Chris

The Battle Continues

World Championship Wrestling World Television Championship

WCW World Television Championship

World Championship Wrestling World Television Championship

WCW World Television Champion Booker T vs. Saturn

La Parka vs. Disco Inferno

Brad Armstrong vs. Bill Goldberg

World Championship Wrestling Cruiserweight Championship Mask vs. Title Match

WCW Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera

Steve 'Mongo' McMichael vs. The British Bulldog

World Championship Wrestling United States Championship

WCW United States Champion Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chris Benoit

No Disqualification Match

Macho Man Randy Savage (w/ Miss Elizabeth) vs. Lex Luger

World Championship Wrestling Unified World Tag Team Championship

World Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner w/ Ted Dibiase) vs. The Outsiders (Scott Hall & Kevin Nash w/ Dusty Rhodes)

World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship

Match for the Vacant Title

Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Sting

Billed as The Match of the Century, the battle -which took place at Starrcade 1997 - had been so brilliantly promoted that there was seemingly no way it could fail.Yet fail it did, at least creatively.Whilst the show had been a rousing financial success for World Championship Wrestling, the awkward and confusing finish to Hogan vs. Sting, coupled with poor matches and bizarre booking decisions on the undercard made Starrcade 97 a creative disaster the likes of which they would never truly recover from.Not that they wouldn't try.Tonight, as WCW presented us with Hogan vs. Sting II, the company would try to correct course and convince us that yes - they still deserved their place at the head of the wrestling mountain.Here's what happened when WCW went into damage-repair mode at Superbrawl VIII.Our intro tonight recapped the story of Hogan and Sting's rivalry, and how the whole thing was more about the bigger picture - the epic war between World Championship Wrestling and theThat took us to our commentators for the evening,, and, who all told us just how vital tonight's main event, one of five title matches on the show, actually was.Speaking of title matches, we had one coming up next.This was originally supposed to bedefending the TV title against, but afterhad gotten the better of Booker on Nitro, we'd had a little switch around.Instead, the two would meet one-on-one in a rematch of their earlier meeting at Souled Out 1998 , with the winner then going on to face Saturn later on in the show.Though not on par with some of the all-out classics that WCW had used to kick off their show in the past, it's probably not very fair to go comparing this one to anything else.Instead, let's just let it be what it was, which is a very solid opener.After a good battle, Booker T reclaimed his title.Immediately afterwards, Saturn rushed the ring and it looked like our second TV title match was going to happen immediately.Wearing street clothes and sporting more hair than I ever remember him having, Saturn beat Booker black and blue.The resulting match didn't really have any heat but was perfectly fine until it began to drag on and on.Seriously, this one felt like it went on forever and actually became a chore to watch at times.After a long, long fight in which he mostly got his ass kicked, Booker T hit his Big Kick Thing that I've forgotten the name of to retain the title.Backstage, Chris Jericho spoke to Mark Madden and Jeff Katz about his Cruiserweight Championship Title vs. Mask match later on in the show.Aso made his way to the ring, Tony Schiavone commented on how ridiculous it was that, with a full-scale WCW/NWO war going on, Disco andwould be feuding over dance moves.Alas, they were, but I'm not saying that was a bad thing.Whatever reason they used to get in the ring together, Disco Inferno vs. La Parka was actually far more entertaining than you'd expect.A good, see-saw battle with plenty to enjoy, this one ended with La Parka bringing a chair into the ring but getting thrown off the top rope onto it.A Chart Buster later and this one was over.Out in the entrance way, we got the obligatory 'interviews' segment.This time, Dillon told us thathad been reinstated following his suspension in the wake of Montreal II at Starrcade 97.To be fair, he should never have been suspended in the first place given that any idiot could watch that show and realise that Patrick never actually delivered the fast count he was so accused of.Anyway, Nick, who has to be my favourite referee ever, came out and was thrilled about being reinstated, even going so far as to thank his friends, fans, and loved ones for their support.He was, however, less thrilled to learn that he wouldn't be the referee for Hogan vs. Sting II later on in the show, a piece of news which upset him so much he started ranting about his missed back pay.Patrick was golden here, with far more natural charisma than even some of the men he refereed for over the years.Bill came. Bill saw. Bill conquered.This was your typicalSuper Squash Special, albeit with the added bonus thatwas reasonably entertaining in his few minutes as cannon fodder.Moving on...At his heelish best,was the ultimate brat here, even refusing to take the title belt off and trying to wrestle whilst wearing it untilkicked him in the midsection and the belt winded him.After that, we got a fantastic Cruiserweight match that proved to be the best thing on the show so far.For what it's worth, this was the second Cruiserweight title vs. Mask bout in the last six months, with the first one beingvs.at Halloween Havoc 1997 This match may not have been as good as that all-time classic but it was still great in its own right.At one point, it looked to have ended with a win for Juvi when he did get the three count but Jericho had his hand on the rope.Afterwards a few more minutes of exhilarating action, Jericho slapped on the Lion Tamer and Juvi lost both the match and his mask.Afterwards, Juvi teased the big reveal that, under his mask, he was actually a handsome pretty boy.All the while, Jericho acted like a complete prick, goading both Juvi and the crowd and proving why he was one of the most entertaining acts of the late 1990s.In 1993,had enjoyed a brief run as one of WCW's biggest main event stars.Five years later and he was back in the company, this time as a mid-card act that would struggle to find anything meaningful to do for the duration of his run.At least he had something of a feud going on here with, as the two had a rivalry which led us to a mediocre match.After several minutes of so-so action which saw Mongo hurt his arm, Davey Boy slapped on an armbar and won the match.Afterwards, an irate Mongo McMichael shoved the referee over and stormed off backstage, complaining that he never actually gave up.Making his first US title defence since beating Curt Hennig for the title on Nitro, Diamond Dallas Page put the belt on the line in a very good face vs. face match.After a truly tremendous effort from both champ and challenger, a dramatic finish saw Page get the three count to retain.Heading back to the announcers, Tony Schiavone told us that despite earlier promising us thatwould be here, problems with his flight meant that he wouldn't.He also told us that, afterhad dropped Giant on his head like a sack of shit at Souled Out 1998, The Jackknife Powerbomb had been banned.A brief video then showed us that happening at Souled about just in case we'd missed it.I don't want to say that WCW were running out of ideas at this point, butcame out doing the bandaged-ribs gimmick that Diamond Dallas Page had only just finished doing.Of course, the bandages -required after Luger had been beaten up by the nWo - were a natural target for, who lay into his opponent despite the announcers suggesting that the two may have called a truce because they'd been spotted '' backstage.Tonight, there was no truce - just a passable though immediately forgettable no DQ match in which nothing interesting happened until the finish.Luger got Savage up forthe torture rack, butinterfered to save her man, at which point the nWo B-Team (, and) all ran in.Both Luger and Savage then sent the nWo packing, at which point Hogan came down and told his men to leave Savage because he wasn't family and that he (Hogan) was glad Savage had been beaten.Because he had been beaten by Luger's torture rack, but we were too focussed on Hogan to notice.Time for one more match before our main event.The 'unified' here was a bit of a stretch here as the titles being unified were the real WCW tag titles held byand the fake oneshad introduced after they lost the real ones.It didn't really matter anyway, because about a minute into the matchturned onand joined the nWo.Ladies and gentlemen, Big Poppa Pump was born.A minute later, Hall hit the Outsiders Edge, and this one was over.Afterwards, Steiner handed The Outsiders their titles and celebrated becoming the newest member of the New World Order.It was once The Match of the Century, now it was The Rematch to Make Up For How Horrible the Match of the Century Had Been.As Hogan matches go, this one was on the more entertaining end of the scale, but still, don't expect Malenko/Guerrero flashes of technical Wrestling brilliance.What you did get was a weird match that was basically all Hogan. Until the finish happened, Sting was just a body that was there in the same way that Brad Armstrong had been for Bill Goldberg earlier.At one point,got squashed by Sting, prompting Nick Patrick to run in and shock Hulk by refusing to make a fast count.Hogan continued to dominate anyway and cut off every bit of offence Sting made.Eventually, Sting made the big no-sell comeback and hit Hogan with the Scorpion Death Drop, but Hogan kicked Nick on the way down.An NWO run in ensured but Sting cleaned house and made the pin anyway.A three count later and we had a new, undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.Afterwards, Sting took a can of spray paint left by Savage in the NWO run-in and sprayed WCW on Hogan's body.