WWF 1997.02.03 - Monday Night Raw

Watching "Man on the Moon" last week reminded me of something I've intended to do for a long time. I want to re-watch and write about the World Wrestling Federation programmes from 1997 to 2002. This is the period commonly called the Attitude Era, but I prefer to call it "The Final Days of the WWF". In May 2002 the company known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). This wasn't just a name change. It was the beginning of a new era, commonly called the Ruthless Aggression Era.

I'd like to say a few words about the World Wrestling Federation. It's not just about wrestling. The wrestling matches have little in common with the sport of wrestling that we see in the Olympic Games. It's about entertainment. In that respect the company's new name is relevant. The entertainment is presented by means of fights in the ring, but also by running stories and arguments happening outside the ring. The stories are presented in interviews and arguments on the regular WWF television programmes, especially Monday Night Raw, and they're tied in to the major wrestling events, the Pay-Per-Views. The WWF stories are of a similar nature to soap operas. After months of friendship, former friends become enemies. After months of arguing, former enemies become friends. It's a never-ending cycle, which is only broken when a wrestler leaves the WWF to fight for another company.

The WWF's television programmes in the Final Days of the WWF were:

1. Monday Night RAW

This is a television programme that began in 1993 and is still broadcast today. It was the main programme for developing the WWF's stories. It began as a 60-minute show (including commercials) and was later increased to 120 minutes.

2. Smackdown

In 1999 the WWF enlarged itself, hiring new wrestlers, primarily for television broadcasts. A new television programme was broadcast on Thursday evenings, Smackdown, beginning in August 1999. In the early days of Smackdown, the two shows shared the same champions. After years of experimentation with different formats, Raw and Smackdown became separate brands under the ownership of the WWE.

3, Sunday Night Heat

This was a programme that began in August 1998 as a supplement to Raw. It showed mostly matches that were recorded before the beginning of the previous week's Raw broadcast. In some cases storylines were further developed. On the days of PPV events, Heat acted as a preview for the PPV. After Smackdown was launched in 1999, Heat became less important and showed mostly repeats of the previous week's programmes.

4. Superstars of Wrestling

This is a programme that was initially broadcast in 1986 as the WWF's main programme. It became less important after Raw was launched in 1993. After Sunday Night Heat was launched in 1998 it was used for repeats of matches on Raw and Heat.

5. Shotgun Saturday Night

This is a programme broadcast from January 1997 to August 1999. It showed only wrestling matches, and the storylines weren't developed.

6. The PPVs (Pay-Per-Views)

The original format of the WWF (and all other wrestling companies) was house shows. An arena was booked, and wrestling matches took place. Those were the good old days. In 1985 a large house show was broadcast on television for paying customers. It was called Wrestlemania. Initially very few house shows were shown on television, but by 1996 there were at least 12 pay-per-view events per year, with various names. The difference between the PPVs and the house shows that weren't broadcast is that storylines were developed, tying in with the current episodes of Raw, Smackdown and Heat.

I wasn't sure where to start this series of reviews of the Final Days of the WWF. Where to end is obvious: 4th May 2002, the final WWF broadcast before the name change. Where to start is tricky. My original idea was January 1997, because that's the month wrestling fans usually call the beginning of the Attitude Era. Then I considered November 1996, because that was the birth of the Austin 3:16 slogan. I also considered 23rd September 1996, a critical milestone in the history of the WWF. This was the first time on television that Vince McMahon was named as the owner of the WWF. He'd already been the owner for years, but he only appeared on television as a commentator. Gorilla Monsoon (real name Robert Marella) was called the President of the WWF, giving the impression that he was the company's owner, not an employee.

The emphasis on Vince McMahon is important. In the Final Days of the WWF he became increasingly important in the WWF storylines. In my opinion, the more active he was, the better the WWF programmes were. It wasn't just him, it was his whole family. His children Shane and Stephanie McMahon also contributed greatly to the quality of the programmes. His wife Linda also appeared on screen in the early 2000's, but she lacked the charisma of the other family members.

My final decision was to start my reviews on 3rd February 1997, for purely technical reasons. This is the date of the first 120-minute broadcast of Monday Night Raw. From this week on, Raw broadcast whole events that took place on a single evening. In the previous months (and years) events were edited and shown over the course of a few weeks, leading to a discrepancy between the running stories and the actual wrestling shows.

Despite this, it's impossible to make a clean start anywhere. As I said above, the WWF/WWE is a soap opera, so the storylines always overlap from week to week. For instance, the episode of Raw on 3rd February makes frequent references to the Royal Rumble PPV that took place the previous week. If I wanted to talk about that PPV, I'd have to go back to the events leading up to it, and I'd have to keep going back all the way to 1993. I'm forced to make a tough decision, and my start date is 3 February 1997.

Now the question is, how shall I write the WWF reviews? I have vague ideas already, but I'll develop them as I go along. I'll only give brief summaries, unless something particularly interests me. I'll write more about the storylines than the matches themselves. I'll try to write about at least one episode of Raw per week, meaning I'll keep up with real time. That means I'll be writing the WWF reviews for the next five years, unless I manage to speed up along the way.

As always, new storylines are continually beginning, while others either come to an end or gradually fizzle out. The only new storyline worthy of mention in recent months is the Nation of Domination, which was first shown on television in November 1996. Faarooq, under the guidance of his manager Clarence Mason, founded a black supremacist organisation that mimicked the Nation of Islam. Religion was never mentioned explicitly in the group. It was all about skin colour. The original members were Farooq and the rappers PG-13, shown above. Savio Vega and Crush joined soon after this. The Nation of Domination was often padded out by non-wrestlers walking to the ring and making Black Power salutes.

The Nation of Domination was the most controversial group in the WWF in the 1990's. It was a deliberate attempt to create a divide between the white and the black wrestling fans. Vince McMahon was heavily criticised for playing the race card. I'm not saying that Vince made a mistake by encouraging racist storylines, but it's something that would be inconceivable in today's WWE. The Nation of Domination had a run of about two years in the ongoing storylines, but I'll discuss it as I go along.

The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) joined the WWF in November 1996, originally called the Blue Chipper, and then Rocky Maivia.

Location: Skydome, Toronto, Canada

Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Michael Hayes

This week's episode of Raw was called the Royal Rumble Raw, but I've decided to call it the normal name, Monday Night Raw, in this post's title. I don't understand why this episode was retitled. If it had been the first episode of Raw after the 1997 Royal Rumble PPV I could have understood it, but it's actually the third episode of Raw since 19th January. Today's Raw shows repeated excerpts from the Royal Rumble, especially the controversial elimination of Bret Hart. Steve Austin was eliminated, but the referees were distracted and didn't see it. Austin re-entered the ring and eliminated Bret Hart, just as Bret was celebrating his victory.

There are 25,628 fans in attendance, making this the biggest episode of Raw so far.

Match 1. Vader vs Steve Austin

Shortly after the beginning of the match Bret Hart runs into the ring to attack Steve Austin. He's escorted out of the arena, and the match is allowed to continue. Steve Austin stuns the referee. He continues to fight Vader until a new referee comes and disqualifies him.

Match 2. Savio Vega vs Flash Funk

Savio Vega wins with a pin after a fair fight.

Jim Ross interviews Sycho Sid about his reign as WWF champion and his relationship with Shawn Michaels. (Sycho Sid won the championship from Shawn Michaels on 17th November 1996 at the Survivor Series PPV, and he lost it again to Shawn Michaels at the Royal Rumble on 19th January 1997). Sid says that the championship belt is evil, and everyone who wears it becomes evil.

Match 3. Tag team championship, British Bulldog/Owen Hart vs. Doug Furnas/Philip Lafon

There's been tension between the tag team champions Owen Hart and British Bulldog since the Royal Rumble. British Bulldog eliminated Owen Hart, and he claims it was an accident. He mistook Owen for Steve Austin. During today's match the problems grow stronger. Owen wants to tag Bulldog, but Bulldog has his back to the ring and is showing off his muscles to the crowd. Owen is thrown out of the ring. He says he can't stand up because he's twisted his knee, so he's counted out. Furnas and Lafon win the match, but they don't become champions because the championship can only be won by a pinfall or submission. This is a weird rule in the WWF that I've never understood. British Bulldog thinks that Owen Hart only pretended to have twisted his knee because he didn't want to carry on fighting, so they argue after the match.

Match 4. Crush vs Goldust

It's an evenly matched fight. Hunter Hearst Helmsley comes to the ring to approach Marlena. Supposedly he's been trying to woo her over the last few weeks. She's better looking than the women he was dating last year. She's not interested in him, so he leaves.

Savio Vega enters the ring and attacks Goldust, unseen by the referee. Crush pins Goldust and wins.

Vince McMahon interviews the WWF champion Shawn Michaels. They both refer to the fact that the crowd is partisan. In America Shawn Michaels is one of the WWF's most popular wrestlers, but in Canada he's booed. The local hero is Bret Hart.

Shawn says he agrees with Sid's earlier words that the WWF championship belt brings out the worst in people. He says he accepts this, and if he needs to be bad to be the WWF champion he'll be the worst wrestler there ever was. Bret Hart comes to the ring and stands insulting Shawn. Steve Austin runs into the ring and attacks Bret Hart in retaliation for Bret's attack at the beginning of the show. Sycho Sid comes into the ring and argues with Shawn, but there isn't a fight. Steve Austin and Sycho Sid are escorted out of the ring, while Shawn and Bret stand arguing with one another.

Match 5. Intercontintal title match, Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs Marc Mero

Marc Mero has an advantage for most of the match. While the referee isn't looking, Triple H pulls a metal object out of his shorts and hits Marc with it. We don't clearly see what he's using, but it seems to be brass knuckles. Triple H pins Marc easily.

Match 6. Tag teams, Undertaker/Ahmed Johnson vs Faarooq/Mankind

These are very strange pairings. It's a no disqualification match, so it's technically incorrect to call them tag teams. There's no tagging. Everyone fights whoever he wants whenever he wants.

Before the match begins, Mankind makes a black power salute, which is mocked by the commentators. Mick Foley (Mankind) was actually a very intelligent person, but in the ring he always played a stupid character.

Crush and Savio Vega come to the ring to attack Ahmed Johnson. He's their enemy as a black man not willing to join the Nation of Domination. Not yet. Vader runs into the ring and attacks the Undertaker. Eventually the Undertaker pins Mankind.