dawho5

For the wrestling we got, I'd say Syxx and Flair could have a really good match. Syxx busting out some Flair spots to stooge for Flair was pretty great.

For as great as Flair is on the mic and Syxx has never been praised for his pormos, Syxx really pulls his own weight here.

I also thought this was a really fun squash. And a good way to progress Farooq as a character, willing to do some heinous things to his most disposable underlings once they have outlived their usefulness. PG13 are a really fun tag team also.

Bret is way more focused here than he was at the end of the show, which makes it much better. Bret as a bitter heel who hates the fans is really fun, especially given how many legitimate axes he really has to grind with the fans and the promotion.

Dustin breaking character is really weird given...well, Goldust. It's really good for what it is, but I don't get it for the character.

As much as I dislike Shawn, Bret is really grating in this. Probably on purpose, so I guess job well done.

Syxx and Flair have better chemistry in promos and the ring than Flair was ever willing to admit.

I agree the setup was weak and nobody would believe Bischoff had calls from the real Sting. Having Sting hit the reverse DDT was a nice touch tho.

I thought this beatdown was great. The nWo had maybe been falling off a bit. They are definitely back here.

I have to agree Jo Jo dillon did indeed look ineffective. Not so Rey, who is really building that spunky underdog persona.

The nWo had maybe been a little less than what they started as for a while, but this episode of Nitro really re-establishes the group I think. Hogan with just Bischoff (presumably because he knows Sting is not present) is a really nice touch.

Really great way to close the story of this Raw. Bret's promise to send SCSA to the hospital is kept and Pillman gets to play it up in his own style. Really great way to establish the Hart Foundation as the major heels in the company.

I did like how they missed the DDT spot and worked back to it instead of going right back to it. Good recovery by both. The post-match celebration was great in that it really irked the fans even more and put more heat on Bret.

Easily one of Bret's best promos. He's better as a heel for sure, it completely fits his dry humor and matter-of-fact promo style. Especially when he has legitimate gripes.

Austin is already gold on the mic. Also, the tongue-in-cheek wheelchair tease was great for the teaser and the premise of the promo once he got into the ring.

Awesome start to the main storyline of Raw. I'm sure this was controversial at the time and I was thinking the same Russo thing. It ended right with Austin running off the heels and that's the important part.

Really good Austin promo. Did Sid have heat with Owen or was that just Owen taking shots at any babyface in range?

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?