March 24, 1997

RAW

Rockford, IL

Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler welcome us to the show. They list off some of the major players who will be here tonight, and Ross says that Undertaker will defend the WWF Title against Mankind on April 20th.

Tag Team Titles - Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (c) vs. The Headbangers: This title shot was won by the Headbangers in last night's curtain-jerker. Owen and Davey try to hustle around each other on the way to the ring for their entrance, each trying to be the lead dog. Owen and Mosh are going to kick this thing off. They counter and block each other's hip-toss and armdrag attempts, Owen finally succeeding in an armdrag, and then he tacks on a legwhip for good measure. Thrasher enters illegally from behind, attacks Owen, and then just stays in as the legal man. Bang-up job, Earl Hebner. Bulldog takes a blind tag, Owen with a drop toe-hold into a British Bulldog legdrop to the back of the head.

Tag back to Owen, who Davey picks up and drops on top of Thrasher in another double-team. We get a PIP promo from the Legion of Doom, who want to take on the champions after this match is over. Vince: "Hawk, what happened to that kitchen sink from last night?" Hawk: "Well you know the old saying, everything but the kitchen sink. It was there. And it was -- I was happy to have it. But next time, we need something other than stainless steel. I'm not into stainless steel." Vince: "HYUK HYUK HYUK!" I've always felt that 99% of Hawk's value on the mic began and ended with "WELLLL…"



Back into the match, the Headbangers have isolated Owen for a moment, but Owen holds onto the ropes after an Irish whip, kicks Thrasher in the head, and tags the Bulldog in. Delayed suplex. Thrasher buries a knee into Davey's gut a moment later to take over. Bulldog, fighting back, tries to propel himself off the ropes, but accidentally collides with Owen, sending Owen spilling to the floor and allowing Thrasher to wrap Bulldog up in a schoolboy for the near-fall. Davey goes scrambling out to the floor to get in his partner's face. The two of them jaw back and forth, and Owen yells, "I DON'T NEED THIS!" and marches off, abandoning his partner to a chorus of boos as the show goes to commercial.



After commercial, Owen has returned to the apron - looking rather put out with the whole situation - but Bulldog is isolated in the Headbangers' corner. Bulldog, who is knocked toward his corner on a punch, looks to have an opportunity to make a tag, but Owen is suddenly conveniently attempting to cheerlead for the Bulldog's efforts, and doesn't see the tag attempt for a bit. Then he sticks out a gator-arm and pretends to try to tag in.

Bulldog with a surprise sunset flip, but no dice. Headbangers try a double-team, but Bulldog counters with a double DDT. This time Owen is on the ball to accept the tag, hitting multiple spinning wheel kicks and then the great belly-to-belly on Thrasher. Hits a backbreaker, then he goes over and forcefully tags Davey back in before he appears to be ready. Powerslam by Bulldog, two-count, and he goes and insists on tagging Owen, then yells at him to get back to it. Gutwrench suplex by Hart. Missile dropkick. He jaws at Bulldog after the dropkick, but returns to work and slaps on the Sharpshooter. Mosh runs in and breaks up the hold. Bulldog comes in, hits the running powerslam, and tries to set Owen on top. Owen takes umbrage, and we see more fighting between the Tag Team Champions.



Earl Hebner tries to step in the way and gets shoved over by the Bulldog to cause a cheap DQ.

Result: The Headbangers via DQ

Owen and Davey keep squabbling after the match. This devolves into a shoving match, and Bulldog gets pissed and double-legs Owen. The two are in a full brawl now, punching each other relentlessly until a large crew of officials pull them apart. Owen gets on the mic, tells him that he's sick and tired of carrying the Bulldog, and says that he obviously could have won that European Title at any time. He challenges him to a European Title match.



Bulldog says that he beat Owen fair and square for that belt, but that he'll give him the title shot anytime. Says, however, that it's the only title shot that he'll ever give him.

Vince goes to Mankind backstage, who is seated on the floor and rocking back and forth in some poorly-lit room. Mankind says, "He's gone." Vince: "Who's gone?" Mankind: "He left me. I can beat The Undertaker. I already have. And in less than a month, I'll be the WWF Champion! And it won't mean a thing. Because Uncle Paul is gone." The announcers are confused. Mankind: "Uncle Paul, please come back…and DON'T MAKE ME FIND YOU … please, come back."



Before the next match, we see Bret Hart show up on the Titantron. He says that he wants the chance to get everything off his chest and address the American fans tonight. He asks Vince to promise him that he'll get all the time he needs. Vince makes him promise not to use the abusive language of last week. Once he does promise that, Vince says that he looks forward to hearing what Bret has to say later.

We get highlights of last night's HHH/Goldust match before the next one begins.

Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna) vs. Bart Gunn: Bart hits a shoulderblock to get an early two-count. HHH fights Bart back into the ropes and throws some shoulderblocks himself. The two go back and forth, trading some shots in the middle of the ring and then in the corner. Bart whips Helmsley into the corner, HHH doing the temporary flip up onto the corner, then flip backward back into the ring, staggering into a delayed suplex. Bart goes a top-rope elbow, but misses. Goldust, appearing in a PIP window, is staring longingly at an empty director's chair. "As I cradled Marlena in my arms and carried her to the back, it was, without a doubt, the longest walk of my life." This hyper-emotional reaction is a little weird, since the exact same thing had happened just a few weeks previously without nearly as much drama as a result. Anyway, he threatens HHH, and apparently they're facing off next week.

Back to the match, Hunter gets a two-count off a running high knee. Elbow-drop gets another two. He mounts Bart in the corner, starts in on a 10-punch, but gets countered into a stun gun. Bart follows with a powerslam, but as he looks be setting up a bulldog, he tries to bounce off the ropes and goes spilling out when Chyna pulls the top rope down. Chyna bodyslams and then posts Bart while he's out there. Gunn is easy pickings from there, eating a Pedigree upon re-entry. That'll do it.



Result: HHH via pinfall

El Mosco, Hysteria, & Abismo Negro vs. Venum, Super Nova, & Discovery: WWE's foray into luchadore action was so terrible, and I'd like for it to be over now. As the action starts up here, Bret Hart shows up in the PIP box to gripe about the fact that he hasn't been given any time yet like he was promised. Vince placates him and promises him that his time is still coming. Hysteria hits a jumping wheel kick on Venum. Venum does a bunch of pointless flipping, mostly not in service of doing an actual move. He does manage a couple of headscissor takeovers though. Front slam by Hysteria, but when he tries climbing the ropes for a follow-up, Venum knocks him to the floor. Venum goes for a somersault plancha to the floor, Hysteria dodges, but Venum manages to land on his feet. Discovery barely connects on a kick, then tags in Super Nova.

Abismo Negro goes spilling out to the floor when he misses on a corner charge. Super Nova hits a nice moonsault to the floor. On another side of the ring, Discovery hits a plancha off the ropes to the floor. Venum botches a move on El Mosco, Mosco starts to roll out anyway, and Venum kicks him further out with a baseball slide before hitting a nice asai moonsault on the floor.



Back in the ring, Super Nova hits a missile dropkick off the top before getting backdropped to the apron. Partially-botched hurracanrana into a pin by Super Nova gets the win. Nice pacing to this, though I still had difficulty getting into it.

Result: Venum, Super Nova, & Discovery via pinfall

After commercial, we get an empty-arena interview with Rocky Maivia and Rocky Johnson. Maivia indicates that he and his dad had an agreement that his dad would stay out of his matches, but his dad responds that he wasn't just going to stand by and watch his son get beaten down by three men, but he promises that he'll never interfere in his matches again. Maivia says "thank you dad," and they hug. Get a ****ing clue, WWF; that type of segment is not winning people over to Rocky Maivia's side.



Honky Tonk Man is out for commentary for the next match. Apparently we're STILL doing this "Honky Tonk Man looks for a protégé" thing. It's becoming the new Glacier promo. It pays off about as well as Glacier too.

Flash Funk vs. Brooklyn Brawler: Brooklyn Brawler sighting! He was actually only 36 years old here, so less old than I expected. Obviously this is just a squash match. Funk sort of ****s up the execution on a standing moonsault that the Brawler gets his knees up for. This opens up Brawler's token offense for a moment. Funk hits a nice combo spot where he dropkicks through the middle rope, skins the cat, then hits a pescado.



Funk hits a couple of suplexes during this match, and they both look pretty bad; it's like Brawler is too heavy to suplex easily, but isn't heavy enough that it's impressive to get him up. Anyway, Flash polishes this off with a 450 splash. Aside from that one combo spot I liked, Flash wasn't really on his game here, and it made for a pretty meh squash match.

Result: Flash Funk via pinfall

After commercials, we get a Titantron interview with Ken Shamrock. He explains that he stopped the match last night to protect Steve Austin because he didn't think that he could protect himself anymore in an unconscious state. He says that he doesn't like Austin much personally, but that you couldn't take anything away from his toughness. Shamrock really stutters his way through this promo. That situation is not going to get better.



After another break, as well as a playing of the second-hour graphics and pyro, it's time for the Bret Hart promo. Jim Ross introduces him, but Bret takes the mic from him upon arrival, and Ross stands back to watch the show. "First of all, I want to apologize." He specifies that he wants to apologize to his fans in Germany, Britain, all across Europe, the Middle East, and especially in Canada. "And to you, my fans right here across the United States of America: to you, I apologize for nothing." Says that no matter what he does, no matter how badly he beats Steve Austin to a bloody pulp, the fans treated him like he lost that match, and like Austin won.

He goes back to WrestleMania last year. He says the fans cheered a pretty boy like Shawn Michaels and allowed HBK to screw him out of the belt. Bret says that he sat at home watching WWF and thinking that it needed a role model; someone that their fans could look up to. "Not somebody that's got earrings all over himself, and tattoos. Not somebody that poses for girlie magazines. And by the way, I don't think it was a girlie magazine; I think it was a gay magazine." Fans chant for Austin. Bret says that he found a calling to come back and clean up the WWF. Says he beat Austin at Survivor Series. Then he starts listing off his grievances: got screwed in the WWF Title match against Sid in December, got screwed out of the Royal Rumble, got screwed the night after winning the WWF Title at Final Four, then got screwed in the cage match for the WWF Title last Monday night. He talks about how the American fans kept turning on him and justifying these screwjobs, and then somehow got behind Austin at WrestleMania.



He says that these fans don't know what it's like to appreciate someone who brings a little bit of class. "You'd rather cheer for heroes like Charles Manson and OJ Simpson. Nobody glorifies criminal conduct like the Americans do. All the countries that I go to around the world, they still respect what's right and what's wrong. Respect. Now that we've made ourselves really clear here tonight, it's obvious to me that all you American fans coast to coast, you don't respect me. Well the fact is, I don't respect you. You don't deserve it. So from here on in, the American wrestling fans coast to coast can kiss my ass!"

Enter Shawn Michaels. "You don't have to explain to me or the World Wrestling Federation that you would never give up the WWF Title, because no one knows better than me or the WWF that it takes a hand-written note from the Lord Almighty to get that belt from you." Glass houses, Shawn. HBK says that just because he lives his public life openly and freely instead of putting on a façade doesn't make Bret the better man. Shawn speaks to Steve Austin, following the Ken Shamrock talking point that he doesn't like Austin, but that his toughness is amazing. He continues, saying that he's not in any shape to wrestle right now. "I know, I know, you're tougher than me, blah blah blah blah, the whole thing. I admit that; that's fine. I don't have to be #1, Bret. I don't OBSESS like you do. I do this because I like it. You do it because, in your mind, mark man, you really think that all of this is yours." Michaels stands up for the fans, saying that when they put their money down, they have the right to cheer or boo whoever they want. "They're cheering me now, but they've booed me before, but you didn't see me get all bent out of shape about it." Hmm, flashback time! Let's go to the tape.



Anyway, back to this promo. Shawn says, "You know why, Bret? Because in this country, we have something called the First Amendment." Oh holy ****, we're going to get some high-level legal analysis from Shawn ****ing Michaels. After explaining that a dude at ringside can pierce his navel if he wants to, or a woman can go out with a guy that Bret doesn't approve of, he moves along. Says, "I'm in no shape to go…but if you want to go, what the hell. Let's go now." Vince emphasizes just how bad of an idea this is for Shawn, saying he's in no condition to making that challenge. Before Bret can respond, Shawn says, "We've got an expression right here in the United States. 'America…love it or leave it!'" Bret tells Shawn to turn around, go back to the dressing room, and get out of his face.

Shawn says, "You know me, Bret. I'm not real good with authority. … By the way, how'd you know I was in that girlie magazine?" Bret, fuming, turns his back as Shawn continues. "You couldn't help yourself, could you? You had to flip through the pages just a little bit." As Shawn turns to leave, Bret turns around and attacks from behind, then slaps on that ringpost figure-four on HBK's injured leg.



Officials try to get Bret off. Sid comes out from the back, and Bret releases the hold and lets himself get chased off by Sid, backing away like a coward as Sid holds the ring. Bret sheds his jacket and starts to make back toward the ring, but thinks better of it and leaves.

Honestly, I had that promo segment in my mind as a classic, and it didn't hold up as one to me on this viewing. There were high points, and it was certainly a big moment to see Bret fully, officially lean into the heel turn, but the segment dragged a bit at times. Still, my compliments to WWF for some great pacing in playing out this heel turn. To make a moment like this believable, they needed to sink months into it the way they did. The story, from the return to the full heel turn, has been tremendous.

Rocky Maivia vs. Leif Cassidy: After watching Rocky's entrance, we go to commercial and then only return once this match has already started. Within about 10 seconds, we see Bret Hart re-emerge from the back. As the match continues, Bret heads straight to the commentary table and puts on a headset. Vince asks him why he's snapped. Bret says he hasn't snapped; that he's just opened his eyes. He continues more of the same rant he was going on and on with earlier. He says that he's been the only one, night in and night out, wearing the white hat. On a PIP screen, we see Shawn Michaels limping terribly and being helped out of the building. Bret continues on with the same talking points, and I actually think that he was maybe stronger here than he was on the promo just now. Rocky Maivia wraps the match up with a flying bodypress.

Result: Rocky Maivia via pinfall

Just as Rocky wrapped that match up, Bret says, "You want to see bad? I'll show you bad. … I'll show you wickedly bad." Bret drops his headset, then slides into the ring and attacks Rocky's leg from behind in just the same way he attacked Shawn's.



This right here is Rocky getting that Roman Reigns boost; Bret's heat is currently near maximum levels, so let's try to transfer some of it over to this guy who gets zero crowd reaction. Bret hops on Rocky's leg a couple of times, then bails out of the ring, flips off a teenage kid with a Bears jersey on (to be fair, it IS a Bears jersey), smirks at the hateful crowd, and exits. I'll say that him randomly attacking an unsuspecting babyface is less consistent with the heel turn than the rest, but I guess I can justify it in kayfabe as it just being another way for Bret to tweak the fans and to tweak Vince.

Ahmed Johnson vs. Savio Vega (w/ Nation of Domination): Before this match starts, Vince says that unfortunately Faarooq suffered a separated shoulder and a punctured long, and is in the hospital right now. Here's Ahmed unabashedly admitting that he did that to Faarooq on purpose. Ahmed attacks Savio upon his entrance, but ends up ramming his shoulder into the ringpost on a missed corner charge early on (actually he plainly stops like a foot short of the ringpost, but sold it like he rammed it). Vega works Johnson over, slamming him and choking him on the mat. He gets his boot up on a subsequent corner charge and continues the assault.

Ahmed fights back with the worst, softest-looking atomic drop you'll ever see. I've seen stiffer moves in a Honky Tonk Man match. At least Ahmed wasn't trying to hospitalize anyone else. He rams through Vega and carries them both over the top to the floor, and we go to commercial. Upon return, Johnson executes a delayed suplex. He connects on a decent somersault sentan off the top rope.



Ducks his head too early for an apparent backdrop, and Savio stops short and kicks him in the face. Sleeper by Savio. After fading for a moment, Ahmed works his way out, starts the babyface comeback, hits some really terrible offense, and as he's setting up for the Pearl River Plunge, Crush pulls Savio out of the ring to safety, causing a DQ. Man, that's a pretty light DQ by WWF standards. This match sucked quite badly; aside from that kinda cool somersault move off the top rope, Ahmed performed significantly worse here than usual, which is saying something.

Result: Ahmed Johnson via DQ

Ahmed grabs a mic and says that this has gone too far. He says, "I see Faarooq ain't here. I wonder why." Then he flashes a sick smile. He offers them a deal: if he beats one of them, they leave WWF. Jim Ross mumbles, "Well they aren't gonna take that." I thought there was a second part to this offer, where Ahmed would offer something if they beat him…but no, his deal is for them to put their careers at stake against nothing? Vince asks confused as well, says he can't quite tell what the challenge is. Then the Nation leaves without answering. Awkward.

They go back to Paul Bearer backstage. Bearer says he doesn't want to talk to them. Says, "You know who I want to talk to." Vince says, "Umm, no we don't, but I guess we'll find out." Then we're at commercial.

After commercials, Vince McMahon brings out the new WWF Champion, The Undertaker. Taker addresses his fans and says, "This title, the most prestigious in all of sports, is yours. And I am your knight that will fight anyone who tries to oppose us." Alright champ, you're not exactly a good fit for a generic white meat babyface promo. He then addresses Sid and says that he wants to thank him for having the courage to face him last night. Says he applauds him, and when his time is due, he will give him his chance as well. No, seriously, this is not how Undertaker promos are supposed to sound at all. It's like babyfaces who win the WWF Title get injected with a disease. Vince asks Taker about Mankind. He says that Mankind is, without a doubt, the most dangerous individual in the WWF. "He makes me a better gladiator, and if he puts that Mandible Claw on me or anyone, they go down." Seriously, what the **** is this promo? Not only are the words lame, but his delivery is really wooden and stilted, like he's reading off of cue cards.

Paul Bearer emerges at the top of the aisle, carrying a mic. "If you still feel the need to beat me up, Undertaker, I guess you'll have to do what you'll have to do. But I want you to listen to me for just one minute, Undertaker." As he's about to continue, we hear the voice of Mick Foley moaning, "Uncle Paul…Uncle Paul…" Bearer continues, "Anything that I've done, Undertaker, I've done for you. I've done it for you." Foley keeps talking from the Titantron, but Bearer says, "Don't pay any attention to him." Then the show fades out in mid-segment. … Okay.



Overall: This was a significantly worse episode than I hoped it would be. As mentioned, the Bret stuff was a bit worse than remembered, though it was still by far the best part of the show, and salvaged it to some extent. Almost everything else was pretty bad though, with maybe a minor exception for the Owen/Davey stuff being okay. Meh.

^^ Yeah, I'm reading what is typed on that Undertaker promo and I'm thinking, "What??? Is this the right guy? What the Undertaker is saying doesn't make sense at all in relation to his persona." I would think his celebration speech would be like "I figuratively buried Psycho Sid, six feet under, to win the WWF Championship and when I'm through with Mankind, once and for all, he will Rest in Peace." and then lightning sound effects ends the promo.

That Shawn promo sounds like it's still true of Bret. He still thinks it's real and he's "The Hitman".

Bret Hart on his original plans for Michaels/Hart at WM13

LOL Bret Hart forever

^^ Man, if I had to pick either that or the events that actually happened in WM 13, the latter would be chosen, no doubt, since, at least, they got Austin made and I don't think he would have been made, in a way that yields the best results for WWF, in that alternative scenario if Shawn didn't "lose his smile".

Pretty sure The Rock never becomes The Rock without being this terribad white bread babyface who is being shoved down the audience's throats first. The way their long term booking was on point, it wouldn't really surprise me if this was their intention all along when they noticed the hate Michaels was getting the previous year and how over Austin got.

I don't think I can find that benefit of the doubt for them, given that he takes a decent hiatus before returning repackaged. If there was an actual plan to get the fans to turn on him, you would think that it would lead to an organic turn that comes together seamlessly rather than taking a lengthy absence and immediately turning heel in his return segment.

You could easily be right that this trajectory ended up helping him, but from the company standpoint I definitely see this as play bad --> get there.

dar0, I'm sure if you asked WWE, that's exactly what happened, DAMNIT!!! But, no.

I see WWF's recovery more as a result of a series of accidents and fortune in favor of the company than great long term planning. Austin wasn't supposed to face Hart at Mania 13, but ended up doing so because of HBK. Austin wasn't even supposed to be a top guy or Stone Cold; he was supposed to be the Ringmaster in the midcard. Vince screws Bret, and the writers talk him into running with that and being the Mr. McMahon on screen character. WCW is beating WWF down, so they have to change and go edgy.

I think the last one is something they should be credited for, since it's a straightforward case of exploiting an inefficiency that there was significant demand for and was only otherwise being satisfied on the relatively small distribution channels of ECW to that point.

I agree that they ran hot on some of the other stuff. I would sort of stick up for them on the Austin thing since they made him King of the Ring when he wasn't hugely over yet, so they were indicating that they were at least somewhat aware of him being a huge talent even before he was making money for them, but that was also another example of an unforeseen event leading them to that decision, in that HHH was booked to ship that tourney until the MSG curtain call.

They should get significant credit for being able to make good adjustments. I think it was Mike Tyson who said "Yeah, I had a plan, then I got punched in the mouth." WWF responded well to the punches in the mouth, some of them self-inflicted.

March 24, 1997

NITRO

Duluth, MN

They cold-open on the footage of last week's confrontation between Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page, when Page demanded a match right then but Savage ended up running away through the crowd.

After the credits, we get the pyro in the arena, and they zoom in for a moment on Larry "The Axe" Hennig in the crowd. That made me curious, and I took a look: apparently Larry is still alive today, age 80 as of this writing.

US Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Konnan: Dean comes out to a big pop here. What seemed like a heel turn a few weeks ago never really developed as one. The two lock up, jostle over a hammerlock, and honor a rope break. Konnan gets Malenko down and cinches in an armbar/leglock combo. Malenko manages an escape, stomping away at the challenger. Fans lose their **** as Dean executes a simple bodyslam. That sends me to Wikipedia to confirm my suspicion that Malenko must be from Minnesota, and…nope? He's from Jersey and later lived in Florida. I guess we just have a really hot crowd.

The two run the ropes, end up somersaulting past each other, but Konnan finally puts Dean down to pretty solid heat. PIP promo from Syxx, who mumbles incoherently. Tony Schiavone: "What in the world was he saying there?" I can't help you. "It was almost like he was saying that he and Eddie are in cahoots." Larry Zbyszko notes that we have seen a new attitude out of Eddie Guerrero recently. Okay, still no idea what was actually said by Syxx, but I guess Tony and Larry gave us the intended takeaway. Powerbomb by Konnan. Two-count. Malenko ducks a clothesline, runs off the ropes, hits a nice heel kick. Konnan with a drop toe-hold, transitions into a magistral cradle to get another two-count. Konnan slams Malenko, goes up top to follow up, then does the "jump legs-first into the Texas Cloverleaf" spot. If that spot isn't bad enough when done well, he botches the jump. Anyway, Texas Cloverleaf, ding ding ding, Malenko retains.



Result: Dean Malenko via submission

Mean Gene is out to get a word with Malenko. Malenko says that it's no coincidence that we keep seeing Syxx and Eddie in the same place at the same time. He shifts his focus to Chris Benoit, says they have a lot of mutual respect between each other, they both want to be #1, and he openly challenges Benoit to come at him and challenge him for the US Title. Gene makes it sound like that's already set as a match for Spring Stampede.

After commercial, Tony says that the nWo has put the word out that they want the TV Title, and they want Randy Savage to challenge Prince Iaukea for it. Thanks to their win at Uncensored, they can demand matches like that. We then see footage from the Glacier-Mortis post-match attack at Uncensored, when Bryan Clark came out to help Mortis beat Glacier down.

Mortis (w/ James Vandenberg) vs. Jerry Flynn: I like Mortis's entrance music a lot. He came in as a foil for Glacier and was instantly cooler than Glacier (no pun intended), due in no small part to the entrance theme. It's sort of Phantom-esque. Flynn was a positively ridiculous-looking dude, mostly because of his ugly mullet. Anyway, early hip-toss and a kick by Flynn gets a quick two-count. Mortis forces Flynn into a corner, then tumbles outward while delivering a back kick. More kicks in the corner by Mortis, who cluelessly plays to the crowd from the second rope and lets himself be attacked. Spinning wheel kick by Flynn, but he runs into a big boot on the ensuing corner charge.

Spinning wheel kick by Mortis. He sets up from the second rope, puts his leg on the back of Flynn's neck, and rides him to the mat. Lax cover only gets two. He runs distraction and lets his manager get a chokehold in. Mortis with a unique move to ride Flynn's face into the mat again. Another lax cover only gets two. He goes for a hurracanrana, but Flynn counters into a powerbomb. I initially thought that Flynn was getting too much offense for Mortis's Nitro debut, but this whole match comes off more like Mortis just toying with the guy. He still has to bust out a low blow to halt Flynn's attack though, before catching him square with a superkick. He signals to the crowd as if to portent a finishing move. Carries Flynn up to the second rope, Samoan drop from there, 1-2-3.



Result: Mortis via pinfall

La Parka vs. Juventud Guerrera: La Parka has an interesting entrance costume for the evening.



The two luchas trade shoves. La Parka tries to splash Juvi on the corner, but misses, and Juvi hits a spinning back kick a moment later. La Parka backdrops Guerrera to the apron, then celebrates as if he's accomplished something. Guerrera tries a top-rope cross-body, but La Parka catches him and struts across the ring while holding him, then sets him up on the top rope and slaps him.



Juventud takes advantage of the clowning with a flying headscissor off the top that sends La Parka rolling out of the ring, at which point Guerrera follows with a springboard plancha to the floor. Rolls La Parka in, nice springboard dropkick, two-count. La Parka halts Guerrera's progress by raising the boot on a corner charge, then runs out and turns his man inside out with a clothesline. La Parka off the ropes with a springboard moonsault that misses entirely, but Juventud sells it like it connects. Even Tony Schiavone says that he completely missed. La Parka connects on a great spinning wheel kick a moment later. When Juventud tries to take refuge outside, La Parka hits an impressive dive over the top to the floor.



La Parka back in the ring first. As Juventud hits the apron, they struggle over attempted suplexes of each other, then Guerrera hits a somersault move into the ring instead. Sets La Parka up on the top, tries for a top-rope hurracanrana, La Parka blocks and counters into a powerbomb, follows with a spinning body attack, and scores the pin. Fun match.

Result: La Parka via pinfall

Here's a clip from Steiners vs. Outsiders at nWo Souled Out, when Randy Anderson ran in to pose as referee and declared the Steiners the winners. Then a subsequent clip of Eric Bischoff forcing the Steiners to give the belts back. Then the clip of Harvey Schiller suspending Eric Bischoff. Then The Outsiders talking about the car accident with the Steiners. Then the Outsiders standing over a fallen Rick Steiner at Uncensored, and Rick being carted off in an ambulance. Then last week, when the Outsiders challenged the Steiners to a match at Spring Stampede. Finally to the end of last week, when they came out and attacked the Steiners.

Back to the live show, where Gene Okerlund has the Steiners out for an interview. They cut a standard Steiner promo on The Outsiders. Rick says that he's back and ready to go.



High Voltage vs. Public Enemy: Public Enemy double-teams from the opening bell, clearing out Kenny Kaos. Robbie Rage stays behind to try to take Rocco Rock on. After a Kaos distraction, he does manage to get early control with an attack from behind, then tags Kaos in. Tilt-a-whirl slam by Kaos, and Johnny Grunge has to make the save to prevent a three-count. Rage back in, and he misses on a standing moonsault attempt. Hot tag from Rock to Grunge. He clears Rage out, slams Kaos, tag to Rock, double-team cannonball by Rock connects, and the crowd ****ing chants "table" just to make sure that PE can never do a match without the same tired table spot. PE obliges, as Grunge sets Rage up on the table outside, Rock with a somersault over the ropes that does put Rage through the table. Here come Jeff Jarrett and Debra. Jarrett runs in, hits Johnny Grunge from behind with a briefcase, and this enables High Voltage to make the pin and score the upset.



Result: High Voltage via pinfall

Here's Mongo out of the back, and he's agitated with Jarrett and Debra. Says he thinks he's being set up. Not entirely sure what he's being set up for. The Mongo/Jarrett heat is so far beyond tired.

After commercials, it's promo time with Lex Luger and The Giant, out to talk to Mean Gene. For some reason The Giant is wearing a Monday Nitro bib. Apparently there is a match coming up, not sure of when (I assume the PPV), where these two and Harlem Heat will face off in a four corners match, with the winner facing Hulk Hogan at a future date. Giant says that he and Luger might have to face off, but he reiterates how much his friendship with Luger means to him. Luger cuts a generic promo on Hogan.



Super Calo vs. Psicosis: I approve of them putting on a second random lucha match in the same show. For some reason there's a PIP promo from Sonny Onoo during Psicosis's entrance, where he talks **** at Rey Mysterio Jr. on behalf of Ultimo Dragon. No particular relation to this match. Psicosis and Calo lock up to a couple of early rope breaks. After the second one, Psicosis lays in a couple of hard chops, then hits a spinning heel kick. Irish whip, Calo baseball slides through Psicosis's legs, series of kicks by Calo to follow. Psicosis reverses a corner whip, but Calo jumps up top and jumps backward into an armdrag. As he tries to kick out to Psicosis on the floor, he commits a bad botch. These really were a problem for him.



They return back inside. Psicosis with a slam, after which he picks Calo up and crotches him along the top before scaling the ropes and hitting a spinning wheel kick to the back of Calo's head. Calo counters a moment later into a crucifix into a pin attempt that gets two. Front dropkick by Calo sends Psicosis out, and then Calo hits a nice-looking reverse hurracanrana from the apron to the floor. Slams Psicosis and then hits a slingshot splash from the ring to the floor. Back on the inside, Calo jumps off the top at Psicosis, but runs into another spinning wheel kick on the way down. Psicosis capitalizes with a guillotine legdrop off the top. 1-2-3.



Result: Psicosis via pinfall

After commercial, we're into hour two, with Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan taking their seats alongside Tony Schiavone. I'm quickly associating these little segments with the fact that they're using them to spend time putting over really crappy stories every single week. I guess that's just part of the deal when the company doesn't ever give them good stories to put over.

Hugh Morrus (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit: No Woman tonight. Tony explains that Arn Anderson was attacked backstage after his promo last week (this wasn't televised) and has been hospitalized, and that Woman is with Arn and Arn's wife in North Carolina right now. Benoit lays in some hard chops on Morrus, but Morrus fights back, hitting a press slam, then a corner charge and a hard running clothesline. Benoit counters Morrus's kick attempt into a legwhip, then hits a solid release German suplex. As he heads up top, purportedly for the swandive headbutt, Jimmy Hart runs distraction as Konnan appears out of nowhere to knock Benoit off the top. Morrus capitalizes with the No Laughing Matter moonsault and scores the upset. These two had something good going, and I wish the match had gotten a bit more time.



Result: Hugh Morrus via pinfall

Here comes Kevin Sullivan, and the three-on-one beatdown is on. Dean Malenko, Benoit's upcoming PPV opponent, actually appears and attempts the save, but the Dungeon of Doom puts him down as well. Here's Ric Flair, finally getting a bit physical, and he singlehandedly clears out all of the Dungeon members. Benoit and Malenko stare at each other from across the ring until Malenko quietly leaves. Tony Schiavone wonders where Jarrett and Mongo were during all of this.



Faces of Fear vs. Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri): Booker T and the Barbarian open up. They jostle for position, Barbarian eventually breaking the stalemate with a kick to the ribs. Booker tries a cross-body, but Barbarian catches him and Meng sloppily helps out with a double-team from the apron that's meant to be a stun gun, but ends up looking pretty bad. Booker works his way back into the ring, hits a cross-body off the top, and tags in his brother. Stevie Ray in with the level-zero Stevie Ray offense. The fans break into an incredibly loud chant that I can't make out. It seriously sounds like "let's go Goldberg," but it obviously isn't that. "Let's go Booker"? But he's just standing on the apron. I dunno. Back suplex by Meng puts Stevie Ray down. Chop, chop, tag to Barbarian. Booker gets a cheap kick from the apron that helps Stevie take the advantage back. Tag to Booker.

Booker with an axe kick. Connects on a couple of rights, but a side kick misses and lands Booker crotch-first along the top rope, where Meng takes a shot from the apron. Both Faces of Fear in now, double headbutt off of opposite corners. Two-count. Meng with a backbreaker, Stevie Ray in to break up the subsequent pin. Booker stops short of a backdrop attempt, kick to the face, but he crumples under a bodyslam attempt and has to kick out at two again. Barbarian tags in and hits a side salto. Loud "Harlem Heat" chant. Mike Tenay says that they're cheering just to stay warm. Meng re-enters and slaps on an abdominal stretch, leading Stevie Ray to just come in illegally and attack, which the official does nothing about as Booker slinks to the apron. That's a unique end to a heat segment. Stevie with a side slam, tag to Booker, rocket launcher off the top, Barbarian with the save on the pin attempt. Harlem side kick by Booker, Barbarian saves again. Booker, feeling the momentum, goes for a backdrop, but eats a sit-out powerbomb by Meng for his efforts.



Both partners in, though they brawl to the outside. Booker reverses a corner whip, Sherri has gotten up on the apron and Meng collides with her upon arrival in the corner, Booker with a schoolboy, hooks the tights, scores the pinfall.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall

After break, Mean Gene brings out Ric Flair and Chris Benoit. Benoit accuses Kevin Sullivan of being the one who launched this mystery attack on Arn Anderson last week at his hotel. I thought that Tony said it happened backstage? I guess things get a little confusing when you just start making up unseen events a week after the fact. Flair, switching topics, tries to make an appeal to Roddy Piper to get back out on the road and forget about all of this "going home to your family" business.

Malia Hosaka vs. Madusa: Hosaka hits on a couple of dropkicks early, then slaps on a Boston crab as the crowd roars with a really loud "USA" chant. This crowd's level of engagement with literally everything has been quite impressive. Madusa takes Hosaka down several times by the hair. Hosaka attempts a crucifix, falls off in a botch, then tries to convert it into a sunset flip that's no good. Madusa abruptly executes a German suplex to score the pin. This was absolute trash, but mercifully short.



Result: Madusa via pinfall

Before the next match, during the weekly Lee Marshall Nitro Party report, that same chant that isn't "let's go Goldberg" rises back up. I'm increasingly curious about WTF they're saying.

Renegade vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan: So, when I said earlier that I wished they had given Benoit vs. Hugh Morrus more time, this would have been the match to cut. Duggan initiates a babyface handshake before the match. Renegade goes along, but Tony Schiavone starts talking about how it seems like Renegade was teasing a heel turn on WCW Saturday Night this past weekend. That's not precisely how he said it, but yeah. Hip-toss by Duggan. Corner smash, corner mount, 10-punch. Renegade takes Duggan down with a snapmare, cinches in a reverse chinlock, and then puts down Duggan's comeback with a corner whip and a handspring back elbow. As Renegade gets backed off by the referee, Duggan tapes the fist, lands the punch, makes the pin. Yawn.



Result: Hacksaw Jim Duggan via pinfall

Here's a video montage of Sting recently apparently reconciling to WCW. And a Spring Stampede advertisement.

The Amazing French Canadians (w/ Col. Robert Parker) vs. The Steiner Brothers: The Canadians do the usual "O Canada" trolling before the match. The Steiners wait patiently through it instead of being like every other team that jumps the Canadians during the anthem. Scott Steiner butterfly suplexes Carl Ouellet. He tries to press slam Jacques Rougeau, Ouellet catches his partner, but Rick is in to knock both of them out. Scott and Ouellet fight outside for a moment, but return inside fairly quickly. The Canadians double-team and isolate Scott. After a double stun gun, Ouellet goes for a move off the second rope, but runs into Scotty's raised boot.

Both guys tag out, Rick takes both Canadians on until Scott gets his feet back and evens up the numbers. Col. Parker runs interference on Scott, enables Ouellet to knock Scott to the floor, and Rick is left to fend for himself inside. Canadians hit the Cannonball and have a visual pin, but referee Randy Anderson is distracted by Scott. Canadians try to use Parker's boot as a weapon, it backfires when Rick slips out of the way, and the Steiners score the fluky pin. Can't say I particularly get this sort of booking for your #1 babyface tag team.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

TV Title - Prince Iaukea (c) vs. Randy Savage (w/ the nWo): So, opening this episode on a recap of the DDP-Savage stuff from last week, then not having DDP appear so far tonight, seems like a great way of basically announcing that Page is getting involved in this match. During the ring entrance, Kevin Nash, one of the many who accompany Savage, makes the kliq sign at the camera and yells "RIGHT BACK ATCHA, HBK!" OMG how rebellious, how edgy. **** you.



The announcers note that this is basically the whole nWo group except for Scott Hall, and they theorize that maybe it's the bad road conditions that have caused Hall not to be here. When Hall randomly isn't there and they're making up strange excuses, I make some different assumptions about his whereabouts on this night. Not sure why they acknowledged his absence, since Hogan isn't here either and goes unmentioned. Anyway, Iaukea is in about a 1-on-12 situation here.

Savage throws an armdrag early and picks up some significant static from the crowd. Iaukea with a shoulderblock, a quick pin attempt, and Savage nearly gets picked off, barely kicking out at two. Savage, flustered, goes out and regroups for a moment. He re-enters, Iaukea with a springboard cross-body for another two. Prince misses on a top-rope cross-body and cedes control to the Macho Man in the process. Savage drops him throat-first along the top rope. Heads up top, flying elbow connects, and at the two-count Savage pulls him up. Here comes DDP through the crowd, pandering by wearing a Golden Gophers shirt. The nWo jumps him, then rolls him inside, and as the fight spills inside, the referee throws the match out.

Result: No Contest

The beatdown on DDP is on. Jackknife powerbomb from Nash. Top-rope elbow by Savage. The crowd chants for Sting. Nash and Savage hold DDP up and let Eric Bischoff connect with a roundhouse kick. Savage spray-paints Iaukea and Page, Nash continues the spray-paint job, and the nWo holds the ring to close out the show.



Overall: Thought the first hour was pretty good, the second hour pretty pointless. Again, they basically never tell interesting stories these days, so it's all incumbent upon the performers to put on good matches if they're going to salvage most of these shows.

Ratings for 3/24/97: Nitro 3, Raw 2.5
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 55-17-2

Better Show: This is surprisingly close. I wouldn't have expected to end up saying so this week, given my strong memory of the Bret heel turn, but I think that I might have barely preferred Nitro? Yeah, that's what I'm going with, by the thinnest of margins.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 53-21

Match of the Night: La Parka vs. Juventud Guerrera

March 31, 1997

RAW

Peoria, IL

We open on a black-and-white video package of Bret Hart berating the fans at last week's show, then attacking Shawn Michaels from behind and slapping on the ringpost figure-four.

Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross welcome us to tonight's show. They tell us that tonight we're going to see Owen Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Goldust with nobody at ringside, and Lawler says that he predicts that we're going to see the reunion of Undertaker and Paul Bearer. We're jumping right into the deep end with the European Title match.

European Title - The British Bulldog (c) vs. Owen Hart: Davey high-fives fans on the way to the wrong, playing the babyface, but Owen starts the match rudely with a stiff baseball slide to the outside.



He flings Bulldog into the steel steps, then picks him up and slams him twice into the ringpost. The opening bell finally rings after Owen rolls Bulldog in. He quickly goes for a top-rope cross-body and gets an early two-count, really throwing the kitchen sink at Bulldog early. Bulldog fights back. The two trade fists, then they simultaneously kick low and hit low blows at the same time. Owen gets on top and hammers away. Jim Ross says that, whether they like it or not, Owen and Davey have to defend the Tag Team Titles against the Legion of Doom at the upcoming In Your House.

Owen with a corner whip, and follows with a hard clothesline for another two-count. Reverse chinlock. "Owen sucks" chant. That, by the way, is the type of basic chant that is actually a net positive for a match, even if a minor one in this case. Bulldog fights his way back to his feet and out of the hold, but Owen quickly drives a knee into the gut to put him back down. Hart goes for a Sharpshooter, but Bulldog powers out of it. Schoolboy by the Bulldog gets two. He hammers Owen in the corner, executes a corner whip, but runs face-first into a big boot when he attempts to follow up. Couple of European uppercuts by Owen, but Bulldog counters the third into a backslide for another two. Standing dropkick by Owen gets two. Bulldog goes for a backdrop, but Owen counters into a big piledriver, protecting his opponent's neck and everything. They go to commercial right after the move, not even giving the piledriver the dignity of a near-fall.



Owen still in control after the break, throwing shoulders in the corner. Davey tries to kick, but receives a legwhip for his troubles. Owen with a suplex with a transition into a pin all in one move; two-count. Another reverse chinlock. Bulldog fades badly enough to get his arm dropped twice, but launches the obligatory comeback after holding up on the third drop attempt. The European Champion throws headbutts and fists in a corner, but Owen, controlling most of this match, hits a back elbow to put Davey down. He tries jumping off the top rope, but Bulldog catches him feet-first and goes for the Sharpshooter. Owen slips his way out and hits an enziguri.

Owen sets Bulldog up on the ropes and tries going for a superplex. Bulldog punches him a couple of times, Owen creatively escapes with a voluntary backflip, lands on his feet, and knocks Bulldog to the floor. Shame the production team screwed a cool-looking spot up with bad camera work. Owen goes for a pescado, Bulldog sort of catches him, then drops him on the guardrail. Back into the ring, a couple of running clotheslines by Davey, then a catapult that sends Owen flying face-first into the turnbuckle. He staggers backward into a Bulldog two-count. Bulldog throws Owen up high overhead for a crash landing. Two-count. Backdrop. Clothesline over the top rope. Bulldog stalks out after his brother-in-law, then suplexes him on the steel ramp.

The action returns inside, Bulldog slamming Owen down by the hair. Press slam. Two-count. Irish whip by Bulldog, leapfrog by Owen, and Bulldog runs through and bumps Earl Hebner. Owen goes to get a chair for a chairs hot, Bulldog knocks the chair loose, and here comes Bret Hart. He trips the Bulldog from behind, then chokes at him with the steel chair.



Jerry Lawler, still anti-Bret even after his turn last week, seems to suddenly be gleefully pro-Bret. Anyway, as Bret holds Bulldog down, he also shoves Owen off to keep him from capitalizing. He stands between the two and tries to stop the fighting, yelling, "STOP!" This match never gets going again.

Result: No Contest

Bret picks up a mic. "Can't you see? Can't you see? This is what all these people want! … This is what they want. They've had us fighting for years. What are you fighting for?! For what? To satisfy a bunch of people who don't have the first idea about family values. Listen to me: I'm asking you. I need you. I need you. <fans chant faintly> Yeah, 'USA.' You're talking about a country that's based its entire history on brother against brother. They got talk shows all over this country of families airing out their family problems because they all hate each other. That's what they've done: they've taken our family, turned us into a bunch of haters." He turns to the Bulldog. "They've turned you against me. We fought like two men in Wembley Stadium. After you won, I hugged you. We came back to America, they turn us against each other."

Bret turns to Owen. "Listen to you and me. Look what they've done to you and me. I was the one who got you into the World Wrestling Federation. They push you, and they push you, and they push you, and they push me, and they push us against each other. They've driven this wedge between the whole family. You know, what'd they do to Diana? Owen, I've known you since you were a baby. I dressed you for school every day. I was the one who made sure you made the school bus. How many times did I take you…remember St. Michael's school, that teacher was picking on you? I was only 13 years old, I went to that school and set the teacher straight. Who was there for you more times than I was? Who was the one that even talked you into becoming a wrestler? There's only two people in the whole family who really excelled in wrestling: it was you and me." Ha, **** you Bruce.



"They turned us against each other. They turn me against my own sister Diana. Because Americans don't understand family. They don't give a damn about family. Owen, Davey, I'm asking you for your help, because I need you. Owen, look me in the eye. Nobody was there more times for you than I was. I want you to hear me loud and clear - and I don't care about these people, not anymore - Owen, I love you." The brothers hug. Bret hugs Davey, the three go into a group hug…and Bret looks out at the audience with this amazingly cold look, like he was channeling Michael Corleone hugging Fredo late in Godfather Part II.



Davey and Owen both attempted to cry to sell the segment, which just came off looking silly, but in any case this was a strong promo and a great segment. Unfortunately it was taped, and as a young internet smark I was spoiled on it, but I was extremely happy that this stable had formed. The three family members leave together. In a funny moment, they show Lawler at ringside and he's crying also.



After commercials, Sunny comes out to join the commentary table for the next match.

El Mosco vs. Super Nova: El Mosco hits a front dropkick. Super Nova with an arm-wringer into an armdrag. Mosco with his own armdrag, fighting back. They continue move-for-move, largely mirroring each other's offense. Super Nova with a weak belly-to-belly that gets two. El Mosco goes for a German suplex, but Super Nova blocks and elbows his way free. Still, Mosco ducks a clothesline and hits a spinning wheel kick. Super Nova with a scoop powerslam for a two-count. Mosco with sort of an Alabama slam. He climbs the ropes, but showboats, and Super Nova capitalizes by getting up and powerbombing him off the second rope. Mosco backdrops Super Nova onto the apron, Nova chops him back and goes for a flying headscissor off the top that gets partially botched. These two don't sell anything for even a split-second; it's just one move to the next.



Sunny heads over and joins the Spanish announce table, which appears to be a much bigger thrill for them than existing entirely to lose their table halfway through the night. Super Nova hits a diving tope to the floor. Action back inside, where Nova misses entirely on a moonsault, Mosco drops the leg, powerbombs his man, split-legged moonsault, 1-2-3. Meh.

Result: El Mosco via pinfall

After a break, Jim Ross brings out the Legion of Doom for an interview. Animal yells at the Hart family for insulting the United States. He says that champions are remembered and losers are forgotten. Says, "In basketball, people remember the Chicago Bulls. In baseball, people remember…the baseball champions." I don't think Animal remembers the baseball champions. 1996 would have been…maybe the Braves? Nah, I looked it up, they lost the World Series to the Yankees that year. Braves won in '95. Back to the promo, Hawk vows to knock "the doggie dumplings" out of the British Bulldog, and to "kick the phlegm out of every muscle in Owen Hart's stinky body." Yeah.

Vince tells us that Rocky Maivia will be defending the Intercontinental Title against Bret Hart later.

After commercial, the Honky Tonk Man comes out to join in on commentary.

"Double J" Jesse James vs. local jobber: James comes out with some little kid, apparently his "guest manager" for the evening. Honky says that his search for a protégé is almost over. I just looked: he's been dragging out this protégé search for over three months now. Mind you, a three-month angle is fine, but the entire angle has been him coming out for commentary and saying, "yep, I'm still looking for someone" for something like 12 straight Raws without ever saying anything different. James hits the pumphandle slam to polish off the squash match.

Result: Jesse James via pinfall

Honky Tonk Man goes into the ring and shakes James's hand. He tells him that he's very impressed with James. Honky talks extensively like he's going to pick James as his protégé. He gives James his guitar. He asks him if he's willing to consummate this deal. James pretends to be flattered and excited, acts like he's about to play the guitar, then stands back and smashes it to bits. He somehow cuts open his temple just while swinging the guitar around. He says, "Honky, it's a little bit out of tune for me," then leaves.



We're years past Honky actually having any legitimate crowd heat, so a segment like that does very little for anyone.

Savio Vega & Crush (w/ the NOD) vs. local jobbers: I liked Faarooq and I liked the Nation gimmick, but Savio Vega and especially Crush were just death to watch. Brian Adams, may he rest in peace, used up 100% of his career entertainment value when we got to watch Doink the Clown bludgeon him over the head with a fake arm. They use this squash to talk to Shawn Michaels on the phone. Shawn says that last week's beating at the hands of Bret Hart was a setback, but he doesn't want to talk about Bret over the phone. He says he'll show up at Raw next week to address Bret in person. Savio and Crush execute the Demolition Decapitation to end the match. I have to admit, I had forgotten about Demolition-era Crush when I took that shot earlier. Not that he was great in that role, but it was a lot better than most everything else that followed.



Result: Savio Vega & Crush via pinfall

After commercial, Paul Bearer comes out to creepy music that I'm almost sure was once Papa Shango's. We see footage of Paul Bearer appealing to Undertaker last week to reconcile. He continues on with the same talking points here tonight, saying that his abandonment of Taker allowed Taker to find himself, and now he's the champion. Bearer grovels and begs Undertaker to take him back. The lights flicker, the gong hits, and Undertaker makes his way out. Before entering the ring, he locks a ringside casket as a preventative measure against shenanigans. He enters and picks up a mic. "Betrayal is something that I can never forget. But it is something that I may be able to forgive. For one week's time, my thoughts have been consumed. For many years, we took on the World Wrestling Federation together. And together, we laid many people to rest. And for that, I do owe you. I owe you, Paul Bearer." He hands the WWF Title belt to Bearer. Bearer smiles gleefully, and then Taker attacks with a hard right hand.



Bearer slips out of the ring, and Taker follows him out and stalks him around. Undertaker grabs the urn at ringside, makes like he's going to hit Bearer with it, and here's Mankind out from under the ring. He busts out the flash paper and lights fire in Undertaker's eyes.



Taker writhes in pain. Bearer and Mankind embrace, then escape through the crowd when Sid runs out after them. Taker is blinded, and accidentally spills over the guardrail into the crowd. Officials catch up to him and guide him away.

After commercial, Sid cuts a promo on Mankind from backstage. Undertaker sure did humble Sid when he beat him at WrestleMania with Bret Hart's help. Sid is for some reason now reduced to being a puppy dog following Taker around in hopes of striking up a bromance.

Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Goldust: As mentioned earlier, no valets allowed for this one. Goldust charges into the ring, flinging his wig in HHH's face and immediately attacking. He whips Hunter into the turnbuckle and bulldogs him on the way out. He sends Helmsley out over the top, following him and clotheslining him out there. Out of the blue, Jerry Lawler says, "I want an update on the Hart family! How are those crazy kids doing now?" The King has been highly entertaining tonight, suddenly being Hart fan #1. Jim Ross calls him out on what a ridiculous 180 this is for him toward Bret, but Lawler shrugs it off because Bret has finally seen the light.

Helmsley hits a baseball slide out to the floor on Goldust, then bodyslams him outside. Running clothesline puts Dustin down hard, then Helmsley returns inside to taunt the crowd briefly before going out to roll his man back inside. High knee by Helmsley. Slugs away at Goldust in the corner. Lawler with another Hart-related non-sequitur: "You have to admit, the people in this country ARE pretty sick." Vince: "Stop it!" Swinging neckbreaker by HHH. Drops the knee, gets a two-count. He settles into a reverse chinlock. This match is boring, and I'm deriving most of my entertainment from Jerry Lawler.



Goldust ducks a clothesline and hits a cross-body. Helmsley ducks a clothesline and hits a DDT. Two. HHH dumps his opponent to the outside. He hits him from the second rope to the floor, and now Chyna appears at the top of the ramp. So that "no corner person" thing was just a suggestion. After a commercial break, she heads toward the ring. Goldust connects with a Curtain Call, and Chyna comes in and punts Goldust in the ribs for the blatant DQ.



Result: Goldust via DQ

The beatdown is on. Officials swarm in to get it under control, and HHH actually attacks Pat Patterson. Vince got WAY angrier about Bret Hart hitting Patterson last week. Patterson fights back at Hunter, but Chyna attacks him. Goldust regains his feet and fights back. Chyna faces Goldust down, but Hunter convinces her to leave.

After commercial, Vince brings out Stone Cold Steve Austin for a promo. Half-decent pop for Austin, but nothing like it would soon be. Austin, on WrestleMania, reiterates that he never ever quit. "Bret Hart says he beat me to a bloody pulp. That's the biggest bunch of BS I ever heard, because I knocked the hell out of my head on a guardrail. Bret Hart, you didn't do a damn thing. On your best day - which wasn't WrestleMania - you never got the job done." Wait, so what was his best day? Austin blathers on for a bit; not his best work. Then he calls Bret Hart out, tells him to get out there. Bret appears on the Titantron instead, bragging about kicking Austin's ass at Mania, and says that he's done with him. Austin says he'll have to kill him to be finished with him. "If you thought I looked like a bloody mess at WrestleMania, you'll look 10 times worse than that." Again the promo was a bit of a struggle getting in, but it got better and the crowd ate it up. Good segment overall.



Intercontinental Title - Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Bret Hart: Bret getting some strong heat as he comes to the ring. Rocky getting the exact same embarrassing silence he always gets. Lawler starts raking Rocky Johnson over the coals for interfering the WrestleMania match. "Broke his promise to his son. Family values." Bret offers a handshake, but Rocky isn't having it. Bret with a go-behind takedown into an armbar. Rocky counters into his own arm-wringer and armbar. Bret escapes, Rocky ducks a clothesline, cross-body gets a two-count. Bret with a side headlock takeover, briefly into a pinning combo, then Rocky escapes and transitions back into his own armbar. Some pretty dull mat wrestling to start this thing.

Bret with an Irish whip, drops down, then drives a knee into the gut. Splits the legs and stomps the lower abdomen. He rakes Rocky's eyes along the top rope, then hits an inverted atomic drop and a running clothesline. Bret hammers the undeserving IC Champ in the corner, stomping away and choking with his boot. Commercial. Hart is still in control after we get back, targeting Rocky's lower back. Back suplex gets a two-count. Surprise small package by Rocky gets a near-fall, but Bret is right back on top of him, dropping a standing elbow and hitting a backbreaker. Second-rope elbow misses. Maivia into the babyface comeback, actually busting out a fisherman suplex to get a two-count. Color me surprised that he had that in his repertoire. Belly-to-belly suplex by Rocky for another two. Botched float-over DDT. Maivia to the top, hits the flying bodypress, Bret rolls through and gets a very close near-fall. Hart slaps on the ringpost figure-four. Referee Earl Hebner throws the match out, calling it a DQ or a countout



Result: Rocky Maivia via countout or DQ

Austin comes out and attacks, but here come Owen and Davey right behind to overwhelm Austin.



They begin the beatdown, but here's the LOD to even the score and run the Harts off. As the Harts make their escape, Raw signs off.



Overall: I was entertained. The Hart stuff was mostly pretty great, Lawler was gold on commentary. That's enough for me to call this a good episode.

It's...not coincidental that this thread hits a lull when I arrive at a point when I'm going to do three WCW shows in a row. I'll try to find some WIM to hammer out a show at some point this weekend.

(Sorry to bump without any new content.)

I just got to 1999 in WWF and can't wait to read your thoughts on all this.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well that's about 183 Monday night episodes and 42 PPVs away, so when shaving off a handful of pre-emptions and counting a few of the PPVs as two hours for In Your House...that's just under 400 hours of stuff. Probably will take me 600-700 hours of work.

I'm guessing you'll be waiting until sometime in 2019 for me to get to 1999. Here's hoping I get that far.

Just threw this thread up, inspired at this moment by the fact that I don't really want to write up the next Nitro. Despite that feeling, I'm actually going to power through and fire up the next Nitro now while I see if that thread gathers any nominations for non-MNW stuff that people might want to see during times when I feel like writing up wrestling besides what the schedule here provides.

March 31, 1997

NITRO

Roanoke, VA

We open on highlights from last week, when Randy Savage pulled Prince Iaukea up after a flying elbow instead of just winning the TV Title and taking it away from the jobber who has no business holding it, then Diamond Dallas Page ran in and caused a ruckus that led to a no contest.

After the opening graphics, we see various members of the nWo arriving via limo. Some of the bigger stars, Randy Savage and Kevin Nash, as well as a couple of the jobbers, Scott Norton and Mike Rotundo. And Elizabeth. Tony Schiavone notes what a skeleton crew they seem to be bringing tonight. They again note the absence of Scott Hall.

Lex Luger & The Giant vs. Roadblock & Rick Fuller: Seems like an odd opener. Giant opens things up by having his way with Rick Fuller. Tag to Luger, who enters with an axhandle off the second rope. He gives up a small amount of offense, but comes back with a back suplex. Fuller rakes him in the eyes, tags to Roadblock, and Roadblock executes a corner whip and a big avalanche in the corner. Lex falls into a brief heat segment, really doing that over-the-top Luger screaming tonight as he takes each move. Roadblock misses on an elbow drop, enabling Luger to make the hot tag to The Giant. Giant enters with a headbutt, throws big boots at both of the oversized jobbers, then throws a double clothesline at both of them. He chokeslams Roadblock and records the pinfall.



Result: Lex Luger & The Giant via pinfall

Here comes Harlem Heat on the run-in. They attack Luger and The Giant from behind, but the faces hold their own as the show goes to commercial. If they really want to hype this four corners match for the PPV, they would really have done better to let the Heat at least get the better of Lex and the Giant on an ambush. As it is, they just seem like an overwhelmed mismatch.

Back from break, the Heat and Sister Sherri are with Mean Gene. Booker T yells, "We take what we want!" No racial slurs to follow. Wait, I just realized: I think that's actually a pre-match promo for this very match they're hyping. We'll see if I'm right about that. Stevie and Sherri wrap up this promo to hype the PPV match.



Women's Cruiserweight Title First Round Tournament Match - Meiko Satomura vs. Toshie Uematsu: Well…I have zero recollection of this tournament, or this apparent title, being a thing. Based on that, I'm guessing this got quietly dropped before it ever got anywhere. But in the meantime, here we are. I mean, most women's wrestlers are not very big in stature, so it's like this division would exist entirely to be a "no Aja Kong" division. And they barely even have Women's heavyweight matches as it is, so…yeah. This is a bit odd. Anyway, Mike Tenay joins the broadcast for the match.

Uematsu hits a dropkick at the opening bell. Satomura fights back with an armbreaker and then stomps away in the corner before executing another armbreaker. Satomura has this weird perma-smile that never leaves her face no matter what she's doing. She attempts a frog splash, but hits Uematsu's knees on the way down, probably temporarily removing the smile. Uematsu commits a weird botch in the corner. Satomura climbs the ropes to try to attack again, but Uematsu throws her off. Uematsu with the big top-rope splash, 1-2-3, and she advances in a tournament that may or may not continue to exist.



Result: Toshie Uematsu via pinfall

Psicosis vs. Villano IV: Hey, a Psicosis enhancement match? I approve. He holds Villano in an armbar, Villano flips out of it, knocks Psicosis to the mat, and slaps on his own armbar/wristlock. Psicosis temporarily escapes, but soon finds himself in a side headlock. Villano mostly controls this early mat wrestling, and actually throws a nice hurracanrana out of nowhere. Psicosis finally fights back with a hard running clothesline. He crotches Villano along the top rope, then scales the ropes and hits a spinning wheel kick that knocks Villano to the floor. Top-rope corkcrew moonsault by Psicosis connects.



He rolls Villano in, goes up top, jumps off the ropes, and then there's a botch where Villano was meant to counter. He sort of awkwardly puts him down and pins him for a two-count. Villano with something of a sunset flip for another two. I think I mislabeled this when I called it an enhancement match, as Villano is getting most of the offense. They cut backstage to Kevin Nash and cool guy Scott Norton talking with Syxx and Mike Rotundo. They're squabbling; Rotundo says that somebody needs to take control and show some leadership. He ultimately says, "who needs this?" and leaves. When you've lost Mike ****ing Rotundo, you've lost middle America. Back to the ring, Villano misses on a top-rope moonsault. Psicosis hits a superkick, drops a guillotine legdrop off the top, and records the pinfall.

Result: Psicosis via pinfall

Mean Gene, center of the ring, brings out Ric Flair to a huge ovation that you would mostly only expect in North Carolina (though I suppose Virginia is a neighbor). Flair hasn't gotten much further than "MEEEAN GENE" when we're interrupted by the sound of bagpipes. Here's Rowdy Roddy Piper, to the surprise of all. Piper fires a shot right away, saying that Flair's girlfriends call his waterbed "the Dead Sea." Flair says that he's glad that Piper could humble his Hollywood ass for long enough to come to Nitro. This continues to be presented as two old friends who are kind of pissed at each other, but still like each other. I don't fully get how we got here, really; Flair offered his services to Piper at the PPV, then didn't show up, and has now just been taking verbal shots at him for no kayfabe reason that I understand.



Piper suggests that, instead of arguing, they should stand side-by-side. Flair invites some random girl into the ring. She hugs Piper. Then they all leave together, apparently to go out on the town. They embrace before leaving. Again, I don't really get this whole thing.

We see clips from last week, when the nWo laid out Diamond Dallas Page and Prince Iaukea.

TV Title - Prince Iaukea (c) vs. La Parka: La Parka charges at the opening bell, but comes up empty in the corner. Iaukea fights back, but La Parka hits a spinning wheel kick. They have a botch a moment later, as La Parka climbs the ropes and clearly meant to flip behind a charging Prince Iaukea, but instead he largely connected, so it's like he accidentally moonsaulted him. Can't really tell which one was more at fault there. Scoop powerslam by La Parka, who climbs back up top and connects on a backsplash. Two-count. Twisting splash off the top rope for another two. The challenger chops away in the corner, corner whip, but then he hurts his shoulder lunging in and missing on a corner charge. He rolls outside. Iaukea hits a springboard cross-body off the apron, springing off the second rope.

La Parka whips Iaukea into the guardrail, then retrieves a steel chair from under the ring. The referee is coming to get it, but instead of using it as a weapon, La Parka folds it open and sits the Prince down in it. La Parka to the inside of the ring, suicide dive through the middle rope connects, sending Iaukea backward and I guess sort of having the chair add to the impact? Both make their way back inside the ring. Iaukea with a crescent kick. He goes up top, but his cross-body misses. La Parka knocks Prince to the outside, picks the same chair back up, sets it up sideways on the apron, and Iaukea just openly keeps it from falling over so that La Parka can baseball slide through the chair into him. That came off terribly; let's cool it with the contrived chair-related spots that aren't adding anything. As the fight continues, the bell rings, but apparently THAT was a botch too, and the match will continue. This is a mess. Back in the ring, Iaukea goes up top, La Parka picks up a chair and holds it up as a shield, and Iaukea connects on the cross-body and just pins him anyway. Holy crap this was a trainwreck.



Result: Prince Iaukea via pinfall

Mean Gene brings out Lord Steven Regal, who has apparently switched away from the Bluebloods entrance theme and adopted the Prince of Denmark's March. Regal fumbles over his lines and struggles a bit with the promo. He vows to take the TV Title from Prince Iaukea and then to issue his first challenge as champion to Rey Mysterio Jr. Then he heads to the ring to wrestle.

Lord Steven Regal vs. Chris Jericho: The fans chant "USA," which I assume might be inspiring to the referee or something. Armbar by Regal, Jericho counters into a wristlock, the two continue the back-and-forth until Jericho takes a few steps back and hits a running clothesline. Spinning wheel kick knocks Regal to the floor. As he tries to re-enter, Jericho hits a springboard dropkick from the second rope to the apron. Jericho suplexes Regal inside, hits a Lionsault, two-count. He chops Regal, sets him up on top, seemingly to set up a super hurracanrana, but Regal shoves him down to the mat. Lord Steven hits a couple of knees and a European uppercut, but Jericho hits a superkick, then suddenly rolls him up, bridging backward, and records a quick surprise three-count.



Result: Chris Jericho via pinfall

Regal instantly jumps Jericho upon losing, hitting a butterfly superplex and a piledriver, then locking on the Regal Stretch and refusing to release. In for the save is…Renegade? But Renegade just runs up to him and then backs off. WTF. Here's Joe Gomez to actually force Regal off, but Regal piledrives him for his trouble as well. Billy Kidman is next to try to play hero, but gets dumped out. Lenny Lane out next, and Regal hits a low blow on him before dumping him out. Jericho must only have the love and affection of jobbers, because nobody else comes out, and Regal ultimately holds the ring as Nitro goes to commercials.



Onto hour #2. Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay are alongside Tony Schiavone. They discuss the first hour as a fan in the background proudly holds up a Confederate flag. This discussion time is spent on speculating about troubles within the nWo that seemed to be hinted at earlier.

Oh, and here's Mike Rotundo angrily kicking the door and leaving the arena. Tony is shocked by this, despite the fact that they just showed and discussed the earlier footage of him storming away from the other nWo members.

Women's Title - Akira Hokuto (c) (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Debbie Combs: Debbie Combs looks just like one of those Glamour Girls that Jimmy Hart temporarily managed at the first Royal Rumble. She was pushing 40 by this point. Hokuto attacks her early, getting her down and then choking her with her boot. Sonny Onoo actually gets involved and hangs Combs across the top rope while the referee is distracted. Combs gets her first move in, a terrible, terrible gutwrench suplex. She hits a running cross-body and records a two-count. Hokuto hits a German suplex, bridges and holds Combs down, and records the pin. Let's never see Debbie Combs again please.



Result: Akira Hokuto via pinfall

Madusa comes out for an interview with Mean Gene. Before she has said much, Akira Hokuto jumps her. This ends in a pull-apart brawl, with women from the back and Debbie Combs trying to pull the two rivals apart from each other.

We're back at the announce table so that we can see the Confederate flag dude in the background and listen to the announcers drone on for a bit longer. They wonder what Sting is going to do next. Then they throw it to a video montage that chronicles the Sting situation so far.

After commercials, we see footage of High Voltage defeating Public Enemy last week after Jeff Jarrett came down and ran interference. Mike Tenay says that the WCW brass took notice of this win, and is giving High Voltage a shot at the Steiners later.

The Amazing French Canadians (w/ Col. Parker) vs. Jeff Jarrett & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra): Jarrett ducks an early Carl Ouellet clothesline, causing Ouellet to clothesline Jacques Rougeau. Mongo comes in and hits a dropkick to clear Ouellet out, and the Horsemen hold the ring. That doesn't last long, as the Canadians regroup, re-enter, and get an advantage over JJ. They double-team Jeff, Jacques slamming Ouellet on top of him. Jarrett manages a tag pretty quickly though, and Mongo comes in to take on both Canadians.

As Mongo is on offense, here comes Public Enemy. They accost Debra, with Johnny Grunge taking her briefcase away. They're going to use the briefcase as a weapon to hit Jarrett with, but for some reason Col. Parker pulls the briefcase away, saving the wrestler on the other side. But he slips the briefcase to Jacques, Jacques clobbers Mongo, Ouellet makes the pin, and the Canadians ship the win.

Result: Amazing French Canadians via pinfall

Mean Gene joins Jarrett, Mongo, and Debra in the ring. They're upset after the loss. Mongo blames Jarrett for the fact that he got hit with the briefcase. More feuding between these two that nobody could possibly care about. Gene pulls the plug and sends the show to break while they're still yelling at each other.



Before the next match, we see last week's Dungeon of Doom beatdown on Chris Benoit, including Dean Malenko running out for the save despite the fact that they are scheduled to face off at Spring Stampede.

Hugh Morrus (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman): Morrus gets the first few strikes in, but Benoit fights his way out of the corner with chops, and throws a suplex. Stomp, headbutt, corner smash, chop. Morrus turns Benoit around in the corner, gives him a receipt on the chop, then executes a corner whip and an avalanche. Powerslam. Morrus goes to the ropes as if to climb them, then blatantly stalls and waits for Benoit to hit his spot. Benoit eventually makes his way over, hits a German suplex, and records the quick pinfall.

Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall

The second the pin is recorded, Konnan and Kevin Sullivan come pouring into the ring, Jacqueline appears as well, and it's open season on Benoit. Sullivan and Jimmy Hart hold Benoit and allow Jackie to hit a top-rope splash. She tries to do it a second time, but Woman knocks her off. The beatdown continues until Ric Flair makes his way down. Flair, by all means bumbling around like an old man, slowly clears the ring of the whole faction, with the Dungeon all politely waiting for him to unload slow punches on them.



Arn Anderson has also made his way down to ringside. Sullivan starts stalking Woman around the ring, but Arn pulls Woman behind him and stands in Sullivan's way. Sullivan appears to say "let me pass," Arn stands aside, and the Dungeon leaves with their tails tucked between their legs.

Mean Gene comes down to grab a word. Benoit says that, to whatever extent Sullivan is a victim in this situation, he did it to himself. He turns his attention to Dean Malenko and says that the respect between them runs both ways, but that he's going to be victorious over him this Sunday. This was a bit better talking than usual from Benoit. Flair says that Benoit is going to be the US Champion, signs off with a "whooo," and we're at commercials.

Here's more footage of DDP being beat down by the nWo last week.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Lance Ringo: Ringo is a generic jobber, but he does get an entrance and brings the nude Kimberly Page magazine to the ring with him. Page laughs off the magazine taunting at first, before hauling off with a hard right and a series of chops in the corner. He gets almost all of the offense over the course of a short squash match, only giving up a temporary sequence where Ringo hangs him along the top rope and connects on a dropkick. DDP ends up polishing things off with a Diamond Cutter out of a fireman's carry.

Result: DDP via pinfall

Gene Okerlund out for another interview, this time with DDP. He addresses the magazine first. "Jenny McCarthy, Pamela Anderson, Cindy Crawford, and my wife Kimberly. The most beautiful women in the world. Let's get something straight for all the idiots out there that don't understand this: we're real proud of this." He says that what he isn't proud of is what Randy Savage and "his bimbo Liz" did to his wife at Uncensored. Says he isn't going to forget it. "Savage, you want to come into my real world…I'm gonna snap into yours." Savage shows up in the crowd with a microphone. Savage cuts a promo here on DDP, taunting him, saying that he doesn't think Page "has any family jewels." Page says that Kimberly will be there on Sunday, and tells Savage to bring his bimbo Liz. "I'm bringing the lady, so you might as well bring the tramp." DDP was pretty tremendous here. Savage…less so. But this was the first good hype segment to turn up on this go-home show.



The Steiner Brothers vs. High Voltage: Tony introduced this match as "our feature bout," which is funny since (1) it involves High Voltage, and (2) High Voltage got a jobber entrance. Scott Steiner vs. Kenny Kaos to start. Scott hits a pumphandle slam, then tags in brother Rick. Rick with a hard clothesline, then a release German that sends Kaos rolling out of the ring. When Rick tries following Kaos to the floor, Robbie Rage runs interference and rams him into the ringpost, actually targeted to Rick's injured ear. High Voltage isolates Rick for a couple of minutes. For what it's worth, the High Voltage guys seemed like fairly capable workers, and it wasn't unreasonable for the announcers to talk up their potential as they would occasionally do, but things just never advanced for them.

Rage misses on a somersault back splash, allowing Rick to make the hot tag to Scott. Scott dominates both High Voltage members, then ends things with the Steiner Screwdriver on Rage.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

As the announcers go into wrap-up mode, Kevin Nash and Syxx come out and commandeer the announce table. Nash says, "You know, the President has the State of the Union address every couple of months." Wat. "It's time that the nWo has a State of the Union address." He says he doesn't know what's going on with the nWo. He says that Scott Hall is off taking care of business that's more important than professional wrestling. Says, with irritation, that Bischoff, Hogan, DiBiase, and Vincent are all off at Dennis Rodman's movie opening. He addresses them, says they'd better get focused, because he's getting sick of this, and he's one guy who can stand alone. "All you Napoleons back there. You know who you are. All you guys who can't get on the adult ride because you don't make the height requirement…the only reason you people breathe is because I ALLOW IT!" Zero ****ing idea what that means. He vows that, as long as he has breath in his lungs, he'll fight WCW by himself. The show signs off.



Overall: Garbage episode. The DDP-Savage segment near the end was a redeeming one, but most of the episode was worthless. The wrestling wasn't good, and the stories on Nitro at this point are utterly worthless. Can hardly wait for the next installment of Mongo and Jarrett doing the exact same segment.

Ratings for 3/31/97: Nitro 3.4, Raw 2.7
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 56-17-2

Better Show: Raw by a huge margin.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 53-22

Match of the Night: Owen Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith

MARCH 1997 IN REVIEW

Arrivals:
WCW - Dennis Rodman (from NBA); Wrath (from WWF); Mortis is sort of another, but he was just a repackage…Chris Kanyon had been jobbing for the company for a while
WWF - N/A

Match of the Month: By the biggest margin in the history of the world, Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13

PPV of the Month: WrestleMania 13

Ratings: Nitro still crushing every single week.

Quality: WWF is the far better company at this point from a quality standpoint. That gap is probably only going to widen further as 1997 goes on.

Gif of the Month:

Bearish as I am on Nitro at this point, Spring Stampede does have Rey vs. Ultimo, Malenko vs. Benoit, and DDP vs. Savage, so I'm hopeful that the PPV will be watchable.

It really is interesting to look back and see how long it took for the ratings to flock to raw despite it being better quality. I assume it's going to take a lot longer as well. I'm looking forward to seeing WCW progress and whether those people flocked back because of something huge on raw captivating them like the formation of the NWO did to get them to wcw in the first place, if it was just eventual tiredness of wcw declining, or a major wcw moment that pissed them off and sent them elsewhere.

I know the whole "put asses in the seats" and the hogan/goldberg on nitro things are often mentioned as big points, but it'll be nice to see it develop instead of hearing it secondhand

WWF didn't win a week of ratings until spring of 1998. Amazing for the reasons you stated. 53 or 54 more weeks from where LKJ just finished.

As someone who was an irrational WWF homer at the time, I don't know that I even particularly noticed that there was a clear point at which WWF overtook WCW in quality, because I was just always convinced that they had the better company to begin with. As I was going back through this and felt that WCW was crushing WWF in quality during Nitro's first year, I do find myself surprised that things flipped so starkly so long before WWF ever recorded a single ratings win. I remembered WWF getting really good in 1997, so unfortunately the surprise is all in how bad WCW got already. Hopefully there are still some better days ahead for WCW before they actually bottom out.