Not really important, but it's Voodoo Chile. Weird, but that's the name.

One of my favorite moments of Nitro was when Mike Tenay pronounced it like the country Chile.

Seems like something Tony would do, for sure.

Disappointing bump.

I hear you, but it feels like I have about five readers remaining, and it's difficult to summon the WIM to put in the effort needed to manufacture writeups when the audience feels so limited.

That said, I still imagine there will be more writeups from time to time.

I got a little excited when I saw this was bumped so I'm hoping you do some more.

Silent reader here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is one of the reasons I still check on this subforum, tbh.

Still reading and enjoying this!

There is more than five for sure.

I really stopped watching pro wrestling in 2003. But this thread brought me back to watching in college and getting drunk every Monday Night. Been really enjoying these write ups. I still click on this forum everyday to see if this thread (or one of the other write up threads) is updated.

+1. Also a silent reader!

Alright fair enough, I'll get back to work soon enough. I'm sure I've said it before, but do be advised that increased railbird participation can only help in keeping my interest up in putting the effort into these.

June 16, 1997

RAW

Lake Placid, NY

Vince McMahon and Jim Ross on commentary. Vince reminds us that before last week's episode of Raw, there was a backstage incident between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. He says that they believed at the time that neither person was injured, but that that hasn't turned out to be true. JR says that Shawn suffered an injury and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. He says that Bret also aggravated his knee injury, but will only miss a few days. Vince calls it unprofessional behavior by both men, but says that it was clear that Bret was the aggressor. In light of the HBK injury situation, Vince says that we're going to have a tag team tournament, the winner of which will get a title match against Steve Austin and a partner of his choosing.

The glass breaks, and Steve Austin heads to the ring. JR says that this was not scheduled. Vince stands up, taken aback by Austin's presence, and he enters the ring. Austin starts yelling at him about what he just heard about a tag team tournament. He says he doesn't care about his tag team partner, says he never cared about Shawn Michaels to begin with, and says it's Vince who stuck him with Shawn to begin with. Mick Foley appears on the Titantron. He tells Austin that when Austin gave him the finger last week, he really felt the connection between them. He asks Austin to join him in a tag team, saying that they can set the tag team division on fire. Austin: "I don't need no freak watching my back. You ain't got no ears. I never asked for Shawn Michaels's long hair, out here shaking his ass, and I don't need you either!" Foley responds, "I've already got long hair. I can wear one earring. And I can shake my ass. I've got a nice ass!" This draws a priceless look from Vince.



Austin: "You've got a nice big fat ass!" Foley says that he can tell Austin has a lot to think about, so he'll leave him alone to do that. He signs off with "Have a nice day!" and leaves the Titantron. Vince shifts the subject to Austin's scheduled match tonight against Brian Pillman, but without saying much he moves onto a recap of last week's fracas that involved the Harts on one side, and Austin, Mankind, and Ken Shamrock on the other. Vince expresses his disgust with the fact that, after fighting along Shamrock, Austin suddenly hit him with a Stunner. Austin vows that he's going to whip Pillman's ass tonight, but as he does this, Shamrock marches down to the ring with an angry look on his face.

Shamrock says that he didn't come down here to help Austin out last week. He said he came down because he doesn't like bullies. He says that Austin is just as bad as the Harts. Shamrock challenges Austin to a match tonight. "In fact, why don't we just do it right now?" Austin accepts the challenge, daring Shamrock to come down after Austin gets done whipping Pillman's ass.



Jim Ross tells us that, on top of Austin vs. Pillman, we'll be getting The Undertaker and Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq and a mystery partner, as well as two tag team tournament matches.

After commercial, Vince talks to Pillman from the announce table to the back. He runs the clip of Austin stuffing Pillman's face in a toilet at King of the Ring. Pillman cuts a promo where he rages a bit about how his stablemates are going to be handcuffed to the ring during his match with Austin tonight, but vows to take Austin down tonight, telling Shamrock that he can stick to being "the world's most dangerous referee."

Tag Team Tournament First Round - The New Blackjacks vs. Owen Hart & The British Bulldog: The Blackjacks get such little reaction, and have such a bland gimmick, that I can't remember whether they're faces or heels. Vince shamelessly preens about how fans have flooded the arena with signs and how "you'll certainly find freedom of expression in the World Wrestling Federation." Just shut up, Vince.

Owen starts off against Windham. He misses on a jumping wheel kick, Windham hits a big lariat and scores an early two-count, and then Windham executes an armdrag before tagging Bradshaw. The Blackjacks take turns isolating Owen until Owen reverses into a suplex and tags to Davey. Davey backdrops Windham, executes the delayed vertical suplex, and then tags Owen back in for the big missile dropkick off the top. Hart slaps on a sleeper, but gets countered into a back suplex. Hart misses on an elbow and smartly gets over to tag the Bulldog while Bradshaw comes in. Bradshaw takes it to both men as if he just received a hot tag. All four now, Bradshaw sets up as if to piledrive the Bulldog, but Owen ambushes Bradshaw with the spinning wheel kick, enabling Bulldog to drive through in a pinning combo to get the three-count. The ending was slowly and blatantly telegraphed, not to mention poorly executed. A+ all around.



Result: Owen & Bulldog via pinfall

We see highlights of last week, when the Nation of Domination took on the Legion of Doom and Ahmed Johnson in a 6-man tag. Savio and Crush abandoned Faarooq, who succumbed to the 3-on-1 and eventually jobbed to Ahmed's Pearl River Plunge. Faarooq later went to the ring and fired Crush and Savio, then told Clarence Mason to get to stepping as well. Faarooq challenged the two people he hates the most, Undertaker and Ahmed, to be the first victims of the new Nation, so again, we're getting that tag match tonight.

Backstage, The Undertaker is with Paul Bearer. Vince mentions that Taker and Ahmed have had dissension. Taker begins to answer, but Bearer immediately cuts him off, demands that he shut up, and says that Ahmed will do what he says too if he knows what's good for him.

After commercials, here's a backstage promo from Ken Shamrock, who shares more of his usual bad mic work with us. "Time to knuckle up," etc.

Before the next match, we see highlights of Hunter Hearst-Helmsley beating down Mankind on last week's Raw. They confirm that those two will go at it on the upcoming Canadian Stampede PPV.

Phineas Godwinn vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna): Phineas wrestles HHH into the corner, the two trade punches there, Godwinn getting the better of the exchange. Godwinn hits a mule kick rather ridiculously, as HHH essentially throws his face into it, but in any case HHH has the advantage back momentarily after he jacks Phineas's jaw against his knee. Helmsley beats on Godwinn in the corner, then chokes him with his boot. He sends the big man off the ropes and connects on a high knee before dumping him unceremoniously to the outside.

As Helmsley ties up referee Earl Hebner, Chyna jacks Phineas with a hard right hand. Hunter goes outside to roll Phineas back in, then tries a top-rope attack, but Phineas hits him on the way down. Godwinn connects on a backdrop, sends Helmsley in on a corner whip, then connects on a hard clothesline. He sets up for the Slop Drop, Chyna gets up on the apron to run distraction, causing Phineas to release the hold then head over and forcibly kiss her. As you may expect, this opens it up for HHH to attack and hit the Pedigree to ship this one. Surprisingly weak win for HHH against a jobber tag wrestler at this point in his push.



Result: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley via pinfall

After the match, Henry Godwinn marches to the ring looking furious. He storms right past HHH and Chyna, grabs Phineas by the collar and screams at him for a bit, then for some reason turns to Vince and yells, "THIS IS YOUR FAULT, MCMAHON!" Can't say I get that one. Vince just mumbles, "Guess everything's my fault these days."



After commercial, Vince talks to Faarooq (flanked by D-Lo Brown) backstage and asks him what we can expect to see from this new Nation tonight. Faarooq promises two new members tonight. "Bigger, better, and I promise a whole lot blacker."

Sunny comes out to be guest ring announcer for the next match. Paul E. Dangerously is out to do color commentary as well. Sunny introduces this as an inter-promotional match between USWA and ECW.

Brian Christopher vs. Chris Candido: No interaction here between Candido and Sunny. Candido hits the ring and attacks right away, the two men trading right hands. Candido goes for a Thesz press, but Christopher counters into an inverted atomic drop, then hits an enziguri. The announcers acknowledge Candido's past as Skip in the WWF. Backdrop by Christopher. More back-and-forth with right hands, though Candido gets the better of that exchange. Swinging neckbreaker by Candido, guillotine legdrop off the second rope, but Christopher kicks out at two.

Candido sets Christopher up on the top rope, climbs up with him, and hits a super hurracanrana that gets totally ignored by the announcers, as Dangerously has launched into a rant about how Brian Christopher is Jerry Lawler's son, how father and son don't acknowledge each other, and how Dangerously can't blame Christopher for ignoring Lawler. However, as Candido sets up for another top-rope move, Jerry Lawler marches to ringside, shoves Dangerously at the table, then hits the ring and tosses Candido off the ropes. Rob Van Dam joins the fray, and we have a 3-on-1 beatdown on Candido as the referee signals for the obvious disqualification.



Result: Chris Candido via DQ

Tommy Dreamer comes running in with a steel chair and clears the ring as Christopher/Lawler/RVD bail out and back away.

Backstage, Ahmed Johnson cuts a brief promo that I can't understand even after rewinding twice. Time is a flat circle.

Jim Neidhart vs. Goldust (w/ Marlena): Anvil drops a series of hammering right hands. Goldust comes off the rope with a cross-body attempt, which Neidhart botches pretty badly into an awkward collision that he unexpectedly no-sells. Goldust with a clothesline, then a corner mount and a 10-punch. Neidhart reverses an Irish whip and drives a knee into Goldust's gut. He stomps at the abdomen a few times, chokes Dustin against the middle rope, and goes back to hammering down with axhandles.

Goldust reverses a corner whip, then hits a clothesline on a staggered Anvil. Both slow to get up, but Goldust is up first, punch-punch-stomp-stomp. The British Bulldog, who was slapped repeatedly by Marlena last week, shows up at ringside. He accosts Marlena, grabbing her by the wrist, which draws Goldust over to the attack. Neidhart is directly behind, hitting Goldust, and he and the Bulldog double-team Goldust for a moment. Neidhart returns Goldust inside, whips him off the ropes, Goldust does one of his trademark transitional spots where he stops short, drops to his knees, and hits an uppercut…then he records the pinfall? Geez, I get that Neidhart is the Hart Foundation's JTTS, but getting pinned on a transitional move that never ever wins matches seems to make him unnecessarily weak.



(The sound guy was as surprised as I was, as he strangely plays the British Bulldog's music for a moment at the point of the pinfall despite Bulldog not even being a participant in the match.)

Result: Goldust via pinfall

Quick backstage promo by Steve Austin, who threatens to take out both Pillman and Shamrock tonight.

After a couple of recap clips, we're onto the second hour.

Brian Pillman (w/ Owen Hart, British Bulldog, & Jim Neidhart) vs. Steve Austin: Per the previously-mentioned stipulation, the Hart Foundation members are handcuffed to the ring so as to prevent their interference. Austin charges into the ring and smacks Pillman in the face repeatedly. He sends him off the ropes, connects on an inverted atomic drop, and Pillman goes scrambling outside the ring to try to get a break. This cat-and-mouse allows him to attack Austin when Austin follows him back into the ring, briefly taking the advantage before Austin reverses an Irish whip and executes a stun gun. Austin straddles Pillman, lands more right hands, and gets a two-count.

Austin smashes Pillman face-first into the corner. Pillman tries to beg off and then offer a handshake. Austin smiles at him, feigns at accepting the handshake, then kicks him in the gut. Punch, clothesline, and a face-first slam into the mat. Pillman gouges the eyes to slow Austin down, but upon climbing the ropes, Austin is able to catch up with him and toss him so that he gets crotched along the top. Austin bails out of the ring to go attack Bulldog. Pillman comes at him with a chair, which Austin promptly knocks back into Pillman's face. Austin attacks Neidhart, then around to another corner to attack Owen, and finally Pillman is back after him, strangling him with a TV cord from behind. The referee tries to pull Pillman off as the show goes to commercial.



After commercial, Pillman is beating down on Austin inside the ring, but appears to have broken his nose, as it looks severely messed up and he's bleeding badly from that area. Austin hits a low blow to halt Pillman's attack, then drives multiple elbows down to the throat area. Pillman stops short of a backdrop attempt and kicks Austin near the face, recording a two-count. Snapmare by Pillman into a reverse chinlock. Behold Pillman's busted nose:



Austin works his way back up to his feet, hitting a shoulderblock and then countering a sleeper attempt by dropping down and jacking Pillman's jaw. Austin tries to drop an elbow, but comes up empty. As Pillman tries to follow up, Austin executes a double-leg takedown and unleashes another series of punches. He stomps the mudhole in Pillman in the corner, causing referee Mike Chioda to step in to try to back him down. Austin turns around to back Chioda down, trying to intimidate him, and then suddenly kicks Chioda in the gut and hits the Stunner on him. That was…abrupt.



With the ref bumped, Pillman hits a blatant low blow, produces a pair of brass knucks, then clobbers Austin with them. He goes for the pin, and apparent replacement referee Jack Doan is pretty quick to get into position to count, but Austin still kicks out on two. Camera pans over to Owen, who apparently has picked the pocket of the unconscious Mike Chioda and has gotten the key. He unlocks his own cuffs, then hands the key to Neidhart. The Hart Foundation is loose, and the bell rings furiously as the 4-on-1 beatdown is on.

They never announce a result, and surely this should be Pillman via DQ, but I'm guessing they might have officially considered it a no-contest?

Result: No Contest

Goldust, Mankind, and Ken Shamrock hit the ring for the save, clearing the Harts out. Austin, unappreciative of the save, goes to attack Shamrock, but Shamrock blocks him and hits a belly-to-belly. After the two briefly separate, Austin charges Shamrock and the two go back to brawling. Suddenly the Legion of Doom is out, and they forcibly separate the two. Goldust re-enters the ring, mic in hand, and he implores Austin to knock it off. He says that they're playing right into the Harts' hands. Goldust says that the Hart Foundation made an open challenge to five opponents, and he says that, looking around, he thinks this should be the five. Austin takes the mic and replies: "My body feels like crap right now. I don't need you four guys, not for one minute…but Gorilla Monsoon ain't gonna let me do it by myself. One time, one time I'll step in the ring with your asses. But after it's over, we ain't gonna be hanging out together. We ain't gonna be drinking beer together. It's gonna be right back to this:"



He flips them off and bails out of the ring, marching away defiantly. We have our main event for Canadian Stampede.

After commercial, we see recap clips of what we just saw in the Austin/Pillman match, then Vince talks to the gathered Hart Foundation backstage. Owen says, in reference to their apparent opponents at the PPV, "We're going to treat them like the American scum they are. We are going to destroy them, because in Canada we don't have discrimination." Seems legit. Pillman's blood seems to have dried into a Hogan mustache.



Sable is our ring announcer for the next match.

Bobby Fulton vs. Tommy Rogers: Jim Ross acknowledges these two as former tag team partners as The Fantastics. This is a light heavyweight division match, as WWF was trying to get that division off the ground. I have zero recollection of these two being a part of that division, so I would suggest that this may be the only time we actually see them. Fulton refuses a handshake before the match, then ambushes his former partner with a dropkick. Rogers fights back with his own dropkick, then takes Fulton over a couple of times with flying headscissors until Fulton backs down and pleads for mercy. They re-engage, Rogers hits a hip-toss, but Fulton fights back, slapping on a headlock and hitting Rogers with punches. He stops short of a Rogers backdrop attempt, then hits a spinning wheel kick. He preens before covering, then only gets two.

Fulton sets Rogers up near the apron, then drops an elbow on his throat, sending Rogers to the floor. Fulton hits a nice dropkick through the ropes to the floor, then returns Rogers back inside. Rogers blocks an attempted piledriver or powerbomb, then backdrops Fulton. Rogers with a dropkick, but Fulton surprises him with a double-leg, then puts his feet up on the ropes for the attempted leverage pin. 1, 2, and…no, Jack Doan catches him in the act and stops the count. Fulton thinks that he's won, and they actually go to double feature and distract from Rogers suddenly hitting a finisher, an inverted double underhook facebuster (best known as the Unprettier, Christian's eventual finisher). Rogers scores the pin. Ringwork not bad here, but the crowd was too dead to really enjoy it.



Result: Tommy Rogers via pinfall

After the match, Marc Mero shows up to ringside. He looks agitated with Sable and escorts her to the back, but doesn't say or do anything of note.

Tag Team Tournament First Round - The Headbangers vs. Jerry Lawler & Rob Van Dam: As the bell rings, Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer are shown glaring at Lawler from the crowd. Mosh whips RVD into the corner and follows it in with a reverse avalanche. Tag to Thrasher, and the Headbangers double-team Van Dam. Thrasher with a gutwrench suplex; Lawler breaks up the pin attempt. RVD raises his boots on a corner charge by Thrasher, monkey-flips Thrasher out of the corner, then connects on a jumping back kick. Tag to the King.

Lawler rams Thrasher face-first into the corner. He talks some trash into the camera before landing a hard right hand. Jim Ross breaks off into some non-sequitir about the Orioles beating the Braves, then lays it on thick by saying, "The boys from the northeast went to Atlanta and just embarrassed the hell out of them." Van Dam tags back in. Scoop slam, hops to the top rope in one bound, and then hits the five-star frog splash. In lieu of covering, he goes and tags Lawler, who enters with a grinning lax cover; Thrasher kicks out. As Lawler continues to be arrogant in his offense, he leaves a window for Thrasher to go make the semi-hot tag to Mosh. Mosh takes on both opponents for a moment until Van Dam overwhelms him. Thrasher re-enters the fray. Amidst the chaos, Lawler hits a big piledriver. However, the referee is distracted, and Lawler doesn't attempt a cover anyway. During the continuing ref distraction, Sandman slips into the ring, crotches Lawler with a kendo stick, and Lawler doubles over in agony.



Headbangers capitalize; they execute the Stage Dive and score the win.

Result: Headbangers via pinfall

A brawl breaks out at ringside, with RVD and Lawler on one side and the ECW contingency on the other. Officials manage to separate them as Vince expresses his anger at these ECW people having no business being there.

We go backstage to Ahmed Johnson, The Undertaker, and Paul Bearer. Vince asks if they're ready. Ahmed says, "Yeah, we're ready. We were born ready." Bearer laughs and asks who the leader of the team is going to be. Ahmed angrily cuts him off, calls him "Pillsbury Dough Boy," and tells him to shut up. Ahmed says he has respect for Taker, but none for Bearer, and he warns Taker that they're going to have problems if Bearer gets in his way.

Before our main event, we see clips from two weeks ago, when Undertaker chokeslammed Ahmed. We also see footage of Ahmed hitting the Pearl River Plunge on Taker at King of the Ring.

Ahmed and Taker make separate entrances. Faarooq, who has promised two new members in the Nation tonight, comes out in wrestling gear, but he's flanked by D-Lo Brown, who is in street clothes. Faarooq takes the mic and says he delivers on promises. He calls for one of his apparent new members, "Kama Mustafa." Kama, who we haven't seen since he was strangely in the final four of the Royal Rumble, appears in Nation garb, his head now shaved, and he attacks Undertaker from the blind side. With that, our main event starts.

Faarooq & Kama Mustafa (w/ D-Lo Brown) vs. Ahmed Johnson & The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer): Kama beats on Taker in the corner. Whips him to the opposite corner, follows in with a hard clothesline, then throws headbutts and punches. After another corner whip, Undertaker fights back, charging hard out of the corner with a clothesline. He tries to follow up, but Faarooq takes a cheap shot from the apron to slow him back down. Faarooq tags, the new Nation partners execute a double clothesline, and Faarooq continues on offense.

Faarooq ducks too early on a backdrop attempt, allowing Undertaker to drop a leg along his neck and plant him into the mat. He's slower than Faarooq to get up however, and Faarooq tags Kama to continue the heat segment. As Kama beats on Taker outside the ring, the show heads to break.



As Raw comes back from commercial, Taker hits a jumping clothesline. Throws hard rights at Faarooq and Kama, whips Faarooq toward the ropes, Faarooq reverses, Taker ducks a clothesline, then stops and hits a clothesline. Kama breaks up the pin. Taker finally makes his way over for what could have been his first tag-out of the match, but Ahmed gets distracted and jumps down to the floor to get in Paul Bearer's face.

Vince and JR start speculating on who the other new member of the Nation might be. They throw out names like Mr. Hughes, Butch Reed, Abdullah the Butcher, and Junkyard Dog. Unfortunately JYD was less than a year from his ultimate demise. Kama hits a modified chokeslam on Undertaker, and abruptly manages to record a pinfall on the WWF Champion. I mean, Taker basically wrestled this as a handicap match, but I was not expecting a three-count there, especially such a relatively clean one.



Result: Nation of Domination via pinfall

As it appears that Faarooq is going to jump in for a further beatdown after the match, Ahmed comes charging into the ring and stands over Taker, glaring the Nation members down and causing them to tuck tail and shuffle out of the ring. After they've headed up the aisle, Faarooq turns around, and the staredown between he and Ahmed continues. Finally Ahmed looks down, seems to sort of help Undertaker up, and…hits the Pearl River Plunge.



He rolls out of the ring, marches up to the top of the ramp, and stands alongside the rest of the Nation, apparently becoming the other new member joining the faction tonight.



The new Nation leaves together as the show signs off.

Overall: Not a good episode. Most of the segments were not entertaining, and while big heel turns are usually fun, Ahmed joining his long-time enemies immediately seemed difficult to get on board with.

Ratings for 6/16/97: Nitro 3.3, Raw 2.4
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 67-17-2

Better Show: Neither show impressed, but Nitro was less bad.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 57-29

Match of the Night: Ultimo Dragon vs. Chris Jericho

June 23, 1997

RAW

Detroit, MI

We open the show on the familiar refrain, "WE ARE THE NATION OF DOMINATION." The NOD, fresh off its recent makeover that featured Ahmed Johnson's heel turn, walks down the aisle.



Jim Ross notes that Vince McMahon is heading into the ring to grab a word with the Nation. Vince jumps straight to the big question: "Why, Ahmed? Why?" Ahmed threatens to kick the fans' asses if they don't shut up, then addresses Vince: "Why? Ask yourself why, white man. You know why. I did what I had to do. I came out here, I bust my butt, I try to please these people, I try to get my shot at the belt." He addresses the fans, "Do you think they back me up? Did y'all back me up for a belt? No!" Yeah, the anger at the fans for not cheering him enough is a stupid one since it's not at all true. He was doing way better by continuing on the "Vince is racist" line. Ahmed says that the fans didn't back him because he's a black man.

He asks Vince if he backed him up for a shot at the belt. Vince squirms and says, "You were gonna get your opportunity." Ahmed scoffs. "Oh I was. Yeah. <Unintelligble> King was going to get it for 10 years. But he didn't. He didn't because he tried to be nice and bring peace, and he got shot down for trying to be nice." Okay, presumably he's talking MLK Jr. here although he garbled some words in that spot, but…what? MLK was awesome, but he didn't get shot for "trying to be nice." Ahmed notes that Farakhan isn't dead because he didn't want to preach the peace. "He told it like it is." Someone should probably tell Ahmed that "nice" and "peaceful" aren't interchangeable words. Anyway.

Ahmed says he doesn't respect The Undertaker anymore, adding, "Any man that listens to another man is a low down dirty slave dog."



Faarooq says, "The most feared threat in this world today is powerful, intelligent black human beings - black men - getting together for one cause. That's what you're gonna see right here. You know what the most feared thing on this planet was? Seeing Malcolm X and Martin Luther King coming together. But guess what? That's what you seeing right here tonight." D-Lo Brown calls the Nation the most powerful four men in the company. Ahmed threatens Vince and tells him he'd better "straighten his face up." Kama brags about "singlehandedly" beating The Undertaker last week, then expresses how proud he is of Ahmed Johnson. D-Lo says that the Nation is going to run over the WWF "by any means necessary," and the Nation's music hits to end the promo.

However, as the music plays, Crush emerges from the top of the aisle on a motorcycle, flanked by three other dudes on bikes as well. They ride down to the ring and surround it, revving their engines. Crush dismounts and enters the ring to talk. He pulls the "you didn't fire me; I quit" on Faarooq, then introduces his group as DOA, Disciples of Apocalypse. He says, "We live together, we ride together…we damn sure fight together." With that, the DOA attacks, and we have a big brawl in the ring. Officials make a half-assed attempt to break this up, but mostly they let the groups fight. Incidentally, Crush was fired all of two weeks ago. Now he has a group of dudes who live together? Anyway, the fight peters out on its own after a bit, with a bit of an assist to the security who comes to the ring.



Vince and JR talk about the matches we're going to see tonight. We have Tag Team Title Tournament matches, featuring two members from the Nation vs. "the unlikely duo of Vader and The Undertaker." We'll also see the Legion of Doom vs. The Godwinns. There's also going to be a triple-threat Intercontinental Title match, with Owen Hart defending his title against Hunter Hearst-Helmsley and Goldust.

After commercial, before the opening match of the night, we see highlights from last week, when the babyface five-man team for Canadian Stampede (Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust, Legion of Doom) was formed.

Dan Severn joins Vince and JR on commentary for the forthcoming match.

RockaBilly (w/ Honky Tonk Man) vs. Ken Shamrock: Shamrock with a fireman's carry takeover, then an armdrag, as Dan Severn is experiencing technical difficulties on commentary. We're not missing much. Billy attempts a hip-toss, Shamrock blocks and counters into a leglock, but Billy scrambles quickly to the ropes to force a break. Shamrock continues to try to wrestle Billy down on the mat, and Billy continues to squirm his way to the ropes. As Shamrock takes some issue with the referee, Billy takes a cheap shot and wallops an unsuspecting Shamrock upside the head. He goes for a scoop slam, but Shamrock escapes and throws a belly-to-belly suplex. He slaps on the ankle lock, Billy insta-taps, and this one is over. And tapping is becoming a thing.



Result: Ken Shamrock via submission

Shamrock goes and gets in Severn's face at ringside. They stare through each other for a bit, Shamrock eventually offers a handshake, and Severn obliges. Shamrock raises Severn's arm before leaving in peace.



The Godwinns, still wearing overalls but no longer wearing shirts underneath, cut a promo from backstage. Henry is talking like a heel now, saying that LOD claims that his injury that they caused may have been an accident, but it didn't feel like no accident. "LOD, what we do to you tonight ain't gonna be no accident. McMahon, ain't gonna be no square dancing tonight. The Godwinns are going to do things their way from now on."



Before the next match, they show a slow-motion replay of Henry suffering the serious neck injury at the hands of LOD. Seems weird to paint Henry out as heelish for being angry about this.



They seem to be making it plain that the Godwinns have gone fully heel, but as they enter for the match, we're still getting the up-tempo generic banjo that they dub over top of "Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy." Surely they weren't using that song here, but I guess I don't remember what they switched to once they were clear heels.

Tag Team Tournament First Round - The Godwinns vs. The Legion of Doom: The Godwinns meet the LOD upon their arrival, and they both fling the contents of their slop buckets out on LOD. Obviously that inflames things right away, and the two teams begin brawling. The Road Warriors take it to the Godwinns and clear them from the ring.

Phineas re-enters to take on Animal. He drives a knee to the gut, tags Henry, and when the Godwinns attempt a double-team, Animal ducks and clotheslines them both. Vince and JR say that they're getting reports from the back that Ken Shamrock has been attacked, and they say they'll let us know when they know more. Henry and Hawk have a mid-ring collision that ends in a stalemate. Henry hits a clothesline, then a piledriver that Hawk promptly no-sells. Of course I hate this spot.



Hawk clotheslines HOG down, hits a neckbreaker on Phineas, and the crowd pops as Hawk holds the ring. He tags Animal before Phineas returns to the ring to resume the action. Phineas unceremoniously dumps Animal out over the top, then distracts the official while Henry rams Animal into the steel steps. It's always very odd to me that they treat an attack by the partner as something that requires a ref distraction. Can you imagine a match actually ending in DQ because the illegal partner got in an extra cheap shot from outside the ring? They won't even disqualify the Ultimate Warrior for clobbering Rick Rude with the Intercontinental Title belt.

Phineas slams Animal, goes for a second-rope axhandle, and this spot looks terrible; his jump falls short, and Animal's counter-attack barely connects. Hot tag to Hawk. All four men in the ring, Warriors dump Phineas, they set up as if to execute the Doomsday Device on Henry, but Phineas is back in quickly to knock Animal out of the way and prevent him from lifting Henry. Hawk comes off the top anyway with a flying clothesline, it was clearly supposed to send Henry tripping over Animal but it doesn't really come off as intended. In any case, that semi-botch is still going to be enough to score the pinfall.



Result: Legion of Doom via pinfall

Phineas comes in and clobbers Hawk with his slop bucket. Henry hits the Slop Drop on Hawk as well. Animal scrambles back into the ring for the save, the Godwinns clear out, but now here's the Hart Foundation with the ambush on Animal. Bulldog and Pillman both take a crack at Animal with a steel chair.



Bret Hart, who I didn't realize was here, quietly watches approvingly from the top of the aisle.

The Undertaker is shown backstage with Paul Bearer. He starts to talk, but again Bearer screams at him to shut up. Taker has had enough, and he chokes Bearer, which causes Vader to try to run in to save Bearer; Taker chokes him as well. Bearer mutters, "the fire…the fire, remember the fire…" Taker lets go and marches off in a huff.



After commercial, Owen Hart gets a quick backstage promo. He says that having to defend his title in a triple-threat match is "bullcrap," and part of a big conspiracy against him. "C-O-N-spiracy." Nah, Owen didn't say that last part.

Paul Heyman jumps in on commentary for the next match. His late-90s long hair was terrible.

Flash Funk vs. Sabu (w/ Bill Alfonso): Sabu tries to shoot the leg to open, but Funk kicks him in the face to counter the takedown attempt. Funk misses on a clothesline, Sabu hits a botched springboard kick to knock Funk from the ring, then he connects on a baseball slide to the floor. Sabu back inside for just long enough to execute a springboard somersault plancha over the top. He tries to bring out a table, but Funk fights back and keeps this idea from getting a foothold; he returns Sabu inside.

Funk with a corner whip, a splash there highlighted by a totally pointless 360 jump that probably costs him momentum and impact if anything, then a scoop slam and a big turn-around splash off the top. Only good for a two-count. Funk scales the ropes again, but Sabu catches him up there and executes a springboard super hurracanrana from there. Springboard wheel kick gets two. Heyman: "Bill Alfonso was a referee for you for a long time. We adopted him from the Betty Ford Clinic." Vince: "Really." Heyman: "Really." Vince: "That's nice to know."

Sabu misses on his next springboard move, leaving an opening for Funk to connect on a superkick. Funk to the second rope, but again Sabu catches him climbing. He seems to set up for another rana, but Funk knocks him into a position to get crotched on the ropes, then he hits a nice jumping clothesline from there. Handspring into a Pele kick by Flash, knocking Sabu to the floor. Big plancha over the top to follow.



Funk returns Sabu inside. Alfonso tries to get in Funk's face, but Funk backs him down. That creates enough distraction, though, that Sabu takes Funk's lower leg out with a baseball slide. Sabu stomps away. Funk reverses a corner whip, another splash in the corner, and now a big moonsault off the top…but just for a near-fall. That should have been a finish. Sabu not only kicked out, but he then promptly backdrops Funk over the top to the floor. Sabu with a springboard to the floor into a hurracanrana.

Alfonso sets up a table. Sabu sets Funk on it. The referee calls for a DQ before the table can be further weaponized, but obviously Sabu is forging straight ahead. He moonsaults onto Funk on the table, and connects, but the table doesn't break. Then he lamely tries to finish the table-break job with a splash that also doesn't work. Third time…well the table goes down anyway, though it still doesn't break. That's about right. Heyman comments that these aren't pre-cut tables like you'll find elsewhere.




Result: Flash Funk via DQ

We see highlights from last week, of Mick Foley pleading with Steve Austin to name him as his tag team partner, an overture that Austin rebuffed.

The British Bulldog vs. Mankind: Mankind enters with a "Pick Me Steve" sign hanging around his neck; he's also wearing a Steve Austin t-shirt.



Before commencing with the match, Mankind gets on the mic and dedicates tonight's match to "the toughest SOB in the WWF," Steve Austin, and reiterates, "pick me, Steve." He's going to keep the sign around his neck as he continues wrestling, apparently. He knocks down Bulldog and hits a legdrop as Vince dials up Austin on the phone. Austin, who is apparently recovering from injury, vows that he'll be back for the upcoming house shows this week.

Vince asks Austin about Mankind's campaign to be his partner. After rambling for a bit, Austin unleashes a weird, out-of-character line: "The fact that he's out there in an Austin 3:16 shirt…he's Mankind, but he's also a kind man, and I take my hat off to him." WTF? He scrambles to recover and adds, "But nonetheless, he still is a freak." Vince, who obviously also didn't like that "kind man" bit, asks a leading question and says, "You also would take his head off if you had an opportunity in a moment's notice, wouldn't you?" Austin says, "You're damn right, Vince," and then he continues to talk about how he doesn't care about Mankind. Awkward.

Mankind hits a double-arm DDT, but doesn't follow with a pin. Austin mumbles something about being in a bad mood because his wife just brought him the wrong beer, and the awkward phone call comes to an end. Mankind clotheslines Bulldog out over the top, flipping out and over the top with him. Bulldog is first to recover, and he whips Mankind hard into the steps. He leads him up onto the steel ramp and hits a suplex there, not troubling himself to go down along with him. It's almost a Hogan/Virgil suplex.

Action goes back inside. Davey Boy whips Mankind into one corner, then the opposite one. He tries to pick Mankind up for the powerslam, but Mankind gets his fingers into the mouth for the Mandible Claw. As the referee gets too close, Bulldog kicks backward into a low blow, then goes and gets a chair, returning inside and hammering Mankind with it to trigger the blatant DQ. He keeps up the assault with several more chair shots, including an unprotected shot to the head.



Result: Mankind via DQ

Bulldog preens and poses, turning his back on Mankind. Mankind rises from the dead, reaches from behind, and slaps the Mandible Claw on Bulldog, causing Bulldog to desperately escape from the ring and depart up the aisle. Mankind rocks back and forth, holding the ring.

Jim Ross, advertising WWF's house show in Salt Lake City this coming week, teases that maybe Karl Malone will be there. Ross says he's a big WWF fan. I've got some bad news coming up before long, JR.

Backstage, Owen Hart is yelling at Gorilla Monsoon about a conspiracy, and he demands that Brian Pillman be given the right to join him at ringside, given that HHH is going to have Chyna and Goldust is going to have Marlena. Gorilla says that's fine. Then Owen yells at him some more, saying, "you're not listening to me," and continuing to make the same demand. Gorilla yells that he just said that was fine. Then Owen continues to yell that it's unfair if they don't let him have Pillman out there. At this point Pat Patterson yells at Owen that Gorilla has already said okay to this request. Finally Owen cackles and tells Pillman, "See? I told you, if we tried hard enough, they would give in." He walks off, laughing proudly.



Before the next match, we see a hype video that talks up the history of the Intercontinental Title.

We get our second run of credits, a new round of pyro, and it's onto the second hour.

They announce Pat Patterson as the guest referee for the upcoming title match.

Intercontinental Title - Owen Hart (c) (w/ Brian Pillman vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna) vs. Goldust (w/ Marlena): As the bell rings, all three men converge in a brawl. Owen beats HHH into the corner, but then Goldust hits a running clothesline on Owen. Owen gets up, and he and HHH briefly double-team Goldust before Owen drops down and schoolboys HHH; kickout on one or two. HHH hits a low blow on Owen, then a high knee, but Goldust breaks up the ensuing pin attempt.

Atomic drop on HHH by Goldust. Owen steps in and suplexes Goldust. Two-count. Goldust gets up and knocks HHH's and Owen's heads together. Triple threats being new, the announcers are pushing the "champion doesn't have to get pinned to lose the belt" rule hard. Goldust knocked from the ring, and HHH and Owen occupy the ring as the only two for the first time. Owen reverses a whip and hits the trademark belly-to-belly. Goldust back in to save Hunter from a pin. He snapmares Owen, drops a knee, but HHH tries to steal a pin. Goldust and HHH get into a fight over who gets to pin Owen, obviously functionally saving Owen.

HHH and Owen take to double-teaming Goldust, both dropping a series of stomps. HHH sets up for the Pedigree, Owen briefly feigns celebration of HHH's upcoming move, then he bounces off the ropes and takes Helmsley out with a spinning wheel kick.



Owen takes a swing at Goldust, Goldust ducks and connects on the Curtain Call. Owen gets his foot on the ropes on the count of 1, and Patterson goes full Hebner and just keeps counting to 3.



Brian Pillman goes racing in immediately, furiously protesting as Goldust's music plays. He points to Owen's foot on the ropes. Patterson seems to be unconvinced. Earl Hebner comes racing into the ring, yelling, "Patterson, get in here!" Well, not exactly, but he tells Patterson that he botched the call. Pat just keeps doubling down, and again raises Goldust's arm. HHH is now back in the ring, and he's obviously upset too since this call cost him his title shot as well. Patterson shoves both Pillman and HHH down.

Enter Gorilla Monsoon. He heads over to address Patterson as the show goes to commercial. After the break, we see what happened during the break, as Monsoon pointed to a video replay on the Titantron that clearly shows Owen's foot on the rope. Even after staring at this, Patterson protests against changing his call, saying he didn't see it, but finally he seems to have been overruled by Monsoon, and the match is going to recommence. Seems like an awfully stupid intermission to stick into the middle of this match.

At the restarting bell, Owen and Hunter go attack Goldust in the corner, but he fights his way out, taking out both men with punches and elbows. He throws Owen into Hunter, tries to pin Hunter, but Owen breaks it up. Gutwrench suplex by Owen on Goldust. Sharpshooter, but HHH clotheslines him out of it immediately. Snapmare by HHH, and he drops the knee. Goldust breaks up the pin. HHH staggers Goldust with a punch, then Owen staggers him with one. Neckbreaker by Owen gets two, as Goldust breaks it up.

HHH dumps Owen outside. He trades punches with Goldust, but Owen interrupts this exchange with a missile dropkick off the top that hits both men. Spinning wheel kick by Owen on Goldust gets two, but again HHH is there for the save. Owen knocks HHH from the ring; HHH drags him out to the floor. Goldust is left inside by himself, and as Patterson is attending to Owen and Hunter, Chyna hits a hurracanrana on Goldust.



Goldust temporarily rolls to the outside. HHH and Owen back in, Owen hits an enziguri, Goldust re-enters and climbs the ropes, Owen actually kind of baits Goldust into trying to break up the pin from the top rope, and he moves out of the way and lets Hunter take the Goldust splash. He shoves Goldust away for long enough to record the pinfall. Match was pretty much a mess, but I did like the way they booked the ending.



Result: Owen Hart via pinfall

After commercial, Bret Hart comes out to the ring flanked by Jim Neidhart. The rare original Hart Foundation reunion without any of the other family/faction members around. Vince is in the ring to interview them. Bret says that LOD likes to think that they're the best tag team in the history of wrestling, but declares instead, as he puts his arm around the Anvil, "Right here is the greatest tag team in the history of the World Wrestling Federation." I'll say, I was definitely into LOD, but the Hart Foundation was the team I marked for harder than anyone as a kid.



Bret Hart goes on to threaten Marlena, saying that he's got four sisters who will knock her socks off if she lays a finger on the British Bulldog. He moves on to address Austin, calling him the scum of the earth. "Justice is coming. It's called the Hart Foundation. We are gonna pound you into dust, right there in Calgary, my hometown, whether you like it or not." He says the Americans aren't going to steal a win at Canadian Stampede, and uses that as a segue. "Speaking of…thieves, I heard that there's someone else out here who calls himself the Hitman." Thomas Hearns was shown in the audience earlier; they show him again now. Vince specifically points out Thomas "Hitman" Hearns and announces his name.

Bret says that there's only room for one Hitman in Detroit. He calls Hearns out. Hearns yells back at him, but stays seated. Hart tells him to get his ass in the ring to prove himself. Hearns continues to resist the temptation to come in. Bret continues, "I don't think you're the Hitman…I think you're the chicken man!" Hearns jumps the rail and charges in. What the ****? THAT'S the line that got him into the ring?

Hearns gets right up in Bret's face. Bret sheds his jacket. Anvil tries to hold him back and stand in the way. Hearns steps in and drops Anvil with two punches, causing Bret to backpedal, at which point officials step in the way and break things up. Jim Ross shamelessly yells, "Another Sportscenter highlight here!" So desperate.



As the situation settles down, the show goes to commercial. Afterward, we see highlights of what just happened, and Hearns has returned to his ringside seat with his family.

Backstage, the Nation of Domination (Faarooq, D-Lo, and Kama) are standing by to cut a promo. Faarooq gets about three words out before he's interrupted. Savio Vega gets in his face and tries to attack, which is more than slightly stupid with reinforcements standing by to take him down. D-Lo and Kama bring Savio down to the floor and Faarooq whips Savio with his belt.



Scott Taylor vs. Brian Christopher (w/ Jerry Lawler): These two lock up and trade arm-wringers and hammerlocks. Lawler joins on commentary early in the match. Release German suplex by Christopher. He snapmares Taylor, but then misses with an elbow. Taylor connects on a jumping side kick, then hits an odd somersault move (I feel like Gorilla Monsoon calling something a "leverage move") and records a two-count. Christopher smashes Taylor into the turnbuckle, then hits a dropkick off the second rope. Commentary derails into discussion of whether or not Lawler is Brian Christopher's father. Lawler for some reason keeps issuing non-denial denials and avoiding giving a direct answer. Vince says, "If you want to beg the question, that's your prerogative." Vince, not only is that not what "begging the question" is, but it's not even the common misuse of the term.

Christopher scales to the top rope, guillotine legdrop connects from there, and that's good enough for the three-count.



Result: Brian Christopher via pinfall

Vince tells Jerry that he must be very proud. Jerry says that he's proud of the USWA. Vince prods further with, "Maybe even as proud as a father should be." Jerry gets all upset about Vince and JR prying into his private life. He yells at Vince, "You want to talk about YOUR family?" Then he directs to JR and says, "Why don't I just give out your personal phone number? Area code 203…" JR just waves an arm at him and says, "Shut up."

After commercial, Vince talks to Paul Bearer, who is standing with Vader backstage. He asks Bearer about the "remember the fire" line that stayed Undertaker's hand earlier. Bearer just bellows at him to not read into that.

Tag Team Title Tournament First Round - D-Lo Brown & Faarooq vs. Vader & The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer): Bearer hasn't really been showing up with Vader for a while, but he's the common link that's causing Undertaker to be forced to tag with Vader tonight. D-Lo jumps Taker before the bell, but before long misses with a clothesline, opening himself up to taking a flying clothesline from the dead man. Ahmed Johnson is shown watching from backstage, nursing an apparent knee injury from the brawl earlier.

Arm-wringer by Undertaker, who lunges his shoulder into Brown several times. He works the youngest Nation member to the mat, but D-Lo launches a comeback, working his way back to a vertical base, wrestling Undertaker into the corner, and hitting a series of shoulder lunges. Here come the DOA, slowly marching out to ringside. Undertaker knocks D-Lo to the floor, and the DOA immediately brazenly pounce on him in a gang assault as the referee watches on. Faarooq and Kama join the fray, a big brawl having erupted. For some reason Undertaker bails out of the ring and goes to fight the DOA as well, and apparently this is not going to be a disqualification for some reason; the show goes to commercial break.

Back from break, D-Lo is on the attack again, throwing a series of rights at Vader in the corner. Vader fights back, unsurprisingly winning once it turned into a punching contest. He hits a front slam, then climbs up to the second rope and connects on a Vaderbomb. He telegraphs terribly that this is not the end, as he's very slow to cover for no reason, and that enables Faarooq to run into break up the pin. Faarooq goes on to drag D-Lo to the corner so that he can tag in. Faarooq, now legal, sends Vader into the corner, but Vader comes running out at him with a big body attack. Vader jumps up to the second rope, but he's executing that cross-body that only ever becomes a powerslam…shades of Ron Simmons's WCW title win on the same spot.

Tag to D-Lo, who is getting an absolute ton of offense in for a guy who usually just stands in the corner. Vader again fights back with punches, and off to the side of the screen, Undertaker and Paul Bearer are having an icy exchange. Splash by Vader; Faarooq breaks up another pin. Vader randomly saunters over to Undertaker and shoves him with one arm, prompting Taker to escalate quickly with a big right hand. Vader staggers into a clothesline by Faarooq, and Faarooq records the pinfall.



Result: D-Lo & Faarooq via pinfall

Paul Bearer is livid with The Undertaker, and he gets in the ring and reads him the riot act. Taker just ignores him, waves him away and then makes as if to leave. At Bearer's command, Vader attacks Undertaker, but Undertaker fights back, and actually hits the tombstone on the big man.



Taker threatens to tombstone Bearer as well, but Bearer scrambles out of the ring. Taker shrugs and heads up the ramp. Bearer gets on the mic and starts hollering. "You've done made your casket, dead man, and next week you're going to lie in it, because I'm going to tell the whole wide world your secret. And that's gonna be it. You wait and see." Undertaker is no longer being coerced by these threats; he points at Bearer and makes a throat-slash gesture before leaving.

Bearer rages into the nearby camera as the show signs off.



Overall: Well he may be Mankind, but he's also a kind man, and I take my hat off to him. I don't know; this episode was alright, but nothing special. It's no coincidence that an episode feels lacking when our only SCSA material is a phone call (and a remarkably bad one by his standards).

When's the last time WWE did a pure call-in and not a live via satellite? For some reason, I feel like a phone call may have actually happened in the last 5 years

I really cannot remember a call-in during the modern era, though my watching of Raw has been very spotty. It just seems very much like a relic of the past, and not even the type of relic that would turn up on a special old-school edition or something.

Didn’t they do a call in when Roman had that hernia before Survivor Series in 2014

June 23, 1997

NITRO

Macon, GA

We cold-open on a clip of the end of last week's show, when the nWo beat Lex Luger and the Giant down. Tony Schiavone called it a "master plan" for the nWo to lure these two into the ring and then attack them with a 5-on-2 advantage.

After the opening credits, it's a bit jarring that Mean Gene Okerlund is the one to welcome us to the show, but it turns out that it's just to open the show with an interview. Enter Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly to be his interviewees. Gene reminds us that DDP and a mystery partner will be facing Randy Savage and Scott Hall at the upcoming PPV. When asked for a hint, DDP just says, "I love surprises." Kimberly says that she got Page a one-on-one match with Scott Hall tonight. Apparently treating that as tonight's surprise, Page and Kimberly play to the camera triumphantly as they exit stage left.



Tony Schiavone notes that Kevin Nash isn't here tonight, so Hall isn't going to have his usual primary reinforcement available. Incidentally, why is he aware of Nash's whereabouts? Isn't Nash part of a rebel faction that just shows up when they feel like it and doesn't adhere to WCW rules?

La Parka & Damian vs. Public Enemy: La Parka and Johnny Grunge kick this thing off. La Parka attempts a corner splash right away, misses, and then Damian accidentally clotheslines him from the apron. Damian enters the ring, Grunge temporarily takes on both, the luchas start to overwhelm him, but Rocco Rock evens the numbers game and Public Enemy takes back over. Grunge tags Rocco.

The luchas double-team Rocco, with Damian launching a jumping leg off of the kneeling La Parka's back. Damian misses on a top-rope moonsault moments later though, allowing Rocco to make the lukewarm tag to Grunge. Public Enemy rids the ring of Damian, they execute a double backdrop on La Parka, and Grunge heads outside to set Damian on a table. Rocco hits a somersault through him to break the table, which seems to be legal in Public Enemy matches, but as the official is watching that, La Parka waffles Grunge with a chair and scores the surprising pin. Public Enemy jobbing to some random makeshift team? I approve. Really, La Parka was charismatic and WCW always had a bit of an impulse toward giving him a minor push, but I don't know why Damian was his partner here.



Result: La Parka & Damian via pinfall

After break, Mean Gene is with a smiling Eddie Guerrero, who is returning from injury. Gene notes that Eddie blames Dean Malenko for his injury. He starts into a question about Eddie sending his nephew Chavo to the wolves last week by making him take up Malenko's challenge, but Eddie interrupts to a chorus of boos and says that he wasn't medically cleared and Chavo volunteered. Gene is dubious. Eddie calls on Chavo to come on out to verify his story. Chavo does come out. Gene asks him if it's true that he offered his services last week. Chavo shakes his head and says that he wouldn't exactly say that. Eddie interrupts, tells Chavo he loves him, and says that while he was supposed to take on Syxx tonight, he's offering Chavo a shot at Syxx's cruiserweight title. Chavo hesitates and doesn't look happy, but says of course he wants a title shot. They bump fists and leave together.



Before the next match, we see a clip of Alex Wright cheating and beating Chris Jericho two weeks ago with his feet on the ropes.

Alex Wright vs. Chris Jericho: Jericho charges into the ring, turns his back like an idiot, and Wright attacks. Shoulderblock by the German, who channels Rick Rude with a hip swivel. Side headlock by Wright, releases and hits another shoulderblock, but Jericho leapfrogs him, spinning wheel kick, and a clothesline over the top rope. Wright takes a powder. He re-enters, slaps on an arm-wringer, but Jericho changes positions and counters into a suplex; he holds the arm and maintains an armbar. Wright stands up, flips his way out, slams Jericho to the mat, but eats a jumping shoulderblock by Wright. Big springboard shoulderblock by Jericho knocks Wright to the floor.

Jericho follows him out there, slams Wright into the guardrail, and rolls him back inside. Jericho slowly climbs the ropes…too slowly, as he jumps off into a dropkick. Wright hits a couple of European uppercuts, a corner whip, and a headscissor takeover. Leg lariat by Wright, who botches an attempt to dump Jericho outside, so he kicks away at him instead. Snap suplex by Alex. He climbs up top and drops a knee from there. He preens and taunts the crowd at length, getting some heat from the live crowd. He returns to action, missing a clothesline. Jericho connects on a Lionsault that gets a two-count. He hits a spinning back kick, then chops Wright in the corner. Whips him to the opposite corner, follows him in, Wright flips behind before running across the ring, Wright tries to jump behind him on the follow-up, but Jericho is ready; he slams him down with something of an Alabama slam, slaps on the Lion Tamer, and gets the victory. Of note, Wright tapped out (and Schiavone specifically noted him "tapping three times"); the tap-out is gaining momentum as a submission method in wrestling.



Result: Chris Jericho via submission

After the break, we only now see the usual announce team of Tony Schiavone/Larry Zbyszko/Mike Tenay for the first time tonight; we've only heard them up to this point. Larry says that Rodman's colorful hair shows that he's a very insecure man. Tenay notes that although the nWo thought they could pick their opponents by sending Vincent in to strategically interfere at Great American Bash, JJ Dillon had different ideas and chose to order a rematch between Harlem Heat and the Steiner Brothers instead.

The Steiner Brothers vs. Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri): Tony notes that the winners of this match will be the #1 contenders for the Tag Team Titles. Scott Steiner enters to be debuting a douchey goatee/ponytail combo.



Scott, also wearing mismatched boots for some reason, will open things up against Booker T. They wrestle to one stalemate in the corner; Scott gives up a clean break. They wrestle to an identical stalemate, and Booker takes a cheap shot in lieu of giving a clean break. He throws forearms, whips Scott into the opposite side, but runs into a raised boot on the follow-up. Stevie Ray runs interference from the apron to neutralize Scott, Rick Steiner runs over to take exception, but Stevie's interference has already had its effect; Booker remains in control. That is, until he misses on a charge after a corner whip. Scott capitalizes with a big press slam and plays to the crowd as Booker rolls out to the floor.

Upon Booker's return, Scott controls an armbar for a moment before choosing to tag in brother Rick. Booker seizes the opportunity to go get Stevie Ray, and the workrate will now drop off a cliff. Stevie with a big kick to the face. Rick reverses a corner whip, then hits a back suplex as Stevie staggers backward off the corner impact. Two-count for Steiner, who transitions into an armbar. Stevie Ray works his way up to his feet, Rick whips him into the ropes, but Stevie stops short of a backdrop attempt and levels a kick to the face. Booker T tags in, tries for a suplex, but Rick blocks and hits his own suplex instead. Booker tries to chisel out an advantage with a gouge to the eye, but his follow-up cross-body attempt gets countered into a powerslam by Rick. Another two-count, as Tony complains of a slow count by referee Nick Patrick.

Scott Steiner re-enters, smashes Booker into the corner, and hits a big belly-to-belly. Stevie breaks up the pin attempt. Scott tags back to Rick, who promptly loses the advantage when Booker chops him in the throat. Sort of a Harlem side kick by Booker, who tags Stevie in. Weird, sloppy backdrop/powerslam combo by Stevie, who didn't seem to know what move he had decided to do when he started the spot. He slaps on a chinlock as the crowd tries to will Steiner back to his feet.

The Heat combine to isolate Rick, but Rick counters a kick by Booker into another powerslam, and it creates enough of an opening to make the hot tag to Scott. Scott takes the fight to both of the Heat, hits a butterfly powerbomb on Booker, but Stevie saves the pin. Rick back inside, all four fighting now. Scott lifts Booker up on his shoulders for a double-team, Stevie runs interference to break the spot up, and Stevie and Scott fight to the outside as Booker and Rick go at it inside. Rick reverses a whip into the ropes, Booker accidentally runs into Sherri, and Rick capitalizes with a botched bulldog off the ropes to win the match.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

Mean Gene is joined by the nWo jobber crew of Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton, and Vincent. Bagwell asks how anyone can call the Steiners the #1 contenders when it looks like Scott's arms are going through atrophy. Wat. Buff flexes his own arms to brag on them instead. Buff calls his team with Norton "Vicious and Delicious." Before the Steiners come and greet them from up close, the nWo exits stage left, and the Steiners take over the interview position. Rick says that they want to get their title shot at Hall and Nash at the Las Vegas Nitro. Scott says more of the same, and the interview wraps.

Mike Tenay is on location from another area of the arena, and he sends us to a video package hyping Ernest Miller. Miller is shown training as some random dude talks him up. After the video, Tenay says that Miller will be making his in-ring Nitro debut tonight.

Villano IV vs. Hector Garza: A bell rings, and suddenly these two are in action with no intros on either side. Villano puts Garza down, then chops away at him when he gets up. Clothesline, Irish whip, kick to the gut. Kind of a Diamond Cutter by Villano as nothing more than a transition move, and he continues on offense. Garza counters him with an armdrag, then another one, but Villano backdrops him over the top rope and follows him out with a suicide dive. Larry: "Is this Mexican rules?" Tenay: "What, are you worried about if anyone can tag in? It's a singles match, Larry!" Larry: "I know it's a singles match, I just wanted to know if it's Mexican rules." Zero idea what Larry thinks that "Mexican rules" means in a singles context. He adds: "I don't know, they just have so many rules…like, if you pull off the other person's mask you're disqualified, or if you drink water you're disqualified."

Garza hits a flying clothesline off the ropes, but then comes up totally empty on an attempted cross-body. They botch a spot where Villano tries to clothesline him out, and Garza bails and takes a breather anyway. He returns inside and quickly gets his head taken off by a Villano clothesline. Villano backdrops him near a corner, Garza lands on his feet on the apron, re-enters and backdrops Villano, and he follows with a surprise pinning combo out of a hurracanrana that nearly gets the fall. Villano counters the next rana attempt with a sitout powerbomb, and he's the one to get a near-fall this time. Villano whips Garza off the ropes, powerslam, but the lax cover that follows is worthless. Shoulderbreaker by Villano, who scales to the top rope and goes for a big moonsault…miss.

Villano tries to take a breather outside, but Garza promptly follows him with a baseball slide that connects. Garza with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and then he quickly climbs to the top and hits his trademark corkscrew plancha. Both slow to recover, and they basically roll inside at the same time. Snap suplex by Garza, uninspiring standing moonsault, and Garza gets the three-count.



Crowd didn't care about this at all. There wasn't much reason to.

Result: Hector Garza via pinfall

After commercial, Mean Gene is in the ring, and he brings out Lex Luger and The Giant for an interview. Luger says that he and everyone else in the back are sickened and disgusted by what happened at the end of the last Nitro. He's sort of reciting this rage robotically, and isn't selling that he's actually upset by anything. He vows that he and The Giant will have their day of reckoning.

Giant says, "Maybe I should just start off by saying how lucky I am. How everyone thinks I'm lucky. I'm lucky to be 7'4", 470 lbs. I'm lucky to even be in WCW. But you know why I'm the most luckiest (sic) person? Because I am the only one that's going to stick a big, giant hook in The Worm!" Strangely enough, I remember reading the dirt sheets at the time, and these lines about being lucky were a direct hit back at heat he was getting backstage in WCW for being an overrated oaf. Apparently there was a particularly pointed line by Steven Regal at the time, who said that the only difference between The Giant and Ron Studd is "a push." Odd that a fairly minor story like that stuck with me, but I think that's your context for this promo. For what it's worth, it's certainly my view that it's decidedly unfair for anyone to have tried to paint Paul Wight out as some sort of talentless hack; that was clearly not true even at this point in his career.



Giant tells Hogan that he's going to play a little game…he's going to see how many times he can slap Hogan, and then how many times he can slap Rodman, and see whose hair dye comes out first. Luger closes the interview out, and Gene hypes the forthcoming Luger/Giant vs. Hogan/Rodman match as the pyrotechnics go off to signal hour #2 of Nitro.

Cruiserweight Title - Syxx (c) (w/ Scott Hall) vs. Chavo Guerrero: Syxx and Chavo lock up, Syxx securing a side headlock. Chavo sends him off the ropes, Syxx with a shoulderblock, but he turns around without much of a plan and falls victim to a flying headscissor takeover. The champ takes a powder and gets a pat on the back from Hall before returning inside. He kicks Chavo in the gut, then hammers him with an elbow, but Chavo gets free, runs the ropes, and connects on a flying forearm. Chavo tries to continue on offense, but Syxx ducks a cross-body attempt, and Chavo hits the mat hard. Syxx now on the attack, he kicks Chavo low a couple of times in the corner before connecting hard on a big spinning back kick to the face. Bronco buster by Syxx.

The champion continues on offense with a snapmare, then settles into a reverse chinlock. Chavo works his way back to a vertical base, but Syxx slams him back down to the mat with a modified front suplex. Couple of snap legdrops by Syxx, who taunts the crowd. He whips Chavo into the corner hard, but misses on the follow-up, slamming violently into the corner as he jumps into it. Chavo is too slow to be able to follow up, but when Syxx tries to return to the attack, Chavo does fight back with punches. Chavo reverses Syxx's next move into a surprise victory roll, which nearly gets the three-count. We see Eddie Guerrero appear at the top of the aisle, looking on disapprovingly from there as Chavo records another two-count.

Chavo sends Syxx tumbling out to the floor, at which point he climbs to the top and hits a big jumping attack all the way to the outside. As Chavo rolls back in, the referee puts the count on Syxx, and Scott Hall just brazenly runs in and hits the Razor's Edge on Chavo. Eddie just stands there, arms folded, and does nothing about it.



Syxx returns inside to find an incapacitated Chavo…he slaps on the Buzzkiller, and that will be enough for the submission victory.

Result: Syxx via submission

Konnan vs. Steve McMichael (w/ Debra): This will suck. Mongo powers Konnan to the mat to kick things off. Konnan is pissed and wants to play Mongo's game, challenging Mongo to face off against him in a three-point stance. They both drop down into it, run at each other, and of course Mongo gets the better of the exchange. Mongo puts Konnan down with a couple of shoulderblocks, prompting Konnan to regroup outside for a moment. Upon his return, he's able to go on the attack, taking a cheap shot after offering a test of strength and then proceeding to kick and stomp at Mongo in the corner. He tries twisting Mongo's ankle off for a moment, then snaps him over and wrenches away at his neck. Irish whip by Konnan into his rolling somersault clothesline.

Hugh Morrus comes stalking down to ringside, broomstick in hand. Officials jump in en masse to push Morrus back, but just walking out has caused enough of a distraction to Konnan that Mongo is able to seize him from behind, level him with a tombstone, and record the pinfall.



Result: Steve McMichael via pinfall

Tony sends it to a video package that recaps the Chris Benoit-Kevin Sullivan feud so far. It shows Benoit going through Barbarian and Meng, finally leading to the recent brawl between he and Sullivan. They'll fight at Bash at the Beach.

Gene Okerlund is back for another in-ring interview, this time with Rowdy Roddy Piper. Piper is over big here. Gene has to fight through the "Roddy" chants to interject with his opening question, as he asks Piper whether or not there's something askew between he and Ric Flair. Piper mutters some sort of incoherent word salad for a while, then eventually breaks through into something coherent, saying that he's here to address rumors. He says that Flair left him in the middle of a match at Slamboree. He says that he asked Flair at the time if Flair betrayed him, Flair denied it, and Piper trusts that Flair wouldn't do that. Sting must be Piper's mentor. However, Piper goes on to add, "You know why Flair dates two girls at a time? It's so that, when he falls asleep, they've got someone to talk to."



Flair appears at the top of the aisle. He walks to the ring to join the segment. "Rod, let me reiterate my comments of last week: you are my friend, I will stand by your side, and the decision that I made at Slamboree to chase Syxx out the door was in your best interest, my best interest, and the best interest of that tag match." Piper says, "You left me to the wolves, but I'm not dissing you. Millions of other people don't believe you, but I believe you." Flair says that he's here tonight to help Piper avoid a disaster. He warns Piper not to make the mistake of questioning him. At this point, we see Chris Benoit, Mongo McMichael, and Debra marching to the ring. Piper asks, "What's with the entourage? This is between me and Ric Flair."

Gene asks where Jeff Jarrett is. Debra says that she's discarded him like last year's fashion. I hope that means he's actually gone. I don't remember when he returns to WWF. Not that he's particularly good upon his WWF return, but I'll give anything to just forever be done with this Mongo-Jarrett storyline. Mongo points an aggressive finger at Piper and says, "Just because Dennis Rodman ain't here tonight doesn't mean that you had to wear a skirt." Flair tries to talk Mongo down. Things continue to escalate verbally between Mongo and Piper. Flair tries to play peacemaker. He reassures Mongo that he's standing with Piper. Benoit speaks up for the first time and starts having a go at Piper also. Flair tries to shut him up, but Piper has had enough; he attacks both Benoit and Mongo, putting them on the mat. Flair is frustrated, but he almost resignedly attacks Piper on the Horsemen's behalf.



As Piper fights back at him, Mongo collects his briefcase, hammers Piper with it from behind, and the group collectively beats Piper down, with Benoit slapping on the crossface and Flair stomping away. As officials try to get Benoit off of Piper, the show goes to commercial.

Glacier & Ernest Miller vs. High Voltage: High Voltage attack before the bell, with the Glacier snow still floating down from the ceiling. Glacier and Miller clear them from the ring, and Miller retires to the corner as Kenny Kaos comes back inside to take Glacier on. Kaos tries for a sunset flip, Glacier struggles to stay up, and Robbie Rage jumps in illegally with a springboard dropkick to put him down. Rage just stays inside as the purported legal man until he tags back out to Kaos. Kaos misses with a corner charge, and as he does, the camera pans up to the top of the ramp to show Mortis, Wrath, and James Vandenberg watching.

Ernest Miller tags in for the first time, leveling both of High Voltage with kicks. Glacier hits a Cryonic Kick on Kaos, sweeps the leg on Rage, Miller hits a jumping kick off the top rope, and he records the pin.



Result: Glacier & Ernest Miller via pinfall

As Miller records the pin, Wrath/Mortis/Vandenberg race toward the ring to try to blindside them, but when Glacier and Miller turn around, the heels throw on the brakes and back down.

Next is a Dennis Rodman video. It's just nWo music and various Rodman clips in black-and-white.

Diamond Dallas Page (w/ Kimberly) vs. Scott Hall (w/ Randy Savage & Miss Elizabeth): Hall originally comes out by himself, but halfway down the aisle he points to the top, and it's at that point that Savage and Liz appear. Kimberly takes this as her cue to leave (with DDP's endorsement); she tells the camera that Savage scares her and she's not sticking around.

Hall tosses a toothpick in DDP's face. DDP fires back by slapping Hall in the face. Kick to the gut by Hall, who grabs Page by the arm and slams into him repeatedly without letting go. Mike Tenay talks up the "impact player" we'll be seeing next week, and wonders if it will be Page's tag team partner for Bash at the Beach. Hall knees Dallas in the gut and stomps away ruthlessly at Dallas's injured ribs. DDP fights back in the corner, turning Hall around and throwing punches at him. Inverted atomic drop, and a big right hand puts Hall down on the mat hard. As Page goes to follow up, Hall backdrops him out over the top rope to the floor.

Amidst referee distraction, Savage gets his shots in on Page. Hall joins the fight outside, continuing to attack the ribs and flinging DDP into the steel steps. He rolls him back inside, makes the cover, gets a two-count. More shots to the ribs, as Hall lays in punches. DDP again tries to fight back, throwing a couple of punches, but Hall counters by slamming Page face-first into the mat. He chokes Page along the second rope, prompting referee Randy Anderson to back him up, and Randy Savage is on the spot to take more cheap shots. Hall tries for a suplex, DDP blocks and transitions into an armbar takedown. That didn't accomplish too much, as Hall is almost immediately back to the advantage. As Hall tries to unwrap the ace bandage protecting Page's ribs, Page fights back with a big clothesline; both men are left laid out and recovering.

Page is up first. He signals for a Diamond Cutter, but Savage isn't going to let it happen; he attacks from behind to trigger the blatant disqualification, and the beatdown is on.



Result: DDP via DQ

Hall sets Page up on the top turnbuckle and hits a back superplex from there. Savage goes to the top rope to set up the flying elbow, but we see Sting show up in the crowd. He points his bat at the nWo guys, who stay frozen in their tracks for a moment. Still, Page is selling the big superplex, and even after a lengthy delay Savage is able to connect with a big elbow. Sting finally moves toward the ring, but once he arrives the nWo has bailed out. They stand outside, seemingly neutralized, but they eventually decide to surround the ring from opposite sides and take a run at Sting. Savage enters from the top rope, Sting hits him with the bat on the way down, and as he's going to fight them off, Nitro signs off.



Overall: I don't know. It mostly felt like filler. Most of the show wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't memorable either.

Ratings for 6/23/97: Nitro 3.3, Raw 2.4
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 68-17-2

Better Show: Raw wasn't great, but it was the more interesting show, introducing the triple-threat match, debuting heel Ahmed, etc. It wins the night.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 57-30

Match of the Night: No great candidates here. I think I have to default to Flash Funk vs. Sabu.

This, of course, still wins for moment of the night.

...and now we have the origin of why script promos.

I know this board has almost always universally at least appreciated Show. He had some great moments and much like Mark Henry, just did his job well for a couple of decades. Around other forums though, they've always hated him...until now because he's not around. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and ****.

.gif of the night:

Though I liked Mark Henry a lot by the end, I do regard him as having been pretty terrible for quite a long time. If they had future endeavored him at the five-year anniversary of his debut then I would have never second-guessed it (but they gave him a 10-year deal right out of the gates). I think Wight was much more consistent in terms of being a valuable player for multiple decades. Of course the bull**** where WWE started having him cry all the time over mundane occurrences (like beating Cody Rhodes) was terrible, but that's not on him.

Also on the gif, I had to work a fair bit on that one to get it to start and stop at just the right time. Some of those are easier to capture well than others due to sudden cutaways, etc.

He cried over winning the IC belt! Beating Cody was a bonus!

This is something that annoys me more than anything else when watching WWE nowadays. There are a bunch of gif worthy spots but there are just so many camera cuts to attempt to make it look not too fake.

I do think that Austin moment was a good indirect example of why the conventional wisdom is that a person should dress up for a job interview by phone even though the interviewer can't see you, because it's a lot easier to fall out of the proper mindset for the moment if you're just chilling in sweatpants. I doubt Austin ever has that weird lapse if he's actually at the arena doing guest commentary on the match, but if he's just chilling in his home or hotel room or whatever then it's probably easier to have a lapse.

Never forget.

(Writeup incoming in the immediate future. Seeing the post count, I didn't want to bury it at the bottom of a page.)