Looking back at Monday Night RAW February 24th, 1997
Last week (February 17, 1997), Jerry Lawler called out ECW, The Hardy Boys made their RAW debut. Chyna shook the hell out of Marlena & Psycho Sid became your new WWF Champion of the world!
As for this week, you need to know something before proceeding further: Half of the WWF Roster is stationed in Germany, & that doesn’t leave us with a whole lot of talent over here in New York. Therefore, WWE decided to fill this show with guys from a ‘certain’ promotion right out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania titled ‘Extreme Championship Wrestling’!
This is also the episode where parts of the WWF, ECW & UFC come together for ONE NIGHT ONLY.
The whole Austin/Bret angle takes a night-off this week, so without any further ado, let’s get right into it—
MATCHES-
1) The Godwinns (Henry & Phineas Godwinn) vs. The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Bradshaw & Blackjack Windham).
2) Little Guido vs. Big Stevie Cool (w/ The Blue Meanie, Hollywood Nova & 7-11).
3) Sunny vs. Marlena {Arm-Wrestling Match with The Honky Tonk Man as special guest referee}.
4) Goldust vs. Savio Vega (w/ Nation of Domination & Sunny).
5) Taz (w/ Bill Alfonso) vs. Mikey Whipwreck.
6) The Headbangers vs. ???
7) Tommy Dreamer (w/ Beulah) vs. D-Von Dudley (w/ Bubba Ray Dudley).
8) The Undertaker vs. Farooq (w/ Nation of Domination).
Before We Begin...
Former WWF Champion Shawn Michales had to vacate his WWF Championship due to a 'career-ending injury' on Thursday RAW Thursday. Therefore, we witnessed a montage of Shawn Michaels’ career-defining moments in between the show highlighted with a soundtrack perfectly titled— “Tell Me A Lie”. Isn’t it a complete coincidence that HBK did in fact "told us a lie” so as to avoid losing against Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13?! You tell me? It’s perfect!
MATCH #1: THE GODWINNS (Henry & Phineas Godwinn) vs. THE NEW BLACKJACKS (Blackjack Bradshaw & Blackjack Windham)
The match starts right after the early ’97 RAW intro without any context. Does the name Bradshaw sound familiar to you? Well, it should, because Bradshaw is the middle name of none other than JBL himself.
Bradshaw is one half of The New Blackjacks, & he is met with ‘BRADSHAW SUCKS’ chants right off the bat.
Sucks to be you Mr. JBL.
The crowd is split throughout. Most of them are 90’s hardcore fans who are echoing their presence throughout the Manhattan Center to witness whether or not the ECW boys answer Jerry Lawler’s challenge from last week.
Vince McMahon is back at commentating, alongside Jerry Lawler. The match itself goes on for approximately six minutes, & Lawler says it best somewhere in between— “These Hillbillies out here, starting to smell up the whole Manhattan Center”. I would argue that all four of them are ‘smelling’ up the Manhattan Center…with BOREDOM.
We see a shot of a ‘certain’ celebrity in the audience tonight. The camera pans towards this celebrity mid-match, which causes a hormonal imbalance inside Lawler’s body instantly.
Lawler: “HEY! That’s Ken Shamrock! He’s an old buddy of mine!”
McMahon: “What?”
The UFC Champion (not really), Ken Shamrock loves Jerry Lawler. He can’t stop talking about Lawler all the time. Well, at least that’s what Jerry wants you to believe.
Towards the end, Bradshaw sets up for the Clothesline from Hell. He pins Phineas Godwinn. The referee counts for three even though Phineas clearly had his foot on the bottom rope.
Another referee comes out to explain what just happened. But the decision stays the same. This prompts Henry Godwinn to throw a bucket of slop right on top of the original referee’s head.
What strikes comical to me is that the ref keeps slipping off his feet each & every time he tries to get up.
RESULT: The New Blackjacks win via pinfall.
The ring is being cleared, when suddenly, the audience starts cheering for some reason. The Eliminators- Perry Saturn & John Kronus jump over the guardrail & enter the ring. Paul E. Dangerously a.k.a Paul Heyman is following them from behind. The Eliminators grab & deliver Total Elimination to a ring attendant.
Paul E. has a mic in hand, & it is this moment where everyone’s favorite future advocate utters his very first words in front of a live WWF crowd— “Your (Lawler) challenge has been accepted. ECW is in the house!”
The camera pans to Jerry Lawler’s face, & from the looks of it, Jerry must be thinking— “What the heck did I get myself into?”
McMahon states that Lawler’s challenge has been accepted, which is just another way of saying— “Jerry Lawler…You’re f*cked mate”.