Monday Night Wars

[bob_barron 0]

Yea, the post-Montreal RAW is just bad. Shamrock and a mic= danger.

[RepoMan 0]

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.

 

I remember when HHH was first getting his main event push (he was still with Chyna and using My Time as intro music) that it felt really forced. I was like "pfffft, WWF wants me to take HHH as a serious main eventer, scew that!"

 

 

[garfieldsnose 0]

11/17/97 will also be historic, because that is when Rick Rude will appear on both RAW and Nitro.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I figure we're due for some Marty Jannetty action on Nitro soon too. I remember it being a topic of discussion of my grade 11 gym class and that was over by January 98.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Rick Martel, as well.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Actually, Rick Martel debuts in WCW on 1/5/98, and Marty Jannetty debuts the week after. Martel had a nice TV Title run.

 

EDIT: And if the Nitro recaps I am reading are correct, Martel went almost five months between Nitro appearances... He wrestled on Nitro 2/16/98, and didn't show up again until 7/13/98. I figure he wound up on Thunder a lot, though.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

IIRC, he blew out his knee at SuperBrawl. He attempted a comeback which I believe only lasted that one Nitro match.

[Enigma 0]

IIRC, he blew out his knee at SuperBrawl. He attempted a comeback which I believe only lasted that one Nitro match.

 

Correct. Although I think he blew his knee out the Thunder before Superbrawl. I seem to remember him working the PPV in a big ass kneebrace. He said in his Where Are They Now interview on WWE.Com that he hurt his shoulder trying to protect his knee in his comeback match against Stevie Ray, and he knew right there it was over for him.

[Darth Pipes 0]

Yea, the post-Montreal RAW is just bad. Shamrock and a mic= danger.

 

As Mankind once said, Ken Shamrock's interviews are the second leading cause of teen suicide.

[cabbageboy 0]

Shamrock just does not have a voice that matches his tough guy mystique. It's a bit too high pitched.

 

I too didn't buy HHH at all as a main eventer up until about Dec. 1999/Jan. 2000. His whole main event push from roughtly Aug. 1999 until Survivor Series 99 was mostly dreck. In fact if WCW could have done anything right they could have mounted a comeback during that time period.

[Burning Pirate Ship Sex 0]

Meng is the best part of this week's Nitro.

[Guest Smues]

Watching the "Bret screwed Bret" interview shortly after reading Bret's book is interesting. And you know, whatever you think about the screwjob and if Vince was in the right or not, it baffles me that they complain about Bret's violent reaction. Right or wrong of course he was going to be fucking livid, and vince was an idiot for approaching Bret in the lockerroom.

[1234-5678 0]

I figure we're due for some Marty Jannetty action on Nitro soon too. I remember it being a topic of discussion of my grade 11 gym class and that was over by January 98.

 

 

I think Marty is involved with Raven alot, who is currently involved with Benoit. So you might not see him much.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I "cheated" and did a quick search - it looks like Marty doesn't wrestle until January 12 / 98, going up against "Black Cat". His match on the 19th was with Benoit, so that's out. Then he's not on again until March against Chris Jericho.

[Guest Smues]

I like the "Shawn Michaels you have a small D_CK!" sign. You think he meant duck?

 

Edit: OMG Jeff Jarrett will make his in-ring debut on the next Raw. So they're just completely ignoring his prior WWF run with the IC title, much less his WCW run from that year? I also like how they're completely ignoring the match in the ring so they can have Jeff blab via phone. RAW IS EXCITEMENT!

[Boner Kawanger 0]

We'd need to be getting Thunder for some rock rock never stop action with Marty.

[Enigma 0]

Wasn't Jeff Jarrett supposed to be megapushed? I am pretty glad that didn't happen.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I did enjoy Aztec Tights Jeff Jarrett's look and his wacky music that came with it, so I look forward to reliving that extremely brief era (plus the nWa angle that came out of it). I have no recollection to why he suddenly became Double J, Country Music Star (with Tennessee Lee!) again, but I laughed. I suspect the answer is nothing more than "Russo said so, so that's what he came out as on TV one day".

[Bigelow34 0]

Yeah he didn't really give a reason. One week Tennessee Lee showed up and brought him out as the greatest country star or whatever and that was that.

 

His Aztec Warrior music was awesome...it is very similar to Beth Phoenix' I think.

[Guest Smues]

And there's the famous dual appearance by Rick Rude. Although I don't think it really impacted anything, I'm guessing Vince had to be a bit mad over that. Was Rude the only wrestler to ever appear on Nitro and Raw the same night?

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I believe so

[WWE247FanaticSeries 0]

Does anyone else notice that Jim Cornette kinda references the fact that Rude was on another show that night?

[shadylpete 0]

I don't think its possible for him to make that comment. That Raw was taped a week before if I'm not mistaken.

[Darth Pipes 0]

I don't think its possible for him to make that comment. That Raw was taped a week before if I'm not mistaken.

 

Cornette did reference that. I think the broadcasting duties on the taped Raw were done after the fact.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Yeah, the Christmas 97 Raw had a lot of live (or at least recently redone) shots of the announcers keyed into the taping. It was kind of like watching an old Superstars / Challenge!

[landy1987 0]

I always thought they did the announcing for the taped Raws actually live (or a very short delay) from the WWF studios on the Monday night, with obvious time cues as to when not to talk etc?

Sometimes they reference things that happened in the news earlier that day or something about Nitro that was airing Live (which is how Cornette can reference Rude being on the other show). Another example was when they had the Owen/Bulldog match in Germany which went head to head with the Nitro where Piper brought out a bunch of people to fight like John Tenta in a total wreck of a segment which Jim Ross made reference of on the taped Raw the same night

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Yeah, I believe it was very similar to how they do SmackDown today.

[zappafrank 0]

I raised this a while ago, but now that we're post-Montreal, shouldn't the "WWF Attitude" commercials be airing already, if 24/7 was going to keep them in? I did a search on John Petrie's old reviews and he mentions one for Shamrock some time in Dec '97, but I think that's it. I could swear that one of the Fall '97 PPV home videos has an Attitude ad in it, which makes me think that 24/7 must be cutting them out.

[Guest Smues]

I'm pretty sure I saw a Stone Cold one in either this weeks or the previous' Raw.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I know I recently saw the "I'm not an athlete?!" deal where Faarooq talks about college football and Shamrock the UFC. I think it was with the Christmas 97 Raw.