What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - December 15, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-Jim Ross, Michael Cole, and Kevin Kelly are in the booth and they are in Durham, New Hampshire.

-Cole interviews the Undertaker and announces that he will face Shawn Michaels in a casket match at the Royal Rumble for the WWF title.  The Undertaker cuts a good promo and acknowledges that the only casket match he lost took ten men to beat him and D-Generation X doesn’t have ten people in it and Michaels doesn’t have ten friends to help him.  Kane and Paul Bearer come out and Bearer rehashes “the Undertaker is a murderer” bit.  Kane hits the Undertaker and when he tries to do it a second time, the Undertaker blocks it, but then leaves instead of retaliating.

-Call 815-734-1161 to get your copy of WWF the Music:  Volume 2.  It will cost you $20 for CD and $15 for the tape (plus $4 shipping & handling)!

-Brian Christopher and Jerry Lawler’s attack on Taka Michinoku on last week’s RAW is the 1-800-COLLECT Rewind segment.

-Opening Non-Title Contest:  Taka Michinoku (Light Heavyweight Champion) beats Jerry “the King” Lawler by disqualification when Brian Christopher interferes at 5:42:

Ross hypes the UFC:  Ultimate Japan card during this match, which is a big styles clash since Lawler can’t work at Michinoku’s speed.  Still, Lawler gives it a good effort by throwing a few dropkicks in the early going, but the allure of the Memphis stall is too much to resist and the match slows considerably in the middle.  Lawler hits the piledriver, but opts to go for a fist drop off the second rope and eats a Michinoku Driver (!) before Christopher runs in for the predictable disqualification.  Rating:  *¾

-After the match, Michinoku gets the better of Christopher and heel miscommunication allows Michinoku to get away unscathed.  The crowd wasn’t into any of this.

-Call 1-900-747-4WWF to find out how D-Generation X almost started a riot over the weekend!

-The Legion of Doom tell the announce team that their match with DX isn’t going to be pretty tonight.

-The Nation of Domination comes out and the Rock toots his own horn at the expense of Faarooq, who wants to say a few words.  The Rock demands that Austin come out and he does, but Austin doesn’t have the Intercontinental belt.  He says he’ll show the Rock later on what happened to his championship belt.  The Rock gives him an hour to return him his property or face some justice at the hands of the Nation.

-Dude Love beats “The Road Dogg” Jesse James (w/Billy Gunn) with Sweet Shin Music at 4:36:

This continues the building feud between Love and the tag team champions.  Gunn does the introduction mic work and is nowhere near James’ level.  Ross tells Gunn that he and James should call themselves “The New Age Outlaws” and Gunn says that’s a great idea, so now the tag team champions will actually have a team name.  In the middle of the match, Love undergoes a small transformation into his other personas, as he puts James in the Mandible Claw, rips some of his hair out, and screams “Bang, Bang!”  Love captures another win, but takes a double suplex by the entrance after the match and the Outlaws whip a referee into Love to send him flying off the entrance platform.  That bump had to hurt because Love barely grazed the table set up to cushion his fall on the way down.  Rating:  *½

-Mark Henry defeats The Brooklyn Brawler via submission to a bearhug at 2:03:

This was Henry’s return to action after suffering an ankle injury that put him on the shelf at the end of 1996.  He looks as generic as you can be, with a black shirt and black ring trunks.  Ross informs us during this squash that Steve Austin has left the arena with a WWF camera crew.

-A video package highlights the growing tension between Shawn Michaels and Owen Hart.

-For the second hour Ross and Jim Cornette are in the booth.

-Vince McMahon warns Owen Hart that he is endangering the safety of ringside fans by attacking Shawn Michaels through the crowd.  McMahon orders Owen to appear in the ring since he is still under contract and Owen comes out of the crowd to a nice reaction.  Owen curses McMahon and tells him that no one is going to run him out of the WWF.  McMahon implies that Owen only cares about winning the WWF title, but Owen just calls it a “piece of leather with tin on it” and swears that he will make Michaels life a living hell.  McMahon has police come to the ring and tells Owen that he will come through the entrance like every other WWF superstar next week and the police escort Owen out through the crowd.  One of the top segments of Owen’s career, but like a lot of things in the Attitude Era, this didn’t really lead to anything significant.  It’s also somewhat eerie to watch in retrospect.

-Call 1-900-RUMBLE-98 to register yourself in the Steve Austin pickup truck contest!  It’ll cost you $1.99 or you can send a postcard to Devon, Pennsylvania.

-Footage of Sable revealing herself last week is shown.

-Tom Brandi beats The Sultan (w/The Iron Sheik) with a school boy after heel miscommunication at 3:46:

Brandi is the old Salvatore Sincere, who is trying to turn a new leaf as a face, but didn’t really catch on.  Brandi’s failure to make it in the WWF surprised me because he seemed to have the type of look that the WWF preferred.  Brandi takes a big beating in this match, but takes advantage of a miscue by the Sultan and chalks up the upset.  Rating:  *¾

-After the match, Marc Mero runs in and pounds Brandi down.

-Since an hour has elapsed, the Nation of Domination comes back out as a video package recaps how the Rock became the new Intercontinental champion on last week’s show.  The Rock says that he and the Nation are coming for the title belt, but Steve Austin appears on the Titantron and this is the famous segment where he tosses the Intercontinental title belt off a bridge.

-Vince McMahon announces the beginning of the Attitude Era and that the audience is tired of having its intelligence insulted and the simplistic “good guys versus bad guys.”  He does tell parents that they should use discretion if they let their kids watch the Warzone.

-Steve Blackman beats Jose with a German suplex at 1:38:

This is Blackman’s first RAW singles match and there’s a small back story to this since the Boricuas interrupted a Blackman promo after Survivor Series.  Blackman decimates Jose with martial arts moves and finishes him off in relatively short order.

-WWF and European Champion Shawn Michaels says he isn’t worried about Owen Hart and after a rock, paper, and scissors game they come to the conclusion that Triple H will take care of Owen.  They also warn the Legion of Doom that they are ready for them.

-The Undertaker Tombstoning the Sultan on Shotgun Saturday Night is the Lazer Tag Slam of the Week.

-The Legion of Doom beat “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels & Triple H (w/Chyna) by disqualification when Chyna interferes at 7:40 shown:

Standard tag team main event here as the LOD a bevy of clotheslines and Michaels and Triple H cheat to turn the tide.  During the hot tag segment, the New Age Outlaws run down to the ring and smother Hawk with ether, which allows DX to pulverize Animal after Chyna gets into the ring and gives him a low blow.  Rating:  **

-After the bell, the Outlaws shave Hawk’s head and with DX’s help they powerbomb Animal from the apron through the announce table.  This only gets a .4 on the Ross outrage meter, though.

The Final Report Card:  A much better episode of RAW this week with the destruction of the Legion of Doom, the Austin bridge segment, and Owen’s interaction with Vince headlining the show.  In a weird way, Austin’s popularity is putting Shawn Michaels title reign in the same category as Bret Hart’s in 1995 whereby the main focus is on his storylines and the WWF title is fading into the background.  Still, D-Generation X is doing a great job making fans hate them and wanting someone to put them in their place.

Monday Night War Rating:  2.7 (vs. 4.1 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up