What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - November 24, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-Jim Ross and Jim Cornette are in the booth and they are live from Fayetteville, North Carolina.

-Harvey Wippleman comes out, billed as “Handsome” Harvey, to Rick Rude’s theme music as Ross and Cornette make jabs at Rude.  Wippleman welcomes out D-Generation X, but WWF Champion Shawn Michaels pushes him down, says he’s not hard to replace, and runs him out of the ring.  Michaels feigns like he cares about what happened at Montreal and says he and Bret are going to patch up their differences later tonight.  You know, if you ran this together with when Bret actually returned to the company it would make perfect sense.

-Opening WWF Tag Team Championship Contest:  “Road Dogg” Jesse James & “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn defeat The Legion of Doom (Champions) to win the titles when Gunn pins Animal with a victory roll at 6:23 shown:

James and Gunn come out with LOD shoulder pads and mock their age, which creates a brawl on the ramp before the match.  Since James and Gunn are finally facing the only team in the division with any heat, the crowd is buzzing for this encounter.  James and Gunn do a great job keeping Hawk in peril, working a false tag spot and a spot where Gunn keeps Animal off the apron so Hawk cannot tag out.  The referee gets bumped on an Animal shoulder block and doesn’t see the James smack Animal in the back with a chair when Gunn is set up for a Doomsday Device.  James and Gunn score the upset when a second referee counts the fall.  It’s really strange to see that finish work in the heel’s favor.  The crowd is in shock over the result as the Legion of Doom’s last tag title reign in a major promotion comes to an end.  The new champions quickly run to a car in the parking lot and speed away, although they almost smash into a limo pulling into the arena while doing so.  Rating:  **

-In a Karate Fighters Holiday Tournament semi-final, Sunny beats Shrimp Scampy, who is fawning over her instead of focused on his Karate Fighter.

-The white limo that Jesse James & Billy Gunn nearly T-boned earlier is shown.  Is Bret Hart inside?

-Goldust comes out in a wheelchair, pushed by a nurse.  Michael Cole interviews him and Goldust claims that he is now a quadriplegic.  Goldust has this role down pat, as he has Cole cross his legs and put a blanket over him and then thanks the fans for their support.  Vader comes out and threatens to make Goldust a permanent part of the wheelchair, but when he goes after him, the nurse, who reveals herself as Luna Vachon, sprays alcohol in Vader’s eye and Goldust gets out of the wheelchair and attacks him.  This was great stuff.

-A video package recaps the Triple H-Commissioner Slaughter feud.

-Cole interviews Slaughter, who receives more boos than cheers.  Slaughter puts his Sergeant Slaughter hat on and turns into the Sergeant character.  Slaughter announces that his match against Triple H will be a boot camp match, which he says we can consult the Iron Sheik about if we don’t know what it is, but that conjures up bad mental images.  A completely over the top promo, but it’s so campy that it’s entertaining and it made me want to see the match, regardless of how bad it’s probably going to be.

-Light Heavyweight Championship Tournament First Round Match:  “Too Sexy” Brian Christopher (w/Jerry Lawler) defeats Flash Flanagan with a Tennessee Jam at 3:32:

Flanagan gets the jobber entrance and when he hits a somersault plancha we don’t get to see it until a replay.  See, that’s the problem with this tournament.  Aside from Taka Michinoku and Brian Christopher we haven’t seen these guys, so why should we take them seriously?  Christopher busts out a sunset flip-style powerbomb from the ring to the arena floor and from that point on he squashes Flanagan, so there’s not really a point in rating this.

-Call 1-900-737-4WWF to find out why Vince McMahon isn’t on commentary and what pending legal litigation he is dealing with.

-A new video entrance and song plays us into the second hour of the show.  Jerry Lawler also replaces Cornette in the booth.

-D-Generation X comes out and Triple H says that he isn’t scared of Sergeant Slaughter.  Instead of having a meeting between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, as promised at the top of the hour, DX brings out a Bret Hart midget and humiliates it.  Now, you can take this segment seriously and rant about how bad it was.  However, I just take it in stride with DX’s juvenile gimmick and found it funny.  After all, if you thought Bret was showing up on this show I’ve got a bridge to sell you in my hometown.

-Jim Neidhart comes out and threatens DX, but Michaels holds him off by massaging his ego and how he was the best part of the Hart Foundation.  Michaels offers him a spot in DX, an offer that expires at the end of the show.

-Footage of Steve Austin having supper with a fan who won the Survivor Series Super Supper Sweepstakes is shown.

-A video package hypes Butterbean, who will face Marc Mero in a four round “tough man” match at In Your House.

-Ken Shamrock beats Savio Vega via submission to the ankle lock at 5:18:

Savio, the winner of the “gang wars” feud, never got much of a boost out of it as the Los Boricuas stable never caught on and sunk his WWF career.  Savio controls most of the match, which is enough to put you to sleep, but Shamrock eventually snaps and wins.  Ross says that this shows Shamrock is getting more dominant, but if you are struggling against Savio Vega at this stage of his career then I don’t see how you can say that about yourself.  Rating:  ½*

-Steve Austin shows up in his Austin 3:16 pickup truck.

-Cole interviews the Nation of Domination and at this point based on the booking and scheduling of interview time it is clear that the Rock is the focal point of the group.  This is an important interview because it is where the Rock found his character.  He starts referring to himself in the third person, refers to himself as “The Rock” consistently, and calls himself the “People’s champion.”  As the Rock cuts his promo, lights cut on and off and “Rocky sucks” appears on the Titantron to help the fans chant along.  Steve Austin appears on the Titantron and is playing with stuff in the production truck and warns the Rock that when “3:16” appeared on his beeper (remember those?) that he’s in trouble, but see, it is actually a taped segment.  Austin appears through the crowd and in a nice touch, the Rock checks his beeper and gets big eyes, and Austin attacks him and clears the ring with a chair to end a great segment.  The heat for this feud is nuclear and Vince had to be smiling ear to ear.

-Jeff Jarrett is backstage complaining about his locker room, water, and food.  He also complains about his opponent, Chainz (it’s actually Crush), and says he is not wrestling until Vince McMahon lives up to his contractual obligations.  Crush wins the match by forfeit, but Kane comes out and destroys him in short order.  This was Crush’s WWF swan song.  Gerald Brisco accidentally bumps into Kane and gets chokeslammed too.

-Non-Title Match:  “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels (WWF & European Champion w/D-Generation X) beats Vader with two Sweet Chin Music’s at 2:38 shown:

Vader is wrestling with one eye because of the alcohol attack earlier in the show. Before the match, Michaels announces Jim Neidhart as the newest member of DX.  After the commercial break, we join this in progress and Vader manhandles Michaels, even when DX interferes behind the referee’s back.  Vader goes for a Vader Bomb, but Triple H throws hot coffee into Vader’s good eye and Michaels wins this one in short order.  I won’t say that this made Vader look weak by any means, but I hate short matches like this when it comes to using your top talent.  It does show you how good DX were at the heel role in that I hated their actions in this match over fifteen years later.

-After the match, Neidhart poses with Michaels and Triple H, but Chyna gives him a low blow and a beat down results.

The Final Report Card:  Despite the limited match lineup, the show did a great job getting over the major players and the Austin-Rock segment was the highlight of the show.  A very entertaining two hours of television, although I will readily concede that part of that entertainment was at Rick Rude and Bret Hart’s expense.

Monday Night War Rating:  3.0 (vs. 3.9 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up