Wrestling World 2001

Legacy Review

Wrestling World 2001

January 4, 2001 from the Tokyo Dome

This year's show has a singular focus: a one night tournament to determine a new IWGP Heavyweight champion. No other title is on the line, a first and only for 1/4 Dome shows. Kensuke Sasaki won the title at the previous year's show and dominated the year, even winning the 2000 G1 Climax with the only blemish on his record a draw. To this day he's still the most recent wrestler to win the G1 while reigning champion. But lightning finally struck in October, when he lost to All Japan's Toshiaki Kawada in a non-title match on a NJPW/AJPW joint show. Sasaki, disgusted he lost to an outsider, agreed to vacate the title and a 6 man tournament was set up for New Japan's biggest show of the year to fill the vacant title. I'm honestly not sure how the byes were determined, but Kawada got one and Sasaki didn't, making his road to getting the title back even harder. Masahiro Chono got the other bye.

As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so only Japanese commentary for shows this old.

Quarterfinals: Kensuke Sasaki def Satoshi Kojima in 16:33- After a lockup standoff Sasaki goes straight into a Saito suplex out of a headlock. Kojima dodges a lariato and Sasaki falls all the way to the floor. Kojima teases....stops....TOPE SUICIDA from almost a standing position! When he gets back in the ring Kojima is bleeding from above his right eye after a bad landing. Sasaki's arm hit the guardrail on the floor and Kojima goes to work on it. Sasaki hits chops to get out of it. Suplex. Kojima jawbreaker/cutters of out a chinlock and goes back on the hurt arm. Senton. Sasaki blocks an armbreaker. Totally random, but I'm just now seeing Square has ads on the neutral white corner pads. Cool. Square or Squaresoft, now Square Enix, is the developer of, with apologies to many other franchises, my favorite video game franchise of all time, Final Fantasy. In 2001 they'd be in the middle of development of FF X on PS2. Anyway, I'm undistracted as Sasaki hooks Kojima up for a Scorpion Death Lock. Kojima fights it but Sasaki manages to get him turned over. Kojima gets to the ropes. Big chop exchange. Kojima cutters Sasaki's hurt arm. Some more focused arm work follows. Running corner elbow from Kojima. He hits the elbow off the top rope. Kneedrop on the arm. Sasaki attempts to fight it off but Kojima hits a dropkick off the second rope also targeting the arm. Sasaki tries to hulk up with chops. He catches a leg and slams Kojima, but Kojima hangs onto the arm all the way down and has an armbreaker applied! Sasaki gets to the ropes. Kojima hits the ropes but runs into a Sasaki powerslam! Sasaki tries a misdirection faceplant but Kojima anticipates it and runs Sasaki's arm into the corner! Kojima spinebuster for 2. Back to the arm again. Sasaki pulls him into a short arm lariato! Both sides lariatos from Sasaki. He goes for the northern lights buster but Kojima blocks it and turns it into a Michinoku Driver! Cover for 2. Kojicutter for 2. Lariato for 2. He stretches Sasaki's arm out again, almost into a Fujiwara armbar. Sasaki gets a foot in the white out of bounds area. Kojima pulls into an armbreaker but the ref forces a break. Kojima reverse DDT for 2. Sasaki blocks a lariato. Kojima goes again and it hits! Cover for a long 2. Sasaki arm flip slam! Lariato! Kojima absorbs it! Another one puts Kojima down! Northern lights buster! Instead of covering, Sasaki puts on a Boston crab. Kojima submits! Damn good match to get the tournament going. The crowd was into it more than any opening match on a 1/4 Dome show so far. Sasaki also now has a wounded arm to watch the rest of the tournament. ***3/4

 

Quarterfinals: Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Yuji Nagata in 16:45- Two of New Japan's fastest rising young stars in this one. I forgot to mention earlier, the TenCozy team of Tenzan and Kojima are also the reigning IWGP Heavyweight tag champs. They start out with some corner break jockeying and extended standing chain wrestling. Nagata eventually works Tenzan down and the back and forth continues on the mat. Tenzan escapes and reset. Chop exchange. Nagata hits forearms, Tenzan a headbutt and Mongolian chops. Nagata belly to belly suplex! A kick to Tenzan's head wobblelegs him and Nagata covers for 2. Stiff chest kicks from Nagata kicks off (no pun intended) a long sequence of kicks. Snap mare and a kick to the back of Tenzan's neck. Nagata hooks in a leg scissors and Tenzan gets to the ropes. Nagata continues work on Tenzan's leg and ankle. Tenzan goes to a desperation eye rake to get out. Snap mare and Tenzan drops some throat chops. Forearm exchange. Mongolian chop. Nagata blocks a second and hits a somersault kick! Tenzan pops out of the corner with a lariato and his own somersault kick. More Mongolian chops and corner lariatos. Kneedrop off the top for 2. He goes up again. Nagata joins him and hits a belly to belly superplex! More kicks. Enzuguri! Northern lights suplex for 2. Nagata puts a heel hook on! Tenzan gets to the ropes. Nagata ducks a lariato and hits a Thesz Press! He hooks Tenzan in a modified figure four! Tenzan fights to the ropes. More Mongolian chops. Nagata kicks at Tenzan's knee. Tenzan backdrop. He hits the headbutt off the top rope! Nagata kicks out! Dropkick to the leg from Nagata. He goes for the modified figure four again. Tenzan low blows him! Nagata low blow and roll up for 2! Tit for tat. He gets the modified figure four on again! Tenzan tries for the ropes but Nagata keeps him in the middle of the ring. After a bit Tenzan doesn't submit so Nagata lets go. More leg kicks. Both guys are standing and swinging haymakers. Chops, forearms, Mongolian chops, everything. Unloading the gun rack. Neither will go down. Tenzan lariato! Sit out tombstone! The moonsault hits, and Tenzan gets the win! Nothing against Tenzan, but booooo to Nagata losing early, he's one of my favorites from this period. Another good early tournament match. ***1/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Junior Stars def Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Shinya Makabe in 18:02- Junior Stars are a true all star tag team of longtime Liger rival and multi-time Junior Heavyweight champion Koji Kanemoto, and the current junior champ in his first reign Minoru Tanaka. Shinya Makabe, better known now as Togi Makabe, is making his Dome debut and I believe is still officially a Young Lion at this point. Takaiwa would soon leave New Japan to be a co-founder of Zero-One with Shinya Hashimoto, more on that later. I'm not sure why the titles aren't on the line here but whatever. Tanaka and Makabe start. Makabe looks so different with the basic Young Lion look. Especially the hair. After some stalemate wrestling Makabe gets some corner knees and a slam. Big chops from Takaiwa. Kanemoto and Takaiwa do some back and forth mat wrestling. Takaiwa muffs a slam a bit. The Stars both kick the piss out of Makabe. Tanaka dropkick and kip up. He and Makabe trade off some leg work. Makabe works Kanemoto down. More Takaiwa chops lead to a slugfest. Tanaka suplex and kneedrop of Takaiwa. Makabe chops and dropkick on Tanaka. The Stars take turns hitting chest kicks on Makabe. Kanemoto gets caught in the wrong corner and chopped down. Takaiwa powerslam. Kanemoto combo kicks put Takaiwa down. Takaiwa hits a DVD for 2. Kanemoto dragon screw! Takaiwa lariato and Kanemoto gets set up for a big double team move. Tanaka comes in and breaks it all up and the match breaks down a bit. Makabe whips Tanaka into the guardrail, then breaks up Kanemoto's ankle lock on Takaiwa. One punch from Kanemoto floors Makabe! Makabe ducks a kick and hits a German suplex! Spear! Not a great one though. It's funny how the spear has always been a transitional move in New Japan, but it's a finisher for multiple wrestlers in WWE because Vince loved it so much. Makabe and Takaiwa load up for the double team move they were trying before and hit it this time, a kind of doomsday device powerbomb. Then they hit Kanemoto with a lariat/northern lights suplex combo. Kanemoto kicks out! He blocks a Makabe suplex and hits a falcon arrow. Tags on both sides and we're DONNYBROOKING. Tanaka avoids a double team, hits a spinning heel kick on Makabe and backslides Takaiwa for a long 2. Takaiwa blocks a spinning heel kick. Makabe powerslam. After a long counter sequence Makabe hits another German. A second one with a bridge! Kanemoto just fights free of Takaiwa to break the pin up! Tanaka spins into an armbreaker! Takaiwa breaks that up. Makabe and Kanemoto have a stiff open hand slap exchange. Makabe comes out on top. German! Kanemoto rolls into the ankle lock! Makabe gets to the ropes. Tanaka dropkicks Makabe's leg and Kanemoto puts the ankle lock back on! Makabe taps! ***1/2

Takashi Iizuka def Kendo Kashin in 6:12- This is a rare cross-weight class singles battle, with Kashin a junior and Iizuka a heavyweight. It's also billed as "Technical Wrestling". We'll see how long that lasts. The first couple of minutes lives up to the billing with a very extended back and forth chain wrestling sequence. Young Red Shoes is the ref for this match, working his way up the card. They both go to the floor and Iizuka whips Kashin over the barricade and into a VIP area! Guess the technical part of the match is over. Iizuka slam back in for 2. An armbreaker is blocked. Kashin gets on top and fights to get a leverage pin. Iizuka escapes and reset. Kashin hits European uppercuts and Iizuka chops. Kashin blatant low blow kick! Then he kicks Iizuka in the head. Red Shoes is not at all happy, but come on, it's Red Shoes, he's not DQ'ing anybody. Kashin wedges Iizuka's legs in the corner and hits a Greco Roman Nut Kick. Iizuka gets out and mauls Kashin with forearms. Kashin rolls into an armbreaker. Iizuka gets to the ropes. Kashin superplex. Iizuka tries a whip but Kashin holds onto the arm and turns around into a sleeper! Iizuka gets in the ropes. Exploder suplex from Iizuka. He puts on a sleeper. Kashin taps! OK match. **

 

Semifinals: Kensuke Sasaki def Masahiro Chono in 11:28- Rough lockup to start. Shoulderblock standoff. Sasaki wins a second try. Suplex. Sasaki runs into a Yakuza kick! Chono hits knee strikes and elbow drops. ARMBAR! Sasaki hits rapid fire chops in the corner. Misdirection faceplant. Chono works into a headscissors on the mat, then gets back on Sasaki's wounded arm. Sasaki hits a flash dropkick. Chono gut kick and he puts on a butterfly lock. Sasaki backdrops out. Chono goes to the floor and stalls a bit. Back in he hits another Yakuza kick. Sasaki doesn't go down. Chono goes up top. Sasaki meets him and hits a superplex. Chono pops back up! Yakuza kick! Sasaki hits a powerslam. Now it's Chono's turn to hit a superplex. Sasaki pops back up and hits a lariato! Chono Yakuza kick to the hurt arm. Spinebuster into the STF! Sasaki slow crawls and manages to get to the ropes. He gets the arm flip slam, which is badly sold by Chono. But Chono rolls around and puts the STF on again! Another rope break. Lariatos from Sasaki and cover for a long 2. Powerbomb for 2. Piledriver. He puts on his dragon hold submission. (I guess that's what it's called, Japanese commentary always says that in English when he puts that on) Chono taps! **1/2

 

Semifinals: Toshiaki Kawada def Hiroyoshi Tenzan in 10:45- They charge into the lockup right at the bell. Tenzan hits headbutts then RUNS Kawada over with a shoulderblock. Mongolian chops. Kawada hits some hammy kicks, a slam and back kicks. Chop exchange that Tenzan stops dead with another headbutt that drops Kawada. Backdrop. Spinning heel kick. Kawada dodges the headbutt off the top. Tenzan is still up first, lays in some more headbutts and hits a tombstone. A second try and the top rope headbutt hits! Slow cover for 2. Tenzan superplex. Kawada collapses in the middle of the ring on a corner whip. Corner chops from Tenzan. Kawada swings a hard right hand and floors Tenzan! That gets a replay. Face kicks from Kawada. Running corner kick. Tenzan fights out of a hold attempt so Kawada kicks him right in the head. Tenzan grabs a leg on another kick attempt and gives Kawada a dragon screw! A second one! Modified figure four! Kawada gets to the ropes. Enzuguri from Kawada! Tenzan lariato! He goes up for the moonsault. Kawada kicks him from behind, lifts and gives him a back suplex for a long 2. Another Kawada enzuguri. Front enzuguri for 2. He goes for a powerbomb but Tenzan fights out. Another big kick to Tenzan's face. Another powerbomb cinch up. Tenzan tries to fight it but Kawada slowly gets leverage and hits it, then stacks Tenzan up for the pin. **3/4

 

Keiji Mutoh and Shinjiro Otani def Manabu Nakanishi and Jushin Thunder Liger in 5:44- Getting all the big names with nothing else to do on the card. This is Mutoh's big return to New Japan after being forced to disband NWO Japan after losing at the last 1/4 show, then spending most of 2000 in the US with WCW and taking time off to rehab injuries. He was supposed to have a singles match with Hayabusa from FMW tonight but Hayabusa was injured. Mutoh is also debuting his shaved head and goatee look in New Japan. This is in the short period where Liger and Otani were both moved up to the heavyweight division as part of a very unsuccessful experiment. In fact, Otani would be another defector to Hashimoto's Zero-One promotion as a co-founder soon after this show, a promotion he'd stay with the rest of his career. Liger is in his super cereal all black gear for the second straight 1/4 show. The previous year when he wore it he destroyed longtime rival Koji Kanemoto in less than 5 minutes. Nakanishi had been treading water at best since his massive upset win in the '99 G1. Mutoh and Otani jump as soon as intros are over and we're on. Otani hits a running corner kick and German on Liger while Mutoh drops his signature elbows on Nakanishi. As the ring clears Otani puts Liger in the torture rack, which is a bit of an FU to Nakanishi. Everyone's in again. Mutoh gives Nakanishi a dragon screw and Nakanishi rolls out to the floor. Mutoh suplex on Liger. Liger tries to fight back so Mutoh eye rakes him. Liger hits an enzuguri and tags out. Nakanishi/Mutoh chopfest. Mutoh grabs a kick and hits another dragon screw. Figure four! Otani cuts Liger off. Nakanishi does the slow crawl and gets to the ropes. Otani chops Nakanishi in the corner and starts to do his boot scrapes, until Nakanishi pops up and nails him with a spear! Spear for Mutoh! Otani dropkicks Nakanishi from behind. Powerbomb. He turns to hit the ropes but Nakanishi grabs him and German suplexes him! He puts Otani up in the torture rack. Mutoh comes in so Nakanishi throws Otani on Mutoh! Liger's tagged in and hits Otani with shoteis. Brain buster! Otani kicks out at ONE! He ducks another shotei, hooks up for a dragon suplex but quickly switches and gives Liger a German instead. Nakanishi breaks the pin up. He puts Mutoh in the rack while Otani gives Liger a spinning powerbomb for 2. Mutoh escapes and puts Nakanishi in an armbreaker. Otani cobra clutch on Liger! He gets Liger down and grapevines his body. Liger taps out! They did the absolute best they could with the little time they got. ***

 

Riki Choshu and Shinya Hashimoto no contest in 15:20- This one is really putting the special in special shingles matche. Hashimoto was New Japan's most dominant wrestler for the second half of the '90s and held the record for longest IWGP Heavyweight title reign. In '99 he started a feud with shoot fighter Naoya Ogawa that quickly turned nuclear intense and even crossed the business/real life personal line a few times, including the infamous incident at the '99 1/4 show. Hashimoto vowed to leave New Japan if he lost to Ogawa again, which he did in April 2000 and New Japan made him keep his word. It was a very strange ending for such a dominant run. As mentioned earlier Hashimoto put together his own promotion, Zero-One, but would still make the occasional New Japan appearance as a freelancer, including tonight. Choshu was one of New Japan's early stars in the '70s and '80s. He retired with much fanfare at the '98 1/4 show, but as usual in wrestling retirement didn't last long. He was also New Japan's booker in this era, though Inoki had a lot of say too. Absolutely epic atmosphere for the start of this match. The bell rings.....and Hashimoto refuses to get out of his corner. The ref says let's go. Choshu kicks him. Hashimoto isn't budging. More entreaties from the ref and he still won't move. Massive disrespect here. Finally Hashimoto deigns to get out of his corner.....and steps outside onto the entrance ramp. Oh the crowd doesn't like that at all. After more stalling Hashimoto gets back in and he's swinging! A kick puts Choshu down. Hashimoto follows with some ground and pound. Choshu stands back up for about a second and another kick puts him right back down. More ground pound and corner stomps. The ref forces Hashimoto to back off. Hashimoto punches the ref out! Good thing Tiger Hattori was already ringside as backup. He hops in and takes over. Nakanishi, who's part of the ringside New Japan contingent, gets on the apron and he's pissed. Hashimoto charges into a Choshu punch! Kicks and stiff punches from Choshu. Hashimoto rolls out. He takes his time on the floor, and takes off the MMA gloves he had been wearing to this point. Lockup back in and Hashimoto pounds away again. Open hand slap fest. The crowd is absolutely nuclear during this exchange. Choshu hits a Saito suplex! Lariato! Another one! Hashimoto won't drop! A third one drops him! Choshu is clearly favoring his lariato giving arm after those shots. Hashimoto kick wham DDT! He hits chops to Choshu's shoulder, clearly seeing that arm is bothering him. Choshu chops back. More Choshu lariatos and Hashimoto kicks. Choshu is down again and Hashimoto wants him to stand up and fight you scum sucking pig you son of a motherless goat. The last part might have been lost in translation (points for anyone who gets that movie reference). Choshu catches a kick and elbows Hashimoto's knee. Hashimoto hits the hurt arm again. Another long open hand slap exchange that ends in stalemate after both guys have no swings left. Hashimoto is up first and Hattori counts Choshu down. Choshu gets up at 9 and wobbles Hashimoto with a huge punch. Lariato! Both guys are down again. Hattori steps out to the ramp and consults Tatsumi Fujinami, who's on commentary, about something. When they get up both guys continue to swing haymakers. Hashimoto lariato. Fujinami waves from commentary, gets up and goes to ringside. Both guys are down again. Fujinami gets on the apron, flashes the X sign, and calls the match off. All the seconds get in as the wrestlers cool down. I guess it's because of Choshu's arm? I don't think there's ever been a definitive answer other than it was all a work, not a legit injury. Fujinami gets the mic and gives the crowd the Ferris Bueller "it's over, go home" speech. Oh shit, we still have a main event. Don't go home. The match was good while it lasted and incredibly stiff with a molten hot crowd, but that ending sucked. I guess no one wanted to take a loss. This is pure speculation on my part, but word is Hashimoto got a reputation in New Japan during his dominant run of being unwilling to do any jobs to anyone, which might have been part of the reason he was essentially let go and this might have been more of that. Again, that's me connecting dots that might or might not be on the same page, don't take it as gospel. ***

 

Tournament Final for the Vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki def Toshiaki Kawada in 10:30- Another big match atmosphere here as this is the tournament final everyone wanted to see. They charge in right at the bell and Kawada hits an enzuguri! Another one! Saito suplex for 2! After some Kawada kicks Sasaki backdrops out of a powerbomb attempt. Another Kawada enzuguri for 2. Chest kicks. Sasaki catches a kick and drops him! Lariato! Kawada face kick, Sasaki lariato, repeat again. Sasaki pulls Kawada up for a hard lariato that gets a replay. Powerbomb for 2. Kawada fights out of a German and hits a Pele kick. Sasaki powerslam. Open hand slap tradeoff. Kawada gets a German suplex! Lariato! Rapid fire open hand strikes from Kawada don't faze Sasaki at all. Snap mare and back kicks from Kawada. Kneedrops for 2. He puts on what looks like a variation of Sasaki's dragon hold. Sasaki goes down and Kawada covers for 2. More face kicks from Kawada. After a long struggle the powerbomb hits! Sasaki kicks out! More kicks and Kawada goes for the powerbomb again. Sasaki fights, lifts and spinebusters Kawada! Boston crab! This is where Sasaki winning a match with this earlier tonight turns out to be good booking, because now you believe he can win with it here too. After a long struggle Kawada manages to get to the ropes. The northern lights bomb is blocked! Kawada enzuguri! FULL SPEED DOUBLE LARIATO! Kawada goes down, Sasaki just manages to keep his footing. Kawada blocks a German by grabbing the ropes. Sasaki gives him a straight shot right in the back of the head, goes again and hits the German! Lariato! Kawada *just* kicks out! Northern lights bomb! Sasaki gets the pin and the title back! The crowd was ape shit for that whole finish sequence and the win. Amazing sprint. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The main event is the only thing approaching greatness, but the whole show is solid from top to bottom with everything being at least watchable to near good and carried literally start to finish by a superb nightlong performance from Sasaki in the tournament. It's also refreshingly free of the Inokism style that had been coming to the forefront the previous couple of years and plays more like a classic early/mid '90s NJPW show from before Inoki lost his booking mind in retirement. Sadly that wouldn't last. Overall it's one of the best pre-modern Wrestle Kingdom January 4th shows, but it is a little disappointing there were no other title matches.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

D-Generation X '97: In Your House

Legacy Review

D-Generation X '97: In Your House

December 7, 1997 from the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, MA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

It's a month after the Montreal Screwjob and the repercussions are still being felt. With the departure of Bret Hart and most of the Hart Foundation the DX duo of Shawn Michaels and Triple H, along with Chyna, are the clear focal point of the WWF product right now. We've got a pretty cool DX stage tonight for this show. For some reason the video quality is lower than most archival WWF shows. It's not horrible but it is noticeable.

Tournament Final for the Inaugural WWF Light Heavyweight Championship: Taka Michinoku def Brian Christopher in 12:02- This is inaugural only as WWF recognizes it. The original WWF Light Heavyweight title was created in 1981 for WWF's partner Mexican promotion UWA, and after UWA folded WWF didn't care about it so it bounced around Mexico and then Japan for years. It was even part of the J-Crown during its short run. In fact, the catalyst for the J-Crown being disbanded was WWF asking for the belt back. This is the same Taka Michinoku that works in New Japan today, formerly of Suzuki-Gun but now SG's been disbanded he's the frontman/mouthpiece for the new Just 4 Guys stable that are all former SG members. Young Taka has gotten over well with the US crowds thanks to his high flying style. Brian Christopher is Jerry Lawler's son, and they're doing a fun angle where he and Lawler both deny it but it's an open secret that it's true and JR needles Lawler about it all the time. Christoper tears up a "Taka" sign before the bell and wipes his ass with it. Classy. Lockup and Christoper gets a quick slam. Another lockup right into a Christoper armdrag. He's got a considerable size and strength advantage over Taka and showing it early. A "Jerry's kid" chant sets Christopher off. Taka tries an arm wringer but Christoper almost effortlessly hiptosses him. Corner dodges, Taka flips out of a German suplex attempt, ducks a clothesline, hits a spinning heel kick and dropkicks. A clothesline sends Christopher 360 to the floor. Taka running springboard crossbody! He almost flew *over* Christoper there. Taka tries to suplex Christopher back in but gets crotched instead. A Christopher running double ax handle sends Taka to the floor. He tries coming off the top but Taka dodges and Christopher crashes into the guardrail. Back in Christopher dodges a crossbody off the top and Taka does a great splat on the mat. Christopher's lip is busted open from hitting the rail and bleeding pretty good. Taka dodges in the corner. Swinging DDT off the second rope! Cover for 2. Hurricanrana! Christopher rolls to the floor. Taka asai moonsault! Lawler leaves commentary to check on the man that's absolutely positively not his son don't you dare get into that crap again. He wipes some of the blood away in a very dad like way. Taka dropkicks Christopher and he almost falls on Lawler! JR says Lawler is "like a little league father out there". Long speed run and Christopher blocks a monkey flip and plants Taka with a Skull Crushing Finale like slam. Sit out powerbomb. Slow arrogant cover. Taka counters for 2. Christopher dropkick off the second rope to the back of Taka's head. Christopher goes full on into cocky crowd playing strutting mode. He hits a fameasser and backbreaker for 2, then tries to get Taka fired back up with a bunch of arrogant slaps. Clothesline. Christopher is clearly playing with his food rather than seriously trying to get the win. Slow cover for 2. He drops some very Lawler like fistdrops. Taka flips out of a back suplex, standing switches, Christopher hits a German. More crowd playing and a legdrop for 2. Powerslam. Christopher finally decides it's time to finish it. Taka dodges the Tennessee Jam! It's just like the Alabama Jam except it's from Tennessee. Michinoku Driver! Taka gets the pin! Fairly good stuff to get the Light Heavyweight title off the ground but nowhere near the Taka/Great Sasuke match from earlier in the year. It was a bit slow in the second half but they told a good story and Taka got his shit in. **3/4

After the match WWF tries to recreeate a Japanese style title ceremony, with Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco presenting the belt and everyone posing for pictures. Nice little touch. Don't think that one's going to make the cover of the weeklies though.

Los Boricuas def The Disciples of Apocalypse in 7:58- Oh yay, this again. One new wrinkle is DOA leader Crush is gone. On screen he was attacked by Kane to write him off, in reality he left to go back to WCW in protest of the Montreal Screwjob. To make the numbers an even 3 on 3 ref Tim White throws LB leader Savio Vega out for this match. These factions have had several PPV matches this year and they've all been horrible so I'm not getting deep into this one. As usual DOA controls to start before LB cheats to get the advantage. There's a funny moment when the crowd chants "Shave your back" to Miguel Perez, who needs to shave much more than his back. Giant Gonzales' fake hair bodysuit had less hair. Perez also feigns an injury during the match. Vega tries to replace him but White has none of it. After the usual donnybrook Perez is miraculously OK, hits Chainz from behind, and LB steal the win. Same old same old Russo faction stuff that was often little more than time filler. 1/2*

 

Toughman Match: Butterbean def "Marvelous" Marc Mero (w/Sable) by DQ in 10:20- Mero had recently returned from injury with major changes. He changed his wrestling style from high flying to his boxing roots due to the injuries he'd accumulated over the years, and he's also turned heel by treating Sable like 1986 Randy Savage treated Elizabeth. Butterbean was a professional boxer known for quick knockouts in short four round "Toughman" matches, hence the name of this match tonight. I'm honestly not sure how he got on WWF's radar but it was probably part of the continuing effort to bring more shoot style fighters in (Ken Shamrock, Steve Blackman). This match is a precursor to the disastrous Brawl for All competition WWF would hold in '98, but unlike those matches which were genuine shoots this one is completely worked. It's boxing rules and 2 minute rounds for this match. Mero worked some matches like this in WCW because of his boxing background so if you're going to try to make it work he's the right guy to do it with, but those were with fellow wrestlers. I'm not sure Butterbean knew what he was doing in this environment. Mero spends most of the first round hiding in the ropes. Finally Butterbean pops him and he falls down to the floor. After the bell Mero punches Butterbean in the back of his head and everyone in both guys' entourages has to be separated. When the bell rings to start round two Mero does it again, hitting Butterbean from behind with a high knee. Then he chokes Butterbean with wrist tape. Butterbean starts punching back so Mero glove thumbs him in the eye and starts pummeling him with body shots. After the bell Mero dropkicks Butterbean in the back. I think we've got the point by now. Round three starts with Butterbean all kinds of fired up and he dominates the round. A hard right floors Mero just as the round ends. Round four starts and Mero is quickly staring at the lights again. When he gets up he hits Butterbean with a blatant low blow and gets DQ'd. After that he hits Butterbean with his stool. 3/4*

Luna Vachon drags out The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust on a leash. Both are wearing a lot of pink. TAFKAG says he's going to read a book "he wrote as a kid" and proceeds to read from Green Eggs & Ham. After a bit Luna says that's enough and drags him away. OK then. On Raw that would have been awful and pointless. On PPV, I want a partial refund for the time of that segment. This is the era WWF was experimenting with how far they could push boundaries, and I'm no prude but Goldust and Luna's bondage play was a bit too far over the edge for my liking.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn and Road Dogg (c) def The Legion of Doom by DQ in 10:32- Billy Gunn and Road Dogg were two guys going nowhere that got thrown together as a tag team and upset LOD for the titles on Raw just before this with no indication of the legendary team they'd become. Sometimes those things work, sometimes they don't. Dogg, as usual, is talking on the way to the ring. LOD wants to go right now, but Dogg stalls by saying they haven't stretched properly yet. Finally officials come out to force the champs to the ring. Dogg says Gunn is sick and they need to see a doctor. LOD attacks from behind. In the ring Animal kicks Dogg and whips him with the title belt. Hawk dropkick. Dogg rolls out. Hawk counters a backdrop with a neckbreaker. The heels regroup on the floor. Hawk gives them a double clothesline off the apron! Animal gets a clothesline in on the floor too. Double noggin knocker. Dogg keeps trying to tag in the wrong corner. He gets beat down some more. After a long speed run Animal catches Dogg leapfrogging and hits a sit out powerbomb for 2. The champs go to the floor again and get ambushed again. Gunn gets dropped on the steps. The champs try to walk and there's a brawl in the aisle. Dogg hits Hawk with an ice chest from under the ring. Apparently at the same time Gunn low blowed Hawk but it wasn't caught on camera. Gunn hits Hawk in the head again with the chest and it breaks. Turns out it was only styrofoam. Oh well. Dogg drops a knee for 2. Dropkick and Dogg does the worm before covering for 2. Hawk stays Road Warrior in peril for a while with slow heel offense from the champs. Gunn/Hawk double clothesline. Gunn grabs Hawk's tights to prevent the tag. Hawk does a Bret bump in the corner and he and Gunn collide. Tags on both sides. Animal powerslam and tackles. Double team corner clothesline from LOD and they set up the Doomsday Device. Henry Godwinn runs in and hits Animal with his bucket. Hawk takes the bucket and wails way on everything that moves, drawing the DQ. That was a match that existed. 1/2*

 

Boot Camp Match: Triple H (w/Chyna) def Sgt. Slaughter in 17:39- DX had been a thorn in Commissioner Slaughter's side for months, both professionally and personally, so Slaughter decided to come out of retirement and do something about it. The Boot Camp match was his specialty match back in his wrestling days. It's pretty much your standard no DQ street fight. Trips comes out to the new DX theme and is in jeans. Slaughter uses the Patriot's music, which will eventually be Kurt Angle's music. The brawl is on as soon as Slaughter hits the ring. Someone throws a hat at Trips' back from the crowd. Not sure what that was supposed to accomplish. Slaughter puts his riding crop to good use like Patton on a shellshocked soldier in Sicily. Hey, Lawler's breaking out all the military references so I can too. Gutbuster and double stomp from Slaughter. He tosses Trips out, runs him into the stairs and drops him on the guardrail. He goes for a pin on the floor but the ref says no, it's not falls count anywhere. Back in Slaughter takes off his belt and goes into belt whipping mode, then chokes Trips with the belt. Clothesline for 2. He goes for the Cobra Clutch but Trips counters out of it. Corner whip reversal and Slaughter flies over the corner down to the floor. Trips tosses him into the crowd then punches him back over the rail the other way. He goes over and tries to get the ring bell but timekeeper Mark Yeaton won't let him take it. Yeaton goes down! Slaughter hits a clothesline and the bell goes flying. Trips is still the first one up and whacks Slaughter in the back with the bell. Back in Trips uses the belt for a bit, then gets a chain from Chyna, wraps it around his fist and works Slaughter over with it. Cover for 2. Yeaton is dead and carried out. I hope there's a backup timekeeper, someone has to ring the bell the rest of the night. It's a specialty job. Slaughter tries to punch with the chain but Trips backdrops him down to the floor. Back in Trips tries coming off the top rope but Slaughter gets a boot up. Slaughter lifts Trips for a slam or backbreaker but can't hold him up and collapses. I think that might have been the old man legitimately blown up. You can almost hear Trips saying "suplex me" and Slaughter does. Slaughter goes up top but Trips slams him off. Cover for 2. Trips sleeper. They do the arm drops. Slaughter fights back and counters into the Cobra Clutch! Chyna comes in to break it up. The ref reads her the riot act but can't do anything, it's no DQ. Chyna knocks the ref out! She gets a chair and loads up to hit Slaughter. Slaughter throws powder in her face! Trips hits Slaughter with one of his boots. Slaughter is back up and puts the Cobra Clutch on again! Again Chyna breaks it up, this time with a low blow. Trips hits Slaughter with a Pedigree onto the chair and gets the pin. I think they were going for an old style '80s NWA bloody brawl street fight here, but 1. there was no blood, and b. Slaughter had no business going this long. If they'd kept this under 5 minutes it might have been passable, but it was three times that long. At least the right guy won. DUD

 

Jeff Jarrett def The Undertaker by DQ in 6:54- Frequent Monday Night Wars era promotion hopper Jeff Jarrett is back with WWF and making his in-ring return here. I'm pretty sure Jarrett jumped the most back and forth during these years. It's either him or Sid. Undertaker, meanwhile, is still reeling from his long lost brother Kane coming to WWF and absolutely positively refuses to fight his own brother under any circumstances no matter how much Kane wants it. Taker stalks at the start of the match while Jarrett tries to stick and move. Not the worst plan...until Taker grabs him by the throat, tosses him in the corner and lays in the rapid fire body shots. Big clothesline for 2. Old school hits, followed by an old school corner choke. Jarrett gets a back elbow in the corner and tries to come off the second rope but gets goozled. Jarrett fights out, ducks a big boot, and clips Taker's knee. Knee work follows. Taker fights back and hits a backbreaker and legdrop for 2. Big boot. The lights go out. Everyone but commentary knows what's coming. Yup, here's Kane's music and the red light of imminent death. Kane gets in the ring and Jarrett gestures for Kane to take Taker out. Bad move. Kane choke slams Jarrett! That's the official DQ. Kane and Taker go nose to nose for the first time ever with Taker looking extremely conflicted. Kane punches Taker! Taker refuses to respond. Kane sets off the ring post pyro and leaves. Jarrett clips Taker from behind again and tries to put the figure four on. Goozle counter and Jarrett is choke slammed again. Thanks for leaving WCW, Jeff. The match was what it was, but the Taker/Kane stuff continues to be fantastic. *1/2

Michael Cole is up in the nosebleed section with Mark Henry. This is the much hyped signees' first PPV appearance in over a year due to injury. He promises to be back soon. He would be back....and turn heel by joining the Nation of Domination.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (c) def "The Rock" Rocky Maivia (w/the Nation of Domination) in 5:28- Austin vs the Rock for the first time on PPV. It won't be the last. It was during this feud that Maivia really started putting together the Rock character, insisting that people call him the Rock, talking in the third person and calling himself the people's champion. Rock also stole the IC title belt from Austin and is carrying around like it's his. A little aside rant if you'll indulge me, this is one reason why WWE's longtime insistence on refusing to call a belt a belt is really stupid. Modern WWE, at least while Vince was still in charge, would say "Rock stole the title". No, he didn't steal the title. Austin is still champion, there was no match and no title change. He only stole the physical belt that isn't his. It's like saying "he hit him with the title". He hit someone with an abstract concept of superiority? No, he hit him with a BELT. A PHYSICAL OBJECT. Sorry, rant over. Back to the match. The "Rocky sucks" chants start the instant the Nation's music hits. Austin drives inside the arena in his pickup truck! He hits the ring and the fight is on. The whole Nation gangs up on Austin. D'Lo Brown gets backdropped onto the truck's hood and breaks the windshield! Stunner to Brown on the truck's roof! Austin gets back in the ring and the bell rings to officially start the match. Slugfest. Thesz Press! Rock turns it into a cradle for 2. Austin reverses it for 2. Rock throws Austin over the top to the floor. Faarooq and Kama attack. Kama accidentally nails Faarooq with a chair. Austin whips Kama into the truck. That truck is seriously starting to look like the car in the first bonus level of Street Fighter II. Back in Rock hits a back elbow and the Greco Roman Nut Punch, followed by stomps in the corner. Austin turns it around and hits his own corner punches. Rock slam and he hits the still unnamed People's Elbow for 2. Austin fights out of a chinlock but runs into a knee to the gut. Another Rock slam. The elbow pad is off. He goes for the People's Elbow again but Austin dodges this time. Mudhole stomp. Austin ducks a clothesline and goes for the Stunner. Kama gets on the apron. Austin knocks him off, then grabs who he thinks is Rock and hits the Stunner, but it was the ref! Rock gets brass knucks. Austin blocks the knucks punch. Stunner! The backup ref runs in and counts the pin! Decent match, but it's clear where the future of WWF lies, all you had to do was listen to the crowd reactions all through this match. The "Rocky sucks" chants even stopped after it started. Also, Austin worked the whole match with his vest still on. **1/4

The next week on Raw Vince ordered Austin to defend the title against Rock again due to all the shenanigans in this match. Austin refused, so Vince awarded Rock the title by forfeit. In response, Austin tossed the belt in the river. Austin would never be in the IC title picture again, but that's a good thing because much bigger things were already being planned for him.

 

WWF Championship: Ken Shamrock def "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c) (w/Triple H and Chyna) by DQ in 18:27- This is clearly a test match on a B PPV to see how Shamrock does in the main event. It shouldn't come a surprise that Shawn and his DX crew didn't really want to work with him here. Shawn still goes hard at times here, but it's in more fits and starts. And he wasn't wrong that Shamrock wasn't ready for this level yet. After some opening jockeying Shawn gets a quick eye poke and punches. They go speed, Shawn fights out of a press slam, Shamrock blocks a roll up, more speed, Shamrock hits a kick and Shawn flops all the way to the floor. He takes his time getting back in. Lockup and Shawn tries arm wringers. Shamrock tosses him into the corner. Press slam and backdrop. Shawn flip to the floor! He rolls halfway up the aisle. Chyna gets on the apron to distract. Shawn tries an ambush but Shamrock is ready. Shawn got a mouthful of water on the floor that he spits out on impact. Shamrock hits a suplex and clotheslines Shawn 360 to the floor again for another big stall. Shamrock has enough and gives Shawn and Trips a double noggin knocker. Shawn slides under coming back in and tries a sunset flip that's blocked. Another corner toss and pummeling from Shamrock. Corner kick and Shawn is crotched. Shamrock hooks up for the belly to belly suplex. Shawn grabs the ref and gets a low blow. Cactus Clothesline, but Shawn hangs onto the rope and skins the cat back in. Trips gives Shamrock some punches. Shawn crossbody off the top to the floor! Baseball slide. Shamrock dodges a second one and punches both Shawn and Trips down. Chyna pushes Shamrock into the post. Trips stomps him and Chyna slams him on the floor. Shawn big splash off the apron. He hits an elbow off the second rope back in. Dropkick for 2. Trips gets more shots in, including Shamrock completely whiffing the sell of what's supposed to be a very hard right hand. Shamrock gives Shawn a couple of buckle shots and more body blows. Shawn springboard crossbody off the second rope, Shamrock rolls through it for 2. After a fight out of a chinlock Shamrock blocks a hiptoss and rolls Shawn up for 2. Shawn hooks on a sleeper. Shamrock goes down and Shawn gets near falls with his shoulders down. Shamrock gets up and backs Shawn into the corner a few times but Shawn still hangs on. Finally Shamrock back elbows get him out. Hard Shamrock corner clotheslines. Diving elbow. Powerslam. Hurricanrana! Ground and pound from Shamrock. Shawn tries a crucifix into a roll up but Shamrock counters for 2. Shamrock hits the ropes and there's a weird bit where his head goes under the top rope and knocks him down. Don't think that was planned, and that could have been much worse. Shawn leaps up but Shamrock catches and powerbombs him for a long 2. Shawn grabs the ref and DX pull Shamrock out for more pummeling. Back in Shawn hits the elbow off the top. The band tunes up. Shamrock ducks the superkick! Belly to belly! He goes for the ankle lock but Trips and Chyna run in for the cheap DQ. Long way to go to get to that finish. **1/2

After the match DX continue to beat Shamrock down. Shawn gets on the apron to gloat. Someone runs in and pushes Shawn off the apron into the Spanish announce table! Man, that table collapsed easily, Shawn barely touched it. Almost as if it was designed to. IT'S OWEN HART! OWEN HART IS BACK AND HE WANTS REVENGE! Trips comes over to save and Owen leaves through the crowd. That was a true, legitimate shock. No one expected Owen back after what happened in Montreal, especially so soon. Sadly a surefire money match for the Rumble was not to be, probably due to backstage politics.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- December WWF/E PPVs are usually placeholders as it's just before the Rumble and WM season and this just isn't any exception, it might be the worst of the bunch. The whole thing is pretty much skippable with not much happening to recommend it other than the first and inferior Rock/Austin match, Taker/Kane standoff and Owen's return. Also, four DQ finishes on an eight match PPV card. Blech. It's a dreary end to what was otherwise a spectacular year for WWF in '97. Officially they were still behind WCW and tight on money, but even with the loss of Bret Hart and the soon to happen loss of Shawn Michaels, everything was in place for them to take the top spot back over in '98.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D(X)

Survivor Series '97

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '97

November 8, 1997 from the Molson Centre in Montreal

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Welcome to one of the most infamous nights in wrestling history. The tagline for this show is Gang Rulz because Russo loved his gang/faction warfare and Survivor Series was the perfect format for that.

The show opens with another excellent video, this time focusing on the Bret/Shawn feud since Wrestlemania 12. By this point the hatred between the two was true and real. I believe "worked themselves into a shoot" would be the term. The opening pyro is on fire in front of the stage! Bit early for Kane's entrance. Since the show is in Montreal, WWF has gone the extra step of hiring a French ring announcer for the occasion. They certainly need to do all they can to appease the crowd with what's coming.

Survivor Series Match: "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and The Godwinns def The Headbangers and The New Blackjacks in 15:27- Gunn and Dogg had been teaming sporadically for a couple of months, while Gunn was still "Rockabilly", but weren't officially the New Age Outlaws or part of DX yet. The Godwinns are also transitioning into their Southern Justice personas, as referenced by Dogg during his opening promo. Phineas and Windham start. Windham shoulderblocks Phineas to the floor. Back in he pops Phineas with an open hand slap. Bradshaw hits a powerslam. Phineas tries to tag out but neither Dogg or Gunn want to get in. Henry does. Bradshaw and Henry do some back and forth. Henry clothesline for 2. Bradshaw gets an abdominal stretch cradle and that gets a pin. Henry is eliminated. Phineas and Bradshaw slug it out. Windham hits a couple of suplexes and flying lariat for 2. Phineas back elbows Windham in the corner, clotheslines him and pins him. Windham is gone. Mosh uses agility to easily stay on top of Phineas. Gunn comes in and pounds away to huge boos, the first time the crowd's been engaged the whole match. They chant something in French that's probably not very polite. Mosh gets a boot up in the corner and a clothesline. Gunn counters a bulldog, I think, planting Mosh on his face and getting a pin, eliminating Mosh. Thrasher comes in and works Phineas over. With biting. Lawler wants to know where Vince is. JR says he knows and that Vince is busy. Yeah, I'd say he is. At that very moment he was probably still arguing with Bret and/or Shawn, together or separately, about how the main event would end. That's way more interesting than what's happening in the ring, which is the most boring ass segment of the whole match yet and that's saying something. Thrasher gets a hiptoss and armdrag, outwrestling Phineas. He hits the butt splash off the top and Phineas is gone. Dogg finally gets in and immediately gets pummeled so hard his bandana flies off. Bradshaw chops him and JR gets the government mule line in. Short clothesline. Powerbomb. Gunn distracts and Dogg rolls Bradshaw up and pins him. Thrasher comes in hot. Gunn kicks him in the back from the apron. Dogg tries a pumphandle slam but Thrasher counters with a hiptoss. Blind tag. Gunn completely misses a legdrop off the top rope but gets the pin for the win anyway. Horrible match. The future New Age Outlaws had a long way to go in just about every sense. SURVIVORS: Gunn and Dogg. 3/4*

 

Survivor Series Match: The Truth Commission def The Disciples of Apocalypse in 9:58- The Truth Commission are the latest entrant into Russo's faction wars. They're presented as a kind of Latin American style paramilitary group and consist of leader Jackyl (very young Don f'n Callis, no wonder he talks so much), Sniper (a Montreal native), Recon (Bull Buchanan) and the Interrogator (Kurrgan), who's a classic 7 foot tall guy that can barely wrestle so you know who's getting featured. The DOA ride their bikes to the ring then turn right around and ride out again. Oh, I guess they're parking where there's space. How very not biker gang like polite of them. They charge the ring and the big brawl is on. They settle in with Interrogator and Chainz in the ring. Interrogator absorbs all of Chainz's offense, hits a side suplex and Chainz is gone. Everyone comes in to stand off again. Recon works over Skull. Or 8-Ball. It's the old Blu twins so no one can tell who's who, not even JR. Jackal hits a knee off the top that's no sold. A side suplex hits and Jackal is gone. Sniper comes in as Jackal, Don Callis, takes a spot in commentary. Man, some things really never do change. Sniper hits a crossbody for 2 but then gets caught coming off the top rope. Crush drops some legdrops. Belly to belly suplex for 2. Recon flips over a backdrop, lands on his ass, gets up and hits a heel kick. Collision and both guys are down. The twins swap without tagging. Skull or 8-Ball hits a clothesline and pins Recon. 8-Skull horrible swinging neckbreaker on Sniper for 2. The twins do a double team slam. The ref is distracted by Interrogator and Sniper is able to kick out. Sniper hits a sort of bulldog and one of the bald guys is gone. The official rundown says it was Skull so sure, we'll go with that. Crush is busy fixing his hair as he's getting tagged in. Not the first time I've caught him being more concerned with his hair than the match. Interrogator blind tags in. 8B hits a DDT on Sniper. Interrogator comes up and gives him another side suplex and gets the pin. I guess that's the only move he knows. Crush is quickly beat down. He hits Sniper with a tiltawhirl powerslam and Sniper is gone. Interrogator comes in and plants Crush with a, guess what.....SIDE SUPLEX and it's over. Even worse than the first match. SOLE SURVIVOR: Interrogator. DUD

Babyfaced Kevin Kelley is in the AOL chat room with Austin. I wonder if language filters had been made for chat rooms yet.

 

Survivor Series Match: Team Canada ("The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon) def Team USA (Vader, Goldust, Marc Mero and Steve Blackman) (w/Sable) in 17:47- With what's coming tonight this is the last real gasp of the longrunning Hart Foundation led Canada vs the US angle. The makeup of the US team is interesting. You've got Blackman, another Ken Shamrock like "shoot fighter" making his PPV debut (like Shamrock he had much more wrestling experience than was let on) and replacing an injured Patriot, Vader, who had recently turned face and was now the de facto captain with Patriot out, Mero, who recently returned from injury and was transitioning heel by mistreating Sable, and Goldust, who was also going heel and well on his way to becoming The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust. His face paint is black tonight with "FU" written on his face (supposedly "forever unchained", not the other thing) and "ALIVE AGAIN" written on the back of his head. Team USA still comes out to Patriot's music, which will be Kurt Angle's music in a few years. No surprise, the crowd is 100% behind Team Canada. Vader runs with it by giving the crowd a couple of Spaceballs salutes. Bulldog and Mero start. After some shenanigans with Mero's US flag bandana Bulldog attacks, dropkicking Mero to the floor and then mocking Blackman a bit. The fans chant for Sable and Mero moves her to another corner. Basically he's ripping off '80s heel Randy Savage with a fraction of the charisma. Vader hits some shots in the corner, a short clothesline and tackle. Bulldog powerslams Vader off the second rope. He suplexes Vader! That got a huge pop. Furnas gets avalanched in the corner. Mero kneelift. Furnas spinning heel kick. Mero gets pounded in the Canadian corner. He punches LaFon in the back of the head and tags Blackman. Blackman unloads with kicks and a corner dropkick. Elbow drop for 2. LaFon hits a ripcord knee and DDT for 2. Crucifix for 2. Blackman hits a tackle and takes out the whole Canadian team. He backdrops LaFon to the floor. Team Canada gangs up on Blackman on the floor while LaFon gets back in. Blackman is counted out. That's one way to protect him. Anvil and Mero go back and forth a bit. Mero dodges a splash off the second rope. Anvil clothesline and tackle on Vader for 2. Vader responds with a tackle, elbow drop and big splash that gets a pin and Anvil is eliminated. A LaFon spinning heel kick sends Vader over the top to the floor. Furnas gets some shots in. LaFon and Vader struggle a little with LaFon doing a weird rolling sell of a corner whip. Belly to belly suplex from Vader. Splash of the second rope and LaFon is gone. Furnas dropkick on Vader. Vader dodges a second. Mero comes in with boxing fists flying. This is when he changed his style from high flying to his boxing roots due to his injuries. Well, there's a Mero moonsault. Furnas landed wrong catching him and JR speculates his shoulder is hurt. He quickly tags out to Bulldog. Bulldog outpowers Mero and goes for the powerslam. Mero pushes out. Furnas is back in and fine. He and Mero do a boxing like corner slugfest. Mero roll up for 2. Furnas counter roll up and that gets 3. Mero is out. Vader comes in and pummels Furnas. Furnas hits a flying clothesline. Vader suplex on Bulldog. Vader goes to tag but Goldust refuses to come in. Furnas hits Vader from behind. Vader back suplex. Goldust still won't tag in. Furnas low blow on Vader! Cover for 2. Vader gets a boot up and clothesline on Bulldog. Another tag reach and this time Goldust jumps completely off the apron. Furnas belly to belly on Vader! Cover for 2. Furnas hurricanrana for 2. Vader nails him with a potato shot. Goldust turns his back on Vader in the corner. Vader turns him around and slaps him! I guess that's a tag. Vader throws Goldust in the ring, the first time he's been legal all night. Goldust immediately rolls back out and takes a walk. He's counted out. Vader tackles both Canadians. Bulldog goes out and gets the bell. Vader bomb on Furnas and he's pinned. Bulldog whacks Vader with the bell, covers and gets the win! Bulldog immediately gets out of the ring and almost runs to the back, not staying a second to celebrate. I think there's something big going on back there with the Harts that he's preoccupied by. Vader almost singlehandedly carried this to a decent match. SOLE SURVIVOR: Bulldog. **1/2

 

Kane (w/Paul Bearer) def Mankind in 9:29- This is Kane's first televised match after his big debut the previous month at Badd Blood. Mankind is a perfect choice of first opponents for him, both because of Foley's skill at laying matches out and crazy bumping, and his connection to Bearer (or Uncle Paul), who managed Mankind for a good chunk of '96 before Mankind's face turn. Mankind attacks Kane in the aisle. A guardrail shot has no effect. He's wearing a hard mask! Kane picks Mankind up and drops him on the steps. They get in the ring, Kane sets off the ring post pyro, and the bell rings to officially start the match. And the red light stays on. Yes, years before the Fiend got the infamous red light for his matches they tried it with Kane first. It was never a good idea in either period. They go back and forth in the ring and Mankind hits a Cactus Clothesline. Kane lands on his feet just like his brother and hits a clothesline. He throws the steps into Mankind's face. Slow Kane beatdown in the ring. Mankind rips his own hair out to try to get back in it but runs into a big boot. Corner beatdown. Kane hits a side slam. Mankind goes to the floor again. Kane gives him clubbing blows and tosses him into the steps again. Mankind lifts Kane up and drops him onto the steps! Flurry of punches from Mankind as he tries to take advantage of the opening. Chairshot to Kane's head! Mankind piledriver in the ring. Bang bang! He calls for the Mandible Claw. He puts the Claw on Bearer! I get it emotionally but he's taking his eye off the ball here. Kane sits up, pushes Mankind off the apron, and Mankind flies off AND THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! As Foley bumps go, that was moderate. Kane hits Mankind with one of the pieces of the table. Kick wham Mankind DDTs Kane in the aisle! Cactus Elbow! Another Kane sit up. He hops up onto the apron and slams Mankind off it to the floor! Light Foley bump. Kane allows Mankind to slowly crawl his way back into the ring. The Tombstone hits and it's over. Red light aside that was a very good debut. Foley did most of the work but Kane was where he needed to be when he needed to be there. He's not exactly a rookie but he'd continue to learn quickly. WWF really nailed Kane's opening months and this was just the start. ***1/4

Michael Cole is in the back with Commissioner Slaughter and Vince. Slaughter says there's "unusual tension" tonight. You don't say? Vince says this Bret/Shawn rematch was supposed to happen many times the last 18 months and never did for "a number of reasons". Like Shawn faking a knee injury to get out of it for one. Cole asks straight up who's going to win and Vince says "I don't know". A likely story. I can only imagine the chaos that was going on backstage this close to the match happening.

 

Survivor Series Match: WWF Tag Team Champions The Legion of Doom, Ken Shamrock and Ahmed Johnson def The Nation of Domination in 20:34- The Nation team is Faarooq, Rocky Maivia, Kama Mustafa and D'Lo Brown. On the other side, after a short dalliance with Nation membership Johnson has turned back face after returning from his latest injury. We get the first of many "Rocky sucks" chants during the Nation's entrance. The Canadian crowd really, really hates Rocky. Hawk and Brown start. Shoulderblock standoff. Double clothesline. Brown goes down. Hawk doesn't. Brown hits a piledriver and Hawk, I think we've seen this movie a few times before, pops right back up. Hawk hits a neckbreaker. Rocky tags in to more crowd hate. Hawk gets kicked from behind from the apron, Rocky plants him with the still yet unnamed Rock Bottom, and Hawk is eliminated. Rocky turns around into Johnson. If you're looking for kneepads in Montreal you're out of luck, they're all on Johnson's legs. Kama and Faarooq beat Johnson down a bit. He gets caught in the heel corner and Brown whips him with a strap. Faarooq goes for a powerbomb. Johnson is supposed to flip out and land on his feet but he falls on his ass, gets back up, hits the Pearl River Plunge and Faarooq is gone. Brown hits Johnson with a heel kick that was badly delivered and sold even worse. Frog splash from Brown! He doesn't cover and plays to the crowd instead, then screams at Johnson to get up. Johnson starts hulking up. Falcon arrow on Brown! Johnson takes Rocky down. He hits the ropes but is tripped by Faarooq, still at ringside. Rocky covers and Faarooq holds Johnson's foot down. Johnson is pinned and eliminated. Good thing because watching Johnson attempt to wrestle gets more and more painful to watch after each injury. He's regressing and he was never very good to start with. He chases Faarooq and they brawl to the back. Animal pounds away on Rocky and hits a corner clothesline. Shamrock is in for the first time and hits a clothesline and dropkick on Rocky. Kama and Shamrock do some back and forth. Animal/Kama double clothesline. Back suplex from Animal. Kama hits some weak kicks. Animal tackle. There's some random and loud mic feedback. Commentary is affected too. Lawler says it's "our genius sound engineer Kevin Dunn". He's probably hitting all the buttons trying to figure out if the mics can do every second camera cuts or quick zooms. Animal pushes Kama into Rocky and rolls him up for a pin. Kama is gone. Shamrock pounds Brown down. Brown holds Shamrock down and Rocky comes in to give him a Greco Roman Nut Punch. Brown legdrop for 2. Shamrock goes face in peril for a bit. Brown misses a springboard moonsault. He would have missed even if Shamrock hadn't rolled, he set Shamrock way too close to the corner. Tag to Animal. Billy Gunn and Road Dogg are out. Gunn is in Animal face paint while Dogg is wearing the spiked shoulder pad they stole from LOD a few weeks prior. That's how the New Age Outlaws got their name by the way, by stealing stuff from all the other tag teams. Animal hops out to confront them and tosses the outside ref aside. Gunn throws a bunch of powder in Animal's face and Animal is counted out. Gunn and Dogg would end up defeating LOD for their first of many tag title wins on Raw a few weeks after this. Shamrock is left alone against Brown and Rocky. The Nation guys try to corner him but the ref forces one to get out. Brown stays in and gets a quick edge. They try a double team but Shamrock double clotheslines them both. Rocky goes to the floor. Belly to belly suplex on Brown. The ankle lock is on! Rocky is outside with a chair but he's not making any effort to save Brown. Brown taps out! Rocky gets in and nails Shamrock in the back with the chair. Cover. Shamrock kicks out! Rocky stomps Shamrock down in the corner until the ref stops him. Rocky DDT for a long 2. He slams Shamrock in the middle of the ring. The elbow pad is off! Could it be? Yes, it's the first ever People's Elbow on PPV! Of course it also wasn't named yet. Cover and another kickout. Shamrock gets up with a flurry of gut punches. He blocks another DDT into a northern lights suplex! Shamrock hurricanrana! Ankle lock. HARD tap out from Rocky and Shamrock wins! Most of the match was very rough, but the right two guys were there at the end and they both looked good. SOLE SURVIVOR: Shamrock. **

Ad for the December PPV, which will be D-Generation X: In Your House. DX's famous entrance music makes its debut here too.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin def The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart (c) (w/The Hart Foundation) in 4:04- This is Austin's return match after having his neck legitimately broken by Owen in their IC title match at Summerslam and concerns that he might never wrestle again. Owen openly said leading up to this match that he was going to break Austin's neck again. The shattering glass on the stage is back, but only about half of it shatters when it's supposed to and Austin walks through some of it. How huge has Austin gotten? He's cheered while Owen and the Hart Foundation are booed. In CANADA. There are Austin 3:16 shirts EVERYWHERE in the crowd. Owen stalls forever on the floor. Austin takes the Owen 3:16 I Just Broke Your Neck shirt and tears it up. I'm still laughing at him calling that shirt "cheap heat" at the last PPV. Anvil tries to catch Austin from behind but gets Stunnered! Owen takes the opening to attack. He hooks up for a piledriver, the move that injured Austin, and the crowd gasps. Austin backdrops out. Owen posts Austin's knee. Austin uses his legs to pull Owen into the post. Owen tries to walk but Austin clotheslines him from behind. They fight in the commentary area and Owen gets a low blow. Austin gets rammed into the remnants of the Spanish announce table. The crowd chants for Austin but JR tries to play it as "this crowd really wants to see Austin's neck broken". Yeah, I don't think so. Canadian crowds, they never cooperate. TV cable choke from Owen and he straight tells the ref to DQ him. Back in Austin turns things around with an eye poke and mudhole stomp. Stunner! It's already over and Austin gets the title back! Furnas and LaFon get some Stunners for the road. That went as well as it could have. Austin clearly wasn't 100% yet. You could argue they should have waited to do the match later, but Vince might have wanted to get all the belts off the Harts now just to be safe. *

We get the same Bret/Shawn video that was played at the start of the show to set up the main event. Like I mentioned earlier, what started as a wrestling angle turned into real life hatred. Bret had a lot of opinions about Shawn's hard partying lifestyle and accused Shawn of ducking matches with him since WM 12 (a claim with merit), while Shawn struck a nerve with Bret by saying Bret thought he was the whole WWF. Then Shawn struck an even bigger nerve by openly on TV accusing Bret of having an affair with Sunny (the "you've had some sunny days" promo). That one caused a real fight backstage and led to Shawn getting legit suspended. On top of all that, the news hit the internet before this show that Bret was planning to leave to go to WCW. Both guys get the epic locker room to Gorilla backstage walk on camera. DX and some of the Harts do the walk but all stay behind backstage.

 

WWF Championship: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels def Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) in 12:11- It seems almost irrelevant to mention with everything going on that Shawn is also still the European champion, a title already rendered almost meaningless. During his entrance Shawn has what looks like a full beer thrown on him. He gets a Canadian flag, then proceeds to get an already hostile crowd even more enraged by wiping his ass, blowing his nose, and humping it. The prematch tension is insane. While Bret's in the ring during his entrance Shawn continues to mess with ringside fans. Finally Shawn jumps Bret from behind. Bret quickly slugs back and clotheslines Shawn 360 to the floor. Important to note, the bell never rang to start the match. Bret posts Shawn, then tosses him into the crowd! They fight in the floor section right on top of the fans! Vince, Slaughter, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco and every ref in the WWF are all at ringside trying to get things under control. Not in a "breaking up a real fight" way, everything is going as planned. So far. Shawn gives Bret table and stair shots then does his usual push of a cameraman out of the way. JR references the "rumors" about Bret's future and says it's been mentioned he might be leaving the WWF "if he loses". Shawn chokes Bret with a US flag. They go into the crowd on the other side. Bret backdrops Shawn over the rail back to ringside! Low blow from Bret. They start working their way up the entrance aisle. Bret suplexes Shawn on the aisle! Shawn runs Bret into ref Tim White. Bret flips Shawn over the barricade right next to the entrance tunnel and hits him with a fire extinguisher. Vince starts yelling at them and, coincidence or not, they start working back to the ring. They get in and the bell finally rings to officially start the match. Bret got a Quebec flag from somewhere and chokes Shawn with it. Inverted atomic drop. Shawn ducks a clothesline and hits a flying forearm. He gets the Quebec flag and chokes Bret with it. The heat from the crowd is ridiculous. Jim Cornette in the deep south in the mid '80s level heat. Shawn continues to mess with the crowd to make it even worse. He tosses Bret out and gives him some measured shots with more crowd mocking. He drops Bret on the steps, then breaks the pole of Bret's Canadian flag and hits him with it. Double ax handle off the top in the ring. Shawn grounds things for a bit with a front facelock. Bret eventually powers out. He drops elbows on Shawn's knee. Shawn gets an eye rake in. Crossbody off the top but Bret rolls through it for 2. More Bret knee kicks. He posts Shawn's knee and puts on the post wraparound figure four. More knee work. Figure four! Shawn fights and reverses it. Bret quickly grabs a rope. Shawn flip! Bret Russian leg sweep for 2. Snap suplex for 2. Backbreaker. He goes up to the top rope. Shawn pulls Hebner in front of him and the ref is down. Another Shawn eye rake. He puts Bret in a Sharpshooter! Hebner is suddenly up, gives a perfunctory look at Bret, and calls for the bell to ring! Shawn's music plays. Commentary is flummoxed, or at least pretends to be. Bret looks both stunned and not surprised at all. He gets up and spits right on Vince. Triple H is out. He backs Shawn up as Shawn goes over to the timekeeper's area, grabs the belt, and gets the hell out of town. The camera stays on Shawn as he goes up the aisle, zooms in on the Survivor Series logo, and we are off the damn air. The Montreal Screwjob is done. It's almost impossible to rate a match like this with all the real life drama and screwing going on, but despite their issues Bret and Shawn always worked well together and that continued here before the ending. ***1/2

Thanks to multiple documentaries and compilation sets we have seen what happened after the show went off air. Bret continued to berate Vince, destroyed a bunch of equipment ringside, and air wrote out "WCW" to the fans. And then Bret punched Vince out backstage. So what was supposed to happen? Bret refusing to drop the title to Shawn in Canada is what started it. He was also upset by Shawn supposedly saying if he was champion he wouldn't drop the belt to Bret period. After much negotiation it was agreed, as far as Bret understood, that this match would end by DQ when the Harts and DX all interfered (a "schmozz" in backstage parlance). Bret would then drop the title on Raw before leaving for good. There was time as he still had a month before his WCW contract started. Vince, however, had just been burned by Medusa/Alundra Blayze taking the WWF Women's title belt to WCW and dropping it in a garbage can. He didn't want to take any risk of that happening to the WWF Title. I think he also had in the back of his mind 1991 when Ric Flair came over while still WCW World champion and still in physical possession of the Big Gold Belt and didn't want that situation in reverse either. So the Screwjob was cooked up the weekend of the show. To this day there's conflicting reports of who knew and who didn't. It'd take a whole separate article to get into all the detail but I think it's generally accepted by now that Shawn, Triple H and Hebner at least were all aware of what was happening. Several people have pointed to Trips as the mastermind of the whole scheme.

 

The effects of this night were widespread and long lasting. Shawn became beyond a shadow of doubt the most hated man in wrestling. Much of the locker room was upset and had to be calmed down. The Undertaker in particular didn't like what was done and almost led an open revolt. Most of the Hart Foundation left the company in protest. The exception was Owen, who was locked into his contract, but he did go away for the next month. DX member Rick Rude also left in protest, leading to the famous night soon after this where he was on Raw (taped) and Nitro (live) the same night. Other members of the roster not involved left in disagreement with what was done while others, notably Triple H, backed McMahon's decision. The next night on Raw Vince, sporting the shiner Bret gave him, gave the infamous "Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart" speech. Bret would move on to his WCW run, which never got anywhere close to the level of his WWF heyday, in part certainly due to WCW's atrocious booking (Bret had the misfortune of jumping over just as WCW's wheels were coming off for good), but also I think because Bret never got over what happened on this night and was never fully mentally in the game over there. It would cause a rift with Vince and Shawn that would last years before Bret agreed to bury the hatchet, at least somewhat, during Wrestlemania 26 season in 2010, but to this day he's clearly still bitter about it. 

 

So what do I think? This is definitely one of those situations where opinions on the Montreal Screwjob are like assholes, everyone's got one and they're mostly used to spew shit, and I'm sure I'm no better. In my younger days I was much more pro Bret, and still get where he was coming from, but as I've gotten older I can more easily see Vince's perspective on this and on the whole think he did what he had to do under the circumstances. I do still think that if cooler heads had prevailed Bret would have kept his word and dropped the title on Raw before leaving, but Vince had no way to 100% absolutely guarantee that after this night. It's unfortunate and sad it had to happen this way at all.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Like the main event, it's hard to put any kind of a rating on a show like this. The majority of the show is perfectly skippable, but the main event is an absolute must watch for every wrestling fan, sadly not for the right reasons. I'll give it a grade right in the middle and move on.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

Starrcade '95

Legacy Review

Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling

Small personal note before we get going, I attended the '23 Royal Rumble at the Alamodome this past weekend and it was an amazing show top to bottom. Just wish the so-called "Superstore" had been better stocked and had a wider variety, though seeing the Axxess-like memorabilia museum was really cool. It really feels like WWE has turned a creative corner with Triple H calling the shots now and this Wrestlemania season may really be something special.

 

December 27, 1995 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

After a more normal show in '94 we're back to a gimmick Starrcade this year, but this was one of the best ideas for one: WCW and partner New Japan Pro-Wrestling going toe to toe in a best of 7 series for the one off "World Cup of Wrestling". It's a great concept, but the show was also badly promoted in the US outside the WCW World title matches at the end and almost no time was spent on weekly TV building up who the New Japan wrestlers are. Remember, it's still (mostly) pre-internet, the ultra hardcore fans who would go out of their way to get literal videotapes of shows from Japan would know who the Japanese wrestlers are but that's a very small percentage of the base fandom. It's also puzzling that reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Keiji Mutoh was left out as his Great Muta persona was one of the few New Japan wrestlers familiar to most American fans. Dusty Rhodes is making his PPV debut in commentary, forming a three man booth with Tony and Heenan that will last well into the start of the NWO invasion. The group brings a lot of hilarity, but lots of times at the expense of actually calling the matches. And one last personal note, this is the first time I've watched this show since watching for the first time (and reviewing) the Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome shows of this era, so I'm much more familiar with the New Japan wrestlers and have really been looking forward to getting into this one.

WCW vs NJPW: Jushin Thunder Liger (w/Sonny Oono) def Chris Benoit in 10:29- Liger is probably the most recognizable Japanese wrestler in the US after Muta from his early '90s WCW appearances, including his genre defining match with Brian Pillman at Superbrawl II in '92 that showcased the Japanese junior heavyweight high flying technical style that was unheard of to mainstream US audiences at the time. He's also a few months back from the ankle injury that put him on the shelf almost a full year. Benoit and Liger were very familiar opponents from Japan so this is a great pairing and a definite hot start for the show. Benoit easily wins the opening lockups. They do an extended speed/counter run with Liger getting a couple of armdrags and dropkicking Benoit to the floor. Baseball slide. Liger cannonball off the apron! Back in they reset with a test of strength. Liger bridges up, leaps and headscissors Benoit out of the knucklelock. Benoit tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. He tries a powerbomb but Liger flips over into an armdrag. More speed and Liger hits a snap belly to belly suplex. Benoit goes to the floor again. Liger loads up a dive but Benoit moves and Liger handsprings off the ropes instead. We get our first Dustyism of the night, saying Liger was "tipsy toed". Back in Benoit hits a snap suplex and back suplex. Clothesline. He puts Liger in a Liontamer style Boston crab. Chops and Benoit German suplex for 2. Liger hooks on a surfboard, then transitions into a camel clutch. Benoit electric chair slams out. He tries another back suplex but Liger flips over on him. Benoit hooks up for a tombstone. Liger reverses, and flapjacks Benoit straight down. They go up top and Benoit hits a superplex. Liger dodges the headbutt off the top rope. Rolling kick in the corner from Liger. Ligerbomb for 2. Brain buster for 2. They hit the ropes again and Benoit hits a big clothesline, followed by two rolling Germans. Benoit plants Liger with a powerbomb. He goes up and hits the headbutt off the top! Kevin Sullivan is out to ringside. I don't remember the details but Benoit's Four Horsemen teammate Pillman did something to piss Sullivan off not long ago, and Pillman's not scheduled tonight so he's taking it out on Benoit. Liger takes advantage of the distraction, hits a rough hurricanrana that they struggled to get over on, and gets the pin. Good stuff for sure, but also only about 75% of what they were capable of. The distraction finish didn't help either. New Japan takes the early 1-0 lead. ***1/2

Mean Gene is in the back with Eddie Guerrero, which I only mention because it is so weird to see Eddie as a white meat babyface.

 

WCW vs NJPW: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Koji Kanemoto (w/Sonny Oono) def "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright in 11:44- Kanemoto is in his second of what would be 5 career reigns with the junior title, and this is in the peak of his epic longtime rivalry with Liger that would see them face each other in the Tokyo Dome almost every single year for years. In fact, Liger would take the title from Kanemoto in the '96 January 4 Dome show just a week after this. Wright participated in the '95 Best of the Super Juniors tournament so he had familiarity with the New Japan style. Lockup and counterwrestling stalemates to start. Kanemoto spins into a drop toe hold and works Wright's leg a bit. Wright gets up with an enzuguri and lays in some European uppercuts. They trade arm wringers and Wright does some World of Sport counters. Armdrag and flying headscissors from Wright. He crossbodys Kanemoto against the ropes and they both go to the floor. A baseball slide sends Kanemoto into the barricade. Wright plancha! Kanemoto is frustrated and takes his time on the floor getting his head back in the game. Back in Wright cranks a chinlock that's almost a full sleeper. Kanemoto backs him into the corner and hits chops. Spinning heel kick. He lays Wright on the top rope and lays in some more chops and a dropkick. Wright gets on the apron and Kanemoto dropkicks him off. Kanemoto plancha! That was way better than Wright's. Wright reverses a floor whip and Kanemoto goes into the guardrail. Some more floor stalling follows. Wright tries to suplex Kanemoto off the apron. Kanemoto flips out and hooks up for a tiger suplex. Wright tries to block it. Kanemoto eventually gets him over, but Wright falls with a foot on the middle rope to break up the pin. Kanemoto moonsault! He doesn't go for a cover, which everyone in commentary agrees is a mistake. Might be the only thing all three agreed on the whole time they worked together. Wright floats over in the corner and hits a German suplex for 2. Heel kick from Wright. Running corner elbow. Setup powerslam. Wright springboard splash. Kanemoto gets a foot on the rope. Wright goes for a missile dropkick but Kanemoto also dropkicks him in midair and both guys are down. Wright springboard crossbody for 2. Kanemoto hits a back elbow and spin kick. Setup slam and corkscrew senton for 2. Kanemoto comes off the top but Wright dropkicks him in midair. Wright missile dropkick. Superplex. Wright tries to float over in the corner again but Kanemoto catches him and snake eyes him. A jackknife cover gets the pin! Once again Wright shows that with the right partner he could be carried to a good match. New Japan takes a big 2-0 lead. ***1/4

 

WCW vs NJPW: "The Total Package" Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart) def Masahiro Chono (w/Sonny Oono) in 6:41- In context of the best of 7 series this is pretty much a must win for WCW. These two have priors, with Luger successfully defending the WCW World title (globe and stars edition) against Chono in the second WCW/New Japan Supershow in '92, which was also the first ever Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show. Chono won the revived NWA World title later that year when WCW got the Big Gold Belt back, but that was his only singles title win so far. Even though Chono was the king of the G1 Climax in this period (3 tournament wins already and he'd get up to 5) he had struggled in major singles matches outside the tournament. Case in point, he still had a goose egg in singles matches in 1/4 Dome shows and would lose again the next week at the '96 show. They stare down to start. Luger kicks Chono into a headlock and hits a shoulderblock. Gorilla press slam. Chono hits a couple of running forearms and a Yakuza kick. Luger goes to the floor and confers with Hart. Back in Luger goes back on the attack. Chono blocks and hits a suplex. He hooks on a sleeper, then turns it into a reverse DDT. The STF is hooked in! Luger gets to the ropes. A bit more back and forth follows and Chono hits a reverse atomic drop. He wanders around a bit lost for a moment, then hits another Yakuza kick. Tony keeps calling them "mafia kicks", which sends both Heenan and Dusty into fits of laughter because it makes no sense to them and no one tries to explain Chono's Yakuza gimmick. Chono tries coming off the top but flies into a Luger back elbow. Torture Rack! Chono submits and it's over. This never really came together. Luger gets WCW on the board and it's 2-1. *1/2

 

WCW vs NJPW: WCW World Television Champion Johnny B Badd (w/Kimberly) def Masa Saito (w/Sonny Oono) by DQ in 5:52- This is an interesting (putting it politely) pairing for Badd, who had grown a ton in the ring during the past year and was wrestling a very athletic, high flying style while Saito was a very old school grounded New Japan heavyweight, lurching toward retirement and probably hanging on too long already. Oono takes issue with Kimberly being out there and Kimberly gives it right back to him. Cautious start. Saito gets a takedown and puts on a cobra clutch, then goes into heel 101 hair pulling. A chop exchange turns into an all out stiff chopfest. Saito hits a throat punch. Oono gets involved in a match for the first time and chokes Badd with his flagpole. Guess they figured this one needed it since Saito was, putting it mildly, limited in what he could do. Saito suplex from the man that invented it. Lariato. More choking from Oono. Saito Russian leg sweep. Mongolian chop. Badd punches back and hits a kneelift. Double ax handle off the top. Sunset flip off the top for 2. More Badd punches and a suplex. Oono gets on the apron. Saito attacks from behind and in the course of events Badd goes over the top rope down to the floor, taking Oono with him. The ref calls for the dumb over the top rope rule DQ. After the bell the fight continues with Badd completely missing a somersault plancha. Really, could Saito not job clean to a reigning WCW champion? Weak sauce. The Cup is tied up 2-2. 1/4* solely for the stiff chop exchange near the start of the match

 

WCW vs NJPW: Shinjiro Otani (w/Sonny Oono) def Eddie Guerrero in 13:43- Otani was a few years behind the Liger/Kanemoto generation but was on a similar track in the junior division and would end up becoming almost as big a legend as, well, Kanemoto at least. No one in the junior division has ever been on Liger's level. He's also the more natural heel of the three which fit this match perfectly. Guerrero is essentially making his WCW PPV debut (he was in the World War 3 battle royale but so were 59 other guys). After cutting his teeth in his home Mexico he worked in New Japan for several years both as himself and as a version of Black Tiger, and also had an ECW run under his belt that included a TV title win. Guerrero plays to the crowd a bit before another cautious start. Otani hooks on an armbar and goes right into the heel work, hair pulling and face raking Guerrero. He tries a leg takedown but Guerrero hits an enzuguri. Otani gets a single leg crab followed by more good back and forth mat position jockeying. Guerrero hurricanranas Otani to the floor. Back in Guerrero hits a dropkick. Slingshot senton. Boston crab into a single leg from Guerrero. He powerbombs Otani and stacks him up for 2. Huge Guerrero brain buster! He covers but Otani has a foot on the rope. Corner clothesline. Otani flips over the corner to dodge a charge and hits a springboard dropkick. Those springboard moves will quickly become one of Otani's signatures. Guerrero rolls out. Otani with a springboard crossbody down to the floor! Back in Otani hits a dropkick and stomps on Guerrero a bit. This would probably be the spot in the match where he'd do his signature boot scrapes but he wasn't doing that quite yet. Guerrero hits a Saito suplex. Otani German suplex for 2. Springboard spinning heel kick! That one looks awesome. Otani goes up top. Guerrero pops up, joins him, and hurricanranas him off the top! Slow cover for 2. Guerrero lifts Otani into a Razor's Edge position and powerbombs him again! Almost a Last Ride powerbomb. Standing switches with Otani getting a takedown into an ankle lock. Guerrero grabs a rope. Otani misses a dive and goes through the ropes to the floor. Guerrero runs him into the guardrail and slams him on the floor. Guerrero springboard reverse crossbody to the floor! That might have been intended to be a springboard moonsault but it looks like Guerrero switched at the last second. Otani suplexes Guerrero back in the ring. Springboard dropkick to the back of Guerrero's head! He hooks up for his dragon suplex finisher. Guerrero back elbows out. Otani whips Guerrero and tries a pop up powerbomb. Guerrero turns it into a hurricanrana! Otani rolls through it into a cradle! Reversal! Another reversal! Otani stays on top and gets the pin! Hell of a match. I think both these kids are going to be OK. New Japan goes back up 3-2. ****1/4

 

WCW vs NJPW: WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage def Hiroyoshi Tenzan (w/Sonny Oono) in 6:55- Another interesting pairing here. Tenzan was about a year back from excursion and was still working his way up the ranks, but as Tony points out he and Chono had just had an IWGP tag title run. He's being billed as misspelled "Tensan" here. Savage's left arm is still all taped up with what was I think a legit injury he was working through. Rough lockup with Tenzan attacking out of a corner break. Clothesline for 2. Chops in the corner and a corner boot choke. Tenzan no sells a buckle shot and hits headbutts as it's all Tenzan so far. Spinning heel kick. Mongolian chops. Savage rolls out. Tenzan follows and posts him, then drops him on the guardrail. Tenzan Samoan drop back in. Headbutt off the top for 2. Moonsault! Savage dodges! Clothesline to Tenzan's back. Savage tries to suplex Tenzan but drops him on the top rope. I'm not sure if that was deliberate or not. The elbow off the top hits and it's over with Savage hitting three moves the whole match. There was some chemistry here, but the lack of time and bad layout with Tenzan on offense almost the whole match just to lose didn't help any. Shockingly (/sarcasm), it's tied up 3-3 going into the last match. *

 

WCW vs NJPW: Sting def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki (w/Sonny Oono) in 6:52- Sasaki had actually been working in WCW regularly for a bit, having upset Sting for the US title during a WCW two show swing in Japan in November. The physical World Cup is out for this match to be presented after. It's the most generic giant trophy with no inscription on it at all that you could find. Saski jumps Sting as he's getting in the ring. He runs Sting into the corners. Sting hits a back elbow and chops. Early Stinger Splash! Sasaki gets a misdirection faceplant. Clotheslines. Sting ducks the third, hits a dropkick, and clotheslines Sasaki 360 to the floor. Back in there's a series of suplex counters and Sasaki hits a powerslam. Northern lights brain buster! That's usually Sasaki's finisher but he's not making an effort to cover. Instead he plays to the crowd, then hooks on his dragon hold submission hold. After Sting gets out Sasaki hits the arm flip slam for 2. He puts Sting in a Scorpion Death Lock! Sting fights and powers out of it. Sasaki dragon screw leg whip! Sting hits an enzuguri. Sasaki tries a running powerslam. Sting escapes, hits a clothesline and a faceplant. Sting Scorpion! He drags Sasaki away from the ropes and Sasaki has to submit! Decentish. **1/4

After the bell the other WCW wrestlers that were in the Cup come out to celebrate, and Okerlund hosts a small trophy presentation.

 

Triangle Match: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Sting and "The Total Package" Lex Luger by countout in 28:03- Now for the other part of tonight's festivities. The winner of this match gets a world title match with Savage immediately after. Flair must have paid someone some serious money to be the only one that didn't wrestle a match during the World Cup earlier. Sting and Luger are still doing their "one guy is a face and one guy is a heel but we're still best friends forever no matter what anyone else says" shtick. Luger told Jimmy Hart to stay in the back for this match because he wanted to go it alone. As I've mentioned before these triple threat/triangle/3 way matches were still a new thing to mainstream wrestling at the time and they were still trying to figure out how best to make it work. Tonight has a new format: they're going to do the coin flip again (in theory) but the "odd man out" will start on the apron, wrestlers can tag in and out with only two being legal at any given time, and the first guy to get a fall is the winner. It's not perfect, but it does add some new strategic wrinkles. Do you park it on the apron to rest at the risk of the match ending without you in it, or do you go all out avoiding tagging out to try to get the win? Luger gets on the apron with as far as we can tell no coin flip in the ring, so Sting and Flair start. We get a "WOOOOOOO"/Sting yell tradeoff. Lockup and Flair chops. Sting press slam and clothesline for 2. He tries for an early Scorpion but Flair grabs a rope before it's on and slides out. Back in Flair spins into a hammerlock. Tony calls out the fact there was no visible coin toss in the ring and says Luger must have volunteered to be on the apron first. Heenan of all people covers by saying it must have happened in the back before the match. Flair continues the slow picking apart of Sting. More chops and Flair struts a bit. Sting mock struts back. He hits a hip toss, dropkick and another press slam. Mounted punches and a Sting face plant. Flair rolls out again. Sting follows, gets whipped into the rail, but then pops out and runs Flair over with a very Vader like tackle. More Sting no selling and Flair begs off. Flair dodges a dropkick. Kneedrop and Flair struts in Luger's direction. Dusty goes on an absolutely insane rant about what "playing possum" means and how do you play possum anyway do you climb a tree and shout "I'm a possum"? He and Heenan it sounds legit start arguing about it and Tony has to rein them both back in. Flair tosses Sting over the top almost onto the steps and mocks Luger some more. Kneedrop back in for 2. More strutting as Flair is in super cocky mode. Suplex. Sting pops up! He sets Flair up top. Flair eye pokes to get away. Another Sting press slam and he sets Flair up top again. Superplex! Sting covers. Luger comes in to break it up! Sting sees him coming and he stops! Sting: "What are you doing?". Flair hits Sting from behind. Luger tags Sting to come into the match. Luger is all kinds of fired up and Flair begs off. He rolls out. Luger chases, picks him up on the aisle and carries him back to the ring. Flair gets a cheap shot in the corner. He tries a shoulderblock but just bounces off Luger. Luger press slam. Tony: "Flair's been up there all night!". Mounted punches. Flair Flop! Luger covers for 2. Eye poke from Flair and he clips Luger's knee! Time to go to school. Sting inadvertently distracts the ref and Flair whacks Luger's knee with a chair. More knee work and mocking of Sting from Flair. Sting gets the ref's attention again so Flair gives Luger a low blow. Figure four! Luger hulks up and reverses. Suplex from Luger for 2. He slams Flair off the top then absorbs more blows from Flair. Flair wants Sting and Luger to go at it. He tags out to Sting. Sting comes in to an underwhelming crowd response considering the story they've been telling. Luger and Sting are reluctant to go. They shake hands as the crowd gets restless. Finally they lock up with clean corner breaks that get boos. Luger gets the first real shots in. Sting blocks a buckle shot and hits one. Clotheslines. Luger backs off. Sting gets a boot up in the corner and hits a high knee. Luger pops out of the corner with a clothesline. He drops Sting on the top rope. Sting goes to the floor. Luger tries coming off the apron but Sting catches him with a gut shot. Crossbody off the top back in for 2. Sting tries a Vader bomb but Luger gets his knees up. He drops a bunch of elbows and covers Sting for 2. Sting catches a kick and kicks back. He tries for the Scorpion but Luger grabs a rope before it's fully on. Low blow from Luger! Inverted atomic drop. Sting flash small package for 2. Sunset flip for 2. He counters a Luger backdrop and hits a faceplant. Stinger Splash! He goes for another one but Luger dodges. Torture Rack! The ref gets knocked down! Flair comes in and clips Luger's knee again! Luger falls out of the ring. Flair tosses Sting out on top of Luger! Then he gets the ref up and tells him to count. The ref does. Sting is up at 9, but Luger grabs him to keep him from getting back in and they're both counted out! Flair wins! Pretty solid match. It was best when Flair was in. The finish is one of those typical WCW ones that they think is being super brilliant when it's really only moderately inspired. Kind of the wrestling equivalent of watching a Christopher Nolan movie. **3/4

After the match Jimmy Hart runs out and it looks like he's mad at Flair for costing Luger. Sting walks away from Luger without a word.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) in 8:41- Hart stays out to manage Flair so I guess there's no issue there after all. Commentary doesn't do anything to try to explain or even speculate about it. Buffer still has to do the full Buffer even though both these guys have already wrestled tonight. Savage quickly blocks a hip toss and gets a backslide for 2. Corner shot trade off. Paul Orndorff comes out in a neck brace. The Horsemen, or more specifically that loose canon Brian Pillman, gave him a piledriver on concrete not long ago. Flair hits an inverted atomic drop. Savage fights off a figure four. Flair Flip! He falls to the floor. Savage comes off the top but Flair catches him with a gut punch. Security gets Orndorff out. Thanks for coming I guess. Flair posts Savage's bad arm and lays Savage out in the aisle. Hart gets a wimpy kick in. Back in Flair works a hammerlock on Savage's hurt arm and spends the next part of the match picking the arm apart. Kneedrop on the arm. Savage tries to get a desperation cover with tights holding but Flair squeaks out. Flair hooks on a sleeper. Savage counters out. Backdrop and clotheslines from Savage for 2. Hart gets on the apron. Savage tries coming off the top but again Flair catches him. Flair has Hart's megaphone. He tries to hit Savage with it but Savage blocks it. Savage gets the megaphone and nails Flair with it! He covers but the ref is still distracted by Hart. Flair's busted open and gushing. Savage hits the elbow off the top! The ref is STILL dancing over there with Hart. Pillman and Benoit are out. Savage fights them both off. Arn Anderson is out. He nails Savage from behind with knucks! The bloody mess Flair covers, and the ref finally stops hugging Hart to count the pin. Flair wins the title back! Officially WCW says this is #12, so adding his two WWF Title wins it's 14. Really it's more than that but I'm not getting into that right now. The Horsemen ride on top again. Pillman whips Savage with the belt as the rest of the Horsemen celebrate. The match was eh, probably about the best they could do under the circumstances of wrestling multiple matches and time constraints. They were setting up some good psychology around Savage's hurt arm, but it degenerated into Hart hugging the ref for two solid minutes while the Horsemen interfered. I also think this is a case of WCW badly misreading the room. The Horsemen reunion was great, the new makeup of the Horsemen is great. But, the crowd really, really, really wants to cheer the Horsemen. They should be faces, not heels. Case in point tonight, as all the interference to win got a very tepid response, not a ton of heat. A clean Flair win would probably have blown the roof off the place, even against Savage. *3/4

 

There were some more interesting happenings after the show went off air. Sasaki defended the US title in a dark match against the One Man Gang. OMG pinned Sasaki to win the title, but due to shenanigans the refs restarted the match and Sasaki ended up winning. However, WCW didn't recognize the restart and OMG kept the win and the belt and was now the official US champ. When the match was aired in part on weekly TV the next week it only showed OMG getting the pin.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A show of WCW vs NJPW matches was a brilliant idea, and in a rarity for WCW actually executed fairly well. The junior matches definitely delivered. The heavyweight matches less so, but the overall presentation was still a success in my eyes. I'm a huge NJPW fan so I am biased. I wish they'd done more shows like this. The final portion with the world title was OK but not great. It might have turned out better with a more even allocation of time for the two matches and no double duty for everyone. It also helped tremendously to have no Hogan or Giant involved. At this point Dusty was more a disruptive force on commentary than a help, messing up the good rapport Tony and Heenan had built up. They'd get better once they ironed out the kinks. And so WCW closes out what had been at times a tortuously bad 1995 with back to back solid shows and some new solid ground under their feet thanks to Nitro giving them some more focus. That would continue into the first part of '96, a year that would end up changing wrestling forever.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-