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Pretty horrible action to finish off the 3-way, with the crowd deflated after Stevie's elimination. Then, even though Funk is a bloody mess (and for God's sake, did anyone REALLY buy that they were going to do a blood stoppage finish here?) and out of it, Raven feels the need to have his Nest continue to run interference and to beat up ring doctors and referees. Reggie Bennett (??!!) randomly runs in and is presumably never seen in ECW again. Big Dick Dudley, out of jail, attacks Tommy Dreamer at the commentary booth, then flings himself off the eagle's nest with Dreamer sort of holding onto him. Dreamer then lays out Raven and Funk gets a hot near-fall, the effect of which is ruined because the timekeeper jumps the gun and rings the bell. Funk then gets a small package for the title to a monster pop, and Styles actually does a good job of selling the moment on commentary. The payoff is nice but what a fucking mess leading up to it.

I forgot to mention--I really do love the way Sabu builds around and up to the table-bridging-the-apron-and-guardrail spot. He always sets it up the same way, but the way he and his opponents actually pay off the breaking of the table always seems to be a surprise. Sometimes the opponent blocks it and drives Sabu through it, as Taz does here. Sometimes the opponent cuts it off but Sabu cuts off the cut-off. Sometimes they abandon it, only for someone to get knocked off the turnbuckle through the table later on--this delayed gratification is probably my favorite variation of the sequence. Sabu's no ring psychologist but that's the strongest part of the psychology game for him.

It's a pretty good match in a vacuum, but on the whole after two years of build-up this segment falls flat. I doubt they could put any match together to live up to the hype, but the crowd just isn't as heated as you would expect and the post-match angle is really poorly executed on all levels, and I'm not sure a double-turn was even a good idea to start with. Kind of reeks of copycatting WM13, among other problems. That said, the matwork here is actually pretty good and some of the reversals are well-done, and there some attempts at psychology here, with Sabu having ways to get out of the Tazmission until he injures his neck. It's becoming a recurring theme on these two discs, but this was much better when they were in the ring rather than brawling through the crowd. Also, Styles has been absolutely horrible on this show, after a year or so of slowly climbing into my good graces. Your first-ever PPV MAY be an event where you have a new audience, but Joey doesn't bother to provide a single goddamn bit of backstory or context to all this. This is a match two years in the making and the only thing Styles can do is recite what moves are being done, even during the post-match beatdown. There has to be a happy medium between Vince's WHATTAMANEUVER shtick and what Styles does here.

Good match--some ugly spots like that triple power bomb attempt. Plus Sasuke was working with a broken orbital bone and it showed, as he was really working at half-speed until the very end stretch. This doesn't quite have as good of a build to the big nutso final run as the best MPro matches, but there are some tremendous spots as you'd expect and it's fun to see these guys in a different setting. Kind of criminal what the WWF ended up doing with them. I continue to be higher than most on virtually everything ECW is putting out so far this year.

Between the new ring, new lighting, and perfect digital format, this hardly looks like the ECW Arena at all. I dunno--when the spots hit, like they do here, I find it hard to complain too much. The finish actually took me by surprise because this was a total Eliminators beatdown, with no Dudleys comeback and no artificial "hot" finish. I find that kind of refreshing.

For a grunge rocker Raven sure loved him some Fleetwood Mac. Generally I approve of wrestlers incorporating song lyrics into promos, but Raven isn't as good at it as guys like Jake the Snake. He does manage to turn it around and cut a different sort of promo by the end, actually grinning and changing up his catchphrase. B for effort. Cut to Terry Funk in the Texas panhandle, the site of his father's grave. Thanks to not having to do this every month, Barely Legal has been the best-built-to PPV of the past 12 months, and will probably keep that title until Starrcade '97.

The hard sell for Barely Legal continues.

Bubba Ray is still affecting a southern accent, but has otherwise found his voice.

Bull Buchanan looks like a promising athlete here but there wasn't a whole lot else to this. Interrogator is green as grass but doesn't fuck anything up.

Yep, reading along in the Observers, the Shamrock War in early '97 is kind of fascinating. NJPW actually reached the point of holding a press conference announcing the match, and that it would be for the IWGP title. Then Shamrock ended up signing with the WWF and New Japan was left with a dodo-sized egg on their face. (It's not even that the WWF wasn't open to the idea of Shamrock working the match, but at some point, if not in April, Ken was going to have to do a job and that probably wasn't going to fly.) As it is, this is pretty heated and dramatic, and I'm not sure any other wrestler in the world besides Hash--with his timing, presence, ring smarts, and straightforward style--could have gotten a match this good out of Ogawa, who was an imposing physical specimen with great credentials but was also in his first pro match. Hash gets Ogawa on the ropes but gets caught in the STO (named as such already) and then put out with a sleeper as the Dome crowd loses it. Hash and Kensuke Sasaki protest the stoppage but Tiger Hattori responds with the highlight of the event, doing a backwards fainting pratfall to signify Hashimoto's passing out. I know this feud completely goes off the rails eventually, but in an odd way I'm sort of fascinated to watch all this for the first time.

Good match--not as "epic" as the previous bout despite my misgivings about its atmosphere and vibe--but pretty similar in structure and layout. Hokuto's the big dog, Kaoru's the young challenger. Kaoru's a little bolder and friskier than Fukuoka was, but Hokuto ends up asserting herself only to get laid out by Oz Academy afterward. Any match with a prolonged segment of one participant fighting in their entrance gear is generally going to be better than any match where that doesn't happen.

Really good, simple, and well-laid-out big vs. little, champ vs. underdog match--another Joshi for People Who Hate Joshi special, as they work a meat-and-potatoes match based all around simple spots, Kansai being a dominant aggressor, and Fukuoka trying to play hit and run to avoid Kansai's kicks. And after so many teases with lower-ranked wrestlers taking the champ/ace to the limit, it was refreshing to see the challenger come through for once. That said, the atmosphere admittedly does hurt this, as this is a big title match and worked like one, but comes off as very mid-card in terms of crowd reaction and overall setting.

Hase's case was almost all work, too, and in fact he probably has less going for him draw-wise than Benoit and certainly less than Bryan.

Hogan declaring that he's going to take care of DDP himself feels like a huge leap forward for Page. Sting drops down to cut him off and has an extra bat for Page, as Schiavone hypes up how two loners have joined together. We end with the two factions facing off, back when that was still kind of new--it's amazing how molten these segments of people looking at each other can be. Both companies are doing a strong job of that.

Savage on crutches--I forgot to mention but DDP bungled an inverted atomic drop something awful at Spring Stampede, which he noticeably had to cover for and seemed to slow Savage down considerably for the rest of that match. Hogan calls out Nash for his comments the previous week, ripping Hogan for being at the Double Team premiere the previous week instead of Nitro. Hulk declares that he's bringing in elite athletes like Rodman to watch their back, and Nash delivers a pretty strongly-worded non-apology apology. Then Hogan calls out Nash about the whereabouts of Scott Hall. Nash responds that Hall is NWO 4 life without really addressing his current status (understandably). Big tease of a Hogan-Nash fight, to a huge reaction. Savage and Eric do the same, putting themselves on "probation" with each other. Good teaser of what's to come--Savage with the NWO seems like it should be like the Giant's run--a disaster waiting to happen. The NWO settles their differences but it's made perfectly clear that they've only put a Band Aid on the problem instead of solving it.

Hogan has a black woman on his arm. Rodman looks like Goldust (no, I didn't mistake the woman for Rodman). Larry: "There's Mrs. Rodman, where's Dennis?" Strong little segment, back when Van Damme was still something vaguely approaching an A-lister.

Note how the favorable crowd reaction starts dissipating towards indifference, even hostility, when Shawn brings up irrelevant bullshit like Bret putting his family on TV. Then he just shits on kayfabe entirely, talking about how he "supported" Bret Hart while he was #2 in holding the Intercontinental title. You were FEUDING with him then, remember, Shawn? That shit about Bret not returning the favor is whinier than anything Bret has said in the past 6 months. Shawn drops the bombshell that Bret USED WCW FOR HIS OWN FINANCIAL GAIN, which doesn't deserve anything more than a shrug of the shoulders. This goes on and on and on without actually selling us on anything. Owen and Bulldog attempt an attack, but Shawn holds them off with a chair. Of note only because right as we cut to break, Shawn offers a proto-crotch chop in their direction.

Sort of like the DDP-Savage bout: pretty good, not great, better after the opening out-of-the-ring brawl. Shark does her best to drag this down but she's the only real stain on the match. Eagle provides some really fun big fatty offense and Miss Mongol does her gimmick with panache, at least. Kandori is awesome as ever, a great brawler who still has as many ways to put you in a Fujiwara armbar as DDP does to Diamond Cut you. The ladies I'd never heard of or seen were the biggest surprises, naturally--I don't know if they were youngsters or just undercarders but they carried themselves like experience joshi pros. Ending was kind of blah but there were some neat double-teams and spots leading up to it.

This is a really good match, that gets a lot better once they're back in the ring. I didn't see it as great, though. The garbage brawling works because Sullivan/Benoit notwithstanding it feels fresh in a WCW setting, but there are a lot better through-the-crowd brawls in American wrestling around this time. Once we get back in the ring, we get a really well-laid-out match with Liz and Kimberly being used perfectly, some great teases and cut-offs of the Diamond Cutter, and a mostly satisfying ending. Now, Savage was always an unhinged guy, but he comes off as particularly dim for piledriving Mark Curtis (though it was a great spot, and his earlier bullying of Buffer and Penzer were great too) and then immediately expecting a count. Nick Patrick makes the 3-count after DDP hits him with the Diamond Cutter, giving Page the biggest win of his life. Nick takes an INCREDIBLE bump off the Jackknife from Nash afterward, then we tease dissension between Savage and Bischoff as Eric prevents Savage from clobbering Kimberly. Good, intense post-match angle that I don't think leads much of anywhere, sadly.

Most prescient comment in the history of PWO, right here. This was such a ridiculously goofy premise, the idea of Harlem Heat wrestling in a four-way singles match for a World title shot. Of course the reason for this segment's inclusion becomes self-evident. I agree Okerlund wasn't even paying attention, but Sherri and Booker's reactions are hilarious. Sherri trying to comfort Book while staying in character was kind of sweet in a way.

Funk cuts right through all the meandering bullshit: "Hello, asshole." Now this is a promo I can get behind. Raven insists that Funk won't goad him into a fight before losing his mind and screaming a bunch of stuff that gets bleeped and slamming himself against the lockers. Fuck everyone else here, I liked this as an illustration of the contrast between the two characters and two generations, and the show-closing brawl was just fine. Apparently I'm liking early '97 ECW more than anyone else.

Raven's promo on Stevie is actually pretty good. Then he gets to Terry Funk and goes off on a weird tangent about the Jesus footprints in the desert story then talks about "carrying" Funk to a great match. A little off the mark, but still working to hype the match. And *then* we go fully off the rails as we get to Raven's father. It's not often that you say this, but WCW's addition to the character of making him a spoiled rich boy growing up was a major improvement to his character and something that should have been touched on here. We close out with a reciting of "1979" by the Smashing Pumpkins.

Has anyone ever seen blonde Stacy Carter and Boni Blackstone in the same place at the same time? Diesel and Razor are sort of shooting on their predicaments here. Jacobs: "I feel like we're being punished here ... we're stuck here in Memphis while the rest of the WWF is off in South Africa." Bogner: "Hey, mang--nothing realer than us."

I'm one of those "not for everyone" types that Chad alludes to--though this was unquestionably better than the meandering, boring UWF '80s draws, with insane crowd heat and action that really picked up after the first cut stoppage. The welts on the faces are just nasty, and adds to the past-midnight feel of the match as it looks like both guys should have been out at around the 18-minute mark.

Liz has finally clued Savage in on his rival's name. Savage declares that DDP has no family jewels at all. DDP responds with a good Savage impersonation and a good line about the Lady and the Tramp. I like how Savage works as a traditional heel, in contrast to Hall & Nash who tend to no-sell everything the babyfaces say. Here he puts over Page as getting the best of this particular exchange.