Monday Night Wars

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Is this the episode where HBK got Shamrock to call everything on camera?

Shawn was the one calling things loudly on the Raw. There are at least two spots you can clearly hear Shawn calling.

[Ed Wood Caulfield 0]

The only other time I can recall there being this dark cloud over everything was when The Outsiders invaded WCW. There was a very depressing atmosphere at Bash At the Beach 1996. But that was intentional. That just meant WCW was doing something right.

[Darth Pipes 0]

Weird that Hart wasn't in person on what turned out to be his last Raw.

 

Good show. Although HBK could be heard calling spots, I liked his match with Shamrock a lot.

 

-Michaels mocking Hogan by proclaiming himself the wrestling god only to be cut off by HHH was funny. I remember at the time, Hogan and HBK were referring to each other (not by name of course) when they would call themselves the best in wrestling and such. It went on for about 2-3 weeks with this ending it.

 

-Watching Bulldog and Vader wrestle each other reminded me that these guys had a main event program in WCW four years earlier. Bulldog would be gone from the WWF shortly thereafter and Vader would begin his transformation from "The Man Called Vader" to "The Man Called Jobber."

 

-I liked the Mankind/Kane segment.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Nitro (which features Fit Finlay's awesome Irish Road Warrior look) mentions the nWo's big surprise (which I believe is everyone standing in the ring with Canadian flags) for next week and Raw has Ross mention that this will be the last time we'll ever see HBK vs. Bret, so while I did forget the exact time line of the whole Bret business becoming public, it quite obviously was out by this Raw. I suspect that played a part in Bret being at home.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Oh yeah, this episode also has the infamous "Stu is dead" comment. When I saw the scene in Wrestling with Shadows where Bret is informed of the comment, I could never remember any promo where Shawn declared Stu to be dead, so it's nice to be able to piece it all together.

 

I don't remember that either....when/how was it said?

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It was something along the lines of "Stu's dead, his brain just doesn't know it yet". He said it while doing commentary with HHH and generally goofing on the Hart family.

[Diamonddust 0]

Nitro (which features Fit Finlay's awesome Irish Road Warrior look) mentions the nWo's big surprise (which I believe is everyone standing in the ring with Canadian flags) for next week and Raw has Ross mention that this will be the last time we'll ever see HBK vs. Bret, so while I did forget the exact time line of the whole Bret business becoming public, it quite obviously was out by this Raw. I suspect that played a part in Bret being at home.

 

I could be wrong, but I thought there was at least a week or so before the Survivor Series as to when the Bret Hart stuff became public.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Yeah, he openly discussed it all in an interview on Off The Record (at least in my memory). I guess what I meant was, I don't know if it was public knowledge when the 10/26/97 Raw aired, but it definitely was by this episode.

[Enigma 0]

Yeah, he did. This was around the time I discovered pro wrestling insider news on the Internet, and that interview Hart did was all over the sites. It was definitely before the PPV.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah, and maybe it's just my personal experience but did wrestling truly start booming on the net around the time of the Montreal Screwjob? It was coincidental on my part, since that was my first semester of college and I would surf the net at times between classes in the computer lab. Survivor Series happened to be the first major WWF PPV while I was in college and since I didn't order shows at that point I got on the net to find out the results. Then I found out what happened in the main event and was in utter shock. From that point I just had to know more and found a bunch of websites.

[10 Pounds 0]

I know I'm a Nitro episode too late but God was that a painful third hour hearing the announcers plugging Hogan's movie over and over and over again non-stop. You'd think it would be a sure channel-switching tactic, wonder what were the reviews of that show were.

 

When does the Nitro where the nWo destroys the set for like 30 minutes happens ? I think it would have been before Starrcade but my memory is a little bit fuzzy on that one. I also remember a Nitro where it was Tony Schiavone in a studio and they showed nothing but Hogan matches, from his WCW debut to his running for President. Maybe that one was a Holiday special.

[garfieldsnose 0]

I think that's about a year away from where we are, so probably about two years away from being on 24/7.

[Enigma 0]

No, that was in December 1997. It was the last Nitro before Starrcade. I was there live for that snoozefest, so I'll never forget it.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Why doesn't it surprise me Enigma is the one to correct my timeline?

[Enigma 0]

What exactly does that mean?

[garfieldsnose 0]

I love you.

[Slickster 0]

To clarify:

 

The Nitro where the nWo breaks the set is from late 1997.

The ep with Schiavone in the studio is from late 1998.

[landy1987 0]

12/22/97 is show where the nWo take over Nitro and destroy the set (another 3-hour show as well)

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I'm noticing a pattern where I'm very excited to watch a history making Raw only to realize nothing all that exciting happens. I thought the midget was this week! DX has their theme now, though. The opening segment with Michaels and Shamrock seemed to go on forever, alternating between great due to the crowd hatred for Shawn to pointless and dull. Shamrock's promo cutting ability of just calling people names was pretty funny though.

[Aero 0]

On Nitro, they started hyping Sting's appearance (without facepaint) in some indie movie. Now I wouldn't say it totally kills his "mystique" from this time period, but it's a little weird to think about that the mysterious guy that hangs out in the rafters and makes vultures speak landed a movie role in his spare time.

 

Randy Savage vs. Ray Traylor is funny since Traylor absolutely destroys Savage for about 4-5 minutes straight, only to get crotched on the top rope, get scoop slammed, and then elbow dropped for the win.

 

I, too, was expecting to see the Bret midget this week. Shamrock's promo with DX is pretty laughable though.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I believe Shawn says that between "The Heartbreak Kid and Shawn Michaels", there was only room for one of them, heh. I also liked the line about his non-dinosaur friends in WCW that would beat Bret's ass.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm fairly sure that the DX skit with the midget and the total trashing of Bret on the mic (not to mention burying Neidhart) was the week after this. In fact I don't even recall what happens on this particular Raw. At the time I was insanely hyped for it since I read about the screwjob, but oddly enough I think Nitro the same night had more mention of Montreal.

 

When does Scott Hall do the rant about Larry Z. being the main cause of the AWA going under?

[Aero 0]

Marc Mero hits the best TKO ever on Ahmed Johnson post-match. It's simply a thing of beauty.

[cabbageboy 0]

This Raw was truly a bizarre show. The Canadian crowd was in utter shock the entire time. DX never even really drew much in the way of heel heat, it was more just a baffled crowd reaction. HHH/Shamrock did get a "WE WANT BRET" chant going though.

 

What was up with Cornette doing commentary on some of these shows? Seems like it wasn't until early 1998 when they finally settled on the classic Ross/Lawler teaming.

 

What I found interesting was how little this show actually focused on the screwjob. They show a bit of the footage and then just move on as if nothing happened and they go into the Michaels/Shamrock angle. It was actually in weeks following this that Vince did the famous interview and DX beat up the Bret midget.

 

It was amusing hearing Jarrett call HHH nothing but a "tag along." There was a funny sign in the crowd saying "Helmsley: Midcarder 4 life." And some wonder why long time viewers have a problem with HHH's uber push over the years.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

That sign was gold. I also liked Jarrett calling Savage one of the hardest working wrestlers ever.

[packwingfn 0]

The Bret Hart midget thing is 11/24

[Guest Smues]

Since I'm new to the WWE 24/7 experience let this be the first of many bitchings by me about the WWF censoring. Does it really fucking matter if old material lets it slip through since nothing new they produce is labeled WWF? Fuck the Panda. It really says something that a loud BULLSHIT chant is uncut in the opening interview on Raw, but they have to blur the top of the WWF has no Hart sign near ringside. Again, fuck the Panda.

 

Edit: On the actual Raw, Shamrock comes out, doesn't make a lot of sense, but he's yelling at DX so the crowd loves it. Awesomeness. I don't know what he was trying to say about Chyna in the kitchen. I'm not sure he did either.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I get a strange sense of joy when I hear a "WWF" slip through. Al apparently didn't like me pointing it out so excitedly though.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

That was the absolute worst rendition of "Oh! Canada" in recorded history on Nitro. Did anyone bother to listen to the song before singing it?

 

Haha, I love Mean Gene's hotline promo. WE HAD PEOPLE BACKSTAGE (at Survivor Series)!

[cabbageboy 0]

You know what's funny about that Nitro? They hype that they've signed Bret and all, but he can't show up on the program until December. I thought at the time the whole Montreal fuss had died down by the time he actually debuted, and thus his momentum suffered a bit. So not only did Vince screw Bret, run him off to WCW, but he also made sure that his own program got a ton of hype over it while Bret couldn't just show up on WCW TV for another few weeks. Brilliance.