We’re still rumbling through 1998 and we’re kicking off the August battleground with WCW Road Wild 1998. As I’ve mentioned before: I love outdoor pay-per-views. Road Wild could be trying depending on the year as this wasn’t a big wrestling crowd.
Will this one give WCW a leg up on WWE? Does this one top Road Wild 1997? Let’s find out!
The Best
This PPV is kind of on the light side when it comes to matches worth watching. We got another Raven’s Rules Match with Raven and Saturn again and it was just about as good as their Bash at the Beach 1998. While Raven got the best of Saturn the first time, Saturn got the upper hand this time. I’d say this one was a really good brawl.
Psicosis vs. Rey Mysterio was pretty much a really dope exhibition match over the number one contenders for the Cruiserweight title. If you’ve seen these two in ECW or WCW, you know what to expect here. Not only that but they were given a lot of room to groove but the pacing of the match meant they didn’t even need all of the time to challenge our above bout for the match of the show.
Where it falls short is it’s an exhibition between two hyper-athletic wrestlers and that’s it. Meanwhile, Raven-Saturn II had that something extra with a storyline. There was a build and a reason to watch the match and the one before it. With this match, the reason to watch was only there if you like these two.
Another bonus to Raven-Saturn II is that it was the perfect match for this crowd. As for a match that mixes exciting cruiserweight division action with some story, you have the Cruiserweight title bout between champion Chris Jericho and Juventud Guerrera—oh, and Dean Malenko is the special guest ref.
This match is a continuation of the Jericho-Malenko feud which has been ongoing for months. While it’s not as good as the above cruiser bout, it’s still a strong match.
The Rest
Meng faced Faces of Fear partner The Barbarian in the opener. Honestly, this wasn’t a bad match. It wasn’t good either but it wasn’t long for what these two could do in the ring and they did what they were good at–“clubbering.” I won’t even say that this would’ve been better with more or less time.
Oh god, the following match was bad. The second bout saw The Public Enemy take on The Dancing Fools—Disco Inferno and Alex Wright. This was pretty much a Saturday Night or first hour of Nitro bout…but unnecessarily longer.
If WCW had to drop 15-and-a-half minutes on a bout, they could’ve had Disco or Wright do separate singles matches, gave the Fools a different opponent, or better yet, this could’ve been way shorter.
There are worse matches with less time and there’s no time period where Public Enemy should’ve gone over ten minutes. At least the bikers in attendance dug the chaotic parts of the match, I suppose.
Stevie Ray defends his TV title against Chavo Guerrero Jr and claps him in under three minutes. Steve McMichael faced Brian Adams in a bout that went six-and-a-half minutes. I thought the length of the match was fine but the action left something to be desired. This one was never going to be a good match but I feel that Adams would’ve been a decent opponent for Mongo—this just wasn’t the show for it.
Goldberg entered the “nWo Invitational Battle Royal” and claps almost everyone involved in just under eight minutes. Kevin Nash didn’t want any smoke and did the Kevin Nash thing by saying “F*** this sh**, I’m out” and eliminating himself.
Goldberg’s final elimination was The Giant which actually works for me. It was a boring match with the expected ending but it was a great match to add to Goldberg’s invincible aura.
The main event saw DDP team up with Jay Leno against Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff in a match that made for an entertaining celebrity spectacle bout. Mind you, the action itself wasn’t anything to write home about at all and it ran longer than it should’ve but WCW built this one up pretty damn well.
It’s just that with so many WCW pay-per-view main events the build is often solid or better but the match itself doesn’t match the time invested into it on television. On that note, Karl Malone was a better partner for DDP than Leno.
WCW Road Wild 1998 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.31/5)
This was one of those WCW shows that had more bad than good on it. Apparently, the company did well enough with Bash at the Beach 1998’s main event that another celebrity tag team main seemed like a good idea. Also, WCW didn’t have to worry about attendance so they didn’t necessarily need a draw to get folks into the venue. The company just needed to make sure fans bought Road Wild 1998 at home.
Our main event here did the job since Leno was hot on late-night TV, Rodman always pulled headlines, Hogan was always a PPV presence, and DDP worked hard and had fans behind him. Everything else on the card could’ve been whatever.
The match of the show goes to the Raven’s Rules Match between Raven and Saturn. The ridiculously even runner-up place goes to the number one contender bout for the Cruiserweight title between Rey Mysterio and Psicosis.
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