Thunder Results

February 12th, 1998.
Live/Taped: Live.
Length: Two Hours.
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Lee Marshall.

 * After kicking things off with clips from Nitro, "Hollywood" Hogan and
   Eric Bischoff came to the ring. Hogan spoke of Sting and Bret Hart, then
   called for Randy Savage to come out. Savage came to the ring. Hogan
   announced a match with he and Savage against Sting and Lex Luger for
   next week's Nitro. Hogan teased a reconciliation, then abruptly demanded
   that Savage apologize for "dropping the ball" in recent months. Savage
   feigned an apology, then slugged Hogan. Bischoff received a punch as well
   as Hogan retrieved a steel chair. Savage fled to the back.

 * After a "WCW Motorsports" update Louie Spicolli joined the announcing
   crew.

 * Billy Kidman beat Prince Iaukea, pinning him after a Shooting Star
   Press. Lodi accompanied Kidman to the ring. During the match they cut to
   the back, where Raven was confronted by Mortis, who wished to join the
   Flock. Raven told Mortis he'd have to beat Diamond Dallas Page tonight
   to become a member.

 * They showed clips of the Steiners beating the Outsiders for the WCW Tag
   Team Title belts.

 * Meng beat Hugh Morrus with the Tongan Death Grip. Jimmy Hart
   accompanied Meng to the ring. After the match Meng refused to let go of
   the hold. Hart called the Barbarian to come out and help. Meng slapped
   the hold on the Barbarian, then chased Hart out of the ring. Towards the
   end of the match Schiavone announced that Larry Zbyszko would face
   Spicolli at SuperBrawl. Spicolli blew a gasket and left the announcer's
   desk.

 * Diamond Dallas Page beat Mortis with the Diamond Cutter. Following the
   match Raven's Flock came out and carried Mortis from the ring. Raven
   then stopped them on the ramp and DDT'ed Mortis.

 * Steve "Mongo" McMichael and Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart went to no
   decision when Davey Boy Smith ran to the ring to attack Mongo. McMichael
   had Neidhart set up on the apron and was going to hit him with the rings
   steps, but the Bulldog made the save. Mongo and Bulldog then brawled to
   the back.

 * Buff Bagwell beat Chris Adams with the Buff Blockbuster.

 * Chris Jericho beat Chavo Guerrero, Jr. with the Lion Tamer. After the
   match Juventud Guerrera came in to help Guerrero. Jericho came close to
   removing Guerrera's mask, but Juventud fought him off.

 * Davey Boy Smith pinned Sick Boy. McMichael ran in afterwards and the
   two had to be separated by security. Early in the match Eric Bischoff
   came to the desk to complain about the "vast right wing conspiracy" which
   was responsible for getting "They Live" to air after Thunder.

 * They recapped the Benoit/DDP match from last week.

 * Chris Benoit beat Raven via DQ in a "No DQ" match. DDP ran in to save
   Benoit from the Flock.

 * Bill Goldberg beat Glacier in about a minute, pinning him with the
   Jackhammer.

 * Ric Flair and Lex Luger went to no decision when Randy Savage ran in.
   Flair had put Luger in a Figure Four, but Luger reversed it. Flair seemed
   on the verge of giving up when Savage came in. Hogan, the NWO and Sting
   all eventually showed up and the show ended with Sting, Hogan, Savage and
   Luger brawling down the aisle.

 * Next Monday: Hogan/Savage vs. Sting/Luger.

 * Next week: Nothing announced.

Comments:

A mixed bag this week. The return of some big names was nice, but this time
out there were no real stand-out matches. Those that were good were really
too short to amount to much. I did like the show more than this week's
Nitro, though, as the two hour pace is far superior to what WCW is having
to do to fill out a three hour Nitro.

During the show DDP, Chavo and Schiavone hyped "They Live", which aired
following Thunder. I would expect one of Hogan's movies to eventually be
shown after Thunder, with he and the NWO making a big deal out of it.

Assuming it's still Kevin Sullivan who is indeed doing the booking for
Thunder, I think it's becoming easier to see some of his touches to the
show every week. He seems to like to do things that are surprising, yet
don't mean anything and don't necessarily fit into the angles currently
being played out (and are thus subsequently forgotten by the time the next
show rolls around). Meng going "berserk" is an example. It adds a little
spice to the show, but it's not meant to be taken as any kind of major
angle.

I'm not going to overly criticize Thunder for spotlighting underused talent,
but I honestly have to say I just don't care much for the whole "Raven's
Flock" gimmick (which seems to account for half the booking on the show).
Kidman wrestles good matches, but how can I be a fan of a guy who-when all
is said and done-probably only wins a tenth of the matches he's in? Drop
the Flock and make him a regular cruiserweight and maybe I'll care. Raven,
Riggs and Saturn wrestle okay matches, though none of their characters
appeal to me. Lodi, Sick Boy and Hammer are wastes of space, with none of
them displaying much talent the rare times they do enter the ring (Sick Boy
being the best of the three and he's average at best). I hate wrestlers who
don't really seem to have any stated goals or ideals. It's just really dumb
that there is this group of slackers who come to the arena every week and
they just happen to also be wrestlers who are regularly scheduled in
matches. WCW could probably make this gimmick work a bit better, but they
never laid any initial groundwork for it and continue to do nothing to
build on it. As the Brain himself put best during the show, "why would you
want to be a member of the Flock?"

Who is worse, WCW or the fans? A fan at ringside had a great Bret Hart
sign. The only problem was that they misspelled his name "Brett". Nineteen
years in the business and you'd think fans would pick up on the correct
spelling, WCW, meanwhile, is still misspelling the Anvil's name as
"Niedhart". I wonder if that's what they put on his paycheck also?

The bit with the ring steps in the Mongo/Anvil match was slightly botched
as the Bulldog took too long to come out. Mongo just stood there holding
the steps over his head for an inordinate amount of time. The Anvil could
clearly be seen giving Mongo some kind of a signal to hold off, wait, or
something similar.

Every time I see Chavo Guerrero I think one thing and one thing only: I'd
rather see Eddie Guerrero.

I hope the Bulldog sticks to wearing tights instead of shorts. As I've
often noted, when we can see his legs he looks five years older. (Same with
Hogan, come to think of it. Makes him look only 50 instead of 60. Flair
should buy some tights as well.)

I hope you caught the result to the above Raven/Benoit match. Schiavone
made a big deal out of how all of Raven's matches are "No DQ". The two
actually fought over a chair, with Raven using it on Benoit. Eventually the
Flock ran in and the ref called for the bell. To their credit it may have
more accurately been a "no decision" or "no contest", though neither should
have been possible in a "No DQ" match. If anything the ref would have to
just declare Benoit unable to possibly continue, thus awarding the win to
Raven. No official decision was announced, so we're stuck mulling this over
ourselves). Still, if the Flock was going to run in, why not have them do
it right away (especially since the match is supposedly "No DQ"?) Shouldn't
the ref warn Raven about the match being stopped if his lackeys run in?
What happened to WCW banning them from ringside?

Goldberg did a backflip and a neckbreaker in the minute it took him to beat
Glacier. Don't get me wrong, I don't question the guy's agility and
mobility. He moves quite well for a big, muscular man. Still, most any
wrestler could do a backflip if they practiced it and the match
specifically called for the spot. What I question is his endurance and
overall wrestling knowledge and ability in the ring. For all intents and
purposes he did four moves or so in the match-two of which he always does.
All his doing a "new move" proves is he spent the last three days
practicing it with Glacier. Let him do the move at the fifteen minute mark
in a twenty minute match and I'll be impressed. Goldberg may well be a
major star some day, but he needs the experience that now only lengthy
matches can give him. Unfortunately this would expose how green the guy is
and would hurt the push WCW is giving him. He really should have put in
more time in the Power Plant and paid his dues as a jobber. If they
continue the course of him only wrestling short matches we may be seeing
the creation of the next Lex Luger. Speaking of whom ...

I guess the Flair rumors can die down again. He actually looked a bit
energized following his recent time off. Luger, on the other hand, looked
just plain awful in the ring. He's now degenerated to the point where the
only move he can adequately do is a clothesline. Late in the match he did a
suplex off the turnbuckles which was so poorly executed that there was a
risk Flair could have actually been hurt. Luger flipped Flair over, but
delayed in falling back himself. Flair had to make an adjustment in
mid-air to keep from landing hard on his feet. Had he done so, his momentum
would have been stopped. With Luger falling back-holding Flair's head,
Flair could easily have suffered a neck injury. Flair managed to bring his
feet up and land flat to evenly absorb the impact. Both men are supposed to
hit the mat at nearly the same time, but Luger was slow in falling back so
he landed after Flair did. Right after this Luger did a half-assed
powerslam, completely letting go of Flair and landing on his own knees.
Normally this is done so as to lessen the impact of the one doing the move,
but it's supposed to look like you landed on your opponent. Luger letting
go of Flair and stopping short meant the move delivered no more "damage" to
Flair than a normal bodyslam would. I guess one could argue that Luger was
just being hesitant with the "fragile" Flair, but if that was the case then
why would the two guys have even done the spots in the first place?

WCW is actually doing a great job in building up to a Savage turn and feud
with Hogan. The problem is that I just don't think that's really WCW's
intention. With the PPV match with Sting coming up, Hart on the horizon,
Flair, the Giant, Luger, Piper ... I'm just not sure how serious they are
about making Savage a serious contender and doing a major match between the
two. It doesn't help that the last time the two faced each other Hogan beat
Savage easily-(Halloween Havoc 96)-with Savage then shortly thereafter
joining the NWO for no discernible reason. This could all be a false alarm,
with the two eventually scheduled to make up. Or it could lead to the NWO
splitting up. Maybe Savage will just leave and complete the face turn. I'm
interested in seeing what they do, but it really hasn't got me fired up
just yet. Things should be clearer following next weekend's PPV.