Monday Night Raw - January 20th 1997

• Last night Shawn Michaels regained the WWF Championship and Stone Cold Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble match. A big night in Texas for two Texans. Austin also racked up 10 eliminations single handedly which was a new record but one he only held until 2001 when Kane beat him with 11. He then held that record for 14 years until Roman Reigns eliminated 12. 
• I mentioned it last night but Jim Ross has added his trademark cowboy hat to his look and while the commentary trio welcome us to the show, Bret Hart comes to the ring and he is pissed off. He addresses Vince McMahon and shatters kayfabe, addressing him as the owner of the company and complaining that he was promised a shot at the WWF title and he has been screwed over time and time again. He blames Michaels for costing him the title in December and reminds us that he eliminated Stone Cold last night but the referees didn’t see it! He shouldn’t have won, Bret should have. He’s not wrong but he’s coming across as such a whiney heel about it, which was intentional. Bret ends his rant by saying that since he doesn’t seem to be getting the fair title shot he was promised, he quits! The Hitman gets out of the ring, climbs the barrier and leaves through the crowd as Vince tries to convince him to stay. 

• With Bret out of the way, Stone Cold Steve Austin comes to the ring and after some issues with a broken mic berates Bret Hart for crying too much. It’s all he’s done since he came back and he should go home because his old man is the only man he can beat. He says that he’s been screwed over for 7 years and he isn’t whining about it. Tonight’s main event was supposed to be Austin vs. Sycho Sid but Sid has a concussion isn’t here tonight so he’s facing The Undertaker instead. Stone Cold insults President Monsoon and tells him he will shove an entire bunch of bananas up his ass. He says that Sid is afraid of him and tells Gorilla to bring Undertaker’s big dead ass down to the ring for the match now! Vince McMahon leaves commentary and heads to the back to presumably try to iron things out with Gorilla and the Bret Hart situation! 

• With Bret out of the way, Stone Cold Steve Austin comes to the ring and after some issues with a broken mic berates Bret Hart for crying too much. It’s all he’s done since he came back and he should go home because his old man is the only man he can beat. He says that he’s been screwed over for 7 years and he isn’t whining about it. Tonight’s main event was supposed to be Austin vs. Sycho Sid but Sid has a concussion isn’t here tonight so he’s facing The Undertaker instead. Stone Cold insults President Monsoon and tells him he will shove an entire bunch of bananas up his ass. He says that Sid is afraid of him and tells Gorilla to bring Undertaker’s big dead ass down to the ring for the match now! Vince McMahon leaves commentary and heads to the back to presumably try to iron things out with Gorilla and the Bret Hart situation! 
• After a commercial break it’s not The Undertaker in the ring, it’s WWF Tag Team Champions The British Bulldog and Owen Hart for a match with Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon. The commentators continue to tease issues between Bulldog and Owen; the King of Harts did eliminate Bulldog from the Rumble match. This is a really good match and all four guys fly and bump around the ring together. A lot of suplexes and dropkicks and the like. The finish comes when Owen Hart hits Lafon in the head with one of his Slammy awards and Bulldog follows up with a running powerslam to hand these two their first televised loss as a team in the WWF. This as a non-title match so I assumed Furnas and Lafon would win to earn a shot at the gold but the story continues.
• Leader of The Nation of Domination Faarooq (with his entire Nation at ringside as backup) takes on Bart Gunn. With a lot of outside interference and help from Nation members, Faarooq muscles Bart up into a brutal and unsafe looking dominator landing him RIGHT on his face to pick up the win.
• Vince McMahon returns later in the show with the President of the WWF Gorilla Monsoon. He gets a little bit of a mixed reaction and says he’s upset about Bret Hart quitting earlier. He hopes Bret can hear his words and invitation; last night was a travesty and Stone Cold won the Royal Rumble match. He cannot reverse that but what he can do is say that Stone Cold will NOT get a WWF Championship match at Wrestlemania. He announces the main event for the next PPV which is a no disqualification, no count out four way elimination match where the winner will face the WWF Champion at Wrestlemania. The four participants will be The Undertaker, Vader and Bret Hart who were all illegally eliminated by Stone Cold and finally the man himself, the official Rumble match winner Stone Cold Steve Austin. That’s a really cool idea and good logic in picking those four men. Austin comes to the ring and is NOT happy about it. He says that they can’t have a four way because Bret Hart walked out and quit. Austin demands to know if they have an instant replay rule and berates Monsoon. “You call yourself a Gorilla but you hee haw out here like a jack ass!” Stone Cold says he cannot be stopped and if winning this four way is what he has to do then he’ll not only win that but he’ll whip Monsoon’s ass too!

• He’s about to attack both Vince and Gorilla but Bret Hart comes back through the crowd and to the ring; he must have heard what Gorilla said. He gets into the ring and accepts the invitation before attacking Stone Cold! The two of them have an intense brawl in the aisle way as referees work to separate them. Austin is still supposed to wrestle The Undertaker tonight! After a commercial break order still hasn’t been restored. Vince has joined commentary and with Stone Cold in the ring and referees still trying to control Bret, Undertaker’s music hits. He walks to the ring and he attacks Bret Hart too! The Deadman is marking his territory ahead of In Your House and the Four Way match. Bret is finally taken backstage and Austin and Undertaker start to brawl around the ring. Of note, Paul Bearer is now officially the manager of Vader AND Undertaker was fined “his entire Royal Rumble earnings” for chokeslamming a referee at the PPV. Austin and Undertaker go to war with Jerry Lawler even leaving commentary at one point to scream at Stone Cold that he needs to focus on Undertaker’s injured ribs! Lawler is Austin’s biggest fan, which is a weird thing to see for long time fans. Meanwhile backstage, Vader and Bret Hart almost come to blows as referees and officials keep them apart too. It’s chaos on Monday Night Raw. Vader manages to escape confinement and runs to the ring to get involved but walks right into a chokeslam! Austin attacks Undertaker so Bret Hart runs down to join in and with the four main eventers of In Your House in the ring fighting the fans go NUTS! Referees try their best to get things under control but the four of them are hell bent on destroying each other. Great stuff with the entire show dominated by the main event storyline. 

Monday Night Raw - January 27th 1997

• Raw kicks off with Ahmed Johnson vs. Crush from the Nation of Domination. Jerry Lawler mentions that at a house show over the weekend in a tag team match of Ahmed and Savio Vega vs. Faarooq and Crush, Savio turned on his own partner to cost him the match and apparently join the Nation of Domination. In other weekend news, Sycho Sid hit both Faarooq and Crush with a steel chair. I’m not sure what Sid’s beef with the Nation is but I’m sure it’ll be explained. Crush lets the Nation distract Ahmed so that he can jump him from behind and control the match in the early going. Ahmed fights back and dominates Crush but some well timed interference by Faarooq sets Johnson up for Crush’s heart punch and a victory for the Nation. Ahmed is badly outnumbered and needs back up clearly. Later in the show, Ahmed is shown rampaging through the backstage area with a 2x4, kicking down doors and looking for the Nation to keep the fight going. Later in the show there’s footage from Shotgun Saturday Night where Savio explained himself, claiming not to have joined the Nation after all and said he was just in a bad mood. That turned out to be a lie obviously and with Faarooq and Crush joining in they beat down Rocky Maivia. In other Ahmed Johnson news, he’s slated to face HHH for the Intercontinental title at In Your House. That doesn’t end up happening but we’ll let it play out! 

• Vince McMahon interviews the WWF Champion Shawn Michaels in the ring. He breaks the news that HBK will defend the title against Sycho Sid in two weeks on Thursday Raw Thursday (cos Raw is moved to Thursday that week) and Michaels says that Sid deserves a rematch but he will do anything to hold onto the title. Vince then brings out the participants in the Four Way at the PPV starting with Bret Hart. The Hitman doesn’t mince his words; he’s going to win the Final Four match and he wants it to be Shawn Michaels who he defeats at Wrestlemania. Vince cuts him off and says he’s overlooking Sid. That continues when The Undertaker comes out; Michaels looks intimidated by the Deadman who tells him to give his soul to the Lord because his body and championship belongs to him. Vince again reminds us of his title match with Sid in two weeks. Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out but with JR in tow so that he can talk to them from the entrance way rather than get in the ring. Austin calls them whiners and says he threw them over the top rope like trash and Michaels has no chance against him either. He says he doesn’t want to wait until the PPV to whip somebody’s ass and charges the ring but changes his mind when he realises it would be three vs. one. He leaves and runs into Vader and Paul Bearer at the top of the ramp, talking trash to them too. The segment ends there without any fighting but tensions are high and I like the way the WWF has created this six man main event scene where the matches for Wrestlemania have yet to shake out. 

• British Bulldog (with Owen) takes on Doug Furnas (with Phil Lafon). Despite Phil and Doug losing last week they do now have a WWF Tag Team Championship match at In Your House. I guess that’s just Gorilla being fair to them seeing as Owen and Bulldog cheated. They try to cheat again this week but Owen mistimes his Slammy shot and hits Bulldog by mistake! It ends up not mattering as Furnas rolls him up but Bulldog just reverses it and wins anyway, clean as a whistle. Post match, Bulldog is angry at being hit and he and Owen argue in the ring while Clarence Mason tries to keep them calm. Bulldog throws down his tag team title belt and the fans chant for him to attack Owen but he does finally, reluctantly calm down. Does it seem weird to anyone else that Clarence Mason is a member and the manager of the Nation of Domination, but also manages this tag team? They finally shake hands which is met with boos. 

• An odd main event for Raw with Paul Bearer bringing together the two men he manages for a tag team match; Mankind and Vader vs. The Godwins. Mankind/Mick Foley and Vader knew each other very well and feuded for a long time in WCW. As a matter of fact, Vader is the reason Mankind is missing an ear! That’s not mentioned here. Mankind doesn’t like Vader and refuses to tag in when he’s being dominated by Henry and Phineas. The two almost come to blows on the outside but Bearer calms things down and Vader gets them back into the match. Mankind locks in the Mandible Claw on Phineas but Henry makes the save. The two of them work pretty well together from there but it all falls apart when Mankind tries to use a steel chair and misses, hitting Vader in the head. It doesn’t look like it was an accident and Mankind smiles afterwards. The Godwins win via count out. 

• The show ends with Ahmed finally finding the Nation, attacking with his 2x4 and locking one half of PG-13 in the trunk of a car which then escapes with him throwing the wood after them and screaming his bloody revenge.

Monday Night Raw - February 3rd 1997

• This is the very first episode of Raw to go for two hours instead of one. Why? Because this is Royal Rumble Raw, broadcast “live” from the Toronto Skydome. It’s pretaped and basically a house show. They kick off by showing us the closing moments of the 1997 Royal Rumble match and reminding us how Bret Hart got screwed over. The opening match is two of the Hitman’s PPV opponents Vader vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. This is by far the largest crowd in Raw history as the Skydome was an enormous building. Before either of these men come to blows Bret Hart rushes the ring and attacks Austin. He’s all over Stone Cold, beating him down as referees try to control him. Vader joins in the fight too and it’s chaos to start Raw. Stone Cold goes after Bret again while he’s being dragged out of the arena and things settle down so Stone Cold vs. Vader can start officially in the ring. It’s a brawl back and forth but Stone Cold loses his temper and strikes the referee, getting himself disqualified. The fighting eventually subsides. During the show the commentators mentioned that on Shotgun Saturday Night Mankind and Vader seemed to be getting along a lot better so it seems like Paul Bearer might have succeeded in bringing these two monsters together. 

• On his walk to the ring, Jim Ross grabs an interview with newly heel Nation of Domination member Savio Vega as a very young D’Lo Brown stands behind them. He doesn’t regret turning on Ahmed or the fans. Savio is facing Flash Funk which thanks to a distraction from D’Lo (unnamed) he wins.

• Jim Ross interviews former WWF Champion Sycho Sid in the ring. This is Sid’s first proper appearance since losing the title at the Rumble. Sid echos something Shawn Michaels said last week about them having a weird relationship where they go up and down. The WWF title brings the evil out of people where he was evil at Survivor Series and maybe HBK was a little evil at the Royal Rumble. That’s cool, I like that.

• Owen Hart and the British Bulldog defend the WWF Tag Team titles against Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon. Before the match Vince interviews the champions and teases more issues between them reminding them that Owen eliminated Bulldog from the Rumble match and how tense that whole situation was. These two teams work really well together and there’s a lot of near falls and double teams. Lafon actually pins Owen for three but the referee spots Owen’s foot on the ropes and discounts it. The match continues and Bulldog hits the running powerslam. Owen Hart is the legal man and stays out of the ring getting counted out. He sells his knee like he hurt himself when Bulldog accidentally threw him out of the ring. Owen seems to be moving around on his knee ok so it looks like he got intentionally counted out to save the titles, something Bulldog isn’t happy about.

• Crush takes on Goldust. Ahmed Johnson is shown watching backstage and he wants to go and attack the Nation again but The Undertaker aggressively stops him. They team up later against Faarooq and Mankind and Undertaker tells him if he goes to fight them now he goes alone but if he waits until later they can bury them all together. That makes sense to me! Goldust isn’t as high on the card as he used to be but he’s still an over and protected performer so gives Crush a hard time. Intercontinental Champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley comes down to ringside to distract Goldust who he’s still feuding with; he wants Marlena I think. Goldust overcomes the distraction and it takes interference from Savio Vega to give Crush the tainted victory. 
• There’s a video package with a sinister old cowboy by a camp fire talking about the debut of The Blackjacks, a new tag team coming to the WWF. More on them soon enough.
• Vince McMahon interviews WWF Champion Shawn Michaels in the ring and asks for his comments on what Sid said earlier tonight. Michaels agrees that the title brings out the worst in people but if he has to be a bad guy to stay WWF Champion then he’ll be the worst there is. He praises Bret Hart but rubs it in that he is NOT the WWF Champion, Shawn is. Bret comes out to respond and immediately goes on the attack, insulting HBK and calling him a degenerate and a scumbag. Bret is attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin and the pair of them brawl. Sycho Sid comes down too but he doesn’t attack Michael, just gets in his face. After a commercial break Sid and Austin have been cleared out of the ring and Bret and Shawn are face to face. The Hitman steps on the WWF title belt so that Shawn isn’t able to pick it up and then drops it at HBK’s feet rather than hand it to them. Bret is so disrespectful to Shawn Michaels but gets cheered for it given that the show is in Cananda. Once a surly Bret leaves Michaels takes his time posing with the title belt.

• They mentioned him last week too but earlier on this night before Raw began, newcomer Tiger Ali Singh signed his WWF contract. Tiger is a Canadian born wrestler of Indian descent. I’m not sure if and when we’ll see him on TV regularly.
• HHH defends the Intercontinental Championship against Marc Mero. Both Sable and Mr. Hughes have been banned from ringside for this match due to Curtis getting involved in so many of Helmsley’s matches lately. Interesting throughout the previous two episodes of Raw the commentary teams have mentioned over and over that there will be no bait and switches and the WWF will always deliver what it promises. That’s all pot shots at WCW who had a tendency to set up big matches to pull in ratings and then change them at the last minute or use storylines to not give the fans the big matches they had promised for the past week. The WWF and WWE have famously done plenty of bait and switches themselves over the years but WCW in the late 90s is unmatched. Mero gives the champion a hard time and gets near fall after near fall with high risk moves but HHH finds a pair of brass knuckles in his own tights and uses them to knock out Marc and retain his Intercontinental Championship. 

In the main event Faaroq (with Nation members) and Mankind (with Paul Bearer) take on Ahmed Johnson and The Undertaker in a no holds barred tag team match. It tickled me before the match as Mankind mimicked Faarooq’s Nation salute. Mankind is shifting from a sinister mad man to being more simple and like a child. It starts with a wild brawl. Ahmed and Faarooq pair off in the ring as Undertaker and Mankind rekindle their rivalry on the outside before swapping. It settles down with Undertaker and Faarooq in the ring but neither partner is waiting for a tag and continues to brawl on the outside. Ahmed chases the Nation away from ringside but the various young guys in tuxedos and Clarence Mason are replaced as back up by Crush and Savio Vega. They do get involved but Ahmed chases them off with his 2x4 before taking out Faarooq. It breaks down as basically one on one between Undertaker and Mankind so Vader runs down to help out his team mate. He splashes Undertaker but when they try to hold Undertaker in place for a chair shot, Vader hits Mankind in the head. The Deadman fights off Vader and then plants Mankind with a Tombstone onto the steel chair. Undertaker wins the match for his team. This was a fun, wild brawl that the fans were really into.

Thursday Raw Thursday - February 13th 1997

• This special episode of Raw has its own special opening video and a surprise; Shawn Michaels was scheduled to defend the WWF Championship tonight against Sycho Sid but instead he will be vacating the title belt. More on that later (obviously). Raw hasn’t had a full rebrand yet but you can feel it coming with the shift in the company’s, dare I say, attitude. I find it odd that there’s been little to no promotion of the fact that this show is suddenly two hours rather than one! 

• Raw kicks off with an Intercontinental Championship match. Hunter Hearst Helmsley is supposed to defend the gold against Ahmed Johnson at In Your House but tonight he gives a crack to rookie Rocky Maivia. That’s right, it’s The Rock vs. Triple H for a championship, so take a moment to appreciate that. Helmsley grinds down Rocky and puts his focus on his arm and shoulder. Vince calls him a veteran. He had been wrestling longer than Rocky but HHH has been in the WWF just over a year so he’s hardly grizzled. As the match continues, former Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man wanders down to ringside for a closer look at this match. He’s still on the prowl for someone he can mold in his own image and he joins commentary to discuss these two. He keeps saying he needs someone who can play the guitar and sing in addition to wrestling. Rocky mounts a comeback with a crossbody off the top but Hunter kicks out and retaliates with a piledriver and a superplex as JR and Vince put over the guts and toughness he’s showing. HHH sets up a Pedigree but Rocky turns it into a small package for the shock three count! Rocky Maivia wins the Intercontinental Championship! Dok Hendrix grabs some post match comments where Rocky promises to make his family and fans proud of him. Earl Hebner ruined another moment here as for the small package he did one of his trademark slow counts to hammer home how definitive the victory was. I hate that, it always seems really fake to me and it gave away that it would be the final pin of the match.

• Sunny heads down to the ring - I feel like this is the first time we’ve seen her in weeks - and acts as special guest ring announcer for the next match which is the debut of a new tag team, The Headbangers. Mosh and Thrasher face the jobber team of Aldo Montoya and Bob “Sparkplug” Holly. Given that this is the debut of a new team with a somewhat fun and goofy gimmick you’d think this should be a fun showcase for them but the commentary trio spend the entire match talking in very somber terms about Shawn Michaels, his knee injury and how he will be vacating the title tonight. If all of this seems out of the blue to you, you’re not alone. The Headbangers win with a double team on Aldo. I love ya Sunny but she’s a TERRIBLE ring announcer. They haven’t figured out how to use her. She’s too popular (because she’s hot) to use as a heel manager anymore but they do want her on TV as much as possible. 

• Shawn Michaels is next out for an in-ring interview with Vince McMahon. HBK is emotional and tearful but the fans clearly haven’t picked up on how real this moment was and chant “we want Sid” at him. Here you can watch the whole seven minute segment here.

• The gist is that Shawn has an injury and needs full reconstructive surgery of his knee and so is forced to vacate the title. He also says the infamous line “I’ve lost my smile” which in 2026 is a fairly obvious statement of mental health issues but in 1997 is met with jeers and booing from the rowdy crowd. Shawn cries and tells us that he may never wrestle again before handing off the title to Gorilla Monsoon. The reality of this situation is that Shawn didn’t really need the surgery and didn’t have it. He didn’t want to lose the WWF Championship to Bret Hart, who he hated, at Wrestlemania 13 which was the original booking. For those keeping track this was the 5th of Shawn’s 6 championship reigns that ended without him actually being pinned or defeated. I’ll talk a bit more about Shawn at In Your House. He ends this with a big hug to Vince and Gorilla before leaving with a little limp. Certainly watching this at the time it must have felt like we’d never see HBK ever again but we’ll see him again soon don’t you worry. 
• The Undertaker battles Nation of Domination member Savio Vega. Savio hasn’t changed up his ring gear since turning heel and joining the Nation. This isn’t the last time we’ll see the Nation as Faarooq and Crush will challenge for the Tag Team titles later tonight. In a really cool spot during Shotgun Saturday Night which at this time was still taking place weekly in various unusual venues like Penn Station or nightclubs, The Undertaker tombstoned Triple H onto an escalator. Here’s a clip of that from WWE’s YouTube channel too. 

• Savio does his best but Undertaker plants him with a chokeslam to pick up the win. The Nation swarms the ring to attack and are fought off with ease until Faarooq and Crush join the assault. They’re too much for The Undertaker so Ahmed Johnson runs down to even the sides and helps him out. They’re still vastly outnumbered but Undertaker drills PG-13 with a double chokeslam (the crowd loved that and went nuts) and the two big babyfaces finally clear the house. Great stuff here and the crowd loved the whole segment. 
• Sycho Sid was supposed to face Shawn Michaels but because of his injury Stone Cold Steve Austin took his place. Before the match, Gorilla Monsoon explains that the PPV’s Final Four match which was supposed to be to see who goes to Wrestlemania as the challenger but now it's for the vacant WWF title and the winner will defend the gold against Sid the next night on Raw. Ok, that all seems pretty fair. This seems like a rowdy and quite insider crowd so both Sid and Stone Cold get massive reactions and cheers. This is a big physical match with the two of them brawling in and out of the ring. Austin seems like an equal to Sid the whole way and the match ends abruptly when Bret Hart comes down to attack Stone Cold. That ends the match via disqualification and then Bret and Sid brawl until referees hold them apart. Of note during this match JR refers to Stone Cold as having the disposition of a rattlesnake for the first time. I enjoyed the match between the two and these disqualification interference finishes have become a really common way of the WWF to build up to PPV matches. The question now is who will Sid face next week for the WWF title? 

• Backstage, Vince interviews Vader about the Final Four match. He trips over his words a little while reminding us that he beat Undertaker at the Royal Rumble and he’s left Stone Cold laying twice, which he’ll do the same to Bret Hart in tonight’s main event. This show was, rare for the WWF back in 1997, completely live so Vader didn’t get a chance to redo the words he fell all over. 
• The British Bulldog and Owen Hart defend the WWF Tag Team Championships against Faarooq and Crush. Bulldog and Owen playfully fight over who gets the spotlight during their entrance which was fun. They’re still teasing issues between them but it seems light hearted here. Including the title being vacated we’ve also seen two title changes tonight! Backstage Bret Hart is watching this match and it’s funny because in the sort of inside joke in wrestling about the performers always watching TV backstage while standing up and to the side, the above image of Bret Hart has become something of a meme. He speaks to Vince and seems quite sincere as he says he hopes that Shawn Michaels’ career is not over and he manages to get over his knee injury and return to action. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, Hitman. In the ring, Crush and Faarooq isolate Bulldog and work on his ribs. Just like last week the finish comes when Owen Hart “hurts his knee” and gets counted out. Do we believe his knee is really hurt? JR and Vince don’t but Bulldog helps his partner to the back anyway. The Nation of Domination win but don’t win the Tag Team titles.

• In the main event, Bret Hart takes on Vader (with Paul Bearer). This should be a good one. Once both men are in the ring, The Undertaker’s theme music hits and he comes out to cut an uncharacteristic promo. He says that there is a problem with respect - The Undertaker doesn’t seem to get anymore! He says that neither Bret, nor Vader, nor Stone Cold Steve Austin can defeat him and they will all Rest in Peace at In Your House. The distraction allows Vader to jump Bret and throw him out of the ring. Just as we go to a commercial break, Stone Cold runs down to ringside and attacks Bret right in front of the referee but after the break the match continues with no disqualification. Stone Cold distracts Bret again coming through the crowd but it backfires and he distracts Vader too. The big man misses his moonsault and that’s enough to allow Bret to crawl into the cover and win the match.