dawho5

That whole Piper deal was super weird. I don't understand Flair not wanting to work with Syxx at all. The pamphlets and the "bite me" thing to J.J. previously say the nWo are back to being smart-ass "cool" heels, which makes me sad.

Better vignette than the Piper/Flair and Outsiders promos for sure. Savage is starting to fall into that habit of saying things that at first listen sound "cool" but when taken as a whole end up being meaningless that Piper and Hogan have been in for the last month or two. Don't know if he was a bad fit or he's just trying to do the stuff the other big names are doing.

I'll agree that Flair and Piper are becoming tiresome here. They come out and say a bunch of stuff that either makes no sense or has nothing to do with what is going on at present. Sure they are charismatic, but the content is less than ideal.

Excellent promo by both. Syxx was still way underused and underappreciated at this point. Nash as the angry, fired up rebel (who will beat the shit out of whomever he has to) is absolutely better than smartass Nash. He makes so many valid points about the generation (which Hogan is a major part of, let's be honest) not leaving much for the younger guys. Which Nash absolutely did later in his own career. Odd question. Would Nash of 1997 seriously dislike the Nash of the later aughts despite knowing it was a later version of himself? Another one. Does all the reported backstage politicking by Nash and his crew seem strangely reminiscent of the guys he is complaining about here?

I've seen a barely-out-of-his-teens Robert Vaughn in movies and now an old Robert Vaughn Hamming it up in a nWo vignette. That kinda made my day.

Great TV match. I really loved how Syxx worked over Mysterio in the most aggravating manner possible to the crowd around his signature spots. On one hand, having somebody like J.J. to rein in the nWo is a good concept. On the other, it has to have teeth and so far it does not. Also, the teasing of Nash attacking Rey outside and Rey avoiding it earlier was a very nice touch.

Great promo for sure, but after all that Patrick did it had to ring false. He sure didn't seem real broken up during the Randy Anderson thing.

Another part of the problem was the need for Glacier to run over pretty much anyone he wrestled. In the ring he was 100% offense with no real changing gears into selling or being the victim. He did a passable job here in the post-match, but that involved no offense. Maybe another year or so of training/working the indies with this style before they tried to put it on national TV?

I loved Austin's promo as again he stayed completely in character. Something I think the guy who saved him maybe doesn't always get right. Speaking of that guy, Owen and Davey being shit-scared of Shawn, who is still injured in storyline, even with a chair is ridiculous, but they are playing the heel.

I was also not a fan of the refs begging Austin to release the sharpshooter. Wasn't there a no DQ match going on or something? We think alike more than we don't Marty. The rest of this was pure gold and this was an amazing Raw. Russo didn't do everything wrong...

Austin as the crazy man not giving up on Bret until it's done really works. It fits the character really well. I know DTA isn't a thing yet officially, but Austin as the crazed lone badass has been building for a while. And he knows Bret won't stop coming after him at this point, so dont lose focus.

Was this just the WWF looking for an excuse to downgrade Vader? Either way, you'd think those "hosts" would figure out that the large, exceedingly angry type guys probably don't react well to the word"fake."

I really liked how Bret gave Austin the early brawling part of the match and had to cheat to come back. Bret as a heel really made Austin. If the WM match started Austin on the road to superstardom, this match and the next night's Raw pushed him a lot farther down that road.

That bump through the announce table was ridiculous and probably shaved years off of Foley's career. I also thought that Undertaker giving Paul Bearer the fireball was far more of a poetic revenge than tricking Foley into it. How are Austin and Stone Cold going to top this exactly?

Really good way to go off the air. DDP gets more of the rub. WCW starts to look stronger getting behind Sting.

I was wondering about Greene and McMichael too. Didn't Greene swear vengeance on the Horsemen last year? Either way, he was the most intelligible guy in the promo and my favorite part.

I'm gonna secind JK Webb's comments here. That toss to DDP was insane. Hogan and sting both really put DDP over after Savage did the night before. Loving the rise of DDP on rewatch.

The look on Van Damme's face when he turned away from Hogan was really, really interesting. The Hogan/Rodman nonsense was not.

I thought they did great with this. They teased some things that the crowd obviously wanted, then put them on the back burner. Nash over that past few weeks has really been the angry, intimidating Nash that I prefer to smartass Nash.

I didn't care for the crowd brawling, but it works for the blood feud these 2 have going. I'll agree that Kimberly was really well-used here, she contributed just enough to garner even more sympathy for DDP. DDP played a really good gutsy-but-overmatched babyface also. Savage's heel work is absolutely the highlight. The post-match is pretty great, probably better than the match. Does this mean Nick Patrick is now a WCW ref again?

I'm with Pete on this one. Booker T's flub aside, why is this match happening? Are we supposed to be wondering how it will play out with the Heat or Luger/Giant facing each other? Luger and the Giant has been a team for what, 2 months? I get they didn't have Hogan and had to do something to garner interest. This couldn't have been the best idea tossed around to do that though.

I really liked this finish. It gets Rocky over for being able to hang with Bret and not take a loss. It puts over the Stone Cold vs. Bret story that sadly was never returned to and it solidifies the Hart Foundation. Great stuff.

Great use of a fireball. Mankind is back in the spotlight again, which is great because I missed his promos.

Excellent promo to continue Austin on his path to superstardom. He puts his "excuse" out ther and doesn't sound whiny or weak in any way. Somehow it makes him seem tougher that he lost the match the way he did at WM. Which says a lot about the finish to that match and Austin's aura.

I also really liked Savage playing a traditional heel and showing ass. DDP did a great job with the intensity and really selling how much Savage and Liz have pissed him off.