Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #107 December 1st, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - The show kicks off with a replay of the Sting mannequin falling through the mat last week, with Tony Schiavone asking the question "where is the real Sting?" - Tony crows over the fact that Larry Zbyszko got Eric Bischoff to agree to a match. The clip of the agreement from last week is show. Here comes Bischoff out to talk to Mean Gene Okerlund. After wallowing in his own crappulence for a bit, he informs us all that the offer to a match was only good for last week, and in no way inferred any kind of agreement for a match at a later date. Eric says the only way he'd fight Zbyszko is if Larry could put up Nitro as a stipulation of the match. Eric says Larry doesn't have that authority and thus no match. Larry, Tony and Mike grumble about what a coward he is. Oh, how I wish his cowardice wasn't just part of the angle so I could say the same. In reality, though, we all know Bischoff is a mighty, mighty man. - JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. Eddie Guerrero joins the announcing crew for color commentary (consisting mostly of him saying what move he would have used instead of those used in the match). Eddie offers out a challenge to Dean Malenko when his name is brought up. Nice to see Guerrera back from wherever he's been, though it was hard to get fired up for him in this match. Most cruiserweight matches of late have been very sloppy, full of missed or blown spots. This match was at the other end of the spectrum, looking very over-choreographed. Good match, though really short (less than five minutes) with the outcome never really in doubt. The match followed the standard formula of Mysterio taking all the punishment, only to come back with the springboard huracanrana for the "surprise" pin. - Tenay throws out the "rumor" that Sting may have been injured by the NWO, and that's why he hasn't been seen lately. - WRATH (w/ James Vandenberg & Mortis) vs. HUGH MORRUS Wrath shows he is one of the most under used big men in the sport by making something out of nothing in this match. Early in the match he does one of the moves of the night by nailing Morrus with a forward somersault off the apron to the floor. He follows that up back in the ring with a clothesline off the top turnbuckle. The finish comes when Mortis (at ringside) wraps a small chain around his boot, then jumps up on the apron and holds his boot up for Wrath to throw Morrus into it. Morrus ducks and Wrath hits the boot. Morrus knocks Mortis to the floor, does the same to Vandenberg, then nails a moonsault for the win. - Schiavone mentions that Glacier and Ernest Miller will go at it this weekend on WCW Saturday Night. That's fine with me, since that's the proper place for matches like that. I'm still chuckling over an E-Mail I got from someone this past week telling me that WCW doesn't have stupid gimmick characters like the WWF has (citing the Undertaker as an example). Apparently he truly believes that Glacier, Mortis and Wrath all come from Tibet or Dimension X or Castle Greyskull or wherever the hell it is they're supposedly from. - "Hollywood" Hogan comes out for his interview. It should be noted at this time that a huge number of fans in the audience, and virtually every one at ringside, is wearing black-and-white Sting masks. Also, a great many of them are holding anti-NWO signs (something that is completely out of character for your average Nitro crowd). Some of the news sites are reporting that the masks were actually placed on every seat on the floor of the arena, and handed out to anyone who wanted one-possibly as they came into the arena. Rumor also has it that the anti-NWO signs at ringside and along the aisle were handed out, which wouldn't surprise me a bit (since the WCW crowds of late have been fiercely pro-NWO). This is all significant because Tenay and Schiavone tried to pass it all off as a "spontaneous show of unity and support for WCW" on the part of the fans. (Sort of like how all those Iraqis show up at the government palaces in Baghdad in a "spontaneous show of unity and support for Saddam Hussein"). Hogan says Sting is a coward for not showing up again, and calls the fans wearing the Sting masks cowards as well, living in denial over what a big coward Sting is. Hogan says if all the fans don't take off the masks something "bad is going to happen tonight!" No matter how hard Hogan tries to work the crowd as a heel, they still chant all the NWO catch- phrases along with him ("Too Sweet!" "4 Life!" Etc.) Hogan then drops to the floor and gets into the face of this 100 year old lady standing dead center on camera at ringside. Hogan snarls at her as she growls back at him, shaking her fist in his face and threatening to claw his eyes out. Security Chief Doug Dellinger stands nearby, making no effort whatsoever to keep the two apart (and turning his head, trying hard not to laugh out loud at the granny's antics). She takes several swings at Hogan, yet no one stops her and the camera shows it all. - YUJI NAGATA (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. PRINCE IAUKEA This match is almost all Nagata, until Iaukea nails a crossbody off the top and covers for the upset pin. Whatever. They show an NWO promo intermixing footage of Sting being beat up and a Sting action figure being beat up by NWO action figures. - Nitro Girls. - Tickets for Souled Out 1998 go on sale soon. - FACES OF FEAR (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. HARLEM HEAT (w/ Jacquelyn) Tony urges the fans to put the Sting masks back on. A big mess. Booker T. somehow pins the Barbarian as Meng slaps the Tongan Death Grip on Stevie Ray. Jacquelyn tackles Jimmy Hart down on the floor. Booker T. then brings in the balsa wood chair, but Meng punches through it and slaps the Grip on Booker T. Meng only releases the Grip once he notices that Hart is being mauled on the floor by Jacquelyn. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Scott Hall and Kevin Nash come to the ring. Schiavone says Hall can do his little "survey", and that a great many of the fans will chant the NWO catchphrases along with him, and that tons of them may be wearing NWO t-shirts, and that they may cheer him on madly ... but we all know it's not the fans' "true sentiments". How? "Look at all the Sting masks!" says Tony. What garbage. As expected, the crowd roars "NWO" along with Hall, and pops for him and Nash. The camera picks out someone wearing a Sting mask and Tony acts like this is evidence that ALL the fans are fiercely anti-NWO. - SCOTT HALL (w/ Kevin Nash) vs. DISCO INFERNO Hall beats the everluvvin' crap out of Disco, pinning him after the Outsider Edge. Virtually no offense form the Inferno this time out. Somewhere between a third and half the crowd cheers Hall's victory. - Tony and Larry discuss how badly the fans wearing the Sting masks has rattled the NWO. Hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story? - Mean Gene interviews J.J. Dillon, who says Eric Bischoff WILL face Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade. Eric comes out, yelling that there's no way Dillon can force him to wrestle. Dillon says he can (though he never bothers to explain just exactly how he can make him wrestle). Dillon says he's going to enjoy seeing Larry kick his keister. Bischoff yells "no, no, NO!" but Mean Gene tells him he's too late. Eric then gets a sly look on his face and says "alright!" as he backs out of the arena. It's bad enough that Bischoff is going to beat Zbyszko (thus winning Nitro for the NWO) but do they have to shamelessly trick the fans into supporting this? ("You can't make me wrestle!" "Yes I can!" "Curses ... you have outwitted me! Sadly, I must wrestle Larry Zbyszko. Tee-hee ... I just won Nitro. Imagine that.") Couldn't they have at least bothered to explain under what authority Dillon can force Bischoff to wrestle? Of course you all realize that Scott Hall is going to help Bischoff beat Larry. Eric will then have a victory to his credit over Zbyszko. Meanwhile Larry and WCW will clamor for a match with Hall to get revenge. That match may or may not even happen. Even if Zbyszko and Hall did face, and Larry won that match, it's irrelevant, as the NWO will have already gotten Nitro and Bischoff will have gotten his ego win over Zbyszko. The WCW fans cheer on Larry's shallow victory, completely forgetting that they've already been screwed over. That's the biggest problem with the whole NWO angle: nothing will EVER make up for all the crap they've pulled, all the "wins" they've scored and all the "crimes" they've committed. No payback on behalf of WCW and its fans will ever be enough. As I once said, Sting would have had to beat Hogan for the title, leaving him in a bloody coma, shattering the NWO and banning all of their wrestlers from WCW, just to get a suitable level of revenge for the fans. Hell, I'm now starting to doubt that Sting will even get a clean win over Hogan at Starrcade. The slogan for Starrcade is "Paybacks Are Hell". WCW is having a hard time convincing me that this "payback" will be anything more than a "minor inconvenience" to Hogan and the NWO. - PSYCHOSIS vs. ULTIMO DRAGON Psychosis, for some reason, is wearing a Juventud Guerrera mask (or one very similar). His big, poofy hair is missing. Not as choreographed as the earlier Mysterio/Guerrera match, though I think this match was shorter. Good match, regardless. Ultimo wins with the Dragon Sleeper. (It's just a damn dirty shame that Tony SChiavone spent the ENTIRE match talking about Starrcade and Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff). - The worst Nitro Party video yet. Several fat, sweaty, sloppy hicks chowing down and making fools of themselves. Turns out they're from Wisconsin. No surprise to me. (Ooooh ... border war. Damn Packers). - Chris Benoit comes to the ring for his match. Raven, his scheduled opponent, says he only wrestles when he wants to. "Kidman ... get him!" What! This is going to be a terrible match, right? Right?! Boy, was I wrong. - CHRIS BENOIT vs. BILLY KIDMAN (w/ Sign Guy Skank) The announcers still don't have a name for him, but according to Mark Madden it's "Skank". His schtick is that he carries signs. This week it's "Kidman World Tour 1997" (among others). Benoit starts out slapping Kidman around, tossing him all over the ring. He essentially has him beat with a variation of the Boston Crab when he releases the hold to taunt Raven. ("If you want to be the man, you've got to beat the man!") Kidman suddenly turns things around by headbutting Benoit in the gut. He follows this up with a bulldog after running up the turnbuckles. A flying tackle knocks Benoit to the floor. Kidman whips Raven along the rail, where he's blasted by Perry Saturn with a clothes- line. Benoit drops to the mats. Kidman springs to the apron and comes off with a Shooting Star Press! He tosses Benoit back in the ring and vaults over the ropes, landing a legdrop. He then whips Benoit into the corner, catching him with a clothesline off the ropes. Kidman covers, but can't get more than a two count. Tony Schiavone, meanwhile, has talked about little more than Starrcade, almost completely ignoring the match. Benoit finally snaps out of his funk and maneuvers Kidman into an upside-down suplex, dropping it into a backbreaker. Kidman escapes from a belly-to- back suplex with a series of stiff chops. Moments later Benoit slaps on the Crippler Crossface, for the sure win. In comes Raven's Flock. Benoit holds most of them off, dropping Saturn with a belly-to-back suplex. Kidman, Skank and Scotty Riggs are sent flying. Benoit then gets in a staredown with Hammer, which distracts him long enough for Raven to lay in a kick to the gut and DDT him. Saturn briefly slaps on his "Rings of Saturn" submission hold. Raven kneels over Benoit-"feeling his pain", I guess. - Nitro Girls. - BUFF BAGWELL (w/ Vincent) vs. LEX LUGER Buff and Lex compare physiques, then easily slip into the formulaic Lex Luger match: Luger takes all the punishment, hulks up and signals for the Torture Rack. Vincent comes off the top, but ends up in the Rack himself (drawing the DQ for win for Luger). Luger then puts Bagwell in the Rack. - Another NWO promo. This one encapsulates a year-and-a-half worth of Diamond Dallas Page beatings. - CURT HENNIG vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE This one was pretty much the typical match we see from these two (as well as Randy Savage, Ric Flair and a few others): good, but not particularly great, or even memorable. The usual NWO run-in finish comes into play when Rick Rude comes out and pulls the ref out of the ring just as Page was covering for what was sure to be a win and U.S. Title change. Rude tosses the ref to the ground. The rest of the NWO runs in and Page is beaten like a government mule. Savage nails him with the U.S. belt. Hogan then applies a half-assed Diamond Cutter. A Sting mask is put on him and Hogan Cutters him again-this time on the title belt. The show ends with Hogan being held back from attacking the old lady at ringside. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: This show featured the more cruiserweights than it has in a long time and the overall match quality was way up because of it. It wouldn't surprise me if we see Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko next week, with Rey Mysterio Jr. either watching from the aisle or sitting in for color commentary. A Triangle Match between the three seems a lock for Starrcade. Hmmm ... an angle ... a good match ... the start of a feud ... I believe we have a winner finally in Raven vs. Benoit. Gosh darn, I'm actually interested to see if Benoit puts together his own group to watch his back. Finally all the pieces have come together in all the right ways. Anyone else think Wrath is being woefully wasted? Who did Disco Inferno piss off? I don't know if this was the best Nitro of the last few weeks (months), but I found it to be the most entertaining. Too bad they couldn't have come up with a good finish to the show. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Taped 11/25. Length: Two Hours. Location: Roanoke, Virginia. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. - The Road Dog and "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn's theft of the World Tag Team Titles is recounted. - Mr. B.A. and the Dawg head to the ring to crow about their title victory. Dedicating their interview to "the memory" of the Legion of Doom, they announce that they will defend the titles later in the show against the Head Bangers. Hawk and Animal, sans makeup and dressed in street clothes, run in and nail them from behind, chasing them from the ring. The two vow that the new champs won't escape from the building tonight with the belts. Jim Ross runs down the upcoming card. Most notable is the fact that they will be showing footage from the end of the Michaels/Hart match from Survivor Series. Who screwed who? You decide. - Sunny sashays to the ring to do the honors ... - TAKA MICHINOKU vs. AGUILA Nice match, but still one that is hampered by the ring configuration, which leaves only one place for all the ring-to-floor high spots to take place. They start out down on the mat, trading bow-and-arrow maneuvers. The first big spot comes when Aguila handsprings over the top rope, landing on his feet on the floor. Taka follows close behind with his running plancha off the top. Some back-and-forth action ensues, with another floor spot then being set up. Aguila jumps on the apron, runs up the turnbuckles and comes off the top with a twisting corkscrew moonsault. From there the match stays in the ring, with Taka soon after getting the win with the Michinoku Driver. - They replay Goldust dumping Marlena, a quick clip of him walking out of the Survivor Series, the hammer attack, then last week's return of Luna. Jerry Lawler conduct an in-ring interview with Luna, who does all the talking as Goldust-who has really achieved weirdness-crawls around on all fours on the mat. Goldust's hair is painted pink. His usual outfit is missing sleeves, gloves and boots. Goldust is barefoot. He has new tattoos on his arms, spikes on his shoulders and chest, a g-string over his gold outfit and a rubber ball stuffed in his mouth. Luna keeps him in check with a chain attached to a dog collar around Goldust's neck. Luna says he's now "the Artist Formerly Known As 'Goldust'". The interview concludes with Luna biting the rubber ball out of his mouth and the two slipping each other the tongue. Okay ... I'm traumatized now. The LOD are shown suiting up in the back as they go to break. - D-LO BROWN (w/ the NOD) vs. RECON (w/ the Truth Commission) vs. CHAINZ (w/ the DOA) vs. MIGUEL PEREZ (w/ Los Boricuas) This one wasn't worth typing all that up. This is a "Four Corners Elimination" match. Recon gets eliminated first, followed by D-Lo. Soon afterwards the match is thrown out when everyone (except the Truth Commission's Jackal) enters the ring. Numerous officials come out to break up the brawl. You know, they really need to do a sixteen man "Loser Leaves Town" match, with only the final man remaining being allowed to stay. - They show a quick promo for the WWF's newest website: "shopzone.wwf.com". You can now order all your favorite t-shirts, videos and so forth online. - Degeneration X comes out to deliver comments. Shawn Michaels is in a wheelchair. Shawn says he played Jim Neidhart last week like a sucker: just as they did with Bret Hart. Helmsley calls Neidhart the biggest idiot he's ever seen. Triple H then says Sgt. Slaughter can make their match at In Your House any kind of match he wants, but that he (Helmsley) is saving his biggest gun for Slaughter's "old Lady". Shawn says he's in a wheelchair because Chyna has been working him out in preparation for the match with Shamrock. Shawn says he's trained his legs to withstand any pain. To make a long story short, (too late), Shawn sits there as Hunter twists his foot all the way around several times. Yup ... fake leg. This was worth seeing, but not really worth repeating, you know? - They replay the closing seconds of the Michaels/Hart match at Survivor Series. No video trickery. No audio trickery. They simply show the application of the Sharpshooter, the ref taking a quick look and calling for the bell. Those of us who "know" everything that happened can think whatever we want, but the vast majority of the fans (who don't have Internet access, read the sheets, call the hotlines or even saw the PPV) will all come away with varying opinions: Bret quit ... the ref blew the call ... Michaels paid off the ref ... etc. The "official" wrestling history and the truth are now two separate things (as they have always been in professional wrestling for the last fifty years), and there's nothing any of us "smart marks" can do about it. As I said above, "why let the truth get in the way of a good story"? I'd no sooner quit watching wrestling over this as I would over WCW and their Sting masks. All we can do is grumble about what we don't like and move on. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - Rocky Maivia's page from Steve Austin last week is replayed. - ROCKY MAIVIA (w/ the Nation of Domination) vs. VADER Rocky, wearing the Intercontinental belt, announces that this will be a "non-title" match. Before the match can really get started the camera swings over to the rear of the crowd. With Stone Cold behind the wheel, the "Austin 3:16" pickup enters the arena. AC/DC's "Back in Black" blares from its sound system as Austin climbs on top of the roof of the truck, carrying what's let of a sixpack of Budweiser. as you might imagine the crowd goes nuts. The crowd chants "Rocky sucks!" as Maivia tries to run away. (The other Nation members, for some reason, keep him from running away). Numerous other Rocky chants break out during the course of the match, as well as chants for Austin. The match itself was okay. Vader is in complete control until Rocky catches Vader in a splash off the turnbuckles, turning it into a powerbomb. The match goes back and forth, with the Nation lending a helping hand when the ref isn't looking. Goldust eventually comes out and Pearl Harbors Vader on the floor. Rocky gets a two-and-a-half count, but Vader kicks out and exits the ring, chasing Goldust and Luna from the ring area. Rocky wins via countout. Austin flips him off. - They replay the Ken Shamrock highlights package that they showed a week or so ago. - SCOTT TAYLOR vs. BRIAN CHRISTOPHER. No match. Before Christopher can even come out the lights dim and Kane appears. A chokeslam and Tombstone later and Christopher has advanced by default in the Light Heavyweight tournament. He will face Taka Michinoku for the title at In Your House "Degeneration X' this Sunday. Paul Bearer reminds the Undertaker that all this carnage will stop when he steps into the ring with Kane. - As Ahmed Johnson walks to the ring they show a photo of the car accident Ahmed was in about a week earlier. Seems he rolled a rental car. - AHMED JOHNSON vs. JEFF JARRETT No match. Jeff Jarrett comes out and says the WWF still hasn't lived up to the stipulations of the contract between the two. Jarrett says Ahmed isn't a worthy opponent (and adds that Ahmed is one of the reasons that he left the WWF in the first place). Ahmed calls him a chickensh*t. Commissioner Slaughter comes out and says Jarrett is right: he doesn't have to wrestle. Slaughter says Jarrett will wrestle at the PPV, though, as he's lined up a top quality opponent for him: the Undertaker. - A highlights package of Sgt. Slaughter is shown. Old clips are mixed with recent comments. - ROAD DOG/"BAD ASS" BILLY GUNN vs. THE HEAD BANGERS It isn't very long until the LOD run in, chasing the tag champs off. Once again Gunn and the Dog jump in a waiting sportscar in the parking lot. The Head Bangers, robbed of a chance to win the belts, give the LOD an earfull. Some shoving ensues. - DX's trashing of Bret Hart, as well as the humiliation of Jim Neidhart is recapped. - A clip of Butterbean on the Don Imus show is played. "Marvelous" Marc Mero and Sable then come to the ring. Ross announces that Sable will be a celebrity ring girl at the Oscar De La Hoya boxing PPV card which Butterbean will be taking part of this Saturday night. Jim Cornette interviews Mero. Corny says Mero, despite all his achievements, is in Sable's shadow. Mero responds by asking Sable what she's ever done? After telling her she's nothing and is his property, he then shows off some of his glove work. Sable wears pads on her hands with Butterbean's picture on them. Mero throws some punches, knocking one of the mits offer her left hand. He asks her if she's trying to make him look bad? He then says that while he was out with his injury, she was busy modeling everyone's t-shirts instead of his. She eventually starts to cry and he tells her to beat it. Ahhh ... the misogynistic glory days of Randy Savage and Elizabeth have returned! - They show more Hart/Michaels footage, this time never before seen isolated shots of McMahon and Hart as the match ended. - HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Degeneration X) vs. JIM "THE ANVIL" NEIDHART Neidhart pretty much has the match in hand until Shawn jumps up on the apron. As the Anvil deals with that, Chyna slides a steel chair in to Helmsley. One quick whack and HHH covers for the pin. All three then stomp on Neidhart, stopping only to Pedigree him on the chair, then spraypaint "W.C.W." on his back. Neidhart powers up for a brief comeback, nailing the two with a clothesline, but Chyna tackles him and he's handcuffed to the top rope. Sgt. Slaughter charges in for the save, but Shawn and Hunter take him down in the corner. Ken Shamrock then runs in, taking Shawn up and over in a belly-to-belly suplex. Slaughter, meanwhile, slaps the Cobra Clutch on Helmsley. Neidhart holds Chyna back. Shawn taps out and Hunter flails helplessly as the show ends. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Good, classic finish to build up to a PPV. I actually thought this week's show was really good up to that fifteen or twenty minute stretch where they started promising matches but didn't deliver. Nevertheless, it was overall a surprisingly good show (especially for a taped one). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: I still haven't decided whether I'm going to get the PPV or not. Having just bought the ECW PPV, that makes more than $110 I've spent on PPV's in the last three months alone! I don't plan on getting Starrcade, but who knows what the other members of my family may decide at the last minute. I'm still "so-so" on this overall card (though really on paper it's one of the strongest of the last several months). I think I'll let it pass, then maybe pick it up on one of the replays if it turned out to be really good. Who knows, though. Speaking of the ECW PPV, I thought it was good, not as good as I'd hoped it would be. I just didn't think it offered all that much more than what ECW usually shows on TV. It wasn't enough to prematurely turn me off the next ECW PPV (I'll have to wait and see how that card shapes up), but that makes two ECW PPV's in a row which failed to blow me away. Next week should be huge for both shows. Can WCW resist the temptation to bring out Bret Hart. Will the WWF FINALLY kick off a WWF/ECW feud? Will Shamrock win the title? How far will WCW go to counter the live RAW? I was actually impressed somewhat by both shows this week. This was the first time in a while that I actually watched some of the Nitro replay to see what I missed while RAW was on. (Lately I've just waited until the next night when I review both shows for the Recap). Watching them again for the Recap wasn't as uplifting an experience for either as they were live Monday night. Given that, I've really got to give the win to the show that held my interest more that night. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 107 of the "Monday Night Recap", December 1st, 1997. John Petrie petrie@bji.net Slobberknocker Central http://www.bji.net/pages/petrie/index.html