What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - April 14, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette are taped in the booth in Muncie, Indiana, while Jim Ross and The Honky Tonk Man call the action in South Africa.  It’s a simulcast of sorts, even though the South Africa action was also taped beforehand.

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-Opening Contest:  The Godwinns defeat The Legion of Doom when Henry pins Animal after the British Bulldog nails Animal in the back of the head with his tag team title belt at 6:05 shown:

This match was set up by the Godwinns inadvertently slopping the Legion of Doom on last week’s show.  This is standard fare between two brawling teams until Owen Hart and the British Bulldog make their presence known at the end of the match and cost the Legion of Doom the contest.  It’s not a huge setback for the LOD, though, since they get a title match with the Bulldog and Owen in six days at In Your House.  Rating:  **

-Footage of “The Real Double J” Jesse James breaking The Honky Tonk Man’s guitar two weeks ago is shown.

-Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) pins “The Real Double J” Jesse James with a Pedigree at 11:49 shown:

This is a match from South Africa and the Honky Tonk Man talks about how he’s got the perfect mystery man to face James at In Your House.  There is some “amateur” wrestling both men employ here, which is quite boring, but Jim Cornette makes some it tolerable by cracking some current event jokes.  This is a very start and stop contest, as James’s offense builds momentum until Helmsley abruptly cuts it off with a maneuver with his knee and going to a rest hold.  Honky Tonk Man gets tired of watching the match, so he nails James in the gut as Chyna distracts the referee and Helmsley gets the victory.  The piped in crowd noise made this match come off better than it actually was.  Rating:  *¾

-James says that he can’t wait to beat Honky’s mystery man at In Your House this Sunday.

-Non-Title Match:  Savio Vega (w/The Nation of Domination) pins “The Rock” Rocky Maivia (Inercontinental Champion) with a schoolboy at 14:29 shown:

This is another bout from South Africa.  Ahmed Johnson cuts an unintelligible promo in the split screen during the opening stages of the match and Cornette proceeds to rant about it.  Savio puts the audience into a coma with about seven minutes of nerve holds, although Faarooq and Crush try to rile up the crowd around ringside to draw heat.  After eleven minutes, the pace finally picks up as Maivia makes the comeback and Savio kicks out of what will become the Rock Bottom by the end of the year.  Savio manages to outmaneuver the inexperienced Maivia near the corner and scores the victory with a handful of tights and the Nation does a brief beatdown before Ahmed Johnson shows up.  This was terrible until it hit the closing sequence.  Savio’s victory gives him some momentum for his title match with Maivia at In Your House, but it would’ve been better to do this a couple of weeks prior to this show so that match would have more time to build.  Rating:  *¼

-Steve Austin convincing WWF President Gorilla Monsoon to give him a match with Bret Hart at In Your House near the end of last week’s show is shown.

-McMahon interviews Austin, who accuses McMahon of holding him down in the past but says that he can’t hold him back anymore.  Austin pledges to beat Bret at In Your House and that Bret is copying his mannerisms and logo.  Simple stuff from Austin here and it’s not like he can say a lot more for this feud right now.

-Goldust defeats The Sultan (w/The Iron Sheik) by disqualification when Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna interfere at 3:01 shown:

This is our third bout from South Africa.  Goldust’s paints his face like a leopard, which causes McMahon to speculate that Goldust might have ebola.  Marlena is missing in action because of the bearhug she endured at the hands of Chyna at WrestleMania.  The Sultan delivers a nasty looking piledriver, as he holds Goldust vertically and then suddenly drops into the move.  It looked safe, but it earned a ten for the visual effect.  Helmsley interferes after we catch a few minutes of action, since this one is joined in progress after a commercial break, and he and the Sultan do a beatdown before leaving.  The beatdown was nice, but the match wasn’t going anywhere prior to Helmsley’s interference.  Rating:  ½*

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-To continue the international flavor of the show, a Bret Hart promo from Kuwait is aired and he says that he stands for truth, justice, and what’s right, which is something that the American fans have forgotten about.

-Vader & Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) defeat The Headbangers by disqualification at 5:33:

We’re back in the United States for this contest.  The Headbangers do a good job handling Vader early, but Mankind soon makes the save and becomes a one man juggernaut that fights both Headbangers.  Vader and Mankind dominate the rest of the way until Mosh spits some type of liquid into Mankind’s eyes and gets his team disqualified.  Mankind sells it like he can’t see and he ends up putting Vader in the Mandible Claw by mistake.  That was a nice touch, but having the Headbangers blind Mankind was odd booking.  This was a glorified squash, but they let the Headbangers save face.  Rating:  *

-As the lights flicker in South Africa, the Undertaker gives a promo over the PA system and says that he’s going to make sure Mankind burns in hell after In Your House this Sunday.

-Revealing photographs of Sable, which will appear in the next Raw magazine, are shown.

-Footage of the ladies of the WWF in their bikinis at the Slammy’s is shown.

-The Commandant, the leader of the Truth Commission, cuts a promo in South Africa and says that his group of commandos is soon to enter the WWF.  He also repeats a lot of the content of the promo he did last week.

-Ahmed Johnson defeats Crush (w/The Nation of Domination) with a schoolboy at 8:40 shown:

Our last match of the night comes from South Africa.  The announce team makes some illusions to dissension within the Nation of Domination and says that Crush has been criticized lately for his performance, thereby sowing the seeds for the “gang warfare” angle that would emerge by the fall.  Crush methodically focuses his offense on Ahmed’s kidneys, but he acquires the same rest hold sickness that plagued Savio early in the show.  Ahmed doesn’t even get in that much offense, as he avoids a heart punch and puts Crush away with a roll up shortly thereafter after coming off the ropes.  The only redeeming part of this match was Jim Ross, who made it seem like the fate of the world rested on an Ahmed victory.  Rating:  ½*

-After the match, Faarooq tells Ahmed that the Nation will get rid of him.  Faarooq says that if Ahmed can beat the Nation, he will disband the group.  Ahmed doesn’t respond.

The Final Report Card:  Four weeks ago, the WWF put together a great go home show for WrestleMania, but this was the exact opposite.  The back and forth between the American and South African venues just didn’t work and it didn’t help that nearly every match on this card was below average.  I often wonder how the Undertaker felt about this title reign, since most of it was eclipsed by the Bret-Austin storyline.

Show Rating:  2.2 (vs. 3.5 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Down