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Quick snippet of Foley hyping the main event with the liver line that is really good. Brakkus IS COMING!!!!

Rocky comes back in some clothes straight out of the HBK collection. He gives Chainz the Rock Bottom and we have a new Nation member.

Kurt Angle's music fades into Bret's homecoming with the WWF belt. This shows how big Bret was to the WWF fanbase and Canadians at this time and may honestly be one of the last feel good moments he has in the WWF for a long time.

Dude gives his usual promo full of 60's references. Lawler cracking up on commentary is good and Vince is in on the fun. Shawn interrupts him and talks about tonights matchup by again talking about his new insurance policy. Dude quotes the Beatles and then boogies with Colette. We get some predictions on the Mankind/Shawn match with some southern accents that would make me blush.

Shawn still working the booty shorts and loafers. Man is Shawn the most hate-able prick in the world here. The line about asking your sister and momma about how gay Shawn is was classic. Vince shaking his head and rolling his eyes was awesome too. Slaughter comes out and Shawn immediately is on him about his chin and mugs him the whole time he talks.

Tenzan didn't seem really ready for this spot and was extremely limited in what he did. Hashimoto still sold for him in a huge way on his punch and kicks making his comeback feel like a treacherous effort on his part. This match was good evidence for how good a worker Hashimoto can be overall. The building looked really large and its odd they did this type of match so quickly after the G-1.

Up to 2000 and enjoyed the overview so far. I feel like a good middle ground candidate between Scott and Dylan in regards to the HHH debate and really only despised him once he got past the Batista feud. One match I would say where HHH carried a lower level opponent was the Kane match at Judgement Day 2001. I also thought HHH was pretty amazing working the leg vs. Shawn on Taboo Tuesday 2004.

I like that idea, gives Hogan a good pop and could possibly see someone running into his big boot without having him clog up a match.

Graphic and brutal. This may be my favorite ECW match and feels like the culmination of Sabu. The spots and barbed wire made this a sick affair to watch and it is weird how they did this so close to the PPV. The early stages set the tone and the match got more graphic and queasy to watch. Sabu wins the ECW strap for the last time.

Crowd is fn awful which is to be expected in Sturgis. The first shot on Sting was fine as it was quick and you could assume that it was the real one. The later shots made it look ridiculous that they couldn't tell that it was a fake. Hogan misses another legdrop making that percentage go way down. I don't know if he ever missed the legdrop in two consecutive matches. Hogan regains the belt in a huge mistake by the company, I would argue the first big one since the NWO angle. Steiners and Hennig come out to check on Luger way too late. I do like the analytical end to the PPV's and hope that is something that will continue with the WWE Network. The NWO celebration is just as good as the WCW one was Monday but we feel back to the status quo and Luger is seriously damaged.

Funk hates Tennessee and now Florida, what is wrong with this guy? He also switches from the Sabu barbed wire match to the Hardcore Heaven match. The promo was interesting but sort of scatterbrained.

I have liked the intensity of Taz throughout his promos in 1997 and this was no exception as he looks like a complete badass.

Gertner is a fun promo around this time given a lot of time and not stumbling one bit. He lays out the scenario for the tag belts at Hardcore Heaven.

Crazy brawl that went long but felt up the pace and allowed for some extended selling. Kong/Kyoko were really good at taking the fight to LCO and the individual pairings really sprawled out throughout Korauken making the whole atmosphere more chaotic. Aja was my favorite in this match just being a wild woman dismantling the guard rail to get back to the ring, letting go of the fire extinguisher to the delight of the crowd, and tons of other little touches. The finish could have felt anticlimatic but the way she played it off by putting all of her energy into one spinning back fist made it work and her exhaustion in the post match made it known that she went through a war. One of my favorite joshi matches of the year.

This was fine and I did like Ito's continued use of the double stomp and abdomen work. I thought Toyota was in her less annoying stage here and hit most everything cleanly which is a plus. This match also didn't drag out and felt like a complete contained story at 16 minutes. I didn't think it was super or anything but as a semi-main spot on a Korakun show, this was satisfying to me and I like seeing Ito's assertion up the card.

Alfonso's whistle is so annoying. I was really struck in this match how good Sabu was at some little things in wrestling. I went to the ROH show on Saturday and was fairly disappointed in most of the matches and was also really struck by how no one threw many punches or any other strikes that looked stiff. Everything seemed to be light and incoherent. Here Sabu and Funk go out into a comparable sized crowd and have a great brawl featuring excellent punches, Sabu hitting all of his spots where it looks like he is trying to inflict damage, not pop the crowd, and the crowd decidedly behind Funk. The chaos at the end was a crazy scene with chairs flying around the ring from the crowd and whole drinks being pelted at RVD and Sabu. There was only one moment where Sabu took some chair punishment and then hopped back on offense really quickly that bothered me. Everything else was really fun and as a patron at this show, you couldn't have expected anything else.

Wow what a segment. Hogan probably puts in his most unselfish performance of all time really being a complete dick and dominating the match. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand and really had his working boots on using his heel offense but in a more vicious way like the repeated elbows to the throat out on the floor. He even lets Luger kick out clean of the legdrop. Second legdrop misses and we know how that spells doom. Luger's comeback is super taking out the main principles of the NWO and getting Hogan to submit clean to nuclear crowd heat. The celebration is the best feel good moment of 1997 so far and the removal of the spraypaint on the belt is a nice touch. I am starting to feel like Sting is now shoe horned. They have played up his return well up to this point and showed some restraint, but Luger having a great two month title run and then getting screwed at Havoc instead of age in a cage leading to Luger vs. new NWO member and Hogan vs. Sting would have been more appropriate. I actually don't even know if STing vs. Hogan needed to be for the belt now.

PTBN Tuesday Update! Scott recaps the post-Rumble Raw heavy on Elimination Chamber build: http://placetobenation.com/scotts-raw-recap-12714/ Justin and Josh have a special We Miss the 90s chronicling their friendship around the 1994 Royal Rumble: http://placetobenation.com/we-miss-the-90s...-to-friendship/ Chrissy makes her PTBN debut arguing for this season of American Idol: http://placetobenation.com/why-this-season...e-the-best-yet/ Steven rebooks the Grammys with who should have won: http://placetobenation.com/the-grammys-remix-2014-version/ Russell has the biggest releases from the comics world this week: http://placetobenation.com/new-hotness-top...anuary-29-2014/

When else have they built someone else up to the main event level with this slow a build? I thought it was clear live that they probably knew going in they would be some Bryan chants but hoped the elevation of Wyatt, superman push of Reigns breaking the Rumble record (which I don't think many people got live), and fresh returns of Sheamus and Batista in ring after 4 years would counteract any Bryan supporters, that clearly wasn't the case and I think they had no idea that Big E would get silence and Sheamus and Rey would be boo'd out of the building along with Batista's eventual win.

kayfabe Parv.

Pretty ballsy of Hennig. I remembered hating these to as it just made JJ look dumb. The first week would be fine but him saying he doesn't know what Sting wants is so dumb.

Ted turns face to team up with the Steiners. Not the best fit for Ted and I honestly don't know if he had anything else left to give. At least Ted only gives the F of federation out. Feels really long for the Steiners and Outsiders to still be feuding.

Basic hype promo for Hogan for tonights match. Weird that he names Hall the #1 contender. Wonder if that was an audible or what.

Cool story Cox. I liked this gimmick and Pillman played it up and the crowd was popping huge. The countout finish was a smart way to continue it.