Mike Books WWF Shotgun Saturday Night 16th January 1999

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

We’re continuing on with booking Shotgun. If you’ve been following these then I hope you’re enjoying them, and if you’d like to get up to date on previous editions you can do so by checking the archives. I will post a recap of last week’s show down below the break line as well.

Hopefully ya’ll have some fun whilst we book some Shotgun!

Last week on Shotgun;

Bob Holly and Scorpio picked up a hard-fought clean win over Skull and 8-Ball

Tiger Ali Singh antagonised the local fans before putting away Steve Bradley

Gangrel and Edge got the duke over young Matt and Jeff Hardy after a nip and tuck encounter

Animal and Droz picked up a win over Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor, with Animal trying to include Droz in the finish but then deciding to take it home himself due to Droz being distracted by Christopher. A salty Droz turned on his partner following the bout, leading to Hawk making his return to rescue his old partner and reunite The Road Warriors

And with you all brought up to speed, let’s move on to this week’s show;

This taping took place on the 10th of January 1999 from San Antonio, Texas
Episode aired on the 16th of January 1999

Three Shows were held;

Shotgun Taping
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=3825

Super Astros Taping
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=15845

Live airing of Sunday Night HeAT
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=8437

Show Intro

We get the opening credits and then the announce team run us through what we can expect to see on tonight’s edition of Shotgun.

1 Minute Total for Segment
1 Minute Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 1
Droz Vs Khris Germany

Germany is supposed to work a dark match prior to the HeAT taping with Rod Begnaud, so that match can either still go ahead if they want it to or this can be his only appearance on this particular night if they choose not to use him afterwards. This is a squash win for Droz now that he’s walked away from LOD 2000. Droz will be returned to his prior ring attire and he will make quick work of Germany before picking up the clean win. Following the bout Droz will grab a mic and will cut a live promo in front of the crowd where he lambasts The Road Warriors and comes clean about trying to make Hawk look bad so that he could usurp him in the team. Droz will not only mock Hawk but he will also mock Animal for being so gullible before leaving triumphant.

6 Minutes Total for Segment, Roughly 2 Minutes for the match and 4 Minutes for Entrance and Post-Match promo
7 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 2
Pre-Tape sit down interview featuring The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal), with Jim Cornette handling the interviewing duties

The Road Warriors recap what has happened to them since their return to the WWF in 1997, and actually give some props to Droz for coming so close to ending them. However, now they are reunited and stronger than ever, which means that Droz better sleep with both eyes open, because there is certain DOOM in his future. Awwwwww WHAT A RUSH!

2 Minutes Total for Segment
9 Minutes total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 3
Gangrel Vs Rod Begnaud

This is our second squash of the evening, as Gangrel gets an easy win over Begnaud. Germany and Begnaud can still do their dark match if the folks running HeAT still want to do it, but if not this is the only time he’ll work tonight. There is no post-match storyline stuff here. Gangrel just gets a quick win and gets to remind people that he exists.

3 Minutes Total for Segment. 2 Minutes for the Match. 1 Minute for Gangrel’s entrance (Begnaud will already being in the ring)
12 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 4
Sunday Night HeAT Recap

This is a segment reserved for recapping the notable events of the most recent episode of HeAT, seeing as this is a weekend syndicated show at the end of the day, whilst Raw and HeAT are the main two shows of the week. This segment exists not only to recap the previous episode of HeAT but also as a way to hype up and advertise any matches or segments that have been announced for the next episode.

2 Minutes Total for Segment
14 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 5
Tiger Ali Singh Vs Papi Chulo

Chulo is already booked for Super Astros, so I’m double booking him, but I don’t think it will hurt the Super Astros booking as he’s not going to be made to look silly or weak here. As with the previous two weeks, Tiger will insult the crowd, but on this occasion he will not only cut an anti-American promo but he’ll cut an anti-Mexican one as well, thus ensuring he can insult as many people as possible. Chulo will grab the mic and will do a quick promo in Spanish before adding a quick insult in English as well in order to pop the crowd and get them behind him in the match. Chulo will be the biggest challenge for Tiger yet, as this will be a full-on competitive match as opposed to a semi-squash like the last two weeks have been. Tiger will eventually manage to roll through on a cross body and pick up the win, although Chulo will have made him sweat first.

7 Minutes Total for Segment. 4 Minutes for the Match. 3 Minutes for Tiger’s entrance and the pre-match promo
21 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 6
Monday Night Raw Recap

This is a segment reserved for recapping the notable events of the most recent episode of Raw, seeing as this is a weekend syndicated show at the end of the day, whilst Raw and HeAT are the main two shows of the week. This segment exists not only to recap the previous episode of Raw but also as a way to hype up and advertise any matches or segments that have been announced for the next episode.

2 Minutes for Segment
23 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 7
Pre-Taped backstage promo with Edge, Michael Cole to interview

Edge is wrestling Val Venis tonight, so he can hype up the match here. Edge didn’t do a tonne of interviews at the time, so this should help him get some practice at it. The general gist of the promo is that Venis defeated Edge’s storyline brother Christian last week on HeAT, so Edge is looking for some payback for his Brood brethren.

1 Minute for Segment
24 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 8
Pay Per View Centre

This is where we let Dok Hendrix hype up the upcoming pay per view. If any matches are already announced then he can hype them here, and if we’re still waiting for any of the real meat of the pay per view to be advertised then we can look back at previous events in order to pad the segment out.

2 Minutes for Segment
26 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 9
Edge Vs Val Venis

This is a competitive match between two guys in the middle of the pack with aspirations of reaching higher. Venis wrestled Christian on a previous edition of HeAT, so this can be a logical follow-up seeing as Edge and Christian are storyline brothers. Venis is eventually going to be winning the IC Title from Ken Shamrock, so he’ll need to go over cleanly here, but prior to that the bout will have been competitive and Edge will get opportunities to look good until it’s time to look at the lights.

9 Minutes Total for Segment. 7 Minutes for the match. 2 Minutes for Entrances
35 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 10
Live Event Centre

This is where Dok Hendrix hypes up the next big event coming to YOUR local area. So it’s a long day for the poor sod in the recording booth, but we need to slip that stuff in on the syndicated show.

1 Minute for Segment
36 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

Segment 11
WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Corporation (Ken Shamrock and The Big Boss Man) Vs The J.O.B Squad (Bob Holly and Scorpio)

Holly and Scorpio got a win over The DOA last week, so they have a Title shot this week in order to show that wins and losses matter. Obviously I’m not going to be allowed to change the belts here on this syndicated show (and I wouldn’t even if I could to be honest, as I don’t think The J.O.B Squad should be the Champs) but the challengers will be able to have some near falls before it’s time for Holly to get Boss Man Slammed whilst Shamrock and Scorp scuffle on the floor. The Champs get a clean win, but the challengers aren’t buried, and we get to have the prestige of a Title bout on the show. If we can get the crowd to buy just one of the challenger’s near falls then we’ve overachieved.

9 Minutes Total for Segment. 7 Minutes for the match. 2 Minutes for Entrances
45 Minutes Total for Taping out of an available 45

End of Show

We were quite match heavy on Shotgun this week, with 30 minutes of the show dedicated to match segments (although not all of those 30 minutes featured actual in-ring wrestling). Storyline wise we kept Tiger Ali Singh’s insufferable Heel character going, with him having a sterner test here than he’s had previously. We kept Droz and The Road Warriors feud going as well, with Droz being given a chance to talk and explain his long running scheme at last. You could argue we maybe didn’t need the Gangrel squash and we could have allocated some more time to either Edge/Venis or the Tag Title match, but giving Gangrel the squash win keeps him in the people’s consciousness and seeing him do his entrance and then DDT an enhancement guy should be entertaining for the short time it spends on screen. The last two matches on the card actually got some reasonable time by TV standards, and hopefully as we keep going with these when can make Shotgun the show where you can at least expect one or two competitive matches longer than 3 minutes each week.

Hopefully I’ll see you all next week for more Shotgun!