AstroBoy

Rection was at least an earnest effort to present a working mans babyface and he was kinda over through some of the push. And even though I don't like his in ring output Rection did work hard here. The match is decidedly average and the crowd pops for Duggan's turn. He was pretty fun in this role at this point. *3/4

The first fall here is pretty standard stuff with a clear face/heel dynamic which, amongst all this other WCW shit, is like a Godsend. Mickey Jay takes one of the worst ref "bumps" ever to allow Jarrett a shot at a low blow. The Stroke is legitimately one of the dumbest moves in wrestling history both in concept and execution and it looks terrible here to end the first fall. Sting is able to get a quick flash pin in the second fall that felt pretty rushed. For some reason this Jarrett sleeper spot just feels so dismal and soul-killing. This is a sprint of a 2/3 falls match and he can't do anything more dynamic than a sleeper? Sting starts to hulk up after having his head driven into the turnbuckle. Now ANOTHER ref bump. All logic flies out the window as Jarrett knees a referee in the stomach and then Sting decides to splash both of them in the corner. Jesus. Sting declares HIMSELF the winner and the bell rings. Um. The work was decent. The outcome is remarkably trash. *1/2

I start this up and immediately see that the World Title is on the line. That makes sense. I kind of feel for Booker T as his breakout into the main events came at a time when nothing matters at all. So he gets beat down in a heatless heat segment while The Cat proves to be utterly worthless and incompetent as a partner. Steiner looks to have Booker beat but Nash pulls him out of the ring to save his title. Goldberg comes out on a motorcycle and spears Steiner as the show ends. At least the end segment of this doesn't drag, but ultimately this was pretty pointless. 3/4*

Booker T is referee here. They each tease a fingerpoke spot that doesn't work. Booker counting slow for Steiner only serves to make him look like a weak jackass. They double team Booker until Robinson comes out and then Goldberg goes wild. What is even the point of this match? This seems to just endlessly drag on with Nash and Steiner beating up Booker, Goldberg, and Robinson. Then The Cat gets involved. Then Jarrett and the Thrillers come out in a bus. God bless Shiavone for trying to get over the seriousness of them putting Booker through the bus windshield and then handcuffing Goldberg to the front. This feels like one of the worst segments of the year.

Adams pulls out an F5! Rey and Juvy take big bumps for pumphandle chokeslams as a Harris brother walks out. We get the absolute lamest camera attack to the lower back of Adams and Rey hits a springboard legdrop and tags in Juvy to hit the 450 but Clark fights them off as the crowd gets behind him. Rey and Juvy finish anyway. This didn't get a chance to really be anything. 1/2*

Goldberg's pumphandle T-Bone on Storm is insane. He just hurls him with no regard across the ring. Storm is a guy who could and should have been a cornerstone of WCW at this time and they did half the work getting him there then just punted the whole thing as he jobs to Goldberg in a nothing match like a worthless chump. 1/2*

This is a really poor outing. Absolutely no intensity, no real stakes of any kind, the crowd is not into it. ICP are bad on commentary and Sting looks unmotivated as possible working this by-the-numbers match. Vampiro is all look and smoke and mirrors and doesn't bring anything interesting to the table. Outside of the crowd brawling, the falls count anywhere stipulation is rendered pointless. And everybody looks to be off timing-wise for the finish. 1/2*

Ron and Don Harris come across better here getting to throw around two little guys. The contrast at least makes the match a little more interesting as they methodically break down Rey and Juvy until Kronik comes out and leads to the finish. I am not salivating over the prospect of Kronik and the Harris brothers locking it up. Also, the Kronik t-shirts that they wore to the ring are so impossibly bland and awful. *1/4

This was nice as all four guys get to go out and have an athletic match with cool double team spots and it's presented really well. Konnan actually does a great job putting everyone over on commentary and singling out 3 Count as a team with a big future. Juvy had some scary sloppy moments in this one but nothing egregious. Tygress is the worst, she truly is the female Konnan of personality just more quiet, and the referee doesn't seem to care about her interfering right in front of him. Rey gets the pin, again after a blatant low blow, but who cares. **1/2

Good spring between these four as they sharpen their roles with each other going forward. This was worked at a really good pace and Triple H is solid at keeping the ribs at the forefront of his face in peril work. He is still not really a total babyface but he slots in pretty well here while Benoit and Angle are vicious but at each others' throats. Rock kind of takes a backseat in this one as this really went a long way to build up Benoit and Angle for these feuds. All the chaos at the end of the match comes off really well and it's a great finish even though surprising to see Stephanie still kind of going to bat for Kurt. Kurt now has a pin over the champ and that's a big step forward for him as they move into the fall. ***

Benoit is on fire cutting off Rock swiftly and viciously throughout the match. Coupled with Shane's constant interference they are really building heat for Rock's comeback. Benoit just works with so much pressure and focus here and he really gets a lot to work with here just like the night before. He has been positioned really well as the workhorse technician and the crowd comes alive when Rock finally gets the Rock Bottom here after Benoit crashed into Triple H to kick off their issues. The post-match is a good piece of chaos with Angle, Rock, Triple H, Benoit, and Stephanie all intermingling to create some new directions in the main event scene. ***1/4

RAW gives away this ladder match as it's their first TNN show. Understandable to strike while the iron is hot with this feud and this is sort of a greatest hits brief version of the feud at this point. Of note is Edge doing the big spear spot to Jeff while he hangs from the belts, which could not really be topped for the remainder of the match. This is pretty much spot-spot-spot and more of a sprint than their match the night before which told a more ambitious story. A pleasing match molded for TV though and a good one to give the Hardys another win, which was probably needed at this point. ***

This was solid. I was surprised to see X-Pac so dominant for stretches of this and wonder if maybe Jericho should have gotten just a bit more shine here. This almost seemed designed to cool him off in spots although he is booked strong to come back and pretty definitively beat X-Pac with the Walls of Jericho. X-Pac was a good guy to work with Jericho in-ring at this point and it helped him expand his serious babyface side but it feels like Jericho as a major player had started to lose some steam around now. **1/2

The payoff to this was big but felt a little rocky getting there. For one, the crowd and even the announcers seemed confused by the escape rules as they are unsure whether Jeff can get back in the cage or not. The ensuing work over Matt with the blade job and all seems like it should work a little better in theory than it does in execution here. But I will credit them for approaching this in an interesting way and really getting the crowd into it by the end. Jeff really puts his body on the line and the Lita spot off the ladder was really amazing and fitting within the flow of the rivalry. Edge also takes a nasty fall and this got to a good place by the time the Hardys climb down to win the belts. ***

Eddy's character work is really nice here as he takes shortcuts and also bails at any opportunity only for Chyna to insist he finish the match. Chyna does a pretty good job here too as the reluctant but loyal partner trying to save Eddy but paying for it. Eddy grabbing the belt first instead of checking on Chyna was hilarious and this was not bad overall. **

I'm going to disagree and say this was a big letdown and kind of a mess. The vibe of this is just so weird at this point in the feud with Steph not really teasing any kind of loyalty to Angle anymore. Triple H is the face by default but it just doesn't work that well here. Angle was not ready to fill out a control segment in a match like this. He finally takes over after a few minutes and just resorts to slow-paced punch-kick offense and doesn't show nearly enough aggression or hatred or even gameplan. So we just get a few minutes of them trading punches and Triple H just takes over that way -- no transition, nothing paid off. There is a table spot and again Angle just slowly works over Triple H until he comes back after a few moves. At this point Triple H demands that Stephanie come in and make a choice even though nothing at this point of the match would really warrant that. She low blows him, pedigree, match over. This really just felt like them sleepwalking through what was supposed to be a grudge match. If Angle was trying to work methodical then he wasn't focused enough or technical enough, no variation to his offense. The moonsault also seemed like just a strange thing to pull out late in the match. If Angle was trying to get over viciousness and hatred then he wasn't nearly hateful enough. Triple H just seemed to be along for the ride, content to lackadaisically go through a by the numbers match. His rib selling was pretty good for the most part. To top this off, both the no-DQ stip and Foley as referee were totally pointless to the match. You could argue that Steph low blowing Angle was the result of the no DQ stip but that could have easily been done anyway. You have this match built up using the sledgehammer and brawls and yet they don't use any of that in the match at all. Kurt easily could have escalated this by integrating some of that into his offense and taken this to a more interesting place. I don't know -- the whole thing just felt like a bunch of ill-advised ideas that didn't really come together. **

This was just too disjointed and suffered big from people just pairing off and killing time until it was time for them to start going through finishers and near falls. The crowd brawling seems a little wandering and time-fillery while Kane and Undertaker weren't that inspiring paired off in ring. The Benoit announcement/false finish is a cool nod to his ever-growing frustration but it should have been clarified for the crowd. This picks up a good deal in the final few minutes with some hot nearfalls and Benoit especially starts to really shine as this really kind of was set up to make him look like a worldbeater. Finish is kind of anticlimactic with Rock hitting the Rock Bottom pretty much out of nowhere on Benoit. ***

There is some straightforward brawling and integration of the strap before Tazz gets caught with a piledriver and stands right up. They do the piledriver three times before Tazz takes a silly bump and Lawler tries to fire up the crowd but it doesn't really take that well. Raven runs in and gives Lawler the DDT allowing Tazz to choke him out for the win. Nothing much to see here. **1/4

Solid six-man from the principle players of Unforgiven. Kane and Undertaker work with a nice urgency here. Benoit is kind of a spoiler in this one and has a great short clothesline to put a halt to a mini-comeback by the Rock. I thought the spot with Angle falling head first into Triple H's crotch was too goofy and that whole element of the feud kind of falls flat. This accomplishes some good stuff, though. Benoit and Kane are certainly kept strong as big time threats for the title. Undertaker really walks tall and shows a mean streak mixed with some babyface assurance as he helps Rock out, albeit in the middle of a big brawl. The finish is done fine but the post-match really puts it into a better spot. A more mean and brazen Kurt was needed at this point of the feud and helped add more juice to the grudge match. ***

It's a good tag match on its own and then they manage to build some real suspense around the table spots. Table matches are strange because it's kind of hard to build good "false finishes" around them but in this scenario they milked it really well. After a couple teases, Undertaker gets put through with a 3D and then retaliates on Rock after the match with the chokeslam through the table. Bonus points for the way they present the Dudleys (and Edge and Christian in similar situations) as a team that can compete with the best of the main eventers because of teamwork and experience together. Strong blending of hot midcard acts able to squeeze their effectiveness into the main event picture where a lot of things can be advanced. **3/4

This was pretty by the numbers stuff until the ref bump but the crowd is into it. Benoit is not that great on commentary, sounding really forced and unnatural at some different moments. Rock gets a visual fall on Taker but Hebner is down. Hebner does his irritating slow crawl over to count after Taker hits Rock with the chokeslam but Rock gets the kickout. A bit of a surprise to see Undertaker pin Rock after the Last Ride but they have done a good job pushing the vulnerability of the title as they head into the 4-way at Unforgiven. *3/4

This was a good time. X-Pac is irritating by this point but he did seem motivated to make the most of his feud with Jericho. This was a fine action tag to help further these feuds with X-Pac stealing the pin on Jeff after he had hit the Swanton. This was better than just a throwaway six-man I thought. **3/4

More of an angle than a match and one that blurs some of the face/heel lines they had established. Chyna is less reluctant here and stands up for Eddy pretty much without question by taking this match. Rikishi really doesn't have any sympathy for Chyna and sends a message to Eddy by laying her out. And Eddy of course continues to pick his cheap shots and stir up trouble.

See I actually think that Angle/Triple H had lost some steam by this point. It just seemed there was very little left they could do to escalate the story without crossing some certain lines. The match is fine and one thing I love about WWF at this time is their ability to intermingle their midcard with upper card to solid results like this. Trish is getting a bit of a chance to break out and that's on display here. Test and Albert did pretty well here in spite of their blandness and this was fine in leading up to the Unforgiven match between Angle/Triple H. *

This was a fine short brawl spiced up by Benoit integrating a little leg work into it. Kane is credible due to his size and he is there for the ride but Benoit definitely helps this come together and get something a little extra out of it. Decent match heading into the PPV. **1/4