Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #247 August 7th, 2000 The Opening Word: Once again the talk of the wrestling business, and there's people who think that's supposed to be a good thing, is the Vince Russo "shoot" interview on Thunder. More accurately, the "shoot" interview that never aired. Taped Monday night, and inserted into the taping Tuesday night, when the time came for the interview to air Wednesday night, after it had been hyped the entire show, a voiceover by Tony Schiavone suddenly announced that they would not be able to air the interview, and that hopefully Vince Russo would be able to have his say on Nitro. You all buy that? The story released by WCW is that Brad Siegel was bothered by comments Russo made about Hulk Hogan, and just hours before the show was to air had the segment cut. So it was cut, resulting in the show ending several minutes earlier than usual. The commentary and clips which hyped the interview, as the story goes, could not be removed because there wasn't enough time. They were able to mute commentary regarding the interview after the spot where the interview should have played, but somehow they were unable to mute or remove the many clips hyping the interview prior to the spot where it would have aired. What this has done is raise the question of whether or not the "Hulk Hogan Screwjob" was really *real* after all. Vince Russo claims he's being sued by Hogan (something no one has been able to independently verify). Is WCW being sued by Hogan too? No one has said. Why would Hogan sue Russo and not WCW? Basically what happened at Bash at the Beach was Hogan went into the ring and did a scripted segment with Russo and Jeff Jarrett--Jarrett laying down so Hogan could get a meaningless pin. Hogan took the pin, and the title belt, and made some comments about this being the reason WCW's in the state it's in. No one seems to dispute that this was all worked out beforehand and was supposed to happen. What happened next is what Vince Russo swears is a shoot. Russo came out to the ring and said he had doublecrossed Hogan--that the belt he won was meaningless, and that he really wasn't the World Champion after all. Russo vowed we'd never see Hulk Hogan again. People are just itching to credit Russo with bravely ridding WCW of Hulk Hogan's presence. In front of the entire world, committing what is seen in the eyes of most fans as a heinous heel act, Russo screwed Hogan out of the World Title. And in the eyes of the "smart" fans ... what did Russo do? Oh yeah, screwed Hogan out of the World Title. Actually getting rid of Hogan has been a nice little side benefit, one which has come about because Hogan packed up his bruised ego and went home. Hogan is still on the WCW payroll, unfortunately, and could come back whenever he wants. But would Russo use him? It's for that very reason I ask why Russo even had to do what he did? If Russo wanted to get rid of Hulk Hogan, all he had to do was NOT USE HIM. There was no mandate that said Russo had to use Hogan, and it was Russo who booked Hogan into a World Title shot. Hogan couldn't say what matches he'd be in, he merely had control over the finishes of those matches he was put in. Part of the reason we're supposed to believe this all went down the way it did is because Hogan was demanding to win the World Title from Jeff Jarrett. The reason Hogan was in position to make such a demand was because Russo put him in that position. Russo wouldn't have had to screw him out of the title if they hadn't given him the shot in the first place. And if it was Hogan that had gone back on some kind of promise, saying at first he'd do the job then later changing his mind, all Russo had to do was pull Hogan from the match. Hogan had already been absent from TV for weeks before the PPV, and his match against Jarrett had been downplayed, with WCW going so far as to say they didn't know if Hogan would even be there. Even if they let it go all the way to the PPV, and couldn't convince Hogan to do the job, then the wise thing would have been to cancel the match. They already had Booker T waiting in the wings, and indeed that is the match they did eventually go with, resulting in Booker winning the World Title. What Russo did to Hogan, if real, was both crazy and monumentally stupid. It also accomplished nothing that couldn't have been accomplished by simply calling Hogan a month earlier and telling him they had no booking plans for him, and would be paying him the remainder of his contract to stay at home. Now Hogan is off TV, but still being paid by WCW, and has a whopper of a lawsuit that he can file against both. So tell me again what a genius Vince Russo is? I could see WCW being behind Russo in all this if it somehow got them rid of Hogan and his multimillion dollar contract, but it doesn't. Hogan still has to be paid, and may even get more if his lawsuit (if there is one) were successful. Either WCW supports getting rid of Hogan or it doesn't. If it does then Russo should have had no problem in cutting Hogan loose long before the day of the PPV. And if WCW isn't behind Russo in his efforts to be rid of Hogan, then shouldn't the company have fired Russo for what he did? Or at the very least punished him? So not only wasn't Vince Russo fired, which he should have been roughly a minute after his mic should have been cut off during his "shoot" at the PPV, he's still in power and seems to be planning another screwjob to either Kevin Nash or Goldberg at New Blood Rising. I guess that's why I still don't buy that this isn't all part of some huge angle yet to play out. Just look at Russo's performance in office thus far. His first three months in power saw the company go further downhill, and Russo was temporarily removed from power. Since his return the company has just floated along, showing no sustained growth in TV ratings, PPV buyrates, or live event attendance. Russo then walked off his job, threatening to quit, and somehow did so without any punishment or sanctions leveled against him. Russo then came back again, and his first act was to make a fool of WCW and its highest paid star on PPV. And somehow he STILL hasn't been fired. Either getting rid of Hulk Hogan was very easy, meaning it could have been done long before Russo had to "screw" him over at the PPV; or it's very hard, meaning the Russo screwjob was a wasted effort--and an ill-advised action which opened the company up to a nasty lawsuit. Some are asking "if this is a work, what does it accomplish?" Well, other than asking what does it accomplish if it's real (the answer being nothing), Hogan getting screwed being a work sets up a future return angle for Hogan. The next question asked is why hasn't WCW explained what happened, thus setting up the storyline for the fans? There are a couple of answers to that one: * The fans don't NEED to have it explained to them beforehand. It can all be explained WHEN it actually goes down. The announcers breathlessly explaining what happened behind the scenes as Hogan's return is taking place will make it all seem that much more authentic. * Laying the groundwork beforehand couldn't be done without tipping it. Some might say the Russo "shoot" interview did just that, and maybe that's partly why it was pulled. If we're never going to see Hulk Hogan again then why is Vince Russo still talking about him? Just saying his name makes fans ask "what DID happen at the PPV, where did he go, and when will he be back?" * Not talking about Hogan plays up the whole "he's suing Russo" angle. So what does WCW do? Keep saying "we can't talk about Hogan," which makes the fans ask those questions I mentioned above. Saying you can't talk about Hulk Hogan is still talking about Hulk Hogan. * Who says this angle is being done for the regular fans? The story will tell itself if and when it happens. Russo screwed Hogan out of the title. Months later Hogan comes roaring back for revenge. Pretty simple story, actually. All the secrecy and obfuscation is being done to fool the "smart" fans, tricking them into thinking it's real. We'll know when it all goes down that it was an angle from the start, but until then we'll have been snowed by Russo, which he'll get a huge kick out of. It's hard to criticize Russo's booking week-by-week when we're too busy buzzing about the Hulk Hogan Screwjob. What some people forget is that Hogan, in the eyes of most fans, is a babyface, while Russo was the heel. Forget what we "smart" fans knew, Hogan was supposed to be the good guy and Russo the bad. Out there in the real world people aren't applauding Russo for getting rid of Hogan, they're mad that Russo screwed Hogan out of the title. Occasionally mentioning one or the other keeps the storyline alive, and pulling that interview on Thunder gets the "marks" wondering what's going on, and fools the "smarts" into thinking that just maybe this whole thing is a "shoot" after all. It seems to me to that if this was all real, they would never have done an interview with Russo in the first place. Nothing he said in that interview had anything to do with any existing storylines. It seems like the whole purpose of the interview was to have it pulled by Brad Siegel. Transcripts of the interview were widely available, and we all knew what he said. Russo didn't exactly say anything all that interesting or controversial. The only buzz that would have come from its airing would have been from those pointing out the inaccuracies Russo made in certain comments. It would have been quickly forgotten the next day. By pulling the interview they gave it a controversial nature which it didn't have on its own. Pulling the interview is what got people talking about it, much more talk than the interview itself would have generated. It's also got people believing the Hulk Hogan Screwjob was real, something most people weren't even talking about anymore. That, my friends, is brilliant. Or damn lucky, depending on whether you still believe it's all real or not. There is a feeling by some that what happened at the last PPV was all a work, but that subsequent events may have turned into a shoot, with Hogan and Russo not agreeing on how the follow-up events should play out. Real, work, work that became real, we'll have a pretty good idea what it was if and when Hogan returns in a few months. Russo is supposed to have his say this Monday on Nitro, either in the Thunder interview being played with certain parts edited out, in an entirely new taped interview, or during a live interview segment. Given that nothing Russo said in the taped Thunder interview was all that substantive, and he's no longer an on-screen character, one has to wonder why they're bothering to give him any time to speak at all. The only subject we want to hear him talk about, he can't talk about. Don't be surprised if *that* interview never airs either, or Russo comes out to talk, but they cut off his mic after he say Hulk Hogan's name, or something like that. Going into the weekend there were lots of stories saying Goldberg had been asked to do jobs at the next two PPV's, and that Goldberg refused. This sounds a lot like what happened before the last PPV, where Hulk Hogan refused to job to Jarrett and demanded to win the World Title. There's already speculation that these stories are being floated by WCW to set up another Russo screwjob at New Blood Rising. What no one's sure about, though, is if Goldberg is the target of the screwjob, or if Russo is setting Kevin Nash up for a doublecross. I guess we'll see this week how the next chapter of the story plays out ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Denver, Colorado. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson & Mark Madden. HOUR ONE: - Clips play, people arrive, you know the drill. Scott Steiner knocks down the cameraman filming his arrival. There's a mud pit next to the stage. - THE JUNG DRAGONS vs. VAMPIRO/THE GREAT MUTA/THE DEMON There's a ladder next to the ring. Tank Abbott comes out for color commentary. Abbott says he and 3 Count have recorded a song. Not that I'm concerned or anything, but where have the Insane Clown Posse gone? The ladder is brought in almost immediately. Kaz Hayashi tries a splash off the top, but the ladder wobbles and Kaz misses Vampiro. Not sure if that was supposed to happen or not. From there the match is basically a squash, Muta doing most of the wrestling, with Demon and Vampiro coming in to manhandle the other Dragons. Muta hits Yang with the green mist, then finishes him off with a moonsault. The crowd pops, showing this group could be a big deal if WCW handled them right. The lights go out and in comes Sting, who clears the ring with a baseball bat. He calls out Goldberg. Schiavone breathlessly exclaims something is going on backstage between Kevin Nash and Goldberg, as they cut to a commercial. - During the break Nash, Goldberg and Scott Steiner had to be kept apart by security. Sting is still in the ring, and as he's leaving Scott Steiner comes out. Steiner tells him he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Steiner ends up with Sting's bat and beats on him in the ring. Sting as left laying as they go to another commercial. - You can go on WCW.com and enter to win a trip to Halloween Havoc in Las Vegas. - The Cat, Commissioner of WCW, announces a "Pipe on a Pole" match between Sting and Scott Steiner. Lance Storm then comes out and demands a match with Booker T for the World Title. Cat tells him to kiss his ass, but adds he'll let the fans decide. The crowd yells "no!" So the Cat says he'd like to see Booker kick Storm's ass anyway, and asks the fans if they'd like to see Booker kick his ass. Again, the fans respond in the negative. Oops! You probably shouldn't include the crowd in an angle if you don't know what their reaction will be. - Billy Kidman, at the announce desk, says tonight is "Torrie Wilson Appreciation Night," and offers her an apology. - KRONIC vs. MARK JINDRAK/SEAN O'HAIRE Little crowd reaction for the Tag Team Champs--not a good sign. Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak--the Perfect Event--come out for color. Kronic dominate, but O'Haire breaks up pin attempts following both the High Times and Meltdown. O'Haire kits the Seanton Bomb, but Bryan Clark kicks out. Brian Adams comes in and they set up a big doubleteam move, but Stasiak & Palumbo attack, causing a DQ. They, along with Jindrak & O'Haire, all stomp on Kronic. The Filthy Animals then run in and join in on the beating, eight-to-one. Finally the Misfits in Action come out to even the odds. Juventud Guerrera and Disco Inferno steal the Tag Title belts, Mark Madden yelling "the Animals are the champions!" Knowing Vince Russo, they probably are. - General Rection addresses the troops, telling them to find the Animals and get the belts back for Kronic. Major Gunns then says her mission is to get Miss Hancock and throw her in the mud. With a business filled with the likes of Tori, Judy Bagwell and Stephanie McMahon, it really says something when Major Gunns is, hands down, the worst actress. - Judy Bagwell makes her way out. Backstage we Torrie Wilson and Shane Douglas squabbling. Kanyon comes in and says the Cat booked him and Torrie in a mixed-tag match against Judy & Buff Bagwell. Torrie refuses, so Kanyon grabs Pamela Paulshock as his partner. BUFF BAGWELL/JUDY BAGWELL vs. KANYON/PAMELA PAULSHOCK Do you have any idea how many Tag Team Titles Buff & Judy hold between them? SIX! That's scary. The match goes nowhere until Kanyon and Pamela somehow end up in the ring together. Before Kanyon can do anything, out comes Mean Gene Okerlund to make the save! Mean Gene, wearing a neckbrace from the Kanyon attack last week, taps Kanyon on the shoulder, then kicks him in the nuts when he turns around. Schiavone: "He used his finishing move on him!" Bagwell then hits the Buff Blockbuster and gets the pin. I've seen worse--I saw Hogan bring Okerlund into the ring at a match at the Met Center, and Okerlund fought Slick, who was managing the Big Bossman. - Schiavone cues up the Vince Russo interview, which he says was taped earlier in the day. Taped in the empty arena, Russo makes the following points: Regarding Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach, Russo says he can't say anything. The WWF was doing 6.9-7.0 ratings (umm ...), and that the WWF is still at that level (more or less). He says he had taken WCW to a 3.4 rating (well, sort of) but that politics removed him from power. He calls WCW a "cash machine" and says certain performers were no longer performing. Yadda, yadda, yadda ... he doesn't want to be on TV (*snort*), and that he basically owes Ric Flair a loss. "I'm shooting with you, Tony." Hah! Russo says he'd like to get John Rocker in a shoot match at Starrcade. Russo says he doesn't care about ratings, he just wants to make WCW better. It's up to WCW to do that. Schiavone asks about some guys not wanting to do what Russo says. Russo says "shoot" a bunch. He sucks up to the younger guys in the company. The finish to the Goldberg/Steiner/Nash match at New Blood Rising will be "what's good for the company." Basically the same interview he did last week, with some of the Hogan comments cut out, and the bit about John Rocker added in. Overall, what was the point of this? By the way, what kind of jerk/genius is Russo for scheduling his interview during what will be, no matter what WCW shows, the highest rated quarter hour of the show? HOUR TWO: - STING vs. SCOTT STEINER The one who gets the pipe off the pole is the winner. The match actually starts a few minutes before the top of the hour, so remember that when Vince Russo's "huge" quarter rating comes in on Tuesday. Steiner, there's people high on him, but I'm not one of them. He does little here, mostly throwing punches and clotheslines. It seemed clear from the start this match wasn't going to go anywhere, and sure enough, Rick Steiner runs in and pulls the pipe off the pole. Scott gets the pole (and the win) and uses it on Sting. Kevin Nash lumbers out with a chair for the save. - Mike Awesome and his fat chick, Heidi, come out for color commentary. - LANCE STORM vs. BOOKER T Heidi's got a huge plate of sandwiches she chows down on during the match. About two minutes into the match we hit a stretch where the guys start hitting finishers, but can't get the three count. Storm applies the Canadian Crab and the crowd goes into a huge "USA!" chant to cheer on Booker, who manages to break the hold by reaching the ropes. From there it's all Booker T, who hits a missile drop-kick, Storm kicks out, Booker hits the Book End, and scores the pin. Okay match, but once again it felt like they were condensing a twenty minute match into five minutes (probably due to Johnny Ace's influence). Jeff Jarrett then runs in and hits Booker with Storm's Canadian flag, breaking the stick it's on. Storm attacks Jarrett because of that. Jarrett comes back with a guitar swing down on the floor, but Storm moves, and Jarrett winds up hitting Heidi, who was trying to escape from behind the desk. The segment ends with Booker beating up on Jarrett in the ring as Mike Awesome cheers him on. - Pamela gets comments from Jarrett. - The MIA are still looking for the Filthy Animals. Sgt. Awol wanders into the Nitro Girls' dressing room. - Billy Kidman, with flowers and a bottle of wine, calls out Torrie Wilson. It's hard to ignore how much, at first, this looks like the Stephanie & Triple H storyline as Kidman apologizes to her. Kidman then says he has another tape of Torrie he'd like to show, from her 16th birthday party. The tape rolls, and on it we see a fat lady, supposed to be a teenaged Torrie, digging into a birthday cake like ... like Mark Madden digging into a birthday cake. Both Schiavone and Hudson are slow to catch on that this is supposed to be a rib on Torrie. Then, as photos of the fat Torrie drop from the ceiling, Kidman is confronted by Shane Douglas. Then some guy named Reno--I guess he was on Thunder last week--helps Douglas whip Kidman. Torrie is seen trying to pick us as many of the pamphlets as she can. - The MIA and Filthy Animals have finally found each other backstage, and are going at it. Kronic come along, so the Animals take refuge inside a parked car. Adams & Clark start pounding on it with sledgehammers. Disco hands the belts back to Kronic. Meanwhile, Major Gunns has Tygress, and is dragging her out to the mud pit. Those two go at it in the mud for a few seconds, until Miss Hancock comes out. She dunks Gunns and ... that's it. As usual a WCW T&A segment comes off with very little "T" or "A." - JEFF JARRETT vs. MIKE AWESOME Okay match, which sees Awesome set up a table at ringside, which comes into play late in the match when Lance Storm comes out. After a pin attempt, brought about by Jarrett hitting Awesome with a chain-wrapped fist, Awesome kicks out, bringing Storm up onto the apron. Awesome knock Storm off and through the table. Jarrett then hits the Stroke and gets the pin. - Pamela interviews Kwee Wee, who introduces his wife, Papaya. - THE STEINER BROTHERS vs. KEVIN NASH/STING When did this become a tag team match? Must be to keep Nash from looking bad by having to wrestle in a singles match. Sting sure looks motivated again, now that he's back to being in the main event mix. The match is okay at the start, but it eventually degenerates into a big mess, with all four men in the ring. Nash tries to powerbomb Rick through the announce table, but it doesn't break. Back in the ring, Goldberg comes in and floors Scott Steiner with one punch. The ref, either not seeing it or not caring, makes the three count for Sting. Nash then comes back in and as Steiner hits Goldberg they quickly end the show, almost five minutes earlier than usual. - This Wednesday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Here is the New Blood Rising card: * Booker T vs. Jeff Jarrett. World Heavyweight Title Match. * Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash vs. Scott Steiner. * Sting vs. the Demon. * Kronic vs. Perfect Event vs. MIA vs. Jindrak & O'Haire. World Tag Team Title Match. * Lance Storm vs. Mike Awesome. "Canadian" Title Match. * Shane Douglas vs. Billy Kidman. * Major Gunns vs. Miss Hancock. "ROTC Match." * 3 Count vs. the Jung Dragons. "Double Ladder Match." * Kanyon vs. Buff Bagwell. "Judy Bagwell on a Pole Match." I honestly had to go to the WCW website to get the full card, since so many of the matches were barely hyped on Nitro. I'm not sure if they mentioned the Sting/Demon match, which nobody cares about anyway. 3 Count wasn't even there to hype their match, and although it has the potential to steal the show at the PPV, they barely even mentioned it during the match which was supposed to hype it. Some of these other matches, I'm actually sick of seeing the competitors square off in lesser matches, I have no desire to see them go at it again on PPV (such as Kidman & Douglas). Most of the hype tonight was for the two top matches at the PPV, which wouldn't be so bad, except that I still don't feel Jarrett vs. Booker is a PPV main event (even though it already has been), and there's very little chance that 3-way is going to be any good (what with Russo out to screw one of the guys). The only thing interesting about the PPV is seeing what they're going to do with Lance Storm in Canada. His being buried here tonight suggests he's going over in a big way at the PPV. I seemed to be one of the few last week who thought much of Nitro. It wasn't great, but there were elements of the show which I saw as positive signs. I saw more of that this week. There was a lot more okay wrestling, with a few of the matches actually being on the verge of good. No surprise those matches involved Storm and Awesome, who are getting a lot of ring time ever since the U.S. Title Tournament show they carried drew such positive reviews. If this show had any negatives it would be that the flow wasn't there this week. It seemed Russo was back to just throwing things out, and relying on the top stars getting a lot of TV time. That's actually something I've noticed over the past few weeks. It seems like they're focusing on fewer and fewer people with each passing week. That would probably be a good thing, if some of their choices weren't so puzzling. Most of who we're seeing on WCW TV right now are the right people, but I've got to wonder about the likes of Kwee Wee, who has never gotten any kind of crowd reaction, yet there's no sign of Big Vito, who seemed quite over with the fans before losing his Hardcore Title to Lance Storm. Norman Smiley was also absent, yet Judy Bagwell is part of an angle and match at the PPV. 3 Count, they weren't even on the show, yet the Jung Dragons, Vampiro & Muta, and Filthy Animals all were--none of whom have matches at the PPV. This is a problem I also have with the WWF. Why should I care about guys like Crash Holly when they're only on once every three weeks or so? But that's a minor complaint. For the most part this show worked for me. Not great, maybe not even good, but okay enough to be viewed as a sincere effort at improvement. Cut out the Vince Russo interview, tighten up some of the attempts at hyping the PPV, do away with a few more of the dumber angles and characters (Kwee Wee, the fat chicks), and put a bit more work in the actual wrestling matches, and this would have been a very good show. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: New York, New York. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler. WWF RAW: - Video package recaps the Triple H/Stephanie story from last week. Stephanie is already in the building, waiting for Triple H to arrive. - WWF Champion the Rock makes his way to the ring. It seems he's a bit miffed at having been pinned by Chris Benoit in a tag team match last Thursday on SmackDown! The Rock calls out Benoit, saying if he wants another shot at the WWF Championship he can have it tonight. Benoit and Shane McMahon come out. Benoit is confident he'll take the title from the Rock tonight. Shane takes a turn on the mic, goading the Rock into accepting a "no DQ" stipulation for the match. Ross says he doesn't have a good feeling about that. Commissioner Mick Foley's office this week is a forklift adorned with cactus plants. Kurt Angle comes along and asks Foley to name him the #1 contender to the title. Foley says he'll consider it. - Triple H's limo pulls up. He basically refuses to talk to Stephanie, and asks where he can find Commissioner Foley. - RIKISHI vs, X-PAC The rivalry between X-Pac and Road Dogg continues, as the Dogg is shown watching the match backstage, laughing when X-Pac gets the stinkface from Rikishi. Moments later the Dogg comes out to prevent the buttsplash, causing a DQ. It would have made more sense if Rikishi actually won the match, THEN Road Dogg came in to assist (though maybe I'm just saying that because I like to see X-Pac lose). Triple H says he heard from Joe ("just Joe") that the Rock will be facing Benoit tonight. Helmsley demands a shot, at SummerSlam, against whoever wins that match. Foley replies that Triple H must not have heard about Kurt Angle's request, and that like that, he will take Triple H's request under advisement. That Joe ... he likes to stir the shi-- - The Ho's are still protesting their unfair treatment at the hands of the RTC ("Right to Censor"). - Triple H vents on Stephanie his anger at Angle demanding the Titleshot. - Steven Richards, Bull Buchanan and the Goodfather are out to rile up the fans. Richards says if anyone in the back has a problem with what they're doing they should come out and do something about it ... THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. BULL BUCHANAN/THE GOODFATHER (w/ Steven Richards) Thunderous "we want tables!" and "save the Ho's!" chants. The Dudleyz do the headbutt to the groin on both Bull and the Goodfather, but the final pin attempt is broken up by Richards, causing a DQ. Richards takes the head to the groin, and a table is fetched. Two Ho's at ringside, protesting, hop the barrier to root the Dudleyz on. The crowd makes a noise like "this would be cool, but we know he isn't going through the table." Sure enough, Buh-Buh Ray is knocked off the top by a shot from a placard, and both Dudleyz wind up out of the picture. Richards throws one of the Ho's in the ring. Bull makes like he's going to powerbomb her through the table and the Goodfather stops him. The crowd, driven nuts, quickly changes moods when they realize the Goodfather wants to put her through the table himself. Good lord, she gets KILLED going through the table, folding completely in half. I hope she was trained to take that bump! Stephanie and Kurt Angle are admiring each others' gold (medals & belt). Stephanie says Triple H is upset that Angle asked to be #1 contender, and Kurt asks if he raised his voice at Stephanie. He suggests Triple H seek counseling. Steph appreciates the suggestion that Triple H should be more sensitive, and the two shake hands. Mick Foley says *I* can elect the next president. Well, if *I* count as three people, like the WWF says, then that may be true! - Joe is at it again, telling Triple H that the boys in the back don't think he can beat Angle. Helmsley kicks him out of the dressing room. - TOO COOL/EDDIE GUERRERO (w/ Chyna) vs. T&A/VAL VENIS (w/ Trish Stratus) Before the bell Val piledrives Eddie on the floor, effectively removing him from the match. Almost immediately Scotty Too Hotty hits the Worm. He then gets beat on for a while, as Grandmaster Sexay is dropped on the ring steps. Scotty goes for a tag. Chyna is up on the apron, and tags in! Punch, punch, bodyslam. The bad guys turn the tide and Chyna takes a beating, Val nearly beheading her with a clothesline. He eventually hooks on a Fisherman Suplex with bridge. Guerrero, up on the turnbuckles, comes off with a Frog Splash, flattening Venis. Chyna rolls over and the ref, distracted through all of this, comes in and makes the pin count. Hearing that Triple H brought Stephanie to tears from Joe, Kurt Angle says he's ready and waiting if Triple H would like to mix it up. - Stephanie hits the ring. She tries to apologize to Triple H, who comes out to glower. She tries to explain her recent actions by saying she's been jealous. The crowd chants "bullsh*t!" She says she realizes that if they've been fighting it's because they care so much about one another. Triple H mulls it over, then gives her a hub. The crowd is disappointed (or disgusted). With that settled, Stephanie says it's time for business, and calls Kurt Angle out. Triple H fumes again. Angle certainly has a smarmy look on his face. He says what happened between him and Stephanie did so during the heat of battle, and didn't mean anything. Triple H says he's full of *bleep* (crowd pop), and that if he comes close to Stephanie again he'll--Stephanie separates the two. WWF WAR ZONE: Here comes Mick Foley and, long story short, he decides to put Triple H and Angle in a match decide the #1 contender. Benoit ... the Rock ... NEXT! - I'm writing this at work, on a computer which is acting flakier and flakier by the minute. I'm going to have to blow through the rest of this, or it may never get finished. - CHRIS BENOIT (w/ Shane McMahon) vs. THE ROCK The Rock comes in through the crowd, surprising Benoit. It's amazing how much the Rock has stepped up his workrate feuding with Benoit. Shane keeps interfering, preventing the Rock from taking the advantage. Things go back and forth for a while. Benoit launches into the rolling German Suplex, but the Rock counters the third of the series by giving Benoit the suplex. Shane is still interfering, breaking up pin attempts by the Rock. The crowd is starting to smell bad things for the Rock, and gets real concerned when Benoit slaps on the Crippler Crossface. Shane comes in and starts laying in kicks. Flames erupt--it's Kane! No, I mean Chris Jericho. Ross says Benoit. Everyone's confused, but the crowd is ecstatic. Jericho lays out Benoit and chases Shane away. A Rock Bottom seals the win foor the People's Champion. Good match, so-so finish. - Shane gripes to Commissioner Foley about Jericho. Mick says he'll punish Jericho by putting him in a match against two top athletes: Triple H and Kurt Angle. Shane & Benoit don't think that's much of a punishment. - Tazz comes to the ring, to a big pop, JR saying Tazz isn't scheduled on the show tonight. Tazz gets the crowd to turn on him with the usual insults. He then starts running down Ross for disparaging remarks he's made about him in recents weeks, including calling him a "piece of garbage" at Fully Loaded. He continues to taunt Ross, saying he'd slap his face, "but it looks like God already beat me to it!" Yee-oww. Ross is finally pushed to the breaking point, and he slaps Tazz. Tazz laughs it off, as the crowd is really starting to come alive, expecting a JR beating or run-in save by someone. (Wouldn't it be cool if Raven debuted right now?) Tazz keeps digging at Ross, telling him to hit him. Ross looks ready to oblige, but out of nowhere comes a flying fist, squarely nailing Tazz in the face. It's Lawler! The King goes after Tazz, who is already being held back by a swarm of officials. The crowd is going nuts, and so am I. They make one of those "this wasn't supposed to happen" abrupt commercial cuts. - JR tries to apologize, but Lawler says don't bother--he's always thought Tazz was a jerk anyway. - Drew Pearson will be the General Manager of the New York XFL franchise. Vince "Genetic Jackhammer" McMahon has black balls. - MATT HARDY/THE ACOLYTES vs. EDGE/CHRISTIAN/BIG SHOW (w/ Shane McMahon) This one is almost over before we can absorb the events leading up to it. Big Show starts hitting people with a Tag Title belt, drawing a DQ. Cue "American Badass," as the Undertaker roars out onto the stage atop his motorcycle. Edge & Christian go down quickly, and the fight is on between him and the Big Show. Shane McMahon gets tossed over the top rope. The Undertaker then chases Shane up the ramp, riding his bike. Shane leaps--Spider-Man!--onto the Titan-Tron scaffolding. With him out of reach, the Undertaker goes back to fighting the Big Show, wrapping a chain around his neck, and tossing him off the stage! The Show crashes through a table (covering a bunch of impact-absorbing stuff). - Shane hightailed it out of the building during the break. Big Show is being attended to by paramedics. - Switch to Triple H's dressing room, where he's locked in a scuffle with Chris Jericho. What, another commercial?! - Triple H, looking for Jericho, finds Angle. Violence nearly erupts. - Eddie Guerrero & Chyna are going to party through the night at WWF New York. Christ, ANOTHER commercial!!! - Clip of the Rock at the Republican National Convention. - TRIPLE H vs. KURT ANGLE vs. CHRIS JERICHO I didn't know a wedding was a "career threatening" injury. The Rock sits in for color commentary and is more annoying than effective. Sweet match, as you'd expect, with a finish which sees Jericho double suplexed off the top by Angle and Helmsley. Both men cover and the ref makes a three count. The Rock asks "who won the damn match?!" This looks familiar. The ref declares both Triple H and Angle the winners, meaning they both have a claim at being the #1 contender. Stephanie steps between them, keeping them apart. The Rock then comes in and takes out Angle, takes out Triple H, and gives Stephanie a Rock Bottom after she slaps him. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: This was one of those shows that came THAT close to being legendary. Do something about some of those weak match finishes, maybe have Benoit win the title, and this would have been one of the most talked about shows since the Stone Cold era. As it was it was "just" a great show. The highlight for me was the Tazz/JR/Lawler angle. I don't know where it's going--if it's even going anywhere--but it was awesome for what it was. Tazz came off as a major badass heel, and Lawler delivered one of the best mark-out moments of the year (the other being the night he went in the ring to help the Kat during a match in Memphis). JR once again gets involved in an angle which is more about putting the wrestler over than himself. Other wrestling announcers in the business should take note. My one complaint about this show was the many weak match finishes. Too many DQ's and such. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: My ass hurts, and I can't wrangle with this screwy computer any longer. Buh-bye. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 247 of the "Monday Night Recap", August 7th, 2000.