Loss

This was always threatening to be a great match, but never quite got there. I really loved the Kobashi/Akiyama exchanges enough to want a match between them in the future. Check out Akiyama's amazing selling of the Kobashi DDT, which Val Venis totally stole in the WWF. The Misawa/Kobashi interactions don't feel nearly as special as Misawa/Kawada interactions typically do in tag matches. Very exciting last few minutes with lots of time killing before that. Between Kobashi/Akiyama and Misawa/Ace, which sees Misawa give Ace some surprising kickouts and has Ace doing an awesome block to Misawa's elbow, this is a match with pairings that are really good that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be really good.

Having the belt matters, but it's not enough on its own to make Daniel Bryan a star. Or else he would have already been made in 2011, just like Alberto Del Rio and The Miz would be seen as top guys.

I'm probably just a moron for thinking the belt at Mania should be a bigger endgame than HHH in 2013-2014. Vince wasn't even the endgame for Austin. It should be, but what benefits Daniel Bryan the most? Being the champion or getting revenge on a heel HHH? Also, the difference between HHH and Vince is that Vince wasn't a wrestler.

It's been so long since there has been a Dusty finish that I don't think it has the stench it used to have, or at least it shouldn't. The problem with the Dusty finish on its own was more that it was abused and overused than it was that by itself it was a bad idea. Doing it once in the chase is fine. Doing it repeatedly could present problems, but who says they are going to do it repeatedly? I strongly agree that HHH should be the end game, not only because beating HHH means more than beating Orton, but also because I could foresee a situation where they plan for Orton to finally get his comeuppance once and for all, then he has his third strike wellness violation. Anyway, it's been so long since there's been a Dusty finish that I think tonight's RAW will tell us what we need to know. There's no real precedent for how they'll execute this in the modern era. Does the belt get returned to Orton? Is it declared vacant? The specifics of how exactly the belt is returned will be important too. Do they bully DB into handing it over, or is he beaten down with it taken from him? Does he possibly refuse to hand it over and get a few weeks of being one step ahead of HHH and taking off through the crowd with the belt every time they think they have him? There are too many variables at this point for me to write it off completely.

Sig worthy.

Hogan and Bischoff are back out to call out Sting. Sting obliges and throws out the bat, which was a mistake, as the entire enters the ring and attacks him in the only beatdown Sting has been a victim of.

Hogan and Bischoff hype The Real Reason Men Commit Crimes for Sting, and Hogan is upset about it. I understand why they did, but promoting Sting filming a movie when he's been a depressed mute hanging out in rafters for over a year is a pretty bad kayfabe violation. Hogan is so upset that he wants Sting in the ring tonight!

WCW vs NWO World Tour!

The NWO is out with Canadian flags and it's obvious where THAT'S going. Bischoff has two special announcements. First, Kevin Nash is back still in a wheelchair, but then gets into the ring on his own. He says besides winning Ben Stein's money, there's nothing he'd rather do than give The Giant the beating of his life, but he doesn't work for free. He'll see him at World War 3. The second big announcement has Eric Bischoff trolling Jim Cornette, which is awesome, and then announcing that Bret has joined the NWO. Hogan gets in a funny comment that he passed the initiation. Liz then leads the NWO in singing "Oh Canada". They should keep their day jobs. Tony Schiavone billing Bret as "one of the greatest second generation wrestlers in the history of our sport" tells us everything we need to know about how they are going to bill him.

Tenryu/Kabuki vs Orton/Jarrett from SWS in 1990 is worth a look.

Last few minutes. Crowd is loudly chanting for Bret during all of this and doesn't care at all about this match. Ross and Lawler make a point about Bret heading to WCW and making a ton of money and how much jealousy that is going to create there. That makes me wonder if Vince thought WCW overpaying Bret could result in guys wanting to get out of WCW and jumping to the WWF. Slaughter restrains Chyna and Rude from interfering, but Shawn still finds his way in and hits Shamrock with the briefcase. I didn't realize the show went off the air before the angle with Shawn tapping, but that's funny considering how upset Shawn got earlier in the year when something similar happened to him.

We get old clips of Jeff Jarrett. He talks about how he's been in wrestling for 12 years, he's never taken steroids and has no skeletons in his closet, so he thinks the WWF is getting him at a bargain. He says he wants to lock up with Bret and it's obvious they do some creative editing. They play name association with a few guys. I crack up at him calling HHH a tag along. They clearly had big plans for this guy at this point and are positioning him to be a big star.

Austin is quickly interrupted by The Rock, and he vows to regain the title. Rock's first big singles program. Rock's promo style is not what it would become, but he was already a good talker. He challenges Austin, and Austin responds by challenging Rock to get a decent haircut and flush himself down by the commode.

Goldust has changed his look for the first and not the last time. He has a Hugh Hefner robe on with his face painted black. He turned on Vader the previous night at Survivor Series which leads to Vader interrupting this segment to powerbomb Goldust. You can see the Russo influence. They've really struck a good balance of wrestling and talking this year and now we're getting these long promos from everyone that sometimes work and are really good and sometimes aren't.

DX have their new intro and Jim Ross confirms that Bret has left the WWF. Shawn thought about coming out here and being politically correct, but since someone else drew first blood, he's going to unload. Shawn brags about beating Bret in his own country in his own finishing hold to win the WWF title, then ran him to WCW with the rest of the dinosaurs. Shawn says his friends there will beat the hell out of Bret one day and also says he would never beat up a 52-year old man. Ken Shamrock finally interrupts and stumbles, and these are the kind of guys that will eat him alive. Slaughter eventually comes out and makes Shamrock vs HHH for tonight. Michaels/Shamrock is a tough sell at this point. This is a flat segment and a reminder that WWF TV went through a brutal period right after Bret left.

That was a great write-up Gregor, and there's not much I would add to that. These two tear into each other and brawl all over the place, having what I think is a hell of a match before you know what happens. The other thing I would add is that there is no way Jim Ross didn't know about this, because he's subtly burying Bret on commentary, specifically as it relates to his age. Everyone involved in this really looks terrible. Then, we get Wrestling With Shadows footage recapping the match followed by Bret in the locker room. We get to see Hunter lie directly to Julie's face and we see Bret leaving the arena after punching Vince. Then we get the footage the WWF really wanted removed from this documentary at all costs, of Vince stumbling through the hall.

Last few minutes. Owen is trying to get himself intentionally DQd and works over Austin's neck. Austin takes no bumps and wins the IC title.

Starting with footage backstage of Julie and Bret's kids talking about Bret's departure from the WWF. Knowing what's about to happen and that Bret's kids are at the show … wow. Bret wears a wire into a conversation to Vince where they agree on a finish. Bret tells his family everything is okay and that it's going be a DQ finish. We see Stu watching at home as well. Here we go ...

Rematch from the week before. It picks up where the 11/2 tag left off, with Funaki and Teoh going after Sasuke's injured knee. At one point, Teoh gets Sasuke in a figure four and Funaki tries to block Delphin from interfering. Delphin ends up circling the ring and metaphorically running through fire to save Sasuke in an awesome moment. There are a series of dramatic saves after that, to the point that this starts to resemble some of the best All Japan tags. Fantastic match that seems Sasuke get some sort of retribution for the week prior and Delphin gets a chance to come through as the savior of his team. Even better tag than the last one.

Cool promos from Douglas, Bigelow and Candido that overlap each other, with Candido the least featured. All three are really good in this.

Rick Rude has had more booty than the toilet seats at Madison Square Garden. In the end, Rude said that the beginning of the year that he'd get to Douglas, and he finally did. Rude has played a bigger role in 1997 than I would have expected going into this yearbook.

Ikeda gets upset with Otsuka for not politely taking his asskicking and ends up escalating the violence level. Otsuka's selling is excellent. Those slow-motion lariats from Ikeda look amazing. No matter what Ikeda throws at him, Otsuka keeps getting up. He's doing a rope-a-dope strategy and ends up catching Ikeda off guard near the end. I usually hate popping up after a German, but Otsuka executes it in a way that's totally believable here and works. Stiff action and great story make a great match, and this is a really good intro to BattlARTS without giving away the very best matches they have.

A press conference announcing Hulk Hogan vs Sting for Starrcade. Sting shows up with his bat and they have a face-to-face staredown. Sting signs his name on the contract.

This focuses on some of the moves so that everyone has names for them. WCW's other announcers did not watch this segment.

Last few minutes. Hall is squashing Jericho and Jericho ends up rolling Hall up for a surprise win! But he's immediately laid out after the match and looks worse winning than he would have had he just done a job. Zbyszko ends up finally making the save and wants Hall to sign his contract, but Hall blows him off.