Raw/Nitro October '97 (Week 3)

Raw/Nitro October 20th

Monday Night Raw 20/10/97 (2 Stars)

Match 1- Rocky Maivia & Kama Mustafa def Ken Shamrock & Ahmed Johnson

Segment- Michael Cole reports from backstage, showing that The Nation of Dominations locker room has been vandalised with racial slurs!

Segment- Faarooq in-ring promo. Faarooq blames The Hart Foundation for the damage to his locker room, and calls out Bret Hart and the rest of The Hart Foundation as a result. The Hart Foundation all responded, as they walked to the ring in unison ahead of Bret's match with Faarooq.

Match 2- Bret Hart def Faarooq

Segment- Jeff Jarrett in-ring promo. Jarrett says he refused Bischoff's offer, as he believes that he did everything in his power to "bury him". Jeff also claims that Vince McMahon tried to bury him, before saying from now on things are going to be different or else he will walk out again! Jarrett closes with calling out some of the company's top stars such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.

Match 3- Marc Mero def Brian Christopher

Segment- Owen Hart in-ring promo. Owen challenges Shawn Michaels to a "title vs title" match.

European & Intercontinental Championships

Match 4- (c) Shawn Michaels Vs Owen Hart (c) ends in a no-contest

Segment- The Undertaker backstage promo. Undertaker cuts a promo on Kane, while vowing he will never fight him as he is "his own flesh and blood".

Segment- Kane lays out Dude Love before his scheduled match with The British Bulldog.

Segment- Jesse James introduces himself as 'Road Dogg Jesse James' as well as his tag team partner, a repackaged 'Bad Ass Billy Gunn' formerly known as Rockabilly.

Match 5- 'Bad Ass' Billy Gunn & Road Dogg def The Headbangers

Match 6- Taka Michinoku def Tajiri

Segment- Jim Cornette pre-recorded 'shoot promo'. Cornette cuts another promo on Phil Mushnick, urging fans to write in and express their displeasure towards Mushnick's comments criticising Pro-Wrestling and its fans.

Segment- The Godwinns & The Truth Commission jump The Disciples of Apocalypse ahead of a scheduled tag team match.

Analysis

Matches 1 & 2

Tag action opened Raw, as Rocky Maivia & Kama pinned Ken Shamrock & Ahmed Johnson. Post-match, Ahmed Johnson gets beaten up by The Nation leading to L.O.D trying to make the save. Officials intervened before The Godwinns got hardcore, attacking L.O.D with steel trash cans! This match was pretty dull, with DX even sitting on top of the ramp holding up HILARIOUS signs such as 'I'd rather be in Chyna' and 'Who booked this shit'...

Following a brief cut to backstage, where we learnt that The Nation's locker room had been trashed, the second match was underway as Bret Hart took on Faarooq one on one. The Hart Foundation and The Nation brawled at ringside, as Bret chased Shawn Micheals away who was shit talking him on commentary, before the match continued. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin interfered, nailing Faarooq with a Stunner, allowing Bret Hart to capitalise and pick up the victory…

What I will say is that it was a clever segway between the first two matches. In all fairness, the transition was pretty seamless, as members of the Nation wrestled in match one (with DX getting involved) The Nation then got their locker room trashed in the following segment, and then wrestled again before it was heavily hinted that it was in fact DX who was behind all of the drama in the first place. A LOT went on in the first 25 minutes or so, the only problem was that the actual matches weren't very good and I still didn't really care too much about The Nation of Domination. Although the chaos of it all managed to hold my attention, so that's something at least…

Second Hour/WarZone

Hour two started with a bang, as Owen Hart called out Shawn Michaels, daring him to defend his European Championship against his I-C Title, in a winner takes all match. Austin rather predictably got involved, drilling the ref with a Stunner. This led to Bret Hart rushing down as well as interference from HHH, Rick Rude and Chyna. The non-finish was rather predictable, and probably why it wasn't the main-event. I still believe if booked differently and advertised ahead of time, that a winner takes all match between Owen and Shawn would have done great numbers for Raw!

Match 5

The New Age Outlaws made their debut. Quick victory as a repackaged 'Bad Ass' Billy Gunn nailed Thrasher with a boombox behind the ref's back. The New Age Outlaws would become an entertaining tag team, but sadly, this short match against The Headbangers wasn't the best example of that.

Main-event

A cold and rushed segment ended the show as D.O.A were set to take on The Godwinns, only to be jumped by The Truth Commission. It is no exaggeration when I say this has to be one of, if not the single MOST DISAPPOINTING ENDING TO RAW IN THE SHOWS HISTORY! Mankind cuts a 30 second promo from the boiler room before the show goes off air, saying he wants to fight Kane. Even if Mankind simply challenged Kane properly during an in-ring promo, it would have been infinitely better than what was actually served up.

Summary

Lacklustre Raw. I can see what they were trying to do, but the show had very little structure. That can be fine if you have elements of star power and excitement to back it up, but this episode didn't. The finish hurt the show in a major way, and I was legitimately shocked that Vince McMahon deemed it good enough to air in the first place!

WCW Nitro 20/10/97 (3 Stars)

Segment- Backstage shot of various nWo members laid out next to a Roddy Piper T-Shirt, a broken bat handle and DDP's initials spray-painted on the ground.

Segment- The nWo In-ring promo. Eric Bischoff calls out Sting, Piper and DDP accusing them of the attack. Hollywood Hogan calls out Piper and Randy Savage calls out DDP. Hogan adds, once they are dealt with, he will "beat Sting to death with his own damn bat!"

Match 1- Eddie Guerrero def Chris Beniot

Match 2- Goldberg def Wrath (7-0)

Match 3- Steve 'Mongo' McMichael def Mortis

Segment- Mean Gene interviews Steve 'Mongo' McMichael. Gene asks Mongo if he knows who his "mystery opponent" will be at Halloween Havoc. Miss Debra interjects, offering a clue by adding its "NOT Jeff Jarrett" and telling him he will have to wait, as she has a big surprise for him!

Segment- Raven pre-recorded promo. Raven is in a playground talking about how every memory he has "hurts".

Match 4- Yuji Nagata def Juventud Guerrera

Segment- The Giant in-ring promo. The Giant calls out Kevin Nash, saying he's hamming up his knee injury. The Giant then beats up Damian and The Villanos, who were already in the ring for a scheduled match…

(TV Title)

Match 6- Rey Mysterio def Disco Inferno (c) via DQ

Segment- The nWo in-ring promo. Bischoff says no one leaves until they get their hands on the Sting, DDP and Roddy Piper. Hogan and Savage back him up.

(United States Championship)

Match 7- (c) Curt Hennig def Dean Malenko

Match 8- Scott Norton def Ray Traylor

Match 9- Lex Luger def Booker T

Segment- Lex Luger in-ring promo. Luger puts over Booker T before cutting a promo on Scott Hall ahead of their match at Halloween Havoc. The special guest referee for the match, Larry Zbyszko, joins Lex Luger in the ring, and says he will call the match fairly.

Segment- Scott Hall cuts a promo on Lex Luger and Larry Zbyszko. Hall says if Zbyszko doesn't call the match fairly, there will be big problems!

Match 10- Scott Hall def Scott Stiener

Segment- 'Hollywood' Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Randy Savage call out Roddy Piper, DDP and Sting one last time. Two men dressed as Sting appear, revealing themselves as DDP and Piper. Multiple nWo members run to the ring before a cage lowers, leaving Piper and DDP trapped to the assault. Sting ziplined into the closed cage, chasing off The nWo.

Analysis

Opening segment

A hot opening as various members of The nWo were shown laid out backstage, prompting Bischoff, Hogan and Savage to call out the alleged culprits. I know I've criticised this 100 mile a minute format before, but if you're going to do it, fully commit and make it interesting. This segment achieved that on both counts. Good start by WCW.

Matches 1 & 2

Really good opener (as you'd expect with Eddie Guerrero facing Chris Beniot) Rather short but to be fair, most Nitro TV matches were anyway. As good of a wrestling match that any two men could have put on in under 8 minutes. Eddie goes over after nailing a frog splash for the 3 count.

Goldberg squashes Wrath. I am now going to count ALL televised wins towards Goldberg's record (thanks to cagematch.com) Goldberg now stood at an impressive 7-0! Post-match, he squared off with Steve 'Mongo' McMichael…

Match 4

After Yuji Nagata makes light work of Juventud Guerrera, Ultimo Dragon runs out to confront him before their match at Halloween Havoc, but gets his head kicked off by Nagata.

Match 5

Disco Inferno puts his TV Title on the line against Rey Mysterio. The match never gets going as Eddie runs out in the first few minutes, causing the DQ and attacking Mysterio. Jacqueline also gets involved, as she continues to demand a match with Disco Inferno tackling him to the floor! It's my opinion that Jacquiline was WCWs answer to Chyna. I.E a woman who could "challenge" the men.

Second Hour

Bischoff, Hogan and Savage opened number hour two as they yet again called out Piper, Sting and DDP. I liked where they were going with this, and seeing The nWo on the back foot was a different change of pace.

The two matches that followed were on opposite ends of the spectrum, as Dean Malenko eked out a semi decent match from Curt Hennig, who's in ring prowess seemed to be slowly waning by this point, and Ray Traylor lost to Scott Norton in an absolute bore fest. I didn't care about this so-called 'feud' whatsoever. Post-match, various nWo members ran to the ring to attack Ray Traylor.

Main-event

It was the battle of the Scott's, as Scott Hall faced Scott Stiener in the main event. The pace was a bit slow for my liking, but Hall was never the quickest wrestler anyway and Steiner was and always will be a genetic freak! A masked referee ran down to count the three following a ref bump, to give Scott Hall the win. Why he was masked nobody knows, but I'd hazard a guess that it didn't bear a great amount of relevancy anyway…

The closing segment saw Hogan, Bischoff and Savage join forces once again for an in-ring promo. A multitude of fake Stings appeared for the second week running, with two of them revealing themselves as DDP and Randy Savage. The rest of the nWo run out, in order to overwhelm DDP and Savage, before the cage was lowered, leaving them trapped. The real Sting shot down from the rafters and into the cage, cleaning house before Nitro went off air…

Again, in fairness to WCW, this was a creative ending if not somewhat of a trope with all of the Sting stuff. Call it what you want, but it was certainly entertaining!

Summary

A really fun episode of Nitro that set up Halloween Havoc quite nicely. The flow was good, and we even saw one or two decent matches. Point Nitro!