Tim Cooke

WCW - the promotion that could have had amazing undercards on every show. This is the opener to Bash at the Beach and a fun, high impact tag team match, with actual double teams from both teams. Cat doesn't know how to run the ropes but that's pretty much the only big negative for this solid match.

The best Austin TV match of the year so far. It could have been any competent wrestler in against him here, but I'll give HHH credit, he takes a huge corner bump off a irish whip. Austin is just so great at this point.

Much better than their PPV match, as they worked more highspots early to pop the crowd and the in between mat work was fluid and moving, not just a chin lock. Taka almost dies on his springboard moonsault.

Austin sneak attacking the Hart Foundation is everything that made him such a dynamic character.

I'd have this somewhere around the Slamboree six man tag - not technically great, but ultimately very satisfying because of the spectacle nature of the match. I'm not looking forward to NOT getting a proper ending to the Austin/Bret rivalry.

Punk/Lesnar was fantastic. MOTN for me. The kimura reversal into a cross armbreaker got a reaction I don't think I've ever seen for such a technical hold. Reversals of submission finishers often get pops but this was like reaction that Tamura or Han would get in RINGS for a cool reversal. One of the most brutal WWE matches I've seen. Cena/Bryan was excellent. I think Cena's arm was much more fucked up than he lead on. He took all of the kicks but whenever Bryan went for his submission finisher, there was a tentativeness from both guys. There was no way to preplan for this, but I think a Fujiwara armbar would have worked equally well in popping the crowd and taking it easier on Cena's elbow if they had time to hype that as something Bryan was going to use as a strategy. I would have been fine with Orton cashing in (though the optimal thing to make Bryan in one night would have been to beat him as well) but the HHH involvement does nothing for me. It means more mic time for HHH, more wrestling, etc. That's the last thing Raw needs.

Complete lack of heat. The stiff spots get a reaction and some of Taka's athletic spots get cheers, but this is an example of something that would have gotten way more over in WCW.

Cool segment with a lot of heat for the Boxer Hitman vs. Wrestler Hitmen confrontation

It's interesting this is being talked about. I actually sent Dave an email this morning about said subject. I'll let everyone know his response when I get it.

I'm with you Loss, these two should have had a singles match on PPV. If Nash worked like he did in the Slamboree six man, a Flair/Nash singles match may have been okay as well.

Maybe the best TV segment angle of the year. Right there with Bret reuniting the Hart Foundation. Shawn, who I really don't like to see in almost anything, was actually good and Austin was tremendous.

Watched the full match courtesy of Ditch. I liked this better than the 95 Carnival draw. Misawa/Kobashi is the best AJPW match of 1997 but this is a nice second. Also better than all of the G-1 2013 matches I have seen so far.

I thought this was awesome. Loss is right - NWO did an awesome job stooging and bumping. I could see this falling in my personal top 20 WCW matches of the 90's. Can't believe I hadn't seen this before today.

WCW hit the nail on the head with this match and it was all down hill for the lucha trios matches after this. The is the first trios match on Nitro. Tenay talks about Superbrawl and Clash earlier in the year. Hector Garza is making his debut and Tenay immediately talks about his amazing corkscrew plancha. Rudos stooge to open up with Parka running through some of his comedy spots, with Juve interjecting with crisp, well executed high spots. One of the big things about this match is that the rudos play to the crowd. When Ciclope enters for the first time, he hits a lariat on Calo and then plays to the crowd. It gets heat, makes sure the crowd knows who to cheer for, and sets up the faces high spots to get more over. Calo hits insane move #1, a flipping tope over the guard rail and into the crowd and it gets over huge. Damian enters and plays to the crowd after hitting a lariat. When Garza is done with his fast rope running sequences, his tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets a nice reaction. Garza hits a second turnbuckle moonsault to the outside for dive #2. Rudos take over with a cool triple team, followed by quickly beating up each face, who leaves the ring, making the rules about no tags very clear. Rudos have a miscommunication spot which leads to a great dive train. * Parka is arm dragged from ring arpon to the floor by Juve * Juve somersault flip from top rope to the floor * Calo diving senton over the ropes to the floor * Ciclope tope * and finally, Garza's plancha, which gets over big and Tenay legit marks out for it. Garza gets in the pin in his debut. They could have done this once a month for 3 years on Nitro and it could have stayed fresh. But thats WCW for you. Have to take the good with the bad.

BattlArts musts 2/7 tag Both 5/27 matches After that, there isn't much that separates the matches. Jeff Hardy match is a good choice and the Ishikawa/Otsuka matches are never less than good

Also this looks much more like the Tamura/F. Shamrock and Kohsaka/F. Shamrock fights.

Wen did the survey in 1999 or 2000 take place?

RINGS had a decent amount of shoots on the undercards from mid-96 to the full transition in the fall of 1999. Their January 1999 match is pretty obviously a work. Obviously the June 98 match is as well. But this just doesn't feel right. Very few points used, a finish that was either legit or botched by the wrestlers and/or ref, and a lack of obvious hold feeding make me lean towards shoot.

This was a complete find and I would have never given it a second thought looking at Jericho as a face, Meng and Barbarian facing two cruiserweights, and Eddy being at the end of a face run. Thank goodness this went on the set. With the PG-13 vs. Lawler/Christopher match from February, this is a good month for quality TV tags.

Tremendous. Bischoff, Patrick, and Randy Anderson have done a great job in the angles they are in, from the mic work to the wrestling. With the WWF TV angles, 1997 could easily be the best year of the 1990's for consistent, quality TV.

This has always been overrated. Their 1/14/97 trios in MPro, 2/9/97 8 man in BattlArts, and 11/26/97 trios in All Japan Woman are better touring matches. ECW has been the one constant awful so far in this yearbook.

Excellent. Been many years since I'd seen this one and it works on every level. Much better brawling than every single ECW match on this set.

Terrific promo. Don't know how it would get over today with the religious overtones but it was very effective in 1997 and got a ton of heat while pushing the overall storyline forward.