by Logan Scisco
-Michael Cole
narrates a video package that recaps last night’s Unforgiven pay-per-view. Tonight, Vince McMahon will make a decision
about WWF Champion Steve Austin’s future.
-Jim Ross and Michael
Cole are in the booth and they are live from Hampton, Virginia.
-Footage of
D-Generation X preparing for their “invasion” of WCW Monday Nitro, who are
running Nitro in Norfolk tonight, which is about fifteen minutes from where Raw
is being hosted, is shown.
-Opening
Contest: Ken Shamrock & Owen Hart
wrestle The Rock & Mark Henry (w/The Nation of Domination) to a no contest
at 1:43:
Shamrock and Owen had teamed for a few weeks on the house
show circuit prior to this RAW and they were a ranked tag team in the Apter
magazines, so I was excited to see them wrestle here. However, Owen turns on Shamrock and ditches
his lackluster four month run as a face.
Owen works better as a heel, so I fully approve of this move. Owen Pillmanizes Shamrock’s ankle, which
works to write Shamrock out of next month’s pay-per-view. The beatdown, which extends to Steve Blackman
and Faarooq when they try to make saves, was excellent. (1 for 1)
-Dude Love hosts the
Love Shack and gloats about beating Steve Austin last night. He proposes stripping Austin of the title and
having the WWF put him against Shawn Michaels for the title or hosting a
tournament or just giving it to him.
Very solid promo work for Foley, which included some classic heel
cockiness. 2 for 2
-Call
1-900-737-4WWF to find out if a new manager is headed to the WWF!
-D-Generation X
declares war against WCW in Norfolk. WCW
fans cheer when Triple H asks them if Eric Bischoff sucks.
-#1 Contender’s
Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship:
Terry Funk & 2 Cold Scorpio beat The Headbangers via
disqualification when Thrasher pushes the referee at 3:14:
It seems weird that the winner of this match gets a WWF
tag team championship opportunity since neither team has accomplished much of
note in recent weeks, but the WWF tag ranks are really thin at this point. This match is non-stop action from the bell,
with Funk moonsaulting the other three men as they brawl on the arena floor. The finish is lackluster, but both teams keep
fighting after the bell and at least this match made the tag team titles seem
important. Rating: ** (3 for 3)
-Triple H asks if
any of the WCW fans got free tickets for tonight’s Nitro. X-Pac says high to Scott Hall and Kevin Nash
and Triple H demands that they let them go.
-Steve Austin tossing
Dude Love off of Sawyer Brown’s stage at Unforgiven last night is the
Cinnaburst Rewind segment.
-Vince McMahon
walks out and says he knows Austin was trying to hit him with the chair at the
end of last night’s Unforgiven pay-per-view, which draws a huge cheer from the
crowd. He says he is not going to fire
Austin yet and that Austin will defend the WWF title tonight against Goldust
with Gerald Brisco as the guest referee.
McMahon announces that if Austin lays a finger on Brisco that he will be
fired and stripped of the WWF title. Brisco says he will be impartial tonight
and is not afraid of Austin. McMahon
closes by saying that any wrestler in the company would be a better
representative with the title than Austin right now. It’s a McMahon promo, so does it really need
a rating? 4 for 4
-WCW closes the
gate to the arena to keep D-Generation X from entering the arena with their
vehicle. I wish WCW had let them in and
then had Scott Norton and Meng and kick their ass.
-Segments of Jeff
Jarrett’s “musical performance” and altercation with Steve Blackman at
Unforgiven last night are shown.
-Bradshaw beats Double
J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) via disqualification when Kamikaze interferes
at 1:14
Bradshaw doesn’t sell any of Jarrett’s offense and has
the upper hand until Kamikaze hits the ring and attacks him. Taka Michinoku tries to make the save, but
also gets beaten down. This time a
fourth man is with Kamizake, but he is masked and his identity is unknown.
-Jerry Lawler comes
out to replace Cole on commentary for hour two.
-Kevin Kelly
interviews Dude Love, who is irate that he has not been given the title. Love confronts McMahon, who doesn’t
appreciate Kelly and the camera man being around and goes all Ronald Reagan on
them by saying that he is paying for the equipment and for them to shut it off.
-Non-Title
Match: The Disciples of Apocalypse (w/LOD
2000, Chainz & Sunny) beat The New Age Outlaws (WWF Tag Team Champions
w/D-Generation X) when 8-Ball pins Billy Gunn after an illegal switch at 3:35:
It’s like night and day having Ross and Lawler
back-and-forth in the booth versus the awful Ross-Cole team and it’s amazing
that it took so long for the WWF to just ditch Cole off the RAW
broadcasts. Even more surprising that
they kept him around as Ross’s replacement.
The DOA dominate much of the match and when Billy Gunn hits Skull with a
piledriver, 8-Ball makes an illegal switch and gives the DOA their first win in
ages. To show how much heat the Outlaws
generated up to this point, the crowd goes nuts for the victory. Rating: *½ (5 for 5)
-The Undertaker
beats Barry Windham with the Tombstone in 59 seconds:
And here I thought that Barry Windham was gone from the
company by this point. The sad thing is
that THIS would’ve been a RAW main event if this was 1996. It shows you how far the company has come
since then. The Undertaker sends Barry
off to WCW with this squash.
-After the match,
the Undertaker calls out Kane, who comes out after the commercial break with
Paul Bearer. Bearer begs the Undertaker
for a truce and as he recounts the events of last night he reveals that Kane is
his son. Excellent promo work from
Bearer here and I always say he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his part
in this feud in 1997-1998. 6 for 6
-The Undertaker’s
plancha on Kane and Vader at Unforgiven is the Castrol GTX Slam of the Week.
-Kevin Kelly
interviews The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust and Luna Vachon. Goldust says that he is a pure man that would
be a great representative of the company.
Dude Love ambushes Goldust yelling “That’s my shot!” and WWF officials
have to pull him off of Goldust.
-D-Generation X
comes back out and Triple H tells DOA that no one steals his buzz. As Scott would say, “I love shoot comments
that aren’t supposed to be…” Triple H
issues an open challenge to any member of the locker room that wants to face
him for the European title. Skull walks
out, but Dan Severn walks past him and into the ring as Jim Cornette tries to
convince him not to fight Triple H.
Cornette makes the mistake slapping Severn, which leads to Cornette being
placed in an armbar and choke.
Unfortunately, this allows Triple H to get away. This could’ve MADE Severn, but they pulled
back. This makes Severn a face now.
-WWF Champion Steve
Austin tells Michael Cole that he’ll defend the WWF title and says that Vince
McMahon isn’t going to get rid of him.
-Call 815-734-1161
to get your copy of the WrestleMania XIV video tape and a lifesize Steve Austin
poster for $44.95 (plus $9 shipping & handling)!
-The new Val Venis
vignette says that all men have “Venis envy” when compared to him.
-Marc Mero walks
out and calls Sable to the ring. Mero
says that Sable humiliated him at Unforgiven last night when Luna took her
evening gown off. Sable counters that
she enjoyed the experience and she challenges Mero to a match on RAW in two
weeks. She leaves before Mero answers
her challenge. This was pretty poor
considering the past segments between these two, but that’s because they let
Sable dominate all the mic time. 6 for 7
-Vince McMahon
shakes Gerald Brisco’s hand backstage and says that he will enjoy watching him
referee tonight’s main event.
-WWF Championship
Match with Gerald Brisco as Guest Referee:
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin (Champion) and The Artist Formerly Known as
Goldust (w/Luna Vachon) wrestle to a no-contest at 8:40:
Before the opening bell, McMahon jogs out and replaces
the timekeeper to further stack the deck against Austin. Brisco dares Austin throughout the match to
hit him and counts quick falls for Goldust, but Austin resists and proceeds to
wrestle one of the faster-paced 1990s Goldust matches you will ever see. Ross actually acknowledges that if Austin
loses the title that the crowd will riot, to which Lawler has a funny jab about
being there for crowd control. Austin
hits a Stunner after a mule kick, but Brisco pulls a Nick Patrick and stops at
two because something is allegedly in his eye.
Dude Love then runs in and brawls with Austin. McMahon tries to take advantage of the
opportunity in a brilliant callback to the previous evening by trying to hit
Austin with the WWF title belt, but ends up KO’ing Brisco and that ends the
match. This is one of those
underappreciated gems from the Attitude Era, but it’s a wild and fun match that
foreshadowed the Austin-Dude Love rematch that is to come at Over the Edge. It’s also Goldust’s best match in ages. Rating: *** (7 for 8)
The Final Report Card: This show had a little too much D-Generation
X and their “invasion” of WCW has been overhyped by subsequent WWE videos about
the Monday Night Wars. However, some of
the segments were funny, like having a WCW fan claim that he didn’t pay for his
ticket and then asking for the company to free Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. The main event was fantastic as well and
Austin really had his working boots on in his first run with the title. The only missed opportunity was sidestepping
a Honky Tonk Man moment with Triple H and the European title with Dan Severn,
but you can’t always get what you want.
Monday Night War Rating: 5.7 (vs. 1.72 for Nitro)
Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up