Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #102 October 27th, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: San Diego, California. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Roddy Piper is shown being handcuffed to the cage at the end of the Halloween Havoc PPV. Larry Zbyszko is not part of the announcing team this week, though he will appear later in the show. - "Hollywood" Hogan and Eric Bischoff come out right away. Hogan kills about five minutes making what amounts to an open challenge to anyone in WCW to come out and face him. They then show a clip from "Assault on Devil's Island". - They play the clip of Bischoff knocking out Larry Zbyszko at the PPV. How many guys is that now that Bischoff has knocked out on Nitro? Has Vince McMahon EVER put himself over this blatantly? Watch this clip and tell me Jim Cornette wasn't right about Bischoff. - REY MYSTERIO, JR. vs. DEAN MALENKO Raven and his flock (Stevie Richards, Perry Saturn, Billy Kidman and Sick Boy-the Power Plant scrub) are shown taking their seats at ringside. Raven will apparently wrestle later in the show. Good match with an even better finish. Malenko really has Rey's number, nailing him with a gutbuster off the turnbuckles. (Malenko has him up on his shoulders, throws him up in the air and catches him across his knee: all this off the second turnbuckle). Rey then recovers enough to try a huracanrana off the ropes, but Malenko reverses it into a powerbomb. Dean then wraps him up, intent on applying the Texas Cloverleaf. He grabs the legs and starts his turn when Rey shifts his weight and tucks Dean into a small package for the pin. - This week's Lucha Libre segment. They focus on masks and second generation wrestlers. Stars such as Ray Mendoza and Lizmark Sr. comment on their sons. The great wrestler Santo is mentioned. (Santo, if you aren't familiar with him, wrested for decades in Mexico. He was a major star, even branching out into TV and movies where he played a super heroic version of himself. He died with the public having never seen his face. He was buried wearing his mask). - Nitro Girls. - LA PARKA vs. GLACIER They actually bother to hype this by showing a clip of action that took place weeks (months?) ago between these two. La Parka brings a plastic chair to the ring. Glacier again tricks his fans into thinking he's a real wrestler. A few kicks, a tope through the ropes and his Cryonic Kick finisher are his only offensive moves. La Parka does a nice spinning plancha to the floor. They do a spot where La Parka sets Glacier up on the chair (on the floor) then climbs to the top turnbuckle. Glacier gets up and shakes the ropes, then grabs La Parka and throws him onto the (plastic) chair. Glacier hits the Cryonic Kick and covers for the pin. - Mean Gene Okerlund comes to the aisle to interview Diamond Dallas Page. Page blows by him and enters the ring. He says he accepts Hogan's challenge. Looks like the rumor on this was off by about four weeks (as word was that this match was supposed to happen September 22d-the same night as the big RAW from MSG). - Mean Gene is still in the ring awaiting Larry Zbyszko. Larry comes to the ring and whips out a piece of paper, saying he has an open contract for Scott Hall to sign. Hall and Syxx come to the aisle. Hall begins working the crowd (with Mean Gene making the wry comment that he's "trying to get over with the local crowd, here"). Hall teases going to the ring, but chickens out (as the crowd chants "Larry, Larry!") Zbyszko says he'll haunt Hall until he agrees to sign to a match. - STEVIE RAY (w/ Jacquelyn) vs. LEX LUGER A bodyslam was the most impressive move used in this one. Luger wins with the Torture Rack. - Raven again. This week he's up in a tree. I manage to not fall asleep (mainly because I changed the channel). HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - EDDIE GUERRERO vs. CHRIS JERICHO I figured Jericho would be in a rematch tonight with Gedo. Apparently WCW flew Gedo all the way in from Japan just to job him to Jericho. They show a move from their match in which Jericho nearly breaks his neck coming off the top with Gedo. Eddie wins in a match which was good, but pretty much forgettable about five minutes after it was over. The finish saw Jericho suplex Eddie out of the ring. Eddie landed on his feet, ran up the corner and nailed Jericho with the Frog Splash. - Nitro Girls. They have their own website now: "www.nitrogirls.com". I'll let the rest of you check it out for me ... I just don't have the strength. - FIT FINLEY vs. CHRIS BENOIT I thought it used to be "Finlay"? Finley is also known as the Belfast Bruiser. WCW throws a small bone to the Benoit marks, giving him the win with a headbutt off the top. - Clips from Hennig vs. Flair from the PPV. - Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair. Flair tells Curt Hennig that if he sees him tonight that he's a dead man. He then announces that he'll be facing Randy Savage later in the show. He digs into his old bag by saying that after he ends Savage's association with Slim Jim that he'll give Elizabeth a ride on Space Mountain. - RAVEN (w/the Flock) vs. SCOTTY RIGGS Stevie Richards gets on the mic and says Raven still isn't under contract with WCW, and that he'll only wrestle the match if it's "no DQ". Riggs agrees. Raven offers to call off the match if Riggs will join him. Riggs gives him an Italian salute by way of an answer. The two lock up. After about a minute of Raven beating on Riggs Saturn throws him a chair. Raven sets it up, but Riggs clips him from behind, knocking over the chair. Raven then whips Riggs into the ropes and trips him. Riggs hits the chair facefirst. He starts screaming and the ref stops the match. Kidman enters the ring to tell Raven to lay off, but Raven kicks him in the gut and tosses him out. WCW's trainer checks out Riggs' "injury" as Raven re-takes his seat. What a load. - Nitro Girls. - Michael Buffer does the ring intro's for the next match. Page comes out still wearing his street clothes. Commercial. - "HOLLYWOOD" HULK HOGAN vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE Hogan comes out to the wrong NWO music. Before I get to the match itself, let me pass along something that caught my eye: There's this group of fans almost dead center in the screen for most of the ring shots. They consist of about a half dozen guys in NWO shirts and two in plain red shirts. In front of them are four guys dressed as Los Boricuas (sort of). Anyway, just as this match is getting started two security guys show up and start hassling someone in the area. A few minutes later they escort the two guys in the red shirts out. I'm not sure what they did, though I'd guess that they maybe threw something, tried to start a fight, or were just generally being dicks. You really have to look close to catch all of this. As far as I could tell the two guys never come back. Hogan dips into his small bag of wrestling moves this time out, using his step-over takedown into an armbar combo he usually saves for Japan. He and Page then trade armbars and clotheslines for the next ten minutes. Out comes a fake Sting. Page catches him coming off the top and applies the Diamond Cutter. Hogan comes up from behind and whips Page with his belt, drawing a DQ. Here comes the rest of the NWO and most of them help Hogan work over Page as Bischoff and Syxx help out the fake Sting. Sting arrives through the crowd and, as we've seen before, chases off the NWO. Both Hall and Hennig are laid out with reverse DDT's. You know, I'm already sick of this Nitro ... and there's still an hour to go! HOUR THREE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - DISCO INFERNO vs. BILL GOLDBERG I'm already starting to cuss because I figured I'd have to change my page to show that Goldberg was the new TV Champion (and I didn't have a picture of him). On the way to the ring he's confronted by Alex Wright. Goldberg chops him in the throat, chucks him in the ring and plants him with the Jackhammer. Disco has a good laugh at this, but he too receives the same treatment. Before Goldberg can do anything else Steve McMichael runs in. Referees have to separate the two. - Bischoff and Hogan come back out. Hogan says he's had enough of Sting and challenges him to show up in Las Vegas to sign a contract to wrestle. Just by coincidence, this signing will be shown "live" during the initial broadcast of "Assault on Devil's Island". That's right ... WCW has just suckered all their fans into watching Hogan's movie to see the contract signing. In case you're asking yourself "why Las Vegas?", that's because they already taped the signing Sunday before the PPV. The footage will be parceled out over a number of the commercial breaks during "Assault". (Remember the TNT debut of "The New Adventures of Robin Hood"?) - Mean Gene interviews the Steiner Brother and Ted DiBiase. Scott Steiner, who was always a poor interview subject, seems to have lost what little mic skills he once had. - THE STEINER BROTHERS (w/ Ted DiBiase) vs. PUBLIC ENEMY A good look at the table shows that it isn't pre-cut, which is a dead giveaway that it won't be used tonight. Just awful. The first several minutes are killed by stalling. Then they cut to a commercial. Once back the two teams are just snorting and grunting and running into each other until the Steiners get the pin (following a Bulldog off the top). - BOOKER T. vs. CURT HENNIG Why is this match on this late in the card? Jacquelyn doesn't even come out with Booker. As if seeing Hennig get Diamond Cuttered earlier wasn't enough, the whole point of this match seemed to be to show Hennig get beat up by a guy bigger than him. The finish comes when Elizabeth and the Macho Man run out. Liz distracts the ref as Savage nails Booker T. off the top. Ric Flair then comes in and attacks Hennig, which earns Booker T. the DQ (Hennig wins). Flair chases Hennig around the ring and out of the ring area. - RIC FLAIR vs. RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE (w/ Elizabeth) The two are already fighting in the aisle when they come back from commercial. This was never really a match, but it was a good, old fashioned brawl. The two fight their way through the crowd. Flair, at one point, steal a kiss from Liz as he's dragging Savage around the ring. When the action moves into the ring Liz runs over and rakes Flair's eyes (then gives the ref a pouty look when he warns her off). Out comes Hennig. He and Savage proceed to beat on Flair as the show just ... sort ... of ... ends. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: These three hour Nitro's have to stop. WCW is just forced to feature too much crap and filler to stretch out the entire time. The air for most of this show was let out at the commercial break following Sting's appearance. There was simply no necessity to show the stuff that followed. All it accomplished was to hurt RAW's ratings, which in NO WAY serves you or I-the regular viewers. It did end one a somewhat high note, but that's about it. Take the best parts and they might have had a fairly decent two hour Nitro. Take the very best and they'd have had a really good one hour Nitro. WCW would barely be watchable if it wasn't for the following wrestlers: * Eddie Guerrero. * Rey Mysterio, Jr. * Chris Benoit. * Chris Jericho. * Dean Malenko. * Ultimo Dragon. Week in and week out WCW can claim, to their benefit, one or two good matches-and the above wrestlers are invariably involved in those said matches. Take away this group and WCW's Cruiserweight division mostly disappears, and WCW loses much of their ability to claim that they have better matches than the WWF. Sure they have a few others from Mexico and Japan who could pick up some of the slack, but never at the same level or consistency at which the above wrestlers perform. These six wrestlers have over the last several months delivered the best PPV matches, the best house show matches, the best Nitro matches, and-more importantly-drawn some of the best ratings for Nitro. Look at the numbers: for the last three months the undercard has been pulling in higher ratings than the usual NWO finish. Often times the matches involving these six wrestlers have drawn in and held on to the majority of Nitro's audience. Take away these six men and WCW would only have the advantage of stars with name recognition over the WWF. Take away these six men and WCW would NOT be the better promotion (which is only an arguable assertion to begin with). What else is there to say this week? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Taped. Length: Two Hours. Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. - Jerry Lawler isn't part of the announcing team tonight. Other than a brief mention of his absence, no explanation is ever given. - Faarooq and the Nation come out to gripe some more about the Harts trashing their lockerroom last week. Faarooq again laces into McMahon for the WWF being racist. McMahon apologizes, but that isn't good enough for Faarooq. He says they can't apologize for 400 years of ill treatment. Faarooq kicks it over to Rocky, which sparks a "Rocky sucks!" chant from the crowd. Rocky tells the crowd to shut up, then warns Bret Hart that he's made this a racism issue. Another anti-Rocky chant. Faarooq takes the mic back and challenges the Hart Foundation to a match next week on RAW. Out comes Bret and the Hart Foundation. Bret accepts the challenge. "There is no racism in Canada!" says Hart. Bret says Faarooq's problem is that he can't see someone other than the Harts are messing with the Nation (i.e. Shawn Michaels). Shawn and his Degeneration X pop up on the Titan-Tron. Michaels accuses Hart of being blatantly racist, and that it's disgusting that he'd try to pass off the blame. Hunter Hearst Helmsley accuses the Foundation of using the "N" word after trashing the Nation's dressing room, which prompts the Nation to rush from the ring and attack the Harts at the top of the ramp. Owen, the Bulldog and a ref are able to chase the Nation off, but not before Bret gets stomped down. Bret comes up limping. - Goldust and Marlena come out for the next match. After a commercial break they show the promo for Bret Hart's appearance on Fox's "Mad TV" this upcoming Saturday. - GOLDUST (W/ Marlena) vs. HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Degeneration X) Rick Rude does the ring introduction for HHH. As Helmsley is entering the ring, Jim Ross mentions that next week on RAW they will have an interview with Marlena about her 30 days with Brian Pillman. Shawn sits in for color commentary. In brief, Shawn constantly gripes about Goldust using a closed fist. This match gets my vote as the sleeper of the night (no, not because it put me to sleep). I didn't really expect much going in, but it actually wasn't all that bad. Both Marlena and Chyna interfered, but that really didn't come into play until the finish. Hunter gets knocked to the floor. Marlena comes over and slaps him ... twice. While this is going on Goldust has managed to get Marlena's purse. Chyna comes in, pulls the purse away from him and whacks him in the head. Hunter reenters the ring and applies the Pedigree for the win. Post-match Shawn chops to his groin and tells Vince and the fans to "suck it!" (which gets bleeped). He, Hunter and Chyna then do a groin chop vogue session in the ring. Vince, moving on to other subjects, calls the cage match at Halloween Havoc (not specifically named) "low impact aerobics". Cue Jim Cornette. - Cornette rants this week about who is the real "Icon" of wrestling. He says Shawn Michaels is too big a jerk. He says Bret Hart would fill the bill if he wasn't too busy whining about getting screwed by the WWF. Cornette goes on to dump on Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, as well as WCW for daring to hype their cage match as the "greatest ever" (when it was barely the greatest since Badd Blood). Cornette says if there's any icons in wrestling, it's the Undertaker, Ric Flair and Steve Austin: guys who don't brag about how much money they make, or go around claiming they're icons of any kind. - A quick segment showing some of the legends of Oklahoma who were honored before the start of the show: Jim Ross (of course), Cowboy Bill Watts, the Brisco brothers and Danny Hodge (who I've never heard of, but Ross claims is the "greatest wrestler this country has ever produced"). - OWEN HART vs. AHMED JOHNSON Clips are shown of Owen putting Steve Austin out. Ahmed sends Owen to the floor, slams him into the steps, then trashes the Canadian flag as Owen catches a breather. Owen turns things around with a low blow, then takes Ahmed outside the ring to work over his injured hand. A quick look up the ramp shows that the Nation has come out. Commercial time. Ahmed is starting to come back. He takes control and catches Owen with a scissors kick. Owen doesn't get up. Ahmed begins signaling for the Pearl River Plunge. Suddenly out of nowhere Steve Austin runs in and plants Ahmed with the Stone Cold Stunner! The ref calls for the bell, giving Ahmed the win via DQ. Ahmed staggers out of the ring like he's been hit by a truck. Okay match, but nothing special. Good pacing to the not-all-that- unexpected finish. Word has it that Owen was legitimately injured in this one, receiving a concussion from the scissors kick. - Karate Fighters. This time they have George and Adam, a fake McMahon and Ross (who declares this week's match-up a "slobberknocker"), and Jerry Lawler vs. Brian Christopher. Lawler wins. - Mankind comes to the ring. They replay Dude Love getting chokeslammed on the ramp by Kane last week. Mankind says Dude Love just wanted to make people smile, and that Paul Bearer took an "innocent kid and ruined him!" Mankind says that he though he and Paul Bearer had agreed to an unspoken truce when they split, and that Kane's attack on Dude Love broke that truce. Mankind says he'll send Kane back to the grave he was hiding out in the last 20 years. Commissioner Slaughter comes out and says that due to Mankind's and Kane's mental states that he cannot sanction a match between the two. Mankind says please. Slaughter says he appreciates Mankind's desire, but that he simply cannot allow the match. Mankind tells Jim Ross that if something bad is to happen to Kane, then something bad has to happen to Slaughter ... and he applies the Mandible Claw! The ring fills with WWF officials to pull him off. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. - Clips of Shamrock and Hart are shown. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. KEN SHAMROCK Shamrock starts off in his "knuckle up" stance, which the ref has to break up (since Ken's fists are closed). The two lock up. Shamrock slips behind and applies a hammerlock. Bret slips loose and reverses it, applying one of his own. Shamrock escapes, slips on the hammerlock, then takes Bret over with a snap mare. Ken covers for a quick two count. Both get up, but Ken takes Bret back down with a headlock. Bret wraps his arms around Ken's torso and takes him over, putting his shoulders down for a two count. Ken shifts his weight and rolls back, still maintaining the headlock. Both get back up and Bret slips from the headlock, sending Shamrock into the ropes. Hart tries a hip-toss, but Shamrock blocks it and takes Bret down with a forward roll into an anklelock. Bret squirms into the ropes, breaking the hold. Shamrock drags Bret to the center of the ring and starts dropping his body and elbow on Bret's leg. Shamrock twists the ankle from a standing position (with Bret down on the mat). Ken steps on the hip and whips the leg, pulling the hamstring. Bret rolls into the corner to get a breather. Vince takes a few potshots again at the Havoc cage match, as well as Hogan's acting, mentioning the upcoming Flashbacks show. Both men lock up again in the center of the ring. Bret lays in a knee to the midsection. He follows with a series of elbows and fists to the head. Shamrock returns suit with several blows of his own. A spinning heel kick sends Bret into the corner. Shamrock tries to follow up, but the ref forces him out of the corner. When Shamrock turns to confront the ref, Bret seizes the opportunity to clip Shamrock's knee from behind. Bret goes to work on the knee, dragging him over to the corner post to lay in some punishment. After a slam into the post Bret applies the Figure Four around it. The ref comes out and Bret breaks the hold before the five count. Shamrock gets a brief breather as Bret jawjacks with some fans. Bret goes back and slams the knee into the post again. He reenters the ring and continues to work on the hamstring and knee by dropping elbows and stretching the leg. Jim Ross hypes Bret's appearance on "Mad TV", as well as mentioning that they will have some behind the scenes stuff from that show on WWF Superstars. Bret catches Shamrock with a nasty looking DDT. After a two count he applies a spinning toe hold. Bret is still working on the knee when they cut to a commercial. Shamrock's knee is in a bad way as Bret continues to drop elbows, knees, etc. Bret drags him back over to the corner and drops to the floor to set up the Figure Four around the post again. Shamrock pulls up his legs, driving Bret into the post. Shamrock drops to the floor and throws Bret into the security rail. A whip into the ring steps follows. Ken tosses aside the match timekeeper and starts to pound on Bret's head. The ref forces the two apart and tries to get them back into the ring. Bret comes up with a chair, sliding it into the ring. Ken comes back in and stomps on the chair before Bret can lift it up. Shamrock lays him out with a forearm shot to the head. The ref kicks the chair out of the way as Ken hoists Bret to his feet. Shamrock whips Bret into the ropes and takes him over with a huracanrana. Back on their feet, Bret stops a series of fists with a rake of the eyes. Bret tries a Russian legsweep, but Shamrock blocks it and takes him down to the mat with a side suplex. A cover and Bret kicks out at two. Back up again, Shamrock sends Bret's head into the turnbuckle. He whips Bret across the ring, but Bret reverses it and catches Ken with a clothesline. Bret then wraps Ken up with the Sharpshooter, but Shamrock twists through it and takes Bret down (catching the ref in the process). Ken holds onto the ankle and twists. Hart immediately taps out, but the ref is down from colliding with Hart. Shamrock releases the hold to check on the ref, which allows Hart to recover the chair, which had only been pushed to the apron of the ring. Bret nails him with the chair. He reapplies the Sharpshooter, but is nailed from behind by Shawn Michaels, who slides into the ring! Shawn pounds on Bret. Shamrock, meanwhile, has gotten back up to his feet. Seeing Michaels, he lets out a roar and attacks. A flurry of blows, followed by a belly-to- belly suplex. Michaels then receives the beating he had been delivering to Hart just seconds before. The ring fills with officials to break it up. DX comes in to help Michaels, while the Hart Foundation comes in to help Bret. Both men recover enough to charge each other and trade blows, only to be pulled apart by the mob. Three more times they each break free of their "keepers" and brawl in the middle of the ring. Hunter and Chyna carry Shawn away as Bret stands in the ring with the championship belt. I'd give this the nod as the match of the night over Mysterio/Malenko, mostly due to its length and the psychology involved. - Replay of Shawn running in. Bret says from the back that he'll finally be rid of Michaels following Survivor Series. - "BAD ASS" BILLY GUNN/ROAD DOG vs. THE NEW BLACKJACKS They show the radio being smashed over the Head Banger's head from last week. Dull match. Little happens before the Godwinns run in to assist Road Dog and Gunn in beating on the Blackjacks. Billy and Jesse trash the Black- jacks black cowboy hats. In come the Head Bangers to make the save. One of them is carrying a boombox all wrapped up in yellow tape (which is supposed to be the one from last week all taped back together. Sure). Marilyn Manson plays on the boombox. - A fan wearing a Hulk Hogan mask is holding up a sign reading "will wrestle for food!" Vince says "oh no, another bad movie!" - A Taka Michinoku dominated promo hypes the start of the Light Heavyweight Tournament, which kicks off next week on the live RAW from Hershey Park, Pennsylvania. McMahon then announces that Commissioner Slaughter has decided that Mankind will be allowed to face Kane at Survivor Series. - Kane and Paul Bearer come out for an interview. Bearer talks a lot, but doesn't really say anything. - Degeneration X wishes to make some comments from the lockerroom (shown to the crowd on the Titan-Tron). Rick Rude says Shawn has something to tell Bret Hart, but that actions speak louder than words. I wonder what he ... OH GOD I'M BLIND! SHAWN MICHAELS YANKS DOWN HIS PANTS AND I CAN NO LONGER SEE! OH, SWEET HEAVEN THAT IS ABOVE I'VE BEEN STRICKEN BY A SIGHT MEANT FOR NO MORTAL MAN! ONLY MY UNCANNY TYPING ABILITY EVEN ALLOWS ME TO CONTINUE THIS RECAP AT ALL! (Brief pause taken while my vision slowly recovers. More time passes as the shock wears off and I remember who I am, where I am, and what this box with words in front of me is). I dimly seem to recall what happened: Hunter held up a sign to cover the offending sight, but the bad man kept bouncing up and down, flashing his ... his ... oh the darkness is returning! - MARC MERO (w/ Sable) vs. FLASH FUNK One look at Sable pretty much cures what ails me. Another not too bad a match, but one I don't really have too much time to cover this week. Mero wins after a heelish low blow and his TKO finisher. The new attitude Marc Mero continues to develop. - Jarrett gives a sit-down interview with Jim Ross. He pretty much says what he did last week, trashing McMahon for the dopey country singer gimmick, as well as the lack of advancement possibilities in WCW. Old WWF clips help illustrate the point of just how goofy the whole "Double J" gimmick was in the first place. He compares the two promotions, pointing out how much older WCW's top wrestlers are, and how little they actually deliver in the ring. Part two of this interview will be shown next week. - LEGION OF DOOM vs. LOS BORICUAS Billy Gunn and Road Dog decide to sit in for color commentary. They're wearing what's left of the Blackjack's cowboy hats. Partway through this short match they steal the LOD's shoulderpads and put them on, then make goofy faces while posing to the crowd. The LOD get the win when Road Dog trips Miguel as he hits the ropes (Jesse thinking he was going to trip Hawk, but Hawk reversed the whip at the last moment). Both the LOD and Los Boricuas chase Gunn and Road Dog away from the ring. - The show closes with Ahmed Johnson, hunched over in pain in the back, vowing to make Steve Austin pay for poking his nose in his business. - Next week: The Hart Foundation vs. the Nation of Domination. Marlena speaks. Start of the Light Heavyweight Tournament. Steve Austin will appear ... as will Ahmed Johnson. Jarrett interview part two. Comments: Possibly one of the better taped installments of RAW. A few good matches, some interesting stuff behind the mic, as well as interviews. The only thing it really failed to do was feel all that live. I actually missed Lawler behind the mic, as Ross seemed content to let McMahon carry some of the matches (not a good thing). Michaels/Hart got a good push for Survivor Series, but the undercard is virtually non-existent (other than Kane/Mankind, which may have some kind of "No DQ" stipulation added). Owen's injury apparently puts his match with Austin in question, while Austin was already questionable for the PPV anyway. Odds are the two will go at it, but at far below a full out level match. All of the team matches are a jumbled mish-mash of meaningless match-ups. I hate to say it, but I'm not sure at this point if I'm getting Survivor Series or not (especially since Halloween Havoc put a dent in my PPV budget, and ECW's "November to Remember" is only a few weeks away). McMahon mentioned at some point during the show that Gorilla Monsoon is in the hospital recovering from a serious illness. Just thought I'd mention it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Just a few notes on Halloween Havoc: This was the first WCW PPV I've watched since last year's Starrcade, and I regret tremendously my buying it. I was talked into ordering it at the last minute by my father, as well as a co-worker who was interested in seeing it. After agreeing to split the cost I ordered it. Despite the fact that it was listed as $27.95 in the Primestar guide, the on-screen order form said it would be $29.95. Talk about insult to injury! (I'll have to wait until the bill comes to see which is correct). Three matches in and I though WCW was putting on a solid PPV. The show plummeted downhill from there. (BTW, my brother sat in for the show, but refused to chip in. I could have kicked him out, but making him watch the show was probably a better punishment). The first really bad bit was the Mongo/Wright match. Here's the scene: Mongo has Wright clearly beat, but the referee is being distracted by Debra. This alone was stupid because Debra wasn't even doing anything-the ref was just talking to her for no discernible reason. Then Bill Goldberg came in and took forever to beat up Mongo. The ref kept looking over and, upon seeing Goldberg still taking his time, would quickly look away and go back to telling Debra to stop doing whatever it was that she wasn't doing in the first place. Then as soon as Goldberg left the ring the ref turned, saw Wright on top of Mongo, and dropped to count the pin. This was all terribly executed and looked fake as hell. Next up was Disco vs. Jacquelyn. They killed well over five minutes after the bell rang by having Disco run from her-refusing to lock up. When they finally did go it Disco did little more than an armdrag. Jacquelyn got the cheap win with a roll-up from behind. Most every match after that was, at best, dull. Hall and Luger just traded rest holds. Flair and Hennig went nowhere, and the finish was a cheap DQ. Page and Savage both looked like they'd rather have been elsewhere, with the match only being slightly interesting when they used foreign objects-all of which looked silly because they were made of styrofoam or plastic. Finally there was Hogan/Piper, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though it was lightyears behind the recent Michaels/Undertaker cage match in terms of quality. Half the match revolved around Piper biting Hogan. Then several Stings came out and did nothing (though one did run in the ring-only to get punked by Savage). This was convenient, because the fake Sting was then in place to tackle the "fan" who climbed into the cage. Anyone who thinks this was a real fan obviously didn't see the PPV. First, there was a camera right by him when they jumped over the rail. They then showed every single second of his climb over the top of the cage into the ring. Then the fake Sting (who looked like Yuji Nagata) tackled him. The camera then cut over to the ref, who let Bischoff, Hogan and Savage know "something had gone horribly wrong" (*wink-wink*). Hogan goes over and starts laying in shots to the fan (who was about as big as Rey Mysterio, Jr.) Not real punches, mind you, but PRO-WRESTLING potato shots, rolling his fist so as not to connect with much force. I can see beating the guy up to show him a lesson, but how does hitting him with fake punches accomplish this? Never in all the years I've watched wrestling have I seen a run-in by a fan get this much favorable attention. Gee, if I were a fan I'd do it too. After all, not only do you get on TV, but they only pretend to beat you up! All he'll be charged with is a fine, with maybe a very minor jail sentence (which would most likely be suspended), so why not do it? The only way all this was real is if WCW was using their stupidest production crew ever, and Hogan and Savage were really dumb enough to assault a fan on live TV. After all, even though the guy broke the law, no beating at the hands of a wrestler could be justified here-especially since the guy never got closer than 30 feet from Hogan. It was Hogan (and Savage) who crossed the intervening distance, hit him, threw him in the ring and started hitting him, kicking him, and dragging him around. Even after security grabbed the guy Hogan kept "beating" on him. Rather than simply cut away to the announcers to wrap things up they instead filmed all this in loving detail. I'll say it again: if this was real, then WCW has an incredibly stupid production crew. I don't care what the guy's intent was, showing him get the crap kicked out of him should have in no way been used as entertainment, which is what WCW did. Think about that for a moment: if this was real, then WCW allowed Hulk Hogan to beat up a fan on live PPV television. Even if the beating was, in some small way, justified, does that seem like a smart thing to do? No, it wasn't self defense ... it wasn't a legitimate fight ... it was Hulk Hogan beating up what looked like an unarmed teenage boy roughly half his size. And he had Randy Savage helping him. In a PPV short on ideas, this was apparently the only one they could come up with to end it. What a shame. What was perhaps more annoying was the way all the major stars were "protected" by the booking. Savage got the win in his match, but Page only lost because "Sting" interfered. Hennig got the win, while Flair only lost via DQ. Luger sort of won, while Hall got to beat up Zbyszko. Piper beat Hogan again, but it was due to a miscue from Savage. Hogan didn't lose any face because he didn't lose cleanly, didn't lose his title and also got to beat up Piper after the match. Even Disco Inferno's embarrassing job to Jacquelyn didn't come at the cost of his title. The truth is, though, that this describes most of the matches on WCW's PPV's this year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Week's Winner: RAW. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1997 by John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those of "Internet Access, Inc". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week. Volume One, Number 102 of the "Monday Night Recap", October 27th, 1997.