Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #169 February 8th/13th, 1999 The Opening Word: I picked up that WWF Vol. 3 CD over the weekend. My local K-Mart had a whole boatload of them for only $10 apiece. It's ... okay. Hey, it's entrance theme music--what else could I expect?! Actually the Undertaker theme is kind of cool coming out of large speakers. Same for Gangrel's theme. Disappointments include Dude Love's theme, which shouldn't have been included, and Val Venis', which sounds so much like all the music the WWF did back in the 80's. The Rock's theme isn't the one he currently uses, which is also disappointing. The Oddities and X-Pac's themes are both full songs in their own right, and both are decent. Worth the $10 I paid, but that's about all. The Rock was a hoot on "That 70's Show". I loved his line, as Rocky Johnson, about his son growing up to be the "most electrifying man in sports entertainment". I forgot to watch Bret Hart on "MadTV". I like, most other Saturday night TV viewers, watched "Saturday Night Live" instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours+. Location: Buffalo, New York. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - Let's look back at last week where "Hollywood" Hogan decided to hang out with a buddy in a limo rather than do the wrestling "thing". Previously unseen footage shows Ric Flair getting upset. In storytelling terms the adjective "glacial" applies here. Thunder footage shows Arn Anderson calling Charlotte to see if David Flair is okay. I blew off Thunder myself, so I didn't get if this was supposed to have happened Monday after Nitro or during Thunder itself. Main event tonight is Kevin Nash and Scott Hall vs. Ric Flair and Steve McMichael. Tag Team Title tournament action is also scheduled. The Nitro Girls, including Kimberly, do a number as Diamond Dallas Page looks on. I guess Kimberly wasn't hurt bad enough last week to explain her upcoming leave of absence. I wonder how she'll get hurt this week? (SCOOPS says, rumor only, that some kind of big stunt is in the works.) Disco Inferno hooks up with Nash and Hall backstage to find Arn Anderson laid out on the floor holding his arm. Disco prepares to whip Arn with his belt: payback for the beating Arn laid on Disco last week. Opening graphics. Six minutes in and I'm already on angle overload. - In a bar somewhere, some sexy lady looks into the camera and talks to it likes it's a person she invites him (it, us?) out for a ride. Huh? - BLITZKRIEG vs. REY MYSTERIO, JR. (w/ Konnan) Blitzkrieg comes from one of the minor burrito wrasslin' circuits in Mexico. (He's an American, though, from what I've read.) He and Rey combine for a great, high-flying match. Mysterio wins by pinfall following a huracanrana off the top. First WCW match I've paid attention to in ages. Video package detailing the Mysterio/Konnan/Lex Luger/Kevin Nash feud. - Kanyon approaches one of Raven's palatial homes. The camera cuts inside, upstairs, looking down on the entryway to Raven's mother answering the door. Camera cut to beside the door of Kanyon entering. "Mom" tells Kanyon that Raven is depressed and that she has to leave for a board meeting. Cut to view from upstairs. Cut to side view--downstairs. Cut to a head-on view as Kanyon closes the door. Did they really need three cameramen to document Kanyon walking in the door? Kanyon finds Raven on the couch and tells him to lighten up. Raven looks over his shoulder, into ANOTHER CAMERA, and exclaims "what a mark!" Raven asks Kanyon if he's heard the expression "money can't buy happiness." Kanyon says yes. Raven says that must have been written by some really poor guy. Raven leads Kanyon out into the garage. TWO CAMERA ANGLES are required to show the two walking six feet to Raven's yellow Ferrari. Raven asks why should he be depressed when he has cars like this? Kanyon asks why he's always depressed, then? Raven looks aside--to YET ANOTHER CAMERA--and says that Kanyon doesn't get it. Apparently Raven acts the way he does to annoy his mother. Let me just pause her to explain something. Last week I took a shot at a lot of WWF critics because they bashed the Halftime Heat match because of the ONE camera shot it used looking down from the forklift as the Rock was being pinned. I asked if they all thought they were directors or something. Well, if they can do it, I'm going to do it too and point out how ridiculous this segment has been thus far (and will continue to be). It's bad enough that they're throwing out four years worth of character development on Raven's part, but they're doing so in a stylistic manner that is so clearly not "spontaneous". Everything thus far has involved two or three cameras, and instant cuts between the various angles. Doing so without any of the cameramen being caught on camera requires meticulous planning. In film terms they call it "blocking a scene". These guys are clearly acting, finding marks, and reading off scripted lines. The whole setup just looks so ... phony--and this is PRO WRESTLING we're talking about here! In a world where everything is fake, you have to look really, REALLY fake to stick out. Anyway, Raven and Kanyon hop into the car and pull away, leaving in the air the promise of further clips throughout the show. The "exiting the garage" shot, by the way, required two camera angles. The announcers ignore the Raven clip. - FIT FINLAY vs. BOOKER T. Solid match here, which is interrupted midway through by ... "Hollywood" Hogan, in a lockerroom somewhere in America, tells Horace that from now on he's the chosen one to run the NWO Black & White. Horace is honored by the duty bestowed upon him (by his Uncle terry, you all know that, don'tcha?) Hogan tells him to keep this hush hush, which is pretty stupid since there's a CAMERAMAN RIGHT THERE filming this. I guess this was just between Hogan, Horace, and the SEVEN MILLION FANS watching at home. Commercial. Ric Flair is in the bathroom to give Eric Bischoff his latest work assignment: toilet duty. Eric and has to make sure that the bathroom is spotless. Bischoff exclaims that the place stinks (ah, the subtle humor of fart jokes). Wasn't there a match going on? Oh yeah, Booker T. wins. WCW didn't care, so why should I? - Raven and Kanyon have arrived at the bank. The bank president tells Raven his money is waiting for him. Raven picks up $10,000 in one dollar bills, and another $10,000 in larger denominations. When Kanyon asks what the money is for Raven indulges in another camera cutaway reaction, like this is all a big joke and Raven and us viewers are the only ones in on it. (It's a joke alright.) Only two camera angles are required to get Raven and Kanyon back to the car, Raven singing "Santa Claus is coming to towwwwwn!" along the way. I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP! I swear to god. Jimmy Hart informs Bischoff that stall #1 is out of toilet paper. Meng and the Barbarian then walk in and it's only a matter of time before Bischoff starts smelling what they're cooking. WCW stooping to toilet humor? Hogan holds a confab with Brian Adams, telling him that he is now in charge of the NWO Black & White. With another dozen members left in the NWO, this is going to be one long damn night at this rate. - "Mean" Gene Okerlund interviews Ric Flair. Flair says he was just talking to Arn Anderson and that Arn told him to come out and "tell it like it is." I'd have actually expected Arn to say something like, "I'm busted up pretty bad, Nature Boy. Please call me an ambulance!" (Did you all forget that the NWO was kicking his ass at the top of the show? Apparently Flair did.) Flair announces tonight's main event to the crowd. He makes some token statements about Hogan, then goes in "Crazy Old Man(tm)" mode and pretends to put the Figure Four on a ghostly Hulk Hogan that only he can see. Back to his feet, Flair informs Scott Hall that he won't be getting that U.S. Title shot he won last week. Flair goes on to call Bret Hart out. Hart comes out, remembering to limp after a few steps. Flair orders Hart to defend his title tonight. Hart protests that he still has that groin injury, and the doctors backstage won't let him wrestle. Flair doesn't care, and announces Hart's challenger tonight: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. (No surprise to anyone on the Internet.) I'd make a list of everyone who deserves a title shot more than Piper, but I don't think my hard drive is large enough. Hart, on his way out of the ring, takes a sign away from the fat guy from "MadTV". You know, the guy Hart pretended to beat up this past Saturday. He's at ringside this week. Sasso something-or-other--like I care. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - That hot, leggy woman is back, and this time she and I are in the backseat of a limousine. Heh-heh, we're going somewhere to have sex. Heh-heh. - A video package relives some of the glorious history of the WCW Tag Team Titles. Few clips newer than 1997 are shown. Nitro Girls. DDP is still keeping an eye out for Scott Steiner. Hogan now gives the line of goods to Stevie Ray. Apparently the whole NWO Black & White is being set up, and the scheme should only take another four or five months to complete. Schiavone talks about the tag team video shown above. Strangely enough, the announcers have almost totally ignored all the other little video snippets played so far in the show. Are they even watching? - BRIAN ADAMS/HORACE vs. BARRY WINDHAM/CURT HENNIG Schiavone talks about how great the tournament is, and how it compares to other sports because of the double elimination format, with losing teams being placed back into a loser's bracket. How about showing us these brackets! Who's in this tournament? Why have some teams entered weeks after it started? They cut away shortly after the match starts to .... Several luchadores are cleaning up in the bathroom. The language barrier prevents Eric Bischoff from understanding what they want from him. He finally figures out they want some "Old Spice". What started out as a simple arena crapper has turned into one of those fancy restrooms you'd see in a five star restaurant. Bischoff holds out his tip jar, but they just stuff trash in it off the floor. Where's the shoe shine guy? Seriously, this is getting really dumb, and ISN'T THERE A MATCH GOING ON?! The NWO seem to have this match won, but Vincent comes out to knock out Hennig with Stevie Ray's slapjack. Stevie Ray comes out, takes the slapjack away from Vincent, then accidentally knocks Adams out with it. Stevie blames Vincent. - The mystery woman and I have checked into a hotel, and are headed up the elevator to our room, where we will have lots and lots of sex. Or that's the impression she's giving, anyway. - Hogan. Vincent. You know the drill. Hogan displays here the acting skills which made "Mr. Nanny" such a runaway blockbuster hit in Kuala Lampur. - "Mean" Gene interviews Bam Bam Bigelow. I should note that here, at roughly the midway point of the show, we've only had three matches. Bigelow brags that all his stalking of Goldberg has been successful. Bigelow produces a reproduction of a USA Today article regarding Goldberg and his fight to ban cock fighting. Bigelow says this is proof positive that Goldberg isn't focusing on the business in the ring. He goes on to say that Goldberg has asked all the wrestlers to adopt an animal this year. Bigelow volunteers to take in Goldberg's "old lady". He'll take her home, walk her, feed her some dog food, whatever it takes. Goldberg comes out and kicks Bigelow's ass until security can pull the two apart. - They play a clip of DDP talking to the lady host of "Later" on NBC--a show I've only seen by accident. She does an imitation of a wrestler so embarrassing that Jason Hervey loses his cell phone connection. Tonight I'm beyond the point of even bothering to ask what Jason Hervey is doing there. - DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE vs. KENNY KAOS Squash. Diamond Cutter. - Raven and Kanyon are in the mall. Kanyon doesn't know how to pronounce "Versace" (man, he's "Clueless" ... get it?) Raven calls him a "maroon". At this point I start laughing because an hour earlier I told my brother that Raven, at some point tonight, was going to call Kanyon a "maroon". In the clothes store Raven looks on as Kanyon tries on outfits. They even manage to pull the curtain open while Kanyon is in his underwear, giving Raven that which he most deeply desires. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Unable to actually show us the inside of any strip bars, they instead show us a montage of neon signs. (Now you all know what the one dollar bills were for.) Raven pulls the car into his garage and Kanyon exclaims that this has been the best day of his life. Hearing his mother pull up, Raven hurries to change out of his hip bar hopping togs and back into his dreary, slacker apparel. Coming down the stairs adjusting his pants (I wonder what she would think of that), Raven's mother asks Kanyon how Raven was today. Kanyon says it was "touch and go". She then tells Raven that WCW called here and would like him to come back to work. Raven looks into the camera and says "she's not too bright, is she?" My thrown shoe bounces off his mug on the TV screen. - Ernest Miller and Sonny Onoo come out. Miller does his challenge thing again. Backstage the NWO members tell Vincent that Miller is calling him out. Vincent, on the way to the ring, tries to get Disco Inferno to go out instead. Disco blows him off. Vincent does indeed end up accepting the challenge. This whole thing seemed to last an hour by itself. - ERNEST MILLER (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. VINCENT Miller destroys Vincent, but Vincent somehow manages to steal an upset pin. I've watched it twice now but it still doesn't register in my brain. It won't compute. Abort, Retry, Fail ... - Scott Steiner approaches Kimberly backstage as she's loading her stuff into a rental car. DDP comes around from the front and the two begin to fight. Kimberly hops into the car. Security arrives and as they hold DDP back, Steiner jumps into the driver's seat and tears away. Terri begins screaming for Dustin to save her from-- ... sorry, flashback. DDP runs after the car, which does a 180 and comes straight at him! The passenger door opens and Kimberly (or a well disguised stuntwoman) goes flying out, bouncing on the concrete and rolling to a stop near DDP. The car disappears as a distraught DDP calls for an ambulance. Following the break we see a neckbrace applied, she's strapped to a board, and loaded into an ambulance. This was incredibly well executed. Almost too well, actually. I'm still too creeped out by it even now to decide whether I liked it or not. Schiavone plays it just right by talking about the trouble Steiner is now in. - "MadTV" footage of Bret Hart. Hart strays from the scripted skit and puts the Sharpshooter on the fat guy, who is playing Jesse "the Body" Ventura. Of course it's just an angle. - Larry Zbyszko chews out Bischoff for the mess in the bathroom. I'll mention at this point that following the first Bischoff segment earlier, my brother bet me that Eric would use something in that bathroom to earn the Wolfpac a win (or upper hand in a brawl) later in the show. More on this later. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. "ROWDY" RODDY PIPER The match starts off very old-school, with lots of eye gouges, punches, very basic stuff. Hart sells his groin injury to stall for time. The camera work then gets a bit weird as what I can only assume is a huge fight breaks out in the crowd. First people start running to one corner of the arena away from the ring. Then security guards can be seen streaming past. The crowd pops loudly and for the next minute everyone is watching something which WCW won't let us see. Things settle down and back in the match Hart collapses, selling his groin injury even more. The WCW trainer comes in to check him out. Once Piper turns his back Hart attacks, revealing that the groin injury is (duh!) all a sham. The action spills to the floor, where Hart goes over and pulls Will Sasso over the rail and pounds on him. The match moves back into the ring. The ref goes down in a collision in the corner. Hart, having Piper softened up for the pin, tries to drag the ref over to count the pin. Sasso grabs hold of the ref's ankle. A tug-of-war ensues, which Hart wins, only to be rolled up from behind by Piper. The ref, now in position, counts 1 ... 2 ... 3--new UNITEDstatesCHAMPIONoftheWORLD! Piper offers a flashback to what wrestling used to be like by actually PUTTING ON the belt he's just won. This marks Piper's first WCW title (though he was also U.S. Champion back in the NWA). Talk about a miscarriage of justice. - Hogan/Flair promo. What, they're wrestling at a PPV? Wouldn't know it from anything either of them are doing. - Nash, Hall and Disco Inferno come out to deliver some catchphrases. - It's that babe again, and she invites me into her hotel room. WHAT THE F#@% IS THE POINT OF THIS?!!! - THE WOLFPAC (w/ Disco Inferno) vs. THE HORSEMEN I've little left in me by this point. The show feels like it's lasted four or five hours so far, and this match, while not really that bad, is just coming too late in the evening. There was no RAW on to distract me either, and I'll be damned if I'll watch the dog show. I caught a bit of "Dilbert" earlier on UPN, but decided to stay an "Ally McBeal" virgin and not watching that. The sad and bizarre death of "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane caught my interest over on A&E for a few minutes. I always came back to Nitro, though, and It's now time to put this sucker to bed. The match? "Hollywood" Hogan finally puts in an appearance in a hallway strewn with the bodies of unconscious security guards. Reaching the bathroom he's handed a mop bucket filled with bleach. (Remember what I wrote above?) Hogan comes to the ring and splashes the bleach in Mongo's face. Flair chases Hogan into the ring: straight into an ambush by Hall and Nash. All three beat on Flair until Goldberg comes out for the save. Bigelow follows to attack, Goldberg, but the former champ has little trouble handling him. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Clearly this week's show would have to be labeled "experimental". The stuff in the ring sort of worked, the Cruiserweight match in particular, though I'd bet there was more "bad" wrestling than "good". It's the stuff outside the ring, though, that just seemed to wander away from the WCW that we all know and explore new territory. The Steiner/Kimberly/DDP angle, good or bad, worked. The stuff with Bischoff didn't. The stuff with Raven didn't. The stuff with Hogan and the NWO didn't. The stuff with Bret Hart/Will Sasso didn't. The stuff with the mystery woman ... what the bloody hell was that?! Of course this is all speaking for myself and, as we all know, I don't know shit from shinola. Every punishment Flair has laid on Bischoff has backfired: when Bischoff had to set up the ring he left his wrench under the ring, which the NWO used to win a match. When Bischoff was a vendor he gave them a foam finger with a board inside. Even when Bischoff was in the dunk tank he masterminded Hogan's "stalking" of David Bischoff. Flair's running WCW? Hardly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW Saturday Night: Live/Taped: Taped 2/8. Length: Two Hours. Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada. WWF RAW Hosted By: Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - Austin ... McMahon ... Steel Cage ... video package. - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin comes out in front of the monstrous Skydome crowd (40,000+). Looks like everyone brought signs this week. Austin talks about beating Vince McMahon and heading to WrestleMania. Mankind comes out for a few comments of his own. Vince McMahon and the Corporation then come out. The Rock delivers a few words, then passes the stick to McMahon, who announces that no members of the Corporation will interfere in his match against Steve Austin at the PPV. If they do, they are all fired. He also names himself the special referee in tonight's Austin/Mankind match. I'm really blowing through the events here because the whole thing took over 15 minutes. For some reason they're showing Debra McMichaels' legs. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, nor is Mark Henry, who himself is taking a long look and drooling like a dog with a hambone. - D-LO BROWN (w/ Mark Henry) vs. JEFF JARRETT (w/ Owen Hart & Debra) D-Lo has a surprise for Mark: a woman named Ivory. Somewhere Sable is worried about how easy it is to be replaced. Ivory comes out and gives Mark a big hug. No idea who she is, but I have the feeling we'll be seeing a "lot more of her" in the weeks to come. If you get my meaning. D-Lo pins Jarrett after Ivory comes in and distracts him. Very quick match. Ivory and Debra get in a brief catfight afterwards. As they say, you get what you pay for. Taped clip of Val Venis and Ryan Shamrock walking around in towels up a Skydome hotel suite. - Kevin Kelly interviews Venis in the ring. After Val makes a "getting a rise out of Shamrock" joke, Ken Shamrock comes out and beats him up. The rings fills with referees and Shamrock takes them out also. - GOLDUST vs. GILLBERG Goldust receives a blue box of candy and some blue roses from a delivery man. Cole mentions that Goldust will face "Bluedust" (the Blue Meanie) at the PPV. Gillberg makes his entrance. After the bell he tries a spear, but bounces off. Goldust sets to work dismantling Gillberg. Suddenly Bluedust appears on the Titan-Tron, totally naked save for a bunch of flowers covering his groin. Goldust, distracted, is rolled up from behind by Gillberg. 1 ... 2 ... 3--Gillberg wins! Goldust is first! Goldust pounds the crap out of Gillberg until the lights go out and he's doused with blue paint, much like the Brood's bloodbath. Head referee Earl Hebner announces that he will not allow any of his referees to officiate Ken Shamrock's Intercontinental Title match at the PPV (unsafe working environment and all). Unless someone volunteers to do it, Shamrock will have to forfeit his IC belt to Val Venis. - DeGeneration X puts in an appearance. Triple H has a few words for Chyna. X-Pac talks smack about Kane and Shane McMahon. The Road Dogg does his thing and talks about Al Snow. Billy Gunn, saying he doesn't want to be left out because he has no match at the PPV, removes his shirt to reveal a referee's shirt underneath. He will be the referee for the Shamrock/Venis match. Vince is in the back in his own referee outfit. Were there really only two matches this hour? WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. MANKIND This being a non-title match Mankind comes out first. McMahon gives the two pre-match instructions, telling them that anything goes. "I want to see someone get their ass kicked!" Austin tells McMahon that he isn't going to get his ass kicked, nor is Mankind. The only one getting their ass kicked tonight is McMahon. Vince sticks out his chin, hopeful that Austin will smack it because that would mean Austin is fired. Austin tells him he's not going to beat him, nor is Mankind. "He is!" Mankind pulls out Mr. Socko and slaps on the Mandible Claw. The Corporation comes out for the save. Boo. - McMahon comes back out and announces that Austin, having blown off the match, will now have to pay by "running the gauntlet" against the entire Corporate Team. - THE GODFATHER (w/ 3 Ho's) vs. VISCERA (w/ Midian) Some mighty fine Ho's this week. Midian offers some color commentary, then joins Viscera is beating on the Godfather, drawing a DQ. How about a freaking wrestling match tonight, eh?! Venis and Shamrock are beating on each other in the back. Billy Gunn breaks it up, then starts beating on Venis himself. Members of the Corporate team and D-X break up the melee. - X-PAC vs. KANE (w/ Chyna) Chyna's ass is hanging out again. Kane beats on X-Pac ... X-Pac rallies back ... Chyna comes in ... DQ. Chyna sets up for a Pedigree but Triple H comes in for the save. Chyna tries a double clothesline on the two D-X members but they duck. Kane trips her in the ropes and pulls her out of the ring. Road Dogg is laid out in the back, bleeding from a cut by his right ear. Paramedics check him out as he asks for Billy. Well, looks like Road Dogg really is off the PPV card. - Al Snow is in the ring and he calls out the Road Dogg. The Dogg doesn't show, obviously, so he says he'll just have to beat himself up. Snow beats himself with object around the ringside arena, smashes himself into object, and even brings a table into the ring and busts it. Finally J.O.B. Squad member Bob Holly comes to talk some sense into Al, but Snow attacks him. The two brawl for a few minutes. Was this a match? - Kevin Kelly has Darren Drozdov in the back. Kelly tries to get some comments, but Droz instead asks what right Kevin had to call him a punk last week on Heat. Droz smacks him in the face. Steve Blackman pops up and shoves Droz away. The most ridiculous thing seen on tonight's show is the fur hat Droz was wearing during this. - THE ROCK vs. STEVE BLACKMAN Not entirely a squash, but close enough. The Rock with the Corporate Elbow. McMahon is shown in the back giving orders to the troops. After the break McMahon leads the entire Corporation to the ring. - "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. KEN SHAMROCK The two start off with what looks like it could be a good match. All too soon, though, Austin nails the Stone Cold Stunner and covers for the pin. Test comes in, causing a DQ. That leads immediately into ... "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. TEST ... stunner ... cover ... Kane comes in ... DQ ... "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. KANE ... stunner ... cover ... Chyna comes in ... DQ ... "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. CHYNA ... stunner ... cover ... Bossman comes in ... DQ ... "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. THE BIG BOSSMAN The Bossman beats on Austin with his nightstick, drawing the DQ. Vince McMahon comes in, orders the Bossman to leave, and ... "STONE COLD" STEVE AUSTIN vs. VINCE MCMAHON ... covers for the pin. McMahon has to order the ref to make the three count, while Shane McMahon orders the ring announcer to make the announcement. Even Jerry Lawler says McMahon may have gone too far here. Lawler pours a beer on Austin while taunting him. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I enjoyed the show this week, sort of, but compared to what it could have been it really, really sucked. High on the agenda was hyping the PPV, which they did just fine. In terms of this being "the biggest RAW ever", which it could have been, this was a massive disappointment. This wasn't as bad a show as the buzz from Canada had suggested, but the complaints leveled against it where fairly valid. A major middle finger goes to not delivering the heavily hyped main event. I realize they attempted to make up for it with a replacement main event, but in a case like that you have to deliver a great match. Instead we got one which saw Austin look good, but the whole point of the affair was the continuing storyline. Speaking of Austin he really did look to be good shape. Jim Ross said this on the WWF's website this week, and I have to agree. Austin looked slim, and showed little ring rust. I think things are looking good for his match against whoever at WrestleMania. It's hard to criticize the show this week given it's place in the scheme of things. As I said above, it did well to hype the PPV. Given the location, though, and the huge crowd on hand, it was a miserable failure. Balance those two out and I guess you get a show which was about average. The WWF, in hindsight, probably should have held the card in Toronto this coming Monday. That way they could have delivered a great card--live here in the USA as well--getting the ball rolling for WrestleMania. The WWF clearly made a major scheduling error by forgetting the dog show on USA (or remembering it, but assuming they could use the Toronto show to pull in extra viewers on Saturday night). The WWF doing a bad show here wasn't that big a deal in and of itself, but if the PPV falls flat, and they don't do a great show this Monday, the cumulative effect could really backfire against them as far as the fans are concerned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: WCW had a real chance to shine this past Monday and really dropped the ball. The WWF picked it up, but unfortunately for the fans, they just decided to sit on it and run out the clock. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 169 of the "Monday Night Recap", February 8th/13th, 1999.