by Logan Scisco
-Vince McMahon, Jim
Ross, and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
-Opening
Contest: Rocky Maivia & Kama Mustafa
(w/Faarooq & D-Lo Brown) defeat Ahmed Johnson & Ken Shamrock (w/The
Legion of Doom) when Maivia pins Shamrock after Faarooq hits Shamrock with Rick
Rude’s briefcase at 6:44:
As the match gets underway, D-Generation X comes out to
sit by the entrance and they showcase signs that read “Spank Me Vince,” “Who
Booked this Crap?,” and “I’d Rather be in Chyna.” One of them is the non-politically correct
“Uncle Tom 3:16”, which I’m surprised they didn’t catch a great deal of heat
for. The crowd is hot for this and
Maivia and Shamrock have a good exchange in a small preview of what is to come
in their 1998 feud. Faarooq spends much
of the match talking with Rick Rude and Kama forgets to nail Shamrock when he
runs the ropes to trigger the initial finishing sequence and all of this
results in a small upset for the Nation.
Rating: *¾
-After the match, Ahmed goes after the Nation
and gets beaten down and the Legion of Doom just casually walk to aid him
before they are intercepted by WWF officials. Then out of nowhere the Godwinns
jump onto the entrance ramp and attack the LOD with garbage cans.
-McMahon says that
tonight a former WCW champion will be with us tonight.
-Michael Cole is in
the locker room and shows us the Nation of Domination’s locker room, which has
been painted with anti-black graffiti. A
Canadian flag is left behind, along with a “Canada rules,” which is meant to
implicate the Hart Foundation. THIS did
get the company in hot water with civil rights groups if I remember correctly.
-The Nation come
out and get in McMahon’s face about the graffiti in their locker room and
allege that he is a racist and is running a racist company. Faarooq gives his pro-black message and
demands that WWF Champion Bret Hart come and face him immediately, despite
their match being booked for later in the evening.
-Non-Title Match: Bret “the Hitman” Hart (WWF Champion w/The
Hart Foundation) pins Faarooq (w/The Nation of Domination) after Steve Austin
gives Faarooq a Stone Cold Stunner at 5:12 shown:
D-Generation X quickly makes their presence felt and
Shawn Michaels accuses him of being a racist on commentary. Bret goes after Michaels, but he is
restrained by the Nation and that leads to a brawl between the Nation and the
Hart Foundation at ringside. Bret works
the leg, but when he goes for the ring post figure-four the Nation attacks
him. In the midst of the chaos, Steve
Austin comes into the ring and attacks Faarooq to a nuclear crowd reaction and
that enables Bret to pick up a cheap win.
The match was butchered by the commercial and extra curriculars and
Austin’s interference adds an extra ½ to it.
Rating: *½
-The 1997 edition
of the Milton Bradley Karate Fighters Holiday Tournament is previewed by Kevin
Kelly and Grandmaster Robbie. Next week
will be the first match of the tournament between Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher.
-Jeff Jarrett comes
out, thereby making his return to the company, and says that since we refused
to resign with WCW, Eric Bischoff tried to bury him. He says that WCW put a lid on his potential
and he criticizes being placed with “an ex-football player’s ex-wife that
defines dumb blonde.” He runs down his
old WWF country music gimmick and McMahon’s handling of his career. He then runs down Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels,
and Steve Austin. This “shoot” promo
might mean more if Jarrett was as valuable to the wrestling business as he
thinks he is. None of this would amount
to much since Jarrett would soon go back to his old country music gimmick and
would be partnered with Debra when she came to the WWF. In fact, it actually hurt Jarrett in 1999 since
Austin refused to work a main event program with him because Jarrett called the
3:16 part of Austin’s gimmick “blasphemous.”
Austin rightly worried that Jarrett’s comments could have led to a
Christian boycott of the WWF and derailed his push.
-Marc Mero
(w/Sable) defeats “Too Sexy” Brian Christopher with a TKO at 4:11:
This match begins the “Mero is jealous of Sable”
storyline, as Lawler puts a Steve Austin hat on Sable during the match and when
Mero sees it he takes it off of her face and throws it into the crowd. Aside from that, this match is okay but no
one cares about it. Mero uses a low blow
to set up the TKO, thereby showing that he is moving away from his babyface
roots. Rating: *½
-The announcers
hype the house show circuit.
-A video package
hypes the title for title match between Shawn Michaels and Owen Hart. It recounts the enziguri incident with Shawn
Michaels and the SummerSlam piledriver on Steve Austin.
-Title for
Title: “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn
Michaels (European Champion) wrestles Owen Hart (Intercontinental Champion) to
a disqualification at 6:20 shown:
Owen challenges Michaels to leave his crew backstage and
Michaels agrees. Michaels gives Owen a
piledriver on the arena floor, which would have meant Owen’s career was over in
Memphis, but he rallies with his belly-to-belly suplex. I hate when big moves like that are done on
the arena floor since by wrestling standards moves on the arena floor are ten
times as devastating as those done in the ring.
This is an interesting match from a crowd reaction perspective because
they don’t necessarily care for Michaels, but they don’t like Owen either. Owen counters Sweet Chin Music with the
enziguri, but Steve Austin comes out from the crowd. The referee makes the mistake of getting in
his way and eats a Stunner and Michaels KO’s Owen with the Sweet Chin Music,
which leads to Bret running out to tear apart Michaels and this is thrown
out. Owen-Michaels is always a great
match, but they just didn’t have the time to take this to another level. Rating: **½
-Call
1-900-737-4WWF to hear another one of Jim Cornette’s rants!
-The Undertaker in
a pre-taped segment says that he has carried the grief of his family for a long
time and argues that Paul Bearer has poisoned Kane’s mind. He promises to never fight Kane.
-The next match is
scheduled to be the British Bulldog against Dude Love, but Kane interrupts
after Love’s entrance. Love clotheslines
Kane over the top rope and hits him with a chair, but Kane barely sells it and
chokeslams Love twice on the entrance ramp.
This lays the foundation for a Kane-Foley match at Survivor Series.
-“The Road Dogg”
Jesse James & “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn defeat The Headbangers when James pins
Thrasher after Gunn hits Thrasher with a boom box at 4:05:
Road Dogg cuts a promo to introduce himself and “Bad Ass”
Billy Gunn. Gunn’s attire is something
like Taka Michinoku would wear, but it at least gets him away from the cowboy
gimmick he has been sporting in some fashion since 1993. If you are looking for some trademark New Age
Outlaws spots you aren’t going to get them in this match since this is one of
the formative outings of the team and they are still working out the
gimmick. The Headbangers look to have
the match in hand, but Gunn smashes Thrasher over the head with a boom box that
explodes on impact, thereby putting some of those Paul E. Dangerously cell
phone shots to shame, and the soon to be named Outlaws pick up a win over
former tag team champions. A really
boring match until the finish and you would think from the ring work that the
Outlaws weren’t going anywhere, but James’ mic work put the team on the
map. Rating: *
-Marc Mero giving
the TKO to a jobber on Shotgun Saturday Night is the Lazer Tag Slam of the
Week.
-Bret Hart’s
appearance on Mad TV is shown.
-Sunny comes out to
be the guest ring announcer for the next match.
-Footage of Taka
Michinoku signing a long-term contract with the WWF is shown. Could they do anything more to telegraph the
fact that this guy was going to be the light heavyweight champion?
-Light Heavyweight
Exhibition: Taka Michinoku beats Tajiri
with a Michinoku Driver at 2:52:
Tajiri gets the jobber entrance. Ross finally gives us a date for the
beginning of the light heavyweight championship tournament, which will kick off
on the November 3rd edition of Monday Night Raw. Tajiri folds Michinoku up like an accordion
on a sit out powerbomb and the two proceed to put most of the light heavyweight
matches done so far to shame. They work
a fast match, which has the predictable finish, but the WWF just didn’t know
what they had with Tajiri at this stage of his career.
-Jim Cornette reads
some fan comments about his rant against Phil Mushnick last week. He urges fans to make their voice heard and
McMahon tells fans to write to TV Guide and voice their displeasure with Phil
Mushnick.
-Footage of the
Godwinns losing the tag team championships to the Legion of Doom last week is
shown, along with their beating of Uncle Cletus.
-The Godwinns are
scheduled to face the Disciples of Apocalypse, but the DOA do a four-on-two
attack on the Godwinns before the Truth Commission comes to the Godwinns aid to
continue their feud.
-Mankind cuts a
promo from the arena boiler room, where he says that he is the master of mayhem
and if the Undertaker will not fight against his own brother then he will.
-Tune in next week
to see Bret Hart defend the WWF title against Ken Shamrock! See, they didn’t have to do Montreal unless
they really wanted to.
The Final Report Card: This episode was a version of crash TV as
tons of different angles fly at the audience from all kinds of different
directions, but it made for a quick and enjoyable show. The matches were brief and not very exciting
outside of the light heavyweight exhibition and Shawn-Owen, but everyone has
something to do and that keeps you invested in the non-main event matches.
Monday Night Raw Rating: 2.9 (vs. 4.6 for Nitro)
Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up
That Mushnik thing is so weird to think about these days, because he was effectively ten years ahead of time with his criticisms. Of course, at the time wrestling fans were all "HEY FUCK THAT GUY CUZ HE HATES WRESTLING!!"
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the entirety of the Light Heavyweight Division is weird- I mean, they telegraphed Taka's win SO BAD, and the best guy they could get to feud with him was Brian Christopher?
Wow, I had no idea Tajiri was ever in WWF before his ECW run. That's wild.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I remember Jarrett's infamous "Austin 3:16 is blasphemy" comment but I'd forgotten how he bashed Debra. That's pretty hilarious in hindsight.
Jerry Lynn was also there and Super Crazy was also in the light heavyweight tournament. Sadly, they didn't take advantage of the talents of any of those guys.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Faarooq got a raw deal. Once they decided they didn't want him exposing the evilness of whitey the gimmick really had no teeth.
ReplyDeleteHe also made a comment about working with a drug addict while in WWF, which I'm assuming was Road Dogg.
ReplyDeleteI always assumed that was Razor. He and Road Dogg were friends and I don't think he'd take a shot at him like that.
ReplyDelete