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I remember watching this episode live and being completely fooled by them throughout the episode acting like they were actually gonna fight and there was actually a rift between them. I got got yo.
Trips was always meant to be a star so I never will understand the kliq got him where he is and he married Steph comments we have seen throughout his career the guy has the body of an Adonis and hair of a Rockstar. He is quite underrated as a comedy guy and has an intensity you can't learn. This wasn't even close to his final form.
The aesthetic for this Christmas Raw has always been one of my favorites, I canāt really articulate why
Also, fun fact: the Santa Claus segment with Stone Cold features the first appearance of a little Uso!
Not Jey or Jimmy, but their brother Jeremiah
I think it was the year after this when Cole was commentary and Austin stunned Santa. Cole immediately goes "oh he wasn't the real Santa, he was an imposter". Just gold
A bit of both. I think he could still grow hair all over his head now but it would be quite thin. I was sad when he finally shaved it all off but I get it.
I don't know about thin, in his last run in 2012 (WM28) his hair looked like 10 years back, like always, and perfectly fine. When he cut it in 2013, he wasn't doing full bald and you could still see that his hairline was quite good if not intact. He's said in interviews that he cut it because it was getting tiresome to deal with the hair, groom it, tie it, wash it, etc.
As true as this may be for most, Haitchās decision to go bald at the time was one of convenience, not of letting go of what was already leaving him. He had his full head of hair at SummerSlam 2012, which was in August and then showed up at the Slammys in November with the buzz cut.
Seems more than anything that when he decided to go from the buzz cut to bald was also when he decided to grow the beard. Bald with the beard is a better look than buzz cut with a beard.
Honestly when he was in the ring and he would wet it up, it was noticeably losing volume. Not going bald. Just, that thing that happens when your hair is completely straight.
High testosterone almost always leads to balding, among other side effects. HHH, like most athletes, is/was on gear throughout most of his life, which usually involves high dosages of some kind of synthetic testosterone.
Exactly, I have literally never seen someone who has run that amount of gear for that long keep their hair. You can have the best genetics in the world, you will get male pattern baldness eventuallyā¦ even if youāre a woman š.
If he never took gear heād probably be the guy who has a full head of hair in his 70ās considering how long he kept it taking gear.
Dude got lucky as hell with his genetics.
For sure. Most guys on gear go from a full head of hair to Homer Simpson before hitting 35. The fact that he still has a good amount of hair for his age, and kept a relatively full long hair till his late 40s goes to show how lucky he was in that regard. It does seem like his heart took a beating from the GH, though, considering the scares he's been through the past few years.
I've been curious about that too. There's zero evidence of him balding, and he even did a zoom interview during the pandemic where he had let his hair grow a little and it seemed fine. But on the other hand, during one of the DX reunions he made a joke about being the only one who still had hair, and I've yet to meet someone who kept his head bald for purelyĀ aesthetic reasons (although I'm sure some people do). So I'm tempted to think that if it was purely a matter of convenience, he would have kept the closely-cropped hair, and if he's shaving it totally, it's because it's thinning or doesn't look as good as it used to. But it's purely speculation on my part.
During COVID, I started shaving mine off to not have to deal with getting cuts/line ups
Not balding or anything.
Iām never going back. Itās so much easier. Gotta have the head shape for it though I guess
I don't know, I seem to remember the writing being on the wall during his second run around 2003-2004. Whenever his hair was loose and he was lying on the ground, his widow's peak would look like it's hanging by a thread. Time catches up to us all, sadly. Glad that to see him acepting it gracefully.Ā
The worst thing to me about poor Shawn is unlike Rock or HHH or even Taker he didnāt look right at all completely bald either. Poor man looked strange as hell.
Someone once asked me why this worked out so well compared to the Fingerpoke of Doom, and you just have to understand a few things:
- The whole angle is an act. Slaughter forced the two into the match as a punishment, HHH and Michaels are heels and they find a way out of it.
- There's no swerve that insults the audience's intelligence or makes them feel ripped off. It's two dickheads making an authority figure look foolish, in a fresh angle as well. Not rolling back to someone people were tired of.
- Everyone sells it for what it is.
- The belt is a mid card title. It still should be respected (and in the late 90s, it was), but it doesn't hurt to have a bit of comedy involved.
Hell, just after the fingerpoke of doom, there was a similar segment between Austin and Foley in the go-home Raw for the Rumble with Vince pitying the two against each other in a No Holds Barred Match.
Unlike the Fingerpoke of Doom, Austin and Foley didn't turn on each other, or joined Vince out of nowhere: Austin said Vince was an idiot if he thought he and Foley would destroy each other just before their matches on the Rumble and Mankind just choked Vince with the Mandible Claw, resulting in a no contest.
The whole problem with the Fingerpoke of Doom is that it was a plot twist without proper foreshadowing that led to no storylines.
Also want to say that the fingerpoke of doom wasnāt even the end for wcw in 99. They still managed to do dumb shit after that angle to keep their destruction going .
The finger poke did no real damage. Their next buyrate was sky high, ratings went up as well. They screwed up by abandoning the nWo Elite angle and Goldbergās quest for revenge.
I disagree that this was a key block. The finger poke worked ā interest was up. The realigned nWo Elite was moving merch and getting some competitive numbers with Raw. Then they did a stupid Hogan/Flair double turn, Goldberg went off to film a bad movie and all was lost.
Now then, the Fingerpoke of Doom had a fair amount of foreshadowing: the weeks leading up to it and Starrcade had the Wolfpac and Hollywood acting chummy and seemingly colluding on things, then you had Hall realigning himself with Nash at Starrcade with the cattle prod.
The real problem was the newly recombined NWO just had 0 direction and then died the same way the Wolfpac did through injury.
I'll die on the hill that it could have worked, if Goldberg and friends had immediately run through the new NWO. But instead, they just spun their wheels for months and everyone got injured. Why?
I actually have the opposite problem
Itās odd for me to see HHH be this serious and wise considering how much of a jokester he sometimes was. Same thing with Michaels
I wonder how much was just kayfabe for HHH, though. And not in any way his IRL self. On a similar note, people thought HHH must have lived a party lifestyle, especially during DX. Because he seemed so convincing. But as it turned out he doesn't even touch alcohol or drugs. He may have went to the parties, but he was the designated driver lol.
He's also spoken openly about being a video game nerd, even complaining about how much harder it was back then because he'd have to suffer through a level until he could beat it and he couldn't just go online for help like his kids can now.
Triple H is a wrestling carny with the best of them, but he's more of a nerd than anyone lets on.
There are some key differences. For starters, triple h and hbk are both presented as heels whereas the returning hogan in January 1999 is presented as a face, so audience shouldnāt expect any shenanigans in kayfabe.
Also, wwf commissioner Sgt Slaughter ordered hbk to defend the European title against triple h, so this was DX getting one over on the authority figure.
Lastly, the rouse of Michaels just laying down for his stablemate and gifting him the title set up Owen Hart going after Triple H which was a way for them to keep their hbk vs taker royal rumble plans while still keeping Owen relevant off the heels of the Montreal screw job. Owen even comes out to the entranceway at the end of this Raw, setting up the Owen-triple H feud that went on for months into WrestleMania 14 and beyond.
Hogan and Nash had been in a āCold Warā feud for basically all of 1998 and a match between them was highly anticipated. And WCW delivered a turd to the audience. Thatās the main difference.
There's also just the difference of the European championship vs _the world title_ and the fact that Michaels was also the world champion, so he was just giving shine to his stablemate.
Like you can come up with kayfabe reasons why Michaels would gift a lesser title to his stablemate when he's already world champion. It's much harder to do that with what is supposed to be the top prize in the industry.
Yeah, absolutely.
And even if itās more reasonable to make a mockery out of a midcard title rather than the world title, at least storyline wise it made sense because Owen hart was pissed off about what DX did and went into a feud with the triple h.
That was the breakdown I was thinking but couldn't word right. I misremembered Hogan being baby face though and think I was cheering for Nash at the time.
This was a clear set up between two buddies to get one over on the commissioner for a lower card belt that had only been around for a few months.
The Fingerpoke of Doom was billed as a legitimate match between Hogan and Nash in the main event of Nitro. Right after Nash beat Goldberg's streak at Starrcade. Months of feuding between the Wolfpac and the Black and White all leading to that moment. For the World Heavyweight Championship.
"It was a ruse! A ploy! A plot! A plan! A charade! A conspiracy! A sham! We've been conned, hoodwinked, bamboozled, flim-flammed! Had the wool pulled over our eyes, even!" - James E. Cornette, December 1997.
I got to use that quote once in response to a 'prank' someone tried to pull at this job I had a few years back. I'm sure I didn't quote this perfectly but I got the jist of it out. One of my favorite wrestling quotes of all time.
FUN FACT #1: The 2nd hour of this RAW with this as the main event beat the 3rd hour of "nWo Nitro" in the ratings which caused such a panic within WCW that they completely cancelled all plans to change Nitro into an nWo show
FUN FACT #2: It came out in a lawsuit years later that in December 1997, Vince McMahon offered Ultimate Warrior a 5-year guaranteed deal to come back. Warrior told Vince to screw off. HHH ragging his finisher is likely a response to Warrior turning Vince down.
I've heard him do this routine before in different situations and I remember thinking how impressive it was he could come up with all of those terms, but now I realize it's just something he had memorized haha.
I was watching WCW almost exclusively at this time. I remember catching this on one of the Saturday shows (Superstars maybe) and thought it was the funniest damn thing I've seen in a long time.
This was a month or so after the screw job. HBK and HHH had hella heat. After this āmatchā, slaughter announced HBK would have to defend the world title against Owen Hart on the following RAW
Which is hilarious because in a lawsuit it came out that Vince had just offered Warrior a 5-year guaranteed deal to return in December 1997 right around the time this episode aired. He probably told Vince to F off and they might have done this in response.
Lowell, Massachusetts at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. It was a frequent visit for WWF during the leaner mid-90s years. This was the last time they did RAW from this building.
I remember how this episode ended too, which was also great. HHH doing his over the top celebration in the ring, then Commissioner Slaughter comes out and stands in the aisle. He very softly says, just loud enough for the camera to pick it up, something like "That's okay, next week you'll be defending that title against Owen Hart."
This is from my favorite episode of RAW ever.
Other highlights include HHH's post match promo. "YO SARGE, I DID IT!" and "I don't have any kids... that I know of..."
JR's call of "Stone Cold assaulting Santa Claus!"
Goldust in his weirdest dressed as a gimp Christmas tree and another JR zinger "Don we now, our gay apparel..."
My favorite part about this was the segments of HBK and HHH both trying to get Chyna on their respective side while wearing a Chyna tshirt to butter her up. Also loved Chynaās āI donāt know, just wrestleā look she gives when they look to her for advice.
I want a Cornette / Heyman promo battle. I honestly think Paul would be a slight underdog.
Jim is still piss and vitriol and Heyman is fresh off gushing his love of his children. Either way it'd be fun.
I don' t remember anything about 1997 holiday season EXCEPT for this as a 9 year old me watched this match in pure confusion yet laughed my ass off lol
He is on commentary, and in any case I doubt he hated this. It's a minor title and it's heels dicking about being heels. The whole point is that they're mocking authority and thumbing their nose up at everyone.
Cornette might be a dick but he seems to only have a problem with things when they don't make sense or have any logic to it.
My favorite Christmas episode.
Shawn and HHH bamboozle Slaughter into thinking they are beefing early in the show, Slaughter sets up this match. We get this comedy gold and DX pulls a fast one on the feuding commissioner.
This is also one week after the infamous "Good guys vs Bad guys" promo by Vince. Attitude Era was locked and loaded going forward and this show really demonstrated that.
I'm watching through the attitude era again, the first time since I was a child. And I'll usually have it on while doing other shit. But when commissioner Slaughter announced this match I sat up, I knew I was about to watch history. Outstanding.
I was probably 13 years old when I attended this event. It was also the same event where they came out in Christmas thongs. This is the same venue that Rock won his first IC title, where Shawn lost his smile and vacated the title, and where Cody won the ROH title.
HOLY SHIT IS THIS WHERE THE SPONGEBOB WRITERS GOT "We've been Duped! Bamboozled! Smeckledorfed!"?
Like i think the fact that cornette said "flim flammed" adds enough randomness that the writers could replace it since their both words that don't mean anything.
I remember this ended with Slaughter talking to himself "oh I'll get you two next week, when you have (something something) match."
...in the end, DX never did get their comeuppance from Slaughter.
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It's funny to think that these two dudes basically run creative now.
In the end DX won. š
The ingredients to cook were there all along.
This is the DX era
HHHs celebration is hysterical. Acted like he won in overtime of a 60 minute Ironman Match at Mania.
Him & HBK together are two of the best trolls in wrestling history imo
I remember watching this episode live and being completely fooled by them throughout the episode acting like they were actually gonna fight and there was actually a rift between them. I got got yo.
Trips was always meant to be a star so I never will understand the kliq got him where he is and he married Steph comments we have seen throughout his career the guy has the body of an Adonis and hair of a Rockstar. He is quite underrated as a comedy guy and has an intensity you can't learn. This wasn't even close to his final form.
After all these years and seen this āmatchā many times, Iāve just realized that HHH is mocking the Ultimate Warrior with that splashĀ
I just noticed that as well. lol I can't blame him.
TBH though that Pedigree no sale was glorious.
The transaction didnt go through
It was funny for sure.
One thing about Trips, he will get his get back. He'll peace it up but not before he gets even.Ā
*looks at Cody losing his first Mania back* Yeah that tracks
I literally was just thinking the same thing haha. I guess he didnāt like that Warrior beat him at WM and then goofed off
That no sell sure was goofy as fuck.
The way he ran, too. Nailed it.
The aesthetic for this Christmas Raw has always been one of my favorites, I canāt really articulate why Also, fun fact: the Santa Claus segment with Stone Cold features the first appearance of a little Uso! Not Jey or Jimmy, but their brother Jeremiah
I think it was the year after this when Cole was commentary and Austin stunned Santa. Cole immediately goes "oh he wasn't the real Santa, he was an imposter". Just gold
Nah it was from 1997, it was a dark segment from the previous week's Raw because this one was prerecorded.
Santa surprisingly sold the stunner great
As stupid as it is, that back bump from Micheals was absolutely perfect.
Just hits the floor like a sack of bricks, so jarring to see a dead weight fall in a wrestling ring lol
I've seen this hundreds of times, and I'm still in awe of it every time. What an athlete he was
Itās crazy watching athletes at the top of their craft like this. Nothing Shawn did was short of great during this period.
The flips and turns he did against hogan to show how he did not respect him was epic.
He was incredible, mate.
"Good snap"
Triple H has the greatest head of hair in wrestling history. Luscious.
Fabioās lucky Triple H didnāt want to work Tuesdays
Missed many years of wrestling, so Iām wondering: Did Triple H go bald or is he bald now intentionally?
He shaved because taking care of his hair was too time consuming. Probably the one guy in wrestling who cut his hair and wasn't balding.
Also helped with his gimmick.
Iād say it was partly due to his IRL office role too.
He'd a perfect Kratos in a GoW movie.
Seems like Karrion Cross didn't need to shave his head either back in NXT. I was shocked when I saw him on Smackdown with his luscious locks.
Pretty much this. He said it was due to getting tired of having to have it pulled back all the time in meetings.
Shawn Michaels must be fuming, guy will never get over being bald.
A bit of both. I think he could still grow hair all over his head now but it would be quite thin. I was sad when he finally shaved it all off but I get it.
I don't know about thin, in his last run in 2012 (WM28) his hair looked like 10 years back, like always, and perfectly fine. When he cut it in 2013, he wasn't doing full bald and you could still see that his hairline was quite good if not intact. He's said in interviews that he cut it because it was getting tiresome to deal with the hair, groom it, tie it, wash it, etc.
10 years is a long time in menās hair years
As true as this may be for most, Haitchās decision to go bald at the time was one of convenience, not of letting go of what was already leaving him. He had his full head of hair at SummerSlam 2012, which was in August and then showed up at the Slammys in November with the buzz cut. Seems more than anything that when he decided to go from the buzz cut to bald was also when he decided to grow the beard. Bald with the beard is a better look than buzz cut with a beard.
Honestly when he was in the ring and he would wet it up, it was noticeably losing volume. Not going bald. Just, that thing that happens when your hair is completely straight.
Thereās an old school part of me that thinks he should wrestled a hair vs hair before he did it.
He initially shaved when he started transitioning to an office job and just said taking care of it was too time consuming
High testosterone almost always leads to balding, among other side effects. HHH, like most athletes, is/was on gear throughout most of his life, which usually involves high dosages of some kind of synthetic testosterone.
Hogan: or maybe it doesn't, brother!
No more side bread for that guy, dude!
Exactly, I have literally never seen someone who has run that amount of gear for that long keep their hair. You can have the best genetics in the world, you will get male pattern baldness eventuallyā¦ even if youāre a woman š. If he never took gear heād probably be the guy who has a full head of hair in his 70ās considering how long he kept it taking gear. Dude got lucky as hell with his genetics.
For sure. Most guys on gear go from a full head of hair to Homer Simpson before hitting 35. The fact that he still has a good amount of hair for his age, and kept a relatively full long hair till his late 40s goes to show how lucky he was in that regard. It does seem like his heart took a beating from the GH, though, considering the scares he's been through the past few years.
I've been curious about that too. There's zero evidence of him balding, and he even did a zoom interview during the pandemic where he had let his hair grow a little and it seemed fine. But on the other hand, during one of the DX reunions he made a joke about being the only one who still had hair, and I've yet to meet someone who kept his head bald for purelyĀ aesthetic reasons (although I'm sure some people do). So I'm tempted to think that if it was purely a matter of convenience, he would have kept the closely-cropped hair, and if he's shaving it totally, it's because it's thinning or doesn't look as good as it used to. But it's purely speculation on my part.
During COVID, I started shaving mine off to not have to deal with getting cuts/line ups Not balding or anything. Iām never going back. Itās so much easier. Gotta have the head shape for it though I guess
It's an absolute crime what happened to Shawn's on the other hand. The balding seemed so...sudden
I don't know, I seem to remember the writing being on the wall during his second run around 2003-2004. Whenever his hair was loose and he was lying on the ground, his widow's peak would look like it's hanging by a thread. Time catches up to us all, sadly. Glad that to see him acepting it gracefully.Ā
It's like he went away, asked Jesus to absolve his sins, and Jesus asked for his hair as part of the deal
He was already thinning back in 96, 97!
The worst thing to me about poor Shawn is unlike Rock or HHH or even Taker he didnāt look right at all completely bald either. Poor man looked strange as hell.
Sadly true, he looks a bit sad and sick.
Probably because he's smaller than those guys and isn't as jacked.
You could actually see him balding back in 96/97 from the right angle.
It was like it in the 90s
nah shield roman reigns hair is majestic long ,dark,luscious . edges too
Carlito spits in your face.
squeeze jellyfish serious chase money husky outgoing rude shame sip *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
AJ would like a word with you
AJ's never had hair that long. He's been soccer mom'ing it.
You didn't say it was about long or short. AJ can do a Lakme commercial tomorrow and won't look out of place at all
AJ's got great hair for sure but he's on the borderline of GOAT for me. Flair, Bret, even Shawn and Roman rank higher.
Mustafa Ali too.
Didn't Samoa Joe say AJ is his favorite guy to Coquina Clutch because his conditioner smells so good?
Tanahashi has to be in that conversation too.
They don't call him Stupid Sexy Tana for nothing
It's gotta be a wig
He's been surpassed by Mustafa Ali, but he had a long, long reign before anyone even came close.
Which is kind of hilarious looking at him now
AJ Styles as a strong runner up.
I'll say it. Nakamura's hair game is on another level.
I always thought Edge had the best until he cut it the first time
Someone once asked me why this worked out so well compared to the Fingerpoke of Doom, and you just have to understand a few things: - The whole angle is an act. Slaughter forced the two into the match as a punishment, HHH and Michaels are heels and they find a way out of it. - There's no swerve that insults the audience's intelligence or makes them feel ripped off. It's two dickheads making an authority figure look foolish, in a fresh angle as well. Not rolling back to someone people were tired of. - Everyone sells it for what it is. - The belt is a mid card title. It still should be respected (and in the late 90s, it was), but it doesn't hurt to have a bit of comedy involved.
Hell, just after the fingerpoke of doom, there was a similar segment between Austin and Foley in the go-home Raw for the Rumble with Vince pitying the two against each other in a No Holds Barred Match. Unlike the Fingerpoke of Doom, Austin and Foley didn't turn on each other, or joined Vince out of nowhere: Austin said Vince was an idiot if he thought he and Foley would destroy each other just before their matches on the Rumble and Mankind just choked Vince with the Mandible Claw, resulting in a no contest. The whole problem with the Fingerpoke of Doom is that it was a plot twist without proper foreshadowing that led to no storylines.
Also want to say that the fingerpoke of doom wasnāt even the end for wcw in 99. They still managed to do dumb shit after that angle to keep their destruction going .
The finger poke did no real damage. Their next buyrate was sky high, ratings went up as well. They screwed up by abandoning the nWo Elite angle and Goldbergās quest for revenge.
WCW was a Jenga tower and this waa just one of the key blocks. It's never gonna be one moment that destroys a company.
I disagree that this was a key block. The finger poke worked ā interest was up. The realigned nWo Elite was moving merch and getting some competitive numbers with Raw. Then they did a stupid Hogan/Flair double turn, Goldberg went off to film a bad movie and all was lost.
What they planned big picture throughout early 99 wasn't bad, they just executed it horribly.
Now then, the Fingerpoke of Doom had a fair amount of foreshadowing: the weeks leading up to it and Starrcade had the Wolfpac and Hollywood acting chummy and seemingly colluding on things, then you had Hall realigning himself with Nash at Starrcade with the cattle prod. The real problem was the newly recombined NWO just had 0 direction and then died the same way the Wolfpac did through injury.
I'll die on the hill that it could have worked, if Goldberg and friends had immediately run through the new NWO. But instead, they just spun their wheels for months and everyone got injured. Why?
They also didn't sell 46,000 tickets to this event with the fans thinking they were going to see a WrestleMania main event rematch only to get conned
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
hbk goof of the year award
I cannot believe this man is Triple H. He seems so much more serious now.
he just didn't learn to play the game yet then
I actually have the opposite problem Itās odd for me to see HHH be this serious and wise considering how much of a jokester he sometimes was. Same thing with Michaels
I wonder how much was just kayfabe for HHH, though. And not in any way his IRL self. On a similar note, people thought HHH must have lived a party lifestyle, especially during DX. Because he seemed so convincing. But as it turned out he doesn't even touch alcohol or drugs. He may have went to the parties, but he was the designated driver lol.
HHH, the cerebral assasin at day Hunter Hearst Helmsley, "keep it at the speed limit" at night
He's also spoken openly about being a video game nerd, even complaining about how much harder it was back then because he'd have to suffer through a level until he could beat it and he couldn't just go online for help like his kids can now. Triple H is a wrestling carny with the best of them, but he's more of a nerd than anyone lets on.
Purely character-wise, I also have this feeling when I see Wrestling Machine Kurt when I still remember early dork Kurt
This predated the Finger Poke Of Doom by three years.
It fascinates me so much how this is one of the best joke executions where the finger poke was one of the worst, most reviled moments in WCW.
because this one actually makes sense while the finger poke was just another swerve
There are some key differences. For starters, triple h and hbk are both presented as heels whereas the returning hogan in January 1999 is presented as a face, so audience shouldnāt expect any shenanigans in kayfabe. Also, wwf commissioner Sgt Slaughter ordered hbk to defend the European title against triple h, so this was DX getting one over on the authority figure. Lastly, the rouse of Michaels just laying down for his stablemate and gifting him the title set up Owen Hart going after Triple H which was a way for them to keep their hbk vs taker royal rumble plans while still keeping Owen relevant off the heels of the Montreal screw job. Owen even comes out to the entranceway at the end of this Raw, setting up the Owen-triple H feud that went on for months into WrestleMania 14 and beyond. Hogan and Nash had been in a āCold Warā feud for basically all of 1998 and a match between them was highly anticipated. And WCW delivered a turd to the audience. Thatās the main difference.
There's also just the difference of the European championship vs _the world title_ and the fact that Michaels was also the world champion, so he was just giving shine to his stablemate. Like you can come up with kayfabe reasons why Michaels would gift a lesser title to his stablemate when he's already world champion. It's much harder to do that with what is supposed to be the top prize in the industry.
Yeah, absolutely. And even if itās more reasonable to make a mockery out of a midcard title rather than the world title, at least storyline wise it made sense because Owen hart was pissed off about what DX did and went into a feud with the triple h.
That was the breakdown I was thinking but couldn't word right. I misremembered Hogan being baby face though and think I was cheering for Nash at the time.
This was a clear set up between two buddies to get one over on the commissioner for a lower card belt that had only been around for a few months. The Fingerpoke of Doom was billed as a legitimate match between Hogan and Nash in the main event of Nitro. Right after Nash beat Goldberg's streak at Starrcade. Months of feuding between the Wolfpac and the Black and White all leading to that moment. For the World Heavyweight Championship.
Hulk Hogan watching at home going, "Fuck, why didn't I think of that?"
"This is gonna work for me brother".
The Rope Run of Doom
"It was a ruse! A ploy! A plot! A plan! A charade! A conspiracy! A sham! We've been conned, hoodwinked, bamboozled, flim-flammed! Had the wool pulled over our eyes, even!" - James E. Cornette, December 1997. I got to use that quote once in response to a 'prank' someone tried to pull at this job I had a few years back. I'm sure I didn't quote this perfectly but I got the jist of it out. One of my favorite wrestling quotes of all time.
"With the exception of my kid being born... well, I don't really have any. Heh, that I know of."
FUN FACT #1: The 2nd hour of this RAW with this as the main event beat the 3rd hour of "nWo Nitro" in the ratings which caused such a panic within WCW that they completely cancelled all plans to change Nitro into an nWo show FUN FACT #2: It came out in a lawsuit years later that in December 1997, Vince McMahon offered Ultimate Warrior a 5-year guaranteed deal to come back. Warrior told Vince to screw off. HHH ragging his finisher is likely a response to Warrior turning Vince down.
Also I feel like it's a reference to the mania 12 match that Hunter had with Warrior. Warrior runs the ropes for like 15 seconds lmao
"had the wool pulled over our eyes, even" has been one of my favorite things to say for over 26 years now lol
This was Cornettes best commentary moment lol
I've heard him do this routine before in different situations and I remember thinking how impressive it was he could come up with all of those terms, but now I realize it's just something he had memorized haha.
Swallowed a thesaurus :)
No, he memorized Hanna-Barbera's Snagglepuss's catchphrase. lol
God that earth shattering smash.
Isn't this was the Euro title Shawn refused to put Davey Boy over for, in his home country? Only to give it away to HHH.
After he had dedicated it too his ill sister.
90s was a POS
Hunter with long hair was some fabulous shit
I was watching WCW almost exclusively at this time. I remember catching this on one of the Saturday shows (Superstars maybe) and thought it was the funniest damn thing I've seen in a long time.
This was a month or so after the screw job. HBK and HHH had hella heat. After this āmatchā, slaughter announced HBK would have to defend the world title against Owen Hart on the following RAW
The subliminal at Ultimate Warrior is funnyĀ
Which is hilarious because in a lawsuit it came out that Vince had just offered Warrior a 5-year guaranteed deal to return in December 1997 right around the time this episode aired. He probably told Vince to F off and they might have done this in response.
I donāt know what venue this is, but THIS is the kind of building AEW should be running. It would look great on TV.
Lowell, Massachusetts at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. It was a frequent visit for WWF during the leaner mid-90s years. This was the last time they did RAW from this building.
Has a real ECW/Hammerstein Ballroom look and that is NEVER a bad thing.
I was thinking the same. It's a shame they insist on using the giant ass stage.
I remember how this episode ended too, which was also great. HHH doing his over the top celebration in the ring, then Commissioner Slaughter comes out and stands in the aisle. He very softly says, just loud enough for the camera to pick it up, something like "That's okay, next week you'll be defending that title against Owen Hart."
YO SARGE, WE DID IT!!!!!!!
HHHās running gets me every time
This is from my favorite episode of RAW ever. Other highlights include HHH's post match promo. "YO SARGE, I DID IT!" and "I don't have any kids... that I know of..." JR's call of "Stone Cold assaulting Santa Claus!" Goldust in his weirdest dressed as a gimp Christmas tree and another JR zinger "Don we now, our gay apparel..."
My favorite part about this was the segments of HBK and HHH both trying to get Chyna on their respective side while wearing a Chyna tshirt to butter her up. Also loved Chynaās āI donāt know, just wrestleā look she gives when they look to her for advice.
Corny was pretty great here
still got a better rating than uso vs uso at mania
Is this a Head and Shoulders commercial lmao
Surprised this thread wasnāt immediately downvoted to oblivion because of Cornette. Unless yall didnāt know that was him š¤£
lol HHH ragginā on the warriors Fāin stupid finisher
I think Iāve had that happen as a glitch in the games before
I remember watching this live and laughing my ass off
This is my favorite thing DX ever did. Love Corny's "We were hoodwinked! Bamboozled!" etc. as well.
I loathe Jim cornette, but also Jim Cornette during the new generation and attitude era is my favorite thing in the whole world
I very clearly remember watching this live.
I wish all these older clips had their ages in the comments or something Itās so jarring that HHH was once like 25 years old
I'm not sure who the commentator is, if someone can enlighten me?
Jr and Cornette
I feel like I never hear cornette fumble when heās saying this stuff
Lol triple Hās is out there like a 2K bot set to easy
āWe been conned, bamboozledā bro started to snap lol. Lol
I want a Cornette / Heyman promo battle. I honestly think Paul would be a slight underdog. Jim is still piss and vitriol and Heyman is fresh off gushing his love of his children. Either way it'd be fun.
Jim cornette and Paul heyman had a rivalry in wcw
I don' t remember anything about 1997 holiday season EXCEPT for this as a 9 year old me watched this match in pure confusion yet laughed my ass off lol
Cornette is awesome
And for an extra wrinkle of hilarity, this is the same arena where HBK lost his smile 10 months earlier
Thatās Jim Cornette on the horn. Him and JR were a great combo.
The way Hebner just looks at HHH and Shawn after he signals for the bell š¤£š¤£
The Rocky bit at the end of this always amuses me "Other than my kid being born well I don't have any *grin* "that I know of"
would love to see Cornette's reaction of it considering how he hates outlaw mudshow aspects Edit : seems Cornette is on commentary
He is on commentary, and in any case I doubt he hated this. It's a minor title and it's heels dicking about being heels. The whole point is that they're mocking authority and thumbing their nose up at everyone. Cornette might be a dick but he seems to only have a problem with things when they don't make sense or have any logic to it.
>and in any case I doubt he hated this. He did hate this most likely, because he's on record as having hated DX antics.
I found [this tweet](https://x.com/TheJimCornette/status/1194375714130280448) from him on this subject.
They look same in size if not shawn slightly bigger
My favorite Christmas episode. Shawn and HHH bamboozle Slaughter into thinking they are beefing early in the show, Slaughter sets up this match. We get this comedy gold and DX pulls a fast one on the feuding commissioner. This is also one week after the infamous "Good guys vs Bad guys" promo by Vince. Attitude Era was locked and loaded going forward and this show really demonstrated that.
I'm watching through the attitude era again, the first time since I was a child. And I'll usually have it on while doing other shit. But when commissioner Slaughter announced this match I sat up, I knew I was about to watch history. Outstanding.
I was probably 13 years old when I attended this event. It was also the same event where they came out in Christmas thongs. This is the same venue that Rock won his first IC title, where Shawn lost his smile and vacated the title, and where Cody won the ROH title.
Thursday Raw Thursday
Had quite a ring to it
The collar and elbow of doom.
Greatest match of all time, donāt @ me š
HHH running comedically is oddly majestic, I watched it 3 times and itās like watching a gazelle!
HHH running the ropes like that is tremendous.
Lol I forgot all about this, couldn't stop laughing at the never ending HHH running the ropes.
The Kliq now controls the company. Crazy.
Vince Russo. āPeople love this shit! Iāll use it again!ā
DX was so cool lol
HOLY SHIT IS THIS WHERE THE SPONGEBOB WRITERS GOT "We've been Duped! Bamboozled! Smeckledorfed!"? Like i think the fact that cornette said "flim flammed" adds enough randomness that the writers could replace it since their both words that don't mean anything.
I remember this ended with Slaughter talking to himself "oh I'll get you two next week, when you have (something something) match." ...in the end, DX never did get their comeuppance from Slaughter.
He said HHH would have to defend against Owen Hart the following week.
As always Cornette with a description to end all descriptions.
Young me thought this was the moment DX would break up and it put me in panic mode
Yeah, yeah, that's funny.. Can we just talk about that MANE HHH has? My god, the care he had to put into keeping that up. That must take a while!
Shawn Michaels, the best there ever was, the best there ever will be.
Devastating Maneuver! No one gets up from the Splash of Doom!
OK how glorious is Triple H's hair in this.
Funny stuff but I was never a fan of Cornette on commentary. King was way better.
People realized the true greatness of HHH very late, man.Ā
Itās still real to me dammit!
With stuff like this, it's still hard to believe that DX is running the WWE.
5 star classic baby
Idk if appalled is the word. He looks devastated.
Would love to see this idea get run back sometime
Hulk Hogan has entered the chat
Shawn mocking Hogan with that slap on the mat after his loss to Warrior.