Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno vs Hollywood Hogan & Eric Bischoff (WCW, 8-8-1998)

WCW Road Wild, Sturgis, SD

A request! WCW’s third of four yearly events in Sturgis, Eric Bischoff’s annual jerk sesh because he loves motorcycles, and some people criticize that because they sacrificed live gate money and whatever, but to me? Fuck it. What if they’d done a live gate yearly in August instead. Would the company have survived in 2001? No. So who gives a shit? I didn’t work for Turner.

As a fan, the only criticism would come from the fact that largely the crowds did not care about wrestling, but honestly, whatever. It’s funny to watch Benoit and Malenko work an excellent technical match for half an hour while a bunch of drunk bikers become increasingly bored by their star ratings display.

I was 16 for this one, though, and I did think it was starting to wear thin already, and also wearing thin was WCW’s horniness for big celebrity things. Man, Dennis Rodman was one thing, as was Karl Malone, two professional athletes in their peak marketing periods, but Jay Leno?

Still, it’s fucking insane that WCW was running a cross-promotion with “The Tonight Show.” Actually interested to see how I look at this now with truly adult eyes, when I’m far more open to dumb shit done well, and also genuinely can’t stand Jay Leno instead of just thinking he’s a dork who isn’t as good as Letterman or Conan.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Ric Flair vs Eric Bischoff (WCW, 12-27-1998)

WCW Starrcade, Washington, DC

This was to be the payoff for a personal, worked-shoot sort of feud between Flair and Bischoff. There’s a whole ordeal from 1998 with this, where Flair got suspended or whatever from WCW in real life for missing a date and going to his kid’s wrestling tournament. He was out from April into September, when he came back in Greenville, SC, on Nitro for one of the great Monday night wrestling moments ever — honestly, maybe still the very greatest.