DD

Every once in a while I like to go back to some old Raws and see if it really was as good as I remember it being.

With that said, I went back to right before I started watching the WWF again full force. I would catch it from time to time but back then I was 100% entrenched in WCW for some strange reason.

So I haven't seen this episode of Raw yet and this may seem a little hokie, but let's take a look at a real quick review. This isn't so much indepth anaylsis but just observations about the show.

Opening was so much different than today. Seemed very raw to use a nice play on words. The show already had my interested. Bombs exploding, fireballs blowing off everywhere. If it doesn't catch your attention your smokin too much sticky icky.

Farooq (with Nation of Domination) vs. Ken Shamrock.

First thing I noticed right away was the crowd was just overall louder. Not even so much for the match itself but just hooting, hollering and overall rowdyness was alot more noticable. Shamrock gets some decent cheers but it really doesn't seem like the crowd cares much for either competitor. NOD is playing the roll of heels.

Oh, here comes the intercontinental champion The Rock.....He is huddling up with Godfather and D'Lo and giving them what looks like confusing advice. Also very noticable is how much more hair the Rock had back then. haha.

Sounds like there are 3 guys at the annouce table. JR, Cole and Kevin Kelly...

NOD screws up The Rocks advice and ends up getting Farooq to run into a steel chair and then pinned by Shamrock who has beaten all 3 men in 3 weeks leading up to the Royal Rumble match against the Rock.

Now the Rock and Shamrock square off in the ring. Rock dressed in black pants and dress shirt. They start to jabber at each other when Stone Cold just runs in and stuns Shamrock and The Rock then heads out in the crowd.

Commerical

Jim Cornette in the ring on the mic. He states that nobody is taking initiative in the WWE and he is going to do something about it. He brings out the heads of the NWA and they are carrying the NWA North American Title. He says that the NWA has agreed to let the next two people fight to become the champion... (man, that belt looks puny) Not really sure why these two jabronis are wrestling for a title that's not in the WWE, but I digress.

Barry Windham (sorry this guy looks like a low budget porn star) vs. Jeff Jarrett

Jeff Jarrett comes out with this absolutely retarded looking getup. Man, I absoluetly HATED JJ back then. I mean I think he was my least favorite wrestler of all time at that point. I am going to have a hard time watching this match. Barry Windham would get laughed out of the building with that body and look in 2009. Jeff Jarrett looks like he is ripping off Mr. Perfects gimmick. Windham has been carrying this match with his sloppy brawling way of wrestling.

Cornette has the NWA heads distract the ref. Cornette runs into the ring and waffles Windham with a tennis racket (in the protective case I should add) and knocks down Windham. Jarrett gets the colluded win and DOES THAT STUPID FUCKING STRUT. God I hate that guy.

Ok, Austin ran in and stunned JJ. Lol, looks like this is a running theme tonight.

Oh ok. He is striking anyone thats in the Royal Rumble. He wins the 98 Rumble doesn't he?

Ken Shamrock interview. He calls out Austin wanting it to be them in the final two.

Sunny is the ring announcer for the next match

The Truth Commission lead by the Jackyl. (who the fuck are these guys?) vs. DOA.

Holy shit this is why I didn't watch much WWE back then. Yikes. Midcard is Terribles...I really have no clue who "The Jackyl" is nor his reckon or whatever the other guys name is. This is bad. I then looked up
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while this crap continued. Time to fast forward. Looks like Kurrgan came in and wreaks havoc. The Jackyl is really gay and I am glad that was over.

Commerical

DX comes to the ring. It's HHH, HBK and Chyna. Holy crist Chyna looks like a dude. She is friggin jacked and gross. Her jaw is so bloated. Nasty.

HHH gets on the mic. It's like its 2009 all over again except they are the heels. It's much more refreshing. He is calling out Owen Hart. Owen comes on the Titantron says he wont come to the ring. He then delivers a great babyface promo and it was good.

HHH then retorts with some juvenile humor and threatens Hart again. Oh and HHH was on crutches. Both he and HBK had belts. Looked like the IC and World titles respectively but I am probably wrong.

Savio Vega (w/4 random Puerto Ricians) vs. Owen Hart

Now its just JR and The King announcing? Confusing.

I get a little bummed whenever I see a Owen match. I just wish he could be retired somewhere in Canada right now with his family.

Owen getting some decent cheers but nothing great. DX comes out with HHH in wheelchair and watch from the top of the ramp. Hart wins. He jumps out of the ring to attack DX but is stopped by the 4 Ricians. The dudes grab Hart and let HHH attack him. HHH gives Vega some cash.

Commerical

Paul Bearer in ring segment

No makeup. He calls out the Undertaker. Apparently they aren't speaking. lol. He blames Undertaker for him losing his Kane. Kane has left Paul because of the poison Taker has filled Kanes head with. Holy shit, this guy is so annoying. Kind of trainwreck fun to watch annoying though. He begs Kane to come home.

Mark Henry is laid out backstage via a Stone Cold Stunner. I also gotta say that Henry LITERALLY looks 150 pounds lighter.

Marc Mero w/Sable vs. Tom Brandy (who?)

Big Sable chant. That's about it. She was definetly over bigtime though. Mero starts going crazy because everyone is chanting for her as this Brandy guy uses it to his advantage. This is horrible. Thank god Stone Cold stops the match with a big ass stunner to Mero. He then gives a nice little smartass smilie to Sable, who returns the smile clearly because of the abuse from Mero in the past.

commerical break

Flash Funk (who?) vs. The Artist Formerly known as Goldust with Luna.

Goldust comes out as a black man? WTF...... Because Flash Funk is black? Not really sure why. I can't even tell who is supposed to be the face or heel in this match, but neither guy is over. Goldust gets DQ'd and a VERY fat Vader comes out to save Flash Funk.

Steve Blackman vignette. Looks like he is just coming into the WWF at this time. Holy crap he was in incredible shape.

commerical

Headbangers vs. New Age Outlaws.

NAO are the tag team champs. They are both wearing Eric Cartman "Beefcake" Shirts. Lame. NAO look to be the heels. It's funny that NOA really seem to stick out like sore thumbs in this midcard mess. Even still they seem to have some weird non presence going on. Raw is really lacking that certain something so far...

Oh here come the Godwinns. Mideon and that other guy. Don't they just strike fear into you? lol

Headbangers lose after they fuck up their finish which Billy Gun turns into a schoolboy.

Post match Cactus Jack and Chainshaw Charlie come to the ring as NAO hightail it through the crowd. Also, please note that Chainsaw Charlie is the gayest fucking gimmick of all time. What's he going to do if he catches you? Chop off all your limbs? Please...... Why couldn't it have just been Terry Funk and explain his background? Honestly that was pathetic.

Don King promo - *skip*

HBK Promo.

HBK is the WWF Champion, He comes out dressed in all black and calls out the Undertaker, calls him a loser and just puts himself over. A pretty lame promo so far. He tells Undertaker to bring his big dead ass to the ring so he can smack him around.

The bell tolls and the druids bring a casket down to the ring. HBK is laughing the whole time saying...."Ok, very funny. Not too original" He thinks for some reason HHH and Chyna are inside. Obviously Taker is inside......So then HHH and Chyna come running out (well HHH in his wheelchair again) and yell from the top... He says "Well, if your up there, who's in here?" Undertaker pops up and grabs HBK into the casket as HBK screaming fades to credits.

Undertaker was in HORRIBLE shape too. Big gut on him and just looked generally sloppy and unhealthy. It's amazing how much better he looks 11 years later.

Overall this was a trainwreck of a show and it made me realize why I didn't start watching the WWF religiously until Austin and Rock really picked up speed and the midcard got MUCH MUCH better.

All in all, todays Raw is so much better than this show I watched. I wish I had grabbed one from perhaps two years later.

Thanks for reading. I don't do these often.

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Mikk

Few things, you mentioned the rock as the IC champ and then HHH as IC champ, no, HHH was european champion.

The men with Savio were Los Boricuas and they had a really good 3 way faction feud with the NOD and the DOA.


And whatchu talking about Double J being awful, he was awesome like that and with Teneessee Lee.


Nice review though
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Brandon

haha.. yeah, outside of a few funny DX moments, Rock, and Austin.. the whole show sucked. It didn't pick up speed until the midcard got a lot better and dudes like HHH and Angle vaulted to the top of the card.

King Steventon

Wait... was this Barry Windham as in Barry Windham? I really had no idea he ever wrestled for the WWF/E.

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Brandon

He had a few stints including a tag title run with mike rotunda, a lower card act in "the widowmaker", and was a member of the New Blackjacks team with JBL.

Crocker

He wrestled for the WWF/E a couple of times, at this point it wasnt long after he was teaming with Bradshaw as The New Blackjacks.

He also had a run in the late 80's as the Widowmaker.

EDIT Blitz beat me to it DAMN!!!

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Mikk

The New Blackjacks were kinda cool.

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Crocker

They were kinda terrible in my opinion.

Also while we are talking about Windham an intresting fact about his WWE work is that Hulk Hogan's 'Real American' theme music was originally wrote for him and Mike Rotunda.

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Brandon

No way. They were about two decades too late. the original Blackjacks worked when Cowboys in wrestling were hip.

horrorfan_1986

I'm guessing this is the mark of the second hour. Back then, they treated Raw as if it was two shows. Raw is War and the Warzone. New commentators were brought in for the second hour. I believe by the end of the year they stuck with the same announcers, however; the two shows lasted until 2002 or so.

Tom Brandi was a low card heel as Salvatore Sincere. As Sincere, he was The Rock's first feud (Well, kinda) in late 1996. This would be his biggest push, but it wouldn't last long.

Flash Funk is 2 Cold Scorpio from WCW and ECW. One of the better talents of the 90's. Sadly, the WWE didn't do anything with him. He did have a really good match with Leif Cassidy (Al Snow) at In Your House 12 (Dec 1996). Funk was always a face in the WWE.

At the time, Goldust's character was a freaking heel (Yes, I know Goldust being a freak sound so unlikely.
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) Every week he had a different bizarre outfit. My favorite was when he dressed up as Dusty Rhodes complete with a pillow in his shirt and polka dots.

At the time, it was the complete opposite of lame. Keep your eyes on the signs at the time. There were a ton of South Park inspired signs.

Try being alone with them in the woods and off in the distance you hear a banjo. Now THAT'S fear.


I'm going to disagree with you for one main reason - the atmosphere. All of the signs and the crowd, they made everything feel so special. The WWF was changing on a weekly basis as they gear up for the Attitude Era to start officially.

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