Loss

Sgt. Slaughter announces that Steve Austin has demanded to return to action immediately. However, Slaughter refuses to let him return until he completes rehab. Slaughter suspends him immediately and demands that he returns the tag titles. They go to Austin's house to get a reaction to this but he's not really in the mood to talk about it at first before changing his mind.

Of course, Hogan can't let all the heat go on Nash and his guys, so he has to come out and do this segment. Bischoff says Hogan has defended the title more times in one year than Sting has even wrestled, which I suppose is true. Hogan wants to know who Sting has beaten to earn a title shot and shoots on him not going to the gym anymore. He says if Sting can come out now, he's got a title shot waiting on him. Hogan wants JJ Dillon out, the "Junior Executive" at WCW, as Bischoff calls him. Hogan throws one of the lamest punches in history at JJ Dillon then drops a few legs on him before Bischoff spraypaints BITE ME on his back. This Nitro was the first time I have had the feeling all year that the NWO push is completely out of control and I'm done with it.

Here it is - one of the most famous segments ever on Nitro. I actually think this was great as a heat builder to the PPV and was entertaining in many ways, and had it ended with either the Horsemen breaking it up or with the Horsemen getting their revenge at War Games, I think I'd like this a lot more. But this was some pretty harsh personal stuff, specifically in mocking Arn's alcoholism. This went from an angle that was supposed to be broken up by the Horsemen to one where they would not only not interrupt the segment, but get destroyed at Fall Brawl, then have Flair disband the group while Hogan strutted around on Nitro with the sleeves cut out of a Nature Boy robe. They put the exclamation point on this burial. Personal stuff aside, Nash is really funny in this and Syxx is a frighteningly accurate Flair. I still laugh at the "average carpentry skills", "Days of our Lives" and "Remember me how I look right now" lines. And of course, the famous "my spot" jokes. Tony Schiavone is great selling this, especially in vowing to use whatever influence he has to make sure this segment never airs again!

The Nitro Girls are surrounding the announce booth. I'm sorry, but they look foolish. Are they really doing all of that dancing to the Monday Nitro theme? Look at them individually and try not to laugh. Anyway, this is the debut of NITRO PARTIES, as Tony Schiavone encourages fans to send in videos of their Nitro parties. There's a sweepstakes where the winning party will get a visit from the Nitro Girls. This is followed by a video on Sting to his new entrance music. The hype for Sting vs Hogan is in full swing!

Great career retrospective on Arn Anderson. WCW has dedicated tonight's Nitro to him and his career. The angle later in the show still pisses me off!

Not as transcendently brilliant as the April match, but how could it be? Still an incredible match. RINGS isn't the best comparison for this style, as it's much nastier than your typical RINGS stuff. Check out Ikeda raking Ishikawa's face or locking in a headscissors that is dangerously close to a choke while Ishikawa's face turns red and he gasps for air. The audible selling and screams of pain take this to the next level. There's a real desperation from both guys that is conveyed really well and that reminds me of Tamura/Uematsu from GAEA in July. The stiffness is also unreal, like they watched a Flair vs Garvin match and decided they needed to hit each other even harder. This is an awesome rivalry and is in some ways as close to capturing everything great about the in-ring artform as any feud that ever existed. More hate grappling, please!

August: #1 - Great Sasuke, Oriental, Tiger Mask IV & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Mens Teoh, Dick Togo, Hanzo Nakajima & Shoichi Funaki (Michinoku Pro 08/17/97) ****1/2 #2 - Kazayuki Fujita vs Don Frye (NJPW 08/02/97) ****1/4 #3 - Jerry Lawler vs Tommy Dreamer (ECW Hardcore Heaven 08/17/97) ****1/4 #4 - Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 08/20/97) ****1/4 #5 - Terry Funk vs Sabu (ECW Born To Be Wired 08/09/97) ****1/4 #6 - Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (AJW 08/09/97) **** #7 - Kenta Kobashi vs Hiroshi Hase (AJPW 08/26/97) **** #8 - Owen Hart vs Steve Austin (WWF Summerslam 08/03/97) ***3/4 #9 - Shawn Michaels vs Mankind (WWF Monday Night RAW 08/11/97) ***3/4 #10 - Great Sasuke vs Dick Togo (Michinoku Pro 08/31/97) #11 - Masayuki Naruse vs Christopher Haseman (RINGS 08/13/97) ***1/2 #12 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW 08/10/97) ***1/2 #13 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/03/97) ***1/2 #14 - Terry Funk vs Sabu (ECW 08/08/97) ***1/2 #15 - Masato Tanaka vs W*ING Kanemura (FMW 08/02/97) ***1/2 #16 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki (NJPW G-1 Climax 08/01/97) ***1/2 #17 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW 08/31/97) ***1/4 #18 - Manami Toyota vs Kaoru Ito (AJW 08/09/97) ***1/4 #19 - PG-13 vs Dudley Boys (ECW Hardcore Heaven 08/17/97) *** #20 - Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong (AJW 08/20/97) *** #21 - Undertaker & Mankind vs Shawn Michaels & Hunter Hearst Helmsley (WWF Monday Night RAW 08/18/97) *** #22 - Heavy Metal vs Sangre Chicana (AAA 08/20/97) #23 - Jeff Jarrett & Eddy Guerrero vs Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael (WCW Monday Nitro 08/18/97) #24 - Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger (WCW Monday Nitro 08/04/97) #25 - Terry Funk vs Shane Douglas (ECW Monaca, PA 08/02/97) #26 - Reckless Youth vs Devon Storm (NWA 08/02/97) #27 - Surge vs Cham Pain (OMEGA 08/02/97)

Very good match, worked differently than your usual Michinoku Pro special. This is a slower paced grudge match with Togo starting off strong before Sasuke snapped, hit Togo with a chair and started slowly gnawing off his arm. This won't blow your mind, but you'll probably like it.

Typical hard-hitting New Japan heavies match with lots of stiff exchanges to pop the crowd. I will point out that after the 1995 match and this one, I think Hashimoto may have been Sasaki's best opponent. No one can do a job in a way that really counts like Hashimoto. Sasaki wins the IWGP title.

I suspect this is true. I look forward to diving into Puerto Rico. Yeah, I'm not sure how to describe that group of guys either. 1990-1997, Waltman has been consistently good to great. Eddy has been disappointing in the sense that he really was a guy devoid of charisma until his heel turn in 1993 and even then, there weren't a ton of standout great matches from that AAA run. He was fine in New Japan with a few great moments, but not at the level of even Akira Nogami, Norio Honaga or El Samurai, much less Liger, Otani, Sasuke or Kanemoto. His ECW matches aren't my thing because they are really just exhibitions, but at the same time, that's what they were designed to be, and they were really excellent exhibitions. So I won't criticize him for that too much. Now when he jumped to WCW in 1995, I really did jump on board and felt he started having good TV matches regularly. I'm a bigger fan of him as a WCW babyface than most people. But I don't know that he really wrapped his head around American psychology until 1997. From there on, I think he was mostly a great worker, but I've been disappointed in a lot of Eddy before that. Even Scorpio has been more consistent (which I know isn't a tough sell for you). Waltman had an epic 1990, then the Lynn matches in 1991 Global that were good. A Hamada's UWF match in 1992 that was possibly my #2 Hamada's UWF match. Good run of WWF TV matches from 1993-1996 and a pretty solid worker in 1997. Expect for 1990, he never flirted with the top 10 or 20 wrestlers in the world, but he was consistently good. How is Sean Waltman in 2013? I'm hoping you have a decent idea. Loss and I have been privately comparing Luger and Sting for years. I think the main issue in outright calling Luger better was that Sting had the Vader series that is so awesome. We really started picking up steam when we picked up a bunch of the 1989 B shows where Luger was having really good TV matches on top of the Clash and PPV matches. Yes, Sting's performances in the Vader series (and NOT because he is being carried by Vader) are probably better than anything Luger has ever done. But it's one feud and after that, options are pretty severely limited. It's still hard for me to talk about Satanico for whatever reason. I'm a big fan, but El Dandy is a guy who is easier to discuss. I hope that changes after the 80s lucha set. I've seen some wonderful matches in 1997 CMLL so far, but nothing that touches the best stuff from 1990. It was just in a class by itself. I'm willing to believe the UWF had a better year than was represented on the set, and look forward to filling in the gaps in my viewing after the 1999 Yearbook. RINGS in 1997 has been the best year a splinter group has had on any yearbook thus far, but yes, making a top 20 would be difficult.

Last few minutes. Beulah beats up Fonzie when he interferes and low blows RVD. Great to see Dreamer get a win because RVD never really gets his comeuppance more than anyone in ECW. Even after dropping the match, he has the last laugh. A tuxedo-clad Sabu attacks Dreamer after the match and Dreamer gets doubleteamed and buried under a WWF banner, which I guess is sort of like a Russian flag.

Rick Rude is met by "You Sold Out" chants. ECW fans sure are original. A "Fuck Him Up Joey, Fuck Him Up" chant breaks out, which Joey begs them to stop doing in a funny moment. Joey eventually bails and turns the mic and ring over to Rude. Rude compares going from the WWF to ECW to going from the penthouse to the shithouse, then introduces Shane Douglas. Everyone involved gets in a few digs at Shawn Michaels. ECW fans are a classy bunch, starting a "She's got herpes!" chant at Francine because she refuses to show her tits. The story is that Douglas wants Rude to push him to be the best ECW champ of all time by finding top opponents. So Rude brings out Al Snow.

Tommy and Beulah are out for an interview. Dreamer cuts an obviously practiced (and stumbled promo but faces the wrong camera the entire time, referencing Austin Idol, Jos Le Duc and Jackie Fargo. By the time Lawler makes it out, Dreamer is gone. Lawler is also upset because now Bill Dundee is the special referee for Dutch vs Dreamer. Lawler takes this chance to throw all sorts of insults toward Dundee and how jealous and resentful he is of both Lawler and Dutch these days. Between this match and Christopher vs Travis, this sounds like a hell of a house show.

Dutch hypes his ABL (Anyone But Lawler) plans for title defenses. He's even willing to defend against Bret Hart or Hulk Hogan! How nice of him! Lawler interrupts Dutch and again states why he's pissed about the Dreamer/Dutch match happening -- Dreamer will win and take the title to ECW, then Lawler will have to go back to ECW to get the belt back. In the middle of this debate, Tommy Dreamer comes out and attacks both guys and we have ourselves a three-way brawl. The locker room clears to break all of this up and we have quite the scene. Beulah is there too! Dutch uses Shoebaby to drag Dreamer all around the ring and James Beard takes a punch! I love Tommy Dreamer in Memphis!

The biggest heatseeker not in the Big Two shows up in the USWA. I prefer him in ECW by this point because of the dissonance.

More Travis in the parking lot. Check out that vest! Brian Christopher shows up and they have the mother of all brawls outside in the parking lot again. Christopher ends up running Travis off the property then enters the studio. This is probably the best work Brian Christopher ever did. It's a shame it had to happen a few weeks before the promotion closed shop.

A recap of the downfall of Billy Travis driven by clips, including some horrible ones of him singing, the suspension, the parking lot brawl with Brian Christopher and the real life arrest. Outside, Travis has a baseball bat and is picketing in the parking lot again, but James Beard is telling him to leave the property.

Sunny interviews the Truth Commission, who all seem to be checking her out. They are here to show their superiority to Americans. He calls Sunny a trollop! This was funny.

Undertaker explains that he left Shawn untouched for ten years because he wanted someone to be able to tell everyone the story of the Undertaker one day. Whaaa? He promises revenge. Undertaker is by no means a great talker and stumbles over some of his lines, but this was effective.

Shawn is pretty much getting no cheers at this point. He justifies his second chairshot on the Undertaker by accusing the WWF of getting him into this mess, and he had no other choice but to be reactionary. What we saw is what happens when Shawn's buttons are pushed. Shawn's promos drive me crazy because all he does is put himself over repeatedly -- so much about what the Heartbreak Kid does when this happens or that happens, or how he's the only guy who can do certain things. It's usually way more about him than the feud. He says if Undertaker brings him down, he's taking everyone else with him. Great heat for all of this.

Interesting, I'd never heard that story before. In defense of that, I will say that the week before that on Nitro, there was a loud Hogan chant as Sting pointed to the crowd and the announcers said it was clear what Sting wanted. So they had a logical cover.

Hiroshi Hase is now in All Japan! This does start off a little slower than most All Japan matches at the time, but I think that's a welcome change of pace considering how off the rails the style has been this year. I'll take a match that has a slower pace and less big offense over something like we got from Misawa and Kawada on June 6 any day of the week. It was cool to see Kobashi adapt to Hase's style by working slower and applying more holds on the mat. That aspect of his game is strong, which makes me wish we saw it more. Give Kobashi credit for working Hase's match instead of putting on the Kobashi show. All of that said, this is a step down from the best All Japan matches. I know no one argues that it's in the top tier, but my point in bringing this up is that the difference in All Japan and New Japan was on my mind watching this. This is something that would be one of the best New Japan heavyweight matches of the 90s. Here, it's a great match, but just another in a long line of them.

Quite the famous segment. Flair wants Curt Hennig out -- he's either a Horseman or he's not. Hennig says he isn't ready to give an answer. Flair thought that might happen, so he has invited Arn Anderson out to say a few words to Hennig. Arn does a fantastic interview announcing his retirement and offering not a spot but HIS spot to Curt Hennig. Flair is in tears. Hennig famously says "It would be a privilege." Great stuff in this that gets lost because of the upcoming parody.

Snap into it!

I have no idea what Raven is even talking about.