This is from the first round of the U.S. title tournament. I didn't think much of most of the action here, but they won me over by the end. Sting did a lot of punch-kickery but he also targeted Arn's leg, which paid off in a big way later. Arn had some great counters here--a spinebuster out of nowhere, the "wind up a punch and DDT the guy when he ducks" spot that I love so dearly, and catching Sting with a back elbow when he attempted one too many Stinger splashes. Hot closing stretch in general, leading to a clean submission victory thanks to Sting's earlier work on the leg.

I really enjoyed this. Pretty much everything you want in a Saturday Night main event: two familiar foes doing strong, varied work with a good familiar structure, but plenty of twists and turns, and lots of body part focus leading to a good submission finish. This is probably too good of a match and too good of a matchup for the first round of this tournament. And I mean in kayfabe terms too: Sting was the nominal #1 seed, which makes Arn the #16, while he's also the TV champ. ***1/2