MAY 6TH — TAPED — STATE COLLEGE, PA
NOTE: With this being a taped episode of Thunder and the final one before the PPV, there is not a lot of original programming. They showed several clips from Nitro over the past two weeks.
MATCH #1: PERRY SATURN & RAVEN VS. MIKE ENOS & SCOTTY RIGS — NO DQ
NOTE: Raven cut a brief promo before the match saying the beating is not personal and rather just has to happen right before their title match at Slamboree.
FINISH: Saturn pins Riggs following a Death Valley Driver.
Bob’s Take: In a true no disqualification match there shouldn’t be a need for tags, but that was something they didn’t pay attention to, I guess. The match is rather slow and plodding. There’s no reason to care about Riggs and Enos and the crowd didn’t respond all that much to their offense. At one point, Raven did the drop toe hold onto a chair and Tenay thankfully mentioned the blind angle Riggs did last year. I was rather disappointed by this one. 0 for 1
MATCH #2: RICK STEINER VS. ERIK WATTS
FINISH: Steiner hit the bulldog off the top, and then forced Watts to submit to an STF quickly.
Bob’s Take: Since his return a couple of months ago, Steiner has been getting a decent push with his only loss coming against WCW Television Champion Booker T. They have been beefing lately and Steiner is acting a lot more like a heel towards Booker, but tends to appear as a babyface in other instances. I’m not sure why this is being aired on Thunder. There’s no way people are actively staying tuned into the show when Erik Watts is competing. An incredibly boring match and I thought I’d enjoy watching Watts get beaten up. I didn’t. 0 for 2
MATCH #3: DISORDERLY CONDUCT VS. BRIAN ADAMS & HORACE
FINISH: Adams picks up the win following a spike piledriver with Horace leaping off the middle rope.
Bob’s Take: Again, this is something that could have easily been saved for Saturday Night. WCW has enough depth in their midcard divisions to be able to fill out Thunder with far more quality action than what we’ve gotten on this episode. I’m fine with the Black & White getting momentum as a unit, but these kinds of matches are not going to make them an act that fans will want to watch. It’s poor placement to have these bad matches on WCW’s secondary program. 0 for 3
MATCH #4: WCW CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPION REY MYSTERIO JR. VS. KANYON — NON-TITLE
NOTE: Kanyon cuts a promo before the match saying he was off starring in a movie. Kanyon says he’s living large now and asks the fans whose better than him.
NOTE #2: For the first time this week it is noted that both Nitro and Thunder are pre-empted next week due to NBA Playoffs.
FINISH: Mysterio wins the match following a victory roll. After the match, Malenko & Benoit attack Mysterio. Malenko dropkicks the ring steps into Mysterio’s knee against the ring post.
Bob’s Take: This is Kanyon’s return since February 25th and it’s on a taped episode of Thunder. I guess Kanyon doesn’t have much of an importance to WCW storylines, but why not take advantage of a return on a live episode? It’s a decent match, but I was hoping for a hidden gem quality bout between these two. Kanyon was putting forth effort while Mysterio seemed to be less inclined to put on a good match. Regardless of Mysterio’s effort, it was okay. 1 for 4
MAIN EVENT: CHRIS BENOIT & DEAN MALENKO VS. TEXAS HANGMAN
FINISH: Malenko earns the win by forcing a submission with the Texas Cloverleaf.
Bob’s Take: Texas Hangman are actually Disorderly Conduct wearing masks and it took me far too long to realize that. That should tell you how much effort and thought was put into this show. This is a weak main event for Thunder and a downer of a match heading into Slamboree. The obvious lack of care for this episode made this quite frustrating to watch. The whole episode is essentially WCW Saturday Night, but in a primetime spot. 1 for 5
For the remaining eleven and half minutes of the program they aired the Flair/DDP match from Nitro.
There’s a lot of boring wrestling on the show and lack of original programming makes this an obvious subpar program. They did nothing to promote the PPV aside from rehashing videos/footage that were shown on Nitro anyway.
I’m not overly invested or interested in Slamboree. Nash/DDP is the weakest main event on PPV thus far in ’99. I remain on the opinion that it should have been Sting vs. DDP at Slamboree. I don’t think under any circumstance I’d be paying any money for Slamboree in ’99. WCW is not doing anything of much interest at the moment. They can’t afford to have long periods of uninteresting programming.
5/6 WCW Thunder TV Rating: 2.8
Thanks for reading.