Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #274 February 12th, 2001 The Opening Word: What a disastrous weekend for the XFL. First they had a Saturday night game which, despite positive reviews, was overall pretty bad, plagued by technical and other unforseen difficulties. The lowlights included: a terrible game-opening promo cut by the Rock; a crowd of 35,000 in a stadium which seats 100,000; a wrestling-like angle involving a helicopter and a pregnant quarterback's wife; a power outage which caused them to go to the backup game for nearly a half hour; another poor halftime presentation; and a grisly injury which halted the game for several minutes in the third quarter. The only positive of the game was the finish, which saw the home team Los Angeles Xtreme come back in double overtime and win 39-32. If the WWF didn't sense trouble that night, they had it waved in their face Sunday when the overnight ratings came in. Turns out the game attracted barely HALF the viewers the first Saturday game did. Things didn't get any better when the Sunday UPN and TNN games failed to attract enough viewers for the XFL to reach its target audience total for the week (a total the Saturday game practically hit by itself the week before). Obviously a lot of things went into the ratings freefall. Week one turned off a lot of regular football fans with its poor gameplay. Wrestling fans, meanwhile, were apparently not impressed enough to come back for a second try. And the game itself didn't help things. I can't imagine how many non-wrestling viewers were turned off by that Rock promo at the start of the game. Then the power outage, and the game itself looking like a minor blowout until late in the fourth quarter. What really turned me off was the production quality. Bad camera angles, mics cutting out (or being deliberately muted because of profanity), that kind of stuff. After an hour I gave up, unable to get into the game. The first week I watched the whole game, highly entertained. This time I went channel surfing during the lulls, of which there were many. This coming weekend is going to be crucial to the success of the league. Will they buckle down and do their best to offer a smooth, polished product; or will Vince fall back on what he knows and try to spice the game up with more T&A and WWF theatrics? I'm afraid we know what the answer to that probably is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours. Location: Biloxi, Mississippi. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone & Scott Hudson. HOUR ONE: - DUSTIN RHODES vs. RICK STEINER No entrances, no nothing--the show starts with the match in progress. Dustin, wearing a plain black singlet it looks like he borrowed from Steiner, knocks the U.S. Champion to the floor. Here comes Ric Flair, escorted by Mike Sanders, Animal and security. Flair says Rhodes doesn't and never will work in WCW, and orders security to take him out. If Dustin touches anyone Flair will sue him. The Nature Boy enters the ring and rants about ruling WCW. The Cat and (the mysteriously not-fired) Miss Jones join the party. Flair cuts him off before he can say much and announces the Cat will be wrestling Lance Storm tonight (shown on the big screen), with the commissionership of WCW on the line. Mike Sanders will be the referee, just to keep things fair. - WCW Spring Breakout in two weeks in New Orleans. In another of those charming scheduling goofs WCW is famous for, they've booked this show during Mardi Gras. - A week after the fact, Ric Flair explains to Chavo Guerrero that the thing with "El Nino" came about because Rey Mysterio got wind of Flair's plans and sabotaged them. Flair promises Chavo a shot at revenge. - THE CAT (w/ Miss Jones) vs. LANCE STORM Barely a match. The Cat hits Sanders before the match. Then Sanders hits the Cat. A few moves later Storm wrenches the Cat's leg, and Sanders calls for the bell. New WCW commissioner. Flair leads the Magnificent Seven to the ring, intent on kicking the Cat's ass. Kevin Nash suddenly appears on the screen, and says Flair forgot something. Pan over to David Flair, tied up, gagged and beaten. Nash orders Flair to stay away from the Cat. He also orders Flair to give Dustin another shot at Rick Steiner, and if he wins he's on the WCW roster. Also if Dustin wins, Nash gets a World Title shot tonight at Scott Steiner. It's funny to watch Nash to try be the laid-back Cool Guy and fired-up Force To Be Reckoned With at the same time. - Flair, during the break, chewed out Sanders, telling him to find Dustin. - Totally Buffed try to recruit Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire onto the team. - Sanders finds Dustin. Rhodes tells Sanders to tell Flair it'll be a cold day in hell before he helps him. - LASH LEROUX vs. YANG What, a match? Can't we have four or five more Ric Flair skits instead? Slow, simple match to start, mostly mat wrestling with a few highspots thrown in. Lash then goes on a lengthy streak of offense. He hits a powerbomb, and a fireman's-carry-into-a-head-crusher-kinda-thing. Lash wastes time posing, and by the time he covers Yang kicks out. More covers and kickouts follow, with Yang eventually completing the comeback with a pin off a corkscrew something-or-other off the top. Good match, likely to be elevated to Match of the Year status by WCW fans online. Yang qualifies for a six-man cruiserweight match at the PPV. Ah, here's another Flair skit. Flair tells Sanders if he doesn't sign Dustin then Sanders has to face Scott Steiner tonight. Sanders lies and says it's being worked on. - Sanders tells Dustin he can have anything he wants if he'll do the match. Dustin says he'll do it on the condition that if he wins, he gets a shot at Rick Steiner again at the PPV for the U.S. Title. Wouldn't asking for THIS match to be for the title make more sense? - Mean Gene interviews Shawn Stasiak. - Diamond Dallas Page tries to cheer the Cat up. - Animal chokes Sanders, Flair telling him to say he's signed Flair. Sanders says it's done. Flair then asks Animal to be his insurance policy tonight. - Video package of the Steiner brothers. - DUSTIN RHODES vs. RICK STEINER Do I even need to bother with commentary? With no title on the line, Dustin being added to the roster if he wins, and tonight's main event being made hanging on the line, what are the odds of Dustin losing here? Uh-oh ... ref bump. Both Dustin and Rick cover for pins, so they can each say to themselves they really won the match, but there's no ref to count for either. Shane Douglas then comes out (blindsiding Animal, who himself comes out moments before). Douglas hits Rick with his cast. Dustin then hits a DDT and covers for the pin. Animal And Steiner regroup to beat up on Douglas, Pilmanizing his good arm with a chair. Dustin makes the save. Even seeing a replay on a monitor, Scott Steiner is pissed with Flair for being put in a match with Nash. HOUR TWO: - KIDMAN vs. ELIX SKIPPER The battle of Guys With Terrible Entrance Music. This is one of those matches where you don't realize it's good until about five minutes in. Until then you're waiting for WCW to screw it up. Kidman wins with a reversal sequence that leads to the Kid Krusher. Maybe the best wrestling match on either show tonight, which is a little like going to a bad picnic and picking which food makes you the least sick. - Mean Gene interviews Hugh Morrus, who challenges Chavo and the Wall to a tag match against himself and Rey Mysterio on Thunder. - Scott Steiner beats up a random nobody backstage. - Flair tells his wife Beth (on the phone) that David will be okay. - Video package recapping the DDP/Kanyon feud. The Good: that they did a recap at all. The Bad: being forced to remind fans what little sense Kanyon's turn on DDP made. - CHUCK PALUMBO vs. SHAWN STASIAK There's a time for longer matches, and a time to keep them short. This one goes long, cooling off what had been a pretty hot crowd up to this point. Has Shawn Michaels been out of wrestling long enough for Palumbo to steal his superkick? Stasiak wins with a handful of tights--his second attempt at it, as both wrestlers and the ref blow the first try. I'll predict a 1.8 rating for this quarter. - Diamond Dallas Page comes out. He talks about Kanyon imitating him and stealing his moves. Jeff Jarrett comes out on the stage. A challenge is made. Kanyon then sneaks in through the crowd, but DDP is able to handle him. Jarrett then comes in and smashes a guitar over DDP's head. So is DDP feuding with Kanyon or Jarrett? Scott Steiner is still looking for Nash, hoping to rescue David Flair so he won't have to go through with the match. Why is Steiner even concerned? Isn't he a monster? Haven't he, Flair, and the rest of the Magnificent Seven handled Nash with ease the last several weeks? - Nash brings David to the ring. Flair comes out and begs for his son to be released. Nash powerbombs him, then backs off so security can drag David out. KEVIN NASH vs. SCOTT STEINER (w/ Midajah) Feels like we've gotten this match every week for a few months now. Flair gets David stowed away in his limo, then orders his guys to go kill Nash. They head that way, only to be cut off by Dustin Rhodes, Bryan Adams of Kronik, and the Cat. Of course Nash looks like he's about to win the match, but Flair manages to get into the ring. The ref calls for a DQ. Nash then gets to beat up Flair some more (like Flair wasn't humiliated enough--again--this week). Steiner grabs his pipe from Midajah and wails on Nash. Another depressing Nitro finish. - This Wednesday: Hugh Morrus & Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero & the Wall. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Only five matches this week, though it seemed less, and would have been even worse if most of them weren't a few minutes longer than usual. At least Flair got to keep his pants on this week. This was a one-storyline show: a storyline we've seen before, the effectiveness of which was diminished here because WCW continues to overuse Ric Flair. They shouldn't be cutting to him so many times in the back, especially as part of lesser storylines. I realize that Flair's constant dumping on Sanders is going to lead to a Sanders face turn and match with Flair, but that's not a storyline they need to be doing right now. Flair's playing Vince McMahon right now. Vince can get away with being involved in multiple storylines, because his character in the WWF is established. Flair can't. They need to focus on him being the evil figurehead of WCW, not a guy arguing with Sanders and booking matches for Chavo Guerrero. Those lesser angles are what Sanders is supposed to be doing as Flair's protege. Word is that Time Warner won't allow a full WCW shutdown. They supposedly have already given the ad time away to disappointed sponsors, to make up for WCW's sagging ratings. WCW needs to deliver product for TBS and TNT. Unless they can get away with several weeks of "Best Of" type shows, they won't be able to go dark and relaunch the company. That means whatever changes Eric Bischoff and Fusient have in mind for WCW will have to be done gradually. Right now it looks like they're going to do a big angle at the March PPV, with the new direction of the company being launched the following night. The timing of whatever they do is being dictated by the progress being made in the sale of the company. WCW and Fusient had hoped to have things wrapped up by the end of February, but it looks like it may drag on beyond that. There are a million details to be worked out, and it looks like it won't be finalized until later rather than sooner. What that means for us fans is that we can look forward to at least another month of these stuck-in-limbo shows. Yay. Here's the card for SuperBrawl Revenge: * Scott Steiner vs. Kevin Nash. World Title Match. * Rick Steiner vs. Dustin Rhodes. United States Title Match. * Palumbo & O'Haire vs. Stasiak & Jindrak. Tag Team Title Match. * Chavo Guerrero, Jr. vs. Rey Mysterio, Jr. Cruiserweight Title Match. * Six-Man/Four Corners Cruiserweight Match. I'm lost trying to figure out the rest of the card for the show. Is DDP wrestling Kanyon, or Jarrett? Aren't Buff Bagwell and/or Lex Luger wrestling somebody? The Cat vs. Lance Storm? Things aren't helped by the fact that so many of these PPV matches have been done on TV lately. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: East Rutherford, New Jersey. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler. WWF RAW: - Tonight: The Rock faces Rikishi. If the Rock wins, Triple H gets to choose any stipulations he wants for his No Way Out match against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. If Rikishi wins, then Austin gets to choose the stipulations. - Opening 20 Minute Interview: Triple H & Stephanie come out, talk smack about the Rock. The Rock comes out and badmouths Stephanie. Rikishi comes out and says he's going to drop his ass on the Rock. Then Steve Austin comes out and tells Rikishi he better get the job done. The segment ends with Triple H hitting the Rock, Rikishi joining in, Austin watching helplessly (because he can't touch Triple H, and Rikishi has to represent him tonight), Austin getting in Triple H's way (stopping his attack on the Rock), and Rikishi delivering a low blow on Austin. Austin and the Rock are left laying in the ring. - EDDIE GUERRERO vs. CHRIS JERICHO Some nice action for a bit, but as often seems to be the case in the WWF lately, the match comes to a screeching halt when X-Pac(!) runs in and attacks Jericho. That's two weeks straight Jericho has been attacked by guys he put on the shelf. Vince McMahon, Trish Stratus & William Regal arrive via limo. Trish thanks Vince for the ride. - Recap of the angle on SmackDown! where WWF Champion Kurt Angle accused Essa Rios of stealing his t-shirt (to sell for tequila money). That led to a match on Sunday Night Heat, where Angle easily beat Rios, then gave him two Olympic Slams afterwards. Interesting to see the WWF put so much renewed emphasis on SmackDown! and Heat as being integral to follow ongoing storylines. - Moments Ago: Angle was talking to Edge & Christian, who mention their #1 contenders match tonight against the Undertaker & Kane. Michael Cole comes up and tells Angle he's been challenged to a rematch by Essa Rios. Angle turns down the challenge, and instead challenges Rios to find a partner, and face him in a tag team match. - In a segment mirroring one last week, Triple H asks Rikishi to lay down for the Rock, so Triple H will get to choose the PPV match stipulations. Rikishi refuses, saying he lays down for no one. Triple H wishes him luck, and, not seeing a fire extinguisher anywhere, instead grabs a small suitcase. Just then a door opens, and Haku enters. Triple H smiles, says he was just leaving, and puts the briefcase down. Funny. The Hardy Boyz & Lita ... NEXT! - THE HARDY BOYZ/LITA vs. CHRIS BENOIT/PERRY SATURN/TERRI RUNNELS Once again Dean Malenko watches the match from the stage. This short match builds to the two women being in the ring together. Matt Hardy takes off his shirt, and is jumped by Terri. He drags her over to his corner and tags in Lita. She comes in and catches Saturn with a moonsault. She then hits Terri with a Twist of Fate, followed by a moonsault and the pin. Saturn comes over and grabs Lita and gives her a backbreaker. Malenko is in and he shoves Saturn away. He helps Lita to her feet, then blindsides her with a clothesline! The Radicalz exit as the Hardyz tend to Lita. Edge & Christian ... the Undertaker & Kane ... NEXT! - EDGE/CHRISTIAN vs. THE UNDERTAKER/KANE The Dudley Boyz come out before the match to sit in on color commentary. The theme on the night seems to be short matches, as this one goes for just a bit before the action spills to the floor. Edge & Christian end up by the Dudleyz, they get involved in things, and before you know it all six men are fighting. The ref throws the match out. Angle is so confident he can beat Essa and his partner, anyone could be his own partner. He asks a lady passing by, pushing an equipment case, if she'd like to be his partner. "Huh?" Raven then steps into the picture. "Nice partner. When's she due back at the home?" Raven volunteers to be Angle's partner. Angle asks the woman if that's okay with her. "Huh?" - After a video miscue (Ross and Lawler having to kill a few moments to cover), the Coach gets comments from Billy Gunn. - Vince McMahon is on the phone with Linda's doctor, talking about getting her nice and medicated for some video to be shown this Thursday, when Michael Cole bursts in and asks if he saw what happened in the last match. Vince angrily replies that he did, and that the Dudleyz will now have to face both Edge & Christian and the Undertaker & Kane in a Triple Threat Match at No Way Out. - Chyna's book is #3 on the New York Times bestseller list. Next week it'll be #6. Hopefully the week after that it'll drop out of the top ten, and we won't have to hear about it anymore. WWF WAR ZONE: - TRIPLE H (w/ Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) vs. BILLY GUNN The first relatively long match of the show, and boy is it a boring one. Too many fans want to cheer for Triple H, while not enough want to cheer for Gunn, so the overall crowd reaction could probably be best described as "polite disinterest". Triple H wins with the Pedigree. - Looks like Essa's partner will be the Big Show, as the Show asks Essa if Angle "went for it?" - X-PAC vs. SCOTTY TOO HOTTY (w/ Grandmaster Sexay) Not a whole lot of heat for X-Pac, meaning the WWF might have been better off bringing him back as a babyface. Just a few moves into the match Scotty does a flip off the top. He crumples to the mat, holding his knee. That's the end of the match. X-Pac angrily grabs a mic and says he's been out for three months--he wants to beat someone up tonight. He tells Grandmaster Sexay to be a man and take his partner's place. So ... X-PAC vs. GRANDMASTER SEXAY A quick win for X-Pac, scoring the pin with the X-Factor. Suddenly he's attacked by Chris Jericho, the crowd finally showing some life. Jericho is then attacked by ... Justin Credible! Credible runs in and nails Jericho with a chair. Ross ID's Credible as a former ECW Champion. Nice to finally have proof that these two aren't the same guy. (That's a joke.) The Rock says some stuff. Al Snow puts on a Mick Foley-esque red plaid shirt, then a Mankind mask with curly wig attached. - Another look at Justin Credible's WWF debut, with ECW being mentioned again. Hmmm ... - Al Snow, in full Mankind/Mick Foley getup, makes his way to the ring. He reiterates his disappointment with the way Vince McMahon treated Foley, and says he's staying in the ring until Vince comes out to address it. Vince comes out. He orders Snow to leave the ring, and threatens to remove him himself. Off comes Vince's jacket. William Regal then comes out, offering to talk some sense into Snow on Vince's behalf. As Regal distracts Snow, Vince gets behind him and delivers a low blow. He and Regal then stomp on Snow. Yup ... Foley vs. Vince at WrestleMania. - McMahon and Regal are laughing over a replay of what they did, when Steve Austin comes up and complains about having Rikishi represent him in the main event. If Rikishi wins, his match stipulations will involve hooking a chain up to Vince's grapefruit(s). - The Kat does a pole dance at WWF New York. Steven Richards watches on a monitor. RTC lackeys Val Venis, Bull Buchanan, the Goodfather & Ivory say she needs to be stopped. Richards says he'll do it soon ... for her own good. - Raven isn't so fired up about being Angle's partner now, knowing that the Big Show is Essa's partner. Angle says don't worry: he'll handle Essa, and Raven can take care of the Big Show. Raven's line delivery tonight has stolen the show. - KURT ANGLE/RAVEN vs. ESSA RIOS/THE BIG SHOW Big Show wrestles in a singlet like he used to in WCW, and really does look like he's lost a lot of weight. I just wish the announcers would quit saying he weight 500 pounds when he's supposed to be down to 414. Quickly Raven pins Rios. Raven then signals, and the Mystery Ninja Woman wheels Raven's plunder cart to the ring (fans at ringside chant "Tori!"). Raven and Angle each bash a garbage can over Big Show's head. Raven then sprays him with a fire extinguisher, and Angle busts a 2X4 over his head. Big Show, the spray from the extinguisher evaporating off his head, literally looks like he's on fire, his head smoking. I'm not sure if they planned that, but it looked pretty cool. Angle serves Raven up to the Big Show, and makes his escape as his partner gets chokeslammed. Lots of people ... NEXT! - Triple H and Austin take position in their respective corners. - RIKISHI vs. THE ROCK The match starts very late in the show, and as a result seems rushed. Triple H and Austin both get involved in the match, with Triple H laying Rikishi on top of the Rock at one point for a pin cover, and Austin immediately reversing the positions (all this going on behind the ref's back). The Rock kicks out. Austin and Triple H then get in each other's faces, Stephanie having to step between the two. Austin pushes her aside, so she slaps him. Suddenly, in the ring, the Rock hits the Rock Bottom out of nowhere and gets the pin. Triple H smiles, and goes into the ring to raise the Rock's hand. The Rock pulls away. He's attacked by Rikishi, and he and Triple H lay in a beating. Austin surveys the situation, and finally goes in to help, attacking Rikishi. Rikishi and the Rock are left laying. The show closes, Austin and Triple H staring down, the announcers wondering what Triple H's stipulations will be? - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: A solid show in every department except the actual matches. No bad wrestling on display, just matches kept short and done to further storylines. Other than that, there was a little of something for everyone. Justin Credible made his debut, seemingly forming a tag team with the returning X-Pac. We got a little T&A from the Kat and Terri. We even saw things shook up a bit with Raven, Regal & Snow being given higher profile positions on the card. There were some things I question. Has the Jericho/Guerrero feud now been blown off in favor of a Jericho/X-Pac feud? And how can the WWF continue to bury Chris Benoit with Saturn & Malenko, while giving someone like Billy Gunn a match against Triple H. The XFL ... what's that? The WWF knows they've overhyped it, and maybe that spurred some kind of backlash this past weekend. The only XFL hype we got this week was the brief video package that recapped the Saturday night games. TNN also switched gears, as most of those "We Got Pop" XFL promos were dropped. Had a few of the matches been better this would have been a really good show. As is, it was okay. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: I didn't like either show much this week, even though they were both, in some ways, better than most shows in recent months. WCW, they've got so much work to do, while the WWF, they either need to do a really compelling storyline, or jack up the in-ring product so their shows are better rounded. (SmackDown! last week had a pretty good mix of storylines and wrestling.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 2001 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. Volume One, Number 274 of the "Monday Night Recap", February 12th, 2001.