Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.17.97

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.17.97

Time for a bit of a change in the RAW format.

– The WWF and USA both confirmed what had been rumored for weeks on 02/10, which is that Monday Night RAW is officially going to two hours live most weeks, in order to combat Nitro. The turning point was actually the terrible Skydome RAW, which cut the lead closer than it had been for months, and also propelled La Femme Nikita to a win over Robin Hood for the first time. RAW and Superstars will both be taped together on Monday nights.

– Meanwhile, Shotgun Saturday Night is being “reinvented”, which makes sense because there’s currently no further tapings scheduled for the show. The 2/8 show was kind of a disaster, to the point where Vince had to acknowledge people in Penn Station chanting “Boring” on air during a Nation of Domination match. (What? INCONCEIVABLE!)

– Dave is pretty worried about the live TV war that’s upcoming, judging by “some people having nasty habits that they better get in check or bigger problems than losing in the ratings are ahead”. (Hey yo, who could he possibly be talking about on Nitro, chico?).

– Dave is all about the UFC this week so we jump WAY ahead in the issue next.

– To AAA, where Antonio Pena filed a lawsuit against La Parka, claiming that Pena owns the rights to the name and gimmick. (Although it wouldn’t affect anything in the US, it would of course have huge ramifications in Mexico)

– To New Japan, where the nWo is all the rage with wrestling fans over there. Not even being facetious, as booking guys like Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell resulted in New Japan selling out mid-size buildings with them doing tag team matches in the midcard. They’re also doing big American style angles to push the nWo as the top heel group, such as Chono refusing to sign a contract with New Japan, which is leading to him signing a contract with the nWo instead. Also they’re copying the Sting angle from the US, with Muto playing the Sting role as the loner being courted by both sides. (The payoff was certainly different in this case.).

– New Japan is also trying to get Scott Hall & Kevin Nash to come over and work some shows for them. (I can only imagine Kevin Nash doing that tour. I hope it actually happened and that there was footage.).

– To Memphis, where Lance Russell actually returned to announce on the 2/8 show, although he’s refused to commit to a regular deal and mostly just wants to be retired and take vacation.

– Also on the show, Brian Pillman showed up as a heel and made fun of Lance’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and said he should call Dr. Jack Kevorkian for treatment. (Sadly, Lance outlived Pillman by decades.)

– With the weekly shows dying on Thursdays, they switched to Sunday for the latest one and tripled the crowd from 350 to nearly 1400. (Well problem solved then!).

– To ECW, where Rick Rude is still running around under a mask with everyone knowing it’s him but no one acknowledging it. Also Ricky Morton debuted a new valet for a match with Stevie Richards, and the fans were all chanting “Show your tits”, so Blue Meanie lifted up his shirt and flashed them.

– They are apparently going to add more bleachers to the Bingo Hall for the PPV, bringing the capacity to 2300, which Dave finds hard to believe considering all the equipment that will have to be crammed into the small space for the TV shoot as it is.

– For those of you waiting anxiously for the next chapter in the Billy Jack Haynes v. Matt Borne feud in Portland, they continued their war via radio show with Billy throwing out a challenge for a $10,000 winner take all SHOOT MATCH. Basically the beef now is that Haynes is making the wild claim that wrestling is a work, complete with testimonials from former wrestlers, while Borne bravely defends the honor of the sport and claims not to know about stuff like using a razor blade to cut himself. Haynes also accused Borne, and this is a shocker so I hope you’re sitting down, OF USING COCAINE. Borne’s comeback was that Haynes was lying in the past about getting propositioned by homosexuals while he was in the WWF. Haynes called him “Doink” for the big topper and presumably did the 1997 equivalent of the GIF with Bryan Cranston dropping the microphone.

– Don Harris recently sued a plastic surgeon for malpractice based on scars that were left on his chest. (He wanted them to look MORE like a swastika, not less!)

– To WCW, where the Nitro shows are getting more convoluted. (Just wait until he gets to 2000).

– Dave clarifies the existence of Ace Darling & Devon Storm as “The Extreme Team” and getting squashed regularly. See, originally Tony Rumble originally came up with the name “The X-Tremists” as a team name for them because he was a big fan of the X-Treme Games on ESPN, but then the WCW braintrust signed them and changed the name to the “Extreme Team” and billed them from Stamford in order to take shots at both ECW and the WWF at the same time. (Feels like this needs a WCW Deep Cuts short!)

– Kevin Sullivan did a nonsense interview where he talked about how he was best friends with “Paul E”, which was true, and then did a whole bit about Jim Barnett manipulating everything behind the scenes in WCW. Meanwhile, Kevin and Nancy have taken their worked relationship troubles to a new place by actually separating in an effort to convince “the boys” that they’re separated for real and not just as an angle on TV. (I’m sure it’ll all work out fine for them.).

– WCW cracked down on people talking about contract status stuff on the hotlines, after there was heat about Harlem Heat potentially jumping to the WWF being discussed extensively on them.

– Hulk Hogan appeared for a press conference in Montreal, hyping a 4/11 show with himself against Jacques Rougeau in the main event. Plus a semi-main of Pierre v. The Giant in a PIRATE MATCH where Giant has to wear an eyepatch. Anyway the best line of the conference came when Jacques asked Hulk how old he was, and Hulk said 43. Jacques then laughed and quipped “I asked how old you were, not how many years you’ve been wrestling.” Second-most notable thing was Hulk sulking about local reporter Jack Todd being a legit 6’6” and standing next to Hogan for photos, which resulted in Hulk throwing a fit and demanding that Todd hunch over when standing near Hulk so it wouldn’t kill his gimmick. (And people wonder why Hulk turned out to be a Trump supporter.)

– Dave notes to “expect Sting back in the ring later rather than sooner” which is an understatement if there ever was one.

– They did the massive TV tapings at the Disney studios on 2/6 and they care so little about them at this point that no big stars even appeared and there was no hint of any future plans because nothing happened outside of a parade of squashes.

– Souled Out turned out to be a massive flop on PPV, doing a buyrate that was half of Starrcade, which Dave attributes to stuff like the Robin Hood match killing interest in the Hogan-Giant match.

– To the WWF, which hyped up the Toronto Skydome RAW as the largest crowd in the history of Monday night wrestling with 23127 paid. Dave notes that the show was taped on 1/31, which wasn’t actually a Monday. (Legit laugh from me on that one.).

– Vince McMahon appeared on a radio show in Chicago and there were hints that the Road Warriors might be brought in.

– Yokozuna is said to have lost 310 pounds. Dave is skeptical. (Maybe it was the setup for a joke about Yoko breaking up with a girlfriend and Dave just missed the punchline?).

– The final live Shotgun show on 2/8 saw Hunter Hearst Helmsley take the famous tombstone from Undertaker on the escalator. (Well might as well go out with a winner.).

– The plan is still for Billy Gunn to return in a wheelchair and pop up to destroy Bart Gunn, ala the Sandman-Dreamer angle from ECW. (Boy THAT one sure ended up going in a drastically different direction for Billy)

– And finally, Al Snow is getting a new gimmick where he’ll wear a mask and feud with the AAA wrestlers. (Or…not.).

AND THAT’S THE NEWS AND I’M OUTTA HERE.