Coming out of the Spring Breakout episode of Nitro, we head into a taped episode of Thunder. As per usual, these Thunder episodes will be heavy on in-ring action and lack much substance to promos or segments as to not impact the current storylines since it’s technically behind.
Rey Mysterio Jr. got a moment to shine in the main event against WCW World Champion Ric Flair and they produced an enjoyable match. Raven and Perry Saturn appear to be friendly again and nearly won the WCW Tag Team Championships from Benoit and Malenko. Bret Hart called out several wrestlers, but notably claimed he could beat Goldberg in less than five minutes.
A feud between Hart and Goldberg is a money match and one of the last remaining matches that we haven’t seen for Goldberg since WCW has tended to feed Goldberg all credible opponents on Nitro. A true showdown between Hart and Goldberg on PPV seems to be a bit rushed for Spring Stampede, but if they can hold off until Great American Bash that would be a great main event for the summer PPV event.
Spring Stampede takes place on April 11th and currently there’s only a couple of matches announced. Konnan vs. Disco Inferno and WCW Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio defending against Billy Kidman. Plus, the finals of the WCW US Title Tournament. Judging by last week, I’d imagine a tag title match between Benoit & Malenko vs. Raven & Saturn is a lock. I’d assume a match between Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell is likely for PPV since they had a breakup, too.
Lets get into Thunder.
MARCH 25TH — LEXINGTON, KY — RUPP ARENA — TAPED
MATCH #1: JERRY FLYNN VS. SCOTTY RIGGS
FINISH: Flynn forces a submission with a cross arm bar
Bob’s Take: It’s a bit funny that Tenay noted that Flynn continues his win streak when Flynn lost to Meng on Nitro the night after UnCensored. The action wasn’t too bad here and the bout was competitive. Both men had moments of shine and I didn’t feel it was a chore to watch this to start the program. Flynn tends to have believable hard hitting offense. 1 for 1
MATCH #2: WRATH VS. MIKE ENOS
FINISH: Wrath picks up the win following the Meltdown.
Bob’s Take: Wrath has had a tough ’99 and has lost a significant amount of steam. The feud with Bigelow didn’t help him at all and losing to Disco on Nitro a few months ago was the true ending of his aura. There was one point during the match that Enos arm dragged Wrath and it completely evaporated the dominance that was once attached to Wrath. There was another moment where the crowd reached a peak level of interest as Wrath hit a top rope clothesline and it probably should have been the finish, but the match continued. The match went a little long and I lost interest in the action when they didn’t take advantage of the peak interest level of the match. 1 for 2
MATCH #3: FIT FINLAY VS. CHRIS ADAMS
FINISH: Finlay spikes Adams with a tombstone piledriver to win the match
Bob’s Take: Neither man has any steam or interest in them to make this a worthwhile match on Thunder. I like both guys and want them to be used in a more meaningful manner, but when they are both essentially doing nothing it makes for a dull viewing experience. The crowd had virtually no care for anything going on here and even had a flat reaction to the finish. 1 for 3
MATCH #4: BILLY KIDMAN VS. BLITZKRIEG
FINISH: Kidman hits the shooting star press to pickup the victory
Bob’s Take: I wanted to enjoy this one, but there wasn’t a lot of structure and it felt as if they were doing moves just do moves for the sake of moves. I can’t believe that I actually enjoyed Flynn/Riggs more than this, but here we are and that’s my life now. There wasn’t a lot of energy to the match, which was a bit of a disappointment. 1 for 4
MATCH #5: HORACE VS. KAZ HAYASHI
FINSIH: Horace picks up the win following the H-Bomb (Samoan Drop)
Bob’s Take: The least interesting NWO Black & White wrestler wrestling one of the least interesting Cruiserweight wrestlers makes for a lackluster viewing. The closing sequence to the match had a decent spark, but prior to that the match was mostly boring and didn’t do much for me. 1 for 5
MATCH #6: WCW TELEVISION CHAMPION BOOKER T VS. PERRY SATURN — WCW US TITLE TOURNAMENT
FINSIH: Booker countered an attempted Death Valley Driver with a rollup to pin Saturn and advance in the tournament
Bob’s Take: It sounded like WCW piped in jeers for Saturn during his entrance, which is a bit confusing. There’s no need to present Saturn as a potential heel in a one-off match with Booker. This was a match that I was looking forward to seeing as I’ve been enjoying their work thus far in 1999. However, the pacing to the match felt off and slow for the most part. The closing sequence got a bit stronger, but it was too short-lived to be memorable. I’d consider this a painfully average match due to my high expectations heading into the bout. It’s a decent TV match and certainly for Thunder standards it’s not too bad, but I was hoping for a lot more than what we got. 2 for 6
MAIN EVENT: WCW WORLD CHAMPION RIC FLAIR VS. BARRY WINDHAM
FINISH: Late in the match, Arn Anderson comes down to ringside and pulls Windham to the ropes to cause a rope break. Anderson whispers something to Windham and Windham walks backstage to lose the match by count-out.
Bob’s Take: It’s another example of a heel vs. heel match and there’s no reason to like either man at this point. I suppose, by default, Flair would be the babyface, but they’ve both been presented in a manner that doesn’t easily make the viewer like either guy. Flair is full fledged heel mode and Windham is actually working the face role, which is a bit baffling. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, but this match was nowhere near their late 80s classic let alone their decent matches in the mid 90s. Windham is shot as a singles wrestler. I wouldn’t be surprised if Anderson’s whisper to Windham leads to absolutely nothing. 2 for 7
Not a good episode of Thunder. Flynn/Riggs was probably the best match of the night and I’m quite disappointed by Booker/Saturn not delivering a better match. Thunder tends to be heavy on wrestling, especially when it is taped. However, that’s not always a good thing when the wrestling is not very good. As that was the case here.
3/25 Thunder TV Rating: 3.1
Thanks for reading.