El-P

Oh fuck, this is it. Piper as interim commisioner, and Age in the Cage is on the horizon. The first time was nice. The second time was redondant, goofy and useless. The third time screams booking getting all fucked up on top. The logical way to go from there would have been Flair and the Horsemen winning the Wargames than Flair vs Hogan at Havoc, then the final build to Starrcade. So yeah, the first cracks in the armor really begin to appear there. And yeah, Piper fucks up the "announcement" that Sting vs Hogan will happen *before the end of 1997*. He has way overstayed his welcome.

Yeah, that was pretty funny. I had no recollection of this. The Owen Hart death makes this kinda creepier than it is. This aside, its a decent little hype segment for Starrcade, and Bischoff is indeed priceless more often than not in his role.

Agreed with all of this. It makes me question my position on Flair too, as it's obvious when he has a real serious issue he can still deliver a main event quality promo. Match ? I'm not sure sure, but this is the best mic work he's done since his Savage feud in 96. Getting the Horsemen out of the ring indeed make them look like fools, and even Tony questions the reason why security didn't get the nWo out of the ring during the parody the previous week. One thing, Hennig doesn't really fit in the Horsemen to me, especially in Arn's spot. And he really didn't fit too well in the nWo either actually. He was fine with Rude as somewhat of a separate unit (although he sucked in the ring in 98) and really didn't find his place until he got with the West-Texas Rednecks.

Terrific short Nitro match. Crazy to think Rey has been injured that often during his WCW tenure, as he would be out again in 98 and 99. Eddie catching Rey from different angles is impressives, as are the ways Rey saves himself. Even not at 100%, Rey still looked like the best worker in WCW as soon as he came back.

Agreed. With this and Savage & Hall getting the win on DDP & Luger again in the final segment, it felt like a total downer for WCW. Hogan puts the heat right on himself despite not being on the PPV, and he does it by furthermore destroying the heritage of the Horsemen by putting JJ Dillon out, which makes the Arn parody like light matters in comparison. Plus, it's the first time, I believe, Hogan refers to Sting having a "white body that (he) can't bother to drag to the gym", which was one reason Hogan effectively didn't want to put him over clean at Starrcade. So yeah, you can foreshadow bad stuff on the horizon, and some clouds are beginning to clutter the WCW sky. It's too bda because the undercard was stacked at this point, with some really fun Eddie/Benoit/Jarrett/Malenko/Dragon/Mortis & Wrath/Faces of Fear/Alex Wright stuff.

Classic segment. Although it's not as hilarious as it supposed to be because Nash simply isn't funny as he thinks he is, as always. He delivers quite a bit of really good lines here though. Syxx was the best, his impersonnation of Flair, complete with the dancing, is right on the spot (pun intended). Bagwell is totally useless, and doing the Mr. Perfect towel bit only accentuate the fact Hennig just has no identity as himself at this point. Really, Buff looks more like a buffed up Bill Alfonso who would have swallowed his whistle. Konnan is okay I guess. I wonder why they didn't even bother to impersonnate Benoit. Vanilly midget mentality maybe, but that is odd. As far as being mean spirited, well, Arn's reputation as a hilarious, sharp tongue-in-cheek guy makes me think this has been blown out of proportion, as Syxx is obviously a huge Flair fan. As far as what part of bullshit came from Nash and Terry Taylor (whom, from several accounts, seems to be an office stooge and a weasel), who knows. Still, this was terrific to build heat for Wargames, and exactly what the nWo was about : total disrespect for tradition. This of course gave us the infamous DX parodies for better or for worse, but also Oklahoma and this kind of crap, so it sure had a bad influence on the product long term. Plus the fact Bischoff really used it to effectively kill Flair and the Horsemen while it was designed for them to get a big time revenge on the nWo also sucks. So yeah, some good and some bad here. One last thing, yeah, Schiavone was terrific selling it.

Here's a piece of trivia, Glacier's undefeated streak in single matches came to a end when he got beat by… Buff Bagwell. Had no recollection of this.

Really excellent video tribute, with tons of old Arn features. Well done. That was classy, for once.

Arn clearly referenced Benoit and McMichael as "these two men", as he held Flair in a whole other level. Yeah, Arn cuts a great promo, one of the best of the year, and this is a case where reality sets in, as Flair is genuinely moved. Hennig reacts accordingly, being dead serious and respectful. Great segment that could have launched a new interesting segment with these Horsemen vs nWo waiting for Sting to take the cake at Starrcade. It's a shame Arn had to retire early, as by this point he was a better TV worker and promo than Flair. Terrific segment.

Bischoff was terrific here, cutting a money promo and getting totally humiliated afterward. Sting just smiling got a huge reaction. Great segment, great build to a match that was… four months away. Which would be an issue eventually, although the heat was so huge for this programm that they could sustain some lost of momentum. They really had the feud of the decade (until then at least).

I admit that this was quite random. A way to introduce the character I guess, but… didn't accomplished much. Raven DDTing Stevie Richards after his match on Nitro worked much better.

The nWo sure had the coolest items back then, until the Austin 3:16 T-shirt frenzy began.

First thing that came to my mind. Funny.

Stereotypical character aside, he was actually quite decent as a sidekick. Could deliver some cool looking kick and take bump, had an overall goofyness which made him somewhat entertaining. He didn't exactly fit in the era though, but that was WCW being schizophrenic.

I don't think I loved anyone more than Mariko Yoshida in ARSION. Feels like an eternity ago… I may need to come back to this stuff one day (although I'm afraid to spoil my memories of what probably was my favourite period ever of watching wrestling).

From memory, this was a terrific match. Nagashima was a fantastic worker.

Hilarious ! Match was decent, better than the previous Nitro one. And although Savage was teaming with Hall, apparently the tag titles are on the line, for no reason really. They really tease a DDP vs Luger program, going for the babyface accidentaly KOing the other babyface. The following segment is all fucked up. First, there's no reason why there should ba a birthday party for the nWo, which was born at *Bash at the Beach*. Then, the Sting gimmick with the vulture was 1993 Taker like corny stuff. Add to the fact the production disaster and the nWo having to back off from a vulture for seemingly five minutes, and you get a ridiculous segment. Nash threatening to hit the bird with the belt and Bischoff almost going for the bite spot (hey, he said "bite me !" enough to deserve it) was funny though. Still four months to go, and it's obvious they are losing momentum with the booking on top here. Soon they'll have to buy time with… gasp…. Piper again.

No idea who these guys are, but I guess it worked as a TV crossover segment. I'm shocked no one got the cake in the face too. This chef guy takes a decent Diamond Cutter.

The match was nothing much, really basic Outsider stuff, but the insanely hot crowd just made the whole thing look that much better.

Jarrett the chickenshit managed by Debra the trophy wife was so much better than Jarrett the "tough guy" managed by Debra the flasher. Hot TV match with three really strong workers. Love this chickenshit team of Guerrero & Jarrett.

Choshu, once I began to watch entire NJ TV seasons (and not even of his prime). The Rock, during my watch for the GOAT poll at SC.

Just brain dead at present. They've been brain dead forever now with Russo & Dixie at the helm.

Yep. What the hell ? The nWo birthact was at Bash at the Beach.

Gotta love the WWE's "answer" on Twitter : "There’s no excuse for a pro athlete not to conduct themselves in a professional manner." Nor for bad grammar I guess. The whole thing is pretty embarrassing. BTW, is Micheael Hayes still employed ?

JJ Dillon looks like a clueless idiot again, to the point even the announcers point it out. To me they and the great crowd reaction is what make this segment somewhat fun, because the Dillon character is really weak and makes WCW authority look stupid.