WCW Worldwide 8/15/98

Stevie Ray vs. Todd Griffith

ER: We get a lot of matches on deep cut WCW where the winner is never in doubt, but we don’t often get an outright steamrolling. But then some guy named Todd Griffith opens the show, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this guy before. He’s a Kid Kash looking guy with long hair (later during the match Schiavone says that Griffith hasn’t been able to do much, and Larry says “well he’s got a full head of hair!”), and Stevie Ray worked amusingly stiff in a quick 2 minute match. Stevie throws some nice forearm shots, throwing his whole body into them, and throws stomach kicks better than you’d expect Stevie Ray to throw a stomach kick. Griffith is clearly some legendary indy bump freak as he takes the Slapjack at a 0.7 Cham Pain. I’m sure I’ve written a match or two of his before and just don’t remember. Hell I’ve rewatched entire episodes of old WCW with minimal memory of ever seeing it before, how am I gonna remember Todd Griffith? [I checked and I had reviewed at least one other WCW episode from this era that also had Griffith, but I wrote it in 2013, so I’m not gonna beat myself up too much for not remembering the guy]

I’m still on a plane flying to Mania weekend, and we’re circling Newark airport because a couple other planes were in front of us and we were all jammed up, and the pilot gets on the PA and starts with “I just wanted everyone to know that we have plenty of gas” which is DEFINITELY something that NOBODY had been worried about until the pilot LEAD OFF AN ANNOUNCEMENT by saying “Hey everyone, TOTALLY CHILL up here in the cockpit, just thought it would be cool for everyone to know that our fuel tanks are FILLED UP. Nothing at all to worry about here, just takin ‘er easy.” What the fuck dude. He leads off talking about how we obviously have plenty of fuel, and then goes into a long explanation about how we’re in line behind a couple planes so we might be circling a bit, and then ends on, “And again, we have plenty of fuel.” This fucking guy. Just sitting down for dinner with his wife, leading with “You don’t look fat.” Hours later he doesn’t get what he did wrong. “I said you DON’T look fat!!!”

Alex Wright vs. Tim Cheeks

ER: This whole thing felt weirdly long, and Cheeks was very not good. Wright looked pretty frustrated at a couple points when Cheeks rushed timing or didn’t execute well. Cheeks worked this kind of like a not good Owen Hart, trying to moonsault off the top over a rushing in Wright but getting no distance on it, then trying to stumble into an armdrag that goes terribly so Wright just kind of muscles him down with an STO and palms Cheeks’ face. Wright throws some nice elbowdrops but looks a little rattled by Cheeks’ frequently incorrect positioning. Kind of a rough start to a Worldwide. Two Dodgy-by-WCW-syndie-standards and a PA announcement of my imminent death.

Public Enemy vs. Tony Carr/Dusty Wolfe

ER: Weird episode as this is the third straight match with a clear jobber role. We usually know who is going to win on Worldwide episodes, but this might be the first time I’ve seen the bulk of the matches featuring guys not on the roster. This is unexpectedly odd only because Dusty Wolfe gets the most offense of anybody in the match. This is mostly a Wolfe showcase, as until they win, PE is basically working this the same way you’d expect Wolfe/Carr to be working this. Carr is also amusingly working a Marine Corps gimmick, black sleeveless T and camo pants just like Pittman. I don’t think Pittman was around WCW at this point so were they just bringing in another similarly built black marine who was cheaper than Pittman, or still wanted that character and assumed nobody would notice the replacement? I liked Wolfe here, one of those good southern hands who I’d probably watch in 2019. I like that we got a weird Dusty showcase in 1998, and it’s so rare to see a guy not on the roster get so much offense. Really Wolfe’s team was in control the whole time, right up until they tried to tandem suplex Grunge but Rocco pulled him down, allowing Grunge to DDT both of them. Then, Drive-By. Before that the PE was at Wolfe and Carr’s mercy. So bizarre.

Fidel Sierra vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

ER: This really isn’t much, probably most worth it for Zbyszko going on about how Duggan used to be good, but he reached a point where he stopped getting better and had just been coasting. “You’d think most guys would want to be World Champ but here he is just not improving on his skillset!” He’s not wrong here. Duggan is really lazy about getting from a to b, doesn’t give Sierra much to work with. Sierra looked really jacked here, I don’t remember Sierra having big guns, but there they are. ’98-’02 were wild for wrestling bodies. Duggan kinda just kills time here not selling a beating until it’s time for him to hit a lariat and Old Glory. Not the best Worldwide episode we’ve seen.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psychosis

ER: The onscreen graphic actually spelled Mysterio with the y, but I don’t think that was a thing yet. There are frequent misspellings on these things. Fans are really hyped for this one. There’s a group of late 20s meatheads and their cute girls, and all of them are very invested in this match. A lot of it is Psychosis grounding Rey, cutting him off, not as many Rey showcase fireworks as we could sometimes get. Psychosis hits a pretty big guillotine legdrop off the top onto Rey on the apron, feels like a bigger spot that the camera crew didn’t expect, so didn’t get to shot it as impressively. Rey hit a big springboard legdrop, sold nicely while locked in chinlocks and armbars, and won with a nice rana off the top. A more grounded match than we typically got from these two, with no scary Psychosis bumps, but their expected professional match.


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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 6/15/98

Barry Horowitz vs. Chris Benoit

ER: Kicking off my deep Saturday night with pro wrestling's #1 rated murderer! But this is probably 100% my favorite Barry Horowitz match in WCW. It's freaking great. Benoit gives Horowitz 60% of the match, smack dab in the middle of Benoit thick in the TV Title hunt. Benoit is a guy finally getting up the card, and he's somehow generously giving Barry Horowitz a chance to showcase all of his genuinely great offense. It was 10 days after Barry's 38th birthday. Had Benoit felt bad about forgetting Barry's birthday, and thus decided to gift him the longest stretch of offense in his career? Whatever the reason, it was the best. Barry chokes him with his boot, throws an awesome headbutt you don't remember him throwing, sinks a nice knee, crisp legdrop, rakes Benoit's back like a motherfucker, comes off like an old territory legend. Surely Benoit eventually takes over with a hard back elbow, snap suplex, and big diving headbutt, but Horowitz looked like a guy who really belonged and completely crushed it in a nice late career opportunity. Made me love that guy even more. Worldwide Classic right here.

Scott Louden vs. Fit Finlay

ER: Scott Louden: Man Who Gets An Actual Ring Entrance and Onscreen Graphic. Who the hell is Scott Louden? He looks kinda like Bob Backlund if Backlund weren't fanatical about his workouts, but his singlet game is on. Yellow and black singlet with a tornado on the back, and STO on the leg. Was this guy some gaijin used by UFO? Florida indy guy? Also, Schiavone calls Penzer "Dave Lonely Man Penzer". That rules. This is a complete majestic mauling by Finlay, 3.5 minutes of ass kicking. Louden is a bit bigger than Finlay but his entire match-long offense consisted of catching Finlay with a kick to the stomach as Finlay charged the corner. The rest of this was what you wanted, Finlay roughing some dude up. He dekes him a couple times, makes him think they were doing a collar and elbow but ducked aside and dished a knee to Louden's gut, and later he held onto the ropes on an Irish whip and Louden missed a dropkick in one of those "I don't think HE thought he was missing" ways. The rest of this man, Louden may as well have been a bag of yard trimmings. Finlay hits the hardest short arm clothesline possible, kicks him in the spine THREE different times in the match, hard body slams, big bombs away, big kneedrop, all done with the expected vicious precision that makes Finlay the best. His rolling fireman's carry into snapped off Tombstone are an awesome finisher 1-2. RIP Louden. You couldn't have drawn a much worse name for your appearance.

Leroy Howard vs. Goldberg

ER: Howard was Rastaman in BattlArts, and he regularly gets put in with tough dudes in WCW, but it's frustrating as he never actually gets to do anything against them. He would have been a really fun semi-competitive job guy on WCW C shows, there were lamer guys who got more offense in than him. But this match is the exact thing that every single person in the building wanted to see. Goldberg no sells a hard shoulderblock from Howard, and then it's basically the spear into the jackhammer, and people are just losing their shit. Every single person went home talking about how awesome that spear and jackhammer were, it likely didn't even matter what else was on this taping.

Kendall Windham vs. Tim Cheeks

ER: Damn they are not letting the results of these matches be much in doubt. WCW had like 300 guys on the roster, how are Tim Cheeks and Scott Louden breaking into TV matches? But Kendall Windham is secure as fuck in his wrestling ability, he's got that Windham boys confidence and that Windham boys generosity. Windham gave Cheeks a lot of moments here, including a big comeback pop. He ate a couple hip tosses from Cheeks, missed THREE different elbowdrops over the course of the match to allow Cheeks back on offense, and Cheeks got to come up after one of those missed elbowdrops and hit a big clothesline and fire up the crowd. Windham made the guy look on his level, which is awesome. Cheeks dodged a corner charge from Windham by moonsaulting off the top and landing on his feet, and later misses a springboard crossbody that I certainly wasn't expecting him to attempt. Kendall let the guy shine a bit, and the rest of the time smothered him with uppercuts, great body shots, an awesome diving lariat, and finished him off with a great classic bulldog. Kendall rules.

Villano IV/Villano V vs. Disorderly Conduct

ER: Well this is totally great. You've never seen more Disorderly Conduct offense in a match, which is something all of you should watch. This is fun as hell and go go go, WCW syndie tags are always so good at time management, so much good action always packed into just a few minutes. V5 hits a couple hard lariats, one sending Tom to the floor, just these nice stiff arm lefts. Late in the match he hits an awesome flying clothesline on both Mean Mike and Tough Tom. Both teams make frequent tags, both attack nicely from the apron, crowd doesn't care who they're supposed to be booing as they cheer both teams on. The result is up for grabs as neither of these teams beat anybody (my brain gets excited for things like that while watching old WCW, helps out my constantly updating WCW hierarchy depth chart). V5 is working this more like a stiff brawler, V4 is going for more elegant lucha, hitting a crossblock and some spinning kicks. DO are good asskickers here, guys that know how to drop a nice elbow and hit a nice shoulderblock. Mike misses a charge in the corner, Tom gets dropkicked to the floor, and Los Villanos hit a Doomsday Device crossbody, and really stick it. Crowd was amped for all of this, and this brisk 4-5 minute tag really needs to be adopted by WWE as a TV formula. They really unnecessarily slow things down at times, but I know that teams could adapt to this style. There's no reason why most teams in WWE can't be as consistently fun as Disorderly Conduct.

Reese vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

ER: Man I don't care, Reese vs. Hacksaw was pretty good. Reese is huge and really didn't make TV a ton, and I'm a guy into freakshow stuff. Reese locks in a big bearhug (you obviously need to do a bearhug if you're 7' tall) and Duggan bites his face to get out of it, also goes for a huge big man elbow drop, and squishes Duggan in the corner with his butt. Duggan throws nice big swinging lefts and rights, slams into the big man a couple times, upends him with a lariat and drops a good enough knee.  This was a fun big boys battle. But it's pretty funny how Hacksaw was in the main event of a show that had freaking Goldberg on it, as late as June 1998, 3 weeks before the Georgia Dome main event.


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