So, July 1999 was pretty rough for WCW on the PPV front but let’s see if things turn around for Road Wild 1999. As with the previous years, this edition took place at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, SD, and drew around 5,500. Our main event sees Hollywood Hogan put his World title on the line against Kevin Nash’s career.
The Best
Honestly, the chances are extremely high that a tag match or a singles match involving The Revolution of Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko–and later Shane Douglas—is going to be decent at the minimum. The two entries of “The Best” hit that nail on the head as both the six-man between The Revolution and The West Texas Rednecks and the No-DQ United States title match between Benoit and DDP rocked.
These were good for the odd Sturgis crowd at Road Wild 1999. Actually, every Sturgis crowd is odd. Some matches they will respond to extremely well, others that you’d think they would rock with are met with crowd noise. They tend to respond well to brawls and the bigger celebrity stuff so DDP vs. Benoit fit.
The six-man tag match was a bout that was good despite their reaction. It had just enough room to groove, it wasn’t a sluggish-build affair, and the crowd actually rocked with it a bit.
The Rest
I’ll be honest, the opener could’ve been a part of “The Best” pile easily. Part of that is in relation to the rest of this sorry ass show that we’re getting but the rest is that, the opener saw Rey Jr, Kidman, and Eddie Guerrero take on Vampiro and the Insane Clown Posse in an extremely fun match. It ran a wee bit long but this was fun. ICP were the weak links here but they were more than willing to take their lumps and get knocked around.
It’s as if they knew that most found them super annoying and laughable and just ran with it—and it worked.
In another decent enough match, the JERSEY TRIAD team of Kanyon and Bam Bam fail in defending the WCW World Tag Team titles against the Harlem Heat. For some reason, this match just seemed super dated. We’ve moved way past Booker T’s Harlem Heat phase.
As for the match itself: it wasn’t bad at all but it wasn’t necessary. Also, it was a little on the long side and I think WCW had moved past Stevie Ray in the ring at this point. If anything, this would’ve been a fine TV tag title match.
That ends the enjoyable portion of Road Wild 1999, now it’s all the skippable stuff. Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest Miller—c’mon now. I don’t know, I’m kind of glad that Bagwell won because I’ve always had a spot for Bagwell as a singles threat in the midcard during the late 90s.
I love Sid Vicious and I love Sting but this Sid vs. Sting match wasn’t it. The match only ran for under 11 minutes but felt a bit longer, as if they used the whole 11 minutes and then some. Not only that but it just wasn’t good. Speaking of something that just wasn’t good: Goldberg vs. Rick Steiner.
This is another match that is kind of dated. A mobile Steiner roughly 2-3 years earlier or at the start of Goldberg’s run would’ve been at least TV-worthy. I don’t know what to say about this one. Goldberg was fine, although he wasn’t getting the quality matches he should’ve been at this point but Rick Steiner was done a while ago. His whole 1999 has shown this.
Savage taking on Rodman was entertaining at least. They kept it at a mild brawl—something that could make Sports Center—and turned up something that would amuse some viewers. Maybe this is what they could’ve reasonably gotten out of Randy Savage at this point.
I think there was a better PPV or occasion but the Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash retirement match over the World title. Perhaps build it all the way to Starrcade 1999? Road Wild just seemed like an odd event for something so severe.
I don’t think a rescheduling would’ve helped with the match itself. On the one hand, it’s what you’d expect and if that’s the case, it actually was bad at this point, I think it’s safe to say we’d seen enough with Hogan and the World title. Nash fighting Hogan over it wasn’t going to reignite interest or anything like say another Goldberg vs. Nash match or Nash taking on a new or recent face to the World title picture?
WCW Road Wild 1999 Verdict: Bronze Medal (4/10)
For the most part, this show just wasn’t it. It had two really good matches, and two matches at the start that could’ve been good on TV or if they were moved around on the card. As for the rest of this event? Watch at your own risk, folks. Our match of the show honor goes to Chris Benoit vs. DDP.
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