Jay Leno, Motorcycles and a -2* match: WCW Road Wild 1998 | WON Flashback
August 8 1998 was the date of WCW Road Wild 1998, a PPV event from Sturgis, South Dakota that a unique angle: the “fans” around the ring were all on motorcycles and where in Sturgis for the Sturgis Rally. The first time that World Championship Wrestling tried the concept was in 1996 for Hog Wild, but the ’98 iteration of Road Wild tried to get big mainstream coverage with the main event: DDP and Jay Leno vs Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff.
It was not a well-received show, and our own Dave Meltzer would give a brutal review in that week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, giving Public Enemy (Ted Petty & Mike Durham) vs Disco Inferno (Glen Gilbertti) & Alex Wright a -1* and Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams a -2*
You can find Dave’s review of the matches from WCW Road Wild 1998 in the August 17, 1998 Observer Newsletter, which you can read in full with a subscription).
Dave Meltzer on WCW Road Wild 1998
Here is some of what Dave had to say about Road Wild in 1998:
“Jay Leno wrestled. Sort of. Well, he was in a wrestling match and grabbed one hold and threw two punches and did a double-team clothesline and scored the pin over Eric Bischoff at the end, to apparently prove that he was really the king of late night television. He was terrible athletically, but was kept well hidden and he really didn’t embarrass himself. Actually, the main event at Road Wild, which saw Hulk Hogan and Diamond Dallas Page once again work with non-wrestlers, this time two men who hardly qualify as world-class athletes, but it still blew away their match last month probably because they knew to keep things shorter and simpler and because Hogan and Page worked a lot better this time out. Not that it would qualify as anything even close to a good match, but it wasn’t that bad and the people there live were into it, which is something that can’t be said about just about every match on the show.
“Road Wild is the car wreck of wrestling PPV shows. A yearly disaster waiting to happen, and this year’s version was by far the worst of the three. In fact, had either Hogan had his usual non-working boots on during the main event, or had Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera never taken place, it would have been the single worst PPV show in history. As it was, it has to live with the distinction of being just a really bad show.
“In front of a free largely biker crowd estimated by those live at anywhere from 8,500 to 12,000 (of course exaggerated on the air by Bobby Heenan as 35,000 to 40,000) in the midst of the famed Sturgis Rally, WCW’s attempts at a speedy self-destruction of what was just a few weeks back among the hottest wrestling promotions in history during a period when the industry itself is on fire, was revved up to near warp speed. Everyone ahead of time knows the problems with running the show in Sturgis. For a hot promotion, which WCW still is, you are talking about giving away anywhere from a $200,000 to $350,000 gate away plus another $100,000 or more in merchandise. They did sell $29,639 worth of merchandise at the event. Years back, when WCW wasn’t running profitable arena and merchandise business and it was trying to establish an identity as being something different, the idea of beach shows and location PPVs and Nitros made sense. Nowadays, the company has outgrown that type of thing and the only one that still works is the annual Nitro night club show in Pensacola, FL as part of spring break which has been a big ratings success. You are almost guaranteed poor crowd reactions for free outdoor shows in the heat, and this show, performed in front of a crowd which consists of largely non-wrestling fans, only exacerbates that problem. And for a company working so hard at escaping the stereotype of the redneck Southern toothless wrestling crowd, no show during the year perpetuates that myth of who watches wrestling anymore than this show.
Horrible matches. Mind boggling booking. Horrible crowd reactions. And as bad as it was, it could have been worse. Like originally, the Steve McMichael vs. Brian Adams match was scheduled to go 17:00. Luckily it was cut to 7:00 so the two had only the worst match of the show instead of the worst match perhaps of a lifetime. Yet that match didn’t even stand out, as there were literally six matches out of nine, including the main event and the Battle Royal that was second from the top, that one could make a case for being at least from technical standards, a worst match of the show and several as worst matches of the year candidates.”
Jake is the Head of Audience Development at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012.
He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling as Head of Media as well as working on the social channels of the company.