[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?

[Matt D]

 

- Of course, this show is most (in)famous for two young guys who would be key parts of the WWF Attitude Era getting jobbed out so Hogan could populate the roster with his old washed up friends. Cactus Jack makes his final WCW appearance, losing a Loser Leaves WCW match to Kevin Sullivan (and taking an insane flip bump from the middle turnbuckle to the exposed concrete for kicks) while Austin is awarded the US Title when Steamboat can't go from the shoot back injury that retired him until '09 only to turn around and job the belt to Hacksaw Duggan thirty seconds later.

 

 

Foley asked for his release.

[supremebve]

Canadian Stampede

HHH w/not yet enhanced Chyna v. Mankind is the opener.  Chyna looks like an entirely different person, than I remember.  I remember having plastic surgery, I just didn't remember how much.  Hunter takes a pretty big over the top rope bump, and Mankind follows up with the Cactus Elbow off the apron.   Hunter takes another over the top rope bump and Mankind supleses HHH on the ramp.  HHH has his bumping boots on.  Mankind counters a sunset flip with a mandible claw and Chyna punches Mankind to break it up.  Foley chases her outside and HHH Irish whips Mankind into Chyna who powerslams knees into the steps, and somehow all of those HHH bumps seem tame.  HHH throws a dropkick to the knee, which I've never seen him do, and then locks in a figure four.  Mankind whips HHH into the turnbuckle with authority, and HHH does a flip bump that ends with him hanging himself in the tree of woe in one seamless motion.  Cactus clothesline followed by Hunter and Chyna doing some cheating on the outside.  Chyna is really good in her role here, she looks intimidating and her strikes look good.  They brawl outside until the ref gets fed up and DQs HHH for throwing Mankind into the crowd.  Ol' Trips should show this video to the roster before the next Extreme Rules, the brawl looked like two guys fighting, not two guys following each other through the crowd.  I give this a big thumbs up despite the crappy ending.

 

They had a Canandian Stampede festival, and the Anvil is on a float wearing an open leather jacket with no shirt underneath.  Anvil has the biggest beer gut in the history of the world. 

Taka Michinoku v. The Great Sasuke, and I've always heard this match was the reason Taka got signed full time.  Mankind and HHH are still brawling, there is hair pulling, face bleeding, and about 15 people trying to pull them apart.  OK, now back to the match, and we get some matwork to start.  Taka is working heel, but the crowd doesn't care they are cheering his slaps and cocky gestures anyway.  Sasuke sends Taka to the floor, and follows with an insane missile dropkick to the floor.  After some striking on the inside Taka send Sasuke out and hits a fucking huge Spaceman Plancha.  He seemed to be in the air forever, that spot is always impressive.  These guys are hitting everything really really crisply, oh shit Taka just planted him with a Michinoku Driver.  Sasuke dropkicks Taka's out of a crossbody, and hits him with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb and a tiger suplex for the win.  Sasuke was great here, but Taka really seemed like a star.  We are two for two on really good matches.

 

Guess who's back, Mankind and HHH are still brawling, now they're in the parking lot. 

Vader and Paul Bearer interview segment, and Paul has the blonde Percy Pringle III look going, and Vader is just staring at the camera like he wants to come into my living room and kick the shit out of me.  Paul Bearer is just being a huge troll, and he is really good at it.

 

Vader v. Undertaker for the title, and it's all taker to start.  They are setting up the introduction of Kane on commentary, making me think to myself how unbelievably old I'm getting.  I swear Kane has been around forever, which he has, but I remember wanting to see this PPV like it was yesterday.   Vader sends Undertaker into the steps and Paul walks over to him calling him a murderer.  Vader gets Taker down and Paul beats Undertaker with a shoe, then struts away like the pasty ass that he is.  Vader is working significantly lighter here than usual, he hasn't even hit the Vader hammers.  Just noticed Taker has a tattooed tear, Vader has a nerve hold on Taker and the crowd is so loud the camera is shaking and Vader looks shocked by it.  Vader hits some pretty wimpy looking Vader hammers.  Someone must have to talked to him about brutalizing people, because this isn't the Vader that we got in WCW and Japan.  Vader sets up the Vaderbomb, but Taker cuts him off and chokeslams him from the second rope.  Taker hits another chokeslam and a tombstone to finish Vader in a pretty fun match, that I wish was about 50% stiffer.  These guys had it in them to have a crazy, stiff, brawl, but we just got a pretty decent wrestling match.

 

They really had a weekend long event leading up to this, and this crowd is really riled up to see their hometown heroes.  The random ass American team are in the back Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and the LOD say their piece, but Austin just walks off when Michael P.S. Hayes tries to interview him. 

 

Goldust/Shamrock/LOD/Austin v. The Hart Foundation I don't know what Steve Austin is saying to the people walking down to the ring, but I'm sure it isn't nice.  Brian Pillman is the first member of the Hart Foundation out, and he gets a huge pop, but compared to the rest of the team he gets crickets.  Bret and Austin start, and Bret gets the best of the initial brawl and the crowd HOT.  Austin makes a comeback and they try to bring the building down with their boos.  I would usually advocate for making the crowd wait to see the top two draws in the match, but it is the absolute right idea to have Austin and Bret start in this atmosphere.  Anvil and Shamrock in next and I don't know what is funnier Shamrock's whole existence or Anvil's attempt at an MMA stance.  Pillman in next, and I really wish he would have stayed healthy and could have wrestled in his prime as the Loose Canon character.  Bret is obviously the most over person in the building, but Owen isn't far behind.  This is the best crowd I have ever seen.  Austin wraps Owen's knee around the ringpost then hits it with a chair, and Bruce Hart jumps out of the crowd to stop him.  Owen goes to the back for medical attention.  The crowd hates Austin and he is doing everything he can to make it worse.  Bret gets retribution for Owen as he beats Austin's knee with a fire extinguisher before locking on the ringpost figure four.  Austin is going to the back for medical attention, and he doesn't look happy about it.  In what may be the strangest table bump of all time Pillman throws him into a table and it just slides across the floor and sends him into the safety rail.  Austin limps his ass back to the ring, drags himself to the apron and is begging for the tag.  Bret back in and Austin is stomping a mudhole in him but he sends him to the opposite turnbuckle before walking it dry.  Austin puts the sharpshooter on Bret, but Owen limps out for the save.  Austin sends him over the top with a clothesline and is kicking his ass in front of his family.  Bruce throws something at Austin, so Austin grabs Stu leading to a huge brawl with Harts rushing out of the crowd and piling into the ring.  The Harts clear the ring and celebrate, until Austin tries to fight all of them with a chair.  They kick his ass and the cops come and handcuff Austin who is still cursing and kicking at any and everyone.  He is escorted out, flipping birds the whole way.  Austin was just so into his character it is no surprise that he becomes such a huge star.  He took his role as the outlaw ass kicker and just ran with it.  He gets his knee destroyed by a fire extinguisher, doesn't matter he is still going to kick some ass.  The fight is ten against one, doesn't matter he is still going to kick some ass.  He is rolling on the ground handcuffed, still doesn't matter he is going to kick some ass.  He was born for that role, he didn't give a fuck what the consequences were if he wanted to kick your ass he was going to do it no matter what.  Steve Austin is my favorite wrestler of all time, and I almost forgot why until watching that.

 

Match of the night was the 10 man tag, but this was pretty much great all around.

Top 5 matches so far

1. Austin/Goldust/Shamrock/LOD v. The Hart Foundation
2. Cena v. Lesnar
3. Hart v. Diesel
4. Mysterio v. Psycosis
5. Bryan v. Sheamus

Next up No Way Out 2001

[Bear Wyatt]

Watching King of the Ring 1993 and it's pretty good.  Obviously Bret and Razor put on an excellent match but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mr. Hughes vs Mr. Perfect.  Perfect made Hughes look like a world-beater with the way he bumped for his offense.  Hughes was surprisingly quick such a big guy too.  

 

I was surprised that the announcers (Heenan, Savage and JR) acknowledged the "controversy" over Yokozuna challenging Hogan for the belt instead of Bret Hart.  Seems like something that Vince would wanna keep quiet.   

 

Yoko was SO GOOD in this match.  Even his simplest offensive maneuvers look like it could end the match and his wobbly big-man selling was top notch.  Crowd was super-hot too which was fun.  

[SirSmUgly]

Watching King of the Ring 1993 and it's pretty good.  Obviously Bret and Razor put on an excellent match but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mr. Hughes vs Mr. Perfect.  Perfect made Hughes look like a world-beater with the way he bumped for his offense.  Hughes was surprisingly quick such a big guy too.  

 

I was surprised that the announcers (Heenan, Savage and JR) acknowledged the "controversy" over Yokozuna challenging Hogan for the belt instead of Bret Hart.  Seems like something that Vince would wanna keep quiet.   

 

Yoko was SO GOOD in this match.  Even his simplest offensive maneuvers look like it could end the match and his wobbly big-man selling was top notch.  Crowd was super-hot too which was fun.  

 

I love this show so much.

 

Hughes did a great flip-bump in that match against Perfect. I don't think I saw him do cool stuff like that in his lighter, younger AWA days, even. 

 

I also decided why I like Luger vs. Tatanka on that show. Not only does it get off to a hot start with the ref forcing Luger to cover his loaded elbow, then Luger tossing Tatanka for interrupting his posing before Tatanka comes back and pushes the mirror onto him and opens up, but the two guys wrestle in character. Luger wants to win, but he's so in love with himself that he relaxes and takes his time. This almost burns him when Tatanka gets a couple pinning combos out of nowhere, and eventually, it leads to the draw.

 

Tatanka, on the other hand, wants to go-go-go, and takes every chance to go for a pin, but Luger keeps cutting him down just as he gets momentum. 

 

I have always enjoyed Luger (except for US Lex, which doesn't work for me as a gimmick and didn't produce any good matches that I can think of), but watching some of these older PPVs and RAWs reminds me of how fun Tatanka was. I could watch him beat up jobbers or have competitive matches all day. I want to revisit his random Smackdown run in the mid '00s too because I remember REALLY enjoying him then. 

[Bustronaut]

So much for the Clash/SNME rumblings.

 

goddammit.

[muhammedboehm]

Working my way throw all the ECW ppvs at Heat Wave 99 so weird hearing them pimping the TNN show

[Isaacduke]

So much for the Clash/SNME rumblings.

 

goddammit.

Wait, what? Have they said they're not going to offer those?

[Brian Fowler]

No. There was a rumor that they were going to be added this week.

[Niners Fan in CT]

What has been edited out on King of the Ring '93? I started watching it and it is like 2 hours 40+ minutes. That sounds about right...

[SlackerMillionaire]

No. There was a rumor that they were going to be added this week.

 

 

Yes but I believe the rumor was based around the idea that WWE was going to add more content when the Free 7 day trail period ended but it still looks like the WWE are still offering the free trail (not a bad move with all the technical difficulties, though they should really extend for people who were unable to use Xbox). There is still hope the rumor is true and clashes and SNME may be added next week or when they free trail period ends.

[piranesi]

Couple of matches from MAPLE LEAF GARDEN, 1984!!!


Special Delivery Jones vs. Greg Valentine for the IC title.

What worked:  Short match that made sense.  SD worked the back with the (racist) headbutts.  Valentine countered by working the leg to set up the figure four.  But he never needed it.  SD knocked Hammer out of the ring and they brawled a bit.  Finish was out of nowhere, but kind of nifty as Hammer got back in the ring first and SD had trouble getting up on the apron because he was SELLING THE LEG and Hammer caught SD from behind while he was still on the ring apron, hitting a back suplex OVER THE ROPES for an early pin.  SD was too late kicking out and was pissed to lose that way.  BUT HE WAS STILL SELLING THE LEG!!!!

What didn't work: Jack Reynolds starts off our announcing by informing us that  "I notice there are a number of orientals here."  Okay.  Are there precautions we should take?  Like with our battleships?  Fucking Canadians, man.  And he won't shut up about how much SD Jones likes to dance.  Racist headbutts are bad enough.  Do we need to talk so much about how happy he is when he's dancing? Goddammit, guys.  Black History Month was like 100 hours ago.

Crowd looks dead apart from when they brawl outside.
Announcers: And the crowd is on their feet!
I can see the crowd.  They are sitting in silence.



It's Volkoff vs. Rocky Johnson

What is awesome: Volkoff!!!! We get a full version of the Soviet National Anthem as angry cowboy-hatted Ontarians boo and scream. I miss the "Russian Power" t-shirt, but I feel it's time as a fun retro piece has just this moment passed...like, this week.

Early on Johson roles out of the way of Volkoff knee stomp and Volkoff looks like he's supposed to be injured...and he spends the rest of the match SELLING THE LEG!!  Fuck, yes.  Even when he baits Johnson into a test of strength, he holds up his right hand but keeps his left ON THE LEG!  Why?  BECAUSE IT HURTS!!!!!  During the test of strength, Johnson goes full two point stance but Volkoff can't put pressure on his knee so he tries to use just his shoulders and force Johnson downward.  He's still stronger because he's a monster...but as Johnson hulks up Volkoff's LEG STARTS TO SHAKE!!!!!  He starts to lose, so he knees Johnson in the gut.

Volkoff misses a knee in the corner and bangs his knee again.  Johsnon drops a boot on the leg and Volkoff rolls out of the ring.  He consults the ref and complains about HIS INJURED LEG!!!!!

The ref gets in Johnson's way allowing Volkoff to elbow him in the head from behind and Volkoff is in control again.  Volkoff sends him into the ropes and DROPKICK DROPKICK. Johnson has him reeling!!!!!!  SHOULDER BLOCK goes FOR ANOTHER SHOULDER BLandVOlkof catches him and drops him on his neck onto the ropes temporarily paralyzing him and pins him.  The fuck?????



Goldie Rogers and Bobby Bass vs. Davey Boy and Dynamite.

This match ends up being a lot of fun.  It's perfect for where it falls in their career.  It ends up telling the perfect story for that moment and gradually morphs from a funny story to a spotfest.

The story part:  The announcers are acting like Davey and Dynamite are unknowns and these two old-as-fuck heels are prancing around like they can't wait to teach these kids a hard lesson about professional wrestling.  They fully expect to stretch them and have an easy night and begin by playing to the crowd and really enjoying themselves.

Almost immediately Dynamite stiffs the fuck out of Goldie with dropkicks and Goldie immediately tags out.  He's dazed.  He doesn't know what hit him.  The two old pros suddenly realize they are in way over their heads.   
So after Bass, the second guy gets roughed up and Davey/Dynamite run circles around him, Goldie doesn't want back in and won't accept the tag. They start arguing.  It goes on like this for awhile with Dynamite and Davey roughing them up and the heels stooging.  In a funny spot, when Kid has a pin on Goldie, Bass tries to break up the pin and Kid moves so Bass ends up kicking his own partner square in the face.  I don't think I've seen that before.

The Spotfest: It goes wrong for Kid when he tries a piledriver outside the ring on Goldie, but he can't get the fat fuck up and gets back dropped onto the ramp.  Now the old guys try to use their ancient offense of elbow drops to keep things under control.  Here things pick up and in a nice surprise Goldie and Bass show us that they can move pretty damn good too.  But Bass comes off the second rope and misses Kid.  He flops around like a dying fish.  When Davey sends him off the ropes Bass misses a flying head butt and ends up taking a pile driver.  Goldie tries to break it up but gets lifted up by Davey so Dynamite can jump off him with the flying headbutt for the pin.

I am shocked to find that at this point Goldie Rogers is like 32.  He looks to be in his mid fifties.  Fucking Stu Hart, man.

Andre vs. Kamala in a steel CAGE!!! You Canadian savages!!!!  
Ok, so I'm way less worried about the "Orientals" comment now...because...well, you know...this is way worse.

This is maybe a famous match????

Kamala enters first with his handler.  The door of the cage is comically tiny for effect.  Kamala has to bend over to get in.  Just wait for Andre.  Kamala will not enter the cage.  He is confused.  Handler (not Kim Chee) gets in and tries to coax him in.  He begins hitting his belly and trying to leave.  Handler tries to push him in.  He retreats again.  The locals are enthralled by this spectacle.  Finally he is in.  This little prelude sets up a running theme in the match which is that this terrified human being is being forced to fight to the bloody death in a world he does not understand because we are horrible horrible people.

Andre appears  He gets the Mark Henry behind-the-back entrance cam and it is astounding.  He gets in the cage and immediately starts stomping on Kamala who doesn't seem to know what is going on.  Kamala lays there like a turtle on his back wondering why this is happening to him.  

It's an out the door or over the fence match.  The door is too small for either of them and neither is going to try and climb this shambolic wreck of a structure.  We will likely be here all night.  They may simply live out their lives in the ring as a special Canadian cultural display.

Most of the match is Kamala desperately trying to get someone to rescue him from this cage and terrible country while Andre follows him around beating on him.  No one will rescue him because he is captive in a world that doesn't recognize his humanity.  Kamala cannot climb the cage so his strategy is to scream and shake the cage in the hopes that we as a people will come to our collective senses and stop torturing him.

chop chop punch punch.  Splash splash.  Kamala goes for a pin.  There is no referee.  He begins to weep.  This is inhumane.  chop chop.  He looks for someone to save him again.  I am close to tears for this man child.  Why is Handler allowed to exploit him like this?  Andre is taking a nap so Kamala has to carry the story himself, begging Handler to free him both from this cage and this horrible business and this horrible hemisphere.

Andre blades (from a chop????)  CHop Chop  Andre has been laying prone for at least four minutes now and Kamala has not figured out how to escape.  Andre is up and leaning on the ropes CHOP CHOP CHOP wander wander CHOP BITE!!!!! wander  ANDRE MAKES THE COMEBACK WITH TWO BIG chops

Kamala strikes the Willem Defoa pose from PLATOON and seems to be begging for death from some form of deity.  This match is a testimony to the cruelty of imperialism as we North Americans watch Africa and Europe tear each other apart in a struggle to the death for scant natural resources.  I think I would rather watch a hundred UNICEF commercials for their entertainment value than another minute of this.  Andre is back on the ground and the match now consists of him holding onto Kamala's foot while Kamala waves his arms as if any of us can understand the depth of misery in his soul.  Now they are laying on top of each other.  It's like they're both selling sleeper holds but neither of them is actually in a sleeper hold.  In other words, they are both sleeping.  They have decided to do the rest of the match on the ground.  Not, like, UFC on the ground, but more like sick triceratops on the ground.

They manage to get to their feet, leaning on eachother.  Andre slams Kamala...sits on Kamala and...wait...he's on the top rope!!!! He jumps and sits on KAMALA!!!!!!!!  Fuck, yeah Andre!  I can't even imagine how much that hurt...he's up and out the door.  He is taller than the cage.  I'm just realizing that as he leans against the outside of the cage that his eye level is well above the top of it.

This was dreadful and I am ashamed to be a human being.

[BillThompson]

Rumble '95

 

Diesel/Bret Hart - I remember a lot of people saying this was a great match, but it's really not. It's pretty good, but the repeated interference and Diesel's inability to really sell the leg hurt the match a lot.

 

Rumble match - 1 minute intervals is a terrible idea, removes all the tension from the match and made for a horrendous Rumble.

[CSC]

Watching RAW replay and there was just a wild fucking brawl between Luna Vachon and Sheri.  Divas today should have to watch this over and over until they get how to express emotion.  They rip each others clothes off, choke each other with tv cables, Sheri absolutely obliterates Luna with a knee to the chest before spilling half-naked into the crowd and keep wailing away at each other until Slaughter carries Luna away kicking and screaming.

 

Love the callback to Macho/Sheri at the end with Savage giving Sheri his hat to cover up. 

 

God, this is so much better than watching SportsCenter every morning.

[DamonD]

Had to register here just to give props to Piranesi for his review alone of Andre-Kamala. I'd give you a medal for that if I could.

 

Rumble '95

 

Diesel/Bret Hart - I remember a lot of people saying this was a great match, but it's really not. It's pretty good, but the repeated interference and Diesel's inability to really sell the leg hurt the match a lot.

 

It's been years since I've seen it but I remember it having some good psychology but being pretty dull. Don't know if I'd think differently now.

[cwoy2j]

Watching RAW replay and there was just a wild fucking brawl between Luna Vachon and Sheri.  Divas today should have to watch this over and over until they get how to express emotion.  They rip each others clothes off, choke each other with tv cables, Sheri absolutely obliterates Luna with a knee to the chest before spilling half-naked into the crowd and keep wailing away at each other until Slaughter carries Luna away kicking and screaming.

 

Love the callback to Macho/Sheri at the end with Savage giving Sheri his hat to cover up. 

 

God, this is so much better than watching SportsCenter every morning.

 

Dude, I do the same thing when I'm getting ready for work in the morning. Just fire up a ppv for some background noise. I watched the Final Four IYH main event for the first time ever actually. I'd seen clips of it but had never sat down and watched the entire match. Vader was the MVP. Loved the way he would drag guys to the ring apron so he could maul them like he actually was a grizzly bear.

[supremebve]

Watching RAW replay and there was just a wild fucking brawl between Luna Vachon and Sheri.  Divas today should have to watch this over and over until they get how to express emotion.  They rip each others clothes off, choke each other with tv cables, Sheri absolutely obliterates Luna with a knee to the chest before spilling half-naked into the crowd and keep wailing away at each other until Slaughter carries Luna away kicking and screaming.

Yeah, the number one thing I've realized from watching the network over the last week is how much brawling sucks these days.  No one seems to know how to make a brawl compelling any more, which is strange because HHH was a really good brawler and he could be giving some pointers. 

[BillThompson]

Had to register here just to give props to Piranesi for his review alone of Andre-Kamala. I'd give you a medal for that if I could.

 

Rumble '95

 

Diesel/Bret Hart - I remember a lot of people saying this was a great match, but it's really not. It's pretty good, but the repeated interference and Diesel's inability to really sell the leg hurt the match a lot.

 

It's been years since I've seen it but I remember it having some good psychology but being pretty dull. Don't know if I'd think differently now.

 

Bret tries to work psychology into the match, and he somewhat succeeds. It's annoying to see him work over Diesel's leg for ten minutes then have Diesel hobble around for thirty seconds before doing power moves and even breaking out a back stretcher on his injured leg, before then remembering his leg has been worked over and hobbling some more.

 

Rumble '96 Match

 

The moment when Michaels eliminates Vader/Yoko at the same time is probably the stupidest Rumble moment so far. Alos, way to screw up Vader right off the bat WWF.

 

Rumble '97 Match

 

Such an odd Rumble. The messed up time intervals don't help matters, but it's kind of fun watching the WWF transition into a completely different period in their history with troves of wrestlers that would barely last in the Fed.

[BillThompson]

Also I've turned watching these Rumble matches into a "Count how many past/present/future world champions are in the ring at any one time" game. So far the high mark is '97 where at one point Vader, Austin, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Rocky Maivia, Terry Funk, Diesel #2, and Mankind were all in the ring at the same time.

[Justin877]

Royal Rumble 2014 is up. Just curious , has WWE fiddled with the crowd noise ?

[The Great ML]

Watching the WM Rewind for WM III. I wore out my old CHV as a kid, and I've seen the main event a hundred times or more, and it was only today that I noticed just how much trash and debris was thrown into the ring for the intros and first part of the match. Poor Joey Marella.

 

I love this network!

 

Edit: If I NEVER hear Stephanie say "My friend, Andre The Giant" anymore, it will still be too soon. Yeegads. Revolting.

[BillThompson]

Rumble '98

 

Max Mini, Nova, and Mosaic versus Batallion, El Torito, and Tarantula is a pretty nifty mini's match. Remove the Sunny stuff, as well as the Lawler commentary, and what's left is a fast paced match that's easy to get into. For some reason I looked up Scott Keith's review of this event after the fact and his comment that he doesn't rate Midget matches because no one cares really makes me wonder why I ever thought his opinion mattered.

 

Rumble '99

 

Rock versus Mankind in an I Quit match is the bad kind of brutal. It starts off okay, but by the time it gets to Rock appearing to be a dick and refusing to hit Mick in the back with the chair and instead stalling and making Mick turn around to get hit in the head repeatedly there's really no point to what's going on.

 

The actual Rumble match is probably the worst I've seen so far. I really didn't like the Attitude era as far as the actual wrestling is concerned, so it's not surprising it produced such an awful Rumble full of outside stuff and stupid gimmicks.

[jchap82]

Watching wcw ppvs from ths beginning, they bled waaaay too often back then

[The Great ML]

Watching wcw ppvs from ths beginning, they bled waaaay too often back then

 

Heresy.

[SirSmUgly]

Rumble '98 had that sweet opener between Vader and Goldust where he Vaderbombed Goldust with Luna Vachon on his back. I have that PPV on VHS of all things along with the rest of the Big Five of 1998, and I watched that match over and over. 

 

The Rumble match itself from '98 is really the Austin show with Mick showing up in his Faces of Foley over and over, but the spot with Mick tossing chairs at Chainsaw Charlie while he bats them down with his powered-on chainsaw is cool. I wish they had played up The Rock hanging on to his IC title earlier in the night, coming into the Rumble at four, and then lasting all the way to the end more on commentary. 

[Raziel]

So I've been watching a lot of Hulkamania-era WWF (Mania 1-9) and I gotta say, it might be one of the most fun era's in WWE history.  I'd definitaly put it above Attitude Era.  While both era's had everyone up and down the card doing something and developing, the Hulkamania era had the Titles basically as the focal point of fueds instead of props that happened to be there, and stuff was just structured better.