What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - January 13, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-Vince McMahon and The Honky Tonk Man are in the booth and they are taped from Albany, New York.  This is the go home show for the Royal Rumble.

-Opening Contest:  Hunter Hearst Helmsley & Jerry “the King” Lawler defeat “Wildman” Marc Mero & Goldust (w/Sable & Marlena) by disqualification at 11:21 shown:

To think that this tag match was predicated on the final of a Karate Fighters tournament.  Goldust throws off his entrance attire in the aisle and charges the ring, demonstrating that he means business tonight.  There’s lots of stalling since Lawler is in charge of most of the action for his team and Helmsley flees when Goldust is tagged in.  These factors make the match very disjointed and also make it difficult to build a decent heat segment.  Eventually, Goldust gets his hands on Helmsley after the hot tag, but refuses to release a choke, gets his team disqualified, and decks Mero after they lose.  The story they are trying to tell here is transparent, but the match quality suffered as a result.  Rating:  ½*

-WWF Champion Sid cuts a promo in the vacant Alamo Dome and says that he’s going to destroy Shawn Michaels in front of family in San Antonio this Sunday.

-Shawn Michaels cuts a promo in the midst of some crazy fans in San Antonio and says that Sid’s attack on Pete Lothario last week has released the monster inside of him.  A fat Latino lady keeps grabbing Shawn during the interview and that’s worth a laugh.

-Bret Hart, who is limping around on an injured ankle that Austin Pillmanized on Superstars, comes out to do guest commentary.

-Footage of Marc Mero yelling at Sable on Shotgun Saturday Night and Rocky Maivia coming to her aid is shown.  This was supposed to foreshadow a Mero-Maivia program where Mero would be the heel, but he was injured before that could happen.

-Rocky Maivia defeats The British Bulldog (w/Clarence Mason) by count out at 9:06 shown:

Bret puts over Maivia’s potential on commentary, but the crowd doesn’t buy into him.  They aren’t booing him, but just don’t react to his early offense against the Bulldog.  However, I don’t think it’s a problem with Maivia as much as it is a crowd that is burned out from the taping.  Owen comes out and stands in front of Bret, which seems more of an indictment of Bulldog’s abilities than anything else.  There’s very little action in this match, as the Bulldog uses chinlocks to slow down the action.  Steve Austin comes out when both men go over the top rope, chop blocks the Bulldog, delivers a Stunner, and then flees to the back where Bret and Owen follow him.  This is hardly a great way to put over a young face, but it does sew the seeds for the emergence of the Hart Foundation to torment Austin after WrestleMania XIII.  Rating:  *

-The Nation of Domination says that it has unity and Crush says he’ll dominate the Undertaker tonight using whatever means are necessary.

-Steve Austin’s attack on the British Bulldog earlier in the show is the Starburst Fruit Twists Rewind segment.

-The Undertaker defeats Crush (w/The Nation of Domination) by disqualification at 8:35 shown:

The Undertaker must not be a fan of the PG-13 rap, because he interrupts it and forces the Nation to scatter.  Both guys work up a good pace at the beginning of the match, but can’t sustain it and by the time we head to commercial we’re getting too much of an exchange of punches and kicks.  Crush just doesn’t look comfortable with this gimmick and the only heat he can generate is yelling at the crowd not to call him a Jailbird.  We get our third inconclusive finish of the evening as the Nation runs in before the Undertaker can Tombstone Crush and Vader runs in to do some damage as well.  Ahmed Johnson tries to make the save with a 2x4, but PG-13 jump him and Faarooq seizes control of the 2x4 and wears him out with it.  Rating:  *

The Final Report Card:  This RAW was more about the storylines and it showed with the poor match quality.  Austin’s attack on the Bulldog keeps the Bret-Austin feud going and is going to draw in more actors and was the highlight of the show.  That also sustains a distrust angle between Owen and the Bulldog that is taking place.  However, there just wasn’t a lot to get into on this show as it seemed like the company wanted to fast forward to the Rumble so it could move onto bigger and better things.

Monday Night War Rating:  2.3 (vs. 3.4 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Down