Exposer

Vince thanks the fans for a great 1997 & says 1998 will be even better. His prediction was right in a lot of ways. At least on the business side of things.

Shamrock taps out Kama & The Rock comes out. Rock cuts a promo sharing his thoughts on the elderly & social security. Amusing. He tells Shamrock that next week he'll have to face the leader of The Nation of Domination, Faarooq. Faarooq's reaction is great. The Rock-Faarooq feud is about to be in full swing. It's one of my favorite feuds of the early Attitude years from what I've seen so I'm interested to see how it holds up.

HHH dislocated his kneecap at a house show the night before so the Owen match is off. Shawn & Hunter make jokes about Chyna's new breast implants for five minutes until Sarge comes down & announces that Shawn will face Owen for the WWF Title tonight. Chyna didn't look comfortable with her breasts being focused on so much. This segment had it's moments, but DX is getting old.

Memorable segment. Goldust comes out dressed as the New Year's Baby. He cuts a promo in weird voices & pulls out lingerie for Austin to wear after their match saying Austin can be his Ken Doll to his Barbie. Austin comes out & pulls a port-o-potty down from the rafters & Goldust takes several fun bumps into it before being tossed into it. Austin pushes it over & celebrates to end the segment. Funny, but this doesn't make any sense. One of those random & ridiculous Attitude Era segments.

They try to have this match in the middle of the show, but Owen attacks HHH in the aisle. They finally have the match in the last segment & they've teased dissension all night. HHH hits a shoulder tackle & Shawn plays dead as Hunter runs the ropes like a goof. He hits a splash without making any contact & pins Shawn for the Euro Title. Shawn fakes crying & talks about this being the toughest match of his career. They laugh about tricking everyone & Slaughter comes out at the entrance & laughs with them. He makes Owen-HHH next week for the Euro Title but says it without a mic where only the fans at home can hear. This is more bait & switch stuff, but actually does work as a heel move. I think it does make the Euro Title look bad as Shawn obviously doesn't give a shit about it. I'm really tired of DX at this point.

This is hilarious. TAFKA Goldust is one of my favorite Attitude Era gimmicks. The christmas tree outfit is tremendous. Goldust reads "Twas The Night Before Christmas," but Santa interrupts & starts throwing candy into the crowd. Goldust & Luna get annoyed, but Goldust continues reading. Suddenly, Santa whacks Goldust with his bag of gifts & it's Vader! Awesome! Vader gets in a few more shots before Goldust escapes. Fun segment.

This is fun. NAO search for Mankind in the "bowels" of the building. They look all over the place & even attack a random guy who they thought was Mankind in a funny moment. Mankind attacks them in the last bit & they have a fun boiler room brawl as he sings "Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire." NAO manage to lock him in a freezer to end the segment.

A heel Santa kicks a kid out of the ring for telling him he's not the real Santa Claus. Austin comes out & tries to solve this Santa mystery. He says some funny stuff & proves the guy isn't Santa before giving him the stunner & beating him up. Fun segment although it did go a bit too long.

Good recap of the NAO-Dude Love fued with Foley taking a crazy chairshot one week & taking an insane bump off the stage the next week. Mankind's promo is awesome as he says the weird thing about hurting Dude Love's ribs is that his hurt too!

DX come out in robes as fake snow falls on the screen. DX tell New Age Outlaws to not take credit for taking out LOD. HHH cuts a boring promo then Michaels cuts a slightly better one. They talk about how they are going to take care of Owen Hart & The Undertaker respectively. They remove their robes & boxers & are wearing thongs. It's poorly censored to make you believe they're naked. This is dumb. Slaugther comes out & makes a Euro Title match between Shawn & Hunter. The two of them don't like that & start to tease dissension. Boring segment.

Not much of a match, but the angle is great. The Outlaws come out & knock Hawk out with an ether soaked rag. They shave his mohawk as he's passed out. DX & the Outlaws continue to beat down LOD for several minutes. DX are impressed with Roadie & Gunn as they leave. This also served as a tease for when the Outlaws do join DX a few months later.

This is a great promo by Vince. The official beginning of the Attitude Era. Here we go.

Classic segment. Austin is hilarious here throwing all of the scuba gear & other items into the river. Rock realizing Austin has his pager is great. Both guys are great in this, especially Austin. Everything he says is funny. The IC Title does get thrown into a river here, but this is a great payback by Austin on Rock for stealing the belt in the first place. One of my favorite Austin segments from the period.

This commercial is edited out of this particular episode, but I heard the commentary talk about it several times. I'm imagining the windshield not being fixed & some fan trying to drive around in it like that.

This is an awesome segment. Vince calls Owen to the ring & wants a get a few things straight with him. He says Owen is endangering fans by jumping in & out of the crowd every week. He's here to put a stop to that & has security come out & surround the ring. Owen comes out & looks cool as hell. This angle should have made him a star. He goes off on Vince & says he's going to make Shawn Michaels' life a living hell. Vince gives Owen a match with Shawn next week. The ending is tremendous with Owen grabbing Vince by the scruff of his shirt & threatening him before being escorted out of the building by security. They had a star here & they did nothing with it. That's a shame.

The Nation come out & Rock demands that Austin return his IC Title to him. Faarooq tries to get a word in, but Rock says "With all due respect, the Champ is talking." Great moment that plants the seeds for the Rock-Faarooq feud. I loved Faarooq's reaction to that & his continued displeasure for the rest of the segment. Austin comes out & talks trash. Rock gives him one hour to the return the belt or The Nation are going to be on the hunt. Rock is a great promo by this point. Good segment.

I liked this commercial. Cheesy, but fun. I bought a lot of the WWF albums when I was a kid.

Not a fan of the IC Title being treated like nothing here, but Austin does make some sense by saying he wants the WWF Title. The Rock telling Vince to fire Austin in the third person is indeed hilarious. The Austin-Vince bickering is fun. Austin ends up forfeiting the belt & handing it over to The Rock. He asks to shakes Rock's hand & claps all supportively afterwards which is funny. He stuns him right after of course to the delight of the crowd which infuriates Vince. Austin takes the IC belt & says people should tune in next week to see what he's going to do to it. He knocks Vince off the apron in a great moment while he's celebrating. Vince's reaction is priceless. I didn't think this was a great segment (IC Title treatment bothers me a bit), but it's a solid one that sets up Austin's chase for the WWF Title, begins Rock's push to the top, & continues to evolve the Mr. McMahon character.

Famous segment. Mero calls Sal Sincere a jobber & buries the gimmick saying his name is Tom Brandi. He calls out his "property" Sable who he makes wear a potato sack to the ring. What the hell. He asks her to disrobe him & she removes the potato sack instead & shows off a bikini. She's not hiding much. Big pop for this. Sincere dropkicks Mero out of the ring as he's covering up Sable & Mero takes Sable to the back upset. Sincere wins by count-out which takes forever & JR gets out a great line about it taking 30 seconds to do a 10 count. I'm not a Sable fan, but a fun segment nonetheless.

Shawn talks about how great he is for a few minutes before bringing up Owen's attack at IYH. He says the Hart family are one big steaming turd & Owen is the nugget that can't be flushed. The nugget insult is born. Those are some harsh words from Shawn. What an asshole. He decides that DX will play poker until Owen shows up so he can deal with the last remaining member of the Hart Foundation. Chyna suggests they play strip poker since Shawn promised to walk out naked a few weeks earlier. They play strip poker & Chyna remains clothed the whole time which is funny. This goes on through a DOA-Boricuas match. The Headbangers are scheduled for a match & flip the poker table over. DX beats them up. They powerbomb one of them through the poker table. This goes on & on & on. Finally, Owen shows up & tackles Shawn, who's in his underwear from the poker game, & beats on him before heading back into the crowd. The worst image during the entire segment is Shawn playing with his penis on air. It's important to point out that there was no heat for this except for when Owen came out. Otherwise, the fans didn't care. Silly segment that had it's moments, but I can't stand DX.

Lawler cheats to beat Sunny in the finals by sticking gum at the bottom of his karate fighter & bribing the ref not to say anything. The decision is reversed after the scandal is reviewed & Sunny is awarded the winner. Funny.

Vince is upset with Austin's behavior as of late. He brings up Austin driving a truck to the ring at IYH & using it as a weapon. He mentions Austin stunning the ref during the match as well. He demands that The Rock gets an IC Title rematch later in the show. Austin comes out & starts trash talking Vince as always. Vince telling Austin he's the boss & reprimanding him for his language is hilarious. Austin's vulgar responses are really funny. Austin does the "Hell Yeah!" schtick for the first time here. He says he's going to the back to drink a cold beer & think about if he wants to wrestle because he does what he wants, when he wants. Great segment to begin establishing the Mr. McMahon character & start turning Austin into more a of baby face.

Pretty decent match. Shawn bumps big early & makes Shamrock look good at the start. I never understand how Earl Hebner can have casual conversations with heels as the seconds beat up the baby face on the floor for what seems like forever. Maybe he's kayfabe in DX's pocket based on Montreal. Shawn works over Shamrock's back for a few minutes, but it's not much. Shawn audibly calls spots for the entire match which gets annoying quickly. Shamrock hits the belly-to-belly & gets in the ankle lock, but Hunter & Chyna run in. The match is thrown out & Shamrock wins by DQ. Owen shows up & knocks Shawn off the apron through the Spanish announce table! Good lord, Owen is wailing away at Shawn's face. I'm sure it was meant to feel real, but some of it might have been. Owen was beating the hell out of Shawn. Owen could have been made here. This could have been his big break.

The video package is great. Austin comes out in his truck. This has the famous spot where D-Lo takes a back drop out of the ring & onto the hood of the truck. Pretty great spot. Austin stuns him on top of the truck to a massive pop. Fun brawling early & we get more of Austin fighting off The Nation. Faarooq & Kama take bumps into the truck as well. Rock gets some time to shine on offense & even hits the People's Elbow (before it's called that). He goes for it a second time & misses. Austin goes for the stunner, but he sees Kama on the apron & knocks him off. Austin stuns the referee thinking it's The Rock. Brass knucks are given to Rock & he trys a swing but Austin blocks it & hits the stunner. A second ref runs in to make the 3 count. Fun match. Austin only took one bump here, but they've done an excellent job of protecting him in these matches & still making them interesting.

This is hilarious. Goldust wants to express himself so he reads Dr. Seuss. He actually does unique voices for characters. I was cracking up the whole time watching this. Suddenly, Luna shoves him down & says it's time to go dragging him off on his chain leash. TAFKA Goldust is awesome.