WCW 10/12/1998

Ultimate Warrior & Sting def. Bret Hart & Hulk Hogan by DQ in 5:40

So here we have Sting & Ultimate Warrior teaming for the first time in over a dozen years, and reforming THE BLADE RUNNERS on a 1998 Nitro. Even if you read the magazines, that team was always brought up as both men’s careers grew, so it was an interesting hook. It should be noted that on the other channel, Raw had Steve Austin & The Rock teaming for the first time against Kane & Undertaker, and beat Nitro in the ratings, 4.8 to 4.6, so they couldn’t even get a ratings win out of this epic. This was a couple of weeks before the travesty that was Warrior vs. Hogan at Halloween Havoc, so the fans had already started to dislike the program, but probably didn’t outright hate it yet. It took well over six minutes to get this clash of titans started between the intros and walking around/stalling before the match. Hogan’s lock-up with Sting to start highlighted how little Hogan was taking this seriously, as he looked like he had the intensity of a Paulie Shore movie. It’s always fun watching Bret in a match like this because he was going out there and being Bret Hart, working holds, and not letting the lack of talent in the ring stop him from working his match. Not surprisingly, the match worked best when Sting and Bret were in the ring, but not nearly enough to make it passable. The Warrior “worked” in jeans and never took off his full-length ring jacket, and he appeared to be blown up just standing in the corner and raising his arms to the crowd. Jesus Christ. He finally came in after a Sting hot (read lukewarm) tag, and poor Bret had to stand there, then bump and feed for these horrible Warrior clotheslines. Hogan attacked Warrior from behind, then begged off, and the rest of NWO Hollywood hit the ring for the lame ass DQ ending. Giant headbutted Warrior from behind like Andre. I wonder if anyone told Warrior that Giant was actually Andre’s son just to see if he’d believe it. The stupid mist filled the ring, which was usually the cue for Warrior’s disappearance, but instead, they threw him to the floor to almost no reaction. Sting got the bat and laid out Vincent with a scorpion death drop, then Warrior recovered and “fought” with Hogan to the back with less believability than your average middle schoolers in a hallway between classes. This. Fucking. Sucked. DUD