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Greene is actually developing into an effective promo, but yes, it makes no sense for him to be teaming with Flair and feuding with Mongo. And even THAT could work if they make dissension between the babyfaces an issue, but they're completely glossing over that. The abbreviated nature of the show ensures that Flair and Piper get their stuff in and get out with a minimum of bullshit. The Wolfpack interrupt with some frat boy humor that makes for a fun contrast to their opponents.

Quick segment on another rushed edition of Nitro, the last 2 weeks of which have brought to mind the Clash from the spring of '91. Savage has been HEALED, praise be.

I remember being LIVID at all the Sunny Super Soaker commercials (which show up on the Yearbook later but started airing this night), actually blaming them for this mess of a segment, which already felt like it was starting at like 10:55. Bret gets some good lines in but is also kind of all over the map, and clearly stewing over Shawn's promo from a few weeks ago has thrown him off his game. So we go off in mid-rant in what's really one of the worst WWF production gaffes in its history.

A great series of podcasts, as usual, but I can't let this go re: the Misawa/Kobashi 10/98 match: "I don't want to spoil it, but there's a spot where ... and it's a travesty that [Kobashi/Misawa] won." THANKS, CHAD.

"I just want to have some fun with this character..." I smell the hand of Russo. I don't know if last week's segment really needed a sequel.

TitanTron videos are still pretty primitive at this point. Basically just action shots with occasional phrases on the screen all in the same font. Anyway, for a minute or two, Hawk and Animal are back in the Crockett studios pulverizing two geeks. It'd be a waste of talent but JC Ice and Wolfie D would be the greatest JCP jobbers of all-time.

Another standout interview from Austin, what a shock. He has threats for the head of the Hart Foundation snake, but promises to concentrate on the ass end first--Brian Pillman.

Steve Austin is a "babbling ass full of warmed over Texas cliches with barnyard overtones." Fantastic--in text it almost reads like the stilted, unnatural dialogue of a WWE Creative writer but out of Bret's mouth, it's gold. "Bret's big surprise" was another incessantly hot message board topic of conversation of the era, along with who the third man was and what Paul Bearer's secret was.

Good finishing stretch, with the Harts getting involved but not too much. Undertaker as champ really feels like he's second-rate, as Bret was the year before, like Rey and Punk later, and in a way that people would probably be howling over if it were an Internet favorite. Not a call-out of smark fans, just how I see it. Good chaotic scene in the post-match, as the Hart Foundation swarm Undertaker but leave Bret alone, which Austin takes advantage of. Then after running the Harts off he drops Undertaker with one more Stunner, just because. No question who the future star was, even in defeat.

Man, Lawler was bad here, though I had the same thought of him acting as a Vince surrogate, but then why the fuck even sign Shamrock if that's what you're going to do with him? The holds aren't really put over either, though in fairness even in the UFCs the announcers didn't really know what to "put over" because nobody really "knew" what such a fight would actually look like. The action itself is really good--the strikes don't get that over with a WWF crowd, but they do pop for Shamrock's takedowns and they do chant for him when Vader has him in holds. They punctuate this with a few good wrasslin' spots for the audience, and they make it work. I liked the match itself quite a bit and think the hostile crowd talk is actually fairly overblown...that said, they wouldn't be able to do this sort of thing with Shamrock facing anyone else on the roster.

There definitely hasn't been an entrance in the past several years that matched the "holy shit"-ness of the Ultimate Warrior deliberately walking to the ring at WrestleMania 7.

Agreed with all the criticisms of Earl--what's weird is, Dave Hebner was actually very good.

Hm...in that case, Meltzer states simply that he's a Samoan guy who worked Knoxville indies. The trail sort of ends there unless I can dig out some PWI issues that may have Tennessee indie results.

Todd Pettingill is SO out of place in the WWF now.

Nothing wrong with this segment per se but it probably would have been more memorable in 1995 or '96. ECW started to feel like old news almost immediately after Barely Legal went off the air. I am eager to see the heavily pimped Bigelow-in-ECW matches, at least.

This appears to be the start of an annoying trend of every wrestler on every indy or late-'90s TV show needing to do a pre- AND post-match monologue for everyone. At one point as Wolfie and Ricky were desperately trying to edgify themselves by throwing swear words into their act, I was practically yelling at them, "WRESTLE already." Makes me wish promos were strictly relegated to backstage segments on TV only, but I know that's a losing cause. Anyway, the match isn't bad at all but outside of Wolfie busting out a sitout power bomb it's very Memphis-by-numbers and that just isn't going to fly in 1997, not even in the WMC studio.

Yes, it's been awhile since WCW has been completely massacred like this. WCW has a bit of an "out," too, with Sting not being around and Luger being hurt. Hogan and Savage are lovably obnoxious on commentary as we fade out.

Compare and contrast what WCW is going for with Hogan & Bischoff, with what the WWF is going for with Shawn & Vince. Who do you think was more in tune with the audience? Hollywood does a good job of balancing his cocky, gloating persona with fear and paranoia as the crowd gets to him with their Sting chants. "Once a god, ALWAYS a god!" Great megalomaniacal line to close out with.

Yeah, Dillon's already come off as an ineffective ninny in his few weeks on the job. That aside, this is a very well-done segment that gets a lot in a match that's about 60 seconds bell-to-bell.

Less heat and energy in the initial portions of the post-match brawl here as compared to previous weeks. Furnas & LaFon had a mini-program thing going on with LOD, but they look woefully out of place here. This really picks up when the Undertaker's gong goes off and he appears in the ring after the lights go out. Really good face-off and tease and payoff of a brawl with Austin.

Crash TV-style segment, in and out and pretty soon Undertaker's entrance music is playing.

Less than halfway through the year, and a few of my WON Awards seem like stone-cold locks: Misawa-Kobashi for MOTY. Austin for Best Interviews. And Shawn Michaels for Most Obnoxious. Vince has improved tremendously as an announcer in the past 6 months but he and Shawn are unwatchable together. Shawn is Pure Cena at this point--lots of squeals from kids and ladies, boos from everyone else. At least, aside from the subtle shutout to his buddies in WCW, Shawn mostly concentrates on selling the feud with Bret instead of scoring personal potshots. Bret springs another 3-on-1 trap, this one involving Owen, Bulldog, and the Anvil. LOD make the save oddly wearing Bret Hart-style singlets+tights--I wonder if Vince or someone had a problem with their physiques at this point.

Babyface Goldust was already dying a slow death before this, and arguably was dying even before the turn, so I get the logic behind it--it was essentially a Hail Mary attempt to save the character. The openly acknowledge the estrangement between Dustin and Dusty, and this portion feels like it's genuinely therapeutic for him.

Great feature that makes Shamrock look unique--but that uniqueness would go away for Shamrock in the WWF once the bell rang, which was something that I really think sank him as a potential draw. He had a few big spots, one singular finish (the anklelock) when he was supposed to be a submission master...they took a guy with one-of-a-kind credentials and ran him right through the WWF Machine. Not to mention we were rapidly approaching a period where in-ring work mattered less and less. Anyway...in reporting the signing, Meltzer declared that Shamrock would either be a big-money success or a complete flop, with (exact quote) "no in-between." And funnily enough, "in-between" is pretty much precisely what we got: Ken won't change the world in this run, but he'll be a fairly over and useful member of the roster for the next few years.

That was Malachi (or Molokai) the Grim Reaper, who also worked indies teaming with Bill Eadie as Demolition Blast.