Kevin Ridge

There are changes while standing up in how they move and try to defend strikes. More apprehensive. Kohsaka looks nervous in a way. Kohsaka went all spaghetti legged when he took a shot to the head. Match had a good feel to it.

Wow. Nash talks about how Piper said his generation paved the way for the younger guys. Nash disagrees and feels the older wrestlers took everything, stripped the business and were too busy putting their sons in the top positions. Interesting stuff. He refers to them as the “New Generation”.

This would be McCinsey’s Island which I think I saw 5 minutes of. I like Robert Vaughn wearing a sleeveless NWO tshirt over a dress shirt while doing a short promo with Hogan.

Nash involvement did happen at end of match so I was fine here that it wasn’t a continuous thing through the match. Rey was connecting clean on his moves and Syxx was in right spot for them. I don’t think the stretcher job was necessary and is lacking big in drama compared to what was going on with Raw the same night.

Patrick joined the NWO as he thought would give him the chance for the little man to speak out. Doesn’t ring since Hogan was part of the group but he must have hated the corporate world of WCW. I do like him running down members of the NWO. He does this promo wearing a WCW shirt. I don’t entirely trust him.

These characters just belonged in the early 90’s though. They would have fit in on that WMAC Masters show. Bischoff should have pushed for health gauges like a video game showing up on the screen for Glacier vs Mortis matches.

Austin isn’t ready to embrace the fans. Bulldog and Owen seek revenge and beat down Austin but Michaels makes another save. Stone Cold slowly makes it back up to his feet and Pillman takes the perfect time to seek revenge on Austin. I love that Pillman finally got his chance after months. WWE is putting out a DVD collection of the best full Raw shows off all time. This show has to be part of that set.

McMahon and Austin have a spat before match starts. Hart Foundation attacks Austin but Michaels runs them off leaving it to be one on one. Austin destroys Hart’s knee. Bret actually gives Austin the double bird during this. Hart gets taken out on a stretcher as we see backstage that Monsoon has kicked Austin out of the building. This all leads to the totally amazing sequence where Austin has taken over the ambulance and attacks Bret further.

My favorite part is Undertaker sitting there barely moving a muscle at this is going on. Lawler gives us a great drawing of Vader and also puts bars across the wrapping of his toy figure box. I do enjoy the Stossels and Belzers being smart around these huge guys and then being put in their place for it. But it is 97 so we are past Vader having to protect the business like that. Shamrock is stumbling during his interview about Tyson.

Austin will wrestle Undertaker for title at next PPV. Steve prefers to talk about Bret as they have a match tonight on Raw! It’s been overdone by now but Bret refusing to go ringside to confront Austin is nice and he cuts his promo on the Titan Tron instead.

Bret’s “thee best there is....” slogan is more suited for a heel side of him. Bulldog and Owen come to ringside but Monsoon immediately boots them out. I noticed that even though Raw has the big Titan Tron for entrance they still have a small set up for PPVs. Stone Cold isn’t getting the huge crowd response yet. Austin’s bulky knee brace made such an obvious target and Bret obliges with going after the knee. Arena staff member ringside just barely avoided getting Hart back dropped on top of him. I liked Austin using his knee brace to break the Sharpshooter and then putting on his own. Austin wins but DQ but after match Steve starts going after Bret’s knee which is great. Hart looks so upset looking back in towards the ring as he limps out with the help of Owen and Bulldog. Excellent brawl.

Mankind loses his mask. He then takes a fantastic looking header of a bump into commentator's table. Taker gets the win with the Tombstone. Undertaker goes after Bearer. Mankind tries to do a fireball but the lighter his not working. They try again but no luck. I am glad Undertaker decided to just do it himself. Actually added more to things that he was behind it.

They seem to be squeezed into someone’s basement. All the fans get a front row seat. Actually, it may be someone’s garage they are wrestling in. Announcers talk about Rey Mysterio Jr. possibly coming in. I like seeing 80’s stars pop up randomly on yearbooks. Manny did look decent.

Taz thanks Sabu for giving him a good match. Taz never needed Alfonso. He succeeds because he is an athlete. They really had the camera zoomed in on Taz’s face.

Terry dressed in a tux giving a speech in front of family and some ECW wrestlers. With his one final run he has become ECW champion. The retirement tour was nice other than him not actually following through on it.

Even though Kobashi sat out the second match he was much more beaten up going into their match than Kawada. I like the sense in that Kawada got to sit and watch the first match and had real time intel on how to beat both Misawa and then Kobashi. He smartly rushed a weakened Misawa and then worked Kobashi’s injured arm. My problem is it was done with it being Kawada’s first singles victory over Misawa.

There was a three way tie going into final so they did this round robin playoff. Good match but I can understand the criticism of the holds. Though when Kobashi would put on a sleeper there would be an “oh” from the crowd but then it went quiet. Maybe it has more to do with Kobashi not having a real established submission and him being in most of control of match. Misawa took a great beating during this though which moves into the Kawada match. No break for Misawa as Kawada is immediately introduced. Kawada mostly beats him up for six minutes. So Kawada finally beats Misawa in singles match but it’s Misawa who gets the crowd praise since he just went to a 30 minute draw with Kobashi before hand. Also, you would think Kawada would get a much bigger pop for winning. Kawada had to win here but this isn’t the way to book his first singles victory over Misawa.

I absolutely loved the spot where Kudo hits a powerbomb into a pinning position. But Ozaki kicks out and with momentum, Ozaki ends up going off the side of the ring into the barbed wire board below. There is plenty of ring action to go along with the good spots built around the barbed wire boards. The Kudo retirement tour has been good.

No confusing battle royal to start off as we go right to match. And they start off with Casas and Santo! What a collection of talent in match. Ultimo’s corner post headstand fits in much better in Lucha. Casas/Santo brawling leads to them getting the boot. Felino goes on a huge elimination winning streak to end match. I don’t know if he should be beating that many guys. I liked them using the podium at the end for the trophy celebration. Real entertaining match overall.

Another fed, another set of rules I need to learn. This feels more wrestling oriented though with raking faces and pulling hair to try break holds. Ikeda has his ribs taped up. Ishikawa needs to be going after them more. I liked how even things were between them and the back and forth but I’m not going to praise it anywhere like you guys. Went long and there were times I got myself distracted. It probably needs complete focus and attention but I just couldn’t bring myself to that.

No Hall again. NWO beats up Luger until DDP, The Giant and then Sting show up. WCW guys clear the ring with baseball bats. WCW has scored more and more victories over the year which was needed.

Didn’t Kevin Greene feud with the Horsemen with Mongo turning on him? I had to look up Greene to get more info and he seems to be the victim of the “no wrestling” clause that was put into NFL contracts.

Sable show has begun with very revealing pictures of her. Clips of the women from Slammys with Sable being positioned as the top woman.

I'm trying to think of a job where having a strong knowledge of the product you're trying to sell is a detriment.

Austin shows off his bulky knee brace. Rematch against Bret at In Your House. I wouldn’t have known this was a poorly rated Raw but reading up on the card they gave a bunch of match time to mid carders. Vega and Rocky going almost 18 minutes. That’s a lot.