Loss

Watching all the wrestlers play their theme music is funny.

Al Snow argues with the head and this is followed by a video of clips to "Breathe". So funny that this gimmick ever got over.

Commercial with the women of ECW with an odd and funny Blue Meanie cameo at the end. They never say exactly what Premium Wear is.

Last few minutes. The NWO run in to attack DDP while Hogan and Bischoff take a slower stroll to the ring. They do the same trick again where the fake Sting drops from the rafters and falls through the ring. Hogan cuts a promo on Sting. They keep mentioning Hogan vs Hall which might make me wonder if they were building to the NWO split if I knew they weren't. Hogan even gets in a crack that Sting isn't in shape and has never sold out arenas. Hogan goes to rip the mask off of the dummy and it turns out it's the real Sting. He starts fighting off the NWO and Hogan is now afraid to enter the ring.

It feels weird to talk about a Starrcade where he's in the company and doesn't even have a match on the show. Here, he's the hype man for everyone else's matches. He challenges Curt Hennig to a cage match, but obviously that didn't happen and I didn't remember them hyping that. Wow, they could have made that a feel good show. Flair is asked to respond to Bret Hart joining the NWO and that program could have been special too. Ok, try not to think ahead, self.

Nash calls himself the best big man wrestling has ever seen and I now remember him forcing the announcers to bill him that way when he had the book. This is a good promo to set up a match that will surely happen with Nash putting Giant over. This is followed by Gene Okerlund interviewing The Giant and he looks inebriated in every segment he's in. AHHHH THE CHOKESLAM

This was during the beginning of the period when they kept baiting and switching Austin matches. Austin refuses to face The Rock because he whipped his ass last night. Rock gets in his famous "The Rock thinks you should fire him" line, which is still funny. Vince finally tells Austin he'll strip him of the title if he won't defend the belt right now. Austin ends up forfeiting the title because he has "bigger fish to fry", Rock is the new IC champ and then eats a stunner. I don't think Austin buried the IC title, but he didn't exactly put it over as something worthwhile either. Anyway, he has special plans for the belt next week then takes off with it. Austin runs the ropes and Vince falls to the floor … inadvertently and Vince starts yelling at him. Vince is great!

Marc Mero is upset about wrestling a jobber. His name isn't Salvatore Sincere -- it's Tom Brandi. Jim Ross gets in a Johnny B. Badd joke. They bring out Sable who is about to become a big part of the wrestling landscape, and Mero has her in a potato sack. Mero is abusing her and wants her to take off his ring robe, but instead she takes off her potato sack to uncover a very revealing bikini, which the crowd loves.

No one cares about HHH at all. Shawn talks about his triumph at DX before he gets to Owen Hart. Shawn says DX has destroyed the entire Hart Family foundation once for all and makes the famed "nugget" comparison involving Owen. He says he's not leaving the ring until someone drags Owen out there because he has a feeling he's in the building. They are going to kill time by playing strip poker. Oh great. DOA is out and we go to commercial break. Shawn and Hunter are both missing a few garments but in a funny gag, Chyna remains fully clothed. Then the Headbangers come out as Jim Ross complains about the WWF champion sitting in the ring in his damned underwear. The Headbangers flip the table and get a bottle of Jack Daniels smashed over their heads for it. Shawn doing an underwear beatdown is so bizarre. Shawn decides to jiggle his junk then lay on the top turnbuckle and spread his legs to the crowd before Owen Hart comes out. He gets in a few punches and HHH tries to stop him before he rushes out through the crowd. God, Shawn is the worst.

Lawler vs Sunny and Lawler wins to become the Karate Fighters champion. But not so fast! He was seen bribing the referee, so the decision gets reversed. Sunny is the champion! The Vince impersonation is hilarious.

The first live appearance of Vince since Survivor Series and the fans hate him, even though he acts like his old jovial self. Vince points out that Austin endangered the lives of WWF fans by driving his truck to ringside and using it as a weapon last night. He mentions that Austin once again attacked a referee and he is demanding that Austin defend the IC title tonight against The Rock tonight on RAW. This brings Austin out and he isn't taking orders from Vince. Vince says the phrase "I'm the proud owner of the World Wrestling Federation" for the first time, and also tells Austin "I'm your boss". Vince isn't backing down but seems nervous. I love it! Austin swearing while Vince is on him about his language is funny, although something clearly got edited out. It's clear they have something here with this dynamic, although it will get even better when Vince fully morphs into Mr. McMahon 100%.

Fine match, but no heat and nothing really special about this. It was given time and I was hoping for a hidden gem in the feud. The moments where Liger shows his wonderful sarcasm are always great, but there isn't a whole lot to this other than that.

The rematch. That first sequence was mindblowingly good. This was another really strong match between these two. It wasn't quite as explosive as the first one, but I think I liked it almost as much. Finish was a bit abrupt. Shoot style may be the only thing that gets me through 1998-1999.

Last few minutes. Hunter is interfering quite a bit. He and Chyna run in when Shamrock locks in the anklelock, which is a CHEAP finish or a pay-per-view main event. But maybe they felt like the post-match interview was enough to make up for it, as OWEN HART shows up and attacks Michaels before taking off and the crowd is HOT for him. They really could have had something special here. Shawn gets a badly bloodied nose when he bumps to the table, which I can see Shawn using as an excuse not to work with him. I never thought it made sense in kayfabe for the company to build a PPV theme around a top heel group that they supposedly were very annoyed by.

The first big match between these two. Good video package to start things off. Austin drives to the ring in a truck. This is all about everyone in The Nation taking bumps all over the truck without Austin ever really getting out of his vest. Austin is clearly still not 100% (and maybe wouldn't be until 2001) so his matches are a lot more gimmicky at this stage. I'm surprised at how much Austin sold for Rock, considering their respective places on the card at this point. Austin accidentally stuns the referee and then pins him in a spot I don't quite understand. He wasn't blinded. Another referee is down to count the fall and Austin retains the title.

Goldust has newly remixed entrance music which sounds really cool. He and Luna are wearing solid pink and Goldust is hilarious before he even says a word. He's even funnier when he starts talking and reads Dr. Seuss in odd voices. People don't really know how to react to this except for to chant "Faggot" in the first state in the union to approve gay marriage. This was some serious button-pushing stuff.

Stevie Richards does a promo addressing his return to ECW. He talks about how the "You Sold Out" chants - among other things - really bugged him. He really doesn't think much of ECW fans, which makes him a babyface in my eyes. He seems to be working a different gimmick upon his return. They don't use the phrases, but his look is different and there's less comedy. So he basically went to WCW so he could return to ECW and be repackaged.

I agree that this is much better than the August '91 match, which was excellent but something that I didn't think lived up to the hype. All the neat matwork here was really fun to watch. I too would have thought it was a title match, and colloquially, I'll probably call it that in the future anyway since that's the style they are working. I actually think this could have been even better had they managed to go double the time they did here. I wanted a lot more of this. I also agree that the standing portions of the match felt unfairly weak because I wanted them to get back to the good stuff.

Kudos to Kawada for finding a personal hook in the Akiyama match, giving all of their interactions a more palpable hate. Taue's bump when Misawa countered the powerbomb with a rana was great. I also like how Misawa made a save when Kawada come in, but he stays out when it's just Akiyama and Taue, and ultimately that's what costs them the match. Nice couple of matches to close out the year. Not at the level of most of the series in 1996, but a really strong pair of tag matches to close out the year for the promotion.

Bill Watts loves unnecessary quotes!

I thought Jim Ross did a stellar job calling Vader vs Sting at the Great American Bash in 1992. I'm also not a huge fan of the match, but Lance Russell was amazing getting over the Empty Arena match between Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler.

Kingdom is more reminiscent of UWFI than RINGS. They wear boxing gloves, so the strikes, kicks and matwork all come together to produce something pretty unique and special. Whether they're hitting harder or not, a punch thrown by a guy wearing gloves almost always looks good. The more yearbook footage I watch, the more I really become a fan of grappling and matwork, so I'm always going to appreciate a match that spotlights it so well. These guys don't let up in this one, as there isn't much time where they aren't keeping this moving. Each exchange leads into another exchange and there is almost no standing off. I'm not sure if that's necessarily better or worse than other ways shoot style matches are worked, but it's something that stood out. Kanehara catches Sakuraba in the face with the nastiest kick I've ever seen. Sakuraba is awesome at building the drama. Great match - not the very best match of its kind in 1997 (the competition is pretty steep!), but one that really stands out from the pack.

Last few minutes. Rick Rude comes to ringside when it looks like Page is about to win the U.S. title. Hennig messes up taking the Diamond Cutter. After Rude pulls the referee out and slugs him, the NWO surrounds the ring before Savage attacks him with the U.S. title. Hogan is out pissed off about all these Sting masks and is ready to take it out on DDP. He ends up giving the guy a Diamond Cutter, then puts a Hogan mask on DDP before giving him a second Diamond Cutter. Too little comeuppance for the NWO lately when the balance was just right for the first half of the year.

In a really cool visual, almost everyone in the crowd is wearing a Sting mask and Hogan sells it like a champ. Hogan promises that something real bad is going to happen tonight and also has the famous (at our board) altercation with the granny making faces at him while Bischoff is nervous. Crowd goes crazy! Hogan is AWESOME in this.

Last few minutes. The WWF really does feel like a dying promotion post-Montreal. Talk about a rough patch to close out such a banner year. Helmsley pins Neidhart after a chairshot and they pedigree him on a chair after the match. Shawn pulls out spraypaint and they spray "WCW" on Neidhart's back. Ok, so I'm not crazy and it did happen. I just had the week wrong. Neidhart just have really needed the payday. Does DX ever get any comeuppance? Slaughter tries to stop the Neidhart attack and gets attacked, but Shamrock makes the save. Finally, DX is getting their asses kicked, but Shawn is doing his sarcastic selling and still has the lollipop in his mouth. What an ass.