What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - March 9, 1998

by Logan Scisco

-A video package recaps Mike Tyson joining D-Generation X and the Undertaker’s return on last week’s show.

-Jim Ross, Michael Cole, and Kevin Kelly are doing commentary for the first hour and they are taped from Wheeling, West Virginia.

-Opening Contest:  Ken Shamrock & Steve Blackman beat Faaarooq & The Rock (w/The Nation of Domination) by disqualification when the Nation interferes at 4:40

This is the outgrowth of Shamrock rescuing Blackman from a beatdown at the hands of the Nation on last week’s show.  Commissioner Slaughter must not attend taped shows because he doesn’t bother trying to come out and eject the Nation from ringside during this match.  The commentary team points out that many people in this match have their best days ahead of them, but miss Blackman.  Shamrock dominates the Rock when he gets the hot tag and the Nation interferes when all hell breaks loose.  After the bell, Mark Henry destroys Blackman on the outside, but the Rock wants the Nation to go away so he can beat on Shamrock.  When the Nation leaves, Shamrock beats up the Rock and puts him in the ankle lock while Faarooq is just like “I told you so” by the entrance.  Rating:  ** (1 for 1)

-Triple H and Chyna come out and Triple H says that Shawn Michaels is not at the show tonight.  He recaps Steve Austin getting laid out with Sweet Chin Music on last week’s show and Michaels appears on the Titantron from a restaurant to gloat about Tyson joining D-Generation X.  He says that Austin has not shown him anything new.  Michaels cut a good promo, but the Triple H promo work was boring.  However, since Michaels promo was the focal point of the segment, I’ll give this a point.  (2 for 2)

-European Championship Match:  Barry Windham (w/Jim Cornette) beats Owen Hart (Champion) by count out at 5:14:

Triple H and Chyna eject Kelly from the commentary booth so they can watch this match.  Although Windham moves slowly in this match it is a pretty good title defense for Owen that combines several near-falls and equal offense between both men.  Cornette distracts Owen to break up a Sharpshooter and they brawl near the commentary table, which sees Chyna low blow Owen and cause him to get counted out.  Triple H laughs on commentary, which only reinforces how viewers at home want to see Owen get revenge at WrestleMania.  That has to happen, right?  Rating:  ** (3 for 3)

-After the match, Bradshaw runs out and gives Windham a big boot, thereby forcing him to flee.

-Sable and Marc Mero talk to the referee of Mero’s match with Goldust tonight where Luna Vachon and Sable will be handcuffed at ringside.

-Jerry Lawler interviews Kane and Paul Bearer in the locker room.  Seeing Lawler scared of Kane is pretty funny.  Bearer gloats about Kane blasting Vader with a wrench at No Way Out, but boxes in the locker room open and close by themselves so Bearer runs away.  This adds to some weird technical glitches that are happening with cameras on this show, so is the Undertaker nearby?

-Aguila (w/Taka Michinoku) defeats “Too Sexy” Brian Christopher (w/Jerry Lawler) by disqualification when Lawler interferes at 4:55:

Evidently Aguila is suffering from the flu for this match.  About ninety seconds into the match the lights begin to flicker and thunder in heard in the arena, but things return to normal shortly thereafter.  This is a de facto number one contender’s match for the light heavyweight title, since it is still uncertain who Michinoku’s challenger will be at WrestleMania.  Lots of good moves in this match, with Aguila using an Asai moonsault and a top rope arm drag and Christopher using a sunset flip powerbomb to the arena floor.  Lawler takes out Michinoku on the outside, but gets caught tripping Aguila when he goes to the top rope and that produces the finish.  If they had announced this as a number one contender’s match this would have had higher stakes, but as it stood this was just a botch free light heavyweight match that was a change of pace in the ring.  Rating:  **¼ (4 for 4)

-Andre the Giant tossing Bret Hart out to win the WrestleMania II battle royal is the WrestleMania Millennium Moment.  Jim Ross botches recapping it after the segment by saying that it had the “Refrigerator” Bill Fralic.

-Steve Austin is shown arriving to the arena and immediately walks out.  He says he is tired of hearing Mike Tyson billed as the baddest man on the planet because it is an insult to him.  He steals Howard Finkel’s ringside seat and decides to sit in the ring before Vince McMahon comes out and sets things right.  Instead of Vince, Gerald Brisco and Jack Lanza walk out and tell Austin to come with them, but Austin refuses.  Commissioner Slaughter considers the parade of cronies, but Austin calls him a jackass and says that he won’t do anything to him because he’s headlining WrestleMania.  McMahon is shown backstage and Brisco is trying to convince him to go out, but McMahon refuses as we go to commercial.

-We return from commercial and Pat Patterson comes out with some security officials to remove Austin from the ring.  One of them is over 50 years old, which leads to Austin calling him “pops” and blowing him off.  The security guys do not want to remove Austin, so they leave and Patterson has to retreat.  Finally, Vince comes out with Brisco, Dave Hebner, and Slaughter and McMahon says that calling Tyson the baddest man on the planet is a figure of speech.  Austin says that might be so and gives him the middle finger, saying that is also a figure of speech.  Austin dares McMahon to give him his best shot after McMahon will not say that he wants to see Austin win the WWF title.  He rips McMahon’s suit jacket and McMahon leaves the ring and says that Austin will pay.  Austin says he wants to kick Triple H’s ass tonight.  Awesome segment that really made clear that Austin-McMahon was the next big feud and even though Austin bullied McMahon here, no one had much sympathy for McMahon because of Montreal and the fact that he’s a millionaire.  I’ll give this double points because it took up two segments.  6 for 6

-Lawler joins the commentary for the second hour.

-Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie beat The Quebecers

Ross announces that because of Austin’s strike that the NWA tag team title match between the Headbangers and the Rock N’ Roll Express will not be held tonight.  Cactus and Chainsaw are heading to WrestleMania to face the New Age Outlaws for the tag team titles, so this match serves to put them over and give them some momentum.  The match has some highlights, with Charlie missing a moonsault and Pierre giving Cactus a hurricanrana off the top rope, but Pierre blind charge creates the finish.  I was expecting more of a squash, but this ended up as a competitive and enjoyable television bout.  Rating:  ** ¼ (7 for 7)

-After the match, the Road Dogg comes out with his arm in a sling and he dares Cactus to fight him.  When Cactus follows, Billy Gunn smashes Chainsaw in the back with a chair.

-Call 1-900-737-4WWF to hear a Mike Tyson story and find out what Jim Cornette is doing in the ring!

-The Undertaker’s return on last week’s RAW is the 10-321 Slam of the Week.  Remember that 10-321 stuff?  It was a running gag in that there was a new number for it every week.

-Kane and Paul Bearer come out and Bearer says that the Undertaker made a mistake returning.  The Undertaker’s music tolls and the lights go out and suddenly the Undertaker appears in the ring.  When the lights come back on, the Undertaker disappears.  The crowd doesn’t care for that, but this was a shrewd way to play up the Undertaker’s “powers” and keep him physically away from Kane before WrestleMania.  8 for 8

-Valets Handcuffed at Ringside:  “Marvelous” Marc Mero (w/Sable) beats The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (w/Luna Vachon) by disqualification at 5:00:

This stipulation is something out of Memphis and as Luna licks her handcuff chain Ross’s reaction about his mother fainting back home is priceless.  Goldust beats down Mero and then uses his “free time” to make a move on the handcuffed Sable at ringside.  The ref gets bumped about three minutes in, which does not allow him to count the fall from the Curtain Call and Goldust then leg drops him so he can get the handcuff keys and release Luna.  Luna smears makeup all over Sable’s face.  Mero’s “what happened?” after he sees what happened is great.  The match result is never announced, but I assume it is a disqualification.  The match was not much, but the angle development and storytelling were excellent.  Rating:  * (9 for 9)

-Goldust and Luna Vachon cut a promo in the backstage area and Goldust says that he is tired of holding Luna back.  They issue a mixed tag team match challenge to Marc Mero and Sable for WrestleMania.

-A video package provides Mike Tyson’s history in the WWF thus far.

-A taped interview with Ross and Tyson is shown.  Tyson says he did not care to get disrespected by Steve Austin the night after the Royal Rumble and Tyson says that he doesn’t care about being fair as the enforcer at WrestleMania.  A rather dry interview as Tyson was one of those guys who made more convincing arguments in the ring than he did on the mic.  9 for 10

-Triple H (w/Chyna) and Savio Vega (w/Los Boricuas) wrestle to a no contest at 33 seconds:

Lawler tries to give this main event some backstory by saying that D-Generation X did not pay its debts to Los Boricuas, but no one cares about the Boricuas.  This is all about Austin running out anyway and despite a sea of WWF officials and the Boricuas around the ring Austin makes an appearance thirty seconds in and gives a wave of Stone Cold Stunners to Gerald Brisco, a referee, and Savio.  However, Shawn Michaels appears and blasts an unsuspecting Austin with Sweet Chin Music and Lawler has a great turn on Edmund Burke’s quotation of “Evil will always triumph because good is always stupid.”  Michaels prepares to smash Austin in the head with a steel chair, but the show ends before that can be played.  (10 for 11)

The Final Report Card:  Fantastic episode of Raw that combined some solid television matches with excellent angle development and storylines.  WrestleMania will now have a mixed tag team match between Marc Mero and Sable and Goldust and Luna Vachon and this show made fans want to cheer for Steve Austin and Owen Hart in their separate battles against D-Generation X.  The show also began to align Vince McMahon with the heel side of the roster by having him give signals that he did not want Austin to become the next WWF champion.  However, look at how that idea was played in this feud versus the Authority vs. Daniel Bryan feud of this year.  McMahon’s objection to Austin was that he was anti-establishment and not family friendly, whereas Bryan’s feud devolved into him not being good for business or on the same level as other competitors.  The next RAW was a Tuesday event, held on March 17^th, because, get this, USA Network had to show a television adaptation of Moby Dick!

So our updated WrestleMania card is as follows:

*WWF Championship Match:  Shawn Michaels (Champion) vs. Steve Austin with Mike Tyson as enforcer

*Intercontinental Championship Match:  The Rock (Champion) vs. Ken Shamrock

*WWF Tag Team Championship Match:  The New Age Outlaws (Champions) vs. Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie

*European Championship Match:  Owen Hart (Champion) vs. Triple H

*(Tentative) Mixed Tag Team Match:  Marc Mero & Sable vs. The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust & Luna Vachon

*Tag Team Battle Royal

Monday Night War Rating:  3.6 (vs. 4.9 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up (Way Up)