Shotgun Saturday Night – January 4, 1997: A Truly Revolutionary Show

Someone requested the second episode of this show but I couldn’t find it.  Sorry Rocko.  Here’s this one as a consolation.

Shotgun Saturday Night
Date: January 4, 1997
Location: Mirage Night Club, New York City, New York
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Sunny

This is a show I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. It’s the debut episode of a show obviously called Shotgun Saturday Night. This is airing at about 11pm live from a night club in New York. These shows were FAR edgier than what you saw on WWF and it kind of the ancestor to the Attitude Era. Eventually one Vince Russo would do commentary but that’s not for about a year. This was a legit shift in what WWF had, and is a very interesting piece of company history. I’ve never seen this so let’s get to it.

Bob Backlund says you don’t want to go in there because there’s violence and sex and crime in there. He wants to ban the show and even New York as a whole. He’d make a GREAT mod here.

The opening video is shots of New York and various wrestlers, including Taker in a leather jacket and sunglasses. That could never happen right?

Crush vs. Ahmed Johnson and minis tonight. Oh and Goldust vs. Sultan.

The atmosphere here is very different and the ring is clearly smaller.

Godwins vs. Flying Nuns

The Nuns are Sister Angelica and Mother Smucker. They’re women in case you couldn’t tell. We see a video of them coming out of a cathedral. The ropes are yellow and the mat is black. Also, WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN ON JANUARY 4TH? That was the Fingerpoke of Doom and Foley winning the title and the debut of this show and Impact moving to Mondays and Shawn and Bret reuniting. Is it like November 5, 1955 in Back to the Future?

The Nuns jump the Godwins and are rather powerful it seems. Apparently men vs. women is fine now? Angelica and Phineas start and we get a HOLY CRAP chant for no apparent reason. Wow those women are large. Hard punch and I think one Banged her Head on the mat. Sunny thinks these two are from the Nun Wrestling Federation.

Hillbilly Jim isn’t sure what’s going on. Angelica has facial hair it seems. Smucker takes over and Vince wonders how the WWF sanctioned this. Vince if you can’t remember why you did it you may want to lay off the hard stuff. The lights are really low I’m guessing to make sure the size of the place isn’t notable, which is fine. Brother Love of all people comes out and is the manager of the girls I guess.

We take a break and come back to more of the same. The girls beat up Henry, who is about 6’7 and over 300lbs. Those are some big old girls. LOUD ECW chant as well. We hear about some rookie that Sunny likes named Rocky Maivia. Eh I’m sure he’ll never mean anything. Top rope legdrop from Smucker misses and hot tag to Phineas (Mideon). Smucker complains about him trying to slam her as apparently she doesn’t like the hand placement. That’s kind of funny. Love blasts Phineas with whatever is in his hand for the pin.

Rating: D. This was a long comedy match and the joke got old quick. In case you didn’t get the reference, the Nuns are of course men and would soon be VERY repackaged as the Headbangers. This went nowhere at all though and was FAR too long, at nearly 13 minutes counting commercial.

Brother Love renames them the Sisters of Love.

Ad for WWF on Tour.

Todd Pettingill (the original Michael Cole) is in the VIP Section with Goldust and Rocky. Bob Backlund comes over to freak out over Marlena’s dress and various things associated with it.

Goldust vs. The Sultan

Sultan is more famous as Rikishi. You can barely see the guys on the floor as the lights are on that low. Sultan likes Marlena apparently. Backlund won’t talk to Todd because he doesn’t have his glasses on. I loved this guy because he was just so insane and awesome at the same time.

This is a very generic match so far with not much going on at all. Weak powerslam by Sultan for two. Sunny is funny on commentary as she’s very sassy and cute. Backlund comes over and yells about life in general as a nerve hold is on Goldust. BWO chant as this is dragging. The match is boring but the atmosphere is very fun. This match needs to end like NOW. Sultan takes a neckbreaker and beats Goldust to his feet.

Vince gets the two guys confused. Clearly this is a problem as they look SO much alike! Sultan hits a Samoan Drop because he’s, you know, Samoan. Camel Clutch goes on but Marlena gets up on the apron and flashes Sultan, sending Backlund into hysterics. Sunny is TICKED as apparently she wants to be the flasher. I don’t think anyone would tell her no. Sultan gets counted out. Marlena is declared the winner.

Rating: D. This should be double D because that’s what this was about. The match sucked but obviously it was about the ending here. It set the tone for what you were going to get on this show, which is a nice touch. If the match had been cut in half it would have been even better and actually, you know, decent.

Sunny promises a sex tape next week.

Crush vs. Ahmed Johnson

Crush is in the Nation at this point and since it’s any point in Ahmed’s career, he’s feuding with them. The fans chant Jailbird because Crush had a long prison sentence due to weapons charges. We actually acknowledge that but say he did no time, which is a lie I believe. Clarence Mason, the lawyer of the Nation, talks about how Crush has been misused. I have no idea what he’s talking about but whatever.

Full Nelson by Crush and Ahmed makes his comeback. He sets for his Butterfly Powerbomb but the man that would become known as D’lo Brown runs in for the DQ. Big beatdown follows including a LOUD chair shot. Goldust and the Godwins come in for the save and Ahmed goes after Crush with the chair. They fight out the door and onto the streets, which is apparently 56th Street. Pearl River Plunge on the car, which looked SICK.

Rating: D+. Pretty short here but it was an ok power match I suppose. This was part of the seemingly never ending feud between Ahmed and the Nation. Farrooq vs. Ahmed would kind of happen at the Rumble but it never really went anywhere. This was ok but all just to set up the big car spot, which is fine I guess.

Mascarita Sagrada vs. Mini Vader

Mascarita is a legend as far as minis go. We get a comedy skit of Mini Vader and Jim Cornette. Mascarita always had a weird thing with Sunny, so she comes up and dances with him. It’s the Macarena which Todd does an actual funny song in perfect timing to the music, which may not have been scripted. Hot women dancing is always a good way to go though, so this worked.

Cornette joins commentary which instantly makes things better. And then he’s gone. Sagrada was fun to watch but here’s Cornette in the ring for a time out. You can’t see anything again because of the lighting but whatever. BIG (ok that’s a stretch) powerbomb from Vader and this is one sided for the most part. Nice rana from Mascarita gets us back to even and then he goes OFF THE TOP which is like the top of the cage by proportion.

Sagrada was AWESOME and is here as well. A missile dropkick ends it. Post match, Cornette challenges Sagrada to a fight. Oh this could be good. Mini Vader turns on him and there go Jim’s pants.

Rating: B-. Fun, especially with Cornette freaking out. This was to excite the crowd and give us something you wouldn’t otherwise see, which is a nice perk. These matches could be really fun if done right which is what they did here. They messed up once and ha a 15 minute match, which is FAR too long. This was fun though and as a quick thing that happens rarely, it can be great.

Vince and Sunny wrap us up with Sunny dancing on a table. That works.

Overall Rating: C+. Kind of a mess but that’s kind of the point. This was to give you something different and that’s exactly what they did. In that sense this worked very well although the wrestling was pretty horrible for the most part. Still though, this is well worth checking out if you’ve never seen it before, as the dynamic is totally different than what you’re used to in this era. Fun show but they didn’t really know what they were doing yet, which would improve to a degree.

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