PeteF3

Rude doesn't actually answer any pertinent questions and makes a bunch of references to famous insurance company slogans. I still don't get why they felt the need to ambiguate his alignment with Shawn and Helmsley but I admit I kind of like the idea of Rude running a wrestling protection racket--sort of a precursor to the APA.

The Observer says Sabu was supposed to wrestle Sandman at Hardcore Heaven, but with Sandman out injured the decision was made to move Sabu into the main event, with the title change being the kayfabe reasoning. Just the finish but this doubtless had some more thought put into it than the Night the Line Was Crossed--certainly this match in full couldn't have been any worse than that, and the finish works okay. The ring fills with trash, because of course it does, and Funk is playing a sympathetic babyface in Florida despite cutting heel promos leading up to this. Joel Gertner and the Dudleys are out to make an invitation for Douglas to dump the Triple Threat for them. (Gertner: "Francine, you dig gold--er, I mean, you--you LIKE to have gold.") Douglas responds by precipitating a shitty brawl with people meandering about like a 1986 WWF battle royal. Mikey Whipwreck is the only guy working with any enthusiasm. The Dudleys clear the ring as no one can bring down Big Dick. Finally New Jack and Kronus make the save. Big Dick overpowers them as well, but after no-selling chairshots all throughout this, a CRUTCH and a diamond cutter are enough to render him comatose. Saturn drops another one-legged elbow off the turnbuckle. Really shitty and nonsensical post-match (why the fuck are Balls and Axl still hanging around for all this?) that completely marginalizes the new World champion. The only positive thing I can say about it is that it ends with an effective and well-built-to payoff, with Joel Gertner getting destroyed.

I think its simply really. Film something backstage. Example (and this is completely off the top of my head and not the BEST idea, but you will get my point): Someone has been taking out Roman Reigns friends one-by-one backstage and leaving cryptic notes and clues. Its now down to Ambrose and Reigns and Reigns has a main event match against ADR. It has been established earlier that night that Sheamus is not in the arena, The New Day have been taken out by Team Extreme. Reigns is about to beat ADR, but now he has to face the odds: 3-on-1. Somehow- through God's grace Roman surives and heads to the back to find a beaten and bloody Ambrose who is being attended by medical staff. One last clue leads Roman to a locker room door- he opens it and gasps. "What the hell are you doing here!?" FADE TO BLACK But this is my point (and I get this was quickly thrown together without a lot of thought)--you can't just "fade to black" on a modern-day WWE show the way you can on The Walking Dead, because Walking Dead characters aren't encouraged to make in-character Tweets and Instagrams and Vines all throughout the week. In this instance, what would the kayfabe reasoning be to stop Reigns or a third party from talking about this situation on Twitter shortly after the show goes off the air? I don't know how often you can go with just, "I'll say what I have to say Monday night." Again, this is not to defend how WWE goes about business, but there *does* need to be more thought put into cliffhangers than you needed to in the late '90s when they were all the rage. To execute an angle like this would require a complete re-thinking of how WWE treats social media--some may say to that, "Good!" and I'm not sure they're wrong.

One clarification: the early UFCs were only about "determining the best martial art" on the surface. The real purpose of the shows was to advertise for Gracie Jiu Jitsu--so yes, the superiority of BJJ was the expected end result.

On the question of which one match you'd most likely to see come out of the WWE vault, I can't believe Bix didn't immediately respond, "Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee."

Just as a general question, not to defend the WWE storytelling culture...how difficult has the rise of Twitter and social media affected the ability to put on a good cliffhanger for a live show? To go way back...when Shawn Michaels keeled over in 1995, once the show went off the air that was *it* until next Saturday morning and WWF Mania--you were waiting for 6 days with no wrestlers posting to Twitter or Instagram, no instant updates on a WWE website much less an Observer/Torch site. If a wrestler were to do a medical emergency angle today, you'd expect to get an update on your phone or on the Network before midnight struck. It doesn't work like a fictional TV show where all the info is entirely in the hands of the writer/director who can cut off and pick up on a story wherever they feel like.

Re: "The Black Ninja"...I can see why this would create some backlash--this match was hyped on SMW television as Armstrong vs. a mystery opponent, and Cornette did interviews that did more than tease that it would be Yokozuna. He's the only name I distinctly remember being dropped, but I think he may have brought up guys like Abdullah as well. It was also either implied or outright stated that it would *not* be Terry Funk. In any event, fans were led to believe that this would be something bigger than Larry Santo in a cheap outfit.

And here I was all excited at seeing that subject heading. "Oh wow, that sounds awesome." Literally the moment between the time I clicked and the opening of the page I realized, "Oh, wait..."

Kyle wasn't that good but I thought he was at least serviceable in the role he was given--he was never pushed as a main event star that I can recall. That said, when he first opened his mouth as a member of the Gangstas he quickly revealed why he'd been kept silent for 3 years.

I thought this was pretty good, and the final ending with Beulah was GREAT. The lights-out stuff is starting to wear with me, though--I'm not as high on that as others here, but give Heyman credit for getting the surprises to pay off, at least for now. We're approaching diminishing returns, though, as I'm pretty sure the Jake stuff goes nowhere. In the end, though, this is everything you'd want out of Lawler vs. Dreamer.

PG-13 are quite the blend of old school southern tag wrasslin' with enough '90s-style moves and spots to keep them looking modern. It says something for the effectiveness of the tag formula that it gets even cynical ECW fans clapping along rooting for the hot tag for a team they're not all that familiar with and that usually doesn't work babyface. D-Von is lost a few times and this is pretty clearly a PG-13 carry job, so it's a good/solid match rather than a good/great one. I still want to see PG-13 vs. FBI in the worst way.

For a second I thought this was an early episode of Power Pro Wrestling. Good quick interview from Lawler, touching on his past feud with Bret but bringing up the possibility of busting out a Sharpshooter in tribute to him.

I liked the two big '96 matches better, as I can't help but miss the presence of TAKA and Hamada, but this is really good and they manage to throw a few twists into a Kaientai clean sweep. We also get a story of the babyfaces starting out trying to beat K D*X at their own game, with some quadruple-teams and dickishness of their own. The ending is spectacularly dickish as Kaientai apparently agrees to wrestle Hoshikawa 1-on-1, but then they cheat to win anyway and force him to quit into a microphone for good measure.

Well, as much as there's debate over work vs. shoot in RINGS, this is clearly a work. Less cooperative than UWFI but some obvious "near-falls." The first part of this was "eh" to me--lots of fumbling around and re-sets. The highlight was Naruse doing a backflip to get out of an attempted armbar, which was a holy-shit spot and sort of the shoot version of Misawa doing the same earlier in the year. The standup portions down the stretch got better as this went along, with some pretty great-looking strikes and a finishing shot that looked like a finisher, even though the match ended on points. If anything, this is also makes you appreciate just how gifted Volk Han and Tamura were on the mat, because these guys couldn't do nearly as much in terms of working holds in this style. On a shallower note, Haseman has possibly the worst skin I've ever seen in wrestling--horrible bacne and a face that looks like he cut himself shaving and then went to sleep on the IWA-MS ring mat every night for 2 years.

Bruiser Bedlam wasn't good either and I think he was around a bit longer than Kharis. Still, he was at least capable of a few tricks that Cornette did his best to capitalize on. Lee seemed to flip a switch when he turned heel--that run was the best of his career.

Even Schiavone has picked up on what Sting wants, but Okerlund and Dillon can't. I can buy Dillon's offices receiving telegrams, smoke signals, and semaphore codes, but I refuse to believe all, or any of them, were pushing for Sting to wrestle Syxx.

I've had about enough of this feud. The Outsiders don't need the belts.

Absolutely crazy balls-to-the-wall war--one of the most "extreme" matches in Raw history because this felt gritty and intense in a way that many garbage brawls fail at. Some cringeworthy bumps along the way, but they all feel organic as Michaels sort of has to fight to survive. It's not Mind Games, but give it more time and it wouldn't be far off. Triple H, Chyna, and the debuting Rick Rude all help Shawn win, though they're still giving lip service to ambiguity in each man's actions--JR for some reason thinks Rude may have been aiming for HHH with the chair, and Michaels reacts with confusion after winning. Then we get appearances by Undertaker and Paul Bearer--I'll be curious as to what led to Kane's debut being put off, because it sure seems like they're gearing up for him to debut at Ground Zero.

Mankind uses an old standby line of his, but as Loss says, it's a great line. Brakus is coming! Now he's targeting Vader.

Easily the best Link match you're going to readily find, and it's not just a carry job--Robertson had his working boots on here, unleashing some offense besides just headbutts and flying out of the ring with gusto. The ref bump was unique and finish effective as well. Not a *great* match as they sort of go off the rails with maybe one too many cut-offs and comebacks before the finish, but a good effort to set up Link vs. JYD next week.

The other problem with the top-rope ban was the second major show after it was the tag title tournament Clash, where because of "NWA rules" moves off the top were allowed--so you immediately had Pilman, Liger, and Benoit leaping all over the place undermining whatever Watts was setting out to accomplish.

Ahmed was turfed from the NOD a week prior in rather anticlimactic fashion, and Ross remarks that he may never be back at 100%--geez, JR, when WAS he ever 100%? ROCK BOTTOM! ROCK BOTTOM! Not called that, but JR *does* refer to him as "The Rock." No one knew it at the time, but as with the Shawn heel turn and Scott Hall appearance on Nitro, this is one of those "nothing will ever quite be the same" moments.

They're using the Patriot music for part of this, which is a little weird. A very babyface-ish video package, though the kid telling America there's nothing we can do about it is fantastic. Yeah, this may well be Bret's last high point, as we're a few weeks away from his forced departure and Raw turning into the Shawn Show.

More hype for Shawn's insurance policy, as Dude offers expert analysis on the upcoming match between Shawn and his friend Mankind--goo goo ga joob, indeed.

Just like Hogan last year, Shawn is becoming a great heel by ramping up everything people hated about him as a babyface. Shawn was almost *too* good of a heel in late '97 as DX was allowed to run rampant over the entire show, particularly with half the roster leaving or injured all at once--in all honesty, as much as I was looking forward to this Yearbook, I'm kinda not so looking forward to seeing both promotions fall off in the last quarter. We'll see how it goes.