Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #281 April 2nd, 2001 The Opening Word: WrestleMania X-Seven Results: * On the live Sunday Night Heat pre-show, X-Pac & Justin Credible (with Albert) beat Grandmaster Sexay & Steve Blackman. * Chris Jericho beat William Regal, retaining the Intercontinental Title. A good match, but I thought the finish was abrupt and really came out of nowhere. Regal was stretching Jericho, who reached the ropes, then Y2J hit a quick Lionsault and got the pin. * Tazz & the Acolytes beat Right To Censor, Bradshaw pinning the Goodfather following the Clothesline From Hell. I'm really tired of the RTC. It's time to put an end to the gimmick. The match here was nothing other than a finish for the crowd to pop for. * Kane beat Raven and the Big Show to win the Hardcore Title. Entertaining, albeit contrived. The three fought to the back where they came upon a small room which looked like it had been constructed for the sole purpose of being destroyed in this match. Raven was tossed through a window. Then Kane and Big Show broke through a door and a wall. A chase then ensued on golf carts, the Big Show and Raven nearly being run over by Kane when their cart crashed. The match ended up back out in front of the crowd on the stage. Raven and Big Show wound up falling through part of the set, and Kane followed with a big legdrop. The ref counted the pinfall for Kane. I was disappointed--no Pete Rose this year. * Eddie Guerrero, with help from Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn, beat Test to win the European Title. Guerrero got the pin after knocking out Test with the title belt. Good match, despite a blunder early on where Test got his leg trapped in the ropes and they had to basically stop the match to free him. * Kurt Angle pinned Chris Benoit. A great match, with an amazing first few minutes. My only complaint was the finish, which like the first match seemed to come out of nowhere, with Angle getting a cheap pin with a handful of tights. * Chyna beat Ivory to win the Women's Championship. Total squash. Short, and pretty bad for every second of it. * Shane McMahon beat Vince McMahon in a Street Fight. Not so much a match as a soap opera, but it was great anyway. Shane took a huge bump, a flying elbowdrop off the top to the Spanish announce table. Stephanie McMahon pulled Vince out of the way, so Shane was out of commission. Trish Stratus wheeled Linda McMahon to the ring. Trish then turned on Vince, slapping him across the face. She and Stephanie then fought away from the ring. Vince turned his attention to Linda, but referee Mick Foley stopped him from doing anything. Then, when his back was turned, Vince nailed him with a chair. Vince dragged Linda into the ring and set her up on a chair so she could watch as he smashed garbage cans over Shane's head. Linda suddenly stood up and kicked Vince between the legs. Foley then pounded on Vince, and set him up in the corner for Shane. Shane laid a garbage can on Vince, climbed the opposite turnbuckle, and hit it with a drop-kick from across the ring! Awesome. Before the match Shane did a shout-out to several WCW wrestlers in a skybox, which they sort of showed on camera, but they never identified person-by-person. If they were going to have those guys on they could have at least said who they were. * Edge & Christian beat the Dudley Boyz and Hardy Boyz in the "Table, Ladders & Chairs II Match", winning the Tag Team Titles for the seventh time. Lots of great spots here, but overall I wasn't as into this match as their past efforts. I'm ready to see a new batch of guys in this kind of match. Rhyno, Lita and Spike Dudley all interfered in the match. The finish saw Christian being hoisted on Rhyno's shoulders up the ladder, allowing him to retrieve the suspended title belts. * Attendance was announced as an Astrodome record 67,925. * The Iron Sheik won the Gimmick Battle Royal. Meant as a walk down memory lane, this was a total abomination. "Mean" Gene Okerlund and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan returned to the WWF to do commentary, and were good given the match they had to call. The other participants in the match were the Bushwhackers, Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Earthquake, the Goon, Doink, Kamala & Kimchee (w/ Harvey Whippleman), Repo Man, Jim Cornette, Nikolai Volkoff, Freebird Michael Hayes, the One Man Gang, the Gobbledygooker, Tugboat, Hillbilly Jim, Brother Love, and Sgt. Slaughter. The match lasted just a couple minutes, and Sheik clearly won because he couldn't physically take the bump over the top rope. Sgt. Slaughter then came back in and knocked the Sheik out with the Cobra Clutch. Pointless. Few of the "legends" got any kind of reaction coming out. This should have been done much earlier in the show. * The Undertaker beat Triple H, pinning him with the Last Ride. This was my favorite match on the show. Motorhead played "The Game" live as Triple H entered. The Undertaker was maybe the most over guy on the show. The one huge negative of the match was a bump the ref took which lasted almost ten minutes. I nearly bet cash with the group I was watching this with that Triple H was going to win here. I was so shocked by the finish, and took it as a sign that something big and probably not fan-friendly was going to happen in the main event. * "Stone Cold" Steve Austin beat the Rock to win the WWF Championship. Austin tried everything he could think of to beat the Rock but couldn't get the pin. Vince McMahon then came out and gave Austin a chair. Austin used it to destroy the Rock en route to getting the pin. Stone Cold and McMahon then shook hands and shared a beer, confirming the heel turn I saw coming. The fans didn't care though--they still cheered for Austin. Great match. Comments: A very good PPV, one of the best WrestleManias I can remember. Way better than last year's show. The crowd was so huge and looked great, and the fans were hot all night long. The big screens and entrance set looked so cool. The production was top-notch all night. Ross & Heyman did a tremendous job, Ross delivering one of his best PPV performances in recent years. There were just so many positives about this show. The negatives, few they were, were as I described above. There were a number of goofs here and there in different matches, and in terms of overall matches the women's match and Gimmick Battle Royal were just terrible. Thank god both were short. Any longer and they would have really soured my overall impression of the show. This show really had that WrestleMania "feel" to it. It looked big, felt big, and big things happened. No reservations at all over spending money to see this PPV. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Ft. Worth, Texas. Hosted By: Jim Ross & Paul Heyman. WWF RAW: - Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley walks to the ring. After what went down at WrestleMania, she wants Trish Stratus in a match tonight. Not just a normal match, but a "Whipping Match". Steph then introduces her father, Vince McMahon. Vince talks about promising something shocking at WrestleMania, and how Steve Austin selling out to him fit that bill. Vince then gets in JR's face for calling Austin an "S.O.B." and saying he sold his soul to the devil. Vince says before the show somebody in Texas gave him a gift, a white cowboy hat. McMahon shows what he thinks of Texas by stomping on the hat. "If you SMELLLLLL!" Here comes the Rock. He wants a rematch tonight against Austin. McMahon says Austin isn't even here yet, and no, that the Rock can't have a rematch. The Rock enters the ring, gives Vince one last chance to book the match, then nails him when Vince again refuses. Rock puts McMahon in the Sharpshooter. Vince caves in and grants Rock the match, but adds that it will be in a Steel Cage. - THE RADICALZ (w/ Terri Runnels) vs. TEST/THE ACOLYTES Short match. Terri tries to interfere, but it backfires, and Test pins Saturn following a big boot. Stephanie assures commissioner Regal that she wants a piece of Trish Stratus tonight. - They show photos from "Tables, Ladders & Chairs II". - Vince is concerned about Stephanie tonight. - Michael Cole gets comments from Triple H. The Game asks how many days there are in a year? 365. Well, Triple H says the other 364 days he kicks ass, and on one day the Undertaker got the better of him. He promises a different result the next time. He's then asked about Austin aligning himself with McMahon. Triple H doesn't seem too thrilled by that. - Steven Richards, staring off into space, vows to sic the RTC on the Hardcore Title. - STEPHANIE MCMAHON-HELMSLEY vs. TRISH STRATUS Stephanie is wearing tight pants that show off her big can. Trish has got a lot of junk in her trunk too. Now that WCW is gone I may give up this wrestling gig and devote my website to Big Booty. Stephanie is in control first, choking Trish with her strap. They then do some "wrestling moves". Trish takes over, whipping with the strap, and damn near pops out of her top a few times. Sweet. The action spills to the floor. Stephanie shoves a startled Lillian Garcia into Trish, adding more flesh to the mix. Trish ends up in control of the "match" again, at which point William Regal comes out. He gives Trish a neckbreaker. Chris Jericho runs in to make the save. - Regal tells Stephanie that he'll pay Jericho back for his interference by booking him in a handicap match against himself and Kurt Angle. - RHYNO vs. CRASH HOLLY (w/ Molly Holly) Squash win for Rhyno, who gets the pin in under a minute. Molly then comes flying in and Rhyno gores her too. Kevin Kelly is unable to get any comments from Debra regarding the Stone Cold and Vince McMahon. WWF WAR ZONE: - Vince McMahon comes out, and makes a big show of introducing the new WWF Champion, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. No boos yet. Now that he has the belt, Austin asks the crowd if they'd like to see him kick Vince's ass? "Hell yeah!" Well, that's not gonna happen says Austin. The Rattlesnake knows the fans want an explanation for why he's aligned himself with Vince McMahon, but Stone Cold says he's not gonna give them one, because he doesn't owe the fans anything. The crowd gets behind a loud "Rocky!" chant. Austin says you simply don't put "Mr. McMahon" in a Sharpshooter, and that later tonight he's going to kick the Rock's ass in the Steel Cage. Still no booing by the crowd, but they have stopped cheering for Austin at this point. Triple H, watching this in the back, looks like he's going to blow a gasket. The Rock is also shown watching in the back. - KANE vs. VAL VENIS (w/ Steven Richards) A fairly lengthy match, which Kane wins by pin following a clothesline off the top. The Goodfather & Bull Buchanan then run in. The Undertaker comes out to make the save. Throughout this match Ross and Heyman squabbled, Heyman telling Ross to stop whining, Ross accusing Heyman of being a McMahon ass kisser. At one point JR made a crack about Heyman winding up back in a "bingo hall". Triple H demands that Regal tell him where Vince McMahon is. Hey, remember when Triple H was Regal's lackey "Jean Paul Levesque" in WCW? I'm not sure why that popped into my head, other than it having something to do with there being no WCW on tonight, and the entire memory of that company quickly becoming hazy and distant. - It's another bad experience at the coffee table for Vince, as Triple H demands to know why he wasn't informed beforehand about the deal with Steve Austin. McMahon tells Triple H he didn't need to know, and besides, Austin is a winner, while Triple H, at WrestleMania, was a loser. Ouch! - CHRIS JERICHO vs. WILLIAM REGAL/KURT ANGLE A short but nice match. Lots of doubleteaming, leading to a pin by Regal following a chairshot by Angle. Chris Benoit runs in for the save. Afterwards Benoit and Jericho engage in a lengthy staredown. Look for a repeat of this Thursday, with Jericho saving Benoit, and the two eventually shaking hands, cementing Benoit's face turn. "Earlier Today" Shane McMahon arrived at WWF New York. - X-PAC (w/ Justin Credible & Albert) vs. BILLY GUNN Gunn gets an uncomfortably large pop coming out. The announcers lightly touch upon Gunn & X-Pac's past as D-Generation X teammates. Outside interference leads to X-Pac scoring the pin in this short match. - As the Steel Cage is being set up they go to Shane McMahon at WWF New York. Shane talks about beating his dad at WrestleMania, and how there are big plans in the works for WCW. The crowd reaction here is funny, with the restaurant fans first doing a loud "WCW!" chant, then "Shane-O!", then "Vince sucks!" - The Rock cuts a promo backstage. - THE ROCK vs. "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN It's going to be hard to get the fans to boo Austin--especially here in Texas, but at least the WWF has gotten them cheering for the Rock again, as he gets a huge babyface reaction coming out. The Rock is in the cage first and he makes it hard for Austin to come in. Austin eventually slams the door on the Rock's head, and the two fight outside before the match officially starts. Austin is quickly busted open. Once in the ring the Rock actually gets the upper hand, even managing to lock Austin in the Sharpshooter and getting him to tap out. No ref, though, as McMahon has him tied up. McMahon and referee Tim White spend a lot of time interacting, White shoving McMahon down at one point, and McMahon often stopping White from making a pin count in the Rock's favor. Vince eventually slugs the ref and the match degenerates into McMahon & Austin pounding on the Rock. Enter Triple H, to a big crowd reaction. He enters the cage carrying his favorite sledgehammer. The crowd is urging Triple H to hit Austin, and he and the Rattlesnake, exchange words, but Triple H suddenly wheels around and hits the Rock with the sledgehammer! Nooooo! Arrrggghhh! From there the show wraps up with those three destroying the Rock, then sharing a beer over his corpse. It may not make sense for Austin & Triple H being on the same team, but given all their pasts with the Rock, one can see them teaming up to oppose him. The question now is on whose side will the fans be? The Bottom Line: The whole point of this show was to sell the Austin heel turn, and overall I think it worked. They're not going to get it all done in one night. This set up a good foundation for that. Overall, though, I thought this wasn't a very strong follow-up to WrestleMania. Not a lot of great wrestling, and the storylines focused more on wrapping up loose ends than moving on to new things. The one major complaint I have was Triple H once again not turning babyface. If ever there was a time and a place for it, this was it. The crowd was READY to elevate Triple H past the Rock as the company's top babyface. Yet for whatever reason the WWF once again failed to pull the trigger. No doubt the Rock & Austin see that as a threat, and for whatever reason Helmsley is content to play the heel. I just hate to see them continually teasing it and not delivering, especially when the end result could have made Triple H the biggest star in the business. It reminds me of WCW when Buff Bagwell came back from his neck injury. With a change of persona and the right push he could have been their top star next to Goldberg. Instead they just had him turn on Rick Steiner, and he wound up going nowhere. I'm afraid with all these face turn teases they're going to damage Triple H to the point where when they do need him on top, if that day comes, the fans won't get behind him. Suddenly the WWF seems to be a top babyface short. The Rock is at #1, followed by the Undertaker. Kane would probably be #3, then you drop down a ways to Chris Jericho, followed by Chris Benoit. Austin is now the top heel, with Triple H close behind, and I guess Kurt Angle being next behind him. You also have to figure Vince McMahon as part of the top heel group. Jericho and/or Benoit, or somebody else unexpected, needs to be elevated up into that top mix, and fairly soon. Things look okay for the next few months, but come SummerSlam, and the march to next year's WrestleMania after that, things are going to be very stale. I can't even imagine a main event right now for WrestleMania 18, other than looking forward to the WWF/WCW feud, and perhaps a match like Austin vs. Goldberg. Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of the next big story arc for the WWF. Unfortunately I come away from the start of this next chapter feeling more concerned than excited. Would it seem this way if WCW hadn't died out? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 281 of the "Monday Night Recap", April 2nd, 2001.