[RESULTS/OPINION] WCW Monday Nitro/WWF Monday Night RAW (10/28) WCW Monday Nitro: Live. HOUR ONE: Hosted by Tony Schiavone & Larry Zbyszko. - Quick Halloween Havoc recap: * Dean Malenko defeated Rey Misterio Jr. Malenko regains the WCW Cruiserweight Title. * Diamond Dallas Page defeated Eddy Guerrero. Page holds on to his Battlebowl Ring. * The Giant defeated Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett was disqualified via outside interference by "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. The Giant still has Flair's U.S. Title belt, though Flair is still the champion. * Syxx defeated Chris Jericho. Referee Nick Patrick made a speedy three count. * Lex Luger defeated Arn Anderson. Anderson submitted in the Torture Rack, then was sent to the hospital after Luger delayed in relenquishing the hold. * The Horsemen (Chris Benoit/Steve McMichael) defeated The Faces of Fear. The Dungeon of Doom attacken Benoit and McMichael after the match. * The Outsiders (Kevin Hall/Scott Nash) defeated Harlem Heat. Nash used Col. Robert Parker's can to gain the victory. The Outsiders win the WCW World Tag Team Titles. * "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan vs. Randy "Macho Man" Savage. Hogan pinned Savage, retaining the WCW World Heavyweight Title. Following the match, Hogan was confronted in the ring by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. - Show starts with a brief mention of Halloween Havoc, including clips of the surprise appearance of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. - LORD STEVEN REGAL vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA Regal is really too large to work with the cruiserweights. His physical size seemed to make it hard for the two to work together all that effectively. Early in the match they show a shot of Sting sitting high up in the arena. With his whita and black facepaint, he looks a whole lot like the Crow. Also a group of NWO fans march through the arena carrying signs (nothing new there) ans Syxx puts in an appearance as well. Probably the highlight of this match was Regal attempting a powerbomb, but Guerrera reversing it into a flip, which Regal executed 100% on his own a split second too late (it looked like Guerrera fell off, then Regal flipping in place for no reason.) Guerrera then tried what they used to call the "Dis that don't Miss," but missed. (A 450 degree forward flip into a splash off the top.) Regal then applied the "Regal Stretch" (sort of an STF kinda deal) for the submission win. - Clips of the Lex Luger/Arn Anderson match. Luger put Arn in the Torture Rack and wouldn't let go. Arn had to be taken to the hospital, accompanied by Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett. - DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE vs. MEAN MIKE ENOS The Outsiders appear in the crowd, displaying their newly won World Tag Team belts. This was actually a somewhat entertaining match. Enos nails Page with a "Rude Awakening" neckbreaker, then delivers a legdrop to the back of the head. After yelling a challenge to the Outsiders, he then drops Page throat first across the top rope. Page is able, however, to reverse a hold and slip Enos into the Diamond Cutter. Page wins. Tony Schiavone insinuates that the Outsiders were cheering Page on, hinting that Page may be a candidate for the New world Order. - Clips of Dean Malenko defeating Rey Misterio, Jr. for the Cruiserweight Title. - DEAN MALENKO vs. JIM POWERS (w/ Teddy Long) A.C. Green of the Phoenix Suns is shown at ringside (show originated from Phoenix.) A.C. would be very vocal in support of the NWO off and on for the remainder of the show (he was even wearing an NWO t-shirt.) As the match gets started, Psychosis is shown watching the match, scouting Malenko. Like the earlier Regal/Guerrera, Powers is really too big too work with someone as small as Malenko (though these two are much better at it.) End comes when Powers nails Malenko with a powerbomb. He covers for the pin, but (you guessed it) referee Nick Patrick is busy arguing with Teddy Long - that is until Malenko rolls Powers up from behind. Malenko gets the pin. As has happened the last half dozen or so weeks in a row that they've used a variation of this finish, Patrick and Long get into an argument that goes nowhere. Oh how I long for the days when the women were throwing hot coffee and Hogan was using their high heeled shoes! - Clips of the Horsemen vs. The Faces of Fear at Havoc. The Horsemen win (with the help of Mongo's briefcase full of money,) but the Dungeon of Doom attack and lay the Horsemen out. Kevin Sullivan then has a confrontation with Woman. It's hard to believe she's really married to that troll. - JEFF JARRETT vs. RICKY MORTON Fairly typical gool ol' southern boys type of match, with Jarrett again having to really work hard to prove himself. Jarret does a nice cross body block off the top, but Morton rolls through it for a pin attempt. Jarrett then nails a spinning neck breaker, followed by a a figure four leglock attempt, but Morton rolls him up into a small package. Jarrett escapes and goes to work on Morton's knee, with a knee breaker and another figure four, which Morton succumbs to. The Giant is shown in the audience, barndishing the U.S. Title belt, threatening to eventually chokeslam Jarrett, along with the rest of the Horsemen. Tony then briefly inteviews Jarrett. HOUR TWO: Hosted by Eric Bischoff and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - THE AMAZING FRENCH CANADIANS vs. HIGH VOLTAGE The Canucks start to sing their anthem, but are attacked by Ruckus and Bilgewater (or whatever it is these two scrubs are called.) Match ends shortly thereafter when the Nasty Boys enter and chase all four men off. The Nasties then get on the mic and say they don't need to belong to neither the NWO nor WCW. - REY MISTERIO JR. vs. JIMMY GRAFFITI They still mispell his name, even though it's printed on his shirt. There was one great spot in this one (along with the usual good ones.) Jimmy does a cross body block off the top, but is halted in midair by a Misterio drop kick. Misterio also huracaranas Graffiti over the top rope to the floor, then later springboards into one, rolling Graffiti up for the pin. An okay match, and it's nice to see Misterio back on Nitro. It's too bad they are only willing to push two or three cruisers at a time, because this Jimmy Graffiti actually has some potential (though I have yet to hear if he can interview.) - Lee Marshall phones in a report from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Why do they bother to do this? We are also treated to the sight of Nick Patrick exchanging words with A.C. Green. - EDDY GUERRERO vs. CHRIS BENOIT (w/ Woman) Both guys are pretty well banged up, so I didn't expect much of a match. Then they cut to a commercial break, which made things look even worse. Fortunately they didn't start until after the break. Unfortunately it didn't matter all that much as very little happened in this one. Eric Bischoff announces that Hulk Hogan has demended some time and that we will see him later in the show responding to his confrontation with Piper. Then Mongo and Debra McMichael come to ringside to keep an eye on things. They also play pretaped comments from Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan. Buried somewhere amongst all this is a brief mention that Randy Savage won't be on the show as had been advertised. Finish goes down as such: Woman distracts Nick Patrick. Mongo knocks out Guerrero with the briefcase. Benoit gets the pin. Then Tony Schiavone interviews Nick Patrick and his attorney Alan Sharp (or Sharpe.) Alan is a real attorney (I believe) who has appeared in WCW before, though this time it's as a heel. (Apparently WCW thinks that Clarence Mason is such a compelling character that they had to do it themselves.) Sharp(e?) blathers on about defamation of character, makes a veiled reference to "mean" Gene Okerlund, and generally wastes our time. Chris Jericho comes out. Nick and Alan claim it is the actions of Jericho that aggravated Patrick's injury and affected his performance in the Savage Hogan match (having not seen Halloween Havoc, I haven't a clue what they're talking about.) Teddy long comes out too, and even less manages to be said. - LEX LUGER vs. BOOKER T. (w/ Sister Sherri) Col. Parker is in the doghouse for allowing the Outsiders to use his cane in their victory over the Heat. Sheri spends much of the match mixing it up with A.C. Green, and if there was ever a match that I wouldn't want to see go 10 minutes or so, this was it (but it unfortunately did.) "I punch you, you kick me, then you land a flying knee... " Ten minutes later Luger sets up the Rack, then drops him and walks out of the ring to confront Sting, who's standing in the aisle up in the crowd. Booker T. wins by countout. - They show a few minutes of Roddy piper confronting Hogan. Anyone watching the PPV should have known something big would happen, because Bill Apter (senior editor of Pro Wrestling Illustrated) can be seen at ringside, and Apter usually doesn't show up unless it's something big. The gist of Piper's speech is that he's as big a Wrestling "icon" as Hogan is. Hogan plays it somewhat cowardly by quickly admitting that he and Piper "ran together." Piper says it bugs Hogan that Piper is the only guy he never beat. Hogan tries to dominate the encounter, but Piper continually cuts him off, claiming that "I'm gonna shoot with this one." He syas he started wrestling at 15, has had 6000 matches, and been stabbed three times. He says that when he was wrestling guys in his garage, Hogan was playing bass guitar in "Tootsie's Bar & Grill." Piper also mentions WrestleMania, and asserts that if he hadn't been busy knocking out Mr. T, fighting the cops and "having my way with Liberace," that it would have been Him that the people would have cheered for. Hogan cuts him off (maybe due to time, or to prevent Piper from getting too over) and says to forget the back story, and let the two agree they are equals. They agree to shake hands. Piper tells Hogan to shape up. On his way out, Hogan reminds Piper that if he goes to the bathroom, "in that one you have to squat!" This brings Piper back into the ring and about the last thing we hear before they cut back to live action is Piper telling Hogan that he's responsible for Hogan's losing all his hair. Though it seems obvious that Piper is now in WCW, Bischoff pionts out more than once that Piper had merely requested 5 minutes of airtime, and that he had no commitment to WCW, and vice versa. This is probably to build the impression that the encounter was a shoot. Back to live action as the NWO enter the ring. Hogan rattles on a bit about how Savage couldn't get the job done. Ted Dibiase then takes the mic, gives Hogan a bit of an intro, then the show finishes up with Hogan shaking his ass and posing. Eeeyuuuck. - Next week's main event: None announced. Comments: A mixed Nitro. There were actually some decent matches, some good interviews, and so on. Yet they still insist on dragging out the Nick Patrick situation, and made it even worse by introducing the heel lawyer. I don't know for certain, but it looks as if Savage could be gone. They barely mentioned him, and didn't show any clips from that match. They alluded to something involving Nick Patrick, relating to his neck injury and an encounter earlier in the PPV with Chris Jericho. They also mentioned something about Miss Elizabeth acting like she wanted to help Savage, but she apparently didn't and wasn't a factor in the match. Other than that, the only mentions of Savage were when they announced that he wouldn't be appearing, and when Hogan gloated over beating him. The addition of Piper (assuming it happens,) could be interesting, but really only for purposes of nostalgia. It certainly can't result in a good WRESTLING match, and Hogan can't brwl as well as Piper. Nonetheless, this is something of a loss for the WWF, as another of their stars from the 80's heads south for "retirement." Didn't these two just film a movie together? WWF Monday Night RAW: Taped 10/21. - Recap of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's attack on Brian Pillman over the weekend on WWF Superstars. I saw it Sunday, and I'm still fairly shocked. Pillman, interviewing Austin in the ring, had made the mistake of refering to Bret Hart as the "Best there was, etc." Austin attacked him, beating on Pillman's injured ankle with a chair and Pillman's cane. He then prevented the ambulance from taking Pillman away by parking a car in front of it and throwing away the keys. Austin is "live" on tonight's show, waiting at the WWF studios. Breat Hart is also "live," via satellite from his home in Calgary. - "DOUBLE J" JESSE JAMES vs. SALVATORE SINCERE James was less than impressive than one would have hoped. The "Real Double J's" finisher is a gutwrench suplex, where one of the recipient's arms is tucked between their legs and the hand grabbed at the rear. - Dok Hendrix with a Survivor Series report. Steve Austin comes in and gripes about having to come all the way from his home in Texas to the WWF studios in Connecticut, then being made to wait. Hendrix then announces a few matches for the upcoming PPV, including a Survivor Series team match featuring Crush, Jerry Lawler, Goldust and Hunter Hearst Helmsly (with Mr. Perfect) vs. Rocky Maiavia, Mark Henry, the Stalker and "Wildman" Marc Mero (with sable.) Austin then comes out again to complain some more. - CRUSH (w/ Clarence Mason) vs. ALDO MONTOYA Marc Mero phones in some comments regarding his loss of the IC Title to HHH. Jim Ross joins the announcing crew )of Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler) and announces that he's learned that Faarooq Asad has retained Clarence Mason as his manager (and legal representative in a case against Ahmed Johnson.) Crush squashes Aldo, finishing him off with the heart punch. Crush then gets into an altercation with a security guard who prevents him from going after some fans with "Jailbird" signs. This is a bad night for the security guards in the WWF. - Clips of the "Perfect Hoax" from last week. After the match footage shows Perfect and Helmsly in the back, Perfect calling Mero and Sable (Bozo & Bimbo.) They then show Perfect announcing on WWF Superstars that he'd been suspended by Gorilla Monsoon (thus preventing him from making his comeback.) We then see Steve Austin again, griping at someone in the crew for cutting him off. - Milton Bradley Karate Fighters. Round One. Mr. Perfect beats Phinneas Godwin. I refuse to waste time explaining how. - On to the Austin interview. He's pissed because he had to come to the WWF studios, while Bret Hart (and next week Brian Pillman) get to stay home. Austin calls Pillman a "crippled freak" with a "raspy voice" from "33 throat operations." When asked why he hasn't been suspended, he calls Gorilla Monsoon a puppet of Vince McMahon, and that he'll be left to run loose so long as McMahon can make a buck off him. Like other times when McMahon has been confronted in this manner, he pretty much clammed up. Austin says if the WWF is going to go to Pillman's house next week, then so will he. "What kind of a creep are you?!" Exclaims McMahon. Following a break they show Bret Hart with a pair of his kids. There are some sound problems though and they cut him off to concentrate on the next match. Sunny sits in for color commentary, on Jerry Lawler's lap no less! Lawlers expresion is indescribable. - BILLY GUNN vs. FREDDIE JOE FLOYD Sunny admits that she might take Billy back now that he's dumped Bart Gunn. Out comes Bart to complain. Billy wins with a legdrop off the top rope. - Back to Hart and Austin. I didn't count the number of times "ass" was said, but I'd guess five. Hart says that following this layoff, he's been able to recover and is the healthiest he's been in years, which will make up for any ring rust he may have. Hart says he's not coming back to clean up the WWF (all at once, anyway.) He thinks he can beat Austin. Austin says beating him won't be enough, that he'll have to kill him to finish it. They then let Hart go and Austing verbally brutalizes McMahon some more, then attack a production assistant who tries to count down to a commercial. Austin throws him down, trashes a TV monitor, then tips over a scaffold. - SHAWN MICHAELS vs. THE BRITISH BULLDOG Owen Hart accompanies his partner, and sits in for color. Cut to Steve Austin arguing with a security guard. Vince later announces that the police have been called and may be on their way. This was a good match, lasting nearly the last third of the show. It lacked the PPV caliber high spots, but was pretty good for TV nonetheless. (Okay, I'm filling here. I didn't pay too much attention because they were showing the Piper clip on Nitro.) It also wimped out at the end. Shawn had the Bulldog set up for the Superkick, but Owen comes to the ring and grabs Shawn's feet, holding him in the corner. The ref calls for the disqualification. Out comes Sid to help chase the heels off. As expected, he and Shawn bump and tease a fight. Owen gets on the house mic and challenges the two to a tag team match next week, with the World Tag Team Titles up for grabs. Back to Titan Tower, where Austin is sauntering out of the building. Outside a squad car is waiting and Austin proceeds to give the two officers a piece of his mind. - Next week's main event: Shawn/Sid vs. Bulldog/Owen Hart. Comments: A good show. The Michaels/Bulldog match was solid, and Austin ruled. They also announced that begining next week RAW will be on an hour earlier, starting at 7:57 Eastern, 6:57 Central. Bottom line: Survivor Series looks to be very mediocre. While the Austin/ Hart match could be very good, the rest of the card looks like crap. Shawn vs. Sid is a terrible main event. Owen/Bulldog vs. The Godwins is nothing we haven't seen before, and it'll be a travesty if the pig farmers regain the belts. The Survivor Team match looks worse than that. They haven't even announced in what way (if any) Vader, Mankind and the Undertaker will take part in the card. Why turn Brian Pillman (assuming he does turn?) It would make up for the lack of top rank faces, and help build his return. It was still a shocker. The move to an hour earlier has some interesting ramifications. Some may consider it a victory for WCW (though I wouldn't, given it took Nitro a year, a time slot change of their own, and the expansion to two hours, to do it.) This now makes the second hour of Nitro fairly meaningless in the ratings war, though it also becomes unopposed, and thus could be a ratings bonanza for TNT. The question will be if WCW will put all their bang in the first hour to fight RAW, will they spread it between the two hours, or will they continue to put the big bang at the end. RAW also benefits by no longer having to go up against Monday Night Football, but there is also the slight drawback of losing some primetime viewers. (The 9:00 PM time slot is a more desirable one than the 8:00 PM. This is simply because as the evening goes on more people tune in across the board.) In any event, this would have been a decison by the USA network, not the WWF (though they they would have had input on the move.) WCW (and TNT) now have to decide if they want to keep that second hour, or cut costs and go back to an hour. This could work out hugely in their favor if they decide to make that second hour the NWO segment, since it would be entirely unopposed by RAW. RAW is still stuck going against Nitro because both will be on in the east, and RAW will go tape delayed against the 1st hour of the Nitro replay on the west coast. Nitro's 1st hour will be unopposed out west, and the replay's 1st hour unopposed in the east. In short, little changes for Nitro, depending on which hour WCW focuses on. WCW's next PPV is World War 3, and looks to feature another 60 man battle royale. I doubt the World Title will be vacated to award to the winner, so it's more probable that the winner will get a title shot at Starrcade. I've seen the PPV's price advertised as $27.95, which makes me wonder if Hogan is going to be a part of the PPV. If the winner of the battle royale gets a title shot, then it would make sense for Hogan only appear in an interview, not wrestle. Early favorites to win would have to be Sting or Luger. Flair and Jarrett have outside chances. Piper would be a longshot, simply because that would match him up with Hogan only two months after his debut, and God knows WCW takes forever to hype a main event match (they started building up the Hogan/Savage match back in January.) Savage has an outside chance too if he's still around, but it's hard to see them letting him win two years in a row. They could still strip Hogan of the belt (for whatever reason) which would also make him one of the favorites to win it back. A number of possibilities, but none of them all that intriguing. Of the two feds, WCW has the better momentum now, but so much of it is tied to the continued success (or failure) of the NWO angle. The WWF looks good also, but I see the Survivor Series as more of an obstacle than a showcase. It's really hard to argue that their next signifigant PPV will be the Royal Rumble, which doesn't bode well for either the Survivor Series or the December In Your House. This week's winner: Nitro. JRP