House Show Results from Knoxville, TN, Thursday, May 28th, 1998
House Show Results from Knoxville, TN, Thursday, May 28th, 1998
- The card was promoted with a short blurb featured with the other articles we sent in. It was called "Brothers to brawl in Knoxville match":
- Even Marc Canterbury is eager to see what will happen when the Steiner brothers face each other during the World Championship Wrestling match in Knoxville on Thursday, May 28.
- Canterbury has wrestled both Lex Luger and his tag team partner Rick Steiner before. Luger are up against Scott Steiner and Scott Norton during the main event.
- "The Steiner brothers are real competitive," says Canterbury. "They are real tough. I cannot even imagine the two of them going up against each other."
- Ah, but such is the drama of WCW matches. One day, he's your brother. The next, he's your opponent.
- Canterbury says he wants to attend the match, but don't look for him to fly out of the wings and defend his old buddies.
- I'll just be there to watch," he says.
- Tickets for the WCW natch are $15, $20 and $25. It begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.
- Of course, that match never happened as both Steiner brothers are injured and Norton did not appear.
- For those just interested in the results:
- Ernest Miller defeated Yuji Nagata via the Feliner in 10:14
- The Barbarian defeated Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker with the boot to the face in 10:44
- Jim Neidhart/Davey Boy Smith defeated High Voltage as Neidhart pinned Kaos with a powerslam in 9:59
- Konnan defeated Hugh Morrus via the Tequila Sunrise in 6:55
- Chris Benoit defeated Booker T. via the Crippler Crossface in 10:07
- Lex Luger defeated the nWo Sting with the Human Torture Rack in 7:39
- Diamond Dallas Page defeated Raven via the Diamond Cutter in 8:02
- The show was a sell-out.
- For the detailed report...
- We would like to note that Matt was unable to join us. He was taking care of business in Boston. We send our regards.
- 6:34 - We arrived at the Hyatt Regency. We noticed that the parking lot was abnormally crowded and a security officer informed us that we could not park there on this evening. All was not lost, as a man asked the security guard some information behind us. It was Booker T. He was wearing a blue denim shirt and a tie and was dressed nicely. We waved at him and he smiled and returned the gesture. We noticed that he was driving a grey Lexus, which completely destroyed our image of him as we had hoped he would pull up in a hoopty. As we were leaving, we parked in a lot near the hotel when we saw his car passing us. We quickly made a U-turn and followed him. We learned where the wrestler's entrance to the coliseum is this way.
- 6:45 - The Booker T. excursion cost us eleven minutes as we could not follow him through the wrestler's pass and had to take a detour through downtown Knoxville. We parked in a lot behind both the hotel and the arena.
- 6:55 - We took our seats in the fourth row and spotted our friends Stephen (who is the proprietor of the Unofficial Bill Goldberg Home Page), Chad and Berlowitz, who is our answer to Lodi. We recognized them as Stephen started the first "Whoo!" barrage of the night. We journeyed to the balcony to visit and decided that as a personal favor to Bill, who is an adoring fan, we would get the scoop on the old lady who sits ringside at Knoxville.
- 7:06 - We speak to the lady affectionately labeled "Granny" by the Knoxville faithful. She informed us that she had been attending wrestling for the past sixty years. We have heard via rumor that her real name is Beulah. Her voice is quite raspy and unusually deep and we assume that she must have been smoking for much of her sixty years at the Coliseum. The only question remaining is if she truly is older than dirt.
- 7:08 - We confer with Paul Ledbetter, who was covering the House Show for the Oh My God! Web Site.
- 7:16 - Chucky, Jody and Judy wrapped a banner off the balcony which read: "I love to watch WCW Saturday Night's Main Event on Superstation TBS. No, we don't know these people, we just read their name on the sign. For those of you who don't know, Saturday Night's Main Event was a WWF program which aired on NBC. The last time it was on 11/08/92. We wanted to credit these fans because they are representative of the Knoxville fan base in that they were incredibly idiotic They: a) they made a banner for a house show; b) they claimed to enjoy watching Saturday night wrestling, they mentioned a show which has not aired in over 5 years. The truly sad fact is that these are some of the smarter Knoxville fans.
- 7:27: When Charlie returned from the vending area, we surveyed the crowd. We did not see Phineas Godwinn who was supposed to be in attendance. He probably heard that Steiner match that he wanted to see so badly would not take place. We do see Bill Needham, commentator for Tennessee mountain Wrestling. He was wearing his yellow Pro Wrestling Illustrated identification. We need to get those for DDT Digest. Needham, was wearing his trademark shirt, which may or may not have been manufactured in this century. Also in attendance was local legend Ron Wright. Wright needed a cane to walk and was sitting in the second row of the balcony. Despite being disabled and getting along in years, Wright is still quite a muscular physical specimen.
- 7:31 - A beach ball began to makes its way through the crowd. When it made its way into the ring, the police confiscated it. At first, the officer was applauded for retrieving it but was later booed when the crowd realized he was admonishing the owner for bringing it.
- 7:35 - Dave Penzer greeted the fans and announced three WCW rules and announced the top three bouts for the evening. The three rules were: a) no objects in the ring; b) no fans jump the railing; and c) that laser pens be used. He also announced that not only would WCW escort the offending fan out of the ring but also have them arrested. I would like to see someone be prosecuted for flashing someone with a laser pen.
- The three matches Penzer announced were Booker T against Benoit, the nWo Sting representing nWo Hollywood against Lex luger representing nWo Wolfpack and the main event of Diamond Dallas Page-Raven in a no disqualification match. Two notes on these announcements. You could actually feel the audience taking time to realize that the nWo Sting was not Steve Borden. Also, the nWo Wolfpack was decidedly over with this audience,
- 7:39 - Penzer announced that the ring attendants would be from Hooters. The girls' names were Tiffany and Michelle.
- 7:40 - Referee Mark Curtis made his way to the ring. Penzer noted, "You've been here before!" To which Curtis nodded. Prior to joining WCW, he worked extensively for Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling promotion which based itself in Knoxville. Also, when he was ill, his cards were sent to a post office box in Morristown, only an hour and a half away from Knoxville.
- 7:43 - Ernest Miller defeated Yuji Nagata via the Feliner in 10:14
- These two have been wrestling each other in WCW for quite awhile.
- Both had their first WCW match against each other in the dark match of the 1997 Atlanta Nitro (03/03/97). Miller won with a badly missed thrust kick from the ropes.
- The two also wrestled each other at the house show in Memphis on Tuesday.
- As would be the case throughout the evening, the heel entered the ring first
- Oh No! No Sonny.
- Though managers rarely work house shows, Sonny was in Memphis.
- Miller then came to the ring in a ring jacket depicting a lion on the back.
- Although difficult to notice on television, Miller wrestles with just tape around his feet and ankles and is virtually barefoot.
- He had his left elbow taped as well although we are unaware of any injury.
- Mark Curtis refereed this match.
- Without Sonny or understandable English, Yuji worked the crowd through facial expressions and played on their sense of nationalism by bowing.
- This play on nationalism in the first match of the show was ironic because this is one of the few shows we have been to where the Star Spangled Banner was not played. There was not even an American flag hanging in the arena.
- Not surprisingly, a "U-S-A" chant erupted.
- While this is not uncommon, only in Knoxville does a "China sucks" chant attempt to start as the "USA" chant dies down. Nagata had even been announced from Japan.
- We will give the rednecks the benefit of the doubt and comment that they were simply revealing their fantasies regarding the DX valet.
- At the 2:40 moment in the match, Yuji teased that he would go to the dressing room and forego the match. This spot was done three times this night. This time, fortunately, Nagata left for only 19 seconds before being brought back to the ring forcibly by Miller.
- At the 3:29 mark Ernest did the spot where he cornered Nagata and hit him eight times in the head while the fans counted. This same spot was also done three times in the night.
- Ernest did the Goldberg spear to no reaction.
- Miller gained a 2-count via the sunset flip.
- At the 7:08 mark, Nagata blew a piledriver badly. The move looked poor from the front of the arena and was said to have appeared even worse from the balcony.
- It took 8:48 until the "Bor-ing" chants made their way to this match. We were amazed that it took them that long given the popularity of the competitors involved.
- As would be the case in virtually every match of the night, the loser had control as the winner took advantage of a failed high risk attempt and hit a big move for the win. In this match Nagata signaled for his finisher when Miller countered and hit the Feliner for the win.
- Given their past history against one another, this match was incredibly sloppy. Miller's eight punches to the head all appeared to miss pretty badly. Even the more experienced Nagata blew a relatively routine piledriver.
- Miller also won other two matches we mentioned between the two.
- 7:55 - Penzer reminded the crowd of WCW Saturday Night's air time. His selling points were announcers Scott Hudson and Mike Tenay. When Tenay is your selling point, you have trouble.
- 7:57 - The Barbarian defeated Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker with the boot to the face in 10:44.
- Nick Patrick refereed this match.
- Hacksaw Duggan was originally slated to be Barbarian's adversary.
- We never thought we would be happy to watch Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker.
- We guess the promoters figured with the Hooters girls in attendance, the fans had already seen too much "Ho'". That's the first two letters in Hooters of course...
- Buddy Lee entered first.
- He is no longer "sergeant" of the state patrol, but now apparently has been promoted to the military as he now wears all camouflage and even sports dog tags.
- Parker is actually a trainer at the WCW Power Plant and is credited for Goldberg's training among others.
- Parker jobbed to his pupil at the Boston Brawl show (01/31/98).
- The Barbarian made his way to the ring throwing punches.
- Barbarian had his hair in short dreads.
- He resembles Erik Estrada, who played Frank "Ponch" Poncherello on CHiPS from 1977-1983.
- Barbarian sported new tights. They were black with red lettering.
- Buddy's height or lack there of was clearly accentuated against the tall Barbarian.
- The fans took to calling Parker "Major Woody."
- At the 2:54 mark, the Barbarian took the bump of the match as Parker hiptossed him over the tope rope and onto the arena floor.
- Parker teased following the hold with a move from the top turnbuckle to the outside of the ring but referee Nick Patrick prevented him. Parker might have killed himself.
- Barbarian stayed on the floor along time.
- Meanwhile, in the ring, Patrick continually prevented Parker from attacking his fallen foe.
- The biggest pop of the match came when Parker threatened Patrick.
- Patrick played the heel.
- If he turns one more time...
- Note to WCW bookers: He's the freakin' referee.
- At 3:54 he teased the use of a chair and threw it in the ring. Patrick discarded it.
- The chair was the most over participant in the match.
- Patrick was a close second.
- At the 6:38 mark, Buddy did gain a two-count for with a sunset flip as well as a subsequent rollup.
- Buddy Lee attempted a move from the tope rope unsuccessfully, and Barbarian capitalized and quickly hit the big boot.
- After the bout, there was no sweat on Parker's camouflage attire. This is a true sign that Barbarian did most of the work in the match. That about says it all.
- 8:07 - Penzer used the interim to plug WCW merchandise.
- He spotted one fan who had pained half of his nWo shirt red to symbolize that he was half-nWo Hollywood, half nWo Wolfpack.
- Our only merchandise notes are that there is no longer any Ric Flair merchandise to speak of.
- There was difficulty finding the Flock "Feel Our Pain" shirts so either they were sold out or they simply did not bring them.
- 8:13-Jim Neidhart/Davey Boy Smith defeated High Voltage as Neidhart pinned Kaos with a powerslam in 9:59.
- Billy Silverman came out for apparently no reason as Patrick remained to referee the match.
- Charlie notes that you can remember that Kaos is the blonde because blond comes before brunette alphabetically just as Kaos comes before Rage.
- High Voltage came out first.
- Neidhart and Smith then made their entrance.
- Smith was announced only as the British Bulldog.
- He wore tassles on his boots and had red/blue tights with "BULL" written in red up his left leg and "DOG" in blue up the right.
- Neidhart wore his pink and black to remind everyone that he was once Bret Hart's tag team partner.
- Rage established his team as a heel by berating the local crowd and Kaos did the same shortly after.
- The match started as Neidhart and Smith hit Voltage after their tirade.
- Smith then got on the mic and said that the crowd paid good money to see wrestling and he would attempt to give it to them. He used the strongest language of the night by saying, "You suck!" This shows the change in WCW's policy as the last house show they did in Knoxville, very few wrestlers did not cuss.
- Voltage teased that they would leave and not wrestle by walking back up the aisle.
- Upon returning to the ring, Davey Boy hit Rage in the head as he cornered him in the turnbuckles 18 times. We were amazed that the crowd had the mental capacity to count that high.
- At the 1:59 point in the match, during a rest hold, Neidhart yelled, "Yeah." While this may not seem significant it was probably the best thing he did in the match. It was also the only thing he said as he was the only wrestler who did not receive any mic time.
- During the melee, the straps were pulled down from Voltage's ring attire.
- At the 6:44 moment in the match, the granny was incited and a tremendous "Granny" chant broke out.
- Granny was very animated, after the match she flipped the bird, gestured to kiss her behind, and stuck her tongue out at Voltage.
- In the last bout we mentioned that the chair and the referee were more well received than the wrestlers. In this match, Granny was clearly the fan favorite.
- That is a true indication of the quality of the program.
- At the 8:48 all four men made their way into the ring in the only tag team match of the night. That is always the sign that the end is near in tag team matches.
- Kaos did the job to a Neidhart powerslam.
- Afterwards, Rage flexed his pecs at Granny to elicit the previously mentioned reaction.
- 8:30 - Konnan defeated Hugh Morrus via the Tequila Sunrise in 6:55.
- Billy Silverman refereed this bout.
- Morrus came out first and shook Dave Penzer's hand.
- Konnan came out to the new nWo Wolfpack music and somersaulted into the ring.
- Not to be outdone, Konnan put his hat on Penzer's head.
- Konnan also danced.
- This set the tone for the match as it was used as comic relief.
- Konnan got on the microphone and deleivered his "Arriba La Raza" schtick.
- This was unusual as the heel traditionally gets on the mic first and established himself to put the face over. Konnan perhaps was tying to do that, but was applauded at every turn in his monologue.
- Konnan's appearance added to the comic theme of the match as he had tucked his wife beater shirt into his aqua boxers and they were clearly seen by the crowd.
- 27 seconds into the bout, Konnan returned to the mic and professed, "Yo, Quiero Taco Bell!" "Quiero" is Spanish for "to want." Seconds later Morrus gained an advantage and the microphone and said, "I think I need a bigger box." These are references to the latest Taco Bell advertisement.
- Those were really the high points of the bout as neither worked particularly hard. Spectators in the balcony claimed that Morrus could be seen reading something in the middle of the bout as if he had forgotten the planned finish. While we doubt this, there was definitely something not right about this bout.
- Perhaps it just lost a lot not having Mike Tenay reminding me of the tag team history between the two competitors.
- Morrus missed an elbow drop from the top rope and Konnan applied the Tequila Sunrise for the finish.
- 8:37 - 8:52 Intermission
- 8:55 - Chris Benoit defeated Booker T. via the Crippler Crossface in 10:07.
- Mark Curtis returned to the ring to referee this match. He hugged a lady at ringside on his way to the ring. Sorry, Bill. We did not attempt to get her name.
- Benoit entered the ring first to a huge response.
- Booker followed and was applauded as well. He was once booed in this same venue predominantly due to his race.
- Benoit coughed prior to the match and may have been ill. The bout was announced as having a thirty-minute time limit and it went barely one-third of that, so perhaps he was ill. His performance was not hindered in any event.
- For those wondering, this bout was not part of the best-of-seven series.
- This best-of-seven angle stems from the 1986 Great American Bash. Nikita Koloff defeated Magnum T.A. to win the United States championship 4-3 on that tour. Nikita won the final encounter on 08/17/86 in Charlotte. This would be the last championship of Magnum's career as a 10/14/86 car accident ended his in-ring career.
- Booker wore an older orange version of his tights on this night. Perhaps, in tribute to the local Tennessee Volunteers. Maybe not.
- Since this bout has been seen so many times we will just list the high spots:
- 4:41-Booker hit a spin kick.
- 7:52-Benoit hit his backbreaker
- 9:04-Benoit hit his flying headbutt from the top rope
- 9:51-Booker connected on a nice scissor kick.
- Benoit applied the Crossface just after Booker missed the Missile dropkick in 10:07.
- 9:12 - Lex Luger defeated the nWo Sting with the Human Torture Rack in 7:39.
- Billy Silverman refereed the bout. Penzer attempted to promote Hooters by claiming the fans could meet Silverman after the matches there. Someone needs to talk to Penzer about selling points.
- The nWo Sting entered first and was announced from Los Angeles, California. We suppose that is to go along with him attempting to replicate the real Sting. We did not know that, but we should have. His California residence is listed in Wade's Hailing From... site. Sorry, we always have to plug Wade.
- The nWo logo was on his leather trench coat.
- His right elbow was also padded though we do not know if that is standard or not.
- Luger then entered to the nWo Wolfpack music.
- He climbed the turnbuckles and raised his arms to receive fan approval. His membership in the Wolfpack seems to have been a good career move as it is the first time anyone has cared about him in quite some time.
- Lex wrestled in black pants which we found incredibly odd. He has always worn the traditional briefs.
- Among the many changes in wrestling recently, one that has not been mentioned is the abandonment of the briefs No one on this show wore them and they appear to be fading into the annals of history.
- The nWo Sting's nose is what distinguishes him most. It is much larger than that of the real Sting and as the camera pans from far distances this should makes discerning which Sting is on camera much easier.
- At the 2:47 point in this match, we witnessed one of the worst blown spots ever. Sting went for a hiptoss, but Luger must have forgotten and Sting's arm went over him obviously. This would not have been as bad had they not tried to correct themselves and missed the spot three times!
- At the 3:37 mark, Luger hit two atomic drops and a clothesline. We began to get worried as Lex had used the majority of his offensive arsenal early in the match.
- Sting spent an abundance of time out of the ring after this sequence as Lex had time to take his hair out of the ponytail it was in and fix it.
- During this time, the Knoxville faithful showed their true colors.
- A "Hogan Sucks" chant erupted. It is always nice to hear wrestlers condemned who are not on the show, which is not being televised. I would expound upon this more, but they were ridiculing Hogan and I cannot fault anyone for that.
- The truly sad point occurred when someone pointed to the rafters and claimed it was Sting. The man in front of us stared for the remainder of the bout even professing to see him. Making matters worse, he was not the only one.
- The nWo Sting did garner two two-counts at the 5:57 and 6:21 marks.
- The second two-count occurred after a solid vertical suplex. Then the impossible happened - Luger sold the move! He attempted to get up, gasped and then laid down again. No one in attendance had seen that before. We may have witnessed a first.
- The match ended in traditional Luger fashion: 2 clotheslines, forearm, powerslam and torture rack in 7:39.
- Could Luger be going back to his "Narcissist" days with fixing his hair and using his forearm more frequently?
- 9:25 - Diamond Dallas Page defeated Raven via the Diamond Cutter in 8:02.
- Mark Curtis refereed this main event match.
- Raven entered first and claimed that he had seen Konnan backstage and as a Mexican, Raven felt badly that this was his example of American Culture. For the record, Konnan is Cuban.
- During Raven's tirade, fans doused him with cokes and paper wads.
- He even stopped when a paper wad made a direct hit.
- A coke was spilled all over a Hooter's ring attendant.
- To our knowledge no one was prosecuted.
- For the third time in the night, a competitor teased not working the match. Raven said, "If this is the respect I'm shown, then I choose not to wrestle."
- Also, for the third time in the show, a wrestler battered his opponents head as the fans counted shots. DDP was the only one who stopped at the traditional ten punches.
- DDP wrestles with earrings which are usually obstructed due to his long hair on T.V. Not to be outdone, Raven had his eyebrow ring in.
- Raven was wearing a shirt promoting the band The Ramones. The front had the band's name and the back said "Adios Amigos."
- There were no riot cops at this match. Not even Doug Dellinger was in attendance, though we heard he was retiring at the year's end so he may be taking a wider work load. It is a shame Kanyon could not have anticipated this and used this time to attack. He probably heard Penzer claim that WCW could arrange to have him arrested and decided not to attack.
- DDP wrestled chewing gum up until the 3:28 portion of the match when he discarded it into the aisle.
- This match was one in which the reputation of the two competitors hurt its quality. It was advertised as a match that could spill anywhere in the arena and they battled only in the aisles. While this is great for television, a large portion of fans at house shows cannot see the match. It was also short. There was no "Evenflow" DDT either. The match was an extreme letdown for most fans. We had read reports that Page would be taking some time off, so we were just happy to see the match.
- DDP hit the Diamond Cutter at 8:02.
- We made our way back to the Hyatt Regency. When we arrived, we learned that Booker had returned, cigar in hand, shortly before we had. He did not look to be interested in dealing with fans so no one bothered him.
- Our quintet ate at the restaurant in the Hyatt. Chad ate a club sandwich, I scarfed down the grilled chicked, Chuck ate the roast beef sandwich/soup combo and Stephen ate the Rocky Top, which was a strange combination of shaved turkey and apple butter among other things. Berlowitz, of course, was our lookout, thus he did not eat. Each entreé cost about $8, which is not particularly bad. The significance of all of this, is my desire to type 'shaved turkey'. If anyone knows exactly what that is, please e-mail us.
- At 10:21, Konnan arrived and could not have been more hospitable. He took pictures with Chuck, Chad, Berlowitz and Stephen flashing the West-Side hand signal. He sported at NC State hat, the significance of this being that they are of course, the Wolfpack. Cool. He looked intelligent wearing glasses, though he did wear a nose ring. He responded to everyone with a simple, "No prob, bro." Perhaps, his most impressive feature was his barbed wire scars. If anyone has any information as to their origins, e-mail us. He stayed for twelve minutes before going up the elevator. A crowd actually gathered just to watch him go up the elevator.
- Konnan said that Luger decided to drive home to Atlanta as opposed to staying in Knoxville. At the last show, the wrestlers all drove to a home Randy Savage owned. Without Savage on the card, we had hoped that we would receive a greater opportunity to meet people. Since this has been a hectic month for the crew and with the next day off, we realized that most wrestlers would go home. Konnan would be the only wrestler we would meet but it was still worth the extra time at the Hyatt.
- At 10:38 our bill came. Stephen made a joke to our waitress attempting to bill Booker T.'s room with our check. We then received some information out of this. She informed us that only Booker and Konnan had checked in thus far and that no reservations had been made.
- At 10:52 we viewed three of the skankiest groupies we had ever seen. Two minutes later Konnan returned to the bar in a tanktop and sporting the cross necklace he commonly wears. They must have radar. To Konnan's credit, he did not seem interested. We could not imagine the man that would be interested in those...
- At 11:01 hotel security asked the fans to leave and we complied. This was bizarre as we have never been asked to do so before. Even when hundreds of fans gathered after Nitro, we were not asked to leave. Go figure. All in all, the meeting with Konnan made up for a lackluster show.