Loss

The Rock is out with the IC title on his shoulder, which he stole from Austin the week before. Rock's mic starts cutting out and the lights flicker. Suddenly, the words ROCKY SUCKS appear on the Titantron and the crowd is lead in a chant. Suddenly, there's a laser pointer on Rock's face and the crowd is chanting ROCKY SUCKS pretty loudly. Rock sends The Nation to take care of the technical problem and it's interesting how Faarooq is now taking a backseat. We then see Austin in the truck fidgeting with everything. He then gives the famous warning about 316 appearing on Rock's beeper and Austin attacking when he least expects it. Suddenly, Rock sees the numbers on his phone and Austin attacks him from behind. Austin then chases the Nation off with a chair and finally this crowd has something to interest them in this show.

DX is back out so that Shawn can finally have his confrontation with Bret. This was an obvious swerve, but if there was any chance of anyone buying it, Shawn should have done the swerve before HHH went into his heel promo on Slaughter. They bring out the Bret Hart little person and make midget jokes and this is really unfunny. Forget the cheapshot at a guy who has already left, this just isn't funny. HHH has gotten off easy for his role in Montreal. They end this by putting a WCW sticker on his butt and sending him running off. Jim Neidhart suddenly interrupts and is ready to fight when Shawn talks about how dominant the Hart Foundation was years ago and says Anvil always carried the team and wonders where his teammates are. They mention Davey Boy's minor knee surgery and Shawn says he knows all about those fake injuries. Anyway, this leads to Shawn giving Jim Neidhart an opportunity to join DX. This segment sucked and shows how no matter how hot Shawn was, he wasn't nearly as effective without an opponent people cared about. Rough time period for the WWF. All the momentum they had just suddenly came to a stand still.

This week, Goldust is in a wheelchair but is sporting a similar look to last week. Michael Cole wants to talk to Goldust and ask what type of weapon he used to hit Vader last week. He says he's paraplegic, then changes to quadriplegic and this crowd sucks. Then again, the WWF at this stage was pretty bad after such a strong year. This gets really weird when he gets turned on by the rubbing alcohol being put on his back by his nurse. Vader is out to hopefully save this segment and tells Goldust he better get out of the chair. He goes to attack Goldust, then the nurse attacks Vader by pouring rubbing alcohol in his eyes. Ouch! It's Luna!

Last few minutes. Here they are, the most over tag team of the year ahead. Slow motion action and not much heat. Billy Gunn pins Animal after a ref bump and chair shot and the New Age Outlaws win the tag titles for the first time.

Harvey Whippleman is out dressed like Rick Rude while Ross and Cornette make jokes. Shawn is in a somber mood, saying he hasn't had much sleep since Survivor Series. He takes full responsibility for what happened and says Bret is under contract to the WWF until November 30. Everyone involved deserved better. Shawn has made contact with Bret without anyone's knowledge and tonight, they will settle their issues once and for all. He tells Bret this can end with a handshake or a fight. Well that sounds sincere.

Fujiwara throws some nasty punches to Tenryu's lacerated eye then casually wipes the blood off of his hand and on to the top turnbuckle. That says it all. I love the arm work and cavalier aggression - for lack of a better way to describe it - from Fujiwara. I popped for the surprise armbar after the powerbomb. I kept waiting for the mother of all comebacks from Tenryu, but it never came, sadly. That and a flat finish aside, this was a pretty angry match that was mostly what I hoped it would be.

Really fun B-show match. Five minutes of superb matwork.

I need to listen to see if Dave is distinguishing best workers from best big match workers. For example, I'd be surprised if he didn't prefer Muto to Hashimoto as a worker in the 90s, but if he thought Muto was a better big match worker, that would make him insane. Preferring Angle, Michaels and Edge doesn't surprise me, but I'd be slightly more surprised (but my jaw wouldn't exactly drop) if he is making the distinction and still prefers those guys.

Last few minutes. The NWO stands around and looks at everyone just like they did the year before. The NWO beat up the referee when he tries to move everyone to the same ring. WCW finally has enough and storms the ring to attack the NWO guys. The Giant looks blown up and actually stops to rest for a long time. It's eventually DDP, The Giant, Scott Hall and Randy Savage. Wow Giant looks awful. Then, it comes down to Scott Hall vs both WCW guys and Hall points to the entrance ramp where the NWO music starts and no one comes out. Then we switch to Hogan's music and everyone booking WCW is on massive amounts of cocaine. I hope WCW gave the guy his 25% cut for a surprise appearance for a few minutes on a show where he wasn't even advertised to appear. Sting eventually comes down from the rafters and it's clearly Kevin Nash but the announcers suddenly believe Sting is 7 feet tall. Hall wins World War 3 and earns a title shot that he joked for years he never got, even though he did at Uncensored '98. This is such cocaine. That's the only way I can describe this mess.

This is a HOT crowd before they even lock up. I am excited to see the Hayabusa/Shinzaki All Japan tags. I love that both Kawada and Taue will have none of Shinzaki's rope walking armbar. Hayabusa is having a fun time working the All Japan style and does a much better job of adapting to it than his partner. Shinzaki is a bit too showy for All Japan and that works against him, but it's a factor in the match at the same time. It's cool how they not only work it into the match, but how Taue keeps cutting off the crowd pleasing gestures to get heat. Solid match if only for the incredibly hot crowd and Kawada/Taue being annoyed by the gimmicky nonsense of Shinzaki's act. The crowd LOVES the FMW team.

Not exactly comfortable with the misogyny of Shane gloating about pimping Francine out to Rick Rude. Lots of November To Remember hype. Shane Douglas's venting about how he was held down in the WWF and WCW is Shane Douglas delusion at its best.

Continuation of last week's angle. When the lights came back on, The Sandman returned. But like an idiot, he turned his back to chug beer and was immediately attacked by Sabu. He makes a comeback quickly and I can't say "The Sandman makes himself look like an idiot" without laughing, so I won't. He ends up somersaulting himself from the top of the ladder through the table on to Sabu. Not a fan of this segment as all, as there were all these huge stunt spots and none of them meant a thing.

RINGS just keeps on giving. This may be my #2 MOTY for the promotion and I'm not sure it's even that big of a gap between this and Han/Tamura from January. Kohsaka looks incredible and rolls out some awesome combination submissions and strikes. This is possibly the hardest fought match of the year and is immaculately filmed and mic'd, where you can hear the hard breathing and struggle to apply submissions. I keep wanting to describe this as simplistic and advanced at the same time,if that makes any sense -- simplistic because they strip wrestling to its most basic and true components and advanced because the matwork is so above anything else happening in the world, and the intensity on display is something to behold. I see a match like this and wish the wrestling style everywhere had borrowed whatever elements would fit their own house style from these guys. Absolutely tremendous.

Last few minutes. Giant is selling an injured hand at this point. Hall works over Giant's hand. Nash is doing commentary. The NWO attacks when Hall goes for the chokeslam. The WCW locker room clears to start beating down the NWO. Cool moment, but Nash seems unconcerned and they are putting way too much heat on the NWO at this point. But I guess they are building to Starrcade when surely this will be blown off for good. This really does feel like the type of booking a promotion does that sincerely thinks the gravy train will never run dry.

Schiavone is recapping the night's events when Eric Bischoff shows up to taunt Zbyszko. Tony and Tenay leave the broadcast area, perhaps wisely so. It's obvious he's being set up for an NWO attack. A fan attacks Bischoff! Great heat for this and they are building to Starrcade in a big way.

Ray Traylor is out with a few words for the NWO, which he has recently departed. They end up attacking him from behind. Scott Hall is having the time of his life on this show.

Lots of anti-WWF signs in the crowd. No Hogan here. Strongly pro-WCW crowd on Scott Hall's weekly survey, and Hall and Nash have fake tag titles. Hall calls out Larry Zbyszko. He says they put old wrestling tapes of Zbyszko on fast forward and he still didn't move. He again says Hall couldn't even beat Bischoff. This match was really built up well. Nash calls Giant Quasimoto and calls out The Giant. Bischoff then brings out his surprise -- Hulk Hogan. Hogan points at the entrance and brings out Rick Rude! This guy is everywhere! Embarrassing moment for the WWF, as he was also on a taped RAW the same night. Rude talks about the rights and wrongs in wrestling, getting in a few shots at Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon and putting over Bret Hart. He even quotes The Ramones. This is a great promo. We close out with Hogan trolling Sting and getting the crowd even hotter. Good stuff.

Goldust is wearing a gold pajama top, black pantyhose and gold house shows. He also has a checkerboard on his face and shows up with his arm in a sling. Of course it's a ruse and he hits Vader with something he was hiding in the sling. The Goldust stuff gets weirder and weirder as each week passes.

This can only be classified as a hit piece. It's so dishonest at times that it's laughable, and so honest at some points that it's surprising. They are portraying it as a joint decision for Bret to leave the WWF. Vince tells us that Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart and takes tough questions from his paid employee. Vince apparently isn't above saying sorry and taking ownership of any bad decisions he makes. Vince talks about time honored traditions and yeah, everyone knows about this. Vince reveals details of Bret's deal - $3 million a year for 125 days per year. He suffered a concussion and has vision problems from Bret punching him, and says he allowed Bret to strike him. Things would have been different had Vince fought back, you see. Vince is considering suing Bret. He talks about how he really wanted a storybook ending for Bret and it's sad that it didn't happen. He closes Part 1 by saying he has no sympathy for Bret at all. In Part 2, Vince says he would take Bret back under the right circumstances -- Bret would have to apologize for being selfish and Vince would apologize for doing what he had to do. He would also say no more free shots. Vince says of course Bret sold out, and he left for the money, but it's not a big deal because Vince helped him sell out. From a business point of view, the WWF will go on without Bret Hart, but from a personal point of view, he is hurt. He questions whether Bret's fans exist separately from WWF fans and regrets what his son had to experience and witness. "It's too bad that a 14 year relationship was destroyed was because one member of that relationship forgot that we're in the sports entertainment business, forgot where he came from." He closes by saying he's over it, and that a part of Bret will always be in the WWF. He'll choose to remember the good times with Bret. Mr. McMahon is born, which is the bigger story here than the truthfulness or validity of what he said about Bret.

You want mercy? Take your ass to church!

Do the Headbangers do anything except commercials?

The famous commercial that launched the Attitude Era showing the athletic backgrounds of their top stars and summarizing their injuries. Try lacing their boots!

Sunny wins!

Last few minutes. Beulah takes a bump and Fonzie gets some receipts for the beating he took at As Good As It Gets. Both Sabu and RVD try to go through a table on Dreamer, but Dreamer sits up. But when Dreamer goes to the top, Alfonso cracks him in the heel with a chair. Then they work over Dreamer's "broken" heel (not sure what from), but Dreamer manages to overcome the numbers again and pin RVD. Post-match, Sabu brings a ladder into the ring, which they throw into a chair which is being held in front of Dreamer's face. This segment didn't know when to end. Crazy spots like that would mean so much more if they would just do one in a beatdown instead of doing so many. Anyway, they put Dreamer's foot under a table and Sabu is about to throw a fireball when the lights go out in the arena and then … nothing.

Rick Rude doesn't really dress like a star in ECW. He is heavily featured on this yearbook in a way that has surprised me. I'm in some ways tired of the "What I'd like to have right now" always being interrupted with chants, but it's usually because there is great heat so I won't criticize too much. Rude introduces a video package on Bam Bam Bigelow, including the spot where he press slammed Spike Dudley into the crowd. Chris Candido and a rat tail attached to Lance Storm attack Bigelow and leave him laying. Rude chases him off with a chair.