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Another really strong match as AJPW suddenly feels hot again after a 10-month cold streak. This is one of Akiyama's better performances so far in his career, selling the fuck out of his lower back as the Demon Army just relentlessly brutalize him. All in all sort of an abbreviated version of the 12/96 classic, with Akiyama out on the floor for an extended period and Misawa having to go it alone.

Last few minutes of a draw. Decent but ultimately unremarkable action--uncharacteristically loose and sloppy in a few points as well. Kobashi's Lariato on Kawada was killer, though.

Agree with Loss on the slow motion portion of this match--a chunk of the time, Misawa and Akiyama work this like a late-'80s WWF house show with basic clubbering offense, while the FMW team shows off all the flashy moves. But the crowd isn't into them as much as the one we saw a few days earlier. Really good finishing stretch though, with Team FMW having a golden opportunity to put Akiyama away with Misawa on the floor, but Mitsuharu having to navigate his away around the ring apron and through Shinzaki to make a fantastic save off the Phoenix Splash. He then asserts himself in taking out both opponents, allowing Akiyama (with a hope spot or two thrown in) to eventually put Hayabusa down. All in all a match on the disappointing side, but the stretch run was enough to elevate this far enough for me to call a good match.

The announcer was both infuriating and hilarious to me at the same time. These two are brutalizing each other and this guy is calling it like Jim Nantz at Augusta National. The match itself isn't much at all--both guys work hard but the pace is way too quick and nothing is allowed to breathe. The announcer takes care to mention Jason Jarrett's name so many times that you just know he's going to play a role in the finish, and he does. I don't get what that accomplishes other than to make the babyface a fluke winner and the heel look like an idiot and to get the referee over at the expense of both of them.

Crazy aftermath, though the match itself isn't much. Flanagan is...not a good talker. I do respect that they're carrying over the old PG-13/Flanagan feud from the USWA, with the alignment switched.

I would have put Horst Hoffmann on my ballot, and I blame myself for not thinking to nominate him. Edit: From an old-school standpoint, I also didn't find out until putting my list together that the Spoiler and Don Leo Jonathan didn't get nominations. Not that they were necessarily going on my list but they were both worthy of discussion.

Cornette pretty vehemently denied having anything to do with the finish in his '97 Timeline. Of course a shoot interview is far from gospel, but a.) even though "they have no reason to lie" is often a red herring for people in the wrestling business who lie and work simply because they can, in Cornette's particular case it strikes me as being out of character for him to cover up something like that. Who's he afraid of pissing off? (He *did* say, "Book him against fucking Shamrock!" during a brainstorming session but it didn't strike me as a serious suggestion.) b.) Cornette's influence on the booking committee was evaporating and he'd be off creative entirely right around this time.

This is terrible, as bad as the closing segment of Raw. WCW is completely out of ideas here--not a shred of originality anywhere in this segment. The Vince McMahon push can't get here soon enough, because we'll finally have a top heel who doesn't just guffaw over and no-sell everything. It's why Vince is, like him or not, one of the best performers ever. Bischoff is as bad here as he was good in the opening segment.

Not a great party but attempting to portray wrestling-watching as "cool" is actually one of the smarter things Bischoff did.

Good little segment though, while I can't explain what I'd do differently, I wish they'd gotten to the signing of their Starrcade match in a bit more dramatic way. I'll reserve final judgment though until I watch more, since I can't remember how the control-of-Nitro stipulation or the guest referee got added. Bischoff is at his best here as a contemptible little worm.

This build to Michaels vs. Shamrock has only been marginally better than the WW3 build that was barely even acknowledged until 6 days before the show. Neidhart is with DX, and Stevie Wonder could see where this was going to go. Helmsley throws coffee at Vader (??!--are women's shoes next?) leading to a Michaels win. Vader is rolled out of the ring like a common jobber. Ross has to unconvincingly feign shock as Neidhart gets attacked. Another segment that completely fails: not only was the result patently obvious, but the swerve doesn't even draw heat because nobody gave a fuck about Neidhart or saw him as a sympathetic figure, even in the face of Survivor Series. Ken Shamrock sits in the back with his thumb up his ass while all this is going on. Again, no heat. Yes, the WWF literally feels like a dying company at this point.

"Rocky Maivia and the Nation of Domination," as Cole's intro goes. No hiding who the big push is going to now. Despite the mic issues, Rock's familiar voice is starting to come together. We finally get the first hot segment of the episode, with Austin playing mind games with Rocky via the production truck and the semi-legendary shot of Rocky freaking out at his pager.

Triple H makes a desperate attempt to draw heat by ragging on Fort Bragg--good luck with that tack in a few years. Ooh boy, midget and short jokes. Lawler's giggling at this is just as bad as Michael Cole's guffawing now. Oh, by the way, Fayetteville is DEAD SILENT throughout all this. They're not laughing, they're not booing, they're completely and totally indifferent. I mean, they didn't have much to respond to before, but they were still louder for the tag title match. This is really just disgraceful on almost all levels--just not on a heat-drawing level. Then Neidhart shows up, and the idea of DX inviting Neidhart to join their group and Jim just accepting it makes absoutely zero sense.

"The question that is on everybody's mind: WHAT did you hit. Vader. With?" Yeah, THAT'S the burning issue here, Cole. This is an awkward segment on all levels--a rare bad interview from Dustin, the censor censoring "off" instead of "pissed," Cole's dumb line of questioning, Luna's awkward attack, and Luna's promo where she screams incoherently into a microphone.

Okay-ish action but not a high point for LOD even in '97. Gunn and Road Dogg, still nameless as a team, steal the tag titles and for the past few weeks it's felt like 1998 is already here, so to speak.

Harvey Wippleman is out as an ersatz Rick Rude in a desperate attempt by the WWF and DX to save face. They just end up looking more pathetic. Shawn is SERIOUS tonight.

About as fun as you'd expect--both guys have probably already peaked despite their long post-middle-age careers, but this is still two grumpy old guys laying it in and beating the shit out of each other. Fujiwara is a supreme dick here, refusing to break holds past the ropes and should have been DQ'd on multiple occasions. Gives a little bit of poetic justice at the finish when Tenryu catches him with a shot to the throat. The ending is a little sudden and I'd like to have seen one more Tenryu power bomb instead of a straight cover, but this served its purpose nicely.

No real build to the Texas Cloverleaf, but the holds and counterholds were pretty amazing. This seems to be Smiley's debut (not counting the Pat O'Connor tag tournament).

Damn straight I ranked Dory, Jr.

You're eliminated if you hit the floor at all this time, regardless of how. Not sure what the point was of that rule change. I was actually into this for a bit, then I got confused with the Nash fakeout and Hogan entrance, then I got frustrated as the cameras were missing eliminations and pivotal spots, then I was just rolling my eyes at yet another obviously fake Sting that the announcers fell for. Then I just shook my head as they attempted to get over the "biggest plan yet" which amounts to the same plan they've had for like the past 8 PPVs. Hogan does execute a decent-looking Diamond Cutter (which is *also* missed the first time). WCW still looks untouchable from a business standpoint but this was...not good.

Awesome match! A JACKED crowd really pulling for the outsiders (though not the Outsiders), which seems to get louder every time Jinsei's ropewalk gets cut off. Shinzaki and Hayabusa pull out some terrific double-teams here and all of their unique, crowd-pleasing transition spots work great. This is almost a throwback to the '90-'92 era with a much clearer heel/babyface divide than you normally see in the late '90s. It may not be the second-best AJPW match to date in '97 but it may well be my second-favorite. See, Baba? It doesn't hurt for your company to step out of the bubble once in awhile.

The hard sell for November 2 Remember. I'm not sure anyone could really buy Bam Bam as anything other than a placeholder champion, especially considering the show's in Pittsburgh. On one hand it's not a bad idea to focus on the PPV's big matches (plus Candido/Storm), but on the other hand this Pulp Fiction's focus on a few guys sort of shows how bad the roster has thinned over the past 12-18 months.

The cannonball through the table was pretty cool, I admit. That it was a lummox like Sandman doing it instead of a natural high-flyer just added to the element of danger. The rest of the segment was pretty whatever to build to what is IIRC a WMOTYC at November 2 Remember.

I've been way high on Tamura in particular and '97 RINGS in general, but this was a chore to get through. As boring as the worst of '80s UWF, which is quite boring indeed.

Welp, 6 days away from the afterthought that is World War III, better start hyping the show. Giant's hand looked impressively fucked up. No one, least of all Bischoff and WCW, and probably not the WWF either, has any idea what's to come for this promotion--so without hindsight it's hard to blame them for thinking the gravy train wouldn't run dry. That said, Bischoff's constant statements in interviews of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" were probably a bad sign. Even the WWF had the sense to take McMahon off television after Fully Loaded '99 and freshen up the direction of the company despite Austin still going strong.