PeteF3

Worth repeating, Rodman was HUGE in '97. Won a title with the greatest NBA team ever, was constantly in sports headlines for various controversies, dated Madonna, had his own show on MTV. Probably a bigger deal than Mike Tyson, actually.

No one quite seems to know just how legit Miller's martial arts credentials are, do they? He does ground the whole Blood Runs Cold feud a bit, though.

This was supposed to be Faarooq & Ahmed, but naturally Ahmed blew out his knee in the DOA brawl, as the horrible rash of injury luck continues for both the WWF and Ahmed personally. Vader abuses D'Lo while Bearer browbeats Undertaker in the corner. Undertaker finally clobbers Vader which leads to a Faarooq spinebuster and pin. Undertaker tombstones Vader after the match! Okay, that was great, and I'm guessing it wasn't decided yet that Vader was stepping in at the PPV for Ahmed. Bearer scurries for cover, and announces that he's telling the secret next week. I have a sneaking suspicion that this whole angle will actually come off better in hindsight, considering how objectively successful the Kane gimmick turned out to be. I'm also looking forward to seeing if this really is the run of Percy's career--right now I'm partial to his call-to-action run as a WCCW babyface, but there's no question he did some good work with some horrible material in 1997 and '98.

We open with highlights of the first Triple Threat Match on WWE television--Owen Hart retaining the IC title over Goldust and Triple H. Bret is back! He draws huge heat for declaring him and the Anvil a better tag team than the LOD, then talks about Ken Shamrock coming out of the Ultimate Fairy Championships and brings up four Hart sisters who will keep Marlena in line. Bret finally targets his wrath at another "thief"--Thomas "Hitman" Hearns. Hearns ain't no Dennis Rodman by 1997 in terms of Q rating and I could have done without Ross begging for this to air on SportsCenter, but this is still a good, heated segment.

I did like Ahmed going back to the injury that cost him his title shot and calling out Undertaker for being a "slave" to Paul Bearer, but then he rants about how MLK got shot for being nice and Louis Farrakhan being alive because he doesn't play by the rules, and just...ugh. This stuff doesn't have the panache and the "realness" of when New Jack was saying similar stuff--the environment is wrong, and Ahmed comes off as a guy playing a role rather than a legitimately unhinged thug. D'Lo is starting to get more face time, which I approve of. We end with the sterling debut of the Disciples of Apocalypse. Security and police show up despite this not being particularly chaotic in the face of what we've seen with the Hart Foundation the past few weeks.

Lawler's doing a great job shifting his tone for these promos in a new environment--no jokes, no shtick, no one-liners, just venom. He outs Paul E. as someone angling for a job working for Vince.

Dreamer cuts a promo while EMTs work over the back of his head. Dreamer now has something to live for.

Big cheers when it's announced that Travis has been behind on alimony and child support. I don't know if *that's* the proper reaction, but this was some tremendous on-the-fly thinking on almost all parties. Lawler is out to respond to a complaint letter sent to the studio by ECW and continues to throw out challenges. Moving to the Burning Question--Lawler laments that wrestling was better when there was some mystique to it. He points out that seeing the latest Jurassic Park movie was helped because Steven Spielberg didn't pop up on the screen saying, "Hey, these aren't real dinosaurs!" Oh, Jerry...it's going to get worse before it gets better. (And gosh, most of us Indians fans were glad to be rid of Albert Belle.) Lawler ultimately decides he isn't going to answer, then tells Christopher he can't answer, either...which pretty much answers the question. A really good, quick, shoot-looking physical altercation follows.

Dutch will soon be back to tell it like it is, because we all suck. He demands to be allowed to stick to his busy schedule of drinking and gambling.

It was even crazier than that: when the police showed up at the studio, Lawler was actually able to hold them off and talk them into allowing WMC to film everything. Lawler either wielded even more power in the city than anyone could have realized or he was the smoothest talking motherfucker in history, or both. Crazy stuff and it's incredible that Travis and Biggs stay in character for all this.

Zouev looks like a better-groomed Dean Ambrose here--it's weird to watch. It's not like I've ever had anything negative to say about him before, but this is the first match where Tamura really does look to me like a Best in the World candidate, as seems to be the trend of his GWE discussion at the moment. His escapes and counters are absolutely breathtaking while never looking rehearsed--it's a huge contrast to the matwork I saw earlier today involving Chad Gable, Jason Jordan, and Ciampa/Gargano--that was a good match, but the difference in how cooperative or non-cooperative the hold exchanges looked is palpable. Zouev struggles to control the pesky fucker but manages to catch him in a cool-looking shoulder hold to put him away. Excellent match, one of the better bouts of the month.

PG-13 work the crowd spectacularly, playing up the Southern vs. Yankee element. This is the perfect ECW house show opener as booked by 1977 JCP-era George Scott: there's no out of the ring brawling, no weapons, no blood, nothing that would set the bar too high for what's to come but well-worked in its own way. I actually wasn't all that impressed by Spike here--he's into his spastic, "special" character before the match and doesn't do anything badly per se, but doesn't do much to grab your attention either--he basically just serves as a punching bag. Mikey is better but was also working on one knee for most of '97 and has had better performances elsewhere. This is a PG-13 show all the way, masters of heel miscommunication but also providing a lot of really cool offense, now that they're in with two guys they can actually throw around. Wolfie's huracanrana into the turnbuckle was a highlight, as was his awesome apron clothesline to cut off a potential Spike comeback. Please tell me that there's a PG-13/FBI match out there.

Not a good sign when Kronus has to carry the action all by himself for his team. He gets protected anyway, as it takes interference from Big Dick Dudley to put him down.

Muraco was supposed to be on Warrior/Beefcake's team (because of his feud with Valentine). JYD was supposed to be on Jake/Duggan's team.

Terrific match, maybe the best lucha trios match of '97 so far. Just non-stop action but everything makes sense and everyone gets some time to show off their stuff, with great urgency from the beginning when the technicos blitz Santo and pin him after a superbomb. Bestia's presence gets paid off wonderfully as he's taken out by a Santo tope by accident, which also removes Santo from the match.

Not as high on this--again, the stuff in the ring was better than the brawling outside, though admittedly it's closer here than some other 1997 matches fitting that criticism. AJW was attempting to shake up its booking with business plummeting, and part of that was semi-reinventing LCO as a super-heel duo and even booking some DQ finishes, as we get here. It doesn't really work--LCO use every weapon not nailed down and Maekawa gets disqualified for...punching, basically. I've LOVED the Watanabe I've seen on the Supplemental Viewing and was becoming the joshi worker I was most anxious to see more of, but I agree she didn't bring a whole lot here aside from a few cool takedowns. Maekawa is sort of a Poor Woman's Kansai but she does show lots of fire and kicks. There were several parts of this that looked uncooperative--whether that was just breaking the youngster in or by design or just LCO being difficult, I don't know. It didn't negatively affect the match but it was noticeable.

This crowd is almost completely out of control--it's a strong visual but it's clear by now that fans are throwing trash because it's what you're supposed to do at the end of a WCW main event, not because of heat per se. Still, Rodman was used perfectly--doing just enough to make him look like a legitimate threat without giving away too much. And the sight of Rodman being lifted by the Giant got a lot of play on talk shows the rest of the week.

Yeah, Rey briefly fighting off both Outsiders was cool, especially him using Hall as a springboard, but he's pretty marginalized on the whole. Syxx dominates from the beginning and gets a submission win, even with the interference. If this had led to Rey decisively beating Nash in a match instead of just being brutalized again, it'd be worth it. We get a little role-reversal afterward, as DDP interrupts a Savage promo from the rafters, and announces he has a partner to take on Savage & Hall. Sensible booking coming out of the previous night's show, but the mystery partner hype got totally out of control and led to a very underwhelming payoff--made even moreso by the fact that they would partially blow the reveal later tonight.

Okerlund was less sensitive the previous night--"Her career is finished! Toast! Over!"

The long, continuous shot following the NWO from the limo to the ring is one of the great production moments in WCW history. Even Buffer is used well--he got paid extra on top of his appearance fee every time he recited his catchphrase, and it was a good use of money on this night, at least. Name gaffe aside, it's hard to fault Rodman for playing to the crowd here--just treat it like the Harts being welcomed home in Canada. Bischoff is a starfucking ninny as usual, but that dynamic works great here. The match is made for Bash at the Beach, but Hogan calls Luger & the Giant out for tonight.

Thanks, Youtube: the next segment was the Survivor Series report, and Heenan was part of the "standing by with comments..." with Flair's team.

Wasn't that the time he met Colette, who called him out for acting like a goof and giving too much to his opponent?

I demand Parv review all these Kamala matches that are getting discussed. Actually, since the Rich match is almost Rich wrestling a tree, he might not totally hate that one. I always really liked Kamala going to the top and Hogan dragging himself away from the corner to avoid the diving splash. They did that spot in most of their matches, and it's a great way to get the splash over as deadly and the babyface over as smart. Edit: This also has a very early tease of the Andre turn--it took place after the Hogan trophy presentation but before the segment the next week where Andre stormed off in the middle of his award. Andre comes into the ring, picks up the belt, stares at it, tosses it to Hogan, and leaves.

A hyped mystery partner that turns out to be Kama. Speculation on the 3rd Nation member ranging from Mr. Hughes (?) to Butch Reed (okay) to Abdullah the Butcher (!!!) to the Junkyard Dog (?!?!). Undertaker working face-in-peril. Kama PINNING UNDERTAKER CLEAN WITH A ROCK BOTTOM. Ahmed turning on Undertaker afterward and joining the man he'd spent the last year feuding with. Ross sort of shitting on Ahmed basically calling him out for being a pussy, which I don't think is a very effective way of getting a guy like Ahmed over. What a totally bizarre segment on almost all levels.

Pillman still has things to offer on the mic, but in the ring there's just nothing left. His long tights don't cover the fact that his lower legs have practically decayed--it's honestly scary to watch because it feels like both ankles are ready to snap at any time. Owen pickpocketing the fallen referee was cute, but it would have made a bit more sense if it were Pillman who bumped him. The whole handcuffed-to-the-ringpost stipulation and Goldust getting on the mic to make peace and make the match is all very Memphis, even during a Memphis-esque time for the WWF. Goldust is pretty badly shoehorned in here thanks to the HBK situation.