In case any of you were disappointed with my remark last week about that home wrecking Val Venis, I honestly want Dustin to kick his ass in the feud. But that's more because my formative wrestling years were spent watching Runnels Jr. work circles around his father in matches against Vader, Steve Austin and even Bunkhouse Buck in WCW. I still like all the porn stuff. Meanwhile, Owen Hart and Venis put on a pretty good short match.
X-Pac vs. Dee El Oh Brown delivered the best wrestling goods on the show, and maybe on both shows. X-Pac is reaching another level in his wrestling career which is really nice to see since he was kinda stuck for a while back in '96. D-Lo is still the number one and coolest member of the forgotten Nation, hanging with his opponent and showing off his super duper cool moves. The European title, of course, means absolute shit. I don't understand the significance of it at all. Maybe if it was ever defended on European soil. They should at least give it to my man Steve Regal.
Mankind gave a pre-match interview that was about as good as the one on that other show Ric Flair delivered, yet they were completely polar opposite in theme, scope and style. Flair's was compelling as hell and Mankind's made me fall off the couch. If I wasn't such a slacker I'd transcribe the whole thing right here and then make arrangements to have it put on my tombstone.
The on-at-least-one-TV-show weekly triple threat match was the best one I can remember seeing on Raw. Maivia really supplied the goods with one of his best TV performances. Mankind worked his ass off like he does every match. Ken Shamrock hung with them and pulled out a super Frankensteiner right near the screwjob of a finish. Yeah, it was too bad it couldn't have ended cleanly.
Jeff Jarrett and Billy Gunn brought the wrestling to the table but Jarrett's only good when he's bumping around the ring for someone with a 1990s move set and Gunn is way back in 1987. It was ok, but ultimately fell short of working. The Roadie holding cue cards kept it from being a massive waste of magnetic tape.
The Disciples of some Apocalypse and Southern Justice were in the ring together and that's always gonna be bad. Pretty much anything with some form of disciple in the ring is not gonna be something I want to see.
I would be a happy person if the Undertaker and Kane never saw the light of day again.
The WWF Womens Championship match would have been a whole lot better if they had awarded the winner an actual title belt. This showed glimpses of ok-ishness if you squinted real hard at Jackie's DDT. I, like all the other people with no lives who spend their spare time watching TV shows in a language they don't understand, would love to see some Japanese gals lay the smackdown on these two, and so I hope and I pray.
Billy Gunn as the mystery partner worked better this time than last. But that's not saying a lot. This match just didn't do it for me because a lot of it consisted of the dead boys with a wad of lousy offence. The Undertaker is really letting his barely there workrate slip ever since turning heel. Kane is even more of a load than before. And Billy Gunn really pussed out on the selling. Austin didn't do much but he did it well.
TSN saw fit to cut the savage beating the Oddities took with silly string at the hands of those dastardly Headbangers. I don't care how bad it is, *I* decide whether to fast forward through it or not!
Ollie
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