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These guys really do try hard to have a good match. They don't get there, but the action down the stretch isn't that bad, and they threw a few curveballs at us like Sid busting out a tombstone reversal spot. Bret interferes liberally as Shawn whines about how much Bret whines. Undertaker wins to start his first "real" WWF title reign, and yes, this whole program seemed like an afterthought in the face of the Submission Match and the Bret/Shawn drama. At least they had a plan and a direction for his reign. Shawn: "He can't stand that the spotlight's not on him!" Lawler, practically under his breath: "Boy, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black..."

Bret eviscerates that little faker Shawn, Undertaker, and then Sid. Sid finally drops Bret with a power bomb as Shawn cackles.

I don't know if it was a good idea to have this immediately follow the submission match, which featured more hatred and more intense brawling. There are some neat spots here--a few good weapons shots, and Ahmed doing a somersault over the guardrail onto Crush. Also, I had no recollection of Clarence Mason actually taking a bump here, and didn't know that that ever happened. I also can't believe more wasn't made out of the NOD using a noose on Ahmed. I think I liked this more than anyone here--no, it's not great, and it doesn't compare to the best Nasty Boys brawls much less the best ECW brawls. But it was energetic and I wasn't bored, the partisan Chicago crowd loved LOD, and Ahmed looked downright good at points. PG-13 take two tremendous bumps off a double Doomsday Device afterward.

I don't know what there is to add to this. It's trailing only Misawa/Kobashi as MOTY right now. A terrific storytelling match that felt like a sea change watching it live, and if anything has simply gotten better over time, knowing where it would lead.

Sabu speaks for the first time in ECW: "Taz, you fucking midget, get out here." Taz doesn't come out, but Bill Alfonso does. He makes the mistake of his life by slapping Sabu in the face, and ends up getting punched out and taking a SICK legdrop through a table. Wow.

Sign Guy is becoming increasingly useless with Gertner on board. The Dudleys now come off as legitimately threatening, even in this quickie promo.

Styles continues to mug for the camera as Not Rick Rude makes innuendos about Francine. Shane barges in and rebuts and demands Rude study videotapes. Wrestling promo or 1999-era DVDVR post? You decide. 45 minutes later Douglas wraps up and Francine asks an unintelligible question to Styles.

Okay, so we start with a battle royal. Once half the guys are eliminated, a team match is formed pitting the guys in the ring against the guys thrown out. The announcers play this up like they did the Royal Rumble, hyping that rudos and tecnicos would be both teaming up and facing each other. So begins the first Cibernetico on a Yearbook--and here I thought they were a 2000s thing. Casas and Santo open against each other, which is a pretty good way to ensure a hot start. And then both men tag out--leading to Silver King vs. Texano! I don't know if this was the first Cibernetico ever but this is a great way to get the stips over. We get a bewildering array of dives, bumps, and some fantastic counter-wrestling and even some sick suplexes along the way, with too many great moments to count and basically everything hitting. Everyone besides Scorpio Jr. (who isn't bad, but doesn't do anything particularly outstanding) looks good, but Casas and Niebla in particular look great, with Niebla being a new revelation for this project. Fiera, seemingly working as a babyface, has a fun closing stretch where he continues to take big bumps and stiff the fuck out of people. I could see this finishing in the MOTYC top 20, very easily. There was a bit of just about every style here.

Rick seems to have recovered nicely from his hospitalization last night--and yet, Tony only focuses on the busted eardrum he received in the car accident. Weird. The NWO starts beating down all four guys, but Luger and the Giant run in to help run them off, followed by a descent from the rafters by Sting. Hogan sells all of this brilliantly--"HE'S POINTING AT ME!" Hogan vs. Sting practically sells itself at this point, but throw in that Hogan is established as being ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED of him and you've got one hot main event.

Hogan stands by with the real Hot Rod. Sting was left stung--no, BEWILDERED--at Uncensored. The Wolfpac come out and don't say much, before calling out two opponents. We cut off there--apparently it was Bunkhouse Buck & Mike Enos.

DDP calls out Savage for "stepping into the real world," which is a *little* bit shooty-shoot insidery for me (did I mention that Kimberly rather lamely attempted to work RSPW around this time, making a post saying that Savage and Liz "went too far"?), but DDP sells it with the intensity of his delivery. Savage is there and teases a match RIGHT NOW...but defers to Liz, who suggests doing it later.

Not only was there no delay, it aired again on the west coast, again uncensored. Austin rips Ken Shamrock a new one, because all he did was get in a couple little street fights which somebody filmed with a little video camera. The match isn't much, but it's perfectly booked and the post-match is one of the best moments in Raw history. Vince taking a bump, Bret cursing, Austin's awesome promo, hype for both of the big matches at WM, Shawn lurking over everything, and Vince frothing at the mouth when Bret punches Pat Patterson. I guess it was really etched in stone with the WM13 post-match and promo the next week, but I think everyone at this point knew Bret was a heel.

I defended Takada for most of the NJPW '80s set, including that Cobra match that practically everyone shit on except me. I didn't like the Koshinaka series but I thought at the time that that was more on Shiro. This wasn't a case of me coming in with an agenda against him, just me seeing the common criticisms full-bore (though the first piercing in his armor as a great worker were the Albright matches, which were good matches but I thought Gary was outworking him).

Michaels is giddy to the point where he can barely talk. "One way or another, when I get back in this ring, the clothes are comin' off!" What a fucking twerp.

Even as we're rapidly approaching the Crash TV era, we're still getting good build to the big matches on TV, as we talk of Bret "lobbying for this opportunity" and the conjecture throughout the night as to whether Monsoon will allow the title to be up for grabs in the match. Loud mixed reaction for both Bret and Austin when his name is mentioned.

It's the Death of a Tax Bill, so naturally the Undertaker is there. Somewhere IRS weeps. Hey, THIS would have been a better set-up for that weirdo 1995 feud than what we got. As for the match, we've got Mascarita Sagrada on one side and both Espectritos on the other, so I'm sold no matter the environment. Sagrada is actually referred to as "Jr.," which is a rarity for the WWF. Sagrada gets over almost instantly, and Mini Goldust is pretty impressive as well. The big dive off the ramp is of course the reason why we're here.

"ALL HELL HAS BROKEN LOOSE HERE AT UNCENSORED, AND HELL BROUGHT WITH HIM A BASEBALL BAT." Match is a total mess, even from just the relatively short clip here, and Luger's comeback gets a tremendous reaction but is kinda rushed. On the other hand, how believable would it be for Lex to come back against 4 guys for minutes on end? Rodman is used really well, helping to eliminate Piper and then handing Savage the spray can to use on Luger to set up the ending. He then slaps around Luger afterward and spraypaints him, but of course the real story out of this is the post-match. Yeah, I don't get why they didn't just have Sting stand with the NWO like he'd done on previous Nitros and then start taking them out, but you can't ignore that nuclear fucking pop. The entire team eats a Scorpion Death Drop apiece as Schiavone is practically coming out of his pants. One of the high points of a Monday Night Wars-era show having you foaming at the mouth for more when it's over.

Bits of rambling, but that's sort part of the charm. Nash and Hall may not be entirely sober.

Okerlund questions if DDP could take Rick Steiner's place, but DDP is only here to go after Savage. Randy is here to apologize for misjudging Page--as judged by his wife's presence in the new Celebrity Playboy. Savage talking about his past fling with Pamela Anderson as Liz nods along is hilarious. Savage is such a grade-A jerk in this segment, it's the most energy he's shown since the Flair feud, and it's a totally different kind of energy than just being a nut.

Yep, I too liked this more than the ECW matches, because the match constantly felt like it was escalating and going places. There was a story here that went beyond, "These two are evenly matched." There was hatred, intensity, body part work, guys trying to show each other up, finisher-stealing back when that seemed really fresh, and more. Dean is as over as he'll ever be before the Jericho feud, and this match is a testament to just how hot WCW was up and down the card at this point. They didn't execute everything, but in a way that just added to the intensity and grittiness of the match--it was a fight, not a dance sequence. Even the NWO involvement doesn't overshadow the participants, as the production and the announcers do a very good job of balancing the backstage attack with the action in the ring. Schiavone in particular is still really good at this point.

I didn't think this was quite as good as the two best matches from '96 but I could watch this group go all day. Motegi brings things down a little from when Shiryu was in, and the ending was a little sudden, but otherwise this was gold. As Loss mentioned there were some grittier and more intense parts to this, especially the brawling in the back of the arena. And Motegi at least contributed that awesome rolling surfboard, an amazing spot that I don't think I've ever seen before. TAKA is the standout worker of the match, being at the center of numerous awesome tandem moves and contributing a spectacular running springboard moonsault to the floor at the closing stretch. TAKA was a complete waste in the WWF, that much is clear.

Joel Gertner is now aligned with the Dudleys--Bubba channels his inner Vaudevillain when describing their recent tiff with the Gangstas. The Eliminators respond, talking up the ECW Arena in lieu of their usual spiel. Tommy Rich is done with promos, so he and Guido are out to get some "Sicilin' girls." Full Blooded Eyetalian, that's what we're talkin' about! Francine challenges Gary Wolfe to an I Quit Match--presumably on behalf of Shane Douglas, as we get a weird edit job. RVD gloats over Taz's injuries. Brian Lee will take pleasure in ending Terry Funk's career, because someone showed him the money...bitch. Yes, Jerry Maguire-mania was running wild in '97. Tommy Dreamer talks up the idea of Funk's career being over--yeah, like anyone's supposed to buy that.

Well, call me crazy, because I kind of liked this segment. Storm was there because he'd beaten Rotten and was eating a triple-team by Rotten and the Dudleys. The Gangstas save because they have an issue with the Dudleys. Usual Gangstas weapon shots, including Bubba Ray finding a new use for a word processor that I don't think Alexandra York's computer programs accounted for. Axl praises the Dudleys for their help and calls them the "best tag team in the world," a phrase that had been beaten to death on ECW TV in describing the Eliminators. I liked how the crowd immediately reacted to that phrase, knowing what was to come. The Eliminators run off the Dudleys with some slick double-teams, and Sign Guy eats Total Elimination. I don't know what the problem is--this segment was designed to set up Eliminators vs. Dudleys, and it did that very effectively.

Quick squash to serve as a hype job for Barely Legal. I wonder what the CYC folks thought of Taz's swearing--that's what got the WWF kicked out of the building after running it for decades.

That was either a worked shoot or Richards is the greatest and most courageous improv man in wrestling. Good segment that doesn't wear out its welcome, generally a rarity for ECW. Dave retired the Best Babyface Observer award for this year, but if I were to keep a running count, Richards would be in the #1 spot until the rise of Austin.