WCW World War 3 98'

WCW World War 3 98'

Auburn Hills, MI - November 1998

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Bill Goldberg is the reigning WCW World Champion, Diamond Dallas Page holds the United States Champion, the Cruiserweight Champion is Juventud Guerrera, and the TV Title is held by Chris Jericho. Meanwhile, the Tag Team Champions are Rick Steiner and (and I never thought I'd type his name here) Kenny Kaos.

COMMENTATORS: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay

The 4th annual World War 3 begins with Glacier taking on Wrath. Wrath is coming into this match on a 3-month hot streak, essentially getting the "Goldberg push" so that he can one day lose to Goldberg. Glacier is booed heavily by the crowd, one of those instances where a guy became heel rather than turned heel because audiences collectively agreed that they loathed him. Surprising as it may seem, this match starts off really hot and the action is good...until Wrath (who by this point had 8+ years of experience) shows a complete inability to read the audience and inexplicably starts working as a heel and cheating to win a match that he was dominating entirely. To make matters worse, he sits in a resthold for no other reason than I'm guessing he figured, as a heel, this would draw him heat. It doesn't. It just bores the crowd who pop right back into things when Wrath connects on his legitimately impressive Meltdown finisher. I was actually going to give this match an above-average rating after how good the first few minutes were - but it completely falls apart when nobody decides to call an audible, cut the time in half, and make it the mauling that the fans were craving. (1.5/5)

He may have been over, but boy do I not appreciate Konnan as a worker. On this night, he's going up against another guy that I don't think I've ever enjoyed - singles or tag - Stevie Ray. This match was an excuse for Konnan to deliver his catch phrases and for the post-match angle with Booker T trying to help his brother but getting turned down. Its not an actively bad match, but the fact that it doesn't overstay its welcome might be the best thing about it. (1.5/5)

A special attraction tag match follows - "The Cat" Ernest Miller and Sonny Onoo vs. Kaz Hayashi and Saturn. The story behind this match is based mostly on Kaz Hayashi feuding with Sonny Onoo. Why anyone thought that was a PPV-worthy storyline to feature is beyond me, but here we are. Nobody can say that Ernest Miller didn't know how to draw heat, but at the end of the day, his dancing and talking were much more entertaining than anything he'd actually do between bells. Saturn, meanwhile, had some of the nastiest offense of his day and was fairly over at this time, but never seemed to get to the next level because, like Benoit to a degree, WCW didn't consistently showcase his no-nonsense persona (one might argue that Benoit was featured even less than Saturn for spells in 98' thanks to the general absence of Flair and the Horsemen). Anyway, this match has a surprising amount of heat considering the action isn't great. There are a few decent stretches in terms of character work and story, but there's nothing special enough here to warrant viewing. (2/5)

Finally, a match that might be worth watching - Billy Kidman challenging Juventud Guerrera for Guerrera's Cruiserweight Championship. Before the match can get started, it is revealed that Guerrera has joined Eddie Guerrero's Latino World Order. This angers Rey Mysterio, who was kept from challenging for the Cruiserweight Championship. After the pre-match shenanigans, Kidman and Guerrera put on a straightforward cruiser match, Guerrera working heel effectively in front of the Michigan crowd. There are some surprisingly stiff maneuvers on display here - an Alabama Slam from Juvi, an impactful clothesline off the ropes by Kidman, a pitch-perfect dropkick from Kidman to a crossbody-attempting Juvi. Guerrera's hurricanrana off the apron isn't pretty, but it gets a good reaction and looks legitimately devastating (it helps that Kidman, at least at this point in his career, was a better-than-average seller). Fully dominating at this point, Guerrera connects with a Psicosis-esque leg drop before tossing Kidman into the third ring and nearly breaking the leg of Kidman by attempting a double-springboard dropkick. Kidman's hope spots aren't as high-risk, but they're executed better and the crowd is in his corner (his not-so-springboard crossbody from one ring to another leads to a nearfall that the crowd audibly hates). Not happy with only using two of the three rings, Guerrera hits a second hurricanrana to put Kidman into the third ring and the calls for the Juvi Driver. Kidman tries to counter but ends up eating the Driver after all. Completely spent, Guerrera's unable to make the cover, though, opting to hit the 450 instead. Kidman rolls out of the way and Juvi lands on his feet. This leads to another semi-botch when Juvi hits (what is typically) Mysterio's victory roll finish, but Kidman manages to get his shoulder up at two and 9/10ths. The camera doesn't quite capture the kickout, though, so the crowd's a bit confused momentarily. The match resumes until we get a screwy (albeit crowd-pleasining) finish involving Rey Mysterio turning on the LWO. Better execution and a clean finish and you might have a Top 10 All-Time WCW Cruiserweight Championship match, but I'm not sure I'd rank it that high without seeing more of the lauded matches from Nitro again. (3.5/5)

And here we go with what had to be WCW's third or fourth bait-and-switch Steiner vs. Steiner match. This time around, Scott, Buff Bagwell, and a stocking cap-wearing nWo referee (TNA's "Slick" Johnson actually) make their way down the aisle first, calling out Rick. Cut to Rick Steiner getting beaten down by the nWo, most notably The Giant (who, I believe, was in the doghouse having basically already made it known he was heading to the WWE in two month's time). The future Big Show pulls Rick into the ring for Big Poppa Pump to beat him down and though Rick tries to fight back, he's no match for his healthier brother (Rick Steiner looks like he has a legitimately injured right arm and I'd hesitate to say its just a good sales job). The crowd boos heavily until Goldberg shows up and saves the entire segment. Scott Steiner flips him the bird to which Goldberg responds with a huge spear. The crowd goes absolutely insane as Goldberg cleans house, including press-slamming Slick from one ring to another. I'm guessing that there's a Steiner/Steiner match coming at Starrcade and this was all part of Eric Bischoff's brilliant strategy to create another "year long build" a la Sting/Hogan from the 97' show. The difference is that Sting/Hogan was advertised and then delivered while Steiner/Steiner was advertised repeatedly and then not delivered repeatedly until I don't think fans really cared one way or another about Rick ever getting his revenge. In fact, by the sound of the crowd, what they really want to see is Goldberg/Steiner now. I'm not surprised - it must've been hard to rally around Rick Steiner in 98' when he was consistently booked as a doofus. As a match, this is a 0-star contest - but as an angle, it would definitely score some points...so I'm scoring it in the middle. (2.5/5)

Scott Hall, accompanied by every member of nWo Hollywood except Hollywood Hogan, arrives next for his rematch against his Halloween Havoc opponent, Kevin Nash. I kinda dug the Hall/Nash match from October, so I came into this moderately excited. Before Nash can make his way down the aisle, though, Eric Bischoff shows up and nWo Hollywood turns on Hall, leading to Nash making the save and the Outsiders teasing a reunion. A loud "Outsiders" chant breaks out, inspiring Hall to put up the Wolfpack sign. Nash walks out of the ring, though, leaving Hall despondent. Another "more of an angle than a match" segment on a show that will be headlined by a 60-man slugfest where we'll be lucky to see a handful of actual wrestling holds. 

The WCW Television Championship is on the line next as Bobby Duncum Jr. challenges Chris Jericho. Duncum is a a solid 6'6, 23 years young here, and a second gen-er trained in the Funkin' Dojo (I believe) so I wondered why he never got a shot in the WWE in 2001 - the answer: he didn't live long enough to get one. Despite this being only his second match in WCW (according to Wikipedia), Duncum looks alright and Jericho seems to have no issues with bumping and selling for his less-experienced opponent. When its time for him to take over on offense, the ex-Lionheart shines until he opts for a chinlock and the two stumble into the corner awkwardly as the crowd goes silent. Duncum hits a shoulderbreaker to near silence and continues his attack on Jericho's arm from there, the match in desperate need of a high spot or two to bring the crowd back. Y2J tries to deliver them with a stun-gun and then a springboard dropkick, but the crowd is distracted by either a flasher or a fight in the stands or both. Jericho applies another resthold, maybe trying to rebuild this one from its ground floor, feeding for Duncum by taking a series of stiff clotheslines and a flapjack. Duncum's blatantly telegraphs a spot in the corner and the awkwardness continues with some ugly pins and an uglier senton from Jericho. The sequence into Jericho's Liontamer is surprisingly crisp and Duncum's escape and subsequent nearfall gets a decent reaction. Ralphus' involvement leading to the finish is the touch this match needed about 4-5 minutes earlier. These two may not have had much chemistry, but they both worked hard considering their respective limitations as workers at this time. (2/5)

It is now time for the 1998 edition of the 3-ring, 60-man battle royale known as World War 3, the winner receiving a shot at Goldberg's World Heavyweight Championship at an undisclosed point in the future. Out walk 60 WCW superstars, including such potential Goldberg conquerors as Barry Darsow, "Gentleman" Chris Adams, Ciclope, the Disciple, El Dandy, Scotty Riggs, Barry Horowitz, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, The Renegade, Johnny Swinger, "The Polish Power" Scott Putski, Vincent, Lenny Lane, and "Mean" Mike Enos. The bell sounds and the brawling begins, everyone just stomping, punching, and kicking whoever they're standing near. Nash starts tossing dudes early, thank god, using his size and strength to try to make quick work of the ample number of light heavyweights in this match. Within the first two minutes, 13 or so guys are cut out of the match, the watchability of this made much easier thanks to a ticker on the lower left corner of the screen. Nash essentially wipes out his entire ring, knocking out Van Hammer with a big boot as the count drops to 36. Psicosis attempts a move from the top rope and gets caught by Hall, who fallaway slams him out the aisle. Laughable camera work when we get to watch Beefcake and Horace Hogan plan their double elimination spot right before our eyes. I think McMahon would've fired everyone (the camera man, Ed Leslie, and Horace Boulder) if that happened in a Rumble. A half-dozen guys try to team up to eliminate Giant, but he pushes them all off. Rey Mysterio gets tossed and the number drops to 20, all the major players brought to the middle ring for what is mostly a nWo Hollywood/nWo Wolfpack showdown. Pretty much everyone non-affiliated with either side gets tossed out rather quickly, but the big moment of this match comes when Bam Bam Bigelow shows up to disrupt the proceedings. The crowd chants for Goldberg and, for the second time tonight, the Champ shows up and the crowd goes absolutely apeshit for their pull-apart brawl. Once Bigelow and Goldberg are cleared out, the battle royale continues and soon enough the Horsemen and Konnan are out (though, Konnan, for whatever reason, is eliminate despite going through the middle ropes and not over the top) and things are eventually boiled down to Hall, Nash, and Luger. Nash wins to set-up Starrcade and, for the second time in the night, WCW misses an opportunity to make the eventual finish to Goldberg/Nash (if they already knew what it would be, which I'm guessing they didn't) actually make sense. This crowd's hatred for The Giant, Goldberg's appearance, and the fact that they wisely wittled things down to under 40 guys within 3-4 minutes make this the best World War 3 I've ever seen. Fun watch. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Bret Hart vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the United States Championship. DDP goes right at the Hitman from the jump and over the course of the next 10 minutes, these two just keep going and going with intense offense and targeted limb attacks. DDP tries to lock in a Sharpshooter early but can't as Bret, minutes later, applies the dreaded figure four around the ring post. In some ways this is a tough match to watch because, despite DDP's overness and Bret's efforts, this match just doesn't measure up to what Hart had accomplished in similar clashes of styles in the WWF. After a ref bump, Slick Johnson shows up and awards the match to Bret, but Mickie Jay demands that the match continues and Hart eats a Diamond Cutter. I wanted this match to be so much better and its obvious that DDP and Hart wanted it to be great too, but context is everything and Bret's heel character just didn't mesh well with WCW as its backdrop. The fact that this is one of Bret's more decent bouts on WCW PPV tells you how bad his WCW run was. (2.5/5)


With a Kwang Score of 2.38-out-of-5, the 1998 edition of World War 3 might only please fans looking for a nostalgic snapshot of everything wrong and the little that was right about WCW in its last year as a real rival to the WWE. Its actually sort of fun to watch this show and think "How could they fuck up this company so bad in the next 3 months?" with the amount of fairly over talent they had at their disposal. A better main event, several minutes cut off from most of the undercard bouts, and a clean finish to the Cruiserweight Title Match and this show becomes one of the better WCW offerings of the year maybe. As it is, I can see turning this on for fans craving nostalgia and having some good laughs at WCW's misfortune and ineptitude...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver

WCW Capital Combat 90': Return of RoboCop

WCW Capital Combat 90': The Return of RoboCop
Washington, D.C - May 1990

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Ric Flair is the World Heavyweight Champion while his challenger, Lex Luger, holds the United States Championship. The Television Champion is Arn Anderson. On the tag side of things, the Steiner Brothers hold the World Tag Team Championships while the US Tag Titles are held by Tom "The Z-Man" Zenk and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman.

COMMENTATORS: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

Tony Schiavone welcomes viewers to Capital Combat 90: The Return of RoboCop. Holy shit. Much has happened since February's WrestleWar pay-per-view - Bob Caudle has rejoined the announce team and, based on the subtitle to this show, RoboCop has arrived and left and will presumably return here. I wish the Network featured the TV shows leading up to this.

A six-man tag opens things up - Kevin Sullivan, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Cactus Jack (with "The Big Kahuna" Sir Oliver Humperdink representing Bigelow) vs. The Road Warriors and Norman the Lunatic. Before the heels are announced, though, viewers at home are treated to what has to be the 5th reminder that RoboCop will be on the show. If you ordered this show in 1990 for $30, you understood this already but WCW must've feared you'd switch off the show if you weren't reminded, constantly, of RoboCop's impending arrival. Anyway - this might be the first appearance of Bigelow in a Kwang review. Hawk dominates early in the shine segment before tagging in Norman to go at it with Cactus. Bigelow and Animal come in and we get the first cool spot of the match - Animal clotheslining Bigelow over the top rope, but both men landing on their feet to the shock of the audience. Minutes later, Jack spills recklessly over the top, eats an awesome clothesline to the floor from Hawk, and then gets whipped over the guardrail in a nasty spill! Early Foley, even in shit matches like this, was insane. Bigelow gets tagged in and miraculously gets Norman up in a suplex before bringing in Sullivan to continue the attack. Sullivan bodyslam Norman in an impressive show of unexpected strength. Foley comes in and hits him with an axehandle from the top and then a neckbreaker that saw Foley himself fly over the top rope. I don't think he kept that one in his arsenal for long, but could be wrong. Sullivan and Bigelow then come in, Norman playing face-in-peril for the next few minutes as the crowd chants for the LOD. Animal comes in for the hot tag and a melee ensues, Hawk eventually hitting Kevin Sullivan with a clothesline from the top for the win. This match deserved a better ending because the work leading up to it wasn't too bad and the heels had garnered enough heat that the crowd would've popped for a bigger comeuppance. (2/5)

No longer a "Dynamic Dude," Johnny Ace shows up to take on "Mean" Mark (with Teddy Long). This is a pretty interesting match for one reason - the future Undertaker's work style roughly 6 months before he would debut for the WWF (WWE) at the 1990 Survivor Series. Unlike the no-selling, slow-moving zombie that would win a World Championship in his first year with the WWE, "Mean" Mark is more of your typical big man - though one with a respectable number of tricks up his sleeves, including a savat kick, a good-looking heart punch, and a respectable running elbow drop. His finisher, too, showcased his agility more than his strength as he walked the ropes before landing a big elbow drop. A year later, "Mean" Mark would rarely leave his feet, sell much of anything, or show emotion during his matches - here, he's working as a generic heel and while he may not be great in the role, he's more than serviceable and, had they actually pushed him and given him a gimmick with some meat on it, could've probably been a decent midcard threat. From what we see in this match, though, WCW didn't see enough of the guy to let him get a definitive win as Ace gets in way too much offense for this to be a "Mean" Mark showcase. (1.5/5)

After some meaningless backstage drivel, its time for The Samoan SWAT Team to take on "Captain" Mike Rotunda and Tommy Rich. Rotunda is usually awfully boring, but as a babyface, he actually hits a series of dropkicks and shows some energy early in the match. He's also none-too-shabby as a face-in-peril, though, I may just enjoy seeing him getting thrust-kicked in the face more than the average fan who didn't have to sit through some of his dull Varsity Club work. On the outside, Tommy Rich tries to keep the crowd going, but even ol' Wildfire can't keep the audience engaged as Fatu (the future Rikishi) leans into a front-facelock for what feels like a full 3-4 minutes. Rotunda rallies, but the Samoan Savage cuts him off and straps on a headlock in the center of this ring, the match needing anything but a resthold at this point. Finally, Rotunda makes the tag, taking out both Samoans with dropkicks, an elbow, and a back body drop before unloading on Savage in the corner. Rotunda tries to help out in a double-team, but it ends up costing them the match as the Samoan Savage is able to come from the top with an axehandle to the back of Rich's head. A few points awarded for the Samoans, who are decent, and Mike Rotunda for really good effort. (1.5/5)

Tony Schiavone interviews the reigning World Tag Team Champions, the Steiner Brothers, who run down their challengers tonight - Doom. 

Gary Michael Capetta acknowledges the winners of the 1990 Capital Combat Sweepstakes. Okay...why not? This is immediately followed by the arrival of Missy Hyatt and Jay Tapper, a world reknown hair stylist (who will shave the head of the loser of the next match). Missy Hyatt introduces "Precious" Paul Ellering and his opponent, Teddy Long, who makes his way down the aisle to the song that would later become Ron Simmons' WCW theme. Long, the heel, dominates early as the commentators question what may be hidden in his boxing glove. Ellering takes control, removes Long's glove, hits him with a scoop slam, and then using his boxing glove against him to get the quick W. Jake Tapper snips his hair and Long leaves the ring, shielding his bald head from the crowd. This entire segment runs maybe 3 minutes and draws barely any heat. (1.5/5)

Tony Schiavone is joined by Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, Sid Vicious, and Ric Flair. Sid Vicious looks completely bizarre in the monkey suit he's wearing - he's also the only member of the Horsemen wearing a tuxedo for some reason. They run down Luger, promising to help Ric Flair hold onto his World Championship.

The Midnight Express challenge Flyin' Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk for their United States Tag Team Championship next. Cornette is locked in a steel cage at ringside (against his will) - which means he'll somehow get involved later. Eaton and Pillman start off for their teams, but things quickly fly off the rails and the faces get a combo of mirror and double-team maneuvers going. The crowd isn't as high on this as the work deserves, barely popping for the babyface shine stretch. Once the heels take over, the crowd wakes up a bit, especially when Pillman takes a nasty chest-first bump into the guardrail from the apron. The Midnights are masterful with their control, Bobby Eaton at one point hitting a maneuver I don't think I've seen before - a slingshot backbreaker. Pillman is a good face-in-peril and he's fearless in terms of taking big hits, eating a Bobby Eaton top-rope leg drop that should've broken his trachea. He nearly botches his comeback tilt-a-whirl slam, but the hot tag gets a loud response and Zenk gets an even bigger win when he kicks out of the Rocket Launcher. The Z-Man connects with a high crossbody but the overzealous Pillman ends up causing a distraction when he tries to keep Stan Lane out of the ring and costing his team the match. I wouldn't call this a "must see" match, but it was better than your average tag thanks to everyone's hard work and the ever-impeccable work of Beautiful Bobby. (3/5)

Sting comes out to a tremendous introduction by Gary Michael Capetta. Sting introduces his buddy RoboCop, but before the Policeman of the Future can make his way out, the Horsemen (sans Flair) shove Sting in the cage that was used for the previous match. RoboCop arrives, pulls off the door, and sends the Horsemen fleeing. This is a definite Network Nugget of Awesomeness. (+1) 

The Junkyard Dog is with Tony Schiavone. Jim Cornette interrupts the returning superstar to blab on about the Midnight Express. Cornette asks JYD where he's been at (I think he was in the WWE) and the Dog tells him he was at his mother's house in Louisville. Cornette runs off in fear and the Dog tells fans he's in the NWA to stay.

The Rock n' Roll Express make their way down the aisle with a jukebox in tow to face The Fabulous Freebirds in a strap match (the true story here is that, for whatever reason, they couldn't find straps so instead this match is fought with a lash from a bondage boutique). Gaga start with lots of schtick from Michael "P.S" Hayes before we actually get any sort of fisticuffs between Garvin and Ricky Morton. The babyfaces get the straps first and put a hurtin' on the Freebirds, running them out of the ring. The heels take over after a stretch, but surprisingly don't take advantage of the straps - instead, its Michael Hayes' quick right hand that is the difference-maker, knocking Morton out when the ref is distracted and then, minutes later, vanquishing one of his hope spots in the corner. Caudle himself mentions his surprise at the heels for not utilizing the strap twice before Hayes finally grabs it to use outside the ring, only to go back to ignore the stipulation entirely as the match enters its final stretch. Morton's face-in-peril work is great as always, Gibson's hot tag is good, and the finish makes perfect sense when you think of the characters of the Freebirds. Unfortunately, the camera angle telegraphs the last spot pretty obviously. I would've liked them actually utilize the straps more, especially when working on Morton, whose facial expressions would've really sold the danger of the strap. (2.5/5)

Doug Furnas joins Tony Schiavone for no particular reason other than to give his opinion that Lex Luger is going to win tonight. Sting comes out next and pretty much says the same thing. 

Time for the World Tag Team Championship Match - The Steiner Brothers defending the titles against Doom. I didn't go into this match expecting much, but it was pretty damn great - maybe the best Steiners match I've seen. While a handful of moments were a little sloppy, in the grand scheme of things, you can make up for sloppy work by just beating the shit out of eachother and that's exactly what the Steiners and Doom do here. Every big power move we had not yet seen on this card is delivered and is delivered with the intent to do damage. Both teams look like they are trying to win at every turn and I was sold on Scott Steiner in the face-in-peril role because both Simmons and Reed are absolute bastards in their cut-offs. The crowd is hot at the start and the match is wrestled at a nice clip with no restholds or too much overselling so the audience stays with it from beginning to end. I like the finish too as it doesn't come off as cheap at all. Do the Road Warriors have a better match than this on their resume? These two teams knocked this one out of the park - a "must see" tag match in my mind. (4/5)

Main event time - United States Champion Lex Luger challenging Ric Flair for his World Heavyweight Championship. This one is fought in WCW's "Thunderdome"-style cage, which isn't a dome at all and is my least favorite type of cage (barring, of course, the Punjabi Prison structure). I had typed up a full review of this match but lost it - so this is going to be condensed. The crowd is red hot for this and Flair sports a crimson mask after getting knocked into the cage. Its an obvious blade job, but its warranted here considering the stipulation. The story coming into the match is that Luger suffered a knee injury, so when Flair goes on offense, he targets the limb so that he can score a victory with his patented figure four finisher. After a solid 20 minutes of action, the Horsemen show up and look to get into the cage. At this point, Luger stops selling any knee damage and takes over in the ring, locking Flair in the Torture Rack as Sting and El Gigante try to run off the Horsemen. On commentary, JR explains that Ole Anderson has strong-armed the man in charge of raising and lowering the cage, allowing Barry Windham to sneak in and attack the Total Package (causing a DQ). The cage lowers again and the Horsemen beat down on Luger until Sting makes the save. Where Sid and Gigante go is never explained. Ric Flair gives a classic post-match promo but is shut up by the Stinger, setting up their match at the next pay-per-view. Not as good as the WrestleWar match and much has been written about the fact that Flair probably should've dropped the title to Luger (who was very over) but the company was so high on Sting that they didn't pull the trigger. (3.5/5)


Scoring a 2.56-out-of-5 on the Kwang Scale, Capital Combat 90' is a slightly less enjoyable watch than the previous pay-per-view. The difference maker here is in the undercard as the lowest points on WrestleWar never go quite as low as the unwatchable junk that fills up the first hour or so of this event. Dare I say that this show could've used a touch more RoboCop? Considering how much he is hyped throughout the broadcast, the fact that he doesn't make an appearance in the main event is a bit puzzling. With only one match I'd consider a "must see," this one earns a rating of...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver

WWE Money In The Bank 2017

WWE Money In The Bank 2017

St. Louis, Missouri - June 2017

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Jinder Mahal comes into tonight's show as the (unexpected) reigning WWE Champion, the United States Championship is held by Kevin Owens, the SmackDown Tag Team Champions are The Uso Brothers, and the SmackDown Women's Champion is Naomi. 

COMMENTATORS: JBL, Byron Saxton, and Tom Phillips

Money in the Bank began with a 5-woman ladder match to start things off - Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina vs. Carmella vs. Natalya. Before the match begins we got an inexplicable video showcasing the history of Womens' Championship that would've actually been nice before the competitors entered the ring, but whatever. Tamina clears house early but shows no urgency in climbing the ladder because the match is scheduled to go longer than 28 seconds, I guess. Becky was the most over babyface, which makes sense because Natalya is essentially a Big Show-style tweener after all the years she's been in the company and Charlotte, even if she's not technically a heel now, spent all of 2016 as RAW's most consistently despised villain. Tamina looked dangerous at times, just totally unprepared for a match that required expert timing and spacing. Charlotte, Lynch, and Natalya held their own, but there were still some ugly spots and at least one legit head-scratcher (Charlotte doing a ridiculous front flip splash to the outside, essentially costing herself an opportunity to win the match, for basically no apparent reason). The finish was disappointing in execution, but in the long run, its smart booking to put the briefcase in the hands of someone who desperately needs it to remain relevant. I'm not sure the "This is Awesome" chant that broke out halfway through was earned, but this wasn't too bad. (2.5/5)

The SmackDown Tag Team Championships were on the line next and an unfortunate pattern of screwy finishes emerged, this time The Usos accepting a count-out loss to The New Day after a hard-fought, very good match. The Usos are excellent as heels and easily the best foil the New Day have had in quite some time. Speaking of the New Day, as much as I'm tired of the pre-match schtick, I must give credit to the seemingly bottomless reservoir of in-ring creativity they put on display in their bigger matches. On this night, Kofi did a fine job of working as the face-in-peril for a stretch, taking a big bump to the outside from some Uso trickery, and then later, hit maybe the spot of the night with a Trust Fall splash (I'm not sure if he's used it before, but it was new to me). Big E botched a Big Ending spot, but aside from that, the timing throughout the contest was quite good. A really good match that I may have even given 4-stars with a better finish. (3/5)

Naomi defended her SmackDown Womens' Championship against Lana next. Considering this is Lana's first major singles match, she wasn't Torrie Wilson/Stacy Kiebler-level of terrible, but I also wouldn't expect her to get many more spotlight matches in the near future. Between her incessant screaming and telegraphing, Lana definitely showed she needs more time in developmental before her in-ring skills will match her respectable, heat-garnerning mic skills. Naomi held up her end of the match and remains a tad underrated by the many who believe only the "Four Horsewomen of NXT" are worthy of any sort of respect as performers. Bonus half-point for Carmella's briefcase tease. Sure, we've seen an identical scenario hundreds of times before, but in this match, it worked well as a nice late-in-the-match pop to keep the audience engaged and guessing. (2/5)

A Fashion Vice sketch followed. I really enjoy Fandago and Breeze's backstage segment.

Wow, Mike and Maria Kanellis debuted and they actually got instant heat from the crowd. I loved their Michael Bolton-esque theme song so much I'm going to award it a bonus point. Really great idea to parody shows like The Bachelor almost a decade after the point. (+1)

In a bit of a surprise, the WWE World Championship match followed - Jinder Mahal defending the strap against Randy Orton. Prior to the match, a number of "St. Louis Legends" (I could've sworn the Gagnes and Hennigs came from Minnesota) were introduced to the crowd - I much preferred this brief trip down memory lane over WCW's endless Night of Legends ceremonies from the early 90s' Slamboree shows. Mahal arrived first to huge boos, unsurprising considered his opponent was the hometown hero. Orton came out swinging, nearly locking in the RKO early before Mahal escaped to the outside. From here, Orton and Mahal had a pretty back-and-forth contest that I'd consider a vast improvement from the match they had last month. The crowd was certainly hotter, but Mahal also looked considerably more confident getting to play "defense" rather than fight from underneath as the challenger in the previous bout. Orton, meanwhile, looked about as motivated as ever, definitely enjoying himself in front of a crowd that was thoroughly behind him (unlike the sometimes 70/30 crowds he wrestles in front of in other cities). Orton connected with an RKO towards the end of the match but the Singh Brothers pulled Mahal's leg over the rope to break the count. The Singhs were then ejected while Orton, for no reason I could infer, began selling knee damage. Before they were willing to leave, though, the Singhs went after the legends, inciting Orton to violence as he took to the outside and took out Mahal's henchmen. All the while, Mahal was able to recover, telegraphing his crowd-killing victory (the third disappointment of the night - unless you count Lana's wrestling, which was also shitty). (3/5)

The Fashion Police made their way down the aisle next to find out which two Superstars had been destroying their office over the past few weeks on SmackDown. The mystery team was (dun! dun! duuunnn!) The Ascension. Konnor has size, but that may be the only positive I can say about the galoot. As good as the Fashion Police's backstage segments may be, there is a wide gulf between successfully providing clever, Saturday Night Live-esque humor and delivering big, broad, crowd-pleasing wrestling matches and the team has not yet bridged that gap. The reaction for Breeze's roll-up win was non-existent. (.5/5)

Main event time - AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn in a Money In The Bank Ladder Match. Before the match could begin, Corbin took out Nakamura on the entrance ramp - again, in terms of getting heat onto Corbin, it was the right move, but the execution was lacking. In a match where guys are going to get hit, thrown off, and put through multiple ladders multiple times, a simple sneak attack and camera-bashing isn't enough to put someone out of commission for 20 minutes. Once the action began, the crowd let the bookers hear it too, chanting "Nakamura" instantly and then not really responding to anything for the next few minutes. Zayn tried to wake the crowd up with a dive onto Owens on the outside and Corbin got a decent reaction for a Deep Six on the arena floor, but even should've-been-big moments like Styles and Owens squaring off didn't excite. Zayn launching Owens off the top rope into a ladder was a positive, but the crowd died back down by the time Dolph Ziggler got his showcase minutes. Anyone who believes Zayn can be "the next Daniel Bryan" need to look no further than this match for proof that he still has a ways to go in terms of crowd adoration before he deserves that sort of push. As good as he is, the crowd response for him compared to AJ Styles and Nakamura (who was taken out of the match before it even started) was undeniably lesser. Speaking of Styles, ever the innovator, there was one point where he stood on the support of the ladder (rather than either leg) but was knocked off and, immediately after, Zayn hit a sunset flip powerbomb from the top of the ladder onto Ziggler in one of the most ridiculous bumps of recent memory. That's the type of move that believably puts someone out for 20 minutes. Owens tried to take advantage of a tired Zayn from here, but Zayn countered his "apron-bomb" attempt and hit a ridiculous half-nelson suplex on the apron. Still, the "Ole" chants as Zayn began his ascent on the ladder were cut off by the larger pop for AJ Styles hitting a Phenomenal Forearm to knock him back to the mat. Corbin and Styles became the focus of their match, their sequence ending with Corbin delivering a stiff chokeslam onto a suspended ladder. Sami had yet another chance to get the W after a Helluva Kick, but had his dreams dashed once again by Kevin Owens, who delivered a nasty low-blow to his former best friend before AJ Styles pulled him off the ladder as well. Owens attempted to powerbomb Styles through the suspended ladder, but once again saw his most vicious offense countered into a ridiculous spot - this time, an AJ Styles F-U onto the seemingly unbreakable ladder. Styles got to the briefcase but couldn't pull it down before Ziggler took the ladder from beneath him. Hanging 20 feet above the ring, Styles looked to be trying to unhook it before slipping and falling to the mat. Corbin took Ziggler and looked like he had the victory sealed but Nakamura's music hit and the crowd went bananas. As the crowd sang his theme song, Nak delivered a series of high impact knees, taking out Corbin as well as Ziggler with a pair of Kinchasas. Zayn entered the fray but also ate a Kinchasa as the crowd broke into a loud "Nakamura" chant for the second time of the match. Unfortunately, with no ladder close by, Nakamura went to the outside where his guaranteed victory was momentarily called into question by Kevin Owens. As Nakamura set up the ladder, only one man stood in his way - AJ Styles - staring directly through the ladder rungs. Nak and AJ proceeded to have an incredible sequence that only hints to the greatness these two will undoubtedly achieve if they get the opportunity on a big stage. A boisterous "AJ Styles/Nakamura" chant broke out as the two did battle atop the ladder, the crowd's excitement crushed as Baron Corbin (with considerable struggle) knocked them both over and grabbed the briefcase himself. While the beginning of the match wasn't too special, Nakamura's return and subsequent showdown with AJ Styles was mesmerizing and almost nudges this one into "must see" territory. (3.5/5)

Despite only scoring a relatively slight .21 above what May's Backlash show did (the last SmackDown-exclusive PPV), Money in the Bank 2017 was a far more watchable show - even if the finishes of nearly every match save the Breezango filler bout was designed to disappoint. The first ever women's Money in the Bank match wasn't great, but it wasn't the embarrassing car wreck some would've guessed and I would look forward to a second edition if the depth of the roster could support it (I'm not sure it really did this time around). The men's version was ho-hum to start, but was saved by a goosebump-inducing finishing stretch that, hopefully, the WWE isn't dumb enough to squander on TV when its obvious Styles/Nakamura is a rare buzz-worthy match that doesn't feature Lesnar or Cena. The Usos/New Day match was headed to maybe being the best New Day match since the days when they would square off against Cesaro & Tyson Kidd before its inconclusive ending. Still, to a fan like myself, the "troll" booking is actually kind of appealing in that, as I don't watch the weekly TV shows, I'm definitely hooked and excited to see where these storylines will go for July's Battleground show. With a respectable score of 2.58-out-of-5, I'm calling this a winner for casual fans who don't mind watching Missourians get pissed and a loser for those current fans who heavily invested and care maybe too much about Jinder Mahal's credibility...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver 

WCW Halloween Havoc 98'

WCW Halloween Havoc 98'

Las Vegas, Nevada - October 1998

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into Halloween Havoc, Goldberg wears the WCW World Championship, Bret Hart is the United States Champion, Chris Jericho is the Television Champion, and Billy Kidman holds the Cruiserweight Championship. The World Tag Team Champions are Scott Hall and The Giant. 

COMMENTATORS: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay


Halloween Havoc begins with a rundown of tonight's major contests and, on paper at least, this sounds like a "can't miss" show - Goldberg vs. DDP, Hogan vs. Warrior in only their second clash ever, and an absolute 90's dream match in Sting vs. Bret Hart. Plus, the match months in the making - Steiner vs. Steiner -  and Disco Inferno, Jericho, and Raven in action too. What could possibly go wrong? 

To start, instead of going right into a match, "Mean" Gene welcomes Rick Steiner for an interview. He spews some unintelligible and counter-enticing garbage about this match being like any other because he's not looking at Scott Steiner like his brother, he's looking at him like any other opponent. Buff Bagwell shows up and, while the thousands in attendance aren't fooled, somehow convinces Rick Steiner to trust him at ringside. Considering Buff Bagwell faked a neck injury that "broke kayfabe" and stalled Fall Brawl for 10+ minutes just to sneak attack the Dog-Faced Gremlin, I'd consider Rick's willingness to accept him as an ally as one of the all-time dumbest things a babyface has ever, ever done in pro-wrestling history. 

To the ring we go for the evening's opening contest - Raven challenging Chris Jericho for the TV Title. Initially Raven states he's not interested in competing, but Jericho, now a borderline face (?), goads him into the match because he wants to impress all the Jerichoholics. From there we have the best Raven or Jericho match I've seen in months - stiff bumps, nifty spots, simple-but-effective transitions and storytelling. Konnan makes a guest appearance for the finish but unlike many Raven matches from this time, it isn't an overbooked mess. Great opening match. (3.5/5)

Before the next match we get another impromptu promo, this time from Hollywood Hogan. Hogan talks about his recent beatdown on Horace Hogan and runs down the Warrior too. The Hulkster was money on the mic at this point - too bad nobody in WCW had the balls or foresight to steer him into programs that would've been over (Hogan/Nash, Hogan/Hart, and Hogan/Goldberg) rather than in Hogan/Warrior II. (+1)


Wrath takes on Meng next. Wrath was on a winning streak coming into this match so the conclusion is foregone but the big question was whether he could lift Meng up for his Meltdown finisher. Spoiler alert: He could and did. I like the stiffness on display at certain points, but this wasn't PPV worthy. (1.5/5)

The winner of the next bout will go on to face Billy Kidman for Cruiserweight Championship later in the show as Disco Inferno goes up against Juventud Guerrera. I don't know what it is about Guerrera - his offense is often dazzling and in 96'-97' I found him to be consistently really good. Something has stopped clicking with him and me, though, as I often find his matches drama-less, his set-ups for his big spots too obvious, and his chemistry with certain guys (in the past, Jericho, but on this night, Inferno) to be lacking. He's not the smoothest worker, though I could overlook his minor flaws if his matches flowed better overall. This one had too many starts-and-stops and Inferno, a guilty pleasure worker for me, doesn't do enough fresh schtick to keep me engaged during the lulls. There are also more than a couple lazy pins from both guys. On the plus side, I love the definitive, decisive finish. (2/5)

Scott Steiner comes out, cuts a promo about Las Vegas, and we end up with a Tag Team Championship match later on involving only half of the championship duo. Sure. This show has been ups-and-downs because just seeing Steiner on the stick, like Hogan before him, puts a smile on my face. (+1)

Alex Wright vs. Finlay follows. I usually enjoy Finlay matches but this one is purposeless. Based on the commentary, there was something personal here and it involved Finlay beating up Alex Wright's dad years ago, but the match isn't wrestled like it at all and Wright is working heel so I'm not entirely sure. This has no place on a PPV card. (1.5/5)

...and either does the match that follows: Saturn vs. Lodi. Saturn comes out looking completely bizarre with a beret and what appears to be make-up. He's just a total mess. Lodi is kinda funny, I guess? What's weird about this match is that Saturn, having dissolved the Flock, almost seems like the heel here going after a chickenshit like Lodi who, without Raven's backing, has absolutely no chance. Lodi ends up being the sympathetic figure even if we're supposed to be annoyed by him. Another bad match. (1.5/5)

The Cruiserweight Championship is on the line next with Billy Kidman defending the strap against Disco Inferno. I like Inferno's mid-match taunting, though, its not enough to really draw the crowd in for the first part of the match. Once the Inferno locks in a headlock, the crowd wakes up a bit with a "Disco Sucks" chant and pops for Kidman's clothesline hope spot. Disco maintains control and draws the ire of the fans with his dancing until Kidman gets some momentum of his own and hits a series of slams. Kidman's flurry is cut off by a Disco Inferno piledriver, but Inferno wastes too much time before making the cover and only gets 2. Kidman attempts a bulldog, but Inferno turns it into a back suplex and then hits a front suplex for another two count. Inferno goes for another piledriver, but Kidman reverses it into a facebuster and then hits the 7 Year Itch to finish this one. I'm not sure what the point of having Inferno wrestle twice on this show was. This was better than the previous two matches, but I wouldn't call it good - too much Disco offense, too little Kidman showcasing, unremarkable finish. (2/5)

Here we go, the Tag Titles on the line with The Giant and Scott Steiner defending the straps against Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell. Fairly typical WCW bait-and-switch here with this originally supposed to be Steiner vs. Steiner (though, I wasn't super excited about that pairing so I'm not disappointed we get this instead). Rick Steiner plays face-in-peril from the get-go, beaten down by both heels. When Rick does get some offense going, the crowd explodes, counting along with each punch in the corner. Bagwell begs to get tagged in and *surprise surprise* turns on Rick Steiner by kicking him square in the junk. For no explicable reason, Bagwell then runs out of the arena (I guess cuz he's a chickenshit even though they have a 3-on-1 advantage over a beaten man). Big Poppa Pump continues the beatdown as the crowd chants "Goldberg." The Giant gets tagged in and crushes Rick Steiner in the corner but doesn't take the guaranteed pinfall, opting instead to let Scott in to finish the jump. Rick Steiner wakes up, though, connecting with some big rights before Scott Steiner cuts him off with a low blow. On commentary, Tenay wonders aloud if Judy Bagwell was involved in her son's actions. The Giant goes to the top and attempts to dropkick Rick Steiner, but the Gremlin escapes and he hits Scott instead! Rick Steiner lands a clothesline and then hits a bulldog from the top to capture the WCW World Tag Team Championships on his own! Now, as JJ Dillon had telegraphed earlier, Rick gets his brother 1-on-1 in a follow-up match... (2.5/5)

Rick hunts down Scott in the aisleway, pulling him back into the ring as The Giant is sent to the back by the referee. The crowd is absolutely insane for Rick Steiner, popping for practically every single shot. Rick gets Scott up for a powerbomb but instead of dropping him to the mat, he sends him into the corner. Scott manages to land some offense of his own, though, hitting a big suplex and then a stiff clothesline. Rick wrests back control with a high angle suplex and a then a belly-to-belly, but before he can make the cover, a "crazed fan" in a Bill Clinton mask jumps the railing, causing a distraction on the outside. Wait a minute, that's no crazed fan - it's Buff Bagwell again! Bagwell uses Stevie Ray's slap jack to take out Rick and (in the best bump of the night so far) Charles Robinson too. The match is thrown out (the bell rings) but Bagwell uses Robinson's limp arm to make a count anyway - 1...2...and Rick Steiner kicks out! He kicks out again! Rick Steiner doesn't stay down and eventually hits another bulldog to snag his second win of the night (Nick Patrick runs dwon to make the count even though, moments earlier, the bell signaled that the match had been thrown out). (2.5/5)

Cool video package recapping the Outsiders' split as well as, to a lesser degree, Hall's alcoholic gimmick. Everything but the matches on this show is A+ material. 

Scott Hall makes his way down the aisle first with a drink in his hand. Kevin Nash comes in second but is almost immediately chopped down by Hall. The Bad Guy grabs a mic and then a wire, putting them to use to take out his former best friend. With Nash beaten down on the outside, Hall grabs a mic and tells him to hit the bricks. Nash gets back into the ring, though, only to receive some more big rights from Hall. Credit to Nash here - he takes a half dozen back bumps in short order and that can't be easy for someone his size. Fighting his way out of the corner, Nash rallies with a big side suplex. A few minutes later he tries for the Jacknife, but Hall evades it by heading outside. Back in the ring he goes, but Nash maintains control, dishing out some deserved punishment. Positioning Hall in the corner, Nah starts taunting him by asking him if he wants another drink before kneeing him straight to the kidneys. A more nuanced, more dramatic climax would've seen Nash actually take some pity on his best friend, maybe even tear up a little bit instead of continuing to mock his best friend for his alcoholism, but instead, Nash gives him a "double," Jacknifing him twice and then crotch-chopping him right in the face. Nash decides to take the countout loss, but he had proved his point. This isn't a great match, but I'd call it better than average thanks to a very hot opening, a crowd that was fully engaged, and the little flourishes that Hall and Nash threw in to tell a memorable story. (3/5)

90's dream match time - Bret Hart vs. Sting for the Hitman's United States Championship. Hart wanders on the outside drawing heat (someone even throw's a cup of coke at him) before Sting chases him and pulls him into the ring for the shine segment. Hart fights back, though, bringing Sting to the mat with a DDT. A "Bret Hart Sucks" chant breaks out as Hart continues his onslaught, eventually pulling him in for a headlock. Sting fights out but is cut-off quickly and choked on the second rope. Hart hits a bulldog and then stomps on the Stinger as Bobby Heenan gets the commentary wrong by calling it an evenly-matched contest thus far - it's not, it's been all Hitman. Hart hits the russian leg sweep, but Sting miraculously dodges a dropkick and nearly locks in the Scorpion Deathlock but Hart grabs the ropes. The Stinger takes over, but after leapfrogging Hart, the Hitman (obviously) feigns a knee injury and grabs a pair of brass knucks (though, they look like they're made of leather). Hart loses em' and the ref catches Sting with them instead. Hart utilizes the distraction to retake control and then hits his patented elbow from the second rope for two. Sting gets tossed to the outside and sent crashing into the guardrail. Back in the ring, Sting accidentally knocks out the ref with a back elbow, the match entering schmozz zone. Sting goes for the Stinger Splash but Hart counters with a big boot to the face and then hits Sting with a forearm to the back of the skull. Hart, inexplicably, goes to the top rope and gets superplexed for his efforts (what a dumb spot for the sake of just putting all three men out of commission). Sting hits the Stinger Splash, but Hart ducks just enough for Sting to hit his head on the post. Hart beats down Sting with some weak-looking bat shots. After hitting him with one last bat shot from the second rope, Hart wakes up the referee to see him apply the Sharpshooter. This match had moments that showed it could've been great - but its overbooked and didn't deliver enough of those moments to live up to what most fans would've loved to see. (2.5/5)

We've had our 90s Dream Match, so now its time for our 80s Dream Re-match - Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior. Hogan comes out first and we get a replay of Hogan's beat down on Horace Hogan. The Warrior comes out next as Mike Tenay reminds fans that this is only their second meeting after their legendary WrestleMania VI match 8 and a half years earlier. Warrior paces the ring as Hogan runs his mouth on the outside, the crowd chanting "Hogan Sucks." Their first sequence is actually pretty good, Hogan eventually needing to take to the outside to try to slow things down. Warrior is noticeably gassed though, breathing heavy as he challenges Hogan to a test of strength. Hogan is able to beat him down in the corner, eventually locking up with him in the center of the ring. Its a clever play on their WrestleMania moment, with Hogan not playing fair this time, but it also extends a few beats too long. They criss-cross the ring a couple times and Hogan hits a bodyslam, but Warrior no sells it and responds with a bodyslam of his own! At this point in the match, this is nowhere near the worst contest I've ever seen and the crowd is pretty into it too. A ref bump (for the second match in a row) allows for Hogan to take the advantage and call for reinforcements, specifically The Giant. Hogan sets him up for the big boot, but Warrior dodges and Hogan eats the size 20! Warrior takes out the rest of the nWo, clotheslining The Giant out of the ring for a big pop, and then gets the visual pin. Hogan is back up, though, and hits Warrior with a back suplex for two as Nick Patrick has recovered right on time. Hogan takes off his belt and beats down Warrior but Nick Patrick pulls him away. Hogan misses a series of elbows and then Warrior...log rolls into Hogan to take him out? Uh...? That was dumb. Warrior drops Hogan with a clothesline but misses his big splash. Hogan takes control back, but Warrior recovers, knocking the Hulkster down and taking the belt himself. Warrior uses the belt repeatedly and argues with the ref. Hogan, who seems to opened up, goes to the corner and tries to throw a fireball in Warrior's face but botches it and ends up nearly burning himself with what was clearly flash paper coming out of a ziploc bag. Warrior lands a pair of double axehandles, but Hogan hits him with a low blow and a clothesline. Hogan lands his patended leg drop as Horace Hogan makes his way down the aisle and distracts him. Hogan misses a second leg drop and Warrior "warriors up," no-selling Hogan's offense and delivering a series of big clotheslines. Bischoff grabs the ref and Horace Hogan enters the ring to hit Warrior with the chair to get the win! Horace is back in the nWo after all and Hogan has got his win back. Horace Hogan sprays Warrior with lighter fluid but Doug Dillinger stops him from lighting it using only his words? While this match has the reputation of being absolutely awful, I actually found it mildly amusing at first and then borderline "so bad-it's good" territory at other times. If you're a fan of Hogan, especially his heel work, he's no less infuriating and entertaining here than he was a year earlier. Even with its convoluted finish and ridiculous gaffes, its more enjoyable than Sting/Hogan at Starrcade 97' - which isn't saying much, but might help explain why I'm not going to call this an out-and-out dud. The strength of the personalities carry it to being something almost worth watching. (2/5)

Main event time - Diamond Dallas Page challenging Goldberg for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Crowd is pretty firmly behind Goldberg based on the chants, but its not like DDP gets any heel heat. Really smart match - DDP has been criticized for overbooking his matches, but like his classic series with the Macho Man, when DDP is at his best and keeps things strategic and simple, he can lay out a great match. I've heard some call this Goldberg's best match, but I haven't seen enough of his work to really make that sort of statement (though, I thoroughly enjoyed both his recent Lesnar matches from 2016 and 2017 for what they were). This ones goes 10 minutes (almost twice what those Lesnar bouts were combined), which wasn't necessarily the match length that had brought Goldberg to fame, but to his credit, he shows off some niftier power offense than usual (and an absolutely sick back handstand when DDP tries to sweep his legs from beneath). DDP, meanwhile, works the match the way one should work to beat Goldberg - keep him on the mat, use his speed and power against him, and try like hell to hit your ace move (the Diamond Cutter) whenever possible. The spear-to-the-post spot has been done to death since this match (and I'm not saying Goldberg and DDP invented it here) but the crowd explodes for it and, best of all, Goldberg sells the damage to his shoulder through the rest of the match, not just in the immediate aftermath. Solid, definitive finish that makes it clear who the dominant champion is, but doesn't completely castrate DDP in the process. (3.5/5)




On paper, there are few better cards for fans of 90s wrestling, but overbooking plagues both of the "dream" matches (Warrior/Hogan and Hart/Sting). Somewhat surprisingly, its WCW's relatively "homegrown" talent that put on the best work of the evening - Goldberg vs. DDP finally giving fans a worthy WCW World Championship match after two years of nWo-based gaga and Jericho/Raven opening up the card on a high point. The rest of the card is a mix of "almost good" and "not that terrible," a pretty good panoramic view of everything else WCW had going on in 1998 but never really rising above the level of your average episode of Thunder. With a Kwang score of 2.5-out-of-5, I'm calling this a...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver 

WCW Fall Brawl 98'

WCW Fall Brawl 98'

Winston-Salem, North Carolina - September 1998

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: At this time, the World Heavyweight Champion was the massively over Goldberg (though he would not appear on this show because this is WCW), the United States Champion was held by Bret Hart, the Television Champion was Chris Jericho, and the Cruiserweight Title was held by Juventud Guerrera. On the tag side of things, Scott Hall and The Giant hold the WCW World Tag Team Championships. 

COMMENTATORS: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay 

Fall Brawl 98' begins with an impromptu message from WCW Television Champion, Chris Jericho, who announces that he will finally get the match he's been demanding for weeks now - a title vs. title bout against WCW World Champion, Goldberg! Okerlund and the commentators are shocked, but intrigued...

Disco Inferno and Alex Wright tangle with The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart in the opening contest. Say what you will about Davey Boy's skill level at this point in his career, but he's respectably giving in this match, bumping for the considerably less-known Das Wunderkind. The match runs a bit long and the in-ring action never scores higher than "alright, I guess," but the finishing sequence is surprisingly solid (even as Bulldog struggles to get Inferno up for his powerslam). (2/5)

Backstage, Scott Steiner, with help from Buff Bagwell, tries to get out of his match with brother Rick. JJ Dillon reminds Steiner that if he does not compete tonight, he will be banned from WCW forever! 

Back in the arena we hear the familiar sounds of Chris Jericho's entrance music, only he and his security team (Ralphus and the mulleted Jericoholic Ninja) are having trouble finding their way out to the ring. Just in case the allusion floats over your head, Jericho recites lines from This is Spinal Tap. When Y2J finally does get to the aisle, his pyro is pitiful. The crowd is chanting for "Goldberg" and clearly wants to see the Television Champion get his comeuppance, but - swerve alert - instead of Goldberg, we get a much smaller, less defined Imposter Goldberg (played by Mark Cribb). A "Bullshit" chant erupts almost immediately as Jericho takes out the Fake Goldberg after a few minutes. As a match, this isn't good, but as an angle, it absolutely works - Jericho gets great heat, Goldberg is obviously set to come in and decimate him, and when its all said and done, both guys will come out of it even more over. How could WCW screw this up? Oh, they decide to not do anything after this with it? Not even on a Nitro? Oh, that's how. (+1)

The next actual bout has a very contrived back story - "The Cat" Ernest Miller has been running around backstage proclaiming himself the greatest and interrupting the interview time of other athletes like, on this night, The Armstrong Brothers (why the lower-lower-sub-undercard Armstrong Brothers would be lined up for an interview is never explained). Norman Smiley took umbrage with The Cat's antics and swiftly challenged him for Fall Brawl (they also had a pull apart moment backstage earlier in the show). Smiley had not yet gotten over with The Big Wiggle and Miller is a less well-rounded Glacier so this is about as uninteresting a match as one would expect. If I recall correctly, there's another loud "We Want Flair!" chant at some point (though, that could've happened during the opener too). The entirety of Miller's offense is kicking and Smiley, touted on commentary as an amazing submission-based wrestler, doesn't really come off at all as advertised. I know that Smiley was more than just a comedy wrestler in Japan and Mexico, but WCW missed that boat by not immediately pairing him up with respected and, most importantly, over grapplers like Benoit, Malenko, and Regal (was he still in WCW at this point?). (1/5)

Months in the making, it is time for brothers to clash - Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner. The crowd is super psyched for this match and I love how Rick Steiner takes the fight right to Scott, hitting him with a stiff Steinerline early and not giving him a second to breathe. Low blows from Scott bring on an abbreviated heat segment as the minute Buff Bagwell gets involved, the match pretty much stops entirely as the referee, participants, and announcers deal with what looks to be a legitimate injury. For the next 10 minutes, Schiavone, Heenan, and Tenay put on their most somber voices to sell that Bagwell, who suffered a career-threatening neck injury in 97' or so, is once again at risk of being paralyzed due to a Rick Steiner manhandling. At first the audience chimes in with a "Bullshit" chant, but WCW goes above and beyond to make sure this angle comes off as the real deal - Rick Steiner breaks kayfabe and shows his caring side, Eric Bischoff is shown on screen in his "non-nWo role" (I might be mistaken but Schiavone refers to him as WCW's "executive producer"), and a swarm of medical staff fill up the ringside area. They eventually bring Buff into an ambulance and Rick promises to call his mother as the doors close....before the doors spring back open and out comes Buff and Scott to attack Rick Steiner again! I legitimately laughed out loud. If I had paid $30 for this show, I probably would've slammed my fist through my TV screen but what's that thing about time plus tragedy equaling comedy? The match itself was kinda entertaining for 5 minutes, then really boring for 10 minutes, and then really funny for about 10 seconds. I'm not sure how to rate this, but I know its below average because 2/3rds of it are spent building up to the "punchline" that you, as a fan, are an idiot if you were "swerved" into thinking someone might actually get hurt "for real" in a fake wrestling match. (2/5)

Silver King challenges Juventud Guerrera for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship in the next match. The crowd gives no shits about Silver King and maybe only half of one for Juventud despite Guerrera actually having a fairly decent resume in WCW up to this point. King and Guerrera work hard but can't win the crowd over - at one point they're either chanting "Goldberg" or "Boring" and it doesn't really matter which because the point is, no matter what these two try to do (big suplexes, sunset flips sequences, quick counters) the audience doesn't care about them enough to invest. The biggest spot of the match is a nasty Inverted Hurricanrana from the top rope that Guerrera busts out that should've absolutely ended the match, but instead, Juventud hits King with a Juvi Driver (barely) and then shuts things down with his 450 splash (the second best spot of the match). In front of a crowd more familiar with Silver King, this might've been regarded as more than just average, but a cold crowd prevented that from happening. (2.5/5)

Backstage, Scott Hall bothers Konnan. Konnan tells him that when they fight, they need to come at each other "professinally," alluding to the fact that Hall is a drunk. 

We get a video recap of Saturn's most recent issues with Raven's Flock. After losing a match to him, Saturn had become Lodi's slave and thus had to do whatever Lodi said. He withstood a verbal taunting by Kanyon and then withstood a beatdown from the Flock when he refused to break the fingers of Scotty Riggs. 


Saturn vs. Raven is fought under Raven's Rules (No DQ, No Countouts) with the added stipulations that Kanyon will be handcuffed to a ring post and that if Raven wins, Saturn becomes his servant for "the remainder of his wrestling career" according to Dave Penzer. Raven gets some heat early but Saturn takes over, knocking Raven all the way into the guard rail before hitting him and Lodi with a huge splash over the top rope and to the floor! After shoving Raven back into the ring, Lodi pulls Saturn into the rail himself in a clever transition. Lodi hoists up a "Bill, Did You Inhale?" sign because that quote was about 6 years old and, in wrestling, that means its still "current." Raven locks in a sleeper hold, a questionable move as the audience wasn't fully with them. Thankfully, Saturn breaks out with a jawbreaker within a few seconds. Dead silence for the next minute or so. Raven hits his double leg sweep combo but can't get more than two. Pretty soft "Raven's Rules" match so far with neither guy brandishing any weapons yet. Raven connects with a shoulderblock to the midsection in the corner and grabs a chair, hitting Saturn with the drop toe hold into the chair. Saturn takes it fairly gingerly so it warrants a pretty minimal pop. Sick Boy, Horace, and Riggs show up with a table and set it up between the ring and the rail. Kidman hits Raven with a dropkick! Kidman's turned face! Huge pop from the crowd as the Flock chases him! Saturn hits his Death Valley Driver, but it only gets him a 2 count! And just like that the crowd is awake and cheering on Saturn's flurry of offense. Saturn gives Raven everything he's got - suplexes, drivers, a springboard clothesline - before locking in the Rings of Saturn which gets broken up by interference by Lodi. A ref bump leads to Kanyon getting the keys to the cuffs and unlocking himself. Kanyon pulls Saturn up and hits him with a Flatliner before rolling Raven on top of him. Too much time has passed before the ref is able to count though and Saturn gets 2! Saturn hits Lodi with a Death Valley Driver through the table! The crowd gives this a huge pop but Raven is able to hit Saturn with an Evenflow DDT on his way back in the ring! Kickout at 2! Saturn gets up and hits his Death Valley Driver to free the Flock! This one started off okay, lost the crowd entirely, but them pulled them back with Kidman's face turn and then Saturn's dizzying array of offense during his comeback. Each false finish got a huge pop because they were all believable as potential endings to the match - unlike alot of what we see in the WWE today. The actual finish was anti-climactic, though, as Saturn basically no-sold the Evenflow DDT after the two count. With so much booking here, one wonders why they couldn't have come up with a more clever way to get Raven into position for a second DVD? Fun match, but it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. (3/5)

We cut to a clip from Nitro when Dean Malenko took on Curt Hennig in a cage match. Why do the clips from Nitro look more exciting than anything we've seen on tonight's show so far? Malenko is about get to get his head smashed in by the cage door, but Arn Anderson makes his return to WCW to save him from nWo Hollywood! I was watching WWE much more closely by this point (as were many fans), so this angle passed me by, but it looks red hot based on the crowd reactions. 

Malenko vs. Hennig is next. Malenko controls the whole match, going after Hennig's knee and looking great doing it. Perfect's selling is on-point too, but in order for this match to have transcended its basic premise, he should've been able to mount at least some sort of offense to get some more heat into things. Rude also sells for the much-smaller Malenko, further cementing the Iceman as worthy of being a Horseman. Malenko hits a PerfectPlex - nice touch - but Rick Rude breaks up the count and gets his man DQ'ed. Throughout the match, the crowd has obviously been waiting for the return of Ric Flair and when Arn Anderson runs in (and gets beaten down too), the "We Want Flair" chants are deafening. Unfortunately, Bischoff opted to have Flair make his return the next night believing that ratings on a Monday are better than pleasing fans on a Sunday. Silly Eric, you would've had both. (2.5/5)

A "drunk" Scott Hall makes his way down the aisle with Vincent, drink in hand. Hall's acting here is pretty good, though, it is definitely awkward to watch a guy with real-life addiction problems pretending to be drunk on-screen as some sort of "kayfabe-breaking" gimmick. Scott Hall conducts a sloppy survey to help introduce the Wolfpack's Konnan. K-Dawg is mega-over, or at least his catchphrases are with the North Carolina crowd (he even throws in some No Limit Soldiers lines for good measure). Say what you will about his gimmick at the time, Hall is pretty amazing to watch here with all of his goofy antics, in fact he's so good, he makes Konnan's pedestrian offense exciting. After taking one too many hits, Hall opts to grab a quick refresher on the outside and nearly gets himself counted out. This match wasn't going to be packed with logic, but Konnan willfully stepping into a Hall submission is glaringly stupid when K-Dawg hadn't taken more than two punches beforehand. They sit in the resthold for awhile before Konnan reverses it and shoves the Bad Guy into the corner. Hall counters with a low blow for two and then throws in his signature fallaway slam for good measure. Hall applies an abdominal stretch and...takes another sip. Had there been any sort of nefarious transition in this heat segment, it would actually sort of work - but they didn't earn it and the crowd doesn't care at all because of it. Lazy match layout kills what began with the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand. Konnan is momentarily back in control because its his "turn" but Hall cuts him off with a clothesline as this match officially enters minutes it should've already been wrapped up by. Hall hits a belly-to-back suplex from the top rope but doesn't go for the cover. Instead of trying for the Outsider's Edge, Hall decides to grab one more sip, telegraphing Konnan's comeback and the Tequila Sunrise. Points awarded for Hall's acting in the first third of this match. (1.5/5)

MAIN EVENT TIME - Michael Buffer announces the names of tonight's captains and then asks fans if they are, in fact, ready to rumble. They are and down comes the massive cage. First out for Team WCW is noneother than Diamond Dallas Page, who will start the match by squaring off against Bret Hart of nWo Hollywood (kind of?). Page and Hart get 5 minutes to go at it and their work is fierce, but hardly the best they could've probably done together - Hart, even as a heel, is a guy who works meticulously to tell a story and build drama while Page, at this point, may have been at his peak in garnering sympathy and delivering great hope spots. Stevie Ray comes in third - a teammate of Hart on nWo Hollywood and, I'm guessing, the guy thrust into this match solely to say "I Quit" later. From here, the intervals are kept (mercifully) at 2 minutes and Sting shows up to a huge ovation at Number 4. Piper, Luger, and Nash are the next bodies to come down, Nash getting the biggest reaction so far. Before the timer sounds, though, Hogan makes his way down the aisle and sneaks into the ring, ostensibly to take out Nash (now, if Hogan was really brilliant he would've had Stevie Ray lie down for him immediately). Hogan, but more specifically, Stevie Ray uses his slap jack to take out nearly everyone else, including Hart. The Hulkster hits his leg drop on Nash but instead of scoring the easy pin, he and Ray just look at their destruction and gloat as the crowd chants "Hogan Sucks." After a minute or so, the rings fill up with smoke, signaling the arrival of The Warrior...who is immediately taken out by Hogan from behind. More smoke and...wait...that wasn't the Warrior, the real Warrior runs down the aisle and takes out Hogan and Stevie Ray to a respectable pop from the crowd. Hogan escapes the cage and the Disciple locks the door as Warrior takes out Stevie Ray on the inside. Warrior makes his way into the second cage but is focused entirely on Hogan on the outside, eventually kicking is way through just to get at his mortal enemy. In the ring, the siesta continues, all 7 of the other participants playing dead. Hart, Stevie Ray, and Page are up, but Sting pulls Hart to the mat as DDP hits his Diamondcutter on (you guessed it) Stevie Ray to end this match. The first five minutes were okay, I guess, and a half-point awarded for the Warrior nonsense being so ludicrous. (1/5)



Fall Brawl 98's "Kwang Score" of 2.06-out-of-5 puts it in pretty rarified air - it stands as one of the 20 lowest-rated shows I've reviewed. Amazingly its not the worst WCW show from 98', though (that would be the previous month's Road Wild show), but ignoring the historically horrendous Road Wild shows (the 97' version scored a woeful 1.97-out-of-5), this is the worst show WCW put on in over two years (it is almost as if the string from SuperBrawl VI through Slamboree 96' were  purposefully designed to be so bad so that the nWo's arrival that summer would be an even bigger deal). There's not a single match from Fall Brawl 97' I'd want to revisit, the best parts of the night being, oddly, the intentional comedy of Chris Jericho vs. "Greenberg" and Rick Steiner being made to look like a total goof and the unintentional comedy of the preposterous Warrior/Hogan interaction in the main event. Malenko/Hennig could've been a great moment...but WCW opted to keep Flair off the show believing (rightly so) that his return would boost Nitro's ratings. At the time, the importance of the Monday Night War had convinced him this was a necessary move - but this particular show suffered from his absence and the crowd let them know it throughout the show. 

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville

WWE Extreme Rules 2017

WWE Extreme Rules 2017

Baltimore, Maryland - June 2017

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Brock Lesnar is the Universal Champion, Dean Ambrose is the Intercontinental Champion, the RAW Tag Team Champions are the Hardy Boys, and Alexa Bliss is the RAW Women's Champion.

COMMENTATORS: Michael Cole, Booker T, and Corey Graves

Extreme Rules begins with a match where fighting by extreme rules will actually cost the champion his title - Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz for Ambrose's Intercontinental Championship. As countless writers noted, this match could be over in the first three seconds if Miz took one for the team and let Maryse waffle him with a chair. Instead, the bell rings and Ambrose takes The Miz to the mat with a side headlock. EXXTREEM!1!! They trade wristlocks before the action spills to the outside and Ambrose, knowing full well that it will cost him his title, nonsensically pulls a chair into the match only to immediately drop it. Miz tries to use it himself, but the ref stops that too. I don't understand the logic of Ambrose even teasing weapon usage in clear view of the ref, but I'm trying not to nitpick too much. Back in the ring, Miz takes control, hitting a great-looking kick to the face and then following it up minutes later with three dropkicks in the corner and his signature clothesline. Miz looks to have things nearly wrapped up but Ambrose counters an ill-advised forearm smash from the top rope. Miz rolls to the outside and Ambrose connects with an elbow to the arena floor that draws a much milder applause that it warranted. Ambrose busts out a fisherman's suplex for two as Miz rolls towards the corner to speak to Maryse. Swinging neckbreaker for another two count. Later, Miz wisely tries to trick Ambrose into DQing himself by exposing a turnbuckle, but Ambrose doesn't bite - and eats a Daniel Bryan-esque running knee to the face. Miz adds some Yes Kicks, the crowd not necessarily cheering Miz as much as popping for the move itself. Ambrose counters with a figure four that Miz sells terribly before breaking up by grabbing the bottom rope. Both guys are hobbling with damaged knees and Miz demands Maryse to slap him! Maryse does it, but the ref doesn't buy the treachery! With the ref focusing on Maryse, Miz shoves the Lunatic into the ref and the referee is pissed, blaming it on Ambrose. The ref is about to DQ him but Miz connects with the Skull-Crushing Finale! Not an all-time great match or anything, but above average, with a solid sequence to wrap things up. (3/5)

A Money in the Bank commercial and then its time for tonight's 205 Live showcase, a mixed tag match with Noam Dar and Alicia Fox going up against Sasha Banks and Rich Swann. Banks and Fox take the first part of the match and though I'm a fan of both, they don't necessarily have the best chemistry. Things pick up a bit when Dar and Swann come in, especially when they start exchanging haymakers and clotheslines. Banks hits double knees to Dar on the floor and Swann follows it up with a Pheonix Splash to pop his hometown crowd! Too short to be called good, but no worse than your average TV match. (2.5/5)

"The Drifter" Elias Samson appears in the ring to serenade the crowd with a dark country tune about himself. I want to like this gimmick because I like the idea of adding variety to the landscape, but what's the hook here? In WCW, the 400 pound Maxx Payne would play the "Star-Spangled Banner" on a sick flying V and it was ridiculous in a good way. Jeff Jarrett was an over-the-top country singer with light-up clothes. Elias Samson is a "drifter," somber and mysterious, but its a one-note act to me because his singing isn't terrible enough to be funny or virtuosic enough to be interesting. No extra point awarded and none taken away.

The RAW Womens' Championship was on the line next - Alexa Bliss defending against (the surprisingly unpopular) Bayley in a Kendo Stick-on-a-Pole Match. The women waste no time going after the Kendo Stick, Bayley taking control of it after taking Bliss out on the outside of the ring. Before Bayley can put it to use, though, Bliss spears here and grabs the stick herself, leveling Bayley with multiple shots to the back and at least one that looked like it rocked her pretty hard on the back of the neck. Bayley counters with a Bayley-to-Belly but can't make the cover as a small "Bayley" chant starts up. Bliss continues to use the stick on her opponent and then takes her out with a 100% clean DDT. Huh. I would've liked to see Bayley suffer a bit more if you're going to try to sell that Bliss only won because she controlled the Kendo Stick and destroyed her opponent with it. There's simply no way a male talent would lose without some sort of "bigger spot" and Bayley deserves equal booking consideration. (1/5)

The cage is set up and its time for some tag team warfare - former champions Sheamus and Cesaro challenging the WWE Tag Team Champion Hardy Boyz. This is an outright brawl with both teams trying to use the cage walls to their advantage. A "Brother Nero" chant starts up but is silenced by the Euros trying to escape. As is somewhat typical of these sorts of matches, there are some noticeable lapses in logic - the brawnier Sheamus trying to escape the cage when the door would be easier, any point in which a Hardy opts to execute a high-flying maneuver from atop the cage rather than drop to the arena floor and win, Hardy literally standing next to an open door and deciding to hit an "Air Hardy" instead of walk through it, at one point Sheamus hitting a double powerbomb on both Jeff Hardy and Sheamus because...? Matt Hardy ends up straddling the wall but Cesaro pulls him down and into a Rolling Senton by Sheamus. The former champs take over for the next stretch, rocking the Hardys into the cell wall but almost costing themselves the match by hoisting Jeff Hardy nearly to the very top. Solid comeback sequence from the Hardys allows them a chance to climb up the cage walls, but the Euros catch them at the very top. Cesaro holds Jeff Hardy by a single arm, but he eventually escapes and goes to the floor - unfortunately for the Hardys, the match now becomes a 2-on-1 affair as Matt needs to escape in order for his team to win the match (a key point that should've been made clear on commentary much, much earlier to help explain why, at various points, guys ignored an open cage door). Matt goes to the top but is beaten up by Cesaro and Sheamus and a tug of war ensues over his somewhat lifeless body. Cesaro and Sheamus team up and hit a double powerbomb on Matt and then, when Jeff tries to make the save, Sheamus delivers a Brogue Kick to the door to finish him off. Matt manages to hit a Twist of Fate on Sheamus and pulls Cesaro off the cage wall, but as he tries to escape one last time, the Swiss Superman hits him with a big uppercut in the corner. White Noise from the top rope! Matt Hardy looks to be completely out...but Jeff Hardy is back awake and climbing the cage! Hardy connects with a Whisper in the Wind from the top of the cage onto Sheamus and Cesaro and the crowd lets him hear it with a "Holy Shit" chant and then a "This is Awesome" chant as well. Matt is back up and trying to pull Jeff toward the door, but Sheamus and Cesaro escape over the cage wall before Matt can pull Jeff all the way through. Fun, better than average match that owed some of its entertainment value to a crowd that was fully invested. (3/5)

The next match may have been the sleeper of the night - in that half the crowd was either already asleep or falling asleep at the start of it. Neville and Aries worked hard and execution-wise, there may not have been a better performance by anyone all night, but no matter what these guys busted out - and they busted out some seriously cool moves - the audience was fairly indifferent to the action. Aries tweaked his knee and then suffered an injury to his left arm, Neville going after both limbs and, between strikes, working hard to get the crowd to hate on him (though only rousing up slight jeers). Neville went for a dropkick but Aries was able to counter it into a figure four and, for the second time tonight, we had both guys selling knee damage. After missing a big dropkick from the top rope, Neville locked in the Rings of Saturn, but Aries was able to get his foot to the ropes as the crowd...booed? I'm not sure if the Baltimore audience was being purposefully contrarian with their treatment of Bayley and Aries, but at least it was somewhat of a reaction. Moments later, Aries applied the Rings himself and the crowd didn't bite at all. Move-for-move, hold-for-hold, this was no worse than average, but the crowd never exploded - even when Aries scored an excellent visual win by applying the Last Chancery on the outside of the ring, a moment that would've and should've got a much bigger reaction. Neville fought off Aries' attempt to pull him back in the ring but ate a huge discus forearm for his troubles. Aries seemed like he was in control, but Neville dodged a bullet when Aries crashed to the floor on an ill-conceived dive. Neville connected with his Red Arrow and tapped Aries out with the Rings to cement his status as the King of the Cruisers. A dead crowd dropped this one into below average range for me and it didn't help that the finish was so definitive that I'm not sure Aries has an in-ring WWE career left. (2/5)

Great Balls of Fire is coming in July. I did not want to believe the WWE would call one of their Network Specials this until I saw it officially on TV, but here we are. It is real and it is real stupid. 

Main event time - Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for a shot at Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship. In terms of entrances, Balor got the biggest reaction while Reigns got the most boos, everyone else earning somewhat mixed or lukewarm responses regardless of their heel/face role. In a brilliant move to start the match, Reigns stood in the center of the ring simply standing around and drawing heat before he finally went at it with Wyatt, who got cheered for the little bit of offense he was able to hit Reigns with. A number of great spots early - Balor taking out four men at once by taking to the air, Joe cutting off Reigns' drive-by attempt - weren't enough to silence a loud "We Want Tables" chant by minute 5. Wyatt and Joe teamed up for a brief spell, taking out Reigns to the delight of the crowd before targeting Balor. Graves pointed out the inevitability of a split, but that didn't necessarily explain Seth Rollins, for the second time in the match, breaking up a beatdown by Wyatt and Joe. After eating a DDT on the steps, Rollins was back incapacitated, and Balor, who had mounted a bit of a comeback against Joe was put down too by a Bray Wyatt chair shot. Wyatt teased hitting Joe with the chair too, but opted to inflict more punishment on Balor instead (with even more help from Joe). Reigns, who had also taken a chair shot earlier, broke back into the match like a house afire, hitting Wyatt with a drive-by, powerbombing Balor, and then taking out Joe with a big boot. Reigns' dominance was short-lived, though, as Wyatt hit him with a chokeslam into the edge of the announce table, a spot that looks way, way nastier when the table doesn't break. It was now Rollins turn to take on the heavies, hitting them with a double blockbuster. When Rollins tried to follow with a suicide dive on both men, Wyatt shoved Joe into harm's way, signalling the end of their alliance and segueing into a Wyatt/Rollins stretch that culminated with Wyatt hitting the Sister Abigail but prevented from the win by an angry Samoa Joe. This is when the match really got great - first, Finn Balor took everyone out (save Rollins) with chair shots, drop kicks, and, in the case of Roman Reigns, a punt kick that looked like it rearranged his face. Joe locked in a kokina clutch to slow him down, but Reigns came out of nowhere to tackle both men through a wall for a "Holy Shit" chant. Meanwhile, Rollins came flying through the air with a frog splash onto Wyatt through a table. This was the carnage that the crowd wanted. Back in the ring, Reigns hit his Superman Punch on Rollins for 2, unable to put him out. Minutes later, Wyatt would enter the picture for a nifty Sister Abigail-teasing sequence as Reigns went on a rampage, taking out just about everyone in succession until Finn Balor was able to connect with a Slingblade and then a Coup De Gras. Before he could make the count, though, Joe locked on the Kokina Crutch and choked him out for the win. Very good match and easily the Match of the Night but not necessarily must watch. (3.5/5)


Extreme Rules 2017 was an unsubstantial show in terms of delivering great matches, but was undoubtedly significant in laying out the WWE landscape for the summer. Samoa Joe will challenge (and I'm going to go out on a limb and say  lose to) Brock Lesnar on July 9th. I'm predicting a Finn Balor/Bray Wyatt feud in the works, a pairing they've been teasing for a little bit now (though, on RAW it looked like Wyatt was going to feud with Seth Rollins). Bayley doesn't look like she'll be contending for the RAW Women's Championship again anytime soon, so by SummerSlam I'm guessing we'll be seeing Banks/Bliss. The IC and Tag Title divisions are somewhat wide open with acts like The Drifter and Enzo and Cass on their periphery. On the plus side, the Hardys could be gearing up to re-enact their #Broken storyline and, with all three members back on the same brand, I wouldn't toss out a Shield Reunion as a potential angle for the summer. All of these pieces and parts were, to varying degrees, alluded to, but to get there, Extreme Rules didn't offer a single match worth seeking out - which is disappointing because storyline development and well-executed, well-conceived matches aren't mutually exclusive. With a Kwang Score of 2.5 out of 5...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver