[RESULTS/OPINION] WCW Monday Nitro/WWF RAW is WAR (05/12/97) WCW Monday Nitro: Live. One Hour. Hosted by Tony Schiavone, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Mike Tenay. - Ring announcer Michael Buffer is out to whip up the crowd with the very tired "Let's get ready to RUMBLEEEEEEEEE!!!!" routine. Do you have any idea what this guy gets paid to say that? An abslotue wheelbarrow full of money, from what I hear. Randay Savage then comes out looking fairly well recovered (too bad it's Diamond Dallas Page that's now injured). Savage challenges Page to "hobble down" to the ring. Page doesn't appear. Tony Schiavone then announces that Eric Bicshoff will have a one-on-one interview with Sting tonight. Suuuuure. - ULTIMO DRAGON (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA I swear to God, before the show went on the air my brother and myself tried to guess what the first match would be. My brother picked Dean Malenko vs. Prince Iaukea. I felt that since Malenko started last week's show, it would be Ultimo this week to hype his match with Malenko. I picked Guerrera just because we hadn't seen him in a while. I AM THE SMARTEST MAN ALIVE!!!!! Anyway, they run comments from Lord Steven Regal saying he wants his title back from Ultimo. Good, crisp match. Several high spots from both men. Sonny Onoo interjects himself again, hitting Guerrera with a couple of kicks as the ref isn't looking. Guerrera grabs Onoo and Ultimo comes over the top rope and hits Guerrera (who's down on the floor) with a dropkick tap to the back of the neck. "Ooh ... blind-sided him! What a great cheap-shot that was!" exclaims Bobby Heenan. The Dragon then sets him up and huracan- rana's him off the top rope. He finishes him off with a reverse headlock for the submission. - Mean Gene Okerlund interviews "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Ric Flair and Kevin Greene. Greene says he's never lost in Charlotte (the site of this Sunday's PPV) and regarding the NWO, "I'm going to "break my foot off in your ass!" "I don't think you can say 'foot'!" cries Mean Gene. Flair and Piper says the usual. Hall, Nash and Syxx come on the big screen and make some pretty crude comments. Syxx says "Nature Boy ... guess what your Old Lady's doing when you're out of town first thing in the morning, pal? She's leaving my hotel room!" - STEVE "MONGO" MCMICHAEL (w/ Debra & Jeff Jarrett) vs. DEAN MALENKO Ooh, my brother was close. Malenko has absolutely nothing to work with here. A dropkick is the most difficult maneuver he is able to use against Mongo. McMichael mostly just tries to avoid Malenko while Dean throws dropkicks. Jarrett distracts Malenko, allowing Mongo to hit him in the back of the knee. He then scoops Malenko up for a slam. Malenko's feet hit the ref, knocking him outside the ring. McMichael slams him, then covers for the pin, but there's no ref. Out comes Reggie White. White climbs onto the apron. Jarrett grabs his legs and Mongo hits him, dragging him into the ring. Mongo whips him into the corner, but White reverses it. He then hits the worst looking clothesline I have ever seen (running like a schoolgirl rushing to meet her boyfriend with her arms outstretched). Mongo drops to the mat and White lands a splash (which even he couldn't screw up). He then knocks Jarrett off the apron as Malenko rolls Mongo up for the pin. Debra, oblivious to the real world, helps the ref back in to make the count on her husband. Reggie then stumbles through a barely adequate interview. Unable to generate any animosity towards McMichael, he can only speak of the match as a continuation of the Green Bay/Chicago feud. I expect this to be one of the worst matches ever. White makes Lawrence Taylor look like Sabu. - Lee Marshall calls in from Asheville, North Carolina. - SCOTTY RIGGS vs. WRATH (w/ James Vandenberg & Mortis) Wrath is Adam Bomb's new name. He splats Riggs in about a minute with a back breaker and a chokeslam. The announcers do their best to sell him as a monster heel, comparing him to the Giant. Glacier then comes out to the aisle and does nothing. - KONAN/HUGH MORRUS (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. ALEX WRIGHT/ICE TRAIN Wright and Icetrain are accompanied by Teddy Long. Several members of the Ravens football team are in the audience. Wright, furthering his heel turn, plays to the crowd when he's in the ring on offense. He then drops to the floor and dances. Konan and Morrus kill Ice train. Wright refuses to tag in. He eventually gets a bit physical with Long and walks out of the match. Konan finishes Ice Train off with a armbar submission. Wright tells the camera that everyone knows he is the best and sexiest. - They show footage of the Savage attack on DDP last week. They then immediately cut to a running cameraman who rushes to the back where Roddy Piper is lying on the floor, screaming in pain. Nash and Syxx rush out past the camera. Yet another vicious assault at the hands of the NWO! Piper garbles something in Gaelic again. - Eric Bischoff comes to the ring and introduces Sting. The FAKE Sting (though not all of the crowd is aware of this, as the outfit worn this time more closely resembles Sting's). The announcers realize it's the fake. NWO Sting carries the bat, and Bischoff acts as if it's the real Sting, telling him he didn't need the bat. The crowd does pick up on it, and a "we want Sting!" chant breaks out. Bischoff then goes into a series of questions in which he asks "Sting" if he's always been compared to Hulk Hogan, if he'll always be second best, etc. "Sting" just nods and shakes his head, not speaking. Of course, the real Sting comes out. He reverse DDT's the fake (which looked to be played by Jaques Rougeau this time instead of Cobra). Eric flees through the crowd as the show ends. - Next week's main event: None announced. Comments: Three matches. One good, two really bad. Is this the "great wrestling" WCW fans continue to claim can only be found on Nitro? The biggest developement of the show was the Piper attack and the announcers barely mentioned it when they came back from the break. Sting's token appearance, much like his every other appearance for the last five months, is proof nor eveidence of anything. Will he be at the PPV? Maybe, but don't take this as evidence. Has he returned? Again, who knows ... this doesn't mean anything. One would assume Piper is out of the match at Slamboree, meaning either Syxx will be dropped from the match, or Flair and Greene will find a replacement, or they'll insist on a two-on-three match. Who knows? Piper may still be in the match, meaning that the attack was nothing more than a ratings booster. Even compared to the last two poor Nitro's, this was really weak. Sting was supposed to make up for Hogan not being on the show ... I suppose. They did, in my opinion, e really poor job of selling the Slamboree PPV. They only really hyped two matches: the six-man match and Mongo vs. White. Almost all the heat generated by the prospect of the matchup has been generated between Flair and Syxx, yet Greene and Piper are the ones the focus seems aimed at. Does that make sense? Syxx tosses a huge insult towards Flair and Ric doesn't even respond. Why attack Piper? Flair has all the skill, while Greene has the strength and speed. I suspect this is their way of achieving whatever it was they were planning when word slipped out that Piper and Syxx had been pulled from the match to battle in singles competition. Or it may just be nonsense to keep us "dumb fans" clueless and surprised. White and McMichael looks like a terrible match. The addition of Mongo and Greene at the Great American Bash last year din't pop a bigger buyrate. Neither did Lawrence Taylor at WrestleMania XI. I see no reason for it to generate too many more sales this time either. Any publicity generated will most likely surface after it's over, which in theory could help replays, but not much. Having "Hollywood" Hogan on the card would have been a good idea if they wanted to sell this as a "major" PPV. Just an awful Nitro, leading into a PPV that has absolutely nothing going for it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick WWF In Your House XV: "Cold Day in Hell" Results (05/11/97): - Free For All Countdown Show: * Rockabilly defeated "Double J" Jesses Jammes, pinning him following a DDT. - WWF In Your House XV: "Cold Day in Hell" Pay-Per-View: * Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Flash Funk with the Pedigree. Chyna attacked Flash after the match. * Mankind defeated Rocky Maivia. Maivia was dominating the match, but Mankind got the win by maneuvering out of a pin attempt, then applying the Mandible Claw for the submission. * Ahmed Johnson pinned Crush. Then Ahmed got the win over Savio Vega via disqualification. Then Faarooq pinned Ahmed following his finisher, the Dominator. The Nation of Domination will NOT have to break up, per the stipulations of the match. Vega had attacked Ahmed with a chair, which caused his DQ loss, and weakened Ahmed up for Faarooq. * Ken Shamrock defeated Vader via submission. Vader missed a moonsault and Shamrock shortly thereafter applied an anklehold. Vader tapped out, giving Shamrock the win. Vader bled from the nose following a shot to the steel ring steps. * The Undertaker pinned "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to retain the World Heavyweight Title. The Hart Foundation was seated in the first row of seats, watching the match. Owen Hart scuffled with both Austin and the Undertaker at ringside early in the match. Austin had the Undertaker in a pinning position following the Stone Cold Stunner, but Brian Pillman rang the ring bell, causing Austin to stop the pin attempt. Austin and the referee traded profanities back and forth following low blows by Austin on the Undertaker and one in return from the Undertaker on Austin. The Undertaker eventually set up a Tombstone Piledriver, but Austin reversed it. The Undertaker reversed it back and nailed the piledriver for the win. After the match the Hart Foundation attacked the Undertaker. Austin knocked over Bret Hart in his wheelchair and used a crutch to clear the ring. Austin and the Undertaker then continued to fight. * (Notes: Tito Santana has returned to the WWF as a Spanish commentator. Despite numerous rumors, there was no match between the Bulldog/Owen Hart and the Legion of Doom. It was never even scheduled as part of the card. Vince McMahon was not in attendance for the show). WWF RAW is WAR: Live. HOUR ONE: Hosted by Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - "Tonight's WWF RAW is WAR is dedicated to the memory of Rose Anderson." Rose is apparently an old family friend of Vince McMahon's, and her passing was the reason for his not being at the previous night's PPV. Vince would be on the show tonight, but he only appeared to conduct two in-ring interviews. I suspect he had little to do with tonight's show in a "hands-on" capacity. - They show still photos from the PPV. Then a new intro. The "For over 50 years" graphic and voiceover has been replaced by a new one which mentions the countries and number of languages WWF programming is seen in weekly. It also show the address of the new WWF website: "www.wwf.com". Check it out (it's okay, but still in the testing stages. You have to register you name, address and E-Mail to enter. Very graphics intensive). They then run the fiery warehouse opening. - Bret and the Hart Foundation come to the top of the ramp to deliver comments. Bret says he has a surprise, but refuses to divulge it when the audience wont be quiet (which is an impossibility since he keeps working it to get noisier and noisier. Ironically enough it gets really quiet, but Bret is supposed to leave, so he does, saying the audience won't shut up-even though it did!). Though this was excellently executed (hah!) it went really long. If they want to come off as something other than an NWO clone, they need to do more in the ring (and not just run-ins either). Lawler says he has a surprise too, which he'll reveal later in the show. - HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Chyna) vs. AHMED JOHNSON This is the first match in the First Round of the King of the Ring Tournament. The brackets look like this: First Round: Second Round: Final Match: Ahmed Johnson-----\_____________ H. H. Helmsley----/ \_____________ Vader-------------\_____________/ \ Crush-------------/ \_____________ Goldust-----------\_____________ / King of the Ring: Jerry Lawler------/ \_____________/ Savio Vega--------\_____________/ Mankind-----------/ The next three First Round matches should take place over the next three RAW's, with the Second Round and Final Match taking place at the King of the Ring pay-per-view. There's not much to recap about this one. Ahmed clearly dominated most of it. Helmsley takes over control briefly, but Ahmed is on cruise control to win. Chyna then comes in and hits Ahmed with a chair, causing a DQ and giving Ahmed the win. Ahmed the jumps Helmlsey at the top of the ramp. Chyna slaps a headlock on Ahmed and "nearly chokes him out," which is pretty ridiculous. After the gang of refs get her and Helmsley to safety, Ahmed gets up, pretty much refusing to sell the "devastating choke" that Chyna had just had on for a minute or so. I used to be really sick of Helmlsey. I still am, but now I'm sick of Chyna as well. - They run an embarrasing "Super Soaker" commercial called "Sunny's Search & Soak Mission." Sunny sprays the Headbangers with a glassful of water from the overhyped, overpriced squirtgun. Next week she gets Jim Cornette. - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin comes out for an interview conducted by Vince McMahon. Austin compares Bret Hart to a snake, saying the best way to deal with it is to cut the head off with a shovel. He says what he'll do instead is have some fun with the snake and go after it's ass: Brian Pillman. Good interview. Austin is carrying a "souveneir" crutch taken from the Harts. Austin says he carried Pilman's "sorry ass in the bush leagues!" - Tonight we'll see the WWF debut of Scott Putski, son of Hall of Fame'er Ivan Putski. They show clips of Ivan, including a shot of him pounding on Roddy Piper. - SCOTT PUTSKI vs. LEIF CASSIDY Putski, who has wrestled for years in the GWF and AWF and elsewhere, looks a little like the Renegade (but isn't, thank God). Putski looked okay here, but Leif looked better. Putski hits a standing huracanrana. Leif comes back with a nice powerbomb. Most of the rest of the match is Irish Whips and near pins. Putski slams Cassidy into the turnbuckles and nails a belly-to-back suplex, then the pin. Cassidy attacks Putski after the match. He tries a double axehandle off the top turnbuckle, but Putski catches him with a blow to the stomache. He then clotheslines Leif over the top rope. Cassidy goes nuts and grabs Jim Ross, screaming that HE won the match the match, not Putski. Either the Cassidy quitting rumor was false, or the WWF talked him into staying, or this is the start of him being jobbed out. We'll just have to wait and see. As they go to break the Legion of Doom give an interview from the back. Hawk starts out saying "Four score and seven years ago ...", shakes his head, then says "wrong speech!" This is funny, because Mankind later gives an interview which starts out exactly the same. - LEGION OF DOOM vs. THE NATION OF DOMINATION The NOD seems to be debating as to who will participate in the match. Savio can't, because he's facing the Undertaker later in the show. Crush and Faarooq look at JC Ice and Wolfie D (the rappers). The two pipsqueaks (known elsewhere as PG-13) are forced to wreslte the match. Only about half the size of the Road warriors, the two are quickly annihilated. Funny stuff! PG-13 wrestled in the ECW over the weekend. I don't know if they're on their way out or not, but the NOD did leave before the match was over. On the way to break they showed Mankind with a heavily bandaged Paul Bearer. - Mankind delivers a speech from the top of the ramp. He says the Undertaker "took the coward's way out" when he burned Bearer. Bearer then comes out with bandages fully enwrapping his head. Bearer says he will give the Undertaker one more chance to come back to him (which Mankind strenuously objects to). Bearer says if the Undertaker refuses, he will divulge a secret that he promised to keep at the graveside of the Undertaker's parents. - The Hart Foundation is shown assembled watching the proceedings somewhere in the lockerroom. The copyright notice flashes at the bottom of the screen and the show ends. Huh? Then the new intro starts again and hour two begins. (*Wheeeew!!*) HOUR TWO: Hosted by Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - Faarooq comes to the ring for an interview. McMahon announces that Faarooq is the number one contender and will get the title shot at King of the Ring. Faarooq goes into a highly racist rant about how no black man has ever been WWF champion, much less been given any title shots. He calls other black champions (like Ahmed and Bobo Brazil) "token" champions. McMahon tries to say race has nothing to do with it, but Faarooq maintains that black youth watching the show feel the same pain he has at the racist actions of the WWF. - THE UNDERTAKER vs. SAVIO VEGA (w/ the Nation of Domination) Before the match can start they go to commercial, during which a "Walker: Texas Ranger" promo is shown. Starting August 4th, Walker will be shown on USA weeknights at 8:00 PM Eastern-which is when RAW currently runs. RAW may be cut back to one hour, though "La Femme Nikita" is apparently being moved to Sundays, which could mean that RAW will just be starting an hour later, but still be two hours. In any case, starting August 4th the schedule for RAW will change. The Undertaker and Savio started during the break. Savio stands little chance here, with a spinning heel kick being his biggest offensive move. He spends some time working on the leg that Steve Austin "injured" the night before. The Undertaker makes his comeback with a chokeslam, then a Tombstone Piledriver, which brings in the other NOD members and draws the DQ. Undertaker is beaten to the mat. He does a his situp, which draws further beating. Faarooq holds up the WWF Title belt, then drops it on the Undertaker's carcass. The Undertaker waves away any help from the ref. Crush, as has been seen recently, was not quite in synch with the rest of the NOD. PG-13 was also absent from the group. - Sable comes out to model the Austin 3:16 t-shirt. The music from the ECW "Barely Legal" music starts to play and Rob Van Dam walks to the ring. (Note: It's "Rob Van Dam" ... not "Van Damme" or "Van Damn." Please people, spell it right! They showed his name on the TV screen for God's sake!). Sorry ... rant aimed at the newsgroup. Jerry Lawler gets in the ring and says this is his surprise. He mentions how he dumped on ECW some weeks ago, and now he's found someone from there that agrees with him. Van Dam says ECW is full of "low budgeted nobodies." Van Dam shall be henceforth known as "Mr. Monday Night." - "Mr. MONDAY NIGHT" ROB VAN DAM vs. JEFF HARDY Van Dam looks real good in his debut. Hardy gets in no offense. Van Dam starts with a face-first powerbomb. He then sends Hardy to the floor and nails a sommersault plancha, which looked to nearly kill him (Van Dam's feet hit hard on the rail and he lands nearly headfirst on the floor. He's slow to get up). He tosses Hardy back in and hits a spinning legdrop, a bodyslam, a splash off the top turnbuckle that gets a lot of altitude, another slam, then finishes him with a gorgeous split-legged moonsault. I can't see Van Dam being able to use the official ECW music without their permission, so something is definitely up here. Curiously enough, I only have one other Van Dam match on tape. It's his ECW debut from House Party '96. I checked it out after watching this. Having not seen it for many months, I was surprisaed to realize that Van Dam wrestled a match very similar to this one. He used all the same moves, but did a few more on the ECW card. His win against Axl Rotten was more impressive, but the one on RAW looked better. - They show part two of the Goldust interview. I had originally intended to transcribe this like last week's first half, but little new is said here. Most of it is a recap and rehash of the first half. Dustin says he wants to have fun with the charcter. He comments on being put in the same position with his daughter that he himself went through when he was growing up and his father was on the road. He says he wants to retire with his daughter around him. He relates how one night he saw his daughter looking up to him and imitating him (Goldust) just as Dustin did when he was a child. He again asks for his father to let him know that he's proud of him. He sheds a tear as he says that no one can do Goldust like he can. This didn't have the impact of the first half last week. They probably shouldn't have tried to split in two parts. - The Undertaker comes on the Titantron and tells Paul Bearer that some secrets should never see the light of day. He then tells Faarooq that he will have to go to the "Vault of Souls" and unleash a demon to help him in his battle against the Nation. (Papa Shango?) - THE BRITISH BULLDOG/OWEN HART vs. THE HEADBANGERS vs. THE NEW BLACKJACKS vs. DOUG FURNAS PHIL LAFON Four way elimination match. Things start off okay with some good mat wrestling between Owen and LaFon. Headbanger Mosh is then tagged in (and he's wearing the goldarned goofiest looking outfit I've ever seen). Blackjack Windham is then tagged in and things go downhill from there. Furnas is tagged in and he and LaFon try to doubleteam Windham, but Barry ducks and LaFon nails Furnas. Windham then hits LaFon with a clothesline. Windham covers and even though he's received little punishment, LaFon is pinned. They go to a commercial and during the break Furnas and LaFon come back out and trip Bradshaw, who has just hoisted up one of the Headbangers. The Headbanger covers for the pin and the Blackjacks are eliminated. The Headbangers then hit Owen with a suplex off the top rope (that is to say, one Headbanger forward suplexes his partner off the top, dropping him onto Owen). Owen is covered for the pin, but he gets his foot on the rope. As the Headbangers celebrate what they think is a win, Owen is able to tag the Bulldog in. Davey Boy cleans house, getting Mosh and Thrasher in a couple of near pins. The Headbangers start to turn it around, looking pretty good against the World Tag Team Champions. Things are really starting to drag now, as precious seconds of the show tick away. Jim Ross mentions a commotion in the back, but they never cut away and it isn't mentioned again. The match continues to drag on and eventually all four men are in the ring. Owen hits one Headbanger with a spinning heel kick, while the Bulldog powerslams the other, covering for the pin. Bret Hart, Brian Pillman and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart then come out. Bret says he's going to reveal his secret surprise, and asks his brothers and friends to leave the ring. Assuring them that he knows what he's doing, they finally leave. There's now about five minutes left in the show. Bret (who's wearing an earpiece I think, maybe to get cues from the control truck) calls out Shawn Michaels. Shawn moseys to the ring, and there's now maybe four minutes left. Bret immediately rips into him, calling him "cocky" and "arrogant" and says he represents all the American fans. He says Shawn, and America, is "rotten through it's insides." He compares America to ancient Rome. (Time is running real short now). He says Shawn ripped him off for the title at WrestleMania XII. He again accuses Shawn of faking an injury to avoid fighting him. He brings up the dancing, posing for girly mags, tattoos, pierced body parts, and so on. He calls him a "degenerate" and says he led a "decadent" World Title reign. Bret admits that he is, as Shawn alleged, controlled by money-as is everyone else. He really begins to ramble as time slips away. He starts to repeat himslef as Jim Ross, in grand UWF fashion, yells that we're out of time ... and the show ends. - Next week's main event: None announced. Comments: What happened after the show ended, you ask? Word is that Bret challenged Shawn to a match at King of the Ring and Shawn, tired of being verbally bloodied, Superkicked Bret out of his wheelchair. He then recieved a beating at the hands of the Hart Foundation until Steve Austin could make the save with the aluminum crutch. Even had we seen that, it would have still been a fairly anti-climactic end to a less than stellar show. It was still better than the pre "RAW is WAR" days, but had some major drawbacks. None of the matches offered any real great wrestling. The LOD/NOD squash was entertaining, as was Van Dam's debut. Putski's debut was okay, but Leif's post-match antics are the only thing that made it memorable. The Ahmed/HHH and Undertaker/Vega matches were typical, barely watchable fare. Some good moves couldn't save the messy four way match at the end. It was that match that ruined the end of the show because it went way too long. This was another of those matches where they get rid of two teams quickly so that they can run a standard tag team match. Why didn't they do that to begin with? Furnas and LaFon were made to look real bad, and their only "saving grace" happened during a commercial, so they had to show it split- screen on replay. The Dustin interview just dotted a few "I's" and crossed a few "T's" from last week. As I said above, they should have ran the whole thing last week because there wasn't anything worth saving another. It didn't help that Goldust wasn't on the card this week. His presence last week in action made what he said then have more impact. This week's segment literally seemed like an afterthought. As the show went on, I enjoyed myself for the most part. As the end unfolded, I was very disappointed. It's not like I was going to change the channel, but I did feel strung along for something that never happened. Very poor time management on their part. The perils of live TV, I suppose, but still. The thing we'll have to wait and see is if Bret's challenge to Shawn was the surprise, or if they scrapped whatever it was they were planning because they ran out of time. That's a possibility. Ross speculated that Bret might announce a new Hart Foundation member. This made the eventual ending even worse. I don't know this for certain, but I have a feeling that McMahon sat back and had little to do with tonight's show. His two in-ring interviews were all we saw of him. I hate to say it, but RAW pulled a Nitro tonight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: King of the Ring already looks to be a solid, if not a really good PPV. The line-up so far: * The Undertaker vs. Faarooq. * Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels. Winner gets a title shot at SummerSlam. * Steve Austin vs. Brian Pillman. * Road Warriors vs. Owen Hart/Bulldog. * A KOTR Tourney pool consisting of (most likley) Ahmed, Vader, Goldust and Mankind. Any of those four could advance, and all of them have a shot at winning it. Local ads in Providence (location of the card) are supposedly already advertising the above as confirmed matches. A few more matches will be announced. Austin Pillman could steal the show. Hart/Michaels should be good, but I'm skeptical as to whether Hart will be fully recovered by then. The Undertaker/Faarooq match will be the angle showcase of the show, probably involving numerous run-ins and possibly the return of Papa Shango. The Legion of Doom seem to be favorites to win the titles. I've already decided I'll order this one, so long as Helmsley isn't added to the card. Slamboree looks really bad, if you ask me. Here's most of the card: * Hall/Nash/Syxx vs. Piper/Flair/Greene. Piper can't wrestle any more. Flair can't wrestle any more. Greene can't wrestle ... period. Nash isn't the best wrestler in the world. Syxx is too limited by the opponents to do much here. Hall has the best chance to look good, and odds are 50/50 that he's the one who'll get pinned (with Syxx being the other). This won't even be a decent brawl, as most involved are terrible at selling those type of things. The last time Piper was attacked and injured, he was gone for several weeks. How are they going to explain his presence if he's a part of the PPV, other than to say he wasn't really hurt in the attack? And if he does drop out, that just removes a marquee name from the card. WCW really blundered here, IMO. * McMichael vs. Reggie White. Hyped as one of the major selling points of this PPV, how can this match even go more than five minutes and not be looked upon as a farce? White has no mobility or agility in the ring. Neither man knows how to sell, and Mongo's very limited spot calling ability will have to entirely carry the match (unless the two are going over every move beforehand, practicing it extensively). I'm expecting interference from Jarrett to backfire and cause White to win the match. * Malenko vs. Jarrett. Should be an okay match, but I doubt we'll see a clean finish. * The Steiners vs. Hugh Morrus and Konan. The Steiners should get a clean win, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Dungeon pulls off an upset (given the push they seem to be getting lately). * Benoit vs. Meng. No reason to expect this one to even go to a sensible decision. Since it's a no rules "Death Match" Kevin Sullivan and gang will undoubtably interfere. No matter who wins, this match is meaningless. * Ultimo Dragon vs. Lord Steven Regal. This may be an okay match. * Glacier vs. Mortis. *Ugh!* * Madusa vs. Luna Vachon. WCW still hasn't announced if this is for the title or not (have they?) Since Madusa has yet to wrestle an even interesting match in her current WCW stint, why expect more here? * Rey Mysterio vs. Yuji Yasuraoka. This will probably be the opener, and little more than a squash for Mysterio. There isn't even a match in that list that I really care to see (except for Regal vs. Ultimo Dragon). Luger, the Giant, Hogan, Page and Savage aren't scheduled to be part of the card. Sting could show, but I wouldn't bet on it. Even if he did, do you really want to PAY to see him point his bat at someone? I wouldn't be surprised if Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig showed up, but please don't take that as a prediction of any kind. I see WCW has scheduled this PPV for several replays on the PPV systems that show replays. One would think they expect something big to happen to make this a PPV that everyone will want to see, or see on a replay when they hear what they missed the next night on Nitro. Nitro is on an hour earlier for only one more week. Next week should be just a PPV recap, with the week after that being the first positive shot at establishing things for the summer PPV's. RAW, for the third week in a row, won the ratings war (Asterisk! Asterisk!) News was good for Nitro, though. They crept up to a 2.8, while RAW barely dipped to a 3.2 rating. Sting's appearance at the end probably gave the show a huge boost, bringing up their numbers considerably. RAW's poorer showing, and a strong NBA playoff game on TNT hurt them. The Knicks played the Heat, which would have been a huge game to the east coast viewers. For the first time since they started, the playoffs scored higher than RAW (head-to-head) scoring a 4.0. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was also on, but I doubt that had any effect (since the previous two weeks of major mini-series' didn't do all that much to RAW either). Nitro, being a post PPV show next week, could actually beat RAW, depending on the strength of the NBA playoff game, and on RAW itself. Look for it to be close, with both shows coming out with all guns blazing the following week. (Don't forget: RAW has supposedly scheduled a "Fire Match" between the Undertaker and Mankind that week). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Week's Winner: RAW. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- JRP