WWF Shotgun Saturday Night (January 11, 1997)

Original Airdate: January 11, 1997

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Sunny

Honky Tonk Man gets his shoes shined, ahead of a performance tonight

Earlier today, the Flying Nuns got arrested on the streets of Manhattan 

Marc Mero v 'Diesel': We’re in a sports bar this week, which is another great, unique venue for a wrestling show. Especially when it’s a well produced one, like this. Diesel attacks from behind before the bell, and puts Marc down with a backelbow. He decides to go after Sable on the outside, so she smashes some food in his face, and Mero dives after him. Inside, Marc unloads, and a delivers a facebuster. Marc with a kneelift and a clothesline, as Todd Pettengill goes to interview Sable about the food smoosh. Really getting the hard hitting stories there. Meanwhile, Diesel catches Mero with a cross corner clothesline, and he works Marc over in dull fashion. Diesel with an elbowdrop for two, and he dumps Marc to the outside, where ‘Razor Ramon’ attacks. Rocky Maivia makes the save, but the damage is done, and Diesel works a chinlock as they head back in. More slow, dull pounding from Diesel, as Todd finds Honky in the crowd, and this may be the only time that Honky coming in has made a match better. Diesel with a sidewalk slam for two, and a hanging vertical suplex is worth two. When did Kevin Nash ever do that? Bootchoke wears Mero down in the corner, as Vince says “Diesel doing what he does best” over and over again. Diesel with a bodyslam, and he goes upstairs with a flying clothesline. Okay, he’s just going full Kane now. Diesel with a sloppy rotating spinebuster for two, but Mero counters another sidewalk slam with a headscissors. That allows Marc to make a comeback, and he hits a flying moonsault press, but sees Honky going after Sable on the outside, and gets distracted. That allows Diesel to clobber him, and the powerbomb finishes at 14:08. This was really long and really bad. Afterwards, Mero takes the loss out on Sable, and man, they really slow burned that angle, didn’t they? A year later, and they still hadn’t gotten to the breakup. Honky comes in to console her, but Rocky makes the save again, and Mero isn’t pleased with that - leading to a slugfest until officials can separate them. Rocky and Mero would have been a decent match during this period. ¼*

The Flying Nuns (who are now called the Sisters of Love, apparently) have their mugshots taken

WWF Tour ad

Faarooq v Savio Vega: There’s a literal waiter trying to carry a tray of food around the guys making entrances, which is pretty great. Faarooq gets control with a chinlock, but a criss cross ends in both guys colliding for a double knockout spot, as Todd talks to fans in the crowd about who they think is going to be in Sunny’s ‘home movies’ later. This show is very weird for a WWF show in what is technically not yet the Attitude Era. Vega manages an electric chair for two, and a backdrop leads to a Russian legsweep for two. Vega unloads, and a spinkick takes Faarooq down for two. Cue a distraction from the Nation of Domination, and Savio gets clobbered. That allows Faarooq a snap suplex for two, and he tries another chinlock, but Savio uses a jawbreaker to shake loose. Savio makes a comeback, but misses a corner splash, and Faarooq delivers a spinebuster at 7:54. Another terrible mess of a match. DUD

And now we get Sunny’s Home Movies (which they had been hyping non stop throughout the show, pretty much once per minute), which ends up being Sunny hanging out with some guy in an Elmo costume. No clue if the guy was Ahmed Johnson, or not. Probably not, since Ahmed clearly had no clue what Sesame Street is. This was a very weird SNL skit

Honky Tonk Man performs a duet with Pettengill, and Todd actually doesn’t sound bad, while Honky is almost inaudible. No idea what the point of this was. It’s one thing for the live crowd, but why is this on TV?

Rocky Maivia v 'Razor Ramon': Was the hope that the late night NYC bar crowd would be too drunk to notice that it’s not Scott Hall and Kevin Nash? Razor attacks before the bell, but Rocky fights him off, and delivers a pair of dropkicks. Maivia grabs a standing side-headlock into a hammerlock, but Razor throws elbows to escape. He tries a headlock of his own, but Maivia forces a criss cross, and takes him down with a drop-toehold. Maivia with a mat-based headlock next, but Razor escapes, and slugs him down. Rocky wins a criss cross with a bodypress for two, so Razor cuts him off with a clothesline, as the crowd chants ‘Rocky sucks.’ Kind of incredible that they’d jeer him when he’s in there with a literal bootleg wrestler. And it’s even more incredible that this same guy went on to become one the most popular wrestlers in one of the most popular eras, and then went on to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Life is funny. Razor works a chinlock for a while, before switching to a more Scott Hall appropriate armbar. Razor dumps him to the outside for Honky to abuse, and it’s Razor’s Edge time, but Maivia backdrops him to block. Shoulderbreaker, and Ramon is pinned at 7:01. ¼*

Todd is out on the street, where he finds Nikolai Volkoff living as a homeless man. Finally, the payoff to that Million Dollar Corporation storyline from 1994

Doug Furnas and Philip LaFon v The Headbangers: The Headbangers are subbing for the Sisters of Love, which is something of an inside joke, since they played the Nuns last week. Meanwhile, Vince announces that Goldust is pregnant, and will give birth on next week’s show. LaFon dominates Mosh to start, and it’s over to Doug to hammer him, so Thrasher throws a cheap shot to turn the tide. The Headbangers hit Furnas with a double team for two, and we throw it to Todd outside, to talk about… line dancing? Really putting the workers over tonight, aren’t we? LaFon hits Mosh with a senton splash for two, and a DDT is worth two. That draws Thrasher in, so Furnas comes in, and Roseanne Barr the door! The teams brawl, but we’re out of time, and leave it at 5:44 aired. I won’t rate it, but it was certainly nothing special, outside of a few cool moves from LaFon. 

BUExperience: This was really bad. But also kind of fun and lively. I mean, I’ve seen worse.