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Pillman has the same look on his face as he did on that "The Fans Can Go to Hell" cover of WCW Magazine...anyone? Okay, nevermind. Was Pillman really a convicted felon?

Good stuff here as we juggle several different storylines--Mankind beginning his "PICK ME, STEVE" run and tensions between Austin and Shamrock. Austin has a lot on his shoulders having to more or less carry the load with Bret and Shawn out of commission. That said, as great as it was, some of the spring Raws were almost *too* Hart-and-Austin-centric, due to the WWF's lack of depth. It's good to get Austin's skills spread around a little bit more.

It's a minor part of the story, but this makes the decision to not just put the belts on LOD last week even worse.

Well, I thought this was absolutely awesome--the best Savage match since GAB '96 and it may even be better than that. And a great performance by DDP, who was working for like 6 here. After his opening flurry including a pescado (!!) I was drawn in for the rest of the match. They elevated things further by having DDP totally no-sell the Savage-hides-behind-Liz spot and throw Liz out of the way--an eye-opener through modern eyes but in context (well-explained by the announcers, with Liz having slammed the limo door on Page earlier) it works. There are some great teases and cut-offs of the Diamond Cutter all throughout the match. Finish is a little cheap but Savage constantly laying out the refs did feel like a strategic decision to set the run-in work, so that's a very minor complaint. Savage wins and we go off the air about half a second after the final 3-count. I'm guessing there won't be a better WCW main event than this in '97, and probably not until DDP/Goldberg in '98.

Damned if this closing stretch isn't really well put together. I detect the hand of one Pat Patterson as directed by Scott Hall. They got a hot false finish after a Syxx spin kick, and do a good job of having Piper go to the corner and see that Flair is gone. Piper can't do much but he shows good fire with his punches and the crowd is really getting into the story. He even takes the Outsider Edge like a pro at the end. No complaints about this at all even though I don't have many fond memories of the Piper/Flair feud either.

I'm always down to see Chicana punching motherfuckers, though I'm not much of a Metal fan. Weird to see him here while his brothers are in CMLL. AAA definitely leaves CMLL in the dust in terms of slicker and more current production values...which is also weird since the same company airs both promotions. Anyway, I liked the brawling in the ring but I agree the outside stuff went on too long. There are lots and lots and lots of great punches, for people who like minimalism. A trademark Antonio Pena fuck finish follows as Metal wrests away a guitar that's brought into the ring and accidentally clobbers Tirantes with it. That draws a pop (from both the crowd and myself) but gets Metal disqualified.

Don't tell anyone who this is and I dare them to tell if this is Jackie Fargo or '90s Tommy Rich. Seems like we haven't heard from Jackie in years, since maybe the Moondogs feud. Lawler comes out wearing a Bill Dundee Halloween outfit. Lance then grills Lawler on Paul E.'s statement from Raw that Brian Christopher is Jerry Lawler's son but won't acknowledge it out of shame. Lawler says that if he had a dollar for every time he's been asked about that, he wouldn't have to wrestle anymore. He promises to answer...then teases us and says he'll come back. We get a funny bumper bit with Lawler comparing himself to Christopher, before Jerry is brought back out to the studio, but stalls until the end of the show again. I get why they wanted to avoid acknowledging Christopher as a son when he was first breaking in, and then it would have led to some awkwardness if they ever got around to addressing it. But I think by '97 it was about the worst-kept secret in wrestling and wonder if they weren't a day late and a dollar short on this matter. (USWA was a day late and a dollar short on EVERYTHING by '97, but work with me.) Lawler's flat denial that he got ANYTHING for Brian Christopher for Father's Day was pretty funny.

Yeah, about ready for this to be over. I'm thinking about doing a "The '90s in a Box" piece when I'm done with this project, a wrestling version of what Bill James did in his Historical Baseball Abstract. If I do, the "Could I Try This Career Over?" category is definitely going to be led by Rick Bogner.

That huge lard was the former Mantaur, who doesn't look to have improved any as he badly blows a hip toss. The Big One is a far cry from the Pipkin Building, much less the Mid-South Coliseum, but it another universe it would have a bit of charm to it. Really good-looking action between Lawler and Dreamer, including Dreamer dropping the ring announcer with a piledriver.

I had trouble getting into this and the distractions (including that ENDLESS Felino promo) served more to distract than add to the experience of the first two falls. The third fall is much better, featuring a spirited technico comeback and some vicious bombs dished out, as well as a crazy decrepit Fiera dive. The third fall would put this at Match of the Month levels, at least, but as I said the first two falls were the kinds which had been done better in lucha in general and this feud specifically.

We skip the match, which is more than fine with me, and get the post-match. The Steiners are brawling with Harlem Heat at the commentator's booth, Glacier with Mortis & Wrath in the aisle, and the Horsemen are battling the NWO in the ring and the DOD run in to do a number on Benoit. Finally DDP, Savage, and Hogan make their way out and Hogan lays out Page with the belt. Sting descends from the rafters, and after a long period of stalling, finally gets DDP hooked up and whisks him away to the rafters. Way cool closing visual but this all took too long to set up, from the overlong brawl to the stalling, which was even more obvious and apparent than a few weeks ago the first time they pulled Sting back up.

Huge reactions all-around--Hogan gets a pop in his old WWF stamping grounds, but also gets trash thrown at him as per tradition. Sort of Hollywood Hogan-by-numbers here, but the action doesn't stop for the short time they have, and a pretty major result as Luger successfully racks Hogan and makes him submit. He's swarmed by the NWO afterward and we get a long beatdown out of 1996, but no spraypaint this time. Hype is on for Bash at the Beach and for Luger as a legitimate World title threat. I didn't realize they were still doing the fireworks-at-the-second-hour bit. That was jarring as hell and so out of place.

Yeah, holy shit, this IS 2015 Raw. The Bash at the Beach main event is announced, before the GAB.

Good to see Liz take an active role for once, preventing further damage by DDP. About two seconds after Dragon's blown headstand spot, Psicosis makes you forget about it by taking an absolutely loony bump over the turnbuckles to the floor. There's some good hard-hitting action here, especially the kicks from Silver King (who looks really good in limited time in his debut) and Ultimo. Not as good as the previous week and Larry was an ass again, but still a fun match with some new spots. La Parka begins his Chairman gimmick, first using his familiar wooden chair as a springboard and then destroying Calo with it after the match. Dragon cleanly taps his upcoming PPV opponent and we have a main event consisting of a tag match that will co-main event the next PPV. Is this 1997 Nitro or 2015 Raw? And incidentally, if Larry is actually telling the truth and that he really wrestled Dr. Wagner, goddamn that's a match we all need to see.

If I remember right he broke his wrist in the Havoc match.

When Rich was on offense this was pretty great--great fire (no pun intended) in just throwing everything he can to try to knock Kamala down and Kamala doing some great weeble-wobble selling. Like Abby and ZombieTaker, the best way to get a good match out of Kamala is to beat (or try to beat) the shit out of him. The run-ins themselves are fun and draw tremendous heat, but the idiotic finish kind of sours this. Paul Boesch doesn't even try to proffer an explanation. Why couldn't they just do a DQ?

He was actually still Strike Force Tito in Barcelona, which just makes it weirder. The Booger thing seemed like it was just a way to establish him as, "This guy isn't a total jobber, but don't hold your breath waiting for main events." Same thing they did with Koko B. Ware, teaming him up with Paul Roma to put over the Hart Foundation in his debut. Both guys lost but got heat afterward--Koko cleared the ring of the Harts, Booger went over Virgil next week. Incidentally one of Tito's very last matches in the company was putting Booger over on a house show, which had to be his lowest point.

I think the thinking was they could run an angle like this as an excuse to keep Lex back in the shadows, since they were pretty much out of allowable dates on his contract with him. Rude was there because Sting still needed something to do, and further Dusty was more about overlapping feuds than Vince ever was. Of course, about 10 months after this, there's another twist yet in the mystery box angle.

One of the all-time WTF results for me remains the '89 Survivor Series Showdown, where Big Boss Man did a pinfall job to Tito Santana. Santana wasn't a total job boy yet, but he'd already been left in the dust by Martel and Boss Man was still feuding with Dusty. It wasn't a clean job--Rhodes hit BBM with the nightstick and put Tito on top for the cover--but if I have things right, it was the very first time Boss Man had taken a pinfall on television. And it came to Tito Santana of all people.

The Tenryu squashes may have been originally intended to air domestically. At one point he was supposed to wrestle Lawler at WrestleMania 9.

With Lawler getting $1000 for every minute he could last, I think stalling was absolutely the right psychology there.

Mexican and South American promotions are always crawling with heel refs, of which Gran Davis was the premier one in Mexico at this time. I don't know of anything specific to Konnan beyond that.

I suspect Austin suffered a legit injury the previous night, as we're now in a trend that will last until the end of the year of the WWF roster being decimated by injuries and absences that seem to come at the worst possible time, affecting pretty much every major star. Mankind takes his place after a rather cheap bait-and-switch angle--he and Pillman actually put together a pretty good, gritty, intense little match that nicely covers for Pillman's physical limitations, but the crowd shits on it because it's not the promised and hyped main event, to the point where even Vince & JR have to cop to it. Meanwhile, Vince drops the info that HBK and another Hart Foundation member were asked to leave the building after a "display of unprofessional conduct"--uh-oh. Schmozz finish with Austin being Austin, as he repays Ken Shamrock for saving him by dropping him with a Stunner.

It is too bad that this portion of the interview aired when it did, as Mankind's justifications for wanting to see Shawn Michaels have his career and personal life end in tragedy is some fucking scary twisted logic befitting of the very best heel interviews. Then Mick delves into some meta-commentary that treads on the same heavy subject matters of his anti-hardcore ECW promos--"Let me ask YOU a couple of questions: what is it about pain that I 'love'? You see, I feel pain JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON. YOU SEE THAT?? IT HURTS. Is it when I can't get up whe my little boy says, 'Daddy, I want to play ball,' and I can't do it? Is that where the fun starts?!" Then his awesome mandible claw attack and apparent immediate remorse. A fantastic and fitting conclusion to a series that will have Mankind in strong contention for the #2 Interview of the Year spot (Austin I think has the trophy locked up).

I love seeing this feud transcend three different promotions over the course of a week. RVD pins Flash Funk clean, which surprises me a great deal. Funk was pretty far down on the pecking order but a few years earlier they were careful not to let the Rock 'n Roll Express even beat Well Dunn on television. Lawler goes in to congratulate him and his met by Paul E. and Dreamer.