An immortal line in wrestling history, and if you're a fan of WWE then you've more than likely heard it a hundred times or so on DVD or the Network. Well that was now 20 years ago, and it is an anniversary of some note.
Some
people may look at the first episode of Nitro, replete with returning Lex Luger
and live-event atmosphere, as the first shots in the Monday Night War. Some may point to the signings of Hogan and
Savage as Ted Turner's first great body blows to the then WWF's New Generation,
who were struggling to replace the Superstars of the 1980s and now competing
for ratings with them. However, in
comparison, these were mere skirmishes, the rumblings of disaffection, the
water straining at the dam. Scott Hall's
one-line introduction was wrestling's equivalent of the assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. War was not
only inevitable, it was here.
Hall
himself was on familiar ground, and some loyal stalwarts may have been forgiven
for thinking “Yeah, you're the Diamond Studd!” after his previous WCW stint in
DDP's Diamond Mine stable, but to the wider wrestling public he appeared in
full gimmick as Razor Ramon. No
on-screen caption, no “It's Razor!” from the commentary desk; with the oiled-back
hair, the toothpick and familiar grin, we were in no doubt as to who he was. Most importantly, this didn't feel like a
début.
With
such blurred lines, in an era when kayfabe was still king, we didn't need the
hindsight of 20 years of repetition to know this was going to be huge, ongoing,
and industry changing. Whilst it might
not have been “still real to us,” after the McMahon court cases of the early
90's, mostly we were still reliant on dirt-sheets or the promotions themselves
for news. The curtain call incident at
Madison Square Garden between the leaving (including Hall) and remaining
members of the Kliq, was not common knowledge, nor was their industry
influence, but it was still a potential threat to this angle. Too little respect has been given to the WCW
staff and talent for the sell they did on this, it was convincing, with the
shock being palpable and making it seem for all the world like a genuine
invasion from WWF. Razor Ramon, the
former Intercontinental Champ and star bad guy (pardon the pun) of the New Generation, was standing
in a WCW ring with his ego showing for all the world.
Like
any War in all time though, no one can tell exactly what will happen once the
first shot is fired. We would
undoubtedly have casualties, not least of which would be WCW itself; we would
have stunning allegiances in the nWo and DX, both born from the ashes of the
Kliq; and most importantly, we would have the fiercest battles in wrestling
history. Mostly over ratings...
“You
all know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here.”
Get
ready for a summer of great 20th anniversaries of the Monday Night
War and the birth of the “New World Order of wrestling, Brother!”