Thunder Results June 11th, 1998. Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Buffalo, New York. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Lee Marshall. As the show opens we see Eric Bischoff, the Giant and Bret Hart sitting on the hood of a limo by the entry ramp, surrounded by several women. The Disciple and Elizabeth are there as well. In the announcing booth Tony Schiavone informs us that the big announcement they had planned for tonight would be postponed due to circumstances beyond their control. Schiavone blames it on the controversy over Dennis Rodman's appearance on Monday Nitro (which pretty much gives away what the announcement entails). Schiavone is then cut off in mid-sentence by a lengthy highlight clip showing Diamond Dallas Page being laid out by "Hollywood" Hogan and Rodman. Cut over to Bischoff, who brags about the crowd being there to see the NWO. The Giant makes a few comments about his match against Sting at the PPV, then announces that The Disciple will be his partner when he wins sole ownership of the Tag Team Titles. He challenges Lex Luger to puck anyone as his partner and meet them in the main event. Bischoff wraps up the segment by chastising Schiavone for trying to let the Rodman announcement out of the bag. DEAN MALENKO vs. SCOTTY RIGGS Malenko gets the easy win with the Texas Cloverleaf. They show a special video of Goldberg. Schiavone says the crowd chanting his name this past Monday was evidence of his overwhelming popularity. The video itself features the chant, which burns into your head like a mantra. I'm sure on future occasions they won't have to play the chant over the P.A. system like they did on Monday: the gullible WCW fans will have been conditioned by then to do it themselves, no prompting needed. Schiavone mentions Goldberg getting his 100th win this Sunday against Konan, which not only reveals that he won't be wrestling here tonight, but also that WCW isn't going to recognize the fact that Goldberg already got win #100 Tuesday night in a match against Raven. I wonder if in the week or so after Goldberg does get #100 if WCW will fudge the numbers to retroactively credit Tuesday night's win? The match also took place at the WCW Saturday Night tapings, so it seems they won't air it there either. Chris Jericho comes out and does a whiney interview. He says Ted Turner has endorsed him. He mentions his Washington trip. He again calls for J.J. Dillon to come out. Other than him talking, nothing happens. This time he isn't even funny. What's the point of all this? JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. BILLY KIDMAN (w/ the Flock) Guerrera wins with the 450 Splash. Good match, though not nearly as good as the great match they had a few weeks back. Tony Schiavone interviews Lex Luger, who announces that Randy Savage will be his partner in the match against the Giant and the Disciple tonight. He also mentions that the offer is still open to Diamond Dallas Page to join the Wolfpac. Bret Hart cuts an interview talking about Chris Benoit, saying he needs to beat Booker T. so that he can live up to the training he received in Stu Hart's Dungeon, as well as his overall Canadian heritage. Hart extends an offer to Benoit to join the NWO. Hart and Bischoff stay out to watch the next match, which suddenly puts a whole lot of preconceptions in doubt. CHRIS BENOIT vs. BOOKER T. (w/ Stevie Ray) Solid, even match between the two. Midway through Benoit applies an impressive surfboard with a bridge maneuver, the name of which I couldn't begin to guess. Booker T. break loose just before they go into the second of two commercials which would unfortunately interrupt this match. The finish comes when Bret Hart knocks out Booker T. with a steel chair. Benoit sees it but the ref doesn't. The ref makes a standing count, but is stopped by Benoit before he can reach ten. Benoit informs him of Hart's interference. The referee then declares Booker the winner via DQ, giving him the win in the overall Best-of-Seven series. It's more than a bit sad that this series, which showcased athletic ability, had to be decided by an NWO run-in. J.J. Dillon tells Schiavone that he's going to review the tape of the previous match. Dean Malenko then talks about Jericho, saying he's man enough to give up his Cruiserweight belt at any time. Malenko hands the belt to Dillon. Jericho comes out, bouncing for joy. Dillon then announces that Jericho must face Malenko at the PPV, the winner to be the champion. Jericho whines about the conspiracy against him, at which point he's interrupted by his father, Chet Irvine! Jericho's dad tells him to shut up and start acting like a man. Nice of WCW to remember to do all the development for this feud and PPV match on the last live show before the PPV itself. KONAN vs. SCOTT PUTSKI Putski tries, honest he does, but he just doesn't seem to have the speed or flexibility to actually do all the moves he seems to know. Konan has little trouble beating him with the Tequila Sunrise. He gets a small pop from the crowd, tinged with a heavy amount of boo's. (Or should that be "booze", given the name of his finisher. Hyuk.) SATURN vs. GLACIER Again?! Saturn gets the easy win with the Death Valley Driver. Raven then comes out ("what about me?!") ranting about Kanyon. Raven then fires his security squad. As he and Saturn are beating them up one of them turns out to be Kanyon, in Mortis mask, who lays out Raven once again. J.J. Dillon says he's reviewed the Benoit/Booker match. Booker T. comes out and says he doesn't want to win the way he did. Dillon announces that he's throwing out tonight's match, and that the two will meet again at the PPV. The winner will then fight Fit Finley for the TV Title the same night. Stevie Ray gets angry at Booker for not accepting the original victory. I guess WCW realizes the Benoit/Booker T. series is the best thing they have going, and are going to run it into the ground--if they haven't already. Bischoff and Elizabeth come out for comments regarding Randy Savage. Liz says it was she that left Savage, not him being "over her". She says she took all his money and that's all he was good for. Didn't she say all this the last time she left him and joined the NWO? LEX LUGER/RANDY SAVAGE vs. THE GIANT/THE DISCIPLE Not much of a match. Barely a minute or two in Bischoff and Liz come out to rag on Savage. Savage chases after them, only to be jumped by Hart. Luger, meanwhile, is worked over by his two opponents (though he does manage to get the Disciple up in the Torture Rack for a moment). "Hollywood" Hogan then shows up to join in on the Savage beating. Kevin Nash arrives as well to beat on Hogan, but winds up brawling with the Giant. The show ends with Hart and Hogan beating on Savage. Next Monday: Nothing announced. Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I haven't heard yet if WCW's planned press conference for Thursday afternoon took place or not. It's obvious that they were going to announce that Rodman will be wrestling at "Bash at the Beach" in July, but Rodman received so much crap over his Nitro appearance that they're going to wait until the NBA playoffs are finished. That should be tomorrow night, so we'll get the announcement on Monday. I have no idea if Karl Malone will get involved now or not, especially in light of the firestorm that surrounded Rodman, as well as the negative comments he and his team made about Rodman. Most Utah sports fans are said to be disgusted with the idea of Malone wrestling, especially in a match involving Rodman. If it does happen it'll be a tag team match and neither of the two will be pinned. The Disciple being named the Giant's partner looks to be a move that has Hogan's fingerprints all over it. I'm not sure what to think of the Benoit situation. Is this the start of Hart reforming the Hart Foundation? Could it be a sign of a return by Ric Flair, with a feud kicking off between him and Hart over Benoit, leading the a new Four Horsemen? Could it be the start of a feud between Benoit and Hart? Could it just be that Hart was able to apply some influence over the booking in an area where Hogan wasn't involved? I'd like to think this was the culmination of a long, well planned storyline, but instead I can't shake the feeling that the decision to do this was made in the last day or so. It's like reading one of those mystery novels where the author introduces a new suspect in the last few pages: a suspect who turns out to be the real culprit. All anyone could do was evaluate this angle based on what we knew. Suddenly at the last minute WCW throws in a new variable--one which probably wasn't intended from the very beginning. There's some good potential storylines here, but I seem to recall Benoit being in a similar position months ago. I'd assume now that he'll beat Booker at the PPV. I'm not sure if he'll actually win the TV Title, though. Jericho's whining really must have gotten on Malenko's nerves. Tonight was, after all, the first time they've actually bothered to include him in the angle since he beat Jericho for the title. Usually it takes two guys to have a feud. I guess they finally addressed that shortcoming tonight. A better show this week, due mostly to the overall increase in match quality. The show did a relatively good job of hyping the PPV, though that's because other recent WCW shows have done so little.