Monday Night Wars

[DrVenkman PhD]

I'm trying to remember how they brought up the curtain call on TV and in my memory, it was Shawn asking to see footage from MSG (meaning this show) on the next Raw but getting 1996 MSG footage instead. I could be remembering that wrong and I don't want to go look it up.

[MillenniumMan831]

Courtesy of Graham Cawthon:

 

Michaels put over his win against the Undertaker the previous night and then went to show footage from the match; however, after a lengthy pause, handheld camera footage from the 5/19/96 MSG show was shown instead, with Michaels and Triple H then confronting McMahon outside the ring about that still being a sore subject

[DrVenkman PhD]

So two more episodes then. Hooray!

[Boner Kawanger]

Owen's "I can't fight a guy with a broken arm" is classic considering his willingness to compete with a broken arm.

 

EDIT: From Venky's WON on the last page: *Off TV, "Brian Christopher and Sunny left arm-in-arm". On the current Raw, when Sunny is in the ring to be the guest announcer, JR makes reference to the fact that she and the King's "boy" could pop out some grandkids.

[Black Lushus]

You'd think they could have found something better for Sunny to do in 97 other than jiggling her out there from time to time for random midget match introduction and occassional commentary.

[Diamonddust]

I still get a kick out of how they used all the faces of Foley to introduce Cactus Jack at the MSG Raw.

[Bruiser Chong]

In retrospect, the cause of the Austin/McMahon feud was all on Austin.

 

And I don't remember Rock ever looking so downright FAT.

[Diamonddust]

In retrospect, the cause of the Austin/McMahon feud was all on Austin.

 

And I don't remember Rock ever looking so downright FAT.

 

Most definitely. It got really compounded during the whole Tyson situation.

[Darth Pipes]

Well, in 1999, the Rock wrestled with a shirt on because he had fatty cells removed from his pecs because he was juicing. Of course, ask him now and he denies he ever did steroids.

 

Oh yeah, Austin is definitely responsible for the McMahon feud. McMahon acted like a face the first month or so after WM14 when the feud really got started but that just made the fans boo him more.

[Brett Favre]

Even back then, I always thought Austin was a jackass. Well at least early on in the feud. Vince McMahon seemed like a nice guy and Austin kept on picking on him. Maybe it was just me.

[DrVenkman PhD]

I like how Vince has an attitude (no pun intended) on this episode of Raw. He introduced HBK as "the wise ass of the WWF" and gets all up in Stone Cold's grill.

 

The debut of the Owen 3:16 shirt! I love it. I like how Owen brings up Vince Sr. in his plea to have Austin fired.

[DrVenkman PhD]

Watching the evolution of Bill Goldberg should prove interesting. It's clear they don't have a Goldberg Formula yet (and why would they in match #2?) but it's odd to see him try stuff out. In his match with Barbarian, he does some crazy... I don't know what, he leaps at him, locks onto him with his legs, then rolls. He also does a dropkick! No spear yet either.

[Guest]

That Raw really sucked. If they were trying to sell me the PPV, I definitely wouldn't have bought it.

[DrVenkman PhD]

Yeah, it always pains me to say this (since I was on the WWE side during the MNW) but Nitro was much better on this week.

 

The next Raw should be something else, though.

[Boner Kawanger]

I hate to say it like this, but I'm just glad the Brian Pillman countdown is almost over. I missed out on a lot of his WWF stuff and found it depressing coming in at the end of it.

[DrVenkman PhD]

I could be off because I only skimmed / am using memory, but the next Raw should contain the following:

 

- The aftermath of Pillman's death

- DX becoming official / Curtian Call promo.

- Jim Cornette's segments begin

- Faarooq cutting a promo on Austin with Austin having a reply I got a kick out of.

 

Jarrett should be coming soon too.

[Cheech Tremendous]

I could be off because I only skimmed / am using memory, but the next Raw should contain the following:

 

- The aftermath of Pillman's death

- DX becoming official / Curtian Call promo.

- Jim Cornette's segments begin

- Faarooq cutting a promo on Austin with Austin having a reply I got a kick out of.

 

Jarrett should be coming soon too.

 

I don't have 24/7, and I'm kind of glad that I don't. I get so depressed reading these threads and reminiscing about how great the product the was back them. Look at how many historical things are happening every week. Now we just get the same regurgitated crap every week.

[Enigma]

"It ain't a race thing, it ain't a color thing, it's a me-kicking-your-ass thing!"

 

I am not looking forward to watching the incredibly awkward interview with Melanie Pillman. I hope they edit that out.

[DrVenkman PhD]

"I didn't understand a damn thing you just said, but I take it you're pretty pissed off" (or some variant) is the other part of that promo with Austin I remember.

[Diamonddust]

"I didn't understand a damn thing you just said, but I take it you're pretty pissed off" (or some variant) is the other part of that promo with Austin I remember.

 

Awesome... I as well got a kick out of that promo. Good to see it'll be up soon.

 

Also good to see the Cornette rants will be starting. Those were pretty entertaining.

[DrVenkman PhD]

Tony has a great line on Nitro at the end of "El Cliente" vs. Rey:

 

"Eddie didn't fool anybody... except us".

 

 

[Darth Pipes]

One thing I'm not looking forward to on the upcoming Raw shows is all the editing. I'm not talking about the blurring of logos but the beeping out of langue and Austin's hand gestures being blurred. That is absolutely inexcuseable for what is a On Demand Service that caters to an older audience. You can't even say ass anymore on WWE television.

[DrVenkman PhD]

I was waiting for that!

 

It actually seems pretty inconsistent right now. The Legends show has "ass" bleeped but a Shortie has Flair calling Carlito a lazy son of a bitch. Raw has a lot of "ass" too. It's worth noting that the blurred middle fingers on the current Raw were actually one the aired show (hence it being a old school "mosaic" blur and not the typical "blurry blur" used today), but it's not like those won't be blurred anyway. It's nothing to get TOO upset over though.

[Darth Pipes]

It's worth noting that the blurred middle fingers on the current Raw were actually one the aired show (hence it being a old school "mosaic" blur and not the typical "blurry blur" used today)

 

I can deal with it if it was always like that. I also understand the reasons for blurring the logo and changing the music. But I can't stand the idea of stuff being edited that doesn't need to be.

 

When they release the Steve Austin DVD, they bleeped Terry Funk calling Jim Ross an Oakie ***hole and calling Pettingel's mother a whore, both of which originally aired in the syndicated show. It wasn't so much the fact that the language was bleeped out but the fact that Funk said the word "whore" very funny that annoyed me the most.

[cabbageboy]

It was certainly creepy seeing that Pillman/Marlena segment from Raw knowing that was the last we'd ever see of Pillman. What a deranged angle to go out on.

 

I have a new perspective on Austin from rewatching these shows. The Montreal Screwjob almost HAD to happen for the Austin/Vince angle to ever work. In the initial stage of the angle Vince's demands seemed quite reasonable, namely that he didn't want Austin to risk serious injury or paralysis while wrestling with a bad neck. I don't think the angle would have ever worked as well without Vince screwing Bret, which made the fans hate him and made Austin's dislike of Vince more understandable.

 

Also, as weird as it sounds Austin actually needed to have his neck injured by Owen. If not in reality then it needed to happen in storyline regardless, since it finally gave Austin some focus as a character. Before that all we knew was that Austin was a crazy redneck that hated people, but there was no driving force behind it. Once Owen nearly broke his neck, we now had a reason to care about Austin and a desire to want to see him kick Owen's ass. I never understood exactly why he hated Bret so bad, but I quite understood what he had against Owen.

[Enigma]

Actually, Austin really kept the redneck stuff hidden for the first two years.

[Darth Pipes]

I think I mentioned this earlier but I liked 97 Austin better than 98 Austin. 98 Austin played to the fans while 97 Austin was really a heel that the fans cheered. He was a lot more deranged too.

[Enigma]

This is totally off topic, but when did WCW finally ditch the rule of throwing someone over the top rope being a disqualification? Was it when Russo and Ferrera came in?

[TheSSNintendo]

I could be off because I only skimmed / am using memory, but the next Raw should contain the following:

 

- The aftermath of Pillman's death

- DX becoming official / Curtian Call promo.

- Jim Cornette's segments begin

- Faarooq cutting a promo on Austin with Austin having a reply I got a kick out of.

 

Jarrett should be coming soon too.

 

Don't forget Kane's first appearance on Raw as well.

[Darth Pipes]

This is totally off topic, but when did WCW finally ditch the rule of throwing someone over the top rope being a disqualification? Was it when Russo and Ferrera came in?

 

I think they ditched it in 97 or 98...I remember one day they casually mentioned that the rule was eliminated. It was long overdue. It was always a very silly rule. Especially with the most violent wrestling matches.