Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #140 July 20th, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Salt Lake City, Utah. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - Clips relive Scott Hall's betrayal of Kevin Nash from last week's show. Fireworks and hype follow. Out comes Scott Hall to rag on Kevin Nash. Funny part during this: Hall does his "survey" set-up (though he says it's not a survey--but I digress). At the point the crowd is supposed to shout "N-W-O!", all we get is a disorganized jumble of boo's and noise. Hall compares himself to Gilligan and Nash to the lazy Skipper, as well as questioning his manhood. The two will apparently fight tonight in some kind of match. Schiavone also announces that WCW has decided that the United States Title (vacated by Goldberg when he won the World Title) will be awarded to the winner of a "top contenders" match. Bret Hart and Diamond Dallas Page have been named the top contenders. Not bad choices, but certainly ones I would disagree with. Isn't DDP roughly 50/50 in his recent matches? How many matches has Hart won lately? (Hell, how many has he HAD lately? Two? Three?) What about TV Champion Booker T.? Or former U.S. Champ Raven, who is the one who BEAT DDP for the title not too long ago? What about former WORLD Champions Hogan and Sting? Or Lex Luger? The Giant? Kevin Nash? Scott Hall? This is the problem with skipping a tournament and just naming two contenders: contenders who probably aren't even the most qualified to begin with. They show some clips from Nitro ... or Thunder ... I'm not sure which. they're all starting to blur together. - STEVIE RAY vs. JOHNNY BOONE(?) Stevie comes out without the U.S. belt. he doesn't really explain why, and neither do the announcers, though they talk about it at length. Something about him giving the belt back to his brother. Stevie gets the fast win against this no-name jobber. Meanwhile Chavo Guerrero shows up at ringside, dressed as Zorro again, with the TV belt. He yells out that Stevie forgot his belt, then drops it and splits. Stevie scoops up the belt, looking as if he's been caught in a lie (which the announcers accuse him of). I think I'd be amused by all this if it made any sense. - They replay a clip of Buff Bagwell's interview from last week. "Mean" Gene Okerlund then brings out Rick Steiner. They talk about Scott Steiner and how he tricked Rick into believing he was injured. It's announced that the two brothers will face off in a match at the next PPV. Buff Bagwell then come out, in wheelchair, to confront Steiner. He talks about how he bears Rick no ill will, and that whatever he does to Scot is between those two. Scott then comes out and nails Rick with a chair. Bagwell is jostled out of his wheelchair. He staggers around, begging Scott not to hit Rick again. He then pulls the chair away and nails Rick himself! Off comes the neckbrace and his t-shirt, revealing an NWO shirt underneath. Yup ... they lied to us. His emotional interviews of the last two weeks? All lies. Hogan beating him up last week? Staged. All the talk of him not returning until next year--if ever? All lies. All the goodwill built up towards Bagwell by the fans? Gone in an instant. They fooled me, you, all of us, and if I'd cared one bit about it all from the beginning that might mean something. Once again WCW gives us the illusion that something is happening, when the end result is that we're back at square one (like Sting "joining" the Wolfpac). - Chris Jericho tells "Mean" Gene that he'll defend his title against Dean Malenko next week. That concludes the Jericho portion of the show for this week. Thank you drive through. - After some announcer gab and clips Scott Hall shows up to complain about Nash. He says WCW better not run that interview of Nash from Thunder. (Well, actually he makes some kind of nonsensical movie comparison which Schiavone deciphers for us. He's read the script, you see ... ) They cut to the parking lot, where we see a crashed car and a sign on the wall reading "Star of the Show". In the next segment Schiavone says this has something to do with "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. (I wouldn't know--I rarely watch it myself. If he's doing the "newspaper headlines" when I'm surfing past I may stop for a minute, but otherwise I hardly ever watch. I used to be a Letterman fan, but I rarely watch that either. Since getting satellite TV I watch very little network TV, now that I think about it. I watch far more Sci-Fi Channel and Comedy Central than the networks; and USA, TNT and TBS for my wrestling fix each week. I watch "The Simpsons" and "X-Files" on Fox. Tons of movies on HBO, Cinemax, Starz!, Showtime. Damn, that pretty much sums up my life.) - SICK BOY vs. STEVE "MONGO" MCMICHAEL Squash. Mongo wins with the Tombstone, which I guess they're calling the "Endzone Spike". After the match they replay clips from the Dean Malenko/Arn Anderson confrontation. Remember what I once wrote about just using past clips to further angles? This is about the only bit of the Horsemen saga we'll see this evening. - Nitro Party Video. I think I may have left out a Nitro Girl appearance or two up to this point. It's getting so they appear and my conscious mind doesn't even notice. - Eric Bischoff comes out for this week's installment of "NWO Nite Cap". (Wasn't it "NWO Late Nite" the last time?) Bischoff is billed by his bandleader as "the man who scares Jay Leno". This segment is so unbelievably bad, I can't adequately describe it. Bischoff delivers a monologue, which he apparently stole word-for-word from "The Tonight Show" from last Friday. During this I realize that Leno's jokes aren't really funny: it's his delivery and mannerisms which provide the laughs. Told by someone else the jokes come off as incredibly lame. The crowd was openly hostile, and were it not a nice Mormon crowd, things might have gotten really ugly. (Yes, I realize I'm way over-generalizing.) If this was last Thursday's crowd Bischoff would have been egged. I half expected to see smoke drifting over from where the fans were burning Bischoff in effigy. Bischoff wraps the segment up by making a couple of poor Jay Leno chin jokes. In front of any other crowd this could have resulted in the ugliest fan riot in WCW history. Having been treated to about four minutes of wrestling, countless interviews, the annoying Bagwell heel "re-turn" and the god-awful Bischoff segment, there was just no way WCW was getting any more of my time this night. Other than the occasional flip during commercials, I saved the rest of this show for the replay. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - They start replaying the Kevin Nash interview from Thursday. It's suddenly cut off mid-way through as Scott Hall shows up in the production truck to steal the tape. He's confronted by Nash and the two start brawling out to the parking area. From a parked trailer several other NWO members appear and Nash is vastly outnumbered. Out comes the Wolfpac for the save. Back in the arena Bret Hart shows up at the announcing desk. He demands That DDP come right out for their match. Cutting to the back we see DDP laid out, with Konnan and a WCW trainer trying to revive him. Sheriff Hart strikes again! Hart goes to the ring to await DDP. J.J. Dillon comes out to tell him that Page will be allowed time to recover, making this match our main event for the night. Never in my life have I seen to back-to-back segments which screamed out "please ... don't change the channel!" as blatantly as these did. Too bad--I was already long gone. - They replay Nash getting beaten up by the NWO. This just happened FIVE MINUTES AGO!!! - YUJI NAGATA (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. SATURN Nagata gets a cheap win in this fairly quick match when the Flock interferes. They then beat on Saturn until Kanyon makes the save. Saturn then gives Kanyon a Death Valley Driver. Back to square one again. Old feuds never dies, they just ... just ... well, in WCW they just never die! Period. They replay Bret Hart's bragging on Thunder about putting all those wrestlers out of commission. - Nitro Girls. Bobby Heenan joins the crew, marking the mid-point of the show. Ninety minutes and we've seen three matches, totaling, what ... eight minutes? The Wolfpac hit the ring, supposedly because everyone is so keyed up backstage that they just can't save this next match any longer. - STING/KEVIN NASH vs. THE GIANT/SCOTT HALL Nash looks just fine, showing how impervious he is to a gang beating. Oh yeah: the Tag team Titles are on the line, and given how this show is going it's instantly obvious that they'll change hands. Sure enough, Hall and the Giant win when Bret Hart interferes. An okay match, which really had the crowd fired up. After an extended period with Nash in he makes the hot tag to Sting. Sting cleans house. He then sets Hall up in the Scorpion Deathlock, but is suddenly confronted by Bret Hart. Sting knocks Hart to the floor, but falls victim to a Crucifix Powerbomb from Hall. 1-2-3 later an he and the Giant are the new World Tag Team Champions. Sting, for some strange reason, was wearing Konnan's pants during the match. (Seriously!) Of note is that Hart appeared when Sting used HIS move. (The Scorpion Deathlock is practically the same as the Sharpshooter.) - They play a Travis Tritt music video, slightly altered to serve as a promo for Road Wild. Travis Tritt ... Jay Leno ... this PPV is shaping up to be as goofy as some of the older WrestleManias. - They replay the Bret Hart challenge/unconscious DDP discovery scene from a half hour earlier. Why even bother watching the first half of the show? They just replay clips of it during the second half! - DISCO INFERNO/ALEX WRIGHT vs. MASAHIRO CHONO/MUTA Ahhh ... the bogus "international" contingent of the NWO. Yeah, like these guys are really taking their marching orders from Hogan. Bringing these guys in just reveals what a joke the NWO really is. WCW desperately wants us to think these guys are organized into a group with identical goals, run by Hogan. Instead it's clear that the only thing they share in common are their t-shirts. The Japanese win--as if there was any doubt! Muta forces Disco to submit to a leg submission hold. NWO member Scott "Flash" Norton then comes out and helps kick their scrawny asses. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - As the Nitro Girls are doing a number, a WCW trainer comes out and gets Kimberly. Presumably she will be asked to identify DDP's remains. - ULTIMO DRAGON vs. TOKYO MAGNUM Ultimo wins quickly with the Dragon Sleeper. Okay match which really didn't fit in with the "blockbuster" nature of the show. They replay Bret Hart interfering and the Tag Titles changing hands. - SCOTT "FLASH" NORTON (w/ Vincent) vs. JIM POWERS Norton's wins easily with the powerbomb. Isn't that illegal? Tenay says this is a message being sent to Kevin Nash and the Wolfpac. (I thought them beating the hell out of the Wolfpac earlier in the parking lot was a clearer message.) They replay a bit of Bischoff's talk show going to the commercial. Three hours is just too f#@&ing long for this s#!t!!! - They run a special video of "Hollywood" Hogan beating the hell out of everyone. Hogan then comes out and does his usual fifteen minute speech. In case you haven't gotten it, NWO Hollywood rules. Obviously Hogan dropping the World Title to Goldberg has proven to be completely inconsequential. They replay even more of the Bischoff show. What did we ever do to WCW to deserve this? - They show a clip from the main event on Thunder last week. - KONNAN vs. EDDIE GUERRERO NBA Utah Jazz player Antoine Carr came to the ring with Konnan, for no other apparent reason than he's something of a local celebrity. These two are putting together a passable enough match when Chavo comes out, dressed this time as Konnan. Eddie steals Chavo's Pepe and tries to hit Konnan, drawing a DQ. Chavo then decides the "Konnan look" sucks, (though why is beyond me: Konnan won, didn't he?) Chavo takes off his hat and we see how little the loss of his hair meant at the PPV: he's already grown half his hair back. - CURT HENNIG (w/ Rick Rude) vs. LEX LUGER Things follow the usual Lex Luger formula, with him getting beaten for most of the match, only to rally back. The ref takes a bump in the corner and is knocked out. Rude runs in and is put into the Torture Rack. Hennig strikes back, though, wrapping Luger up in the Hennig-Plex. Rude helps by grabbing hold of Luger's foot (not that it mattered--Luger doesn't even try to kick out until after the three count). Curt gets the win, putting the NWO over even more for the evening. Even MORE of the Bischoff show is replayed, followed by a PPV promo. Seeing Travis Tritt, the bikers, etc. I realize how much the "redneck" appeal of WCW has grown recently. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE Michael Buffer does the honors. There's a long delay as everyone waits to see if DDP can come out. He eventually staggers out, with his ribs taped, knee wrapped and face all messed up. Hart surgically dismantles him, earning an easy victory with the Sharpshooter. The rest of the NWO comes out to celebrate Hart's first WCW title win as DDP's corpse is stretchered out of the ringside area and into a waiting ambulance. Happy now, Bret? - This Thursday: No Thunder. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: No Goldberg? An eventful, yet generally awful show. The actual wrestling was fairly weak across the board, with no matches standing out as being either really good or bad. The Tag Title match was probably the best just for sheer energy and fan interest. The cruiserweights weren't given much of a showing this week. This show was all angles, interviews and REPEATED flashbacks. After all these months of wasting Hart they've finally put him on a better track. I'm not so sure this monster push has been that good, but it certainly seems like more was done than all the months leading up to now. This would have to be the worst title victory in Hart's career, I would imagine. Has he won any other title with less work? It's bad enough that DDP was laid out in an attack before the match, but it had to be by way of a phantom attack we didn't even get to see! Hart isn't wrestling any better, and his interviews are still filled with the same tired old lines, yet a change in the booking is all it took to put him over as a heel and win a title. It seems clear what Hogan was promised in return for dropping the title to Goldberg, The NWO is now stronger than its been in over a year. In fact, going back to Hogan and Dennis Rodman's win at the PPV, the NWO has been more successful in recent days than all of the rest of this year put together. Just tonight they won two titles, got a clean sweep in match wins, and pulled off a successful scheme against Rick Steiner (and the fans) with Bagwell. Even Hennig, who's been dropping losses left and right to Goldberg, got a win over Luger--and Luger NEVER loses! The only loss the NWO suffered on Monday was the Giant at the hands of Goldberg and, wouldn't you know it, that happened after the cameras went off the air. And how nice is it that Bischoff is able to book himself into an angle involving Jay Leno? Odds are almost definite that Leno will appear at the PPV and, although I don't believe he's scheduled to wrestle, you know he'll most likely slug Bischoff a la Mike Tyson at WrestleMania. Look for more mainstream ridicule to be heaped upon WCW. Anyone notice how everyone in the Wolfpac are now wearing pants in the ring? Luger wears black jeans. Sting wore black pants which looked like they belonged to Konnan. Konnan wears slacks--usually with his ass hanging out the back. Even Nash wears pants, though they're leather (or vinyl) and have been a regular part of his ring get-up for years. I know there's a "who wears the pants in this family?" joke there somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it. It seems to me that WCW has finally realized that for all their quantitative success they still don't have the qualitative success which would earn them the critical favor of the fans, so they've decided to make some changes. Unfortunately, after not doing that much for so long, they now seem to be trying to do too much too soon. In the span of just two weeks almost every title in WCW has changed hands, and the only constants left are that Jericho has his belt, Chavo Guerrero is still nuts, "Hollywood" Hogan's ego is out of control ... and Eric Bischoff sucks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Taped 7/14. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Binghamton, New York. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - No recap or nothing this week: it's straight into the opener and subsequent fireworks/crowd shots. - Here comes Mr. McMahon to the ring. He takes it upon himself to outline the entire story as it relates to Steve Austin, the Undertaker, and the alleged conspiracy involving Kane. Brief clips are shown on the Titan- Tron are shown to illustrate the high points. McMahon says it's time for the Undertaker to give some answers. Out he comes and, just like last week, he answers the questions with a silent, stony stare. McMahon tells him if he doesn't want to play ball that's fine, though as his punishment he'll have to face Kane and Mankind tonight in a handicap match! Oh yeah, and "Undertaker ... you can go to HELL!" Vince winds up on the receiving end of a chokeslam. Pat Patterson, Jerry Brisco and Commissioner Slaughter all come out and also receive similar treatment. After the Undertaker leaves some tensions are shown between McMahon and Patterson, as Vince trips over Pat while they're exiting the ring. Patterson takes of his jacket and teases a fight, which the numerous referees step in to break up. Problems with McMahon's stooges are a brewin', it would seem. This segment really dragged on until the Undertaker made his appearance. - HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Chyna) vs. D-LO BROWN (w/ the Rock) Hunter works up the crowd before D-Lo comes out, taking a playful jab at Ross in the process ("one fat announcer in a black hat at ringside"). D-Lo is wearing his chest protector. Early in the match D-Lo gets sent to the floor. Chyna comes over and after some jawing between the two he tries to hit her. She ducks it and slugs him in the jaw! Hunter comes out and slams D-Lo into the railing. Back in the ring the match settles down with things being evenly matched between the two. D-Lo takes control, but falls victim to a high knee after some showboating. Hunter then sets up for a move, but gets tripped up by the Rock in the corner. Chyna comes over and shoves the Rock into the corner post. From the entryway comes Mark Henry. Chyna heads him off with a steel chair, as well as the referee. In the ring Hunter sets up the Pedigree, but the Rock comes in and grabs him, laying him out with the Rock Bottom. D-Lo rolls on top and gets the three count. New European Champion! D-Lo can hardly believe it, and accepts the title belt with wide eyes and a shocked expression. Once in the back he's greeted by Owen Hart and Kama, as the entire Nation celebrates D-Lo's victory. Going to the break they flash an ad for the new WWF show, "Sunday Night Heat", which debuts on USA on Sunday, August 2nd. More info on this next week. - Hunter and D-X are enraged. He vows that Maivia won't be leaving the building with his Intercontinental Title tonight. He faces X-Pac later on in the show. - QUEBECER PIERRE vs. "DR. DEATH" STEVE WILLIAMS "Brawl For All" bout. Pierre comes out the thinnest I've seen him in several years. Whatever weight he's lost, though, Williams seems to have gained. He's huge! Not so much fat as barrel bellied, and he looks as tough as ever, which he proves in this match. Former Dallas Cowboys coach (and Oklahoma U. coach) Barry Switzer is shown via split-screen with some comments about Doc. After the first round he leads 15 to 5 on points, throwing more punches and getting two takedowns. After the second round he's leading 35 to 5. The beating continues until with about 5 seconds to go the ref stops the fight, as Pierre has completely run out of gas. An entertaining fight, which was actually taped before the opening segment and shown at this point in the taped broadcast. Another "Brawl For All" match which took place earlier will be shown later, but only in the form of selected clips. - Val Venis' "Land of the Rising Venis" is replayed. Back live in the arena Kaientai has come out with Yamaguchi-san and his wife. Yamaguchi gives her a tongue lashing, then orders her into the ring, where he will perform a Japanese punishment ritual. She is supposed to crawl between his legs as he whacks her with a large wooden paddle. Out comes Val Venis for the save. He carries her to the back after Yamaguchi and his thugs flee. This probably offended somebody out there, but you must admit: it's a new take on the old Rick Rude routine. And it's funny. (I think so, anyway.) Val will apparently face Jeff Jarrett at the PPV, though I have no idea why. - LOD ANIMAL vs. SKULL (w/ Paul Ellering & Eight-Ball) No match to speak of as Animal is immediately tossed to the floor. There Ellering tries to run him over with his Titan motorcycle, but is stopped when Hawk comes out. The two LOD 2000 members are left laying on the ramp. Done quickly, just to remind us that the two teams will be facing at the PPV. SummerSlam. 6 weeks. - "DOUBLE J" JEFF JARRETT (w/ Tennessee Lee) vs. STEVE BLACKMAN Lee does the intro for Jarrett, who also has Southern Justice (the Godwinns) with him. They then show clips going back to WrestleMania to hype this old rivalry. Blackman comes out, sees the odds against him and leaves. Jarrett orders the ref to count him out. Blackman comes out again (meaning we get to hear his theme music again), though this time accompanied by Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn. This match, like so many of the past matches between these two, wasn't particularly bad or good. It was quick, though, as just a few minutes in Blackman lands a kick to the chest and covers for the pin. Meanwhile Owen Hart runs in at ringside and slams Shamrock into the ring steps. Blackman checks on Shamrock, while Dan Severn adjusts his tie and simply walks away. Hopefully this match is the blow-off to end the feud between these two. During the match Ross announced that Shamrock will face Owen in a special match at the PPV to be held in Stu Hart's "Dungeon". This will presumably be shown via satellite from Calgary (though it'll possibly be pre-taped). An added wrinkle is that Severn will be the special referee! I'd love to have Blackman's theme music ... in real life! Wouldn't it be great to walk into the grocery store or K-Mart and have that kick in? Michael Cole tries to get some comments from the Undertaker backstage, but he simply ignores him and heads out of the building (his coat and bag in hand). After the break Cole says that all the Undertaker would say is that he'll see him at the PPV this Sunday. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin hits the ring. Austin delivers comments, questioning whether he'll face two men at the PPV, or three. He wonders whether the Undertaker's leaving was done just so he wouldn't have to face his brother Kane, or if he did it to screw Vince McMahon. "'Screw Vince McMahon?' I deserve to be 'screwed'?" Out comes McMahon, who says the only one that'll be doing the screwing is him. He orders Austin to replace the Undertaker in facing Kane and Mankind in the handicap match. "Uh-uh," says Austin, "I ain't going to do it!" He threatens to leave. McMahon threatens to strip Austin of the Title if he doesn't fight tonight. Austin says he'll do it, and that after that he's going to "beat the living s#*t" out of McMahon. - They show clips of Jason Sensation imitating Owen Hart two weeks ago, doing his imitations the following week for Lawler, and getting the crap beat out of him by Owen. - OWEN HART (w/ the Nation) vs. FAAROOQ During the match the crowd chants "Owen's a nugget!" Later, as Owen is in command, he grabs a house mice and tells the crowd "why don't you shut up? I am not a nugget!" which of course cranks up the noise level in the arena. Owen gets the win with the Sharpshooter. Ken Shamrock runs in and chases Owen through the crowd. At some point during the match Ross mentioned that Road Dog was "sent home" due to illness. Word is that it was really some kind of family problems. They cut to the back for comments from Paul Bearer and Mankind about Kane, the Undertaker and Austin. - "Marvelous" Marc Mero and Jacquelyn hit the ring to talk trash about Sable. Sable comes out in a baggy frock, spurring a "maternity dress" dig from Jacky. She also calls Sable a "ho" (and I don't men a garden tool). Off comes the dress, displaying Sable's teeny-tiny underwear. Jerry Lawler is in dirty-old-man heaven, and has trouble standing up for the next few minutes. Meanwhile the Edge runs in and levels Mero. Now what's THAT all about? They replay the unveiling and Edge attack after the commercial. - He thinks he's cute ... he knows he's sexy ... he's the "Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. Shawn joins the announcing crew just in time to review highlights from a "Brawl For All" match taped before the show. 2 Cold Scorpio earned a decision over Eight-Ball of the DOA. They then get comments from the Rock backstage regarding his upcoming match. - THE ROCK vs. X-PAC (w/ Chyna) The Rock brings the whole Nation with him. (D-Lo is priceless to watch as he struts like a peacock with his title belt.) D-X comes out and the usual huge brawl breaks out. They take another quick commercial to sort things out. (This allows to show to run for the last fifteen minutes or so without another commercial. Smart move.) A good match between these two. Evenly matched early on, the Rock takes over for much of the middle of the match. Maivia gets in a lot of offense, culminating with the People's Elbow. X-Pac turns the tide with the face-first split-legged slam. X-Pac does the Baloney Pony Ride. Chyna interferes by knocking out Maivia with the IC Title belt. The Rock kicks out. Moments later the ref goes down, at which point D-Lo (followed by Triple H) comes in through the crowd. Helmsley knocks D-Lo off the top, then plants the Rock with the Pedigree. X-Pac covers and the ref is about to count three when he's stopped by another ref, who tells him what Helmsley did. Maivia wins via DQ. The other Nation and D-X members all run in and the big brawl continues. After things die down D-X is left in the ring. The camera flashes on a busty blonde fan in the crowd who is holding up a D-X sign. Helmsley signals for her to take off her top. She does, exposing her bra. Helmsley further eggs her on and she lifts that up, with what's underneath being censored by a little D-X banner! Lawler achieves dirty-old-man nirvana, as Shawn hops up on top of the desk to celebrate. After a quick shot of Helmsley Shawn is somehow seated again, tipping of some kind of edit. (A bit of a Kliq reunion between Shawn and X-Pac from the taping was cut out. Boobs are okay but the Kliq isn't? I can live with that. By the way, it wasn't Jenna Jameson, as has been rumored on the 'Net.) - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. KANE/MANKIND (w/ Paul Bearer) A wild slugfest which spills in and out of the ring. McMahon is shown looking on from the back, liking what he's seeing (though he could be giving a pep-talk to an unseen companion. Hmmmm ... ) Austin does all he can, but Kane and Mankind together seem to be too much for him. Just as he gets one reeling the other is able to step in. Suddenly the Undertaker reappears, striding down the rampway with a steel chair. The Undertaker spends the next couple of minutes in Austin's corner, but doesn't do anything. Eventually Austin and Kane wind up in the corner next to the Undertaker. The Undertaker rears back and delivers a chair shot, hitting Kane. But was that his target?! The ref DQ's Austin for the outside interference, giving Kane and Mankind the win. Austin grabs the chair and levels Mankind, then catches the Undertaker with it also, just as he enters the ring. Austin walks off with his belt, leaving all the questions in the air to be answered this Sunday at the PPV. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Great build to the PPV main event. The undercard got a good going-over as well, though some of the matches seem really tacked on, and some didn't even really get mentioned (like Vader vs. Mark Henry). The Shamrock/Hart stipulation, known on the Internet for the last few days, really came off as out-of-nowhere on TV. Overall a good show with some decent wrestling, surprises (even though it was taped) and some nice showings by the mid- carders (D-Lo, Owen & X-Pac). Could McMahon have been talking to the Undertaker? The WWF can still go either way with this angle, and either way has been set up so that they'll work. I've no idea which they'll pick, though I'd offer the bet that if he goes full heel, he'll pass Mankind coming back from the other direction. We should finally start seeing some more of the Edge next week. Al Snow should make his return as well. Steve Williams and Steven Regal could also show up. We're back to a clean slate on Monday and all the guys they haven't had time for in the last month should get back on TV. (Some of them, anyway.) Back to Austin and the Undertaker, if the Taker doesn't turn heel then we should see either the spark of animosity between them (to continue building the "face vs. Face" match-up), or McMahon stepping his role up a notch to serve as instigator and wild card in the equation. Naming Shawn Michaels as special referee at SummerSlam would fill that role nicely. Michaels, after all, lost his belt to Austin, and would thus have an incentive to see him lose. On the other hand he had his big feud with the Undertaker last year, and was instrumental in causing him to lose the belt to Bret Hart at last year's SummerSlam. He'd be the perfect choice for McMahon if Vince's goal was to "screw" BOTH Austin and the Undertaker. They can then tease Michaels going either way leading up to the PPV. He can then be revealed as McMahon stooge, he can call the match down the middle (angering McMahon), or pick one man over the other, rekindling a feud with the one he screws over. The WWF has many options available to them and, if they do bring Michaels into the mix, they're only limited by how soon he's able to return to the ring. This is all just speculation, of course. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Bash at the Beach, if the numbers pan out, got a buyrate somewhere around a 1.5 or 1.6. That's pretty good, though below what they drew for Starrcade (1.8 to 1.9) and much less than what the WWF got for WrestleMania XIV (2.2 to 2.3). Just to round the recent numbers out, King of the Ring did somewhere between a 0.85 and a 1.0 (depending on which set of numbers you hear). Both recent PPV's drew a huge number of buys (with the Bash getting more), but an increase in the size of the PPV universe means their buyrate numbers wind up looking lower than they would have a year or so ago. As with TV ratings you can't just go by the number it gets--you have to go by actual buys and actual viewers. Both recent PPV's did tremendously well, with the Bash being one of WCW's most profitable ever. That unfortunately means that the million dollar-plus combined price tag for Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone was money well spent (in the eyes of WCW). The WWF saw similar results with Mike Tyson at WrestleMania. Look for WCW to lure in many other celebrities in coming months, with Jay Leno being just the first. WCW was successfully able to turn a blind eye to the massively negative publicity earned because of the Bash PPV, leaving their fans to absorb the brunt of the criticism. The WWF as well has plans in the works for celebrities to appear at upcoming shows, including talk show host Jerry Springer, goth rocker Marilyn Manson and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal. (All of these are just rumored, mind you. Nothing's definite.) Speaking of the TV ratings, RAW won again this week: 5.0 to 4.4. Nitro started out big with a 4.7 in their first hour, but dropped down to a 4.2 when RAW started in the second hour, and stayed there (4.2) for their third hour rating as well. RAW started out with a good 4.4, then jumped up to a huge 5.6 for their second hour. Nitro lost a full half-point in the ratings during Eric Bischoff's segment as RAW started. WCW also found out that Bret Hart is no replacement for either Hogan or Goldberg as a ratings draw in the main event. The 5.6 RAW drew in the second hour puts this TAPED installment of the War Zone high on the list as one of the highest rated cable wrestling shows ever. The combined viewership for both shows again hovered around that 10.0 range, which accounts for well over seven million households. Look for next week to be even bigger and hotter as WCW makes the Jay Leno announcement official. The WWF, meanwhile, will be live, coming off the PPV, and will be starting the final big push for SummerSlam. As usual, ratings credit goes to "1Wrestling.com". Here's the line-up for "Fully Loaded": * Steve Austin & the Undertaker vs. Kane & Mankind. World Tag Title Match. * The Rock vs. Triple H. 2-out-of-3 Falls Intercontinental Title Match. * D-Lo Brown vs. X-Pac. European Title Match. * Ken Shamrock vs. Owen Hart. "Dungeon Match". Severn as special referee. * Legion of Doom vs. Disciples of Apocalypse. * Val Venis vs. Jeff Jarrett. * Faarooq & Scorpio vs. Terry Funk & Bradshaw. * Mark Henry vs. Vader. * Sable vs. Jacquelyn. Bikini Showdown. By no means a monumental PPV (such as SummerSlam is shaping up to be), but it should be pretty good for what it is. I won't know until this weekend whether I myself will be getting it or not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 140 of the "Monday Night Recap", July 20th, 1998.