Monday Night Wars - The Comprehensive Recap
12-07-2015
, 01:36 AM
May 20, 1996
NITRO
Monroe, LA
Here we are for a 90-minute Nitro. No Mongo tonight; it's just Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan on the call tonight. Bischoff says that Mongo is in serious training for the upcoming tag match against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson at the Great American Bash. They show the clips from Slamboree that set that up, then send it to the ring.
Fire & Ice vs. The Steiner Brothers: Are we back to the days of Scott Norton showing up every week? I'm simultaneously disgusted and excited. The suplex spots by the Steiners here still look good, though they're just repeat spots of what we saw a couple of weeks prior. A Scott Steiner axhandle from the top rope to the floor is new, and looks good considering his newly-manufactured size. Norton risks ****ing up Scott's shoulder on a Samoan drop.
Match devolves into chaos, everyone brawls on the floor, Norton hits a shoulderbreaker on Scott out there on Scott, apparently determined to finish the job from the Samoan drop, but we have a double countout. The teams continue brawling after the bell.
Result: Double countout
Eddie Guerrero vs. Ric Flair (w/ Woman and Miss Elizabeth): They start slow in this one, but with sensible mat wrestling that I find fairly enjoyable. I love the way Flair is putting Eddie over here, as he shows increasing frustration with how the match is going. Flair was masterful at portraying a slow burn like that. Heenan with an effective line as well, turning up surprised after a good chunk of time: "I tell you, this match has been 50/50! Eddie Guerrero has really held his own in there." Heenan really had a tendency to put Eddie over; unlike Ventura, it was very rare for Heenan to go to any lengths to put a babyface over.
Eddie hits the frogsplash and looks like he may win, but he crumples upon impact and sells a leg injury that had been building since an earlier spot (note that this wasn't perfect, and Bischoff for some reason blows it up to some extent by pointing out something that I missed, that he was selling an injury on a different leg now than earlier). Flair immediately capitalizes, attacking the leg and then slapping on the figure-four. Flair gets leverage from Woman pulling on his hands outside, and Eddie stays down for a three-count while in the hold. I thought that this was a strong bit of storytelling. The young guy goes toe-to-toe with the legend for roughly 20 minutes, hits his finisher and may well have won, but unfortunately catches a bad break with a leg injury right at the possible point of victory and instead loses. Certainly Guerrero stays strong in defeat here.
Result: Ric Flair via pinfall
Mean Gene joins Flair and the ladies. He tells him that Randy Savage is somewhere in the building. Flair says that he's heard that he's in town but locked up. "Macho Man, I'm teaching your wife a new way of life, brother." Flair pivots to the football players and cuts a promo on them as well, telling Kevin Greene that he'll never make it to mini-camp this year.
After commercial, they come back to Flair having set up his banquet at the announce table as Bischoff rolls his eyes in disgust. Flair says that Ted Turner himself said it was a must to have him on the set, which Bischoff grudgingly admits to. Flair: "Jane loves the Nature Boy."
Tag Team Titles - Sting & Lex Luger (c) vs. The Faces of Fear (Meng & The Barbarian): Teaming Meng and the Barbarian regularly was a good choice. Barbarian could at least sort of still work at this point, but Meng could not. Not that I would say that to his face. Barbarian hits a belly-to-belly off the top on Sting, sending him really high up for impact. The Faces of Fear connect on simultaneous headbutts off the top and get a visual pin, but Luger occupies the referee for long enough that Sting is eventually able to kick out after the long delay that precedes the pin attempt.
Hot tag to Luger. His pinattempt after a flurry of offense gets broken up. Sting back in, Barbarian attempts to go for another belly-to-belly off the top, but Luger holds Barbarian's leg and Sting pushes Barbarian off the top. Sting follows with a top rope splash, Luger is still the legal man so he goes in and makes the pin, champs retain. Not bad.
Result: Sting & Lex Luger via pinfall
Mean Gene reporting from outside the arena, where Randy Savage is being held out of the arena. Savage is in his wrestling gear. He just shows up that way? He rants angrily at Mean Gene, does the paranoid act that Gene is helping set him up, then tries again to burst his way toward the door before being restrained by some rent-a-cops. One of the cops is clearly corpsing as he holds Savage back.
Another "Blood Runs Cold" promo. This is literally the same exact promo week after week. You would think they could mix it up slightly to actually gradually boost the excitement level about the incoming wrestler.
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Brad Armstrong: Eric Bischoff says that Page is "one of those athletes where you either like them or you don't." Well that's true of literally every athlete in the history of existence, so…kudos, Eric. Nothing wrong with this match, but nothing stood about it either. DDP goes over with the Diamond Cutter.
Result: DDP via pinfall
Okerlund joins DDP in the ring. After Page brags about winning the Battle Bowl last night, Gene Okerlund says that the WCW Executive Committee reviewed the tape from last night and said that DDP's foot did hit the floor during the Battle Bowl, and as a result DDP won't be getting the title shot at World Champion. And instead, for no explained reason, that title shot will go to Lex Luger. So I guess that wasn't a botch last night, but…this is way worse. They seriously just built a whole PPV around an event and then booked it in a way that the result would be totally invalidated and hand-waved away the next night as though it didn't happen? WTF is that? DDP is not happy. Neither is any fan of sensible booking.
Coming up next on TNT, the Western Conference Finals between the Jazz and the Sonics. That Sonics team was so great. **** you, David Stern.
WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Arn Anderson (w/ The Taskmaster): Bischoff is at a loss for why Taskmaster is entering with Arn. He asks Flair, still at the commentary booth, about the possible trouble going on between Chris Benoit and Arn Anderson. This has all been happening on the weekend, I guess. Bischoff says of Benoit, "He's a homewrecker. He's like the Miss Elizabeth of the Four Horsemen." Flair just laughs off the comment. The camera catches Jimmy Hart asking Kevin Sullivan what he's doing there. Sullivan says that he's just there to make sure that Arn gets a fair shot.
Arn tries to take it to Giant, but with no real success. Giant flings him across the ring like a rag doll. Flair remains confident that the match is heading their way. Arn goes for a DDT, Giant blocks and chokes Arn and transitions into a chokeslam for the pin.
Result: The Giant via pinfall
Flair left the broadcast table after the loss. There was no Horsemen plot or anything; all involved just slink away as The Giant stands tall and the commentators put over the fact that Giant may be unbeatable.
Bischoff reminds us that Nitro becomes a two-hour show next week, and signs off from there.
Overall: Pretty good. Strong Flair vs. Guerrero match, decent tag title match, mostly an entertaining show all around. That reveal that Battle Bowl basically didn't happen is completely ridiculous, so that's the one thing I'll criticize hard about this episode. But all in all, I liked it.
RAW
Sioux City, IA
We start the show with a brief clip from an MSG House Show, featuring Phineas Godwinn grabbing Sunny and forcefully kissing her. Well I'm certainly glued to my set right away.
After credits, Vince McMahon says that Sunny and the Bodydonnas have kissed the Tag Team Titles goodbye. So presumably they dropped them to the Godwinns at MSG.
Steve Austin (w/ Ted DiBiase) vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Vince mentions that Mero will face Hunter Hearst-Helmsley at the PPV this coming Sunday. The early part of this match is pretty dull, but there is a nice spot at the midway point where Mero bumps hard against the top turnbuckle on something akin to snake eyes.
The latter half of this match does pick up a bit, with Austin busting out a decent offensive arsenal to methodically deconstruct Mero. Babyface comeback by Mero features a headscissor, knee lift, and an axhandle off the top for two. Hard clothesline for another near-fall. The rally gets stopped in its tracks when DiBiase trips Mero. As Austin attempts to capitalize, Savio Vega runs in with a strap in hand, whipping Austin with it for the obvious DQ. I have it in my mind that Austin and Mero would do better work together later this year.
Result: Steve Austin via DQ
Mero confronts Savio after the match and expresses his anger, but it doesn't come to anything. I do appreciate them at least having a babyface not be stupid enough to be okay with another babyface causing him to get disqualified without good reason; sometimes they fail that test.
Highlights from the Kuwaiti Tour. Ahmed Johnson apparently won a 60-man tournament there. Thank God I didn't have to watch any of it. Next week, Ahmed will take on Vader in the first round of the King of the Ring Tournament. Vince says we will also see Goldust vs. The Ultimate Warrior. Historically that means they've reserved 10+ minutes for stalling and dead air.
Savio Vega vs. 1-2-3 Kid (w/ Ted DiBiase): DiBiase strolls out to ringside twirling a chauffeur's cap. Nice spot early with Savio connecting on a spinning heel kick that carries both he and the Kid to the floor. As Kid later overtakes control of the offense, he makes a signal toward the crowd that would become a lot more prominent in the WWF the following year…
He does that right before connecting on a splash off the top. There's a decent back and forth to this match; it's not spectacular, but it's watchable. The end comes pretty abruptly when Savio suddenly goes for a pinning combo that I don't know the name of (wraps him up from a standing position, tucks the Kid's head, leans forward to trap his shoulders down) and gets a three-count.
Result: Savio Vega via pinfall
Steve Austin blindsides Vega immediately after the bell. Austin, Kid, and DiBiase put the boots to Savio and tie him up with the leather strap that Savio brought in earlier. DiBiase puts the chauffeur cap on Savio's head, and the three celebrate their triumph.
Now clips from MSG. Backstage footage of Henry Godwinn and Hillbilly Jim trying to round up Phineas before the match with the Bodydonnas. They beat on his locker room door, the door eventually opens, and Sunny emerges. HOG and Hillbilly Jim yell at him for being an idiot. Forwarding to the match, Sunny kept running distraction on Phineas, he eventually stopped and forcibly kissed her, then hit the Slop Drop and made the pin anyway to win the Tag Team Titles. Vince says that the Godwinns will defend the titles against the Smoking Gunns on the pre-show this coming Sunday.
Jim Ross with Paul Bearer in front of a casket at the top of the aisle. Bearer does the usual promo, then opens the casket, Taker sits up in it and continues the promo, and suddenly the casket slams shut and Mankind ties it closed as Goldust comes out stalking Paul Bearer. Then Mankind beats on the casket with a steel pole. Why not just skip a step and beat Taker himself with a steel pole? He does dent the casket up, but Undertaker doesn't really get harmed here assuming that he's not claustrophobic and having a heart attack inside.
After commercial, Jim Cornette is in the ring with British Bulldog, Diana Hart-Smith, and Clarence Mason. Mason has a restraining order keeping Shawn Michaels from coming within 100 feet of Diana anytime between now and the PPV. Gorilla Monsoon comes down to the ring to inspect the restraining order and then talks to Howard Finkel. Finkel announces that Monsoon has confirmed that this is indeed a valid restraining order that he will comply with…and his method of compliance is to eject Diana from the arena. As she leaves, Shawn Michaels's music hits, and Shawn and Diana cross paths in the aisle. Uhh, he just violated the order. Jail him IMO. Michaels sits down for commentary.
British Bulldog (w/ Jim Cornette & Clarence Mason) vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Michaels says that he would never mess around with a married woman. RonBurgundyIdontbelieve you.gif. Shawn continues to protest his innocence throughout the match, says that he's had wild times in the past but that these accusations are total lies. Bulldog and Jake work a boring match, with Bulldog slowly working Jake's leg over for basically all of it. Jake at least could still sell well at this point even if he was really limited in the ring.
Diana comes back out to ringside late. She gets in Shawn Michaels's face and throws a cup of water at him, missing almost entirely and certainly getting a fan or two wet at ringside. Shawn says that he won't hit a woman, then clocks Jim Cornette instead. Bulldog comes out and attacks Michaels and suddenly the show is off the air without a resolution on the match. Not that this match really needed a resolution.
Result: No contest
Overall: It was okay. Mostly pretty boring. No segments that I truly enjoyed, but the Mero-Austin and Vega-Kid matches were alright.
---
Ratings for 5/20/96: Nitro 3.1, Raw 2.3
Ratings Running Score: Raw, 16-15-2
Better Show: Nitro again with absolute ease. Too much of the time, when Raw isn't actively bad it's still not at all exciting. This night's show fits that description.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 27-6
Match of the Night: Ric Flair vs. Eddie Guerrero
NITRO
Monroe, LA
Here we are for a 90-minute Nitro. No Mongo tonight; it's just Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan on the call tonight. Bischoff says that Mongo is in serious training for the upcoming tag match against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson at the Great American Bash. They show the clips from Slamboree that set that up, then send it to the ring.
Fire & Ice vs. The Steiner Brothers: Are we back to the days of Scott Norton showing up every week? I'm simultaneously disgusted and excited. The suplex spots by the Steiners here still look good, though they're just repeat spots of what we saw a couple of weeks prior. A Scott Steiner axhandle from the top rope to the floor is new, and looks good considering his newly-manufactured size. Norton risks ****ing up Scott's shoulder on a Samoan drop.
Match devolves into chaos, everyone brawls on the floor, Norton hits a shoulderbreaker on Scott out there on Scott, apparently determined to finish the job from the Samoan drop, but we have a double countout. The teams continue brawling after the bell.
Result: Double countout
Eddie Guerrero vs. Ric Flair (w/ Woman and Miss Elizabeth): They start slow in this one, but with sensible mat wrestling that I find fairly enjoyable. I love the way Flair is putting Eddie over here, as he shows increasing frustration with how the match is going. Flair was masterful at portraying a slow burn like that. Heenan with an effective line as well, turning up surprised after a good chunk of time: "I tell you, this match has been 50/50! Eddie Guerrero has really held his own in there." Heenan really had a tendency to put Eddie over; unlike Ventura, it was very rare for Heenan to go to any lengths to put a babyface over.
Eddie hits the frogsplash and looks like he may win, but he crumples upon impact and sells a leg injury that had been building since an earlier spot (note that this wasn't perfect, and Bischoff for some reason blows it up to some extent by pointing out something that I missed, that he was selling an injury on a different leg now than earlier). Flair immediately capitalizes, attacking the leg and then slapping on the figure-four. Flair gets leverage from Woman pulling on his hands outside, and Eddie stays down for a three-count while in the hold. I thought that this was a strong bit of storytelling. The young guy goes toe-to-toe with the legend for roughly 20 minutes, hits his finisher and may well have won, but unfortunately catches a bad break with a leg injury right at the possible point of victory and instead loses. Certainly Guerrero stays strong in defeat here.
Result: Ric Flair via pinfall
Mean Gene joins Flair and the ladies. He tells him that Randy Savage is somewhere in the building. Flair says that he's heard that he's in town but locked up. "Macho Man, I'm teaching your wife a new way of life, brother." Flair pivots to the football players and cuts a promo on them as well, telling Kevin Greene that he'll never make it to mini-camp this year.
After commercial, they come back to Flair having set up his banquet at the announce table as Bischoff rolls his eyes in disgust. Flair says that Ted Turner himself said it was a must to have him on the set, which Bischoff grudgingly admits to. Flair: "Jane loves the Nature Boy."
Tag Team Titles - Sting & Lex Luger (c) vs. The Faces of Fear (Meng & The Barbarian): Teaming Meng and the Barbarian regularly was a good choice. Barbarian could at least sort of still work at this point, but Meng could not. Not that I would say that to his face. Barbarian hits a belly-to-belly off the top on Sting, sending him really high up for impact. The Faces of Fear connect on simultaneous headbutts off the top and get a visual pin, but Luger occupies the referee for long enough that Sting is eventually able to kick out after the long delay that precedes the pin attempt.
Hot tag to Luger. His pinattempt after a flurry of offense gets broken up. Sting back in, Barbarian attempts to go for another belly-to-belly off the top, but Luger holds Barbarian's leg and Sting pushes Barbarian off the top. Sting follows with a top rope splash, Luger is still the legal man so he goes in and makes the pin, champs retain. Not bad.
Result: Sting & Lex Luger via pinfall
Mean Gene reporting from outside the arena, where Randy Savage is being held out of the arena. Savage is in his wrestling gear. He just shows up that way? He rants angrily at Mean Gene, does the paranoid act that Gene is helping set him up, then tries again to burst his way toward the door before being restrained by some rent-a-cops. One of the cops is clearly corpsing as he holds Savage back.
Another "Blood Runs Cold" promo. This is literally the same exact promo week after week. You would think they could mix it up slightly to actually gradually boost the excitement level about the incoming wrestler.
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Brad Armstrong: Eric Bischoff says that Page is "one of those athletes where you either like them or you don't." Well that's true of literally every athlete in the history of existence, so…kudos, Eric. Nothing wrong with this match, but nothing stood about it either. DDP goes over with the Diamond Cutter.
Result: DDP via pinfall
Okerlund joins DDP in the ring. After Page brags about winning the Battle Bowl last night, Gene Okerlund says that the WCW Executive Committee reviewed the tape from last night and said that DDP's foot did hit the floor during the Battle Bowl, and as a result DDP won't be getting the title shot at World Champion. And instead, for no explained reason, that title shot will go to Lex Luger. So I guess that wasn't a botch last night, but…this is way worse. They seriously just built a whole PPV around an event and then booked it in a way that the result would be totally invalidated and hand-waved away the next night as though it didn't happen? WTF is that? DDP is not happy. Neither is any fan of sensible booking.
Coming up next on TNT, the Western Conference Finals between the Jazz and the Sonics. That Sonics team was so great. **** you, David Stern.
WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Arn Anderson (w/ The Taskmaster): Bischoff is at a loss for why Taskmaster is entering with Arn. He asks Flair, still at the commentary booth, about the possible trouble going on between Chris Benoit and Arn Anderson. This has all been happening on the weekend, I guess. Bischoff says of Benoit, "He's a homewrecker. He's like the Miss Elizabeth of the Four Horsemen." Flair just laughs off the comment. The camera catches Jimmy Hart asking Kevin Sullivan what he's doing there. Sullivan says that he's just there to make sure that Arn gets a fair shot.
Arn tries to take it to Giant, but with no real success. Giant flings him across the ring like a rag doll. Flair remains confident that the match is heading their way. Arn goes for a DDT, Giant blocks and chokes Arn and transitions into a chokeslam for the pin.
Result: The Giant via pinfall
Flair left the broadcast table after the loss. There was no Horsemen plot or anything; all involved just slink away as The Giant stands tall and the commentators put over the fact that Giant may be unbeatable.
Bischoff reminds us that Nitro becomes a two-hour show next week, and signs off from there.
Overall: Pretty good. Strong Flair vs. Guerrero match, decent tag title match, mostly an entertaining show all around. That reveal that Battle Bowl basically didn't happen is completely ridiculous, so that's the one thing I'll criticize hard about this episode. But all in all, I liked it.
RAW
Sioux City, IA
We start the show with a brief clip from an MSG House Show, featuring Phineas Godwinn grabbing Sunny and forcefully kissing her. Well I'm certainly glued to my set right away.
After credits, Vince McMahon says that Sunny and the Bodydonnas have kissed the Tag Team Titles goodbye. So presumably they dropped them to the Godwinns at MSG.
Steve Austin (w/ Ted DiBiase) vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Vince mentions that Mero will face Hunter Hearst-Helmsley at the PPV this coming Sunday. The early part of this match is pretty dull, but there is a nice spot at the midway point where Mero bumps hard against the top turnbuckle on something akin to snake eyes.
The latter half of this match does pick up a bit, with Austin busting out a decent offensive arsenal to methodically deconstruct Mero. Babyface comeback by Mero features a headscissor, knee lift, and an axhandle off the top for two. Hard clothesline for another near-fall. The rally gets stopped in its tracks when DiBiase trips Mero. As Austin attempts to capitalize, Savio Vega runs in with a strap in hand, whipping Austin with it for the obvious DQ. I have it in my mind that Austin and Mero would do better work together later this year.
Result: Steve Austin via DQ
Mero confronts Savio after the match and expresses his anger, but it doesn't come to anything. I do appreciate them at least having a babyface not be stupid enough to be okay with another babyface causing him to get disqualified without good reason; sometimes they fail that test.
Highlights from the Kuwaiti Tour. Ahmed Johnson apparently won a 60-man tournament there. Thank God I didn't have to watch any of it. Next week, Ahmed will take on Vader in the first round of the King of the Ring Tournament. Vince says we will also see Goldust vs. The Ultimate Warrior. Historically that means they've reserved 10+ minutes for stalling and dead air.
Savio Vega vs. 1-2-3 Kid (w/ Ted DiBiase): DiBiase strolls out to ringside twirling a chauffeur's cap. Nice spot early with Savio connecting on a spinning heel kick that carries both he and the Kid to the floor. As Kid later overtakes control of the offense, he makes a signal toward the crowd that would become a lot more prominent in the WWF the following year…
He does that right before connecting on a splash off the top. There's a decent back and forth to this match; it's not spectacular, but it's watchable. The end comes pretty abruptly when Savio suddenly goes for a pinning combo that I don't know the name of (wraps him up from a standing position, tucks the Kid's head, leans forward to trap his shoulders down) and gets a three-count.
Result: Savio Vega via pinfall
Steve Austin blindsides Vega immediately after the bell. Austin, Kid, and DiBiase put the boots to Savio and tie him up with the leather strap that Savio brought in earlier. DiBiase puts the chauffeur cap on Savio's head, and the three celebrate their triumph.
Now clips from MSG. Backstage footage of Henry Godwinn and Hillbilly Jim trying to round up Phineas before the match with the Bodydonnas. They beat on his locker room door, the door eventually opens, and Sunny emerges. HOG and Hillbilly Jim yell at him for being an idiot. Forwarding to the match, Sunny kept running distraction on Phineas, he eventually stopped and forcibly kissed her, then hit the Slop Drop and made the pin anyway to win the Tag Team Titles. Vince says that the Godwinns will defend the titles against the Smoking Gunns on the pre-show this coming Sunday.
Jim Ross with Paul Bearer in front of a casket at the top of the aisle. Bearer does the usual promo, then opens the casket, Taker sits up in it and continues the promo, and suddenly the casket slams shut and Mankind ties it closed as Goldust comes out stalking Paul Bearer. Then Mankind beats on the casket with a steel pole. Why not just skip a step and beat Taker himself with a steel pole? He does dent the casket up, but Undertaker doesn't really get harmed here assuming that he's not claustrophobic and having a heart attack inside.
After commercial, Jim Cornette is in the ring with British Bulldog, Diana Hart-Smith, and Clarence Mason. Mason has a restraining order keeping Shawn Michaels from coming within 100 feet of Diana anytime between now and the PPV. Gorilla Monsoon comes down to the ring to inspect the restraining order and then talks to Howard Finkel. Finkel announces that Monsoon has confirmed that this is indeed a valid restraining order that he will comply with…and his method of compliance is to eject Diana from the arena. As she leaves, Shawn Michaels's music hits, and Shawn and Diana cross paths in the aisle. Uhh, he just violated the order. Jail him IMO. Michaels sits down for commentary.
British Bulldog (w/ Jim Cornette & Clarence Mason) vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Michaels says that he would never mess around with a married woman. RonBurgundyIdontbelieve you.gif. Shawn continues to protest his innocence throughout the match, says that he's had wild times in the past but that these accusations are total lies. Bulldog and Jake work a boring match, with Bulldog slowly working Jake's leg over for basically all of it. Jake at least could still sell well at this point even if he was really limited in the ring.
Diana comes back out to ringside late. She gets in Shawn Michaels's face and throws a cup of water at him, missing almost entirely and certainly getting a fan or two wet at ringside. Shawn says that he won't hit a woman, then clocks Jim Cornette instead. Bulldog comes out and attacks Michaels and suddenly the show is off the air without a resolution on the match. Not that this match really needed a resolution.
Result: No contest
Overall: It was okay. Mostly pretty boring. No segments that I truly enjoyed, but the Mero-Austin and Vega-Kid matches were alright.
---
Ratings for 5/20/96: Nitro 3.1, Raw 2.3
Ratings Running Score: Raw, 16-15-2
Better Show: Nitro again with absolute ease. Too much of the time, when Raw isn't actively bad it's still not at all exciting. This night's show fits that description.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 27-6
Match of the Night: Ric Flair vs. Eddie Guerrero
12-07-2015
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12-07-2015
, 04:37 PM
12-07-2015
, 04:58 PM
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12-07-2015
, 10:02 PM
WWF IN YOUR HOUSE 8: BEWARE OF DOG (PART I)
Florence, SC
Opening video promo is okay, gives us a montage of the Michaels/Bulldog build.
The usual Vince and the King team are calling the show. Jerry Lawler: "Your mission, Shawn Michaels, should you choose to accept it, is to convince the world that you're not a womanizer, and hang onto the WWF Title in the process. I don't think he can do it." Umm, I agree that I don't think he can do it. He's supposed to prove that he's not a womanizer during the process of the match? By wrestling well, I guess?
Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Hunter's arm candy tonight appears to be at least 45 years old. I sense an Oedipus complex. Mero does another really rough pre-entrance promo. His interpretation of his "Wildman" character seemed to lead him to promos where he alternated from quiet sentences to sudden bursts of energy, with jungle references thrown in. Somehow he was significantly better as a baaaadd man.
Nice diving plancha over the top early from Mero. Gets a nice run of offense, but it stops abruptly when he hits his shoulder hard into the corner on an empty corner charge. HHH promptly takes advantage by flinging him shoulder-first into the opposite corner. Vince warns the audience that there could be some technical difficulties coming up due to the storm system coming through the area. Maybe the storm was a work. Hunter continues working that injured arm hard. He attempts an armbreaker that Mero resists by clutching his hands together, but Vince and Lawler seem to not even recognize the spot as HHH struggles to complete the hold and Mero struggles to resist it. I liked that, but the commentary no-sell hurt it.
I enjoy both Helmsley's targeted attack and Mero's great sell job on it. Lawler, in his relentless commentary about how ugly Sable is in spite of considerable visual evidence to the contrary, says, "Sable spent 12 hours in the beauty salon today, and that was just for a quote." Not bad. HHH slips on the top rope and gets crotched, and Mero manages to capitalize with a top rope hurracanrana. Follows with a headscissor, a knee-lift, and a backdrop. Up top, sunset flip from there, but HHH kicks out. Dropkicks HHH out of the ring, tries to follow him out with the somersault plancha, but H moves and Mero ****s his knee up.
Hunter has a chance to do the Pedigree, but gets distracted by Sable averting her eyes and doesn't end up attempting it. He goes outside, grabs her arm and demands that she watch, and the telegraphing is obvious. Catapult by Mero sends HHH over the top of the turnbuckle and into the post, Mero pins, 1-2-3. It's the Beefcake-Perfect ending from WM VI. This was a good opener. I'm a sucker for a good limb match. Flimsy ending drops it a quarter-star, but I still liked it.
Result: Marc Mero via pinfall (16:23)
Rating: ***1/4
Mr. Perfect with Camp Cornette backstage. Cornette is promising a bombshell for tonight, but does say that he pulled some strings and got Owen Hart a full manager's license for the night, so he will be in the British Bulldog's corner for tonight. As this promo is wrapping, you can hear Steve Austin's music starting up in the background (not the music he would eventually get, but the kind of eerie and somber music he had early on). Then there's an awkward edit, and then suddenly they're in a wide arena shot and the Bulldog's music starts up. There was a big power outage due to the storm that knocked them off the air and left that night's show at simply being the opener and the main event with nothing in between.
Vince comes back thanking us for our patience. I hate it when people thank me for my patience. It always means that I've been sitting there feeling very impatient.
WWF Title - Shawn Michaels (c) (w/ Jose Lothario) vs. British Bulldog (w/ Owen Hart & Diana Hart-Smith): Shawn Michaels does a pre-entrance promo that he leaves off with, "Beware of the dog? I don't think so. YOU'D better beware of the Kliq." That's about the lamest line ever unless he was making a shoot political threat. HBK has some weird unexplained standoff with Mr. Perfect backstage before heading to the ring.
Before things start, Clarence Mason gets on the mic and cuts a pointless promo, then has a process server serve Michaels with a lawsuit against him. That was the bombshell. That's incredibly stupid. Now we're supposed to believe that Shawn is rattled right before the match. He tears up the summons, Bulldog attacks, and we're off.
This match gets off to a slow, slow start. Rest hold transitioning into rest hold. Shawn goes for a crucifix, Davey counters into a Samoan drop, then a legdrop, and then we're back into the reverse chinlock. Sloppiness is one thing; nights will happen where your chemistry is off. But they aren't even trying to do anything interesting here. Michaels, on a hard running start, trips and spills under the bottom rope.
Davey follows out so quickly that I wonder if that trip might have been intentional. He flings HBK into the barricade. Michaels starts the comeback by hanging Davey along the top rope before re-entering, then re-enters with a slingshot clothesline that makes it 95% of the way there. Moments later, Michaels is in the middle of the signature comeback, but we get a ref bump when Bulldog incidentally knocks Earl Hebner out of the ring during a rope-running sequence. Michaels tunes up the band, Owen Hart runs in, Michaels superkicks him. Referee Mike Chioda subs in.
Shawn Michaels connects on a German suplex, everyone's shoulders down, 1-2-3, and Chioda immediately declares Bulldog to be the winner. Earl Hebner, who was out of the action and probably didn't see anything, declares Michaels the winner. So who's the champion?
Okay, not her. Gorilla Monsoon comes in to mediate, decides that all four shoulders were down, and declares the match a draw. Everyone sat through the storm to see the main event get completely mailed in and then end in a non-finish. Beautiful. Garbage match, basically as bad as you could imagine these two workers putting on.
Result: Draw (17:21)
Rating: *
At that, the show meets an abbreviated end, with a promise that on Tuesday night they would re-air the first and last match of the show, but also put on the three matches in between during what would have been the encore showing.
To Be Continued
Florence, SC
Opening video promo is okay, gives us a montage of the Michaels/Bulldog build.
The usual Vince and the King team are calling the show. Jerry Lawler: "Your mission, Shawn Michaels, should you choose to accept it, is to convince the world that you're not a womanizer, and hang onto the WWF Title in the process. I don't think he can do it." Umm, I agree that I don't think he can do it. He's supposed to prove that he's not a womanizer during the process of the match? By wrestling well, I guess?
Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Hunter's arm candy tonight appears to be at least 45 years old. I sense an Oedipus complex. Mero does another really rough pre-entrance promo. His interpretation of his "Wildman" character seemed to lead him to promos where he alternated from quiet sentences to sudden bursts of energy, with jungle references thrown in. Somehow he was significantly better as a baaaadd man.
Nice diving plancha over the top early from Mero. Gets a nice run of offense, but it stops abruptly when he hits his shoulder hard into the corner on an empty corner charge. HHH promptly takes advantage by flinging him shoulder-first into the opposite corner. Vince warns the audience that there could be some technical difficulties coming up due to the storm system coming through the area. Maybe the storm was a work. Hunter continues working that injured arm hard. He attempts an armbreaker that Mero resists by clutching his hands together, but Vince and Lawler seem to not even recognize the spot as HHH struggles to complete the hold and Mero struggles to resist it. I liked that, but the commentary no-sell hurt it.
I enjoy both Helmsley's targeted attack and Mero's great sell job on it. Lawler, in his relentless commentary about how ugly Sable is in spite of considerable visual evidence to the contrary, says, "Sable spent 12 hours in the beauty salon today, and that was just for a quote." Not bad. HHH slips on the top rope and gets crotched, and Mero manages to capitalize with a top rope hurracanrana. Follows with a headscissor, a knee-lift, and a backdrop. Up top, sunset flip from there, but HHH kicks out. Dropkicks HHH out of the ring, tries to follow him out with the somersault plancha, but H moves and Mero ****s his knee up.
Hunter has a chance to do the Pedigree, but gets distracted by Sable averting her eyes and doesn't end up attempting it. He goes outside, grabs her arm and demands that she watch, and the telegraphing is obvious. Catapult by Mero sends HHH over the top of the turnbuckle and into the post, Mero pins, 1-2-3. It's the Beefcake-Perfect ending from WM VI. This was a good opener. I'm a sucker for a good limb match. Flimsy ending drops it a quarter-star, but I still liked it.
Result: Marc Mero via pinfall (16:23)
Rating: ***1/4
Mr. Perfect with Camp Cornette backstage. Cornette is promising a bombshell for tonight, but does say that he pulled some strings and got Owen Hart a full manager's license for the night, so he will be in the British Bulldog's corner for tonight. As this promo is wrapping, you can hear Steve Austin's music starting up in the background (not the music he would eventually get, but the kind of eerie and somber music he had early on). Then there's an awkward edit, and then suddenly they're in a wide arena shot and the Bulldog's music starts up. There was a big power outage due to the storm that knocked them off the air and left that night's show at simply being the opener and the main event with nothing in between.
Vince comes back thanking us for our patience. I hate it when people thank me for my patience. It always means that I've been sitting there feeling very impatient.
WWF Title - Shawn Michaels (c) (w/ Jose Lothario) vs. British Bulldog (w/ Owen Hart & Diana Hart-Smith): Shawn Michaels does a pre-entrance promo that he leaves off with, "Beware of the dog? I don't think so. YOU'D better beware of the Kliq." That's about the lamest line ever unless he was making a shoot political threat. HBK has some weird unexplained standoff with Mr. Perfect backstage before heading to the ring.
Before things start, Clarence Mason gets on the mic and cuts a pointless promo, then has a process server serve Michaels with a lawsuit against him. That was the bombshell. That's incredibly stupid. Now we're supposed to believe that Shawn is rattled right before the match. He tears up the summons, Bulldog attacks, and we're off.
This match gets off to a slow, slow start. Rest hold transitioning into rest hold. Shawn goes for a crucifix, Davey counters into a Samoan drop, then a legdrop, and then we're back into the reverse chinlock. Sloppiness is one thing; nights will happen where your chemistry is off. But they aren't even trying to do anything interesting here. Michaels, on a hard running start, trips and spills under the bottom rope.
Davey follows out so quickly that I wonder if that trip might have been intentional. He flings HBK into the barricade. Michaels starts the comeback by hanging Davey along the top rope before re-entering, then re-enters with a slingshot clothesline that makes it 95% of the way there. Moments later, Michaels is in the middle of the signature comeback, but we get a ref bump when Bulldog incidentally knocks Earl Hebner out of the ring during a rope-running sequence. Michaels tunes up the band, Owen Hart runs in, Michaels superkicks him. Referee Mike Chioda subs in.
Shawn Michaels connects on a German suplex, everyone's shoulders down, 1-2-3, and Chioda immediately declares Bulldog to be the winner. Earl Hebner, who was out of the action and probably didn't see anything, declares Michaels the winner. So who's the champion?
Okay, not her. Gorilla Monsoon comes in to mediate, decides that all four shoulders were down, and declares the match a draw. Everyone sat through the storm to see the main event get completely mailed in and then end in a non-finish. Beautiful. Garbage match, basically as bad as you could imagine these two workers putting on.
Result: Draw (17:21)
Rating: *
At that, the show meets an abbreviated end, with a promise that on Tuesday night they would re-air the first and last match of the show, but also put on the three matches in between during what would have been the encore showing.
To Be Continued
12-07-2015
, 10:39 PM
12-07-2015
, 10:50 PM
