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Pre-Show Stalwart
Full context: "How did the nWo Hollywood put Randy Savage out of action the following WCW Monday Nitro episode one night after The Great American Bash 1998 PPV in both kayfabe and in real life?"
On the June 15, 1998 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, the main event was a steel cage match between Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page. Compared to their epic 1997 blood feud, this Savage-DDP match was not a feud, instead it was a friendly match since both of them were faces at the time. In addition, the special guest referee was "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, whom his critics assumed had no business taking up screen time for WCW. But because the Attitude Era was in full force, it was the anti-heroes. Ironically, Piper pioneered the cool heel, but he emerged in the 1980s, so he and Jake Roberts don't get any credit for being the cool heel because it only happened when Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Steve Austin and The Rock emerged as such characters in the 1990s, and by then, Piper and Roberts were in deep turmoil by then.
The only flaw in this throwaway Savage/DDP match (friendly Wolfpac v. WCW) was the crowd. They were chanting Goldberg and ECW the whole time. Anyway, the match went smoothly okay until Ole Anderson (responsible for the cage controls) inadvertently raised the steel cage up in the air just long enough for nWo Hollywood to charge in and assault Savage, DDP and Piper.
-The members of nWo Hollywood who charged in and assaulted Savage were: Hollywood Hogan, The Giant, Brian Adams, Scott Hall, Brutus Beefcake, Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, Rick Rude, Eric Bischoff, Vincent (Mike Jones) and Miss Elizabeth.
-And the members of nWo Wolfpac who tried their hardest to rescue Savage from the nWo Hollywood beatdown were: Sting, Konnan and Kevin Nash.
Absent from the whole segment were: Buff Bagwell, Scott Steiner and Scott Norton of nWo Hollywood and Lex Luger of nWo Wolfpac.
This throwaway DDP/Savage friendly match in June 1998 was performed at half the intensity and the speed of the great 1997 blood feud matches in the DDP/Savage feud. Savage, Page and Piper try their hardest to put on a clinic, but sadly, Savage just didn't have it anymore, so 1997-98 was the last of his best seasons as a worker. And Piper was wearing a black Everlast boxing shirt.
I guess steel cages were popular on this Monday night. Holy smokes does WCW need to learn how to film this and the pixels on my TV were going wild. This was a big time match and had some glimpses of what made their 1997 feud a lot of fun and memorable 17 years later. However, this also felt like Savage was really limited, DDP was pretty uninterested for some reason and Piper again needs to go away forever. Piper then fights DDP. Holy smokes, what a disaster. Hollywood NWO comes down and Hennig, Rude and Elizabeth have already turned again. Who would trust Hennig in particular? They beat up both in the cage until Nash makes the dumbest face imaginable to show he knows how to raise a cage as the show goes off the air.
Anyway, if any of you remember this otherwise forgettable throwaway friendly face vs face match between Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page w/Roddy Piper as the guest referee, was the nWo Hollywood beatdown a good way to write Savage off from the storylines so he can go and heal from his double knee surgery (to repair a Torn ACL/Torn Knee Ligaments) and have Eric Bischoff & Hollywood Hogan take credit for the steel chair to shatter Savage's knee?
Would it have been a bit better if Miss Elizabeth (recently defected to nWo Hollywood from the nWo Wolfpac) was the one to shatter Savage's knee with a steel chair? Given that she and Savage were once a married couple until 1992-93 when Hogan and Linda encouraged Elizabeth to leave Savage and get hooked on drugs. And when Elizabeth returned to the wrestling scene in WCW in early 1996, she had a strict working relationship with him in storylines only. And it looked like they were going to get back together sometime as the nWo storyline was booming with their reunification in 1997 through the nWo Wolfpac until June 1998.
If someone else (other than Bischoff in your own opinion) performed the knee-shattering chair-to-knee spot on Savage, would you rather have Hogan, Giant, Hall, Adams, Hennig, Rude, Beefcake, Bret or Elizabeth to shatter Savage's knee.
In real life, Savage probably was hobbled by a Torn ACL since Spring Stampede '98 vs Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt with help from Kevin Nash. WCW first tried to write Savage off by having Hogan ran Savage over with his car, and Miss Elizabeth came to his rescue then. But not in the case of this steel cage match.
On the June 15, 1998 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, the main event was a steel cage match between Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page. Compared to their epic 1997 blood feud, this Savage-DDP match was not a feud, instead it was a friendly match since both of them were faces at the time. In addition, the special guest referee was "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, whom his critics assumed had no business taking up screen time for WCW. But because the Attitude Era was in full force, it was the anti-heroes. Ironically, Piper pioneered the cool heel, but he emerged in the 1980s, so he and Jake Roberts don't get any credit for being the cool heel because it only happened when Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Steve Austin and The Rock emerged as such characters in the 1990s, and by then, Piper and Roberts were in deep turmoil by then.
The only flaw in this throwaway Savage/DDP match (friendly Wolfpac v. WCW) was the crowd. They were chanting Goldberg and ECW the whole time. Anyway, the match went smoothly okay until Ole Anderson (responsible for the cage controls) inadvertently raised the steel cage up in the air just long enough for nWo Hollywood to charge in and assault Savage, DDP and Piper.
-The members of nWo Hollywood who charged in and assaulted Savage were: Hollywood Hogan, The Giant, Brian Adams, Scott Hall, Brutus Beefcake, Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, Rick Rude, Eric Bischoff, Vincent (Mike Jones) and Miss Elizabeth.
-And the members of nWo Wolfpac who tried their hardest to rescue Savage from the nWo Hollywood beatdown were: Sting, Konnan and Kevin Nash.
Absent from the whole segment were: Buff Bagwell, Scott Steiner and Scott Norton of nWo Hollywood and Lex Luger of nWo Wolfpac.
This throwaway DDP/Savage friendly match in June 1998 was performed at half the intensity and the speed of the great 1997 blood feud matches in the DDP/Savage feud. Savage, Page and Piper try their hardest to put on a clinic, but sadly, Savage just didn't have it anymore, so 1997-98 was the last of his best seasons as a worker. And Piper was wearing a black Everlast boxing shirt.
I guess steel cages were popular on this Monday night. Holy smokes does WCW need to learn how to film this and the pixels on my TV were going wild. This was a big time match and had some glimpses of what made their 1997 feud a lot of fun and memorable 17 years later. However, this also felt like Savage was really limited, DDP was pretty uninterested for some reason and Piper again needs to go away forever. Piper then fights DDP. Holy smokes, what a disaster. Hollywood NWO comes down and Hennig, Rude and Elizabeth have already turned again. Who would trust Hennig in particular? They beat up both in the cage until Nash makes the dumbest face imaginable to show he knows how to raise a cage as the show goes off the air.
Anyway, if any of you remember this otherwise forgettable throwaway friendly face vs face match between Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page w/Roddy Piper as the guest referee, was the nWo Hollywood beatdown a good way to write Savage off from the storylines so he can go and heal from his double knee surgery (to repair a Torn ACL/Torn Knee Ligaments) and have Eric Bischoff & Hollywood Hogan take credit for the steel chair to shatter Savage's knee?
Would it have been a bit better if Miss Elizabeth (recently defected to nWo Hollywood from the nWo Wolfpac) was the one to shatter Savage's knee with a steel chair? Given that she and Savage were once a married couple until 1992-93 when Hogan and Linda encouraged Elizabeth to leave Savage and get hooked on drugs. And when Elizabeth returned to the wrestling scene in WCW in early 1996, she had a strict working relationship with him in storylines only. And it looked like they were going to get back together sometime as the nWo storyline was booming with their reunification in 1997 through the nWo Wolfpac until June 1998.
If someone else (other than Bischoff in your own opinion) performed the knee-shattering chair-to-knee spot on Savage, would you rather have Hogan, Giant, Hall, Adams, Hennig, Rude, Beefcake, Bret or Elizabeth to shatter Savage's knee.
In real life, Savage probably was hobbled by a Torn ACL since Spring Stampede '98 vs Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt with help from Kevin Nash. WCW first tried to write Savage off by having Hogan ran Savage over with his car, and Miss Elizabeth came to his rescue then. But not in the case of this steel cage match.
