Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #116 February 2nd, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: San Antonio, Texas. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - Show starts with a quick look at the end of last week's show. Huge Alamo Dome crowd in attendance. The Nitro Girls do a number in the ring. A fan at ringside has a great pair of GIGANTIC foam hands which form the Diamond Cutter sign. - PSYCHOSIS vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA Getting "excited" and tights shorts do not mix-a tenet proven by Psychosis as he heads to the ring. I thought Lex Luger was the "Total Package"? Seriously, the guy's entire batch area was clearly visible through his drumskin tight tights. WCW should let him win a title just so he can cover that up. Raven's Flock take their ringside seats in the first minute of the match. Moments later they cut to a commercial, even though the match (and show) has only barely begun. Okay match, but short and featuring only a few high spots (one of which was completely insane: with Guerrera on the floor, Psychosis leapt off the top turnbuckle. Guerrera met him in mid-air with a drop-kick). Seconds later Guerrera nailed the 450 degree splash for the win. They then showed a nice Hogan/Sting promo for SuperBrawl VIII, followed by the second commercial break (even though the show had only been on a bit over fifteen minutes). - Nitro Girls. DDP's titleshot offer to Chris Benoit is hyped by the announcers and in a Thunder clip. Mean Gene Okerlund then interviews Page in the ring. DDP briefly states how much he's looking forward to the match. - A video package shows us what a monster Kevin Nash has become. They show Nash powerbombing Ray Traylor from last week (though they don't show him doing the same to the referee on Thunder). Schiavone says Nash-and anyone else who does a powerbomb-will be fined $150,000. As I expected no mention whatsoever was made of Scott Hall doing a powerbomb on Thunder. More on this later. Schiavone says these fines are unprecedented for their sport. (Apparently he's forgotten the time when Randy Savage was fined $1,000,000.) - ULTIMO DRAGON vs. BILLY KIDMAN (w/ Lodi) Another okay match-better than the first, actually, since this went longer and was without commercial interruption. Well into the match Kidman catches the Dragon in a move and essentially does a powerbomb, delivering it in a split-legged fashion. (The announcers, as you'd expect, don't pick up on it.) Moments later Ultimo slaps on the Dragon Sleeper for the win. - Kevin Nash comes out to the ring and gripes about Kidman using the above mentioned powerbomb, correctly identifying it as a Tigerbomb. He points out that Kidman wasn't arrested and lead out in handcuffs. He says WCW can fine him all they want because he can pay them all-especially with the backing of "Hollywood" Hogan. Schiavone does some Nash-bashing, completely ducking the issue of Kidman doing the move. Could this have been something of a mini-shoot? Hear me out here: the rumor going around is that WCW is doing the "powerbomb ban" angle partly at the urging of Nash, who feels that "his move" is being "watered down" by all the other wrestlers who are doing it. Now, everyone knows that a great many of the wrestlers in the lockerroom in WCW merely show up when they're supposed to and go out and do their match when told. Many of them pay little attention to what is being said on the TV shows, and have little idea what is going on in the angles which don't involve them. Could it be the Kidman simply hasn't been paying attention, or just plain forgot and did the move? (I admit is was more a reaction/reversal than a premeditated move, making it maybe more the Dragon's fault than Kidman's). So then we have Nash, watching on the monitor in the back, sees Kidman do the move, gets a bit ticked off and comes out. Instead of just delivering his anti-WCW speech as planned, he mentions Kidman doing the move as a way to make WCW tighten the reigns in regard to the angle. The announcers, not having anything prepared to say in the matter, simply ignore the comments. Just a thought: one which popped to mind seeing how genuinely pissed Nash looked. My first thought was that he's just not that good an actor, and would usually deliver this interview in his more laid-back, "too cool" manner. Nash was clearly angry-not "unconcerned" as his comments would have us believe. If we're supposed to think he's REALLY concerned, usually the announcers would (almost with glee) point that the fines are getting to him. Schiavone instead says Nash just will do what he wants when he wants. Nash's actions didn't match his words, while Schiavone reacted to the words and ignored the actions. Something to mull over, anyway. Like I said last week, this angle was going to be botched fairly quickly by WCW. First Hall does a powerbomb on Thunder which goes unmentioned, now this. Here's something else to mull over: didn't Nash nail the referee at the end of Thunder with his Jackknife AFTER the match was over? They should obviously fine him for attacking the ref, but how can they justify and enforce a ruling on a moves that isn't used in a match? Would they specifically fine someone if they used the move, say, in an attack in the parking lot? Or the lockerroom? - CHRIS JERICHO vs. SUPER CALO Jericho delivers a few comments regarding Rey Mysterio, Jr. before the match. A step up above a squash, with Jericho getting the moderately easy win with the Lion Tamer. - BOOKER T. vs. STEVEN REGAL Regal looks like hell. Total mismatch of styles here, though they both gave it their best shot. Not a very good match, with Booker delivering the leg lariat and covering for the pin. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. (Heenan actually takes over at close to the 90 minute mark of the show.) - HUGH MORRUS vs. KONAN (w/ Vincent) Lackluster match, with Konan getting the win after he POWERBOMBS Morrus off the top turnbuckle. (Morrus was going up for his moonsault, but Konan ran over, grabbed him by the thighs and powerbombed him to the mat). Yep, you guessed it ... no mention by the announcers. - Scott Hall and Dusty Rhodes hit the ring. Hall does his survey, drawing a massive pro-NWO reaction from the Texas crowd. Nash badmouths "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Hall asks Rhodes if he should be mad at Sting or Hogan, and who should he go after? Rhodes criticizes Piper and WCW for robbing Hall of his title shot at SuperBrawl. (He doesn't answer Hall's question, though.) - JIM "THE ANVIL" NEIDHART vs. SCOTT HALL (w/ Dusty Rhodes) Louie Spicolli runs in and says he'll wrestle for Hall, adding that he'll wrestle every match for Hall until Hall gets his title shot back. This is just a ruse, however, as Hall nails Neidhart when his back is turned. Neidhart gets in a little offense, but breaks away when he's distracted by Rhodes. Hall then wins the match after nailing the Outsider's Edge POWERBOMB. Do the announcers notice? What do you think? Spicolli drops a few elbows on Neidhart after the match. Davey Boy Smith runs in to chase him off. - Mean Gene interviews Lex Luger. They announce that he'll face Randy Savage in a "no DQ" match at SuperBrawl. - Another Nitro Party Video. Again, people, please spend more than 30 seconds making up the signs which you hold up on your videos at your parties. - BILL GOLDBERG vs. MARK STARR If you don't know who won this one then you haven't been watching Nitro for the last three months. Match lasted little more than a minute - Clip of the Mongo/Bulldog confrontation from last week. - STEVE "MONGO" MCMICHAEL vs. DAVEY BOY SMITH Mongo works the mic before the match. I didn't know Mongo was from Austin, Texas? Even though the Bulldog got heavily cheered minutes before, he gets a number of boos coming out for this match. The two men are counted out little more than a minute into the match. The two continue to brawl outside the ring, eventually reaching the announcer's desk area. Mongo punches the ref, and slams the Bulldog on the raised stage which supports the desk. The two disappear behind a curtain as the crowd chants Mongo's name. Bulldog's knee looked a bit better, but he's still clearly a ways off from 100%. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan. - "Hollywood" Hogan and Eric Bischoff do a very slow walk to the ring. Once there, Hogan does a lengthy interview in which he pretty much says Randy Savage is now on his own and will face Sting in the main event tonight all by himself. - DISCO INFERNO vs. RAVEN No DQ, as is the usual for Raven's matches. Raven delivers some "nevermore" comments before the match. Raven sends Disco to the floor, hits a plancha, then armdrags Disco into a chair twice back in the ring. Disco manages to turn the tables and flop Raven onto the chair, smashing it. The match then completely dies down into traded punches and kicks, leading up to Raven delivering the DDT for the win. Started out good, but petered out barely a minute into it. - Nitro Girls. - KEVIN NASH/BUFF BAGWELL vs. THE STEINER BROTHERS (w/ Ted DiBiase) In case you're confused by this, here's the deal: Nash and Hall somehow have been granted the right to allow any NWO member to defend the World Tag Team Titles in any combination. They call it "Wolfpack Rules". (I think the Four Horsemen did something like this at one time, as well as the Russians: Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff & Krusher Kruschev. Even Demolition did it in the WWF when Ax and Smash added Crush to the team. Still, it's a dumb rule which completely devalues the belt-not that the WCW belts have any more anyway.) Of course this match is non-title, so you knew the Steiners will probably win. Scott Steiner selfishly wrestles the whole match, never once tagging his brother Rick in. Bagwell wrestles most of the match for his team, with Nash tagging in a couple of times and half-assing it. He eventually sets up for the Jackknife, but Rick makes the save with the clothesline. Buff tags in and Scott nails him with a Frankensteiner for the win. Rick chews Scott out for not tagging him in as Nash looks on (rooting for Scott to take a swing at his brother). Were I in a real conspiratorial mood, I'd point out that Nash's push almost died a little tonight. Instead of furthering the arrest angle, he loses a match and is made to look bad in the process. Nash, for his part, nearly phones in his participation in the match. Just thinkin' out loud. - STING vs. RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE (w/ Elizabeth) Savage warns Luger to take note of this match. Sting makes his entrance by dropping from the roof of the Dome; landing in the middle of the crowd. This would be the coolest-and last-interesting part of the match and overall show. Sting, in addition to acting like the Undertaker outside the ring, has started to wrestle like him in the ring. Cross the Undertaker with Lex Luger and you have Sting's current in-ring repertoire. Sting delivers slow, stalking offense like the Undertaker. He would then waver back-and- forth between not selling Savage's moves and selling like Luger does. He immediately gets up after a piledriver and sends Savage into the corner for a Stinger Splash (his only animated offense of the match). He goes for a second splash, but Savage moves and Sting hits facefirst on an exposed turnbuckle bolt (Savage having removed the pad a bit earlier). Savage then drops an elbow off the top and is about to get the pin when Hogan runs in. Hogan pulls him off and tells him that only he is allowed to beat Sting. Hogan slaps Savage. Just as a full-blown confrontation is about to erupt, Lex Luger, who had followed Hogan to the ring, pulls Savage out of the ring by his feet. Hogan watches Luger beat up Savage for a few moments, then turns to see that Sting is waiting to take him out. Other NWO members run in and Sting sends them back out one-by-one. Hogan makes his escape as Sting stands victorious next to Luger in the ring. The show ends. (Schiavone yells something about being out of time, even though there's two minutes to go before the top of the hour. Second week in a row that they've done this.) - This Thursday: DDP vs. Benoit. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Three hours is just too damn long, I tell you! The first hour was okay, though a tad on the boring side. I very nearly fell asleep (honestly). Hours two and three were just plain dull and uneventful, only serving to offer up an infinitesimal amount of plot development in a few of the ongoing angles. The show's finish was just a variation on the other recent finishes, with the Sting match being a boldfaced attempt to do nothing more than steal some of the WWF's thunder. It's matches like this which will quickly kill his being as over as he is with the fans. I've liked Sting since 1987, but this wasn't a good match by any stretch of the imagination. I've given up on Bill Goldberg. You all can like him if you want, but me ... I've lost interest. The guy clearly only has a smidgen of potential, otherwise WCW would find some way to use him more than 90 seconds every week. (Of course when they did before he pulled a groin muscle and had to be shelved for several weeks.) I no longer buy this "bringing him along slowly" crap. He's over, he SEEMS to have some talent, so let him wrestle. Either WCW won't or can't use him more than they dare, and I'm not buying the reason's for "won't". That leaves "can't", meaning the guy either has no more talent than that which he can show in 90 seconds, or his conditioning is such that longer periods in the ring will lead to the above mentioned groin pull and other similar injuries. I'm just not in the mood to buy a guy who has less talent than they want us to think. If it's a conditioning issue, just send him back to the damn Power Plant already and bring him back when he's ready for the big time. I've got nothing personal against him, and I thought he had some potential at one time. Just look at what they did with Mongo. I may not like his ring ability, but I respect the hard work he's put in. Goldberg, on the other hand, is getting by solely on limited natural charisma and two power moves: made seemingly impressive by the fact that none of his opponents fight back. ANYONE can look good in a straight out, under two minute squash. I'm REALLY not looking forward to sitting through two or three months of Chris Jericho "praising" Mysterio as Rey rehabs his injuries. If I didn't know better I'd think Ric Flair was gone from WCW. He hasn't appeared since the PPV. I left it out above: there was a brief point where they replayed comments from Hart regarding Flair which he made last week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross, Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly. - Shawn Michaels, the "President" of DeGeneration X, delivers his "State of the Union Address". He says the various networks which carry RAW are cracking down on their "standards and practices". Hunter Hearst Helmsley comes to the podium and rattles off what words they can and can't say. (Most of these are bleeped.) Shawn closes out the segment saying "I did not sleep with that young intern. In fact. I was UP ALL NIGHT!" - Shawn, Hunter and Chyna come to the ring dressed as Uncle Sam. Jim Ross mentions that all the available tickets for WrestleMania 14 were sold in under two minutes. Balloons drop from the ceiling. Shawn and Hunter, in regards to Steve Austin and Mike Tyson, lead the crowd in a "let them fight!" chant. *KEE-RASH!* Steve Austin doesn't look too happy that Michaels has stepped into his political arena. Immediately upon entering the ring the two stand toe-to- toe in a staredown. Austin says he appreciates Michaels' support and hype for that match, but that Michaels' ass is his. They both end up ripping off their shirts. Austin and Hunter swap a few x-rays as well. Austin flips Chyna the bird and leaves. - They show a pre-taped interview with Jim Ross getting comments from Mick Foley and Terry Funk. Foley says he's worried about his legacy (like Ross being known as the announcer in the toga at WrestleMania IX). He says he was told by a world champion after a match ten years ago that no one cares for his high flying type of wrestling, and that he'd end up his career as an invalid. He says he wants to be remembered as "Cactus Jack" and known for the type of match that we'll see tonight. Terry Funk simply says this match is important because it may just crown the "King of the Hardcores". Funk shakes his hand, but warns Foley that tonight might be their last match. Foley jokes that it may be the last for both. - CACTUS JACK vs. CHAINSAW CHARLIE Charlie wheels a dumpster full of trash cans to the ring. Over the Titan- Tron Cactus says "that's not a trash can!" and wheels out his own dumpster-filled with a ladder, table and other assorted garbage. Obviously the match is no holds barred. An okay garbage wrestling match (and I do mean GARBAGE wrestling). They spend the first few minutes beating each other silly with a chair and some garbage cans. They fight up and down the ramp. They do a bit where each is hesitant to nail the other with a particularly vicious open shot. Cactus actually tries to piledrive Charlie while he still has a garbage can on his head! (It doesn't quite work, but the attempt generates a good response). Charlie/Funk has his head wedged in the can as they take a break. They've moved up to the stage and Funk is beating on Cactus with the ladder. Funk sets up the table and prepares to piledrive Cactus on it, but Cactus reverses it and back bodydrops Funk INTO the garbage dumpster. The ref gives Cactus an earful so Cactus gives him a taste of the Mandible Claw. Cactus then takes the ladder and climbs up onto the framework of the Titan-Tron. He positions himself over the dumpster and drops an elbow onto Funk in the refuse bin! Suddenly Billy Gunn and the Road Dog come out. They slam the two lids of the dumpster shut, ties them down, and after a moment to assess their options, wheel the dumpster off the edge of the stage! Jim Ross immediately begins screaming that two men are in there and that the two Outlaws have gone way over the line. Officials and wrestlers begin to congregate around the upended dumpster. Marc Mero, one of the first on the scene, flashes the New Age Outlaws a dirty look. Ahmed Johnson is there, as well as Sunny up on the stage. The ref unties the ropes to the lids ... revealing a motionless Cactus Jack and Terry Funk. Within moments nearly the entire WWF roster of wrestlers have gathered on the stage and down below where the dumpster is (a drop of somewhere between eight and ten feet). People are screaming to get them out of there and help them. Flash Funk has to be restrained from climbing into the dumpster to help his old ECW and WCW friend Cactus Jack. There's no movement in the dumpster. Someone (Sunny, I think), is screaming for somebody to help the two. A WWF official can be heard saying an ambulance has been called and will be there in three minutes. Jim Ross is completely disgusted, saying he's never seen anything as disgusting as what the two Outlaws have done. Cactus and Funk begin to show movement in the dumpster. The elbowdrop into the bin, followed by the tumble off the stage are replayed for the first time. Ross compares it to a car wreck. The crowd, perhaps beginning to get a bit impatient, begins to chant something. Funk can be heard yelling for help down in the dumpster. Vince McMahon has come out. The two Outlaws tell him what they did. McMahon seems to simply reply "what were you thinking?!" The other wrestlers have begun milling about, pointing and throwing insults at the two. Comments like "it's messed up, man!" and "get them outta here!" can be heard. Ross questions if the two have gone too far in pursuit of ratings. "Oh my god ... " he mutters as a shot of Terry Funk's hand shows he's gone into convulsions. The ambulance can be heard approaching. Cactus and Funk are being strapped down to gurneys when the show resumes. Sunny, in tears, is holding Funk's hand. Ross says the Outlaws have gone too far in their efforts to get "over"-he then explains what the term "over" means in the wrestling business. A cheer from the crowd arises (mostly because something is finally happening) when Flash Funk has to be restrained by WWF officials from going after the outlaws. Moments later a number of the wrestlers, including the Head Bangers and Barry Windham, surround the Outlaws and begin beating on them. Wrestlers up on the stage throw punches down on them. Kevin Kelly compares it to the "wrestlers court" of old, where the wrestlers would dispense justice themselves upon someone who did them wrong. The two are loaded into the ambulance. Ross says all wrestlers-bad guys or fan favorites, are just guys with families working for a living. The crash is replayed three or four more times. They also show the Outlaws celebrating just afterwards, which Ross describes as the most sickening shot of all. Sunny, her face drenched with tears, is helped out of the arena by Sgt. Slaughter and Jerry Brisco. Back from the commercial they show it yet again. The Outlaws are in the back waiting to give a few comments. Road Dog says there are few opportunities to get over, and that maybe they did go too far. Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley step in and tell them to "suck it up": that it would have been them in the dumpster if Cactus and Funk had any say in it. Michaels says it's all about ratings and that they have to go as far as they can to get over. "Where will it end, Ross?!" Michaels yells. "Ask your boss Vince McMahon, or the fans where it'll all end!" WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "the King" Lawler. - Jerry Lawler weighs in his two cents, saying what happened just wasn't right. The crash is replayed a few more times. Michael Cole has been dispatched to the hospital to phone in a report. - BILLY GUNN (w/ Road Dog) vs. OWEN HART The Dog gets partway through their intro, then cuts it off when the crowd boos them. Good match, though too short and with a predictable finish. Owen is really fired up, occasionally halting his own offense to yell at Gunn for what he's done. Owen generally has the upper hand for most of the match and eventually gets Gunn into the Sharpshooter. Road Dog slides into the ring, causing Owen to break the hold. He then fights both Outlaws (earning a DQ win) as Michaels, Helmsley and Chyna can be seen heading to the ring. It's a five-on-one beating for a bit as Owen is dragged up to the ramp. Gunn and the Dog begin debating as to whether or not they should throw him off the stage. Hunter gives him a DDT. Shawn begins yelling "You want ratings?!" Dog and Gunn nearly toss Owen off the ramp- stopped at the last second by a rush of WWF suits. The dumpster dive is replayed again. Okay, I saw it. Enough already! - A replay of what happened to Owen, as well as another look at the ... you know. Michael Cole phones in to say he knows nothing. - HEAD BANGER MOSH (w/ Thrasher) vs. MARC MERO (w/ Sable) Damn, Sable's got big jugs! Oink! Mero makes her put on her robe and leave the ringside area. Sable receives a candy box from a "secret admirer". He then brings out someone he knows will watch his back: Marilyn (Manson). Make that MarilynMansonDust. Goldust-in his sickest and most disgusting outfit yet. Mero sings a god-awful version of "The Beautiful People". The Head Bangers look on stunned that their idol has been defiled by the Artist Formerly Known As Goldust. Quick match, with Mero landing a low blow to get the rollup and pin. Goldust, meanwhile, gets floored by Thrasher. - Jim Ross plugs the WWF hotline with a story about a WWF Superstar who was rushed from the airport to the hospital. (Pssst ... it was Ahmed Johnson. He got sick or something. No big deal.) - Barry Windham (with his old blonde hair back) and his NWA contingent deliver comments. Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw is shown split-screen. Windham challenges Bradshaw to a match if he can find a tag team partner. Bradshaw accepts. - They show a video package of Tiger Ali Singh. - FAAROOQ (w/ the NOD) vs. CHAINZ (w/ the DOA/Ahmed Johnson/Ken Shamrock) I still think Faarooq has been looking better lately: wrestling with a bit more zip, and he looks to have lost some weight. The match is okay for the first minute or so, slows down to some rest holds, then ends with Faarooq leaving the ring to argue with Kama over something he did. Faarooq is counted out. He and Kama nearly come to blows. Faarooq winds up yelling at his men to form a line and do the Nation salute on the stage. During the match Michael Cole phones in to say he still knows nothing. - BARRY WINDHAM/JEFF JARRETT vs. JUSTIN "HAWK" BRADSHAW/FLASH FUNK Windham and Jarrett are accompanied by Jim Cornette and the Rock & Roll Express. A few minutes in, just before a commercial, the R & R drop Funk across the guard rail. Once they return we learn that Flash was taken to the back and Bradshaw is going it alone. As you might expect, Bradshaw manages to get an upset pin on Jarrett. Having won the battle, he loses the war when he's stretched out by the R & R and Jarrett, while Windham splashes Bradshaw's bad knee. - More dumpster replays. Another phone report and Cole says that some kind of commotion has broken out and that the police have been called in. They show the dumpster crashing again to aid us in contemplating this latest development. - Ross hypes the WrestleMania Press Conference scheduled for noon on Thursday at the All Star Cafe in New York. It will be carried live on ESPNEWS, CNNSI and TSN in Canada. They cut to the ring where Wink Collins waits (the curly haired guy last seen in the awful WWF Super Soaker commercials; also the guy who gave out the SummerSlam million dollar contest clues). Collins announces to the crowd that WrestleMania tickets sold out in 90 seconds. (Yeah, but there were only a 1000 of them. The other 14,000 sold out weeks ago via the WWF's mailing list). Collins is about to hype the PPV when the lights go out ... It's Kane! He and Paul Bearer come to the ring. There Kane is just about to deliver grievously bodily harm to Collins when the Man They Call Vader comes out. Vader gets on the house mic and says Kane's ass is his at the "No Way Out (of Texas)" PPV. He then grabs a fire extinguisher at ringside and sprays Kane, chasing him from the ring. Huge pop from the crowd and tremendous heat during all this. They show a few clips of the events which have lead up to the Kane/Vader meeting. A quick look at Steve Austin and the Road Dog in the back, preparing for the main event. - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. ROAD DOG (w/ Billy Gunn) Ross relays an unconfirmed report than an ambulance has pulled up to the arena. The match doesn't go long as Gunn is quick to interfere. Austin nails him with the Stunner, but is then overwhelmed by sheer numbers when Michaels, Helmsley and Chyna hit the ring. They tie Austin in the ropes and taunt him. Michaels gets right in his face, saying this is as close as he'll ever get to the World Title. The look on Steve Austin's face would melt a brick wall at this point. The cheer for Austin is deafening. Suddenly the noise gets even louder as Cactus Jack makes his way to the ring! Cactus has his boots off and an IV line still attached to his arm. Terry Funk is close behind, waving his chainsaw and wearing nothing but a hospital gown. D-X and the Outlaws flee, with Austin in close pursuit. Austin then returns to the ring carrying a DeGeneration X t-shirt, which he tears in half as the show ends. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I'd put this one up with the nights Michaels collapsed, Bret Hart turned heel and Vince McMahon was attacked in terms sheer memorability. It wasn't great from top to bottom, but the first hour-crowd restlessness aside, was superb. The second hour was okay, with them doing more good things than bad. (My only real complaint was in the number of times they replayed the dumpster crash.) Who would have though going in to this show that the WWF would have been able to deliver such a huge angle which DIDN'T involve Mike Tyson. Tyson, in fact, was hardly mentioned at all. It's clear now that Austin will face Michaels, with Tyson being the referee (which was the plan all along, obviously). I'm still not sure how they did it, but they managed to hype the WM press conference as being important, the next PPV as a huge grudge match, and still kept things going on the road to WrestleMania. Amazing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: WCW's Boston Brawl, I'm sure you all heard the less than stellar debut it made on PPL. My take on it? I'm actually not as negative as most of the rest of the Internet reaction has been, but that's only because I knew going in it would bomb. First off, WCW said a few weeks back that it would have had to had tens of thousands of buyers to make a profit. They only expected about 500, though, going into the event. They apparently wound up with about 1400. From there things went haywire as many people tried to subscribe at the last second. WCW *CLAIMS* something like 12,000 or 14,000 people tried to sign up as the event started. They claim this overloaded the server, which ended up in less than a quarter of the subscribed buyers being able to hear the event. Even if WCW is telling the truth (and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt), it's still no excuse. They knew that their traffic could only handle about 1400 listeners to begin with (and they actually ended up delivering to far less than that). Their software to handle sign- ups should have cut off registration access when they hit their peak capacity. If it was the flood of people merely ATTEMPTING to sign on which killed the server, then that function should have been hosted on a separate server. As expected, WCW has passed off all blame to the 3rd party company which was hosting the event for them. WCW has been forced to offer complete refunds, and is now offering the event to anyone willing to listen for free. Also in the negative column is the fact that Hogan never granted Mark Madden an interview as Madden had been promising up to the event (which was actually one of the major selling points of the show, since Hogan was supposed to discuss his contract status with WCW). They also never delivered steaming video, which was a promised feature of the show. Subscribers with slower computers also learned what anyone who has listened to any of WCW's PPV simulcasts knows: the periodic still photos rarely match the matches taking place. On the plus side, the card itself is said to have drawn fairly positive reviews from the live crowd, though there were apparently several last minute card changes. The crowd was huge and they did a huge live gate. My own response is that it serves anyone right who bought the show and thought they got burned. I'm not against a pay-per-listen card, and I'm all for WCW-or any company out there-to explore those options (though I do think $7.95 was perhaps a might too high for the first such attempt. $3.95 or $4.95 would have been better). I also have a hard time understanding how they couldn't guarantee server capacity when WCW offered that big Seattle house show via RealAudio last year and they had over 100,000 listeners. (Remember ... "Saturday Nitro", where they teased a Hogan/Sting match but never delivered. It was the show in which the ring broke. It was also the show in which Nash injured his knee and was put out of commission for nearly three months.) If they can set it up to handle 100,000 listeners (at a substancial monetary loss, by the way), then they should have been able to handle 1400 or 14,000 listeners for a pay venture. This was simply poor planning and a nickel-and-dime approach by the planners. The other major problem with this whole PPL notion is that far too many computer owners still don't have the necesary technology to take advantage of all the offered features. Streaming video is nice, but not everyone has an ISDN connection-or even a 56K modem, which would best handle it. WCW themselves admitted before the event that they had absolutely no idea whether WebTV users would be able to access the show or not (and asked WebTV users to try it, offering a preemptive refund if they didn't like it or it didn't work). A great many users even had problems receiving both the audio feed and the simultaneous still photos. For any venture like this you simply have to look at the lowest possible technology as being the only level at which you can guarantee service. That means, simply put, that the bare audio feed is the only thing you can guarantee every subscriber will be able to receive with no problems. In other words, you're asking people to pay $7.95 to listen to the radio. This isn't an entirely radical idea, but it depends on how well you deliver the commentary. If it's anything like the PPV simulcasts, then it had to be terrible. WCW's announcers on the PPV simulcast deliberately do a poor job of commentary because that service, in theory, is merely meant to supplement the actual PPV TV broadcast. As they say, "buy the PPV, turn the sound down and log on to us!" It's alright to listen to three hours of guys trying to get themselves over and work the smart fans, so long as you have the video feed to fall back on to tell what's going on. Without that, any audio-only experience has to rely solely on the announcing team to call the action. I may listen to the free replay while it's still up to see how well they did, so I have an idea what to expect in future attempts (which is really why this first card should have been free. Remember, even though they have offered the free PPV simulcasts before, they never advertised that fact on TV-so as not to hurt the real PPV buyrates). WCW went into this thing with too many unknowns and both they and the subscribers got what they deserved. It was for all these reasons that I simply chose not to get it myself (and frankly it'd have to have been a whole lot cheaper and better card to have sold me in the first place). I find it amazing that WCW is now actually considering doing SuperBrawl as a PPL. I just hope that if they do that they learned something from all this. Making things look even worse for WCW was the fact that ECW did their "Hostile City Showdown 98" live at the same time. Not only did their free offering draw nearly three times as many listeners, but there were also no complaints to speak of. ECW now feels confident enough to go ahead with a pay show of their own-Cyberslam 98-sometime next month. The cost? $4.95. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't ECW already try and do a pay show last year-only to scrap the idea because of technical problems at the 11th hour and make it free to everyone?) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Week's Winner: RAW. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1998 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 116 of the "Monday Night Recap", February 2nd, 1998.