So, while 1997 was more eventful on pay-per-view for WCW than WWE card-for-card, we’re in a new year. It’s 1998 and once again WCW is kicking things off with Souled Out 1998. Starrcade 1997 ended with Sting defeating Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World title—with some assistance from Bret Hart. The following night he was stripped of the title as a result of the controversy in the main event.
You’d think the rubber match would be at Souled Out 1998 but instead, that piece of business would be handled at SuperBrawl. Let’s dive into WCW’s 1998 opener headlined by Lex Luger taking on Randy Savage.
Best of the Show
When WCW opens things with cruiserweights or the luchadores you know that they’re going for an exciting PPV for the most part. It was no different with the really fun eight-man opener featuring La Parka, Psychosis, Silver King, and El Dandy taking on Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr, Super Call, and Chavo Guerrero Jr. I’ll say that it was very exciting and lives up to expected WCW PPV opening bouts.
We have another Raven’s Rules bout as Raven takes on Chris Benoit and I’m here for it. Raven has proven to be strong at brawls while Benoit really showed off his brawling chops throughout 1997 in his battles with Kevin Sullivan and friends. This match and the opener are really worth checking out and they’re both on the shorter side of things.
While the Cruiserweight title bout between champ Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho was actually pretty good, it didn’t really pack the pace and excitement that you’d expect from a division title bout. As a matter of fact, the opener and Raven’s Rules bouts had more mustard to them. Still, this isn’t a match I’d say that you should just skip over.
TV champion Booker T defends against Rick Martel in a really solid match. I’d say it’s a textbook TV title match focused on action and the in-ring goods since there was really nothing else involved in the title defense. There wasn’t even a rivalry tacked on. It was just a good title defense.
The real main event of the show was Ric Flair taking on Bret Hart. Given that The Hitman just signed a big deal with WCW, the result of this match was pretty obvious but the two delivered a really enjoyable, good match. However, that’s really all you get here. It’s a lengthy exhibition match without much going for it beyond the quality and the stars involved.
The Rest of the Show
Some of the Zbyszko vs. Scott Hall story was fine but that’s mainly the out-of-ring stuff. That is if you understand the history behind the feud. The matches were mostly misses and this one is no different. Moving on from that bout, I like the pairing of Ray Traylor and the Steiner’s. For some reason, it seems like something that could’ve worked—just not in WCW during the Monday Night Wars.
Fortunately, it was never meant to be a permanent thing. Unfortunately, we got a match against the nWo scrap team as they faced off against Scott Norton, Konnan, and Buff Bagwell. Honestly, two of the guys on the nWo side were damn good at this time in the 90s. However, their time in WCW didn’t really show this. As a result, the Souled Out 1998 bout was pretty meh. I won’t say it was awful but you wouldn’t miss this or the previous match if it was just aired on Nitro or Saturday Night.
Oof…Nash vs. The Giant was a match that I was actually looking forward to while following their beef on Nitro. It was a match that you knew we were going to get and at the time I was expecting an exciting match. I mean, it’s two giants facing off. You don’t normally see that often in wrestling even with all the big guys you see, so this was pretty intriguing. That is until the match went down and The Giant was injured off of a Jackknife Powerbomb.
It was definitely an unfortunate ending to a match that featured some meh action considering who is involved.
The main event between Randy Savage and Lex Luger had the star power involved but the action kind of left something to be desired. Or at least for it to be the main event of a PPV. I wouldn’t say that it was a bad match but it was mid and could’ve swapped places with Flair vs. Hart, to be honest. It was a match to drive that feud and wasn’t meant to be a pivotal match in the Savage-Luger story.
This would’ve been made for a good television main event at this time but should’ve been pushed back in the card.
WCW Souled Out 1998 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.63/5)
Souled Out 1998 was just shy of a silver medal with a show that was extremely enjoyable in the first half. A mediocre main event and a giant battle that ended on a scary note hobbled this show as those were the two that could’ve bumped it to silver without even being good. The match of this show goes to Flair vs. Hart but could’ve been overtaken by Raven vs. Benoit and the cruiserweight opener.
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