- Haven't done this one in a good long while, but this is the UNCUT version of the show instead of the 2-hour edited Coliseum version. Plus they've been building up to this show on Primetime Wrestling lately, so it's good to get the payoff coinciding with the buildup for once.

- This was of course the first non-Wrestlemania addition to the WWF's PPV lineup, and an attempt to put the screws to Jim Crockett at that. And it sure as hell worked.

- Live from Richfield, OH.

- Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura. Kind of funny to see all the downtime at the start of the show, with Gorilla & Jesse yakking about the rules and making their entrances, given the fast pace of shows today.

The Honky Tonk Man, Hercules, Ron Bass, King Harley Race & Danny Davis v. Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, Brutus Beefcake & Hacksaw Duggan

That's quite the babyface team, actually, compared to the relative team of mutts making up the heel side. Also kind of neat that everyone on the face side, save Duggan, drew some pretty significant money against Honky Tonk Man in the 18 months comprising his title reign. It's also really weird seeing Savage & Steamboat teaming up just a few months after, you know, trying to kill each other and all. Back when that was something weird to see, you understand. Finkel's overdubbed announcement of the faces (thanks to the editing of the entrance music) makes it sound like a video game.

Beefcake starts with Hercules and gets pounded down, but a criss-cross leads to a quick sleeper for Brutus. Herc breaks, but Beefcake hiptosses all the heels in turn and we start over. Davis comes in and gets beat up by the Snake, as Jake works on the arm and Savage rams him into Beefcake's foot. Steamboat comes in with the flying chop and a back kick, but a blind charge misses and Danny lets Race have a go. Shoulderbreaker on Steamboat, but he springs out of the corner with a flying chop and they slug it out. Race tosses him and Ricky skins the cat back in, so Race tosses him again and Steamboat is right back in. Race hits him with a belly to belly for two, however. Duggan gets the tag and dumps Race with a clothesline, and they brawl to the floor for a double-countout to eliminate both of them at 4:30.

So next Jake slugs it out with Ron Bass and then turns it over to Savage, who knees him into the corner and follows him with a back elbow. Kneedrop gets two, and really does anyone in the business do that move any better? Savage goes after Honky and walks into a clothesline as a result, and that allows Honk to come in and pound away. Savage gets caught in the heel corner and Bass elbows him down again for two, but Savage fires back with his own and adds a backdrop to escape a Pedigree attempt. Beefcake comes in with the high knee to eliminate Bass at 6:59.

Hercules pounds on Beefcake's arm and Honky continues with an armbar, then it's over to Hercules for more of the same. And back to Honky to really drag this down a few notches. It works way better with quick tags and fast action. Beefcake finally comes back after 3:00 of armbar and slugs Honky down, but he walks into a cheapshot from Danny Davis and gets Shaken, Rattled & Rolled out at 10:50.

Savage comes in and goes after Honky again, allowing Hercules to jump him from behind and pound away in the corner, but Savage elbows Honky down and brings Jake in. He goes for the DDT, but the hair is too greasy and Honk slips out. Jake charges and hits knee, and Jesse points out again how lucky Honky is. That's actually an interesting bit of ring psychology that you don't see so much -- the guy who is portrayed as a bad wrestler but has boatloads of dumb luck. It's usually the underdog babyface like Mikey Whipwreck who gets that character. The heels switch off and beat on Roberts, but they make the fatal error of letting Danny Davis into the match. Short clothesline, DDT, good night at 15:07.

Herc DIVES in with a clothesline and drops an elbow for two, and the heels take turns on him as Savage keeps getting sucked in by Honky Tonk. Fistdrop gets two for Honky. He goes to the chinlock, but Jake escapes with the kneelift before Hercules cuts off the tag and pounds him down again. And it's another chinlock. That drags on until Jake escapes with a jawbreaker, and it's HOT tag Steamboat. He fires away with chops on everyone, and heads up with the flying chop. That sets up the Macho Elbow, and he's done at 21:00. So it's Honky Tonk Man v. Savage, Steamboat and Roberts, and to his credit he actually gives it a go. Savage misses a blind charge and hurts the knee, but comes back with a back elbow and brings Steamboat in for more abuse. The faces just pound the living shit out of Honky at their leisure and get all their revenge, but Honky takes a bump to the floor and calls it a night at 23:38. Really, it's non-title, Honky should have gone down to a flying chop into a DDT into the flying elbow. It's not like you need to keep him strong since everyone considered him a joke and coward anyway. Super fun introduction to the format, although the extended armbars and chinlocks kept it from greatness. ***1/2 Survivors: Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts

Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Dawn Marie, Donna Christanello & Sherri Martell v. Fabulous Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin & The Jumping Bomb Angels

Somehow losing the title has turned Moolah into a babyface. Sherri lays out Velvet and gets a clothesline, but Velvet comes back with a bodypress for two. Over to Moolah, and she pounds Sherri down. Christanello (who looks like she's older than Moolah here) comes in and gets slammed by Velvet for two, and a victory roll gets the pin at 1:56. Good, her name was hard to type anyway. Kai lays out Velvet from behind, but gets taken down by a flying headscissors and a dropkick, and it's over to Robin. Dawn Marie (not that one) works her over in the heel corner, but Robin gets a sloppy bodypress on Martin for two. Over to Sherri, who gets a nice dropkick. Robin comes back with a clothesline on Marie and a bodypress for the pin at 4:11.

It's Angel time, as Yamazaki comes in with a crazy bridge off a bodypress attempt and a rolling cradle into a bodypress for two. Sherri comes in and Tateno gets a huge flying armdrag, but Robin comes in and kills the momentum for her team by being herself. The Glamour Girls work her over in the corner and Sherri adds a slam, and a suplex gets the pin at 6:50. Who gets pinned with a suplex? Yamazaki is right back in with a pair of a dropkicks on Sherri, and she dodges a charging Martin before falling victim to a hairtoss. Over to Velvet, who gets a spinning bodypress for two and then brings Kai in for a catapult, and Moolah pounds on her into a dropkick. She brings Martin in, but runs into a back elbow that gets two. Moolah comes back with a cradle for two and brings Yamazaki in, but she misses a dropkick and gets worked over in the heel corner. Faceplant gets two for Sherri. Martin tosses her back to the face corner and brings Moolah in, and Moolah gets a pair of snapmares into a headlock. The Glamour Girls double-team her with a clothesline, however, and Moolah is pinned at 11:00.

Martin goes with Tateno and the Jumping Bomb Angels start double-teaming the leg now, with Velvet adding a Boston crab. She turns it into a bow-and-arrow, but Sherri comes back in and takes over, dropping a leg and adding a bad looking gutwrench suplex. She tags out to Tateno and Kai hits a butterfly suplex for two (which the timekeeper mistakes for a pin) and Velvet comes back in with a GIANT SWING~! on Sherri. She finishes Sherri with a victory roll at 14:57. Huh. Martin lays her out immediately and Tateno comes back in with a sunset flip off the middle rope for two. Yamazaki follows with a butterfly suplex for two. Kai comes in and tackles her, but Yamazaki hooks her in a bodyscissors and then brings Velvet back in, and another victory roll gets two. She tries yet again and this time Kai drops her with an electric chair for the pin at 17:19. So it's Glamour Girls v. Angels, and the Angels slam the Glamour Girls and slingshot Martin onto Kai. Yamazaki gets caught with a cheapshot, however, and Kai goes up and misses a flying splash. Tateno finishes her with a flying bodypress at 18:37, and it's 2-on-1. Martin attacks Tateno and drops her with a faceplant off a fireman's carry, and that gets two. Tateno comes back with an atomic drop, and Yamazaki comes off the top with a flying knee, and the Angels add a double dropkick. Flying clothesline finishes at 20:18. Very entertaining for the time period, but kind of jumpy and sloppy at times. Still, the stuff with the Angels and Glamour Girls was revolutionary for the time and well worth checking out. **1/2 Survivors: The Jumping Bomb Angels

The Hart Foundation, The Islanders, The Dream Team, Demolition and The Bolsheviks v. Strike Force, The Young Stallions, The British Bulldogs, The Rougeaus and the Killer Bees

Talk about your Who's Who of 80s tag teams. Demolition's theme song is of course so bad-ass that they use it for the entire heel side. Martel starts out with Volkoff and gets a quick rollup for two, but Volkoff boots him down and brings Zhukov in. Martel immediately dropkicks him down and follows with a bodypress for two, and it's over to Tito, who gets headbutted. Flying forearm finishes Boris at 1:42, however. Ax immediately pounds Tito into taco meat, but misses an elbow and it's over to Jacques. He hits a back elbow on Ax and then dropkicks Bravo, and we get some double-teaming from the Killer Bees. Davey Boy comes in and Bravo tags out to Smash, who gets triple-teamed in the face corner. Over to Dynamite for a chop exchange with Haku (now there's an intriguing match we never really saw outside of their goofy tag matches) and the Stallions double-team Jim Neidhart. Demolition responds with double-teaming of Paul Roma and Haku adds a clothesline. Over to Powers and he gets beat up by the Demos as well, but Jacques makes the comeback before missing a bodypress and getting pinned by Ax at 5:50.

Dynamite charges in and gets worked over by Tama, and then Powers gets more of the same. Neidhart and Haku double-team Powers with a body vice into a flying chop, and that gets two for Haku. Roma comes in and he also gets dominated by the heels, running into Ax's knee. Valentine with a shoulderbreaker for two, and a suplex gets two. Bravo hits the gutwrench suplex for two, and Roma finally tags out to Blair. Smash beats on him, but misses a charge, and the Kid comes back for the faces with a clothesline for two. Now Dynamite gets stomped in the heel corner, but Demolition gets too feisty and shoves the ref for the DQ at 9:19. Bret Hart hits the Kid with the most BAD-ASS piledriver you'll ever see, and that gets two. Bret charges and hits the post, however, and Powers comes in and pounds on Tama before walking into a clothesline. Tama misses a pump splash and Martel comes in with a backdrop and dropkick, but the boston crab is too close to the heels and Neidhart breaks it up with a clothesline to the back. That gets two. Anvil misses a charge and hits knee, and Tito comes in with the flying forearm for two, as Bret saves. Neidhart hits Tito with the megaphone and he's gone at 12:10.

Powers comes in and immediately gets pounded by the heels, and Valentine blocks a sunset flip with a shot to the head and follows by dropping the hammer for two. Anvil drops him on the top rope and Haku adds the superkick into the backbreaker for two. Anvil and Haku double-team him with an elbow for two. Powers reverses a suplex, but Hammer leverages him back into the heel corner and Bret gets a backbreaker into a Tama flying knee. There's some crazy double-teaming here. Snap suplex gets two, and Powers finally crawls over and tags Roma. That of course does nothing, and the Harts continue the beating unabated. Valentine slams him and goes up, adding a forearm shot from the top for two. Back to Powers, which was a dumb tag, but Bret misses a dropkick and this time Dynamite gets in there. He whips Bret into the corner for two and adds a backdrop suplex for two. Back to Roma, and he's still useless and misses an elbow. So it's up to Blair, and he backdrops Tama and then brings Davey in for a double-elbow. He tries headbutts and it's a draw, but Powers tags back in and gets killed by the heels again. The Harts work him over until he tags Davey back in again, and Bret takes a press slam for two. Davey hauls Haku in and powerslams him for two. Suplex into the Kid's diving headbutt, but Kid gets the worst of that. Haku fires back with the thrust kick and pins the Kid at 19:59. That was a SWEET finish.

Roma comes in again and gets a bodypress on Haku for two, and Powers hammers on Bravo before walking into an atomic drop. The Dream Team works on Powers and Neidhart elbows him down for two. Bravo comes in with a backdrop and follows with the sideslam, but he brings in Hammer instead of going for the pin. Figure-four, but Powers kicks out of it and tags Roma in, and he comes off the top with a sunset flip to block a second figure-four attempt on Powers, for the pin at 23:39. That's another awesome finish. Neidhart attacks the Bees and gets cradled for two by Blair, and Brunzell gets a crazy high knee for two. Neidhart actually powers out of an irish whip, which you never see, and brings Bret back in. Brunzell works on the leg and the Bees proceed to double-teaming, but again they tag Roma in and he gets the crap kicked out of him. The Islanders put him down with a double elbow, but Haku misses a legdrop and brings Brunzell back in. Jim with the legdrop for two and a hiptoss for two, but Haku tags Bret back in again. Roma pounds him down and comes off the top with a fistdrop for two, but Bret slickly takes him down and stomps him to take over again. Backdrop suplex gets two. The Islanders work him over in the corner, but Roma comes back with an armdrag on Haku. Really? An armdrag at 30:00 in? Haku is so insulted that he beats on Roma a little harder and adds a standing dropkick, followed by Anvil for two. Right after Gorilla said he wanted to see Anvil do a dropkick, too! Powerslam gets two. Bret pounds away, but Roma tags in Brunzell, and they criss-cross into a collision. Brunzell goes for a slam, but Tama dropkicks them over, and Brunzell rolls through for the pin at 30:27 to knock the Harts out.

Tama attacks Brunzell and chokes him down, then goes to a neck vice and elbows him down. Haku with a shoulderbreaker for two. He applies the nerve hold and Tama chops him down, then goes to his own nerve hold. Brunzell comes back with a sunset flip on Haku for two, but Haku gets a suplex for two. Brunzell finally tags Powers, and he comes in with a backdrop on Haku, into a Roma powerslam for two. The Islanders lay him out for that and double-team him, but Haku misses a blind charge and Blair is the last man left to tag. Haku immediately nails him and brings him into the heel corner for double-teaming, as the Islanders just aren't going to die here. Tama gets the back elbow, but misses an elbowdrop and it's back to Brunzell. Slam for Haku and the dropkick gets two on Tama, but the Bees don masks and switch off, as Blair sunset flips Tama to finish at 37:14. Gotta love that finish. This one doesn't have quite the legendary pedigree of the '88 tag match, but it's filled with non-stop action and all sorts of crazy dream double-teaming goodness, plus several A-1 finishes and a great storyline. ****1/4 Survivors: The Killer Bees and the Young Stallions

Meanwhile, Ted Dibiase gives us a speech about Thanksgiving from his limo, introducing a montage of clips of him abusing fans. Kicking the basketball away from the little kid is just awesome. Luckily, the poor kid who got to kiss Dibiase's sweaty feet would recover and go on to be Rob Van Dam.

Honky Tonk Man comes out to cut another promo to really drag out the wait for the main event.

Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff & Ken Patera v. Andre The Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed & Rick Rude.

Muraco starts with Rude and they slug it out, which leads to Rude getting double-teamed in the face corner. Orndorff comes in and gets a kneelift, and it's over to Hogan for the clothesline and elbows. Bam Bam adds a running splash and a press slam, and Patera comes in, which allows Rude to tag Reed in. Patera cradles for two and Muraco adds a dropkick, as does Orndorff. Reed misses a blind charge and Hogan drops the leg at 3:03. Now that's a dominating performance. So Andre is in and Hogan conveniently tags out to Patera, then whines about it for 15 minutes. If you're so hot for Andre, why not just tag back in again? Patera pounds on Bundy instead of Andre, and puts him down with a clothesline, but Gang comes in and gets into a slugfest with Orndorff. Paul runs into a knee, however, and Rude hammers him with forearms. Orndorff comes back with a clothesline and the Boogie Woogie Elbow for two, and it's over to Muraco for a clubbing clothesline. Rude uses the old thumb to the eye and brings the Gang in, but he misses a splash in the corner and Muraco tags Patera. Patera with a nice bodypress for two and hits a high knee in the corner, but Gang goes to the eyes and Patera gets stuck in the heel corner. Gang holds a front facelock and pounds him on the ropes, then falls on top of him with a clothesline for the pin at 8:52.

Hogan comes in and gets a corner clothesline on Gang, and he and Bigelow add a double-boot. Gang and Bigelow collide, however, and Gang tags to Rude while Bam Bam tags Orndorff. Orndorff with the suplex and elbow on Rude, and a backdrop sets up the piledriver, but Bundy breaks it up and Rude pins Orndorff with a handful of tights at 10:25. Muraco immediately attacks while Rude is posing, and Bigelow suplexes him to set up a high knee from Hogan, and a Muraco powerslam puts Rude out of his misery at 11:13. They announcers were right, Rude was having a rough night. Bundy misses a kneedrop on Muraco and Don goes to work on the leg and tries to slam Gang, which results in Gang falling on top for two. Gang whips Muraco into Andre's head, and the 747 splash finishes at 12:59. Hogan of course whines about that, too.

Bam Bam comes in and tries a sunset flip on Gang, but gets sat on. Bundy gets a clothesline which Bigelow sells like Marty Jannetty, and that gets two. Gang pounds on Bammer and chokes him out on the ropes, as does Bundy. Gang elbows him down and Bundy throws some mean forearms to put him down, and that gets two. Bam Bam tries to crawl for the tag, but Andre comes in, and that brings Hulk in. He fires away on Andre and they trade chops in the corner, but Hulk gets the advantage and rams Andre into the turnbuckles. Bundy trips him up, however, and Hulk gets preoccupied with Bundy and Gang and gets counted out at 18:11. It's your own fault, Hulk. And of course he bitches and moans about that, too. So that leaves Bam Bam by himself against Andre, Bundy and Gang, which doesn't seem like great odds. Bammer tries it anyway, clotheslining Bundy down and dropping an elbow for two. Headbutt gets two. Dropkick and he goes to work on the leg, then dodges the Avalanche and slingshots in for the pin at 20:46. Gang takes the next shot, choking Bigelow out on the ropes and pounding on the neck, and a clothesline gets two. Bigelow slugs back, but Gang runs him into Andre's boot and goes up. Flying splash misses and Bam Bam gets the pin at 23:06. However, he's done, and Andre casually comes in and beats him into silly putty and pins him with the suplex thing at 24:21. A valiant effort by Bam Bam Bigelow. I really dug this match and you could tell everyone was fired up for it. **** Dig the tag team continuity from the faces here and the super pace by the super-heavyweight standards. Survivor: Andre the Giant. Really, the babyfaces winning the other three matches should have foreshadowed that result. And of course, whiny baby Hulk Hogan won't even let him have his moment of glory, as he runs in and attacks Andre after his totally clean win over Bigelow. Jesse tells it like it is, saying that Hogan should have taken his defeat like a man and just stayed in the back.

Actually much better than I remember it being, as it's aged well as a show and features a strong one-two punch at the end that makes it a classic.

- The time is almost upon us, as Dungeon of Death: Chris Benoit and the Hart Family Curse comes out this week, and you can get your copy from Amazon NOW. It's apparently already shipping from Chapters as well if you're Canadian, and will be shipping next week for those buying it in the UK. You can also pick it up at all the major bookstores. I might be selling autographed copies as well if there's enough interest. I'm also available for radio show appearances and interviews.

- Live from Phoenix, AZ.

- Your hosts are Michael, Jim, Tazz, King, Matt and Todd.

Rey Mysterio v. Kane

Your cyber-voted stipulation: No holds barred. Did they really expect anyone to waste $1 voting for 2-out-of-3 falls? Rey tries attacking to start and dodges Kane to put him on the floor, then follows with a somersault plancha that misses by a lot. He grabs a kendo stick from under the ring and goes to work on Kane's leg, but Kane boots him down. Rey takes a goofy bump into the post and Kane baseball slides him to work on the ribs, then bends him around the post. That's like a Jack Evans spot. Shot to the post gets two back in the ring. Legdrop gets two. Rey fights up and Kane boots him down for two and then goes to a surfboard as this match is surprisingly shitty after their good one last month. Kane goes to a backbreaker submission until Rey fights out, and the bulldog allows Rey to make the comeback. Enzuigiri sets up the 619, but Kane clotheslines him down instead and gets two. Kane grabs a chair and Rey boots it back at him ala RVD and follows with an Arabian facebuster for two. Rey goes up and Kane slugs him down for two. Kane brings the stairs in, but Rey manages a drop toehold to send Kane into them, and a springboard butt splash gets two. Rey goes back to smashing Kane's leg with the chair, and tries another 619, but Kane counters out to a chokeslam attempt. Rey reverses to a rana, into the 619, and splashes him for the pin at 10:20. They actually put Rey over surprisingly strong here, although the match was pretty dull stuff and didn't take advantage of the stips. Kane looked lethargic and uninterested to me as well. **

ECW World title: Matt Hardy v. Evan Bourne

Landslide win for Bourne, so I guess Matt's campaigning worked. Matt grabs the headlock, but gets dropkicked by Bourne. Evan takes him down into his own headlock, but Matt powers him down with a wristlock for two. Bourne with a rollup for two off that, and a sunset flip gets two. Matt tries the Side Effect, but Bourne gets a SWEET reversal off that for two and kicks him down. Rana, but Matt dumps Bourne and knocks him off the apron. Back in, Hardy follows with a lariat for two. Corner clothesline into a bulldog, but Bourne reverses him into the corner and takes him down with a cross-armbreaker. Matt reverses out and Bourne holds the armbar, then hits him with a great standing moonsault for two. They slug it out and Bourne gets a high kick to put him down, then goes up, but Matt rolls out of the ring and suckers him into trying a quebrada, at which point Matt yanks him down and slams him on the floor. Ah, the cagey vet Matt Hardy, who would have thought it? Back in, Matt gets a yodeling elbow for two. Abdominal stretch as Matt plays the subtle heel to keep Bourne strong as the underdog babyface. Bourne fights out, so Matt clotheslines him down again and follows with a boot to the ribs. Matt tries a Razor's Edge, but Bourne counters out with a rana. Evan fights back with more kicks, but he walks into the Side Effect and Hardy gets two. Another one gets two. Matt goes back up and Evan hits him with a leg lariat on the way down, fighting back with high kicks and a moonsault press for two. Spinkick gets two. Bourne goes up with a flying high knee, and that gets two. I've never actually seen that before. Another spinkick misses and Matt rolls him up for two, using the tights in a nice touch. Bourne with a tilt-a-whirl into an armbar takedown, and he goes up to finish, but Matt slugs him down. Bourne puts him down again and tries the Shooting Star Press, but it misses and KICK WHAM TWIST is reversed into a backslide by Bourne for two, before the Twist ends the dream at 11:03. I daresay I would like to see these two gentlemen engage in honorable fisticuffs at a later date. ***1/4

Cryme Tyme v. Miz & John Morrison

Morrison gives JTG a clean break in the corner to start and grabs a headlock, but JTG elbows him down for two. Miz comes in and gets dropkicked, allowing JTG to whip Shad into Miz with a corner clothesline for two. Shad whiplash slams JTG onto Miz for two. Over to the heel corner where Morrison and Miz do some double-teaming, but Cryme Tyme dumps Morrison and tosses Miz onto him to follow. Shad presses JTG onto them, but sadly doesn't follow with his own dive. Back in, Shad gets two. M&M cut him off with a shot to the knee, however, and Miz goes to work on the leg in the heel corner. Morrison with a half-crab, but Shad powers out, so Miz comes in and legbars him. Shad powers out again it's over to JTG, as he hits Miz with a necksnap and a neckbreaker that's like something out of the Def Jam games. However, Morrison manipulates the ref and JTG is YOUR thug-in-peril. Double gutbuster and heels take over with some choking. Morrison with a boot to the head for two. Miz with a corner clothesline for two. We hit the chinlock as the crowd just isn't getting into this one. Miz tries a catapult, but JTG hits Morrison on the way up and makes the hot tag to Shad. M&M sell like crazy, bumping all over for him, and a forearm shot gets two on Morrison. John dropkicks the knee, however, and gets two. Shad with a spinebuster for two and it's BONZO GONZO, but Miz kicks the knee out and Morrison rolls the dice for the pin at 10:25. This never got out of first gear for whatever reason. **

Intercontinental title: Santino Marella v. Honky Tonk Man

Pretty even split here, although I thought they'd hold off on the Honky Tonk Man payoff until longer into the Honk-A-Meter. And really, hearing Honky's music just shows how lame and generic all the theme music these days has become. Kind of weird seeing Honky getting a babyface reaction and somehow going from running joke into legitimate "greatest champion of all time". They have a dance-off before Santino attacks, and apparently Honky is wrestling with the suit on. Probably best for everyone. Honky works on a headlock to start and pauses to dance, but Beth trips him up for the DQ at 1:05. LAAAAAAAME. Piper and Goldust head out and add a beating to Santino as well. At least they didn't do the rumored payoff of Charlie Haas dressing up as the winning challenger.

- Next Monday, the 800^th episode of RAW, which gives them another excuse to do a special three-hour show. Not that it isn’t impressive, but it seems like every few months there's some other special celebration and it just doesn't feel particularly special any more. Especially when they're constantly and insecurely comparing themselves to shows like ER and the Simpsons because they're so hung up on gaining mainstream acceptance.

Undertaker v. Big Show

The stipulation voted in is Last Man Standing, although Vickie announces it as "I Quit" because live TV is not her forte. I'm not generally a fan of this match type, although Taker and Batista had a good one last year so there's always hope. They slug it out on the floor to start and Show tosses Taker into the front row. Taker comes back with a chairshot and a pair of corner clotheslines, but Show puts him down with a clothesline of his own. Show slugs away in the corner and puts Taker down with a headbutt, and a legdrop draws the first count. They fight to the floor again and Taker rams Show's throat into a chair by using the post, which draws an 8 count. Taker gets the legdrop on the apron and they head back in, where Taker slugs away until Show clotheslines him down again. That draws a count of 8. Show fires away and headbutts him into the corner, but Taker slugs back and tries a chokeslam. Really? Show tries his own, but UT reverses him into a DDT for 9. Show removes a turnbuckle, but Taker sends him into it and puts him down with the flying clothesline, that gets 9. Taker charges him, however, and hits the STEEL turnbuckle before bumping to the floor off that. Show pounds away and preps the announce table, but Taker slugs a chair back at Show. Show gives him a weak chokeslam through the table in response, which I think was supposed to have more impact than it ended up having. It sounded more like a thud than a smash. This whole thing has been in slow motion anyway. That gets a 9 count for Show. Back in, Show slowly slugs away, but Taker gets a DDT. He goes old school, but Show chokeslams him to counter and that gets 9. Knockout punch draws the best reaction of the match, but Taker does a zombie situp to recover. A chairshot puts him down again, but Show goes in for the kill and Taker catches him in the Googleplex and chokes him out for the win at 19:22. Boring ass slow motion match, good finish. **1/4

Smackdown World title: HHH v. Jeff Hardy

They were fooling themselves if they were expecting anything other than Hardy to win in a landslide. Kozlov getting an embarrassing 5% is pretty telling, no matter how much they want to do that match. Hardy works the arm to start and HHH reverses to a headlock, but Jeff goes for a Twist early, and HHH counters to a Pedigree attempt before they both back off. Hardy takes him down with an armdrag, but HHH runs him into the corner to break and then shoves him off the top rope. Back in, HHH stomps away and runs him into the post a couple of times, into a rollup for two. Hardy fights back with a lariat and a seated dropkick for two. Hardy with a falcon arrow for two. Corner clothesline, but he charges again and HHH catches him with the spinebuster for two. He follows with the Cerebral Crossface, but Jeff counters into a cradle for two. HHH stomps him out of the ring, but Hardy whips him into the stairs and follows with a flying leg lariat off the stairs. Back in, Jeff gets the Whisper in the Wind for two. Mule kick in the corner gets two. Twist of Fate is reversed by HHH, but Jeff counters again to a rollup for two. HHH tries the Main Event Sleeper, but Hardy reverses to the Twist of Fate for two. Jeff goes up with the swanton, but then tries another one instead of covering, and hits knee. Another shot at the Pedigree, but Hardy shoves him out of the ring and then follows with a pescado that missed by a mile. HHH sells it anyway and they head back in, where Hardy tries again for the swanton, and this time HHH kills him dead with KICK WHAM PEDIGREE to finish at 15:35. They didn't have the mojo going this time quite like they did last time, and I think they've run it one time too many and killed the Jeff Hardy chase. ***1/2 That being said, still a very good match when HHH was able to reel Jeff in and keep him from getting too sloppy.

RAW World title: Chris Jericho v. Batista

Your guest referee: Steve Austin. Well, duh. Jericho gives attitude to everyone and runs away to avoid the consequences, but Austin informs us that Batista will win the title if Jericho walks out. Like the real Steve Austin would ever say something like that. So Jericho heads back in and Batista tosses him around and elbows him down, and a suplex gets two. Jericho dumps him to come back and then dropkicks the knee on the way back in and goes to work on it. Batista fights up and Jericho dropkicks the knee again, then goes to a chinlock. Batista fights up, but Jericho cradles for two and kicks him down again. Batista fights up again and gets a corner clothesline, into a powerslam. He tries the powerbomb, but Jericho reverses to the Walls, forcing Batista to make the ropes. Austin drags Jericho off, and Batista gets a Bossman slam for two. Jericho tries a cross-body, but Batista catches him and tries another powerbomb. Jericho hits the leg to escape and comes off the top, but Batista catches him with a clothesline for two. He goes up and a flying shoulderblock gets two. Batista tries a spinebuster, but Jericho kinda sorta reverses into a DDT. That gets two, although it didn't come off as convincing and I think the crowd was confused. Batista tries a shoulderblock and wipes out Austin, and Jericho gets the codebreaker. Alternate ref Shawn Michaels runs in and gives the world's slowest count in a funny spot, setting up a spear from Batista that gets two. JBL then comes out and gets rid of Michaels to set up the next feud that no one wants to see, and Jericho takes out Batista's knee again. Next run in is Randy Orton, as he takes out Austin and Jericho puts Batista down with the belt for two. Austin recovers, however, and it's KICK WHAM STUNNER for Orton. Spinebuster and demon bomb win the World title for Batista at 17:04. Match actually picked up a lot with all the interference at the end, as these two just don't have the main event chemistry. *** But really, while this would have been fine as the conclusion of a long reign for Jericho to finally get his comeuppance, it just cheapens the title further to have them switch it AGAIN after only two months with Jericho as champion. There's just no direction in the main event.

The Pulse

Business as usual with this show. The fan voting stuff didn't really help or hurt, as it was going to be a pretty middling show no matter what the stips were. Nothing terrible, nothing great, just a thumbs in the middle from here.

Scott after watching Raw last night I feel I have to get something off my chest.  Feel free to throw this on the blog if you'd like.  I think it may stir up some discussion.
I don't quite feel worthy to rant here, because after all you are the founder of Rantsylvania, the Netcop (wait can I still say that?), the showstopper, main event, and best there ever will be, brother.  But for the love of Hellwig, what in the holy flying PIGSHIT is going on with the WWE these days?
Fucking BATISTA as the #1 FACE?  No, seriously?  REALLY?
Batista is NOT LIKEABLE.  He receives face reactions, and he is portrayed as a face, yes.  But what about him is actually likeable, nay - good? 
He doesn't take his opponents seriously.  (Keeping in mind I'm speaking in the context of whatever is left of kayfabe)  Every FUCKING TIME he is on screen doing a promo against a heel, we have to deal with his shit-eating laugh before EVERY DAMN RESPONSE.  I"m reminded of when Mick Foley said that if you treat your opponent like a joke, and you win, what have you accomplished?  All you beat was a joke.  If you lose, then YOU look like the joke.  If Batista loses to Jericho at Cyber Sunday, what the FUCK grounds would he even have to stand on in asking for any type of title match anymore? 
What makes it worse is that Jericho, despite playing a prickish character, is mostly right and justified in everything he says.  He may not say it nicely but he's not really inaccurate.  He is made to have to overcome odds every week and get screwed around with by Adamle despite his claim being true (AGAIN THIS IS WITHIN KAYFABE) - he IS the champion and he IS The most valuable asset on the roster.
Jericho, the supposed villainous heel champion, gets to job by DQ to Mark Henry, and then Kane's foot, while Batista goes over them + Regal in mere seconds?  REALLY?  This is supposed to make people want to see Jericho lose on Sunday?  Him LOSING twice while his FACE opponent gets to go over strong?  Isn't this backwards?  Shouldn't Jericho be looking like the total bastard, cheating, lying piece of shit and screwing Batista at every possible turn in order to build heat on this feud?  Remember how fucking well HHH pulled it off in 2000?  It's because he was SUCH an asshole that people WANTED TO SEE HIM LOSE.  Why do we need to see Jericho lose; why would we want to?  He's already treated like a joke by his opponent, and jobbed twice on Raw in one day.  The GM fucks with him under false pretenses.  Shouldn't this kind of shit be happening to faces? 
I am convinced, 100% convinced, that if they were to keep up this same pattern of the course of six more months (maybe less), that Jericho and Batista would switch crowd reactions.  If this keeps up, Jericho is going to look more and more like the disrespected, sympathetic chamption with the odds against him, while Batista is going to come off as a greedy, bullying, irreverent choker.
Am I completely nuts or do I have some kind of point here?

Well I don't watch the show so obviously my opinion on the subject is limited, but I'll certainly throw this one out to the floor for discussion.

Once again, as with the Flair set, an assist from Charlie Reneke allows me to skip to the matches.

The Life & Times of Mr. Perfect

Review by Charlie Reneke

Despite advertising on the box, the documentary only is 1 hour 15 minutes, not 90 minutes.

-We open with the "In Memory of Mr. Perfect" still from shortly after his death.

-Verne Gagne trains Larry "The Ax" Hennig. When Larry would train, he would bring Curt along. Curt becomes a good all-around athlete. He met his wife in high school, they got married shortly after graduation. Not long after, Curt started training for professional wrestling with his friend Brad Rheingans. Brad didn't have a very successful professional wrestling career, but he will go down in history as the guy who helped train Big Van Vader, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and the Nasty Boys.

-Brad trained Curt, then Greg Gagne lent a hand. His wife backed his choice to be a professional wrestler. After doing a couple shows in AWA, he did some for Vince McMahon Sr. in the World Wrestling Federation. Clips against him against Mr. Fuji in his debut match with them. And man, he looked really good for a greenhorn. Hennig stuck around long after his father and other AWA ham and eggers left.

-Curt had four kids. Joe, born in 1979 will debut shortly in the WWE. His next child, Amy, born in 1981, is also training to go pro. Katie was born in 1987, Hank in 1992. Hennig seems to have been much better at staying close to family then most wrestlers were. His kids note that he rarely missed their big moments in life. You know, until he died of a drug overdose.

-Curt gets booked in Oregon, and brings his father with him. They won the Northwestern Tag Team Championship together. Harley Race says that Curt actually brought new life to his father's career. They had each others backs. We gets lots of clips of them tagging together. There was no question that Curt was better then his father ever was. Larry says his boy was a wrestling genius. Curt had to get away from his father and quit trading on his name, so he ended up paired with Scott Hall, winning some tag belts in the AWA. And everyone notes that Curt was the real star of the team. Scott Hall actually looked 10 years older in the 80s then he did in the 90s with WWE as Razor Ramon. I guess being a Cuban drug dealer is good for the complexion.

-Curt and AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkle have a sixty minute draw in November 1986. Curt catches fire after this, being totally legitimized as a world title contender. This match is in the DVD set, and is in my opinion a five-star match, but Scott might disagree. Curt won the belt the next year, turned heel, and was then inserted into a feud with Greg Gagne in attempt #42,683 of getting Greg the AWA Championship. And they ended up stinking up the joint for the most part. They even admit this in the set. Larry is too nice to admit that it was all Greg's fault.

-Of course, Greg didn't get the belt, and Curt was heading out the door for the greener pastures of the WWE. The AWA struck a deal with Jerry Lawler/Jerry Jarrett's USWA and this leads to Jerry Lawler beating Curt for the belt. This one got snubbed from the match set. Maybe they're saving it for Lawler's inevitable DVD.

-Greg Gagne holds back bile as talks about Curt's jump to WWE. He meets with Vince McMahon, who tells him to pick a name. Curt picks... Hurricane Hennig. Yeah. Or Heroic Hennig. King Curtis Hennig. Vince asks Curt what he likes to do. Curt names off every sport known to man. Vince asks which one he's best at. Hennig says everything. And thus Mr. Perfect is born. This actually goes contrary to what is discussed by Mick Foley in the DVD extras, with Hennig's match against Terry Taylor, who was allegedly also up for the "Mr. Perfect" gimmick.

-The WWE produced the best series of vignettes in wrestling history to lead into his debut. Wade Boggs talks about his legit home run. They show him hitting half court shots and perfect bullseyes. Some nice strike shots in bowling. And then Bruce Pritchard crashes the myth. Because once the cameras were rolling, he started to mess up. And now we get the outtakes of the Mr. Perfect vignettes. Prichard solves this problem by never telling him when the cameras were on.

-Onto Curt's love of killing small animals. This leads to his friendship with Wade Boggs. Among the other things they caught while fishing... I shit you not... a 10 foot long, 650lb Bull Shark. Which Curt then had mounted onto his wall at home. Dude, that's just perfect. This leads to a very tearful story from Wade Boggs, about getting caught in a barbed wire fence while hunting with him. Boggs was mangled by the fence and had broken his collarbone and injured his leg. In no condition to walk back to the truck he told Curt to go get help. But Curt instead carried him a mile or so back to the truck. The doctors said he would have bled to death without that.

-Curt makes his in-ring debut and lived up to his vignettes. Highlights focus on his dropkicks and the Perfectplex. Joey Styles says that the gimmick worked because people believed that against any opponent, he could have won as soon as the bell rang and only didn't because he was cocky. Wade Boggs was fond of the gumswat. William Regal says he had natural talent, something that can be trained into you.

-Hennig wins the vacant Intercontinental Championship against Tito Santana in May of 1990. Damn... long time ago. If the title reign was a person, it could buy smokes and vote. Jim Ross notes that most people understood that the IC Champ was the real most talented wrestler in the company. And we move onto his feud with Bret Hart, that produced some flat out kickass matches. Three of the ten matches of this set are against Bret Hart. Anyway, they talk about how great the match was. I personally think the Summerslam match is overrated and that their shining example is the later King of the Ring match, where Hennig was more healthy.

-Onto Curt Hennig being the Perfect Prankster. Larry Hennig says that he got it from his dad, but took it to a whole new level. Shaving cream on telephones was one favorite. Hot mustard and lighter fluid was another. Harley Race says that if you get a pinch of it on your finger, you'll swear it's burning off. Now imagine a whole lot of that... in your crotch. Damn. He would punch holes in the top of beer cans. He made a poopy in Road Warrior Animal's son's training potty. Animal was proud of his son, presumably until he found out that it wasn't actually his son producing the perfect bowel movement. He would tie people's pants into a knot, and failing that, just cut people's pant legs off. Alternately, he kept a bottle of this stuff called "Morning Breeze" that stunk to high heaven. Then, in a battle royal, he would spray it all over the ring. We get a few more stories.

-Curt's back was bad from mid 1991 through 1993. He became a commentator instead, and a dang fine one. He should be doing this today. Such a waste. Plus we get some clips of him managing Ric Flair. Including the promo where he ate a grape, spit it out and swatted it. That one always stuck with me. People agree that Mr. Perfect brought out the best in Vince McMahon on commentary. We get clips of Curt chairing Marc Mero to give Triple H his first IC title. Trips himself says that it legitimized him.

-Curt's contract is up and he accepts a big money offer from WCW. Eric Bischoff, looking old and haggard, claims he wanted to reinvent Curt. Arn Anderson selected him in real life and in character to take his spot in the Horsemen. It got over huge with the fans, so they book Hennig to turn on the Horsemen and join the nWo. Anderson keeps it kayfabe, saying that Curt sold them out. Wade Boggs takes credit for creating the hand gesture for the nWo Wolfpac... in fact, Wolf Pack is what he called his circle of friends. Hennig showed it to Scott Hall, who showed it to Kevin Nash, who used it in WCW. Hennig did pretty good for himself with WCW. He even held the United States Championship.

-After the nWo angle fizzled, Hennig ended up forming the West Texas Rednecks, and cutting a fairly popular novelty song for their theme music. "Rap is Crap" was SUPER HOT in the South. If this had been WWE, they would have spent lots of time on their TV shows talking about how big it was. WCW responded by burying them because the angle turned the group babyface. Of course, they were four underneath guys taking on this 'hot new act' of Master P's No Limit Soldiers. I don't care what the angle is... when four guys hold their ground against 20 guys, the fans will cheer the four guys and boo the twenty.

-Mr. Perfect returns to the WWE during the 2002 Royal Rumble. And holy crap, he finished third! He outlasted Steve Austin! Jericho notes that it was only going to be a one night thing, but he was looking for a job and earned one that night. Hennig wrestles Edge, which was a big moment for him. They tried to do the Vignettes again. Hennig cheats some nerd out of chess is the only one shown. It's the only one I remember in fact. The intention was to do something with him, but there was an incident on an airplane that isn't mentioned.

-We get a graphic saying that Hennig was released in May of 2002, then found dead on February 10, 2003 at age 44. One thing that irks me a bit about this DVD is how NOBODY talks about what a waste of life this was. It's Perfect this, and Perfect that. How about the WWE has someone say "he pissed away his life for nothing. His children have to go without a father. He was only 44! For Christ Sakes people, don't do drugs!!" But nothing like that. When get sad reactions from his family, ironicly sad pictures of him having good times with them... hell, nobody outright verbally admits that he died of a cocaine overdose. They do show a graphic showing it, but it's only on screen for about two seconds. Wade Boggs wishes that he had known Curt was doing that, because he was there in the town he died and would have tried to stop him. Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels are shocked by it but don't strike me as being sad. Shawn even says "It's a crying shame", a term I usually use because it's more tactful then saying "eh." Videos of him playing with his kids is shown, trying to get you to choke up for him. Not happening in my case... I feel bad for his family, but not for him.

-Curt makes the Hall of Fame. Everyone is happy for him. Then highlights of his career. The end.

For me personally, this was another disappointment. I like DVDs when they have a bit of a biting side to them. This had none of that. I know this is made for Hennig fans who likely don't want to be reminded of the nasty details of his death, but the pandering to him being perfect in and out of the ring borders on obnoxious. Clearly the man was not perfect, and in fact he died in a very selfish manner, leaving behind a wife and kids to deal with the emotional burden. If the WWE can dedicate a 90 minute DVD to shit all over the Ultimate Warrior's career, surely they can at least spend five minutes here saying "Don't do drugs, or you will ruin your life the way Mr. Perfect did." Curt Hennig would not even be 50 yet. He should still be in the WWE, doing play by play on Smackdown or something.

The good news is his son Joe will join the WWE shortly. The buzz on him is that he is better then his father in the ring. Considering that the parents always cast a large shadow, the fact that he's already getting high marks from many seasoned wrestlers actually has me hyped for him. And hopefully he doesn't pull a DH Smith and get pinched for wellness after two weeks on TV.

That's it for me, now to Scott with the matches...

Disc Two (The Matches)

If there's extras on the first disc I'm just skipping them and moving onto the disc of matches so I can wrap this up tonight.

AWA World title: Nick Bockwinkel v. Curt Hennig

This is pretty famous. From the AWA's TV show in November 1986. Bockwinkel gets a quick slam for two, and Hennig bails. Back in, they trade headlocks and that goes to a stalemate. Bockwinkel gets a quick rollup for two. Back to the lockup and Bockwinkel gives the clean break, then takes him down with a side headlock. He works on that on the mat, and when Curt fights up, Nick shoulderblocks him down and goes right back to it. Hennig reverses to the headscissors and cranks on that, but Bockwinkel does the classic escape and we're back to square one. Bockwinkel goes back to the headlock, but Hennig powers out and knees him into a hiptoss. Nick slams him in return, and they trade bodyslams until Hennig takes over with a series of armdrags, into the armbar. And just that simple sequence gets the fans going.

Hennig works on that arm while Ron Trongard amazingly reels off the dates of Bockwinkel's tag team titles in the 70s. You'd never hear today's announcers being able to do that. Hennig switches to a hammerlock on the mat, blocking a reversal attempt by Bockwinkel, and then rolling him over with the half-nelson for two. Bockwinkel throws elbows in the corner, but misses a charge and hits his shoulder into the post, allowing Hennig to go back to that arm again. Bockwinkel gets a series of slams, but Hennig doggedly goes back to the armbar again. And with Bockwinkel on the mat, he turns it into a short-arm scissors, which the announcers do an excellent job of explaining. Bockwinkel rolls over and gets two, but Curt won't let go. Nick pulls himself out of it and deftly maneuvers into a toehold, which is a counter I've never seen done. He goes into a leglock from there and the announcers throw into the break, but there's no edit here! So this is truly the full and complete match! God bless 24/7!

Hennig reverses out and hammers on the arm, but Bockwinkel fires away with forearms to put him down and then hooks a facelock on the mat. Hennig reverses to the short-arm scissors again, so a frustrated Bockwinkel grabs a handful of tights and rolls him over for two. Hennig is pissed, so Bockwinkel bails to buy some time, and then heads back in. So we start again and Hennig grabs a headlock and knocks Bockwinkel down, but the old man slickly takes him down with a drop toehold and into a leglock of his own. He bridges back, so Hennig fights fire with fire and grabs the hair to break the hold, then hooks onto the arm and stomps the shit out of it. Hennig drops a knee on Bockwinkel's arm, but hurts his own knee in the process and Bockwinkel pounces with an Indian deathlock. Hennig tries to fight up, but Nick slugs him down again. Hennig gets out, so Bockwinkel tosses him and Hennig takes a breather to shake off the knee injury.

Back in the ring, Bockwinkel whips Hennig into the corner and catches the sleeper on the rebound, but Hennig makes the ropes and everyone tumbles out, including the ref. They slug it out on the floor, and back in for a big chop from Hennig that gets two. So he's back on the arm again, wrapping it around the post. Bockwinkel boots Hennig with his head down and tries a stepover toehold, but Hennig throws him down to counter. Nick puts him down with a right hand for two, however. Hennig ducks a clothesline and gets a bodypress for two. Back to the armbar, but Bockwinkel tosses him to break and rams him into the stairs. Hennig slugs back from the floor, and then decides to wrap Bockwinkel's leg around the post. Back in, he starts going to work on the leg now, but Bockwinkel slams out. Another one and Hennig reverses to a small package for two, so Bockwinkel puts him down with a kneelift. Piledriver gets two, as Hennig does the dangerous foot on the ropes break. So Bockwinkel goes to work on that leg again, but Hennig pounds on the back and applies a rear chinlock until Bockwinkel makes the ropes. They fight for the advantage again, and this time Hennig takes him down and gets a boston crab.

Bockwinkel powers out of the move, but Hennig rolls him into a sunset flip for two. Hennig pounds him with shoulders in the corner and fires away with chops, then takes him down with a small package for two. He gets his own piledriver for two, but Bockwinkel is in the ropes, although barely. They slug it out and both go down, but Curt is up first and grabs a headlock, which Bockwinkel turns into a backdrop suplex. That gets two. Hennig gets a rollup for two with a burst of energy, then drops a series of elbows for two. He whips Bockwinkel into the corner and then puts him down with a perfect standing dropkick, and that gets two. Bockwinkel slugs him down for two and then follows with the abdominal stretch as only 10 minutes remain.

Hennig quickly makes the ropes, but runs into a knee, and that gets two for Bockwinkel. Hennig takes him down and starts working the leg again, but Bockwinkel shoves him into the post and if you want blood, you've got it. Bockwinkel sees that and starts working on the cut from the apron, and Bockwinkel just pounds on him as they head back in. He slugs Hennig down for two and unloads on the cut in the corner, getting two. However, Hennig wallops him with the Ax clothesline, and then a second one, as Hennig is wearing the proverbial crimson mask. Another Ax puts Bockwinkel down again for two and now Bockwinkel is bleeding too. He whips Bockwinkel into the corner and Axes him again, but Bockwinkel lands on his stomach and thus Hennig can't pin him. Hennig rams Bockwinkel into the turnbuckles to put him down, and gets a suplex for two. Back elbow gets two. He hooks the figure-four with time running out and the crowd is going nuts. Hennig cranks on the hold, but Bockwinkel hangs on for the minute needed and it's a draw at 60:00. Up until this, Hennig was the upstart son of Larry Hennig. Now he was a STAR and the guy clearly destined to be the next champion. A total classic in every sense, with great, flawless work from both guys and absolutely nothing missed. Best of all, there was no resting and no stalling -- everything was either leading to something else, or a submission move where they were playing chess with each other trying to counter. Do you even need to guess the rating? *****

Curt Hennig v. Terry Taylor

From Wrestlefest '88. This is the debut for both guys in the WWF, and it was omitted from the Coliseum Video release of the show for whatever reason. And since it didn't have commentary, we've got Michael Cole and Mick Foley. Hennig controls with a hiptoss and an armdrag while Foley tells the story behind Taylor and Hennig being in contention for the Perfect gimmick. Taylor comes back with a hiptoss and Hennig bails. Cole talks about Hennig's undefeated streak and they have an interesting conversation about how the WWE currently undermines new guys instead of building them up like they did with Hennig, although Cole says that Ultimate Warrior ended the unbeaten streak when it was actually Hulk Hogan. I guess if you're talking televised, then yeah. Back in, Taylor goes for the headlock and controls on the mat with that, but Hennig pounds on the back and whips him into the corner. Taylor comes back with a backslide for two, but Hennig rams him into the corner and follows with a kneelift, then into a sleeper, but Taylor escapes and gets a bodypress for two. They slug it out as the crowd is busy with other things, and Hennig blasts him with a forearm shot for the pin at 4:51. I can see why this is a rarity, although it's nice to have it on DVD now. 1/2*

Bret Hart v. Mr. Perfect

From MSG, April 1989. They fight for the lockup to start and Bret grabs a headlock and overpowers him, and Perfect backs off. Bret with another headlock and he eludes a drop toehold with some fancy footwork, which you don't see much of. Bret gets a bodypress for two, but Perfect sends him out on the kick out, so Bret sunset flips back in for two. And back to the headlock. Perfect chops out of it, but Bret catches him with the crucifix for two and goes back to the headlock. Perfect tries to boot his way out of it, but Bret catches the foot and takes him down for the stomp. They do a nice series of near-falls, which frustrates Hennig and has him running to the floor again. Back in, Perfect with a cheap knee to take over, and he dumps Bret and then knocks him into the railing as Bret works his trademark bump in again. Back in, he sends Bret into the corner for another signature bump, and that gets two. Dropkick puts Bret on the floor, and back in Perfect boots him down and then wrenches the neck. He pounds away on the neck and adds a slam for two, then adds a spinning toehold until Bret boots him into the corner. Perfect hurts the arm on the bump and Bret goes for it immediately, pounding on the arm in the corner and then hammerlocking it and ramming it into the turnbuckle. He continues with a hammerlock slam and drops a leg on the arm, then locks in a top wristlock and drops a knee on it. Perfect tries to fight back and Bret keeps going back to the arm to cut him off, but another crucifix attempt is blocked with a samoan drop. Nice callback there. And now Perfect goes back to the neck of Bret, but Bret wins a battle for an abdominal stretch. Perfect quickly hiptosses out of it, and they fight for a rollup, which gives Perfect two. Perfect hits the floor on the kickout and Bret follows wit a pescado, and back in he makes the comeback. Atomic drop and suplex gets two. Backbreaker and middle rope elbow get two, but the bell rings for the draw at 19:00. Well someone is quick on the draw at ringside. Pun intended. Another lost classic from these two, although the lack of a real finish meant they didn't build anywhere and I thought their Toronto match that was recently on 24/7 had better heat and more convincing drama. ***3/4

WWF World title: Hulk Hogan v. Mr. Perfect

Also from MSG, January 1990. Hulk powers him into the corner off the lockup and follows with a pair of slams, which sends Perfect running to the floor. Perfect and Genius knock noggins and Genius gets slammed as well by Hulk the sportsman, but the heels double-team Hogan in response. Serves him right, the jerk. Back in, Hulk elbows Perfect out of the ring and continues beating the Genius up, then hammers on Perfect while he's trapped in the ropes. And he STILL won't leave Genius alone, ramming him into the post and then heading back in for an elbow on Perfect that has him flying over the top rope. See, this is why I could never stand Hogan, because he was a bully who always attacked the heels first beyond all perspective of what minor infractions they committed against him. So in real life if someone brags about how they're smarter than you, the best thing to do is beat them up despite an obvious physical advantage on your part? Back in, clothesline puts Perfect down and Hogan rams him into the top turnbuckle for another acrobatic Perfect bump. Hulk finally puts his head down and Perfect clotheslines him to take over and chokes away on the ropes. He tosses Hogan and back in for a weak shot off the middle rope and an eyepoke. Hillbilly Jim notes "there ain't no muscles in the eyes", which is ridiculous. Of course there's muscles in the eyes, how else would your eyes move? At least Gorilla knew his anatomy. Perfect goes to a sleeper that turns into more of a chinlock, and he outsmarts Hogan by running him into the corner when Hogan tries to break free. He makes the mistake of going up to pose, however, and Hulk crotches him and then rams his junk into the top turnbuckle a few times. What a great role model. Atomic drop and Perfect bumps all over the place, but Hulk misses an elbow and NOW YOU'RE GONNA SEE A PERFECTPLEX. Hulk up and they fight on the floor after the big boot, but Perfect misses with a chair and Hulk gets it himself. Perfect clobbers him on the way back in, which Gorilla accuses of being brass knuckles, and Hulk staggers back in again. He tries it again, but Hulk gets it for himself and uses it, which gives Perfect the DQ win at 14:00. HA! Take that, you orange-skinned cheating bastard! Perfect was just bumping all over and it was tremendous fun. ***1/4

Intercontinental title: Kerry Von Erich v. Mr. Perfect

Roddy Piper is the special ref here, which is weird because I don't recall him feuding with Hennig at this point. Although that would have been some awesome promos. Tornado tosses Perfect into the corner to start, and then catches him with a sucker punch while Piper is holding Perfect's arm. Oh come on now! Kerry starts working on the arm and gets a discus punch to the gut, which Perfect sells like a gunshot and bails. They brawl outside and Perfect sells like crazy, and they head back in. Kerry goes back to the arm. Perfect pulls a turnbuckle cover off, but gets rammed into it for two. Tornado goes a Boston crab, but Perfect makes the ropes. Tornado hits boot on a charge and Perfect gets his usual excellent standing dropkick, sending Kerry to the apron. Perfect grabs a sleeper, and rolls him up for two while he's groggy. Smart man. They trade punches and collide, with Tornado falling on top for two. Normally that would have been a ref bump spot, but Piper isn't going down from a simple collision. Tornado punch stuns Perfect and the Iron Claw follows, but Perfect falls into the ropes. Perfect tries to slam him, but Kerry claws him again and Perfect has to go to the eyes to break. A chop gets two. This is some pretty uninspired stuff. Perfect gets a backdrop suplex, but they do the stupid shoulder lift finish and Tornado retains at 11:37. Very kicky-punchy. ** And just because it's wrestling and inevitably I have to note stuff like this, Perfect actually regained the title on 11/19/90, which was five days BEFORE this show, although the title change didn't air until a few days after this. So really, he could take solace in knowing he was already the champion.

Intercontinental title: Mr. Perfect v. Bret Hart.

From Summerslam 91, of course. Bret hiptosses him out of the ring to start, and grabs a headlock. Crucifix gets two and he maintains a headlock with some well-timed hair-pulling. Crossbody gets two, as does a sunset flip, and he goes back to the headlock. Hennig tries some cheating to turn the tide, but Bret takes him down and stomps him. They trade slams in a nice counter wrestling sequence. Hennig bails off a punch and regroups, but Bret pulls him back in, ripping the tights in the process. A cheapshot puts Perfect in control, however, and a pair of kicks puts Bret on the floor. Hennig steps on his back to get back into the ring, a nice touch. Bret fights back to the apron, so Hennig snaps him into the railing for the Pillman bump. Back in, Bret rolls him up out of the corner for a one-count. Perfect pounds him down again and sends him into the corner for two. Necksnap and rollup get two. Dropkick puts Bret on the floor, and they brawl out there. They fight up to the top and Bret down first, with Perfect falling on top of him for two in a weird spot. Still not sure what happened there. Perfect hairtosses him and grabs a sleeper, but Bret fights out easily. Bret tries another crucifix, but Perfect is onto him now and counters with a samoan drop for two. He sends Bret to the corner for two. Perfectplex gets two, and Bret comes back.

Atomic drop both ways and Bret returns the hairtoss, so Perfect takes a great sliding bump into the post. Suplex gets two. Small package gets two. Russian legsweep gets two. Backbreaker and elbow get two. A desperate Perfect rolls him up for two in a hot near-fall, but Bret kicks him out of the ring. Bret starts kicking the crap out of the leg to set up for the Sharpshooter, and Perfect is flipping around like a gymnast to sell it. Bret goes after Coach and gets crotched as a result, and Perfect starts going low in desperation. A legdrop is caught by Bret, however, and he turns it into the Sharpshooter, with Earl Hebner ringing the bell, ringing the fucking bell, very early at 18:05. ****1/4 Still holds up, except for the botched finish. This was all about Mr. Perfect bringing Bret up to his level and turning him into a legitimate star.

Intercontinental title: Shawn Michaels v. Mr. Perfect

From Summerslam 1993. Haven't seen this one in a long while, actually. The build for this one was basically "Buy this show because they're going to deliver a **** match and we promise", which had people quite excited to see it. Unfortunately, the lesson here is that there's no magic formula for predicting a great match and this proves it. They trade hammerlocks to start and Shawn grabs a headlock, and they mess up an armdrag spot off a criss-cross. Perfect works the arm and they do a nice headlock reversal, which leads Shawn to back off. Shawn slugs him in the corner and Perfect fires back with chops, then catches Shawn with a clothesline out of the corner for two. He goes to the armbar and Shawn fights out in the corner, but goes up and lands in an armdrag, which gets two for Perfect. Perfect holds the armbar and Bobby and Vince are going way over the top already selling it as a match of the year. There's selling the product and then there's insulting your audience. Shawn tries a dropkick and Perfect catapults him over the top to counter, but he goes to chase and Shawn superkicks him and then follows with an axehandle off the apron. Back in, Shawn works on the back with a series of elbows and whips Perfect into the corner. Another trip to the corner and he follows with a backbreaker. Perfect comes back with a dropkick and backdrop, and an atomic drop gets two. Perfect lays him out with the forearm for two. You can see they're trying too hard here and the results are sloppy spots and too many dead spots. They fight for a backdrop and we get a Perfectplex, but Diesel pulls him out to break it up. Shawn and Perfect brawl on the floor and the ref gets bumped in a weak spot, allowing Diesel to send Perfect into the post for the countout at 11:19. Yeah, not good -- no chemistry together, terrible finish, just a disappointing mess. How could they possibly promote this is as a classic before the fact and then book it to have a COUNTOUT finish? **1/2

Curt Hennig v. Bret Hart

From WCW Uncensored 98 this time. Really now, enough with Bret v. Perfect already. Plus there's at least a few better matches from Hennig's WCW run to choose from. The pair of matches with Flair on PPV in 97 and the US title match against DDP at Starrcade immediately spring to mind. Lockup to start and Bret goes to the headlock and works on that, and a hiptoss puts Hennig on the floor. Back in, Bret quickly goes for the Sharpshooter, but Rude breaks it up and Hennig starts working on the leg. Hairtoss out of the corner and Hennig slaps him around in the corner and then goes to a figure-four, which allows Rude to assist. The ref sees it and forces the break, and Hennig goes back to working on the leg. They slug it out in the corner and Hennig kicks the leg to take over again and holds a stepover toehold. He releases and goes up, but Bret brings him down and they do a weak version of the hairtoss and slide into the post spot. Small package gets two for Bret. Russian legsweep gets two. Bulldog gets two. Backbreaker and middle rope elbow gets two. Hennig whips him into the corner and now you're gonna see a Hennigplex, but it only gets two. Bret sends him into Rude and rolls him up, reversed for two by Hennig. Bret rolls through a sunset flip and finishes with the Sharpshooter at 13:50. This was two formerly great workers who no longer gave a shit and would barely bump for each other any longer. Curt Hennig without the bumping and Bret Hart without the passion is an ugly combination. **

The Pulse

I like the inclusion of some rarities, but the Bret v. Perfect horse has been beaten to death and then some. Perfect v. Flair from RAW is still needing a full version on DVD and should have been included, and you can also throw Hennig v. Lawler on there because that's nowhere to be found, or maybe Perfect's IC title tournament matches from 1990. Library guys, you know I love you, but seriously drop me an e-mail next time and I'll give you a list of matches because this is pretty disappointing. Hennig v. Bockwinkel is well worth picking the DVD up for, but I'd wait until it's in the bargain bin.

Mildly recommended.

Charlie Reneke writes…

"I get the impression that you're not big on writing up recaps for the feature part of wrestling DVDs, so I figured if you wanted, I had already wrote the recap for the new Flair set and if you want to use it, feel free to do so and add your match reviews or your own thoughts on the DVD or whatever. Personally, I didn't like it myself. I think the better Flair documentary is the Horsemen one which covered all the bases already. But the ten matches they gave us are pretty good. Either way, enjoy."

Thanks Charlie. Indeed I'm not big on the documentary recaps, so I'll use yours and do the matches on discs two and three myself. 

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Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection

by Charlie Reneke

Disc One

Feature

-Flair talks about being a black-market baby. His biological parents were likely told he died. He never sought them out. He grew up as a wrestling fan in Minnesota. He was a wild child and was sent to a boarding school. Most of the kids were richer then him, and he thinks that contributed to the excesses of his adult life. He was a good athlete in high school. He wanted to play football. He sold life insurance for a year after doing two years of college football. He hooked up with Ken Patera, who then hooked him up with Verne Gagne.

-Jim Brunzell was in the same class, and he talks about the class of 1972 from the Verne Gagne school of wrestling. And damn, what a class! Greg Gagne, Ric Flair (looking at least 50 pounds heavier then he was most of his career), the Iron Sheik, Ken Patera, Bob Bruggers (a tag specialist you'll hear about shortly), and Jim Brunzell. The camp was ten weeks long. Flair weighed about 300lbs and was 'chunky' in the words of Nick Bockwinkel. And that's being nice. They had to run two miles, which took him a long time. 200 free squats, 200 pushups, 200 sit-ups, and Ric quit. Verne would drag him back, and that would go on for a week. By time they finished the camp, Flair lost 45 lbs, and Ken Patera 40.

-Flair's first match (where he was still very puffy looking) was against Scrap Iron George Gadaski, a ten minute draw. "The longest ten minutes of my life" says Ric. Mean Gene Okerlund says that he knew the guy had the makings of a megastar. Baron Von Raschke agrees, saying you could tell he would get better and that he was smooth from the beginning.

-Flair calls his biggest influences Dusty Rhodes and Wahoo McDaniel. Wahoo convinces him to head to the Carolinas, where he would basically stay for the rest of his life. David Crockett says that you could see he was going to be good, that he had "the look", and that he was humble. "If you can believe that... Ric Flair being humble."

-To the airplane crash in October of 1975. David Crockett was there, along with Bob Bruggers, Ric Flair, Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods, Johnny Valentine, and the pilot. Of course, all these wrestlers mean things got too heavy, and the pilot being a dipshit decided "it's an airplane, what could go wrong?" and dumped part of the fuel out. Seriously, it's a miracle this wasn't wrestling's version of the Day the Music Died. The plane crashes of course, and we get pictures of the downed plane, and hearing the story doesn't do it justice, because the plane is totally destroyed. The pilot died one year and one day later, having never woke from a coma. Johnny Valentine was paralyzed from the waist down, and that really sucked because he was an amazing wrestler in his day. Bob Bruggers broke his back and chose to retire despite being able to come back. David Crockett had internal injuries and a concussion. Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods was injured but managed to walk out on his own, and in fact returned to the ring because he was a babyface and everyone else were heels and that wasn't cool in 1975. So two weeks later, he was wrestling again so that people would think he wasn't really in the airplane, but that didn't last long because he was clearly in pain. The fact that he didn't rest and was taking bumps with the amount of damage he had forced him to retire. One of the many reasons that we should celebrate the death of kayfabe. Get over it old timers, your methods were silly anyway.

-Of course, Ric Flair broke his back. Harley Race says that when someone breaks their back, you automatically think that they're finished. The doctors sure thought so, but Ric came back. Before the injury, Flair modeled himself more along the lines of Superstar Billy Graham, wearing skin tight tie-dyed clothing. Booker George Scott said that it was wrong because Flair wrestled nothing like Graham, and was more along the lines of Nature Boy Buddy Rogers. We get a video clip of Buddy Rogers strutting around the ring, then another video of Ric Flair doing the same thing. Pretty close. Jack Brisco stops short of calling Flair a Buddy Rogers rip-off, which is only half true in my opinion. His wrestling style and look were the same, but Rogers played a more of a fan-hating, generic wrestling villain. Very one-dimensional. Ric Flair's gimmick, on the other hand, was more refined character. A type of aristocratic playboy. And so Nature Boy Ric Flair is born.

-Flair returns after six months and ten days. Jack Brisco says that everyone knew Flair was the future of the business. And he came back better then before. Greg Valentine and Ric form a tag team and won the Mid-Atlantic tag team championship. Shortly afterwards, Flair also won the US Championship from Bobo Brazil. Flair dominates the mid-card, feuding with Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Wahoo McDaniel, and a really hot feud with Blackjack Mulligan. Sadly, those matches aren't on the DVD, but from what I've seen, they were very good.

-Mid-Atlantic had never had a wrestler who came close to winning the NWA Championship vote from the board of governors. But with Ric Flair, they finally had a chance to make a serious play for it. Harley Race keeps it a bit kayfabe, saying they would choose who would 'get a chance at it.' This is the guy who did "Wrestling's Greatest Secrets: Revealed" on NBC, mind you. Speaking of revealing secrets, the best kept secret in wrestling is how the WWE makes it's most inhuman looking employees look so life-like on these DVDs. Case in point: Jim Ross talks about how Flair won the vote... and he looks about 10 years younger then now. It's crazy. We get a video of Flair winning his first NWA Championship. Flair says the vote was 5 to 4. DVD doesn't say who the votes came from, but I'm pretty sure they were from Jim Crockett (who's vote would have been undone in the event of a tie), Bob Geigel of Kansas City, Vince McMahon Sr. of WWWF (the NWA in fact was cool with the WWWF's split and more or less brokered the split themselves because it would knock the smaller Eastern territories out of business and consolidate their talent to move west. Man, the irony is so delicious there), Fritz Von Erich of Texas, and Jim Barnett of Alabama/Tennessee. The other four votes were to retain Dusty Rhodes as champion if I'm not mistaken.

-Flair says it wasn't as big a moment for him as you would think. The title change was moved to a territory where neither guy was well known or popular, and so it was fairly meaningless to the fans. No doubt they felt cheated that a local star not getting a title shot. Dory Funk Jr. relates that Flair wouldn't allow anyone to look bad on his watch. Like all NWA Champions, Flair had to travel the country and defend against all-comers. Flair notes that he was actually a bust during his first year as champion, not drawing outside of the Carolinas. Flair talks about his international travels in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

-Michaels Hayes shows up to note that Flair is more black then him. Actually, he was in awe of Flair. Steve Austin says he took to Flair instantly. So does John Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Edge. Edge notes that he learned most of what he knew about Flair from the wrestling magazines. Hour long matches every day of the year, with double-duty on the weekends. His family talks about how tough this was on them, and how they never saw him. David Flair has gotten fat. We get this really wild, manic graphic while Flair promos are cut together to demonstrate how crazy his schedule was. David Flair says he would occasionally get upset about it. We actually get a clip of Ric Flair at home with his family and HOLY SHIT look at the head on young David Flair! I just saw George Carlin's last comedy special on HBO and I'm telling you, his bit on funny looking children had to be inspired by young David. "Let me ask you a practical question... where do you find a hat to fit that type of head?"

-Flair loses the title to Harley Race, but the plan was to put the title back on him at the first Starrcade. The event was billed as "A Flair for the Gold." We get clips of the match, which was insanely good, an easy five-stars despite guest referee Gene Kiniski blowing the finish. The full match is on the original Ric Flair DVD set, which everyone reading this likely owns.

-Into Flair's catchphrases. He bought his own Limo and hired a kid working at a gas station to drive him around, giving him $25 a pop and, quote, "getting him fucked in every town." The jet part comes from Flair chartering a plane to take to Greg Gagne's wedding and back in time to wrestle at a show. The "son of a gun" part came from a song he heard on the radio. So did "Wooo!" which comes from the song "Great Balls of Fire" by certified nutcase Jerry Lee Lewis. Space Mountain he came up with during spring break, giving (on the air, mind you) the address of the hotel he was staying at and informing any girls on their way to Florida, they didn't need to go to Disneyworld to get a thrill ride. They could show up to his hotel and ride Space Mountain all night long. Considering how protective Disney is of their trademarks, I'm half shocked that he didn't sue him at any point.

-Jim Ross talks about Ric Flair's image, which was always done in a way where he could look down on people. Flair credits image enhancement as his highest bar that he set. We get clips of some of Ric Flair's most over-the-top promos, along with clips of women swooning over him in the audience. Jim Ross thinks he was best when he was talking about all the stuff he owned. We get the "my shoes cost more then your house" bit, which I love. Flair spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep his image up. We also get clips of his many robes, designed by the late Olivia Walker. David Crockett says that anyone who owns one of those robes today should value it because it's part of wrestling history. Flair notes that he doesn't regret spending all that money, but he could have been a little more careful from 10PM to 3AM... or 5AM depending on the city. Triple H notes that the Flair on TV wasn't an act, but the real deal.

-Flair's second reign as champion was better and he finally started to draw good outside the Carolinas as well. David Crockett calls him the greatest world heavyweight champion ever. Dusty Rhodes says the best week of his career was the seven days in a row he faced Flair, six of which were a one hour draw. I'm a big Flair fan, but I have to say that I think all of his matches with Dusty Rhodes are overrated. Then again, I don't know too many people that rate them high. I've seen a bootleg of one of their hour-long draws, and it was painful to watch. Kevin Von Erich and Barry Windham also talk about Flair's hour long matches. Harley Race calls him a 'damn good champion', while we get clips of Flair facing Sgt. Slaughter, Ronnie Garvin, Ricky Steamboat, and others. Harley Race talks about how good Flair was at making midcard nobodies look like they could beat the champion. Jim Ross notes that Flair would get stuck wrestling guys who didn't deserve to with him, but they were the top stars in little territories. We get clips of the teases of his feud with Magnum TA, which obviously was never fully realized. Jim Ross notes that Ric would leave a territory better then he found it, and that's the mark of a great NWA Champion.

-Onto the Four Horsemen, a story that's been told dozens of times. The Andersons were uncle/nephew, and Flair was once billed as their cousin, and Tully Blanchard had tagged with Flair a couple times, so it made sense to pair them all up. Arn Anderson coins the name "Four Horsemen" on a fluke, and it caught on. Tully runs through a list of all the guys the Horsemen destroyed. We get clips of their various promos. I love Ole Anderson's "Damn, I'm Good" shirt. That's due for a comeback. Flair says they were the best four heels in the business at the time, all who could talk, wrestle, were unselfish, and were in it to make the whole business look good. Triple H and Randy Orton offer their kudos to the faction. And more clips of their four-on-one beatdowns.

-We move into his feud with Dusty Rhodes, which looked at first like they were going to do a full face-turn for Ric. Instead, the Horsemen come in, destroy Dusty, and a full scale riot breaks out. We get clips of the fans surrounding the cage, trying to break it down so they can come in and possibly kill the Horsemen. It took them one hour to get out of the ring. More clips of the Horsemen destroying Dusty. I'm not a big Dusty fan, but this angle was simply awesome. Flair calls Dusty his best opponent of the 80s. They did eight-man tags with the Road Warriors and Magnum TA teaming with Dusty, and sold out all over the country. Triple H notes that the Horsemen were like a band, where you could replace the bass player (Ole Anderson) but never the lead singer.

-Onto his feud with Sting, which was done at the first Clash of Champions against Wrestlemania IV... and HOLY SHIT, it's Jim Cornette on a WWE DVD! Clearly an older clip, but still! Anyway, he introduces us to the famous match with Sting from the Clash. The match was advertised as having a sixty minute time limit, but Flair notes he was disappointed to have the match only go 45 minutes. Haven't watched the match in years, so I'm curious to see if it holds up, but I remember liking it better then anything from Wrestlemania IV. My friends called the entire show marking out, while I watched Wrestlemania on pay-per-view while trying not to fall asleep. Everyone talks about how Sting was elevated by Flair and owes his career to him. Flair notes that the only mistake Sting ever made was not going to work for WWE over NWA. I actually have to disagree with him there. If Sting had gone to WWE, he would have already been beaten to the punch in the face-paint gimmick by Warrior and likely would have been stuck with some lame gimmick. It was a mistake for him to not go to WWE later in his career, but that's a debate for another day.

-Onto his feud with Ricky Steamboat. Harley Race calls their series of every matches one of the best ever. Jim Ross and David Crockett are equally in awe of them. Race calls Steamboat the best of his era. Wow. That's high praise from a guy like Race. Flair says he was his best opponent at the time, which he already said about Dusty Rhodes, but it's his DVD and he's free to put over people in anyway he wants. Jim Cornette says that the final match from Wrestle War was his favorite match ever. Flair notes that he had never watched the match since it happened, and he was impressed. Jim Ross also calls it the best match ever. Flair won the match and his sixth world title. This is the reason you should already own the original Ric Flair set.

-And this match leads straight into his feud with crazy old man Terry Funk. And calling Funk an old man when he's in his 40s his downright strange. Funk piledrives Flair on a table, which doesn't break in a sick spot. This leads to an I-Quit match at Clash of the Champions. Flair's a babyface now, and this match is indeed a precursor to the modern hardcore match. There's another Terry Funk match in this set, from the 1989 Great American Bash, which I can't wait to watch because these two had such great chemistry.

-And now the death of Mid-Atlantic. Jim Crockett could never really compete with WWE. David Crockett and Ric Flair note that Jim's ego was part of the reason why they were losing money, because they kept going outside of their normal territory and couldn't draw there. Flair says if they had stayed between Chicago and Baltimore, they would still be in business. So, despite David Crockett and some of his other siblings not wanting to sell, they end up doing so to Ted Turner. Ric Flair notes that most of the Crockett family don't speak to Jim anymore, and that's sad. Flair says that Ted Turner owning WCW wasn't bad in concept, but the problem was people in Turner's company who had no business promoting wrestling pitched to Turner that they should be put in charge of it, the first of which was Jim Herd.

- Flair hates on Jim Herd, noting that his claim to fame was being the regional manager of a chain of Pizza Huts. David Crockett also hates on Herd, saying he had no idea what he was doing, without mentioning his name. Flair and Herd never got along, and after a contract dispute Herd calls Ric and tells him to show up and drop the belt to Lex Luger. Flair refuses and notes that he had promised to drop the belt to Sting. Herd accuses Flair of holding him up. Flair counters that he's holding Herd to his word. Apparently someone in editing screwed up because they're mixing the Sting/Luger stuff with the later Luger/Windham stuff. Flair offers to drop the belt to Barry Windham. They call him back and tell Flair that he's fired and that Doug Dillinger is coming to get the title belt. Flair says the belt belongs to him because he never got his deposit paid back on it. Flair calls Vince and says he's ready to jump ship, and by the way, he was bringing the belt too.

-Flair arrives in the WWE. Dusty Rhodes notes that WCW had lost it's way and New York was the place to be. The Flair/McMahon contract negotiation was simple: Ric stated how much he stood to make in WCW, and McMahon promised he would make more then that. Done. Flair notes how much more business like the WWE was. And Flair also had the title belt with him, which he felt somewhat bad about, but then he remembered how much he hated Jim Herd. Herd was fired a month later from the fallout of this whole situation. Flair says he wishes they had e-mail or text messaging back then because he would have loved to have sent him a message that simply read "Nice knowing you, asshole." God, how I love Ric Flair.

-Flair is billed as the "Real World Champion" which was just plain crazy back then. I mean it was a markout every time it happened. He is paired with Bobby Heenan at first, and basically kills him with his life style. Heenan goes to McMahon and tells him he can't take it anymore, being stuck on the road with Larry Flint. He also attempted to curse Flair, wishing that his hair would fall out and come back orange. Flair actually wanted Heenan to get involved in the matches because he was a good worker and good bumper, but he had a bad neck and back at the time. So they gave him Mr. Perfect as a replacement, and that worked just as good.

-Everyone assumed that the plan was for the WWE to run with Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair at Wrestlemania VIII but for whatever reason, it never happened. Bruce Pritchard notes that everyone thought it was a shoe-in. The office decided they would save it for a later date, presumably Wrestlemania IX. Ric Flair wanted the match but doesn't regret that it didn't happen. I've heard a dozens of reasons why it didn't happen, most of which I'm guessing is bullshit. The most credible one I've heard is they ran a houseshow with the two main-eventing against each other in Madison Square Garden which didn't sell out, causing the WWE to abort the feud. I'll go with that, along with Hulk Hogan wanting to become an actor.

-So instead, Ric Flair gets the WWE Championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble, entering at #3 and lasting the entire match. I would rank it the second best Rumble match, with 2004s #1. Of course, the 2004 version isn't as fun to watch anymore, but I think it told a way better story from start to finish. Flair says that it was an awesome final shot to WCW, that Flair was getting pushed on a huge PPV in a sold out arena while they couldn’t draw 2,000 fans to their major shows. Flair also felt good that the WWE trusted him to carry the company. Flair's maniacal promo when he won the Rumble is still one of my favorites. Jim Ross says that he thinks the WWE didn't give it their all with Flair, and also notes that he doesn't believe Flair's heart was entirely in it either. I've felt that way about his first WWE run myself.

-We skip most of his WWE run and go straight back to WCW, with only a short clip of his loser-leaves-town match with Mr. Perfect. Flair is promised the world by Bill Watts, so he agrees to come back. And of course, Watts is fired the day after Flair returns. Ole Anderson becomes the new booker, and tells Flair that he has no value left because he dropped the match to Mr. Perfect. Flair is shocked at how big a dumbass Ole was. They're weren't friends anymore after that. So someone asks Flair about Ole. Flair says he sucks. So they ask him who should replace him. In a moment I'm sure Flair has nightmares about to this day, he recommends Eric Bischoff for the job. "Another screw-up on my part" says Flair. Jim Ross notes that Eric actually did do a good job.

-Ric Flair hooks Eric Bischoff up with Hulk Hogan, who signs the biggest deal in the history of professional wrestling, to this day. With inflation, I'm guessing Hogan's WCW deal will never be topped, ever. Triple H notes how Ric Flair brokered the deal and it came back to bite him in the ass. WCW didn't screw up like the WWE and ran Ric Flair vs. Hogan in his first match with the company, putting Hogan over for the WCW Championship. Hogan ended up making nearly ten times as much for that pay per view then Flair did in an entire year. Flair brings Randy Savage in as well, who proceeds to make Flair his whipping boy like Hogan before him. Flair notes that Hogan and Savage each beat Flair four times or more each before they ever faced another opponent. David Crockett says that Ric Flair was a doormat, and that he wasn't lost in the shuffle... he was buried.

-And then, they set out to embarrass Ric some kind of attempt to devalue him. They put Flair in a cage match with Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1994, where the loser must retire. The retirement stipulation wasn't originally the plan. Hogan was going to drop the WCW title to Flair at a Clash of the Champions show, but pulled out the Creative Control card for the first of many times in his WCW career, winning the match by DQ instead. With no other reason to do a third match, they retire Flair instead to get him out of the picture. Flair notes that everyone knew that Flair wouldn't win the match and thus it didn't draw. "Cage matches are designed for the bad guy to get beat" says Flair. It's such basic logic that it doesn't surprise me that wrestling bookers never understand it. Funny enough, even though this is supposed to be the "Ric Flair gets embarrassed" segment, we don't get clips of Flair dressed like a woman and losing a match to Hogan that he wasn't even in (taking the fall for Vader, who refused to put over Hogan in a strap match) or Flair dropping a match to Randy Savage's father. Triple H notes how he wanted to slap Flair and tell him not to let people walk over him. Shawn Michaels says that he thinks Ric Flair knew deep down that nobody could really tarnish his image. I think Shawn might be a little wrong there, as it did get to Flair.

-David Crockett says that Flair had to be depressed because here's the most talented guy on the roster seeing guys with no talent (as footage of Konnan and Diamond Dallas Page is shown... very tactful, WWE) get pushed while he was held down. Hall & Nash show up and Bischoff keeps them apart from each other in and out of the ring. J.J. Dillon recalls Bischoff calling a meeting with all the talent that was basically done so he would have an audience while he put down Flair. This is mixed with a clip of a kayfabe promo by Bischoff for Starrcade. Editing is just horrible for this feature, a big step down from what the WWE has been doing for years. Clearly this was a rush-job release. We get clips of Flair's "Fire me? I'm already fired!" promo from his comeback. They don't go into big detail with the firing, which is fine. We've all heard the story before. Flair notes that Bischoff called a meeting every week just to say that the WWE would fold anytime now. Flair doesn't understand how all these guys who's lives were made by the WWE could be so gung-ho to get it shut down.

-But of course, the WWE outlasts WCW and ultimately buys them out. Flair calls it the happiest day of his life. We get clips of Sting vs. Flair from the final Nitro, where both guys were out of shape, Flair so much so that he had to wear a T-Shirt for the match. Flair says he didn't like anything about the final Nitro except the fact that it closed.

-Now for Ric Flair's WWE comeback. Jim Ross says he had tears in his eyes when Flair returned. Flair comes in as the new co-owner of the WWE. Triple H thought it was very good angle. Shane McMahon pitched Flair to wrestle Vince at the Royal Rumble. He wasn't even going to wrestle with his new WWE deal, and had self-confidence issues, made worse by the fact that he would be in the ring with a non-wrestler. Triple H says that Flair wasn't quite there yet, even though the match was good. You know what, I actually liked the match a lot. It's Vince McMahon's best match, easy.

-Triple H informs Flair that Undertaker was asked to pick who he wanted to wrestle at Wrestlemania X8, and he chose Ric. Triple H says that this made his self-confidence problems even worse, because he didn't feel like he was in that league anymore. They have a really good match, and it helped Ric Flair get his groove back. So he returns somewhat full time. Clips of Flair beating Chris Jericho at Summerslam, and Carlito for the IC Championship. Triple H says that he never gets sick or injured, and he's the only guy who can go out there every night and perform at a top level. And he's the only one who doesn't know how good he is. Jim Ross says that guys would get excited over getting to wrestle Flair. He wrestled Steve Austin on Raw, a match I think only lasted like ten minutes and ended on a draw. We don't get that match on the set, but they sure spend a lot of time talking about it. Austin says it was a big honor for him. Austin says he's the best entertainer in the history of the business.

-Onto Evolution. It was a great idea to have a generational-based faction. Triple H had the idea, and he knew that Ric's role of getting Randy Orton and Batista over would work. And it did. Batista says it was the turning point of his career, and that he had a small window to get over and if not for Flair, he wouldn't have. Orton agrees, because having Ric Flair by his side upped his confidence level to the point where he knew he could go from an opening match guy to trashing Holiday Inn rooms with ease. OK, he didn't really say that, but he does credit Flair with making his career. Batista says winning the tag titles with Ric Flair was his first career high. He's in the record books forever with him. Randy says that it was great being in the main event of Taboo Tuesday with Flair in a cage as well. Wish we had gotten that match for the set instead of the promos that fill up most of the third disc.

-Onto his feud with Mick Foley. Flair says he never read Foley's books but had tons of people tell him that Mick took a shot at him in them. Flair says that only a few people made him legitimately mad in the business, and Mick Foley is one of them. So Flair gives him a shot back, saying that Foley is nothing more then a glorified stuntman. This lead to a couple very shitty matches with the two on pay per view, which is more proof that putting two guys who hate each other in the ring together rarely works. For every Chris Benoit/Kevin Sullivan (which I don't think was THAT good), there's a Flair/Foley, a Batista/Booker, a Michaels/Hart, or a Matt Hardy/Edge. It's one of those quirks of wrestling I never really got. I guess the reasoning for putting two guys who hate each other together in a program is the fans will buy it and the smart-marks will eat it up it. That may be true, but the matches almost always suck. Flair said that he had a really good match with Foley at Summerslam (that's a stretch) and they've since become friends. Ahhh, makes you all warm inside.

-Flair and Triple H have a match on Raw, and it was good. Flair had given Triple H the belt that he held when he was the "Real World Champion", with a note that said he wished he could give him this in the ring. After the show went off the air, everyone comes to the ring and throws a party for Flair. Randy Orton says that Flair doesn't ask for respect, so he earns it more. That might have been a shot at the Undertaker. Flair tears up as he tells people how cool it is to have the respect of his peers. As Flair's last few months of his career rolled around, we get backstage clips of wrestlers crying as they say their farewells to him. Flair cries thinking about it. It's great. Flair wishes he had been there for his family, and notes that he was selfish when he was younger.

-Flair is inducted into the Hall of Fame. Flair called Triple H crying when he found out, and asked Triple H to be the one that inducted him. What a great moment that was too, with Flair pretty much ignoring the people telling him to wrap it up so that he could thank everyone he's ever met or so it seemed. We then go to Flair's final match. I wish he had entered via helicopter or something like that. Flair calls Shawn one of the best ever. It was a great match. A lot of people called it five-stars. I wouldn't go that far, but it was certainly very entertaining.

-On Raw the next night, Flair says goodbye as an active wrestler in what was a cool moment. I'm not one of those types that was sad that they saved it for Raw. I mean, they couldn't stop Wrestlemania in the middle of the show to do a thirty minute skit. At least one that doesn't involve women from a beer commerical. And we get a final sendoff, with Steve Austin calling Flair the best ever. Bruce Pritchard says that Flair should have rightfully been finished with the plane crash, but he came back better than ever. Bob Orton says that Flair found the fountain of youth, "and the son of a bitch is keeping it a secret." Triple H also calls him the greatest of all time. Gerald Brisco says that everyone is influenced by Ric Flair, while David Crockett says that he was one of the guys that made wrestling mainstream. Jim Cornette says that nobody was as good for as long as Flair was. Reid *GLUG* Flair says that he knows his dad wishes he could wrestle another twenty years. A final montage of Ric Flair closes the program.

That's it for the main feature. At four minutes short of two hours, it's pretty long, but not very well done. Many issues with editing make the narrative hard to follow, and many major sections of his career are left out. Granted, his career was so long and so more involved than most guys that it would likely take two discs just to do a fully realized biography on him and cover all the bases. That said, what they showed here felt more like a footnote version of his story, and because many parts are skipped or barely covered, it feels like an almost joyless version of his career. The WWE has done many great feature-length documentaries in recent years, but this wasn't one of them. It felt rushed and unfinished.

Disc One has some bonus features.

"Too Many Distractions" runs a little over one minute, and talks about Flair's final year of high school. He was bad at English and Math. He had signed a letter of intent to Michigan, but the athletic director rejected it because he felt that he wouldn't be able to keep his GPA up. Flair notes that when he went to Minnesota, he ended up proving the athletic director right.

"Buying Boots" runs one minute or so. Flair tells a story on how Wahoo McDaniel got him into spending so much money on his gimmick. Flair ordered his boots from a guy who charged $800, when he only had $200 budgeted for it. Flair uses this to talk about how much he respected Wahoo.

"Bleaching His Hair" runs a minute and forty-five seconds. Flair always wanted to bleach his hair, but Verne Gagne shot him down. Flair also wanted his name to be "Rambling Ricky Rhodes" but Verne shot that down, noting that "Ric Flair" was a great name. Flair wanted to be Dusty Rhodes' brother, and Dusty gave him the thumbs up to do it. Flair notes that he's glad he didn't change his name now. He says that he was a big Billy Graham fan (and a terrible mark), and drove him around. Flair talked Graham's wife into bleaching his hair, and that's how it started.

"Hanging with the Outlaws" lasts five minutes. Flair was a huge mark for the Texas Outlaws, Dick Murdoch & Dusty Rhodes. Flair didn't get booked that much his first year, but he lied to his wife and said he was working. In fact, he was hanging out with the Outlaws. He started hanging with them when someone pulled out a tour of Japan, so Flair got picked to replace the guy on a three week stint. Flair had to carry the Outlaws' bags, and they wouldn't talk to him. So one day, Murdoch has a plate of fries in front of him. Dusty Rhodes and some other wrestler take one, so Flair reaches for one himself. Murdoch stabs him through the hand with a fork, through the table. I've heard that was one of Murdoch's favorite things to do, the sick bastard. So Flair gets booked in a cage match and is told to bleed for the first time in his career. But Flair doesn't end up bleeding and so the Outlaws mock him mercilessly. Flair gets ditched in the locker-room by the Americans and has to ride back to the hotel on the Japanese bus. When he gets to his room, the Outlaws had thrown everything of his out the window. He didn't bitch about it and was in. Or not. Three weeks later, on the plane ride home, the wrestlers raise so much hell that the FBI is there to arrest someone when they land. They take Buddy Wolfe. Rhodes and Murdoch take Flair to the beach and get him stinky drunk. He passes out and the Outlaws ditch him there, catching a plane home.

"Ric's Relationship with the Members of Evolution" runs under three minutes. Flair's latest wife talks about his relationship with Evolution. She notes that they're like a family. Mrs. Flair says that Triple H was like an older brother for him despite the age, and that Shawn Michaels was the voice of reason. Batista is the younger brother, and they all acted like little kids, pulling each other's pants down during matches. She thinks it's the most fun he had in his career.

"Key to the City" runs about ninety seconds. Ric is given the key to the city in Columbia, SC. March 24, 2008 was Ric Flair day there.

And we get a Ric Flair tribute video set to the music of "Leave the Memories Alone" by Fuel. It's got that foggy effect they usually use for dead-wrestler tribute videos. Maybe they expected Flair to kick it and had this video on stand-by.

Disc Two

The Matches

Ric Flair v. Jack Brisco.

From Mid-Atlantic TV, August 1982. I have this one, on one of my many, many, Flair compilation tapes that I've accumulated over the years. This is a great bit of business, as Flair is scheduled to wrestle some jobber and he's not happy about it. He goes to complain to Bob Caudle about the lack of competition, so Wahoo comes out and calls him a chicken for not facing him. Flair's all "You want to see me go in there and beat up that guy in the ring? Fine!" and then he turns around and Jack Brisco is waiting in the ring for him instead of the jobber! Brisco almost immediately gets the abdominal stretch into the rollup for two, but Flair is in the ropes. Brisco goes to the arm and hiptosses him into another armdrag. Flair takes him to the corner for the chops, but Brisco whips him into the other corner and goes back to the arm again, dropping knees on it. Finally Flair gets him on the ropes and chops out, but Brisco hiptosses him back into the armbar again, and then a crazy rolling short-arm scissors, but Flair rolls his shoulders to the mat and gets two. Back to the corner and Flair starts chopping, but Brisco fires back and slugs Flair down. Cross body gets two and Flair puts him on the floor, then rams him into the turnbuckle to take over. Back in, slam and kneedrop set up the piledriver, which gets two. Back elbow sets up a suplex, but Jack reverses into a sleeper, which Flair reverses into a backdrop suplex. Flair presses the issue with the kenecrusher and it's time for the figure-four, but Brisco instantly reverses it and Flair has to make the ropes. Brisco starts pounding on the knee, but Flair pokes him in the eye and goes up. And you know what comes next. Brisco follows with his own figure-four, but Flair counters into the cradle for two. Pinfall reversal sequence (he was doing that back in 82?) leads to Brisco getting the pin off a backslide at 10:32! Holy crap, I forgot that someone actually got a pin off that sequence. Good little chess match here. ***1/4

NWA World title, 2/3 Falls: Ric Flair v. Kerry Von Erich

And now a week later (August 24 1982) we're in World Class, with the match that eventually leads to the explosion of the territory. I've only seen clips of the finishes before, so this is awesome. Kerry beat Harley Race in a match I just reviewed on 24/7 to earn this shot, and that was a hell of a deal in itself. So suffice it to say, Kerry was having a pretty good year in the ring. Flair takes him down with the headlock to start and Kerry reverses that into a headscissors. Flair counters back into the headlock, but Kerry puts him right back in the headscissors again. Flair makes the ropes, and then educates the ref about proper execution: The foot goes in the ropes, you start counting. Tell 'em, champ! Kerry applies the headlock this time and we get a small but important example of the camera revolution in World Class, as the in-ring guy gets a close-up shot of Kerry's straining muscles. That's the kind of stuff we take for granted now, but it really made the boys look like over-the-top superheroes at the time. Kerry works on the headlock and Flair powers out with a wristlock, but Kerry overpowers him right back into the headlock again. Next up, they do the test of strength and Kerry quickly takes him down and starts working the arm, and we get another great shot of Kerry looking like a greek good from the in-ring camera. No wonder they all became huge stars. The camera and sound work is very visceral and in-your-face, as opposed to the slick, fast-cut MTV editing that dominates today. No wonder people can't get emotionally invested in matches or characters anymore.

Awkward sequence as they mess up a leapfrog spot and tussle into the corner, then Flair gets a cheapshot and starts chopping, but Kerry gets a sunset flip after some drama near the ropes. The crowd reaction to this little spot is something to behold. Kerry takes him down with the headlock again and Flair uses the tights to roll him over, and the crowd is just FREAKING. Just goes to show: Put two good workers in front of a jacked crowd and they can make reading the phone book into a ***1/2 match. Flair dumps Kerry to escape and hauls him back in for the chops, but Kerry slugs the shit out of him and Flair goes down. Kerry backdrops him out of the corner, but Flair gets another cheapshot and snapmares Kerry into a chinlock. The crowd is just going crazy for Von Erich and Flair must be having the time of his life out there. Kerry powers up and Flair takes him down by the hair, then makes sure to antagonize the front row in the process. They slug it out and Kerry walks into a back elbow, and Flair gets two. He misses an elbowdrop and Kerry wraps him up with the abdominal stretch…and then applies the stomach claw to really give it to him. Another tremendous shot from the camera crew tells that story without even needing the commentary. Flair pokes the eyes to escape, and gets a backdrop suplex for two. Dropkick and Flair is just bumping like crazy now to really get the crowd going, but another try misses. Flair drops him on the top rope to take over and methodically drops the knee for two. Piledriver gets two. Another one is reversed by Kerry and he slugs him down, but can't get the claw. Flair just unloads with chops in the corner, but Kerry fires back with a discus punch that kills the ref dead. Kerry hammers away on Flair and gets a cross body, but there's no ref. Flair tries a sleeper, but Kerry reverses to a sleeper with a new ref there to count…and the bell rings. Kerry thinks he's won, but the original ref has revived and DQ's him for the punch at 22:00. So Flair is up one fall and the crowd wants BLOOD.

Second fall and Flair is wisely begging for mercy, but Kerry just beats the hell out of him in the corner and goes right back to that sleeper. Flair dumps him in desperation, but Kerry pulls him down and starts hammering on the leg. Back in, lays into him with a chop and stomps him down in the corner, then chokes him out, but Kerry comes back with an elbow off the middle rope and we get a Flair Flip. Kerry tries the headlock, but Flair puts him down with the kneecrusher and starts stomping on the knee. Kerry sells it melodramatically because it's that kind of match. Flair wraps the knee around the ropes and pounds on it, so Kerry rolls out and tries to shake it off. Flair suplexes him back in and drops the elbow, and now it's figure-four time. Well that's not going to make the crowd very happy. Flair gets a pair of two counts off that, but Kerry reverses it and Flair has to go to the ropes. Flair goes back to the knee again, but another try at the figure-four is blocked with the IRON CLAW. And in an awesome bit of business, Flair blades while in the move, showing that the power of the claw has busted his head open. You have to fucking love that. Flair is down and out for the pin 33:01 and the place just goes insane, as Kerry ties it up at one.

Back with the third fall and the ref wants to check Flair's cut. Kerry beats on him in the corner, but Flair fires back and hammers the shit out of Kerry on the mat, but Kerry comes back with a discuss punch and works on the bloody head of Flair. Finally the ref rings the bell at 35:13 and it's a double DQ, but they won't stop brawling. Finish ended up being weak, but it was all done to protect Kerry, showing that Flair couldn't beat him, and set up the cage match that changed wrestling in December of 82. Just the first all alone is a classic, as I thought I'd seen every **** Flair match and yet I keep finding new ones. Just tremendous stuff that made Kerry look like a world champion caliber star. ****1/2

NWA World title: Harley Race v. Ric Flair

This is actually from Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, August 31 1983, as they just keep pulling crazy shit out of the archives. Race immediately headbutts Flair down and drops a knee. Neckbreaker sets up another headbutt, but it misses. Flair chops him down and adds his own kneedrop, then chops him down for two. Race pounds him in the corner, but Flair comes back with a backdrop for two and goes to a facelock on the mat. Race fights up, so Flair slams him for two, only to get headbutted down again. Race tries the piledriver, but Flair backdrops out of it and then adds another backdrop. Abdominal stretch, but Race hiptosses out and drops an elbow for two. Clothesline and he drops a knee for two, but Flair is in the ropes. Flair fights back and reverses Race into the corner, then starts pounding the ribs. Big boot gets two. Flair takes him down and drops knees on the ribs, then cranks on an armbar. Race takes him into the corner and headbutts him to escape, but Flair chops him down again and follows with a sleeper. Race goes to the eyes to break, but Flair chops him down and goes up. Race slams him off, but Flair goes to the gut and tries the figure-four. Race goes to the eyes to prevent that and headbutts Flair to the gut, and a tombstone piledriver gets two. Race drops a headbutt and tosses Flair, but can't get a piledriver on the concrete.

Back in, Flair suplexes Race into the ring and follows with a running elbow. And now, whoo, we go to school, but Race fights off the figure-four again. Race tries a headlock, but Flair suplexes out of it. Butterfly suplex gets two and Flair goes to a boston crab, but Race quickly powers out of it. Flair bails to the apron and Race headbutts him down to the floor, where they brawl again. Flair wins that one and hauls him back in, then pounds away on the mat until Race headbutts him to fight back. Flair Flip, but Flair goes up with a flying axehandle, which Race blocks with a shot to the gut. Race goes up himself, but misses a diving headbutt and now, finally, FIGURE-FOUR. Sadly, Flair stops to go after Dick Slater and releases, but hits Race wit a kneecrusher again and gets the figure-four, which draws Race's henchmen Slater & Orton in for the DQ at 21:23. They destroy Flair with a spike piledriver so sick that it's worth the price of the DVD alone, and collect Race's $25,000 bounty, the only time I can remember a heel actually doing such a thing successfully outside of Batista a couple of years ago. Usual great Flair-Race match, on free TV no less! ****1/2

Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Ole Anderson v. Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA & Manny Fernandez

From World Wide Wrestling, December 1985. How can this be anything but awesome? Dusty gets in Flair's face to start and the crowd is just coming apart at the seams. Finally we start for real with Arn and the Bull, and they criss-cross into a back elbow from Manny, which leads to the faces cleaning house and triple-teaming Ole. Arn tries again and he gets his ass kicked as well and backs off. Ole is nothing if not stubborn and he wants Manny again, and now Magnum comes in and starts working on his arm. Dusty elbows him down, but he wants Flair. The champ obliges and we get a strutting exhibition from Dusty, but Flair is no mood for it. They slug it out in the corner and Flair goes down via bionic elbow, and it's over to Magnum. Hiptoss for Flair and the press slam and we've gotta take a break!

Back with the Horsemen working on TA in the corner as we've apparently missed a vital portion of the match, and they triple-team him while Tommy Young is busy with the faces. Magnum gets the tag to Manny and he fights off the Andersons and gets the Flying Burrito on Arn, then the faces abuse AA some more in the corner. Manny with a backdrop into the flying axehandle, but Arn sends him in the heel corner and it's over to Flair. They exchange chops and Manny gets a cross body for two. Flair comes back with a piledriver attempt, but Manny backdrops out of it, so Arn tags in and elbows him down into a chinlock. The Andersons switch off and pound on Fernandez, and Flair gets a suplex before spitting on Dusty. Well can you blame him? Manny fights back with another Burrito on Arn, but the Horsemen break up the pin and it's BONZO GONZO. Everyone is brawling on the floor and Arn hits Bull with a SICK chairshot from the floor, and Ole gets the pin at 11:50. I hate to see stuff like that given recent events in the business, but DAMN. ***1/2 The wusses in the production department blur out some kid giving the Horsemen the finger.

NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Sting

From the first Clash, a show I haven't actually watched in a good long while and a match that is worth another look. I should note that the Turner home video version I've always had before is the clipped TV version, whereas the godlike WWE library version is the full and uncut version. So this is Sting's first big shot at the title, with a 45-minute TV time limit and a panel of judges to make sure there's a winner. Including Jason Hervey and Eddie Haskell, so you know they mean business. Sting grabs the headlock to start and powers Flair down off a wristlock. They do the test of strength and Flair opts to chop out of it, but Sting no-sells it and hiptosses him out of the ring. Back in, Sting controls with a hammerlock and they criss-cross into a press-slam from Sting. Sting takes him down with a flying headscissors into the hiptoss, and back to the headlock again. Flair fights up and hiptosses out of it, but Sting counters and goes right back to it again. Flair fights up and Sting hiptosses him and tries another dropkick, but Flair dodges him. Sting gets tossed but pops right back in and fires away in the corner, then right back to the headlock again. Flair chops out of it and they slug it out in the corner, and Sting gets another press slam, into the bearhug.

Flair makes it to the corner to escape and Sting tries to follow with the Stinger splash, but misses and hits his arm on the post. Flair is all over him, tossing him and running him into the railing. Back in, Flair throws the chops and Sting goes down, so Flair hammers on the back. Kneedrop times two and Flair rips at the face just to be a bastard. He rakes the face on the ropes and fires more chops in the corner, and Sting ends up on the floor again. Flair sends him into the railing again and they head back in so Flair can chop him again. Sting gets fired up, though, and slugs Flair right out of the ring, but charges at Flair and hits the post. So the arm is hurt again and Flair goes to town back in the ring, but Sting pops up and slugs away in the corner. Clothesline gets two. Flair tries to make a run for it, but Sting suplexes him back in and into the Scorpion Deathlock. Flair quickly makes the ropes, so Sting takes Flair to the corner again and shrugs off a chop. He slugs Flair down for two, but Ric is in the ropes again. Sting hiptosses him and tries a clothesline, but Flair moves and Sting hits the floor again. Flair takes a breather, but Sting comes in with a high cross for two. Flair catches him with the kneecrusher, however, and starts pounding on the knee. Another kneecrusher and Sting bails to the floor. Back in, Flair pounds on the knee again and adds a backdrop suplex, and now we go to school! Flair uses the ropes to assist as usual, but Sting powers into the reversal. Flair is up first, however, and goes after the knee again, then sets up on the apron for a suplex. Crowd freaks out, but Sting suplexes him back in instead, only to miss a big splash.

They fight for the abdominal stretch and Sting wins that, but Flair hiptosses out. Flair chops him down and goes up, but Sting slams him off for two. He pulls Flair into the corner and posts him, then gets his own figure-four. Flair escapes, so Sting stomps on the knee again and yanks him out of the corner to work on the leg again. Flair Flip and he hits the floor, but Sting follows and beats on him. Flair tries a sunset flip back in, but Sting slugs him down and rakes Flair's face on the ropes. Sting fires away in the corner, then no-sells Flair's atomic drop and clotheslines him for two. Stinger splash misses and Sting hits the floor in dramatic fashion. Back in, they slug it out and Flair goes down, but comes back with a sleeper, so Sting rams him into the turnbuckle to break. Flair tosses him in desperation, but Sting comes back in with a sunset flip, which Flair blocks for two. Young kicks him out of the ropes and Sting gets two. Flair begs off and Sting whips him out, but Flair comes in with a high cross, reversed by Sting for two. Sting no-sells all of Flair's offense now, hammering him in the corner to set up the Stinger splash. Scorpion Deathlock with time running out, but Flair hangs on until the time limit. The decision: Two judges for Flair, two for Sting, one for a draw. Silly booking aside, I definitely gave this one short shrift on the original rant, as the full match flows much better and you can see the storyline of young and hungry Sting fighting for his life but not knowing how to finish. Definitely a modern classic. ****1/2

NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Terry Funk

And yet another of my favorite matches, as Flair defends in the main event of Great American Bash '89. I did this one fairly recently, but it's awesome so fuck it, let's do it again. The fight begins on the floor and Jim Ross is all over the history here. Funk argues with the fans at ringside and Flair nails him with an axehandle off the apron. Funk tosses chairs into the ring to distract Flair, and starts throwing chops off the lockup. Flair fires back with fists in a nice bit of reversal, and Funk bumps to the floor. Flair hits him off the apron again, but Funk sends him into the railing and won't let him into the ring. He finally suplexes Flair back into the ring for two. Flair blocks a second suplex and escapes to the floor, but Funk pounds on the neck. Flair tries a suplex to the floor from the apron, but they both fall to the floor as a result and start another brawl, with Funk going to the eyes to win that. Back in, Funk tries the piledriver, but Flair backdrops him out of the ring and then wrenches the neck to try and get revenge. Back in, Flair drops a knee on the back of the neck and gets two. Piledriver and Funk does his Three Stooges sell, so Flair gives him ANOTHER one. Funk bumps out of the ring this time and tries to crawl to the dressing room, but Flair drags him back in and slugs him down for two. Backdrop suplex sets up the figure-four, but Gary Hart hits Flair with the branding iron and the blood starts flowing.

Funk pounds on the cut in the corner and this time he's able to get the piledriver, but Flair's foot is on the ropes. Funk pulls up the mats on the floor and tries another one out there, but Flair backdrops out of it. Funk gets a weak shot off the apron, but Flair sells it like death anyway, and they head back into the ring. Funk with a pair of neckbreakers, but it only gets two and Flair takes him to the floor for more of a brawl. He runs Funk into the post to draw blood from THAT side of things, but he gets cocky and charges with a high knee that misses. Flair runs into the turnbuckles and Funk goes to work on the log with the spinning toehold, but Flair reverses to the figure-four, Funk reverses that to a cradle, and Flair reverses THAT for the pin at 16:10 to retain. Just a great fight to turn Flair into the big babyface champion again. ****1/4 Funk and Muta do the beatdown on Flair until Sting saves, and that's another bonus brawl to really give you your money's worth.

Disc Three

The Matches

Rowdy Roddy Piper v. Ric Flair

This is Flair's MSG "debut" (actually not, but we'll play along) and the reaction to his entrance is REALLY interesting, with pure WWF marks booing him, and everyone else giving him a crazy loud standing ovation. Piper also gets a mega-reaction so this will have heat if nothing else. They do the trash talk to start and Flair gives him a rare clean break, so Piper spits on him. Flair gives another clean break, and Piper bitchslaps him this time. Flair tries the headlock and Piper reverses out of it and smacks him down again. Piper knocks him down, so Flair comes back with the chop in the corner, but Piper slugs back and puts him down. We get a Flair Flop off that and he bails, so Piper chases and rams him into the railing. Back in, Piper knocks him down again and they criss-cross, but Piper wins that by punching him down and slugs away in the corner. Flair uses the ref to get a cheapshot in, however, and takes over. He works the headlock and they do the pinfall reversal sequence, as Piper gets a backslide for two. You don't see that from Piper very often! Flair tosses him three times and he keeps popping back in, so Flair takes him to the floor and throws chops in the aisle to put him down. Back in, Flair gets the necksnap on the way in. Piper throws down with own chops, however, and puts Flair down with a huge kneelift, which sends them back to the floor again. Back in, Piper slugs him in the corner, but the ref gets bumped. Flair attacks from behind and gets rolled up as a result, but there's no ref. Another ref comes in and Piper gets the rollup again, for two. Flair Flip and Piper clotheslines him on the apron, but Flair grabs a chair and clobbers Piper with it…for two. Piper comes back with the sleeper, but Flair quickly escapes with a backdrop suplex and goes up. Piper slams him off and fires away, then catches Flair with his down and gets a neckbreaker. He retrieves a chair of his own, but the ref prevents him and Flair takes him down and pins him with his feet on the ropes at 12:00. Wow, Piper does a semi-clean job? That's pretty high praise from him. Tremendous stuff. ***1/2

WCW World title: Ric Flair v. Ricky Steamboat.

This didn't really have any long-term storyline reasoning, it was just Flair wanting to put on a great match to highlight a PPV. Wacky concept, I know. It was also the subtle beginnings of Flair's heel turn, as he attacked Steamboat leading up to this. Flair takes him down and we do a bit of mat wrestling. Stalemate results. Steamboat overpowers him and they do more mat wrestling and start with the fisticuffsmanship. Criss-cross and Flair gets pressed and headscissored, twice. Dropkick puts Flair on the floor, and back in Steamboat gets the FLYING KARATE CHOP OF DEATH for two. Flair bails and regroups. Back in, he starts chopping, and they do that thing they do as Flair slowly goes heel. Steamboat holds onto a headlock, confounding Flair. That goes on a while, until Flair escapes, but gets headscissored back into a headlock again. Steamboat overpowers him, and a rollup gets two. Back to the headlock, and Steamboat grinds it in. It's little touches like that which keep the match interesting, as opposed to Austin and Muta laying around for five minutes. Flair chops out, but Steamboat goes back to it. Dropkick misses, however, and Flair is chopping again. Kneedrop and Flair pounds and chops, and drops another knee for two. Elbow gets two. They chops away and a crossbody puts both on the floor. Steamboat reverses a piledriver attempt, but charges and splats on the railing. Back in, Steamboat superplex gets two. Flair Flip and he walks into a chop and Steamboat follows with a flying chop to the floor. Back in, Steamboat pounds away in the corner with chops, and it's a Flair Flop for two. Sunset flip is blocked by Flair, but Steamboat blocks a kneedrop and hooks a figure-four. He keeps pulling Flair into the middle of the ring. The old shot to the jaw breaks it up. Flair gets a suplex, but his knee buckles and Steamboat gets two. Into the pinfall reversal sequence. Small package gets two. Flair chops him again and Steamer returns fire. Flair bails to the ramp, but gets chopped back in. Flair Flip and out, and Steamboat follows him out again, but this time Flair is one step ahead and gets a foot up to block. Flair heads back in, but Steamboat stalls until they slug it out on the apron. Flying bodypress gets two for Steamboat. Flair lays him out again, and goes up, but you know what happens next. Steamboat goes back up, but misses the flying splash and hits his knee. CUE OMINOUS MUSIC HERE. Figure-four, but Steamboat eventually makes the ropes. Flair stays on the knee and goes back to the move, but Steamboat reverses for two. Backslide gets two. Superplex and both guys are dead. Rollup gets two. Double chickenwing looks to finish, but Flair falls back (ala Clash VI) and this time BOTH guys are pinned at 32:20. Tie goes to the champion, so Flair retains. This one was lacking a certain spark to it, and it hurt a lot. ****1/4

Intercontinental title, Steel cage match: Ric Flair v. HHH

From Taboo Tuesday in 2005. Another silly vote, as the choices were "1 fall to a finish", submission, or steel cage. Well, duh. Flair gets the first chop and dares HHH to bring it on, and they slug it out in the corner. Flair actually wins that one pretty handily before HHH uses the knee and takes him down. Choking in the corner, but Flair is all about the chops, so HHH hits him with a spinebuster. Flair is already bleeding, so HHH introduces him to the cold, hard, unforgiving, yada yada, and makes it official. Very few people go into the cage face-first with the gusto that Flair has over the years. And of course we get the cheese grater action on Flair, because it just wouldn't be Flair in a cage match without it. Nice, simple move from HHH, too, as he splashes Flair into the cage while he's recovering. Flair's bladejob is just gory.

HHH adds a little insult to injury, dropping a Flair-like knee on him before sending him back into the cage again. HHH casually climbs up and over, but Flair stops him and they slug it out on the top rope. No surprise what happens next, as Flair takes his patented crotch-first bump, but so does HHH. However, HHH finds a piece of chain left untied at top, only to jump onto Flair's boot. See, that's one time where the spot at least makes some sense -- HHH was specifically trying a fistdrop off the top rather than some indeterminate move. Flair goes for the figure-four to capitalize, but HHH still has the chain on his fist, and he makes use of it to block. Good timing there.

HHH keeps slugging away and Flair keeps bleeding, setting up a Flair Flop and another kneedrop from HHH. Just for fun, HHH puts him in a figure-four, and Flair yelling "I'll kill you!" while he fights it is tremendous stuff. Not quite Kurt Angle yelling "Tap or I'll break your fucking ankle!" at the Rock in 2001, but up there nonetheless. Flair reverses it, but HHH makes the ropes. HHH makes another attempt at the figure-four, really rubbing it into the fans' faces, but Flair shoves him into the cage and it's double juice. Flair biting the cut like a maniac is great, and he pounds away on the cut, finally back in his element as a cheating bastard. HHH gets treated to payback for all the cage spots, and Flair even fish-hooks him, which is even illegal in the UFC! Now that's cheating!

Flair gets a vertical suplex and his own kneedrops, as this is all setup and payoff, and Flair chops him to set up the chop block. Flair goes to work on the leg, literally smelling blood (I should write this stuff for these announcers...) and pounds the crap out of the leg. Figure-four follows, with a good visual of a bloody HHH screaming in pain. It doesn't take much to entertain me sometimes. HHH finally nails the ref to break the move, but Flair goes right back to the leg again. Flair climbs, but suckers HHH into an axehandle off the top for two. Low blow follows. I always consider adding an extra star for every time HHH gets nailed in the junk. It just doesn't get old.

Flair tries to walk out, but gets pulled in by HHH, bringing a chair in with him. HHH takes a swing with it, but Flair goes back to the babymaker again, thus adding another star. KICK WHAM PEDIGREE is reversed to a backdrop and Flair keeps it simple, clobbering him with the chair. THREE TIMES. It's like my dream HHH match. And that's enough to walk out at 23:45. This was some tremendous old-school stuff, with HHH doing all sorts of nasty stuff to Flair and then having it all done back to him again, and Flair the old dog using every cheap trick in the book to hold off the challenger. The ending was a bit weak, with a pinfall or submission really being needed here, but any match that has HHH getting abused to this degree earns my respect. ***3/4

And finally…

Ric Flair v. Shawn Michaels

From Wrestlemania 24, complete with the Fuel music video beforehand. I didn't actually do a proper rant on the show the first time, so here you go. This is the panned and scanned version instead of the proper widescreen one, which will likely become more of an issue with these compilation DVDs as we proceed into the digital era. It doesn't bug me so much here because I do these rants on my older tube TV in my office, but it's nice to have the originally intended version. Shawn puts him down off a headlock and teases a strut, but thinks better of it. Flair tries a hammerlock and Shawn reverses, but Flair takes him down with a drop toehold. They continue with the hammerlock until Flair hiptosses out of it. Shoving match in the corner and Shawn gives him a slap for his troubles, so Ric fires back with the chops. They exchange those until Shawn puts his head down and gets booted, and Flair follows with the back elbow and drops the knee. Flair charges and gets elbowed down, but Shawn goes up and gets slammed off. Flair goes up as well and gets a high cross for two, then follows with a kneecrusher, but Shawn boots him out of the ring. He follows with a baseball slide and tries a moonsault press off the apron, but misses and takes out the announce table instead. Back in, Flair takes over and whips him into the corner and gets a backdrop suplex for two. Butterfly suplex gets two. Delayed vertical suplex gets two. Shawn fights back with chops and a neckbreaker, and he backdrops Flair onto the floor. He follows with a moonsault to the floor that misses by a foot, and back in Flair takes over.

They trade chops with the crowd clearly booing Shawn now, and Shawn gets the flying forearm and kips up. Flying elbow and Shawn sets up for the superkick, but hesitates and gets put in the figure-four as a result. Shawn reverses to escape and they try one last pinfall reversal sequence, but Flair just can't do it anymore. To me, that was the saddest part. Shawn with a sunset flip for two. Flair whips him into the corner and clips the knee, but Shawn cradles off the figure-four attempt for two. Flair gets another one and pulls Shawn into the middle of the ring, but he fights and makes the ropes. Flair stops to style and profile, and walks into the superkick as a result. Shawn gets two off that. Shawn sets up again, but this time Flair goes low and gets two. Shawn comes back with an inverted figure-four, but Flair makes the ropes and thumbs him in the eye. Rollup gets two. Flair chops him again, but Shawn fires back with a superkick on instinct and Flair is done. But he sets up one more time and we get the now-famous "I'm sorry and I love you", and the superkick ends Flair's career at 20:23.

I still don't think it's that great of a match, although the storyline argument is an entirely different one. Outside of the obvious missed spots, the thing that really bugs about the match is that I didn't ENJOY it. The best matches for me are joyous ones, with two guys beating each other up for a grudge or the joy of combat or a title. This was a sad occasion, the greatest wrestler in history being forced to go out on someone else's terms long after he should have made that decision himself, and it brought me no joy. Yeah, it was good for the most part, but would 1989 Flair have watched this and wanted to go out in a match where he couldn't even bridge up on the pinfall reversal spot? ***1/4

Bonus Features

- From RAW, March 31 2008, Flair says farewell. Your basic thank you message, and then HHH comes out to say that he loves Flair and thanks him right back. Aww. And then he brings out Tully Blanchard, JJ Dillon, Arn Anderson and Barry Windham, complete with classic WCW music. We also get Batista, Ricky Steamboat (with "Sirius" sadly changed to generic music for copyright reasons), Harley Race (who still looks like he did in the 80s despite needing help to get into the ring), Greg Valentine (apparently frozen in time in 1986 as well), Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, John Cena, the Flair family (rendering Flair into a total crying wreck), and of course Shawn Michaels. The last one provokes some tension from the crowd, but they hug it out. And then hey, let's just bring out the entire roster to say thank you, why not? That's the end of the show, but we continue on here on DVD with Undertaker also coming out and paying tribute. And of course Vince McMahon. Flair beats up his jacket for old time's sake, and we're done. I know they couldn't have stopped Wrestlemania to give him this tribute, but I kind of wish they did. It also makes the mind boggle that they would take all this trouble to pay tribute to him upon his retirement and he would basically piss away the goodwill by leaving the company in a huff a few weeks later.

And now onto happier times…

- From the very early 80s, a quick vignette as Flair points out that he's a jet-flyin', limousine ridin', real man who is fabulously wealthy and brings beautiful scantily clad women with him just in case he needs them around.

- From World Championship Wrestling, May 1985. Flair once again talks about how great it is to be him and how great it is to be World champion, and really that's the only subject he needs to forge a promo.

- From World Championship Wrestling, June 1985. Flair's gonna make Nikita into his personal gardener and David and Tony are both on the verge of cracking up on camera.

- From World Championship Wrestling, August 1985. As he left New York last night, all the women were hollering "There goes the boss!" and Bruce Springsteen was nowhere to be found. Another promo about how Dusty is an ignorant redneck and he's the World champion. Ric goes off on Magnum's lack of physique and it's just hilarious.

- From World Championship Wrestling, September 1985. Back to the subject of Nikita Koloff, as he warns Dusty never to stick his nose in his business because he'll deal with the Russians himself, thank you. He gets so wrapped up in his own promo that he has to tell the director to let him finish. What's causing all of this? Why, Slick Ric, of course.

- From World Championship Wrestling, September 1985. Flair gets grilled by David Crockett about why he attacked Dusty Rhodes and broke his leg, which leads Flair onto another rant about his expensive suits and endless women in his limo.

- From World Championship Wrestling, December 1985. Ric Flair defends against Ron Garvin later in the show, but first he's gotta cut a promo about it. He's feeling so good he might just stick around for another 20 years. 23, to be exact.

- From World Championship Wrestling, April 1987. The Four Horsemen introduce the Space Mountainettes. He shares the wealth with Tony, who is clearly on the verge of losing it, and then moves onto his offer for Precious: A t-shirt with "I Want To Ride Space Mountain" for when he beats Jimmy Garvin and wins her services. She comes out and Flair gives her a fur coat, but then she turns her back on him and leaves with it.

- From World Championship Wrestling, November 1987. Flair does the go-home promo for Starrcade '87, talking about how people don't like his privileged upbringing and generally being better than everyone else in the world. He goes on another crazy rant about his Rolex and expensive shoes and how Starrcade is the only thing going on Thanksgiving night. That was a rare shot across the bow of the WWF.

The Pulse

Well, they call this one "Definitive" but really there's STILL hours of great matches left untouched, as neither this nor the "Ultimate" set that was out previously touch on his WCW run from 94-2000 in any great detail. This is more like "The best of what we had left without overlapping" and it feels like a cash grab. A cash grab with multiple **** matches, sure, but one nonetheless. That being said, Flair DVD sets are no-brainers -- just find a bunch of great matches that are unreleased, throw on 12 - 20 random promos from the 80s, and I'll buy it. So they must be doing something right.

Strongly recommended despite all its weaknesses.

- Live from Portland, OR

- Your hosts are Todd Grisham, Tazz, JR, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler…as the Beaver.

ECW World title: Matt Hardy v. Mark Henry

Henry gives Matt a clean break to start and then powers him down and pounds him with the clubbing forearms and knees in the corner. He misses a short charge and Matt starts kicking at the knee, but Henry clotheslines him and then levels him with a forearm shot off a charge. Matt goes after the knee again, but takes it to the floor and gets tossed into the stairs like a fly. Back in, Henry fights him off again and puts him down with a big boot for two. Mark goes up with a stomp from the middle rope, and that gets two. We hit the chinlock, but Matt fights up and then promptly walks into a bearhug. Matt keeps fighting, however, and gets the Side Effect for two. Henry powers out of the Twist of Fate and adds a big splash, but he hurts the knee and only gets two. Matt comes back one last time, hitting the knee to escape the powerslam, and finishes with the Twist of Fate at 8:06. Quite decent with the David v. Goliath story working like it generally always does when done properly. **1/2

Meanwhile, HHH and Jeff Hardy do a joint interview backstage, as HHH texts his vote for himself (but he's rooting for Jeff) and he wants Jeff to be at his best so he can beat the best.

Women's title: Beth Phoenix v. Candice Michelle

Candice dropkicks the knee for two and takes her down for a rollup for two. Low dropkick gets two. Enzuigiri (and not a pretty one) and Candice fires away in the corner, but Beth picks her up in a fireman's carry and rams her into the corner. Candice kicks at the knee in response, but Beth sends her shoulder into the post for two. She works the arm on the mat, thankfully switching from a cross-armbreaker to a wristlock. Seriously, it's 2008, we've all seen UFC and we know that if you really do that move, you break the arm. Candice fights up with a dropkick for two, but Beth blocks a legsweep and faceplants her. Beth goes up and gets knocked down, and Candice dropkicks her for two, as Santino saves. Candice makes the mistake of going after him, and Beth clobbers her, but Glamarella has another argument and Candice gets two. Beth kills her dead with the chickenwing-bomb at 4:50, however. Another notch on the Moolah-Meter. Not embarrassingly bad like the Tramp Stamp side of the division, and that's enough these days, but Candice looked like an amateur out there next to Beth with her half-assed dropkicks and shrinking muscle tone. **

Meanwhile, Kane once again is angry and very confused. Apparently we all wear metaphorical masks or something.

Mask v. Nothing: Rey Mysterio v. Kane

Wouldn't it be fair to make Kane put his mask back on if he loses? Rey wisely dodges Kane to start and dropkicks him to the floor, but walks into the big boot. Rey comes back with a seated dropkick and springboards in with another dropkick, but a clothesline blocks the 619 attempt. Rey tries a rana and gets blocked, but he pulls Kane to the floor anyway and follows with a pescado. Kane catches him and dumps him into the front row. Rey meets the post and they head back in so that Kane can dole out more punishment. We hit the chinlock and Kane boots him down again for two. He follows with a backbreaker submission, but Rey slugs out of it and reverses a sideslam into an inverted DDT. Cole describes it as "swashbuckling", which is one of the reasons why no one likes him. Kane hammers him in the corner, but Rey comes out with a moonsault press and slugs back. He kicks Kane down and comes off with the top with a guillotine legdrop for two. Kane catches him again with a sideslam for two and looks to finish with the chokeslam, but Rey escapes it and springboards at him with some messed up DDT-like move. Splash gets two. Rey goes up and gets caught coming down, and Kane gets two. Kane misses a boot in the corner and Rey 619's the leg to put Kane on the floor, but flies into a chair for the DQ at 10:03. Did Kane think the ref wouldn't see it? Really good crowd heat for what seemed like it could have been another typical big v. little match, thanks to Rey bumping like crazy. ***

Meanwhile, MVP demands to see Vickie, but can't get past Big Show. Show's "I've been focusing on the Undertaker, but if you keep bothering me I'm gonna focus on YOU" is a pretty good heel line.

So MVP joins us, pleading his case to the crowd for his mistreatment on Smackdown. Randy Orton interrupts and he's not particularly impressed with MVP's skills. Rhodes & Dibiase & Manu join him and the crowd just gets on Cody right away with a "boring" chant, rattling him. Apparently the threesome is against Orton right now before they do the obvious "swerve" and have them join the Age of Orton. I like Manu's Big Show Lite look better than his crazy samoan look. MVP tries to get on board with the second generation, but they show disdain for anyone without a famous father. MVP decides to leave, but now CM Punk and Kofi Kingston join us and ask for his help in brawling with the New Kids. And they punk him by sending him in first and leaving him to take a beating, but then join him and clean house themselves. Did I switch over to RAW or something?

JBL v. Batista

They slug it out to start and JBL loses that one, and Batista puts him down with a clothesline. Boot to the head gets two. Batista slugs away in the corner, but runs into a boot. JBL sets up for the Clothesline from New York, but Batista blocks him with a spear and JBL rolls out to recover. Back in, JBL slugs him off the apron and they brawl outside and back in. JBL gets two and takes over. Neckbreaker and elbow gets two. JBL hits the chinlock, but Batista suplexes out and wins a slugfest, then puts him down with another clothesline. Corner clothesline follows, into the running powerslam. JBL blocks a spear with a big boot, but Batista is in no mood and finishes with the spinebuster and Batista bomb at 5:15. No screwing around there. I had no beef with this. **1/2 JBL, from his position counting the lights on the mat, asks for the microphone and complains about the bad week he's been having. And then he gets his heat back by cutting a hilarious promo about how great the bailout is for him because it costs everyone $10,000 per household and he gets to keep his penthouse apartment and millions of dollars. I sense some subtle political commentary from the WWE. And then it gets sillier as Cryme Tyme and Sgt. Slaughter steal his limo in the back.

Big Show v. Undertaker

JR, apparently trying to one-up Michael Cole, calls Big Show "cyclopean", apparently having missed out on Show having both eyes. Slugfest to start and Show clotheslines UT to the floor, but gets necksnapped. They brawl on the floor and Show gives him some good shots to the ribs and sends him into the railing, but Taker comes back and puts Show into the post. Taker pounds him on the floor and adds the guillotine legdrop, and they head back in. Taker hits him with a corner clothesline, but gets mowed down by a clothesline. Show throws hands in the corner, again working on the ribs, then drops an elbow for two. Back to the ribs and he adds a legsweep for two. Taker fights from his knees, but Show knees him in the head to put him down and pounds away. Taker fights up, but Show headbutts him down again…and goes up? Pump splash misses and Taker fires back again and hits the flying clothesline. Legdrop gets two. Old school ropewalk, but Show catches him with the chokeslam for two. Taker ducks the knockout punch and tries his own chokeslam, but Show counters that, so Taker DDTs him instead for two. Kudos to Show for taking that bump. Taker slugs him down in the corner, but Show takes the turnbuckle off and rams Taker into it, and knocks him out cold with three punches at 10:03. Now there's a finish you don't see every day. Unless you're Kimbo Slice. This was quite good, as if you're gonna have two 300 pound guys out there, might as well have them beat the hell out of each other. ***1/2 Show's ending rabbit punch is why MMA refs would stop the match BEFORE he got a chance to hurt his opponent. As a WRESTLING finish, though, it worked.

Smackdown World title: HHH v. Jeff Hardy

HHH gives the handshake and then clobbers him from behind, getting two. He starts working on the arm, but Jeff flips out of it and takes him down with the headlock. HHH wins the battle for a hiptoss, but Hardy takes him down with another headlock and hangs onto that. HHH elbows him down to break, but Hardy gets a flying headscissors and puts the champ on the floor with a clothesline. He follows with a dive, but HHH directs him into the floor instead. Back in, Jeff slingshots in with a legdrop for two and it's back to the headlock on the mat. HHH backdrops him to the apron to escape, but Jeff tries a sunset flip, which HHH blocks with a Pedigree attempt in an "Ooooooh" moment from the crowd. Jeff backdrops out of it, but then tries a flip dive and splats on the floor. HHH lets the count run and then tosses Jeff back in, for two. Backbreaker and he drops elbows on the back, for two. Jeff fights up, but a facecrusher gets two. HHH drops the knee for two. He works Jeff over in the corner, but runs into a boot, then recovers with the abdominal stretch as he goes old school heel. And he even uses the ropes, but gets caught. So he switches to the sleeper, but Jeff takes him down to escape and then follows with a mule kick for two. Seated dropkick gets two. He whips HHH right to the floor and this time gets his tope con hilo, as JR is all about the baseball analogies tonight. Back in, a clothesline from the middle rope gets two. Twist of Fate is reversed into a clothesline, however, and HHH gets two. Hardy charges and hits elbow, but HHH comes off the middle and gets caught, allowing Jeff to hit a gourdbuster for two. Jeff tries the Whisper in the Wind, but HHH powers him down for two in kind of an ugly spot. MAIN EVENT SPINEBUSTER and HHH sets up to finish, but Jeff reverses the Pedigree into a catapult, and Whisper in the Wind gets two. Mule kick in the corner and Jeff goes up, but he whiffs on the swanton and it's KICK WHAM…Twist of Fate? Wow, not many people get to reverse the Pedigree. Jeff pulls off that miracle and hits the swanton, but HHH cradles for the pin to retain at 17:00. Ooooh, so close. See, kids, never leave your shoulders down. I was way into this one and thought they were gonna pull the trigger there for a second. ****

RAW World title, ladder match: Chris Jericho v. Shawn Michaels

Shawn overpowers Jericho and teases the superkick, but Jericho evades him. Shawn charges and hits the post, and Jericho hits a northern lights suplex, which leads into a pinfall reversal sequence in a match without pinfalls. Jericho clotheslines him to the apron and puts him on the floor with a nasty springboard shoulderblock. He tries whipping Shawn into the ladder, but Shawn climbs it and uses the momentum to hit a cross-body. Jericho sends him into the post again and charges with the ladder, forcing Shawn to counter with a drop toehold. Shawn gets his own ladder, but Jericho takes him down with the Walls of Jericho and brings the ladder into the ring. Shawn see-saws it into his face, however, and sets it up for the first climb attempt, as Jericho now appears to be down one tooth. Hey, that's BLOOD. Someone alert Vince. Jericho pulls him down and catapults him, but Shawn grabs the ladder and climbs again, so Jericho brings the ladder down. Crude but effective. Jericho beats on Shawn with the ladder, then whips him into the corner, but Shawn reverses him into the ladder and brings it down on his knee. Shawn puts the ladder in the corner and adds a kneecrusher onto it, then goes to the figure-four to really kill the knee. Jericho reverses out and then kicks the ladder into Shawn's face for good measure, then catapults him under the ladder. And then we get an incredibly brutal spot, with Shawn's head getting sandwiched in the ladder, and Jericho climbs. Shawn stops him, so Jericho sets up the ladder in the corner and then gets reversed into it. They brawl to the floor and Jericho gets the worst of it, as Shawn drops ladders on him and BRINGS THE HATRED~! Sportsmanship is nice, but sometimes you just need a good vendetta, ya know?

Shawn puts Jericho on the table and climbs a monster ladder, but Jericho follows and you know it's gonna be good. And indeed, it's a backdrop suplex through the table, taking both of them out. Shawn emerges first from the wreckage and sets up with a ladder on the top rope, but Jericho recovers and dropkicks it back at him. They fight on top and Jericho climbs the ladder and sets up for a superplex, but Shawn pushes the ladder over to escape, leaving it on top of Jericho. Flying elbow onto the ladder follows, and the laws of physics say that's a dumb move. Luckily Shawn suffers less damage and he sets up for the superkick, but Jericho counters by smashing him in the face with a ladder. I love this match. So Jericho also gets goofy by Lionsaulting Shawn under a ladder, which again hurts him worse. Jericho sets up the ladder and pins Shawn underneath, but Shawn has the POWER and pushes the ladder over, sending Jericho to the floor as a result. This seems to leave things free and clear for Shawn to win, but Jericho pushes the ladder over just as Shawn starts undoing the belt. Jericho takes his turn at climbing now, but Shawn follows him up for the slugfest on the ladder, which results in Jericho falling back and getting hung up in the rungs. Lance Cade runs in to save his meal ticket, and Shawn stops to go after him with a superkick and they battle for the belt on top. The belt is freed and Shawn hammers away in desperation, but Jericho headbutts him and falls off with the belt to win at 22:22. That finish with both guys having a tug-of-war for the belt was something else, man. Match of the year thus far, there I said it. ****3/4 And what I loved was that they didn't try to out-crazy the previous ladder spots, but merely took the existing ones and made them more bitter and hateful. More blood (or at least intentional blood) would have been nice, too, but it didn't hinder the match for me like it did with the Edge-UT Hell In a Cell deal. The Cade run-in really wasn't needed, though, and that deducts the 1/4* if you're playing along at home.

So yeah, the last three matches comprised basically half the show's running time, which makes this one an overwhelming thumbs up. Especially surprising given how lackluster the show looked on paper, but the big matches delivered and I'm happy.

Don't forget to check out Dungeon of Death, available in bookstores everywhere (and Amazon) on October 28!

Tandem Rant for Summerslam 98

- Live from New York, NY.

- Your hosts are JR & King

European title: D-Lo Brown v. Val Venis

This was very early in Val's run when he was the hot new thing and was expected to carry the promotion in later years. Funny how things very rarely work out like they expect. They fight for the lockup and D-Lo offers the handshake of sportsmanship, then gives a cheapshot on the next one. Val tries a forearm shot to the chest, but D-Lo's chest protector does its job, so Val slugs away until D-Lo knocks him down with a shoulderblock. D-Lo follows with an avalanche to really drive the point home, but a second one misses and Val takes him down with a legsweep and follows with a dropkick. D-Lo runs away, but Val slingshots him back into the ring. Criss-cross and Val has a rollup blocked, but comes back with a spinebuster for two, back before it became the standard setup move for every main eventer.

Val with a clothesline and splash, but it misses and D-Lo slugs back. Backdrop suplex follows and D-Lo whips Val into the corner With Authority, but Val wants a slugfest. Val follows with a t-bone suplex, but D-Lo clotheslines him and gets a legdrop for two. Leg lariat gets two. Val fights up and tries a slam, but D-Lo clotheslines him down again and goes up with an elbow off the middle rope for two. Val tries a suplex, but D-Lo reverses him into a Texas Cloverleaf and forces Val to make the ropes. D-Lo goes up again, but misses a senton and Val comes back with the running knees. Elbowdrop and he goes up, but D-Lo catches him with the Sky High powerbomb. That gets two. DDT gets two off a nice reversal sequence. D-Lo heads up again and gets caught this time, but fights Val off. He comes down and gets caught in a powerslam, however, and Val gets two.

Val goes up again and then changes his mind and goes with a butterfly suplex instead, then heads up for the Money Shot…but it hits the knees. D-Lo tries the running powerbomb, but can't get Val up and drops him on his head by accident. That might hurt someone one of these days! Another try works and he goes up, but the frog splash misses and Val makes the comeback. He elbows D-Lo down and then steals the chest protector, hitting him with a powerslam before donning the protector and going up. The ref tries to stop him, however, and inadvertently crotches him, so Val shoves the ref down for the DQ at 15:20. That's a long match for such a lame finish. They were really letting it all hang out, though. ***1/2

Mike Says – Can’t say I disagree too much with Scott’s assessment to be honest. To have a DQ in the opener is always a lame idea but both men were trying really hard and the match had some good heat. I’m going with *** here.

Meanwhile, Mankind is offended that Steve Austin has previously destroyed the Undertaker's hearse, since he was in it at the time, but that's OK because he's got a sledgehammer anyway.

Kaientai w/ Yamaguchi San Vs The Oddities w/ Luna and Insane Clown Posse

ICP try their best to rap The Oddities down to the ring. All I can say is that as far as rapping goes they make great wrestlers. I wonder if you could hire Giant Silva and Kurrgan for birthday parties? This was during a period where they were trying to get Kurrgan and Silva over so they gave them the gimmick of being weirdo’s and then stuck poor John Tenta with them as Golga to hold the matches together. Kaientai, on account of them being small, Japanese and not knowing how to work, are allowed to have a 4 on 3 advantage here.

Got to love WWF/E logic. Taka Michinoku, the current Light Heavyweight Champion at the time, starts with Golga and gets promptly head butted. Golga then goes outside and steals one of Yamaguchi’s sneakers and pours a beer in it. Oh the hilarity! Kurgan and Funaki go at it next and Kurrgan uses the power of racism to gain the advantage. Kaientai try to quadruple team Kurrgan but that fails because, try as they might, they’re Japanese wrestlers and thus they have no chance against the comedy antics of the Oddities.

Silva comes in next and everyone bails because even though Kurrgan and Golga are big, Silva is just taking the piss. Silva shoves Dick Togo around as J.R tries to defend this shower of shite match. I can’t believe Silva turned out to be a semi reasonable shoot fighter as his offence looks horrible here. Finally, after what seems like years of crappy comedy, Golga comes in and actually hits some good looking offence. With Golga being the only Oddity who isn’t crap, the match picks up a little as he gets triple teamed takes the heat. He soon makes him own comeback though and tags in Kurrgan for the luke warm tag. Crowd is completely dead here which is horrific considering how hot they were for the opener. All of Kaientai get choke slammed and Golga splashes them all to end the agony.

WINNERS – THE ODDITIES

LOSERS – THE REST OF HUMANITY

Time - 10:10

½* - Horrible, just fucking horrible. I was actually offended watching it and that’s just unacceptable.

Scott Says - It breaks my heart how Kaientai were 10 years
before their time, because if they come in via ROH they would have
ripped up the US scene and probably found a home where someone knew
how to book them.  That is to say, against each other in tag team
matches forever.  The Oddities was a dumb concept that never got over
and yet they were big so people, that is to say Vince, didn't want to
give up on them.  The match was mostly harmless in the grand scheme of
things, though.

Haircut match: X-Pac v. Jeff Jarrett

This probably would have been more effective had Jarrett still had his 80s hair rather than his post-WCW longish cut. Howard Finkel, whitest guy in the room, is an honorary member of D-X tonight after being attacked and shaved by Southern Justice on Heat, which gives us the disturbing image of the Fink doing crotch-chops during X-Pac's entrance. JJ attacks to start, but X-Pac hits him with the spinkick and dumps him with a clothesline. He follows with a slightly botched springboard tope, and then dodges Jarrett coming back in. JJ hits him with a pair of dropkicks to put him on the floor, but they brawl out there and Jarrett rams him nut-first into the post. Well that's OK, Chyna has the bigger dick anyway.

Back in, Jarrett slugs him in the corner and whips him into the turnbuckles, but a blind charge hits boot. Jarrett recovers with a powerslam for two and a corner clothesline, but X-Pac gets a tornado DDT for two. Jarrett goes with the sleeper and X-Pac reverses to his own, but Jarrett puts him on the top rope to break. X-Pac elbows him down, but misses a bodypress and both guys are out. JJ gets two off that. X-Pac tries to fight back with a spinkick, but whiffs completely and Jarrett gets the figure-four. X-Pac makes the ropes and Jarrett tries it again, but X-Pac kicks out this time and hits a backdrop suplex for the double KO. X-Pac recovers and a reversal sequence sees X-Pac hit a bodypress out of the corner for two. JJ tries a rana, blocked with a powerbomb for two.

X-Pac charges and hits the corner, allowing Jarrett to roll him up for two, reversed for two by X-Pac. Broncobuster, but Jarrett gets his foot up to block, which draws the ire of the Fink. Jarrett gets distracted, however, and the X-Factor gets two. Southern Justice heads out and brings the guitar, but X-Pac gets it, El Kabong, and Jarrett goes bald at 11:11. Lemme just stop and ask: Who really bought the Godwinns as badass bodyguards? This was good stuff, with X-Pac bumping all over the place back when he cared enough to die just to spite WCW. You have to respect that a little. ***1/4

Mike Says – Again I find myself agreeing with Scott here. Solid match with good selling and story. The post match haircut is very disappointing though as the shavers break and Jarrett gets a mild trim rather than a haircut. I’ll go ***1/4.

Marc Mero & Jacqueline v. Sable & Edge

Edge is the ever-popular Mystery Partner, and the other Great White Hope for the promotion along with Val Venis back in 1998. Well, they were half-right, at least. Mero slugs away on Edge in the corner, but he comes back with armdrags and forces Mero to tag Jackie in. So it's over to Sable, but Jackie runs away and tags Mero again. So we're back to Mero v. Edge, and Edge gets a flapjack but gets caught from behind by Mero, who adds a kneelift. He sets up for the TKO after taunting Sable, but Edge counters out to the DDT, and it's hot tag Sable. She tosses Jackie around and it turns into a footrace, but she goes after Mero and kicks him low to set up a Sablebomb. Jackie breaks that up lest she somehow defy the laws of physics by actually pulling it off, but Jackie's offense ends with a TKO from Sable that gets two.

The heels double-team Sable, but miscommunication puts Mero on the floor, and Edge tags in for an EPIC tope con hilo. Jackie dives onto him, but Edge gives her a spanking and then heads back in with a high cross on Mero for two. Neckbreaker out of the corner gets two. Rollup gets two. Mero comes back with the samoan drop out of the corner and goes up, but Edge brings him down and Sable hits a Sable-canrana for two. Edge whips Mero into Jackie for the standard "headbutt to the nuts" spot, and Edge finishes Mero with a downward spiral and drops Sable on him for the pin at 8:25. Man, Edge just looked SO green out there, and the match just kind of meandered from spot to spot. Edge got quickly repackaged into Gangrel's lackey after this. **

Mike Says - I found myself enjoying this more than Scott here. It was amazing watching Sable actually give a crap and she was trying so hard in the ring at this point to be above passable that I can’t help but respect her for it. Plus, the rana looked quite good too. I’m going **3/4 with a whole * being for effort, I loves my effort I do.

Lions Den Match

Owen Hart w/ Dan Severn Vs Ken Shamrock

They’re basically wrestling in a fake octagon here. This was the first hint of the UFC starting to influence the American Wrestling Scene. Back then UFC was very much a niche product instead of the worldwide phenomenon it is today. Shamrock wastes no time ramming Owen into the cage and slamming him down to the mat. Owen fights back with right hands. Shamrock hits a back suplex, which sort of kills the point of doing a fake shoot fight but meh. Owen whips Shamrock into the cage but he bounces back with a clothesline and starts choking Owen with his own shirt.

Owen is bleeding from the mouth. Shamrock gets an awesome move by running into the cage and bouncing off it with a back elbow. That looked great. Owen fights back with right hands and makes Shamrock eat some cage. Owenzuiguri floors Shamrock and Owen then flapjacks Shamrock into the cage. That looked unpleasant to say the least. It could be Sharpshooter time but Shamrock kicks him off. Owen tries a rana but gets caught with a Powerbomb. Shamrock is just nailing Owen with kicks here. Owen gives Shamrock a side belly to belly and locks in the Sharpshooter. Shamrock uses the cage to pull himself up and break the hold in a neat spot and then DRILLS Owen with a DDT. Owen sends Shamrock into the cage one more time and tries the Beats Chokers but Shamrock counters and puts Owen in the Ankle Lock for the submission as Severn walks away.

WINNER – KEN SHAMROCK

Time - 09:16

***1/2 – That was a really entertaining match as Shamrock was in the middle of a hot streak of matches and Owen Hart was always awesome in pretty much anything he did. I reckon it would be worked a bit differently today though with less wrestling moves and more mat work. In fact, the Joe/Angle Lockdown match was the modern evolution of this match in many ways.

Scott Says - I quite enjoyed this watching it 10 years later, as
I thought it would come across stupid and gimmicky and yet it still
really worked because Owen was such a fantastic worker at that point.
Absolutely a ***1/2 match.

Stone Cold is with Michael Cole and he’s going to do whatever he has to for the win tonight.

WWF Tag Team Championship

No DQ

Champions – Mankind and Kane

Vs

The New Age Outlaws

Kane supposedly has no showed here leaving Mankind in a handicap match which is weird considering he’s the heel. Mankind wears the Outlaws out with a tray to start. Mankind and Gunn have a chair duel that goes Mankind’s way but Road Dogg distracts him and the Outlaws take over. The Outlaws take turns hitting Mankind with weapons as the crowd isn’t really sure how to react to the supposed faces beating up Mankind in a heelish manner. God I hate Vince Russo, with visceral passion. This has his “shades of grey” bullshit all over it. The Outlaws give Mankind a Russian Leg Sweep into the side of a dumpster and bring him back inside where they grab a table. Mankind fights back and throws Gunn into the table but he’s soon double teamed again. Fans finally just give up and start chanting Foley as The Outlaws Powerbomb him on two chairs for a near fall. A spike piledriver on a belt finally ends the massacre.

WINNERS – NEW AGE OUTLAWS

Time - 05:16

* - For Mankinds bumping as this match made no sense on so many levels. Mankind even gets beaten up post match as the Outlaws put him a dumpster where Kane magically appears and hits Mankind with a sledgehammer. This would have been great if Mankind was turning face but he was a heel for something like 3 months after this. Witness the genius of Vince Russo people. He sure made me a believer

Scott Says - I barely even remember this happening, but that's a
given for much of the tag title switches in 98-2000

WWF Intercontinental title, Ladder match: The Rock v. HHH

Man, I haven't watched this one in 10 years. Mark Henry and Chyna are at ringside. This is weird for me because I was cheering for HHH at this point, since this was the match that turned me into a fan of the Rock. Now, of course, do I even need to say? HHH gets a facebuster and Rock tries the Rock Bottom, but HHH fights him off and they slug it out in the corner. Rock wins that one, but HHH goes for the Pedigree and Rock backdrops him to the floor. They brawl on the floor and HHH whips him into the railing and then back into the ring, where Rock slugs away on him. HHH USES THE KNEE and makes the first attempt at getting the ladder, but Rock clobbers him from behind to prevent that, and stomps away. Rock gets the ladder, but HHH sends him into the railing.

Rock comes back and whips HHH into the ladder in a nice bump and finally the ladder gets into the ring. Rock makes the first slow climb, but HHH dives off the top and knocks it down to stop him, then hits him with the ladder for good measure. Now it's HHH's turn to do the slow climb, but Rock knocks him off and injures the knee. Rock goes to work on the leg (psychology in a ladder match? Say what?) and drops the ladder on it, then sandwiches it in the ladder and stomps it. See, at least that can explain the slow climbing, since HHH obviously can't climb at full speed. Rock, however, has no excuse here unless he's terrified of heights. Rock wraps the knee around the post and puts the ladder outside, then drops HHH on it with a kneecrusher. And with HHH obviously done, Rock brings the ladder in and does the incredibly slow climb, giving HHH a chance to make the save.

HHH dumps Rock and sets the ladder against the railing, but Rock catapults him into it as Hunter is just bumping like a crazy man here. Speaking of which, HHH fights back and tries a Pedigree on the floor, but Rock backdrops him onto the ladder. Back in, Mark Henry tosses Rock another ladder and does the annoying rung-by-rung slow climb that no human being in the world ever does, and Henry brawls with Chyna at ringside until HHH is able to shove the ladder over. Rock hits the floor and HHH baseball slides the ladder into him and Rock starts bleeding just as I was about to complain that someone should be bleeding. They know me so well. HHH does the slow climb, but Rock shoves the ladder out from under him to save and slugs away in the corner, into a DDT. Rock recovers first and climbs…very….slowly, but HHH slowly chases him. They slug it out on top of the ladder and Rock tosses HHH into the other ladder, but HHH rebounds during his sell and falls into the Rock's ladder, leaving everyone down on the mat.

Chyna slips a chair to HHH, and he pounds the Rock down under the ladder with it. They slug it out again and Rock slams him onto the ladder, which gives us The Ladder Elbow. I think that was the moment where my Rock love truly began. Rock Bottom follows and the crowd is actually chanting for Rock now during the height of his heel powers in 1998. Rock climbs and fights off HHH, but he gets yanked down and KICK WHAM PEDIGREE follows. Mark Henry, however, tosses a big handful of powder to blind HHH, although I think his nose sucked up enough of it to save his eyesight. They slug it out on top of the ladder and Rock looks to win, but Chyna gives him an epic nutshot, and HHH is the IC champion for the second time at 26:00. Unfortunately for him, that knee injury turned out to be a shoot and he barely got to defend the title before forfeiting it and gaining about 40 pounds of muscle while he was off. The slow climbing bugged the shit out of me, but this was two guys going out there and grabbing the proverbial ball and running with it, as they beat the hell out of each other to get each other over, and it worked big time, turning them both into the biggest stars in the world as a direct result. Plus I loved the idea of using the ladder to injure the leg instead of the contrived spots that followed once the match became a cruiserweight staple. So yes, it still holds up. ****1/2

Mike Says – This match is a classic. It’s fun to see how the ladder match evolved from a psychology heavy battle like this one to the insane spot fests of the TLC Era. I’m not saying one is better than the other, I’m just saying it’s interesting how things changed. Rock is so on in this match that it isn’t funny and Triple H more than holds his own. I to was a little peeved by the slow climb but the crowd didn’t seem to mind and the finishing sequence with all the run ins was excellent sports entertainment. ****1/2

WWF Championship

Champion – Stone Cold Steve Austin

Vs

The Undertaker

We start with, what else, a punch off and that surprisingly goes Undertaker’s way. They then do some mat wrestling with Austin trying to work Undertaker’s arm. They mess something up but quickly recover with Taker getting a suplex. Austin goes for the Thez Press but Undertaker catches him and gives him the Stun Gun for two. Irony is a cruel mistress. Austin now targets Undertaker’s legs and rams them into the ring post. Back inside, Taker fights back with a jumping clothesline and proceeds to choke away. Rope Walk is countered with a hip toss and Austin goes back to the knee, which is the cue for Kane to walk down for a distraction.

However, Undertaker demands that Kane leaves because he wants to win it one on one and Kane complies. Austin continues working on the legs but Undertaker manages to Choke Slam him when he stands on the apron. The fight goes outside again with Austin ramming Taker into anything he can find and it’s time for some crowd brawling! Funny moment as someone has a “Goldberg is Da Man” sign as the two fight in the crowd. The fight continues in the ring with Austin trying a Stunner but Undertaker blocks and pulls Austin outside where he rams him back first into the post. Undertaker now takes over and starts pounding the shizzle out of Austin’s dizzle.

Scary death spot moment as Taker lays Austin out on the table and then dives off the top turnbuckle with a leg drop that is just plain filth. Instead of the table collapsing, both men slide off to the floor with Taker just sitting on Austin’s face. That had to be a fun move to take. Austin is now rightly fucked five ways from Sunday but he still manages to kick out at two. Austin looks finished but he manages a desperation clothesline for the double down. Both men get back up and Austin unloads with the fists and a Thez Press but a Stunner ends up going awry. Austin still gets two from it but runs into a Choke Slam. Tombstone is countered but a crotching on the top rope isn’t. Taker tries the Rope Walk again but Austin catches him with a low blow and nails the Stunner to retain.

WINNER – STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN

Time - 20:52

***1/2 – a couple of blown spots deny this being any higher but it was still a solid match. Austin’s luck would run out at the next pay per view as the combined efforts of Undertaker and Kane would prove too much even for him.

Scott Says - The first time they met on PPV, but of course
far from the last.  They'd have better, they'd have worse, but this
was a little tentative for me, but always a shock to see Undertaker
doing a clean job like that.  I just watched it last night and I've
already forgotten it, so there you go.  *** sounds about right to me,
it kind of bored me and was a letdown after watching Rock and HHH tear
the house down.

Not wanting to tread on Scott’s toes here but Austin and Undertaker had met before on Pay Per View in the May of 97 with Undertaker defending the title. That match is actually a bit of a forgotten classic with I think me clocking it at ***3/4. I’d have to check my rant archives because I’ve definitely done the show.

All I can say is that this is one of the best supercard shows the WWF ever put on it the Attitude Era. There are a few bad matches but everything else is solid to fantastic. I have to give it a strong recommendation, especially as you can buy it with Summer Slam 99 as part of the Tagged Classics range. Get out there and purchase it!

Scott Says - Overall, it's a solid show with no gross stinkers (outside of the
Oddities) and well worth checking out, probably one of the best
Summerslams they've done.

Get ready for more McMahons, I guess.

- Live from Cleveland, OH.

- Your hosts are everyone and their brother.

ECW Scramble: Mark Henry v. Finlay v. Matt Hardy v. The Miz v. Chavo Guerrero

I have to say that I like the current ECW title WAY better than the piece of crap they had been using. Now they just need a WWE title that's not a total embarrassment and they're set. So Miz starts with Matt as the announcers again explain the convoluted rules, and Matt works a headlock before Miz hiptosses him for two. Miz goes to his own headlock, but misses a blind charge and yanked out of the corner and into a powerbomb for two. Matt with a clothesline for two. Miz chokes away on the ropes and gets a necksnap for two, and he goes to a neck vice. Matt comes back with a sunset flip for two, but Miz clotheslines him for two. Matt Striker notes that Pat Patterson came up with this stupid idea, so blame him. Or TNA, whichever. Miz gets his neckbreaker, but Matt rolls out to avoid the pin, and Miz has to bring him back in and he gets two. And at 5:00 in, Chavo is the next one in, and he dumps Miz quickly and finishes Matt with the frog splash at 5:30 for the first win. Striker stops to explain the difference between "current" and "official" champions and then explains MORE rules. Miz goes after Chavo, but gets hit with a rolling kick and Chavo dumps him, then follows with a pescado. Matt follows them out with his own dive and sends Chavo back in, and a clothesline gets two. Miz comes back in via the top and they tease a Tower of Doom spot, but Miz fights them off and hits a flying bodypress onto Matt for two. Matt fights back and does the bulldog of Chavo into the clothesline on Miz, and he finishes Chavo at 8:55 with the Side Effect. Matt dumps Chavo and goes to the chinlock on MIz, and Mark Henry is next in. Everyone stops and gangs up on Henry in the corner, but he clotheslines them all and gorilla presses Matt. Powerslam finishes Chavo at 11:51. He tries one on Matt, but Matt escapes and springboards in, so Henry blocks and slugs him to the floor. He faceplants Miz and bearhugs Chavo as the match just gets shittier by the second after a really good first half. Matt jumps in from the top and he gets bearhugged, too, sucking the life out of the match. I mean, the crowd was super hot for the first 10 minutes and the place just goes SILENT as Henry stands there bearhugging Hardy and doing nothing. Finally Finlay (hey, that's almost an anagram) is in to pick things up, and he beats on Henry and DDTs him for two. Another one gets two. And Henry goes back to his bearhug again. Hornswoggle distracts him to break it up, and Finlay hits him with the club and dumps him, then finishes Matt with the Celtic Cross at 16:22. Miz hits Finlay with a missile dropkick, but Matt hits Miz with the Twist of Fate at 16:48. Now we're picking up again. Sadly, Mark Henry is recovered, and he boots Matt down and slams Miz for two. Slam gets two on Chavo. Slam gets two on Finlay. Miz rolls up Matt for two, but Mark slams Chavo again for two. My god, TWO bodyslams? How can Chavo still be ALIVE? Finlay tries another Cross on Matt, but Henry breaks it up and splashes Miz for two, as Matt keeps breaking it up. Finlay sneaks it for two on Miz, and Matt runs around breaking up pins with time running out. He dumps everyone and time expires to make Matt Hardy the ECW World champion at 20:00. Man, Mark Henry did his best to kill it in the middle, but the drama at the end to put over the concept was AWESOME and I was way into it. **** I kind of wish they had given Matt his big moment in a singles match, though.

RAW World tag titles: Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase v. Cryme Tyme

JTG starts with Cody and outwits him in the corner, then hits the champs with dropkicks before Shad clotheslines them to the floor. Shad tosses JTG onto them in a spot you don't normally see from heavyweights. Back in, JTG brings Dibiase into their corner and Shad launches JTG into him for two. Shad misses a blind charge, but recovers with a powerslam, and drops an elbow for two. Dibiase catches him with his head down, however, and it's over to the heel corner to bring in Rhodes. JTG springboards in with a clothesline, however, and gets two. Cody bitchslaps him and runs away, which allows him to sucker JTG into a clothesline from Dibiase. And back in, JTG is "getting the heat", as Don West apparently said on national TV recently. Cody goes to work on the arm and they trade off on that in the corner. Dibiase with a dropkick for two and he holds a top wristlock, but JTG escapes with a backdrop suplex. Cody cuts off the tag and drags JTG back to the corner for some double-teaming, which gets two. JTG flips out of a hammerlock, but Rhodes boots him down and slams him in the corner, then goes up. Moonsault misses and it's hot tag Shad, as he hits Dibiase with an atomic drop and corner clothesline. Snake Eyes into a flying forearm gets two. It's BONZO GONZO and the ref escorts JTG out, but Dibiase hits Shad with a DDT for two. Cody charges in and walks into a clothesline, but the champs break up Cryme Tyme's double-team attempt, and then Dibiase rolls over a small package attempt by JTG and Rhodes gets the pin to retain at 11:33. Pretty standard formula tag match and both teams stay strong. And then a Samoan guy runs in and beats up Cryme Tyme. OK then. **3/4 Another kid of Afa's? He's got the hair for it.

Unsanctioned match: Chris Jericho v. Shawn Michaels

Jericho's heel glare is great stuff. Shawn is dressed for a street fight, like he's ready to fight 2-13 Marines (depending on which side of the story you get) and looking pretty rough. Shawn attacks to start and pounds Jericho down, then takes his boot off already and just UNLOADS on Jericho with it. Spectacular. JJ Dillon would be proud. Jericho bails and Shawn dives onto him and beats on him in the crowd, then catapults him into the post. He grabs a chair, but misses and gets rammed into the table as a result. Jericho DDTs him on the floor and starts setting up tables, but Shawn fights out of a powerbomb attempt. Jericho counters that by dumping him onto the apron instead, and they head back into the ring. Jericho uses a chair for nefarious purposes (thankfully on the back, not the head) and hits a backdrop suplex, then wedges the chair in the corner. He chokes Shawn out, but Shawn whips him into the post to prevent a trip into the chair. Shawn goes after him on the apron, but Jericho wants a suplex through that table, which has the crowd FREAKING out. Shawn fights him off and they head back in, however, and Shawn hits the flying forearm and kips up. He just outright chokes Jericho down and goes up with the flying elbow. He sets up for the superkick, but Jericho collapses, so Shawn beats on him some more and throws elbows on the mat. He opts for a crossface, but Jericho reverses him into that chair which everyone forgot about. NICE. So the eye is in trouble now and Jericho starts pounding on it again and it's UNSANCTIONED so the ref can't stop him. Jericho slugs away as Shawn's selling is just awesome, but Shawn fights back. Jericho whips him into the corner and Shawn comes out with a Thesz Press and then clotheslines Jericho down, but a piledriver attempt is reversed into the Walls of Jericho. Shawn makes the ropes and Jericho points out to the ref that he doesn't have to let go. Shawn, however, manages to grab a fire extinguisher, and shoots it at Jericho to break. That's pretty awesome. Notice how the silly "hardcore" spots work again once they've been left off TV for a while? Shawn uses the extinguisher to put Jericho on the floor and they brawl out there, as Shawn gets a suplex on the ramp and then is forced to fight off Lance Cade. Cade responds with a shot to the injured arm and clotheslines him, as Shawn does a Marty Jannetty flipping sell of it. Cade & Jericho double-team him and smash the arm into the post, and it's all legal because it's UNSANCTIONED. Into the ring, Jericho slaps him around, then smashes a chair into the arm. Good old-fashioned heel heat from the crowd here as Jericho just brutalizes him, but Shawn fights off Cade and manages to knock Jericho off the top rope. Superkick for Cade and he nails Jericho with the chair, knocking him through the table on the floor to pay that off. Then he dramatically wails on him with one-armed chairshots as this gets ugly in the good way, and he preps the announce table. He puts Cade and Jericho on the table and then drops an elbow from the top, putting them both through with one shot. Oh yeah. You'd think that would about do it for Jericho, and Shawn drags him back into the ring, and then takes his belt off and whips him with it. Nice moment as the ref gets in Shawn's face, and Shawn just GLARES him away. Jericho crawls for the ropes, but Shawn wraps him up on the mat and just beats on the eye with his fist, being almost gentle before going crazy on him. The brutality continues until the ref stops it at 27:00. BOO! Tough one to rate, actually, as it was more of a fight than a match, but it featured some great selling and good violence despite some slow spots in between the big brawling spots. But WHERE'S THE BLOOD? I'm getting sick of this family friendly crap. We'll play it safe and go with ****. Jericho really should have gone over unless they're blowing it off here, though. And it was a pretty decisive Shawn win, so I guess they are.

Meanwhile, the tag champs and their new friend Manu (who indeed is Afa's son) join up with Randy Orton, who is still unimpressed that they got a cheap win instead of a decisive win.

Smackdown Scramble match: HHH v. Jeff Hardy v. THE Brian Kendrick v. MVP v. Shelton Benjamin

And here we start with Jeff Hardy and Shelton Benjamin. Shelton gets a quick rollup for one, and Jeff gets his own in response. Shelton grabs a headlock and shoulderblocks him down for two, but Jeff rolls him up for two. Sunset flip out of the corner gets two and Shelton takes him down with a headlock and holds that on the mat. Jeff tries a high kick, but Shelton catches him and powerbombs him into the corner for two. Suplex gets two. Nitpicking note during the slow portion: JR says that Jeff Hardy would be a Grand Slam champion if he wins the belt here because he's won every title available, and I'm assuming that he's talking about the classic World/I-C/European/tag definition of the term, because in modern times you'd have to include the US title, and Hardy has never held that belt. Anyway, Kendrick is next in as Shelton and Hardy wrap up their dull segment and slug it out on the apron. Kendrick knocks Shelton to the floor and gets two on Hardy. Flying forearm gets two. Kendrick slugs away in the corner, but misses a blind charge and gets faceplanted by Hardy for the pin at 7:19. Shelton attacks Jeff and gets forearmed down as a result, and Jeff suplexes him for two. Shelton slugs him down with forearms for two as the crowd is dead and this match is just sucking like crazy for some reason. Hardy with a sunset flip for two, but Shelton blocks the Twist of Fate and hits the Paydirt for two. Kendrick with Sliced Bread on Hardy for the pin at 9:33. We stall for a bit and MVP is next. He goes right after Kendrick and faceplants him, then dumps Jeff and Kendrick. Facecrusher for Shelton to set up the running kick, but Kendrick blocks it with a leg lariat. Hardy gets rid of Kendrick and puts the black contingent in the corner for a mule kick, which gets two on Shelton. Kendrick chokes away on Shelton, but walks into a samoan drop. MVP recovers and goes after Kendrick, but gets caught by a crossbody out of the corner and Kendrick gets a low dropkick. Shelton tries a powerbomb, but Kendrick flips out of it and goes after MVP with another leg lariat as this match is just not clicking at ALL. I think it's just too many heels. HHH is last out to hopefully save the match, and he dumps Shelton with a clothesline and hits MVP with the facecrusher. Spinebuster for the Kendrick and KICK WHAM PEDIGREE kills him dead at 16:00. Shelton lays him out to interrupt the posing and they brawl on the floor. So Hardy pounds on MVP in the ring and gets the Twist of Fate for the pin at 17:10. The Kendrick recovers with another Sliced Bread attempt, but Hardy blocks and hits a Falcon Arrow instead, then goes up and gets crotched by HHH. So it's back to his whipping boy, and KICK WHAM PEDIGREE beats Kendrick again at 18:15. Hardy hits Kendrick with a swanton at 18:30, though, and HHH was too busy celebrating. Now he's pissed and he tries to Pedigree Hardy, but he gets dumped and Hardy follows with a dive to put them both on the floor. In the ring, MVP pounds on Kendrick on the top, but Shelton jumps on MVP's back and superplexes Kendrick in a cool spot. Hardy comes back in with a crossbody on MVP and the swanton for Shelton, but HHH Pedigrees MVP to retain at "19:59", which was actually 20:14 if you want to be picky about it. No shock there, although I thought this would have been perfect to pull the trigger on MVP. Silly me. As surprisingly good as the ECW title match was, this was equally surprisingly bad. **1/2 Crowd just wasn't into it, and you knew once HHH was in last that he'd be retaining. They seem to be building to HHH v. Hardy again, but I don't know how smart that is given Jeff's tenuous history.

Meanwhile, Shawn Michaels isn't satisfied and feels no closure. You wouldn't like him when he's angry and now Jericho's going to find out.

Meanwhile, Randy Orton interrupts a CM Punk interview to further their issue, but Evolution 2.0 attacks Punk, setting up Orton's head kick to put him out.

WWE Tramp Stamp title: Michelle McCool v. Maryse.

I don't even know who Maryse is and probably couldn't pick either woman out of a lineup if you put a gun to my head. Really, they're just a couple of generic blondes with nothing to distinguish them. At least Gail Kim looks different than the other women in the division when she comes in. They do some token wrestling stuff and the crowd is already on them with boring chants. Ouch. McCool puts Maryse on the floor with an armdrag and they fight out there. Back in, Maryse works on the knee and the crowd is done with this already. McCool comes back with her own heel hook, but Maryse makes the ropes. Maryse keeps working on the knee and Michelle kicks her down and follows with a front suplex to finish clean at 5:45. Who gives a shit? Like seriously, they look exactly the same, why should anyone care who wins or loses here? *

Mike Adamle announces that CM Punk is out, so he'll find a replacement.

Big Show heads to the ring to put his hat into the ring as Punk's replacement, but Vickie Guerrero comes out and berates him, calling him a "big dumb giant". Oh no she DIDN'T! And then druids wheel out a casket as Undertaker pops up on the screen and he's also melodramatic and "flames of hell" and stuff. Could they be any more obvious about using up extra time here? Undertaker comes out to finish her, but then happy-go-lucky Big Show shocks everyone by turning heel again (I don't even know when he turned face, truth be told) and beats up Undertaker on behalf of Vickie. Good to see a fresh program like Undertaker v. Big Show. Maybe they can really get wacky and do Undertaker v. Kane again, too!

RAW World title: JBL v. Batista v. Rey Mysterio v. Kane v. ????

Batista starts with JBL and overpowers him, then pounds away with shoulders in the corner. Clothesline gets two. JBL responds with a sleeper, but Batista takes out the knee to break and goes to work on it. Figure-four and we get more Flair namedropping, but JBL makes the ropes. They slug it out and JBL dumps him, and they do the slow brawl on the floor with JBL hitting the stairs. 4:00 magically becomes 5:00 as they attempt to shave time down, and Kane is the next one in. Batista catches him with a clothesline out of the corner, but Kane gets the big boot and a low dropkick for two. Blind charge hits elbow, and Batista comes back with a corner clothesline and choke as you can almost literally see the match dying on the screen. Sideslam and Kane goes up and misses his clothesline, and then Batista fights out of a chokeslam. JBL recovers from his apparent death outside and heads back in, but gets chokeslammed and pinned at 7:20. Crowd barely even pops for it. Kane slugs on Batista in the corner and Rey Mysterio comes in at 8:00, but really what's he gonna do with these stiffs? Kane goes after him, but Rey dropkicks his knee and gets two. Does Mysterio seriously have a Mohawk? Is that Kane's big torture of him, giving him a bad haircut? JBL attacks Rey and gets bulldogged as a result, but Kane lays Rey out with a clothesline from the apron. Batista lays everyone out and Rey comes off his shoulders with a splash on Kane, which gives Batista two. Another go, but Rey turns on Batista and rolls him up for two. JBL interrupts the argument and slugs them down, then tosses Rey onto Batista and gets two. This match is going nowhere and getting worse by the second. And the final guy in is…CHRIS JERICHO. YES! He's still selling the beating from earlier, too. Batista spears him on the way in and then spears JBL for two. Rey goes after Batista and then gives Kane the 619, which gives Batista a near-fall. Batista tries to powerbomb his buddy, but Rey escapes and hits JBL with a 619, but Batista dumps him. JBL hits Kane with the lariat, but Batista gets the spinebuster. Kane comes back and pounds him with elbows and goes up with the flying clothesline for two. Batista comes back with a spinebuster for the pin at 16:43 and there's no one left, but Jericho sneaks in and pins Kane and ends the match as the new champion at 17:17. Nothing again CM Punk, but there's only one guy who should be World champion on RAW right now, and it's Jericho, the hottest heel in the business. Now they need to keep it on him until Shawn can win the Rumble and set up Wrestlemania in Houston. The match itself was AWFUL, though, as they took Punk out for no real reason and the result was four other guys floundering around and doing nothing for 15 minutes. Even Rey couldn't save it. *1/2

The Pulse:

Yeah, the ECW Scramble was pretty great thanks to Matt Hardy working his ass off for multiple people, but the other two were complete failures as matches and showed how hit-or-miss those kinds of multiple man matches can be. I don't think the concept works, but they'll probably beat it into the ground until we accept how brilliant it is anyway.

I'd say recommended for Jericho v. Shawn and the ECW title match, but the rest isn't worth sitting through, and definitely don't bother with the main event.

That being said their (read as Hulk's) assets were made public by the St. Pete Times and Linda's living quite well....a lot better than Hulk.

Meanwhile I'm giving way too much to charity.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/article796297.ece