Original Airdate: November 24, 1997
From Fayetteville, North Carolina; Your Host is Jim Ross, with Jim Cornette (hour one), and with Jerry Lawler (hour two)
Harvey Wippleman comes out dressed like Rick Rude, and apparently he’s going to be DX’s new bodyguard. He does his best Rude impression (and it’s not bad, honestly), but when DX come out they waste no time booting him from the group, as the announcers take shots at the real Rick. With that out of the way, WWF Champion and European Champion Shawn Michaels wants to talk about Survivor Series. He takes an apologetic tone, and seems to feel badly about what happened, before saying that Bret ‘deserves better.’ Shawn says that he’s been in touch with Bret since Montreal, and that, since Bret is still under contract to the WWF until the end of the month, he’s invited the Hitman to RAW tonight, where it will end in either a handshake or a brawl. That was definitely a good teaser, though it’s kind of scummy of them to tease Bret Hart when there would definitely be no Bret Hart
WWF Tag Team Title Match: The Legion of Doom v Billy Gunn and Jesse James: The champs attack them during the entrances, forcing them into the ring to prevent any stalling. Animal backdrops Gunn, and a clothesline finds the mark, as the fans chant ‘LOD.’ Hawk tags in with a jumping shoulderblock, and a matslam follows. Jesse runs in without a tag, so Hawk dispatches him with a neckbreaker, and then forces him to tag in. James bails, so Animal clotheslines him on the floor, and forces him back in, as Cornette makes them sound old as hell by talking about stuff they did in the mid-80s. Inside, Animal hits Jesse with a dropkick, as Ross hypes up ECW’s November to Remember. I’d say November 1997 was already one to remember, even without that show. Hawk misses a corner charge to allow the challengers to take control, and they work him over. Gunn misses a flying legdrop to allow the hot tag to Animal, and Roseanne Barr the door! The referee gets bumped as the LOD run wild, allowing Jesse to cut off a Doomsday Device with a chairshot. That allows Billy to hook a victory roll on Animal, and a second referee runs in to count the pin at 8:32. This was perfectly watchable. * ½
Michael Cole brings Goldust out, and he’s in a wheelchair now, since apparently the broken bone in his hand has spread to the rest of his body. He’s so bad off that he even needs Cole to cross his legs for him. So all this draws Vader out to get in his face, but Goldust’s nurse sprays rubbing alcohol in his eyes, and unmasks as Luna Vachon. With Vader blinded, Goldust pops out of the chair, and the heels beat Vader down. This was another segment cut out of the Peacock version of the show
A limousine arrives outside of the arena, assumed to be carrying Bret Hart
Video package hyping the Triple H/Sgt. Slaughter feud, ahead of their match at In Your House, segueing into Cole bringing Commissioner Slaughter out. Slaughter is supposed to be the babyface here, but God, what a miscalculation that was on the part of the promotion. I mean, no matter how terrible DX could be, who would cheer near-fifty year old Sarge over them? Especially when he looks exactly like 2010 Louie CK
WWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Brian Christopher v Flash Flanagan: Flash attacks before the bell, but Christopher reverses a cross corner whip. Monkeyflip, but Flash lands on his feet, and delivers a springboard clothesline for two. He sets up another springboard, but Jerry Lawler hooks his ankle to block, and Christopher uses a slingshot sunset bomb on the floor. Brian with a hiptoss on the floor, and the King adds one of his own before rolling Flash back in. Christopher with a 2nd rope dropkick and a rocker dropper, but Flash lands on his feet to block a backdrop. He comes back with a Russian legsweep, but Christopher blocks the third in a series of clotheslines, and delivers a Russian facebuster. Brian with an inverted DDT out of the corner, and a flying legdrop finishes at 3:32. Solid effort all around. For those keeping track, that’s the end of the first hour, with a total of, what, twelve minutes of wrestling? **
DX is back to kick off the second hour, and HHH isn’t scared of Slaughter. He saw him make those same threats on TV when he was a kid, and he wasn’t scared of it then, either. Good for them for not booking Hunter to be scared of the retired legend, like they’d probably do in 2022. So with that out of the way, Shawn introduces Bret Hart for their confrontation… and we get a little person in a Bret mask, coming out doing an over-the-top impression, as DX crack jokes. With HHH narrating, Shawn and ‘Bret’ re-enact what happened at Survivor Series, and points to Shawn for even wearing the same gear as he did in Montreal. So DX torture the poor impersonator, before literally shipping him off to WCW, as the announcers write Hart off as a joke. That draws Jim Neidhart out as the last Hart Foundation member standing, and he wants to defend his group’s honor. But instead of fighting, Shawn makes the cops partners, and the Anvil is now a part of DX
In Charleston South Carolina over the weekend, WWF Intercontinental Champion Steve Austin took the winner of the Super Supper Sweepstakes out to lunch. I legitimately like that Steve was smart enough about his character to still be able to keep an edge, even while doing this kind of glad-handing stuff, instead of turning into another smiling babyface like 1995 Diesel or 1996 Shawn
Ken Shamrock v Savio Vega: Savio attacks before the bell, since he’s one of the cool kids tonight as well. He unloads for a bit, until Shamrock hooks a takedown, but Vega makes the ropes before Ken can get a submission locked in. Vega tries running, but Ken catches him with a kneelift, and a cross corner whip follows. Crucifix gets two, but Vega cuts him off with a clothesline, and Ken gets dumped to the outside for Miguel Perez to attack. Inside, Vega works a chinlock, but a spinkick misses, and Shamrock delivers a bodypress for two. Savio cuts him off with an uppercut, however, and it’s back to the chinlock. Spinheel kick finds the mark for two, but Ken blocks a splash by lifting his knees, and it’s comeback time! Powerslam gets two, and a rana leads to the anklelock, so Perez runs in. Ken fights him off, but that allows Vega time to recover. He attacks, but Shamrock is ready with a belly-to-belly suplex, and the anklelock finishes at 5:20. Shamrock really should have picked up a much quicker victory here, considering their campaign to build him up as a pay per view main event challenger was already shaky enough. ¾*
The Nation of Domination joins us, and Rock still has the WWF Intercontinental title belt that he stole from Steve Austin. Rock welcomes Austin’s desire for a fight at In Your House, when suddenly the lights start flashing, and words ‘Rocky sucks’ keep playing over the TitanTron. The Nation leaves Rock alone to go and figure out what’s going on, when Austin pops up on the big screen, pushing all the buttons in the control truck. Rock’s beeper then goes off (flashing ‘3:16’), and suddenly Austin is behind Rock for an attack now that he’s sans Nation. Rock manages to get away with the title belt, however. This was good stuff, with Rock coming into his own as a heel, and getting to take the lead with the stable
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Jeff Jarrett v Crush: Jeff shows up on the TitanTron, complaining that Vince McMahon hasn’t met the terms of his rider, and so he won’t wrestle. There’s no plush locker room! There are green M&M’s! Hilariously, he keeps calling Crush ‘Chainz.’ I don’t get this angle at all, like what is his leverage even supposed to be? We all already know that he was just turfed from WCW, why would the WWF bother with him if he was such a primadonna? Where’s he going to go, ECW? Anyway, Crush wins via forfeit, but the celebration is short lived, as Kane shows up, and wrecks him. And that was basically it for Crush, as he had one more appearance on that weekend’s Shotgun Saturday Night (which was part of this same taping), and then he left in protest over Montreal, surfacing in WCW a few months later
Backstage, Jim Neidhart is thinking. Give him space, guys
Shawn Michaels v Vader: Neither Shawn's WWF Title or WWF European Title are on the line here. Anvil looks so miserable coming out with DX. Shawn tries sticking and moving, but gets clobbered coming out of the ropes, and Vader press-slams him. Sitdown splash connects, as does a standard splash for two. Cross corner whip works, but an avalanche misses. That allows Michaels a Superkick, but Vader ducks, and clotheslines him down. Criss cross, but Neidhart pulls the top rope down, and Vader takes a spill over the top. DX abuse him out there, but Shawn can’t keep control on the way back in, and a corner whip flips him over the buckles. Vaderbomb time, so HHH throws coffee at him, and Shawn lands a pair of Superkicks at 3:41. This was too short to be anything of note. Afterwards, DX turn on Neidhart, just to further bury and embarrass the Hart family. ¾*
BUExperience: Good show this week! Despite the promotion spiraling behind the scenes, this worked more than it didn’t, though I think had Shawn not gotten injured, things would have gotten really bad by the summer. I’m just imagining his ego butting with everyone as Austin becomes the focus, and he’s still trying to dominate the shows with his horny Hollywood Hogan act. But, for the time being, it’s working.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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