Talk about it here.

Here it is ... the moment that went over like a lead balloon. Undertaker calls him the Higher Power so I guess they switched back. Everyone in the ring gets down on one knee as announcers speculate that this is all Shane. Shane makes a delayed entrance and the way they did that with the real one in the ring nodding his head as if he was the one speaking was clever, as was Vince being on the Titantron watching on during the reveal. But the actual reveal was awfully anti-climatic. His motivation was that he had to teach Austin a lesson. That's not much of an explanation. He simply wants to make Austin's life a living hell.

 

Stephanie and Linda interrupt and they aren't happy, but they also don't seem surprised. Stephanie's acting has improved so much. Vince explains to her that it was just business, and that love doesn't have anything to do with it. So Linda wants to talk business. She corrects the "lie" that Vince and Shane own 50% of the WWF - there are four McMahons and each McMahon has an equal share. Oh boy, they could never keep this straight. Linda called an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors this morning and stepped down as CEO but hand-picked her successor: Steve Austin. Vince and Shane sell that awesomely.

 

First things first, Austin has a title shot at the time and place of his choice. Second, Austin will take on Vince and Shane in a handicap match at King of the Ring. Vince even says, "Pally, you're on!" which gets a big, genuine LOL from me. Then there's tonight - Shane vs X-Pac (which Austin pronounces X-Pack) and Kane in a handicap match and each person in The Union can have a match with anyone they want. HHH will have a cast match tonight against The Rock - since Rock's arm is in a cast, HHH will put on a leg cast and wrestle Rock.

 

Despite the Vince reveal being anti-climatic, this segment was incredibly well-constructed and performed, even with Linda and Stephanie not being very good.

I think it's clear that someone in charge knew the reveal itself was going to be a big pile of shit, so they immediately tried to make us forget about it with a bigger swerve with Austin as the new CEO. To that effect, the segment was really well-done.

I was there that night. We were excited.

Then we were disappointed. So, so disappointed.

Alright, so this is the first RAW I watched in full. Lots of memories are starting to come back now. When Austin mentioned Triple H crippling Foley the week before I now remember that was the first segment that hooked me while flipping channels. I don't think I stayed up to see the main event but that segment at least hooked me enough to where I wanted to watch next week, and I remember seeing all the replays of the higher power coming out, and ended up watching this in full and I was a big time fan from then on.

 

Pretty lame reveal but at least they quickly placate fans by giving them Austin as CEO. Austin was instantly my favorite thanks to this segment. Well actually, my favorite until for some reason I became a huge Test mark.

JR's "Aww, son of a BITCH." response is immortal.

Vince's evil face and JR's response is great but this was a pretty awful choice given the build up and feels like an opportunity for WCW if they weren't doing something worse. Really this is in a lot of ways the first major mis step since the WWF upswing IMO. The immediate angle afterward did as good as they could to salvage the reveal but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

Man I remember the rumors about who this would be. Even Lawler mentions Jake the Snake. Vince being it doesn't make sense but this was really good. Probably JR's best non wrestling call ever.

Vince is both the Greater Power and the Higher Power, so we can thankfully put that one to bed. I did like his initial promo.

 

Linda McMahon needs to be banned from speaking on TV. She has the most boring and monotonous voice to go along with the charisma bypass. Stephanie probably grew up wanting to be both an actress and a businesswoman. Wrestling has allowed her to fulfil all her dreams. Doesn't that make you happy?

AW, SON OF A BITCH. One of the worst booking moves (not the *dumbest* in a Beaver Cleavage, Henry-and-Sammy sense, but the most potentially damaging) of the era, and in a way could have been seen as the WWF's Fingerpoke of Doom in its "Sorry, the show you've been watching has been a lie!" contempt for the audience.

 

However, what separates it from the Fingerpoke of Doom (aside from WCW being even more incompetent as Chad points out) is the follow-up I talked about in 2014 and that I stand by. WCW thought they were creating brilliant television, while *somebody* in the WWF realized that a reset button on the Vince character wasn't going to be enough and that they had to give us something more. It doesn't completely redeem the segment, but it does help.