November '96

Monday Night Wars November '96

Raw/Nitro November 4th

Monday Night Raw 4/8/96 (2.75 Stars)

Now we're getting to the good stuff. A famous episode with a legendary segment involving Pillman and Austin. The show began with Kevin Kelly outside of Brian Pillman's house. Last week Austin promised to show up, so Kelly was on stand to keep us posted with any developments. Goldust and The Stalker (Barry Windham) faced off in the opening match. Rocky Maivia 'The Rock' made his Raw debut as he, along with Mark Henry and Marc Mero, were in Windham's corner. This might have been ok if not for the non-finish. A post-match Survivor Series 5 on 5 Brawl resulted in a double DQ. It cuts back to Brian Pillman saying if Austin tries anything, he will shoot him with his glock! The Sultan defeats Alex 'The Pug' Porteau with the Camel Clutch before we cut back to Pillman's house where Steve Austin had made his way inside. The satellite feed cuts out with the final image being Pillman pointing his gun at Austin! Sid and Shawn Michaels have an in ring promo ahead of their title match at Survivor Series. The pair fought off an attack from Vader, Davey and Owen Hart before getting pissy with eachother. "Razor Ramon" defeats Marc Mero in the main-event. I almost forgot about this angle. Unfortunately this match reminded me. We returned to Pillman's house one final time as we saw live footage of Pillman being restrained as he yelled "Get out the fucking way" as he continued to point his gun at Austin. This angle was the WWF's first foray into truly edgy and more mature TV. The USA Network, responsible for broadcasting Raw, argued it was TOO believable, and even considered pulling the plug on Raw all together. Allegedly the executives were more concerned about the 'F-Bomb' rather than the gun itself. Although no doubt the majority of the complaints received were by parents worried about the popular anti-hero breaking into another man's home, only to be confronted with a gun. Allegedly the original scene would have seen two shots 'fired' live on TV before the episodes close. Regardless of your opinion, it was this type of thing that got Austin over. Not so much the gun incident, but the promos leading up to it. This was the genesis of the "Austin 3:16" character. King of the Ring was important, yet Austin was still treading water leading up to this moment. It served its purpose anyway as it pulled viewers away from Nitro, levelling up the viewership. Did this mark the beginning of the Attitude Era?

WCW Nitro 4/8/96 (2.75 Stars)

Tonight we would see the beginning of a tournament to crown the first WCW Women's Champion. And Sting would also see it from the rafters. Marcus Bagwell defeats Brad Armstrong in the opener. For those of you who weren't aware, Bagwell would take up male escorting post his Pro-Wrestling career, charging up to 3,000 USD for an overnight stay. Gigolo's aside, they delivered a good contest. Brad bumped really well and I would have loved to see him face Bobby Eaton. Who knows, maybe I will? DDP pins Ice Train following an attack from The Outsiders while the ref's back was turned. Dean Malenko pins Bagwell's tag partner Scotty Riggs (American Males) and Chris Beniot pins Hector Guerrero to wrap up hour one, Hector being Eddie's brother. One of the more tolerable first hours if I'm being honest with two good matches! Jeff Jarrett responds to The Giant before Beniot and Mongo get pissy saying 'Jeff isn't a real Horseman...wah!' Jarrett claims the locker room must unite in order to fight The NWO. He accuses Sting of turning his back on WCW and says it may have to be Flair or even himself who brings Hogan down! Madusa defeats Reina Jubuki, a former CMLL Women's Champion, in the first round of the title tournament. Zero (All Japan Women's Hall of Famer, Chigusa Nagayo) and Sunny Ono visited ringside to scout their opponent. Chris Jericho pinned Mr Wallstreet. Gimmicks like 'Mr Wallstreet' were redundant by this point. You had a locker-room bursting with talent yet unfortunately, these types of matches really hurt the show. I'm not trying to criticise the man playing the role too much (Mike Rotunda) as even though I didn't enjoy how he was presented to me, he had a fairly illustrious career prior to WCW. Yet from what I'd seen, I couldn't recall one entertaining match he was involved in. Conversely, his son is none other than Windham Rotunda, who would go on to perform one of the most creative gimmicks of the 21st century in Bray Wyatt/The Fiend. Lex Luger gets his win back against Booker T. At least this week the match kind of made sense, with Luger wanting a rematch after being counted out last week because of the Stinger. Bischoff informs us that negotiations for the supermatch between Piper and Hogan aren't going well. He blamed Piper's management before we see the Havoc segment for the millionth time. I didn't realise that Piper/Hogan was considered as some kind of dream match at the time. But apparently it was. A Hogan promo talking shit about Roddy Piper closed the show. Nitro's in-ring action was much better than Raw's. Not a particularly impressive feat but there you go. Yet according to my own rating scale, it's a tie. Even if I preferred Nitro as an overall show slightly more.

Raw/Nitro November 11th

Monday Night Raw 11/11/96 (2.5 Stars)

Raw's Survivor Series go home show kicked off with the championship match booked during last week's episode, as Owen Hart and The British Bulldog faced Sid and Shawn Michaels. A mistimed superkick from Shawn landing on his own partner, resulted in the heel duo retaining their titles. As you'd expect, this was a very fun match to watch and it was a smart choice to open the card with it. Mankind defeats Freddie Joe Floyd before two time WWWF Champion Killer Kowalski along with the Valiant Brothers are inducted into the Hall of Fame. It cuts to a very angry Sycho Sid backstage who accuses Shawn of kicking him intentionally, costing the pair of them the match in the process. He promises retribution on Sunday. Shawn Micheals response is that it was a mistake, but regardless he still knocked him out and promises to do it again on Sunday! Steve Austin pins Bob Holly in the main-event. Post-match Austin is seen going after Bret Hart, as he's forced to yell at him through a locked door. Not the best Raw of all time, but certainly not the worst. If they cut out the Karate Fighters bit (A sponsored segment involving roster members playing with toys) and replaced it with something else, it may have been better. It's also worth noting, no mention of the controversial angle from last week's episode was made.

WCW Nitro 11/11/96 (2.25 Stars)

Chris Beniot faced Jeff Jarrett to kick off Nitro. I liked the story here, with Jarrett aligning himself with the Horsemen, only for Beniot and Mongo to take exception to it. The match ended in DQ after Sting attacked Double J with a Scorpion Deathdrop. Someone interrupts Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko passing them a tape to play later. Zero (Chigusa Nagayo) defeats Malia Hoska in the first round of the Women's Title Tournament. A disappointing match, with Zero winning in under 2 minutes. They had done a good job of showcasing the women before, notably booking a very solid tag match involving Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuta, Mayumi Ozaki and Cutie Suzuki during the 95 edition of WW3. I only hope the ladies involved in this tournament receive the same kind of attention. DDP gets an offer from Hall and Nash to join the NWO. He declines as he resents only being offered after 7 other people were asked first. If only the dozens of other people who would later join had that kind of mindset. Rey Mysterio defeats Ciclope with Ultimo Dragon and Sunny Ono at ringside. This was one of the better matches from November so far and would transpire to be the best match of the night. Hour 2 starts as Lex Luger submits Scott Norton to the Torture Rack before The Amazing French Canadians and Harlem Heat fought to a double DQ. Col. Parker had turned on Harlem Heat during WCW Saturday Night, aligning himself with The French Canadians. Konnan defeats Chris Jericho via DQ after Chris accidentally bumped the ref. It started off ok, yet the screwy finish let it down! Miguel Perez defeats Juventud Guerrera. This was a strange match, as it was very short yet the non-stop action made it entertaining. Faces of Fear pinned The American Males in the main-event before we finally see the footage from the video tape handed in earlier that night. It shows a Roddy Piper music video from 1992 entitled "I'm your man" in which he looks up at a billboard advertising a match between himself and Hogan, alluding to the fact he's wanted to fight him for the past 4 years! Another Hogan spotlight promo closed the show. A lot was going on during this episode. But it was done properly and well segmented for the most part. That said, WCW's talented roster should have allowed much more focus on the in-ring product. I went back and forth on my rating, but that factor alone defined it for me. Yes, Nitro had a few bright spots in that regard and you could even argue the actual wrestling was better than what was shown on Raw (It was, in my opinion anyway) but it still wasn't enough for me. Simply put, I can't justify downgrading Raw from a 2.5 rating, yet I can make arguments to do so for Nitro. As I refuse to have back to back draws, that's exactly what I'm doing. WWF wins the point.

Survivor Series '96

This show was broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York. Doug Furnas, Phil Lafon and The Godwinns faced The Bulldogs (British Bulldog, Owen Hart) and The New Rockers, in the opening traditional Survivor Series match. Doug Furnas pinned Owen Hart to secure the win for his team. A strong debut for Lafont and Furnas, who previously worked together in ECW. WWF and ECW had a working relationship of sorts, whereby Vince McMahon would occasionally secure a contract and allow them to develop in ECW. In return, the WWF would loan bigger name stars, or sometimes talent who needed to shake off "ring rust" to ECW. One of the more notable examples being Al Snow. Al would grow frustrated with his 'Leif Cassiday' character in the WWF, and request to work in ECW for a while. He would eventually be recalled by the WWF, and the rest is history. The Undertaker defeated Mankind with Paul Bearer hanging in a shark cage above the ring. I've spoken at length how much I've been enjoying this feud, with this match serving as the next chapter of one of the most compelling rivalries of its time. The result was very predictable, and the match itself lacked some of the lustre that their previous bouts held. But it was still an amazing feud overall and one that wasn't over just yet! Post-match The Executioner (Terry Gordy) tried, and failed, to get the jump on The Undertaker. Next we saw the in-ring debut of a man who would transpire to become one of the biggest names in Pro-Wrestling history, as well as popular culture in general. As Rocky Maivia, Marc Mero, The Stalker and Jake Roberts defeated Crush, Jerry Lawler, Goldust and Hunter Hearst Hemsley. Rocky was the sole survivor, pinning Goldust to pick up the win for his team. He looked athletic in the ring, and you even saw shades of his over-exaggerated facial expressions and mannerisms that he would intentionally adopt later in his career. Yet before he would reach superstardom, he would have to drastically change up his gimmick. According to Rocky Maivia (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock) he wasn't enamoured with his original ring name. While he was honoured as it was a tribute to both his father and grandfather, he explains how he wanted to be his own person. The next contest would serve as a prequel to one of my all time favourite wrestling matches. As Steve Austin locked horns with Bret Hart! The build for this match had been sensational, as was the action itself, with Bret Hart coming out on top, pinning Steve Austin. Bret would win number one contenders status as a result of his victory. It started off slow but the story these two men told was something special to witness. Austin lost but looked like a million bucks in the process. Tim White looked visibly exhausted towards the end just calling the relentless action. If anything, that facet only added to the match, as it furthered the story of the absolute war these two men were taking part in. Easily the match of the month so far, if not a MOTY candidate, and I'd be surprised if anything else tops it in the month of November! Flash Funk (Too Cold Scorpio) Yokozuna, Savio Vega along with mystery partner Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka faced Faarooq, Vader and imposter versions of Diesel and Razor Ramon in the final Survivor Series match of the night. It ended in a double DQ as Diesel hits Snuka with a chair, leading to the previously eliminated Savio Vega to come out with one himself. Chaos ensued and the match was eventually called off. This was the night that Farrooq debuted his Nation of Domination gimmick, which would turn into a play on the militant group, The Black Panthers. Shawn Michaels dropped the title to Sid in the main-event, with the latter accomplishing a heel during the match. Sid blasted HBK with a camera while the ref was down, before pinning him after using his patented Powerbomb! I was aware of the result before watching this match, but I can still imagine this move being shocking at the time. The crowd were firmly behind Sycho Sid, probably something to do with there being a lot of Bret Hart fans in the building. I've already mentioned the initial plans involving Vader, but after that was canned, Sid would step up to the plate instead. As a match it was ok, not as good as Shawn's matches with Vader, Mankind or the numerous he had with Davey the same year. But still good. Overall an excellent card, top to bottom. The final two Survivor Series matches felt slightly flat, but only in comparison to everything else. Hart/Austin was fantastic, and the opening SS match along with the main-event, were all fun matches to watch. Even if Sycho Sid's exaggerated breathing became annoying, especially watching the show while wearing headphones (3.5 Stars)

Raw/Nitro November 18th

Monday Night Raw 18/11/96 (2.25 Stars)

'Stone Cold' Steve Austin kicked off Raw with a DQ victory over Mankind in a "Tough Man Match" after interference from The Executioner. Taker with the save, until Austin said thanks, but no thanks, as he clotheslines him out of the ring. Austin and Taker have some unfinished business that I'd LOVE to see settled. Anyway, a fun match until the DQ. Ahamed Johnson made his WWF return as he sat amongst the crowd to watch his rival Faarooq defeat Savio Vega. Post-match Ahamed Johnson goes after Faarooq, who cleared the ring before Ahamed could get to him. Knowing the real life story between these two men, I'm strangely engrossed in this feud. Doug Furnas and Philip Lafon continue their victory tour, picking up a win over the formidable duo of Leif Cassiday and Bob Holly. A Sid promo closed the show. I get why they did it, but that doesn't change the fact it was a bland way to end things. Below average outing, but it passed quickly and next week we get Bret Vs Owen!

WCW Nitro 18/11/96 (3.25 Stars)

Nitro opens with a shot of Hall and Nash standing over the prone bodies of The Nasty Boys, High Voltage and "some of our Mexican superstars" while they wield steel chairs. The Outsiders then brawl with Faces of Fear backstage, with Tony Schiavone leaving the broadcast as a result. Speaking of Mexican Superstars, La Parka wins his debut match against Juventud Guerrera. It's then explained how Ultimo Dragon unified his numerous 8 Junior Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight titles from Mexico, Japan and England into what was called the J-Crown. This would mark Dragon's attempt to capture his 9th championship, gaining control of "every Cruiserweight title" in the process. He was unsuccessful as he only beat WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko via an over the top rope DQ, a weird rule that probably shouldn't have been used in America, or anywhere else for that matter. The Amazing French Canadians defeated The American Males before Lex Luger submits Hugh Morris to wrap up the first hour. Sting jumped into the ring to hand a bat to Lex Luger post-match. Also, according to Larry Zbyszko, Luger had NO BODY FAT! Yep, that's right, none whatsoever. He was either clinically dead or Ironman apparently. Hogan kicks off Hour 2 as he demands Bischoff puts him over and calls him a bigger icon then Piper. Kevin Nash promises something "Very beautiful will happen" as DDP continued to refuse the advances of the NWO. Jeff Jarret beats Bobby Eaton in a short match that could have served as a much needed breather from all of the chaos so far. Poor choice to have it end so quickly in my opinion. Flair comes down to raise Jarrett's hand and offer his endorsement. Big Bubba over Jim Powers before Chris Beniot pins Eddie Guerrero in a great match, as was to be expected. Eric Bischoff closes the show with a promo before he's interrupted by RODDY PIPER! Hot Rod tells Bischoff he's a snake, only to be attacked by the NWO who then reveals Bischoff was on their side all this time. That's right, the Vice President of WCW was a traitor! Piper says he will sign the contract at the upcoming WW3 PPV, making their match official! A clustered show but I have to concede. It was entertaining as hell. Similar to a Tarantino film, in that you have to watch it the whole way through to truly appreciate it. But when you finally get there, your mind is blown! The La Parka match, along with Eddie/Beniot and the angle to finish, made this a pretty fun episode of Nitro. WCW wins the point, ranking it alongside some of the best Nitro episodes I've seen yet!

World War 3 '96

Live from Norfolk, Virginia. WCW brought us World War 3! Rey Mysterio gets a shot at the J-Crown Cruiserweight Title against Ultimo Dragon. Mysterio was wearing Spiderman gear as a tribute to the Marvel franchise. Ultimo Dragon retained. While I didn't enjoy this one as much as other Mysterio matches I've seen so far, it would still go on to win my MOTN honours. Next was the "one arm tied behind my back" match, between Chris Jericho and WCW official Nick Patrick. Jericho had one arm tied behind his back, as per the stipulation. If you thought this match would COMPLETELY suck, you'd be surprisingly wrong. While it wasn't a 5 star classic by any means, Jericho still made the stipulation work and the match was somewhat tolerable to watch. Jericho gained revenge, pinning Nick Patrick in the process. According to Chris. His arm actually came loose midway through the match, with him having to work the remainder of the bout pretending he was still completely bound. He pulled it off convincingly, so there is that. The Giant pinned Jeff Jarrett in a 'Grudge Match' after Sting interfered, hitting the Death Drop on Double J. I was left wondering what was going on with the U.S Title. With the actual champion Ric Flair out injured, and The Giant still carrying around the stolen title, was WCW hoping we'd simply forget he wasn't the champion? The Hot-Rod blessed us with his promised appearance. Bagpipes playing and contract in hand, he meant business. Eric Bischoff made his first appearance in NWO colours, alongside Vincent and Ted DiBiase. Eric says he was given power of attorney by the Hulkster, so was able to sign the contract on his behalf. Piper finally baited Hogan to come out and sign the contract face to face. Hogan revealed a scar on Piper, due to a recent surgery. Roddy genuinely had a metal hip due to injuries sustained in the ring. The faction proceeded to beat down Piper, before spray painting NWO over his scar. A fun segment proving Roddy had humongous value on the mic. I've yet to see him wrestle in this era, but the build for this match had been excellent on his part. Harlem Heat defeated The Amazing French Canadians before Dean Malenko retained his CW Title against Psychosis. There was a cool spot during the Heat match whereby Amazing French Canadians stacked a table on top of some steps using the ropes. But other than that, the match was pretty boring. Sister Sherri got "5 minutes alone" to whoop on Col. Parker, as a result of her team winning. The Malenko match was good, not on par with some of his classics against Rey-Rey, but still very good. At the time, Dean was a technical wrestling machine and quickly became one of my favourite wrestlers from this era as a result! During the contest, Psychosis slipped off the top rope, colliding with the guardrail. Rather than catch him, Dean simply moved out of the way, allowing the Mexican superstar to get a face full of metal in the process. A great example of keeping kayfabe alive. The Outsiders retained their tag titles in a triangle match also involving The Nasty Boys (sigh) as well as Faces of Fear before the World War III match in the main-event. You know the score here, 3 rings, 60 men, one poorly filmed mess of a battle royale. In the interest of full disclosure, I always skip to the end of the match when the final 10 men switch to the one ring. Watching multicam was awful and it saved me about half an hour to do, you know, literally anything else! From what I could tell. The NWO were all working together, with the final 5 men being The Outsiders, The Giant and Syxx (All NWO members) as well as Lex Luger. 4 on 1! Luger nearly overcomes the odds, eliminating 3 men, until The Giant tosses him over the top rope to win it all! The show's concept was flawed in my opinion, as the entire PPV could have been fantastic, yet the enforced gimmick match would always let it down. I'm not a fan of "Gimmicked PPV's" for this very reason. With only 2 strong matches and a fun Piper segment. My final grade is somewhat of a mercy rating (2.5 Stars)

Raw/Nitro November 25th

Monday Night Raw 25/11/96 (2 Stars)

The show starts with a bang, as it's a WrestleMania 10 rematch, and Brother versus Brother. Bret Hart versus Owen Hart. Bret won via DQ, thanks to a chair attack from 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. A good match, that would have been even better if it was allowed to run its course. After Davey stops the attack from going too far, he and Owen get into a spat, allowing Austin the opportunity to strike! DTA (Don't Trust Anyone) The Executioner defeats Freddie Joe Floyd before Rocky faced Salvatore Sincere. Rocky did the setup for the People's Elbow, but hit a shoulder breaker for the win instead. Such a tease. Speaking of teases, Sunny was on commentary perving over the Rock. To be fair, she was arguably ahead of the curve in doing this. The Armageddon Rules match set to take place between The Executioner and The Undertaker was also explained. It was essentially the inaugural last man standing match. Knock down your opponent for a count of 10 to win. We also heard from Shawn Michaels and Jose Lothario. Jose said he felt guilty for getting inadvertently involved, Vince booked Shawn Vs whoever the champion is at the Rumble, and all was right in the world! Marc Mero beat Billy Gunn in the main-event thanks to a Hunter DQ finish. Jake runs in for the failed save, probably leading to a tag match I'm really not interested in. Not the best show and it was hurt further by a lack of star power in the main. To their credit, the WWF had managed to hang with Nitro for the most part of this month. Maybe if they made the last match a number one contenders bout for the I-C Title, as well as scrapping the DQ finish. It may have been a decent show. But they didn't, and it wasn't.

WCW Nitro 25/11/96 (2 Stars)

The tournament to crown a new WCW U.S champion would take place in the wake of Ric Flair's injury. Arn Anderson faced Lex Luger in the first round. These two men were involved in a fued, with this bout serving as a rematch from their PPV bout at Halloween Havoc. The double count-out finish summed up this part of the show perfectly. Slow and boring. I feel compelled to state that I am a fan of both Luger and AA, but this seemingly wasn't their night. Eric Bischoff came out with the entire NWO minus Hogan, with Eric bragging that he was both the highest ranking executive in the NWO as well as WCW. He gave all talent 30 days to transfer their contracts over to the NWO. I have no idea how that would have worked exactly, but it was WCW in the 90s so I'll go with it. The American Males entered the ring, presumably to take Eric up on his offer, before Buff Bagwell turned on his partner Scotty Riggs. The NWO had it's 9th member. Excluding Elizabeth and Bischoff, he was the 9th anyway. The idea behind this entire segment proved to be the genesis of the downfall of NWO. They were a renegade group who got off on assaulting people when their backs were turned and generally causing mayhem. If the entire roster decided to join, who would they battle? Sadly, the entire angle would eventually become watered down due to that very reason. Anyone and everyone would join the NWO. But for now at least, it was still good TV. DDP over Disco Inferno, Lord Steve Regal over Tony Pena and a Rick Stiener promo wrapped up hour one. I've heard of Tony Pena the baseball player, but never the wrestler. After some research, I discovered that he was most notable as a AAA performer under the name of Villano IV. As for Rick Stiener, well he was confused as to what Sting was doing "up in the rafters dropping on people" before stating he and his brother were both 110 percent WCW. These promos are always unintentionally hilarious, due to the manner in which he and Scott spoke, or rather yelled. Eddie Guerrero pins Konnan to kick off hour two, as Eddie advanced to the next round of the U.S Title tournament in a match that was undoubtedly the best of the night. Big Bubba over Rick Stiener after outside interference from Sting before Rey Mysterio defeated Psychosis in a quick match. I was very much enjoying the Sting angle, whereby he came to the ring just to fuck with the people who dared to besmirch his fine name. Chris Beniot and Woman proceed to cut a promo on Kevin Sullivan/Taskmaster. Nancy aka Woman, was still with Kevin Sullivan at this point. As a result, people often joke that by creating this storyline, Sullivan essentially booked his own divorce. After a 10 MINUTE RECAP from the PPV, we saw two quick matches to end the show. Jeff Jarrett over Alex Wright as well as Harlem Heat Vs The Faces of Fear ending via no contest thanks to an NWO run-in. The NWO segment with Bagwell turning on his partner was ok, as was Eddie/Konnan, but that was about it. If I wasn't able to skip the recap I would have been raging, but it was a good segment so I understand WCW wanting to show it off on TV after the fact. Maybe if WCW had built up or given some time to the actual main-event of the show, they would have won this week. But the way it was treated was almost as if it was a dark match or an afterthought. No promotion, no attention and very little time given to it. At least Raw typically advertised what their main-event would be, attempting to give you a reason to stay tuned. Two below average shows ends the month in yet another draw…"sigh"

Summary and final scores

A great PPV outing from the WWF as well as a noticeable upswing in television quality. Yet in my opinion, both sides had missed opportunities to capitalise. Piper was a huge deal and presumably WCW were banking on him and Hogan to do big numbers and gain a lot of mainstream attention. That said, the way WCW were producing their TV shows left much to be desired. As I said in my final November review, they very rarely advertised or even gave time to their actual main-events! Regardless of who won week to week, I must say I have enjoyed the WWF much more this month than WCW this month. The rise of Austin 3:16 as well as an excellent PPV. It just goes to show that sometimes, less Is more. The scores are WCW 32-20 WWF and 7 Draws.

Match of the Month: Steve Austin Vs Bret Hart (Survivor Series)