The journey begins with watching Monday Night Raw's offering on January 6, 1997, from Albany New York. Seems very typical WWF town of this day and age to be in. Commentary team is Vince McMahon doing play-by-play and the always amusing Jerry 'The King' Lawler adding in his heel perspective for color.
Great intro package to catch us up on the issues of the day between Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Sid and Vader.
The entrance video is very old school, there's no Raw is War or dynamic beginning.
--Opening match is Owen Hart vs. Mankind. Very odd match, no story behind it. And I think both are heels, or at least heelish. It's a pretty good match, as you would expect from two of the best workers at this time. Foley takes a brutal looking bump getting suplexed gut-first onto the railing. For basically no reason and no pop.
That's not a DQ, nor does the ref even leave the ring. He just watches as Owen hits Mankind with the tag team title. Mankind grabs a chair. The ref is just allowing all this! Preposterous. Mankind uses a gray plastic container looking thing and makes it go "dud" smacking it on Owen's head. No DQ.
The match moves on to the finish, Owen charges at Mankind in the corner, but he moves and Owen flies into the post shoulder first. Mankind gets the pinfall after delivering a piledriver.
Rating^: 2.5 out of 5. Physical match, not sure why they took a couple of shots that they did for an opening match that seemingly is going no where and just a throwaway. Plus who is the babyface here? The two workers were solid though and it was a fun one to enjoy.
*
Video promos to remind us the 1997 Royal Rumble is two weeks away
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Shawn Michaels cuts a promo backstage with his mentor Jose Lothario. They, along with Lothario's son warn Pyscho Sid that any antics he tries to pull at Royal Rumble in the title match will not be tolerated as Shawn attempts to win back the world title. Pretty basic setup promo. Shawn will also be giving guest
**
--Oh my God, fake Razor Ramon and Fake Diesel (aka a young Glenn Jacobs who would somehow salvage a career after this debacle and go on to bigger and better things as Kane) but first these two guys are coming out to a full intro like normal Razor and Diesel. Pyro and everything.
Out next are Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon, who to be honest I don't really remember much about all these years later. They're the babyfaces and a long match happens. They're actually doing a "real" match with Razor/Diesel. This isn't a squash or a joke, they're really presenting it like these guys are a normal team. This is really bizarre and weird.
Honky Tonk man is doing guest announcing and keeps putting over that he's trying to find a worthy protege, but it's not going anywhere and seems dead in the water already. Plants a seed to see where this will go, but as of now as an observer I give 0 cares.
Rating: 0 out of 5. The action was plodding and slow. "Diesel" did a good job trying to get heat and give a good comeback spot for the hot tag, but it fizzled. Furnas and Lafon were not impressive here to me. It was boring. And it's not really Diesel and Razor. This probably didn't make a lot of sense then, it makes none now. Plus McMahon plugged that Diesel and Razor are entered in the Royal Rumble, so this isn't going away soon.
**
Bret Hart gives an interview backstage to McMahon and Lawler. Bret is catty as usual towards Shawn Michaels and ready to compete tonight against Vader. I was a HUGE Bret Hart fan as a kid, but this one is forgettable.
**
Sid comes to the ring to talk to Jim Ross. He's playing the pyscho angle. Michaels interrupts and heads to ring side, stands on the table and does a strip-tease thing with his coat. Crowd likes this.
**
It's now time for Bret Hart and Vader. Brief shot of Austin watching on the monitor from backstage. Bret. They're having a pretty good match. Sid comes out from the back, grabs a cameraman and drags him towards the back.
Out of no where we cut to a new camera and Austin is standing next to Bret out of the ring. He delivers a stunner in the walkway, with Vader having the refs attention. Austin leaves. Vader throws Bret in the ring and splashes him for the pin.
After the match, the camera cuts to Sid in the locker room. He powerbombs Lothario's (adult) son onto a table (which doesn't break). Sid also does this while wearing the WWF title around his waist, which seemed like a funny thing to do. Shawn sprints back, he's upset.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Would have liked to see the actual match go longer, especially considering they had plenty of time for the bad tag team match. Vader and Bret weren't really there to tell a story in the ring though, being as we had a screw finish with Stone Cold attacking Bret (unprovoked). And this main event was used to advance the WWF title story with Michaels/Sid added in. Felt a bit unnecessary to weave this in together.
***
Overall: The show is 48 minutes now on the WWE Network with commercials edited out, but it felt like 2 hours with the middle dragging through the Fake Diesel/Razor match that was not a good match and just a dreadful angle they're doing there. Owen/Mankind was good but seemingly purpose-less. The main event level story is building towards Royal Rumble and it worked great here to keep stoking that fire.
Overall though, probably a 3.5 out of 10 rating for this show. It's the first Raw of 1997 (well, actually it was taped 12/30/1996, but...you know). It felt like 1993 or 1994, a fairly uneventful show that didn't have a lot going on. In some ways this is probably a great starting point for this series, as it's very much a Raw that doesn't have a lot of Attitude. But they were showing highlights of Shotgun Saturday Night, including a shot from behind of Marlena climbing up to the ring and taking down the front of her dress to distract, so the storm of massive change isn't that far off in the distance.
^I'm going to rate each match. For me, it's mostly based on enjoyment, but also factors in the bigger picture of what the story is, and probably docks my enjoyment if there's no angle or build going on. My rating could be way different than another observers, but it's just my 2 cents on the matter.
Next - I'll check in with the WCW Monday Nitro show from this same night to see what the other company and channel was offering at this time. Unlike the WWF, I suspect WCW had a lot of "attitude" going already with the nWo in the picture and more realism-based stories being told.
Great intro package to catch us up on the issues of the day between Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Sid and Vader.
The entrance video is very old school, there's no Raw is War or dynamic beginning.
--Opening match is Owen Hart vs. Mankind. Very odd match, no story behind it. And I think both are heels, or at least heelish. It's a pretty good match, as you would expect from two of the best workers at this time. Foley takes a brutal looking bump getting suplexed gut-first onto the railing. For basically no reason and no pop.
That's not a DQ, nor does the ref even leave the ring. He just watches as Owen hits Mankind with the tag team title. Mankind grabs a chair. The ref is just allowing all this! Preposterous. Mankind uses a gray plastic container looking thing and makes it go "dud" smacking it on Owen's head. No DQ.
The match moves on to the finish, Owen charges at Mankind in the corner, but he moves and Owen flies into the post shoulder first. Mankind gets the pinfall after delivering a piledriver.
Rating^: 2.5 out of 5. Physical match, not sure why they took a couple of shots that they did for an opening match that seemingly is going no where and just a throwaway. Plus who is the babyface here? The two workers were solid though and it was a fun one to enjoy.
*
Video promos to remind us the 1997 Royal Rumble is two weeks away
*
Shawn Michaels cuts a promo backstage with his mentor Jose Lothario. They, along with Lothario's son warn Pyscho Sid that any antics he tries to pull at Royal Rumble in the title match will not be tolerated as Shawn attempts to win back the world title. Pretty basic setup promo. Shawn will also be giving guest
**
--Oh my God, fake Razor Ramon and Fake Diesel (aka a young Glenn Jacobs who would somehow salvage a career after this debacle and go on to bigger and better things as Kane) but first these two guys are coming out to a full intro like normal Razor and Diesel. Pyro and everything.
Out next are Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon, who to be honest I don't really remember much about all these years later. They're the babyfaces and a long match happens. They're actually doing a "real" match with Razor/Diesel. This isn't a squash or a joke, they're really presenting it like these guys are a normal team. This is really bizarre and weird.
Honky Tonk man is doing guest announcing and keeps putting over that he's trying to find a worthy protege, but it's not going anywhere and seems dead in the water already. Plants a seed to see where this will go, but as of now as an observer I give 0 cares.
Rating: 0 out of 5. The action was plodding and slow. "Diesel" did a good job trying to get heat and give a good comeback spot for the hot tag, but it fizzled. Furnas and Lafon were not impressive here to me. It was boring. And it's not really Diesel and Razor. This probably didn't make a lot of sense then, it makes none now. Plus McMahon plugged that Diesel and Razor are entered in the Royal Rumble, so this isn't going away soon.
**
Bret Hart gives an interview backstage to McMahon and Lawler. Bret is catty as usual towards Shawn Michaels and ready to compete tonight against Vader. I was a HUGE Bret Hart fan as a kid, but this one is forgettable.
**
Sid comes to the ring to talk to Jim Ross. He's playing the pyscho angle. Michaels interrupts and heads to ring side, stands on the table and does a strip-tease thing with his coat. Crowd likes this.
**
It's now time for Bret Hart and Vader. Brief shot of Austin watching on the monitor from backstage. Bret. They're having a pretty good match. Sid comes out from the back, grabs a cameraman and drags him towards the back.
Out of no where we cut to a new camera and Austin is standing next to Bret out of the ring. He delivers a stunner in the walkway, with Vader having the refs attention. Austin leaves. Vader throws Bret in the ring and splashes him for the pin.
After the match, the camera cuts to Sid in the locker room. He powerbombs Lothario's (adult) son onto a table (which doesn't break). Sid also does this while wearing the WWF title around his waist, which seemed like a funny thing to do. Shawn sprints back, he's upset.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Would have liked to see the actual match go longer, especially considering they had plenty of time for the bad tag team match. Vader and Bret weren't really there to tell a story in the ring though, being as we had a screw finish with Stone Cold attacking Bret (unprovoked). And this main event was used to advance the WWF title story with Michaels/Sid added in. Felt a bit unnecessary to weave this in together.
***
Overall: The show is 48 minutes now on the WWE Network with commercials edited out, but it felt like 2 hours with the middle dragging through the Fake Diesel/Razor match that was not a good match and just a dreadful angle they're doing there. Owen/Mankind was good but seemingly purpose-less. The main event level story is building towards Royal Rumble and it worked great here to keep stoking that fire.
Overall though, probably a 3.5 out of 10 rating for this show. It's the first Raw of 1997 (well, actually it was taped 12/30/1996, but...you know). It felt like 1993 or 1994, a fairly uneventful show that didn't have a lot going on. In some ways this is probably a great starting point for this series, as it's very much a Raw that doesn't have a lot of Attitude. But they were showing highlights of Shotgun Saturday Night, including a shot from behind of Marlena climbing up to the ring and taking down the front of her dress to distract, so the storm of massive change isn't that far off in the distance.
^I'm going to rate each match. For me, it's mostly based on enjoyment, but also factors in the bigger picture of what the story is, and probably docks my enjoyment if there's no angle or build going on. My rating could be way different than another observers, but it's just my 2 cents on the matter.
Next - I'll check in with the WCW Monday Nitro show from this same night to see what the other company and channel was offering at this time. Unlike the WWF, I suspect WCW had a lot of "attitude" going already with the nWo in the picture and more realism-based stories being told.
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