WCW {Pro} - Sunday, 07/19/1998

By Aldo D.

Trivia Question: In late 1993, the WWF held a 16-man battle royal to determine who would wrestle for the vacant Intercontinental Title. Razor Ramon was one of the two survivors who went on and won the title. Who was the other survivor that fell victim to Razor in the title match? (Answer at the end of this report.)
Welcome back to another weekend of the {Pro}!
Looking at the matches that the DDT Digest staff predicted for Bash at the Beach I was correct on four of the seven entries. Not too bad for starters. Anyway, let's move on to the mailbag...
JTrain8888 writes in with the following:
- For some reason (I still can figure it out) I watched {Pro} this week and saw the funniest thing. On Nitro and Thunder, when Ultimo Dragon comes out he'll stand semi-profile to the camera, cross his arms and smile smugly while the pyrotechnics go off behind him. Well last week on {Pro}, he stood on the ramp, did his whole stance as described above and then suddenly looked around as if realizing he was now on a show much too cheap for the explosions. He then quickly ran to the ring. Just found it humorous.
- Ahh, yes, the pains of converting from an arena show to a small studio production. I suppose the Ultimo Dragon was waiting for a small bottle rocket to go off, but Worldwide/{Pro} is too cheap to use pyrotechnics for their wrestlers, even Goldberg. However, nothing beats the humor of seeing Doc Dean do the "Lucky Charms" dance before his jobs -- although Doc is quite a talented wrestler.
Timothy Chervenak asks:
- Just wondering, is Scott Norton in Japan? Haven't seen him for a while. Is he nWo-Hollywood?
- It appears that Scott Norton just completed an extended tour of Japan, as he was seen on camera dismantling Ciclope on Thunder. Norton came out with Vincent in a black-and-white shirt, thus showing his allegiance to nWo-Hollywood.
One final bit of news before we go into our regularly scheduled report, and it has to do with something that happened this week in Lake County, FL, which is about 20 minutes northwest of Orlando. According to The Orlando Sentinel, a scam artist masqueraded as Diamond Dallas Page and swindled a local car dealer and a motel out of $32,000 and signed (obviously phony) autographs to fans in the area. As of Thursday afternoon, he is still at large, but one has to wonder if he offered to scrub windows for the car dealers. :)

The {Pro} begins with Hollywood Hogan challenging Goldberg.
Scott Hudson and Larry Zbyzsko are in the booth proclaiming that Goldberg is the new WCW World Champion.
We go to stills from the Biggest Nitro in the History of Our Sport in Atlanta.
- Why are there Goldberg chants in this montage? Does WCW want us to know the chants are fake?
Zbyzsko begins to suck up to Goldberg.
We go to Lee Marshall in the "locker room" talking about Road Wild. A burly figure is stomping around in the background.
- Uh oh. Oh, GOD NO! It's Duggan!
- Ol' One Eye is distraught because he cannot find his 2x4.
- Hacksaw finally finds it and says to it, "Good baby, I missed you too!" while caressing his board. Good God.
- Hacksaw begins mocking gimmicks of other wrestlers, saying that they have body tattooes, piercings, and skull designs on their outfit. BUT NOT HACKSAW! All he does is carry his 2x4, an American flag, and beat people up!
- Hacksaw says that although J.J. won't allow him to use the 2x4 in the ring, he'll use it anyway, regardless of fines. On a side note, does anyone else remember Duggan DQ'ing himself in his WWF bouts by bringing the 2x4 in the ring?
- Hacksaw leaves, and relief spreads across the land.
- However, Hacksaw comes back and begins to rant again. He moans that there is no Hacksaw Duggan T-shirt and has lost his 2x4 again.
- This segment was so pathetically sad that I laughed my ass off throughout.
More hype for Road Wild by Hudson/Zbyzsko.
{Pro} Exclusive #1: Lorenzo pinned Damian after a sunset flip from the top turnbuckle in 2:32.
- Whoa! Two bona-fide jobbers! This one will be tough to predict...
- Tenay says that Lorenzo works out at the Power Plant.
- Damian gets the 70s rock music as he enters.
- A lockup starts the match and Damian gets sent down.
- Damian comes back, but Lorenzo gets a hip toss and a jumping back elbow.
- Damian recovers with an elbow to the back and a springboard arm drag.
- Damian follows with a snapmare into a chinlock.
- Damian has Lorenzo in the corner and thrusts his head into Lorenzo's abdomen.
- Lorenzo regains the momentum and administers a backdrop suplex.
- Short-arm clothesline and a body slam by Damian.
- Damian goes up top and misses the moonsault.
- Lorenzo recovers and goes up top, as well, this time landing a sunset flip for the win!
- Even on the {Pro}, Damian cannot get a break.
Starburst Road Report -- Nitro in Salt Lake City, UT.
Yes!! The Snickers commercial with Gheorge Muresan! "Dohh!! Hey, don't look at me!"
The announcers say Goldberg will bring wrestling into the 21st century.
- Wasn't Renegade "The Man Who Will Carry Hulkamania Into The 21st Century?" Just a thought.
From Worldwide -- The Cat vs. Glacier (Aired 07/11/1998)
- As mentioned in the mailbag, Ultimo Dragon doesn't get fireworks. However, this fool Glacier gets his FULL entrance even on Worldwide.
They talk about the heat between Raven and Saturn.
- Damn it, Hudson. For the 14,956th time, it's not "Barb-Wire City," it's ECW.
- I've heard ECW and WWF refer to their competition by name, however WCW refrains from this. If anyone knows why, please e-mail Aldo D.
From WCWSN: Raven/Horace vs. Saturn/Van Hammer (Aired 07/11/1998)
This week in WCW Motorsports -- Ehhh, I don't care, either. :)
Lee Marshall interviews J.J. Dillon.
- Completely useless interview. J.J. basically talks about his travels to Road Wild last year.
- J.J. comments about not knowing that people get tattooes or body piercings. Anyone else here wonder if J.J. Dillon has kissed a girl yet?
Just a side note: The local rock station is playing "Subdivisions" by RUSH as I type this. Damn, I feel hyper now. :)
They talk about about Benoit/Mongo trying to reform The Four Horsemen.
The "in-depth look" of Steve "Mongo" McMichael is shown.
From Thunder: Ultimo Dragon vs. Chris Jericho for the Cruiserweight Title. (Aired 07/08/1998)
They talk about the impact the Luchadores have made in WCW, which leads into...
{Pro} Exclusive #2: In a Lucha Libre match-up, La Parka and El Dandy defeat Super Calo and Ciclope in 3:18 when El Dandy hits Ciclope with the "Hand of Stone."
- This one might be too fast for me.
- La Parka plays the chair guitar -- twice!
- Super Calo does some sort of breakdance on the entranceway.
- The announcers talk about the tag team situation.
- La Parka struts to start, but gets shoved by Calo.
- La Parka retaliates with a clothesline.
- Tag to El Dandy, who knocks Calo down, gets an armbar, and tags La Parka back in.
- La Parka chops Calo, but misses a punch.
- Calo cleans house as Dandy comes in.
- Ciclope comes off the top turnbuckle and dropkicks El Dandy and La Parka.
- Ciclope and Calo perform and double suicide dive on the heels!
- Back in the ring, Dandy misses a Stinger Splash on Ciclope.
- Ciclope attempts a sunset flip on Dandy. As the move is applied, Calo gets one on La Parka.
- Ciclope in control and takes care of the heels.
- La Parka grabs ahold of Ciclope for Dandy to hit. Can anyone see what's coming?
- Ciclope with the Mahistral Cradle on Dandy for 2.
- Ciclope tries a roll-up, but gets 2.
- Dandy no-sells a chop and is whipped into the rope.
- Ciclope attempts a tilt-a-whirl but Dandy gets out of it.
- Dandy lands the "Hand of Stone" on Ciclope and gets the pin after La Parka cuts off Calo's save attempt.
  - Wouldn't it be sweet to see Ronnie Garvin do a run-in and knock El Dandy out for stealing his move?
To close, Hudson and Zbyzsko fawn over Goldberg one last time.

That does it for this edition. If you've got comments, compliments, or criticisms, then conjure an e-mail to Aldo D. See you next week!
Trivia Answer: The other survivor in the battle royal to determine the Intercontinental Champ was "The Model" Rick Martel.

WCW {Pro} - Sunday, 07/19/1998

By Aldo D.

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