Loss

They did have one at Road Wild. I don't remember it being anything special, but I did like that Flair pinned Syxx with his feet on the ropes.

We haven't done a show yet. Hopefully soon.

I generally think you're right. WCW in some ways benefitted from their lack of focus. The WWF is and always has been incredibly micromanaged. I will say there is a WWF anomaly in 1997 when Mascarita Sagrada got over huge on a RAW from Syracuse. Of course, the company didn't follow up on that at all, most likely because it didn't fit their definition of what wrestling is. I'm not sure WCW would have either, but I do think of the two promotions, they are more likely to push someone like Sagrada.

Misawa, who was trying to elevate Kobashi to the spot. After the exodus, they went with Tenryu... but he's a sacred cow, so we best not use him. Then they brought in Keiji Mutoh, with Mrs. Baba gave him a lot of power for that. Then they went back to Kawada, but he got hurt instantly... and it was back to Tenryu and Mutoh for another year. Basically Oct 2000 through Feb 2003 was them. Yep, works for me. Misawa, Kobashi, Tenryu and Mutoh. John Is Naoya Ogawa a good pick?

Al Madril

I thought this was a great match that I liked even better than the February one. Kanemoto keeps Liger grounded for most of this and they work a lot of submission spots, with Liger as the sympathetic guy fighting through an attack on his knee. He put Kanemoto over in almost every exchange, which bothered me in February after seeing him beat Otani in such a convincing way, but didn't bother me here at all in the context of the tournament, especially when Kanemoto was going over in the end. Liger really does a great job of getting over the idea that he has been pushed past his limit. Fun finishing sequence, as Kanemoto plays possum when Liger jumps off the top and tries to finish him off, but Liger was playing possum too and ends up catching him in a nasty release German. They go spot crazy at the end, which really works and makes sense here because Kanemoto is doing a series of big moves to finally put Liger away, and it's going to take something major to get the job done. And he does, scoring a huge upset in my number two juniors match of 1997 at this point.

May: #1 - Shinjiro Otani, Koji Kanemoto, Mens Teoh, Dick Togo & Hanzo Nakajima vs Great Sasuke, Super Delphin, El Samurai, Norio Honaga & Gran Hamada (NJPW 05/03/97) ****1/4 #2 - Koji Kanemoto vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJPW 05/20/97) **** #3 - Hayabusa, Ricky Fuji & Ricky Morton vs Mike Awesome, Hisakatsu Oya & Mr. Gannosuke (FMW 05/13/97) **** #4 - The Eliminators vs Tracy Smothers & Little Guido (ECW Trenton, NJ 05/03/97) ***3/4 #5 - Ric Flair, Roddy Piper & Kevin Greene vs Scott Hall, Kevin Nash & Syxx (WCW Slamboree 05/18/97) ***3/4 #6 - Steven Regal vs Ultimo Dragon (WCW Slamboree 05/18/97) ***3/4 #7 - Shinya Hashimoto vs Naoya Ogawa (NJPW 05/03/97) ***1/2 #8 - Vader vs Ken Shamrock (WWF Cold Day In Hell 05/12/97) ***1/2 #9 - Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin vs Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith (WWF Monday Night RAW 05/26/97) ***1/2 #10 - Shinjiro Otani vs Yoshihiro Taijiri (NJPW 05/20/97) ***1/4 #11 - Atsushi Onita, W*ING Kanemura & Hido vs Masato Tanaka, Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa (FMW 05/25/97) ***1/4 #12 - La Parka, Damien & Ciclope vs Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo & Hector Garza (WCW Monday Nitro 05/26/97) *** #13 - Legion of Doom vs PG-13 (WWF Monday Night RAW 05/12/97) #14 - Ricky Morton vs Wolfie D (IWA Mid South 05/08/97) #15 - Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara & Jun Kikuchi vs Abdullah The Butcher, Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake (WAR 05/05/97) #16 - Jerry Lawler vs Goldust (WWF Monday Night RAW 05/26/97)

Last few minutes. The Dudleys attack Balls Mahoney and Sandman saves and gets beaten down as well. Finally, Tommy Dreamer makes the save, but Louie Spicolli cuts that short quickly. Finally, Terry Funk shows up and throws a few punches. Stevie Richards comes in and the ring clears with just him and Funk. They end up brawling too.

Stevie does his first serious promo, talking about going to the Civic Center and seeing Arn and Tully face the MX on 09/10/88 when the Midnights won the tag titles. That's when he decided he wanted to be a pro wrestler. He mentions the first time was asked for an autograph and eventually ties it into his feud with Raven and quest for the title, as he's about to challenge in his hometown -- Philly, of course. I liked this promo, I really did, but it's too long, and Stevie doesn't look like a wrestler when he wears his glasses either. This is followed by a BWO promo, and holy cow did 1997 have a lot of people impersonating Razor Ramon.

Another taped Dutch promo, as he's still not allowed to come to the studio after slapping Gypsy Joe. Dutch wants to know when the danger was taken out of wrestling, and that's an excellent question. This promo is hilarious, but I can't get over what a weird collection of angles are playing out in this promotion at the same time.

New Diesel has a few words for New Razor on tape from … VINCE MCMAHON! He has this whole explanation of how this guy came to him and said please hire me, I do great impersonations. I am on the floor! He calls the guy an ingrate and says the only thing he hates more than ingrate is someone that's stupid. He blames Razor for his planned Diesel/Razor tag team push in the WWF not working, as it fell apart because Razor wants to stay in the USWA because he prefers it there. Yes, that's really the only reason now that I think about it. So he's ordered Diesel to destroy him. This is a brilliant promo. Diesel and Razor end up getting into it before their expiration of time match, and this is a true Twilight Zone episode of USWA TV.

We get a brawl in the parking lot between Brian Christopher and Billy Joe Travis. Seven years later, Travis still has the one-leg tights! 1990 Yearbookers rejoice.

I'll give this guy credit for really embracing the Razor Ramon gimmick. Here, he has a few words for Billy Joe Travis.

1997 and Lawler is still wearing that shirt. He cuts a total babyface promo on ECW and references Tommy Dreamer. I love the subtle burial from Lance Russell of Dreamer in this. He correctly points out that brawling was happening in Memphis a long time ago, so they aren't going to show them anything they haven't seen before, but they did send in a video by Nirvana. Lawler's comments on Kurt Cobain are so jawdropping that they really have to be heard. We cut to the ECW video to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and seeing this on USWA TV is totally surreal. Russell is in disbelief and points out that they could pull videos from their library of Lawler doing almost all of the same stuff! Lawler issues a challenge to Dreamer to come to the USWA and take a beating. Pretty damned cool.

About five minutes of highlights. Match looks to be pretty good but it's hard to tell. Kobashi and Ace win the double tag titles after Kobashi pins Taue with a lariat.

Hogan has shaved the mustache and looks really bizarre. Hogan tells Sting the belt is on the line and to come take the beating he deserves. Bischoff says he hates to disappoint Hogan, but Sting isn't here because he's a coward. Sting pops out from under the ring and points the bat toward Hogan, but based on the hair, it's obviously a fake. He gets down on his knees when Hogan commands him to do so while Hogan taunts him. Sting finally comes down from the rafters and attacks Bischoff from behind with the scorpion death drop. Hogan slowly turns around and he's face to face with the guy. He takes off and Sting destroys the impostor. Hogan summons the NWO to the ring and they slowly surround him but Sting doesn't back down. Just as the NWO is about to surround him, he flies away again. Great hype.

Syxx is out to troll Flair again. What a little prick. Hall and Nash join him a minute or two later. Hall calls Flair an old drag queen! Nash said Piper didn't put him or Hogan to sleep - the only way he could do that is to tie them to a recliner and force them to watch his movies. Nash wants the tag titles on the line at the Bash against maybe one of their dialysis machines. Nash then calls Piper a liar for telling his kid he was going to retire. Pretty scathing, below-the-belt stuff (in a good way) and a hot promo. There is a little pandering at the end, but again, Hall and Nash are heeling and doing a good job of it.

Savage hypes the Great American Bash match with DDP in a black-and-white hype video.

Tim is right about how good of a job Mike Tenay does of explaining everything, despite Larry Zbyszko's racism and dismissiveness of the style. Huge dive into the crowd from Super Calo that shocked everyone. They also made a special effort to get Garza over as the star in this. I do think this is something that could have gotten over sporadically and with more explanation of the rules. The crowd seemed to like it a lot here.

Konnan insults Kevin Sullivan and Hugh Morrus and it sounds like he's leaving the Dungeon of Doom.

Hard to believe that it's May, I've finished watching a third of this set and this is the first full-length Shawn Michaels match. And it's not like we left some big match off. Shawn is almost obnoxiously good in this match. He cuts a hell of a pace and puts on a really great individual performance. Austin is really good too, but I really think Shawn was fantastic in this match. He shows absolutely no ring rust (which is smirk-worthy) and is great as FIP. Shawn and Austin win the tag titles to a HUGE pop and Shawn gets immediately pummeled by the Hart Foundation. Austin is more interested in going after Bret and tackles him on the runway and almost puts him in a sharpshooter. After the match, Austin takes full credit for winning the match and Shawn takes exception. This was the first time they did Tag Team Partners Who Hate Each Other and here it really works! What a tremendous post-match. The match was good, but probably not as great as remembered. Everything surrounding it is gold though.

This time, Mick talks about hitchhiking to MSG to see Snuka vs Muraco in a cage. In a cool moment, they are able to spotlight him in the crowd. He explains the Dude Love persona. They show a clip from The Loved One and explain his training under Dominic Denucci and this is fascinating. This is absolutely awesome. They should still do these features today for their guys, but I guess it's kind of hard when their entire history is in developmental.

Undertaker doesn't want to make this decision, but he has to do so. But he doesn't really explain what that means.

They are in Evansville, so Lawler is over big. Times have changed, and thankfully so. I really like the tone of this promo and enjoyed it for the most part but the gay slurs are pretty harsh. I liked how much Jim Ross had the ability to talk about anything and everything, such as the USWA existence and meeting Dustin Rhodes as a 16-year-old in Jim Crockett's office. Vince even mentioned Lawler once suing the WWF over his moniker! I didn't like this as much as Phil, mainly because the piledriver from Lawler was pretty much no-sold when Goldust popped back up. Lawler ate a piledriver too, and he sold it but was right back on offense within a minute or two. After they got that out of their system, this was a pretty fun brawl. Lawler ended up getting a pin with his feet on the ropes, which I think totally worked as a finish. Goldust isn't happy with that result and they brawl when it's all over. Check out Goldust doing all the Dusty spots and Lawler rolling all the way down the arena ramp!

Yes, he vowed to never use him again.