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.
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