Raw is War - August 4th 1997

• I’ve been using the Raw is War logo for these preview articles since the show changed presentation styles but in truth, the show is still known as Monday Night Raw and the logo at the start of the show is just Raw, not Raw is War. I’m using them all fairly interchangeable and trusting that you good people know what I mean but the show is also marketed as the Warzone. I’ll talk a little bit about the way the show gets divided up between the two hours in future but ever since the name change before Wrestlemania 13 they play the Raw intro complete with opening pyro again at the start of the second hour.
• Jim Ross welcomes the Hart Foundation, led by the new WWF Champion Bret Hart for an in ring interview. He recaps the finish of last night’s main event; Bret provoked Shawn Michaels by spitting in his face, HBK swung a chair for his head but the Hitman ducked and Undertaker bore the brunt. Michaels as referee had no choice but to count the three and so no doubt Undertaker will be pissed at Michaels. Bret says that you’re supposed to suffer for your crimes, so because he’s not suffering then it wasn’t a crime. Bret accuses Shawn of showing favouritism as referee which means, per the contracted stipulations, he should be barred from wrestling in the United States ever again. I think Shawn was a very fair referee (until the finish) but that’s sort of the point. Bret demands to know what the WWF is going to do about Michaels; he wants him gone! Jim Ross breaks the news that seeing as The Patriot defeated him last week on Raw, he will now defend the WWF Championship against The Patriot at the next PPV “Ground Zero”. Bret calls the win last week a fluke (which it was) and calls The Patriot nothing to him. Rude. Bret talks about each of the Hart Foundation’s matches at Summerslam last week; Shamrock has no discipline and got DQ’d and Brian Pillman refuses to wear the dress he was supposed to tonight - he has too much class for that. He hands off to Owen Hart who is furious about losing his Intercontinental title last night. He says he regrets showing compassion and giving Austin a break after the piledriver and he beat himself. He calls Stone Cold a crippled freak and says that he might be champion but he’ll never wrestle again! You can only make comments like that once you know the person is ok. He tells Austin to either give him back his title belt or come out here and get beaten again even though he can barely move. JR segues into introducing the new WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter who has full authority to enforce rules and make decisions in the WWF.

• He flubs his first announcement and tells us about the Bret Hart and Patriot match we just learned about, but does have more announcements. Bulldog will face Shamrock in a rematch, Pillman will wear a dress or be suspended and Owen Hart can have a rematch with Stone Cold as soon as the doctors clear him. Austin’s music hits and the new Intercontinental Champion comes out onto the stage; he should be in a hospital bed but he is here anyway! Austin says they can do the rematch right here, right now. He refuses to wear the neck brace he was given and he will kick Owen’s ass whether he’s healthy or not! I am amazed Stone Cold is here, as are the commentators. He suffered a very real and very serious neck injury last night and definitely can’t actually wrestle.

• Tonight, Ahmed Johnson will face Crush but there’s another match announced for the PPV; a triple threat between the stable leaders Faarooq, Savio Vega and Crush. Faarooq tells them that they’re going to accept an ass whipping like men.
• The Nation have a busy night as another member - Kama - takes on Ken Shamrock who had an awesome star making performance last night at Summerslam when he snapped and destroyed everyone in sight including referees and officials. Commissioner Slaughter makes his presence felt again, coming down to the ring and forcing the rest of the Nation to leave and let this be a fair one on one match which is a nice idea but Los Boricuas come through the crowd and attack Kama allowing Shamrock to pick up the win with a belly to belly suplex. Kama goes after Los Boricuas, chasing them through the crowd so Shamrock can celebrate in peace. 

• Sunny, who looks very pretty tonight, serves as special ring announcer for this week’s Light Heavyweight match between Taka Michinoku and “Too Sexy” Brian Christopher. This is a good match and I could have happily watched it for a few more minutes. Christopher gets cocky and hits a nice suplex but Taka lifts his legs and turns it into a tight roll-up to pick up the win! Too Sexy is a sore loser and jumps Taka afterwards, slingshotting him all the way out of the ring which didn’t look as good as I’m sure they thought it would. 

• Backstage, Commissioner Slaughter gives Brian Pillman his dress and tells the Loose Canon that not only will be wrestle in a dress tonight, he has to wrestle in a dress until he wins! If he doesn’t do as he’s told then he will be suspended.

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley (with Chyna) takes on Vader (with Paul Bearer). Bearer says that if the managers make the difference then this match is already won because he’s forgotten more than Chyna will ever know. This is a rare battle of two heels so the fans decide Vader is the one they want to cheer for. Bearer trips HHH from the outside and then there’s a huge pop when Chyna walks around the ring and dropkicks him for it! Chyna has gotten so over; there’s always lots of pro-Chyna signs in the crowd on these shows. Vader goes out to confront her and so Helmsley follows. They fight until the bell rings - the match is a double count out - and then HHH and Chyna just quickly leave rather than continue the fight. Bearer probably shouldn’t have got involved in hindsight!
• For the first time in a long time, The Sultan is on Raw. He still has The Iron Sheik as his manager but Bob Backlund is by now gone. His opponent is The Patriot who has a WWF Championship match on PPV to get ready for. Is that the quickest someone’s gone from debut to that position? Before the match, The Patriot speaks about Bret Hart; he agrees that there’s things wrong with America but he is not someone who will just complain about it, he will do his best to make the USA a better place starting with getting rid of Bret Hart! Yes, Patriot still comes out to what you and I know as Kurt Angle’s theme song, but it's a more trumpety and dare I say “farty” sounding version. I assume they dusted off The Sultan gimmick so that the Patriot could have a match with someone who would also wave a foreign flag. He gets an easy cheer for waving the US flag. The Patriot obviously picks up the win here and then after the match, Bret Hart comes out to confront him. The Hitman makes the mistake of turning his back and so, like a valiant babyface, The Patriot jumps off the apron to attack him from behind. The two of them throw punches and hockey fight at ringside until they’re split up by referees and officials. The crowd chants “USA” for The Patriot waving his flag as Commissioner Slaughter tells Bret to leave. This America vs. The World stuff is always pretty lame to those of us not blessed to be American citizens but the crowd was into this at least. 

• After the mid-show reset, Vince McMahon brings Shawn Michaels down to the ring for an interview. He’s greeted by a very mixed reaction as a lot of fans boo him for costing Undertaker the WWF title last night. HBK doesn’t seem too sorry about it, dancing and stripping on his way to the ring. Earlier in the show there was a bunch of pre-recorded comments by fans as they left Summerslam, most of whom blame Michaels for Undertaker losing and think the Deadman will be out for revenge. Jim Ross does his best to explain the controversy - he hit Undertaker by accident, but why did he then still count the three count? He would have been reasonable in refusing to count given that he did the damage in the first place! Shawn doesn’t apologise and seens angry at Undertaker, Bret, Vince and the fans for apparently blaming him for what happened! He confirms that he’s starting to turn heel by barking “shut up!” in Vince’s face. He says that it’s just like the WWF to pass the buck and dump on him because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. He’s very defensive, but angry at people’s reaction too. Vince asks the preposterous question; are Michaels and Bret Hart working together? Shawn says that question convinces him that Vince is the dumbest son of a bitch he’s ever met! Vince says that he doesn’t appreciate that so Shawn mocks him and says he’s shaking in his boots. Vince loses his temper and tells HBK that maybe he will be shaking in his boots when he faces The Undertaker at Ground Zero! Vince leaves the ring and lets Shawn continue solo since he’s being such an asshole to him! Michaels says that he would never work WITH Bret Hart but Bret needs him to be his greatest rival and keep him relevant. Michaels says that he and The Undertaker have never crossed paths before but he lays down for NO ONE! That’s an insider reference as Michaels at this point in his career, full of ego and bravado and rubbing everyone the wrong way, made a point of telling all of his co-workers he refuses to lose to any of them no matter what the creative tells him. He screams that the fans are ungrateful for booing him after everything he’s done and that he is going to shove his foot down The Undertaker’s throat! The lights go out and the former WWF Champion arrives as Michaels does indeed look afraid. Has he bitten off more than he can chew? With the arena lights off, Michaels takes off and disappears rather than face the Deadman so Vince gets back into the ring to interview him instead. Undertaker says he’s done too much talking lately and he just wants to get back to taking souls and making people rest in peace, starting with Shawn Michaels. That seems to be the end of his interview but Paul Bearer appears on the titantron to taunt and goad him. He says that last night he was with Kane and the time is almost here; Kane is coming to the WWF and he is coming to face The Undertaker! The Deadman looks sad, broken by the news. Does he believe Paul Bearer? He’s spent 20+ years believing his little brother is dead. This was an awesome segment; a strong and logical heel turn for Michaels, it's fun when Vince McMahon gets involved in storylines in this era as it was so new and felt “real” and the excitement of Kane arriving to face The Undertaker is at its peak.

• Backstage, Commissioner Slaughter chats to a doctor who tells us that Stone Cold has spinal shock syndrome and should not wrestle tonight no matter how much he wants to. Will that stop the Rattlesnake?

• Ahmed Johnson, with the rest of the Nation of Domination, takes on Chainz of the DOA. Both groups of four are assembled and we know Los Boricuas are in the building. Just like earlier, Slaughter comes to the ring and makes everyone but Ahmed and Chainz leave to make this a one on one match. The new Commissioner is having a very busy night! The crowd chants “Ahmed sucks” which is crazy, remember how popular he was last year! Chainz focuses his attack on Ahmed’s leg as the crowd chants “ECW”. That’s directed at Chainz who wrestled there for a while under his real name Brian Lee. Just like earlier, Los Boricuas come down to get involved in this match and mess around with Chainz’ motorbike to distract him. Ahmed hits the Pearl River Plunge to win the match. As soon as the bell rings the DOA rushes down to ringside and chases off Los Boricuas, followed by The Nation there’s a stand off between the two groups of four. The Nation perform their salute in the ring…and then Faarooq attacks Ahmed Johnson! The DOA leave in confusion as Kama, D’Lo and Faarooq beat down Ahmed three on one, focusing on his leg. Why? Ahmed turned heel and burned all of his goodwill with the fans, losing those huge popular fan reactions only to spend most of his run with the Nation injured and then to immediately be kicked out of the group. That can’t have been the long term plan.
• Henry and Phineas Godwin - who’ve taken to carrying a big confederate flag with them everywhere they go - take on Mosh and Thrasher. Mosh rolls up Phineas but Henry cracks him with the slop bucket to reverse the pin and steal the victory. 
• Goldust and Marlena head down to ringside and take seats in the front row to watch the next match which is supposed to Brian Pillman wrestling in a dress. The Loose Canon has to be physically forced out onto the stage in his lovely, short golden dress. The fans loved this, cheering and whooping for Pillman who is wearing a thong under it! He’s a good sport to play along with this. His opponent is Bob Holly but Pillman gets so busy arguing with Goldust that he’s counted out! Bob Holly wins, which means Pillman must continue wrestling in a dress until he wins! 

• Bret Hart joins commentary for the main event which is no longer Owen Hart vs. Stone Cold as the Rattlesnake is unable to compete under doctors orders. Instead, it's Austin’s Tag Team Championship partner Dude Love taking his place. Bret and Vince spend the match arguing; the Hitman did get physical with him a couple of weeks ago so that’s fair enough. Dude even has a couple of attractive plants in the front row to dance and show off their Dude Love tattoos! Bret talks about this match like it’s for the Intercontinental Championship - on the match graphic before it, the title belt was roughly photoshopped onto Dude so I think that is official and Dude Love is defending Austin’s title for him here.

• This match is given some time, especially for a Raw match in this era and Dude misses a diving elbow from the apron to the outside which looked painful, and Owen puts him down with a beautiful missile dropkick. Even though Owen Hart is firmly in control, the British Bulldog comes down to ringside. It's just a distraction for the Commissioner so that Bret can run Dude into the ring post, undetected by the referee. Owen locks Dude in the Sharpshooter which brings Stone Cold down to the ring. He wants to fight with Bret but Slaughter is there to stop him - with his neck the way it is, he cannot be getting physical with anyone! In the confusion and with everyone arguing, Stone Cold hits Owen in the head with one of his own Slammys and Dude gets the cover and wins the match! Bret checks his little brother’s head to make sure he’s not busted open after the match and protests to Commissioner Slaughter while the Dudettes dance in the ring with their main man! 

Raw is War - August 11th 1997

• Raw kicks off with Jim Ross interviewing Shawn Michaels in the middle of the ring. HBK recaps the goings on of the past week and says the WWF begged him to be referee at Summerslam - Vince takes issue with that and says it was Michaels who asked to be referee - and that he called things fair and square. Shawn calls Vince a nimrod and he had to find out that he was wrestling Mankind tonight on TV like everyone else because the boss is a coward who wouldn’t call him like a man. The fans chant “Shawn’s gay” so he says to ask their mommas and sisters how gay he is! That’s a good line. He says he refuses to share the spotlight with anyone and calls out the new WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter. HBK immediately makes jokes about how big his chin is, which it is. It’s interesting that Michaels and Bret have been having so many issues with Vince lately, really hammering home on TV that he is the real owner and man in charge of the company; that was them trying to make things feel more real. This is very much the genesis of the Attitude era and Michaels gets in Slaughter’s face and makes fun of him for spraying when he speaks too. Michaels says that he will do something about the way he’s being treated; he needs himself a nice, big insurance policy. He ends the promo by crossing his arms across his crotch - the first on screen appearance of the “suck it” taunt! 

• The LOD face The Godwins in a Country Whippin’ match tonight and backstage Hawk and Animal warm up by lashing a pair of steel drums with a leather strap. That match is next but unexpectedly, Bulldog and Owen Hart are in the ring after a commercial break. I actually misspoke, or maybe Vince did but this isn’t a tag team match; it’s Hawk vs. Henry Godwin in a singles match with Animal and Phineas at ringside. I do think that the company has done a good job building a tag team division with these two teams, Bulldog and Owen, the Headbangers and Blackjacks. There’s some big news during this match as Dude Love and Stone Cold will defend the Tag Team titles in a Fatal Fourway match at Ground Zero against the LOD, Godwins and Owen and Bulldog. In news for tonight, both Bulldog and Owen challenge The Patriot and argue over which of them get to fight him on behalf of Bret. The rules of this country whippin’ match is you win by knocking your opponent out of the ring. It breaks down when Phineas and Animal get involved and in the melee, Hawk clotheslines Henry up and out of the ring to officially win the match. That tag title match at the PPV is official for now, but it's still not confirmed that Stone Cold will be cleared to actually wrestle by then. Commissioner Slaughter grants both Bulldog and Owen’s wishes, giving them a tag team match against The Patriot and “an opponent of his choosing” later in the show. 

• The Light Heavyweight action continues with Scott Putski vs. some lad I’ve never seen before. Before the match begins, Goldust and Marlena come down to the ring. Their feud is still with Brian Pillman who will wrestle in a dress again tonight but I don’t know why they’re here now. There’s another match set for the PPV when Putski faces Brian Christopher. This match is entirely ignored as Goldust joins commentary to talk about Brian Pillman. He and Marlena show us a special “shattered dreams” production which is a hidden camera in Pillman’s locker room showing him getting changed into his dress for tonight’s match. This is wildly illegal and the joke dragged on too long to be funny; we were just watching Pillman get changed for quite a long time. Credit to poor Jim Ross who does his best to talk about the match going on which Putski wins with the Polish hammer to the face. Commissioner Slaughter comes down and insists on Goldust and Marlena leaving before the next match; it seems like they might be in a little bit of trouble for this stunt.

• Backstage The Undertaker tells Shawn Michaels that he’ll be watching his match with Mankind tonight and at Ground Zero the only “insurance policy” he’ll need is burial insurance. 

• Brian Pillman, wrestling this week in a tight fitting golden dress, faces Flash Funk. Jim Ross says that this dress business scares him because as unhinged as Pillman is, this might push him over the edge and make him really go crazy. JR mentions Pillman’s history as an NFL player which is something JR did for everyone for their entire career but I did a little research; Brian played in the NFL in 1984! Hasn’t he done anything worthwhile in the 13 years since, Jim? Remember all of that ECW involvement over the summer? During this match the commentary trio tell us that Lawler will face Tommy Dreamer on ECW’s next PPV. Pillman has this match won but Goldust appears at the top of the ramp to eat popcorn and show the same footage of Pillman getting changed on the titantron. That’s enough of a distraction for Funk to catch him with a small package and win the match! Pillman’s days of dress wearing continue for another week at least.

• In the ring, Vince McMahon interviews one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions Dude Love! Dude talks like a 1960s hipster, calling everyone daddio and a cool cat! He won’t speak for Stone Cold and his medical well being but does talk about the fatal four way at Ground Zero. He gets a couple of chuckles from Vince and JR, but does say that his money is on Mankind in tonight’s main event; HBK can party with the best of them but Mankind’s got the Mandible Claw and that’ll stop any party, lord have mercy! Shawn Michaels appears on the titantron and tells Dude Love he needs to join us in this century. He says that Mankind and everyone else will see his new insurance policy live and in living colour tonight. HBK screams that Dude Love is an idiot, sounding a bit like Dennis Reynolds. Dude finishes off with a couple of Beatles quotes to end the interview because why not?

• Who will be The Patriot’s partner against Owen Hart and the Bulldog? It’s Ken Shamrock who might have the most impressive physique in the entire WWF in 1997. He looks like a million bucks! Bret Hart comes out to watch this match from the entrance ramp. The Patriot and Shamrock work well as a team and when Bret Hart makes his way towards the ring, Sgt. Slaughter comes out to get in his face and stop him. Owen Hart gets distracted by that and when Bulldog tries to use a steel chair it backfires when The Patriot hits his full nelson slam (which he calls Old Glory) onto the chair to pick up the win for his team. After a commercial break while The Patriot is cutting a promo about how his success isn’t a fluke and he deserves to be at the top of the WWF he’s jumped from behind by Bret Hart who savagely beats the number one contender until he’s stopped by the referees.

• Faarooq of The Nation takes on Chainz of the DOA. Both these men’s stables have been barred from ringside for this match. You’ve seen Chainz wrestle before in the main event of Summerslam 1994; Brian Lee played the Underfaker! This is a big man vs. big man match. The referee gets knocked down and so there’s no one to count when Chainz has the match won. Rocky Maivia comes through the crowd to check on the referee - we haven’t seen The Rock for a while on Raw - and he spikes Chainz with the move we all know as the Rock Bottom! Faarooq gets the cover and after the match, The Rock makes it official. He’s been gone because he had a knee injury of his own but now he’s back and he is the newest member of The Nation of Domination! He’s a better choice than Ahmed Johnson for sure. 

• Sable heads down to the ring to act as ring announcer for the next match but before she can speak The Patriot comes down to the ring and says he can beat anyone one on one but not when he gets jumped from behind. He doesn’t want to wait for Ground Zero, he wants to fight Bret Hart tonight. The Hitman comes down and sure enough The Patriot wins the exchange until the rest of the Hart Foundation rush the ring and attack him, beating The Patriot down four on one. It was at this point that I realised we haven’t seen Jim Neidhart since before Summerslam. He’s not left the company so must just be busy. Sgt. Slaughter leads referees and officials to the ring to break it up and end the beating. 
• I haven’t mentioned him since the first week but they do continue to promote that the big beefy German Brakus is on his way to the WWF. I wonder if and when I’ll get to actually see him wrestle?

• Mankind speaks before the main event and threatens Shawn Michaels on behalf of Dude Love. The match starts with Mankind bringing a trashcan to the ring and they use it as a weapon. Mankind ends up wrestling a big chunk of the match wrapped in a black bin bag as he and HBk fight all around the ringside. Mankind takes a back drop up and onto the announce table and then Michaels follows with a diving elbow off the apron onto him! That was cool and it knocked all three commentators offline for a while. These two’s last match won the Slammy for match of the year in 1996 and they’re determined to live up to that with a crazy brawl tonight! Mankind ducks the Sweet Chin Music and locks in the Mandible Claw so Michaels tumbles up and over the top rope to get away.

• Mankind keeps a hold of the move so HBK rams the back of his head into the ring post. As they continue, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna make their way down to the ring. Is this Michaels’ insurance policy? This is an awesome, brutal match! Deeper into the match, Rick Rude makes his way down to the ring! It’s the first time we’ve seen Rick Rude in the WWF since 1990! He hits Mankind with a steel chair and that sends him staggering into a Sweet Chin Music. Shawn Michaels wins, thanks to Rude and as he celebrates, The Undertaker’s music hits! HHH, Chyna and Rude all get up onto the apron and it looks like they’ve got Michaels’ back. Before Undertaker gets to the ring, Paul Bearer appears on the titantron and with the arena lights flickering red screams that Kane is coming and The Undertaker will burn in hell! 

Raw is War - August 18th 1997

• Vince McMahon opens the show with an in-ring interview with Rick Rude who made his shocking return to the WWF last week to help Shawn Michaels defeat Mankind. Rude speaks in riddles and is very unclear about his motives. He’s not an insurance policy, he’s an insurance salesman and if you pay the premiums you get his premium muscle. Alright then. Later tonight, Michaels and Helmsley are supposed to face Undertaker and Mankind in a tag team match and backstage, Shawn Michaels is shown arguing with Commissioner Slaughter. What is he up to?

• The fatal four way Tag Team Championship match at Ground Zero is still set and two of the teams scheduled to compete in that match are Owen and Bulldog and the Legion of Doom so they face each other tonight. The Godwins continue their feud with Hawk and Animal and after a back and forth match come down and hit Hawk right in the face with a steel slop bucket. Owen steals the pin and wins the match for he and Bulldog but then the three teams all just start fighting each other.
• Backstage, Shawn Michaels says that everything bad he’s done so far has been an accident but if everyone keeps dumping on him and blaming everything on him he might just start really acting out on purpose and then he’ll be everyone’s problem.
• Sunny is special ring announcer again this week for Brian Christopher vs. Flash Funk. Jerry Lawler gets obsessed with his son using the piledriver and leaves commentary to tell him off. All it does is distract him and Too Sexy misses the top rope leg drop and falls victim to Funk’s 450 splash. Flash Funk wins and Lawler checks on his boy after the match. He’s still denying that its his son of course. 

• Mankind and Undertaker both cut promos about tonight’s main event. Mankind says his mind won’t forgive Undertaker and his body can’t forget him. Will he be a good partner or the final nail in his coffin? Later, Undertaker is more focused on his Ground Zero opponent Bret Hart but does warn Mankind that he’ll end him too if he gets in his way.
• Ken Shamrock faces The Sultan. It’s an unremarkable match but Shamrock picks up the win with his ankle lock submission, twisting the ankle at a gross ankle. 

• The Nation of Domination complete with new member Rocky Maivia come down to the ring. This is sold as being unscheduled and they force Jim Ross into the ring to conduct an interview. The crowd gets all over them chanting “Rocky sucks” at the newest and youngest member of the team. Faarooq speaks first and explains them kicking Ahmed Johnson out of the group; he’s a white man trappd in a black man’s body and he was just too weak to make it as a member of the Nation. Next up is The Rock who says that he tried to do things the right way but these people booed him anyway. They chanted Rocky Sucks and Die Rocky Die at him despite him being the nice guy so screw them all. He says this isn’t a race thing, its a respect thing but the real racists are the DOA. Man, people had no idea how accurate that was. Crush and his biker gang appear on the titantron and dare the Nation to come and fight them in the streets with no referee or Commissioner Slaughter to stop them! The Nation doesn't need to be asked twice and jump out of the ring and head back to confront them. They do just that and as the eight men fight, throwing each other onto car hoods and breaking windows, Los Boricuas steal the DOA’s motorbikes! 

• Triple H and Chyna are interviewed about tonight’s main event; there’s a running story that none of the four men in this match want to be in this match. Michaels and Helmsley are trying to get out of it; do they not want to be partners or are they just scared of Undertaker and Mankind?

• Brian Pillman’s dress isn’t very pretty this week. He faces Jesse Jammes and needs to win unless he wants to keep wrestling in a dress. Earlier today, Goldust and Marlena - real names Dustin and Terri - took their daughter to the beach and during this match, Goldust comes to the ring and calmly attacks Jesse Jammes! Why did he do that? Well because now Brian Pillman loses by disqualification, so he has to keep wearing the dress! Pillman is furious! He challenges Goldust to a match at Ground Zero with an important stipulation - if Goldust wins then Pillman will leave the WWF forever BUT, if Pillman wins then Marlena must be his personal assistant 24/7 for 30 days. Goldust refuses to accept that deal. Brian tells Goldust that his daughter Dakota is actually HIS love child, claiming to have slept with Marlena! Goldust rushes to the ring to fight him and Marlena grabs the mic and accepts the deal and the challenge. Goldust can’t believe it and goes back to question Marlena. That’s the match official for Ground Zero then! You can see why they showed Dustin and Marlena having a fun beach day with their daughter earlier now, to make it all the more hurtful when Pillman twisted the knife!

• At the mid-show reset, Raw becomes the Warzone! I’ve mentioned this previously but this two hour layout of Raw was due to the start time of WCW. See, the second hour of Raw went head to head with the first hour of WCW Nitro, therefore it’s not just Raw, it’s the War zone! That gimmick was abandoned shortly after Wrestlemania 14. 
• Vader with Paul Bearer battles The Patriot who is on quite the winning streak heading into his WWF Championship match at Ground Zero. Bearer has promised us that Kane is on his way to the WWF to face his brother The Undertaker but hasn’t given any more details on when we can expect him. Bret Hart comes out carrying his big Canadian flag to watch The Patriot in action. Patriot blocks the Vader Bomb and hits the full nelson slam - last week JR called it Old Glory but this week its the Uncle Slam - and picks up the win but as he turns his attention to Bret Hart, Vader attacks him from behind. He slams The Patriot around and sets up the Vader Bomb but when Bret Hart drapes the Canadian flag over him Vader stops in his tracks. It seems that Vader was happy to attack a babyface but not to glorfy Canada! He snaps the flag over his knee so he and Bret start fighting! Bulldog and Owen rush the ring and join in and the three Hart Foundation members beat up Vader until The Patriot saves him, not because he deserved it but because it was the right thing to do. Sgt. Slaughter and his referees and officials get control of the situation and settle things down but Bret obviously feels like he’s made his point tonight. 

• Here’s a video recapping the injury to Stone Cold Steve Austin from Summerslam before we get into Jim Ross’ interview with the Rattlesnake

• JR sat down with Austin in the morning before his evaluation by medical professionals and his future in the WWF. The Rattlesnake is in rare form cutting a blistering promo on Jim Ross promising that no matter what the doctors tell him he will do what he wants and that starts with “kicking the shit out of Owen Hart”. He is pissed off, angry at the world and at the WWF for what he sees as a lack of after care and says he will be at Ground Zero whether that's to compete or hand the belts over to someone if he can’t wrestle. 

• In the main event, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Shawn Michaels seem like they don’t want to team up. In real life they were good friends of course and HBK grinds and dances on Chyna as soon as he gets to the ring which I’m pretty sure got her to crack a smile despite her best efforts not to! HHH and HBK isolate and work over Mankind for the bulk of the match but as he fights them both off, Michaels calls for Rick Rude to come down to the ring. The Undertaker tags in and beats up both men. He gets on a roll with a big chokeslam and chases off Rude to stop him from using a steel chair but Shawn Michaels gets his hands on the chair and blasts Undertaker right in the head, busting him open and losing the match via disqualification! He hits him with a second bit, brutal chairshot to the head and then Michaels, Helmsley, Rude and Chyna leave quickly together when they realise The Undertaker has sat up a second time despite the two brutal chairshots. The steel chair lays badly dented in the ring next to Undertaker’s blood for a cool final shot on Raw.