[RESULTS/OPINION] WCW Monday Nitro/WWF Monday Night RAW (6/24) WCW Monday Nitro: Live. HOUR ONE: Hosted by Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko. - Clip of Eric Bischoff's attack shown. - THE PUBLIC ENEMY vs. THE BLUEBLOODS (w/ Jeeves & Earl Robert Eaton) Lord Steven Regal and Squire David Taylor represent the Bluebloods this time out. An interesting, almost scientific match (well... not really.) Almost no outside brawling. No table shots... no international objects... no plunder. The P.E wrestle nearly a straight match. This being said, Johnny Grunge gets the pin by hitting Taylor with the cast on his arm. It was during this match that I realized just how awful the P.E.'s theme music is. - KEVIN SULLIVAN (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. KIP HABEE(?) Sullivan destroys the poor jobber, dragging him up through the crowd to the entranceway of the arena. Prevented from throwing him into the women's bathroon, Sullivan throws him against a Subway stand instead. Obviously Sullivan is DQ'd. Mean Gene interviews Sullivan and Hart in the ring. Sullivan swears revenge against the Horsemen. Hart says "If Ric Flair says 'Woman oh Woman won't you marry me now?' again... I'm going to choke myself!" I agree. - DEAN MALENKO vs. "HARDWORK" BOBBY WALKER Not much of a match. Disco Inferno comes out carrying a gold record, then enters the ring and dances while his music is played. Malenko nails a distracted Walker with a Northern Lights Suplex for the win. Malenko then tells Mean Gene how badly he'll beat the Inferno at Bash at the Beach. - THE BARBARIAN vs. EDDY GUERRERO Sigh... the best cruiserweight in the fed fighting a stiff like the Barbarian. Remind me to send Eric Bischoff a "Get Well" card in the hospital. Barbarian plays all big and tough. Eddy plays underdog and wins in a manner that has completely escaped me. I remember what I ate for dinner last night: I remember all the other matches: I just can't remember how he won. I could get up, go over and throw in the tape... or I could just let it go and move on with my life. I'll do that. Oh yeah... Eddy tells Mean Gene that he deserves a rematch with Konnan. HOUR TWO: Hosted by Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - THE FOUR HORSEMEN vs. THE ROCK 'N ROLL EXPRESS Steve McMichael accompanies Anderson and Benoit. This match took way too long. Ricky Morton was the rag doll again while Gibson looked on and dreamed of past glory. Mongo knocks out Gibson with the briefcase full of money while the ref isn't looking. Horsemen win. In comes "Desperado" Joe Gomez. Gomez gets slapped around a bit. Randy Savage and Kevin Greene make the save. - DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE vs. ALEX WRIGHT Splot! Diamond Cutter for the win. - Mean Gene interviews Kevin Greene. Green is so mad at Mongo that he's going to wait until the end of the NFL season and extract his revenge sometime next year. (Given that the Carolina Panthers won't be in the Superbowl, I'd guess this will happen at next January's Clash of the Champions - if there is one.) Greene says he, Savage, and two other WCW stars will challenge the Four Horsemen. - RANDY SAVAGE (w/ Kevin Greene) vs. V.K. WALLSTREET Sploink! Flying Elbowdrop for the win. - STING/LEX LUGER vs. HARLEM HEAT vs. THE STEINER BROTHERS The Tag Titles are on the line. Sting and Luger can lose them if either of the other teams scores the pin - even against each other. Great idea - piss poor match. Several minutes of nothing happens until Diesel and Razor Ramon show up (f**k you WCW - if you won't take 30 seconds to name 'em I'll call 'em by their old names!) They are armed with baseball bats this time, prompting the ring to fill up with armed security guards. Somewhere in all this Lex Luger allows one of the Heat to roll him up and the ref inexplicably counts the pin. New Tag Team Champions (if it stands.) The guards make a play for their guns and Razor and Diesel ooze toward the exit. - Next week's main event: God only knows. Comments: Kee-rist this was an awful Nitro. The only spark occured at the very end and it was simply not worth the wait. I'm getting seriously pissed that WCW refuses to give us an identity by which to refer to Diesel and Ramon as. How hard is it to ask "what do we call you two?" WCW is trying to milk as much off their WWF connection as possible, regardless of their assertion at the GAB that they were no longer in the WWF. I myself am 100% positive that the 3rd WWF'er will be Luger. I just don't feel that the addition of a 3rd outsider will meet up with the hype they are trying to build. They refuse to give these two a name... what happens at Bash at the Beach if, say, Bam Bam Bigelow comes out. "Look! It's... him! You know who he is!" Same with Jeff Jarrett or Sid Vicious (these three being the likeliest candidates besides a heel turn by Luger or Savage.) Bigelow is a possibility because they could use his name. Same with Jarrett I suppose. Sid as well, but they'd have to call him Vicious I'd think. Problem is that Sid is supposed to be returning to the WWF (last I'd heard) and Jarrett is supposed to come in independantly with his country music gimmick (last I'd heard.) According to Otto Heuer's "Hack Notes" (a fine weekly report - check it out) WCW hasn't even signed anyone yet, and they are trying to get someone the caliber of Bret Hart. That would leave a turn by either Luger, Savage, maybe Wallstreet (wouldn't that be lame) or heaven forbid - Madusa. Luger's convenient dropping of the Tag belts tonight would seem to make him the likeliest candidate. Were it to be Savage though, it'd open up the way for that long rumored Savage/Hogan feud. (Savage turns on Sting and Luger... it's 3 on 2... out comes Hogan... ) WWF Monday Night RAW: Live. - Quick King of the Ring Results: (Free For All Countdown Show:) * The Bodydonnas (w/ new manager, "Cloudy") beat the New Rockers. [As I more or less predicted.] (1996 King of the Ring:) * "Stone Cold" Steve Austin beat "Wildman" Marc Mero. Austin cut his lip open during the match (requiring stitches to close.) [As I predicted. The win, not the injury. I also called a run-in by Owen Hart, but that didn't happen.] * Jake "The Snake" Roberts beat Vader. Vader was disqualified for attacking the referee. After the match he injured Roberts' ribs. [As I predicted.] * The Smoking Gunns beat The Godwinns. (Gunns retain Tag Titles) [As I predicted.] * The Ultimate Warrior beat Jerry "The King" Lawler. [As I and the entire free world predicted.] * Mankind beat The Undertaker. Manager Paul Bearer accidentally knocked out The Undertaker with the urn allowing Mankind to get the win. [I missed this one.] * Ahmed Johnson beat Goldust. Johnson wins title to become the first African American titleholder in WWF history. [As I predicted.] * "Loose Cannon" Brian Pillman came out for an interview. [As I predicted.] * "Stone Cold" Steve Austin beat Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Austin is new "King of the Ring." [As I predicted.] * "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels beat "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. (Michaels retains Title.) Owen Hart attacked Michaels after the match. Ahmed Johnson came out to help Michaels. Vader came out to aid Hart and The Bulldog. Finally, The Ultimate Warrior came out to even it up. Special Referee Mr. Perfect had little involvement in the match as he was only the "outside" referee. Dave Hebner was in the ring. [As I predicted. I expected something to happen involving Mr. Perfect after the match, but that didn't happen.] - AHMED JOHNSON vs. HUNTER HEARST HELMSLY (w/ Julie Benardi) Ahmed, the badass that he is, folds, spindles, and generally mutilates HHH. Pearl River Plunge for the win. Post match he is interviewed by Dok Hendrix. Ahmed accidentally calls Dok "Mike." (As in Michael Hayes.) Whoops! Comments from Goldust were shown during the match. He calls Ahmed "Mandingo." Some fans held up signs reading "Eric Sucks Dick." Also spotted were "Sabu" and the standard "(W)e (C)opy (W)wf." - The FootAction(?) Slam of the Week: Marty Jannetty powerbombs Skip off top turnbuckle (from their match at KOTR.) Sunny joins McMahon and Lawler for color commentary. - THE BODYDONNAS (w/ Cloudy) vs. THE BROOKLY BRAWLER/JERRY FOX Cloudy is a big hairy man in a wig dressed like Sunny. Vince McMahon not only insists that it's a woman, but refers to "her" as attractive. I'm starting to worry about Vince. Maybe the pressure of this Nitro thing is starting to take it's toll. Boddydonnas squash on. - Shawn Michaels. Marty Jannetty. Next week on RAW. Clips of the Rockers, Jannetty going through the Barber Shop window, and of their past IC Title feud. - VADER/OWEN HART/BRITISH BULLDOG vs. ALDO MONTOYA/SAVIO VEGA/BARRY HOROWITZ Next. Okay, Owen with the Sharpshooter. Cornette does color commentary. - Brian Pillman comes out. He tells McMahon he wants his paycheck. - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. THE UNDERTAKER (w/ Paul Bearer) Ehh. Flashes of being an interesting match, but too far... too few... and too long! Another of these matches which take forever to finish and nothing much happens. Goldust does color commentary, then throws gold dust into the eyes of the Undertaker. Ref calls for DQ. Austin stomps on him for a bit then leaves. Jerry Lawler tries to confront Paul Bearer with allegations that what happened at KOTR was on purpose. As is not well in the cemetary. Early in the match, the crowd chanted "Rest In Peace" really really loudly. Did that have something to do with the whole World Wrestling Peace Festival fuss, or was it just the usual chant? - Next week's main event: Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty. Yee-haw! Comments: Flat, nearly dull RAW. The squash and near 6-man squash blew any chance for a high workrate show. The first and last match were adequately hype filled, but neither delivered anything new or unusual. The reviews I've seen for KOTR have been mixed. I'll be better able to decide myself later this week when I see it myself. Watching Pillman is an exercise in danger, but it could grow old if he can't get into the ring soon. An alliance with Austin would not only help with this, but would kick serious ass as well. My hope is that tonight's show was light so as to save better stuff for the taped shows. The Michaels/Jannetty clip, though short, was great to see. The next In Your House will be called "International Incident" on July 21st at Vancouver, British Columbia. The main event will be Vader/Owen/Bulldog vs. Michaels/Ahmed/Warrior. Also Goldust vs. The Undertaker. Bottom line: WCW has got a full head of steam heading into the summer, though their assortment a matches and feuds do little to satisfy any one type of fan. The WWF may have delivered a solid KOTR, but it's still hard to shake the impression of them seriously limping along. The last month has shown that after the PPV and live RAW, next to nothing will happen until the next PPV. This is of course the given nature of wrestling in the States now, but it seemed even more painfully obvious in the last month. WCW is in danger of fostering that impression as well (and I'm sure many will say they already have.) Come to think of it, given the fact that they've already announced that we won't know who the 3rd "invader" is until the Bash at the Beach, it's hard to assume much of anything signifigant will happen before then. That's why we have to rely on the two shows delivering solid matches and the occasional surprise between PPV's. Neither have done that very well lately. The WWF's problem is that already the next PPV seems meaningless and that SummerSlam is the next high spot. That's not to say both don't have a lot of promise (and just enough dammit to keep you watching every week.) WCW has shown that not even the upcoming PPV will start or settle everything. Something big COULD happen prior to it that will carry through and beyond to the next Nitro and PPV. The WWF COULD get a spark now that most of the existing storylines are (ever so slowly) carrening into new directions. This week's winner: RAW. (The buzz lasted all show, not just the last few minutes.) JRP