Loss

Last few minutes. Austin ends up chasing Owen off and having words with Vince. Goldust is so slow getting up that I keep expecting him to take a stunner from Austin, but he never does. Pillman is back with more of this horrible feud that I don't even really want to talk about anymore.

Undertaker is not done with Shawn. Shawn interrupts him on the Titantron and they exchange words. On a side note, I know Bret was around during this time, but they immediately pushed him to the back in favor of Shawn on top. I think Shawn was much more effective in this role than he had been all year, but Bret was much more effective as the top heel.

Recap of Pillman vs Goldust from Ground Zero. Pillman has now acquired the services of Terri Runnels for 30 days and 30 nights as the result of winning a wrestling match. Yes. Then we get Dude Love vs Brian Pillman in the IC tournament. Sunny is doing ring intros and has no storyline and hasn't all year. It's clear they don't have a clue what to do with her and aren't interested in changing that at all. Goldust will be in the Dude's corner for this match. Well … Brian Pillman calls in and says he won't step foot in the arena until he can be guaranteed a safe work environment. Instead, he has a Brian Pillman's XXX Files video played. In this one, he's sitting in his hotel exhausted and sitting next to Terri's lingerie. I HATE THIS ANGLE.

Sgt. Slaughter is one of the top heels in the promotion. Hilarious. He says Austin is still suspended and even says starting tonight there will be a tournament to crown a new IC champ. The crowd HATES that. Steve Austin finally comes out and talks some trash in response and finally gives him a stunner. Austin and Vince end up arguing and Vince gets a little brave before thinking better of it and the ring fills to keep them apart. Another awesome Austin segment. I'm curious exactly when Vince figured out this was his guy.

Great video package before the match. Not sure what to think of this match. Maybe bloated is the word I'm looking for. But it's a mess. The crowd is shockingly quiet for big chunks of this. The match has some good stuff and plenty of highlight reel moments -- specifically Shawn's bumping and big offense and Undertaker's big dive in the post-match brawl -- but is pretty uneven overall. I do think this was well booked and did a great job setting up Hell in a Cell with all the laid out refs and Rude/HHH/Chyna interference, but it's not a match I feel any need to revisit. It might have worked better as a 15-minute sprint.

Slaughter is getting heavily booed for his recent suspension toward Austin. Jim Ross brings Dude Love out to forfeit his half of the tag titles. The Dude is understandably upset about having to relinquish the title "with a heavy heart and a pained pancreas". Next, Steve Austin is out to give up his belt. He immediately threatens Vince and talks about the WWF repeatedly showing footage of him being dropped on his head when everyone has had about enough of it. He throws the belt on the ground and tells Slaughter to drop down and give him 20 if he wants the belt. He insists on Slaughter picking the belt up off the ground, or he'll beat the hell out of him. Slaughter finally does, then Austin turns his attention to Jim Ross. Austin doesn't take to Ross wishing him a speedy recovery and gives him a stunner! Great segment. Austin is a superstar by this point and there is no turning back. So amazing to watch him get there by seeing the week-to-week stuff.

Last few minutes. RVD runs in and helps Sabu beat up Dreamer. Sabu gives Beulah a lariat. Sandman runs out but gets laid out. More heat on RVD that will never be paid off. Both get laid under a WWF flag, because when I think of the WWF I think of Sabu and Rob Van Dam. Taz actually makes the save when the crowd chants for him for once. He gets Alfonso in the Tazmission.

James Beard has a few words for Billy Joe Travis when Dutch Mantell and a guy who appears to be a masked Kane (billed as Doomsday) interrupt. Dutch introduces El Satanico Diablo as the latest member of Team ICON, and that turns out to be Travis! Dutch points out how they worked through the contact loopholes to get him back in. Brian Christopher comes out to take this news about how you'd expect. The numbers quickly catch up and Travis throws some nasty punches at Christopher before Lawler makes the save.

Billy Joe Travis is once again picketing outside of the Memphis studio when the announcers thought he was history. He managed to sneak into the studio and attack Brian Christopher with a chair! The ring fills with security but too little too late. The damage is done.

Maybe we should do a Puroresu Primer podcast and recommend "starter" matches in each style.

Or it's a good indicator of what to expect. It's like a relationship. If trust is broken, it can be earned back. It's just not easy and takes time.

That's really what it comes down to. People don't have faith in WWE to pay off their storytelling, because of all the times they haven't.

Similarly, we've never been in the ring, so how do we know who is and isn't a great worker? Sounds familiar, right? I agree with the original point that it's dumb to criticize matches I haven't watched and I would never do that. But I think general direction and booking choices are fair game.

I feel like it's every wrestling fan's birth right to criticize TNA without having to suffer through it.

A more thoughtful list would focus on the in-ring and promo style employed by guys that worked and got over at the time and wouldn't work now. Or even a list of wrestlers that probably would get over today even if it doesn't seem more like they would on the surface. But yeah, 60 slides making fun of body types is exactly the reason wrestlers take copious amounts of steroids and see an early grave. Because fans are assholes.

Does everything always have to be about looks with wrestling fans? I understand it's hard to avoid, but it seems on the shallow side to write someone off entirely because of it.

Edge was a pretty offensive wrestler. (ha!) He didn't work his matches around bumping and selling. He worked his matches around his corny offense. I think it's the difference between a wrestler having limited offense (which many great workers do) and a wrestler having actively bad offense.

My favorite part was saying he was glad "they gave the strap" to Booker. He was praising him otherwise, but that was a nice little dig that didn't help anything.

Sadly that match didn't make the cut will definitely make the supplemental.

Yes, this was a Terry Taylor brainchild. Supposedly, he and Arn were longtime friends and Taylor was just booking pro wrestling, but he obviously took this a few steps too far. There are two things I've always heard about this, but I'm not sure where the truth begins and ends: (1) Terry Taylor booked this originally to have the Horsemen interrupt it and run them off, but Nash nixed that. (2) Nash had no idea that Arn had a real history of alcoholism and apologized to Arn repeatedly after he found out. Not sure what is true and what isn't.

This is Misawa's elbows vs Jun's young enthusiasm. A good match, but it takes a while for the crowd to get into this. The work is solid but the whole match has a lethargic feel to it, which is weird because this should be a pretty fresh matchup. I do like the psychology of Akiyama attempting pin covers too frequently by going for a cover after every single big move at first, then realizing he needs to do a series of back-to-back moves if he has any hope of pulling off a miracle. Sadly, the bloom is off the rose with All Japan Pro Wrestling at this point. The top guys are still producing good matches, but I'm not sure they're appreciably better than the WWF headliners … at least not in 1997. Jun Akiyama is a very good worker, but his performance in this match, while very good, is reflective of the future of the promotion. This isn't meant to be a dig at him, but it's just the truth of the matter: he simply can't follow Kawada and Kobashi. Most people in wrestling history couldn't, so it's nothing to be ashamed of. But All Japan spoiled their audience to the point that the standards were simply unrealistically high.

Final clip of the Austin interview. He starts putting bullets through the photos in a brief spot. Not quite comfortable with that, but Austin is still awesome.

Rude and Sunny flirt, which is fun to watch. She would have been an amazing valet for him at his peak.

Recap of the Goldust/Brian Pillman feud with Pillman saying Dakota is his love child and the Ground Zero stipulation that Terri Runnels will have to spend 30 days with Pillman if Goldust loses at Ground Zero, while Pillman will leave the WWF. This wraps up with Sunny interviewing Brian Pillman. Pillman makes all sorts of sexual innuendo and shows us a French maid's outfit he plans on her wearing. I hated this feud and stipulation, because no one would ever agree to that.

Part 2 of Austin's interview. Austin mocks the "get well soon" care package and autographed photo from Jim Ross, Vince McMahon, Gorilla Monsoon, Owen Hart and others, pointing out that the same person signed every single picture. He's pointing out the hypocrisy of WWF management and vows revenge against Owen Hart before shooting darts at the photos that were sent to his house. Austin does so many awesome things in this segment that I don't quite know where to start.