Raw/Nitro November '97 (Week 3)

Monday Night Raw 17/11/97 (2 Stars)

Segment- ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin in-ring promo. Austin calls out Rocky Maivia. Maivia walks out to confront him, but orders Faarooq, Kama and D-Lo Brown to deal with Austin, before walking away. The Nation of Domination surrounds the ring, but as Austin fights them away, Rocky runs down and steals Austin's Intercontinental Championship.

Match 1- Jerry Lawler def Marc Mero via DQ

Segment- Vince McMahon sit-down interview with Jim Ross. McMahon says that “Bret screwed Bret” and speaks about the time honoured tradition of dropping the title before you leave a company. McMahon says that he helped Bret Hart “orchestrate the richest deal in the history of pro-wrestling” with his 3 year, 9 million dollar contract to join WCW. Vince also added that he allowed Bret Hart to strike him, before saying he isn't pursuing any legal action. Vince said that he wanted Bret to shake Shawn's hand, and leave with his head held high as a competitor. Vince finished by saying he has “no sympathy” for Bret Hart.

Match 2- Road Dogg & Billy Gunn def Los Boricuas via DQ

Match 3- Max Mini, Nova & Taurus Vs El Torito, Battalion & Tarantula ends via no-contest (6-Man Tag Team Match)

Segment- D-Generation X in-ring promo.

Shawn Michaels brags about “running Bret Hart” out of the company, before Triple H calls out Sgt. Slaughter. Triple H berates Slaughter, before he, Shawn and Rick Rude all assault him.

Match 4- Scott Taylor def Eric Shelley (Light Heavyweight Tournament)

Segment- Marc Mero in-ring promo. Marc Mero accuses Butterbean of stalking his girlfriend Sable. Mero challenges Butterbean to face him in the ring. Butterbean shoves Mero and the two are kept apart.

Segment- Vince McMahon sit-down interview with JR part two. Vince says that Bret would have to apologise before returning, emphasising again that he gave Bret a “free shot” for the first and last time. Vince says that Bret “sold out” but he doesn't blame him for doing so. Vince says he regrets the way it happened, but he still believes he made the right choice. Vince closes by saying that Bret Hart IS NOT “The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be” as he lost that chance by the way he acted following his final WWF match.

Segment- Goldust says he can't compete in his scheduled match against Vader due to a broken arm, before attacking Vader with a hammer.

Segment- WWF commissioner Sgt Slaughter in-ring promo. Slaughter says that he always tries to do his job fairly, but that D-Generation X crossed the line. Slaughter booked a match between himself and Triple H at the upcoming PPV, as a result of the assault earlier that night.

Match 5- Dude Love def Rocky Maivia via DQ

Analysis

Opening Segment

Short and to the point opening segment, nicely building heat between Austin and Maivia. I much prefer this, over the 15 minute verbal promos WCW sometimes opted to do…

Match 1

Marc Mero with Sable (or Sable with Marc Mero, as J.R pointed out) in the opener, as Jerry Lawler defeated Mero via DQ, following interference from Sable. Lawler was entertaining during parts, as he begged Mero to strike him and even took a brief timeout to speak to his “son” Brian Christopher, who was at ringside. But by the end, I still wasn't interested in any feud between Mero and Lawler so I didn't care for this match at all. It was slow for the most part, and almost a call back to a 1995 era Raw match. Marc Mero yelled at Sable as the pair left.

Segment

Vince McMahon sit-down interview with JR on the Montreal Screwjob. Vince tried to babyface himself but came out of it looking like the biggest heel in the biz. Interesting segment to watch now knowing the full context of it all. Some points of interest are how Vince essentially ‘re-booked’ the screwjob, saying he would have liked Bret to show respect to Shawn and the company that “made him”, and shake Shawn's hand, allowing Bret to leave with his head held high. This was an insane proposition, even for fantasy booking, as the entire reason Bret freaked out in the first place was due to how much he disliked Shawn, and had little respect for him as a human being. Vince came across as extremely self serving, completely disregarding why Bret was upset in the first place. Whether that was intentional or not, we will never know, but regardless, on this day. Vince McMahon was reborn, as one of the top heels in ALL of professional wrestling!

Match 3

Kane rather hilariously ran down during a “mini’s matchup”, leading the in-ring competitors to all hide behind the announcers table. The Headbangers attempt the save, and smash a boom box over Kane's head, but Kane no sold it, and annihilated the pair of them. A little bit silly for what they were trying to achieve with the Kane character, but it was still effective I guess.

WarZone/Second Hour

The second hour opens with a D-Generation X in-ring promo. HHH calls out Sgt Slaughter, before Shawn Michaels, Rick Rude and HHH all assault him. A fine segment, showcasing D-Generation X as full fledged heels.

Match 4

Light Heavyweight action as Scott Taylor pinned Eric Shelley in what was overall, a fun match up. We had no idea who these guys were and Jim Cornette had to remind us on commentary that amongst all the gaga of Jeff Jarrett calling in live and God knows whatever else was going on, that this was in fact, a good wrestling match that actually had consequences (gasp) being a tournament matchup. We'll see what the WWF decided to do with these guys going forward, but my guess is sadly, not much.

Main-event

Dude Love took on Rocky Maivia in the main-event. What could have been a highly entertaining matchup, was a sub 5 minute match that ended via DQ following a Nation of Domination run-in! Austin strikes back to get his revenge as Rocky Maivia escapes the ring with Austin's title and Raw goes off the air!

Summary

Outside of the J.R/Vince interview, nothing else of note happened AT ALL during the first hour. The LHW match in hour two was a palate cleanser and a fun match all in all, but sadly the story of the night yet again was the multiple non-finishes, shoddy booking and lacklustre work rate. A slight improvement on last week's edition due to the VKM stuff and the decent light heavyweight bout, but overall still really disappointing. What I will say is that Austin/Maivia had been well built, and I was more intrigued to see Michaels/Shamrock than I was going into the episode. So on that front they did a good job, but the episode was just really poorly booked in my opinion. Let's see how Nitro fares.

WCW Nitro 17/11/97 (2.5 Stars)

Segment- nWo in-ring promo. Scott Hall calls out Larry Zybysko. Kevin Nash says he and Scott Hall are the true tag team champions, taking a shot at the real champions The Steiner Brothers. Rick Rude walks down with Hollywood ‘Hogan’, debuting for WCW after appearing on air for the WWF the very same night! Rick Rude cuts a promo on Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels and The WWF. Rick Rude says Bret Hart has made the right choice in joining WCW. ‘Hollywood’ Hogan closes by taunting Sting.

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Ray Traylor. Traylor says he left the nWo because he didn't like “the man he had become”. Traylor is jumped from behind by various nWo members.

Match 1- Meng def Glacier

Match 2- Alex Wright def Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael via DQ

Match 3- Rey Mysterio def Chris Jericho

Segment- Eric Bischoff antagonises the announcers, luring Larry Zbyszko away from his commentary position, allowing him to be attacked by various nWo members.

Match 4- DDP def Villano IV

Cruiserweight Championship

Match 5- (c) Eddie Guerrero Vs Dean Malenko ends via Double Count-Out

TV Title

Match 6- (c) Perry Saturn def Scotty Riggs

Segment- The Steiner Brothers are attacked by the nWo ahead of their scheduled tag team match.

United States Championship

Match 7- Lex Luger def Curt Hennig (c) via DQ

Match 8- The Giant def Scott Hall via DQ

Analysis

Opening Segment

Rick Rude made his WCW debut in the first segment in a truly shocking moment, as he appeared on an episode of Raw the very same night! This was a pretty good nWo segment all things considered, and I was genuinely shocked to see Rick Rude appear. Jim Cornette mentioned that this was only possible due to Rude not being signed to a permanent deal, instead being paid per every date he worked.

Matches 1 & 2

Meng defeated Glacier in the opener. Post match, The Barbarian attacked Glacier with Meng, until Ernest Miller attempted the save, failing and getting choked out by Meng instead. This match was as good as it sounded, in that it wasn't! I had no desire to see ‘The Cat’ Ernest Miller and Glacier take on The Faces of Fear, but they had to do something with these guys I guess.

Alex Wright defeated Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael via DQ, after Mongo shoved the ref away. Mongo was ok as an on-screen talent, as well as having a legendary career as a Chicago Bear. Yet I still had little to no desire to see him actually compete in the ring.

Match 3

Rey Mysterio pinned Chris Jericho via roll-up in a fun matchup. Apparently this was the first time the two men had faced each other, but even so, the chemistry between the pair was immediately apparent. This one wasn't too rushed (for Nitro’s standards at least) and the win also gave Mysterio some momentum before his rematch with Eddie Guerrero at WW3.

Second Hour

Hour two began with a swift DDP victory over Villano IV, followed by Eddie Guerrero taking on Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight Title. The match ended when the referee counted both men down for the count of 10, but leading up to that moment, it was a really fun match! I always enjoyed seeing Malenko wrestle the more high flying cruiserweights, as his mat based technical style usually paired very well with them. Also from a booking perspective, the double count-out kept the belt on Eddie AND protected both men, keeping the option for a 3-way with Rey Mysterio alive for later down the line.

Match 5

Perry Saturn defended his TV Title against Scotty Riggs in a surprisingly fun match up. Basic as far as the in-ring stuff goes, but emphasis was placed on Scotty’s injured eye, and it was done very well. Scotty Riggs was wearing an eye patch, but it fell off during the course of the match to reveal a ganky/fucked up looking right eye (presumably it was some sort of special contact lens) Riggs also hit an impressive looking crossbody OVER the guard rail. It was a cool looking spot but ultimately, Perry Saturn retained his title via submission.

Main-event

The Giant took on Scott Hall, with Hall's BFF Kevin Nash on commentary. This wasn't an actual match, as only 4 minutes or so of show time was remaining once the bell actually rang. The match was eventually waved off due to nWo interference, leading to the “entire locker room” pouring out and brawling ahead of the 3 ring Battle Royal set up at WW3….LAZY BOOKING!

Summary

A thumbs up from me this week. We saw Rick Rude's Nitro debut, along with a handful of solid TV matches. I'm very harsh when grading BOTH shows, but the score would have actually been closer to 3 stars, if they provided a proper main event over the cheap and easy multi man brawl! But as it stands, it was still a more than acceptable episode of Nitro, and FAR better than the dross that the WWF produced. Point WCW!