25 years ago today...

[CTXRussomark]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:36 PM, wandshogun09 said:

I might be wrong but I seem to recall they didn’t actually show the gun on Sky. Maybe I just saw an earlier showing or something but the version I remember showed Austin causing havoc outside the house, then smashing the door in and right when he got inside the footage cut out and went to some fuzzy interference. Mad the change from the usual product of the time though. 

This is my recollection too. I remember seeing the whole angle with Austin outside, attacking Pillman's friends etc but not the part with the gun.

[LCJ]

Pretty sure we were a week behind the States with WWF at the time and a lot of the programmes were being edited (especially the ones shown during the day - crowd shots when chair shots happened etc..). Guessing we were only a week behind due to the coverage being cheaper though. I’m almost certain the part with the gun wasn’t shown on Sky.

Think guns have been a sensitive subject on British TV for a long time (especially since the Dunblane Massacre which happened just a few months before that episode of Raw aired). I recall ITV pulling a James Bond film from their schedule in the week of the massacre. Think there was also an episode of the Simpsons where Homer bought a gun that Sky never showed (but was released on VHS, DVD and shown on BBC Two years later).

[air_raid]

8 hours ago, CTXRussomark said:

This is my recollection too. I remember seeing the whole angle with Austin outside, attacking Pillman's friends etc but not the part with the gun.

This is what happened. Various shots of Pullman looking menacing in his house but not the shot where he reveals he has the gun, and the closing angle has the noises of chaos then fade to logo without any mention of the gun airing. Although bizarrely Todd did mention Pillman having a gun (“firearm” he probably said now that I think about it) on the Saturday morning Blast Off or Livewire that aired on Sky One but that thankfully nobody got hurt.

7 hours ago, LCJ said:

Pretty sure we were a week behind the States with WWF at the time and a lot of the programmes were being edited (especially the ones shown during the day - crowd shots when chair shots happened etc..). Guessing we were only a week behind due to the coverage being cheaper though.

This is correct. Footage fell behind by a week in September through to March 97. There were quite a few oddities during this period like Raw Championship Friday and Thursday Raw Thursday that the highlights had to be picked up at the weekend shows, the time delay causing December In Your House highlights (virtually the whole show in truth) being shown on a Boxing Day special. Pity I couldn’t play with my new Jakks figures over my hero winning the belt from Sid… yeah. During this time was also when Raw went to 2 hours and you had to watch the Saturday show for highlights of what didn’t show on Fridays Raw broadcast.

The scheduling fell back into place for the 10th March Raw. They caught up by airing the 26th Feb taping in Berlin as a special broadcast on a couple of hours delay later that night on Sky (with different commentary to what aired on 3rd March Raw), which meant those of us watching unspoiled  the morning after saw Sid defend the belt before him winning it had even aired over here. Devastating for me to learn Bret had already dropped the belt I’d rang the Superstar line (0891 299 888) to find out he’d won. So on Friday 28th Feb we saw the 17th Raw (Sid winning the belt in Memphis) then Friday 7th March we had the 24th Feb Raw (ECW invades the Manhattan Centre with Taz match airing but Stevie v Guido only shown on Saturday morning), then on Friday 14th we caught up completely with the 10th March Raw show airing as it was meant to - new set and opening that would become synonymous with “Raw Is War” and wrestlers emerging from the giant curtain, 2 hours at 10PM on Sky Sports 3. Followed by the Playboy TV 10 minute free view and a wank. *
 

Fond memories of that era just as things were beginning to freshen up and change. The novelty of the occasional heel v heel match was huge in 96, a much remembered Austin v Mankind one happening the night after Survivors, supposed to be Austin v Vader but the latter was “injured by Yokozuna” the night before. One I loved that nobody else remembers is a random match where Owen wrestled Mankind with a finish of Owen doing the “shoulder charge into ring post” spot and Mankind using his pulling piledriver for a clean pin, as opposed to winning with the Mandible Claw like usual. So many random bits and pieces that you’d take for granted today. The mini feud where Shawn and Ahmed defended their singles titles against the individual Smoking Gunns then a week later challenged them for the tag titles, I thought was a fun diversion from the build to SummerSlam, even if it ended up just a vehicle to introduce Farooq. God, I miss variety.
 

* Good job Nitro was 7-9 on TNT in those days as I started watching that too right after Uncensored. Halcyon days.

[wandshogun09]

The TV and PPVs going all weird at the end of 96 into 97 was a ballache. I remember Survivor Series airing on something like a Monday or Tuesday night on Sky, with ad breaks all over the shop which cut out big chunks of the Bret Hart vs Steve Austin match in particular. I never saw the full unedited version of that match for ages after. Had to go to bed before the Shawn vs Sid main event as well because of school the next day. I was so chuffed when an ad ran on Raw for WrestleMania 13 that said ‘LIVE ON SKY SPORTS’. None of this delayed shite full of adverts anymore. I dread to think how they’d have butchered the Bret vs Austin submission match.

I remember that Owen vs Mankind match @air_raid, and the Austin vs Mankind and Austin vs Vader matches on Raw, billed as ‘tough man contests’. Austin vs Triple H at Buried Alive seemed proper random at the time as well. They were really starting to blur the lines in late 96, having heel vs heel matches more regularly.

Bret Hart vs Mankind is one I wish we got a proper PPV version of as well. There was this on Shotgun Saturday Night;

But there was potential for a lot more with those two, I think. 

[Chili]

Hunter/Austin was actually a very last minute replacement for a cancelled Austin/Vega rematch where Austin would have probably got his win back (don't actually think he ever did beat old Savio clean in a singles). So they threw Hunter in. Funny as Austin was calling a Savio match and getting wordy with Mr. Perfect who was feuding with Hunter himself on a taped Superstars before the PPV. They were commenting a Savio/Salvatore Sincere match... Tom Brandi has no connection. Just there, as ever. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Chili

[air_raid]

On 11/6/2021 at 11:00 AM, Chili said:

Hunter/Austin was actually a very last minute replacement for a cancelled Austin/Vega rematch where Austin would have probably got his win back (don't actually think he ever did beat old Savio clean in a singles). So they threw Hunter in. Funny as Austin was calling a Savio match and getting wordy with Mr. Perfect who was feuding with Hunter himself on a taped Superstars before the PPV.

Another wacky clusterfuck from late 96, the few weeks around the end of September leading into Survivor Series, with the In Your House Buried Alive ppv in the middle.

They put a serious amount of hype into Hunter vs Perfect and at this point even had Perfect tell Steve Austin that once he was done with Helmsley he’d be coming for Stone Cold too. Come the PPV, Vega was pulled with injury (no idea if this was legit or BS designed to get Hunter on the card as he was about to become relevant again) and it was Hunter that faced Austin, allowing Perfect to come steal Hunters woman which had been the origin of their feud, with Austin being the unlikely beneficiary. Although don’t mourn that Austin didn’t get his win back from Savio, he’d done that in fairly short order after Beware Of Dog 2, pinning Savio clean on Raw in a King of the Ring quarter, said to be the TV debut of the Stone Cold Stunner but pretty sure he’d done it on a weekend show beforehand.

This spot of switching up the card crossed over into another - Perfects kind-of protege Marc Mero defending the Intercontinental belt against Goldust, originally scheduled to be Farooq, with the latter “attacked by Ahmed Johnson” backstage and unable to compete. This also reeks of re-thought out booking. Mero obviously was going to retain either way but Farooqs real story was the Ahmed program once he was fit again, and they’d need him relatively strong to build that, which is probably what precipitated the Nation of Domination repackage. At this point, dorky gladiator Farooq losing again to Mero who was about to drop the belt anyway would have helped nobody. Not that pinning Goldy did either but at least it didn’t hurt anyone like weakening Farooq again would have.

Speaking of Mero losing the title to the revitalised HHH next night… what a shambles that was. The explanation for Perfect interfering in Hunters matches for MONTHS as “trying to get him to focus” - causing him to lose dozens of matches and “winners purses” in the story - was absolute Russo level bollocks. To make matters worse the deal was over in a month when Hennig fucked off, leaving Sunny of all people to explain his absence away in a throwaway line at Survivors about Helmsley “getting tired of Mr Perfect taking all the credit.” What a mess. Although fun fact - on comms at Survivors 95 it was actually Mr Perfect who first called Hunter “Triple H” on air. The little bit of history they created together made me mark out more than I should have when they finally came to blows in the 2002 Rumble.

Coming out of Buried Alive and going back to Austin, there was a second bit of symmetry to the KOTR tournament to the (abandoned) Savio rematch, as the go-home Raw for Survivors had Austin going over his first round opponent, Sparky BobPlugg, who had been the final on screen victim of the Million Dollar Dream as Austin’s finish. What an odd one that was as Stone Cold was so far above Holly on the totem pole at this point it was laughable and they seemed to make the point of the match to cut back to Bret watching the monitor in trademark Raw side-on fashion ostensibly shitting his pants at the thought of fighting Steve Austin. I suppose one watching the other batter a JTTS would be more novel than what would happen today which would be them being forced to tag up… although that trope did show up in the build for Sid/HBK. Oh well.

Last fun facts on Austin in this period of change - Buried Alice was the debut of Glass Shatters. Not sure anyone really recognises how important that change was to his explosion in popularity, I don’t imagine a crowd quite popping to the dirge he had before. Finally - I love this story - on one of the weekend shows in late 96 he put a jobber away with the Stunner and Kevin Kelly on comms told us that he’d talked to Austin earlier (as if) and that he now wanted the move to be called the 3:16. This change obviously never happened and the move was never called as such by JR or Vince, and I often wonder if this was Kev going into business for himself, because it’s weird as hell looking back.

Edited November 8, 2021 by air_raid

[air_raid]

On 11/6/2021 at 10:55 AM, wandshogun09 said:

I remember Survivor Series airing on something like a Monday or Tuesday night on Sky, with ad breaks all over the shop which cut out big chunks of the Bret Hart vs Steve Austin match in particular. I never saw the full unedited version of that match for ages after. Had to go to bed before the Shawn vs Sid main event as well because of school the next day.

 The worst edits were to Taker/Mankind which without even an ad break inserted, just trimmed as it was, came across as a glorified squash.
 

It aired over here Thursday 28th, I had one day to get excited about Sid with the belt before going to the NEC to see him defend it on the Friday. Which meant kiddies that went to London on Thursday night will have not seen Survivors or likely know results, I bet there were some tears from the Shawn fans in the crowd that night!

Edited November 8, 2021 by air_raid

[Liam O'Rourke]

3 hours ago, air_raid said:

 The worst edits were to Taker/Mankind which without even an ad break inserted, just trimmed as it was, came across as a glorified squash.
 

It aired over here Thursday 28th, I had one day to get excited about Sid with the belt before going to the NEC to see him defend it on the Friday. Which meant kiddies that went to London on Thursday night will have not seen Survivors or likely know results, I bet there were some tears from the Shawn fans in the crowd that night!

FUCK YOU RAID!! Sid Vs. Faarooq sucked balls! We got Bret Vs. Mankind at least...

[Guest]

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

It aired over here Thursday 28th, I had one day to get excited about Sid with the belt before going to the NEC to see him defend it on the Friday. Which meant kiddies that went to London on Thursday night will have not seen Survivors or likely know results, I bet there were some tears from the Shawn fans in the crowd that night!

Yep, this was me. Not actual tears, but still a gut punch of a way to find out. ☹️

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Yeah I remember old Kevin Kelly calling the stunner the 3:16. I'm with you, I reckon it was Kelly pulling a name out of his ass to own the name so to speak.

[garynysmon]

On 11/6/2021 at 10:55 AM, wandshogun09 said:

 I was so chuffed when an ad ran on Raw for WrestleMania 13 that said ‘LIVE ON SKY SPORTS’. None of this delayed shite full of adverts anymore. I dread to think how they’d have butchered the Bret vs Austin submission match.

Oh it was slashed big style!

I can't remember why but I only saw the repeat version and had it taped on VHS.

They showed the Chigaco Street Fight entrances, only to then cut to a caption noting they weren't showing the match as it was too violent.

For Austin/Bret they showed the match up to the first sign of blood, cue another caption and cutting to the aftermath with Bret kicking the shit out of Austin post-match.

Edited November 8, 2021 by garynysmon

[tiger_rick]

I remember seeing that version too, Gar. I watched it at my Aunties as we didn't have Sky. Was really weird, especially for someone who'd been a really irregular viewer for the last couple of years. I was still catching up on 96 with those Best Of Raw tapes and a couple of the in Your Houses. I saw the Rumble, somehow, but otherwise I pretty much jumped from those tapes from the autumn of 1996 with their New Generation hangover vibe into Mania 13 being butchered for being too violent and then the Bret Hart turn. Those kids who turned off in 1993 and back on in the attitude era will know how it feels, and mine was only a 6 month period.

[mim731]

1 hour ago, garynysmon said:

Oh it was slashed big style!

I can't remember why but I only saw the repeat version and had it taped on VHS.

They showed the Chigaco Street Fight entrances, only to then cut to a caption noting they weren't showing the match as it was too violent.

For Austin/Bret they showed the match up to the first sign of blood, cue another caption and cutting to the aftermath with Bret kicking the shit out of Austin post-match.

  

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

I remember seeing that version too, Gar. I watched it at my Aunties as we didn't have Sky. Was really weird, especially for someone who'd been a really irregular viewer for the last couple of years. I was still catching up on 96 with those Best Of Raw tapes and a couple of the in Your Houses. I saw the Rumble, somehow, but otherwise I pretty much jumped from those tapes from the autumn of 1996 with their New Generation hangover vibe into Mania 13 being butchered for being too violent and then the Bret Hart turn. Those kids who turned off in 1993 and back on in the attitude era will know how it feels, and mine was only a 6 month period.

I had a very similar experience, I kinda dropped off wrestling for a bit around October 1996 through to April 1997 and I stumble on WrestleMania 13 being on TV having missed the Rumble and all WWF programming since and I was really confused that the matches were so butchered and I seem to recall they played a bit of the commentary from the streetfight but nothing more other than the entrances, it was really weird but actually put me back on to WWF after not really being interested at all in a while. To young impressionable Mim it all seemed so cool and edgy suddenly and I started following again week-to-week. 

[wandshogun09]

Ah, I only ever saw the live version of WrestleMania 13 so I can’t say I feel your pain on that. Airing that show like that sounds almost pointless. Bret vs Austin and the Chicago Street Fight were the only matches really worth a shit on thing.