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I know he didn't like saying it, but Bret's enema line draws absolutely huge heat that threatens to drown out the rest of his promo. From the viewpoint of a Browns fan who works for a company where 75% of upper management are Pittsburghers, it may be the greatest line in wrestling history. Bret has words for Shawn, Undertaker, and a special challenge for the Patriot.

Lawler is awesome on the mic here--"I see the drug addict drunk, and I see some street walking [bleep], but I don't see a partner!" Rick Rude comes out of the broadcast area to be the 3rd man, but immediately turns, and thankfully Joey Styles doesn't blow the surprise the way he usually does. Cliffhanger ending as Rude chains the door shut with Dreamer and Sandman trapped inside the cage with Sabu, RVD, Lawler, and Fonzie. Things will probably improve with Rude now hopefully off commentary.

Okay stuff here but fairly psychologically empty other than Bubba Ray's ankle. At one point Bubba holds up Mustafa's legs as if to set up for the Wazzup Drop, but instead D-Von drops New Jack's head into Mustafa's groin. That was the definite #2 highlight of this clip behind New Jack's cage dive.

By the end of this I was worried that Doug was going to climb right out of my screen and give *me* what-for. Good promo promising vengeance not just on Tommy Dreamer and ECW but also the WWF.

I wonder if there's any place that has 1997 Memphis Flyers on microfilm. Tommy Dreamer sent in a taped promo that was un-airable, so JC Ice is out to read a letter instead. "'Your whole piece of--can I say that word?" "CERTAINLY YOU CAN'T SAY THAT."

One of the problems this had is that it came right off Santo/Felino, which absolutely smoked this as an overall match but especially as a bomb-fest. This started off *great*, with Taue borrowing one of Misawa's tactics and blitzing him right from the start with a Nodowa, and then Misawa's holy-living-fuck backflip counter to the attempted apron nodowa. But the longer this goes the more it feels like it's meandering, like a bunch of good-looking bombs with not a whole lot in-between and a lot of repetition. It only goes a little over 20 but feels longer. It's a good match, not nearly as disappointing as the Kawada/Misawa bout, but ever since they hit their peak in January AJPW really feels like it's losing the plot--both in terms of booking and in terms of putting together a great match. And that ending was WTF on several levels.

Not a bad closing stretch, but definitely not anything to make you want to seek out the full match. Albright unleashes one monster German but otherwise looks pretty blown up. Doc and Albright constantly throwing up the Triangle of Power sign is unintentionally funny since it looks eerily similar to DDP's BANG!

None of that subtle or intricate matwork shit here--this consists of bombs, bombs, and for the occasional change of pace, bombs. And what bombs they are--Santo hits some absolutely gorgeous dives and Felino unleashes some pretty killer offense that has Santo dead on numerous occasions, but Santo gets out of it with some heartstopping rope escapes. Bestia Salvaje trips Felino coming off the ropes and an incensed Negro Casas runs in and attacks Santo for the DQ. Not really the best finish ever but it worked in the sense that I want more, more, more of this feud. A low-level MOTYC right here.

Yeah, the Outsiders aren't the most dynamic tag workers but they know the ins and outs of how to build a solidly worked tag match. Benoit was pretty awesome for the house afire stuff and Hall and Nash both sold for him really well--this feels like it could have been a coming out party for him and a chance to elevate him farther, but we all know that didn't really happen. Syxx gets the Buzzkill on Flair's injured shoulder before Mongo makes the save, and then we're joined by Rick and an almost unrecognizable Scott Steiner, who I seriously thought was Scott Norton for a second.

There are worse Rey promos out there. The splintering of the NWO continues, as Konnan despite claiming to be a Wolfpack member is sort of in his own world.

Good little segment even though Luger had practically caught up to the B-teamers by the time they both reached the locker room.

Richards has taken the liberty of negotiating Raven's contract on his behalf, and put together a blockbuster deal that sees Raven getting a full-sized rental car and tape deck and *almost* as much money as Dancin' Stevie. Somehow Raven is less than impressed. Raven's poetry may not be as good as the Genius' but Poffo didn't have Okerlund and Dillon there to play off of it, either.

I'm not sure what the thing with the "newest Horseman" was supposed to be about, but it kind of makes Flair look dumb...again. Syxx comes out instead and gloats over Arn being gone and Flair's previous shoulder injury, and mentions that he only came back because he spent all of his money--holy shit. Flair backing off and then sucker-punching Syxx was a glorious moment, which worked precisely *because* it was so predictable, and because Syxx sold it so great. All in all a fun segment.

Quick and to the point: Hogan is responsible for all the fans here and all the wrestlers in the back, and Luger's just another name wanting what he's got.

Zambia actually did have its own wrestling scene in the 1950s and '60s, going back to its days as Northern Rhodesia.

Interesting contrast here--the big, bruising Tariel works quickly during the stand-up portions, while the smaller quicker and lighter Tamura has to slow things down. Usually in wrestling it's the opposite. Tariel is big and impressive throwing strikes but the mat portions are almost like Tamura wrestling against a log. It's kind of too bad Tamura had no interest in wrasslin' because he's charismatic and broad and theatrical and smart and would have been a tremendous pro-style worker. Another Shootstyle for People Who Hate Shootstyle special--Tamura is pretty much a lock on the Most Outstanding Wrestler list this year.

Not that good of a match in isolation, but anyone with a pulse got so worked up over the course of this episode of Raw that it's hard not to get drawn into the intensity and suspense of what was going to happen next. The crowd is still hot, but not electric like they were earlier or were in Calgary--I suspect they were burnt out over what had already happened, Raw running late, and it being extra-late in Nova Scotia. Austin is still working on another level from most of the people he's in the ring with, and Owen and the Dude have a few nice sequences together. Clever use of Brian Pillman, coming from under the ring having not been seen all night, to cost Undertaker a shot at the flag.

Not a good night for Vince.

Bearer's proof of Kane's existence is kind of flimsy, which JR calls Bearer out on. This causes Paul to freak out--"YOU DON'T WANT TO GO THERE, JIM ROSS."

One of the best Raw segments in a loaded year. This whole episode seemed like it threatened to descend into complete chaos. The Halifax MetroCentre isn't a tiny dive bar of an arena or anything, but the fans are packed right on top of the action, and here it feels like we're about 5 seconds away from people jumping the guardrails. Also, notice how Shawn went out of his way in his last 2 promos to show that it was Vince's decision on what his role would be at SummerSlam.

I like Albright as a worker more than most--there are singles matches with Nobuhiko Takada and Misawa where I thought he was the better worker of the two. And when he gets to where he's suplexing motherfuckers, he's fun. But I *knew* that match wasn't going to impress Parv. As your pal jdw put it in his AJPW '90s Ballot way back in the day--it's probably not *really* the 20th best or 19th best AJPW match of the '90s, but if you were putting a comp together, you'd want to include this match over a random usual-suspects tag that may technically be a bit better, just because AJPW gets very samey and Albright is different. That's assuming you see it as a **** match, of course.

Mega-boos for Shawn even before JR can get the introduction out. Glorious. Shawn responds with the first of many crotch chops to come. Vince chuckling along with all of Shawn's comments is pretty unbearable. Shawn plays this crowd like a fiddle, and this is way better than his attempt to recreate that magic in Montreal in 2005. His way of playing off the crowd chants and not letting himself constantly act above it all is also refreshing--when the crowd gets louder with the "WE WANT BRET" chants, Shawn gets angrier.

This Halifax crowd may be even more jacked than the Calgary crowd. Cornette has a hilarious rant about having to go Halifax in his '97 timeline, maybe they were starved for entertainment. Bret calls the U.S. one giant toilet bowl, because most American wrestlers are full of crap. Bret, Owen, and Bulldog all throw out challenges for the six-man flag match to their respective SummerSlam opponents. It is great how the venues and cities themselves are becoming characters and product influences in their own right. We've gone from Bret's hometown to Shawn's hometown back to Bret's country, back to the U.S. the next week, all of which is going to have a unique impact on what's going to happen on a particular show.

Bracchus is coming and he appears to be targeting the Hart Foundation. WWE developmental has certainly come a long way.

I'm not sure OJ isn't correct here--I definitely recall them doing practically the same finish before, with Anjo countering Tenryu's power bomb into a reverse jujigatame for a hot false finish before going down right after. Hell, no matter, I never mind seeing these two beat the shit out of each other, and with these two you kind of know what you're getting regardless of the year.