Loss

Shawn Michaels will be out 4-6 weeks with a knee and neck injury and Bret reinjured his knee as a result of the brawl they had. Vince calls this unprofessional conduct but also says Bret was the aggressor. Anyway, because of this they are holding a tag title tournament since Shawn and Austin were champs.

Good match, but this feels overly "scripted", thought out in advance and planned to a tee. Considering the reps of both guys, it probably was. I don't have a problem with that in theory, but it does seem like this match was just a little too "neat" and felt a little contrived as a result. I'd still call it a good match, but that practiced feeling is what keeps it from going to the next level. The weapons (and people, who were props for this match too) were a little too conveniently placed around the ring and on the set, and they seemed more like they were going to the next spot than reacting to each other. Scott Hall runs in and hits Page with the "NWO Drop" (that will never get old) and then Savage hits the big elbow for the win.

Last few minutes. Flair gets fed up with Syxx interfering and they brawl away from the ring. I really enjoy how Hall, Nash and Syxx stick together during their matches watching back now. This has tons of heat. Piper goes to make a tag but Flair isn't there. Surprisingly, I even like the way Hall and Nash work with Piper, and there's a compelling story being told in the ring. I don't feel the need to watch the whole match, but I like how they're working this. Tony is excellent on commentary too, even though he calls the Razor's Edge the NWO Drop. On second thought, maybe I should check out this match in full. This led to a Flair vs Piper feud that was just too pathetic to represent at all. Sorry.

AAA existed in 1997. This is just on here as proof. That's a pretty ginormous crowd, and they spend the whole match bleeding and brawling in it. They worked hard, bled like crazy and had good intensity, but I think they spent too much time brawling in the crowd. Glad this made the yearbook because it seemed like a pretty big deal.

Moving this to The Microscope.

Soup will love this. Jackie Fargo is on the phone and sounds exactly like my late grandfather, even making a lot of the same jokes! Stacey points out that they just showed an old clip of him against Lawler on TV and Fargo correctly suggests that it was probably of the time Lawler beat him. Lawler finally comes out and they have a nice conversation. They tease Fargo returning to the territory later. Lawler then gets down to business and talks about ECW. They show Tommy Dreamer destroying the studio the week before. The way Lance Russell always sneaks in a comment about ECW being a copy of Memphis is awesome. Lance wants Lawler to respond to Paul E.'s allegation that he's Brian Christopher's father. Lawler tries to stall, and the woman in the crowd yelling "Come on Lawler, we only got 30 minutes left in the show" was great! Anyway, Lawler says he'll come back later in the show and respond. Funny little spot with Lawler standing next to Brian Christopher and saying he sees no resemblance to him at all. Finally, Lawler is back out. Fans are picking on him for not coming clean and it's hilarious. He stalls until the show goes off the air and says he'll have an answer next week. Funny stuff.

Diesel blames Razor for costing them tag team opportunities in the WWF. This is all heading to a loser leaves town match between the two. Considering how death knell the promotion is at this point, I think the loser is really the winner in this one.

Arena footage looks really sad this late in the game for Memphis. Clips of the Lawler vs Dreamer match are cool though. That feels like a match that might have drawn a bigger house when Memphis was a stronger city.

Another excellent TV match in this series, and Bestia Salvaje and Felino at ringside in street clothes working an angle adds so much to the atmosphere. Has a real chaotic feel and is chock full of action. Wagner doing the top rope superplex on Casas shocked me. This sort of felt like the World's Longest Nitro Match. Salvaje attacks Casas and Ultimo confronts him, but is distracted long enough for Casas to eat a pin from Wagner.

I don't get it. Are you making a sports reference that means nothing to me again?

It isn't anything against Blackwell. He's a newer discovery for many people. I haven't even watched the AWA set yet. It will take time. Card placement shouldn't be a factor on this list at all. This is PWO, not PWI.

Just so everyone knows, the line about Daniel Bryan being "a solid B+" was taken directly from a 1998 Observer when Dave described HHH that way. I am endlessly amused by that.

Those guys along with Rey and Choshu are the first people that came to mind for me.

I've always wanted to give this a try, so might as well use this thread for that. I want to start with the Nitro the night after Spring Stampede '99 for a few reasons: - I think the heel/face positioning is overall pretty decent around this time, with a couple of glaring exceptions - I think I might be able to convince some of the midcarders not to jump to the WWF - It's the closest to a full roster WCW really was in the down years (Only missing Scott Hall and Lex Luger in terms of the top guys. Hogan was out for a few months with a knee injury) - I can avoid the absolutely horrid summer of main events in this promotion Nitro Thunder Saturday Night Worldwide House shows Monthly pay-per-views I'll try to work within some of the political limitations of WCW at the time, and I'll try to stick to the roster they had. While I am not going to phase Jericho, Benoit and Eddy out when they jumped, I will not suddenly sign Austin and the Rock either. If a wrestler is brought into the promotion who didn't jump from the WWF, I'll use them. So Sid, sure. Jeff Jarrett, no. First show: Monday Nitro 04/12/99 Last show: Starrcade 2000 I'll start soon.

I'm willing to set one up -- similar to the yearbook forums -- if there's interest from a lot of people.

And if they're going to copy Austin/McMahon, Vince taking a swim in almond milk better happen!

Rather than Austin vs HHH at Mania, I really like the idea of HHH vs Daniel Bryan with Austin in DB's corner and Vince in HHH's corner. Austin "mentoring" DB on how to buck the system when everyone is against him could produce some really awesome vignettes. There's a wrong way to do that which would totally shit on Austin's character, but I also think there's a right way to balance it that could work. There's also potential for comedic gold in Austin trying to convince DB to have a beer, and Austin getting in a stunner on Vince at WM would still make everyone pop big. But involving The Shield works because they don't even have to headline with Orton vs Bryan immediately, much less Bryan vs HHH. They've set up several months of PPV matches. I don't know if they'll run with that, but that's what they have set up.

Of course, HHH and all of his talk about business and how business works is funny, because his character seems to be a parody of someone who doesn't understand how business works at all. I could see COO HHH and his wife going into a restaurant with Romy and Michelle on their way to their high school reunion to ask if they had a Business Women's lunch special. You know, because they're business women.

Yes, we were able to get a lot of USWA for 1990 that wasn't part of the Evansville season floating around. Most of this is directly from WMC-5.

You guys can't be serious. I watched that segment and was actually really impressed at how he was positioned. He showed some hope against three guys before the numbers caught up to him, which is exactly what should happen. I thought at the time that 2011 CM Punk always seemed more interested in shooting on his opponent and talking about his opponent than actually fighting his opponent, and I remember thinking that was one reason he wasn't hugely over with every crowd during that run. This wasn't that. DB walked into a no-win situation and gave the people hope that he might do the impossible, but then he was cut off. Having the entire roster stand at the entrance while Bryan walked to the ring was a way to literally give the fans a visual image of him standing out from the pack. Last night, they were building real heat on the heels. That was about as far removed from a burial as I've seen on WWE TV when pushing a new star in a really long time. Of course, it can take any direction from here, and WWE's track record suggests that eventually it will fall off the rails. But there was nothing about the segment last night that I would call a burial in any way.

No contest isn't ending the streak. He was still never defeated. WWE writes history. They would have no problem eventually calling it a win since it wasn't really a loss.

I love that WWE is depushing The Shield while having a depth problem with heels on top.

Is there a full version of this? The Sam TV Ep I have only airs like 8 mins Yes. The full version was on Satellite TV.

Revised proposed list. This takes us to 40 matches. We can aim to include them all, but what would be the 5-10 matches you would suggest cutting first? I put the ones I would say to cut first, but let me know if I'm wrong. I know you probably haven't seen all of these, so I'll just ask what you would be least interested in seeing? I think the Omori matches may be easily cut since he's not someone who has been all that represented heading into 1998 and I don't think those matches would be too missed. New matches added in bold. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 01/26/98) + Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman vs Kenta Kobashi, Johnny Ace & Johnny Smith (AJPW 02/14/98) (I like the idea of including this because there aren't exactly a lot of Misawa & Lower Ranked Partners vs Kobashi & Lower Ranked Partners matches out there) Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW 02/28/98) Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Steve Williams & Gary Albright (AJPW 02/28/98) (Finish only) + Mitsuharu Misawa vs Johnny Ace (AJPW 02/28/98) + Kenta Kobashi vs Johnny Ace (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/21/98) Toshiaki Kawada vs Takao Omori (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/22/98) (Cut?) Jun Akiyama vs Stan Hansen (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/22/98) (Cut?) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/22/98) -- Toshiaki Kawada vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/26/98) -- Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/29/98) (Cut?) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/29/98 (Is this date right?) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW Championship Carnival 03/29/98) + (Is this date right?) Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/11/98) + Jun Akiyama vs Johnny Ace (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/12/98) (Cut?) Toshiaki Kawada vs Akira Taue (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/12/98) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/18/98) + Jun Akiyama vs Hiroshi Hase (AJPW Tokyo Dome 05/01/98) + Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs Vader & Stan Hansen (AJPW Tokyo Dome 05/01/98) + Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW Tokyo Dome 05/01/98) + Steve Williams vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 06/05/98) (Cut?) Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (AJPW 06/05/98) + Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 06/12/98) + Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara (AJPW 07/19/98) * Jun Akiyama & Hiroshi Hase vs Kenta Kobashi & Taiyo Kea (AJPW 07/19/98) * Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Akira Taue & Jun Izumida (AJPW 07/24/98) (Finish only) + Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 07/24/98) + Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs Kenta Kobashi, Johnny Ace & Johnny Smith (AJPW 08/22/98) * Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs Toshiaki Kawada, Yoshinari Ogawa & Takao Omori (AJPW 08/23/98) * Jun Akiyama vs Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 09/11/98) * Toshiaki Kawada vs Masahito Kakihara (AJPW 09/11/98) * Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW 09/11/98) + Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (AJPW 10/11/98) + Mitsuharu Misawa & Takao Omori vs Kenta Kobashi & Jinsei Shinzaki (AJPW 10/24/98) (Finish only) + Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Masahito Kakihara & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW 10/31/98) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 10/31/98) + Vader & Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (AJPW Real World Tag League 11/14/98) (This or 11/21 but not both?) Vader & Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (AJPW Real World Tag League 11/21/98) (This or 11/21 but not both?) Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (AJPW Real World Tag League 11/30/98) * Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW Real World Tag League 12/02/98) Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Stan Hansen & Vader (AJPW Real World Tag League 12/05/98) +

I agree that most of these cards are too loaded. I'd like to see what people do trying to fill out an undercard full of ***-***1/2 matches and a 4-star main event.