Loss

Konnan is waaaaaay overacting. Nash promises that they have a plan for War Games, not to worry. They want to eliminate and retire the Four Horsemen tonight.

Gene is plugging his hotline when we see that the NWO has just attacked Curt Hennig. Of course, we don't see the attack.

The announcers continuing to hype the main event instead of calling this match drives me insane. There's nothing to sell at this point - people already bought the show. But I do enjoy how Larry Zbyszko seems to be won over by this performance. Alex Wright is really putting the pieces together at this point and shows that he can carry a match. He's not great, but he does look like someone who will get there eventually at this point. In fact, he looks a lot better than Ultimo, who seems to be having an off night. I think Jericho/Eddy was the slightly better match, but this is a strong pair of matches.

A good comparison to Rey/Malenko from Havoc the year before, and another point to prove that the cruisers were trying to work the US pro style and do more face/heel playing for heat than history may remember for these guys. This was actually fairly slow paced for a cruiserweight match but it was really nicely laid out and Eddy is awesome. Jericho was a weird wrestler at this point and gave some uneven performances, but this was one of his better ones, even though Eddy carried things. Love all of Eddy's weird holds working over Jericho's back. Great finish, with Eddy countering the top rope superplex then following up with the frog splash. This had one crowd-pleasing spot after another, as Eddy was clearly ready for a higher spot on the card and Jericho would be taking steps in that direction within a few months.

Paul E. announces that ECW has accepted the resignation of Tod Gordon. Paul E. wishes him the best. So where did the mole stuff come from? Was that a storyline or a shoot thing?

It's Terry Funk's retirement. He'll never, ever, ever wrestle again under any circumstances. Never. This is it. Not sure I knew the Bret Hart/Dennis Stamp history. I'm ready for them to get on with the match, but there's a lot of pomp and circumstance before the match starts, with Terry's family in the ring, Paul E. giving credit to Funk for putting ECW on the map and Tommy Dreamer presenting Terry Funk with a lifetime ECW championship. This is followed by Bret saying he's honored to be here to work with the best wrestler in the history of the game and that Amarillo wrestling is the greatest wrestling there ever was before giving the punchline … despite all of this, he's going to whip his ass tonight. Awesome. I really enjoyed all of the early matwork and could have watched an entire match of that, to be honest. It's great to see Terry Funk actually wrestle on the mat since we don't get to see any of that from him this late in the game. We get some choice work from Bret on Funk's knee and I enjoy seeing the Hart Family heel it up in Bret's corner, even if Bruce seems a little desperate to get himself over. They just keep building and building heat, so when Terry makes his comeback, the people go crazy. I would have liked this a little better if they didn't have the No DQ rule, even though the work with the chair was well done and set up some nice revenge spots from Funk. When Funk tried to dive onto the table, they lost me because it didn't really fit the tone of the match. But overall, this was still a great match and it was good to see Funk work less of a brawl and more of a wrestling match than normal. I just wish they'd embraced that all the way. (Great photo finish too. I love those.)

After watching The Usual Suspects recently for the first time in ages, I've decided I really want a Keyser Soze angle in wrestling. Maybe Daniel Bryan can take off his fake wig and beard and peel his skin back only to have secretly been a 5'4" psychiatrist that was here to study the WWE universe.

Did Red Bastien headline? Shawn Michaels is in on work alone too I'm guessing. Is Michaels a good comparison? What about Jericho? What about Rey? I know Rey was a draw but I don't think that's why most people who voted for him did so.

I still think Jericho was slightly higher on the card, or else that Vengeance match that was originally set up as Cena vs Christian one-on-one would have stayed that way. Right or wrong, I think they added Jericho to that match because of a lack of faith in Christian to carry a world title match.

Christian probably could have been elevated into Jericho's spot had he stuck around at that point, although Jericho had fallen down the card until his last show too.

Flair felt that he was being buried because he was no longer in main events despite feeling that the feud with Savage played a part in turning WCW business around. He also still felt like he could work and talk circles around the NWO, and segments featuring Flair were usually drawing the highest quarter hour rating of the night. In January, his pay-per-view match with Bret Hart drew a surprisingly high buyrate and was the key to the show (which didn't feature Hogan). However, Luger vs Savage was put in the main event spot on the card for political reasons. He saw a program with Syxx as beneath him and wanted to work with a bigger name. He was legitimately moved to tears by Arn's retirement speech and took it personally when the NWO mocked it. Most of the WCW top guys hated Flair at this point so it wasn't even just Bischoff. Bischoff said in a locker room meeting around this time that only Hogan, Savage and Piper had ever drawn money for WCW, and he said this in front of Flair. Flair saw Bischoff as intentionally ruining his career and legacy. Make of that what you will, but that's how Flair saw it. The lawsuit happened because Flair was scheduled to reunite the Horsemen on an April episode of Thunder. Flair had asked for the day off to go see Reid wrestle and the details from there depend on who you believe. Flair says he received approval and Bischoff did not. Bischoff declared Flair in breach of contract and sued him. However, Bischoff had also said things in front of other wrestlers like that he wanted to exile Flair permanently to Japan or bankrupt him, which gave a little fuel to Flair's countersuit. During this time, Flair had also not re-signed with WCW. He signed a letter of intent to stay, but not a new contract. I think there was a dispute over pay, number of dates and some other specifics, but I'm not sure of the details. Flair's Nitro promo when he returned in September 1998 was cleared not only by Bischoff, but by attorneys on both sides. The lawsuit still wasn't fully resolved when Flair returned to TV, but it was in the process of being resolved.

Just had to get that in. Now I'll stop.

I've always admired Belinda Carlisle's sense of fashion.

Is it possible to be too ignorant to enjoy Japanese wrestling, or do I secretly agree with Vince Russo?

You know, there might be Canadians that prefer Flair and Americans that prefer Bret.

Do you think they'll be able to get a few years out of HHH and Bryan like they did with Austin and Vince? The great thing about that feud was that it also made Rock and Foley stars, revitalized Undertaker and jump started HHH's push. At some point, I feel like there needs to be some overlap between this feud and the Punk vs Heyman stuff.

That interview was indeed great. It should air in installments throughout RAW.

I have corrected this SO many times in these yearbook threads. Not singling you out, it's just amazing how many people believe that this is the RAW that gave Russo power. It's not.

I'm unlocking it. I have no idea.

Gene Okerlund is here to announce the new interim commissioner and it's Roddy Piper! They copied the WWF angle from early 1996. Piper says John Belushi is now in charge of the frat house. Piper is making three changes right away: (1) Hogan vs Sting will happen before the end of the year. (That's not really a change.) (2) Hogan vs Piper will happen in a steel cage at Halloween Havoc. (3) He's taking Luger and Page out of War Games since their heads aren't on straight and he's making War Games Four Horsemen vs NWO!

Since JJ Dillon is injured as a result of Hogan's completely missed punch and legdrops last week, WCW will be naming an interim commissioner. Hogan makes it a point to tell Ric Flair he is not The Man and again says the title is on the line against Sting tonight. A Sting dummy descends from the rafters that crashes into the guardrail. But the real dummies are the people who actually believed this had happened. Not as tasteless an angle as something like this would be after Owen Hart. Hogan starts taunting the Sting dummy before beating him up. Bischoff then puts on a referee shirt and counts the pin. I love Hogan cutting a promo on Doug Dillinger.

Syxx wants Flair to admit why he's really upset -- not because the Arn tribute was ruined, but because he exposed how stupid Flair looks every week! Nash gets booed out of the building. The NWO would love to take care of the Horsemen tonight, but they are big stars and they don't just do what they are told. They are simply too busy. Bagwell counters that he has nothing to do and they make "spot" jokes, and Konnan gets in a few words, so Bagwell/Konnan vs Horsemen will happen tonight.

Loud "EDDY SUCKS" chant start this off. Short TV match, but great action. Rey comes dangerously close to botching a few spots and saves himself pretty awesomely. He's obviously still not 100%, but gets a clean pin on Eddy which pops the crowd big.

The Horsemen head to the ring and want the NWO to come out and face them. I like how they slowly build anticipation for Flair to talk in this segment, and it's also funny to see Mongo get booed since they are in Green Bay. Flair does a low key, heartfelt promo in response to the parody that slowly escalates into rage and it's awesome -- the best thing he has done all year. This is the Flair I've been waiting to see in 1997. He makes clear the Horsemen aren't leaving until the NWO are in the ring. After a commercial break, the Horsemen are still in the ring waiting on the NWO. Finally, security comes in and tells them they have to clear the ring. This is such a blatant attempt to make Flair look like a fool that I don't know how anyone can deny it. They let him cut a promo, but no way are they going to let him look good in a segment.

Shawn and Hunter attack Davey Boy on his way to the ring to set up One Night Only. The crowd cheers them like crazy and I'm sure this confused them, as you have two new top heels attacking one of the previous top heels. This is another example of Bret being pushed out of the picture as soon as Shawn came back.