Raw/Nitro December '97 (Week 1)

Monday Night Raw 1/12/97 (2.25 Stars)

Segment- The new Tag Team Champions ‘Road Dogg’ Jesse James and ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gunn in-ring promo. Jesse James says that The Legion of Doom aren't here tonight, so instead call out The Headbangers. The Legion of Doom launched a sneak attack on Road Dogg and Billy Gunn from behind before saying that they won't last until D-Generation X: In Your House, as they will get revenge tonight! 

Match 1- Taka Michinoku def Aguila (Light Heavyweight Tournament) 

Segment- Luna walks Goldust to the ring whilst he wears a dog collar with a ball gag in his mouth. Luna runs down Goldust's father as well as his ‘ex-wife’, before saying she will “set him free” and referring to him as “The artist formerly known as Goldust”. Luna sends a vague threat to Vader, before making out with Goldust on the mat

Match 2- Chainz Vs Miguel Perez, D-Lo Brown & Recon ends in a no-contest (Four Corners Match)

Segment- D-Generation X promo. Shawn Michaels comes out in a wheelchair and brags about betraying Jim Neidhart. Triple H says he will finish off Neidhart tonight, before saying he will give Sgt. Slaughter’s wife, a taste of his “big bazooka” Shawn Michaels finishes by saying he has been training his legs to fight Ken Shamrock's ankle lock, before mocking him by twisting around a fake foot attached to his leg.

Segment- Footage of Bret Hart destroying the announcers table after Survivor Series is shown.

Match 4- Rocky Maivia def Vader via Count-Out 

Segment- Kane attacks Scott Taylor. Paul Bearer says the carnage Kane is causing will continue until The Undertaker agrees to face his brother. Jerry Lawler notes that Brian Christopher advances to the finals automatically as a result of Taylor being unable to compete

Segment- Jeff Jarrett refuses to face Ahmed Johnson. Jarret says that Johnson isn't on his level, before Commissioner Slaughter books Jarrett into a match on the Sunday PPV against The Undertaker! 

Match 5- ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gunn & ‘Road Dogg’ Jesse James def The Headbangers via DQ

Segment- Jim Cornette interviews Marc Mero and Sable. Jim says that the fans don't care about him, as Sable is the real star! Mero responds by saying Sable is “his property”, before doing some pad work with Sable. Mero verbally abuses Sable before she leaves the ring in tears.

Match 6- Triple H def Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart 

Segment- D-Generation X attempts to beat up Jim Neidhart as he's handcuffed to the ropes, leading to Sgt. Slaughter and Ken Shamrock running in for the save.

Analysis 

Matches 1 & 2

Taka Michinoku defeated the 19 year old Aguila in Light Heavyweight action, progressing to the finals. It was a short match and nothing overly impressive, but I have to give full credit to Aguila for performing on national TV at only 19 years of age. Even though he had 4 years of “pro experience” by this point, his nerves must have been through the roof for this one! 

Following a strange and hard to hear promo from Luna (she was very raspy and it was genuinely difficult to make out what she was saying, gimmick or not) we were treated to ‘Four Corners’ tag action. One member from each faction would face each other (Nation of Domination, Los Boricuas, The Truth Commission and The Disciples of Apocalypse) This was an elimination style, four-way match with tags. Two at a time, last man standing!

Recon was the first elimination after D-Lo Brown smacked him in the mouth, leading to Chainz pinning him off a Death Valley Driver. Miguel Perez rolled up D-Lo a few moments later, in a move that more closely reassembled a ‘69’ than a pro wrestling pin! Miguel Perez and Chainz were the last two men standing until the match was immediately called off after all factions had seen enough and had a brawl in the middle of the ring! Chainz either won by DQ or it was a no-contest. But who actually CARES who wins or loses. “It’s all fake anyway BRO!” 

Visually this was something fresh and a good way to use more midcard guys who weren't particularly talented by themselves, in a more interesting fashion. Would I want to see Miguel Perez take on Recon in singles action? Not particularly, but in a four way with what essentially boiled down to lots of shorter singles matches, it was easier to digest. Honestly, I'm surprised I'm saying this, but with the drama of the eliminations, I would have let this one run slightly longer, instead of reverting to type and having a quick, cheap and lazy DQ finish. Not a great match anyway, but I could have excused that had we seen a good sequence between the final two competitors at the end.

Second Hour/WarZone 

Rocky Maivia took on Vader to open the second hour. The camera panned to the crowd, showing what looked like a white nerd doing the black power salute. He may or may not have known what it actually meant, but it still looked ridiculous. Steve Austin drove into the crowd in his pickup truck, watching the match as he stood on top of it drinking beer! 

Rocky won by way of count-out, after Vader chased Goldust to the locker room. Now in all fairness, this wasn't much of an actual wrestling match, but I don't think it was ever trying to be. In terms of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin moments, this one obviously doesn't rank very highly, but the live crowd gets to say that they saw him live, which is nice for them I guess. But in retrospect, this was still a very forgettable segment.

Main-event 

Triple H took on Jim Neidhart in the main-event. This would also mark Neidharts's final appearance on WWF/E TV, outside of a return in a ‘legends battle royale’ some 10 years later! So, how would The WWF mark Neidhart's final appearance for the company? Would they pay this legend the respect he deserved, or let him get buried and humiliated at the hands of Triple H and D-Generation X? I'll let you be the judge… 

Triple H would use a chair almost immediately with the ref's back turned, winning via 3-count. Shawn and Hunter then spray painted ‘WCW’ onto Neidharts back, before he tried to mount a comeback, eventually becoming overwhelmed by the 3 on 1 numbers game of D-Generation X! Sgt Slaughter runs in to put the camel clutch on Triple H, as Shamrock also applies an ankle lock to Shawn before Raw goes off the air! Yeah, that will show them…right? I mean, it's not like they've got an ENTIRE PPV named after them only 6 days later!

This couldn't really be counted as a match, as the multiple run-ins towards the end lasted longer than the bout itself! I do wonder why it wasn't just booked as a segment or an in-ring promo, rather than trying to lazily disguise it as something it was never going to be. But forget all of that, I don't care about the run-ins supposedly giving D-Generation X any kind of ‘comeuppance’. No one would remember that anyway, so say what you want, but in my opinion this was just yet another burial of a Hart family member, plain and simple! 

Summary 

Ok, so the show was good insofar that it was easy to watch and flowed quite well. That said, it wasn't high quality television. The Luna/Goldust promo was trying too hard to be edgy in my opinion, with the four corners match also flopping in hour one. 

Hour two was slightly better however with some semi entertaining segments, and seeing Austin was always fun I guess. The highlight was probably the uncomfortable ‘domestic abuse’ angle between Mero and Sable. I only say the best because of how satisfying the eventual payoff would be, and it’s not a subject that most soap operas haven't tackled before in all fairness. 

According to Jim Cornette, only 3 days after this taping, on the 4th December, Davey Boy Smith aka The British Bulldog, would pay the 150,000 dollars required to release him from his contract and accept a bumper offer from WCW, following his knee surgery. Davey, like Jim Neidhart who as noted also requested his release from the company, was legitimately upset over Montreal, to the point it forced them both elsewhere. This would mean that Owen Hart would be the sole member of the Hart family representing the company going forward.

Overall, this was a promo show. I know Russo has mocked fans for timing the actual in-ring competition before, but even for attitude era standards, this must have been on the lower end of the scale! You can possibly make an exception this week, as it was the lead in to a PPV so would always be promo heavy. But the only real difference in quality between this week's show and the last, was the hot title change that occurred on the 24/11 edition. Outside of that, this episode was virtually identical in every way.

WCW Nitro 1/12/97 (2.75 Stars)

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Eric Bischoff. Eric says that he didn't legally agree to wrestle Larry Zbyszko, and no one can make him! Eric says he will only agree to wrestle Zybysko if he offers to put WCW Nitro on the line to The nWo, before admitting that he knows he doesn't have the power to do that.

Match 1- Rey Mysterio def Juventud Guerrera 

Match 2- Hugh Morrus def Wrath 

Segment- ‘Hollywood’ Hogan in-ring promo. Hogan says that Sting is ducking him, before demanding that the crowd take off their Sting masks! Hogan gets into a confrontation with an old woman in the crowd as a result!

Match 3- Prince Iaukea def Yuji Nagata 

Match 4- Harlem Heat def Faces of Fear

Segment- Scott Hall & Kevin Nash in-ring promo. The Outsiders taunt Disco Inferno ahead of his match with Scott Hall.

Match 5- Scott Hall def Disco Inferno 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews J.J. Dillon. Dillon says that while Bischoff did agree to wrestle Zbyszko last week, it wasn't legally binding before adding that Larry Zybysko does not have the ability to put Nitro on the line. However, Dillon adds that as commissioner, he “CAN DO IT, and he HAS DONE IT!”. Bischoff comes out and protests, before J.J. Dillon officially announces the match at Starrcade between Eric Bischoff and Larry Zybysko!

Match 6- Ultimo Dragon def Psychosis 

Match 7- Chris Beniot def Kidman

Match 8- Lex Luger def Buff Bagwell via DQ

United States Championship 

Match 9- DDP def Curt Hennig (c) via DQ

Analysis 

Match 1

Rey Mysterio pinned Juventud Guerrera in a short but sweet lucha match. WCW's cruiserweight division was head and shoulders above the WWF's at this time, boasting actual characters and some form of psychology in the matches. They still weren't featured prominently enough for my taste, as looking back on it, they were probably the best part of Nitro! (don't come for my head nWo stans) but something was better than nothing I guess.

Match 3

Prince Iaukea's push continued as he beat Yuji Nagata who was on a “winning streak” apparently. I either wasn't paying attention or missed that memo entirely. All of that said, I actually enjoyed the match. While it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, it didn't seem overly rushed and it was just nice to sit back once in a while and view something, without expecting it to be over in seconds. They were both solid workers and I wouldn't have minded if they DID decide to push Iaukea following his “recent tour of Japan” 

Second Hour 

Hour number two starts with another ‘survey’ from Scott Hall. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before as it didn't seem relevant at first, but it actually became pretty synonymous with the ‘bad guy’. Every week on Nitro, Hall would run a ‘survey’ by asking the fans  “Who's here to see WCW...now who's here to see the nWo'' When the crowd pooped louder for the nWo, he would quip “One more for the good guys!” Simple, but fun stuff and quite entertaining to be honest. Anyway, Hall murders Disco Inferno and picks up the win as expected. 

Match 6

Raven was set to face Beniot in hour two, but instead sent in Kidman. Kidman would be the first member of the flock to actually have a competitive match against Beniot, as the talented cruiserweight hit an impressive looking shooting star press from the ring apron (before, you know, people starting doing it every other week) and was even countering some of Beniot's moves! I know more about Kidman, better known as Billy Kidman, from seeing him on WWE's Smackdown in the mid 2000's. He was always athletic, so it was nice that WCW could see that at least, and decided against squashing him entirely. Beniot would eventually win however, in what was EASILY match of the night in my eyes, as The Flock all decimated Beniot shortly afterwards…

Main-event 

Curt Hennig defended his U.S Title in a rematch against DDP. If DDP won the strap here, hold on to your seats because that would make for a HUGE pop in my score for what has already been a pretty good show! Sadly this wouldn't happen, as Rick Rude pulled the ref out of the ring before Page could actually win the match! What ensued was your typical, multiman nWo run-in fare as Hogan hollers and wails after Sting. As much as I didn't like the “lazy booking” aspect of the run-in, WCW did a masterful job of telling us just how much Sting had gotten into Hogan's head, with this and the earlier segment whereby he yelled at an OAP. Overall, not much of a match, but it served as nice build for a few other things.

Summary 

A lot less segments this week, with more of a focus on the in-ring. If WCW could stick to this kind of formula, they might just be ok in the future. Stop laughing…they might be OK. Please tell me they'll be ok, right? Benoit/Kidman was excellent and I also really enjoyed the Bischoff/Zbyszko segments. Granted, my appetite for actually seeing the match wasn't there, but it had been well built with some nice storytelling. Plus, there was the intrigue of seeing Bischoff actually wrestle a match! It did however become really annoying when the commentary team talked about Eric/Zybysko at seemingly EVERY CHANCE THEY HAD! It distracted far too much from whatever else was happening at the time. 

According to Kevin Nash, after the Luger/Bagwell match, the two men had an impromptu and legitimate ‘posedown’. It shouldn't come as a shock to many of you that pro-wrestlers especially take pride in their bodies, and as a result, can at times become insecure. Nash stated that the talent enjoyed getting a bigger reaction than their opponent during these ‘posedowns’ as it essentially fueled their ego's. This was just so typical of the steroid fueled late 90's era, it would have been borderline irresponsible not to mention it. Just say no kids!

The main-event as a whole was a letdown, but it did build some heat for Sting and Hogan at Starrcade. I just wish that they'd have found some more creative ways of doing so. The multiman run-ins on EVERY main-event were becoming predictable and stale. In summary, we saw a couple of good matches, the Bischoff promos were entertaining as mentioned, and I couldn't wait to see Hogan get his ass kicked now. So even if the main-event was poor, the show as a whole was better than Raw. Nitro takes the first win of December, with bonus points for Beniot/Kidman and Hogan screaming

at an O.A.P!