Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #150 September 28th, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Rochester, New York. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - A video promo hypes the "Hollywood" Hogan/Warrior match scheduled for Halloween Havoc. - Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall and Brian Adams come out. Hall, according to Schiavone, looks a bit less shaky this week. A huge Vince McMahon poster at ringside has to be confiscated before they can commit to the straight-on camera angle. The usual Hogan interview, with the exception that he now calls himself "Wood". He throws out a challenge to Bret Hart and Sting, who he calls the two biggest cry babies in WCW. He says his "wood" (penis) has it's "war bonnet" on (condom), that they (Sting and Hart) both "want a piece of his wood" (they're gay), and that he's going to start "rip 'em apart" (anal sex). I'm serious! Intentional or not, the homoerotic imagery Hogan brings up throughout this speech is blatantly self-evident. - LA PARKA vs. SUPER CALO I hear this was a good match, but I didn't watch much of it myself. It's hard to care much about guys who haven't been on TV in a while, and will most likely be jobbing to Ernest Miller and Wrath by next week. La Parka gets the pin following a corkscrew moonsault. Afterwards Calo snaps, having been driven to heel-dom because he lost cleanly in a hard-fought match. He goes after La Park with a plastic chair, laying in some fakey, wimpy shots to the (10%) ribs and (90%) mat. - "Mean" Gene Okerlund interviews Bret "Hitman" Hart. Hart says he's waited for years to face Hogan, and that he talked it over with Sting and that Hart will get the first shot. Hart says he's going to kick the "living crap" out of him, getting a good response from the fans. - THE DISCIPLE vs. SCOTTY RIGGS Does it annoy anyone else that last year, just after the WWF created a group of bikers called the "Disciples of Apocalypse", that Hogan thinks up a gimmick for his best pal Ed Leslie. And what is that gimmick? A biker ... named the Disciple ... with a finisher called the Apocalypse. And what is the "Apocalypse"? A Stone Cold Stunner. The Disciple wins, then shakes the rope like the Warrior. - Recap of how many times Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell have screwed over the fans. After this they announce that Chris Jericho has challenged Goldberg, and the two will fight later. Add this to that Hogan/Hart match and we have two "Dream Matches", declares Schiavone. If that means the rest of the show will put me to sleep first, I believe it. - SCOTT STEINER (w/ Buff Bagwell) vs. NICK DINSMORE/LENNY LANE Has anyone in WCW ever been pushed as hard as these two have without being required to wrestle a decent match? (Besides Hulk Hogan or Lex Luger, I mean?) Steiner wins this handicap match in the exact same way he won last week's handicap match. Steiner then acts like his back is hurt. A trainer comes out to check on him. To even guess what this was all about would require me to care. Since I don't, I won't. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - The Warrior walks to the ring and talks, saying much the same as everything he's already said up to now in WCW. The highlight is a fan trying to run in midway through. The lowlights are everything he says. At least there was no magical smoke this week. - "Mean" Gene interviews Buff Bagwell. I'll be damned if I'm going to bother with this, except to mention that the "spooky laughter" shows up again halfway through. You wouldn't believe the goofy rumor floating around about what this REALLY is supposed to be. (Hint: it's not the Sandman's new gimmick, according to the latest rumor.) - PSYCHOSIS vs. ERNEST MILLER The names change, but the results remain the same. Look at any Recap over the last three or four weeks and you'll guess how this one came out. - "Mean" Gene interviews Alex Wright. See above. - CHAVO INFERNO (w/ Pepe) vs. DISCO INFERNO In case you missed it Thursday, Disco beat Chavo in a decent match, but had the decision overturned when it was revealed (by Juventud Guerrera) that Disco had lied on the match paperwork and was too heavy to wrestle against a Cruiserweight. Well, not too heavy, but too heavy to get a win that counted in the Cruiserweight Division. Instead of doing the logical thing and letting the win count (but not towards a Cruiserweight Title shot), they instead DQ'ed him and gave Chavo the win. So why the rematch? And why was Juventud poking into Disco's paperwork in the first place? Here Disco gets the win, but seems to have a handful of tights in the process, which is pointed out by Juventud Guerrera. Yes, Juventud Guerrera, who is only out there so he can be in position to see the rules infraction in the first place. He then attacks Disco because Disco cheated. It's all for nought, though, as Disco is not DQ'ed, and he nails Juventud from behind. Do they have to go to all this trouble just to set up a Disco/Guerrera feud? If I actually cared I'd cheer for Disco, because all these damn Mexicans keep poking their noses into his business. (No offense to Mexican.) - They play a Four Horsemen video which, I believe, also aired last Thursday, and looks a lot like the ad for the Power Plant that they always show. "Mean" Gene then brings out the Horsemen, including Ric Flair. Flair is barely able to "whoo!" and say the name of the town, though, before Eric Bischoff comes out with a bunch of security and has them escorted from the ring. Yeah, that'll get the big ratings. Stevie Ray is there too, because Arn Anderson committed "felonious assault" by knocking him out with a tire iron last Thursday. - Chris Jericho makes the long walk to the ring with his porky security ninjas. - CHRIS JERICHO vs. GOLDBERG No match. Goldberg comes out carrying the phony midget Goldberg slung over his shoulder. Once Jericho spots him he runs away. So the fans don't riot, Goldberg spears the two security guards, and gives one the Jackhammer. So much for "Dream Match #1". - "Mean" Gene interviews Diamond Dallas Page in the ring. - SCOTT HALL (w/ Vincent) vs. KIDMAN Schiavone again mentions how Hall looks a bit better this week. A few moves from Kidman aside, this was all Hall. Late in the match he allows himself to get distracted by going after the drink Vincent is carrying. This allows Kidman to rally and get in a bunch of offense. Hall turns the tables, though, and wins with the Outsider's Edge. Schiavone can't even make the obvious connection by pointing out that when Hall isn't thinking about booze, he wrestles fine. Heenan just makes "last call" jokes. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - ALEX WRIGHT vs. THE BRITISH BULLDOG This match is the result of a challenge thrown out by Wright in his interview early in the show. Before the match the Bulldog tells Wright to "Suck It!" A not too terrible match, but c'mon ... it's Alex Wright! The finish comes when the ref takes a bump and the Bulldog goes for the pin. Seeing the ref out (he was knocked out by Wright's boot as the Bulldog hoisted him for a slam), the Bulldog tries to awaken him as another runs to the ring. Wright rolls the Bulldog up and both refs make a three count. Each wrestler lifts a shoulder, so each ref declares a different man the winner. Arrrrgh .... rematch! - Kevin Nash video. - KEVIN NASH vs. BRIAN ADAMS Nash, the lazy bastard that he is, puts in less than three minutes of wrestling this week. Must be nice to get paid a half-million dollars a year to work for three minutes a week. (He does take a bump to the floor, though. I will give him that.) Stevie Ray walks in and nails Nash in the head with his leather sap. Hall comes out and the beating continues, until Lex Luger and Konan run out to make the save. - LEX LUGER/KONAN vs. BARRY DARSOW/HUGH MORRUS It's hard to criticize any match the WWF ever puts on RAW when WCW is willing to put on matches like this in their third hour. Is this actually supposed to be entertaining to WCW's fans? I once wrote that WCW thinks it's enough to offer fans the "privilege" of seeing their name stars in action. Matches like this back up that assertion. Why don't they just do this as a dark match and save us fans at home the agony? I can't complain too much, though, as stuff like this makes it much easier to change the channel without worrying that you'll miss anything (except for maybe an NWO run-in--like we haven't seen enough of those anyway). - It's next: Hogan vs. Hart, facing each other for the first time ever (for the third time in as many months. First time in a singles match, though). Michael Buffer does the honors. - "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN vs. BRET "HITMAN" HART We all know how these matches go, don't we? This is a "PPV caliber" match, so something has to happen to screw it up to "save it" for a future PPV. (The WWF does this all the time as well, so it's not as if we haven't come to expect it.) Anyway, surprise #1 actually comes when Hogan dips into his playbook, doing the one of two wrestling moves he actually knows (his spin-around, drop toehold combo). He uses the other move a few minutes later: an armbar step-over into a leg armbar. No punches are thrown (which should have been a clue), but Hogan does land a clothesline and a body-slam. Hart responds with a weak clothesline of his own. (Don't get me wrong: I had no idea what was going down. I should have, but didn't.) Hart lightly throws Hogan into the post. Back in the ring Hogan knocks Hart back to the floor. Twice he drops Hart across the ring rail, aiming for Hart's "bad" knee. He wraps the leg around the corner post. Hogan then applies a step-over toehold ... ... at which point Sting runs in. Sting pushes Hogan off. No decision is rendered, but Hart's friends make the decision for him that he can't go on. As Hart is being carted away by EMT's and the Wolfpac, Sting takes Hart's place in the match. So much for "Dream Match #2". - STING vs. "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN Hart is wheeled to a waiting ambulance, protesting all the way. Before they reach the ambulance, though, Luger and Konan are jumped by Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner. Hart gets up from the stretcher and begins limping back to the ring. Sting and Hogan, meanwhile are going at it like every other match they've ever done. Sting hits the Stinger Splash, then applies the Scorpion Deathlock. Hart, now at ringside, climbs in the ring and roots Sting on. He then walks over, grabs Sting's head and DDT's him! Why, oh why didn't I see this coming?! Hart and Hogan beat on Sting, working over his knee. Hart's knee, of course, is just fine. Hogan bows to the genius of Hart for this intricately detailed double-cross. Luger and Konan will eventually make their way out to pull out Sting. The show ends with Hogan and Hart literally basking in a spotlight in the ring. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. Taped last week. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I think we can easily discard this entire show, except for the last match, from any kind of conversation or analysis. There's just no point: it's the same show we see every week. I congratulate WCW on the way they managed to pull off the Hart double- cross (can't really call it a "heel turn" as Hart only faked the babyface turn to begin with). I do have to question whether it was necessary, though. Much like what they did with Buff Bagwell a few months back, WCW seemed on the verge of making him into a huge good guy. The fans seemed to have bought Hart's contrition speech last week, and the phony knee injury gained him genuine sympathy. They were ready to cheer him on. Now he's back to being a heel, and while he's generated himself some much needed heat, Hart fans are quickly overlooking the fact that Hart is STILL "Hollywood" Hogan's lackey, and buried in his shadow. Whereas before he seemed destined for a push which would lead, presumably, to a win over Hogan, he's now set on a path in which he'll feud with Sting: a feud which, logically, he should lose, as Sting gets his revenge. Of course logic rarely comes into play in WCW, and it's far more likely that the two will swap a few wins, with no definite ending to the feud ever given. Of course with all the good guys WCW already has (Goldberg, Warrior, DDP, Nash, Luger, Sting, Piper and Flair), it always did make much more sense for Hart to play the heel (having only Hogan and the Giant to contend with). Still, with all the flip-flopping Hart has already done, we'll have to see how much the lasting impact of this is. Sting isn't exactly at the level he used to be, so pulling a fast one on him wouldn't have the same impact it would if they had done it to Goldberg, or Flair (as examples). Hart finally has the fan heat he's been seeking. Now lets see if WCW can do something to build upon it with half the cunning and ingenuity they showed pulling this angle off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Detroit, Michigan. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - Show opens with a replay of the video montage which opened the previous night's PPV. This in turn was lifted from the opening for the In Your House "Over the Edge" PPV earlier this year. - *KEE-RASH!* Here comes "Stone Cold" Vince McMahon, escorted by Patterson, Brisco, Slaughter and a squad of Detroit policemen. McMahon, wearing what in these parts we call a "shit-eatin' grin", climbs into the ring carrying Steve Austin's WWF Championship belt, and quickly points out to the fans how when he guarantees something, it comes true. He warns Austin that he will not get a rematch for the title, but to show that there's no hard feelings, he's declaring tonight "Stone Cold Night". McMahon even brought a "welcoming committee", at which point we're shown the outside of the arena, where the entrance has been blocked off by more police, squad cars and wooden barriers. The new WWF Champion will be crowned later, and will be done so with the old WWF Title belt. Austin's new belt will find a home on over McMahon's fireplace, on his mantle, in one of his homes. To finish up the piece he stands there and allows Sgt. Slaughter to strap the belt around his waist. McMahon climbs the corner post to pose, mocking Steve Austin, who McMahon invites to join in on tonight's festivities ... if he has the guts. - Road Dog and Billy Gunn come out to work up the crowd. His throat now better, Road Dog is able to do his usual opener, accompanied by tremendous crowd response. After the commercial--before the next match can start--Jerry Lawler says that what he has to say about Jim Carrey will have to wait until Carrey himself shows up on RAW. He does say that what we've heard from the press thus far isn't true, and that if he had really attacked Carrey, the comedian would still be in the hospital. I have no idea if this is the start of an actual angle, or an empty tease to get us tuning in expecting to see Carrey. Stay tuned, I guess. - THE NEW AGE OUTLAWS vs. SOUTHERN JUSTICE Over in a flash, which is how even we WWF fans like it. Southern Justice are simply terrible, and no fun at all to watch. They win by DQ when Road Dog plasters one of them with a guitar. This pisses of Billy Gunn, who was just about to score the win cleanly himself. The two begin to argue. Fellow DeGeneration X member X-Pac runs in to try and smooth things over, but to no avail. Chyna even wheels the injured D-X leader Hunter Hearst Helmsley to ringside, but Gunn blows by them on his way out ... or at least he tries to. Triple H grabs his arm, twice, but both times Gunn shrugs him off, and has to shove his way past Chyna when she gets in his face. Now if this isn't a tease of a break-up, I don't know what is. - A quick head count shows at least ten police officers outside awaiting the arrival of Austin. - DAN "THE BEAST" SEVERN vs. OWEN HART Detroit is, I guess, Severn's hometown, and he says hi to some NHL Detroit Red Wings who have ringside seats. A quick jump to the back shows us Michael Cole situated outside D-X's lockerroom. Seems the fireworks are continuing backstage. This match is Owen Hart's chance to get back at Severn for deserting him in Owen's "Lion's Den" match against Ken Shamrock at SummerSlam. It starts off with Severn suplexing Owen, getting a good response from the crowd. Owen reciprocates, and it looks for a minute like we have the makings of a decent match. Owen then goes for the Tombstone Piledriver, but drops Severn sitting instead of on his knees. Severn's exposed head hits the mat, just like Steve Austin's--in his match against Owen--last year at SummerSlam. The match is stopped, Owen looks concerned, and they cut to a commercial. Yes, we have another "injury" the fans can debate about. Having been wrong myself last week, (it turns out that Villano IV really did hurt himself when powerbombed by Raven and Kanyon), I'll let you all make up your own minds, (though I think the truth this time is a bit more obvious). After the break Severn is shown being loaded into an ambulance. Poor timing on the WWF's part, as over on the "Monday Night Football" game the exact same thing was happening to a player there--and with that we KNOW it was real. Well ... he didn't get Piledrived, but you know what I mean. How much do you want to bet that the Piledriver gets banned in the near future? - VADER (w/ Commissioner Slaughter) vs. AL SNOW (W/ Head) Slaughter is with Vader because of his ongoing issue with Snow. I don't know if Snow is from Michigan, but he has wrestled there extensively in the indy's. He gets a good pop coming in. The match itself is nothing, as Snow only waits about a minute before knocking Vader out with the Head. Cutting out to something that is actually interesting, we see Billy Gunn dragging his luggage on his way out the arena. What started as a tease has erupted into a full-blow "incident". Things'll have to be pretty copacetic in D-X in the coming weeks to avoid the inevitable break-up. - EDGE vs. GANGREL vs. DROZ vs. JEFF JARRETT vs. MARC MERO vs. D-LO BROWN This is billed as a "Six-Man Four Corners Elimination Match", which is a pretty misleading description, as there are no teams, and anyone can tag anyone else in. The wrestlers are randomly situated around the apron, and at any time there must be two in the ring. Wrestlers are eliminated via pinfall, submission or countout. The winner gets a European Title shot next week. Got it? Gangrel is the first to be eliminated when he blows an elbow off the second turnbuckle, with Edge covering for the pin. D-Lo then comes in and Edge is quick to tag Darren Drozdov in. Droz wrestles like the LOD back when they didn't stink. D-Lo tags Jeff Jarrett in, who delivers a pretty drop-kick and gives D-Lo an earful, (nice to see the heels act nasty to each other). Droz comes back with a clothesline, going over the top rope with Jarrett. The two continue to brawl on the floor and are subsequently counted out. Edge and Marc Mero move into the ring, where Mero lays Edge out with a Samoan Drop. He then goes up top, but D-Lo starts bouncing on the ropes, upsetting Mero's balance. He drops down astraddle the top turnbuckle. Edge moves in and takes him off with a huracanrana. He covers for the pin, but moves away at two as D-Lo comes off the top with the Sky High, hitting Mero instead. D-Lo celebrates, leaving him open for a drop-kick from Edge, which knocks him to the floor. Edge goes back to pinning Mero, then leaps out of the ring with a cross-body onto D-Lo. Back in the ring Edge is distracted by the arrival of Gangrel and the mystery guy who showed up at the PPV. This allows D-Lo to apply the Low Down for the win. D-Lo gets a chance to win his European Title back next week. Short match, but good for what it was. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. - Mr. McMahon puts in his second appearance, this time to announce the new WWF Champion. A red carpet has been laid in the ring. A new WWF Title belt, with the same design as the one used for most of the last decade, is inside a plexiglass case (like they did when they awarded the title to Kane the night after the King of the Ring PPV). McMahon takes his time introducing the Undertaker, then Kane. Just as he begins running down the accomplishments of the two, and why one of them is worthy enough to be Mr. McMahon's idea of what a WWF Champion should be ... ... the most recent WWF Champion--"Stone Cold" Steve Austin--breaks his way through a steel fence while riding a zamboni! Several police officers are less-than-convincingly stunned to see this large piece of hockey arena apparatus barreling towards them. Unfortunately the sound decides to go dead at this moment, perhaps because Austin ran over a cable or something. (That, or he's cussing a blue streak and they blow a circuit trying to censor him.) Austin drunkenly weaves his way through the assembled law enforcement officers (and that's just a figure of speech, and has nothing to do with the big "Miller Beer" logo on the zamboni--no nasty E-Mails please). He plows through the wooden barricades, clips a lighting stand, and roars his way into the arena. About this time the audio comes back, though it's a tinny secondary audio signal which doesn't match the live action (the video, of course, having the few second delay for the censor's sake). Slamming the zamboni into the ring (knocking the whole things a few inches off it's foundations), Austin then rears up, flips everyone off and takes a running dive at McMahon, catching him with a flying clothesline! Several punches follow, until the police officers in the ring descend upon him. As if all this wasn't wild enough, some fan at ringside tosses one of those inflatable WWF punching bags into the ring. McMahon, meanwhile, shakes the cobwebs from his head and begins fighting back, until he too is held back by policemen. Austin, in handcuffs, is lead from the ring to one of the waiting squad cars. McMahon, following behind, begins yelling "You take his ass to jail! You son-of-a-bitch! Take his ass to jail!" The audio goes back to normal as Austin squirms his way back to his feet. McMahon, flipping Austin his middle finger, yells "let him go!" The squad car pulls off into the night, while McMahon has to be helped away to compose himself. After the break McMahon limps back out. In a shocking turn of events he tells the Undertaker and Kane that neither one of them will be getting the World Title. Since McMahon has been attacked by Austin on three separate occasions recently, they didn't live up to the bargain they made with him. Therefore, neither will he. The Undertaker and Kane will instead have to fight one another for the title at the next PPV, In Your House "Judgment Day" on October 18th. As a further punishment to them, McMahon says he will let Steve Austin be the guest referee in that match, forcing Austin to suffer the indignity of having to make the pin count for one of the two to win the Title. What's more, so that everyone gets their money's worth tonight, the Undertaker and Kane will have to team up in a handicap match ... against Ken Shamrock, Mankind and the Rock! McMahon wraps up with an insult, saying dealing with Kane and the Undertaker has been like dealing with the handicapped, because one of them is "physical", while the other is "mental". The Undertaker doesn't take too kindly to this and grabs McMahon, telling him watch his ass, because the next time he runs afoul of either he or his brother, McMahon will be the one who winds up handicapped. The Undertaker and Kane turn away, and McMahon gives them the double middle fingers, but the two turn back in time to see this. Pow! The Undertaker drops McMahon with a right. He then hovers over him, laying in blows with both fists. No sooner does he move away, when Kane steps in and begins stomping. The two Brothers of Doom stomp away as the roof blows off the Joe Louis Arena! The Undertaker continues the beating as Kane drops to the floor to hold off any help for McMahon. Most of this happens off-screen, though we do get to see Jerry Brisco unmercifully slammed into the ring steps. The two eventually drag McMahon out of the ring and over to the aforementioned steel ring steps. The Undertaker hoists the top steps as Kane lays McMahon's right leg across the bottom half. Pausing just long enough to let the crowd realize how nasty this is going to be, the Undertaker smashes the ring steps across McMahon's leg. McMahon screams, as his leg now droops in a very realistic manner. The two brothers walk out to a huge reaction, as McMahon's flunkies begin assembling and calling for assistance. Another break has gone by and McMahon is waiting in the back for the ambulance to arrive. It seems the ambulance they usually have on standby is gone, because they already used it to haul Dan Severn away earlier in the evening. As everyone tries to comfort McMahon, one figure in particular is noticeable: Mankind, who stands nearby, offering McMahon a drink of his soda. - MARK HENRY vs. FAAROOQ Chyna is the special referee, and before the match they replay what went down between her and Mark Henry the previous night on Sunday Night Heat. Faarooq, wherever he's been, has been working out. Looks like he lost 20 pounds at least. The match is a quickie, with Chyna giving Henry a low blow, then making a fast count when Faarooq covers for the pin. Before anything else can happen, though, a man enters the ring and hands Chyna a special delivery packet. In it are some legal looking papers, which she crumples up and throws away. Henry can be seen retrieving them as the segment ends, and one has to assume that he filed some kind of papers against her. A "restraining order", or something like that. McMahon is just being loaded into the ambulance. Mankind still tries to offer him a drink of his tasty beverage. - Michael Cole gets comments from Ken Shamrock, who says he doesn't like Detroit much. Didn't Dan Severn beat him in Detroit in one of their UFC match-ups? In any event, Shamrock seems destined for a heel turn. - Steven Regal: A Man's Man. Funny, but pointless. - THE ODDITIES vs. THE HEAD BANGERS The Oddities come out with the Insane Clown Posse, who also hail from Detroit. I wish they'd have gotten this out of the way an hour earlier. It goes quick, with the Kurgan getting the pin after some interference by the ICP. I fear we'll be seeing the clowns vs. the other clowns in a tag team match any day now. Michael Cole gets comments from the Rock. I'd tell you what he said, but I think my brother accidentally taped over this late Monday night while watching the tape at work. The Rock starts to speak, then I have 20 seconds of CNN footage. Arrgh! We then see Val Venis seemingly enjoying himself. He asks Terri Runnels, down below the camera, if she found those earrings she was looking for? I don't think she'll find them where's she's been looking. - VAL VENIS (w/ Terri Runnels) vs. X-PAC X-Pac is wearing a bandage over his eye, due to the guitar shot he took from Jeff Jarrett the night before. The match goes well between the two for a few minutes, until Terri interferes by tripping X-Pac. This brings out Chyna, who shoves Terri down--and I do mean SHOVE, as in she goes flying like ten feet! Val gets in Chyna's face, but X-Pac catches him with a baseball slide. He and Chyna then go to stomping, giving Val the DQ win. Val and Terri celebrate with a hearty grope session in the ring, only to be interrupted by some all-too-familiar music, a "Shattered Dreams Production" logo on the Titan-Tron, and a shower of gold dust from the ceiling. Yes fans, as I predicted some six or eight weeks ago, the "he" who is "coming back" is none other than Goldust! (And it's none too soon, judging by the crowd's reaction. Huge pop for Goldust's music.) - Michael Cole gets comments from Mankind. Mick Foley is a genius behind the mic. - THE UNDERTAKER/KANE vs. MANKIND/KEN SHAMROCK/THE ROCK For almost fifteen minutes this war rages in and out of the ring. It starts off with Shamrock jumping Mankind before any of the others have even come out. This scene would be repeated all through the match, as both men, along with the Rock, would be at odds and occasionally come to blows. Things settle down a bit when the Undertaker and Kane finally come out and the match starts proper. The Rock is the focus of the Undertaker's early offense. The Mankind winds up taking a huge amount of punishment, including a shot to the steps, a choke with a camera cable, and a steel chair shot to the head. Mankind would go on to hit Kane with DDT and make the hot tag to the Rock. Rocky does a DDT of his own on the Undertaker, followed by a bodyslam and the People's Elbow. Kane comes in for the save. A few tags later and Shamrock and the Undertaker are in together. The Undertaker bounces off the ropes, but Shamrock drops him into an anklelock. Again, Kane makes the save. Shamrock tags the Rock in, then knocks Kane to the floor. The Undertaker whips the Rock into the ropes and clotheslines him (which may have been a goof). They repeat it, only this time the Rock holds on and takes the Undertaker down with the Rock Bottom. 1-2-3 and the Rock has a clean pin on the Undertaker! The show ends with the brothers toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose, asking each other who messed up? - Next week: D-Lo Brown vs. X-Pac for the European Title. Comments: One of the best live RAW's in recent months. The entire angle with Austin, McMahon, the Undertaker and Kane was one of the best twenty minute stretches either Monday night show has put on this year. The main event was a lengthy one, capped off by an all-too-rare clean finish. A number of nice moments here and there made up for some of the weaker matches in the middle of the show. Coming off the disappointing PPV the WWF needed to put on an explosive show to reassure their fans that they know what they're doing and have some direction. I think they managed that here. Having just watched it again, I'm still blown away by it. Taking this show and the PPV together, the WWF set up a nice one-two punch. I still wish I hadn't been one of the ones to pay $30 just to see the set-up, but I feel a little bit better about it having now seen the knock-out. A slight correction from last week: I mentioned that the mystery woman seen at ringside two weeks ago during the Sable/Jacqueline "Evening Gown" match wasn't in attendance last week. It turns out that she actually was, though they only showed her for a moment at the start of last week's Sable/Jackie Women's Title match. Sorry about missing that. Of course since Sable wasn't on this week, no mystery woman. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Hopefully the WWF will see the errors they just made and spend some more attention building up the undercard for "Judgment Day". The main event is already set, and I don't think too much more needs to be done to keep that hot. Let's hope they use their time to make us interested in the other matches. Unfortunately they only have three weeks to set it up, meaning we'll have only one more live RAW before then. Due to a scheduling fluke, we'll then have a live RAW after the PPV, giving us two live RAW's in a row. That should give us a good kick-off to the build for Survivor Series. If I had to guess now, I'd bet that our next big main event will be the Undertaker vs. the Rock for the WWF Championship. So where does that leave Austin? With a question like that, as well as all the new talent slowly making its way into the WWF, and some of the talent already there staring to get way over with the fans, the WWF could have a lot of cards in their deck to play with over the next few months. Then Shawn Michaels comes back, and there's the Royal Rumble, which leads to WrestleMania ... take it all together and things look pretty good for the WWF for some time to come. And WCW? Awww ... I'll just celebrate this 150th installment of the Recap by cutting them some slack and letting them slide this week. Time to get back to my new Playstation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 150 of the "Monday Night Recap", September 28th, 1998.