The show opening promo highlighting the history of the WWF in Madison Square
Garden was really good, giving the show a sense of history. In a real classy
move, they didn't bury Hogan or Savage.
The Undertaker rambled on again during an in-ring interview that was saved
by Shawn Michaels being Shawn Michaels. Similarly, the second hour interview
segment during which Undertaker interrupted Michaels wasn't bad either but UT
almost killed the segment by no-selling a four on one beating! Glad to hear
Shawn Michaels address the idiot homophobic fans.
Owen Hart vs. Brian Pillman was nearly great. The opening SMW inspired
"pretend" wrestling was hilarious and when they came back from commercial
they were really working hard but it didn't go on long enough. The big
yellow goof had to ruin it but all things considered, especially the angle
that was to follow, this was a tidy little piece of work.
Vince McMahon stepped up to the plate and delivered a damn fine performance
en route to being laid out by Steve Austin. McMahon even threw in some good
old fashioned wide-eyed twitching to get the whole thing over! I give
Vince mad props for going down in his own stomping grounds. And just like
the debut of Dude Love, Austin got this piece over with his subtle facials
alone.
I MARKED OUT! for the return of Cactus Jack, perhaps my all around favourite
worker, and I haven't been this excited watching wrestling since the Cactus
Jack street fights with the Nasty Boys all those years ago. The meeting of
Jack's minds through the wonder of modern technology was the best. And then
he wrestled a pretty darn decent falls count anywhere match with Hemlsley
and Chyna. MSG erupting in an ECW chant must have given Paul E. a boner!
Goldust and Bret Hart wrestled a respectable match, solid storyline,
good execution and the holy grail, a clean finish! It was great to
see Michaels and Hart bury the hatchet and make actual physical
contact. And they figured out how to keep Jim Neidhart over, take him
off TV for two months! The show closing double chokeslam was cool.
Ahmed Johnson returned to the ring and injured himself again! Ok, so
it was only a cut up hand. Not bad, not good, it served it's purpose
well but that's not saying much.
What little there was of the LOD vs. NOD was a good New Japan-esque heavyweight
tag team match, nothing special but stiff and fast-paced. The post-match was
good too but the screwy ending ruined the whole thing.
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