The Great WWF/WCW Monday Night Wars Watch Along!

[simonworden]

Been a busy week so i've squeezed in the 2 shows with a few hours to spare on the week.

 

RAW 

Another taped show and what I thought was a pretty poor card.

Razor vs 123 Kid was a decent TV match I thought, I expected a bit more excitement from them but then this was the final hour of a long taping i'm guessing. Were they taping 2 or 4 shows together at this time? Never mind I looked it up, this was actually the last double taping before they started the 4 show tapings. Also Cagematch says there were only 1600 fans in the building. They must have all been up on one side as it looked like more.

Tatanka and Kama Vs Bob Holly and Savio was only worthwhile for a bit of spark plug incarnate holly while Jean Pierre Lafitte's squash was worth little bar listening to Bret Harts phone in interview where he tries really really hard to justify the basis of this feud. It really must have been soul destroying for Brett, his big feuds in the middle of 1995 were Lawler, Yankem and Lafitte but he shouldn't worry as it's all coming up Bret-house in a few more weeks.

The main event was surprisingly entertaining with Owen running around while Yoko tries to take out Mabel, I actually got quite into it and then loved the classic ending promo. It was a different way to end before a PPV than I was used to but I liked it more than the typical stare down or punch up that has been the basis of the last 22 years.

Nitro

Nitro opens with the Giant coming out an Ambulance boasting about his beatings on the Hulkster, this stuff hasn't aged well.

I was super disappointed by the switcharoo from The Blue Bloods to Harlem Heat as they never did much for me as a team and i've seen little of regal in WCW pre NWO. Fun surprise title switch here to pop the crowd for the live show of the week.

Flairs promo was standard in my opinion.

More Johnny B Bad sadly but at least we got Mr Wonderful with wonderful theme music, this gimmick would have been great with a bit more sleaze in the attitude era and its a shame he didn't get a few more years really. I did from this match though get a good understanding of why Bischoff says WCW had shit finishes, many matches finishes with not sparkle, even today in WWE its rare a match end without some form of finale.

Savage's promo was brilliant, Mach at his finest. Did anyone else notice that the whole arena was silent listening to his every word. Good set up for a future Luger vs Savage bout and Luger is once again trying out for a community play of Robin hood while Randy is in his usual finery. Did find myself thinking about how their lives would be intertwined with tragedy in the future. 

How long did WCW have these awful interviews with Hogan in front of actors, they are truely insufferable. Also why didn't the dungeon use the Giant as a match participant in Wargames?

Flair Pillman was decent but a few more minutes would have been nice. 

I really enjoyed the restriction of knowing what happened. Two times they played that card, firstly with Savage/ Luger claiming to have come to blows in the break and then at the end saying "somethings going on in the back" but never being specific. Even now i'm looking forward to finding out more about those things. Also who was that dragon thing pictured next to Lex in the "coming next week" thing?

Overall it has to go to Nitro again this week for me. It feels fresh even today, it was probably the weakest episode so far but it's clear why RAW lost for so long, i'd never watch Men on a Mission over Flair, Hogan, Savage etc. 

 

[gmoney]

I've just realised the date for Raw must be wrong if it was on a Thursday. I copied it from the Network. Idiots. 

WCW Nitro - September 18th

We kick off and Pepe is wearing a hat. Taskmaster and The Giant come out of the back of an ambulance and warn Hogan. Giant is still claiming to be the son of Andre, which makes me wince a bit. Considering he's been in wrestling about 6 months, he does a decent job here. 

American Males vs Blue Bloods. Bobby Eaton comes out alone and is jumped immediately by Harlem Heat. They won the belts last night at Fall Brawl and are keen to defend their belts. They're acting heelish here, but they were faces last night. This is OK, even Stevie Ray and Riggs look alright at points, but Col. Rob Parker turns up to woo Sherri. Now at the PPV, Sherri distracted Parker and won her boys the belts by pretending to be interested in him, but here she *is* interested as her eye is turned as she was about to hit Bagwell with a shoe, and Buff manages to reverse a pump handle slam into a pin and we have new champions. I have no memory of this at all. WCW never seemed that concerned about the tag belts. Heat look like gimps here, but we get to hear the Males' theme tune again. 

Mean Gene interviews Flair in the ring. He's going to face Pillman tonight after he interfered in his match with Arn at Fall Brawl. Flair is pissed that Arn broke the code. The Horseman can disagree with each other, but they never get outsiders to interfere. I bet that claim doesn't hold up. Who's the good guy here? He says he'll kick Pillman's ass, which scandalises Gene.

Paul Orndorff vs Johnny B Badd. Bischoff really goes overboard slagging off Mr Wonderful's new theme tune, which is genuinely a piece or wrestling art. Paul looks like he's having fun. There's a weird moment here where JBB runs as if he's going to do something to the outside, but pull back, and Orndorff bumps. Paul gets the win, so there's something right in this world. 

A fantastic video from the set of Baywatch is shown. Macho Man is doing bench presses on the beach, cheered on by screaming lifeguards. Kevin Sullivan runs in from nowhere wearing a lifeguards jacket and full face-paint. "Lets see you do 5 more!" he shouts as he lobs sand in his eyes. Kevin is dragged away by two lifeguards and Ric Flair, who is remarkably low-key. Back to live, Mene Gene interviews Randy in the ring. Randy doesn't want Flair helping him out and tells him to fuck off. He'll take on Taskmaster himself. He then lays into Hogan for picking Lex Luger in the War Games. He doesn't want to hear anything, Luger is a traitor and Sting and Jimmy Hart are too. Macho Man is amazingly paranoid here. Lex arrives to defend himself, thankfully wearing a collared shirt tonight. He thinks Macho is hiding the fact he wants a title shot, whereas sexy Lexy is straight up. They both want to play with the big boys. It looks like they might go at it right now, but for some reason Mean Gene is insistent that they don't fight tonight. Great, GREAT segment. 

They replay Hogan's motorcycle getting smashed up from Fall Brawl. His motorcycle helmet is tiny. No way that's regulation. The bike is called Black Beauty apparently...  There's about 15 camera cuts when his bike gets run over, and then Hogan beats his fists on The Giant's monster truck. This was funny, but it was not great.

Brian Pillman vs Ric Flair.  So I have worked out that Flair is a face now. Pillman looks like he's assembled his outfit from off-cuts of The Rockers gear, but it works and he looks great. Good short match, the end took me by surprise as Pillman submits in the Figure Four leg lock. I bet he was happy about that. Flair calls out Arn for next week on Nitro. Some final thoughts. Mongo's are worthless. Heenan tries to tell Eric that something is going on in the back, which clearly throws Bischoff as he shuts it down and tells us that next week Disco Inferno will wrestle Alex Wright, Kurosawa (who is Manabu Nakanishi), Randy Savage vs Kevin Sullivan. The also flash up a graphic of Lex Luger and someone wearing an absurd dragon mask thing. I presume it's Meng? It goes unremarked upon which made me laugh. 

Good show again. The star-power on Nitro eats Raw's lunch at the moment. Even without Hogan, you had Savage, Flair and Luger all involved in good to great segments. Razor Ramon felt big on Raw, but he's feuding with Dean Douglas. HBK and Diesel only did a crap promo.  They weren't head to head, so I won't add this to the official figures, but Nitro was better this week. 

[simonworden]

I should add that yesterday in our schedule should have been in your house 3. I watched it not long ago and it was pretty uneventful bar the night long story of Owen or a replacement in the tag match so I'll be skipping this

[gmoney]

Well this has been a big success - one of the most read threads on the forum I'm told, but the forum downtime caused the view counter to be reset. What a shame. 

WWF Raw September 25th

 

It's the Raw after In Your House, and the Dudes With Attitude won the belts after Owen no-showed and was replaced by Bulldog. Towards the end of the match Owen ran in and was subsequently pinned. This is recapped at the start of the show. Vince reveals that Jim Cornette and the debuting Clarence Mason had the result overturned as technically Owen wasn't in the match. I do enjoy Clarence Mason. A rematch is planned at some point, and the champs have to defend the belts tonight. I'm not really a fan of the Yoko and Owen team, so I'm looking forward to when it becomes Bulldog and Owen, they were class. Did they ever explain in storyline why Owen was missing that night? It just seems like a daft convoluted mess to delay a title change. 

It's Marty Jannetty vs Skip. Discovering what a cunt Marty Jannetty is was such a massive disappointment, I loved him as a kid, by far my favourite Rocker. He looks really good here, but I know it probably lasts about 2 months before he fucks it up. He blows a kiss at Sunny, then when Skip gets a hug from her on the outside and turns to berate the crowd, he sneaks up and lays out Skip and Sunny turns round and mistakenly hugs Marty. This is a preposterous, and creepy-with-2019-eyes spot, but the crowd go mental. Sunny tries to slap Jannetty and he ducks so Skip gets it instead. What a mug. He takes over when Sunny trips Jannetty, as we're shown Dean Douglas in the aisle taking notes. I really enjoyed this, and Marty wins with a Rocker Dropper and a top rope fist drop. 

We see another recap and they show more of Clarence Mason's Johnny Cochrane routine. Though I like him, he's no Jackie Chiles. Tag team title match now. Yoko and Owen vs the Smoking Gunns. First though Doc Hendrix gives it the hard sell for the Triple Header T Shirt to commemorate last night's match. This is a graphic design catastrophe. I'd love to know how many they sold. This is a rematch of the Wrestlemania match which was months ago. Gunns have got some long mullets. As always, this is asking a lot of Owen. The trouble with cowboy gimmicks is if you're not that charismatic, you're just a wrestler in jeans and the wrong boots. That's particularly true of Bart. They get the heat on Billy for loads of this, and I never quite get into it. The crowd are though, and they are throwing babies in the air as the Gunns win, after Yoko tries to break up a pin with a splash, but Bart moves out of the way and Owen is crushed, then pinned. HBK and Diesel congratulate them and they'll get a shot at them at some point soon. 

Goldust will make his in ring debut at the next In Your House and Bulldog will get a shot a Diesel. He's in action now against the Undertaker, so no doubt he's going to get a convincing win here ahead of him title match. Purple gloves Taker here. Mabel is shown watching on, as is Waylon Mercy for some reason. This is not bad, but you know it's going nowhere, and sure enough Mabel runs in and lays out Taker. Diesel and Shaun run in to make the save. Yoko and Owen run in, and then the Smoking Gunns do as well. I know it's good to focus a lot of time on certain talents, but watching Raw you'd think they've got about 10 wrestlers. They go to a break, then when they come back Vince does his dad dancing to Sexy Boy and the music goes on forever.  They recap Razor's loss to Dean Douglas caused by 123 Kid. Lawler voices the rumour that Kid's in talks with Million Dollar Man... Next week Bret Hart is in action with Jean Pierre Lafitte. Vince loses his train of thought while promoting this and then Shawn lobs a t-shirt in his face. 

This was eventful overall, with a debut of Marty Jannetty, a title change and two stars in Bulldog and Undertaker, but I only really enjoyed the first match, and I really don't enjoy Shaun Michaels in this era, and he's all over the show even when he's not in matches.