January 29th, 1998. Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Memphis, Tennessee. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Lee Marshall. * Diamond Dallas Page beat Sick Boy with the Diamond Cutter. * J.J. Dillon announced that Kevin Nash was fined $50,000 for his illegal use of the Jackknife powerbomb on Nitro this past Monday. Dillon emphasized that everyone was subject to this powerbomb ban, then insinuated that "Hollywood" Hogan is the one paying Nash's fines. * Meng beat "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan with the Tongan Death Grip. Duggan had tried to use his 2X4 against Meng, which Jimmy Hart had thrown in the ring. The 2X4 broke across Meng's back, but he didn't react. * Raven defeated Marty Jannetty, pinning him after nailing him with a chair, then applying the DDT. The match was no disqualification. * Bill Goldberg pinned Yuji Nagata following the Jackhammer. * Nitro footage was shown. * Scott Hall did his survey, then brought out Dusty Rhodes, who said he joined the NWO because he was protesting the actions of WCW suits who destroyed wrestling (and his career) in the early 90's. He said he was tired of carrying Tony Schiavone in the announcing booth. * Scott Hall beat Disco Inferno with the Outsider's Edge (and a little help from Dusty Rhodes). * Mike Tenay interviewed referee Nick Patrick. Patrick asserted that his three count in the main event at Starrcade was consistent with his usual three count pace. He said he would be returning soon, and might serve as the referee in the Hogan/Sting match at SuperBrawl. * Booker T. beat Saturn by pinfall. Rick Martel ended up getting involved when the other members of Raven's Flock tried to interfere. Booker T. accidentally hit Martel, leading to a brief staredown. * Nitro footage was shown. * Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko defeated the team of Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero. After the match Diamond Dallas Page appeared in the crowd and offered Benoit a title shot next week on Thunder, saying he felt the WCW bookers were overlooking him and that he sees a little of himself in the underrated Benoit. Benoit accepted the match. * The Steiner Brothers beat Konan and Kevin Nash by DQ when Nash hit Rick Steiner with his Tag Title belt. (Scott Steiner had been down on the floor trading muscle poses with Buff Bagwell.) Nash laid out the referee with the Jackknife, leading to his again being handcuffed and escorted out by security. The Tag Titles had been on the line, as Konan was subbing for Scott Hall under "Wolfpack Rules", which says any member of the NWO can defend the belts whenever Hall or Nash wants. * Next Monday: Nothing announced. * Next week: Chris Benoit vs. Diamond Dallas Page. U.S. Title Match. Comments: First, the good: the show has a new opening sequence, which I really liked. A large Hollywood sign, with pictures of the major WCW stars flashing on each different letter as the camera focuses on each. (I guess one can assume "Hollywood" Hogan really did re-sign with WCW.) The Thunder logo is the same, but it now has little bolts of lightning flashing over it. The on-screen graphics during the show are also slightly different than before, though still similar. The show also has a new entryway to the ring. A large, retro/futuristic doorway leads to a short ramp, which leads into the aisle (like the previous Thunder and Nitro sets). There is a big screen next to the entryway, which is also flanked by large stainless steel structures. Sort of like something out of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". The announcer's desk looked the same, though it may have been slightly altered as well. Overall the look has a bit more "oomph!" than the previous Thunder look. The show itself, on the other hand, was absolutely terrible up until the point of the Benoit/Malenko/Jericho/Guerrero match. The Duggan/Meng match was among the worst I've seen in the last year. Jimmy Hart, when he threw the 2X4 in, threw it right into the hands of Duggan-who was beyond Meng and well past the distance it could be called an "accident". The 2X4 then clearly broke because it was rigged to do so. This was the reason so few fans were sorry to see Duggan leave in the first place. He's now returned to reclaim his title of "Worst Wrestler in WCW". Most of the matches were either boring or came off as simple squashes. The only real exceptions were the Saturn/Booker T. match, which was so-so and somewhat watchable, and the Raven/Jannetty match, the outcome of which simply was never in doubt. In a surreal moment, they showed rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis sitting in the crowd ... behind Raven's Flock! A later shot of that section (when one of the wrestlers ended up hitting the rail there) would show that Lewis was gone. At one point during the show they ran a "WCW Motorsports" segment, which usually airs on WCW Saturday Night and is just an infomercial for Valvoline. It didn't have anything to do with wrestling (as WCW doesn't seem to be running any racing cars any more) and did nothing more than kill two or three minutes hyping the motor oil, as Nascar drivers talked about one of the racing circuits. Save this junk for WCWSN, please. Dusty Rhodes once again showed he's better delivering a speech than color commentary in a match. Still, Rhodes' explanation makes no sense as he was one of the ones responsible for "hurting" WCW along with the other "suits" back in the early 90's. I still say this was a surprise for the sake of doing a surprise: nothing more. Rhodes now plays a role similar to that of Vincent and Rick Rude. This whole angle is made even worse by the prospect of him stepping back in the ring for a match, or joining Eric Bischoff in the announcer's booth for Nitro or Thunder. (Could you imagine an announcing trio of Rhodes, Bischoff and Rude? Kill me now, please!) Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "Outsider's Edge" is a variation of the powerbomb, isn't it? (The move is called the "crucifix powerbomb" in its generic form.) Shouldn't Scott Hall have been handcuffed and carted off as well? I knew WCW would blow this pretty quickly, though I really thought it would be one of the luchadores who did it first. I actually went into this match looking to see if they would screw up and he'd use the move. We'll have to wait and see if they realize their goof up and announce a "fine" next Monday. The Benoit tag match was good, and the angle with DDP that followed is great. It's the only thing that saved this show, and I'm really looking forward to their match next week. I'm sorry, but the whole Scott Steiner/Buff Bagwell thing comes off as a bit, well ... queer. Seeing these two smile at each other and flex is almost as unnerving as seeing any member of DeGeneration X drop their pants. I hate to be non-PC, but this whole angle is starting to give me the creeps. Nash powerbombing the ref seems to be a clear escalation in his push, which is a hopeful sign that they won't drag it out for weeks and weeks. As long as they quickly get to whatever it is they're going for, and Nash at least puts some efforts in his matches, then I'm mostly okay with it. I'm genuinely disappointed in the show this week. I thought last week's show wasn't too bad-better than many of the recent Nitro's. I think the two different booking styles are really noticeable and tonight, for whatever reason, WCW really missed the mark.