March 1997

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Both teams are heels, but Bulldog and Owen work as faces for this match. Bulldog does some cool power spots on Vader and Owen does a decent job at being a face, despite being a heel for most of his WWF run. I think he would of fared better if they gave us a reason to cheer to him. Lawler absolutely loses his shit when he finds out that Stu and Helen Hart are at ringside, as he rips into them in typical King fashion. Bulldog gets a hot tag and throws Mankind violently into the turnbuckle twice. The match goes to a double countout after Mankind and Bulldog get knocked outside. Looking at all the phenomenal talent in this match, this should of been better than it was. Being …

The New Blackjacks could of worked as a great hoss heel team if they weren't saddled knocking off a gimmick that was over two decades old at this point. I never understood Vince's obsession with making 'new' versions of classic tag teams. There's a bit of confusion about the rules as both Headbangers are the two legal men at one point. Furnas hits a beautiful frankensteiner on one of the Blackjacks. Blackjacks and Lafon & Furnas are easily the most enjoyable parts of this match, although it's not long until both of them are eliminated in succession. Firstly the Blackjacks get DQ'd by attacking a referee, then Lafon & Furnas are counted out. The Godwins take contro…

The Honky Tonk Man joins the commentary team for this and he's humorously out of place for 1997. The Rocky Maivia character has been a massive bomb so far, with many 'Rocky sucks' chants being heard throughout the match. The Sultan can't work an interesting control segment to save his life. He keeps Rocky in a chinlock that felt like it went on forever. The only entertainment I got from this part of the match was the commentary. Rocky's dancing comeback is cheap initiation of his dad's, it's no wonder why he didn't get over initially. After hitting his signature top rope crossbody, Rocky goes for a pin only for the referee to be distracted by Bob Backlund and Iron Sheik a…

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Man-no matter how much his work gets praised Tamura's character seems to forever remain underrated. HIs determination, stubborness and ego are played to perfectly here-the moment where he look down on Maeda dares him to do something is great, as is the insane fight over positioning that ensues instantly afterwards. The speed of their kicks is something else-them actually presenting the match like a real fight instead of doing trading kicks spots makes the kicks feel a million times more important but the speed and impact and technique in kicks itself is on another level as well. I look at stuff like a sequence in which Maeda locks in a Leglock and Tamura blocks it and tri…

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It's a slow paced AJPW undercard match with a lot of matwork. Pretty cool eh? Sano is a guy you don't know what to expect from here as he is in between UWFi, KINGDOM, BattlARTS and Michinoku Pro, but he rocks the shootstyle here. Some really cool matwork involving him and Smith which had that clash of styles feel. Smith isn't a guy who does a ton for me but to his credit he sold the fuck out of Sanos kicks and knees and looked like he was struggling with all his might here. Really good moment when Sano was destroying Smith in the corner with kicks and Smith goes for a front headlock only to be taken down easily. Tornado is Richard Slinger in a goofy mask and he looked goo…

Another Regal showcase in nuance but unfortunately, this match felt like it went nowhere before the time limit expired. Anti-climatic.

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