WWF on MSG Network (March 16, 1997)

Dok Hendrix’s constant hyping of the March 16th return to Madison Square Garden during episodes of Shotgun Saturday Night got to me and I have decided to go ahead and watch that show. I have, in the past, watched and reviewed “fan cam” footage of a wrestling show on this here website, but that is not what is going on here today. From the mid-70s through early 1997 the MSG Network would occasionally air WWF cards from Madison Square Garden. The show I’m reviewing today was (at the time of my writing this) the last of these broadcasts. So let’s see how things were on a quasi-house show from this time.

WWF In Your House 13: Final Four (February 16, 1997)

It’s time for WWF In Your House 13: Final Four! It was a PPV that was supposed to determine the #1 Contender for the WWF Championship after all manner of Stone Cold shenanigans made the Royal Rumble less decisive than folks would have liked it to be. But between the Royal Rumble and Thursday Raw Thursday, Shawn Michaels lost his smile and relinquished the belt so now the WWF no longer needs to find a #1 Contender they need to find a WWF Champion.

WWF Thursday Raw Thursday (February 13, 1997)

My gameplan for this 1997 WWF deep dive had been to just watch Shotgun Saturday Night and the Pay Per Views unless I could not find an certain week’s episode of Shotgun online or if Shotgun did a decent enough job hyping a particular match on Raw that I felt inclined to tune in. This week is a bit of a special case as Shotgun is a Best Of episode to fill time while they rework the concept and move away from the live from a dive bar gimmick and start taping random matches before Raw instead. So I’m checking in with Raw this week and as fate would have it this episode of Raw might be the most significant episode of the year so strap in as we discuss lost smiles, the proto-People’s Champion, and whether or not this episode of Raw is called Thursday Raw Thursday or Thursday Raw! Thursday Live!

WWF Shotgun Saturday Night (February 1, 1997)

After a brief detour to watch a different WWF C-show from late January 1997 we’re back on the Shotgun Saturday Night train. Last week’s episode had a one off match between two all time greats that should have been better than it was, the last Jake Roberts match in the WWF, a Savio Vega heel turn, and a whole lot of Nation of Domination. Let’s see what we have going on this week!

WCW Clash of the Champions XXXI (August 6, 1995)

My quest to clear out my hard drive of wrestling shows I haven’t reviewed continues today with some mid-90s WCW, specifically Clash of the Champions XXXI. I know for a fact I watched this live on TBS when it happened and remember the main event and Hulk Hogan’s shenanigans that happen during this show but don’t remember much of the undercard so I guess it’ll be interesting to see what WCW was up to in the lead up to Nitro becoming a thing.

WWF Raw Is War (October 5, 1998)

Last week’s Raw had one of the all time great Raw segments as well as a bunch of shitty wrestling matches I more or less forgot about as soon as they ended and if memory serves correctly that’s pretty much going to be the norm from here on out: molten hot main event angles that everyone remembers 20+ years after the fact and undercard matches that everyone forgets five minutes after watching them. Let’s see if I remember this all correctly and I’m dead wrong and this week is going to be a bunch of five star mat classics!

WWF Raw Is War (September 28, 1998)

So Breakdown happened, but outside of the Royal Rumble and Fully Loaded (which I technically reviewed before beginning this project) I’m not fucking around with the PPVs so I didn’t watch it. It doesn’t seem like anything all that important happened anyway besides the stuff with the main event but that was really the case in general with the WWF in 1998 wasn’t it? Anyway since I didn’t watch that PPV we’re moving on to the following night’s episode of Raw Is War.

WWF Raw Is War (September 12, 1998)

So last week’s Raw was very likely the worst Raw I saw since I started this stupid project. There might have been other individual segments that were worse and/or more offensive than anything that appeared on last week’s show and stand alone matches that I hated more than any of the matches we got last week but the overarching storyline of Kane and Undertaker murdering everyone coupled with the fact that it was a Raw that was preempted due to the US Open and therefore airing at 11:00pm on a Saturday Night meant there wasn’t anything worth watching happening.

Unfortunately for me this is another Raw that is airing on Saturday night because of the US Open so I’m not really expecting anything here and will count myself lucky if I get a five minute D’Lo Brown or X-Pac match that doesn’t end in a DQ. So let’s get down to business.

WWF Raw Is War (September 5, 1998)

So I’d already reviewed the August 24, 1998 episode of Raw before I began this project and the August 17, 1998 episode was so shitty I decided to just watch old NWA studio wrestling shit instead of reviewing an episode of Sunday Night Heat or SummerSlam. This week, though I’m back on the grind and…FUCK! It’s a Saturday episode of Raw because Raw was preempted by the US Open. Maybe they’ll just be like, “No one’s watching anyway so let’s just let X-Pac and Brian Christopher wrestle an 8 minute match like it’s Shotgun Saturday Night!”

WWF Raw Is War (August 10, 1998)

With the Summer Olympics done I’m back to watching random wrestling bullshit after dinner more specifically each and every Raw Is War episode from the year 1998. Today we’re going to take a look at the August 10, 1998 episode so let’s get back to giant undead wizards being in cahoots, juvenile ideas about sex, rampant misogyny, and Stone Cold Steve Austin being an anti-capitalist icon!