[RESULTS/OPINION]Monday Night RAW/Monday Nitro (5/20) - Here's a quick recap of Slamboree: - Main Event Pre-game: * American Males over Shark/Maxx Muscle - Slamboree: Lethal Lottery, 1st round: * Animal/Booker T. double count out with Hawk/Lex Luger (both teams eliminated) * Public Enemy over Chris Benoit/Kevin Sullivan * Rick Steiner/Booty Man over Scott Steiner/Craig Pittman * Jim Duggan/V.K. Wallstreet over Steven Regal/David Taylor * Robert Eaton/Dick Slater over Disco Inferno/Alex Wright * Dallas Page/Barbarian over Hugh Morrus/Meng * Fire & Ice over Bubba Rogers/Stevie Ray * Ric Flair/Randy Savage over Arn Anderson/Eddy Guerrero - Cruiserweight Title Match: * Dean Malenko over Brad Armstrong (Malenko retains title) - Lethal Lottery, 2nd round: * Robert Eaton/Dick Slater over Jim Duggan/V.K. Wallstreet * Public Enemy over Ric Flair/Randy Savage * Dallas Page/Barbarian over Booty Man/Rick Steiner - U.S. Title Match: * Konnan over Jushin Liger (Konnan retains title) - Battlebowl battle royale: Order of elimination: 1. Rocco Rock 2. Robert Eaton 3. Dick Slater 4. Scott Norton 5. Johnny Grunge 6. Ice Train 7. Barbarian * Diamond Dallas Page wins and is the "Lord of the Ring." - World Title Match: * Giant over Sting (Giant retains title) Monday Nitro: Live. - This week Nitro ran 90 minutes. Clip of Steve McMichaels confronting Ric Flair at Slamboree. Flair says he and Arn Anderson will take on any partner Mongo can dig up fro the Great American Bash. Mongo brings out Kevin Greene. Flair cowers, claiming he meant a retired NFL player. No McMichael in the booth this week as he and Greene are "training." - THE STEINER BROS. vs. FIRE & ICE Suplexes aplenty in this fairly okay match. The STeiners only seem to have a slim advantage, with Norton being able to handle either Steiner. Icetrain is the obvious weak link in the entire matchup. Match wimps out though by ending in a double countout as all four men spill to the floor to brawl. Heenan says "The Steiners don't know which one of them is older... they were adopted... left on the back doorstep... they were out there several months before anyone found them." - RIC FLAIR (w/ Woman & Liz) vs. EDDY GUERRERO An excellent match as both men worked really hard (though a cynic might say Guerrero carried Flair a bit.) Eddy stayed away from his aerial arsenal in deference to Flair's limitations. Eddy did a huracarana off the top rope, but Flair sold it a second too late. Heenan covered by saying he didn't get all of Flair. Bobby actually delivered some terrific commentary at times, seeming to root for the underdog Guerrero, yet always coming back to his old friend Flair. Bischoff was too busy hyping the Flair/Mongo situation to do much more than call off the name of occasional move. Heenan actually made it seem as if Guerrero had a chance, and I'll be damned if I didn't fall for it myself. Both men traded the usual Flair trademark stiff chops to the chest. Guerrero at one point scrambles to the floor, then mocks Flair by doing the Fargo strut. Eddy gets Flair in the Figure Four, but Flair reaches the ropes. Heenan is going nuts, pointing out the irony of Flair possibly losing to his own move. He also points out how Eddy had failed to "lock in" the move by not positioning the toe of his right foot correctly. Guerrero is in control until a move off the top rope in which he seems to hurt his own knee, yelling out loudly in pain. Flair capitalizes by slapping on the Figure Four. With a little help from the ropes and the girls, Flair holds on until Eddy, nearly out, has his shoulders down for a three count. Post match, Flair and the girls come over to Flair's banquet table for an interview with Mean Gene. Flair does some more of his risque jokes, then grabs the champagne, some glasses, and heads over to the announcer's booth. Following the commercial break, Flair is seated next to Bischoff, where he remains for the rest of the night. - LEX LUGER/STING vs. THE FACES OF FEAR It was hard to concentrate on this match as Flair and Heenan were constantly going at it. Biscoff tried to play straight man as Flair told tales of his sexual escapades, belittled Randy Savage, talked about just about anything that came into his mind (and I loved every minute of it. Now THIS is the Ric Flair of old.) Bischoff asks if Flair can handle an NFL caliber athelete. Flair says he beat Wahoo McDaniel, and retired Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd. He says Wahoo was the toughest man he ever fought, but he beat him. Heenan says Wahoo played with several teams in the NFL, but that if he'd been any good, they'd never have traded him. Meanwhile, Sting spends a lot of time being beaten up by the FOF. They bring up how Luger "accidentally" nailed Sting with Hart's megaphone causing Sting to lose at Slamboree. Flair says he caught Woman looking at Luger, admiring his "Total Package," but that it was all right with him. Heenan accuses Luger of waffling Sting on purpose, but Bichoff defends him, saying Luger has proved himself. After much more mayhem, Sting nails one of the FOF off the top turnbuckle, then Luger covers for the pin. Flair tells of how he knew this girl in Dallas named Debbie, but that now she's called Deborah. Heenan asks if Kevin Greene has a wife. As they go to break, Flair says "Debbie does the Nature Boy!" Bischoff mumbles "Stop it." - Mean Gene interviews Savage, who is agin locked out of the building. Okerlund says there is a special meeting going on involving top WCW officials, who are deciding Randy Savage's fate in WCW. - DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE vs. BRAD ARMSTRONG The Ric & Bobby show continued during this match. Long story short, DDP wins with the Diamond Cutter. Both Heenan and Flair express admiration over Page's style. Okerlund enters the ring for an interview. Page says he has one person to thank for his return, turns toward the walkway, and as I'm sure the name "Vinnie Vegas" jumped to the tip of many people's tongues, Page turned back to the camera and said "myself!" Okerlund informs Page that the WCW CHampionship Committee has reviewed the tape of Slamboree and in light of the fact that Page's foot touched the floor (and therefore he should have been eliminated) that Page would not be getting the title shot against the Giant at the Great American Bash. They have awarded the shot to Lex Luger instead. Hold it! My mental ECW crowd starts chanting "BULL-SHIT-BULL-SHIT-BULL- SHIT... !" Why the Hell should Luger get the shot? Because he got choke- slammed through a table? Luger had three shots and blew them all. In other words - the entire Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl was meaningless. Luger was eliminated in the very first match, yet he is the "logical" choice for the title shot? Shouldn't they give it to one of the other Battlebowl finalists? Why not redo the Battle Royal with or without Page? What happened to the ref's word being final? Okerlund says they can't take away the "Lord of the Ring" ring away, but they can take the title shot, Why? Sting only got one shot, and lost his due to Luger's interference... why not give it to him? To quote Joey Styles (as the crowd chants "bullshit") "yeah... I smell it too!" - THE GIANT (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. ARN ANDERSON (w/ Kevin Sullivan) Sullivan accompanies Arn in order to "assure he (Arn) gets a fair chance." Flair says the Horsemen have a secretb plan which assures Arn's victory. A short time later the Giant chokeslams Arn and pins him. Flair leaves the booth and isn't seen again. Sullivan didn't do anything. Bischoff questions what the secreat plan was, but Heenan is busy collecting the bubbly, some fruit, and the silver candlestick for the party in Flair's limo. - Next week's main event: None mentioned. Comments: An excellent show. There wasn't really a bad match, but Flair's presence in the booth made it a classic. Heenan shone as a color man during the Flair/Guerrero match. Plus no Steve McMichael, and I'll be darned if Hulk Hogan's name wasn't even mentioned once all night. The first great Nitro in a long time. I'm still pissed about the Luger announcement though. Monday Night RAW: Taped 4/29. - Clips of Sunny and the Godwins at Madison Square Garden. All signs of Diesel have been removed from the opening, and Razor Ramon's only appearance is as a victim of a splash from Shawn Michaels off a ladder. You have to look pretty close to even tell it's Razor. - "WILDMAN" MARC MERO (w/ Sable) vs. "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN (w/ DiBiase) An okay match, but one with little highlights. Back and forth action, mostly down and dirty mat wrestling. Mero finally gets the upper hand, but is tripped by Ted DiBiase while bouncing off the ropes. Austin gets Mero from behind, then goes up top for a maneuver, but out comes Savio Vega with his Carribbean strap to wrip Austin. The ref calls for the DQ, and Austin gets the win. Afterwards, Mero looks frustrated and asks Vega why he cost him the match. Savio looks to be explaining the situation as they dissolve to the next segment. - Clips of Ahmed Johnson winning the tournament in Kuwait. They then mention that starting next week are the preliminary matches for the King of the Ring. Ahemd vs. Vader and Goldust vs. The Ultimate Warrior. they also show clips of the Warrior's comic book signing over the weekend. - SAVIO VEGA vs. The 1-2-3 KID (w/ Ted DiBiase) Ted joins McMahon and Lawler to deliver color commentary. He is carrying a chauffeur's cap which Savio must wear if he loses the Carribbean Strap Match to Austin at In Your House. Another okay match, but Kid seems to have forgotten how to do just about everything but his kicks. Savio gets the pin following an unusual Bulldog-type maneuver. It was like an armbar combined with a forward Russian Legsweep, but instead of just dropping the Kid forward on his head, he takes him over so that his shoulders hit the mat and he's tied up for the pin. First time that I can recall seeing it. Steve Austin runs in and stomps a mud hole into Vega. Vega fights back, but the Kid joins in and the two of them tie Vega up with the strap, then Ted places the driver's cap on Vega's head. The ring fills with officials to break it up. - Clip of events at MSG. Sunny is shown coming out of the Godwins' dressing room, all alone in there with Phinneas. Henry and Hillbilly Jim chastise him for associating with that woman. Then cut to scenes of the match between the Godwins and The Bodydonnas. Sunny does here ususal to distract Phinneas, but it backfires and P.I.G. kisses Sunny, then nails Skip with the Slop Drop and the pin. The Godwins are the new World Tag Team Champions, and will defend the belts next week during the Free For All at In Your House against The Smoking Gunns. - Jim Ross interviews Paul Bearer in the aisle leading to the ring re: the casket match between the Underatker and Goldust. Bearer has Goldust's coffin, and opens it to reaveal the Undertaker. Out comes Goldust and Mankind. Goldust fends off Bearer while Mankind closes the casket and ties it shut with a rope. He leaves, Jim Ross tries to untie it, but Mankind returns with a pole and beats on the coffin for awhile, denting the top and sides. - THE BRITISH BULLDOG (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. JAKE "THE SNAKE" ROBERTS Cornette takes the mic and says that Shawn Michaels won't be coming out to deliver color commentary. WIth him are Diana and Clarence Mason. Corny says Mason has filed a restraining order against Michaels, preventing him from being within 100 yards of Diana until next Sunday. Gorilla Monsoon arrives to look over the restraining order. He verifies that it's valid, then orders Diana removed from ringside so that Shawn may come out. Shawn comes out as Diana leaves (say... they were well within 100 yards of each other!) Shawn takes his seat and spends the rest of the show verbally battling with Jerry Lawler, denying all the charges against him. There's little to say about the match in the ring... so I won't. Lawler bring up Pamela Anderson. Shawn says he bowed out like a gentleman when he found out about her engagement to Tommy Lee. Lawler then drops his bombshell, which he'd been alluding to the entire show. He ask if Shawn posed for a spread in "Playgirl?" Shawn says yes, and it'll be out in October. Gack! Now everyone can see the Shawn's kliq... ba-dump-bump! Diana the returns to ringside. She and Shawn exchange words, then she throws a cup of water at Shawn (pretty much missing and drenching the Spanish commentator at the next table.) Shawn says he won't hit a woman and slugs Jim Cornette. The Bulldog leaps from the ring and hits Shawn from behind as the show runs out of time. No finish to the match in the ring. - Next week's main event: Ahmed vs. Vader. Goldust vs. Ultimate Warrior. Comments: A good show. Not great, but good. The first two matches were solid, but not all that memorable. The last was well overshadowed by the angle outside the ring. The show was mostly filler, but it was new filler. Bottom line: Next week should be fairly historic. Nitro moves to 8:00 PM Eastern and now will run two hours. If Diesel or Ramon are supposed to be going to WCW, next week may be the night it happens. RAW will be a post PPV recap with two main event caliber matches. Get your VCRs ready folks! This week's winner: Nitro. JRP