WWF Monday Night RAW: Taped 4/6/97 and other dates. HOUR ONE: Hosted by Vince McMahon, Jim Cornette, Honky Tonk Man and Jim Ross. - In a massive bit of video sleight-of-hand this week's RAW is pieced together from various taping sessions of the past few weeks. McMahon and Cornette host the matches here in the U.S., while Ross and Honky Tonk host the matches from South Africa. The show is presented as if it's live, even though the matches took place over several days. They jump back and forth via "satellite feed". The South African footage is of a lesser quality video-wise, and there's an annoying blurring effect when people move. - LEGION OF DOOM vs. THE GODWINNS Ugh! In a lengthy, dull, uneventful match the Godwinns beat the Road Warriors with the help of the British Bulldog and Owen Hart. The match just plodded along, going at least fifteen minutes, until the Bulldog and Owen came out. Hawk was down on the floor getting posted by Phineas. Animal had Henry in the ring and the Bulldog knocked him out with his World Tag Title belt. Henry covered for the pin. They then cut to Johannesburg, South Africa. - HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Chyna) vs. "DOUBLE J" JESSEE JAMMES Chyna had her hair down, not in a ponytail, which made her look even weirder. This match, unlike the aimless action of the last, was mostly restholds. Helmsley had the upper hand for most of the match until Jammes could stage his comeback. Just as he was close to earning the win, Honky Tonk went to ringside. Catching his eye, he drew him over to the ropes and laid in a shot to the gut. As Jammes staggered back, Helmsley grabbed him and slipped him into the Pedigree. Hunter gets the pin. After Helmlsey and Chyna left Jammes challenged Honky to get into the ring. After some verbal bantering, Honky teased climbing through the ropes. Many of the fans were holding identical signs which read "chicken", possibly from the South African version of KFC. As they went to break, to keep us tuned in, they showed Sable's ass from the SLammy Awards. - ROCKY MAIVIA vs. SAVIO VEGA (w/ the Nation of Domination) Jim Ross shamelessly compares Maivia to Tiger Woods. Vega is only accompanied by Crush and D-Lo Brown (so we all knew Brown would get beat up eventually. Why else fly him all the way to South Africa?). Ahmed Johnson, via split-screen, makes some unintelligible comments. Maivia's lack of experience showed here as he did little more than punches and armbars. After numerous restholds, Faarooq comes to ringside with his left arm in a sling. They go to break. The restholds continue. Rocky eventually escapes from a two or three minute armbar. The two then go into an okay series of near pins and escapes. Rocky hits a few moves and sets Savio up for a shoulderbreaker. Savio escapes, pushes Rocky into the corner turnbuckles, then rolls him up for the pin (with a handful of tights, getting as close as one can to a clean win in the WWF these days). Faarooq, D-Lo and Crush jump in the ring and they, along with Savio, stomp the crap out of Rocky. Faarooq whips him with a belt. This brings out Ahmed with his 2X4. D-Lo (the big NOD member who does nothing but get beat up by Ahmed) takes a shot from the board. Faarooq narrowly escapes being hit. Incredibly enough, they'll be doing this match again at In Your House. This one wasn't for the title, but Sunday's match will be. This time they show Sunny in her bikini as they slip to commercial. HOUR TWO: Hosted by Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - They show a bunch of clips from last week's show. - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin comes out for an interview with Vince McMahon. He says "ass" several times (all of which get bleeped). Austin accuses Hart of "copy[ing] everything I've ever done!". - THE SULTAN (w/ the Iron Shiek) vs. GOLDUST Ohhhh lordy ... was this the best they could do? Goldust comes out with his face made up like a cheetah. They go to break, flashing us Marlena's ass, then some comments from Bret Hart (about family values ... not Marlena's ass). This match actually wasn't all that bad. Goldust looked more healthy and motivated than he has in some time. The Sultan hits a textbook piledriver before slapping on a momentum killing chinlock. Goldust escapes and uses his old favorite, the Bulldog. Suddenly Helmsley and Chyna run in. All three of the heels stomp on Goldust for a bit, then drag him over to the corner for a spkie pile- driver. The Sultan slaps on a brief Camel Clutch, then they finish up by breaking the Iranian flag handle across his back. They go to break showing a picture of Bret Hart as he appears in this weekend's episode of "The Simpsons". - They run a package of comments from Bret Hart in Kuwait. Waving the Kuwaiti flag, Hart restates his case against the American fans. Another break, this time with a look at the Funkettes. - THE HEADBANGERS vs. MANKIND/VADER (w/ Paul Bearer) The match starts off fairly straight, with the Headbangers taking command. Mankind runs in after a few minutes and it turns into a four-way brawl which spills out of the ring. Bodies are flying everywhere. Jim Ross interrupts the commentary to hype the new issue of RAW Magazine, which contains details of Shawn Michaels suffering a nervous breakdown. Hmmm. Things settle down with Vader taking control of things. He tags in Mankind. Mosh gets dumped to the floor. Before climbing back into the ring, he slips under the ring apron. As Mankind pulls him up to the ropes, Mosh spits "something" into his eyes. Mankind whips around, blinded. The ref signals for the bell, DQ'ing the Headbangers. Mankind meanwhile is flying about the ring. Vader comes over to help. Mankind, thinking Vader is one of the Headbangers, slaps the Mandible Claw on him. Vader, unable to escape, slips into unconsciousness. Paul Bearer is eventually able to pull Mankind off. As Jim Ross and Honky Tonk speculate on the outcome of Mankind's match this weekend with the Undertaker, the lights begin to flicker. The Undertaker's voice comes over the P.A. and says Mankind is going to Hell ... or something. - In the "T & A" segment of the show, they give us a sneak peek at Sable in various states of undress from the next RAW Magazine (with a bloody Vader on the cover). They then run highlights of the bikini contest from the Slammy Awards. - The Commandante of the Truth Commission comes out before the South African crowd and says pretty much what he said last week. - AHMED JOHNSON vs. CRUSH (w/ the Nation of Domination) Ross takes a poke at WCW, saying the WWF wrestlers are stars worldwide, not just stars in Atlanta. McMahon makes reference to a RAW Magazine article suggesting that Crush may be on the way out of the NOD. Ahmed is pumped up, and seems really over with the crowd. He quickly gets dumped to the floor and suffers some stomps from D-Lo. Once back in the ring the rest of the match just seesaws back and forth, with all varieties of power moves and restholds-none of which was all that spectacular or engrossing. The finish comes as Crush is setting up for a Heart Punch. Ahmed blocks it, then hits a surprise spinning heel kick. He then whips into the ropes. Crush raises a knee into Ahmed's mid- section, but Ahmed rolls through it and rolls Crush up for the pin. He slips out of the ring as the rest of the NOD enter to complain to Crush. Faarooq then gets on a house mic and makes a challenge to Ahmed (responding to Ahmed's challenge from a few weeks back). Apparently if Ahmed can singlehandedly defeat Faarooq, Savio and Crush in a single match, then Faarooq will disband the Nation of Domination. I think. Faarooq has as hard a time laying out the stipulations as Ahmed did previously. The cut back to McMahon and Cornette for one final hyping of this Sunday's PPV. - Next week's main event: None announced. Comments: The production values were slick. Vince McMahon's hair looked good. It was nice to see Sable's ass again. That's about all the good things I can say about this week's show. It was bad enough that they had to cobble together pretaped footage, but did they have to pick from the worst that was available? Actually they probably showed the best they had, which is even scarier. Here's the rundown for "Revenge of the Taker", and what they did to hype each match: * Undertaker vs. Mankind. They showed Mankind knocking out Vader with the Mandible Claw, then had the Undertaker's disembodied voice haunt the South African crowd. Did it make sense to have the Mankind match here in the U.S., then do the "spirit of the Undertaker" thing overseas? They are still speculating that the Undertaker may be horribly disfigured from Mankind's fireball (which has been upgraded to an "explosion" by McMahon). Could we see the return of the "facial appliance" mask? We can hope for an intense match, but a clean Undertaker win seems most likley. Don't rule out some kind of Bret Hart interference in which he prevents Mankind from winning the belt-thus "saving" the title for Hart to win it himself. * Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. They ran an okay, yet unoriginal speech from Austin, then a series of disjointed, unoriginal Hart clips. Since this is an In Your House, you can bet the finish will be marred by a Bulldog and/or Owen Hart run in. * Owen Hart & the British Bulldog vs. the Legion of Doom. They hyped this one by having the Bulldog interfere in the miserable Godwinn match. I have this growing dread that the Godwinns will return the favor Sunday, causing the Warriors to lose and sparking a fullblown LOD/Godwinns feud. * Rocky Maivia vs. Savio Vega. They hyped this by giving it away for free-and in the process showing how little promise it has. This one seems a lock to involve NOD and Ahmed Johnson interference, using this match to build on that feud instead. I'd say 50/50 odds on Maivia keeping the belt. Savio will only win it if the WWF intends on keeping the NOD around for a while. * Jesse Jammes vs. the Honky Tonk Man's protege. Why the nonsense involving Billy Gunn last week? The top three names being bandied about as Honky's man are: Brian Cristopher (Jerry Lawler's son from the USWA), Glen Gilbernetti (Disco Inferno) and Rick Rude. (I personally doubt that last one has even a chance of being a possibility). On paper this card shows a lot of potential. As has been hyped (and as shown by example) this card doesn't bear all that much promise. This is one of those cards that will come down to how hard all the wrestlers work. If everyone gives near 100%, then it could be a phenomenal card. The real wildcard here is the Double J/Honky Tonk Man angle. This is most likely meant to be a comic relief moment. If the idea is that the shock of seeing whoever it is meant to be more important than any match that would follow, then it had better be a genuine surprise (and not a WWF recycle job). If it turned out to be Billy Gunn, or most any other current roster wrestler, then it would fall flat on it's face. The same if it were a WWF old timer like Doink or the Brooklyn Brawler. It had better be an unknown to the regular WWF crowd (like Cristopher or Gilbernetti) or someone noteworthy (like Rude). Should an actual match take place, it had best be good or this entire angle will fail completely. (Imagine for a moment that it's Doink, and Double J squashes him. Would you even be remotely amused? Try imagining the Brookly Brawler. Or Bob Holly in an Elvis wig). This angle alone might make or (most likely) break the entire card. This leaves only four actual competitive matches, three of which could feature screwy, run-in endings. Only the main event looks like it'll go the distance, and that could fail if both guys aren't up to par. For my money, I just can't recommend this one. Skip it and watch the next night's RAW. As for this week's RAW, it was simply a downer. This was one of the rare weeks where I actually watched more of Nitro during the live head- to-head airings. I usually watch RAW in it's near entirety. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live. HOUR ONE: Hosted by Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko. - They start off by replaying the New World Order confrontation in the ring on last week's show. Particular attention is paid to the tension between "Hollywood"Hogan and Kevin Nash. They also show comments from Diamond Dallas Page, his challenge to Randy "Macho Man" Savage, and the arrival of Sting. This is getting to be a regular feature of Nitro: showing a recap of the last weeks show as they get a two minute jump on RAW. Tony Schiavone announces that Lex Luger, as per the stipulations of the match he won at Spring Stampede, has challenged Hulk Hogan to a match tonight. Luger earned a title match with that victory, and supposedly has the right to demand the match at any time. Out comes most of the NWO, led by Nash. Nash says, in short, that Luger will have to go through him to get to Hogan. Huge chunks of the Philadelphia crowd are embarrasingly pro-NWO. Strangely enough, hardly any signs and very few ECW or BWO t-shirt can be seen (with only a few exceptions). - THE BARBARIAN (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. CHRIS BENOIT The Barbarian is one of the few guys on tonight's card that hasn't worked in ECW. Benoit has. Woman is nowhere to be seen (which didn't surprise me-I've heard she hates the Philly crowds). Many regular ECW fans can be seen in the crowd, including that guy that wears the hats and Hawaiian t-shirts. The crowd pops big for most everything Benoit does, including chasing Jimmy Hart around on the floor. The Barbarian catches him with a big boot and tosses him back into the ring. Benoit goes to the top and the Barbarian follows, hitting an awesome belly-to-belly suplex, which he released so that Benoit flew two-thirds the way across the ring. Benoit quickly comes back though and hits his headbutt off the top for the pin. The crowd explodes. In runs Kevin Sullivan (who's worked in ECW), Konan (who's worked in ECW), Hugh Morrus (who worked in ECW as "Crash the Terminator"), and Miss Jacquelyn. Benoit gets stomped on a bit, then hung from the Tree of Woe. Jeff Jarrett and Steve McMichael eventually run in for the save. Mean Gene Okerlund comes in to interview Benoit. He compares Sullivan to a virus. - DEAN MALENKO vs.HECTOR GUERRERO Hector (who has worked in ECW) is wearing shorts that were simply to small-it was gross. Malenko (who has worked in ECW) gets a big pop coming to the ring. A nice, airbrushed Nitro sign is held by a fan next to the rail in the aisle (one of the few that escaped confiscation- assuming WCW didn't actually give it to them). A near squash. Hector gets in one okay move, a springboard splash off the ropes to the floor (described more impressively than it looked). Malenko ties him up shortly thereafter with a Texas Cloverleaf for the win. The crowd pops big for the Cloverleaf, and Dean delays in relenquishing the hold. Eddie Guerrero (who has worked in ECW) comes out (with arm in sling) to make sure Malenko doesn't do anything funny to his brother. Schiavone and Zbyszko commentate on very little of the match, spending most of the time recapping the Eric Bischoff legal situation and recent events involving Eddie, Dean and the Dungeon of Doom. They also hype a segment to come later in the show in which they will be running special footage from the movie "Volcano". - They show the clip from "Volcano". Nothing wrong with a little blatant hucksterism ... I suppose. They then show Green Bay Packer Reggie White at ringside. Tony is forced to admit (due to wire service reports) that White has indeed signed with WCW to wrestle in a match against Steve McMichael at Slamboree. Frankly, this is starting to get ridiculous. This makes three NFL'ers and one NBA player now in WCW. - JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. REY MYSTERIO JR. Both of these guys ... you guessed it ... have worked in ECW. This match was a minor disappointment, since both have done much better in the past. The crowd breaks into an "ECW" chant at one point. The first big move comes when Mysterio tries a flying headscissors, is spun around, and both men tumble over the top rope to the floor. Guerrera throws Mysterio into the rail. Rey climbs up to the apron and Guerrera Sunset Flips him to the floor (essentially doing a powerbomb). They both reenter the ring and go through a series of switches, reversals, and a few moves that both flub (at least that's how they looked. They missed when it looked like they were supposed to make contact). Mysterio then signals for his finisher and hits it, his usual springboard huracanrana roll-up (which I still say he's over-using). Rey flew between Guerrera's legs so fast and smooth that he nearly sprung out of the tuck for the pin. It was very dynamic (due in no small part to Guerrera's assistance) and earned a huge crowd reaction. This was probably the match of the night, but was still below average compared to past efforts from both. - Mean Gene interviews Luna Vachon (who has worked in ECW). Luna says she is the number one contender for the Women's World Title, and will take it from around Madusa's waist. I thought Akira Hokuto was the champion? Madusa, it should be mentioned, has worked in ECW. - ULTIMATE DRAGON (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. LANE CARLSON Dragon, as far as I know, hasn't worked in ECW. Carlson ... I have no idea who the hell he is. The scrub makes the most of his debut, hitting a Rocker Dropper, then a Bulldog. A clothesline sends the Dragon to the floor and Carlson to the apron. He then hits an insane senton-like dive off the top to the floor, which the Dragon can do little to cushion. Carlson, barely making contact, slides along the Dragon's back and smacks to the floor. Carlson tries to climb back into the ring. The Dragon pulls Carlson off the apron and the kid smacks his jaw into the mat. The Dragon then kicks him into the rail, "skins the cat", and hits a plancha dive. Sonny Onoo then moves in for a few kicks and tosses the kid back into the ring. He then plants the kid with a huracanrana off the top, followed by a Dragon Suplex with a bridge for the pin. This was one of the weirdest, hardest fought squashes I've ever seen. - SYXX vs. PRINCE IAUKEA You'll be pleased to learn that neither of these guys have worked in ECW before. Tony mentions that Nick Patrick may have left the NWO and has petitioned WCW to be reassigned as a regular, full time referee. Syxx, coming off an injury (and the fact that he's phoned in his matches for the last two years) performed far from impressively. Iaukea was ... Iaukea. Syxx stuck mostly to kicks, though he did, at one point, throw Iaukea into the corner, then sat on his chest and bounced up and down like a twenty dollar ... ummm ... let's instead say it just looked silly, okay? (Might be kids reading). Iaukea "Hulks up" and goes on the offense (following Syxx missing a splash off the top). He catches Syxx with a springboard clothesline. Syxx kicks out at the two-and-a-half count. Iaukea hits a Sunset Flip off the top turnbuckle. Syxx kicks out. He then, in what was surely a shot at the Philly crowd, applies the Buzzkiller (which looks suspiciously like the katihajime). The crowd is noticably devoid of reaction following the win. - Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Kevin Greene. Piper gets the loudest reaction. Roddy notes that the "Bald Guy" (Hogan) always stays home when Piper shows up. He then challenges the NWO to come down to Slamboree (March 18th from Charlotte, North Carolina). He says that guys like him and Flair paved the way for the NWO guys to look "so damn cool!". He mentions Starrcade, WrestleMania and Piper's Pit. Kevin Greene then gets on the mic and in a moment of clarity and logic explains how Hogan stabbed him in the back by turning his back on all his Hulkamaniacs. He calls the NWO "idiots", "rookies" and compares them to the "non-productive" rookies being overpaid in the NFL. Flair then goes into an unusual rant, going all the way back to 1973 and how he thanked Verne Gagne for getting him in the business after quitting two other wrestling schools. He jumps to 1983 where he says at the age of 35 he sold out a St. Louis Arena and wrestled a 56 year old Dick the Bruiser. He jumps to 1993 and says "after being written off ... I walked into the Hoosier Dome versus 'Macho Man' Randy Savage". (WrestleMania VIII, which actually took place in 1992. Flair goofed, because he was back in WCW by 1993). Flair says Angelo Poffo would not be proud of where Savage is right now. He finishes up by going into his little jig. Rumor on the 'Net is that this interview was a semi-shoot aimed at Kevin Nash and Syxx, who apparently made some behind the scenes remarks about Flair's and Piper's ages. Hogan and Savage seemed to be targets as well. HOUR TWO: Hosted by Tony Schiavone, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Mike Tenay. - THE PUBLIC ENEMY vs. HIGH VOLTAGE Lame ... lame ... lame. The P.E. bring out two tables and a garbge can full of tinfoil pizza pans. The P.E. are wearing Philadelphia Flyers jerseys, which elicits a "let's go Flyers!" chant ... but that's about all. A toilet seat is used. The Flyers chant breaks out again, but louder. Rocco is hoisted onto Chaos' shoulders. Grunge hands him a tinfoil pizza pan. Rage comes off the top and is met in midair by the foil pan. This gets an even bigger reaction. Rocco pumps his arms and the fans cheer even louder. Grunge then sets up one table on top of the other at ringside. The crowd (selling out to WCW) chants "table!". Rage is placed on top of the two tables and smashed through by Rocco. Rocco covers him on the floor for the pin. The crowd then embarrases themselves even more by waving their hands back and forth as the P.E.'s music plays. "We're almost hardcore ... we're almost hardcore!" Anyone that cheered for this crud should hang their heads in shame. What was it Cactus Jack once said about the Undertaker and ECW's fans? In case you hadn't realized, the P.E. used to work in ECW. - THE GIANT vs. BIG AL Big Al, formerly 911 in ECW, gets chokeslammed and squashed in about 30 seconds. Boy, ECW sure must suck, eh? That's what WCW was telling the Philly crowd, which grew uneasily silent during this match. - KONAN vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE (w/ Kimberly) Page puts him down pretty quick with the Diamond Cutter. Savage then appears up in the crowd and taunts Page. Page takes off through the crowd after him. - Philadelphia Eagles head coach Ray Rhodes is in the crowd. (Probably scouting for free agents). They then get the road report from Lee Marshall, calling from Saginaw, Michigan. (The closed captioning, which I was checking for the spelling of Rhodes' last name, called Marshall "Lee Marcus Bagwell"). - HARLEM HEAT (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. THE HORSEMEN (w/ Debra) Sherri's starting to get a bit porky. I don't want to go into the play- by-play on this one, suffice it to say that it was fairly standard tag team action. Jarrett wrestles most of the match. Mongo tags in for a few bodyslams. Reggie White watches in the crowd at ringside. Then things get confusing ... Debra brings in the Haliburton for Mongo to use. Sherri yanks it away from Mongo. It flies up in the air and Sherri catches it. Sherri hits Mongo, but he doesn't sell it. One of the Heat starts hitting Mongo as Sherri grabs Debra around the throat. Jarrett comes in but he's grabbed by the other Heat member. Sherri still has Debra. The ref calls for the bell, throwing out the match. Sherri then walks Debra over to the corner. She has the Haliburton briefcase and swings it downward at Debra. Now it's supposed to hit the top turnbuckle, bounce back, and knock out Sherri. Unfortunately Sherri all but misses the turnbuckle. The briefcase keeps going and hits Debra. Debra barely reacts. Sherri meanwhile makes the briefcase bounce back up (as if it'd hit the turnbuckle instead of Debra's back) and VERY LIGHTLY taps herself with it. Sherri slumps to the mat, as if knocked out by the case. Everyone then stands around trying to figure out what they're supposed to do (as Sherri quietly rolls out of the ring). Mean Gene then comes in to interview the Horsemen. Mean Gene says it "just come over the AP wires in the back" that Mongo is signed to face Reggie White in a match. Mongo tells the crowd that White sold them out for money. Reggie comes into the ring and the two stare down. "You want a piece of me?" Mongo yells. He spits on Reggie, who then jumps him. Security pulls the two apart. - LEX LUGER vs. KEVIN NASH (w/ the New World Order) Not much of a match here. Nash actually dominates most of it. Luger gets in a few shots early on, but then is completely shut down by Nash. After a few minutes of total offense by Nash, Luger gets in a forearm shot. This brings in the rest of the NWO, causing a DQ. Luger is surrounded, completely at the mercy of the NWO. Nash is able to pick his shots. In comes Page. He too is quickly stomped down by the NWO. The Giant is next. Somehow Nash has acquired a led pipe, which prevents the Giant fromn even entering the ring. Nash motions to the big man to come in. Finally Sting arrives ... with four baseball bats. He tosses one each to Luger, DDP and the Giant. The NWO, except for Nash, are cowering in fear in the ring. Sting enters, staring Nash down. Nash charges and Sting ducks the pipe, then lays in a shot to Nash's leg with the bat. Nash drops. Before the rest of the NWO can save him Luger, Page and the Giant enter the ring. The NWO flees. The show ends (two minutes early). - Next week's main event: None announced. Comments: An okay ending to what was otherwise a pretty boring show. Only the occasional crowd heat made gave the show any energy. Had this been in some other venue, the crowd would probably been nearly dead with boredom. Most of the crowd reaction was for the ex-ECW guys. Now I realize not every fan in Philadelphia is supposed to be an ECW fan. That sure seemed evident with this crowd. Doug Dellinger's security gestapo apparently made a thorough sweep for signs of any kind. Very few were seen during the show, and none of those were all that memorable. It was also hard to spot many ECW shirts. I didn't see any BWO shirts. I only recall one "ECW" chant, and only a small part of the crowd was into it. One would think the ECW fans would have showed up in droves to "wreck" the show (or whatever it is they call what they do). They've done it each time the WWF gets anywhere near Philadelphia. Most of the fans at ringside seemed to be wearing NWO t-shirts. In the end, even though the show was geared towards the ECW fans, the ECW fans didn't make their presence felt. Either they didn't show up, were cowed by the security, were outnumbered by WCW marks (for shame Philadelphia!) or sold out themselves. ("Oh man ... it's Lex Luger!"). I still think the Public Enemy match was a joke. The pizza pan shots were laughable, since it's nearly impossible to do any damage with those type of pans. The table shot was ... a table shot. This wasn't even as brutal as past WCW brawls, much less past Public Enemy WCW brawls. This was a parody of passes for "extreme". It was especially laughable compared to the brutality the previous night in ECW's PPV. I still can't get over how badly Sherri botched the Haliburton shot. Watch it (again) and you'll see what I mean. This was another installment of Nitro filled mainly with squashes. They did manage to deliver a main event as promised, but only barely. When one looks at the names on tonight's card, it's clear what a disappointment this one turned out to be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: The ratings were very kind to both shows this week. RAW pulled in a slightly below average 2.2 (which must have given McMahon and the WWF a sigh of relief). Nitro scored a surprising, near average 3.4. Their second hour did very well. Again, I don't like to get all that much into the ratings, but both feds have to be pleased with how they did. Next week should be big. RAW will return with their first live show in weeks, recapping the In Your House PPV. Nitro should step things up, if for no other reason than as a response to RAW. The early buyrate numbers for Spring Stampede suggest that it may not have done as well as Uncensored, and near to or slightly worse than SuperBrawl. It looks like Hulk Hogan will not be a part of Slamboree. There also is apparently a lot of behind the scenes stuff that's keeping the main event from being solidified. As the rumor goes, Flair and Piper had reservations about Syxx being in the match because they don't think he's main event material. Syxx and Nash responded to this by making disparaging remarks about Flair and Piper. It's all political, which is nothing new for WCW. Unless I'm mistaken, Hogan hasn't defended his title since February 23rd: SuperBrawl VII. If he doesn't defend it at Slamboree, then a match at the next PPV would make it four months between defenses. I never want to hear WCW mention the "30 day" rule ever again. My brother posed the following questions: How did Sting know to bring four bats with him? In reply, I took it even further: How did he know that Page and the Giant would be out there? How could he watch from the back and not be noticed by the NWO, WCW officials, Bobby Heenan's network of spies, etc.? Whenever something happens "in the back" they always cut to a camera there. How could they miss Sting walking around with an armfull of bats? If he had consulted with DDP and the Giant beforehand, how would he know one (or more) of them would not have been incapacitated? (and thus unable to use it, needlessly burdening Sting with an extra bat). If you were DDP or the Giant, would you run out there unarmed, allowing yourself to get stomped on and possibly injured, when you knew you could get a bat from Sting beforehand? Why would Page and the Giant agree to any plan where they might be grievously injured? Suppose Hogan showed up and jumped Sting in the back. DDP and the Giant would have been pretty much screwed then, wouldn't they? Suppose Roddy Piper had come out as well. Would Sting have brought out five bats? How is Sting able to rig those cables, so that he can swoop down from the ceiling, all by himself? If he has inside help, why is it the announcers never know he's in the building? How does he get in the arena, anyway? (Not to mention with an armload of baseball bats). How is it Doug Dellinger is able to confiscate every sign in the building, yet he can't stop a six foot tall man dressed as a sad clown carrying a baseball bat? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Week's Winner: Nitro. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------