WWF LiveWire (October 5, 1996)

Original Airdate: October 5, 1996

Your Hosts are Dok Hendrix, Jim Cornette, and Sunny from the studio

Vic Venom (Vince Russo) shows up during the intros, and actually pals right up to Cornette. Someone check the temperature in Hell, because I’m pretty sure it’s frozen over. He immediately Russo-fies the show by calling Dok ‘Michael,’ and then telling us all that he’s ‘not really Dok Hendrix,’ and that he used to be ‘Michael PS Hayes - a legend,’ as Dok acts uncomfortable. This is especially weird considering Vic himself is not ‘Vic.’ Venom calls him a ‘cartoon character’ and a ‘billboard for the WWF,’ so Dok gets in his face, and tells him that he’s lucky that he’s not Michael Hayes, because Vic wouldn’t want to meet Michael Hayes right now. This was weird

This past Monday on RAW, Vader pinned WWF Champion Shawn Michaels in a tag match, which was probably supposed to be setting up a match at Survivor Series, before they went in a different direction with that one

Several people call in for questions for Vince McMahon… who isn’t on the actual show right now. But he will be shortly. Did they screen these calls, like, at all?

Earlier today, Vince arrived at the building, and he’s on his way into the studio now

Vince arrives in the studio, and Vic immediately gets in his face, bitching that he’s stuck writing for the magazine, instead of being on TV. But Vic knows why, it’s because Vince is ‘prejudiced against New Yorkers.’ There’s so many things you could accuse Vince of, but that one wouldn’t really hold up. Vince is looking super annoyed, so Vic keeps needling, now asking him how, after three generations of McMahons promoting wrestling, the show could still be this awful. Vince: “I didn’t know it was.” Some things clearly never change

Dok asks Vince if he’s been ‘hurt’ by Ross’s attacks lately. Vince says ‘of course’ he has, but Ross won’t be fired. Cornette wants to know why he hired Ross back to begin with after firing him. “We’ve given a lot of people second chances here - and you should know that,” Vince barks. I love agitated Vince

Mike calls in to ask when Vince thinks of the Razor and Diesel ‘incident,’ and Vince thinks it was a ‘novel idea’

Someone emails wondering if ECW will try to take over the WWF, like the nWo is trying to take over WCW. Vince isn’t worried, they’re just a local wrestling promotion in the Philadelphia area that took advantage of the live nature of television to try and make a name for themselves at the WWF’s expense

Venom asks Vince why he does commentary on RAW, when Ross is clearly a superior announcer. I actually miss McMahon’s commentary. Say what you will about his ability (or inability) to keep up with the names of the moves, but no one could get a storyline across (and over) like he could

Bruce from Connecticut calls in, and boy, this guy sounds a lot like Paul Heyman. He wonders why Vince keeps “stealing talent from ECW,” and uses the platform to put over ECW. Vince outs him as who he actually is, and obviously this is a work, or else they’d have hung up on him much faster

Mankind is playing in a cemetery, getting ready for the Buried Alive match at In Your House

Dok asks Vince if JR’s claims that Vince hired him back for ‘fifty cents on the dollar’ are true, which Vince denies. Hendrix then asks if it’s possible that Ross is some sort of mole for WCW, which McMahon said is being investigated

Vince tells the viewers that they don’t need to disguise themselves like ‘Bruce,’ they can call in, and say whatever they want. Venom calls bullshit, and tells Vince that he should run for office because he’s so full of it

Tom calls in to ask Vince why Ross is so bitter, which Vince answers by basically saying that he’s basically doing Ross charity by allowing someone who looks like him to be on the air. Venom notes that he probably wouldn’t put him on TV if he was in charge, but he’s not trying to insult those with Bell’s Palsy, because he ‘really likes those people’

Sunny notes that the majority of the chatter on AOL is taking Venom’s side over McMahon’s, and poor Vince looks near tears

Undertaker is digging test graves ahead of Buried Alive

Jim Ross calls in to bitch at Vince for even talking about what he looks like, and wants him to leave him ‘the hell alone’ so he can do his job. Vince thinks JR is out of line, and he clarifies that he’s not making fun of Ross, he lets him on the air ‘in spite of the way he looks.’ Undertaker should give Vince his shovel, because McMahon is digging that hole deeper and deeper

Jason calls in to ask Vince how he feels about the ‘jerk’ behind him (Venom), but Vince shrugs it off, noting that he welcomes different opinions, including Vic’s

Denise calls in to ask McMahon what he’ll be doing to make the WWF ‘powerful again.’ Ooh, and Vince doesn’t like that one. And he doesn’t really have an answer for it, either

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Sunny reads an email asking Vince what his feelings about Ted Turner are. “Well, obviously, I don’t like Ted Turner,” notes McMahon. Vince notes that he tried to work with him once, but Ted’s lack of business ethics killed that relationship. Dok notes that he was in WCW for five years, and they never made a cent during that time period. Venom notes that maybe Dok was part of the reason for that, since he was ‘49 years old’ at the time. The craziest thing is, I totally would have believed that to be accurate, and I’m shocked to learn that Hendrix was only 37 in 1996

Someone calls in asking when Bret Hart will return to the WWF, and Vince is trying to work out a deal for Survivor Series. Yeah, hopefully they can sign some sort of long term contract, or something

We get a video package about WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, which wonders if he’s been spreading himself too thin with media appearances instead of focusing on his wrestling

The PlayStation Slam of the Week is Steve Austin hitting Jake Roberts with a Stunner on RAW

Dok asks Vince why Shawn has become such a ‘corporate puppet’ since winning the belt, which Vince, of course, brushes off. Vic chimes in noting that Michaels is falling into the same ‘ego trap’ as Hulk Hogan did

Mr. Perfect video package, hyping up his impending in-ring return. Nice to see that they’re promoting for WCW now, that’s sweet

Mike calls in wondering why Mr. Perfect is coming back. After watching his WCW work lately, I wonder the same thing. Dok thinks Vince is forcing Perfect back to try and put more ‘butts in seats.’ He’s already putting Mick Foley in the main event of the next pay per view, what more can he possibly try?!

Someone calls in to ask Sunny if she’ll wrestle Sable. I’m surprised that one never happened, actually. Vince immediately negs her by noting that Sable is the “most beautiful woman in the WWF”

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David calls in to ask when someone is going to start a 24 hour wrestling channel (2014), and what Vince thinks about Eric Bischoff. “He’s very good as spending Ted Turner’s money”

BUExperience: Best episode yet.