Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #271 January 22nd, 2001 The Opening Word: Meng? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Lafayette, Louisiana. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Jerry "The King" Lawler. WWF RAW: - Tonight: The Rock & Chris Jericho vs. The Big Show & Chris Benoit. - Triple H and Stephanie McMahon come out, HHH carrying a sledgehammer. Long story (15 minutes) short, Triple H says he's going to destroy "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Kurt Angle comes out to gloat over his Rumble victory, a challenge for a World Title match tonight is laid down, Trish Stratus comes out, and Stephanie calls her a bitch and challenges her to a match. I honestly think there's good TV ratings and an eventual PPV buyrate in this Trish/Stephanie feud, but it's something I just have no interest in watching. Maybe it's because neither one can act or wrestle. Vince McMahon arrives. - McMahon tells Michael Cole that he's taking the two matches booked in his absence "under consideration." - WILLIAM REGAL vs. TEST Test is wearing a black arm band in memory of Val Venis' mother, who recently passed away. Almost a squash, with Test quickly winning the match and European Title with an elbowdrop off the top. Regal must need time off to heal up his bad back. Triple H demands to have the match with Angle, but Vince says he's still thinking it over. - A dejected Regal is shown backstage. - THE ACOLYTES (w/ Jacqueline) vs. THE HARDY BOYZ (w/ Lita) The Hardyz are shown squabbling before, during and after the match, which the Acolytes win when Faarooq pins Jeff Hardy following the Dominator. Clearly they're teasing a Hardyz split. Triple H tells Stephanie that Vince hasn't confirmed their matches yet, and suggests she might have better luck talking to him. - Stephanie is no more successful than Triple H in getting a decision out of Vince. - The Rock, in a pretaped interview, vows to continue fighting to his goal of regaining the WWF Championship. The Rock came off real heel-ish here. - Jericho's up next. - Triple H is waiting outside for Austin to arrive. - THE ROCK/CHRIS JERICHO vs. BIG SHOW/CHRIS BENOIT Jericho (and to an extent Benoit) are selling the injuries they suffered at the Ladder Match at the PPV. Jericho gets taken out of the match completely by a Big Show chokeslam down on the floor. WWF officials help him away from ringside. The Rock, forced to go it alone, holds his own for quite a while, but looks on track to suffer the obvious defeat. A rally by the Rock sees Benoit dumped to the floor, where he's attacked by a groggy Jericho, who barely has enough left in him to come back out. The Rock then catches Benoit with the Rock Bottom and scores the upset pin. Very good match. Big Show chokeslams the Rock, Jericho, and when Benoit complains about losing, him too. I'll say it again, very good match. Even the Big Show looked good, despite being billed as 500 pounds (and looking closer to 600). WWF WAR ZONE: - Trish ... Angle ... Trish is going to talk to Vince. - Clips are shown of Chyna being injured at the Royal Rumble--an angle that detracted from what was otherwise an excellent show. - IVORY (w/ Steven Richards) vs. MOLLY HOLLY (w/ Crash Holly) Nothing match, which Ivory wins after Richards pushes Molly off the top turnbuckle. Clips are shown of videos sent in to the WWF and MTV for the "Tough Enough" contest. These were bad. REALLY bad. So bad you laugh your ass off. The show's going to be a hit, because everyone loves watching people make fools of themselves. Rikishi ... Kane ... NEXT! - Triple H is still waiting. - Trish enters Vince's dressing room. - KANE vs. RIKISHI Haku runs in for the DQ, the Undertaker runs in for the save. My worst fears have been realized: Rikishi & Haku vs. the Undertaker & Kane. The Dudleyz are backstage. - Rikishi challenges Undertaker to a match on SmackDown! - Trish seems to be having a good time in Vince's office. Me? I'm dying of boredom. - Extensive clips are shown of Drew Carey in the Royal Rumble, killing off any reason to buy the replay for those who might have been tempted to do so. Speaking of which, there hasn't been a single plug yet for the replay. - THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. LO DOWN (w/ Tiger Ali-Singh) Buh-Buh Ray Dudley is DQ'ed for hitting one of Lo Down with a Tag Title belt. Tiger takes a 3-D through a table afterwards. Lo Down got the title shot here because Vince had screwed them over at the Rumble. They had beaten Kaientai on Sunday Night Heat, earning the right to place a team member in the Rumble. Vince then took the slot away to them to give it to Drew Carey. I'll say this: even when the storylines are bad, you have to credit the WWF with the skill in which they weave them together. Be that as it may, I'm trying to figure out who thought it was a good idea to give Lo Down a title shot this late on RAW? Trish, all aglow from having hot, sweaty sex ... with ... Vince ... oh geez, there goes my lunch ... - Michael Cole's waiting to get comments from McMahon. - RAVEN vs. AL SNOW Quickly the match moves under the stage. The cameraman is shoved back out into the open, and moments later a pyro explosion goes off. The cameraman goes back under the stage to reveal Raven, Snow and the referee all laid out, suffering from the concussive force of the blast. Everyone recovers, and the brawl continues through the backstage catering area. Outside they go, where Snow hits Raven with a foreign object and covers for the pin, winning the Hardcore Title. Suddenly a mysterious figure, dressed head-to-toe in black, whacks Snow. Raven covers, and--24/7 rule in effect--regains the Hardcore Title. Raven and the mystery man (woman, actually, by the looks of them) escape in a waiting car. Chastity? Torrie Wilson? Tori? Luna Vachon? Midnight? Jazz? Sable? Kimberly? Miss Hancock? Sherri Martel? Janet Reno? Vince has decided that Triple H and Stephanie will be allowed to face Angle & Trish in a mixed-tag. - Triple H is pissed to learn that he's lost his shot at the title. - Too Cool & K-Kwik are at WWF New York. - TRIPLE H/STEPHANIE MCMAHON-HELMSLEY vs. KURT ANGLE/TRISH STRATUS Triple H and Angle engage in some good wrestling to start, but soon enough it becomes the Stephanie McMahon Show (hasn't it been all night already?), with her and Trish in the ring. Angle shoves Stephanie down, and immediately apologizes for it, but Triple H dumps him out of the ring, where the two will stay until the finish. Stephanie and Trish pull hair and roll around and stuff. Stephanie dominates with some terribly weak kicks in the corner. Trish comes back with a bulldog that knocks Stephanie out. She covers, but Triple H is in with a Pedigree. He rolls Stephanie on top and she gets the pin. Tremendous crowd heat, but the match was nothing. Angle and Triple H stare down, until "Stone Cold" Steve Austin runs in through the crowd and attacks Triple H. A Stone Cold Stunner puts him out, and Austin celebrates as the show fades out. - This Thursday: Rikishi vs. the Undertaker. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I can't remember the last time the WWF followed up such a great PPV with such a weak show the night after. I didn't like Nitro last week, and wouldn't concede it the win over last week's RAW, but I would this week if that show had faced off against this one. This was a total subpar effort on behalf of the WWF. I don't know if they decided to coast because Nitro was preempted, or what, but there was very little in this show, save for the match in the middle, worth praise. I liked the opening interview, long as it was. Then it was a long dead zone until the Rock/Jericho/Benoit/Big Show match. Then the show went back on autopilot until the main event, which, as I noted, had a lot of energy to it, but wasn't really that good. What was the deal with the taped Rock interview? It was the standard Rock promo, but it came off weird because he wasn't able to play off a live crowd. Like I said above he came off kind of like a heel. Maybe they taped it to start subtly turning the crowd against him? I can't believe they would bring Meng/Haku in and not have him do something with the WWF Hardcore Champion. In the grand scheme of things it probably doesn't mean much, but they could have really put Raven over as the undisputed Hardcore Champion by putting him over Meng, who for all intents and purposes is the current WCW Hardcore Champion (despite whatever story WCW will come up with tomorrow night to save face). Haku's just going to be a job guy for the top stars anyway, so why not start things off by making Raven into a legitimate star by putting him over him? The WWF had the same opportunity when they brought in Benoit, and let it go by the wayside. Speaking of Haku, I'm betting his WWF contract is for very little money. I hear he was just happy to get a contract, which WCW wouldn't offer him (they instead paying him on a night-by-night basis). The moral there: don't put titles on guys not under contract. A quick word about the Rumble: I loved it, the only bad part being the whole Chyna match and injury angle. I'm surprised they didn't put the Ladder Match over tonight. Not only that, but they didn't make a big deal out of Jericho finally beating Benoit on PPV and winning the Intercontinental Title. Jericho, being teamed with the Rock and the way he was presented tonight, seems to be in line for a push into the top mix. Maybe. We've thought that before. But Benoit, his stock seems to have dropped. That's all the more sad to see considering the Big Show and Haku have been brought in and shot right past him to the top. The second Meng came out at the Rumble my fear was he was going to team with Rikishi and feud with the Undertaker & Meng. The only thing that could be worse is if the Big Show is the referee for their eventual PPV match. A very disappointing show this week. Too much Stephanie, an ever-fading Hardcore Division, Lo Down, the Chyna angle, the Hardy Boyz being split up, too much Drew Carey PPV hype, too much XFL hype ... it was all just too much this week. Vince must have some money invested in that Drew Carey PPV. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Taped 1/22. Length: Two Hours. Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hosted By: Tony Schiavone & Scott Hudson. HOUR ONE: - A video package opens ... wait, isn't this the same as the one that opened last week's show? Oh, clips from Nitro have been added. - Footage from "last week" shows Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell watching a tape of Sid Vicious breaking his leg ... and laughing. Scott Hudson chastises Steiner for taking credit for Sid's injury when he really had nothing to do with it. - Tony Schiavone reveals that WCW has new owners, that they are undergoing a transition period, and wonders how much Ric Flair asserting his power as CEO ties into it. - Flair leads Steiner, Jarrett, Bagwell, Luger & Road Warrior Animal to the ring. Flair says Animal is his personal bodyguard. Flair hypes the next PPV. (Why'd they change the name from "SuperBrawl" to "SuperBrawl Revenge"?) The fans chant for Goldberg. We casually hit the ten minute mark with the only development of substance being Flair saying the #1 contender to the World Title is Alex Wright. Wright comes out. Kevin Nash is right behind him. Flair starts sputtering. Nash powerbombs Wright through the stage. "Looks like I'm the #1 contender!" Flair says he calls the shots around here, but Nash counters that he has someone to back him up. WCW commissioner Ernest Miller comes out. The chess game between Flair and the Cat continues, with the end result being Nash versus Bagwell later tonight; and Lex Luger versus Diamond Dallas Page, with the winner of that match being the referee for the Nash/Bagwell match. Seventeen minutes gone by, for those who always piss and moan about the long interviews on RAW. - Mike Sanders butters up Chavo Guerrero, saying he could be a part of Flair's elite team. Sanders has dug up a couple of cruiserweights he thinks Chavo should take a look at. Then the Wall, who turned heel on Thunder last week, yells some stuff. There were like three completely separate trains of thought there colliding at that intersection. - "FALLEN ANGEL" CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. MICHAEL MODEST This match, theoretically, is a blatant suck-up to the Internet fanbase, which constantly raves about these two indy guys (despite most of them never having seen them). Actually both have been in WCW before, with Daniels having appeared as Vampiro's hooded "master", and Modest (who looks like a younger Kevin Sullivan) having done a few matches on TV. WCW hyped this match by saying the winner would get a job with the company. Good match for what it is, but the finish sees neither man win when Scott Steiner comes out and lays both out with a pipe. I repeat: Scott Steiner lays out both with a pipe. Bloody brilliant. I couldn't tell you if either man made an impression on WCW. They should have, but this is WCW we're talking about here. Steiner grabs a mic and takes credit for crippling Sid, and yells at the announcers for suggesting otherwise. - Injury update: Modest & Daniels each suffered a "broken leg" from Steiner's attack. - Kwee-Wee (with Paisley) comes out. He complains about Flair not offering him a spot on his team. He challenges anyone in the building to a fight. A security guard (some guy who looks like a bigger version of Chris Benoit) takes him up on the offer. Kwee-Wee destroys the guy. I guess they're dropping the "Kwee-Wee" gimmick in favor of "Angry Allen", but they're damn sure taking their time doing it. - LANCE STORM (w/ Team Canada) vs. KONNAN (w/ the Filthy Animals) Before the match Storm says this will end the war between these two teams once and for all. About a minute in Tygress and Major Gunns get in a catfight at ringside. Other hangers-on at ringside interfere. Storm and Konnan then go into one of those move-reversal sequences fans rave about (though not usually in matches that last a minute). Storm then applies the Canadian Mapleleaf, winning the match and, I guess, the war. Basic wrestling psychology took a vacation EVERY TIME these two teams fought. - Bagwell & Luger tell Shane Douglas he can join the team if he does them a favor. Christ, Lex Luger may have the body of a Greek god, but he's starting to look 70 years old! - Mean Gene interviews General Rection and Cpl. Cajun--Rection staring off into space and muttering to himself. The sad part? THAT'S NOT AN ACT! Concussions are a bitch. Rection "honorably discharges" Cajun from the MIA, and removes his own shirt to reveal a Hugh Morrus shirt, FINALLY killing off the MIA gimmick for good. - Luger ... DDP ... NEXT! - Seems like there's been about five minutes of wrestling so far. - Commercial, so the show will come back just as RAW starts. Wait a minute ... HOUR TWO: - LEX LUGER vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE DDP's new theme music isn't anything to write home about, but it's better than his old Nirvana ripoff. So-so match. Jeff Jarrett comes out after a ref bump, nails DDP with a guitar, and Luger Torture Racks him for the win. When the WCW revamp takes place I hope Jarrett's guitar gimmick is one of the things dropped. - THE MAMALUKES vs. MARK JINDRAK/SHAWN STASIAK A surprisingly decent match, but with an awful finish. Everyone is in the ring and two pinfall covers are being made. The ref can't remember who the legal men are (or perhaps both legal men are making the covers), so he can't decide which pinfall to count. In come Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo. They shove the ref and order him to count the Natural Born Thriller cover. The ref, having been touched, calls for a DQ. Of course Jindrak & Stasiak are upset that their teammates interfered, causing them the match. I hope we see this exact same finish six or seven more times, until Fusient pulls the plug and relaunches the company, thus rendering the Thrillerz split meaningless. - The Thrillerz are all arguing backstage. Ric Flair pulls Mike Sanders aside and gives him advice on how to deal with the situation. - SHANE DOUGLAS vs. THE CAT (w/ Miss Jones) It was bad enough when Douglas did that phony laugh of his, but it's worse now that he uses the laugh instead of saying "ass" in his promos. The Cat thinks he's going to win the U.S. Title. Flair appears on the Fusient-Tron and says the WCW commissionership is on the line instead. I hope when WCW relaunches that's another thing to go. Douglas does some submission moves. The Cat does his cartoon stuff--looking more and more like 80's Hulk Hogan with every passing match. Mike Sanders runs in but the Cat fends him off. Sean O'Haire then comes in. Somewhere along the line the match was, I guess, made no DQ, and this is all legal. Rick Steiner then comes in to even things up. Douglas pulls out a chain, but Steiner grabs it, punches him, and the Cat floors Douglas with a kick. After the pin he and Miss Jones dance. Lord, even Steiner dances. And as Rome burned, Nero played his fiddle ... - THE WALL/CHAVO GUERRERO, JR. vs. HUGH MORRUS/LASH LEROUX Lots of action, but it doesn't really gel into a match. Out of nowhere Chavo rolls up Lash for the pin. - The announcers are talking, but for about a minute all we see is Lex Luger's entrance video. Luger comes out, then Bagwell. Bagwell prances. Luger poses. Luger promises to call the match right down the middle. Bagwell's music plays again. Commercial. Unbelievable. - BUFF BAGWELL vs. KEVIN NASH Nash starts in the corner with some elbows. Luger pulls him off. Bagwell bails--Nash follows outside, and around the ring. Back on the apron Luger holds Nash's boot, allowing Bagwell to pull up the top rope, crotching Nash. Nash lays on the mat. Bagwell slaps on a headlock. That's about five minutes of match gone by so far. Back up, the two do a double knockout. Nash drapes an arm, and Luger does a comically slow count. Nash covers for another pin. Another slow count by Luger, putting his hand under Bagwell's shoulder, breaking the count because Bagwell's shoulder is now up. Bagwell recovers and retrieves a steel chair. Luger takes it away, then under the guise of lecturing Bagwell he holds it in front of Nash's face, so Bagwell kicks the chair. Cover, and a fast count from Luger. Nash barely gets the shoulder up. At this point I'm wondering why Luger doesn't just say it was three, or just DQ Nash for being too tall? That's the problem with these biased referee angles. Finally DDP come in (through the crowd--why?). He lays out Luger with a Diamond Cutter. Nash then hits Bagwell, who has to stand there hunched over forever waiting for the powerbomb while Nash drops his strap and plays up to the crowd. Nash covers, and grabs Vince McMahon's--I mean Lex Luger's hand to make the count. Here comes Scott Steiner and his pipe. And Kronik. And Animal. And DDP. And Jarrett. Everybody's fighting as the show fades out. - This Wednesday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: There's not a whole lot more to be said about WCW this week. This obviously isn't the "new" WCW yet. That's not going to come until a few weeks from now when Fusient finalizes the deal to buy the company. Until then they're just coasting, killing off some existing storylines and gimmicks, with many doing their best to suck up to Eric Bischoff and keep their jobs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: RAW's rating Monday went up, but not nearly as much as most figured it would. In general the numbers looked good for the big matches, but everything else, which was mostly segments involving Stephanie McMahon, didn't do as well. It'd be nice if the WWF took note of that, but I doubt they will. --- Remember what I wrote last week about WCW claiming Animal was supposed to be the surprise at Sin all along? Here's a quote, by Dave Scherer, in the Daily Lariat on 1Wrestling.com: "From what I have been told, the bringing in of Animal to be the mystery man had been the plan for a while now. Only a few people knew about it, which is why it didn't get out. It's kind of refreshing to be surprised every now and then isn't it? Anyway, all of the Rick Steiner clues and talk was pure misdirection by WCW." Uh-huh. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 2001 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 271 of the "Monday Night Recap", January 22nd, 2001.