Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #112 January 5th, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Atlanta, Georgia. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - The black NWO limos pull up. "Hollywood" Hogan and Konan climb out of the lead car. Groups of NWO members pile out of the second and third cars. Tony Schiavone tells us (rather loudly) that this is a clear sign of dissension in the ranks. I dunno Tony, looks more like a clear sign that 38 people won't fit into one stretch limo-short of a lot of lap hopping. A quick look at the arena interior shows WCW did indeed pull in a massive crowd. Over 30,000 (with a little over 20,000 paying, making both the crowd and gate total the largest ever for a Nitro, or RAW for that matter). Schiavone explains that the "court injunction", which has forced all the fans to follow the WCW daisy chain over the weekend and watch every WCW show, still prevents them from showing the finish to last week's Nitro (remember, the cameras went off right in the middle of the Hogan/Sting match). On WCW Main Event they nearly guaranteed the footage would be show on WCW Saturday Night. On WCW Saturday Night they said wait until Nitro. Same with WCW Pro. Now it's Nitro and guess what? No footage. When will we see it? Out comes the man with that answer ... - Mean Gene interviews J.J. Dillon. Dillon instantly gets off on a bad note by saying WCW was forced to end early last week due to "programming restraints". What, you mean that "Babylon 5" special which aired AFTER the replay? That show-which was aired a half dozen other times last week as well, was what forced TNT to cut short the biggest episode ever of the highest rated weekly series on all of cable TV? Or maybe it was one of those 4:00 AM episodes of "Gilligan's Island" which put the kibosh on the most anticipated rematch in the history of televised wrestling? C'mon WCW, lie to us if you have to, but don't repeat the lie, then try to use it as a piece of cheese to drag us from show to show. Anyway ... Dillon, when asked when we can see the footage, says we'll get to see it as part of the inaugural broadcast of "WCW Thunder", which airs at 8:00 PM Eastern this Thursday. Also as part of that show, says Dillon, we'll see footage from the Hogan/Sting match at Starrcade, including actual footage of the three count by Nick Patrick. (Do you think WCW will resist the temptation, or will they succumb and tamper with the footage to speed up the non-fast three count?) Dillon says a judge is in possession of the tape (of last week's post-Nitro footage). He also mentions that Sting is still the Champion, which seems to deflate any kind of notion that there is a controversy surrounding the title. Okay, there's controversy, but no more so than usual, right? - Chris Jericho comes to the ring and asks for the fans to forgive him for flying off the handle last week. He calls himself a role model which we all look up to, officially signaling his heel turn. (Look for new facial hair in the next few weeks. Facial hair=evil.) The crowd boos him, showing that last week's tirade adequately conveyed the desired message. - CHRIS JERICHO vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE Page moiders him, putting him away in short order with the Diamond Cutter. Post-match Jericho throws another hissy fit. The crowd reaction for DDP and his finisher may have been the loudest of the night. - Mean Gene interviews WCW Executive V.P. Nick Lambros. Lambros reads a statement from WCW, which says any contracted wrestler who violates a WCW policy will be fined and suspended. This applies equally to NWO members as well. My question is what exactly the hell does it mean? Beat up a ref and you'll get suspended? That wasn't true before? How do they enforce it? Look for some really dumb angle to hit in the next few days or weeks, with this being laid as the groundwork to pre-explain some nonsense or other. This was akin to announcing "any wrestler who gets pinned ... loses his match!" Well, duh! - BILL GOLDBERG vs. STEVIE RAY Goldberg manhandles Ray for an easy victory, pinning him after the Jackhammer. - Nitro Girls. - JOHN NORD vs. THE BARBARIAN (w/ Jimmy Hart) Nord looks in good shape, though is almost unrecognizable compared to his AWA or WWF "Berzerker" days. As he heads to the ring Mike Tenay hypes the first ever WCW appearance of a former WWF Tag Team Champion later in the show. (It's the British Bulldog! No wait ... it's Jim Neidhart! No, it's Marty Jannetty! I've got it, it's Bart Gunn! Pedro Morales?) Nord looks like a cross between Kevin Greene and Dave Sullivan (and his ring skills place him somewhere in between those two as well). This was not a good match, but it wasn't a bad one either. Well ... yeah, yeah I guess it was pretty bad. Well ... let's just split the difference and call it awful. Anyway, the Barbarian's one move of the match is a Pumphandle Suplex. Nord eventually wins this battle of men who have used the nickname "Barbarian" in their careers with a unique version of the Camel Clutch. - Mean Gene interviews Eric Bischoff (who now has his own music). He denies there are any problems in the NWO. He says Hogan won at Starrcade, beat Sting last week, and that the tape is NOT in the hands of any kind of judge. (The irony here? He's actually telling the truth on two of these three charges.) He also points out that Nitro should be the NWO's since he knocked out Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade for a 20 count (which also is arguably true). This brings Larry, at the announcing desk, to his feet. The crowd cheers, Bischoff says "c'mon!", then walks out. - The legendary Chief Jay Strongbow is shown in the crowd. - They replay Ultimo Dragon's winning of the Cruiserweight Title last week. The next match will determine a challenger to face Ultimo for the belt next week. - PSYCHOSIS vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA The usual good cruiserweight match from these two, though something of an unusual one (I know that doesn't make sense). Less choreographed than the usual lucha style, with more emphasis on what they did in the ring. Unfortunately that meant the high spots seemed more randomly inserted in than developing from the flow of the match. The regular hardcores in the crowd were into it, but most seemed far from blown away. Guerrera gets the somewhat surprising win with the 450 degree splash. - To illustrate the point of NWO dissension, they show us footage from the blow-up Hogan and Nash had eight months ago, back in April of '97. Hey, show some footage of Hogan fighting Savage in '96! That'll REALLY give the impression of "tension" within the group, won't it?! Sometime around now (or perhaps during the previous match) they announce that the Larry Zbyszko/Eric Bischoff match from Starrcade will be show- apparently in its entirety-on this Thursday's Thunder broadcast. Great, so now Eric Bischoff gets to look good in front of the millions who didn't see the PPV. Kicking Zbyszko's ass and forcing Bret Hart to be the one to beat you isn't enough, is it Eric? You just HAVE to make sure all us WCW fans know you're one kick-ass dude, don't you? HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Nitro Girls. - BOOKER T. vs. PRINCE IAUKEA The crowd seems solidly behind Booker T., who's starting to get Bill Goldberg-like reactions from the fans. Booker wins with the Harlem Hangover tumbling legdrop off the top. - They show a few stills from Starrcade of Nick Patrick's allegedly fast three count, reminding us that we'll see the actual video on Thunder. Will there be any matches on that show as well? I mean, we're getting footage of that, last week's post-Nitro, Bischoff vs. Zbyszko ... but will there be any wrestlers in the building Thursday? - SCOTT NORTON/BUFF BAGWELL/KONAN vs. THE STEINER BROTHERS/RAY TRAYLOR Vincent accompanies the NWO; Ted DiBiase with the good guys. Imagine a slop pen full of pigs fighting over an old head of cabbage: that about describes this match. At one point they try to get fancy and do a lucha-esque spot where each wrestler gets knocked from the ring to the floor by a successive wrestler, with Scott Steiner being the last man in the ring. Tension is teased between the Steiner Brothers when Scott hoists Konan up for the Bulldog of the top from Rick Steiner, but Scott drops Konan instead of holding him up there long enough for Rick to jump off. Rick ends up getting knocked off the ropes by Bagwell. Scott, meanwhile, gets the pin after nailing Konan with the Steiner Screwdriver (which looked like a split-legged forward Tombstone Piledriver). You know what the sad thing is? This was a PPV match! Look back at the card for Starrcade. This was the six-man match, as advertised, for the PPV. You may want to keep this in mind when considering ordering the next WCW PPV. - Nitro Girls. - This week's Nitro Party Video. This time some students at one of our finer institutions of learning has set up a projection screen in a quad, then got a whole bunch of people drunk in time for Nitro. These videos are starting to make "Animal House" look like a college recruiting tape. - RICK MARTEL vs. BRAD ARMSTRONG Martel is the ex-WWF Tag Team Champion. (Oh yeah ... Strike Force.) Martel gets the easy win in a solid, but slow match with the Boston Crab (which he's redubbed the Quebec Crab). An instant feud with Chris Jericho is suggested and hinted to by the announcers. - Nitro Girls. - CHRIS BENOIT/STEVE MCMICHAEL vs. SATURN/SCOTTY RIGGS Riggs waves for Lodi to join him at ringside as they pass the Flock. The match itself pretty much involves Mongo taking all the punishment until he can tag in Benoit. Benoit then seems close to winning when Billy Kidman climbs to the top turnbuckle. The ref is distracted ordering him down, which allows Raven to slip in and nail Benoit with a DDT. Saturn covers for the pin. Let me just stop the Recap at this point to say that this has been one of the dullest Nitro's I've ever seen. Were it not for the cruiserweight match, this show would have been a complete disaster up to this point, which is just so sad given the guys on the card, their potential, and the massive, hungry-for-action crowd in attendance. While I'm sure they weren't as mind numbingly bored as I was, I'm sure many of them had to have been disappointed with the quality of the show thus far. Some of them had to be begging something, ANYTHING interesting to happen. - Mean Gene brings out Ric Flair, who obviously gets a huge reaction. Flair almost immediately rips into Bret Hart, asking how a guy like that can possibly call himself the best when Ric Flair is around. Cue the music and Hart makes his way to the ring. The two shakes hands: a sight Okerlund says makes him leery. Flair says not to worry: that it's just a token gesture between two WCW stars. Flair says he's glad Hart is there because all the fans want to hear Hart say "that little saying you have". "What little saying?" "That saying about yesterday, tomorrow, here and gone ... about yourself ... you know what I'm talking about!" Hart briefly reels through his "Best There Is ... " line, adding a little "whoo!" at the end. (The crowd is suddenly no longer on Hart's side at all.) Flair asks him to say it again, with him standing right there in front him. Hart says it again. (The crowd, choosing sides, is vastly in Flair's favor.) Then Flair says Hart may think he's better than Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr. and Gene Kiniski, but just let him try and tell Flair to Flair's face that he thinks he's the better man. Hart says you have to beat the man to be the man, and as best as he could remember, he'd already beaten the man. He takes his jacket off, drawing "uh-oh's" from the crowd and announcers. Flair says he's not what he was ten years ago (when he could wrestle a broom, now he needs someone with a pulse), but just maybe Hart is going to have to show him again to convince him. Hart starts to leave and Flair grabs him, saying he didn't hear Bret say to his face that he's the better man. Hart leaves as Flair struts about the ring. - RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE (w/ Elizabeth) vs. LEX LUGER Michael Buffer does the intros. Nick Patrick is in the ring to officiate the match, but J.J. Dillon yanks him, announcing that he is suspended pending a review of Starrcade. Eric Bischoff comes out to voice his approval, but nothing comes of it. They take a last commercial break before introducing Luger. Bagwell and Norton show up at ringside as the match starts. Savage looks fired up, but Luger wrestles with all the skill of a tailor's dummy (as usual). The match seems to be progressing to the usual finish, with Savage mostly in control, when Luger-out of nowhere-rolls Savage in a small package for the pin. Savage yells at referee Randy Anderson for making a fast count. He sends Luger to the floor, then smashes him into the steps. He grabs a chair, but Eric Bischoff runs up from behind and grabs it (presumably to keep Savage from getting himself suspended). Savage whirls around and nails Bischoff. He pulls the chair away and goes after Luger again, but this time "Hollywood" Hogan is on the scene. The two start shoving each other. Kevin Nash strolls by, turns, and clothes- lines Savage from behind. Hogan starts yelling "what's going on?!", then holds Savage back from chasing after Nash. Hogan tells him that Luger is the enemy here, and that they should finish him off. Bagwell and Norton are close at hand, making it four-on-one against Luger. Before they can attack, Sting rushes to the ring and stands beside Luger. Just as the attack begins they go off the air. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: The overrun this week was about eighteen minutes, comprised almost solely of the Flair/Hart interview and main event. Without these two things, as well as the cruiserweight match, this show was a bomb. I don't mean "da bomb!", I'm talking a stink bomb. During the main event they mention that there is a big announcement going to be made regarding Flair and Hart at Thunder. Presumably it's that the two will face each other at Souled Out. Announcements, Starrcade video, old Nitro footage ... will there be any matches? I'm not sure if they announced in on TV, but the press release for the show says it'll be three hours long in its debut. The rumored main event is Hogan vs. DDP, but nothing whatsoever leading up to that was presented tonight. This could well have been WCW's biggest show ever on TBS and what do they do? Announce it a mere three days before air time without benefit of a main event. Can a Flair/Hart feud live up to the intensity of this interview? I just don't know. I'm sure Hart has to be thrilled by his being pushed into what is already being perceived by the fans as a heel role. Having him go after Hogan is a good thing. Going after Flair? I just don't know. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Length: Two Hours. Location: New Haven, Connecticut. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross, Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly. - We're outside and Stone Cold Steve Austin seems to be headed somewhere. His destination? Whoop-ass country. Looks like he's planning on taking several other WWF Superstars along with him. Austin promises to do unto others before they can do unto him at the Royal Rumble. Since he isn't scheduled to wrestle tonight, this is the only place I can fit in a *KEE-RASH!* - FAAROOQ (w/ the Nation of Domination) vs. KEN SHAMROCK Kevin Kelly reminds us that the Nation is responsible for injuring Ken Shamrock several months ago. During the match itself Jim Ross says the Rumble this year will be an hour long, with each wrestler coming in at two minute intervals. There had been some reports on the Net that they would only be using the one minute interval. Not too bad a match, actually. Faarooq doesn't look nearly as fat, old and slow as he usually does in the beginning. Rocky Maivia comes to the ring midway through the match. He's shown issuing instructions to D-Lo and Kama, though they don't seem to get what he wants of them (and are, obviously, continuing the "who's the boss?" aspect of the impending Rocky/Faarooq feud). Faarooq dominates the match, but Ken starts to turn it around with a standing huracanrana. Faarooq works Shamrock into a corner and Kama, responding to a look from Faarooq, retrieves a steel chair. That's Rocky's cue to jump up on the apron and distract the ref. All seems to be working, except that Shamrock reverses the whip and throws Faarooq into the steel chair Kama has now raised up into the corner. Shamrock catches the staggering Faarooq and takes him up and over with a belly-to-belly suplex. Shamrock covers for the pin. Faarooq and Kama are shown exchanging words. Maivia enters the ring and get into a pointing and shouting contest, teasing a fight. Suddenly Steve Austin runs in, kicks Shamrock in the gut, Stone Cold Stunners him, then kicks Maivia and lays him out with the Stunner as well. Austin makes his escape through the frenzied crowd. After a hefty run-down of things yet to come, they show James E. Cornette leading two guys in suits to the ring. One of them is carrying a wrestling title belt. Commercial. - Cornette says that in an effort to bring wrestling back to the WWF, he has brought in Dennis Corraluzzo and Howard Brody, President and V.P. of the National Wrestling Alliance, and that they have brought with them the NWA North American Heavyweight Title, which will be awarded to the winner of the next match. Cornette mentions how the NWA is the oldest wrestling organization in existence in North America, with former champions such as Lou Thesz and Harley Race. Cornette introduces the two competitors for the match: Barry Windham, who-as Jim Ross points out-isn't referred to as "Blackjack Windham" by Cornette; and Jeff Jarrett. (Jarrett still has that ugly robe, but his ring music has improved.) Cornette joins the announcing crew and hypes Windham and Jarrett's second generation status. Michael Cole notes that the NWA is the real thing, not a bogus promotion. Cornette talks about how the NWA has ties back to Karl Gotch in 1905, to William Muldoon 1877 and the Illinois Wrestling Champion in 1848-who just happened to be Abraham Lincoln! Pure malarkey, but funny nonetheless. The match is apparently under NWA rules, prompting Cole or Kelly to ask if throwing an opponent over the top rope would result in a DQ? - JEFF JARRETT vs. BLACKJACK WINDHAM Jarrett and Windham do a solid match, but the finish comes rather quickly when Cornette takes advantage of the ref's being tied up with Corraluzzo at ringside. Cornette enters the ring and nails Windham in the back with his tennis racquet. Jarrett covers for the pin, winning the NWA North American Heavyweight Title. Corraluzzo presents him with the belt. Jarrett does his strut wearing it. Suddenly Steve Austin runs in, nails Jarrett in the gut, and delivers the Stunner. Man, Austin's put on some weight during his layoff! Austin mocks Jarrett's strut by doing one of his own. - Ken Shamrock delivers comments from the back, expressing his desire that he and Steve Austin be left alone as the last two people in the Rumble match, so that they can settle their differences. - Sunny comes to the ring in an outfit which is illegal in Utah, and pictures of which would be used as currency in prison. - TRUTH COMMISSION (w/ the Jackal) vs. DISCIPLES OF APOCALYPSE Recon & Sniper vs. Eight-Ball and Skull. I guess bringing out Sunny was the only way to pump up the crowd for this one. The Jackal rattles on during the whole match, which ends quickly after one of the bald guys pins one of the fat army guys. The "seven foot tall (tm)" Kurrgan then comes in and helps the army guys kick the bald guys asses. - DeGeneration X makes their way to the ring for an interview. Hunter Hearst Helmsley is still in a leg cast. Hunter does most of the talking, while in the background Shawn keeps sneaking glances at Chyna's new bust. Chyna keeps spotting him, forcing Shawn to look away. (Both are trying hard not to laugh during this.) Hunter badmouths Owen Hart. Owen eventually appears on the big screen to toss off a few insults in return. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "the King" Lawler. - SAVIO VEGA (w/ Los Boricuas) vs. OWEN HART Okay match. DeGeneration X appears at the top of the ramp moments into the contest. Things go evenly back and forth until Owen manages to get the pin with a roll-up. Owen then heads up the ramp to confront Hunter, but is jumped by all four Boricuas, who then carry him up to the stage, where Hunter repeatedly slaps Owen's face. Shawn Michaels hands Savio Vega a wad of money as everyone is forced away for the officials. - Paul Bearer comes to the ring looking rather disheveled. Once there he laments the fact that Kane has apparently left him, having been moved by the Undertaker's actions last week. They then cut to a disturbance in the back. Steve Austin is shown leaving a dressing room. Inside, the Head Bangers are picking a table up off of Mark Henry, who apparently has been laid out with a Stone Cold Stunner. - "MARVELOUS" MARC MERO (w/ Sable) vs. TOM BRANDI They run a highlights package detailing Mero's continuing humiliation of Sable, along with the rise of Tom Brandi and his efforts to defend her. Disappointing match: all posturing with action at half speed. The whole point of the match was to set up one spot where Mero flies out of the ring, landing on top of Sable in the process. Sable holds her ankle in pain. Brandi picks her up to carry her to the back, but Mero hits him from behind, tosses him back in the ring and nails him with the TKO. Mero signals for a second one, but is spun around and kicked by Steve Austin, who has put in another appearance. Mero rides the Stone Cold Stunner Express, earning a DQ win in the match for his troubles. Austin prepares to leave, pausing just long enough to give Sable a long, wicked look. - FLASH FUNK vs. THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS GOLDUST (w/ Luna) Goldust comes out in blackface, big afro wig and bell bottoms, carrying a ghetto blaster. Luna is dressed like a ho. Flash goes nuts and lays into him. The match then goes back and forth until Flash gets the upper hand and sets up for a move off the top. Luna pops up and pushes him off the ropes, which the ref sees, giving Funk the win via DQ. Goldust then puts Funk out with a Curtain Call, which unfortunately serves to keep him in the ring long enough for Vader to do a run-in, sending him packing. Vader hugs his pal Flash, then the two do the Mastodon Dance together. Yikes! Before the commercial break they show a brief highlights package of Steve Blackman. Looks like he's in the Royal Rumble. - They show the debut of "Chainsaw" Charlie from last week, followed by a clip of the Head Bangers on "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee". - NEW AGE OUTLAWS vs. THE HEAD BANGERS Fair match, nothing special, though. The Godwinns appear briefly on the stage to watch a bit of the match. The NAO get the clean win when Mosh sets Billy Gunn up for the Stage Dive. He starts to perform the powerbomb, but Gunn uses his momentum and rolls through it. Thrasher, who was supposed to land a legdrop just behind the powerbomb, lands on the mat instead. Gunn, meanwhile rolls Mosh up for the pin. Cactus Jack and "Chainsaw" Charlie then appear to chase the two off. Charlie is much more recognizable as Terry Funk this time. - After a recap of the Mike Tyson announcement from last week, they show pre-taped comments from Don King. King tells us what a splendiferous conglomeration of exuberance it'll be when Mike Tyson and WrestleMania team up together. He says there's a few "t's" to cross and "i's" to dot, but that he and Vince MacMahon will get the job done. - Recapping the Michaels/Undertaker feud, they play a lengthy video recap of the "Hell in a Cell" match from Badd Blood. If you didn't see the PPV, this will show you why most wrestling fans named this the Best Match of 1997. - Shawn Michaels comes to the ring to call out the Undertaker. The lights dim and another coffin, covered in DeGeneration X logos and slogans, is pushed to the ring. Shawn starts commenting as to how he'd hoped Hunter and Chyna could have come up with something different that what they'd done last week. Shawn calls for his friends to come out of the coffin, but they appear at the top of the stage. Upon seeing them, he asks who it could be in the coffin if not them. The coffin pops open and the Undertaker hauls Michaels into the pine box with him. The lid snaps shut and the coffin shakes as the show goes off the air. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: A good show. Not great, but all around amusing, with a few moments of okay in-ring action. They still need to add some more quality matches, but most of the angles are entertaining enough to carry much of the slack ... for now. Let me just quickly weigh in on this whole NWA issue: yes, it is just a gimmick on the part of the WWF to make ties to the NWA. However, don't forget that the WWF once did really belong to the NWA many years ago. Also, this current promotion, run by Corraluzzo and based in New Jersey, is tied in to the classic organization we all know as the NWA. Many don't consider the NWA's World Heavyweight Title, (currently held by Dan Severn), to be directly tied back to the original NWA World Title (last held by Ric Flair). Nonetheless, this group does have a legitimate claim to the NWA name, though they have nowhere near the sole identifying ties to it like WCW used to. WCW, on the other hand, severed all ties with the NWA back in the early 90's, essentially killing the organization (since the other NWA promoters no longer had any major stars or major titles. Truth is, though, that they hadn't really had any anyway since Turner had bought WCW from Jim Crockett). To back up a bit, Jim Crockett was the biggest of all the regional NWA promoters in the 80's. He owned the show and timeslot which we all saw on TBS throughout the late 80's, owned those particular NWA title belts (for the most part), and had most of the stars under contract. They would periodically travel around and appear for the other promoters, but as Crockett got bigger, the rest of the NWA promoters eventually got all but completely shut out. Then, in the late 80's, when Crockett overextended himself financially in an effort to match the level of success of the WWF, he was forced to sell his promotion, titles and wrestler contracts to Ted Turner. Very little changed on the surface, which is why it's always seemed to most fans that the NWA merely changed it's name to WCW. What actually happened was that Turner slowly phased out any references to the NWA, had new title belts made, and eventually severed all ties to the group. Corraluzzo joined the NWA in 1992 and has since become pretty much the biggest of the remaining NWA promoters. WCW has always capitalized on the fact that most fans strongly identify with the NWA and WCW being one in the same, though in reality their own claims to that past are only barely stronger than those made by the current NWA, and now the WWF. Ironic, huh? So, does this mean the WWF is again in the NWA, or-more intriguingly-is the NWA now part of the WWF? Or neither? I'm assuming neither, but it's interesting to muse on that second possibility, isn't it? In a bit of late breaking news, the new Music City Wrestling promotion in Memphis has apparently joined the NWA, and will apparently exchange talent with Corraluzzo's group. With Jeff Jarrett's ties to Memphis (as well as Jerry Lawler's), and the fact that Jarrett is now the NWA's N.A. Heavyweight Champion, there now exists all kinds of possibilities, including some MCW talent showing up on RAW (though that's really just speculation at this point). Where does this all leave ECW, who once was part of the NWA, but dropped out back in 1994 when Shane Douglas refused to accept the NWA World Heavyweight Title? ECW doesn't have the greatest relationship in the world with the new NWA, though it did seem to bury the hatchet with them last summer. ECW also co-promoted with USWA, which-though it folded-has seen a lot of its talent and organizational structure show up in MCW. ECW is currently focusing on deals with the FMW and Michinoku Pro groups in Japan, though their loose working agreement with the WWF still seems to be intact. I won't go so far as to say this is all leading to something major, but it's now a fact that the WWF has loose ties to EVERY major independent wrestling organization in the country: something WCW can't say. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: I'm still stunned as to how poorly they set up and hyped WCW Thunder. What is the point of the show? For so long we've been expecting the creation of the show to stem from some NWO-related angle. Instead, WCW just bluntly announces there is a new show. They don't explain why, when it'll be on, how long it'll run, nor any of the matches on the live card. Going back to this past weekend, WCW Main Event and Pro aired their last shows ever on TBS, yet they never mentioned that on the shows. Neither said "see you next week!", but they didn't in any way acknowledge their cancellations either. All three weekend shows ran a vague promo for Thunder, which just showed storm pictures, shots of WCW stars, and text reading "It's Coming!" It's Thursday morning as I write this and I have yet to see an ad for Thunder on TBS in any of the times I've stopped there while channel surfing. Ratings: Nitro/4.3. RAW/3.3. Both very close to what they did last week, and both are probably a good full ratings point up from what they were doing last year at this time. Who says pro-wrestling isn't popular in America today? RAW, with its new increase in ratings, has started showing up in the "Top 15 Cable Shows of the Week" lists again. Apparently TNT now wants to permanently expand Nitro to three hours. They seem to be unhappy with how well the USA Network and RAW does once Nitro goes off the air. If this goes through, it could start as soon as January 19th. That'll mean FIVE hours of live WCW every week! Explain to me again why anyone should EVER buy a WCW PPV from this moment forward? The WWF has finalized their deal with Mike Tyson. Details at 1Wrestling.com. Sorry the Recap was so late this week. I suffered a minor injury when my dog, who weighs nearly 100 pounds, was in a goofy mood and jumped up onto my lap day before yesterday. Let us just say he stepped in the wrong place and, after I recovered consciousness, found myself walking and talking funny for the next two days. I've had a hard time sitting in front of the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. I'm much better now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 112 of the "Monday Night Recap", January 5th, 1998.