Monday Night Wars

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I'm watching Raw right now (and laughing at how Flash Flannagan's alleged somersault plancha is completely obscured by the tournament graphic) and have one question: where did Connecticut blue blood/Flair mark HHH learn to dress? He goes from a Gold's Gym jacket and pants ensemble to getting out-dressed by Batista to the Lemmy stache. You'd think he'd have picked style up by osmosis at some point in his NWA fandom.

[cabbageboy 0]

The whole Neidhart angle on this show is an underrated gem. It's of course a great way to bury a guy on his way out, but it's terrific. DX got a guy from a rival group to sell out his beliefs (and family) to join them, then they kick his ass anyway.

[KingPK 0]

Is it me, or could the WWF have done a Goldberg-esque run with Kane about 6 months before WCW got the idea? He had the cool entrance, did nothing but destroy people, and came across as an unstoppable monster. It always seemed like they were kind of gunshy to just run with Kane running roughshod over the fed leading to a Hell in the Cell match with Undertaker at a WrestleMania. Obviously the way they went turned out ok for them, but I wonder why Kane never got a title push aside from the brush with Austin later in '98.

[Slickster 0]

Kane debuted a month after Goldberg did, though.

[KingPK 0]

But they didn't really kick Goldberg's winning streak angle into gear until a few months into '98.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

If we're talking underrated, the Goldust angle is pretty great too. Mostly everything rom his Tennessee Williams effeminate Southern belle vocal styling culminating in "Oh god no" when Vader comes out, to the reveal of Luna as the nurse works as a heat magnet. I really enjoyed this Raw, match quality aside.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

What the HELL is up with Vince's pop-culture laced commentary on the "Royal Raw" from 1994? It's borderline insane.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I love how he says "THREEEEEE MORE STAR WARS" with almost the same cadence as his famous "BAAAAACK BODY DROP!!" and it makes me wonder if Vince is culturally aware of what happened with those the prequels. Maybe we can get a CGI manager based on Jar Jar in the next decade...

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Vince: Cousin Sieone looks to me the more 'Barbaric' of the group.

Savage: What do you mean by that comment?

Vince: Well, look at him.

Savage: Good point.

 

Vince with the meta-humour.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I love how he says "THREEEEEE MORE STAR WARS" with almost the same cadence as his famous "BAAAAACK BODY DROP!!" and it makes me wonder if Vince is culturally aware of what happened with those the prequels. Maybe we can get a CGI manager based on Jar Jar in the next decade...

 

I forget everything he said now, but as I recall his first pop culture drop was comparing Mabel (who actually looks way smaller on this Raw than he did as Big Daddy V) to Barney. This segues into talking about Marlon Brando on Larry King which seems to have Vince all riled up, so he demands Mabel rap about that. "NOW YOU'RE GONNA HEAR MABEL RAP ABOUT LARRY KING! TELL IT TO US MABEL!". Of course he says nothing of the sort. I think he then spent the entire Owen Hart match talking about Jack Tunney appearing on Letterman to sing a duet with Barry Manilow (I thought he was acting a bit odd with the Larry King thing, but I figured it was just Vince doing his anti-Turner thing - the Tunney on Letterman thing is where I thought he went nuts, especially since he called CBS 'another network' with disdain reserved for Turner owned television networks), Roseanne being fat and Yokozuna playing her in a movie, and then Macho Man threw in something about Princess Di (by the context of what was being said, I guess there were some unwanted exposure pictures back in 1994?). By the time Vince mentioned Undertaker was a guest at the Grand Ol Opry or some show on The Nashville Network (ha!), I thought he was telling another joke. I guess that was serious though. Picturing Taker and Paul Bearer on The Nashville Network is hilarious.

[SteakGrowsOnUecker 0]

Watching the 1994 RAW's online I can tell you this was a weekly thing with Vince. I have no idea why, but every week there is a reference to random pop culture stuff, usually something with the royal family, Roseanne or even Elton John. Just seems to be a forced way of trying to be humorous/topical. Of course he fails.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I recall the first Raw advertised Woody Allen vs. Mia Farrow in a steel cage match as happening the next week.

 

Also, while I never really got the "Young Santino Marella" vibe from the John Crystal vs. HHH match they aired last January, he really does look like a young Santino on this show. Highly unlikely, but wow.

[Bigelow34 0]

Watching the 1994 RAW's online I can tell you this was a weekly thing with Vince. I have no idea why, but every week there is a reference to random pop culture stuff, usually something with the royal family, Roseanne or even Elton John. Just seems to be a forced way of trying to be humorous/topical. Of course he fails.

 

I think it was mainly done to make Raw seem live instead of canned. He would dub in the commentary live as the show aired and toss some topical discussion.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

What exactly did Bam Bam do that was "whatamanuver!" in his match with Luger? It looks like a badly whiffed dropkick or an attempted 'rana where he just falls backwards, but apparently it was impressive enough to get a replay. The best I came up with was he was 'clapping' his feet together on Lex's head.

[Enigma 0]

By the time Vince mentioned Undertaker was a guest at the Grand Ol Opry or some show on The Nashville Network (ha!), I thought he was telling another joke. I guess that was serious though. Picturing Taker and Paul Bearer on The Nashville Network is hilarious.

 

It was 100% real. They were on a TNN talk show called "Crook & Chase". It was essentially a TNN version of Regis & Kathie Lee. I remember my Dad calling me into his bedroom and asked me who they were, since he watched TNN every night before going to sleep.

 

They also had Sting on a few months before Undertaker & Paul Bearer appeared.

[Enigma 0]

Hmmm, October 10, 1994...this was one of Savage's last WWF appearances.

[garfieldsnose 0]

It either was his last WWE appearance or wasn't. How can it be one of his last? Come on, mang.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It was his 4th last appearance. So, "one of his last". I see what you're saying zio, but it's not that unusual a saying.

[garfieldsnose 0]

I know it's not unusual but I still hate that saying.

[cabbageboy 0]

I checked out that 1994 Raw. Wow. After a really hot 1993 debut year for the show they really hit the wall once the novelty wore off. 1994 and 95 were both bleh years for Raw with few standout moments on there.

 

As far as this show goes, why not have Luger/Bigelow as the main event? The show opens with that match and then the rest of it is Lawler doing a lame midget bit, as well as squash matches. Why not open with Lawler's bit (or not do it), do the squash matches, build to Luger/Bigelow.

[bob_barron 0]

RAW used to always open with the main event for whatever reason

[Enigma 0]

I just watched that 1994 Raw and as stated earlier, what the fuck was with all the bullshit references to things in the news that Vince was making? Savage was no-selling all of it until the end when he just gave up and joined in.

[Dr Funkenstein PhD 0]

Yeah I hate when Vince pretends to be hip like when he was the judge to Bischoff's trial and was like "well i'm just listening to my ipod and man ashley simpson sucks!"

[King Kamala 0]

RAW used to always open with the main event for whatever reason

 

Here's my somewhat uneducated guess, since WWF was really geared to the kiddies in '93, '94, and '95 and RAW was on a weeknight, I figured they put the marquee match on first so younger kids who had to wake up early for school could watch it. I know this from experience as Mom and Pops Kamala used to only let me watch the first half hour of the show before being sent to bed.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It's actually a nice bit of coincidence (or is it?) that you have a Raw where Vince says "WE WILL NEVER DOUBT MADE IN THE USA LEX LUGER AGAIN! HIS WORD IS THE TRUTH" and a repeat of the MNW Legends show that opens with a brief discussion (before Hayes interrupts to ask something else) of Luger lying to Vince and not keeping his word.

[Dr Funkenstein PhD 0]

That is funnier than when he refers to Macho Man as future Hall of Famer Macho Man Randy Savage.

[Enigma 0]

It is pretty weird watching this show, knowing that less than a month later he'd be in WCW.

[Taxman 0]

Am I in the minority here when I say that Savage is just horrible during the 10/11/94 RAW? He reminds me of a neon Don West here. Good thing he left when he did.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

RAW used to always open with the main event for whatever reason

 

Here's my somewhat uneducated guess, since WWF was really geared to the kiddies in '93, '94, and '95 and RAW was on a weeknight, I figured they put the marquee match on first so younger kids who had to wake up early for school could watch it. I know this from experience as Mom and Pops Kamala used to only let me watch the first half hour of the show before being sent to bed.

 

That, and they also used it as a hook. Sort of like how WWE used Hogan at the top of that SNME show a few years back.

[cabbageboy 0]

The difference is SNME used to be on at 11:30 at night, so putting a main eventer on early made sense. But a typical Raw? It went from 9 to 10, so it's not like a match airing at 9:45 is all that late. In fact Prime Time used to build to a main event that lasted until 11:00.

 

Savage was a hideous commentator and I don't blame him at all for going to WCW. The guy was about 40-41 at the time, so it's not like he had zilch left in the tank.