Loss
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Last few minutes. Great heat for Sting's return. Hogan had been taken out of the match earlier with his knee injury, to write him off for a few months to have knee surgery and let the ratings continue to fall without him around. Referee Savage ends up dragging Flair to the middle of the ring and doing a big elbow. Then Flair eats a Diamond Cutter and DDP becomes World Champion in a major upset that I think was a cool moment. -
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Last few minutes. Finals of a tournament to crown a new US champion. It's April and we're already having our second WCW tournament of the year to crown a new champion. Fans get up and look at the entrance right away after the ref bump, which always makes me sad. Match doesn't look bad or anything. Big Poppa Pump pulls a foreign object out of his tights and jabs Booker with it to win the title ... which eventually *also* had to be vacated. Oh, WCW.
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This match never connected with me like it did many people. I do think it was very good, and I love Arn at ringside with Benoit and Malenko, running some great interference spots and keeping the heat strong. The double-team moves from both teams were excellent and this had great heat. But this also seemed like too much back and forth move trading with no real structure to it. They started the match with a hot finishing stretch which I guess is interesting but odd, then went into Saturn as FIP. Make no mistake, this was terrific and all-action. But it sometimes gets talked about as a throwback Southern tag which I don't really get. Really good, but I have just never seen the greatness.
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Jim Ross is thankful that fans have made their voice heard and he'll be returning to RAW this week to do play-by-play. Then he brings out Mankind for an interview. He brings a cake and is accompanied by Yurple the Clown. Balloons and confetti are everywhere - it turns out we're saying Happy Birthday to Mr. Socko. Jim Ross says it doesn't seem like it's been a year. That's because it hasn't. Foley clarifies that it's not Happy Birthday, it's Happy Birthplace. Mankind takes a cheapshot at Al Snow for not selling a chairshot on RAW. He makes fans promise not to riot no matter how bad his singing is. They sing Happy Birthplace, and Mankind says he's about to lock himself into seclusion for two weeks to prepare for the Boiler Room Brawl at Backlash. Decent job going from funny to serious and back here. Mankind throws cake into the delighted crowd.
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Storm wearing the Chris Jericho t-shirt. Lance Storm gets a chant that he's on steroids and apparently Tommy Dreamer accused him of such, and *that's* hilarious. Storm calls himself the best built athlete this side of a negative drug test. He has a specimen sample and is willing to submit to a drug test. He challenges Dreamer to do the same. Storm says Dreamer was actually in shape once upon a time, but now he doesn't even *know* a guy named Jim, so he must be taking shortcuts. I really loved this promo and this entire premise. Dreamer took the lid off the specimen and poured it in Storm's face, which ... just no. I was liking this before that. From Dr. Lawler to this.
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Chono isn't bad at working this type of match. He tries to go personality for personality with Onita, which is a pretty noble mission. They actually work comedy into this, which is hilarious. Chono even poses at one point to celebrate his ability to avoid hitting the barbed wire. I have to give props to him for bringing the Memphis heeling to this. In one awesome moment - my absolute favorite of the match - he tosses a chair across the ring without thinking out of frustration and the chair accidentally hits the barbed wire. There’s a huge explosion and he panics, ducking for cover and everything. This reminds me a lot of the Tenryu/Onita match in how they worked it. Chono doesn’t have Tenryu’s natural presence, but he went overboard here in the right ways. This is painfully slow at times and it’s not really a good match, but it’s still a fun watch overall. Kind of an anti-climatic finish though.
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What do you know, we're in 1999 and the New Japan juniors finally have a heated dome match! They had to pull out every asshole tactic in the world to do it, and the great flying moves from Sasuke didn't hurt either. Plus, Liger-Sasuke is kind of a junior dream team. I loved the stuff like Liger tripping Wagner when he was doing his trademark rope run and Kashin following Wagner's lead to do the dropkick on Sasuke, only to give him Goldust's Shattered Dreams instead. This doesn't touch the March tag for work, but it was still excellent and it was absolutely the right match for this setting.
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Last few minutes. Weird seeing Rock and HHH on the same side, but it wouldn't last long. They are working over Show when Austin makes the save to a ridiculous pop and both guys go all out bumping for him. Show ends up making a comeback with a chokeslam on HHH shortly after. Rock still has Austin's smoking skull belt in his possession. Shane points to the Titantron where there's a picture of the Smoking Skull belt and Shane orders producers to keep the picture on the Titantron for the rest of the night. So Austin asks Show to bring the entire Titantron down and Show manages to singlehandedly pull the Titantron down. Then Austin starts ripping it up from behind and cutting through it. Cool moment, the type we don't really see anymore. They should do angles out of their admittedly minor set re-designs when they do them.
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Last few minutes. I remember liking X-Pac and Kane as an unlikely team. They win the tag titles here. This match has big heat, but it sounds like it also might be piped in.
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Jim Ross interviews Austin about the significance of the Smoking Skull belt. Short and to the point. Good.
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Last few minutes. Nash is on commentary. Hogan-Goldberg doesn't have as much heat as it did a few months earlier, but Goldberg apparently got a little overzealous in the steel plate angle so he was working a little banged up. Nash runs in to attack Goldberg, leaving Hogan to kick out of a jackhammer because Nash didn't make it to them on time. Suddenly, Sting drops from the ceiling and clears the ring, returning after a six month absence. He points to the Turnertron where the Spring Stampede main event is announced (the week before the show!) by apparent matchmaker Randy Savage, also returning to claim he will be the referee.
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Last few minutes of the next match in the proto-Smackdown Six feud. Really great last few minutes, but I watched the whole thing and it didn't really pick up until then. Benoit and Malenko run in after a ref bump to attack Raven and Saturn, ensuring that Rey and Kidman retain the tag titles.
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Ric Flair has summoned Kevin Nash. We don't see what they were meeting about, but they seem to be on good terms. Hogan spots Nash coming out of the office and there is some trouble in paradise. Then we get Nash talking to Charles Robinson later in the evening and Hogan sees that too and confronts Nash over it. This apparently all goes back to Hogan saying he "beat" Nash at the Georgia Dome. They seem to make peace, but Nash smirks at Hogan as he walks off.
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Recap of this horrid Ministry-Corporation feud so far, which peaked with the Undertaker kidnapping Stephanie McMahon in her TV debut. Lawler conducts a sit-down interview with Vince and Stephanie. Vince recaps the storyline and this has a somber tone. This becomes oddly fascinating when they start talking about how Vince created the Undertaker gimmick and Mark has started living it too much. Stephanie has even had normal, perfectly pleasant conversations with Mark and now he's trying to abduct her, taking pictures of her in private moments, at "the shopping center" (as Vince says), and so on. As Russo as it gets.
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Just the last few minutes. In what might be a controversial decision to GAEA enthusiasts, we had major space constraints and made a conscious decision to focus more on the types of Joshi matches that have been well-regarded by those commenting on previous yearbooks instead of looking to capture the overall mood of the company. That means that some of the most historically significant matches of their time aren't getting their due, but on the flip side, some really good matches are being spotlighted. This was the biggest match in GAEA history and was a major main event between two 80s icons, but it was also a disappointing overall match, so we opted to just include the finish to nod that it happened but stop there. It's probably worth going through GAEA TV in 1999 in detail at some point, but this match really felt like something that would only be enjoyed by the loyalist crowd.
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This has kind of an old vs new vibe and reminds me of some of the better Joshi tags earlier in the decade. Kong and Oz are the strong established heels with Satomura and Kato making a strong underdog showing against them. Oz works like a total veteran and seems to be ready for whatever offensive attempts are coming from the other side, but taking this kind of beating does a lot to get Satomura and Kato over as tough. Kato plays FIP and they do an awesome job of not just cutting off Satomura’s attempt to hot tag, but even beating up Satomura on the outside to make it seem like all hope is lost. The end result of this is that when Satomura and Kato pull out a surprise double comeback around the 16-minute mark, the place comes unglued. I like that they get their momentum by trying to choke them both out with sleepers. You really get the best of everyone involved here - Oz as a master of psychology and timing, Aja as a monster who looks strong but knows when to be vulnerable and make it mean something and Satomura and Kato as underdogs who can take a beating and later give the best comeback ever. That win was a major surprise! Post-match, they tease the respect handshake before Aja kills that by hitting Satomura with a uraken, with Aja having a subsequent meltdown. Great staredown wrapping this up too, followed by a really cool post-match celebration. This was a great story and an awesome match, plus the finish is a prelude to the Kong-Satomura match in September. As great as the match was, the overall presentation of it was even better.
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This is a reprise of the 7/98 match. Kobashi is extremely giving once again. Akiyama went after Kobashi's knee there and while it wasn't enough to win the match, he pushed him to the limit. He continues in that vein here and the match may not tread much new ground, but it is pretty great. This is a great showcase of Akiyama offense. Everything that was true there is true here, although most things equal there is an obvious quality difference between a Triple Crown match at Budokan Hall and a Carnival match. While Akiyama's limb attack there was practically legendary, this was merely outstanding. And Kobashi's late rally was probably my favorite moment of him on offense in either match. This was just about as good as Carnival matches get - probably my favorite match from a Championship Carnival since 1995.
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Last few minutes. Fireballs, thumbtacks and everything else in this wild brawl. Weird that Balls Mahoney would get the fireball payoff on Mustafa instead of New Jack. Post match, Balls and Axl hold the cage door shut with Mustafa left in the ring along with New Jack. New Jack jumps from the top of the cage and splashes Mustafa through a table.
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Last few minutes. Jazz and Francine end up brawling. ECW is really starting to feel like a dying company with a lack of heat (by comparison to the usual stuff), two segments on here in a row that have people in neckbraces and the Credible push that people just aren't buying. They liberally steal moves from Austin - Douglas takes the Lou Thesz press and Credible takes the stunner. Douglas gets the win, which surprises me at this point. Lance Storm runs in and attacks Douglas after the match. He holds his own momentarily but the numbers catch up to him. Tommy Dreamer makes the save with a garbage can but he gets pelted with the Singapore cane.
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Tammy Sytch looks wasted. Alarmingly wasted. Candido cuts a promo about all the rumors flying around about the two of them at the time before the match. Last few minutes of the match. Not Candido's finest hour, as he doesn't look much better than Tammy himself. They do a hardcore injury angle with Candido and Styles just slides into this obviously pre-packed tribute to him which is just so heavy handed because he's not reacting to anything. Candido gets carted out and Taz attacks Candido again on the stretcher after a "Fuck you, Taz" attack. This is a weird mixture of work and shoot that's just sad and uncomfortable to watch.
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The Pulp Fictions are a pretty dated concept by 1999. We hear from Shane Douglas, Shane Douglas, Shane Douglas and Shane Douglas. After he rambles on forever, we finally get to Super Crazy, Joel Gertner, the Dudley Boys, Jerry Lynn and the Impact Players, and we also get the yearbook debuts of Steve Corino, Roadkill and Danny Doring. With the Douglas departure coming and focus on some of the newer stars, you can see ECW starting to move in a new direction. Corino offers the Duds money to take out Balls Mahoney, and they accept.
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