Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #143 August 10th, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Rapid City, South Dakota. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - Nitro Girls, fireworks and hype. Schiavone announces that Diamond Dallas Page isn't in the arena tonight, therefore neither is his wife Kimberly. DDP doesn't want to give the NWO a chance to get their greasy paws on her. Schiavone also announces that he and his fellow announcers cannot speak about the main event of Road Wild--not even to say who won and who lost. Some kind of order has come down from the WCW bigwigs, a representative of which will appear on the show sometime around the time RAW starts to explain everything. - "HACKSAW" JIM DUGGAN vs. THE BARBARIAN (w/ Jimmy Hart) A re-do of a match these two had last week, and/or the week before that, and/or the week before that. Duggan gets the pin, but is attacked by Hugh Morrus. Meng comes out and chases the bad guys off. Duggan offers his thanks and gets the Tongan Death Grip again. Meng, who appears to be suffering from some kind of mental illness and has forgotten that Duggan is his new best friend, will get a title shot against Goldberg tonight. To prove his qualifications he lays out several security guards with that Death Grip of his. - Thunder clips. - "Mean" Gene Okerlund interviews Lex Luger. Lex says that Bret Hart was the other guy who attacked him last week alongside Scott Hall. Out comes sheriff Hart with his U.S. Title belt to deny this assertion. Hart says he was nowhere around when it happened, that Luger just doesn't want to admit that one guy beat him up, and that he's jealous of Hart for being "tight" with "Hollywood" Hogan and being more respected by Sting. Luger unflinchingly challenges Hart to put up his belt. Hart, despite some protestations, agrees to the match, again showing that in WCW no one ever turns down a challenge (kind of like the way Marty McFly from "Back to the Future" gets his feathers ruffled when you call him "chicken"). - Road Wild stills. - TOKYO MAGNUM (w/ Disco Inferno & Alex Wright) vs. EDDIE GUERRERO Inferno and Wright warn Magnum that he better shape up and start pulling his weight if he wants to be like them (or something ... I've stopped paying attention to all three of these guys). Guerrero squashes him in the time it took me to grab a Pepsi from the fridge. - More Road Wild stills. - SATURN vs. KANYON Match # 75 in this mobius strip of a feud. Lodi interferes, allowing Raven to run in and plant Saturn with a DDT. Kanyon covers for the pin, unaware that Raven has helped him. I'd give real money if someone can point out where this angle has in any way progressed in the last two months.* [*=Not a valid offer.] Somewhere out back Meng is still beating up guys by pinching their windpipes. - Nitro Girls. Nitro Party Video. - STEVE "MONGO" MCMICHAEL vs. SICK BOY (w/ Lodi) Mongo with the Tombstone. That stink you're smelling is someone slowly digging up the Four Horsemen. - Schiavone suddenly makes the announcement that five separate WCW are on the line tonight, signaling the start of that other wrestling show over on that other cable channel. I hate it when they beg like this. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that WCW managed to squeeze in four first hour matches this week. None of them were any good mind you, but WCW's at least trying. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - "Hollywood" Hogan and Eric Bischoff come to the ring. The announcers trip all over each other trying not to talk about the Road Wild main event. Signs in the crowd tell who won to those who didn't already know. Hogan badmouths World Champion Goldberg. Bischoff says the NWO is more than happy to provide security for tonight's main event match between Goldberg and Meng, (Meng having laid out all the security in the building backstage). - STEVIE RAY vs. CHRIS JERICHO I'd like to ask WCW how stupid I'm supposed to be to accept the fact that Stevie Ray is the Television Champion? Why did they even bother to prove him a liar last week if they still intended to make him a champ by way of his bogus "power of attorney" document? I'd also like to know why Jericho isn't out there waving around a WCW rule book, whining about a "conspiracy" and trying to get his Cruiserweight Title back? Jericho wins this one by punching the referee in the nuts. The Giant then comes in and chokeslams Stevie Ray. The ref then wakes up and counts the pin, making Jericho the new TV Champion. I guess we're all supposed to buzz about Jericho joining the NWO, so that when he doesn't WCW can have Lee Marshall call us a bunch of "smart mark baboons with passwords". Wouldn't surprise me if this gets reversed on Thunder, at which point Jericho will whine about the "conspiracy" again. - Bobby Heenan replaces Larry Zbyszko. - Eric Bischoff comes out, serving in his capacity as a WCW official to explain what happened at Road Wild. They show some stills, giving the impression that he and Hogan won. He warns us not to watch "The Tonight Show", since Leno will have doctored the footage to his benefit. (Those who did tune in get to see extensive clips from the match, which probably put a dent in the number of replay buys WCW will get.) - PSYCHOSIS vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. vs. LIZMARK, JR. In Nitro's only good match of the night, Mysterio gets the win when Psychosis monkeyflips him into the air. Rey lands on Lizmark's shoulders and takes him over with a huracanrana, tucking the legs in for the pin. Wild move. Relatively long match too, running somewhere around six or seven minutes. - Nitro Girls. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. LEX LUGER Hart kisses the belt before handing it over, which is usually a tip-off that he'll be losing it. Sure enough, Hart--after a very long and hard-fought match (carrying Luger to his best effort since ... maybe ever)--submits to Luger's Torture Rack following a ref bump and botched foreign object attempt. Sting, Nash and Konnan of the Wolfpac come out to celebrate with Luger. Like the above TV Title change this one also stands a good chance of being reversed on Thursday, though by a Hart rematch win rather than any kind of rule infraction. (On the other hand they might save it for the next PPV.) Okay, so Nitro had two good matches tonight. The match count, by the way, is already up to seven, which is much as the entire show has averaged over the last several weeks. Given the quality of the two above matches, both factors have to be seen as improvement on WCW's part. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Even more stills from Road Wild. - JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. BILLY KIDMAN New Cruiserweight Champ Guerrera has little trouble putting Kidman away with the 450 Splash. Whatever happened to Kidman's push? - Schiavone confirms that Hart will be getting a rematch against Luger on Thunder. They then show the stills they weren't supposed to show from the main event of Road Wild. I'd describe them, but they're so squished and flaming that it's hard on the eyes (kind of like a pool party at Raven's house). - RAVEN (w/ the Flock) vs. HORACE Speak of the devil. Raven accuses the Flock of costing him the match at the PPV. He slaps Horace a few times, which leads to this match. Raven beats the crap out of him, only to fall victim to a Death Valley Driver from Saturn as Kanyon distracts the ref (which is pretty much the same finish as what happened between those two earlier in the show). So Saturn and Kanyon cooperate here ... anyone wanna bet WCW forgets all about this by Thursday and has those two fighting again, as well as having Raven tell one that the other is really on his side? This angle's stuck in a tighter circle than a dog chasing its own tail. - Nitro Girls. - CURT HENNIG vs. KONNAN This is the exact same match as the one they did last week except for the finish. This time when Hennig tries to cheat (by choking Konnan with his necklace) the ref stops him. Konnan then goes for the choke and gets disqualified. Not worth the time it took me to write all this. - STING/KEVIN NASH vs. SCOTT HALL/THE GIANT The last time they did this match the NWO won the Tag Team Titles from the Wolfpac. With two title changes already on the night, what were the odds of them changing again? About 50/50--with the Wolfpac getting the bad 50 once again. Showing a rare bit of continuity (and logic), Schiavone mentions that the powerbomb had been illegal "for many months", which means it's legal again I guess. Sting has the match won when he slaps Hall into the Scorpion Deathlock, but the Giant comes in and chokeslams the ref, drawing the DQ. With the few seconds Nash puts into this match, and with Luger's performance earlier in the show Nash inherits the title of "Laziest Bastard in the Wolfpac" (one which he probably already owned to begin with). - The NWO and the Wolfpac all come out to circle the ring. The NWO is "providing security", while the Wolfpac are "keeping the odds even". Or something. Knowing Goldberg this will probably become a Lumberjack Match before too long. Michael Buffer does the honors. - GOLDBERG vs. MENG Meng manages to dump Goldberg to the floor, where the NWO beat up on him. Over comes the Wolfpac and they all brawl and Goldberg slips back into the ring. Meng then takes him down with the Tongan Death Grip, clearly pinning his shoulders to the mat, but the ref ignores it. The crowd almost dies seeing their hero humbled. Goldberg then pops back up and delivers the spear and Jackhammer for the win. The crowd is still a bit rattled at the site of Goldberg down, and doesn't pop nearly as much as they usually do for the win. Hogan then comes in with a chair (after strategically circling the ring for a "sneak attack", giving Goldberg ample opportunity to spot him). Hogan nails Goldberg from behind, then runs away when Kevin Nash comes in. Nash grabs the chair just in time for Goldberg to see him. The Champ thinks it was Nash who nailed him and he takes him down with the spear. He gives his goofy-faced roar to a crowd very much confused by these events. Are those chinks in the armor that I'm seeing? - This Thursday: Hart vs. Luger. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: WCW's slow improvement continues, though at a two-step-forward/one-step- back" pace. They upped the number of matches, threw in some quality stuff, and trimmed back on a lot of the fluff. Unfortunately they did so while featuring a lot of booking which was pointless, didn't make sense, or was done out of the blue for no other probable reason than popping ratings. The two title changes for example reeked of this, materializing out of thin air and raising more questions than actually serving to continue or wrap up anything that been playing out up till now. We'll have to wait until Thunder to see if these actually meant anything, and are the start of new angles and feuds, or if the two titles go back to where they were, continuing on the path WCW was on before Nitro this week. It's easy to see that WCW is improving, and the ratings reflected that this week, though I can't really say that I'm enjoying it, nor being all that entertained. There's still too much time being devoted to wrestlers I don't care about and angles I dislike. You mileage may vary, obviously. The two title changes aside, though, this was really an almost uneventful show, looking more like a Thunder than a Nitro in many ways. Hogan and Bischoff's lessened involvement may account for that. (I can't say as that's a bad thing, actually.) Oh yeah ... NOT ONE hint, tease, or mention of the Ultimate Warrior. Every wrestling website on the Internet SWEARS he'll be making his debut next week. Maybe it's just me, but you'd think WCW would do SOMETHING to set up what would be the biggest angle of the year for them in his arrival. Either they're saving it for Thunder, it's supposed to be a surprise (that everyone already knows about), or the guy won't be on and WCW is working everyone. I haven't bought it from the start, don't color me surprised if he DOESN'T debut next week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Omaha, Nebraska. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - Before the show can even start we see Mankind down in the murky depths of whatever arena this is. He's smashing things and tossing junk around, babbling about wanting to know what the "truth" is. The truth, Mick, is that you're nuts. The recap of last week and Sunday Night Heat follows (featuring messed up audio), with the opener and fireworks after that. - Mankind hits the ring. He says only one man of late has told him the truth, and that's not Paul Bearer or Steve Austin, but Vince McMahon. He begs for McMahon to come out. Out Vince comes, though looking not too pleased to be summoned in this manner. After engaging in some personal insults, McMahon lays on his "conspiracy" line he's been giving the fans the last several weeks, pointing out how Kane and the Undertaker have perfectly worked together to not only torment him, but Steve Austin as well. This is interrupted by the arrival of Bearer and Kane. Paul says he won't have McMahon slandering the good name of his son and rants about how long he's been in the WWF and so on. McMahon asks if he's done "venting (his) spleen?" He starts to lay out the truth behind all of what's going on, the suddenly point at Kane and exclaims "that's not your son! The truth is, that's a son-of-a-bitch! That's you, Undertaker. I can smell the stench of death on you!" McMahon threatens to rip Kane's mask off if he doesn't remove it himself. Suddenly the lights go out and when they come back on, the Undertaker has replaced Kane and has McMahon in a chokehold! Mankind attacks, allowing McMahon to escape. Both Mankind and Paul Bearer get dumped out by the Undertaker. The two help each other away, with Bearer crying "it's not true!" After Ross runs down the card they cut to the back, where the Undertaker is heading to a dressing room. As the door opens we get a look at someone who looks like Kane waiting inside for him. - Sable comes out to introduce the Oddities. Luna, Kurrgan, the Giant Silva and Golga dance their way to the ring. The crowd dances along, making me laugh and cry at the same time. - LUNA (w/ the Oddities) vs. JACQUELINE (w/ Marc Mero) If you've ever seen one non-Japanese women's wrestling match, you've probably seen them all. Lots of hair pulling and missed moves. Luna wins with a splash off the top that misses by a foot. Sable knocks Mero off the apron during the match and the Kurrgan comes over to back her up. Looks like Sable and the Kurrgan will be facing Mero and Jackie at SummerSlam. After the match Sable gives Jacqueline's Bikini Contest trophy to Luna, with Luna acting like it's the first kind thing anyone's ever done for her. They cut away from the Kurrgan's Dance Party to show Michael Cole in the back, who relays the incredibly obvious news that Steve Austin is concerned about tonight's main event (a four way tag match for the titles). - They show the kick-ass SummerSlam promo which debuted the night before on Sunday Night Heat. Too bad the audio was screwed up so that we hear music and voices coming from the live crowd. - The New Age Outlaws arrive by themselves in a limo. Much is made of this, and how it relates to DeGeneration X's upcoming announcement later tonight. - DARREN DROZDOV vs. SAVIO VEGA Brawl For All. Droz advanced over Hawk when those two fought to a draw and Hawk was unable (because of a broken nose) to fight a rematch. Savio advanced by beating Brakus a month or so ago. This one was completely forgettable, with very little happening until the last few moments of the third round. Droz gets the decision, which the crowd seems to like. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna pull up to the arena in a sweet little BMW coup. After the break Michael Cole asks Chyna about the tensions in D-X. She tells him to "suck it!" and pushes him into the car seat. - The LOD 2000 come out for the next match. Unfortunately when the pyros go off Hawk, again in "no condition to wrestle", gets spooked and tumbles off the ramp. Animal walks over to him with a disgusted look, identical to the tone of Jim Ross' voice in describing this scene. Lawler suggests it may have just been an accident as they cut away to an "unexpected" commercial. Once back we see that Commissioner Slaughter is out and will not allow Hawk to wrestle. Hawk, red-faced and practically blowing bubbles, asks why not? Cuz you're piss-drunk, that's why. Southern Justice comes out and Hawk makes a poor showing when a brawl breaks out. As he's carted away by the officials Darren Drozdov runs out to replace him. - LOD ANIMAL/DARREN DROZDOV vs. SOUTHERN JUSTICE No match. Almost immediately Jeff Jarrett runs out carrying a guitar (which has "Don't Piss Me Off") written on the back. Jarrett smashes it over Droz's head, then produces a pair of clippers and shaves a few inches of Droz's ponytail off. Before the non-match they showed a clip of Jarrett and Southern Justice dumping Tennessee Lee as their manager on Sunday Night Heat. X-Pac has arrived outside. - The members of DeGeneration X assemble in the ring. Helmsley starts to outline the tensions the group has been experiencing, but is cut off by X-Pac, who says he sick of Helmsley and his "bitch" Chyna. He says Triple H is nothing but a "jack-off". Rather than retype that term again, let me just say that between HHH, X-Pac and the Outlaws it gets repeated about fifty times, pretty much tipping off where this whole thing is going. Helmsley says the only two options they have is to stay together, or split up (as had been rumored for the last week on the Internet). Helmsley opts for the split, then begins to unbuckle his pants just so he, and the other D-X members, can show everyone their "splits". Chyna stops them, though, and asks Triple H if he's ever considered that everyone is sick of seeing all their assess. Helmsley says it's what they've come to see. Nonetheless, Chyna says if there's going to be any kind of split, she'll be the one to start it. So she drops her pants, flashing her buns of steel at the crowd. Ross sputters that we've all been had, though the unspoken assertion is that the WWF worked the Internet again. Helmsley then flashes the crowd and unsuccessfully attempts to talk a girl into flashing the crowd. Much like their "sophomoric" antics of a few months back this was only moderately amusing, and took way too much TV time to pull off. Austin is in the back and the smirk on his face tells us what he thought of all this. After the break he shoves Michael Cole into a shower when the broomstick of an announcer tries to get comments. Doesn't he know by now that Stone Cold is the wrong man to talk to--any time! The hour ends having featured an embarrassingly low number of matches and amount of wrestling. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. - Godfather Kama comes out with three ho's. Bart Gunn, meanwhile, shows up at the announcer's desk to rag on Jim Ross for not hyping up his knockout of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams more than he did (playing of the supposed rumors of Ross being upset over what Bart did). Bart threatens to knock someone out tonight. - GODFATHER KAMA (w/ the ho's) vs. VADER Kama offers the ho's to Vader. After some consideration Vader accepts! OH HELL YEAH! Vader then makes the mistake of saying something to Bart down on the floor. Bart K.O.'s him, then goes after Kama in the ring. Needless to say this match is canceled. - Val Venis and John Wayne Bobbitt pull up to the arena in a limo. - Dustin Runnels offers a public service announcement warning about the adult content of the next segment. He mentions a special about reptiles playing on The Discover Channel and that we'd be better off watching that. The piece ends with a graphic reading that this has bee sponsored by the "Evangelists Against Television, Movies and Entertainment." Take the first letter of each and you get "EAT ME"--a not-too-subtle jab at the WWF's critics these days. - John Wayne Bobbitt wheels Val Venis to the ring in a wheelchair. They are accompanied by Mrs. Yamaguchi. Venis has an ice bag on his groin. Once in the ring he says he's "only half the man (he) used to be", as well as other various dink jokes. It turns out he's just faking though, as he was saved last week by it being chilly on that wooden butcher block, causing Yamaguchi-san's sword swing to miss the mark. Bobbitt makes a few jokes, proving immediately to be awful behind the mic. Val then dumps Mrs. Yamaguchi, saying no woman is worth the trouble she caused him. Val gives her a battery as a going-away present, so that she can, umm, err, find a suitable replacement for him. As with the D-X segment above the effort was only barely amusing, and both "major announcements" turned out to be practical jokes. - BRADSHAW vs. "MARVELOUS" MARC MERO Brawl For All. The winner here will face Darren Drozdov next week. The other semi-final match will feature Bart Gunn vs. Kama. Mero is back in the tournament because Steve Blackman injured himself training. Mero fares little better this time around as the bout ends with a draw after three rounds (though Mero looked to be the winner). A fourth round is added, which draws a number of boo's from the crowd. The fourth round is uneventful and again though it looked like Mero should have won, Bradshaw earns the decision. Three more fights, I tell myself: three more fights and the Brawl For All will be gone forever. - Clips recount what happened earlier in the show. Michael Cole, that glutton for punishment, then gets comments from the Undertaker in the back. - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN/THE UNDERTAKER vs. KANE/MANKIND vs. THE NEW AGE OUTLAWS vs. ROCKY MAIVIA/OWEN HART In a nice bit of continuity they point out that the Outlaws won a match like this by the Road Dog allowing Billy Gunn to pin him. Because of that the "Outlaw Rule" will be in effect, whereby tag team partners can still be tagged in, but they can't pin each other. It'd make a lot more sense, and avoid that situation, if they just made it so that both tag team partners can't be in at the same time. As Road Dog and Gunn do their usual routine for the crowd Ken Shamrock runs in and attacks Owen Hart. The rest of the Nation, D-X, the referees and Steve Blackman all come out to sort through the brawl that ensues. The last commercial break of the show is taken to settle things down. Once back we see that D-Lo Brown has replaced Owen. Long story short here this was a decent match, starting strong, slowing down a bit in the middle, then getting messy at the end as everyone comes in and out freely and chaos reigns. At about the fourteen minute mark as everyone is brawling down on the floor Kane gets hold of the Undertaker, chokeslams him, and covers for the pin. New World Tag Team Champions (as if there was really any doubt). The show ends with Austin giving his partner a loooooooong look, wondering how it was that he was able to go down so easily at the hands of Kane, (something I'm sure we'll hear Vince McMahon talk about next week). - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: An entertaining show as it went along, but in hindsight, and once it was over, the show was really lacking and disappointing. There were only six matches, two of which didn't even take place, two others which were Brawl For All Bouts, and another which featured two girls fighting for three minutes. This was really a one match show and while it was a good match, it didn't make up completely for the lack of action leading up to it. I'm still going to give RAW the win this week (mainly because it entertained me far more than Nitro Monday night), but it's a pretty narrow decision (and one which I'm sure will get me some hate mail). Nitro was only one surprise away, or RAW one Dan Severn appearance away, from me giving the win to WCW this week. Chalk it up to my bias if you wish, I wouldn't argue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Nitro, with their packed show this week, managed to squeak by with an ever-so-narrow ratings victory. They scored a 4.7, 4.6 and 4.7 for an overall composite just under 4.7. RAW earned a 4.3 and a 4.8 for a 4.55 composite. The head-to-head fight was just a slight bit closer, with the WWF again having the most watched show of the week with the War Zone. A ratings difference very similar to this a few weeks back in RAW's favor caused WCW hotline stooge Mark Madden to declare it "a virtual dead-heat". I wonder if he'll be as candid this time around? Nitro's key to success this week was pulling in a big audience the first hour and keeping them there. Except for a very slight bleed-off as RAW started, their audience remained constant throughout the night. RAW, on the other hand, started off weaker than usual, holding back Steve Austin for the second hour and focusing on the much lower level talent such as the Oddities. The much hyped main event and D-X and Val Venis interviews did the job in bringing in the big number of viewers, but not enough to boost up their overall rating and give them the win. For WCW this clearly shows to them that their fans have been waiting for more matches, possibly longer matches, and decent exhibitions of in-ring talent. They essentially did the opposite of what they usually do and got the win. This is where their larger roster and greater depth of talent served them the best, as they were able to feature strong wrestlers such as Mysterio and Jericho, as well as the Hart/Luger match. This is where RAW usually draws viewers away and any other week it probably would have given RAW the win. Not this week, though, as Nitro held onto those viewers. For the WWF this was a wake-up call that there's a fine line between doing what works--which this week's show still did in most respects--and what will put them over the top. The WWF's top talent managed to beat WCW's top talent, but it was in the first hour that they failed to click with the fans and draw them away from Nitro. This is of course all good news for WCW, and a good sign to them that they're on the right track. The WWF doesn't need to panic ... yet. Where they need to be careful is in the upcoming weeks. RAW is taped next week, then live going into the SummerSlam PPV. Then the night after that and the following week RAW won't be on, being preempted by the U.S. Open. There will be make-up shows shown the following Fridays, but both will be taped and in the past these timeslots haven't been exactly kind to the WWF. This is a prime opportunity for WCW to shine and one can almost guarantee that the ratings are going to do a reversal for a while, with WCW on top by a relatively comfortable margin. The WWF has to do all they can to maintain their ratings leading up to SummerSlam, then making whatever coverage they get the following two weeks compelling enough so that RAW will draw big numbers when it returns live on September 14th. There's talk that the USA Network might be able to do something with the tennis coverage to squeeze RAW in for those two weeks, but nothing definite has been announced yet, and the odds of them being able to do it are probably slim. One good piece of ratings news for the WWF has been the success of Sunday Night Heat. Last week it debuted with a 3.7 rating. This week it ballooned to a 4.2. With numbers like these it could become a permanent addition to the USA Network lineup. SNH is taped for the next two weeks, with the final installment on the 30th being live to serve as an hour-long countdown show for SummerSlam. [Ratings figures courtesy 1Wrestling.com.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 143 of the "Monday Night Recap", August 10th, 1998.