Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #240 June 19th, 2000 The Opening Word: For the second time in his brief career in WCW Vince Russo, faced with the pressures of his job, packed his bags and went home. How long he'll be gone, or whether he'll be back at all, is anyone's guess. What's clear is that Russo once again chose to leave for reasons that mean very little. Seriously, Russo's reasons for leaving this time are almost inconsequential. Lex Luger, Elizabeth and Kimberly being brought back against his wishes? Standards & Practices censoring his product? Are these really valid reasons for someone to walk off their job? Vince Russo's sum total of wrestling and television experience came working on the job in the WWF. There, although he did rise to the top of his chosen profession, he was still but a part of a larger group of people working to bring the fans their weekly dose of WWF programming. And after doing that for three years or so he suddenly felt he could go to WCW and run the whole show there by himself. What the hell was he thinking?! From day one Vince Russo has been unsuited for the job of running WCW. Even if WCW were set up like the WWF Russo wouldn't have the necessary experience to run a wrestling promotion, deal with the talent, the production people, the networks, etc. But WCW isn't like the WWF, it's part of a larger corporate entity. It also has a complicated backstage political scene, one which doesn't have a counterpart in the WWF because Vince McMahon is the owner and he calls all the shots. Russo's background, to use a regular sports, comparison, is that of an enthusiastic fan who became a sports writer, then got a job as an assistant coach. And now, three years later, Russo thinks he could be the general manager? That's why Russo was such a miserable failure his first three months running WCW. All his excuses aside, Russo simply couldn't do the job, and when asked to relinquish some of his power and work with a committee of people, as he did in the WWF, Russo gave up and went home. If he couldn't play the game by his rules, he wouldn't play at all. A few months later the door was opened for him to return, this time in a partnership with Eric Bischoff. Bischoff would handle those administrative details Russo couldn't, while Russo would be in charge of WCW's creative development. Ideally it would put Russo in a position similar to that in the WWF, where he'd be an idea man, and Bischoff would focus Russo's energies, act as an editor when needed, and make sure only Russo's best ideas saw the light of day on TV. Their first show together quickly established everything that could be right and wrong about the pair. The show, considered by many fans the best WCW had put on in months, was dominated by a storyline in which Russo & Bischoff cast themselves as on-screen villains out to wreck WCW. (One might argue that they succeeded.) While the show was a fresh change of direction from what the company had been doing, and Russo's writing style presented a more energetic product, all the problems which had brought WCW down over the previous year were still there, and the duo's attentions had been divided (after all, how much time can you devote to the product when half the time you're worrying about how to make yourself look good on TV?) It was quickly clear that Eric Bischoff, though he'd speak kindly of Russo in public and offer support where he could, was really distancing himself from Russo and his style. If Russo succeeded Bischoff could easily take credit for letting Russo do what he did best. If Russo failed, Bischoff could claim Russo did only what he wanted, and Bischoff had nothing to do with it. As the months passed tensions between Russo and his superiors increased. TV ratings immediately went up about a half point, then stalled at that level, showing no growth for nearly three months. PPV buyrates continued to drop. Live event attendance was so bad that WCW had to completely scrap their summer house show schedule and start from scratch, moving the shows to towns less-frequented and into smaller arenas. And then the company started to lose sponsors because of Russo's content ... That's when Standards & Practices stepped in. Having given Russo free reign for three months and seeing no results, the network decided to censor some of Russo's more outlandish ideas. Russo, unable to accept criticism from the fans, his co-workers and others in the wrestling business, certainly wasn't going to take the minor censorship well. And when TBS censored dialogue on Thunder that appears regularly on other shows they broadcast, Russo flipped out. As that was going on Bischoff was pushing for Lex Luger and Elizabeth to be brought back. Luger had disagreed with the direction Russo was taking his character, and Elizabeth balked at doing actual wrestling because of her lack of training. WCW sent the two home. Bischoff wanted them back--a move Russo disagreed with. There was also Kimberly, who left the company because of creative differences. Bischoff wanted to try and get her back as well. Russo again disagreed. What exactly happened and was said between the two isn't know by many, but the apparent gist of the situation was that Russo threatened to quit, and went home for a few days to think things over. This week's WCW shows were written late last week by Ed Ferrara, Bill Banks, Terry Taylor and a few others. With Russo's status up in the air he wasn't completely written out of the picture, but the shows would go on without him. If he were to come back he would be written back in with little effort. If not, they'd simply never mention his name again and pick up where he left off. As it stands now, sources like the Daily Lariat, Torch and Wrestling Observer say Russo will meet with WCW later this week to hash out the details of his return--or make his absence more permanent. It would be ironic if, with their hands tied by Russo's absence, the writers decided to put more emphasis on the actual matches and wrestling quality, and the ratings went up. It would certainly be strong ammunition against Russo if he went to Atlanta Wednesday and the company had that to throw in his face. (I'm sure Russo would spin the ratings to say they went up because people were curious to see what was going to happen to *him* following the blow-up last week.) Whatever happens, and even if this situation is some kind of elaborate work to fool the fans (and others in WCW itself), the fact remains that Vince Russo, as gifted and talented as he may be, has been in over his head since before the ink dried on his WCW contract. Maybe he'll come back, and maybe he'll guide WCW to a better product and some respectable level of profitability ... or maybe not. ... Further complicating things is the possible sale of WCW to new owners, which could happen at almost any time. Depending on who you listen to, SFX (a live event promotion company) could buy WCW as soon as this week. Even if that deal never goes through, WCW appears to be on the auction block, and things could get very messy in WCW until that situation is settled. There's also the spectre of a new WCW show on one of the FOX networks, and if that comes about it'll have a huge impact on WCW programming. It's an interesting time to be a WCW fan. Things are a bit exciting, but also very scary. With so much potential change in the works it may be difficult to follow just exactly what is happening. ... Over on that other wrestling show, the WWF finishes up its march to the King of the Ring PPV. Things got interesting over the weekend when Chris Jericho was once again put back into the mix with the McMahon-Helmsley Facgime. On SmackDown! Stephanie McMahon caused Jericho to suffer a humiliating loss to Bull Buchanan. On Sunday Night Heat, Jericho struck back by attacking Triple H during a match the Game was having with Hardcore Holly. We'll see this week if that interaction continues, teasing a feud between the two sometime after the PPV. The Kurt Angle-Stephanie McMahon storyline seems to be coming to a boil as well. On the Observer Live show Angle said he was very excited about the WWF's plans for him at and after the PPV. Perhaps Angle will win the KotR, and he'll feud with Triple H. (Of course that would mean one of them would have to turn babyface, right? Or maybe not.) With the Rock needing to find a new opponent after the PPV, the likeliest candidate seems to be the Undertaker. On SmackDown! last week they announced that the man who pins any member of the MHF would get a shot at the title at the next PPV, meaning the Rock, Undertaker and Kane would all be looking out for themselves, hoping to score the pinfall. If any member of the Faction scores the pin, then Triple H will defend the belt against the winner of the King of the Ring Tournament. The likeliest outcome of all this is that the Faction will indeed win that match at the PPV. The Rock will probably feud with the Undertaker, while Triple H will go on to face either Jericho or Angle. Or maybe not. The WWF has three or four major directions they could take these storylines, and we won't know which it is until the PPV is done. This week's shows will continue the hype for the PPV, dropping hints and teasing us with leads which may or may not predict the outcome. ... Shaft? John Shaft? Oh man, that was cheesy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Billings, Montana. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson & Mark Madden. HOUR ONE: - Clips from Thunder kick off the show. - A white limo pulls up carrying Ernest Miller. Jeff Jarrett asks where Vince Russo is. Miller says Russo's hurt. Mike Awesome looks on. - Horace is sitting in the ring with a baseball bat. After the opening pyro Horace takes a mic and bashes Goldberg for injuring Hogan last week. He says he's going to stand up for family honor and kick Goldberg's ass. Commissioner Miller comes out, and says Horace doesn't want any piece of Goldberg. He then jaws with the crowd and lays out some stipulations for matches tonight, namely that no one can run in. Kevin Nash comes out (with Scott Steiner and whichever Freak it was that wasn't fired) to browbeat the Cat into signing some matches. Steiner says he's looking for Eric Bischoff. Miller says Steiner can face Jeff Jarrett for the title tonight. Nash demands a match with Miller, for Scott Hall's contract (which Russo tore up on Thunder last week). Scott Hudson's wearing a shirt this week, thank god. Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak order a guy in the production truck to play a tape of them arriving. Last week the two were attacked by Tank Abbott & Rick Steiner when they were fooled into thinking a tape of the two arriving was live. The idea here is that Stasiak & Palumbo will do the same to Abbott & Steiner to fool them. It doesn't work, as Abbott & Steiner are waiting to jump them as they exit the production truck. - Jarrett chews out Miller for booking the match with Steiner. What's the point of Jarrett being a champ if he's going to complain about EVERY match he's in, no matter how tough or wimpy his opponents are? Miller then sends the Colorado Kid off to find 3 Count. The Cat then looks for his own contract so he can give himself a raise. - 3 Count comes out. Mark Madden says Shane Helms is the real "Slim Shady". So what, he's going to get arrested on weapons charges? The Jung Dragons run in before 3 Count can do their dance. 3 COUNT vs. THE JUNG DRAGONS Ask WCW fans which match they want to see and many of them will say this one (even though we've seen it a few times already). A double moonsault to the floor by the Dragons draws a big pop. This is all quick tags and high spots. Monster "3 Count sucks!" chant. One of the Dragons does some hokey karate moves. 3 Count wins when they pin Jamie-san with a triple face-smasher to the mat. Only about three minutes, but some good stuff anyway. Scott Hudson shoots when he says who knows when these guys will be on Nitro again. Lance Storm then runs in and lays 3 Count out. The announcers do the usual "he doesn't work for this company!" bit. Remember when they used to hype new guys coming in by showing promos and making us look forward to their arrival? The crowd here did seem to know who Storm was, though, which is a good sign. If you blinked, though, you missed him, he was in and out that quickly. David Flair is looking for Daffney. Goldberg has arrived, Notice how he's wearing more black now, meaning he's EVIL. - Horace tells Mike Tenay he'd take a bullet for Hulk Hogan. Is that what he was doing when he joined the New Blood for money and a hot babe? Then Horace lost the babe to Hogan, and he's now back on Hogan's side? - BIG VITO vs. JOHNNY THE BULL The two brawl their way to the back, hitting each other with stuff and throwing each other at things. The two then climb a set up bleachers, like a scaffold, and Vito does a nice swinging DDT type move off the steps, through a table. 1 ... 2 ... 3. Miller finds Scott Hall's contract (we can tell because it has a big "SCOTT HALL" on it). Didn't Russo tear that up, and why would Hall's contract have the new WCW logo on it, which was created three years after Hall first signed with WCW? Terry Funk helps carry Johnny the Bull away. Lt. Loco is jumped by Rey Mysterio & the Artist. G.I. Bro makes the save. Hmmm ... tag team match? - G.I. Bro pumps the MIA up, telling them to get serious. "Boring!" chants can be heard coming from the crowd. Captain Rection is promoted to the rank of General. - Diamond Dallas Kanyon hits the ring. Kanyon's pretty good at this, but didn't we see it last week? He rants about his book "Positively Kanyon" again. A crowd chant is muted. (Oh no, Ferrara, Banks and Taylor are going to walk out!) G.I. Bro runs in, does like two punches and Madden says he's never seen him fired up like that. "Spinnerooni, spinnerooni, oh my lord spinnerooni!" Is this a match? Kanyon crawls away down the aisle. Bro rips off his cammo pants. Is he Booker T. again? David Flair finds Daffney, but she says she has nothing to say and slaps him. Horace and Goldberg are warming up. - HORACE HOGAN vs. GOLDBERG Nash, Steiner and Midajah are watching in the back. Zero heel heat for Goldberg from the crowd, but they pop when he does big moves. Horace gets in a brief flurry of offense with some chair shots, but back in the ring ... spear, Jackhammer, pin. Madden points out the fans cheering Goldberg. This heel turn can't last too long, the fans just don't want to boo him. Goldberg sort of beats on Horace afterwards to establish he's a bad guy, but the crowd doesn't care. Nash tells Steiner to not run in. Miller is on his way out. HOUR TWO: - Miller handcuffs a briefcase to Madden which contains Scott Hall's contract. Miller keeps the key around his neck. ERNEST "THE CAT" MILLER vs. KEVIN NASH Knee to midsection, catch breath, ignore pain in knees, repeat. Miller tries to waive his "no run in" stipulation, but Nash keeps him from getting it out on the mic. Miller gets in some offense with a pair of low blows and some kicks. Nash wipes him out with a clothesline, then wins with the Jackknife. He then opens the briefcase, but there's just pictures of Miller in it. Goldberg appears on the Turner-Tron and chews up Hall's contract. Goldberg vs. Nash at the Bash at the Beach, with Hall's contract on the line. Prediction: Nash actually wins, but Hall turns on him. - Mike Tenay interviews Nash and Steiner. The Bash is on Nash's birthday, and he has a home in that town. Scott Hall lives 40 minutes away. Sure sounds like Hall will be back at the PPV. - LT. LOCO vs. THE ARTIST vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. Oh god, Juventud Guerrera's out to do color commentary. Once again there's about a dozen people at ringside (the Filthy Animals and Misfits in Action) and they all seem to get involved. Konnan confirms in his promo that G.I. Bro is no more. Disco Inferno gives us a "hoody hoo!" Juvi calls the MIA the "New Jabroni Order". The MIA theme music is a really bad rip-off of that "War" song. All this pre-match stuff last twice as long as the match itself, which Loco wins with a Tornado DDT, pinning the Artist. He retains the Cruiserweight Title. The women (Tygress, Paisley and Major Guns) tease a cat fight. No sign of the old man this week, making this the GREATEST NITRO EVER! David Flair tries to woo Daffney back by giving her some black roses and singing a song. It seems to work. I can live with this new non-screechy Daffney. (Funny how the WWF does an angle similar to this just a few minutes later.) - Flair and Daffney split up, Daffney having forgotten something. David keeps walking, and runs into Miss Hancock. They start kissing. Daffney, happening upon a monitor, sees them kissing and cries. Shouldn't she be seeing a picture of herself? And yes, Madden lets fly with the cluelessly inappropriate "snootchie bootchies!" - SHAWN STASIAK/CHUCK PALUMBO vs. TANK ABBOTT/RICK STEINER Schiavone points out that Stasiak & Palumbo have yet to win a match, yet they're Tag Team Champions. Abbott spots a "fan" heckling him and chases him out of the arena. That leaves Rick alone, and he takes a shot from the Lex Flexer, and Palumbo scores the pin--the first win for their team. Dale Torborg talks to his sweetheart Asya about the Demon, as if it's some kind of spirit that takes over his mind and body. Two months of therapy seemed to get rid of it, only to have it come back because of Vampiro. He asks her to hide the Demon outfit. Vampiro is shown watching on a monitor. This is one of the most elaborately stupid angles I've ever seen. - Vampiro makes his way out. They show clips from Thunder of the really lame bit where Demon "trapped" Vampiro in his coffin. (Too bad they didn't show that really bad fireball Demon blew at him.) Vamp says he though he shared a lot in common with the Demon. He calls Torborg and Asya out. Vampiro tells them to cut off the "God of War" song because that's not who Torborg is. He says we should respect Torborg's wish to separate himself from the Demon. He then says something about loss, and the lights go out, and there's a big BOOM! When they come back on Asya has "mysteriously" disappeared. Torborg charges the ring, but the lights go out again and Vampiro disappears. On the Titan-Tron we see he has teleported himself out to a hearse in the parking lot, and he kidnaps Asya. Sweet sassy molassy, I hate this supernatural crap! Bam Bam Bigelow, Shane Douglas and Chris Candido of the Triple Threat are on the move. So are Buff Bagwell and Kronic. - KRONIC/BUFF BAGWELL vs. THE TRIPLE THREAT Douglas serves notice, yet again, and says they're going after the Tag Team Titles. (So why not go after Stasiak & Palumbo--they're wimps?) Buff whips up a big "Franchise sucks!" chant. The first five minutes or so of this match is just the heels tagging in and out, pounding on Bagwell. Buff rallies back with a jumping DDT, credited as a "Kenta Kobashi DDT" by Scott Hudson. Schiavone says in Japan they call it a "Buff DDT". Buff tags one of Kronic in, but for some reason both are able to be in the ring. Cue the High Times, and Madden's other weekly pot reference. Candido comes in and hits Bryan Clarke with a stick or something, but Clarke no-sells it. They chase Candido from the ring as Douglas, he just disappears. Bagwell goes for the Buff Blockbuster, but Bigelow headbutts him in the gut. So Bagwell does another Blockbuster and gets the pin. Douglas then reappears and nails Bagwell with a Pittsburgh Plunge. Kronic run back in. I didn't know you could do a run-in to a match you're already in? I've seen worse matches, and the crowd was really into this one. - SCOTT STEINER vs. JEFF JARRETT This is a pretty long match, especially by WCW standards (almost ten minutes). The Cat sits in on commentary. Mike Awesome is the referee. Midajah jumps on Jarrett's back at one point. Very hot crowd, which is why WCW went off the usual circuit to Billings. Steiner gets Jarrett in the Recliner, at which point Miller oprders the hold to be broken (he's ruled the Recliner is illegal). So Awesome hits Steiner with a chair, and helps Jarrett stomp on him. I've never understood that--if you're going to cheat, why not just cheat from the start? Scott slaps Awesome in the Steiner Recliner. Jarrett nails Steiner with a guitar and covers for the pin. They leave, and Ernest Miller decides to beat up on Steiner. Bad move--Steiner comes to and belly-to-belly suplexes him, then puts him in the Recliner. Steiner is then taken out by a Goldberg spear. Trash is thrown into ring. Kevin Nash comes out as Goldberg bails. Even with Russo gone they couldn't give the fans a show finish they could cheer about, could they? Best Nitro main event in ages, though. - This Wednesday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I think the wrestling was a bit better this week, but they sure crammed a lot of it into the second hour (after having barely any in the first), and all the good matches were short and the bad matches long. Russo's absence was an improvement, but not much else about the show was an improvement in and of itself. Too much Crash TV, and too much Ernest Miller. There actually was a positive tonight, and that is that the show did focus a lot on building to the PPV. I thought that aspect of the show came off better any of the last several PPV's (going back to even before Russo came back). Nash vs. Goldberg, as awful as Nash is, is a match people may pay to see. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Nashville, Tennessee. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler. WWF RAW: - KURT ANGLE vs. BUH-BUH RAY DUDLEY Big pop/boo for Angle, who tells the Nashville fans to give themselves a hand for being the most genuine rednecks he's ever seen. On Buh-Buh's penchant for using tables, Angle says the people of Nashville use tables to stack their welfare checks .. and inbreed. Clip from SmackDown! of the Dudley Boyz being trapped in a dumpster by D-X and pushed off the stage. I liked that angle ... when I saw it first done with Cactus Jack and Terry Funk! Buh-Buh comes out selling sore right arm/shoulder/ribs. Nice match. Buh-Buh yells "it's true, it's true!" before suplexing Angle off the turnbuckles. He then tries a Buh-Buh Cutter, but Angle escapes and plants Buh-Buh with the Olympic Slam. Angle advances to the Final 8 in the tournament. The McMahon-Helmlsey Faction (minus Triple H) celebrates Angle's win. Vince McMahon wishes X-Pac luck in his match against Chris Benoit. X-Pac says he doesn't need it, he has Benoit's number. Vince then leaves the room, only to be accosted by the Stooges. Gerald Brisco & Pat Patterson have a fax for McMahon from Vince's wife, Linda. - Triple H leads members of the Faction to the ring. Triple H says, rather sarcastically, that he's glad he's surrounded by family and friends he can trust. He chews out Patterson & Brisco for botching the photo of Kane last week. He says it's okay, though, because everything worked out for the Faction last Thursday. A turn by Shane McMahon on the mic draws the expected "Shane's a pussy!" chant. Vince McMahon is distracted during all this reading Linda's fax. Vince eventually takes over, saying Linda has questioned the size of the Faction's testicles and his grapefruits. Linda has ordered that at the King of the Ring, if anyone on the Rock's team scores the pinfall, they win the WWF Championship! But to earn that right, the Rock, Undertaker and Kane must all win their matches tonight. Vince orders Kane to face the Hardy Boyz, the Undertaker squares off against Bull Buchanan & the Big Bossman (Vince screws up and says "Bradshaw"), and the Rock gets T & A. Triple H, suffering from a case of Jarrett-itis, is livid. Vince vows there will be no Faction interference in any of those matches. - Triple H is still bitching about putting the belt on the line. Why? All it does is make the Rock, Undertaker & Kane each want the pin even more, further dividing them. - X-PAC (w/ Tori) vs. CHRIS BENOIT Okay match, but nothing special. Tori tries to interfere but gets bumped off the apron. A Crippler Crossface comes up short when X-Pac reaches the ropes. Benoit then goes for the headbutt off the top, but misses. The Dudleyz run out, briefly distracting X-Pac. He then goes to set up the X-Factor, but Benoit launches X-Pac straight up, then slaps on the Crippler Crossface for the win. The Dudleyz stomp on X-Pac until Road Dogg makes the save. Buh-Buh Ray is held down so Tori can deliver some meaty kicks to the ribs. Win or lose this Sunday, you know Tori's getting wood. (I've seen some on the Net act like that's a bad thing. Why? Who cares if the Dudleyz win if they put Tori through the table? That's what the fans want to see anyway.) Eddie Guerrero and Chyna are on their way out, Chyna all serious and Eddie not. - X-Pac & Road Dogg demand the Dudleyz at the PPV. Vince makes it a handicap match, with Tori in the match as well. It'll be a "Tables & Dumpster Match". Triple H applauds the decision, just dripping sarcasm. - Clip of Chyna on the "Tonight Show". Hey, there's that Shaft guy again! - CHYNA vs. EDDIE GUERRERO To quote the King, Chyna plays Eddie like a violin, acting all hurt when Eddie goes on the offense. Chyna gives him a cheap shot, the handspring elbow (well, back), and a huge press slam. Off the ropes Chyna can't bring herself to deliver a low blow. Eddie then begs for her to forgive him, only to roll her up for the pin. She pouts and walks out. Maybe it's just deja vu, but didn't these two do a match almost exactly like this back before Chyna fell for Eddie's Latino Heat? Edge asks Christian if he's going to come out with him? Christian says he's got a meeting with a guy who knows a guy who is the cousin of the editor of "Tiger Beat" magazine. "You do what you have to do. That cover is *so* ours!" - Eddie begs Chyna to forgive him. Chyna cries because she really wanted to be Queen of the Ring. Eddie gives her a puppy, and you can hear the crowd go "awwwww!" *Sniff!* - EDGE vs. CHRIS JERICHO Some crowd-wooing chops start the match off. Down on the floor Edge spears Jericho. Back in the ring Edge dominates. Jericho goes for a Lionsault, but Edge gets his knees up. Some more back-and-forth, with some near falls, and Y2J eventually slaps on the Walls of Jericho for the win. Ross and Lawler are really playing up the history of the King of the Ring, with Ross mentioning Steve Austin and Lawler talking about crowning Bret Hart. Triple H tells the Bossman & Buchanan that he's counting on them to take out the Undertaker. Meanwhile, the Undertaker lights up his hog. WWF WAR ZONE: - Several Tennessee Titans are in the crowd. - THE UNDERTAKER vs. THE BIG BOSSMAN/BULL BUCHANAN How long until the Undertaker gets a new theme song, so we don't have to see that Kid Rock album cover anymore? Of course the Bossman and Buchanan aren't on the same page of the playbook. The Undertaker goes for a Tombstone, but lets Buchanan slide out when he sees the Bossman coming in with the nightstick. The Bossman sort of shrugs and walks out, leaving Buchanan alone to go for a chokeslam ride. The Undertaker really did come back too soon--he's barely more mobile than Kevin Nash. Shane isn't too excited about the Faction's latest plan. Rikishi and Scotty Too Hotty wish each other luck in their match. Rikishi them bumps him out of the picture with his ass. - Clip of Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura at the WWF show at the Target Center this past Saturday. I wish I'd gone to that show. Ventura, when asked what WWF superstar he'd choose as a presidential running mate, says Chyna. - RIKISHI PHATU vs. SCOTTY TOO HOTTY (w/ Grandmaster Sexay) The fans go nuts when Scotty does the Worm. Rikishi kicks out, sending Scotty all the way to the floor. Back in he does the butt splash. He then climbs to the second turnbuckle and delivers the Banzai Drop, followed by the pin. Val Venis then runs in and lays everyone out. The Undertaker tells Kane to show no mercy against the Hardyz. He suggests Kane pretend it's the Undertaker he's beating up in there. - Clip of Shawn Michaels throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game. - KANE vs. THE HARDY BOYZ Some cool doubleteam and high risk moves by the Hardyz, including: a crossbody to take Kane over the top rope, the backflip-rebound DDT to the floor by Matt, and a running dive off the guard barrier by Jeff (which meets a chokeslam). They're down on the floor forever without getting counted out. Kane avoids both the Twist of Fate *and* the Swanton Bomb. Kane botches a tilt-a-whirl slam. Jeff then goes up top for a twisting something-or-other, but completely misses (I think Kane was supposed to shove Matt in the way, but Jeff botched it anyway by slipping and hitting the mat). Kane then drops Matt with a chokeslam and covers for the pin. Okay, but sloppy match. Triple H rubs the loss in Vince's face, and Stephanie and Shane have to step between the two to keep them apart. - The WWF race team won, or something. - Triple H is steaming about Vince. - Clips from SmackDown! of Crash Holly hooking up with Shaft. Geez, who's next, Truck Turner? Slaughter? Black Samson? Superfly? - CRASH HOLLY vs. HARDCORE HOLLY Holly and Holly go through the motions of a match until Patterson & Brisco come out, Patterson carrying Eddie Guerrero's iron bar. Patterson taunts Hardcore. Brisco, meanwhile, comes in the other side and whacks Crash with a 2X4, drawing a DQ. A second ref came out with them, and as Patterson whacks Hardcore with the bar, Brisco hits Crash again and covers for the pin, regaining the Hardcore Title. Good grief, that killed the crowd. - Brisco, Patterson & the referee celebrate with glasses of champagne. God, this segment last forever! It's all a ruse, as Patterson knocks Brisco over the head and pins him, winning the Hardcore belt. - Triple H stresses how important it is that T & A beat the Rock. Test doesn't look to happy to be working for Stephanie again, and Albert has to hold him back from doing something stupid. - Our first look at the Rock backstage sends the crowd into a frenzy. - THE ROCK vs. T & A (w/ Trish Stratus) T & A doubleteam, the Rock rallies back, Trish interferes, etc. Test takes the Rock bottom, but Albert comes in with the ring bell as Trish distracts the ref. Pin cover, but the Rock kicks out. He then puts Test away with the People's Elbow. Backstage Triple H goes ballistic. Vince tells him to wait until SmackDown! The Rock climbs the turnbuckles and smells what the crowd is cooking, and we're outta here. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I know there's "giving the rub" and all that, but are T & A really main event material? I guess this was all about the Rock winning, as the whole show was about the babyfaces coming out on top in nearly every match. That, more than anything, probably signals that the finish of the PPV will be something of a downer. Last week I said they sent the crowd home happy, and I saw some seem to disagree with that. I guess they place more weight on the heels winning the matches during the show, rather than the show ending with the very fan-friendly finish of Triple H being put through a table. I doubt most fans sit there with a chart keeping track of undercard finishes and overanalyzing it like us Internet geeks. They only come away with an overall impression of the show, and last Monday the overall impression was that Vince McMahon's big plan had been foiled, and Triple H went through a table. It was a happy ending, something WCW hasn't done on a show in weeks. SmackDown! last week, on the other hand, was a downer. The Undertaker was arrested, the Dudleyz were dumpstered of the stage, Chris Jericho got screwed, and the Rock and Kane were laid out by D-X. Now this week they brought the fans back up with a show with lots of babyface wins and a happy ending. I liked the first hour better than the second. Lots of superb wrestling and a strong emphasis on the KotR Tournament actually meaning something. The second hour cooled down, with the top three babyfaces winning against impossible odds, and the whole Crash Holly/Patterson/Brisco deal coming off really bad. Here's the King of the Ring Final 8: Bull Buchanan, Val Venis, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Rikishi, and Crash Holly. One of those names does not belong with the others. Otherwise it's a decent looking tournament field. I get the impression that the WWF *may* switch around the match-ups from the brackets they showed last Thursday. Angle, Jericho and Benoit are still the favorites, but I can't make a call myself until I see the final brackets. I'll guess Angle, but I reserve the right to change that prediction after SmackDown! In other PPV action the Dudleyz face D-X & Tori in the "Tables & Dumpster Match", and the Rock, Undertaker & Kane face Triple H, Vince & Shane McMahon. One or two more matches may be added, though the above already gives us nine (seven will be needed for the tournament itself). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: The WWF-USA court case ended last week. Unless the two sides settle, the judge will make his decision sometime in the next two weeks. The smart money says the WWF's got it locked, and will be on TNN starting this fall. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 2000 by John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those of "USLink". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week.