[RESULTS/OPINION]Monday Night RAW/Monday Nitro (6/17)

Monday Nitro: Live.

HOUR ONE: Hosted by Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko.

 - Recap of the Great American Bash:
   * Steiner Brothers beat Fire & Ice.
   * Konan beat El Gato (retaining the U.S. Title.)
   * Diamond Dallas Page beat Marcus Bagwell.
   * Dean Malenko beat Rey Misterio Jr (retaining the Cruiserweight Title.)
   * John Tenta beat Big Bubba Rogers (Tenta cut off some of Bubba's beard.)
   * Chris Benoit beat Kevin Sullivan (Arn Anderson joined Benoit,attacking
     Sullivan after the match.)
   * Sting beat Lord Steven Regal.
   * Ric Flair & Arn Anderson beat Steve McMichael & Kevin Greene.
     (McMichael turned heel and attacked Greene. McMichael is now the
     fourth Horseman.)
   * Eric Bischoff announced match will take place at Bash at the Beach
     (in Daytona Beach Florida on 7/7/96) between WCW and the guys formerly
     known as Diesel and Razor Ramon. They admitted they do not work for the
     WWF anymore. Bischoff was then attacked and put through a table.
   * The Giant beat Lex Luger (retaining the World Title.)

 - RICK STEINER vs. STEVIE RAY
   Awful match. Steiner wins with a clothesline. Stevie Ray did next to
   nothing. Booker T runs in and the two beat on Rick, and then Scott
   Steiner who tried to make the save. A new "feud" is born.

 - DISCO INFERNO vs. "DESPERADO" JOE GOMEZ
   Gomez, who has recovered from the beating he took at the hands of Ric
   Flair last week, makes his Nitro debut. He sucks. Gomez reverses a
   sloppy pin attempt by the Inferno to get the pin.

 - Mean Gene interviews Woman, Liz, and the latest addition to the Harem
   (or should that be "Flairem") Deborah McMichael. "It's all about money!"
   Sez Debbie.

 - ARN ANDERSON/CHRIS BENOIT vs. AMERICAN MALES
   Bagwell wrestles most of the match for his team. Benoit displays the
   bruises from his "Falls Count Anywhere" match with Sullivan. He and Arn
   dominate most of the match, with Bagwell rallying back often. Scotty
   Riggs is finally tagged in, gets nailed by Arn's elbow, and is pinned
   (with a little help by Arn) by Benoit. Mean Gene interviews the Horsemen
   after the match.

 - BIG BUBBA (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. JOHN TENTA
   Not nearly as bad as it could have been. Both these big guys seem to be
   taking advantage of what probably is their only chance at work. Tenta
   wins, pinning Bubba with his feet on the rope. Tenta then chases Jimmy
   Hart around for a bit until Hart tosses Bubba a loaded sock. Bubba wallops
   Tenta again and again with the sock, then opens it to reveal a handful
   of loose change. It looked brutal until one realizes the change was in
   the end of the sock that Bubba had been holding onto.

 - Mean Gene interviews Randy Savage. Randy says he's undergone therapy and
   is all better now. (Actually he said he found a psychiatrist who told him
   he was cool.)

HOUR TWO: Hosted by Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

 - RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE vs. RIC FLAIR (w/ Woman, Liz & Debbie)
   Savage chases Bobby Heenan around and through the ring prior to the start
   of the match. Heenan does his classic ring escape (showing more agility
   than most of the Power Plant graduates.) Flair comes to the ring with
   the gals and a "Mean Greene Sack Machine In The Ring" t-shirt. The match
   itself was nothing new. The ref gets knocked out after awhile and out
   comes Benoit, whom Savage piledrives. Then Arn shows up and is floored
   as well. Next is Steve McMichael who knocks out Savage with his briefcase
   full of money. (Savage's money - used to bribe McMichael into joining the
   Horsemen.) The Four Horsemen then stomp on Savage for a minute or so.
   Does this make Pepe the Fifth Horseman?

 - Mean Gene interviews Kevin Sullivan, Jimmy Hart and the Giant. Hart mentions
   Sullivan's running Brian pillman out of WCW.

 - Blood Runs Cold: Just another stupid ninja.

 - More clips of the Bash. Eric Biscoff gets dumped through part of the stage.
   He's still in the hospital (*wink*) which is why Schiavone is doing the
   entire show this week. Kevin Nash is now the most over wrestler in R.S.P-W
   history.

 - DEAN MALENKO vs. REY MYSTERIO JR.
   A good, but far from great match. Malenko dictated the style - more down
   on the mat grappling than high flying stuff. Mysterio hits a springboard
   moonsault and an over the top rope dive into a Frankensteiner on the floor.
   Malenko nails a reverse DDT for the pin.

 - THE GIANT (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. SCOTT STEINER
   The match started off pretty badly, but Steiner was able to generate some
   real heat before it was done. Scott delivers an impressive side suplex.
   The Giant eventuall wins with the chokeslam and pin.

 - Mean Gene announces that Lex Luger, Randy Savage and Sting have been
   drawn (from a poll of six that included The Giant, Hulk Hogan and Ric
   Flair) to face Diesel, Ramon and their mystery partner at the Bash at
   the Beach.
   
 - Next week's main event: None mentioned.

Comments: So-so show. The PPV gave it a lot of momentum, but none of the 
matches were all that great (except for Malenko/Mysterio.) All show they
were teasing an appearance by the WWF guys, but they never showed. Also the
whole selection of the WCW Team was anticlimactic as they said all night
they'd have a drawing, then just came out and said "we had the drawing - here
they are... " Nitro kept my attention for most of the time RAW was on, but
it never really paid off - nothing happened.


Monday Night RAW: Taped 5/27.

 - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. SAVIO VEGA
   Man, I'm sick of seeing these two guys go at it! They do deliver an okay
   match though and this was no exception. Austin wins it with a surprise
   roll-up and pin, hopefully ending this feud. Austin advances to face the
   winner of the next match at King of the Ring.

 - "WILDMAN" MARC MERO (w/ Sable) vs. OWEN HART
   Yeesh! This was a dissappointment. Mero wins after a whole lot of nothing.
   Hart then knocks him out with his cast. Austin stuck around to deliver
   color commentary.

   Before the match started they showed two things: First was the Sega Slam
   of the week featuring Jake Robert's DDT win over Justin Bradshaw. Second
   they paid tribute to the passing of Dick Murdoch this past Friday. Murdoch
   was only 49. I know I'll miss him as he was one of the truly colorful
   journeymen of the sport.

   Mero had to be attended to by ring doctors. They split the screen between
   this and the next segment for a minute or so.

 - Jim Ross interviewed the British Bulldog and Diana Smith. The Bulldog
   badmouths Shawn, who runs in and a pull-apart brawl ensues.

 - HUNTER HEARST HELMSLY vs. ALDO MONTOYA
   This match thankfully never happens as Jerry lawler goes in the ring and
   works over Montoya as an example to the Ultimate Warrior. Jake Roberts
   comes out as Lawler flees.

 - Footage of Brian Pillman signing his cotract at a press conference.
   Pillman is very humble and tearful, thankful at the opportunity to make
   it to the WWF. He calls Monsoon and others his new "extended family."
   I smell a work here.

 - GOLDUST vs. JAKE "THE SNAKE" ROBERTS
   Goldust wins. Then he doesn't. New ref Harvey Whippleman reverses the
   pinfall decision when he notices gold glitter all over Jake the Snake.
   Goldust had used it to blind Roberts and get the pin. Roberts flails
   about blindly after his win. Goldust moves in to explore Jake's snake,
   but Roberts grabs him and nails a DDT.

   They then cut away to Mr. Perfect who is interviewing Jim Cornette,
   Cornette announces that the special referee for the match between the
   British Bulldog and shawn Michaels at King of the Ring will be...
   Mr. Perfect.   

 - Next week's main event: None mentioned (that I can recall.)

Comments: Man am I glad they'll be live next week. This was the worst batch
of RAW tapings in a long time. The line-up for King of the Ring looks like
this:

 * Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog for the World Title.
   (Mr. Perfect guest referee.)
 * Goldust vs. Ahmed Johnson (presumably) for the IC Title.
 * The Ultimate Warrior vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler.
 * The Undertaker vs. Mankind.
 * Jake Roberts vs. Vader, the winner to face the winner of...
 * Marc Mero vs. Steve Austin.

One would also assume Sunny and the Smoking Gunns will be in a match with
either the Godwins or Bodydonnas, perhaps on the Free For All. I also
wouldn't doubt if Pillman does an interview, playing it very low key and
contrite like at the press conference. Expect something like they did with
Marc Mero at WrestleMania (without the HHH brawl though.)

My Predictions:

 - Bulldog won't win the title, but something will happen to spark the
   upcoming Michaels/Perfect feud.
 - Ahmed wins the IC title.
 - Warrior destroys Lawler in a comedy match.
 - Undertaker beats Mankind. Mankind goes away.
 - Vader gets DQ'd, allowing Roberts to advance. Owen Hart interferes in
   the Mero match (starting a feud between those two.) Austin beats Roberts
   to become King of the Ring.


Bottom line: The ball is definitely in WCW's court right now. The Whiff needs
to pull off one hell of a PPV this Sunday. The next batch of tapings really
need to be fresh also. The odd thing is that Nitro is only twice as long,
but they seem to show three times as much stuff. (I may be giving them too
much credit for being live.) 

This week's winner: Nitro (dagnabbit.)


JRP