In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker

Legacy Review

In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker

April 20, 1997 from the Rochester Community War Memorial in Rochester, NY

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

We're coming off Wrestlemania 13 and the Attitude Era has well and truly begun in full. As has the new Hart Foundation stable, with freshly heel turned Bret Hart turning back to his family after getting shunned by the fans. Well, American fans. Unlike other Blacklash style cards in future years we've actually got mostly fresh matchups tonight instead of WM rematches.

The house set is back, at least partially. They're using the garage with the entrance tunnel inside it. Strangely, the ring aprons are all generic rather than PPV themed.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Legion of Doom def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart (c) by DQ in 12:16- No surprise to see the LOD in a tag title match right after their return. The champs come out to Bret's music, now the music for the whole stable. No more face teases for Bulldog either. Bulldog is also still the European champ. Owen and Animal start. Animal quickly pounds away. Flying tackle. Animal powers out of an Owen facelock by tossing him across the ring and Owen's had enough. Hawk tags in with a clothesline and fist drop. Bulldog gets chopped down in the face corner. Hawk gives Owen a good old Spaceballs salute. Bulldog counters a backdrop and hits the delayed vertical suplex. Owen ax handle off the top rope. Hawk powers out of an early Sharpshooter attempt. Animal powerslam for 2. We go picture in picture to see Steve Austin finally arriving at the arena. Flat tire, apparently. Sure the Harts had nothing to do with that. Animal press slams Owen. Hawk splash off the top for 2. Owen does a corner whip reversal, Hawk Bret bumps and they collide. Owen enzuguri. Hawk goes Road Warrior in peril for a bit. Sleeper from Owen. Hawk snap mares out. The heels try a double team and Hawk knocks them into each other. Tag to Animal. The LOD hit their back/front double clothesline. Animal powerslam from the second rope on Owen, and that gets a pin! LOD are announced as the new champs. BUT WAIT. A second ref is in. Here comes the Dusty Finish. Fink announces that Animal pinned Owen, but Bulldog was the legal man. There's no fall and this match MUST CONTINUE. Well, that might be the only time in history that rule was followed. The champs stall so Fink announces they must get back in before the count or they forfeit the titles. They run back in and somehow get the jump on LOD, who were waiting for them. Animal runs into an Owen spinning heel kick, then gets choked and double teamed in the heel corner. Owen neck breaker and legdrop for 2. Animal gets a sunset flip on Bulldog but the ref is distracted. JR: "I don't think this referee went to ref school on scholarship. He must have been a walk on." Animal dodges an Owen headbutt off the top and tags. Hawk runs wild. DONNYBROOK! Doomsday Device on Owen! Bret runs in and attacks for the cheap DQ. Well, that was a long way and a lot of overbooking to get to that finish, but it doesn't entirely suck as it works to get the new Hart Foundation over. The match was mostly OK. **1/4

Brian Pillman fools around with Sunny in the Superstar Line room backstage. That's proper 900 number content.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Savio Vega (w/The Nation of Domination) def Rocky Maivia (c) by countout in 8:33- This was supposedly supposed to be Vader winning the IC title as compensation for not winning the WWF Title despite the great work he had been doing lately (it certainly should have been him instead of Sid again), but he managed to get himself arrested while WWF was in Kuwait after messing around too much with a TV talk show host. It's still real in Kuwait, dammit. That incident didn't just scrub Vader from this match, it pretty much nixed any future push and left him as a midcarder for the rest of his WWF run, a run where he somehow never won a single title. Zero reaction for Rocky on his entrance. Vega tries to jump but Rocky is ready for him. A Nation goon also goes down. Armdrags from Rocky. Faarooq comes out with an arm in a sling and joins commentary. Or tries to, but his headset doesn't work. More suppression from The Man. JR graciously offers Faarooq his own headset to keep the peace. While all this is happening there's jack all going on in the ring, with Rocky rolling through the exact same armdrag spots for a second time and Vega putting on a Nerve Pinch of Match Killing +1. Vega does hit a heel kick in the corner then falls out of the ring. On commentary Faarooq challenges Ahmed Johnson to a gauntlet match against him, Vega and Crush, and if Johnson wins the Nation will disband. Rocky crossbody for 2. Vega goes back to the nerve pinch. Rocky gets a small package for 2. Vega big boot. Nerve pinch 3. Rocky gets a sloppy Perfectplex but the ref is distracted. Another spinning kick by Vega followed by chops and a hip toss. Nerve pinch 4! This is getting ridiculous. Remember when Vega used to be a halfway decent worker? Rocky ducks another spinning kick and hits a spinny DDT. Vega gets a roll up and Rocky's kickout sends his shoulder into the post. Back suplex from Rocky. Belly to belly suplex. Rock Bottom! That gets a 2 count. Clearly it's not a thing yet. Vega tosses Rocky out and he takes Crush out. Pissed off Crush gives Rocky a heart punch on the floor. Rocky can't get back up and is counted out. Vega's upset at Crush, like he couldn't have gotten his ass out that entire 10 count and rolled Rocky back in. Faarooq comes in to lay down the law, and the whole Nation makes up the only way they know how- gang beating on Rocky. Johnson runs out to make the save and accepts Faarooq's gauntlet match challenge. A couple of weeks after this Rocky dropped the IC title to Owen Hart on Raw, helping to push the Hart Foundation even more as the dominant faction in the company and finally giving Owen his first WWF singles title. 3/4*

Young Kevin Kelley is with Sable and Marc Mero. I put Sable first very deliberately as she's clearly the star of the pair now. Mero says he'll be back from his knee injury over the summer. Austin walks behind them, goes into the men's room and a ruckus ensues. Dave Hebner runs out and says Austin's been attacked. Then we see Owen and Bulldog come out holding weapons. As soon as they see the camera they scarper.

 

"Double J" Jesse James def Rockabilly (w/The Honky Tonk Man) in 6:46- Right, there's a lot to unpack getting into this one. Jesse James basically took over Jeff Jarrett's gimmick after the big reveal that he was signing all of Jarrett's songs, their breakup and Jarrett's latest departure from the company. After the breakup of the Smoking Gunns, Billy Gunn returned from injury on the preshow match at WM 13, defeating Flash Funk. Afterward he turned down Honky's offer of mentorship, but Honky refused to take no for an answer and here tonight Gunn is debuting as Honky's protege, Rockabilly. This would turn out to be one of several famous singles run gimmick disasters from Gunn. Right from the start he doesn't look comfortable at all doing Honky's mannerisms. Gunn comes out hot but a James sequence sends him to the floor. James clothesline off the apron. Gunn begs off in the ring and does an eye poke. He hits the Fameasser, which wasn't fully a thing yet, stalls forever with awful dancing and finally covers for 2. Neckbreaker. A James comeback is cut off with another eye rake. James dodges an avalanche. Gunn hits the post and does a nice delayed flop sell, probably the best thing in the whole match. James rolls through his signature jabs and does some mounted punches, then does his own showboating and hits a corner clothesline. Gunn uses momentum to toss James to the floor and does some more bad dancing. Back in James gets a Paul Smackage outta nowhere to mercifully end this disaster. That didn't work as a debut or as a match in general. The irony is after a long feud these guys would decide to team up and become the most dominant team of the era, the New Age Outlaws. 1/4*

Kelley is with Austin and WWF President Gorilla Monsoon. Austin says of course he's wrestling tonight you jackass, no one in the Hart family from Bret to "fat ass" Stu is keeping him out of the ring tonight or any night. Monsoon says he's going to give Austin extra time to recover and flips the order of the last two matches. Next we cut to the Hart Foundation locker room, where Owen and Bulldog argue that Austin attacked first. Believable.

 

WWF Championship: The Undertaker (c) def Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) in 17:26- For Taker's first PPV title defense WWF smartly decided to go back to Mankind, who Taker feuded with for most of '96, a feud that produced easily his best matches to date. It got going on Raw a few weeks prior when Mankind threw a fireball in Taker's face, burning him. This is his first appearance since then. Mankind comes out with a fire extinguisher which is pretty funny and plays into the burning. Taker charges in during his entrance and we're on. Taker's got a bandage on his face from the fireball. Back and forth brawl start. Cactus Clothesline! Both guys land on their feet. Taker goozles and slams Mankind hard into the guardrail. He gets dumped over the barricade and I anticipate the mandatory late '90s crowd brawl but they get back to ringside pretty quickly. Not quite mandatory yet. Taker hooks up old school but twists the script by hitting a flying clothesline off the top. He goes for snake eyes but Bearer gets on the apron. Mankind comes from behind, nails Taker with the urn and covers him for 2. Running corner knee. JR references Vader in Kuwait. Swinging neckbreaker from Mankind. He hooks on a nerve pinch and switches over to a chinlock. Again, subtle but important difference between a match killing resthold for resthold's sake, and a cool down hold for proper match flow. This is the latter. Taker rapid fire strikes out. Mankind flops to the floor and takes a stair shot. He grabs Vince's pitcher of water and hits Taker with it! Chairshot to Taker's head. Cactus Elbow off the second rope to the floor! Bang bang! Mankind rips Taker's bandage off and he's got some pretty good and convincing burn makeup on. Back in Mankind hits a piledriver for 2. Second piledriver. Taker sits up and fires back. Flying clothesline. The ref gets squashed in the corner. That was well done, it wasn't as badly telegraphed as ref bumps usually are. Mandible Claw! The backup ref runs in. Mankind Claws him and tosses him out! Bearer tosses a chair in. Mankind decides to one up that and brings the stairs in. Taker dropkicks the stairs onto Mankind! Chairshot. Mankind gets hung in the ropes. Taker gets him out, taking Mankind's mask off in the process! Taker charges with the stairs and hits Mankind off the apron. Mankind flies backwards and goes HEAD FIRST THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! HOLY SHIT. Talk about concussing yourself. Damn. Mankind stays in that position for a while, head through the table. So fantastic. Taker drags him back in. Chokeslam! Mankind kicks out! Tombstone! That's it for Mankind. Love that finish sequence. The table spot actually meant something. Mankind tried to fight back but the damage was too great. This was probably these guys' best match to date. ***1/2

After the match Taker brings Bearer in for a beatdown and we end up with an epic Botchamania moment. So Mankind is supposed to light another flash paper fireball and Taker is supposed to push Bearer into it so he gets burnt. Problem is, Mankind can't get the lighter to light. He tries a couple of times while they all fumble around to stall for time. Taker takes the lighter to try to do it himself and also can't get it to work with more stumbling around. Finally Taker gets it to light, salvages everything by super dramatically showing Bearer the lighter, then lights the paper for the fireball literally right in his face. Pro's pro man, there's few guys you could count on more to save that whole thing. And it was extremely important, as Bearer getting burnt here was the lead in to a very big debut later in the year....

 

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin def Bret "Hitman" Hart by DQ in 21:09- The one WM rematch on this card, and it makes sense after the double turn at WM and Bret forming the Hart Foundation adding whole new layers to the feud. Not to mention you know these guys will always deliver. Bret tries to bring Bulldog and Owen to ringside but both refs and Monsoon refuse to allow it. Monsoon sits ringside for the match. Another jump start with Austin in control early. He hits a suplex and gut stomp. Double ax handle to the floor. Bret gets whipped into the steps. Austin rolls in and mocks Bret's pose. More stair shots. They go up the aisle a bit and Bret takes a ton of rail shots. Back in Austin hits an elbow off the second rope for 2. Bret quickly rolls back outside. He tries to get a chair and Austin tries to fight him off. Bret goes for a chairshot but Austin cuts him off. Austin takes the chair. Bret dropkicks him in the back, pushing him into the chair! Hebner went down there too. Bret drives the chair into Austin's chronically bum knee. He helps Henber back up then goes to work on the knee. Austin kicks back with his good leg. Bret cuts the comeback off with an eye rake. Post wraparound figure four! More chairshots to the knee. Austin's had enough and starts pummeling Bret. Bret goes back on the knee while we go picture in picture for a moment to see a howling in pain Paul Bearer being loaded up in an ambulance. Bret takes Austin's knee brace off and continues to pick it apart. Austin gets a desperation low blow. Elbow drop and he chokes Bret with his wrist tape. Bret dodges another elbow off the second rope and Austin lands badly on the bad knee. Austin snaps Bret over the top rope. He teases a suplex to the floor. Bret blocks it and suplexes Austin back in. Figure four! Austin slowly reverses it and Bret grabs a rope. Austin has some words and some middle fingers with Hebner. Bret kicks the knee from behind. He tries for a post figure four again but Austin fights it off. Austin backdrops Bret over the guardrail! Clothesline off the apron to the floor. Back in we get a Bret bump. Austin does some ground & pound and covers for 2. Piledriver attempt from Austin but his leg gives out and Bret gets back on it. Austin collapses on a corner whip. Bret wraps his knee around the rope. Austin lifts Bret and drops him on the top turnbuckle! He goes for the Stunner but Bret grabs the ropes to block it. Bret low blow! Superplex! They barely avoided Austin's discarded knee brace going down. Bret goes for the Sharpshooter. Austin grabs the brace and whacks Bret with it! That's why it was still in the ring. I was thinking Hebner was doing a shit job keeping the ring clear. Austin hooks on a Sharpshooter! Owen and Bulldog are out. Austin fights them off. He puts the Sharpshooter on again! Bulldog grabs a chair and whacks Austin with it for a cheap DQ. After the match Bret grabs the bell and goes to hit Austin with it. Austin cuts him off with a chair to the knee and puts the Sharpshooter on again. They echo the WM match with a gaggle of refs trying to get Austin to release the hold. Finally officials get him off and Bulldog and Owen help Bret to the back. That was the "weakest" PPV match between the two, but it was still fantastic even with the DQ finish. Like the DQ in the tag title match, it makes sense in the context of the Hart Foundation feud. ****

 

The next night on Raw WWF would follow up on this with one of the most epic, legendary Raws of all time. Bret and Austin have one more match, this time in a street fight. Of course the match starts with the Hart Foundation gang attacking Austin, only to see SHAWN MICHAELS return and make the save, running Owen and Bulldog off and leaving Bret for Austin. Austin tore apart Bret's knee again with a chair and the Sharpshooter, in story breaking Bret's leg (cover for a real life knee surgery Bret needed). At the end of the show Austin has some words for Vince, doing some long term setup there, before Owen and Bulldog attack him for revenge. Shawn gets involved again, and the whole thing leads to the final bombshell of the night: BRIAN PILLMAN joining the Hart Foundation.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Not a lot to write home about on the undercard, but the last two matches absolutely delivered, both in terms of match quality and long term storytelling. WWF's creative renaissance continues and was about to get even better.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

Uncensored '95

Legacy Review

Uncensored '95

March 19, 1995 from the Tupelo Coliseum in Tupelo, MS

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

This is the first new PPV on WCW's '95 schedule. Though in a way you could call it a rebrand, as Spring Stampede, which was first run in April of '94, was taken off the calendar for the time being. In what could be seen as an attempt by WCW to get in on the niche being carved by ECW's success, this night is being presented as UNSANCTIONED UNFILTERED NO RULES. That's an important point, every single match tonight is supposed to be no DQ. Every single one. Remember that. All the matches with champions are also non-title because of the gimmick rules, which was standard for WCW at the time.

The show opens with Mike Tenay taking Mean Gene's place in the opening standup. He'd also be doing Mean Gene's interview duties tonight as Okerlund has tonight off. Let's just say he was not quite ready for prime time yet but we all know he would get better. There's lots of talk about Jimmy Hart being missing, and also a tease for the debut of....well, I'll wait to get into that mess. During the open we immediately cut to the footage for the opening match....

King of the Road Match: The Blacktop Bully def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes in 13:06- So. King of the Road Match. What kind of crap are we getting ourselves into, you ask? I'm glad you did because the WCW brain trust outdid themselves for this one. First off, the whole thing is pretaped and edited. Both wrestlers are in the bed of an 18 wheeler truck. Not just any 18 wheeler, it's nothing but steel beams and chain link fence. And hay inside. Lots and lots of hay. I can't help but wonder if this was a custom job or if they found a truck out there like this. The goal of the match is to fight your way to the front of the truck bed, climb up, and honk a horn that's been placed up there. The truck is being escorted by police around the rural roads in presumably the Tupelo area, but they never go in the arena so this could have just as easily been done around Atlanta. There's also a full film crew- camera in the truck, pickup truck riding next to the truck with a camera, and a helicopter camera. The setup and logistics are way, way more interesting than anything that happens in the match, which is just a bunch of weak brawling, attempting to keep balance on a moving truck, random climbing and some shots with the objects available in the truck. The most "exciting" thing that happens is probably the couple of times the truck has to slow down to take a turn. Or when it gets stopped completely to let a school bus go by. It also noticeably slows down when the wrestlers both get up on the top of the rig. There's a lot of edits masquerading as "interference", and some kind of time travel as the scene keeps switching back and forth between midday and late afternoon/sunset. And it goes on for way, way, WAY too long. Commentary even gets bored after a while, and it's a good thing they shut the arena mics off completely because who knows how bored the crowd got. Oh yeah, the match such as it is. Both guys are up top by the horn, Dustin gets knocked off and Bully blows the horn to win. Now, there is one important thing here: WCW was very strongly a no blood zone and both guys were told to keep it clean. They both bladed and bled anyway. That's part of the reason for the Joel Schumacher Batman movie-like headache inducing edits, they were trying to cut around the blood. That lead to both guys being fired from WCW. Dustin landed in WWF a few months later and changed the industry with Goldust. Frankly, no one wanted late career Darsow. He floated around the indies before getting another WCW run a couple of years later. Whoever came up with this match should be strapped under the 18 wheeler and taken on a coast to coast tour. MINUS FIVE STARS

Backstage Col. Parker goes on an epic, crazy rant before mercifully being cut off by Tenay.

 

Martial Arts Match: Meng (w/Col. Robert Parker) def "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 7:04- This is Meng's (Haku) WCW PPV wrestling debut after working as Parker's bodyguard for a while. Of course he wrestled for years in WWF, Heenan even managed him, but they act like he has no experience at all. Sonny Onoo, future heel manager for every New Japan wrestler that had a stop in WCW, is making his debut as the guest referee for this match. Don't bother asking what the rules are for this "martial arts match", they never explain them. IT'S UNCENSORED, THERE ARE NO RULES. Duggan is dressed for a street fight. He refuses to take part in the formalities before the match and everyone argues about it. A ton. Like, excessively. For frak's sake, do something! Finally Duggan puts his pride aside and does the honorary bow....and Meng unshockingly kicks him right in the face. Duggan hits forearms and Meng chops. Duggan pulls off his boot and starts hitting Meng with it. I'm not sure what martial art that is but whatever. Let's call it the Malcolm Reynolds school of combat. Meng locks on the Nerve Pinch of Match Killing +1. Duggan whacks him with the boot again, then no sells a bunch of kicks and punches Meng. They choke each other at the same time. I'd call them Greco Roman Throat Holds but Taichi would call bullshit on it I'm sure. Back to the nerve pinch. Duggan shoulderblock, Meng throat chop. More weak brawling. Duggan does a horrible delayed bump off a chop. He almost always looked like he wasn't sure how to go down properly. And we get a trifecta of nerve pinches because why not. Duggan tries to headbutt Meng and hurts himself. Meng misses an elbow drop. Duggan pounds away and tries to toss Onoo out of the way. 3 point stance clothesline. Meng pops right back up. Parker gets on the apron and takes a shot. There's a big clusterfuck with Parker and Onoo holding Duggan. Meng hits a superkick in the chaos and covers for the pin. That was an extremely stupid match. DUD

We get a long, badly edited video package on Arn Anderson. I can almost hear someone in the edit suites at Turner yelling at an underling to "do it like MTV, that's what the kids are watching" but no one had a clue how to actually do it. While that's going on I'm also trying to find a reset button for this show because it sure as hell needs it.

 

Boxer vs Wrestler Match: Johnny B Badd (w/Rock Finnigan) def WCW World Television Champion Arn Anderson (w/Col. Robert Parker) in 9:22- Badd is playing the part of "boxer" for this match because of his Golden Gloves background. Finnigan was apparently his real life trainer back then. Badd's wearing boxing gloves but Arn isn't. The rules are win by pin, submission or 10 count KO. It's also a boxing round structure, 10 3 minute rounds with a 1 minute rest period between. Round one, Arn tries a takedown but Badd jabs. Arn tries to position in the corner but Badd pummels him to the floor. Back in more Badd jabs rock Arn. Arn gets a knee to the gut but it doesn't slow Badd down. The bell rings with Arn down in the corner. Round two starts much the same as round one. A Badd flurry gets a knockdown. Arn gets a leg takedown but misses an elbow drop. Badd starts getting some hard shots in with Arn going down several more times. Tony explains there's no TKO rule. The bell rings to end the round. Arn kicks Badd and plants him with a DDT! Fantastic. Badd sits on his stool in the corner...and Arn attacks him again! He throws Badd over the top to the floor right before the bell to start round three. Arn gets a slam and kneedrop. He slowly works Badd over for most of the round. Parker sets up Arn's stool in the corner. Arn throws Badd into it, breaking the stool! That was good. World's Greatest Spinebuster! Finnigan jumps on Arn's back! Order is slowly restored. Arn cuts off a Badd flurry with a knee to the gut and tosses Badd outside again as the bell rings to end the third round. Finnigan starts setting up the corner stool. Arn tosses Badd into him! Finnigan cuts off the tape on one of Badd's gloves. Arn attacks before the bell again. Finnigan puts his bucket on Arn's head! Badd punches the bucket! He takes his glove off, hits the Tutti Fruiti punch, and gets the pin. Well that wasn't nearly as horrible as it could have been. Both guys tried hard to make it work and the overbooking subverting the normal boxing rules was both fun and totally in character for Arn. **

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def Avalanche by DQ in 11:44- Ring announcer Gary Capetta goes full Buffer on Savage during his intro. Never go full Buffer. Avalanche charges the ring and Savage jumps him as he slides in. Shoulderblock standoffs. Avalanche jaws. Savage slaps him! Savage dodges and Avalanche goes OVER THE TOP ROPE down to the floor. For a guy his size that's not easy. Savage goes up top and hits a CROSSBODY down to the floor. That was different. Tony reemphasizes everything is no DQ tonight and "Nick Patrick is just here to count a winner or loser". Savage tries a slam and Avalanche falls on him for 2. Big elbow and leg drop. Belly to belly suplex. Avalanche dropkick! Savage is getting something out of him tonight. Savage dodges another elbow drop but is still hurt and gets tossed to the floor. Avalanche posts Savage and spends a while continuously knocking him off the apron. Savage blocks an apron suplex and snaps Avalanche's throat over the top rope. Clothesline off the top. Avalanche does the big kickout at 1. Clotheslines from Savage and a sunset flip. Avalanche squashes him. Big splash for 2. Powerslam. Avalanche cues up the Quake splash. Savage wisely rolls away. Why didn't more guys do that? Savage back elbow and roll up for 2. He tries coming off the top again but Avalanche catches him and runs him into the corner. Another powerslam. Savage dodges a splash off the second rope. Avalanche goes to the floor. Classic Savage double ax handle off the top to the floor. Vintage even. A woman comes out of the crowd and attacks Savage! They get Savage back in the ring and double team him. The woman takes off the wig....AND IT'S RIC FLAIR! RIC FLAIR IN DRAG! Yes, this is the infamous Flair in drag appearance. And, being Flair, when he's in he's all in. He's got on makeup, nail polish, everything. I'd bet he's got a bra and panties on too. I'm not checking to find out though. Hogan runs out and chases the heels off. There's no bell to end the match, but Patrick raises Savage's hand. Yes, on a night when everything has been advertised ad nauseam as NO DQ, Savage wins the match by DQ. Pure WCW. Other than the crap finish Savage looked on form again and got as much out of Avalanche as anyone could, even if they did spend the second half of the match clearly marking time before the screwy finish. Better days were soon ahead for him. *3/4

 

Big Bubba Rogers def Sting in 13:43- After having The Boss nixed by lawyers after WWF threatened to sue and The Guardian Angel pulled after the Angels didn't want to be associated with wrestling anymore, the former Big Boss Man is back to his original name and heel gimmick. He points a finger at Sting after the bell. Sting bites it! He puts on Rogers' hat and wraps his jacket around Rogers. A dropkick sends Rogers to the floor. Sting squashes Rogers' hat! Dick move. But funny. Backdrop and continued Sting beatdown. Rogers goes to the floor again and tries to drag Sting into the corner. Sting pulls with his legs and Rogers goes into the post. Big splash. Sting slaps Rogers, wanting him to fight back. On a corner whip Rogers slides under the ropes and leads a chase out and back in the ring. Sting leapfrogs and Rogers runs into him. That looked botchy, but Sting immediately grabs his knee and that's the focal point of the rest of the match so I guess not. Rogers goes to work on the knee. Heenan: "Go to a hospital with a bad knee in this town and they shoot you!". His "hick town" shots at Tupelo have been pretty good all night. Tony goes in detail into Sting's extensive knee injury history. Sting tries to fight back but Rogers kicks his knee again. Spinning toe hold. After that Rogers changes to a more general beatdown for a bit. Sting backdrops out of a piledriver but the knee gives out again. More knee work follows. Rogers goes to the top rope....slips off and falls back to the mat! That was ugly and it could have been very bad for Rogers. And it was definitely not planned, Sting was poised to take a clothesline or tackle when Rodgers went straight down instead of into him. Sting ax handle off the top rope. He slams Rogers but continues to sell the knee. Sleeper! Rogers gets a tie out of his pocket and uses it to get out. Sting ducks a punch and hits a German suplex. Splash off the top for 2. Still selling the knee. Sting tries another slam, but the knee gives out, Rogers falls on top of him and gets a clean (!) pin! Decent match that on another night might have turned out pretty good. Sucky shows have a tendency to drag everything down. Sting continues to tread water at best after Hogan's signing. **1/4

Tony announces the next PPV, Slamboree in May, which is advertised to again be a legend's reunion and they will have more Hall of Fame inductions.

 

Texas Tornado Falls Count Anywhere Match: The Nasty Boys def WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri) in 8:43- The Nastys had a couple of classic all arena plunder brawls in matches that involved Mick Foley the previous spring, so they're being asked to recreate the magic minus the man that made the magic happen. You can guess how well this is going to go. Harlem Heat no show their entrance and attack the Nastys from behind through the crowd. The first part of the match is brawling in the ring that's not great, not completely horrible. After a few minutes they start working their way up the aisle and this is where the fun begins. Way off in a dark corner by the far side of the entrance stage there's been some seriously fake looking concession stands set up, miles away from anywhere fans have access to. Maybe a wrestler desperately needed some popcorn during the show. Could be all they could afford for catering for this show, we don't know. Anyway. They all look like they were stolen from the set of a '50s sitcom, and with Turner owning it they could be authentic originals from The Andy Griffith Show. Sags and Ray arrive first, knock over some popcorn and take out some lemonade. A tray gets grabbed and tossed, which knocks a whole mess of cotton candy onto the floor, as well as a red liquid of indeterminate origin. It's this red stuff that causes the most problems. It goes all over the floor and instantly turns this from a wrestling match into an impromptu Slip N' Slide party. Ray dumps a bunch of cotton candy on Sags. Yes, cotton candy. As a weapon. In a wrestling match. Everyone is slip sliding around. Knobbs falls on his ass. Booker tries to run Sags into a stand, slips and falls. It's like an ice rink, no one can get any footing. Now the Nastys toss mustard all over Heat, as if this wasn't a big enough mess already. Knobbs falls on his ass again. Everyone looks completely lost. Sherri slips and goes down. Sags tries to clothesline Booker and he goes down. Sags hits Ray in the face with a wicker basket. A WICKER basket. I'd almost call the cotton candy a more believable weapon. Booker and Knobbs fall into a stand and the whole thing collapses on them. Both of them have "fuck this" looks. Knobbs manages to weakly slam Booker into the stand rubble and pin him to mercifully end this disaster. Off camera, of course. Sherri tries to run in after the bell and slips and falls again for the turd nugget cherry on top of the shit sundae. Everyone gets the hell out of town as quick as they can. MINUS FIVE STARS

Yes, that's not one, but TWO MFS matches on one show. For some context, in over 200 reviews on this blog to date I'd had barely a half dozen matches rates MFS across all of them before this one. You almost have to preplan to have something this awful.

Vader and Flair dispose of Tenay's services to conduct their own interviews. Flair's still got makeup and nail polish on. Dedication. Or, I mean, a lifestyle choice. That's his business.

 

Strap Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan (w/the Renegade) def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Vader (w/Ric Flair) in 15:28- This is a rematch from Starrcade, where Vader showed he had zero interest in working a typical Hogan vs big man match, wrestled a normal Vader match, showed Hogan up and got cheered by the crowd for it. Now Hogan is going to make him pay with the power of the 24 inch Backstage Politics Pythons. The "Jimmy Hart is missing" story continues as he's not out with Hogan. Hogan's "ultimate surprise" also doesn't come out with him. Vader is raring to go but Hogan hesitates putting the strap on. Now Hogan's surprise comes out with his own entrance. This, boys and girls, is the debut of the Renegade. So, word is that Eric Bischoff wanted this to be the Ultimate Warrior but Warrior wasn't interested. Yet. Bischoff decided to make his own Warrior instead, because that had worked so well the other myriad times WCW tried that since about 1990. The best way I can describe the Renegade is if someone was given a vague description of the general idea of what Ultimate Warrior was, and then went and watched a bunch of Tarzan movies and said "That'll work. It's all funny money to Ted Turner anyway". Renegade's music even sounds like Warrior's. He chases Flair off while Hogan attacks Vader on the floor. Hogan pulls Vader's mask off. Both seconds come back to ringside as Hogan chokes and bites Vader in the ring. Renegade and Flair play cat and mouse around the ring. Hogan continues the beatdown and whips Vader with the strap. Flair comes in and gets whipped. Renegade no sells Flair chops on the floor and chases him off again. Vader slides out and Renegade slides him back in. Vader uses the strap to pull Hogan into tackles. Vader bomb! He chokes Hogan with the strap a while, then takes the strap off Hogan and whips him with it. I repeat, he took the strap off Hogan. I mean, what's even the point of the match? Jimmy Hart is alive! I suppose someone cares. His clothes are all torn up as he makes his way ringside. Hogan goes out. Vader gets a chair but Hart stops him. Hogan grabs the chair and nudges Vader with it. He finally puts the strap back on and uses it to pull Vader into the post. Flair bounces off of Renegade in the ring to keep himself amused. Hogan takes the strap off again (for frak's sake) and there's a bunch more whipping and choking as it appears Hogan's idea of a good match with Vader is "fuck all happening". Vader gets slammed on the floor and Hogan starts touching posts as corners. I guess that's legal. Vader cuts him off at two by running him into the guardrail. Vader finally lays in a couple of potato shots but don't you dare make Hogan look bad. Renegade no sells a Vader clothesline. Vader gently choke slams Hogan in the ring. I'm starting to think he's deliberately taking the mickey out of what he was told to do. Big splash. Suplex. Hogan pops up. Strap whips, big boot, legdrop. Hogan gets 3 corners and Vader hooks a rope. A masked man runs in and takes out Renegade with a chair. He actually sold something. Flair hits Hogan with a wooden chair. Vader and Flair double team Hogan while Renegade takes another chair shot before the masked man disappears. Vader gets to the 3 corners, then Flair of all people stops him. He sets a chair under Hogan's head. Vader comes off the second rope, Hogan moves and Vader sentons the chair. Flair pulls Vader out of the ring. Vader's strap came off somewhere in there too. Flair hits Hogan with another chair and we get a Hulk Up. He whips Flair with the strap and gives him a big boot. Then Hogan puts the strap on Flair, easily drags him to all four corners, and the bell rings. Hogan wins even though he drug Flair around, not his actual opponent. It's UNCENSORED I guess. After the bell Vader and Flair attack again. Renegade comes in and we have a standoff. The masked man is back. Or is he? A tied up Arn Anderson hops out in a black suit. The masked man pulls his mask off, and it's Randy Savage! The presumption is Arn was the original masked man, Savage attacked him backstage, just so happened to have an identical black suit or stole Arn's spare one, and came out with the mask on to screw with the heels. I can only imagine how confused the live crowd was watching this with no commentary to explain it all. The show ends with another 5+ minute Hogan victory celebration. The match was a God awful mess. Hogan probably thought it was a masterpiece. DUD

If anyone can figure out the logic to the ending of the main event, please let me know. My brain is done.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS-

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: F

WrestleMania 13

Legacy Review

WrestleMania 13

March 23, 1997 from the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Fans often debate when the Attitude Era formally started. It's been generally held that Wrestlemania 14 a year after this, when Austin won the WWF Title for the first time, was the start. That shortchanges 1997 though, a plenty Attitudeish year highlighted by the continued rise of Austin, the formation of DX, the DX vs Hart Foundation feud and the almost total erasure of real life/work lines in the Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels feud. The early groundwork for the Attitude Era was clearly being laid as early as late '96, with shows like Survivor Series '96 having a very Attitude feel. Also '97, to me, is the best year of the entire era, or at worst neck and neck with 2000. For all these reasons, I am planting my flag on the hill right now that this show right here, Wrestlemania 13, is the true start of the Attitude Era. I'll hold it with a couple of slingshots, a PEZ dispenser, and the Funniest Joke in the World if I have to.

 

Four Way Elimination Match for the #1 Contenders for the WWF Tag Team Championship: The Headbangers def The Godwinns (w/Hillbilly Jim), The New Blackjacks and Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon in 10:39- The winners of this match get a title shot the next night on Raw, because during the Monday Night Wars weekly ratings pops were as good as PPV buys. It's team elimination rules, meaning if one member is eliminated the whole team is gone. The Headbangers, one of the quintessential teams of the Attitude Era, debuted earlier in the year and were an instant hit with the teenage audience. Their in-ring work left a lot to be desired, but they're hardly alone in that among stars of this era. The New Blackjacks are young Bradshaw (future JBL) and late career Barry Windham cosplaying as his dad. They even show footage of the original Blackjacks from the '70s before the match in a nice touch. The Blackjacks jump everyone during their entrance and it's on. Things settle in with Bradshaw and Henry Godwinn. Henry tags Thrasher, showing the rule that anyone can tag anyone. Bradshaw hits a pumphandle slam. Phineas gets a backdrop on Thrasher....then tags in Mosh! The Headbangers play around a bit before tagging in LaFon and going to work on him. LaFon gets a northern lights suplex on Windham for 2. Frankensteiner for 2. Windham catches LaFon leapfrogging and powerslams him for 2. Blackjacks double shoulderblock. LaFon ducks a clothesline from hell (don't think that's what it was yet but Bradshaw swung hard enough for it to be) and dropkicks Bradshaw to the floor. The Blackjacks work together to suplex LaFon over the top down to the floor. Furnas comes over and all four guys brawl on the floor. Bradshaw pushes Hebner down in the middle of it. It's either a double DQ or double countout, commentary is unclear on it, but regardless both teams are gone. The Godwinns work Mosh over. Er, Thrasher. They look so damn alike it's like they're twins. Even commentary isn't sure which is which. Henry runs into Thrasher hard in the corner, which looked either unplanned or maybe even a little stiff lesson for the kid. Thrasher no sells Phineas headbutts. They spit at each other and slug it out. Mosh tags in. Henry Cactus Clothesline! Mosh hits a springboard crossbody to the apron. Headbanger rocket launcher to the floor. Thrasher takes forever getting Henry in position then misses a moonsault. Hot tag to Phineas. The slop drop is broken up. DONNYBROOK! Mosh hits a butt splash off the top rope for the pin. That was a match that existed. *1/2

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Rocky Maivia (c) def The Sultan (w/The Iron Sheik and Mr. Bob Backlund) in 9:47- The Honky Tonk Man comes out first and joins commentary. Sultan is the future Rikishi in a mask with an Abdullah the Butcher ripoff gimmick. He and Sheik are a logical pair, but why Backlund's there I have no idea. This is the Rock's first Wrestlemania, still in his "super rookie" push that the crowd was increasingly wanting nothing to do with. And tonight they're in Chicago. This matchup alone reeks of desperation trying to get the crowd to cheer Rocky. Staredown and shoving at the start. Sultan hits a shoulderblock and Rocky kips up. A clothesline and dropkicks send Sultan to the floor. It's a wonder Rocky hits anything the way he does his dropkicks. Okada he is not. Rocky teases a dive but doesn't do it while the "Rocky sucks" chants start up. Rocky goes to the floor and gets posted. HTM is shouting his head off on commentary. Some poor audio engineer is probably having a hell of a time keeping the levels straight. Back in Sultan does some generic heel beatdown stuff and hooks on a nerve pinch to more "Rocky sucks" chants. Headbutt off the top from Sultan and he plays to the crowd instead of covering. Finally he does an arrogant one hand cover for 2. Rocky gets a sunset flip. Sultan pulls him up by the throat. Belly to belly suplex for 2. To the chinlock! The crowd really starts shitting on the match. Rock fights out and they do a double clothesline. Slow Rocky cover for 2. He starts hulking up off Sultan punches and goes into comeback mode. He doesn't have much to offer but punches and another crappy dropkick. Rocky belly to belly for 2. He spins around into a DDT. Crossbody off the top. Sheik distracts the ref. Sultan superkick for 2. Piledriver for 2. Rock rolls Sultan up and that gets a 3 count. Terrible match, dumb ending. There's no reason in the world not to let the top rope crossbody be the finish and you could still do the angle after. 1/2*

Sultan beats Rocky down with the belt after the bell. Sheik locks in the camel clutch (with Rock helping him by putting one of his own arms in). Rocky's daddy Rocky Johnson comes in to save him but gets beat down too. Rocky junior finally chases the heels off. Old man Sheik takes a couple of slams. That didn't do a thing to help with Rock's crowd rejection problems. Fortunately they were starting to realize that and a course correction was on the horizon.

Triple H is backstage and tells us we don't need to know anything about the recently debuted Chyna. He's slowly morphing into Game/DX Trips.

 

Hunter Hearst Helmsely (w/Chyna) def Goldust (w/Marlena) in 14:29- Putting a bow on this long running feud. Goldust crouches down and is in no rush to start....until he springs up with a clothesline! Pillar to post beating on HHH. He gives Trips a huge inverted atomic drop and clotheslines him to the floor. HHH is in super selling mode already. He gets tied up in the ropes and Goldust works him over. A kick finally gets him free. Goldust gives him a post shot and clotheslines him back in from the apron. HHH counters a backdrop with a facebuster for some breathing room but runs into a Goldust powerslam. HHH sets Goldust up top but Goldust blocks a superplex. HHH drops him down to the floor! Ax handle off the top rope back in. HHH opens Goldust's body suit and chops his bare chest, then stomps him down in the corner. Hard buckle shots and HHH swinging neckbreaker for 2. Abdominal stretch. HHH tries for rope leverage but the ref instantly catches him. Speed run and HHH high knee for 2. HHH tries to muscle Goldust down for a leverage pin but ends up getting crotched on Goldust's knees. HHH suplex and kneedrop. Lawler keeps reaching for movie based jokes but like a poor marksman just KEEPS MISSING THE TARGET (bonus points to anyone that knows what movie that's from). Goldust gets his second wind and gives HHH a corner beatdown. HHH DDT. Goldust backslide and small package for 2. Crossbody for 2. Midring collision. Trips comes off the top rope but falls into Goldust's ass. That didn't come off so great. Goldust dodges and Trips runs into the corner. Trips flip! Bulldog! Cover for a long 2. Chyna, who'd been standing in place like a statue the whole match, starts moving toward Marlena. HHH flips out of the Curtain Call and sets up the Pedigree. Goldust counters and slingshots him into the ropes. He hooks in the Curtain Call again, but sees Chyna bothering Marlena. Goldust goes over and lifts Marlena onto the apron. HHH knee to the back! Marlena falls into Chyna's arms! Chyna swings her around in a bear hug like a doll! Pedigree! It's over. Solid enough. Both guys were trying hard. Triple H is starting to show signs of developing into a pretty good worker. **1/4

Shawn Michaels tries to use a laptop backstage, setting off a whole batch of memes in the future. Still can't find his smile, though.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith & The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart (c) and Mankind & Vader (w/Paul Bearer) double countout in 16:08- Bulldog is also the inaugural European champion, having defeated Owen for it in a classic on Raw. Problems between the tag champs continue to be teased. Owen also has two Slammys now, back then the Slammys were held on WM weekend like the Hall of Fame is now. This match is heel vs heel so it's hard for the crowd to get into anything, though they want Bulldog to turn face as had been teased for a while. Lots of interesting histories with the participants too. Vader was with Owen and Bulldog in Jim Cornette's stable earlier in his WWF run, and Vader also had big main event level feuds with both Bulldog and Mankind (as Cactus Jack) in WCW. Owen and Vader start. Vader backs him straight into the corner and starts laying in the potato shots. Owen slides under Vader and hits a clothesline. After some dodges he also hits a spinning heel kick. Vader catches Owen on a crossbody and slams him. Owen dodges an elbow drop. He hops on Vader trying for a hurricanrana, but Vader grabs him and powerbombs him. He sets Owen up for an early Vader bomb. Bulldog cuts it off. Mankind comes in and we're donnybrooking early. Bulldog gives the heels a double clothesline. Owen hits them both with a shotgun dropkick. Bulldog delayed suplex on Mankind. Vader comes in and Bulldog suplexes him too. The crowd chants for Bulldog. Vader pulls the top rope down and Bulldog crashes to the floor. He dodges an urn shot from Mankind, but Vader comes from behind and pops him with it. Vader suplex back in for 2. More corner potatoes. Avalanche. Splash off the second rope for 2. Mankind hits the running corner knee. Vader tackle. Tag. Owen hits a missile dropkick and crossbody off the top for 2. Then runs right into a Vader tackle. The crowd, like usual with a smarter/smarkier crowd when he's on form like this, starts to get behind Vader a bit. The heels hit a Decapitation Device on the floor, with Mankind doing the Cactus Elbow. Owen and Mankind have an apron suplex standoff. Mankind snaps Owen's throat over the top rope instead. Vince mentions that the Hart parents are here, which is like freaking catnip for Lawler to go into his 20 pages of Stu and Helen Hart jokes. Owen's beat down on the floor in front of his parents. Well, they disowned him when he turned heel and feuded with Bret so how much do they really care? Back in Owen gets a DDT counter. He goes for a splash but Mankind gets his knees up. Owen Bret bump! He pops out with a spinning heel kick! The tag is cut off and Vader pummels Owen. Owen slips out of a suplex and hits another spinning kick on Vader. He can't follow up and Vader drops an elbow in his back. He gets tossed to the floor again. Owen snap belly to belly suplex on Mankind on the floor! They go back in and Mankind tries to stop the tag. Enzuguri! Tag! Bulldog runs wild. Vader's mask is off. Mankind gets run hard into the corners. Bulldog sets up the powerslam. Mandible Claw! Vader cuts Owen off, but Vader's tackle sends Owen into Bulldog and Mankind. They fall to the floor. Mankind gets the Claw on again! Bulldog goes out and they both get counted out. They were going pretty good before the non-finish. Supposedly the original plan was for Vader and Mankind to win the titles and for Bulldog to complete his face turn by turning on Owen. But, Bret asked Vince not to do it and to put Bulldog and Owen with him as part of the new, heel Hart Foundation stable after his own turn later in the night. In retrospect, Bret was right. **3/4

Recap of the long Austin/Bret feud, which in many ways was the initial catalyst for the Attitude Era. After losing the WWF Title to Sid on the Raw after the last In Your House Bret went off on a tirade on Vince, naming him the owner of WWF on WWF TV for the first time and dropping non-PG words all over the place. It was the start of the setup that would become the Mr. McMahon character, Austin's nemesis, as well as presaged the real life argument Bret and Vince would have following the next Survivor Series.

 

Submission Match: Bret "Hitman" Hart def "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 22:05- UFC fighter turned budding pro wrestler Ken Shamrock is the guest ref for this match, and he does a fine job in it. Austin gets his iconic entrance where the glass "Austin 3:16" pane shatters in the entrance tunnel exit. Vince treats Austin like a face on his entrance while commenting on how much Bret has changed. The word "whiner" is used several times. Austin tackles Bret before the bell and it's on! They brawl on the mat and roll to the floor still fighting. Austin gets posted. Bret gets crotched on the rail. Austin clotheslines him off it into the crowd! They go up into the crowd! They stop and brawl at the end of the floor section. Austin tries to grab a drink tray but the arena worker won't cooperate. They keep going up the stands. Bret backdrops out of a piledriver on the steps! They head back down after that and Bret tosses Austin back over the rail, climbs the rail and drops a fist on him. That segment went so well that the "all arena crowd brawl" would become a mandatory spot in most every PPV main event match for the next few years. Bret gets whipped into the stairs. Double middle finger and Austin forearm off the apron. Austin lifts the stairs but Bret cuts him off. They finally get back in the ring. Bret gets a swinging neckbreaker. Elbow off the second rope to the back of Austin's head. He starts working on Austin's bum knee. Shamrock asks Austin if he gives up and Austin flips him off. Guess that's a no. Austin dodges one of Bret's knee shots. Stunner! Bret gets back up first and kicks Austin's leg out of his leg again. Figure four wraparound on the post! Bret gets the ring bell. And a chair. He puts the chair around Austin's leg. The term "Pillmanized" had just been invented thanks to Austin doing this to Brian Pillman. Austin takes the chair off, gets up and knocks Bret off the top rope with the chair! Another hard chairshot to Bret's back. Suplex. Austin with an elbow off the second rope. Gut stomp. Oh, he's going through Bret's moveset as an extra insult. Yup, there's a Russian leg sweep. He hooks on a Boston Crab. Bret gets to the ropes. Austin slowly, deliberately and with great amusement starts putting Bret in a Sharpshooter. Bret eye rakes before he can hook it on. Austin tosses Bret to the floor. Floor whip reversal and Austin crashes into the timekeeper's area! Officials are down like bowling pins! Austin hit his head on the guardrail and got busted open. He's bleeding all over the place. Bret gives him stair and post shots. Back in we get a close up of all the blood on Austin's face. They're not shying away from it now. It's a new era. Bret backbreaker/elbow off the second rope combo. He gets the chair and rams it into Austin's knee! He goes for the Sharpshooter. Austin takes his turn to eye poke out. Bret beats Austin down in the corner. Austin kicks him squire in the nuts! Bret bump! Austin lets him know about it and stomps a mudhole in him. Superplex! Austin gets a TV cord and wraps it around Bret's throat. Before he can do anything serious Bret grabs the bell, which had been laying in the ring this whole time, and whacks Austin with it! Sharpshooter! Austin fights it and refuses to quit. Blood is dripping down his face. He starts going out but gives it one last push....which pushes Bret down but doesn't fully break the hold. Bret pulls back again! Austin's still fighting. The blood is really pouring now, all the way into Austin's mouth. But he's out of options and slowly goes down and out. Shamrock asks him if he gives up, demands a response, and when he doesn't get one calls for the bell. Bret wins, but Austin passed out and never actually gave up. Bret is not satisfied but celebrates anyway while Austin is still out on the mat. Bret attacks Austin again! Shamrock grabs him and throws him! Shamrock wants to fight.....but Bret walks away and is quite literally booed out of the building. Turn complete. Meanwhile a ref makes the mistake of trying to help Austin up and gets Stunnered. Austin flops out of the ring and walks back under his own power to an arena full of "Austin" chants. Other turn complete. This was as perfect a piece of professional wrestling as you will ever see. It's a no brainer full monty match and remains one of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time. Mandatory viewing for any fan. *****

The blood stains on the ring mat stay for the rest of the show. No replacement mats back then. During a good chunk of the next match there's a towel in the ring that they used to try to clean the worst of it up. During the next match's intros Vince announces Wrestlemania 14 in Boston. Tickets are NOT on sale yet! Do not call trying to find them!

 

Chicago Street Fight: Ahmed Johnson and The Legion of Doom def The Nation of Domination (w/more Nation) in 10:46- The LOD made their big WWF return right after the last In Your House and quickly joined Johnson in his gang warfare against the Nation. Being Chicago wrestling royalty they get their usual big hometown pop, but it still might not have been as big as Austin's. Vince comments that the Nation came in with everything but the kitchen sink. Then Hawk brings the kitchen sink. Fantastic. Too bad it's never actually used in the match. The whole match is pure street fighting chaos with stuff going on everywhere. The brawl starts before the bell even rings. The faces clear the ring. The Nation goons all try to get involved and get tossed around. Clarence Mason even gets taken out. "Mason's been debriefed! He needs a sidebar and a doctor!" is a great JR line. The fight goes to the floor. Faarooq takes trash can shots. Johnson dives over the rail both directions, which pretty much blows him up for the rest of the match. Hawk swings the 2x4 around in the ring. Animal tries to piledrive Faarooq on the French announce table but they lose their balance and fall off. Crush and Vega get the edge in the ring while Faarooq takes a fire extinguisher blast in the face on the floor. The giant stadium parking sign the Nation brought, which has to be a good six feet tall, gets set up in the ring and Hawk is run into it. Johnson slams Faarooq through the French table to make up for the lost spot earlier. Animal wails on Vega with a trash can. The Nation has a lynching noose and puts it on Johnson. Vega finds Marlena's chair under the ring. Animal hits Faarooq with the giant parking sign. Hawk gets the noose put on him. Crush has SHO's wrench. The Nation goons gang up on Johnson. Hawk uses the noose to pull Faarooq off the second rope down to the floor. They get the noose on Faarooq. The Nation saves him. LOD Doomsday Device on Crush! He gets run into the 2x4 and Hawk covers him for the pin. The fight continues after the bell. D'Lo Brown, one of the Nation goons at the time, takes Johnson's Pearl River Plunge. A couple of other goons get double Doomsday Deviced. Fun chaos and at the time this was a very unique style match that hadn't been seen much. ***

Shawn comes out to join commentary for the main event, taking forever with the crowd.

 

No DQ Match for the WWF Championship: The Undertaker def Sycho Sid (c) in 21:20- Taker's main eventing WM for the first time. He's wearing his classic gray gear from his early years tonight, a nice touch. They go nose to nose. Bret Hart is out and in the ring. He takes a mic. First he goes after Shawn and his "pussy injury", then tells Taker they're done after Taker slammed a cage door on him, and finally tells Sid that's his belt and everyone knows it. Sid punches and powerbombs him! Officials carry Bret out while Shawn laughs at him. Taker ambushes Sid from behind. He gets a boot up in the corner and pummels Sid. Avalanche. Old school. Sid catches another avalanche and puts Taker in a bear hug, then proceeds to spend the next 5 minutes killing the match stone dead. When Taker finally gets out he runs into a big boot and goes 360 to the floor. Sid pushes him into Spanish commentary! It's Wrestlemania, they have to take their bumps. Taker gets slammed on the Spanish table, which tips over instead of breaking. Taker gets a couple of shots back in and Sid looks like he has no interest in selling anything properly tonight. Sid hooks on a camel clutch. Double ax handle off the second rope. Taker fights back and Sid continues to be in Giant Gonzales selling mode. Sid powerslam for 2. Legdrop for 2. Taker flying clothesline. They go back to the floor and Sid gets tossed over the rail. Slugfest over the rail. Taker misses an elbow drop in the ring and Sid goes right to the inevitable chinlock. Taker hits rapid fire strikes to get out and a powerslam. Then he gets in the resthold game with a Nerve Pinch of Time Killing +1. Double big boot! OK, that was cool. More Sid coming off the second rope. Taker finally catches him but gets slammed again. Sid goes up top. Taker sits up, crotches him and slams him off the top. Silly people, thinking Sid might actually do a superplex. Please. Taker clothesline off the top for 2. He calls for the tombstone. Sid reverses it! Sid tombstone! Taker kicks out! They go out and brawl on the floor again. Bret's back. He whacks Sid in the back with a chair! Officials escort him out again. Taker posts Sid's back. Choke slam! Sid kicks out! On a speed run Sid ducks and Taker.....flips over him and falls. What the hell was that supposed to be? Sid sets up the powerbomb. And Bret's here yet again. Sid attacks him on the apron. Taker comes from behind, scoops him up, and hits the tombstone! Hebner does his super slow count. Taker gets the pin and the title! This was a very long awaited title win for Taker, his second and first since late 1991. Really you can call it Taker's first proper world title win, when he won it in '91 it was only as part of an elaborate series of moves to get the belt on Ric Flair without him wrestling Hulk Hogan directly for it. Now he's finally getting a chance to run with the ball. He also goes to 6-0 at WM. It's a great moment, but this is easily one of the worst WM main events ever that all the overbooking in the world couldn't save. Thanks, Sid. 3/4*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Pretty much a one match show. Outside Bret/Austin this is down in WM 2, 9 and 11 territory among the worst ever, but that one match is an all time classic that everyone needs to see at least once in their lives. Undertaker's title win is also a really good and historic moment despite the awfulness of the match.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Superbrawl V

Legacy Review

Superbrawl V

February 19, 1995 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

One thing I need to get out of the way right at the top: Bobby Heenan is plastered. Not three sheets to the wind, he's made his own sails and is halfway to the Caribbean. Clearly working for WCW has not been advantageous to his liver.

Heenan's already stumbling over his words during the opening stand up. We get footage from earlier in the night of Vader arriving in a limo, a limo commentary speculates might also include Ric Flair. Why that'd be such a big deal or needs to be a big secret I really don't know. An anti-Hogan alliance between the two makes perfect sense. Another limo arrives and Vader thinks Hogan's in it, so he attacks the driver and smashes out a back window. No Hogan. During this time WWF was starting to experiment with the Free For All preshow so WCW followed suit, taking advantage of their TBS airtime by having that week's Main Event be a live preshow. Vader crashed that too, storming commentary and attacking wrestlers after a match. One other thing to note from the Main Event preshow- Arn Anderson successfully defended the TV title against Johnny B Badd (again).

"Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright def Paul Roma in 13:20- I think most everyone's heard of this match. Roma attacks Wright while he's having back spasms dancing. Press slam and Roma mocks Wright's dance to a pretty positive crowd reaction. Wright gets a sunset flip for 2 and armdrags that Roma was barely in position for. Roma reverses some arm work. Wright tries to counter and Roma pulls him down by the hair. Wright hops to the top rope and uses Roma's own hold to armdrag him again. Roma's not even trying to sell Wright's arm work, he's just sitting there and jawing with the crowd. Paul Orndorff, Roma's tag partner, comes out to ringside. Nothing but extremely dull mat work happening in the ring. Roma's still more interested in jawing with the crowd and the ref than actually working the match. Roma slam and elbow drops, followed by a tortuously slow triple backbreaker. He stomps Wright down and tosses him to the floor. Wright punches from the apron and tries a sunset flip but Roma says FU and punches him down in midair. Wright tries a backslide. Roma holds back forever, finally goes over, and kicks out at barely 1. Wright small package for 2. Roma goes right to pounding him again. Heenan: "Wonderpunk's had some great mats" and stops. Yeah, he's fershnickered. Loooooooong Roma chinlock. Heenan's slurring like crazy on commentary. Roma dodges a dropkick. He hits the elbow off the top rope and dances around like a prat. Wright gets a dodge in the corner and hits European uppercuts. Roma sandbags a hiptoss. Wright spinning heel kick and again Roma kicks out at 1. Wright hits a crossbody but Orndorff pulls him off the cover. Wright dropkicks Roma in the back, sending him into Orndorff, rolls him up, and gets the pin even though Roma kicked out as a final middle finger. This is what going into business for yourself looks like. Roma decided he was going to make himself look good and take it upon himself to bury Wright. His unprofessional douchebaggery not only cost him his job with WCW, it kept him from getting work with any major company again after this. Blackballed. That said, there is some perverse amusement in watching it. Roma's a dick, but Wright isn't exactly a legend and WCW was banking on him to give way more than what he really had to offer. *

 

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) in 11:54- Another jump start with Duggan slugging. Buck eye rakes and bites. Duggan hiptoss. He did a wrestling move! A rare one for the bingo card. Buck is clotheslined 360 to the floor. He drags Duggan down with him and they slug it out on the floor. Duggan gets posted. Back in Duggan hits an ugly ass knee drop. Atomic drop. Back elbow for 2. Buckle shots for Buck. Buck hits Duggan with his rope. More weak brawling. Duggan places Buck on top and hits some gut shots. Another slugfest. Duggan backdrop for 2. Things bog down even worse with Duggan controlling everything and I wonder how the hell this match is still going on. Duggan scoops and spins Buck, slams him and hits another awful kneedrop for 2. Mounted munches. It's still completely one sided for Duggan and he's running out of bullets on his belt. Duggan takes Parker out, hits the 3 point stance clothesline and mercifully gets the pin. As soon as the bell rings Meng attacks Duggan. How the hell did those two get booked for this much time? On top of that the whole thing was laughably one sided with Duggan on offense nearly the whole match. If they kept it under 5 minutes it would have been.....well, not quite as horrendous as that. DUD

 

Kevin Sullivan (w/the Butcher) def Dave Sullivan in 7:16- Oh JOY. This sure isn't going to improve things. And I'm not even getting into the whole "magic slippers" thing. Nope. Another jump start and slugfest. Evad gets a slam and does some ground and pound. A weak back elbow sends Kevin to the floor. Back in Kevin takes buckle shots. Backdrop for 2. Butcher trips Evad. They go to the floor and Kevin runs Evad into the apron. Butcher gets some shots in. Kevin gets a boot up in the corner back in. Evad bites Kevin's.....stomach? OK then. Kevin pounds away with chops and punches in the corner, then clearly on camera tells Evad "punch me". Evad does. After getting dumped to the floor again Evad chokes Kevin. More Kevin chops and he gets crotched on the ropes. More buckle shots. Butcher distracts. Kevin runs Evad into Butcher, sacrificing him, and rolls Evad up with a handful of tights for the pin. After the bell Butcher's reconstructed face is injured and he's writhing in pain all the way back to the back. This was the lead in for the next of Brutus Beefcake's 47 WCW gimmicks, The Man With No Face. It sounds way cooler than it actually was. The match, as expected, sucked. Dave Sullivan is hands down one of the worst wrestlers that's ever worked for a major company. DUD

This show feels like it's been three hours long already. I think I need one of Heenan's drinks.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (c) (w/Sister Sherri) def The Nasty Boys by DQ in 17:06- Standoff and jawing after the bell. Eventually Booker and Knobbs start. Shoving and slapping. Booker hits knees to the gut on the ropes. Knobbs ducks a heel kick and Booker crotches himself over the top rope. Knobbs knocks him to the floor and Sags runs him over. Back in Sags hits the low blow headbutt and attacks Booker's leg. Booker gets a tag (while selling the leg) and Ray pounds away on Sags. The Nastys work Ray down in their corner and do some work on his leg. Booker tags in and gets hiptossed. More work on Booker's knee. Booker dropkicks Sags over the top to the floor. Sherri and Ray run him into the guardrail. Back in Sags and Ray wander around lost before Sags hits a clothesline. Sags goes to the floor again and Sherri gets a punch in. Sags dodges a Booker elbow drop. Booker no sells it and does the spinaroonie! You know, that's a cool looking move there. Maybe you should find a way to highlight it more in matches? Just a thought, WCW. Heel kick from Booker. Ray comes in and euthanizes a match already on life support with a forever chinlock. Booker scissors kick. Ray hits an awful powerslam. Sags dodges a Booker kneedrop off the second rope and hits a powerslam. Tags on both sides. Knobbs cleans house. Double DDT on Heat. Big splash on Ray and we're donnybrooking. One of Heat gets tossed over the top to the floor. Sherri tries coming off the top rope with the Shoe of Match Ending +1 but hits her own man instead, Knobbs rolls him up and gets the pin and the titles! Or does he? Here comes backup ref Randy Anderson. He tells Nick Patrick about the over the top throw and the decision is reversed to Heat by DQ. Classic awful Dusty Finish. It's sad to say this is the best match on the show so far. *1/2

 

The Blacktop Bully (w/Col. Robert Parker) def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes in 16:08- Blacktop Bully is Barry Darsow, AKA Demolition Smash and Repo Man in WWF and Krusher Kruschev in JCP. This is an extension of the Dustin/Stud Stable feud that ran most of '94. After antagonizing everyone from the crowd one too many times Bully was hauled off to jail, bailed out by Parker, and offered a $75,000 bounty to take Dustin out once and for all. Before the match Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel throws Meng out because of his attack on Duggan earlier. Bully tries to jump before the bell but Dustin is one up on him. Flying clothesline. Mounted punches and bionic elbow, with his jacket still on. Dustin turns his back and Bully clips his knee. He smothers Dustin with his own jacket. Dustin dodges in the corner and Bully posts his shoulder. He gets kicked off the top to the floor, and stalls a bit down there. Once he gets back in they go back to the basics. Bully tries to slam out of an armbar but Dustin holds on, then transitions to a headscissors. High knee from Dustin that looks like it caught Bully in the face for real. Bully gets a snap mare, Dustin reverses it into a hammerlock. Dustin roll up for 2. As the match crawls along a section of fans across from hard camera amuse themselves by loudly chanting "KFC" at Parker. Dustin springboard back elbow. Suplex for 2. He gets a sunset flip, Bully fights and walks over to the ropes. He grabs one, but the ref kicks his arm off? Dustin rolls him over and gets a 2 count. Why wouldn't Bully get a rope break there? That's crap officiating. Bully blocks a monkey flip and Dustin 360 sells a clothesline. Slow cover for 2. Dustin's tossed to the floor and Parker stomps him. Another punch exchange and Bully hits a back suplex for 2. He dodges a crossbody and Dustin rolls to the floor. Dustin grabs Bully's leg and posts his knee. Bully dodges a kneedrop and hits a suplex. Dustin catches Bully coming off the second rope. Neither guy seemed sure of what he was doing there. Dustin backdrop and inverted atomic drop. Bulldog! Parker puts Bully's foot on the rope. Dustin suplexes Parker into the ring. He goes to suplex Bully off the apron. Parker grabs Dustin's foot and Bully falls on top for the pin. Wrestlemania 5 finish. Another match that hugely overstayed its welcome. 1/2*

Mean Gene brings out Ric Flair. He asks about the limo and Flair says "Why would I be in Vader's limo?". He says he's here for the party and will be in the front row for the last two matches.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage and Sting def Big Bubba Rogers and Avalanche in 10:16- Savage seems to have a bit more zest and shows more of his natural self not being paired up with Hogan. Sting and Avalanche start. Avalanche wins the lockups. Sting clotheslines and a dropkick stagger the big man. Rogers hits Sting from the apron and the heels double team. Rogers goes up top. Savage grabs him and crotches him. Sting superplex! Rogers gets knocked around and see saws in the ropes before falling to the floor. Savage double ax handle off the top to the floor. Reset with Savage and Rogers. Savage gets an armdrag. He gets jawey with Flair and Rogers attacks him from behind. Sunset flip from Savage and he dodges the butt splash counter. A high knee to the back sends Rogers into the corner and Savage rolls him up off the ricochet for 2. He deliberately elbows Rogers into the corner and slaps Avalanche! Avalanche tags in. Savage slaps him again! He tries to slam Avalanche which naturally doesn't go as planned. After a corner dodge Sting tags in and attacks Avalanche's knee. Scorpion Death Lock! Everyone in the pool! Forever Stinger Splashes on both heels...until Avalanche cuts Sting off and slams him. Savage jaws with Flair some more. Sting dodges Avalanche in the corner. He slams Avalanche! Rogers punches from the apron and Sting does his "unintentional" headbutt to the crotch. Tag to Savage. Double ax handle off the top. Donnybrook! Savage gives Rogers the elbow off the top. Sting clotheslines Avalanche from the top rope, stacks him up and gets the pin! A decent match that felt like a frigging masterpiece after what's been on this show so far. Savage was on form. It definitely should have gotten more time and other matches cut down. **1/2

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Vader by DQ in 15:08- This is easily one of the most anticipated matches since Hogan's signing with WCW and should have been the Starrcade main event. Vader's manager for his whole main event WCW run, Harley Race, is not here due to having to leave wrestling altogether after having hip replacement surgery following a car crash and would sadly not be back. Lockup stalemates at the start. Vader completely shrugs off Hogan punches. The mask is off. Hogan slaps Vader in the corner! Corner clothesline. Vader no sells again! Hogan is flummoxed. Vexed, even. He switches gears, cranks Vader's arm and does an arm takedown into an arm scissors. New Japan Hogan is here. He could wrestle, when he felt like it. Vader powers out. Here come the corner potatoes. Vader short clothesline and avalanche. Hogan rolls out to regroup. Vader follows. Hogan reverses a whip and Vader goes over the guardrail into the chair Ric Flair barely got out of in time! Back in Hogan hits chops and a clothesline. Big boot. Another clothesline sends Vader 360 to the floor. After a corner beatdown Hogan tries a slam but Vader falls on top of him. Vader tackle. More potato shots. Setup slam. Vader bomb! Hogan kicks out! Vader goes all the way up. VADERSAULT! Hogan dodges! Great camera angle from the floor for that too. They fight on the floor. Hogan gets a chair and nails Vader in the head! Back in Vader ducks a clothesline. Choke slam! Elbow drop and more corner pummeling. Vader suplex. Hulk Up! Punches, big boot, legdrop. Vader kicks out at ONE! A Vader tackle takes out Hogan and the ref. Powerbomb! No ref. Flair gets in pissed off, tries to revive the ref and gets out again. Splash from Vader! Another Hulk Up. Big boot and Vader gets 360 clotheslined to the floor again. Flair attacks Hogan for the DQ. After the bell the heels beat Hogan down and Flair puts the figure four on before Savage and Sting make the save. Vader and Flair leave together to more speculation. Well, that was actually one hell of a match. What I really liked was Vader worked his match, forcing Hogan to adapt and get out of his usual formula, and what we ended up getting was a very mid-'80s style Hogan match. The end run was a bit messy getting to the DQ. Put a clean finish on that and we'd probably be talking about a classic. Of course, Vader having the gall to actually push Hogan to try led to Hogan politicking the shit out of him backstage and burying Vader in their subsequent rematches. You could also make a strong argument for Vader winning this match, even for a short run and Hogan winning it back at the next PPV, but that was probably a bridge too far for Hogan when he could control his own booking. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The main event saved this from being an all time disaster. WCW's undercard was in desperate need of reshuffling, rethinking and frankly some guys that were actually good workers. Speaking of all time disasters, the first Uncensored is the next PPV....

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

In Your House 13: Final Four

Legacy Review

In Your House 13: Final Four

February 16, 1997 from the UTC Center in Chattanooga, TN

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler (NO VINCE)

Small bit of history here as this is the first PPV to be called just by JR and the King as Vince was slowly transitioning into his Mr. McMahon on screen character. The classic house set has once again been ditched, possibly for good. I don't remember but we'll find out soon enough. No wasting time either, the show starts right up with Mero's entrance after Cassidy got a jobber entrance.

"Wildman" Marc Mero (w/Sable) def Lief Cassidy in 9:31- They trade slaps after the bell. Badd armdrags. ARMBAR! After some aggressive shoves Cassidy rolls out. He drags Badd down with him and tries to post his knee but Sable stops him. Mero double ax handle off the apron. Slingshot legdrop for 2. Cassidy keeps trying to attack Mero's knee and finally gets somewhere with a couple of dropkicks to the knee. Knee stomps and a leg bar. Mero tries to punch back but Cassidy stays on the knee. Back to the knee bar and Mero gets to the ropes. Snap mare from Cassidy and back to the knee. Mero gets an enzuguri. Magistral cradle for 2. Cassidy hits a kneebreaker. Figure four! Sable helps Mero grab a rope. Cassidy goes outside to have some words with her. Sable slaps him! Mero standing tope suicida! He faceplants Cassidy and runs him into the turnbuckle. Samoan drop. The Wild Thing hits! That gets the pin. Solid enough opener. Cassidy would soon be "traded" to ECW as part of WWF's new partnership with them and while there put together all the pieces that made him one of the most unique stars of the Attitude Era: returning to the name Al Snow, starting the JOB Squad and getting Head. **1/4

The Honky Tonk Man's music plays and he comes out to the ring.....then we quickly cut to the following videos and he's never mentioned again. Weird.

 

Next up is a video recap of the WWF Title situation, so I'll go ahead and get into that now. Shawn Michaels defeated Sid to win the title back at the Royal Rumble. Also that night, Steve Austin won his first Rumble under dubious circumstances (distracted refs didn't see Bret Hart eliminate him). Due to the controversy, Austin's Wrestlemania title shot was taken away, and the new WM challenger would be determined in a four way match on this show between the final four in the Rumble: Austin, Bret, Undertaker, and Vader. Technically Fake Diesel was in the final four, not Vader, but thankfully that character had been retired from TV. But a wrench was thrown into everything on the Raw before this PPV (which was one of those Thursday Night Thursday Raws because USA had something more important to show on Monday night, probably a dog show). Shawn vacated the title and said he was going away for a while, claiming he had "lost his smile" and he was going on a journey of self discovery to go find it again. I'm embellishing that last part a little bit. He also floated the idea of a knee injury, an idea backed up by those close to Shawn, but history has shown pretty definitively that the injury claim was just a cover for the fact that he flat didn't want to go with the current plan of giving Bret his win back at WM so he was, to put it frankly, taking his ball and going home. This was one of the major catalysts for the real life Bret/Shawn drama that would seep in during their on screen feud as the year progressed, leading to an infamous night in Montreal in November. The four way match for tonight was changed to be for the vacant title.

 

Following that is a promo from Sid, who'll be getting his title rematch against the winner of the four way on Raw tomorrow night.

The Nation of Domination (w/more Nation) def Goldust, Flash Funk and Bart Gunn (w/Marlena) in 6:43- Savio Vega has turned heel and joined the Nation, teaming up here with Crush and Nation leader Faarooq. The face team is an....interesting random mishmash. Funk and Goldust seem to be having a bet on who can have the longest entrance. Funk wins. The Nation comes in through the crowd. Faarooq takes a mic to say something but Goldust attacks him from behind! Early 3 on 3 action and the faces clear the ring. Funk hops up top and dives on all three Nation wrestlers! They all get up very quickly and Vega and Crush attack Funk from behind while Faarooq works over Goldust in the ring. Goldust counters a backdrop and tags. Faarooq catches a Funk leapfrog and gives him a spinebuster. Corner clothesline from Funk on Vega, then he sets him up top and gives him a hurricanrana! Crush breaks the pin up. A Funk dropkick sends Vega to the floor. Gunn gives Funk a lift into a plancha! The Nation guys no sell/catch him and beat him down on the floor. Funk goes face in peril. Crush shocks everyone by doing a wrestling move, a belly to belly suplex for 2. Faarooq does his super slow beatdown. Funk counters and crotches him. Vega cuts the tag off. Spike piledriver! Funk kicks out! Funk flips over a double clothesline, double clotheslines both guys and tags Gunn. Powerslam on Faarooq and everyone's in again. Gunn hits Faarooq with a top rope bulldog. Crush comes up and legdrops Gunn in the back of the head. Faarooq covers for the pin. OK 6 man stuff, they kept it moving and Funk got his flash (pun intended) in. It also continued the job of getting the Nation over as a cohesive group skilled in gang warfare. *3/4

Very young Kevin Kelley is in the back with Austin. Austin blames the office for holding him back for 7 years (nice WCW callback) and promises to get what's his. You jackass.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Rocky Maivia (c) def Hunter Hearst Helmsely in 12:30- Rocky continued his super rookie rocket ship push by upsetting Triple H for the title on the same Thursday Raw that Shawn vacated, a win that only accelerated the audience backlash against him despite the pop on the night. Little did anyone know at the time but these two would spend the next almost two years off and on making each other stars while feuding for this title, but not before both had complete changes of character. Very little reaction for the new champ on his entrance. Basic start. HHH dodges a drop toe hold and hits his own. He gives Rocky some humiliation slaps on the back of his head. They do some counters and Rocky hits a hip toss, ugly dropkick and armdrag. He returns the favor by slapping the back of HHH's head. HHH stands up and they trade some stiff slaps in the corner. HHH hits some chops. Rocky gets a backdrop and another armdrag. HHH uses momentum to send Rocky over the top to the floor. Baseball slide and Rocky crashes hard into the guardrail. Slam on the floor. Trips is doing his job as the crowd is starting to get behind Rocky a bit. Pillar to post beating back in and a suplex from HHH. Kneedrop for 2. He hooks on a chinlock and plays the rope leverage game with Hebner before getting caught. Rocky ducks clotheslines but runs into a high knee. Small package from Rocky, the same move he used to win the title! HHH *just* gets out in time! The hair tie is off! HHH backbreaker for 2. Rocky does some more dodging and hits a crossbody for 2. His crossbody is so crazy, he tries to stretch all his arms and legs as absolutely far as they can possibly go. It looks like he's posing instead of doing a wrestling move. HHH dodges a dropkick. Rocky catches a kick, spins, but eats a HHH clothesline. HHH comes off the top but Rocky catches him with a gut punch. Inverted atomic drop. Trips flip! He lands in the ring. Rocky powerslam and crossbody (again with the pose) for 2. HHH begs off. Rocky mounted punches. HHH uses the position to drop Rocky on the top buckle. He tries a leverage pin for 2. Rocky hits a horrible DDT. I mean awfully timed. Cover for 2. HHH eye poke and facebuster. Neckbreaker. Goldust, whose beef with Trips was not over, is out. HHH yells at him. Rocky comes from behind, gets a back suplex with a bridge, and gets the pin. A variation on Generic Raw Finish 1A, the distraction roll up. Call it 1B, distraction but the win wasn't with a roll up. Rocky's inexperience showed but HHH ring generaled him into something mostly decent, which showed how far he's come over the past couple of years. **

Trips and Goldust continue jawing at each other. A HUGE woman attacks Marlena from the crowd! Security hauls her away. She's not named yet, but that was the debut of Chyna, who would change Triple H's career forever.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart (c) (w/Clarence Mason) by DQ in 10:30- The champs, who are nearing 6 months on this title reign, have had some tension lately, exacerbated by Owen "accidentally" eliminating Bulldog in the Rumble. Owen grandstands Bulldog a bit on their entrance. Furnas and LaFon were a really good team known for their run in All Japan but didn't really get time to get traction in WWF. Their more technical wrestling style didn't mesh well with where the company, especially the tag division, were going. Bring them in 5-6 years later when teams like the Guerreros and Team Angle were going strong and they probably could have had a hell of a run. Owen and Furnas start. JR talks football! He really does have full control of the reins in the booth now. A mat wrestling stalemate is followed by a speed run and Furnas hip toss/armdrag combo. Owen monkey flips LaFon into a cover, triggering a nice near fall counter run. LaFon gets a leg takedown into a legbar. Commentary talks about Owen feigning a knee injury vs Shawn's completely legit don't let anyone tell you otherwise knee injury which is pretty funny. LaFon gets a flippy sunset flip on Bulldog. He slips out of a Bulldog suplex and hits a spinning heel kick for 2. Owen kicks LaFon from the apron to send him face in peril. Heel double team and choke. Owen gets a springboard crossbody that LaFon reverses for 2. Owen eye rake and gut wrench suplex for 2. Backbreaker. LaFon gets a sunset flip proper on Bulldog but the ref is distracted. Clothesline from Bulldog and he does his show off flip. LaFon fights off Owen's Sharpshooter. Bulldog lifts LaFon up in a suplex, and Owen floors him with a crossbody off the top for 2! Cool double team. LaFon counters a backdrop with a small package but the ref is distracted again. Bulldog rolls Owen on top in the small package. When the ref is getting him out Furnas puts LaFon back on top! Owen kicks out. Owen and Bulldog argue! LaFon resolves it for the moment by giving them a double noggin knocker. Bulldog trips LaFon from the floor. Owen accidentally spinning heel kicks Bulldog! And they're arguing again. Owen slaps Bulldog! Bulldog clotheslines Owen! LaFon takes advantage and splashes Owen off the top! Bulldog makes the save. For the titles, not Owen. Furnas tags in. Dropkick on Owen for 2. Belly to belly for 2. Face double backdrop and LaFon hits a northern lights suplex for 2. Furnas Frankensteiner! Bulldog makes another save. The faces hit a really cool combo flurry with a superkick, DDT and ledgrop. Owen kicks out again. Owen enzuguri! Both sides tag. Bulldog dropkick and clothesline. LaFon crucifix and roll up for 2. DONNYBROOK! The heels are run into each other! Bulldog drops LaFon on the top turnbuckle and sets up the powerslam. Before he can hit it Owen comes in and hits LaFon with his Slammy for the cheap DQ! Bulldog is furious. He refuses to take the belt. He grabs Owen's Slammy, tosses it aside and it breaks! HE BROKE OWEN'S SLAMMY! Mason tries to make peace and Bulldog gets in his face, but eventually calms down enough to take his tag belt and leave with his teammates. Right after this show Bulldog defeated Owen in the tournament final to crown the first ever European champion, one of the best matches ever on Raw. That could have been Bulldog's face turn, but instead it started to get the air cleared between the two and both would join Bret Hart's heel Hart Foundation stable soon after. This was the best tag title match WWF had put on in a long while. ***1/4

 

Four Corners Elimination Match for the Vacant WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def Vader (w/Paul Bearer), "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Undertaker in 24:06- Since this is coming off what happened in the Rumble a rule has been added to allow over the top rope to the floor eliminations as well as pinfall and submission. Basically New Japan Rambo rules. After being the first two out Vader and Austin tell each other they're #1 and JR apologizes for it. Gonna become a regular thing very soon. Cautious start as all four guys try to position, then they pair off, Bret with Austin and Taker with Vader. Taker hits the flying clothesline then attacks Bret. Old school on Austin. Vader belly to belly suplex on Taker. Taker sits up. Vader pushes him to the floor through the ropes and starts laying in the potato shots. Vader pushes Fink out of the way and takes his chair! Taker dodges the chairshot. Bret bump in the ring. Taker big boots the chair into Vader's face, then whips Vader into the stairs. Vader is bleeding from his eye, and I mean it's gushing. I think something happened to the repairs that had to be made to his eye after it famously popped out during a match with Stan Hansen in All Japan when the chair hit him. All this time Bret and Austin have been going back and forth in the ring. All four guys are back in. Austin jawbreakers out of a Bret sleeper. Taker choke slams Vader. Stunner on Taker! Vader tackles Bret. Austin and Taker go back and forth while Vader and Bret take it to the floor. Vader gives Bret a chair shot. A closeup shot shows how much Vader is bleeding. It's not pretty but he's still going. Everyone swaps positions. Taker backdrops out of an Austin piledriver on the aisle. Bret's on the apron and Taker suplexes him back in. Vader lifts the stairs but Austin blocks the shot, then runs Vader into the stairs and drops them on him, right on his hurt eye too! Vader potatoes Austin and drops him on the guardrail. Bret's doing some work on Taker's knee in the ring. Austin whips Vader on the floor and he crashes into the timekeeper! Austin beats him with the belt! Vader punches back and hits Austin with the bell! Vader's clearly still bleeding. Austin gets crotched on the top rope by Taker. Vader and Bret go up the aisle. Vader gets whipped over the rail into the crowd! Taker gets Austin over the top onto the apron. Austin clothesline off the top for 2. Vader tries to put the Sharpshooter on Bret on the floor but he gets buried under all the fighting. Bret and Taker double team Austin for a bit. Austin Thesz Press on Vader! That got blood everywhere. All four guys are in the ring again. Vader tackles Taker. Bret piledriver on Austin for 2. Vader sets Taker up for a Vader bomb. No, Paul Bearer is telling Vader to go all the way up. VADERSAULT! Taker dodges! Austin low blows Bret. Taker and Vader take turns choking each other with a TV cable. Austin almost gets Bret over the top but Bret fights him off. Vader covers Taker for 2. Bret elbow off the second rope on Austin for 2. Austin rolls Bret up for 2. Bret/Vader slugfest. Bret low blows Vader! Austin posts Taker's knee. Bret Russian leg sweep on Vader. Taker tosses Austin over the top but he lands on the apron. Bret lifts Austin in a fireman's carry, and gets him over the top to the floor to eliminate him! The refs definitely saw it that time. Vader pounds Bret with corner potatoes. Taker avalanche on Vader. Vader clips Taker's knee. He and Bret double team....until Taker rolls to the floor and they go at each other. The mask is off! Bearer hits Taker with the urn. Vader suplexes Bret and goes up top. Bret pops up and joins him. BRET SUPERPLEXES VADER! Sharpshooter! Taker attacks Bret from behind and he goes under the ropes to the floor. Austin runs back out and attacks Bret! Vader sets Taker up for a Vader bomb. Situp! Taker punches Vader and he falls over the top rope to the floor! Vader's gone! It's down to Bret and Taker. The crowd, who have been pretty quiet this whole show, are going absolutely ape shit now. The hard camera is even shaking. Taker fights Austin off. Choke slam on Bret! Taker calls for the tombstone. Austin grabs Bret's foot as Taker lifts him up! Austin almost gets Bret over the top but Bret falls back in the ring. Bret rolls Taker up for 2. Both guys continue to fight Austin. After Taker gets Austin off the apron again Bret clotheslines Taker, and he goes 360 and out! Bret wins! There's no bell because the bell was destroyed earlier in the match. That's hilarious. Bret wins the title for the fourth time, one shy of Hogan's record. What a match. All four guys were at the top of their game, but Vader was definitely the glue that held this together, even after busting his old eye injury open. It's probably his best WWF match and the closest he got to his old dominant WCW form as his body was starting to break down. What I really liked was unlike modern four way matches where all the focus has to be on one thing happening everyone kept wrestling regardless of where the camera focus was, giving it a more chaotic and realistic feel. That needs to come back. ****1/2

During Bret's celebration Sid comes out and they jaw in the ring while the show ends. Bret's title run would be short lived as Sid won it back the next night (with help from Austin) to carry it to WM as the card was reshuffled with Shawn bailing. Bret's one day reign would be the second shortest for the WWF Title to that point, only longer than Andre the Giant trying to give the title to Ted DiBiase 5 minutes after he won it. But with Attitude Era hotshotting on the horizon things like that will become more common.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A serviceable undercard, a good tag title match and a tremendous main event make this a damn solid show in that usually hard to succeed in gap between the Rumble and Wrestlemania. JR and Lawler being by themselves also instantly elevates everything. We make fun of JR as the cranky old man now, but in his prime he truly was the best.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B