Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #170 February 15th, 1999 The Opening Word: RAW Saturday Night turned to not be as not quite bad as the folks in Canada reported, but it was indeed a stinker. Semi-detailed results are available on the Slobberknocker website if you're interested in reading them. The PPV, on the other hand, was just great. Varying tastes will dictate how much one liked or disliked the undercard, but the main event was cool as all hell. "Dateline" on NBC ran a piece on wrestling that was critical of the WWF. I didn't see it. Many that did, though, say it just came off as Eric Bischoff and Bret Hart being whiny. This was the piece that NBC was supposed to air in January, but saved for the February sweeps. It's becoming hip in the media to trash the WWF again, just as it was back in the early Hulkamania days of the 80's. Unfortunately for the media the public is paying even less attention to them than it did back then. Tastes and values have changed drastically since then. It wasn't the bad P.R. that hurt the WWF then--it was the steroid scandal and Vince McMahon's federal indictment. All the bad P.R. in the world isn't going to even make a dent these days. One school board in Winnipeg trying to ban the WWF isn't going to cause an eyelash of any substance anywhere to bat. (Face it: school boards everywhere are always trying ban something or another. I remember how my own high school tried to ban "Spuds Mackenzie" t-shirts back in the 80's!) There are a lot of REAL problems out there in the world, and a couple of wrestlers saying "suck it!" and pointing to their crotches isn't going to register as much more than a minor blip on the radar of social consciousness. "Cleaning up" the WWF won't be a significant step forward in making the world a better place. (That won't stop people from trying, though. For god's sake, they're going after the "Teletubbies" now!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours+. Location: Tampa, Florida. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko. - A Scott Steiner video opens the show. He's got our hook-up, or so I'm told. The announcers go through their hype segment, informing us that Diamond Dallas Page has taken Kimberly, who suffered facial lacerations and a concussion last week, and has placed her in a secret location to recover. They move on to the Ric Flair/"Hollywood" Hogan "feud", saying Flair is going into this next PPV more emotional than he's ever been before. I guess Schiavone wasn't there for those great feuds between Flair and Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat, Harley Race, Jerry Lawler, Ronnie Garvin, Jimmy Garvin, Kerry Von Erich, Lex Luger, Sting, Vader, Bret Hart, Randy Savage ... Tonight's show will feature a pair of Tag Team Tournament matches in the loser's bracket. WCW still hasn't given us any such brackets to look at. Lucky for us fans the guys at the DDT Digest website (see the "Links" section of the Slobberknocker site for the URL) have figured out what the brackets should look like. You all know my philosophy, though: if WCW itself can't be bothered to show it, why should I care? Cut to the back, where a moment after they begin filming Arn Anderson starts to chase Disco Inferno. Arn knocks him down and pulls out his trusty tire iron. Immediately he's swamped by Doug Dellinger, a couple security guys, and several policemen. Arn is led away in handcuffs while Disco looks on and calls him a "bum". Just so I have this straight: an attack outside the ring means you'll be arrested, right? I want to make sure I understand this concept, on the off chance similar circumstances should happen to arise at a later date. Darkness. A car trunk opens. Vic Vega proudly displays his hostage to an amused Mr. White-- Sorry, wrong movie. Darkness. A car trunk opens. Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield are retrieving their pistols, bemoaning the fact that this job really calls for shotguns-- Sorry, wrong movie. Darkness. A car trunk opens. Seth Gecko warns his hostage to remain quiet as his younger brother Ritchie leans in and-- Sorry, wrong movie. Darkness. A car trunk opens. Ordell Robbie is trying to get Beaumont into the trunk, saying it's only a few blocks to the meeting with the Asian gun buyers-- Sorry, wrong movie. Darkness. A car trunk opens. It's Eric Bischoff, and he is stowing away Ric Flair's suit. Seems Flair has Bischoff playing the part of his personal chauffeur this week. Funny ting is Bischoff doesn't seem in the least put off by this. In fact, he seems to have something up his sleeve. Were this a movie we would already be tipped off to the fact that something bad lies in wait for Mr. Flair. Flair exits a private jet with a couple of generic business executives. Remember how I complained about the three camera's used in last week's Raven clips? Well, this week they seem to use about FIFTEEN to document Flair's walk from the plane to the limo. Camera angles switch at a dizzying pace as Flair warns Bischoff to stay with the car this week, lest he be in breach of his contract and earn his dismissal. Bischoff closes the door behind them and delivers more ominous dialogue. Either there's a director somewhere switching between at least three camera angles, or this whole thing was shot with one camera and took a day to film and edit. No idea if this is even supposed to be live or not. Opening credits, followed by a Steiner/Kimberly clip. - Bret Hart/Roddy Piper clip. Scott Hall is still the #1 contender to the U.S. Title, and will get a shot against Piper at the PPV. A pan across the front row reveals disgruntled WCW referee Scott Dickinson, but the announcers miss it. The announcers have also apparently missed the clip with Flair and Bischoff. - PERRY SATURN vs. JERRY FLYNN I wonder if most WCW fans even remember why Saturn is wearing a dress in the first place? Saturn seems to have this match well in hand when the action is interrupted by Scott Dickinson jumping up on the apron. As the ref is tied up Chris Jericho comes out with a stick. He tries to hit Saturn, misses, and Saturn takes him down with a suplex. Flynn then lands a big kick and covers for the pin. Okay match, weird finish, Jericho's status in WCW is still as big a question mark as ever. Flair is in the limo chatting with the execs, telling them how big Nitro has become. He is apparently unfazed by the four cameras (by my count) filming the conversation. They close the window between the back and the driver so that they can talk about him--Bischoff--behind his back. A FIFTH camera mounted on the hood of the car catches Bischoff's reaction. Generic executive #1 commends Flair's handling of Bischoff. Exec #2 then goes off on a tangent and says how big a show "MadTV" on Fox is. Huh? The sound level--especially the background noise--wavers up and down depending on which camera angle is used. the conversation is interrupted by a call on Flair's cell phone. Someone is calling him from the arena to tell him that Arn Anderson was arrested. Flair is upset because Disco Inferno wasn't even supposed to be there tonight. - Lex Luger/Kevin Nash/Rey Mysterio/Konnan promo. Wonder if any of these people will be in the arena tonight, or if clips like this will have to serve as the hype for their match at the PPV? - Replay of Steve McMichael getting bleach thrown in his eyes by Hogan. Camera number SIX is stationed at the side of the road, filming as the limo goes by. Who put this camera there? How are we seeing what it's taping? Is it live, or is it taped footage edited into other taped footage? Are the announcers in the arena seeing this? Is ANYONE in the arena seeing this? How is it we can see this and they can't? Is this a pirate signal that TNT is receiving and they haven't bothered to inform anyone about? Does TNT know they are broadcasting this signal? If they know then how is it no one in WCW or at the arena knows about it? Flair's cell phone conversation continues. City lights are evident behind Flair in some shots--missing in others. Some shots seem to be taking place as the limo is in motion, others (through lack of background noise) suggest that the limo is parked. Camera SEVEN, roughly a half-mile down the road from the last camera, films them as they pass. Camera EIGHT from the passenger seat in the front of the limo shows Bischoff. Flair asks Eric where they are and how far are they from the arena. Bischoff says they've taken a detour and he'll get them there in 20 minutes. Cut to Bischoff on his cell phone, telling someone that they'll be there in 15 minutes. - Another Steiner/Kimberly clip. Pretty obvious by now that neither Steiner nor DDP will be in the building tonight. - The Bret Hart "MadTV" clip is shown for the third or fourth time. Hart will wrestle against "MadTV" "star" Will Sasso later tonight. - Yet ANOTHER Steiner/Kimberly clip. - JUVENTUD GUERRERA/PSYCHOSIS/BLITZKRIEG vs. EL DANDY/HECTOR GARZA/SUPER CALO Good, long match. Lots of blown spots, though. Crowd rather unfairly chants "bor-ing!" early on. Big pop for the old lucha spot where the technicos all stomp on a rudo (the rudos having done the same a minute earlier). Blitzkrieg scores the pin for his team. During the match Schiavone announces that Rey Mysterio was attacked and beaten earlier in the day, and this puts the tag match involving him at the PPV in doubt. (An odd move since it's Lex luger who is really injured and was going to be pulled from the match. Looks like we may just get a Nash/Konan singles match instead.) - That blonde from last week is back. She's still in the hotel room, wearing only a towel, and wants me to order room service. I've heard who she is but I'm going to be a dick and not tell you. Why should I do WCW's work for them? - It's dark on the Florida backroads. Fortunately for us a HELICOPTER has been rented to shine a spotlight on Flair's limo! Camera NINE gives us the view from the whirly bird as the limo passes a series of parked black Hummers. Camera TEN--at ground level-- shows the Hummers surrounding the limo. Camera ELEVEN shows Bischoff fleeing from the limo. I guess this means he's fired, since he's disobeyed Flair and left the limo. Masked figures dressed all in black surround the limo. Flair tells his two passengers that everything will be okay. The door is pulled open and the execs are told to beat it, since this doesn't involve them. the masked man sounds just like "Hollywood" Hogan. Flair exits the limo and faces off with his attackers. Holding his own for a minute he is eventually surrounded and beaten to the ground by the numerous attackers. The shot from the air mimics the footage shot during the Rodney King beating. The masks come off and the attackers are revealed to be Hogan, Nash, Hall, Stevie Ray, Buff Bagwell, and other assorted NWO members. Having now just committed a string of felonies ranging from kidnapping, assault and attempted murder, the NWO members load into the Hummers and pickups and pull away. Bischoff and the two execs are nowhere to be seen. Flair is left for dead: beaten, bruised, but not bloodied. The whole beating lasts nearly ten minutes, and easily spills over into the top of the second hour. Let me just go on record here and say that this was a great angle, and a terrific idea, but the whole set-up leading into it was just too ludicrous to believe. Clearly this was all SUPPOSED to be live. Regardless of that, though, how was this footage transmitted in such a way that wee, the TNT viewing audience, saw it? Was it all pretaped and TNT just played a tape, or was there really all these different cameras feeding the footage to a production truck which then fed the footage up to a satellite, back down to TNT, where it went out to millions of households? And would the NWO really rent two Hummers, a truck, a limo, and a HELICOPTER, plus hire a dozen cameramen, cameras, sound men, and a video production truck--all to pull off a simple beating? This really was a great idea, but WCW went to ridiculous extremes to make this as much like a Hollywood movie production as possible. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Zbyszko. - Our hundredth clip of Steiner harassing the Nitro Girls. Thirteen time World Champion Ric Flair is lying near death somewhere in a field in Florida. The announcers, meanwhile, are merrily hyping upcoming live event ticket sales. It turns out that WE ALL SAW THE ATTACK, BUT THEY DIDN'T! Why they are pretending none of this took place is beyond me. Why they are pretending no one in the arena saw this is beyond me. Years of televised wrestling has established that when something happens away from the ring, the announcers are aware of it. That's just the way it is and the way it always has been. Even if something happened that they weren't aware of, the moment it is aired they "learn of it" at the same time we the viewers do. Now the rule is that unless the announcers specifically say something is happening in the back, any remote location occurrence or pretaped clips supposedly go unseen by them. This is incredibly frustrating, and seems to have no purpose other than to piss off people (like myself). Live or taped--it doesn't matter, just so long as WCW maintains the ILLUSION that all of what we are seeing is live. If all of this was supposed to be live then it raises countless questions. If the live crowd didn't get to see the attack then I wonder what took place in the ring during those ten minutes? Wouldn't the announcers question the long pause in the middle of their broadcast? Wouldn't the announcers call the production truck and ask what is going out? Why doesn't someone, somewhere, pass on a message to the announcers that TNT just ran "live" footage of the NWO ambushing Flair? I think I've just brushed the surface as far as conflicts of logic, and the number of questions this whole angle raised: questions which wouldn't be necessary is WCW had just 1) filmed the attack with one camera, and 2) the announcers acknowledged what was going on. I've had my say in the matter, and I won't bother bringing it all up again if they do something similar in coming weeks. (Not too much, anyway.) - DAVE TAYLOR/FIT FINLAY vs. CHRIS BENOIT/DEAN MALENKO The winner here will wrestle again later tonight. The winner of that match has to wrestle again on Thursday. Benoit and Malenko will then face Curt Hennig and Barry Windham at the PPV. Oops--gave that away, didn't I? Malenko gets the win with the Texas Cloverleaf. I wonder how Flair's doing? - Goldberg promo. - In case you hadn't seen it yet, they replay the Steiner/Kimberly car incident from last week. - The Nitro Girls are at the desk to relate how terrible this Kimberly ordeal has been. - Hart/Piper/Sasso clip again. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. WILL SASSO (w/ Debra Wilson) Debra is another cast member on "MadTV". Sasso comes out to the "MadTV" theme song. Wearing a football jersey with "73" on it, Heenan says that's the number of cheeseburgers Sasso ate earlier that afternoon. Schiavone laughs, giving us all a pretty good indication of what they think his chances are here against Hart. Hart kicks Sasso, knocks him down, stomps on him, drops an elbow, drops a leg, rolls him out of the ring, knocks him off the apron when he tries to get back in, then goes out and chokes him with a cable. That's it. That's pretty much the whole match. Hart lays in a few chairshots too. Debra grabs the chair away, like she's helping Sasso, but then hits him with the chair herself. Heenan laughs, recognizing this for the joke it really is. She rolls Fatasso back in the ring and Hart applies the Sharpshooter for the win. What a farce. I suppose I should be glad that Sasso got in no offense whatsoever, and Hart didn't have to sell for that fat piece of shit. Ric Flair? Hello? Anyone? Is he dead? Hellllooooooo? HOUR THREE Hosted By: Schiavone, Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - The NWO Hummer motorcade pulls up to the arena. Hogan leads his gang of wanted felons into the ring. Hogan then sends them all away as he taunts Ric Flair, challenging him to come out and wrestle for the Title. The announcers, having not seen Flair's near-fatal beating, speculate as to whether or not Flair will actually come out. Here comes U.S. Champion "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Piper is still the "Acting Commissioner" of WCW, so he forces Hogan to defend the title against him right there and then. - "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN vs. "ROWDY" RODDY PIPER Pretty much the same match we've seen out of these two for most of this decade: eye pokes, back scratching, weak-ass punches, etc. After several minutes Piper slaps on the sleeper, which he used to beat Hogan a few times back in 1997, when the rest of the NWO finally come back out. DQ. Scott Hall zaps Piper several times with his stun gun. (Piper should have worn his "shockproof vest".) Hall then puts on Piper's kilt and does a few girlish curtseys. A pickup truck approaches Flair's limp body. It's been more than an hour since his brutal attack ended. Of course a cameraman has been left behind to film this. I don't know what the laws are like in Florida, but here in Minnesota that cameraman would be breaking the law by standing by and not helping Flair for all that time. Anyway, this farmer, who either just happened to be driving by and saw Flair, or perhaps was watching Nitro at home and realized this field was nearby, loads Flair into his truck and drives away. He ignores the cameraman and leaves him behind. (I would to, come to think of it.) - Some man I've never seen before reads off a prepared statement--the gist of which being that Scott Steiner is suing DDP for $1 million. DDP will also be summoned before a grand jury and faces jail time. The point of this, obviously, is to piss us all off and hate Scott Steiner even more. Works for me. - Luger/Nash/Mysterio/Konnan promo--for a match that probably isn't even going to take place. - Another set of Hart/Piper clips, which this time include Scott Hall, hyping his match against Piper at the PPV. - CHRIS BENOIT/DEAN MALENKO vs. MIKE ENOS/SCOTTY RIGGS Enos had some "differences of opinion" with his last partner, Bobby Duncum, Jr., so Riggs has replaced him. In the middle of the match we see our mysterious farmer hosing down his truck engine at a gas station. Flair tries to get out of the truck, but our samaritan shoves him back in. Flair had told him to take him to the fairgrounds, which is where Nitro is being taped, so doggone it--that's a where he's gonna take him! Of course there's a cameraman there at the gas station to film all this and, of course, he gets left behind again. Benoit with the Crippler Crossface. Our cameraman apparently has his own vehicle, as he's filming the farmer as he drives along the highway. Pretty tough to shoot and drive at the same time, so one has to figure that there were actually two men with Flair in the field, with a vehicle, the whole time he laid there dying. - Blondie again. She says something to her unseen viewer about him "talking to those people". - Goldberg/Bam Bam Bigelow promo. Hey, thanks for reminding me that they weren't here either this week. - Michael Buffer comes out to introduce ... "Hollywood" Hogan. Hogan talks and talks and talks, giving Flair enough time to get to the arena. Sure enough, the truck carrying Flair pulls up. Flair grabs an axehandle from the flatbed of the truck. Flair is a mess, and the announcers are stunned by his appearance. Heenan wonders if Flair has been drinking (again making me wonder if the whole point of all this is to just piss people off). Flair stumbles all the way to the ring, where the beating from earlier resumes. The other Horsemen come out, but they are ineffectual as the numbers are against them. Fans chant for Goldberg to come out. Cut to the back, where Scott Hall is handing his stun gun to ... the cameraman? He tells him "now you've seen how it's done: don't mess it up." - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I can't really fault any of the matches this week. They ranged from bad (Hart/Sasso) to great (lucha six-man). As has been the case in recent weeks WCW has done a fair to good job inside the squared circle. The rest, though, is an experiment that gets sillier with each passing week. They're desperately trying to copy the WWF, but aren't succeeding very well. The WWF, as much as they claim to be "action/adventure" and "sports entertainment" just don't do things this stupid. Let me rephrase that: they don't do things this stupid-LY. They may have their share of crap, but at least they usually remember not to reveal how FAKE wrestling is. Let me rephrase that ... Say, didn't that James Fullington guy make his WCW debut two weeks ago? I wonder what happened to him? For that matter where's Raven? Wasn't the whole point of those videos last week that he was coming back? Too bad DDP, Steiner, Luger, Mysterio, Konan, Goldberg and Bigelow were all absent this week. Maybe if they'd have actually been there we wouldn't have needed so many clips to hype their PPV matches. Explain to me again why Scott Steiner isn't in jail for nearly killing Kimberly last week? I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess that Randy Savage is the guy the blonde woman is supposed to have been talking to, and who Hall handed the stun gun to. It makes no sense, especially given that Eric Bischoff "broke" Savage's knee, and the last time we saw Savage was several weeks ago when he showed up and turned on the NWO, but that's my guess. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Birmingham, Alabama. WWF RAW Hosted By: Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - PPV photos open the show. - WWF Commissioner Shawn Michaels makes his way to the ring. Once there he quickly brings out "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and WWF Champion Mankind. Almost immediately thereafter Vince McMahon comes out. McMahon, sporting a neckbrace and bandaged forehead, tells Austin he'd like to bury the hatchet and start over anew. Austin isn't buying it, though, and the fans chant "asshole!" at Vince. "What do you want, blood?!" His attempt at extending the olive branch rebuked, Vince instead brings out the Rock, who immediately sets to challenging Mankind to another rematch. Mankind confesses that he's in no shape to wrestle and would be glad to do the match next week. The Rock wants it tonight. Mankind accepts. McMahon then taunts Shawn into making the match a special one: a match which should end the feud between Mankind and the Rock once-and-for-all. "Make it your kind of match. Make it a LADDER match!" Michaels gives it his approval and tonight's main event is set. Vince puts the capper on things by telling Austin that he will indeed go to WrestleMania, but won't know his opponent is until later tonight. He will know who the special referee at WrestleMania will be, though: Paul Wight. Out comes Wight, and he and Austin have the obligatory staredown. - Replay of Wight's appearance moments ago. - JEFF JARRETT/DEBRA MCMICHAEL vs. D-LO BROWN/IVORY Mixed-tag match. Like so much of the WWF on TV these days this match hints at how good a match D-Lo and Jarrett could deliver if given the time. As it stands, though, the hint is all we get. Two or three minutes in both women enter the ring and tussle on the mat. The ref can't break them up so he throws out the match. In the ensuing cooling off period Debra grabs Jarrett's guitar and smashed it across Ivory's back. Owen Hart puts in a token appearance to help out Debra and Jarrett. Backstage we see a brief shot of the Corporation getting to know the Giant--I mean Paul Wight. - Triple H and X-Pac come out to challenge Kane and Chyna to a rematch. They come out, along with Shane McMahon. Shane says there will be no rematch as such, and gives Chyna the night off. X-Pac suggests that Shane take Chyna's place. Shane says he do it if X-Pac puts his European Title on the line. X-Pac agrees. The match is on, and if Shane of Kane score the pin on X-Pac, they win the title. Val Venis and Ryan Shamrock are in the back swapping spit. - Mankind is in the back practicing his ladder climbing. He's not doing so well. - "BADD ASS" BILLY GUNN vs. VAL VENIS (w/ Ryan Shamrock) This one goes by fast, with Venis hitting a belly-to-back suplex and scoring the pin moments after Ryan had been knocked off the apron. Gunn checks on Ryan to see if she's okay. Ryan is okay and she enters the ring to celebrate with Val. Val, though, like he did with Taka Michinoku's sister, dumps her (now that he's gotten what he wanted from her). The Undertaker is leading the Ministry of Darkness through the back hallways. - Billy Gunn is trying to console Ryan. Enter Ken Shamrock, who kicks Billy's ass. - The Undertaker and the MoD hit the ring. Paul Bearer gets on the mic for a few words before turning it over to the Undertaker, who announces his intention to take over the World Wrestling Federation. What they did to the Big Bossman at the PPV was the first step. He says that while Vince McMahon was occupied by his petty obsessions (Austin), the Undertaker built up his Ministry army. He says that showed how they can get to anyone they want at any time. The Big Bossman comes out and challenges the Ministry to a six-man match for later in the show. Shane McMahon, in the back wearing a D-X shirt altered to read "X-Punk", is getting psyched up for his match. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. - KANE/SHANE MCMAHON (w/ Chyna) vs. TRIPLE H/X-PAC Shane wrestles little in this match, spending most of his time running around like a jackrabbit. The finish comes with Kane and Triple H up the ramp, and Chyna handing the European belt to Shane. Shane clocks X-Pac, collapses on top of him, and scores the lucky, freak pin. Shane is the new European Champion. Before anyone starts lighting torches to storm the WWF castle: yes, the title is now meaningless. Tell me, though, did it really mean anything BEFORE this match? X-Pac will now win it back in the rematch at WrestleMania. Shane has to be carried from the ring. - "I'm going to WrestleMania!" exclaims Shane backstage. Champagne starts flowing and Kane, who gets some spritzed on him, has to be stopped from squashing Shane. - BOB HOLLY vs. STEVE BLACKMAN The WWF has the title historians groaning again because they are now apparently counting Holly's IC Title win over Jeff Jarrett in 1995 as legitimate. This match goes by pretty quick, with the action immediately spilling to the back, and Droz entering the picture to attack Blackman. Holly gets the pin, while Instafeud(tm) strikes another victim. Holly makes his way back to the ring and "shoots" on his past lame gimmicks and weak-ass partners. Who should then come out but Bart Gunn: former partner and Brawl For All winner. Bart's a little upset at Holly's attitude. Holly reminds Bart that he's the only one Bart didn't KO in the BFA. Their rematch is next week, and the Hardcore Title will be on the line. Sable's breasts are walking down the hallway. - Kevin Kelly is in the ring to interview Sable. She tells us how fabulous she is, how she'll be on the cover of "Playboy" in April; how she'll be on the cover of "TV Guide" in March; how the movie offers are just rolling in. She thinks she's all that! Then her psycho fan runs in, only to be grabbed by security. Sable tells him to let her go, then rips into her for being an obsessed stalker and a "Sable wannabe". The fan is crushed. The great thing here as this that this heel turn was misinterpreted by a gazillion websites as "problems between Sable and the WWF". Guess what? IT WAS A WORK! I love it. Obligatory "McMahon talking with the Rock" shot. - KEN SHAMROCK/TEST/BIG BOSSMAN vs. THE ACOLYTES/MIDEON Just brawling, no attempt at doing a match. The Undertaker then comes out, with Shane McMahon being dragged behind. The Taker says he has something for him. Shane starts begging "don't cut me!" Viscera and the Brood keep the Corporation members from coming to Shane's aid. The Undertaker hands him a large envelope, which he tells him to give to Vince. You know, drop Viscera and Mideon from the Ministry and not only are they a decent stable, but this may well be a decent angle. Those two guys are the only things holding it back right now. - The Rock comes out works the crowd. - THE ROCK vs. MANKIND Steve Austin sits in for color commentary. Another solid match between these two. Mankind, at one point, lays the ladder on the Rock and hits it repeatedly with a chair. He also successfully hits the People's Elbow (dubbed "Mr. Elbow"). Both guys take a ton of punishment. The Rock puts Mankind through the Spanish announcer's table with the Rock Bottom. The Rock is much faster in climbing the ladder this time than he was at SummerSlam. Things are looking good for Mankind, who has just taken the Rock off the ladder with the Mandible Claw, when Paul Wight makes his way to the ring. He grabs Mankind off the ladder and chokeslams him to the mat. This allows the Rock to climb the ladder rung, by damn rung, by damn rung, and win the WWF Championship for the third time. Steve Austin sits idly by because he doesn't care who he faces at next month's WrestleMania. Once the match is over, though, he enters the ring and prepares to give the Rock a Stone Cold Stunner--just as the show fades off the air. - Next week: Bob Holly vs. Bart Gunn. Comments: This week's show illustrates what, if anything, is "wrong" with the WWF. Don't get me wrong: I liked this week's show a whole lot. To all the WWF's critics, though, what we get really isn't that bad, and it usually happens so fast that we can't complain about it stinking up the place. Compared to what it could be, though, it's disappointing. That's what separates it from WCW, really. At their worst the WWF is often disappointing. The "bad" stuff comes in small bunches. WCW, when they're bad ... they stink like wet toe cheese. The one bragging point their fans have over the WWF's fans is that WCW's matches are longer, and many of them are better. Lately, though, they've been delivering the same number of matches as seen on RAW, but in three hours instead of two. Both shows deliver roughly the same percentage of TV airtime to in-ring action. Since Nitro is longer, they have to show more filler. That's where the difference between the two shows become so much clearer. The RAW's filler, which is really what their fans are tuning in to see, is done so much better and is far more entertaining. To be really blunt about it, WCW fans can look forward on Monday nights to a few good matches, and a couple of hours of accompanying crap. WWF fans tune in to see two hours of stuff that is, for the most part, very entertaining from start to finish. It's only in the analysis afterwards that they decide whether the matches delivered, or if the show was a disappointment in that department. It's only when expectations are really high, and the WWF delivers a sub-par show (like this past Saturday), that most WWF fans will admit that the show was "bad". The end result of all this is that now more than ever the two shows are pulling in two disparate audiences. The "traditional" fans perhaps constitute a smaller portion of the total viewing audience than ever before, and neither promotion truly caters to their tastes. This group, of which I would consider myself a member (though at the very fringe of such), like WCW for their wrestling, but hate the rest of what they offer. These same fans in turn like the style, creativity and ingenuity of the WWF, but dislike the manner in which they deliver their matches. We're the ones who watch both and flip back-and-forth between the two each week. If forced to choose I myself would pick the WWF, since they better represent what I like about wrestling. Many would agree with. Many others would pick WCW. Collectively we like what the two promotions do that is good, and dislike what they do that isn't. We are, as a group, in the minority. The lion's share of viewers pick one show or the other and are what give each their still increasing numbers. Whether RAW is winning the ratings now because we, the "swing vote", are declaring them to be the "better" show, or because the WWF's new "attitude" is creating the larger fan base ... well, who can say? I'm not sure what this all means--or if it means anything. All I know is that despite a number of obvious flaws the WWF seems to be getting bigger every week. WCW, on the other hand, is doing all they can to stay in the running. Are WCW's strengths keeping them in the race, or is it their weaknesses which are leaving them in the WWF's dust? Is the WWF really that much "better", or are the "shock tactics" they employ more than enough to overcome WCW's strengths? Or are the two so different now that it's no longer possible to compare the two? How one goes about answering those last three questions will dictate what kind of wrestling fan one is. Food for thought. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: SuperBrawl IX. Here's the card: * Hogan vs. Flair. * Piper vs. Hall. * Goldberg vs. Bigelow. * Hennig/Windham vs. Benoit/Malenko. * Nash/Luger vs. Konan/Mysterio. I'm sure there's more, but that's all they hyped here this week. I think Kidman is supposed to defend the Cruiserweight Title against Chavo Guerrero Jr. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 170 of the "Monday Night Recap", February 15th, 1999. Back to Main Page