Kevin Ridge

What was Akiyama doing during the rope walking as he just dropped down off apron so Shinzaki could go by. Misawa still managed to avoid the finish to rope walk. Credit to Sinzaki continuing to try hit the move. FMW guys actually had more of the action during the match. Last few minutes were pretty good. Really close call after the Phoenix Splash. I had to rewind there to make sure it was a two.

Jarrett’s son looked like he was 12. The ladder was very light as it was flying around the ring. Wolfie D had a couple big moves but match was too short. Jarrett got up quickly for a referee when Flash knocked him down.

I was just thinking about USWA. Gruesome looking hanging from the balcony.

Giant clocks Vincent with the cast and Randy Anderson just softly kicks him out of the ring. Hogan goes after the injured hand for most of the match. Giant makes a comeback and does the chokeslam with the injured arm. Dumb. This wasn't very good and there was no security to be found again. Nobody seemed to check on Vincent who was probably still lying on the floor. Not the best night of wrestling but I'd say DX was worse for the evening as their stuff was more personal.

Tame effort for a party. This is the best WCW got?

Bischoff doesn't think Larry was ever that good of a wrestler. He's pretty sure he could beat him. We got an army of WCW security guys that cut off Larry from going after Eric. These guys must be on break when the NWO attacks.

I know it's about a paycheck for Neidhart, but as someone just watching a wrestling show I had very little sympathy for Jim. He joins up with DX far too easily and gets booted out of the group right away. Not that he was going to stick around but I don't feel like this even benefited DX by making them more heelish. It was just people again trying to pile on Bret Hart.

Fans love to chant small phrases. Rock giving orders in the Nation now and also isn't wearing the colors like the rest of the group. The pager stuff was a bit hokey when Rock was looking up a the Titanron and clearly could see Austin sneaking in behind him on the screen. Not the fault of the wrestlers though as they don't have control of production like stuff like that. Though Austin was giving it a go earlier when he was in the truck.

This skit did suck as wasn't funny. Michaels gets confronted by another person who really can't match him on the mic. Anvil looks like he wants to start a fight all the way up on the ramp. Shawn has fun with that knee injury bug that seems to be going around. Michaels offers Neidhart a spot in DX which he will think about. So much for him coming down and fighting Michaels and HHH.

But they had such a good run during the year and momentum was gaining. The ratings weren't there yet but you did feel things were changing. Survivor Series as a whole wasn't a very good PPV and losing Bret was huge. But Austin continues his rise and they are starting to move things with Rock. They were now going to have push more guys from the midcard up like Triple H. Vader ain't do much now though. He beat Taker in January has his push has really gone away. Luna debuts with Goldust which will lead to more bizarre stuff.

The Outlaws rise surprised me with them having a bad feud with each other months previously. Honky was even managing Gunn at the time. LOD didn't get much a run with the tag titles but they were really feeling quite stale.

I believe Shawn! After all the awful crap he's done this year, he's having a change of heart. Him and Bret will settle things later on show.

They got pissed off at each other right away. Fujiwara was milking the referee's 5 count over and over being on the verge of getting disqualified. Yeah, this needed a strong finish with Tenryu kicking the crap out of Fujiwara. He smacks him around a bit but it was way too short. Plus, Fujiwara got back up and put Tenryu in another armbar after the match!

Good stuff from both guys. I've really only seen Smiley in WCW during his Hardcore title period. Would like to see him against a Regal.

What a horrible mess. I don't think I've yet to see a full WW3 battle royal from WCW. I may have to just to see how things start out. So hard to follow what is going on in all three rings. You also seem to be able to roll your opponent out of the ring to eliminate them which is what the Divas use currently. Hogan is allowed to enter match at the end which is just dumb. Nobody questions this. Announcers miss DDP’s elimination. That’s clearly Nash and not Sting. With 60 guys in the, WCW wreslers couldn’t just team up on all of the NWO?

Taue gets big jeers for cutting off Shinzaki’s rope walk. Where did this crowd come from? Audiences have been very silent for the most part but this one is way into the match. This is pretty good match overall. I'm impressed with Hayabusa adapting to Kobashi and Taue/Kawada. Team didn't have much of a showing in the tournament but did tie for points with Bradshaw/Windham! I'm curious to see Bradshaw and Hansen going at it. Not on the match listing though.

Michaels/Bret is a hot topic for Douglas.

Chugging a beer is important! But yes, Sandman is an idiot. It’s like he thought climbing to the top of the ladder would make it more safe from any attacks while he drank.

This Mikhail guys has some good fight to him. Falling behind in scoring but sticking it out. Tough how this group was going to succeed with Pride ready to take off. But not stopping these two from going out and have a really match. The overhead camera adds so much to these type of matches when it goes to the mat and they are reversing out of holds.

I was just laughing my ass off listening to this show today. Great Johnny impressions as usual but thought you all were excellent. Perfect way to get back to work after a three day weekend to listen to you all talk wrestling from this period. The first Backlund/Patterson match was great. I think it's the best match on the discs so far as Bob is a bit more aggressive than the Valentine matches. But Patterson plays a huge part too. Backlund's big bodyslams are nice and he looked like was trying to tear Patterson's arm off when yanking on it. They take turns a few times barely making the 10 count back in the ring. I thought maybe they were overdoing it a bit but with the double KO finish, I thought the earlier spots told a great story. Agreed with the love of Patterson from his stuff on this disc alone. Second match wasn't as good as felt too short. The Strongbow/Valentine match was a letdown compared to their match on previous disk. I loved that fan trying to take the chair away from Valentine and then suddenly having to defend himself. Monsoon looked huge next to everyone else. Nice Denucci bio. Humorous that they would try to stick a 3 out of 5 falls match on last. Albano starts the match off with Andre! He also no sells an Andre heatbutt and bails on the match before it ends. He's a big believer in that curfew. Looks like James has providing solid evidence of something going out with Bruno's hair. I probably spent the whole 6 minutes plus of that match staring at his hair to not even notice Volkoff getting little offense in.

Full NWO run in to attack The Giant. WCW guys respond to this and go after NWO. Nash who is on commentary should be selling this up more since WCW has been so poor fighting off the NWO.

Credit to Bischoff to avoiding that fan. Larry gets beat up by the NWO.

Traylor made little if any appearance in NWO the past year. He will fight anyone and the NWO pounds on him immediately. Credit to him to at least have Hogan be apart of this.

Hall and Nash still have titles so I’m guessing that tag title switch didn’t hold up. Tenay is wearing the same jacket as Vince McMahon. Hall takes a dig at Larry’s stalling in matches. This is still waiting for a Bret Hart appearance. Rude makes major history showing up on both Raw (taped from previous week) and on live Nitro on same night. He talks up the wrongs happening against Bret Hart. Whoa. I’m now just remembering Sting versus Rude from the early 90’s.

Goldust don’t feel like wrestling tonight. His arm is in the sling. He ends up clocking Vader though. Not the best ring gear by Goldust.