That match, of course, ended up with an even more screwy finish but the end result was Sting getting the title, which should have happened at Starrcade to begin with. Hogan for Superbrawl VIII to make up for the screwy finish of Starrcade. вЂ“ WCW screws over the fans by holding up the World title and signing a rematch of Sting v. **1/2 Jericho destroys him for good measure. ReyвЂ™s knee wasnвЂ™t up to the challenge, and in fact he took MONTHS off to heal it. Must have been legit, because they go right for the finish as Jericho ends up on the top and Rey tries the rana, but Jericho drops down and hooks the Liontamer for the submission and the title at 8:22. Back in and Rey goes for the springboard, but Jericho knocks him off and Rey catches his knee in the ropes. He bails and Rey hits a psychotic somersault plancha.

Rey manages a sort-of Tomikaze, but Jericho doesnвЂ™t sell, which looks weird. They fight on the floor, with Jericho using the stairs to improvise a highspot. He charges Jericho on the apron, who catches him and drops him throat-first on the top rope. Rey hammers away and gets two on a victory roll. He takes a break, and Rey does his highspot fakeout and injures his knee in the process. Slugfest to start, but Jericho casually brushes him off. Jericho looks shocked, SHOCKED I say, at the вЂњJericho SucksвЂќ chant that greets him. Jericho was not quite yet our hero and role model, as he was only into beating up Dave Penzer and stealing stuff. вЂ“ Cruiserweight title match: Rey Mysterio Jr. The Flock attacks and Dean Malenko makes the save, but that never ends up going anywhere. ****3/4 Couple of flaws means I canвЂ™t give it ***** in good conscience. RavenвЂ™s grin as he passes out from the pain at 10:38 is pretty creepy. Raven goes for the Evenflow, but Benoit reverses to the crossface, and thatвЂ™s all she wrote. He tries a northern lights suplex, but Raven reverses to a DDT, but canвЂ™t capitalize, and in fact Benoit rolls over again for two. Back in the ring, where Benoit puts the chair over RavenвЂ™s face and hits the suicide variation of the swandive, knocking himself out in the process. Benoit catches up to him on the rampway and suplexes him there. Raven bails, so Benoit baseball slides him into the railing. He follows with some absolutely vicious chops and a suplex on the chair for two. Benoit comes back and Raven a taste of irony by hitting a drop toehold on the chair. He then tosses the chair in and snapmares Benoit on it. They fight on the floor again and Raven gives him a WICKED chairshot. Benoit reverses a snapmare to a backslide for two, but Raven takes over. They brawl on the floor with ultra-stiff shots. Raven has his usual pre-match whine session, then attacks Benoit as he makes his entrance and weвЂ™re underway. And so, after months of ducking him, Raven is finally forced into this. La Parka cleans house with the chair, including his own team. Soon, six guys are dead on the outside, leaving Chavo and Psychosis on the inside, and that ends quickly via a tornado DDT for the pin for Chavo at 9:28. They all try to run through their finishing sequences, then Silver King misses a plancha and the Great Trainwreck Spot begins, with all the guys hitting increasingly spectacular highspots onto each other outside the ring. Juvy retaliates with the 450 splash for two. Silver King pulls out a helicopter slam (I love that move) to get two on Juvy. Action here is too fast to keep track of. La Parka is way over, showing how stupid and short-sighted WCW was for not pushing the guy when they saw the crowd reactions. Crowd gets HOT, and FAST, which was the primary purpose of doing these lucha matches to kick off the PPVs.

Mike Tenay debuts, to the best of my knowledge, the вЂњdeceptively stockyвЂќ line about Silver King. Calo and Psychosis do a nice little sequence to start. Most of these guys are still kicking around the luchadore unfriendly WCW, oddly enough.

Psychosis, La Parka, Silver King and El Dandy. вЂ“ Opening match: Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo, Chavo Guerrero Jr, and Lizmark Jr v.

вЂ“ Okay, so the deal here is that some of you may know that I did a вЂњliveвЂќ report for the show back in 98, but that was when I was still honing my style, and as a result I didnвЂ™t include match times or ratings, which has led to many people e-mailing me in the years since to bug me for ratings. вЂ“ Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and making his final PPV announcing appearance Dusty Rhodes. вЂ“ Live from Dayton, OH, home of The Rick.

Wcw souled out 1997 scott norton ddp