PeteF3

Decent slow-paced match, but Tenzan is like a Japanese Carl Oulette with worse execution. I'm not a big execution guy but with Tenzan it's so noticeable as to be distracting--and like Oulette he doesn't really know how to pace or work a full control segment outside of big spots--he is very good at standing and trading blows, though. Hash as usual carries this--at one point he levels Tenzan with a chest kick so hard that Tenzan takes a flat back bump and his entire upper torso literally bounces off the mat. Hash Hulks Up and decisively puts Tenzan away.

Well-worked but too long for the stip, and at times this veered into Rotten brothers territory. They did make sure to get this over as something special and extra-extreme, though--Styles actually did a good job of calling it. One of those '97 Japanese indy "worth watching once" matches, but that's it.

Heenan's sober this year, thank goodness. Y'know, Luger would have been better off just covering up and let the NWO attack him. Take a beating and keep your title. I guess Darth Helmet's declaration about evil triumphing because good is dumb still holds up. A fake Sting whacks Luger with the bat as he bounces off the ropes and even though this is a little bit better disguise than Nash's at BATB, the announcers still come off as dumb for buying it. I don't know why they feared this, but it REALLY seems like WCW was afraid of another crazy trash-throwing incident as the NWO gets out of there FAST with Hogan covering up his head, though we don't get a lot of bottle-throwing. Then apparently it takes 45 minutes for them to get to a proper backstage/locker area, so we get a LONG panning crowd shot of whooping fans who really feel broken up about the title change. Does Tony have a TATTOO on his forearm?? The NWO re-spraypaint the belt with a cameo from Dennis Rodman. The action of the match itself wasn't too bad, but another fake Sting already feels lazy and it's starting to make less sense why Sting would stick by WCW considering how often he continues to be doubted. The Outsiders retain the tag belts AGAIN?? Talk about milking something ridiculously past its sell-by date. That's arguably even worse booking than this World title turnaround, which hurts Luger but for whatever reason never really bothered me either.

Terry Funk hates the ignorant inbreds of Pittsburgh, then talks about how he left Florida because of the stupid crackers there as well as Dusty Rhodes. Now the problems come from Haiti and Nassau. He plans on leaving the stinking professional wrestling business (HA!), but not without his ECW title.

Seems like a good way to destroy your knees in a hurry, though.

He did it in one of the Bulldog matches--I remember noting it in my review. ::looks it up:: SummerSlam '92: " And that pescado-into-a-neckbreaker thing...I don't know what that was, if it was what Bret had in mind, or what, but it looked awesome."

I haven't been high on 1997 Babyface Taz but this is Babyface Taz done right. He's not mad at Candido, and he shows how calm and not-mad he is by destroying his students and not breaking a Tazmission on one of them.

I'm less high on Gertner than everyone else, namely because he takes 10 minutes to say what could be said in 5 even though his character is effective. The Gangstas are still technically ECW Tag Champions--I think--even though the Dudleys have the belts. Bubba Ray seems to be regressing back to his old goofy character.

This started off with a terrific heated brawl that brings to mind a wilder version of the Midnights/Fantastics Clash I match, and then kept going, and going, and going, to the point of silliness and tedium. The weapons and the brawling were mostly under control for awhile, but they climaxed with Aja unleashing the fire extinguisher, which sets off a chaotic scene of announcers running for cover and Korakuen fire alarms going off. After that, we enter a stretch I've seen all too often in joshi where the 2.9s are so numerous and overdone that I start to lose interest in who wins or loses. We also get both teams looking rather stupid as they completely decimate one opponent but don't even bother to make an effort to subdue their partner, who inevitably brushes against the pin attempt thus forcing a kickout. They do manage to tie this back together somewhat towards the end, as Kyoko does a great job of reviving an unconscious Aja, who has just enough in her to unleash one Uraken before collapsing on Mita for the pin. They got me with that one--I expected Aja to miss and knock Kyoko out leading to another run of offense for LCO. Overall though, this was too long for its own good and all the heeling by LCO--the weapons, the interference, the MIST (which Kyoko sells like her outfit got stained instead of like death)--reeked of desperation and trying too hard. If this is the best AJW has to offer for 1997 then I'm glad we got as little on the Yearbook as we did.

Hey now...Toyota DID bust out a new finisher at the end here. Anyway, I thought this was a nice solid meat-and-potatoes match--one of the closest things to an AJW "TV match" that we've seen on a Yearbook. Ito has a bunch of nice counters and submission work to keep Toyota grounded while also keeping her off-balance with a few Inoue-inspired flying spots, and Manami's hit-and-run moves seem more like a legitimate strategy to deal with that rather than Manami Being Manami. Good stuff here, even if the atmosphere feels a bit like late-1987 UWF.

Good in a house show sense but I wasn't overly wowed by this, though I agree that it beats the Douglas match and that Sabu throws nice punches. Bill Alfonso's verbal banter was entertaining--that damned whistle wasn't. Scary post-match scene as Sabu and RVD seemingly have to cut their post-match beatdown short and they wisely bail to avoid the crap being thrown at the ring.

Just think they wanted something big for the 100th and first 3-hour Nitro. Luger winning a non-title match over Hogan had already happened, so that wouldn't have added much, either.

It may have just been a happy coincidence, but there's something cool about the 100th Nitro main event being a re-match of the bout that instantly put Nitro on the map. Hogan completely carries this--Luger is competent, but for most of this he's just a warm body as Hogan sets the pace, works the crowd, and completely controls this match. The clinching Torture Rack is pretty electrifying--this time period feels like the peak for *both* companies. There's good stuff to come, but now Austin will never be the same, Shawn's a heel and is already starting to overshadow Bret, and WCW will be entering a holding pattern until Starrcade and we know how that goes.

JJ cuts a long, boring promo seemingly designed to kill time, before we get Sting out here. JJ's big announcement is a disappointment--what is it with Curt Hennig and letdown announcements? Bischoff's not in power anymore--at least have the opponent be Buff Bagwell or some other NWO B-teamer.

Ted throws one last hail mary pass for relevance. The era of managers--particularly babyface ones--was past at this point. Not a change for the better, but a fact. You'd think they'd let the Steiners say *something* since they're in Detroit, but DiBiase does all the talking. I forget when the titles actually switched but Road Wild would be past time for this chase to end for good.

The Hall thing is extra-weird because Hogan waits until his music starts playing again to suddenly bring it up.

We get to see more of Pillman than we really needed, and he gets into a ringside argument with Goldust and counted out against Bob Holly.

Huge boos as soon as Vince gets out the words "most flamboyant..." out. Shawn cuts to the chase and tells off Vince, Undertaker, and the WWF fans for passing the buck onto him. Vince *still* can't help but smirk when Shawn tells him off. I did like Vince saying "fuck this" and shoving the mic in his chest and bailing, though. Undertaker appears as Shawn wraps up, and we get our first "Shawn Michaels has left the building" remark in many a year. Undertaker warns Shawn that he'll pay for his crimes...which brings out Paul Bearer, "speaking of paying for crimes!" I liked how these promos all segued into each other.

There's no getting around this: the stereotype of German being an ugly language is totally based on merit.

There seemed to be a timing/communication screw-up here, as JR and Bret talk about the upcoming title defense against the Patriot--then when Sarge comes out, he announces the same match and Bret suddenly acts indignant. Austin, incredibly, shows up here and we apparently have an IC title rematch scheduled for tonight. Yeah, I'm guessing there's no way we come close to getting that.

Hopefully they do what they did with the WM shows, and upload the Meltzer segments to Youtube. There's some really cool info in those 10-minute bits for each show.

That Onita crying story is hilarious knowing what was going on at Survivor Series, probably shortly after this show was taped. Wrestlingdata says the Shooter was Katsutoshi Niiyama/Great Punk. Verichev's partner was Boris Gogichashivili--yes, THE Boris Gogichashivili. Edit: Bix must have found an outdated site--Online Onslaught is still up-to-date and already has an update on Sheamus winning the WWE title, and Rick Scaia recapping the quarterfinals episode of Raw.

Cornette & the Midnights would have gotten one at Clash IX if such a chant existed in 1989.

The best kind of heel turn! Michael Hayes was just trying to help Kerry Von Erich, too. Very well-booked finish--one might think the WWF would have painted themselves in a corner here, as Bret pretty much had to win, but him beating Undertaker had to be done very carefully to be believable.