Raw/Nitro December '97 (Week 2)

Monday Night Raw 8/12/97 (2.25 Stars)

Segment- The WWF owner Vince McMahon cuts an in-ring promo. McMahon says ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin went too far at the PPV last night, driving his pickup truck into the arena and using it as a weapon! He also chastised Austin for striking the official, regardless if it was an accident or not. McMahon books a rematch between Austin and ‘The Rock’, leading Austin to confront him. Austin says he that will think about competing later, but if he does return, someone is getting “their ass whipped” 

Match 1- The Legion of Doom Vs The Godwinns ends via no-contest 

Segment- ‘Road Dogg’ Jesse James and ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gunn cut an in-ring promo. They sing “na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye” to the Legion of Doom. Jesse James makes an open challenge to anyone in the locker room. Dude Love accepts the challenge.

Match 2- Dude Love def ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gunn

Segment- Rocky Maivia backstage promo. ‘The Rock’ says no one wants to face him one on one, before saying he will beat Austin and prove he is the best Intercontinental Champion of all time!

Segment- Jim Cornette interviews Taka Michinoku. Jerry Lawler interrupts, saying Michinoku isn't the true champion, and adds that he doesn't belong in America and resents the fact that he doesn't “speak english”. Taka Michinoku calls Lawler a “jackass”. Jim Cornette introduces the first challenger for the Light Heavyweight Championship, El Unico. El Unico removes his mask to reveal himself as Brian Christopher, before he and Lawler double team Taka Michinoku.

Match 3- Flash Funk def Kurrgan via DQ

Segment- D-Generation X in-ring promo. Triple H mocks Sgt. Slaughter, and Shawn Michaels brags about “destroying” The Hart Foundation. Shawn Michaels calls out Owen Hart. DX say they will play a game of “strip poker”, until Owen Hart comes out to face them! They continue to play at ringside while the next match takes place.

Match 4- Los Boricuas def The Disciples of Apocalypse.

Segment- The Headbangers interrupt DX's poker game. DX assaults The Headbangers as a result, smashing a glass jar over Mosh’s head, and putting Thrasher through a table! Owen Hart jumps over the guardrail and chases away DX, stopping the attack.

Match 5- Jeff Jarrett def Vader via count-out.

Segment- Marc Mero runs down his opponent, calling him a “jobber” and referring to him under his real name (Tom Brandi) Mero brings out Sable who is wearing a burlap sack. Sable removes the sack to reveal a racy leather bikini and a Thong!

Match 6- Salvatore Sincere def Marc Mero via count-out 

Segment- ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin refuses to wrestle, before saying he is only interested in The WWF Title, and forfeits his Intercontinental Championship as a result! He hits Rocky Maivia with a stunner, before saying he has “plans” for the title belt, stealing it back. He knocks Vince McMahon off the ring apron as he runs the ropes.

Analysis 

Matches 1 & 2

The Legion of Doom got their chance of revenge, as they took on The Godwinns. This was only 24 hours removed from them costing L.O.D a title match! Kane would interrupt however, as he hit Hawk with a tombstone piledriver! Not much to add here due to the run-in, but I wouldn't be losing much sleep missing out on a potential Godwinns/L.O.D match!

The next segment was cleverly blended in, as Dude Love accepted an open challenge from the gloating Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, taking on Billy Gunn in singles action.

This was short, and while this match didn't exactly show it, Billy Gunn was always talented as a solo performer, and it was just fun to actually see Mick Foley/Dude Love on TV for once! Dude Love won via pinfall, with him also falling victim to a stiff chair shot to the skull for his efforts post match! Regardless of his persona, whether it was Dude Love, Cactus Jack or just plain ole’ Mick Foley, he was the definition of The Attitude Era, so I'd imagine that we will see much more of him going forward!

Match 3

In the final segment before the ‘WarZone’, we saw the in-ring debut of Kurrgan. The man who billed as being 7 foot tall failed to impress me. It wasn't so much to do with the match itself, as he squashed Flash Funk before the decision was reversed thanks to his reluctance to release his ‘claw’ manoeuvre. But more so how it was presented. The claw is probably the worst looking move in pro-wrestling, and the way he kneeled over Funk post-match with the move still applied, was not only boring, but didn't look intimidating whatsoever! Not a strong debut, which is saying quite a bit as regardless of whether he was actually 7 foot tall or not, Kurrgan was still a big lad, so a simple, more impactful debut could have actually been quite effective.

Second Hour/WarZone 

It was time for the WarZone, and who else but D-Generation X to open this portion of the show! Triple H mocked Sgt. Slaughter, and Shawn bragged about his match with Ken Shamrock at IYH. Shawn added that he has destroyed the Hart Foundation, comparing them to turds, in what was the very definition of ‘toilet humour’. DX then played a game of “strip poker” at ringside. You either liked these segments or you didn't, and while DX would become more entertaining as they would continue to push the envelope, this wasn't for me personally. Not a bad segment by any means, but it was neither one thing nor the other. They were making serious claims and threats, but doing so in a juvenile way. Like the nWo, D-Generation X were seemingly a product of their time, with a lot of the humour ageing poorly. DX would continue to play their game of poker during the Los Boricuas/D.O.A match, in which Los Boricuas picked up the win. Vital information right there folks! It did get more interesting however when DX assaulted The Headbangers in the next segment. Watching it made me realise that THIS was exactly how they should have been presented all along. Dangerous and as a threat who hunted in numbers! Owen Hart would hop over the guardrail to stop the assault, in what was the best jumpscare I had ever witnessed in all of my time watching pro-wrestling. He legitimately came out of nowhere! A perfectly average segment that was completely saved by its more serious change of tone towards the end.

Match 5

Jeff Jarrett defeated Vader via count-out, after Goldust came to ringside and flashed Vader! Double J was officially 2-0 since his return, and honestly, I would have dragged this out and kept him undefeated for as long as possible! I loved Jarrett, and this run had the potential to be absolutely hilarious.

Main-event 

What was planned to be Rocky Maivia Vs Stone Cold turned into a segment. This is EXACTLY what WCW should have done more often, as opposed to shoehorning in a cheap match that ended with another nWo run-in. Austin forfeited the IC Title, saying that he is only interested in the WWF Championship, but that he has “plans” for Maiva’s new belt, before eventually stealing it back. Now, I was in two minds here. I already knew what Austin would do on next week's episode, and in all fairness it made for GREAT television. But these reviews are all from the perspective of a first time watcher, and him agreeing to drop the title just because he didn't want to wrestle ‘The Rock’, cheapened it in my eyes. It is that move alone that helped me to decide my final score.

Summary 

Not much in hour one outside of Vince McMahon building The Rock/Austin rematch, presumably set to take place as the show's main-event. I had no problem with this, as it was set to be the best main-event Raw had advertised in some time! However, the match would eventually be scrapped in favour of a segment, and while it was entertaining, it DID devalue the title (in my opinion anyway) Now I do have to be consistent here and say that if WCW did something similar, I'd be losing my mind! The only reason I’m remaining calm is because I know how it developed, and in all fairness, it created a red-hot angle that would carry the ‘Attitude Era’ for years to come. So if this show achieved anything, it was all in those closing moments. Because even though at the time it may not have made a lot of sense to some people, when it eventually played out on the 15/12 edition, it would have done, and overall the initial promo that we did see, was still good television. Especially when Austin ran the ropes and knocked Vince McMahon off the ring apron, which believe it or not was actually a very dangerous spot! (Essentially a blind bump with a fall of nearly 4 feet!)

But as it stands, the wrestling that was on offer was pretty bad to virtually nonexistent, which means that this edition of Raw scored a mark below average. A two star grade feels slightly harsh, as I did enjoy parts of the show, but they really needed to start placing much more emphasis on the in-ring aspect to give the shows more balance.

WCW Nitro 8/12/97 (2.25 Stars)

Match 1- Ray Traylor def Konnan

Match 2- Steve McMichael def The Barbarian 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Disco Inferno. Gene mentions how embarrassing it must be to have been beaten by Miss Jacquline. Disco Inferno says it was a lose lose situation anyway, before saying that rather than people talking behind his back, they should say it to his face!

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Buff Bagwell. Buff Bagwell calls out Lex Luger.

Match 3- Dean Malenko def Prince Iaukea 

Segment- Pre-recorded Kevin Nash promo, challenging The Giant to a match at Starrcade.

Segment- Mean Gene interviews The Giant. The Giant says that Kevin Nash can call him one dimensional, as that's all he needs, and the chokeslam is exactly what made him a world champion in the past! 

Match 4- Chris Beniot def Lodi 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair. Flair says that The Steiners will take care of Hall and Nash, before calling out Randy Savage at Starrcade. Ric Flair closes by saying Bret Hart is not the “best there is, was or even will be” as no one is better than Flair! 

Match 5- Randy Savage Vs Hugh Morrus ends via no-contest

Segment- Rick Rude and Eric Bischoff interrupt the broadcast team. Rude tells them that if the lights go off again, the announcers are getting “taken out” as a result.

WCW TV Title 

Match 6- Disco Inferno def Perry Saturn (c) 

Match 7- Buff Bagwell def Lex Luger via count-out 

Match 8- DDP def Scott Hall via DQ

Segment- ‘Hollywood’ Hogan calls Sting a coward, before calling Scott Hall the “clear cut” winner in his previous match against DDP!

Analysis 

Match 1

Konnan beat Ray Traylor in the opener. I am legally obliged to make some sort of reference to the opening matches of each show, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered for this one! There was a power cut that actually looked legitimate, or it could have been part of the build for Sting at Starrcade. Once the power was restored we saw Konnan laid out on his back, handing big man Ray Traylor the win. Spooky…

Match 3

Dean Malenko beat Prince Iaukea rather quickly which was strange, seeing as they seemed to be building Iaukea following his “recent tour of Japan”. It was even more strange as for as long as it lasted, Iaukea actually seemed to keep up with ‘The Iceman’, and these two most likely would have had a good match. But that’s why I'm not a wrestling booker I guess, what do I know?

Match 4

Lodi subs in for Raven, who wasn't even in attendance this week, as he agreed to face Beniot on his behalf. Beniot smacks the everloving shit out of Lodi before deciding to win via crippler crossface. Beniot calls out Raven post-match, saying he will teach him what “real abuse is all about” A comment that didn't age too well in retrospect, yet it was still extremely baffling to me how Beniot was actually used in Nitro. He was head and shoulders above 90 percent of the rest of the locker room. But he wasn't just a ‘good worker’, as he brought intensity into every movement he executed. In terms of pure work rate, I would struggle to put anyone else ahead of him, even on an all time list!

Second Hour

Ric Flair opens the second hour as he speaks with “MEANNN GENEEE!” Flair runs down various members of The nWo, before taking a shot at Bret Hart who Flair believed to have already joined the heel faction. Jesus christ Ric, give the man a minute. He hadn't even unpacked his bags yet!

Randy Savage faced Hugh Morrus, but it wasn't straightforward for the ‘Macho Man’, as former NFL legend Jim Kelly was in attendance, and started beating Savage from behind the guardrail before the bell rang. Savage lays out the official, before the lights go out AGAIN, leaving Savage on his back wearing a Sting mask! The referee was still playing dead from a bump earlier in the contest, with the bout presumably waved off completely as a result. I'm struggling to think of what to add here, the match was poor and personally speaking, the lights cutting out didn't build any excitement for Sting/Hogan whatsoever.

We then saw a quick segment involving Rick Rude threatening the WCW broadcast team. To me, this came across as unintentionally hilarious, as Tenay covered his eyes, Schiavone covered his mouth and Heenan covered his ears. It was a really strange moment, and I appreciate they were trying to appear shocked, but the image of them sitting next to each other doing these weird poses was too much.

Match 6

Disco Inferno won the TV Title from Perry Saturn! This was another short match but it was really fun while it lasted. Disco Inferno sent Saturn over the guardrail with a back body drop into ‘The Flock’, who were all watching at ringside. Inferno would eventually win off a ‘Chartbuster’, which was essentially a Stunner. I would have liked the title to stay with Perry Saturn slightly longer, but out of all the titles to hot potato, this was the perfect one to do it with! A TV title switch up could perk up the live crowd as well as the audience watching at home, while giving a small rub to whoever held it. Best match/segment of the night so far.

Main-event 

Scott Hall faced DDP in the main-event. Hall worked this match with a fair amount of intensity, which was nice to see because as much as we all loved Scott Hall (may he forever rest in peace) his workrate was questionable at times during his tenure with WCW. So, this actually a  semi-enjoyable match ...that is until the predictable nWo run-in got it called off, as the boys in black all pounced on Dallas. Shortly afterwards, a ‘dummy Sting’, YES an ACTUAL dummy that represented Sting in case you were confused (I wouldn't blame you) came crashing through the ring for the second time in as many weeks!

Interestingly, during this segment, Hogan would take a shot at “the shape Sting was in” which was later reported as a barebug of his, and also one of the reasons for why the main-event of Starrcade was booked the way it was (MUCH more on that later) Anywayyyy, Dummy Sting takes of his mask to reveal that it was the real Sting ALL ALONG! (Jesus Christ, I nearly had a stroke writing all of that) before Sting clears house, wailing on The nWo with his big black rod of death, as Nitro FINALLY goes off the air!

Summary 

At the top of the show, Mike Tenay mentioned a live crowd attendance of “nearly 19,000” which was impressive. However, much like Raw, the general in-ring quality was poor to nonexistent. While it was a nice moment, the Inferno/Saturn match was over in minutes, so it doesn't contribute to my overall opinion of the show outside of it being a fun passing moment.

I also didn't like the main-event nWo nonsense as it was becoming tiresome, and they somehow even managed to make Sting's return to Nitro as anticlimactic as possible, confusing it with all of the ‘fake dummy crashing through the ring’ nonsense. Surely it would have been much more effective for the lights to go out one last time during the DDP beatdown, and boom! There he is, “IT'S STING!” Anyway, because of the messy end to the show, it scores the same as Raw with a 

mark below average, making this week a draw. Both shows were EQUALLY as bad, so Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo can all take some level of pride in that I guess. See you all next week!

On This Day: WWF House Show 14/12/97

Now, while this isn't directly attached to any of my reviews, it's certainly worthy of a mention. The story goes that on this day, the WWF ran a house show in Little Rock, Arkansas. For some reason, most of the live audience were under the impression it was a TV taping for a future episode of Raw that was yet to air. As it became more and more evident that this WASN'T the case at all, the crowd grew restless, and started to trash the arena and generally become rowdy. The final straw however, was when D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels to be specific) took umbrage with being hit with paper during their entrance (A VERY common occurrence in WCW). As a result, only allegedly, because in all fairness there is no official record of this actually happening Shawn Michaels hopped on the microphone to inform an already agitated live crowd of nearly 6000 fans, that they “just lost their main-event” and that the “show was over''. Granted, I'm not advocating for anyone to work in legitimately unsafe conditions, but this was surely just adding fuel to the fire and not the most diplomatic, wise or even fair thing to do, especially considering what the woefully understaffed and ill equipped event security had to deal with next! Now this is all heresy, but it ranges from empty glass liquor bottles being thrown, fights in the stands amongst the fans, and even a security guard's shirt being lit on fire! Now, luckily I've only ever witnessed one ‘riot’,  but unfortunately for me at the time, I was a child when it happened. It was the single most frightening experience I could have ever imagined, so I especially sympathise with the countless children who would have undoubtedly been in attendance that night. My story is similar to the tales shared from the Little Rock house show. My grandmother had taken me to what she was calling a “cage fight” aka MMA event, under the impression that it was some kind of weird, hybrid pro wrestling match. Nope, we weren't greeted with masked luchadores or blonde babes with spandex wedged up their arses. Just 500 plus roided up, drunken Connor McGregor wannabes before Connor McGregor was even a thing, all with small egos and even smaller fuses, looking for any excuse for a tear up. And people wonder why MMA got a “bad rap” before it went mainstream and cleaned up its image! I must be clear that I don't have a point to make, or any insight whatsoever really as A) I wasn't there and B) None of it is actually on official public record. I guess my main takeaway is that, wrestling fan or MMA, people are people, and they can all act like entitled pricks regardless of their specific hobbies! And sometimes, a little bit of diplomacy and foresight can potentially avoid a full scale riot! Oh yeah, and don't take little kids to unlicensed MMA shows.