Loss

The good news is that for the most part, the wrestlers will teach you what you need to know.

That comes from the FU not being executed like a death valley driver.

Vince's "one free shot" line always made me roll my eyes and cracked me up. As if Vince really thought he could take Bret.

It's a sad match. It's one thing to be a step down from their best years, but it's another to have a match that wasn't even enjoyable at all.

June: #1 - Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 06/01/97) ****1/2 #2 - Shawn Michaels vs Steve Austin (WWF King of the Ring 06/08/97) **** #3 - El Hijo del Santo, Emilio Charles Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Negro Casas, Felino & Ultimo Dragon (CMLL 06/20/97) **** #4 - Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 06/18/97) **** #5 - El Samurai vs Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 06/05/97) ***3/4 #6 - Gedo & Jado vs Yoshihiro Taijiri & Yuichi Tanaguchi vs Kengo Kimura & Takashi Ishikawa vs Shoji Nakamaki & Takashi Okano vs Kendo Nagasaki & Satoru Shiga (BJPW 06/03/97) ***3/4 #7 - Kiyoshi Tamura vs Nikolai Zouev (RINGS 06/21/97) ***1/2 #8 - El Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Negro Casas, El Fiero & Ultimo Dragon (CMLL 06/13/97) ***1/2 #9 - PG-13 vs Mikey Whipwreck & Spike Dudley (ECW Waltham, MA 06/20/97) ***1/2 #10 - Heavy Metal vs Sangre Chicana (AAA 06/15/97) ***1/4 #11 - Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo & Ultimo Dragon vs La Parka, Psicosis & Silver King (WCW Monday Nitro 06/09/97) ***1/4 #12 - El Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Negro Casas, El Fiero & Ultimo Dragon (CMLL 06/06/97) *** #13 - Randy Savage vs Diamond Dallas Page (WCW Great American Bash 06/15/97) *** #14 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW Super Power Series 06/06/97) #15 - Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin vs Legion of Doom (WWF Monday Night RAW 06/02/97) #16 - Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger (WCW Monday Nitro 06/09/97) #17 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Syxx (WCW Monday Nitro 06/16/97)

Last few minutes. Giant takes a tumble over the top rope, which brings The Giant out to attack Giant with the belt. DDP gets a Diamond Cutter on Savage, but it's ill-timed and the crowd doesn't even notice. Luger then gets nailed with the belt. The NWO is attacking the WCW guys in a pretty lethargic beatdown compared to the usual stuff. An obviously fake Sting comes through the crowd but to Tony's credit, he doesn't go overboard freaking out. The real Sting then comes down from the ceiling and the NWO bails. Finally at the last second, Curt Hennig shows up and Raven hops the railing. I guess that debut was kind of a big deal, but Hennig's WCW run was such a flop that it's hard to get excited about him showing up.

This is all about getting Nash over as a bully. He gives Rey a little, but not much. This match didn't really need to even happen, but the Nash/Rey interactions are pretty memorable, I'll say that. WHY WOULD GIANT NOT MAKE THE SAVE HERE? Am I about to get into Dave's constant pushing for a Rey/Giant tag team? Konnan comes out and the announcers seem to think it's to make a save. But he breaks Rey's leg and it looks like Konnan might be joining the NWO. This segment makes me mad, and not in a good "I can't wait to see these guys get their asses kicked" way. Such a Rey burial. *** Mike Tenay is here to interview Raven, but Raven has nothing to say. Tenay looks like such a dork here.

I wonder how much it cost them for Bischoff to come in on that Harley. Is Wildcat Willie really back there dancing around for Hogan? This is all the backdrop for another incredible Hogan entrance. I guess this is WCW in a nutshell. Hogan and Rodman have a special party going on tonight. Tonight, the Hall/Nash/Savage vs Luger/Giant/DDP main event will be dedicated to Dennis. They touch on Nash vs Rey also happening tonight.

Ok, let's recap what we have established so far in this story: - Time period: 1977 (20 years ago) - There was a funeral home, sitting on a hill, surrounded by beautiful oak trees - It was a family-owned funeral home with the family upstairs - The father was the mortician who ran the funeral home, the mother was the receptionist and there were two children, one was Undertaker and the other was named Kane - The Undertaker's father was an excellent mortician - The Undertaker was Kane's hero - Paul Bearer was completing his apprenticeship and going to college at the same time. He worked for Undertaker's father, who taught him everything he knew - One night, Paul saw the Undertaker and Kane take chemicals from the embalming room and smoke cigarettes outside in secret as he was leaving for his college classes. They were also playing with matches. - Their father found them playing with matches and they were both punished. After Undertaker was punished, he was sent off to do his chores when he looked back and saw that Kane had the flammable embalming fluids in his hand. He saw smoke and ran toward Kane as fast as he could, but when he got there, the funeral home was engulfed in flames. - Undertaker was restrained and unable to enter the burning funeral home. - Paul Bearer returned from work to see the funeral home on fire. Undertaker killed his parents and his brother. Undertaker confirmed this. - The Undertaker was not at the funeral. Undertaker says this is because two nights before, Paul Bearer took him to a neighboring funeral home to see his family, and presumably his mother's burned body and it mentally scarred him. - The Undertaker feels a strong sense of guilt and remorse over this. - In order to cope, Undertaker had to embrace death. He had to understand that without death, there can't be life. He draws strength from the spirit of the dead. This is what made the Undertaker the Undertaker.

Ok, let's recap what we have established in this interview: - Time period: 1977 (20 years ago) - There was a funeral home, sitting on a hill, surrounded by beautiful oak trees - It was a family-owned funeral home with the family upstairs - The father was the mortician who ran the funeral home, the mother was the receptionist and there were two children, one was Undertaker and the other was named Kane - The Undertaker's father was an excellent mortician - The Undertaker was Kane's hero - Paul Bearer was completing his apprenticeship and going to college at the same time. He worked for Undertaker's father, who taught him everything he knew - One night, Paul saw the Undertaker and Kane take chemicals from the embalming room and smoke cigarettes outside in secret as he was leaving for his college classes - He returned to see the funeral home on fire. Undertaker killed his parents and his brother. We'll check back in on all of this later.

Undertaker warns everyone that tonight, everyone is going to hear a slanted version of the worst night of his life, memories of which have haunted him for twenty years. He asks everyone to allow him to tell his side of the story before jumping to conclusions.

Secret liaison between Brian Pillman and Sunny, with a big teaser for RAW Magazine.

Jericho gets his first real meaningful win in WCW, winning the cruiserweight title in under a minute.

Lawler won't be at ECW Arena. He talks about how Chris Candido wasn't good enough to cut it in the WWF, so he's coming off of the mountain. He gets in a few comments about Sunny being a whore and announces that Tom Pritchard is coming to ECW to take out Candido, and then it can be broadcast on Monday Night RAW!

Talk about it here.

This interview is just incredible. See what I did? PG-13 interrupt and whisper something to him.

Recap of what happened last week with Billy Joe Travis. They are turning this into an angle. Love Travis's explanation of all of this. 12 LONG HOURS. PG-13 then comes into the studio (Travis's promo was taped) and talk about how they love ECW so much more than the shitty USWA. They claim crowds are down since they have been gone. Not a person was in denial about Memphis at this point, I guess.

Old style promo hyping an ECW vs USWA house show.

Commercial for an Outsiders pin set! Last few minutes of DDP vs Hall. Savage interferes liberally. They botch some stuff, which shows how limited Page is in a regular TV match where he doesn't have the benefit of planning every single thing out. Savage runs in for the DQ just as DDP is about to make his comeback. I don't really like Hall and Savage as a team. They are too different, but maybe they wanted Hennig in the ring with someone familiar for his debut. Sting comes through the crowd and Hall and Savage stop in their tracks but then continue the attack. Sting finally makes his way through the crowd and comes to the ring. They shouldn't have teased Sting as the mystery partner. Curt Hennig is going to seem like a letdown after that, but maybe they were seriously overestimating Hennig's star power. Blah segment.

Great video of Hogan and Rodman in black and white to "Voodoo Child". WCW production could do this?

Ernest Miller is set to debut at the Bash so they show highlights of him kickboxing. Yeah yeah, Ernest Miller, but this is a nice sportsy feature to explain his style.

Last few minutes. And … Ahmed apparently blew out his knee earlier in the night. Gotta love it. Undertaker and Vader are teaming since Paul Bearer is managing both guys and set up the match. Undertaker hit Vader when he got in his face, giving the NOD a win. Vader and Taker brawl after the match and Undertaker gives him a tombstone. Not sure why they'd have Vader take his biggest move as part of the PPV hype. Undertaker is walking away and Paul Bearer tells him because of this, next week he will reveal the big secret.

Bret is back! I like that he gives a nod to his tag team with Neidhart. He tells Marlena he has four sisters at home that will knock her socks off if she lays a finger on Davey Boy! They're in Detroit and Thomas Hearns is at ringside, so of course Bret has a few words for him about the "Hitman" moniker. He manages to come over the railing and we have a "Hitman" showdown. He gets in a punch on Neidhart and is about to go for Bret when his people come in and separate them. I don't remember this angle at all, but Bret was fantastic! Jim Ross gives away the intentions of this segment by calling this a Sportscenter moment.

Talk about it here.

Oh God. Ahmed explains his heel turn. He says the fans didn't back him up because he's a black man, and neither did Vince. I hate this race baiting crap. So much the WWF did right during this time with Steve Austin and Bret Hart, but then there was everything else. This is followed by Crush introducing by the DOA, who surrounding the ring on their motorcycles and hit the ring to brawl with the NOD. Police hit the ring and yeah, I just hate the undertones of all of this too much to notice much else.