Raw/Nitro January '98 (Week 1)

Monday Night Raw 5/1/98 (2.25 Stars)

Segment- ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin pre-recorded promo. Austin says that everyone is “gunning for him” before promising to “raise hell!”

Match 1- Ken Shamrock def Faarooq 

Segment- Jim Cornette in-ring promo. Cornette unveils the NWA North American championship, insisting that it's about time ‘real wrestling and competition’ returned to the WWF!

Vacant NWA North American Championship 

Match 2- Jeff Jarrett def Barry Windham 

Segment- Ken Shamrock backstage promo. Shamrock says that he is also a marked man, calling out Steve Austin in the Rumble Match! 

Match 3- Skull & 8-Ball def Sniper & Recon 

Segment- D-Generation X in-ring promo. Triple H calls out Owen Hart. Owen responds on the titan-tron, saying he wants Triple H fresh so he can re-injure his other knee permanently! 

Match 4- Owen Hart def Savio Vega 

Segment- Paul Bearer in-ring promo. Bearer says that he hopes Shawn Michaels “destroys” The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, before saying that he despises The Undertaker and hates his guts! He also accuses The Undertaker of “poisoning Kane’s mind”, claiming he has gone missing.

Segment- Mark Henry is shown laid out in his locker room, presumably after being attacked by Steve Austin who was shown leaving!

Match 5- Marc Mero def Tom Brandi via DQ

Match 6- Flash Funk def The Artist formerly known as Goldust via DQ 

Match 7- The New Age Outlaws def The Headbangers 

Segment- Don King interview. Don King says that Mike Tyson will in fact be at WrestleMania!

Segment- Hell in a Cell recap from Badd Blood: In Your House.

Segment- Shawn Michaels in-ring promo. Shawn calls out The Undertaker, leading to druids wheeling a casket to the ring covered in DX graffiti. To Shawn’s surprise, The Undertaker pops out of the casket, and drags Michaels inside! 

Analysis 

Matches 1 & 2

Ken Shamrock defeated Faarooq in the opener. Shamrock hit an impressive hurricanrana which was the only real moment of note in this short 5 minute affair. This was build for Shamrock’s match with The Rock at the Royal Rumble, after Rock demanded that Faarooq face him having already beaten every other member of The Nation of Domination. Post-match, Steve Austin nailed both Shamrock and The Rock with a stunner!

Next, Jim Cornette cut an in-ring promo, unveiling the NWA North American Championship. Cornettes reasoning was an attempt to bring ‘real wrestling and competition’ back to the WWF. Jeff Jarrett pinned Barry Windham, following an assist from Cornette and his patented tennis racquet, to become the first holder in the WWF of the newly reestablished title! Steve Austin yet again got involved, stunning Jarrett post-match following up on his promise to target anyone and everyone involved in the upcoming Royal Rumble!

The story goes that Cornette wanted the NWA title to be taken seriously, yet Russo and Vince McMahon were keen to take the company in a new direction. Honestly, as much as I love Cornette and his favoured style of wrestling, it was hard to dismiss Russo's argument that a late 90s audience wanted something different and fresh. Yes, it was a shame that the title wasn't given the respect it deserved, and the angle never got a real run, but even if it would have done it's a hard sell to say that it would have benefited the business in any way, either from a financial or creative standpoint.

All of that aside, Cornette was fantastic on commentary, hilariously claiming that the lineage of the title could be traced back to Abraham Lincon in the 1800s! Any excuse to get Jim Cornette on screen and talking in any way, was always a plus for me!

Second Hour/WarZone 

The WarZone kicked off with Owen Hart pinning Savio Vega, in what I would describe as a ‘fun TV match’. Owen Hart was probably the second best pure technical wrestler in the WWF at the time (only behind Shawn Michaels) and Savio Vega was a lot better than most people possibly remember. This combination would have worked well as a 10-15 minute PPV segment, but as it stood, it was still fine. Post-match, Los Boricuas manhandled Owen Hart, forcing him to the top of the ramp where D-Generation X berated him!

Match 6

Ahead of his match with Flash Funk. Goldust walked to the ring in FULL blackface, wearing a fake afro with a boombox over his shoulder with jive music playing. Did they not learn this was a bad idea after Piper did it at WrestleMania VI! I do like Dustin Rhodes aka Goldust, and I'm sure this wasn't just his idea, even though Vince Russo (one of the heads of creative during that time period) claims that he had no idea “how Goldust was going to do his makeup week to week”. Not sure if I believe that personally, but in the interest of being impartial, I'll run with it for now. By the way, in case any of my readers are unfamiliar with Flash Funk, he was a black wrestler which only made this segment 10x worse! That being said, I do have to be slightly hypocritical in saying that Jerry Lawler's line of calling Goldust “The Artist formerly known as Shaft!” was gold! ‘The King’ was known for being quick witted on commentary, and usually added some level of comedic value with his lines. Lawler openly mocking the sheer ridiculousness of it all, was the only highpoint in what was in retrospect, a hugely unfunny and out of touch segment.

Goldust would wind up losing via DQ after Luna shoved Flash Funk off the top rope. Vader would come out and hug Flash Funk post-match, in what felt more like a “I'm sorry you have to put up with this kind of bullshit” moment, rather than any kind of on screen angle.

Main-event 

The Headbangers took on The New Age Outlaws in non-title action. At least JR clarified that on commentary, as it was usually anyone's guess if a midcard title match was actually taking place! Anyway, this was dull, but in fairness to the WWF it wasn't ACTUALLY the main-event, it was just the last match (try and figure that one out) The main-event was a segment that I will break down in my summary. The Outlaws eventually won, leading to Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie storming the ring and chasing away the heels! 

Summary 

The first hour wasn't much to write home about, sans the NWA segment (Ironic right) but it still flew by and was a relatively easy watch. The matches were all still 5 minutes or under, but I'd come to accept that from the shotgun style booking of the Attitude Era (especially in its infancy) Nothing truly explosive happened, but it still flowed well and set up the second hour quite nicely, with the tease of hearing from legendary boxing promoter, Don King! 

The Marc Mero/Tom Brandi feud was one that I didn't care about at all, docking the show a few points in the second hour. The final segments were Don King confirming Mike Tyson's involvement at WrestleMania, a Recap from the Hell in a Cell match at In Your House, and a Shawn Michaels in-ring promo. As silly as this may sound, but the recap was actually a great idea. It was essentially a “greatest hits” package, showcasing one of the premier matches from 1997. I presume you couldn't buy the PPV anymore, and I doubt it hurt VHS sales too much (yes, that was a real thing in the 90s) so it was a smart move to hype up the upcoming rematch at the PPV! 

Overall, this was an ok episode of Raw and quite difficult to rate. I understand there was never going to be a huge emphasis on actual wrestling, so usually if we got a 6-7 minute light heavyweight match of some description and a proper main-event, that was as good as it would get! On this day however, we got neither. That being said this was classic Vince Russo booking. Pacy with bang bang segments. It was always said that Vince McMahon was good at filtering Russo, and without trying to take too much anyway from him, it's my opinion that Russo's style only worked if the format, timing and production were ALL on point. Which at this time in the WWF at least, it usually was. If they scrapped the highly unfunny blackface bit with Goldust and replaced it with literally ANYTHING else. I could justify an average 2.5 rating. But as it stands, they didn't so I won't.

WCW Nitro 5/1/98 (2.5 Stars)

Segment- The nWo arrive in two separate limos. The commentary team question whether there is “tension” within the nWo 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews J.J. Dillon. Dillon confirms that Sting is in fact still the WCW champion, and apologises for WCW going off air early the week prior. Dillon states that the match ended in “pandemonium”, and that the footage will be released within 24 hours to be unveiled on WCW's latest show, WCW Thunder. *WCW Thunder was set to air on TNT's ‘sister station’ TBS*

Segment- Chris Jericho in-ring promo. Jericho apologises for flipping out last week on Nitro, and says that it will NEVER happen again.

United States Championship 

Match 1- (c) DDP def Chris Jericho 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews WCW Executive Vice President, Nick Lambros. Lambros reads a statement, claiming that due to the “near riot” that occured last week, combined with the interference at Starrcade, from this point forward, any “violation in policy” from contracted WCW wrestlers, will result in a fine, suspension or possibly both. Lambros clarifies this includes the nWo! 

Match 2- Goldberg def Stevie Ray (13-0)

Match 3- John Nord def The Barbarian 

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Eric Bischoff. Bischoff says that there are no problems within the nWo, before blaming J.J. Dillon for the problems in WCW crediting him with mismanagement, citing they are intentionally hiding and delaying the release of the footage from Starrcade as well as last week's brawl. Finally, Bischoff says he had Larry Zybysko beat at Starrcade but the “system” is against him and the nWo! 

Match 4- Juventud Guerrera def Psychosis (Number One Contenders Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship)

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Booker T. Booker T dedicates his TV Title victory to his son Brandon, before also thanking the fans.

TV Title 

Match 5- (c) Booker T def Prince Iaukea 

Match 6- The Steiner Brothers & Ray Traylor def Marcus Bagwell, Scott Norton & Konnan (6-Man Tag Match)

Match 7- Rick Martel def Brad Armstrong

Match 8- Saturn & Scotty Riggs def Chris Beniot & Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Ric Flair. Flair questions how Bret Hart can claim he's the best, when Ric Flair is still around. Bret Hart confronts Ric Flair in-ring. Bret says he's the “best there is, was and ever will be” Flair says in his heart he knows that Bret Hart is a distinct number two, and if Bret truly believes that he is the best, he wants him to say it to his face! Bret tells Flair if he has a problem with him to “do something about it!”

Segment- J.J. Dillon in-ring promo. Dillon suspends Nick Patrick as a WCW official, with Randy Anderson replacing him for the main-event. 

Match 9- Lex Luger def Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage

Analysis

The show kicked off with the nWo arriving in two separate limos, teasing dissension within the faction. Surely they wouldn't run an angle involving a split within the nWo, because that would be ludicrous and would never work! Anyway, Tony Schiavone says that due to a “court injunction”, WCW are prohibited from showing the finish to Sting/Hogan from the last Nitro of ‘97. They do add that Sting is still the champion, so that was good of them at least. A quick interview from J.J. Dillon states that the footage will be released within 24 hours and shown on a brand new WCW show entitled Thunder. How convenient! It's like they weren't even trying to disguise it as a ratings tactic at this point, and coupled with the BS about attorneys, injunctions etc, this part of the Sting/Hogan angle at least, was already a mess!

Matches 1 & 2

Time to cheer up anyway, as Chris Jericho made his way to the ring to cut a quick promo ahead of his title match against DDP. Jericho apologised for his outburst last week, before ultimately losing the match against the U.S Champion, Diamond Dallas Page. This was a poorly produced contest that failed to highlight anyone’s true abilities. It went back and forth as the pair exchanged takedowns for a couple of minutes, shaking hands after every turn, until Page finally nailed Jericho with a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere! The finish came across as completely anti-climatic as a result. Jericho flipped out post-match, continuing whatever weird angle that was.

They bring out some legal beagle/executive vice president who speaks about suspensions, fines etc for ANY wrestlers who interfere in the shows, before Goldberg squashes Stevie Ray stretching his record to an impressive 13-0 in televised matches!

To be fair, the first hour wasn't actually that bad. The Eric Bischoff interview was mildly entertaining (I just loved hearing him talk) John Nord looked like a potential diamond in the rough (very green, but bumped well for a man of his size) and we were also treated to a fun number one contenders cruiserweight match between Psychosis and Juventud Guerrera. When would the title match take place I hear you ask? That's right…goddamn WCW Thunder motherfuckers KACHOW! (I guess I kind of have to watch week one now, right)

Yet with all of that being said, it was still a complete pain in the arse to track and review. I can imagine if I wasn't constantly typing, it would have been A LOT less aggravating. Still nonsensical (to a degree) and extremely overbooked at times, but I have to admit a large part of my frustration came from the staggered segments. It would have been better (for me at least) to have a solid 15-20 minutes at the top of the show, explaining everything as it related to the new show Thunder and the nWo, but it was a different time in terms of how people watched TV in general.

According to the bestselling book Nitro, detailing the rise and fall of, well, WCW Nitro.

The way the Nielson rating system worked (the universal method of tracking TV viewership back in the day) relied heavily on people staying tuned in for a set amount of time, as it tracked EVERYTHING in 15 minute intervals. Anything over 8 minutes would still count as a completed interval I.e. 15 minutes. Point being, it was a very complicated and stupid system in the first place, but it added SOME form of logic to the way WCW placed their matches and promos surrounding the ad breaks, and placed a much higher importance on audience retention. Hence Tony Schiavone constantly reminding the audience to “keep those fingers off the dials” Huh, how about that. The erratic booking of both shows all makes sense after all, weird right!

Second Hour 

The second hour kicked off with Mean Gene interviewing the new TV champion, Booker T! 

Booker dedicated the victory to his son Brandon, before beginning his reign as TV champ with a successful title defence against Prince Iaukea. 

This was a short match and pretty one sided, although Booker T did get to hit his new finish as a singles performer, the ‘Harlem Hangover’ which was essentially a rolling senton leg drop from the top rope. As much as I love Booker T, this move didn't look great in my opinion, as it lacked any real impact or venom.

Match 8

Former WWF Superstar Rick Martel (really, that's who they were hyping up in hour one!) made his WCW debut as he defeated Brad Armstrong. I'm not going to claim to know an awful lot about this man, outside of the fact I've heard his name through various wrestling convention appearances, yet it was still my understanding that he was never a HUGE star anywhere. That's not a knock on his talent or anything, because during his WWF stint, he was competing with the likes of Hogan, Savage, Warrior and Flair. Maybe WCW saw something that Vince McMahon didn't, and would decide to push him to the moon. Yet the question remains, was he signed simply for being a former WWF guy? 

Anyway, this match was ok. Rick Martel looked fine (again, it was the first time I've ever seen the guy, shoot me!) and I've already spoken about how underrated Brad Armstrong was in the ring.

If they gave these two 10-12 minutes they probably would have burned the house down, but a debuting WWF Superstar who was essentially a midcarder from the late 80's to mid 90"s, taking on Brad Armstrong with no angle, was never going to make any headlines unfortunately. Rick Martel eventually picked up the win from a ‘Quebec Crab’ aka a Boston Crab. After some limited research, apparently he managed to get that move over as a legitimate finish during his WWF run, so well done for that I guess.

Main-event 

The main-event was billed as WCW vs nWo by none other than the legend himself Michael Buffer, as Randy Savage took on Lex Luger.

Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell were ringside to employ the typical nWo shenanigans. Seeing as they were C-tier nWo members (no offense) it actually gave away the finish, as surely Lex wouldn't have let these guys fuck up his night.

When Luger and Savage faced each other during Nitro's inception, the matches were usually must-see television! They even had what was billed as a “trilogy” at one point, and unless I'm misremembering things, I highly enjoyed most of it and even complained that it was given away on free TV. I'm not sure if it's just fatigue or if the performance levels of one, or both men had actually dropped by this point, but it just wasn't the same. Luger won via roll-up and this match, quite honestly, felt stale.

Post-match, Savage lays out Bischoff who was trying to restrain him, leading to Kevin Nash clocking him from behind! Hogan tries to get the nWo to regroup, reminding Savage who “the enemy” is brother. As much as I wasnt a fan of this angle, it was still a fun little twist at the end of the show and I hate to say this…but yes. I AM INTRIGUED to see how it plays out next week. I'll probably even watch the first edition of WCW Thunder at this point, but without a dedicated review and tune out if it becomes unnecessary or boring.

Summary 

First things first. I understand that you NEED to sell Thunder, but Nitro was still the premier show and there was no reason not to show the footage. The only thing that holding it back actually achieved, was adding unnecessary convolution for no good reason. It would have made more sense (still not a lot, but slightly more) if they actively PROMOTED the fact that the finish would have been shown week one of ‘98, giving fans a surefire reason to tune in post Starrcade. And don't even get me started on WCW Thunder, as even Kevin Nash has publicly stated numerous times it was a bad idea that nearly killed WCW. AND HE WAS THE GUY BOOKING THE GODDAMN SHOW!

Anyway, back to Nitro. Plenty of wrestling (surprisingly), it was just a shame that 80 percent of it was rushed or sub par. Bad is too strong of a word, because the matches themselves weren't. They were just uninteresting and rushed for the most part. The Bret Hart/Ric Flair promo was weird out of context, but in all fairness watching them argue back and forth about who the GOAT was, may have been entertaining back in ‘98. I say that with full sincerity by the way, because I have NO IDEA how they would have been perceived back then.

The main-event started with J.J. Dillon replacing the ref, as Nick Patrick was suspended pending investigation, and instead opted for Randy Anderson. Such drama! I already called this match stale and upon reflection, that’s the perfect idiom for it. This was the FIRST NITRO OF 1998! Do something big. Hell, instead of doing it last week (Dec 29th) save the Starrcade rematch between Hogan and Sting for this show and book it the exact same way if you have to, and boom. Want to see the fall out? Tune into WCW Thunder suckas. I mean come on, it writes itself!

Look, as bad as the main-event was, the nWo drama at the end actually saved this show entirely and that's something I NEVER THOUGHT I'd say! But if we're being honest with ourselves, this entire show was basically an advert for WCW Thunder.

Not to say that's a bad thing either, because the idea of any wrestling TV back then, was to sell you something! Be it a PPV, an angle or a reason to keep tuning in. And as much I hate to admit it, this Nitro SOLD ME, HOOK LINE AND SINKER…to watch the debut episode of WCW Thunder! Ugh…

It is for that reason and that reason alone, that Nitro takes the point this week. That's not to say that Thunder wasn't a terrible idea in the long run, because it's been historically proven that it was. But from this show ALONE. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a little bit curious as to what would happen on Thursday nights. Even if it was only one Thursday night (January 8th, 1998 to be exact)