83 Weeks - Road Wild 1998 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Road Wild 1998

We are coming off of Bash at the Beach 1998 featuring the biggest celebrity moment of WCW’s run with celebrities...Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman defeating DDP & Karl Malone, Bill Goldberg defending his WCW World Title for the first time on PPV beating Curt Hennig, Booker T defeating Bret Hart by DQ for the TV Title, Mysterio defeating Jericho for the Cruiserweight Title and the Giant defeating another celebrity Kevin Greene.

Observer 7/20/98

This was by far the biggest week in the history of the promotion, as not only did they do the second best PPV in company history, but over the eight day period of 7/6 to 7/13, they ran six house shows which totaled $2,008,407 or a $335,000 per event average which is just a ridiculous figure plus another $782,689 in merchandise not to mention an estimated figure of more than $6.5 million from the PPV show so you are talking about a $9 million week, which puts the Monday night ratings war into perspective about what it really means aside from it being the weekly measuring stick of everyone's ego.

My goodness. I understand you’re going back and forth in a ratings war like Meltzer said but holy shit man...that’s just an unreal number. Did you ever take the time to sit back and go wow...what a ride?

7/13 Nitro from Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena drew a sellout of about 12,000 which was 10,731 paying $201,582. The show opened with Hogan blaming Scott Hall for losing to Goldberg and causing him to drop the title and challenged Hall to a match with Eric Bischoff as referee. Bischoff acted as if he didn't want to ref (an hour later on Raw, in what appeared to be a spoof on this, HHH asked McMahon to referee on their show).

This is the Nitro coming off Goldberg defeating Hogan and then the PPV. Why not spotlight Goldberg in the opening segment and instead it’s Hogan and Hall with you?

Did you ever watch Raw during Nitro and see something and immediately put something together as a “spoof”...and I’m not talking about giving away results but legit taking something they just did and doing something similar.

Barbarian pinned Horace Boulder in 2:04 with a kick to the face. Match wasn't as bad as you'd think. After the match the Flock attacked Barbarian, and he was beating them all up for a while until finally the numbers got to him. Meng made the save and he and Barbarian cleaned house together and then Meng put Barbarian in the Tongan death grip. 

This is important for later on in the show.

J.J. Dillon, Chris Jericho, Rey Misterio Jr. and Dean Malenko came out for the conference which led to Jericho getting the cruiserweight title back and Misterio Jr. and Malenko agreeing to wrestle later in the show for the No. 1 contendership.

Do you feel this title was used more as a prop than a legitimate title that could have programs built around it since it was handed around a lot in this era?

Bagwell came out in the wheelchair (he doesn't need one, it was just for the angle to get Hogan over as everything in this company ultimately is for) and called out Rick Steiner. Before he could say anything to Steiner, who had his arm in a sling, Hogan and Disciple showed up and Hogan began browbeating Bagwell and shoved him out of the wheelchair. This really sucked on so many levels. It was right at this moment when I realized WCW is going to lose Monday's consistently. If there was any message last week should have shown it was that the "face" of WCW was no longer Hogan and it was Goldberg. Instead, we get a PPV show ruined by Hogan (well, actually Rodman didn't help any) and a TV show designed as nothing but a personal vehicle once again for Hogan. Like when Bagwell can return, he's going to feud with Hogan. They could have allowed Raven or Jericho or even Hart or anyone else the heel heat of doing the angle with Bagwell that Bagwell could do a hot program with when he returns, but instead it's another of these WCW injury angles that never pays off.

Hindsight 20/20...hard not to disagree here. Hogan never ended up doing a program with Bagwell. It’s not like Hogan needed his heat back...could it had been a highlight for someone else on the roster instead of Hogan who wouldn’t need the heat?

Ray pinned the returning Rick Martel in 8:57 with the Tiger driver '91 (slapjack) after Hart hit Martel with a chair.

Why bring back Rick Martel here?

Page pinned Disciple in 2:25. As best I can tell, and I've sort of checked around about this, the feeling is that the incident backstage on 7/6 where Disciple threw a fit because Page opened up the back of his head by stiffing him with a chair wasn't an angle for the boys and for the internet to set this up. In fact, there still is heat between these two but they sort of acknowledged the incident in the interviews. Anyway, Rick Rude came out for the finish as Rude and Disciple collided and Page schoolboyed Disciple. Apparently Hogan nixed the diamond cutter as the finish which is where Rude's involvement came in. I guess to show Page how to do chair shots that don't hurt, they gave Page three love taps with a chair.

Do you remember there being heat between Brutus the Fucking Barber Beefcake and DDP and did Hogan prevent DDP from using the Diamond Cutter on Brother Bruti like Meltzer says here?

Chavo Guerrero comes down at some point with Pepe to try and join the Four Horsemen. Who came up with Chavo coming out with a hobby horse named Pepe?

Also Booker T is injured but is TV champion and Stevie Ray is going to defend the title for Booker...what?

Hogan no contest Hall in 7:00 of a match even worse than the PPV match of the night before. Ungodly bad. Bischoff did the heel ref gimmick where he favored Hogan throughout. Disciple attacked Hall. Hogan moves like he's under water. Page did a run-in and gave Bischoff the diamond cutter. Hogan and Disciple beat up Hall and Page. Nash ran in to help Hall and they signaled like they were back together again, but when Nash tried to power bomb Hogan, Hall attacked him. There was no reaction to Hall turning on Nash again. It's because nobody believes it and nobody wants to see it. Hogan legdropped Page and Hogan and Hall hugged when it was over. 

Two points...these matches that are rendered useless by the end seemed to be common at the time in WCW. Why book someone to wrestle 7 minutes against another guy when they end up being friends at the end to fight off other guys? To a viewer like myself...it’s a waste of me having to sit through this match just to get to the angle.

And how did the same angle happen twice on the same show? Between Meng & Barbarian doing pretty much the exact same angle how does that get through?

Show ended with Goldberg pinning Hennig in 1:22 with the jackhammer. Only time will tell, but with the show built around Hogan instead of Goldberg, I'm getting the sense if this continues the long-term prognosis of Goldberg is closer to Nikita Koloff than Steve Austin. 

Obviously it’s the first week of Goldberg being champion but it raises a fair point...Goldberg is on this show in such a small dose and Hogan is all over it...it doesn’t feel like just because the title is on Goldberg he’s “the guy.” What say you?

Rumor has it that Goldberg was given a raise just before getting the title up to four years for $4 million which must be some sort of a record for someone with 10 months in

Did you renegotiate with Bill at this time and did you feel the need to? Was it a struggle that he was quickly outperforming his contract and it was a worry you were going to lose him or a reward for getting over in the manner he had?

Erik Watts is expected to start working here

Why?

From the most recent TV taping, WCW signed Vampiro Canadiense

What did you see in Vampiro at the time?

There will be a Nitro theme restaurant opening in Las Vegas at the Excalibur Hotel

What were the plans for this and what were you looking to accomplish?

All of the Luchadores under contract except Ultimo Dragon have now been officially banned from working any shows in Mexico unless they are booked by Sonny Onoo to work for Paco Alonso at Arena Mexico.

What was Sonny’s role at the time and how important was he to you?

Wrestling Observer 7/27/98

Jay Leno agreed to do the next WCW PPV as a main event participant on 7/17. His appearance had been in negotiation for several weeks. The believed likelihood that Leno would do the show that was the method to the madness that led to Eric Bischoff having WCW buy a Tonight show like set and do what was originally planned to be a weekly deal on Nitro where Bischoff would do a horrible Leno spoof. The planned weekly deal to set up the match ended after just one episode due to its utter destruction of the ratings the first time it was tried and how severe the head-to-head competition between WWF and WCW is to where even building a main event PPV angle that they think will derive huge revenue they aren't willing to sacrifice audience by presenting television that bad. But the segment was back on 7/20 basically to start the ball rolling on an angle that needs to be rushed badly because there's only a few weeks before the show. The match pretty much had to take place in Sturgis since the Sturgis rally was part of the selling point in getting Leno. Supposedly the main angle will be done on the Tonight show, probably in the next week or two, as opposed to on Nitro, although nothing appears to be definite. Apparently the two nights with Hogan, Rodman, Page and Malone doing the angle the first night and Malone being on the second night drew higher than usual ratings for the Tonight show, which is even more ratings conscious because of their own ratings war, than WCW would be. So because of that, Leno also was willing to do his own pro wrestling angle if it would help his own ratings. At press time the main event hadn't been finalized, but it was most likely going to be Leno & Diamond Dallas Page vs. Bischoff & Hulk Hogan, although there has also been talk of making it a six-man with Kevin Eubanks, the muscular guitar player on the Tonight show, teaming with Leno & Page and The Disciple joining Hogan's team. There has also been talk of limiting Leno's role, and making it the originally planned Hogan vs. Page main event and simply have Leno (and perhaps Eubanks) in Page's corner and Bischoff (and perhaps Disciple) in Hogan's corner, and involve Leno in the finish

Was the plan to have your “talk show” weekly and the ratings bombed so bad you couldn’t do it again on a regular basis as Dave alludes to here?

Where did the idea of booking Leno come from? Did they reach out to you or vice versa?

How much did the Tonight Show set cost?

Do you think that segment is remembered a lot worse than it actually was?

How important was Sturgis for Leno to come in? Was it always to work a tag match or a singles as Dave speculates in fear of Leno being so bad in the ring?

How happy was NBC and Leno’s producers over the ratings when everyone was on?

What were your expectations for this show in terms of drawing a buy rate? More, less or equal to Bash at the Beach? Bringing in Leno and than with a 3 week build is tough and in such a tough setting. Was Leno brought in because you didn’t think you had anything that could draw so close to Bash without him?

By any standards, it appears the 8/8 WCW Road Wild PPV will set new standards. The Sturgis show, held outdoors, has been a flop every year on a number of levels. The buy rate is generally well below the company average although this year should be different. Nowadays, with business as good as it is, by doing a PPV show for free, you are literally giving away anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000 in revenue from the live gate and concessions, perhaps more if Leno's thing clicks with the public although apparently part of the lure to get Leno to do the gig is that he's a biker himself.

Leno couldn’t have been cheap and the way you’re drawing PPV houses...what did you have to do to break even on this or was it even an attempt to break even?

In addition, there will be a 30 minute concert at some point during the show with Country artist Travis Tritt, a mix that hasn't worked in the past when attempted on pro wrestling PPV shows.

What in the world Eric?

It isn't even clear what will be on the undercard. The only other matches scheduled to be released were Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall, which both Hall and Nash were both attempting to nix because they believe (and correctly so in this case) that it's way too soon and the wrong place and they're hoping for their first singles match to be held off for Halloween Havoc

How hard were Nash and Hall trying to sell on on holding off their first match? Were they worried the Sturgis crowd would hurt or did they not want it to get lost in the shuffle and needed more time to breathe?

They are purposely not tipping their hand to the final member of the Four Horsemen (with Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Steve McMichael) because WCW is making another big effort to get Ric Flair back promising that the Horseman would be marketed heavily and even the idea of calling them Four Horsemen 2000 (a gimmick that did just wonders for revitalizing the LOD). The plan has all along been David Finlay, but he hasn't been pushed on TV of late or involved in any of the angles

Were there ever talks of putting Finlay with the Horsemen or calling them the Horsemen 2000?

WCW has already taken the steam out of Goldberg's title win by not following it up and keeping the momentum going. He's got no program and the TV is still all built around Hogan, so it's like his title win meant nothing, similar to Hogan killing off the title while Sting held it.

Goldberg does not have a singles program regarding his World Title for months (if you don’t count the Jericho angle that never went anywhere). Did you not have faith in Goldberg to carry the show but wanted him to be front & center as champion?

7/20 Nitro from Salt Lake City, UT drew a sellout 9,603 (8,744 paying $211,658). They mentioned the E Center as the house that Goldberg built since Goldberg's Nitro debut was 9/22 in the same building. Naturally to make perfect sense out of all this, Goldberg never appeared on the show.

Big house again...build up of Goldberg...and he’s not even on the show.

Rick Steiner did an interview and challenged Scott Steiner to a match at Road Wild. Marcus Bagwell came out in the wheelchair and said he forgave Rick for what happened. Rick and Bagwell were both stumbling all over their words. Scott Steiner, looking even freakier than the last time we saw him, came out and hit Rick with a chair. Bagwell got out of his wheelchair all unsteady looking like he was trying to stop Scott, but then turned on Rick and jumped around like he was fine, took off his shirt to reveal a black & white NWO shirt. This was a very good angle, but the timing of it was mind-boggling. WCW literally pissed away a lot of money as they could have drawn a huge rating and a lot of money early next year for Bagwell's return as a babyface, and then turned him back heel at the height of his popularity and he could have been one of the top heels in the company at that point. Now it's all gone and when he finally wrestles, he'll have been around TV enough that nobody will care and he won't be able to be elevated. But none of that matters because they needed to do a show long storyline where Hogan's group goes over on everyone so Hogan doesn't lose any more heat by having put Goldberg over.

Meltzer tells the future here saying Bagwell isn’t going to mean anything. Did you not have any faith in his return being something to draw money with him returning from his injury?

What was the process to get Marcus cleared and were you hesitant to use him again?

Finally they did the awful Bischoff segment where he did Jay Leno's Friday monologue, and then cracked a few chin jokes with this awful canned laughter soundtrack while you could see the people who paid for wrestling tickets wanting to commit homicide, suicide, genocide or at the very least a violent castration. Bischoff wanted to go out with a fake nose and chin as well but was talked out of it.

Do you still have the fake nose and chin? Who talked you out of it? Looking back...do you feel these segments were good TV?

Hall & Giant won the tag titles from Nash & Sting in 12:08 in a great match with super heat. Who would have ever figured that? I mean, you'd think it would have some heat. Everyone had their working shoes on. Sting was about to put Hall in the scorpion when Hart ran out. Sting shoved down Hart and the two argued, allowing Hall to get behind Sting and drop him with the edge for the pin.

This really is a fun match and you should go out of your way to watch it on the network. When these guys wanted to go they could.

Finally Page came out with his knee taped, his ribs taped (the only guy in history whose had his ribs taped longer than Page is King Tut), his head taped, etc. for his match with Bret Hart for the vacant U.S. title and apparently for the No. 1 contender for Goldberg. Page just sold for 2:52 before submitting to the sharpshooter. Page went out on a stretcher and into an ambulance where he'll be fine next week.

So this fills the vacancy of the US Title from Goldberg letting go of it. This is a short main event to give Bret Hart a win and supposedly a #1 contendership to Goldberg. Why was that never followed up on?

Thunder on 7/18 from Oakland, CA drew a sellout 14,477 in the revamped new Arena which was 13,393 paying $293,975. Other house shows for the week were 7/17 in Stockton drew a sellout 2,333 paying $46,145, 7/19 in Sacramento drawing 9,217 paying $172,392, 7/20 in Spokane, WA drew 10,008 paying $185,749, and 7/21 in Yakima, WA drew a sellout 6,539 paying $117,133. The Yakima crowd is amazing because the entire city only has a population of 50,000. Merchandise for the week was $456,949 or $9.10 per head

God damn Eric. Business is on fire. 

For a lot of reasons, DDP seems to be the brunt of more wrestler jokes than anyone else in the company. Anyway, the situation you've probably heard about the guy in Orlando last week who was impersonating DDP and wrote a bogus check to a Toyota Dealership for $32,000 and drove away with a Toyota Four-Runner, and tried to write another bogus check to buy a night club, and get this, he even had his girlfriend believing he was DDP. Anyway, his name was Marvin Lee Jr. and he has a history of writing bad checks. The joke among the guys is that everyone thought the guy was DDP and he was 50-years-old, although by the end of Nitro they had him up to being 70-years-old

Do you remember this and do you remember ribbing DDP about this?

Wrestling Observer 8/3/98

After Bischoff did the talk show format on 7/20, the angle continued when Eubanks brought up on the 7/23 Tonight show that Bischoff and Hogan were dissing Leno on Nitro. Leno responded with a few jokes about how old Hogan was. The next night they showed a clip of Hogan, with Disciple in the background, demanding that Leno apologize. Leno then brought out a short, old fat man dressed in a Hogan costume who somewhat resembled the Huckster character in the McMahon parodies and apologized to him in comedy. Hogan and Bischoff did a few promos and continually showed clips throughout the 7/27 Nitro to build up the angle. Leno responded on the 7/28 Tonight show airing clips from Nitro and saying he's been friends with Hogan for a long time again bringing out the shorter version of Hogan on a tricycle and noting how Hogan looks much bigger on television. At press time this was scheduled to climax with Bischoff and Hogan as guests on the 7/29 show.

Was all this cross-promoting easy to work out between all the parties? Anything happen that had to be changed for Jay’s liking? Hogan was notorious at this time for not wanting his age to be brought up according to the rumor & innuendo, any issues here with Jay?

In addition, the booking in WCW appears in disarray as on the next to the last Nitro before the show on 7/27, there still had yet to be one match announced for the show.

What was the issue with announcing matches for this show? Were you expecting that Leno on top was going to draw everything and nothing underneath mattered?

On a night where the total viewing audience for pro wrestling set another cable record, Raw barely squeaked by Nitro largely by the teeth of its five-minute over-run.

The closeness of the head-to-head battle was largely due to the huge rating the replay of the Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. Diamond Dallas Page & Karl Malone match from Bash at the Beach drew. That match became the second most widely viewed quarter hour in cable wrestling history drawing 4,789,000 homes, or a 6.51 rating and 10.2 share, trailing only the 7/6 Hogan vs. Bill Goldberg match which drew 5,054,000 homes, topping the former No. 2 mark of 4,774,000 homes set on 4/20 for the Hogan vs. Randy Savage title change. Even more amazing then the two aforementioned matches is 6.5 rating grew from a 4.2 the previous quarter which meant the match saw the audience increase 55% from the previous quarter, a figure unheard of in recent wrestling history.

But even that wasn't enough to keep Raw, which won six of the eight quarters, from its eighth victory over the past nine weeks as Raw finished with a 4.84 rating (4.19 first hour; 5.49 second hour) and 7.91 share to Nitro's 4.72 rating (4.57 first hour; 4.79 second hour; 4.81 third hour) and 7.86 share

Why the reason to re-air the Hogan & Rodman vs DDP & Malone match? It does great numbers but still doesn’t pull out the victory.

Meltzer does a comparison point for halfway through the year data over the last 4 years for WCW:

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

'95 '96 '97 '98

Attendance: 2,008, 3,502, 5,317, 7,595

Gate: $20,668 $40,801 $73,484 $148,468

Rating: 2.10, 2.17, 2.12, 3.35

Buy rate: 0.75 0.56 0.65 0.90

PPV revenue: $2.01M $1.62M $1.95M $3.68M

Just amazing stuff to see how far the company had grown from 95 to 98. How impressed was Turner with you at this point?

Among the worst Nitros in history on 7/27 at the Alamodome in San Antonio drew 20,031 fans (19,109 paying $471,485). It's almost mind-boggling, not only the gate, but that it has gotten to the point where a $471,485 gate is something of a disappointment in a city the size of San Antonio as they were hoping for 25,000+ and to break the city gate record of $480,014 set by the Shawn Michaels vs. Sid Royal Rumble 1997 match. Another thing almost as mind-boggling is that on the same night, Raw was from Anaheim and actually drew a sellout which was 12,019 paid, and Jim Ross called it 18,000, while Nitro legitimately had 20,000 in the building and Tony Schiavone called it 13,000 to 14,000.

Was it a disappointment?

On a three-hour television show, the company with the most depth of wrestling talent of any company in history, had a total of 19:00 of wrestling (because 3:00 of Jericho-Malenko was during a commercial break), most of which was real bad.

Were you seeing things that were telling you to keep the wrestling to a minimum?

Bischoff did a 17 minute Tonight show segment. This was the most revoltingly wretched refuse of wrestling television possible and if you can come up with more adjectives, be my guest. They brought out Hogan who cut a promo on Jay Leno. Diamond Dallas Page did an interview challenging Hogan and basically saying nothing except that he hates Hollywood Scum Hogan.

I...don’t know what to say other than what the fuck?

During the airing of the Hogan & Rodman vs DDP & Malone replay...in the building was a Konnan vs Eddie Guerrero match that was supposedly really good.

Bill Goldberg did his first interview. He did a good job, but I think it wasn't the right time for it and some of the mystique may have been hurt.

Was there ever any thought of putting a mouth piece with him as he clearly was not ready at this point in his career to do much in the promo department?

Bischoff has made it clear to people like Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Jericho that if they don't sign extensions of their contract that they won't be pushed over the next year. I believe some, if not all of the above, were offered substantial raises to stay. Konnan was the only person basically given the ultimatum that has signed, and he's at least been given a chance to get over although his crowd reactions have shocked everyone considering he really has never been pushed. Jericho is expected to sign, but hasn't as of yet

Do you remember making that clear to this group and do you think it was an impetus to them leaving (Jericho sooner than later) within the next 18 months from the company even after you had left?

Bruce Buffer, younger brother of Michael, is now doing some work as business manager for Tank Abbott and has expressed interest in having him work WCW

This is an interesting note for many reasons. Do you remember Bruce Buffer reaching out on behalf of Tank Abbott at the time?

Wrestling Observer 8/10/98

The arrest of Scott Hall on the morning of 7/30 on a misdemeanor simple battery and disturbing the peace by intoxication charge may on the surface appear to something minor, but it should have everyone in WCW concerned.

What do you remember about this incident and how did you hear about it? How worried were you for Scott at this point?

At this point, Leno doing a wrestling PPV hasn't gotten nearly the publicity that the appearance of Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone received on the previous show, limited to some of the Entertainment news shows like Access Hollywood and E Channel News, and a tongue-in-cheek tale-of-the-tape graphic in the New York Post. It is expected that as the week progresses, with expected hype throughout the week on the Tonight show including another taped appearance by Hogan and video of Leno working out for his match, that mainstream pub will increase, although it's questionable to what degree because most of the major news outlets having already done their "wrestling is hot" story and probably don't want to deal with the subject until the next cycle. It appears the angle has been more of a help to Leno's ratings than to WCW's, as Leno had one of his biggest margins of victory over David Letterman this past week winning the Late Night Wars by a 4.8 to 2.8 margin.

Were you starting to worry at this point about the lack of pub?
Was the feeling from Jay’s side that this was all going great?

Hogan and Bischoff showed up for a "surprise" run-in. Hogan shoved Leno and for a brief period, like maybe 30 seconds, took over the show with Bischoff kicking his feet up on Leno's desk. Leno came back with security, and in the melee, actually threw a knee at Bischoff, then from another direction, Page showed up and clocked Hogan and security took Bischoff and Hogan from the premises. Page then asked Leno to be his tag team partner for a match in Sturgis, but never mentioned the date or that it would be a PPV show. Leno, with very little thought, agreed to do it saying he felt he could take Bischoff. It looked totally staged, although Hogan and Bischoff did a good job under those circumstances, Hogan in particular, to not make it so obvious.

Who put this together and how do you think it went?

Both Leno and Eubanks are being trained in Los Angeles by Page, Chris Kanyon and Erik Watts. Leno, who is 48, is said to be completely unathletic

Was this the feedback you were getting at the time from Page? Was there talk at any point this might be a bad idea and backfire horribly?

Despite trailing in the Monday Night Wars, any suggestion that WCW is the No. 2 promotion in the United States, particularly at least this week, is laughable. WCW set an all-time U.S. wrestling business record during the month of July drawing $4,247,898 on 19 house shows paced by the Georgia Dome show which was not only the company record gate, but the largest gate for a non-PPV event ever in the United States.

Meltzer gives you credit for the hot streak even without the ratings victories. Did you ever look at it that way?

You are negotiating at this time and planning on bringing in Warrior and working on Ric Flair returning. Was this taking a toll on creative and who was manning the ship creatively? You or someone else?

It was another bad Nitro on 8/3 in Denver before a sellout 7,697 paying $170,347. In a great angle for building the PPV, the Nitro Girls were dancing and Hogan, Bischoff, Giant, Adams and one or two others came out and surrounded Kimberly. She slapped Eric, as Eric tried to do McMahon's angle from last week and sexually harass her. Page ran in, but Giant and Adams held him while they continued to torment Kimberly. Giant choke slammed Page while Kimberly played damsel in distress. 

Finally Hall & Giant kept the belts beating Hart & Sting via DQ. Why Hart was Sting's partner and not anyone else in the Wolfpac, and whatever happened to Luger was never explained. It's almost as if they've even given up on the pretense of making sense. Anyway, it was Hart's plan to turn on Sting. Sting came from the ceiling with his old music and his old look, with no acknowledgement of whatever happened to the Wolfpac and him. Hart tried to hit Sting with his own bat but he moved and hit Hall instead and Sting pinned Hall. The ref reversed the decision when he saw the bat was used. All the heels attacked Sting with Hart not helping out. None of the Wolfpac helped until finally Goldberg came out and tackled Giant as the show went off the air. The match had no heat, partially because it wasn't a very good match, but also because none of the fans understood the angle, couldn't figure out why Sting was teaming with Hart, didn't want to cheer Hart and were flat on Sting's change back into the old character

What the hell was going on here? None of this makes sense and I’m not sure how this is to build to a PPV?

The legit heat with Kevin Nash with Hogan and Bischoff reached a new level during and after this television show. Nash apparently believes, and the booking does bear this out, that they are doing everything to make Wolfpac look bad and apparently Nash wasn't aware of what they were doing with Sting until it happened.

Did Nash complain at this time of the booking of himself and the Wolfpac? What was the reasoning presented to him where everything was going?

Nash was supposed to do an interview on the show and refused when he found out Wolfpac was going to be whipping boys on the show, that the members wouldn't be helping each other when getting beaten on in angles making the unit look bogus (similar to the Horsemen last year), and that the PPV match was just to set up Goldberg and Giant's issue and he'd again simply be background to get others' over. At press time the situation was said to be serious enough that his future with the company was even in question as he was openly talking about wanting to quit, but there is that matter of a seven figure contract that has years left on it

Do you think this was Nash just looking to get a better spot or did he have a legitimate concern and did you think it was serious enough he would ask for a release? How many times did Kevin ask for a release if he was unhappy?

How's this for a mind-blower? Kevin "Nailz" Wacholz and John Nord are working on $150,000 per year contracts here

Eric...what in the fuck were you doing?

Here we are...Road Wild 1998…

WCW ROAD WILD POLL RESULTS

• Thumbs up 23 (17.2%)
• Thumbs down 90 (67.2%)
• In the middle 21 (15.7%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera 103

Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis 9

Kanyon vs. Raven vs. Saturn 7

WORST MATCH POLL

Steve McMichael vs. Brian Adams 50

Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff vs. Jay Leno & DDP 20

Battle Royal 17

Meng vs. Barbarian 15

Stevie Ray vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. 10

Road Wild is the car wreck of wrestling PPV shows. A yearly disaster waiting to happen, and this year's version was by far the worst of the three. In fact, had either Hogan had his usual non-working boots on during the main event, or had Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera never taken place, it would have been the single worst PPV show in history. As it was, it has to live with the distinction of being just a really bad show.

1. Meng pinned Barbarian in 4:48. They opened the match doing a series of sumo spots, since both have a sumo background. When these 300-pound monsters threw the sumo chops that are a legit tactic in that sport to knock a guy out of his circle, to American drunk bikers, it must have looked like Richard Simmons in a street fight. Barbarian loaded his boot but before he could throw the kick, Meng clamped on the Tongan death grip. After the match, Hugh Morrus ran in and he, Barbarian and Jimmy Hart beat on Meng. Meng made his own comeback, but was beaten down again until Jim Duggan showed up with a 2x4. Not only did nobody care about Duggan's save, but there was no crowd reaction at all to Duggan's music, which usually garners the easiest mindless pop because it constitutes American patriotism. DUD

Off to a great start here. Sumo spots in front of a biker crowd? Did anyone think this was going to get over?

2. Public Enemy beat Disco Inferno & Alex Wright in 15:27. I mean, they had to kill a lot of time, but putting PE out there for 15:00. Magnum Tokyo showed up as well. It was announced in the middle of the match that the rules had changed and this was now a street fight. They spent literally minutes setting up the table and poor Disco still had to sell. Disco was put on the tables and Rock climbed up the lighting stand and fell off, breaking three tables. It was the only pop of the match. Magnum showed back up and leaped off the top, but Grunge moved, and he hit Disco, allowing Grunge to pin Disco. -*

Thus far this doesn’t seem to be a recipe for success.

3. In what was billed as a falls count anywhere in Sturgis match, Perry Saturn won a three-way over Raven and Kanyon in 12:26. They worked hard, as you'd figure given who was in the match, with a few really cool spots, but overall the match didn't work as the crowd could have cared less and there is something about this three-way feud that breeds disinterest. Saturn used the death valley driver on Raven after Horace Boulder accidentally helped Saturn to score the pin. *¾

These guys just didn’t stand a chance in this match and putting two “hardcore” matches back to back doesn’t help either.

4. Rey Misterio Jr. pinned Psicosis in 13:38 of a match where the winner was billed to earn a shot at the cruiserweight title. This was a better than average match, but taken way down in this setting. Actually it was the first match of the show to get any crowd reaction and Misterio Jr. was the first wrestler to come out that the crowd seemed to remotely care about, although by regular standards this didn't have much heat either. Misterio Jr. ended up winning with the springboard huracanrana, although Psicosis in going over landed on his head making the move actually miss its targeted look, but actually look more impressive in the process. **

Did you feel that these two were so good at this point that they could command a crowd of any kind but the fact they could do so in Sturgis showed how good they were?

5. Stevie Ray pinned Chavo Guerrero Jr. to retain the TV title in 2:38. I guess the new rule for undercard titles is if someone is injured, the title reverts to next of kin. Chavo has become a scary monster, yet can't beat anyone of any level in a match, and can't even be competitive against a very large but third-rate star. He ran away for about 2:00, with one announcer saying it might be good strategy because he's trying to tire out the bigger man (which actually made sense since Ray was chasing him) and another announcer kills the drama by responding that Stevie Ray won't get tired out. Chavo threw some punches that Ray laughed off (let's just kill Chavo's credibility completely) and Ray slapjacked him. -*

We’re 5 matches in and so far Rey and Psicosis are leading the pack. When does this PPV get good?

Then Rick Steiner, wearing jeans and cowboy boots and clearly not being ready to wrestle, came out to wrestle Scott despite it being made clear on Thunder a few days earlier the match wasn't taking place. While it was funny Scott with an oxygen mask on laid out as if he was near death, and later getting off his deathbed at running away and it would have been a good angle in another setting, after so many bad matches, to tell fans the match at least some people still thought was going to take place (and in reality it never was until September because neither brother is healed up from shoulder and back injuries respectively) would instead be on the next PPV had to go over as bad to those at home as it did to this live, and that was pretty bad.

The worst is still yet to come.

6. Steve McMichael pinned Brian Adams in 6:32. Originally, this match was scheduled to go 17:00. Luckily it was cut to 7:00 so the two had only the worst match of the show instead of the worst match perhaps of a lifetime.After one of the most messed up spots you'll ever see, McMichael delivered, if this was the idea, the worst DDT in history. Who knows what was supposed to happen next that didn't as it seemed both guys went for a move, then they both stood there and froze. Adams picked McMichael up for a piledriver but McMichaels' legs barely grazed the ref, who was knocked unconscious. Vincent then went to hit McMichael with a chair, but he ducked and Adams got it. McMichael punched Vincent and gave a tombstone piledriver to Adams and the ref revived to count the fall. It doesn't get much worse than this. -**

My god in heaven. First off...17 minutes? Second off...stop the damn show!

7. Juventud Guerrera won the WCW cruiserweight title from Chris Jericho in 16:24 with Dean Malenko as referee. Jericho came out wearing a Kimona. Huh? Malenko played unbiased ref most of the way although he did pull Jericho's hair early. Jericho is the perfect heel for this kind of a crowd and the match itself actually got over and stole the show. Guerrera accidentally slugged Malenko when Jericho moved. Jericho hit Guerrera with the title belt and Jericho tried to revive Malenko, but Guerrera kicked out. Jericho kicked Malenko aiming at Guerrera. Guerrera then ran at Malenko and Malenko propelled him in mid-air into a Frankensteiner off the top onto Jericho for the pin. The finish was a real thing of beauty. Malenko decked Jericho after the match. ***½

Everyone in this match are great workers and this stands the test of time don’t you think?

8. Bill Goldberg won a nine-man Battle Royal featuring eight members of NWO Wolfpac vs. NWO Hollywood in 7:58. Goldberg backflipped Scott Hall out at 1:25. Kevin Nash, who management was concerned about not even showing up until the day of the event, then got to be the only wrestler in the match that Goldberg didn't eliminate as he simply walked out over the top rope at 1:35 to try and pound on Hall. Match died about 4:00 in. Goldberg threw out Konnan in 4:56. Goldberg speared and threw out Curt Hennig in 6:47. Goldberg then clotheslined Sting and Scott Norton out in 6:53. Goldberg speared and threw out Lex Luger in 7:09. Giant then choke slammed Goldberg, who popped right back up, speared Giant, delivered the jackhammer, and pinned him clean in the middle. It was a good finish for the moment, but it made absolutely no sense from a booking standpoint to do that finish on PPV at this time. This was the first match where the audience seemed to have a vague idea who the wrestlers were, although none got big pops they seemed to at least get the reaction as recognizable stars. Goldberg's reaction was way down compared to usual for the same reason everyone's was, and also because outdoors it's harder to pipe the fake chants in and there was little in the way of chants for him during the show or match. *

I...just...don’t...get...it.

9. Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkenburg) & Jay Leno beat Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) & Eric Bischoff in 14:34. Leno, 48, was purported to be a former high school wrestler although if he had any previous athletic ability, age had done its number completely eliminating it. Actually considering he's only done one actual match previously, Bischoff did a good job in the match. This match had good heat, but nothing special. Leno got a good reaction, but not anywhere close to what you'd expect. Bischoff was noticeably heavier than at Starrcade to the point that he wouldn't take his shirt off. Hogan and Page worked most of the way and did a good job, working tons stiffer than is usual for either. Kevin Eubanks shoved Hogan allowing Page to get a quick roll-up. Leno first tagged in at 4:30 and Bischoff ran away from him, which was really hard to take after the announcers had been building Bischoff up as a tournament karate fighter and Bischoff did all those videos during his silly McMahon feud. Leno then tagged Page back in. When Leno tagged in the next time, he grabbed an arm twist on Hogan. Hogan kicked Leno in the gut and he tagged out again. After Page & Leno delivered the worst double clothesline in wrestling history on Hogan, Leno was noticeably blown up. Eubanks hit Hogan with a chair. Bischoff threw a kick that missed Page but Page still sold, but Page came back and Bischoff took a good bump. Bischoff threw nice looking punches. Disciple gave Hogan a foreign object and he hit Page a few times and did probably the best timed foot to the face he's done in years. Page finally made the hot tag to Leno in 12:30. Bischoff begged off but did an eye rake, but Leno did a low blow, then threw two terrible looking punches and was blown up again. Hogan accidentally punched Bischoff and Page clotheslined Hogan over the top to set up the finish. The finish was supposed to have Leno using the diamond cutter, a relatively simple move to learn, on Bischoff, but they didn't trust him to do it and instead had Eubanks do it and Leno scored the pin on Bischoff.  *¼

Is this the worst match you’ve ever been a part of? What did you think of Jay and how did he do? Any issues in putting the match together?

But wait...WE’RE STILL NOT DONE YET!

The show ended with a Travis Tritt concert that went more than the promised 30 minutes, although as promised, the show contained the normal 2:49 of wrestling and it wound up out being a 3:30 show. Tritt's management held up WCW at the event for his money in advance (which actually was no big deal), a bonus of three motorcycles and a leer jet ride home or it was threatened that he wouldn't perform. 

Jesus christ Eric...Travis Tritt holding you up. Is that not fitting for the ending of this show?

The final buyrate of the show according to Meltzer was 322,000 buys or a 0.93 buy rate. Looking back...success? Failure? What say you?