It’s time for WCW World War 3 1998 from its final home of Auburn Hills. The event was there for the 1997 edition as well. While we have the World War 3 match, the main event is DDP defending the U.S title against Bret Hart.
There’s no World title match here as the battle royal is for a shot at that belt. Also, WCW is running with a snug eight-match card—perfect.
The Best of WCW World War 3 1998
In the fourth match of the show, we had a Cruiserweight title bout as Billy Kidman defended the title against Juventud Guerrera. This was the hands-down banger of the evening.
All the tools were here: two athletic youngsters, plenty of room to groove, a great pace, and plenty of action. Oddly enough, this was the perfect spot on the show for this one.
Jericho had an unexpectedly good TV title defense against Bobby Duncum Jr. It was similar to the above match simply, I didn’t remember it being particularly good at the time. Upon seeing it on the card I just thought of Duncum as a B-show regular but he really had a good, competitive bout.
Finally, we have the strong match machine DDP depending on the U.S title against Bret Hart in another competitive matchup. It had a little too much room to groove but it’s a good, match and defense for Page who is a wrestler I really associated with the championship.
WCW is on a two-show streak as far as pay-per-views ending with strong matches and DDP is the common denominator.
The Rest
I really don’t know how we got back to Glacier and anything from the “Blood Runs Cold” storyline but his match with Wrath was better than expected. That’s all I can say about it. I’m used to Wrath simply not putting in the bat performance but this wasn’t bad at all.
We have some Stevie Ray taking on Konnan in a pretty dry bout. As far as what they did in the ring, it was fine and nothing was botched as far as I remember. The match just wasn’t particularly interesting.
Apply the same sentiments to Ernest Miller and Sonny Onoo taking on Saturn and Kaz Hayashi. I will say that Miller has improved as a character and has taken to being a heel very smoothly. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the match to showcase everyone. This was mostly for Miller to shine.
Wrapping up “The Rest” we have the World War 3 battle royal. Another year and it’s another hard-to-follow, hard-to-shoot, 60-man slugfest. While I would’ve probably enjoyed Lex Luger at Starrcade 1998, Nash winning the match was fine as well.
As much as a mess as the match has been over the years, it delivered some memorable moments and final runs—especially for Luger.
WCW World War 3 1998 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.5/5)
I’ll admit that this wasn’t a bad show at all. It’s almost as if WCW is rebounding on pay-per-view quality-wise because the show was an improvement over most of 1998.
Our match of the show is Kidman vs. Juvi for the Cruiserweight title followed by DDP defending the U.S title against Bret Hart.
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