Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #283 April 16th, 2001 The Opening Word: I felt a little better about the direction the WWF was taking after watching SmackDown! last week. Jeff Hardy's big win over Triple H was the happy ending I'd liked to have seen last Monday. The big question I had after the show was over, however, was would this elevation of Jeff Hardy continue? That, and when in the world are we going to learn the lineup for the Backlash PPV later this month? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Paul Heyman. WWF RAW: - Video package recapping SmackDown! - Vince McMahon is back, and in a not-quite-20-minutes-but-close-enough promo he says he doesn't believe divorce should be legal, he will not be granting Linda a divorce outright, and will fight her to the bitter end. Debra then comes out and, in a weak turn on the stick, whines about Vince McMahon having a negative effect on her marriage to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. McMahon cracks that behind every great man there's a great woman, but that Debra is the exception to that. She slaps him. That was, well, whatever ... Tonight: Jeff Hardy defends the Intercontinental Title in a return match against Triple H. Be afraid ... be very afraid. - Vince piles into his limo. "Women!" - Stone Cold drags Debra into his dressing room and makes her sit there for the rest of the show. - EDGE/CHRISTIAN vs. HARDCORE HOLLY/CRASH HOLLY (w/ Molly Holly) Edge hands Paul Heyman a piece of paper, supplying him with goofy phrases which Heyman dishes out in praise of Edge & Christian during the match. Before the action starts, Rhyno gores Hardcore Holly, setting him up to take a beating for most of the match. The crowd gets into a near fall, before Crash Holly hits a crossbody off the top, Edge rolling through it to score the pin. Okay match. Jeff Hardy tells Michael Cole that he isn't so much concerned about defending his newly-won belt as he is in getting revenge against Triple H and Steve Austin for what they did to Lita last week. - Shane McMahon has arrived. - JUSTIN CREDIBLE (w/ X-Pac & Albert) vs. BUH-BUH RAY DUDLEY (w/ D-Von) Another okay match. Everyone at ringside ends up getting involved in the action, with D-Von Dudley coming off the top, delivering the Whuzzup Headbutt to Credible's little Aldo Montoya. Buh-Buh covers for the pin. Grandmaster Sexay accosts Shane McMahon, getting all up in his area. The Big Show comes along, shoos him away, then tries to talk Shane-O into sticking around to watch his match later tonight against Kaientai. Shane, who had only come to the arena to have it out with Vince (now having no reason to stay) tells the Show that he'll watch the match back at his hotel room. So what was the point of Shane even being on the show tonight? - Steven Richards tells the Coach that Right To Censor has put the troubled outing of last Thursday behind them, and are committed more than ever to ridding the WWf of the Hardcore Title. I am *SO* beyond caring about any angle involving the RTC. - Kurt Angle has a fit about having to face Chris Jericho tonight when he should really be facing Chris Benoit. Benoit is scheduled for action against WWF commissioner William Regal. Angle makes some disparaging remarks about Regal, who just happens to be standing behind Angle the entire time. Regal asks if they can have a talk in his office. Christian warns Angle not to drink the tea. - Stone Cold is in the middle of making life miserable for interviewer Kevin Kelly (or was it Cole, or Coachman--I'm working off my notes here and forgot to write down who) when he's attacked by Matt Hardy. - Austin tries to recruit Triple H for a retaliatory attack against the Hardyz, but Triple H, ever the Cerebral Assassin, tells Austin that's exactly what the Hardyz want. Austin says he'll help Triple H win his match tonight. Triple H warns against that too, saying it'll probably backfire and cause a DQ. He advises Austin to cool off and leave the building. Well, I wasn't bored with the show until we hit this lull in the action. - STEVEN RICHARDS vs. KANE Typical hardcore action, quickly spilling to the back, where the rest of the RTC awaits to gang attack Kane. The Undertaker strolls in for the save. Kane bounces Richards off a truck and covers for the pin. Austin & Debra are leaving the building. And if you believe that ... Angle ... Jericho ... NEXT! WWF WAR ZONE: - KURT ANGLE vs. CHRIS JERICHO A pretty good match with an awful finish: a run-in by William Regal causing a DQ. Chris Benoit comes in for the save. - As we see a replay of the above finish we can hear someone talking in the ring. It's Regal, who challenges Benoit to a match. Benoit & Jericho both come back out and charge the ring. Jericho and Angle end up staying at ringside for the match. WILLIAM REGAL vs. CHRIS BENOIT Another really good match, this time with a decent payoff. Benoit scores the win with the Crippler Crossface. These last two matches combined take up nearly a third of the hour, and were among the better bits of in-ring action on display in the WWF lately. Test tells Billy Gunn he can see why they would be teaming up tonight, but why is Raven their partner? Raven gives a typically verbose response. High school drama students nationwide can go to their next rehearsals confident that none of them act nearly as bad as Test, Gunn & Raven did here. - Matt & Jeff Hardy are dismayed to see that Lita has ignored their request to stay at the hotel. - TEST/BILLY GUNN/RAVEN vs. THE RADICALZ (w/ Terri Runnels) Perry Saturn is obviously trying to fill the weirdo void left when Randy Savage dropped off the face of the wresting world. Whatever was in the water that caused the improved workrate this week continues to be in effect here, as Raven wins this decent match by pinning Eddie Guerrero with a DDT. Look for those two to start feuding over the European Title. The Big Show throws some stuff around. - Marilyn Manson's "The Fight Song" is accompanied by video of the Undertaker & Kane kicking ass. Cool. "Holy Wood" was a really decent album, but not as good as "Mechanical Animals". - Kaientai do their "Indeed!" bit, which gets very little crowd reaction. That's what happens when you stop doing something just as it's getting over. Taka & Funaki then bring out the Acolytes, who they've apparently paid to kick the Big Show's ass. By the way, this is all going down because Big Show recruited Kaientai to be his tag team partners in a SmackDown! match against the Undertaker & Kane, then left them high and dry. Anyway, the APA run in and leave the Big Show laying. KAIENTAI vs. THE BIG SHOW Taka & Funaki each hit a move off the top, then go for a double something-or-other off the same turnbuckle, but the Big Show catches both by their necks and chokeslams them for the win. I had figured from the start that Kaientai would get the upset win here, but after the APA run-in and no immediate cover being made, I knew they were doomed. - Trish Stratus is at WWF New York. If she said anything of note I missed it. - Replay of the video package which opened the show. - Commissioner Regal tells Matt Hardy that if he goes anywhere near the ring during the main event he'll strip Jeff of the Intercontinental Title. - TRIPLE H (w/ Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) vs. JEFF HARDY (w/ Lita) Matt watches the match on a monitor in the back. Triple H is again busting his ass to sell for Jeff, but the fans just aren't buying it when Hardy goes for falls. The first time Helmsley goes for a Pedigree the entire crowd gets up, like it's a foregone conclusion that it's Game Over. Jeff escapes from the move, though, and reverses it into a backslide and a two count, getting nowhere near the reaction Triple H had just gotten. Meanwhile, Matt Hardy is attacked backstage by Stone Cold. Lita sees this on the Titan-Tron and is torn as to whether she should stay at ringside, or go backstage to check on Matt. She finally chooses love over championship gold, and heads up the ramp, only to be cut off by Stone Cold. Meanwhile, the bell rings, the camera (and crowd) having COMPLETELY missed Triple H giving Jeff the Pedigree and covering for the pin. Oh ... f#@k. A replay officially documents the end of Jeff Hardy'z "push". Austin & Triple H then go to work on Jeff with a steel chair. Triple H then points at Lita, who is still at ringside. Stephanie grabs her and rolls her into the ring. Helmsley slowly advances on her with the chair ... ... at which point the lights go out. *KA-BOOM!*--and the lights are back on. The Undertaker & Kane come out, slowly, to the ring. Austin & Triple H signal that they're ready to go, as the crowd buzzes. Undertaker & Kane hit the ring, but Austin & Triple H pull a heel classic by rolling out of the ring and backing up the ramp. We've run way over the usual time by this point, and the show fades out. The Bottom Line: So there you have it, a two week "push" done to kill time and reach a roundabout destination of a PPV match we all assumed two weeks ago would be taking place. The only thing that could be worse now is if they shoehorn in an angle to build tension between the Hardyz and the Undertaker & Kane, leading to a three-way tag match main event at Backlash. I really liked this show as it was airing live, appreciating the quality of wrestling, only bored during that one stretch with all the skits and RTC match. I also liked the way the very end of the show played out. That main event, thought, left me really cold, the big production snafu totally killing the impact of the match. Looking back over the show as a whole I come away almost as disappointed as I did last week. What can I say about Jeff Hardy? Maybe if he'd gotten super-over the push would have continued. Maybe what we saw tonight was a reaction to the last two week's worth of TV ratings dropping (and I'm betting this show continues that trend). All I can say is the idea of putting someone over with losses just isn't going to work. At this point I don't think Jeff is much better off now than he was two weeks ago. Everyone saw that he won that match and title from Triple H last week, but he didn't really BEAT him. That's the key. A clean win tonight might have truly elevated him to that top level. The loss instead completely wipes out what the announcers were trying to pass off as the "Upset of the Decade". I expect Jeff to get a bit more attention from the bookers and continued time in the spotlight, but obviously his real main event push--if it ever happens--is a project waiting quite a ways down the road. We're back on track to our originally anticipated Backlash main event. Then it looks like Austin vs. the Undertaker next month, and Triple H vs. Kane. Maybe the pairings will be swapped. Then the Rock should be back to fight Austin in June, while Triple H fights someone like Benoit, Angle or Jericho. (Who knows ... maybe they'll let Jeff job to Triple H again.) I liked the line Paul Heyman had tonight about not condoning woman-on-man violence when Debra slapped Vince, taking a jab at all the criticism the WWF received last week over the Lita angle. I don't know if it was the Rock being gone, or Kurt Angle or the Undertaker being used lower on the card, whatever it is the show seems to be lacking in the starpower department. The WWF should consider bringing in one of those A-level ex-WCW stars to spice things up. Forget about tying it in to a WCW vs. WWF feud, bringing someone like Goldberg or Diamond Dallas Page would sure make things interesting again. They'll never do it, because they don't want to stir up the WWF lockerroom, but it's something they should consider. Besides, it's not as if any of those WWF guys are moving up anytime soon with Austin, Triple H and the Undertaker on top, and a spot awaiting the Rock when he returns. There must be one of those guys who the WWF has no intention of using to rebuild WCW who would be willing to come into the WWF for a short run. Egads ... you know things are looking bad when I'm actually thinking that Hulk Hogan could be brought in for one last hurrah! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 283 of the "Monday Night Recap", April 16th, 2001.