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The Monday Night War Review: Episode Seventeen – ‘The Kliq’

December 17, 2014 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Monday Night War WWE WCW Raw Nitro

The Monday Night War Review: Episode Seventeen – ‘The Kliq’

-Already had an episode covering the n.W.o and DX so this one focusing on The Kliq will probably rehash some things, but I am hoping for some new information on The Curtain Call.

-Opening! Awesome!

-In the early 90s Ted Turner was changing the perception of WCW with the help of Eric Bischoff. Ted had a big check book and spent it to steal the WWF’s 2 biggest stars; Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage (take a drink). Duggan talks about how Turner offered guaranteed contracts, and guys needed to make the jump to support their family.

-Over in the WWF, Vince was rebuilding with a younger roster and the crown jewel of that roster was Shawn Michaels. They also mention Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) and we get a history of how he and Shawn met in Kansas City and rekindled things in the WWF. Nash joins next as Shawn’s on screen body guard and he is friends with Hall already. Nash tells story of how his first day in the company Shawn tells him he has a lot of heat for calling The Undertaker carrot-top, and needs Nash to protect. So Nash jokes that being Shawn’s body guard was a shoot. Nice!

-Out of the ring Shawn and Nash became great friends and it translated on camera as well. Shawn and Hall were working all the time and became better friends, and the next guy to join the group was Waltman. Waltman mentions at the time the shows weren’t attended well because Vince was in the middle of rebuilding things. The group was bonding though.

-Nash buries WCW Saturday Night and talks about how they would watch the show and knew it was horrible. The one guy
they liked though was Terra Rizing (HHH). So we get HHH telling the story of how he turned down guaranteed money to work 4 days a month for Bischoff to work 30 days with no guarantee for Vince. HHH says he wanted the opportunity to work and get better. So he jumps to the WWF and gets the Greenwich Blue Blood gimmick. Waltman, Nash, and Michaels all put over HHH and how they wanted him in their group.

-Taker talks about how people tend to migrate together, and it was easy to see why HHH gravitated to Shawn. HHH says he wanted to ride with guys he was friends with and guys that wanted to work to get to the top. Hall and Nash talk about how they were the first group to openly talk about what they got paid and realized how some things weren’t fair. HHH says that Lex Luger is the one that gave them the name of The Kliq.

-Cesaro talks about how when you have a bunch of guys working together getting along you can tell through the screen. Nash mentions they were all top of the card guys and thus were often working with each other. Shawn says it is always fun to work with your buddies.

-Over in WCW Nitro was launched and they were a serious threat to Vince’s empire. With a WAR brewing Vince started to rely more on The Kliq. Slaughter says Vince wanted guys that would offer ideas and it happened that Shawn and Diesel would always do so. Their rise to power rubbed some the wrong way, and in a great bit they get Shane Douglas to speak on their power. He talks about how it divided the locker room and how guys weren’t afraid of the Kliq as far as what they could do physically, but because of power they held. Shawn defends their actions and mentions they didn’t do anything except offer ideas. He talks shit on anyone that had a problem with them and wouldn’t say it to their faces.

-HHH and Nash say that if people were talking shit on them then they were going to give them a reason to. Each brings up how they would put a sign on their door reading “Kliq Only” and it would get the other boys heated because they had their owner dressing room.

-Lines started to get blurred as Shawn’s fans were referred to as The Kliq, and Dolph talks about how everyone loves Shawn now, but he was kind of a jerk back then. The War stayed pretty even with the WWF running on the power of the Kliq.

-Bischoff took note and knew he needed more talent, so he made an offer to Hall and Nash. Hall talks about how he showed Nash the contract he was getting from WCW. Nash asked Vince if he could match it and he said he couldn’t because he would have to do the same for Taker and others on that level. Nash gave his 90 days notice and Shawn says they all understood why they were leaving.

-The group has their last run at MSG, and they talk about how the fans were the smart there. They show the crowd chanting “you sold out” at Hall and he admits that he did, but he did so for his family. Nash says that since he and Shawn were closing the show he thought it would be cool if Hall and HHH came out after their match. They run the idea by Vince and he gives them his blessing.

-We get the classic hand held footage and after Shawn pins Nash, Hall heads down and hugs Shawn. They get Nash to his feet and then HHH heads down and all 4 men embrace as the crowd explodes. The reaction is pretty damn strong for it, but the boys in the back were pissed. First up is Steve Austin and he buries the idea and calls it bullshit. Awesome! Jake Roberts talks about how he understands that the 4 guys loved each other, but it was wrong to do it and especially to do it in Madison Square Garden. Steph and Vince both think it was a cool moment for the audience, but Vince says he was upset by it when it happened. Waltman says he was in rehab when it happened and it’s why he wasn’t there.

-Someone had to take the heat for it and only 2 guys left were Shawn and HHH. Shawn is the WWF Champion so he was bullet proof. That left HHH holding the bag and he had to take the brunt of the punishment. HHH knew he did the crime and accepted the fact that he had to do the time.

-May 27, 1996 Scott Hall shows up on Nitro through the crowd to kick off the n.W.o angle. I still get pumped every time I see it and probably always will. A few weeks later Nash shows up and everyone think the WWF is invading WCW. The talking heads talk about the fact that Hall and Nash were just on WWF TV and led to perception that they were invading WCW on behalf of Vince.

-The n.W.o angle helped led Nitro to ratings dominance and HHH talks about how they didn’t view Hall and Nash as the enemy, but they wanted to beat them. Speaking of HHH he was stuck getting buried on RAW week after week for punishment. JBL talks about how HHH was supposed to win King of the Ring that year, but that was thrown out as his continued punishment. He mentions that Steve Austin happened to be right place, right time. He says a lot of guys were wondering if HHH would get fed up and leave for WCW, but he stuck it out.

-Back in WCW Hall and Nash were joined by a heel Hulk Hogan to form the n.W.o. It was the greatest thing in the business at the time and it brought more talent to WCW. One of those was Waltman and he says Vince told him that if he wanted to go and get paid more money he would let him go. Waltman decided he needed to go for family reasons as well.

-Now with 3 members of The Clique in WCW, it started to divide the locker room. Hall talks about how he never saw Eric as a boss and more of a friend. Nash mentions they would prod Bischoff by saying things like “well, in New York we did things this way.” He says Sting got sick of hearing that and claims they were absolutely hated down there.

-Shawn was given his first run as WWF Champion during the n.W.o era and thus Shawn took the blame for the company getting their ass kicked. HHH thinks it did lead to a lot of Shawn’s anger and personal problems. Sunny pops up and says that Shawn treated his friends like gold, but if you weren’t his friend then there was trouble. Vince says there were times he wanted to kick Shawn’s ass. Bret mentions that there were rumors that Shawn was going to head to WCW. Shawn himself addresses the rumors and says it was never anything serious.

-So Shawn and HHH get paired on screen and they push for a more reality based show for the WWF. They cover how Shawn and HHH played “The Curtain Call” live on RAW and then tease Vince about it. I remember seeing that live and still have no idea what the point was other than an inside joke. Then again I was heavy into WCW at the time and may have missed any context as to why it was shown.

-Punk shows up (still labeled as WWE Superstar as they obviously haven’t edited that out yet) and talks about how Shawn and HHH were great on screen together and just an extension of their normal personality. Vince tells how the audience loved DX, so he was going to love DX. Even with the rise of DX, Nitro was still kicking ass.

-Now we had 2 versions of the Kliq running each organization. Nash calls it Kliq North and Kliq South and they were conquering the world. Nattie pops up and says there may not have been a DX without the n.W.o. Cole says DX pushed the envelope more than the n.W.o did. Sheamus talks about how DX didn’t grow too big like the n.W.o did. They all talk about how DX stayed true to their roots, while the n.W.o just went crazy with tossing black and white shirts on everyone. I agree the n.W.o got too large, but at same time they were supposed to be building to their own separate company so to speak and thus needed more than just 3 bodies.

-The Attitude Era is born in 1998 and that helped the WWF build momentum. Unfortunately for Shawn he screws up his back in a casket match with Taker at the Rumble. Shawn talks about how 36 hours after the match he woke up and couldn’t move. They talk about how he had to drop the title to Austin at Mania even with his bad back. Shawn knows he was medicating himself and thus didn’t feel much of the pain. He admits he was on pills and in a worse spot heading into Mania XIV than he was in 1996. Hayes says that there was a feeling the match may not happen because Shawn threatened it several times. HHH was doing all he could to take care of Shawn and get him ready for Mania.

-Down in WCW Waltman is rehabbing from a neck injury and gets fired because Bischoff was pissed at Hall and Nash. He couldn’t punish them because of their contracts so he got rid of their buddy. He was thrilled as he knew he was free and his contract was up right as Shawn was getting ready to leave.

-They show the post Mania press conference with Vince telling the press that Shawn wouldn’t be there due to his back. They all discuss how Shawn was in so much pain and then the next morning he was on a plane and was gone. That left a void and HHH had to step in to take over for DX. HHH says he knew he had to hit a homerun that night or it was going to be over. HHH knock one out of the park and he does so with a returning Waltman as Syxx. It was a rather big deal as he was the first bigger name to make the jump back. Waltman says Bischoff was expecting a call up until he showed up on RAW. Vince told him to say whatever he wanted and he does with a shoot that buries Bischoff and Hogan. Later in the night The Outlaws join DX and they are off and running.

-Two weeks later RAW wins a ratings battle for the first time in nearly two years. Waltman was experiencing a career resurgence and HHH was turning into a up and coming Main Event talent thanks to a great program with The Rock.

-By November of 1998 RAW was crushing Nitro on a weekly basis. WCW tried to counter by giving Nash more control of the book and then Nash ends Goldberg’s streak. Nash says he started booking 6 weeks after the match against Goldberg. He wanted $500,000 more to be the booker and they said done. He felt it was deserved because of all the heat that came with being in charge of the book.

-This all leads to The Finger Poke of Doom: Goldberg says it was Hogan and Nash playing their little games against the rest of the wrestling world. Nash admits it was his idea and that he will take the heat for it, but he got paid for it so whatever. Damn! Malenko buries the idea of a guy running booking and being the focus of the show and talks about how it was a disaster every time it was done. Nash says he threw his hands up in the air as he was given control of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. In a funny moment he mentions that at some point money isn’t everything and they could have offered him 10 years for $10 million, and chuckles that he probably would take that as well now that he thinks about it, but it would have been hard. Nice!

-We are up to November of 1999 and RAW is pulling in 6.0 ratings to WCW’s 3.0 (think about that joined audience that was watching wrestling each week and this is when WCW is failing). As we reached Jan of 2000 HHH was now the main man in the WWF. He was once considered the Kliq’s fifth wheel, but now was the WWF Champion. Everyone blows HHH and how even with all the crap he took he worked his way through to get to the top spot.

-Now we are up to March of 2001 and the death of WCW. Vince purchased the company and Nitro airs for the final time. That doesn’t end our story though as Hall and Nash come back to the WWE in 2002. They knew they weren’t going to be welcomed back with open arms because of their past. Things worked though as Vince was in control and this everyone worked as a team this time around.

-Shawn returns later in the year and works his first match in 4.5 years against HHH. He comes back and tears the roof off the building to show he was still better than 99% of the roster. His personal demons were behind him this time and it made for a more pleasant Shawn to deal with each week.

-For the first time in nearly a decade the entire group was back in the same company. Things wrap up with the talking heads discussing how controversial, but how successful the group was. Shawn talks about how each guy was pivotal in some of the greatest angles in wrestling and helped change the business. Vince mentions that the positives far outweighed the negatives. Steph calls them a family and she respects the bond they all have with each other through thick and thin. HHH says they are all like minded guys that had a passion for the business and wanted to do big things in and for the business. They show footage of all 5 guys at the Hall of Fame ceremony when Hall was inducted and Nash is proud of the fact they have all stayed true to each other.

Extra Thoughts: You kind of knew this one was going to be one big love fest about how awesome the group was, and that is what we got. Not to say that makes it a bad show because I enjoyed the episode and you can’t deny the role the group played during the MNW. Some of the stuff is rehashed, but we got enough new information to make this one worthwhile.