What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - November 10, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-Jim Ross and Jim Cornette are in the booth and they are live from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

-D-Generation X comes out to their traditional theme music for the first time as Ross says Bret Hart has left the company because of Shawn Michaels.  Michaels tells the crowd that he beat Bret in his own country, with his own hold, he’s the WWF champion now, and he “ran him South with the other dinosaurs” and his friends there will beat him up one day.  Nice line.  Michaels says that no superstar in the WWF can make him quit, which brings out Ken Shamrock.  The segment gets awkward since Shamrock can’t translate his physical intensity into a good promo to run down DX and challenge Michaels for the WWF championship.  Commissioner Slaughter eventually comes out and says that Michaels has a scheduled title defense against Shamrock, although he doesn’t specify the date.  Slaughter also books Triple H-Shamrock where DX is banned from ringside and he will be sitting at ringside.  I know what they were trying to spell out here in storyline terms, but this was just brutal to sit through.

-Opening Contest:  Ahmed Johnson defeats Marc Mero (w/Sable) by disqualification when Mero uses a low blow at 2:26:

Ahmed’s spinebuster looks awful these days, since he is trying to be extra careful.  He looks ready to win the match with a Pearl River Plunge, but gets distracted by Sable and Mero finally gets caught using the low blow, which I guess was in the referee’s scouting report.  Mero tries to give Ahmed the TKO after that, but can’t lift him up on his shoulders to do the move.  This loss ends Mero’s undefeated streak since his return.

-In the Karate Fighters Holiday Tournament, Shrimp Scampy, a mini dressed in Mascarti Sagrada, Jr.’s old attire, beats Dok Hendrix.  In other matches of the tournament Jerry Lawler has beaten Brian Christopher and Tito Santana has defeated Carlos Cabrera.

-Sunny comes out to be the guest ring announcer for our next match.

-Light Heavyweight Championship First Round Match:  Taka Michinoku beats Devon Storm with the Michinoku Driver at 5:00:

Brian Christopher commentates another match in this tournament, so I am tempted to put this on mute.  Storm gets the jobber entrance, but anyone that has followed the light heavyweight division since July can tell who’s going over here.  Both men are proficient wrestlers, but they try to get too cute with their spots and as a result the match comes off as too choreographed and artificial.  Christopher tries to prevent Michinoku from winning, but Michinoku uses a springboard dropkick to knock Christopher off the apron and wraps up the match shortly thereafter.  Rating:  **¼

-Jim Ross interviews Goldust, who is laying the foundation for his “Artist Formerly Known as Goldust” gimmick.  He comes out in a gold rope, a flame in his blonde hair, earrings, black face paint, lipstick, and “F U”, which stands for “forever unchained”, painted in gold on his face.  Vader comes out, not happy that Goldust walked on him at Survivor Series last night, and demands answers.  When Goldust doesn’t appear ready to do that, Vader powerbombs him.  Vader is just awesome.  It’s reprehensible that they didn’t find a way to book him against Austin in 1998 because he still had something to offer.

-Michael Cole is backstage and says that Blackjack Windham has been assaulted in his locker room.  Bradshaw freaks out and goes nuts in front of the camera over this development.

-Dok Hendrix hosts the upcoming Madison Square Garden card.  The only problem is that there are going to be some changes.  For example, the main event is billed as a Fatal Four Way match for the WWF title between Shawn Michaels, the Undertaker, Steve Austin, and Bret Hart.  The Legion of Doom are scheduled to defend the tag team titles against Owen Hart & The British Bulldog, Triple H with Chyna is his corner is booked against Vader with George “the Animal” Steele in his corner, and Ahmed Johnson faces Faarooq in a New York City street fight.

-The Headbangers (w/The Disciples of Apocalypse) beats Sniper & Recon (w/Jackal & The Interrogator) when Mosh pins Recon after Thrasher powerbombs Mosh on top of Recon at 4:52:

Surprisingly, this has a clean finish as the Headbangers fend off interference attempts by Jackal and the Interrogator.  Just a standard tag match, which has a big brawl between all of the participants at the very end to continue the DOA-Truth Commission feud.  Rating:  **

-Ross and Cornette hype the house show circuit.

-Since we are in hour two, Cornette is replaced in the booth with Jerry “the King” Lawler.

-Cole interviews Intercontinental Champion Steve Austin, but before he gets too involved in his promo Rocky Maivia comes out and claims that he was the best Intercontinental champion of all-time when he held the belt.  Maivia challenges Austin for the title and Austin accepts, while also challenging him to get a haircut.  Interesting segment since these two had one of the most anticipated WrestleMania matches three and a half years later.

-Ross interviews Steve Blackman, who says he is still learning, and Jose of Los Boricuas interrupts his interview.  The Boricuas try to gang up on Blackman, but he uses his karate skills to fend them off before WWF officials intervene.

-Cole interviews “Road Dogg” Jesse James and “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn, who are set to face the New Blackjacks in a Bunkhouse battle tonight.  They are excited and ready to go.

-Bunkhouse Battle:  “Road Dogg” Jesse James & “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn beat Bradshaw when Gunn pins Bradshaw after a tornado DDT on a chair at 1:40:

Since Windham is injured, Bradshaw goes it alone in this match, which is no disqualification.  It’s actually a precursor to the hardcore battles of 1998 and beyond, with trash cans, tables, and chairs galore.  Bradshaw dominates the action, until Gunn catches him with a tornado DDT to finish.  This was really entertaining.

-Another segment of Jeff Jarrett’s interview with Jim Ross is shown.  Jarrett puts himself over as a unique talent of the Monday Night Wars and says his goal is to win the WWF title.  When asked to do word association on a list of guys he puts over Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mankind, and Randy Savage, but when asked about Triple H he says “tag along.”  How things changed after 1997.

-Cole interviews Butterbean, the IBA Superheavyweight Boxing Champion, in the crowd, but Marc Mero comes out and says he’s a real boxer and should be interviewed.  Mero says Butterbean should keep his eyes off of Sable and says he can knock Butterbean out in four rounds or less before leaving.

-Call 815-734-1161 to get the Steve Austin “jackass” t-shirt.  It will cost you $25 (plus $6 shipping & handling)!

-The Undertaker wrestles Kama Mustafa to a no contest at 2:25:

Remember when this was a top feud in 1995?  This is the Undertaker’s first time in the ring since Badd Blood and that was a great booking decision since it gave an entire month for Kane to get over.  The Undertaker squashes Kama, but before he can finish him off the lights go out and Paul Bearer and Kane come out.  The Undertaker appeals to Kane to make amends and reiterates that he will never fight him, even if Kane destroys the entire WWF.

-Footage of last week’s match between Shawn Michaels and Ken Shamrock is shown.

-Triple H wrestles Ken Shamrock to a no contest at 7:44 shown:

Triple H is not happy about not having D-Generation X with him and jaws with Commissioner Slaughter at ringside.  Both men show off what they can do, but the crowd isn’t into it.  Slaughter prevents Rick Rude and Chyna from getting involved, but can’t prevent Shawn Michaels from running out and blasting Shamrock with Rude’s briefcase after the referee is bumped and the show goes off the air as the referee is counting the fall.  Rating:  **

The Final Report Card:  After a horrid opening segment, this show built up a pretty good pace.  The Undertaker-Kane feud is the best thing that the company has going at this point and it is a wonderful piece of storytelling that will keep unfolding until WrestleMania.  Shamrock has also been adequately built as a threat to Michaels, but as is the case with most champions after they win the title, it is always tough for me to take their first programmed challenger as a threat since they usually beat them.  This RAW scored a pretty good rating, as people tuned in to see the fallout from Montreal, but surprisingly the WWF didn’t really address it outside of Ross saying that he wished Bret Hart well in his future endeavors.  Part of this was probably motivated by the WWF banking on people buying the replay on Tuesday.  What is significant, though, is that this show started a string of RAW’s that were at 3.0 or above in the Nielsen ratings, thereby generating some of the highest ratings that RAW had seen since the spring of 1996.  The tide was turning in the Monday Night Wars, albeit slowly.

Monday Night War Rating:  3.4 (vs. 4.3 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up