Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #215 December 27th, 1999 The Opening Word: Hope you all had a Merry Christmas or whatever. Mine was so-so. Scored some nice presents, so I'm content. Wasn't much going on in the wrestling world over the weekend. The biggest thing was Goldberg's injury, which took place last Tuesday at the Thunder taping. He cut his arm open while attacking the limo of the Powers That Be. Stitches were required to close the cut, which went so deep as to nick a tendon. He'll be out of action for a few weeks, with his arm in a cast. This means Bret Hart would have to face someone else at the Souled Out PPV. We should be seeing that set up tonight. The only rumor of note going into the night was that Scott Steiner would be on Nitro to announce his retirement. This comes directly from WCW, by way of their usual web connections (Mark Madden, Bob Ryder, WCW Live). This is the "New Year's Evil" show in the Houston Astrodome WCW has been hyping for about three months now. Let's see if it can live up to that hype. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours+. Location: Houston, Texas. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - They show the clips from Thunder of Goldberg stalking the NWO and injuring himself. - Bret Hart, Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett of the NWO make their way into the building. (Someone off-camera yells "clear" just as they cut away.) - Tony Schiavone says the Outsiders have been stripped of the Tag Team Titles since Scott Hall has vanished. WCW head Bill Busch has "had enough" of the Powers That Be (Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara mentioned by name) and the direction they've taken the company. There's going to be some changes, the first of which being the Tag Titles being vacated, and a "Lethal Lottery" tournament being held to crown new champs. - BAM BAM BIGELOW vs. BRIAN KNOBBS Chris "Champagne" Kanyon sits in for color commentary. Man, this match sucked. Bigelow and Knobbs fight into the crowd, and stay there the remainder of the match, out of view from the cameras. Kanyon apparently follows to do color commentary, but we never see him either, and all we hear is him yelling at people to get out of the way. For a moment we see Bigelow, up on a table apparently slamming Knobbs. We then hear the ref slap three and call for the bell. Kanyon says Knobbs is the winner. Jesus, whatever. Sid Vicious and Chris Benoit pull up to the arena in a rental car. As the camera follows them in it pauses to note a monster truck parked off to the side. Hart, Nash and Jarrett hassle J.J. Dillon, the mouthpiece of Bill Busch. Dillon collects the Tag Title belts--and a knee to the groin. - The NWO come out to check on the monster truck, then scope out Sid's rental car. - Sid & Benoit are out for promos. Sid grumbles about the NWO. Looks like he'll be Hart's opponent at Souled Out. Benoit then challenges Jarrett to a "Triple Threat Theater": a series of three matches, each a gimmick match, the winner of 2 out of the 3 matches being declared the overall winner. Isn't that overkill? The NWO are trashing Sid's car, painting NWO logos on it, kicking in headlights, etc. - Sid finds his trashed car and goes nuts. - BUZZKILL/MIKE ROTUNDO vs. KONAN/DEAN MALENKO Buzzkill comes out to his Road Dogg music. WCW's misspelling Rotunda's name, so I might as well do it too. Rotundo is accompanied by the Varsity Club, while Konan is with the Filthy Animals and Dean Malenko is with the Revolution. This one is a mess as well. Konan knocks Buzzkill's weave off. The Revolution attack Konan on the floor, then are attacked by the Filthy Animals. Malenko slaps the Texas Cloverleaf on Buzzkill. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan comes in and clocks Malenko with the 2X4. Asya and Leia Meow get into it, as Buzzkill covers Malenko for the pin. Jarrett's outside spraying "NWO" on all the equipment. Locked out of the production truck he starts pulling on cables. Bret Hart lends a hand, and the screen "suddenly" goes black, and stays that way for several seconds. - The picture's a bit snowy, but they're back on the air! Rick and Scott Steiner arrive at the arena, Scott wearing a backbrace and in a wheelchair. - Hart & Jarrett are now destroying the catering tables. - TANK ABBOTT vs. SHANE Our streak of ugly, pointless matches continue. Abbott destroys Shane with just a couple of punches. Security has to flood the ring to make sure Abbott leaves. I get a kick how Vince Russo called Dave Meltzer a "jackass", then turns around and uses most of the booking scenario Meltzer came up with to get Abbott over as a badass. - Video tribute to Scott Steiner. - Steiner is wheeled to the ring by his brother Rick. Steiner doesn't say much, just that his doctors have said his career is over, and that's not the way he'd liked to have left the sport. He breaks down crying, and says goodbye to the fans. Out come the NWO. Hart tells Steiner to get out of the ring, and mocks him by calling him a "good wrestler--whatever". They start working the crowd, then stop to clobber a WCW production assistant at ringside. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - They're still in the ring following a commercial. Long story short they badmouth the fans, Goldberg, Sid Benoit--just about whatever comes into their minds. Here comes Sid in his rental car, driving it right up to the ring. Sid and Benoit have the NWO's baseball bats, and send them running. Curt Hennig comes in for no reason and he gets nailed. Sid then dumps him over the top rope onto the hood of the car. - Hennig's being loaded into an ambulance. - HARLEM HEAT vs. LASH LEROUX/MIDNIGHT Booker wrestles LeRoux, then Stevie Ray wrestles Midnight. Booker won't fight Midnight. So Stevie decks him with his slapjack, then decks, Midnight, and Lash too for good measure. Lash ends up on top of Booker and gets the pin. That should be the end of Harlem Heat ... again. Chavo Guerrero, in the back, is attacked by the person in the "Scream"-esque mask. Looks like a small woman to me. - A clip titled "The Revolution's Assault on America" is played, CNN news style, strangely enough using CNN's actual music for their coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial. It involves Shane Douglas trying to make some kind of point about America, but the bit is ruined by Perry Saturn acting like a moron. A few more of these will air during the show, but they aren't really with talking about, other than noting their position. - Mike Tenay points out a row of "Power Plant Elite" wrestlers sitting at ringside. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. JERRY FLYNN Flynn has somehow become the number one contender to the title. "Eh" match, which Hart wins in short order with the Sharpshooter--though not until after Jeff Jarrett hits Flynn with a baseball bat. That's the problem with Hart turning heel: he suddenly loses the ability to beat opponents cleanly. Flynn gets the NWO spray-paint treatment. As they leave they pass Tank Abbott coming in. Abbott tries to rouse Flynn, then sucker punches him. - Another Revolution bit. - Nash is on the phone, talking to Scott Hall (presumably). - PG-13 vs. RICK STEINER/BERLYN PG-13 rag on the Houston crowd about losing their NFL football team to Tennessee. Schiavone announces that starting next week, Nitro goes back to two hours. Hallelujah! Steiner destroys both members of PG-13. Berlyn decides to take a powder. Steiner pins J.C. Ice, but then continues to beat on both of them. The ref is forced to reverse the decision, giving PG-13 the DQ win. Everybody, all together now: one ... two ... three--WHAT-EVUH! Jim Duggan teams with Saturn, a member of his mortal enemies (the Revolution). Another enemy, Asya, is on the opposing team. Saturn suggests they put their differences aside, and makes a crack about neither being able to be blindsided (since they both have oogily-googily eyes). - Another Revolution bit. - NORMAN SMILEY/ASYA vs. "HACKSAW" JIM DUGGAN/SATURN Smiley's dressed like a Houston Astro this week. Duggan's wife and children are shown sitting at ringside. Things start of with Saturn manhandling Smiley. Smiley tags in Asya, who manhandles Saturn back. Duggan then comes in and drops a knee on Saturn. Smiley pokes Saturn with his toe, then covers him for the pin. Duggan clears the ring with his 2X4 and brings his family in to celebrate. Duggan is WAY over with the crowd--probably only second in the whole company to Goldberg. Scary. There's Kidman. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - JEFF JARRETT vs. KIDMAN Up to now the show has been so-so. Not terrible, though the matches have been just awful. The angle stuff is going okay, and much of the crap filler seen in recent weeks is absent. This here would be the first good match of the show. Hart & Nash are out early to keep an eye on things. The Filthy Animals come out later to even things up, as Kidman is starting to mount what looks to be a U.S. Title win. He goes up top, but Nash hits him in the ankle with his baseball bat (not sure how he got that back from Sid). Jarrett hits the Stroke and gets the pin. The rest of the Animals get the usual treatment afterwards. - Lex Luger and Elizabeth come out to make fun of Sting. Actually made up to look like Sting, Luger pretends he's him, saying Luger kicked his ass and that Luger is really tough and so on. Then the lights go out. Black roses lay on the mat when they come back up. Luger acts upset. - Nash is on the phone, telling Scott how to get to the arena. Why such a build to Hall's arrival? He must not be coming, but WCW doesn't want us to know that. - THE HARRIS TWINS vs. FIT FINLAY/MENG The Harris Twins were Creative Control before they were dumped by the Powers That Be last week. Finlay and Meng are, of course, established enemies in the Hardcore Division. Turns out there's no match here, as Fit and Meng brawl away from the ring, getting counted out. I'll comment on this whole "Lethal Lottery" thing below. The lights go out and the two are attacked by Vince Russo's "remote control". Various reports say it's Van Hammer. All we can tell from this attack is it's someone who's blonde. David Flair and his girlfriend ("Daffney") are off somewhere watching "Natural Born Killers". I'll assume Russo did this because some on the Internet have commented that David and Daffney remind them of the characters in that movie. Russo's booking this whole damned company, it seems, based on stuff he reads on the Internet. - "3 Count". If you didn't see this on Thunder then I'm not sure I can explain it. Basically Evan Karagias has started a boy band, called "3 Count", featuring himself, and two wrestling rookies named Shannon and ... I forget. Anyway, they do a bad lip synch job to a song titled "My Heart Will Never Forget You", or something like that. It's painfully lame, and the crowd hates it, the announcers hate it (except Heenan), the wrestlers themselves probably even hate it. Vampiro comes in for no reason and starts shoving Evan around. (Chavo Guerrero attacked Evan on Thunder, stopping the song then too.) Vamp and Evan will be partners. EVAN KARAGIAS/VAMPIRO vs. DAVID FLAIR/THE MAESTRO Another contrived match, with Flair having enemies both with him and on the opposing team. David and Daffney have this amazingly annoying entrance theme, which involves him giggling and her shrieking. It made my balls shrivel up. The Maestro comes out to his elaborate entrance, but is attacked on the way to the ring by "Crowbar" (Devon Storm--also introduced last week on Thunder). Crowbar and David nuzzle heads. The ref has no objection to the substitution. Vampiro is stuck with a partner he doesn't like, has to fend off an attack from 3 Count, then finally is clobbered by a crowbar shot from Crowbar. David covers for the pin. 3 Count try to do their song and dance again, but David and Crowbar take them out. He and Daffney then start to make out in the ring. Enter "Standards & Practices"--Lenny Lane & Lodi in suits and ties, accompanied by a leggy blonde secretary in a very short skirt. Lenny Standards says stuff like this won't be tolerated on TV. Lodi Practices adds that if such activity doesn't stop, they will be removed from TV. David and Crowbar attack, leaving the two former Gay Brothers laid out in the ring. The fans cared little about any of this, and showed no sign of recognition for Lenny & Lodi. To be honest ... the two probably could have come back as themselves, and I bet few fans would have remembered them anyway. Fewer would have cared. More booking for the Internet. Fans, do us all a favor and chant "faggot!" next week, getting these guys yanked from TV again. Still no sign of Hall. - DISCO INFERNO/BIG VITO (w/ the Mob) vs. KANYON/BUFF BAGWELL I'm not into Kanyon's gimmick because it's not really a gimmick per se, it's just a guy acting obnoxious. He's basically another DDP (which is all he's been anyway, since hooking up with DDP and the Triad). Disco and Vito being "randomly" teamed together is another annoying coincidence. Kanyon walks out because Tony Marinara and Johnny "The Bull" hit on the two women Kanyon has had with him tonight. Bagwell, left alone, pins Vito with the Buff Blockbuster. Disco then lays out Buff with a chain-wrapped fist, under orders from Marinara. There's Kevin Nash. - THE NWO vs. THE WALL/SID VICIOUS Nash stalls, to allow Hall time to arrive. No sign of him, though, so Nash has to fight the match by himself. Hart & Jarrett come in to help, and in the melee the Wall is knocked out with a bat. Nash gets the pin. Chris Benoit runs in to help Sid. Here comes Scott Steiner, hobbling down the aisle with a baseball bat. Uh-oh, I see where this is going. Steiner comes in, takes a wild swing in Nash's direction, then clobbers Sid with the bat when his back is turned! Off comes the back brace and shirt, revealing an NWO shirt underneath. Sid's trashed car is driven back to ringside--his near-lifeless body dumped inside. They park it back in its space outside. Hart then starts up the monster truck and flattens the car, with Sid still trapped inside. Services will be held later this week. - This Wednesday: Best of WCW Millennium show. 8:00 PM Eastern. - This Thursday: DDP vs. Bagwell. - Next week: Nitro returns to two hours. Comments: Bad show this week, saved slightly--like last week's bad show--by a big swerve at the end. Watching this week's show, as it was playing out, I had a feeling WCW would do something big at the very end, just like last week. One okay match in the middle aside, this was a bad show. I would however, rate it as a minor improvement over last week's show, and over most all the other shows booked by Russo thus far. As I mentioned above, a lot of the filler crap we'd usually see was missing. Too bad they jammed so much of it into the third hour. That whole Flair/Vampiro/3 Count/Lenny & Lodi bit was a nightmare. It sure seemed like WCW was saving something for the end. The second we saw Steiner hobbling back out, it became pretty obvious what that something was going to be. WCW has used the "Lethal Lottery" in the past, and usually it has sucked, because the match-ups were always so obvious. WCW would always take established enemies and put them together as a team, or make sure they were represented in opposing teams, or leave existing teams intact. Rarely were there four wrestlers stuck together at random, all of them having no major issues with one another. The booking is totally transparent, and the matches themselves suck because there's no teamwork, no fluidity, and all kinds of screwy finishes needed to keep anyone with any clout to have to lose. I seem to recall WCW last doing this in 1995 or '96, and at the time when they were drawing the teams, I and my brother sat there watching and each time they named one team member, we'd call out the name of his partner. I don't think we got a single one wrong. It was THAT obvious. The matches this week had that same feeling. I wouldn't even have given it a second thought if Schiavone, at one point, hadn't said that these teams were all drawn at random. Could you have gotten all these teams randomly? It's possible, just not very likely. The production team did a good job of disguising the fact that the Astrodome was, at best, maybe a quarter full. My thoughts on the Steiner swerve, as well as some thoughts on the new NWO, are down below in "The Bottom Line". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Greensboro, North Carolina. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - The McMahon-Helmsley Era is in the ring to close out the millennium. Triple H says what they have done in the WWF is nearly perfect, and will be perfect on he beats the Big Show for the WWF Championship later tonight. Stephanie H takes the mic and says she's a woman of her word. X-Pac will face Kane tonight, as she promised Kane last Thursday. X-Pac is upset. Stephanie then talks about Mankind, saying he won't lead any kind of union movement or rebellion against her and Triple H. Enter Mankind. He mentions winning the WWF championship almost a year ago to the day, and how the men who held him up on their shoulders that night are now there in the ring against him. He warns Road Dogg and Billy Gunn that Triple H doesn't care about them, and will leave them high and dry if-and-when he wins the title. He doesn't give a damn about them (while nobody, he adds, gives a damn about X-Pac). He wraps up by telling Stephanie that the Godfather wants her there in the back with the other ho's! Zoiks! Let the stomping commence. Out comes the Rock for the save. Triple H, in a parting shot up the ramp, tells the two that they will have to face each other tonight in a "Pink Slip on a Pole Match", with the loser being fired. - Kane awaits the arrival of Tori. - Chyna and the Kat come out. Chyna, for reasons I must have missed on SmackDown! or Heat, calls Crash Holly out for a match. CHYNA (w/ the Kat) vs. CRASH HOLLY (w/ Bob Holly) Hardcore Holly sits in for color commentary, which he doesn't get to do much of, as Chyna squashes Crash in about a minute. Tori shocks Kane by telling him X-Pac was actually a perfect gentleman, and did nothing but pamper her during the holidays. She heads off to get him a drink. - Tori bumps into Test, who tells her that the weekend with X-Pac must have been hell. She recoils, a look of horror on her face, and she runs away. What the fu-- - The Mean Street Posse are in charge of the next match. Pete Gas is the timekeeper, Joey Abs is the ref, while Rodney will ring announce. THE GODFATHER/D-LO BROWN vs. DUDLEY BOYZ vs. EDGE/CHRISTIAN vs. ACOLYTES Rodneys badmouths all the competitors except for the Acolytes, whom he sucks up to. The Dudleyz have new ring outfits. Another quick match, which sees the Dudleyz win when the Posse attack the Acolytes. Referee Joey Abs makes a fast three count. Tori, in near hysterics, tells Kane that Test tried to molest her. Kane growls like a Wookie. - HHH and Steph are in the back wallowing in their crappulance. Helmsley says with the new millennium coming on it's about time that Kurt Angle's undefeated streak comes to an end. Stephanie, who we all know has a thing for Angle, confirms that she told Steve Blackman to stay out of Angle's match. Suddenly Kane bursts in, demanding a match against Test. He gets it ... and wouldn't you know it, this means X-Pac is suddenly off the hook! He must have hypnotized Tori or something. - KURT ANGLE vs. THE HEAD BANGERS Angle's a damn hoot, pissing off the crowd the way he does. The Head Bangers have entered a stuffed-bra phase. The usual here: Steve Blackman runs out, whacks a Banger, and Angle gets the pin. Triple H is steamed, while Stephanie beams. Too funny. - Michael Cole's in the back with Mankind. He apologizes to the fans for anything he may do to the Rock tonight. - Al Snow is out (orange glow interrupts his entrance) to rag on the fans for not caring about him. Because of that he's not going to do anything ever again to entertain them. Cue the Y2J Countdown. Chris Jericho tells Snow all of his problems would be solved if he just "shut the hell up!" They will remember Snow's performance tonight, Jericho says, because Jericho's going to kick his ass. CHRIS JERICHO vs. AL SNOW Chyna. *Ker-blam!* DQ win for Snow. I'm as confused as you are, Chris. There's the Rock. - Mark Henry tries to talk Harvey Whippleman into going on a double date with he, Mae Young and Moolah. Whippleman refuses, until Moolah gives him a devastating ear twist. Was there really only about five minutes of wrestling that hour? WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - MANKIND vs. THE ROCK They actually have a pink slip of paper hanging on a pole in the corner. Seems to me the LOSER would be the one who gets the pink slip, but, well ... you know. Mankind makes a quick grab for the slip but the Rock stops him. Similar attempts by both follow. In comes Al Snow to take out the Rock. Mankind beats on Al instead of going for the slip, though. One last try for the slip, with both up on the top turnbuckle. They're struggling ... jockeying ... Mankind's head is sent into the pole. He drops to the turnbuckle, crashes to the apron, then tumbles to the floor. The Rock grabs the slip, winning the match and causing Mankind to be fired. He storms out of the ring in disgust. Foley removes his Mankind mask and addresses the crowd. While he was planning on retiring in 2000, having to go out this was sucks, he says. He asks the fans to throw in a tape of his every so often and think about him. "Everybody ... have a nice day." Ross, Lawler and the fans give him a standing ovation as he leaves. Does this mean he'll be joining D-X later tonight? - Foley says goodbye to a few of the boys in the back. - VAL VENIS/THE KAT vs. VISCERA/JACQUELINE vs. IVORY/PRINCE ALBERT vs. GANGREL/LUNA This is an "Intergender Tag Team Match". I don't know if there are any special rules, and I don't think they know either. Before we can even contemplate the uniqueness of this match, Prince Albert pins Val Venis. Everybody, all together now: one ... two ... three--WHAT-EVUH! Mark Henry, Harvey Whippleman, Mae Young and Moolah are at a restaurant. Henry recites some poetry for Mae. Harvey follows suit ... sort of. - Foley says goodbye to the guys in the production truck. - X-PAC vs. JEFF HARDY (w/ Matt Hardy & Terri Runnels) A short but good match, which sees X-Pac win with the X-Factor. A "fan" asks Henry for his autograph. He then asks him why he's such a loser, blowing it at the Olympics, losing all his matches, etc. Mae Young kicks the guy's ass. There's Kane & Tori. - KANE (w/ Tori) vs. TEST Test says he didn't do anything, but he won't back down from a fight. Kane proceeds to destroy him, then gets DQ'ed for shoving the ref. Tori, though all this, is cheering Kane on like a banshee. Foley says goodbye to the Stooges, Sgt. Slaughter and others. The Helmsleys would like to know why Foley is still in the building. - THE NEW AGE OUTLAWS (w/ X-Pac) vs. TOO COOL (w/ Rikishi Phatu) Too Cool come close, but X-Pac offers better interference than Phatu. Road Dogg pins Grandmaster Sexay. Phatu then chases D-X off so he and his pals can dance. Anyone else notice how BAD Scott Taylor is dancing? Foley is run out of the building by Triple H, Stephanie and security. - There's Mark Henry and Mae Young in bed again. Pan over to Moolah, who doesn't like their cuddling and talking. Harvey Whippleman pops up from under the sheets and agrees. That was like the grossest thing I've ever seen. Funny, though. - THE BIG SHOW vs. TRIPLE H Triple H makes this no DQ. D-X and Stephanie watch from the stage. This one goes back-and-forth until the ref is bumped. D-X hit the ring. Remember what I wrote last week about mic-ing the crowd and ring for noise? It comes into play again this week as we hear Triple H loudly call out a Sidewalk Slam. Bingo. The Show is able to fend off D-X, but Stephanie passes Triple H a chair, which connects with the Show's skull. Here comes Mankind with a chair! HE'S GONNA HIT BIG SHOW! NO--HE HITS TRIPLE H!!! Chokeslam by the Big Show. 1 ... 2 ... 3--he retains the WWF Championship! - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - This Friday: WWF Eve of Destruction. 11 PM Eastern on USA. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Isn't it funny how they did almost the exact same angle as WCW, from an execution standpoint, yet the payoff was a swerve in that they went against not what they said they were going to do, but what we all assumed they were going to do. Most fans (on the Net anyway, and I'm sure a whole lot live in attendance) figured Triple H was going to win the belt. Mankind does the emotional fairwell thing, then comes back out, in a scene mirroring what WCW did with Scott Steiner. No heel turn, though. Maybe this didn't have the impact Steiner turning heel did, but which company's fans do you think went home happier? And the WWF actually pulled their finish off about five minutes before WCW did theirs. The ending aside, I was very disappointed by this show. It was a lot like Nitro, in a way, with so many matches meaning nothing. The show did have three solid matches, however, in the Mankind/Rock match, X-Pac & Matt Hardy, and the main event. Take them out, though, and you have a boring, pointless show. The WWF still has three live RAW's before the Royal Rumble, and three installments of SmackDown! to go, so they're obviously stretching the storylines out until then. So who knows when Vince McMahon is going to come back, if/when Triple H is going to win the title, when the Undertaker's coming back, when Tazz is going to debut, and so on. Nothing WCW has done lately has put a dent in the ratings, so they know they don't have to load the shows anytime soon. ... which kind of sucks, because we get these shows that feel padded. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Can someone explain to me why Bret Hart joined the NWO? I didn't really think about it last week, but looking on it, Hart joining the NWO doesn't make any sense. Go back in Hart's history and you see that he hadn't been a typical heel since his tag team days managed by Jimmy Hart. For years he was a babyface in the WWF. When he did turn heel, the explanation was that he was disenchanted by the current state of wrestling and its fans. That brought the whole "USA vs. Canada" thing about. Hart then went to WCW and debuted as a babyface. He was later a heel, for awhile, but that was during a period when things were muddled, and Hart seemed to come and go, his career having no direction. After the death of Owen Hart, Bret came back, seemingly with a new sense of purpose and direction. All had been going smoothly, until last week when he aligned himself with the NWO. So again I ask--why? What was it that drove Hart to turn? Not just turn, mind you, but actually align himself with others who he had, on TV, called "scum" and all other manner of names. Why's Hart suddenly so interested in the juvenile anti-authority tactics of the NWO, such as petty vadalism? Nash & Hall, we know why they would re-form the NWO. In real-life it's because both desperately want to stay in the company's main storyline. In storyline terms, it's so they could use their favorite catchphrase, "the band is back together!" Otherwise, NWO or not--means nothing either way to them. Jarrett, I can't figure why he's join the NWO either. He claims he's the "Chosen One". Now he's in a group where he's #4 on the ladder. It's hard to be the Chosen One when your partner, Bret Hart is the World Champ, and your other partner, Kevin Nash, is the de facto head of the team. Jarrett isn't even the "Chosen One" of the NWO! And now Scott Steiner has joined the team. Or perhaps that should be "rejoined". Okay, so WCW swerved us "smart" fans. You know how they did it? By having Mark Madden and others come on the Internet over the last few days and lie to the fans. It's one thing to unexpectedly deviate from an assumed course (emphasis on ASSUMED). It's another to flat-out announce Steiner's retiring, then do a surprise heel turn instead. Yeah, they surprised the fans, "smarts" and "marks" alike, but did they really accomplish anything? Did they trick us? Did they rub it on our face "ooh, you 'smart' fans think you're so ... smart!" Well, no. They just said they were going to do one thing, then did something else. I guess now we have to sort through *everything* WCW has said about Steiner over the last few weeks. Is his back really still injured? Will he still be getting that second back surgery as was announced? Does this mean he's back and ready to wrestle? It's hard to judge Steiner's impact on things without knowing then answers to those questions. Obviously this swerve was pretty pointless if Steiner really still is a near-cripple and nowhere near ready to wrestle again. If he's in good shape then the swerve was worth it, as it gives the NWO a team member who can actually do something. (And boy, can they use it, what with Scott Hall out of action. For maybe as long as two months, if I heard right.) It was a tremendous acting job by Steiner, I'll give him that. For what it's worth, I think that despite how well this came off for WCW it will still be, in the long run, a huge mistake for the company in terms of a lost opportunity. I think WCW blew a huge chance back when Buff Bagwell returned from his neck injury. They brought him back in a wheelchair, and the fan response was tremendous. They then did an angle where Hulk Hogan dumped him out of the chair. At that point Bagwell could have been made into a huge babyface, and might well have become one of WCW's biggest stars, had they gone with the sympathy that was already there on the part of the fans. Instead WCW blew it, by having it all be part of a set-up to get Rick Steiner. The fans instantly lost interest in Bagwell, writing him off as just another heel. The betrayal the fans felt wasn't strong enough to sustain any real heat against Bagwell. Every time I see him now I look back at what might have been. One can't overlook the parallels to this situation. Steiner was in the same position Bagwell was in. He drew a huge crowd response with his tearful goodbye. Most "smart" fans were of the thinking, going into the show, that Steiner's retirement announcement tonight was actually a part of an angle, laying the groundwork for him to come back as a babyface. That's probably what WCW should have done with Bagwell, and it's what I think they should have done with Steiner here. But Steiner's back as a heel, which is the way he left us months ago. A head-slapping, chin-dropping swerve aside, nothing's changed. Big Poppa Pump returns to the NWO, and the awesome face that could have been Scott Steiner is now gone forever. I know this is going to get rave reviews from some WCW fans. They'll look at the swerve and being fooled and not give a second thought to other matters, such as WCW going back on their word of last week, when they said the NWO would remain a small "elite" group of four. Now it's five. Who's going to be #6? I guess that's all they can do with the NWO, and with two major swerves going down two weeks in a row, the fans are going to expect more, but probably not be fooled by one again for a long time. From here on out every major star that gets anywhere near the NWO is going to be suspect. They can't bring back Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan now, and not have a whole lot of fans think "I bet they're really with the NWO." About the only thing WCW can do now is bring someone in, saying they're with the NWO, then have them go the other way and turn on them. It isn't as if WCW couldn't have used Steiner as a babyface right now. WCW screwed up a few months ago when they turned Sid babyface. That depleted the company's supply of top level heels. Turning Hart heel, and elevating Jarrett into the group, made up for that. Now, though, with Goldberg and Sting both out with injuries, that leaves Sid as WCW's top babyface. Ouch. Things will get better in a month or so when the injuries clear up, but until then, this is a company that won't be delivering much happiness to the fans by way of the exploits of their top heroes. I'm still not seeing any original ideas in this company. Steiner's swerve was so much like the one done with Buff Bagwell, and Steiner himself had already pulled two or three similar angles on his brother Rick. The Powers That Be already did a similar swerve with Curt Hennig as well. This week's entire show, in fact, seemed like a patchwork of ideas recycled from past angles. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1999 by John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those of "USLink". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week. Volume One, Number 215 of the "Monday Night Recap", December 27th, 1999.