WCW Saturday Night 1/24/1998

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 1/24/1998
From: Rome, GA

Matches:
1.) Goldberg defeated Mike Tolbert
2.) Jim Neidhart defeated Wayne Bloom
3.) Bobby Walker defeated Chad Fortune
4.) WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. defeated Juventud Guerrera to retain the title
5.) Rick Martel defeated Johnny Attitude
6.) Eddie Guerrero defeated Johnny Swinger
7.) Barry Darsow defeated Barry Horowitz
8.) Mortis & Wrath defeated Glacier & Ernest Miller
9.) Rick Steiner defeated Scott Norton by disqualification

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Souled Out happens later on in the night. Thus, it’s evident this isn’t a live show even if WCW wanted you to believe that, ever.

2.) Our next match is supposed to be Raven taking on Steve McMichael but that doesn’t happen. Raven tells us that he wrestles when he wants and when he wants. Mongo comes out and the fans are going nuts for the guy. He says he knows there is somebody backstage who wants a piece of Raven. Here comes Chris Benoit!

3.) Raven and Benoit hammer away on each other with Benoit getting the better of the exchange with a series of chops and strikes. Here comes the Flock and Mongo enters to cause brawl and a double disqualification to quickly end the match. Raven and Benoit are on the floor brawling while Mongo tosses the Flock out of the ring. Saturn comes over and helps attack Benoit as they head to the backstage area. What an excellent segment! Great crowd reaction for Mongo!

4.) Mean Gene interviewed Jim Neidhart. Neidhart is talking about the Bret Hart/Ric Flair match at Souled Out. Neidhart puts over Bret Hart and says that Ric Flair has lost a step and can’t wrestle like he use to. Anvil predicts that Bret will win the singles match.

5.) Mean Gene interviews WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio Jr. as well. Rey defends against Chris Jericho in a few hours at Souled Out. Rey says that Jericho is going to work hard to try and take the belt from Mysterio. He isn’t going to let anything happen and is sure he will walk out with the championship.

6.) Juvi and Rey have a standoff after some counters. Rey is limping badly due to his injured left knee. Rey monkey flips Juvi to the apron where Juvi hits a springboard dropkick! Guerrera lands on his feet on a German attempt but Rey hits a standing hurricanrana to win the match rather quickly. After the match, Chris Jericho comes out and puts over Mysterio for winning the match. Jericho says that Mysterio has let is emotions get the better of him and assures the fans that it will never happen again. He wants to shake hands with Rey. Mysterio shakes his hand and is attacked by Jericho. Chris locks in the Liontamer until Juvi hits a dropkick off the top and double teams Jericho with Rey! Juvi lifts Rey up to dropkick Jericho over the top to the floor! (*. The match was quick and disappointing but the aftermath was done very well.)

7.) Mean Gene is with Rick Martel for another interview. Martel will be wrestling Booker T for the WCW Television Championship. Martel says that tonight his night and he has been training hard for the match. They mention that Booker has a tag team wrestler, for the most part, and Martel is going to try and take advantage of that.

8.) Backstage, Mean Gene is with Ernest Miller and Glacier. They are back to being partners after a falling out. Glacier puts over Gene’s suit as being fabulous. Glacier says they have been friends forever and they have arguments. Miller tells us that he gave Glacier his word to be by his side whenever he needed him.

9.) James Vandenburg attacks Glacier from behind during his entrance. Miller goes to the ring and takes care of Wrath and Mortis by himself to start the bout. Glacier is fine and hardly sold the attack. Miller and Mortis kick off the tag match with Mortis controlling Miller. Ernest hits a nice spin kick right to the face of Mortis. Miller avoids Mortis in the corner and delivers a kick followed by an arm drag. Wrath kicks Ernest from the apron and Mortis delivers an Eat Defeat. Wrath enters and controls Miller with a scoop slam. Wrath has a reverse Boston Crab on Ernest and Mortis hits a leg drop from the top. Wrath covers but the referee is distracted leading to only a near fall. Miller catches Mortis on a leg kick and slams Mortis. Miller tags in Glacier who decides to kick Ernest in the midsection and works over Ernest with kicks in the corner. Miller is dropped by a super kick and Glacier taunts the fans. Glacier walks out on his partner, though he is the legal man. Wrath and Mortis finish Miller off with the power bomb/neck breaker combo. (**1/2. I enjoyed the tag match as the heels really worked well together and their offense kept me interested. The heel turn by Glacier was much needed as he wasn’t getting over as a baby face. Wrath and Mortis are quite underrated, as well.)

10.) Rick doesn’t waste any time taking Norton down with a huge suplex and a series of clotheslines. They go to the floor where Norton sends Steiner into the guard railing. Norton sends Steiner into the railing chest first and they head back to the ring. Norton works over Steiner with strikes and choke him over the middle rope. Norton plants Steiner with a DDT! Norton follows up with a clothesline but can’t get a three count on the cover attempt. Norton chokes Rick over the top rope briefly. Norton delivers a short arm clothesline but runs into a power slam from Steiner! Steiner delivers a couple of clotheslines but Buff Bagwell runs out to cause the disqualificaiton. Ray Traylor comes out and saves Rick but here comes Konnan too! Ted DiBiase attacks Vincent on the floor! Scott Steiner finally runs in and chases Bagwell out. What took him so long?! He was at ringside I thought!? (*1/4. Steiner hit a couple of impressive suplexs on Norton but the match was pretty boring and uneventful.)

Final Thoughts:
Match wise, the tag match was the best one of the evening. Glacier heel turn is greatly needed and will hopefully freshen up the character that has basically bombed since debuting. The Mongo/Raven/Benoit segment was really good and the fans were behind Mongo, surprisingly. I enjoyed the show as it also did a fine job promoting some feuds for Souled Out.

Thanks for reading.