Sunday, June 19, 2016

WWF's Shotgun Saturday Night- First episode: January, 4th, 1997


Shotgun Saturday Night was WWF's poor attempt to capitalize of the growing popularity of ECW and their more adult content.
The debut episode was broadcasted from The Mirage Nightclub in New York City and promised to be edgier than what WWF usually produces, let's see if they make good on that promise. 



The show opens with Bob Backlund warning us that we don't want to see tonight's show, that it is decadent, there's sexual activities, violence, and crime happening inside. 

A ZZ-Top ripoff song plays over flashcuts of Shawn Michaels stripping on a cab, a fresh-faced Sunny getting out of a limo, and The Undertaker coming out of a manhole. Taker is wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and a bandanna on his head, predating his biker gimmick by three years.
 

Vocal chord ripping Vince McMahon and Sunny rundown the card: Ahmed Johnson vs. Crush, Goldust vs. The Sultan, and the main event: midgets!


First match of the night is an unannounced one, The Flying Nuns vs. The Godwinns. The Nuns are the future Headbangers, but in this gimmick, they're a pair of nuns from a Tibetan order in The Himalayas. Their names?
Sister Angelica and Mother Smucker. We get all this info from Todd Pettengill, and if you look closely, you'll notice some geek trying to get his NWO shirt on camera. Well, they were taking over.
  

The Nuns Pearl Harbor the pig farmers, but it doesn't take long for the veterans to take control. Since this was filmed in a night club, the ring used is tiny, especially compared to the huge rings that are usually used.


LOTS of stalling, but a Holy Shit! chant from the crowd gets a big belly laugh from McMahon and he acknowledges the chant with, "holy cow!"

So exciting this match is, that they throw to Todd and Hillbilly Jim.


Business was possibly gonna pick up, maybe, I hoped, until Brother Love popped up at ringside and the nuns begin to bow to him.


Back body drop by Hnery Godwinn and more stalling. FINALLY the Nuns take control by putting the boots to Henry and using the ropes to choke him, getting an ECW chant from the crowd.

Vince brings up the VIP section of the club and that Sunny has her eyes set on Rocky Maivia, I don't know if this was a throwaway line or possibly trying to set up a future storyline of her managing him. Sunny would leave the WWF in August of that year to reunite with Chris Candido in ECW.



HOG tags in PIG( Phineas I. Godwinn) who is reluctant to hit a "woman", this works against him and one crack on the head from the good book gets the win for the Flying Nuns.

Post match interview has Brother Love dubbing the Nuns as The Sisters of Love, plus you can barely spot ECW fan Faith No More guy in the back of the crowd.


Second match is Goldust vs. The Sultan, a masked Rikishi Fatu.
Sultan wastes little time and starts trading blows, but Goldust takes over and hammers away at the cheap-gimmicked heel.

Sultan's backstory is that the Iron Sheik trained him and he doesn't speak because his tongue had been cut out.


Goldust hits The Sultan with the rearview, but any attempt of making this match or show interesting is thwarted by The Sultan. The ref turns heel on the crowd by stopping The Sultan from hitting Goldust with a chair.

Now the only thing worth mentioning in the entire run of Shotgun, Marlena, Goldust's valet and real-life wife Terri Runnels, "flashing" her boobs.


Sunny is livid over Marlena's pastie-covered boobs, but livid rhythms with vivid, and pairing that in a Google search with Sunny will yield something to really cry afoul about.

After a commercial break, Sunny is going on about Marlena and she promises to bring a video of her doing the wild thing, and if Pam Anderson can do it, so can she!
The sex tape turns out to be her and Elmo, not a video of her and "Wildman" Marc Mero or getting Hep C from Tommy Lee.


Crush with the Nation of Domination vs. Ahmed Johnson is up next.
This one starts off hot with Johnson scoring a takedown and exchanging ground and pound shots.
A wild Goldberg chant breaks out as Ahmed takes control again with a jumping clothesline from outside the ring back into the ring.


A low blow to Johnson's johnson turns the tide, but a jailbird chants distracts Crush enough to give Ahmed an opening. The NOD interfere and get this match thrown out.
The faces of the night, Goldust and The Godwinns, save Johnson from taking any further damage,but not before Crush cracks him in the head with a chair.

Before the main event of Mini-Vader vs. Mascarita Sagrada, Todd Pettengill belts outs a parody of the Macarena while Sunny dances in the ring.


Jim Cornette joins on commentary and Holy Shit! The match featuring two midgets, one a parody of another wrestler, is the match of the night and hard to transcribe. 
After a berating from Cornette, Mini-Vader dominates with body slams and powerbombs.


Sagrada is able to capitalize on min vad's mistake and hits a top rope rana and outside splash, following up with a standing rana and top rope dropkick for the win.

Cornette challenges Sagrada afterwards, but the midgets team up and take Cornette down along with taking off his pants.
This is how the episode ends, a shot of Jim Cornette's ass in his underwear.

I don't know how men in drag, hog farmers, an 80's Middle-East gimmick, and midgets were suppose to help the WWF tap into ECW's fanbase.

The WWF finally realized their failure six weeks after the debut and dropped the premise of the show completely.  Shotgun Saturday Night started being tapped before RAW, featuring lower level talent and recaps of RAW.

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