King of the Ring - Providence Civic Centre, Providence Rhode Island, June 8th 1997

Ok I say it often but I really mean it this time; this video package is AWESOME! Big fan of the music and the way the night’s big matches are described. Awesome stuff.

Tonight’s commentary duties are handled by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross (Because Jerry Lawler is wrestling later) and Vince runs down all the foreign language commentary desks to introduce them too. Remember when they tried to turn JR heel and he and Vince spent entire PPVs arguing with each other? I wonder if JR hated playing a heel so much that’s why he finally relented to wearing the cowboy hat and being called Good Ol’ JR, a gimmick change Vince had been pushing for since 1993? It’s come to define him and I’m sure he loves it now.

King of the Ring Tournament Semi Final match

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Ahmed Johnson

This match is unique in the sense that the way Ahmed advanced was by defeating…..Helmsley who then got a second chance because he misunderstood the rules. I think Chyna looks great on this show; she’s clearly more confident on TV now and in her form fitting bodysuit with cutaways you can really see just HOW muscular she was. She was in awesome shape but did lose some bulk over the next couple of years to appear more feminine. To each their own.

The story of this match is pretty straight forward as the much stronger Ahmed powers HHH around the ring as Helmsley works on turning this into a technical wrestling match and fails. JR does a great job of analysing the strategy for us and in fairness to Vince, who was never a “good” commentator, he always steps up his game a little when he’s out there with Ross. 

Ahmed is all pumped up and after a string of big moves, misses an elbow drop which gives HHH the opening. He sends him into the ring steps and puts him down with an axe handle off the top rope for the first proper near fall. The crowd is REALLY behind Ahmed in this one but I think they’ve been teasing a heel turn for him as he’s agreed with Faarooq’s points about black wrestlers not being given opportunities in the WWF more than once now. That doesn’t make him a heel obviously but in the 1997 world of WWF, it might. 

Ahmed comes back and hits Helmsley with a big, messy scissors kick that catches him in the lower back which I’m sure hurt like hell. Johnson then hits an even messier spinebuster; he’s such a sloppy wrestler. He’s about to deliver the Pearl River Plunge but Chyna distracts him which gives HHH the opening for a running knee to the back and a Pedigree to advance to the finals of the 1997 King of the Ring tournament. This wasn’t bad. 

Triple H and Chyna try to leave very quickly and Johnson basically no-sells the Pedigree and gets up to chase them to the back. His calamity of botches continues as he runs so fast that he actually caught them at the top of the ramp and had to pretend he hadn’t.

King of the Ring Tournament Semi Final match

Mankind vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler

Before this match Mankind (who got a big cheer when he came out!) sits on the mat and says that he misses his Uncle Paul but he’s abandoned him and he doesn’t want to let that ruin his big moment. The interviews with Mankind and Jim Ross on the past three weeks of Raw have won over a lot of fans. Mankind asks the crowd what kind of king the people want Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy to be? He calls Jerry Lawler a pawn, not a king and calls him the Emperor with no clothes before ending on a joke; the only thing worse than Jerry Lawler naked would be seeing HIM naked, which got a big laugh from Vince. Mankind is definitely a babyface now and I love it; it happened so naturally too!

Todd Pettengill interviews Lawler backstage and calls him a cheater for the way he beat Goldust to advance and then shows him being rolled all the way down the ramp and then stepped on by Marlena. It seems like his feud with Goldust is far from over. 

King takes the mic from Pettengill and cuts a promo on his walk to the ring; it’s classic Lawler stuff calling the people peons and telling everyone to kiss his feet before insulting some specific fans in the front row amounting to calling the women hookers and the guys criminals and virgins. It’s as funny as it ever is (which means if you like his usual banter then you’d enjoy this but if you don’t, you wouldn’t). As King insults Mankind the camera focuses in on a bunch of pro-Mankind signs in the crowd including more than one that refers to Mick Foley. Those interviews with JR have changed his life! King does have one great line; McMahon should be glad Mankind is here because if he left, Vince would be the ugliest man in the WWF!

Mankind attacks Jerry and beats him up on the outside but King wrestlers this as a comedy match, pulling faces and running away from Mankind’s Mandible Claw attempts. He has an unseen object hidden in his tights which he uses to great effect punching Mankind in the body and head to give himself the advantage. Lawler must have loved wrestling Foley as he’s able to do lots of very basic things like punches and kicks but because of Mankind’s reckless style he’s able to do it hard and right to the head which makes it all look genuinely devastating for a change. He even bites Mankind’s ear! 

Mankind gets back into this match on the outside turning it into a brawl using the ringsteps and security walls but misses a charge and drives his own head into the ring steps which Lawler takes advantage off by throwing the back of his head hard into the metal railing. JR talks openly about Mankind’s previous life wrestling as Cactus Jack and Vince even mentions his childhood alter ego Dude Love so Mankind now has FOUR names on WWF TV which is a pretty big turning point for his character and a good example of the story telling the WWF was leaning into at the time; reality. Lawler piledrives Mankind on the floor and tries to advance to the finals via count out but Mankind won’t stay down. He absorbs a second piledriver in the ring but kicks out! That deserved a much bigger cheer but I think the fans had rightly assumed the tournament finals are unlikely to be HHH vs. Jerry Lawler. 

The fans cheer for Mankind’s comeback with punches and a leg drop as he sells his neck and head, which will be the story for the rest of the evening. 

Lawler gets over confident and as he takes his time to set up a third piledriver, Mankind takes him down and locks in the Mandible Claw! Lawler is trapped and has no choice but to submit. Mankind advances to the finals in what I thought was one of the better Lawler matches I’ve ever seen. Vince comments that he hopes Mankind can hear how loudly the crowd is cheering for him tonight.

Backstage, Todd Pettengill interviews Brian Pillman and asks why he’s here tonight? He takes credit for manipulating Austin and Michaels into fighting each other tonight and says he wants to see what will be left of Stone Cold for their match tomorrow night on Raw. Austin appears behind Pillman and beats the hell out of him, slamming him around backstage and flushing his head down the toilet! A funny spot but it shatters kayface when you stop to wonder why there was a camera in that position. I bet Jerry Lawler set it up in the women’s bathroom. Creep.

Crush (w/D’Lo Brown and Clarence Mason) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena)

This match wasn’t announced ahead of time but Goldust has had a lot of attention lately with his own series of “get to know the real man” sit down interviews and it’s translated to a boost in popularity for him, just like Mankind. I don’t really like the implication that he’s a babyface now because he’s “come clean” that he’s not really a flamboyant homosexual, like that was the only reason he was a heel previously. Problematic by 2026 standards but in 1997 it was par for the course.

Crush’s story is that there’s cracks forming in the Nation of Domination; he and Savio have come to blows a few times lately and Faarooq doesn’t seem that interested in keeping the peace. D’Lo Brown who was, until last week, an unnamed extra has had his debut match and with Faarooq now very openly and bluntly talking about himself and the Nation in terms of their blackness, for lack of a better term, white Crush and Puerto Rican Savio no longer fit in. 

I said more than once during Goldust’s first year or two that I thought all his matches were very boring but as a babyface he has a bit more energy and speed. He gives Crush the run around until the big powerhouse sends him hard into the corner to take control of the match. He hits a nice big belly to belly suplex too. Crush slowly works over Goldust’s lower back, locking in a deep camel clutch for a while before releasing it to throw some punches and then…go back to the same camel clutch. I’d estimate somewhere from 40 - 60% of this match was watching Crush hold onto Goldust in this loose camel clutch. Jesus Christ lads.

Goldust finally fights back with the old Dusty Rhodes flip, flop and fly punches followed by a bionic elbow. JR and Vince spent a good chunk of this match throwing out Dusty references and quotes and making each other laugh; I don’t think Goldust was on very good terms with his dad at the time.

D’Lo gets in Marlena’s face which distracts Goldust; hilariously you can really clearly hear two kids in the front row yelling “behind you Goldust!” before Crush jumps him and returns the match to the ring. 

Out of nowhere, Goldust hits Crush with a DDT and picks up the win in a dull match but the crowd did at least pop for the finish. Tomorrow night on Raw Goldust is slated to wrestle the British Bulldog for his European Championship so this could be a good 24 hours for the son of a son of a plumber. 

Backstage Dok Hendrix interviews the Hart Foundation’s opponents for tonight and asks a sensible question - the Harts are a well oiled machine but this is the first time these three men have teamed up. Their response? They want revenge so much it won’t matter. Animal screams about how he and Hawk are the tightest unit in the WWF and questions Sid’s loyalty but the big man is there to play his part. Elsewhere, Todd Pettengill interviews the gold-clad Hart Foundation who remind us that they’ve beat the LOD before and can do it again. I mean, they won by disqualification so that doesn’t seem like a fair point? Jim Neidhart plays up his reputation as a big crazy himself to counteract Sid but we skip the part where the reason Neidhart was famously crazy was because he was often extremely high on crack (That’s not slander, it’s a fact - Bret Hart even talked about it in his book!)

The Hart Foundation (WWF Intercontinental Champion Owen Hart, WWF European Champion The British Bulldog and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart vs. Sycho Sid and The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

I have yet to find an explanation for why Sid was just so insanely popular in 1996 and 1997 - the crowd goes nuts for this guy every time he enters an arena. Maybe I don’t need to explain it because quite frankly, I love Sid too and I’m not even totally sure why. He’s just kind of awesome! The fans in Rhodes Island are no different. Sadly I don’t have much time left with Sid as while this isn’t his final WWF appearance, his nagging and returning back and neck problems led to him leaving and sitting out of wrestling entirely for a couple of years before resurfacing in WCW in 1999. I wish he’d been around during the Attitude era WWF.

Owen kicks things off with Animal and as the smallest man in the match is easily thrown around and dominated by quick tags from the LOD and Sid. Owen is able to tag out to Bulldog and the match turns into a big of a crowd pleasing house show affair with Bulldog asking for a test of strength and he and Sid playing up to the crowd for a while before he finally cheap shots him and hits a delayed vertical suplex which is also super impressive on someone as large as Sycho Sid. 

Sid pops right up and no-sells it, knocking all three Harts down and around as the crowd goes nuts. He tags in Animal and then Hawk and all three big babyfaces have fun dominating and no-selling everything until finally, a well placed spinning heel kick from Owen on Animal allows the Foundation to work him over. They run him into the ring steps and Neidhart hits him with a steel chair while the referee is distracted so that they can isolate him in their corner and work him over with quick tags in and out.

Animal counts a dive off the middle rope by Bulldog into a powerslam but then uncharacteristically goes to the top rope and pays for it, stopped and brought down the hard way with a superplex. The action here is pretty good and it's helped by the fans being really loudly behind Hawk, Animal and Sid. The match breaks down as Animal works for the tag and with everyone in the ring Sid plants Bulldog with a chokeslam and starts to set up a powerbomb. Owen Hart dives off the top rope up and over Sid and into a sunset flip which is enough to pick up the win! I’m surprised to see Sid take his second clean pinfall loss in a row (he lost to Undertaker on Raw) but this was a fun match.

Heading into the final match, Todd Pettengill interviews Mankind. It’s weird to see Mankind in this setting rather than cutting a promo solo from the boiler room. He cracks a joke and quotes the Lion King “I just can’t wait to be King” and the crowd cheers. I love babyface Mankind but if you’ve followed any of my classic video game content on YouTube then you already know that. 

King of the Ring Tournament Final match

Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna)

These two men start slowly, feeling each other out and Mankind gets a chance to show off that he’s more than just a crazy brawler. Vince and JR spend a lot of the match discussing the interviews with Mankind and how Mick Foley is secretly very intelligent and very eloquent and they both speculate he will be a big time fan favourite moving forward which is cool. 

They go back and forth and when Mankind gets Helmsley tied up in the ropes he charges but is swerved and ends up hung, neck tangled in the ropes. That’s the same spot that led to him losing an ear! Hunter stays on him and puts his focus on Mankind’s already injured head driving him into the metal railing around the ring and then dropping hard knee drops right across the back of the head! Mankind’s mask comes off at one point which is probably a sign he’s allowing his head to be beaten on too aggressively to be safe - classic Foley. 

Mankind fights back and goes to his speciality which is brawling, beating up HHH on the outside and slamming him on the concrete entrance way before hitting his awesome running, diving elbow drop off the apron where he clears an impressive distance to land on Helmsley. Back in the ring a double arm DDT gets a heartbreaking near fall - Chyna distracted the referee and delayed the count long enough for Hunter to kick out. He tries for the Pedigree but Mankind backdrops out of it and locks in the Mandible Claw which gets a big pop! Mankind has it locked in but he’s close enough to the ropes that Chyna is able to grab him by the hair and pull him out of the ring, crashing hard to the mats. That was a cool spot and Helmsley followed up on the head with a neckbreaker across the top rope which looked BRUTAL! He might want to try and win by count out but Mankind won’t stay down and gets back into the ring quickly. 

Mankind’s mask comes off as the two pick up the pace - the crowd was booing and getting restless while Helmsley slowly worked over Mankind but pick back up as Mick Foley clotheslines HHH up and over the top rope. He tries to jump off the apron onto Hunter but Chyna pulls her man to safety and he crashes hard, head-first onto the railing AGAIN! The referee gets all over Chyna trying to get her to leave and Helmsley takes advantage by delivering a Pedigree to Mankind on top of the announce table! That’s a spot he did many, many times through his career but this was the first one and in this time period and in this setting it is BRUTAL!

The table doesn’t break, more just crumples and JR and Vince are knocked off commentary for a while until things settle back down. Mankind don’t stay down and climbs back up onto the apron but with the referee paying attention to Triple H, Chyna smashes the King of the Ring sceptre across his back! HHH knocks him off the apron with a running knee which sends Mick flying backwards into one of the camera men! This is chaotic. HHH goes out to retrieve Mankind who now appears to be out for the count. He drags him into the ring and the fans explode when Mankind somehow, someway kicks out! Helmsley smells blood in the water and quickly hits the Pedigree and THAT is enough to keep Mankind down. Triple H is the 1997 King of the Ring. That was an awesome match and I thought a real star making performance for Mick Foley even in defeat. Jim Ross won’t even give Helmsley a chance to celebrate as he calls for medical assistance for Mankind.

Chyna roughs up Todd Pettengill and insists on him coronating Hunter Hearst Helmsley despite Mankind still laying in a bad way in the middle of the ring. This is intentional humiliation. The sceptre was destroyed by Chyna but the crown is still there - HHH doesn’t put it on and instead uses it as a weapon to hammer Mankind across the back of the head over and over. He tries to bludgeon Mankind’s brains out with the King of the Ring crown and revels in his dominance. This was a great match and it feels like we have a new top heel and top babyface on our hands. Great stuff.

Before the next match, Bret Hart leads the entire Hart Foundation to the ring and, after rambling a little and tripping over his words Bret announces he will be making his in ring return at the next In Your House PPV, the Canadian Stampede. He challenges any five WWF Superstars to meet himself and the rest of the Hart Foundation in a 5 vs. 5 tag team match so that gives the event its main event! He wants to join commentary for this match but given the condition of the commentary desk and equipment after the Mankind and HHH match, there’s nowhere for him to sit. He doesn’t take it well and with all five Harts fighting to remain at ringside, referees and officials come down to chase them away from the ring and keep order.

Dok Hendrix interviews Stone Cold Steve Austin about this match; the point is that being a champion puts more money in their pockets so he has no desire to cripple Shawn Michaels but he will turn up the violence factor if needed to prove that he’s the real captain of the team. Austin heads off towards the ring and comes across the entire Hart Foundation being dragged backstage and arguing with officials. After Austin’s entrance Dok interviews Shawn Michaels about the same thing who says that they won’t give Bret Hart what he wants and tear each other apart…if they can avoid it. 

WWF Tag Team Champion Shawn Michaels vs. WWF Tag Team Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin

This match gets a video package which is good because it’s two of the company’s top guys but the build was rocky - until a week ago, Shawn Michaels was supposed to wrestle Bret Hart and Stone Cold was supposed to wrestle Brian Pillman! 

The match starts slowly as before the two men can really get into it there’s a commotion at ringside and Stone Cold and Shawn both stop what they’re doing to investigate - there’s a young lad with Down syndrome who got a bit over excited and fell over the barrier to ringside. I think Shawn actually stepped in to stop the security from getting too rough with him! After that is over with the match begins and the story unfolds - the two of them keep it clean but there’s a real dislike and a real need to prove who the better man is so it's probably not going to stay clean for long. 

Austin catches Shawn with a big back elbow and hammers him with punches and elbows. Michaels continues to counter and wrestle out of it but Stone Cold sends him to the outside and brawls on the outside. This is similar in story to the previous one with noted brawler (Austin) trying to wrestle with the superior mat technician and doing well…but doing much better when he starts throwing fists. 

Austin dominates Michaels, goading him into a test of strength and resorting to kicks to the tummy to come out on top. He hammers on Michaels with elbows and punches and HBK bumps and makes Austin look like a million dollars. The crowd are very into this and JR points it out; the Austin cheers have a deeper, most masculine quality whereas the Michaels cheers sound a lot like its the women and children who support the Boy Toy. I wonder why? (Because 90s Shawn Michaels was gorgeous, let’s all admit it).

Austin knocks Shawn off the apron sending him flying to the metal security railing and then lifts the mats at ringside to expose the bare concrete. He did that at last year’s King of the Ring too and it worked really well against Marc Mero. Stone Cold lifts Michaels and drops him from his full height onto the concrete. He is firmly in the driver’s seat of this match and it seems like despite their issues on screen, these two guys probably got a long great in real life because Michaels is very giving in this match and has no problem making Stone Cold look like his superior. 

After a long beating by the Rattlesnake (a nickname he didn’t have yet but JR had started mentioning Rattlesnakes often during his matches), Michaels starts to fight back and picks up the face with a string of clotheslines and a flying forearm followed by a big slam. He’s back i nthe fight and there’s a funny spot as Austin grabs at Michaels’ tights and exposes most of his ass - the women in the crowd went NUTS and the screams persisted for a solid few minutes until HBK was finally able to pull up his waist band. They whip each other back and forth and the referee gets squashed in the corner. Terrible timing as Austin blocks the Sweet Chin Music and turns it into a Stone Cold Stunner! He has the three count but there’s no referee to count. A frustrated Austin pulls the referee to his feet and gives HIM a Stunner too. He walks right into Sweet Chin Music! There’s still no referee to count and when a second one runs down he checks on the first ref rather than count so a frustrated Michaels gives HIM the Sweet Chin Music! A third referee comes out and reads the riot act to both men, ringing the bell and disqualifying them BOTH. In fairness they did hit their finishing moves on a pair of referees. It’s not a popular decision and hasn’t settled anything. Austin grabs both Tag Team title belts and tries to hit Michaels with one but it's avoided and the two of them have a stand off with their title belts. This was a great match between two ultra talented guys but obviously there not being a finish hurts it.

The post match stuff is pretty funny as the two go from arguing with each other to arguing with the referees and as they leave the ring together, agree that everyone else is a jackass. They don’t trust each other and have a funny “no, after you!” moment not wanting to let the other stand behind him but they do leave together and seem to have gained a little respect for each other. Good stuff. 

Before we get into the main event, Todd Pettengill interviews Faarooq who tells Undertaker not to worry about Paul Bearer’s blackmail, he should be worried about THIS black male. That’s a funny line. After Faarooq’s entrance Dok interviews Undertaker and Paul Bearer. Dok takes a moment to reassure Undertaker that he and the fans love him no matter what. Paul Bearer refuses to let Undertaker speak and reminds him that as long as he dangles the secret over the champion’s head then he will do what Bearer says! How bad could the secret possibly be? 

WWF Championship

The Undertaker © (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Faarooq (w/Nation of Domination members)

Faarooq is flanked by Clarence Mason, D’Lo, Savio and Crush but also quite a few unnamed extras hence me not trying to list them all in the above match title. The build into this match from Faarooq’s side is that he has really stepped up the black militant aspect of his gimmick and the Nation and is obsessed with being the first ever black WWF Champion. 

Undertaker refuses to let Bearer take his jacket off or hold it for him like he used to and that triggers the manager who rants at Undertaker and tells him to do as he’s told. It backfires and allows Faarooq to attack him from behind and start the match in control, hammering away on the WWF Champion. Undertaker doesn’t stay down for long and fights back, putting an arm wringer on Faarooq and walks along the top rope as we’ve seen so many hundreds of times. In an awesome spot, instead of jumping into the ring on Faarooq he launches himself all the way to the outside, crashing down on the gathered Nation members! He throws punches at them all for good measure and then in the ring tries the rope walk on Faarooq again. Crush distracts the referee so that Savio can shake the ropes, dropping Undertaker and putting Faarooq back in control of the match.

Slams get near falls and a long sleeper cuts off the oxygen. Faarooq throws Undertaker to the outside but makes a miscalculation trying to use the ring steps as a weapon - they’re kicked back into his face. 

Vince mentions the recent issues between the Nation members and that it seems like they’re likely to turn on each other but their leader having this championship match tonight has galvanised them and gotten them back on the same page. They play a big role in this match with cheap shots to keep Faarooq on top any time Undertaker starts to fight back. 

Faarooq slowly works over The Undertaker but it all starts to fall apart when something unseen leads to the Nation arguing and fighting with each other. It seems like maybe Paul Bearer caused it as Savio shoves Clarence Mason and then Crush gets in his face as he’s trying to get cheap shots in on Undertaker. Savio and Crush get into a heated argument at ringside and it distracts Faarooq enough that Undertaker sits up and spikes the challenger with the Tombstone. The Undertaker wins and then as the rest of the Nation rushes him plants Savio and Crush with a pair of big chokeslams! Not a great match but the right outcome.

With the Nation out of the way, Paul Bearer starts to throw his weight around and demands that The Undertaker continue the beating and give Faarooq a chokeslam! There’s no need for this but with the blackmail over his head he does as he’s told and chokeslams him. Bearer isn’t satisfied and wants another. He just wants to prove to everyone that he is the boss. Faarooq takes a second big chokeslam but Bearer wants a third. This is uncomfortable and even as a heel, Faarooq doesn’t deserve to continue being beaten like this. A third chokeslam seems to end this but Ahmed Johnson runs down to make sure. Even with all of his issues with Faarooq and the Nation even he doesn’t want to see Undertaker behaving this way. Undertaker throws a punch at Johnson on Bearer’s orders but he ducks and lays out the WWF Champion with the Pearl River Plunge! The show ends with The Undertaker flat on his back and an unsympathetic Paul Bearer shouting at him to get up. The Undertaker is disgusted with himself when he sits up and teases attacking Bearer but has no choice - he has to do as he’s told.