Road Wild (1998)

Road Wild (1998) was the third Road Wild professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and co-promoted by WCW and nWo in storyline. It took place on August 8, 1998 from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. The event also featured a mini-concert by Travis Tritt after the wrestling matches.

Road Wild (1998)
PromotionWorld Championship Wrestling
Brand(s)WCW
nWo
DateAugust 8, 1998[1]
CitySturgis, South Dakota[1]
VenueSturgis Motorcycle Rally[1]
Attendance8,500[1]
Tagline(s)Road Fast. Road Hard. No One Knows Where This Road Goes.
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous
Bash at the Beach		 Next →
Fall Brawl
Road Wild chronology
← Previous
1997		 Next →
1999

The main event was a tag team match in which Diamond Dallas Page and the host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno defeated the leader of nWo Hollywood, Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff when Leno pinned Bischoff after Kevin Eubanks delivered a Diamond Cutter to Bischoff. On the undercard, nWo held an invitational battle royal, in which four members of nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac participated along with Goldberg, who won the match by last eliminating The Giant.

Storylines

Road Wild featured nine professional wrestling matches that resulted from scripted storylines and had results predetermined[2] by WCW played out on WCW's television programs Monday Nitro, Thunder, Saturday Night and WorldWide.

On the July 16 episode of Thunder, The Dancing Fools defeated The Public Enemy after Dancing Fools' associated member Tokyo Magnum was driven through a table and caused the distraction for Dancing Fools to pick up the win,[3] setting up a rematch between the two teams at Road Wild.

Reception

The event had very low buyrates and was panned by critics. Arnold Furious of 411mania rated the event 2.5 out of 5 stars, with "WCW’s big idea to push for buyrates worked once. This second time out wasn’t so good, money wise. The Leno appearance was actually more entertaining than the basketball players but didn’t pop the same buyrate. I think they missed the point of their direction. Goldberg was world champion but the focus remained on Hogan who the crowd had grown tired of seeing. The undercard had some real horrors on it as well. Two matches sunk well into negative stars for their severe lack of professionalism," with "Jericho-Juvi is good but WCW would soon wreck Jericho. Everything else is bad. Four matches are real shockers. That poor level of professionalism just isn’t acceptable. If I’d have been in charge there would have been heads rolling over this. Keep in mind, this being Road Wild, this show had no money taken at the gate. Another of those bright WCW decisions. Yeah, charging fans to watch your show is pretty straightforward. Most people understand this. Everyone but WCW really. Keeping in mind this is on the back of a Nitro where they showed the entire PPV main event from Bash at the Beach for free. Just to make that huge PPV number shrink in future as fans were outraged they paid to see a match that was then given away. This show is one long string of bad matches and bad booking. Only Jericho’s match is worth watching and its shocking that Jay Leno’s match isn’t the worst on the card by a long shot. Avoid."[4]

Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
Commentators Tony Schiavone
Bobby Heenan
Mike Tenay
Interviewer Gene Okerlund
Ring announcers David Penzer
Michael Buffer
Referees Randy Anderson
Mickie Jay

Results
No. Results[1][5][6][4] Stipulations Times
1 Meng defeated The Barbarian (with Jimmy Hart) Singles match 04:48
2 The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) defeated The Dancing Fools (Disco Inferno and Alex Wright) (with Tokyo Magnum) Tag team match 15:27
3 Saturn defeated Raven (with Lodi) and Kanyon Raven's Rules match 12:26
4 Rey Misterio, Jr. defeated Psychosis Singles match to determine the #1 contender for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship 13:38
5 Stevie Ray (c) defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. Singles match for the WCW World Television Championship 02:38
6 Steve McMichael defeated Brian Adams (with Vincent) Singles match 06:32
7 Juventud Guerrera defeated Chris Jericho (c) Singles match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship with Dean Malenko as special guest referee 16:24
8 Goldberg won by last eliminating The Giant nWo Invitational Battle Royal 07:58
9 Diamond Dallas Page and Jay Leno (with Kevin Eubanks) defeated Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff (with The Disciple and Miss Elizabeth) Tag team match 14:31
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

Battle royal eliminations
Elimination no. Wrestler Eliminated by Elimination move Time
1 Scott Hall Goldberg Over the top rope via an Outsider's Edge countered into a Back body drop 1:24
2 Kevin Nash N/A Nash eliminated himself to fight Hall 1:31
3 Konnan Goldberg Over the top rope after a spear 4:55
4 Curt Hennig Goldberg Over the top rope after a spear 6:42
5 Sting and Scott Norton Goldberg Over the top rope 6:49
6 Lex Luger The Giant Over the top rope after a spear by Goldberg 7:09
7 The Giant Goldberg Pinfall after a spear 7:57
Winner: Goldberg

References
  1. "Road Wild 1998". Pro Wrestling History. August 8, 1998. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  2. Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  3. "Thunder – July 16, 1998: Arn Anderson At His Best". KB's Wrestling Reviews. December 7, 2013. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
  4. Arnold Furious (February 16, 2007). "The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Road Wild '98". 411mania. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  5. Cawthon, Graham (2015). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 5: World Championship Wrestling 1995-2001. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1499656343.
  6. "Wrestling's Historical Cards: Road Wild (Sturgis, SOuth Dakota, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally". 2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 147.
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