Hack-Man

Pro-Wrestling PPV Archive Page

Last updated 22 August 1998

WCW 1998 Road Wild from Sturgis, South Dakota
8 August 1998

Short version



Hack-Man Report of the PPV


I saw the worst PPV of 1998 today. But a couple hours before that I saw Road Wild, which didn't seem like all that much until I saw the tape of last week's WWF PPV.

I'll get to that in my next review. But first I'll review Road Wild 1998.

People that know me know that I stopped giving "star" ratings a few years back and have instead adopted the rating scale of "how much money was this match worth?" At the end, I add it all up and see if the PPV as a whole was worth the sum of its matches.

1. Meng over Barbarian

WCW decided to go against the tradition of putting the highest workrate match on first, I see. This match could have been a lot worse, and I realize that WCW wanted to put these two in to placate the biker crowd, but it still didn't do much to kick off the PPV. RATING: $0.10

Hugh Morrus and Barbarian double-team Meng until Jim Duggan makes the save. Jimmy Hart came off the TOP rope with a splash. Not bad for a 70-year-old man. The crowd seems kinda of dead, but it is mostly due to the fact that there is no place to hang microphones to get crowd reaction. Also, the ring seems a lot stiffer than most WCW shows (both PPVs and house shows); there wasn't much give when people were getting thrown to the mat.

2. Public Enemy over Disco Inferno & Alex Wright

This match had what I believe is "bump of the year" so far for WCW. It doesn't match the Cactus Jack bump off the top of the cage from a month or two ago, or any number of crazy ECW bumps, but as far as WCW goes, it was amazing. There was a loud "Disco sucks" chant at the start of the match, and TPE got a few people in the crowd to do the cabbage patch. Not much happened until Tokyo Magnum brought a metal trash can filled with (get this) trash. The trash can got used on TPE. Rocco Rock left the ring and came back with a metal ladder, which he used to deliver a wicked-looking ladder shot. The match is turned into a "street fight". Wright gets hit by Disco (I think) and decides to leave for the locker room. I might have the order of some of the events mixed up here. Disco leaves as well. Magnum looks confused, starts to leave with his buddies, then looks more confused and motions for them to come back. They come back with a table (TPE already had two tables that hadn't been used). TPE leave and come back with a mailbox, a toilet seat, a kitchen sink, and assorted other goodies. I think it was about this point where the camera is on some gal who is on her BF's shoulders. Just as she's starting to lift off her top, the camera switches back to the action in the ring. TPE *destroy* Disco in the ring. Before he has a chance to recover, TPE set up a TRIPLE-decker table in the middle of the street (which is a good three feet below ringside, which in turn is three feet below the ring). They set up the ladder to get Disco on top of the TOP table. One of TPE (probably Rocco) climbed the lighting tower scaffolding and Disco snapped through all three tables down to the street. OUCH! I hope he got a nice bonus for taking that bump. TPE naturally get the win. RATING: $13.00 (mostly to Disco for taking the table spot). For reference, I gave Cactus $20.00 for taking the bump off the top of the cage through the Spanish announcers' table.

3. Saturn over Raven / Kanyon

Lodi was dissin' the crowd something awful with his signs. He was lucky he didn't get shot. I think this is the match where the audio and video go away for about 30 seconds. Why couldn't that have happened in the first match instead? These three put on a good match (brawling all over the place, but not finding any props to use) but considering the wrestlers involved, this should have been about three times better than it was. Lodi took a WICKED-looking shot to the head from the stop sign. He wasn't seen the rest of the match or post-match, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was hurt legit and had to be taken away. RATING: $4.75

4. Rey Mysterio Jr. over Psicosis

I'm kind of surprised this made it on this PPV. I wouldn't expect lucha guys to be able to get over with the biker crowd. The way these guys were pacing themselves, I was expecting this to go to a 30-minute TLD, but I think it was only about 10 or 12 minutes. A few minutes before the finisher, Psi hit a move on Rey, and them Rey didn't move and Psi went to talk to the ref for 45 seconds or so. This made me think that Rey screwed up his knee or something. They wrestled a few more minutes and then Rey DROVE Psi's head into the mat with the rana off the top rope. Psi was holding the top of his head and not the back of his neck, so I'm guessing he's okay. RATING: $3.00 (these guys are capable of pulling off a $10+ match, so this was a bit disappointing). By winning this match, Rey gets a title shot for the Cruiserweight belt at some later date.

5. Stevie Ray over Chavo Guerrero Jr. (for Booker T's TV title)

I was surprised that WCW put Stevie Rey on this PPV after the reaction the Sturgis crowd gave Harlem Heat last year. They must have imported some wrestling fans this year, because people were raising the (non-existant) roof. After the PPV, Mean Gene was talking to fans, and the camera somehow found the only non-white person in Sturgis (and also some weird guy from Minnesota wearing a Michigan t-shirt). Oh. This match lasts about two minutes and the only move (not counting Chavo's pussy slaps) was Stevie's slap jack. RATING: $0.10 (all for Chavo's "loco" antics).

At this point, Rick Steiner came to the ring for his match against Scott Steiner. We know neither Scott nor Buff is healed enough to wrestle yet, so we're wondering which B&W NWO cronie will sub for them. JoJo Dillon comes out and says that Rick vs Scott will take place in North Carolina (Wooo!) at Fall Brawl next month (is summer over already?). Buff had his neck brace back on. Scott had a neck brace, leg cast, arm cast (on the arm with the torn muscle that he always points to), IV, and oxygen mask (lying on a stretcher that Buff wheels out). Buff is good on the mic, and luckily Scott can't be heard due to the oxygen mask (it makes him sound like Kenny from South Park). Best interview ever from Scott Steiner. Crowd chants "bullshit". I should give this a rating (just to pay them as thanks for not making me watch a couple of Steiners who can't work a match to save their lives), but I don't think this counts as a "match". I'll remember this when I review the "bikini contest" from the most recent WWF PPV.

6. Steve McMichaels over Bryan Adams

This was about as bad as the first match. I give them credit for only having four spots that were REALLY blown, but the match was short (thank gh0d) so there were barely four moves *in* the match. RATING: $0.10

7. Juventud Guerrera over Chris Jericho for the Cruiserweight title

Jericho is in a larger version of the skirt he stole from Prince Makinaki, and tries to get heel heat from the biker crowd. He does a damn good job of it, and I hope for his sake that the thing he was wearing was made out of kevlar. This is the second match with Mexicans (if Chavo is from Texas) and just like the first one, they seem to be pacing themselves for a 30-minute TLD. Jericho does the spot where he powerbombs the guy, then powerlifts him back up for a second powerbomb. It looked awesome against Rey, and looks pretty good with Juvy. Juvy gives special ref Dean Malenko a poke to the eyes. Jericho kicks Malenko from the turnbuckle, but Malenko launches Juvy waaaaay up to deliver a super-frankensteiner off the top! This should have gone longer and could have been a lot better. RATING: $4.75

8. Goldberg over eight nwo guys in a battle royale

It's scary when Hennig looks the least wasted of all the NWO guys. Hall took his survey, but didn't say "or" twice. Hell, he didn't even say "or" once. I feel ripped off already. Hall is the first eliminated, then Nash eliminates himself. A few minutes of action takes place before Konnan, then Hennig get eliminated. Norton, Sting, and Luger are the next three thrown over the top. This leaves Goldberg vs Giant. Giant chokeslams Goldberg. Goldberg thinks about selling it, but then decides to sell more like Piper than like Luger. Goldberg wins with a pin after a spear and jackhammer in the shortest battle royal in recent memory. I think it was under eight minutes. RATING: $2.50

9. DDP & Jay Leno over Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff

I look at my watch and feel lucky that Hogan didn't shorten everyone else's matches in order to give himself 45 minutes. There's only 15 minutes including ring intros. Buffer is there in a tux (looks really out of place with the bikers). Leno does a couple of armdrags and them poses separately for each of the photographers at ringside. Leno gets a arm to the groin of Bischoff. Looks like Kanyon did his job in training Leno. Leno is quite visibly winded for only seeing about 45 seconds of "action". Then end comes when Leno and his band guy team up for Sweet "Chin" "Music". Did I say that out loud? No, Eubanks hits the diamond cutter on Bischoff and Leno gets the pin. nwo b&w run in and the crowd chants for (and gets) Goldberg for the save. Another photo op ensues (I can see the headlines now: "Leno and Stone Cold beat up Hulk in WWF's Sturgis PPV"). RATING: $1.50 (mostly for Leno's comedy bits)

I was surprised that no one road their Harley Davidsons to the ring. All night I was guessing that Hogan wasn't letting anyone else ride their bikes to the ring for fear that it would take away the thunder of him (and possibly Leno) riding to the ring, but even these two walked to the ring. Weird!

Travis Tritt came out (looked coked) and sang for 30 minutes). No rating.

TOTAL RATING for the PPV: $29.80

Somehow, this ended up being the highest rated PPV out of any of the three companies for all of 1998 (thus far). This seems weird since there were three matches that only rated a dime. The only memorable match was the Disco mega-bump match. 

WCW Spring Stampede was     $24.10

WWF Unforgiven was          $ 9.95

WCW Slamboree was           $27.95

WCW Great American Bash was $28.05

WWF King of the Ring was    $22.50

WCW Bash at the Beach       $17.35

ECW Heatwave                $24.90

WCW Road Wild               $29.80

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