What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - March 10, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-We get a new television intro and theme song for Raw, as this is the debut of Raw is War.  We also see the debut of a new entrance set, with the Titantron and entrance ramp.

-Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Worcester, Massachusetts.

-Ross interviews WWF Champion Sid, who says that he’s very skeptical of teaming with the Undertaker to face Vader and Mankind tonight and says that he thinks the Undertaker will reunite with Paul Bearer.  The Undertaker comes out and says there is no hidden agenda because if Sid was injured he couldn’t face him for the title at WrestleMania and in a twist, the Undertaker says he doesn’t want Sid as his partner because if he got injured in the tag match then Sid would remain WWF champion.  Paul Bearer, Vader, and Mankind then appear and Bearer calls Sid and the Undertaker cowards.  A brawl breaks out between the two sides and although the faces stand tall, the Undertaker takes a shot in the back from Vader that he attributes to Sid and they stare each other down as we head to a commercial break.

-Opening Non-Title Contest:  “The Rock” Rocky Maivia (Intercontinental Champion) pins Tony Rua with a flying body press at 1:36:

Before the match, the Iron Sheik and Bob Backlund tell Maivia that the Sultan will beat him for his title at WrestleMania and Backlund continues to rant as the Rock makes short work of Rua.  After the match, the Sultan runs in, but Maivia dispatches of him and backs away, as Tony Atlas appears in the crowd and then hugs Maivia before they head to the back.  It would seem that the booking would be better to call for the Sultan to beat down Maivia here, but it’s not like he had a chance of winning the title at WrestleMania anyway.

-Ahmed Johnson’s destruction of Leif Cassidy on Shotgun Saturday Night is the Playstation Slam of the Week.

-Heavy Mental, Pentagon & Pierroth defeat The Latin Lover, Octagon & Hector Garza when Metal pins the Latin Lover with a La Magistral cradle after the Lover misses a frog splash at 7:39 shown:

The WWF’s working relationship with AAA continues with this match, but the crowd doesn’t really know what to make of this since the Mexican wrestlers were never given proper billing by the WWF on television.  Security tries to deal with Chyna in the crowd, who McMahon calls “the bionic woman.”  Brian Pillman also does a split screen promo about how he’s going to return on Shotgun Saturday Night.  If you saw the AAA six man at the Royal Rumble, this is basically the same affair, with the action going nowhere and generating no reaction until the participants take turns diving onto each other on the floor.  The finish is quite awkward, as the Lover tries a frog splash when Metal is already in a standing position, and Vince had to be shaking his head and thinking that he got the wrong group of Mexican superstars to work for him.  Rating:  ½*

-Ahmed Johnson beats Roy Raymond with a Pearl River Plunge at 2:01:

Ahmed doesn’t sell Raymond’s early offense and the Nation of Domination appear and do their rap as action unfolds in the ring.  This show thus far is like an ADD person’s worst nightmare.  Ahmed vanquishes Raymond in short fashion and Faarooq calls Ahmed an Uncle Tom and says he doesn’t know the streets.  Ahmed says that he found some backup for WrestleMania and says that he’s going to bring the city of Chicago with him, which translates into the Legion of Doom, who make their way through the crowd.  The LOD cut some PG-era promos, with Hawk saying that the faces will turn the Nation into some dirty sweat socks, but the point is still conveyed.

-Ross interviews Owen and the British Bulldog on their way to the ring and Owen tries to downplay that he lost the European championship finals to the Bulldog last week.

-Non-Title Match:  The New Blackjacks defeat Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (WWF Tag Team Champions) by disqualification at 7:21 shown:

The Blackjacks run down Owen on the mic before the match and when Bradshaw tells Owen he has pretty lips that starts a four way brawl.  Bradshaw saying that based on his locker room exploits does makes you chuckle.  Based on their size, you would think that the Blackjacks would be employing lots of stiff offense and power moves, but they don’t and it makes their offense bland.  The finish comes when Owen has Bradshaw trapped in a Sharpshooter and the Bulldog tries to cut Barry Windham off, but the referee gets in his way.  The Bulldog tosses the referee aside and gets his team disqualified as a result.  Owen and the Bulldog made this match tolerable, but it wasn’t a good sign for the Blackjacks because if you couldn’t have a good match with Owen and the Bulldog then who could you have a good match with on the tag roster at the time?  Rating:  **

-Call 1-900-737-SLAM to vote for the 1997 Slammy Awards and the category of Loose Screw.  Nominees are Sid, Mankind, Steve Austin, Seinfeld’s Kramer (!?!), and Bob Backlund.

-Taz and Bill Alfonso come out and jaw with Lawler and Sabu tries to take advantage of the situation to attack Taz, but Taz sidesteps his dive and Sabu goes through a table as various ECW stars pull Taz away.

-Miguel Perez pins Leif Cassidy with a Victory Roll at 4:12:

Perez was being brought in as a Latin counterweight to Savio Vega, but the WWF must not have seen a lot of dollar signs in that feud so those plans were abandoned.  This is a decent back and forth encounter, with some solid technical wrestling, but Perez really needed to be memorable here and he wasn’t.  Rating:  **

-WWF Champion Sid says he has to worry about the tag match he has tonight and can’t worry too much about defending the WWF title against Bret Hart in a steel stage.

-Ross interviews Ken Shamrock, who will be the guest referee of the Bret Hart-Steve Austin submission match.  Shamrock says he’ll show no fear at WrestleMania and he’s interrupted by Austin on the Titantron, who says he hopes Bret wins the title next week so their match at WrestleMania will be for the title.  Shamrock says he isn’t afraid of Austin and Bret comes down to the ring.  Bret says he’ll win his WWF title back next week against Sid and goes on a long list of people who have screwed him since he’s returned to the company.  Bret says he trusts Shamrock, but if he tries to screw him at WrestleMania it’ll be a big mistake.  The thought of Shamrock prematurely calling for the bell at WrestleMania is what kept running through my mind with that closing line.

-Billy Gunn defeats “The Portuguese Man O’ War” Aldo Montoya with a flying leg drop at 2:51:

The Honky Tonk Man comes out to do commentary to continue to scout talent.  Despite being gone for several months, Billy hasn’t received much of a repackaging, as he still has the Smoking Gunns theme music and is wearing his jeans and cowboy boots as a ring attire.  Gunn makes short work of Montoya and looks impressive doing it.

-Mankind, with Paul Bearer, says that he and Vader are a team, but his promo gets cut off by going to commercial break.

-Goldust (w/Marlena) defeats Tim McNeany with a Curtain Call at 1:37:

Hunter Hearst Helmsley appears near the ramp with Chyna and they watch as Goldust quickly runs through his offense and squashes McNeany.  After the match, Chyna moves toward the ring and as Goldust is distracted, Helmsley attacks him from behind.  Chyna and Helmsley double team Goldust until Marlena jumps on Chyna’s back and applies a rear naked choke, which generates a MASSIVE pop from the crowd.  WWF officials pour into the ring to break it up, but one of them (Harvey Wippleman) gets gorilla pressed by Chyna and tossed onto some of his colleagues.  Regardless of how you feel about you Chyna today, you must admit that the WWF did a great job with her debut.

-Ross hosts a “great debate” between Lawler and Paul Heyman, who has the Eliminators come as backup.  They debate whether ECW should exist.  The debate quickly devolves into a shooting contest, with Lawler saying Heyman lives in his parent’s basement and Heyman asking Lawler how the seesaws look in Louisville.  When the Dudleys, the Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, and Beulah McGillicutty show up, Lawler asks for his backup to arrive, but no one comes to his aid.  Some people might’ve enjoyed this at the time, but it just came off as a desperate attempt for attention by the ECW crew and the segment itself was a mess.

-Marlena’s attack on Chyna is the Karate Fighters Rewind segment for this week.

-Vader & Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) defeat Sid & The Undertaker when Vader pins the Undertaker after a Sid powerbomb at 7:34 shown:

All semblance of tag team decorum is lost in this one, as Vader and Mankind attack Sid when he makes his entrance and the Undertaker is tardy and cleans house.  The Undertaker and Sid eventually start fighting each other, with the Undertaker standing tall by chokeslamming Sid and then going a plancha onto Vader and Mankind.  Sid returns the favor by powerbombing the Undertaker, but he saves the Undertaker from a Vader Bomb to continue their feud.  I give the creative team points for trying to make this feud intriguing, but there just isn’t a lot of backstory here for a WrestleMania main event.  The match was fine for a TV main event, since it advanced the necessary angle and did a good job working the crowd into a frenzy.  Rating:  **

-Bret Hart says next week he’ll show that he’s the king of the WWF.

The Final Report Card:  This show had a lot of hit and miss content.  The main event was serviceable and the Chyna-Marlena interaction was fun, but nothing else really stood out.  The debate segment bombed, although I can see why some on the Internet may have enjoyed it at the time, and the AAA six man was terrible.  Overall, a middle of the road show that advanced some storylines for WrestleMania but wasn’t compelling for the entire two hours.  At several points I wish I could’ve switched to Nitro.

Monday Night War Rating:  2.3 (vs. 3.5 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Neutral