• OLD SCHOOL HISTORY (March 23, 1998) – WCW MONDAY NITRO
On this day in 1998, Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling aired another LIVE episode of their weekly TV show ‘WCW MONDAY NITRO’.
It was broadcasted from the Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky and featured matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WCW Spring Stampede 1998’ PPV.
The card can be found here:
– Ultimo Dragon vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
– Scott Steiner vs. Wayne Bloom
– Psychosis vs. Lodi
– Sting vs. DDP
– Lex Luger vs. Rick Fuller
– Prince Iaukea vs. Konnan
– Chris Jericho vs. Lenny Lane
– The Giant vs. Kevin Nash
– Chris Benoit vs. Booker T
– Davey Boy Smith vs. Curt Hennig
– Bill Goldberg vs. The Renegade
– Randy Savage vs. Roddy Piper
Also Read: WWE Reportedly Cancelling 2 Title Matches For WrestleMania 35
• Former WWE Champion Recalls Chris Benoit Verbally Slamming Him For Leaving WCW
During a recent appearance on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness podcast, former WWE Champion Rob Van Dam recalled Chris Benoit’s reaction when he left WCW.
Below is what RVD said:
“It was against wrestler protocol as Chris Benoit let me know. So I didn’t even really know this guy, but he was traveling with Maxx Payne I heard they had like a — I don’t know — but, they were getting way more work than I was. Benoit comes up to me and I had just turned 22 by the way.
He comes up to me and he goes, ‘Hey I heard you’re leaving [WCW]’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘Are you f*cking kidding me?! You’re quitting on your own?! You’re on f*cking TV. You know how many of the boys would give their f*cking left nut to be where you’re at?!’ And he had me pinned up against the wall basically, that’s how I felt and I was — my back was against the wall.
He was was just like, ‘I think you’re f*cking stupid! What are you gonna do?! You gonna do the indies?! You’re gonna leave WCW television and go do the f*cking indies?! You’re f*cking stupid if you ask me!’ Then he walked off.
Yeah, I always remember that and then when I left WWE in 2007 for the same reasons, just going with the flow and I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s time to go’ — in the dressing room was Chris Benoit and he said, ‘Hey Rob, I just wanted to let you know a lot of us boys in the dressing room really respect you for leaving.’ I said, ‘Huh?’ He said ‘Yeah, man we just respect you for leaving.’ I said, ‘Well I’m not saying I’ll never be back’ — he said, ‘F*ck that, that doesn’t matter. Because you know when it’s time to go.’
So of course, I said, ‘Hey Chris do you remember back in 1993?’ I told him the story, he didn’t remember it, but it was you know he just said something like brushed it aside like, ‘F*ck it, I didn’t know what I was doing’ or whatever. But, yeah that’s a true story.”
