#5. Ray Traylor | January 8th, 1998
On January 8th 1998, WCW aired the first episode of new B-show Thunder.
The first match saw an upset as “Gentleman” Chris Adams beat Randy Savage, although this was later overturned by President J.J. Dillon after interference by Lex Luger. A match result that did stick however was Ray Traylor scoring a win over Scott Hall.
Always a threat but never a top-level star, Ray Traylor had a hard time of it in WCW. Having to alter from his Big Boss Man character, he became The Boss but had to become The Guardian Angel due to legal reasons but this did not still so he became Big Bubba Rogers and then reverted to his birth name.
Hall however had been a huge presence on WCW TV as a founding nWo member. Although Traylor, under his Big Bubba Rogers name, was briefly in the nWo, he would be kicked out and sought revenge on his ex-stablemates.
In the match, Traylor won in just over four minutes, even managing to kick out of a well-placed title shot with one of his World Tag Team title belts. Bossman pinned after his patented Big Boss Slam, following a distraction from Larry Zbyszko which took the former Razor Ramon off of his A-game.
Whilst not exactly an upset, it was a surprise result that helped built the Zbyszko/Ramon feud. Traylor did little else of note in his WCW run with this being one of his most stand-out moments.
#4. Konnan | September 13th, 1998
Fall Brawl 1998 was a pretty dismal PPV and what certainly did not help was a match featuring the ‘Last Call Scott Hall’ gimmick.
By Fall Brawl, Hall had legitimately fallen on hard times. Having just been divorced, Hall developed a real-life drinking problem, exploited on-screen by WCW.
Konnan was a member of the nWo at this point, in the Wolfpack incarnation of the group whilst Hall was in the Hollywood iteration. This meant Konnan was associated with the likes of Kevin Nash, Sting, and Lex Luger whilst Hall was in and around Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and The Giant, amongst others.
The match was in poor taste, only making Hall’s drinking more significant.
That said, Konnan did force Hall into submission with the Tequila Sunrise in a clean finish. Not Scott Hall’s finest moment but one that helped solidify Konnan, etching a big win in the quiver of the luchador.
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