If you want some short reading material as you go along from Bret (at least until the screwjob though it goes until 2004), I just found this an hour or so ago at another forum. Bret's column in Canada that he put out every week. I've read a few articles and found this little gem:

As wrestling fans know, Stone Cold won this Rumble by screwing Bret.

Hahaha, that is an awesome snippet.

April 14, 1997

NITRO

Philadelphia, PA

We start on a cold open of the nWo summit last week, when Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash brokered a peace and Randy Savage and Eric Bischoff did likewise. We also get the ending of last week's episode, when Sting stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Diamond Dallas Page to stand the nWo down.

After the opening credits, Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko welcome us to the show. Tony says that we're going to see Chris Benoit vs. a Dungeon of Doom member tonight. He also says that Lex Luger has announced that he wants his title shot, won at Spring Stampede, tonight. The nWo music hits, the group emerges from the back, and they run Tony and Larry off. Couldn't we start the show on a Mongo/Jarrett segment instead? The only thing worse than the nWo taking over the announce table is them doing so while Scott Hall is seemingly on hiatus. Kevin Nash grabs a mic and says that Lex Luger has to go through him tonight in order to get his shot at Hulk Hogan.



Thankfully, they leave the announce table without further incident instead of some of them throwing headsets on. I…don't really know why they went to the announce table for that little promo, but whatever.

The Barbarian (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit: Certainly the Barbarian was the optimal draw when we heard that we were getting a Benoit vs. Dungeon match. Barbarian charges before the bell, but Benoit sidesteps and kicks the crap out of Barbarian in the corner, throwing repeated stomps. He celebrates prematurely by turning his back and throwing up the four fingers, and Barbarian catches up and tries to make him pay with a powerbomb, but Benoit counters into a sunset flip that lands both men in the ropes. Northern lights suplex by Benoit gets two. Jimmy Hart trips Benoit from ringside, and Benoit goes straight out after him. He lands a right hand, but then turns straight into a big boot by Barbarian.

Barbarian presses Benoit overhead and tries to throw him back inside, but actually botches that attempted throw…gets him inside on the second try. Flings Benoit into the corner first, then whips him off the ropes. Benoit counters with a go-behind on the way back, then executes a release German suplex. Goes to the top, but Barbarian gets up and crotches him. Big belly-to-belly superplex across the ring by Barbarian, this one tossing Benoit all the way across the ring.



Barbarian to the top. Attempts the big diving headbutt all the way across the ring, but Benoit rolls out of the way, hits his own swandive headbutt off the top, and scores the three-count.



Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall

The match hasn't been over for two seconds when the rest of the Dungeon of Doom comes pouring into the ring to ambush Benoit. They set Benoit up in the tree of woe, Jacqueline actually hits the running knee on him, and here are Mongo McMichael and Jeff Jarrett to clear the ring.

Anyway, here's Gene Okerlund on the scene to grab a word. Thankfully he's not out there to give yet another platform to Mongo and Jarrett. Benoit cuts a meandering and bad promo on Sullivan. The one entertaining part was Gene's random interjection…Benoit said, "Sullivan, you're like the plague…" and, despite his sentence not being over, Gene quickly jumps in with, "or some other communicable disease." WTF Gene. Not much to speak of from this promo.

During the next ring intros, Tony says that there will be a big announcement next week regarding Eric Bischoff's status with the company.

US Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Hector Guerrero: The wrestlers trade waistlocks, arm-wringers, and hammerlocks. And shoulderblocks, as it turns out. Irish whip by Malenko, armdrag, then a drop toe-hold into a cross-face. Back up to a vertical position…corner whip and a running clothesline by Dean. Another corner whip, Guerrero gets a boot up, Malenko wisely stops short, but Guerrero is quick to run out with a dropkick that connects. Hector with an armbar. Rope break. They scuffle over position for an abdominal stretch, Malenko spills to the floor, and Hector goes to the apron and jumps out at Malenko on the floor. They return inside, Guerrero attempting to enter with a sunset flip; Malenko sits down, gets a two-count, Hector reverses into a pinning combo for another two. Malenko pushes forward for another two-count, and both return to their feet. Butterfly powerbomb by Malenko, Texas Cloverleaf, and this one is over.



Result: Dean Malenko via submission

Malenko is slow to release the hold after the bell, and Eddie Guerrero comes marching out of the back in street clothes, his arm in a sling. Malenko has already begun to leave, so Eddie confronts him in the aisle. Not on a microphone, but the camera picks him up saying, "You try to hurt my blood, you're going to bring out a side of me you're not going to like." Malenko responds, "I know what you're about." He says more, but it's too muffled to recognize. He walks off as Eddie goes to tend to Hector.



They show Reggie White sitting at ringside. He says, "Hispanic people are gifted at family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and he can put 20 or 30 people in one home. … Asians can turn a television into a watch." Okay, this isn't actually where he said that. Anyway, Schiavone says that White has been signed to a contract to wrestle one-on-one against Mongo McMichael at some point in the future. He says that Mongo hasn't signed the contract yet.



Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: The two lock up, Juventud getting the advantage with an armdrag. Mysterio gets back to his feet, and they battle over control of an armbar. Guerrera gets loose and throws a spinning back kick. Misses on a spinning heel kick, and Mysterio picks Juventud into a crucifix hold along his back; he legitimately doesn't seem to be able to hold it, and Juventud gets loose. Attempted suplex by Guerrera, Mysterio lands behind, slaps on a waistlock, standing switch by Guerrera, Rey elbows his way loose, and ends up executing a headscissor takeover that sends both men careening out over the top to the floor.

Outside the ring, Juventud reverses a whip into the guardrail and sends Rey in hard. They trade chops, Guerrera pushes Rey up to the apron, then he joins him alongside and jumps over to powerbomb him off the apron to the floor.



Juventud rolls Rey inside, then springboards in with a knee-drop along the back. Goes for a powerbomb, but Rey escapes, tries to throw a release German, Juvi lands on his feet, kick to the gut, he backs Rey into the ropes, goes for a waistlock off an Irish whip, Mysterio backs him off, flips behind, Guerrera goes for a springboard cross-body, but sort of hits a Mysterio dropkick on the way back. Rey out to the apron, hurracanrana into a pinning combo, 1-2-3. This was pretty good at times, sloppy at others. Overall, nothing special, especially given that it was short.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall

Mean Gene brings out Luna Vachon for an interview. She threatens Madusa, calls herself the #1 contender to the Women's Title, and promises to take the Women's Title from around Madusa's waist. Madusa isn't the champion (Akira Hokuto still is), so Luna is paying about as much attention to the Women's Title scene as the rest of the audience is.



TV Title - Ultimo Dragon (c) (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Lane Carlson: Lane Carlson is Lenny Lane. I've said it before, but they really shouldn't just randomly grant title matches to people with zero kayfabe accomplishments, and this is twice they've done that already tonight. Side headlock by Dragon. Arm-wringers back and forth, Dragon finally getting the advantage with one. Irish whip by Dragon, who throws an Cena-esque shoulderblock on the way back. Carlson reverses a whip and tries to throw a backdrop, but Ultimo lands on his feet behind and throws his series of signature kicks. Nice, high-impact standing dropkick by Dragon, who registers a two-count and then cinches in a reverse chinlock. He yanks at Carlson's nose with the other arm to add extra pain to the move.

Carlson puts Dragon down with a rocker dropper (I feel stupid using that name when it's not being used by Marty Jannetty, but whatever, I always forget the generic name and I remember that the name is stupid and not descriptive of what it looks like). Whips the champion into the corner and hits a bulldog as Dragon staggers out. Two-count. Dropkicks Dragon into the ropes, then throws a running clothesline that carries both out over the top. Carlson to the top rope, sort of a cannonball all the way to the floor that connects and hurts Carlson as well.



As Carlson tries to climb back into the ring, Dragon yanks him back with authority and Carlson hits his head hard on the apron on the way down. Dropkick through the ropes by Dragon, skins the cat, executes a pescado. He runs distraction while Sonny Onoo kicks Carlson around a bit on the outside. Back on the inside, Dragon executes the spinning hurracanrana and then a tiger suplex for the pinfall.



Result: Ultimo Dragon via pinfall

Cruiserweight Title - Syxx (c) vs. Prince Iaukea: Anyone ever think that Syxx looked like Justin Credible with a wig? Anyway, as much as I would like Syxx to lose the Cruiserweight Title, I would more like to see Prince Iaukea never show up in another one of my writeups again, so I guess I'm on Team nWo for a moment.

Side headlock by Syxx. Iaukea sends him off the ropes, Syxx with a shoulderblock, but Iaukea leapfrogs and then handstands into a headscissor and takes Syxx over, then knocking him out of the ring. Syxx returns after a short breather, hard chop/punch/elbow against the ropes, but Iaukea slams him down by the hair. Syxx back up with a spinning heel kick that catches Prince square in the mush. Snapmare and a legdrop, followed by a running elbow. I do appreciate the way Syxx would crisply snap to the mat on legdrops and elbows. Iaukea misses on a cross-body off the second rope, and Syxx stomps away before setting him up in the corner and laying in the knife-edges to the chest. Jumping back kick puts Prince down, and we see the idiotic bronco buster.

Suplex by the champion. Signals to the crowd, climbs the ropes, and a somersault sentan off the top misses when Iaukea rolls out of the way. Syxx is actually the quicker to recover here, but he eats a couple of right hands from Iaukea by the time he gets over to him. Iaukea fells the champ with a chop, throws a backdrop…he carelessly charges Syxx at the ropes, Syxx backdrops him, but Iaukea lands on his feet on the apron and re-enters quickly with a springboard clothesline for a nice near-fall.



Iaukea back up to the top rope, but Syxx gets up and crotches him. He follows Iaukea as if to set up a superplex, but Iaukea knocks him off and then botches a sunset flip off the top and isn't really holding Syxx down. The referee has to awkwardly go, "Hey yo, might want to actually pin his shoulders to the mat." Iaukea eventually does, and of course the cover is no good once the count finally starts. As both men return to their feet, Syxx maneuvers his way into the cross-face chicken wing, pulls Iaukea down to the mat, and we get a fairly quick submission. Syxx retains.



This match was close to causing me to take a break from watching when I saw the introductions, but it actually was reasonably watchable.

Result: Syxx via submission

Mean Gene brings out Ric Flair, who is flanked by Kevin Greene. Greene greets Reggie White on the way to the ring with a handshake and a hug. Gene next calls out Roddy Piper. Incidentally, if the Horsemen weren't lame enough on their own, the fact that Flair is spending all of his time with Roddy Piper and now Kevin Greene is one of those subtleties that undercuts his own faction even further. Gene says that these three are going to face the nWo at Slamboree.

Piper says, "Isn't it funny that every time I'm here, the big bald guy happens to stay at home?"



Piper engages in some nonsensical and/or unfunny rambling for a couple of minutes. Kevin Greene says, "Hogan, I did what you said. I worked out, I took my vitamins, and I said my prayers. And it worked! It worked. And you stabbed everybody in the back. You stabbed all the little Hulksters in the back, and you stabbed me in the back." He says that Flair and Piper made wrestling, says that the nWo rookies were sucking on momma's milk while these guys were laying asphalt, and he's here with these two because of respect for them.

Flair cuts kind of an interesting promo of his personal history in wrestling dating back to 1973, though it doesn't seem to have any particular point…he catches up to present day and then just starts wooing and strutting around. And that's the end of the promo.



After the commercials, we're onto hour #2 of the show, and the usual substitutions of Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay into the broadcast booth. From just the list of wrestlers they sent out to wrestle in hour #1, you would expect that it was a pretty strong hour, but…not really. None of the wrestling really stood out, and none of it felt like it had much of a point.

Philadelphia Street Fight - High Voltage vs. Public Enemy: Oh good, I forgot that we get another Public Enemy match tonight. Fingers crossed for us to get to watch another ****ing Hugh Morrus squash match later too. And we haven't even seen Mongo McMichael or Jeff Jarrett yet.

PE sets up two tables at ringside, and brings trash cans into the ring to start the brawl right away. Both teams get their share of shots in with trash cans and trash can lids. Johnny Grunge sort of piledrives Robbie Rage on a trash can, though there was no actual impact with the trash can. Not that I don't like a good street fight (emphasis on a good one; certainly not all of them), but it's obviously a goofy thing that they call something a "street fight" and suddenly weapon shots have 2% of their usual power. In a normal match, one of these shots during a ref bump ends it. In this match, most of the time the wrestlers don't even temporarily sell the blow.

Kenny Kaos hits a gutwrench suplex on Rocco Rock. We get a contrived spot where Kaos puts Rock up on his shoulders, Grunge feeds him a trash can lid, and a blissfully unaware Rage jumps into it from the apron. Rock sort of piledrives Kaos on a trash can now, but again it was very protected and I don't believe Kao's head even grazed the actual metal. PE sets one table on top of another in a double-decker, then they set Rage on top of the upper table. With a boost from Grunge, Rocco sets up along the top rope, Rocco puts Rage through both, and the pin apparently counts outside the ring. As absolutely painfully one-note as Public Enemy is, I basically enjoyed that ending for some reason.



Result: Public Enemy via pinfall

The Giant vs. Big Al: Big Al is 911 of ECW fame. He jobs here in less than a minute to a chokeslam.



Result: The Giant via pinfall



Konnan vs. Diamond Dallas Page (w/ Kimberly): Konnan makes a couple of lewd gestures in Kimberly's direction before the match starts. DDP gets started on the early offense, cinching in a hammerlock, but Konnan forces a rope break. Armdrag by Konnan. Couple of right hands put Page on the mat, and Konnan chokes at Page with his boot. DDP reverses a corner whip and hits a back suplex. He signals for the Diamond Cutter, Konnan initially gouges the eyes to stop him, but Page successfully hits the Diamond Cutter a moment later to record a quick pin.



Result: Diamond Dallas Page via pinfall

After the match, Randy Savage calls out DDP over a mic from the crowd. He tells Page to tell his wife to stop fantasizing about the Macho Man, and to stop calling him. Page goes charging through the crowd, but Savage retreats.

They show then-Eagles coach Ray Rhodes in the stands. Tony: "Eagles expecting to have another great year!" From memory, I'm pretty sure they went 2-14 and he got fired. And, after taking a look at Wikipedia…meh, not quite. They went 6-9-1 that year. The following year they went 3-13 and he got fired, which is obviously the year I was thinking of. Ah well.

Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. Jeff Jarrett & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra): Alright, my bingo card is almost complete, but I don't think there's enough time left in the episode for a Hugh Morrus squash match. Jarrett and Booker T give us a preview of a future PPV main event by squaring off against each other first. Booker throws a hard right to stagger Jarrett, Jarrett reverses a corner whip, but Booker hits a shoulderblock. Booker keeps running off the ropes, and this time runs into a JJ dropkick. Now a shoulderblock by Jarrett and another dropkick. Two fans on the hard camera side hold up large Shawn Michaels and Undertaker memorabilia.



Stevie Ray and Mongo tag in. After Stevie throws some punches, Mongo reverses a whip and hits a clothesline followed by a bodyslam. Commercial time. After the break, Harlem Heat are double-teaming Jeff Jarrett, throwing a double back elbow. Stevie stays in as the legal man and continues stomping away. Irish whip and a clothesline. Lax cover gets two. Tag to Booker, who throws a hard forearm to get another two. Axe kick by Booker. Tag again to Stevie, and the Heat execute a delayed double suplex. Stevie slaps on a reverse chinlock. Jarrett fights outside of it, executes a sunset flip, but Stevie blind-tags Booker on the way down. Big-time Harlem side kick by Booker.

A moment later Jarrett ducks an enziguri, and instead of tagging he goes for the figure-four. Stevie comes in and breaks it up, Mongo in to fight Stevie off, and all four men are in until Booker knocks Jarrett out of the ring and then Mongo sends Booker out after him. As the referee is tied up with those two legal men, Mongo sets up for a briefcase shot on Stevie inside. As he winds up, Sherri pulls the case out of his hands, as Debra chasing behind is too slow to stop her. Sherri, after accidentally tossing the case in the air and having to catch it, tries to hit Mongo with it, but fails miserably. Stevie hits Mongo from behind as Sherri chokes Debra in the corner of the ring.



Referee Mark Curtis just goes ahead and throws this thing out as Sherri nearly decks Debra with the briefcase. Utter boredom. I figured this was a no contest, but for some reason Mongo and Jarrett are declared the winners by DQ.

Result: Mongo McMichael & Jeff Jarrett via DQ

And…sigh, it's Mean Gene along to talk to Mongo and Jarrett. WE DON'T NEED TO TALK TO THEM EVERY WEEK. Mongo cuts a promo about Reggie White, talking up how great of a career he's had, but then he turns his attention to the awkward truth in this particular building, that Reggie White wasn't actually part of any significant team accomplishments in Philly, and he won his Super Bowl in Green Bay. After eh says that White sold the Philly fans out, White jumps the rail and comes charging into the ring. As officials separate them, Mongo spits on White. White feigns calm for a moment before going charging through and tackling Mongo before everyone separates them again. Okay, so that wasn't such a bad Mongo/Jarrett interview segment.



Lex Luger vs. Kevin Nash (w/ half the nWo): More nWo members than I cared to list in the match title, but basically it's all of the secondary guys. They surround the ring. Nash throws a knee lunge at Luger and beats him into the corner. More knees, then some forearm shots. Corner whip to the opposite side, but Nash's ensuing charge misses, and Luger tries to hammer away until some nWo members get up on the apron and run enough distraction to enable Nash to ambush Luger with a big boot to the head. Big side slam by Kev. Snake eyes. Short clothesline. Legdrop along the ropes. Basically Nash slowly running the entirety of his offense. Drops the elbow and gets a two-count. Chokes Luger in the corner with the big boot. Off an Irish whip, Luger ducks a clothesline and throws one of his own, which by itself is enough to lure the entire gang around ringside into the ring to end the match.

Result: Lex Luger via DQ

Here's DDP in to try to help Luger out, but numbers begin to overwhelm him as well. Here's The Giant, albeit really slowly. As Nash holds up a metal bar(?) in threat of Giant, the big man stops in his tracks for a moment before proceeding forward to the ring. Before he gets there, here's Sting, wielding three baseball bats. He doles them out to Luger, Giant, and DDP, and then as he climbs the steps he produces another one from within his trenchcoat. The nWo cowers. Nash finally summons the courage to take a run at Sting, but he misses with the foreign object and starts taking a beating from the baseball bat. Enter the other WCW guys to clear the nWo out of the ring. WCW holds the ring, and Tony Schiavone screams that we're out of time. End of show.



Overall: Nothing much to say for this episode. Inoffensive, but very bland. Aside from Reggie White, basically nothing remotely new was brought to the table here in terms of storylines, and although most of the matches were fine, I wouldn't call any of them "good."

Since multiple people have posted about how much the South Africa Raw sucks, I'm obviously quite excited for that to be next on the docket.

April 14, 1997

RAW

Johannesburg, South Africa

"Presented in the most complete form possible due to original production technical difficulties." I dunno what's going to be missing, but that's how the video on the WWE Network opens.

Vince McMahon welcomes us to a show emanating from South Africa, from the United States, and from Kuwait. I thought the whole thing was going to be in South Africa. The US broadcast team is Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette; the South Africa broadcast team is Jim Ross and Honky Tonk Man. Particularly back in 1997, I can say that they certainly have the wrong Lawler/Ferris cousin working with JR.

Our first match comes from the United States.

We see the recap of last week's incident between the Legion of Doom and the Godwinns, when the Godwinns inadvertently slopped the LOD and the two teams ended up brawling over it.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Godwinns: Four-way brawl from the start of the match. As Animal and Henry Godwinn fight to the outside, we settle in at Hawk vs. Phineas Godwinn as the legal men. Phineas busts out a piledriver early, but Hawk no-sells, popping up and throwing a clothesline. Both men tag out. Henry throws clobbering downward blows at Animal. Animal reverses a whip and hits a diving shoulderblock. After a reset, Henry throws a cheap kick after offering a test of strength, throws a couple of rights and then makes the tag to Phineas. Phineas with a jawbreaker, but then he just allows Animal to tag out to Hawk instead of following up.

Corner whip by Phineas, and a clothesline in the corner to follow. Hawk blocks a suplex attempt, blocks a second one, then executes a suplex himself. Hawk drops a fist, but then gets caught dropping his head too early on a subsequent backdrop attempt; Phineas takes advantage with a kick to the chops, and he tags out to Henry. Hawk takes a run at Henry, but ends up ramming shoulder-first into the corner. HOG soon capitalizes with a shoulderbreaker that garners a two-count. Commercial. After the break, the Godwinns still have Hawk isolated…the pig farmers are controlling a surprising amount of the offense in this match. We get a terrible-looking spot where Phineas whips Hawk into the corner, then the two awkwardly collide when Phineas tries following him in from behind. Hot tag to Animal, who enters with a couple of dropkicks. Hawk returns to the fray, all four fighting it out, and amidst the chaos Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith come to the ring to run interference. Davey clocks Animal from behind with his title belt, allowing Henry Godwinn to score the pin. This sucked.



Result: The Godwinns via pinfall

They send the show to Jim Ross and Honky Tonk Man in South Africa. Before the first match on this side of the equator, we see the replay of the incident from a couple of weeks ago where Jesse James rejected the Honky Tonk Man's proposal to join him. Then we get a super long period of time with no commentary for some reason, probably part of what led to that disclaimer about technical difficulties at the beginning of the show.

Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna) vs. Jesse James: If James really shows up well here, maybe he'll get HHH to offer him a special invitation to the hottest faction in the company in the relatively near future. Hunter with a side headlock. The two battle over control of an arm-wringer. We see a banner talking about technical difficulties again, as commentary still has not returned. Some basic mat wrestling between the two competitors continues. HHH throws an armdrag and a bodyslam, but James shoves Hunter off with an upward kick and regains his feet. Waistlock takeover by Helmsley, and they continue to jostle for position as Jim Ross's commentary finally returns to the audio track. James blocks multiple suplex attempts before Helmsley simply backs away frustrated and tries to collect himself.

James works the advantage, throwing punches in the corner and then a series of armdrags. Seems the commentary is back off. I suppose that's not the worst thing when the Honky Tonk Man is on color. HHH jars his way loose with a right, but James reverses a whip, then throws an armdrag and a dropkick; Hunter counters an ensuing backdrop attempt by stopping short and jarring James's face into his knee. He beats JJ down in the corner and mockingly curtseys as the show goes to break.

Back from commercial, Hunter is in control, throwing a swinging neckbreaker and getting a two-count on the following pin attempt. Suplex. Measures and drops the knee. Two-count, and then a reverse chinlock. This match is painfully boring and making me wish that I was watching that first bad tag match instead.



After this extended rest hold, James pretends to pick up some adrenaline from a crowd that doesn't seem to care about him, and works his way to his feet and out of the hold. He ducks two clothesline attempts, but Hunter sticks with it and hits a high knee. Again a two-count, and now Hunter expresses his displeasure with the official. He would soon realize that it was more effective to throw these tantrums at officials backstage in order to get his way; the in-the-ring demonstrations are less effective. He settles back into a chinlock. Same as before, James eventually musters up some reserve strength to fight his way loose. Once he does, he starts no-selling punches before fighting back by throwing his own, now on the comeback trail. The comeback doesn't last long though, as he quickly runs into the raised boot of Helmsley in the corner. Still, he's able to thwart Helmsley's jump off the top rope with a clothesline a moment later.

Inverted atomic drop by James. Punch, punch, gyration, punch. After probably a full of 5+ minutes of no commentary, JR and Honky are back again. James throws a clothesline in the corner. He mounts Helmsley there, at which point Honky Tonk Man becomes frustrated and gets up from commentary. He trips James from ringside, then throws a cheap punch to the face while Chyna is distracting the official. Pedigree --> pinfall. This was a 12-minute match that felt like it went on for at least 20 due to how slow and painful it was.



Result: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley via pinfall

James picks up a house mic and threatens Honky and challenges him to get into the ring to face him. Honky stands back at the announce table and yells that Honky's new protégé will take James down on Sunday at the PPV. He makes like he's going to get in the ring to answer the challenge right now, but he doesn't get any further than the apron before backing down.

Rocky Maivia vs. Savio Vega (w/ Crush & D-Lo Brown): This is a non-title affair, so the fans are given no hope of the reign of terror ending tonight. Savio with a waistlock, Rocky with a standing switch. After a takedown by Savio, they reset. Another exchange ends quickly with a reset. Savio trips Rocky and walks along his back disrespectfully. They go to a PIP interview with Ahmed Johnson. He spends parts of this interview obscuring his mouth with his hands as he leans on a big 2x4, making it truly impossible to have any idea WTF he's saying. Anyway, he's getting ready for a match later tonight.



Back to the action, Rocky throws some right hands, misses with a clothesline, but connects on a back elbow before executing an armdrag into an armbar; the undeserving champion asserts his authority. The hold gets broken, but Rocky reverses an Irish whip and just armdrags his way back into an armbar. He stands Savio up in the corner, and they slug back and forth, Savio actually taking an advantage. Rocky reverses a corner whip, but Savio connects on a hard spinning heel kick when Maivia charges. Savio slaps on a chinlock, and we get an extended rest hold. Rocky eventually fights his way loose, then performs a sunset flip that gets a two-count. Savio quickly reasserts the advantage on offense, taking Rocky down in another rest hold as Faarooq walks out to ringside with his arm in a sling. We seem to be back to a no-commentary situation as the show goes to break.

Savio seems to have kept the hold on throughout the break. Rocky finds his feet, but Savio immediately kicks him back down to the mat. And back into another ****ing hold. Savio gets up and stomps away at Rocky as Faarooq yells orders from ringside, but then drops back down into a nerve hold. This is atrocious. Rocky again back to his feet, throws a flying bodypress, but Savio kicks out and again puts him back down. And another nerve hold. This match is the really horrible rendition of Groundhog Day. We've lost all commentary, so there's nothing to stimulate the senses…it's just watching Rocky fade in nerve holds over and over again as the crowd murmurs.



And we have our fifth(?) comeback by Rocky, but Savio attempts a roll-up that gets two, then throws a cross-body that gets another two. Right on cue, Jim Ross is back to declare, "The pace has quickened!" Well no **** JR, the pace doesn't get much slower than two people lying there in a nerve hold for 10 minutes. Catapult by Rocky sends Savio head-first into the turnbuckle. Maivia follows up by attempting a monkey-flip, but Savio blocks and Rocky falls back to the mat. Savio misses on a corner charge a moment later; Rocky throws a back suplex. After a long recovery delay, Rocky throws his arm over Savio for a non-believable near-fall. Both men back to their feet. Rocky hits a fisherman suplex for a two-count. It never fails to catch me off-guard when Rocky does a cool move in 1997.

Rocky hits a Rock Bottom, but it's not called a Rock Bottom yet, nor is it a finisher, and Savio kicks out at two. Rocky executes a bad DDT, then scales the ropes. Flying bodypress off the top connects. He goes for the shoulderbreaker, but Savio escapes out of it, rolls Maivia up from behind, grabs the tights, and scores the barely-dirty upset.



Result: Savio Vega via pinfall

The Nation converges in the ring and beats Rocky down. Ahmed comes out and makes the save, clearing out the ring with a 2x4.

After commercials and some banter between the two announce teams, we see the footage from last week, when Steve Austin leveraged Gorilla Monsoon into giving him a match with Bret Hart at this Sunday's PPV.

In the United States arena (this appears to be more footage shot in Muncie last week, since there's the same fan at ringside on the hard camera side in a Hoosiers sweatshirt), Vince McMahon brings Steve Austin out for an interview. Referencing the upcoming match with Bret, Austin says that it's about time that he gets what he wants, and that Vince and Monsoon had been holding him down for too long as it is. He points a finger at Vince's chest and says, "The bottom line is, you can't hold me down no more, son." We have one of our first Austin vs. McMahon sightings. Vince says that with all due respect, talent can't be held down; it always rises to the top. I imagine that a lot of former WWF wrestlers just threw up in their mouths. Austin threatens to beat the living hell out of Bret Hart at the PPV. His promo here is passable I guess, but pretty bad by Austin standards.



Back in South Africa for our next match. By the way, on top of all of the ringwork so far being terrible regardless of arena, the atmosphere sucks in this outdoor stadium in Johannesburg as well.

The Sultan (w/ The Iron Sheik) vs. Goldust: They go to commercial after ring entrances and then return with the match already in progress. Goldust lays in repeated right hands, causing the Sultan to roll out to take a powder. The Sheik has to talk him into returning to the ring at all. He eventually goes back just to drag Goldust out with him, then whips him into the steel steps. Guardrail smash, then he sends Goldust back inside. Piledriver plants Goldust pretty hard, but it's only good for a two-count. Reverse chinlock for a minute. Goldust fights his way out, then throws his trademark uppercut before planting Sultan with a bulldog. And…here's a run-in by HHH and Chyna for the blatant DQ.

Result: Goldust via DQ



Sultan and HHH perform a spike piledriver together, albeit not a good one. Sultan slaps on a camel clutch as Helmsley pounds away at his helpless rival. Sultan hits him a few times with his flagpole for good measure until it breaks. Sultan and Sheik raise their arms in celebration.

We see various clips of Bret Hart in several locations along the world tour, cutting the same anti-American promo we've seen in recent weeks, complete with swipes at Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels.



We're back in Muncie for our next match.

The Headbangers vs. Mankind & Vader (w/ Paul Bearer): Vader forces Mosh down to the mat once, then powers him into a corner and pummels him there. Vader showboats a bit, allowing Mosh to fight back. Both Headbangers double-team the big man, throwing a double suplex. Thrasher has less success by himself, taking a belly-to-belly by Vader soon after Mosh leaves the ring. Vader does miss on an elbow, allowing Thrasher to attempt to fight back, but Vader sends him back down with a body attack. Mosh comes in illegally to stop Vader from tagging, and Mankind comes in to take both Headbangers out. The brawling goes up the ramp, seeming to tease a double countout until things work their way back into the ring. Guess we're going with Mankind and Mosh as legal men now, even if Mankind definitely never tagged in.

Double-arm DDT by Mankind. Tag to Vader. Corner whip and an avalanche. Suplex. Tag back to Mankind, who pounds Mosh down in the corner and then drills him with a running knee. He gets a head start and clotheslines Mosh over the top rope, spilling out with him. Mosh seems to get something from under the ring, then spits a substance into Mankind's face right in front of the referee to trigger a DQ.

Result: Mankind & Vader via DQ

Mankind is blinded by whatever was spit in his face. He flails about, then blindly sticks the mandible claw down Vader's throat. As Mankind forces him to the mat, Vince yells, "HE THINKS THAT'S A HEADBANGER!" Dude, he's blinded; he's not paralyzed. You know whether you're touching Vader or a Headbanger. Anyway, Vader fades out as Paul Bearer finally pulls Mankind off.



That's a pretty weird segment for Mankind, the challenger for the WWF Title, to be involved in on a go-home show before that title shot.

Back in South Africa, Undertaker cuts a promo over the PA system without actually appearing. He says that after Sunday, Mankind won't be able to rest in peace, but he will be able to burn in Hell.

We see clips from the Slammies, whenever those happened, where the various hotties of the company came out and did a swimsuit show.



Oh God. Here's another promo from that Commandant dude from last week. He drones on about how his group, the Truth Commission is going to show all of the sissy liberals the error of their ways.



Ahmed Johnson vs. Crush (w/ Faarooq & D-Lo Brown): I feel like I haven't bitched enough about this Nation rendition of Crush. It was painful how boring he was. I liked Faarooq, Savio was an acceptable henchman for the group, but the mere existence of Crush was always enough to render me uninterested in whatever was going on. While I'm usually very hard on Ahmed, he was much likelier than Crush to provide me some level of entertainment in the ring, even if he was a sloppy bastard who perpetually endangered anyone within a 10-yard radius of him.

Jim Ross: "This is not gonna be a pretty matchup!" I always loved it when Ross would open the match by basically conceding that it was going to suck. Ahmed no-sells a running shoulderblock. Crush no-sells one in return. Crush misses on a clothesline, and the two hit each other in a mid-ring collision. Can't say I've seen that during the first minute of a match too many times. In any case, we reset. Ahmed throws a scissor kick that knocks Crush from the ring. Crush takes a breather before returning inside and yanking Ahmed out of the ring by the trunks. Crush distracts referee Mike Chioda to allow D-Lo to get some kicks in on Ahmed outside. Crush suplexes Ahmed back into the ring, drops the leg three times, and gets a two-count. Up the aisle, we see Savio Vega emerge through the curtain, out to join his Nation brethren at ringside.

Crush hammers away at Ahmed's kidneys. Raw goes to commercial as Ross yells "WAIT JUST A MINUTE! HOLD ON HERE!" No idea what he was yelling about, and it never gets explained once the break is over since the commentary seems to be out once again. Backbreaker by Crush. And now…wait for it…another nerve hold. FFS.



It almost feels comical at this point to see the same sequence of another babyface working his way back to his feet out of a nerve hold and throwing repeated elbows to break the hold, but Ahmed does that and then drops Crush with an axe kick. Scoop slam. Ahmed throws an elbow drop, and he misses it so badly that I'm genuinely unsure as to whether it was meant to hit. He stays down for a recovery period, so perhaps not. Crush with a piledriver. Two-count. Now it's time for a sleeper, which I guess is at least a unique rest hold for this night, even if we're headed for yet another "babyface fades, then summons the fight to escape" sequence for what feels like the 10th time tonight. Crush releases the hold as Faarooq tosses him a belt. Crush chokes Ahmed with it as the referee is distracted, and Crush discards it and returns to a legal hold by the time the ref makes his way back into position.

Alright, here's Ahmed not letting his arm drop a third time, then the comeback, then he jabs his way loose. Again. Crush puts him down with a back elbow, then sets up a heart punch. Ahmed blocks and counters with a spinning wheel kick. Crush reverses an Irish whip, but Ahmed somersaults through into a roll-up on the way back to score the pinfall.



This was sort of less bad than some of the other matches tonight, so there's that. It still wasn't good.

Result: Ahmed Johnson via pinfall

Faarooq grabs Tony Chimel's mic at ringside and cuts a promo on Ahmed, vowing that the Nation is going to eliminate him. He rambles his way through a challenge, that if Ahmed can beat everyone in the Nation, he'll "relinquish the whole Nation." I'm not sure "relinquish" is the word he wanted there, but okay. There's no immediate answer on this challenge.

Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette run down the matches for this coming Sunday on PPV, and then we're off the air.

Overall: This was an aggressively terrible episode. One of the worst.

Ratings for 4/14/97: Nitro 3.5, Raw 2.2
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 58-17-2

Better Show: Nitro puts on a pretty bad episode and wins the week handily. Good effort all around, gents.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 55-22

Match of the Night: Really not much of a selection this week. I'm going with Ultimo Dragon vs. Lane Carlson, which was obviously just an enhancement match. Slight edge to that one over a meh rendition of Rey vs. Juventud.

And with that painful task out of the way, I believe my writeup efforts for the year 2016 are brought to a close. The writeups will return in January with the next WWF In Your House.

I hacked out approximately 10 months of wrestling during 2016. If I somehow stick with it, I'm on pace to finish the thread...sometime in 2021.

thanks for all the write ups!
always enjoy reading them

Was that the worst RAW or Nitro since the beginning of this project? First one I've read that you've been offended to watch because it was just so bad.

I thought about that while watching/writing. My guess is no, though it's on the list and I don't immediately have an alternative answer to offer. I guess my assumption is that the very worst one would have segments that more actively irritated me...this show just spent the entire time putting me to sleep, and it felt like I was doing an unpleasant chore to crank out a writeup of it.

It was clearly completely pointless filler from the beginning, the action used for filler was dreadfully slow, and then the fact that commentary was missing on what I would guess to be a combined total of up to 20 minutes of the show was really unhelpful. Despite the fact that Honky Tonk Man was not very good on color, Jim Ross is good enough that having both of them talking is surely better than having neither. Having no commentary track while dudes lay there in rest holds over and over is pretty torturous.

It's an interesting question about what the very worst one is though. I'm kind of curious to scan back through the thread just to look for that very thing.

I see that WWF was leaving me pretty grumpy in 1995. Here's just from the last three months of that year; thank God the Monday Night Wars didn't start any earlier. And thank God Raw was only a one-hour show then.

I don't remember this gif getting talked about, but I kind of love it.

Lex Luger just obliviously posing while there's two gigantic men brawling off to one side of the screen. Late '95/early '96 Luger was so great.

Having just scrolled through all of my "Overall:" summaries, WWF has created a lot more candidates than WCW has, where I couldn't find anything nice to say about the episode in the end (I found 8 Raws of this kind and 3 Nitros)...but this 9/23/96 Nitro might get the nod from me overall as the worst Monday night episode to date, given that an hour was spent on the nWo pointlessly jerking themselves off just for the sake of it.

nWo Souled Out was the most unpleasant writeup overall, and definitely stands out over any Monday night offering from either company.

Now that I've been reminded of the 10/17/95 Raw, I would probably have that as being about on par with this 4/17/97 Raw. The 10/17/95 Raw was very similar in that it all felt like pointless stalling; they spent a bunch of time waiting for the cage to be constructed for a terrible cage match main event that was never actually meant to air when it was taped. 10/17/95 Raw might be the worse of the two in overall quality, though the fact that it was only one hour might have made it a less painful experience.

There's a good chance that I missed that gif because that's Luger smiling to Sting's face while making an entrance level. Also another chance that I just missed that Luger was there because LOL.

Seems like it's hard for WCW to reach that level because of their undercard which features a bunch of the top workers from that era because I know there's plenty of harping on the main event scene.

WWF IN YOUR HOUSE 14: REVENGE OF THE TAKER



Rochester, NY

After an opening Mankind/Taker graphic, we go inside the arena and hear "OHHHH WHAT A RUSH!" Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler welcome us to the show as the opening match is introduced.

Tag Team Titles - Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (c) vs. The Legion of Doom: Owen and Davey come out to Bret's music. Though I know I didn't recognize it right away at the time, this became a mistake. The Hart Foundation were in the company's top angle, but it became tiresome to hear Bret's music play seemingly five times on every episode of Raw instead of the variety that could be drawn from Owen's and Davey's existing themes. The Owen "High Energy" music was too great to just supersede it like this anyway.

Owen and Animal open up the action. Animal is the early aggressor, beating Owen into the corner before connecting on a diving shoulderblock off an Irish whip. Owen attempts to fight back, but gets overpowered into sort of a front suplex, and cuts his losses by tagging out to Davey Boy. Hawk takes sort of a blind tag and catches Bulldog off-guard with a clothesline. After dropping a fist, he records a two-count. Jumping shoulderblock by Hawk, who taunts Owen before attempting an ill-advised backdrop…Davey kicks him in the face and connects on the patented delayed suplex.



Tag to Hart, who enters with a top-rope axhandle. He attempts a Sharpshooter, but Hawk powers him off, then gets up and clotheslines him. Animal tags in, kicks Owen in the gut, powerslams him, pin for two. Reverse chinlock. We get a split-screen video of Steve Austin's arrival in the arena. He gets static from Pat Patterson for being late, but just mutters something about "silly jackass" at Patterson and proceeds to the locker room. Back to the match. Owen reverses a corner whip on Hawk, Hawk bumps backward out of the corner and the two collide, both going down. After both slowly rise, Owen hits the enziguri and tags to the Bulldog, who stomps away at a now-prone Hawk.

It appears that we've got our heat segment, as the champions take turns working Hawk. Eventually, during a double-team Hawk escapes behind an attempted move and shoves one brother-in-law into the other, creating a collision and also creating the room to make the hot tag to Animal. Hawk sets Bulldog up on Animal's shoulder as Animal is perched on the second rope; Animal jumps off with the big powerslam from there. A surprising and abrupt three-count is recorded. We have…new Tag Team Champions?



Ending felt weird, and within a second Jim Ross says, "Wait a minute." I try to guess what the angle is here. I'm supposing that Davey wasn't legal? But still, Howard Finkel gives the "…and NEW" announcement, referee Jack Doan raises Animal's arm, and…okay, here's referee Mike Chioda for some reason. Chioda tells Doan something, Doan relays a message to Finkel, and yep, Fink announces that LOD pinned the illegal man. As often as they wrongly enforce legal vs. illegal men in the tag matches, this is a dreadfully stupid dusty finish. Owen and Davey were even walking back up the aisle, accepting defeat, when Fink makes this announcement. Fink announces that the match must continue. After being cajoled by a threat of losing the titles if they don't come back, the champs return to the ring.

We're at Bulldog vs. Animal as we reconvene. The last finish doesn't count because Bulldog wasn't the legal man, but when we resume he's the legal man without the benefit of a tag. Seems legit. Owen tags in and enters with the spinning wheel kick. They isolate Animal in the corner. Neckbreaker and a legdrop by Hart leads to a two-count. Bulldog tags in, Animal surprises him with a sunset flip, but Jack Doan is now occupied with Owen, so Animal scores a visual pin that is all for naught. Owen back in, misses with a splash attempt off the ropes, and Animal tags Hawk. Hawk takes on both champs until the numbers overtake him. Still, he manages to come back at them with a double clothesline, Animal re-enters (illegally), sets Owen up on his shoulders, Doomsday Device connects. Pinfall attempt, but Jack Doan has to stall before beginning his count, because the interfering Bret Hart was late on his cue to break things up. Good grief this whole thing was a mess. Anyway, Bret attacks during the pin attempt for the clear DQ. This was complete garbage.



Result: Legion of Doom via DQ
Rating: 1/4*

The Harts slip away as a disappointed LOD holds the ring.

Dok Hendrix is backstage, having caught up to Owen and Davey. "We're standing here backstage with still the Tag Team Champions…I guess the operative word is 'lucky.'" Dok, that's not how operative words work. After talking about the fact they managed to keep the belts, Dok mentions that Steve Austin just recently arrives, which is news that catches Owen and Davey off-guard. Owen denies that it could be true that Austin is here. Owen: "Stone Cold never arrived here tonight." Dok: "Yes he is. I saw him." Owen: "Are you sure? There's a lot of bald guys walking around." The obvious suggestion here is that they had attempted to keep him away from the arena somehow.

Intercontinental Title - Rocky Maivia (c) vs. Savio Vega (w/ Nation of Domination): Savio tries to ambush Rocky as soon as he enters the ring, but Rocky ducks and starts throwing punches and clotheslines of his own. The rest of the Nation had already accompanied Rocky to the ring, but in the early moments of this match, Faarooq, shoulder in sling, saunters down to the ring and joins the announce team at ringside. Vince asks Faarooq to expand on his challenge to Ahmed Johnson from this past Raw. The challenge is that Ahmed would take on the three primary members of the Nation, one by one, over the course of a night, and Faarooq would "relinquish" the Nation. He says "relinquish" about four different times as if it's the correct word - he had used it on Raw also - and Vince repeats back, "So you would…abolish the Nation." "I would abolish the Nation, yes." That's a better word. Vince questions who would take a challenge that stiff. Faarooq says that an idiot would, and that he thinks that Ahmed is just idiotic enough to do it.

Back to the match, Rocky executes a surprise small package on Savio to get a near-fall, but Savio is back up first and puts the boots to the rookie IC Champion. The announcers are barely paying attention to this match, which would be abnormal for a ****ing Intercontinental Title match if not for the fact that the champion is a joke and the challenger has no credibility or believability. So basically this whole thing is just a hype piece for a barely-related midcard non-title feud, as Faarooq is on split-screen talking about that and not talking about his henchman having the potential of becoming a champion right here and now.



Rocky gets a visual pin with a fisherman suplex, but D-Lo Brown is running distraction to prevent a three-count from being made. Savio misses with a spinning heel kick and Rocky comes back at him with a slow-motion float-over DDT. Two-count. Rocky blocks punches and lays a few in himself. Savio gets behind and rolls Rocky up, but only gets two. Vega hurts his shoulder with one empty corner charge that causes him to impact the ringpost, then he misses again on a charge at the opposite corner. Back suplex by Maivia into a kip-up. Belly-to-belly suplex gets two. Rock Bottom, not yet a finisher, gets two. Backslide gets two. Savio sidesteps a charge at the ropes, actually sending Rocky through the middle, where he collides with Crush. Savio distracts the official as Crush hits a heart punch outside.



Rocky is incapacitated by that punch, and ends up being counted out. WTF. If you have an IC Champion who sucks and isn't over to begin with, having him lose to Savio Vega twice in six days doesn't seem particularly helpful.

Result: Savio Vega via countout
Rating: 1/4*

In an uncharacteristically logical reaction, Savio Vega is upset with Crush for causing that countout, since it cost him the chance to win the title. The rest of the Nation has to intercede and calm things down. A couple of them roll Rocky back inside so that they can focus their efforts on a beatdown, but here's Ahmed with the run-in to make the save and chase them all out. Ahmed grabs a mic and says, "You made a challenge to me to come out here in one night and beat this illegal immigrant, this convict, and your black ass. I tell you what: you might think I'm crazy…you're right. I am crazy. I accept your challenge! I will fight all three of you the same night. The same time, if you want it." Ahmed should at least insist on one of those special gauntlet match officials who count pins even when nobody is being pinned.



Dok Hendrix is with Marc Mero and Sable backstage. Mero says that his knee is currently healing, and he's looking forward to coming back this summer. Steve Austin storms by into the men's room right behind this interview. A bunch of officials frantically go in after him, there's noise, and then Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith emerge from there, Davey holding a crooked metal bar of some sort. They scamper off. Dave Hebner comes out, Dok tries to find out what's going on, but Hebner just mumbles something about Owen and Davey doing something to Austin, then he runs off. I do not understand. It was like Owen and Davey had laid someone else out in there, but Austin doesn't have any kayfabe allies, so…whatever.

Jesse James sings his way to the ring for the next match, where he is to face the Honky Tonk Man's new protégé. The familiar chords of "Cool, Cocky, Bad" start next, and Honky comes to the ring. After months of build to who this mystery person will be, Honky says, "He used to be Billy Gunn, and today he's Rockabilly!"



As Rockabilly enters, Vince McMahon channels his whole audience and flatly says, "…what…I don't understand this at all."

Jim Ross joins Honky Tonk Man at ringside and asks why he would take on Billy Gunn two weeks after Billy just suckerpunched him on Raw. Honky gives the predictable response that the punch made him respect Billy more, and he made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Jesse James vs. Rockabilly (w/ The Honky Tonk Man): Rockabilly gets the first shots in, punches and kicks, but James comes back at him with an armdrag and a dropkick. He clotheslines Billy over the top to the floor and then follows him out with a nice clothesline off the apron. The crowd is not having this nonsense. Jim Ross says, "He might want to get back to being Billy Gunn! This might not last very long!" No kidding. Billy halts James's momentum with an eye-gouge, then hits a Rocker dropper. Delayed pin attempt gets two. Rockabilly with a neckbreaker, another slow pin, another two. He slaps on a chinlock, eventually releasing the hold and whipping James into the corner, hitting him with a back elbow as James staggers out.

Another corner whip by Billy, but his jumping corner splash attempt gets nothing but turnbuckle as James slips out. Series of right hands by Jesse James, who mounts Gunn in the corner and executes the 10-punch. Corner whip and a clothesline. These two are awful. Billy sidesteps a running James and sends him careening through the middle rope to the floor. He returns him inside, and as he seems to be signaling and setting up for some sort of finisher, James counters into a small package for the win. More trash.



Result: Jesse James via pinfall
Rating: 1/4*

Honky Tonk Man tries to blindside Jesse James with his guitar after the match, but misses. James slips away safely, victorious.

Backstage, Kevin Kelly asks Steve Austin if he's in any shape to fight tonight. We don't even know what happened to him exactly, but I guess it's being accepted now that he got attacked. Austin screams at Kelly, says that there's no way he isn't fighting Bret Hart tonight. Says he told Bret that he would have to kill him to stop him, and Bret hasn't killed him. Gorilla Monsoon says that he's going to give Austin the opportunity to fight tonight, but that he has rearranged the match order and is having Mankind and Undertaker go next in order to buy Austin some recovery time. That's actually a pretty good way of explaining why a WWF Title match involving The Undertaker isn't going on last at "Revenge of the Taker."



Kevin Kelly sends it to some dude named Lance Wright, who I don't remember being a backstage interviewer in WWF. He's with the Hart Foundation. Owen and Davey says that Austin started the fight with them, and they were just defending themselves. Bret says, "You know what the bottom line is?" Then he breaks into a smirk and says, "Who's crying now?"



In preparation for our title match, we get a well-done recap video of the past year of feuding between The Undertaker and Mankind. This really was a great feud.

WWF Title - The Undertaker (c) vs. Mankind (w/ Paul Bearer): Mankind cradles a fire extinguisher in his arms as he marches to the ring. Undertaker, after doing his usual slow entrance most of the way down the aisle, suddenly quickens his pace and charges into the ring to attack. He is heavily-bandaged off to the side of his right eye. He gets in the first shots, but Mankind fights back at him, knocking him down and then getting a running start to clothesline and carry both of them out over the top. Taker lands on his feet and shoves Mankind violently into the guardrail. Twice.



He picks the challenger up and flings him over the guardrail on the other side, then follows him out to brawl in the crowd. Sends Mankind back toward the guardrail, then goes over and briefly rolls into the ring to break up any possibility of a countout before resuming the fight outside. I appreciate a wrestler actually bothering with the detail of breaking up a countout like that, particularly as there was no loud count going on that would tease the possibility.

The champion slams Mankind's head into the rail one more time, then rolls him into the ring. Grabs his arm and then throttles him repeatedly with short standing shoulderblocks. He walks the tightrope, actually lets Mankind go, and instead of dropping the hammer he instead connects on a flying clothesline.



Goes for the Tombstone, but Paul Bearer runs distraction, Mankind escapes behind, and amidst the distraction Mankind gets the urn and cracks Undertaker over the head with it. Gets a pretty immediate count, but still has to settle for a near-fall. He delivers a running knee to the head of a seated Undertaker in the corner. Jim Ross mentions that Undertaker doesn't have to worry about Vader tonight, because Vader is stuck in Kuwait, apparently having been arrested there. This was a shoot, and it's a bit surprising that they mentioned it.

From Wikipedia:
Swinging neckbreaker by Mankind. Two-count. He slaps on a nerve hold as the two take a bit of a breather and talk some things out. Undertaker tries to regain his feet, but Mankind transitions into sort of a camel clutch. Taker pummels Mankind with punches to the midsection, an uppercut, and then a hard right cross that sends Mankind sprawling out of the ring. Mankind drags the dead man out of the ring, but gets slammed head-first into the steps for his efforts. Mankind finds a water pitcher, a full one, near ringside and hits Taker with it as water and ice spill out. He gets a chair and waffles Undertaker with it…I guess Paul Bearer must have been distracting the official, but that part isn't really shown. Vince McMahon gripes about the fact that referee Mike Chioda is allowing this match to continue.

Mankind hits a flying elbow from the second turnbuckle to the floor. He tears away a fair bit of the bandaging from the side of Undertaker's eye, revealing some kind of grossness underneath. After Undertaker makes his way back in, he falls victim to Mankind's trademark seated piledriver. Two-count. And another one a moment later. As the WWF Champion tries to fight back, Mankind reverses an Irish whip, but the champ ducks a clothesline and hits a flying clothesline of his own on the way back. A moment later, as Taker is going to clothesline Mankind in the corner, Mankind pulls Mike Chioda into the way, and we have a ref bump.

Right after Chioda is left incapacitated, Mankind slaps on the Mandible Claw. Referee Jack Doan marches in, and for all we know he might have counted a submission in Mankind's favor, but instead Mankind releases the hold and attacks Jack Doan, briefly putting the Claw on him and then flinging him out of the ring.



Paul Bearer throws a steel chair into the ring, presumably for Mankind's benefit. Mankind goes out and gets the steel steps to add to his arsenal. He picks them up overhead, but during these delays, Undertaker has regained his feet, and he kicks the steps into Mankind's face. He goes over and grabs the chair, hitting Mankind upside the head with it. Mankind gets caught up with his neck twisted in the ropes a moment later, and Undertaker actually pulls Mankind's mask off as Mankind gets loose. An unmasked Mankind makes his way up to the apron, and Undertaker sends him absolutely flying, hitting him with the steel steps and knocking Mankind diving into the Spanish announce table.



Undertaker rolls Mankind back inside, hits the chokeslam, and the slow count from Mike Chioda only results in a two-count. Undertaker doesn't waste any time following up though, executing the Tombstone and scoring the pinfall to retain the WWF Title.

Result: The Undertaker via pinfall
Rating: ***1/4

Undertaker drops to a knee and lifts his belt triumphantly in the purple lighting, but as the lights come up, he spots Paul Bearer outside the ring. He goes out after Paul and forces him into the ring. This segment gets botched pretty terribly. Mankind tries to intercede on Bearer's behalf, but he clearly has something in his hand and tries to trigger something that doesn't happen on two separate attempts. Seems clear to me that he was supposed to attempt to explode another fireball in Undertaker's face and then to accidentally burn Bearer instead. But, failing that, Undertaker got it from him, and to get it over with he just ends up walking up to Bearer and non-subtly lighting the flash paper in Bearer's face.



They got where they wanted to go, but they didn't make it look good.

After a quick promo with Bret Hart backstage, who is still flanked by brother Owen and brother-in-law Davey, we're onto our main event. Owen and Davey try to accompany Bret to the ring, but two officials block their way. Gorilla Monsoon shows up and tells them to go away.

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin: The two rivals engage in fisticuffs the second they're both in the ring, Austin getting the better of the exchange of stiff rights. Stone Cold with an Irish whip and a back elbow. Suplex. He splits Hart's legs and stomps the midsection. As Bret tries to go outside, Austin follows him out with an axhandle to the floor. The Hitman tries to fight back, but Austin reverses a whip on the floor and sends Bret spilling hard into the steps. Vince solemnly informs us that Paul Bearer is backstage writhing in pain from the fire incident a few moments ago. Again Austin sends Bret hard into the steps. Slams him into the guardrail, then tosses him over it. SCSA climbs onto the rail and drops an axhandle off it. Flings Bret back over into the aisle, then follows the Hitman back into the ring.

Austin, after setting Bret up, drops an elbow off the second rope. Bret Hart goes out and gets a steel chair from right near a seat that Gorilla Monsoon has taken at ringside. He brings it into the ring, but Austin hits him to block an attempted chair shot. Austin gets the chair and Bret dropkicks him into referee Earl Hebner. Ref bump, as Hebner is out of commission for the moment. Bret jams the chair repeatedly into Austin's bad knee, drawing significant heat from the crowd. Bret helps Hebner back up to get him back in the game, and then goes back to working Austin's bad knee over. He slams Stone Cold's leg against the apron. Austin lands a couple of kicks back at Bret, but can't regain the full advantage, and it's not long before Bret slaps on the corner figure-four.



After Earl Hebner breaks that up, Earl turns his back; Bret grabs a nearby chair and hits Austin with it against the corner several times, seemingly relying upon Hebner to be deaf in order to get away with this. The leg work continues, Bret wrenching Stone Cold's leg. Austin tries launching comebacks, but Bret keeps putting him down by taking advantage of the state of disrepair that Austin's leg is in. We get split-screen footage of Paul Bearer being wheeled away by paramedics in the back, as he wails in pain. Back with the full footage on the match, the Hitman has gotten Steve's brace off, so that layer of protection is gone.

Austin finally halts the Hitman with a pretty blatant low blow. He has his first advantage in a good while, dropping a leg and then an elbow before undoing some of his own wrist tape and strangling Bret with it. He hangs him along the top rope. Attempts to suplex him from the ring to the floor, but Bret reverses and suplexes Austin back into the middle. The Hitman slaps on a figure-four. Austin has to keep getting his shoulder up to avoid getting pinned while in this hold, and eventually he rolls over to reverse the hold. Bret quickly grabs for a rope break. When Hebner breaks the hold, Austin shoves him and flips him off.



As Austin is caught up in the argument with the official, Bret takes out his leg from behind and continues more of the same leg-centered offense as he pulls Austin outside. Austin manages to send Bret over the railing into the crowd, where they trade some fists. He throws Hart back over the railing to ringside, then drops him along that same guardrail a few feet up. Clothesline from the apron by Stone Cold. Unfortunately I have to say that this match is extremely repetitious and pretty boring. Back into the ring, Austin sends Hart into the corner, causing Hart to take the chest-first bump. Austin straddles and rains punches, then tries for a pin that gets two. Bret Hart gets up and hits a shoulderblock, but falls victim to a terrible piledriver by Austin. Actually that seems to have been designed rather than botched; Austin's leg gave way during the move, and Bret no-sells whatever impact there was as Austin buckles with knee pain.



Bret capitalizes on the continued bad condition of Austin's knee. He attempts a corner whip, but Austin's leg causes him to collapse halfway to the corner. Bret grapevines Austin's leg around the ropes, but Earl Hebner forcibly breaks the move up, and when Bret goes back after Austin, Austin hits a stun gun that turns the tables. Two-count. He goes for a Stunner, but Bret blocks. A moment later, Hart connects on a backward-kicking low blow that puts the Rattlesnake back down on the mat. He sets SCSA up on the top and executes a superplex. He goes for the Sharpshooter, but Austin's knee brace, sitting loose nearby, is in reach. Austin grabs it and hits the Hitman to stop the Sharpshooter, and it in fact allows Austin to reverse it into his own Sharpshooter. As he has that locked in, here come Owen and Davey. They cause Austin to release the hold as a gaggle of officials herds them to the back. Austin puts the hold back on, but Davey returns to the ring and hammers Austin with a steel chair, ending an aggressively underwhelming match with a cheap DQ finish.



Though I knew that this match wasn't the standout that their first two encounters were, this match was far more boring than I could have imagined these two being capable of together.

Result: Steve Austin via DQ
Rating: **

After the match, Bret goes to attack, but Austin hits him with a chair and locks the Sharpshooter back on. It's all for naught, of course; the match is over. Officials combine to eventually pull him off of Hart as Owen and Davey come down to Bret's aid. They haul a limping Hitman away toward the back as Austin's music plays. Austin eventually regains his feet well enough to raise his arms in victory, even if it wasn't by pin or submission. Vince tries to put this over as Austin "extracting a bit of revenge," and the show signs off.

Overall: This is a bad, bad show. Undertaker vs. Mankind was a good match and was the only bright spot, but in the context of their many matches that wasn't a standout either…there's really no reason for anyone to ever watch this show.

That was kind of a rough one to come back to after a break from doing these. Hope their Raw follow-up effort was a lot better.

I watched this next RAW late last year while you were on hiatus from doing this and I was craving it. So good. Don't want to spoil so I'll have some more thoughts later.

Glad to hear that at least. I know that I remember this period of WWF wrestling fondly, so hopefully there are any number of good shows coming up.

Have said it before I think, but the rate at which I crank out these writeups definitely gets sped up or slowed down based on the quality of the product. Obviously good shows tempt me to just jump straight into the next one immediately, where bad shows make me throw up my hands and wonder why I just spent 3+ hours of my life putting in that work. Granted that once in a while there's a Tower of Doom match where I simultaneously think it's terrible and still have fun writing it up, but shows like the above just sap my WIM.

glad its back!

Keep going, LKJ! About three months to go until, in some people's mind, the best IYH event of the bunch, Canadian Stampede.

Oh I'm definitely in the group who thinks that's the best IYH ever, and it's one of my favorite PPVs. Admittedly I've never actually gone back and rewatched the three preliminary matches since 1997, which I look forward to; I do remember all three of them being good.

While the two Raws after WM13 were good for establishing the Hart Foundation, the Raw after this PPV is when **** really starts to get good at the top of the card.

Gonna echo the sentiment about the next episode of Raw and toss out another thank you for doing these reviews in the first place!

Alright, I was going to probably wait at least a full week before jumping back in after that crap PPV, but you guys have convinced me to start on the follow-up Raw tonight. I'm counting on the lot of you to have good taste. (No guarantees of completing a writeup tonight.)

April 21, 1997

RAW

Binghamton, NY

We open the show on footage from last night of The Undertaker lighting flash paper in Paul Bearer's face.

After credits, the glass breaks, and Steve Austin is on his way to the ring for an interview with Vince McMahon. Before the interview starts, Jerry Lawler mentions that Austin is going to be taking on Bret Hart in a street fight tonight. In the ring, Vince says that on May 11 at In Your House, Austin is going to wrestle for the WWF Title. Austin tells Vince, "shut your stinking hole." He says that he's not talking about that PPV yet…tonight he's going to talk about Bret Hart. He says that he whipped Bret's ass with his own world-famous Sharpshooter.



He demands that Bret get out here right now. Says he doesn't want to wrestle him; he wants to fight him. Strangely, a countdown shows up on the Titantron, and is ticks down from ":25," Jim Ross says that Bret has less than 30 seconds to accept this challenge. Err, or what happens after the 30 seconds? The clock hits zero without consequence. Austin says that he knew that Bret didn't have the guts to come out, so he's going to go backstage and get him. Now Bret appears on the tron, alongside his family, and says that he accepts the challenge. Clearly that clock was meaningless. Bret cuts a promo on the bloodthirsty American wrestling fans who loved all of last night's violence and yet still boo him. Austin fires back at Bret and then walks back up the aisle with a purpose.



The Sultan (w/ The Iron Sheik & Bob Backlund) vs. Ahmed Johnson: Surely the Sultan can't continue to be a thing for too much longer. Ahmed insultingly shoves him in the face, leading to fisticuffs between the two. Sultan gets the better of the punches, but on the follow-up, Ahmed leapfrogs and then connects on a jumping kick to the face. Then an axe kick as Sultan tries to get back up. Sultan comes back at Ahmed with a crescent kick, then beats on him in the corner. Sultan reverses a whip and drives a knee to Johnson's gut on the way back. Piledriver by the Sultan; lax cover gets two.

Reverse chinlock by Sultan, who is getting a bit too much offense here. One back to a standing position, Sultan tries to throw a backdrop, but Ahmed stops short and executes a front suplex. Two. Spinebuster. I always ache for Ahmed's opponent when they have to deal with a sloppy Ahmed spinebuster. Cue the Nation of Domination music, and the Nation appears at the top of the aisle, which draws Ahmed out of the ring. Sultan attacks on the outside and rams Johnson into the post. Ahmed, in recovery, grabs a 2x4 from under the ring and beats Sultan with it for the DQ.



Result: The Sultan via DQ

Ahmed continues beating on the Sultan with several more blows with the 2x4. It's framed as a warning shot at the Nation, as the Nation backs down.

After commercial, Steve Austin is shown raging outside of the Hart Foundation locker room, slamming on the door with a chair and kicking at it repeatedly. Bret Hart is shown on the other side of the door, demanding that officials take care of Austin. Says, "Send him to the ring."



Ken Shamrock joins in at the commentary table before the next match. Vince notes that Shamrock will be taking on Vader in a no-holds-barred match at the next In Your House, but also notes that Vader is currently stuck in Kuwait. They feature the fact that Tiger Ali Singh won the Kuwaiti Invitational Tournament while the WWF was there. They pretended like Singh was the next big thing, but I had definitely forgotten that he had ever existed until he first came back up during this project.

They show the footage from Good Morning Kuwait, when Vader grabbed the host by the collar and threatened him after the host asked him if wrestling was fake.



They labeled it "Vader Held Hostage: Day 9." I didn't remember this at all.

Ken Shamrock, from the announce table, cuts a bit of a promo on Vader, calling him a bully. Then he challenges Mike Tyson as well. He rambles pretty terribly, but I was a bit surprised that he explicitly mentioned Tyson's rape charge, as the WWF obviously was legitimately seeking to do business with (and did do business with) Tyson.

Alright, here comes Steve Austin to the ring for the street fight. We get stills from last night's Austin-Hart match as Austin heads to the ring here in street clothes. They go to commercial, and then afterward they flash back to the commercial break, when Austin got out and stood on the announce table, yelling at and gesturing aggressively down at Vince as Vince yells angrily back at him.



After Austin's music goes silent for a good while, we finally hear the guitar squeals that mark the beginning of Bret Hart's theme music.

Street Fight: Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart: Bret comes out to loud booing. He walks slowly and acts very tentative about getting in the ring. After a number of false starts where he teases an entrance and then backs up, Steve Austin gets jumped from behind by Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith. All three of the Hart Foundation beat Austin down, just raining punches on him. Out of nowhere, Shawn Michaels jumps the guardrail, steel chair in hand. He slides into the ring. Bret ducks a chair shot, but he catches Owen square on the head and hits Bulldog in the back. Bulldog and Owen go running away through the crowd, as Shawn chases them off.



Shawn's equalizer attempts are successful, at least in getting things down to a one-on-one street fight. Of course the damage on Austin is already done, and Bret is in firm control, just picking Austin's bones after that beatdown. After a lot of punches and kicks, we do see a wrestling move when the Hitman throws a nice piledriver. He heads out to ringside and grabs a steel chair, then wraps it around Austin's ankle. Bret climbs the ropes and jumps off, purportedly to snap Austin's ankle, but Austin moves. Stone Cold removes the chair from around his ankle and then lands several vicious shots on Bret's knee, still hurt from last night.



He lands a vicious shot on Bret's wrist for good measure before returning to the task of trying to cripple him with continued violence targeted at the Hitman's bad leg. The chair shots here are really stiff-looking. Austin slaps on the Sharpshooter. Officials try to talk Austin off as Jim Ross screams that Bret Hart's career might end right here. Austin refuses to release the hold as Ross starts sympathizing with Bret, shouting that enough is enough.



Officials finally do get Austin off after a really long time in that hold.

No Result Announced

After commercials, Owen and Davey have made their way back to the ring, attending to their fallen leader. They scream angrily for help as a paramedic arrives.

In the back, Gorilla Monsoon yells at Austin, saying that he's out of control. Austin screams back at him, threatening to whip his ass, but Monsoon ejects him from the building. That quick exchange between those two is great.



Bret screams in agony, yelling "GOD DAMMIT, MY LEG" at one point, and Owen and Davey eventually help him to the back.

Tiger Ali Singh vs. Salvatore Sincere: This is just an enhancement match, and they quickly drop pretenses that the audience should care about it; they send it to a split-screen of Bret being attended to backstage. Vince sells the story that Bret's leg has to be broken. Owen gets in a yelling match with Earl Hebner and Mike Chioda. Back to the match, Sincere gets a bit of token offense in, throwing a garbage slow-motion clothesline as the crowd catcalls the match going on in front of them. Tiger Ali Singh wins the match with a spinning wheel kick.



Result: Tiger Ali Singh via pinfall

More of Bret getting wheeled out through the back. He gets loaded into the ambulance. Strangely there's a spare Raw camera just hanging out in the front of the ambulance looking back, even though dudes who get loaded into ambulances never get looked in on during the TV broadcast. Shades of a camera randomly hanging out behind the window of the Barber Shop to show Marty Jannetty getting thrown through it, it's almost as if something is up…ah, yeah, here's Steve Austin in the driver's seat. He climbs into the back and continues the beating, knocking Bret from the ambulance. Owen and Davey pounce on him and run him off, but of course more damage is done.



The medics finally do get Bret driven off to the hospital.

Jesse James vs. Rockabilly (w/ Honky Tonk Man): Rockabilly jumps Jesse James right away upon entering the ring, beating him down in the corner. James sidesteps and trips Billy, throws a couple of armdrags, and cinches in an armbar. Billy works his way back up and whips James into the ropes, but gets sunset-flipped. Two. Rockabilly puts James down in the corner, then does his rendition of Honky's shimmy. It was so tone-deaf of WWF to think that a Honky Tonk Man redux was still going to get over at this point, though obviously it can't be helpful that Billy Gunn is out there working the gimmick halfheartedly like he's a man getting punished for something. Suplex by Billy gets two.

Billy whips James into the corner, elbowing him as he staggers out. Two. He hangs James across the top rope and then does more mugging. This is heatless and terrible, just like last night. Maybe even more boring than last night. Snapmare by Billy, who transitions into a chinlock. Vince comments that Billy seems "a lot more cautious than last night." I wonder if that was Vince-speak for "holy **** this is boring." James ducks a clothesline and hits a cross-body to get a one-count. Couple of right hands and a couple of corner smashes. James hits a running clothesline in the corner, but goes back to the well and eats a stun gun for his efforts. Rockabilly hits the Shake, Rattle, and Roll (swinging neckbreaker) for the win.



Result: Rockabilly via pinfall

James attacks Rockabilly after the bell, but Honky Tonk Man is in from behind with the guitar. He smashes it over Jesse's head and hits him repeatedly, then triumphantly raises the hand of his new protégé.

Backstage, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin are yelling at each other, with Gorilla Monsoon in the middle. Austin says Michaels had no business out there. HBK yells, "I'm not coming to help you! I'm coming to hurt them!" Gorilla threatens that Austin is close to losing his license. He screams for both men to calm down, and over heated words they do separate.



The announce team is talking about that last segment when they get interrupted by Mankind on the Titantron.



Great stuff.

The Undertaker vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley (w/ Chyna): Undertaker is in the ring first, and actually charges out to attack HHH in the aisle during his entrance. Not too often you see that when it isn't a personal feud. He throws Hunter into the ring and then stares down Chyna before going in after his prey. Taker beats Helmsley in one corner and then another. Picks him up in a two-hand choke and slams him down. After a totally one-sided start, HHH does counter by stopping short after an Irish whip and driving his knee into Undertaker's face. Hard right by the blueblood, but after a corner whip he runs hard into a big boot and then eats a clothesline. Vince declares that he doesn't think that there's any love interest at all between HHH and Chyna.

Undertaker walks the top rope and drops the hammer. Two-count. He puts on kind of a chinlock, ripping at the face, then he actually transitions into a cradle that gets a two-count before HHH grabs the bottom rope. Taker dumps him to the outside, then follows and slams him into the steps. Rolls Hunter back in, but Hunter takes advantage during Undertaker's re-entry and attacks. He throws a series of rights at the burnt area of Undertaker's face, and then actually throws referee Mike Chioda down when Chioda tries to back him off. Chioda pretty much just takes it, returns back into officiating without significant reaction.



Helmsley continues with a methodical attack. He whips Undertaker into the corner, but Taker comes charging back out and hits a Rocker dropper as HHH drops his head for an attempted backdrop. Corner whip sends Hunter flipping up onto the turnbuckle, and then Hunter spills back into the ring and takes a clothesline. Action spills outside, where HHH slams Undertaker hard into the steps, causing Taker's bandages to come loose and reveal the burns underneath. HHH axhandle from the apron. As the action goes back inside, Jim Ross gives a shoutout to Harley Race, who was apparently recovering from a car accident. The camera pans over and finds Dustin and Terri Runnels hanging out at ringside, sans the usual costumes. Vince feigns lack of recognition. Right before the show cuts to break, JR says, "Hey wait, that's Dustin and Terri. I mean…Marlena."



After the break, HHH is in control at least briefly…Taker reverses a corner whip, but HHH comes back out with a back elbow that connects. A moment later, Taker suddenly finds some adrenaline, violently throws HHH into the corner and then lands a couple of punches that knock him from the ring. As Helmsley returns inside, the camera pans to the top of the ramp, where Mankind emerges, sporting a sadistic smile and carrying a lit blowtorch.



He comes to the ring and hits Undertaker with the tank, or whatever is fueling the blowtorch. That's a DQ.

Result: The Undertaker via DQ

Mankind keeps hitting him with that tank, then rolls him over and readies to ignite a fire in Undertaker's face. He does light it up, but Undertaker chokes upward to stop him and then punches him out of the ring, sending Mankind scurrying into the crowd. Taker catches up with him, but they brawl together up out of view of the camera.

As Chyna goes to see where that action is headed, Marlena suddenly chokes Chyna from behind with the strap of her purse, she and Dustin both jump the rail, and a brief brawl ensues until officials break it up.



Here's Steve Austin for an interview segment. He must officially have been un-eliminated from the building after the earlier ejection. Vince recaps Stone Cold's 24 hours and says, "You must feel pretty good about yourself right about now, don't you?" Austin says that he told the world that he would send Bret Hart straight back to Canada, and that's what he did. The crowd cheers, and Austin berates them for cheering for him. He accuses Vince of wanting to jump on the Stone Cold bandwagon as much as anyone, then accuses to beat him up. Austin declares that Bret Hart is done in the WWF, and says that Owen Hart and the British Bulldog have hell to pay. Vince steers the topic to The Undertaker, and Austin's upcoming title shot.

After a few lines in Undertaker's direction by Austin, we see another seedling of a future legendary feud, as Austin says to Vince, "You ask, because you have to ask: what's gonna happen with Stone Cold as the WWF Champion? You think, for one split-second, son, that I'm gonna be a good role model…you've got another thing coming." As he goes to wrap the promo, Owen and Davey descend upon the ring and jump Austin again. Vince actually gets physically involved and tries to pull Owen off…Owen flings Vince to the mat.



Enter Shawn Michaels with a chair again, and again he clears Owen and Davey out. Austin is left lying in the ring.

Then, as things are settling down and Vince returns to the announce table, here's Brian Pillman out of nowhere, jumping the rail, sliding into the ring, and attacking Austin. He gets a chair and smacks Austin hard with it. JR describes the sound as "like a gun going off." Well it IS Austin-Pillman.



Pillman sets Austin's ankle up in a chair and is going to return the favor on Austin for the time that Austin broke Pillman's ankle in kayfabe and put him out for many months, but here's Shawn Michaels to play the hero again. He charges back in with a chair, chases Pillman off, and Pillman is escaping into the crowd as the show goes off the air.



Overall: Great stuff. Early in the show, I admittedly had the thought of, "Oh PLEASE tell me that everyone wasn't just losing their **** over the ambulance segment. Tell me there's more than that." Thankfully there was a lot more. Loved that whole last segment, really liked that bit with Marlena and Dustin jumping HHH and Chyna, Mankind was excellent, the earlier chair violence with Austin and Bret was awesome. One of the strongest episodes so far in 1997.