by Logan Scisco
-A video package
recaps all the major happenings on last week’s show: Steve Austin and the Rock fighting for the
WWF title and Ken Shamrock joining the Corporation.
-Jim Ross and Jerry
“The King” Lawler are doing commentary and they are taped from Columbus,
Ohio. Ross lets us know that Austin suffered
a blackout in San Jose, California at a WWF event.
-Vince and Shane
McMahon and the stooges come out. Vince
says he had nothing to do with the Undertaker’s attack on Austin at the end of
last week’s show. He says he is naming a
new WWF commissioner in order to please the fans and that this new commissioner
will not answer to him unless it deals with Austin. Vince then goes into 1996 mode in welcoming
out Shawn Michaels as the new commissioner, which gets a mixed reaction. Michaels proceeds to book a WWF title match
between the Rock and X-Pac, which shocks Vince, and Michaels gives the
D-Generation X crotch chop on his way out.
Having Michaels back adds some extra energy to the show, so this was a
good booking decision. 1 for 1
-Kevin Kelly
interviews the Insane Clown Posse and the Oddities. The ICP is facing the Headbangers tonight,
but the ICP says that they are not ready to wrestle, so Kurrgan and Golga need
to take their place. Kurrgan and Golga
accept.
-The Headbangers
defeat Kurrgan & Golga (w/Luna Vachon, Giant Silva & The Insane Clown
Posse) when Mosh pins Golga with a schoolboy at 1:30:
The Headbangers really need to do something different now
in light of their heel turn. They are
sporting the same look and doing the same act.
Golga has also started doing this weird move where he pulls his shirt up
before doing a corner splash, which somehow makes the move more dangerous. You do not have to be a genius to see a heel
turn coming from the ICP here – for the second time in a month – as Violent J
gets knocked off the apron by Golga, which leads to the finish. After the match, they beat down the Oddities
and cut Luna’s hair.
-A video package chronicles
Kane’s recent path of destruction, highlighting how he tried to set the Brood
on fire several weeks ago.
-Steve Blackman
beats The Blue Blazer with a pump kick at 2:57:
The Blazer gets a pop coming out, although the volume of
the commentary makes it tough to decipher if it is genuine or piped in. It is clear early in the match that the
Blazer is not Owen Hart because he does not hit the right octave on Owen’s “woo!” He also botches the enziguri. Blackman wins a messy bout, but when he goes
to unmask the Blazer he gets attacked by Owen Hart. So who is the Blazer?!?!
-Footage is shown
of Austin blacking out at a house show in San Jose, which Ross says was a
byproduct of getting hit in the head with a shovel by the Undertaker on last
week’s show.
-Shawn Michaels and
Vince McMahon are shown exchanging words backstage.
-Gangrel &
Edge (w/Christian) beat Mark Henry & D-Lo Brown when Gangrel pins Henry
after a schoolboy at 7:08:
Low midcard act or not, the Brood still had arguably the
best entrance in the company at the time.
Gangrel and Edge showcase some nice double team moves, including a
double DDT off the second rope, but their timing needs work. Ross makes sure we know that Henry is a “400
pounder who can dunk a basketball.” D-Lo
nearly botches his running powerbomb on Edge, another warning sign that he
needed to eliminate that move from his arsenal.
Everyone tries really hard in this match to get over, incorporating some
fun moves, but Gangrel’s sloppy ring work is exposed relative to the other
three guys. This match gives us our
second distraction finish of the night, as Chyna comes out and distracts Henry. Rating: **½ (2 for 2)
-After the match,
Chyna says she will go on a date with Henry and Henry falls to the canvas in
joy. He gives D-Lo a hug and in a nice
touch, D-Lo screams because of his “chest injury.”
-Steve Austin tells
doctors at the medical facility that he is tired of being there, but they tell
him he has a severe concussion and needs to take a few weeks off. He is given a sedative and is told he can
leave the facility in the morning.
-The Undertaker
nailing Austin with a shovel, with added sound effect, is the JVC Kaboom! of
the Week.
-Shawn Michaels is
shown talking with D-Generation X, carrying on like old times.
-Goldust wrestles “Marvelous”
Marc Mero to a no-contest at 3:57:
Mero no longer has Jacqueline by his side because he
fired her on Sunday Night Heat after she accidentally cost him a match against
the Big Bossman. These two cannot seem
to have a match without women involved as Terri Runnels struts out to the ring
in a skimpy outfit followed by Jacqueline.
Goldust sets Mero up for Shattered Dreams, but gets low blowed by
Jacqueline and Terri comes in and finishes the move on Mero. This is the beginning of Terri and Jacqueline’s
PMS faction, which gave us Meat. Sad to
see two guys of Goldust and Mero’s caliber wasted like this. Rating: ** (2 for 3)
-Steve Austin signs
an autograph for one of the medical attendants and tells Ross that the
Undertaker has hell to pay and is not going to make it to the Buried Alive
match at Rock Bottom.
-The end to the WWF
title match on last week’s RAW is the Glover Rewind segment.
-Triple Threat
Match for the Hardcore Championship:
Mankind (Champion) beats Ken Shamrock & The Big Bossman when Mankind
pins Shamrock after Al Snow clocks Shamrock with Head at 8:26:
This match came from last week’s show when the Bossman
and Shamrock prevented Mankind from getting to Vince McMahon in the main event. This is one of those “conspiracy”-style
matches where it is a de facto handicap match designed to take Mankind’s
Hardcore title. Things look bleak for
Mankind before the JOB Squad comes to his aid and help him pull out the win. These Hardcore matches were more fun than
later incarnations because it was before the genre became really cartoonish
with weapons. Rating: *** (3 for 4)
-After the match,
Mankind tries to go after Vince McMahon on the ramp, but gets attacked by
Shamrock and the Bossman.
-Footage shows a
hearse outside of Austin’s medical facility.
The Undertaker and Paul Bearer then smother Austin with chloroform. The Undertaker tells Austin that he is about
to go on his last ride. After the
commercial break, the Undertaker and Bearer put Austin in the hearse and speed
away. How they got his body through
security I have no idea.
-WWF Light Heavyweight
Championship Match: Dwayne Gill pins
Christian (Champion w/Edge & Gangrel) to win the title after Scorpio hits
Christian when a slingshot splash at 2:26:
The light heavyweight title has not been defended on RAW
in ages. Christian manhandles Gill, but
makes the cardinal sin of continuing to pick his shoulders up off the mat, which
he ends up regretting later when the JOB Squad intervenes. If the light heavyweight title had any
credibility it was gone after this match.
As a side note, Gill would remain champion until briefly returning to
the company to job it to the debuting Essa Rios in February 2000. That match was where Lita immediately drew
all the attention away from Rios by giving Gill a moonsault after the bell.
-Michael Cole
interviews Gill, who enjoys a piped in crowd pop as he says that this victory
is one of the greatest moments of his life.
-The hearse stops
in a deserted field where an empty grave is located. Paul Bearer commands the Undertaker to dig
the grave deeper. Steve Austin stirs
back to life to try attacking Bearer, but the Undertaker puts him in a
chokehold and they reapply the chloroform.
The Undertaker decides that burying Austin alive is too good for him, so
he decides to embalm him instead.
-The next match is
scheduled to be the Godfather-Tiger Ali Singh, who used to have a feud going
that has been forgotten about. Before
the bell, Stephen Regal urges Singh not to take the deal with the hos and they
double team the Godfather before Val Venis makes the save. This gives us the origin of the “Supply &
Demand” tag team. Oh, and Venis also
gets the hos because he evened the odds.
For some reason I think that would still not muster John Cena to make a
save on a show today.
-Shawn Michaels is
shown arguing with the Corporation yet again.
After the commercial break, he also talks with Earl Hebner, probably in
a nod to Montreal.
-Non-Title
Match: Scorpio & Bob Holly (w/Al
Snow & Dwayne Gill) beat The New Age Outlaws (WWF Tag Team Champions) when
Scorpio pins Billy Gunn after Mankind clocks Gunn with a leaf blower at 5:23:
The crowd has a lot of energy for this match, working up
an “O-H-I-O” chant and reminding the fans at home that “Michigan sucks.” A camera edit gets rid of a botch, but aside
from that this match is pretty good. We
get yet another run-in finish, though, as Mankind interferes as payback for the
JOB Squad helping him out earlier and gives them a win over the tag team
champions. Crowd was not happy with the
finish. So, does this mean that the JOB
Squad “are in contention” for a title shot now?
Rating: ** (4 for 5)
-After the bell,
Ken Shamrock and the Big Bossman hit the ring to beat up Mankind and the
Outlaws beat up the rest of the JOB Squad.
The stooges then try to recruit the Outlaws into the Corporation after
the match, talking to them as they head to the back.
-The hearse pulls
up to a funeral home.
-Call 815-734-1161
to get your D-Generation X football jersey for $39.99 (plus $9 shipping and
handling)!
-The Undertaker puts
Steve Austin on an embalming table.
After commercial, the Undertaker tells Austin that he is going to
experience the worst pain of his life.
The Undertaker chants a lot of stuff in tongues, but when he goes to
stab Austin, Kane breaks in and makes the save.
Bearer tries to finish the job, but Austin blocks him and crawls
away. This was interesting and kept
viewers following the show, but how did Kane find out Austin was abducted? That is a plot hole I cannot overlook. 4 for
6
-WWF Championship
Match: The Rock (Champion) defeats X-Pac
with the Corporate Elbow at 8:32:
Shawn Michaels gets rid of the seconds for both men,
making this a one-on-one encounter. On
paper, one would think this was a great chance to keep building X-Pac as a
talent worthy of the upper midcard and put over the Rock as a heel, but they
have to rush lots of this because of time.
It really picks up during the last three minutes, with some near-falls
that the crowd completely buys into.
Ross’s commentary helps with that.
But what would tonight be without one last twist, especially with Russo
booking, so Michaels takes a chair from the Rock and blasts X-Pac, thereby
putting the Rock over. Rating:
**½ (5 for 7)
-After the match,
Michaels celebrates with the Corporation as the New Age Outlaws brawl with The
Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock.
The Final Report Card: I could have done without many of the distraction
and run-in finishes on this show, but at the very least they advanced some new
stables and angles. We can debate whether
those new stables and angles were any good, but they did give the show some
positive momentum. Some criticized the
HBK turn at the time, saying that they burned through it way too fast, but just
going with the flow of the storylines, I do not mind. I guess I am just a fan of the crash TV model
in some respects, but I can see where some people would hate this show if they
never cared for the Austin-Undertaker feud, hated the HBK heel turn, and/or
hated PMS and the JOB Squad. I really
miss the crowd dynamics of some of these shows as well, as the WWF staged
several of them in college towns and RAW came off as a party and celebration
more than a wrestling show. We do not
get that anymore outside of NXT (and little wonder that people actually like it).
Monday Night War Rating: 4.9 (vs. 4.5 for Nitro)
Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up
The Austin/Undertaker thing worked so well in the leadup to Summerslam 98. One guy's the champion, the other guy wants the belt, so they fought with a few mind games being played.
ReplyDeleteOnce it got to silliness like the embalming, or "Vince leaves WWF forever if Undertaker loses", it got much less fun to watch.
"These Hardcore matches were more fun than later incarnations because it was before the genre became really cartoonish with weapons. "
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. I used to love the Hardcore matches back then, and a lot of them still stand up. As soon as it all became about PLUNDAH, it was a joke.
The embalming think was okay for me because Austin-Undertaker still needed to settle the score between them in some kind of big gimmick match (Buried Alive was a dumb idea for it), but yeah, by the summer of 1999 I had had enough.
ReplyDeleteMy buddy's mom walked in on the embalming and screamed. Thought we were watching some satanic show.
ReplyDeleteApparently the attempted murder laws in Ohio were kind of loose back then.
ReplyDeleteLooking back after SummerSlam is where the Undertaker character really went off the rails and also where his run of good matches ended with a thud. I still don't understand his heel turn and the build to the Buried Alive match was as terrible as the match itself.
ReplyDelete"The Headbangers really need to do something different now in light of their heel turn. They are sporting the same look and doing the same act."
ReplyDeleteHow about wearing see-through vinyl kilts and wearing fuzzy cone bras?
I was so done with Undertaker-Austin by 1999.
ReplyDeleteWas it ever explained how Michaels was able to force VinceSee, the thing I liked about this was they actually explained the hierarchy of multiple authority figures. Michaels can do whatever he wants but Vince has the final say on Austin-related decisions.
ReplyDeleteAnd then later, when Vince vacates his WrestleMania title shot, HBK catches him with an obscure rule that forces him to give it up to Austin rather than just making decision and Vince having to obey it despite being the fucking owner. It's little things like that that help things make sense, and was surprisingly smart booking on Russo's part.
The whole thing with UT was stupid but I still enjoyed it. Nice of them to let the cameraman know where they were going all night.
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't remember this show at ALL. And I know I must have watched it (I only missed two RAWS around this era, and they were back in '97).
ReplyDeletePMS was interesting in that it was a small, nothing angle... but actually found a use for two women without one. Russo was always good for that, if nothing else.