Monday Night Raw - February 17th 1997

• Raw wastes no time, kicking off with a WWF Championship match! Last night Bret Hart won the vacant WWF title in an awesome four way and now Sid gets his own rematch 24 hours later. This is also the era where Raw was live one week and taped the following so Jim Ross emphasises that this episode of Raw is LIVE LIVE LIVE about 12 times in the first 5 minutes of the show. The show starts with chaos as moments before the match begins, Stone Cold Steve Austin rushes the ring, attacking Bret Hart. In the melee, Sid hits Austin too so he clips the challenger’s knee with a chop block. Sid hits the deck and sells his knee like it’s been snapped in half and once referees and officials manage to get Austin away from ringside, things settle and its unclear whether this match will be able to take place! JR and Lawler fill some time, recapping Michaels’ vacating the title last week and the epic four way main event from the previous evening’s PPV. After that, Sid is backstage and in an interview with Kevin Kelly he screams that even if his leg is broken, that won’t stop him from facing Bret Hart tonight and his destiny of regaining the WWF Championship. That match is still to come, but what about Sid’s knee?

• Marc Mero (with the lovely Sable) takes on Savio Vega (with the less lovely Nation of Domination). Much like last night, JR and King make a point of noting Sable’s new attitude. She kicked Undertaker in the ribs during a match with Mero a few weeks ago, and slapped Leif Cassidy last night. Mero looks like he might have hurt his leg on a dive to the outside but shakes it off to continue the match. Sable throws some kicks at the Nation when they try to interfere so she has to dive into the ring to escape them. The referee calls for the bell and it seems like the Nation is about to assault both her and Mero but Ahmed Johnson runs down with his new trademark 2x4 to chase them off and rescue the couple. Later in the show, Faarooq challenges Ahmed Johnson at Wrestlemania to a Chicago Street Fight, which I’m sure Ahmed will be more than happy to accept.

• JR and Lawler speak to Bret Hart backstage and ask what he makes of Stone Cold attacking him every chance he gets, and of his title match later tonight. Bret says he needs to just get used to Austin coming after him and he’ll take it one match at a time. There’s some news here; The Undertaker will challenge for the WWF title at Wrestlemania so the winner of tonight’s title match will likely be the one facing him! Undertaker did get screwed out of the gold last night so giving him that title match seems fair enough to me?
• Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia faces Leif Cassidy. I assume this is a non-title match because why is Leif getting a shot at the gold? Before the match begins Sunny is brought out to act as the special guest time keeper. She hosts the weekend shows like Livewire but the company is still trying to find a permanent use for her; I don’t know why they stopped using her as a manager but I assume like most things in this era it was because of a bunch of backstage shenanigans. Jim Ross mentions the very real stat that at the time, Sunny was “the most downloaded celebrity in AOL history”. Probably not for her personality. During this match Hunter Hearst Helmsley speaks to us from backstage via an insert promo and says that Rocky got lucky last night and he only beat HHH because of Goldust. That is probably true, in fairness to Hunter. He’s not done with Goldust. Leif slowly works over Rocky with “the young plucky underdog” battling to overcome the odds of *checks notes* Leif Cassidy. Maivia picks up the win with a running shoulder breaker. Sunny does a great job of ringing the ring bell at the end of the match. 

• A fan in the front row accosted Lawler and JR with an “ECW RULES” sign so King snatches it and takes some time to run down ECW, saying 90% of people have never heard of this crappy wrestling company and says its a haven for misfits and losers who can’t make it to the WWF. Lawler issues a challenge and says that if they’re so good he dares them to show up in the WWF; a personal invitation to next week’s Raw which just so happens to be in the Manhattan Centre in New York city. Later in the show during the Owen Hart match, an “ECW representative” calls in to speak to Lawler. He identifies himself as Paul E. Heyman and that he and all of his ECW athletes WILL be on Raw next week to confront him. Lawler jokingly insults the performers but mentions The Blue Meanie, Sandman and Sabu by name. So he DOES know who they are! Heyman throws of an insult at Vince McMahon saying he hides behind representatives and says that Lawler might not be there himself if “the neighborhood watch finds out he’s in the city” which is a joke about Lawler famously being a bit of a sex pest and prefering younger girls. It’s the kind of thing that nowadays would have ended his career about 12 times over but he got away with it in the 80s and 90s. 

• Kevin Kelly interviews Goldust and Marlena in the ring. Goldust says that Hunter Hearst Helmsley made an indecent proposal to Marlena and he will pay for it because all the money in the world can’t buy Marlena. She finally speaks and says that people have wondered about their relationship since the debut. She says that they like to play games with people but assures us that Goldust is ALL man. Helmsley comes down to the ring, telling Goldust he cost him the Intercontinental title and if he wants Marlena he’ll take her. He throws coffee in Goldust’s face and attacks him in the ring right in front of Marlena. He’s very vicious with his punches and kicks and drives him into the mat with a Pedigree. Marlena slaps him in the face but pays for it when the same huge woman from last night comes from behind, picking up Marlena and shaking her like a rag doll. HHH thinks its hilarious and the ring fills with security and officials, dragging this mystery woman off of Marlena. JR keeps calling her an “amazon” but Lawler goes with “is that even a woman?” which is still very insulting and uncool. She’s dragged out of the arena as both Lawler and Ross say she needs to go to jail. Poor Marlena might have broken ribs and later in the show, Jim Ross sadly tells us that Marlena is coughing up blood.

• The Headbangers Mosh and Thrasher take on The Hardy Boyz - that’s right folks. Matt and Jeff Hardy who have been on TV a few times mostly as jobbers are now a full time tag team and have wrestled a bit on the weekend shows. Mosh and Thrasher dominate the two youngsters - they’re both barely 20 years old here - and slam them around. You can hear a few girly squeals for blonde Jeff which was a sign of things to come. The Headbangers hit the Mosh pit on him; Mosh does a powerbomb and Thrasher comes off the top with a leg drop, an awesome looking move. That’s enough to keep Jeff down for the three, obviously. 

• For the second time tonight, Sid makes his entrance for the WWF title match but also for the second time tonight Stone Cold ruins it. He attacks Bret Hart backstage and it takes an army of referees, Sid running backstage to help and Vince McMahon himself to finally break up the fighting! After a commercial break Gorilla Monsoon assures us that the WWF title match WILL happen tonight come hell or high water. The third time is the charm I guess. Later Stone Cold cuts a furious promo about how he won the Royal Rumble so when Michaels vacated the title HE should be the WWF Champion. He accuses the company of holding him back because he doesn’t smile for the PR photoshoots and promises to open up a whole keg of whoop-ass on the entire WWF. 

• Flash Funk faces one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions, the Slammy Award winning Owen Hart who comes out with both Tag Team title belts because he’s awesome. They’ve been teasing Owen and Bulldog turning on each other for a couple of months now and it really came to a head last night; they just barely held onto the Tag Team titles but it feels like a matter of time before they split. Bulldog comes down to the ring and chases Clarence Mason away from the ring, insisting on taking his place and supporting his partner instead. He seems to put aside all of these issues, hitting Flash with one of Owen’s Slammys and then holding his foot to help Owen with the pin too. Now it’s Owen’s turn to have a problem with that; he’s not happy that Bulldog cheated on his behalf because he was sure he had the match won fair and square. It was a good match too, with some close near falls that popped the crowd mostly after Flash’s top rope assault.

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley faces Bart Gunn. Jim Ross takes a moment to pull HHH aside before the match begins and asks him directly if he is associated with the woman who has attacked Marlena twice now. He denies any knowledge of her actions so I guess that’s that? (it’s not). Honky Tonk Man joins commentary for this match and talks about his ongoing mission to find a wrestler to manage. He needs it to be someone “in his own image” and not just a great wrestler but a great entertainer too. Goldust runs down and chases HHH out of the ring, around the ring and up through the crowd. That should be a disqualification surely but the referee just counts Helmsley out; Bart Gunn wins! 
• Dr. James Andrews provides a medical update on Shawn Michaels’ knee which he says is an ongoing issue going back five years. It’s good news for HBK fans; he doesn’t need surgery at this time. It’s not ruled out at this point but they’re going to rehab and re-evaluate in six weeks. He never needed surgery of course; it was a nagging issue that hadn’t gotten any better or worse in years and he chose now to get it looked into because he was unhappy with the Wrestlemania booking plans. I discussed that last week when he vacated the title and I’m sure I’ll cover it again at Wrestlemania 13.

• In the main event FINALLY Bret and Sid are able to lock up and begin their match. Bret is sore from last night’s PPV and Sid has a sore knee from earlier tonight so they’re on more even ground than they should be. Bret works on Sid’s leg, picking him apart both in the ring and out of the ring and using the ring post when locking in a figure four. Stone Cold comes down to the ring AGAIN just as Sid is mounting his comeback and distracts him so Bret is able to lock him in the Sharpshooter. Bret has the match won but Austin is a man possessed and gets up onto the apron, blasting Bret with a steel chair to break the hold, unseen by the referee! Sid drills Bret with an awesome powerbomb and Sid becomes a two time WWF Champion, thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin! That not only means Bret lost his title 24 hours after winning it but this is the historic first ever WWF title change on Raw and it locks in the Wrestlemania 13 main event - Sycho Sid vs. The Undertaker. Almost on cue the Deadman arrives and the two get face to face and nose to nose. This was a good episode of Raw; lots happening and lots set up for Wrestlemania.

Monday Night Raw - February 24th 1997

• This is a historic Raw for a few reasons, such as the ECW Invasion and the return to its original home in the Manhattan Centre but it’s also the final Raw to feature the original arena layout with the entrance being close to the ring, offset to the corner with the huge RAW letters and no titantron. Next week’s Raw is basically a televised house show from Berlin Germany and the final show to feature the original Raw theme song but the week after? Raw is War, ladies and gentlemen. 
• Raw kicks off back in its original home of the Manhattan Centre in New York city. At a glance the crowd is full of ECW t-shirts and merchandise. This is an ECW crowd which will be important later! The opening match is the new team of the New Blackjacks, Blackjack Windham and Blackjack Bradshaw vs. The Godwins, Henry and Phineas. Vince McMahon is back on commentary this week with Jerry Lawler. Also on hand tonight is UFC fighter and “world’s most dangerous man” Ken Shamrock which is another important debut! The Blackjacks win with a big clothesline but Phineas actually had his foot on the ropes which the referee didn’t see. That should have broken the pin so The Godwins slop the referee for the bad call.
• After a commercial break, Paul Heyman and the ECW Tag Team Champions Perry Saturn and Kronus come through the crowd, lay out a camera man and Heyman screams that ECW is in the house! Paul Heyman’s Raw debut! He introduces the first ECW match here on WWF Raw which is Little Guido from the Full Blooded Italians vs. Big Stevie Cool from the bWo, which is ECW’s parody of WCW’s nWo. So we get the surreal sight of The Blue Meanie doing an impression of Razor Ramon on WWF Raw. As this match continues the ECW Champion Raven comes out for a closer look; he’s been on this show before of course, that’s the artist formally known as Johnny Polo. Heyman has some fun throwing out lines you’d normally never hear on WWF TV in this era including jokes about Goldust’s perceived homosexuality. Jesus. Stevie wins with the superkick.

• Honky Tonk Man officiates an arm wrestling contest between Sunny and Marlena, who still has injured ribs from last week’s attack. During the previous match Goldust gave his thoughts on the matter, calling the woman who attacked her last week “it” which is needlessly mean. Sunny cuts a promo before the contest making fun of all the disgusting, out of shape New Yorkers and tells them to take a look at a real woman before disrobing into her skimpy arm wrestling outfit. Marlena is also wearing different attire to her normal ball gown but is a lot more covered up; funny given what Marlena aka Terri became famous for later in his career which was usually wearing extremely revealing outfits. They “compete” and go back and forth but just as it looks like Marlena might win, Sunny throws powder in her face. Savio Vega comes out and gets really creepy towards Marlena - he has a match with Goldust next - so the golden one runs down and attacks Savio to kick off this match. Savio has fellow Nation members at ringside to watch his back and Miguel Perez, whoever he is, joins commentary to talk about Savio and how disappointed in him both he and all his fellow Puerto Ricans are. This is a lot happening on this episode of Raw and most of it seems to be happening all at once! Goldust has an altercation with Crush on the outside so the big man rushes the ring and Goldust wins by disqualification. Crush and Savio beat him up two on one until Miguel Perez gets off commentary and puts down Savio with a missile dropkick to rescue Goldust! So I guess he’s a new superstar, with a similar background to Savio Vega. 

• Jerry Lawler goes over to interview Ken Shamrock and brags about how they trained together and how Lawler taught him everything he knows. Shamrock has a hard time keeping a straight face and laughs at the King’s antics, repeating over and over that he doesn’t even know him and that he's a liar. The crowd chanted Burger King at him to end the segment. We’ll see more of UFC Champion Ken Shamrock soon enough. 

• Paul Heyman greets us coming back from the commercial saying that this show has SUCKED without ECW. The next match is Mikey Whipwreck vs. the human suplex machine Taz! Bill Alfonso relentlessly blows his whistle at ringside which is VERY annoying. Heyman joins commentary again and promotes ECW’s PPV which is the point of this collusion to begin with. Lawler mocks Taz’s height so Heyman says that's ridiculous coming from “a guy who’s 5”10 and main evented a territory for 76 years”. Taz throws Mikey around with a string of brutal looking suplexes until his PPV opponent Sabu comes out and, in a famous botch, slips off the giant R in the Raw entrance way and lands on Team Taz. The distraction doesn’t save Whipwreck and Taz finishes him off with another big suplex and locks in the Tazmission for the submission victory. 

• Vince promoted a big surprise throughout the show and it arrived in the form of The Headbanger’s opponent for the next match; Roadwarrior Hawk, Roadwarrior Animal, the Legion of Doom! Pretty cool to see the LOD still close to their prime get a big welcome from the fans in New York. This is a competitive match. I thought Hawk and Animal would blow through Mosh and Thrasher but the Headbangers put up a good fight and actually controlled a big chunk of this match. The fans chanted multiple anti-WCW things during this match which I’m sure made Vince very happy including “Nitro sucks”, “Hogan sucks” and “Bishoff sucks”. The match ends via a double count out when both teams won’t stop fighting on the outside but the LOD aren’t satisfied with that and kill Mosh with the Doomsday Device. A cool looking move but very dangerous. 

• The next ECW match is D-Von Dudley vs. Tommy Dreamer (with his real life wife Beulah) This is an “extreme” match but very much the WWF version of it rather than the blood and guts ECW gave us. Dreamer uses a steel chair, ring steps and a ring bell. Jerry Lawler of all people gets vocal about defending the sanctity of professional wrestling and he and Heyman get into a heated argument about ECW and this hardcore style of wrestling. Lawler spouts his “extremely crappy wrestling” line as Heyman calls him a court jester and a bad comedian. It gets quite heated and nasty between them and I can assure you all that the disdain between these men and from Lawler directed at ECW was entirely legitimate. Dreamer picks up the win with a nice DDT onto a steel chair but the finish is mostly missed because the WWF chose that moment to have The Undertaker speak to us from backstage. Bubba Ray Dudley runs down to help his brother and they lay out Dreamer with the 3D! Sandman comes out to make the save, drinking beat and swinging his singapore cane. He manages to fight off The Dudleyz with a pair of stiff chair shots and that ends the ECW involvement in this show. Heyman gets one last plug in for his PPV and then, sick of Lawler’s jibes, takes a swing at him and has to be held back by Vince McMahon! It’s chaotic at ringside as we cut to a commercial break and finally, with that out of the way, the show settles back down to business as normal. Lawler still hasn’t learned his lesson and invites ECW to come back and face him any time! 

• After a long recap of last week’s shenanigans involving the WWF Championship and Bret Hart losing the title Vince makes the two big Mania matches official; Sid vs. Undertaker for the WWF Championship and Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart in a no holds barred match. Todd Pettengill interviews Ken Shamrock properly after Lawler’s failed attempt earlier and gives some love to his wife (who has laryngitis and is unable to speak) and his father Bob. Todd actually mentions that the Bret vs. Austin match is a submission match which isn’t what Vince said a moment ago. Todd is right. He asks for Shamrock’s expert opinion on the two big Wrestlemania matches; Undertaker will win because he’s the better athlete but he can’t pick a winner between Hart and Austin because they’re both so tough. Insightful. Faarooq enters with the Nation for the main event match and takes a moment to get in Shamrock’s face and insults both him and the UFC, daring him to get in the ring. He might just get his wish. The main event is Faarooq vs. The Undertaker. With some help from The Nation on the outside Faarooq is able to dominate the Deadman and beat him down with clubs and slams and lots of basic, heel moves. He works on Undertaker’s legs a little to soften him up more. Undertaker mounts a come back after kicking the ring steps back into Faarooq’s face and no-selling a piledriver but we’ll never know how this match would have ended as Savio Vega and Crush rush the ring to attack him and cause the disqualification. The LOD run down to save him and Raw ends with Hawk, Animal and The Undertaker clearing the Nation out of the ring. I want to make mention of someone I’ve pointed out before too; young D’Lo Brown is the most prominent member of the Nation B-Squad and I look forward to his actual debut! 

Monday Night Raw - March 3rd 1997

• Raw kicks off with a nice video package about Berlin and about the tournament to crown the first ever WWF European Champion. Enjoy this nice bit of emotional build up and lovely song. 

• The opening match is Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Bret Hart. The Honky Tonk Man joins commentary for this one which he’s done a few times during HHH matches lately. It feels like he’s ramping up to take him on as his protege. The matches on this episode of Raw were basically all taped at house shows across the tour of Germany so the picture quality is not what it normally is. It’s well put together and peppering in pre-taped content and interviews you’d never really know. This is a long, drawn out match with both men showing off their technical skills. I found it a bit slow and dull but I’m sure a lot of people would love seeing Triple H and Bret Hart in a proper, 15 minute+ technical wrestling match. Bret gets a little too intense and stomps HHH in the corner, refusing to break the attack and shoves the referee out of his way. That’s enough to give HHH the victory via disqualification. The Hitman is very worked up about Stone Cold and keeps hammering on Helmsley until the same muscular mystery woman comes out to defend him. HHH has said they have no link but this is the third time she’s helped him, and the first that didn’t involve Marlena so it seems like her connection is with Hunter himself. They even leave together. 

• Paul Bearer has a big night as both of his men have title matches tonight; Mankind faces Sycho Sid for the WWF Championship later but for now, Vader challenges Rocky Maivia for the Intercontinental Championship. The commentary trio (Honky is still there) talk about this match like it's a foregone conclusion and Vader is already the new champion. There’s a little history here as earlier on this same tour, Vader beat Rocky to advance in the European Championship tournament (before losing to finalist Bulldog, I’ll talk about that tournament properly in the main event). The story of this match is the same as Rocky’s matches with Helmsley where Vader hammers him but he’s so tough and plucky and resilient that he cannot be finished off. During this match Jim Ross drops two “WWF in the future” references, calling Maivia “The Rock” twice and referring to next week’s show as “Raw is War”. I know the big rebrand is coming very soon, hopefully next week! Rocky fights back with a big crossbody and a dropkick to send Vader to the outside and as they fight outside the ring, Mankind runs down and hits Maivia with the urn getting his partner disqualified! Vader doesn’t look happy about it but keeps beating up Rocky as Mankind disappears to the back. Vince McMahon mentions that they will be “tag team partners at Wrestlemania” so I guess that match has been made but not mentioned on Raw yet. I’m sure they’ll run down the whole Wrestlemania card so far soon enough. A lot still happens on the weekend shows Shotgun Saturday Night as well as Superstars and Livewire on Sundays which I don’t have access to. 

• After a recap of all of ECW’s invasion of Raw next week, Jerry Lawler calls in and mentions that next week on Raw is War (there it is again!) he’ll have a confrontation with Paul E. Dangerously. I kept calling him Heyman which is his real name and the one I know him best as but Paul E. Dangerously was always his performer name, mostly as a manager in WCW. 
• The Sultan (no Bob Backlund or Iron Sheik through, they didn’t want to pay their airfare) faces Flash Funk (with no Funkettes because if they didn’t pay to bring over two former WWF Champions they’re definitely not bringing over Flash Funk’s entrance dancers). The Sultan picks up the win with the camel clutch.
• Later tonight Stone Cold is supposed to speak to us from WWF’s TV studios back in the states and to build that up Vince shows footage from last October when he was at the TV studios to talk about Brian Pillman and went nuts, beating up staff and destroying equipment. Elsewhere, Sycho Sid gives his thoughts on his match with Mankind tonight; Mankind speaks German, did you know that? Sid has no feat of the unknown and will beat Mankind, just like The Undertaker at Wrestlemania.

• Ahmed Johnson comes down to the ring for an interview where he will hopefully accept Faarooq’s challenge to a Chicago Street Fight at Wrestlemania. Vince smartly points out that he’d be a fool to accept given that every fight he’s had with Faarooq has been a gang attack. Ahmed obviously accepts BUT says he won’t be coming alone. He says he’ll have some backup for the street fight at Wrestlemania. The promo is a little delayed because the interviewer is German and someone has to translate everything Ahmed says over the arena speaks for the fans in attendance. He does manage to lead them in a You’re going down chant at least. So who will be Ahmed’s backup at Wrestlemania? Vince seems to give us the answer by recapping the return of the Legion of Doom last week and showing their promo from Shotgun Saturday Night. Animal and Hawk are from Chicago, love a street fight and call out the Nation of Domination by name so it doesn’t feel like a spoiler to tell you all now; yeah, it’s a six man tag team street fight. 

• Here’s a cool commercial for Wrestlemania 13 which hits on the three biggest matches confirmed so far;

• Sycho Sid defends the WWF Championship against Mankind. Before the match Mankind cuts a promo in German where he says he wants to win the title not just to be champion but to face his old rival The Undertaker again at Wrestlemania. Stone Cold Steve Austin chimes in during this match and rants angrily about the treatment he’s endured, having to fly in economy, in a seat next to the bathroom and eating a crappy little packed lunch which was provided to him. He is the best piece of wrestling talent in the world and deserves better treatment. His angry crusade against “the powers that be” as a side quest while he tries to ruin Bret Hart’s life makes for some damn entertaining promos. Meanwhile Sid and Mankind have a brutal match with Mick letting the big man throw him around and slam him on the outside of the ring. He takes some rough bumps and consequentially this is a decent Sid match; he gets a lot of abuse for being a bad wrestler which, in a lot of ways, he was but he had good matches with Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and now Mankind so clearly with the right opponent he had something to offer. Or I’m just a huge Sid fan. So is Germany who chants for him while Mankind grinds him down with a sleeper hold. Mankind locks in the Mandible Claw but Sid fights him off and hits the Powerbomb to pick up the win. I feel like we haven’t seen much of Mankind since his feud with Undertaker ended back at Survivor Series but that’s because he was working through an injury and not wrestling as often. Sid retains the WWF Championship match in a fun house show type match and gets a big babyface reaction. 

• Stone Cold’s promo from WWF Studios is awesome and I can’t do it justice so here it is for you to enjoy in all of its glory.

• In the main event, the tournament finals for the WWF European Championship. To reach this final Owen defeated Flash Funk and his brother Bret (by count out) whereas Bulldog had to defeat Mankind and Vader. On WWF Superstars during a match between Bulldog and Savio Vega, the Nation cheated to beat Bulldog. Clarence Mason acted as manager for both groups and so Bulldog called him out on letting his clients cheat to beat his OTHER client. He fired Clarence Mason which Owen Hart wasn’t happy about, further driving a wedge between the Tag Team Champions who now have to wrestle for the first new Championship the WWF has introduced in a very, very long time. The original plan for this title was for it to only be defended on European tours but as we will see in the coming months that didn’t last. The two of them lock up and chain wrestle going counter for counter and hold for hold. Its very good. Owen breaks out some of his old Rocket babyface offense and runs up onto the ropes, springboarding around but the European fans are strongly behind Bulldog. Vince steps his game up on commentary to match JR, talking about how well these men must know each other and how that informs their gameplan and strategy. Honky Tonk Man isn’t bad either and focuses on how important the title belt and the prestige of being the first European Champion is. This match might be the final blow to this team who have been teetering on the edge for a while regardless of who wins. The two of them are very respectful, giving each other a chance to get back to their feet and even holding the ropes for each other to get back in the ring after being thrown to the outside. It’s all fair and square until Owen fakes a knee injury to suck Bulldog in and jumps him. The intensity picks up from there with them shoving and slapping each other. The story progresses from there with them keeping things clean but rising in intensity as we build towards the finish. Owen connects with the enziguri headkick and locks in the Sharpshooter but Bulldog crawls to the ropes to break it and counters a piledriver attempt into the over the shoulder powerslam. Owen kicks out! I was sure that was the end! Owen counters into a roll up, Bulldog reverses that and THAT ends it. The British Bulldog becomes the first ever WWF European Champion in probably the best Raw main event ever, to this point. Owen is devastated but seeing Bulldog celebrate with both his title belts, Owen grabs his own Tag Title belt and the two of them shake hands and celebrate together. Can Bulldog trust Owen Hart? The commentators don’t seem to think so but it looks like for now, Owen and Bulldog are still friends.

Raw is War - March 10th 1997

• This is the 200th episode of Monday Night Raw and marks a huge rebrand for the show. There’s new opening credits, a new name and yes a whole new look. Welcome to Raw is War! For fans of the Attitude era this intro, the booming pyro in the arena, the music and the massive stage inside the much larger looking arena will be instantly familiar. Awesome stuff.

• The first man to enter this whole new arena? The WWF Champion Sycho Sid who tonight will team up with his Wrestlemania opponent The Undertaker against Mankind and Vader. That’s an awesome main event. Jim Ross interviews the champion in the ring who is very reluctant to team with Undertaker tonight. Sid says that he is no fool and suggests that with Paul Bearer, Mankind and Vader around he smells something fishy! Is he suggesting that The Undertaker might be rejoining Paul Bearer’s family? That seems like a stretch. He says he will not fall for this trap and Undertaker will be another of his victims at Wrestlemania. The Undertaker has a response and his music hits. The crowd goes wild; this episode of Raw already feels like such a dramatic shift in presentation from the previous era. I’m very into it, obviously. Undertaker accuses Sid of being scared of him, and tells him to stay away from the main event and he’ll take care of Mankind and Vader all by himself because he doesn’t trust Sid either. They’re interrupted by Paul Bearer, Vader and Mankind who accuses them both of being cowards. He mentions that Mankind and Vader will be the next Tag Team Champions (so that’s another match confirmed for Wrestlemania) and then Vader and Mankind rush the ring and attack their opponents. The brawl ends with Undertaker and Sid on top and Vince confirms that despite their reluctance to team up the main event tag team match WILL go ahead.

• Rocky Maivia faces a no-name jobber (non title match of course) and easily defeats him but the real story is that The Sultan comes out onto the stage alongside his two managers. Bob Backlund lectures Rocky on his poor example and once the match is over Backlund and Shied send Sultan down to the ring to attack Maivia. He escapes unscathed and spots his dad’s old tag team championship partner Tony Atlas in the crowd and pulls him up with him to leave together. Rocky Maivia will defend the Intercontinental Championship against The Sultan at Wrestlemania, which is news to me but I guess The Sultan has won more matches than he’s lost. 
• Just like at the Royal Rumble a couple of months ago the WWF’s partnership with AAA is demonstrated with a six man tag team match. It’s not the same six men as the match at the Rumble but of note in this match is Hector Garza, the father and uncle of current WWE superstars Angel and Berto. 
• During that previous match the same muscular woman who has been helping out Hunter Hearst Helmsley lately is in the crowd so arena security has her immediately escorted out of the building so that she’s not able to interfere in anything tonight. There’s more big appearances with the return of Brian Pillman who says he’ll be back on Shotgun Saturday Night which he reminds us airs at midnight meaning he can say and do whatever he wants! 

• Ahmed Johnson faces a jobber - the return of the jobber squash tonight? - but it's just a storyline really as while he hammers the guy, The Nation of Domination comes out to witness it. The Nation’s theme song plays for the entire duration of the match and Ahmed stares them down while hitting the Pearl River Plunge which was cool. Faarooq lectures Ahmed about how he doesn’t know what the streets are really like and he has no idea what he has in store for him. Ahmed makes it official who his backup are; the two nastiest, meanest people he could find. It’s Hawk and Animal of the Legion of Doom and they’ll have the whole city of Chicago with them to take on his Nation. Jim Ross hops up into the ring with a microphone to do the interviewing honours. The three of them are in intimidating sight and Hawk and Animal don’t have much to say other than promising to win at Wrestlemania and leading the crowd in LOD chants. 

• Bulldog and Owen battle the Blackjacks in a non-title match. JR speaks to them before the match too and Owen steals Bulldog’s spotlight and tells us not to think about his new European title and focus instead on the Tag Team titles. Bradshaw and Windham cut a bit of a babyface promo and insult Owen for being Canadian and praise Bulldog who I guess is supposed to be the good guy in their potential break up. The challengers for the Tag Team titles at Wrestlemania Vader and Mankind chime in. They say roughly what you’d expect; the champions are not good enough to defeat Vader and Mankind. Vader fears no man and feels no pain, and Mankind loves pain. Vince clearly gets bored of Vader’s promo full of long pauses and repeating himself and actually cuts him off and says “it’s Vader time, yes we get it” to end the promo. The big man is not impressing the boss clearly. The match breaks down and the four of them brawl wildly. The referee calls for the bell and awards the decision via disqualification to the Blackjacks which confuses all three commentators who can’t figure out what happened. I mean if you guys don’t know then I certainly don’t! 

• The ECW Invasion continues and after warning Lawler to stop making fun of him earlier in the show, Taz comes to ringside and attacks King! Sabu, who is supposed to face Taz at ECW’s PPV in April, runs down and springboards off the ropes with a flip, missing both Taz and Jerry and crashing through a table! Lawler is scheduled to have a “debate” with Paul Heyman later tonight.

• Miguel Perez, who made his debut a couple of weeks ago to start a feud with fellow Puerto Rican Savio Vega, faces Leif Cassidy. Miguel might be the hariest wrestler I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, look at that back and arms! He looks like he’s wearing a jumper under his singlet! Miguel picks up the win and Vince McMahon calls him the pride of Puerto Rico. I’m sure.

• Backstage Vince interviews Sycho Sid and asks for his reaction to next week’s main event; a cage match with Bret Hart for the WWF Championship! Sid says he’s taking things one fight at a time and for now he’s focused on Mankind, Vader and Undertaker tonight. Then it’s Bret and then it’ll be Undertaker at Wrestlemania. 
• In the ring, Jim Ross interviews Ken Shamrock. He has big breaking news; the world’s most dangerous man will act as special guest referee for the Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold submission match at Wrestlemania. Shamrock says hello to the fans and says it's an honour and a privilege to be part of the WWF and Wrestlemania. That’s nice of him. He says that he will be very fair and do the best he can. He will not be intimidated by either man. Stone Cold interrupts on the titantron and tells Shamrock that once he’s done beating Bret Hart’s ass he might just sweep the ring with him too. Austin’s speech about how he should be the WWF Champion is in turn interrupted by Bret Hart. The Hitman says that he’s glad he finally gets a chance to talk after three weeks. He mentions the number of fans calling him a crybaby these days and says that all he wants is some justice and he’s going to get it next week by becoming a 5 time WWF Champion. Bret continues to whine and lists all the people who’ve screwed him including Gorilla Monsoon, Shawn Michaels and even Vince McMahon. He tells Shamrock he’s cool with him but if he screws him its the last thing he’ll ever do. Stone Cold comes out onto the stage, gives them both the finger and that ends the segment. This was a good build towards the submission match and it's nice to see Shamrock arrive in the WWF.

• Billy Gunn makes his return to action in a match against Aldo Montoya. We haven’t seen Billy since his neck was injured during that match with Bart last month. I’m still not sure what all of that was about. Honky Tony Man joins commentary for this match and says he’s narrowed down his potential recruits down to about 3 or 4 now. He wants to manage someone to greatness by turning them into his clone. During this match Sunny promotes a new segment on Shotgun, “undercover with Sunny” where she’ll dish out all the dirt and gossip. Meanwhile, Billy picks up the win with a leg drop off the top rope. 
• Backstage Mankind speaks to us and screams that he doesn’t need an urn and he has a better grip on reality than people think. He didn’t crawl out of a boiler room, he’s a man with hopes and dreams and tonight we’ll see the real him! Sadly his promo is cut off by a commercial break; the WWF wasn’t quite as slick with the timing of live episodes as they would become. The six man tag team match earlier actually ended during a replay! 
• Goldust who officially has a match with HHH at Wrestlemania is in action and just as the match begins, Helmsley comes out onto the stage along with the mystery woman who was escorted from the building earlier. It seems that HHH bailed her out of jail and has now brought her into the arena with him. Goldust picks up a quick win with the Curtain Call reverse suplex and then turns his attention right back to Helmsley and this woman. He pulls Marlena into the ring to keep her close to him for safety but it almost backfires when Helmsley attacks Goldust. He and the woman assault him two on one until Marlena gets a huge pop, jumping up onto her back and locking her in a sleeper hold! She struggles to get free and the ring fills with referees and security. This big Amazon of a woman Gorilla presses a referee and throws him at three other referees, knocking them all down! This was good stuff.

• In the ring, Jim Ross moderates “The Great Debate” between Jerry Lawler and Paul E. Dangerously. King starts and he does a decent job of explaining what ECW is to the fans while running it down, calling the roster a bunch of misfits and losers who can’t make it anywhere else and the fans idiots who only like violence and blood. He throws out the old bingo hall line too and I believe with my whole heart that Jerry Lawler means every single word he says here. Paul Heyman finally gets his chance to retort and screams at Lawler that he hasn’t achieved anything in the WWF and none of the company’s success has anything to do with him. He passionately explains that ECW gives the fans all they have and earns their respect. The ring slowly fills up with ECW performers who are desperate to attack him. Heyman takes the gloves off and shoots a little, telling Lawler that home promotion has gone down the toilet and his own sons won’t use his surname because they’re ashamed of him. It breaks down and looks like its about to turn violent so Lawler calls for his friends to come out and help him; the punchline is that no one comes out because Jerry Lawler doesn’t have any friends. This was an awesome segment; it felt so gritty and real and is exactly what the WWF was trying to inject more of in 1997. It’s what they needed to combat WCW.

• The much talked about tag team match is in the main event; Undertaker and Sid can’t get along and Vader and Mankind can. Sid enters first and is attacked two on one by Vader and Mankind until Undertaker finally runs down to make the save, a one man wrecking crew who drills Vader with a chokeslam and throws Mankind into the ring steps before the match settles down with Sid being isolated and worked over. The match breaks down and after some miscommunication, Undertaker chokeslams Sid and then continues to battle Mankind and Vader, diving up and over the top rope to the floor which makes the crowd and commentators go nuts! An incredible dive up and over. Sid isn’t happy and powerbombs Undertaker in the middle of the ring before going back to fighting Mankind himself and that allows Vader to steal the pin and officially win the match! Sid leaves his “partner” laying and so Undertaker sits up and chases off after Sid. Raw ends with Bret Hart dropping some comments about next week, sarcastically saying he got the title match in a cage by “crying about it”. 

• This was a really good episode of Raw I thought and very much the beginning of a new era for the WWF. 

Raw is War - March 17th 1997

• The classic Raw is War intro and a huge amount of pyro welcomes us to week two of the Raw is War era! That instrumental track that plays stayed the same for the next almost 5 years and it's still pretty awesome! Commentary stays quiet for the first few minutes but is handled tonight by Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler. 
• The opening match is the Legion of Doom, Hawk and Animal vs. The Nation of Domination’s Crush and Savio Vega. Vince immediately explains that their respective tag team partners for the six man street fight at Wrestlemania, Faarooq and Ahmed Johnson, are barred from ringside for this match. The LOD rushes the Nation before they even get to the ring and the match starts on the outside with a wild four-man brawl. Ahmed Johnson - dressed a little like TV classic character Mr. Motivator - speaks to us from backstage and says the Chicago Street Fight will feature things we might not even WANT to see. This was the era where Ahmed Johnson approached WWF management with the Wrestling Illustrated newsletter to show them that he had been ranked quite highly in that year’s “Top 500” and was therefore deserving of a much bigger push. They were unreceptive, as you’d imagine. Faarooq has his own comments from backstage; he’s not intimidated by the LOD and says Ahmed only speaks ebonics. I can imagine Vince Russo was the one encouraging all this envelope-pushing race talk. Later in the match Vince tries to throw back to Faarooq a second time but he’s not there. Elsewhere Ahmed Johnson is still watching intently and is jumped from behind by Faarooq with what looks like a nightstick, hammered until referees drag him away.The LOD looks like they have victory in hand setting up the Doomsday Device on Savio but Faarooq runs down with the nightstick to save him. The Nation attacks LOD and beats on them until Ahmed Johnson runs down and saves them with a 2x4. One Nation member takes a Pearl River Plunge and another takes the Doomsday Device. The babyfaces clear the ring and referees stop the brawl from continuing any further. Oh and Hawk and Animal won this match via disqualification.

• At ringside Vince McMahon mentions some rumours about tonight’s main event. It’s scheduled to be a steel cage match between Bret Hart and Sycho Sid for the WWF Championship but “something happened earlier today and President Monsoon is on his way to the arena” and now this might NOT be a title match and Lawler has a second rumour; Shawn Michaels may be on his way to the building as well! It’s all kicking off on Raw is War (You can really see the shift in booking and story style can’t you?)

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley takes on Flash Funk. He has the massive muscular woman with him now as his official second and Vince McMahon finally gives her a name; Chyna. Obviously he doesn’t spell it but we all know it’s not spelt “China” don’t we? I’m delighted to see her as part of Hunter’s act; was always a Chyna fan. Real name Joanie Laurer she was Helmsley’s real-life girlfriend at the time. This is a competitive back and forth match. Both men have matches on Sunday; Flash Funk will wrestle Billy Gunn on the Free for All before the PPV but more importantly, at Wrestlemania HHH goes one on one with Goldust. A trip from Chyna leads to the Pedigree and a victory for Helmsley. Post-match they beat him Flash two on one a little and when referees try to break it up she man handles them too!

• At least one of tonight’s rumours is confirmed as true; Shawn Michaels has arrived at the building! Gorilla Monsoon is still on his way too.
• I have no idea what this is; Mini-Vader and Mini-Mankind battle Mini-Goldust and a masked mini who’s name I didn’t catch. The mini-superstars are all quite tall but the unknown is absolutely tiny. Vince and JR talk about this like none of it is news, and we’ve seen all these performers before? I would imagine on the weekend shows which I’ve not been able to follow. Bizarre. The little guy is an awesome athlete and all three commentators and the crowd got really into this! Big pops for his various moves, flying around in and out of the ring and after he wins the match for his team with a roll up, he chases Mini-Vader up the ramp and dives from it onto the big(ger) man which was very cool. 

• Gorilla Monsoon has now arrived at the arena and he puts all of the rumours to bed; tonight’s main event WILL be for the WWF Championship. It seems that the issues stem from Sid being unhappy about having to defend the title this close to Wrestlemania as is his PPV opponent The Undertaker. It’s messy; he’s worried Sid will lose the title and then their Wrestlemania match won’t be for the WWF title anymore! Stone Cold clearly thinks the same thing and has said more than once that he wants Bret to win the belt so that THEIR match is for the WWF title instead. Intrigue, 6 days before Wrestlemania.

• Kevin Kelly interviews Bret Hart in the ring. I was sure that someone would interrupt this but Bret is left to speak his mind without interruption. He says he’s going to change the face of Wrestlemania by becoming a 5 time WWF champion tonight and he doesn’t care that Undertaker is upset - he’ll give him his title shot in due course - and he’s glad that Ken Shamrock is referee for his submission match so that he can get close and hear Stone Cold Steve Austin scream “I give up” at Wrestlemania. Vince points out the somewhat mixed response to the Hitman who has been characterised as a whiner and crybaby lately. They’re definitely teasing a heel turn for Bret and he did whine a little claiming to have won the Royal Rumble and Fatal Four so he deserves to be in the main event championship match of Wrestlemania. The fact that he’s right isn’t the issue; he’s being a crybaby about it!

• Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia joins commentary for the next match which is his Wrestlemania opponent The Sultan vs. Mike Bell. Rocky doesn’t get much of a chance to speak or show off any charisma as he watches The Sultan squash Bell and offers a bland “thank you” when Vince wishes him luck. The two do have a staredown after the match with Iron Sheik ranting at him. Rocky gets goaded into trying to attack Sultan but Tony Atlas runs down to put a stop to that. 

• Midway through the show they play the Raw is War intro again and set off MORE pyro like the show has begun again. Why? Because the first hour of Raw is War runs unopposed but here as we start the second hour, WCW’s Monday Nitro just started over on TNT. It wasn’t long before WCW decided to extend their run-time to three hours and compete with Raw for the full two hours it was on, plus keeping their own unopposed hour to help with the ratings. People talk about the Monday Night War but unless you were there you really have no grasp of how openly and aggressively the two companies attacked each other with every tool and weapon they had. 
• In the ring, Vince McMahon interviews Shawn Michaels who seems like he’s in a much better mood than he was last month. He says he’s found his smile and plans on bringing it with him everywhere he goes from now on. He doesn’t need knee surgery, he’s in a good mood and all the love from the fans has helped him. He says that he expects to be back in the ring within a couple of months and has some fun with Vince McMahon, teasing him about trying to do Wrestlemania without him and inserting himself as the special guest commentator for the WWF title main event. He also says he’ll be at the Slammy awards (which is a TV special on the USA Network on Friday, I won’t be covering it) which is nice of him. He dances around the ring and shows no signs of having a bad knee because, as I’ve discussed, there was never anything wrong with it. 

• British Bulldog (with his Tag Team Championship partner Owen Hart) battles Vader (with his fellow challenger for those same titles at Wrestlemania Mankind and Paul Bearer). A battle of two power houses and Owen and Bulldog find themselves in a weird spot where they’re technically heels but with the loss of Clarence Mason as manager and the recent issues between them making fans cheer for Bulldog, they are ALMOST babyfaces and facing a heel team at Wrestlemania. Bulldog is freaky strong and hits a delayed vertical suplex holding the enormous Vader up for a long, long time. He continues to throw Vader around but when he sets up the running powerslam, Mankind gets involved. Owen joins in too and the match ends via disqualification. The four men brawl but when Paul Bearer tries to get involved the European Champion knocks him down and grabs Bearer’s urn to use as a weapon knocking out Mankind and Vader with it. 

• Ken Shamrock joins commentary to watch Billy Gunn fight a jobber. That’s not really the point, Shamrock is here to talk about the Austin/Hart match and the fact that he may now be refereeing the WWF Championship match at Wrestlemania if Bret is victorious tonight. Billy is really aggressive, talking trash to Ken Shamrock and hammering the jobber before making him submit with an armbar. It seems like perhaps they’re setting up Shamrock’s first feud and/or match upon signing with the WWF? Billy challenges Shamrock to get in the ring and show him how tough he really is. He isn’t backing down from Billy Gunn of all people and there’s a big cheer as he gets in the ring. The world’s most dangerous man has no problem taking Billy down and making him tap out to an armbar. Billy tries his luck a second time where he’s taken down into an ankle lock which would ultimately be Shamrock’s pro-wrestling finisher. You’d think Gunn has learned his lesson but he grabs a steel chair and wants to use that on the UFC fighter but is held back by the referee and finally gives up on this. From backstage, Stone Cold Steve Austin tells Shamrock that he’s not impressed and that if he doesn’t call the match at Wrestlemania right down the middle he’ll punch his lights out. Austin rants in his awesome way about how Bret cannot lace his boots and he’ll be the next WWF Champion.

• The stage hands need a few minutes to set up the steel cage for the main event so there’s a quick interview with WWF champion Sycho Sid. No one knows why Austin is here tonight but the smart money seems to be that he wants to help Bret win the title tonight so he gets a shot at the gold at Mania. The Undertaker is also here tonight and no doubt has a similar plan in helping Sid stay champion. There’s a lot of wild cards in play as Bret Hart makes his way to the ring for the main event of Raw. I quite like the old school cage but it definitely looks better painted black rather than blue. Sid actually dominates Bret and almost wins by getting out the door but Stone Cold runs down to hold the door closed. Sid hits a powerbomb and climbs up the cage so Stone Cold is there to block that escape attempt too with a barrage of right hands. He needs Bret to win the title! The Undertaker comes down to do the same thing and he is there to stop Bret from climbing out! Austin and Undertaker fight on the outside as Bret brings Sid off the top rope with a superplex! Austin hits Undertaker with a steel chair as Sid and Bret race to escape the cage. Bret is there first but pauses to celebrate a little too long and pays for it when Undertaker slams the cage door in his face! Sid escapes to retain the WWF title in a really fun, story driven match and keeps the Wrestlemania card locked in. Bret did almost have the title won until Undertaker slammed the door BUT, Sid had it won first. Twice in fact. Bret has nothing to whine about here but as he lays in the ring it seems like he probably doesn’t agree. 

• After a commercial break while the cage is being taken apart Vince McMahon tries to interview him. Bret shoves Vince on his ass and screams that this is bullshit! He says God damn a bunch of times too which is considered swearing in the states and on TV and with Vince sneering at him Bret rants about how he keeps being screwed! Everyone knows that he’s the BEST and they keep screwing him and don’t care that he’s being cheated over and over. The fans boo him and he barks that he doesn’t give a shit! Stone Cold appears on the titantron and says he TRIED to help Bret but he blew it because he’s a loser! Bret wants Austin to come down and fight him but its not him, it’s Sid. He and Bret start to argue over who should have won the match but when Undertaker comes down Bret dives out of the ring onto him! Stone Cold rushes down to attack Bret and as the two of them beat the hell out of each other on the outside of the ring, Undertaker and Sid trade big blows in the ring! It’s chaos with Wrestlemania’s two main events beating each other up with a team of referees and officials trying their best to split them up. Bret Hart believes there is a conspiracy to stop him from being at the top of the show and Vince ends the show hammering home that main story point; there’s no conspiracy and he’s a crybaby. He punches Pat Patterson and Vince loses his temper calling Bret “a dirty rotten son of a bitch!”. This is WILD and such a massive departure from the Monday Night Raw I’ve been watching for the past four years. This isn’t officially the Attitude era yet but we’re very, very close! Maybe the Attitude era started a full year sooner than I thought it did? Shawn Michaels comes out at the end of the show for a closer look at all the brawling but Vince pleads with him not to get involved.