Loss
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Ric Flair does an interview to address the NWO reuniting on Nitro. Flair talks about how he and Harley Race wrestled in front of a sold out crowd in 1981 in this very building and they fought for the world title that was passed along so easily on Monday night. He says he realizes Hogan sees him as no one and Nash thinks the old man can't go, but they are the ones that will have to look at themselves in the mirror in ten years. Nash will have to tell his kids he laid down for Hulk Hogan. Flair takes blame for the match happening in the first place, and falling for their plan. Flair even tells Luger he has everything going for him except leadership and guts, and that he sucks. Finally, he has a word for Bischoff going silent all night on Monday night. In a few hours, he'll be in Atlanta and Bischoff better be in his office at 8am, because they are putting together a plan to take care of Hogan and Nash on Monday night. He closes by listing a lot of world champions and great opponents through the years and says they aren't going to take that from anyone. This was sooo good, better than the angle deserved in fact. -
Kobashi has his eye and forehead all bandaged up. This starts with Kobashi and Akiyama working over Kawada’s back and knee. Great looking offense here, with both guys really cinching in the half crab and making it look nasty. Taue makes a hot tag and goes on a rampage, DDTing Kobashi on the floor and then going right to the eye. No one in wrestling can fuck up a face better than Akira Taue, but Kawada gives him a run for his money when he drops some brutal jumping knee drops right on Kobashi’s eye, making Kobashi scream in pain. Akiyama attempts a save and Taue kicks his ass in quick fashion. Kobashi pulls out a pretty cool comeback before getting a hot tag to Akiyama, who cleans house only momentarily before Kawada dominates once again. Kobashi runs in to make a save, but Kawada and Taue run him off and kick him in the eye again. The match doesn’t feel fresh at all outside of Akiyama’s involvement, but everyone is pretty great in this. Kawada’s offense got a little repetitive, but overall, this was awesome stuff, and Kobashi’s performance in this one is the stuff of legend. My only gripe is that they did so many hot tags that they started to lose meaning by the end, but that alone isn’t really enough to detract from this much at all. Even though this is JIP, we still get a good 18 minutes of a 25 minute match, and what we see is pretty great.
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This was sensational. They spend the first nearly 10 minutes working the mat with some nice stuff before things briefly spill outside and Oya juices. Then they come back in the ring and Gannosuke works the cut until Oya turns the tide by going after Gannosuke’s arm, which he sticks with for the duration, repeatedly trying to maneuver Gannosuke into a cross armbreaker even in the last few minutes. I also love how they both keep going back to the abdominal stretch and that they put it over as a real weapon and game changer. They start an All Japan-like finishing stretch but it quickly stops in favor of more submissions and something more subdued while still really great. I love using a full nelson from a camel clutch position as a submission also, and that’s the finish. This is really an extended Arn Anderson match, only with more of a main event feel. There aren't nearly enough matches like this in 1999 and beyond.
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This is Kuroda working over Hayabusa’s knee. Hayabusa responds by going after Kuroda’s arm. Kuroda’s stuff was solid and Hayabusa’s was terrific. Hayabusa’s arm work was very Hashimoto-like in this match. In a way, this was a dome show match worked in a really small arena. Kuroda did the Muto thing where he runs as far as possible to hit a lariat, but they had no huge ramp since they weren’t at a dome, so he did it in the crowd. Hayabusa responded with a rana that sent Kuroda tumbling down the stairs. When Hayabusa threw the chairs on Kuroda and moonsaulted him, it sort of pissed me off because the match had been so pure up until that point, but this *is* FMW, so there’s probably always going to be a little of that. They sort of treated it like something obligatory and got back in the ring to work their preferred basic match quickly, which I appreciated. Hayabusa hits a 450 for a great nearfall near the end. Kuroda’s lariat isn’t very good, but Hayabusa puts it over well enough that it doesn’t matter. They do the bomb throwing at the end. This had a New Japan build, an All Japan finishing stretch, and like two minutes of old-style FMW stuff to try to nod to the crowd they were working in front of. This was a very good match.
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Okay match, but a great/borderline classic moment with Mankind winning the title. The pop Austin gets for his run-in is one of the loudest he ever received, maybe the loudest. Yeah, the referee had to pretend not to hear the loud ovation and Austin's music, but I don't think Austin would have gotten the same pop without it. I'm not crazy about how frequently Rock and Mankind traded the belt back and forth during their feud, although Mick winning it once was a good thing.
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Shawn sees the DX guys off and they whisper under their breath as he walks away that what goes around comes around. Off camera, Shawn is attacked and we come back from commercial and he's covered in blood. So this was probably a little too subtle by WWF standards, but DX basically sacrificed Shawn to the Corporation as revenge for turning on them. That it's snowing hard outside acts to the moment quite a bit, as Shawn looks pretty fucked up.
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Last few minutes. Shane kicks Mick's hands off the ropes when HHH attempts a sunset flip then does a quick count to give HHH the win. So Mankind is out of the Rumble. HHH grabs the mic and says he's sorry, but a win is a win and business is business. But he finishes by saying Happy New Year and giving Shane an out of nowhere pedigree, then leaving the ring and turning Shane over to Mankind. Mankind stretches Shane on the mat and Vince and the Stooges are out to cut him off but Mankind promises to break Shane's shoulder if he takes even one more step. Now, Mankind has changed his mind - he wants a title shot tonight that's no DQ. Rock comes out and is not happy about Vince giving in, but Vince tells him to get over it and get ready.
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Mankind says last week was the first time he ever grabbed a man's testicles and in a rugged, manly kind of way, he actually liked it. He also said it was the first time he had ever said the words "suck it" without the word "please" in front of them. He would like to ask Vince for a title shot at the Royal Rumble. The announcers constant soundbyte commenting on every single line is so incredibly annoying. Vince comes out and simultaneously degrades him and puts him over beautifully, which is sadly a lost art form. Vince says the idea of Mankind isn't even funny, it's pathetic. Vince ends up making a Mankind vs HHH match with Shane as special ref for a spot in the Royal Rumble.
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What can I say about this that hasn't been said? This was such an incredibly depressing moment at the time because it became clear that nothing was really ever going to change in WCW. Someone else can recap all of the events if necessary but I think it's all pretty well-known. WCW still had a few months of success to dwindling returns ahead of them just because they had so far to fall. But remember this crowd size in December, and remember that huge freefall happened in less than a year.
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I'm most interested in one specific thing he said, which was that the guys who were John Laurinitis guys - Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Del Rio - were/are suffering because they aren't HHH guys like The Shield and The Wyatts. I just wonder generally how much truth there is to that. Eventually, everyone will be a HHH guy as more NXT wrestlers fill the roster, but does that mean those mentioned are pretty much doomed to the level they are now for good?
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Six weeks after leaving, Hogan is back. He claims he was planning a formal goodbye tonight and was also going to announce his VP running mate, but Nash had to call him out and now his plans are ruined. He says if Flair is going to force him into a match, he guesses he owes his fans one last retirement match where he plans to retire as WCW World Champion. He puts over the Wolfpac stronger than he ever did as a formidable opponent in 1998, which should have given it away. This ends with the legendary announcement from Tony Schiavone that Mick Foley is going to win the WWF title tonight. "Yeah, that'll put butts in seats."
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Nash slings the belt around like a piece of crap. Nash claims Goldberg got screwed at Starrcade and suspects Hogan is behind Goldberg's arrest. He wants him in the ring tonight, but consider it a warm-up because he'll taken on Goldberg when he's done. Flair agrees to Nash's request and makes Hogan vs Nash tonight. Way to make Flair look dumb his first night in.
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An extended vignette for the LWO. Eddy's nearly fatal car accident happened a few days for this show, so I have no idea why they even bothered to air the vignette knowing he'd be out of action for a long time and may not even return. It's a good vignette, better produced than the usual WCW fare, but it also suffers from being too long and having no real point to carry it along. The women dancing with La Parka is great and has inspired a gif in someone around here's sig that I know I've seen before. They seem to be making the point that Eddy is stealing the women from all the other guys in the LWO, who seem exasperated. Eddy's personality has grown by leaps and bounds, but he's not in an environment yet where they can channel it into making him a star.
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This is HORRIBLY produced. The cops tell Goldberg they have a warrant for his arrest and he just keeps YELLING AND YELLING AND YELLING that whatever it is is untrue before the cops even have a chance to explain the issue. He comes across as a Grade A asshole, and not at all in the cool Steve Austin way. He starts rambling about defamation of character. This is TERRIBLE! Goldberg makes sure we know this is WRONG! Ugh. Nash comes out to protest and sees someone laughing off camera. It's Hogan. Next segment, we find that Goldberg is under arrest for aggravated stalking and Elizabeth filed charges against him. Next segment, Liz is questioned about what happens. The cops are actually pretty decent in this segment and Liz tries but this is one case where WWF overscripting is a welcome change, because she seems at a loss over what to say.
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WCW has their biggest show in history and draws a record-setting gate. And they fuck up the evening in royal fashion. But we'll get to that in a few segments, as for now, all is well. Ric Flair is the President of WCW and is out to make his first proclamation of sorts. He summons Bischoff to the ring and tells him to come to the ring tomorrow unless he wants to go work somewhere else tomorrow. Flair points out that Bischoff has taken great pride in the last five years in taking him down a few notches and says the easiest thing would be to fire him, but he's going to do better than that. Since he had so much fun removing Flair from main event status, Flair is going to cut his salary in half and make him go back to the announce booth. Next, Flair wants to address Randy Anderson. Bischoff fired him. This is really weird because the imply that he hasn't been refereeing matches all this time and that Flair is just now rehiring him. They show old clips from 1997 - which seems like an eternity ago by the beginning of 1999 - that show Bischoff firing him. So Flair brings him out and rehires him for double the salary. Re-hire me, I'm already re-hired? Finally, Flair thanks everyone who came to the ring last week and supported him and that includes Randy Savage, who showed up for one cameo and doesn't even come back for another three months because WCW can't manage their talent anymore and isn't he an NWO guy anyway? This stuff makes my head hurt. He closes by saying they won't be doing WCW/NWO co-branding anymore and that WCW will present Souled Out. He wants Barry Windham and Curt Hennig in a handicap match, but in a funny moment can't remember what it's called and asks Arn to refresh him on the gimmick name. David Flair steps up and wants to team with Ric. Ric is hesitant but Arn convinces him that he knows what he's doing, which could be an interesting moment but is a bit rushed. We close out looking at Eric at the booth again and he doesn't say a word all night until the show closing angle.
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This is a good match, nice and nasty. Lots of eye poking and boot gouging and other small things to up the ante. They're also really laying in their shots. Tenryu was born to wrestle in front of crowds this big. Koshinaka was not. I think some type of tag involving Tenryu, Choshu, Hashimoto and Onita would have caused the Tokyo Dome to spontaneously combust, but it wasn't to be. Tenzan and Kojima win the tag titles when Tenzan pins Koshinaka. This didn't light my world on fire, but I do think it was a fun, hard-hitting match.
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I'm told this is a shoot, but are we sure about that? This seems awfully booked and they are definitely working the crowd. It's over quickly and entirely one-sided, with Ogawa bloodying up Hashimoto's nose and making quick work of him. Considering how strong Hashimoto had been presented for a decade, it's a pretty shocking move, but I know this is seen as something that eventually killed Hashimoto as a star. I'm not sure how I feel about watching that decline. For now, I'll just praise the segment. This is more angle than match, but it's excellent. Choshu (I thought he was retired? Oh yeah, pro wrestling) comes out and has to be restrained from Ogawa as well.
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There's now a junior tag team title, which shows the depth of the division, although it existed before this match. Last few minutes. Match isn't heated at all, and we go through this ever year on January 4 with New Japan juniors. They still haven't cracked the code - so I guess now we can say Liger-Kanemoto in '96 came closest to keeping a crowd, even though I'm not sure it fully succeeded either. And this is a bomb throwing match with Takaiwa pulling off a quadruple powerbomb and doing big suplexes. And they make use of the entrance ramp to do some visible brawling too. It just didn't get people excited. Too bad.
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Happy New Year! Brian Christopher is upset because his Christmas was ruined by Jerry Lawler. Lawler had the nerve to stave off a home invasion by throwing a fireball, and that's a trick I may want to learn since I have no desire to ever own or even touch a gun. This is pretty standard Lawler formula at this point - 70% feeling out and 30% action - but I don't mean that as a major diss. Stasiak ends up hitting Lawler with a cookie sheet after a ref distraction, which would appear to be the finish, but Lawler gets a kickout. Stacey goes into check on him and I have no idea with Christopher and the ref are doing in the corner, but it stretches believability that he'd distract him that long. Then Stasiak attacks Lawler in plain sight of the ref anyway. Stasiak tries to throw fire but botches it badly. Even that aside, I suspect this finish wasn't executed the way it was booked because it was pretty bad.
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Probably because lots of guys on the rooftop were heading for WCW, or like Bret, they were hinting that they might.