Loss

I think this is the best trios match I've ever seen. These guys really have a great display of matwork, comedy and highspots. As much as I love the guys in Michinoku Pro, they couldn't pull off something this high-tech in their wildest dreams. I do think this is the type of match you admire more than it is the type of match you love, but I'm not sure I've ever been so impressed by the athleticism and mastery of in-ring craft as I am by this match.

You're a talented interviewer. I respect that you react in the moment and have a conversation with him instead of having a list of pre-determined questions and sticking to that no matter what.

September: #1 - El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (CMLL 09/19/97) ***** #2 - Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (AJW Rage in the Cage 09/21/97) ****3/4 #3 - Bret Hart vs The Undertaker (WWF One Night Only 09/20/97) ****1/2 #4 - Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 09/01/97) ****1/4 #5 - Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 09/26/97) ****1/4 #6 - Masato Tanaka vs The Gladiator (FMW 09/28/97) ****1/4 #7 - Shawn Michaels vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF One Night Only 09/20/97) ****1/4 #8 - Bret Hart vs Terry Funk (Wrestlefest 09/11/97) **** #9 - Eddy Guerrero vs Chris Jericho (WCW Fall Brawl 09/14/97) ***3/4 #10 - Ultimo Dragon vs Alex Wright (WCW Fall Brawl 09/14/97) ***3/4 #11 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 09/06/97) ***1/2 #12 - Vader vs Owen Hart (WWF One Night Only 09/20/97) ***1/2 #13 - Cactus Jack vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley (WWF Monday Night RAW 09/22/97) ***1/2 #14 - Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Kenta Kobashi & Maunakea Mossman (FMW 09/28/97) ***1/2 #15 - Jushin Liger, El Samurai & Wild Pegasus vs Chris Jericho, Koji Kanemoto & Dr. Wagner Jr. (NJPW 09/23/97) *** #16 - Erin O'Grady vs Michael Modest (APW 09/19/97) *** #17 - Bill Alfonso vs Beulah McGillicutty (ECW As Good As It Gets 09/20/97) #18 - Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker (WWF Ground Zero 09/07/97) #19 - Eddy Guerrero vs Rey Misterio Jr. (WCW Monday Nitro 09/08/97) September isn't usually a strong month for great wrestling. This is a huge exception. Some of the booking problems that would plague a lot of companies are starting to creep in around this time, but the in-ring was as great as ever.

Ric Flair calls in to do the best promo he has done in years and I think it would have been so much more effective if we could see him. I don't want to take the paranoia about them undercutting Flair too far, but they definitely don't maximize the potential benefit of anything he does. He thanks Curt Hennig for giving him a wake up call that he's probably needed for a while. He has been guilty of being caught off guard and was stupid enough not to see it coming. Four years ago, he would have left Hennig laying a week before the match even happened. The stitches are out next week and Flair will be back in his face very soon. Second, Flair wants to address Hogan wearing the sleeveless Nature Boy robe and I'm pretty sure he means every word he says. "In the past 20 years, I haven't heard one person say you could fill my shoes, much less wear my robe, pal!" Finally, Flair praises Benoit and Mongo for their help, but says that's not how wrestling works. They need to go their own way and Flair needs to go his own way, so he is disbanding the Horsemen. Schiavone is shocked on that.

Scott Hall is on crutches and does his survey again and this is a very pro-NWO crowd. I should start tracking results on this, but I think mookieghana would be a better choice.

Pretty cool lucha feature that they should have done in 1996 when these guys first showed up, but better late than never. This is just a teaser for the future features, but it's really well produced. This segues into Rey vs El Caliente. This guy attacks Rey during his entrance and it's pretty obvious to me right away it's Eddy and of course Mike Tenay points out that he has never heard of the guy. We end up getting a little teaser for Eddy vs Rey and it's a really great one, but this is more angle than match. Caliente is unmasked as Eddy. Surely, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Let's give Eddy the benefit of the doubt. Great heat, and I loved this segment.

Bret and Bulldog attack Undertaker at the entrance. I don't really remember why. Vader and the Patriot make the save and brawl out of sight with Bret and Davey Boy. Shawn and Hunter then capitalize on this and double team Undertaker. He eventually makes his own save and the match starts. This is all about Shawn interfering non-stop and God do I hate these guys, which means they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Match doesn't last long at all and the Shawn push is still completely too much without any retribution, especially for a guy who has at this point made clear he won't put over anyone in the promotion. Out of control. Cool moment to end this, as they put Undertaker in a bodybag and Undertaker sits up in the bag. Helmsley gets a tombstone at the entrance ramp as Shawn climbs up the Titantron to get away from Undertaker!

I'm more likely to be frustrated by anyone who says that it's a no brainer or a hands down choice than I am by someone who picks either guy over the other. I voted Morton but I don't begrudge anyone picking Eaton. The biggest difference is that I think Morton was the very best babyface tag wrestler of all time. Eaton may be the best heel counterpart, but I'm not 100% sure on that point. Goodhelmet, you raised the question. Put your opinion on the record.

Owen is out with his Owen 3:16 shirt and riot squad. Having riot squads around is a very late 90s pro wrestling thing to do. Owen appeals to Vince to get Austin out of the WWF. It turns out Austin was one of the riot squad guys undercover and gives Austin a stunner before he escapes through the crowd!

Vince has something to say to Austin after what happened last week and they are teasing hard that Austin is about to get fired. Vince's acting is really good here, as he's trying to stand up to Austin but you can tell he's a little nervous. Vince has three options for Austin: (1) Bring a certificate from his doctor next week that says he's capable of wrestling (which won't happen) (2) Sign a document to completely absolve the WWF from any liability over any injuries he might face if he returns to active competition (3) Termination Austin's response is that no doctor knows his neck better than he does or he may sign Vince's little paper or may shove it up his ass. He also says if Vince fires him in front of the world, he will beat Vince's ass in front of the world. Again, how is Vince not in the right here?

Sable destroys The Headbangers in laser tag and holy cow is that some 1997 aesthetics. *** Then we get the final Brian Pillman appearance on a yearbook, laying with Terri Runnels in bed, and while the lighting isn't that good, he's not looking so good either. I don't know if that's me just reading too much into his appearance, but look at his eyes. Anyway, Pillman wants Goldust handcuffed to the ringpost at Bad Blood when he takes on Dude Love.

Really cool feature on Ron Simmons' athletic background. This is a superbly produced feature that focuses less on his gimmick and more on the real guy. Still dumbfounded as to why this guy was never a huge star.

I like that Shawn is out with HHH, Chyna and Rude, but Vince only introduces Shawn by name. Shawn keeps flirting with Vince while Vince rolls his eyes. Even as a heel, these two lovebirds can't help themselves. Rude offers Vince protection after eating that stunner last week. Hunter is a charisma vacuum compared to Shawn, even though he was given some shock lines to deliver to cover for that. At this point, they aren't being called DX -- they are just The Clique. Sgt. Slaughter is out and Shawn and Hunter pretending to be covered in spit the entire time Slaughter talks is hilarious. The Hart Foundation eventually stands at the apron and vows revenge for what they did to Davey Boy at One Night Only. Shawn and HHH do a mocking look of shock and are so easy to hate.

Last few minutes. We join with five minutes left on the clock and the sirens sounding. I have to point out how iconic that siren sound is to me after Funk vs Onita in '93. It just makes these matches seem even more cinematic than they already are. If I remember right, the existence of W*ING is on the line here. If Kanemura loses, the promotion is no more. Well, there is no victor yet when the ring explodes. Onita powerbombs Kanemura in the rubble for a couple of great nearfalls after they regain some sense of composure, and a third powerbomb finally brings the match home for Onita. From here on, W*ING Kanemura is Kintaro Kanemura.

A match we will see quite a few times as we close out the decade. I thought this was excellent for Awesome's highflying heavyweight spots going against Tanaka's stiff shots. They definitely swing chairs around and go through a table or two, but this isn't as weapon-intensive as usual FMW matches. There are spots like popping up after a release German that annoy the fuck out of me and are still part of the landscape in modern Japanese wrestling. They aren't a good idea in 2013, and they weren't in 1997 either. There's also the annoyance of taking so long to set up table spots. I don't think either guy really ever peaked as much against anyone else as they did against each other. Whether you like everything about their match or not, this looks like it might be the best version of that match, warts and all. I can overlook a lot of the stylistic things that I hate about this to point out that at the time it worked, and that it's pretty cool that they managed to carve out their own little niche and take it overseas over the next few years.

Thanks! We're happy to be there as well.

Unlocked. Will is about to get banned from posting here on his iPad.

Cool to see Kobashi in FMW. If I remember right, this match didn't make the commercial release because Baba didn't want Kobashi appearing on an FMW video. If you are watching this, be patient, as the camera angle that makes this impossible to follow early on eventually gets much better. Less heat for this than you'd expect considering that it's Kobashi. In the last few minutes of this, you get some of the All Japan-style dramatic saves off of nearfalls and this becomes a very good match. Glad we included this for the novelty but it wouldn't really be a memorable match if not for the cool factor of Kobashi being involved.

Hard to go from Han vs Tamura to this, but this is a fun brawl. New Jack does a big balcony dive, Kronus bleeds a ton and there are weapons and bodies flying everywhere. The Gangstanators win the tag titles.

Han's simplicity is awesome. I love him countering Tamura's anklelock by just reaching up and applying a side headlock on him. He also does an amazing shoot looking armdrag that looked pretty painful. Han isn't a striker and you can tell that Tamura's kicks fluster him at times. But he never deviates from what he does well. This eventually pays off when Tamura is spending too much time setting up a leglock and Han ends up letting him pretzel himself into some type of crazy leglock. There are some interesting narratives that can be explored through matwork this advanced and this match is really built around the idea that any advantage, no matter how strong it appears to be, has the potential to be a disadvantage at a moment's notice. Tamura ends up winning with a perfectly applied cross armbreaker. Awesome cat-and-mouse stuff and another wonderful match between these two.

I look forward to when John gets back into wrestling. Right now, to be honest, I feel like every point he raises when debating or discussing matches is based on memory from years ago instead of something fresh in his mind.

Flair in '88 is an interesting one because I want to see how it gets the focus it deserves without taking away from any of the other things that were clicking at the time.

jdw, do you have plans to start watching wrestling regularly again? If so, when and what?

Looks like I've averaged about 13 hours a week or so since the 1997 Yearbook came out and I have no desire to watch more than that.

While a victim of a lot of petty crap, Jim Ross also seems to be sort of an asshole himself and I can understand why not everyone in WWE likes him.