Raw History: Episode 226 and Reliving Nitro: Episode 106

One Night Only Results
Hunter Hearst Helmsley def. Dude Love in 12:53
Tiger Ali Singh def. Leif Cassidy in 4:01
WWF Tag Team Championship: The Headbangers [c] def. Los Boricuas in 13:34
The Patriot def. Flash Funk in 8:49
The Legion of Doom def. The Godwinns in 10:44
Vader def. Owen Hart in 12:15
WWF Championship: Bret Hart [c] def. The Undertaker via DQ in 28:35
WWE European Championship: Shawn Michaels def. British Bulldog [c] in 22:32

Raw History
Episode #226
September 22nd, 1997 | Madison Square Garden in New York, New York

WWF Champion: Bret Hart (5) since 8/3/97
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Vacant since 9/8/97
WWF European Champion: Shawn Michaels (1) since 9/20/97
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Headbangers (1) since 9/7/97

With this being the first ever Raw broadcast from Madison Square Garden, the show opened with a video package on the arena’s history. You get the sense this episode is a big deal.

Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were on commentary.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament Quarterfinals: Ahmed Johnson vs. Rocky Maivia
Commissioner Slaughter arrived during Rocky’s entrance and ejected the NOD. Loud “Rocky sucks” chants. It’s Ahmed’s return, which I’ve said too often on these reviews. JR announced that Ken Shamrock had a punctured lung and was out of the tournament, so Faarooq advanced in his place. Ahmed came out firing and sent Rocky reeling. Capt. Lou Albano strolled out to ringside to take notes. Didn’t he already do this gimmick with the tag division in 1994? Ahmed got dumped outside, cutting his hand on an announce table, because that’s the kind of luck he had. Ahmed made a short comeback and won with the Pearl River Plunge in 4:56. About the best we could get from these two at this time. Ahmed vs. Faarooq in the next round, because that will never end. [*]

Commentary ran down some of the card for tonight until glass shattered and Steve Austin’s voice was heard. He stood in the crowd among rabid fans and promised that someone would get their ass whooped tonight.

ONE NIGHT ONLY ~ Shawn Michaels dethroning British Bulldog for the European Title was shown.

Vince McMahon brought out Undertaker for an interview. He mentioned that the winner of Hell in a Cell would earn a WWF Title shot at Survivor Series. Undertaker said some generic comments about it being Shawn’s judgment day. Shawn would only win over Taker’s dead body, but since he can’t die, it won’t happen. New European Champion Shawn Michaels interrupted to say all these stipulations were set in place to continue the conspiracy against him. He shouldn’t have to earn this title match because he’s a grand slam champion. Shawn closed by saying that, unless you’re a hot mama, he lays down for nobody. Neither guy really said anything new here, though the added stipulation to the match was good.

Faarooq and Kama vs. The Legion of Doom
Sunny performed guest commentary duties. I wonder if she started scouting for LOD 2000 here. Animal hit some power based stuff on Kama. Hawk and Faarooq got a short bit of work before things broke down. LOD set Faarooq up for the Doomsday Device, but Rocky and D-Lo Brown hit the ring for the DQ at 2:32. Not much of a match. They just waited for the angle. [NR]

With no Ken Shamrock in the building, Ahmed Johnson got to make the save. Unfortunately, he didn’t do well enough and just succumbed to a beating too.

MSG MOMENT ~ Jimmy Snuka hits his infamous dive off a cage onto Don Muraco.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament Semi-Finals: Brian Pillman w/ Marlena vs. Owen Hart
Owen’s debuted his “Black Hart” theme here. Pillman came out with a sling, saying he broke his arm while having fun with Marlena in the shower. He attempted to forfeit but Sarge arrived to question it. He outsmarted Pillman by throwing the microphone at him, which Pillman caught. The match was on. They worked it as half speed until Marlena hit Owen with her purse and blamed it on Pillman. Just as things got good after a few solid exchanges, Goldust rushed out and hit Owen, getting Pillman disqualified in 3:56. The match was nothing, though it picked up quite well after the purse. [*½]

Pillman scattered with Marlena, while officials held Goldust back. Owen got on the mic and dedicated the win to Bret Hart. The fans popped as Steve Austin attacked him from behind. Officers got in to control him, prompting Vince McMahon to jump in the ring with a microphone. Vince claimed to understand Austin’s frustrations, but advised him not to break the law. He’s not competing because he’s not cleared. Vince implored Austin to work “within the system.” Austin said he was the best at what he does and he’d work within the system because the WWF cared. He then told Vince to kiss his ass and planted him with a Stunner. Vince hilariously oversold it. The fans went nuts and the cops put Austin in handcuffs. This planted the seeds for the Austin/McMahon rivalry that would turn things around for the WWF in the coming years. An incredible moment.

WAR ZONE!

We’re not done with the great segments. A Falls Count Anywhere Match between Dude Love and Hunter Hearst Helmsley was scheduled next. Dude appeared on the Titantron to say this kind of match doesn’t work for him. Instead, his main man would be a better fit. Mankind joined him on the screen, but decided there’s someone who is an even better fit. CACTUS JACK IS BACK! Cactus joined the screen to a pop to say Mrs. Foley’s baby boy was coming out. Hunter was beside himself as Cactus came out for his WWF debut.

Falls Count Anywhere: Cactus Jack vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley w/ Chyna
Cactus brought a trash can full of weapons with him. They brawled on the ramp until Cactus hit a swinging neckbreaker on the exposed concrete. When he landed on his feet on a clothesline over the top, Cactus stopped for some “BANGBANG” and the fans loved it. Chyna sent Cactus over the guardrail, sending the fight to the backstage area. Back towards the ring and Hunter took a bump that knocked the guardrail over. Cactus just launched the trash can into Hunter’s face, but he missed a big elbow and landed on it. Hunter took control following a commercial. Chyna leveled Cactus with a chair shot to the face, but he no sold it. HHH shoved him into her, causing her to hit her head on the steel steps. The fight moved to the stage, where an unstable table was set up. HHH wanted a Pedigree through it, but Cactus blocked and delivered a PILEDRIVER THROUGH THE TABLE! That got the 1-2-3 at 9:14. The best work of HHH’s career to date. The fans were rabid for Cactus and this was a great match that was different from most of what we were getting on a weekly basis. [****]

MSG MOMENT ~ Andre the Giant beats Big John Studd at WrestleMania 1.

ONE NIGHT ONLY ~ A deeper look into Shawn Michaels’ controversial win over British Bulldog was shown.

That brought out Shawn Michaels, carrying a steel chair. He sat on it in the ring and called out the Undertaker’s “dead ass” so he could slap him around, main event style. Whoa. It was all a setup, as Undertaker was jumped from behind by a bandaged HHH. Shawn whacked Taker with the chair a few times, before Rick Rude and Chyna joined in on the beating. D-GENERATION X! Not yet, but you get the picture. They wailed on him, but scurried once he got to his feet.

Bret Hart came out for the main event and said it didn’t matter who won Hell in a Cell. He’s never been afraid of the Undertaker and said Shawn’s days were numbered.

Non-Title Match: WWF Champion Bret Hart vs. Goldust
Goldust looked to take out his frustrations on Pillman’s buddy. Bret slowed the pace and targeted the knee in a way that’s Bret at his best. He applied the ring post figure four, which I always pop for. Shawn Michaels strolled out to the stage for a closer look. Shouldn’t the Undertaker be looking for him? Through a commercial break, Bret remained in control by working the leg. Goldust’s comeback featured a few moves he shouldn’t have hit with his bad leg. Bret went for the middle rope elbow, but Goldust got his foot up. Instead of Bret getting hit with it, he caught it and set it up for the Sharpshooter, which made Goldust submit in 9:45. Solid little main event. Bret was so damn good, but Goldust was kind of just there. [**½]

Bret held in the Sharpshooter for a bit, until Michaels hit the ring and attacked him. The rivals traded blows, leading HHH and Chyna to hit the scene. They jumped Bret until Owen Hart arrived. Bulldog limped out, followed by Rude. Jim Neidhart made his return to join the fight. The fans came unglued as Undertaker cleaned house. He dropped HBK and Bret with an awesome double chokeslam to close things out.

Reliving Nitro
Episode #106
September 22nd, 1997 | E Center in Salt Lake City, Utah

WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Hulk Hogan (3) 8/9/97
WCW United States Champion: Curt Hennig (1) since 9/15/97
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Outsiders (3) since 2/24/97
WCW Television Champion: Alex Wright (1) since 8/21/97
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Eddie Guerrero (1) since 9/14/97

Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko were on hour one commentary. While they hyped the show (Jeff Jarrett vs. Curt Hennig for the US Title), Eric Bischoff headed over to the booth. He got in Larry’s face, saying he had no right to interfere at Fall Brawl. Bischoff threatened Larry if he ever did it again. Schiavone got up to leave, but Larry stopped him. Bischoff left, so Larry sent it to footage from The Great American Bash 1996, when the Outsiders beat up Bischoff. Larry did it to remind everyone that Eric’s a gutless coward. He added that if Eric lost his power, the nWo would toss him aside.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Silver King
Silver King was dressed like a 1997 Texano. Rey gave his mask to a kid again. He flew around the ring in complete control of this match. Raven showed up, walking down the stands. After King got two on a rollup, Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero strolled to ringside. Rey won with the springboard rana at 3:24. Mostly a squash, but they’re doing good to get Rey more over. [NR]

Eddie argued with the referee about something, so Rey hopped over the official and took Eddie out with a somersault plancha.

Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus
Oh, boy. It’s the debut of future WWE Universal Champion, Bill Goldberg. Goldberg got jobber entrance treatment. Commentary said they knew nothing about him. He went for a knee bar but Morrus reached the ropes. Morrus hit No Laughing Matter but Goldberg kicked out to the surprise of many. He no sold an elbow and hit a great powerslam before winning with the JACKHAMMER in 2:45. DA MAN has arrived. [NR]

Mean Gene attempted to get a word with Goldberg, but he walked on without speaking.

THE FOLLOWING ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN PAID FOR BY THE NEW WORLD ORDER ~ This focused on recapping the “MY SPOT” promo.

NITRO GIRLS!

FALL BRAWL ~ We recap Larry Zbyszko, not even the match’s ref, fast counting for Luger.

WCW Television Championship: Alex Wright [c] vs. Disco Inferno
Wright got a ton of heat. Schiavone noted that he thought these two would be friends or partners. The early stuff wasn’t much and after a commercial, all they did was slap each other. Alex eventually got crotched up top to a pop. That setup a Disco comeback that didn’t get much reaction. They both went for a cross body and Disco landed on top, scoring the three to win the title in 6:46. Why? Wright’s been great for months, while Disco is kind of just there. Match did nothing for me. [¾*]

Jacqueline brought Mean Gene down to the ring with her. She wanted to talk to Disco. She basically said she could beat Disco for the title, but he mostly ignored it and walked off.

Scott Hall and Syxx came out to cut a promo. Hall gave us the first official survey. It got a surprisingly mixed reaction. He ran down Lex Luger and Larry Zbyszko, before offering to give Larry a wrestling lesson. Larry popped up from the booth to a pretty huge pop. However, Larry didn’t get in the ring, so Hall ridiculed him some more. He threw in a crotch chop. Larry wanted WCW to send someone out. They responded with Hector Garza.

Hector Garza vs. WCW World Tag Team Champion Scott Hall w/ Syxx
The Tag Title is not important enough for Hall to bring with him. Hall dominated this, nailing a super fall away slam. Hall took his time, jawing with the referee. Because of it, Garza rolled Hall up and won with a fast count at 1:34. The pop was great. [NR]

A furious Hall dropped Garza with an Outsider’s Edge. He picked up Mark Curtis, addressed Zbyszko through the camera to come get some, and planted him with the Outsider’s Edge as well.

HOUR NUMBER TWO! Bobby Heenan replaced Zbyszko.

Ciclope, Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr. and Ultimo Dragon vs. La Parka, Psychosis and Los Villanos w/ Sonny Oono
Oono and his guys stopped in the aisle to take the old school equivalent of a selfie. No tags in this one, as it was contested under lucha rules. Parka, Juvi, Dragon and Psychosis all got in some fast paced stuff to start. The Villano boys slowed things a bit. One took a weak bump to the outside. Things broke down as everyone entered the ring during a near fall. Lizmark had the good idea of a cartwheel dive, but performed it poorly. Other dives followed, with Ciclope getting folded on the guardrail. Oono stopped a Dragonrana, which allowed Psychosis to try a dive. Dragon moved and Oono took it instead. He put Psychosis in the Dragon Sleeper outside, while Juvi hit a sweet springboard headscissors to beat La Parka inside at 4:43. A bit of a mess, but fun. It would’ve worked better without the Villanos, Ciclope and Lizmark. [**]

Mean Gene stood in the ring and introduced interim commissioner Roddy Piper. The fans were still way into Hot Rod. He came with announcements, booking Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall for Halloween Havoc, with Larry Zbyszko as the guest referee. He noted that WCW wanted to ban cage matches for being too violent, which was exactly why he wanted Hogan in that kind of match. They think they’re too violent because Benoit got a concussion at Fall Brawl. Yikes. Piper ended by promising to slam Hogan’s head in the cage often and make Mike Tyson look like a vegetarian (huh?). The nWo may be 4LIFE, but Piper is forever.

The Faces of Fear vs. The Steiner Brothers w/ Ted Dibiase
I feel like the matches between these two almost never live up to what I hope for. Meng and Scott started, with Meng no selling his shit. Oh, boy. He took a slam and regrouped outside with the Barbarian, who took a STEINERLINE. Rick and Barbarian went at it next. Rick hit a sweet slam before Scott got tagged and delivered a dragon suplex. What is happening? Meng got a blind tag, leading to the backdrop into a powerbomb spot. Scott took a beating for a bit but made the hot tag after a double STEINERLINE. They went for the big bulldog but it was cut off. Meng missed the Kick of Fear, only to catch Rick with the Tongan Death Grip for the upset in 5:26. They finally had the kind of match I’ve been hoping for. They just threw bombs at each other for five minutes. [***¼]

It’s time for Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, to a dubbed over version of “Voodoo Child.” Hogan wore Ric Flair’s robe that Curt Hennig gifted him last week, with cut sleeves. He thanked Hennig for the trophy, before focusing on Piper. He told Piper to get a life, while Bischoff threatened Roddy to stop trying to run roughshod over the company he built. In Hogan’s mind, there’s no way Piper beats him. That’s it. The segment ended with nothing of real note happening. Where’s Sting, by the way?

Randy Savage w/ Elizabeth vs. Stevie Richards
I’d be surprised if Stevie got in any offense. Savage got on the mic before the match to give Elizabeth a phony interview. He asked for her thoughts on DDP. She said he’s just living in Savage’s shadow. He then gifted Liz to Hennig as a manager for later. Elizabeth got physically involved, which commentary made note of. The only other interesting thing to happen was Savage coming face to face with Raven after beating up Stevie in front of him. Liz got in between them and Savage won with the elbow at 3:15. A squash with a cool Raven/Savage staredown. [NR]

Raven hopped the guardrail and came face to face with Savage in the ring. Unfortunately, Raven just planted Stevie with the Evenflow and left.

Booker T w/ Jacqueline vs. Konnan and Scott Norton w/ Vincent
This wasn’t supposed to be a handicap match, but Stevie’s injured. So why would WCW book this? Booker fought valiantly and had to try and overcome Vincent’s interference. He nearly won but Norton broke up his pin with a lariat. The nWo used a spike piledriver, but instead of going for the win, they all jumped Booker for a DQ finish at 2:28. Nobody saved Booker from the beating. Good job, WCW.[NR]

NITRO GIRLS!

WCW United States Championship: Curt Hennig [c] w/ Elizabeth vs. Jeff Jarrett w/ Debra
I guess Liz acting as an answer to Debra makes sense. The crowd wasn’t really feeling Jarrett, which made sense since he’s a heel. Even though Curt is nWo, they’re not in the mood to root for Double J. This was worked at a slow place with Hennig using a similar strategy to last week. He missed a chair shot and ended up eating it himself. Jarrett fought out of a sleeper with a jawbreaker and looked to take over. He went for the Figure Four, but Liz distracted the referee. That brought out Randy Savage to knock him out with the US Title. Hennig picked up a lifeless Jarrett and hit the Hennigplex to retain in 8:52 It went too long for what it was and the dead crowd didn’t help. [*¾]

The rest of the nWo, including Hogan, came out to celebrate. They began putting the boots to Jarrett and beating him up. The Giant hit the scene to scare off the nWo as the show went off the air.

Raw MVP: Steve Austin/Cactus Jack
Raw LVP: Ahmed Johnson
Nitro MVP: The Faces of Fear
Nitro LVP: Hulk Hogan

Raw Rating: 2.4
Nitro Rating: 3.7

7.8

The final score: review Good

The 411

Raw: I know the first hour wasn’t that great, but when you have such an explosive second hour, the show just got taken to the next level. We got a great Cactus/HHH match, a solid main event and several great segments. Austin stunning McMahon is one of the most pivotal moments in company history, while the three faces of Foley segment is memorable and the show closing brawl ruled. A huge thumbs up for entertainment and historical value. 9.0

Nitro: Kind of a historic episode due to the debut of Goldberg, but nowhere near the level of this week’s Raw. The Faces of Fear/Steiners tag was a blast, while most of the other matches were either squashes that moved things forward, or at least decent. The Zbyszko stuff was mostly strong, Garza’s upset was a fun surprise and the Savage/Raven faceoff made me crave a feud between them. The Hogan promo was pointless, though. 6.5