Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #190 July 5th, 1999 The Opening Word: Last Thursday's Thunder was highlighted by a running series of clips showing Kevin Nash and Randy Savage working out a deal to trade Gorgeous George for Nash's WCW World Title belt. Somehow Nash was able to send out a live video feed from a hotel room, where he was getting a massage from Torrie Wilson. Savage too had a camera filming him at an undisclosed location. After some pointless scenes involving waiting for a phone call, Nash and Savage tried to make the exchange. Nash was jumped by Sid Vicious, and what looked like a fake Sting. Savage recovered what he thought was Gorgeous George, but it turned out to be Torrie wrapped up in a black sheet wearing a hood. Of course these street scenes all took place with cameras already in position awaiting their arrival. Thus Savage and crew ran away from Nash, then somehow there just happened to be a camera waiting for them at another street, where Savage pulled over and made the discovery that he'd been outsmarted. The whole thing played out like a movie. A BAD movie. Any pretense that this was wrestling, and that the cameras were capturing a live occurrence, went right out the window. I'm continually amazed by the lengths to which WCW will go to make themselves look stupid (and the amount of money they're willing to spend in doing so). Speaking of which, I assume you've all heard by now that Chris Jericho signed with the WWF. Seems he had similar money offers on the table, and asked each company what they would do with him. WCW was noncommittal, giving him no guarantees about what direction they thought he should take, or what kind of push he would receive. They thought that maybe they could lump him in with the mythical "Young vs. Old" feud. The WWF was a bit more forthcoming, laying out a rough sketch of what they planned to do with him in his first six months. There were no guarantees, but if he worked hard, and got over with the fans, he could be a superstar. Faced with the uncertainty of the WWF, and the certainty that WCW would do nothing with him, Jericho chose the WWF. The sad thing now is WCW, who did so little to try and keep him, is now falling all over itself to bury Jericho. Diamond Dallas Page has gone on record claiming he "made" Jericho's career. More recently, Mark Madden wrote a column for WrestleLine blasting Jericho (and the WWF, and the WWF's fans). I hope Jericho's WCW fans have more sense, and give him a chance to prove himself in the WWF. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours+. Location: Atlanta, Georgia. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - A funky video shows the sights and sounds of WCW. Its tagline is "Don't Miss A Minute". - "Last Week" clipfest. - Nitro Girls. - During the opening hype they show a clip from "Crush 'Em", the new music video by Megadeth, who will be performing later in the show. Crowd attendance is announced as 25,000 or so. Another 25,00 showed up disguised as empty seats. - CHAVO GUERRERO, JR. vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA Though I'd like to see matches between wrestlers who have some kind of issue between them, one can't turn down a good match when it is presented. This one was fairly good, with Chavo and Juvi going through a lot of moves, reversals, and combinations, making it a complete toss-up as to who would be victor--SON-OF-A-BITCH! Here comes Randy Savage and Sid Vicious. A few powerbombs, and an elbow off the top, and yet another fine Cruiserweight match is ruined. Sid calls out Kevin Nash. Nash eventually appears on the big screen. He's somewhere in the back, with Torrie and Gorgeous George. Nash suggests he and Sid go at it tonight. This drags on and on, with Savage cussing up a storm and promising Nash all kinds of bodily harm, and Nash doing that wiggly-fingered "ooh, I'm so scared!" routine. - DJ Ran seems to be slightly more over this week. Scary. - "Mean" Gene Okerlund interviews Ric Flair, David Flair, and other assorted hangers-on. Flair announces that he's stripping Scott Steiner of the United States Title (because Steiner is off "traveling the world", or something). Flair says his son David is the new U.S. Champion, by virtue of his being the #1 contender to the World Title. (This he justifies by saying David beat Kevin Nash last week, because Nash lost via countout.) Flair says this is just step one, as David will eventually go on to win both the World Tag And World Heavyweight Titles. (With the way things are going, I'll assume he means next week.) Charles "Little Naitch" Robinson brings the title belt out for David. A multitude of women in the ring and balloons dropped from the ceiling celebrate the occasion. You know, there's something pathetically sad about seeing David Flair stand there, all glassy-eyed, blank expression, cheeks glowing red. He doesn't just lack charisma, he actually sucks it out of those standing around him. Buff Bagwell then comes out and challenges David to a match. - RICK STEINER vs. EL VAMPIRO Squash. Steiner with a bulldog off the top, then a submission hold. Vampiro *maybe* got in one kick. Lenny Lane gushes over a pair of shorts Lodi has given him, as the two come out of the closet. Literally. More talk ensues about WCW being "open-minded". I'm starting to suspect that the joke is on us: that this is all a swerve to set up a punchline that has nothing to do with the two being gay. - They play a video showing clips of Bret Hart's career in WCW. Included are quotes from Bret's Calgary Sun column regarding Owen Hart. Home movie clips of Owen are included. This is WCW's way of saying "thank you" to Bret, should he announce his retirement tonight. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Bret "Hitman" Hart makes his way to the ring. In short, Hart says he doesn't know yet what he's going to do in regard to his career, and thanks the fans for being there to cheer him, and thanks all those wrestlers he's competed against. - Eddie Guerrero runs up to Doug Dellinger and tells him a masked wrestler stole his wallet from his pants. Huh? - I'm ignoring DJ Ran. - ERNEST MILLER (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. JERRY FLYNN (w/ Jimmy Hart) This is barely worth talking about. This is the kickboxing match Flynn challenged Miller to last week. The two wear boxing gloves, and fight in two minute rounds. Round one is entirely uneventful. Round two sees Miller do an illegal kick, Flynn miss a kick and fall on his ass, then Miller bringing the bout to a close with an illegal blow to the back of Flynn's head, earning him a DQ. Flynn tackles Miller to get some payback. - VAN HAMMER vs. LODI (w/ Lenny lane) Squash. Hammer with a Cobra Clutch Slam. - Doug Dellinger rounds up several Mexican luchadores, and says they have to take part in a line-up, so Eddie can point out who stole his wallet. - "Mean" Gene interviews Roddy Piper. Piper kills a few minutes doing his usual routine. He then calls out Sting. Out comes "Sting"--some short guy dressed in a Sting mask, wig and black trenchcoat. Piper asks the bogus Sting all the questions he should be asking the real Sting. He then beats him up. (The mask comes off, but we don't get a chance to see who it is.) Piper can't seem to remember if he's a face or heel. Tony Schiavone uses this opportunity to theorize that maybe the Sting we've been seeing lately isn't the real Sting. Well, duh! He then challenges Buff Bagwell to a "Taped Fist Match" at Bash at the Beach. J.J. Dillon comes out and says WCW is going to need an impartial referee for that bout, and brings out Judge Mills Lane. Lane, famous for his "let's get it on!" line, gets all cantankerous on Piper's ass. So, Piper challenges Bagwell to a boxing match, and WCW just happens to have Mills Lane in the building? That was ... convenient. - Nitro Girls. Go away DJ Ran. - KONNAN/REY MYSTERIO, JR. vs. STEVEN REGAL/FIT FINLAY (w/ David Taylor) K-Dawg and Rey Rey are accompanied by the No Limit Soldiers. The match doesn't amount to much, as Curt Hennig, Barry & Kendall Windham, and Bobby Duncum, Jr. come out and attack Konnan, Rey and the No Limit Soldiers. HOUR THREE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - BUFF BAGWELL vs. DAVID FLAIR (w/ Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Asya) Bagwell destroys David, necessitating interference on the part of referee Charles Robinson, Flair, Anderson, Asya, and eventually Roddy Piper, who runs in and knocks out Bagwell with a loaded fist. Dean Malenko is there too, in a failed attempt to help Bagwell. David gets the pin. - Nitro Girls. - Eddie checks out the line-up of luchadores, which includes La Parka, Psychosis and Blitzkrieg. Eddie makes various horrified reactions at seeing how ugly some of these guys are under their masks (we, of course, aren't allowed to see what they look like). None of them turn out to be the guilty party. I have no idea what the point of this was, but it was funny. The picture then gets all fuzzy, as the Nitro signal is somehow pirated by Hak and Chastity. Hak talks about how he was hardcore from birth. He says because WCW President Flair banned all hardcore matches, he'll do them outside the arenas if need be. He says there will be a "Junkyard Match" at PPV, with a challenge being thrown out to anyone who thinks they are tough enough. Something he says is bleeped, which seems odd for a pirated transmission. He calls himself "Junkyard Dog". (If he lived in the country, would that make him "Hillbilly Jim"?) Pretty decent promo on Hak's part, though. Chastity looks very natural in front of a camera. - Curt Hennig and the "West Texas Rednecks" do a live (lip synch) performance of "I hate Rap!" - THE TRIAD vs. CHRIS BENOIT/DEAN MALENKO/SATURN "The Triad" is the name Diamond Dallas Page, Bam Bam Bigelow and Kanyon will be going by. This turns out to be the only decent match of the show. Benoit pins Bigelow, following a headbutt off the top. Good match, without the disappointing finish which has plagued the other recent matches these guys have had. - Megadeth performs "Crush 'Em". The video for this song is okay, but I can't say too much about Megadeth as a live act. Fireworks go off when they finish, followed by darkness. We then hear "I'm back!", and Goldberg appears on the stage. The fans chant his name as they go to commercial. Wow ... blink and you'd have missed him! - As Michael Buffer is doing the ring introductions, Schiavone talks up Goldberg's return. Probably a good idea, since anyone who changed the channel right after Megadeth finished missed it. - KEVIN NASH vs. SID VICIOUS (w/ Randy Savage, Madusa & Miss The fans chant for Goldberg. Nash has the ref kick Savage and the ladies from ringside. Mere moments later Savage returns and interferes, ending the match. For those keeping score, that makes FIVE WEEKS STRAIGHT (at least) that WCW failed to deliver a decent effort in their scheduled main event. No pinfalls, only short matches with DQ run-ins. "Sting" runs out to help Savage and Sid beat on Nash. The real Sting then comes out to save Nash. After Sting clears the ring, Nash comes to. Seeing only one Sting, Nash powerbombs him. On his way out (as the fans are pelting him with garbage) he tells Savage that the girls are in his dressing room. After a delay, they catch up with Savage tearing through the backstage area. He confronts Gorgeous George, asking her if Nash touched her. Torrie has something of a smirk on her face, so Savage slaps it off. He then rips off George's shirt, throws her to the ground and kicks (at) her. Then, with Savage on the verge of striking Torrie once again, TNT cuts away abruptly (foregoing the usual WCW copyright at the bottom of the screen. The copyright is included, though, at the end of the replay). - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Forget disappointment, since it's not like I was expecting anything out of this show. What I instead felt was surprise and shock at how bad it was. The finale to the show really left me feeling uncomfortable to be a wrestling fan. I can't think of anything else in recent memory that was as ugly as that little scene with Savage and the girls. Kimberly being thrown out of Scott Steiner's car is about the only thing that comes close. That, and some of the stuff involving Stephanie McMahon's "kidnapping". Men fighting women in a competitive, in-ring situation is one thing. To show a man beating up on two women backstage is another. I've lost a lot of respect for Savage because of this. Not to be disrespectful to Bret Hart, nor to criticize his emotional display, I have to say that his appearance here was fairly pointless. Before anyone gets pissed off and flames me, though, let me clarify by noting that the fault here really lies with WCW, who hyped this as being a huge event, when it was really just Bret coming out and expressing how much he loved Owen, and thanking the fans for their continuing support. WCW shamelessly capitalized on it by insinuating that Bret would "shoot" on the WWF, announce his retirement, or set the ball rolling on his return to the ring. None of these things happened. From an emotional standpoint it was moving, but from an entertainment standpoint it offered little. I had no problem with Bret's speech. I was moved by it, in fact. What I resent is the way WCW hyped it. The live crowd too seemed restless once it became apparent Bret wasn't going to be making any kind of concrete announcement. They were expecting Bret to announce his return, to deny the outright assertions that WCW made about Bret retiring, something like that. All this talk about WCW not knowing what Bret would say is a sham. They knew basically what he was going to say, and know what his plans are, because he's discussed them with Eric Bischoff in recent days. WCW used Bret as a ratings ploy. One can't ignore the questionable timing of Bret starting his speech mere moments before RAW took to the air. Now, I know some are going to claim that that's what the WWF did with their Owen Hart tribute show. Sorry, but this was different. The WWF didn't hype that show as anything other than a tribute, and they didn't try to take that show and wrap it up into their ongoing business-as-usual storylines. Whether you liked it or didn't like it, you have to admit that. This here was WCW taking a similar situation and telling the fans "tune in, because Bret is going to make a big announcement!" It was unfair to the fans to put them into a position to expect Bret to do or say something storyline related. It was unfair to Bret too. WCW announced Bret's return last Thursday, knowing that the element of mystery they added to it ("what will Bret say?") would assure them a few more Georgia Dome tickets sold, and assure them a few more TV viewers come Monday. That aside, as a former Hitman fan, I was hoping this would be the night he announced his comeback, and set about kicking some serious ass in WCW as a babyface. While that's probably yet to come, I was just disappointed that it didn't begin tonight. WCW making us think it would didn't help matters. An even bigger fizzle was Goldberg's "return". It's like "there he is ... let's go to commercial!" How lame. It's not as if it was a surprise, as WCW made sure the "rumor" of his return spread across the Internet. Just like Bret's announcement, just like Hogan possibly showing up, just like Shane Douglas possibly making his debut, WCW was doing all they could to convince the online fans that this would be a huge show. Now that we've seen there's two Stings, does it matter who the mysterious Hummer driver was? WCW spent the last few weeks convincing us it was Sting. Now we see that Sting was fake. How will WCW explain it if the Hummer driver turns out to be someone else? Will they even bother to bring it up again? Scott Steiner was stripped of the U.S. Title because of a back injury. Never mind *when*, there's some doubt as to *if* he'll be able to return. I don't even want to discuss what a farce it is to have David Flair hold a title as big as the U.S. belt. Of course Bagwell will probably win it soon enough, so this nightmare shouldn't last too long. An eventful show, I guess, but it's nowhere near the blockbuster show the fans were expecting. No Hulk Hogan. No Shane Douglas. Bret Hart and Goldberg did little more than show up and say "hi!" Megadeth was good or bad, depending on how much you like them and heavy metal to begin with. The U.S. Title was vacated and given to David Flair. No Tank Abbott. The latest rumors regarding that are that WCW has already dumped him. No Dennis Rodman either. Rodman had been tentatively scheduled to appear at Bash at the Beach. Rumors (what else?) are that WCW has rethought bringing Rodman in again. On the plus side Master P was a no-show again (rumors are WCW may space out his appearances, if not scrap their agreement with him altogether). Eric Bischoff is still off my TV, which is always a good thing. Unless Goldberg is back to stay next week, I don't see WCW's fortunes improving all that much anytime soon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Taped 6/29. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Fayetteville, North Carolina. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - "Last Week" package. - New WWF Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin makes his way to the ring. On Heat, the Undertaker challenged Austin to a "First Blood Match" at Fully Loaded. Austin recalls the last "First Blood Match" he was in, which saw Kane victorious due to interference from the Undertaker. Here comes Vince McMahon. Vince says the WWF isn't big enough for the two of them, and suggests that if the Undertaker wins at Fully Loaded, Austin will never ever get another shot at the WWF Championship. But if Austin wins, McMahon will never ever appear on TV again! McMahon will even let Austin's own lawyers write up the paperwork for the match, so McMahon can't insert any loopholes to screw Austin over. Austin's quick acceptance is a mere formality a that point. A quick look at the Rock backstage. - Michael Cole gets a few comments from the Rock, who drapes his newest t-shirt over Cole's head. - THE ACOLYTES vs. THE HARDY BOYZ (w/ Michael hayes) The doctors don't want Bradshaw to wrestle (Kane piledrived him on the steel steps on Heat), but Bradshaw comes out anyway. Good mixed-skills match, with Bradshaw and Faarooq using their size and strength to advantage, and Matt and Jeff using their speed and wrestling ability to stay in the match. The finish sees Jeff using Hayes' walking stick to stir Bradshaw's already scrambled egg of a head. Matt then hits a Tornado DDT, and covers for the pin. New World Tag Team Champions! - Terry Taylor is on hand to get comments from the new tag champs. He asks Hayes a question, but Hayes says this is the kids' moment--talk to them. They start talking about this being their lifelong dream, when suddenly the transmission is taken over by the latest "GTV" feed. Droz and Prince Albert are in their dressing room. On Heat, the two lost a match to the Godfather and Val Venis, with the stipulation being that if they lost, they'd have to be the Godfather's Ho's. (Had they won they would have been able to pierce any part of Val's body. Sure a lot of stuff happening on Heat!) Prince Albert is upset because, in addition to having to wear women's clothes, because Droz seems to be enjoying this waaaaaaaay too much. "Did you shave your legs?!" See, cross-dressing is funny. Gay relationships are not. - GANGREL vs. THE GODFATHER (w/ Ho's) The Godfather calls for Val to come out and enjoy the scenery. Droz and Prince Albert then come out, making the ugliest pair of Ho's ever seen. The Godfather wins this one in about a minute, pinning Gangrel following a legdrop. Droz and Albert then jump Val Venis. Gangrel knocks out the Godfather, then joins in on the Venis beating. Edge and Christian come out to pull Gangrel away. Obviously a Brood split is in the works. Test and Stephanie are backstage. Steph says she's worried about Test getting his ass kicked by the Corporate Ministry. Well, she doesn't use those words ... - Hey, there's Steel Cage hanging over the ring! - TEST vs. JOEY ABS Abs is the recently added member of the Mean Streets Posse. About a minute into the match Shane McMahon comes out, dragging Stephanie with him. Distracted, Test is left wide open for an attack from Abs and the other Posse Members (Rodney and Pete Gas). - Chyna and Triple H are outside with a couple of cops. Chyna's car has been vandalized, with D-Generation X graffiti sprayed all over it. She tells the cops that she saw X-Pac and Road Dogg do it. That, and some masked Mexican stole her wallet. - D-LO BROWN vs. AL SNOW Snow comes out of the crowd and attacks D-Lo from behind as D-Lo is "you betta recognize"-ing on the mic. Backstage the two go. First they hit the concession stand. Then we see some action on the escalator. D-Lo takes a potted plant to the chest. Then it's over to the payphones, where D-Lo makes a 1-800-COLLECT joke. Further in the back they come across some tables. Snow is whipped into one. Midian then pops up out of nowhere and knocks several standing tables onto D-Lo. Snow places D-Lo onto yet another table, disappears behind a curtain, and reappears high in the air, atop some kind a rising platform thingamajig. Splash off the platform! Snow gets the pin. Midian then strolls by and cackles at D-Lo's misfortune. I should mention that Midian still has the European Title belt, and is now officially recognized as the champion (another Heat development). The cops are looking for X-Pac and Road Dogg. Sgt. Slaughter has no idea where they are, but Howard "The Fink" Finkel rats them out. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - VAL VENIS vs. ROAD DOGG This one is barely underway when the cops come out, with X-Pac already in handcuffs. Road Dogg too is cuffed and lead away. Let me note that these are the least genuine cops I've ever seen. It's just three guys wearing black shirts with "POLICE" written in white! Chyna and "Mr. Ass" Billy Gunn watch on a monitor backstage, smug that justice has now been served. - JEFF JARRETT (w/ Debra) vs. CHAZ (w/ Marianna) I agree with Jim Ross: who DOES Chaz know to get a shot at the IC belt so soon? This one goes by fast, with the two women at ringside getting into a tussle, Chaz being distracted, and Jarrett hitting a facesmasher and the pin. Jarrett then goes for a guitar shot, but is stopped by the arrival of Chaz's old Head Bangers partner, Thrasher. Head Bangers reunion? - Michael Cole, backstage, says an interview with Chyna and Triple H is forthcoming. - EDGE vs. THE BIG BOSSMAN In a bit of a surprise, Edge lands the Spear and covers for the upset pin. Bossman then gives him the requisite post-match beatdown. This match almost seemed long at two minutes. That's not a complaint (though not really praise either). Edge winds up handcuffed to the top rope. Christian comes out to make the save, but he eats the nightstick too. Where's Gangrel? Cole, with the promised Chyna/HHH interview. Chyna has words for D-X, while Triple H discusses his opponent tonight, the Rock. - "MR. ASS" BILLY GUNN (w/ Chyna) vs. MEAT (w/ PMS) The WWF must be going for a total match record tonight. This one sees Gunn hit the FameAsser for the win. Chyna then clocks Jacqueline, while Gunn decks Meat. The two are laid side-by-side, and a large "DX" is spraypainted on their backs (and the mat). Jim Ross notes that this isn't exactly the most original bit of hooliganism. - "THE BIG SHOW" PAUL WIGHT/"HARDCORE" HOLLY vs. KANE X-Pac was supposed to be Kane's partner, but he's off cooling his heels in the clink. Holly has apparently gone off the deep end, much the same way Al Snow has. But while Snow talks to Heads, Holly has a thing about challenging guys twice his size. This one flies by (surprise) when the Undertaker comes out. Wight has a staredown with him, leaving Holly alone at the mercy of Kane. Chokeslam. Pin. The Undertaker and Kane then team up to beat on Wight. A double suplex on Wight delivered by the Brothers from the Darkside looks impressive. A chairshot from the Undertaker busts the "Big Show" open. All this plays up to the Undertaker/Austin story, where last year the Undertaker helped Kane beat Austin in a "First Blood Match". Now it looks like Kane is going to return the favor, and the Undertaker is drawing blood on the "Big Show" as a test run, of sorts. I know I'm blowing through these matches, but there really isn't much else to say about them. They're all lasting about, on average, about ninety seconds each! - The Steel Cage is lowered. - THE ROCK vs. HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY (w/ Chyna) A solid match here, but not the best action in the world to call. One guy climbs up, the other pulls him down. The crowd is electric, though, and both guys are working their asses off. The finish, common for cage matches, sees the Rock climb over the top, at the same time Triple H is crawling out the door. The Rock drops to the floor first, winning the match. Billy Gunn then comes out and he and Helmsley deliver a hellacious beating. Fade out. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: Not much to say about this show. Not great, but moved things along nicely. A lot of wrestling this week, though comprised mostly of very short matches. The main event ran just shy of fifteen minutes, and with intro's took about twenty. It wasn't a classic, but is the type of solid action the WWF is developing a rep for delivering in their TV main events. The WWF may have its share of problems, but a show like this is slick enough to keep many of them from coming up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Brace yourself, because this is the card for Bash at the Beach: * Nash & Sting vs. Savage & Sid. * Roddy Piper vs. Buff Bagwell. "Taped Fist Match". Mills Lane referee. * Chris Benoit & Saturn vs. the Triad. World Tag Team Title Match. * Rick Steiner vs. Van Hammer. TV Title Match. * Hennig/Duncum/Barry/Kendall vs. Konnan/Mysterio/No Limit Soldiers. * Hak vs. ??? "Junkyard Match". I believe the stipulation in the main event is supposed to be whoever gets the pin wins the WCW Title. That's the rumor, anyway. If the above isn't enough for you, perhaps WCW will grace us with an Ernest Miller/Jerry Flynn rematch. Yeehah! One last thing on Chris Jericho: it's funny how Mark Madden, in his trashing of Jericho, mentions something about "the WWF's R-rated forays into the smut world." Does Madden even watch his own company's product these days?! Last week on Thunder Randy Savage used more profanity than you'd hear Steve Austin say in a month. And this from a company which this week featured more sexy women than RAW has EVER had, Randy Savage beating up two of them, and two guys (Lodi and Lanny Lane) ignoring all that to share in the love only two manly men can have for each other. For some reason the WWF having a CHARACTER who is a porn star is bad, but WCW having an ACTUAL porn star on the payroll is okay? And WCW wonders why the fans on the Internet dislike them so? Talk about hypocrisy. You know what's REALLY going on here? WCW is running scared. They know the only thing they have over the WWF right now is "better" average caliber wrestling matches. The thing about that is, the WWF is slowly improving what they put on in the ring, while WCW is slowly getting worse. WCW is the company giving us endless run-in DQ finishes. WCW is the company putting on meaningless squashes. WCW is the company who hasn't delivered a decent main event in more than a month. You know, add it up, and I bet RAW put on more actual wrestling this week in two hours than Nitro did in three. And the main event, a lengthy match which went to a definite finish, blew most everything Nitro did out of the water this week. The WWF has guys like Edge, Gangrel, X-Pac, Droz, Meat, Test, Matt & Jeff Hardy, and D-Lo Brown all itching to go out there and do longer matches. And as they get more popular (and make no mistake about it--these guys are doing just that), the WWF will give them more and more time in the ring. With Smackdown becoming a reality this fall, the WWF is going to have more TV time on its hands to do just that. What did WCW do with all their "quality" wrestlers this week? Juventud Guerrera and Chavo Guerrero had their match ruined by Savage and Sid. Eddie Guerrero and the luchadores didn't get within a hundred feet of the ring. Only in the six-man tag semi-main did WCW deliver on their so-called "good" wrestling this week. At least the WWF foregoes such wrestling for the sake of storylines, angles and comedy bits that they KNOW their fans like. WCW can't seem to get that concept through its thick skull. They seem oblivious to the fact that when certain wrestlers, such as Ernest Miller or Van Hammer, step into the ring the fans boo (not in a good way), and the TV ratings drop. Jesus, the WWF saw the "Beaver Cleavage" gimmick wasn't going to work, and dropped it after two matches. Why can't WCW do the same with Master P, or the Lodi/Lenny Lane angle? If something is broke, you fix it. WHY THE HELL WON'T WCW FIX IT?! At least the WWF gives its fans what they want. WCW, they don't even seem to know who their fans are. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1999 by John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those of "USLink". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week. Volume One, Number 190 of the "Monday Night Recap", July 5th, 1999.