Monday Night Raw - January 6th 1997

• The first Raw of 1997 kicks off with Vader’s face filling the screen. He goes one on one with Bret Hart tonight and Shawn Michaels has already said he’ll be at ringside. This Raw actually marks the show’s 4th anniversary but there’s no mention of it during the episode.
• In other news the first ever episode of Shotgun Saturday Night premiered the weekend before. It was a premiere show for the first 18 months of its life so I’m sure it’ll come up periodically but the selling point was that it was live in New York City in the middle of the night club and was presented as far more “Attitude era” for lack of a better term. Ahmed Johnson delivered a Pearl River Plunge onto the roof of a parked car to a member of the Nation and Marlena exposed her breasts! (not really, obviously)

• In the opening match, Mankind (with Paul Bearer) takes on one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart. This match highlights two things; most of the WWF’s top talents at this time were heels and the fans didn’t care. The good guys were getting booed and the bad guys were getting cheered. It’s still early days but this is already becoming the wild west. This is a good match with Owen going for the Sharpshooter early and using weapons on the outside to gain an advantage. Mankind battles through it and returns the favour. Mick Foley talked a lot about Owen Hart in his first book and part of their comedy was using weapons which shouldn’t hurt but selling them like they did, such as big bags of popcorn or candy floss. There’s none of that in this match but Mankind did use a plastic drinks tray at one point. Mankind scores with a piledriver to pick up the win in a fun match.

• Backstage, Shawn Michaels is with Jose Lothario and his son and says he will be at ringside for tonight’s Bret Hart main event however he promises not to get involved. Do you believe him? 
• The still undefeated Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon take on the team of “Diesel” and “Razor Ramon” with the Honky Tonk Man on commentary. He’s still on the look out for a star to mentor and manage to the top of the WWF. I feel like this fake Razor and Diesel gimmick could have worked if they committed a little more and talked about them like they were the originals but Vince talks about them like they’re rookies we’ve never seen before. They should be talking about all the titles Diesel and Razor have held and their epic PPV matches against people like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. They could have at least made this funny. The newcomers pick up the win with an assisted double team off the top rope - Furnas holds Razor for Lafon’s clothesline. 
• While Bret Hart speaks to us from backstage about Shawn Michaels, basically daring him to get involved in tonight’s match with Vader, Sycho Sid’s music plays to interrupt him which Bret seems very mad about. He’s sick of being interrupted. The reason for Sid’s music is that Jim Ross is about to interview him in the ring. The WWF Champion remains crazy popular despite his heel antics. Here’s your weekly reminder that I love Sid. Much like last week with Vince, his music continues to play softly in the background while he and JR chat. Is he concerned about going into HBK’s hometown and facing a hostile crowd? Sid is afraid of no man and nothing on this planet. I believe him. He issues no apology for what he did to Jose Lothario at the Survivor Series; with the WWF title on the line you must do what it takes. “The day I was born, I was born The Man!” Awesome line. It feels like the segment is over but Shawn Michaels comes out. The reason Jose and his son are here tonight is because they were expecting an apology from Sid. Sid has Jose with him and he kind of blanks Sid and heads straight to the announce desk for commentary duties in the main event. Jose actually joins the Spanish announce team. Michaels has a dance on the announce desk and Sid laughs hysterically. He apologises but not for what he did, he apologises for what he’s going to do at the Royal Rumble. 

• While Bret makes his entrance Shawn puts Vince on the spot and asks him who started it between himself and Bret (Bret did, at least on TV) and mocks his “nice white boots” which doesn’t really match his pink and black gear though I think his point is probably more about how babyfaces wear white and Bret is no babyface these days. Vader doesn’t have Jim Cornette with him tonight because on WWF Superstars Cornette got in Undertaker’s face and received a Tombstone for it. With Shawn at ringside, Stone Cold Steve Austin is shown watching from backstage too deep into the match. Bret has a lot of enemies! Vader dominates Bret and sets up the Vader Bomb but Bret gets his knees up into the tummy to block it and start his comeback. This match breaks down into absolute chaos as Sycho Sid comes down and abducts a camera man. What is he planning? Stone Cold Steve Austin runs down and gives Bret a Stone Cold Stunner on the entrance ramp which in turn leads to a Vader Bomb. Vader pins Bret Hart. Michaels isn’t mad at seeing Bret suffer and lose but he is when we find out what Sid is up to with that camera man - he attacks Jose Lothario’s son! He gives him a brutal looking powerbomb onto a wooden table (which didn’t break) and after a commercial break HBK is back there checking on Pete, worked up and furious. There’s some audio issues so we can’t hear what he’s shouting but it appears to be that he is going to kick Sid’s teeth down his throat. 

Monday Night Raw - January 13th 1997

• Raw kicks off with a big tag team match of Intercontinental Champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Wildman Marc Mero and Goldust. Vince does mention Mero and Goldust’s previous issues but Goldust is a babyface now so they’re mates. The match goes back and forth for the better part of 20 minutes but when it breaks down, Goldust is so focused on beating up HHH he gets himself disqualified. Goldust actually throws a couple of punches at Mero for trying to calm him down but the Wildman weirdly just no-sells them and continues to play the reasonable babyface.
• Shawn Michaels is live at a big fan event in San Antonio 6 days before the Royal Rumble. Sid is in Texas too and cuts a pre-recorded interview from the Alamodome and describes how he’s going to destroy Michaels in front of his friends and family. Michaels is all worked up and with his fans cheering him on (mostly girls blowing kisses at him) he tells Sid that he isn’t as big as him but he can fight as low down and dirty as he has to regain the WWF Championship. He says that Sid will be the least popular man in San Antonio and that he’ll be picking his teeth out of his stool sample when he’s done with him.

• Bret Hart limps to the ring to be on commentary for the next match. Why is he limping? Thats because on Superstars after defeating The Sultan Stone Cold Steve Austin attacked him and wrapped a steel chair around his ankle just like he did to Brian Pillman. The match is one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions The British Bulldog vs. the rookie Rocky Maivia. Bret immediately heaps praise on Rocky and how talented he is and how much potential he has. On Shotgun Saturday Night, Mero and Sable had a big falling out with the Wildman walking out and leaving her alone in the ring. Rocky consoled her and then Mero came back and got the wrong end of the stick, attacking Maivia. Surely just a misunderstanding or is Marc Mero going to turn heel? And with all the attention Sunny was giving Rocky, does Sable have her eyes on him too? His gimmick is basically that he’s young and beautiful. He bounces Bulldog around the ring with deep armdrags and focuses on the shoulder. Bulldog actually bails out of the ring twice and considers leaving, having a hard time with the rookie. His tag team partner Owen Hart comes down to ringside and stands in front of Bret, glaring at him. Bret seems distracted and a little thrown off by Owen’s presence. Is Owen there to stop Bret from interfering or is he there to stop Bulldog and Bret from getting any more friendly after they did a month or so ago? Stone Cold Steve Austin sneaks to ringside and clips Bulldog’s leg unnoticed by the referee. He goes down but Rocky just barely makes it back into the ring, winning by count out. Owen Hart checks on Bulldog as Bret yells at him for not watching Bulldog's back and not seeing Austin coming. Stone Cold is after the entire Hart family! 

• Backstage Faarooq and The Nation of Domination talk about unity. Faarooq is ready for Ahmed Johnson and Crush will *ahem* crush The Undertaker tonight. That match is next and its the sort of slow, plodding big man vs. big man match you’d expect between these two. Crush slowly works over The Undertaker inside the ring and out while Honky Tonk and Vince on commentary discuss the Royal Rumble match. Vader appears at the top of the entrance ramp, watching this match from afar. Crush is no match for The Undertaker who puts him down with a big chokeslam but we’ll never know if that would have gotten the three count as The Nation rushes the ring and attacks the Deadman. Vader runs down to join in too and Undertaker absorbs quite a beating and a pair of Vader Bombs. Ahmed Johnson runs down with his 2x4 to try and save the day but is quickly overwhelmed by the numbers and he’s beaten down too with Faarooq focusing his assault on Ahmed’s recently injured kidney. Raw ends with the Nation and Vader laying into their respective PPV opponents with the 2x4.