Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #123 March 23rd, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Louisville, Kentucky. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's music is playing as the show starts. Piper makes his way to the ring, where he pretty much picks up right where he left off when we last saw him. After playing up to the local crowd a bit, Piper says WCW asked him to be a "consultant". He says one big problem in WCW is that there are too many baseball bats, and that they are now outlawed in WCW. (They were "legal" before?) UNTIL ... Piper adds, the next PPV, where he will team up with the Giant in a match against "Hollywood" Hogan and Kevin Nash. A baseball bat will be suspended over the ring, usable to whoever can get it. Furthermore, Piper (who is now apparently the head booker in WCW) announces that the Giant will face Kevin Nash in a match later in the show. On top of that, Piper announces he himself will face the "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the main event. Anything else, Hot Rod? You think three hours will be enough? Tony Schiavone quickly proclaims this the "Greatest Nitro Ever", though he manages to do so without using those actual words. - Nitro Girls. - The footage of the Diamond Dallas Page/Raven incident on MTV is shown. (The same footage that was shown on Thunder last week.) - CHAVO GUERRERO, JR. (w/ Eddy Guerrero) vs. ULTIMO DRAGON Chavo does a few suplexes, but otherwise looks nowhere near as good as the Dragon. Ultimo wins with the Dragon Sleeper after reversing a suplex from the apron into the ring. Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Eddy in the ring. Eddy forces Chavo to "apologize" to their family and fans. Eddy says he'll show Chavo how to win in his own match later in the show. - "Hollywood" Hogan and Eric Bischoff come to the ring to do their usual rant. Hogan digs out all his old skirt jokes to mark the return of Roddy Piper to action. This one went long even by Hogan standards. The only thing of substance that comes from this is that Hogan invites himself to take part in the Nash/Giant match. Rather than question how Hogan can possibly just insert himself into a match, the announcers simply accept the notion, proclaiming the upcoming match the "Greatest Handicap Match Ever!" - Mean Gene hypes the WCW hotline. - "SUPERSTAR" SCOTT STEINER (w/ Buff Bagwell) vs. WAYNE BLOOM Mike Tenay calls this the "Greatest Nitro Ever". There ... they said it. A barely watchable match-only so because I was actually rooting on old AWA regular Bloom. Scott takes little time maneuvering Bloom into the Steiner Recliner. - Nitro Girls. - PSYCHOSIS vs. LODI Psychosis looked good ... Lodi didn't. (Lodi seems to have learned everything he knows from Scott Steiner-though not necessarily everything Scott Steiner knows.) Psychosis nails Lodi with a corkscrew moonsault from the top to the floor, which clearly causes what looks to be a serious ankle injury on Lodi's part. Lodi can barely stand as Psychosis rolls him back into the ring. Psychosis does a face-forward suplex, then drops a leg off the top for the win. Schiavone announces that to kick off hour two Sting will defend the World Title against Diamond Dallas Page. Gee, who needs PPV's any more? HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - STING vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE A very good match: possibly Sting's best since returning to regular action. Early in the match both men try their finishers, but find themselves outmaneuvered by their opponent. Page reaches the ropes while in the Scorpion Deathlock, while Sting avoids a near Diamond Cutter. They then trade lengthy rest holds (the only negative part of the match: no doubt necessary because of Sting's slowly recovering ring stamina). The match then constantly swung back-and-forth. Sting, at one point, goes for his old Stinger Splash off the top, but lands on the upraise knees of DDP. (Huge crowd reaction.) Page, the momentum on his side, sends Sting into the corner to work him over. He then tries to bring him out with a Diamond Cutter, but Sting holds on to the ropes. On the third try Sting throws an arm over Pages head, (Page having leaned just a bit too far back), slips him into the Stinger Slop Drop, and covers for the huge pin. Great finish. After flashing the Diamond Cutter sign to the crowd, Sting hoists Page up and the two share a hug. (*Sniff* ... "misty water colored mem-o-ries ... of the way we were!") - Nitro Girls, followed by a Nitro Party Video. - LEX LUGER vs. RICK FULLER In a truly depressing match, Luger follows his formula of getting beat up for a few minutes before hoisting Fuller into the Torture Rack for the win. The best move in the match was a clothesline. Really. - EDDY GUERRERO (w/ Chavo Guerrero, Jr.) vs. KAZ HAYASHI I think someone once E-Mailed me to tell me that Kaz is a rising star in Japan, wrestling under another name, though. (Shiryu? I just can't remember offhand.) He only gets in one brief set of big moves here, sending Guerrero to the floor over the top rope with a huracanrana (in which Eddy did about 99% of the work), then catches him with a gutsy dive over the rope to the floor. After a drop-kick off the top back in the ring, Eddy turns the tide by catching the youngster with a backbreaker as he comes off the top. From then on it's all Eddy, as Guerrero takes his sweet time delivering moves until finally putting him away with the Frog Splash. Ultimo Dragon comes out to make sure the two Guerrero's don't take any liberties with the nearly unconscious Kaz. (Some of you may remember that Kaz wrestled on Nitro once before, at which time I noted he looked about 12 years old. Let me amend that: he really looks about 14 years old.) - A video segment featuring Bret "Hitman" Hart is shown. Wouldn't it just be easier to have Hart himself appear? - A video feature profiling Konan is shown. They needn't have bothered. - KONAN vs. PRINCE IAUKEA After what was essentially an incredibly long squash on Konan's part, Iaukea, out of nowhere, hits a Northern Lights Suplex and scores the upset pin. Anyone out there thrilled with the idea of Iaukea being overpushed again? - Bobby Heenan comes out about this time to replace Zbyszko. - Chris Jericho come out to work the crowd. Jobber Lenny Lane then comes out and demands that Jericho pays him the $1000 he owes him (as payment for the trick the two played on Dean Malenko a few weeks back). Jericho instead accuses Lane of stealing his gear and doing it all on his own, and that Lane actually owes him money because his wrestling gear is no longer wearable. He demands that lane let him "have it!", so Lane ... lets him have it-pow! It's amazing how much these two look alike, and how close they are to each other in size, shape and height. - CHRIS JERICHO vs. LENNY LANE Jericho only needs a few minutes to put Lane away with the Lion Tamer. What was the point of the above scene with Lane if Jericho was just going to get the clean, easy win in the match? I'm still a bit annoyed that Jericho's character is that of the typical cowardly heel, yet he always manages to win his matches cleanly and decisively. How are they going to explain his lack of wins when the push ends and all the guys he's already beat come back and beat him? (Mysterio, Malenko, etc.) HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - As Hogan and Nash come out for their match Mike Tenay mentions that Bill Goldberg's winning streak is at 59, and that he'll be going for number 60 later in the show. - "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN/KEVIN NASH (w/ Eric Bischoff) vs. THE GIANT The Giant now weighs in, according to Schiavone, at 493 pounds. Wasn't he like 500 pounds at one point according to WCW? Schiavone attributes the win the NWO got at Fall Brawl '96 as the reason Hogan is able to alter this match. Huh? Very little in the way of actual wrestling, though plenty enough happens to please the crowd here. The Giant spends the first few minutes manhandling Hogan. Nash then tags in and he and the Giant trade punches and clotheslines. The Giant then dominates both Hogan and Nash. He's just about to chokeslam Nash when Brutus Beefcake runs in. Beefcake tries a Stone Cold Stunner, but it doesn't work. Bischoff throws a few kicks, but falls victim to a chokeslam. The Giant stands victorious as they all run away. Anyone want to bet that the Giant is the one who will be pinned at the big baseball bat tag match at Spring Stampede? (All this being part of his payback for doing the upcoming job.) - Nitro Girls. - CHRIS BENOIT vs. BOOKER T. Good match, but the finish was fairly obvious about halfway through. A fair amount of rest holds and spots where the two just lay there on the mat gave away the fact that this one would go the distance. Both men had hearty fan support (with Booker seemingly having the slight edge). The match then just up and ends eight minutes into the supposed ten minute time limit. (I actually thought WCW might give Benoit the win for the first few minutes, then noticed about five minutes in just how little action was going on. - CURT HENNIG (w/ Rick Rude) vs. DAVEY BOY SMITH Rude boots Tenay out of his seat and takes his spot. He spends the first few minutes of the match talking about how good of friends he and Hennig are. The match, which is okay up to this point, only goes just a few minutes before they take a commercial break (just prior to which Rude says he's heading to ringside for a closer look). Once back from the break Rude wastes little time in interfering. The Bulldog takes a shot at him, but Rude grabs his wrist and slaps a handcuff on him, attaching the other cuff to the top rope. He and Hennig then beat on him until Bret Hart runs out to make the save. Hart gives Rude a nutbreaker, then slaps the Sharpshooter on Hennig. He also manages to hold off the rest of the NWO scrub squad. Hart grabs a mic, talks about how he's been screwed over before, (comments which go over the heads of all but maybe a half dozen people in the), then vows to stick his nose in any time he sees injustice in the ring. I, for one, plan to hold him to that promise. - The big finale to last week's Thunder is shown. - GOLDBERG vs. RENEGADE The man so big he no longer needs a first name. Win number 60 takes exactly forty seconds. Unfortunately for WCW they're unable to do the usual post-match close-up of Goldberg, as the one move Renegade did (a handspring elbow into the corner) busted him open over the left eye. - "ROWDY" RODDY PIPER vs. "MACHO MAN" RANDY SAVAGE (w/ Elizabeth) A lot of fire between these two, but to call it a match would be a joke. Piper spends the first couple of minutes whipping Savage with his belt. The two then fight on the floor long enough to get counted out a half dozen times over. Piper breaks away from Savage long enough to plant a kiss on Liz (who had actively interfered in the match as it started in the ring). The action moves back into the ring. Liz somehow manages to get knocked off the apron. The ref goes out to check on her as Piper slaps on a sleeper. Savage escapes from the sleeper. Hogan then comes out and knocks out the ref. Nash comes too-wielding a baseball bat. Nash is about to whack Piper with it, but Hogan stops him, yelling "what are you doing?!" Hogan wants Nash to hit Savage. The two shove each other, which gets a big reaction from the crowd. Hogan takes a swing at Savage with the bat, but misses. Sting then arrives with his own bat. Nash stands back in the corner and tells Hogan he's on his own. Sting and Piper square off against Hogan and Nash, but it's broken up by Savage, who jumps Sting from behind. Piper gets roughed up by Hogan and Nash for a bit until he's saved by the Giant. The Giant manages to get his hands on both bats. Brutus Beefcake puts in a token appearance. The action winds down with the good guys in the ring as the NWO backs down the aisle. As there's still a few minutes to kill they show a replay of some of the above action. (The show ends up finishing a good two minutes early anyway.) Where was Bret Hart? - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Only watching bits and pieces as the live show aired, I thought this was a pretty good installment of Nitro. Once I actually sat down and watched the whole thing, though, I learned just what a waste most of it was. The first hour just plain sucked. Hour two was highlighted by the really good Page/ Sting match. Nothing even came close to being that good for the rest of the show. There's just under four weeks to go until the next PPV, but we already have the three major matches announced: Hogan/Nash vs. Piper/Giant, Sting vs. Savage and DDP vs. Raven. The Hogan match will undoubtedly be the last match on the card. The whole "baseball bat" stipulation is completely out of thin air, and just smacks of WCW trying to be "extreme". Beyond those three matches, I think we saw a lot of the upcoming PPV tonight. I don't think Hart will face Hennig again solo, but a tag match involving Rude and the Bulldog seems likely. Prince Iaukea will either engage in a continuing feud with Konan, or will be pushed into a Cruiserweight Title match with Jericho. Eddy Guerrero should be in action, either against his nephew Chavo, or maybe the Ultimo Dragon. I could also see Booker T. and Benoit going at it a few more times, leading up to a PPV match. However all the pieces come together, I'm sure we saw most of the PPV participants this week. Thunder should make things a bit clearer. Sting should beat Savage, though I think the possibility exists for Savage to actually win the title, which would almost assuredly mean he's going to lose it to Hogan pretty quick after that. That way Hogan will have the belt back in time for the big feud with Hart. If the above is even close to what's scheduled for the PPV, I'm already turned off by it. It's just so much of the same thing we've seen over the last three or four months, only with the names shuffled around a bit to make new matches. I'm not sure if bringing Roddy Piper back yet again really constitutes anything fresh or original. Do we really care if Piper somehow managed to beat Hogan yet again? With Sting currently as the champion Piper is once again in a position where he can't beat Hogan for the belt. The Giant may somehow get a win over Nash, but everyone knows wins in tag matches never count as much as a solo win (meaning the Giant, now that I think about it, maybe actually stands a decent chance of scoring the pin over Nash. It may the only way Nash will do the job.) I doubt Piper came back just to do a job, so the odds of him laying down seem pretty slim. No matter how you slice it, it adds up to a fairly meaningless match-and a PPV that's easy to pass on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Taped 3/17. Length: Two Hours. Location: Tucson, Arizona. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross, Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly. - Kicking things off they show highlights from Vince McMahon's shocking admission last week that he would be displeased if "Stone Cold" Steve Austin were to win the World Wrestling Federation Title. - Austin comes out immediately after the opening fanfare to be interviewed by Kevin Kelly in the ring. Austin spends as much time verbally berating and intimidating Kelly as he does complaining about McMahon and DeGeneration X. With the battle lines drawn and the match at WrestleMania hyped to the gills, Austin is about to call it a night-when ... WWF Commissioner Slaughter makes his way to the ring. Slaughter informs Austin that instead of having the night off, WWF owner Vince McMahon has ordered that he face Rocky Maivia there on RAW in a non-title match. Austin goes into his usual spiel about how he does what he wants, when he want and that he'll face Maivia because he wants to, but is cut off by Slaughter. The Sarge informs him that if he refuses to wrestle this match, his match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania will be made a non-title affair. Amidst the tremendous boos of the crowd, Austin lets the Sarge know just how much he's insulted. The boos turn to cheers as Austin plants Slaughter with a Stone Cold Stunner. - CACTUS JACK/"CHAINSAW" CHARLIE vs. THE QUEBECERS In a quick match, Funk and Cactus win by DQ when they are attacked by the New Age Outlaws, who had gathered on the stage to watch the match. Road Dog and Billy Gunn were dressed in black tuxedos, with a card tables set up where they sat and sipped champagne with two blow-up dolls (one of which was made up to look like Cactus Jack). After the match ending run- in they smashed the card table over Terry Funk's head. Cactus Jack was piledrived on a steel chair. - "DOUBLE J" JEFF JARRETT (w/ Tennessee Lee) vs. STEVE BLACKMAN A moderately surprising match, in that it had no real PPV implications, but still managed to be better than one would expect. Blackman, coming into this match, had yet to be pinned in the WWF. Jarrett once again rode a horse to the ring, and seems to be getting a slight increase in crowd reaction, perhaps suggesting that the return to the "Double J" Gimmick has paid off. Anyway, after a solid back-and-forth match Tennessee Lee grabs Blackman's leg during an attempted suplex off the turnbuckles. Jarrett lands on top of Blackman and gets the pin (with Lee lending a helping hand by holding Blackman's feet, keeping him from kicking out). After the match a second referee runs in to tell the first ref what happened. Jarrett plows into the ref and clobbers him. (The announcers exclaim that it was Lee who pushed Jarrett into the ref, though to me it looked like Jarrett acted on his own). In any case, the first ref lets the decision stand. Blackman, meanwhile, lays out Jarrett and chases Lee from the ring. Jarrett recovers and insists that the ref raise his arm in victory. - D-X will be holding a "public workout" this Thursday in Boston at noon Eastern. Look for a scuffle to break out, in hopes of getting some airplay on a few of the sports channels. Of course they don't need to hype the locals any more, as the show is already a sell-out and is expected to earn a gate of over a million dollars. On the heels of the workout announcement, a long white limo is shown pulling up in the parking garage. Shawn Michaels, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Mike Tyson and Chyna all make their way into the arena. - After a look at what went down between the Undertaker and Kane last week, they play pre-taped comments from the Undertaker, taped at the gravesite of his parents. The usual comments are delivered in character, but in a much lower key than we regularly expect from him. It almost sounds out of character, but it's obviously not given the subject matter. - After the heights of this angle (as seen in the above okay interview by the Undertaker), we move on to the depths. Kane and Paul Bearer come to the ring and, in what has to go down as one of the most overtly silly moments in WWF history, Kane displays his "dark powers". First he makes a bank of lights suspended over the ring explode (complete with an animated lightning bolt). He follows this up by shooting lightning from his fingers, which causes the monitors on the announcers desk to blow out. By now the crowd is booing: some of it, I suspect, because the angle is so damned silly. Kane then blasts a spotlight on top of one of the steel towers flanking the Titan-Tron. Finally he zaps a WWF production type guy, who just happens to be wearing gloves, has protective grease smeared on his face, and some sort of accelerant smeared over his clothes. The lightning bolts ignite sparks from his shoes, which in turn sets his body on fire. The stunt man staggers and prances up the ramp, where he's met by fire extinguisher wielding assistants. Much time after this is spent showing the man being loaded onto a stretcher and carried away. I'm really at a loss of words to explain what possessed them to go so far over the top in this angle. This would be akin to Sting dropping down from the ceiling-the cable holding him plainly visible-and having Tony Schiavone try and convince us that Sting was really flying! I hate to say it, but I think this stunt actually slightly hurt my anticipation of their upcoming match at WrestleMania. I've known that it probably won't be a great match, but now I fear it may end up as an almost totally unathletic contest focused solely on special effects and storyline. As much as I love the angles, when it comes down to the PPV's I'm tuned in to see the matches. The two have to complement each other. Unfortunately, I now have this vision in my head of the two shooting lightning bolts at each other instead of actually wrestling. Wait a minute ... that may not be too bad after all. - THE DISCIPLES OF APOCALYPSE vs. THE NEW MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (w/Jim Cornette) The new Midnight Express show that they have the makings of a solid combination, but they don't get to show it for long as other WWF tag teams begin migrating to and gathering around the ring. Before long the inevitable massive ring-filling brawl breaks out, giving us all a taste of the 15 Tag Team Battle Royal scheduled for WrestleMania. The official decision of the match is apparently a "no contest". WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - D-X fills the ring. Helmsley regales us with the usual double entendres. Michaels does a solid, albeit a touch lengthy monologue on how great he is. Tyson is just there as window dressing, throwing in a few crotch chops and quips about how great he and Shawn are. Not a stellar interview segment, but it gets the job done. - In recapping the Rocky Maivia/Ken Shamrock situation, they announce that a stipulation has been added to their match at WrestleMania: should the Rock get disqualified, he'll lose the Intercontinental title. Sounds like someone else in the WWF maybe doesn't want to "lay down" for anyone either. - FAAROOQ vs. CHAINZ I'm becoming a bit of a broken record on the subject, but I really do think Faarooq continues to recover some of his old form. That being said, there wasn't much to this match. Rocky Maivia comes to ringside with a steel chair. after a few minutes he enters the ring and prepares to whack Chainz with it. Faarooq orders Rocky to hold off, not wishing to lose by DQ. Rocky decides to swing away, nailing Faarooq instead. (Faarooq's head had gotten in the way, though Rocky didn't seem all that broken up by the mistake.) The ref calls for the bell, presumably awarding the match to Faarooq via DQ. The other Nation members come out and give Rocky various dirty looks as they help Faarooq to the back. Faarooq is going to be way over with the crowd if and when he turns on Rocky at WrestleMania. - The feud between Barry Windham and Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw is highlighted. - BARRY WINDHAM (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. JUSTIN "HAWK" BRADSHAW Bradshaw, who has loads of potential, doesn't show any of it here. The Rock & Roll Express show up in the front row, distracting both Cornette and Windham. Bradshaw is able to get a cheap roll-up from behind for the win. The New Midnight Express then comes out and beats on Bradshaw. During the match Jim Ross identifies Kane's burn victim as "Hunter Brown", and offers apologies to his family. Where's my apology for having to watch it? - Jim Ross also makes what I think is a bit of a blunder, but I'm not sure. He mentions WrestleMania I and how fans watched it on pay-per-view. Was the first WrestleMania actually on PPV? I thought it was live only, with some availability via closed-circuit at other locations. I should know the answer to this, but it's late and my brain is fried. I'll remember in a few days or so I'm sure. - They hype the WrestleMania workout again. - Sable comes to the ring to accept an award for being on the cover of the highest selling issue of the RAW Magazine. Marc Mero is with her, but he bows out before the presentation, accusing her of riding on the coattails of his career, and that he was going to let her have her "moment". Kevin Kelly then introduces Vince Russo, forgetting that we're all supposed to know him as Vic Venom. Sunny was also supposed to be there, but is "under the weather" (we will see her at WrestleMania, though). Sable only gets in a few words before Goldust and Luna make their way to the ring. Luna grabs the plaque and smashes it over Sable's head. She then tear's Sable's dress. Russo whips off his coat to cover her up. Mero comes back out, warns Goldust that he's a "dead man!", and then berates Russo for not protecting Sable. - THE ROCK (w/ the NOD) vs. "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN Ross announces Faarooq has a concussion, and is doubtful to appear at WrestleMania. A good, solid match, with Austin showing how far he's come back on the road to recovery. He takes several wicked clotheslines from Rocky which drive him to the mat, but comes back solid after each. He also takes a shot to the ring steps, as well as delivers a running clothesline off the apron onto one of the NOD members. The match wavered from a toe-to-toe slugfest, to the usual back-and-forth offensive exchanges. A commercial is taken at the six minute mark. D-X, meanwhile, has watched the match via monitor from their dressing room. Austin, who had been in the clutches of a Mark Henry choke prior to the break, is back on his feet and whipping Rocky into the ropes. He catches him in a sleeperhold. Maivia breaks free, bodyslams Austin and drops the People's Elbow on him. The crowd starts to get noisy as Austin escapes the hold and lays in some offense. The rally is short-lived, though, as Rocky drops him with a knee to the midsection. Rocky delivers another slam, then a pair of middle fingers (which are digitally fuzzed out). Rocky sets up another elbowdrop, but misses. Austin rallies, falters a bit, but in the end delivers a kick to the gut and puts Rocky away with the Stone Cold Stunner. D-Lo Brown runs in with a chair, but receives a Stunner as well. The total match time was well over ten minutes. Shawn, Hunter, Chyna and Tyson appear on the stage. Shawn strips off his coat and heads to the ring. There he's held back by Hunter as the show fades out. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Some angle reservations aside, I thought this was a good final push for WrestleMania. All the high points, storyline-wise, were touched upon. The Austin match really was a decent effort, and I'm sure is meant to allay some fears that some may have had that he wouldn't be able to go this Sunday. Certainly he's not the wrestler he once was (breaking your neck will do that to you), but he can still go. Michaels is still a mystery, as the status of his back is still up in the air. There's no question that he will face Austin, but it's still unknown how close to 100% he'll be. With Tyson at ringside, though, as well as Helmsley, Chyna, and the newly introduced wrinkle of McMahon's possible involvement, there should be enough outside storyline elements to fill in the gaps. Some doubts I had a week or two ago as to whether or not Austin would win have pretty much vanished. I think it's a lock that he'll win the belt. There still exists, though, the manner in which it will all go down. The finish to this match may currently be the biggest secret in all of wrestling. Will Shawn, as he's often repeated, not lay down-even for Steve Austin? I'm pretty much assuming that Kane will either score an upset victory over the Undertaker, or that the match will have an indefinite ending. This is a feud which screams out for an eventual gimmick match finale, making this first match not as important as the build-up for it has suggested. Still, it is a big draw, and it has to be a satisfying enough match to warrant further encounters. That aspect of it hopefully preserves enough of an element of surprise to make this match watchable. I hope. If it works, it may be considered by some fans as the "Feud of the Year". If not, it'll end up looking like a rehash of the disastrous Undertaker vs. Undertaker feud from 1994. The rest of the PPV card I'll discuss in the "Bottom Line" section below. Just a quick note on this McMahon "heel" turn: I love it-buuuuuuuut I'm hesitant to get all giddy about it yet. I don't want to get worked up over something when the potential exists for McMahon to chicken out and pull the plug on the angle. Right now it's being played very subtlely, most likely to gauge fan reaction and so forth. If they decide to not do it, they can kill the angle without messing up any major storylines or, frankly, logic as it exists in the WWF. McMahon could simply say he's not happy that Austin is the champ, but it's best to do what the fans like. Bang ... dead angle. They haven't committed to anything yet. Should they go ahead with it, though, it has the makings of a great angle-so long as they properly explain what McMahon's motivations are. Anything less and it'll come of as simple spotlight hogging a la Eric Bischoff. That's the fundamental difference between what Bischoff has done and what may be done by McMahon. Bischoff has declared himself pro-NWO i.e. pro-Hulk Hogan. What WCW has never explained is if Bischoff dislikes guys like Savage, Luger and Sting so much that he'd like to see them beaten with baseball bats, etc., then why doesn't he just fire them outright and get rid of them? Sure, doing so would hurt business. That's obvious, though WCW never bothers to say it. Well, doesn't dropping the Giant on his neck risk hurting business as well? Doesn't running the Steiners off the road in their car risk hurting business? Doesn't going after Roddy Piper's bad hip risk hurting business? Yes, all the trials and tribulations of the NWO have managed to make Nitro perhaps the biggest show on all of cable TV. Guess what? Most WCW fans don't know that! They don't follow the ratings like the fans on the Internet do. They don't pay attention to PPV buyrates. Their only clue that WCW is doing well comes from Tony Schiavone's repeated claims at how great WCW is. Given that Schiavone thinks everything about WCW is great, I don't think too many fans bother to put all that much credence in what he says anymore (except for those who accept such claims without hesitation). Most fans are just exposed to the hype and don't follow or have ready access to the statistics which usually back up the hype. Getting back to Bischoff, WCW has never bothered to address the question "how does Eric expect to make WCW great by destroying it?" Most fans realize the NWO can't exist on its own without WCW, not to mention all those fans who either like WCW too much, or like both too much, to see the NWO come out solely on top. If the fans realize this, then why doesn't the guy running the company realize it? And if the public "persona" is that Bischoff really wields little power in WCW, then how and why is it the NWO gets away with the things they do? There's a difference between the "behind-the-scenes" Bischoff (who I do have a small measure of respect for) and the "on-camera" Bischoff (who I have little interest in or respect for). Two separate aspects of the same man and WCW hasn't bothered to explain the motivations of either, nor have they defined where one stops and the other begins. No matter what interpretation a WCW fan can come up with for why Bischoff may do what he does, it's only that: an interpretation. Better yet, a guess. WCW simply rarely bothers to address any of these issues. Fortunately for them, most WCW fans don't even bother to look that deeply at what's going on to question them. No, I'm not saying WWF fans are, on the average, more sophisticated. I'm just pointing out that the WWF generally tries to make what they do seem like it makes more sense. It may not make more sense, but at least the WWF usually goes to the effort of making some sense out of it (or at least it seems that way). When WCW does try to explain some of these things, it's either done way too long after questions amongst the fans have arisen, or they seem to forget about them within a matter of days. (Remember when Bischoff was "demoted" and barred from appearing at ringside? He himself came out, said "bite me!" and the angle was completely forgotten the SAME NIGHT it started!) Bischoff wants us to take that respect he maybe deserves for his behind the scenes work, and apply it to his on-camera persona. That's an inconsistency he and WCW needs to deal with. Either he truly is the "genius", or he's the bumbling fool we see on TV, and if we accept he's a "genius", then he has to stop playing the fool-or WCW has to come up with a way to explain why the "genius" is such a fool, without just admitting that it's all a fictitious character that he's playing on TV. The situation, as it currently exists, makes no sense. The two aspects of Bischoff's character have to be treated separately. The guy on TV I hate because he's a butt-kissing jerk, and the real person I often dislike because he does stupid things. Vince McMahon has eliminated a lot of this "dual personality conflict" because he's removed himself from an on-camera role. He's now set to return- hopefully with those dual aspects of his character well defined. The WWF as well deserves criticism when they don't bother to lay out the logic of certain situations. Many WWF fans are just as willing to shut off parts of their brains and accept what is being offered wholesale. (I'd guess that this is maybe why the Undertaker/Kane feud is being so well received.) McMahon, if he does go ahead with this angle, needs to not only make it clear why he's against Austin, but how he's going to deal with him without hurting the WWF? If the WWF does this right, it'll be a great angle. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Here's the line-up for WrestleMania: * Michaels vs. Austin. Tyson at ringside. * Undertaker vs. Kane. * New Age Outlaws vs. Cactus Jack & "Chainsaw" Charlie. * Rocky Maivia vs. Ken Shamrock. "DQ" rule waived. * Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Owen Hart. Chyna handcuffed to Sgt. Slaughter. * Goldust & Luna vs. Marc Mero & Sable. * 15 Tag Team Battle Royal. * Taka Michinoku vs. Aguila. That last match is the only one which didn't get much in the way of hype this week. I'm not even sure it's still on the card, come to think of it. Jeff Jarrett was also supposed to be in a match, and Jim Ross inferred that both he and Steve Blackman would be in action at the PPV. The Battle Royal, maybe? The admittedly sleazy celebrity list includes: * Pete Rose. * Gennifer Flowers. There's also a persistent rumor that talk show host Jerry Springer will be a part of the show, depending on if he was able to clear up some scheduling conflicts. It also looked for a while like comedian Carrot Top might be involved with the PPV, but nothing has been mentioned about it in recent weeks. Thank god. I hesitate to bring the subject up, but there are a whole slew of wrestlers rumored to be putting in appearances of some sort at the event: Steve Regal, Yokozuna, Sycho Sid, Dan Severn, Adam Copeland, and many others. There's also a bit of a mystery surrounding the Legion of Doom. Will they be in the Tag Team Battle Royal or not? Mention of them has been sketchy of late. I'd suggest everyone do the smart thing and not assume any of the above rumored names will show up. That way you can't feel cheated. (Yeah, that'll work: "Strike that from the record, your honor! Instruct the jury to disregard what they've heard!") Can the WWF make WrestleMania XIV the spectacle it promises to be on paper the extravaganza that it deserves to be? I'm willing to bet $35 dollars that they'll at least come close. Call your own local cable operators if you're willing to place your own bets. Oh yeah ... I gave RAW the win again this week. I have a feeling that this may be the first in a long string of weeks in which Nitro loses. The next WCW PPV already looks like a stinker, meaning the TV shows leading up to it- if they hold true to current form-will probably stink as well. (The Kane segment nearly sunk the show for them this week, though.) The post- WrestleMania shows looks to be wide open, and the night after the PPV will undoubtedly set the tone for the direction of the company. If RAW wins next week, look for them to win quite often over the next few months. Truth be told, though, I did actually watch more of the Academy Awards show than of either wrestling show as they aired. Man, that Kate Winslet is one hot babe! Woo-hoo!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 123 of the "Monday Night Recap", March 23rd, 1998.