January 1998 was a bit of a weak start for WCW with Souled Out 1998 falling short of a silver medal while Royal Rumble 1998 managed its first silver in a while on Into the Vault. However, No Way Out of Texas was a show that saw WWE revert to its bronze medal ways—then again, it was an In Your House event.
Let’s dive into WCW SuperBrawl VIII featuring an MVP performance from Booker T and Hogan vs. Sting II for the World Championship!
Best of the Show
The opener to SuperBrawl VIII saw Rick Martel unsuccessfully defend his Television title against Booker T in a really good match. By this time, Booker T was shining as a singles competitor and would get better in a short period of time during his time in WCW. Meanwhile, Rick Martel had almost 25 years of in-ring experience and was still in singles competition shape.
Into the Vault: WCW SuperBrawl VIII
Seriously, the guy ages slowly as does Booker T. Unfortunately, Martel gets injured and the original finish with him winning had to be scrapped. After over ten minutes of action, the new TV champion would defend the belt against The Flock’s Saturn in a longer match that was also good.
That’s the MVP performance of the show, folks: two really good matches against two really good opponents back-to-back.
Jericho defending the Cruiserweight title against Juventud Guerrera was a very good bout. There was a ton of action and the match had a pace that I love. The finish left something to be desired but I love Jericho opting to wrestle with the belt.
I still don’t know if it was necessary for Juvi to lose his mask but it turned out well for him and Lionheart did bring some actual storyline stuff to the division.
Rounding out “The Best” was a great U.S title match between champion Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Benoit. During 1997 and 1998 WCW, DDP and Benoit were two of the wrestlers I was always stoked to watch and the U.S title—along with the Television title—typically had matches I loved to watch.
For some reason, those matches were rarely disappointing. If the U.S title match didn’t hit, the TV title match did and vice versa. This was a damn fine U.S title match. These two just clicked in the ring. Again, that WCW midcard was insane at the top when it came to television and PPV.
Definitely catch this match!
The Rest of the Show
Disco Inferno taking on La Parka was a solid match. It wasn’t anything special and the crowd didn’t have much of a reaction throughout. It’s like they were just watching a cool-down match but it wasn’t a bad cool-down at all. If anything, this could’ve been on Nitro, Thunder, or Saturday Night and ultimately nothing would’ve been missed.
As a result, you really notice how much time these guys had. This wasn’t one of those matches that were so fun that it breezes by and doesn’t seem as long as it actually is. Fortunately, it wasn’t that long at all. It felt like a match that was meant to give the commentators time to discuss the bigger things on the show and the major related storylines.
Personally, I felt this was a rock-solid, middle-of-the-road match that could’ve been better if the bit of story they had to work with was just a little more interesting. Goldberg squash match was a Goldberg squash match. It could’ve been on television and Brad Anderson—whom I really dig in-ring—would’ve been another tick on the streak.
The British Bulldog taking on Mongo wasn’t bad. It had the perfect length for who was involved and while it wasn’t a rock-solid bout, I felt that these two had something here that could’ve been explored more down the line. The Luger vs. Savage thing continued on SuperBrawl VIII and this time it was no disqualification—which is right up my alley.
I know that both men were getting up there in age and the decline is real but less than a year ago, Savage was busting out banger after wild banger with DDP on PPV. Honestly, I don’t know what the f*** happened in that time but here we are folks. Maybe it’s motivation as Savage was really all in for DDP’s success.
In short, this match was a little less than mid. Not absolutely dreadful or anything but it smacked of a Nitro or Thunder main event. The tag title match saw champion The Steiner Brothers take on The Outsiders in what was basically an action-oriented angle.
I say that because the in-ring action wasn’t the memorable thing here but Scott Steiner’s betrayal of his brother and long-time tag partner Rick is the lasting picture. It was a good event to run this heel turn and it was definitely shocking. Since a match is a mixture of in-ring action, storytelling, and star power, I’d say it had two-out-of-three.
The main event saw Sting defeat Hollywood Hogan to claim the vacant WCW World title in a match that wasn’t good but was much better than their Starrcade 1998 showdown. While there were times when you would’ve expected there to be some screwiness if you hadn’t watched it in years, I felt it was the minimum match these two stars should’ve delivered in December 1997.
This match suffered from the same thing Disco Inferno vs. La Parka suffered from in you could feel this was running a bit on the long side given the mostly lackluster action. However, both Sting and Hogan told the story that needed to be told, and the build to this bout following Starrcade wasn’t bad at all.
WCW SuperBrawl VIII Verdict: Silver Medal (2.76/5)
You’ll notice throughout this review; I mention that a lot of “The Rest” wasn’t bad. That’s because a lot of it was either smack dab in the middle or pretty damn close. Many of those matches just needed to be tweaked a bit time or placement-wise or need a more interesting story to warrant caring about the match itself.
The Television, Cruiserweight, and U.S title matches carry the excitement and quality of SuperBrawl VIII, there’s no discussion. Meanwhile, the last two bouts carry the worth-buying side of things. As a whole show, it was good and just a bit below SuperBrawl VII.
I’m giving the match of the show to the DDP vs. Chris Benoit U.S title match. Other matches to watch are the two TV title matches—Booker T vs. Martel and Booker vs. Saturn—and the Cruiserweight title bout.
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