Kevin Ridge

He’s full of crap and this leads to evil Vince McMahon being unleashed upon us. Time honored tradition. Vince would welcome back Bret. Which for the most part is true with McMahon as guys who seemed to burn bridges made it back one way or the other. There is so little sympathy for Vince here as he comes off as such a heel. This character has been launched going forward.

Attitude! Era! Austin 3:16 says honor the sabbath.

It’s a good competition between Sunny, Sable and Headbangers for not doing anything. Yokozuna got himself a figure though.

Ahmed makes an appearance at least. I won’t try to lace their boots.

Karate Fighters! Sunny still doing nothing in 1997. But she is winning at Karate Fighters.

Damn, I had thought Beulah was already on the outs from a neck injury by the Dudleys. But she is still here. This feud peaked back in the summer. The lights go off and I’m expecting a big appearance but nobody.

Rude is still in ECW. He’s also dressing really sloppy. Rude introduces the new ECW World Champion Bigelow. Who gets attacked by Candido and Lance Storm. Rude doesn’t seem all upset at this.

Kobashi’s half nelson suplex looks so dangerous. Ace’s cobra clutch suplex looks so much better against the likes of Misawa. Some nice action in the last few minutes.

Hogan wants Sting and he drops from the ceiling and enters the ring to face off with Hollywood. Ambush. Sting takes a beating which is needed to set things up for Starrcade but you have to ask where was WCW to back him up.

Sting is doing a movie called The Real Reason (Men Commit Crimes). I’m too busy looking at the female on the poster. Sting talking in a movie before he says a thing in WCW is bad business. Hogan does not like Sting showing up on his turf in Hollywood.

I loved this game!!!!!!!! Damn this was $70!! I love this game!!!!!!! Even though the cruiserweights looked bigger than Hogan.

NWO out with Canadian flags! Bischoff says they have two announcements! Kevin Nash returns ands gets a solo entrance. Hmm. He comes out in a wheelchair. Ducking The Giant already. Damn you Nash. He pretends to be Lou Gehrig and I’m laughing my ass off. Nash will see The Giant at WWIII PPV. Bischoff has been having a huge smirk on his face the whole time the second he came out. NWO do the worst job of the Canadian National Anthem. Bret will love that. Bischoff says Hart is the newest member of NWO. Why not debut Bret on this show?

It was a bad Raw to follow up Survivor Series with Bret leaving and other guys not showing up. I don't think it's the same as when Flair left WCW in 91 but pretty damn close. At least WWF fans had Austin to get behind. Ken was hopeless against DX.

Jarrett had high praise for Savage. Tag along for Triple H! I just didn’t see Jarrett as a top level guy when he showed up in WWF at this time.

They went from Faarooq to Rock very quickly against Austin. The Rock looks like such a star. He’s finding his way on the mic at the moment but it’s there. Austin accepts Rock’s challenge for the IC Title.

Well said. Bret/Michaels/Austin are so captivating talking for as much as they did during the year. They started doing it with everyone else which just isn't going to be as successful. Goldust walked out on Vader and rest of US team mates. Vader wasn't too happy about that. It does lead to my favorite Vader Splash at the Rumble.

Shamrock is the worst person ever to try go word to word with Michaels and company. Such an easy win for Michaels to face someone on TV off Montreal. I wouldn’t mind seeing Rude and Shamrock going at it. Shamrock versus Michaels for title at next In Your House. Michaels sends a warning to Bret that he will have to deal with Nash/Hall in WCW. Not just them.

No Vince on commentary. Ross, “Bret Hart is older and coming in heavier than the challenger.” Hehe. I don’t know if Hebner screws up beforehand repeatedly trying to get the timekeeper to ring the bell. I'm sure he screwed up actually cause he sucks. Hey, there is Vince with a bunch of other officials as Hart/Michaels brawl outside the ring. Great start to the match and the highlight to me. Watching it live I was confused by the chants and the signs in the crowd about Bret and WCW. Shawn is so obviously in on the finish as his reaction is the worst acting job ever. Bret spits a good wad in Vince’s face. I remember the next day in school going on the the internet to find out what the hell this was all about as all these other kids in the computer room were busy playing Doom. Bret leaving WWF to WCW?!!! I thought was a massive defection much to WCW’s benefit. Bret asks Shawn if he is in the know. Shawn swears on God that he wasn't a part of this set up. Dude, your day will come and you will have to give the big guy up stairs a real good explanation of using his name in vain. You can preach to be born again but saying it to him is a whole different level. Plus, I'm sure he was pissed off too at Shawn Michaels in 1997! Triple H is such a piece of garbage with Julie telling him that he was in on it and him lying and not being able to look her in the face. He looks like such a pussy standing there. She says he will get his some day which is not true now since he’s running the damn company. Julie should have punched him out. Crap, Doc Brown and Marty need to say fuck 1985, 1955 and 2015 and go to 1997 to drop shit on Hunter and Michaels. Assholes.

Austin still wasn’t fully ready to return and this match is way behind their Summerlsam version. Stunner out of nowhere and Austin wins. The Canadian fans won't get an Owen win but at least Bret will walk out tonight with the title.

Ajtoma! It should have won Oscar for best documentary! Sunny talking with Julie Hart about Bret leaving. We see the Hart kids playing around backstage. Seeing Sunny goofing off with them just made me randomly sad. Close up of that piece of crap Earl Hebner. Where's the lightning strikes when you need them.

Funaki is all about going after Sasuke’s knee. I like that they play off the last match and continue to make that the focus. I wish Sasuke would sell the leg a bit more when going for the high flying moves. He just pops up too quickly at times. Just do a quick pause at least when climbing to the top rope. Sasuke and Delphin get the win but you feel like Sasuke has been neutralized big in these last two matches.

Douglas talking about the NWA Title. Shane compares himself and Pittsburgh to some of the greats in their territories. Bigelow talks about not doing anymore jobs or favors. Ugh.

Lance Wright as cocky heel announcer guy in ECW but nowhere near as good as Gertner. Where’s Brakkus?

Otsuka has some bad tights. Ikeda hits lariats to where the palm of his fist is hitting Alexander in the face. Nice. Both guys get up from big suplexes but Ikeda gets dropped on his head too much with Dragon suplexes. I'm still trying to figure out BattleArts with the heavy mat work but then the use of pro wrestling heavy with the suplexes.

Was that Hat Guy in the front row during press conference. Timid affair with Sting getting in Hogan’s face but backing away like he was scared.