June 30, 1997

NITRO

Las Vegas, NV

After the credits, Tony Schiavone excitedly welcomes us to the show and then pitches it to Mean Gene Okerlund, camped out in the middle of the ring. Gene brings out Ric Flair. Larry Zbyszko notes that we'll finally find out tonight "who the super-secret impact player is." As Flair comes out to the usual Also Sprach Zarathustra, he's most of the way to the ring when his music gives way to Roddy Piper's music. However, instead of Piper turning up, a couple of random hotties trailing Flair to the ring are carrying a mannequin in plaid garb, an apparent (weird) mockery of Piper.



Flair says that he got a call from Piper 12:00 last night, asking to make up. He says he told Piper that he has "two live ones," and that Piper can have them all night. He says, "Look what's left of the Hot Rod." This all seems rather hacky for Flair. One of the girls breaks in to talk and asks why they call him Hot Rod, "because he's definitely not hot." Flair yucks it up. The fans are chanting "Roddy." Flair says that Piper crossed the line last week. "You tried to tell the Nature Boy how to wrestle a wrestling match. … You might be an icon in Hollywood, but when it comes to the sport of wrestling, when it comes to entertaining the ladies, when it comes to taking Mean Gene out all night long…Piper, you stay home with the wife and the kids, because you can't handle it."

Gene asks one of the ladies, "Is it true that he's the 60-minute man?" She basically reacts with, "Wat." The other one, the one who insulted Piper first, says, "More like 30 seconds." Gene says, "Oh, you must be talking about Piper." Flair holds up a kilt and says, "Apparently this is what icons are made of. Let me lay you down to rest." He gently lays the kilt down and asks for a moment of silence for Hot Rod. This segment is quite stupid, but it's drawing some heat from the live crowd. It has no real conclusion; suddenly it's just over.



We're at the desk for the first time, with Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, and Mike Tenay. From what Tenay says, it sounds like we're getting Flair vs. Piper at Bash at the Beach.

We find out before the next match that Chris Jericho won the Cruiserweight Title from Syxx at a house show this past weekend in Los Angeles. I believe that this may have been the first time that WCW ever went this far west, so I guess it adds up that they were pulling out all the stops and doing unusual things while they were out here. Sucks to not see his title win though, even just in a clip or something, particularly as a WCW guy winning a title off an nWo guy is significant.

Cruiserweight Title - Chris Jericho (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera: Collar-and-elbow tie-up into an arm-wringer by Jericho. Juvi flips around, reverses the arm-wringer, temporarily takes Jericho down, Jericho kips up, knocks Juvi down, Juvi kip-up, and we reset. Back suplex by Jericho, who transitions into a surfboard but can't hold onto it; Guerrera gets loose. Side headlock by Jericho, releases and hits a shoulderblock off the ropes, but Guerrera comes back at him with a flying headscissor takeover. Jericho backdrops Juvi onto the apron, Juvi goes for a springboard move but botches, falling into the ring. Jericho capitalizes with a big back suplex that drops Juvi squarely on the back of his head.

Delayed suplex by Jericho. Two-count. Jericho slaps on a standing surfboard for a moment, then releases voluntarily. He sends Juvi off the ropes, launches him on the way back, but Juvi hits sort of a bad hurracanrana. He's unfortunately botchy tonight. Back elbow by Jericho, who sets Guerrera up in the tree of woe. Big baseball slide straight into Juvi's face. Patrick backs Jericho down long enough for Guerrera to get out of the tree of woe, but Jericho hits a backbreaker and then holds on, wrenching Juvi's back along his bent knee. He eventually releases, executes a corner whip, Juvi jumps behind, goes for a spinning back kick, but again it's a botch; not necessarily Juvi's fault that time, as it looked like a miscommunication between the two. But then…****, there's another botch that's definitely Juvi's fault, as he ****s up another springboard spot and tumbles to the mat. It's like Super Calo has staged a hostile takeover of Juventud's motor system.



Jericho with a corner whip…he follows Guerrera in, dives for a cross-body, but comes up totally empty and spills to the floor. Guerrera follows him out with a suicide dive over the top rope. He rolls Jericho inside, hits his 450 splash off the top (Tony calls it a 360), but Jericho kicks out on two. Jericho counters a go-behind into a go-behind of his own. He tries for a German, Juvi falls behind, goes for maybe a rana, but Jericho counters into a double powerbomb, holding onto the first and releasing on the second. Two-count. Shoutout to the fan on the hard-camera side in a Mariners jersey. People wore those a lot more often in 1997 than they do in 2018.

Jericho sets Juventud up on the top rope. He makes as if he's going to superplex him all the way off the top, then hits a super hurracanrana instead. Slaps on the Boston crab, Juventud apparently submits, and this one is over. Couple of notes: I just call it the Boston crab because Tony just said he debuted it a week ago, and thus it didn't have the Lion Tamer name yet. Also, Juventud was tapping after Nick Patrick had already gotten up to signal for the bell, but I don't think he tapped before, so this was just one of those Curt Hennig SummerSlam 1991 submissions. I think that the move to tap-out submissions was a positive development, but admittedly the old-school submission method would be more helpful in Daniel Puder situations.



Result: Chris Jericho via submission

Mean Gene grabs an in-ring interview with Jericho. Jericho proclaims, "This is not an nWo belt. It's a WCW belt. And it's back where it belongs in WCW." Enter Syxx, who heads down the aisle. Gene indignantly says that Syxx has no right being in this arena, since he hasn't gone through officials like JJ Dillon. Isn't that true of almost every nWo appearance on TV? Syxx says, "You didn't beat nothing on Saturday until you got back to your hotel room." Gene: "You can't say that on television!" Eye-roll. Syxx: "What'd I say?" Gene: <awkward pause> "Not even worth repeating." Syxx says that he's still the real champion, but offers to give Jericho another shot at the belt. Then he slaps Jericho, Jericho charges and attacks, and the show quickly cuts to break. After the break, officials have separated the two men.



Mean Gene interviews Alex Wright at ringside. Wright is not good at English. He complains that WCW has held him down, not giving him interview time. He adds that he has a perfect body, saying that Lex Luger has nothing on him. Gene eventually cuts him off and sends it back to Tony.

Back at the announce booth, Larry says, "I don't know why Alex Wright is upset about interview time; he can't talk anyway." Tony retorts, "Larry, that's not true, we heard from him right there." WTF Tony, obviously Larry wasn't speaking literally. Being out-dueled by Larry should mean instant forced retirement.

Dean Malenko is heading out to wrestle in the next match when Eddie Guerrero scurries up and hammers him from behind. Eddie beats on Dean, then slams Dean face-first into the steel steps. He rolls Dean inside, and…the bell rings. So this is Dean's opponent? Seems premature for this feud, but okay.

Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero: Mike Tenay gets into a history lesson, informing us that people in WCW think they know Eddie Guerrero, but he's known Eddie for years, and Eddie and Art Barr formed the most despised tag team in Mexican wrestling. Tenay says, "And in the case of Eddie Guerrero, what you've seen for the last year is not what you get." Eddie throws a European uppercut and a chop before whipping Malenko off the ropes. He connects on a clothesline, rakes the eyes with his boot, and suplexes the Iceman. Eddie taunts the crowd to a chorus of boos.

Eddie whips Malenko off the ropes, drops down, and connects on a back elbow. He heads to the apron, tries to slingshot splash his way in, lands into a forward roll instead, scales to the top rope, but Malenko is on the spot to knock him off his perch and crotch him. Malenko tries to follow up for a possible superplex, but Eddie knocks him back. Eddie for a tornado DDT attempt, but now it's Malenko on the counter, flinging Eddie far across the ring. Malenko stomps a mudhole in Eddie in the corner. Eddie regains his feet and whips Dean into the corner, but Dean counters his follow-up into something of a snake-eyes. High-impact back suplex by Malenko. He sends Eddie into the ropes and hits a heel kick on the way back, covering for a count of two. Big powerbomb by Malenko.



Malenko with a rare display of emotion, as he stands over the fallen Guerrero and then slaps him across the face. The crowd rises to their feet, and Chavo Guerrero is shown marching to the ring. He hops up on the apron, distracting Malenko, and Eddie capitalizes; he rams Malenko into Chavo, knocking Chavo off the apron. Brainbuster by Eddie, top rope, frog splash, 1-2-3. We're left with ambiguity as to whether Chavo meant to help Eddie.



Result: Eddie Guerrero via pinfall

Gene Okerlund has an interview at the top of the aisle with Rey Mysterio Jr. Rey requested the interview. He says that he's tired of being pushed around by Kevin Nash and the rest of the Wolfpack. Rey acknowledges the huge size difference, but says that he has to know if he can beat Kevin Nash. He challenges Nash to a match tonight. Gene raises caution and says it would be a huge mismatch. Rey is insistent, saying he has the bigger heart. Out comes Kevin Nash, obnoxious smirk on his face. He says, "You've got a bigger heart than me, little man? How about tonight I do a little autopsy? We'll see what you got, huh?" Gene again tries to talk Rey down, to no avail. Rey says he can take Nash. Nash does more obnoxious taunting, and the match is on for later tonight.



After commercial, the nWo music is playing. Enter Eric Bischoff on a motorcycle. He gets 75% of the way down the aisle, disembarks from the bike, and cues Hulk Hogan. They head to the ring together and commence with a pointless promo segment. Hogan says that he and Rodman have a special party going on tonight, so he's going to let Randy Savage, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash have their fun with "three idiots": Lex Luger, The Giant, and "that wacko, DD pee-pee." Clever stuff, Hogan. He says that Nash is going to take down Mysterio and then Nash/Hall/Savage are going to have their fun in an apparent six-man tag. Hoganpose.jpg, and we're done with this segment.



TV Title - Lord Steven Regal (c) vs. Hector Garza: They hype Garza's corkscrew plancha during his entrance. Garza was such a one-trick pony. Regal and Garza battle over an arm-wringer, trading counter for counter. Garza releases and hits a shoulderblock. He applies a side headlock, but Regal escapes behind. Snapmare by Garza, Regal grabs him by the legs and looks to slap on a Boston crab, but Garza twists his way loose. Regal gouges the eyes, hits European uppercuts and palm strikes, then whips the challenger into the ropes; Garza dodges and then hits a flying forearm. Regal dodges a subsequent forearm attempt, showboats a little, corner whip, but he comes up empty as he charges in after.

Dropkick by Garza knocks Regal from the ring. Baseball slide makes some weak impact. Garza sets up on the apron, attempts a moonsault, overshoots but lands on his feet, and Regal slides into the ring…at least until he charges the ropes and spills out over the top. Regal is dazed, Garza quickly climbs to the top, and connects badly on his signature corkscrew plancha. Garza is first to recover and regain his feet. He rolls Regal in, climbs to the top, waits until a wobbly Regal regains his feet, and Garza hits a missile dropkick. Tries to follow with a quebrada, but Regal lifts the knees and catches him square in the gut. Regal Stretch, tap tap tap (Tenay notes it as "the universal signal for submission"), and this one's over.



Result; Lord Steven Regal via submission

Mean Gene is joined by the Steiner Brothers. To look at him, Scott Steiner's metamorphosis into "insufferable douchebag" has kicked into a new gear.



Scott says that they've done everything they need to in order to justify a title shot, and he demands that they get one. Rick says they're not leaving until Hall and Nash come out. The nWo B-team music plays, so I expected to see Scott Norton and/or Buff Bagwell, but Hall and Nash actually come out, at which point the music transitions to the primary nWo theme. Syxx comes out as well. Larry calls them "The Worm Pack." HOW THE **** DID THIS GUY GET A LONG-TERM GIG AS A PROFESSIONAL TALKER? Seriously, what the ****. "New World Odor." "The Worm Pack." Why even have a human race if it's just going to lead to people thinking that **** like that is witty? Vincent, Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton, and Masa MY HERO Chono join the scene as well. Hall has a clipboard and a contract in hand, and he says that if the Steiners want their match, they've got it.

Surely there's something shady about the contract that Hall tendered. Gene points out that the Steiners may want to have a lawyer take a look, but the Steiners ignore him and just blindly sign the paper without looking.



The Steiners leave. Hall points out that the contract says that the Steiners have to beat Masa Chono and The Great Muta in order to get a title shot.

Psicosis (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Super Calo: Oh ****, Super Calo is wrestling tonight? He's got his work cut out for him if he's going to try to botch as many times as Juventud did earlier. Psicosis and Calo circle each other until Calo executes an armdrag that sends Psicosis sprawling to the outside. Psicosis regroups, re-enters, executes an arm-wringer, but Calo elbows his way free, again armdrags Psicosis out of the ring, then tries to follow with a baseball slide; it misses. Onoo distracts, Psicosis attacks from behind, then goes to distract the ref while Onoo hits a series of kicks on Calo. Psicosis returns him inside.

Calo reverses a corner whip, but catches an elbow as he runs in after. He's staggered, but he counters a charge with a scoop powerslam. As he tries to go through the ropes, Psicosis crotches him against the ropes to regain an advantage. Running start by Psicosis, Calo ducks the clothesline, but Psicosis hits a jumping kick to knock Calo to the floor. Psicosis hits a baseball slide, then climbs to the top rope. He comes up empty on a jump, smashing into the guardrail. Calo tries to capitalize on the new advantage, as he goes to suplex Psicosis into the ring. Sonny Onoo grabs Calo's leg to sort of reproduce the Bobby Heenan/Ultimate Warrior spot from WrestleMania V, though Onoo neglects (forgets, I think) to actually hold the leg. Psicosis falls on top, and for no particular reason that's enough to score the three-count. I believe we finished on a botch, but it wasn't Calo's fault. Juventud is tonight's botch champion.



Result: Psicosis via pinfall

Calo is furious about the interference. He bitches about it to the official, then attacks Psicosis. He has the advantage until La Parka comes running out and smashes a wooden chair across Calo's back. Juventud must have heard me snarking about him. He comes running out for the save, and he sends Psicosis and La Parka out of the ring. The apparent babyfaces hold as the show goes to commercial.

Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton, & Masa Hiro Chono vs. Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra): This is a rare WWE Network match featuring Benoit that has search bubbles; the match is labeled nWo vs. Four Horsemen. Flair and Bagwell open things up, Bagwell powering Flair to the mat and taunting. Flair keeps his cool, taunts back to piss Bagwell off, and the action resumes. Flair chops Bagwell in the corner, Bagwell fires back with punches, a backdrop, a dropkick, and a clothesline. Flair takes a powder, then returns inside and tags Mongo.

Bagwell drives a knee into Mongo's gut, then tags Scott Norton. Tony Schiavone teases again that we're going to see some unknown "impact player" tonight. Norton gets his shots in and then tags Chono. Mongo powers his way out of the enemy corner, driving Chono into the Horsemen corner and tagging in Flair. Flair punches away, then tags Benoit. Chono no-sells Benoit's chops, goes for a mafia kick, Benoit ducks under and executes a snap-suplex. Benoit with an Irish whip, Chono hangs onto the ropes and levels a kick to Benoit's head. Flair distracts Chono, Benoit blindsides him, to the top, and he connects with a diving headbutt. Bagwell enters, Flair comes in, and all hell breaks loose as the six men brawl. Vincent comes running in to join the fray, and Nick Patrick signals for a DQ. The Horsemen quickly dispatch of the nWo and hold the ring. Zero idea what the point of this match was.



Result: Horsemen via DQ

We see a hype video for the upcoming Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan match at Bash at the Beach, where both men's careers will be on the line. As was usually the case with WCW video packages, it's pretty worthless.

Wrath & Mortis (w/ James Vandenberg) vs. High Voltage: I was starting to wonder if these Wrath/Mortis/Glacier/Miller types ever fought anyone but each other. For months it's been like having a division that consisted entirely of Alundra Blayze and Bull Nakano. Wrath and Mortis attack at the bell, and referee Mark Curtis doesn't make any real effort to force anyone to the apron; they seem to just compete under tornado rules. As it looks like Wrath and Mortis are going to finish High Voltage off, Glacier and Ernest Miller run to the ring, Mark Curtis engages himself in a contrived distraction, and Miller hits a kick off the ropes that catches Mortis square. Robbie Rage falls on top, Mark Curtis turns around and counts to three, and High Voltage scores the upset.



Result: High Voltage via pinfall

Incidentally, I always found the addition of Ernest Miller to this feud to be a strange one. It's like a civilian just wandered into a cartoon and became a central character.

Before going to commercials, we see a white limo having arrived at the arena. The announcers speculate that this could be the hyped "impact player." The limo door starts to open, but then before anyone gets out, it gets closed again, so we're left in suspense as the show goes to break.

After commercial, we get the standard dumb Lee Marshall Nitro party call (I usually just ignore these entirely when writing up), then the camera pans to the audience and finds an apparent new arrival: Raven.



Tenay says that he doesn't work for WCW, but that he's been a champion "all over the world." I fact-checked what I thought was an embellishment, but I guess it's sort of a defensible statement since he won titles in territories before his ECW days. The announcers wonder aloud if this is the impact player and/or DDP's mystery partner for the upcoming PPV.

US Title - Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Konnan: If I allowed myself to just skip one match on each show, this would get my skip. Very difficult for me to decide which of these guys sucked harder. Konnan with a couple of hard right hands. Jarrett reverses an Irish whip and ultimately armdrags Konnan. Clothesline by Jarrett, who struts. Stomps at Konnan's kidneys. Irish whip by Jarrett, Konnan sort of staggers back toward him in slow motion as if he just botched a basic run off the ropes, but he ends up trying to shoot the leg and then ducking an enziguri attempt by Jarrett.

Snapmare by Konnan, then a seated dropkick. Konnan kicks Jarrett twice in the head, whips him off the ropes, but Jarrett counters with a DDT. He smashes Konnan into the turnbuckle, mounts him in the corner and lands a series of punches. After a corner whip, Konnan counters a charging Jarrett with a back elbow and then hits a facebuster. Konnan slaps on something of an octopus, but Jarrett points out that his foot is under the ropes, and it forces a break. Jarrett telegraphs a backdrop attempt off a whip, and Konnan kicks him in the face. Single-leg trip by Konnan into an attempted figure-four, but Jarrett rakes the eyes to stop him.

Jarrett starts working Konnan's knee, and suddenly the crowd rises to see Ric Flair walking down the aisle. As Flair arrives at ringside, Konnan heads in his direction and spits on him. Jarrett clips Konnan's leg hard from behind, then applies the figure-four. That seemed like the likely ending, but Konnan rolls over to reverse the hold. Jarrett rolls back over to regain the hold, Flair actually grabs Jarrett's arms to help with leverage, and that is our ending. That serves as something of a clarification that Jarrett (unfortunately) isn't fully out with the Horsemen yet.



Result: Jeff Jarrett via submission

Flair enters the ring, and Benoit/Mongo/Debra follow. Flair struts with Jarrett, and Tony says, "the probation must be over."

Gene grabs an interview segment with the group. Please split up. Jarrett responds to Gene saying the Horsemen are "together again" by saying that they were never apart. Jarrett showers Flair with praise for a bit, and says that he's a Horseman because Ric says so. Flair says, "Jeff Jarrett, you're a fine athlete, you're a great young man, you're a player…but as of right now, you are no longer a Horseman." Jarrett is stunned, saying that Flair never told him what he can and can't be. Flair says, "Tell your story walking, Alan Jackson; you're out." Alan Jackson is much more badass than Jeff Jarrett. Flair said that Jarrett only ever got to be a Horseman because Debra liked the way he looked momentarily. Debra piles on, saying, "You're about as welcome in the Horsemen as a skunk at a lawn party." Jarrett vows that he's going to be the one to put Flair out to pasture. He exits stage left. Surprised this never became a beatdown.



After commercial, we see the July '96 footage of Kevin Nash firing Rey Mysterio Jr. into the side of a trailer. We also see the footage from a couple of months ago, when Nash attacked Mysterio from behind and planted him with a Jackknife.

Kevin Nash vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Nash is out first, of course making mocking faces about how scared he is of this match. Rey enters second, running to the ring and climbing straight to the top rope, then connecting with a missile dropkick at the opening bell. Several more dropkicks by Rey, who goes out to the apron and then hits a springboard somersault attack into Nash, felling the big man. Rey covers, but Nash kicks out with authority at two, flinging Rey across the ring. Rey gets a running start to try another attack, but Nash catches him, spins him around, and plants him hard with an inverted atomic drop. Nash executes a big biel throw that launches Rey into orbit. He sets him up for a Jackknife, does the DX crotch chop before DX existed, and hits his finishing move. Pin with one foot, 1-2-3. Incidentally, Rey's foot was totally under the rope, but nobody pointed it out.



Result: Kevin Nash via pinfall

After the match, Nash hits another Jackknife. We see Konnan appear at the top of the aisle. Mike Tenay notes the history that Konnan and Rey have, training together in Mexico. Nash acknowledges Konnan, making a bring-it-on motion before hitting a third Jackknife. Konnan heads to the ring. He enters, staring Nash down. Nash seems to back down, nodding and leaving the ring. Konnan slaps on a leg submission and wrenches Rey's leg, then leaves him lying. Tenay wonders if Konnan has an association with the nWo, but that question remains unanswered right now.

After commercials, Rey has been stretchered, his newly injured knee immobilized, and he gets wheeled out.

Mike Tenay heads over to grab a word with Raven. He asks Raven if he's a spectator who bought a ticket. Raven doesn't answer. Tenay asks if he's going to partner with DDP. Raven spits, but doesn't answer. Tenay starts into a third question, but Raven just shoves the mic away. Tenay gives up and says that obviously Raven isn't going to talk tonight.



The nWo heads to the ring for our main event.



Isn't it wonderful to live in a world where a large number of people thought that Kevin Nash was cool? Anyway, as a palate cleanser let's take a look at a less annoying entrance.



Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, & Randy Savage (w/ Elizabeth) vs. Lex Luger, The Giant, & Diamond Dallas Page (w/ Kimberly): The nWo guys try to hold the WCW guys off from entering. The WCW guys finally make some headway, get into the ring, and we have six-way brawling in three corners, Savage pairing off with DDP, Giant with Nash, and Hall with Luger. Referee Randy Anderson can't get anyone to leave the ring. Tony Schiavone says he hopes that Anderson will just let everyone fight. This is all just punches and kicks really, no particular action to describe.

Hall and Nash try to double-team The Giant, but Giant holds them both off, one head in each palm, and he headbutts both at the same time. Giant rares back and gets a running start, but Hall and Nash dump him over the top rope. Enter Hulk Hogan, who slowly saunters down the aisle. He attacks Giant from behind. DDP hits a Diamond Cutter on Savage, but the camera doesn't catch it. Also it doesn't lead to a pin. This thing breaks down further as the nWo jobbers arrive on the scene, Chono and Norton joining in on the attack. I don't think this match ever started, and we're not getting a bell here either. Randy Savage hits multiple flying elbows on DDP.

Result: No Contest (maybe no match at all?)

A blatantly fake Sting shows up in the crowd. Tony Schiavone plays the fool and exclaims, "Sting has arrived!" Now the camera goes over to what may be the real Sting in a separate area, and Schiavone doesn't seem to notice that we're looking at someone new. No, the second Sting wasn't real either as it turns out, though he was a less absurd fake; the real Sting rappels from the ceiling. He drops to the floor, releases from his harness, and backs Hogan down. He gets into the ring to back down Hall and Nash, and he finally stops the beatdown on DDP. And as he successfully clears out the ring, the camera pans to the top of the aisle to reveal the impact player…



Curt Hennig has arrived in WCW. And that can only mean one thing: we are officially on the road to the worst parody segment in wrestling history. As Hennig arrives at the ring, Raven hops over the guardrail, apparently looking to join the action. Before Raven or Hennig can do anything though, Tony screams that we're out of time, and the show signs off.



Overall: This was fine. Too much Kevin Nash, and unfortunately Jericho vs. Juventud was a disappointment, but on the bright side, the arrivals of Raven and Curt Hennig made for splashy moments, and we're apparently finally done with the Mongo/Jarrett tense alliance garbage.

I've been watching a bit of older stuff in my spare time and one major takeaway I have is that Juventud was way better than I remembered as a kid. Sad this one was a disappointment.

Yeah, Juvi was certainly a good worker. He wouldn't make that top WCW cruiserweight tier of Jericho/Malenko/Eddie/Rey, and I'd put him behind Ultimo as well, but I probably liked him somewhat better than Psicosis.

Is it weird that I consider Steven Regal a cruiserweight too? He just worked so well with so many of them he just comes to mind when discussing the WCW Cruiserweight division

Super weird, yes.

No disagreement here though.

Awesome post, such a good description of Flair.

Love this thread!

Its going to take me a long time to get through it

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Welcome, ABD. I thought that your chronological watch through wrestling had surpassed this thread by now, so I was hoping you would come by and take a look at some point. Though we don't strictly keep this thread spoiler-free, I do mostly write the writeups themselves from a standpoint of not knowing what's coming next (even when I do).

Moorobot was always a strong poster. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to be around anymore.

June 30, 1997

RAW

Des Moines, IA

We start on a video recap of the relationship between The Undertaker and Paul Bearer, including the big moment at the end of last week's Raw, when Bearer promised to tell Undertaker's secret and Taker finally stopped letting it back him down. Presumably we get that reveal tonight.

After the opening credits, we get the scan through the arena, and we're going to start right off with a match.

Ken Shamrock vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna): Shamrock throws a hard armdrag out of the first lockup. The men reset, lock back up, and Shamrock puts HHH back on the mat with a fireman's carry. Helmsley regains his feet, the two battle over a hip-toss but both block each other, and ultimately Shamrock throws another armdrag. Hunter works his way back up to a vertical base, drives Shamrock into the corner, referee Earl Hebner tries to force a clean break and Hunter gouges Shamrock's eyes to take advantage. He works Shamrock into the opposite corner, stomping him down to the mat. Earl Hebner tries to back him down, and eventually gets forceful enough to yank Hunter away by the hair, causing a big yelling match between the two.

Helmsley refocuses in time to stay on the attack, whipping Shamrock off the ropes and hitting a high knee. Snapmare and a running kneedrop. Shamrock fights back with punches to the guts, but HHH quells the comeback with a rake of the eyes. Shamrock runs off the ropes and charges Hunter, but Hunter steps aside and dumps him out over the top. As Hebner takes Hunter to task, Chyna flings Shamrock hard into the steel steps. Helmsley rolls outside, taunts Shamrock a bit, rolls him back into the ring, and at this point we see Mankind saunter down the aisle. This distracts HHH, Shamrock recovers and lies in wait, then hits a big belly-to-belly when H turns around and scores the pin.



Result: Ken Shamrock via pinfall

Mankind charges into the ring, but HHH gets out of dodge and backs away from the ring pointing a threatening finger. Mankind vs. HHH is set for Canadian Stampede.

Our announce team for the night - Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler - welcomes us to tonight's show. They tease the Undertaker's secret coming out tonight. Vince talks about Ahmed Johnson joining up with the Nation of Domination two weeks ago, and sends it to a clip showing Ahmed turning on Taker during their tag match, then to his promo the following week where Ahmed cut a heel promo on the fans and the Undertaker. We also see a clip of the debut of Crush's new group, DOA, which led to a wild brawl between the DOA and the Nation of Domination. And that brawl led to an apparent new injury to Ahmed Johnson, as Ahmed tore knee ligaments and had to be operated on during the past week. We see a pre-taped incomprehensible heel promo from Ahmed on his hospital bed, still threatening Undertaker and DOA. Injuries really ****ed Ahmed up, though it's difficult to feel too bad for someone on this front given how reckless he always was with his opponents.

Vince sends it backstage to Michael Cole, who interview the Legion of Doom. They cut a standard LOD promo about how they're going to win, etc. They're a win away from the finals of the ongoing tag tournament.



Tag Team Tournament Semifinal - D-Lo Brown & Faarooq (w/ Kama Mustafa) vs. The Legion of Doom: We get off to a quick start, the bell ringing and the action underway while Jim Ross was narrating replays on the screen. Animal vs. Faarooq to start; Animal puts him down and tags to Hawk. Faarooq tags D-Lo, and we have a fresh matchup. Hawk suplexes D-Lo, and we see the Godwinns (in overalls but shirtless) glaring at the action from the top of the aisle. Hawk drops his head too early for a backdrop attempt, and D-Lo kicks him in the face. D-Lo hammers away in the corner with kicks, punches, and chokes. However, this time it's D-Lo who drops too early for a backdrop attempt, and Hawk counters him into a neckbreaker. Faarooq breaks up the pin attempt, that draws Animal into the ring, and we devolve quickly into chaos. LOD is able to set D-Lo up, they hit the Doomsday Device, but as Hawk goes for a pin, Henry Godwinn comes in and clobbers him with his empty slop bucket. Faarooq capitalizes and scores the pin, despite not being the legal man.



Result: D-Lo Brown & Faarooq via pinfall

The LOD chase the Godwinns to the back, and they disappear through the curtain.

Vince McMahon enters the ring to grab a word with the Nation. Faarooq rages about the fact that with Ahmed being injured, someone else is getting the next title shot at The Undertaker. He says that it should be another Nation member. Vince says, "Vader was chosen." Faarooq says that's because Vader is white. Vince pretty much no-sells, and he asks Faarooq to talk about Crush. Faarooq runs down Crush for a bit, then moves on to slagging Savio Vega. Savio appears at the top of the aisle, dressed all in white and trotting out the lame, "you didn't fire me; I quit."



Savio vows revenge, which leads Faarooq to challenge him to bring his "jalapeno-picking ass" to the ring. Savio snap-calls and heads to the ring, and yet-unnamed reinforcements follow. The Nation and Savio's new gang fall into the same sort of brawl as the Nation and DOA did last week. Again officials step in to separate things, but just as matters are settling down, we hear the revving of engines, and DOA ride their bikes to the ring. They disembark and attack, and the gangs all fight it out in the ring until the show heads to commercial. These spin-off groups were so incredibly uninspired and stupid.



After break, Michael Cole is getting a word with Savio Vega. He names his group "Los Boricuas." Savio says that nobody knows gangs better than he does, and closes by saying, "We are here to kick some ass!" Alright.

They tease a recent bikini photo shoot Sunny did, and then Jerry Lawler says that the photographer caught a secret liaison between Sunny and Brian Pillman. They show a few shots of those two spending time on the beach together. I'm guessing this never gets mentioned again, as I have no recollection of it.

The Undertaker is shown agonizing backstage, but only briefly; he doesn't speak yet.

Scott Putski enters for the next match, his Raw debut. In order to prop up Scott, they show footage of his father Ivan hitting people with his Polish Hammer finisher. They may have given up on the first iteration of Rocky Maivia, but they apparently still believed that "this guy's dad wrestled" was an effective way to get someone over.

Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher: Vince picks back up with what they talked about last time we saw Brian Christopher, asking Jerry Lawler point blank whether he was Christopher's father. Lawler says that's his own personal business and he threatens to punch Vince and JR in the face if they keep this questioning up.

Putski, chiseled out of stone, poses and shows off his physique. Christopher shoves him, Putski shoves back, then hits an overhead belly-to-belly on Lawler's son. The two trade punches. Putski with an Irish whip into a side salto. Two-count. Backbreaker by Putski, then a hard corner whip and a clothesline. Another two-count. Irish whip by Putski, leapfrog by Christopher, and he wraps Putski up on the way back and hits a full nelson facebuster (aka skull-crushing finale). Christopher smashes Putski's head in the corner, then hits a missile dropkick off the second rope. A bit slow to cover, and Putski kicks out on two.

Overhead throw by Christopher. Whips Putski into the corner and follows him in with a shoulderblock. Off another corner whip, Christopher goes for a hurracanrana, but Putski counters into a powerbomb. Couple of clotheslines and a punch by Putski, a corner whip and another clothesline. Putski to the top rope, connects on a splash from there, but Jerry Lawler runs distraction when he jumps up onto the apron. While his attempted distraction does stop a pinfall from happening after the big splash, it leads to an accidental collision with Christopher that sends Lawler falling hard to the front of the table on the floor. Putski picks Christopher up for an attempted powerslam, but Lawler manages to get back up in time to grab Putski's ankle, enabling Christopher to get on top and score the pin.



Putski looked pretty rough, but this match wasn't too bad. Christopher may have been a bit better than I remember him, probably owing to the fact that his character only gets more and more insufferable over time.

Result: Brian Christopher via pinfall

Putski is furious about being robbed, and he jumps Christopher after the bell. Lawler continues to involve himself, attacking Putski and creating a 2-on-1. The father and son beat Putski down, culminating in a spike piledriver. They get on the mic and taunt Putski as officials help Putski to the back; Lawler says, "Go home to daddy if you can find your way, you dumb Polak." JR mutters something about that being distasteful.

They advertise a Steve Austin VHS that includes footage from ECW, and we see a quick clip of one of Austin's promos where he imitated and mocked Hulk Hogan. When we get back live, Vince smirks and says, "I never would have thought I'd see Stone Cold imitating Hulk Hogan." It felt a bit out of the ordinary to hear Hogan's name actually being said on Raw; so far they had usually stuck to veiled potshots without naming names, or obvious parody like the "Huckster" business.

Vince throws it to comments from The Undertaker backstage. He's reaching out to address the fans. He says that Paul Bearer is going to talk about the worst night of Taker's life later, a night that had results that he's had to live with ever since. He asks that people just keep an open mind and allow him the chance to give his side of the story afterward.



After commercials, we see a video hyping up The Great Sasuke, who will take on TAKA Michinoku at Canadian Stampede. It's a bit odd to have Sasuke debuting on PPV without getting anything more than that 15-second hype video, but IIRC that match is quite good. I probably haven't watched it since 1997.

Before the next match, the announcers talk about Brian Pillman apparently attacking a fan on Shotgun Saturday Night, and then they say he was fired…except that he's currently heading to the ring for a match. JR clarifies that Pillman is fired from Shotgun Saturday Night. What? Also he's been forced by Gorilla Monsoon to publicly apologize. They show his pre-taped apology…which starts with an apology to the fan, and devolves into things like "I apologize for being the only one with any guts." So they sent it to a totally insincere apology that they knew was insincere because it was pre-taped, and then Vince comes back on and expresses his surprise and disgust with what a bogus apology it was.

Mankind again is walking to the ring with the "Pick Me Steve" sign hanging around his neck. He also comes bearing a wrapped present, and he goes to the announce table and hands it to Jim Ross. Ross is taken aback, but he slowly opens the box to discover a mannequin of Mankind's Mandible Claw hand, apparently given as some sort of peace offering for his attack on Ross months earlier. He may be Mankind, but he's also a kind man, and I take my hat off to him.



Brian Pillman vs. Mankind: As Ross opens his gift, Pillman ambushes Mankind from behind, and that's how this one gets underway. He grabs the claw facsimile from Ross and shoves it in Mankind's face, then rips the "Pick Me Steve" sign apart. He rolls Mankind into the ring and hits a back elbow, but Mankind catches Pillman's subsequent second-rope attempt with an elbow of his own. As Mankind proceeds on offense, they go to a split-screen with Steve Austin; Vince asks Austin what he thinks of Mankind's ongoing campaign to be his partner. Austin says, "Well I think it shows he's a pretty smart man, because he's picking the best talent in pro wrestling to tag team with…but I think he sucks. You don't know if you're going out there with Mankind, with Cactus Jack, or Dude Love. I don't give a rat's ass about Mankind, or Shawn Michaels, or a whole lot of things these days." He vows that he's not going to lose the Tag Team Titles no matter who is in his corner, and then he abruptly exits stage left.



As the action continues inside the ring, HHH and Chyna are shown at the top of the aisle. The show goes to break, and upon its return HHH and Chyna are still watching from a distance. Pillman and Mankind are outside the ring, referee Earl Hebner trying to hold Mankind back for some reason, and Pillman seizes this opportunity to pick up the ring bell and clobber Mankind with it over Hebner's unsuspecting head. Pillman rams Mankind into the post, rolls Mankind halfway into the ring, and then actually goes and grabs a pencil from announce and is making as if to stab Mankind in the side of the head with it when Hebner manages to grab his arm and prevent that.

The action returns inside, and Mankind goes on the attack, but he promptly dumps Pillman through the ropes and returns things to the outside. He tries to charge at Pillman, but Pillman dodges and Mankind rams into the steel steps. Pillman sends him back in and just sort of rakes away at the face. When he tries to follow with a kick, Mankind catches his leg, single-legs him to the mat, drags him to the corner, and both posts the leg and then yanks on Pillman's legs to crotch him into the post. Mankind attempts an Irish whip, but Pillman insta-collapses on his newly injured leg. While it always seems like good psychology when someone with an injury fails to run off an Irish whip, it also exposes Irish whips in general. As Pillman limps to his feet, Mankind slaps on the Mandible Claw, but HHH and Chyna charge to the ring. Mankind relinquishes the hold and goes after his rival. As Chyna runs distraction on the referee, HHH tries to hit Mankind with a chair but ends up accidentally clobbering Pillman instead. Mankind collects the chair and stalks after HHH and Chyna with it…they run away, Mankind pursues, and this one is headed for a countout. Pillman flings himself back into the ring just in time to beat the count and score the win.



Result: Brian Pillman via countout

They tease Paul Bearer's secret coming up after break. After the break, the second-hour opening video runs, we get a fresh run of pyrotechnics in the arena, and the War Zone hour has begun.

Vince McMahon enters the ring and brings out Paul Bearer for an interview. Bearer enters to no music, but a solid chorus of boos. As he gets to the ring, some woman charges him and brings him down. Pretty sure, between the resistance Paul shows to being brought down and the way that the show quickly tries to move past this with minimal acknowledgment, that it really was a crazed fan and not a plant.



In any case, Bearer shakes it off and gets into the ring. Vince says that he wants to remind Bearer that The Undertaker is here tonight and will be listening to every word that Paul says. Paul says that we're going to have to go back a few years…20 years, to be exact. He speaks of a small funeral home on a hill, run by a father and mother of two children. He refers to one of the children as "a red-headed punk," and says that the other child was a "sweet child" named Kane. Bearer says that he worked as an apprentice for the red-headed punk's father while putting himself through school; he explicitly identifies the obvious, that the red-headed punk was The Undertaker. Bearer said that the red-headed punk had something wrong with him…a look in his eye…"the look of the Devil. He was the Devil's seed, if you know what I mean."

Bearer says that the sad thing was that the sweet little brother, Kane, followed Undertaker around wherever he went. He says that he saw them doing things like stealing chemicals from the embalming room and sneaking around and smoking cigarettes. Bearer says that one day, when he was getting ready to go to school, he saw Kane and The Undertaker and thought that something didn't seem right. He shook it off and went to school. When he returned that night, he found fire trucks, an ambulance, and the funeral home burnt to ashes. The family had apparently been burnt to death. Bearer said he looked over in the bushes and saw The Undertaker. "Undertaker, you burnt the funeral home to the ground, and along with the funeral home, you killed your parents. You killed your family, Undertaker! I know it! I've had this secret inside all my life. 20 years. You killed them. Undertaker, you are a murderer! You're a murderer! You're a goddamn murderer!" The lights in the arena flicker, there's a sound of thunder, but the show simply goes to break.



After break, Paul Bearer and Vader are shown talking backstage…Vince accurately describes the ambiguous appearance by saying that Vader is either consoling Bearer or congratulating him.

The backstage camera pans over to Sable and Marc Mero, with Mero looking unhappy as he has continually done in his recent appearances. The chyron prominently displaying Sable's name, undertitled with "with Marc Mero," was obviously a deliberate choice to express that Sable had really started to outpace her husband. They're there to shill some sort of money giveaway.



Tag Team Tournament Semifinal - The British Bulldog & Owen Hart vs. The Headbangers: Mosh and Owen start. Mosh counters a corner whip and hits a backdrop, a dropkick, and a scoop slam for an early two-count. Tag to Thrasher, and the Headbangers combine on a double throw. Thrasher records another two, but Owen connects on a jawbreaker and then bails out with a tag to the Bulldog. Thrasher and Bulldog trade armdrags, Owen takes a blind tag before the legal men run the ropes, and he enters with the big spinning wheel kick. Inverted atomic drop by Owen, a gutwrench suplex, and he gets his own two-count.

Tag back to Bulldog, and the brothers-in-law hit a double clothesline. Bulldog makes the pin for a count of two. As he executes a delayed suplex, Vince gets Bret Hart on the phone. Bret is calling in from Calgary. He denies Vince's charge that Bret isn't here tonight because he's ducking Steve Austin. Bret says he's just keeping his cards close to the vest. Bret isn't calling in for any apparent purpose; he just talks up his excitement for the upcoming Canadian Stampede 10-man tag.

As the call ends, the Headbangers are setting up Owen for a big double-team move, as Mosh sets Owen for a piledriver or powerbomb while Thrasher climbs the ropes. However, Bulldog knocks Thrasher off his perch and crotches him, this distracts Mosh, and Owen capitalizes with a counter by rolling through and scoring the pinfall. Right after the pin, Mosh takes a cheap shot on Owen and continues attacking him…amusingly, for some reason, Bulldog is just in the background taunting obliviously while Owen gets his ass kicked. Upon being attacked also, Bulldog does eventually wake up and help his brother-in-law overcome the sore loser.



Result: British Bulldog & Owen Hart via pinfall

As Bulldog and Owen hold the ring, we hear a familiar voice call out over the loudspeakers, "Congratulations, boys!" We see Jim Cornette appear at the top of the aisle. "What? You people didn't want me to stay away forever, did you? I tell you what, I've got a little tag team back here, Davey and Owen. They didn't get to the WWF in time to make the tournament, but would you guys like to see how bad they are? I believe we can arrange it!" Cornette blows on a whistle, and two huge dudes run to the ring to attack. The Headbangers rejoin the fray, attacking both of the other two teams. These guys clear Owen and Davey out, and then they fight with the Headbangers. The Headbangers actually start overcoming these guys until Cornette jumps into the ring and distracts them, allowing his men to overcome. That's a pretty weak way to try to build two monsters. One of the two guys slowly climbs to the top and hits a headbutt from there. The other climbs to the top and hits a big moonsault to complete the semi-squash.



The Undertaker is shown pacing around backstage. After commercials, we hear from him. "It's true. Yes, it is true." Undertaker would have done well to consult with Clarence Mason before just taping a live confession like this. Nonetheless, he continues.

So uhh, we are to believe that the reason that Taker was giving in to Bearer's blackmail was that he didn't want Bearer to reveal to the world that Taker's family had died in a fire caused by his little brother, who is also dead and who can't be investigated? If I'm on a jury, I'm probably much more inclined to buy the "Taker is a murderer" story based on Taker's blackmail reaction alone.

RockaBilly (w/ Honky Tonk Man) vs. Vader (w/ Paul Bearer): Billy takes Honky's guitar and hammers Vader with it before the bell, breaking it over Vader's back. Vader no-sells and starts to beat Billy down, but here comes Undertaker, running in and taking the fight to Vader. I'm not sure this match ever started.

Result: No Contest/No Match

As Taker hammers away at Vader, Bearer picks up a house mic and screams, "Murderer! Murderer!" Taker bails from the ring and attacks. Taker yells, "Tell the truth! Tell the truth!" Bearer insists that he is telling the truth, and says, "Kane told me! Kane told me! … Kane is alive! He's alive, Undertaker! He's breathing, just like everyone in this room!"



Taker is taken aback for a moment, then rares back to hit Bearer again, but Vader attacks him from behind, and he and Bearer make their escape.

Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin: Anvil attacks Austin before the bell, and the opening bell rings. The other Hart Foundation members are shown watching from backstage, then Ken Shamrock is shown doing likewise from elsewhere in the arena. Austin hits a couple of clotheslines on Neidhart, executes a bodyslam, and gets a two-count. Side headlock. Anvil counters into his own headlock, releases and runs off the ropes, then hits a running shoulderblock. Anvil really moves in slow motion here, significantly more than I remember him usually working. Austin executes a Thesz Press that kind of gets botched, but he throws the usual punches and gets through the spot.

Austin goes for a Sharpshooter, but Anvil fends it off. Austin goes for an abdominal stretch instead, and he openly cheats with rope leverage. JR plays the babyface apologist and says that Austin "doesn't want to be a role model." Anvil reverses an Irish whip and connects on a back elbow that sends Austin outside the ring. Austin drags Neidhart out, and they're going to brawl out there. Anvil is sooo blown up here. It's embarrassing. Austin bodyslams Anvil on the steel ramp. Vince teases that something is happening backstage, mumbles something about Bret Hart, but before we get clarity, the show goes to break. After the break, we see that Bret Hart is indeed here and not at home in Calgary; he blindsides Ken Shamrock backstage and beats him down with some of the backstage props.



Vince notes that the LOD left earlier, and that Goldust is not here, so none of Shamrock's teammates are around to defend him. The beatdown continues, but they return to showing the ongoing match.

Neidhart is in control of the match, throwing a right thrust to put Austin down and then dropping an axhandle and choking away at Austin on the mat. Corner whip by Neidhart, but he runs into a boot on follow-up. Austin on the comeback, but it's thwarted quickly by a boot to the face when he telegraphs a backdrop attempt too obviously. Reverse chinlock by Neidhart wears Austin down further. Austin finds the energy to rally his way back to his feet. Anvil reverses an Irish whip, slaps on something akin to a sleeper, but Austin quickly counters with a jawbreaker. Two-count. Anvil resumes control once again. Putting him in charge of offense for this long is a great way to have a really boring match. He slams Austin, catches his breath for a minute, then goes for a second-rope splash that misses when Austin rolls away.

Right hands by Austin, but here comes Bret for another sneak attack; Bret attacks Austin for the clear DQ.



Result: Steve Austin via DQ

Bret slaps on that corner figure-four, and Jim Ross goes nuts, screaming "oh no!" as Bret tries to rip Austin's leg off. Mankind runs out for the save, sticking the Mandible Claw down Bret's throat. Other Hart Foundation members come out to attack Mankind, and they seem to be gaining the advantage in the fight as the show goes off the air.



Overall: Wasn't a big fan. This stuff was okay, but aside from finally giving the big reveal in the Undertaker/Bearer angle (which was not really a great payoff in my view), most of this felt like wheel-spinning to get to the PPV on Sunday. Not terrible, but aside from the Bearer promo it was all forgettable.

Ratings for 6/30/97: Nitro 3.3, Raw 2.5
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 69-17-2

Better Show: Again neither company put forward a great effort, though both were passable I suppose. I preferred Nitro between the two by a bit. Better wrestling, more intrigue with the Raven/Hennig debuts.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 58-30

Match of the Night: Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko

JUNE 1997 IN REVIEW

Arrivals:
WCW - Curt Hennig (from WWF), Raven (from ECW)
WWF - N/A

Match of the Month: DDP vs. Randy Savage from Great American Bash

PPV of the Month: Very much a toss-up. I'm inclined to give the slightest of edges to King of the Ring over Great American Bash, as it at least propelled the significant babyface run of Mankind, while also furthering the HHH push.

Ratings: Nitro's still humming along. Nothing to see here.

Quality: Slight preference to Raw during this month, but neither company was really setting themselves apart during this stretch.

Gif of the Month:

Having just gone back through the posts from June for the June-in-review post, I thought this merited a requote. Just one of those quick segments that deserved some more love.

Up until a couple of years ago, I had no idea that he went to WCW as the third member of Harlem Heat under the name "Big T". As JP would say, "he was a bloated *****".

I take it this show doesn't reflect the WWE's corporate views.

This Brian vs. Scott match could've been billed as many things but "this guy's dad wrestled and so did this other guy's dad" was the first to pop into my head.

It is (was). I'm not sure how well those matches have aged. I've watched the ECW matches w/Sasuke and others from 1997 recently and I remember being blown away at the time, but they don't hold up.

These guys have a ridiculously bloody match where they face each other in IWA in Japan. They basically punched and stabbed each other. Got that on a deathmatch tape at an ECW show in 98. Loved the match at that age lol. Unlikely to enjoy it today. Just reading the description of the match says it all:



True story: I bought her playboy issue.

That Owen thing is gold. Owen played his character so well.

Ha, I'm definitely always a fan of those moments when JP announces, "This show DOES represent the WWE's corporate views."

Using the Christopher/Lawler relationship for Christopher worked I think, just because of the absurdity of Lawler refusing to answer the question of their kinship and then repeatedly jumping in to help Christopher. It was a fairly funny ongoing bit. But just hoping that a babyface will get more over because of his dad has shown time and again to be quite worthless. I remember when they kept pretending that Ted DiBiase Jr. was going to be the babyface from Legacy when the group was splitting, except that nobody in the world ever cared about him, and Randy Orton was the only one who was over on his own merits at that point.

Canadian Stampede is finally up next in the queue, and although I'm not anticipating getting to it this weekend or anything, I'm sure hoping that I'll still feel about it as I have in the past (where all four matches are ***+ and the main event is at or near *****).

Thanks mate!

You are doing an amazing job. I've been cracking up at a lot of your jokes esp around Scott Norton with the accompanying gifs.

Lots of nice little touchs only a true fan or historian could appreciate too. For example the write up of HHH vs Marc Mero I just read where Mero slingshots H into the ringpost to knock him out for the pin you referred to it as "the Beefcake/Perfect finish from Wrestlemania 6". Love that.

Shame about Moorobot alright, he was always quality

Ive been meaning to stop by and read this through, wasnt sure where you were up to by now but Im well ahead now (March 1999) so I should catch this thread up

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Oh wow. I stopped following wrestling for a year now and came back due to wanting to read NJPW-related stuff and find that the recap is around June 1997? Cool, I can catch up now. These posts are still great. I mean I've been reading the Raw write-ups and everything involving the Hart Foundation, Austin, HBK, and the Mick Foley interviews are very compelling and that I get excited about reading these and can imagine that watching them in real time in 1997 amplifies the excitement. Too bad, it would still take about a year for it to really reflect in winning the head-to-head ratings against Nitro.

Why can't wrestling be this exciting from a story point of view nowadays? I sat out following wrestling for a year now, but I can imagine that there is still really no need to actually watch Raw nowadays and get excited about the weeks to come.

Had to 100% be a rib by Owen right? There is no way that w as scripted.

IMO, at least the general idea must have been scripted, because otherwise it hardly makes sense for the segment to exist at all. If the whole plan was...

Owen: "I want Pillman with me!"
Gorilla: "Okay."

...you just don't have the segment. You just have Pillman accompany him, which is totally natural since they're in the same faction.

WWF IN YOUR HOUSE 16: CANADIAN STAMPEDE



Calgary, AB

The opening video package is narrated by the message that we are no longer in a black-and-white world, and that we are now in a world defined by shades of grey. It recaps Bret Hart's character arc from the year to date. Pretty solid opening package.

Vince McMahon welcomes us to the show, flanked on either side by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Tonight, they're all wearing cowboy gear.



Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna) vs. Mankind: Mankind gets a decent face pop for his entrance, but the face turn is still a work in progress. HHH attacks him before the lights come up, and the two are at blows quickly. Mankind with a corner whip, then a facebuster as HHH staggers out. Bodyslam and a legdrop. Double-arm DDT, and Mankind mockingly performs the HHH curtsey. Mankind's momentum breaks when he gets caught ducking too early for a backdrop, allowing HHH to slam Mankind's face into his jaw. Mankind counters the next charge with a backdrop to the floor though, then follows Hunter out with an elbow from the apron to the floor. He rolls Hunter inside and records a two-count.

Corner whip sends Helmsley in hard, and causes him to careen all the way to the floor. HHH starts up the aisle as if to walk out on the match, but Mankind races after him and attacks from behind, then follows with a suplex onto the steel ramp.



Mankind returns to the ring and rocks back and forth, awaiting HHH's return. H crawls his way back and eventually makes it to the apron, but Mankind greets him with a right hand to send him back to the floor. HHH is more proactive when he returns to the apron, throwing a shoulder and attempting to sunset-flip his way in, but Mankind holds strong and then reaches down with a Mandible Claw. Referee Jimmy Korderas gets right up in HHH's face to check for a submission, allowing Chyna to reach in and clock Mankind without triggering a DQ. Mankind stalks after her, HHH jumps off the apron after him, and Mankind shows good awareness by turning around and sidestepping HHH's attack. HHH reverses the subsequent Irish whip, and he sends Mankind straight into Chyna, who sort of hip-tosses Mankind into the steps, leg-first.



Chyna distracts the referee, and HHH grabs a nearby chair and wallops Mankind's leg with it. Mankind hobbles his way to his feet, persistent, but as he slowly re-enters the ring, HHH aggressively dives to clip Mankind's bad wheel. Hunter continues the attack with a series of kicks to the leg. He sets the leg across the bottom rope and drops an elbow on it, then rains down a series of rights in the corner. Attempted corner whip by Helmsley leads Mankind to collapse on the way over. Helmsley follows with a targeted dropkick at the bad leg; he can do that, apparently? He slaps on a figure-four, which really should realistically do it, but of course this would be a terrible time to have Mankind tap out to anything. He doesn't, of course. Jimmy Korderas eventually catches Hunter cheating with rope leverage, and the hold is broken.

Mankind tries to mount a comeback, though he crumples when he unwittingly throws a kick with his bad leg. HHH sets for the Pedigree, but Mankind desperately counters with a double-leg. H kicks Mankind back into the corner, Mankind staggers out, and he falls head-first into HHH's crotch. Fun sequence.



The Mankind comeback is on, as he sends Helmsley to the canvas and throws a series of punches. He backs up and executes his signature move where he gets a running start and drives a knee into the face of his seated opponent, but again this is done with his bad leg, and again he sells the impact properly. With some wrestlers it would be stupid that they even keep ****ing up by intentionally impacting their bad limb, but with Mankind it fits his unhinged character. I once had a pet dog who would insistently try to pick up fireworks while they were in progress, no matter how much it burned his mouth. We tried to hold him back, but the ****er had old-man strength and would sometimes even break a double-team. Anyway, that dog was analogous to Mankind.

Mankind whips Helmsley into the corner, causing him to get hung upside down in the tree of woe. Mankind follows him in and hammers him. Korderas gets HHH loose, but HHH is promptly met by the sit-out piledriver. Very close two-count. Mankind gets a running start and clotheslines HHH out over the top, going out with him. Mankind grabs a chair, and is going to use it in clear view of the referee, but Chyna pulls the chair out from behind to stop him. As the ref attends to her, HHH picks up the chair and hammers Mankind with it himself. As he goes for a second chair-shot, the referee stops HHH, and Chyna hammers Mankind with a clothesline amid the distraction.

HHH rolls Mankind back inside. He climbs to the top rope, but the crippled Mankind makes his way to his feet and stumbles into the ropes, accidentally (but effectively) crotching Helmsley. While Helmsley sits there, crotched along the top, Mankind applies the Mandible Claw, but again Chyna's interference breaks up the hold. The action heads back outside, where HHH rams Mankind into the guardrail. As the brawl continues on the outside, we hear a bell, and we've got a double countout.

Result: Double Countout
Star Rating: ***1/4

The brawl continues into the crowd, and the two can't be pulled apart by the best efforts of officials. They continue to trade punches and charge at each other. They finally grapple to the ground, allowing officials to get more traction in finally breaking this thing up.



We see a video package chronicling a parade and event that occurred in Calgary during the run-up to the event.

Back at the live event, Dok Hendrix grabs a word with the Hart Foundation backstage. Dok suggests that the faction's entire reputation is on the line tonight because of how bad they would look if they lose at home. Bret is about to tell Dok how stupid he is when they're interrupted by Steve Austin, who is held back by officials. Bret, safely protected by the gaggle of officials holding Austin back, declares that they'll get the job done.

TAKA Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke: Crowd doesn't know either guy, so neither gets a reaction. Let's see what they can do about changing that. Before this thing can get under way, we do hear a sudden pop from the crowd, and Helmsley and Mankind are back to brawling through the crowd. I like it. Eventually the brawl goes back out of camera view, and it's time for this match to begin.

The combatants circle each other. Sasuke throws a couple of leg-strikes to start, but TAKA absorbs and the two get into a lock-up. Into the ropes, and we see a clean break. After the reset, they tie back up, Sasuke executing an arm-wringer. TAKA flips through and gets his own armbar, but Sasuke reverses and reapplies his own. Eventually another reset. Spinning back kick by Sasuke stuns TAKA, and Sasuke slaps on a chinlock. Transition into a headscissor. TAKA gets loose and applies a chinlock, then combines it with an armbar, sort of cranking back as if in a surfboard. Sasuke gets to his knees, but TAKA attacks Sasuke's arm repeatedly. Sasuke slaps on a sleeper, TAKA temporarily gets loose, but Sasuke puts him down hard with a spinning back kick. Half-crab by Sasuke, really wrenching on it hard, but TAKA has enough room to grab for a rope break.

More kicks by Sasuke, but a right hand by TAKA catches Sasuke off and puts him down. Targeted dropkick to the back of Sasuke's head, then a seated dropkick to the seated Sasuke. Another big palm strike by TAKA, but he backs up and charges, and gets backdropped to the floor for his efforts. Sasuke tries to capitalize off the top rope, and he mostly misses…it's difficult to tell whether he was supposed to hit or not. Either way, both stay down for a time. Sasuke is eventually the first to find his feet, and he just re-enters the ring. TAKA is in after him, and Sasuke resumes the advantage with a series of kick, including a big kick to the face that sends TAKA into a concussed daze, eventually going down. Sasuke stalls, and when TAKA finds his feet again, TAKA catches Sasuke's foot on a kick, leg-whips him down, then executes a targeted dropkick to Sasuke's patella. As Sasuke rolls out of the ring to try to get a breather, we see a big spot, as TAKA gets a running start and hits a springboard plancha to the floor.



TAKA waits inside the ring, and eventually Sasuke finds his way back to the apron. TAKA tries to suplex him in, Sasuke lands behind, goes for a German, TAKA lands behind, hurracanrana, and a near-fall two-count. Follows with another cradle for another two. Sasuke comes back at him with a handspring back elbow that sends TAKA to the outside, and then Sasuke heads to the apron and connects on an asai moonsault. Again we have a both-men-recover spot, but they eventually make their way back in. Great release belly-to-belly by TAKA (Owen-level, even), and he gets two. Corner whip by TAKA, followed by a kick, then a springboard dropkick. The fans are definitely getting behind TAKA now. TAKA hits a Michinoku Driver, and…no? Sasuke kicks out. In the future he wouldn't have.



After the kickout, TAKA climbs the ropes and goes for a splash, but Sasuke catches him with a dropkick on the way down. Quebrada gets two. Big powerbomb by Sasuke, then a tiger suplex, 1-2-3. The crowd shows some appreciation, but they're disappointed that Sasuke went over. Sasuke was the much bigger name, but he wasn't long for this company; WWF recognized who got over here.



Result: The Great Sasuke via pinfall
Rating: ***1/4

The cameras go to the back, and the brawl between Mankind and HHH continues. Outside the arena, HHH sets up as if to Pedigree Mankind on some metal platform, but Mankind backdrops him. As the brawl goes on, HHH is busted open. No real way of telling whether that was hard way (my suspicion is that it was), but in any case I like the portrayal of the two men having an insatiable desire to keep fighting.



We see footage of the recent brawl between the Nation of Domination and DOA, and Vince notes that Ahmed Johnson was the man that Undertaker was supposed to face tonight, before this match became Vader vs. Undertaker.

Over to a pre-match interview with Vader and Paul Bearer. Dok Hendrix asks Bearer how, after publicly accusing Undertaker of killing his family, Bearer can look himself in the mirror. Bearer smiles and says, "Dok Hendrix, looking in the mirror is the best thing I do every morning, if you know what I mean." He then questions how Undertaker can look in the mirror, all the while knowing that he's a murderer. The interview wraps shortly thereafter.



WWF Title - The Undertaker (c) vs. Vader (w/ Paul Bearer): Vader's Titantron during his entrance features him bullying that talk show host overseas for asking if wrestling is fake.

Taker is first to strike with a running kick. He adds a few right hands and continues the violent assault, beating on Vader in the corner. Irish whip and a clothesline, a legdrop, and an early two-count. He executes an arm-wringer on the big man, whips him into the corner, and runs in and splashes him in the corner. Another two. Another arm-wringer, and now he heads up to the top rope for the tightrope walk + hammer. Another two-count. Taker has had 100% of the offense so far. He smashes Vader into one corner, whips him into the other, but Vader finally comes back, charging back out of the corner with a body attack. Irish whip by Vader, Undertaker ducks a clothesline, off the ropes, and the big flying clothesline. Another two-count.

Vader fights back with some right hands, then applies a standing headlock as he obviously talks through some spots. Taker pushes him off into the ropes, Vader bounces off and hits a shoulderblock to floor the champ. Vader ducks a clothesline, but Undertaker comes back at him with a big boot, then another big boot shortly thereafter to knock Vader out over the top. Taker follows him out, and they begin brawling on the floor. Undertaker tries to whip Vader toward the post and/or steps, Vader reverses, and Taker takes the stair bump. Referee Tim White steps in and reads Vader the riot act, apparently of the belief that Vader was supposed to just allow himself to be whipped into the steel instead of reversing.



Vader rolls into the ring to beat the count, and Paul Bearer stands over Undertaker yelling "MURDERER" at him. As Taker tries to re-enter the ring, Vader greets him, but Taker hangs Vader throat-first along the top rope. Taker climbs up to the top rope and enters the ring with a big flying clothesline off the top. Two-count. Pummeling shots to the gut by Taker, punctuated by an uppercut that sends Vader back out over the top. Taker has had enough of Paul Bearer's taunts, and he goes out to stalk after his old manager. He's too deliberate though, and it allows Vader the chance to recover and blindside him. As Vader returns inside, Bearer sheds his shoe and whacks Taker with it a few times.

Upon Undertaker's re-entrance, Vader continues on offense, raining hammering blows with his right hand. Short clothesline by the challenger. He hops up to the second rope, Taker gets his feet, and Vader…actually connects on a jumping attack instead of just jumping into the obvious powerslam? Huh. That was like watching Ric Flair flip onto the apron off a corner whip and then punctuate the sequence with a successful spot. Anyway, Vader records a two-count.



Vader with a suplex. Running splash. Two. He settles into a low-effort nerve hold, apparently needing a breather. After a few moments, Taker finds some adrenaline and fights back, hitting a series of punches and knocking Vader loose. As he tries to follow though, Vader hits back, then follows with a running clothesline to put the champion back on the mat. More punches in the corner. Undertaker now on the comeback with his own right hands pure strikes, staggering Vader. He sets up for a chokeslam, but Vader kicks him with a blatant low blow, and referee Tim White seems to take less exception to that than he did to reversing the whip into the steps earlier. Jim Ross gives a big WTF to White for not disqualifying Vader.

Vader gets a running start, but jumps into Undertaker's arms, purportedly to end up in the tombstone position. Then Vader reverses into his own attempted tombstone position, but the whole sequence gets botched, Taker falls on top of Vader, and he just gets a two-count before they pick up the pieces to carry on. To their credit, they don't try to redo the horrible botched spot. Vader hits a running body attack, then drops an elbow on Undertaker's upper leg. He starts to climb the ropes for the Vaderbomb, Taker regains his feet, Paul Bearer waves furiously to his man to abort the mission now that Taker is back up, but Vader is oblivious. Taker comes up behind and hits his own blatant low blow, since apparently those are legal in this match. He follows Vader up to the second rope and chokeslams him from there…only a near-fall. Would have been a pretty good ending. Undeterred, Taker hits another chokeslam, but again Vader kicks out on two. Taker with the Tombstone, and finally Vader is all out of big kickouts. 1-2-3, the champion retains.



Result: The Undertaker via pinfall
Rating: ***

Vince poses the question, "Does Undertaker's brother really still live as Paul Bearer says he does? We'll no doubt find out at SummerSlam if not sooner." No, we won't.

Dok Hendrix is backstage to interview the makeshift American team in advance of tonight's main event. Goldust takes credit for bringing this team together. Ken Shamrock mumbles some buzzwords like a fool. Animal steps things up by engaging in some impassioned yelling at the Harts. Hawk does the "OHHH WHAT A RUSH" bit. Then Dok attempts to get the last word from Stone Cold, who just ignores him and abruptly stomps off-camera toward the ring. I like that ending to the segment.



Some random trio of women named Farmer's Daughter stand in the ring and belt out O Canada. Howard Finkel does some shoutouts, pointing out the Premier of Alberta and then Stu and Helen Hart. These ceremonies behind us, it's time for the main event.

Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust, & The Legion of Doom vs. The Hart Foundation: Goldust comes out to no particular reaction. Ken Shamrock draws some audible heat for his entrance. Tough to detect much of a reaction either way for LOD. Steve Austin gets big heat, even though you can see and hear some supportive voices in the crowd.



Big pop for Brian Pillman, bigger than you would expect for the team's non-Canadian. Nice pop for the Anvil as well, a bit less than Pillman. Davey Boy, accompanied by Diana, with probably the biggest pop yet. Owen gets a nice pop, but it always annoys me that the Calgary crowd popped a bit bigger for the Bulldog. As can be expected, the roof blows off when Bret's music hits. The Harts enter as one, and this time Bret puts his sunglasses on mother Helen when he arrives at ringside.



The teams stare each other down in the middle of the ring. Jim Ross notes, "Several cameras at ringside. They're filming a documentary of Bret Hart's life." Most of the team members clear out, and we start right off with Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. The bell rings, and they throw violent punches back and forth. These two had the best slugfests. So believable. Bret wins the advantage, beating Austin into the corner, stomping away, and copying Austin's signature spot by flipping him off. The crowd is losing their ****. Austin turns Bret around in the corner, gets his own shots in, and the crowd erupts with boos. Corner whip by Austin, but Bret bounces out of the corner with a clothesline. Headbutt to follow, inverted atomic drop, and a running clothesline. He rakes Stone Cold's eyes along the top rope, Stone Cold staggers away, but when Bret follows him, Austin kicks backward to hit a low blow, regaining the advantage.

He stomps the mudhole into the Hitman, then when Hitman gets up he slaps on the Million Dollar Dream. Stay away from the corner, Steve. Actually Bret does get close enough to kick off the corner, kicks back into the very same pinning combo that got him the win at Survivor Series, and this time Austin barely kicks out on two.



Austin is up first, dragging Bret over to the ropes and choking him against the second rope. He gets a running start and tries to drop the leg, but comes up empty, bouncing back into the middle of the ring in pain. Bret tags in his old partner, the Anvil. Anvil with an Irish whip, misses on a clothesline, and Austin hits the Thesz Press on the way back, then rains punches. Austin tags in Shamrock. Anvil circles Shamrock tentatively, Shamrock goes for a big roundhouse kick, Anvil ducks it, but as Anvil enjoys his evasion of the kick a little too much, Shamrock just uncorks another kick; this one lands, dropping the big man. He slaps on the ankle lock, Pillman jumps into break it up, and the crowd pops big for something as simple as that hold being broken up.

Anvil fights back with a couple of punches, but Shamrock counters him into a rolling ankle lock that only gets broken when they end up in the ropes. Anvil tags Pillman, who is over just huge here. Armdrag by Shamrock. He fights Pillman into the corner, but Pillman punches his way out. He bites at Shamrock's face and spits at him, which draws more big cheers from the partisan crowd. Chop, corner whip, backbreaker, and instead of going for the pin, Pillman does a funny moment where he gets down and slaps Shamrock's hand against the mat and tells the referee with a goofy grin on his face that Shamrock tapped out.



Another corner whip by Pillman; Shamrock fires out with a clothesline, and hears boos from the crowd. Pillman rolls over and tags Owen, who enters to a big pop and an "Owen" chant. Given how much love the crowd is giving to even the first tag-ins by Owen and Pillman, it seems an odd choice that Bret started the match instead of building to his hot tag. In any case, Goldust has tagged in as well. Owen slugs at Goldust in the corner, Goldust reverses a subsequent corner whip, then hits a backdrop. Owen back at him with an enziguri to get an abrupt near-fall. Goldust slams Owen into the turnbuckle, then mounts him in the corner and throws punches. Tag to Hawk, as Steve Austin is getting into it with some heckling fans near ringside.

Hawk drops a fist and gets a two-count. Drops another one, then heads over and scales the ropes. Big splash from the top gets two. He whips Owen into the ropes, goes for a seated dropkick, but Owen clings to the ropes and Hawk takes the flat-back bump. Owen quickly seizes the opportunity and slaps on the Sharpshooter, but Animal is in to break it up immediately. Tag to Bulldog, who comes right in with that signature delayed suplex; the crowd roars as Hawk is held up overhead. Two-count. Bulldog hits his big running powerslam, and Goldust has to run in to break up the pin attempt. Bulldog tags Bret, and it's Bret vs. Animal now.

Animal reverses a corner whip, but then runs square into Bret's raised boots. The two reset, then Animal tags in Goldust instead of continuing further. Jim Ross points out that both Bret and Goldust are second-generation stars. They lock up, but Bret takes the cheap kick to the gut, and that gives him the advantage. He hangs Goldust up in the tree of woe in the Hart corner, and all five Hart Foundation members swarm. This draws the Americans in, and we devolve into a chaotic brawl for a moment.



Things settle back down, Owen tags back in and hits a backbreaker on Goldust. Whips him into the corner, tries to follow up, but ends up ramming his own should straight into the post. Goldust tags Animal, who kicks away at a suddenly prone Owen. Animal whips him off the ropes, misses with a clothesline, Owen hits a spinning wheel kick, a missile dropkick off the top, and he kips up and takes in the moment.



Animal reverses a whip, Owen jumps up as if to attempt a hurracanrana, but Animal counters into a powerbomb. Big powerslam off the ropes by Animal, who signals for the Doomsday Device. Hawk climbs to the top, connects on the spot, but Neidhart makes the save. Again both teams enter the ring for an uncontrolled fracas. Amid the chaos, Austin drags Owen into the post, attacks his leg, then gets a chair and hammers Owen with it again. He continues attacking until Bret heads over to head him off, but at this point Owen's leg seems to be shot. Bret screams that Owen is hurt, the Harts drag him to the corner so that he can tag out, and Owen is assisted to the back by officials, leaving the Harts in an apparent 4-on-5.



Anvil tags in, and we have the brutal mismatch of Anvil vs. Austin. Seems like a great way for the Harts to dig themselves an even deeper hole now that they're down a man. Right away though, Austin gets too close to the Hart corner, and the Hart Foundation get him in their grasp and hammer away. Shamrock runs over and gets Austin out of harm's way. Pillman tags in, Austin grabs him by the tights as he tries to get away, showing us too much of Pillman's ass. He hits the Stunner, but Pillman is able to roll toward the Hart corner, where Bret trips Austin and pulls him over to the adjacent corner, apparently trying to destroy Austin's leg just like Austin did to Owen. He hits him with fists, then attacks the leg with a fire extinguisher before slapping on that corner figure-four. Hawk stomps on Bret to break up the hold.



Austin is laid out outside the ring, apparently unable to get up, and the match resets at Hawk vs. Davey Boy. Hawk scales the ropes, Davey hits his leg and crotches him on the ropes, and gets a two-count. Officials try to shepherd Austin toward the back. He refuses help, but he does begin to limp off, and we're at an apparent 4-on-4. Back in the ring, we're on Anvil vs. Animal. They engage in a test of strength, and Animal powers Neidhart down. Neidhart finds some adrenaline from the crowd and works his way back to a vertical base. He tags in Bret, sets Animal down on his knee, and assists Bret in a double-team as Bret hits an elbow off the ropes.

Animal stops short of a backdrop attempt and kicks Bret in the face. Tag to Shamrock. Shamrock tries to set up a submission hold, but Pillman runs in illegally and clotheslines Shamrock hard. Bret drops a headbutt to Shamrock's abdomen. Shamrock reverses a corner whip, and Bret takes the chest-first bump. Vince comments that tonight's crowd reflects "patriotism gone awry," since they're just going to cheer the Harts no matter what. Bret drives a knee into Shamrock's gut, then guides him over into Pillman's raised boot in the Hart corner. He dumps Shamrock to the floor, where Pillman sends him into one of the foreign announce tables. This causes more brawling among a number of team members. Anvil and Pillman send Hawk hard into the steps. Meanwhile, Bret hits the Russian legsweep on Shamrock inside the ring, and Goldust breaks up the pin attempt on two. Tag to the Bulldog.

Bulldog stomps Shamrock down in the corner and emulates the Austin double bird once he's down. Shamrock resorts to his own dirty trick by hitting a low blow. Jim Ross screams, "Shamrock did what he had to do, like it or not!" JR was usually good about not being the hypocritical face announcer, but that was annoying. Shamrock tags Goldust, who comes in and hits a clothesline. Corner whip and a bulldog. He sets up for the Curtain Call, but Pillman is again in illegally to break that spot up. I enjoy just how blatantly Pillman runs in whenever he feels like it. Goldust climbs the ropes, but Bulldog knocks him down to a seated position, then climbs up and hits a superplex. Hawk breaks up the pin, and as he does, we hear a large chorus of boos…it appears that Stone Cold is back.



Austin makes it to the apron, and he reaches desperately and gets the hot tag from Goldust. Totally illegal by the way, since he tagged through the middle rope. All the same, Bret tags in at the same time, and the big rivalry resumes. Austin kicks Bret down in the corner, flips the bird, another corner chest bump by Bret, and a suplex by Stone Cold gets two. Bret counters Austin's next attack with a DDT, then follows with a backbreaker. Elbow off the second rope gets two as well. Irish whip by Bret, who slaps on a sleeper on the way back. Austin drops down with a jawbreaker to break the hold, then gets another two-count. Bret with a double-leg into a Sharpshooter, but Animal is on the spot to break it up again, to huge boos.

As Animal has knocked Bret down, Austin slaps his own Sharpshooter on Bret, but we see Owen race down the aisle to enter the ring and bail his brother out of the hold.



Bret rolls over and tags Owen in. He whips Austin off the ropes, Austin catches Owen with a boot when he telegraphs the backdrop, and their fight spills out to the floor. Austin beats on Owen and rolls him back in. Bruce Hart, at ringside, tries to get in Austin's face. Austin pushes past him, and actually makes as if he's going to attack Stu, grabbing Stu by the collar. This draws another family member over, and that guy spills over the railing. Bret finally makes his way over, and he rolls Austin into the ring. As Austin turns around to go back after Bret, Owen rolls up Austin from behind and scores the pinfall.



I will say, as stellar as the atmosphere of this match is, I can't possibly justify my former five-star rating for this. It certainly gets five stars for atmosphere, and it's highly entertaining, but the match itself has its limitations. Still, I love it.

Result: The Hart Foundation via pinfall
Rating: ****1/4

The brawl continues on for a bit between team members and also Hart family members. Officials finally get things under control and they herd the losing team up the aisle to the back. The Harts hold the ring, Howard Finkel finally makes the announcement that they won this thing, Bret's music plays, and the celebration is on. Oh, but wait: Austin is back, and he's wielding a chair. He blindsides the Anvil with it.



The numbers game is of course pretty bad for Austin, and a billion Harts pile on him for this ill-advised shot. Security actually slaps cuffs on Austin, who struggles and curses. Pillman taunts the cuffed Austin as Austin makes his way up the aisle and flips the bird at the crowd along the way. Vince hilariously says, "I can't believe he's making hand gestures!" Jim Ross utters the famous, "He doesn't give a damn!" Austin put on a masterful performance on this night, memorable even by his lofty standards.



The coast is finally clear for good this time, and Hart family members flood into the ring. Brian Pillman helps Stu Hart into the ring, then raises Stu's hand triumphantly. Diana comes in and embraces Davey.



This family moment makes me happy. Well, mostly. This always makes me sad:



Diana helps Helen into the ring as well; the whole party has arrived. Bret says in his book that some random kid made his way in, Bret asked who he was, the kid admitted that he was just a rando, and Bret told him to enjoy himself. The celebration continues until the show goes off the air.



Overall: Unquestionably the best In Your House PPV to date, and I don't believe that it was surpassed before the IYH name was dropped. From start to finish, the show ranged from good to great, and was capped by a memorable main event with one of the great crowds in WWF history. Love the show.

July 7, 1997

RAW

Edmonton, AB

Opening montage, narrated by Vince McMahon, shows clips from Canadian Stampede, highlighting just what a different crowd reaction the Harts got from the Canadians vs. what they've been hearing in the US. Vince notes that we're still in Canada tonight.

After a pan through the crowd, we hear the familiar guitar squeals, and Bret Hart comes to the ring, sporting an Oilers jersey, for an interview with Vince McMahon. Vince says that Bret is going to attempt to take the WWF Title away from The Undertaker at SummerSlam. He offers Bret his congratulations on last night's result. Bret says, "Thank you for still letting me be your hero…thank you for believing in me. A few weeks ago, I was told, 'America, love it or leave it.' Well I've traveled all around the world, I've been all over the United States of America, and the one thing that I've in particular looked forward to is…lovin' leaving it!" Delivery on that last line was super clunky. Bret says that he's not sure how things have escalated so far, "But the one thing, I'm not so much anti-American as I'm just very, very pro-Canadian." Yeah, in kayfabe that's a pretty obvious lie.



Bret props up Donovan Bailey, who won gold for Canada in the 1996 Olympics. He talks up how Canada still takes care of its old people, how they provide health care, how they have gun control and aren't killing each other on every street corner. "Canada isn't riddled with racial prejudice and hatred. Across Canada, we all care for each other." I really wish this didn't resonate even more strongly 21 years later. Bret finally veers away from politics and vows not to let his Canadian fans down at SummerSlam. He promises that if he somehow loses, he will never wrestle on American soil again.

Bret calls out "the man who beat the great American scum last night, the Intercontinental Champion, my brother Owen, the best technical wrestler in the World Wrestling Federation." I always remember how happy it made me when Bret started describing Owen with those terms. This was the first time, but I'm pretty sure he repeats the "best technical wrestler" stuff multiple times in the weeks and months to come.



Bret says that Owen is going to destroy Steve Austin at SummerSlam, then turns to introduce "the most powerful man in the World Wrestling Federation, the European Champion, my brother-in-law, the British Bulldog."



The Bulldog's pandering to the Oilers is even weirder to me than the Calgary-based Harts doing it. Bret says that Bulldog will demolish Ken Shamrock at SummerSlam. Bret says that he's sure that the Canadian fans are sick of constantly having to deal with the American-controlled WWF TV, so he points to the Titantron for a video montage as O Canada plays throughout the arena. He, Owen, and Davey stand at attention and watch the video, but there's a rude interruption incoming…



Steve Austin hammers each of them with chair shots, then slips out of the ring before the Harts can muster any rebuttal. He walks off triumphant, holding his chair high with a maniacal smile on his face. Jim Ross says, "How indignant! Steve Austin, to interrupt the Canadian national anthem!" As Austin preens at the top of the ramp, the show goes to commercials.

After break, they replay the Austin chair attack just now. Back at the announce table, Vince says, "Rivalry is one thing, but total disrespect for a national anthem is something else." Vince says that Bret picked up the mic and talked during the break, and we have footage. "I just want everyone to know, this is what I go through each and every night. I don't care when they walk all over me, and they walk all over my family, but I promise they will not walk all over Canada!" Vince offers an apology for the fact that Steve Austin would disrespect something as sacred as any country's national anthem. Somewhere in the world, the Bolsheviks shake their heads at Vince suddenly being all woke about anthem disrespect.



TAKA Michinoku enters for the next match, but before his opponent can come out, Brian Christopher enters without music. Vince says that he's not scheduled to wrestle. Jerry Lawler invites Brian to sit in on commentary. They throw it to pre-recorded comments by The Great Sasuke, which are all in Japanese but are still at least as understandable as most Ahmed Johnson promos.

TAKA Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke: TAKA attacks before the bell. He throws an uppercut, whips Sasuke into the ropes, Sasuke answers with a spinning back kick, and TAKA bails out of the ring. Sasuke quickly follows with a big somersault plancha over the top rope that connects on the floor.



Both slowly recover, Sasuke making it into the ring before TAKA. He kicks TAKA as TAKA enters, TAKA counters into an arm-wringer, counter back into a re-counter, and TAKA briefly holds Sasuke down in something of a crucifix pinning combo for two. Michinoku slaps on an armbar, Sasuke escapes and slaps on a half-crab. Rope break. Brian Christopher is being incredibly obnoxious on commentary by the way, just to lower the star rating of this match through no fault of the wrestlers inside the ring. Sasuke hits a series of kicks to stun TAKA, then connects on a roundhouse to the head that causes Michinoku to fall out of the ring entirely.

TAKA re-enters off the top rope, throwing a missile dropkick that sends Sasuke out. TAKA goes for what may have been meant to be an asai moonsault, botches pretty hard, but manages a good enough recovery that the spot looks remarkably decent, ending up as something of a springboard back elbow.



After some more recovery time, TAKA drags Sasuke up to his feet, then goes up to the apron and does hit an asai moonsault. Yep; definitely convinced now that that's what the last spot was meant to be. Sasuke is slow to recover, eventually makes it to the apron, TAKA greets him there with an attempted suplex, Sasuke falls behind and goes for a release German, TAKA now lands on his feet as well, then sends Sasuke off the rope and hits a nice belly-to-belly. Two-count. Lawler says, "You would have had him, wouldn't you?" Christopher says, "Oh yeah. I don't care if these two Japs beat each other's brains out." ****, man. Vince says, "Excuse me, that's Japanese." TAKA goes for a top-rope moonsault, gets a ton of air, but Sasuke rolls out of the way. Sasuke goes for a quebrada, but TAKA catches him in mid-air with a dropkick. Sasuke counters TAKA's charge with a backdrop over the ropes to the floor. He follows with a handspring somersault over the top that gets sort of botched and doesn't really connect; Michinoku has to try to catch him just to protect him. They've been sharp here, but that spot looked rough.

Sasuke gets back inside, tries to suplex TAKA in, TAKA falls behind again, slaps on a waistlock, go-behind by Sasuke, German suplex into a bridge gets a near-fall. Big powerbomb by Sasuke folds TAKA up like an accordion, Sasuke holds him down and notches the three-count. Huh; I was definitely expecting this to be TAKA getting his win back from last night.



Result: The Great Sasuke via pinfall

Tonight, we're going to see Owen Hart and the British Bulldog vs. the Nation of Domination, a talking segment with Paul Bearer, Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, and Bret Hart vs. Goldust. This is a pretty loaded show. …except that, just as I write that, they announce that we're going to see Crush vs. Savio Vega next.

After commercials, we see the footage from the past few weeks, of the old Nation splitting up and Crush and Savio forming their own gangs. We also get footage from Shotgun Saturday Night, where a brawl broke out between Crush's and Savio's gangs. We're early on in this feud and I'm already desperately waiting for the end. Can I have the Mongo/Jarrett tense partnership angle back instead?

Savio Vega (w/ Los Boricuas) vs. Crush (w/ DOA): Savio and Los Boricuas go gladhand Tito Santana and Carlos Cabrera at the Spanish announce table upon entrance.

Crush and Savio trade punches, Savio getting the better of the exchange. He whips Crush off the ropes, but telegraphs a backdrop and takes a boot to the face. Crush straddles him and rains down punches. Big boot, backbreaker, and he holds the backbreaker and wrenches at Savio's back. Crush misses on a big boot, Savio hits a spinning wheel kick, it knocks Crush to the floor and the Boricuas act as lumberjacks by immediately shoving Crush back inside. DOA comes over, they stare the Boricuas down, but no big brawl as of yet. Vega misses on a spinning heel kick, Crush hits a bad-looking clothesline, and it knocks Savio to the floor. DOA come over and pounce on Savio in clear view of Tim White, and this one is over.



Result: Savio Vega via DQ

Big brawl on the outside, etc., etc. Kill me. The crowd breaks into a "DOA" chant, which is repulsive.

After commercials, Paul Bearer appears on the Titantron to take questions from Vince McMahon. Vince asks him if he'd like to apologize to The Undertaker for his remarks. "Apologize? Why should I be the one to apologize, Vince McMahon? I didn't do the killing. Your phenom, your dead man, The Undertaker, he should be the one to do the apologizing." Vince asks why we should believe him that Kane is alive. Bearer says, "Because Kane told me so. That's why you should believe me." That's pretty circular. Bearer goes on about how awful it is to see Kane in his disfigured state. He says that Kane only feels hope because one day he'll come face-to-face with his evil brother. Bearer screams a few more times that Undertaker is a murderer.



Before the upcoming tag team tournament final, the winner of which will face Steve Austin and his to-be-determined partner for the tag titles, Vince grabs a word with Austin, also emanating from backstage. Austin says he doesn't give a damn who his partner is or who they face next week. Vince asks if Mankind deserves an opportunity. Austin says he's a freak who deserves to get his ass kicked. He says he doesn't give a damn about Mankind. Austin keeps ranting without much point, and eventually Vince gets pissed off and cuts him off to end the interview.



Tag Team Tournament Final - Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (w/ Jim Neidhart) vs. Faarooq & D-Lo Brown (w/ Kama Mustafa): Owen and D-Lo start this thing. D-Lo with a side headlock, releases and hits a shoulderblock. Couple of armdrags by Owen, and they reset. Right hands by D-Lo, whip off the ropes, and a back elbow. D-Lo tries to drop an elbow, Owen rolls away and then tags the Bulldog. D-Lo tags Faarooq, and the power guys are both in. Bulldog arrogantly flexes in front of Faarooq, Faarooq kicks him in the gut, Bulldog reverses an Irish whip and hits a powerslam, then a scoop slam. Clothesline. It appears that Brian Pillman has joined the Anvil at ringside.

The Nation regains control, gets him into their corner, and Kama helps lay in some shots from the floor. D-Lo drops a leg and gets a two-count. Tag to Faarooq, they do the wishbone thing with Bulldog's legs, and Faarooq tries to continue on offense; he's halted quickly when Bulldog counters a backdrop attempt into a facebuster. Faarooq still has the juice to tag D-Lo, who cuts Bulldog off from tagging as well. Suplex by D-Lo gets two, and he lays in the reverse chinlock to build the heat segment. Bulldog back up to a vertical base, but he runs into a knee to the gut, then falls back into the chinlock. D-Lo baits Owen in, causing referee Jimmy Korderas to have to tend to him, and the Nation gets some double-teaming in. Faarooq comes in without tagging, and becomes the legal man via squatter's rights. He goes for a splash, but lands on Bulldog's knees…Bulldog for some reason doesn't make the hot tag even though he slowly crawls into range to do so. D-Lo cuts him off. They continue to isolate Davey, and Faarooq actually goes for the Dominator, but Bulldog blocks him and manages to backdrop to get loose. Finally, the hot tag is made to Owen.

Owen enters with a dropkick, big spinning wheel kick to both Nation members, but then he goes off the ropes and Kama pulls the top rope down, causing Owen to fall hard to the floor. Neidhart and Pillman come running in to attack, lots of brawling between many of the parties involved, but amid the chaos and despite the fact that outside wrestlers were clearly attacking wrestlers in the match, Korderas doesn't call for a DQ. Instead, Owen slips back into the ring just in time and notches the odd win via countout. Despite that being perhaps the strangest ending to a tournament since the Wrestling Classic, the crowd pops big and is satisfied with how Owen and Davey won.



Result: Owen Hart & The British Bulldog via countout, tournament winners

Mankind runs out to ringside wearing an Austin 3:16 shirt, and he yells at Owen and Davey a bit before heading back up the aisle. Vince brings Austin back on camera. He asks him about tonight's match against HHH. Austin cuts a pretty standard promo on HHH and Chyna, but in response to being asked about Chyna's possible interference, Austin says, "I ain't above punching anybody's lights out, and that's the bottom line, so that's you can expect from Steve Austin." Unfortunately that assertion was later confirmed in real life.

We enter the War Zone hour, new set of credits, new pan-through of the crowd, etc.

Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna): When the glass breaks, you don't hear any sort of pop, which confused me as to what timeline I had suddenly found myself in…then I realized it was a function of being in Canada. HHH has a large bandage along his forehead, clearly the result of being busted open in his extended brawling with Mankind last night.

The two men jaw a bit at mid-ring before locking up. Out of the opening tie-up, HHH releases off into the ropes, but holds them instead of running into the waiting Austin, who had his fist cocked. Side headlock takeover by Austin. Hunter returns to his feet, pushes Austin off into the ropes, and now it's Austin's turn to cling to the ropes instead of running into a waiting opponent. Austin pump-fakes a double bird and instead does a mock-curtsey that mimics HHH's signature taunt.



Arm-wringer by Stone Cold, who wrenches HHH's arm a few times. Thumb to the eye temporarily slows Austin down, but Austin gets H turned around in the corner, then whips him violently into the corner, sending HHH hurtling over the top to the floor. Austin follows him out, picks him up, and drops him along the guardrail. Austin tries to suplex HHH back into the ring, HHH falls behind, roll-up gets a close near-fall. Austin, mad about nearly getting rolled up, is up quickly with a violent clothesline that gets a two-count of his own. As Austin slaps on a front facelock, the show heads to commercials.

Back from break, Austin sets HHH up on the top rope, follows him up, and goes for the superplex, by HHH blocks and tosses Austin off in a front suplex. Helmsley jumps off the ropes after Austin, but Austin raises a boot that catches him in the face. Austin whips Hunter into the corner, but runs into Hunter's raised boot on the follow-up. Hunter steers Austin into the corner, throws a hard chop, and then follows with a series of punches and stomps. HHH picks up Austin, snapmares him, then drops the knee. Two. Austin reverses an Irish whip and hits an inverted atomic drop. HHH ducks a clothesline and then hits one of his own. There hasn't been an extended advantage by either man in this match.

HHH whips Austin off the ropes, misses with a clothesline, Austin with a Thesz press on the way back, and as he rains punches, Chyna gets a chair and just sets it flat on the apron. Austin slams HHH, backs up to bounce off the ropes, but Chyna trips Austin from behind. She then ties up the referee while HHH picks up the chair with the intent to use it. Mankind comes running out, jumps up to the apron, and HHH hits him square with a chair shot to the head. The distraction serves its purpose though, as HHH turns around into a Stone Cold Stunner. 1-2-3, Austin wins. Even in Canada, it gets something of a pop.



Result: Steve Austin via pinfall

Vince says that Mankind deserves to be Austin's partner next week. He adds that they're not sure if Shawn Michaels is going to wrestle next week, but says that he is coming back. That was quite the casual drop-in of a pretty big piece of information, as the whole point of this tag team tournament and this Mankind/Austin angle was that Austin needed another partner because Shawn Michaels would be out. Granted that Vince did say "4-6 weeks" for Shawn's injury timeline three weeks ago, so next week would meet the optimistic end of that range.

Austin picks up the mic and addresses the fallen Mankind. "Get your ass up, you long-haired freak. Ain't no way one chair can keep your ass down. Get in the ring. You come out here every week saying, 'Pick me Steve, pick me Steve.' I'll lay it on the line for you, you piece of trash. I don't like you one bit, but I'll damn sure go to war with you if that's what you want. All you have to do is shake my hand, and we'll be a tag team." Mankind gets up, and in lieu of accepting the handshake, opens his arms wide for a hug. Austin eagerly hugs him, which of course means that he then turns around and stuns him.



Jim Ross yells, "No! No! Not the Stunner! Damn him!" Austin crawls over, grabs a mic, and hovers over Mankind yelling, "DTA, you stupid piece of trash! Don't ever trust nobody. You ain't gonna be my partner, never, because you're a long-haired freak and you suck!"

As Austin walks proudly up the aisle, Mankind grabs a mic. "Austin! Austin! I was just looking for a little bit of respect! I was looking for a friend! And you ruined that all! So it's become very apparent that drastic measures will be taken! Because next week…well…I'm gonna have to do something I never thought I'd do again. And it will become very obvious that the World Wrestling Federation will never be the same! Steve Austin, you will never be the same! And without a doubt, next week, Mankind will never be the same!"



Brian Christopher vs. Eric Shelley: Shelley seems to be a jobber of the "local talent" variety, which we didn't see much of anymore. I can understand making the exception, given that we have the incredible star power of Brian Christopher to pick the segment up.

There's no reason to narrate how this one goes. Christopher gets 90% of the offense, on commentary they establish that we're going to see Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher vs. Ivan Putski and Scott Putski next week, and Christopher eventually ships this one with a reverse DDT and a top-rope legdrop.



Result: Brian Christopher via pinfall

Jerry Lawler says that he's going to go send a message to Ivan Putski. He drops his headset, goes into the ring, and attacks Eric Shelley. Christopher joins in, and the father and son double-team the jobber for a moment.

After commercials, we hear the glass break again, and Stone Cold Steve Austin is back out for his third appearance of the night, this time to interview with Vince McMahon. Vince sends us to footage from last night, of Austin being led off in handcuffs and bending over to flip off the Calgary faithful on his way out. He asks, "What kind of man would do that?" Austin says that you can put him in shackles, but you can't shut up the fingers.

Vince expresses his shock at what Austin did to Mankind earlier, and asks who Austin's partner will be next week. Austin says that, for the millionth time, he doesn't give a damn. He says, "But I understand, if I don't pick a partner, Gorilla Monsoon's gonna exercise his right to pick my partner. I think that's fine, because Gorilla Monsoon ain't exercised that tub-of-guts body of his in 30 years. He can do what he wants. Bottom line is, I'll keep the tag belts by myself." Vince asks him about his upcoming match with Owen Hart at SummerSlam. Austin says, "I want this put in the contract: if I cannot beat Owen Hart at SummerSlam, after the match, when he pins me 1-2-3, if that happens, he can pull down his trunks, pull down his little panties, bend over, and I'll kiss him right on his ass right in front of the world!" With that, Austin exits stage left.



Bret Hart vs. Goldust: Bret dumps Goldust through the ropes, then follows him out and rams him into the guardrail. He stomps on Goldust's lower abdomen, then sends him back into the ring and hits an inverted atomic drop followed by a running clothesline. He rakes Goldy's eyes over the top rope, headbutt to the small of the back, and repeated hammering blows from there. Goldust throws a couple of uppercuts back at Bret, but tries to follow with a slam and ends up falling down, Bret falling on top. Hitman drops an axe off the second rope. Scoop slam, elbow drop, and a falling headbutt to the lower abdomen. He hangs Goldust up in the tree of woe and then throws a series of kicks. Goldust rolls out of the ring, and…we hear the sound of motorcycles revving? DOA? **** me. Why?

Goldust and Bret fight outside the ring while the bikers begin to surround it. Here come the Hart Foundation as the show goes to break. After commercials, both factions are still outside the ring, coexisting peacefully for the moment. Bret and Goldust throw fists, Bret slamming Goldust face-first into the apron. He sends Dustin back inside and hits a backbreaker. Elbow off the second rope. Two-count. Russian legsweep. Two-count. Goldust pokes the eyes, and is able to resume some offense with some punches, a snapmare, and an elbow drop. Two-count for Goldust, who then cinches in a reverse chinlock. Bret to his feet, they have a power struggle over a hold, and we see Legion of Doom and Ken Shamrock now come halfway down the aisle. Goldust with an Irish whip and a jumping clothesline, and we're back into the reverse chinlock. Back to a vertical position, Goldust whips Bret into the ropes but runs into a boot. Now we see Austin back out at the top of the aisle. This thing is not going to have a clean finish.

Bret hammers away at Goldust in the corner until he gets raked in the eyes. Bret reverses a whip, Goldust goes for a sunset flip, Bret holds up, sits down, hooks the leg, and scores the pin. I thought my bet about an unclean finish was all but a lock, but there we are.



Result: Bret Hart via pinfall

The Harts come to the ring and celebrate with Bret, and the randoms all hanging around ringside apparently just do nothing as the show goes off the air. No idea why they all came out.



Overall: Good, entertaining episode. Strong opener between Sasuke and TAKA, Austin was entertaining, and the only real garbage was the Savio/Crush stuff. I'll certainly take an episode like this.

July 7, 1997

Nitro

Memphis, TN

Cold open on a recap of the end of last week's show, with Sting descending from the rafters to clear out the nWo, Curt Hennig making his surprising appearance, and Raven jumping the barricade. Tony Schiavone wonders aloud who DDP's mystery partner will be for Bash at the Beach, and we head to the opening credits.

Live inside the arena, Mean Gene Okerlund welcomes us to the show from the interview post at the top of the aisle. He brings out Curt Hennig to something of a tepid crowd reaction. Hennig says that he's the best athlete, the best wrestler that the state of Minnesota and the whole world has ever seen. He says he "has his reasons" for being there. Gene tries to pry him for specifics; Hennig says he won't say what his plans are, but he does offer that he'll be at Bash at the Beach and will be involved in some form. Gene says that obviously means that Hennig will be teaming with DDP at Bash at the Beach. Hennig cuts him off and offers a non-denial denial, saying that he's a "free agent."

Ric Flair comes out to interrupt the promo and excitedly says that Hennig is here to join the Horsemen. Hennig plays coy and says that he's not promising anything. Flair has brought a woman out with him, and Hennig agrees to leave with her, but in terms of his plans, he just hollers at Gene, "You'll find out on the 13th!"



Tony Schiavone comments at the surprise that Ric Flair just came right out and offered Hennig a spot in the Horsemen. Larry Zbyszko replies, "Well, Curt Hennig made his answer clear: he didn't commit to anything! I mean, we don't know if he's with WCW or not." Wait, what? How the **** is that "making his answer clear"?

Public Enemy vs. Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri): I should make a top five list of wrestlers who dishearten me when their music plays as I'm doing these writeups. Public Enemy would almost certainly make the list. Booker T and Johnny Grunge open things up. Booker beats on Grunge in the corner, hammering down violent right hands. Grunge reverses a corner whip, but Booker bounces out of the corner with a stiff back elbow followed by a clothesline. Two-count. Booker whips Grunge into the corner, but runs into a big boot following up. Swinging neckbreaker by Grunge gets two, and he tags out to Rocco Rock. Arm-wringer by Rock, who uses his free arm to hammer on the compromised arm of Booker. Booker kicks his way loose and tags in Stevie, who enters with a series of punches, thereby exhausting entire offensive arsenal.

Stevie continues the punching in the corner. Corner whip, but he comes up empty on the corner charge. He's back at the advantage quickly though, kicking Grunge in the face. Tag to Booker, who enters and hits a side salto. Two-count; Grunge breaks the pin up. Booker misses when trying to drop an elbow, and Rocco capitalizes by tagging out. Grunge enters, Booker neutralizes him, and then Booker tags Stevie. Stevie misses on an elbow, Rocco blind-tags his way into legal status, and he enters to help double-team Stevie. Crowd to their feet, and the nWo's Vincent comes strolling out. Tony Schiavone said that he interfered in a match between these teams on WCW Saturday Night this past weekend, causing a DQ. Vincent's presence here causes Booker to go chasing him up the aisle, temporarily leaving Stevie alone.

Stevie sets up as if he's going to hit a powerbomb, Rocco climbs the ropes with a clear intent to hit a move that will break up Stevie's impending move, Sherri reaches up to try to knock Rocco off the ropes, but she unwittingly launches him right into Stevie, and Grunge is able to capitalize by scoring the pin. Three fans in the crowd applaud the upset.



Result: Public Enemy via pinfall

Stevie is pissed at Sherri, and the two yell at each other. Tony Schiavone speculates that she may have screwed the Heat over on purpose. Mean Gene comes down to the ring to at least capture the dispute on mic. He makes a goof by asking Sherri, "Did you send Booker T to go after Virgil - er, Vincent?" Sherri says yes, because she thought Vincent was going to hurt the Heat again. Booker says that lately, if it's not one thing with Sherri then it's another, and if she can't get her act together then she needs to get to stepping. Sherri screams, "You can't fire me, I quit!" Wow, someone actually said that in a context where they weren't already fired. I specifically remember hating babyface Bam Bam Bigelow in 1995 because he used that line in response to Ted DiBiase after DiBiase had already fired him. Anyway, as Sherri bails out of the ring, Stevie doubles down and says that their partnership with Sherri is now definitely over.



Hype video for the forthcoming Chris Benoit-Kevin Sullivan match at Bash at the Beach.

Joe Gomez vs. Konnan: To be fair, part of why I get so pissed about Public Enemy is that they seem to show up on 3 out of every 4 shows. Obviously someone like Joe Gomez is even shorter on redeeming qualities, but thankfully shows up a lot less often. Anyway, decidedly unexcited about this match. They show a clip from last week's show, when Konnan came down to interrupt an apparent beatdown by Kevin Nash on Rey Mysterio Jr., at which point he just took over and deliberately hurt Rey further. Tony wonders aloud if Konnan might be joining the nWo.

Anyway, Konnan executes a snapmare and a seated dropkick. Kicks, chops, punches. Raven is shown, sitting in the crowd and brooding. Mike Tenay says he's going to try again to talk with Raven tonight. Gomez hits a couple of dropkicks and records a two-count. He applies a chinlock very loosely, and Konnan does his best to sell it as if it could be even remotely uncomfortable. He eventually gains his feet and hits a back suplex. Belly-to-belly by Konnan gets two. He slaps on a submission hold that's an armbar combined with some neck pressure…tempted to call it a modified octopus. Upon release, he hits a clothesline and gets a two-count. Overhead belly-to-belly, transitions into the Tequila Sunrise finisher, and Gomez taps out.



Result: Konnan via submission[/B]

After the bell, Konnan makes as though he's going to reapply his finishing hold again, but referee Mark Curtis is able to prevail upon him to drop it without further incident.

Villano IV & V vs. Juventud Guerrera & Hector Garza: Yeah, I'm definitely not going to be able to tell the Villanos apart. Oh, they have little numeral patches on their tights, so maybe I can. Garza starts off with Villano V, locks in an armbar, and they roll through together to the mat. Villano with a pin attempt that gets two. Back to their feet, Garza leapfrogs, but Villano stops short and hits a clothesline. Corner whip, Garza scales the ropes and backflips behind. After a reversed Irish whip, Garza lands on his feet off a backdrop attempt, then hits a dropkick. Tag to Juvi.

Juvi hits a dropkick, Villano V tags out to Villano IV. Guerrera lays in a few chops, hits a quebrada, then executes a spinning hurracanrana. Dropkick, and IV tags back out to V while Guerrera tags Garza. Villano with a bad-looking tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but he holds him in place and IV comes off the ropes with a guillotine legdrop. IV just stays in as the new legal man, as we're operating under relaxed lucha tag rules. The Villanos begin to isolate Garza in the corner, IV hitting a big stun gun. Scoop powerslam off an Irish whip, and Juventud has to make the save on the pin attempt. The Villanos miss on a double clothesline, Garza tags Juventud, and Juvi enters the ring with a springboard cross-body into both Villanos. All four in for a moment. Garza sends one Villano into the corner, follows in with a dropkick, then drops to all fours to provide a springboard as Juvi launches off into a jumping side kick in the corner that carries himself all the way to the floor.

Upon Juventud's re-entry, he and Garza attempt the exact same sequence again, but this time Villano counters Juvi's jumping attack into a powerbomb and records a two-count. The four-way chaos continues, the Villanos whipping Garza into a corner where Juventud was already set up. Juventud helps Garza backflip out, Garza launches a charging Juventud into both Villanos for a split dropkick that hits both. That was a dumb-looking sequence; too choreographed, and not particularly well-executed. The Villanos execute a double gutbuster on Juventud, and Garza has to make another save on the pin attempt. Garza dropkicks Villano V out of the ring, then assists Juventud in getting some extra momentum off the ropes, as Juventud gets good air on an over-the-top suicide dive to the floor. Nice spot, as Garza executes a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker inside the ring on Villano IV.



Garza with a moonsault off the top, but it's only a near-fall. Big sit-out powerbomb by Villano IV gets a near-fall as well. The Villanos botch a double-team attempt, one clotheslining the other out of the ring. They stand around and wait for Garza to hit his corkscrew plancha on them, and ****, he overshoots it pretty badly and is lucky if he didn't **** himself up pretty badly. One of the Villanos stays outside and is clearly checking up on Garza while Juventud battles the other inside the ring. Scoop slam, climb to the top as Garza has clearly regained his feet and looks fine on the outside. 450 splash by Juventud finally gets the three-count.



Result: Juventud Guerrera & Hector Garza via pinfall

We go to the announce table, but are quickly interrupted by the nWo music, as Scott Hall, Randy Savage, and Miss Elizabeth emerge from the back. They take a left turn and head for the announce table, causing Tenay and Schiavone to clear out. Larry says he's not going anywhere. Hall tells Larry that he can go away too, but Larry says he's going to sit there and see what "the Wormpack" is like up close. I just don't know how someone can trot out lines like that and not be embarrassed about it.

Hall says that he and Savage are going to be tagging up on Sunday to take on "that midcard jabroni" Diamond Dallas Page. Says he doesn't care who DDP is bringing as a partner, because he's going down. Savage says that they're taking DDP very, very lightly. He adds that people should stay tuned, because Savage is going to give someone a wrestling lesson later. As they wrap their promo and get up to leave, Hall flicks his toothpick at Larry, which causes Larry to get up violently and act like he's going to fight them. Hall, from off the platform, taunts Larry to bring it, but the show goes to break before the situation gets any further.



After commercials, we get clips of a sit-down interview with Lex Luger and The Giant, who talk about how their friendship has developed, then they shift to cutting a promo on Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan to hype the coming PPV match.

Before the next match, we see a clip from last week of Eddie Guerrero scoring a pin over Dean Malenko last week after Malenko collided with Chavo Guerrero on the apron.

They also show that a limo had arrived at the arena, but had kept passing through, and they don't know who was in it.

Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton (w/ Vincent) vs. Eddie Guerrero & Chavo Guerrero Jr.: In the middle of an apparent Eddie heel turn, it seems odd timing here to pit him against the nWo. Chavo and Buff start things off. Buff with a kick to the gut and a series of right hands. Chavo reverses an Irish whip, but Buff catches him with a dropkick before engaging in some obnoxious taunting. He drives a knee into the gut, but Chavo comes back at him with a flying headscissor and an armdrag. An irritated Buff fights back, puts Chavo down, and tags Norton. Norton sends Chavo off the ropes, but Chavo blind-tags Eddie. Chavo dropkicks Norton to somewhat stagger him, Eddie connects squarely on a missile dropkick, and of course Norton does not even leave his feet over this sequence. The Guerreros go for a double suplex, and Norton decides that instead he's going to suplex both of them. That sequence was certainly vintage Norton.



Tag to Buff. He slams Chavo, but Eddie dropkicks Bagwell from behind. He mocks Bagwell's flexing, Bagwell gets mad and slaps him, and Eddie goes back hard at him with a European uppercut. Press slam by Buff. Irish whip, Eddie launches off of Buff and dropkicks him, but Buff comes back at him with a stun gun. Tag to Norton, who is back in with a clothesline and with no intent to sell anything. Eddie goes for a sunset flip, but Norton just easily lifts Eddie up like a rag doll and flings him into the corner. Eddie goes over and tags Chavo, which Chavo takes exception to for some reason. They're playing up some exchanges as if Eddie is being a heelish partner to Chavo, but they don't really make sense. While they're arguing, Bagwell blindsides Chavo. He slams him, then heads up to the second rope for an elbow, but that misses.

Bagwell heads over to tag Norton. Chavo reaches desperately for a tag as well, but Eddie won't reach out to him. Instead, he goes the Sid Justice/Rick Martel route and drops off the apron, walking away with an angry look on his face and leaving his partner for dead. Chavo is now in a handicap match. Tony screams, "Is Eddie gone? Has he left the arena?!" Dude, we're like 10 seconds removed from seeing him walking slowly up the aisle. No, he has not yet left the arena.

Chavo fights gamely against both opponents, but the numbers game is proving to be too much, particularly as referee Mark Curtis has seemingly decided to allow Buff and Norton to just hang out in the ring simultaneously without any resistance. Powerslam by Norton, shoulderbreaker by Buff, big clothesline by Norton, and we see Eddie reappear at the top of the aisle. The arena must have in-and-out privileges. Eddie looks on with disgust, then waves dismissively at the ring and walks away again. Norton holds Chavo up, Buff hits the Blockbuster out of that position, and they finally end things with a pin.



Result: Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton via pinfall

With a Randy Savage match coming up, they head to break, and Larry Zbyszko says he wants to stay out and watch. After commercial, we get the end-of-hour pyro, the point at which Larry would usually leave, but Bobby Heenan is out to claim his broadcast position and Larry is refusing to leave. Heenan takes umbrage, Tony hands him a headset and just tells him to stand since there's no seat for him.

I was hoping that this upcoming Savage match was the one that I thought it might be, and…yep.

La Parka vs. Randy Savage (w/ Scott Hall & Miss Elizabeth): Savage and Hall make toward the commentary table momentarily on their way to the ring as if to start back up with Larry, but they end up heading to the ring without further incident. After quite a bit of preening in the ring, the bell rings, and we're ready for Savage vs. La Parka. They lock up to a stalemate. Savage is a bit annoyed that he didn't just win the initial lockup, but after resetting he executes an armdrag. Savage stalls, they lock up again, and we eventually get another Savage armdrag. Then more stalling. Savage puts La Parka down with a back elbow. La Parka pulls out a surprise small package that gets a two-count, then Savage gets up and clotheslines him back down.

Hall heads up the aisle and approaches the commentary table again, with Hall shouting out to Larry and offering him "a wrestling lesson." Savage slams La Parka, slowly heads up top for the flying elbow, but once he finally launches, La Parka gets his feet up, and Savage crashes into them. La Parka suddenly snaps off a Diamond Cutter and removes his mask to reveal that he's DDP, as he pins Savage for a three-count. This always stood up as one of the most memorable moments of Nitro's run for me.



Result: Diamond Dallas Parka via pinfall

Psicosis & Silver King (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Glacier & Ernest Miller: As this match starts, it almost instantly cuts away to backstage, where Eddie and Chavo Guerrero are brawling violently. Alright, back to the match without any resolution of that little cut-away. Miller and Psicosis start the match, but as they lock up, Silver King jumps in with a dropkick to Miller from behind. Glacier is drawn into the ring as well, and there's no real attempt by the referee to get things under control. Glacier and Silver King eventually leave on their own. Ernest Miller slaps on a leglock that seems to have Psicosis pondering submission, but Silver King comes in and breaks it up with a somersault legdrop.

Here come Mortis and Wrath for the run-in, and this thing has gone to DQ before there was ever much of a match to begin with. The run-in leads to brawling, and the show goes to commercials.



Result: Glacier & Ernest Miller via DQ

Mean Gene brings out Ric Flair for an interview at the top of the aisle. Flair is accompanied by a random blonde. He walks up past Gene, causing the camera to pick up some barely draped mannequin that is clearly wearing a kilt, thus spoiling some joke that's obviously coming. Flair said that he apologizes for implying that Roddy Piper would not be here tonight, because he's here. Piper's music hits, but of course now we're going to go over to the covered mannequin that we weren't supposed to see yet. Flair uncovers the mannequin and talks **** at Piper, calling him a stiff that he has to carry. As he continues running Piper down, Piper does walk right up and stand behind Flair as Flair's promo continues.



Flair eventually makes the startling discovery that Piper is behind him. He runs away and into the ring, but Piper sheds his shirt and goes after Flair. They brawl in the ring, with Piper ripping apart Flair's nice-looking suit. Piper no-sells a Flair chop and slaps on the sleeper, but here come the Horsemen. Chris Benoit and Mongo McMichael enter the ring, but Piper fights everyone off. The numbers eventually overwhelm Roddy though, as the Horsemen are able to beat him down.



Flair holds Piper down, Benoit hits the swandive off the top, and as the show cuts away to break, Tony is screaming, "Who is that in the ring?!" I see long blond hair that may belong to Jeff Jarrett, and I think the person had come out to save Piper, but I'm not sure.

After commercial…they just don't bother clarifying who the mystery person was. They pretend that part didn't happen. What the hell?

Instead they move on to Mike Tenay again attempting to interview Raven. As he asks Raven if he's going to be DDP's mystery partner on Sunday, he's suddenly interrupted, and Stevie Richards jumps into the picture. Stevie says that Raven doesn't talk to anyone but "his own close personal friend, the King of Swing, Dancin' Stevie Richards." Richards takes the mic from Tenay and tells him to just "go ask one of the Mexicans what their favorite movie is." He asks Raven to tell the "morons from Memphis" if he has signed a contract with WCW. Raven gets up and smacks Richards in the head, then walks off.



Okay, now Tony does confirm that apparently the mystery man was Jeff Jarrett making a save earlier. In that case, I commend them for trying frantically to cut to commercial before we would actually have to see him.

Chris Benoit & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra) vs. The Steiner Brothers: Mongo and Scott Steiner start off. They lock up to a stalemate, then Scott shoots the leg and takes Mongo down, having to give up the ensuing waistlock due to a rope break. Scott whips Mongo into the corner, but runs into a raised boot on the follow-up, and as he staggers away, Mongo clips his knee from behind. Mongo continues working that same leg, then picks Scott up and shows a decent bit of strength by holding him over his shoulder at length before eventually slamming him. Scott comes back at Mongo with a big belly-to-belly, leading to a two-count. Scott tags Rick, who comes in and slaps on a camel clutch. Rope break. Rick sexually harasses Debra a bit with some catcalling, etc., and Mongo tags out to Benoit.

Benoit throws violent kicks in the corner, but Rick fights back with a series of punches. He snaps Benoit over, Benoit briefly starts to come back, but Rick throws him with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Rick rides Benoit's waist, but Benoit is able to find his feet and brute-force Rick toward the Horseman corner, where Mongo tags in. Mongo with a bunch of punch-kick stuff until Rick goes behind him and throws a big German suplex.

We suddenly cut to the back, where Randy Savage has apparently attacked Nick Patrick (who officiated the earlier match with DDP/La Parka), as Patrick is shown writhing in pain in a dressing room as Savage yells at the camera man to get out of there.

Back to the ring. Scott with a press slam on Benoit. He knocks Mongo off the apron, then slaps an STF on Benoit. In mid-hold, he reaches up to tag in Rick, voluntarily releases the hold, and Rick slaps on the same STF hold. He eventually releases on his own for no apparent reason, and both men are back up to a vertical base. Benoit takes Rick down with a dragonscrew legwhip, then he goes and tags Mongo. The Steiners quickly retake the advantage, beating on Mongo in their corner. Mongo comes back at Scott with a side salto. He climbs the ropes, but slowly; Scott meets him up top, starts to lose his grip, but manages to salvage the spot and hit a big overhead throw anyway. Very shortly after impact, Benoit flies in from off-camera with a diving headbutt on Scott.



Both Mongo and Scott tag out to Benoit and Rick. We devolve into chaos from there. The brawl spills outside the ring, Jeff Jarrett runs down and attacks Mongo, Kevin Sullivan runs down and levels Benoit with a vicious chairshot to the head with a wooden chair that splinters all over the place. He picks up a piece of wood and makes as if he's going to stab Benoit with it, but Rick Steiner prevails upon Sullivan to back up, then mops up with a pin that gets counted despite the obvious remains of a wooden chair strewn all around the ring. After counting the pin, Randy Anderson points at all the wood and goes "hey WTF guys," but it doesn't affect the result.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

As Sullivan backed away from the ring, he backed over Jacqueline, and now there's dissension between the two of them; they squabble as they head up the aisle.

After commercials, we get the nWo music, and here come Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Eric is very obviously hiding something under his jacket. After some extensive posing, they get into a generic promo where Hogan brags obnoxiously for a while. Eventually they're interrupted by Lex Luger and The Giant. Luger puts Bischoff up in the Torture Rack. Vincent, then Buff Bagwell, try to attack The Giant, but Giant fends them both off. Hogan bails out of the ring as Bischoff stays up in the Rack. Luger eventually lets the hold go, and Giant kicks Bischoff out under the bottom rope. Luger and The Giant hold the ring as nWo members point threateningly from outside. Very flat ending.

Overall: Aside from that one memorable DDP moment, there wasn't much to speak of here; WCW was mostly just spinning its wheels en route to Bash at the Beach. Pretty weak episode.

Ratings for 7/7/97: Nitro 3.4, Raw 2.5
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 70-17-2

Better Show: Raw by a large margin this week; it was good and Nitro wasn't.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 58-31

Match of the Night: TAKA Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke

WCW GREAT AMERICAN BASH '97



Daytona Beach, FL

After the typical generic WCW opening video package, we're welcomed into the arena by the usual three-man announce crew of Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes, with Tony and Dusty wearing leis that make them look particularly stupid. Bobby is pulling off the beach shirt IMO.



They hype the main event, as well as the question of who Diamond Dallas Page's mystery partner tonight. Bobby Heenan floats the ideas of Curt Hennig, Raven, Larry Zbyszko, or Sting, but says he doesn't know. We go to the ring.

Wrath & Mortis (w/ James Vandenberg) vs. Glacier & Ernest Miller: Wrath and Mortis jump Glacier and Miller as soon as they enter the ring, and we're off. The teams trade blows, and ultimately Wrath and Miller are knocked out of the ring so that we can officially start with a Glacier-Mortis matchup. Hard, insulsting slap by Mortis, which causes Glacier to violently charge and take Mortis down with a double-leg. He sends Mortis into the corner, Mortis tries to jump behind a charging Glacier, but Glacier stops short and deliberately crotches him along the top. Wrath tries to come in illegally, Miller heads him off, and control is regained fairly quickly.

Miller tags in, the two double-team Mortis, and Miller then hits a spinning heel kick and scores a near-fall. Mortis flails over and tags to Wrath. Wrath backs Miller into the corner and hits some hard elbows, chops, and kicks. Sends Miller off the ropes, Miller ducks and then baseball slides through Wrath's legs before hitting a jumping front kick. That staggers the big man, but ultimately Wrath is able to recover and hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Hops up to the second turnbuckle, walks along the middle rope, and ultimately misses on an elbow. Miller forgoes the tag for a moment to go on offense, but does tag Glacier before it can backfire.

Glacier and Miller hit a double dropkick; Glacier pins for a two-count. Glacier gets distracted by Mortis and knocks him off the apron, but the distraction allows Wrath to hit Glacier hard with a jumping front kick that knocks Glacier from the ring. Mortis gets some offense in from the floor, Wrath follows him out and hits a somersault body attack from there. Then he sets Glacier's head up in a way where it's sandwiched in between the ringpost and a steel chair, and Mortis hits a superkick that does crush Glacier's head in between the chair and post.



Wrath rolls Glacier back into the ring. Mortis stomps, kicks, and taunts. Glacier blocks a punch and starts a comeback, suddenly totally unaffected by getting his skull crushed a few moments ago. Wrath comes in illegally and takes Glacier's head off with a clothesline that turns Glacier inside out. Mortis covers sloppily for two. Wrath tags in, lifts Glacier for a powerbomb, and Mortis joins in for a double-team by adding leverage to drive Glacier's head into the back of the mat. Miller comes in and saves the pin. Wrath slaps on some sort of reverse Boston crab, then Mortis enters the ring with a guillotine legdrop on top of the prone Glacier. That only gets a two-count as well. Glacier is booked to be able to withstand far too much. Mortis misses on a top-rope moonsault when Glacier moves out of the way.

Glacier comes close to the hot tag, but Wrath cuts him off. Miller is furious and just comes in anyway, laying waste to both Wrath and Mortis with a series of kicks. The referee is just allowing this chaos to continue, as all four are in the ring going at it. Mortis reverses a corner whip by Glacier, Wrath occupies Miller outside the ring, Mortis goes for a suplex, but Glacier reverses into a DDT. Slow cover, and Vandenberg first wraps Mortis's foot with a chain and then puts it on the bottom rope to force a rope break on the pin attempt. Vandenberg gets up on the apron and distracts Glacier, who kicks him off. Mortis, now with a loaded boot, hits a big kick to the chest and scores a three-count.



Even if not the most psychologically sound match, this certainly entertained above and beyond my expectations. They put the result over as Glacier's first loss even though it was just taking the fall in a tag match.

Result: Wrath & Mortis via pinfall
Rating: **3/4

Cruiserweight Title - Chris Jericho (c) vs. Ultimo Dragon: The two circle each other before locking up. Waistlock by Jericho, Dragon forces a rope break and a reset. Drop toe-hold by Dragon, countered by Jericho into a hammerlock, reversed by Dragon with another drop toe-hold. Side headlock takeover by Ultimo, Jericho counters into a headscissors, and Dragon kips up out of the hold for another reset. Kick by Jericho sets up a waistlock, which Dragon elbows out of. Dragon lands on his feet out of a backdrop and then again out of a monkey-flip; he goes for his own monkey-flip, and Jericho lands on his feet as well. They trade armdrags and throw the same kicks at each other simultaneously, and there's a subtle mutual show of respect between the two as the early going has this as a stalemate.

Chops by Jericho in the corner. Corner whip, Dragon juts his legs out, performs a handstand, then donkey-kicks Jericho and drops to the mat before delivering his signature kicks. Snapmare, then a pair of hard kicks to Jericho's back. Reverse chinlock by Dragon, now establishing a degree of control. Headscissor by Dragon; he voluntarily releases, then rakes the eyes with his boot. Jericho reverses an Irish whip, then counters Dragon's hurracanrana attempt with his consecutive powerbomb spot, which arouses the crowd.



Sentan backsplash by Jericho gets two. Standing delayed suplex by Jericho, who hesitates before covering, and as a result he only gets a one-count. Backbreaker, and the champ holds on and wrenches Ultimo's back over his knee, stretching him out. Irish whip by Jericho, misses on a clothesline, and Dragon throws a big back suplex.

Corner whip by Jericho, Dragon jumps behind the charging Jericho, Jericho climbs the ropes and connects on a moonsault for another count of two. Butterfly powerbomb by Jericho gets a near-fall. Chris sets him up on the top rope, follows him up, seems to set up for a superplex, but Ultimo blocks. Ultimo pulls Jericho up to the top with him, where Jericho attempts a dropkick and Dragon backs away, as Jericho falls to the mat on the missed dropkick and Dragon falls all the way to the floor. Seemed like a botch. Jericho recovers with a springboard cross-body to the floor.

He rolls Ultimo back inside, follows in, and puts the boots to the back of his head. Scoop slam, and now Jericho hops up to the second rope, stalls for too long, and ends up jumping into Dragon's raised boots. Dragon sets Jericho up on the top, seems to set up for the spinning hurracanrana, but Jericho knocks him off. Dragon recovers, scales the ropes again, seems as if he's about to hit a regular hurracanrana off the top, but again Jericho counters, this time tossing him all the way over to the floor. Jericho jumps off the top, but now it's Dragon with the big counter, hitting the dropkick in mid-flight. Very nice sequence.



Dragon goes for a suplex on the floor, but Jericho blocks and counters with his own. He goes inside to take a quick breather while Ultimo recovers. Ultimo makes his way back up to the apron, Jericho tries to keep him from re-entry, goes for a springboard move to attack and ends up coming up empty and hitting hard on the floor. Dragon heads to the apron and hits an asai moonsault. Both men are laid out, and Tony Schiavone raises the possibility of a double countout. Dragon is first up, he beats the count inside and seems to be content to hope on the countout victory that would not win him the title, but Jericho scrambles to his feet and beats the count at 9. Heenan points out the foolishness of Jericho not just accepting the countout.

Dragon with a hurracanrana, Jericho gets his foot on the ropes to break the pin. Magistral cradle by Dragon, and again Jericho is saved by his proximity to the bottom rope. They trade pinning combinations and two-counts, and then Jericho counters Dragon's waistlock attempt by rushing to the ropes, causing both to tumble through to the outside. Dragon hits an enziguri on the floor (which Tony calls a dropkick). Dragon tries to suplex Jericho inside, but Jericho lands on his feet. Lionsault, then a pinning combo, but he doesn't execute the pin well and it's only good for two. Jericho shows his frustration with his inability to put this thing away. Tony: "Dragon looks like he's hurt here, guys." Bobby: "Looks like he's draggin'!" Tony: "…yes he does."

Scoop slam by Jericho, but a quebrada attempt runs into another Dragon dropkick; this spot is not well-executed. Ultimo goes for the tiger suplex, Jericho escapes, Ultimo tries to slap on the Dragon Sleeper, but Jericho is able to escape that as well. Clothesline by Dragon, then a flat top-rope moonsault looks like it hits Jericho pretty good knee-to-face. He gets up and tries to pick Jericho up into a tiger suplex attempt, Jericho reverses into a powerbomb attempt, Dragon counters into a hurracanrana, but Jericho rolls through and turns it into his own pinning combination to score the three-count and narrowly escape with his title. Kind of an underwhelming ending.



After the match, we get a babyface handshake between the two.

Result: Chris Jericho via pinfall
Rating: ***1/2

Mean Gene shills the hotline, asking, "Is DDP's mystery partner in the house?" Well I ****ing hope so Gene, the match is coming up soon. Gene heads down the aisle and toward a couple of ringside seats, where Raven and Stevie Richards are posted up. I guess Raven's attack on Stevie on the last Nitro was just some tough love. Gene asks if Raven is going to be DDP's partner. After stonewalling for a moment, Raven stands up and breaks his silence, reciting some sort of cryptic poem. He transitions, "But the question is, will I or will I not be Diamond Dallas Page's partner? But isn't that the same question I've been asked time and time again since my childhood?" Wat. "Isn't the question really, have I any dreams I'd like to sell? Quoth the Raven, nevermore." Gene says that he's talking gibberish and is going to press for a real answer, but Stevie interrupts, and while he teases at the question of Raven being DDP's partner, he deflects and says excitedly to Raven, "Tell them about the announcement tomorrow night." As he says this, Raven clobbers him upside the head. Gene leaves in a huff.



The Great Muta & Masa Hiro Chono vs. The Steiner Brothers: Younger renditions of the Steiners were absolutely awesome, and it makes me hate just how much I don't like to hear their entrance music during these Monday Night Wars. Besides the fact that their theme song from this time sucks, they just rarely entertained me from the late 90s on. Particularly given who they're facing here, this match gives me all the feeling of an impending Public Enemy match.

Chono and Muta jump the Steiners at the bell and dump them both from the ring. As they let themselves get diverted by the referee's scolding though, the Steiners recover, re-enter, and attack from behind, clearing the ring and holding it for themselves. Chono engages in some particularly aggressive jawing with a ringside fan. The match finally settles in for its first one-on-one, Muta vs. Scott Steiner. Side headlock by Scott, Muta pushes him away and off the ropes, but Scott hits a shoulderblock and then lands some hammering blows. He corner-whips Muta, but then runs into Muta's raised boots on the follow-up. Kicks and chops and a bit of choking by Muta. Muta ducks a clothesline and then hits a spinning back kick, then settles back into more punch-kick stuff. Off an Irish whip, he goes for a backdrop, but Scott counters with a butterfly suplex. Press slam by the big man, who then knocks an unsuspecting Chono to the floor.

After a bit of regrouping on the floor, Muta heads back in, and Scott tags Rick Steiner in. Muta promptly bails and takes another breather, I guess working on his Goldust impression. Upon re-entry, he tags Chono. Rick with a standing side headlock, releases off the ropes and hits a shoulderblock. Chon with a side headlock now, releases off the ropes, and he also executes a shoulderblock, but it gets no-sold by Rick. Chono is irritated by the fact that his shoulderblock had no effect, so he goes off the ropes and flattens Rick pretty violently with a mafia kick. Tony tempts fate by calling the mafia kick by name, but this time Dusty doesn't jump down his throat for it (see: Starrcade '95).



Test of strength by Chono and Rick. They battle to a push for a good while, Rick starts to get an advantage, and Chono kicks him in the gut. Rick goes behind with a waistlock, Chono elbows his way loose, hits a weak shoulderblock, but then runs into something in between a backdrop and an overhead throw by Rick; Chono to the floor to do more stalling. He goes to visit the hostile fan from earlier again, and I legit worry from this fan's demeanor if he actually might throw a punch. He doesn't. Both legal men tag their partners, and we transition to Muta vs. Scott. Scott sets Muta on the top rope, but he stupidly does it right in the nWo corner, where Chono is able to sneak up from behind, get under Scott, and execute a big electric chair drop. I do love a good electric chair drop.



Muta with a corner whip, and a handspring back elbow into Scott, followed by a bulldog as Scott staggers out. Snapmare and a crisp elbow-drop by Muta, who now tags Chono. Chono's first act is to knock Rick from the apron, drawing him into the ring to set up a ref distraction for double-team purposes, but Scott is able to fight back on his own, hitting a belly-to-belly superplex on Chono. He crawls over and makes a room-temperature tag to Rick. Heenan says, in reference to the crowd, "They're gonna start barking!" They don't. Overhead throws by Rick on both opponents. To the top, big bulldog off the top on Muta, but Chono breaks up the pin.

All four fighting now, Chono and Rick spill to the outside as Scott hits a suplex on Muta. He climbs the ropes, but Chono is able to get up and hit him, stunning him for long enough to allow Muta to hit a hurracanrana from the top. As Scott is laid out by that move, Muta leg-whips the legal man, Rick. After a corner whip, Rick basically no-sells the prior offense and hits a belly-to-belly suplex for a two-count. Scott re-enters the fray, hitting a frankensteiner on Muta. Rick goes over to cover, and Chono is late to break up the pin conventionally, so he desperately drags the referee away in mid-count. As the referee reads the riot act to Chono, Rick sets Muta up on his shoulders, Scott DDTs him from the elevated position, and Rick scores the pinfall. Mostly very boring match, but nice closing spot.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall
Rating: **

Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza, & Lizmark Jr. vs. La Parka, Psicosis, & Villano IV (w/ Sonny Onoo): This match long stuck in my memory as a standout, as lucha spotfests go. It was my favorite within the lucha tag genre back at the time. With that said, I haven't gone back and watched it in the Network era, and I've become biased against pointless spotfests as time has gone on, so I fear that it won't have aged well for me. Hoping for the best though.

Psicosis and Lizmark kick things off. Side headlock by Psicosis, countered by Lizmark into a waistlock takeover. Psicosis counters into a headscissor, but Lizmark kips up out of it. Psicosis with a shoulderblock, misses with a clothesline, Garza in illegally with an armdrag off the top, Lizmark dropkicks Psicosis out of the ring, and Villano enters under the lax lucha tag rules. He whips Garza into a corner and clotheslines him. Chop, chop, Garza reverses a corner whip, but he runs into Villano's boots on the follow-up. Garza lands on his feet off a backdrop attempt, launches off the ropes with an armdrag that takes Villano out of the ring, then he hits a baseball slide to the outside. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on the floor by Garza.

Back in the ring, La Parka and Juventud are in. Headscissor takeover by Juventud. He goes for another, but La Parka maintains his feet, I think due to a botch. Juvi attempts a hurracanrana and then transitions into an armdrag. From a lying position, he launches La Parka to the floor with his feet when La Parka charges. Juvi athletically pushes up, juts his feet out from the ring to the floor, and executes a headscissor takeover. Sonny Onoo interjects himself with some kicks on Juvi, La Parka capitalizes by running up behind Juvi and grabbing the hair so that Onoo can lay in a big kick, but Juvi dodges and Onoo kicks La Parka in the face. La Parka is pissed, causing Psicosis to jump in the middle and settle things down. Onoo reaches into his pocket and spreads a large number of dollar bills, calming the situation down.

Back inside, Psicosis charges at Lizmark in a corner, but comes up very empty and hits hard, legs-first. La Parka hits Lizmark from the outside, then tries to enter, but Psicosis accidentally hits La Parka with a running clothesline, as those two continue to have trouble co-existing as a tag team. Almost everyone in the ring all of a sudden, as Garza hits a top-rope cross-body, La Parka and Villano jump in with missed backsplashes as they try to break things up. Juventud hits a springboard splash on everyone, but there's no discernible pinfall to be had. Bobby: "Tony, I'll give you $100,000: who's legal?" Tony: "La Parka." Bobby: "I don't believe you." The faces clear the ring, and then all three (Lizmark/Juvi/Garza) get a running start and hit a triple suicide dive to the outside. Points to Mark Curtis for cowering in a corner before the spot.



Juvi rolls Psicosis in, then follows him in with a springboard cross-body attempt that runs into a Psicosis dropkick. Psicosis sets Guerrera on the top, climbs to the top after him, and executes a move where he tucks his legs under Guerrera's armpits and then crashes him down to the mat from the top, as Psicosis falls naturally into it with a pinning combo akin to that of a sunset flip. Juvi kicks out on two. Tenay: "How was he able to kick out?!" Bobby: "…he has no bones!" For whatever reason, I loved that line by Bobby so much that it became a go-to for me and a few friends when we saw someone do something impossible, even if it made far less sense than how Juvi could survive that move.



Corner whip by Psicosis. La Parka doubles up by clotheslining him with a running start on the apron. La Parka enters, Psicosis whips Juvi into the corner, whips La Parka in after, Juvi kicks La Parka, and as everyone enters, we end up in another hectic sequence where a bunch of spots and pin attempts are happening simultaneously. Lizmark's quebrada on Villano is the last failed pin attempt of the sequence. Lizmark and Garza spread Psicosis's and Villano's legs into a combined star. La Parka and Juventud for some reason jump into the middle of the star - this is where spots get especially contrived - where La Parka gets Juventud up over his shoulders in the rack for a moment before tossing him onto Lizmark and causing the whole star hold to break up.

Garza runs into a big clothesline from Psicosis. Psicosis scales to the top, goes for a big splash, but nobody's home. Now we have a sequence of everyone else trying to connect from the top, and everyone missing, La Parka missing last on a splash. Sorry, but stuff like this is stupid even though it worked for me at the time.



Belly-to-belly by Villano on Juventud. Climbs to the top, but Juventud catches him there, climbs up with him, then Garza joins him to try for a double superplex, but La Parka and Psicosis come in and get both on their shoulders. Double dropkick by Lizmark sends both chicken-fights sprawling through the ropes to the outside and also knocking Villano off the top in the process. Handspring moonsault by Lizmark into a pin. Two. Running dropkick by Lizmark knocks Villano to the floor. Top-rope cross-body by Lizmark to the floor. La Parka enters the ring, gets a running start, and hits a flying body attack to the floor. Juventud and Lizmark get in, and Juventud uses Lizmark as a springboard, getting incredible air as he launches out to the floor to hit La Parka.



Psicosis charges Garza in the ring, but Garza launches him out on top of multiple wrestlers with a backdrop. Garza goes up and hits his contrived corkscrew plancha to the floor. Back inside, Psicosis and Garza clothesline each other. Villano V comes running out to the ring to impersonate his brother; he clotheslines Garza as a fresh man as Villano IV hides on the floor. As Psicosis holds Garza, Villano V gets a running start and accidentally clotheslines Psicosis when Garza ducks. Garza with a missile dropkick off the top, standing moonsault, and that's the three-count.



This is still fun, even if a bit stupid at times. I love that launching attack from Juvi.

Result: Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza, & Lizmark Jr. via pinfall
Rating: ***1/4

Funny commentary moment after the match. Tony: "There you see Psicosis down…what happened to Villano IV?" Bobby: "You got me, Schiavone. Now I'm gonna do the replay here, I'm gonna show you the proper way to do it. K?" Tony: "Okay." Bobby: "Take it, Tenay!" Then Tenay calls the replay.

Career Match: Kevin Sullivan (w/ Jacqueline & Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit: We see dissension between Sullivan and Jacqueline on the way to the ring, as Sullivan tries to hold her hand and Jackie isn't having it. The apparent IRL backdrop to this match, per Nancy Sullivan's sister, is that the jig was up and Kevin was aware of a real-life affair having gone on between Benoit and Nancy. It's hard not to read this knowledge into both men's faces as they approach the ring.

Benoit approaches the ring slowly, but upon entry he heads straight for Sullivan, and the two are into fisticuffs as the bell rings. After some trading of kicks and punches, Sullivan suplexes Benoit out over the top to the floor, then follows and whips him into the guardrail up the aisle. Jacqueline starts beating on Benoit right in front of referee Nick Patrick, so I guess this is no DQ. She keeps taking the fight to Benoit until Benoit finally defends himself and fights back, but at that point Sullivan capitalizes with a sucker-punch to put him down. Benoit desperately crotches Sullivan to incapacitate him, then gets up and tosses Jackie into Sullivan. Jackie is really giving her body up for the business in this match, as Sullivan recovers and throws her into Benoit pretty violently next.

The two men fight up the aisle, again Jackie is going to join in to make it a 2-on-1, but Sullivan pushes her away now, I guess wanting to control on his own. The brawl makes its way into the themed beach section, and Benoit has to sell shots by a surfboard that doesn't exactly look sturdy. Jimmy Hart tries to interject himself by climbing a lifeguard tower, but Benoit pushes it over. So long, Jimmy. The combatants continue fighting in the sand; Jacqueline is back in the mix, hitting Benoit on the back with a beach chair. More punches between Benoit and Sullivan. I was expecting to see some stiffness, but if anything the most recent punches by Sullivan look like they're being pulled to a business-exposing extent. Piledriver on the floor by Sullivan. Jackie drops a couple of elbows, then Sullivan adds the double stomp. Tony says, "That's his signature maneuver!" You know you have an awesome finisher when you've been using it for years and the announcer has to go out of his way to explain that the move was actually devastating and not, you know, a complete ****ing joke.



Sullivan hammers Benoit with a cookie sheet. Benoit fights back with a kick to the gut, then drags Sullivan to the ring, rolling him inside. Repeated kicks by Benoit there, an Irish whip, and a botched clothesline spot. As Benoit continues on offense, Sullivan reaches out to pull him by the tights, and drags him out through the middle rope. Jimmy Hart gets down and chokes away at Benoit. Sullivan slams him head-first into the steps. Picks Benoit up and rams him knee-first into the post. Hard chops to the chest. He picks Benoit up and crotches him on the guardrail right where Raven and Stevie Richards are seated, then gets a running start and hits a clothesline.

More punches being traded. This match is shaping up as the worst of their series. As far as I can tell, both men are being professional bell-to-bell, but if there's a newfound hatred it still may very well affect the quality they can produce together. Snap-suplex and a two-count for Benoit. That was the first cover attempt of the match, I believe. Can you imagine what a terrible ending it would be if Benoit had attained a three-count on some random snap-suplex? Sullivan starts biting Benoit in the gut; Benoit screams in agony and crumples to the mat, as Sullivan won't release the bite. Benoit bites back, pulling a Mike Tyson and biting Sullivan's ear. Hard chops in the corner by the Crippler, and he slaps on the Crippler Crossface. Sullivan refuses to give. Nick Patrick raises his arm twice, but Sullivan holds up short of three. He's trapped in the middle of the ring, but he finds the will to start crawling slowly toward the ropes. It's a long journey, but he eventually manages the rope break.

Benoit beats on Sullivan and makes as if to simply reapply the hold, but Sullivan is fighting hard to stay out of it; Benoit can't get it fully cinched in. Gorilla Monsoon would be very critical of his technique at the moment. He does manage to apply a half-assed version, but Sullivan fights his way to the ropes again. Sullivan is the purported heel here, but he's getting some babyface booking with this refusal to submit. Benoit kicks, stomps, punches…Sullivan is staggered. Benoit knocks Sullivan down, but Sullivan keeps re-finding his feet. Eventually Sullivan no-sells and takes the fight back at Benoit. Again, a very babyface comeback. He sets Benoit up in the tree of woe, gets a running start, and hammers a running knee into his nemesis. And another one. And a third.

Jackie produces a wooden chair from under the ring and enters. Jimmy Hart distracts the referee as if disqualifications are suddenly a thing in this match. Sullivan asks for Jackie to give him the chair. She rares back and shatters it over Sullivan's head. Jackie marches off, defiant.



Benoit with a swandive headbutt, 1-2-3, and Kevin Sullivan has been retired.



Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall
Rating: **

Benoit is first to leave. Sullivan eventually makes his way to his feet, and Jimmy Hart starts berating him, screaming, "YOU LET US DOWN!" The announcers give Sullivan the babyface treatment and call him a warrior worthy of respect, and he gets a minor pop when he pushes Jimmy down. Jimmy scampers away, Sullivan slowly leaves, emotion wearing on his face. This was like a destitute man's attempt at the Randy Savage WM VII face turn on the way out.

To hear Nancy Benoit's sister tell the story, a legit fight broke out between Benoit and Sullivan in the back after this due to the Benoit/Nancy affair, which her sister was unaware of at the time. Benoit and Nancy were going to leave together. The sister basically got caught in this weird tug-of-war where Sullivan was encouraging her to leave the arena with him, and Benoit was telling her to come with him. The sister naturally had a reaction of, "Wat, Kevin is my brother-in-law, why the **** would I go with you?" Nancy had to quickly explain that yes, she should come with her and Chris.

US Title - Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra): I don't even know how to process the fact that I have taken it upon myself to sit here and voluntarily write about Jarrett and Mongo this many times. Holy ****. Mongo swipes the belt before the bell, and preens with it before he's won anything. He gets a tepid negative reaction. Then Jarrett gets the belt back and does the same, and gets the same type of reaction. A heel vs. heel match between these two hacks? Seems like a great idea.

Loud "Jarrett sucks" chant at the start, so maybe he does have heat. Still, I'm inclined to call it X-Pac heat unless the crowd actually gets behind Mongo. They finally lock up, trading arm-wringers. Jarrett trips Mongo and then does his strut. After Mongo gets his temper under check, they re-engage, trading waistlocks. Mongo spikes Jarrett with a side slam, then gets a running start and lunges at Jarrett's leg. Bill Apter sighting at ringside as Jarrett limps around to sell the clip by Mongo just now. Jarrett voluntarily enters into a test of strength next, which he plainly loses. Gets free, tries an Irish whip, Mongo reverses and then connects on a high knee before clotheslining Jeff out over the top. Jarrett gets into some jawing with that same fan who was getting into it with Chono earlier. Kind of a big dude; I wonder if he was a student at the Power Plant or something.

Jarrett drags Mongo to the floor and then slams him into the guardrail. And the steps. Mongo reverses a whip into the guardrail, and now it's Jarrett being abused by steel, taking his own trip into the steps next. Mongo blatantly chokes Jarrett with a cord, and the referee just puts the count on until Mongo releases. He returns the champion partially into the ring, then attacks his throat along the apron a couple of times. McMichael re-enters and hits a press slam. Standing clothesline, then a powerslam. Two-count. Mongo with a corner whip, but he tries to follow with a running knee; Jarrett dodges, and Mongo hits his knee hard into the corner, injuring him. In a sound bit of psychology, Jarrett does the Mongo clip at the newly injured knee. And again. Goes in for the figure-four, but Debra gets onto the apron, wielding Mongo's briefcase. As the referee deals with her, Jarrett takes the briefcase from her, then waffles Mongo on the arm and the head. 1-2-3, the champ retains, and the crowd actually pops for Jarrett now. Whatever.



Result: Jeff Jarrett via pinfall
Rating: *1/4

After the match, Debra is shown cheering for Jarrett. He bails out of the ring to join her, and the two embrace, clarifying that she fed him the briefcase on purpose. That makes the ending dumber. Why did she jump up to run interference when Jarrett was right on the verge of winning cleanly? But again, who cares, just get these damn people off my screen.



Mean Gene shills the hotline, teasing about who DDP's partner is going to be. I mean, that match is less than an hour away anyway; who the hell is desperate enough to call the hotline at this moment if they're watching live?

After a Road Wild promo and a pre-taped Hulk Hogan/Dennis Rodman promo, we're back to the ring. And actually, forget "less than an hour"; we're about six minutes removed from Mean Gene, and it's time for the Randy Savage/Scott Hall vs. DDP/??? match. I really hope someone did call the hotline during that period of time in hopes of finding out the answer.

Savage and Hall are out first. DDP and Kimberly come out next, wait halfway down the aisle, and the next to emerge out of the back is…Curt Hennig. Hennig and Page don't even really acknowledge each other once they come together; they seem like a very awkward combo. Bobby Heenan, speaking to Hennig, excitedly says, "He looks like he is in the best shape of his life!" (He doesn't.)



Incidentally, this marks the second time that Scott Hall has been getting prepared for a big PPV tag match, not knowing who one of his opponents would be, and have it turn out to be Curt Hennig.

Scott Hall & Randy Savage (w/ Miss Elizabeth) vs. Curt Hennig & Diamond Dallas Page (w/ Kimberly): Savage and DDP start. DDP ducks a clothesline and scores with his own. He punches Savage, forces him into the corner, and throws repeated violent elbows. Savage bails out of the ring, briefly entertains the thought of bringing a steel chair into things, but drops it and eventually returns inside once he's calmed down a bit. There's an odd, inexplicable thing where Liz throws some sort of bouquet of flowers toward Page, and he just annoyedly tosses them back. Savage spits at Page; Page spits back. Savage tags Hall. Doesn't seem very Randy Savage to be spat upon and respond by tagging out.

Hall comes in and asks for Hennig. DDP acquiesces to the request, makes the tag, and we will see Hennig's first in-ring action since 1993. Hall, apparently taking a more realistic view than Heenan, mocks Hennig's gut. Then he throws a toothpick in Hennig's face, causing Hennig to instantaneously spit his gum on Hall. Are we going to see any wrestling here? The two tie up, Hennig forcing Hall into the corner and the two breaking at the referee's command (though they trade some shoves in the process). Hennig with a waistlock after the reset. Hall throws a back elbow, Hennig slaps Hall in the face. That exchange draws Savage and DDP in; the referee calms things down before control is lost.

Irish whip and a punch to the midsection by Hennig, then a signature knee-lift. Atomic drop by Hennig gets a goofy sell by Hall, then Hennig follows with an inverted atomic drop for good measure. Big clothesline, then a rolling neck snap by Hennig. Even if Curt looks a little washed here, it was good for the soul to see that rolling neck snap again.



After the neck snap, Curt yells out, "Now THAT'S…" and then he stops. I'm pretty sure he was headed toward saying, "Now THAT'S what I call perfect," then realized that was a no-no. Tag to DDP, who enters with punches and elbows. Hall reverses an Irish whip, but DDP stops short on the way back and hits a pancake. Page with a cheap shot on Savage to knock him from the apron, causing a frenzied Savage to try to get in, but the referee contains him. Hall reverses a corner whip and follows quickly with a running clothesline. As the referee backs him down, Savage returns the cheap shot with a running clothesline from the apron. Savage tags in and enters with an axhandle off the top rope, targeting the already-injured ribs, while Hall holds Page open.

Savage gets some rudimentary offense in, then tags Hall, who kicks Page in the injured ribs as well. He chokes DDP along the ropes, and Savage adds some more offense from the apron for good measure. Hall continues attacking the ribs, then ends up pulling Page by the tights and sending him hurtling through the middle rope. Savage drops down and attacks Page again, flinging him into the steel steps. He rolls DDP inside, where Hall is ready to pick the bones. Big clothesline, and he gets a near-fall while Hennig was hesitating on whether or not to make the save. Savage tags in, Page blocks a punch, hits an inverted atomic drop, and that creates enough of an opening to tag in Hennig.

We get a significant-looking botch shortly after Hennig arrives in the ring, as a hobbled Page was holding onto the top rope while Savage sent Hennig into it, and Hennig is pretty clearly meant to tumble over the top to the floor due to his partner's accidental actions, but he doesn't actually make the trip properly; he makes it halfway, then drops to the mat. Savage just has to boot him outside. Regardless, Hennig is pissed; he attacks Page from behind and walks out.



Hennig is definitely still the legal man and Page is not, so this should be a countout finish, but instead Hall and Savage take turns hitting their finishers on Page, and Savage pins the illegal man with one foot after the flying elbow.



Result: Randy Savage & Scott Hall via pinfall
Rating: *3/4

The announcers speculate as to whether or not Hennig's turn on DDP means that he's nWo, but Tony takes the most reasonable view, that Hennig just got pissed at his partner over that screwy spot and reacted spitefully. Kimberly keeps wanting to get involved to pull her husband to safety, but is at the mercy of Hall and Savage. Hall and Savage eventually leave DDP alone, and when the coast is clear Kim does help her husband to the back.

Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair: As the combatants enter and the announcers try to hype this match to the moon, Dusty says, "I don't buy that thing where somebody's past their prime, or whatever. They in their prime." And Curt Hennig is in the best shape of his life. Piper with a side headlock, releases off into the ropes, hits a shoulderblock, and goes straight to the mat to lay in a furious series of punches. He doesn't relent with the punches until Flair waves a white flag and bails out to the outside for an early respite.

Flair comes back in, and Piper goes straight back to work, laying in hard chops and continue to keep the Nature Boy reeling. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Piper. Whip to the opposite corner, Flair flips to the apron, takes the clothesline. Piper isn't giving him a break, following him out and slamming him into the guardrail. Flair temporarily slows Piper with a poke to the eye, but then charges and Piper counters into a backdrop on the floor. Chop, chop, rolls Flair inside. Funny spot here where Flair does his kneeling beg for mercy, and Piper responds by dropping down to a mirroring position and then pokes Flair in the eyes.



Piper stalks Flair toward the corner, begins choking Flair, referee Mark Curtis tries to step in, and this causes Piper to turn to Curtis in distraction, and Flair capitalizes by clipping Roddy's knee. As Roddy writhes in pain, Flair measures him and clips the knee again. He rains punches down on Piper, and then as Piper starts to regain his feet, Flair kicks his leg out of his leg. He continues with the limb work, suddenly in full control of this one after a dominant start by Piper. They get into back-and-forth chops, Flair being the one to knock Piper down. He slaps on the figure-four successfully, and they're right near the middle of the ring. Piper nearly gets pinned once as he lays back in pain, but gets the shoulders up. He finds some adrenaline and, with some effort, reverses the hold. Flair is able to get loose, a bit of damage done to both men in the sequence.

Flair with an Irish whip, but Piper hits a swinging neckbreaker on the way back. Two-count. Piper again goes for a choke, and again pays for it in similar fashion to before; Mark Curtis tries to back him off of the choke, and while Curtis is occupied, Flair hits a low blow. Piper crumples to the mat. Flair continues with the deliberate deconstruction of Piper, laying in measured punches and chops. Piper is staggered, but keeps looking for a comeback, and he's able to find a flurry of punches that puts Flair on the mat. He splits Flair's legs and drops a knee to the crotch. Backdrop by Piper, and a running clothesline that sends Flair out over the top.

Flair begs off on the floor, but Piper is not of a merciful mindset; he continues the offense on the floor. Flair fights back though, stunning Piper with a punch and rolling him back inside. Piper reverses a corner whip and slaps on a sleeper, but Flair drops into a jawbreaker to break the hold, then tries to pin Piper with his feet on the ropes. In an odd sequence, Piper keeps kicking out, then Flair retries the pin, then Mark Curtis keeps counting, just blatantly ignoring the rope leverage going on right in front of him that he couldn't possibly miss. Flair finally gets up on his own, climbs to the top rope, and Piper of course catches him and tosses him off. Piper is selling the leg damage, but then he slaps on a figure-four of his own. Wouldn't this be the perfect time for the reversed-leverage figure-four to actually lead to a submission, given Piper's leg damage? Not happening, obviously. Flair finds the WIM to force a rope-break.

While the referee is not looking, Flair produces brass knuckles from his boot. He arms himself with them, goes for a punch, but Piper blocks and takes the knuckles for himself. He clocks Flair, but as he does, Mongo and Benoit run to the ring. As Piper tries to cover Flair, Mongo distracts the referee and Benoit goes for a swandive headbutt off the top, but Piper dodges and Benoit hits Flair. Piper tries again for the pin, but Mark Curtis is busy trying to get rid of Benoit, and Mongo steps in and tombstones Piper. Flair slowly, slowly rolls over…1, 2, no.

Both men regain their feet. Flair chops at Piper, but Piper no-sells and lands some punches. Off an Irish whip, Piper slaps on the sleeper, and this time Flair doesn't have a counter. He fades down to the mat, Mark Curtis drops his arm once, twice, and yes, a third time. Piper wins by submission. This was slightly better than the horribleness I expected. Tony says this is a match we will remember forever. Dude, **** off with all of this dishonest commentary.



Result: Rowdy Roddy Piper via submission
Rating: **1/4

Michael Buffer is in the ring, and we're ready for our main event.

Lex Luger & The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman (w/ Randy Savage): As a fan of the 1996 Sonics, I'd rather Frank Brickowski have been Hulk Hogan's partner, but I suppose this will have to do. Luger and Hogan will start this match. They circle each other, feel things out, and finally lock up. Hogan drops down into a drop toe-hold. Luger regains his feet, gets control of an arm-wringer, and Hogan has to flail for the ropes. As Hogan ducks through the ropes, he gives a perturbed look to the fans and actually does a crotch chop. A pre-DX crotch chop. Weird.



After a reset and a bit of stalling, the men eventually re-engage. Luger wins the power struggle in a lock-up, sending Hogan into the turnbuckle. Hogan blames a hair-pull. Hogan slaps on a side headlock, then runs the ropes and hits a shoulderblock. Now Luger with the side headlock --> shoulderblock sequence. Do something interesting, guys. Hogan offers a test of strength and then lands a cheap kick to the gut when Lex tries to accept. He beats on Lex in the corner, then whips him into the opposite corner and lands a running clothesline on the follow-up. He chokes at Luger with a boot to the throat, then preens for the crowd. Scoop slam by Hogan, but he attempts to drop the elbow and Luger rolls out of the way. Back to his feet, Luger hits his own basic bodyslam, and Hogan sells it as if he was shot. He staggers to the corner, and we get the tag to Rodman.

The crowd rises to their feet as The Worm makes his way in. Obviously he's not as built as Lex, but his height really comes into focus as he stands across from him. Rodman is apparently going to keep his damn sunglasses on as he wrestles. Rodman keeps playing at locking up with Luger, then backing down and stalling in his own corner. After a loud "Rodman sucks" chant has kicked in, we finally get a lock-up, and Rodman actually throws an armdrag, which causes a huge pop, and Hogan and Savage join the celebration like they just won the match. Have to admit that's a pretty cool moment.



Rodman is feeling his oats now, and he even gestures to invite The Giant in. Lex isn't tagging quite yet. Another lock-up, and this time Lex throws an armdrag. And another one. Hogan runs into the ring and eats a couple of armdrags of his own. The crowd pops big for Lex too. Rodman has lost the do-rag and the shades now. After a period of regrouping, Rodman re-enters. Luger with a standing side headlock. Rodman sends him off the ropes, executes a leapfrog, and then puts Luger down with a shoulderblock. Luger sits back for a moment, pissed. I wonder if he genuinely resents having to sell for Rodman. I mean, it's not Jay Leno, but dude is scrawny.

Luger with another headlock, Rodman with another leapfrog on the way back, and another still, but he eventually runs into a Luger lariat, not to be confused with a Steiner line. Rodman, hobbled, flails over and tags Hogan. Hogan comes in and wants The Giant; Luger obliges this time, and the big man makes his first appearance. Hogan takes the first shots, staggering The Giant with a few punches and clotheslines. Corner smash. He chokes at the big man, but releases before five. Chop, chop…Giant finally gets something back with a chop of his own, but Hogan retains control, whipping Giant into the corner and following with a clothesline. Giant no-sells, and as he emerges threatening chokeslam, Hogan is shook, and he bails out of the ring.

After a breather, Hogan is back in, offering a test of strength. Giant accepts and locks fingers with Hogan, but Hogan takes a cheap shot to the eyes. He puts Giant in a side headlock, but Giant counters into an atomic drop. Even though Giant is relatively fresh, Hogan goes and tags Rodman. Rodman lands a knee to Giant's gut, whips the big man off the ropes, leapfrogs over him, but he ends up jumping into Giant's arms and taking an atomic drop. Giant spanks Rodman's ass a few times. As Giant lifts Rodman up in a choke, Hogan enters illegally and kicks Giant's leg out from behind. Rodman just sort of leaves, and referee Randy Anderson for some reason allows Hogan to stay in as the legal man via squatter's rights.

At Hogan's direction, Rodman raises a boot, and Hogan slams Giant's head into it. He tags Rodman back in, the two nWo guys execute a double clothesline, and they trade tags back and forth, I guess mooting any question of who the legal man was at one time. Hogan and Rodman execute a double armdrag on The Giant. Hogan pins, Rodman dogpiles on, Randy Anderson - who is doing a Nick Patrick-level job in this match - just counts this dogpile pin, but Giant kicks out with authority.



Giant makes the hot tag to Luger. Luger cleans house on Hogan and Rodman, then hits Savage for good measure when Savage jumps up on the apron. Rodman is able to kick Luger in the back of the head to break the momentum, and Hogan is able to capitalize by retaking the advantage. Back suplex by Hogan gets two. Scoop slam, big legdrop, and after a lax cover, Luger kicks out. That was a very anticlimactic legdrop kickout; didn't feel like a moment in the slightest. Hogan tags Rodman, who throws elbows at an incapacitated Luger in the corner. Rodman chokes at Luger with his boot. He attempts a corner whip, gets reversed, but dodges Luger's corner charge. Luger tags The Giant. Giant headbutts Rodman, Hogan runs in, Giant takes on both men with success, eventually ramming their heads together.

The camera pans up the aisle, and we see a blatantly fake-looking Sting. There's a ref bump inside the ring. Fake Sting walks in - over the top rope, mind you, something real Sting would never ever do - and hammers The Giant with a bat before walking out.



The announcers pretend that this is the real Sting. This is shamefully stupid. All the same, the ref hasn't gotten up yet, and Luger ducks a clothesline, causing Hogan to ram into Rodman. Luger puts Hogan in the Torture Rack, and the just-mentioned Nick Patrick runs in and signals for the submission, declaring Luger and The Giant to be the victors.



Result: Lex Luger & The Giant via submission
Rating: **

Luger puts Rodman in the Rack after the bell. Savage attacks, so Hogan drops Rodman and puts Savage up in it as well. The nWo guys limp together to the back as Luger's music blares. Hogan says something into the camera about it having been the illegal man (which is true). Then the credits roll.

Overall: Show wasn't without its charms, but it didn't have a great match and it had a lot of below-average stuff. I don't know. I didn't hate it.

This thread is one of the main reasons I'm back

No reason

I wanted to again repost this gif like a month ago, but I didn't want to bump the thread in disappointing fashion. But as long as someone else did the bumping...