitro girls dance at the announce table as Tony tries to hide his O-face.
TO THE MEAN GENE. The Horsemen are the in ring guests. I don't believe we are in the shanks of the evening, yet. No Mongo tonight. I guess they lost him after a long weekend in Vegas. Ric starts to talk about the HARD TIMES that Bischoff has been having lately. Speak of the devil, here comes Bischoff. He says he realizes how much Ric Flair means to the WCW fans and he will allow Ric Flair to wrestle. And Ric Flair will wrestle....TONIGHT!
In addition to seeing DDP vs Goldberg, we'll also get DDP vs Bret Hart for the US Championship.
Alex Wright vs Barry Horrowitz
It's a Horrowitz squash.
Sick Boy vs Wrath
Wrath defeated Meng last night, but for whatever reason, it wasn't shown on the PPV. It wasn't a dark match,since it happened after the show started, but it wasn't shown on the show. I don't get it. Another squash for Wrath.
TO THE HALLOWEEN HAVOC. DDP vs Goldberg is shown in full.
TO THE BACK. Mean Gene tries to get a word with Kevin Nash. Scott Hall was also in the locker room. Nash says he didn't pin Hall because it wasn't about winning or losing. It was about beating some sense into Hall and getting his friend back. Hall says it is time for a change. He offers his hand to Nash. Then Giant shows up and attacks. Hall and Giant throw Nash through the wall. It was a SWERVE!
The nWo in full force come out. LOL again at Tony saying the finish to Hogan/Warrior wasn't worth mentioning. Horace is officially given his nWo membership. Warrior or the match wasn't even mentioned once by Hogan.
Saturn vs Eddie Guerrero
They start out with some good old fashioned chain wrasslin. Saturn gets tired of it and hits a belly to belly. He hits a shoulder block. Eddie tries to claim there was a hair pull. Eddie used the opportunity to drop kick the knee and would continue to work over the leg. Saturn hits another suplex, but can barely even stand. Regardless, he tries a press slam, which is countered into an arm drag. Eddie hits a titlawhirl backbreaker. He goes for a wheelbarrow bulldog, which is countered into a face buster. Saturn starts his come back. T-bone. Falcon Arrow. The LWO run in. Saturn manages to fight the first wave off, but they eventually outnumber him. This new guy hits a brainbuster. Eddie hits the frog splash.
TO THE MEAN GENE. Judy Bagwell is the guest. Buff has let his family down. I can't understand half of what Judy says. She's such a redneck. The family is done with Buff. Judy is a mother on a mission (MOM) and she's had ENOUGH OF BUFF!
Stevie Ray/Giant vs Rick Steiner/Kenny Kaos WCW Tag Team Championships
This is probably the 5th or 6th match this year where the tag team belts were defended by someone who wasn't responsible for winning them to begin with. First with the nWo at the beginning of the year, then with the Wolfpac, then again with the nWo, and now Rick and Kenny. I find it really bizarre that Rick picked a guy already in an established tag team. Great ref/Giant botch where Giant was supposed to power out of a pin, but he took too long, so the ref just stopped counting. Rick hits a really shitty and dangerous looking super bulldog on Stevie to retain the titles. You'd think after nearly breaking a guy's neck earlier in the year that he'd try to hit it as cleanly as possible.
Eric Bischoff and Brain have joined us at the booth. Bischoff said Flair would wrestle tonight, but what he didn't say was that it would be on video tape. We're shown highlights of Bash at the Beach 1994. A lot of it. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to make a montage of Flair jobbing to Hogan.
Juventud Guerrera vs Kidman WCW Cruiserweight Championship
God damn it. AGAIN. Worst of all, Juvi lost the night before to Disco, who went on to lose to Kidman, so how is he now the number one contender? The only new thing of note was Juvi spiking Kidman with a brainbustaaaah.
We're shown the new Macho Man and Sting home videos. I had these and the Goldberg one as a kid. They're both like 45 minutes and sucked. Brain stole one anyway.
Buff and Scott are not only nWo 4LYFE, but FRIENDS4LYFE. Buff then heels on moms, saying their jobs are cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their man. He wants his dad to set his mom straight when gets home. Scott wants JoJo to come out and grant him a rematch with Rick. Scott claims that JoJo has always liked Rick more, especially since Scott joined the nWo. JoJo wants to know why the ref who started the match wasn't the one who finished it. They attack JoJo. Steiner Recliner!
The Warrior comes out.
Speak to me, warriors. Last night, Hogan, you had the opportunity to face the challenge like a man and you failed. Last night, Hogan, you had the opportunity to set afire with but one match what will now haunt you forever. You see, Hogan, there's a difference between beating someone up and genuinely having beat a man. And the whole world of warriors knows I beat the hell out of you last night. And the (???, sounded like a muted bullshit) been bought doesn't change it. You have opened the door to the Warrior's hell and I am its gatekeeper. The time is near. Same Warrior time. Same Warrior place. Same Warrior channel.
Hogan comes out. Horace stops him from getting in the ring. Horace gets in instead. And out he goes. Same for Giant. Hogan attacks from behind. Warrior comes back with maybe the worst flying shoulder block I've ever seen, then decks Bischoff off the apron. I figured this was over since Hogan didn't mention Warrior at all earlier and I really didn't remember Warrior doing anything after Halloween Havoc.
Konnan/Lex Luger vs Scott Hall/Scott Steiner
You're telling me they let Steiner wrestle after attacking JoJo earlier? It starts as a wild brawl with everyone in the ring and the ref not trying to break it up. Steiner and Konnan go to the floor. Shortly after, Lex and Hall go to the floor. I don't know if this is a no DQ falls count anywhere match or what. I don't even know if this was a match since there were chairs and chokes and then it just went to commercial and was over when we came back.
DDP vs Bret Hart WCW US Championship
Bret tries to end it early with a roll up. He then out technical wrestles DDP. DDP does a roll up of his own. Bret comes back with some heel stuff. DDP pulls himself out of the corner (BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS), but gets knocked right back down with a lariatoo. Bret settles into a chin lock. DDP tries to fight out of it and gets hit with a DDT. He comes back with a Pancake Norton. DDP goes up top, gets caught, and Bret hits a huge superplex. 5MOD starts up. A low blow hits both DDP and the ref. Bret gets the international object. He wakes the ref up for some reason, only to turn around into a Kanyon Cutter. BANG! New champion! Bret then beats up the ref and DDP. He pounds on DDP's leg with a chair and then puts him in the Sharpshooter. Then more chair shots. After a good 4 minutes of this, Goldberg finally runs into help and WE'RE OUTTA TIME. I'm sure what happened next won't be shown on or talked about on Thunder. Also, Bret is a terrible US Champion. He won it in a non-match, lost it a week later, won it back on the next show, and has only defended it once I think before losing it again.
After a huge PPV, it felt like business as usual on Nitro. Warrior/Hogan continues, Hall/Nash continues, the nWo/Wolfpac war continues, Steiner/Buff vs Steiner/Judy continues. No resolution to anything, and all of the feuds had already completely ran out of steam a week or two before the PPV.