Written by: Bob Colling
World Championship Wrestling presents Thunder
Date: 3/11/1999
From: Winston-Salem, NC
Matches:
1.)Raven defeated Dave Taylor
2.)Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko defeated Disorderly Conduct
3.)Hak defeated The Barbarian
4.)Booker T & Rey Mysterio Jr. defeated WCW Television Champion Scott Steiner & Buff Bagwell
5.)Ric Flair defeated Disco Inferno
Angle Developments/Notes:
1. Just like last week, the majority of the matches were filler and didn’t have a lot of purpose. Also, as you will soon see, there wasn’t any major interview segments. The show mainly consisted of clips from Nitro and promotion for Uncensored. Thus, this recap is rather short as the last two matches are the only two things of note on this program.
2. Bagwell and Mysterio kicked off the tag match with Bagwell working over Rey with several overhand blows. Rey uses his speed but botches a springboard attempt. Booker is tagged in and worked over by Bagwell and Steiner. Booker drops Steiner with a standing spin kick to gain the advantage. Booker fights back against Bagwell by hitting a forearm smash. There is some kind of distraction in the crowd, which gets the wrestlers to turn their attention to that. It appeared to be something involving a drunk fan. Steiner tosses Mysterio into the ring steps while the referee was distracted in the ring. Bagwell maintained control in the ring with a shoulder breaker on Mysterio. Mysterio continues to have been controlled for a few minutes as Steiner hits a big belly to belly suplex to showoff his incredible strength, which is surely natural. Mysterio blocks a splash by Bagwell by getting his knees up and tags in Booker T. Booker cleans house with several right hands and slams Bagwell. Mysterio hits a springboard leg drop after getting quickly tagged back in. Booker and Steiner are brawling on the floor. Booker nails Bagwell with a missile dropkick and Mysterio hits a top rope splash for the win! After the match, Steiner attacks the referee with a chair and hits Booker with a chair, which Booker hardly sells before leaving the ring. A decent tag match which gives Mysterio even more momentum by picking up another upset win for himself.
3. Flair is in the main event on Thunder in North Carolina! WOOO! It’s a rather slow start with a lot of taunting by both men. Flair gets the advantage on Inferno with a chop but kicks Inferno away on a figure four attempt. Inferno backdrops Flair and locks in the figure four. Flair is slammed off the top rope, as per usual. Inferno locks in a sleeper hold but isn’t able to keep Flair down with it. Inferno delivers a clothesline after a backslide but can’t get a three count. They go to the floor where Flair chops Inferno but is rammed head first into the guard railing a few times. Flair drives Inferno down to the canvas with a delayed vertical suplex and follows up with a knee drop. They go to the floor again where Flair sends Inferno face first into the ring post. Flair gets the figure four on Inferno and wins the match. An average match at best here. Inferno wasn’t showcased all that much and the offense that Flair put on was boring and didn’t add any excitement.
Final Thoughts:
It was just a hype show for Uncensored with only two matches that had any kind of interest in them. The tag match was the better of the two high profile matches, easily. From a wrestling standpoint it’s not all that good and the show doesn’t add anything to the pay per view or anything. It would be a good show for wasting two hours of your life, or background noise.
Thanks for reading.