Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.24.97 (Part One)

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.24.97

Finally got a chance to get back on the horse with these, but of course the next one up is so gigantic that we need to split it into two posts!

So this one ended up being a pretty significant week in hindsight.

– The strangest week in WWF history ended with three WWF title changes, the end of Shawn Michaels’ career, an ECW invasion, beginning of live RAWs, a surprise IC title change, lots of steroids, and the beginning of Wrestlemania season. And that was all in five days!

– When all was said and done, Sid ended up with the big belt again, as Shawn never lost it to anyone and Bret never won it from anyone. And now Bret is probably wondering if he made the worst professional decision of his life signing that new contract.

(Seems likely.)

– So at the moment, the main event for Wrestlemania in Chicago is now Sid defending the World title against Undertaker. The plan for Shawn Michaels to be involved appears to be out, due to the teased end of his career. The damage is apparently so bad that even reconstructive surgery can’t fix the extensive knee injury, at least according to Shawn’s tearful farewell on the Thursday RAW. By the end of the week, his career-ending injury had been downgraded to not even needing surgery and maybe needing six weeks of rehab with Dr. James Andrews. Although, as Dave notes, Shawn’s main problem during the interview did not appear to be a knee injury, if you get what he’s saying.

– Indeed, Shawn might even be ready to do some special referee gigs by the summer and return full-time by the fall. (Or, hear me out, he might come back sooner and work even more…)

– In other news from Thursday RAW, Rocky Maivia won the Intercontinental title from Hunter Hearst Helmsley after less than a year in the sport, in the kind of rookie year that wouldn’t be seen again until the Outrunners. There was actually a fear that fans might push back against Rocky like with Erik Watts getting shoved down their throats. In fact, some fans were even chanting “Rocky Sucks” during the match, if you can believe that! (Look, I’m sure everyone is just overreacting.).

– Although the test runs of the ECW invasion were abruptly dropped in the fall, the live RAW from the Manhattan Center on 2/24 will feature a full on ECW contingent on the show, which is supposed to make ECW into a second babyface promotion working with the WWF. This should at least guarantee that Barely Legal hits the break-even point due to the exposure of being on the WWF’s main show.

– Back to Shawn Michaels. Shawn gave a memorable interview to vacate the WWF title, which has already become incredibly overplayed on WWF TV, talking about how being the top man in the business for a year made for the happiest year of his life, but now he needed to go home and “find his smile”. (More like “find his stash”) This was all very unexpected to WWF officials, who only found out about the interview shortly before the show. And apparently Shawn didn’t lose it in the ring or do an angle with anyone to injure the knee because officials didn’t want to risk further exacerbating the crippling knee injury. (They really do look out for the best interests of the talent!). Of course Dave points out that Brian Pillman’s ankle was in even worse shape than Shawn’s knee and they still had Pillman do an angle with Steve Austin to explain it, risking permanent damage to it.

– So with the title vacant, the Final Four match at the PPV was turned into a WWF title match, with Sid facing the winner on RAW the next day. So one day before the PPV, the match was changed to a battle royale in addition to pinfalls and submissions, thus allowing all three men who needed to job to do so without having to get pinned. (They really do look out for the best interests of the talent!). Bret clotheslined Undertaker over the top to win the title, and then dropped it to Sid the next night with help from Steve Austin.

– Original plan for Wrestlemania was Furnas & LaFon winning the tag team titles from Owen & Bulldog, but with the need for big stars to carry two hour live shows every week, it appears that the brothers-in-law have some big time leverage if they are asked to drop the titles.

– Back to Shawn. Again. Was there a real knee injury? Probably. And, as Dave notes, just because someone is rich and famous and outwardly happy every week on TV, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a million personal issues like everyone else in the world does. (Oh Shawn had some issues, all right.). And Shawn was put into a position where despite working great matches every show, he was the guy taking the fall for TV ratings going into the toilet against Nitro, and that took a toll on him.

– Over to WCW, where TBS has decided that they want a piece of the Monday night pie by giving WCW another live two hour show at some point in the near future, likely on Thursdays. The show will be funded by TBS, meaning that it’s pretty much impossible for WCW to lose money on it. (As we’ve since learned, it’s NEVER impossible for WCW to lose money on anything.). This brings up the question of when the oversaturation point hits, given that there’s now a staggering FOUR HOURS of live content to be produced. Every week! (And now WWE is going to move both of their shows to three hours weekly once the Netflix deal starts).

– If anything, adding Nitro didn’t cannibalize the audience, it increased it by taking wrestling out of the doldrums after years of scandals and stale booking by the WWF. However, it did have the side effect of changing the business by removing most of the long-term planning that had defined it for years, in place of constant changes to the show in order to fool online fans and loading up on older stars from the past. (If someone can tap into BOTH of those things, they’d probably do pretty well for themselves!).

– To Japan, where Pancrase is trying to keep Ken Shamrock from leaving for New Japan. Shamrock seemingly wants to transition back into a pro wrestler again, with an IWGP title match against Shinya Hashimoto at the Tokyo Dome on 4/12 planned, although Pancrase is claiming that he still has 4 fights left on his contract with them.

– Back to the WWF, as the Final Four PPV was mostly just a show. The show was built around one match only, and the match delivered, so that was fine. The show drew 6399 to Chattanooga TN, a little shy of a sellout. And the buyrate appears to be in the toilet, as the hotshot angle of adding the World title to the main event didn’t appear to add any impulse buys.

– Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler handled the announcing for the show, as Vince McMahon is reportedly stepping away from the job permanently in order to run the show backstage from now on.

1. Marc Mero pinned Leif Cassidy with the shooting star press in 9:30. They’ve given Sable a new look based on the “Barb Wire” movie with Pam Anderson that flopped so badly. Mero didn’t appear comfortable with the change, or his new, more aggressive, persona. No one cared about Cassidy because he has no credibility at all. *1/2
2. Faarooq & Crush & Savio Vega beat Flash Funk & Goldust & Bart Gunn in 6:42 when Faarooq pinned Gunn. The Nation is all entrance and nothing in the ring. (Welcome to the next three years of the company.). Too short and not particularly good. *1/2
3. Rocky Maivia pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley to retain the IC title in 12:30. Hunter did a good job carrying the match, but Rocky really showed his lack of experience after a while and his offense didn’t look good. But he’s got potential. Goldust came out and distracted Hunter, allowing Rocky to get the back suplex for the pin. *3/4.

After the match, Marlena was attacked by a planted “fan” who was actually female bodybuilder Joanie Lee, who was also trained by Killer Kowalski to be a wrestler. She’s likely going to be called “Joan” in the ring. (They need to work on the name.). This marks the end of Curtis Hughes as Hunter’s heater, as Curtis has been in out of the hospital due to serious health issues caused by complications from diabetes and blood pressure.

4. Owen Hart & British Bulldogretained the WWF tag titles but lost via DQ to Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon in 10:30. Not much heat but the wrestling was good. Dave notes that Hart & Smith have been a disappointment as champions because you’d think they’d be the best team in the world given their talent but really they’re only in that position because the tag team division is such hot garbage outside of them. Much of the match was Bulldog teasing a babyface turn, since that’s where he’s going to end up anyway, even doing a hot tag at one point. Owen hit Lafon with his Slammy for the DQ in a lame finish. ***1/4
5. Bret Hart won the WWF title in the Final Four in 24:05. The match was excellent but the benefit of Bret winning the title was destroyed by tons of interference, along with not getting to actually beat anyone. Vader had the best showing of anyone in the match after a few months of disappointment and second-guessing of his abilities in the ring. ****1/4

TOMORROW! We return with Thursday RAW Thursday, the territories, fun with WCW and MORE WWF news on top of the other WWF news we already had!