Robert S

Zbyszko pulling guard on Syxx, at first trying to get an armbar and then settling for a guillotine choke is fun. Schiavone claims that Zbyszko learned that hold from Gene LeBell in the 70ies. I am not sure if that is true, but Zbyszko learning some grappling from some old-time hookers when he was a guy breaking into the business seems much more likely than him trying to reenact some MMA stuff, especially in 97.

"You fucked Chyna." - "I fucked in China, in Singapore, in Korea. Tell me something I don't already know." Nice reaction by Rude.

That ring mat looks so horrible that I feel that I might have caught Hep B or HIV just by watching this match.

The Kane act looks like it has a shelf life of about a year. Insane that he lasted 17 years (and is still running).

A funny thing happening during the introduction: Sunny stumpled a bit in the ring which lead the ref (the small fat one, I think the one who died a couple of years back) looking shocked at Sunny's ridiculous high heels and apparently asking her if she even can walk in these things which lead to a hand gesture by her indicating "not really".

I suppose Cornette exploded during one creative meeting with a similar rant (probably content wise more like the first rant than this) and Vince decided that the stuff was too entertaining not to put it on TV. That said, the content of this rant really looks horrible considering the following ten years.

If you want to show a clear picture of New Japan booking behavior of the early 2000ies you would probably also have to include stuff like Ka Shin vs. Ryan Gracie, Yasuda vs. LeBanner, Nakamura vs. Ignashov or some Fujita stuff, all which lead to huge pushes. Some Lesnar in UFC stuff (the first Mir fight and the Couture fight) would probably also make sense considering how he was portrayed back then (both from MMA and pro wrestling side) and how this effected his later pro wrestling career.

Just watched this again (for the first time in 17 years). I am really not sure what to say. I am torn between "there is some special place in hell for Vince" and "how was nobody able to talk Vince out this". People were talking boycot after the Montreal screwjob, but they should have definitely gone home after this interview, at least the people who had any connection to Pillman. Somehow Fritz von Erich does not look that bad anymore earning money using the deaths of his kids, at least it was his own family.

There were three close-ups here, the first featured Owen (who ended up dying in this very building), the second Rick Rude and the third Hawk.

fixed

The Judean's People Front?

Couldn't Nash have asked Hennig as well? I understand that the whole point here was the beatdown and not the win, but it would have been a nice moment if Nash had asked Hennig with Hennig responding with something like "I don't want to surrender, I want to see Flair beat up even more".

Actually the ring announcer sells this as the last time that Funk will wrestle in Amarillo, which may or may not (I am too lazy to check out if he did any indyshows in Amarillo) be true. Bruce Hart is really obnoxious here. The physical interaction spots were obviously not planned (e.g. Bret kicked out even though Bruce put his leg on the bottom rope) and I assume neither was the microphone stuff.

Piper actually says that Hogan vs. Sting will happen "before 1997" with Okerlund clearing up that he means before the end of 97.

Obviously not as tasteless but still pretty bad. Though there was a funny crowdshot of a guy who looked really concerned at first and you can see this face changing to a smile when he realizes what's going on.

Yeah, that makes sense. It sounds really desperate, but realistic.

Is there a specific reason why some WWF PPV events in 1997 took place 1-2 weeks earlier than usual? For example Summerslam took place on August, 3rd when it usually takes place somewhere between August, 15th and August, 25th or Survivor Series on November, 9th compared to November, 14th to November, 27th.

This chant is pretty funny in hindsight considering that Joey laid out JBL.

Strange that Arn talked about the other Horsemen as "these two guys" while pointing at Flair and Mongo several times, I guess he did not accept Benoit as a Horseman.

What about publically building the expectations of how the Network is going to do on a study that said there are 100 Mio. (or whatever it was) wrestling fans in the US?

As there is no such thing as soccer, I don't care. There is only football.

I know since these countdowns are voted through WWE website but still I just have a hard time with him being second. Like over HHH who has been pushed down everyone's throat as a big bad guy over the years? DiBiase completely blows away this guy as a heel. He was so good in his role that he never had a face run in WWF. Considering The Freebirds made the tag list, I'm surprised Flair didn't make this list, and he still had his heel shoes on for a little while during his second WWF/WWE run. Obviously they filmed some of this with newer footage, but how long ago was the voting? I wonder if the time in between the actual vote and the airing including his leaving, and hence finagling the positioning is almost an olive branch of sorts? Did they really have a voting? Some results indicate that these are just made-up lists.

Fun fact: Wikipedia has this match as part of Naruse's MMA record.