WWF RAW Is WAR Review: March 10th, 1997
On the previous episode (March 10th, 1997) Monday Night RAW drew it's lowest TV Rating for the entire year of 1997 despite featuring a classic main event.
You can keep track of all the 1997 RAW recaps by clicking here.
In order to shake things up, RAW somehow declares 'war' upon itself from this episode onwards (March 10th). Before we start, make sure to share these recaps around if you want us to stay in business, unlike WCW.
RAW IS War folks!
MATCHES-
1) Rocky Maivia vs. Tony Roy.
2) Pierroth, Heavy Metal, & Pentagon vs. Latin Lover, Hector Garza, & Octagon.
3) Ahmed Johnson vs. Roy Raymond.
4) The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Windham & Blackjack Bradshaw) vs. Owen Hart & The British Bulldog.
5) Miguel Perez vs. Leif Cassidy.
6) Billy Gunn vs. Aldo Montoya.
7) Goldust (w/ Marlena) vs. Tim McNeedy.
8) The Undertaker & Psycho Sid vs. Mankind & Vader (w/ Paul Bearer).
What Show is This?
As viewers were expecting a cheesy RAW intro that everyone was accustomed to on the night of March 10th, 1997- WWF suddenly changed their whole intro, introduced pyrotechnics & inserted a gigantic TitanTron in the arena with a huge steel ramp leading up to the ring.
The intro features chaos, destruction & all-out WAR looped with a nu-metal track titled "Thorn In Your Eye". The lyrics in the intro itself go something like- "Too Much Dark! And Not Enough Sky! Why Am I The Thorn In Your Eye?" , which is just basically another way of saying that this show has been a THORN IN OUR EYES until now.
It also conveys the message that from this episode onwards, hide your parents...
RAW Is 2018
It was also from this episode onwards that RAW finally adopted a format it would keep on following for the next twenty years. So for all the fanfare of RAW IS WAR being instantly flawless, WWF immediately lowers expectations by starting off with a promo format that has been repeated almost each & every week since then- Two rivals start the show with complaining about teaming up with each other despite being advertised to do so beforehand, but still end teaming up in the main event nevertheless.
We begin with a very sweaty Psycho Sid complaining about teaming up with The Undertaker against Mankind & Vader tonight.
What happens next? You can bet your bottom dollar that the Deadman shows up (Who saw that coming?) The Undertaker says that he can take on Vader & Mankind by himself & does not need Sid's help at all.
Both of them are about to hit each other, but Paul Bearer, Vader & Mankind interrupt this convention. The whole situation erupts into a brawl, Vader hits 'Taker from behind, but Undertaker thinks that it was Sid who did it.
People loved it back then, but after seeing the same age-old trope being played out way later in 2018 too, you have to ask yourselves- "Is Vince Russo still secretly working for the WWE?"