Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #164 January 4th, 1999 The Opening Word: Too much happening this week to waste time jabbering here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours. Location: Atlanta, Georgia. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - Dramatic footage of Kevin Nash versus Goldberg opens the show. Tonight they have their rematch. The Nitro Girls warm up the 40,000+ crowd. A new announcer for WCW (I can't be bothered to learn his name) is up in a skybox at the big Nitro Party Video Winner Party. Incredibly enough the winner is some guy from Atlanta. Imagine that. During the opening hype Tony Schiavone (the most hated man in the world) reminds us that Eric Bischoff and the NWO broke Randy Savage's knee. One assumes this would lead to something, but I'll spoil the surprise now and reveal that Savage doesn't appear tonight. Sorry. Also, "Hollywood" Hogan is in the building. - GLACIER vs. HUGH MORRUS Morrus is bald now, and looks about 50 pounds heavier because of it. He wins with the moonsault. - A LENGTHY video segment recounts what took place between Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff last week. Forget about us poor saps at home, I wonder how the 40,000+ at the arena felt having to sit there for the five or six minutes this lasted. This clip marks the only appearance of the Giant tonight, I should note. (The opening sequence follows, and the Giant has been replaced by Goldberg. I guess that about seals it.) - Ric Flair, his wife and kids, and the other Four Horsemen head to the ring. Dean Malenko is on crutches, having hurt his ankle at a house show over the weekend. They all hit the ring and Flair is interviewed by "Mean" Gene Okerlund. To save a lot of time I'm just going to list the highlights: * Flair calls out Bischoff--orders him to join the announcing crew. * Brings out referee Randy Anderson--gives him his job back. * Announces he will be facing Curt Hennig and Barry Windham at the PPV. * David Flair asks to be his partner. Arn says the kid is ready. This all took forever. I know it was supposed to be emotional and all that, but this wasn't even as interesting as the average Flair interview. - Konan's music video starts to play, but it is in fact part of a new commercial for a Konan t-shirt. - Bischoff is in the announce booth, but he will refuse to say anything for the majority of the following two hours. Instead we get hours of Schiavone telling him to say something, then threatening to "report him" to Flair. - BOOKER T. vs. EMERY HALE Squash. - NORMAN SMILEY vs. CHAVO GUERRERO, JR. As he walks out I realize that Smiley has a set of nice, firm, supple breasts. Excuse me now while I go and kill myself. ... ... ... Seems I didn't reload after those potshots I took at some Girl Scouts selling their damn cookies this past fall. Oh well, let's just move on and never discuss this again. These two wrestled last week. Chavo blows a springboard moonsault by slipping off the ropes. Smiley just stands there looking lost as Chavo hangs on the top rope, deciding what to do next. He then lands on his feet on the apron and leaps back into the ring, but that too is flubbed, and he catches Smiley low around the midsection. My brother and I were too busy laughing for the rest of the match to notice much else. Chavo wins, but Smiley then beats on him with Chavo's stick horse, Pepe. WCW, realizing how dumb this all looked, cut away to a commercial. - HORACE vs. CHRIS BENOIT Benoit doesn't even get a ring entrance, and Horace is just entering the ring as they come back. With the Warrior now gone Horace is probably the worst wrestler in WCW (with the Disciple and Lex Luger close behind). Benoit wins with the Crippler Crossface. WCW couldn't pay me to watch matches like these (so it goes without saying that I'm not going to give much of a damn watching for free). Cut to the back, where Goldberg is being arrested. Goldberg, in defending his innocence, sounds like he's borrowed all his speaking skills from Diamond Dallas Page. The police don't bother to tell him what he's being arrested for. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - Goldberg is being loaded into a squad car. Kevin Nash comes out to see what's up. If this were "Murder She Wrote" or "Matlock", Nash would immediately be our number one suspect. Suspect number two arrives as "Hollywood" Hogan strolls in the building. He's having a good chuckle at Goldberg's predicament. In passing we see Miss Elizabeth talking to a couple of police detectives, so that rounds out our mystery cast with suspect number three. (And there's always Bischoff, who we all know tried to murder Ric Flair by poisoning him a few weeks ago.) - PERRY SATURN vs. CHRIS JERICHO (w/ Ralphus) Good match, I think, but I didn't pay much attention to it. Jericho wins with a bogus referee's decision (this being the same referee Saturn has had problems with in the past). Goldberg is being booked at the police station, which is supposedly only a short distance away. An officer informs him that he's being arrested for "aggravated stalking"--charges filed by Miss Elizabeth. Goldberg denies the charges. How am I supposed to react to an angle that prevents a healthy competitor from actually WRESTLING in a match? I could see if they needed to explain an absence due to injury, but this ... ? Explain to me why I shouldn't just see this as WCW screwing us out of a match they mega-hyped for a week? (Of course if we get a replacement match then we can't complain, right?) - Things are getting rowdy up in the Nitro Party box. - The cops are in the back grilling Elizabeth, getting the details regarding Goldberg stalking her. I'm sure the women's victims rights groups love this angle. Aren't there like "shield" laws which would prevent them from identifying Elizabeth, and showing her being interrogated? - Some nonsense involving Eddie Guerrero and the Latino World Order follows. Eddie and the guys take a bunch of "mamcitas" to a cheesy Mexican restaurant. Eddie then hits on all the girls while ordering around the other LWO members. Everyone talks like characters in a Cheech & Chong movie. This is all kind of ironic considering that Eddie was wiped out in a car crash on New Year's Eve. Broke his hip and messed up his liver from what I hear, and will be out for quite some time. WCW doesn't mention the accident. - KIDMAN/REY MYSTERIO, JR. vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA/PSYCHOSIS Another possibly okay match which I blew off. Schiavone announces that this is a "Tornado Match", but someone forgot to tell the wrestlers. Psychosis pins Mysterio following a legdrop off the top. The cops have been watching the show, so they have a few details to question Goldberg on. Goldberg says has been where he's been because that's where WCW puts him (hotels and such). Liz had mentioned seeing him following her at a gym. Turns out Goldberg owns that gym, which is why he was there. I'd swear I saw this same plot on an episode of "Baywatch" once. Goldberg is no David Hasselhoff, though. - "Mean" Gene interviews Kevin Nash. Nash says this whole Goldberg thing stinks of Hogan, and he demands a match between he and Hogan later tonight, World Title on the line. Ric Flair comes out and announces that since Hogan is still under contract to WCW he must face Nash tonight. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where this is heading. - They replay the Nash/Goldberg video which opened the show, which is pretty pointless since that match has now been scrapped. - The cops are still questioning Liz. She's acting all defensive, and changing the details of her story. The two detectives excuse themselves to confer. Of course this is all nonsense, as Liz would have had to have provided all these details, in great depth, before the warrant could have been sworn out for Goldberg's arrest in the first place. If Liz had called them in advance, then they'd have gotten her statement in full before even going to Goldberg. And if Liz just called them around the time the show was starting, then they would be questioning her (like we're seeing), but they wouldn't just arrest Goldberg and remove him from the building. They'd be off in another room getting his statement, just like they're doing with Liz. The only way they'd remove him from the building is if she claimed he posed some kind of immediate threat to her. That would most likely involve an outright accusation of assault or physical intimidation. Without that the police don't just arrest people for "stalking"--not until the investigation is complete and charges are going to be filed in court, at which point it's out of Elizabeth's hands and in the hands of the district attorney. I'm not a legal expert, and I know I shouldn't be obsessing over these details, but I suspect that the reason this bugged me so much is that fundamentally speaking what's happening isn't what would happen in real life! You don't just claim "he's stalking me!" and get someone arrested. It's just not that easy. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - "Mean" Gene interviews "Hollywood" Hogan. Hogan says the world of professional wrestling still revolves around him. He teases that he's chosen a running mate for his presidential campaign, but instead changes the subject and talks about Goldberg and Nash. He says he owes his fans one final retirement match, accepting Nash's challenge. Tony Schiavone, in a moment that has raised the ire of most wrestling fans (WWF ones, anyway, on the Internet), reveals that Mick Foley wins the WWF Championship over on RAW. Rather mockingly he adds "Oh, that's going to put butts in the seats." I won't fault him for giving away the results--that's the peril of being taped (and the WWF itself gave away the results last week on their website). I do have a problem, though, with Tony mocking a guy who bled, sweat and gave an ear for WCW. More on this later. - They show a pretaped clip of Chris Jericho sucking up to the referee who gave him the win earlier tonight, They probably should have showed this before THAT match. - Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell come out. Steiner does the same damn old interview, while Bagwell does an imitation of Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who recently had heart bypass surgery. The crowd is not amused. - KONAN vs. SCOTT STEINER (w/ Buff Bagwell) Another return match from last week, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna watch. Bagwell interferes, the ref throws the match out, Steiner clobbers him, and the NWO ref comes in to declare Steiner the winner. Of course we'll probably have to see this one again at the PPV. - WRATH vs. BAM BAM BIGELOW Before the match Wrath takes the mic and says there's no competition in WCW, and challenges anyone to come out and face him. Bigelow comes out (which means that WCW can't claim he isn't "officially" in WCW any more). The fat guy runs into the tall guy for a few minutes, until the ref throws the match out (DQ on Bigelow, I guess). Bischoff, during the above match, calls Goldberg a "punk"--the first thing he's said all night. The detectives point out all the holes in Liz's story. Warning her the penalties for lying, she says she must have been mistaken and drops the whole thing. - BRIAN ADAMS (w/ Vincent) vs. DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE Page takes almost ten minutes to hit the Diamond Cutter for the won. The cops finally tell Goldberg that he's free. For some strange reason he's been handcuffed all this time. If he was really under arrest wouldn't they have just stuck him in a cell an hour earlier? Goldberg orders them to drive him back to the Dome, which they cheerfully agree to, since the police have nothing better to do than play taxi driver. - KEVIN NASH (w/ Scott Hall) vs. "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN (w/ Scott Steiner) Michael Buffer does the introductions, and the combined entrances kill several minutes. Hogan comes out dressed like Tommy Dreamer. Hall is wearing a Wolfpac shirt, like Nash, and the two hug. Hogan and Nash circle, killing a minute or so. Nash gives a light shove. Hogan responds with a tap to the chest. Nash drops like a ton of bricks. Hogan covers and 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... there's a new WCW/NWO World Heavyweight Presidential Champion. What a load of crap. Hogan, Hall, Nash and Steiner all embrace. Goldberg then runs in. Instantly surveying what has taken place (maybe he heard the match on the radio--*snort!*) he takes out Steiner with a spinning kick. He gives Hall a suplex. He drops Nash with a kick to the chin. Hogan nails him with the belt, but Goldberg just snorts and shakes his head. Hogan tries a few punches, but Goldberg takes him down with a half-assed spear. Lex Luger then comes in and, after initially seeming to root Goldberg on, nails him from behind! Everyone then pounds on Goldberg down on the mat. Luger puts him in the Torture Rack for a few seconds, then they handcuff him to the bottom rope. Hall zaps him again with the shock stick (with Bischoff making a funny sound effects). As the rest of the NWO comes out they spray their logo, in red paint, on Goldberg's back. - This Thursday: Live, but nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Don't you hate it when bad rumors come true? That's what happened here. Almost everything that went down here had been rumored to be taking place this Monday: some rumors going back almost a month. I'm not just talking about "rumors of everything possible happening and thus what did happen was covered". No. I'm talking about solid, specific rumors, on all the big wrestling news sites, saying that Hogan was coming back, would replace Goldberg in the main event, win the title, and he, Nash and Hall would re-form the original NWO. There were other rumors involving other wrestlers which didn't pan out, but in regards to Hogan, Nash, Goldberg and Hall, sites like 1Wrestling.Com and WrestleManiacs nailed it right on the head. Not that anyone's crowing about being right. Most of these rumors were reported in a negative manner. I'm not sure anyone (other than Bob Ryder) wanted to see this all come about. Most reported the planned scenario like "can you believe this is what WCW is actually thinking of doing?!" Kevin Nash spent the better part of the last year telling us how bad Hogan was. Now he's rejoined him, handing the World Title over to him. The Wolfpac was supposed to show how lame the NWO was in comparison. Now the Wolfpac has returned to the NWO fold. Lex Luger had been a bitter nemesis of Hogan's ever since he turned bad back in '96. Now they're buddies. I'm sure there's an explanation for all this (Nash and Luger will probably say they did it for the money), but all the explanations in the world aren't going to cover up how dumb this all was. I've already seen a few people say this "breathes new life" into the NWO. To be honest, I'm trying to figure out how reviving something you spent that last two years beating into the ground can be considered "breathing new life" into anything. If it's cliches were talking about, my pick here would be "beating a dead horse". At best they've just returned to square one. That may be better than the NWO we've had to deal with lately, but it's hardly an original or innovative move. So basically the last five or six weeks have meant nothing. Nash being in charge of things didn't amount to much, and his first reign as World Champion has been completely forgettable. He didn't even defend the belt in a meaningful match (lazy bastard). Either he (and Luger and Hall) went completely mental and decided to go back to Hogan (who had--news flash-- retired, last I heard); or we pretty much now have to assume this was the plan from the moment Hogan "retired". In character and story terms it doesn't make sense. But in real life, things are a bit clearer. WCW's first wrestling special for NBC will take place February 14th. NBC has, by all accounts, made it clear that they want Hogan involved in a big way. For WCW this meant bringing Hogan back from his self imposed retirement and handing him the keys to the car. That pretty much rolls the clock back to where WCW was this past summer, when they were being beaten handily in the ratings and delivering a show that even their diehard fans had a hard time enjoying. WCW is spiting their existing fans, in a huge gamble to draw in new fans with the increased exposure being on NBC will give them. Moving on to the other scintillating aspects of the show, how lame has Ric Flair's reign as "WCW President" started? He drops the energy level to do a "serious" speech, then goes on to an executive decision which would make Roddy Piper look like a genius. How stupid do you have to be to sanction a World Title match for Hulk Hogan, knowing Goldberg is out of the building and the NWO is there in full force? He didn't even bother to bar anyone from ringside. At least Mick Foley was holding Shane McMahon hostage, which forced Vince McMahon to make the stupid decisions he made (see below). I realize this is just all part of the story, but I wonder if Flair realizes how stupid this all makes him look. Roddy Piper, when he was "Acting Commissioner", used to announce all these matches and match stipulations which always backfired against the good guys. Flair is following right in his footsteps. And how much of a punishment is it to make Bischoff be an announcer? Damn Flair is hardcore! Randy Anderson was gone? I'd swear he's been out there refereeing every week for the past year. I'd check an old tape, but that would, you know, require effort. Like him or not, Goldberg gave the WCW Title some credibility by being a fighting champion. So of course Hogan comes along and wins it back in an effort deficient non-match. WCW is stuck with either having big name stars who don't defend the belt (Hogan & Nash), or a nobody rookie (Goldberg) defending it against other jobbers. (Okay, that was a bit harsh.) So now we get to wrestle with the question of whether or not Konan will join his Wolfpac friends in rejoining the NWO, or will he stick it out on his own? Randy Savage has yet to be heard from. There's still Sting to contend with too when he comes back. Does the Wolfpac still exist? What will the NWO's official colors be now? Basically a rehash of all the various plot elements we saw in '96 and '97. A surprise that wasn't, two okay matches, no main event, and a whole lot of filler. That about sums up what WCW hyped as the "GREATEST NITRO EVER!" When are you WCW fans going to call WCW on the carpet for crap like this? Aw, what's the point. Who cares what I think? It's not as if I'm upset about it or anything. Hell, I just thought this week's show was boring, and didn't care much about anything that happened. I'll just let those who really felt they were screwed over do the complaining. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Taped 12/31/98. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Worcester, Massachusetts. WWF RAW Hosted By: Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - One of those videos where they show everything repeatedly from 40 different angles opens the show. As they're recapping Shawn Michaels' career the video is interrupted by Vince McMahon, who makes his way to the ring. Vince says that Shawn, despite comments he made on Sunday Night Heat, will be a no-show here on RAW tonight. McMahon is accompanied by the rest of the Corporation: Shane McMahon, the Bossman, Ken Shamrock, Test, Kane, Pat Patterson and Jerry Brisco. McMahon says that anyone who was remotely connected with Mankind beating Shane two weeks ago will be dealt with. The Titan-Tron picks up a live feed of Michaels entering the building. McMahon tells his Corporate hit men to dismember Michaels when they see him. Shawn comes out to the stage and reveals that he's brought "the cavalry" with him: DeGeneration X. (I guess they got over Shawn hitting them with chairs and screwing them out of titles.) Shawn says his lawyers have poured over his WWF contract and found it to be ironclad. McMahon can't fire Michaels from his role as Commissioner. Shawn then reminds us that Vince gave him full power over all WWF competitors except for Steve Austin. Playing a clip of McMahon having his Royal Rumble number drawn, Shawn says that once Vince entered the Rumble, he became a WWF competitor under Michaels' control. Accordingly, Shawn changes McMahon's number of entry from #30 to #2 (just after Steve Austin). Michaels wraps things up by promising to leave and return with a surprise for McMahon which will drive him "Stone Cold Crazy". - KEN SHAMROCK vs. STEVE BLACKMAN Non-title match. Dan Severn--in neck brace--comes to ringside to watch. He eventually winds up on the apron. Shamrock shoves him back down. The ref is then tied up keeping Severn out of the ring, at which point Billy Gunn runs in on the other side and plants Shamrock with a Rocker Dropper legdrop. Blackman covers for the pin. - Shamrock and Gunn are brawling in the broke. Referees pull the two apart. - Mankind comes out to cut a promo. After some funny comments about Pat Patterson's testicles and saying "please" before "suck it!", he calls for Vince McMahon to come out, to give him a title shot against the Rock. McMahon appears and rips into Mankind for even suggesting that he's due another shot at the title. He calls him a "disfigured monster", and says he is where he is today because he listened to the fans, not McMahon. The best McMahon can do for him is offer him a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Triple H. Shane McMahon will be the guest referee. Chyna is in the back talking to some, err, lady. - "SEXUAL CHOCOLATE" MARK HENRY vs. GOLDUST The usual Goldust match of late: he has the momentum, but loses by DQ for delivering the Shattered Dreams (kick to the gonads). Chyna and that woMAN she's with come out to tend to Henry's busted plumbing. Chyna tells Mark that he's too much man for her, and that she and her new friend "Sammy" are going to help him "take a load off your mind". Henry falls over in a dead faint. - They show a few clips of Jesse "the Body" Ventura being sworn in as Governor of Minnesota. They then plug their Ventura video. - Dennis Knight, who was kidnapped by the Acolytes a week or two ago, is tied up in a dungeon somewhere. Huh? - THE GODFATHER (w/ 4 Ho's) vs. TEST Test has generic blues/rock theme music. Ugly looking match, which comes to an end when Val Venis comes out to fight with Test. No winner. Shawn is in the back sharing a laugh with the rest of D-X. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. - MANKIND vs. HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Chyna) Not good, not bad, just short. Triple H, after going to the floor, tries to come back in over the top rope, hitting Mankind with a Sunset Flip. Mankind holds onto the ropes, but Shane kicks him loose. Triple H rolls him up and Shane makes a super-fast three count. Triple H will now be in the Royal Rumble. He tells Mankind that this is all just business, no hard feelings. He then kicks Shane in the gut and lays him out with the Pedigree! "Happy New Year!" Helmsley leaves Shane alone in the ring at the mercy of Mankind. Mankind slaps on an armbar hold. Shane starts screaming as Vince and crew come out. "I changed my mind ... I want a title shot TONIGHT!" McMahon agrees. Mankind asks for the further stipulation that the match be no DQ. A twist on Shane's arm forces McMahon to agree to that too. As Vince is helping his son back up the ramp he's confronted by the Rock, who wants to know what the hell this all means. - EDGE vs. D-LO BROWN A good match, spoiled by the WWF storyline machine. D-Lo and Edge are trading planchas and powerbombs and such, when Terri Runnels and Jacqueline come out. Terri climbs the apron and starts badmouthing D-Lo for no reason. D-Lo advances on her and she backs down the stairs, slips, and takes a tumble to the floor. For the next couple of minutes she hold her stomach, crying about her unborn baby. D-Lo stands by looking distraught. She' loaded onto a stretcher and carted away. After the break they show a doctor checking on her. He doesn't seem to think she's pregnant. Give me a break. Terri narrowly edges out Elizabeth for worst acting job of the evening. - Patterson, Brisco and Shane lead Kane to the ring. Brisco has hung a "Brisco Brothers Body Shop" sign on Kane's back. Shane is still selling his injured shoulder. He announces there will be a special handicap match, and Kane's opponents will be ... Patterson and Brisco! - KANE vs. PAT PATTERSON/JERRY BRISCO Vince McMahon reminds them of his edict that anyone involved in Shane getting hurt will pay. Kane destroys the two stooges, while Shane cheers him on over the mic. Kane then grabs Shane (the monster's outta control!) but Vince orders him to let go or he'll wind up back in the insane asylum. Patterson and Brisco blame each other for the for their hard times. - The Acolytes tell Knight that "he is ready for you." I had assumed the "he" was the Jackyl, but word is that the WWF let him go. - AL SNOW vs. "ROAD DOGG" JESSE JAMES Al, still wearing the blood stained shirt which caused him to snap two weeks ago, comes out and plants the Head on the stage, then hides behind the curtain. Road Dogg then comes out and picks up the head, and is blind sided by Snow. From there the two brawl all around the ring, doing spots with tables, chairs, etc. Into the crowd they go and they wind up backstage, where they continue to beat on each other with anything not tied down. Snow chokes the Dogg with a rubber hose, and sprays water on him. He also hits him with a box of toilet paper, busts a broom across his back, nails him in the face with a potted plant, and pokes him with a metal pole. The Dogg rallies back, reversing a whip and sending Snow into a stack of empty beer kegs. He slams him into a metal rail, then wallops him with an empty fire extinguisher. Out the fire exit they go (setting off the alarm) to the parking lot. Snow is waffled with a snow shovel, then dumped into a wheelbarrow, which is wheeled through the slick snow covered ground into a steel shuttered door. Snow fights back, sending the Dogg into a chain link fence, then hitting him with a traffic pylon (Lawler: "Hey, that's a Snow Cone!") The Dogg comes back with a kick to the midsection, then piledrives Snow through a stack of wooden pallets. He covers for the pin, then runs all the way back into the arena to the ring to celebrate. Not a five star match by any means, but still damn fun to watch. More nonsense with Knight and the Acolytes. - Shawn Michaels says goodbye to his D-X pals, headed off to get whatever surprise he has in store for Vince McMahon. Triple H hands him the keys to his car, then gives him a goodbye hug. Shawn says he'll see them later and leaves. "Maybe ... maybe not," mutters Helmsley. "What goes around comes around," adds X-Pac. Uh-oh. Shawn tries to unlock the car door, but the key doesn't work. He heads back over to the door leading into the arena, but that too is locked. Shawn slumps his head, realizing what's about to happen. "Hey, Shawn!" someone calls him from behind. Shawn turns as they cut to commercial. (Isn't this how Joe Pesci got it in "Goodfellas"?) Back from the break we see Shawn laid out on the hood of a car, his face smashed into the windshield! He's covered with blood as paramedics try to free him and place a neck brace on him. A replay gives us an idea of what happened as Shawn is rushed by a group of figures. The cameraman goes down and we hear, but not see what is happening. Vince McMahon can be heard issuing the attack orders. (Checking the tape in slow-mo reveals his attackers to be the Bossman, Test, Kane, and Ken Shamrock.) Shawn is loaded into an ambulance and carried off. - MANKIND vs. THE ROCK (w/ the Corporation) D-X comes out to be at ringside. Cole and Lawler take a few potshots at the "other league" during the match, noting that their match started with more than two minutes left in the show, that these guys will actually fight a match, that there will be a winner and not just a big run-in no-finish, stuff like that. The match being no DQ, Shamrock gets in a few shots on Mankind early, but the Rock waves him off. The Rock does his bit where he wears the announcer's headset while beating on Mankind. Mankind then takes control and does the same. The Rock pastes him with the ring bell, getting a nice *ding!* The announcer's table is then demolished when the Rock puts Mankind through it with the Rock Bottom! Back in the ring they go through a series of near pins where the Rock does a move, covers for the pin, but Mankind kicks out. Even the Corporate Elbow fails to put him away. The Rock hits him with the belt (behind the referee's back, forgetting it's no DQ), but fails to get the pin. Shamrock then comes in and hits Mankind with a chair. That brings in Billy Gunn, who tackles Shamrock. A brawl erupts between D-X and the Corporation. Then the glass breaks, and out comes "Stone Cold" Steve Austin! Austin grabs the chair Shamrock dropped and pastes the Rock with it. He rolls Mankind onto the Rock, leaves, the ref comes over and 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... new World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion! McMahon is disgusted, and assures the Rock he'll get his belt back, while Mankind dedicates the win to his children. The show closes with Mankind running a victory lap around the ring. Now THAT is how you crown a new champion. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Now the countdown begins to the Royal Rumble, where one must assume the Rock will win the belt back (though at this point I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Not just yet). Until then we get a couple weeks of the hardest working man in wrestling getting his due as the World Champion. Not everyone gets there, but nothing can now take away the fact that Mick Foley did it. A good show. Not great, but certainly a memorable one, enjoyable all the way through save for a few rough spots (Terri's "injury" in particular). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: RAW beat Nitro in the ratings again this week: 5.75 (hours of 5.7 and 5.8), to 5.0 (hours of 5.5, 4.6 and 4.8). In the head-to-head hours Nitro only had a 4.7. Both show's ratings were up this week, perhaps because the "Monday Night Football" season is over. This was RAW's highest rating ever, and I believe was the highest overall rating for either show. Tony Schiavone's comments about Mankind may have had the desired affect, though, as Nitro had more viewers than RAW in the five minute overrun. I think the WWF would be content to concede that five minute overrun if it continues to mean that RAW still clobbers Nitro every week, as they have virtually every Monday for the past five or six months. WCW doesn't seem to understand that just building to a big finish without having a good show leading up to the end isn't going to help them win anytime soon. That's assuming WCW cares about beating the WWF. If they don't, then pleasing their fans, while still being profitable, should be their top priority. I'll leave it up to you all to decide if that's what they're doing right now. [Ratings courtesy 1Wrestling.Com.] Sorry this is so late. It's about 15 below zero here in Minnesota, and I've spent the better part of the last two days helping people start cars and working extra time to cover for late co-workers. I've had to type this up in interrupted bits and pieces. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1999 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 164 of the "Monday Night Recap", January 4th, 1999.