May 5, 1997

RAW

Green Bay, WI

We open with highlights chronicling last week's episode. Cliffs: Brian Pillman officially joins the Hart Foundation, Owen Hart ships the IC Title, then Jim Neidhart returns and joins the Hart Foundation as well, allowing Bret Hart to knock Steve Austin off the top of the ramp by blindsiding him with one of his crutches.

After the credits, we hear the squealing guitar that signals the entrance of Bret Hart, the Titantron fills with a video that seems to represent the whole new Hart Foundation faction, and the whole group emerges at the top of the ramp, with the British Bulldog wheeling Bret Hart - rocking an Edmonton Oilers jersey this evening - to the ring. Bret Hart starts the promo by thanking his fans from all around the world, name-checking a few countries and saying "especially Canada," and snubs the American fans. He thanks Brian Pillman for his "heartfelt words and inspiration" last week. He congratulates and commends Owen for winning the Intercontinental Title. He thanks Bulldog for thrashing the Undertaker last week, which didn't really happen. Finally he thanks his good friend Jim Neidhart for rescuing him from the compromised position that he was in last week at the end of the show.



Bret says that he doesn't think that we'll be seeing Steve Austin tonight. Doesn't think he has "the jam." That's a new one on me. He talks up his group a bit more, then says that they need to destroy someone else: he says that he's going to "unleash his lions" on Shawn Michaels. The promo ends on that note.

The announcers weigh in for the first time, and Jim Ross says that we're actually scheduled to get Steve Austin vs. The British Bulldog tonight, even though nobody has seen Austin yet. He really shouldn't be wrestling a week after he was knocked off the platform and stretchered away.

Ahmed Johnson vs. Rockabilly (w/ The Honky Tonk Man): So yeah, it does seem like they pretty instantly waved the white flag on this Rockabilly thing. They may as well have just pretended that the original reveal of this gimmick had never happened. Ahmed is wearing sweatpants tonight, and he attacks Rockabilly before the bell, incapacitating him from the word go. After an early flurry of offense, he does take too long before following up, and it allows Billy the recovery time needed to counter Ahmed's follow-up and hang him across the top rope. Here's a PIP promo from Faarooq, who says that he recruited "three of the biggest, baddest ghetto men" for Crush to take on tonight just to prove that it isn't that impressive to go one-on-three.

Billy has kept the advantage since originally hanging Ahmed over the top rope, and after an Irish whip he slaps on a sleeper. Ahmed fades down to a seated position, hand drops twice, and then for some reason Billy lets him go right as referee Jack Doan is about to let Ahmed's hand drop a third time. Ahmed's hand does drop upon release of the hold, but it doesn't count as a KO. Honky Tonk Man gets up on the apron and runs distraction, Billy goes and gets the guitar, but Ahmed kicks him in the gut, takes the guitar for himself, and absolutely hammers Billy with it right in plain view of the referee. That's a DQ.



Result: Rockabilly via DQ

Backstage, the Hart Foundation goes breaking into some jobber locker room containing a few no-name jobbers and Bob Holly. They're unduly upset that Shawn Michaels isn't in here, but it looks to me like it's embarrassing enough for Bob Holly to be stuck in there.



After commercials, we see more footage of the Hart Foundation unsuccessfully searching for Shawn Michaels during the break.

Here's another hype video for Ken Shamrock in advance of his no-holds-barred encounter with Vader this coming Sunday. Shamrock is also out to sit at ringside for commentary for the next match.

Vader vs. Goldust (w/ Marlena): Couple of early lock-ups end in a stalemate. Shamrock is absolutely brutal on commentary, obsessed with talking about his "zone," surely saying that word 10+ times in really quick succession. Goldust spears Vader to the mat and lands a series of rights. Back to their feet, Goldust sends him into the corner, mounts his man in the corner and rains down more punches. He's managing to mostly control this match with Vader until he goes for an ill-advised sunset flip; Vader blocks and then sits down on him. The big man then immediately bails out of the ring and confronts Shamrock at ringside…the two jaw back and forth as the show goes to commercial.

Back from break, Vader is hammering Goldust in the corner and then shooting another death glare at Shamrock from the ring. He hits a splash and then pulls Goldust up, slapping on a reverse chinlock. Back up to their feet, Vader whips Goldust into the corner, tries to follow him in with a cross-body, but Goldust catches him and counters into a powerslam. Series of right hands and an elbow by Goldust. Vader reverses a corner whip, slams Goldy down right in front of the corner, then climbs the ropes and hits the Vaderbomb, recording the clean pinfall.



Result: Vader via pinfall

Vader tries to taunt Shamrock into the ring after the match. Shamrock starts to resist, but then Vader spits at him, which sets Shamrock off.



Shamrock slams down his headset, runs in and attacks, but here's Mankind to attack Shamrock. Goldust comes back in and mops up Mankind, and Goldust and Shamrock end up holding the ring. Shamrock had some sort of generic music here that I don't recognize…it wouldn't be this for long.

They send it next to a pre-recorded sit-down interview that Jim Ross conducted with Dustin and Terri Runnels. Ross calls them by their real names and acknowledges them as husband and wife. It's led into with a montage where they acknowledge Dustin's life biography, including his relationship with his father Dusty Rhodes. They show some of the early footage of when young Dustin first debuted as wrestler Dustin Rhodes for a brief period of time during the Golden Era. Ross acknowledged that this run was a failure, saying that he "couldn't get out from under Dusty's shadow." He explains that, in order to carve his own path, Dustin took an enormous risk by taking on the Goldust character.

Dustin talks about how disappointed he was by all the hate he got when he emerged on the scene as Goldust. Says that he worried about whether the whole thing had been a big mistake. They take a moment to bury Scott Hall for Hall's apparent refusal to continue wrestling him. Hall did disappear during their feud, though I thought that was a matter of a failed drug test and then a departure to WCW. That said, Hall admitted in shoot interviews that the feud made him uncomfortable. Dustin said that he had received letters from gay people, and that he felt that he had gained some understanding of what they go through. He says that he's relieved to pull back the curtain and acknowledge who he really is, says that he's happy with the Goldust character and with the family life he leads.



Ross asks him the question of whether he feels that he has gained his dad's respect. "Well…I really don't have any idea. You know, it's been about two years, two and a half years, since I've talked to him. I hope he is. Dad, if you're watching, which I know you are, I love ya, I hope you're proud of me. But, uhh, I mean, I have my family and I'm taking care of them. I'm doing the best that I can possibly do, you know?" Terri says, "I think that's pretty damn good." Dustin says that he hopes the people can learn to accept him for who he is.

Even as an uptight traditionalist, I love this segment. It wasn't just breaking kayfabe for the sake of it; it was breaking it with a great vision of how to get Dustin over as a babyface when it wasn't working that well. It seemed heartfelt and genuine, and it makes me happy to know that Dustin and Dusty didn't remain estranged forever.

Jim Ross says that there is a part two to this interview, coming next week. Jerry Lawler, despite his kayfabe differences with Goldust, admits in response to a question from Vince that it was courageous for Dustin to bare his soul to the world like that, then adds that of course he would be courageous enough to do that too. I appreciate the way he straddled the reality line while maintaining a semblance of heel character.

Backstage, the Hart Foundation is shown huddled right outside of a men's room, thinking they've got Shawn Michaels cornered. A guy comes out, they jump him, and he turns out to be a total random. In a funny moment, they realize they've got the wrong guy, briefly stop, and then suddenly just go back to beating this guy down for no particular reason. I laughed out loud.



Before the next match, Faarooq talks about how he's found three of the baddest men he could find, and that Crush is going to take them down tonight.

Gauntlet Match - Crush vs. three randoms: Random #1 runs down, Crush hits him with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, pulls him up on two, converts a press slam into a gutbuster and then scores the first pin. Random #2 runs down - I recognize him from appearing in the loser locker room alongside Bob Holly earlier. This guy actually attempts a top-rope cross-body, but Crush sloppily converts it into a powerslam. Belly-to-belly suplex, three straight legdrops, and then Crush pulls him up. Heart punch --> second pin.

I thought it odd that Crush used his finisher to take out the second one rather than holding it until the third jobber, but that questioning ended quickly, as a huge guy in a Packers jacket and a mask - really obviously Ahmed Johnson - runs down as the third competitor. He kicks Crush in the gut, hits the Pearl River Plunge, scores the pinfall, and then reveals his identity as he backs up the aisle, screaming at the whole Nation of Domination.



Result: Ahmed Johnson via pinfall

Hart Foundation is shown outside the arena, still futilely searching for Shawn Michaels. Nothing going on here.

After commercials, Shawn Michaels, not hiding of course, just comes out for a seemingly regularly-scheduled interview segment with Vince McMahon. Shawn tells Steve Austin that if Austin thinks that he can take on the entire Hart Foundation by himself, he's wrong, but that in any case he can't promise that he won't get involved again. He says that he wants to make it clear, "It's not to help you; it's to hurt them." After kissing the fans' asses for a moment, Shawn turns his attention to the Hart Foundation and says "there is no more powerful faction in this business than the Kliq." Vince asks Shawn when he's going to wrestle again. Shawn says that he's going to return to action at King of the Ring in a month's time. He turns his attention back to Bret, cuts a generic promo that we've heard before on him, and that's the end of the promo.

As HBK takes a lap around the ring, high-fiving fans, Bret Hart and Brian Pillman show up on the Titantron. Bret says that he doesn't think that Shawn is actually hurt, and challenges Shawn to take on Jim Neidhart right here and now. Michaels seems to gesture in the affirmative, and here comes the Anvil. There is no official in the ring, but Anvil enters, Shawn attacks, and then here come Owen Hart and the British Bulldog to ambush Michaels. Legion of Doom is out quickly to even the score, and the faces hold the ring.



After commercials, Shawn, wielding a steel chair, is angrily stalking through the back, presumably looking for Bret.

Before the next match, Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon are shown on a pre-recorded split-screen promo. Furnas says that everyone knows that they didn't lose fair and square to LOD last week. "They had the fans behind them, instead of behind us like they should have been. Well tonight's gonna be different; they're gonna be behind us all the way." LaFon, with hilarious monotony, adds, "It's easy to see that we're the most exciting team in the WWF."

Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon vs. Legion of Doom: LaFon vs. Hawk to start. Hawk powers him to the mat. LaFon with a back kick and a couple of chops, but Hawk is back at him with much harder chops. He flings LaFon to the mat, smacks him around, then clotheslines him back down to the mat. Furnas and Animal tag in. Those two grapple into the corner, Animal gives a clean break, and Furnas takes a cheap shot. Animal reverses a corner whip, but Furnas fights his way out. Animal comes back at him with a jumping shoulderblock.

We see backstage footage of Shawn Michaels trying to get at Brian Pillman backstage, as officials keep them separated. Raw goes to break. After the break, Animal goes for a running clothesline, but Furnas ducks and counters it into a backdrop over the top to the floor. As referee Jack Doan is distracted, LaFon takes his shots at Animal outside the ring before rolling him in; Furnas gets a two-count. Double-team by Furnas and LaFon, as they hit a double suplex and LaFon gets another two-count. Loud "LOD" chants from the crowd. Animal counters LaFon's follow-up into an inverted atomic drop, but is still in recovery as LaFon tags Furnas. Furnas with the patented dropkick, the teammates go for another double suplex, but Animal counters by suplexing both himself.

Hot tag to Hawk. He clotheslines Furnas to the floor, chokeslams LaFon, and…here's the British Bulldog walking down the aisle. During this latest referee distraction, Owen Hart shows up, hangs Hawk along the top rope, and this enables Furnas and LaFon to score the upset.



Result: Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon via pinfall

Backstage, Shawn Michaels is brawling with both Jim Neidhart and Brian Pillman, officials again trying to separate them, when Steve Austin shows up and fights the Harts down. The brawl is still ongoing when the show returns to the arena.

The Undertaker comes out to cut an in-ring promo. He says that his belt has been stolen, but that he is the WWF Champion. He addresses the thief and says that the thief is playing "a deadly game," and threatens that he will pay dearly. "And as far as Stone Cold Steve Austin goes: the flame that is your fury will be extinguished by the darkness. Austin, I respect the flame, but it will be a cold day in Hell before you become World Wrestling Federation Champion." (Fast forward less than a year to Undertaker taping his fists backstage…)



Scheduled for the main event, the British Bulldog doesn't answer his entrance music for a really long time, but finally does emerge at the top of the ramp.

The British Bulldog vs. Steve Austin: Austin charges in and attacks before the bell, and the two trade fists. Clothesline by Stone Cold, who stomps the lower abdomen and gets an early two-count. He works over Bulldog's left arm, first with hammerlocks and then with arm-wringers and periodic wrenches of the arm. We go to commercials.

Back from break, the Bulldog throws a backdrop, but misses on an elbow. He rares back and kicks Austin straight in the crotch, right in plain view of Earl Hebner, but there's no disqualification. Bulldog stomps away and slaps on a reverse chinlock. Back up to a vertical position, and we get the delayed suplex before returning to the chinlock. JR comments that he doesn't think the Bulldog has ever been better. In something of a non-sequitir, Lawler eagerly interjects, "He dumped the Dynamite Kid just like the Donald dumped Marla Trump. Didn't need him!" Vince: "Okay, come on, let's be nice."

Austin launches a comeback, hitting a Thesz press, throwing a series of right hands, and then attempting a Sharpshooter before Bulldog musters the leg strength to power him off. Bulldog returns to the chinlock, which has been a crutch for him in this uninspiring match. Austin makes his way back to his feet, and breaks the hold with a back suplex. The show goes to another commercial break. After break, Bulldog is in the advantage, and gets Austin poised for the running powerslam. Austin escapes behind, hammers on Davey, and after stopping short of Davey's backdrop attempt, Austin lands a kick to the gut, a Stone Cold Stunner, and scores the win.



Result: Steve Austin via pinfall

Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart come running in to attack Austin, and they have the WWF Title belt with them, I guess revealing them as the thieves of the belt that we just found out was stolen. They beat on Stone Cold 3-on-1, Owen repeatedly hammering him with the belt, but here comes LOD for another save. Furnas and LaFon enter, you would expect to be in aid of the Hart Foundation, but Owen attacks LaFon immediately, so I guess there's no alliance there. Just as well, since they were just feuding. Now here's Shawn Michaels, who guns straight for the Anvil, and various people are brawling everywhere when the lights come down and the Undertaker's gong hits. As the lights come up, Taker is in the ring. He attacks and Owen and the Anvil, and the brawl continues. The faces end up clearing the Harts (and Furnas and LaFon) out.

Austin had picked up the title belt in the meantime, but Taker rips it away from him. He then lays it down on the mat between them and stands back, seemingly ready to fight right then. They do come to blows a moment later. They fight to the floor, where officials try to break the fight up. Taker sends Austin hard into the steel steps, then actually turns and hits multiple officials. Austin slams Taker into the steps. Officials continue to try to separate the two men, but the two keep brawling as the show goes off the air. This was a lame go-home segment before the PPV.



Overall: Not a very good episode. Aside from the Dustin Rhodes stuff, everything felt like a rehash of recent weeks; they were just filling time to try to get to the PPV.

Ratings for 5/5/97: Nitro 3.2, Raw 2.8
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 61-17-2

Better Show: Raw by default; it would be very difficult to be much worse than Nitro this week.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 55-25

Match of the Night: FFS. Do I really have to do this? … Public Enemy vs. Hugh Morrus & Konnan

On the WM XII episode of TLF they mention that it was supposed to be Hall vs Goldust in a Miami street fight. Hall refused to work with him because he didn't want his kids being made fun of at school who were in grade school at the time.

WWF IN YOUR HOUSE 15: A COLD DAY IN HELL



Richmond, VA

Opening graphic hypes Undertaker vs. Steve Austin. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are on the call for this event, with no sign of Vince McMahon on announce duties this time.

Flash Funk vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna): Funk with a side headlock, releases off the ropes and hits a shoulderblock before following with an armdrag, a dropkick, and another armdrag into an armbar. Jim Ross notes that the Hart Foundation has secured five seats at ringside; they pan for a moment to those empty chairs. Flash dropkicks Helmsley out of the ring, then hops up onto the second corner and hits a flying shoulderblock to the floor. He returns to the ring, attempts a baseball slide that Hunter sidesteps, and now as Hunter distracts referee Jimmy Korderas, Chyna absolutely clobbers Funk from behind with a clothesline.

HHH sends Flash back inside, and when Flash tries to fight back, Hunter stops short of a backdrop attempt and jacks Funk's jaw with his knee. H backs him into a corner, chops and boots away, and then showboats a bit before against distracting Korderas and enabling Chyna to land a sucker punch from ringside. Helmsley quickly capitalizes with a pin attempt, but only gets two. He drops a knee and gets another near-fall. Lands a few right hands and then buries his knee into the abdomen of Flash Funk. Irish whip and a running high knee…several of the spots here look kind of sloppy, as these two aren't totally in sync on their timing. Helmsley smacks Funk across the chest a couple of times while Funk is on the apron, then rares back and hits another high knee that sends Funk sprawling hard to the floor.

He returns Funk inside, and scales the ropes to try to follow up, but takes too long and runs square into a boot to the face. After a bit of recovery, Funk starts the comeback with a sweep of the leg and a back bodydrop. Hits a running clothesline, signals for the 450 splash, but at least first settles for a slingshot legdrop that gets two. Connects with a cross-body off the ropes, but sits up instead of trying for a pin. Hard corner whip, spinning heel kick, and now Flash scales the ropes but gets picked off by HHH in the process, who hits him and crotches him along the top. Back superplex turns Funk all the way over. Pedigree sort of connects, despite Flash protecting himself so thoroughly with a knee that it looks like nothing at all. In any case, Helmsley records the pinfall. This was utterly heatless and not at all interesting.



Result: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley via pinfall
Rating: *3/4

Chyna picks Flash up and crotches him along the top rope after the match.

They send it to some footage of Ken Shamrock in the UFC octagon, then interview him live on the Titantron. They give us footage of Mankind and Vader ambushing him in the locker room earlier. Shamrock informs us that he is still in the zone and that he will not be knocked out of the zone. While I don't think that it has the comedic potential of "Scott Norton never sells anything," Shamrock's obsession with "the zone" is pretty great.

During ring entrances for the next match, we see the footage of Mankind burning Undertaker's face on Raw last month. We also get a backstage interview with Rocky Maivia. Todd Pettengill asks him if success came too soon. Rocky says, "Yeah, maybe it did come too soon. … I learned a hell of a lot on the way up, but I also learned a whole hell of a lot more on the way down."

Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia: After the opening bell, Mankind just sits and rocks back and forth, Rocky not knowing how to approach him. When Rocky turns his back, Mankind gets up and attacks, but Rocky blocks and fires back. He hits a dropkick and then clotheslines Mankind out over the top. Mankind drags him to the floor, rakes the back, slams him into the apron, and then returns him inside. Rocky reverses an Irish whip and hits a powerslam. He counters Mankind's armbar attempt into a hammerlock. Mankind fights his way loose, Rocky sidesteps and trips him, but Mankind knocks him to the outside, after which he hits a somersault from the apron to the floor.



Foley rolls back inside the ring and awaits his prey, eventually getting impatient and pulling Rocky back inside himself. He beats the young man down in the corner, then gets a running start and drives a knee into Rocky's face. Jim Ross says that in the recent Raw magazine, Mankind described him as "a loving father." Lawler says, "Some weird people can be fathers. … You got any kids, Ross?" Ross replies, "I have two lovely daughters. You want to talk about your kids? … I didn't think so." Mankind and Rocky clothesline each other in the middle of the ring. JR openly wonders, "I don't know why people are upset about Rocky Maivia's success. He didn't ask for that match with Hunter Hearst-Helmsley in February." Lawler says it was a fluke. Ross says, "I don't think it was a fluke. … I mean, I don't think the better man won that night, but…" He doesn't finish the sentence when he gets interrupted by a spot. It's interesting; I didn't remember them basically just openly admitting like this that their hotshotting of Rocky was a bad booking idea.

Rocky throws a series of rights at Mankind outside the ring, driving him up the aisle. He goes back and breaks the count, then returns to Mankind and hits a Rock Bottom (still not a finisher) on the steel grating.



Ross: "They say wrestlers know how to fall. How in the hell do you learn how to fall on a steel grating?" Rocky returns Mankind inside and gets a two-count. He attempts a corner whip, but Mankind collapses short of the corner. Belly-to-belly by Maivia gets two. Mankind fights back with a clothesline. After a brief moment of recovery for both, Rocky slaps on a surprise small package that gets a near-fall. He hits a big clothesline to Mankind's back, then picks him up and hits a shoulderbreaker. Wasn't that his finisher? He doesn't attempt a pin though, instead going up to the top rope. He hits the flying cross-body, but Mankind rolls through and counters it into the Mandible Claw. That ends things. This was surprisingly entertaining.



Result: Mankind via submission
Rating: **3/4

Before the next match, we see the clip from Raw of Crush trying to take on a gauntlet match and being blindsided by a masked Ahmed Johnson. Also we get an incoherent backstage interview with Ahmed.

Gauntlet Match - Ahmed Johnson vs. Nation of Domination: Faarooq comes out with his arm in a sling, but I gather that he's still scheduled to be the third man in this match. The entire Nation comes out for the match, but Gorilla Monsoon comes out and demands that the whole Nation leave except for those participating at that point in the match. So it's just Ahmed vs. Crush to start, nobody at ringside.

Ahmed Johnson vs. Crush

Ahmed beats on Crush, doubling him over and then hitting a scissor kick. The Nation has vacated ringside, but they didn't go all the way to the back; they're standing up at the top of the aisle. Crush hits a savate kick, then a bodyslam and a crappy clothesline off the second rope. Two-count. Standing suplex gets another two. Ahmed hits a terribly sloppy front suplex for his own two-count. Jim Ross: "I'll tell ya, King, you know as well as anyone: big Johnson is hard to handle." Uhh…

Crush slaps on a sleeper, Ahmed fades, but keeps his arm before the third drop. Cue the comeback attempt, but Crush quickly buries a knee into Ahmed's stomach to put him back down. Piledriver by Crush, who signals for the Nation to come on down to the ring. They obey Gorilla Monsoon's orders and stay up at the top of the aisle. Crush goes for the heart punch, but Ahmed counters into a heel kick and quickly rolls up Crush for a three-count.



Ahmed Johnson vs. Savio Vega

Ahmed hits a backdrop and records a quick two-count. Hard clothesline. Another one. Savio reverses a corner whip and follows Johnson in with a wheel kick. Savio smashes Ahmed face-first into a corner that is randomly exposed, but the announcers don't notice this even when the camera pans down and lingers on the turnbuckle pad sitting loose. After Savio works him over for a bit, Ahmed blocks a hip-toss and lands one of his own. He staggers over and climbs up to the second rope, but nobody's home on his splash attempt off the ropes. Savio insultingly slaps away at him. Ahmed musters the will to fire back with right hands. Savio reverses a corner whip, but comes up empty as he jumps into the corner after him.

Back suplex by Ahmed gets two. Powerslam gets another two. Ahmed signals for the Pearl River Plunge, but Savio goes rolling out of the ring to try to find safer ground. As he baits Johnson into chasing him, Vega ambushes him with a crescent kick. He grabs a steel chair and hits Ahmed with it twice. The bell rings; Savio is disqualified. Savio continues to hammer him with the chair after this disqualification, and triumphantly walks off as Faarooq saunters to the ring.



Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq

Faarooq sheds the sling around his shoulder as he gets into the ring. He starts to pick the bones the very compromised Ahmed Johnson, but nearly falls victim to a surprise small package, barely kicking out on two. Faarooq continues on the attack, but runs himself into that awful Ahmed spinebuster. Johnson connects on the Pearl River Plunge, but takes a while to recover well enough to make a cover, and Faarooq kicks out of the finisher. As Ahmed slowly makes his way to his feet and tries to find his footing, Faarooq clips Johnson's leg with a chop block. The leader of the Nation hits the Dominator, and manages to escape with the pinfall win.



Result: Faarooq via pinfall
Rating: 1/2*

We see clips of Vader baiting Ken Shamrock into the ring last week by spitting on him from the ring. Bringing it back to the live show, Todd Pettengill grabs a word with Vader, who assures us, "I was playing with the boy." The big man cuts a pretty decent promo with no mention of zones.

No Holds Barred (only win by submission or KO) - Vader vs. Ken Shamrock: Shamrock lands a few stiff kicks to the side of Vader's leg. Vader takes a moment to regroup, tries to lock in a hold, but Shamrock counters and twists the arm. Vader gets to the ropes, and apparently they're going to enforce rope breaks in this match even though it's no DQ. Waistlock by Shamrock, who seems to attempt a belly-to-back suplex, but Vader again gets to the ropes. More stiff kicks by Shamrock, and after grabbing hold of a waistlock, this time he successfully throws the big man. Vader slips outside and again takes a breather to regroup.

Vader runs back into the ring and tries to maul Shamrock, but Shamrock again manages to get behind him and throws a back suplex. Shamrock keeps dominating every exchange and Vader keeps backing away to get a breather. Finally Vader gets the advantage with a few punches, but Shamrock again counters right back with a rolling leg whip into a submission hold attempt. Again Vader takes a break. This match seems like it has potential to be really entertaining, but all of these breaks by Vader are making it so that it can never get into a rhythm. He returns and runs into a series of kicks and punches by Shamrock. Shamrock goes for a suplex, but Vader throws him off and then really wallops him with a standing clothesline. The big man gets sort of a weak-looking kimura on, but it doesn't look like he's got it on very well. Shamrock counters back into his own armbar, transitions toward a triangle choke, but Vader works his way up to his feet and throws Shamrock off. He sets up for a suplex and then just flings Shamrock over the top rope to the floor.



Vader goes out and smashes Shamrock into the steel steps. He lands a few body blows and then rams Shamrock even harder into the steps. The action returns inside. Vader sends Shamrock in with a high-impact corner whip, then goes for an ankle lock. They tease that Shamrock might tap, but Shamrock works his way out of the hold. Vader is relentless though, slapping on a rear naked choke before Shamrock escapes that as well. Corner whip and an avalanche by the big man. He executes a front slam, teases a Vaderbomb, climbs up further and attempts the moonsault, but Shamrock barely rolls out of the way.

Shamrock with a series of knee-lifts, then a spot somewhere in between a suplex and a powerslam. He goes for an ankle hold, but Vader is too near the ropes. Series of stiff kicks by Ken, who puts on a half-crab, again too near the ropes. The UFC legend continues on offense, punches and kicks in the corner until Vader unleashes an incredibly stiff-looking right cross that appears to knock Shamrock cold.



As Vader stands over him, Shamrock suddenly comes back to life, trips Vader into an ankle lock, and Vader quickly taps out to submit.



I'm frustrated with how underwhelming this one ended up being, because the concept was good and they did lay in some fun stiff shots on each other, but there was too much stop-and-go pacing, and that ending was not well-executed.

Result: Ken Shamrock via submission
Rating: **1/4

WWF Title - The Undertaker (c) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin: Not much of a pop for Austin's entrance tonight; his popularity has not surpassed Undertaker's yet at this point. As the combatants in our main event are ready to square off, the Hart Foundation shows up at the top of the aisle, with the British Bulldog wheeling brother-in-law Bret Hart out and Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart threatening fans with Bret's crutches. As the Harts make their way toward their seats, Austin jumps Undertaker, and the opening bell rings. Taker still has his trenchcoat and his belt on as the match starts. Undertaker absorbs Stone Cold's punches and fires back with his own. He whips Austin into the ropes, but Austin clings to the rope and slides outside, then violently pulls Owen Hart over the guardrail and into the ringside area, punching away. In a funny reaction, Jerry Lawler screams that Austin should be suspended for attacking a WWF fan.



Taker goes out after Austin, hits him, then knocks Owen back over the guardrail and back into the crowd. He clocks the Bulldog for good measure, then turns around and returns Austin to the inside. Austin attacks the champion on his way back in. Off an Irish whip, Taker ducks a clothesline and hits a flying clothesline of his own. Arm-wringer into repeated shoulder lunges. He executes the tightrope walk and drops the hammer, getting a two-count. Austin is able to secure a side headlock, and holds onto it tenaciously as Taker tries to slip loose several times. They stay in this resting position for quite a while…there seems to be an incident with a fan messing with the Harts, causing the Anvil to scream threateningly at him to back off.

Taker finally regains his feet and goes for a back suplex, but Austin lands behind and then clips Undertaker's leg. Austin quickly finds his focus on the knee that he just clipped, hitting the same area with targeted kicks. Undertaker finds some adrenaline and forcibly grabs Austin, violently throwing him into the corner, but Austin slips to the floor and drags Taker toward the ringpost. He slams the bad leg into the post a couple of times, keeping an eye out at the nearby Harts. He seems to be hurt by his distraction, as his hesitation enables Taker to pull Austin hard into the ringpost, knocking him down. The Harts watch on in enjoyment.



Back in the ring, Austin trips Taker and then drops his elbow on Taker's bad leg a few times. He drapes that leg across the bottom rope and lands on it a few more times. As he continues the limb focus, Taker fights back with some clubbing right hands, but Austin executes a double-leg takedown and locks on a modified STF; the dead man eventually breaks it by reaching the ropes. Stone Cold returns to the leg attack, but telegraphs one of his drops onto the bad leg too clearly, and Taker uses the free leg to launch Austin up over the top to the floor. Taker follows, smashes him into the steps, and returns him inside. Taker, shamefully showing absolutely no effect of the focused leg attack that he's been taking, takes over on offense himself. He goes on his own series of leg attacks on Austin, fixating on Austin's left leg with stomps, kicks, and a half-crab. A rope break gets Austin out of the crab.

Austin rolls out of the ring to try to buy himself some healing time, but Taker isn't allowing it; he goes out and quickly rolls the challenger back inside. Stone Cold ducks Taker's big boot and then clips the champion's bad leg again. He gets a two-count after a suplex. Undertaker is able to execute an arm-wringer and hits a back kick. He then goes up as if to walk the top rope again, but Austin pulls on him and crotches him along the top. Stone Cold sets up for the superplex, but Undertaker blocks and tosses him off. Taker misses with an elbow and has to kick out before two. Undertaker goes for a sleeper, but Austin counters into a jawbreaker.

After a recovery period, Taker beats Austin down in the corner until Austin connects on a blatant low blow, kicking Taker hard straight in the crotch. Referee Earl Hebner admonishes Austin, but doesn't disqualify him. When Hebner turns his back, Austin flips him the double bird from behind, then wanders straight into a low blow from Taker, who properly returns the favor. Austin now screams at Hebner, who gestures to remind Austin of his own low blow and then Hebner flips a double bird at Austin himself. Fun moment.



Austin gets up and walks into an Undertaker chokeslam. Austin rolls to the apron and hangs Taker along the top rope. He goes inside and hits the Stunner. As he goes over to make a cover, we suddenly hear the bell. Brian Pillman had gone over to ring the bell, causing a distraction that broke up Austin's potential match-winning moment. After this chaos, Austin walks into Taker, who lifts him for a tombstone. Austin counters into position for his own tombstone, but then Taker re-counters and connects, making the pin and getting the three-count.



Result: Undertaker via pinfall
Rating: **1/2

The Hart Foundation, the ones not on crutches or in a wheelchair anyway, pour into the ring and attack The Undertaker. As they do this, Austin, who has slipped out of the ring, sees that Bret Hart has been left unprotected. He jumps the rail and dumps Bret's wheelchair over. He then goes into the ring to attack the Harts. He and Undertaker combine to clear the ring, and the Hart Foundation heads for higher ground. As Undertaker is announced the winner, Austin stuns Taker and leaves him lying in the ring. Austin heads out in pursuit of the Harts, and as Taker comes to, he stalks out after Austin. On that note, the show ends.

Overall: This was another throw-away In Your House. I hoped to be pleasantly surprised, but instead it's what I feared: the reason that I had zero recollection of these particular IYH events is because there was almost nothing worth recalling on them. Thankfully the WWF PPVs get a lot better going forward.

May 5, 1997

RAW

Newark, DE

We open on a recap of last night's pointless In Your House PPV, featuring stills of Ken Shamrock's win over Vader, Ahmed Johnson's valiant effort coming up short in the gauntlet match, and Steve Austin's WWF Title bid coming up short as well, in part due to Hart Foundation interference.

After opening graphics, we hear the familiar squeal of the electric guitar, and the Hart Foundation parts the curtain as one, stopping at the top of the ramp. Bret Hart produces a microphone and begins to speak. He talks up how awesome his stable is, says that it's pathetic that the fans are making him out to be the bad guy when the fans are the real bad guys for cheering people like Steve Austin…basically the exact same promo he's been cutting for a couple of months. It was good the first time, but I don't need to hear it weekly. Seems like they should have spread a bit more of the mic work in this stable around to Brian Pillman and Owen Hart. Bret teases that he has a big surprise, but won't say it until the fans shut up. The fans don't shut up, so Bret just wheels around and leaves without anything further.



Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, no Vince McMahon again tonight, welcome us to the show and tell us that we will be seeing The Undertaker vs. Savio Vega and Legion of Doom vs. Nation of Domination tonight. I am unexcited. A bit more interesting, though: we are starting the King of the Ring tournament right away. Here's our bracket…



Super Soakers were fun as hell, by the way.

King of the Ring Tournament First Round - Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna) vs. Ahmed Johnson: Hunter tries to be the early aggressor, but Ahmed no-sells a series of chops and then puts the blueblood down on the mat with some punches, a clothesline, and a press slam. Axe kick and then a scissor kick by Johnson, whose momentum finally gets halted by a failed corner charge. Helmsley jacks Ahmed's jaw with his knee, connects on a high knee, and puts the boots to Ahmed in a corner. Snapmare by HHH, following with a knee drop and a slow lateral press for a two-count. Ahmed finds the adrenaline to no-sell some punches, then hits his ****ty spinebuster. Chyna slides into the ring and hammers Ahmed with a steel chair right in plain view of the referee, who calls for the bell.



Result: Ahmed Johnson via DQ

Ahmed chases Helmsley up the aisle. Chyna attacks from behind to pull him off, and officials break up the brawl.

After commercials, the glass breaks and Stone Cold Steve Austin heads to the ring, a crutch freely swinging from his right hand, and he joins Vince McMahon for an interview. Vince says that last night was a hell of a match, which causes Austin to tell him to stop coming out here and kissing his ass. Austin says, "Sooner or later, Steve Austin will be the World Wrestling Federation Champion." He declares that this crutch is a souvenir from Bret Hart, and he addresses Bret, saying that if he has the guts he'll come out and fight him. Calls the Hart Foundation a snake, and says that the easiest way to kill a snake is to chop the snake's head off, the snake's head being Bret. But he says he's not going to go straight for that; he's going to "have some fun with it, and start with the snake's ass," a designation he gives to Brian Pillman. Says that, "For years and years in the bush leagues, I carried you right in my back pocket." He threatens to cripple Pillman again, and ends the promo.



Before the next match, JR tells us that Scott Putski is going to debut tonight. They show some clips of Scott's father, Hall of Famer Ivan Putski, dominating in a prior era, and they bother to slip in a clip of Ivan Putski hammering Roddy Piper.

Leif Cassidy vs. Scott Putski: Cassidy and Putski jostle for position over waistlocks and wristlocks. Putski throws a Japanese armdrag, Cassidy trips him, Putski back at him with an an (American, I guess) armdrag. Cassidy counters a hammerlock into a hip-toss, and the chain wrestling continues. Belly-to-belly suplex by Putski, follow-up hurracanrana gets a two-count. Nice double-leg pickup into a powerbomb by Cassidy…referee Mike Chioda is slow on the count, and only gets to two, upsetting Cassidy. Corner whip and a clothesline by Leif, now in control, as he drops a knee and gets another two-count. Sunset flip by Putski gets a near-fall. These two are not very fluid together, lots of the spots looking disjointed. Putski reverses a corner whip, hits a nice release German as Cassidy staggers back, and that's enough to score the pinfall.



Result: Scott Putski via pinfall

After the match, Leif Cassidy starts getting into it with the official, and then, as it seems like the show is moving on, Cassidy dives through the ropes at Putski and continues to attack him. Putski ends up successfully fighting him off. Cassidy angrily insists to Jim Ross that he won, then storms off.

Legion of Doom enter for the next match, and then the Nation of Domination comes out. As JR and King speculate that Crush and Faarooq would be the likely opponents for LOD since Savio is booked to face Undertaker later, Crush and Savio end up telling PG-13 that they have to go participate in this match. PG-13 is very unhappy with the situation.

Legion of Doom vs. PG-13: Pure squash here. Animal hits a big shoulderblock, a powerbomb, and an elbow on Wolfie D. Hawk tags in, double backdrop by the LOD, and then Hawk flings Wolfie into the PG-13 corner. JC Ice reluctantly enters after Wolfie tags him in. He attempts a piledriver, can't get him up, but Wolfie D comes in and they do manage to piledrive him together. Hawk no-sells, Animal comes in, they hit the Doomsday Device first on JC Ice and then on Wolfie D, and Hawk pins both guys simultaneously.



Result: LOD via pinfall

The Nation of Domination, who had been watching from the top of the ramp, simply turn and leave their rappers behind in the ring.

After a break, Mankind comes out for a promo. Addressing Undertaker, he says, "If you've got a problem with what I've done, I'm a big boy, take it out on me! But instead, you took the coward's way out. You took a man who loved you, my uncle Paul, a defenseless man…and you ruined him physically for the rest of his life. Uncle Paul is here tonight, but he's self-conscious about his appearance. So I am asking all of you to show some respect and show come compassion while I bring out my uncle Paul." Mankind reaches through the curtain and pulls Paul Bearer out to the stage, bandaging covering most of his face.



Mankind says that Paul has a surprise for us. "Spread the news, Uncle Paul!" Bearer speaks. "The fire, Undertaker, the fire that singed my face and put me in the hospital. The sacred bond that we had between each other, that bond has been seared, Undertaker. Camera man, put that camera close to my eyes, because you know these eyes, Undertaker, and you know when I'm speaking the truth. You remember, Undertaker…yes, you do. I'm going to give you one more chance for us to get back together." Mankind interjects, "No more chances, Uncle Paul! Tell us now!" Paul continues. "I have to do this now. I have to do this. One more chance, Undertaker. If you do not accept this final offer, I'm going to do something that only you know, Undertaker. A secret that only you know. But I will reveal it to the whole world…it is a secret that I made while I stood over the gravesite of your mother and father. You hurt me, Undertaker. Come back, or I'm going to hurt you." Mankind and Bearer, arm in arm, leave together.

After commercials, Vince McMahon brings out Faarooq for the next interview. He asks him, "How does it feel to be the #1 contender for the WWF Championship?" That's the first we've heard of that news. Faarooq says that obviously it feels great, calls it a stupid question, and then puts the screws to Vince, asking him when was the last time a black man held the WWF Title. Vince slowly says, "Never." Faarooq says, "Yeah, you've had blacks in token positions. Ahmed Johnson with the Intercontinental Title for a short period of time. Bobo Brazil with the US Title for a short period of time." He asks Vince when Ahmed Johnson ever got a world title shot. He continues, "You can't. … You don't feel a black man is worthy of winning the WWF Title. You don't feel a black man is worthy of being the champion of the WWF. But you do think a black man is worthy of washing your car, you do think a black man is worthy of washing your clothes, you do think a black man is worthy of even raising your kids. But let me tell you something…those were those days, and this is a different day and age. … We are taking matters into our own hands, when we get to swinging those fists and kicking these feet. You understand that?"



Vince says that all of this has nothing to do with being black. Faarooq: "It has everything to do with being black! … Your white savior, The Undertaker, is going to be a dead man." Vince says, "Don't you think that these comments are racist?" Faarooq repeats that they are taking matters into their own hands, and that means that they will win by any means necessary. End promo.

Savio Vega vs. The Undertaker: After ring intros, the show goes to break and the match is joined in progress. Taker in control, walks the top rope and drops the hammer on Savio. He rams Vega into the top rope, whips him into the opposite corner, but Vega fights back with a back elbow and a couple of uppercuts. Irish whip reversal by the WWF Champion; he hits a big boot and gets a two-count. Taker comes off the ropes again, and this time gets tripped by a Nation member, enabling Savio to clip his leg with a chop block from behind. Savio continues working that leg, then moves up and tries choking Taker until Taker throws him off. Savio keeps gamely fighting, hitting a spinning heel kick and getting a near-fall. After a scoop slam, Savio tries coming off the ropes, but runs into the champion's big boot. Undertaker hits a chokeslam, knocks two Nation members off the apron, hits the Tombstone, and then the Nation runs in and attacks before a pin can be recorded.



Result: The Undertaker via DQ

After commercial, we hear the ECW TV music, and out comes Rob Van Dam. Jerry Lawler enters the ring and takes the mic from Howard Finkel. He starts ripping on ECW again, calling it "Extremely Crappy Wrestling," but says that he's found a man in Rob Van Dam who knows how low ECW can sink. Van Dam joins in with Lawler, calling ECW "low-budgeted, very low talent wannabes who can't hold onto the extreme talents of Rob Van Dam." Lawler calls Van Dam "Mr. Monday Night"…not sure if this was coined here or if RVD had already been using that for his heel character down in ECW, but Van Dam kept using the threat of jumping to WWF as a build for his heel character in ECW. Lawler points across the ring to jobber Jeff Hardy and instructs RVD to "take care of this Bon Jovi wannabe."

Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy: Jim Ross says that he's pretty sure that ECW officials haven't cleared this appearance by RVD, and that Paul Heyman isn't going to be happy about this. RVD knocks Hardy out of the ring hard with a wheel kick, then follows him out with a somersault plancha that overshoots the mark, RVD risking injury by having his legs land pretty squarely on the guardrail as he impacted Hardy. He's okay though, returning Hardy inside as fans chant "you sold out" at him. He hits a slam, a five-star frog splash, another slam, and a split-legged moonsault to ship the win. The frog splash is the way better-looking move than the split-legged moonsault (at least in terms of inflicting pain), so I'm not sure why the latter was the finisher here, but whatever.



Result: Rob Van Dam via pinfall

JR sends it to part two of his kayfabe-blurring sit-down interview with Goldust/Dustin Runnels. Dustin talks about how he tries to do all he can to really put on a show and stand out for the fans each night. Turning back to his family situation, he speaks of how proud he is of his daughter, then addresses his father Dusty again. "All those years I looked up to you, and wanted to be just like you, and sitting in the back, the way you would place me in the back of the arena and walk to the ring … you were bigger than life. I wanted to be just like you. That's why I wanted to live with you, and I didn't have you. And I got that chance. I became a professional wrestler. It was the hardest damn thing in my entire life to do, to pull that off. But I did. Nobody is going to take that away from me. I was Dustin Rhodes, and now I'm Goldust. … I hope to God you are proud of me. I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of my family. And I love my family very much. I love you Dad."



That didn't really add much new to last week's promo; they probably could have just left it there. But this was fine.

Back in the arena, The Undertaker's music hits again. He appears on the Titantron. Jim Ross asks him about Paul Bearer's comments and about the Nation of Domination. Undertaker says he wants to address Paul Bearer. "Paul, there are certain events that have occurred in the dark side that are better off not seen in the light of day. And as far as Faarooq, and my physical conditioning, I've never won a match with my physical conditioning. It's always been my mental state of mind. (sic) I must go to the vault of souls, and open it, and unleash a demon to help me do battle with a force, a nation of destruction."

Elimination Match - Owen Hart/British Bulldog vs. Doug Furnas/Philip LaFon vs. Headbangers vs. New Blackjacks: I don't know WTF this match is about, since it doesn't seem to be a title match and all four teams are heels. Hart and LaFon have a brief exchange before tagging out to Mosh and Blackjack Windham. Mosh tags with Thrasher, the Bangers double Windham and then tag in Furnas. Furnas tags LaFon, double-team attempt backfires, big lariat by Windham enables him to eliminate LaFon. Show goes to commercial. During the break, LaFon came back to the ring to interfere and helped cause the Blackjacks to be eliminated. In keeping with the thing where Furnas and LaFon are heels by virtue of being bland, Lawler makes me laugh by referring to a simple grab-the-leg-from-outside interference spot with, "Well that was exciting! See? These guys are exciting."

Anyway, we're down to Owen and Davey vs. The Headbangers. Owen exposes a turnbuckle in one corner, which backfires when Mosh reverses a whip into that corner and causes Owen to take that exposed corner chest-first. Headbangers double-team Owen from there, Thrasher dropping Mosh off the top onto Owen, and they appear to score the pin, but Owen's foot was on the bottom rope; Mike Chioda waves off the pinfall. Amidst the confusion, Owen tags Davey, who scampers in for a schoolboy that nearly steals the win. Davey continues on offense with the signature delayed suplex. Thrasher hits a cheap shot on Bulldog from the apron to slow him down, and the Headbangers regain control, Owen having to run in and break up a pin attempt. JR says, "Headbangers are very unorthodox, but their popularity is certainly growing." I laughed out loud at what the crowd looks like as JR says this; everyone just stoic and bored.



Based on that comment, I guess the Headbangers must be meant to be faces after all, but they're not getting a reaction here. Bulldog finally manages a tag to Owen, who enters with a dropkick and a backbreaker before slapping on the Sharpshooter. Thrasher runs in to break it up, Bulldog in to even the numbers. Headbangers try to whip the champs into each other, the champs reverse the Headbangers into each other instead. Bulldog hits the running powerslam for the win.

Result: Owen Hart & The British Bulldog via pinfall

After break, we're getting another Hart Foundation promo, as apparently we're going to hear Bret Hart's surprise now. Bret addresses the rest of his stable and instructs them to go back to the dressing room. He says that he can handle this by himself. They're confused, but they oblige and exit stage left. Bret warns Steve Austin that he'll have his boys back out here in no time if Austin tries anything right now. Bret says that, as for his surprise, he wants "that gutless little poser" Shawn Michaels to come out right now. Michaels answers the call, coming out to the ring. Bret demands they cut the HBK music, and addresses his rival. This is another rehash, as he cuts the same promo he's been cutting on Shawn for a while. Shawn looks bored and non-plussed by the promo. As Bret is rambling on, the show seems to have left the air for live TV purposes, but after a cut we see the continuation of it.



Bret keeps yelling nasty things at Shawn until Shawn finally unloads a Superkick. The Hart Foundation hits the ring and attacks, with Pillman/Bulldog/Anvil triple-teaming Shawn up the ramp as Owen attends to Bret in the ring. Bulldog makes as if he's going to throw Shawn off the top of the ramp, but then Steve Austin comes out for the save, attacking the Harts. Officials seem to back Austin and Shawn off as the Hart Foundation attends to Bret in the ring. And that's the end of the extended WWE Network cut of the show. So that Bret Hart surprise that they teased in the open, and that Jim Ross continued to push during the show, was…what? Nothing at all? Pathetic.

Overall: Pretty bad episode. Not much to like, and the episode seemed to revolve around a "surprise" that was never coming. Between the last two Raws and the PPV, they've cooled off significantly since that incredibly hot back-to-back pairing of episodes in mid-April. I'll be happy to return to some WCW writeups for a change of pace.

May 12, 1997

NITRO

Baltimore, MD

We cold-open in the arena with Michael Buffer giving us the "let's get ready to RRRRRUMBLE" shtick. Can't say I remember them just opening episodes that way.

After some pyro goes off, Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth make their way to the ring, Savage no longer on crutches. He takes Buffer's mic and declares, "I am healed!" He challenges DDP to fight him, then drops the mic and bails out of the ring, I guess ending that segment as quickly as it started.



To the announce table, where our team for the night is Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Heenan, who is sporting a ridiculous tie for the evening.



Tony says that Sting is going to talk tonight, and he's going to talk publicly with Eric Bischoff for some reason.

Before the next match, we get a PIP promo from Lord Steven Regal, who vows that he's going to get away from nobility for a while, and to get back to his dirty rotten scoundrel self, who used to beat up men twice his age as a young man. This promo is directed at Ultimo Dragon, so I'm not entirely sure how old he thinks the Dragon is.

TV Title - Ultimo Dragon (c) (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Juventud Guerrera: Side headlock by Ultimo. Juventud shoves him off, Dragon hits a shoulderblock. Juventud connects with a back elbow, hits a quebrada and gets a two-count, then sends Dragon sprawling out of the ring with a flying headscissor. Ultimo returns inside, lands on his feet out of a backdrop, and delivers his signature series of kicks. He picks Guerrera up along his shoulders in a rack, then drops down to his knees, creating impact. Transitions into a reverse chinlock for a moment, but stands back up out of it. He misses with a clothesline, and Juventud connects on a jumping wheel kick. Dragon attempts a float-over DDT, but Guerrera counters into a Northern lights suplex and gets a near-fall. Guerrera tries a hurracanrana, but Dragon counters into a powerbomb. Ultimo to the top for a moonsault, Guerrera moves, Ultimo lands on his feet, goes for a hurracanrana, Guerrera counters into a sunset flip that gets two. Springboard moonsault by Dragon gets two. Guerrera counters a tiger suplex into a pinning combo, gets two, Dragon re-counters into a pin and gets his own two-count.

Ultimo climbs the ropes, but Guerrera catches up to him and hits him, then follows him up the ropes. Dragon regains the advantage while up on the ropes, and hits a superplex. After a recovery period, Dragon slaps on a waistlock, Guerrera scurries toward the ropes, and they both spill outside. As Ultimo returns inside, Sonny Onoo grabs Juventud and pulls him down onto the apron. As Juventud gets up and attacks Onoo, Dragon now ambushes Juventud, then goes back into the ring to run distraction while Onoo gets some kicks in. Ultimo returns Juventud into the ring, sets him up top, spinning hurracanrana, then the Dragon Sleeper ships the match to fend off Juventud's high-effort attempt to win the title.



Result: Ultimo Dragon via submission

Mean Gene is out for interview time, and brings out Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, and Kevin Greene. Greene is first to talk. "nWo, three things in this world are definitive. Three things you can put in the bank: One, you have to pay some taxes. Two, eventually you're gonna die. Three, in Charlotte, at Slamboree, I am going to break my foot off in your ass." Flair goes through his usual stuff, saying nothing of interest. Piper says, "You want to talk about me being a dinosaur? Yes I'm a dinosaur. Yes, I'm a tyrannosaurus rex." We hear Kevin Nash and Scott Hall coming in over the house speakers. They show up on a screen in the back, their mascot Syxx in tow. Amidst an obnoxious and sophomoric Nash/Hall/Syxx promo, Nash declares that this Sunday's match is going to be no DQ.



US Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Mongo McMichael (w/ Jeff Jarrett & Debra): Malenko gets low and shoulders Mongo into the corner. Mongo shoves him back, but Malenko slaps on a side headlock, releases, then hits a dropkick. Follows with another dropkick attempt, but Mongo slaps it aside. Whips Malenko into the corner, but again Malenko fights back out with a low targeted dropkick. As Malenko reaches down to follow up, Mongo flips him over. The back-and-forth continues, Malenko hitting a jumping heel kick. Mongo reverses an Irish whip, Jarrett trips Malenko at the ropes, and Mongo clips Malenko's leg from behind. Mongo scoops Dean up to slam him, but knocks Dean into Mark Curtis for the ref bump. Mongo completes a powerslam and has a visual pin, but Curtis is out of the ring. Enter Reggie White, who runs down to the ring and climbs up on the apron. Jarrett hits Reggie from behind, Mongo brings him into the ring forcefully, but Reggie reverses a corner whip, lands a clothesline, and then hits a running splash. He does not look like a natural wrestler the way Kevin Greene does.



White shoves Jeff Jarrett off the apron. In the meantime, Malenko executes a rolling pin on Mongo and scores a three-count once Mark Curtis is able to get into position.

Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall

Mean Gene comes out to get a word with Reggie White. Reggie says that Mongo can talk **** about him, but he draws the line at Mongo saying nasty things about the people of Green Bay. I didn't realize that Mongo had been actively ripping on Packer fans. That counts as a face turn, right?

James Vandenberg comes out before the next match and breaks the silence on the identity of his newest man, Bryan Clark, who has not yet had a stage name in WCW. He identifies him as Wrath.

Scotty Riggs vs. Wrath: This is a quick squash match. Riggs manages a couple of dropkicks, but otherwise it's all Wrath. The big man hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, a couple of hard kicks, and a front slam finisher much like the Rock Bottom that ends this one in a hurry.



Result: Wrath via pinfall

Glacier's music hits, and Glacier appears at the top of aisle, but it doesn't get any further than that. The show just goes to break with Glacier staring at the ring.

Ray Lewis and a couple of other Baltimore Ravens are shown at ringside.

Konnan & Hugh Morrus (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Alex Wright & Ice Train (w/ Teddy Long): Morrus & Konnan get the jump on Ice Train from the word go, as the commentators note that Wright isn't helping his partner out, but Ice Train is able to fight back and gain enough of an advantage to tag Wright in. Wright is acting heelish here, showboating between spots and getting quite a bit of static from the crowd. At one point, he's in the middle of showboating, and Morrus charges him, causing Wright to scurry underneath like a coward and tag an unsuspecting Ice Train back in, causing Train to get blindsided by Morrus.



As Train fights off both Dungeon members again, he's able to get a temporary advantage that allows him to go offer a tag to Wright, but Wright feigns a knee injury and doesn't want to tag in. As Wright is stalling, Train gets clipped from behind. Wright drops to the floor, briefly bullies an angry Teddy Long, and then just abandons Train by himself in the ring. Konnan ends up finishing things off with a submission hold, a half-crab combined with an armbar. As the match ends, Alex Wright is halfway up the aisle telling a camera that everyone knows that he's the greatest.

Result: Konnan & Hugh Morrus via submission

We see clips from last week, when Randy Savage baited DDP into chasing after him, and then Hulk Hogan blindsided DDP with a crutch. They suddenly cut away from these clips to backstage live in tonight's arena, where Syxx and Kevin Nash have just laid out Roddy Piper in the back. Piper is writhing in pain, holding his hip.



Back in the main arena area, enter Eric Bischoff. He starts talking, and immediately I realize that WCW has also committed a bait-and-switch tonight. He calls for Sting to come out, and nWo Sting comes out of the back. Bischoff conducts a farcical interview with fake Sting where he just asks leading questions about how Sting can't measure up to Hulk Hogan, with fake Sting nodding in affirmation of each one. Here comes real Sting. He stalks toward the ring, enters, attacks fake Sting, hits the Scorpion Death Drop, and then stares at Bischoff while Bischoff scrambles out of the ring and into the crowd to end the show.



Overall: Not a great show, but not terrible. Final segment was garbage, but most of the show breezed along and was somewhat watchable.

Ratings for 5/12/97: Nitro 3.2, Raw 2.8
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 62-17-2

Better Show: Nitro was a lot less of a slog than Raw this week. It gets the nod.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 56-25

Match of the Night: Juventud Guerrera vs. Ultimo Dragon

Well, fun note about that last Raw segment. I watched Bret and Shawn cover that particular segment during their Greatest Rivalry interview and this segment was the boiling point for Shawn since, as evident, the superkick to Bret, did not make the live feed, due to Bret's rambling, and Shawn ended up being livid and decided get more personal and bitter with his comments about Bret, I think.

Don't remember what was the end result of that though. But things in the Bret/Shawn relationship (where they claim before this segment that the personal shots was all for show and to make their rivalry look more realistic and draw down the line) was really never the same, behind the scenes, after that scene, I think.

Bruce Prichard, on his podcast, also talked about that. Not only did the live show go off the air before the kick, they also got a 90 second overrun from USA because Bret was going so long. For those who don't know, an overrun on RAW back then was a very rare and special thing

It's a good thing he used all of that overrun to say absolutely nothing new or interesting. That's strange.

Probably because Bret had forgotten his preplanned lines here. He started rambling and the show had to be cutoff because Bret forgot his lines and was making up time to remember them and get kicked.

edit: hadn't read the last few posts. This forgetting of lines is also in a documentary. Maybe the sit down with HBK/Bret that anguyen mentioned.

In that case, he should have defaulted to, "I'm fooked."

But would he say "Mr. Hitman" prior to that

I was always intrigued by the Heel vs Heel dynamic of that feud. Has there been such a program before or since to that degree on the Main Event level? I don't really remember one.

In retrospect it's weird they didn't just give Austin or 'Taker a bridge title reign between the two?

WCW SLAMBOREE '97



Charlotte, NC

Opening graphics feature Ric Flair/Roddy Piper/Kevin Greene vs. nWo, as well as Mongo McMichael vs. Reggie White.

Our announcers for the evening are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes.

TV Title - Ultimo Dragon (c) (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Steven Regal: Regal comes out to the same majestic music, but has dropped the "Lord" from the start of his name. I don't remember this character shift, but the idea is that he's pushing himself as a tough guy instead of a blueblood. Seems like they would do well to call back on his feud with Fit Finlay to put this over, but no mention of it so far.

Partial waistlock by Dragon starts a chain of moves, each man executing arm-wringers and counters. Dragon is able to get the leverage with an armbar on the mat, but Regal escapes into a headscissor before a Dragon escape leads to a reset. Test of strength is won by Regal, who powers Ultimo down, then presses a knee into the throat as he holds him down. Dragon temporarily gets a vertical base back, but Regal has his claws in and doesn't let go, pulling the champion back down into sort of a surfboard and then a modified camel clutch. Dragon does escape behind, but Regal hits a gutwrench suplex and records his first two-count.

Side headlock and then a shoulderblock by Ultimo. Back into the standing side headlock, then a takeover that leads to Dragon positioning the challenger into a couple of two-counts. Back to a standing position, Dragon leapfrogs Regal and then dropkicks him. Regal blocks a corner whip attempt and hits a European uppercut. Dragon goes for a drop toe-hold, Regal blocks, Dragon finds some more strength and manages to complete the drop toe-hold, then scurries to his feet and dances a jitterbug along Regal's back, a bit of uncharacteristic showmanship being used to agitate the challenger. Regal angrily follows Dragon into the corner, Dragon does a headstand along the top rope, kicks his feet out into a headscissor, headstand again, and a donkey kick.



Dragon follows with some of his signature kicks to put his opponent back down. He lays in a couple more stiff kicks squarely in Regal's back, then slaps on a half-crab. Regal slowly works his way over into a rope break. Dragon, relentless, hits a swinging neckbreaker, then slaps on another headscissor. Regal counters, Dragon grabs the bottom rope. Regal, perhaps in the mood to give a receipt, quickly gets up and then lays in a series of violent stomps to the back of Ultimo's head; Ultimo goes rolling out of the ring to get a moment to recover. He's greeted rudely upon return, Regal hitting a standing suplex to get another two-count. Kneeling, Regal gets most of the way to a full nelson, but can't fully lock the fingers, and Ragon escapes. Each tries to put the same hold on each other, never fully successful. Dragon goes for a sunset flip that Regal kicks out of, then Regal goes for a Regal Stretch that quickly sends Dragon scampering for the bottom rope before the hold can be fully applied.

As Regal goes to release, he fires off a couple of cheap slaps that piss Dragon off. As Regal gets backed down, Dragon quickly gets up, shoots low, executes a single-leg takedown, then mounts Regal and throws a series of aggressive open-hand slaps to the face before clenching his fist and laying in a few more rights for good measure. One thing I'll say about Dragon is that, while I was always entertained by him, he was more of an impressive acrobat than anything, and I rarely saw much in terms of storytelling from him. I always enjoy seeing matches like this where the wrestlers try to engage in a straight wrestling match, but then both lapse into moments where they visibly lose their temper. It feels very much like how things would go in a shoot.



Dragon floats over, goes for a cross armbreaker, Regal is able to lock his fingers to temporarily block, but Dragon breaks the hand away to get fully into the hold. Still, Regal escapes and tries to transition into a Regal Stretch. Dragon blocks, so Regal has to settle on a bow-and-arrow. Dragon bites Regal's arm and gets loose, then gets up and unloads a few more of those nasty kicks to the back. He grapevines Regal's legs and then bridges back into a facelock. The crowd, who has sounded pretty neutral so far, starts an audible "Regal" chant. I did figure that in a heel vs. heel match, a WCW crowd is usually going to default to rooting for the white wrestler.

Camel clutch by Dragon. Regal elbows his way loose, then throws some vicious palm strikes. Regal with an Irish whip, Dragon ducks an elbow, Regal with a backdrop, but Dragon lands on his feet and dropkicks Regal all the way out of the ring. As referee Mark Curtis gets tied up with Ultimo Dragon, Sonny Onoo hits some kicks on Regal. Dragon actually comes outside to get Regal, and shows irritation with Onoo for interfering. The underlying story of this match is that Dragon has been trying to wrestle in Regal's style throughout, a mix of mat wrestling and stiff strikes, basically trying to show that he can beat Regal at Regal's own game…it's a nice touch for him to be taking the high road in this case and not wanting any help from his manager. Back in the ring, Dragon with a corner whip, a handspring back elbow, and then he sets Regal up and executes a hurracanrana off the top. Two-count. Dragon quickly back up, moonsault off the top misses when Regal rolls away, and again Regal goes for a Regal Stretch, but Dragon once again senses danger and quickly gets to the bottom rope.

Dragon drops his head too early on a backdrop, Regal kicks the face, then goes for a butterfly powerbomb or suplex. Dragon counters the move in mid-air into a hurracanrana and tries to incorporate it into a pin, but only manages to hook one leg and can't quite get the fall. Regal with a surprise roll-up for a two-count. He hits one European uppercut, but Dragon dodges the second one and hits a wheel kick. He tries to follow with a cradle pin, but accidentally carries Regal right into the ropes. Both men are wobbly, but Dragon finds the WIM to execute a quebrada. He tries to follow with a tiger suplex, Regal kicks his way loose and then goes behind, but Dragon runs him toward the ropes and then drops down to send him out through the middle, again to Sonny Onoo's side. Onoo holds his arms up to assure Dragon and/or the referee that he's not doing anything this time. Dragon tries to execute a pescado, but telegraphed it far too quickly, and Regal avoids it just by casually strolling away.



Dragon reverses a whip into the guardrail, doing more damage to Regal's back. As Regal staggers around, Dragon gets up on the apron and hits an asai moonsault. As the count proceeds, Tony comments on how that was a smart move because a double countout favors the champion. That isn't how this one ends though, as Dragon finds his feet and stumbles his way back inside. As Mark Curtis backs Dragon up, Onoo again gets his licks in on Regal outside. Dragon sees it, bails out of the ring, waves Onoo away and rolls Regal back inside. This irritates Onoo, who actually kicks his own man in the back.



Regal does a sweeping kick from the ring to the back of Ultimo's head, pulls him back inside for a front suplex, then finally slaps on the Regal Stretch. Dragon tries to hold up for a few moments, but it's not too long before we see Mark Curtis spring up and point furiously for the bell. We have a new TV Champion. Great match.



Result: Steven Regal via submission, new TV Champion
Rating: ****1/4

Sonny Onoo looks at the camera and says that he makes champions, and he destroys champions.

Madusa vs. Luna Vachon: As long as you have a tough act to follow, I suppose it's just as well to send something out there that would be unwatchable regardless of its lead-in. Luna beats Madusa down to the mat, throws a couple of axhandles, then drags her down again by her hair. Madusa tries fighting back, but gets physically bested, and Luna maintains control by choking her along the bottom rope, then further choking her by driving a boot into the throat. Madusa suddenly starts a babyface comeback, throwing some terrible punches and then hitting a spinning heel kick. The two continue with aimless brawling for a minute or two, occasionally working in something resembling a wrestling move. Madusa turns Luna inside out with a clothesline, one spot that actually does look good here, but the ensuing pin does not get the three-count.

Luna executes a bad swinging neckbreaker, tries to follow with a dive off the top rope that Madusa dodges, and Madusa capitalizes with a German suplex into a bridge to score the pinfall.



Result: Madusa via pinfall
Rating: 1/4*

Mean Gene comes out for interview time, but gets interrupted by the nWo music. Randy Savage comes out - Liz in tow - takes the mic away from Gene, and tells Gene to GTFO. Savage goes to the ring for a promo. He says that Diamond Dallas Page "doesn't want to feel the madness anymore." DDP comes through the crowd, wielding a crutch, hits the ring, and Savage bails. Eric Bischoff turns up to push Savage back. DDP takes the mic and calls Savage out for being a coward. "You must have a previous engagement. Now I know it ain't with Kimberly. I doubt it's even with Liz. You probably gotta go to Hogan's house, so you can wash his car and kiss his ass." Savage does not like that comment. Over the protests of Eric Bischoff and some of the nWo jobbers who have come out to hold Savage back, Savage marches back toward the ring. Upon re-entry, DDP hauls off with his crutch, hammering Savage with it repeatedly. As more of the nWo troops come in, DDP fights them off as well with the same weapon.



However, there's one man who is not about to let himself fall victim to a mere crutch attack, and that's Scott ****ing Norton. He comes in and blindsides Page to put Page on the mat, creating an opening for the rest of the nWo guys to re-enter and commence the beatdown on him. Before it gets too far though, enter The Giant, who chases the nWo out to rescue DDP from a worse beatdown. Those two hold the ring as the nWo decides to live to fight another day.

Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: I do not remember this Yasuraoka at all. Not a familiar name or face or anything. That doesn't surprise me when a total stranger shows up on Nitro, but I can't remember another instance of it on PPV during this era. Yuji takes Rey down early, cinching in a side headlock. Snapmare into a reverse chinlock. Rey finds a base to dig in, shoots a single-leg, and gets the advantage by dragon-whipping the leg and then settling into a leglock until he has to give it up to a rope break. Yuji suplexes Rey, slams him, then sits him up and drills him in the back with a kick. He slams Rey, shows us an arm-wringer, then he and Rey battle over control of arm holds; Rey flips out to escape, but Yuji is on the ball with a hard running clothesline that gets a two-count.

Spinning wheel kick off an Irish whip by Yasuraoka. Two-count. Rey ducks a clothesline and throws a backdrop. He jumps up on Yuji for a hurracanrana, turns around once on the shoulders, and ranas Yuji out over the top. Rey gets a running start to go for a somersault plancha to the floor, but for some reason referee Mark Curtis stands in the way and stops him, backing him down as Rey angrily protests. After Curtis returns his attention to putting the count on Yuji, Rey gets another running start and flips over Curtis to the floor. That sequence was an attempt at cleverness that wasn't particularly clever, especially as Curtis went into an unnatural position to count that telegraphed exactly what they were doing.



Yuji returns inside and promptly falls victim to a drop toe-hold, then finds himself struggling in a camel clutch by Mysterio. This hold goes on for a decent while before Rey ends up having to drop it semi-voluntarily. Yuji whips Rey into the ropes, Rey flips to the apron, he fights Yuji off from there, then goes for a springboard move and ends up getting kicked in the gut on the way in. A slow pin attempt results in another two-count. Corner whip by Yuji, spinning back kick in the corner, and now an armbar. Mike Tenay questions Yuji's strategy for targeting an arm instead of a leg. Yasuraoka jams Mysterio's shoulder into the corner, then drops him back down into a cross armbreaker. Transitions into a keylock, but Rey manages to kick Yuji in the head, leading the hold to be broken. Yuji keeps the advantage though, throwing another hard clothesline and then grapevining the same arm he's been working and falls into another cross armbreaker. Rope break. Rey blocks a couple of Irish whip attempts, but Yuji sticks with it and runs Rey across the ring, wrenching the bad arm hard over the top rope as Yuji jumps out of the ring to create full force. Nice spot.



Yuji gets a running start and springboards into some sort of move that hits Rey on the floor, but the camera is on such an extreme close-up that we miss the spot. Yasuraoka suplexes Mysterio back inside and covers him for another two. Corner whip by Yuji, but he runs into Rey's raised boot in the corner. Rey goes up the ropes, and actually hits the camera (back the **** up buddy, you've now messed with the presentation of two spots in quick succession) as he executes a split-legged moonsault. The move still does connect, and we see another two-count. Rey goes for a victory roll, Yuji counters into a pin that gets two, Rey counters into his own pin that gets two as well. Rey ducks a spinning heel kick and hits a powerbomb. He drags Yuji to the center of the ring, climbs to the top far too slowly, and misses on a diving headbutt.

Double-armed DDT by Yuji - the announcers say that this is his finisher - but a lax cover only gets him a near-fall. He goes for another double-armed DDT, but Rey counters into a northern lights suplex. Near-fall. Spinning wheel kick by Yasuraoka. Corner whip by Yuji, the follow-up comes up empty, but Yuji recovers and launches back out with a side kick. Yuji comes off the top, but Rey kicks him on the way down, scampers to the apron, launches himself in for the springboard hurracanrana pinning combo, and scores the fall.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall
Rating: ***

Mortis (w/ James Vandenberg) vs. Glacier: Glacier truncates his usual long entrance, breaking into a sprint toward the ring to attack. However, Mortis is there to meet the challenge, and gets the first advantage in the match, beating on Glacier relentlessly in the corner, particularly focusing on Glacier's primary kicking leg. During the first minute, we see Wrath emerge from the back and march toward the ring. As he arrives, Glacier launches a comeback, hitting an electric chair drop, a clothesline, and then a backdrop, but as he clotheslines Mortis out over the top, Wrath slides in and clobbers Glacier with Mortis's staff for the immediate blatant DQ.



Result: Glacier via DQ
Rating: N/A, too short

Vandenberg's guys carry out an extended beatdown. It seems to be begging for a save, but I don't remember Glacier having an ally in this war…oh yeah, until I see Ernest Miller come into the ring and make the save. Had definitely forgotten about his existence even though he does hang around for a decent while. The announcers first act like a fan ran into the ring, but then they just sort of go, "Oh wait, that's Ernest Miller" after a bit.



Anyway, Miller clears Mortis and Wrath out, officials calm down the melee from there, and that wraps the segment.

US Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/ Debra McMichael): Collar-and-elbow tie-up to start this one, and Malenko gives up a clean break in the corner once the referee calls for it. Jarrett hits a shoulderblock, but allows Malenko to get back to his feet unfettered. Again they wrestle into a corner, again Malenko tries to give up a clean break, but Jarrett lashes out and shoves him, then tries to follow, gets armdragged but sticks with it and turns it into his own armdrag. Drop toe-hold by the champion Malenko, countered into an armbar by Jarrett, then a whip by Jarrett into his own drop toe-hold. Again a reset. Waistlock, snapmare, reverse chinlock by Malenko. Jarrett escapes and throws an armdrag, but Malenko is up and slaps on a standing side headlock. Turns that into a takeover, but Jarrett transitions into a headscissor. Malenko with a nice flipping escape to regain the advantage, securing a chinlock on the mat. This is a dull start.

Jarrett cranks Malenko's left leg, but misses when attempting to compound the situation with a standing elbow. Malenko trips Jarrett and grapevines his left leg. Drops the knee on it a few times before going back to cranking on it. He drags Jarrett outside the ring, drapes his knee along the guardrail, and then hits a targeted dropkick right on that kneecap along the railing. From there, they go to re-enter, and Jarrett has suddenly made a superhuman recovery, pouncing on Malenko during his re-entry and then coming to life with a series of stomps, all while no-selling any possible effects from the leg attack. Gross.



Jarrett, nimble as a cat, stomps away and then throws a dropkick to get Malenko down for a two-count. Irish whip into an abdominal stretch. He does the intermittent leverage-cheating bit for a while, eventually falling into a rope break. Malenko drives a couple of knees into the gut, whips Jarrett off the ropes and catches him with an axhandle on the way back. This drives Jarrett out of the ring, and he takes a breather before resuming the match. This thing is not picking up at all. The two men fight over control of an armbar; Jarrett gets it, but then Malenko runs him into the corner, and follows with a back suplex. Two-count. Corner whip by Malenko, runs into Jarrett's raised boot, Jarrett comes racing out with a swinging neckbreaker. Jarrett tries following with a figure-four, but Malenko kicks at what's supposed to be Jarrett's bad leg, and Jarrett suddenly remembers the injury, crumpling as if he's been selling it even a little bit. Malenko tries to capitalize with a Texas cloverleaf, but Jarrett counters into a small package. Two.

Jeff goes for an enziguri, misses, and then grabs for the ropes to block Malenko's follow-up. Malenko jerks him throat-first up into the bottom rope, but as he tries to follow, Jarrett desperately throws him through the middle ropes to the floor. Jarrett goes out and whips him into the guardrail, then drops him along the same. Rolls the champ back in, climbs to the top, hits a cross-body, Malenko reverses into his own, but Jarrett kicks out on two and a half. Sleeper by Jarrett; Malenko backs him into the corner to break it. Now Malenko with a sleeper, but Jarrett breaks it with a one-legged atomic drop. Slaps on the figure-four, but it's too close to the ropes, and Malenko is able to force the break.

They get up, do a sloppy collision, and Jarrett falls awkwardly through the ropes to the floor. Enter Mongo McMichael, who comes to ringside, picks Jeff up, and rolls him inside. He mutters something about how they should let Jarrett fight for himself. Malenko with a butterfly powerbomb into a Texas cloverleaf, and Jarrett quits in a hurry. This was brutally boring.



Result: Dean Malenko via submission
Rating: *

Death Match - Meng (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman): So it sounds during the intros like this is a Last Man Standing match. But this is WCW, so it's no better than even money that even the competitors know the rules as they walk to the ring. Tony Schiavone recounts what apparently happened on the most recent WCW Saturday Night, as he says that Chris Benoit told Woman that no matter what happens, she is not to throw in the towel on his behalf. As they arrive at the ring, she looks really somber, and there's some good acting here as she stares into his eyes with a concerned look and he seems to reiterate to her not to quit on his behalf no matter what. So yeah, I don't know whether this is LMS or I Quit or what. We shall see. It's not a regular match. That moment between Benoit and Woman does set the tone nicely in any case.



The bell rings, and the two stand off. They tentatively circle each other before locking up. Meng powers Benoit into a corner, but Benoit ducks the follow-up boot and they reset. Benoit volunteers for a test of strength, Meng takes a cheap kick, but Benoit counters with a leg whip. Reset #2. After Meng lands one kick, Benoit slides out of the ring to take a breather, betraying his own concerns about taking on this monster. He returns inside, goes into another collar-and-elbow, and Meng ragdolls him with a belly-to-belly suplex. Benoit ducks a short clothesline, goes behind, throws a release German. Benoit is slow to follow, Meng reverses an Irish whip, but Benoit throws a targeted low dropkick at Meng's knee to hobble him.

The fight spills out to the floor. They trade chops, then Benoit goes low and trips Meng head-first into the steel steps. Benoit gets back into the ring and allows Meng a recovery period; eventually the match returns inside. Meng powers Benoit into the corner, feigns at a clean break, then lays in some stiff chops and elbows. Benoit manages a kick to the gut, turns the big man around and throws his own chops, but Meng no-sells and tosses him off. As the two continue to slug back and forth, the crowd rises, and Jacqueline shows up at the top of the aisle.



Woman takes a step toward Jackie, and Jackie turns around and, at least for the moment, saunters off. Returning to the action, Meng throws a headbutt at Benoit, puts him down on the mat, stomps the lower abdomen and then locks in a half-crab. Benoit agonizes for a while in this hold, but eventually makes it to the bottom rope. After the break, he continues to gamely fight back with chops, but Meng puts him back down with another big headbutt. Piledriver. After the piledriver, referee Randy Anderson puts a count on Benoit that gets to seven before he finds his feet, and on his way up Anderson asks him if he gives up, which of course he doesn't. I guess the answer to LMS vs. I Quit is WhyNotBoth.jpg.

Benoit ducks on a wild short clothesline and wrestles Meng down into the Crippler Crossface. Meng slides under the bottom rope and Randy Anderson enforces a rope break for the second time in a no DQ match. Tony points out that Benoit was under no obligation to break, but he did. Meng re-enters and, in short time, clobbers Benoit back with a series of fists that causes Benoit to crumble to the mat as Woman screams, fearful for her man. Benoit works his way back up to his feet and yells "COME ON!" at Meng, daring him to continue to attack. Meng obliges and beats him down. Again with the getting up and yelling "COME ON!" Meng continues the assault. He gets caught up in the ropes when his attempted big boot in the corner misses. Benoit capitalizes with two German suplexes, but before the third, Meng breaks things up with a back elbow.

Meng throws two chops, Benoit counters the third down into another Crippler Crossface. Meng again works his way out of the ring to the floor. Benoit gets a running start and goes for a suicide dive, which Meng sort of counters by catching and slamming Benoit straight into the floor.



The two slowly recover, Meng gets into the ring, Benoit tries going up to the top rope, but Meng catches him up there and sets up as if to go for a superplex. Benoit escapes behind and throws a German suplex that slams Meng down from the second rope. Benoit to the top for a swandive headbutt, but Meng catches him on impact in a Tongan death grip. Benoit tries to fight it off, but Meng locks it in harder and Benoit fades to the mat. Although Benoit never seems to quit, Randy Anderson calls the match off.



Can't say I really understand the booking, since this seems like a feud where Benoit was meant to go through the Dungeon in order to get to Sullivan, but instead he loses in convincing fashion to one of the lesser stable members. Also, as much as I wanted to like the match, it was just okay. It had a very stop-and-go pace that made it hard to really get into it. By the way, zero idea what that Jackie cameo was about.

Result: Meng via submission
Rating: **1/2

Konnan & Hugh Morrus (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. The Steiner Brothers: Morrus and Scott Steiner kick things off. Scott throws an armdrag, and Morrus gripes about a phantom hair-pull. Scott goes for a top wristlock, but Morrus powers him down to the mat. Reset. Morrus wrestles Scott into the ropes, feigns a clean break, then suckerpunches Steiner. Morrus with a shoulderblock, hammering blow down on Scott's neck, but Scott comes back at him with a belly-to-belly. Tag to Rick Steiner.

Morrus whips Rick into the corner and follows him in with an avalanche. Both Dungeon guys mock Rick's barking habit. Corner charge by Morrus comes up empty, Rick hits a belly-to-belly and a couple of running clotheslines, then heads to the top and connects on a flying clothesline from there. Morrus rolls out of the ring, and Jimmy Hart comes over to calm him down. Morrus rolls back in for just long enough to make the tag to Konnan. Rick reverses an Irish whip, ends up hitting a clothesline. Belly-to-back suplex by Rick, an armdrag, and a hard forearm put Konnan down. A stomp to the head later, Rick covers for long enough to get a two-count. Tag to Scott.

Scott works Konnan over in the corner with knee lunges. Whips Konnan into the corner, but really hits hard face-first into Konnan's raised boots when he tries to follow him in. He doesn't sell for long though, hitting another belly-to-belly that sends Konnan into his own corner for a tag-out. Morrus enters and hits a swinging neckbreaker. He presses Scott overhead and then unceremoniously dumps him along the top rope. The Dungeon guys now isolate him with tags back and forth, and the heat segment is on. After taking some abuse, Scott finds an opening when he ducks a clothesline by Morrus, turns and throws yet another belly-to-belly on Konnan, and then counters Morrus's jump off the ropes. Hot tag to Rick.

Rick cleans up both Dungeonites, sending Konnan all the way out of the ring. He powerslams Morrus, hits the bulldog off the top rope (albeit not at all well), Konnan makes the save, and Scott has returned for the inevitable four-way fracas. After a mid-ring collision between Rick and Konnan, Morrus hits a huge clothesline on Rick to lay him out. His follow-up moonsault attempt misses though, and after Scott hits a frankensteiner on Morrus, Rick is able to record the pin.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall
Rating: **

Konnan is pissed after the match, stalks around the ring a bit and then returns inside after the Steiners are gone. He teases a turn on Morrus, then hugs him, then follows through on the turn, dropkicking Morrus in the knee and then laying him out with a DDT before walking out. The crowd has no reaction to this, because these guys are intensely uninteresting.



Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra) vs. Reggie White: Reggie is in a generic green and yellow jersey for the occasion, definitely not any sort of actual Packers jersey, and I'm setting the wholesale value of this thing at under a buck. I get why they may not have been cleared to use an NFL jersey, but surely they could have gotten something less cheap-looking.



With how much they pushed this as Bears vs. Packers, I'm a little surprised that Mongo didn't put on his blue and orange tights from his Great American Bash '96 debut. The rivals circle each other, then lock up. Reggie powers Mongo halfway across the ring and into the corner. Mongo regroups, slaps a hammerlock on Reggie, and then clobbers him on the back, sending him reeling into the ropes. After a side headlock by Mongo, the two collide in mid-ring and arrive at a stalemate. A second collision also ends in a stalemate. The third go appears to be the same, but Mongo is dazed and ends up toppling. McMichael is angry, and challenges White to line up in a three-point stance against each other in mid-ring. Reggie goes for it, and Mongo takes the cheap route, going low and diving at Reggie's knee to undercut him. He smiles and mocks his hobbled opponent as he arrogantly leans back in the corner.

After a moment or two of recovery, Reggie challenges Mongo to another three-point stance standoff. Mongo does it, tries going for a shoulderblock, but Reggie leapfrogs him, then rares back and clotheslines him out of the ring. This match…it isn't good, but you really couldn't expect much out of a match where Mongo is the experienced veteran wrestler guiding a rookie through a match. They're doing what they can. Mongo makes like he's just going to walk out, but gets confronted by Reggie's then-teammate Gilbert Brown, who lifts Mongo up on his shoulders and carries him back to the ring.



Once Mongo is back inside, Reggie actually hits him with a dropkick. Not a good one mind you, but low expectations can make a spot like that look pretty damn solid. Mongo gets his wits about him and slaps on an armbar. He's got Reggie agonizing until he starts talking some trash. The camera picks him up as saying, "Jesus may have your soul, but I've got your ass." That doesn't sit well with the devout Reggie White, and it motivates him to power his way out of the armbar and throw another terrible clothesline that knocks Mongo out.

Mongo takes another breather, returns, and we see another side headlock, White in control of this one. As the referee starts to admonish White about something, Mongo capitalizes by escaping behind and clipping the back of White's knee. He begins focusing on that knee, stomping, dropping elbows, wrenching, the whole nine yards. Side salto by Mongo, but then he misses on a legdrop. Reggie does yet another side headlock, and Dusty says what I was thinking when he points out that it might be the only hold Reggie knows. Reggie releases, hits a cross-body, gets a two-count. On cue, White does employ another hold now, grabbing the trapezius area on Mongo and wearing him down. Mongo eventually forces a rope break, then lands a low blow while the break is being enforced.



McMichael returns to working the bad leg. He threatens to emulate Ric Flair's figure-four, but White powers him off and out of the ring. It was a desperation move, and Reggie goes back to recovering. As McMichael scales the ropes, White is able to get up, meet him, and throw him off. White returns to selling the leg injury. Mongo throws some right hands, but Reggie fires back, persistently, again clotheslining Mongo to the mat. He hits an inverted atomic drop, gets a running start, and clotheslines Mongo out of the ring. Mongo gets up and drags him out under the bottom rope, taking the fight to the floor. White is able to slam him into the guardrail before returning him inside, but Mongo attacks him upon re-entry.

As this continues, I can't believe they exposed White so thoroughly by making him wrestle such a long ****ing match against a guy who isn't a good worker. Mongo goes for a suplex, White blocks it and throws his own suplex. White with a running splash, but Debra jumps up on the apron to prevent a three-count. After a visual pin, White gets up to hassle the official. Mongo goes and gets the briefcase, but Gilbert Brown gets up on the apron and takes it away from him. Mongo proves resourceful, pointing out to the referee that Brown has a briefcase, causing enough of a diversion that Jeff Jarrett appears out of nowhere and tosses McMichael a second briefcase. Mongo waffles White with it, records the pin, and mercifully this thing is over.



It feels like they could have manufactured something passable if they kept it to 4-5 heavily-scripted minutes, but it went on for 15 ****ing minutes. It felt like an absolute eternity.

Result: Mongo McMichael via pinfall
Rating: 0*

Michael Buffer introduces us to our main event.

No DQ - Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, & Kevin Greene vs. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, & Syxx: Pretty electric entrances all around - featuring a triumphant entrance by Flair here in North Carolina - give this thing a big-match feel from the start. Tony awkwardly forces in a burial of Vader based on Flair beating him in this arena back at Starrcade '93.

Flair and Syxx start this thing out. Syxx with a shoulderblock to open. He taunts the Nature Boy as they reset. Side headlock by Syxx, releases, hits a shoulderblock and then an armdrag. He starts mocking Flair's strut and Flair chops the **** out of him. Now it's Flair's turn to showboat, but that's equally short-lived, as Syxx takes his damn head off with a spinning heel kick.



He chops Flair in the corner, but Flair turns him around and delivers some knife-edges of his own. Ric clenches the fists and continues hammering away. Corner whip and a backdrop. He baits Hall into the ring, takes both Hall and Syxx on, and then, after clearing the ring, saunters over and chops Nash as well, daring him to come in. A furious Nash looks to tag for a moment, but concedes as Hall goes for the tag instead. Flair gets a quick shot in, but then heads over and tags Kevin Greene. Greene comes in, does an up-down in the ring to psyche himself up, and stares maniacally at Hall. Hall just rares back and spits on him. Then tags out to Nash before Greene can get a response in.

Nash comes in expecting to intimidate, and Greene shoves him. Nash shows some disbelief at the fact that Greene didn't just cower before his greatness, then goes on the attack, knocking Greene into the corner and then hitting his elbows and knee lunges. As the action drifts toward the center, Greene ducks a clothesline and then knocks Nash to the mat with a running shoulderblock. And knocks him down a second time for good measure with his own clothesline. Now he slams Nash. Man, I'm kind of amazed at Nash selling that much for Greene. As Nash rolls out of the ring, Hall and Syxx attempt to attack Greene, and he knocks them both down simultaneously with a double clothesline. The crowd pops big as Tony declares, "I tell you, he's for real!" Fun moment. With plenty of respect to the performers so far, the crowd is really lifting this one to another level.



After the nWo regroups, Hall gets into the ring and tries to convince Greene to tag Piper. Greene obliges, and Piper makes his first appearance in the bout. Piper's hip is heavily-bandaged, and Hall taunts him with a limp. He arrogantly saunters up and slaps Piper, causing Piper to almost instantly slap him back, and with much more effect. Hall gets his serious face on and wrestles Piper into the corner, but Piper turns him around and lands a bunch of rights, then clowns on him. Hall shakes it off and kicks Piper in the gut, but Piper is back at him with a big knee-lift that puts Hall down. Hall pushes Piper into the nWo corner, but Piper actually fights all three guys off, returns Hall to the middle, and hits a swinging neckbreaker. As referee Randy Anderson is occupied, Syxx sneaks in and delivers a swift kick to Piper's injured hip, finally putting him down in a meaningful way.

Hall and Syxx tag back and forth to get their licks in on Piper. Hall tries to show up Ric Flair with a figure-four on Piper, but Piper boots him off into the corner, then lunges and makes the hot tag to Flair. Flair fights off all three nWo guys for a moment until Hall slows him down with an eye gouge. He sends Flair into the corner. Flair flips over the corner, runs the apron, up to the top rope, but as he jumps off, Hall catches him and hits his signature fallaway slam. He waits for Flair to get up, then clotheslines him over the top. Some free-form brawling breaks out among all six wrestlers outside for a moment, leading to Flair getting blindsided by Nash. Nash sends him back inside, Hall attempts a cheating pin with his feet on the ropes, but he can't get a three-count.

Flair, whose elbow appears to have gotten busted open, falls into a heat segment as he suffers a Nash legdrop along the ropes. Big sidewalk slam by Nash. Hall tags in and gets in a couple of shots before tagging to Syxx, who fells Flair in a corner and executes the stupid ****ing bronco buster. Flair and Syxx completely botch a mid-ring collision, Flair doesn't even go down for it, and then they wrestle for a moment and blatantly redo the same spot a moment later, at least managing to get the result they wanted to. Obviously their insistence on doing it means that this opens up the hot tag…and it does, as Flair tags Piper. As Piper attacks the nWo team, Randy Anderson steps in and says that he somehow didn't see the tag. Piper's reaction is to shrug and just punch Randy Anderson to the mat. Only at this moment do I remember that this thing is no DQ.



Anyway, the ref bump brings in everyone, and we have six-way pandemonium. Nick Patrick shows up at ringside to try to aid Randy Anderson. Flair and Hall take over the ring, and the announcers pretend they're legal even though Flair just got done making the big hot tag to Piper a moment ago. Flair slaps the figure-four on Hall, Nick Patrick steps into the ring as if to become the acting referee, and as Piper fades Nash out with the sleeper and Kevin Greene powerslams Syxx, Patrick counts a faded Scott Hall's shoulders to the mat for the 1-2-3.



This was a lot of fun, certainly more so than I was expecting.

Result: Flair, Piper, & Greene via pinfall
Rating: ***1/2

Big celebration in the arena as the good guys walk off triumphantly. On that feel-good note, the show ends.



Overall: In the words of Mitch Hedberg, "You have to start the show strong and end the show strong. Those are the two most important things. Can't be like pancakes…all exciting at first, then by the end you're ****ing sick of 'em." This show was not strong wire-to-wire, but it had a great opening match and a very enjoyable main event. I'll take that.

What was Patrick's affiliation during this show? Was it before his nwo turn?

This is him turning back from his nWo days. To my recollection he just plays it straight going forward, though I could be forgetting.

May 19, 1997

NITRO

Asheville, NC

After a cold-open that briefly shows the triumph of Ric Flair, Kevin Greene, & Roddy Piper from last night, the credits run, and then Mean Gene Okerlund welcomes us to the show by bringing Flair out for an interview. Flair declares last night to be, "without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest thrill of my wrestling career." Mean Gene cheerfully, and seemingly sincerely, adds, "That's probably an understatement, Ric Flair." What the hell is going on. Flair gloats on about last night's victory, but is interrupted by the nWo theme.



Syxx emerges from the back to confront Flair. Syxx declares, "You guys beat no one last night." He says that the wrong man was in the ring. He's right about that; I thought it was going to be a standard continuity error and not a plot point. Syxx says that after last night, he knows he can beat Flair. He challenges Flair to accept a match right here tonight. Flair gladly accepts, actually is going to start fighting right then, but Syxx ducks away from him and scurries into the back.

TV Title - Steven Regal (c) vs. Prince Iaukea: Don't you ****ing dare inflict another Prince Iaukea title run on us. I don't know the lineage of these WCW midcard titles, so I often don't know who's going to win the title matches. I assume they wouldn't have been dumb enough to strap Iaukea again, but I'll watch this with some slight nerves.

Regal with an arm-wringer, a couple of palm strikes, a European uppercut, and a double knee-lift. More hammering blows in the corner. After a corner whip, Iaukea hops up on the second rope and jumps back into a cross-body for a two-count, attempts another pinfall and gets one, now a crucifix for a near-fall, but Regal finally halts the momentum when he catches the Prince by the legs and slams him face-first to the mat. He kicks him in the back, punts him in the face, picks him up into a reverse suplex, then slaps on the Regal Stretch. Good, good; this was a squash match.



Result: Steven Regal via submission

After commercials, we see highlights from last night of the Mortis/Wrath beatdown of Glacier, as well as Ernest Miller coming out to make the save.

Masa Hiro Chono vs. Squire David Taylor: Who on earth would possibly want to watch this match? These one-hour Nitros always feel very rushed, at least these one-hour episodes since they conditioned us to two hours…perhaps they could just leave this match on the cutting-room floor and conduct the other segments at a regular pace?

There's a lock-up and a shoulderblock. By who, it doesn't really matter. Okay, it was Chono. Taylor cartwheels out of an Irish whip and hits a dropkick. Chono with an inverted atomic drop. Chono no-sells a European uppercut, rakes the eyes, and dumps Taylor out of the ring. Upon Taylor's return, Chono hits a neckbreaker. Goes for a piledriver, Taylor counters into a backdrop. Corner whip, Taylor hits Chono's boot following in after him, Chono slaps on the STF, tap tap tap.



Result: Masa Hiro Chono via submission

Mean Gene grabs a word with Sonny Onoo. Onoo says, "As you saw last night, I can make or destroy a champion. Chono, I'm a businessman, not a fighter. But you have a debt to pay with me and all New Japan. Next week at Nitro, I have your worst nightmare, and you have a match with him." He refuses to identify who he's talking about.



After commercials, we get a pre-recorded Jack Tunney-esque announcement from JJ Dillon, who tells us that Nick Patrick has been officially reinstated.



And now we're back in the arena, where Tony Schiavone sends us to a very special announcement by JJ Dillon. And then they replay the same announcement over again. Good going, gents.

M. Wallstreet vs. Scotty Riggs: Nick Patrick is the referee here, and he gets some pre-match static from Wallstreet. On paper, this match is slightly less aggressively boring than Chono vs. Taylor, but I again feel deeply unexcited. Riggs hits a standing dropkick, smashes Wallstreet into one corner, whips him into the opposite, but gets blocked on an attempted monkey-flip. Offense time for Wallstreet, who executes a back suplex and then slaps on a reverse chinlock. After breaking the hold, Riggs surprises with a small package that gets a two-count. Wallstreet knocks him back down and executes a standing legdrop. He dumps Riggs out of the ring, then gets back to jawing with Nick Patrick. He seems to be reaching into his pants for a foreign object when Patrick aggressively goes to wrestle it away from him. As Wallstreet is tied up with this situation, Riggs jumps in with a sunset flip off the top that doesn't go very well. Wallstreet starts to counter into a pin of his own, grabs the ropes for leverage, Patrick kicks his hand off the ropes, and Wallstreet falls into a three-count. Whatever.



Result: Scotty Riggs via pinfall

Next up, Mean Gene conducts a segment where he brings out racecar driver Mark Martin, Ric Flair alongside, and they shill a Valvoline car. Moving along…

We see another Slamboree clip, this of Randy Savage calling out DDP, baiting him into the ring, the nWo ultimately jumping Page, and then The Giant making the save.

Jeff Jarrett & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra) vs. The Steiner Brothers: Scott Steiner opens things up with Jarrett, arm-dragging him to the mat. Jarrett blocks and counters the next armdrag into one of his own. Suplex by Jarrett, Scotty no-sells and then hits a press slam. He sets Jarrett up on the top turnbuckle, follows him up, and sets up and hits a Samoan drop off the second rope. Mongo breaks up the pin attempt, then both legal men tag out, leaving us with Mongo vs. Rick Steiner. Mongo lunges at Rick's leg, executes a whip and sort of a shoulderblock, but Rick pulls out a belly-to-back suplex. Facebuster off the ropes by Rick.

Jarrett now makes the save on the pin attempt, all four fight in the ring, Debra distracts the official, and Jarrett - after dispatching of Scott - grabs the briefcase with a mind to waffle Rick with it. He awkwardly stands there and waits…Kevin Greene emerges from the back, clearly late to his spot, but he warns Jarrett off, picks up the case himself, wallops Mongo, and the Steiners score the pin. Tony declares that Greene has gotten his revenge from Great American Bash '96. Hey, I appreciate them tying up a loose end, even if I didn't appreciate anything else about this match.



(Yes, it's weird that referee Mark Curtis slides down into position to count a pin before anyone was even close to being pinned.)

Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

After the match, Jarrett tells Mongo what Kevin Greene did. Mongo screams into the camera that the cameraman better follow him to see what he does to Greene. He shoves Doug Dillinger down on his way back up the aisle, and then the show cuts to break. After break, we get a flashback to what happened during commercials. Mongo attacks Greene in the bathroom, and a bunch of officials have to separate them.

Ric Flair vs. Syxx: So is this for the Cruiserweight Title? I kid, I kid. But champions rarely wrestle non-title matches in WCW. Syxx attacks Flair before the bell, hits a spinning back kick and then whips him into the corner. Syxx comes up empty following him in, and Flair goes on the attack with some punches. Syxx reverses an Irish whip, and…like I said, these episodes are very rushed, because, at about the 30-second mark, here comes the nWo run-in. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall descend on the ring and beat Flair down.



Result: Ric Flair via DQ

Hall hits the Razor's Edge. Tony comments that, because of the backstage brawl involving Kevin Greene, Greene and the Horsemen were escorted from the building. Nice bit of logical progression from the booking of the prior match, I'll say. Tony also says that Roddy Piper isn't here, so there's nobody to save Flair. Nash attacks referee Randy Anderson and dumps him from the ring, then summons a microphone. "Ric Flair, you said that last night was your finest moment. Well what's tonight, Ric, huh?!" Nash threatens Piper and then hands the mic to Hall, who declares to the Smithsonian that they've got "one half of that dinosaur exhibit they've been looking for." The three, again identifying as the Wolfpack, obnoxiously troll for a bit longer until their music hits and the show goes to break.



We'll be back to two-hour episodes next week.

Here comes Eric Bischoff. He does his usual cheap trolling, then moves on to address Sting. Paranoid, he keeps looking up at the ceiling to make sure that Sting isn't descending. Despite that, he says that Sting isn't in Asheville tonight, "because he's a coward." He declares that Sting will never get in the ring with Hollywood Hogan, because he's not worth a drop of Hogan's perspiration. He says that he wishes Sting were here tonight, because he would take the opportunity to slap the paint off his face. Obviously that cues Sting's entrance. He rises through the bottom of the ring, executes a Scorpion Death Drop on Bischoff, and leaves him laid out as the episode ends.



Overall: This episode was nothing. Again. I'm looking forward to them getting back to two-hour episodes…they're more work, but it seems more likely that they could actually be watchable.

legit question: has jeff jarrett ever done anything that wasn't incredibly mediocre at best?

Mediocre talent with a mediocre gimmick.

His July 1995 match with Shawn Michaels is great. Of course, much of that is owed to Shawn Michaels.

Jarrett was very dull most of the time.

He carried Ready To Rumble IMO

That movie I did not see.

That said, Jarrett was really about as bad as it gets for a guy who couldn't reasonably be said to be outright bad in the ring or bad on the mic. He would get a (minimally) passing grade at all aspects of being a good professional wrestler, and yet my heart drops every time I have to watch something that he did. That match with Dean Malenko is as bad as I can remember a Malenko match being.

He is the Todd Zeile of professional wrestling

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