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MOTY is pretty much etched in stone already (unless the 10/21 rematch surprises me), but this is one for the list for sure. Some absolutely gorgeous technical wrestling punctuated by some great highspots, including that holy-shit moonsault to the floor from Dragoncito. I actually had a hard time picking out a man of the match--everyone looked good and brought good things to the table. In addition to being a death-defying spot, the moonsault even worked psychologically, with Dragoncito basically sacrificing himself to make sure Damiancito stayed out on the floor, with the DCOR combined with Cicloncito's submission netting a win for the technicos.

Very good build to this, as they smartly find ways to avoid the barbed wire and make you wait for a payoff. I thought the first January match started out super-hot and then started to peter out towards a memorable finish, while this started slow--albeit by design--before building properly to the climax. So in that regard, it's hard to say which one I liked better. I think this is just the second time I've seen Kandori eat a pin, so it felt like a pretty monumental accomplishment for Kudo, as it came off a run of harrowing near-falls and required a pretty horrifying Kudo Driver to (basically) end it.

James Mitchell vs. Sami Zayn! Right? No? Anyway, so that was Ian Rotten announcing? At times the commentary felt more like a debate over minutiae between Bix and Zellner than the announcing of a wrestling match, particularly that segue about Kickboxer putting his mask back on. And dammit, I had that EXACT same hepatitis line that Childs used, looking at the mat and the atmosphere in general. This match isn't bad, but very conventional. Convention can be good, but it was pretty easy in retrospect to call out every spot before it happened (as even some in the crowd do). The muscle buster was an unexpected highlight. We're approaching the birth of the heyday of scuzzball indy wrestling sleaze, both here and in Japan, so I'm not sorry I watched this little slice of history.

Awesome helicopter shot overhead on Club La Vella. Randy Anderson made his return tonight, which I had no memory of--just Flair reinstating him a year and a half later. Savage soundbites have now been added to the NWO theme. Hogan goes out of his way to bring Virgil over to put his arm around him, an image that's hilarious now. Hogan announces the official signing of "the real Hot Rod," Dennis Rodman, and he will be at Uncensored. Sting gets his colors, but continues not to react or put the shirt on. Nash is completely sloshed--even more than Hall, as they both make semi-coherent threats toward the Steiners. DDP's face push continues, as he draws chants just for the NWO tacitly acknowledging him. Not a lot new under the sun here, but nice to see Hogan take a backseat and work with the other top NWO guys to get their programs over.

Great atmosphere for the spring break Nitro--something WCW was always very good at, even though the WWF was running some pretty out-of-the-box places at this point in their own right. Piper's "family" are dressed like participants in the Highland Games or something. Piper rants about Howard Stern--was Stern seriously talking about last week's segment on his show? And how weird that we got two Stern references on two shows in back-to-back Yearbook segments. He also directs vitriol towards Rodman, "critics," and the WWF for taking shots at his hip the previous week. "You got no one-hipped wrestlers on your pay-per-views...you're right, you got NO ONE HIP on your pay-per-views." Okay, not a bad line. Then more whining about critics, and Piper is giving Bret Hart a run for his money. Out come the Horsemen, and Arn sets the record straight. Piper's family has heart, but this is a job for professionals, not amateurs. Flair fires things up, putting over the other Horsemen and cutting a promo on Hogan. As a way to hit the reset button on last week's disaster, this was effective enough.

Rodman was the league's most notorious player now on the league's best team, was all over MTV in addition to TNT, and Double Team was pretty heavily hyped at the time though I don't think it did much at the box office.

This feels like a Memphis angle all the way, including the way Lawler composes himself in general. Lawler compares the size of Spectrum WWF crowds to ECW Arena crowds, and Paul immediately gets personal by pointing out Lawler had nothing to do with any of that. "How ya doin' at the seesaws in Louisville, Jerry? You own sons don't call themselves Lawler!" "If wasn't for your Mom and Dad who financed this bunch of crap, you wouldn't be anything!" The ending sort of sees Jerry revert to his WWF clown act, as he calls out "all his friends" to come help and no one responds. Still an awesome segment that teetered on the brink of getting totally out of control.

Shamrock will be the guest referee for the Submission Match at WM13. Ken stumbles a bit, but does a good enough job. The TitanTron immediately makes its presence felt as a major part of this show and shows to come. Austin points out the driving storyline of next week's title match: if Bret wins, then the Submission Match will be for the title. Bret is out in full whiny and sarcastic mode, blaming everyone in the WWF front office again, and takes personal credit for landing the cage match title shot with Sid. Good promo overall to hype WM13...and we're back to "screwed" talk, and Bret rattling off all the people who've screwed him (including Vince McMahon!) just when it seemed like he was done is just glorious. Shamrock is at his best in responding--"I'm not a marriage counselor, I'm not here to listen to your problems."

A pretty radical change for Raw and the WWF in general. The heavy, gritty industrial look that defined the Attitude Era is starting to take over the show.

More early-'90s-style JWP goodness here. Fast-paced, but based mostly around takedowns and roll-ups and a few more basic suplexes rather than a true go-go spotfest. I think I liked the first match better too, if only because it so exceeded my expectations. I also got a better sense of the strengths and weaknesses of each woman in that one. Here, they were more evenly matched but I was literally losing track of who was whom at points.

IF YOU HAVE A HORSE THAT'S AN IDIOT, AND YOU BREED IT WITH ANOTHER IDIOT, WHAT ARE YOU GONNA GET? Funk can't help that Raven's father was an idiot, but he's going to beat the shit out of him on April 13. Fantastic hype for the PPV, as Funk walks the line between being your grandpa and being one scary bastard.

Sort of a spotfest, but when the spots are this crisp and well-executed, who cares? Takaiwa's the weak link but in theory I always liked his "junior who wrestles like a powerhouse heavy" style. I can see why Dave was so gaga for this as it's right up his alley, but it's more of an enjoyable match than a great one.

This was pretty good, but the opening two falls were kind of meandering. Some beautiful mat wrestling to be found, but none of it seemed to mean anything or go anywhere. Where this picks up is with Black Warrior putting on a nifty leg submission to win the second fall. He goes back to the legs a few times in the third fall, which finally gives some meaning to the matwork, and we get some hot near-falls before Atlantis takes a risk and pays for it, allowing Warrior to clamp on a nudo for the submission and title. There were still some really awkward spots that Chad pointed out--not once, but twice Atlantis vaulted up on the turnbuckle for no reason than to set up Warrior's spot. I don't know whose fault it was, but it looked bad and looked even worse when they did it a second time. Warrior had some pretty takedowns at some points and looked clumsy in others. This is a good match, but you'll find better lucha title matches elsewhere.

Hogan and Bischoff bury Dr. Schiller, pointing out that Bischoff has a business relationship with Ted Turner. Bischoff complains about his "predatory business practices," which HAD to be a shot at Vince. Hogan "shoots" (his words) on Piper's team. Savage underwhelms in his first real promo as an NWO member. Sort of a boilerplate NWO promo all around, the intrigue continuing to revolve around where Sting stands. At this point, the announcers are doing a solid job of believing Sting to be an NWO member without coming off as gullible idiots.

So, yeah...THIS is the first prominent Piper segment I've watched since his passing. I may as well have taken a wiz on his grave. His opening promo isn't bad to start, but he quickly starts rambling. He's way over, but the problem is none of his opponents are. The crowd pops for Piper squashing guys, but don't pick up on the story that contestant #3 is supposed to win them over. To them, some nobody they've ever heard of is beating up their favorite. It almost seems, after the crowd boos after the first stalemate, that Piper calls an audible and has the segment continue in a desperate bid to win the crowd back over. Doesn 't work, obviously. This portion of the segment alone is interminable and completely sinks this. He's followed by a martial artist who comes off as the lovechild of Steve Williams and Raja Lion. John Tenta is last and finally is someone the crowd recognizes and gives a moderate pop for. The other two guys jump him for no particular reason. An infamous segment, that was oddly fascinating in that train wreck way. I get that they were still trying to position Piper as an outsider (as opposed to an Outsider), still not aligned with either company. But holy shit, there had to be a better way to establish his team than this. As a footnote, supposedly people in the WWF saw this segment and immediately tried to sign the future Luther Reigns away on sight alone. For whatever reason, they couldn't do it.

Agreed on all the babyface stuff here--Nitro is even more compelling because any given week could end with either side standing tall. Bischoff makes the Uncensored main event official. Bischoff is wonderfully obnoxious here, particularly as he basks in the cheers of the fans unaware that they're popping for Harvey Schiller. Great crowd, who pick up exactly on where this is going. And a great location to shoot the angle, too.

Oh, how I love it when Davey Boy shows he still knows his old WOS holds and counters. Always a joy to watch two workers gel so effectively as these two do here. Lots and lots and lots of signature moves being countered initially, only to pay off later. The work around Owen's killer enzuigiri is a particular standout in that regard, and it's enough for me to dismiss the accusations of this being a spotfest. Owen strikes just the right chord, wrestling just a little bit unsportsmanlike in a manner that will piss the crowd off, but not overdoing it. The best WWF match of '97 so far, though of course that won't last long.

What a bunch of shit. Everyone knows the best rendition of HBK's theme was Bobby Heenan whistling it.

WWE did have Howard Fine working there at one point, not sure if they still do. Fine was able to make Mike Tyson into a passable actor, but even he may not be able to overcome the directives of Vince, Dunn, et al.

I believe the '97 forum pre-dates the board changeover--the dates and stuff were all in the subject description, which was a feature that was eliminated in lieu of tags. Loss went back and added tags to the 1996 forum but sort of petered out in February of '97. I use the "Sort by start date" option to more or less ensure I'm in the right thread. I mentioned this in the match thread but since there's music talk here, great call on "Date w/ Ikea" by Pavement for disc 4. My favorite song of theirs and a better out-of-the-box pick than playing "Cut Your Hair" again.

In fairness, as I recall it was only Billy Gunn and X-Pac in blackface.

Austin eviscerates Shawn Michaels before moving back to Bret Hart. In contrast to Survivor Series, Austin paints himself as a guy who doesn't know much about submissions, but plans to just beat the hell out of Bret anyway. On top of this being obviously a fantastic promo: intentional or not there was some excellent foreshadowing of the actual finish to the match here.

I don't know about laziness--the idea of a nutcase like Mankind being multilingual just sort of adds to the Hannibal Lecter vibe of his character. And Foley's delivery is so good that he can cut an effective promo in any language.

Lots of divided opinion on this one. I REALLY dug this, possibly more than anyone else here. Except maybe Chad, but even then I break with him on a few things--I thought Taue and Takayama worked together shockingly great. If you like legsweeps this is a match for you, as this is full of really cool leg takedowns from everybody, with Taue drawing on his old sumo background to bust out some new shit. I don't at ALL get the hate Takayama was getting in the late '90s--he's not a perfect wrestler by any means, and his kicks look pretty bad. But he's got a distinctive look, he's charismatic, and works hard and works pretty well even if he's letting the vets lead him around. He's gangly and awkward, and God knows that's never been a winning formula for getting over in All-Japan. Not only was there good wrestling and counter-wrestling on display here, but Takayama and Albright injected this with some new flavor, at a time when AJPW was continuing to regress deeper into its own bubble. The UWFI shooters give the style a shot in the arm, and I'd like to have seen more of this in the company going forward. There are only a few suplexes here, and none of them are head-drops. There is one really heart-stopping near-fall thanks to some perfect timing by Takayama, but otherwise this is based around submissions, a concept AJPW had gotten away from to the company's detriment. This is not a MOTY or anything but I think it's another testament to the greatness of the Holy Demon Army as workers and as a team.

Decent little match--there's no reason why Otsuka using the giant swing should work, but it does. Ishikawa makes a sudden comeback and suplexes Otsuka to shit before tapping him with a sleeper, which came a little easy for me considering Otsuka's suplexes looked so much better.