Loss

I do look at film the same way. There are comedies I enjoy and dramas I enjoy. I think dramas tend to win out just because comedies sometimes sacrifice an emotional connection with the audience for a cheap laugh. A good drama has funny moments, but also has other elements. I don't think one match could possibly encompass every single thing that's great about wrestling. That's why there's more than one great wrestling match.

There's also the issue of sponsorship. Wrestling didn't have the best reputation anyway, but the image of the WWF Russo was selling to the masses wasn't one many advertisers wanted associated with their brand. While the PTC backlash and the sponsors leaving happened after Russo left, a lot of the controversy happened because of angles Russo wrote, specifically Mark Henry getting a blowjob from a transvestite. WWE did flounder for the last two months or so of 1999, trying to continue the Russo formula, but when they realized the new talent they were getting in from WCW was mostly guys whose biggest strengths were shown bell-to-bell, they made some moderations. I thought they had a great formula in 2000 -- sure, there were still hangers-on like The Godfather, but he was in the opening match and popped the crowd and the wrestlers who followed him weren't going to have to break their necks to top him and put out something good. The product was fun and there were tons of fun characters, but the belts were pushed as the centerpieces of the storylines and they were elevating pretty much anyone who got a pop. That mindset didn't last long, as we well know now, but it just goes to show that the WWF, as always, were the trendsetters in the industry and WCW was trying to present a watered-down version of what the WWF was doing two years before, only without the strong characters and main eventers who were willing to bust their asses. As for the point when PPVs and TV shows started running together, I think it happened in November of 1995 when WCW put Hulk Hogan v Sting, one of the easiest guaranteed big money matches they had, on free TV just to beat RAW in the ratings, since they were coming off of a hot Survivor Series with a Bret Hart title win. By 1996, you had World title changes happening on free TV, which never would have happened even a year earlier. While I think it's good to give midcarders storylines, I don't think Russo went about it in the right way. Simply put, you want everyone on your show to have heat, but if everyone is a huge superstar, then no one is really a huge superstar. When you oversature the midcard with angles, the main event loses a lot of its luster, and it's the main event that's expected to sell the next show.

This seemed like a natural next step. At first, I was just going to do a daily WOTD post, but the board is still growing, and I didn't want anyone thinking they couldn't put in their two cents on Sting because he was Wrestler Of The Yesterday or whatever. So, I thought I'd vary things up a little. We did "Who?" with Sting. Today, we'll do "What?". Tomorrow we'll do "Where?" Monday (I don't do windows or weekends), we'll do "When?" Tuesday, we'll do "Why?" Wednesday, we'll do "How?" Then, we'll repeat the process. So, the title of this one pretty much explains itself. What did you think of Vince Russo's booking? I personally think it was crap from start to finish and did a lot of irreparable long-term damage to pro wrestling. Russo Argument #1: "He helped the WWF beat WCW and they had their most success ever under him." I would disagree. While he was one of many contributing voices at the time, he was fortunate enough to be writing in a time when both Steve Austin and The Rock became red-hot stars, and they were destined for superstardom with or without Vince Russo's booking. Wrestling is a character-driven business. WCW's ratings and downfall had little to do with the resurgence of the WWF. While the fad audience the NWO drew did find a new toy in the Attitude era, WCW was still competitive for most of 1998 before shooting themselves in the foot with countless bad booking decisions in 1999. Russo was a guy who was in the right place at the right time. Also, comparing the WWF product in 1998-1999 to WCW's product in 1999-2000 shows that there were more factors at work in the WWF's success than Vince Russo. The fact that they were able to stay successful for another two years after he left shows that they were capable of succeeding without him. Russo Argument #2: "He found something for everyone on the show to do." This is one of the strongest pro-Russo arguments, that he gave angles to people in the midcard. I don't know that "finding something" for everyone equates to "finding something good" for everyone. Russo was known to do so many turns and swerves and big angles within a typical two-hour show that it would be hard to remember them all the end of the evening. He also didn't think wins and losses mattered, an attitude that has carried over to today's fanbase and made it very hard by extension for WWE to push new guys on top. He created a major "top this" mentality that had him constantly trying to put out a new segment more creative than his last segment, and as a result, you'd see someone like Rick Steiner turn 2-3 times in one PPV, as he did in 2000. He also didn't really play to the strengths of the wrestlers he was trying to push. Chris Benoit in late 1999 is the best example of this, because Benoit was a serious wrestler and he's pushing him amongst top guys in a setting that makes Benoit look like a fish out of water. He wasn't able to adapt to his talent, but rather he expected his talent to adapt to him. There's also the countless forgettable angles and logical plot holes that accompanied all of his busy-body midcard angles. Remember Beaver Cleavage "breaking character" in the middle of RAW? Or Hawk attempting to commit suicide by jumping off of the Titantron? Russo Argument #3: "He wasn't given a fair chance in WCW." Russo was given free reign in October of 1999, but complained that Standards & Practices were killing him because they wouldn't let Roddy Piper make jokes about overweight women. It's not like those jokes were going to affect the ratings anyway, but whatever. They were squarely in his corner and truly believed he had the goods to turn the product around until they started noticing more and more problems in his booking. He was booking to settle vendettas as much as anything. He did countless segments bashing Austin for refusing to work a program with Jeff Jarrett. He debuted the Oklahoma character, which made fun of Jim Ross's Bells Palsy condition. He had Kevin Nash dress up like Vince McMahon in the worst parody of all time. He was settling scores. The buyrate came in for Starrcade '99, and it was the lowest of the year, and that's when Bill Busch knew he had to take action. Granted, he replaced Russo with an even worse group of has-been bookers who didn't have the right view, either, but it was obvious at this point Russo wasn't the guy. Problems started again the second time around when he put the World title on both David Arquette and himself, and again used on-air time to air his grievances against Hulk Hogan. The ratings still weren't improving, the buyrates still weren't improving and the product was abysmal. Russo Argument #4: "The average fan doesn't want to sit through a match longer than three minutes." The beautiful thing about pro wrestling is that the promoters and bookers can create their own average fan. Russo was notorious for pandering to the lowest common denominator, getting people to watch wrestling as a Springer-esque freak show. The whole idea behind Crash TV was that the show would be so bad that you couldn't turn away because there was a perverse pleasure in watching it. When you book a product that doesn't respect itself or its fans, the average fan is going to be the type that enjoys that sort of thing. It's a total self-fulfilling prophecy. When you book a product that encourages intensity, athleticism, storyline continuity and payoffs, those are the sorts of things the audience is going to like, because that's the sort of audience you're going to draw. Now is a good time to mention that a researcher did a survey of the wrestling audience for WCW in 1999 of a huge cross-section of fans asking what they wanted from the product. The most popular answers were that they wanted less skits, less NWO, more wrestling and storylines that made sense. Russo went in the exact opposite direction, giving them more skits, more NWO, less wrestling and illogical storylines. The average WWF fan and average WCW fan were in some ways two different beasts, as previous surveys of WCW's audience had also indicated that they were mostly devoted sports fans. Russo tried to beat McMahon at his own game -- sports entertainment -- and Vince McMahon can NOT be outdone there. Russo Argument #5: "He gave women a fair share in a male-dominated industry." Sable was indeed a bigger ratings draw than Steve Austin in the first half of 1999, but Russo has often tricked himself into thinking that he used women as anything but eye candy. Hell, WWE doesn't have the most sterling reputation in terms of treating women with respect, but they have at least tried to make people like Stephanie McMahon and Trish Stratus actual wrestling characters who happen to be women. Even Sable was never really a character, and she was easily the most successful woman during his tenure. Women have truly never gotten their fair share in a male-dominated industry, and I won't argue that point, but I will argue that they fared any better under Russo than anyone else. Obviously, my thoughts here are strong, but you may disagree or have things to add. What's your take on Vince Russo and his impact on wrestling?

Perhaps great wrestling should have elements of all of those things, without getting too married to any particular concept. There are so many different styles, all of which have their pros and cons. I'm hesitant to say good wrestling is going to be confined to one style and bad wrestling to another.

Agreed. Great psychology is just working a match that makes sense. You can do that without any limb work at all, actually.

Good review, Rudo. I actually thought Hogan was a pretty good worker at this point. He wasn't too athletic, but he had a good sense of what to do and when to do it. Check out his match with Inoki from 06/02/83 sometime, if you haven't already. Good stuff! He also went nearly 30 minutes with Bob Backlund in Philadelphia earlier in the year (1980), but I have yet to see that match.

Those of you who were around for SNKT know that we tried this as a regular feature for a while, but I wanted to bring it here and get it started again. Basically, I'll pick a random wrestler and we can discuss the highs and lows of their careers, the best, worst and most famous matches, how they'll be remembered -- that sort of thing. Sting seemed like a good starting point because he's someone everyone knows. He started out in late 1985 in Memphis, teaming with Jim Hellwig (Ultimate Warrior) in a team called The Freedom Fighters. Memphis was a breeding ground for a lot of new talent around that time, so I guess that was the natural place to start. The payoffs were notoriously low, but they would hire just about anyone (and fire them, and hire them again in some cases). His most memorable feud there was with a fat guy heel named Phil Hickerson (who'd later be PY Chu-Hi in WCCW) who always commented that anyone could pump their bodies full of steroids and look the way they looked. He jumped to Mid South at some point in 1986 and mostly teamed with Eddie Gilbert and Rick Steiner, having a few decent matches against teams like Chris Adams and Terry Taylor and the Fantastics. He eventually ended up breaking out from under Gilbert's shadow in 1987 when he turned babyface, a role he'd keep for (most of) the rest of his career. He was getting over on the undercard, but wasn't really someone anyone considered a future superstar. His energy made him stand out from the pack and while he bumbled in his promos, he had great charisma. It was around this time he started adding color to his face paint. He originally had black face paint when he first came in and was part of the Blade Runners tag team with Warrior. His name was Flash for a brief period before it was changed to Sting. He wrestled in the opening six-man at Starrcade '87, but his first (and possibly most memorable) match was against Ric Flair at the first Clash of the Champions. In that match, Flair took a midcarder and made him a superstar, carrying him to a good, 45-minute match that won MOTY honors at the time, both in the Observer and Pro Wrestling Illustrated. I actually think he'd go on to have far better matches with Vader, but it was Flair who cemented him as a superstar. The buildup to the first Flair/Sting match was quite good, even if it's gone largely forgotten. The NWA was doing "Ric Flair Night" in Raleigh, NC, with the Horsemen dressed in tuxedos honoring Flair. Sting politely asked for a title shot and JJ Dillon told him no and to go away. In a funny moment, Sting seemed to agree before attacking Dillon and "ruining" the occasion. Flair did a hateful promo vowing to never wrestle again unless he got a match with Sting. They ended up doing a match on Worldwide with the typical ref bump chicanery where Sting was obviously holding his own with the champion. Flair did a memorable promo around this time where he actually bladed himself during an interview because he was so furious at Sting for embarrassing him. So the stage was set for the big match at the Clash. Sting floundered for much of '88 after the initial splash in the Flair match. He picked random tag team partners to go after the tag titles before settling into a feud with Barry Windham for the US title, with them having a match at Clash III where Windham got himself DQ'd to keep the belt. It was a good match, though, featuring the two hottest young wrestlers in the company at the time. Another memorable angle around this time saw him get turned on by the Road Warriors, taking a hell of a bump off of the Doomsday Device and selling a neck injury before picking up a tag team partner to go after the belts. He and Dusty faced the Road Warriors at Starrcade '88 in another good match and Sting was incredibly over, but had still never won a belt. He won his first belt in the company in March of '89, defeating Mike Rotunda for the TV title, before getting into a famous feud with the red-hot Great Muta for the remainder of 1989. Flair had started booking around that time and was booking with the idea of building up Sting for a big title win in 1990. He was rubbing shoulders with the main eventers on a regular basis, with the Flair/Funk and Sting/Muta feuds pretty much intertwined. Sting also won the Ironman tournament at Starrcade '89, a tournament that also featured Flair, Luger and Muta. He got a clean win over Flair and they teased a heel turn for the Horsemen, but they instead congratulated him on the victory. On February 6, 1990, at Clash X, they shot a big angle to turn the Horsemen heel, and Sting was scheduled to win the World title 19 days later at Wrestle War. He was climbing the cage in the main event that evening to get to Flair and ended up fucking up his knee, resulting in him needing surgery and missing five months of time. This couldn't have come at a worse time for Sting, because he had all the momentum in the world and he was about to win the gold. Jim Herd pressured Flair to put over Luger in the interim, but Flair felt it was best to wait until Sting returned and refused. He returned and defeated Flair at the 1990 Great American Bash, in a match that was supposed to shift the company into a new era where Sting was the new centerpiece and Flair was no longer the top guy. He was put in one of the worst storylines of all time where he had a masked man of mystery named the Black Scorpion gunning for him. This ended up pretty much killing whatever potential he may have had as a draw and the company looked to Flair to save the angle. Flair was revealed to have been the man torturing Sting all this time in a very anti-climatic plot twist, and Sting quietly dropped the belt to Flair on a house show just two weeks later. He was originally going to drop it here, but he asked that he at least win this match so he could salvage something out of the bad angle he had been given. Sting spent 1991 as an upper card fixture, but wasn't anywhere near Flair or the title. He did participate in War Games at Wrestle War '91, a hell of a match most remembered for Sid nearly killing Brian Pillman with his powerbombs. He was one of four participants in the Sting & Luger v The Steiners match at SuperBrawl I, a match that won MOTY honors in PWI. The post-match angle also ignited a fairly hot feud with Nikita Koloff, which was blown off in quick fashion at the June Clash just a month later. The office wanted to rebuild Sting and felt that feeding him a lot of hot heels in quick fashion would be the best way to do the job, building to an eventual big match with Lex Luger in 1992. He feuded with Cactus Jack and Abdullah the Butcher for the rest of the year and also won the US title around this time in a one-night tournament in Atlanta, beating Steve Austin in the finals in a match that always looked great clipped that isn't available in full sadly. The matches with Cactus at this point were very memorable as well. He ended up dropping the belt to Rick Rude at Clash XVII in November of '91, starting a feud that would continue for most of the next three years. Sting finally had the big match with Luger at SuperBrawl II, where he won the title for the second time. While he was always over, he still wasn't the same Sting he was in 1989-1990. He was part of War Games in May of 1992 in one of the best gimmick matches of the decade before settling into a feud with Vader that would also be quite memorable. The duo produced three of the best heavyweight matches of the decade, at least in the US, at the Great American Bash, Starrcade and SuperBrawl III. Bill Watts had entered power by this time and was more focused on making Ron Simmons the top babyface, so Sting again fell down the card. He did have a feud with Jake Roberts though, culminating in a match at Halloween Havoc '92 that drew a great buyrate, comparatively. Sting would have a cup of coffee with the World title once again in March of 1993, defeating Vader on a European tour, before dropping the belt again before the tour was even over, a mere six days later. He did manage to stay at the top of the card for most of '93, but WCW was abysmal that year. Sting was definitely in his share of bad angles and vignettes in the early 90s, many of which happened in '93. While he had done the cheesy stuff with Robocop in 1990, in 1993, he did the White Castle of Fear videos for SuperBrawl III with Vader, a video with Davey Boy Smith for Beach Blast '93 where he was on a boat and Cheatum The Evil Midget blew up the boat, and he was also part of the Flair For The Gold at the August Clash where the Shockmaster tripped and fell in his debut. Flair had left the company in 1991, but was back around by this time and the two of them had a memorable 40-minute match on WCW Saturday Night on 08/20/93. The next few years of his career saw him in the shadow of others, be it Flair, new arrivals Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage or the NWO. He had a few good matches and was still a key player, but he was no longer WCW's golden boy and underwent a much-needed character change in 1996, where Lex Luger doubted his loyalty in a brilliant angle where a fake Sting attacked Luger outside in a dark, rainy parking lot and Sting swore it wasn't him. He spent most of the next 15 months or so sitting in the bleachers wearing solid black, and he'd changed his look dramatically. He was probably more over than he was at any point in his career, yet he was not even wrestling at this point. They were building to an eventual Hogan/Sting showdown that was hyped incredibly well and had the wrestling world buzzing, to a point where it looked like Sting may finally reach his full potential. That would come crashing down at Starrcade '97 when they fucked up one of the most easy finishes to book in modern history, and Sting was not going to be the top star he had been built up to be as a result. 1998 was spent floundering, as at one point he changed his face paint to a red color and joined the Wolfpack, which went against everything his character stood for for so long. He was out with personal issues for the last half of the year and returned in April of 1999 to find a WCW that had lost almost all the momentum it had when he left. They tried a Sting heel turn later in the year hoping they could shock viewers back into watching, but the turn didn't work at all, partially because WCW had overexposed their audience to big turns from top stars and partially because Sting's heart wasn't in it. 2000 saw him have some of the worst matches in history with Vampiro, but he did go out fittingly enough in 2001, wrestling Ric Flair on the final Nitro, the man who was ultimately his career-defining rival. He was synonymous with WCW for a long time, but he spent his career waiting on others to step aside so he could become the new top star, only for it to never happen. I know this is a long post, but I was actually trying to be as brief as I could, so I skimmed over a lot. So now I'll turn the tables -- what are some of your favorite and least favorite Sting matches and moments, and how do you think he'll be remembered?

While I think a NOAH/WWE show would do decent business, there may be some headache over doing jobs. When Angle did a few jobs in Japan on one of the tours a while back, his market value dropped there considerably. Hopefully it's something that can be ironed out.

Well, there's that, and the fact that he grew up in the business, and that his dad was a promoter and his brothers were all wrestlers. His sisters all married wrestlers. I won't disagree that Bret's a mark for himself, but I guess being around wrestling all of his life has made it a bigger part of his being and it ties into everything from the way he views his family to thinking about why he lost his brother to wondering why he has constant headaches because of multiple concussions. That doesn't change the fact that he's one of the most shameless self promoters there is, but I can at least understand it. Thinking about the downward spiral his life has taken since 1997 is actually really sad, considering that his brother died before his time, he went through a divorce, he suffered a stroke, he has brain damage and his family has pretty much been torn apart through infighting. I do hope whatever he's doing, he's happy, because Lord knows he deserves it.

Agreed, MIB. The more I look back on that time period, the more I think Page has been underrated over the long haul. Some have given him his credit, yes, but he's also been written off in some circles as a bad worker who only got his spot because he was Eric Bischoff's next-door neighbor. Page was a meticulous planner, but I think people who held that against him were a little too single-minded in terms of their mindsets. If Page needs to construct everything ahead of time to deliver a good match, it's a compliment to him that he's willing to do it, not a black mark against him. The Bret shoot is great, if only because Bret knows the subject matter so well. Many times, wrestlers who headlined as long as Bret did who have had as many matches as Bret has have trouble remembering a lot of details, dates and specifics, but Bret has never had this problem, even after suffering a concussion where he had partial memory loss.

This was a hit at SNKT, so I thought I'd bring it back here. I'll start us out: "Last night, this girl came knocking on my door at midnight. Finally, I let her out." -- Gene Okerlund "Look at us! We've reduced ourselves to wearing overalls!" -- Road Dogg to the Godwinns, RAW 1997 "I look like Vince Neil over here!" -- Kevin Nash at the broadcast booth, Nitro 1996, looking at himself in the monitor "Tony Schiavone! I'm glad to see you back, especially after seeing your front." -- Jim Cornette "You should have the Rock & Roll Express arrested! Last week, they came out here and killed your ratings." -- Jim Cornette "Tommy, try to understand that I am but a fouled experiment in human sociology, and I can accept that, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine there would be other wrestlers taking dives onto concrete floors, committing human suicide on my behalf--like I'm the patron saint of all sick sons of bitches. Is that all I stand for, Tommy? Is that all I stand for, to stand in an arena where J.T. Smith lands head first on the concrete and hears the fans yell, 'You fucked up, you fucked up?' Well, fuck you. Who the hell do you think you are? We're not a wrestling organization anymore, we're the world's biggest damn puppet show." -- Cactus Jack, ECW 1995 "I'd say, 'Hey Mikey, look at the leaves turning colors, the beauty of the fall foliage.' But you were too cool to care, weren't you Mikey??! I'd say, 'Mikey, here is a cassette that means a lot to me, and if you listen to the words, it might change your life, too.' Mikey took that tape out and said, 'Who's Leonard Cohen?' and put in the satanic music of Ozzy Osbourne, and expected me, as a parent of two, to stand there and take it? Mikey, I know you don't have money. So I paid the tolls, I gave you money for food. And what did you come across? Nothing that would make you into a world champion. I can count every time...Doritos. If you want to ruin your body, then that's fine. But when you don't need Cactus Jack anymore, and you were able to get a ride for yourself, those Doritos stayed there, and haunted me until I couldn't take it anymore! For God's sake man, don't you realize I have an eating disorder?" -- Cactus Jack, ECW 1995 "As President, I will institute a procedure in which all convicted criminals will have this brass ring will be surgically implanted into their foreheads--Americans have a right to know who they can trust. I don't care if you're 5, 6, or 7 years old, if you're a first-time offender, you're gonna go to Purgatory and it's not gonna be fun!" -- Bob Backlund "Their look is SO Bushwhackers 2000." -- Edge & Christian, discussing the Dudleys "Here's a couple that have produced more tragedies than Shakespeare ..." -- Jerry Lawler on Stu & Helen Hart "If the Rock hits you, you'll die. If he misses, the wind behind the punch will be so strong, it will give you pneumonia and you'll die anyway." -- The Rock

10/29/95 - Diamond Dallas Page v Johnny B. Badd (Halloween Havoc) 11/26/95 - Diamond Dallas Page v Johnny B. Badd (World War 3) 02/11/96 - Diamond Dallas Page v Johnny B. Badd (SuperBrawl) What an underpimped feud and an underpimped series of matches! Granted, these aren't hidden classics, but that's not really important -- what is important is that you can see both wrestlers improve with every match. Page was just coming into his own around this time. He won the TV title in September and the October match was his first major title defense. He also had a beautiful valet and had won $13 million in the lottery in an angle that was admittedly corny. The point was made, though, that Page was improving and life was finally throwing him something other than a curveball. Even winning the TV title is far more than anyone ever expected him to achieve at this point in time. Johnny B. Badd had been slowly transforming into a more serious wrestler over the previous year after holding his own against veterans like Arn Anderson. Even though he lost the TV title, he made a good showing. He had been where Page already was, and after winning a US title shot in a memorable match against Brian Pillman (on the same night Page won his first championship of any kind), he was also finding himself more successful than many had ever expected him to be. The setup for the match was that on the night Badd was to get his US title shot against Sting, he no-showed and Pillman ended up getting the shot anyway. We would find out later in the show, in an angle run by countless promoters countless times, that Page had slashed Badd's tires and as a result, he missed his opportunity. With that, the stage for the match was set. DDP's character as the Trailer Trash Gone Legit works well because it's believable. The Halloween Havoc match was surprisingly good. The opening sequence was one where a Johnny B. Badd lookalike walked backwards to the ring, distracting Page long enough for the real Badd to come through the crowd and blindside him. It popped the crowd, but it would have worked even better had Tony Schiavone not given it away on commentary. The first minute of the match sees Page almost immediately take two huge bumps -- one from the ring to the floor and another back over the guardrail. Amidst the brawl at ringside, Badd puts a bucket on Page's head and starts smashing it in a terrific comedy spot. They don't really do a bang-up job of building on the momentum the opening sequence gave them, as they immediately do a criss-cross sequence when they return to the ring, but they fix the problem soon enough. They seem to have a fairly good command of the basics; they work an extended armbar sequence, but they do enough busy-body things to keep it interesting and keep the crowd involved before transitioning into Page taking control. He excels here, and even puts some nice mid-range offense out there, most notably a move the announcers refer to as a pancake, where he drops Badd from a piledriver position into a facebuster. He works the chinlock a little too long for my tastes, but he's quick to try something different, as they tease a Badd comeback with him attempting to power out, only for Page's ringside second Maxx Muscle to give Page illegal leverage to keep the hold locked in. There's even a mild Memphis flavor here, with him choking Badd out with his wrist tape while the referee is distracted. They do a nice job of paying off the sequence with Page unable to reach Maxx for a second time, leaving himself open for a belly-to-belly suplex. Badd's comeback is good, but Page in control was much better. Badd pulls out some nice moves for the time, including a flying headscissors, a somersault pescado, a slingshot splash, a flying double axehandle and even a Liger bomb, but flying was about the only thing he really did all that well. Page continues to impress though, turning a normal hiptoss attempt into a bulldog. They tried a little too hard at the end, doing a finish that was a little too complex for such a basic match, but this was still a surprisingly decent effort. Badd wins the TV title here. The World War 3 match sees a stipulation where Kimberly will be allowed to leave Page's side if Badd wins the match. The crowd has really taken to the feud by this point, as both Page and Badd get strong heat for their entrances, and Kimberly gets a huge pop. Immediately, DDP gets cocky and tries to bully Badd, which causes a nice brawl. Page stooges like crazy here, talking smack and begging off almost constantly. The "start off with something wild before settling into a match" formula seems to be working for them, and the opening segment in this match was probably better than the one at Havoc. The hair pulling game starts again, although this time, it's not done as well. There are a few times I think that Page is going to go one direction where he doesn't capitalize. He starts stomping on Badd's arm and hand after yanking him to the ground, which would have been a perfect attempt to neutralize the power of the punch, but they really didn't go there, and there are a few times where Page seems to be drawing a blank on what to do. He redeems himself by pulling out a great counter for Badd's headscissors and doing more high-quality stooging, the highlight of which is Badd tripping him to avoid getting kicked in the gut. This match, unlike the Havoc match, is at its best when it's back and forth. The finishing moments are terrific and contain some awesome nearfalls, all of which the crowd totally buys and which includes some cool moves from both guys, including a nice recovery from Page after he almost botches a rotation bomb. They did try too much here at times, but the match is fascinating to watch because it's almost like you're actually watching them learn as they work. This match presents a good case against those who say that DDP can't work a good match unless everything is laid out in advance. At this point, Page has lost his title and his woman, and now he's putting his money on the line because he wants to win that TV title back so badly. The improvement in both is very evident in this one, and there are some great, traditional babyface/heel exchanges, as the battle of strong wills ensues -- Page wants a reverse chinlock, Badd wants an armbar and neither is really willing to settle for anything less. Badd always had nice spots, but he tries a few new things here, including a gorgeous hammerlock floatover into an armdrag. There is a little sloppiness when they attempt a criss-cross sequence, but it ends with a really good stun gun, and it's so obvious they're working hard and getting better with every performance that many of the flaws are easily overlooked. Page executes a fantastic gutbuster and DDT off the ropes, but sometimes, he stalls too much afterwards. He's more aggressive here than he's been in the other matches because he has so much to lose. There was a really nice simple sequence here with Badd attempting to come back from a chinlock and Page actually sitting on the top rope to keep him in the hold. As is the case in all of their matches, the final stretch of nearfalls is terrific. Now, Page has lost his title, his woman and his fortune. The plan before Mero left WCW was for the two to have another match at the next PPV where DDP would put his career on the line and lose that too, only to return in a couple of months with a renewed push, and that did end up happening, but Mero wasn't around for that part. These matches aren't great, as I said, but if you enjoy watching wrestlers learn and evolve, you can't really go wrong with this series.

So, how was Angle/Rey, for anyone who saw it? I was intrigued that they gave it 17 minutes.