SlyGuy21 1st Match: Brian Christopher vs Taka Michinoku, WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. A good match to start, Taka is basically WWF's version of Rey Mysterio at this point, and Christopher does alright heel work. He bleeds from the mouth pretty bad here after hitting the guardrail, which also helps. Driver gets the win, and Taka becomes the first Light Heavyweight Champion, a title that wouldn't last long. Rating: 3.5/52nd Match: DOA vs Los Boricuas. I'm done reviewing these matches, they're nothing, and they'll continue to be nothing. Rating: None3rd Match: Marc Mero vs Butterbean, Boxing match. An OK match, if it was only here to draw in the boxing crowd. Some moments are OK, but Mero and Butterbean don't mix well, because of their different styles. The match also ends in a DQ, so that doesn't help anyone. It would've been a lot better had this been a one round squash, not 10 minutes. Rating: 3/54th Match: The Road Warriors vs The New Age Outlaws, WWF Tag Team Championships. Oh, you didn't know?! Your ass better call somebody!!!! I've been waiting for that entrance for so long. Outlaws are good heels here, and work well with Hawk and Animal. The match ends in a DQ before getting started though, so no one benefits here. Rating: 2.5/55th Match: HHH vs Sgt. Slaughter, No DQ match. This version of Hunter is way better, and his heel character works really well. As you'd expect, Chyna interferes like crazy here, but Slaughter does an OK job. Kind of obvious that Hunter would win, but the match is still good. Rating: 3/56th Match: The Undertaker vs Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett's back, he's had a weird couple of years, hasn't he? This is a squash until Kane shows up and gets Taker DQd. This would normally suck, but any match where Jarrett gets destroyed is a good match to me. Rating: 3/57th Match: The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF Intercontinental Championship. The first one-on-one match between Austin and The Rock. It's not the best match they'll have, but does a good job of furthering their characters. I liked Austin destroying the Nation, and driving the truck to ringside. Decent match for how short it is. Rating: 3/58th Match: Shawn Michaels vs Ken Shamrock, WWF Championship. This match is nWo tactics, constant interference and distractions, only difference is that the bad guys have more skill than half the nWo guys here. This feels really forced too, like Shamrock had a chance of winning, but with Hunter and Chyna at ringside, it's super obvious that Shawn would retain. This is also the fourth match to end in a DQ, so that's a big negative now. Rating: 2.5/5Final Rating: 5 out of 10. Half the matches end in DQs, and the first match is the best one. Hopefully WWF can start off 1998 better.

Maniac-9 This was a very historical time in pro wrestling, it was just before this PPV that Bret Hart had the very public loss of his title at the Survivor Series PPV. Which basically WWF used to cultivate the Mr. McMahon character into one of the greatest heel characters in pro wrestling history.As far as the PPV card itself. It had the newly crowned WWF Champion Shawn Michaels defending his title against Ken Shamrock. The first ever PPV matchup between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, this time for the Intercontinental Title. Jeff Jarrett seemed a little out of place facing The Undertaker. Jarrett was never up to main event calibre in his WWF time and I'm not sure why he got the opportunity here. I'm guessing WWF was short on mid level to main event level talent at the time with Bret gone and taking British Bulldog with him and Owen Hart temporarily on leave before coming back. Surprisingly Triple H had a 12 minute match with Sgt. Slaughter who going into the PPV you'd have expected a quick squash match, considering Slaughter being long retired and HHH one of the younger stars of the company.Overall it was a decent PPV but by no means a great PPV. The most memorable match was the first Austin/Rock PPV match considering they'd eventually go onto going against each other 3 times at WM. Shawn Michaels vs. Ken Shamrock was a very short run of a feud since this was the only time Shamrock ever got a PPV main event slot.

bh_tafe3 Well Bret Hart was gone from the WWE and with it his Hart Foundation. WWE CHampion Shawn Michaels was running amok along with his D-Generation X buddies Triple H and Chyna, earning the ire of WWE Commissioner Sgt Slaughter. There were scores to be settled and titles to be defended as 1997 came to an end.But before the matches for existing titles it was time for a brand new title to be inaugurated, the WWE Light Heavyweight Title. This was part of WWE's continuing effort to compete with the strong cruiserweight division in rival company WCW. The WWE announced a tournament where the new champion would be crowned. The final match in the tournament happened here, and it was decent opener won by Taka Michinoku over Brian Christopher. The Light Heavyweight division never really had the time invested in it by the WWE to take off, with many of the initial members becoming regular losers and eventually getting released with little fan fare.Next up saw a continuation in the rivalry between the Los Buricuas (Miguel Perez, Jose Estrada and Jesus Castillo) and the Disciples of the Apocalypse (Chainz, Skull and 8-ball) who had been feuding for most of the latter part of the year. This one was won by the Boricuas with Estrada pinning Chainz to end a poor match.Now it was time for Marc Mero, who was always billed as a "Golden Glove Winner" come out and lose in the fourth round to Butterbean in an embarrassing match. Mero was well beaten and ended up being disqualified after hitting Butterbean below the belt.Next match saw the New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg Jesse James and Bad Ass Billy Gunn) successfully defend the WWE Tag Team Championships against the Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal). The LOD were well past their prime and this was another disappointing match in their second WWE tenure.As mentioned at the start, the antics of D-Generation X had earned the ire of WWE Commissioner Sgt Slaughter and so he booked himself in a "Boot Camp" match with Triple H. Triple H though had an ally in his corner Chyna, who came proved decisive in this match, hitting Slaughter with a low blow and allowing Triple H to hit the pedigree for the win in another bad match.Well Undertaker's little brother Kane had made his presence felt at recent PPVs, costing the Undertaker the No.1 contendership at Badd Blood and destroying Mankind at Survivor Series. Here he would play a part again as his brother took on "Double J" Jeff Jarrett. With Undertaker in complete control Kane came to the ring and choke slammed Jarrett, getting the Undertaker disqualified. How long would it be before the Undertaker finally got in the ring with his kid brother and settled this once and for all.Next came the first chapter in one of professional wrestling's biggest ever rivalries as Intercontinental Champion Steve Austin took on The Nation of Domination's The Rock. This was actually not a great match, being more of an angle than anything, but it was quite an entertaining angle, which ended with Austin hitting the stone cold stunner on Rock to retain the title.Finally came the main event with the cocky leader of D-Generation X and WWE Champion Shawn MIchaels putting the title on the line against "The Man" Ken Shamrock. Shamrock had been very impressive in his WWE career up to this point and in this match pushed the champion all the way and looked a likely winner before Triple H and Chyna came in and assaulted him, giving him a DQ victory but not the title in a decent match. Who was going to stand up to these degenerates? No sooner had the question formed in our minds and it was answered with Owen "The Black" Hart, the sole survivor knocking Michaels out of the ring and escaping into the crowd. It was a nice end to the show but had no bearing on future stories.Well there you have it. There wasn't a lot of great wrestling on this show, but it somehow managed to be an entertaining three hours in spite of itself.

Big Movie Fan In Your House:D-Generation-X took place a month after the controversial 1997 Survivor Series which left a bad taste in some of the fans mouths. However, this is an enjoyable card throughout.My two favourite matches were the Rock VS Stone Cold Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels VS Ken Shamrock. The Rock and Austin had a wild brawl in an Intercontinental title match and Michaels and Shamrock assembled a brilliant encounter. Michaels and Shamrock had great chemistry in the match and it's a pity that they didn't have a great feud afterwards but a few months later Michaels would wrestle his last match.All in all, a fantastic event which ended 1997 on an exciting note.