Badd Blood '97: In Your House

Legacy Review

Badd Blood '97: In Your House

October 5, 1997 from the Kiel Center in St. Louis, MO

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Small bit of history here as this is the final show to be commentated by Vince before he moved into being the Mr. McMahon character (or, alternative interpretation, playing himself) full time. No house set for this one, instead it's a more basic entrance stage of the metal/cage variety that will become common the next few years. Another visual tweak pushing more toward modern times: the old announce tables that were actually a regular folding legs table are gone, replaced by the same style modern announce desk that's still in use today.

Before getting into the show there's an important thing to mention: during the Free For All preshow WWF announced on air the death of Brian Pillman. After failing to arrive at the PPV arena, WWF conducted a search and found out Pillman was found dead earlier that day in his hotel room in the city WWF had a house show the previous night. There wasn't much information to be had at this early stage but it was tragic news that cast a pall over the whole night.

Handicap Match: The Nation of Domination def The Legion of Doom in 12:20- Ken Shamrock was scheduled to team with LOD but was still out from the injuries he suffered at the hands of Faarooq during the IC title tournament. It's Kama Mustafa, D'Lo Brown in his PPV wrestling debut and Rocky Maivia representing the ever changing Nation in this one. Vince mentions Pillman's passing on the main PPV for the first time during entrances. Hawk takes a mic and says, essentially, screw a partner, let's go. Hawk & Brown start. Shoulderblock standoffs and Hawk hits a hiptoss/dropkick combo. He counters a Brown backdrop and hits a clothesline. Rocky tags in to huge "Rocky sucks" chants. He steps out of the ring and refuses to wrestle. His teammates talk him back in. Rocky pounds on Animal. Animal hits a tackle and a dropkick. Rocky bails and the rest of the team pumps him up again. The faces work Rocky's arm a bit. Hawk escapes from the heel corner. Kama tags in. He and Hawk struggle to get on the same page. Double clothesline. Double no sell! Hawk enzuguri. Animal powerslam. Rocky comes in without a tag and DDTs Animal! Kama hits a hook kick. Animal gets tossed to the floor and worked over. After a little face in peril work Animal pops out of the corner with a clothesline on Brown. The tag is cut off. Brown hits legdrops for 2. Rocky comes in and hooks on a chinlock to more Rocky sucks chants. Animal and Rocky flub a knee to the gut a bit and Rocky stomps him down in the corner. Hawk gets baited in and Rocky gives Animal a Greco Roman Nut Punch. Animal dodges a Kama avalanche and tags. No, the ref didn't see! OK, I'll give them credit, they didn't telegraph that as bad as usual. Rocky had him distracted. The other two hold Animal down and Kama gives him a splash off the top for 2. Rocky and Animal double clothesline. Tag to Hawk! Powerslam. He dodges a Brown elbow and Brown hits Rocky. DONNYBROOK! LOD clear the ring and isolate Rocky. They set up the Doomsday Device but Faarooq comes out to distract. The Nation attack from behind. Rock Bottom! That gets the pin. Not much of a match, but one positive is heel Rocky is a completely different man than face Rocky. The kid might work out after all. *1/2

Vince does another announcement of Pillman's passing in close up from commentary. He says Pillman died earlier that day, we don't know any other details yet, sends condolences to Pillman's family and says this next match is a replacement match for the originally scheduled Pillman vs Dude Love match.

 

Max Mini and Nova def Tarantula and Mosaic in 6:43- Another PPV spot for the lucha midgets. I have this funny (to me at least) image of all these guys in a "in case of emergency break glass" box and Vince breaking it open just before the show. Because of these guys' background this is lucha rules, so tagging and selling are optional. Tarantula takes Mini out with a kick after the bell. Nova tries a big move and splats, but then works the heels into numerous failed double teams. Everyone brawls on the floor and we reset. Mini and Mosaic do some back and forth. Nova hits a splash off the top. Mini gets a hurricanrana but the pin is broken up. Double big boot from the heels. Mosaic chops Nova from behind. Tarantula splash off the top for 2. Now the heels attack Mini from behind. Tarantula presses Mini on the floor and drops him on the announce table! Much to Lawler's amusement after what Mini did with him the last PPV midget match. Nova and Mosaic have a real ugly, disjointed sequence of moves that almost never was on the same page. Mini crossbody off the top. Tarantula and Mini now have coordination issues, flubbing an armdrag. Finally Mini gets Tarantula in a crucifix and mercifully gets the pin. Very sloppy match, showing its thrown together nature. It got worse as it went on too. 3/4*

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Godwinns (w/Uncle Cletus) def The Headbangers (c) in 12:17- Sunny does the ring announcing for this one again as they can't find anything else for her to do but want to get her on TV. She mentions her history with the tag titles. Back in her managing days she spent several months jumping teams following the belts around. The Godwinns' new manager Cletus was a veteran who spent the '80s hopping around the AWA and various NWA territories as Dirty White Boy. He spent most of the '90s in Jerry Lawler's USWA and Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain, where he was their top champion several times. The Godwinns try to jump but the Headbangers are ready for them and they regroup on the floor. Reset with Phineas and Mosh, who try to have some kind of spitting contest. Mosh spits up and catches it back in his mouth so I guess he wins. Mosh headscissors Phineas through the corner to the floor. Thrasher hits something off the apron off camera that Vince is very excited about. Mosh clothesline off the top to the apron. On replay we see that Thrasher gave Phineas a horrible hurricanrana off the apron. That one was better off being off camera. The Headbangers hit a double flapjack and for some reason Phineas starts to roll over in midair like it's something else and lands right on his head. What the hell was he thinking? Probably not very much after that landing. He tags out and Thrasher and Henry do some back and forth stuff. A dropkick sends Henry to the floor. Phineas comes back in and gets double teamed some more. Finally Henry has enough, comes in illegally and kills Thrasher with a clothesline. Thrasher gets crotched on the top rope and Phineas clotheslines him to the floor. Cletus gets some shots in. More dull Headbanger in peril work follows. Thrasher gets a sunset flip but the ref is distracted. Henry hits a wheelbarrow slam and covers. Mosh makes the save. Midring collision but Phineas keeps Thrasher from tagging. Thrasher dodges a Phineas avalanche and hits a back suplex. Tag to Mosh. He cleans house with Cletus also taking a shot. Headbanger double team powerbomb on Phineas. Everyone in the pool! Mosh goes for the butt splash off the top rope but Phineas plucks him out of midair, powerbombs him, and gets a clean pin for the titles! The experimental reign of the Headbangers ends in just under a month. Their gimmick was perfect for the time and that got them a following, but in the ring they were spot monkeys at best. The Godwinns would also be transitional champions, dropping to none other than the Legion of Doom on Raw just after this show, giving LOD their first title reign in over 6 years. *

Video package for the still injured Steve Austin, highlighting how he's gotten even more popular since his injury by talking trash and giving stunners to anyone in sight, particularly anyone in authority. In fact, the first ever stunner to Vince (and Vince's terrible sell of it) get the bulk of the attention here. Will Austin be fired for attacking the boss? Find out tomorrow night on Raw. And pretty much every night in 1998. In the meantime, Commissioner Slaughter has ordered Austin to be in the building tonight to award the IC title belt to the tournament winner. I'm sure that will go without incident.

After that JR is in the ring to host a tribute to St. Louis wrestling and the legends of the old territory, which was arguably the NWA's #1 territory before the rise of Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic in the early '80s. It was certainly #1 during the '70s because it was Harley Race's home territory. Sunny is there too but she just stands around looking hot. Among the honorees: promoter and longtime NWA president Sam Muchnick, Gene Kiniski, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr, Harley Race, Terry Funk and Lou Thesz. It's well done and pretty cool to see WWF acknowledge NWA history like this. It seems random, but it's actually very early groundwork for the Jim Cornette led NWA invasion angle that will kick off right around the calendar change to '98. After that Vince has a little more on the Pillman situation. He says that the police report says there was no foul play, but the possibility of a drug overdose can't be ruled out.

 

Tournament Final for the Vacant WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart def Faarooq in 7:12- The IC title was vacated after Steve Austin's injury at Summerslam, where he defeated Owen for it. Fun, or maybe not so fun, fact: 4 of the 6 matches in the tournament, including both semifinals, were won by DQ. Seems like DQ overkill. Faarooq actually lost his first round match to Ken Shamrock, but Shamrock was injured in that match so Faarooq advanced. Faarooq comes out without any other Nation members. Owen has new music, and he's also wearing his "Owen 3:16 I just broke your neck" shirt. He does not look at all happy to be out there. Owen was well known as an emotional guy and all the Harts were close with Pillman well before the Hart Foundation stable, I'm sure his head was understandably not in the game on this night. This is also heel vs heel so the crowd doesn't have anyone to go for. Glass shatter! Austin is out before the match starts! He flips Owen off and Slaughter ushers him over to a seat in the timekeeper's area. Austin grabs a wrench and rings the bell himself! Both wrestlers are still distracted by Austin. Austin goes over and steals Vince's headset! Owen flashes his shirt at Austin and Austin calls it "cheap heat at its best". He puts Vince's headset back on him and goes back to his seat as the match finally gets underway. Basic start with Faarooq getting a shoulderblock and tossing Owen out of a headlock. On split screen we now see Austin on a security walkie talkie. Can't get arrested again if you can tell security to be where you're not. Faarooq continues to pound away. Owen slides under him and hits a spinning heel kick. He starts working Faarooq's knee. Austin is still messing around. Now he's on Spanish commentary! Now he's on French commentary! After more knee work Faarooq pushes Owen with his legs and Owen posts his shoulder. More Faarooq power stuff follows. Owen dodges a legdrop off the second rope. Faarooq fights off the Sharpshooter. Powerslam for 2. Now Jim Neidhardt comes out to ringside. Faarooq spinebuster for 2. Neidhardt distracts the ref. Austin comes up and whacks Faarooq in the head with the belt! Owen covers and gets the pin to get the title back! Austin tosses the belt in the ring and leaves. Why would Austin help his arch enemy get the title? Because Austin wanted to beat Owen again for it of course. This would also kick off a beef between Austin and the Nation, which eventually led to a small little feud that went on for a bit you might have heard about: Austin vs the Rock. The match itself was what it was. Between the (admittedly very fun) Austin sideshow, the interference and the effect of Pillman's death there was pretty much no way for it to succeed. *1/4

The Disciples of Apocalypse def Los Boricuas in 9:11- Yay, more Russo gang warfare. This is another replacement match thrown together on the fly. The DOA don't even come out on their motorcycles so I guess it definitely was impromptu. These matches are never any good in the best of circumstances, so as they're pretty much just out here to kill some time I'm not getting deep into it. I will say Savio Vega has, er, widened to the point I'm not even sure if it's him or some LB member I'd forgotten about. DOA gets the initial upper hand, Chainz of DOA plays face in peril for a while before the mandatory big brawl starts. After some ref distraction shenanigans and near falls Crush wins the match with a backbreaker. 1/2*

Flag Match: WWF Champion Bret "Hitman" Hart and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def Vader and The Patriot in 23:13- It's pin, submission or capture your own flag to win rules. Vader drops a bleeped "bullshit" during his prematch promo. The Hart Foundation jump out during the faces' entrance and we have a brawl on the floor without the match even starting yet. Bret and Vader go all over the commentary area. It's a damn shame we never got a Bret/Vader singles match on PPV during this period, it would have kicked all kinds of ass. Both sides use the flags they brought as weapons. Patriot chokes Bulldog with the US flag while Vader potatoes Bret in the entrance aisle. Finally the faces get in the ring while the Harts recover on the floor and the bell rings to officially start the match. The Harts continue to stall. Finally Patriot gets a clue and goes for his flag. Bulldog gets in to stop him. Commentary gets all over Patriot for taking forever to realize he had that huge opening. More brawling and Bret gets a low blow on Patriot. Patriot sells it for about two seconds then hits a hip toss and backdrop on Bulldog. Vader tackle. Bret and Vader get in a slugfest. Not hard to guess who wins that. Short clothesline. Bret dodges an avalanche but walks into a Vader clothesline. Vader stops Bret climbing for the flag with a low blow. Bret gets a sunset flip but Vader squashes him. Patriot beats Bulldog down. The Harts double team to stop Patriot climbing. Vader stops a Bulldog climb with another low blow. Lots of ice packs are going to be needed after this match. Patriot posts his shoulder. Bret hooks on the post wraparound figure four! Vader makes him let go and chases him off. Measured shots from Bret back in the ring and he spits at Vader. Sharpshooter on Patriot. Patriot reverses it! Then he doesn't seem to be sure how to put it on. It's still better than the Rock's. Bulldog clotheslines Patriot out of the hold. All four guys stack up in the corner and Patriot climbs over them all to try to get to the flag. Hart Decapitation Device on Patriot for 2. Patriot fights over to tag Vader. Tackle on Bulldog for 2. Back suplex. Big splash for 2. Vader tries for the flag but Bulldog pulls him down. Bret gets a back suplex on Vader. He gets Vader in the Sharpshooter. Vader grabs a rope but Patriot still comes in to break it up. He's got a rope Del, he's good. Chill. Vader drops the gut elbow on Bret then tries to put Bret in the Sharpshooter! JR: "It's Sharpshooter night in St. Louis!". Bulldog stops him before he can get it fully on. Patriot comes in without a tag and for some reason the ref allows it. This one isn't lucha rules, they're actually selling stuff. Patriot tackle on Bret. He puts a figure four on Bret. Bret reaches out and gets a tag while still in the hold. Bulldog suplex on Patriot for 2. Powerslam for 2. Bret comes in and works Patriot over. Vader stops a Bret flag climb. Vader setup slam on Bulldog. Vader Bo.....no, he goes up top! VADERSAULT! Vader saw Bulldog dodging and LANDS ON HIS FEET! He didn't stick the landing but that was still awesome. He jumps right back on Bulldog and lays in some corner potatoes. Bulldog gets clotheslined 360 to the floor. The Harts double team Vader on the floor. Bret takes the ring bell and whacks Vader with it! Then, being the polite Canadian, puts the bell back where he found it. Back in Bret slams Vader! DDT for 2. Vader double clotheslines both Harts and tags. Patriot runs wild. Uncle Slam on Bret. Bulldog breaks the pin up. An idiot fan gets in the ring. Ref Mike Chioda and Bulldog get him out by force. Bret and Patriot, distracted, completely flub something and both drop. Vader Bomb on Bret followed by more confusion. Bret reverses a Patriot roll up with a handful of tights to get the pin. The match was OK but considering the talent in the ring and the time they got, very disappointing. The distraction at the end didn't help, and I'm sure the wrestlers' minds were on Pillman more than the match, completely understandably. On another night this might have been awesome. **

Ad for Survivor Series and this year's tagline, Gang Rulz because Russo loves faction warfare. The brand new Hell in a Cell structure lowers from the ceiling for the first time. We get a video package of the Shawn/Taker feud. It all started when Shawn, as the guest ref, hit Taker in the head with a chair at Summerslam to cost him the WWF Title and it's only escalated from there. There's a funny bit where Commissioner Slaughter looks under the ring with a flashlight to make sure there's no one hidden away under there.

 

Hell in a Cell Match: WWF European Champion "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (w/D-Generation X) def The Undertaker in 29:59- Here we are, the first ever Hell in a Cell match. This was a new look in more ways than one as WWF was still using the old blue bar cage for regular cage matches at the time. The new, huge Cell structure looks extremely impressive right away. Hebner locks the door while Slaughter looks on after the wrestlers get in. Shawn's DX teammates are also sent back to the locker room. Shawn watches the door being locked with clear second thoughts about what he's gotten himself into. He tries to run as Taker stalks him. Back in the ring Shawn runs into a big boot. Taker lays in the beatdown. Goozle! Shawn quickly fights out. Corner whip reversal and we get an early Shawn flip. Taker hits a clothesline. Old school hits. Slam and legdrop. Huge backdrop and Shawn's feet graze the roof of the cage. Taker tosses Shawn to the floor and almost all the way into the cage. Shawn tries to climb but Taker pulls him down. He whips Shawn into the cage and hits another clothesline. Taker tries a powerbomb. Shawn flips over and grabs the cage! Taker turns around and backs Shawn into the cage! Rapid fire Taker body shots. He lifts Shawn up and runs his back into the post, then the cage, and back and forth a few more times. Shawn pushes a cameraman away while he's down. Taker tries to throw Shawn face first into the cage. Shawn blocks and tries to push Taker. He blocks that, turns around and hits another clothesline. Shawn goes into the steps. Another whip into the cage. Finally Shawn manages to dodge a charge and Taker goes into the cage. Shawn immediately drops and starts to pummel Taker, then gets into the ring to try to get some breathing space. Taker snaps Shawn's throat over the top rope. Shawn knocks Taker off the apron into the cage. Shawn TOPE SUICIDA! That really is nuts given how little room there is for it. He climbs a bit up the cage and drops an elbow on Taker. Clothesline off the apron. Shawn takes the steps and drops them on Taker. Piledriver on the steps! Shawn pushes the cameraman away again and there's some swears bleeped out. Double ax handle off the top to the floor. Shawn gets a chair. Back in the ring he whacks Taker in the back with it. Cover for 2. Slugfest. Shawn ties Taker up in the ropes and starts punching him. Hebner makes him back off. Shawn charges but Taker gets a boot up. Taker backdrops Shawn to the floor, and Shawn lands on a cameraman! Shawn starts beating up the cameraman for getting in the way! He tosses the cameraman onto the chair! Anger vented, Shawn gets back in the ring and back on Taker. A photographer in the ring calls for help for the cameraman. Shawn flying forearm/kip up. Slaughter is out. Shawn hits the elbow off the top. Slaughter tells Hebner to open the door to get the cameraman's carcass out. Shawn tunes up the band. Superkick! TAKER SITS RIGHT BACK UP! Shawn runs. The door is still open! The wrestlers have escaped the cage! Brawl in the aisle. Shawn dropkicks Taker into the cage! He tries again but Taker grabs Shawn's legs and slingshots him into the cage! Shawn is busted open. Taker lawn darts Shawn into the cage! Shawn gets a desperation low blow. He climbs up the cage and Taker follows. They're on the roof! Shawn grabs Taker for a piledriver. Taker backdrops him onto the roof! Great camera shot there from inside the ring looking up. Some drops of Shawn's blood even get on the lens. Taker gives Shawn some cheese grater on the roof. Hebner is hilariously standing on the turnbuckles shouting "Get back in the ring!". Taker press slams Shawn on the roof! Shawn starts to climb down again. Taker stops his hand. Shawn dangles halfway up the cage. Taker stomps the other hand! SHAWN FALLS DOWN AND GOES RIGHT THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! I know that's kind of old hat now, but nothing like that had ever been done in WWF at the time. Even a fall from halfway up the cage was mind blowing. Taker climbs down. Shawn is back up. Taker throws him onto the French announce table! Then back onto the remains of the Spanish table! Shawn scurries away, gets back in the cell and back in the ring. He's got the full crimson mask of blood. The door is locked again. Taker sets Shawn up top. Super choke slam! Taker gets a chair. He nails Shawn right in the head with it. Taker's ready to finish it off and calls for the Tombstone. But the lights go out! Music starts up. Red light. Paul Bearer is here, and he's not alone! That guy is huge. Vince, in his last show on commentary, gives one of his most famous lines ever: "That....that's gotta be.....THAT'S GOTTA BE KANE!". Yes, after months of teasing Paul Bearer has made good on his promise to bring Taker's long thought dead brother into the WWF. Kane rips the door off the cage! Hebner is tossed aside. Kane gets in the ring and he and Taker stand off. Taker looks shocked. Kane drops his arms and fire shoots out the ring posts! Kick and scoop. Kane Tombstones Taker! He and Bearer leave, damage done and message sent. Shawn slowly crawls over and barely drapes an arm over Taker. Hebner gives the slowest of the epic slow counts, and Shawn gets the pin and wins! DX come back in and literally carry Shawn out of the cage and back to the locker room. Taker is barely coming to as the show closes. Absolute perfection on so many levels. Shawn and Taker having a physical, intense match. Introducing the Cell. Both brutality and crazy spots to make the Cell the signature it's been ever since. Kane's debut couldn't have gone better. It doesn't get much better than this. *****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another quintessential one match show with that match being an absolute must see. For historical reasons the show is worth watching due to Pillman's death. I'm sure it would have turned out much better if that hadn't happened, a lot of guys out there were understandably mentally elsewhere. Austin's antics in the IC title match are also fun and worth a watch. I think he was being extra goofy to try to help everyone feel a little better on a very bad night for the wrestling brotherhood.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

World War 3 '95

Legacy Review

World War 3 '95

November 26, 1995 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, VA

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

This is the last of the three new or returning PPVs on the WCW calendar this year, the first November PPV in two years (the stand alone Battlebowl in '93 being the last). The main thing going tonight is due to the controversy surrounding the Hogan/Giant world title match at Halloween Havoc, the belt has been held up and a new champion will be crowned in the first ever THREE RING SIXTY MAN World War 3 battle royale. Because why have two rings when you can have THREE. WCW is also re-strengthening their partnership with New Japan ahead of what's planned for this year's Starrcade. I'll get into that more as the show goes on.

After the usual opening stand up from Tony and Heenan (where Heenan classically changes his pick to win the title three or four times in a couple of minuets) we go to Mean Gene with the still mustacheless and black clad Hulk Hogan along with Sting and Randy Savage. Thanks to the betrayals of Lex Luger and Ric Flair, in completely separate incidents, these three guys are all back on the same page and better friends than ever. Hogan takes the black off and the red and yellow is back brother. He tosses the black gear in a bucket and it lights on fire! Is Papa Shango in the house tonight or something? Sting and Savage get their quick bits in, then Hogan continues to promo as the fire keeps going and the smoke starts becoming a problem. Sting tries to fan it away and gets a bottle of water to pour on it. Hogan says reports of Savage's hurt arm are greatly exaggerated and he's 100%. We'll see. Then, Hogan pulls out what he calls a "rag sheet", which is a copy of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer. See kids, back in the days before the internet things were printed on paper instead and you had to wait for it to be mailed to your house. I know, it's amazing we survived. Hogan runs down the "rag sheet" for getting everything wrong (well.....), says the internet is where all the real and correct news is now (well....), and tosses it into what's left of the fire. 95% of the audience has no idea what he just did or what he's talking about. The other 5% always believe Uncle Dave when he says "plans changed".

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd (c) def Diamond Dallas Page (w/The Diamond Doll) in 12:34- This is a rematch from Halloween Havoc where Badd took the title from DDP. To add some zest to the rematch, the Doll (Kimberly Page) has finally asserted herself against DDP and put her services on the line as well. Missed opportunity for a Kimberly on a Pole match. Lockup break shenanigans at the start set Badd off and they brawl on the floor. DDP gets posted. Badd crossbody back in, DDP reverses it for 2. Samoan drop from Badd and he works a headlock for a bit. DDP goes to the hair pulls. Badd flips out of an arm wringer and does his own tit for tat hair pulling, then dodges a charge and DDP goes over the top to the floor. Badd plancha! DDP hides behind Doll, pushes her into Badd and punches him. Back in Badd does a Bret bump and DDP hits a back suplex. Badd tries a flying headscissors but DDP turns it into a pancake slam. DDP wants a 10 but the Doll refuses to hold up the card. Badd grabs a kick, spins DDP, but DDP gives him a clothesline for 2. Badd dodges and DDP posts his shoulder, then DDP misses a kick and falls on his head. Badd goes into comeback mode with DDP selling like a wild man. He catches another DDP kick, spins him again, ducks the clothesline and hits his own. Badd wants a 10, and he gets it from the Doll! A 10+! Guess it was in the Tokyo Dome. Badd sit out powerbomb for 2. DDP back elbow and he tries a leverage pin for 2. Tiltawhirl slam. Badd flying headscissors. DDP gets his knees up on a slingshot splash. Gutwrench gutbuster for 2. He goes for another one but Badd flips out and tries to hook up a German suplex. DDP back elbows out of it. DDP tries a tombstone. Badd reverses and hits it for 2. The Tutti Fruiti punch sends DDP to the floor. Somersault plancha! The slingshot legdrop hits, and that gets the pin! Doll is stunned and slowly gets in the ring. She gives Badd a hug, but also shoots DDP a worried look. Good match, much better than Halloween Havoc. Both these guys were on the upswing as far as consistently putting on good matches. ***

Back to Mean Gene for some hotline shilling. "You thought you heard the last of WWF's steroid scandal? You heard wrong! We have a bombshell report from this past Wednesday's New York Post!". Yes, he really did say WWF directly. And we can just look on the Post's website to see......oh. Badd and the Doll join Okerlund and Badd, the gentleman, says he'll give the Doll some time to decide what she wants to do in the future.

 

Taped Fist Match: Big Bubba Rogers def "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 9:21- It's pin or KO rules for this one. I can't remember what the beef is here and commentary doesn't bother to give any kind of recap. Duggan attacks Rogers from behind out of the crowd during Rogers' entrance. He's got his 2x4 on a rope slung around his shoulders. He loads up for a 2x4 shot in the ring but the ref gets in the way and Rogers begs off. Clotheslines from Duggan and Rogers goes 360 and out again. They switch rings and Rogers' head gets jammed in between two rings' ring posts. Duggan jumps off the apron but Rogers dodges and Duggan crashes into the guardrail. Rogers beatdown in the ring. Rings. They swap again. Duggan tries to punch back but Rogers cuts him off with an enzuguri. Rogers gets a roll of tape out and puts even more on his fists than there already was. Toru Yano is throwing things at the TV shouting about the waste of tape. Heenan even says he should be using it to tie Duggan up. A Duggan shoulderblock puts both guys down. Now Rogers uses the tape to tie Duggan to the ropes. Yano is now yelling that he's doing it in the ring, not outside. I guess we can't have everything. Rogers pounds Duggan down until he literally runs into Duggan's held up fist. There's a scene in Blackadder that's just like that. Except that's an intentional comedy. Duggan backdrops Rogers to the floor and frees himself. He hits the 3 point stance clothesline. VK Wallstreet (Mike Rotunda in a legally acceptable variation of his old IRS WWF gimmick) comes out with a chain on his wrist. Duggan cuts him off with a 2x4 shot, but the chain gets in the ring. Rogers gets the chain, wallops Duggan with it, and gets a 10 count KO. Very not good. 3/4*

 

Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto (w/Sonny Oono) def Mayumi Ozaki and Cutie Suzuki in 9:15- Professor Mike Tenay joins the call for this joshi puroresu exhibition. He rightly points out this is a cross promotional battle. Ozaki and Suzuki wrestled for JWP while Nakano and Hokuto were with All Japan Women's. The heels do the Suzuki-Gun jump before the bell. On a wrestler named Suzuki. Nakano tosses Ozaki around by the hair. Akira hits an elbow off the top to Ozaki's back. Both heels let Ozaki get within a finger's reach of getting a tag to Suzuki to tease the faces. Nakano also bites Ozaki's hand, and does some more hair tossing that gets Suzuki in the ring to protest. Another heel double team for 2. Nakano no sells some Ozaki strikes and puts her down again with one shot. Ozaki gets a springboard forearm on Hokuto, then a DDT and gets the tag. Suzuki dropkick for 2. Single leg crab. Ozaki cuts off Nakano coming in and also puts her in a single leg crab! The crowd is really into it, thanks to a combination of great wrestling and superb heel work the first part of the match. After the hold breakups Suzuki works on Hokuto's knee and puts her in another half crab. Nakano breaks it up. The faces try a double team but Suzuki wipes out her partner. Nakano powerbomb. She goes up top for a moonsault but Suzuki dodges it. The faces hit a series of double stomps off the top rope and cover Nakano for 2. You can't take down a kaiju that easily. The faces hook up for a double suplex but Nakano suplexes them both instead. Hokotu misses a splash off the top. The faces set her up for a double suplerplex but Nakano pulls them both down. Hokuto crossbodys them both off the top. The faces hit stereo hurricanranas and both cover for 2! Clotheslines off the top. Ozaki half dragon suplex for 2. A Hokuto German suplex drops Ozaki right on her head. Nakano chops and covers. Suzuki makes the save. The faces duck a Nakano double clothesline but run into a Hokuto missile dropkick. Nakano holds both faces on the floor. Hokuto comes down on them with a somersault senton off the top! Heenan loses it seeing that. A doomsday device from the heels hits. Nakano hits the guillotine legdrop off the top and it's over. Damn good joshi stuff. ***3/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki (c) (w/Sonny Oono) def Chris Benoit in 10:01- I mentioned earlier WCW and New Japan starting to work together more often again. In fact, WCW had just done a two show joint tour with New Japan in Japan called WCW World in Japan, and in the main event of one of those shows Sasaki upset Sting to win the US title. Meanwhile, Benoit was coming back to WCW from New Japan, this time for good. In fact, he had just filled the final gap in the reformed Four Horsemen, who now consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman and Benoit. On a pure talent level that's easily the best Horsemen group outside the original '80s combinations (Flair/Arn/Ole Anderson/Tully Blanchard is the original, but Flair/Arn/Tully/Barry Windham is probably THE best and most remembered). Too bad it didn't last long. Interesting pairing here as Sasaki is the obvious foreigner heel, but Benoit and the whole Horsemen group were also heels so the crowd really doesn't have anyone to go for. Benoit comes out aggressive early. Sasaki hits chops in the corner. They fight for mat leverage. Benoit gets a drop toe hold and goes into some arm work. Susuki backdrops out. Test of strength. They fight for leverage in the knucklelock for quite a while. Benoit wraps Sasaki's arms into a straitjacket. Sasaki fights out with clubbing blows. Hard slams from Sasaki. Some woman in the crowd is shouting for, or at, Benoit at the top of her lungs and literally echoing around the whole arena. They go speed, Benoit slides under, Sasaki kicks and gets a press slam. He goes for a Boston crab but Benoit flips him over. Sasaki goes to the floor. Benoit TOPE SUICIDA! Back in Sasaki hits a suplex. Benoit works a headscissors. Sasaki powerslam for 2. Benoit grabs a waistlock and it's time for ROOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLING GERMANS....no, Sasaki cuts it off after two! Clothesline! Benoit reverses and hits a tombstone. The headbutt off the top hits! Benoit is staggered and can't cover right away, giving Sasaki time to kick out. Chops from Benoit. Hurricanrana off the top! Sasaki kicks out! Sasaki grabs a kick and plants Benoit. He puts on his dragon hold submission but Benoit quickly gets to the ropes. Benoit hits a clothesline, no effect. Sasaki hits a STIFF clothesline, much effect. He hits the northern lights buster and gets the pin. Slow start, good closing stretch and a pure New Japan style match, but other than shouty woman the crowd wasn't into it at all. **3/4

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 5:29- This is Savage's revenge match for Luger's turn to the Dungeon of Doom. Remember, Hogan guaranteed Savage's arm is totally absolutely fine brother we made it all up brother. In his prematch promo Savage also says the arm is "one million percent". I guess that's a bit more than 100. But it's still all taped up when he takes his jacket off. Savage attacks Luger as he's getting in and is all over Luger to start. Pillar to post beating. Luger gets a boot up in the corner. Savage ducks a clothesline and hits his own. He puts on a half assed Boston crab and Luger easily gets to the ropes. That was almost as bad at Rock's Sharpshooter. Luger goes to the floor and into the guardrail. Setup slam back in. The top rope elbow hits! But Jimmy Hart is on the apron distracting the ref. Savage throws Luger at Hart. On the floor Luger reverses a whip and Savage goes into a ring apron. Tony mentions on commentary that despite Luger's turn, he's still going to team with Sting on Nitro tomorrow night because he and Sting are best friends forever no matter what. Luger puts on the Torture Rack on the floor! He lets go to beat the count, then rolls a dead Savage back in. Luger hooks on an ARMBAR on Savage's hurt arm. Savage isn't moving at all and the ref calls it. Bleh. After the bell Luger hooks the arm again until Sting comes in and asks him nicely to let go. Luger does and leaves. *

 

Sting def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 14:31- Flair and the Horsemen pulled the wool over Sting's eyes yet again at Halloween Havoc so naturally Sting wants payback. Like all the other matches tonight this is starting in "ring 1", which is the middle ring. That's going to be important. Flair's raring to go during Sting's entrance. Nose to nose. Flair has a laugh and points at Sting, who tries to bite his finger like a great white shark. One punch from Sting puts Flair down and he bails. All the way into ring 2. He hits the ropes, struts, and shouts "Come on!" to Sting. Sting joins him, goes on the attack again and hits a press slam. Flair begs off. Eye poke! Measured shots from Flair and the first chops. Flair struts around. We have a true 50/50 split crowd for this. Flair and the Horsemen have hit that point where they've been so great for so long a portion of the crowd, even in these more innocent times, is going to cheer for them no matter what. Sting pops out of the corner with a clothesline. Mounted punches. A hip toss and dropkick hit and Flair rolls out again. Into ring 3! Again he shouts at Sting to come join him and Sting does. Col. Robert Parker and Sherri come out for some reason. They kiss so I guess it's to remind people that's still going on. Sting absorbs chops and pounds Flair down. Flair gets 360 clotheslined and takes his time recovering on the floor. I just noticed that Flair's missing a knee pad. Guess he got dressed in a hurry for this match. Sting no sells more chops and hits another press slam. They go outside and Sting hits the brakes on a guardrail whip, turns and charges, but Flair dodges and Sting crashes into the rail on the other side! Flair gets a chair but ref Nick Patrick takes it away. Back in ring 1. Flair chop. Sting goozle! Flair low blows to get out! Parker and Sherri are sitting in chairs on the interview stage now. That's the last we see of them so thanks for coming I guess. Flair hits some kicks to Sting's gut and a kneedrop. He struts around some more and flashes the 4 to some pretty good cheers. While Sting's getting up in the corner Flair sneaks up and kicks his knee. Close up your Trapper Keepers kids, we're getting on the bus to school. Flair struts around some more in super cocky mode as he picks Sting's knee apart. He tosses Sting out and they move to ring 3. Another knee clip. Back suplex from Flair for variety. The figure four is on! Flair's still in cocky mode and slaps Sting. Big mistake! That wakes Sting up! He reverses the figure four and Flair has to let go. See, I love that little thing. Instead of Sting fighting a long time before reversing Flair made the mistake of slapping Sting and that got Sting going again. Sting blocks a hip toss and backslides Flair for 2. Flair shoves Patrick. Patrick shoves back and Flair sells it! Sting chops Flair to no effect! Flair turns around and poses. Flair chops Sting. Also no effect. Flair bails back to ring 1 and begs off. Another Sting press slam. Clotheslines. Flair gets an eye poke and goes up top. Sting slams him off. Flair Flip! Apron clothesline! Sting goes for mounted punches again. Flair tries an inverted atomic drop counter but Sting blocks it. Sting superplex! The Scorpion Death Lock is on! Flair submits! Hell of a match. You can never go wrong with Flair and Sting. ****

Recap of the Hogan/Giant/Jimmy Hart contract clause controversy that got us to the world title being held up.

 

World War 3 Battle Royale for the Vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship- So this is 60 men, 20 in each ring. There's also a "giant in each ring", with Hogan, the Giant, and the YETAY (who's now dressed up like a ninja for some reason) in separate rings. The rules are once a ring gets down to 10 men it will merge with the other rings until everyone left is in one ring. Now, we all know WCW has a sterling history of coming up with elaborate gimmick matches with crazy rules and then sticking by those rules to the letter and always executing these matches extremely well......no, couldn't even keep a straight face while typing it. They struggled to do two ring battle royales properly with Battlebowl, I can't see how three is going to be any better. Before the match there's a roll call of participating wrestlers as they come out. I'm not going to list them all here, suffice to say it's pretty much the whole roster, including a bunch of low level jobbers that I don't even remember. There's also a commentary team for each ring: Tony and Heenan for ring 1, Eric Bischoff and Dusty Rhodes for ring 2, and the hyperactive Chris Cruise and Larry Zbyszko for ring 3. I'll give it to them, the pomp and hype before the match starts is pretty good. But then the match starts and it's a sharp turn downhill. The entire thing during the 3 ring phase is shown in a 3 way split screen so it's almost impossible to see what's going on other than a bunch of guys flailing around. In theory the separate commentary teams are to let them focus more on what's going on in their ring, but in practice it makes it even messier because you desperately need commentary to figure out what the hell is going on and you're only hearing it for 1/3 of the action at a time. As big a mess as this thing is I'm not even trying to recap it all. It's a good 15 minutes before we start to get a good number of eliminations, which is way too long. Finally ring 2 gets down to about 6 guys, not 10, and they all go in ring 1. But TV keeps the THREE way split screen up for two rings, so now we're even more confused what's going on. A stretcher comes in at one point and wheels away Scott Armstrong of the Armstrong wrestling family in a neck brace. They're being real gentle with him so that could be a legit injury. When ring 3 gets down to, er, about 10 they slowly start to file over into ring 1. Good news, one ring means no more 3 way split screen on TV. Bad news, that ring is so full it's almost impossible for anyone to do anything. They've even got the referee inside the ring, which is a horrible decision in both real life practical and kayfabe terms. Lots of guys go out to fight on the floor too which doesn't help any. Luger and Savage even go over into ring 2 by themselves at one point. Slowly things get cleared out and I'll check back in with 10 men left in the match: Hogan, Flair, Savage, Luger (who's spent most of the match on the floor), Paul Orndorff, Arn Anderson, Eddie Guerrero, Sting, Giant, and the One Man Gang. Guerrero's sitting on the top rope holding a sleeper or something on Giant. Sting Stinger Splashes Giant and that almost sends Guerrero out but he saves himself. Hogan eliminates old rival Orndorff. Luger is still working Savage's hurt arm. Arn tries to dump Guerrero but he lands on the apron, pops up top, and hits Arn with a missile dropkick. Flair gets the figure four on Guerrero as the two Horsemen left work together on him. Arn hits Guerrero with the World's Greatest Spinebuster and dumps him out. Stinger Splash on Flair. Flair and Arn continue working together. Giant choke slams Savage. Flair goes up top. Sting slingshots Arn into that corner, knocking Flair off the top rope and down to the floor! Hogan clotheslines Arn out right after. Flair's pissed at being eliminated. But not at Arn. Luger and Sting double team Giant, pushing him to the ropes with double clotheslines. They get Giant partially over. Hogan comes over and dumps all three of them out! Giant pulls Hogan down under the bottom rope and they fight on the floor. Before that happened, Hogan and Savage had OMG dangling upside down and Savage gets him all the way over and out. Savage is the only one left and is declared the winner! Off camera because the focus is still on Hogan and Giant fighting. After he fends Giant off Hogan gets back in to argue, rightly, that he was never eliminated. But he, frankly, is such a Karen about it that the crowd turns on him much like his '92 Rumble hissy fit, though in that one he at least was eliminated. Okerlund tries to talk to Savage but Hogan makes sure everything is still about him as he argues his case over and over. Savage is awarded the belt and says he didn't see anything but he'll check out the video. Tomorrow night on Nitro, of course. Hogan finally relents some and he and Savage shake and hug. As expected, the match was a God awful mess in just about every way. Except the winner, Savage was a great choice. DUD

Thankfully there'd be no more title swerves and Savage kept the belt after this, and even better his feud with Flair was reignited for the next few months, this time for the world title. Hogan would continue his feud with the Giant and Dungeon of Doom in a non-title capacity until the big turn the following summer.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Disastrous main event aside this is easily the best show WCW has put on this year. Almost every undercard match has something worth watching. The start of Nitro has really given them some focus that they had been sorely lacking most of the year, and would continue a general upswing in quality through a very interesting gimmick Starrcade and into the new year.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

One Night Only '97

Legacy Review

One Night Only '97

September 20, 1997 from the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

This is the first in what would be a series of yearly UK exclusive PPVs that would continue until 2003. This show was only available to order on PPV in the UK and Canada, not the US. There were legitimate reasons for this, but Bret Hart leaped at the opportunity to take credit for it because stupid American fans didn't deserve to see it. They're also getting out of London into other parts of the country which is nice.

The Network copy still has the Sky Sports signature on it which is a nice touch. The opening video is all about the Bulldog, not much of a surprise. The stage is a very Raw type setup.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) def Dude Love in 12:51- HHH had a long feud over the summer with Mick Foley alter ego Mankind so they knew each other very well, and already had some quality matches with each other under their belt. Basic start with Love dodging a leapfrog and hitting a back elbow. Backdrop and HHH begs off. I'm distracted by a large gaggle of fans at ringside seemingly having an argument over whose seats are whose. This is why you get to the show early. Love blocks punches in the corner and hits some Mongolian style chops. We get a bit of a Love strut. Trips tries to take advantage of the showboating but runs into a clothesline and rolls out to recoup. Love punches him off the apron. Back in Love works HHH's arm for a bit. HHH tries a drop toe hold but Love dodges it and gets his own, with HHH landing right on his nose. Well it is a large target. Love puts on a modified Indian Death Lock. Trips Flip and he's in the tree of woe. Love chops his ankle. He starts tuning up the band for SWEET SHIN MUSIC. HHH dodges the kick and rolls out again. Love chases and runs right into a Chyna clothesline. HHH snaps him over the top rope. Chyna gets another shot in. HHH cover for 2. A Love comeback is cut off with a facebuster. Abdominal stretch with rope leverage. The ref catches HHH and kicks his hand off the rope. HHH does not like that and shoves the ref. The ref shoves back! Mike Chioda suddenly turning into Tommy Young out here. HHH goes full into the Flair/Young classics by selling the shove and literally running away from the angry ref. Love comes back with punches and hits a faceplant for 2. HHH swinging neckbreaker. Love counters the Pedigree with a corner slingshot. Slugfest with Love getting the edge and he runs HHH's head down the turnbuckle ladder. Avalanche from Love. HHH gets a boot up in the opposite corner. He goes up top but Love armdrags him off! Band tune up. Sweet Shin Music hits! Double underhook DDT! Chyna puts HHH's foot on the rope! Love argues with Chyna. Kick wham Pedigree! HHH gets the pin! Very house show match, but a fun one. ***1/4

Sunny comes out to be the special ring announcer for the next match in some serious thigh high boots. This was the period WWF was having a very difficult time finding things for her to do besides having her photos downloaded in insane numbers on the internet (something I may or may not have been participating in at the time). She couldn't manage anyone anymore because she'd always overshadow them.

 

Tiger Ali Singh (w/Tiger Jeet Singh) def Leif Cassidy in 4:06- Ali Singh, one of the most famous bombs of all time, is making his PPV debut a few months after signing with the company. I honestly thought Cassidy had transitioned to Al Snow by now. I guess not. Amazingly Singh is supposed to be the face here but the crowd wants nothing to do with him. He takes the mic before the match and says how proud he is to be Asian-Canadian, don't do drugs kids, he's the "true messiah" and the Canadian fans are always behind him. I don't see how any of that is supposed to get the crowd on his side. His dad Jeet Singh gets on the mic and Cassidy jumps in the middle of his talk. Good talk. Singh fights back with basic kicky punchy offense. Buckle whips and Singh hits a belly to belly suplex. Cassidy slides into the corner on a corner whip and hits a heel kick for 2. Arm work from Cassidy with an ARMBAR that seems to go on forever. Commentary gets bored and JR and Lawler start arguing about whether or not Brian Christopher is Lawler's son again. Singh completely blows a roll up that came off more like a weak leg takedown. Cassidy tries to set up a superplex but Singh can't find the top turnbuckle. Finally he gets up there, pushes Cassidy down, and hits the Tiger Bomb (a top rope bulldog) for the pin to more boos. Cassidy was in full jobber selling mode. It wasn't long after this that he finally had enough of being jobbed out in WWF and got back to ECW to reinvent himself as Al Snow. 1/4*

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Headbangers (c) def Los Boricuas in 13:34- It's leader Savio Vega and Miguel Perez Jr representing the Los Boricuas gang tonight. They pull the Suzuki-Gun jump before the bell. The Headbangers counter backdrops and hit clotheslines to send the heels to the floor. Perez jumps Mosh after getting back in. Armdrags from Mosh. Thrasher hits a clothesline off the second rope. Vega runs in and gets double hiptossed and elbow dropped. Thrasher and Vega do an extended headlock/headscissors sequence. Thrasher/Perez speed run and Vega kicks Thrasher from the apron to send him mosher in peril. Vega does his fall out of the ring corner heel kick. Mosh is baited in and the heels do some CHAOS style war drums on Thrasher. Thrasher gets a crossbody for 2. Another Vega heel kick for 2. Perez flat misses a corkscrew senton off the top that was supposed to hit, so he tries to make up for it with a standing moonsault. The nerve pinch is the rest hold de jour for the heels tonight. De jeur? I don't do French. I'm from Texas, I barely speak English. Perez hits a dropkick and suplex. Mosh breaks the pin up. More heel double teaming and they get the "ref didn't see the tag" spot in. More nerve pinch follows. A knee to the gut cuts off a Thrasher comeback. Thrasher gets his knees up on a Vega splash but the tag is cut off. Perez chinlock with arm drops. Thrasher fights out and gets a sunset flip for 2. He dodges Vega in the corner and hits a back suplex. Tags on both sides. Mosh runs wild. Top rope hurricanrana on Perez. DONNYBROOK! Perez barely pulls off a powerbomb on Thrasher. Mosh hits him with a butt splash off the top and gets the pin. This was the most basic of basic tag formula not very enthusiastically executed. The face in peril run by itself felt 30 minutes long. *1/2

Next up we get a taped sit down interview with JR and the Bulldog. Bulldog, not surprisingly, will have pretty much his whole family in the crowd tonight and dedicates his match to his sister who has been battling cancer.

 

The Patriot def Flash Funk in 8:47- The Patriot's sole purpose in WWF was to be a foil for anti-American heel Bret Hart. Now that feud is done, there's really no place for him anymore. His super serious character definitely did not mesh with early Attitude Era WWF. Del Wilkes is not popular in the UK. Vince calls it a "mixed reaction". Yeah, like Roman Reigns' "mixed reaction" in the early post-Shield days. Both guys are faces so we get a Code of Honor handshake to start, followed by a polite mat wrestling standoff. Patriot hits a shoulderblock to big boos. Funk slips out of a suplex, they do some counters, Funk hits a dropkick and armdrag, Patriot pops up with a clothesline. Nice little sequence there. Patriot came out on top so it gets booed. Patriot grounds things with a chinlock as the crowd reactions seem to be getting to him. Funk slides under. Patriot shoves him down and hits a fall down headbutt. Now he looks like he's embracing the heel role the crowd is determined to have him play. Funk dodges in the corner and hits a crossbody off the top for 2. Patriot blocks a spinning kick. Funk clothesline for 2. Some idiot in the crowd has a laser pointer. Banning those was a great move. Funk controls the match a bit with some pretty dull ground offense. If he wasn't doing his big aerial high spots he never really knew what to do. Patriot hulks up off some chops. Corner clothesline. Atomic drop/back suplex combo. Patriot tries a Euro clutch. Funk turns it into a surfboard. Spinning kick from Funk. Patriot powerslam for 2. Funk wheelbarrow roll up for 2. Patriot kills him with another clothesline. Patriot Missile! Funk kicks out! Funk blocks Uncle Slam. Avalanche and setup slam. Funk goes up top and hits a splash for 2. He goes up again. Patriot gets his knees up on a moonsault. Uncle Slam! That gets the pin. Decent. **1/4

 

The Legion of Doom def The Godwinns in 10:42- The "LOD broke Phineas' neck" feud continues (even though Phineas clearly did it to himself falling wrong). Animal and Henry start. Back and forth start. Animal hits a shoulderblock and Henry bails. Both sides tag. Hawk pounds away until he does his usual shoulder post spot, then gets grounded with a chinlock. Henry misses an elbow drop and Hawk says that's enough selling, pops up and hits a clothesline. LOD double elbow. Phineas hits Animal from the apron and Henry charges in with a Cactus Clothesline! Armbar slam from Phineas as Animal goes Road Warrior in peril. Animal gets his boot up on Phineas coming off the second rope and tags. Hawk runs wild. Slams and a neckbreaker. Everyone in the pool! Godwinn double clothesline on Hawk. Henry hits the slop drop. He takes forever to cover and Hawk kicks out. Hawk ends up in the heel corner and they choke him with the Rebel flag as Hawk is now LOD in peril. Hawk avoids a double team, bounces out of the corner and hits both Godwinns with clotheslines. Tag to Animal. Powerslam. The Godwinns double team him and hit a double clothesline. Hawk charges and clotheslines Henry 360 to the floor. Doomsday Device on Phineas! That gets the pin. At least he landed right this time. Surprisingly not a horrible match. **

JR is in the ring and brings out Ken Shamrock, who was scheduled to wrestle Owen Hart tonight but was out with a punctured lung suffered in a match with Faarooq. That match incidentally was in the first round of a tournament to crown a new Intercontinental champion after Steve Austin's injury, a tournament that will conclude at the next PPV, Badd Blood. Rockabilly (Billy Gunn) comes out and makes fun of Shamrock, says he thought he was the world's most dangerous man, and slaps him. Bad move. Shamrock goes nuts, puts the ankle lock on and makes Billy tap. Thanks for making the trip, Billy.

 

Vader def The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart in 12:14- Oh yeah, this should be good. Vader's officially turned face, at least on the main product. Here he gets a mixed reaction that I think would have been the same no matter what. Owen gets about 70/30 cheers. He also helps to keep a guardrail section from collapsing during his entrance. Vader not surprisingly flashes his power early. Owen does a great fall into the ropes on a shoulderblock then takes a stiff Vader tackle. Owen tries a sunset flip and dodges the butt splash counter. He slides under Vader, leaps up and manages to take Vader over with a hurricanrana! Owen springboard crossbody off the second rope for 2. He goes for the Sharpshooter but Vader's legs are too strong. Vader tries a suplex. Owen slips out and gets a roll up for 2. He goes for the Sharpshooter again. This time he gets Vader's legs wrapped up, but Vader grabs a rope before Owen can turn him over. Owen tries a crucifix but Vader drops him. Vader splash off the second rope for 2. "Owen Hart is one with the canvas!" is a great line from Vince. Owen tries to get some space. Bret bump from Owen! The crowd has definitely turned on Vader as these guys seem to have had a solid plan going into this match: Vader heel, Owen face. Owen tries a slam and fails. Vader short clothesline. Avalanche. Vader does some work on Owen's arm, then switches to an almost ankle lock on his leg. Owen dodges another avalanche but again tries for a slam and can't get it. Another Vader tackle for 2 and he wraps the leg up again. Owen punches out and tries to out slug Vader. That's never going to work. Vader pounds back with his famous potato shots. Headbutt and big splash for 2. Owen flips out of a powerbomb. Enzuguri! The Sharpshooter is on! Vader gets to the ropes. Owen gets the body slam! Then he runs into another tackle. Vader bomb time. Owen gets his knees up! Missile dropkick! Kip up! The crowd is almost 100% behind Owen now. Spinning heel kick for 2. He goes to the top rope. Vader catches and powerslams him! That gets the pin! Really good match. Both guys were clearly holding back too, there's an even better one in there somewhere. This is one of the few times we got to see pure babyface Owen in a WWF ring. ***1/2

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def The Undertaker by DQ in 28:34- This is a rematch from Summerslam, where guest ref Shawn Michaels cost Taker the title. Taker's taking time away from trying to murder Shawn to attempt to get the title back. The crowd is nuts for this match, with both guys getting the same 50/50 boo/cheer reaction for anything they do. It's a very modern style true split crowd. Bret ducks a Taker punch after the bell and tries to pound away in the corner. Taker flips it over and wins that exchange. The ref tells Taker off for choking. Taker stalks him and Bret uses the opening to take a top turnbuckle pad off. Taker blocks a hiptoss and hits a clothesline. Bret dodges an elbow drop. He tries for an early Sharpshooter but Taker fights it off. Bret adjusts to give him a diving clothesline instead. Taker gets clotheslined 360 to the floor, landing on his feet. Bret sliding kicks him into the announce table! Taker catches Bret jumping off the apron, but then his foot slips off the raised platform the ring is on for this show and they fall down. Reset and Taker runs Bret's back into the post. They fight up the aisle and Taker slams Bret on the ramp. The beatdown continues in the ring. Bret counters a backdrop with a DDT! Legdrop and a trio of elbow drops. Taker still sits up. Bret bump! Into the corner with the exposed buckle! Taker gives Bret a heart punch. He stretches Bret's arms out in a butterfly type hold, then transitions into a crucifix for 2. Bret kicks Taker's knee. Taker responds with an uppercut. Backbreaker. Bret kicks at the knee again. Taker hits a back elbow. Bret dodges in the corner and Taker runs knee first into the corner. Here we go. Now Bret has the opening to get to work on the knee and does so with gusto. Taker tries to fight off a knee posting but Bret gets it in. Post wraparound figure four! After a bit more knee picking apart Bret hooks on the figure four in the ring. Taker fights for a long time and finally reverses it. Bret grabs a rope and the ref had to untangle the hold. Taker is up first but limping. He pounds Bret down in the corner. Bret ducks a big boot and kicks the knee again. Back to the knee picking apart. After that Bret switches to headbutts to Taker's back and hits a Russian leg sweep for 2. Snap suplex. Backbreaker. Taker gets a boot up on the usual second rope elbow follow up. Double clothesline! Taker hits a gut legdrop. He goes for it again but Bret blocks it. Sharpshooter! Taker powers out. Gut headbutts from Bret and he goes for the Sharpshooter again. Goozle! Bret kicks the knee again before Taker can do anything else. Taker responds with body shots. Big boot and legdrop brother for 2. Bret rolls out and gets the bell. He goes to hit Taker with it but Taker cuts it off with a big boot. Now Taker says what the hell, use the bell. The ref takes it away from him! Bret chop blocks Taker. Taker pushes Bret out onto the floor and he takes out a cameraman! Back in on a corner whip Bret slides back first into the post. Taker goes for old school but Bret flips him off the top rope. Taker scoops Bret up for a Tombstone. Bret slips out and rolls him up for 2. Bret scoops for a Tombstone! Taker reverses it! They fight for leverage by the ropes and Bret ends up hung by the neck in the ropes! Taker punches him despite the ref's warnings, and gets DQ'd. There's a choke slam for the ref. Officials and Owen get Bret out. Gerald Brisco also takes a choke slam. The ring announcer says Bret wins by DQ and has to jump over the rail to keep from getting attacked as well. Another really good match between these two, but that ending was pretty weak. ***1/2

 

WWF European Championship: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (c) in 22:53- This is the absolute peak of the short lived European title mere months into its existence, being defended by inaugural champ Bulldog on his home soil. It was all downhill after this, a sharp downhill slope that starts pretty quickly after this match. Going into this match Shawn has been talking about becoming the first ever WWF Grand Slam champion. During his entrance Shawn gets very close to his young female fans. At one point he's so entangled I don't know how he got out. Bulldog's cancer fighting sister comes out with him on his entrance and joins the rest of the family ringside. Before the bell Shawn is arguing with Vince about something. Don't know if that was legit or not. The bell rings and Shawn walks. He's in full dick mode tonight. He gets back in and Bulldog shoves him down. Shawn gets shoved out of lockups and starts to get frustrated. In another lockup Shawn walks up the corner but that only lets Bulldog toss him back down. Pillar to post beating and Shawn gets clotheslined 360 to the floor, all the way into the guardrail. He walks again and wants a time out. Bulldog lets him. Shawn gets on the apron and eye pokes Bulldog. Bulldog quickly recovers and runs Shawn into both turnbuckles. Reverse suplex back in the ring. Bulldog press and he teases tossing Shawn outside. Hebner physically gets in the way and Bulldog drops Shawn in the ring in a great casual way while arguing. Bulldog abdominal stretch. Shawn hiptosses out. Bulldog backdrops Shawn to the floor! Man Shawn is bumping like a maniac tonight. Bulldog armdrags him back in and goes into some arm work. Shawn forearms out. They do an insane speed run where Shawn bounces off of Bulldog full speed into the ropes again multiple times, dodges a leapfrog, then hits the brakes and eye pokes Bulldog. Fantastic. Shawn jumps into a huge powerbomb! That gets a 2 count. Crucifix attempt by Shawn but Bulldog drops him. Bulldog hooks on a surfboard. But Bulldog's shoulders are down so Hebner counts. Bulldog gets up pissed. There's a "son of a bitch" dropped in there. Shawn jumps him from behind. Bulldog gets the delayed suplex for 2. Here comes Rick Rude, at this time Shawn's "insurance policy". Bulldog gets a roll up. Rude gets on the apron and pushes Shawn over on top for 2. Bulldog hits the ropes and Rude trips him. Shawn attacks from behind and Rude posts Bulldog. Shawn double ax handle off the top to the floor. Rude rams Bulldog's back into the apron. Shawn hooks on a sleeper. Bulldog goes down and they do the arm drops. Bulldog fights back and back suplexes out. Shawn hiptoss into a short arm scissors. Bulldog deadlifts and drops him. Midring collision. Now Triple H and Chyna are out. Bulldog backdrop. Shawn flip and Bulldog clothesline. Corner slingshot for 2. Shawn dodges and Bulldog posts his shoulder. Setup slam and Shawn hits the elbow off the top rope. Then goes up again and hits a second one! The band tunes up. Bulldog doesn't stand up so Shawn props him up in the corner. Bulldog ducks the superkick! He scoops Shawn up for the powerslam! Rude grabs Bulldog's foot. Shawn gets clotheslined to the floor again. Bulldog hops out and punches HHH down. He goes for the powerslam on the floor, but his foot gets caught in the gap between the ring platform and guardrail! Superkick! HHH gives him a Pedigree on the floor! Back in Shawn takes Bulldog's knee brace off and tosses it to his family. Figure four! HHH and Chyna help with illegal leverage from ringside. After a bit Bulldog almost gets to the ropes, only to have Rude punch him! HHH and Chyna continue to help as Bulldog's last ditch attempt to power out doesn't work and he goes out. Hebner calls it! Shawn wins! Oh that is not a popular decision in Birmingham at all. A ton of trash immediately gets thrown into the ring. Shawn grabs the mic to egg on the crowd even more, then turns his attention to Bulldog's family. He puts the figure four on again! Bulldog's wife Diana has enough. She runs in with the knee brace and chokes Shawn with it! Chyna gets her off. DX figure they've done enough damage and leave, but take plenty of time to pose and gloat on their way out to rile the crowd up even more. Fantastic match. Shawn was literally a blur at points he was going so hard, and the heel work was next level in this atmosphere. It takes some serious grapefruits to book that result in this setting. Bulldog's inaugural European title reign ends at 205 days, which will end up being the longest in the title's history. And true to his word, Shawn is the first ever Grand Slam champion. DX really took off after this, in no small part thanks to how this turned out. ****

Like I mentioned earlier, it was all downhill for the European title after this. On a Raw in December (after Shawn had also won the WWF Title back in even more controversial fashion) Commissioner Slaughter ordered Shawn to defend the European title as he'd been ducking defenses to that point, and to make it even better he made Shawn defend it against HHH. Being DX, they made a mockery of the whole thing and instead of having a proper match we basically got the Fingerpoke of Doom before the Fingerpoke of Doom. Shawn laid down for HHH to win and they both stuck it in Slaughter's face after. That did a world of good for getting DX over, but it also destroyed any credibility the European title might have ever had. It stayed around a few years as the lowest of low midcard titles, arguably even lower than the Hardcore title after that was introduced, before being unified with the IC title after the WCW buyout and invasion angle.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The home US audience missed one of the best shows of the year, at least seeing it live. They would have to wait for the Coliseum Video release. The undercard matches have more of a house show feel than a PPV, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. House shows are usually fun. The UK crowd was also a huge novelty at the time and added to the atmosphere tremendously.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B

Halloween Havoc '95

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '95

October 29, 1995 from the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

The Giant has driven Hulk Hogan over the edge so bad (pun partially intended with what's happening on this show) that he's starting wearing all black nearly a year before that would take on a whole new meaning. It's gotten so desperate Hogan has even SHAVED HIS MUSTACHE OFF. I think there was a TV role reason he did that but I can't remember. Anyway, part of tonight's festivities is Hogan and Giant doing battle in monster trucks, and at the start of the show we get a clip of them already in their trucks and facing off. That's a long time to sit there and rev your engine at the other guy without doing anything. We're also told that Ric Flair was attacked in his dressing room by Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman ahead of their match tonight. Sting hasn't even arrived at the arena yet so he doesn't know what happened.

Funny bit leading into the next match- Badd won a shot at the US title at Fall Brawl, but when the time came for the match on non-Nitro weekly TV he no showed. Later in the night he finally got to the arena, telling Mean Gene he was the victim of a flat tire. Diamond Dallas Page and his entourage join to mock Badd. Maxx Muscle says "What a shame you got four flat tires". Badd says: "Who said anything about FOUR flat tires? I said A flat tire!" like he's Poirot deducing the butler did it or something and punches Muscle out. Unintentional comedy. That brings us to tonight.

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd def Diamond Dallas Page (c) (w/the Diamond Doll and Maxx Muscle) in 17:01- DDP has stolen Badd's blaster, but he violates the heel code by actually setting it off for the crowd. An imposter Badd shows up in his robe during his entrance so the real Badd can attack DDP from behind. I knew ZSJ and Fujita didn't come up with that themselves. DDP gets tossed to the floor. Muscle takes a shot and Badd gives them a double noggin knocker. DDP tries to escape through the crowd but Badd pulls him back. Badd found a bucket somewhere and puts it on DDP's head, then punches him. Back in Badd gets an armdrag and drop toe hold into an ARMBAR. They do some basic counter stuff and both guys pull hair. DDP complains to ref Nick Patrick "He's pulling my hair!" in a gloriously whiny voice. Badd goes "Like this?" and pulls his hair again! They go speed and Badd does a hiptoss straight into a cover for 2. He tries mounted punches but DDT drops him on the top turnbuckle. Badd Bret bumps and DDP back suplexes him off the rebound. DDP hits the "pancake" for 2. I honestly don't remember that move. Chinlock time. Badd tries to fight out but DDP hair pulls him back down. More chinlock. Badd blocks a hiptoss into a backslide for 2. DDP clothesline for 2. Badd sunset flip with counter and counter counters for near falls. Muscle helps DDP out of a wristlock fight. He distracts the ref so DDP can choke Badd with his wrist tape, then covers it up with MOAR chinlock. They do arm drops and Badd powers out. Another wristlock leverage fight and this time Muscle can't help. Badd back suplex. Inverted atomic drop. Regular atomic drop. DDP is in super selling mode. Badd flying headscissors. Double ax handle off the top. The Doll, who's job during matches is to rate all of DDP's best moves a 10 with her card, gives Badd a 10 for that. Badd sit out powerbomb for 2. Page hits the Diamond Dream, another one in his arsenal I don't remember. Badd uses the ropes to block the Diamond Cutter. That one I do know. I sure hope so. He goes for mounted punches again and through the course of counter events DDP gets tossed over the top to the floor. Somersault plancha on DDP and Muscle! Slingshot splash for 2. Badd runs DDP into Muscle and gets a roll up for 2 that the crowd bit hard on. Badd gets dumped to the floor. Another heel double team fails as Muscle clotheslines DDP! Badd covers and gets the pin and the TV title for the second time! Meh. Both guys had been having much better matches, have to chalk this up as a disappointment. *3/4

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def The Zodiac in 1:30- Savage and Lex Luger have been having problems recently with each other and with Hogan despite the fact they're all faces for a very logical reason- they all want to be world champion. With that in mind we've got a way overdone setup for Savage and Luger tonight. They're each facing members of the Dungeon of Doom, and if they both win they get to have a match with each other to try to settle things. Why the elaborate gauntlet, I have no idea. Zodiac is replacing Kamala, who left the company just before this show. Savage jumps Zodiac from behind. Before they can get anywhere a crazy and likely very drunk fan gets in the ring and tries to shoot fight everyone. Ref Randy Anderson holds the fan back while Savage and Zodiac take things to the floor to get away. Security drags the nut away off camera. Back in Savage dodges Zodiac off the second rope, goes up top while Zodiac obviously repositions himself, hits the elbow and it's already over. Garbage match, but they had major outside distractions to deal with. NR

We join Mean Gene in the back and he's got HOT NEWS that he can only share if you call the hotline. Apparently he overheard Jimmy Hart talking to someone he used to represent in "another wrestling federation" about coming to WCW. Yup, it's the Nitro era with the endless promotion jumping teases. Also Okerlund should stop listening in on other people's conversations.

 

Kurasawa (w/Col. Robert Parker) def Road Warrior Hawk in 3:15- Kurasawa is New Japan legend Manabu Nakanishi during his Young Lion excursion. This is a revenge match as Kurasawa (kayfabe) broke Hawk's arm at the last Clash of the Champions. True to that, Hawk jumps quick at the bell. Tackle. Neckbreaker. Fist drop for 2. Big Hawk chops. Kurasawa dodges and Hawk posts his shoulder. Kurasawa tries to go for the arm but Hawk says screw that and goes right back on offense. Powerbomb. Parker grabs Hawk's foot and Kurasawa attacks from behind. Hawk dodges an elbow off the top and clotheslines Kurasawa 360 to the floor. Flying clothesline off the apron, but not onto Kurasawa, onto Parker! Kurasawa posts Hawk. Back in Kurasawa hits a backdrop slam and Samoan drop, covers Hawk and puts his feet on the ropes, and Parker holds Kurasawa's feet for double extra leverage as he gets the 3 count. Hawk seemed like he had zero interest in letting the youngster do anything, but Hawk jobbing to anyone in a singles match, even with an illegal leverage pin, is a rare event. 1/4*

Savage joins Mene Gene for the famous "Your mustache is crooked!" promo that nearly goes completely off the rails before old pro Okerlund reins it back in. We make fun of Okerlund for all his forced hotline schilling in his WCW run, but there's never been anyone better at conducting interviews.

 

Sabu (w/The Sheik) def Mr. JL in 3:25- How about a little ECW action in the middle of this WCW PPV? Crazily enough both guys were signed to WCW at the time, but Sabu's tenure would only last a few weeks. JL is Jerry Lynn in a mask. Sabu charges the ring and it's on. JL hits an enzuguri that sends Sabu to the floor. Baseball slide. Sabu shrugs it off, whips JL into the guardrail, and hits a springboard moonsault that takes out both JL and Sheik! JL ducks a charge and Sabu splats on the floor. JL dive off the top rope to the floor! Back in JL dodges a moonsault and hits one of his own for 2. Sit out powerbomb for 2. JL crashes in the corner after a dodge. Sabu slingshot legdrop for 2. He goes up again but JL grabs him and German suplexes him off the ropes. Another top rope climb and Sabu does a victory roll with both guys on the top rope for 2. JL dropkicks Sabu off the top rope down to the floor. Sabu gets the edge again out there, rolls JL back in, and hits the springboard splash for the pin. After the bell Sheik throws a fireball in JL's face just because. Crazy ECW spotfest sprint that the WCW crowd had no idea how to react to. **1/4

Next up the Dungeon of Doom is joining us live. Yay. The Master's styrofoam throne has been transported into the arena. He shouts some stuff about a total eclipse and walking on galaxies or something. Kevin Sullivan sounds almost normal after by comparison, talking about how Hogan's donning of "evil" black gear is going to corrupt his soul or something. Well, in the long run he actually got that right by accident. Usual DOD crap. They do mention, and Tony does after, that their "insurance policy" is here tonight. I could go into detail now, but that would spoil the hilariously awful fun to come later. After that the black-clad and mustache-less Hogan joins Mean Gene and Jimmy Hart to present the motorcycle contest winner with their prize in a bit that goes on way too long.

Ad for the next PPV, the first ever World War 3. 3 rings! Because why have two when you can have THREE! SIXTY man battle royale! The winner gets a world title shot. Well, that would change between now and then.

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def Meng (w/The Taskmaster) by DQ in 13:14- Meng's look sure has changed since he joined the DOD. Commentary is still speculating if Luger is a DOD plant or not. If he is he's sure is playing the very long game. Luger jumps before the bell. It's been all go tonight hasn't it. Gut stomp and he slingshots Meng into the corner. Meng pounds back and chops Luger. Luger gets a boot up in the corner and clotheslines Meng 360 to the floor. Meng and Sullivan have a discussion on the floor and Luger posts Meng. Back in Luger works the arm for about .6 of a second before Meng forgets about it. Luger ducks a clothesline, tries a back suplex but Meng twists in midair to cover Luger for 2. Meng piledriver for 2. Luger fights out of a chinlock and hits a hard crossbody that Meng also jumped in the air during for 2. Meng back suplex. Luger is tossed out. Sullivan goes over, but instead of attacking Luger he talks to him. More very slow Meng offense back in. Luger dodges a dropkick. He backdrops Meng onto the apron and suplexes him back in. Meng no sells clotheslines. Luger finally drops him with one. Backdrop and more clotheslines. Powerslam. Meng gets the GOLDEN spike out of his boot and pokes Luger in the throat with it. Luger drops like drunk panties at a frat party. Meng covers, but Sullivan comes in and breaks the pin up? It looked like he kicked Luger, but the ref DQ's him for kicking Meng and Luger gets the win. Commentary speculates that Sullivan wants Luger to wrestle Savage later tonight as Meng and Sullivan argue. 3/4*

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Arn Anderson and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman by DQ in 17:09- Pillman attacked Flair during his match with Arn at Fall Brawl to get the win for Arn. We found out later that Arn had recruited Pillman to begin the reformation of the Horsemen. They're announced as the Horsemen for this match. Sting comes out by himself with Flair nowhere to be seen after the reported attack before the show and he starts the match off with Arn even though he's partnerless. Hammerlock exchange. The crowd chants "We want Flair". Sting agrees and Arn plays a little violin for the crowd. The Horsemen try a double team but Sting fights them both off and they regroup on the floor. Sting kips up out of Arn hair pulls. Kick and faceplant. Another double team is fought off and the Horsemen restrategize on the floor. Pillman tags in, slaps Sting and quickly bails to the floor. Sting chases. Arn tries to ambush but Sting is one up on him and clotheslines both guys. Back in Pillman offers a handshake. Sting takes it and kicks Pillman. Long delayed press slam. Pillman scurries to the corner to tag out. Arn is reluctant. They do a little more planning in the corner. Arn hits some clubbing blows. Sting counters a piledriver, slingshotting Arn into Pillman, who was set up on the top rope! Sting tosses Pillman off the top into the guardrail! Jabs for Arn. Arn goes deep in his old playbook, ramming Sting's head into his own partners to get Sting down. Flair's out! He's in street clothes and has a giant bandage on his forehead but he's here! Pillman works Sting over on the floor while the ref gets Flair under control and on the apron. Pillman chops Sting back in. Sting fights out of the corner but the tag is cut off. Flair comes in and hits Arn with his shoe. The Horsemen do a rocket launcher but Sting gets his knees up. Arn JUST cuts the tag off and back suplexes Sting. He tries for a leverage pin and gets crotched on Sting's knees. Again Arn manages to hold Sting back from tagging. Flair chases Pillman around the ring. Arn abdominal stretch. Pillman comes in and continues the beatdown while mocking Flair. Single leg crab and cover for 2. Flair charges in again. Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster! Flair breaks the pin up. Pillman puts on a leg scissors as both Horsemen work on Sting's knee a bit. Arn hooks on a bear hug. After arm drops Sting bell rings out. Again the Horsemen just keep him from tagging. Corner beatdown. Sting fights out. Big collision and everyone's down except Flair. And the ref. Sting finally gets the tag! Flair charges in, does his usual warm up rope hit......AND PUNCHES STING! RIC FLAIR AND THE HORSEMEN HAVE TRICKED STING AGAIN! Holy crap I'm laughing so hard. Fool me once shame on me, fool me seventeen times....well, Sting should be expecting it by now is all I'm saying. Flair pulls the bandage off his forehead and he's just fine! The whole attack was a ruse. The ref calls for the DQ as the now three Horsemen beat Sting down before another ref comes in to get them away. Good match, great angle. Flair fooling Sting never gets old. ***1/4

Mean Gene is in full outrage mode. Flair grabs the mic away from him. "Now we go to school!". The band is back together, baby! They need a fourth to round out the numbers, and that would happen soon enough.

 

Sumo Monster Truck Match- WCW presents another one of the most awful ideas ever put on a wrestling TV show. Before Hogan and Giant have their scheduled world title match later tonight, they're doing this monster truck thing. So, they're up on the roof of Cobo Hall, five stories up, which is adjacent to Joe Lewis Arena, their trucks are welded together at the front bumpers, and the goal is to push your opponent's entire truck (both axles, not just one) out of the sumo circle that's been set up. There's also supposed to be two randomly placed "charges" that if run over will explode and "disable" a truck. This is being presented as live, but it was actually all pretaped the night before. Tony is the smart man and takes his leave for this match. Heenan is joined by Eric Bischoff and the creator of the original Bigfoot monster truck, Bob Chandler, who also is supposed to have designed Hogan's truck. Commentary goes through a whole bunch of truck gearhead stats. Put simply, they're big. Really really big. There's also a ton of "somebody's going to die" teasing, mostly centered around what happens if one of those randomly placed charges get run over. We get underway and it's explained that there's actually co-drivers in each truck controlling the rear wheels. Apparently their names and faces don't matter. They're even framed out of the in-truck shots. At one point the back of Hogan's truck is pushed out of the circle and something goes boom. I guess that was one of the charges. It doesn't do anything. Typical WCW. After way too long Hogan pushes Giant's truck out with no drama or fanfare. A pissed off Giant gets out and confronts Hogan on the edge of the roof. They start fighting. Hogan pushes out of a choke and Giant falls off the roof! He's dead, Jim. Commentary is aghast. Well except for Chandler who doesn't seem to know or care what's going on. Heenan asks the logical question, what side did Giant fall on, the street side or the water side into the river? Bischoff gives the infamous answer "You've got a parking lot and you've got a river, what difference does it make?". You can physically see Heenan's give a shit leave his body as he reacts to that sentence. Still, a man might be dead, oh well, the show must go on.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 5:23- Back to Tony and Heenan on commentary. The crowd is almost completely pro-Savage for this. There's a discussion after the bell and Luger offers a handshake. Savage attacks him instead! Luger clothesline out of the corner. Jimmy Hart comes out to ringside. Luger pounds away while commentary is still preoccupied with finding out what condition the Giant is in. Savage gets some gut punches but Luger stays in control. Savage gets tossed out. Luger double ax handle off the apron. Savage reverses and Luger takes guardrail and stair shots. Clothesline to Luger's back in the ring. Luger counters Savage coming off the top rope. Hart gets up on the apron and starts up a conversation with Nick Patrick. Luger tries a pin with illegal rope leverage but Hart is still distracting. Savage reverses a whip sending Luger into Hart, knocking him off the apron. The top rope elbow hits and we're done here. That was pretty pointless, especially with what's about to happen. 1/2*

Heenan is still freaking out over the Giant and leaves commentary. And he's back. For those of you that missed the end of the truck fight and roof fall 10 minutes earlier on the show that you paid to watch, here it is again. In full. After that Heenan freaks out some more, and brings some good continuity into it by saying how close he was with Giant's dad Andre.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: The Giant (w/The Taskmaster) def Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) by DQ in 14:30- Hogan comes out first looking distraught and takes the mic. He says "What just happened wasn't supposed to happen" and calls it a terrible accident. But never mind all that, the Giant is here! Without a scratch on him. Also completely dry so unless he hopped in an industrial dryer he must not have ended up in the river. How did he survive? Which side did he fall off of? Questions we'll never have the answers to, because shut up. One other thing to note here- this is Paul Wight's first official match ever. In the main event on PPV. Hogan takes his bandana off and he has paint on his forehead the same as Taskmaster's. Giant no sells a boatload of punches like he no sold that roof fall. After about a dozen Hogan finally starts to stagger him. Hogan tries a slam and of course it fails miserably. Giant goes to work with clubbing blows, back rakes, chops and corner chokes. Hogan fights back in a test of strength knucklelock. They dance around for a minute looking lost before Giant hits a back elbow and slam. Hogan dodges a legdrop and does a mini Hulk up. Buckle shots and mounted punches from Hogan. Here come the back rakes. Corner clothesline. Giant gets clotheslined 360 the floor and sells falling out of the ring more than he did falling off a five story building. Sullivan leads Giant to the aisle to leave. Hogan chases and runs them into each other. Shoulderblocks in the ring wake Giant up again. Giant backbreaker. Time for the inevitable bear hug. After a bit Hogan punches out only to have Giant pound him down again and back to the bear hug. Arm drops and Hogan powers out again. He runs into a goozle. Giant choke slam! Hulk Up time. 3 punches, big boot, big man slam, legdrop. The ref is down! Did Jimmy Hart do that? Hogan brings Hart in and Hart denies it. OK, everything's good. They help the ref back up. When Hogan turns around Hart pushes the ref down again and hits Hogan with the belt! Jimmy Hart turns on Hogan! Giant puts the bear hug back on. Savage and Luger run out to help. But wait! Here comes the "insurance policy". Yup. It's................THE YETAYYYYYY! THE YETAY IS HERE! (It's supposed to be Yeti but that's the way Tony pronounces it so I'm going with it) With all those bandages it should be the Mummy. He's even taller than the Giant. Meanwhile, lost in that madness Luger is attacking Savage. I guess he was with the heels after all. Giant and YetAY put Hogan in a double bear hug sandwich. YetAY is moving his hips around way too much for my liking. I don't want to know what's going on under those bandages. Luger puts Hogan in the torture rack to confirm his turn. Savage also gets sandwich humped and racked. The ref is back up and calls for a DQ. The announcement is Giant wins by DQ. But Hart attacked Hogan. Surely that means Hogan should have won, and don't call me Shirley. The "logic" here is that because Hart was on Hogan's side when the match started, Hart's interference means the Giant wins. Giant takes the belt with him while Buffer makes it clear that titles do NOT change hands on a DQ. Hogan and Savage put themselves back together as the show ends. 1/4*

Buckle up kids, this is where it gets complicated. The next night on Nitro Hart revealed he put a clause in the match contract stating that the title could, in fact, change hands on a DQ. Giant is now the world champion, ending Hogan's title reign at 469 days, the longest WCW/NWA world title reign since Ric Flair's '80s heydays. The lawyers conferred on this, and the week after that on Nitro Giant was stripped of the title due to all the controversy and it was determined that the winner of the inaugural World War 3 60 man battle royale would be the new champion.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The majority of the wrestling is still horrible and the Dungeon of Doom is shit beyond redemption, other than the Giant who does have potential even if they're pushing him too hard too soon, but outside of that this show has the first real glimpse of the "swerve a minute" main event philosophy that will become standard in WCW over the next year and help catapult them to #1. For a time. That's the problem with basing your whole product on constant shocks and surprises, it works in the short term but isn't sustainable over the long haul, something you'll be reading a lot more from me and in more detail as we get further into the era. Everything involving the Horsemen reformation is great though, something I'm sure Flair was handling himself without head booker Kevin Sullivan being involved. Historically this is a fairly important signpost show leading to what WCW will become in 1996, for better or worse.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Ground Zero '97: In Your House

Legacy Review

Ground Zero '97: In Your House

September 7, 1997 from the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, KY

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

After a little over two years of In Your House shows being discounted 2 hour PPVs on the months there's not one of the "Big 5" shows (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, King of the Ring, Summerslam, Survivor Series), all WWF PPVs become 3 hours and full price starting with this show. It's also the start of the phasing out of the In Your House name as it's now secondary to the monthly name. This is also the only PPV to use the Ground Zero name.

The opening video focuses on the new Undertaker/Shawn Michaels feud after Summerslam and the transformation of Shawn into "the most hated man in the WWF". Per Shawn, "You're either with me or against me". Well, only a Sith thinks in absolutes so there you go. Case closed. It's not mentioned in the video but D-Generation X has also come together, with Triple H, Chyna and enforcer Rick Rude all joining Shawn. Despite the In Your House name being pushed down the ladder the house set is still being used. The old red, white and blue ring ropes are also making a temporary comeback, likely because it's Labor Day weekend.

Brian Pillman def Goldust (w/Marlena) in 11:06- Pillman having to wear a dress on Raw after losing at Summerslam was only the start of this feud. It's gotten completely nuts. Pillman is now pulling the Ric Flair, saying he was with Marlena before Dustin was (something everyone says is true), and then he drops a bomb: Dustin's 3 year old daughter Dakota is ACTUALLY PILLMAN'S LOVE CHILD! Yes, the soap opera-ization of wrestling is in full gear. Also I can't see how anyone can watch angles like this and think the Attitude Era doesn't start until '98. We're there already. With all that happening, the stipulations for tonight's match are- if Pillman loses, he leaves the WWF FOREVER; if Goldust loses, Pillman gets Marlena for 30 days and 30 nights. Goldust jumps Pillman on the ramp as Pillman's coming in. Inverted atomic drop and clothesline in the ring, followed by mounted punches. Pillman begs off then chokes Goldust with his shirt. Chops. Pillman jumps out to stalk Marlena and Goldust attacks him from behind. More Pillman chops. Goldust blocks a Pillman bulldog and Pillman lands crotch first on the top rope. Pillman walks and Goldust follows. Goldust suplex on the entrance ramp. He crotches Pillman on the ring post. After a few shots to Pillman's oft-injured knee Goldust tries for the bulldog. Pillman counters. Backdrop. Double chinlock from Pillman. Goldust electric chairs out. Back elbow in the corner from Pillman. He goes up top but Goldust hits the ropes and Pillman gets crotched for the third time tonight. He's going to need an icepack down there. Goldust tosses Pillman off the top rope down to the guardrail. Marlena slaps Pillman. Pillman counters a superplex. Goldust dodges a missile dropkick. He hits the Curtain Call, but Pillman pushed Hebner down. Cover but no ref. Marlena gets on the apron and tries to hit Pillman with her purse. Pillman blocks it, takes the purse, waffles Goldust with it, and covers for 3! Marlena is devestated. Pillman drags her away as she tries to fight him off. That was better than their Summerslam match but not by much. *1/4

Lawler's got Marlena's purse. He opens it up and there's a brick in it! As Bobby Heenan once said, you never know when you'll need a brick. We go backstage to see Pillman throw Marlena into a car and drive off with Goldust trying to chase. In classic Russo fashion this was supposed to lead to the big swerve of Marlena voluntarily joining Pillman. Sadly, the angle was never completed as Pillman passed away in his hotel room the night before the October PPV Badd Blood.

 

"Too Sexy" Brian Christopher def Scott Putski by ref stoppage in 4:45- We've got a couple of second generation wrestlers making their PPV debut here. Christopher is Jerry Lawler's son, though in a fun angle Lawler denies it on air while everyone else drops endless hints that it's true. He'd go on later to be half of the popular Attitude Era tag team Too Cool. Putski is the son of WWF legend Ivan Pustski, who never really amounted to much and had already had his career peak of winning multiple titles in the old GWF in the early '90s. JR mentions in passing this is a Light Heavyweight match. The crowd chants "Jerry's kid" after the bell. Christopher stalls, then tries to jump but Putski was waiting for him. Corner clothesline. A dropkick sends Christopher to the floor. Back in Putski hits some armdrags. Christopher blocks a hiptoss and hits a clothesline. Putski catches Christopher coming off the top rope. Hurricanrana for 2. Christopher hits a Skull Crushing Finale like faceplant. Clotheslines from Putski. Christopher hits a German suplex and tosses Putski to the floor. Christopher plancha that was pretty eh. He hit Putski with his back. Putski is down on the floor, holding his knee and barely moving. The ref counts, then goes out to check on him and calls for the bell. The medical team comes out and we get a shot showing Putski's left kneecap currently in the vicinity of his mid-thigh. I'd call that a legit injury. He's stretchered out while Lawler raises Christopher's hand and crows on the mic because he's not his son don't you even dare insinuate that. The match was OKish before being cut short. I can't fully criticize because I've never had an injury like that, but the unwritten creed among wrestlers is you always finish the damn match no matter what. Putski didn't, and he never wrestled another match for WWF. 3/4*

 

Triple Threat Match: Savio Vega def Faarooq and Crush in 11:37- Vince Russo's gang wars continue, as the three current gang leaders meet in one of WWF's first ever true Triple Threat matches. They're still trying to figure out how to make them work and frankly these aren't the guys to be trusting with figuring it out. All three are alone without their gangs too. Small note of significance: it's not mentioned at all during the match but during the prematch video package we see Rocky Maivia is back from injury and has joined the Nation of Domination. Crush tries to attack before the bell but the other two gang up on him. Crush double clothesline. Faarooq gets a boot up in the corner on Crush and Vega rolls him up on the rebound. Faarooq breaks it up. A belt has been introduced and everyone gets a taste of it. After a hip toss sequence both guys try to pin Vega. Faarooq low blow on Crush. Spinebuster on Vega for 2. Crush works Vega over a bit. Powerslam on Faarooq for 2. 3 way slugfest. Vega heel kick on Crush. Faarooq gets knees up on a Vega splash. More pins are broken up. Crush chinlock on Vega. Faarooq comes off the top rope with a headbutt to Crush's back and covers for 2. Crush electric chair on Faarooq. Vega quickly covers for 2. Crush inverted atomic drop on Vega and both guys cover for 2. Vega gives Faarooq the worst swinging neckbreaker ever. They went in completely opposite directions. Vega gets beat down by Faarooq while Crush decides it's super important to tie his hair back. Then he pushes Faarooq aside and backbreakers Vega. Crush and Faarooq work out a deal and double suplex Vega. Both guys cover him but the ref says you can't do that. Vega gets tossed out and Faarooq attacks Crush. Crush and Faarooq try to beat each other while Vega keeps breaking the pins up. Crush and Vega team up for a spike piledriver on Faarooq. Crush clotheslines Vega to the floor. Heart punch on Faarooq. Vega comes back in, hits Crush with his spinning heel kick, and covers him for the pin. Nothing about that worked. The match was little more than a lethargic series of pin breakups, and without the large gangs brawling with each other the crowd didn't give two shits. 1/4*

 

Max Mini def El Torito in 9:21- And now for something completely different. As part of the limited deal WWF had with AAA back at the beginning of the year they're getting some of the lucha midget wrestlers over for some variety on the card. Torito has bull horns on his mask and charges around on his entrance like a bull. Mini is billed at a scant 86 pounds and is called the smallest athlete in the world. Wonder if this is a Light Heavyweight match too? Some flippydo counters at the start from Mini and he hits a couple of spinning flying headscissors. Torito goes to the floor. Mini somersault plancha! Back in Torito pounds away with his huge size advantage. In terms of midget wrestling this is almost Rey Mysterio vs Big Show. Mini dodges a senton and works a wristlock. Torito bites Mini's ass! He's a bull I guess. Stiff kicks from Torito. Mini dodges a corner charge and they do the same wristlock/ass biting sequence again. Mini gets pissed at the ref for letting it happen. Mini bites the ref's ass! The ref chases him around and out of the ring! How is that not a DQ? Mini runs around commentary, then hops in Lawler's lap! He puts Lawler's crown on! JR asks if this reminds Lawler of when Brian Christopher was a kid. After that bit of fun Mini flips back in the ring, right into a kick to the face. Torito hits the senton this time. Mini hurricanrana! Cover for 2. Torito powerbomb for 2. Mini sunset flip for 2. Torito hits a huge clothesline. Mini chops Torito down with clotheslines of his own. Armdrags and Torito is on the floor again. Mini with a springboard moonsault! He got some serious air time on that for someone of his stature. Back in Torito crashes into the corner. Mini hurricanrana off the top rope. He hits another sunset flip and that gets the pin! Fun stuff. Mini sure is a little dynamo in there. Reminds me a bit of Taiji Ishimori. He's only slightly smaller than Ishimori is too. ***

We get a recap of Steve Austin's injury at Summerslam, followed by video from Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter (the new on-screen authority figure due to Gorilla Monsoon's health troubles) saying Austin claims he can wrestle but WWF won't risk it and he wants Austin in the ring at Ground Zero to vacate the tag titles. Slaughter flat says Austin has "more guts than brains". They're letting Austin keep the Intercontinental title for now but that would be vacated the next night on Raw. Back live and Slaughter is in the ring with JR. Dude Love comes out first. He says he's doing this reluctantly, he thought about defending the titles by himself (something Foley would end up doing at a future PPV) but it's thanks to Austin that he got them at all so he's going to respect that and hands the belt over. Next out is Austin to what's becoming the Austin pop. He flips off JR and goes nose to pointed chin with Slaughter. Austin takes the mic from JR, tells Vince to take that stupid look off his face, he says he can wrestle so he can wrestle and the whole WWF is out to screw him. He drops the belt at Slaughter's feet and tells him to drop and give him 20. And that's an order! Slaughter picks the belt up without incident. JR takes the mic back and tells Austin no one wants this, we want to see him wrestle but the company isn't willing to risk permanent paralysis for it. Stunner for JR! Love holds Austin back from giving Slaughter one. Austin flips Slaughter off as he leaves. Vince leaves commentary in a fury. JR gets carried to the back. When Vince gets back to commentary he says "Austin's a jackass!". Could this have been done on Raw? Sure, but it got Austin on the PPV, and Austin is so great and on the talking run of his life so getting him on the PPV while he's hurt however they can is the right call. The injury to Austin was bad in terms of it kept him from wrestling for a while, and while he was on a massive hot streak of good to great PPV matches too, but in the long run it might have helped. This is without a doubt the early version of the "Austin vs WWF corporate world" and Austin vs Vince feuds that would take over most of the product in '98 and give them the final huge push to get ahead of WCW and the NWO again, this time for good.

 

Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the vacant WWF Tag Team Championship: The Headbangers def The Godwinns, The Legion of Doom and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart in 17:19- Just Vince and Lawler on commentary for the rest of the show. The Headbangers are replacements for Austin and Dude Love. Thrasher and Phineas start. After a shoulderblock standoff they hit the ropes with Thrasher getting a counter into a roll up for 2. Thrasher tags Henry to try to make the Godwinns go at it. Phineas says nah and tags Mosh. Henry and Mosh stand and stare at each other forever. Do something! Finally they lock up. Mosh gets a hiptoss and armdrag. Headbanger double team. Animal tags in but gets caught in the Godwinn corner. Henry and Animal collide and don't move a muscle. Henry gets tossed to the floor. Hawk comes down and punches him. The Godwinns and LOD still have a thing going on. Henry's had enough and tags Mosh. Animal powerslams him. Hawk clothesline off the top. Press slam. Bulldog refuses to tag Hawk. Hawk punches him and the ref counts that as a tag. OK then. Henry press slams Owen for 2. Owen enzuguri for 2. Animal goes in peril for a bit before getting his boot up on Phineas coming off the second rope. Hot tag to Hawk. The Godwinns break up the Doomsday Device. Animal grabs the Godwinns' bucket and swing it at anything that's moving. It's in plain view of the ref and LOD are DQ'd and out. Mosh works Phineas over a bit. Headbanger double team suplex for 2. Thrasher somersault plancha! Henry pulls the top rope down and Thrasher falls to the floor, going Headbanger in peril. He manages to get a sunset flip on Phineas and that gets a pin. The Godwinns are gone. Owen comes in with a gutwrench suplex and legdrop. They work Mosh to double team. Bulldog back elbow and delayed suplex. Owen missile dropkick for 2. Thrasher crossbody for 2. Owen neckbreaker. Thrasher and Bulldog try to do a counter but it ends up being a huge mess. Tags on both sides. Mosh runs wild. Owen and Bulldog try a double team but Owen hits Bulldog with a spinning heel kick. Here comes Austin again! Stunner on Owen! The Headbangers cover for the pin and the titles! Riding the hot hand I guess as that most late '90s of teams gets a big pop for the win. They go and celebrate in the crowd after. Like the triple threat match earlier this didn't come together well at all and there was a distinct lack of noticeable effort. The only team really capable of putting a good match on sat parked on the apron most of it. *1/2

Slaughter is in the back with an iced up and pissed off JR. He says he doesn't give a damn how popular Austin is, he can't get away with this shit. Yes, he really says shit. Lots of bleeps in this segment. He didn't come here to get beat on. "They can kiss my 3:16 ass. Tell Vince if this shit happens again my ass is gone." I think this is the maddest I've ever heard JR until Jay White accidentally knocked over his announce table and knocked him down at one of the early US shows while JR was still commentating for New Japan.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def The Patriot in 19:19- Bret at the peak of his Canadian pride anti-American heel run against the Patriot is an obviously logical way to go for a placeholder defense. I mentioned the GWF earlier, the Patriot was their big Hulk Hogan-like star in the early '90s. He also had some success in WCW's tag team division in the early Bischoff years and had a couple of decent stints in All Japan. His overly serious old school character was not a good fit for where the WWF is at the moment though, and he wouldn't last long. He's also openly being called Del Wilkes and even did an interview without his mask during the build. Yes, that's Kurt Angle's music Patriot is coming out to. It was originally written for him. Both guys prop their flags up in the corners. Bret jumps before the bell! That's different. Back suplex and gut headbutt from Bret. He puts Patriot in the tree of woe and stomps away. Chokes and bites from Bret. Patriot reverses a corner whip and hits a clothesline. Dropkick and another clothesline sends Bret to the floor. He stalls on the floor to regroup, then hides in the corner when he gets back in before running into armdrags. Patriot spends the next few minutes working Bret's arm over. Bret shakes the arm off after a corner break then comes out with kicks to Patriot's knee. Bret starts picking the knee apart. Spinning toe hold, pretty much a .5 figure four. Post wraparound figure four! Bret posts Patriot's knee. The Bulldog is out to ringside. Bret Russian leg sweep for 2. Backbreaker. Patriot blocks a suplex and hits his own! How dare you break up the Five Moves of Doom! Patriot sunset flip for 2. DDT for 2. Bret gets a knee up in the corner but is caught coming off the second rope. Bulldog trips Patriot. Bret rolls him up off the distraction for 2. Patriot pushes Bret, who knocks Bulldog off the apron. Patriot roll up for 2. The crowd bit pretty hard on that one. Uncle Slam (a full nelson slam) hits! Cover and Bulldog makes a save. Patriot hops out to discuss it with him. Vader is out! I honestly don't remember what beef he had with the Harts but he attacks Bulldog and all four guys brawl on the floor. Vader whips Bret into the steps. Bret wants a DQ but we must have Red Shoes reffing this one because he's letting everything go. Patriot goes back on the attack in the ring. Big boot. Patriot Missile! Bret kicks out! Atomic drop/back suplex combo for 2. Bret counters with a hot shot! They muffed it a little as Patriot hit the middle rope instead of the top one, you can see Bret trying to save it but he can't. Bulldog. Elbow off the second rope. You knew those Five Moves of Doom would be completed somehow. They swap corner punches and Patriot accidentally hits the ref. Another Uncle Slam! The ref is slow to get over to count and Bret gets a foot on the rope. Midring collision. Patriot blocks a roll up. Small package reversals for near falls. Bret bump! Patriot hooks on a Sharpshooter! Bret reverses it! He's the master. Patriot is close to the ropes but can't reach far enough to grab one and has to give it up. Perfectly solid Bret Hart title defense and probably the Patriot's best match, at least in North America. Bless the crowd for thinking Patriot actually had a chance of winning. They were so innocent back then. ***1/2

After the bell Bret continues the assault. Piledriver. He breaks Patriots US flagpole, tears the flag off and chokes Patriot with it. Things get so heated Bret even punches Pat Patterson. But he's Canadian too! I know he's French Canadian but that still counts.

 

The Undertaker and "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels no contest in 16:20- Shawn may be the big heel besides Bret now but he still has young female fans. Oh yeah, this is the match that Shawn's in ring pyro goes off late and he doesn't take it well, mocking it then doing the jerk off gesture. This is the first singles meeting between these two in what would become a legendary decade spanning feud. Shawn freaks out when Taker makes the lights snap back on and hides behind ref Mike Chioda. Taker punches Chioda out before he can ring the bell to start the match! It's going to be one of those nights. Shawn refuses to wrestle and tries to run. Slaughter comes out and forces him back in. Chioda is back up. Good, we can get this thing started for.....Taker scoops Chioda up and throws him down to the floor on Shawn! Guess not. Shawn tries to get away again, crawling up the ramp all the way to the house set. He tries to open the house door but it's locked! Taker press slams Shawn on the ramp! Into the flower bed goes Shawn! A punch sends Shawn rolling all the way down the ramp. We've already seen Shawn at his worst and best tonight. Jerk Shawn getting pissy about his pyro, and great wrestler Shawn selling like mad for Taker. Taker chokes Shawn with a TV cable. Shawn tries to use the bell but can't. Into the rail goes Shawn. Taker punches Shawn onto the French announce table. Shawn stands on the table, and a Taker punch sends him down into the rail again! Finally back in the ring and Shawn begs off. The beating continues. Taker covers, but I don't know what he's expecting there because he's the one that killed the damn ref. Shawn flip! He falls back to the floor. Finally Earl Hebner joins the match. Shawn begs him to end it or DQ Taker but Hebner tells him to get in the ring and get it on. Taker stalks Hebner. Shawn uses the opening to chop block Taker. Hebner rings the bell to finally start the match officially. Yes, everything up to now was extracurricular and the match clock is only starting now. Shawn tries to hit mounted punches but Taker pushes him off. Goozle! Shawn kicks Taker's knee. Taker catches Shawn coming off the top and clotheslines him 360 to the floor. Shawn sunset flips back in but Taker lifts him up by the throat. Shawn gets kicked up in the corner and crotched. Clothesline and cover for 2. Taker cranks Shawn's arm. Shawn counters old school and now Taker is crotched. Baseball slide. Shawn plancha! Taker catches him! He posts Shawn's back. Shawn tries to get away in the ring but Taker gives him a low blow and goes to work on his back. Mile high backdrop. As is mandatory in this era Shawn's ass cheeks make an appearance outside his tights. Taker tries another backdrop but Shawn counters it with a swinging neckbreaker. Taker sits up and Shawn bails. He gets a chair. Taker cuts it off with a kick. He takes the chair. Hebner takes it away! That's a brave man. Shawn dropkicks Taker in the back and Hebner gets knocked down. Flying forearm. Elbow off the top. A second one. Cover. Hebner crawls over, slow counts, and Taker kicks out. Rick Rude is out. He tosses Shawn a pair of brass knucks and leaves. Shawn wallops Taker with them! Cover but Hebner's down again. Shawn stomps on him in frustration. Ref #3, Jack Doan, makes his way in. I can picture all the refs in the back drawing lots and the loser having to get in the match. Doan counts and Taker kicks out again. Shawn punches Doan out. Triple H and Chyna are now out too. HHH pounds on Taker and throws him knee first into the steps. Shawn runs Hebner into the turnbuckle. I think he's done for the night. Shawn continues the beatdown. On Taker, not the refs. Taker tries to fight back but Shawn clotheslines him back to the floor and the waiting fists of HHH. Chyna gets a shot in. That wakes Taker up. He fights with HHH and Chyna. Shawn comes off the top rope onto Taker's back. He chokes Taker with a cord. HHH gives the crowd a crotch chop. Back in Shawn squeaks out of a Tombstone. Taker blocks a superkick. Google and corner pounding. Taker confiscates Shawn's knucks. He hits Shawn with them! Taker takes HHH out too. Cover. Hebner, who's amazingly still alive, crawls over. Shawn kicks out! Taker choke slams Hebner. NOW he's done. Speed run and Taker hits the flying clothesline. Ref #4, Tim White, runs in and says enough of this shit and throws the whole match out. After him there's probably no refs left. Taker choke slams Trips into Shawn! Superkick! Taker gets tied up in the ropes Andre the Giant style. DX gets another chair but Taker big boots it into Shawn's face. HHH saves Shawn from a Tombstone. The officials gaggle is out. HHH gets Tombstoned. Now the locker room empties as everyone runs in to stop the fight. Everyone gets separated.....until Taker runs and dives over the top rope onto Shawn and all the other wrestlers on the floor! I think that was the first time ever Taker did his big swan dive. After that order is finally restored as Taker closes the show in the ring. Well. That was eventful. Even on PPV the non-finish works to keep the feud going and there was clear chemistry between the two. There's already getting to be diminished returns on all the ref murdering though after Shawn and Austin did basically the same thing back at King of the Ring. Still, the overall package was a lot of fun and these two clearly have even better matches in them. The next month at Badd Blood they'd have one for the ages, and not for the last time. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Pretty typical of the era in that everyone who you know will deliver delivers while everything else was pretty much crap. At least the best matches are backloaded to the end of the show. Keeping Austin on TV in any way they can while he's injured is most definitely a plus.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+