Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.24.97 (Part Two)

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.24.97

Carrying on with Thursday RAW Thursday!

– OK, more from the WWF! A few nights before the PPV, the WWF presented their first live RAW as “Thursday RAW Thursday” (Or as it was called in Canada, “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”) with a sellout 2347 in Lowell MA. The rating was a disappointment to the WWF, as it did a 2.3, which was about what a normal episode would do, even after tons of hype.

There were all kinds of audio issues with the show, but the biggest issue is that there’s just not enough talent to carry a weekly live two hour show right now. And there’s not a lot of outside talent that could come in to fix things. (Hmm, guess they’ll just have to make some new stars, I guess.).

1. In the dark match, Astro Man pinned Bert Senteno in a match that fans hated.
2. Ahmed Johnson pinned Sal Sincere. It was described as a *1/4 match. (I heard the WWE PR department just leaked that star rating in order to make Dave look bad.).
3. Mankind beat Flash Funk via countout.
4. Tony Roy beat Bert Senteno in another terrible match.
5. Rocky Maivia pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley to win the IC title at 17:03. Fans chanted “Rocky sucks” and Hunter carried the match while Rocky wisely just sold for him, so it was a better match than the PPV. Rocky reversed the Pedigree in a small package for the pin. **1/2
6. The Head Bangers beat Aldo Montoya & Bob Holly in 5:44. Thrasher pinned Montoya with the top rope legdrop. *1/4

2a. Shawn Michaels did the interview where he gave up the belt.

3. Undertaker chokeslammed Savio Vega in 8:44. The Nation attacked afterwards and Ahmed Johnson made the save, finally succumbing to the six-on-one beatdown himself until Undertaker regained his magic powers and cleared the ring. *1/2
4. Steve Austin beat Sid by DQ in 3:42 when Bret interfered. Dave notes that this was a really lame replacement for an advertised World title match. It was fast paced but Sid was awful. Bret was watching backstage and couldn’t stand it any longer, and Dave agreed with that assessment. *.
5. Faarooq & Crush beat Owen Hart & British Bulldog via countout in 12:23. Clarence Mason was at ringside with the Nation even though he supposedly manages both teams. (Well not for long.). Owen & Bulldog worked as total babyfaces, but Owen took a bump over the top and got counted out to save the title. ¾*
6. Bret Hart pinned Vader in 7:12. Lots of interference with Undertaker doing a promo for distraction and Vader missing a moonsault after Austin attacked Bret. Bret pinned Vader after the moonsault and Austin did a promo on both guys from the balcony afterwards. Merely an OK match. **1/2.

– To AAA, where the working plan is for Vince and Bruce Prichard to attend the 2/21 show in order to foster a working relationship with the promotion and begin sending more talent. (Not sure how they’re gonna top Fake Razor & Fake Diesel and I’m not sure they should even try.). This will supposedly lead to another AAA PPV in the US, with the WWF being the co-hosts this time instead of WCW.

– One of the matches will feature Mini Vader & Mini Mankind, managed by Mexican Paul Bearer, and Mini Goldust will soon be making his debut. (For some reason “Mexican Paul Bearer” cracks me up.).

– To Puerto Rico, where up and coming star Sean Morley is leaving due to “injury”, in reality starting a tour of All Japan. (Hopefully he doesn’t try to sleep with anyone’s sister while he’s there. Could go really badly for him.).

– To New Japan, where the nWo is crazy over and is selling tons of merchandise at the shows. The Bagwell & Norton team is is very successful, along with adding Masa Chono for cred with the Japanese crowds.

– Olympic judo star Naoya Ogawa is expected to go pro wrestler soon after dominating the sport of judo for years. Inoki really wants to sign him, apparently. (I’m sure that won’t go badly at all.).

– To Memphis, as WWF sent Sunny to the territory to do color commentary with Lance Russell, and also are trying out a group of South African heels called The Truth Commission in Memphis as a test run. (And they thought it went so well that they needed to be brought to the main roster!). The team consists of Barry Buchanan and the former Mantaur. (That one changed fast.).

– Also, Del Rios is back, aka the Spellbinder (star of the one of the most famously stupid TV squashes in wrestling history), but now he’s just Elijah.

– To ECW, where the talk of the promotion is the Michinoku Pro six-man matches at the house shows. They stole the shows and got huge reactions from the crowds, although one night featured people chanting “Egg Foo Yung” at them because they’re too dumb to know the difference between Chinese and Japanese people. (Must have been Carlito.). Unsurprisingly, wrestlers backstage were bitching because they were doing too many moves and kicking out of moves that were finishers in other matches.

– Shane Douglas blew out his knee and tore his groin, in what he claimed was from a night of rough sex with Francine, although Dave is pretty sure that’s just a work.

– Scott Taylor did some jobs on the shows, losing to Taz, as he’s been offered a job by the WWF after years of being an enhancement guy. (Hopefully he’s not Too Cool to accept.).

– Local crowds in New York were smaller than usual because of protests of a local priest, who had confused ECW with Extreme Fighting Championships, the MMA group banned in New York state.

– ECW is still having trouble getting PPV providers to commit to anything past the first show, although their moral protests are more likely related to waiting to see how the first show does rather than actually caring about Raven hypnotising Sandman’s son or whatever.

– Although ECW is claiming that Steve Williams hadn’t been pinned in more than ten years in the US, in fact Dr. Death lost to Terry Gordy in WCW in 1989, so they’re big fat liars. (Dave didn’t say that last part but you could read the disgust in his voice and I extrapolated.).

– To WCW, where they did Nitro from the fairgrounds in Tampa, where they sold out 3000 seats and actually ran into the issue of having thousands of more fans who couldn’t get in despite paying for the fair.

– Prince Iaukea won the TV title from Steve Regal, with the expectation being that Iaukea will drop the title to Rey Mysterio at Superbrawl next week so that the house shows will have great matches from all three undercard belts. (Well plans obviously changed there. Dave doesn’t bring up the obvious implication that they were trying to copy the Rocky upset from a few days earlier, although I don’t know that it’s ever been officially confirmed that they were doing that).

– Dave has nothing notable from the numerous Worldwide tapings in Orlando, except for the debut of a former Patriots player named Ernest Miller who will apparently be involved in the Blood Runs Cold deal somehow. Everyone acknowledges that the Glacier thing is a huge flop but because it’s Bischoff’s baby, it keeps getting pushed.

– Arn Anderson might need surgery on his hand, and he’ll be out of action for a while. (Well that’s an understatement.)

– Ted Turner is scheduled to appear on the 3/3 Nitro to pay off the Bischoff storyline by firing him live on TV, but the deal has been spoiled multiple times already despite supposedly being a huge secret.

– Sting wants to get back in the ring but it’s still a long way from happening according to current plans. (As long he’s back in shape and off drugs by December, it’ll be no problem!).

– Expect Randy Savage to turn heel and join the nWo when he returns.

– General response to the rumored Thursday night show within the company is “How the hell are we going to pull this off?” (Narrator: They didn’t.).

– To the WWF, for like the fortieth time this issue, as the comments on RAW about Ahmed Johnson being in the hospital were true. He suffered an injury when Faarooq hit him in the arm with a 2×4, and it splintered and got infected, leaving him on an IV for five days to fix it.

– Dave notes that the ECW invasion is more about ECW feuding with Jerry Lawler specifically rather than the WWF in general, so there’s probably something else going on here.

– Goldust’s babyface turn continues to fail badly, so Goldust and Marlena did a promo on RAW where they basically promised that Goldust isn’t gay and Dustin is “100% man”. (Spoiler: It still didn’t take.).

– Dave thinks that the angle with “Joan” comes off as a ripoff of Jacqueline in WCW, although he finally does note that the Iaukea angle also comes off as a ripoff of Rocky Maivia.

– Dave offers praise to the Hardy Boys, who lost to the Head Bangers in a squash but put on the best match on the show, particularly the bumps of young Jeff. (Do we count this as an understated Observer debut?)

– Owen & Bulldog did in fact fire Clarence Mason on the Superstars taping after RAW, although Owen continued teasing turning on Bulldog before playing it off like he was kidding.

– The Godwinns and Jesse Jammes made an appearance on a Nashville Network talk show, where Jesse teamed with the host to beat the Godwinns in a comedy match. However, in discussing the match on WWF TV, the announcers made it clear that what they were doing on that show was clearly fake, as opposed to the very real pro wrestling matches that occur on WWF shows.

– And finally, another former football player named Darren Drozdov is currently in training with Tom Prichard. (I hear they worked him so hard he puked!).