March 1998

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Eh, remember when shootstyle was fucking great? Kanehara brings a nice unusual to RINGS stiffness to his matches and when he was throwing kicks and knees he was walloping Illioukhine. He was also veteran enough to be competitive on the mat with the russian. Illiokhine's holds were absolutely clinical. Finish wasn't amazing, but solid enough and everything else here was a highly enjoyable grappler vs. Striker matchup.

Slick and at the same time hard fought shootstyle grappling. They used a lot of rope breaks and a match like this could easily become a soulless repetitive exhibition, but because these guys know how to work the match had lots of highlights and all the nearfalls got good heat. Kohsaka has clearly learned from the russians as he goes right at the cross heel hooks with Zouev. Neat finish too where Zouev goes for the rope again but Kohsaka cranks back and forces the tap.

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I gotta say, Hirotas underdog act was highly entertaining in 1998. If she had kept working like this she might have become a really good rich girls Masao Inoue. She took some big bumps and kept the hip attacks coming. Ozaki of course relishes in stretching and smacking lower ranked opponents and did a good job carrying this. Also, she wasn't required to sell too much, so that is also a plus. Some fun moments where Hirota gets the better of Oz and some pretty brutal stiff backfists in this.

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Shamrock rushes the ring and they brawl all over the place. They get as much as their shit in as they can during the four minutes that this lasts. Rock just brains Shamrock with a chair shot, but it's not enough to keep him down. Rocky taps out to the ankle lock, but Shamrock doesn't release the hold and the decision is reversed. The Nation try to save Rock, but Shamrock fights them off and brawls with the officials as well. Faarooq comes down to the ring, but decides to let Rock suffer instead signalling the end of his time in the Nation Of Domination. Shamrock snapping will never not be entertaining, and this made both wrestlers look like total stars. This was more of a…

Easily Sable's best match, but that's more on the great talents that she was working with rather than Sable's individual performance. Mero and Goldust deal with the workrate and Luna is able to carry Sable through her spots. Mero and Goldust both tease their finishers. Mero has a beautiful spinning moonsault. Sable gets the hot tag and the fans go apeshit for her clearing house. She even gets involved with Goldust too. I'm surprised that Luna was allowed to kick out of the Sablebomb. Mero isn't happy that his wife is getting all the attention, but Sable wins this one for her team by using the TKO. I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. ★★★

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Chyna is forced to be handcuffed to Sgt. Slaughter to stop her from interfering. Triple H is in a weird transitional phase, where he's still dressed like a blueblood, but is doing the DX cross chops. This was a solid title defence that was given a lot of time to breath, with Triple H working over Owen's leg. Owen gets some hard-way blood on his nose. The first half of this was solid and unspectacular, but the exciting finishing stretch is where things become very back and forth. Chyna blinds Slaughter with some powder and low blows Owen, allowing for Hunter to steal the win. ★★★

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The Legion Of Doom return repackaged as the LOD 2000. Complete with new attire and Sunny as their valet, the Boston crowd absolutely adore them and they look like a million bucks. Sadly, this goes off a cliff once the bell rings. This is bad, even by battle royal standards. Not a whole lot of note happens. Barry Windham, who isn't in the match, comes down and starts brawling with Bradshaw. The LOD win by last eliminating Bob Holly & Bart Gunn. Even when they are being protected by being in a battle royal, you can still tell that the LOD's best days are well behind them. ½★

A fun showcase for the light heavyweight division. Some of the dives here were impressive, even by today's standards. Aguila's corkscrew plancha and Taka's spaceman dive were two notable highlights. You do get the feeling that the crowd were cheering more for the big spots rather than the wrestlers, as both guys got zero reaction when they were being introduced. Aguila is only 20 and is very green, but TAKA is able to carry him through this nicely. Although this has nothing on WCW's cruiserweight division, this added some welcome variety and flash to an already colourful card. ★★★

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