Seeing as I’ve just finished Six of the Best for this event, I decided I’d go back and watch this one as there’s some pretty decent matches on it and the main events of these shows are usually at least somewhat interesting, even if that interest has a somewhat car crash quality to it.
Let’s venture onward and see what we find!
The event is emanating from The Palace of Auburn Hills on the 23rd of November 1997
Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay
The three commentator’s start us out by confirming that the winner of tonight’s 60 Man, Three Ring Battle Royal will earn themselves a WCW World Title match at SuperBrawl VIII.
Opening Match
Glacier and Ernest “The Cat” Miller Vs Meng and The Barbarian w/ Jimmy Hart
Before he was a cocky James Brown loving heel, Ernest Miller was a generic martial arts guy tagging with human Mortal Kombat Kharacter Glacier. Now if my memory serves me right, this match is actually quite good, which might seem unlikely considering the participants (Well, ONE participant in particular. I’ll leave it up to the reader to infer which one I mean)
Things start hot with a four way brawl, that sees Cat send Barbarian outside whilst Glacier duels with Meng in a martial arts BATTEL! Ca comes in with a cross body attempt, but gets caught by Meng, so Glacier dropkicks him in the back to complete the move. There are a few clumsy moments between Glacier and Meng but Team MK get the crowd back by doing a pair of dives onto the heels. Glacier stupidly goes after Hart outside the ring however and that allows Barbarian to clobber him from behind and send him inside for the heat.
In a great double team move, Meng back body drops Glacier into a Barbarian powerbomb, which gets a noticeable pop from the crowd. Cat makes a mess of trying to come in and help his partner, which allows the heels to bring Glacier to their half of the ring, where Meng nails him with a dropkick! Yes, you read that right, Meng delivered a bloody dropkick! It was a pretty decent one as well. I mean, it wasn’t Okada level or anything, but DAMN!
Meng and Barbarian hammer away at Glacier in the corner, getting a pop once again from the Auburn crowd. Meng keeps bringing the awesome with a vicious shoulder breaker, but then loses points with me by going to a nerve pinch. I have no time for that move unless you have pointy ears and hail from the planet Vulcan. Meng thankfully doesn’t apply the hold for long and brings in Barbarian for some more double teaming.
Glacier is eventually able to dodge a Meng elbow drop attempt, but Meng is right back up, so he heaves him up into a back suplex, which Meng is at least nice enough to sell for a few moments, which allows Sensei Lloyd to make the tag to Cat. Cat actually does a semi-decent hot tag segment as he destroys the heels with kicks before shoving Jimmy Hart off the apron. However, this allows Meng to sneak up and apply the Tongan Deathgrip, which is enough for the three count.
WINNERS: MENG AND THE BARBARIAN
RATING: **
Not quite as good as I remembered it, but it wasn’t bad all things considered.
We see that Diamond Dallas Page is being interviewed by WCW.com about the Battle Royal later on
Match Two
WCW Television Title
Champion: Perry Saturn w/ Raven Vs Disco Inferno
Saturn was pretty much fresh in from ECW and had won the TV Title in his debut match, whereas Disco was coming off a humiliating loss to Jacqueline at Halloween Havoc. The dogged WCW camera crew manage to find a few lost souls dancing along to Disco’s entrance theme, but hilariously also focus on a sign saying “You can’t dance”. Harsh dude, harsh!
Saturn is wrestling in just a pair of jeans here and literally climbs out of the front row to get into the ring for the match. Saturn toys with Disco early on thanks to his superior technical skills and eyes his opponent with little more than disgust. Disco responds with a hip toss and then sends Saturn outside the ring with a punch.
Disco brings Saturn in the hard way, but lowers his head and takes a kick to the face for his trouble. Disco replies with an inverted atomic drop however and then fires up on Saturn in the corner, showing a rarely seen aggressive side. A Ted Dibiase like fist drop gets two for Disco but Saturn dodges an elbow drop and heaves Disco up and over with a T-Bone Suplex.
Saturn tries a quebrada next, but there’s no water in the pool and Disco gets a nice running elbow smash as a result. Saturn replies by dropping Disco crotch first on the top rope however before delivering a cross body block to send both men crashing to the floor. Disco wanders over towards Raven and The Flock at ringside and gets into a scuffle with Kidman and Lodi, which allows Saturn to jump him.
Back inside, Saturn goes for a Tiger Suplex but Disco uses the ropes to block it and hits a spinning neck breaker for two. Disco gets a cross body from the top rope, but Saturn is able to roll through into the Rings of Saturn. After the briefest of struggles, Disco uncles and Saturn retains the title.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: PERRY SATURN
RATING: *1/2
The work was fine for the most part but the match felt very disjointed and didn’t flow very well at all.
Mean Gene Okerlund is backstage in the locker room, where he plugs his hotline before bringing in The Giant for some promo time. Giant has a bandage on his right hand due to having a broken thumb courtesy of a Scott Hall attack from Nitro. Giant says the broken thumb won’t stop him and Hall is going to pay the price tonight
Match Three
If Ultimo Dragon wins he gets Five Minutes with Sonny Onoo
Yuji Nagata w/ Sonny Onoo Vs Ultimo Dragon
Onoo turned on Dragon back at Slamboree and has been sending a string of henchman after him ever since. Nagata beat Dragon back at Halloween Havoc, where he injured Dragon’s arm, so Dragon is looking for revenge tonight. Logic would dictate that Dragon would avenge his loss to Nagata here and then give Onoo an almighty shellacking, but this is WCW we’re talking about so logic probably won’t figure into things very much.
Dragon gets the better of Nagata early on and causes him to bail, but he makes the mistake of going after Onoo, which allows Nagata to attack him. Dragon works a headlock back inside the ring and holds onto it tenaciously. He even throws a few rabid punches to Nagata whilst having him in the hold to get across how gosh darned mad he is. Nagata has finally had enough of this headlock nonsense and drills Dragon with a back suplex before delivering a cacophony of kicks.
Nagata has some good heel mannerisms as he works Dragon over and drops him with a piledriver for two before going to a chin lock. Dragon responds with a back suplex of his own, but he isn’t able to capitalise and Nagata is right back on top of him with kicks and yet another pildedriver, but Dragon kicks out at two once again. Nagata floors Dragon with a nice enziguri, but goes to a camel clutch rather than trying to make a cover.
Nagata tries a Fujiwara Arm Bar instead when the camel clutch doesn’t work, but Dragon makes the ropes to break the hold. Dragon finally gets back into things with a series of kicks to Nagata before going to a face wash to send Nagata outside. Dragon follows with a cross body from the top rope to the outside and then tries another move from the top inside but Nagata stops him. Dragon slips out of a superplex attempt and brings Nagata down with a powerbomb for two.
A top rope moonsault gets yet another two for Dragon, so he locks in the Dragon Sleeper. Nagata gives up but the ref is distracted by Onoo and doesn’t see it. Undeterred, Dragon gets a rana from the rope and makes the cover, but Onoo puts Nagata’s foot on the rope to stop the count. Dragon tries for a back suplex on Nagata but collides with Onoo in a sloppy spot and Nagata lands on top of Dragon for the cheap three count.
WINNER: YUJI NAGATA
RATING: ***
I’m not sure why they felt it was so important to spare lower card geek manager Sonny Onoo from a beating here, but they clearly felt it was necessary for some reason and thus had Dragon lose the blow off match and never get his revenge. Dragon was at least protected somewhat by having two visible victories that were unfairly denied to him. The match itself was lacking in crowd heat, even though the work was solid.
Match Four
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champions: The Steiner Brothers w/ Ted Dibiase Vs Lord Steven Regal and Squire David Taylor
Local boys The Steiner’s actually defended the WWF Tag Titles in this very arena back at Summer Slam 1993, which makes me wonder if other teams have defended tag titles for multiple companies in the same venue? Share in the comments section if you know of any examples of this happening. I’m sure Tully and Arn probably did it once at the very least.
Scott overpowers Taylor to start, looking like he’s been pumped full of air in the process, but he ends up in the heel corner where they work him over. Scott replies with a big underhook suplex to Taylor, which brings Regal in for a Steinerline from Rick. Regal stooges outside the ring for Dibiase, before coming in officially to work with Rick.
Regal and Rick do some nice technical wrestling together, with Rick getting the better of things and targeting Regal’s arm and wrist. Regal manages to floor Rick with a European uppercut, but takes too long to follow up and is soon back on the defensive. Regal eventually manages to tag in Taylor, who has no joy with the burley Steiner’s either and ends up taking a powerslam from Rick.
An illegal knee to Scott’s back from the apron finally allows the heels to get a spurt of offence, as they work Scott over. The crowd is pretty quiet here, despite the fact that hometown hero Scott is getting beaten up in the heel corner. It could be that maybe they don’t buy Regal and Taylor as actual threats to the champions, which is why they aren’t getting particularly invested.
Scott hits Regal with an overhead belly to belly suplex and drags himself to his corner for the lukewarm tag to Rick. Rick runs wild on the challengers with Steinerlines and Scott comes in to help as well. Taylor gets dumped outside and Regal ends up on the wrong side of a Doomsday Device/Bulldog combo move to give the champs the three count.
WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE STEINER BROTHERS
RATING: **
The work was fine but the crowd was pretty dead considering the champs were defending the belts in their hometown.
Mean Gene Okerlund is in the aisle way with JJ Dillon. Dillon says that if Raven doesn’t sign an official WCW contract within 24 hours then he will no longer be allowed to appear on WCW television. Gene says that Raven “Isn’t the sort of guy you’d run into at the country club”. You can say that again!
Match Five
Raven’s Rules
Raven w/ Kidman and Saturn Vs Scotty Riggs
Raven injured Riggs’ eye on an edition of Nitro by giving him a drop toehold onto a chair, so Riggs is wearing an eyepatch here and is looking for revenge. Despite this, Raven is still holding out hope that Riggs will join his Flock. Always nice to see an eternal optimist isn’t it? Kidman grabs the microphone before the match and declares that, unless Riggs agrees to a Raven’s stipulations, the match won’t go ahead. Riggs gives his answer by diving onto all three men and the fight is on.
Riggs hammers away on Raven both outside and inside, showing a fire that he hadn’t displayed before in WCW. The eyepatch is a good look for him actually, and was a nice change from the “pretty boy” gimmick he’d before this as one of the American Males. Raven gets back into things by choking Riggs with his flannel shirt before throwing him outside. Riggs is able to reverse an Irish whip outside the ring however and sends Raven into the steps, and then chokes him with a camera cable for added measure.
Raven replies with a desperation chin breaker back inside, as the crowd continues to sit on its hands. This is the deadest crowd for an actually decent wrestling show that I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s because heels have won three of the four matches so far and the fans are bummed out by it? Regardless of the reason, this has been a fun match and it’s a shame the crowd are giving them nothing. Saturn hands Raven a chair, who hits Riggs over the back with it and goes for the drop toe hold again. However, Riggs reverses it this time and sends Raven face first into it instead, which finally gets a reaction from the crowd.
Riggs follows up with a Van Daminator to put Raven down and goes for the cover, but Raven gets his foot on the rope to break the count. Normally that would annoy me, but Raven’s Rules matches only had No DQ’s and weren’t actually falls count anywhere, so Raven getting his foot on the rope would technically constitute a break in that scenario. Undeterred, Riggs bulldogs Raven face first onto the chair in a nasty looking, yet totally safe spot, and makes the cover for two.
Raven is dead weight, so Riggs drags him to his feet and tries for a vertical suplex. However, Raven was playing possum and is able to counter the move into the Evenflow DDT. Raven doesn’t go for the cover however and instead demands the microphone from the ring announcer. Raven berates an unconscious Riggs for not joining The Flock and declares that this beat down is hurting himself more than Riggs. The commentators openly dispute that point. Raven hits Riggs with two more DDT’s, declaring whilst doing so that he feels Riggs’ pain. With Riggs out cold from the triple finisher spot, the referee starts up a ten count and declares the match over when Riggs doesn’t answer it.
WINNER: RAVEN
RATING: ***1/2
I’ve always enjoyed the pseudo psychological stuff that comes with the Raven character, so I thought the finish was brilliant for that reason. Your own personal mileage may vary depending on whether you actually liked the gimmick or not. The match itself was a fun brawl that succeeded in eventually getting a reaction from the dead crowd. The Flock kidnap Riggs after the match and he would soon show up as the newest member. You might as well call Raven “The Mountie”, as he just got his man!
Match Six
Mongo McMichael Vs Alex Wright w/ Debra McMichael
This was supposed to be Mongo Vs Goldberg, but Mongo laid Goldberg out with a metal pipe in the backstage area, so Debra drags out an unwilling Alex down to the ring to do her bidding instead. WCW were still ironing out the kinks of the Goldberg character during this period and he wasn’t yet the unstoppable destruction machine he would go on to be in 1998, which explains why Mongo of all people was able to take him out of action so easily.
Wright actually managed to beat Mongo back at Halloween Havoc thanks to a Goldberg run in, but he has no back up tonight so this may end up being a rough night for him. Debra looked far more haggard facially just a year after this when she debuted in the WWF. Did she have some extra work done or something? She looks far more natural and human here, and is better for it.
Alex jump attacks Mongo to start, but Mongo soon takes over and stomps away on Alex, who tries to bail but gets brought back by Debra. Mogo hits Alex with a thoroughly awful looking flapjack and hammers away with punches and kicks. Mongo has one of the worst Irish whips I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t even pretend to make it look like he is actually throwing his opponent towards the ropes. He just lightly tugs him with all the force of a rose petal in the breeze.
Mongo hits the universal move of the big lump in the form of a side slam and makes a cover for two. Alex replies with a dropkick and goes for a cover of his own, but Mongo is able to kick out at two. Mongo reverses an Irish whip into the corner and follows up with a pair of football tackles before hitting the Mongo Spike (Why did they give such a clumsy, green oaf like him a freaking TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER as a finisher FFS?) to pick up the win.
WINNER: MONGO MCMICHAEL
RATING: ½*
Yuck
Perry Saturn is getting interviewed in the WCW.com area. He cuts a promo on Disco and storms off.
Match Seven
WCW Cruiserweight Title
Champion: Eddie Guerrero Vs Rey Mysterio Jr
This is the rematch from the 1997 Match of the Year at Halloween Havoc the previous month. Why they felt the need to go back to this match so quickly rather than letting the feud breathe for a little bit is beyond me. Was it really so necessary to get the belt on Eddie again? Rey uses his speed to frustrate Eddie in the early going, which leads to Eddie jawing with the ref and the crowd, drawing an “Eddie Sucks” chant in the process.
Eddie replies by dropping Rey on the top of his head with a release German Suplex before following up with a back suplex as well. Eddie locks in an abdominal stretch, and thankfully Gorilla Monsoon isn’t here to complain that he’s applying it incorrectly. Rey gets out of the hold and sends Eddie outside with a head scissors. Rey tries a sunset bomb off the apron on Eddie but loses his grip. Thankfully he’s able to cover it by landing on his feet before Eddie fights him off and gets a tilt a whirl back breaker outside the ring.
Back inside, Eddie heads up top and Rey tries to bring him down with a superplex, but Eddie is able to fight him and then ends up manoeuvring him around into a superplex of his own in a neat show of strength. Eddie tries to follow up with a rolling senton splash from the top, but Rey dodges that and gets a quick rana for two. Rey tries another rana but Eddie is able to block this one and counters it into a face buster.
Rey keeps coming with a spinning flying head scissors, but Eddie kicks out of the resulting cover and then dropkicks Rey in the face. Eddie wears out Rey with chops and uppercuts, all whilst turning up the smarminess meter to anger the fans. Hot take; Eddie Guerrero was an excellent heel. Now Eddie tries a sunset bomb to the outside, but Rey counters it to a rana and then follows up with a big flip dive over the top to the outside.
This hasn’t been as good as Havoc, but there’s still been plenty of good action on offer. Eddie misses a charge to the corner back inside but is able to counter a Rey rana attempt with a powerbomb to buy himself some time. Eddie locks in the Gory Special, but Rey bridges out into a sunset flip for two in a lovely spot, before putting Eddie down with a spin kick. Rey actually body slams Eddie and heads up top, but Eddie cuts him off and goes for a Liger Bomb. Rey tries to counter out of the Liger Bomb into a move of some kind, but he loses his grip again and the move doesn’t come off.
Eddie covers the botch by throwing Rey into the corner, which allows Rey to counter with a moonsault before hitting a nice springboard leg drop from the apron. Rey comes off the ropes again with a springboard rana and seemingly gets the pin, but unbeknownst to him Eddie grabbed the rope just before the three count, so the match must continue. Rey sets Eddie up on the top rope and tries something from there, but Eddie counters with a Stun Gun and comes off the top with a Frogplash for the win.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: EDDIE GUERRERO
RATING: ***3/4
They were fighting an uphill battle to top Halloween Havoc and you could sense that they were maybe trying too hard to do so, hence the couple of noticeable botches. Still, the botches were covered well enough and the match overall was very enjoyable. Viewed in a vacuum, this was an excellent match, but with Havoc lingering over it like Banquo’s ghost, it was only ever going to be a comparative disappointment.
We get a hype video for Hogan Vs Sting at Starrcade. It’s suitably epic; no wonder it drew such an impressive buy rate
Match Eight
WCW United States Title
No Disqualifications
Champion: Curt Hennig Vs Ric Flair
Hennig had betrayed Flair and the rest of The Horsemen back at Fall Brawl and had sneaked away with a DQ victory against Flair at Halloween Havoc, so the stipulation here is to ensure we have an actual winner. Hennig stalls to start, but Flair chases him outside and unloads with punches and chops before taking the fight into the crowd. Hennig gets the better of things out there and brings the fight back to ringside where he hammers away on the challenger.
Hennig chokes Flair with a camera cable both inside and outside before taunting the crowd. Flair fights back with a hot shot and throws Hennig outside, where he actually follows with an axe handle smash from the top rope to the outside! That’s probably the highest flying move we’ll ever see from Flair right there! Flair sells that the move hurt his leg and limps into a back body drop on the floor from Hennig. Wow, Flair is taking some big bumps here tonight to get this feud over.
Hennig hammers away on Flair back inside with punches from the mount before dropping an elbow for two. Hennig now targets Flair’s leg, which Flair sells spectacularly, and then locks in a modified Indian Deathlock. Flair keeps fighting however and gouges Hennig in the eye to break the hold, before targeting the leg himself. This really feels like a desperate and messy fight between two people who really don’t like one another. The intensity is spot on.
Flair unloads with rabid punches to Hennig’s face and heads up top, but Hennig throws him off because…
Thanks, Cenk.
Anyway, both men start trading stiff chops now, which ends with Flair doing his traditional Flair Flop™, which allows Hennig to cover for two. Flair fires up however and unleashes with punches to Hennig until he slumps in the corner, and then follows it with a straight up hairmare. Flair keeps bringing the choppage, but both men end up banging heads for a double down. Hennig tries to roll away to another ring, but Flair follows him in there and hits a back suplex for two.
Hennig gets the rolling neck snap and delivers some more chops of his own before flinging Flair over the top rope to the outside. Flair takes a journey face first into the steps and guardrails outside, but he defiantly won’t give up and drags Hennig face first into the railing by tugging on his singlet. Flair is just so awesome as the veteran underdog fighting from underneath. It’s amazing that he was always so desperate to be a heel during this period as he was the perfect babyface in this role.
With Hennig dazed from eating some railing, Flair brings a chair in and targets Hennig’s leg with it to a great reaction from the crowd. Flair heads back out and brings both another chair and the US Title belt into the ring. Flair hits Hennig in the leg with the chair and then symbolically throws the belt to the mat to signal that his desire for revenge is greater than his desire to be champion. Flair locks in the Figure Four and starts cranking it, but he accidentally left the belt within touching distance for Hennig, who desperately grabs it and bonks Flair in the head with it to pick up the last gasp win.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: CURT HENNIG
RATING: ****
It would have been nice if they’d actually let Flair win for once, but if he was going to lose then that was probably the best way of doing it, as it allowed him to at least give Hennig a vicious beating before getting pinned out of nowhere with a weapon shot. This match was like two gladiators giving it everything they had in one last climatic battle, and I loved it. The finish was a bit of a bummer but fit the feeling of the match being a draining fight that saw both men unload everything they had.
Main Event
60 Man Three Man Battle Royal
Winner gets a WCW World Title shot at SuperBrawl VIII
Diamond Dallas Page, Ray Traylor, Alex Wright, Disco Inferno, Meng, Villano IV, Villano V, Chris Benoit, Fit Finlay, La Parka, Lord Steven Regal, Rocco Rock, Johnny Grunge, Squire Dave Taylor, Ultimo Dragon, Nor-mahn Smi-LAY, Louie Spicolli, Hector Garza, Lizmark Jr, The Giant, Gentleman Chris Adams, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Yuji Nagata, Chris Jericho, Juventud Guerrera, Wrath, Booker T, Stevie Ray, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Jim Duggan, Hugh Morrus, Lex Luger, Ernest Miller, Brad Armstrong, Silver King, Mortis, The Barbarian, Eddie Guerrero, Damien 666, Prince Iaukea, Barry Darsow, Dean Malenko, Kendall Windham, John Njord, El Dandy, Rey Mysterio Jr, Mongo McMichael, Ciclope, Renegade, Super Calo, Chavo Guerrero Jr, Glacier, Bobby Blaze, Buff Bagwell, Scott Hall, Curt Hennig, Randy Savage, Vincent and Kevin Nash
The rules here are that all 60 men will fight until there are 20 left, at which point they’ll all go into one ring to finish things out. For some reason, going out of the ring in any fashion will constitute elimination, kind of like in Revenge for the N64, so you don’t have to go over the top rope to be eliminated. Despite officially being in the match, Kevin Nash doesn’t come out with the rest of nWo guys, but I’m sure he’ll surface eventually.
This is going to be an utter nightmare to do play by play for, so I’ll just cover bits and pieces until we get down to the last ring. Giant eliminates about 5 people from the off, most of them being Luchadores. Meng takes care of both members of Public Enemy to send them out. The nWo all stick together in their ring and pick people off when the opportunity presents itself.
Harlem Heat looks out for one another and teams up to send Brad Armstrong to the showers. Jim Duggan is one of the most over guys in the match, as the fans yell “Hoooooooooooo” along with him as he scuffles with people in his ring. Scott Hall almost goes out, but his fellow nWo team mates ensure he stays in.
There’s a lot going on here, but it’s not especially exciting or anything like that. Just too many guys to keep track of and there aren’t any overly intriguing story threads to enthuse about either. It’s just a load of blokes wandering around with no focus. It would have been much better just putting 20 of the top guys in one battle royal rather than filling out the numbers with an assorted group of prelim guys just to have excuse to use three rings.
Rey tenaciously holds on but is finally kicked out by the combined efforts of the nWo. Giant dumps Wright and Mortis to leave him one on one with Meng, and now there’s something to actually focus on thanks to less people filling up the screen. Giant ends up hitting Meng with a big dropkick to send him out the ring to a good pop from the crowd.
Following that elimination, the nWo are left in one ring, with an assortment of WCW guys in another and Giant all alone in his ring. We are now down to Savage, Vincent, Buff, Hennig and Hall for the nWo, with Luger, Booker T, DDP, Rick Steiner and Giant all representing WCW. The WCW guys charge into the nWo ring and the fight is on!
DDP hits Vincent with a Diamond Cutter, which allows Giant to casually kick him to the outside to eliminate him. Hennig dumps Booker and Steiner goes as well, but we don’t get to see who threw him out. In a funny moment, Buff mugs for the camera whilst stomping mud hole in DDP but then gives off a girly shriek when Giant grabs him and gives him a head butt.
Luger runs wild on the nWo but they team up to dump him, only for Giant to come over and ensure Hennig and Bagwell also tumble out. With those all gone, we’re left with a final four of Giant and DDP against Savage and Hall. Savage heads up top for an elbow drop on DDP, but Giant stands in his way and catches him a bear hug. Savage goes to the eyes to get out of that, but this leaves him wide open for a Diamond Cutter. One Giant choke slam later and Savage is history.
Hall, realising he’s at a disadvantage, flees to another ring and points to the entrance way. The commentators think it’s Nash coming down to the ring, but it actually ends up being Hollywood Hogan instead which gets a big surprise pop from the crowd. The crowd chant for Sting, as the four men go at it. Hogan body slams Giant and slugs away on him, whilst Hall goes after DDP.
Sting now rappels from the rafters, but it’s pretty obvious that it isn’t the real Sting as he steps over the top rope and throws Giant out to give Hall the win. I’m not sure how DDP was eliminated and WCW never care to show us either. “Sting” removes is mask, and it’s Kevin Nash in disguise as the nWos outsmart everyone to win the main event once again.
WINNER: SCOTT HALL
RATING: **
Once it got down to a manageable number it became a decent Battle Royal, but the stuff with 60 men was pretty rubbish. Hogan splats DDP with a Diamond Cutter to close us out as the nWo celebrates. I get Hall winning, as they wanted a challenger for Sting once he won the title at Starrcade, but would it have killed them to have the WCW guys rally and clear the ring afterwards to give the crowd SOMETHING to cheer about? Why not have the real Sting show up and cause the nWo to scatter so as to hype the Starrcade main event up a bit more?
Final Thoughts
Nine matches, seven heel wins and the nWo standing tall at the end of the show after making WCW like chumps. Yup, that sounds like a 1997 era WCW show alright!
At the end of the day, four matches at *** or higher make this a reasonably good show, but it’s a very heel heavy one so tread with caution if you think that sounds like a bummer. Eddie/Rey and Hennig/Flair are both great matches and fans of Raven will enjoy his shtick, so there are definitely reasons to give this show a try. The 60 Man Battle Royal was, as usual, pretty underwhelming but the rest of the show is decent on the whole and, if you like this era of WCW, you’ll probably enjoy it.
I also write for the website Gaming Respawn, where my most recent article was a look at some random matches from WWE Velocity. You take read that by clicking right HERE
And whilst you’re here, why not take a goosey gander at some of the other great content here on the Blog of Doom?
Le Grande Fromage himself Monsieur Scott Keith has recently taken a look at an episode of Mid South Wrestling from the 14th of January 1984. You can read what he thought by clicking right HERE
Our resident gregarious Geordie Maffew has been looking at more WWE ECW, with the recent episode dating from the 14th of October 2008. You can enjoy some good writing (And plenty of Evan Bourne gifs) by clicking right HERE
And finally, you can read Thomas Hall’s recap of this weeks momentous Smackdown by clicking HERE
Thanks for reading and take care till next time!
