Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #241 June 26th, 2000 The Opening Word: I decided to skip the King of the Ring, mostly because last week's SmackDown! killed a lot of my enthusiasm for the PPV. (I though SmackDown!, by the way, was a really good show. I just didn't like what it set up for the PPV.) Reading the PPV results late Sunday night, I could only come to one conclusion: backstage politics are ruining the WWF. The booking in the main event of the King of the Ring perfectly illustrates this. In the big six-man match between WWF Champion Triple H, Vince & Shane McMahon, the Rock, Undertaker & Kane, the Rock pinned Vince McMahon to win the WWF Title. In storyline terms there was some satisfaction in seeing the Rock pin McMahon because McMahon pinned the Rock three nights earlier on SmackDown!, in a match in which the odds were much more in McMahon's favor. The reality of the finish, though, was that McMahon allowed himself to be pinned so that Triple H could drop the WWF Title without having to do the job himself. Its hard to believe this wasn't a concession to Triple H to spare his ego and reputation--in much the same way the Rock lost the title to Triple H last month at the Judgment Day PPV. There interference led to the Rock losing the title. Vince McMahon pinning the Rock last Thursday telegraphed a definite finish to the fans--that the Rock would get revenge by pinning Vince at the PPV. One can argue whether or not that was meant to assure the fans that there would be a happy ending at the PPV--but that's beside the point. The only reason Vince pinned the Rock was so the Rock could pin him back at the PPV, thus allowing Triple H to drop the belt without having to job. Weeks and weeks of storyline build-up rendered meaningless, because it was a finish three nights before the PPV which led directly to the PPV finish. Having the title change hands in such a manner cheapens it. Right now the WWF Championship is the only one in wrestling which even means anything. I guess the WWF feels that the Rock is over enough that most fans won't care how he won the belt, they'll just be glad he won it. Beyond the King of the Ring main event other examples of backstage politics seem apparent. D-X scored yet another win over the Dudley Boyz. Their match saw a fan-friendly post-match finish during which Tori was put through a table, something most fans had been waiting to see. But it was Road Dogg & X-Pac who got the actual win in the match. I can almost imagine the two telling the bookers "look, the Dudleyz are gonna go over anyway by putting Tori through the table, so why not let us win the match?" Road Dogg & X-Pac, being buddies of Triple H, have a lot of stroke backstage. So the two get the win. Maybe the fans "went home happy" because Tori finally took the table dive, but the bad taste left by D-X winning yet again was worse than I imagined it would be. I can't say how well the live crowd took it. The problem when you don't let guys go cleanly over others is that the ones being pushed don't get elevated. Okay, so the fans enjoyed seeing Tori go through a table, but at some point they'll realize that the Dudleyz couldn't beat D-X. All could be forgiven if these teams go at it again and the Dudleyz finally win, but if they don't ... Obviously Road Dogg & X-Pac want to keep their "spot." It's also obvious that with younger and better teams like the Dudleyz, Edge & Christian and Hardy Boyz coming up fast behind them the WWF should be looking to put all those teams over the aging D-X team. D-X isn't over, and hasn't been for some time, but because of their connections and pull backstage they get to stay in the spotlight. This is exactly what contributed to WCW's massive implosion last year. The WWF has a large pool of young, talented wrestlers all vying to move up the ladder. Several of them were showcased on the King of the Ring PPV, with the next "big thing" Kurt Angle winning the tournament. He, and several others, are ready to take that next step up into the limelight. It's just too bad that certain wrestlers are working to delay that as long as they can. Ultimately Vince McMahon has to take the blame for that. He's the boss, and he calls all the shots. He has to see that giving Triple H a cheap escape from a job weakens the aura and drawing power of his company's championship. He has to understand that setting up the PPV finish by pinning the Rock himself of SmackDown! made the Rock look bad, in a match which was seen by millions more than will ever see the Rock's PPV revenge. He has to realize that by letting Triple H and his friends sweet talk him into finishes designed to hold others back will ultimately hurt his company. This week's RAW will be crucial in deciding the near-and-distant future of the WWF. The Rock-Triple H feud is now completely dead, and a new direction must be established for the Rock to take. Him holding the WWF Title is actually a disadvantage, because him holding off a heel challenger is a less interesting storyline than him chasing after a heel champion. If the WWF Title was going to change hands at the PPV, the WWF probably should have had the Undertaker get it. Triple H needs to seek out a new opponent too, and with Kurt Angle winning the King of the Ring this is probably the time to turn Triple H babyface and have those two feud. Beneath that, the WWF has to pay special attention to their Intercontinental and Tag Team Titles. Chris Benoit, Rikishi and Chris Jericho have all been pushed to about the same level. Any of the three could take the step up to the next level if need be. The challenge is how do you keep one, two or all of them interesting to the fans while holding off that elevation? The top of the card is still crowded with the Rock as champ, Triple H, Undertaker, Kane, and perhaps now Kurt Angle. The Big Show is supposed to be back very soon, and don't forget that Steve Austin may be back in a few months too. The WWF could maintain a very healthy main event scene if they cycle a lot of this talent, or they could maintain the old "glass ceiling" by picking a few stars and keeping them where they are, preventing anyone else from being elevated. That's what happened in WCW, and it could happen a year or so from now in the WWF too. God help them if they pick the wrong guys to hold onto. ... Vince Russo is still missing in action. He showed up briefly last week for his meeting with TNT representative Brad Segal, but word is that meeting mostly consisted of Segal yelling at Russo & Eric Bischoff for costing the company television sponsors because of the Nitro's recent content. Russo then disappeared again, and for the second straight week the shows will be written by Terry Taylor and his booking committee. On the plus side that means the wrestling quality of the shows may again be an improvement over Russo's shows. On the minus side the product may again look, as it did last week, somewhat like the shows during the Kevin Sullivan booking period. The TV ratings for both Nitro and Thunder were down last week, and all excuses or explanations aside, it didn't look good for WCW. If they stay down this week, drop even lower, or only show a minor improvement from last week, then people in WCW are going to start panicking big-time. When people in WCW panic, they make changes. Few of those changes have helped the company in recent months/years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Des Moines, Iowa. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay & Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. HOUR ONE: - A highlights package opens the show. I'm going to quibble right off the bat and ask why even bother with this? Nothing much that advanced storylines even happened last week, and little more is expected this week (not until we know if Russo is gone for good). Do they need to kill two minutes showing clips that could be shown later during the appropriate segments? I have the feeling they're just doing them because the WWF does them as well (too often, I might add, especially on SmackDown!) - A white limo, yawn, pulls up. Here's another prop that's being waaaaaaaay overused by both companies. It's Ernest Miller. The limo driver ("Smooth," who everyone says used to be the Ice Train--like I care) is helping Miller book the show. "WCW: the show booked by limo drivers." - Now Miller is out to mangle some english and book the show. "WCW: the show booked by the Cat." Very quickly we pass the two minute mark where Miller goes from amusing to annoying. Tonight, Jeff Jarrett defends the World Title in a four-corners match against three top contenders to be chosen in three matches: Kevin Nash vs. Mike Awesome, "Big Poppa Dump" vs. the Franchise, and Goldberg in a bye, not having to qualify. Miller says all the fans heroes will be taken care of tonight. Good lord, it's "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan! No good can come from this. Duggan incites the usual crowd reaction. Fast-forward: Miller challenges Duggan on Goldberg's behalf. Duggan accepts, but only after reminding us of his health problems (which sure didn't seem to be an issue those MONTHS he defended the Television Title JUST EARLIER THIS YEAR). Schiavone's getting a message that something is happening in the back. Despite this being a regular, weekly occurrence, he acts like this is highly unusual ... Vampiro, in a pit or floating in a smoky void or something, tells Dale Torborg to summon the Demon, and the three of them will battle. Torborg and Asya are watching on a monitor--a monitor which somehow magically carries the feed of whatever was the LAST thing being filmed. Are all the backstage monitors set to show different feeds? What are the odds of these people continually happening upon the ONE monitor backstage carrying the feed which pertains to their individual storyline? Shouldn't there be just as much chance that this monitor would be showing David Flair kissing Miss Hancock, 3 Count singing at a mall, or Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak playing in the production truck? A referee is looking at a sheet. Why are we seeing this? Shane Douglas walks in. The ref tells him he has to face Scott Steiner tonight. Douglas blows a fuse. Not only are the monitors magical, the cameramen are precognizant enough to be in position to film something that advances the storyline. That, or there's eighty other cameramen stationed throughout the building filming random people and objects, in the hopes that someone will come along and a further an angle. Kanyon is at a mall or something to sign copies of his book, but no one showed up. Why are we seeing this? For starters, the book isn't real, so why would Kanyon legitimately go out to sign copies of a book that doesn't exist? Shouldn't he have staged this so there was a ton of people there, seemingly blown away by Kanyon's awesomeness (like the Artist Press conference, or Kimberly being met by enthusiastic photographers)? And isn't Kanyon New Blood? Shouldn't Ernest Miller have prevented this tape from being played so it wouldn't make one of their boys look bad? I know this is supposed to be funny, but other than that it makes no sense (and it's not that funny to boot). Russo or no Russo, this is still "Crash TV" folks, and it sucks. - MARK GENTRACH/SEAN O'HARE vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA/REY MYSTERIO, JR. Who? I had to go to the WCW website to get their names, because I'd seen them spelled six different way on other websites. Schiavone's no help, he doesn't even say Gentrach's first name until halfway through the match. Instead he says something like "Gindrack O'Hare" as being their names. I don't know which is which, but it doesn't matter as both are tall, muscular, but skinny. They look like football players (and wrestle about as well). I haven't even mentioned the Filthy Animals yet. Konnan, dressed like Telly Savalas, says "whoopdy whoop jigawatt!" Disco Inferno, who doesn't wear disco clothes anymore, is now called "Dim Shady" by Scott Hudson, like that's supposed to be funny. Guerrera gets on the mic and sez "de joos en de houz ees looz" or something. My brain hurts. Power Plant trainees, Gentrach & O'Hare aren't that bad, but most of the moves they do here involve them carefully getting into position so Mysterio & Juvi can do stuff to them. The upset finish, which isn't much of a surprise because otherwise why would you have these guys on TV, see Gentrach & O'Hare win when Gentrach gives Juvi a tilt-a-whirl slam, and O'Hare comes off the top with a senton bomb (dubbed a "Sean-ton Bomb" by Hudson). Pin. The crowd, dead for most of the match, pops for the finish. The Filthy Animals come in to deliver a beating, only to be stopped by Lance Storm, who "DOESN'T EVEN WORK HERE!" So why should we care about him? If he doesn't work there he can't have matches, win titles, etc. Goldberg has arrived. - Miller tells the Filthy Animals to go find that "Sgt. Carter-looking ass" Lance Storm. See, now this is where a backstage camera is appropriate. It's the Cat's office, and there's something going on. It doesn't take an incredible leap of faith or precognitive ability to know something's going to happen if you follow these guys back to the office. Okay, so it's perfect timing that they wait until the commercial is over before they say anything substantive, but that's disbelief I can suspend. If the situation is believable then it's easier to overlook the less believable portions. That's all I ask for. Jim Duggan's wife begs him not to fight Goldberg. Imagine how much more believable this would have been, and thus had the impact it was supposed to, if the cameraman had followed her into the room, instead of waiting there in the room with Duggan when she came in. Presumably that guy's been there the whole time taping Duggan, hoping something like this would happen. - Big Vito comes to the ring to throw out an open challenge. It's answered by one of the Jung Dragons. Then another ... and another. The three team up on him and manage to score the pin (though they count it themselves, so there's no match nor Hardcore Title change). I'm not sure what this accomplished, other than giving the fans some high-flying spots the crowd could pop over. Terry Funk is trying to teach Johnny the Bull how to be hardcore. He's rigged up a dummy for Johnny to pound on. Before Johnny can, though, Funk waffles him from behind with a chair. The video tech Woody, wearing the silliest hat I've seen, is interrupted by Stasiak & Palumbo. Talk about taking a dumb idea an running with it. Woody runs away, saying they'll get theirs. Stasiak pushes a button and-- Smooth is chillin' outside. Shane Douglas exits the building, only to be stopped by Smooth, who warns him if he leaves, he'll get fired. Smooth's got an idea ... How'd you like to be a cameraman on Woody or Smooth duty? Taping those guys all night, just in case something happens. Worse, imagine being the guy who has to follow around Max the beer salesman, Lois the ticket booth lady, or Wally the janitor. Sitting in the boiler room all night, listening to Wally talk about killing Germans during WW2, eating pickled pigs feet and reading old copies of "Asian Fatties" magazine. No wonder morale in WCW's so bad! Disco Inferno sets the other Filthy Animals off to find Lance Storm. - Shane Douglas is laying on a stretcher, complaining about an injured ankle. A trainer stands nearby. The Cat tells him he has a match, but Douglas uses his Jedi mind powers to get Miller to change it to a Steiner-Buff Bagwell match. (Actually Douglas suggests it, then Miller suggests it, as if he himself thought the idea up.) After Miller leaves Douglas laughs and hands Smooth a wad of cash. The cameraman filming Matt the trainer all night has to be ecstatic--something actually happened on his watch! Okay, no more film school analysis. It's just that this stuff has been bugging me for weeks, and it goes for both shows when they do it. - Spoke too soon. Tank Abbott parks himself in front of a magic monitor so he can watch 3 Count in the ring. 3 Count begin to perform their new song, but Stasiak & Palumbo, still goofing around in the truck, mess up the music. Woody comes along and tells Abbott that what's going on. Abbott, revealed last week on Thunder to be a huge 3 Count fan, drags S&P out of the truck and to the ring. Why is the song still messed up? Abbott gives them to the boys as a gift, booking a Tag Team Title match. "WCW: the show booked by Tank Abbott." THE PERFECT EVENT vs. 3 COUNT (w/ Evan Karagias) The crowd chants "3 Count sucks!" A near squash, which doesn't stop this match from lasting FOREVER. The announcing is a total joke, with Madden playing braying ass by talking about how big 3 Count is in the music world, Schiavone unable to explain why we should be the least bit interested in this match, and Hudson getting belittled by the other two when he tries to offer straight commentary. Shannon Moore does a splash off the top onto Stasiak (Madden inexplicably yelling "DOGGY STYLE! DOGGY STYLE!"), but Palumbo comes in and hits him with the Lex Flexer. A double flapjack seals the deal for the Tag Champs. Kronic then run in, prompting no less than SEVEN marijuana references from Madden and Schiavone. 3 Count then try to dance and sing again, but Kronic beat them up too, so Tank Abbott comes back out and beats up Adams & Clarke. Juvi is roaming the halls, talking to himself. He's clobbered by an unseen pipe-wielding stalker. Duggan tells his wife to kiss the kids for him. Goldberg is on the move. - Now Kanyon's got a line of autograph seekers. Or so it seems, as the cameraman reveals that Kanyon is actually giving away free drink vouchers to those over 21. - Special video package of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, showing his farewell speech, and subsequent return from kidney surgery. - "HACKSAW" JIM DUGGAN vs. GOLDBERG Miller comes out before Goldberg to ban Duggan's 2X4, and rile the fans. The standard Goldberg match, with Duggan getting in some punches at the start, and later a bodyslam, to get the crowd excited and think he might not lose too badly. Spear. The announcers start calling for the match to be stopped. Jackhammer. They begin making funeral plans. Pin. Goldberg lays in some weak punches on Duggan's side, right by his surgery scars, because he's mean and evil and such. The announcers play it up as the most heinous beating they've ever seen. Funny how Goldberg's technique for playing the heel is to smile more. Duggan makes a funny face, laying limply in the referee's arms, spitting up MYSTERIOUS RED LIQUID. EMT's and Duggan's wife Deborah run out. As corny as this was, I thought it was done well. Kevin Nash is-- The lockerroom full of jobbers are crushed by Duggan's defeat. We aren't going to see these guys challenge Goldberg, are we, thus re-doing Goldberg's original win streak of beating scrubs, only this time as a heel? HOUR TWO: - Everyone mills around as Duggan is loaded onto the meat wagon. - KEVIN NASH vs. MIKE AWESOME Nash shows some fire here, so I'll cut him some slack this week. You ask why I hate these announcers? They talk about Nash being one of the toughest guys ever in wrestling. Then Awesome does like three moves to him, covers, and Nash kicks out--and Hudson can't figure out how Nash could *possibly* have kicked out, having absorbed so much damage from Awesome. They go to the floor a bit, then back in, Awesome carrying a chair. He throws it at Nash, but Nash catches it and throws it back. Awesome catches it, and Nash kicks the chair into Awesome's chest. Cover, pin. So Awesome can take forty chairshots and be powerbombed through ten tables in his average ECW match, but ONE chair to the chest puts him away in WCW? Tygress finds Mysterio laid out by whoever it was that clobbered Juvi. Presumably. Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner are next. - Konnan is hit from behind too. - SCOTT STEINER (w/ Midajah) vs. BUFF BAGWELL Buff does his queer dance, so Steiner flips him off. Back and forth match, with Buff hitting the Blockbuster, but Steiner kicks out. Steiner then hits a belly-to-belly suplex and covers for the pin. The two shake hands an embrace afterwards. Then Shane Douglas sneaks in and lays a cheap shot on Bagwell. Steiner chases him off. You know, if they'd just play Bagwell straight (take that any way you like), they could push him to the moon. Pamela interviews Jeff Jarrett, who says his title defense is part of a conspiracy. He then mentions Hulk Hogan and their match at Bash at the Beach. Whatever happened to that Millionaire's Club versus New Blood feud? - Daffney, hiding behind some crates, sees Miss Hancock come out of David Flair's dressing room. Oh if only she'd walked by a monitor, I'm sure she'd have been able to actually see what was going on in that room. That's how those monitors work, you know. Sorry, sorry, I said I'd lay off ... - Miss Hancock comes out, saying she's a bad girl trapped in a good girl's body. She shakes her dinners. Daffney comes out and they yell and tussle and, uh, whatever. Disco Inferno finds out the entire group has been wiped out by the mystery assailant. - Booker T. asks Kanyon to autograph his brick. He then hits him with a chair and slams him through the table. - Miss Hancock suggests she and Daffney have a "Wedding Gown Match" at the PPV. Will Hancock's gown look like that suit, and will Daffney's be black? I don't want to hear anything said about Standards & Practices again--not after the amount of cleavage Pamela had on display here. - Disco comes to the ring with a ref and calls out Lance Storm, saying if he'd like a match, he's got a referee with him and everything. Hudson calls him "Dim Shady" again, just so people can call up WCW Live and say how funny he is. Don't anyone kid themselves--Madden and Hudson's entire work ethic right now is to get themselves over with the WCW Live crew. LANCE STORM vs. DISCO INFERNO BUT HE DOESN'T WORK HERE. Storm pretty much outshines everyone in the company by pulling off a ton of high-risk moves, and generally moving like he didn't just eat a big bag of cheeseburgers backstage. Disco is able to give as good as he gets, making this one of the better matches on Nitro in a long time. Storm wins with a half-crab leglock. The Filthy Animals run in, laying Storm out, with Mysterio doing the Bronco Buster on him. Billy Kidman runs in for the save, swinging the lead pipe which knocked everyone out earlier. Apparently he was the one doing it, not Storm. He and Storm should be a good team, but admit it: wouldn't you rather have seen Storm in the WWF, wrestling against Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, etc.? Torborg is looking for Vampiro. - ... and he's found him. The two brawl in the boiler room until Vampiro locks him in a casket. Then a mysterious hooded figure wearing a Sting mask knocks Vampiro out. We're supposed to think it's Sting, so I'll assume it's really someone else. Maybe the Great Muta? - Konnan challenges Storm & Kidman to a match on Thunder. - JEFF JARRETT vs. KEVIN NASH vs. SCOTT STEINER vs. GOLDBERG Goldberg is shown laying out Nash backstage, so Steiner and Jarrett go at it alone to start. Jarrett gets in his offense until Steiner takes over. He pounds on Jarrett until Goldberg comes out. From there the two beat on Steiner, with Mike Awesome coming out to take Steiner out of the match completely, hitting him with the U.S. belt the two will battle over at the PPV. Nash rumbles in and he destroys Jarrett, Goldberg occupied down on the floor yelling at fans or something. Goldberg eventually comes in and lays out Nash with a kick to the head, Jarrett falling on Nash and scoring the pin. An okay main event with a lot of action, though the downer finish once again prompts a hail of tossed garbage from the fans. Goldberg pulls out the remains of Scott Hall's contract and taunts Nash with it, the show fading out a few minutes earlier than usual. - This Wednesday: Storm & Kidman vs. the Filthy Animals. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I thought this show was better written, well executed, better wrestled, and most everything had a tremendous amount of thought behind it--all improvements over Vince Russo's shows. And yet it still sucked. Why? because as well written and executed as much of this was, the underlying ideas are so dumb. Tank Abbott is a 3 Count fan? The limo driver knows all the answers? "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan?! Tonight's first hour was one of the hardest to sit through yet, and I had to do so three times (live, replay, on tape to write this Recap). Segment after segment of bad comedy sketches and amateurish wrestling. For a bit I thought I was watching an indy fed doing a parody of what Nitro used to be--except I knew it was the real thing because they pulled it off so much better than any indy fed ever could. Terry Taylor (and others) obviously put a lot of thought into these segments, and that's a welcome change from Vince Russo's style of "think up the idea and let it survive on its own." It's just that the ideas Taylor and his crew came up with are so ... bad. I blame that on the situation they're in. Until they know what's the deal with Russo they can't get in there and change anything. That's why I do actually come away from this show, as much as I disliked it, with some optimism. If Russo stays gone, and Taylor's booking committee can apply their focus to the whole roster, from top to bottom, we might get some okay stuff from them. If Russo stays gone, that is. Say, wasn't the Great Muta supposed to be on tonight? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Worcester, Massachusetts. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler. WWF RAW: - The Rock comes out to reel off some catchphrases and make fun of Vince McMahon's penis. No offense to the Rock, nor his fans, several thousand of which are going absolutely nuts in Worcester, but he doesn't exactly say anything of note here. Vince McMahon then comes out. Analyzing his wife Linda's actions of late, he comes to the conclusion that she must be trying to get his attention. If she wants to have another baby, Vince will go home to her and be her "genetic jackhammer." Before he'll leave, he offers the Rock his hand in friendship. The Rock accepts it, but gives him the Rock Bottom as a going-away present. This is all played out like it's the end of an era or something. More likely Vince needs the time away from TV to work on the XFL and WWF jump to The Nashville Network. A limo (*sigh*) pulls up, discharging WWF spokesman Shawn Michaels. - Vince tells Stephanie to tell Triple H that he's sorry. He climbs into a (*sigh*) limousine. - RIKISHI PHATU vs. CHRIS BENOIT Rikishi won the belt last Thursday, and I was sure Benoit would win it back here, what with Rikishi still selling the beating he took at the PPV. Before the match amounts to much, though Tazz(!) runs in and nails Rikishi with a chair, causing a DQ. I assume Tazz did this because it was Benoit who injured Tazz in the first place. First he costs Benoit his shot at the Intercontinental Title, next he'll hurt him physically. Or Tazz just turned heel. Triple H arrives (by limo, *sigh*) and gives Stephanie, X-Pac and Road Dogg the cold shoulder when they try to catch him up to speed. - CHRIS JERICHO vs. X-PAC (w/ Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) Jericho says kissing Stephanie at the PPV was akin to the fascination one feels for roadkill. Ouch! As the match starts X-Pac gets a MONSTROUS "X-Pac sicks!" chant. A nice match, but the finish sees Road Dogg run in, knock out Jericho, and X-Pac scores the pin. GOD DAMN HIM! I hate D-X. The Dogg & X-Pac hold Jericho so Stephanie can slap him and kick him in the nuts. The one major light at the end of the tunnel here is that this all builds to a Jericho-Triple H feud. Kurt Angle, polishing his King of the Ring crown, notes that he's talking to himself. Trish Stratus and Val Venis are on the move. Eddie Guerrero and Chyna arrive, Eddie telling a joke about a banana and a donkey, or something like that. Eddie says they should get serious, then the two bust out laughing even harder. I love the chemistry between these two. Hell--I just love Chyna, period! - A limo (*arrgh!*) pulls up to WWF New York. The Godfather and several Ho's will be amusing the fans during the live RAW. Apparently the WWF will be doing this every week, sending a WWF superstar to the restaurant while RAW and SmackDown! air. It's an idea--not good or bad, just something to do with the place. - EDDIE GUERRERO (w/ Chyna) vs. VAL VENIS (w/ Trish Stratus) Another nice match, but run-ins seem to be the theme of the night (as they were on Nitro too, although the four or five run-ins there came AFTER the finish of the matches), with Trish and Chyna both interfering in the match. Chyna stops a pin attempt at two, drawing a DQ win for Venis. Chyna then goes to powerbomb Trish, but Val stops her. Eddie then jumps Val, and he and Chyna rough Val up and plant him with a DDT. Chyna then powerbombs Trish, smiling all the time. Angle is asking some poor schmoe in the back which royal nickname he likes best. If this were WCW we'd have first seen the old guy all alone, mopping the floor or carrying some equipment or something. Angle would have then walked up and said his lines. - Shawn Michaels is out, shaking his package for all the ladies to squeal over. A throne has been set up on the stage for Kurt Angle's royal coronation. Michaels dances on the throne, then shoves it off the stage, smashing it. (Boo-hoo, no coronation--like anyone cared. The live crowd pops when the chair breaks on the concrete.) Shawn prances to the ring and, in his official capacity as WWF spokesperson, begins making an announcement about who is now the #1 contender to the WWF title. Triple H and Stephanie come out, interrupting him. Triple H is all smiles, sucking up to his old buddy Shawn. He tells him he knows Triple H got screwed at the PPV, and that he should be considered the top contender. Shawn seems to agree, but since he's not WWF Commissioner anymore, he himself can't do anything about it. But he can introduce the guy who can, the new WWF Commissioner ... Mick Foley! Foley, who--yes, he does look a little like Tank Abbott now with short hair--comes to the ring. Foley says he's had the power bestowed upon him by Linda McMahon to name the new #1 contender. He accuses Triple H of whining, and says we'll never had to hear another of his boring 20 minute promos (Foley saying this mocking Triple H's delivery style). Triple H, saying he'll speak in simple terms because he knows Foley is an idiot, orders him to make him the #1 contender or he'll kick his ass. Foley says that'll do no good, and besides we're all sick of seeing Triple H kick Foley's ass. WWF WAR ZONE: Now Kurt Angle comes out, protesting the death of his coronation segment, and the fact that Triple H would be considered the top contender after losing at the PPV, while *he* is the new King of the Ring. Angle mispronounces the name of the town (Worcester). Foley says he makes some good points, but damned if he doesn't look silly dressed as a king. (Jerry Lawler acts offended.) Foley announces that to solve their dilemma he'll book a three-way match to choose the #1 contender. Angle and Triple H will be two of the competitors, and if either of them win they get a shot against the Rock later this week on SmackDown! Foley nonchalantly adds that the Rock will be the third competitor, and if he wins, neither guy gets the shot. Triple H immediately jumps Angle and dumps him to the floor. Dean Malenko's shooting pool in a room in the back, and it's DARN LUCKY THERE'S A CAMERA THERE TO FILM THIS. Teri Runnels comes in and asks Dean to be her partner in the next match. Malenko basically brushes her off, sinking shots the whole time like a real pro. A few Ho's look on in awe. Teri then says if he wrestlers on her behalf she'll give him a private show later. Malenko tosses down his cue and tells the ladies to keep an eye on it. So they all crowd in, looking at the stick in fascination. Funny, but dumb. - The Kat's trying to find some less revealing clothing. Now this I can understand why a guy might be there filming (she is a hottie, after all), but ... you know. Jerry Lawler comes in. The Kat says she doesn't want to be humiliated again by having her puppies revealed. (But didn't she do that herself?) Lawler, with a straight face, says the last thing he wants is to see the Kat naked. You can actually hear the live crowd laughing at that. The Kat promises to give Lawler a Bronco Buster if he wins. - DEAN MALENKO (w/ Teri Runnels) vs. JERRY "THE KING" LAWLER (w/ the Kat) This is an "Over the Top Rope-Remove Your Top Match." Basically whenever either guy is thrown over the top rope his girl (standing up on the stage) has to remove an item of clothing. The loser is the one forced to strip all the way down to her panties first. The match is nothing to speak of--Lawler and Malenko both go over the top rope quickly and often, forcing Teri and the Kat to strip down to their bra & panties. Jim Ross says "if the King were here he'd be saying 'bra and panties, bra and panties!'" Ross advises the kids should be put to bed. Malenko is tossed out one last time, so Teri has to remove her top. Just as she's unhooking it here comes Stevie Richards, looking rather uptight and corporate, carrying a large "censored" sign. He covers Teri up and drags her off the stage. Is this a shot at the PTC? Is Richards the new Standards & Practices rep for the USA Network? Was this just a one-time deal to get out of a stipulation they knew they couldn't deliver? Edge & Christian look at the door to the Rock's dressing room with disdain. They complain because they don't have their own dressing room. Commissioner Foley comes along and says he never had a dressing room either, and he was a THREE-TIME Tag Team Champion. They point out that Foley never changed his clothes, he just wrestled in whatever he wore to the arena. Foley says he'll see what he can do, then makes an odd "Wizard of Oz" reference. Speaking of which, "The Wizard of Oz" airs on Turner Clasic Movies next Monday, and--don't laugh--that could hurt Nitro a little bit, as WCW's audience is more comprised of young and old viewers. This will be the first time ever that "Oz" has been aired on TV with no commercials, and is being hyped as a major TV event. There'll probably be no effect, but hey, you never know. - The Commish has come through getting the two a pair of leather recliners and a big TV, set up in a messy lockerroom. We can't see the screen so I don't know if they're just watching themselves or a magic feed of, oh, I don't know, Too Cool lacing up their boots, or the Dudleyz picking their noses. It's decided that the only thing that would be better is if Mick got them some cold sodas, because sodas rule! - Too Cool, the Hardy Boyz and Acolytes come out for the next match, a Tag Team Battle Royal to decide the number one contenders. These three teams immediately go at it, with other teams still to be announced. As the ref tries to establish order they cut to-- Foley asks if he came through or what. They say it's great, and would be even better if he could get them some cold sodas. He says yes, then nonchalantly wishes them luck in their upcoming match. "What match?!" Foley says he booked them in a non-title match against a pair of guys who are going through some problems right now: the Undertaker & Kane! - TAG TEAM BATTLE ROYAL In addition to the three teams above there's also Kaientai, T & A, Perry Saturn & D-Lo Brown, and the Dudley Boyz. Almost immediately Kaientai and the Dudleyz are elminated, just as quickly killing my interest in the match. It comes down to Saturn & D-Lo and the Acolytes, and I suppose you can guess how that one comes out. I guess the Acolytes get a shot at Edge & Christian on SmackDown! - Photos and clips are shown of the Rock and New York Met Mike Piazza posing for a photo shoot for a USA Today Sunday supplement. - Footage is shown of Donald Trump at the WWF show Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. - We take a quick look at the Godfather partying at WWF New York. - Christian says he and Edge will take a pass on that match Foley offered them. Foley chuckles and says they have no choice: if they don't wrestle, he'll strip them of the belts. - I hadn't noticed it the last few weeks, but I caught it this time: the Undertaker takes a dip from a bag of chewing tobacco. He offers some to Kane, but Kane politely declines. There's something about that scene funnier than words can express. - EDGE/CHRISTIAN vs. THE UNDERTAKER/KANE Edge says that in protest of this being so unfair there'll be no five second pose this week. The Undertaker's entrance music has been slightly changed, using a different portion of the "American Badass" song than before (and, as a result, the Kid Rock CD cover is no longer flashed on the screen). The match is a total squash, with both Edge & Christian being chokeslammed and Edge covered for the pin. The Undertaker wrestled the entire match with his mouth full of tobacco. I love the guy, but that's just plain lazy! Our main event competitors begin to filter in the general direction of the arena. - THE ROCK vs. KURT ANGLE vs. TRIPLE H (w/ Stephanie) Angle comes out first and does some brief commentary as the other two enter. The bulk of the match consists of Angle and Triple H teaming up to kill the Rock, but eventually the two have to stop each other from making the pin. They then go at each other, and Triple H seems to come out on top, planting Angle with a Pedigree. Cover, but Chris Jericho has run out, and pulls Triple H off at two. Triple H grabs at Jericho, but Y2J drops off the apron, pulling Triple H's head with him, strangling him on the top rope. He staggers back--right into the waiting arms of the Rock. A Rock Bottom flattens him, and the People's Champ covers for the pin. Well, it wasn't 100% clean, but there's that pinfall the Rock should have gotten the night before. Symbolically the Rock has finally gone over Triple H once and for all, but the show ends with the staring at each other. Is the feud over? Tune in next time ... - This Thursday: The Acolytes vs. Edge & Christian. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Overall I liked a lot about this show, but was also left with some doubts and questions, the biggest of which being where do we stand with the Rock and Triple H? Their feud needs to be put to rest, but the show ends with the two of them staring at each other like they've only just begun. Triple H, they seem to be building a feud between he and Jericho. Does that mean the Rock will face Kurt Angle? I think so, but this show didn't set us down that road. It just opened a door, as if they'll only go that way if one more match between the Rock and Triple H tanks. I didn't mind the Undertaker & Kane squashing Edge & Christian because they've already established those two as being at such a higher level anyway. I could have lived without it, though. Like the Undertaker would have been hurt if he'd laid down for one of the two? What really bothers me is the way they seemed to also squash the entire remainder of the tag team division. Why aren't the Dudleyz getting a mega-push, when they're clearly the most over team in the company now? The rest of the show, a preponderance of run-ins and DQ's aside, was pretty good. Seeing Tazz back was a surprise, and all those mid-card guys are doing interesting things and delivering good matches. If I have one major gripe about the WWF, now that Patterson & Brisco have been removed from TV, it's that Road Dogg & X-Pac are totally ruining the company for me. Everytime I see them I get the sinking suspicion they're going to win, because of the backstage influence of the Clique version 2.0. I can live with X-Pac still mixing it up with guys, if he'd do some jobs and put them over, but I can't think of any way to effectively use Road Dogg that would interest me. They've been pushed for three years now--it's time to move on to someone else. (I must add that as of my writing this, I've seen some brief results from this week's SmackDown! tapings, and I have to say things look pretty bleak.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Does anyone know how many times Crash Holly has been Hardcore Champion? I've kept a list, and according to my records he's held it 10 times. Yet people online say it's eleven. By my count Crash won it from: Test (1), Pete Gas (2), Tazz (3), Hardcore Holly (4), Tazz again (5), Matt Hardy (6), the British Bulldog (7), Bobcat (8), Gerald Brisco (9), and Pat Patterson (10). Is there one I'm leaving out? I went to the Great Hisa's Puroresu Dojo (www.albany.net/~hit/puroresu/index.html), which has an excellent list of title histories, and the list there matches the one I've kept. ... I've learned that Ric Flair's father passed away over the weekend. I was saddened to hear about that. I've talked in the Recap before about my own father's illness, so news like that hits me pretty close to home. My sympathies go out to Flair and his family. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 2000 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 241 of the "Monday Night Recap", June 26th, 2000.