Loss
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Add Shawn in as the special guest referee and this is quite the star-studded main event. HOT crowd. This is basically Texas Tornado rules and is short but really heated and has everyone hitting and teasing finishers. Great time capsule of the time.
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One of the sad truths for fans of good wrestling is that we live in a world where this match briefly set a rating as the most watched match in the history of cable television, and in fact is still in the top five. Patterson and Brisco make their entrance to "Real American" and this has tons of heat. This is actually really fun since Gerald Brisco is the man and Pat Patterson can still sorta do stuff in the ring. They win with a figure four-Boston crab combo! Patterson takes off his shirt to pose after the match, giving Jim Ross the chance to deliver the awesome line, "And fellas, he's single!"
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RAW was uncontested on this evening since Nitro was pre-empted for playoffs, so they went all out with a big show and drew a monster rating. Shawn Michaels is at ringside doing commentary. Sable is a heel but still gets cheered anyway, proving that it's what's on the outside that counts. Val Venis shows up when the bell rings and strips Debra while she's distracted, and Jeff Jarrett hits Val with his guitar. Shawn enters the ring when Sable is being interviewed to interrupt and claim Debra won since she was stripped. Debra is now the Women's champ. The story here was that Sable refused to be stripped down and this led to her lawsuit for sexual harassment. This segment definitely has a privileged male world view, to say the least.
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Last few minutes. That video package is awful. Bischoff restarted the match? What authority does he have to do that? DDP made the chairshot ricochet look great, as I've seen that spot look really stupid when poorly executed. Nash wins the WCW World Title.
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Last few minutes. After seeing their 9/98 match, I do want to watch this in full at some point, although the heat is nowhere near where it was then and what we see of the match doesn't look too impressive. Goldberg isn't nearly as over as he was last year. The heat picks up when Goldberg switches to offense, which probably says everything we needed to know about how to construct this. Bret shows up with a chair and whacks Goldberg on the knee with it a few times. Then the Steiners come down and attack Sting for some reason. On a side note, Bret always prides himself on never having injured someone to the point that they missed work, but it's my understanding that his chair attack here injured Goldberg and sidelined him for a couple of months.
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Last few minutes. Charles Robinson, who has now cut and dyed his hair to look exactly like Ric, is playing favorites as referee. Flair submits to a figure four but Charles Robinson pretends he hears him say no then pretends not to see Arn interfering. Asya runs in and hits Piper and he kisses her before putting her in a sleeper. Next, Charles Robinson pulls him off by the hair and takes a punch. Meanwhile, Flair hits Piper with brass knucks and wins the match to keep control of WCW. What a mess. Eric Bischoff shows up to Flair's chagrin. Bischoff tells Flair to shut the hell up and is here to declare that Piper won the match. Flair freaks out at ringside and Bischoff and Piper hug, which seems a little dramatic. Piper then fires Flair and this makes no sense at all. Fiair is such a joke now when he was a money-drawing icon just a few months earlier.
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Last few minutes. Arn continues to be great as a second. Kanyon interferes wearing a Sting mask and attacks Kidman. Raven pins Kidman to win the tag titles for himself and Saturn. Messed up finish clouded by Malenko locking in the Texas Cloverleaf at the same time the pin is taking place. That may have been on purpose but it looked awkward.
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Judge Jeff Jones interviews Taz, who takes a more lighthearted approach than normal since they are in beautiful Florida. Halfway through the interview, he suddenly snaps and attacks the good judge, telling him he wants Candido to tell him everything he's feeling before throwing him in the trunk of his car. This is an interesting setup as fans are still filing in and Taz doesn't want to wait until the taping starts. A ring crew guy points out that he still has work to do around the ring. Taz agrees, then ends up hitting the guy with his belt. Taz is too much of an asshole to be a babyface, but he is a compelling character for sure.
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Steve Corino and Cyrus hang out on the beach. Kudos to Cyrus wearing his full gimmick. Cyrus praises Corino for angering Taz right away after showing up, but Corino is shocked that Taz is still holding this against him and his voice starts squeaking and he is terrified. This is a breath of fresh air. More Corino, please.
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The future Rikishi challenges Hayes and gets a "You don't have to leave the building, but you better get on up out of here" response before the match starts. Smooth is in good shape and cuts a quick pace. Glen Kulka comes in and attacks Hayes and since it's a Badstreet Match, there's no DQ and Smooth wins the Power Pro title. Hayes calls this a bunch of BS and wants Kulka out there now.
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That video package and the entrances are phenomenal. Even though I wasn’t in love with this, it was a great match and considering the praise it’s gotten in many circles and it being the blowoff of an interpromotional feud, I'm glad I saw it. It disappointed me based on the hype and seemed like a really second rate version of the NJ vs UWF matches of the 1980s, but I guess there are far worse things a match can be. I didn’t like that floor touching could be an elimination, but I suppose some bullshit is going to happen to avoid clean pinfall/submission jobs in most interpromotional matches. The crowd wasn’t hanging on to everything, even though they were cutting a great pace and the work was really good. That was what was missing here, so the atmosphere really sucks for a match that’s worked to be so big feeling. I would have rather seen Gannosuke/Oya vs Ishikawa/Ikeda in a long tag match. Gannosuke and Ikeda were definitely the stars of this, and it was cool to see typical heel Gannosuke working as a babyface to defend the honor of FMW by himself at the end. The last few minutes of this were electric, and that was the atmosphere I was hoping would be there for the entire match, but wasn’t.
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This was an awesome match. I didn’t want it to end. My first thoughts were that it wasn’t at the level of the Michinoku Pro matches from 1996-1997, but it was a nice attempt, and it wasn’t too far behind. But I don’t think that comparison is really fitting or fair. This match starts as an MPro-style match (at least after the chairshot crowd brawling), but it quickly settles into something very different. It becomes more of an aggressive match and slows down. They isolate Seno and work him over for a while, and Togo is such a mean-spirited asskicker, slapping Seno around and gouging his face until he bleeds. I love the crowd rallying behind Seno in an American babyface crowd reaction way. After Delphin gets the hot tag, they all start going for nearfalls which is the weakest part of this match, even though it’s still good stuff. Togo catches Yakushiji in an incredible high-elevation Diamond Cutter. Hooking the tights, manager throwing powder, face in peril … I like these American elements. That chairshot at the end was crazy.
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It looks like the same match was put on twice in a row. Here is the Yoshida-Yagi match you want to see. Start at 56:15 in the below video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuoQi9VU_4 This was another great match between these two. This one is particularly awesome because Yagi is hanging at Yoshida’s level on the mat. She was before too, but Yoshida took most of that match. Here they are working far more even. There is some really cool attention to detail in this one. I like how as the match goes on, each one is trying to catch the other off guard by maneuvering her into a position where her shoulders are on the mat so she can get a quick pin. Yoshida really shows her frustration with Yagi having her number on so many exchanges, and this looks like an attempt to create a rival that can really hang with her. Check out her amazing selling of that cross armbreaker (which is really cinched in) and all the drama over Yoshida’s flailing attempt to get out of the hold. There are some incredible nearfalls at the end too. Yagi goes back to the cross armbreaker and this time Yoshida is prepared for it and counters quickly with this awesome sleeper/cross arm breaker combo thing. This was fantastic - what a great series!
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Yoshida continues to impress and what really stands out to me the most is that this is the first match where I can really see the effects of the crowd being educated to the new style. As a result, there is heightened drama over all the submissions teases, and fans seem to have a cool understanding of a lot of the submission hierarchy. This is in some ways a slight step above BattlARTS at times simply because they can work nearfall teases into the match. I didn't think this was as transcendant as the other matches but it felt like they turned an important corner all the same.
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The lumberjacks are the Corporate Ministry. Austin and Rock end up taking out all the lumberjacks instead of each other. No match, as this was all a setup to attack Austin and Rock. Vince ends up sending The Union out to make the save and other wrestlers come out as well. The ring is filled with brawling wrestlers. We end up with HHH and Undertaker working over Rock until Austin comes up from under the ramp and this is a big moment, as Rock and HHH are placed on equal footing with Austin and Undertaker. Austin and Undertaker end up disappearing below the ramp while Rock makes his own comeback, even landing a shot on Chyna. Rock ends up taking a big fall and Undertaker sends Austin right after him. The camera angle was great for making those look like huge bumps. They definitely were, but the camera angle made them look even bigger.
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Clip of Undertaker breaking a bat over Big Show's head in a nasty-looking spot. Heel Sable skips out on the match, saying via Titantron that she won't be able to make it because she's preparing for her second Playboy shoot. But she has a stunt double. Nicole Bass comes out in an evening gown. Rather than do the impossible, Debra throws the match and strips to her bra and panties voluntarily. Nicole Bass tries to attack Debra and Jeff Jarrett makes the save with a guitar shot. Then Val Venis runs off with Debra. What say you, WWF?
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Linda and Stephanie beg Vince not to have this match. A few minutes later, we see that Vince has been assaulted by the Corporate Ministry. Vince ends up stumbling to the ring still selling the attack. Shane attacks him at the ramp then drags him into the ring. Vince finally makes a big comeback and the people go crazy before Vince finishes his son off with a Stone Cold Stunner and gets the pin. This was a fantastic segment.
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The Corporation and The Ministry have joined forces. I'm laughing at all of these mean guys and then The Mean Street Posse. I am also laughing at the idea of a group of people that looks like this still being called a corporation. HHH has words for The Rock and it's an understatement to say he was still finding his voice as a promo. Undertaker also has a few words for Austin. This is the first tease of the Greater Power. The Union - Mankind, Shamrock, Test and Big Show - interrupts and wow did they bomb as a group. Union of People You OUghta Respect, Shane. Clever. He points out that since Shane takes over, their paychecks have sucked. Then they hit the ring with 2x4s and the Corporate Ministry bails.
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