Loss

Just mentioning things not already mentioned. Check the yearbook threads for thoughts. 05/24/90 - Riki Choshu vs Keiji Muto 06/26/90 - Riki Choshu, Kantaro Hoshino, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Kensuke Sasaki & Shiro Koshinaka vs Animal Hamaguchi, Super Strong Machine, Tarzan Goto & Hiro Saito & Masanobu Kurisu 09/14/90 - Great Muta vs Hiroshi Hase 11/01/90 - Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 07/04/91 - Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 08/09/91 - Masa Chono vs Shinya Hashimoto 05/01/92 - Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase 06/26/92 - Hiroshi Hase vs Kensuke Sasaki 12/14/92 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Shiro Koshinaka 02/05/93 - Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa vs Keiji Muto, Akira Nogami & Shinya Hashimoto 02/16/93 - Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Kido, Hiroshi Hase & Tayayuki Iizuka vs Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara, Takashi Ishikawa, Ricky Fuyuki & Tatsumi Kitahara 04/06/93 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Riki Choshu 06/15/93 - Riki Choshu, Shinya Hashimoto, Tatsumi Fujinami, Masa Chono & Hiroshi Hase vs Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara, Takashi Ishikawa, Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine 08/03/93 - Hiroshi Hase vs Shinya Hashimoto 08/08/93 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto 11/04/93 - Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Chono 01/04/94 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase 02/17/94 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto 02/24/94 - Jushin Liger vs Shinya Hashimoto (Liger's a junior but it's a heavy match) 08/06/94 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Shiro Koshinaka 12/13/94 - Hiroshi Hase vs Shinya Hashimoto 01/04/95 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki 03/07/95 - Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 06/12/95 - Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata vs Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan 08/12/95 - Keiji Muto vs Masa Chono 08/05/96 - Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka 09/23/96 - Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka 09/23/96 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Shiro Koshinaka 01/04/97 - Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto

The Barry story has been out for years. HHH was the one who initiated payment for it.

JJ Dillon says it's been a year since anyone in WCW management has talked to Sting. He would like to talk to him but hasn't been able to reach him and he would like to invite him to come forward. He has an opponent for him and all he needs is his signature on a contract. Sting descends from the rafters. JJ presents the opponent to Sting as Curt Hennig and Sting tears up the contract and walks away. I remember these segments getting more and more stupid as it was obvious Sting wanted Hogan and JJ had to play dumb. JJ says he isn't giving up and he's going to come back with a new offer.

Ted DiBiase comes out with Rick and Scott Steiner. He does an interview to turn himself babyface, which just feels weird, but it's my understanding he wanted to turn at the time because of his faith. He has his famous WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION blunder when talking about the tag titles. The Outsiders interrupt with Hall doing the talking. The Steiners are really good, but they're better and the belts provide it. Nash tells DiBiase that he joins the Steiners and he's a dead man, then gets in a crack that the only reason they picked him up is to have someone to read menus while they are on the road. DiBiase promises new tag team champions and makes a big deal out of saying WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING.

Hogan isn't happy that he has to face Luger tonight, but he is going to wipe the mat with him. Hogan then says he'll face Scott Hall at Road Wild so the NWO title can stay in the family. That's a weird thing to mention that I wonder if they were really going to do anything with at all.

Goldust and Marlena are out to see Brian Pillman in a dress as a result of Summerslam last night. Pillman sells it like crazy as he goes into the ring with Bob Holly. Well, there's a match that could be really good if you reverse aged Pillman five years and aged Holly five years. Fun match though, built around Pillman humiliation spots. Pillman could have gotten out of the dress if he would have beaten Holly, but he lost by countout so there you go.

At last, Shawn is a heel! Shawn is pretty pissed off about everyone blaming him for the finish last night. I remember siding with him at the time myself, actually. The purpose of this interview seems to be to turn Shawn but also make clear that he is in no way aligned with Bret. They also announce Shawn/Undertaker for Ground Zero and that feud is hot immediately. Undertaker comes out to confront Shawn, but Shawn bails. He's not going to talk about how mad he is, because he's been talking too much lately. It's time to get back to what he does best and make Shawn pay for his crimes. Paul Bearer interrupts this and says he was with Kane last night. He's ready to come to the WWF. No new revelations here.

He's setting his sights on Hunter Hearst Helmsley!

Problems with the audio here at first. Bret thinks Shawn should still go because he did show favoritism in intending to hit Bret with the chair. He probably could have won that in court. Owen says he made a huge mistake last night -- he showed compassion. Still, Austin is now a crippled freak. Sgt. Slaughter then debuts as WWF Commissioner (with Linda McMahon Wrestlemania music!) and lays down the law on everyone and Austin makes an appearance! He doesn't get physically involved but it's amazing that he even shows up. He promises Owen he will get his hands on him tonight.

Last few minutes. Bret does the sharpshooter around the ringpost in an awesome spot. This finish is legendary, but I always felt bad for Shawn because he obviously had no intentions of going after Undertaker. Couldn't he have hit Bret too, and then argued that he was fair? Anyway, Bret wins the title and at least now Shawn is in the right role.

I thought the Hash/Tenzan match on 8/10 was the final.

This match is fantastic before the spot gone wrong. I love Owen biting Austin's middle finger and the work on Austin's hand, but this really has one great crowd pleasing spot after another and lots of intensity. That spot is frightening, especially because Austin isn't moving at all and you can tell Owen is scared. This limps to a finish, and it's amazing that Austin was still able to go on and have the run he had after taking that move.

Last few minutes. We join as Chyna slams the door on Mankind's head as he is trying to leave the cage. She ends up attacking the referee as well. Chyna takes her first bump of the year when Mankind catapults HHH into the cage where she's standing, and the crowd pops huge. Great moment as Mankind is about to leave the cage when he realizes he can do the Snuka splash from the top of the cage. Mick was hugely over with this crowd. Post-match Dude Love stuff is super fun too. Great stuff.

Last few minutes. The New Japan NWO is at ringside. I'd really be interested in seeing this in full sometime. Tenzan's mouth is all bloody again, and the crowd is hot. I loved the headbutt battle. Sasaki gets the win. The post-match makes me think this is the final of the G1, but there are still more matches, so I'm not sure what this is. I'm guessing he just won his block?

I love Chono as a second for Tenzan. This is a lot of fun and feels like a really good American TV main event. Tenzan keeps testing Hashimoto's temper and paying for it. Weird spot where Tenzan slips off the top rope when his boot gets caught on the ringpost. Tenzan gets the win. He relied on his NWO seconds a little, but the win was still earned.

They are on Shane's home turf, so Funk is the heel and Douglas gets the hero's welcome. This could have been great if Douglas decided to work underdog instead of doing his usual heel Franchise act, but Shane dominated most of this and Funk was the one who worked for sympathy. Since this is a particularly bloodthirsty suburban crowd, maybe that worked for the best, because they got lots of crowd pleasing moments. But it still seemed like the roles were backwards. Funk heeled in spots, but didn't go over the top with it like he normally does. Normal payback spots that go to a babyface like the double chair stuff went to Funk instead. I realize Funk was the babyface and Douglas the heel in the big picture, but it seems like they could have flipped things more for one night and given the crowd what they wanted. They sort of started doing that when Francine and Sabu got involved, but this match was all over the place in terms of face/heel alignment.

In order to win, the wrestler has to secure a pinfall that's a result of a move off the top of the cage. They end up taking forever to enter the cage. I didn't care for this at all, as it was about as indy as indy gets, but it needed to be on the set to show what the U.S. indy scene was like at this point.

Last few minutes. Referee Bobby Smalls ends up turning on Surge and hitting him with a chair. Garbage is thrown in the ring. I know it's early, but this really feels more like a pretend wrestling promotion than an actual indy.

The first OMEGA footage on a yearbook. Surge is Matt Hardy. These guys look like they are pretend wrestling, but I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

Rude tries to introduce the Triple Threat but keeps getting drowned out by boos. I think this is the first "Asshole" chant. Not much of a promo, but great heat.

Continuing where we left off, Rude locks the cage as Beulah is escorted out. Terry Funk is out to confront Rude, but the Triple Threat attack him from behind. They end up brawling out of sight as the crowd chants for Taz. Wrestlers try to climb the cage and can't, and this is an awfully transparent attempt to recreate old Omni angles. They go after Tommy's balls again while he's handcuffed to the cage. Taz finally enters the cage and only Lawler is left behind. He ends up locking Lawler in the Tazmission and the Triple Threat finally come in to break this up. They do everything they can to get Taz off of Lawler but he won't release the hold. They finally do, and then all of the heels attack Taz. Total chaos, but this goes on too long.

JC cuts this promo from a bed while selling an injury. He promises he'll be back soon.

Rick Titan is out with his Razor Ramon attire. He's dropped the accent and throws his old gimmick literally in the garbage.

I liked this. Give them credit for working a sound wrestling match (with limb work!) in the middle of all of this. Very reminiscent of the simple and effective Onita matches earlier in the decade. This relied a lot more on psychology and intensity than the explosions.

Super match. I love this style and wish we got more of this type of thing in pro wrestling, and outside of the groups like RINGS and UWFI. Frye is awesome for taking cheapshots in this context too. Great, great, great, and listen to the crowd when Frye vs Ogawa is teased!