Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #124 March 30th, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Chicago, IL. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - They show a clip of Kevin Nash's comments to "Hollywood" Hogan last Thursday on Thunder. - Nitro Girls. A little more of what happened between Hogan and Nash on Thunder is then shown. - HIGH VOLTAGE vs. WAYNE BLOOM/MIKE ENOS After just a couple of minutes of action the Giant comes to the ring and chokeslams everyone. (I really liked this ... when I first saw it in ECW three years ago.) The Giant accepts Roddy Piper's offer to be his partner in the "Baseball Bat Match" against Hogan and Nash at Spring Stampede. - Mean Gene Okerlund interviews "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (with the Giant hovering around in the background). Piper makes a few announcements. First, Kevin Nash must face Sting and Lex Luger tonight, and he can choose anyone as his partner except Hogan. Second, he reveals that Hogan's new sidekick is really Brutus Beefcake, and that his real name is "E. Harrison Leslie". Finally, he announces a match between himself and Hogan for later in the show. - They again show a clip of the confrontation between Hogan and Nash. - SATURN (w/ the Flock) vs. FIT FINLAY Saturn wins with the Rings of Saturn in what was a decent match. - Mean Gene hypes the hotline. - Hogan and the NWO assemble in the ring. Hogan tells us that Brutus Beefcake is "The Disciple", and that he represents all us NWO-ites who worship him. Hogan then says that none of the other NWO members will team with Nash for his match. Nash comes out and, quoting Randy Savage, says all those guys behind Hogan may be waiting to stab him in the back. Nash then says he already has a partner picked out. (Supposedly a big mystery, though his mention of Savage pretty much gives it away.) Tony Schiavone reminds us that Thunder won't be on TBS this week. Atlanta Braves Baseball makes its return, preempting the show for the first of many times (until Thunder makes the move to Wednesday nights, as has been expected for some time). WCW will offer live RealAudio coverage of their "Malice in the Palace" house show that night in Tampa, Florida instead. Check out WCW's website for details. - Nitro Girls. - CHRIS JERICHO vs. MARTY JANNETTY Jericho rags on Dean Malenko before the match. Jannetty taps out in the Lion Tamer in about a minute. Jericho then says with his remaining time he'll list all 1,004 holds he knows (saying Malenko only knows about 60). He has a huge stack of computer paper and begins reading off all the holds one at a time. WCW cuts to a commercial. When they return he is still reading off the list, but is interrupted by Prince Iaukea. - PRINCE IAUKEA vs. GLACIER Iaukea wins with the Northern Lights Suplex. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - Nitro Girls. Nitro Party Video. - JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. EL DANDY Guerrera gets the easy win with the Juvi Driver. - In what I assume was a bit of corporate sponsorship, they show the full trailer for the "Lost in Space" movie coming out soon. New Line Cinema ... Doesn't Ted Turner own that company? - CHAVO GUERRERO, JR. vs. KAZ HAYASHI Hayashi looked better here than in his other Nitro appearance (I think ... they all sort of blur together after awhile). Chavo wins with a spinning DDT off the turnbuckles. Good match. - Raven hops the rail, grabs a mic and tells us his sob story. He accuses Diamond Dallas page of betraying him by not getting WCW to hire him. In case you haven't picked up all the subtext in this, Raven is claiming that both he and DDP were trained by Jake "the Snake" Roberts, and that it's because of DDP that he got stuck in ECW. - RAVEN vs. BUFF BAGWELL (w/ Scott Norton) Before you can even figure out why this match is happening in the first place, DDP runs out-chasing Raven from the ring and completely out of the arena through the crowd. Page then takes a seat at the desk and tells us just how rough his own life has been, and that Raven's woes are just a joke. This story would have worked better if DDP accused Raven of burning down his home. Wearing a mask would just help Raven in general. - DISCO INFERNO vs. BILLY KIDMAN With the push these two guys have had lately, I wasn't sure who would win. They end up wrestling a very good match which Disco wins, pinning Kidman after a spike Piledriver. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - CURT HENNIG (w/ Rick Rude) vs. JIM "THE ANVIL" NEIDHART Rude takes a seat at the announcer's desk. Nothing match. Neidhart easily dominates Hennig-all the while calling for Rude to come to the ring. Hennig puts up little opposition and after a couple of minutes, just when Neidhart is about to win, Rude finally does run into the ring. He takes out the ref, then beats on the Anvil. Davey Boy Smith runs out to make the save, but he is taken out by Brian Adams moments later. Eventually Bret Hart has to come out to save his relatives. After the NWO has run off Hart whines about being screwed again, then vows to do the same to Hogan and the NWO. - CHRIS BENOIT vs. BOOKER T. Another good match between these two, with the result being the same as the last time: time limit draw. - Nitro Girls. - ULTIMO DRAGON vs. PSYCHOSIS A promising match which doesn't get the chance to go anywhere. Kidman and the Flock run in to get revenge for Psychosis injuring Lodi. The Dragon actually helps Psychosis fight them off. - GOLDBERG vs. RAY TRAYLOR A longer than usual match, but this time Goldberg has nothing to work with and doesn't end up looking too impressive. Strong ... yes, intense ... certainly, but not really impressive. He no-sells Traylor's offense, and wins in the usual fashion. Win #67 according to Tenay. Goldberg then taunts Saturn, who is sitting at ringside. Saturn has to be held back from entering the ring. - KEVIN NASH/RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE vs. LEX LUGER/STING They try to stretch out the suspense, even after Savage has already come out. The match is every bit as bad as you'd expect, with the usual NWO run-in affecting the finish. Luger hoists Nash into the Torture Rack, but the Disciple runs in and whonks him. He rolls Nash onto him and the ref, distracted by Hogan during this, makes the three count. Fan sentiment is expressed by a fully loaded drink cup which lands on Luger's groin just before the pin. Roddy Piper then comes out and begins to brawl with Hogan. - "ROWDY" RODDY PIPER vs. "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN Hogan takes a tumble down the ramp, looking roughly about 70 years old in the process. Almost the entire match consists of brawling on the floor mixed with fat old potato punches which land with less force than that which is mustered by your grandma swatting a fly. the match is put out of its misery when the Disciple runs in. More drink cups start to fill the ring. Security can be seen scrambling to eject the guilty parties. Kevin Nash then comes to the ring for no appreciable reason. He picks up Piper to hold for Hogan. Hogan winds up a big running punch, but Piper ducks and Nash is nailed instead. Hogan and Nash get into a shoving match, which is broken up by the arrival of the Giant. The show ends with Hogan and Nash muttering threats at each other. - This Thursday: Thunder won't be on. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: A fair amount of quality wrestling, but all of it came as part of matches which mean very little in the greater scheme of things. Each match seemed to feature a pushed wrestler who will go on to face another pushed wrestler appearing in a match tonight at the next PPV. I'm glad we're getting to see some okay matches, but do we need to sit through seven hours per week of what is essentially bulked up squashes? Add in the fact that the PPV's for WCW over the last half year have offered very few storyline payoffs, we're stuck tuning in over and over to see some good wrestling overshadowed by angles which resolve themselves at glacier-like paces. Remember the old saying about a frog in a pan of water? Put it in hot water and it'll jump out ... put it on cold water, turn up the heat slowly, and it'll cook. That's kind of the way things work in WCW. Things never seem to change from week to week. After about three or four months, though, things have finally moved on a bit. The change, however, is slight even when you compare it to things done months earlier. I've said it before: I'm just not that much a fan of wrestling in general nor WCW in particular to have a handful of good matches be my ONLY motivation to tune in one, two or three times a week. I like good matches, but it takes the overall product in terms of storyline, interviews and the matches themselves to make me WANT to watch on a regular basis. This is why the WWF wins me over so much more often. Even when the match quality lets me down, it's the storylines and such which keep me coming back. The WWF actually GIVES me a reason to tune in every week. With WCW it's "well, tune in this week or you'll miss a two-and-a-half star match between Ultimo Dragon and Eddie Guerrero." In all other respects there's no reason to watch more than, say ... once a month. You might miss some okay matches if you did that, but I doubt any of them would have been "must see"-and you certainly wouldn't have missed much in the way of angle progression, interviews, surprises and so on. Maybe I should just quit watching Thunder. There's also the matter of WCW's big name stars. Given how poorly the top stars actually wrestle, and how long it takes for anything to happen, all many fans are being asked to do is just tune in to SEE their "favorite" stars in action. I guess if you truly are a "Hollywood" Hogan fan, and you like his interviews, and the very act of tuning in to see him pretend to wrestle makes you happy, then I guess more power to you. That's not the type of fan I am, though. I like to know that the wrestlers I enjoy seeing are going to actually do something worth my time. WCW seems to hold it over our heads that it's our "privilege" to see these stars-like we should be grateful to them for providing said stars. Actually delivering a worthy performance is secondary, if not non-existent. Hulk Hogan doesn't have to wrestle a good match because he IS Hulk Hogan, and just seeing him is "good enough". Bret Hart doesn't have to give a good interview because he IS Bret Hart, which is plenty "good enough" for us lowly fans. WCW figures just having all these stars under lock and key is "good enough" and no effort beyond that on their part or the wrestlers parts is required. All the talent in the world is no good if nothing is done with it. That's how I see it, anyway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours. Location: Albany, NY. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross, Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly. - Video highlighting many of the memorable moments from WrestleMania is shown. - WWF head honcho Vince McMahon makes his way to the ring amidst a chorus of boos. He has a brand spanking new WWF World Heavyweight Title belt draped over his shoulder. McMahon, after requesting the crowd quiet down a bit, asks us to give it up for the champ ... *KEE-RASH!* Austin, once he hits the ring, eyes the new belt, throws his down and grabs the new belt away from McMahon. After Austin basks in the glow of the crowd for a bit, McMahon offers him an apology over what he'd said about him in recent weeks. He says he's proud of Austin winning the title and that together, with Vince's guidance, the two can perhaps mold Austin into the greatest WWF Champion ever. Austin tells McMahon he's full of it: that he knows for a fact that McMahon hates him. McMahon says he's incapable of hate. He says he loves him, and that he's a hell of a guy and ... "Hold it!" says Stone Cold. "You what ... ?" McMahon fumbles over himself, saying that "I love you" is just a figure of speech. Austin says he loves Vince too, but that now that they have all the b.s. out of the way, he vows to continue raising as much hell in the WWF as he can. "Well," offers McMahon, "we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." Austin asks him to define what "easy" and "hard" means. McMahon says "easy" means being flexible and, essentially, doing what McMahon says. "Hard" means McMahon will force Austin to mold to his wishes. Austin asks if he can think it over for a few seconds. He gives the crowd a knowing look, kicks McMahon in the gut and lays him out with the Stone Cold Stunner! Austin asks for a "oh, hell yeah!" from the crowd if they approve. They do. Back from the commercial they replay the Stunner, along with footage of McMahon-holding his neck-being helped from the ring. In the back McMahon is shown consulting with his underlings. - LEGION OF DOOM vs. LOS BORICUAS (Jesus & Jose) Sunny brings her new-look Legion of Doom team to the ring. There she says they will from now on be known as "LOD 2000". In less time than it takes to say "Bill Goldberg" they squash their opponents, taking one of them out with the Doomsday Device. In an update from the back, Kevin Kelly announces that McMahon has called the local police. - After another replay of the Stunner, Kevin Kelly reiterates that the police have been called, adding that Steve Austin told him that McMahon doesn't have the balls to have Austin arrested. - KURRGAN (w/ the Jackyl) vs. CHAINZ Kurrgan gets a quick win with the Iron Claw. During the match they cut to the back to show McMahon pacing-waiting for the police to arrive. Kurrgan drags Chainz up the ramp by the forehead Claw, following after the Jackyl like a big puppy. An unmarked police car pulls up in the back just as they go to break. When they return McMahon is leading several policemen to Austin's dressing room. - Tennessee Lee introduces "Double J" Jeff Jarrett, who once again rides the neon-covered horse to the ring. - "DOUBLE J" JEFF JARRETT (w/ Tennessee Lee) vs. AGUILA Lee, sitting in for color commentary, promises he'll have a big surprise next week. Aguila gets in a few moves, but Jarrett has little trouble getting the quick win over him with the Figure Four. After the match Steve Blackman runs out and tries to beat on Jarrett, but Jarrett manages to get away relatively unscathed. McMahon looks on in the back as the police are leading Austin away in cuffs. Austin takes a shot at McMahon, slamming him against a row of lockers as he passes. McMahon lets out an expletive, telling Austin he's going where he belongs. Austin vows that "your ass is mine!" for what he's done. - The arrest is replayed, this time showing Austin being led to the police car and stuffed in the back seat. Cut to a live shot of McMahon and his stooges coming to the ring. The crowd boos him unmercifully. McMahon gets on the mic and says he didn't want to have to do that, but that Austin selected his choice, and "dammit I selected MINE!" RAW ends several minutes early, promising a major announcement from DeGeneration X, as well as a Steel Cage Match to decide who will win the held-up WWF World Tag Team Titles. Rocky Maivia, holding a new Intercontinental Title belt, also has a few choice words for Ken Shamrock. All this yet to come in the War Zone. What a show! WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - ROCKY MAIVIA/FAAROOQ vs. KEN SHAMROCK/"LETHAL WEAPON" STEVE BLACKMAN What action we do see is okay, but the match never develops into much of anything, as Rocky refuses to tag in and walks out on Faarooq. Faarooq falls victim to a belly-to-belly suplex at the hands of Shamrock. After the pinfall Faarooq calls Rocky back out, saying he'll make him wear an ass whooping. Rocky comes out and the two brawl, with the other Nation members splitting the two apart. Rocky walks out again, turns when Faarooq calls him again, raises an eyebrow as a signal, and looks on as D-Lo, Kama and Mark Henry attack Faarooq from behind! Just like that Faarooq is out of the NOD. Finally! The Rock declares himself the new "ruler" of the Nation. - Pete Rose being Tombstoned by Kane is the "Slam of the Week". - Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna head to the ring. Hunter accuses Shawn Michaels of dropping the ball in regards to making sure Mike Tyson was really a member of D-X. Hunter says he's picked up the ball and will make the decisions for D-X from now on. Calling tonight the "Genesis of D-X", he says he'll form an army to take care of business. When you start an army, he says, you first look to your buddies ... your friends ... the Kliq! Sean Waltman enters the arena! A huge chunk of the crowd goes wild. Waltman-apparently now dubbed "the Kid"-starts into a shoot-style speech, taking shots at Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. (A full transcript of this is available at several of the big wrestling sites out there.) He says Hogan sucks, that Bischoff's head would go up Hogan's ass if Hogan "stopped short", and that Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are being held hostage by WCW, otherwise they'd come back to the WWF. He and Hunter wrap the segment up with a "suck it!" and some crotch chops. - In the only real down moment of the night, the WWF shows a video of a new superstar making his way to the WWF: Val Venis-the porn star. Venis is the much ballyhooed rookie Sean Morley. He's supposedly pretty good. He'll need to be to overcome this gimmick. Venis does a mildly amusing interview from a bed while watching a porno movie (which we can't see, but we can hear). - MARC MERO (w/ Sable) vs. TAKA MICHINOKU Before the match can start Luna appears and challenges Sable to a rematch. Sable immediately accepts. Luna says she wants an "Evening Gown Match", which is essentially a "Tuxedo Match". (The loser is the one stripped down to their underwear.) Even though Mero protests, Sable indicates that she accepts the challenge. Mero gets an easy win over the Light Heavyweight champ, putting him away with the TKO. After Mero and Sable have left Taka is attacked by three Japanese guys who jump out of the crowd. (Michinoku Pro stars Shoichi Funaki, Mens Teioh and Dick Togo.) Taka is powerbombed and butt-splashed off the top. Jim Ross yells "who are these guys!" as they run away through the crowd. Yowza ... the Light Heavyweight Division just quadrupled in size! - THE NEW MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. THE HEAD BANGERS As the match starts Dan "the Beast" Severn makes his way to the ring! Cornette runs down Severn's many accolades, including his collegiate wrestling record and UFC background. Cornette mentions that Severn has beaten Shamrock in the UFC, (Ross pointing out that Shamrock himself also beat Severn on one occasion). Severn's NWO World Heavyweight Title is mentioned. The Midnight Express in an okay, but short match in which neither team really shines nor dominates. One of the Bangers is put away with the Alabama Jam. Cornette then sends Severn into the ring to add some injury to insult. Both Head Bangers are suplexed, with one of them receiving a double arm submission hold from the Beast. Severn, dressed in a suit, adjusts his tie before leaving the ring. Before the segment ends Steve Austin uses his one phone call to ring up Jim Ross. Austin's voice is played out to the crowd as he vows revenge on Vince McMahon next week. - Kane and Paul Bearer come out as the steel cage is still being constructed. Bearer announces that he's proud of how his Kane did at WrestleMania, and that he's dreamed up a match for the two to compete in at the next PPV. Paul says he's had a vision of a special match in which the ring is surrounded by fire. To win, one wrestler must force his opponent to catch fire: an "Inferno Match". Something tells me the buyrate for the next PPV just went up a bit. Jerry Lawler mentions offhand that D-X will add a new member before the show is over. - CACTUS JACK/"CHAINSAW" CHARLIE vs. THE NEW AGE OUTLAWS They show a clip of Terry Funk getting some ointment rubbed on a nasty bruise he'd received the night before. Jim Ross explains that the titles had been held up from the night before because Cactus and Funk put the Outlaws in the wrong dumpster. This cage match would decide the undisputed champs. A short, but wild match. Cactus took some nasty slams into the cage. Funk was then hung by the chin with a long-chained pair of cuffs. That allowed Gunn and the Dog to doubleteam Cactus. This was a no DQ match in which the only way to win was pin or submission-none of that "over the top or through the door" crap. Things looked good for the Outlaws, but Cactus started to stage a single-handed rally. He then climbed to the top, either to escape the cage or drop an elbow, but was nailed in the head with a chair by the kid, who had come out along with Helmsley and Chyna. Gunn and the Dog then teamed to spike piledrive Cactus on a chair. Road Dog does the old break dancing "worn" en route to covering Cactus for the pin. New Tag Team Champions! Everyone then beats on Cactus as the few remaining moments of the show play out. They go off the air with all members of DeGeneration X, including Road Dog and Billy Gunn-the other new D-X members, doing crotch chops atop the steel cage. - Next week: Stone Cold's revenge. Tennessee Lee's surprise. Comments: Following the tradition of the past few years, the WWF follows up Wrestle- Mania with a strong installment of RAW. This year, though, the PPV was good enough that the subsequent RAW didn't outshine it. Barely. Fact is, both were so good it's hard to make a call as to which, in the end, was "better". While everyone is squabbling over that, what can't be denied is that this was maybe the strongest one-two punch of shows the WWF has ever delivered. It's no surprise how easy Waltman was able to slip into the D-X mix. What was a bit surprising was how strong the crowd reaction was for him. His comments about Hulk Hogan ("you suck, pal!") went way over with most everyone in attendance it seemed. I'm not a huge Waltman fan myself, and I have serious doubts about his remaining in-ring skills, but even I can see that WCW may have goofed on this one. Lest we all forget that Syxx's "Six-Ball" shirt was, for the longest time, WCW's best selling t-shirt. Just maybe this guy has a bigger following than either I or WCW thought. I can just imagine what the "average" fan out there who watch both shows thinks about the NWO situation between Hogan and Nash now that Syxx has shown up in the WWF. The whole "where's Scott Hall?" question now would seem bigger than ever to those without Internet access, or those who don't call the hotlines. The longer Hall is gone from WCW the more some fans will expect to see him pop up on RAW some night. Of course we all know he won't, but most WCW fans wouldn't know that. Nor would most WWF fans either. WCW may have to bring him back sooner than expected just to keep from losing a few viewers. The irony is WCW can't trash Waltman in return without pissing off Nash and Hall. I'm a bit annoyed that the Tag Title match at the PPV ended up being a "Dusty Finish" after all. It does slightly diminish what WrestleMania meant. Not a huge amount, since it was only the Tag Team Titles, but some nonetheless. I guess the reason I'm not fully outraged is because it was, in the end, the most logical booking decision. The "Hardcore Legends" get the PPV win and Funk gets another title reign added to his career record, while it's the better suited Outlaws who go on to face the LOD at the next PPV. I haven't decided yet whether their joining D-X is a good thing or not. Speaking of which, what's the deal with Michaels? My assumption is that he was at home getting some much needed bedrest, and that Helmsley's taking over D-X is simply to fill the gap until he comes back. Still, Helmsley sure did dis HBK. The night he comes back will be an interview you won't want to miss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: More happened in two nights in the WWF than has happened in the last three months in WCW: four titles changed hands, the LOD returned with Sunny as their manager, Sean Waltman returned, Dan Severn returned, Sean "Val Venis" Morley was introduced, three new Light Heavyweights came in, Pete Rose was Tombstoned, a forklift was used in a match, some blood spilled, Stone Cold was arrested and Mike Tyson slugged Shawn Michaels. Don't get me wrong, I like Roddy Piper and all, but ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Week's Winner: RAW. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1998 by John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those of "Internet Access, Inc". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week. Volume One, Number 124 of the "Monday Night Recap", March 30th, 1998.