What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - February 3, 1997 (SkyDome Edition)

by Logan Scisco

-Vince McMahon and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are taped from the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  This show is also historically significant because it’s the first two hour episode of Raw.

-The ending to the Royal Rumble match is shown.  This show was billed as Royal Rumble Raw because they were going to show us the Rumble match in its entirety.  Spoiler:  that doesn't happen.

-Opening Contest:  Vader (w/Paul Bearer) defeats “Stone Cold” Steve Austin by disqualification at 5:32 shown:

Before the match starts, Bret Hart comes out and attacks both participants until WWF officials get him to go to the locker room.  A fun brawl ensues between both guys and when the referee tries to break up some of it, he ends up on the receiving end of a Stunner and Austin gets disqualified.  A clean finish would have been nice, but they can’t afford to have Vader and Austin look weak heading into the pay-per-view so this was as good as we were going to get.  Rating:  **¼

-Jim Ross interviews Savio Vega on his way to the ring and Savio says he doesn’t care what the fans think and that the Nation of Domination will be number one.

-Savio Vega (w/The Nation of Domination) pins Flash Funk after Funk misses a moonsault at 4:21:

The Funkettes are not here with Funk and Savio is still sporting the same ring attire that he had as a face, which just doesn’t work.  Savio has to win here since he recently turned heel and anytime a wrestler turns heel they tend to win a few matches in a row to see if their turn will work to get them over.  Funk’s high spots, including one on the future D-Lo Brown, keep the crowd interested, but there wasn’t a lot of captivating action in this one.  Rating:  *

-McMahon interviews Peta Wilson of La Femme Nikita to hype that show on the USA Network.

-Ross interviews Sid, who says that he has a roller coaster relationship with Shawn Michaels, but he’ll beat him all the same on Thursday Raw Thursday to regain the WWF title.

-Call 1-900-747-4WWF to find out where Yokozuna, Brian Pillman, Jim Cornette, and Sunny have gone.

-McMahon interviews WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & the British Bulldog and Owen says he didn’t mean to eliminate the Bulldog at the Royal Rumble.  Owen and the Bulldog then begin to argue over who took who to the top of the company.

-WWF Tag Team Championship Match:  Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon defeat Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (Champions) at 11:16 shown:

The crowd is behind Owen and the Bulldog since we’re on their home turf, which LaFon doesn’t quite grasp as he tries to get the crowd to cheer when Furnas is clawing his way over to make the hot tag in the match.  The champions argue amongst themselves since neither is focused on the match when they are standing on the apron.  Furnas and LaFon appear to win the titles when LaFon DDT’s Owen, but Owen gets his foot over the bottom rope just before the referee counts three and the count is waved off.  Owen and the Bulldog miscommunicate on a spot where the Bulldog is supposed to backdrop LaFon over the top rope and Owen fakes a knee injury, which costs his team the match.  At least the right team went over because Furnas and LaFon were starting to look like they couldn’t beat the champions in singles or tag team competition.  Rating:  ***

-Footage of Ahmed Johnson eliminating Faarooq in the Royal Rumble match is shown.  Ahmed is then interviewed by the announce team and says that he doesn’t take Prozac anymore and without it he goes crazy.  Did we just dwell into the “too much information” category there?  The Undertaker, who is teaming with Ahmed tonight, comes into the picture and says that if Ahmed tries to attack Crush in his next match he won’t help him, but if Ahmed waits, he’ll help him take care of the Nation of Domination when they face Faarooq and Mankind tonight in a no holds barred match.

-Crush (w/the Nation of Domination) pins Goldust (w/Marlena) with a heart punch at 8:17 shown:

Neither guy looks like they really want to be out there for this one and the match quality shows, as it takes six minutes for someone to hit a high impact maneuver.  Goldust is totally devoid of personality after his face turn and there’s just nothing in this match that keeps it interesting.  So what was our reward for not reacting to this match?  A rematch at the King of the Ring!  Crush does run his Raw winning streak to two after Savio gives Goldust a spinning heel kick in the back of the head when he tries to do the Curtain Call.  Rating:  DUD

-A vignette for the New Blackjacks is shown.

-Shawn Michaels victory over Sid at the Royal Rumble is the Army Slam of the Week.

-McMahon interviews WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, who says that he doesn’t care about being popular anymore and Bret Hart can call himself what he wants, but he can’t say that he’s the WWF champion.  That of course brings out Bret, who says Michaels is a degenerate and a punk, but before more verbal sparring can ensue, Steve Austin runs out and starts brawling with Bret.  Michaels chooses to watch the action and as he does so, Sid comes out as we go to a commercial break.

-When we get back from the commercial break, Michaels and Bret are facing off in the ring with the WWF title between them.  Michaels goes to pick it up, but Bret has his foot on it and Michaels decides that if Bret wants to fight then they might as well do it.  Bret picks up the title and goes to hand it to Michaels, but when Michaels reaches for it, Bret drops it on the canvas and leaves.  Bret came off like a big bully in this segment, but it was much easier to get behind him than Michaels.

-Clips of Tiger Ali Singh signing his contract with the WWF earlier in the show are played.

-Intercontinental Championship, No Managers at Ringside Match:  Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Champion) pins “Wildman” Marc Mero after hitting him with a foreign object at 10:35 shown:

WWF President Gorilla Monsoon prevented Curtis Hughes and Sable from being at ringside for this match because of their physical interference in previous matches that each of these superstars were a part of.  Mero controls most of this contest, but he is unable to put Helmsley away and the referee repairing a turnbuckle gives Helmsley his opportunity to cheat and retain the title.  This match is Mero’s swan song as a title contender since he would be injured shortly after this and would never get back into the Intercontinental title picture.  The match was a good one, but I’d expect nothing less from two guys that have had the majority of their matches against each other since the end of WrestleMania XII.  Rating:  ***¼

-Jerry Lawler’s hilarious elimination in the Royal Rumble match is shown.

-Faarooq’s attack on Ahmed Johnson on last week’s Raw is the Western Union rewind segment.

-No Holds Barred Match:  The Undertaker & Ahmed Johnson defeat Mankind & Faarooq (w/Paul Bearer & the Nation of Domination) when the Undertaker pins Mankind after a Tombstone on a chair at 7:45 shown:

Mankind becomes an honorary member of the Nation of Domination for this match and seeing him give the Nation salute to Faarooq is hilarious.  The action gets spread out all over ringside and we avoid any stupidity like having a no holds barred match where both teams act like they have to tag each other (SummerSlam 1991 I’m looking at you).  Ahmed takes full advantage of the stipulations by doing a tribute to Hacksaw Jim Duggan and using a 2x4 to run off the Nation of Domination and blast Faarooq on the way to the dressing room.  I really hope Ron Simmons got hazard pay for this.  Vader also makes an appearance, but the Undertaker dispatches of him and finishes off Mankind with ease.  They significantly clipped this match, but that was probably for the best since it eliminated any dead spots and made for an entertaining end to the show.  Rating:  ***

The Final Report Card:  The first two hour Raw was a success, as all of the major feuds received adequate attention and the Bret-Shawn segment carried the second hour.  The ring work was also good and was above the quality that you expected of Raw.  McMahon spent a lot of time on commentary emphasizing how the WWF always delivers on its promises, but when Thursday Raw Thursday rolled around he wouldn’t be able to deliver on the championship match he promised and we’ll talk about that in our next review.

Monday Night War Rating:  2.6 (vs. 3.1 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up