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The Hart Foundation successfully rid us all of Steve Austin the previous week--this week, Bret wants to target another American hero, Shawn Michaels. Loved Owen carrying around all four of his team's belts.

Abby did provide one good moment: the big face-off with Tenryu was a heated, well-done confrontation between two of wrestling's all-time best minimalists. Other than that, this was the usual freakshow stabfest until Tenryu's big comeback, which was indeed awesome. I don't get all the going in and coming out of the cage either. Jun Kikuchi doesn't even have a wrestlingdata or cagematch entry, but he was a decent enough FIP type. Goto was solid in what he did but he didn't ever seem to be on defense--seems that was all that Ryo was there for. All told this doesn't make for a *bad* match but isn't really satisfying either.

They desperately need to shit or get off the pot with Stevie--either commit to making him a threat or decide that he's going to just stay as an ineffective doof, but do one or the other. I was going to criticize this for seeming like an introductory vignette for Raven from '95, but I appreciated the attempt at a left turn even if that didn't go down the right path either.

The Eliminators' style is pretty much that of a wrestling music video to begin with, so they make for a decent subject to focus on.

I didn't quite like the body of this as much as the first match, but that may just because I went into that viewing Ogawa as a total unknown quantity with no idea what to expect, and that aspect of him is gone for me now. That ending, though, holy shit--pitch-perfect in every way, from concept to execution.

Otani and Kanemoto don't quite have the chemistry with Kaientai that TAKA and Shiryu did, but they fit right in with the group. Not quite as balls-to-the-wall as a typical MPro match in terms of crazy dive trains or anything, but a really fun dream match of sorts anyway. The heels win in two straight falls! That was unexpected, but they had the right guy in Honaga, a definite weak link, to do the second job.

Just the finish, thank God, though Kudo carries this with her selling (if you want to call her reaction to getting set on fire "selling"). Kudo is ultimately someone who either deserves more intensive viewing from me, a second look in general, or I'm just not as high on her as everyone else. I can remember numerous matches on these Yearbooks that I either didn't like as much as others (the Kong match) or attributed the greatness mostly to her opponents (the first Toyota/Yamada match). That said, she certainly had a memorable closing stretch to her career and definitively displayed a flair for the dramatic here.

A pretty frenetic closing stretch saved this from a slow start, but ultimately I felt like this went on too long. The saves were well-timed and dramatic, especially when Onita was involved because that's what he does best, but once Tanaka ate a top-rope power bomb through a table and that turned out not to be the finish, I started tuning out. You reach a point where nothing can conceivably put anybody away, save or not, and then it's a matter of a match coming to its arbitrarily chosen ending rather than the culmination of a long war that sees one guy give out first. That said, they *do* try to salvage a logical ending, as Funk takes out his whole team with an attempted moonsault to the floor, leaving Gladiator to be put away. I don't want to dog this too much--it was fun, and Tanaka was the man of the match and turned in a truly great performance, and it's good to see Onita back in the swing of things even if he welched harder on his retirement than Gannosuke and Hayabusa just did on their stipulation match. But this has been a disappointment of a card from FMW so far. Let's see if Shark Tsuchiya can save us.

I agree with Kevin and Chad on the rushed nature of this. I didn't really see any psychology at all--it was total move, kickout, move, kickout, move...same issue as the Champions Carnival finals. They did hit their stuff well and they have a cool variety of stuff, both guys, but...I didn't feel much emotional connection to what was going on. And the weaseling out on the stips was very Cornette-in-SMW, and in this case that's not a good thing. FMW's golf announcers absolutely kill me, too. Shinzaki's save was well done, at least.

Well, Flair going to town on all three guys at once in the aisle was awesome, and I did like the visuals of the falling leaflets, right out of a military propaganda operation. Piper's hesitation, whatever the reason for it, was pretty bad.

The vignette is good enough, and Savage did need a reboot on his character, but he really seems off in his own little world, apart from the rest of the NWO. Actually the NWO feels more fractured than ever--Hogan/Bischoff, the Wolfpac, the B-team, and Savage/Liz are more like separate entities that are just sort of loosely affiliated. That's not necessarily a criticism, just an observation.

Nash and Hall blow off Flair and Piper's challenge for that night. Little else of substance is said. Actually, one other reason Raw has been the better show of late is that WCW is starting to get plagued by the same problems hitting the WWE now: segments are starting to feel very scripted and planned, and the spontaneity and unpredictability of '97 Raw and '96 Nitro just isn't there anymore. People come out, hit their spots and catchphrases, and go home.

Flair looks more spastic than kiss-stealin' and wheelin'-dealin' here, but this is Norfolk so he can get a hero's welcome just for blowing his nose. That said, at least for these few weeks Raw has been vastly superior in the quality department, because Austin calling out the Hart Foundation is more compelling than Flair and Piper playing the role of Grampa Simpson.

I think their hands were a little tied with regard to the PPV main event, between injuries to Sid, Bret, and Shawn, and Vader's troubles. They already had plans to run Taker vs. Ahmed that summer, but it was too early for that as well. Austin did technically win the main event at Revenge of the 'Taker, so he's as good of a pick as anyone. This is a great closing segment, as usual by this point. Neidhart's reappearance was a legit shock but it makes perfect sense, and his role as the Hart Foundation's heavy is a good one for him. A great closing shot of Pillman going from his head bowed to bolting up, grinning like a maniac. The Hart Foundation did indeed fulfill their promise in sending Austin to the hospital.

Austin challenges Bret to a wheelchair match, and promises to fight him wheel to wheel if Bret's willing..."No, I won't, cuz I'm a lyin' SOB. What I'd do is get up, stomp a mudhole in your ass, and walk it dry." I just love how these Raws are continually moving forward--they're not a bunch of disparate unrelated segments like your classic syndies or indeed Raw today. This is the most Raw has ever felt like a studio wrasslin' show.

And that's the end of the Maivia babyface push, though it was arguably on life support before then when he did a non-title job to Savio Vega on that South Africa Raw. Owen finally gets a singles title in the WWF, and has a heart-warming celebration with the Harts at the top of the stage.

Bret is now fully in his role as the Professor X of the Hart Foundation, and promises that they'll need another ambulance for either Steve Austin or Shawn Michaels tonight. After he gets all the hyena talk, Bret really goes into scorched-earth mode, ranting about the depraved and sickening society of the USA while also promising to give them what they want. His zealotry combined with the vivid descriptions of what he has in store for his enemies makes him come across as a combination of Mr. Backlund and Ole Anderson, and it's glorious to watch.

Pillman's spiel would never, ever work today, but for 1997 he got by with it, to some degree. This was a really good segment, with Pillman doing his best job yet of balancing the Loose Cannon, anything-can-happen act with selling a program and getting angles over. We get not one, but two teases of a full-blown confrontation--first Austin snuffs out a trap by the Hart Foundation, then he comes back wielding an axhandle and walking tall, as Bill Watts would say. There's a great little moment as Owen is praying for Bret's recovery and the TitanTron shows Austin finding his weapon--Owen notices the crowd reaction, looks up, but by the time he looks at the screen it's gone back to black, so he continues unaware.

Well-done, low-key TV match, the kind that's sort of going extinct in '97. Eaton's junked a lot of the high flying but otherwise hasn't looked like he's aged a day in these 7 years of watching.

There was one near-KO, which was the best(?) part of the match, but chalk me up as someone who couldn't tell either way whether it was worked. It was either a shoot or designed to look even more like a shoot than usual, from the cautiousness shown in the stand-up portions to the wonky ending. If it was a fight, it was an enjoyable one. If it was a work, it was downright brilliant.

Yeah, that was probably Waltman's best promo, too. Nash calls out Piper for being scatterbrained and then calls out Flair for stripmining the business for himself and the pushes of various sons instead of everyone else. The hypocrisy-in-hindsight is pretty hilarious and this is a total babyface promo, but I like the fire and seriousness that Nash is bringing for once.

Robert Vaughn is the most surreal celebrity wrestling appearance since Gloria Steinem cutting a promo on Roddy Piper at the War to Settle the Score.

A very good TV match with Misterio's comeback being particularly breathtaking, especially the somersault plancha that looked like it killed Syxx. I always liked how the usually morose-at-this-time Brain would perk up for Syxx matches, profusely complimenting him even though he was an NWO guy. Nash lays out Rey with an awesome Jackknife to set up Syxx's win. JJ Dillon, newly ordained WCW chairman, comes out and ineffectively wags his finger after the fact. It may have had more impact if he'd at least reversed the decision and ordered a rematch as soon as Rey was recovered.

Patrick was one of the best promos in wrestling in this time period. Crowd isn't really buying it, but this is a good segment.

Yeah, if anything, the problem with this is that ultimately they didn't commit to it enough, just sort of shunting it off into a sideshow into making it into yet another attraction to go along with the cruiserweights. The crowd is actually really hot for this, and reacting in all the right ways too. Of course Nitro crowds were hot in general, but I think this segment shows the idea had some legs to it. And yes, having the same random jobber show up every week with a different-colored ninja costume pretending to be a different character would have some brilliant icing on the cake.