Raw/Nitro December '97 (Week 3)

Monday Night Raw 15/12/97 (3 Stars)

Segment- The Undertaker in-ring promo. Michael Cole tells The Undertaker that he will face Shawn Michaels at The Royal Rumble in a casket match for the WWF Title! The Undertaker says that his record in casket matches is legendary, and DX don't have enough men to beat him. Kane comes out to confront The Undertaker, who refuses to fight him before walking away!

Match 1- Taka Michinoku def Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler via DQ

Segment- Legion of Doom pre-recorded promo ahead of their match against Triple H and Shawn Michaels later that night.

Segment- Nation of Domination in-ring promo. Rocky Maivia says that ‘The Rock’ is unhappy after Austin stole his title last week, before ordering him to return it. Austin says that he will find out where his title is later!

Match 2- Dude Love def ‘Road Dogg’ Jesse James

Segment- The New Age Outlaws knock Dude Love off the stage and through a table!

Match 3- Mark Henry def The Brooklyn Brawler

Segment- Vince McMahon in-ring promo. Vince calls out Owen Hart, citing he has been “endangering” the fans, by jumping over the barricade. Owen comes out through the crowd to confront McMahon. Owen calls out Vince McMahon on his behaviour towards The Hart Family, before vowing to make Shawn Michaels life a living hell! Police officers escort Owen Hart out of the arena!

Match 4- Tom Brandi def The Sultan

Segment- Marc Mero attacks Tom Brandi post-match.

Segment- The Nation of Domination in-ring promo. Rocky Maivia demands his title is returned to him. ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin is shown on the titan-tron, throwing the Intercontinental title into a river!

Segment- Vince McMahon pre recorded promo. McMahon says that the audience are tired of “having their intelligence insulted”, vowing a more “invigorating and contemporary creative campaign”, officially ushering in the ‘Attitude Era’.

Match 5- Steve Blackman def Jose Estrada

Segment- D-Generation X play a game of

rock, paper, scissors to decode who gets to take care of Owen Hart. Triple H wins, before Shawn Michaels says that L.O.D aren't ready for what is coming!

Match 6- The Legion of Doom def Triple H & Shawn Michaels via DQ

Analysis

Opening Segment

A good opening segment delivered from a man who isn't necessarily remembered for his promo work, in The Undertaker. His words were all delivered with sincerity, but to be honest, a casket match between himself and Shawn Michaels didn't need much hype anyway. It sold itself, but The Undertaker still did a good job of bringing DX into it while referencing his previous record in these types of matches. Kane would face off with The Undertaker at the end of the segment, but the deadman caught a punch from Kane, before simply walking away. I was very impressed with the restraint The WWF had shown here, as it would have been easy to revert to type, but thankfully they left this one alone!

Match 1

Taka Michinoku faced Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler in the opening contest of the evening. During this match, The WWF decided to promote ‘UFC Japan', which looking back at it, was quite unusual. The story goes that Shane McMahon actually wanted his dad Vince to buy The UFC! Ironically, today the two companies actually come under the same umbrella of TKO Holdings. I would much prefer to write about that and/or the history of The UFC as it relates to The WWF/E, and how they battled each other for over a decade, all the while refusing to acknowledge the other as direct competition, but we've got a match to review damnit!...

Lawler seemingly took advantage of Michinoku's mobility, having a decent contest with the Light Heavyweight Champion (at least for the standards of Raw at this time!) Jerry's kayfabe son, Brian Christopher, would eventually run in, to save his ‘dad’ the embarrassment of getting pinned by someone who was taught the beautiful English language from good ole’ J.R (That was a segment on last week's show, and it was actually pretty funny) Solid start to the show. Moving on….

Match 2

Dude Love takes on Road Dogg with Jim Ross actually suggesting in commentary that Billy Gunn and Road Dogg should call themselves ‘The New Age Outlaws’. You know, just in case it ever comes up in a pub quiz. Dude Love morphing into ‘Mankind’ mid way through the match was well done, as he pulled out his hair and worked a style more reminiscent of the hardcore brawler Mankind. Dude Love would eventually pin Road Dogg, but what happened next was what made this segment! As Dude Love attempted to fight off “The New Age Outlaws”, they all made their way to the top of the steel entrance ramp, where Dude Love would be knocked off, falling 8 feet onto the concrete below and bouncing off a table that didn't break! This spot looked dangerous, so when The Outlaws seemed to show genuine concern for Mick Foley aka Dude Love, before stomping on him, it got the heels NUCLEAR HEAT from the crowd in attendance!

As a match, it was FAR better than last week's effort against Billy Gunn, even if only from a storytelling perspective. But it was also a reminder to us all, that when it comes to “hardcore style” wrestling. LESS IS MORE! A simple bump of the stage and onto a table, had more impact than seeing people wrap themselves in barbed wire and light themselves on fire EVERY SINGLE WEEK! Mick Foley has always understood this, and that's why he's considered by many to be the GOAT. That, in combination with his overall wrestling ability and psychology of course. And yes, while he may have worked deathmatches in Japan, when mainstream exposure was involved, he seemed to understand when to do just enough to make people say “OH MY GOD” without mocking the audience's intelligence.

Match 3

Man, I've covered A LOT already, so I'll make this quick. ‘The World's Strongest Man’ Mark Henry, debuted against The Brooklyn Brawler. This was how you debut a big man! It was effective and he looked like an absolute beast with his ‘bear hug’ finisher. In direct comparison to the WWF's unveiling of Kurrgan in singles action the week prior, it was night and day. It was believable, but more importantly, you actually WANTED to see him again, and wondered if he could do it against “better competition”. From a kayfabe standpoint, that's how I was left feeling anyway.

Second Hour/WarZone

WarZone opened with an impassioned promo from Owen Hart calling out Shawn Michaels. This was most likely as much of a shoot as it was a work, seeing as Owen was legitimately upset with both Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels. Owen was eventually escorted out by police officers. My takeaway was, Owen Hart's stock had SKYROCKETED! And The WWF would have been wise to capitalise on it. And if you believe Jim Cornette, that was actually their intention! Backstage officials saw tremendous value in Owen, and wanted to go as far as making him “The Canadian star” of the company, and eventually avenging Bret Hart. From a business perspective, it made all of the sense in the world right? Well, not if you asked Shawn Michaels in 1997, who allegedly shot the idea down refusing to ever put him over in a “top program”. Shawn would be asked about this years later, and would respond that Owen wasn't “forceful” enough backstage. Now, by accounts, Owen Hart was a lovely guy, so while that may have been true, it still didn't justify the allegations of refusing to put over yet another member of the Hart family. Especially one as talented and over with the fans as Owen.

Segment

I don't usually review segments, but this one is a must. This was an all time ‘Attitude Era’ highlight, that not only made great television, but was the spark that ignited THE BEST FEUD of the late 90s (arguably only going up against Austin/McMahon) ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin would throw ‘The Rock’s’ title into a river, in what would become known as a truly historic pro wrestling segment. Rocky was just coming into his own on the mic, improving week by week as his confidence increased, and Austin was his usual silver tongued self. Great stuff!

Main-event

D-Generation X took on The Legion of Doom to close out the show. A few points to make here, so I'll “break em down” haha, get it.

Jim Cornette was hilarious on commentary all night, but he truly shone here. He quipped “That's Michaels one failing, and I think he's only got one…and it's his EGO!” Again, you could tell that Jim was shooting here, but it still made sense and fit Shawn's on-screen persona at the time. Jim’s actual wrestling knowledge shone through also, as he spoke about the “misdirection play” essentially making your opponents draw the referee to them, allowing the heels to double team an opponent. We've all seen it 100 times before, but when properly explained as a legitimate tactic, it gets you so much more involved in the match! Cornette made what was an otherwise ‘throwaway main-event’, a contest where I found myself cheering on the babyfaces,

and actually caring about who won and who lost as a result! He also talked about the strengths and weaknesses of EVERY man in the ring. For this alone, JC must be one of the most underrated commentators of all time in my opinion.

Anyway, Shawn Michaels took on the role of ‘pinball wizard’, beautifully flinging himself around the ring at the behest of L.O.D. Then there was the finish and my god, this is how all DQ finishes should be done! It eventually ended after outside interference and a low-blow from Chyna. But there was drama leading up to it all, as opposed to a random and rushed run-in! Hawk was distracted, fighting both of ‘The New Age Outlaws’ outside of the ring, and just as Animal was getting the best of BOTH Triple H and Shawn Michaels, Chyna hit the low-blow that ended the match.

The following segment also laid the foundations for The New Age Outlaws to eventually join D-Generation X, as they shaved the head of Hawk, much to the approval of DX. As a standalone match, it wouldn't win any awards. But in terms of angle advancement, suspense built and execution of the finish, it was all EXTREMELY well done!

Summary

You know a show is good when I come into a review, with the intent of only watching the first hour, but I end up doing the entire review in one sitting! Especially one as long as this! (Seriously, this took me a LONG time, so please show it some love) But when the shows are good, so are my reviews, hopefully…

Anyway, this was MUCH more like what I was expecting from ‘peak attitude era raw’. It had a good flow as it didn't TOO feel rushed or manic. We had a solid opening segment, some actual wrestling at times, as well as peak TV delivered from both Austin, The Rock and dare I say it, even DX! I'll explain what I mean by “actual wrestling”, as the standard was never at its highest during this time, but there was still a notable difference. I had no problem with ‘shorter’ 5-8 minute TV matches, and 2-3 minute squash/enhancement matches. My problem was when the 2-3 minute matches involved supposed main card talent both facing each other, and you'd be lucky if you saw 1 or 2 bumps in the whole thing. But tonight we saw some actual WRESTLING. Yes, none of it was 5 stars by any means, but the guys that worked actually attempted to do so, and were also given a meaningful amount of time. Basically, whoever agented this show, GIVE THEM A RAISE!

Even with all of my gushing aside, this wasn't an all timer by any means, but the show was certainly trending in the right direction. Over to you Eric…

WCW Nitro 15/12/97 (2.5 Stars)

Segment- nWo in-ring promo. Eric Bischoff brags about The nWo members' chances of winning their matches at Starrcade. Curt Hennig says he will retire Ric Flair permanently. ‘Hollywood’ Hogan calls Sting a coward before saying he's on the hunt for him!

Segment- nWo ‘paid for announcement’ targeted at Larry Zybysko

Segment- nWo ‘paid for announcement’ targeted at The Steiner Brothers

Match 1- Ray Traylor def Vincent

TV Title

Match 2- (c) Disco Inferno def Yuji Nagata

Match 3- Fit Finlay def Dean Malenko

Segment- nWo ‘paid for announcement’ targeted at Roddy Piper

Match 4- Rey Mysterio & Juventud Guerrera def La Parka & Psychosis

Segment- Mean Gene in-ring interview with retired police officials. Gene introduces Arn Anderson, before saying that he is missed. Anderson says he appreciates the support, before introducing hometown hero Ric Flair who walks to the ring to a big ovation. Flair hands over a check for 15,000 dollars to support the fallen officers of the Charlotte police force and their families. Ric Flair finishes by calling out Curt Hennig!

Segment- Mene Gene interviews J.J. Dillon. Eric Bischoff interrupts, protesting his match with Larry Zybysko at Starrcade. Bischoff says he wants punches, kicks and KO’s to be legal as it plays off his background in karate. Dillon agrees but adds the proviso that submissions will also count to make the match fairer.

Match 5- Scott Hall def Chris Jericho

Segment- nWo ‘paid for announcement’ targeting The Giant.

Segment- Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael laid out backstage with Goldberg standing over him. J.J. Dillon orders Goldberg to wrestle in Mongo’s place. Steve McMichael brawls with Goldberg on the entrance ramp, as the pair are kept apart by security guards and the scheduled match is eventually called off!

Tag Team Championships

Match 6- (c) The Steiner Brothers def Konnan & Scott Norton via DQ

Match 7- Randy Savage def Booker T

Match 8- Chris Beniot def Scotty Riggs

Segment- Mene Gene interviews J.J. Dillon in-ring, before he is once again interrupted by Eric Bischoff. Eric Bischoff protests the choice of referee, stating he wants a TALL referee, who can “see everything” so suggests Kevin Nash. Dillon says he will allow an nWo official to referee the match, but only if he can choose. J.J. Dillon officially introduces Bret Hart to the WCW audience. Bret agrees to referee the match, but states it will be called down the middle as “no one knows what it feels like to be screwed by a ref as much as Bret Hart!''.

Segment- nWo ‘paid for announcement’ targeted at Lex Luger

Segment- Mene Gene interviews Buff Bagwell in-ring. Bagwell says that Lex Luger hasn't, and never will beat him! Lex Luger confronts Buff Bagwell, who challenges him to a match. Bagwell accepts after Luger slaps him.

Match 9- Buff Bagwell def Lex Luger via DQ

Segment- nWo ‘paid for announcement’ targeted at DDP.

Segment- Curt Hennig in-ring promo insulting Flair, before his main-event match with him.

United States Championship

Match 10- Ric Flair def Curt Hennig (c) via DQ

Segment- The nWo annihilate Ric Flair in the ring, until DDP, The Stiener Brothers and Lex Luger come out for the save.

Analysis

Tony Schiavone informed us that this would be a 3 HOUR broadcast. Thank GOD I got LOTS of alcohol over Christmas for this one. We were also told that we would see Bret Hart TONIGHT! So stay tuned I guess? Look, I get this was the “live ratings era”, but the fan inside of me still craved Bret to randomly appear via a run-in or a call out promo! It would have made for MUCH better TV in my opinion. Let's see how it all played out anyway…

Matches 1 & 2

Following an nWo promo running down their various opponents at Starrcade, Ray Traylor pinned Vincent. Was Bischoff absolutely certain that this show required 3 hours?!

The second contest saw Disco Inferno successfully defend his TV Title against Yuji Nagata. This wasn't anything spectacular, but solid enough to warrant Inferno taking the title last week. Let’s see if WCW would book him more consistently now he was a champion

Match 3

Fit Finlay pinned Dean Malenko following a distraction from Eddie Guerrero. This was just a solid wrestling match, plain and simple. No real angle outside of Malenko's ongoing beef with Guerrero. But the two men worked cleanly and exchanged wrestling holds for nearly 10 minutes. So if you're into that kind of thing, definitely check this one out!

Match 4

We saw some Lucha tag action as Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera defeated La Parka and Psychosis. At one point, La Parka and Psychosis caught Juve, leading to Mysterio hitting a springboard moonsault on all 3 men! Very cleanly executed and a great spot. Overall, this was just fun lucha madness to close out a strong first hour! This was the type of match you show to someone who has never watched any wrestling, just to show them the sheer athleticism that can be on display at times!

Second Hour

Mean Gene opened hour number two interviewing J.J. Dillon. Dillon says that Bischoff has tried to do “everything” to get out of the match at Starrcade with Zybysko. Bischoff interrupts the interview saying he's not a wrestler nor does he claim to be. Bischoff says he will only agree if “punches, kicks and knockouts count” J.J. Dillon agrees to the stipulation, but adds the proviso that submissions also count to make it more fair. Supposedly the idea was to try and play off Eric Bischoff’s ‘shoot’ karate background. Regardless, this match still sounded extremely bizarre, and that was the only intriguing factor at this point! I also have to plead ignorance here, as outside of the “closed fist” rule, which is rarely enforced in pro-wrestling anyway. I was always under the understanding that you could kick and/or knock out your opponent anyway. I get that they would probably work it into the match as some kind of MMA/Boxing gimmick, but Bischoff specifically requesting these things to be legal still made little sense to me!

Following this segment, Chris Jericho faced Scott Hall who had famously “allowed” him to go over on the 3/11 edition of Nitro, much to the shock of Eric Bischoff. (I've already written about the incident and how Hall pitched it to Jericho behind the backs of top WCW officials, so feel free to go back and read that edition if you're unfamiliar) Anyway, Hall wasn't quite feeling the Christmas cheer, as he made relatively light work of Jericho. I had no problem with this however, as he WAS the WW3 Battle Royal winner, so should have been getting pushed and featured more prominently on TV anyway.

Match 7

Randy Savage pinned Booker T, following outside interference from his manager/wife, Miss Elizabeth. Tenay made the point that since Booker T had moved over to singles action in tandem with his tag team duties, he had “been very successful”. They made Booker T look strong here once again, as he dominated for the majority of the match. This wasn't a bad match or anything, but Randy Savage was pushing 45 years of age for this one, and while that isn't considered particularly ‘old’ for the pros of today, something also tells me that sport science has come a LONG way since then. This was an ok matchup, but most importantly I appreciated the fact that WCW made it appear as if Booker T could have actually beaten Savage cleanly. A nice end to hour number two.

Third Hour

Chris Benoit defeated Scotty Riggs to open the third hour, in a short albeit intense match. Beniot proceeded to call out Raven, before leaping the guardrail and attacking the entire Flock by himself. It went south obviously, as they overwhelmed him within seconds and brought him into the ring to get ‘stretched’...ouch. This was a unique take on Beniot's character. His new ‘IDGAF’ attitude meshed really well with his actual style of wrestling. They could have portrayed him as a cutthroat loner, who didn’t have nor needed any backup, or even friends! I'll stop now before I begin to run away with myself and fantasy book him for the entire year of ‘98. Anyway, WCW did a good job of presenting Beniot as a credible threat here.

Segment

Bret Hart was officially unveiled in WCW as he was announced as, drumroll ...a special guest ref for the Zybsko/Bischoff match at Starrcade.

WOW! I won't give a blow by blow account of the segment, as the full thing is in my results/segments format. But did WCW ever drop

the ball here! I want to do A LOT more research, as it truly didn't make much sense for me. But keeping in the spirit of the whole “first time watcher, going in blind” deal I wrote about during my very first review. Why in the world would you not only announce Bret Hart so casually, but also include him as part of a gimmick match as the ref between a non-wrestler and someone who by this point was a commentator! I'll speak more on this segment, including what I think they specifically did wrong, and how he could have POTENTIALLY debuted in an ideal world, in my yearly 1997 summary review. Don't get excited by the way, it won't be anything crazy. But it will certainly be a lot less shit and frustrating than what actually happened.

Main-event

An nWo run-in on Flair in the main-event made The Charlotte crowd HOT! This was either very effective, old school booking and I'm here for it. Or extremely stupid. After seeing how the segment eventually played out, I'll have to side with the latter unfortunately! DDP calls out Hennig, before multiple fans legitimately jumped the guardrail and tried to get into the ring, before being swiftly dealt with by good ole’ Nick Patrick (WCW/WWE ref, and an absolute legend) Bischoff answers the call, lead by the entire nWo. Hogan starts calling out Sting, and the lights go on and off, before Sting appears in different parts of the building, including on top of the WCW Nitro sign above the entrance ramp. Sting eventually decides to stop pissing about, and walks towards the ring as Nitro goes off air.

So ok, here me out. DDP was CRAZY over by this point, so surely him getting a quick win over Hennig as retribution for the attack on the hometown hero Flair, would have sent the crowd into an absolute frenzy! It's wrestling booking 101. But INSTEAD we got ‘Hollywood’ Hogan waffling on for 5 minutes, upset, angry or quite simply bored and frustrated fans attempting to get ‘too close to the action’ (It happened more than once and with multiple people during this segment!) I've got no problem with it really, as no one was ever in any real danger (it wasn't the 80’s in mid south) but it still was NOT a good look for WCW. A really poor finish to the show unfortunately, and for several different reasons, which in itself was quite impressive!

Summary

Jesus I thought this would be a nice and simple review before the holiday break. I'll try and keep it simple and break it down for you…

Point one. I actually went into the final segment/main event with a 2.75 rating. Unfortunately, WCW screwed up BADLY, massively overbooking what could have been an open goal (DDP gets revenge on behalf of the hometown hero Ric Flair, and one of your most popular, rising stars gets a huge rub sending the fans home happy in the process) But no, it had to be the ‘Hollywood’ Hogan show yet again, sending them crashing right back to earth with an average 2.5…

Point two. As bizzare and anticlimactic the Hart reveal was, it was still a seminal moment for the company, and probably popped a nice 3rd hour rating with him just being there. IF he would have been booked properly going forward, it wouldn't matter too much anyway. I just thought it was a shame for all parties involved, as they had the opportunity to make the moment feel like a much ‘bigger deal’ than how they actually presented it…

Point three. Yes, this show did have a few good matches here and there, with the Lucha tag match and Finlay/Malenko in hour one all being personal highlights. It wasn't terrible as an actual show overall. It's just that certain moments could have, and probably should have, been much better! Basically, hour number 3 is where the wheels started to fall off.

Ultimately, this show had moments that if treated with care, could have taken this from average to good to GREAT! The Bret Hart fumble was truly head scratching, so as mentioned I'll probably write more about it after Starrcade, and during my year in summary review (so look out for that)

Overall while WCW may have showcased the better matches, I review these shows as a whole. That includes the format, pacing AND the match quality. It's a lot I know, but someone has to do it! All of that combined, attributes to my final score. So, to quote Buff Bagwell, it looks like WCW didn't “quite have the stuff” to beat the WWF this week! Raw takes the win.