Been looking forward to this one, the build for the Rumble has been top notch. And just a general comment, but the display is really slick looking as always!
I was never a big fan of the minis when watching this as a kid, so I don't have a whole lot to say on this Free-For-All contest. But I can appreciate that they would at least be exciting for the live audience and obviously you've done a lot of work to get over this tie-in with AAA in the run up. Fair play to you for the detail in the write-up, but this was never really my thing. But the face team winning and giving us a happy lead-in to the main show make sense.
It makes me laugh looking back that from Survivor Series to this point, Shawn was painted as this compassionate guy worried about his elderly mentor when in reality he was a massive asshole who hated having Jose around. But fair play to you sticking with that theme for the opening video and hyping up the Michaels' homecoming and how his experiences recently would have gave his character a bit more of an edge to him.
Liked the fast start to this match from Mero, even though this is for a title it's got a very personal feel to the feud given what's happened to get to this point. I don't know if I've said it before or not, but I really dig the partnership of Helmsley and Perfect, especially when it was Mr. Hughes who played this role in real life. Do you have any plans for Chyna? Anyway, the match was a solid affair, you would expect Mero to put on a show with his quicker pace while Helmsley tries to slow him down, but the ending was fun with the Perfect and Sable involvement and then Hunter stealing the cheap victory. The post-match with Mero decking the referee is interesting, that could lead to a few different things but I'd be happy if this feud continued for another title match between the two to blow it off once and for all. But for a pay-per-view opener this was grand, had decent action and was nicely booked with a little wrinkle to Mero's character afterwards. A good start to things.
I always liked these little comments from the guys in the Rumble, and this is the year of British Bulldog's infamous "I'm going to win the Royal Rumble because I'm bizarre!" comment, so I'm hoping that makes the cut later on. But yeah, the comments from Bret and Mankind were fine, nothing ground-breaking but serve their purpose of hyping the Rumble match.
Much like with the minis earlier, this was never really my thing and I was never a big win of the real life version of this six man we got. But I'll give credit again to the write up, the action was fast paced and I can imagine it would have been exciting. The fact that Juventud was pushed as the star of the contest suggests he will be sticking around longer than the other AAA guys maybe? But then again, you've had Abismo Negro be part of the winning team and then walk out, which suggests maybe these guys will be sticking around a little longer? Who knows!? I can appreciated this for what it was, a showcase match for AAA that would pop the crowd, but it wasn't my thing. Although Juventud becoming part of the roster would be cool, he's so different to anyone the WWF had at this time that he would really stand out in the midcard if that's the road you go down.
Loving Terry Funk being involved, if I remember right this was pretty much a one-and-done with him before he returned in December '97. So I hope that by having him involved and giving him interview time that he'll be involved a bit more. Can't ever have too much Terry Funk.
It's still weird to me having Crush as the token white guy amongst The Nation, but this rivalry with Ahmed and D'Lo has got to be coming to a head soon I think. I'd be ok with it running to WrestleMania for a blow-off match, but don't drag it out way longer than it should have like they did in real life. And one small criticism here would be that Faarooq talking about being the toughest man in the WWF is rather similar to what Funk had to say just moments earlier. I think those two back-to-back would just be repeating each other and you should have went a different route with Faarooq's words, but I'm doing a lot of nit-picking here.
I really like this pairing of Rocky and Vader, makes a lot of sense with how Cornette has courted Rock since he arrived in the company and now wanting revenge given how he was rebuffed. And Vader still has plenty to offer at this point in his run, so this is a really smart bit of booking for me. As for the match, I'm a little surprised at Vader winning, I thought for sure this would be a shock, upset win for Rock to establish him as a real prospect in the company and to prove he doesn't need Cornette in his corner to be successful. I appreciate that you gave Rocky a bit of an out with the broken ribs, but this whole set up screamed young babyface overcoming the odds to me. Obviously I'll hold judgment here as you've no doubt got the bigger picture in mind, but this feels like a bit of a miss to me as I'm reading right now.
Yes! Bulldog, he's bizarre! Great stuff!
Obviously Austin and Undertaker is a massive match to have on the undercard, and I thought in general this match was pretty well written. Austin trying to slow things down early to then take control is pretty textbook, then the run-in to the ending being pretty back and forth and both guys suffering from the referee being taken out of things keeping things pretty even, I liked everything up until this point. I wasn't thrilled to see The Nation involved, as I don't think the match really needed it. Either guy winning without The Nation being involved doesn't hurt either of them, so this felt a little overbooked to give Undertaker an out for the loss. I also feel like I could have done with a mention of this in the interview with The Nation earlier, it was very much focused on the rivalry with Ahmed, so this felt rather out of left-field. Also, where was Crush? We had the tuxedoed goons, Kama and Faarooq, but Crush was mention in the interview but not involved here? I feel like we have to get Undertaker and The Nation as a rivalry moving forward, but I'm not sure it does Austin any favours on this night. Again, I will defer judgment until I see how things play out, but I'm not sure this does much for 'Stone Cold' and Faarooq now seems to have his thing with Ahmed as well as Undertaker now.
Onto the Rumble itself, I'll start by again praising the presentation, thought it was nicely done and easy to follow. Owen Hart did a lot of the heavy lifting early on, but I really liked this debut of Mike Awesome. Obviously from my own thread you'll know I am a fan of The Jackyl, and I really liked him walking out with a microphone to introduce someone during the Rumble. I can't off the top of my head think of that ever happening, it's usually left to the announce team to tell who a mystery entrant is, so bonus points for the creativity of this. And it was good as well that he got a good run in the match and had a few eliminations, really interested to see what you do with him. Not a whole lot going on until Austin came in at 15, again it was good he lasted a while and had a solid showing. I also liked that you kept the real-life bit of Lawler getting up from the announce desk to enter the match, that was another rather unique thing at the time that I still remember. Although to go from Bret Hart getting rid of him in real life to Canek is a bit of a drop off! Owen eliminating Bulldog, we've had plenty of tension between them in the run-up to the show so it was a smart booking decision to include that to keep them simmering along. Mike Awesome's elimination felt a little awkward if I've read it right, he did a dive through the ropes to stop Funk attacking Jackyl only to then be dumped straight out by Austin? A little convoluted, could have just been Awesome was distracted by Funk approaching Jackyl, Austin sneaks up and dumps him out then Awesome gets into it with Funk, but that's just my take on it. Like I said earlier, I'm reserving judgment on this Undertaker/Nation situation, but again, Ahmed eliminating Faarooq, Undertaker on the outside with the steel chair to Crush, Kama being there... are you going for a Undertaker/Ahmed partnership against The Nation? That's was this feels like to me, so I really need to see how this plays out as I'm a bit confused as to where this is all going just now. Anyway, to the finish of the match. I thought this was really well booked, four top guys in Bret, Mankind, Undertaker and Austin, a real crossover of rivalries with the history these four have had between them in recent months and of course tonight in Austin and Undertaker's case. Great stuff with Bret surviving being eliminated only to sneak back in and get rid of Austin, a nice little nod to real life going ons. I liked this decision, as I'm assuming it gives you scope for a rematch between Bret and Austin at the February In-Your-House, while setting Bret up for being a heel going into 'Mania 13. In general, I enjoyed the Rumble, really liked the finish, I just have no idea what your plans for The Undertaker are, but I can live with that for now. This was good stuff.
And onto the main event. I think you kind of have to have Shawn win here with the whole hometown hero stuff, they didn't tend to screw hometown stars so much at this time, so Shawn walking out of The Alamodome feels like it has to happen. The action was solid, made sense to have Shawn fighting from underneath and having to show guts to hang in there before coming good at the end. The ending was good too, that nod back to Survivor Series with the camera delivers that poetic justice and The Lothario's get their measure of revenge too. All in all, this was another really well-written contest, and here's hoping we get the Bret/Shawn battle at WrestleMania 13 that we were denied in real life.
Overall, I enjoyed this, loads of nods to real life moments that I remember fondly. I found the booking decisions with Rocky and Undertaker/The Nation a little perplexing, but as I've said a few times, I'll wait and see how it all plays out before passing judgment. The Rumble and main event were both really good, really well booked and written and have but the uppercard scene on a great trajectory as we head towards 'Mania. Really good stuff man, enjoyed this a lot!