Loss

Great match that I've talked about at length before. Pretty amazing display of fan support for both guys. Bret's knee work is pretty choice and Undertaker probably looks better here than in any match I can recall. Undertaker's selling is really strong, as Bret dominates most of this match. Bret's singular focus on Undertaker's knee - especially after the ring bell stuff - was a master's class. I could have done without the non-finish and would have liked a clean pinfall in this one, but everything up until then was great and even that was executed exceptionally well.

Excellent match - I agree with those who say this might be Vader's best in the WWF. I don't think the Sting/Vader matches are a good comparison, but at the same time, this is really fun and shows Vader at his best. Owen is really good at the underdog role and I like the basic build to things like the eventual bodyslam.

Great video to hype the main event, with childhood footage, highlights of previous matches and positive comments each has made about the other in the past. This is capped off by Sunny interviewing Shawn in his locker room. They can't keep their hands off of each other.

I thought the setup to this match was pretty good, but the Fonzie vs Beulah portion of this is the best part, obviously. This is such a great display of wrestling psychology, has as much heat as any ECW match ever and is really well laid out. I am being totally serious. How did I know that Joey Styles would call the finish a Beulahcanrana before he said it?

Just the finish. Sabu and RVD attack both guys and the match gets thrown out. Fonzie shows up again with his WWF flag but The Sandman hits the ring before anyone gets buried. Sabu ends up accidentally hitting RVD with a chair in a terrible looking spot and Taz and Dreamer eventually clear the ring. Beulah then beats up Alfonso to close out the segment.

Alfonso has something written about WCW and Nitro on his neckbrace but I can't quite figure it out. RVD shows up and calms down Fonzie and hypes himself, since that's what RVD does.

Folk Implosion entrance music! Does it get more 90s than that? It turns out it does -- the "New York City?" joke from the Pace Picante commercial even makes an appearance during Modest's introduction. This is my first time seeing Crash Holly in this gimmick. For those of you unfamiliar, as Erin O'Grady, Crash is a leprechaun from Ireland whose weight is announced in stones. For indy wrestling in 1997, this is pretty solid. Lots of good basic stuff around the side headlock and returning to it every time Modest tries to get out. Nothing that will change your life, but perfectly fine wrestling. This gets really aggressive when they go out of the ring and Modest lays in some pretty nasty kicks on the floor, and O'Grady's spinny knee thing he does looks really great and it's pretty cool that he's able to get a finish out it. Better than I expected it to be for sure.

Forget this being unlike any Santo vs Casas match I've seen before. This is unlike any lucha libre match I've seen before. The matwork isn't really remarkable in terms of difficulty -- at least not compared to something like El Dandy's matches against Azteca or Casas -- but there's a mean streak and aggression here that is lacking in all but the very best matches in wrestling history. I thought this built beautifully and really threw a lot of conventions on their heads while still working a match that felt true to the style. It had the build of a classic world title match and the hate of the best brawls, yet I loved that the tension never really boiled over. I feel like this is a match that deserves a better review than I'm capable of giving, because I'm having trouble putting what makes it so cool into words. The layout of the match, the way Casas dominated so long before Santo showed signs of life and little things like Santo's repeated headbutts to set up his submission win in the end combine to make this an all-time classic. I'm not sure I would have fully appreciated this without going through so much of the 1997 CMLL match, to see what other good and great matches during the time look like and why this shines above them all.

It all ties together. If you don't like it, don't watch it, and if you don't watch it, don't criticize it. Therefore, don't criticize it.

I think either take is fine. I think having both is what I'm questioning.

"If you don't like it, why even watch?" has been a fairly common battle cry over the years. "If you don't watch, why should I listen to what you say?" has been a fairly common battle cry in this thread. So it raises the question to me of who exactly is allowed to criticize WWE.

I don't take it personally either. It's wrestling. I just think it's okay to not like stuff, just like it's okay to like stuff. People will agree and disagree with you either way.

The only thing I would add is that on one hand saying anyone who doesn't like shouldn't watch and on the other hand saying anyone who doesn't watch shouldn't criticize sounds to me like there is no form of allowed criticism at all. It can't come from people who watch because they shouldn't be watching, and it can't come from people who used to watch and have been turned off because they aren't watching regularly. So I guess we should either all love everything WWE does or shut up.

Under this thought process, you would have turned off WWF in 1997 due to so many bad decisions and booking issues through '96. You would have missed out on one of their BEST years storyline wise and the beginnings of their rise to re-take #1.... 1996 WWF was less a case of things being actively bad most of the time, and more of a case of things attempted not fully clicking. 1996 WWF didn't set up a lot of great things only to kill them off a few weeks in.

I don't understand how if you've seen plenty of the featured wrestlers in WWE, seeing who's on top, what the storylines are, who's winning/coming out ahead, who's losing/coming out behind, who is holding gold and what general sentiment is about the current direction of the company isn't enough evidence to decide if you think WWE is good or bad. Especially when you've tried to give them other chances when things start to look intriguing again, only to be disappointed time and time again. It's WWE's fault that there are so many skeptics about their booking direction. That skepticism exists because they have a history of not delivering. Yes, they are still a popular, profitable company but they are also the only game in town. And if this isn't true, then why are they so far down in popularity from their peak? Why would they be in the red if they hadn't diversified revenue streams, started receiving TV rights fees and placed a greater emphasis on global expansion? Why do so many people who are huge fans of pro wrestling and love so much of it have problems with the way WWE presents it? Why can't they run a successful Wrestlemania with only active, full-time wrestlers? Attempts to blame people for not liking WWE fall flat. Opinions that you can't like something and criticize it at the same time seem deliberately simplistic.

I will beat the drum for Jerry Jarrett again.

I will also add that I hope HHH never loses his temper. He's so much better when he plays it casual.

Last few minutes. Not good, obviously. Mongo is supposed to be selling a knee injury from Hennig's attack and isn't doing that at all. Hennig wins the U.S. title.

It's weird that there are so many NWO fans in Charlotte. Bischoff introduces the NWO and Hogan holds up a "Hey McMahon … Bite Me" sign on his way to the ring. Funny. Curt Hennig is the guest of honor. He comes out to Ric Flair's music and wears his robe. This is basically just 10 minutes of the NWO standing around and burying Flair, capped off with Hennig presenting Hogan with Flair's robe. Hogan says the day has been perfect, and I'm sure the WWF tried to fine them for that. Hogan says when Piper was the head of the WWF, he never told them what to do. That is true, but Hogan was not even in the WWF at this point of course.

Flair happened to be getting cosmetic surgery the next day, so in perfect timing, WCW was able to air a real photo of that and make it appear as Flair's face injury from the cage shot. Tony Schiavone does maybe the best thing he's ever done. He got into wrestling because of Ric Flair and credits him for his career. He somberly says that he can't host the show tonight and walks off the set because he's too shaken up to do his job. Great stuff.

Clip of Owen vs Patriot with Austin ripping up the restraining order and then disappearing while the police looked for him all over the building. Oh boy, the inappropriate biker shorts promo. Shawn is totally seeking heat at this point. He doesn't take responsibility for attacking Davey Boy and having these problems with Undertaker, instead blaming WWF management for putting him in no-win situations. He is getting rewarded for giving the people the best match of the night at Ground Zero by being stuck in a cell with the Undertaker. Everyone thinks it will be Shawn's demise, but that's simply not going to happen. But if he goes down, he's taking everyone with me. Lots of repeated lines from earlier promos, but still good stuff. Undertaker interrupts and does a promo behind a cage.This feud isn't as hot as I remembered it being. Things were on a better track when Austin and the Hart Foundation were the engine.

Jerry Lawler is interviewing Steve Austin, I guess because no one else wants to at this point. Lawler tries the pandering approach with Austin before the Hart Foundation -- who it turns out are still alive -- interrupt. Bret calls Austin a hoser and says he's been waiting a long time to use that word. Owen says they've decided to use the American justice system to their advantage and a temporary restraining order on Austin. Lawler is a little overzealous and annoying in trying to read the TRO over Austin's shoulder, and Austin finally stuns him to shut him up.

JIP right before Syxx enters the ring. Hennig also shows up with his arm in a sling. In a nice bit of detail, he wants in the ring but Flair says he's got this. Doesn't look like the action is too great and there's not a ton of heat before the big angle so I don't think we were missing much not including the entire thing. Hennig finally enters the cage, takes off the sling and brings in handcuffs. Benoit and Mongo get handcuffed to the cage while Flair gets beaten up by everyone. Nash grabs a mic and no one is surrendering. The door is open to the cage -- WHY IS NO ONE HELPING THE HORSEMEN? Then we get the finish with Hennig slamming the door on Flair's head. Nash grabs the mic and talks about how this is the death of the Horsemen right in their backyard. This was a horrible finish and seemed designed just to humiliate Flair. What a stupid finish to do in North Carolina.

Last few minutes. Fun spot where Hall completely stomps Luger into a mudhole between the two rings, making Luger a non-factor. Hall then punches the referee before crotch chopping him. Another referee comes out and Hall beats him up too. Elizabeth is also very involved again. Larry Zbyszko is outraged at the broadcast booth and eventually decides to take matters into his own hands. Hall wants him to get in the ring just as Luger starts to crawl back from the abyss. He ends up shoving Zbyszko and Larry shoves him back, which leads him into a Luger rollup, with Larry counting the fall. Setting aside that Larry had no authority to count the fall, I liked this angle.

Benoit has the lamest response possible to the Hennig attack. Mongo is actually awesome. Flair is fired up and is great at building emotion for the main event.