My Take On The Monday Night Wars 01.30.08: Raw vs. Nitro (5.19.97)
Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.30.2008
The war continues on Nitro with Ric Flair continues his war with the n.W.o and faces off with Syxx, while over on Raw Steve Austin continues his war with the Hart Foundation as he faces Jim Neidhart!
Introduction:
Welcome back to the latest edition of My Take On! With the addition of WWE 24/7 to my cable system, I have decided to have some fun and do some columns on "The Monday Night Wars." I plan to work this similar to the "My Take on MMA" columns, where it isn't a recap as much as it is an analysis piece. I will provide the ratings of the two shows, my breakdowns of each segment that aired and then give an overall final grade so to speak of the show. At the end I will give the winner a point for the ratings win and a point for the show I thought was the best. The goal is to run through as many of these as I can as they air. I think it will be a fun adventure to embark on. Sit back and relax, as I relive The Monday Night Wars!
For those that have asked, these columns don't have a set schedule. They will appear as a fill in for when another 411 writer needs the day off.
Match/Segment: Hart and HBK Continuation Larry's Enjoyment Index: 7.5 Final Thoughts: We get the continuation of last week's promo, that was cut off when the show ended. Hart has promised a surprise, and called HBK to the ring and ran him down while HBK stood there. In the continuation, what we didn't see, Hart would stand from his wheelchair and dare HBK to hit him, and this leads to a super kick from HBK that sends Hart back into the wheelchair and to the mat. The Hart Foundation would rush the ring and try to attack HBK, and he would fight for his life only to get beat down. As Smith tried to press slam him off the stage, Austin makes the save and they all brawl. While I was down on the ending of the previous week, it did lead to a good way to kick off this show and made you feel like you had to watch for a continuation, episodic TV. I liked this.
Match/Segment: Steve Austin Promo Larry's Enjoyment Index: 8.0 Final Thoughts: And to follow that up, Raw kicks off officially with an in ring promo from Steve Austin. Jim Ross conducts the interview and Austin explains that he doesn't care about HBK and that he was there for the cheap shot on the Hart Foundation. Austin then explains that HBK owes him for being saved from an ass whooping, and that they go their own ways, and he will battle the Hart Foundation with or without him. Thins brings out HBK, who agrees that they aren't friends, but they have no issues with each other. The common thread is that they hate the Hart Foundation. HBK runs down what he has in the WWF done before Austin had come here, which leads to Austin threatening to kick his ass and we get a brawl. Owen would come on the screen and place a bigger wedge between them and would challenge them for a tag title match for next week. HBK says he'll get a partner and challenge for the titles, while Austin says he will find one and challenge. And we brawl again. The dynamic between Austin and HBK here was great, because you knew that they both realized they did need each other, but with the ego involved neither could or would admit it. Good promos, good delivery and a strong segment overall.
Match/Segment: KOTR Qualifying Match: Crush w/The Nation of Domination vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley w/Chyna Larry's Enjoyment Index: 6.0 Final Thoughts: It was supposed to be Vader challenging Crush, but due to the doctor's orders he cannot compete. They play it up that this is from the "Cold Day in Hell" Match against Ken Shamrock. I can't remember is this was the actual deal or not, but it comes off well. Hunter Hearst Helmsley gets another shot at the KOTR, after losing to Ahmed Johnson last week via DQ. Jerry Briscoe appears and explains that Hunter Hearst Helmsley was given bad in ring instructions by the ref (thinking he had to win by pin or submission), and so to avoid legal action he has been given another chance. We have the odd heel vs. heel dynamic, which leads to little to no crowd reaction here. The match is sloppy as hell, due to Crush not wanting to work well with Helmsley. Vega gets involved, but ends up kicking Crush and Helmsley gets the win to advance, which was the whole purpose behind this. Vega and Crush argue, and Farooq tries to calm the waters.
Match/Segment: HBK/Shamrock Promo Larry's Enjoyment Index: 6.0 Final Thoughts: HBK knows he is a dangerous situation, so he has got the most dangerous man in the world to be his partner, Ken Shamrock. Shamrock says it is an honor, and promises to take out Bulldog because he'll knuckle up! Not much of a promo, but HBK did a good job of putting Shamrock over in such a short promo and it made Shamrock appear to be a player.
Match/Segment: Jim Ross Sits down with Mankind Larry's Enjoyment Index: 9.5 Final Thoughts: And here we are, following up on what were a great set of interviews with Goldust, we get the famous Jim Ross sit down with Mankind. While JR does a good job of the set up work, Foley is just phenomenal in these interviews. The emotion, the speech patterns, just everything was great. In this interview, we discover that Mankind didn't want to be hated for the wrong reasons, for falsehoods. He then reminisces about playing kill the man with the ball, and he got busted open in the mouth and people ran from him, they were scared and he loved it. Mankind discusses wrestling with his brother and breaking his nose, because he wanted to be a wrestler. Mankind discusses being ganged up on as a kid, and other kids throwing worms at him. In retaliation he ate the worms, his pride was wounded and he wanted to show that their attempts to hurt him wouldn't work. Unfortunately the so try turns on him and people said he ate worms, and he wouldn't get date due to that. He wanted to show that he could love and be loved. There were no dates in high school for him. We then get a preview of next week. Jesus this is STILL awesome.
Match/Segment: Scott Taylor vs. Leif Cassidy Larry's Enjoyment Index: 4.0 Final Thoughts: Lawler discusses RVD's debut last week, and how Paul Heyman wouldn't let him come back. Leif gets a plancha to begin the match, and I am just amazed at how different Scotty looks here. He about blows a cross body deal to the floor though, that isn't good. JR does some hype for the Light Heavyweight Division; that worked well didn't it? Taylor wins with a small package, after a blah match. Leif blows up at JR and King after the match. If I remember correctly he was already working ECW at the time.
Match/Segment: Bret Hart Arrives Larry's Enjoyment Index: 7.0 Final Thoughts: We get highlights of last week and the supposed surprise of Bret Hart, which we never got. The Foundation comes out, Bret on crutches now, so he's feeling spiffy tonight. Hart is OFFENDED that HBK stopped his right of free speech last week, ruining his announcement. Bret mockingly states that HBK has recovered from his knee injury and will return at King of the Ring. Bret says that a REAL hero will return at that show from a REAL bad knee, him. Bret Challenges HBK to a match, in which if he cannot beat HBK in under 10-minutes, he'll never wrestle in the US again. This of course brings out HBK, saying that Hart couldn't beat him in 60-minutes at WM and could never beat him in 10-minutes. HBK accepts and says he wants the whole crew down there to watch, only if they are handcuffed to a ring post. Good delivery by both, they set up the match and Bret jabbing at HBK about the "alleged knee injury" and HBK making the "Sunny Days" comment were "insider" very indicative of the way things were going at the time.
Match/Segment: Rockabilly w/The Honky Tonk Man vs. Goldust w/Marlena Larry's Enjoyment Index: 2.0 Final Thoughts: Goldust cuts a promo asking if the people want to see Marlena tonight. This brings out Marlena and their daughter Dakota in a mini-gold dress. It's a bit awkward as they let her play with the mic. While I liked the interviews that got us into his life, this was just weird and did nothing at all. What else was sick is that I think Lawler tried to ask her out on a date. Jesus this was a bad match, slow and sloppy work and Goldust loses via DQ after killing HTM with a guitar shot. The cameraman does shitty work as they get a close up of HTM smiling and talking with Rockabilly as he was supposed to be unconscious
Match/Segment: Ahmed Johnson Interview/Farooq w/the Nation vs. Rocky Maivia Larry's Enjoyment Index: 6.0 Final Thoughts: Ahmed Johnson promises to tell the truth and discusses Farooq playing the "race card." Ahmed Johnson says Farooq is telling the truth and questions Vince about blacks getting a world title shot. Ahmed says he isn't a racist and won't be like Farooq, and proclaims that he will be the first black heavyweight champion. It was a good promo and played well off of last week's promo from Farooq. As the match begins Vince mentions that "there has never been a WWF champion of color." Farooq does the Nation salute to Rocky, but he wants no part of it and we get the match. Rocky gets the not yet named Rock Bottom and the cool ass float over DDT. But he eats a Dominator and that is all. After the match Farooq doesn't allow Crush and Savio to beat him down, and instead he lets Rock leave. This would lead to him joining the Nation shortly afterwards. They also did enough to let Rocky shine a bit, but also allowed Farooq to be dominant as the challenger to the WWF Title.
Match/Segment: Backstage Attack/Taker Promo Larry's Enjoyment Index: 6.0 Final Thoughts: The Hart Foundation do a gang style attack Bob Holly in retaliation for his defeating Owen earlier in the evening. Taker now comes to the ring, to address not only Farooq's challenge, but also the threats laid down by Paul bearer from the week before (the secret that would be Kane.) Taker explains that he isn't black or white, but the taker of wayward souls and that he'll leave the WWF Champion. He tries to blow off the Paul Bearer threats, but Bearer appears. Taker begs off, showing actual fear while Bearer threatens to open Pandora's Box. After some, well begging by Taker, Paul agrees to give him SEVEN DAYS to answer him. The whole segment was fine overall as they hyped the title match and angle to come. The Undertaker showing fear to a "regular man" was odd, but in hindsight makes absolute sense because of what we know is coming.
Match/Segment: Steve Austin vs. Jim Neidhart Larry's Enjoyment Index: 7.0 Final Thoughts: Earlier Austin was seen backstage courting Harvey Whimpleman as a partner. The Brawler wants to be the partner and gets destroyed. We get brawling as the Foundation comes to the ring and Pillman goes to commentary. Pillman would kill Austin with a crutch shot, and the Foundation would give a massive beat down to Austin until HBK makes the save with the chair. JR hits the ring and says Monsoon is making them tag together, which pisses both men off and they brawl to end the show and the Foundation watches on in joy. This was a good follow up to the beginning of the show, adding to the dynamic of Austin and HBK needing each other, but refusing to admit it.
The Overall: Best Match/Segment: Jim Ross Sits down with Mankind 9.5 Worst Match/Segment:: Rockabilly w/The Honky Tonk Man vs. Goldust w/Marlena 2.0 Final Thoughts: Overall another strong show in a line of strong shows. I would place it slightly above the previous week's effort, as the Mankind interview and show opening were particularly strong in my opinion. Show Score: 7.0
WCW MONDAY NITRO (5.19.97)~!: RATING: 3.6 Due to the NBA Playoffs, Nitro was one hour on this night.
Match/Segment: Slamboree Fallout Larry's Enjoyment Index: 7.0 Final Thoughts: Flair, Piper and Green stood tall at Slamboree, giving WCW a big win in their war with the n.W.o. Flair kicks us off with a promo, after we see some video from Slamboree. Syxx interrupts the party and plays the "illegal man got pinned" card. He also enlightens us that he knows he can beat Flair, which plays off of the heat leading to the Slamboree 6-man, where Flair said he knew he could take Syxx. Flair promises to kick his flyweight ass and they brawl. That was a better opening segment than most weeks that they have shown. They played off of the PPV and are going on from that, which I like.
Match/Segment: World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal vs. Prince Iaukea Larry's Enjoyment Index: 6.0 Final Thoughts: The previous night at Slamboree Regal defeated Ultimate Dragon for the TV Title, Sonny Ono turned on Dragon in that match. Regal at this time was a 4-time TV champion. We get a simple match, Iaukea looking for quick roll ups and Regal stiffing the ever-living shit out of him in return. The Regal Stretch finishes it. Basically a squash match to play off of his regaining the TV title, which helps to re-establish him
Match/Segment: Blood Runs Cold… Larry's Enjoyment Index: 6.0 Final Thoughts: Lots of clips from Slamboree with Wraith and Mortis destroying Glacier when "a fan" makes the save and clears the ring. This was the debut of full contact karate champion Earnest Miller. I liked this as a continuation of the angle, which had been established going into the PPV. They are doing a good job of letting us know the major points of the show as well as working off of them. This angle really is a guilty pleasure for me.
Match/Segment: Masahiro Chono vs. David Taylor/Sonny Ono Speaks Larry's Enjoyment Index: 5.0 Final Thoughts: Chono represents the n.W.o. Squire Dave is nothing more than a job guy at this point as the Blue Bloods were gone. Chono was the first Japanese member of the n.W.o, and actually did god business in Japan with the n.W.o gear and such. Squash for Chono when he uses the STF. Ono has decided that he can make or break a champion. He explains that Chono has a debt to pay to him and New Japan. Ono refuses to say who, but it would turn out to be Muta.
Match/Segment: JJ Dillon Speaks/Scotty Riggs vs. Michael Wallstreet Larry's Enjoyment Index: 3.0 Final Thoughts: Dillon says that they have reinstated Nick Patrick as an official, on probation. Which leads to the match that no one cared about. Wrath had killed Riggs the week before, and WCW saw something in him and wanted to push him. Wallstreet was sporting an "Anti-WCW Shirt" because Dillon made him quit the n.W.o. It was something along the lines that he joined the group after the original contract window had closed. You know, I like Mike Rotundo, but he was one of a dozen guys that shouldn't have been in the n.W.o. Nick Patrick stops Wallstreet from using a weapon and then costs him the match by kicking his hands off of the ropes. This was about trying to give Riggs a push (EPIC FAIL) and showing that Patrick was one of the good guys. The match sucked big time.
Match/Segment: Mark Martin and Ric Flair Larry's Enjoyment Index: 3.0 Final Thoughts: Ugh…this was the WCW Motor Sports horseshit. They were going to give a car away. Mark Martin had negative charisma, seriously. Flair couldn't even save this segment, he came close, but it was bad. I have also decided that Don West is Mean Gene is his WCW days.
Match/Segment: Slamboree fallout/The Steiner Brothers vs. Jeff Jarrett and Steve McMichael Larry's Enjoyment Index: 5.5 Final Thoughts: Again we see clips from Slamboree and the DDP/Savage brawl. Throughout the show they have done a great job of highlighting the PPV and building off of it. DDP's promo was great, he gets Savage to fight basically by saying he is Hogan's bitch and washes his car and kisses his ass. The n.W.o B-Team would beat down DDP, but The Giant makes the save, looking quick and running to the ring, SHOCKING! Meanwhile back to the match, which saw The Steiner Brothers trying to get a shot at the tag team titles that were stripped from them. The tag titles were vanity titles for Hall and Nash most of the time, due to Bishoff wanting them to have gold, but also that he hated tag team wrestling. The match itself sucked, and had a lame ending with Kevin Green getting involved and helping the Steiner Brothers win. We get some clips during the commercial of Mongo attacking Green in a very lame pull apart.
Match/Segment: Ric Flair vs. Syxx/Bishoff Speaks Larry's Enjoyment Index: 8.5 Final Thoughts: We don't get much of a match, but what we got was fun. Hall and Nash rush out to the ring, Flair is alone as Green was brawling and Piper wasn't there. Flair eats an Outsider's Edge and a Nash Bomb. The n.W.o takes out several referees. Nash said last night was Flair's finest hour, but now they will take out Flair, Piper and anyone in their way. They stood tall after coming up short at the PPV the previous night. We also got the MAIN EVENT INTERVIEW with Eric Bishoff. This is playing off of the Sting angle from last week. First of all Bishoff is the perfect asshole, seriously, he was great in the role. Also, he is constant paranoid looks to the rafters were good stuff. Bishoff vows that Sting will never get a match with Hogan, and then threatens to slap the paint off of Sting's face. Sting takes the opportunity to come through the mat and give Bishoff the death drop. The crowd dug this, and so did I.
The Overall: Best Match/Segment: Ric Flair vs. Syxx/Bishoff Speaks 8.5 Worst Match/Segment:: Mark Martin and Ric Flair/JJ Dillon Speaks/Scotty Riggs vs. Michael Wallstreet 3.0 Final Thoughts: First of all at the recommendation of someone in the comment section, I have started to do some searching for the column, and there was no Chris Benoit edit for this show. That being said, while this was far from a great show, it was worlds better than recent weeks. It was still a one-hour show, but this one didn't seem mailed it. It had ups and downs, but was rather steady. It had a purpose, a direction and overall I liked the show. Raw had some bad as well, but had some extremely strong segments and beats out Nitro again. Show Score: 6.5
THE WINNER: Due to the NBA Playoffs, Nitro was one hour on this night and not head to head with Raw. According to the Ratings: NITRO According to Larry: RAW Overall Series Score: RAW~7 – NITRO~1
The Beniot edit shouldn't get bad for a bit as he has no feud that encompasses any major part of Nitro until the end of the year Raven feud. Also heads up Csonk; I just got my new 24/7 stuff for the week and I have Nitro for 5/26 but no Raw?!? Maybe there gonna split them up or something but IMO it's just the monkeys in Stamford killing all our fun again. EL BASTARDOS~
Posted By: SMYK (Guest) on January 30, 2008 at 04:25 PM
As far as I know, Owen voluntered to put Holly over in his home town. It was just a nice gesture from Owen, and I doubt the writers had anything to do with it.
Posted By: Danny (Guest) on January 30, 2008 at 04:27 PM
To SMYK: They have been split, since Nitro is back to the full show. And thanks for looking out on the Benoit front.
To Danny: You may well be right there, I don’t know for sure.
Thanks to both of you on the comments!
Posted By: Larry Csonka (Registered) on January 30, 2008 at 04:31 PM
I think Holly revealed that during the Raw Is Owen special, when everybody was giving their tributes. No problem man, I read all of your columns. But this was the first time I decided to comment, because I was a big Owen fan.
His death was a huge tragedy and it seems like a lot of people have forgotten about it.
Posted By: Danny (Guest) on January 30, 2008 at 04:52 PM
"I have also decided that Don West Mean Gene"
What?
Posted By: Steve307 (Guest) on January 30, 2008 at 05:33 PM
come on, mark martin. thats right up there with edge and christian in reaking of awesomeness.
Posted By: frank (Guest) on January 30, 2008 at 06:36 PM
I also enjoyed Glacier. I know he gets crapped on (he has been inducted into Wrestlecrap) but I enjoyed him. I honestly thought he would become one of the big stars someday, and even watching this today I still think he should have become a bigger star.
Posted By: JLAJRC (Guest) on January 30, 2008 at 07:16 PM
I remember all the promos they aired for Glacier before his debut. They certainly tried to make us think he'd be big shit someday.
But JLAJRC, you're not the only one who liked to watch him.
Posted By: Talon (Registered) on January 31, 2008 at 01:19 AM
Having Masahiro Chono in the nWo seemed kinda pointless to me. I know they wanted to expand WCW by taking their product oversees but was this really needed?
Posted By: Classic (Guest) on January 31, 2008 at 02:17 AM
