Thunder Results August 13th, 1998. Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Fargo, North Dakota. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Lee Marshall. Schiavone says there's 20,000 fans in attendance in the Fargo Dome. I didn't know that there were that many people in all of North Dakota. Scott Hall comes out to do his survey. After a commercial Konnan comes out and does his routine as well. KONNAN vs. SCOTT HALL Hall wins this yawner with the (I'm no longer an) Outsider's Edge. The announcers hype the upcoming Fall Brawl PPV and the "Wargames" match, which will feature the NWO vs. the Wolfpac. Raven comes out to blame his Road Wild match loss on Horace. "What about me?" he whines. Horace allows Raven to verbally (and physically abuse) him. RAVEN (w/ the Flock) vs. HORACE Raven tries to use the stop sign on Horace but Lodi stops him. Horace then takes over with the sign, hits the splash off the top, and covers for a few unsuccessful pin attempts. After a DDT on the floor Raven brings Lodi in to kick Horace, but Lodi won't do it. Raven slaps him, then calls in the rest of the Flock. The ref calls for the bell, even though the match has been no DQ under "Raven's Rules". Saturn runs in to stop the beating, but Horace attacks him (after the Flock just backs away, suggesting Saturn as some kind of "power" over them). The rest of the Flock then join in. Kanyon comes out to save Saturn, laying out each member of the Flock one at a time. (He drops Kidman with a split-legged powerbomb starting with Kidman on his shoulders. Lee Marshall calls it the "Flatliner"--Kanyon's usual finisher which is a reversed Russian Legsweep, which he had done just ten seconds earlier and Lee had, at that time, correctly identified. Lee Marshall is a moron.) I wish these guys would settle all this in the bedroom, where it belongs. Schiavone brings out Stevie Ray, saying "there's no question that there's a new Television Champion." He then turns around and says there's some controversy. Lee Marshall throws out the theory that because Booker T. was injured that maybe the "30 Day" rule came into effect and WCW accepted Stevie's bogus "power of attorney" letter. I guess that's the best we're going to get out of this one. Stevie says he had Jericho beat on Monday, says that his brother told him to win the belt back, then he challenges the Giant to a match next week (Monday, I presume). CHRIS JERICHO vs. CHAVO GUERRERO, JR. Schiavone tries to clarify the situation by saying that J.J. Dillon would probably have reversed the TV Title change, but wasn't in the arena. He brings up the "30 Day" rule and says we'll get some kind of clarification from Dillon on Monday. If logic prevails Dillon should strip Jericho of the belt and declare it vacant because of Booker's injury, calling for either a tournament or a "top contenders" match. This match featured some good wrestling between the two and a lot of comedy antics from Chavo, such as biting Jericho's butt and riding his stick pony around the ring. Jericho wins by DQ after Chavo hits him with a baseball bat bearing a stick pony head at the end (Jericho having just trashed Chavo's other pony in the ring). They show still of Luger's U.S. Title win over Bret Hart. (They'd show a clip but I guess we're supposed to buy the Nitro replay. Or something.) Hart comes out and gives us some of his cartoon cowboy attitude, drawing some good heat for calling the fans "scum". He blames all his woes on the fans, forgetting that it was Vince McMahon that "screwed" him. Ain't that right, Bret? DISCO INFERNO/ALEX WRIGHT (w/ Tokyo Magnum) vs. PUBLIC ENEMY Didn't they dump Tokyo Magnum on Monday? Or threaten to? Anyway, this time out the teams stick to straight-up wrestling, which makes for a pretty dull match (though not necessarily a terrible one). The P.E. bring a table in eventually and lean it up in the corner, laying Wright up against it. Tokyo tries to pull Wright off and winds up getting smashed against it by Johnny Grunge. Wright then nails Grunge with a reverse neckbreaker and covers for the pin. Suddenly Meng runs in and lays out Disco, Tokyo, Wright, the P.E., the Barbarian, Jimmy Hart, and a security guard with Tongan Death Grips, (the ref he just kicks in the gut). Suddenly the Ultimate Warrior runs in with a ladder. He nails Meng with the ladder, then drapes the ladder across the ring apron and railing. After laying Meng on the ladder he puts him through it with a moonsault off the top. Security guards run out and begin shooting the Warrior with tranquilizer darts. As he falls they throw a net over him. Goldberg comes out and yells "you're next!" The Warrior breaks free from the net and chokes Goldberg. Cut to the back, where "Hollywood" Hogan is watching on a TV monitor and rubbing his hands together in glee. Eric Bischoff gets off a cell phone and says he's lined up baseball star Wade Boggs to be Goldberg's tag team partner in a match against Hogan and the Warrior at Fall Brawl. Boggs will be trained by Lodi and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. Then I woke up. Running the tape back I find that nothing after "kicks in the gut" above actually happened. Kevin Nash hits the ring. Nash says he has nothing against Goldberg for what happened on Monday, and in fact extends an offer to him to join the Wolfpac. After a commercial break they come back with a shot of two fans wearing Ultimate Warrior makeup. Is that supposed to be a hint? A fan in the aisle has a "HHH" sign--is that supposed to mean something too? KEVIN NASH vs. CURT HENNIG (w/ Rick Rude) At the three minute and ten second mark Rick Rude comes in and nails the ref, halting the match. Rude takes off his coat and challenges Nash. Before the two can lock up, though, Scott Hall runs in and nails Nash from behind. Lex Luger comes in for the save. STEVIE RAY vs. EDDIE GUERRERO The Giant and Hall come out to watch the match, drinking ... something ... in plastic cups. They're either there to scout him for the NWO or make fun of him--which is never really made clear. Hall gives him the spooky finger wiggle, while the Giant gestures to his own NWO t-shirt. Eddie, who's won a number of matches lately, sees his pseudo-push hit a brick wall and loses when Stevie does the Pedigree--which Tenay calls the "Slopjack". BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. LEX LUGER In a match only half as long and not half as good as their encounter on Monday, Hart wins to regain the United States Heavyweight Title. After Luger gets beat up for most of the match the two spill to the floor. Hart comes back in with a chair, but Luger clotheslines him. Luger gets the chair and is going to use it, which would get him DQ'ed, but the ref pulls it away. Hart shoves Luger into the ref, then DDT's Luger on the chair. The ref comes to after checking Luger, who is in the Sharpshooter, awards the match to Hart. Hart leaves as some shameless Canadian fans hold up their flag. The show ends with another look at those two fans in the makeup. Next Monday: Nothing announced. Next week: Stevie Ray vs. the Giant. Comments: A few snatches of good wrestling and some minor plot development aside, nothing much happened, giving me very little to comment on this week. If WCW isn't going to bother talking about the Ultimate You-Know-Who then I won't either. Big surprise Hart winning that belt back, eh? Can you say "ratings ploy"? Tonight supposedly marks the first night that WCW will be taping Thunder in advance, with next week's show being taped as I type this. We should either have a good idea what's going to happen on Nitro next week, or the taped show will be so bland and uneventful so as not to tip off WCW's hand in regards to the live show which has to precede it. Either way Thunder's stock as a "must see" show has been pretty much split in half.