WWF One Night Only - NEC Arena, Birmingham England, September 20th 1997

The opening video focuses on the homecoming of the British Bulldog and his journey to becoming “a legend” in wrestling. It's nice and makes him a super babyface which I’m sure the fans in England will treat him as too.

Opening video

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Dude Love

Before the match, Dude Love cuts a promo from backstage in a bad English accent and says that this match will be jolly good fun and that maybe after he beats HHH, he and Chyna can have a night on the town. It’s 1997 so Vince waited a whole four minutes into the PPV before mentioning Austin Powers.

These guys have a history of course, or at least HHH and Mankind do! Mankind and Dude Love are VERY different people, obviously.

I like these UK only shows because not only do they provide a nice snap shot of the company’s top guys at the time but they’re basically televised house shows so the crowd are always really excited and the wrestlers tend to have fun and play up to it. You get lots of comedy spots and the like which we don’t see on TV normally.

Dude outwrestles Helmsley and gets the crowd behind him with clapping and mimicking Hunter’s courtesy taunt which gets a laugh. He works over HHH’s leg and shows off a lot more finesse than Mick Foley normally does.

It’s a show in England so of course this show also has constant, relentless airhorning from the crowd which got annoying before the end of the first match. Something else that got annoying was Jerry Lawler’s England jokes, throwing out English slang like “berk” and “pillock” and laughing like a maniac when McMahon and Ross didn’t know what he meant. Hilarious.

Helmsley bails out of the ring and lures Dude into a big clothesline from Chyna - undetected by the referee - to get him back into the match. He slowly picks apart The Dudester in the ring for a bit, hammering on his head with right hands.

There’s another big crowd pleasing house show spot as when the referee tries to get HHH to break up his attack in the corner and to stop cheating, they get into a shoving match and the crowd went NUTS for referee Mike Chioda pushing Helmsley and getting angry and worked up about it!

After a period of working over Dude, HHH makes the mistake of going to the top rope and gets caught and brought down with an arm drag. That looked cool. Dude tunes up the band and hits Sweet Shin Music, stomping to warm up and booting Helmsley in the shins and following up with a double arm DDT! Hunter kicks out and Chyna hops on the apron to distract Foley. It pays off and HHH follows up with a Pedigree to win a hard fought and, I thought rather good, match.

Before the show, they asked a bunch of fans who is going to win tonight’s main event; all the lads say the British Bulldog because he’s English and all the girls say Shawn Michaels because they fancy him.

Tiger Ali Singh (w/Tiger Jeet Singh) vs. Leif Cassidy

Sunny comes out to be special guest ring announcer for this match and JR exhausts all of his UK material by saying she could be a Spice Girl. King mentions Page 3 girls which, to those younger than 30 or not from the UK, is a reference to when the national newspapers in the UK would have a topless girl on page 3 every day. So incredibly weird in hindsight.

Tiger has his dad with him; he was signed late in 1996 and had been going through training but I’m not really sure why he wasn’t on TV more often. Tiger is working as a bland babyface here, slapping hands with fans in the front row. He gets a loud boo from the English for calling himself a proud Asian-Canadian and another for saying he wants people to stay drug free. His dad speaks in his own language (I don’t want to misidentify it and accidentally be offensive) and that gets booed too. Is he playing a heel or are these fans just a bit racist?

This match is odd; the two of them have a dull mat wrestling exchange as the commentators skirt the racist line very closely. Lawler says that Tiger’s turban makes him look like a cab driver which gets a laugh from both Vince and JR, and then Vince mentions the big Indian population in the UK, as well as mentioning that everyone in the WWF is drug free (not even close, especially in 1997 but I admire him for trying).

Tiger wins with a big butt-splash off the top rope - he’s too skinny to use a move like that, which he calls the Tiger Driver. It’s not really a driver either is it? Pointless, with the highlight being Sunny playing with the commentators after the match. It feels unscripted as she dances with Lawler. Vince laughs her off and says she’s going to make him look like a fool so she puts on JR’s hat and cuddles up to him instead.

WWF Tag Team Championships

The Headbangers © (Mosh and Thrasher) vs. Los Boricuas (Savio Vega and Miguel Perez Jr)

This match taught me one important thing; this show marks the on screen debut of pre-match graphics to denote a championship match. The words “WWF Tag Team Championships” floated gracefully into the bottom of the screen just as the match began. They’ve used some kind of graphic to denote a title match ever since so that’s an important visual update. (you can see it in action later in the review for the WWF title match)

Mosh kicks things off and shows off his technical wrestling skill; that’s become the Headbanger’s gimmick where they’re fundamentally sound and good wrestlers but their appearance and antics makes you underestimate them. Goldust and Mankind have had versions of the same gimmick. Mosh holds his own but when he tags out to Thrasher, a cheap shot from Savio on the apron allows Miguel to isolante him. He misses a top rope dive which was a botch, but he recovers with a standing moonsault. Los Boricuas works him over and Thrasher fights for a tag - he gets it but the referee doesn't see it and forces Mosh back onto the apron. Classic tag team spot which you don’t see much of anymore!

Miguel grinds Thrasher down with a chinlock as Vince and JR offer some actual analysis of the inexperience of the Headbangers in between the multiple Austin Powers jokes and references. I wonder how many times they watched that movie during the flight over from the States?

Thrasher finally makes a tag to Mosh and he comes in on fire getting a close near fall with a top rope hurricanrana and then a big scoop slam. He fights to the outside with Savio as Miguel hits a big, delayed powerbomb on Thrasher - it looked like they mistimed the lift and so he had to muscle him up in a deadlift to complete the move - but then Mosh catches him off guard with a diving senton splash off the top rope to win the match and retain the titles! The crowd exploded for the finish which was cool - I thought this was a really good match!

Backstage earlier today, Jim Ross interviews British Bulldog about tonight’s main event. He is in his home country to defend the title and is a big babyface, talking about his sister. who has overcome cancer twice, being in the front row as well as his mum and dad. He dedicates the match to his sister but seems a little distant and unhappy. It’s low energy and I wonder if that’s because of the promo content and his attempt to come across as a sincere babyface or if its because of the booking. More on that later.

The Patriot vs. Flash Funk

A rare babyface vs. babyface match here and, in kayfabe, a big opportunity for Flash to defeat The Patriot who has been a main eventer lately feuding with WWF Champion Bret Hart. The pro-America Patriot gets booed by the fans as he waves the US flag; I can absolutely imagine that Vince was shocked by that because he seems like the kind of American who assumes that everyone loves them and is as pro-America as the Yanks themselves. The guys shake hands before the match so the fan reaction isn’t going to dictate who is and isn’t a heel here.

Interesting little behind the scenes note here as at one point JR says “you” in reference to Lawler and Lawler mentions “us and them” in reference to the US and the rest of the world; both times, Vince gets on their case about “using pronouns” and sarcastically asks who they mean. Vince always hated people using pronouns on commentary and used to bark in people’s headset and tell them off for it. Use people’s names because using pronouns “means the fans won’t know who you’re talking about!” Does that make sense? Probably not, but it does eliminate a lot of the issues around people having preferred pronouns doesn’t it? Vince was ahead of his time!

This match was pretty dull in my opinion as the two of them mat wrestle and trade holds with the occasional clothesline or spinning heel kick. Flash Funk hits a nice twisting splash off the top for a close near fall but then when he tries a moonsault, Patriot gets his knees up and then hits the Uncle Slam to pick up the win. He’s booed again at the end of the match too!

The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) vs. The Godwins (Henry O and Phineas I Godwin)

Before this one, Hawk and Animal cut a shouty classic LOD promo about this match reminding us of all the sneak attacks and sloppings they’ve endured from the Godwins. They say that this is going to be the big finale to this feud here in Birmingham England. I doubt it, Hawk. The fans LOVE these guys; I forgot how crazy popular the Legion of Doom were back in their until the last few shows because they haven’t even been doing much creatively or artistically but the crowd loves them each and every time they come out.

JR talks about how rural and backward Arkansas is, where the Godwins originate. Vince mentions that President of the United States Bill Clinton is also from Arkansas and the three commentators - life-long Republicans - can’t help themselves making it clear that they do not like Democrat Clinton. As it turns out, they’re right and he was and is a scumbag, but not for the reasons they mean. It’s a lot safer for Vince to force his political ideology on people on a show like this which wasn’t aired in the United States.

This is another slow match like the previous one, with both teams taking turns to use headlocks and chinlocks and grind each other down on the mat. The Godwins finally build some momentum with an armbar on Animal and then focus their attack on his arm, isolating him in their corner and tagging in and out quickly.

JR and Lawler get into another wildly inappropriate chat during this match, this time about the Confederate flag and its meaning. Basically, to a lot of people that flag is racist because it represents the pro-slavery states during the US civil war. Neither Ross nor Lawler pick a side which probably tells you all you need to know. They are both from Southern states.

The match breaks down after Animal escapes an attempted double back suplex by landing on his feet and puts down the Godwins with a double clothesline. The brawl culminates with a Doomsday Device on Phineas to give the LOD the win. The fans exploded for the three count.

Before the next match, Jim Ross interviews Ken Shamrock. He was supposed to wrestle Owen Hart tonight but he sustained internal injuries during his match with Faarooq and so is not medically cleared. He says that he has a punctured lung, which sounds very serious doesn’t it? But he hopefully won’t miss much time. Rockabilly comes down - unclear why, he wasn’t feuding with Shamrock - and calls him a coward so he’s taken down and made to submit to the Ankle lock. It seems like Shamrock’s involvement in the Intercontinental title tournament and Badd Blood are also up in the air.

Next up, Vince McMahon interviews the WWF Champion Bret Hart and I’m not sure why this conversation felt so tense but it did. It was conducted live and when Bret tried to be a big babyface in England, Vince pointed out that the people were booing. Bret left long pauses between his replies which makes me think he was on the back foot and at the end when Vince asks him if it matters if the people cheer for him or not Bret waits an ice age before replying “yes, it matters”. I wonder if he was angry about the same thing I hinted at with Bulldog earlier? It’s worth remembering that - spoilers - Bret won’t be in the WWF at all for much longer and his disagreement with Shawn Michaels had hit the point where it was making the locker room a very uncomfortable place to be.

Vader vs. Owen Hart

Unlike Bret moments ago, Owen gets a big babyface reaction from the fans in England. They need to decide if they love the Hart Foundation or not!

The story of this match is the smaller Owen running into and bouncing off of Vader. He uses his speed and tries a few different moves but they’re all countered by the big man; a suplex is obviously reversed and he kicks out of the Sharpshooter twice. Vader counters an attempted crucifix roll up into a Samoan drop and then splashes him off the middle rope; Owen kicked out and that got a BIG reaction from the crowd.

Vader slowly works over Owen and these two do let the crowd dictate the match with Owen working as the babyface. Vader dominates him and hits slams and splashes all for near falls. Owen counters a powerbomb attempt by landing on his feet and hits an enziguri and locks in the Sharpshooter but Vader makes it to the ropes to break it. Owen very impressively bodyslams the massive Vader for a near fall but then gets clobbered and Vader goes for the Vader Bomb. Owen gets his knees up to block it and its a gorgeous missile dropkick and then kips back up to his feet with the crowd solidly behind him. A big spinning heel kick hits the mark but Vader kicks out of that too. Owen tries a crossbody off the top rope but it's caught and countered into a big slam to give Vader the victory in a match which was way better than I expected it to be!

The original card for this event - and you can see it on the poster for the event - was Bret Hart defending the WWF title against Intercontinental Champion Stone Cold (injured), The Undertaker vs. Ahmed Johnson (injured) and as mentioned, Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock (injured). Is that better than the card we got? Honestly, no. I miss having Stone Cold on the show but its worked out for the best.

WWF Championship

Bret Hart © vs. The Undertaker

Before his entrance, The Undertaker speaks to Bret Hart; unlike Summerslam, there will be no Shawn Michaels as referee to save him. When the Deadman enters we find out why the English fans weren’t cheering for Bret earlier - The Undertaker is CRAZY popular. His character has gone through so many evolutions over his career but this period - 1997 to 1998 - is the version most people know best seeing as its basically exactly the same as the version we got from 2004 through to the end of his career 20 years later. Personally? I love 1999’s Satan incarnate, leader of the Ministry version but he didn’t have any good matches during that period so I’m probably alone in that assessment.

Bret gets a mixed reaction; he definitely had his fans in the UK which makes sense seeing as the Hart Foundation’s gimmick was that they were heels in the United States but babyfaces everywhere else. These two have had very good matches previously, but they do tend to run a little long as Bret’s style demands a methodical story, built from the ground up to a crescendo.

The two trade punches and brawl to start the match which The Undertaker obviously wins. The fans are split but Undertaker definitely has more support. He misses a big elbow drop so Bret clotheslines Undertaker outside the ring. He jumps out after him but is caught and, in a minor botch, Undertaker loses his footing and trips turning it into a spinebuster. Good recovering and he continues the onslaught on Bret’s back from there. They fight up the ramp and he gets slammed on the entrance ramp as the referee tries to get them to go back to the ring.

Bret finally gets a bit of separation when he catches Undertaker with a DDT and then hammers on him with forearms and leg drops but his irish whip into the turnbuckle he exposed is reversed and he pays the price for it. Undertaker then hits a pair of heart punches, which is Crush’s finishing move so it feels odd that he’s using it but he wants to work on Bret’s chest after that turnbuckle collision. JR points out that while Bret wrestles with finesse, Undertaker wrestles with fury. I liked that line.

Undertaker hits a nice backbreaker and stretches Bret out across his knee which looked cool but it got a mixed reaction from the crowd; I think Bret’s fans have a little more stamina to keep cheering vs. Undertaker’s fans. I would go out on a limb and assume all the kids in the audience love babyface Undertaker and all the adults respect Bret too much to not cheer for him!

Bret avoids a big running boot in the corner and Undertaker catches his leg on the top rope which gives the WWF Champion the opening to work on Undertaker’s leg which is exactly the strategy you’d assume he’d use. He works over Undertaker’s leg with stomps, elbows, using the ropes to wrench on the knee and different holds. He certainly has variety!

Bret uses a figure four around the ring post and then a long figure four in the ring as JR does a good job of analysing the move and the different points in his opponent’s legs that the hold puts pressure on. Undertaker won’t submit but he wouldn’t be the first person to pass out in pain from Bret Hart’s submission onslaught. Undertaker’s attempts to fight back are cut off with a swift kick to the knee and he returns to that assault on the mat. Bret moves into his finishing routine but his pin-point elbow off the ropes is blocked by a boot to the face and Undertaker gets back into the match, brawling with Bret but his knee is hurt and he’s taken down and Bret manages to lock in the Sharpshooter. Undertaker powers up and manages to kick free of it - something that never happened when Bret was a babyface - and sends the Hitman flying out of the ring! In desperation he grabs the ring bell to use as a weapon but Undertaker stops him and then, as he tries to use it himself and argues with the referee, Bret takes him down with a chop block. This match is now very even. Undertaker fights back again and tries for his old school, top rope walking axe handle but Bret counters it with an arm drag from the top rope. Bret gets a near fall with a roll up and escapes a Tombstone attempt by grabbing the ring ropes - he pays for that too and gets all tangled up in the ropes with his head trapped and the fans loudly boo Undertaker as he hammers on the helpless Bret with right hands. That’s too much and the referee calls for the bell, disqualifying The Undertaker!

The Deadman can’t believe it and gives the referee a chokeslam and then, as officials and Owen Hart come out to rescue Bret, Gerald Brisco gets a big chokeslam too!

I thought this was an excellent match despite the screwy finish and helped by the fans being super into it from start to finish. Bret escapes with his WWF title belt, practically carried by Owen and Undertaker is about to chase them but, after hearing the ring announcer declare that Bret is still the champion, goes back to confront him too! It’s an English ring announcer who I’ve not seen before or since and he smartly climbs the security rail and runs away from Undertaker! This was a great match and while it went over 28 minutes, it didn’t feel like 28 minutes!

WWF European Championship

Before this match, Shawn Michaels hypes up the main event which is THE main event because he’s in it. He says he will be the first ever Grand Slam winner, the first to win every championship in the WWF. Interestingly, I happen to know that on this PPV Sunny interviewed Shawn Michaels backstage but that interview has been cut out of this version of the event. Why? The reason that interview is famous is because the pair of them were pretty obviously off their respective faces on drugs and spent the whole interview pawing at each other and making it clear that they were sleeping together. Vince asks if Shawn can top the previous match and he says his middle name is “top this” while doing the suck it taunt. That didn’t have a name yet and neither he nor Hunter actually said “suck it” yet but we’ll get there. Shawn has fun during his entrance, kissing the girls in the front row (who looked way too young for him to be kissing) and dropping some kid’s British Bulldog action figure on the ground and stepping on it before throwing it back to him! He takes so long playing with the crowd that his theme song loops.

Bulldog gets a hero's welcome and enters with his sister Tracy, whom he dedicated this match to. She looks terrified to be in the spotlight and takes her seat in the front row next to Bulldog’s wife Diana, his mum and dad and some other unnamed family members who look really happy and excited to be there.

The early story of the match is Shawn being overpowered and caught off guard, being muscled out of the ring and powered across the ring with HBK looking taken aback and having to take multiple breaks on the outside to catch his breath and regain his composure. The fans are SOLIDLY behind Bulldog in his home country.

That story continues with Bulldog walking around the ring holding Shawn above his head, threatening to throw him to the outside but stopped by the referee. All of Shawn’s attempts to fight back are cut off with his hurricanrana turned into a gorgeous sit-down powerbomb and his crucifix turned into a samoan drop. Bulldog picks apart Shawn on the mat and dominates him, locking in an elevated surfboard hold but has to break it when the referee starts counting his shoulders - I always thought that spot was dumb. Yes his shoulder’s are down but that’s him laying on the mat, not being pinned. Silly. Shawn’s next attempt to get some offence in is cut off with Bulldog’s trademark delayed vertical suplex but the crowd starts to boo as Shawn Michaels’ “insurance policy” Rick Rude makes his way down to the ring.

He immediately pays off, reversing Bulldog’s roll up pin into one for Shawn and then tripping Bulldog as he hits the ropes, undetected by the referee. Rude throws Bulldog into the ring post and finally, with some help, Shawn manages to control this match and follows up with a diving axe handle off the top to the floor.

Michaels grinds Bulldog down with a long sleeper hold and then a short arm scissors which bulldog impressively powers up to his feet and slams HBK. The two are exhausted and trade big clotheslines and shots and with Shawn in trouble again, HHH and Chyna come down to the ring to join Rick Rude. Their distraction allows Shawn to hit his nice top rope elbow drop but, when Bulldog won’t get to his feet for the Sweet Chin Music Shawn has to physically pick him up in the corner. Bulldog tries a powerslam but Rick Rude grabs his ankle to stop it and they spill to the outside. Bulldog fights off Helmsley and goes for another Powerslam on Michaels but he trips and hurts his knee! Shawn drops him with a Sweet Chin Music and then, returning to the ring to distract the referee, Helmsley drills Bulldog with a Pedigree on the outside of the ring! The European Champion is out and is rolled back into the ring so that Shawn Michaels can remove his knee brace, throw it at Bulldog’s family and then locked him in the Figure Four.

Bulldog screams in pain but with his knee badly hurt and him having absorbed a Sweet Chin Music and a Pedigree on the outside, plus HHH and Chyna grabbing at Michaels’ arms and pulling on him to provide extra illegal leverage, Bulldog powers to the ropes. Rick Rude rocks him with a right hand to stop him from getting there and with a four on one advantage, Bulldog passes out to the pain and Shawn Michaels becomes the second WWF European Champion in history, and the first ever Grand Slam winner.

After the match, Michaels taunts the English fans and Bulldog’s family, singling out his wife Diana and locks Bulldog in the Figure Four again while Helmsley gets in his face with the microphone and makes us listen to him scream. Diana gets in the ring to help her husband and Chyna holds her back until finally Bret Hart and Owen Hart run down to make the save. This was a great match with some intense, white hot heat for heel Michaels at the end. HHH, HBK and Chyna leave and celebrate together and show the most affection for each other that they have so far while the fans rain garbage on them. I don’t know if Diana was just a bad actress but she looked like she was trying not to smile throughout all of this.

I mentioned earlier that both Bulldog and Bret seemed angry during their promos and wondered if that was because of the booking. Well up until the very last minute Bulldog was planned to win this match and retain his title for a big happy ending. That’s why he dedicates the match to his terminally ill sister. On the day of the show, Michaels got in Vince McMahon’s ear and in trademark 90s Michaels fashion, managed to convince the boss to change things up and have him win the title and ruin Bulldog’s big homecoming. In his book, Bret called it politics and said it was done specifically to upset him and his family and honestly, based on the kind of person Michaels was back then, I can believe it. There were no plans for Michaels as European Champion either as we’ll see over the coming weeks and right up to the point where he “loses” the title. But I’m getting ahead of myself, just remember that I said that when we get to December!

Overall this was a great show, backstage political drama aside! The opener was good, as was the Tag Team title match and Vader vs. Owen Hart. Both main events were 25+ minute main event epics with lots of drama and near falls which the fans were into from bell to bell. I’d give this one a watch for sure!