What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - July 21, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-A video package discusses the Hart Foundation’s divided appeal and hypes tonight’s six man flag match.

-Vince McMahon, Jerry “the King” Lawler, and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

-Highlights of the Ken Shamrock-Vader match from In Your House:  A Cold Day in Hell are shown to hype tonight’s opening contest.

-Ken Shamrock says that he beat Vader once and he can do it again and it’ll prepare him for his match with the British Bulldog at SummerSlam.

-Opening Contest:  Vader (w/Paul Bearer) defeats Ken Shamrock by count out at 6:59:

Since the main event is a flag match tonight, a Canadian and American flag are hanging on poles in opposite corners of the ring.  Vader dominates the first four minutes, but Shamrock escapes a powerbomb and nails Bearer when he breaks up a submission hold.  This is a different beast than their match at In Your House a couple of months prior to this, as its more of a conventional wrestling match than a worked shoot but that doesn’t hurt its quality.  Shamrock survives a splash off the second rope, but when Vader dumps him out of the ring, the British Bulldog runs out to the ring and gives Shamrock a running powerslam on the ramp and Shamrock is counted out to lose his first singles match in the WWF.  Rating:  ***

-Canadian fans express their support for the Hart Foundation and explain why they don’t like the United States.

-The Godwinns defeat of “The Real Double J” Jesse James and Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly is the Stridex Triple Action segment.

-A brief vignette for Brakkus is aired.  He never amounted to anything in the WWF and only appeared a handful of times.

-McMahon interviews the Hart Foundation and they get a monster reaction.  Bret says that he hasn’t seen three WWF superstars stand up to the challenge for the flag match and he says that the Undertaker should come out and face him now instead of at SummerSlam.  The British Bulldog piles on by saying he wants to face Shamrock right now and Owen says that he wants to square off with Steve Austin.  Steve Austin comes out and says he’ll be part of the “stupid” flag match, thereby becoming the first superstar to sign up to face Bret, Owen, and the Bulldog tonight.

-The announce team discusses how DOA and Los Boricuas have been suspended for a week because of their recent behavior.  Los Boricuas destruction of the DOA’s motorcycles last week is shown.  Both factions have been penciled in to face each other at SummerSlam.

-“Too Sexy” Brian Christopher pins Bryan Walsh after a Tennessee Jam at 3:54:

Walsh was a WWF jobber in the mid-1990s, but he had the build for a light heavyweight and is thrust into this match with Christopher, who continues to receive a push as the top heel in the division.  Christopher chews up a mini-Canadian flag to draw the ire of the crowd   Walsh gets in a few moves, but Christopher hits all the big spots and racks up another win.  Rating:  **

-The Commandant tells us to be ready to see the Truth Commission on next week’s Raw.  The WWF really didn’t need another anti-American group.

-A WWF flashback shows the awarding of a house at the first In Your House pay-per-view.  That’s a great moment from 1995 just because of the reaction of the family that won it.

-McMahon narrates a video package discussing the various faces of Foley.  The emphasis was on the Dude Love personality because of Dude Love’s debut last week.  It’s really long and unreasonably so because Mick Foley has been given a ton of screen time lately.

-Steve Austin says that he can’t believe Mick Foley wants to be his tag team partner, but he proved in the match that he could get the job done.  He says that he doesn’t really care to have a tag team partner, though.

-Call 815-734-1161 to get your eighteen month WWF superstars calendar for $12 (plus $3 shipping & handling)!

-The Godwinns attack on the Legion of Doom on last week’s show is played.  The Legion of Doom cut a promo backstage after this incident last week and swear revenge at SummerSlam.

-The New Blackjacks provide pre-recorded comments that say they are the toughest men in the WWF and will win the next match and win the WWF tag team titles next week.

-The Headbangers say that they got thirty-eight minutes of sleep last night and they are ready to finally take advantage of the opportunities they have been given and win the WWF tag team titles.

-Triple Threat Match to Decide the #1 Contenders for the WWF Tag Team Championship:  The Godwinns defeat The New Blackjacks and The Headbangers when Henry pins Barry Windham after Phineas hits Windham with a bucket at 5:24:

The rules for this match is that there are three men in the ring at all times, one for each team, and each man can tag their partner at will.  It’s really hard to make this a credible number one contenders match without the Legion of Doom, since they were the only team in this match that did not lose cleanly in the tag team tournament.  There aren’t a lot of slow moments in this match, but all of the participants behave as if this is a battle royal and there isn’t much intrigue regarding teams cooperating and turning on each other and other behavior that you would expect in a match like this.  As a result, the crowd sits on its hands as this plays out.  Eventually everyone starts brawling and the Godwinns cheat to get a tag team title match next week.  I can’t believe that the Headbangers continued to get a small push at this time and didn’t eat the fall here.  It’s completely unrealistic to think that they are a better team than the New Blackjacks.  Rating:  *

-Call 1-900-737-4WWF to find out if Sid has wrestled his last match!

-Ross interviews Shawn Michaels, who is showered with boos.  Michaels takes it all in and takes some shots at Canada on the mic, which amplifies his heat further.  Michaels says that he is going to be in the flag match tonight with Steve Austin against the Hart Foundation and he also announces that he will be the special guest referee for the Undertaker-Bret Hart title match at SummerSlam.  The crowd doesn’t like the second announcement AT ALL.  Michaels says that if he doesn’t call the match down the middle that he will never be able to wrestle in the United States again.  This is a fantastic illustration of building heat in a promo and building two matches at once.  This wasn’t even Michaels best promo in Canada, with those honors going to his 2005 promo, which is where Bret really should’ve made his return.

­-More Canadian fans discuss why they love the Hart Foundation and hate the United States.

-Shawn Michaels announcement about SummerSlam moments ago is our Discovery Zone Rewind segment.

-Clue #4 of the SummerSlam Million Dollar Challenge is “of luxury.”

-The Patriot says he appreciates patriotism, but Canada needs better representatives than the Hart Foundation.

-The Patriot defeats Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) by disqualification when the Hart Foundation attack him at 3:02:

The Patriot is booed out of the building and Helmsley gets a huge reaction by attacking him before the bell.  During the match, Bret Hart comes out with Owen and the Bulldog and argues with McMahon over Shawn Michaels being the guest referee at SummerSlam and slaps off his headset.  McMahon and Bret start fighting each other, which is the first time McMahon has ever been in a prolonged fight with a WWF star and the Patriot comes to his aid.  This all fits so well into the eventual screwjob in Montreal.  The match is completely overshadowed by these events, so it’s not really possible to rate it, but this was an AWESOME segment because it felt so real and sent the crowd into a frenzy.

-Ross takes over the lead role in the announcing duties as McMahon gets himself together and says that he thinks Paul Bearer is lying about Kane and the Undertaker’s past.  He says that the Undertaker and Kane split a statue of the Grim Reaper as children that they would have as long as they were alive and he shows Kane’s part of the statue , which proves he’s alive.  When Ross says he wants to see Kane, Bearer says not to push him.

-Marlena says that Brian Pillman really can’t fill out a dress properly.

-Goldust (w/Marlena) defeats Faarooq (w/Kama Mustafa) by disqualification when Kama interferes at 3:24:

McMahon does a great job selling that he is disturbed by Bret’s actions and he heads to the locker room after receiving some disturbing news on his headset.  Ross eventually says that it appears that Bret Hart injured Shawn Michaels in the locker room.  That news overwhelms the match, where Kama beats up Goldust on the floor and the referee, despite not seeing any of this, disqualifies Faarooq after he hits a Dominator and tries to get the pin.  Rating:  *

-More Canadian fans express their support for the Hart Foundation.

-Shawn Michaels is sown coming to his senses in the locker room and he gets in McMahon’s face about getting attacked and tells him that he’s had enough.

-Flag Match:  Bret “the Hitman” Hart, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog defeat “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Undertaker & Dude Love when Bret captures the Canadian flag at 11:45 shown:

Before the American team comes out, Bret has the Canadian national anthem played and the Halifax crowd sings along.  The rules for the match is that a team has to capture the other team’s flag to win.  With Shawn Michaels incapacitated, Austin and Love wrestle a handicap match in the opening minutes, but the Undertaker arrives as we head to a commercial break.  You might look at the star power and gimmick and assume that this had to be something special in 1997, but it’s really an average match.  Part of the drama is likely hurt by the stipulation, which restricts pinfall or submission attempts, but there isn’t a lot of drama of teams going for their respective flags.  The crowd does help the match a bit, as the explode when Bret and Austin go at it near the end of the match.  We get a race between Bret and the Undertaker for their respective flags at the end of the contest, but Brian Pillman comes from underneath the ring and intercepts the Undertaker and that allows Bret to get his flag first and give the Hart Foundation the victory.  Austin’s glare to the Canadian crowd as the Hart Foundation and Halifax crowd celebrate at the end of the show does a good job communicating his anger and what’s great about it is that it shows that his character actually wants to win matches and doesn’t shrug everything off like John Cena today.  Rating:  **½

The Final Report Card:  The main event was a little disappointing in quality, but it is still better than most of the main event matches we were given on Raw in 1996.  With Shawn Michaels involved it could’ve gone to the next level, but it’s understandable why he was kept out of it.  This show can get tedious if you watch the whole thing because of a laundry list of non-wrestling segments that take place, but the Bret-McMahon brawl, combined with Vader-Shamrock and the decent main event make this show an easy thumbs up effort.

Monday Night War Rating:  4.1 (Unopposed)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up