WCW Thunder 22/01/1998

Scott Steiner vs Konnan

Only a brief taster of a match, with Steiner basically running over Konnan for two minutes before the NWO run in. Still, it’s fun to watch Steiner hurl Konnan about with a t-bone suplex and a big press slam before the hubbub.

Chavo Guerrero Jr & Super Calo vs Silver King & La Parka

This was a blast, as much fun as you’d expect from these guys given 5 minutes. La Parka sets the tone early when he bumps onto his head when he gets legswept into the ropes. Calo gets briefly worked over, with Silver King draping him off the apron to allow Parka to hit a pescado stomp in a nutty spot. Silver King drops him with a big Eye of the Storm. Calo makes the tag after an awkward double enzuigiri spot where Calo has boots from both Parka and King, they both try an enzuigiri and you can’t tell who is supposed to have been hit. I assume that Calo is supposed to have ducked as he brings Chavo in, who looks great. He moves so well, culminating with him taking out Parka with a suicide dive and Calo pins King after a top rope flying headscissors.

Marty Jannetty vs Dean Malenko

So this was an unexpected little gem. I mean, both guys are capable of great things, but it’s as if the stars aligned to catch them both at their best. You’d probably not think of Marty Jannetty as a great matworker, but here he is keeping up with Malenko in a competitive opening section. Neither gets a sustained run of control, as there’s always a stiff punch or a well-timed kick to break things up. Loved Malenko hitting a series of shoulder barges in the corner, only for Marty to lift a big knee to smack Malenko in the face. Malenko hits a neat low angle crossbody and Marty gets a nearfall with a victory roll, before Malenko is able to escape a Rocker Dropper, hit a double underhook powerbomb and lock in the Texas Cloverleaf for the win. Great stuff.

Goldberg vs Kendall Windham

Fun squash, with Goldberg surprising Windham from the bell by snatching a leg and locking in a rolling leglock. Windham hits a lovely big punch and a clothesline, but Goldberg hits the spear and the Jackhammer to win.

Rey Mysterio Jr vs Eddie Guerrero

Only brief, but you give these guys a few minutes and they’ll still give you gold. They cut a quick pace from the start, Rey sending Eddie to the floor with a tilt-a-whirl armdrag. Rey is wearing a kneebrace, so Eddie trips him from the floor and hits a slingshot senton onto the knee. Eddie keeps focus on the knee to wear Rey down, before hitting a big brainbuster. Rey sends him to the floor and hits a big tope con hilo, but Chris Jericho comes out to attack for the DQ…

Chris Jericho vs Chris Benoit

In a nice little block of TV, Jericho and Eddie beat down Rey, drawing out Benoit who was due to face Jericho later on in the show. Eddie sees him and swiftly leaves, leaving Jericho to turn around face to face with an angry Benoit who attacks to start the match. Jericho plays a cat and mouse game, constantly fleeing the ring to try and lure out Benoit. Eventually, he fakes a knee injury, allowing him to pull Benoit into the corner, hitting his head on a turnbuckle. Jericho hits the Lionsault (no cover), a surprisingly nice forearm and a top rope superplex, but Benoit lands on his feet on a back suplex and gets a surprise German. Dig Benoit, while still recovering, using Jericho’s momentum against him, avoiding a charge and letting Jericho essentially stungun himself. Benoit ducks a clothesline, and locks in the crossface, with Jericho tapping before the hold is even applied. A glorious piece of cowardice, with his cruiserweight title match in two days.

Rick Martel vs Saturn

This was set up by Saturn throwing Martel through a plate glass window earlier in the night, so Martel is fired up from the start, rushing the ring, sending Saturn to the floor and hurling him into the steps. Martel is such a good fired up face, it makes you wonder why his most well-known WWF run saw him primarily as a heel. Saturn needs a Flock distraction to get back into it and, when Martel jars his shoulder on a corner charge, Saturn goes right into a Fujiwara armbar. Really liked Saturn’s focus on the injured shoulder, locking in a cross-armbreaker. Also liked Martel reversing it into a Regal Stretch, but not being able to properly hold a crossface due to his arm hurting. Saturn goes for some quick pins, including a nice Rings of Saturn into a pinning combination, but Martel rolls through a sunset flip and locks in the Quebec Crab to win.

Scott Hall vs The Giant

It’ll come as no surprise to learn this ends with outside interference. What we do get is pretty good, and it’s an unselfish performance by Hall to let Giant look so good. He gets hurled from the start after cockily getting in Giant’s face, he gets picked up and placed on the top rope after trying a front facelock, and his attempt at a top rope move sees him caught in a big bearhug. We’ve seen Big Show for years, and by now have a good idea how big he is, but it’s still impressive to see him ragdoll a guy the size of Hall. We get the inevitable melee of faces, with Hogan, Nash, Luger and Savage all getting involved, but the ref doesn’t throw the match out until Giant chokeslams Hall and Nash breaks the count, drawing a DQ. Hall basically let Giant destroy him here.

Rey Mysterio Jr: Before They Were Stars

Going into this DVD, I had pretty high expectations. Rey Jr is someone I've always been a big fan of, someone I'd rank amongst the 5 best wrestlers of all time. Thus a compilation of Rey's Mexico work sounded pretty appealing. I'm no expert on Lucha, but there's plenty I do like, so I thought this might be pretty fun. One thing I wasn't expecting was the terrible quality of the footage. It's mainly handheld footage, which I don't have an issue with on the whole, but it's pretty grainy in places and the camera has a habit of jumping all over the place. Worse, the sound is all overdubbed, so there's a constant disconnected cheering sound, with no noise for any bumps or moves. There's also terrible commentary from Manny Peoples and ex-XPW doofus Kriss Kloss, which is inane and often unbearable. But are the matches any good....?

Rey Mysterio Jr & El Torrero vs Jerry Estrada & Negro Azteca

We’re joined early in progress, with the rudos working over Rey in the ring. The ref is pretty lenient, it has to be said, as there is a liberal use of weaponry in the ring as they work over Rey’s leg with a chair. Rey sells the heck out of it too, limping and not even being able to run across the ring. We clip to Rey still getting worked over, with Torrero being useless as a partner. He doesn’t get involved, and when he does, he generally gets beaten up. The rudos lock in stereo submissions for what is clearly the first fall (both technicos are clearly gesturing to give up, the holds both get released suddenly and the rudos casually walk around the ring rather than keep attacking their opponents), but Kloss and Peoples don’t seem to notice this. Indeed, when Torrero hits a shitty rana on Estrada for the three count minutes later, both sell it as being the first fall in the match. We get MORE leg work on Mysterio, who shouldn’t even be able to walk at this stage, before he’s casually allowed to tag out to Torrero. Being useless, he gets worked over some more and thrown into the crowd, allowing the heels to keep working over Rey with weapons, until eventually the ref decides to disqualify the rudos. Seems pretty odd, given that they’d been doing the same thing all match, but I was just glad this was over.

Rey Mysterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera

This promises to be a lot better. We get some basic matwork and roll up attempts in the early going, with Rey being just slightly ahead on points. Mysterio hits a lovely springboard into a headscissors, but makes the mistake of only trying for more high-flying moves and gets caught as Juvi reverses a rana into a powerbomb for the first fall. Rey doesn’t seem discouraged though, as he goes back to his slight speed advanatage early in the second fall, sending Juvi outside and hitting a huge flip dive. Rey leaps from the top rope to hit a Dragonrana for the equalising fall. Guerrera seems a little more focused now, as he nails Rey with a nasty looking brainbuster for a two count. We clip, sadly, and when we return Rey is back in control, nailing an Asai moonsault to the floor. Juvi misses a top rope splash, but is able to retain control. However, he makes the same mistake Rey did earlier, by trying the same move too often. Here, Juvi hits two tilt-a-whirl backbreakers, only for Mysterio to reverse the third into a pin for the winning fall. Pretty spotty stuff, but I liked the logic of the match-winning fall.

Rey Mysterio Jr & Octagon vs KGB & Pentagon

A little bit of internet research tells me that KGB is Tom Howard playing Russian. He’s much bigger than anyone else in the bout, and fair bosses the opening stages of the match. The rudos have another Russian wrestler outside the ring, and it’s fair to say he’s not shy about getting involved, possibly because he knows the ref will do nothing about it. KGB basically hurls Rey Jr about like a ragdoll, leaving Octagon and Pentagon in the ring. Pentagon seems to be trying to unmask Octagon, and this is seemingly enough to get Octagon to concede the first fall. Even Kloss and Peoples seem baffled. Second fall sees more of KGB’s impressive strength, as he continues to dominate Rey, and he survives aerial attacks from both technicos by catching them in midair. His strength doesn’t extend to his own teammate though, as some miscommunication sees Pentagon barrel him over, and Rey hits a quebrada on Pentagon for the fall. Has to be said that there are lots of outside the ring goings on, as a lady at ringside tries to help the technicos by stalking the rudo entourage with a chair, though she never actually uses it. The final fall sees a rather tepid sequence between Octagon and Pentagon, with one of the entourage just running into the ring in full sight of the ref to break up pinfalls. We clip to what look like the best parts of the match, as Rey and KGB work a really fluid looking big man/little man section, before Pentagon abruptly rolls up Octagon for the win.

Rey Mysterio Jr, Super Calo & Leon Negro vs Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis & Halloween

This match was a whole heap of fun, pretty much non-stop action. We get a fun opening sequence which ends with Rey hitting a big flip-dive on Juvi. Calo looks really good throughout here, looking really fluid on attack and never missing a beat before fighting the next person to enter the ring. The rudos take over as Psychosis hits a missile dropkick to the back of Rey’s neck. Loved a 450 legdrop Guerrera hits. The technicos take out Halloween and Juvi, leaving Negro alone with Psychosis, and Psy quickly finishes him off with a corkscrew moonsault.

Rey Mystero Jr vs Juventud Guerrera

This one seems to have a bit more hate behind it, as both guys spit at each other at the start. This kicks into a high gear pretty quickly as Rey sends Juvi to the floor with a huge bump, and follows him out with a springboard plancha. Juvi gets sent outside again, taking the Fuerza bump to the floor, and Rey again follows him with an Asai moonsault. Juvi is able to springboard in with a sloppy looking leg lariat and nails a Dragon suplex for the first fall. Juvi misses a corner charge to give Rey control of the second fall and Rey ranas Juvi out of the ring onto an accompanying Halloween. Rey hits a top rope rana and a gutwrench powerbomb to even the sides. Rey is in the ascendancy to start the third fall, but misses a corner charge of his own. Juvi misses a legdrop and we head outside the ring where Rey levels him with a chairshot. This is the opening for all chaos to reign. Halloween tries to hold Rey in place for a plancha, but unsurprisingly Rey moves to allow Juvi to barrel through his friend. This seems to be the cue for a whole plethora of run ins. The mass group of technicos hit dives to take out the rudos, but the rudos recover quicker and pile on Rey in the ring. Konnan comes out with a bat to take out the rudos and Rey levels Juvi with the bat and a superfluous quebrada for the win. Pretty good fun, even if the run in’s were over the top.

Rey Mysterio Jr, Super Calo & Leon Negro vs Los Hombres De Ex

Yep, that’s a team of X-Men themed wrestlers. This is face vs face, so this all seems a bit too much of an exhibition. Lots of co-operative looking sequences (though the Gambit/Calo bit looked pretty sloppy, all of which was on Gambit). There’s a bit where everyone goes in the ring and misses sentons before a huge dive series on the outside, which was pretty fun. This leaves both Gambit and Calo in the ring and both men get their shoulders counted down as Calo leans right back with a Mexican surfboard. While the two referees argue over who the winner is, a load of rudos including KGB come to the ring and beat everybody up. I didn’t love this, and it’s a pretty poor way to end the DVD.