Looking Back At Monday Night RAW March 3rd, 1997

A Rock N' Sock Connection Paradox Without 'The Rock' Or 'The Sock'

"Looky here, I'm a chicken!"

MATCH #2: ROCKY MAIVIA (c) vs. VADER (w/ Paul Bearer) {WWF Intercontinental Championship Match}

I know that Rocky Maivia is going to bore countless constant readers away until he becomes The Rock. But guess what, this match was actually going well!

The storytelling involved here is quite classic. Rocky is the underdog & Vader is the big grizzly monster whom our protagonist has to overcome. There was even a point when Vader’s mask comes off just when Rocky delivers a DDT.

The Mastodon just went “f*ck it” & decided to keep wrestling without his mask.

Rocky Maivia goes kung-fu on an unmasked Vader

But hey, this is the WWF. So we have three options at stake here- Option A) Let Rocky overcome the odds. Option B) Eh. Rocky sucks. Just let Vader go over this time around. Option C) The match ends in a disqualification involving our two competitors.

Choose your option folks. Done?

Well, as it turns out, the match is indeed going to end in a disqualification, but here comes Option D) Mankind rushes in & hits Rocky on the head with an urn to save a friend who did not need saving in the first place.

Mankind ruins the match...

This was probably the first onscreen interaction between two future members of The Rock N' Sock Connection (without the charisma). Vader gets so pissed, that he drags Rocky back into the ring & busts him around nevertheless.

Since we’re in Germany, here’s a phrase that perfectly sums up Vader’s WWF Run in a nutshell—

Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof (Life is no pony farm.)

Result: Rocky Maivia wins via DQ.