Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #210 November 22nd, 1999 The Opening Word: It turns out the "parody" WCW faithful were speaking of last week, in defending the Nitro Jim Ross imitation, was a segment the WWF did in March of this year, on an installment of Sunday Night Heat. Tiger Ali Singh came out and paid a "fan" (Ed Ferrara) to imitate Ross. Ross and Steve Williams then came out and kicked the "fan's" ass. I noted last week that the Ross imitation seemed familiar. The reason I couldn't place it was because it took place on Heat, not RAW (though RAW did show a brief clip of it the following night). Therefore I concede that the WWF did indeed do a Ross parody first, though I honestly can't recall whether Ross' Bells Palsy symptoms were a part of the imitation at that time or not. Hey, if the WWF did the imitation first, doesn't that mean WCW is blatantly copying a WWF angle? (I'm sure WCW fans are now blowing the whistle, throwing a yellow flag and waving the Russo/Ferrara handbook in the air.) I'm not going to bother with this thing anymore. It's not as if I can convince WCW (and its defenders) that they're in the wrong here. I just hope a lot of you out there are sick to death of WCW calling you names, like "mark" and "clueless", and them belittling your right to be offended by something. God knows they'll come out and shame you into being offended by something the WWF does, but find some offense with something WCW does and they'll fall all over themselves telling you just how wrong and stupid you are. The Mayhem PPV is receiving generally positive reviews. The more I hear and read about it, the more I'm convinced that it was really on par with Survivor Series last weekend, but that people found it to have a much more satisfying finish. It just goes to show that there may really be something to this "sports entertainment" thing the WWF fans have been raving about for the past couple years. Good booking, angles, storylines and characters can make a bad show okay, an okay show good, and a good show great. Mayhem sounds like it was an okay show made better by a hot crowd and a main event which delivered the right finish. Certainly having Bret Hart win the World Title, in a match against Chris Benoit, in front of a Canadian crowd, is going to be a memorable and emotional experience. You'd have to work hard to screw it up (which it sure seems Russo & Ferrara tried, by having run-ins done by Dean Malenko, the Outsiders and Goldberg). Try as they might, they got it right (if you ask me). Now, let's see if they can build the company around Hart as the champ. Not having seen the PPV, I don't have much to say about it, just a few random observations/rhetorical questions based on the booking: Is anyone else bothered by the fact that Scott Hall has picked up two titles in the last few weeks without earning them? Of all the great cruiserweights in WCW, would YOU have picked Evan Karagias to get pushed over them all to the title? Even granting that Ed Ferrara's "Oklahoma" character is funny, how much mileage do they expect to get out of the joke? Where's this David Flair thing going? Is Ric Flair going to have to come back and fight others to keep his kid from being killed? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WCW Monday Nitro: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Three Hours+. Location: Auburn Hills, Michigan. HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Jeff Jarrett enters the building and announces, to no one in particular, that he's the "Chosen One", and that he's taking matters into his own hands. Who the hell's he talking to? And why is his shirt off? Does he drive around like that too? - Bret Hart makes his way to the ring. He tells the fans that he's going to be the best WCW Champion ever. He dedicates his win to Stu (drawing boos?). Hart offers a World Title match to Goldberg ... at Starrcade (drawing more boos--they wanted it tonight). Cue the Wolfpac music, and out comes Hall & Nash. Hall badmouths Hart. Nash throws in a few quips as well. Nash challenges Hart and Goldberg to a tag team match. Jeff Jarrett then slides in and bashes a guitar over Hart's head. "Slapnuts" may be over with the Internet crowd, but its utterance here (uncensored) draws no reaction from the live crowd. Jarrett swipes Hart's title belt. - Mike Tenay interviews Curt Hennig. Hennig says he'll never wrestle in WCW again. He'll say goodbye to his fans tonight. We then get a look at the Maestro tinkering at a piano, a couple Filthy Animals, "Oklahoma" and Steve Williams walking, and maybe five or ten more guys when I blinked. "Crash TV" runs amok! - Tony Marinara and a couple armbreakers (one of them Vito "The Skull" from ECW) do the worst "Goodfellas" imitation ever. Lex Luger tries to talk Power That Be #1 into letting him book a match between Elizabeth and Meng. Luger has some kind of contractual control over her. PTB #1 says okay. Cut over to Liz in another room, watching this on a monitor. - THE FILTHY ANIMALS vs. CREATIVE CONTROL Schiavone says he doesn't know which one is "Patrick" and which one is "Gerald", and that he's heard neither one wants to be "Patrick". Heh. Total squash, which becomes even more one-sided when Kidman sees "Kid Kam" footage (on the big screen) of Torrie Wilson flirting with Eddie Guerrero. New World Tag Team Champions. Kidman runs backstage, directly to the room those two are in, and attacks Guerrero. Officials pull the two apart. Urrk--my neck! We cut to Bret Hart and Goldberg talking with Tenay. I'm getting whiplash from all this jumping around. - Skye tries to talk Spice out of fighting ... that other Nitro Girl ... tonight. I only got "Spice" and "Skye" out of this because they were kind enough to mention each others' names. Hennig and Buff Bagwell share a tender moment. Somewhere else we can hear the Maestro playing the piano. - Norman Smiley is out to brag about being the Hardcore Champion. As proof of his toughness he offers up the fact that he drank milk "two days past its expiration!" Fit Finlay then runs out and beats the hell out of Smiley. They drag this out long enough to get Finlay some heat. Nice to see Finlay back up and walking around (I mean that, really). As if this segment couldn't get any flatter, Schiavone plugs WCW's cologne. I smell something alright ... Luger tells Liz that she'll learn a lesson tonight. Tenay gets comments from Hall & Nash. - Chavo Guerrero sells the Mafia thugs some gold chains. The Maestro is still playing ... somewhere. Is that Disco Inferno back there? Tenay gets comments from Jarrett. - EVAN KARAGIAS (w/ Madusa) vs. SATURN (w/ Asya) Squash (Rings of Saturn). Madusa and Asya tease a catfight. Brad Armstrong comes out with his new gimmick: a 60's brain-fried hippie named "Buzzkill". He's on-screen for all of four seconds, if that. Kidman ... Torrie Wilson ... Mike Tenay ... The Maestro ... Vampiro & The Misfits ... "Oklahoma" ... Steve Williams ... they show us these people any faster and we'll only be picking them up on the subliminal level! - Eddie Guerrero accepts Kidman's challenge. More Maestro music. - VAMPIRO (w/ the Misfits) vs. THE WALL (w/ Berlyn) "Oklahoma" and Williams come out to ruin another match. You heard what he said last week? He says it all again this week. Berlyn hits Vampiro with a chair, getting the Wall DQ'ed. Wall and Berlyn tease a breakup. Williams then beats up all the Misfits, but Vampiro dumps him out of the ring. "Oklahoma" holds him back from going for seconds. Jeff Jarrett (w/ World Title belt). Creative Control. Bret Hart walks by a shark cage with an OPEN door. Cut to Liz running over to the shark cage and opening the CLOSED door. Think about that for a moment. HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - There's a mysterious black limousine. Who else could be in it but--hey, RAW's starting. - BRET "HITMAN" HART vs. JEFF JARRETT (w/ Creative Control) Things are pretty even in this, the only long match of the show, when Dustin Rhodes comes in and whacks Jarrett with the title belt. Hart, of course, misses it, and covers the unconscious Jarrett for the pin. The Maestro plays "New York, New York" for the mob. His girlfriend there is the former "Ryan Shamrock", for those who care. Luger tries to patch things up with Liz to get her out of the cage. He says he'll get the PTB to call off the match with Meng. She forgives him and hands him the key. Lex then turns evil again, and says if she doesn't get out of the cage, he'll have the whole cage taken into the ring. Say, Lex, YOU have the key! Are they deliberately writing him to be this dumb, or is it just dumb writing? The idea that Liz was outsmarted by LEX LUGER certainly lowers her in my estimation. Of course it's DeGeneration X in the limo. In a few seconds Vince McMahon is going to smash into them. - Liz tries to talk Sting into letting her out of the cage. - KIDMAN (w/ Torrie) vs. EDDIE GUERRERO (w/ Konnan) Schiavone tells us that Arn Anderson is going to be okay but that he was fired by the PTB because they didn't even know he was still with the company. Should I assume, then, that when we do see Arn again, it will be as part of the anti-PTB storyline, and not out to get revenge on David Flair for cracking his ribs? Kidman takes a shot to the jewels, so Eddie asks to stop the match. He then changes his mind and continues the beating. Unbeknownst to anyone in the ring, Shane Douglas and Saturn come out and destroy Konnan. Torrie sees this and tries to tell her boys, but they end up finishing the match, which Eddie wins with the frog Splash. PTB #1 summons "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. Jeff Jarrett complains. Creative Control head out to check out the limo. There's Meng. Luger has a forklift to carry the shark cage to the ring. - Duggan gets the message that he's wanted. Nitro Girls Spice, Skye and Mike Tenay repeat their encounter from earlier. - MENG vs. LIZ Meng plays monster and rips open the cage. Luger offers him the key, but Meng gives him the Tongan Death Grip. Sting then comes out to save Liz, which makes no sense because he refused to help her just minutes earlier. Goldberg will be facing the Outsiders later tonight. It was originally supposed to be he and Hart, but Hart ended up facing Jarrett. Now Goldberg has a "mystery partner", who isn't too much of a mystery if you stop and think about it. (Hint: who haven't we seen yet tonight?) Limo. A look at Hall & Nash. - Duggan, on his way to see the PTB, spots the piano and sits in for some chopsticks with the Maestro. You know that "vaudeville" line Ferrara took offense over, and keeps saying in his Jim Ross impersonation? THIS is exactly the "vaudeville" Jim Ross was talking about. See, Ed's pissed because this is what he writes, and he didn't like Ross dissing it. Puts "Oklahoma" in a little more perspective, doesn't it? - LASH LEROUX vs. DISCO INFERNO Tony Marinara and his goons come out, and with Disco now distracted, LeRoux gets the quick win. They dump LeRoux out and prepare to put Disco in a body bag. LeRoux comes back in with a chair and chases them off. Disco joins in stuffing Marinara in the bag, until he realizes that this probably just shortened his own lifespan. Disco better not start his car himself anymore. Creative Control are checking out the limo. - The two get hassled for setting the limo's car alarm off. Turns out the PTB saw what Duggan did last week, so he makes him clean the toilet with a toothbrush. A week's worth of prune consumption on the PTB's part have made the job even more messy. - SPICE vs. TYGRESS This may have been the worst women's "wrestling match" I've ever seen, and that's including all the ones with Mae Young. The two are wearing sexy-but-not-too-revealing outfits. They take turns pulling the other's hair--once--very softly. A takeover using the hair is the only "wrestling move" done in the match. Spice then gets raked in the eyes and the match is over. Skye comes in to check on Spice. She then LIGHTLY TAPS her in the head with her purse. Stuff spills everywhere. Spice collapses. Skye and Tygress then put makeup on the face of the unconscious, yet smiling, Spice. This was just plain awful. Meng does his best Phil Hartman's Frankenstein imitation. Spice is just being helped out as Curt Hennig comes to the ring. He tries to say goodbye to the fans but can't. The limo door is opening ... HOUR THREE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. - Duggan cleans the toilet alright, but uses the PTB's personal toothbrush instead. It's hard to ignore that the supposedly filthy toilet is, in fact, spotlessly clean. - Cue ... bagpipes? Good God NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It's "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. After sucking up to the locals Piper starts shooting on the Powers That Be. So they kill his mic. To the back he goes, where he has a laugh over what a goofy looking rat Vince Russo really is (think of a skinny Mick Foley with glasses). Piper says he worked for thirty years to make this sport what it is. The PTB tells him to go join Hogan and Flair in the retirement home. Piper reminds him that he has two years left on his Turner contract, and that if the PTB stop him from appearing in WCW, he'll sue. Ah, but the PTB turn the tables by throwing Piper a referee shirt, telling him that if he refuses to fill that position, it's Piper who'll get sued. Outsmarted, Piper staggers out of the office, muttering "yes sir ... yes sir." - Piper piles into his limo and leaves. Wait, isn't he still Commissioner of WCW? I see Goldberg. - BOOKER T. vs. BUFF BAGWELL Creative Control interfere early in this one. Curt Hennig is then out to stop them, but shocks everyone by nailing Bagwell, giving him the Hennig-Plex as one of creative Control cover for the pin. Wow. They swerved EVERYONE with this one. The lights go out, Midnight, you know the drill. More Outsiders. - Hennig is congratulated by the PTB. Juventud Guerrera is then summoned. Tenay interviews Sting. Liz tries to thank him, but he says he isn't buying it. SO WHY'D HE SAVE HER IN THE FIRST PLACE?! I'm tired of hearing that damn piano, by the way. - MADUSA (w/ Evan Karagias) vs. ASYA (w/ Saturn) Oh, who cares. Asya via submission. Tenay interviews Dean Malenko re: "Flag Match" vs. Chris Benoit. Malenko's going to burn Benoit's flag. - DEAN MALENKO vs. CHRIS BENOIT Each man has their own flag (USA and Canadian) and the goal is to climb into the corner and grab their opponent's flag. Schiavone has it all backwards, though, and says the goal is for each man to rescue their own flag. Half this match is killed when Benoit grabs the gas can on the floor, then stands there, as if unsure what to do next. The crowd chants "U-S-A"--because they're dumb. Malenko winds up getting the Canadian flag off the pole and wins the match. He and the Revolution then try to burn it, but out comes Bret Hart for the save. Hart pulls the gas-soaked Canadian flag from the trash can it was going to be burnt in and hands it to Benoit. He then grabs the U.S. flag which they'd dumped in there as well, and holds it high. *Sniff--did you ever know that you're my he-ro!* Sting's match is next. - In the angle we've all been waiting for, the PTB tell Juvi that he's working in the U.S. without a visa. Juvi offers up a bottle of tequila as a bribe. The PTB tries it and spits it out. He calls for his toothbrush (*dum-dum-DUM!*) - STING vs. MENG I'm not quite sure how the finish comes about, but it involves Lex Luger and Liz. Anyway, Meng gets the pin with the Tongan Death Grip. Like HELL no one in WCW is getting pushed, Vin Man. The Outsiders, Sid and Mystery Partner are next. - Here comes David Flair in the back. Either responding to the music, or the voices in his head, he yells "make it stop!" and bashes the piano with his crowbar. I take back what I said earlier--David is my he-ro. He is the wind beneath my wings. - THE OUTSIDERS vs. GOLDBERG/??? Sid Vicious comes out behind Goldberg. Rather than beat him up, though, he's Goldberg's partner. A shocker, I'll admit, if not exactly a surprise. Seven minutes of punches and kicks later and Nash drops an elbow on Sid. Hall is rolled on top an gets the pin. Yeah, it was about that exciting. Sad thing is it'll kill RAW's main event rating. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: Nothing announced. Comments: I'd go on record as saying the first hour tonight was the worst yet of the Russo/Ferrara era. Hours two and three were better, though. Mostly I'm giving them marks for the Hennig heel turn, Bret Hart being consistently good, and Sid being the mystery partner, which popped the crowd big-time. I can't ignore the crap, though, and there sure was a lot of it this week. In short, just about any time there was woman in the ring. The Duggan stuff has got to go. I never want to see the Maestro again. "Oklahoma" has worn out his welcome. Don't do gimmick matches if those involved don't know the rules, and at least try to book the match to be interesting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF RAW is WAR: Live/Taped: Live. Length: Two Hours+. Location: Buffalo, New York. WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - SmackDown! clips. - Shane McMahon forms search parties for father Vince, who is somewhere in the building and is believed to be a tad unstable. - MANKIND/AL SNOW vs. THE HOLLYS Hardcore Holly chews out Al Snow. It turns out that Holly's first action figure is bundled in the two-pack with Snow's, which has been pulled off the shelves of Wal-Mart. Holly doesn't care if Snow chops off people's heads or whatever, just don't mess with his merchandising. The match is par for the course, with Snow seeing a Snowplow attempt get reversed when Hardcore Holly drop-kicks Crash Holly (being held in the Snowplow). Crash gets the pin. Snow is all depressed again. There's no sign of Vince anywhere. Triple H and D-X make their way to the arena in a limo. How are we seeing this? The DeGeneration X members make crude remarks about members of Vince McMahon's family. Somebody from the arena calls Triple H on his cell phone to let him know that Vince has gone loopy. - Shane & Test find Vince sitting outside in a car, polishing his baseball bat. (Maybe he's looking for a piano to smash?) Vince tells them to leave him alone. - MARK HENRY vs. KURT ANGLE Angle chews out Henry for being a screw-up and not winning the gold medal for weightlifting at the olympics. Henry attacks, and gets in some offense before Angle outwrestles him and pins him with a Northern Lights Suplex. There's another protest sign guy at ringside, but it's a different guy than last week. The D-X limo pulls up. Vince, sitting in his car nearby, guns the engine and smashes into the driver's side of the limo! Out with the bat, he smashes all the car's windows. D-X make their escape out the other side. I guess this means it's now PERSONAL. - We get a look at the trashed limo. After a replay, we go inside to see Vince banging the bat on Triple H's dressing room door. Shane and the others can't calm him down. - THE GODFATHER (w/ Ho's) vs. CHRIS JERICHO Sounds like Chyna won't be pressing charges, though she did require reconstructive surgery on her thumb following Jericho's attack last week. Jericho badmouths the Ho's. Other than the Godfather dumping Jericho out of the ring, where he's mobbed by the Ho's, the match is all Jericho. Lionsault leads to the pin. Vince's actions have led to the police being called. Vince is calmed down, cuffed, and led away. Hey, any RAW where Vince McMahon gets arrested is a good RAW, right? Triple H seizes the opportunity to come out of his dressing room and get in a few shots. Triple H is really coming into his own as a no-good lousy punk, isn't he? - EDGE/CHRISTIAN vs. THE DUDLEY BOYZ In a match that lasts forever by WWF standards, Edge & Christian get the win, with Christian--sitting on Edge's shoulders--superplexing D-Von off the top. Michael Cole gets comments from the Rock. Mankind and Al Snow wander by. The Rock does his usual catchphrases on Snow, much to Mankind's amusement. He also clears the air with Mick by saying he didn't throw his book away. Why you can just smell the Rock & Sock reunion in the breeze, can't you. Why, if Vince was arrested in an arena in Buffalo, is he being booked at some place called "Lackawana"? And why is there a cameraman there already waiting for him (and seemingly familiar with the layout of the police station)? A quick look at Stephanie McMahon and her maids of honor picking out their dresses. - Stephanie's bridal shower. Mae Young gives her a pair of handcuffs, a black leather outfit, and a whip (which mother Linda takes for herself. Look out Vince!) Mae whispers in Stephanie's ear what she's supposed to do on her wedding night. Stephanie reacts like she's just been told about "teabagging". Moolah chews out Mae for hitting the champagne too hard. - JEFF HARDY (w/ Matt Hardy & Terri Runnels) vs. X-PAC A bra flash from Terri temporarily paralyzes the King. This dream match goes nowhere as Road Dogg and Mr. Ass come out to help X-Pac get the X-Factor win. I'd like to see the Hardyz pick up the straps from the Outlaws. Vince is getting his fingerprints taken. What, no photo with the little numbered sign? There's the Big Show. WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. - More bridal shower. Mae's getting drunk. Linda announces a chartered flight to Vegas for the bachelorette party. Mae (with an assist from Moolah) takes a tumble onto the snack table. Stephanie gets a face full of cake. You know, summing up the crap factor this week, I think anything involving women on BOTH SHOWS were the main culprits. Vince's picture is taken. Is this going anywhere? - THE BIG SHOW vs. KANE (w/ Tori) Tori watches the match up on the stage. The crowd is fairly hot for Kane to win this one, and they get into it during a near fall. Viscera then comes out to hassle Tori. She runs to the ring. Kane leaps over the rope and chases down Viscera. Big Show wins by countout. Viscera ends up in the ring and the Show gives him a monster bodyslam. Vince uses his one phone call to issue instructions to Shane. - Dominik Hasek is in the crowd. Who? Clips of Austin filming a video. They then hype the "WWF Greatest Hits" show which will be on UPN next Tuesday. See "Hell in the Cell" one more damn time. - Triple H is out to whine about being screwed and whatnot. Shane comes out and informs him that he'll be facing the Acolytes tonight in a handicap match. We also learn that Vince has accepted Triple H's challenge from SmackDown! to a match at Armageddon. If Triple H wins, Vince can't do anything to Triple H (fire him, suspend him, fine him, etc.) Triple H taunts Shane into the ring. The other members of D-X attack, but the numbers are then evened up by Test, Patterson & Brisco, and the Hardy Boyz. - Mr. Ass his having his leg looked at. He supposedly hurt it falling out of the ring, but the fall didn't look bad at all. Anyway, the tag title match tonight is off. - VAL VENIS/BRITISH BULLDOG vs. TOO COOL Jim Ross talks about the "Parents Television Council" and their efforts to scare off advertisers for WWF programming. It wouldn't seem like a big deal, except that they've already cost the WWF Coca Cola and the U.S. Army. The WWF website has info how you can write to other advertisers and urge them to stick with the WWF. Like I've always said, it's one thing to find offense with something, it's another to go out of your way and purposely try to hurt another's business. The scary thing is everything the PTC is complaining about easily applies to WCW and ECW as well. I don't think either WCW or the WWF has too much to worry about, but ECW is already on shaky ground with TNN. Highest rated show or not, lose a few sponsors and TNN might decide to dump ECW. There's a "backstory" behind this match, but I'm not buying it. Val bails on the Bulldog. The Mean Street Posse come in to help the Bulldog, drawing the DQ. Rikishi Fatu (formerly the Sultan) comes out to help Too Cool (why?). Pete Gas gets the buttsplash and chest crusher off the corner turnbuckles. Rodney eats a Snowplow. Too Cool then get Fatu to join them in a bit of shuck and jive. Norman Smiley would be so proud. Shane and Test prepare or plot or something. Vince is introduced to his greybar hotel room. - Some more "End of Days" stuff. I get the feeling Arnold will be back. - ROAD DOGG vs. TEST Shane makes himself the special referee, which makes the finish somewhat academic. Shane blocks a roundhouse (and eats a punch for his troubles), allowing Test to lay in the boot, apply the between-the-legs pumphandle, give it to him doggy-style, and slam him for the pin. Vince is still in jail. And ... ? - THE BIG BOSSMAN/PRINCE ALBERT vs. THE ROCK/??? In our other "Mystery Partner" match of the night, the Rock comes out all by himself. Just as things are looking grim for him, Mankind comes out to his corner. Well, it was either him or the Big Show. As usual Albert does the job, taking a People's Elbow from the Rock. Mankind gets the pin. Consider the Rock & Sock Connection reunited. Patterson & Brisco take great pleasure in telling Triple H it's His Time ... to get his ass kicked by the Acolytes. Vince is still in jail. I GET IT. Oh wait, he's being let out. Who sprung him? Like he's really going to take their advice and not return to the arena. - TRIPLE H vs. THE ACOLYTES Stomp ... kill ... destroy. There's not a whole lot of time left here. D-X have been barred from interfering, lest they be suspended for 30 days. This is "no-DQ", which means most of the action roams around the arena. Hey, those technicians have an awfully large table for the few pieces of equipment they're using. The crowd is dead now, having seen Triple H take enough of a beating. They, like us at home, are waiting for the run-in or whatever to end this. Triple H eventually decides to take a powder. Backing up the ramp he's (not too surprisingly) cut off by Vince McMahon, who grabs him and tosses him off the stage. Triple H crashes into that really large table noted earlier. I see Nitro's still going. Wow, Sid did the job. - This Thursday: Nothing announced. - Next week: It's "RAW is LOVE", as Stephanie and Andrew tie the knot! Comments: A tightly scripted show this week, that made most of what they showed really interesting ... ... and almost succeeded in making me not notice what's missing. ALMOST. As good a job as the WWF is doing crafting their storylines right now, it's hard not to notice that there's just not a whole lot of them. Actually, come to think of it, there's really only one running storyline right now: McMahon versus Triple H. As much as the fans would like to see McMahon beat Triple H, the best thing in terms of storyline and Triple H's career is for him to win. I'm pretty sure that's going to happen. That will, unfortunately, disappoint a lot of fans come the next PPV. It's the right thing to do, though. If they go the other way and have McMahon win, however, the fans may come away from the PPV happy, but I don't see what it would accomplish in the greater scheme of things. You also have the Big Show/Big Bossman feud, but it's been a couple weeks now since the two of them interacted with each other. I assume they'll face off at Armageddon, and the reason they've been kept apart is to build anticipation for that. I guess. Seems to me the thing to do is keep the Bossman working on the Big Show, doing more to hurt and humiliate him. Problem is they've already kind of done all they can in that regard. They should have just had the Show destroy the Bossman at the PPV, then come up with a new opponent for him leading to the next PPV. This is one of those matches you put on second or third from the top of the card. Waiting until the last few shows before the PPV to hype it will make it seem even lower than that. This really illustrates how the WWF has a major problem in a shortage of top level heels AND faces. The undercard is great--no problems there. The problems arise when you make the Big Show a babyface champion. In this day and age he'd really be better off as a heel. The problem (lots of those) is that there's no babyface who could face him, except maybe for the Rock. That would be a solid match-up right now. Unfortunately it may be the one the WWF has to go with come WrestleMania time. It's either that or the Big Show vs. Triple H, or Triple H vs. the Rock. So how do you get through the rest of the year without having to waste one of these big money match-ups? By pairing off the Big Show versus various midcarders, feuding Triple H with Vince McMahon, and doing ... whatever ... with the Rock. With Mankind seeing less in-ring time, and the Undertaker already gone, the WWF couldn't have lost Steve Austin at a worse time. I assume the Rock & Sock Connection will be teaming up to face the New Age Outlaws ... yet again. At that point Al Snow will probably turn on Mankind. Man, I'm wandering all over the place with this. Bottom line, the WWF is doing a lot of what they're doing right now to kill time until the Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania beyond that. And while I understand why they have to do it, and I generally like what they've been able to come up with, I have to admit that things are a fair bit dull right now. Stale. The company is screaming out for a major angle of some kind, and that's just not gonna happen until after Armageddon. Looking at this week's show, I have a few specific complaints: Whose bright idea was it to put the Acolytes in the main event? It's not too bright an idea to do it anyway, but on a night when WCW has the Outsiders, Goldberg and Sid in the ring? At the other end of the show you've got Mankind, Snow and the Hollys starting things off. Not exactly the most compelling beginning to put up against Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett. Looking at the ratings this week, RAW was down in two noticeable spots: the first and last quarter hours. Those were enough to significantly lower the ratings of each hour. Otherwise the show did pretty good. Where was Chyna? If she was out selling her thumb injury then why not have Jericho do an extra bit this week? There was nothing wrong with his match this week, they just should have done more with him. This show really came apart because of its reliance on the McMahon arrest angle. It started off well enough with his snapping, crashing into the limo, then being arrested. The next ninety minutes of him in jail, though, served no purpose, except to make us think he wouldn't get back to the arena before the show was over. Of course he did, just mere minutes after we last saw him in the police station. I don't think anyone was really surprised by it, though. Even if it *was* possible to get back to the arena that quickly, it's the type of thing that is hard to swallow. They should have just showed one last clip of McMahon being released about a half hour before the main event, and scrapped all those other shots after he was booked. Showing him in his cell over and over made us think something was going to happen, and even though something ultimately did, it wasn't worth the wait. Seems to me the thing to do would have been a separate angle at the police station. Finish up the match in the arena, then cut to McMahon being released. Having Vince come out of his cell, only to see that Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin or the Undertaker--someone like that--had bailed him out. Now that would have gotten people talking! Probably wouldn't have made much sense, yet, but it would definitely be a shocker worthy of the build up to it. Or have Vince get out, only to be jumped by D-X in the parking lot. They had been banned from the ring area for Triple H's match, after all. As it stands they wasted a lot of time trying to convince us something we could all see coming from miles away wasn't going to happen. Looking at the ratings it either worked, and people switched away thinking nothing would happen, or they knew, and just didn't care. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bottom Line: Vince Russo did an interview for WrestleLine this week. After reading that, I guess WE FANS have to come up with a new vocabulary to describe WCW. See, according to Russo, there's no such thing as "pushes" anymore. He fairly bristles at the notion that some wrestlers are being pushed over others. According to him, the wrestlers merely get a segment to show what they can do, and have to make the best of it. How far they go is based on crowd reaction. "Over" seems to be a relative term as well, as his definition of over is, well, anyone he chooses to put on TV. Looking at this week's show, guys like Jeff Jarrett and Creative Control were out many times, even though Jarrett is barely over, and Creative Control not at all. On the matter of the "Powers That Be", Russo is actually insulted when asked if they're being pushed. Russo defends them by saying they're vehicles being used to get others over. Cutting through it all, it sounds like a "don't look behind the curtain!" defense. We're not supposed to even think out them the twenty or thirty times per show the words "Powers That Be" are said, or they're involved in a skit. We're just supposed to look at who they're interacting with and be interested in them. Chavo Guerrero selling Amway, Duggan mopping toilets, Juvi getting deported--this is the new WCW. To anyone who's watched wrestling for a while, it seems like the PTB are being pushed, just as we felt Vince McMahon was pushing himself as the evil "Mr. McMahon", and is doing so again now as a babyface. People defended McMahon (myself included) because it was pretty clear that he was putting Steve Austin over, and looks to be doing the same with Triple H. Russo would argue that's what he's doing with the Powers That Be. The problem, as I see it, is that the Powers That Be are much more like the New World Order than Vince McMahon. We're not going to see Vince Russo anytime soon in the ring putting other wrestlers over. Instead there are agents of the PTB who will represent them in the ring. Thus far that includes Jeff Jarrett, Creative Control and Curt Hennig. Looking at them the obvious question is how far over can someone opposing them get? This isn't exactly main event level talent. The PTB have been pushed as a top level heel force, yet they're using upper-level midcarders to annoy mid-level midcarders. Roddy Piper is the biggest name to be dragged into all of this. Wasn't he over already, though? How is pushing his face in the dirt going to get him more over with the fans? The prospects of this whole storyline do get more interesting if we assume the whole company will eventually be divided, with some siding with the Powers That Be and others opposing them. Maybe it will be Hulk Hogan who comes back and takes out the PTB. The question is ... how? Ask yourself this: how did they kill the NWO? The answer: no one did, it just died on its own, a slow, painful death. WCW was never able to come up with a way to kill the group off, and pay the fans back for all they had to put up with in watching the group run rampant over WCW. The problem before Vince Russo is how does he write a storyline where the stars of WCW fight back and overthrow the Powers That Be? That's a tough thing to do, and even tougher when you realize that we're never going to see Russo himself out there in the ring. Or so he says. Just imagine what a flop the Austin/McMahon feud would have been if Austin never got his hands on McMahon himself. That's why I'm not getting into the whole PTB storyline yet. I can't see any payoff down the road, and in the meantime we have to be content with a million Jarrett and Creative Control run-ins, and Curt Hennig turning heel. You know what, I've seen Hennig a heel before. He was in the NWO. It didn't mean a whole lot then, and his being a heel again (hell, he was still a heel just a few weeks ago) doesn't mean much now. It doesn't help (me, anyway) that I don't care about the wrestlers who've been targeted by the PTB thus far. Bagwell? Duggan? Chavo & Juvi? Booker T. I might care about, but he seems to be doing okay, having Midnight come out and save his ass all the time. Hennig was a guy the fans might have gotten behind, but ... well, look what they did with him. His new heel heat, along with that of Jarrett & Creative Control, isn't going to amount to much if they don't start making life miserable for someone a bit higher on the food chain (Roddy Piper notwithstanding). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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 210 of the "Monday Night Recap", November 22nd, 1999.