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It's amazing how good both Raw and Nitro were at this time. The way they built up the fight from last night again might have sold some replay buys. Hogan taking the honors of whipping DDP for Savage is a good sign of solidarity and then we get Sting flying down in an awesome moment that looked pretty dangerous. He throws the bat to DDP and DDP is without a doubt a main event player in this company now.

Good bring the troops back together promo. Everything that everyone said was logical and you had distinct lines and feud set with Nash vs. Hogan and Macho vs. Bischoff. I especially liked Bischoff again in this segment as a person really contemplating that everything could be crumbling around him. His works for me at the probation ultimatum was great and the NWO is united for now.

This worked as a mainstream piece. I always like Hogan at an event like this because you get a big fish in a little pond (Wrestling) but little fish in big pond (hollywood) vibe when he rubs shoulders with these guys. Dennis' outfit is a site to behold and he drops the date on Bash at the Beach.

This is Shawns version of the 20 minute Bret interview from two weeks before. This also had some weird cuts of Shawn with a kid in the ring and post match WM 12 stuff. Shawn is not revealing when he is coming back and says 1996 was the best business year in 6 years and even makes vince agree. Pretty annoying stuff overall and while fascinating to watch in retrospect, I can see myself as a casual fan wondering what it had to do with the conflict in the ring.

Less high on this than Loss and Flik but did think it was good. I really liked the opening but started to zone out during the bomb throwing ending portion. A bloody Kandori was very good in this match.

I have no problem calling this very good. First, what the fuck was savage saying in the backstage portion. It sounded like he was implying an orgy with Liz? She looked like she didn't know what to say or do. That was a cool itnerlude and we have had some unique entrances in 1997. Page comes out to a ton of pyro and it feels like a big time moment for him. The commentators and even Michael Buffer put over that this is the biggest match of his life. The match starts with a garbage style brawl but it was effective and intense. savage did a few little things in this match that were tremendous. I loved his ducking and punch combination in the corner. I also loved the DDP gets his leg up spot that Savage took an awesome bump for. The finish was flukey but decisive and a big win for DDP with Nick Patrick counting the pin. NWO seems to be in disarray as a great finish to the PPV and a hook to tune in tomorrow night.

Why a Harlem Heat promo now??? OH its this promo, gotcha. I couldn't believe how long they went after the slip up and Booker even says a few more words at the end.

This fucking sucked. Both looked like they were one step away from asking "line" to the director. The pull apart brawl in the confined space looked awkward. Worst mistep in the build to Barely Legal by far in my mind.

We started again good with high points on Sandman and stevie. Both were concise and effective. Then we turn to Funk and he completely loses me and again goes into his woe is me speech. I still am lost as to how this is supposed to work as a character because instead of hate for Raven I feel annoyance and sadness.

Fake Razor gives a pretty spot on impression. Kane just does his voice. Weird seeing these guys interact and a WWF vs. USWA feud in 1997 feels pretty hollow especially involving these guys.

I was a little familiar with TK but not a ton. Honestly don't think I have ever seen Yamamoto before unless I am blanking on something. This match blew me away. It is not a match for everyone but the matwork and escalation to the flying strikes around the finish were spectacular. I really loved the groundwork and opening 10 minutes of this. It felt like it could end at any moment but just kept going and going which is a good thing. Really looking forward to all the shoot style stuff in the next few years.

Savage yelling Brother, brother, brother, brother never gets old. These two have done a good job of selling the match at Stampede as a grudge match. Especially Page as this has been the first big shot he has had and he is maximizing the opportunity.

Interesting match in context giving the individuals involved. As a standalone 1997 vehicle we got the figure four over more and the Austin vs. Bret feud rages on.

Great first "face" promo by Austin talking about how he didn't give up at WM 13 and vowing revenge on Bret. This didn't have the one liner quotability of the other Austin stuff so far but was all around very good.

Love fireballs in WWF wrestling. We start with Taker kicking Paul's ass and end with a Mankind beatdown setting him up as the challenger on the next PPV.

I was thinking the same thing. Probably hadn't seen this since it aired live but it was off the charts and maybe one of the 4-5 best things I have seen in wrestling. The action is good beforehand with the tense spots that were mentioned by JDW and Loss. I like how Owen used his athletic spots with more of an edge than in the Berlin match. The post match puts it over the top though. Bret and owen give A level performances and when they hug and reunite it feels like a three year journey you have been on. King sells it even more at the commentary desk by having crocodile tears to the disdainful looks of JR and McMahon.

Definitely check out the full version Loss. The opening is very interesting in that Kawada hits a backdrop driver within the first 2 minutes and Misawa does an awesome sell job regrouping on the outside and then clinging to the ropes until he can gather his bearings and fire off with an elbow. That plays the theme of the whole match and it really doesnt feel like they will go 30. Closing stretch was done well and the drama was there for me throughout.

Kobashi definitely does the crying spot here right before he puts Jun away. It's an annoying thing but beside that I thought he did a great job throughout the match and showing his dominance. Especially in the first section that got clipped from the yearbook as Akiyama through little flurries but Kobashi had an answer for all of them without making Akiyama look weak. Very good match overall as this feud really feels like it is on the onset of simmering.

Don't you think that's true of any style of wrestling? 1991 wasn't Aja or Toyota's peak. They had two well regarded matches in 1994 and 1995 as they entered their peak. For me, the lineage of greatness was always Jackie Sato, Jaguar Yokota and Chigusa Nagayo. Sato was obviously a lesser worker than the others, but for her time and the development of the Joshi style to that point she was the woman and would have had a lot of great matches with the later generation if the timing had been different. To the first point: Not necessarily. Everyone has bad matches or performances I have problems with but with the top end male workers, there is very few matches that I don't consider at least good. I am admittedly a joshi novice but there has been a good amount of those on the joshi end. If I dislike Misawa vs. Kawada from 6/6/97 as much as Loss that may be one example, but up to this point all the Misawa stuff on the yearbook since he lost the mask has been nothing short of good of what I have seen. I loved Aja vs. Toyota from 1994 Big Egg. I would have imagined that Toyotas peak years would be around 1990-1996 or so. Apologize if that is not the case. I really find it odd if Aja is only entering her peak in 1994 based on being the main person after beating Bull in 1992 and dominating the landscape.

The Taz vs. Sabu hype has really taken me by surprise because I expected it to be built as a dream match concept based on what I remembered Styles saying on commentary. Instead they have made this a real personal issue and the hype has been more effective as a result.

So far in this feud with Raven, Funk has felt more focused than usual as he has one theme he is trying to get over and it has been very effective.

Yeah enough of the mask thing. I don't know if we missed a bit of context other than both the Pits and Rude dont like Douglas but this felt a little off. My least favorite angle heading into Barely Legal.

Savage vs. Iaukea looks so weird on paper. Savage kills the poor guy until DDP bravely takes on all the NWO. The number games catches up to him and this feud continues to escalate.

I noticed that to that the only reason they called this Spring Stampede was to get the Horseman on horses. It looks cool but doesn't exactly sell PPV's

This is one of the all time great promos. In some ways, I think this created the template for the 20 minute raw opening. Bret takes his time getting to his final point but he had a lot to say and he felt justified so it felt integral instead of just killing time. Michaels comes out and mucks it up and I must say even now my emotions is to not cheer for either of these guys. The interaction between them to and the brawling felt justified and Bret has been utilizing the post figure four effectively.