Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #155 November 2nd, 1998 The Opening Word: Per the demands of WCW's fans (all three or four of them) I am no longer allowed to speak ill of their favorite promotion. You see, it turns out I'm biased, so anything I say about them, no matter how insightful or true it may be, is invalid because of my biased nature; and if and when I'm wrong, I've crossed the line from giving an opinion to actually committing a crime. I guess WCW's generally awful nature is all they can stand, whereas actually commenting on such drives them over the edge. So in an effort to make the lives of these people a little bit easier, there will be a format change to the Nitro portion of this Recap for the foreseeable future. This should allow them to cope with the horror that is WCW without having to waste their time defending them on the Internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - ALEX WRIGHT vs. NORMAN SMILEY Wright wins by pin, following a reverse neckbreaker. - DISCO INFERNO vs. KAZ HAYASHI Disco wins with the Macarena Piledriver. - "Mean" Gene Okerlund interviews Booker T., who announces that it was Scott Hall who attacked him several months ago--not Stevie Ray, as everyone thought. - SCOTT PUTSKI vs. FIT FINLAY Finlay wins via the Tombstone Piledriver. - Comments from Raven in the back are interrupted by Kanyon, who is critical of Raven's current attitude and direction. - ERNEST "THE CAT" MILLER (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. SCOTT ARMSTRONG Miller challenges anyone to come out and face him, and beats Armstrong following a quick roundhouse kick. Steve Armstrong comes out after the match to help his brother. Miller, with help from Onoo, beats on him too, and scored a second pinfall. - WRATH vs. KENDALL WINDHAM Wrath wins via the Meltdown. - "Mean" Gene interviews Bret Hart. Hart announces that he has a groin pull, and the doctors have told him he can't wrestle Lex Luger tonight. Luger comes out to confront Hart, and ends up clotheslining him putting him the Torture Rack. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - Per the orders of Eric Bischoff, they show footage of Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair from Halloween Havoc 1994. This was the match where Hogan won in a steel cage, forcing Flair to retire. Mr. T was the special referee. - "Mean" Gene interviews Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and the other Four Horsemen members. - Nitro Girls Video. Nitro Girls Dance Number. Nitro Party Video. - SCOTT NORTON (w/ Vincent) vs. VAN HAMMER Norton wins with a powerbomb. - Bret Hart is shown in the back getting his lower ribs taped. - Saturn calls out Eddie Guerrero. The two brawl until Guerrero is saved by the Latino World Order. Konan comes out and challenges Eddie to a future match, saying that he (Eddie) is exploiting the LWO like Raven exploited the Flock. - SCOTT STEINER (w/ Buff Bagwell) vs. KENNY KAOS No match. J.J. Dillon stops Kaos before he can reach the ring. Steiner runs over and lets out a stream of obscenities (which are censored). They cut to commercial without Dillon getting a chance to make whatever announcement he had attempted to make. - PSYCHOSIS vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. Psychosis gets the pin following a powerbomb off the top. The LWO come out to celebrate with Psychosis afterwards. - "Mean" Gene interviews Chris Jericho. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - RAVEN vs. DEAN MALENKO Lodi tries to interfere, but Steve "Mongo" McMichael chases him away. Kanyon then tries to interfere, but he is cut off by Chris Benoit. Benoit is then attacked by Bret Hart. Malenko wins by DQ when Kanyon attacks him. Lex Luger then comes out after Hart, but the Hitman is saved by the Giant. - KIDMAN vs. CHRIS JERICHO (w/ Security Ninja) Time limit draw. Jericho retains his Television Title (Kidman's Cruiserweight belt wasn't on the line). - J.J. Dillon announces that Buff Bagwell has been fined $50,000 and Scott Steiner $100,000. Scott comes out, chases Dillon, trashes the announcing booth, then invades the ring and delivers a profanity laden interview. Bagwell calls Kenny Kaos out to apologize to him, but instead the two beat on him once he hits the ring. - SCOTT HALL vs. BOOKER T. Hall shoves the referee in the way of a missile drop-kick attempt off the top by Booker T. The ref DQ's Hall, giving Booker the win. - LEX LUGER vs. THE GIANT Luger is on the verge of putting the Giant in the Torture Rack when Bret Hart runs in with a short section of security barrier. Luger wins via DQ. Goldberg then comes out, takes out the Giant, then tries to spear Hart. Hart sidesteps, causing Goldberg to hit Luger instead. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: No comments. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Houston, Texas. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - Shane McMahon, the "Acting" Chairman or the World Wrestling Federation, announces that on the night following the Survivor Series PPV, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin will get a World Title shot against whoever the new WWF Champion is. Shane brings out Austin, and as he's coming out they cut Vince McMahon arriving at the arena. Mr. McMahon quickly enters the arena and denies that he is stepping down as head of the WWF. He says he'll be dead in the ground before that'll happen. McMahon then goes on a tear, telling Austin that his title match will happen at the PPV instead of the following night (which doesn't make much sense, but ... whatever). He then relieves Shane of his "corporate duties" and says if he wants to stay employed within the World Wrestling Federation he has to accept the only position open to him: referee. Hot segment, with the crowd again chanting "asshole!" at McMahon, and he responding that they are the assholes, not him. We've also got a steel cage hanging over the ring, and before the night is over, someone is going to be paying "hard time" in it with the Big Bossman! After the break they show a clip that took place moments earlier, in which we see McMahon tearing into Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross, saying they better star toeing the line. HIS line. - Steve Austin's Official Website goes on-line Tuesday night: www.stonecold.com. - DEGENERATION X vs. THE BROOD "The Brood" is the collective name of Gangrel, Edge and Christian. This match is barely underway when the lights go out, red pyros go off, and out comes Kane, who destroys both teams. - Mr. McMahon is shown cornering Michael Cole in the back. McMahon asks him what was that question Cole asked him last week while McMahon was an emotional wreck. Cole says it was "how do you feel?" The Big Bossman then grabs Cole by the neck, and McMahon asks him "how does it feel?" - THE DROZ vs. HAWK Hawk comes out three sheets to the wind (read: drunk). Ross says it looks like Hawk fell of the wagon, then the wagon rolled over him. The match never really starts as the ref seems unwilling to decare Hawk fit to wrestle. Droz attacks him anyway, beating on him while yelling "look at yourself!" Animal eventually comes out, but merely looks on as Droz continues the beating. Animal finally stops him, only to take his turn yelling at Hawk. Is it okay for me to like this because WCW is doing the same thing with Scott Hall? I didn't think so, and for the record, I don't. (Like it, that is.) Taped moments earlier, they show McMahon and the Bossman stumbling across Jim Cornette in the back. As the Bossman pins Cornette to the wall, McMahon tells him to stop wearing those ugly jackets ... and drop the "1980's wrestling crap!" Priceless! - Michael Cole interviews Al Snow and Mankind. The two are still arguing whether Head or Socko is better. Mankind, in reference to the "Secrets of Pro-Wrestling" show which aired on NBC, says: "Just last night, Al, some of pro-wrestling's greatest secrets were revealed to me--" Snow: "Really?" Mankind: "You stomp the foot--" Snow: "No!" - THE ODDITIES (w/ Luna & the Giant Silva) vs. AL SNOW/MANKIND A better match than it had any right to be, which isn't saying anything. Mankind has the sure win lined up, but can't find Socko in his tights. He winds up leaving the ring, and leaving Snow at the mercy of Kurrgan, who chokeslams him and covers for the pin. ZZ Top was shown in the crowd prior to the start of the match. Taped earlier, McMahon is seen wheeling himself next to a cluster of wrestlers gathered to watch the matches on a small TV backstage. Vince takes a look at a big guy sitting next to D-Lo Brown, and asks him if he has a backstage pass. The guy stands up and says "I'm Shaquille O'Neal and I don't need a backstage pass!" McMahon says he does, but wheels away before anything comes of it. Shaq looks into the camera and mouths the word "asshole!" Good for a laugh, I just pray to god this isn't a tip-off to something looming on the horizon. (Given how tight Shaq is with Hogan and WCW his appearance here downright shocked me.) - Mankind is shown after the commercial break tearing the backstage area apart looking for Socko. - STEVEN REGAL vs. GOLDUST Regal's music is utterly ridiculous, with manly men chanting "he's a man ... a man's man!" It sucks, but it's supposed to suck, making it a real hoot. Regal challenges anyone to come out and face him "like a man!" Upon seeing Goldust Regal gives the requisite facial reaction. Terri Runnels comes out early in the match dressed as "Marlena", trying to get Goldust to take her back. He doesn't appear interested. (In case you missed it, on Sunday Night Heat Terri revealed to Val Venis that she was pregnant. He of course denies being the father.) Not too slow a match, but definitely not fast. A sorta half-speed encounter, which sees Goldust get Regal set up on the turnbuckles for the Nut Punt, only to have the lights go out and Kane to reappear. Kane takes out both men, then hoists Terri in the air when she comes in. A flock of referees are able to convince Kane to set her down gently. So he chokeslams WWF official Tony Garea instead. Garea oversells it, twitching on the mat like a fish on a hotplate. - Here are the brackets for the Survivor Series Championship tournament: * Undertaker vs. BYE * Kane vs. BYE * The Rock vs. Triple H * Goldust vs. Ken Shamrock * Mankind vs. ??? * Jeff Jarrett vs. Al Snow * X-Pac vs. Steven Regal * Steve Austin vs. The Big Bossman The Undertaker will face Kane at the start of the second round due to both receiving BYES. Mankind's opponent is unnamed. As I feared last week, the brackets are set so that natural foes are conveniently set up to face each other. However, Jim Ross says that Vince McMahon is the one who drew up the brackets, making sure that certain key match-ups would take place. It looks better so long as they admit that the pairings have been tinkered with, though I'd still rather have seen something that looked a bit more random. - McMahon is shown talking to Mankind. He offers him a present if Mankind will do a favor for him. Mankind agrees without even seeing what the "present" is. McMahon pulls out the old WWF World Title belt, with a piece of tape affixed to it which reads "Hardcore". McMahon says this is the WWF Hardcore Championship belt, and it's all Mankind's if he simply doesn't interfere in the upcoming Ken Shamrock match. Mankind agrees, and kisses the belt. Vince pats him on the shoulder and says he may have lost a son in Shane, but may have gotten a new one in Mankind. "Really? Gee, thanks ... Dad!" How can you NOT love these two?!" - As Shamrock makes his way to the ring they show a clip taped during the break. McMahon is seen plotting strategy with Shamrock and chases off the cameraman when he gets too close. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. - KEN SHAMROCK vs. THE ROCK McMahon is wheeled to the stage, where he informs the Rock that if he doesn't beat Shamrock for the Intercontinental Title tonight, he will be bumped from the Survivor Series tournament. Shamrock dominates the early goings, building to an ankle submission hold. The Rock makes it to the ropes, however, and from there stages a comeback. Both men score several near falls. At about the seven minute mark the Rock accidentally clotheslines the ref. Shamrock goes out after a steel chair, takes a swing at the Rock, but misses, hits the ropes, and bangs himself in the head. The Rock bodyslams Shamrock then drops the People's Elbow. Cover, but no ref. Shamrock then gets the chair and nails the Rock on the back, which the now recovering ref sees. Shamrock loses via DQ, but since the Rock didn't win the title, he's now out of the tournament. Good match, which ran about eight minutes (with the crowd on their feet for at least half of it.) Well, there goes most everyone's favorite pick to win. That means Hunter Hearst Helmsley will advance to the second round with a BYE to face the winner of the Goldust/Shamrock match. Assuming the still injured Helmsley falls quickly to Shamrock, that means Ken will go on to face the winner of the Undertaker/Kane match! Undertaker vs. Austin final? There's a lot of intriguing matches here, though probably not a lot of surprises in store. With still two weeks to go, though, I don't want to assume too much. As of now we're looking at a 12 match tournament, with Jacqueline scheduled to defend the Women's Title against Sable. The New Age Outlaws will also defend the Tag Team Titles, the opponents to be named later in the evening. 14 matches thus far to be squeezed in three hours of PPV and an hour of Sunday Night Heat. Do-able, and much easier than the 17 matches that would have been needed had all 16 bracket slots been filled (15 tournament + 2 other matches.) Of course other matches may yet announced, what with two more weeks to go until the PPV. - After the break they show the Rock tearing the dressing room apart, demanding to see Vince McMahon. - VAL VENIS vs. JEFF JARRETT (w/ Debra McMichael) Pretty much just back-and-forth stuff leading to the finish. Val climbs to the top, only to have the mysterious Blue Blazer run in and shake the ropes, knocking Val off his feet and dropping him crotch-first on the top turnbuckle. Jim Ross throws a fit over how obvious it is that the Blazer is Owen Hart. An unmarked police car is shown pulling up to the arena. After the commercial we see McMahon telling the officers that the Rock threatened his life, and he wants him taken into custody. - The Head Bangers come out dressed as the Outlaws, wearing the plastic toy versions of the Tag Title belts. They do a parody of the Outlaw's intro, calling themselves "Dumbass Rockabilly" and "Puppy Dog Jesse James". Funny, but not hilarious. The crowd wasn't overly amused. - THE HEAD BANGERS vs. D-LO BROWN/MARK HENRY The winner gets the Tag Title shot at Survivor Series. This one ranged from "so-so" when D-Lo was in to "awful" when Henry was. (YOU figure out that average.) The match also ran long, the finish of which saw no one win when, you guessed it, Kane comes out yet again to lay waste to the competition. Each time Kane has appeared Jim Ross pounds in our skills the reason behind this is that Kane no longer has any guidance. If that doesn't set up a new manager for him somewhere down the road I don't know what else would. The cops have found the Rock and are slapping the cuffs on him. The Rock has a few choice words for them. After the break we see him being stuffed into the squad car as McMahon looks on, calling him "the People's Chump!" - Owen Hart comes to the ring. There he repeats his statement of several weeks ago that he is sorry for injuring Dan Severn, and that he has retired from the WWF. Severn, in a neckbrace, comes out and says he just doesn't buy it. He says everyone knows Owen is the Blue Blazer. Owen eventually snaps, shoving and clotheslining Severn to the mat. Steve Blackman runs in to make the save. Severn is shown being loaded into an ambulance. Blackman then spots Owen and attacks him. A short but brutal brawl sees Blackman toss Owen against some garbage cans, then lay in some stiff shots. Not too unexpectedly the Blue Blazer appears to help Owen. As the Blazer holds Blackman Owen delivers a kick between Steve's legs. Just a guess, but I'd say the Blazer was Jeff Jarrett here. - McMahon, the Bossman and the stooges come to ringside. Vince tells them all to get into the cage to check how sturdy it is. Once inside the Bossman locks the door and, at McMahon's direction, proceeds to destroy Pat Patterson, Jerry Brisco and Commissioner Slaughter! This is payback, says Vince, for them deserting him when Austin took him hostage. The Bossman brutalizes the three, beating them with his nightstick, tossing them into the cage, even ripping some of their clothes off. This goes on for several minutes until Steve Austin runs out to save them. As he and the Bossman are brawling, though, Patterson gets his hands on the nightstick and hits Austin! The Bossman then works over Austin, only to be stopped by the arrival of Shane McMahon in the cage! There's a tense moment as the Bossman looks to McMahon to see what to do. Vince signals him to leave, sparing his son on this night. Then the Undertaker runs in to beat on Austin. Then Kane runs in to beat on the Undertaker. The show fades out as the lights go out and parts of the cage catch fire, the three wrestlers battling inside a flaming steel inferno! - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Good show, though most of the matches left a lot to be desired. The line-up for Survivor Series is a lot clearer, with the Title tournament getting a good, solid build. This is on track to be the first PPV in a long time in which most every match will mean something. As things go along they will be fairly predictable, though there's sure to be a few good matches, and at least three guys (Austin, Undertaker and Kane) being serious threats to win it all. One also can't rule out the Rock somehow managing to work his way back into it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: This thing with Nitro isn't some kind of "protest" on my part. I'm not staging a "boycott" of WCW. I've simply lost all interest in them, and for the foreseeable future will give them the attention any disinterested observer would have in anything outside their sphere of interest. For the sake of this Recap I'll provide the results, but that's about it. I've no idea how long this will last, but if it spells the eventual end of the "Monday Night Recap" then so be it. This is also the last week I'm going to declare a "winner". Who "won" or "lost" on any given week was something I started back when the two shows were on even ground, and fans would debate which was the better show. This was almost three years ago, back before the shows started juggling their timeslots, expanding to two and three hours, and everyone became obsessed with the ratings. Back then people seemed more willing to look what went down and judge one show as being better. All that pretty much ended when WCW went on a more than year-long ratings winning streak. No matter how good or bad their show was, the fact that they had scored the higher rating was seen as "proof" by WCW fans that Nitro was better, and all intelligent debate went out of the window. In the last year the WWF roared back into contention, causing the WCW fans to start obsessing about hourly ratings, quarterly ratings, head-to-head ratings, demographical ratings, or any other statistic which would "prove" that Nitro was better. (To be fair plenty of WWF fans have done this too.) We've also seen the WWF and WCW each evolve to a point where they now have so little in common. One can't just look at Nitro and say "IT had the better matches, therefore IT was better!"; or "RAW had the better angles, therefore IT was better!" The criteria for what goes into a "good" show, as well as a combined running time of five hours, have made it too difficult to break down which show deserved the win. Either you go with your gut, or you apply some form of arcane statistical formula to the matches, interviews, angles, etc. Neither method is flawless, however, and whatever the result one is bound to be accused of voting based on existing biases (an accusation made easy since in this case my readily admitted bias has always played a part in comparing the two shows). "This Week's Winner" has appeared at the very end of the Recap each week for one simple reason: it was literally the last thing on my mind each week. It ceased meaning anything of great substance for me around the time that most WCW fans began claiming that I gave RAW the win every week no matter what. If one hadn't read the Recap every week since its birth on November 20th, 1995, that might be an easy call to make. The reality, however, is that since it's inception, over the course of 155 weeks, I've given Nitro the win 53 times. RAW has earned the win 98 times. 2-to-1 is a big margin, but that's spread over three years. If these numbers show anything it's to reflect pretty much what I've felt of WCW and the WWF over the past three years: that WCW was the better of the two roughly a year out of those three. That is, of course, just my opinion, and that's all "This Week's Winner" has ever really meant. Unfortunately some people have taken that declaration each week too seriously. They've claimed it denigrated them as WCW fans, belittled them, ignored obvious displays of "quality" wrestling, and any of a dozen other accusations which have never been implied, and should have never been inferred. I've received death threats because I gave RAW the win some weeks. People have cancelled their subscriptions because I gave Nitro the win. One writer called my mother a "whore", and called me names that even I won't repeat here. All because I liked one show more than the other, and had the "nerve" to say so in *MY OWN* newsletter on *MY OWN* website. Well ... no longer. It's not worth the trouble. I still expect to catch a lot of heat for my comments--whatever they may be--in the course of recapping the two shows. Whichever show I thought was "better" should be fairly obvious from the text of the two different portions. From here on out, though, it should be (repeat, SHOULD BE) much clearer to people that all this whole Recap is is a lengthy, long-winded opinion column. That's all it was the night Owen Hart knocked out Shawn Michaels ... that all it was the night Steve Austin broke into Brian Pillman's house ... that's all it was the night Goldberg beat "Hollywood" Hogan for the title ... that's all it was the night Ric Flair came back ... and that's all it was the night Steve Austin took Vince McMahon hostage. Opinions. And in my opinion ... 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 155 of the "Monday Night Recap", November 2nd, 1998.