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Two years and a sex scandal later, I have finally updated this. That's every Brock match reviewed from 2005-2023! I may go back and review the matches I've missed from his first run in another two years. Brock Lesnar vs AJ Styles vs Austin Theory vs Riddle vs Seth Rollins vs Bobby Lashley (Elimination Chamber) - WWE Elimination Chamber (WWE Elimination Chamber - 2/19/2022) The issue with this match is that nothing feels consequential until Brock decides to kick his way out of his pod and eliminates Riddle, Rollins, and Styles in quick succession. Everything before this felt like your standard modern WWE multi-man match, featuring four wrestlers who know how to work the house style. The action is quick, we get some nice high spots, but not much else. The match also feels rushed as the time between entrants has been changed from five minutes to three, giving the wrestlers no time to tell a story and not giving the action time to breathe. Lashley is removed from the match prematurely after Rollins drives Theory through his pod, injuring Lashley in the process. The final few minutes see Theory attempt to flee from Lesnar, before getting a nut shot and scoring one big hope spot. Once Lesnar kicks out, you know that Theory is running on borrowed time and the match concludes with a nutty (or stupid and reckless? ) F5 from the top of the chamber. The Lesnar/Theory segment of the match was the highlight, with Theory being a great cowardly heel with big facials and Lesnar being a monster who gets off on playing with his prey. ★★★ Brock Lesnar vs Austin Theory (WWE Live Road To Wrestlemania - 3/5/2022) I thought this would be a fun pairing, with Theory chickenshitting it up for Brock, but we don't even get that as Brock demolishes Theory in 97 seconds and Theory doesn't even get a single move in. Brock clobbers Theory, hits a few Germans and lands the F5 for the victory. Brock seems to be having fun soaking in the cheers and counting along to the crowd as they count the suplexes Brock lands. Theory gets a good amount of air on the suplexes. That's all I really can say about this one. ★ Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns (WWE Wrestlemania Night 2 - 4/3/2022) These guys were never going to be able to match the hype that WWE was drumming up for them. It probably would have helped matters if these two didn't wrestle at Crown Jewel the year before, as the dynamic switching between the two was one of the few things that made the pairing feel fresh. Brock removing his gloves as soon as the bell rang made for a hell of a visual. Everything felt so stale, and they don't help matters by using the cliche barricade-breaking spot. They then do a count-out tease that not one soul in that vast stadium was buying as a potential result. Things pick up once Lesnar is able to make his comeback and they trade their signature spots to the approval of the excited crowd. These two are seasoned pros, so they both have the important stuff like charisma, timing, facials, and the ability to get the fans invested down despite the repetitiveness of the feud and the in-ring style. Even with all the finisher spamming, this was a hot main event. ★★★¼ Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns (Last Man Standing) (WWE Summerslam - 7/30/2022) I wasn't expecting much out of this as I thought the Roman and Brock program was out of steam by this point and I'm not a fan of Last Man Standing matches at the best of times, but this was incredibly entertaining with a big spectacle moment that makes this match one to remember. This has a hot start with Lesnar diving off the tractor that he brought to the ringside area. After some crowd brawling, the match takes a turn for the worse. Reigns takes control with a weak table spot and they are back to their usual signature move trading schtick with loads of dead air between counts. Would it hurt them to use a hold once in a while? It's not all doom and gloom though. Reigns is a pro at milking those counts for everything they're worth. Brock is incredibly animated here at least, and you can tell he is having the time of his life. The tractor soon comes into play again and Reigns is dunked outside after the ring is tipped off the ground. Roman's bump looks quite weak, but who cares as it's an awesome spectacle. After this, it's all carnage with Usos interfering, a MITB cash-in and Heyman taking one for the team and taking a rare bump. Lesnar has to be literally buried for Reigns to retain here. This was the best Lesnar/Reigns match since Wrestlemania 31. ★★★★ Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley (WWE Crown Jewel - 11/5/2022) This was much better than their last match together. This felt like a monster movie and I didn't mind the usual spamming of moves here. Lashley attacks Lesnar as he is making his entrance by tackling him knee first into the steel steps and Lesnar puts in a hell of a selljob on his leg. Lesnar's incredibly giving to Lashley and made him look like a killer, despite escaping with the W. That spot where Lashley launched Lesnar into the ring post looked nasty. Lashley matched Brock's energy and played his part well. Lesnar continues to thrive as a monster face. ★★★½ Royal Rumble Match (WWE Royal Rumble - 1/28/2023) Lesnar comes in at number 12 and looks dominant. He gets 3 eliminations and has a stare down with Gunther. Man, I'm so gutted we were robbed from getting that match. Just as Gunther and Lesnar start trading blows, Lashley comes in as the next entrant and spears Lesnar out of his boots. Lashley goes on a rampage of his own before Lesnar scoops him up for the F5. Lashley escapes and eliminates Lesnar to a massive pop. Lesnar is furious and starts wrecking the audience table, a referee and taking out next entrant Baron Corbin in the process. This was a nice brief bit of business setting up another bout with Lashley. Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley (WWE Elimination Chamber - 2/18/2023) Not one second is wasted here and they go straight for it. It's all balls to the wall and both their men hit their finish early. Lesnar hits two F5s that aren't enough to put away Lashley. Lesnar is a smart enough worker to take a few seconds to sell before pinning Lashley to not make his finishing move look weak. Lesnar gets locked in the Hurt Locker and is forced to go low and gets himself disqualified. The fans are pissed with this decision, but Lesnar attacks referee Chad Patton and ends up putting Lashley through the announce table. This is enough to temporarily get the crowd into this again. The crowd soon starts heckling the result again. With a devilish look on his face, Lesnar pulls out the official and gives him another to stop the 'bullshit' chants from the crowd. This was a pretty standard Brock affair. Lots of finishers, bucket loads of intensity and a result that would have people complaining on the internet after the fact. ★★★ Brock Lesnar vs Omos (WWE Wrestlemania Night 2 - 4/2/2023) I remember this being announced and I was intrigued by the pairing while a lot of other fans groaned. The freak show element is something that can pull me in, even if I know the match isn't going to be anything special. The height difference makes for a hell of a visual. Brock goes for a double takedown earlier and Omos just swats him away. Brock has never been at his best against other giants. To Lesnar's credit, he sells for Omos well. Lesnar sells his back in a more babyface way that we are used to from him. Omos is clearly trying here, but his stuff looks bland and awkward. It's your standard giant offence and it doesn't have a look of impact behind it. The crowd jumps for joy when Brock begins Suplex City. The suplexes themselves are far from Brock's best, but being able to throw a man of Omos's stature around is impressive anyway you cut it. Lesnar's sublime selling comes back into play here as he is unable to go for another suplex. Lesnar looks to be in trouble, but he is able to counter Omos and put him away with the F5. ★★¾ Brock Lesnar vs Cody Rhodes (WWE Backlash - 5/6/2023) I liked this a lot but I think it is held back from true greatness by Cody not finding his footing as an ass-kicking babyface like Reigns and Cena have done before against Brock. This was an infamously hot crowd and they didn't react as loudly as one would have hoped when the ace of the company is getting beat down by the biggest threat in the promotion. Cody ambushes Brock before the belt and gives him a whooping before Lesnar catches Cody in midair for an impressive cut off spot. You could make the argument that Brock is lazy, but you could never call him selfish. He sells for Cody well and even launches himself to the exposed corner with such authority that he gives himself a hardway juicejob. The visual of Brock's blood covering Cody made Cody look like a superstar and we also got a great lucky finish that left the door open for this program to continue. ★★★¾ Brock Lesnar vs Cody Rhodes (WWE Night Of Champions - 5/27/2023) Cody is coming into this with a broken arm and Lesnar is just salivating as soon as Cody removes his jacket to reveal his bandaged up arm. Cody plays the mind game by trying to wear Lesnar out with a game of cat and mouse, but it doesn't work. Lesnar catches Cody and begins his suplex routine, with Cody taking them like a pro and making sure he lands on the side with his bad arm. A switch turns in Cody's head and he soon realises that he can use his cast as a weapon. This bit of old school psychology may have gone over the heads of some of the fans in attendance, but I absolutely loved this. This match is much better when Cody is using his cast as a weapon than when he is spamming his signature moves. Brock is able to get his win back by making Cody pass out in the Kimura. I love the concept of this and I enjoyed it for the most part, but the most glaring issue for me is that I just can't buy anyone sitting in a Kimura looked on by a former UFC champion for minutes at a time and not having his arm snapped like a twig. There's a certain amount of bullshit we have to accept as wrestling fans, but this is a step too far into the unbelievable. ★★★½ Brock Lesnar vs Cody Rhodes (WWE Summerslam - 8/5/2023) This was a stadium spectacle where the triumphant babyface is able to finally slay the beast. This is the end to a trilogy that helps successfully rehabbed Cody after the Reigns loss took a lot of wind our of his sails. This starts out as your typical Lesnar fare, with him pulling out suplexes that Cody takes well as Lesnar takes his sweet time. Lesnar trying to win via countout was a brave creative choice as no big US PPV match had ended in a countout in a long time, but they are able to get the audience to bite when Cody looks to not make the count. We get some nice callbacks to their other matches with the turnbuckle cover coming off and Lesnar looking to break Cody's arm again. If this is Lesnar's last match, this was a damn fine way to go out, with him putting over the new guy in the process. ★★★★

Bobby Eaton & Sweet Brown Sugar vs. Dutch Mantell & King Cobra (7/19/82) Eaton is terrified of Mantell and Mantell wants to get his hands on Eaton. That's the basic premise of this match. There's a great bit where Cobra is shuffling around the place and getting his flashy shine while Mantell chases Eaton around the ring in the background. It's so weird seeing Mantell work as the FIP here, and it's even stranger watching the arena go crazy for his comeback. We get all the classic heel heat spots and they're pulled off well, with the referee conveniently not seeing the blatant rule-bending. Eaton throws excellent punches and the crowd comes alive for Cobra cleaning house when Mantell gets the hot tag. We got a hell of a DQ finish. After Mantell gets sick and tired of Eaton and Sugar cheating, Mantell grabs his whip and chases the heels off. In an incredible escape, Sugar hits a full somersault over the ropes to the floor to escape being whipped. ★★★½ Bill Dundee vs. Bobby Eaton (7/24/82) As good as Bobby Eaton was in the ring, he really can't cut a promo to save his life. We are 'treated' to an Eaton promo as he dresses down Dundee. This leads to Mantell to come out and watching Eaton and Jimmy Hart freak out at the sight of Dutch and his whip. They do the chickenshit stuff exceptionally well and they are genuinely amusing with their reactions. Mantell forces Jimmy Hart to pull up a chair and sit with him during the match to stop him from interfering. Eaton is an incredibly polished worker for a 23 year old. They have good chemistry together, but all the commotion of Dutch telling Hart to stay put distracted from the in-ring stuff, which was good overall. There was constant chatter of the time limit expiring, so I was surprised when Dundee won this with a flash win with plenty of time left on the clock. The middle rope breaks and that might have been the reason for the sudden finish. Good, but not as good as I was expecting out of these two. ★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Ric Flair (8/14/82) Don't just show a younger fan the Steamboat series if you want to show them why Flair was such a juggernaut in his prime. Show them stuff like this too. The way Flair comes into this, not as an overt pro-wrestling heel, but as a confident man who makes backhanded comments that slowly get under everyone's skin is masterful. Flair is shocked at how big the Memphis airport is, how professional Lance Russell and he doesn't even know the name of this promotion's regional champion! The condescension from Flair urges Lawler to come out and lay out a challenge for Flair to give him a NWA title shot. Flair eventually accepts and we get to see Flair's cool demeanour slowly strip away as Lawler starts besting him in the ring. They managed to get so much out of a simple arm wrench struggle and the crowd popped big when Lawler won the exchange. Lawler gets a few hope spots before the time limit expires with Lawler in the Figure 4. Enraged by not beating Lawler, Flair demands more time. This nearly ends up costing him the title as Lawler fires up and drops the strap. Flair has to retreat and leave the studio, giving Lawler the countout victory. This was an interesting take on the tried and tested NWA champ versus local challenger formula. ★★★★¼ New York Dolls vs. Steve Regal & Spike Huber (10/4/82) I was disappointed that the New York Dolls weren't wrestlers doing a punk/glam gimmick. Instead they are Dream Machine and Rick McGirk repackaged as Jimmy Hart's new generic blonde heel team. The faces don't get a chance to get a shine in, and the heels immediately isolate Regal. I really didn't care for this during the first half. The heels aren't exactly interesting when working on top and I haven't been given a reason to care for Regal. It all feels very generic. Regal starts to build up some steam and the crowd are awoken from their slumber. Regal does sell well,has a comeback that can hype up the fans and was the most interesting person in the match by far. He eventually gets a tag to Huber, but the referee doesn't see it. This was a great false call and I thought the match was finally starting to go something. Just as this happens, Huber shoves the referee when disputing his call and gets disqualified. This ended just as it was about to get interesting. ★★½ Jerry Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkel (10/18/82) This isn't no disqualification, but the piledriver ban has been lifted and that will play into the match. This is a slow-burner of a match that showed off the more technical side of Lawler. Lawler wants to use his fists in the opening moments, but he mostly wrestles this straight until Bockwinkel pisses him off and Lawler wants to fight. Lawler keeps up with Bockwinkel during the quicker sequences and he is great at emoting during the slower hold trading moments. I'm beginning to think Bockwinkel does the Flair schtick better than Flair. He's much more grounded than realism and I first noticed it in how Bock cowered away and sod his back after Lawler stretches him out in the crab. We get a great finish that left a lot on the table. After Lawler hits Bockwinkel with all his greatest hits in an extended sequence, Bockwinkel is able to roll into a pin. With the assistance of the ropes, Bockwinkel is able to sneak away with his title. Lawler was able to land a piledriver, but Bockwinkel was able to roll out of the ring. ★★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkel (10/25/82) This was even more of a slow burner than their previous match. Clocking in at well over half hour, this is a long match for Memphis standards, although we are missing about a third of the action. I'm not usually a snob for slow matches, but Bockwinkel had Lawler in a single arm wrench for over seven minutes here! That's taking minimalism to the next level! Although I want a bit more action during the opening, I didn't completely write the match off yet providing the match builds up to something worthwhile. The crowd are clearly invested in Lawler getting free from Bockwinkel's grasp and come alive when he slips out, so this pace clearly worked for the bodies in the room. Thankfully the slow pace is abandoned when tension builds up and they start leveling each other with some hearty potatoes. Lawler gets in some of his best flurries in here and Bock can throw them back just as hard as Lawler. I don't want to spoil the finish for once, as it was wonderful and it took the crowd on a rollercoaster of emotions. It more than certainly made up for the slow start. ★★★½ Jerry Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkel (No DQ) (11/8/82) Lawler is fighting for his hair here. Seeing as there are no disqualifications, Bockwinkel wastes no time mat-wrestling and goes straight to throwing punches. Lawler is surprised by this and spends the first five minutes getting dominated before a surprise headbutt to the breadbasket is able to garner him a small comeback. As great as Bockwinkel is, he isn't the best brawler as he doesn't have that explosiveness that a great brawler have. He can throw a nice punch and build drama up nicely, but you aren't going to get many barn burner fist fights out of him. The crowd are so into Lawler you can hear shrieks of horror coming from individual crowd members when Lawler looks like he might lose his barnet. This match is its best when it is built around Lawler's selling. A ref bump and a Lawler comeback later and this one is over. I thought the finish came out of nowhere. This doesn't touch the levels of greatness that Lawler's other blow-off matches did. ★★★½ Jackie Fargo vs. Jimmy Hart (11/8/82) This felt like less of a serious match and more of a comedy intermission. Both Fargo and Hart gave two men in their corner as back-up. This isn't a no disqualification match but everyone gets involved and runs into the ring at some point and faces zero consequences. You would have thought that such an old school crowd would have set the seats on fire for getting such an obviously phony match, but Fargo is so over here that he could of shat in the ring and people would have been cheering. We get the usual babyface humiliating the non-wrestler spots. Hart gets stripped from his gear. Jimmy is great at being in the competitor who can't actually wrestle role. That's not easy to pull off! Overall I didn't find this funny, so it ultimately didn't do a whole lot for me. ★★

Stan Lane & Sweet Brown Sugar vs. Eddie Gilbert & Ricky Morton (No DQ, 2/3 Falls) (10/81) I have no idea where this video is sourced from. It looks like a fan cam from a non-televised event with fan commentary added on, but the camera zooms into someone dressed as a ring announcer near the ring between falls. The video quality isn't great and it can be hard to differentiate between the three blond wrestlers here, but the commentary does the job of telling you who's who. We get a good look at what to expect at a house show from this era. The match starts with a very slow pace, complete with all the stalling and posturing you can expect from a house show. The crowd explodes when a Sweet Brown Sugar dropkick is dodged and Stan Lane is sent to the floor. The transitions here are pretty weak. Immediately after that aforementioned dropkick spots, the match suddenly switched focused to Sugar getting heat by using a concealed weapon before the babyfaces suddenly steal the first fall. We also get the heels cheating in the final fall by throwing their opponents over the top rope. They do this behind the referee's back, even though this is No DQ. Clocking in total at well over 20 minutes in total, this is the longest match on the set so far. It's hard to recommend this one as the video quality is very poor, but you can tell this was a good match. ★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell (No DQ) (3/22/82) It's pointless to groan on how well Jerry Lawler can throw a punch, Mantell can sell a punch well too. We get a rare look at Lawler showing his workrate side by hitting an enziguri and following it up with a sunset flip! Mantell gets frustrated that he can't best Lawler. His frustration leads him to launching a chair into the ring. The chair smacks Lawler on the leg and King crumbles. Mantell immediately realises that he's found an opening and pounces on Lawler's leg. This was a sublime transitional spot. Mantell might not be the most interesting when working the limb, but Lawler escaping a hold by pulling down Dutch's knee pad and punching him in the back of the knee was brilliant. Dutch's assault turns to Lawler's eye. This match was at its weakest when Dutch was on top. It's not terrible or anything, and you get to enjoy some Lawler's world class selling, so not all is lost. Hulk Hogan wishes his comeback felt as explosive, organic and emotional as Lawler's. There isn't much better in wrestling than watching Lawler fight through a few punches and drop the strap. Despite Lawler fighting back, Dutch is able to score a flash pin upset, which made for a great finish as it looked like a fluke and left plenty left on the table for a rematch. ★★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell (Loser Leaves Town) (3/27/82) This is an impromptu match that happend at the television taping. Mantell lays down the challenge and Lawler is happy to accept. After the intense lockups give no man an advantage, Lawler rocks Mantell's shit with a single right hand. One thing that makes Lawler so great is not just how he throws his punches, but how he was able to get so much out of a single punch. Mantell is cautious of this and it's not until Lawler takes an ugly tumble to exposed concrete that Mantell can comfortably take control. Like the Empty Arena match, this is yet another classic Memphis match that feels more like an angle. After getting his ass kicked about the place, Mantell retreats and grabs the microphone and offers a truce and offers to form a tag team with Lawler after admitting he was the better man. Lawler is hesitant to accept, but he eventually gives in. Mantell is unsurprisingly full of shit and clocks Lawler and beats him down. This all came together extremely well and they pulled this off without making Lawler look like an idiot for believing a heel. ★★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell (Barbed Wire Match) (3/29/82) I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I was expecting to see Jerry Lawler in an FMW style gimmick match, but they had yet to perfect the formula and the barbed wire very rarely played into the match. The wire is placed outside the ring and the wrestlers are able to run the ropes as normal, which robbed the match of the danger that those Onita matches had. We get a lot of slow spots where a wrestler is slowly trying to force the other into the wire and it doesn't make for the most exciting viewing. This is still Lawler in Memphis though, so the crowd are hot and eat up everything that's served to them. Both men can sell a punch as well as they can throw them, and we got some excellent transitional spots here that changed the tide of the match. This went way too long for my tastes, both the exhaustion was sold well and it was incorporated into the finish well, with Lawler collapsing on Mantell to leave with the victory. ★★★½ Bill Dundee vs. Sweet Brown Sugar (2/3 falls, Scaffold Match) (6/21/82) This stipulation is nowhere as insane it sounds. This is the weakest match of the set so far, but by no fault of either wrestler. The scaffold stipulation is limiting and the crowd is quiet for the majority of this. They do a decent job of building drama with Sugar trying to cheat by using a concealed object and Dundee fights this by pulling off his own boot to arm himself. There's another good bit where Dundee hangs underneath the scaffold and climbs across them as if they are monkey bars as Sugar desperately tries to knock him off. The scaffold bulbs are rather unspectacular yet incredibly dangerous, a losing combination for the ages. They try to break their falls by dangling themselves from the scaffolding and dropping. You can tell they are both terrified of being up there and there isn't much room for movement. I don't think I've ever seen a good scaffold match and this match does nothing to sway my opinion. ★★

Dutch Mantell vs. Kevin Sullivan (5/9/81) Dutch has left Jimmy Hart over a dispute, but what I liked about his performance is that he is still rule-breaking hardass Dirty Dutch. Now that he's technically a babyface, he doesn't jeopardize his character by doing a 180. This is built around hair pulling and it builds up brilliantly as the 15 minute time limit ticks away. Sullivan keeps pulling Dutch's hair, so while this obviously riles up Dutch, what really riles him up is that he's always caught by the referee whenever he returns the favour. The exchanges are fluid and have a pace quicker than what I was expecting for a Dutch/Sullivan match. The strikes stiffen up as the tension builds. Both men risk disqualification due to their constant bending of the rules. Jimmy Hart decides to get on the apron and this enables Sullivan to roll Dutch up, with Dutch getting his shoulders up a second too late. ★★★½ Bill Dundee, Steve Keirn, Rick & Robert Gibson vs. Dream Machine, Nightmare #1 & Heartbreakers (7/25/81) It's strange to see such a big match within a studio setting. This might be a bit of a nutty comparison, but this reminds me of the JWP Thunder Queen match. Not only does this match have high-speed tempo, the constant usage of tags makes this feel like a team sport in a way that I've only ever seen replicated in that aforementioned joshi classic. It makes for an incredibly easy watch and I wasn't expecting such a high level of workrate out of a US match from 1981. There isn't a huge face/heels divide to be found here. The heels might come in to disrupt a pinfall, but the babyface team decides it is fair game to do the same. The heels gang up on Dundee initially and he gets worked for a short while before he is able to tag out and the pace is go-go-go with both teams going full force. The high spots aren't exactly innovative, but there are plenty of them and it's stuff like dropkicks, shoulder breakers and suplexes done extremely well. It's hard to break this one down too deeply. Just turn off your brain and enjoy. ★★★★ Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (8/1/81) Seeing Onita and Lawler interact made me long for an alternate reality where Lawler would end up doing a FMW deathmatch. Oh, to dream. What we got here was a solid match with a chaotic post-match angle that would set the stage to one of Memphis's most infamous matches. Lawler and Dundee never really felt like they were in danger here, as they look like they are having the time of their lives outsmarting the heels during the lengthy shine segment. There is some comedy to be found here that I found a touch too silly for my taste. The crowd lap it all up, so it worked for the audience they were working for. The match takes a serious twist when Jimmy Hart appears and Lawler abandons the match to deal with him. This results in the entire locker room pouring out and Onita and Fuchi are able to steal the victory during all the chaos. Lawler and Dundee never really took Onita and Fuchi seriously so it's quite hard to put them over as dangerous after the events of the post-match. ★★★ Ricky Morton & Eddie Gilbert vs. Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl) (9/4/81) This is the match that I was most excited to see when I decided to give Memphis the deep dive it deserved. While I'm somewhat disappointed this brawl is actually just the post-match angle of a match (we get the final minute of the actual match before the brawl begins), you can see the influence this would of had on wrestling throughout the world. The footage we get begins with Gilbert making his comeback before the match ends. Tojo gets involved and they start dishing out some kendo stick shots. The camera cuts and we are back at the concession stand. I didn't think much of this until I started seeing the visceral image of blood and mustard mixing as they destroyed the concession stand. You know that had to sting! I love Lance Russell telling the camera crew to keep filming, even if he isn't sure if the footage is suitable to air on television. This was nuts and this would be instrumental in Onita birthing the deathmatch style of FMW, but I'm sure you already know that. Masa Fuchi, Atsushi Onita & Tojo Yamamoto vs. Roy Rogers, Rick & Robert Gibson (9/5/81) I haven't been blown away by seeing Fuchi and Onita in Memphis. They play their roles well as generic Japanese baddies, but I was expecting more as I know how good they can be. It's all cheating, karate chops and no boots. They're basically just Tojo's lackeys and copy his act. The Gibsons brothers are good and you can see how good they are when Roy Rogers comes in. His movement and execution looked clunky while everything the Gibsons did looked crisp. This match has a short time limit due to the time they had remaining on air and it ends rather unceremoniously as Rick dodges karate chops. We are robbed of a finish and there isn't much in the way of drama during the closing moments. This is the main thing that bugs me about classic studio wrestling. Decent match with a fluid pace overall, even if the (lack of) finish was disappointing. ★★¾

Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (No DQ) (3/23/81) This was two bloodied-up southern men throwing some of the best punches you're going to ever see. Lawler's great at gesturing to the crowd, so even a poor-sighted fan way up in the cheap seats can tell Jerry's status by his body language. Funk's ability to stumble around the ring, getting caught in the ropes and tripping up on cables in a natural way is absolutely masterful. They sell them well and this was a good example of having a match with the most basic of moves and making the most of them. Funk opens up Lawler and tears on the wound. Pro wrestling euphoria is watching Lawler hulk up and drop the strap, causing all the old ladies at ringside to collectively lose their shit. Seriously, it's one of the best comebacks I've ever seen. Jimmy Hart is at ringside and saves Funk's ass numerous times before Lawler deals with him. Funk then attempts to break Lawler's leg by ripping Lawler's tights and using them for extra leverage when Funk locks on the spinning toehold. This comes back to bite Funk as Lawler gets his hand on the chair and gives Funk his well earned comeuppance as Funk cowardly crawls away. Even if this did end on a countout, it didn't affect the crowd enjoyment one bit as they just paid to see Lawler kick Funk's ass, and they certainly got that on this night. ★★★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Dory Funk Jr. (3/30/81) Dory is here to get vengeance for Terry. Out of nowhere, the camera pans out and reveals Jimmy Hart is dangling above the ring by a cable. It wasn't mentioned before this shot and it completely caught me off guard. In my younger years, I dismissed Dory as the boring Funk. He was technically sound, but dull as dishwater. I was very wrong to think that. Although he's not as explosive and diverse as his younger brother, he's still an exceptional talent and his performance here was very nuanced. He opens the match by mat-wrestling. It is basic stuff done well. Headlocks, arm wrenches and takeovers. All had a sense of struggle, but Dory's means side slowly rears its head as he pummels Lawler with uppercuts in the corner. Lawler returns the favour by throwing his trademark rights and Dory sells for them wonderfully and puts them over as a threat. Dory's heel side becomes more obvious as he lands two nut shots in as Jerry Calhoun is trying to get Lawler to open up his punches. This eventually blows up and the referee gives the disqualification victory to Lawler. This was a great match, but I wish we could have gotten a clean finish, seeing as this is a stopgap before Terry and Lawler can continue their feud. ★★★¾ Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (Empty Arena) (4/6/81) It's hard to rate this as an actual match as you can argue that it is more of an angle, but its influence cannot be denied. This is basically the Terry Funk Show. Terry Funk is the first wrestler to get to the Mid South Coliseum and he is pissed. He isn't sure if Lawler has stood him up or is planning to ambush him and Funk lets Lance Russell hear his complaints. Lawler finally appears and is in full gear, complete with crown. Terry notices this and it leads to a hilarious rant from Funk questioning why Lawler has bothered to dress up for a match with an attendance of zero. You can tell that this remark makes Lawler question his choice of attire. Once they start fighting, it is nothing particular mind-blowing. They fight around the ring and throw each into the rows of the empty chairs. Funk fills the silence by wailing like a pig. In perhaps the most famous moment of Memphis wrestling not involving Andy Kaufman, Funk gets a broken wooden chard kicked into his eye moments after he attempted to blind Lawler with that same shard. Funk rolls around and screams about his eye. Lawler decides Funk has suffered enough and leaves him in a puddle of his own blood as this legendary segment wraps up. ★★★★½ Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs. Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Farris (5/2/81) Dream Machine continues to do absolutely nothing for me despite me being able to acknowledge that he is decent at both in-ring work and promo work. He doesn't add anything to this match and cuts a promo before the match that feels like what modern fans think all territory wrestling was like. Proper Southpaw Regional Wrestling shit. Anyways the centrepiece of this match is the extended heat segment where Dundee fights from underneath and he is brilliant in this as to be expected. I had no idea Kevin Sullivan was such a body guy in his youth. The heels do what they need to do in their roles and not much else. Farris teases diving from the top rope to the floor, but this is future bump avoidant Honky Tonk Man we are talking about here. We get a great cheating finish, as Jimmy Hart pulls the ropes apart and Dundee takes a nasty tumble to the concrete. He's able to beat the count, but rolls himself in to be rolled up and lose the tag straps. ★★★ Jerry Lawler vs. Crusher Blackwell (5/4/81) I was curious to see this, but I wasn't expecting this to rule as much as it did! I expected to see Lawler work his magic with a morbidly obese monster heel who could barely move, so my jaw was on the floor when Blackwell opens this with a running dropkick and dominates Lawler at a frantic pace. I didn't know there were monster heels who worked like Blackwell did back in 1981! Lawler mounts a comeback using his fists, but Blackwell can throw a mean right hand too. Actually that might be partially down to Lawler, as he sells them by crumpling to the mat like absolute death. The last half of this match is just two guys trading punches and it kicks all kinds of ass. The crowd shrieks in horror when Lawler gets hit and is about to be squashed and they throw babies in the air when Lawler drops Blackwell. Lawler misses a fist drop and Lawler hurts his hand, thus losing his only weapon. Lawler is able to dodge a Blackwell splash and gets the pinfall. It's a very minor gripe, but I wish Lawler's hand injury went somewhere as the match is over before they went anywhere with that little nugget. ★★★★¼

Bill Dundee & Tony Boyles vs. Wayne Farris & Larry Latham (6/7/80) The first half of this is just Dundee mocking the heels as they slip up and eat shit and it makes for some glorious viewing. You just don't see this sort of thing in modern wrestling. I'm beginning to see why Dundee had the female audience in such a vice grip when I saw him do a little shuffle to antagonise Farris and Latham. He's a charming little pocket rocket. Tony Boyles is presented as a newcomer and you quickly see why you've probably never heard of him before. He has awkward timing and is as bland as a piece of cardboard. The heels work him over and Dundee keeps the audience engaged by being animated as the illegal man. Dundee attacks Farris and Latham's manager Sgt. Davis at ringside once he sees him trying to get involved. This distraction allows for the heels to double team Boyles and land a spike piledriver when the referee is distracted by the commotion outside the ring. The move is botched, but I can't tell who is to blame. After the bell, we get a molten hot angle which sees Eddie Marlin and Jerry Jarrett get involved in the skirmish with Dundee and Farris, Latham and Davis. Great first half, okay final half and a thrilling post-match. This was a lot of fun. ★★★½ Bill Dundee vs. Tommy Rich (8/23/80) The winner of this match gets a shot at the Southern Heavyweight title. Both guys are coming into this as babyfaces and they wrestle a fiery yet friendly match that features a lot of workrate. The pace never lets up. Dundee's main strategy is to take Rich from behind and grind him down. Dundee even works in a cool cartwheel sequence that wouldn't look out of place in a World of Sport bout. They work smoothly together despite the big height difference. Some animosity grows as the match progresses, but it never breaks down into a fight. Dundee ends up getting headbutted in the nuts after he attempts a leapfrog and hits the mat hard. Rich shows concern for Dundee and begins to help him before rolling Dundee up in a cradle to win the title shot and the crowd aren't happy with Rich. This would begin Rich's heel turn. I didn't think this was pulled off as well as it could have, but Rich's next actions firmly cemented him as a heel. He cuts a great promo after the match and shoves Lawler on his ass as he dresses him down verbally. Lawler's leg is in a cast and is unable to fight back and it made for some compelling television. ★★★¼ Bill Dundee vs. Wayne Farris & Tojo Yamamoto (3/7/81) This is meant to be a tag title match, but Dundee's partner Tommy Rich is MIA so Dundee has agreed to defend the title in a handicap. This is the only handicap match I've seen where they put a lot of emphasis on the sole babyface having to adjust his strategies as he is out there alone. Dundee's demeanour was a lot more serious here. He doesn't do any of his usual dancing to start out, and when he does it when he starts besting the heels, it ends up costing him. Lance Russell is constantly doing time calls and it sends the idea out to the audience that Dundee is only going to walk away with the titles if he can withstand the 30 minute time limit. The heels played their roles well enough, even if Yamamoto's constant use of chops made for some boring offence. Dundee gets colour and isn't able to survive this one ultimately. Dream Machine, who was turned away from being in this match by Jimmy Hart, shows up and aids Dundee in the post-match melee. This is a move that turns him face. ★★★¾ Bill Dundee & Tommy Rich vs. Dutch Mantell & Austin Idol (3/12/81) This was a compact tag match that followed all the rules for great tag wrestling. Dundee and Rich get a lot of time to get the shine on the heels, outsmarting them and riling them up in the process. Mantell does take too kindly to Dundee's shuffling. Idol feeds for the babyface punches well, but there are times when he borders on feeling cartoony. Rich takes a tumble to the floor once the ropes are pulled and this begins the heel's heat segment. The heels do a great job at isolating Dundee and the urgency shines through when they grind him to the mat whenever he tries to make a tag. This had a great pace to it that never gave the action time to stagnate. After doubt is put into the fan's minds in a great fakeout nearfall when the referee misses a cradle pin attempt by Dundee after being distracted by Idol and Rich fighting on the floor, Dundee rolls again and we get a monster pop when he is successful during this attempt. ★★★¾ Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs. Dutch Mantell & Wayne Farris (3/14/81) This match is contested under ironman rules, but they don't call it that. This isn't to the level as the previous match as Dream Machine is no where near as good as Tommy Rich is, but Dundee is always great so it is still a fun match overall. There are a lot of quick tags and the pace is quick. Dundee works as the face in peril. Mantell and Dundee get into a scuffle and Mantell accidentally strikes referee Jerry Calhoun, giving the babyfaces the first fall via disqualification. It doesn't take long until things break apart in the second fall when Dundee and Mantell fight on the floor. The referee calls for a stop to this fall. The commentators let us know that the stoppage doesn't count as a fall for either team and they will have a third fall if time allows for it. They ultimately don't have time for another fall, making this entire match feel anticlimactic. The stipulation wasn't handled particularly well and the non-finish didn't feel satisfying in the slightest. ★★½

I've started watching the DVDVR 80s Memphis set and this thread is basically my motivation to finish the whole set. I'll start my trip to Memphis with two matches from the 70s that I couldn't pass on watching. Let me know if there is anything else from the pre-80s era that's worth seeking out. Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (8/22/77) Dundee's hair is on the line, but Lawler had put up not only his car, but his manager's hair too. This has a slow start. Lawler is a heel here and he's all condescending and arrogant until a Dundee shove is enough for him to change his tune. Both men are quite reserved at first and this takes a while before it gets going. This might not reach the same heights as their more famous outings, but the punches here are better than both the '83 and '85 matches. Watching Lawler rain his fists down on a cornered Dundee, with only the turnbuckle holding him up was compelling stuff. The NWA official at ringside calls time on this, but Dundee begs the official to reconsider as he is not losing his hair this way. I liked this stoppage tease and Dundee does an excellent job at emoting his desperation. I didn't like the finish that much. Dundee is able dodge a second rope elbow drop from King and Dundee pins Lawler when he finally comes to. Lawler was dead after that unremarkable bump. I wish Dundee was able to hit Jerry with some sort of death blow before this ended. ★★★★¼ Jerry Lawler vs. Harley Race (12/11/77) I was curious to see what a long match with Jerry Lawler looked like and I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't sure if Lawler's style would translate to an hour long match, but I am happy to be proven wrong here. We get two very different types of selling on display here, with Lawler building up sympathy whenever he would grasp his face and Race bumping for Lawler in an almost comedic manner. The first third of this is dominated by Lawler grinding down Race with a headlock, but they keep it entertaining by having Race be so animated and Lawler pulled out some impressive bridges in an attempt to keep the hold. There's so much to bite into here. There's an ongoing bit where Lawler keeps going back to his body slam to change the tide of the match and it ends up with Race taking the bump on the floor. There's another great moment where Lawler is nearly disqualified after Race goes over the top rope after a collision and Lawler has to plead with the referee that this wasn't intentional. The final ten minutes had so much drama and it made me root for a Lawler victory, even if I knew the final result. ★★★★½ Now onto the DVDVR set... Bill Dundee vs. Larry Latham (4/19/80) We open this match with a lot of holds. Both men know how to wrench on a headlock and put up a struggle. Latham ends up getting some hardway colour during the scuffle. Dundee works the arm while Latham can only get an advantage by pulling Dundee's hair. Latham eventually abandons this style and starts clobbering on Dundee. We get some limbwork here as Latham gets heat on Dundee's knee after Dundee misses a knee drop. Dundee is so over that he gets a loud pop from a simple drop toehold. Dundee stomping on Latham's fingers so that he can get easy access to Latham's neck for a sleeper hold is a genius bit that someone should steal (I explained that badly but it still rocks nonetheless). We get a great finish as Dundee uses the momentum from Latham's whip to kick off the turnbuckle and sneak away with a win after a cross body. ★★★¼ Ricky Morton vs. Sonny King (4/26/80) A very young Ricky Morton wrestles his former tag partner in a decent match that's dominated by grappling. It feels strange to see a Morton match that's not accompanied by the screams of crazed teenagers. This feels like a proto-shoot-style match due to the reliance on mat-wrestling and the only pro-style move we see here is a sunset flip that Morton scores a nearfall on just before the ten minute time limit expires. Morton has a focused game face, never taking his eyes off King. The mat-work is competitive and the tension builds organically as hold attempts are forced to be broken as they lean into the ropes. Time limit draws are fine, but I wish they were able to dial up the drama a bit more during the final few minutes. You only started to feel the urgency in the final 30 seconds of bell time. ★★★ Bill Dundee vs. Paul Ellering (5/24/80) Ellering is in insane shape here. His in-ring work is certainly lacking, as there are plenty of awkward moments here. After kicking out of a small package, we got a botchy exchange that looked ugly. Luckily for Ellering, he's in there with Bill Dundee and Superstar has no trouble carrying the load. Dundee is quickly becoming one of my favourites. He's great at believing hanging in there with talents that absolutely dwarf him and he is incredibly watchable in this environment as the studio audience go ga-ga for every little thing he does. Dundee attempts the same cross body that won his match against Larry Latham the previous month, but Ellering dodges it and the referee goes down. This leads to an excellent finish which sees Sonny King running down and carrying Jimmy Hart away like a baby once Hart tries to interfere. I was going to rate this a touch lower, but that finish came together so well that it left me with a massive grin across my face. ★★★

I'm making my through all the Big Mouth Loud shows and I'm having a blast so far! BML Illusion (9/11/2005) Osamu Kido vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara This was two old pros having a friendly contest. Both men were in their mid-fifties at this point, but both are still nimble and can move around fluidly. One thing I found impressive is that there wasn't a single flat back bump to be found here. The match goes 15 minutes and it's entirely built around the ground game. Fujiwara is constantly going for his signature hold and then Kidd tries to slap on a Fujiwara Armbar of his own. Despite not taking any bumps, Fujiwara adds some violence by getting hardway colour by getting his face rammed multiple times into the ring post. The finish felt like a letdown, with Fujiwara releasing a hold just before the time limit expires when Fujiwara accepts that the hold won't beat Kiddo. ★★½ Daisuke Ikeda vs. Katsumi Usuda There is some old BattlArts beef between these two that has yet to be squashed as Usada attacks Ikeda as soon as this begins. This was a sprint with plenty of great strikes and Ikeda fighting from underneath to start with. Usada just overwhelms him with flurries of strikes and it's not until Ikeda catches him with a punch that would make Jerry Lawler proud before he can make a comeback. Usada can survive Ikeda's picture-perfect Death Valley Driver but goes night-night when Ikeda drops him with a stiff Brainbuster. This goes five minutes and it is five minutes well spent. ★★★½ Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hiroyuki Ito Although we can see glimpses of Stone Pitbull Ishii in the way that he squares up during the strike exchanges, Ito forces Ishii to play the mat game more and this doesn't feel like a strong style spectacle like many of Ishii's NJPW epics. Ito impressed me here, with each of his strikes feeling more desperate and aggressive as the match went on. Ishii absolutely murders Ito with a series of lariats before getting the win. This match makes me wish we got Ishii in BattleArts as he would be a great fit there. ★★★¾ Buck Quartermain & Steve Madison vs. Riki Choshu & Takashi Uwano Riki Choshu and WWF/WCW journeyman Buck Quartermain mixing it up in Japan in 2005 is a rather random pairing, although the match is nothing to write home about. It's rather colourless for the first five minutes, but Madison ending a strike exchange early by going low on Uwano puts the crowd behind Uwano and gets some heat for the gaijins. Madison gets some further heat by putting on Riki's Scorpion Deathlock on Uwano, to which Choshu responds by coming in to attack Madison. There is quite a bit of sloppiness here, which mainly came from the foreigners. I was quite surprised that Choshu's team lost, even if Uwano was the man who takes to pin. ★★¼ Enson Inoue vs. Gerard Gordeau Inoue is a MMA fighter who has been working in PRIDE, whereas Gordeau is a karateka and kickboxer who appeared on the first-ever UFC card. As soon as the bell rings, Gordeau levels Inoue with a high kick that sees him roll out of the ring, the audience comes alive and stays hot during the rest of this 3-minute freak show bout. This was fun for what it was. Gordeau uses the same dirty tactics that garnered him controversy during his MMA career. He wasn't a natural heel, but he was unlikable enough that I was rooting for Inoue to remove his arm from his body when he locked in the armbar, although that might just be because I just noticed that Gordeau had a fucking Swazitka tattoo. ★★★ Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka I've seen better from both men but this is still worth watching. You know what you are getting out of these two. Big suplexes from Otsuka and stiff punches from Ishikawa. Ishikawa has to be one of the best punchers. We get a close-up shot of him raining down strikes and you cannot see through them. They look completely legit! This starts with a lot of matwork and they then start pulling out the strikes when tempers begin to rise. The way that Otsuka used a Frankensteiner in this shoot-style flavoured bout and had it not look a hair out of place was masterful. Ishikawa is able to struggle his way out of trouble and puts Otsuka to sleep. ★★★½ Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazunari Murakami Yeah, I thought this wasn't as good as I was hoping. I was expecting the main event between two of my favourites to knock it out of the park, but the resulting match is just good and it never gets into that second gear. They kick this off with a lot of energy and they never let this drop. We get a lot of hard strikes and some uninteresting strike trading spots. I was quite surprised to see Shibata looking at the lights when this ended as I thought BML was built to progress Shibata. ★★★ BML Illusion 2 (12/29/2005) Osamu Kido vs. Don Arakawa Two old boys open the proceedings in a light-hearted match. Arakawa is a veteran who models himself after Rikidozan to pop the older fans in attendance. He is a comedy worker who gets a few chuckles from the audience by getting kicked up the arse by Kido and the remarks he makes when he is in pain. Although I wouldn't recommend this match, I would be against more cards opening with an easy-going match to let the card build up naturally, especially if it gives fans more of a chance to see older wrestlers play the hits and not expect them to keep up with the younger generation. ★★½ Munenori Sawa vs. Manabu Hara Hara and Sawa work a competitive match that would fit at home within a BattlArts ring. Sawa tries to get a reaction out of Sawa by jabbing him while they are working on the mat. This eventually causes Hara to snap and he unloads a barrage of strikes, making Sawa's strategy come back to bite him in the ass. Hara has an arsenal of crisp throws to use against his opponent. Hara's assault causes Sawa to defend himself by throwing fiery strikes of his own as this match reaches its crescendo. We get a completely organic strike exchange before a beautifully executed flash Armbar puts a bow on this one. ★★★½ Masanobu Kurisu vs. Katsumi Usuda I was expecting a bit more from this given its decent rating on Cagematch. It ends just as it is getting interesting. Kurisu is a guy that I'm not overly familiar with, but he impressed me with his performance here. He is in his mid-fifties here but he can still hang with Usuda, who is nearly two decades younger than him. Kurisu is a constant rule breaker and isn't afraid to get cheap when they wrestle on the mat or to roughhouse Usuda with some stiff headbutts. Once he gets nowhere wrestling this like a wrestling match, Kurisu starts to wallop Usuda with some sickening chair shots that draw blood. Just as they start to build some drama, this is over once Usuda is able to put his opponent to sleep. I wish we got at least a few more minutes of Usuda trying to mount his comeback instead of the anticlimactic ending we got here. ★★½ KAZMA & Kengo Mashimo vs. Hiroyuki Ito & Yuki Ishikawa KAZMA and Mashimo aren't afraid to bend the rules as they work over Ito. Mashimo can throw a strike well and can sell one well too. He throws a kick so hard that the audience gasps. He tries to return to this trick later in the match, but Ito scouts Mashimo out and counters this by catching him in a submission. This was a slick counter and a nice bit of continuity. Ito has been cleary taking advice from Ishikawa as he throws some decent punches from the top mount position. While I wished we got more Ishikawa in this match, this was stiff as hell and it put over Mashimo well. ★★★ Akitoshi Saito vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara Fujiwara is gifted a bottle of whiskey by Saito, and Fujiwara thanks him by jumping Saito with a combination of slaps as soon as the bell rings. This match has an ongoing bit with the guest referee where Yamamoto would fight back if a wrestler takes any liberties. This results in the match finish when Saito spits at Yamamoto and they get into a scruff before Yamamoto awards the DQ victory to Fujiwara. This was a weak finish and there wasn't much here except the guest referee hijinks. Even in a match that I didn't care all that much for, Fujiwara is always at least watchable. ★★ Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles I was expecting them to phone in your average X Division bout, but these guys brought the goods. They open the match with the typical We Are Equals sequences, but they keep it fresh by having some interesting exchanges and ideas that feel different than the usual cliche spots you would find in your stereotypical indy match of its era. Watching this reminded me how much better AJ Styles was than your average American indie guy of the time despite having the same wrestling style. Petey can go as well, as he impressively chains multiple suplexes together. The crowd pop hard for both men and they seem shocked by the sight of the Canadian Destroyer. This isn't the type of match that I expected to find in Big Mouth Loud, but I'm glad it's here and it added a completely different style to the card. ★★★¾ Kazunari Murakami vs. Enson Inoue This was a fuckin' war! In under ten minutes, these two put on a hell of a fight where Murakami goes from an arrogant menace to a heroic babyface. Murakami gets dominated on the mat and has to retreat. Inoue follows and we get some natural crowd brawling. They separate and we get many great shots that show that the once cocky Murakami is now doubting himself. He's able to land a flurry on Inoue, but makes the mistake of turning his back on Inoue, who clocks him and draws blood. A lot of time is spent with Murakami on the outside and Inoue in the ring, daring Murakami to step into the ring. This was never boring and I was completely sucked into the drama. Murakami gets the crowd behind him once Inoue plays it cheap by not releasing a hold when Murakami is in the ropes. What they managed to achieve here in 10 minutes is impressive. ★★★★ Satoshi Kojima vs. Katsuyori Shibata I liked this overall, but there were plenty of modern tropes here that had me rolling my eyes and taking me out of the match. We get some uninteresting strike exchanges and Shibata's no-selling of the Ace Crushers by using his fighting spirit was corny as hell. They were able to pull me back into the match after Kojima landed a CCD on the outside. Shibata focusing on taking out Kojima's lariating arm and the aggression he showed were two things that I dug from him. Kojima is great at being a condescending bully. We get some more boring no-selling before Kojima puts Shibata away, but with Shibata looking strong in defeat. ★★★ BML Reallusion (2/26/2006) Manabu Hara & Osamu Kido vs. Don Arakawa & Munenori Sawa The younger guys being here meant that this had more physicality than your standard Big Mouth Loud opener, with the older guys working their usual simpler style that has a strong emphasis on comedy. Arakawa's comedic mannerisms and charisma go a long way to hide his physical limitations. One spot seems him jabbing Hara up the arse! The younger guys and older gentlemen mostly kept to themselves outside of this interaction, with Kido's involvement and contribution to this match being very minimal. ★★★ Katsumi Usuda vs. Hiroyuki Ito This takes a while to get going, with the first few minutes being a colourless BattleArts-style match. Usuda adds some urgency into play by lunging forward with a stiff headbutt. It takes a while for Ito to do anything interesting, but Usuda forces him to fire back with some aggression by hitting him hard and Ito potatoes his opponent with some receipts. We get some decent arm selling from Ito once Usuda nearly gets the win after a flash armbar. This was decent, once it got going. ★★★ Masanobu Kurisu vs. Tatsuo Nakano Given Kurisu's age, he takes some hard strikes here. This wasn't a particularly exciting bout though, with much of the match seeing both men in the standing position feeling each other out. This pairing felt like a style clash. Once playing this straight gets him nowhere, Kurisu reverts to his chair swinging ways. After getting a few chair shots in, Nakano fires out and puts Kurisu in a front guillotine. Instead of losing the match the honourable way, Kurisu goes out as a scumbag by getting himself disqualified with a low blow. ★½ Jinsei Shinzaki & Yoshitsune vs. Alexander Otsuka & Rasse Shinzaki was stuck in house show mode and didn't bring anything to the table perhaps getting a few more butts in seats due to his name value. Rasse and Yoshitsune have some lightning-quick sequences during the opening few minutes. I wish we got more chances to see Otsuka work with Yoshitsune as they mesh well, with Yoshitsune's natural athleticism working well with Otsuka's arsenal of deadly suplexes. Yoshitsune is an excellent high flyer with textbook technique and I think he should have gotten a bigger break. He does a 619 during the finish and the commentators mention Rey Mysterio, who Yoshitsune reminds me a lot of during Rey's early years. ★★½ Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Enson Inoue & Kazunari Murakami Murakami and Inoue are teaming up after they pummeled each other into respecting each other at the last Big Mouth Loud show. Nagata and Murakami immediately go for each and they beat the hell out of each other. Nagata has to be restrained by his tag team partner. Inoue might not have the buckets of charisma that his tag partner has, but he establishes himself as a dickhead by walking over Iizuka to exit a mount and to walk over to make a tag. Murakami and Nagata get into a strike exchange that I was not a fan of (no man should be standing after taking a head blow from Murakami! ) Both men eventually get the match thrown out as they are unable to separate. There is stuff here that I wasn't a fan of, but Nagata and Murakami brought the hatred here, and that's all wrestling needs at the end of the day. ★★★¼ Katsuyori Shibata vs. Alan Karaev Karaev is an absoulte unit. He looks like a shaved bear. Despite Karaev having zero pro-wrestling experience, this match is a total spectacle and did more for Shibata than any of his two previous Big Mouth Loud bouts. Shibata sold his ass off for Karaev's offence and put over the jeopardy he was in by his anguished facial expressions. Shibata shows fire and works at a frantic pace and Karaev can do his bit without it looking cooperative. Karaev's offence is limited to him palm away at Shibata with his massive hands and throwing him around, but it works in the context of this match. Shibata's only hope is when he can wrestle Karaev to the mat by grabbing a heel when he is in a dangerous position. This match doesn't even touch the four-minute mark, but they were able to milk so much drama out of this. ★★★½

The C-Show Project - The Regal Special Lord Steven Regal vs Eddy Guerrero (WCW Main Event - aired 7/7/1996) This only goes shy of four minutes, so they aren't able to do anything too crazy. We open with some matwork that incorporates both Regal's European style and Eddy's lucha influence. The commentary spent the majority of this match discussing who is going to be the third man at the upcoming Bash At The Beach PPV. Regal fakes an injury and catches Eddy with a roll-up. What happens next is quite confusing. Eddy doesn't quite kick out, but the referee doesn't count to three. Regal celebrates and Eddy returns the favor by rolling up Regal, this time scoring the win. Even with the botchy finish and the lack of time, this was fun for what it was. FUN Lord Steven Regal vs Fit Finlay (WCW Main Event - aired 12/20/1997) Regal and Finlay scrap for five minutes and the result is a violent little corker of a match that didn't feel rushed. Finlay tries to bully Regal with some clobbering blows, but Regal shows that he isn't having any of it as he cuts Finlay off with a stiff elbow as Finlay comes off the ropes and follows it up with some uppercuts. Finlay fires back and hits some cowardly yet vicsious kicks when Regal is down. Finlay gets even more nasty as he stamps on Regal's fingers and Regal does a sublime job at selling them by letting everyone in that studio know what has happened to him by using his body language. Regal gets a rare chance to show off his dropkick when he uses it to out-counter Finlay. Every hold here had a struggle to it and the blows to the face that land here will make your own nose ache. If you haven't seen their Uncensored classic yet and you're not sure if you can stomach the wrestling style of Regal and Finlay for nearly half an hour, give this match a watch as a sampler. If you like this match as much as I do, then you will simply adore their Uncensored outing. VERY GOOD Steven Regal vs Dick Togo (WWF Shotgun - aired 11/28/1998) I've seen this described as Regal's only good match during his dud of a first run in the WWF and I was looking forward to seeing this. Jim Cornette does everything in his power to get Regal over despite Regal's horrendous character. We get more matwork in these five-minutes than we did in the majority of WWF PPVs in 1998. Regal grinds on Togo's limbs with a purpose and looks like a menace whilst doing so. Regal looks motivated here despite his personal problems that he was going through at this point. He wins using the Regalplex, a move I don't recall him doing all that much despite the name of the move. FUN Steven Regal vs Adrian Byrd (WCW Saturday Night - aired 7/10/1999) Regal is escorted to the ring by Dave Taylor and Fit Finlay, who will definitely be getting involved here. Byrd is a short and stocky guy who follows Regal's lead well and has a good amount of natural charisma. This match is all schtick, with Regal bumping around, looking smug, and showing off his disgusted and flabbergasted mannerisms. After getting knocked on his arse by a Byrd shoulder tackle, Regal uses Byrd's own momentum on Byrd's second tackle and sends him outside, where Taylor and Finlay are waiting to take a chunk out of Byrd when the referee isn't looking. Regal is always entertaining when having a halfway competent dance partner and you can guarantee a solid match at the very least. FUN Steven Regal & Dave Taylor vs Creative Control (WCW Saturday Night - aired 12/4/1999) For those of you lucky enough not to be aware of them, Creative Control are the Harris Brothers wrestling in suits. They are called Patrick and Gerald, which is a WWF dig with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It also takes them a good portion of their segment to disrobe. It's like Naito, but shit. These guys are the tag champions too! Like any other Harris boys match, this was garbage with no redeeming qualities. Regal and Taylor are doing the classic homoerotic cowardly tag team spots where they take comfort in each other's arms when things don't go their way, but that schtick only works when you've got a face team to work with. Ron and Don show zero personality here and give the fans no reason to cheer or boo them. An awkward tag belt shot later and this one is mercifully over. SKIPPABLE Stephen William Regal vs Just Joe (WWF Heat - aired 9/24/2000) I had no idea that Regal went by Stephen William Regal during his first few first appearances after returning to the WWF in 2000. It's the small nuggets of information like that make this project worth my time. Speaking of not knowing things, I was watching every show I could get my hands on at this time and I have zero recollection of Just Joe. I wasn't missing much as he is the utter shit. He botches an exchange and this match is made enjoyable solely by having Regal work in all his British flavour of takedowns and grappling. Regal cuts a cute, condescending promo before the match asking the audience to not chant boring at him. The commentators rag on Regal for having a boring wrestling style. I am so glad that they dropped this element of his gimmick, as it wasn't going to get him over and it's so incredibly untrue. FUN William Regal vs Steve Blackman (WWF Heat - aired 10/29/2000) Regal cuts a pre-match promo on MTV (the channel that Heat was airing on at the time) and references Limp Bizkit's Nookie. Brilliant. Blackman is the Hardcore champion and Regal has just won the European strap at the last PPV, with Regal's belt only at stake here. We open with some decent mat wrestling with some clunky strikes from Blackman. Blackman seems to forget that this isn't a hardcore match and attempts to use a trash can before the referee intervenes. Regal gets himself intentionally disqualified when he lays out Blackman with his belt. Regal seems pleased with himself and Blackman doesn't get a chance to get any revenge. We got some fun Regal reactions here, but this was forgettable. SKIPPABLE William Regal vs Rikishi (WWF Heat - aired 2/24/2002) They only have three minutes to work with here, but Regal is such a pro that he can deliver a fun little title defense that is full of those classic Regal facial expressions that made us fall in love with that handsome rogue in the first place. Regal attempts a sunset flip, but Rikishi stays standing and teases flattening Regal like a pancake by slapping his ass. Regal scurries away and has a great horrified look plastered across his face. Regal has just started to use the brass knuckles around this period and they are creatively incorporated into the finish. After getting humiliated by getting Stink Face'd, Regal rolls out the ring and attempts to use his title belt to wallop Rikishi. The referee intervenes by grabbing the belt and giving it back to the timekeeper, and it's during this moment that Regal has enough time to get the knucks on and KO Rikishi for the victory. FUN

I turned on my PC for the first time in forever and found some reviews for this project that I didn't get around to posting. If it's got Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, and Dustin Rhodes in it, you know it's going to be good! Rock 'n' Roll Express vs Legion of Doom (WWF Shotgun - aired 1/24/1998) This would have been a dream match if it happened a decade prior. What we got instead is a completely forgettable match from the completely disastrous NWA invasion angle. Even having Jim Cornette out there trying his hardest to make this angle stick wasn't going to cut it. Even the commentators bury this by talking about Austin and McMahon's big angle as Morton and Gibson make their entrance. Morton and Gibson can clearly still go in the ring, and I believe that they would be able to get over if they changed up their presentation and not look a decade and a half behind the times. The match is short enough that the LOD doesn't have enough time to stink it up, with the match being thrown out once Barry Windham rushes the ring after Morton takes a Doomsday Device. The sole highlight of this match would have to be how Morton sold that move, in which he flips himself inside out like a ragdoll as he crashes to the mat. SKIPPABLE Ricky Morton vs Marc Mero (WWF Shotgun - aired 5/2/1998) Morton is flying solo here and gets the jobber entrance for his final WWF appearance. I wasn't sure what I was expecting here, but I was disappointed by this pairing as it felt like these two just didn't click. Post-knee injury Mero wasn't the most dynamic worker, but he plays well into the character stuff by playing along with the crowd as they heckle him with Sable chants. For a guy with a boxing gimmick, Mero's punches didn't look too good and the best punch landed here was the one Morton gave to kick off his comeback. The action gets into a better groove once Morton makes his comeback. Morton's final WWF match sees him looking at the lights for Mero after Mero catches him with a TKO. SKIPPABLE Papi Chulo vs Scott Taylor (WWF Shotgun - aired 5/9/1998) The future Scotty 2 Hotty faces the future Essa Rios. Chulo has ditched his Agulia mask and is now dressed like a pimp. Chulo lands a neat twirling arm drag from the corner to kick this off and the match goes to the break. When they come back, Brian Christopher is on the apron restraining Chulo. The referee doesn't seem to care about this, but it's no big deal as Chulo is able to dodge Taylor's oncoming attack and send Taylor into his partner. Chulo then rolls up Taylor for the win. All in all, we got just over 40 seconds of action here. This was a complete waste of time. SKIPPABLE Terry Funk, Dustin Runnels, & Bradshaw vs Jerry Lawler & Too Much (WWF Shotgun - aired 6/27/1998) This is billed as Texas vs Tennessee. This is Jerry Lawler's only match from 1998 and I wished they used him more as he could still be a valuable member of the roster. Dustin has ditched the Goldust gimmick around this time and we get a rare look of Dustin as the ass-kicking babyface that got him noticed when he was a young'un in WCW (that, and being the grandson of a plumber of course!). Watching this Texas crowd go apeshit for Funk once he's tagged in warmed my cold heart. Funk and Lawler were obviously great here, but Bradshaw really shone in this match. He looked like a hulking monster babyface mauling Too Much. This is a super fun match, with a great finish that sees poor Brian Christopher get his head lariat'd off after he gets too confident after ducking under a prior Funk/Rhodes double clothesline. Everyone was great here and they really should have found a way to squeeze this onto the card for the upcoming King of the Ring as this was one of WWF's best matches for 1998. VERY GOOD Dan Severn vs GI Bro (WWF Shotgun - aired 7/11/1998) As much as I wanted a legit hardass with a killer look like Dan Severn to succeed in the WWF, watching this quick squash showed why he didn't work out in the company. Severn had just suffered his first pinfall loss in the WWF and the point of this match was to show the audience that the loss has awoken something in Severn and he is no longer calm and collected. The problem is that Severn is horrendous at doing any form of character work and watching him grimace to the camera and shout at the audience looked so hokey. He is facing an unknown indie wrestler who is donning the craptastic gimmick of GI Bro (it's not Booker T if you were wondering). The match we get here is very clunky and one-sided, with Severn smothering Bro all over the place. Severn gets poked in the eyes and this is the only move that Bro is able to land, which is a shame for him as this only served to piss Severn off some more. Severn does throw some nice-looking bombs here and his submission finish looked rather devastating. It was clear that Severn wasn't going to get over by this point. SKIPPABLE Vader vs Jesus Castillo (WWF Shotgun - 8/22/1998) There's not much to write about this one. Vader, sporting his lesser-seen black ring gear, squashes a former Boricua member in a few minutes. The crowd still loves Vader despite his disappointing WWF run, which will be all wrapped up in a month's time. Vaders looks to be having fun out there as he takes Jesus out with all his usual big hits. After Vader has Jesus beat with a powerbomb/splash combination, he interrupts the count and drags the lifeless body of Jesus over to the corner. Vader then squashes Jesus with a Vader Bomb to get the easy win. SKIPPABLE D'Lo Brown vs Scorpio (WWF Shotgun - 9/19/1998) The wrestling here might be on the cumbersome side, but watching these two heavyweights trade some cruiserweight high spots for four minutes made for an enjoyable enough match. Scorpio hits a hip toss over the top rope to the outside and follows up with an impressive moonsault to the outside. This generates some ECW chants from the crowd. D'Lo's chest protector gimmick was fantastic and it plays into the finish here. Scorpio pulls up the chest protector and lands his moonsault, but D'Lo is able to pull it back up at the last second. D'Lo then follows this up with a Lo-Down to walk away with the victory. FUN Raikishi Fatu vs Tracy Smothers (WWF Heat - aired 11/21/1999) It's finding stuff like this is why I decided to do this project. Not only do we get a rare Tracy Smothers appearance as a job guy, but we also get to see an early version of Rikishi where he is being billed as 'Rakishi Fatu' and is treated like a monster heel in a similar vein to Yokozuna. He wears the same gear as he did during his Too Cool days. You can see glimpses of what an exceptional worker Smothers was by how he bumps around for Rikishi. I also loved how he would cock his fist before throwing a punch. He even gets to make a comeback, but Rikishi no-sells it and makes quick work of Smothers by putting him away with the yet-to-be-named Rikishi Driver. One thing I found curious here was that Rikishi uses both the Banzai Drop and Earthquake's old finisher and neither of those devastating moves was the finish! FUN Mark Henry vs TAKA Michinoku (WWF Heat - aired 12/5/1999) Henry excels at being a jolly and loveable powerhouse babyface while TAKA excels at being the undersized comedy coward. Henry cuts a fun promo telling TAKA to go home and mocking his (lack of) size. TAKA tries to sneak behind Henry, but it is not long before TAKA is flipped inside out by a Henry flapjack that gets an insane amount of air. TAKA takes a breather and attempts to leave the arena. Henry looks like he is having the time of his life toying with TAKA, but we actually get a shock result here. Just as Henry is about to squish TAKA like a bug with a splash, Funaki hits Henry with his Japanese flag. TAKA follows this up with a roundhouse kick and gets the win. Perhaps it's quite an unbelievable finish, but the crowd seemed legitamely shocked by this. FUN

I've decided to try and give Mid-South the deep dive that it deserves and I'm loving what I've seen so far. I've seen all the essentials like the Duggan/Dibiase Cage and the Dibiase face turn episode, but I want to fill in the blanks and get some more context for all the big moments that I've heard about or seen before. I want to try and watch a full calendar year of TV, so naturally I went with 1985. I'm already onto the last episode of February and I only started earlier this week. It's an incredible digestible and morish wrestling show. I'm gripped by the Dibiase and Duggan rivalry unfolding! Everything has a quick pace and nothing has any time to stagnate, yet nothing feels rushed. I know the majority of the board is aware of how great of a show this is, but I wanted to show my love for it and have some questions answered to make sure that I'm getting the most out of my viewing. I'm also taking the matches that were featured on the Mid-South DVDVR list and adding them to my watchlist so that I don't miss any of the big matches that weren't featured on the studio show and I've ran into some confusion. The first 1985 non-TV matches that were featured on the DVDVR are two matches from a Houston card that don't feel like they have any relationship to what was being shown on TV apart from some of the same talent being used. My second bit of confusion comes from the dates. The dates listed on the DVDVR list look to be from when the matches were either taped for TV or if they are from non-related shows. For example, I can't find Rock N Roll Express vs. Midnight Express (1/21/1985) online anywhere. I'm not sure if it was taped for weeks down the line and I will see it eventually. Basically what I'm asking is if there is an existing playlist floating around that features all the TV matches and the big blow off matches in one place?

I find it crazy that this place hasn't had a Fu-Ten thread yet. I love what I've seen of the short-lived promotion. If you haven't seen anything from them, imagine Battlarts with lo-fi guerilla production values and you're pretty much there. It was formed by Daisuke Ikeda in 2005 and ran 62 shows before closing its doors for good in 2015. On top of Ikdea, Battlarts alumni such as Yuji Ishikawa, Katsumi Usuda, and Takeshi Ono were all regulars on the cards. Well-known talents that also have made appearances for the promotions include the likes of Fujita Hayato, Zack Sabre Jr., Tamon Honda, Masao Inoue, Munenori Sawa, and Kota Ibushi. Here's a short match that sums up Fu-Ten in five minutes and it also happens to be one of my favorite matches. What are some of your memories of Fu-Ten? I remember first hearing about it when I was on the long-gone puroresu.tv forums. The shows were incredibly hard to get hold of and they didn't even appear on the usual torrents sites, perhaps as the promotion was too niche. The kind souls over at the Puro Archive have been uploading full Fu-Ten shows on YouTube and I watched the first one this afternoon. It's a damn fine show and it is only an hour long, so I highly recommend giving it a watch. Fu-ten BATI-BATI (4/24/2005) Katsumi Usuda vs. Kota Ibushi The first match in Fu-ten history sees a young Kota Ibushi take on shoot-style journeyman Katsumi Usuda. Don't expect any moonsaults from Ibushi in this environment, but he shows that he can work shoot-style surprisingly well. He is competent on the mat, he can trade strikes well and he knows how to milk drama out of every submission he finds himself in after Usuda catches one of Ibushi's many strikes. This told a compelling story of Ibushi being outmatched by Usuda, and Ibushi having to rely on his strikes to gain an advantage. Ibushi must avoid getting put in submissions at all costs, as he shows that he has to rely on a rope break to escape instead of attempting to wrestle his way into a better position. Modern-day Ibushi might be rather polarising, but this was a refresher on that how Ibushi has always had great fundamentals and basics, even if he doesn't always show them. ★★★½ Takeshi Ono vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo Outside of Ono being an absolute menace (he's one of my favorite non-main event shoot-style guys), this didn't really have much going for it outside of giving Ono a decisive victory. Judging by his takedowns, Kotsubo looks to be a fine amateur wrestler, but he doesn't bring much else to the table. He has little in the way of presence or charisma. Kotsubo initially tries to out-wrestle the striker, but he's forced to play Ono's game and delivers some blah strikes and a pitiful German suplex before Ono gets the ground and pound victory in a one-sided match that's just shy of five minutes. ★★ Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Hajime Moriyama & Kyosuke Sasaki This starts off feeling rather pedestrian, but things start to escalate once Fujita and Moriyama gets in a slap fight and lights a fire under everyone's asses. After this incident, you start to feel the resentment build between the teams as everyone takes cheap shots and this no longer feels like a professional sporting contest. Moriyama looked fantastic here and the only thing that he did that took me out of the match was 'hit' a spinning wheel kick that completely missed, although you could place the blame on the receiver for that ball's up. Much like Kota Ibushi did during the first match of this show, Hidaka takes to shoot-style like a fish takes to water. I loved how he would brace himself and try to fight through the pain as his opponents rain strikes down upon him. Once this got into gear, this was a hard-hitting affair that had plenty of drama. ★★★½ Manabu Hara vs. Hiroyuki Ito The highlight of this was Ito being an aggro bastard and laying in some disrespectful strikes, slaps and grinding his forearm into his opponent's skull whenever he isn't able to make progress on the ground game. Ito has more size on him than Hara and that plays into the story told of Ito being a total bully. I thought this was feeling a little on the generic side to start off, but I was completely invested in Hara pulling off an upset once he was able to counter an Ito strike with a rolling armbar. Ito starts to get tired after throwing bombs at Hara, and you are left hoping that Hara can fight through the pain and get the W. ★★★¼ Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa This might be one of the most famous matches from the promotion's ten-year run and for good reason: it's stiff as balls. Ikeda cheap shots Ishikawa at the start and this puts Ishikawa as the babyface of this match and it's nothing but pure violence from here on out! He gets stiffed and ends up bleeding from the mouth. I had no idea how Ishikawa throws his audibly loud punches and did not seriously hurt his opponent. He's a darkhorse pick for best puncher ever, even if I can't tell if he's pulling his punches or not! We get a nice close-up shot of Ishikawa raining down punches from a mount position and there is zero air in between the strikes and Ikeda's skull. There's not a phony moment to be found here as these two just whack the shit out of each other for 15 minutes. This is a great introduction to shoot-style. ★★★★¼

Thanks for the kind words! This match is a gem. Give it a watch. Perry Saturn vs Paul London (WWF Metal - aired 3/9/2002) Clocking in at just over six minutes, they got a lot more time than your usual enhancement match and this is one of the better ones. Saturn looks likes a killer, rocking plain black shorts and a bandana as he comes to the ring. While Saturn might not have been the most charismatic worker to ever lace up a pair of boots, you got the sense that he actually enjoys working stiff and hurting London here. Whether or not that's true, it did wonders to his presentation here and he comes across as a nasty bastard. All of Saturn's offense looked rather unique, all while still feel dangerous and not fancy for fancy's sake. Saturn lets London get in a few believable hope spots, but he makes him work for it first by brutalizing the kid. London sells his punishment wonderfully and that back flip face bump from Saturn's release dragon suplex was one that particularly stuck out in my mind. London gets some of the crowd to rally behind him, but it's not long before his hopes come crashing down when he misses a SSP from the top rope. A devastating DVD later and London is sent back to the indies. VERY GOOD Diamond Dallas Page vs Lance Storm (WWF Heat - aired 3/10/2002) Christian, complete with a horrible leather blazer, is in DDP's corner as DDP is trying to coach Christian to control his anger in an underrated undercard storyline. DDP is putting on his European strap against Lance Storm tonight and they gel together well. They open with some slick chain wrestling before Storm is able to start his control segment by guillotining DDP's throat across the top rope. DDP's bumping here was great, as I loved how he bounced into the air when he would take a bomb from Lance. My enjoyment would start to peter out here until to the finish, even though the wrestling was fundamentally sound. Christian starts freaking out when Storm gets his foot on the ropes after a DDP nearfall and DDP tries to calm him down. During this distraction, Storm is able to land a superkick and nearly wins the title. Even though I knew that DDP was heading into Wrestlemania as the champion, that nearfall had me convinced that Storm was winning this as it was set up perfectly. DDP is able to reign it in and score a Diamond Cutter to retain his title. This was an enjoyable match that had its moments, with the entertaining story propping the whole segment up. FUN Mr Perfect vs Rikishi (WWF Heat - aired 3/10/2002) The closest Perfect got to having a proper feud during his final WWF run was this business with Rikishi, which rarely ever left the C-shows. You can that Perfect was physically shot by this point. He ends up messing up a scoop slam counter, but he's enough of a pro to make the botch look intentional as he grabs Rikishi's leg as he goes down and turns it into a takedown. He then follows this up with a dubious kick to the 'upper thigh'. Perfect once again flubs a move by nearly getting dropped on his head as he doesn't get enough air on a back body drop. Rikishi uses Earthquake's old finisher to set up for his butt-bump/Stink Face sequence. It made for an awkward transitional move as Perfect had to get up from the mat and move to the corner after getting sat on. Before Rikishi can stick his ass in Perfect's face, Test runs in and lays out Rikishi with a big boot. Perfect shielded the referee away from this and is able sneak away with the pin. SKIPPABLE Mr Perfect, Test & Lance Storm vs Rikishi, Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert (WWF Heat - 3/17/2002) Six guys that are lost in the shuffle are sent out there to warm up the crowd on this very special edition of Heat that is airing live just before Wrestlemania begins. I know he didn't need to be a featured match at this point during his career, but seeing the reaction Perfect got during his entrance made me wish he was featured on the main card in some way. We get a brief glance at Scotty's rock-solid fundamentals such as how he strikes and how he sells strikes and it made me wish we got more chances to see him in longer matches during his WWF run. Perfect ends up taking the Stink Face, but he puts his towel up to stop Rikishi's bare ass from touching his face. Perhaps this was Hennig going into business for himself, but it resulted in a funny visual of Perfect's towel getting stuck in Rikishi's ass cheeks, so I couldn't care less. This was a fun sprint that certainly achieved its job of jerking the curtain before a massive Wrestlemania goes live. FUN Mr Perfect vs Rob Van Dam (WWF Heat - aired 3/24/2002) Fresh of his Wrestlemania victory, RVD's first title defence is against Mr Perfect. This match looks good on paper, but then you remember that RVD is nowhere near as good in the ring as your childhood would like to believe and Hennig has been past his best days by a decade at this point. RVD gets his signature shoulder thrusts in and forces Perfect to rethink his strategy. Perfect bashes RVD's head into the corner as he kick-starts his dull control segment. There's just not much here that's worth talking about. Perfect attempts to steal this one by pinning RVD with the help of the ropes, but the referee stops his count as soon as he sees Perfect trying to cheat his way to the title. Perfect not winning here got some loud boos from the crowd. Just as Perfect is arguing with the official, RVD lays him out with a kick and goes high to retain his strap in his first TV defence. SKIPPABLE Scott Hall vs Crash (WWF Heat - aired 4/7/2002) What a weird pairing during a very weird time for the company. Raven is randomly here as a guest commentator, but doesn't add anything to the presentation. Holly runs rings around Hall in attempt to tire him out, but this spot just exposed how past it Hall was during this dark time in his life. The crowd are just happy to see Hall play all his greatest songs and he delivers them to a satisfactory standard. Hall cuts Crash off with a SOS slam, which he gives the camera a smirk before he throws Crash overhead. We also get the spinning discus punch, back superplex and Hall's horrible chokeslam where he barely gets Holly off the ground. Despite the uniqueness of this pairing, this was ultimately a rather boring squash match. SKIPPABLE Hugh Morrus vs Lance Storm (WWF Metal - aired 4/20/2002) One of my finds since doing this project is that Lance Storm is a damn fine pro wrestler. He sure as hell wasn't going to main eventing any pay-per-views, but his fundamentals are sublime and you can't see through his work. Morrus has some cool power spots in his arsenal and had some charismatic sneering facials every time he would brush off Storm's strikes. They get given a fair bit of time and they try to build up some week-to-week storytelling by having this end with a double countout after they fight on the floor for too long, but I can't say I'd ever want to rewatch this or watch the follow-up match, so I can't really recommend it even through both guys put in the effort and the result is a solid yet unspectacular bout. SKIPPABLE Big Show vs Steven Richards & Justin Credible (WWF Heat - 4/21/2002) Before Backlash officially kicks off, Big Show is sent out there to squash some fools in a matter of minutes in an attempt to rehabilitate his image after having a rather stop-and-start WWF run so far. He looks very motivated and the crowd are happy to see him. You can tell when Show gives a damn by how well-groomed and in shape he is in. Richards and Credible play the parts of the useless idiots well. We get a lot of the Andre handicap match spots here. The only move that Credible and Richards lands on Show that fazes him is their double superkick. This doesn't end up working well for them as the momentum sends Show into the ropes and he comes right back at them, bulldozing the heels away like a couple of bothersome flies. Show then picks them up and puts them away with the double chokeslam, a move which Jim Ross refers to as 'double penetration'. Ew. This match did it's job well enough, but it's not exactly worth going out of your way to see. SKIPPABLE Eddie Guerrero vs D'Lo Brown (WWF Heat - aired 4/28/2002) Guerrero is the new IC champ after beating RVD at the last PPV (a small touch that I'll always love: Howard Finkel announcing a new champion as 'the new' champion during their first entrance since winning the strap). D'Lo Brown makes his return to TV after a year's absence. He's basically Koko B. Ware in 1993 at this point: a popular and established undercard wrestler whose sole purpose is to put over the newer talent. Beating a washed-up popular star from the previous era is much more impressive than beating a no-name local talent after all. Brown and Guerrero click well and bring plenty of work rate to the table. D'Lo pulls out interesting stuff like a swing side slam and a cool spinning wheel kick, but it's his shaky head leg drop is the move that gets the biggest reaction. Guerrero never forgets that it's his job to be booed, and he swaggers around the place while still being able to keep up the pace during this short match. Guerrero cuts D'Lo off with a perfectly executed tornado DDT off the ropes, and slowly takes his time going for the Frog Splash. He takes enough time that makes you think that D'Lo might be able to move, but it's not to be and Guerrero walks away with the victory. FUN

I've not been in the mood to watch lengthy matches and shows as of late and I stumbled across the excellent Monsoon Classic Youtube channel that is chock-full of matches from C-shows from many US promotions. A lot of these matches looked interesting, so I spent an entire morning making my way through them and decided to make this a mini-project. Seeing as most of these matches are on the short side and clock in at 3-4 minutes on average, I've decided to ditch the regular star rating system and instead opted for a Segunda Caida-style rating system. I'll start this off with an era that takes me back to my childhood. I remember watching Metal and Heat more the the big shows as a kid, as they were usually on during that sweet spot of the morning where you had an hour to watch TV before you headed off to school. Christian vs Loki (WWF Metal - aired 1/12/2002) According to the commentators, Christian is the European Champion, but this is a non-title match as Christian doesn't consider Loki a worthy contender. As talented as Loki is, he's not exactly the best choice for an enhancement talent as he seems more focused on getting himself over rather than enhancing Christian. He takes a big bump to the guardrail from the ring apron and busts out all of his usual high spots. We get the Tidal Wave springboard roundhouse kick and the Tidal Crush cartwheel corner kick. We even see him attempt the Phoenix Splash, which has to be the first ever time that move was attempted on a WWF show (they even refer to the move by the name)! Despite my critiques of Loki trying get himself over at the expense of the actual star (in Loki's defence, the crowd do start to cheer for him), this was still an enjoyable little bout. FUN Crash vs Prince Nana (WWF Metal - aired 1/12/2002) On top of losing his surname, Crash has also lost super heavyweight gimmick as he is announced at a trim 220lbs as he comes to the ring to face future ROH manager Prince Nana. Coach refers to Nana as Prince Banana because of his yellow gear. Crash feels like a happy-go-lucky World Of Sport wrestler here due to the comedic babyface spots he peppers into this enhancement match. He would psycho out Nana by confusing him with a test of strength before stomping on his feet. Crash also has this amusing bit where he is scared off coming off the top rope. Nana gets in his one nearfall on Crash after hitting him with a flapjack and seaton splash. Crash is eventually able to fight his fear of heights as he lands a cross body from the top rope before sending Nana back to the showers after landing his bulldog finish. Crash had a fun gimmick, but this isn't interesting enough to watch by itself. SKIPPABLE Sgt. Slaughter & Perry Saturn vs The Dudley Boyz (WWF Heat - aired 1/13/2002) Sgt. Slaughter makes a rare return to the ring on a C-show. In the wake of 9/11, Americans looked for any old reason to chant USA, so sending Sarge out there was a smart move. Sarge is rather limited in what he can do physically by 2002, but he is over with this crowd, who are happy to just see him. The only bump he takes here is when he suplexes D'von and looks like he almost gives himself a hernia. Post-Moppy Saturn was lost in the shuffle once the Invasion storyline wrapped up, so they sent him out in camo pants to team with Sarge and to take the majority of the punishment. Bubba taunts Sarge by impersonating him, before missing a seaton splash from the middle rope. Sarge is tagged in and cleans house and locks on the Cobra Clutch. This move was still over by 2002, as Sarge sent the crowd into a frenzy once he locks in it. It doesn't get the job done and the match is thrown out once Sarge removes his belt and starts whipping the Dudleyz, and giving Stacy a slap on the ass for good measure. FUN Boss Man vs Shawn Stasiak (WWF Metal - aired 1/19/2002) If you thought that WWE shortening their wrestler's names for no reason was a new thing, then look no further than poor Ray Traylor having his well-established (and admittedly kind of dumb) gimmick name shortened to just Boss Man (a very dumb gimmick name). I was disappointed to see this was pre-Planet Stasiak Shawn Stasiak. He's just a not-over babyface with a generic and boring look. You can just tell he was a real-life goofball and he can't do anything well except being a crazed comedy curtain jerker. Both guys do some stuff with a fan in the front row (the commentators talk about him as if he was some sort of known celebrity, but I can't find anything online about him). This was a dull five minutes to sit through. Boss Man added some personality by trash-talking everyone within his sights. He throws a good punch and sells punches well too, by whipping his head back and slobbering all over the place. One Boss Man Slam out of nowhere and this one is mercifully over. SKIPPABLE The Hurricane vs AJ Styles (WWF Metal - aired 1/26/2002) I know Styles wasn't keen on signing with the WWF during this time due to family commitments, but I'm surprised that the guys behind the scenes didn't do everything in their power to get him signed to a contract. You can tell that he is a special talent, even at this point. He already has things like bumping, posturing to the crowd and all the athletic stuff down to a tee. The match opens with Styles showing some disrespect to Hurricane after Hurricane offers him a handshake. Styles gets a bit more stuff in than you usual job guy. He lands a brutal brainbuster and is allowed to escape from Hurricane's chokeslam and Eye of the Hurricane move. He's presented as a minor threat to Hurricane, but he knows he is here to shine Hurricane up and not to make himself a star. After Styles misses a shooting star press, Hurricane puts away his virtually unknown (as he is described by Coach on commentary) opponent with the Vertebreaker. FUN Christian vs Diamond Dallas Page (WWF Heat - aired 1/27/2002) Christian is the European champion, but it is not on the line here. In a cool spot, DDP goes for the Diamond Cutter early, but Christian is able to hold onto the ropes and DDP sends himself crashing onto his back. The action here is on the basic side, but I was impressed by how smooth DDP's tilt-a-whirl side slam looked. After one of his big moves doesn't get the job done, Christian starts throwing a temper tantrum and ends up costing himself the match after DDP successfully lands a Diamond Cutter. This wasn't bad, just ultimately forgettable. It is nice to see DDP still remain over with the fans in spite of his WWF run being a disaster. SKIPPABLE The Hurricane vs Lance Storm (WWF Heat - aired 2/3/2002) Despite their wildly contrasting gimmicks, Hurricane and Storm work a similar style and it seemed like they would work well together. It's a shame that this only goes three minutes. I know the point of this project is to showcase snappy matches that make the most of the time they are given, but this is a pairing that would have worked much better together if they got a few more minutes to tell a story. They trade some fluid sequences and Hurricane squeezes in a big tope to the outside. I dug Hurricane escaping peril by dodging and rolling, as if he was a superhero. Storm catches Hurricane's superkick attempt and lays him out with one of his own to pick up a clean victory. FUN Boss Man vs Michael Shane (WWF Metal - aired 2/23/2002) Boss Man looks a lot bigger than he was during his Attitude Era run, and he takes one bump during this match. Despite him not being in the best shape, he clearly knows what he's doing, as he walks around the place with menace and with a smirk plastered across his face. We some fun Boss Man mannerisms (Boss Mannerisms? I'll see myself out) and I love how he pinned Shane after only put a single finger on his chest. Shane looked good here. He has a decent look and brought some fire during the brief moments where he was able to get some stuff in. This was a serviceable squash match featuring one of my favourite big men and an enhancement talent who had all the tools to go far, but just never really amounted to much. FUN Rob Van Dam vs Lance Storm (WWF Heat - aired 3/3/2002) The best thing to ever happened to RVD was to join WWE and have a salty veteran in the back forcing him to stick to TV formats and telling him to structure his matches better. Some of his ECW matches had long-drawn-out stalling and moments where RVD would just throw out big moves with little rhyme or reason, just to pop the smarky fans. Those problems disappeared when he joined WWE and he didn't even have to make alterations to his unique working style. On the subject of ECW, Storm and RVD are no strangers to each other and you can tell that they have great chemistry here. Both men are clearly comfortable with each other as they work stiff, particularly Storm when he cuts off RVD. This was a sprint, but it didn't feel rushed. They made the most of the time they were given and crammed in a lot of stuff. They do a cool sequence where they constantly counter each other's kicks and it is amazing to see how they were able to pull this off without it looking fake or stagey. You probably aren't going to get a star as big as RVD working the C-shows and the crowd goes crazy for him and all of his classic high spots. If you liked their Barely Legal encounter, then definitely give this a watch. VERY GOOD

WWF In Your House 19: D-Generation X (12/7/1997) WWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament Final Match Taka Michinoku vs. Brian Christopher This was less of a balls-to-the-wall WCW cruiserweight bout and more of a traditional match with a strict face/heel divide. With his high-pitched squealing and his goofy mannerisms, Brian Christopher walked the fine line between generating real heel heat and genuine annoyance. The whole bit with Jerry Lawler being in denial that Christopher is his kid is amusing. Christopher served as the perfect foil for Taka and his antics stopped this one from feeling like a spotfest, like some of Taka's other WWF bouts. The match begins with Christopher using his bigger frame to overpower Taka. Christopher stays on top by keeping the pace slow, which made the fans root for Taka as they know Taka can pull out some insane stuff if he is able to get going. Christopher ends up bleeding from the mouth when he crashes face-first into the guardrail. My interest starts to peter out when Christopher spends way too much time on top, with him seemingly running out of stuff to do and starts stalling to fill up time. The finish is also quite sudden, with Taka quickly finishing Christopher off after dodging a Tennesee Jam and landing a beautifully executed Michinoku Driver. Despite my qualms with the final few minutes, this was a great way to kick off the PPV. ★★★¾ The Disciples Of Apocalypse (8-Ball, Chainz & Skull) vs. Los Boricuas (Jesus Castillo, Jose Estrada & Miguel Perez) (w/Savio Vega) Crush leaves for WCW after the Montreal Screwjob, but WWF insists on keeping the heatless Los Boricas vs DOA feud going, even if no one was clamouring for another match between them. The fans try to keep themselves entertained by telling Perez to shave his back. Chainz gets one of the coldest hot tags I've ever seen here. Perez looks to hurt his leg after coming off the top rope, so he has to bail out of the ring. Savio tries to interject himself as a replacement, but the referee isn't having this. As the ref is trying to get Savio out, it is revealed that Perez was faking his injury as he rushes in and attacks Chainz and wins the match for his team. Like most of the Gang Warz matches, this was completely forgettable. ★½ Four Rounds Boxing Match Marc Mero (w/Ray Rinaldi & Sable) vs. Butterbean (w/Art Gore & Murray Sutherland) Butterbean is signed on by the WWF to work two matches. He is nowhere near as over as they would hope he would be. This is worked boxing. It's going to suck. What made this worse is that they went four rounds before Mero gets himself disqualified. Austin vs Tyson, this ain't. DUD WWF World Tag Team Title Match Billy Gunn & The Road Dogg (c) vs. The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) The tag team scene in WWF during 1997 was so bad. The New Age Outlaws seemed to be a breath of fresh air when they turned up late in the year, as they seem to click together well, but they have never been miracle workers and they can't get anything good out of a way past their prime LOD. Hawk does his dropkick to try and convince people that he still belongs in the ring. Animal nearly breaks Billy Gunn's face when he messes up a press slam onto the steel steps. Road Dogg feeds for the LOD decently enough. On top of the drab action, this had a crap finish too. Just when LOD has this won, Henry Godwin comes down and attacks the babyfaces with his slop bucket when the referee isn't looking. Hawk fights off Godwin and ends up getting DQ'd after going apeshit with Henry's bucket. ★ Boot Camp Match Triple H (w/Chyna) vs. Sgt. Slaughter It's funny that WWF constantly took shots at WCW for not using younger talent and here they are giving an overweight 49-year-old Sgt. Slaughter a featured match on PPV! This was slow and they didn't have much in the way of heat. In a moment that made the babyface look both stupid and weak, Slaughter struggles to get down on his knees to pin Hunter on the outside, only to be reminded by the ref that this isn't a falls count anywhere match! Slaughter removes his belt and Jim Ross reminisces about being beaten by his father. Given Slaughter's physical shape, I was surprised to see that he actually did the classic Slaughter bump over the top rope. Slaughter shows that he can still throw a great punch when he attempts to make a comeback. Chyna eventually gets involved, but Slaughter takes her out by throwing powder in her eyes. She's able to recover and hits Slaughter with a low blow so hard that you can hear it. Triple H hits a Pedigree on a steel chair and this one is mercifully over. Slaughter clearly put the effort in here, but he's not in good enough shape to have a match that's worthy to be on PPV. ★½ Jeff Jarrett vs. The Undertaker What the hell was up with Jarrett's gimmick here? He's no longer a country music star. He's just a cocky wrestler in a hideous singlet. They're also referring to this as Jarrett's debut on commentary, even though he had a two-year run with the company that ended the year before. Jarrett dodges Undertaker's strikes and lands some of his own, but it doesn't have much of an effect on Undertaker. Undertaker throws Jarrett in the corner and lays in a big punch combo as the crowd goes crazy. This was pretty basic stuff, with Jarrett trying to chop down Undertaker's leg to gain an advantage. Anyway, this doesn't go long before the lights go out and Kane makes his entrance. He hits Jarrett, and then Undertaker, but Undertaker refuses to hit his brother. Once Kane and Undertaker leave, Jarrett is announced as the winner via DQ and celebrates as if he has just won the WWF title. ★½ WWF Intercontinental Title Match Steve Austin (c) vs. The Rock (w/D-Lo Brown, Faarooq & Kama Mustafa) They pad this out to hide the fact that Austin still hasn't recovered from his neck injury. Austin makes his way to the ring on the truck to a monster pop. The Nation constantly try to get involved, and they attack Austin before the match officially begins. D'lo takes a nasty bump from the ring onto Austin's truck, shattering the windshield in the process. Kama then accidentally wipes out Faarooq with a steel chair after Austin moves out of the way. Despite Austin not being able to bump because of his injury, Rock and Austin keep the match basic. This was a whole lot of basic brawling, but the fans are invested in the two characters, so they don't mind at all. The finish was a bit of an over-convoluted mess, with Austin hitting the stunner on the referee by accident. Rock tries to use brass knuckles on Austin, but Austin is able to score another stunner and another ref comes in to count the pinfall. These two would obviously go on to have better matches, but you can tell that they have chemistry together just by watching this brief match here. ★★¾ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Shawn Michaels (w/Chyna & Triple H) (c) vs. Ken Shamrock Judging by Shawn's horrid pre-match promo, he looks pilled-up to the gills. I thought this looked promising to begin with. Shamrock's ankle lock is treated as a huge deal. HBK comes into this not treating Shamrock seriously and is able to hang with him during the early exchanges, but one Shamrock kick to the chest is enough to knock Shawn out of the ring and HBK starts to doubt himself and he has to rethink his strategy. Shawn excels at being the chickenshit heel in retreat and this was no different, it's just that this match takes a huge nosedive once Chyna and Triple H interfere and Shawn takes control. Talk about a dull control segment. Michaels felt completely directionless working on top and they suck the life out of the building when HBK locks on a lengthy chinlock to allow Shamrock to capture his breath after getting blown up. The loud-spot calling didn't help matters either. We get a few halfway decent hope spots that wake the crowd back up, but its not long before this one abruptly ends once Shamrock locks on the ankle lock and the rest of DX swarm the ring and cause the disqualification. Shamrock shits the bed during the biggest match of his career up to this point and HBK didn't exactly set the world on fire either. Owen Hart ends up making his return after being MIA since Montreal. If they had just gone off air after the DQ finish, fans would have pelted garbage into the ring, so it's a good thing that Owen makes his return here. ★★ Final Thoughts: They really did save the worst for last. This was a bad show. Post-Montreal WWF was a weird time, and it would take a few months before they were able to find their footing once again. WWF 1997 TV Odds and Ends Q4 WWF Raw Is War (10/07/1997) Brian Christopher vs. Tajiri I didn't expect to see Tajiri pop up in 1997 WWF! Even though this was a five-minute TV match solely designed to heat up Brian Christopher before he faces TAKA, this was still a letdown to me as Taijiri would be the king of TV sprints during his later WWE run. Christopher brought the antics and Taijiri brought the moves, but it was everything in between that let this one down. These two just didn't click. Tajiri kicks hard and this wakes up the fans before putting them off by following up with some sloppy sequences. Tajiri's springboard elbow makes its WWF debut, but it doesn't look as impactful as it did during his later run. After Taijiri misses a spinning wheel kick which Christopher sells as if it hit him, the wheels really start to come off. Their timings are all off and they even botch the finish, where Christopher counters Taijiri's clutching pin and wins the match with a handful of tights. ★½ WWF Raw Is War (10/21/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title / WWF European Title Match Owen Hart (c) vs. Shawn Michaels (c) Yeah, it is cheap that they advertised this as a match where it looks as if you are guaranteed a title change, only for it to have a non-finish. This has a weird dynamic, as it's not abundantly clear who the babyface is and who the heel is. Owen is the underdog of a heel stable whilst Shawn is ...eh Shawn, so he's naturally going to be hated by certain sections of the audience. These two work so well together. Shawn feeds off Owen's strikes masterfully and makes Owen look like a badass. The cameras miss a piledriver on the floor as they are too busy focusing on the rest of the Hart Foundation watching the match in the back. This showed flashes of brilliance, but being a 1997 TV match featuring top talent, you are certainly going to get a screwy non-finish to kill things off just as things get interesting. Austin, who is finally looking like a megastar, sneaks into the ring and causes the rest of the Hart Foundation to rush out and end the match. ★★★ WWF Raw Is War (taped 10/21/1997, aired 10/27/1997) WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Bret Hart (c) vs. Ken Shamrock Bret carries Shamrock to a decent match that plays into Shamrock's strengths and features a lot of mat-based stuff. In a glorious counter, Shamrock heel hooks his way out of a sharpshooter and is able to lock on an ankle lock, but he knocks over the referee in the process. Shawn Michaels runs down and lays out Bret with a superkick. Shamrock isn't pleased with HBK getting involved, so he snaps and takes out him. The match abruptly ends as Shamrock refuses to let Shawn go. This had a weak finish, but you could tell that Hart and Shamrock had chemistry and it's a shame they never had a chance to have a proper PPV match between them. ★★¾ WWF Raw Is War (12/29/1997) WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Shawn Michaels (w/Chyna) (c) vs. Owen Hart I've always assumed that Owen and Shawn would be able to have an absolute classic match between them post-Montreal, but I'm less sure about that after watching this. Don't get me wrong, this was a good TV main event, but Owen exposed himself as a weak brawler and he didn't show much in the way of fire or aggression during the first few minutes where Owen is finally able to get his hands on the man who screwed over his big brother. Owen was much better during the finishing stretch, where he would bust out all his signature moves in a lightning-quick fashion, with each of them getting a convincing nearfall. Triple H comes down during the break and we all the usual DX interference that you can expect from them. Shawn was much better working on top here than he was during his PPV match with Shamrock a few weeks prior. He actually showed a lot of attitude as he jabbed away at a downed Owen. This had an identical finish to the aforementioned Shamrock match, with Triple H causing the disqualification after he interferes just as the babyface has Shawn beat in his submission hold. ★★¾ Top 20 WWF of 1997 Matches: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (No Holds Barred Submission Match) (WWF Wrestlemania 13 - 3/23/1997) The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (Hell in a Cell) (WWF In Your House 18: Bad Blood - 10/5/1997) Goldust, Ken Shamrock, Steve Austin & The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Brian Pillman, Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog) (WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede - 7/6/1997) British Bulldog vs. Owen Hart (WWF Monday Night Raw - aired 3/3/1997) Owen Hart & The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin (WWF Raw Is War - 26/5/1997) The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart (WWF One Night Only - 9/20/1997) Vader vs. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker (Final Four) (WWF In Your House 13: Final Four - 2/16/1997) Mankind vs. The Undertaker (WWF In Your House 14: Revenge Of The Taker - 4/20/1997) British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels (WWF One Night Only - 9/20/1997) TAKA Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke (WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede - 7/6/1997) Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels (WWF King Of The Ring 1997 - 6/8/1997) Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (WWF In Your House 14: Revenge Of The Taker - 4/20/1997) Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker (WWF Summerslam 1997 - 8/3/1997) Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels (WWF Raw Is War - 8/11/1997) Cactus Jack vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Falls Count Anywhere) (WWF Raw Is War - 9/22/1997) Vader vs. Ken Shamrock (No Holds Barred Match) (WWF In Your House 15: A Cold Day In Hell - 5/11/1997) Taka Michinoku vs. Brian Christopher (WWF In Your House 19: D-Generation X - 12/7/1997) Bret Hart vs. The Patriot (WWF In Your House 17: Ground Zero - 9/7/1997) Ahmed Johnson & The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Nation Of Domination (Crush, Faarooq & Savio Vega) (Chicago Street Fight) (WWF Wrestlemania 13 - 3/23/1997) The Undertaker vs. Vader (WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede - 7/6/1997) Overall: 1997 was one of the most interesting years in company history. The product felt like a complete different promotion from January to December. The year features two of the best matches in company history, Bret Hart's best run and the rise of Austin. On the other side of the coin, you have to deal with Brian Pillman's death, Montreal, endless Gang Warz matches and TV matches that just almost guarnteened to end in a non-finish. I've had a great time watching these shows as a whole and I'd still say that 1997 was one of my favourite years for the WWF.

WWF In Your House 18: Bad Blood (10/5/1997) The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Nation Of Domination (D-Lo Brown, Kama Mustafa & Rocky Maivia) In Rocky's first PPV match since turning heel and joining the Nation, Maivia is looking much more at home riling up the fans than he was when he was desperately trying to portray a white meat babyface. Ken Shamrock was meant to team with LOD, but he's out injured because of Faarooq, so this is now a handicap match. Animal hits a dropkick here and Hawk even busts out an enziguri, but the rare bit of flashy offense from LOD isn't enough to make the match stick out from their other outings from around this time period. The fans still go crazy from them and Animal even make a pitiful attempt at selling as the Nation work over him during the hot tag segment. The LOD finally get their hands on Rocky and just as they have him set up for the Doomsday Device, Faarooq appears and Rocky is able to hit the still unnamed Rock Bottom to win. ★★¼ Max Mini & Nova vs. Mosaic & Tarantula This was nowhere near as decent as the minis match we got a Ground Zero for multiple reasons. Brian Pillman died earlier in the day, so this match is replacing Pillman's match with Dude Love. Going straight from a sombre real-life announcement to a comedy match was a misjudged move. I can see Vince's reasoning here as comedy could have been a great way to distract fans from the tragedy, but it came off as rather tacky. The action itself was what you'd expect. There's less comedy than the previous minis PPV match, but the premise is the same, with the larger minis acting as the heels and work over the smaller team. There's quite a few botchy sequences and the finish looks to be blundered too. Seeing Max Mini and Jerry Lawler interact was still amusing at least. ★½ WWF World Tag Team Title Match The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) (c) vs. The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) (w/Uncle Cletus) Sunny is the guest ring announcer. Anytime the WWF would shoehorn Sunny into a match to be a guest ring announcer it was a clear indicator that the match had nothing going for it. The addition of Sunny would at least add some star power and a guaranteed pop when she comes out. Maybe that should have tried booking compelling matches? You know you are watching a dull match when one of the few replays was just a slow-motion close-up of one of the Headbanger's tongue piercing. The Godwins have a new manager in Uncle Cletus, but he does nothing to freshen up their act. Phineas nearly gets paralyzed by a botched flapjack. This was just deathly boring. The Godwins win the tag straps to little fanfare. Can I say anything positive about this? Well, I like Mosh's Type O Negative shirt. That's about it. ★ WWF Intercontinental Title Tournament Final Match Owen Hart vs. Faarooq This match is the finals to a tournament to crown a new IC champion, after Austin was forced to vacate the title after getting his neck broken by Owen. Due to the death of Brian Pillman just hours earlier, Owen looks visually shaken and his performance understandably suffers because of it. Stone Cold comes out and terrorizes all of the commentary teams as the match takes place. Austin's involvement was the sole highlight of the entire match. Owen lands a spinning wheel kick and starts chopping down on Faarooq's leg. Despite the fans not caring about this in the slightest, Faarooq does a decent job of selling. Austin whacks Faarooq with the IC title and lets Owen win the match, a move that leaves the commentators confused. This would have been abysmal without the inclusion of Austin. ★★ The Disciples Of Apocalypse (8-Ball, Chainz, Crush & Skull) vs. Los Boricuas (Jesus Castillo, Jose Estrada, Miguel Perez & Savio Vega) Why did they insist on continuing this rivalry when they would always get crap matches with minimal crowd reactions? This might be one of the most uneventful matches to ever take place on PPV. It sucks, but there aren't even any botches to laugh at. There are no high spots, no one is over, and the action just consists of some of the most rudimentary brawling ever. Just a whole plate of nothing. ½★ Tag Team Flag Match The Patriot & Vader vs. The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & The British Bulldog) Judging by the fiery pre-match brawl that these four get into before the match officially starts, you would think that this might actually be decent. Then the match actually begins and the pace slows down and not a whole lot of note happens. The flag stipulation added nothing to the match and it detracted from the action as you have to deal with the wrestlers slowly attempting to grab their country's flag. Bret was pretty decent at breaking the rules when he was the illegal man, causing damage behind the referee's back. A fan tries to jump into the ring but is quickly taken care of. In a callback spot to their unsung cracker of a match at Ground Zero, Patriot counters Bret's sharpshooter into one of his own. Vader misses a moonsault, but nearly ends up landing clean on his feet! Overall, this match ends up going way too long and it is one of Bret's weakest PPV outings. ★★ WWF World Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Hell In A Cell Match The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (w/Chyna, Rick Rude & Triple H) Although it might be overshadowed by Kane's debut, Shawn's horrific bladejob, and bump from the cell, the first half of the match is incredibly well structured with Shawn backing away from Undertaker and only striking when he's able to find an opening. Undertaker stalking Shawn felt like it was lifted right out of a slasher film. Shawn has to use the environment around him if he wants to stand a chance and he comes up with some pretty unique spots, concluding with a piledriver on the steel steps. Shawn gets pissy with a cameraman for being in his way and this would come into play a few minutes later when he starts stomping on a different cameraman. This cameraman needs medical help, so WWF officials open the cell to get the man to safety. After Undertaker sits up after taking a Sweet Chin Music. Shawn decides to rush out of the cell. This was a really creative way to get them out of the cell. It becomes absolute pandemonium once they reach the top of the cell. Shawn just gets his ass handed to him as he bumps and bleeds all over the ringside area. Kane debuts and rips off the cell door as Vince McMahon makes one of his most memorable lines on commentary. One tombstone later, Shawn is able to drag his battered body onto of Undertaker to win the match. This was an absolute classic, featuring some sublime booking and two career-best performances from both Undertaker and Michaels. ★★★★★ Final Thoughts: Brian Pillman's death hangs over the card and it feels hard to not think about him when watching this one. It's only during the main event, I was able to switch off and lose myself in the wrestling. A total one match show. WWF Survivor Series 1997 (9/11/1997) Survivor Series Elimination Eight Man Tag Team Match The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn), Billy Gunn & The Road Dogg vs. The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) & The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Bradshaw & Blackjack Windham) I thought this was a touch better than the usual fluff we'd get from the abysmal WWF tag division in 1997. Making their PPV debut as a team, the New Age Outlaws added some much-needed personality to the tag division. Perhaps it's the Texas crop top, but Billy Gunn got nuclear heat from the Montreal crowd. Bradshaw puts the effort in here and looks fired up for the limited time that he's in here before being rolled up and eliminated. Thrasher works over Phineas' arm and bites his fingers when the referee isn't looking. It's not long before all of Thrasher's teammates are eliminated and he has to take on the Outlaws by himself. There's nothing too memorable here. There's no storyline progression nor are there any big spots featured here, but this served as a decent enough opener. ★★¾ Survivor Series Elimination Eight Man Tag Team Match The Disciples Of Apocalypse (8-Ball, Chainz, Crush & Skull) vs. The Truth Commission (Jackyl, Recon, Sniper & The Interrogator) The Interrogator is the most run-of-the-mill giant ever. He's not Great Khali levels of terrible, he's just painfully uninteresting. All he does is grunt, no-sell, and put away his opponents with a weak side slam finish that looked like it wouldn't have hurt a fly. It's clear that neither the Truth Commission nor the future Kurrgan were going to get over by watching this. Skull and 8-Ball do their twin magic thing to zero reaction. The Jackal did his cowardly manager spot well, and he joins commentary after his quick elimination and is the only decent thing about the match. Like all DOA matches, this was rather dull and not a whole lot happens. At least they aren't still fighting Los Boricuas. ★ Survivor Series Elimination Eight Man Tag Team Match Goldust, Marc Mero, Steve Blackman & Vader (w/Sable) vs. Team Canada (Doug Furnas, Jim Neidhart, Philip LaFon & The British Bulldog) Despite both teams feeling thrown together, this wasn't a bad match. Steve Blackman makes his WWF in-ring debut here and he didn't leave much of an impression. After hitting a few bang-average martial arts moves and exposing himself as a charisma vacuum during the pre-match promo, he gets counted out and Jim Ross tries to put Blackman over by claiming he got counted out as he wasn't familiar with the rules of the WWF due to him only competing in martial arts contests before this, In one of his last great performances, Bulldog looked fantastic getting his babyface shine in. LaFon and Furnas seemed off here. Making their first PPV appearance since Wrestlemania, they weren't as snug as they usually were and they worked at a more lethargic pace than usual. Goldust has turned heel, and refuses to wrestle here. He tries to blame his broken hand before leaving Vader out to dry. The Goldust stuff added some much-needed story-telling to the match, as this entire match would feel inconsequential without it. Bulldog having to cheat to win felt like a weird booking choice, as he was the main babyface here and he didn't do anything heelish leading up to the bell shot. ★★½ Mankind vs. Kane (w/Paul Bearer) After Kane takes out Dude Love, Mick Foley resurrects Mankind to get revenge on Kane. Only a top talent like Mick Foley could get that over without it being utterly ridiculous. What is ridiculous is that distracting red lighting that covers the arena and plagues all of Kane's early matches. Thank god WWE never did anything that silly again, right? ! Awful lighting aside, this was a hell of a way for Kane to make his in-ring debut. Mankind made Kane here in the same way that he made Triple H in 1997. We see Mankind go through the announce table and get press slammed from the top rope to the floor, but the focus never feels like it's not on Kane. Kane must have been watching his Halloween VHS, as all his mannerisms reminded me of Michael Myers. Kane's sit-up and tombstone still needed work, as they don't look as natural as they would look a few years down the line yet. Mankind gets a few hope spots, one after he flapjacks Kane onto the steel steps and one after a DDT, but it's not long until Kane disposes of Mankind with a tombstone. ★★★½ Survivor Series Elimination Eight Man Tag Team Match Ahmed Johnson, Ken Shamrock & The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Nation Of Domination (D-Lo Brown, Faarooq, Kama Mustafa & The Rock) Rocky, LOD, and Shamrock all get monster reactions, with the crowd mainly wanting to see Rocky get his comeuppance. Hawk and D'Lo start and Hawn does his no-sell piledriver spot within seconds of the match starting. Thankfully it is not long until Rocky is able to hit the Rock Bottom two minutes in and sends Hawk back to the showers. Ahmed looks spent here, both physically and mentally. Not only has he put on a bunch of weight, but he looks like he would rather be elsewhere. The match starts to drag once the babyfaces are at a 2-on-3 disadvantage. Shamrock is way too green to carry this, and Animal was way past his sell-by date at this point and it doesn't help matters that it's mostly the dull pairing of Kama and D'Lo that they are working with, as Rock spends most of his time on the apron during this portion of the match. Rock wakes the crowd up by hitting a low blow after sneaking when the referee isn't looking. The New Age Outlaws come out in LOD gear and get Animal counted out after they go old-school and throw powder in his eyes. Shamrock and Rock are the last two men remaining and Shamrock looked great here, kicking out of all of Rock's signature moves and looking intense as hell. Rock hits the first ever People's Elbow on PPV and it's a strange sight to see that move get no reaction. This was a mixed bag overall, but there's enough good here to cancel out the bad stuff. ★★½ WWF Intercontinental Title Match Owen Hart (w/Doug Furnas, Jim Neidhart, Philip LaFon & The British Bulldog) (c) vs. Steve Austin Austin, who had his neck broken literally three months before this, is rushed back onto the active roster. It might not been the smartest move, as his performance here felt limited and I'm sure him rushing back was a major factor in him having to retire young. Despite Austin not being able to take a bump, this match had a plenty of intensity and they managed to tell a decent story in the four minutes that they were given. Bulldog, Furnas, LaFon and Anvil accompany Owen to the ring, but Austin sends them packing once Neidhart gets hit with the Stunner. This distraction was enough for Owen to take advantage and start the match. We get a lot of brawling and piledriver teases before Austin hits a Stunner out of nowhere and wins back the title. Despite being in Canada, the crowd didn't seem to mind Austin winning. ★★½ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Bret Hart (c) vs. Shawn Michaels This was looking to be Bret and Shawn's best match before the infamous screwjob took place. Despite being two of the best ever, they never really had great matches with each other. They spent a ton of time fighting on the floor and through the crowd before the match gets officially underway. The brawling was intense, but nothing of note really happened. HBK was a heat magnet here and the fan's venom for him added a lot to the atmosphere. It's still so easy to hate him in retrospect when you know he is about to be a key part in legitimately screwing Bret out of the title. The fans are ecstatic once Bret is able to lock Shawn in the ring post figure four. Shawn cuts off Bret by launching Earl Hebner into Bret. Just as it looks like the match is about to begin to build to a thrilling finishing stretch, Shawn locks on the sharpshooter, and mass confusion ensues. The match itself isn't worth going out of your way for, but this is essential viewing for every wrestling fan as it shows you how real-life backstage politics can bleed into the staged match. Bret deserved better than this. ★★★ Final Thoughts: If you remove the Screwjob, this was one uneventful show. It's not terrible or anything, but it's remarkably unremarkable for a Big Four PPV. Kane vs Mankind is a textbook example of how to continue to build a monster gimmick and Austin vs Owen is decent for what cards they were dealt, but that really was all this show has going on the undercard. Everyone needs to see the main event once though.

WWF One Night Only (9/20/1997) Dude Love vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) Both guys throw a decent punch and the crowd is hot throughout. Hunter looks like a million bucks in how he carries himself. Chyna keeps interfering and eventually costs Dude the match. Foley as Dude works a more technical style, and he opens this by working over Hunter in an arm ringer and then a reverse Indian deathlock. Hunter tries to cheat by using the ropes for leverage as he has Dude in the abdominal stretch, but Mike Choida notices this and starts to berate Helmsley. Helmsley backs off in a comedic fashion once Choida shoves him and the fans eat this all up. It's no wonder why Triple H would revise this spot with Earl Hebner years later given the crowd reaction here. This doesn't particularly stand out from their other 1997 PPV matches, but this is still enjoyable. You can't think to wonder how this could have been leagues better if Foley was working as Cactus Jack or Mankind or if this was a stipulation match of sorts, it's just missing that ruthlessness that could have made this a great match. Foley doesn't take any nutty bumps here, and I imagine this is the type of match that you would see him work if you went to a house show. ★★★ Leif Cassidy vs. Tiger Ali Singh (w/Tiger Jeet Singh) Tiger Ali Singh debuts with his father in his corner and no-one cares. Tiger Jeet Singh gets booed as soon as he starts talking in his mother tongue. Ali Singh cuts an anti-drug promo, but he's no CM Punk. He picks up the win after a top rope bulldog on proto-Al Snow. An utter waste of 5 minutes. Cassidy tries, but getting a good match out of Singh is like getting blood from a stone. The brawling is acceptable, Cassidy bumps off the corner well, but there is nothing here worth seeing. Not even Sunny could save this one. There is nothing memorable nor historical, nothing 'so bad, it's good', just utterly dull and lifeless wrestling. ½★ WWF World Tag Team Title Match The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) (c) vs. Los Boricuas (Miguel Perez & Savio Vega) The Head Bangers were so ridiculously over here. Miguel Perez might be one of the hairiest wrestlers I've ever seen, it's like he's wearing a sweater. He hits a neat seaton/standing moonsault combination, which nobody pops for whatsoever. The Los Boricuas work a dull extended control segment on Thrasher. We get all the usual tag team spots, such as the face making a legal tag that the ref doesn't see, but they don't do anything interesting with these classic spots and the result is a boring heat segment complete with lengthy Boricuas nerve holds. Mosh finally gets the tag and it's not too long before he picks up the win, with the crowd reaching Bulldog/Bret Summerslam '92 levels of excitement. I wish I was joking. Nobody needs to see either the Head Bangers or Los Boricuas work for nearly 15 minutes, but with the crowd being so into this, it made the match more watchable than it should have been. ★★ Flash Funk vs. The Patriot Unsurprisingly, The Patriot is booed for his obnoxiously pro-US gimmick. Funk brought the workrate here, and the Patriot was able to keep up, bar a few instances where he looked lost. Despite the negative reception he gets here, The Patriot doesn't do anything heelish here with the exception of him slowing the pace by cutting off Flash's quick sequences. This was rather colourless. With both guys usually being babyfaces in the US, they could have easily created an interesting dynamic with The Patriot slowly acting more like a heel due to the fans giving him a rough time, but they didn't do anything of that ilk. We do get some classic Vince-isms on commentary at least, with Vince sounding annoyed for both J.R and King for using pronouns, pal. ★★ The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) vs. The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) This was even more boring than their Summerslam match. Henry getting his neck broken by the LOD was mentioned before the match, but they don't touch upon it during the match. The neck work and the quicker pace from their previous PPV match were the only things stopping that match from feeling lifeless and directionless, so the action we get here is just some rugged brawling, with not much in the way of selling from either member of LOD. The LOD remain over with the UK fans and they are able to pick up the victory with the Doomsday Device. Not much to say about this one. LOD are beyond washed-up and they other nothing to the product other than a quick pop for the nostalgic fans. ★ Vader vs. Owen Hart This was a great David vs Goliath match, with Owen showing off his babyface side as he gets a rare pop as he enters the arena. The first few exchanges do a great job at illustrating the power and size difference between the two wrestlers. Owen has his mind set on bodyslamming Vader and this ends up costing him big time before they pay all this off when Owen is finally able to get the big man up. They managed to convince me that a simple scoop slam could credibly end a match! Owen shows a lot of fire as he hits all his high spots on Vader. They recreate the Vader/Sting GAB '92 finish as Vader catches Owen as he comes off the top rope and uses Owen's own momentum to powerslam him. This left me wishing we got to see more of Owen as a babyface. ★★★½ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Bret Hart (c) vs. The Undertaker They waste no time starting this, as both brawl until the match slows down to a more methodical pace once Bret focuses on Undertaker's leg. Not enough people talk about how brilliant Bret's DDT was. Bret drills Undertaker's neck into the mat with the move and it serves as an excellent cut-off spot. For a man not known for selling for the first few years of his WWF run, Undertaker was fantastic at selling here and I dug the small touches of him trying to stretch out the damage that had been done to his leg. The leg work has consequences as well, as even during Undertaker's comeback, all it takes is a well-placed kick to his leg to send him to the ground. Bret getting hung up in the ropes after trying to block the Tombstone was a great spot, but I'm less keen on the DQ finish that was clearly in place to protect the Undertaker. This was a great match in spite of its finish. The Undertaker really pulled his finger out here and the result is the best non-gimmick match of his career up to this point. ★★★★¼ WWF European Title Match The British Bulldog (c) vs. Shawn Michaels Another PPV in the UK, another time that Davey Boy Smith has to be carried to a match by a superior worker. At least Bret had the decency to do the honors for Bulldog. The beginning and the ending stretch of this was excellent, it's just the dull middle portion that let this one down. Bulldog bogs down by not being able to keep up with HBK and we see plenty of rest holds to allow Bulldog time to catch his breath. To his credit, Bulldog does hit some nice power moves here, most notably the beautiful sit-out powerbomb counter to Shawn's hurricanrana. Shawn being a real-life prick made him easy to hate here, but his actual heelwork was fantastic as he bumped his ass off for Bulldog and his use of stalling just made the male portion of the crowd want to kill him. I lost it when Shawn threw Bulldog's knee brace at Bulldog's family. As depressing as the finish was, it made me want to see DX get their comeuppances, and the visual of the ring getting pelted with trash as the fan's fallen hero is berated by the heels made for a hell of a close to the show. ★★★★ Final Thoughts: If you can deal with the utterly depressing conclusion, this is one of the best PPVs that WWF had to offer in 1997. The crowd are hot, the two main events deliver and that Owen/Vader hidden gem and Dude/Hunter opener makes the undercard worth sitting through! WWF 1997 TV Odds and Ends Q3 WWF Raw Is War (7/7/1997) Taka Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke This doesn't have a great structure and it's not as good as their match from the night before, but it's an entertaining enough five-minute TV match. The crowd was wooed by the dives, even if they are given no reason to care about the competitors. TAKA makes a rare botch when he slips when attempting a springboard moonsault to the outside. Fortunately, he is able to recover and make his slip-up look intentional by adjusting it on the fly. Brian Christoper is on commentary and he walks the thin line between heel heat and go-home heat with his insufferable laugh and ignorant comments. Sasuke winning was a baffling decision, as this is his last match with the company and it's clear on commentary that they are building the division around TAKA and he could have benefitted from the win. ★★★ WWF Raw Is War (7/7/1997) Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Steve Austin The match here showed that both Hunter and Austin gel well together and it gave us a brief teaser of what a main event Austin run might have looked if Austin didn't break his neck. He was electric in everything he did here but also showed some incredible wrestling fundamentals. He shows that he can work a hold, make it look tight, and keep that intensity flowing. Seeing Austin land a flawless headlock takeover as he swaggers around the place in full Austin 3:16 mode was a weird sight, as his wrestling style would become much more brawl-heavy once he breaks his neck. In an attempt to get Austin to become his tag partner, Mankind comes out running to the ring wearing an Austin shirt. Hunter utterly brains him with a chair, but the distraction is enough for Austin to hit a stunner and win. The post-match is worth sticking around for, as Mankind tries to befriend Austin. ★★★ WWF Raw Is War (8/11/1997) Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels Man, we were really robbed by not getting a proper months-long program between these two as they compliment each other well and have clear chemistry. Their match at Mind Games was one of the company's best and this is an excellent TV main event. Mankind comes down to the ring with a trash can, but he ends up getting nailed with it and has the bin bag over his head and I was kind of hoping he would wrestle the rest of the match rocking his trash bag poncho. Rick Rude makes his return as Shawn's insurance policy and he's clearly paid off as he whacks Foley with a brutal chair shot to allow HBK to steal the win. Undertaker attempts to come to the ring, but Paul Bearer appears on the Titantron and warns him that Kane is coming to the WWF to wrap up the episode. This short and wild brawl, and a damn fine way to close a TV show. ★★★¾ WWF Friday Night's Main Event (taped 8/23/1997, aired 8/29/1997) Taka Michinoku vs. Jerry Lynn Jerry Lynn, looking like an undersized Kenny Omega with better fundamentals, makes a rare WWF appearance doing the honors for Taka Michinoku. These two were given five minutes to work with and they made every second count. Taka is starting to get over with the audience as they pop big for his victory. After getting hit with a spaceman plancha, Lynn unsuccessfully attempts to keep Taka grounded and it's not long until Lynn is looking up at the rafters after getting nailed with the Michinoku Driver. Check this one out if you enjoyed TAKA's match with the Great Sasuke. ★★★½ WWF Raw Is War (9/8/1997) No Holds Barred Match Vader vs. Bret Hart It's a damn shame that this is one of the only singles match these two had, as they play off each other well. Vader attempted to blindside Bret when he was handing over the belt to the referee, only for Bret to grab the belt and start hitting Vader with it was class. We get to see Bret in brawling mode here, and he can put on a brawl as well as he can put on a technical clinic. He would let himself get pummeled by Vader and only take advantage by nefarious means, such as punting Vader square in the nuts. Vader grabs the Canadian flag and breaks it, but hilariously botches his first attempt. It's a shame that this had a non-finish once Bulldog rushes down. The Patriot gets the biggest pop of his WWF run when he attempts to save Vader, but it's Austin who is able to save the day. ★★★ WWF Raw Is War (9/22/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title Tournament Semi Final Match Owen Hart vs. Brian Pillman (w/Marlena) Seeing as both men are stablemates, they don't want to fight each other and Pillman tries to fake an injury to forfeit the bout. Sgt. Slaughter sees right through this and forces him to fight Owen. They don't want to fight, so they instead take the piss and pretend to have a match by doing slow-motion exchanges. They have an incident with Marlena and they actually start fighting. The sad thing about this is that their half-speed fake fighting segment didn't all feel that different when they actually start locking up. Goldust runs down and ends this trainwreck. Pillman was a hell of a character that would have fit right in with the Attitude Era as evident by the pre-match with antics, but his body is ruined and it makes you wonder how the rest of his career would play out if he didn't pass away so soon. This is the last time Pillman would wrestle on Raw before passing away just a fortnight later. RIP Pillman. ★ WWF Raw Is War (9/22/1997) Falls Count Anywhere Match Cactus Jack vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) Cactus Jack makes his WWF debut in a literal garbage brawl. DX has formed but Triple H is still going by Hunter Hearst Helmsley. It's amusing to see him doing the Suck Its whilst Ode To Joy is playing. We think Dude Love is going to come out, but he appears on the Titantron and cuts a promo with Mankind by his side, which leads to Cactus Jack being introduced. It's a great moment and Foley knows how to weave his comedy into wrestling. The match itself is what you'd expect out of an Attitude Era hardcore match, but this was before it felt like a cliche. Foley takes a lot of damage and he brings the best out of Helmsley. Chyna takes one of her first ever televised bumps as Hunter accidentally knocks her into the steps as he tries to wipe out Cactus. They attack each other with all kinds of weapons and Cactus gets the win by piledriving HHH through a table on the stage. This isn't quite as good as some of their other 1997 matches, but it might be one of the most memorable due to Cactus' debut. ★★★¾ WWF Raw Is War (9/22/1997) Bret Hart vs. Goldust After a minute or so of decent brawling, Hart starts chopping down Goldust with leg kicks and this match becomes one big control segment. Bret knows how to work a decent control segment, but he wasn't exactly giving to Goldust and it's clear that Bret is building himself up and not elevating Goldust. This was a fairly formulaic outing for Bret. Lawler's commentary on Marlena got tiresome quickly. HBK comes out but doesn't come down to the ring until the match is over as Goldust predictably taps out to the sharpshooter. A big brawl follows as Raw goes off the air. The match itself was fine, with some great punches from both men to counter-balance the repetitive nature of the legwork. Even Bret on auto-pilot is better than most workers. ★★¾

WWF In Your House 17: Ground Zero (9/7/1997) Indecent Proposal Match Brian Pillman vs. Goldust (w/Marlena) Marlena has to spend 30 days with Pillman if he wins, Pillman is out of the WWF if he loses. The storyline might not fly today, but the crowd was clearly into this, even if the in-ring portion of the match wasn't exactly top-level stuff. We get some stiff punches and chops here, as well as a generous helping of ball-based manoeuvres as Goldust counters Pillman's bulldog attempt by sending him crotch-first onto the ropes. Goldust did a good job carrying Pillman here. Pillman 'wins' Marlena after the referee goes down and Pillman intercepts Marlena interfering by grabbing her loaded purse and clocking Goldust with it. The grim implications of this stipulation really start to set in once you see Pillman forcing Marlena into the car as Jerry Lawler cackles on about the situation on commentary. ★★¾ Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher Despite being on the shorter side, lacking charisma and being way too jacked to be a light heavyweight, Scott Putski was a good looking guy who looked to be a solid enough hand in the ring from what we saw here. None of this matters though, as he seriously injures his knee minutes into this when he tries to catch Christopher as he's attempting a dive to the outside and they're forced to end the match early, with Christopher getting a count-out victory. You can see through Christopher's cocky demeanour, as you can tell that he's concerned for Putski. This was the last time Putski would wrestle for the WWF. I don't think we were robbed of a classic here. ½★ Savio Vega vs. Crush vs. Faarooq The first Triple Threat in WWF PPV history turns out to be a right stinker. Crush is over with this crowd for whatever reason, but that fanfare soon dies down when the crowd is forced to watch this plodding mess. Jim Ross reprimands Crush for going for a chinlock when he has the option to go for a pin. Savio and Faarooq botch a neckbreaker and the fans just turn on this after that. All three men try to form alliances with each other and they predictable fall apart. We get plenty of half-hearted pin break-ups until Savio puts this out of its misery and wins this one. This was slow, sluggish, and had zero heat. This was so bad, that I'm actually surprised that the WWF attempted another Triple Threat after this. DUD Max Mini vs. El Torito I'm not entirely sure what the WWF could have gotten out of the minis long-term, but this match added some variety and comedy to the card. I found Max Mini endearing and he certainly won over the crowd with his ass-biting antics. Being the tallest of the two, El Torito bullied Mini by cutting him off with some of the world's smallest big boots. The match felt dull when Torito was on top as he didn't have much to offer outside of cutting Mini off. I have no idea why WWF insisted on making the In Your House PPVs 3 hours when they clearly didn't have enough talent on the roster to fill the cards up every month, as evident by them having to fly in the minis to eat up time. ★★★ WWF World Tag Team Title Four Way Elimination Match The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) vs. The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) vs. The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Hart Foundation (Owen Hart & The British Bulldog) Steve Austin and Dude Love forfeit the tag titles before the match and this segment is much more entertaining than the following match. We still have to deal with that dumb rule where tag team partners are forced to face other if they are both legal men. This was a slog to sit through and this would have been much better if this was a straight tag match between Owen and Bulldog and the Headbangers. Perhaps as a way to avoid doing a job, the LOD get themselves disqualified and the Godwins follow soon after. Austin interferes during the finish and gets a huge pop and he's able to sprinkle some of his star power onto the Headbangers as they felt like a bigger deal by winning the vacant tag titles. The was a crap match, but the finish was great as Austin's interference enhanced the match without taking away from the Headbangers' victory. ★½ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Bret Hart (c) vs. The Patriot You have to feel bad for Del Wilkes. As you can tell by his slick arm drags and his interesting control segment on Bret's arm, he clearly was a good hand in the ring, but he didn't have much in the way of charisma and he is saddled with a gimmick that would feel more at home during the Hulkamania era. He was never going to get over as the product was getting more mature. Despite all this, Bret Hart was able to make the audience in the arena believe that Wilke could actually pull this off and they were all biting on his nearfalls. It's especially crazy when you factor in that no one believed that The Patriot was winning this and this was just a filler title defence for Bret, The first half of this was quite slow yet technically solid, with Bret softening up Patriot's leg. Bulldog comes to aid Bret, but Vader soon comes out to stop this. I didn't like Vader just brawling with Bret right in front of the referee. You know Jim Ross would have something to say about that if he was still at the commentary desk! Bret is finally able to cut off Patriot's momentum by countering Patriot's sharpshooter into a sharpshooter of his own and The Patriot passes out. This didn't look interesting on paper, but Bret is able to get the fans invested and carry Del Wilkes to his best-ever singles match. ★★★½ The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels Shawn has now gone full chickenshit heel and he was a bumping machine here. The referee gets punched out before the match officially begins and Undertaker fights Michaels up to the stage, with Undertaker tossing HBK right into the In Your House set. I didn't think Undertaker did too much to make this interesting and the Shawn was the main reason why this was good. He was just a complete prick here. Rick Rude comes down and hands HBK some brass knuckles, followed by Triple H and Chyna coming down to inflict more damage on Undertaker. Tim White finally declares this a no contest after both men can't keep their hands off the officials. The constant attacks on the referees got tiring and it made this PPV main event feel more like the closing segment of Raw Is War. Still, Undertaker's big dive and the locker room coming out to separate the two made for a hell of a visual to close the show with. ★★★¼ Final Thoughts: It's bafflingly that WWF made the In Your House cards go three hours here, despite clearly not having enough worthy stuff to add to the card! This could have been a decent two hour card if they could have just trimmed the fat.

WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede (7/6/1997) Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) Mankind continues to bring the best out in Helmsley as their feud continues to heat up. Hunter was a bumping machine for Mankind's shine segment, who is looking surprisingly natural as a full-fledged babyface. Mankind does Hunter's curtsy and the fans lap it up. Chyna lands a powerslam on Mankind on the outside when the referee is distracted. Mankind's leg violently collides into the steel steps during this move. Mankind can't have a match in 1997 without me feeling genuinely concerned for his well-being! Hunter is showing a lot more intensity as works over the Mankind's leg. The finish felt like it came out of nowhere, with little build-up. This isn't the last we would see of these two on this night, as they would continuously brawl throughout the arena as the show rolls on! Both guys put in the work here and this was a hot opener. ★★★½ Taka Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke These guys were in a tough spot as no one in the audience seemed to care about them when the match started, with the exception of the few smark fans in the building. They start slow, with TAKA trying to avoid Sasuke's strikes. We get a decent bit of mat action, but they start to wake up the people when Sasuke starts landing the strikes. They were stiff as hell. The audience finally becomes unglued once TAKA hits his batshit-crazy spaceman plancha. I was surprised to see Sasuke kick out of the Michinoku Driver, seeing as TAKA was about to be built up as the star of the division. These guys certainly won over the crowd with their stiff working style and their insane workrate. This is the only light-heavyweight WWF match that could hold a candle to some of the matches that the WCW cruiserweights were putting on at the time. ★★★★ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match The Undertaker (c) vs. Vader (w/Paul Bearer) Vader is subbing for Ahmed Johnson, who is injured. Clocking in at a mere 12 minutes, this was all killer and no filler. Just a big stiff hoss fight with little downtime. The crowd is so into the Undertaker that the building is actually shaking when they try to cheer him on when Vader has him locked in a nerve hold. Paul Bearer was tremendous at being a total creep. There were a few miscommunications and botches during the final few minutes, but they covered for them well and they never killed the crowd. Undertaker retains after scooping Vader up and landing a Tombstone. It made for a hell of a visual, and keeping Vader in the Tombstone position without dropping him on his head must have been a challenge! Despite this match having little build, I thought these two put in a hell of a shift. ★★★½ Goldust, Ken Shamrock, Steve Austin & The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Brian Pillman, Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog) (w/Diana Smith) 25 years on and I don't think I've seen a more intense crowd than the one we got during this match. These fans would have died for the Hart Foundation! Austin has the crowd wanting his head, and he didn't even need to change his act up much from his usual babyface persona. All he had to was flip the crowd off once and they wanted him dead! Austin and Bret open and they bring the hate as they trade punches. I liked the little nod to their Survivor Series '96 match as Bret gets a nearfall by countering Austin's submission into a pinning attempt. It's bizarre seeing the babyface maul a heel like a pack of dogs, but it made sense as these guys would still be villains to the US crowd watching at home and they were still the heels in the grand scheme of things, even if they were idolized by the Calgary crowd. Both Austin and Owen are removed from the match due to injury, but they come back and the hatred picked right where they left off. Austin can't help himself from fighting with the Hart family in the crowd and he even put his hands on Stu Hart! The other family members spill over and it's all out carnage. Owen is able to roll up Austin during the commotion and get the victory. The victors fight off Team USA and the PPV goes off the air with a feel-good ending, with all the family celebrating in the ring. One of my all-time favourite matches. Over half the participants in this match were way past their sell-by dates and even they couldn't have brought this one down for me! ★★★★¾ Final Thoughts: This is one of the best PPVs WWF/E have ever put on. It's only a step behind Money In The Bank 2011 and Wrestlemania X-7. WWF Summerslam 1997 (8/3/1997) Steel Cage Match Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) This match was an important step in the career of Mick Foley and he was the main reason why this was good. Chyna fumbles the timing of some of her interference spots and Hunter seems to be on auto-pilot here. Hunter wasn't horrible here, it's just that his control segment was uninspired and it was only entertaining as Mankind was willing to slam his skull into the cage with no regards for his own safety. It might be overshadowed by Mankind's cell bump the next spring, but Mankind getting to emulate his icon and dive from the top of the cage was a great spot. That superplex from the cage was nasty too, as that ring looked like it had zero give. I didn't find that this match dragged or anything, it's just a bit of let-down when you consider that their previous matches together had been better and this was meant to be the blow-off. ★★★½ Brian Pillman vs. Goldust (w/Marlena) If Pillman loses this match, he has to wear a dress on Raw tomorrow night. I'm not saying that this is a misunderstood classic or anything, but I thought that this was decent and people are selling this one short. Pillman isn't physically able to hit any of his high-flying stuff from his Flyin' Brian days, so they have to work around his limitations. Pillman is incredibly intense here and he doesn't let up. The deranged expression that he had on his face when he Goldust locked in a chin-lock stopped this part of the match from feeling like a rest-break. Don't expect any top-tier workrate here, as they keep the action simple to accommodate Pillman. This match was high on character work though. Goldust no-sells an inverted atomic drop and kisses Pillman on the mouth. The finish features a pretty nasty botch. Goldust doesn't quite clear Pillman when he attempts a sunset flip, so he ends up falling on his head and they have to improvise and fix the finish on the fly. The fans booed the botch, but I thought that they recovered quite well. ★★★ The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) vs. The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) This wasn't pretty, but no one expected it to be. Henry's neck was broken by LOD earlier in the year, so they weave that into the match by having The Godwins use some neck-based offense on LOD. Hawk is able to get the hot tag and the LOD picks up the victory after a spike piledriver. I agree with the consensus that this wasn't exactly a babyface move, but the LOD were never wholesome babyfaces who had much care for their opponents so I don't think it matters all that much. This match was largely unremarkable, the quick pace stops it from dragging too much and it's over before it gets the chance to truly stink out the building. ★★ WWF European Title Match The British Bulldog (c) vs. Ken Shamrock For some unknown reason, Bulldog humiliated Shamrock by rubbing dog food in his face and that's why this match is happening. I don't think Bulldog was the man to carry Shamrock in his first traditional PPV WWF match. I don't think these two clicked and Bulldog was starting to feel washed-up by this point in his career. Shamrock opens this match by showing a lot of intensity and hitting some beautiful high spots, including a release belly-to-belly and a rolling leg lock. The match starts to wade into mediocrity once Bulldogs cuts him off and starts working Shamrock with some uninspired chinlocks. The commentators mention Shamrock is struggling to adapt to the WWF style. Not much of note happens from this point out until the ending. In what must be a first in wrestling history, a wrestler loses a match by nailing his opponent with a can of dog food. After Bulldog smears dog food into Shamrock, Shamrock snaps and gets himself disqualified and takes out a bunch of WWF officials in the process. The dog food stuff was goofy, but Shamrock looked like a total star when he snapped. That doesn't stop the match from sucking though. ★¾ The Disciples Of Apocalypse (8-Ball, Chainz, Crush & Skull) vs. Los Boricuas (Jesus Castillo, Jose Estrada, Miguel Perez & Savio Vega) Just when you think Crush couldn't get any worse, they stick him with the freakin' Blu Brothers in an attempt to chase the success of the NWO by having multiple factions feuding with each other. They try to keep the action moving fast and utilize quick tags in an attempt to not expose the poor workers in this match. Los Boricuas were the better workers, but they are charisma blackholes and they do nothing to get the crowd into this. All that is in vain as the fans clearly don't care about this and it only takes a minute or two of in-ring time before one of the bald DOA members gets gassed and starts killing the match. The Nation of Domination coming through the crowd got a small pop at least. Ahmed ends up botching his one spot in the match. I can't believe we are going to have to put up with this angle for the rest of the year. ★½ WWF Intercontinental Title Match Owen Hart (c) vs. Steve Austin It feels wrong to give this match a star rating seeing as someone nearly died in the ring here, but the match was building up to be a classic before the infamous tombstone botch. Austin and Owen have fantastic chemistry and the action was quick and told a story. Owen works over Austin's hands before moving onto his neck. We get a lot of uncomfortable foreshadowing commentary about Owen working on Austin's neck. Austin wins the worst roll-up ever, but you have to give him props for finishing the match. The stipulation was that Austin would have to kiss Owen's ass if he lost, so that explained why they had to find a way for Austin to win, even if the man's neck was literally broken. ★★★½ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match (Special Referee: Shawn Michaels) The Undertaker (c) vs. Bret Hart The stakes of this match are very high, with Shawn Michaels being the guest referee. This match has one of my favourite finishes ever. It's not over-the-top, it's a perfect ending caused by very believable human error after Shawn's emotions get the best of him after Bret spits in his face and Shawn is put in the horrible position to count the pinfall or he would never be allowed to wrestle on US soil again. The stuff leading up to the finish was good too, with Bret working fantastically as a heel by keeping the pace slow by working over Undertaker's legs. The drama with Shawn as the referee was actually quite compelling. He has to call this down the middle, but numerous things happen throughout the match that tests him, such as Hart bending the rules and Undertaker getting frustrated with HBK after Shawn not being present to count a pin after Owen & Pillman interfere. Paul Bearer also comes down, but Undertaker makes sure to take care of him. This was a great main event that combined multiple storylines into one coherent package. ★★★¾ Final Thoughts: A mixed bag, but this event felt like a big deal. From Mankind's cage dive to the shocking conclusion of the main event, the product was starting to heat-up and feel exciting again.

WWF King Of The Ring 1997 (6/8/1997) King Of The Ring 1997 Semi Final Match Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Ahmed Johnson I thought this would suck, but it was actually a solid effort as they kept this simple and focused on Ahmed's strengths, such as his intensity and power spots. Ahmed is still quite over here. Looking like an ice-cold killer, Ahmed stares down Hunter as the commentary highlights their different upbringings. Hunter was obviously carrying this and he's starting to look like a ring general. My hot take of the day: 1996-1997 midcard Hunter is a lot more palatable than post-2010 Triple H. Ahmed countering Hunter's back drop attempt by landing a scissors kick on his spine was actually quite creative. Hunter advances with the help of Chyna, but Ahmed gets his heat back by getting straight up after getting pinned with the Pedigree and chases after Hunter and Chyna. Although it's not exactly a high bar, this might be Ahmed's best singles match. ★★¾ King Of The Ring 1997 Semi Final Match Mankind vs. Jerry Lawler Mankind is starting to get some cheers from the fans, so it's a perfect time to start his babyface turn and there's no man better at garnering him some sympathy than Jerry Lawler. Lawler put in a great performance here, using all the old-school heel tricks such as using a concealed weapon, trash-talking, eye gouging, and just being a proper slimy bastard all-around. Mankind further scrabbles his brain by taking some nasty barricade spots, which I don't think were needed here as his selling and the great heat segment did more than enough to get the fans behind him. After his piledriver isn't enough to put away his opponents, Lawler goes night-night after Mankind locks on the Mandible Claw. I never believed that Lawler stood a chance, but he did his job in warming Mankind up for the finals. I wish we got more lengthy Lawler matches on PPV, as he was fantastic here. ★★★ Crush (w/Clarence Mason & D-Lo Brown) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena) This stunk, by no fault of Goldust though. No one needed to sit through a cold ten-minute Crush match on PPV. He was so dull when working on top, sucking the life out of the arena whenever he lock Goldust in a lengthy resthold. Expect plenty of claw holds, camel clutches, and not a whole lot of action here! Goldust seems to be over as a babyface and he shows a lot of fire when he's on his feet. The Nation tries to get into Goldie's head by approaching Marlena, but this distraction didn't seem to faze Goldust as he's able to get back into the game and mercifully end this one with a DDT. The Nation looked like total chumps here. ★ Sycho Sid & The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Hart Foundation (Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog) Sid puts over the Hart Foundation on his way out. All three men on the babyface side were way past it. The heel side was only a slight improvement, with both Neidhart and Bulldog being past their best days (although Bulldog still had a good showing in him here and there). Despite all this, this was a fun watch. The quick tags certainly helped put a stop to someone stinking up the match. The babyface shine segment was quite entertaining, mainly to see Sid act all goofy and club the heels on the head. I didn't mind all the no-selling from the babyfaces as it suited their gimmicks. Sid gets right back up after a delayed suplex from Bulldog and Hawk does his classic no-sell piledriver spot. The Hart Foundation do their usual heel stuff and win when Owen is able to sneak the win by landing a sunset flip on Sid when he was attempting a powerbomb on another man. Sid fucked it a bit, but it's Sid, so you can't help but laugh at the daft bastard. So long, Sid! ★★★ King Of The Ring 1997 Final Match Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) This had a slow start that put a lot of people off, including me, but they manage to pull this around with a thrilling conclusion that sees Mankind take some dangerous bumps and kicks off one of 1997's most underrated rivalries. The beginning of this featured Hunter working over Mankind's already injured neck by pounding away on him with some nice-looking punches and not much else. It made sense, but it felt quite dull. We get a couple of boring chants from the audience. Things start to get going when Mankind does the hangman spot. Mick Foley did everything in his power to get this match over. He even dusted off the Cactus elbow spot, where he would send himself hurling dangerously off the ring apron onto the concrete. We get a gnarly table and barricade spot, but Mankind still kicks out and the fans are solely behind him by this point. This made Mankind a huge babyface and it elevated Hunter from the mid-card. ★★★½ Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels This is the last big Austin singles match that he wrestled with a more technical style before his neck break in August. We get a lot of holds, but they never forget to showcase their massive personalities and egos and it created an atmosphere where the fans were rabid for both guys. These two have wonderful chemistry and I loved how this one escalated from an old-school technical bout to a slugfest once tempers start to rise. Austin sends HBK over the ropes violently and then Austin gives Shawn a nasty press slam on the exposed concrete. We get a callback later in the match when HBK sends Austin over the ropes during a tackle attempt. After a number of intentional ref bumps, Earl Hebner comes down and throws this one out. I thought the non-finish would be a lot more palatable if these guys were able to actually have a proper blow-off match that wasn't plagued by injuries. This is a bit of a hidden gem, as I don't hear many people talk about this one. Imagine how could Wrestlemania 14 could have been if they both were healthy! ★★★★ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) (c) vs. Faarooq (w/Clarence Mason, Crush, D-Lo Brown & Savio Vega) Faarooq was certainly a bizarre choice to challenge for the WWF title at one of the big five PPV, but he did a decent enough job here. Paul Bearer has blackmailed Undertaker to take him back. It's an intriguing storyline, even if it does distract from Faarooq. There are enough interesting spots to stop this from feeling too pedestrian. I love how Undertaker mixed up the Old School here. Instead of coming off the top rope onto Faarooq, he instead does a trust fall plancha onto the members of the Nation at ringside. The Nation starts to bicker after interference not going the way they want and Faarooq tries to control the situation. This distraction is enough for Undertaker to do his Michael Myers sit-up and lay Faarooq out with the Tombstone. Not the most exciting PPV main ever, but far from the worst too. ★★½ Final Thoughts: This isn't going to win any PPV of the year awards, but it's a good show. The main event isn't going to set anyone's world on fire and you do have to sit through a ten minute Crush singles, but the Austin/HBK hidden gem more than makes up for those shortcomings and the rest of the card range from solid to good. WWF 1997 TV Odds and Ends Q2 WWF Raw Is War (4/7/1997) Steve Austin vs. Mankind The wrestling here is secondary to the storyline progression, but this, along with the Sid/Bret cage match from the previous month, is a good example of why WWF's TV product was so hot in 1997. This isn't going to make any MOTY lists, but it does its job of heating up the audience for the upcoming PPV. You've got Austin feuding with the Hart Foundation and Mankind feuding with Undertaker. Mankind was meant to be wrestling Sid here, but Sid no-shows and Austin is drafting into the match. Mankind cuts one chilling promo before the match. He is starting to show his human side here, as he references his family. Before accepting the match, Austin pressures Gorilla Monsoon to make Bret face him at the next PPV. This felt more like a post-neck break Austin match as he keeps it simple and takes no risks. He is mostly just walking and brawling here. He does a good job at it, so it's hard to fault him. Mankind still manages to get some nasty bumps in. Owen and Bulldog soon make their faces shown and this one predictably ends in a non-finish once LOD and Vader get involved. ★★¾ WWF Raw Is War (4/21/1997) Street Fight Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart Bret and Austin's last-ever televised singles is more of an angle than a match. Austin challenges Bret to a fight and Bret accepts. Both men were wearing street clothes here. Bret makes his way to the ring, but has Owen and Bulldog ambush him from the crowd. They pull Austin's shirt over his head as they pummel him. HBK makes the save, by coming from the crowd with a chair and cleaning house. Bret is left with Austin in the ring and he continues to pick the bones of Austin and lays him out with a beautiful piledriver. In a nice bit of storytelling, Bret tries to do to Austin what Austin did to Pillman and crush his leg in a steel chair. Austin is able to fight back and obliterate Bret's leg before locking on the sharpshooter and refusing to break the hold. Officials rush to Bret's aide, but the damage has been done. We then get an excellent segment later in the show where Austin attacks Bret again by sneaking into the ambulance. The Attitude Era might not have officially started yet, but this set the standard for what a TV wrestling show could like look for the rest of the decade. ★★★ WWF Raw Is War (4/28/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title Match Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Owen Hart In his last big profile match before turning heel and joining the Nation, Rocky puts in a half-arsed performance and is dragged kicking and screaming to a decent match by Owen. Even when he enters the arena, Rocky looks tired and doesn't have the pep in his step that he did during all his early babyfaces appearances. I thought this was initially a bit of foreshadowing, but it seemed that Rocky was just having a bad day at the office. Rocky opens the match with a dull shine segment. Rocky's stuff looks decent, but there's no spark to anything he does here. It all felt like he was going through motions. The match improves once Owen takes control. Owen lands a beautiful drop-toe hold to leg grapevine and starts working on his leg. The crowd is shockingly quiet throughout the entire match. We get some fun moments during the go-home stretch with Rocky pulling out one of the worst Rock Bottoms that I have ever seen and Owen damn nearly beheading Rocky when he cuts him off with a spinning wheel kick. The finish here came out of nowhere though. Bulldog is with Bret at the top of the stage, but neither gets involved and Owen wins the strap clean as a whistle after countering Rocky and landing a victory roll for the three. ★★½ WWF Raw Is War (26/5/1997) WWF World Tag Team Match Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (c) vs. Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin This is the kind of Southern tag that would make Jim Cornette splooge. This had all the trappings of a good tag match: a lightning quick pace, plenty of workrate, and the faces and heels acting exactly how they should do in a tag match. This is Michael's first match since February and he shows zero signs of ring rust. He's the FIP for most of this match and he's fantastic and it's clear that he hasn't missed a step. Austin and Michaels are teaming up here, but they are not friends at all. They are facing off at the next PPV and it seems entirely possible that this team could combust at any given minute. The heel team cut the ring in half and keep working down Michaels. There are a lot of teases of Michaels getting the hot tag and the crowd eats it all up. Once Austin's in, HBK lands the Sweet Chin Music amid all the chaos, and Austin covers and gets the win and all hell breaks loose as a massive brawl breaks out. ★★★★½

WWF In Your House 14: Revenge Of The Taker (4/20/1997) WWF World Tag Team Title Match The Hart Foundation (Owen Hart & The British Bulldog) (c) vs. The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) Bulldog and Owen might be two of the better workers in the WWF in early 1997, but this was far from their best match. This was a big style clash. Owen and Bulldog aren't brawlers and LOD aren't exactly workrate wizards. The screwy-Russorific finish(es) didn't do much for me either. LOD initially win this one, but they pinned the illegal man, so the match is restarted. Bulldog and Owen aren't keen to get back in there, so the referee gives them an ultimatum: return to the ring or surrender their titles. The match actually ends on a DQ, after Bret Hart rushes the ring and attacks LOD just as they were about to win. This felt like a match you would see on Raw, not a PPV that you had to spend money to view. ★★¼ WWF Intercontinental Title Match Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Savio Vega (w/Clarence Mason, Crush, D-Lo Brown, Faarooq, JC Ice & Wolfie D) This was yet another match that felt like it belonged on a TV show and not a PPV. Two matches into this card and we've yet to have a clean finish. Rocky shows a little more intensity during his pre-match promo than you would expect from the happy-go-lucky rookie, but it's still not enough to save his act. They jump-start this and Rocky shows some fire and hits some slick-looking arm drags to kick this one off. Savio bumped well and Faarooq's guest commentary was solid enough, even if Faarooq hyping up another match while this one was taking place made this feel unimportant. Crush hits Rocky with a heart punch on the outside when the referee isn't looking. Rocky isn't able to make the count and Savio and Crush argue with each other as Savio obviously didn't win the title on a count-out victory. Ahmed rushes to the ring and accepts Faarooq's challenge of a gauntlet match in one of his more coherent promos. Rocky looked like an afterthought here. The actual in-ring stuff was fine, it's just that the booking sucked pondwater. ★★ Jesse Jammes vs. Rockabilly (w/The Honky Tonk Man) With the product starting to feel edgier as a whole around this time, this match felt like it was straight from a 1995 In Your House card. It's pure New Generation camp cartoon wrestling. I can enjoy that when I'm in the mood for that, but this felt so outdated and lifeless by the spring of 1997. Jesse James had been feuding with Honky Tonk Man leading up to this and Honky is here to announce his new protégé. It turns out to be Billy Gunn and he comes out to crickets. The large group of fans leaving as soon as this one gets underway should tell you how much heat this rivalry had. Both men clearly put in the effort here, but they had no chance to get this over. James throws around some nice-looking punches and Gunn struts all over the place in a failed attempt to get his new gimmick over. The match suddenly ends with a James inside cradle. Hey, at least we got a somewhat decisive finish here. ★¼ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match The Undertaker (c) vs. Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) Mick Foley really brought out the best in Undertaker. Foley was so giving here, as he took some serious risks to make himself look fearless and get Undertaker over on his first PPV title defence. Mankind's head-first bump from the ring apron through the announce table was downright sickening. The first few minutes of this sees Undertaker kick all kind of ass as he violently slams Mankind's skull into the barricade. Mankind takes Undertaker's strikes well, by going all jellied-leg whenever Undertaker would land a big shot. Mankind is able to cut Undertaker off temporarily by striking Undertaker with the urn behind the referee's back. The constant rule-breaking happening right in front of the referee did eventually become tiresome, with even Jim Ross and Vince McMahon calling it out on commentary. With Undertaker mostly dominating this match, this felt quite one-sided, but I don't see that as a negative. Undertaker isn't the most compelling when he's down on his back selling and having him just throwing everything at Mankind made for much more interesting viewing. ★★★★ Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin Russo's influence can clearly be felt on this show as 3 out of 5 matches on this card ended with either a DQ or a count-out! We have to deal with more blatant cheating in front of the referee here too, with Austin just straight-up hitting Bret with a low blow as Earl Hebner has to quickly pretend to look away. My gripes about the booking aside, this was a PPV match between two of the best ever, so the match itself wasn't going to suck at least. Much like their Wrestlemania 13 match, they open the match with some excellent brawling. This was smartly worked, with a great emphasis being put on limbwork as Bret systematically tears apart Austin's damaged knee. Austin's knee giving out when he attempts to land a piledriver was a great bit of long-term selling. I thought the finish here was flat. Bulldog nails Austin with the chair as he has Bret locked in the sharpshooter. Not quite on the level of their Survivor Series '96 or Wrestlemania 13 classic, this was still a fun yet flawed main event. ★★★¾ Final Thoughts: If bad booking can ruin a show for you, than this show might not be for you! We get a lot of rough finishes here. It's not a terrible show as the last two match more than make up for everything. WWF In Your House 15: A Cold Day In Hell (5/11/1997) Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Flash Funk Hunter and Funk aren't involved in a program here and this match's purpose was to further push the Hunter/Chyna pairing. Funk has lost his Funkettes due to his budget costs, but the commentary team tries to claim that they are not here because of their fear of Chyna. Speaking of Chyna, she obviously looks the part and she looks good every time she gets involved when the referee isn't looking. Things only went down south for her when they decided to put her in actual matches. Funk opens this match with some crisp high-flying offense before Chyna cuts him off and Hunter works him over in a solid control segment. The crowd starts to root for Funk as he makes his comeback before Helmsley puts him away with the Pedigree and Chyna drops Funk on the ropes after the match to add insult to injury. This was nothing to go out of your way to see, but it was a decent enough opener. ★★½ Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia This was a total nothing match. Two years after this takes place, both men would be two of the most popular men in the company, but the fans are sitting on their hands for this. Rocky had just lost the title and we are not long from him turning heel. Mankind goes the extra effort to stop this from being too dull by wailing all over the place like a psycho and still putting his body through punishment in some nasty spots. He hits a cannonball from the apron and takes a proto-Rock Bottom on the steel rampway. The finish itself is quite decent too, with Mankind countering a Rocky crossbody with a Mandible Claw to score the victory. This would be the last time that we would see babyface Rocky Maivia wrestle on PPV. ★★ Three On One Gauntlet Match Ahmed Johnson vs. The Nation Of Domination (Crush, Faarooq & Savio Vega) (w/Clarence Mason, D-Lo Brown, JC Ice & Wolfie D) This was a tough watch, as this was three Ahmed Johnson matches back-to-back. The Nation agrees to break up if Ahmed can beat the gauntlet. Gorilla Monsoon orders the Nation members to move away from ringside so they can't interfere. Crush and Ahmed kick off the match and it's not pretty. It's very clunky and Crush spends way too much gesturing to his brothers to come closer to the ring. I was surprised to see Ahmed hit a scissors kick, no matter how ugly it looked. Savio comes out next and puts in a respectable showing trying to get the match over by landing some crisp punches and bumping and feeding for Ahmed. Savio gets himself disqualified so Faarooq can come in and pick the bones of Ahmed. Ahmed gets in a few hope spots which wake the crowd up, including landing a Pearl River Plunge, but he's too injured to cover. A chop-block and a Dominator later, this is over. The Ahmed vs Nation storyline should have wrapped up after Wrestlemania 13. ★½ No Holds Barred Match Vader vs. Ken Shamrock This shoot-style flavoured match felt very out of place for WWF in 1997 and I'm sure a lot of fans were turned off by it, but I was a big fan of this and I thought this did a wonderful job of getting Shamrock over during his WWF debut. These two smacked the crap out of each, with Vader audibly telling Shamrock to ease up. Shamrock getting frustrated by the rope breaks was a nice bit of psychology as they are obviously not a thing in UFC. Shamrock tries to chop Vader down with leg kicks and is always working to score the flash submission. He's able to mount a nice comeback after Vader misses his moonsault and lands a nice flurry before Vader cuts off his water by laying him out with a sickening palm strike. This match reminded me of UWFi Vader and I can't name you a better WWF Vader singles match than this one. It's funny to think that as this match was actually a punishment for Vader after he smacked a journalist about during WWF's Kuwait tour the previous month. ★★★¾ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match The Undertaker (c) vs. Steve Austin This was a face-versus-face match and the fans seem torn on who to cheer for. Austin is also feuding with the Hart Foundation at this time and they come to ring as fans as they have purchased front-row seats. People seem more into the match whenever Austin would start fighting with members of the Hart Foundation instead of working with Undertaker. We spend a lot of time in holds, but they are always working and the holds always have a struggle to them. I was expecting more of an explosive brawl instead of the slow and methodical match we got. The last few minutes are very exciting, with Austin getting the pop of the night after giving the referee the bird after the ref warns Austin for landing a low blow. Pillman sneaks over the barricade and rings the bell just as Austin has this won. Undertaker takes advantage of the distraction and retains his title and we are treated to a post-match brawl. Undertaker and Austin never had the best chemistry, but this was a so-so match with a molten-hot finish. ★★★ Final Thoughts: This was the first ever PPV I brought on VHS. Even with all that nostalgia, I can't recommend this show. There's nothing terrible here, but it's so dull and average. Watch the Shamrock/Vader match and skip the rest.

WWF Wrestlemania 13 (3/23/1997) Four Way Elimination Tag Team Match Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon vs. The Godwinns (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) (w/Hillbilly Jim) vs. The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) vs. The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Bradshaw & Blackjack Windham) The New Blackjacks could have worked as a great hoss heel team if they weren't saddled knocking off a gimmick that was over two decades old at this point. I never understood Vince's obsession with making 'new' versions of classic tag teams. There's a bit of confusion about the rules as both Headbangers are the two legal men at one point. We are told that they have to fight or risk being disqualified, which is a dumb ruling as it makes zero sense for tag partners to fight in a tag match. Furnas hits a beautiful frankensteiner on one of the Blackjacks. Blackjacks and Lafon & Furnas are easily the most enjoyable parts of this match, although it's not long until both of them are eliminated in succession. Firstly the Blackjacks get DQ'd by attacking a referee, then Lafon & Furnas are counted out. The Godwins take control of The Headbangers as Lawler and McMahon have some great lines about McMahon being out of touch with rock music. The Headbangers eventually pick up the win after using their speed and aerial attacks. This did its job of getting over The Headbangers as a quirky yet likable opening tag team. Meltzer gave this one negative stars, but I have no idea why it's so low as it's a perfectly acceptable tag match. It's a bit clunky when all four teams were in the match, but some of the high spots make up for it. ★★ WWF Intercontinental Title Match Rocky Maivia (c) vs. The Sultan (w/Bob Backlund & The Iron Sheik) The Honky Tonk Man joins the commentary team for this and he's humorously out of place for 1997. The Rocky Maivia character has been a massive bomb so far, with many 'Rocky sucks' chants being heard throughout the match. Rocky can clearly work and he's got all the fundamentals down, but he desperately needs a different presentation. The Sultan can't work an interesting control segment to save his life. He keeps Rocky in a chin lock that felt like it went on forever. The only entertainment I got from this part of the match was the commentary. Rocky's dancing comeback is cheap initiation of his dad's, it's no wonder why he didn't get over initially. After hitting his signature top rope crossbody, Rocky goes for a pin only for the referee to be distracted by Bob Backlund and Iron Sheik at ringside. After a Sultan false-finish, Rocky scores a roll-up for the win. The heels lead a post-match attack and eventually Rocky Johnson gets involved and helps his son clean house. It's nice that they gave Johnson a moment at Wrestlemania, but it did his son no favours as it made him look like a Daddy's boy. This match was saved from being completely dull by the ending and the post-match stuff. ★¾ Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena) Despite also being a heel, Lawler rips on Chyna's appearance. Stay classy, Jerry. Goldust starts this match with the shine you would expect any southern babyface to get. Great Punches Dustin brawls Helmsley all over the place, getting him tied up in the ropes, a spot that has to be as old as pro-wrestling itself. Goldust is cut off by taking a nasty spill to the outside after a failed top rope move. The rest of the match consists of Goldust keep getting cut off whenever he tries to make a comeback. After standing still the entirety of the match, Chyna makes her way to Marlena. Marlena ends up in a bearhug as Chyna violently ragdolls her about. This distraction is enough for HHH to land a Pedigree and get the win. This was nothing fancy, but both men know how to work and the Chyna attacking Marlena made for a scary sight. ★★¾ WWF World Tag Team Title Match Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (c) vs. Mankind & Vader (w/Paul Bearer) Both teams are heels, but Bulldog and Owen work as faces for this match. Bulldog does some cool power spots on Vader and Owen does a decent job at being a face, despite being a heel for most of his WWF run. I think he would have fared better if they gave us a reason to cheer him. Lawler absolutely loses his shit when he finds out that Stu and Helen Hart are at ringside, as he rips into them in typical King fashion. Bulldog gets a hot tag and throws Mankind violently into the turnbuckle twice. The match goes to a double count-out after Mankind and Bulldog get knocked outside. Looking at all the phenomenal talent in this match, this should have been better than it was. Being a heel vs heel match and having a weak non-finish all didn't help matters. Vader was clearly done with the WWF at this point, it's crazy to think that he would stick around for another year. ★★½ No Holds Barred Submission Match (Special Referee: Ken Shamrock) Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin Even watching these two trade punches is elite-tier stuff. They brawl throughout the crowd and it feels organic. The crowd, who have been quiet all night, wake up as soon as the crowd brawling starts. Once their back in the ring, Bret starts his assault on Austin's leg. Austin sells this so well, flailing all over the place. Austin tries to keep with Bret, but Bret keeps cutting him off. After getting cut open, Austin doesn't have much more to give. He tries to choke out Bret with an electrical cord, but Bret wails him with a ring bell. All the weapon spots have meaning and aren't just used to add a nice spot here and there. Austin passes out in the Sharpshooter, and Shamrock calls for the bell. J. R's call of Austin never giving up adding a lot to his face turn. This is so much more than just a good bladejob. This is still the best match that WWF/E have ever put on. ★★★★★ Chicago Street Fight Ahmed Johnson & The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) vs. The Nation Of Domination (Crush, Faarooq & Savio Vega) (w/Clarence Mason, D-Lo Brown, JC Ice & Wolfie D) Yeah, I still enjoy this a lot. By no means a perfect brawl as the match starts to lose some of its intensity before they wrap up, but LOD and Ahmed Johnson look larger than life handling the entire Nation of Domination. Ahmed looks like a total star rocking his LOD gear. LOD are well past their prime, but you wouldn't have noticed due to the chaotic pace of the match (if you can ignore that horrific piledriver spot where Faarooq gets dropped on his head). This type of ECW garbage brawling just wasn't seen in a major federation at the time. This is the only street fight that WWE has done that actually lives up to its name. ★★★½ WWF World Heavyweight Title No Disqualification Match Sycho Sid (c) vs. The Undertaker I'm something of a Sid apologist. I love that daft bastard, but even I can't justify this. No Sid match should go 20-plus minutes because the result is this stinker. Bret Hart coming down at the start of this match to cut a whining promo might just be the best part of this. Sid spends a lot of time keeping Undertaker in rest holds and the most interesting thing he does here is crap his pants, and we don't even know if he actually did the deed or if it's just some urban legend. Undertaker not being able to show emotion limits him when he's teasing a comeback. The worst match on the card and a stinker of a Wrestlemania main event. At least the crowd seemed to enjoy this. ★½ Final Thoughts: It's hard to rate this show as it features what I believe to be the best match that WWF/E have ever put on, even if the rest of the card was lacking. Outside of Austin/Bret, the street fight is the only thing worth going out of your way to see. WWF 1997 TV Odds and Ends Q1 WWF Monday Night Raw (1/20/1997) Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon vs. Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (w/Clarence Mason) This was better than anything that was on the PPV the night before. Owen had eliminated Bulldog during the Rumble match, and even though we are told that Bulldog and Owen had patched things up, you still get the feeling that one miscommunication is all that this team needs to implode. They managed to keep things together for this match. The match itself was good stuff, a proper workrate sprint. I can see why Furnas and LaFon didn't make it in WWF due to them seriously lacking in the charisma department, but they are really fun to watch wrestle. LaFon was the quicker of the team, who could keep up with Owen during their exchanges. Furnas was more of a powerhouse and I loved watching him entering the ring by shoulder charging the socks off Owen. I'm looking forward to checking out their PPV rematch after seeing this, even if the result here was decisive. ★★★½ WWF Monday Night Raw (1/20/1997) Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker All it takes is one look at Austin here during this show and you can see why he blew up in 1997. He moves with a purpose and is so intense that you can feel him through your screen. This was a fired-up brawl that ends with Vader rushing the rings and forcing the match to be called off after ten minutes of total match time. Bret Hart comes out and we have a four-way brawl as Raw goes off the air. This match obviously wasn't booked to be a classic match or anything. Instead it felt like a teaser for the upcoming PPV and I'm sure this hot angle helped convince a good amount of people to part with their cash for the event. Fun fact: this was the third time that Austin and Undertaker had faced each other in televised singles matches and every match had gone to a non-finish! ★★★ WWF Thursday Raw Thursday (2/12/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title Match Hunter Hearst Helmsley (c) vs. Rocky Maivia It's still early days for Rocky, as you can tell he is still very inexperienced here. He put in a good effort here, even if he has already started to receive heckles from the audience. Hunter was calling this and did a good job at guiding his green opponent. This starts slow and takes a while to get going. The Honky Tonk Man comes down after the commercial break and joins the commentary team. Hunter brings some much-needed color to the match by slapping Rocky in the face and showing some aggression as he wails away at him. After Rocky takes a lot of punishment and kicks out all everything that Hunter throws at him, the fans seem to be into Rock and he gets a huge pop when Rocky is able to sneak away with the win after catching Hunter in a small package. ★★¾ WWF Monday Night Raw (2/17/1997) WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Bret Hart (c) vs. Sycho Sid Bret had won the title the previous night during the Final Four match. Austin wants Bret dead after Bret eliminated him from the match. Austin had attacked Bret twice leading up to this match and you know he will make himself seen during this match. Bret had his work cut out for him here. Getting a good match out of Sid isn't easy, but he put in an admirable effort. This has a rocky start, with the match feeling directionless and cumbersome. Bret tries to work over Sid's leg while Sid clobbers away at Hart. Sid was working stiffer than usual. Bret's famous turnbuckle figure four makes its TV debut here. In a bit of foreshadowing, Bret shows his heel side by initially refusing the break the hold. Sid hits the ugliest sunset flip ever, but I give him props for trying something new. Austin eventually shows himself and brains Bret with a chair just as Hart had this won. The referee doesn't see this and Sid is able to take advantage of this and win the title. This had a hot finish and built up Hart and Austin's rivalry wonderfully, so it did everything it set out to do, even if the match is far from being one of Bret's best. ★★½ WWF Monday Night Raw (taped 2/26/1997, aired 3/3/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title Match Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Vader (w/Paul Bearer) Vader previous had pinned Rocky during the quarter-finals of the European Title tournament earlier in the week. Vader is now out of the tournament but has earned a shot at Rocky's IC strap. Rocky getting paired with Vader is a smart move. Having Vader beat the hell of out Rocky and putting some hairs on his chest will give him a much-needed edge. One strike sends Rocky to the ground and Vader proceeds to hammer Rocky's pretty face up some more. However, it is not long before Vader starts to go on autopilot and works over Rocky with some uninspired holds. Vader was phoning it in here and this match is further hindered by a bad DQ finish. Just as the match starts heating up, Mankind comes out of nowhere and nails Rocky with Paul Bearer's urn. This was fine overall, but it's nothing going out of your way to see. ★★¼ WWF Monday Night Raw (taped 2/26/1997, aired 3/3/1997) WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Sycho Sid (c) vs. Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) I was curious to see what Mankind could get out of Sid and the result is a decent brawl that featured nothing fancy. Sid wastes no time attacking Mankind as he enters the ring and they brawl on the outside, with Mankind taking a stiff bump into the ring post after missing a shoulder charge. The majority of the in-ring stuff here was basic, but we do see Sid pull out a Fujiwara armbar for some reason. Sid clobbers away at Mankind and pulls on his hair. Mankind is able to get on the Mandible Claw, but Sid easily fights out of the hold. Paul Bearer takes a tumble after Sid shoves Mankind into him. Sid follows this up for a chokeslam for a near-fall, before finally putting Mankind to bed with the powerbomb. It never felt like Mankind had a chance here. Sid looked over with the German crowd though. ★★½ WWF Monday Night Raw (taped 2/26/1997, aired 3/3/1997) WWF European Title Tournament Final Match Owen Hart vs. The British Bulldog Hart and Bulldog trade old Stampede and World Of Sport spots for 18 minutes. We get some jaw-dropping sequences here. Bulldog was super motivated here and was able to keep up with Owen. My main nitpick about this one is that eventually drop the brilliant story they were telling about Owen getting jealous of Bulldog and instead just do a finishing stretch that is just crammed full with false finishes with no story to it. It's still an exciting match and it's WWF's best Raw match up to this point in history. The performance that Owen put in as Bulldog started getting the better of him was great. He's forced to feign an injury, so he's able to get a few shots in. If they were able to have a finish that played off Owen's jealousy and the 'friendly rivalry gone sour' thing they had going on, then I could easily see myself giving this the full marks. ★★★★½ WWF Raw Is War (3/17/1997) WWF World Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match Sycho Sid (c) vs. Bret Hart This is the match where Bret goes full heel during the post-match and cuts one of the most blistering promos in company history. The match itself is kept simple and things don't get interesting until Austin interferes. Austin wants Bret to win this so they can fight for the title at Wrestlemania. Undertaker soon comes to Sid's aid. The four-man brawl on top of the cage was quite the visual and they had the crowd eating out of their hands. They do the spot where both men are trying to get out of the cage, with Bret trying to leave through the door while Sid climbs over the cage. Undertake is able to shut the door on Bret and Sid retains. After they come back from the commercial break, Bret shoves Vince to the mat and cuts the famous promo that must have pissed off the suits for the USA network with how many times Bret cursed! All four men brawl as the show goes off the air. This is more of an angle than a match, but what a hot angle it is! ★★★ WWF Raw Is War (3/31/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title Match Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Bret Hart 75% of this match was Bret working over Rocky, but Bret was so a pro at crafting a compelling control segment that I can't fault this! The way his heel side would slowly creep out was just masterful. Bret has just turned heel a few weeks early. His body language is sublime and you can tell that he's a heel just by how he circles Rocky before they lock up. He offers a disingenuous handshake, but Rocky refuses to shake his hand. They work holds, with both men kipping up out of arm holds. Bret doesn't do anything that bends the rules until after he cuts off Rocky with a stiff knee lift. Bret rains down with some stiff strikes on the rookie, before abusing rope breaks and making him work for that comeback. Bret looked like he was having the time of his life when he was soaking in all the boos from the audience. Bret's punishment really lit a fire under Rocky's ass, as he's all full of piss and vinegar when he makes his comeback. He looks the best he has ever looked in his career up to that point. Bret gets frustrated with Rocky and gets himself disqualified by refusing the break the figure four around the ring post. We get a super-hot afterbirth with LOD, Bulldog, Owen & Austin all rushing down to the ring. Bret made Rocky look like a million dollars here. ★★★½

I'm going to watch all of the WWF PPVs that happened on 1997. I'll cover the more memorable TV matches too. 1997 might be my favourite year for the WWF as there hasn't been a year where so much changed over the course of the year. If you compare January 1997 to December 1997, it's like looking at two different companies. Let's see if it holds up. WWF Royal Rumble 1997 (1/19/1997) WWF Intercontinental Title Match Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Curtis Hughes) (c) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena) Goldust is an excellent worker and Hunter was decent enough by this point in his career. Both men can throw a neat punch and they spent a lot of this one brawling outside the ring in between the less exciting moments when they keep it in the ring. Goldust gets a little too heavy-handed during the brawling and starts using the steel steps right in front of Earl Hebner, who does nothing. This really lit a fire under Jim Ross's ass as he chews out Hebner for not officiating correctly. Hunter does a Ric Flair-style flop beak-first onto the steel steps that the fans found amusing. Curtis Hughes makes his return as Hunter's new bodyguard and he was about as useless as you would expect Mr. Hughes has been throughout his career. The finish we got here was an overly-contrived screwy one, with both Hughes and Marlena getting involved. This was fine, if not a little dull in places. ★★½ Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq (w/Clarence Mason, Crush, D-Lo Brown, JC Ice & Wolfie D) We are on our second match for the PPV and this is the second match on the show where a wrestler hits another weapon right in front of the referee and the referee does nothing! Ahmed is back from injury and you can start to see the wheels coming off for him physically by just how he moves around the ring. The guy looks in pain. Faarooq tries to get a good match out of Ahmed by trash-talking and keeping the action simple, but he's no miracle worker and Faarooq's best in-ring years were behind him by this point. Despite how unrealistic it was, I did enjoy seeing Ahmed scoop up Faarooq in the electric chair position when Faarooq was too busy jaw-jacking with the fans. This was short enough to not be too offensive, and the table bump during the post-match looked cool and it gave Ahmed and the NOD a reason to keep feuding. ★½ Vader vs. The Undertaker Both men aren't afraid to lay it into each other and the punches here look very convincing. Seeing Vader cower away from Undertaker in fear during his shine just doesn't didn't sit right with me, even if was decent at being a chickenshit. The WWF really screwed up with Vader by having him be a cowardly heel instead of a kick-ass world-beater. Undertaker is one of the few stars that the dead crowd seems to give a crap about. Undertaker puts some effort in here by pulling out some different stuff, such as countering Vader's back body drop by landing a nice jumping leg drop as Vader bends down. Vader scores a rare pinfall win over Undertaker after Paul Bearer makes an appearance and hits Undertaker with the urn. Undertaker gets some of his heat back by choke-slamming the referee after the bell. This had quite a slow place and they would have a better PPV match later in the year, but I didn't hate this. ★★½ Fuerza Guerrera, Heavy Metal & Jerry Estrada vs. Canek, Hector Garza & Perro Aguayo This was a failed exhibition for the AAA guys. They went way too long and they didn't give the fans anything to care about. It felt like no one in the audience had any idea who anyone in this match was. Heavy Metal tries and fails to get them involved by showing some love with a pro-USA rallying call. We got a few cool spots and sequences here and there, but they wouldn't keep the action flowing well. I did enjoy seeing Perry Aguayo as the old salty vet, even if he did fuck up the finish by completely missing his opponent with his double foot stomp from the top finish. He then had to come up with another finish on the fly and it was flat as a pancake. ★¾ Royal Rumble Match This was quite a hard Rumble to sit through. It was so dull, with the fans sitting on their hands in silence for the majority of it. The AAA guys added nothing to the match, and it only went to show how egotistic Mil Mascaras is as he eliminated himself as didn't want anyone to get a rub from eliminating him. Owen ends up eliminating British Bulldog, which is the first sign of them teasing a break-up. Austin's reaction to Bret Hart coming out was by far my favourite moment of this match. His reaction was priceless. Jerry Lawler's being a surprise entrant and getting eliminated seconds later was genuinely quite funny and added some much-needed personality into the match. The match starts to show a bit of life once Bret and other stars join the match. I liked the screwy finish, with Austin sneaking back into the match after both referees were too pre-occupied with Funk and Mankind fighting on the outside to notice that Austin was actually thrown out by Bret. Austin gets the biggest victory of his career up to this point and it gave Bret a reason to finally start embracing the heel side. ★★ WWF World Heavyweight Title Match Sycho Sid (c) vs. Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario) HBK had the flu here and you can tell that he wasn't running at 100%. Sid's stuff here was basic, but worked over Shawn's back and brought enough crazed facials to the table to keep his control segment interesting. Shawn using the TV camera was a nice callback to their Survivor Series match where Sid used the camera to dethrone Michaels as WWF Champion. This was an entertaining enough main event, but you can't help to think that this match (and the entire show) would have been improved if it happened at a smaller arena that was sold out with passionate fans instead of a stadium that had a heavily papered attendance. The fans were louder for this than any other match on this card, but it didn't quite feel like the triumphant homecoming victory that they were hoping for. ★★¾ Final Thoughts: This is far from being one of the worst PPVs that WWF had put up to at this time, but there's nothing here to go out of your way to watch. The massive stadium doesn't do that much to make things feel big-time when the atmosphere still feels so lifeless. WWF In Your House 13: Final Four (2/16/1997) Marc Mero (w/Sable) vs. Leif Cassidy This reminded me of the many Mero matches that used to open WCW PPVs, as this was a match that was decent enough to open the show without stealing the spotlight from the bigger matches on the show. Mero is a charismatic guy, and he can coast by on that and he was never really that interesting in-ring when you strip away all his presentation and the high spots from his moveset. Cassidy does a good enough job at working over Mero's leg. The camera keeps cutting to Sable and you can tell that the fed has big plans for here. Jerry Lawler can't stop making domestic abuse jokes about her, sheesh. Cassidy's downfall comes when he can't keep his eyes off Sable and it ends up costing him. Mero's finish is still quite a sight to see, even in 2022. ★★½ Bart Gunn, Flash Funk & Goldust (w/Marlena) vs. The Nation Of Domination (Crush, Faarooq & Savio Vega) (w/Clarence Mason, D-Lo Brown, JC Ice & Wolfie D) The Nation beat a thrown-together team of babyface lower-card guys by playing the numbers game once again. Ahmed wasn't on the card tonight, so this felt like a TV match to heat up the Nation by giving them yet another victory before Ahmed and friends come to save the day. Funk gets to show off his agility and high spots during his shine and he was by far the most impressive man of the match. Funk gets his water cut off once the Nation comes to get and catch him during a dive attempt. Funk eventually makes a hot tag and the match turns into a fight with everyone getting involved, and Crush is able to sneak in and drop a leg on the legal Bart Gunn and seal the victory for the Nation. ★★ WWF Intercontinental Title Match Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley This was quite impressive given that Rocky didn't even have a year under his belt at this point. Hunter tries to psych out Rocky by slapping him on the head, but this fails and Rocky shows a tiny bit of attitude and slaps Hunter back. Hunter carried the bulk of the match, and Rocky jumped through the hoops that Hunter set up. Rocky's stuff looks excellent, with his crossbody, arm drags, and dropkicks all looking nice and crisp. Hunter gets in some 80s wrestler worship by doing the Harley Race knee drop, the Flair turnbuckle bump, and the DiBiase front bump after getting punched in the mid-section after coming off the ropes. Goldust ends up costing Hunter the match, but Hunter gets the last laugh as Chyna makes her debut and chokes out Marlena. I can see why people started to turn on Rock at this time because of his character and booking, but you would have to be disingenuous to call him a bad worker as he clearly had all the tools to go far, even at this point in his career. ★★★¼ WWF World Tag Team Title Match Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (w/Clarence Mason) (c) vs. Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon This felt quite similar to the tag match these two tag teams had on Raw leading up to this. It's quite work-rate heavy, but they kept things different here by bringing some fresh exchanges to the mix and this bout had more emphasis on tag team psychology than their previous outing. Bulldog and Owen are constantly cheating behind the referee's back. Bulldog looked more fired up than I can ever remember him looking during his WWF run. Perhaps he was worried he would look outclassed by the other three talented men in this match and decided to put on his working boots? They are still teasing Bulldog and Owen splitting up and they come to blows here after a miscommunication sees Bulldog getting kicked in the jaw by Owen. I know some people weren't pleased by the DQ finish, but I thought it worked for the story they were trying to tell and it wouldn't have made sense to stick the tag straps on Furnas and LaFon as they weren't over enough to win them. ★★★½ WWF World Heavyweight Title Final Four Battle Royal Vader (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker This was chaotic. We might see multi-man matches on a weekly basis in 2022, but this felt fresh and the crowd came alive for this. Undertaker kicks a steel chair into Vader's face and he bleeds a right gusher. Vader bleeding through his mask made for a harrowing visual that will stick with me for a while. We get a lot of brawling around the ring and up the aisle. Bret Hart can brawl as well as he can wrestle. Seeing Vader and Austin clobber the crap out of each other makes me feel sad that we didn't get a proper program between them. Austin is eliminated first by Bret, but that won't be the last time we will see him tonight. The over-the-top eliminations were obviously put in place to protect everyone, but I don't think it hurt the match. Bret gets one last babyface hurrah before his world comes crashing down on him and he finally turns heel. ★★★★ Final Thoughts: Even with Shawn vacating his title and forcing the WWF to create a new main event with less than a week's notice, this show is a bit of a hidden gem. The two hours just fly by and there's nothing offensive on the card. The last three matches range from good to great and the first two are decent enough. Give this a watch if you fancy something short and sweet.

Not really. I was only halfway paying attention to it, but it was mostly Foley harping on about Christmas and his charity work and Cameos.

That's everything on my initial watchlist done! I'm going to take a break now, but I will return with a selection of matches that I added after I started the project soon. Juventud Guerrera vs. Blitzkreig vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Pyschosis (WCW Monday Nitro - 4/19/1999) You can see how matches like this influenced the multi-man spotfests that we have seen a lot of over the last two decades, but they had yet to iron out the crinkles here. Despite some sloppiness, all the high spots look amazing. We get a lot of big dives, hurricanranas and stuff of that ilk all pulled off to perfection, but the highlight of the match would have to be Blitzkrieg pulling out a phoenix splash. This must have been the first time someone had done this move on American TV. It utterly baffles Tony Schivone as he has no idea what to call that move. Rey looked like a total star and got the biggest reactions by far. The main issue I have with this is the length and how directionless some parts of the match were. The match starts promisingly enough with Juvi and Psychosis forming an alliance, but this soon breaks down after one of them predictably hits the other after a miscommunication and this breaks down into a total spotfest where every man is fighting for himself. They should have had this done and dusted in 10 minutes. 20 minutes is way too long for this type of match. The match just kept going on and they start to lose the crowd when the pace slows down so that the wrestlers can catch their breath back. ★★★ Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting (WCW Monday Nitro - 4/26/1999) From what I've seen of his work, DDP's big matches always use the same, simple formula. It works wonders, so I can't fault this match for feeling quite similar in structure to DDP's match with Goldberg the previous year. He is so giving during the babyface shine segment and he makes Sting look like a million bucks by selling for him and showing his frustration by taking constant breathers when things aren't going his way. He is able to use Sting's hair to ground him, but this just enrages Sting, who follows Page outside and they start brawling up the aisle. The referee follows them and doesn't start a count as this is such a big match that no one wants this to end on a count-out. The middle portion of this is the weakest part of the match, with Page not being that interesting when working on top and Sting not being that compelling of a seller. Things pick back up again during the finishing stretch when Sting pulls off a Ganso Bomb! DDP is the king of the finisher-tease sequence and the Diamond Cutter to Scorpion Death Drop counter might just top anything that was in the finale to the Goldberg/DDP match that I previously mentioned. Those moves are so simple that even an amateur could pull them off, but the moves are protected and the talent is over to the level that you can't help but get swept up in the drama. ★★★★ Kidman & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Perry Saturn & Raven vs. Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko (WCW Slamboree - 5/9/1999) Don't expect too much long-term selling or deep psychology here, but this was an exciting opener with a fast pace. WCW seemed to have a better grasp of these multi-team matches than WWF did at the time. It's three people in the ring at once and you can only tag your tag partner. Malenko and Benoit are the heels here, and they work together exceptionally well as the no-nonsense ruffians. When you have two wrestlers as dry as Benoit and Malenko dominating the field, you feel compelled to cheer on any wrestler with a shed of charisma to make a comeback! Kidman gets thrown around like a frisbee here, Saturn first dumps him over the top rope with a belly-to-belly suplex, and then later Malenko gives him some serious air with a flapjack. Mysterio also impressed me here with some of his athleticism. He leapfrogs over a wrestler and is able to land on the top rope, fully standing up and he is able to land a standing moonsault in one fluid motion without even taking a second to maintain his balance. The finish does suck, with run-ins from Arn Anderson and Kanyon watering down the match. ★★★ Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit (WCW Monday Nitro - 10/4/1999) Bret and Benoit put on a clinic to pay tribute to Owen Hart, who passed away in the same building just months previously. This is Bret and Benoit going long, so it's should come as no surprise that this was a technical masterclass. Benoit has the speed advantage. Things remain respectful during the first few exchanges, but frustration builds and Benoit soon busts out the chops. Both guys are pros at putting together a match that drums up tension naturally. The execution of the moves here was obviously brilliant, with Bret's backbreaker and Benoit's two tombstones being particular highlights. It's not just the execution of moves that was impressive, but even things like Bret adding an extra snap to the bump he takes when he charges into the ropes made the fan care just that little bit extra. They redo that amazing counter where Benoit escapes a sharpshooter by pulling Bret's arm through the hold and locking him in a crossface and you can feel the air in the arena change when fans realize that Bret could tap out during his brother's tribute match. We get some excellent struggling on the mat where Bret is able to roll through and tap Benoit out with the sharpshooter. The post-match is quite emotional with Bret and Benoit embracing after having wrestled the best match to take place on a Monday Nitro. ★★★★¼ Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett (Ladder) (WCW Starrcade - 12/19/1999) Benoit was awarded the US title earlier in the show, but he wants to earn it, so this match is put on the card. The match is very good overall, with both men putting the work in. The ladder spots might feel basic now, but there's a level of violence here that you don't usually see in most ladder matches. They only use one ladder, so they don't waste any time trying to set up the furniture and everything involving the ladder looked fairly realistic. Benoit gets cut open hardway and ends up hitting his signature headbutt from the top of the ladder. We are treated to a clean finish (a rarity for WCW during this time!) where the fans clearly cared who won. If this was an attempt by WCW to capture the magic of the recent Hardys/E&C ladder match, then this failed, but by no fault of the wrestlers involved. This had zero build and they were only given 10 minutes to work with, so Benoit and Jarrett couldn't be expected to pull out a classic for the ages out of thin air. ★★★½ Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble vs. Kaz Hayashi & Yang vs. Shane Helms & Shannon Moore (Triangle Ladder) (WCW Starrcade - 12/17/2000) Outside of a few nutty spots here and there, this was dogshit with mind-bogglingly stupid stipulation. Chavo Guerrero Jr. is on commentary and he was dreadful here. He will give the winner a shot at his title. So despite this being a 3-way tag match, only one man can win the prize of the match. The action in the ring isn't much better and we get plenty of botches. They use tags for the first few minutes before abandoning that concept and making this a total free-for-all. Moore gets hit with an awfully stereotypical marital arts combo from Yang and sells it by jumping into the air as if he had just walked on lava. The Yung Dragons have a valet who gets involved in one of the worse interference spots that I've ever seen. Helms & Moore get to the top of the ladder, and they decide to pull down the contract together. They are declared winners as Chavo loses his shit that only one man should be able to get the contract. Christ, I didn't think that this could get any worse. Russo might have left WCW by this point, but his booking style still lives on through this match! ½★ Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble vs. Kaz Hayashi & Yang (WCW Sin - 1/14/2001) Even though this was a cold match added to the card with no build, everyone involved did a good job and the result is a fun spotfest that doesn't drag or outstay its welcome. Karagias and Knoble are doing a bit where they don't get along despite being tag partners, but it doesn't come into play during the match. The Yung Dragons are good, especially Hayashi, whose strikes looked proper stiff. These guys move around at a fast pace throughout the entire match, but it sucks that the only botch to be found here is the finish where a top rope move completely misses its intended target. Although this is nothing to go out of your way to see, it's a fun cruiserweights match that showed that WCW could have created some more stars if they were given the opportunity to stick around. ★★★¼