Exposer

Sunny looks good. I miss the WWE magazines. They were always fun to look through & read. This Pillman/Sunny bit is a great example of that.

I was right. Ahmed blew out his knee in the opening brawl. Gosh, that guy had bad luck. This match is really just a backdrop for Taker-Bearer dissension & more "gang wars." DOA come out & attack D-Lo when he's sent to the floor. I swear I heard the bell ring & when they come back from break the match is still going on. Taker & Vader can't get along & Taker decks Vader resulting in Faarooq capitalizing & getting the win for The Nation. Bearer yells at Taker after the match & Taker goes after him. Vader attacks, but Taker hits him with a great looking tombstone to a big pop. Taker goes after Bearer, but Bearer scatters. As Taker is leaving, Bearer says he's finally going to reveal Taker's big secret next week on RAW. It creates intrigue for next week, but this match & segment isn't very good. The story of Kane is about to be told.

Great promo from Bret as he talks about each of his Canadian Stampede opponents. I loved him saying he & the Anvil are the best tag team of all time in response to LOD's claim. Bret says he's got four sisters who will knock Marlena's socks off if she lays a hand on Davey Boy! I love Bret. Bret calls out Thomas "Hitman" Hearns in the crowd for sharing the same nickname as him. Bret questions Hearns about taking the "Hitman" name & tells him to come to the ring to see who the real one is. Hearns hesitates at first, but Bret calls him a chicken causing him to storm the ring. The heat for this is great. Detroit always has great crowds. They get in each other's face, but the Anvil wants a shot first & gets punched a few times by Hearns & knocked down to a big pop. Hearns goes after Bret but officials break it up. The heat for this is awesome. Great segment.

This is amazing. Ahmed says the fans & Vince were never behind to get a title shot because he's black. He then trashes MLK for being peaceful saying that's why he got killed. He says The Nation gets what they want by any means necessary. Faarooq, D-Lo, & Kama cut promos & at one point Ahmed interrupts & threatens to kill Vince if he looks at him cross eyed again. Incredible. Faarooq compares he & Ahmed to MLK & Malcolm X! Oh my God. Crush comes out with his biker gang, the debut of the Disciples of Apocalypse, & they get into a giant "gang war" with the Nation. This ruled. I might get sick of this eventually, but I'm not easily offended.

Taker practically gets squashed here. Ahmed isn't a fan of Paul Bearer & shoves him to the floor. He's been acting strange all night looking more angry than usual. Vince & JR speculating who the 2nd newest member of The Nation could be bringing up a bunch of other black wrestlers was amusing. Taker gets a little bit of offense in this but ends up getting pinned by Kama of all people. Taker wasn't the best booked WWF champion even if I like a good bit of this run. Ahmed runs The Nation off from a post-match attack on Taker. He stares menacingly into space for a moment, helps Taker up, & drops him with the Pearl River Plunge. They freak out when Ahmed marches up the ramp & finally he stands with The Nation & raises his arm up signaling that he's the new member. Interesting angle, but one that doesn't make sense & is pretty much derailed anyways by another Ahmed injury if I'm not mistaken shorty after this. The fans didn't seem to care either. Ahmed fell pretty far in a year.

Fun brawl. 1997 Brian Pillman is definitely not 1991 Brian Pillman. He's lost a lot of his agility. He still takes a couple of big bumps in this. He gets his nose cut on a chair during a melee on the floor. I loved Austin going to each handcuffed HF member & wailing away. He should be doing that because that's what his character does. Austin stuns the referee which allows Owen to take the handcuff keys & free himself. The other HF members free themselves as well & attack Austin. Shamrock & Goldust run down to fight off the Hart Foundation. Austin & Shamrock see each other & have a stare off. Their confrontation is pretty heated with Austin trying to trick Shamrock into another stunner but Shamrock suplexing him instead. The continue to fight until LOD & Goldust break them up. Goldust cuts a good promo saying the HF wants them fighting amongst themselves. He suggest they are the five best wrestlers in the WWF & to get together & accept the Hart Foundation's challenge for Canadian Stampede. Austin reluctantly agrees on the condition that they will only be teaming once & that they realize their will be no hanging out & beer drinking together after Calgary. I also liked him saying he's tired because a more fired up Austin might have just swung for the fences. Great segment overall.

Really good promo from Pillman as he considers himself the "convicted felon" of the Hart Foundation (or his strong association with them). I enjoy WWF Pillman even if Austin does a better version of a similar character.

Austin is pissed about the tag tourney announcement & doesn't want a partner. Mankind shows up on the tron & cuts a great promo about how when Austin flipped him the bird last week he felt a connection between the two! Austin doesn't want to team with a freak & already had to deal with long haired, ass shaking Shawn Michaels. Mankind says he's got long hair & can shake his ass too! "I have a nice ass!" That made me laugh out loud. Austin responds by saying he has a nice fat ass! That was great. Shamrock shows up & comes to ring pissed about Austin giving him the stunner the last week. He challenges Austin to a fight then & there. Austin agrees to take him on after his match with Pillman. Hot segment. Shamrock is a bad promo, but otherwise I loved this. WWF did a great job creating interest in the immediate aftermath of the Bret-Shawn debacle.

Big news here with Vince & JR saying Michaels is out for 4-6 weeks with injuries sustained from the backstage fight with Bret. Bret reaggravated his surgically repaired knee during the fight & will be gone for a few days as well. A tag tourney is announced to decide who will wrestle Austin & a partner of his choosing for the Tag Title. This definitely caused some shake-ups in the storylines. This fight seems like it might have opened up the big opportunity with Foley campaigning to be Austin's partner.

This is first of many bait & switches that we'll get in this era. This one is fine with Mankind getting a nice pop saving Austin from the HF attack. Pillman-Mankind is solid with some cool little moments like the suplex on the ramp & Pillman pulling out Mankind's hair & shoving it in his mouth. Mankind gets the mandible claw on, but the HF return & attack him for the DQ. Austin & Shamrock come out for the save. Afterwards, Austin doesn't care to make friends & looks confusingly at Mankind. He then stuns Shamrock & flips both men off as he leaves to close the show. Austin is great. Vince actually brings up Bret & Shawn being removed from the building after their backstage brawl. Interesting. Good show ending with some new interest being sparked in the involvement with Mankind.

This is pretty famous. It's the part of the interview series that everyone remembers. Foley's character work in this is incredible. His bitterness for others who are more successful versions of who he wants to be is a brilliant character trait. JR gets too pushy with the questions about Mick enjoying pain & taking responsibiltiy for himself & Mick snaps. The moment he snaps is amazing. That first punch to the head is somewhat terrifying. The mandible claw attack & his immediate remorse is awesome to see. Foley is a tremendous performer. This interview series turned his career around.

Hot segment. RVD-Flash is pretty fun with some cool highspots. RVD wins with a springboard moosault. Heyman hops the rail after the match & charges Lawler. Dreamer is with him & he tussels with RVD. This goes all over ringside as Vince gets upset for the ECW contingent starting the brawl. On a side note, I loved Lawler blaming his hoarse voice on Mankind's mandible claw that he received at KOTR.

Another great Austin promo. He's really over here with practically every sign & shirt in the crowd reading Austin 3:16. He gets off another great line saying he wishes the toilet he put Pillman's head in had "other contents" in it. He wants to be a part of Canadian Stamped against the Hart foundation. I loved him running down Monsoon & the Hart Family. Austin is awesome.

HHH shoots on Vince about how he should have been KOTR a year ago, but the WWF couldn't look past the MSG incident. Amusing. HHH says he enjoyed hurting Mankind. Mankind interrupts on the tron. The "I'm a good kisser!" line is great. Mankind runs down to the ring but HHH attacks him with his crown. Mankind gets a hold of the crown & fend HHH & Chyna off. In a fun moment that gets a big pop, Mankind puts the crown on his head to mock HHH. Fun segment that shows Mankind has a lot of promise as a baby face. He got a nice reaction.

The pre-match interviews are fun. Austin's is great. I loved him saying he won't cripple Shawn because he wants to keep the tag gold, but will do so if Shawn pisses him off enough. Shawn's is weird as he plays it like he doesn't want to hurt his tag partner cause their the champs but doesn't show any hatred or contempt for Austin in his tone. Excellent match. I loved Austin being a total dick as Shawn tries to help the disabled person by grabbing Shawn & brawling with him. I did like Shawn being kind to the disabled person & helping him from ringside. Once the match gets going it's very basic with lots of wrestling but it's great. Austin works heel which is smart. He gets frustrated & removes the ringside padding & presses Shawn onto the hard floor. Great last few minutes before the ref bump. The crowd got really into it. Shawn has looked great the last few weeks & he's terrific here. WWF went a long way to protect both guys here with all the ref bumps, but at least their assault of the officials is consistent with their characters (at least for Austin). The match is thrown out & ends on a double DQ. Neither guy should have lost clean so I don't blame them for that, but they took a long, messy route to get there. I liked JR saying that at least it seemed they earned one another's respect as they argued in the aisle & went there separate ways.

This is a great segment. Bret announces he'll be healthy & ready wrestle at the next IYH PPV July 6 in Calgary. He invites five wrestlers from the WWF roster to cross the border & wrestle the Hart Foundation in their turf. Bret says it will be payback to the Americans for their mistreatment to him. He then goes to the announce booth for commentary of Austin-Shawn but the previous Mankind-HHH caused a mess with the commentary table broken. Due to Bret not having anywhere to sit & not trusting the HF to get involved in the Austin-Shawn match, Officials come out & remove the HF in a great moment as Bret complains about freedom of speech. I love Bret. All the antics with Bret griping at Vince & Pillman harassing fans & officials is great. I love Owen yelling "That's my brother!" I think the 1997 Hart Foundation is my favorite WWF faction of all time & it really isn't close.

Boring match that gets better in the final minutes with Foley's bumping. HHH isn't much for making anything that interesting in the first half of the match. He still had work to do. This is really great booking though with Foley looking like the toughest person in the world with the beating he took. The kickout before the pedigree is great. HHH wins the KOTR & thus begins his push that has seemingly never ended. The coronation is great with HHH refusing to do it out of the ring while Foley's prone body is still there. Pettingill reluctantly obliges as HHH poses with his cape & crown. Foley comes to & HHH attacks him with his crown. I loved Foley crawling towards HHH & Chyna. This match & post-match protected both guys & even did a great job of continuing to make Chyna tough & a great equalizer.

Funny bit where Pillman is being interviewed & Austin attacks him. Pillman goes on about taking care of Austin the next night on RAW & Austin shows up making funny faces & mocking behind him. He attacks & takes him to the bathroom where he gives him a swirly! The swirly cam is hilarious.

This is amazing. Foley spills his guts about the creation of Cactus Jack & working death matches in Japan. Fascinating to watch & listen to. This is one of the best interview series the WWF has ever done.

I thought this was really fun for the time it got. Shawn bumps big again & the Austin/Shawn "heel" work is really strong. The crowd was going nuts for LOD. That's impressive work by Austin & Shawn. The HF come out & distract Shawn on the floor. Austin sees this & is annoyed so he grabs Shawn by the hair to get back to the match. Shawn doesn't like that & they get into another brawl. The fans were pissed because they had gotten so into the match. LOD win by countout. Fun match & strong segment leading into KOTR.

Another fun super soaker commercial. Cornette & Honky are out for revenge & recruit The Headbangers. They fail of course because Sunny has a special gun that shoots in mulitple directions.

Good teaser for the big interview later. I love these so much.

Really good segment. Bret is awesome. He runs down both Austin & Shawn while their on split screen. Bret creates the wedge between Austin & Shawn even more by saying it's Austin's fault that he can't compete at King of the Ring. Shawn agrees & starts bickering with Austin. Austin challenges Shawn to come find him & do something about it so Shawn does & they argue in face-to-face. The HF confer & Pillman will agree to drop his KOTR match with Austin & be replaced with Shawn (so they can settle their differences as Pillman says) as long as he can get his match with Austin shorty after. Austin agrees & wants the Pillman match for next Monday. Pillman & Owen's reactions to Austin's promo are great. Bret is the cherry on top as he looks completely satisfied with Austin & Shawn tearing each other apart at KOTR.

This is fantastic. The crowd is extremely hot for all of this. Just great tag wrestling with Owen & Davey distracting the ref to get the advantage & Shawn putting on a helluva performance in peril. They built to the Austin hot tag very well. Austin stomps a mudhole in Davey & goes for the stunner but Owen breaks it up. Shawn hits a great superkick to Davey behind the ref's back & Austin takes the cover for the win. Their win gets a tremendous pop. Hot post-match with the HF attacking Shawn & Austin retreating. Austin sees Bret at the top of the ramp so goes after him instead of helping Shawn & attacks his bad knee. Owen runs him off but the damage has been done. Austin brags that he won by himself after the break & Shawn takes exception resulting in the two going back & forth about it. Awesome match & segment. This fued keeps on delivering.

This is excellent. Mick goes on about getting his testicle swollen playing Lacrosse in high school because he didn't want to wear pads. He then talks about his Dude Love persona & we get clips of his famous video. We also get the famous clip of him being spotted in the crowd at MSG the night of the famous Snuka-Muraco cage match. This is great stuff. One really gets a sense that this guy is deranged. The Mick Foley we know today is about to be born.