Loss

This segment focuses specifically on Rey, his injuries and how he grew up in poverty. Great segment.

Now Raven is at a playground. I'm bored. I'm guessing he was hurt because they've kept him out of the ring for almost four months since signing him.

Short, but this is a HOT match with great action and tons of crowd heat. Eddy really has his act down at this point and you get the feeling these two could produce a MOTY (on a global level) on PPV at this point, given the right time and booking focus. This should have been a U.S. title feud. Check out how into these two the crowd is. Love the finish too!

Looks like the NWO was laid out backstage. Hogan, Savage and Bischoff discover this and are freaked out. They hit the ring with bats and are furious. They want Piper in the ring now, but no one shows up.

More Phil Muschnick venting. Cornette reads some things posted online and this really sounds like WWF manipulation.

JIP. I don't know what Bret was told about how the Hart Foundation was supposed to be positioned at this point, but listen to the commentary. It's weird. Owen is the babyface here, but Austin runs in to attack Owen. The ref takes the bump instead. Bret runs in to get his hands on Shawn -- finally! DX are out to pull Shawn out of the ring. I hope Bret stiffed Shawn during all of that.

Jeff Jarrett returns to the WWF and SHOOTS on WCW and Eric Bischoff. The crowd isn't happy to see him at all, and this wasn't a good pickup for the WWF. He complains about being booked with an ex-football player who can't lock up and says Debra gives new meaning to the term dumb blonde. He then turns his attention to Vince. Jarrett buries the Double J vision from Vince and says he was booked with a clown, a drug addict (wow!) and a black man who can't even speak the English language (double wow!). He then says since he didn't put his dad out of business, then he could at least kill his son off. He then brags about walking out on Vince before he could put the knife in him. He talks about how he is back for way more money than he was making last time around. He then turns his attention to Bret (living on name recognition from the past), Shawn (only able to wrestle once a week because of a broken down body) and Austin (ripping off the Bible to put money in his pocket). Not the best way to debut a guy who people already find grating, even if it was an interesting segment.

We see a vandalized NOD locker room with all sorts of racist epithets on the wall and a Canadian flag. Faarooq is understandably not happy, and it was painfully obvious this was a DX setup on Bret. The WWF loved to do storylines accusing Bret Hart of racism. I hate this angle, but Faarooq is awesome on the mic again. As soon as the match starts, DX is out to troll everyone and Shawn has too much fun accusing Bret Hart of being a racist at the booth. Bret tries to go after Shawn, but the Nation stops him and a big NOD/Harts brawl breaks out while DX scram. After the commercial break, the match settles down temporarily, but when Bret is about to put a ringpost on Figure Four, the Nation swarm him, which leads to a big brawl between stables. Austin comes through the crowd and stuns Faarooq before taking off in the crowd. Bret has no idea why Faarooq is laid out, but covers him for the win anyway. Hot segment, even if I'm not a fan of the premise.

Recent ECW clips mixed into the LL Cool J music video. I don't think I have heard this song, but I like it.

Clips of Brian Pillman's time in ECW. Weird, as there's a highlight reel sound but no music.

Last few minutes. Ric Flair is trying to attack Hennig but is being held back by security. Double standards on security intervention in wrestling KILL me. Flair finally makes it to the ring and chases Hennig out of sight. Flair can run his ass off for a guy nearly 49 years old. It would appear DDP has won the title, as he's able to pin Hennig after a distraction, but the decision is reserved. After a commercial break, Piper and DDP are attacked by the NWO when Piper tries to review the reverse decision since there's a lack of clarity on who the U.S. champ is. The NWO is getting old by this point and blowing it off at Starrcade is obviously what should have happened. Finally, Sting shows up in the crowd but it turns out there are multiple Stings hitting the ring. At least two dozen Stings hit the ring and the NWO fights them all off. But the real one is in the mix and gets in a scorpion deathdrop on Bagwell. The entire NWO bails. Cool angle.

Piper is out for an interview and points out that Larry Zbyszko was officially sanctioned as a referee a week ago for Halloween Havoc, which means the title change stands. I like the logic there. Bischoff and Savage are out to accuse Piper of "felonious assault" and calls Piper an accomplice in the attack on Savage last week. Bischoff wants Hogan's belt back and wants the tag titles back too. They challenge Piper to a fight and this is obviously a setup as the entire NWO (sans Hall and Syxx) enter the ring. Sting is out (obviously a fake) and it was Hogan, who attacks Piper with a bat as Roddy falls prey to a beatdown. Good segment, and Hogan needed some heat on him going into Havoc.

DDP talks in the Power Plant about how he has yet to reach his goals in wrestling and isn't quite sure what success looks like. He also hypes the Savage match at Havoc. I like DDP, but I was ready for this to end about 30 seconds in.

Last few minutes. Nash is injured at this point I believe, so Syxx is subbing for Nash. Rick is FIP, which is different. Some great false finishes here, specifically when Hall pulls the referee out of the ring. They tease that the NWO has gotten themselves DQd to keep the belts, but it's not to be. Larry ends up counting the fall and the Steiners win the tag titles. Big pop for the finish.

Raven sits on the floor in a nursery reciting his usual garbage while "Lightly Row" plays.

This feature focuses on the making and significance of masks in lucha libre. We get translated comments from Psicosis, Silver King and La Parka (with a funny voice that doesn't match them at all) and Rey gives comments in English. Eddy even has a few words for El Hijo del Santo!

Hogan and Savage are out, Savage in a neckbrace from the big angle last week. Bischoff plugs Assault On Devil's Island. He encourages fans (in an indirect way) to sneak signs for this into RAW. Heh. He says Piper is out of control. Hogan promises that DDP and Piper will be assaulted before night's end.

Last few minutes. The finishing stuff is really well laid out and this was a great memorable moment, as the LOD win the tag titles after putting it all on the line.

This week, Phil Muschnick is the target of Jim Cornette's wrath. This is so obviously surrogate Vince talking, but it's a great wrestling promo. Phil is criticized for talking about young wrestlers dropping dead and wow does Cornette's response look terrible in hindsight.

The LOD talk about their first tag title win at Summerslam '91. Then we get Austin and Vince. Austin doesn't trust Vince as far as he can throw him and says he wants Vince to sign first, then Austin will sign. Vince taking out his reading glasses to look as out of touch and geeky as possible is a great moment. Austin tries to leave without signing and Vince reminds him to put his name on the dotted line, so he does. Austin just wants a handshake and they have a deal, but Vince is understandably reluctant. He doesn't stun him, but says he could have just like that if he wanted. Vince isn't content to leave well enough alone and asks why Austin interfered at Bad Blood. This brings out Faarooq who cuts another scathing anti-Austin promo. Austin says anyone of the Nation can bring their asses in the ring. Rock takes the offer and eats a stunner. Austin bails before the numbers catch up to him. Wow, so many things being set up during this time that will carry them for years. Then the LOD talk about Wembley Stadium. These features would be much better now that their history isn't quite so company-centric. Finally, we get a continuation of last week's laser tag saga. This time Sable and Freddie Blassie are involved and engage in a game of laser tag. Mascarita Sagrada even makes a cameo!

One of my favorite RAW segments ever for how funny it is. Kane comes out and destroys Flash Funk and Paul Bearer issues a challenge to Undertaker. But immediately after Kane and Bearer exit the picture, Shawn sneaks in to cover Flash, Hunter counts the fall, Chyna rings the bell (which is a legit LOL moment) and Rude announces Shawn as the winner, accidentally calling him the "pecan of the WWF" before correcting himself and saying "icon". Shawn parades around like he won the Superbowl. Again, what a great heel and this is awesome.

Commercial for the pay-per-view, followed by the LOD putting over Paul Ellering's role in their success. This is closed out by the Godwinns telling Vince the LOD ends as a team tonight.

DX are out as soon as the match starts. They take the headsets from the announcers and call the match. Shawn and Hunter have too much fun burying Bret. Lawler tries sucking up to them on commentary and Shawn and HHH would rather insult him and eat bananas. What assholes! Shawn tells Lawler he used to work for him back when he called the shots, but Shawn calls the shots in the WWF. Shawn makes the famous comment about Stu being dead but his body not knowing it, which royally pissed Bret off for real. They end up stirring up trouble between the Nation and the Harts, and Shawn sits there casually and eats a banana. When the Nation gets the better of the brawl, Shawn ends up smearing a banana all over Bret. Insane! I want to crawl through my TV screen and strangle this guy! Shawn is the most obnoxious heel in WWF history and wow is he getting a reaction out of people around this time.

Vince gets out his question, but before Bret can respond, Shawn and Hunter cut in on the Titantron to poke fun at Bret for getting old, and to replay Shawn picking his nose with the Canadian flag last week. Hunter also points out that he has a larger penis than Bret. There's heat building to set up a match and there's petty personal shots and a lot of this feels more like the latter. Shawn is awesome in this role, but he's almost *too* effective. 16 years later, I'm watching him in these segments and he STILL pisses me off! Bret challenges either one of them to come to the ring and face him right now and they taunt him and officially name themselves Degeneration X. Bret says they won't even make it to Survivor Series.

Video on the career of the Legion of Doom to hype their tag team title shot tonight, where they've said they will retire if they don't win.