Wrestlemania 13 - Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont Illinois, March 23rd 1997

An awesome opening video for this year’s show which hints at the adjusted attitude of the WWF in 1997. It’s not about the pomp and circumstance tonight, it’s about the grudge matches and heated rivalries along the way. Great stuff.

The version of the event I’m watching is definitely one of the WWE’s rebranded releases as Howard Finkle’s ring announcements sound dubbed and there’s a modern, sleek graphic to indicate the date and name of the event which you can see in the video. That probably means there’s been lots of “WWFs” removed from the show as well.

Four Way Elimination match to determine the Number 1 Contenders to the WWF Tag Team Championships

Doug Furnas and Philip Lafon vs. The Godwins (Henry O and Phineas I Godwin w/Hillbilly Jim) vs. The New Blackjacks (Blackjack Bradshaw and Blackjack Windham) vs. The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher)

This is a unique match for the era which I assume was booked due to the success of last month’s awesome In Your House main event. The winners of this match get their tag team title match tomorrow night on Raw is War.

The fans aren’t super into this but it's a good choice for the opener. Vince narrates footage of the original Blackjacks before throwing to the New Blackjacks interview with Todd Pettengill. They talk about tradition and victory; the Blackjacks ride again! Seems like they’re probably going to win this then, yeah? They rush the ring and attack everyone so this match starts as a wild eight man brawl which the referees quickly get settled with Bradshaw and Henry Godwin as the legal men.

The teams rotate tagging in and out to get a little moment in the sun. The first actual spot which gets a reaction is a nice double flapjack by Mosh and Thrasher on Phil Lafon. Furnas takes down Windham with a nice crisp hurricanrana but he’s caught and turned into a nice powerslam when he tries it again. Lafon and Furnas are great wrestlers but haven’t been presented as stars on TV so the crowd isn’t really behind them. They pair off with the Blackjacks and both teams brawl on the outside. Windham shoves down the referee for trying to stop them and gets himself and Bradshaw disqualified. The crowd saw this lame double non-finish spot coming because they were booing as soon as the brawl started. Lafon and Furnas were apparently also counted out during this melee so they’re also eliminated leaving this as The Godwins vs. The Headbangers. Mosh and Thrasher isolate Henry but he’s bigger and stronger so continually mounts a comeback. The action here is pretty rough around the edges as Mosh was out of position for a corner charge and Henry had to aggressively shove him back into place. Phineas and Thrasher tag in and trade headbutts which both men no-sell and then spit at each other! Gross. Vince makes a comment about the Godwins “doing things with farm animals” and Lawler makes about four different jokes about “hillbillies from Arkanas” directed at then-president of the United States Bill Clinton. I don’t mention these things often during the shows but it can’t be understated how regularly Lawler, Ross and McMahon mock Clinton - three life-long Republicans making their political allegiances known. 

The match spills to the outside and Mosh hits a dive onto Phineas followed by launching his own partner off the top right onto Henry. That was a cool spot.

Both team are technically babyfaces I believe but the crowd decides that the Godwins are the good guys in this match and rally behind the pig farmers. The commentators then claim that the Headbangers are the more popular team so let’s call it a mixed reaction and not split hairs. 

Phineas gets a hot tag and clears house, setting up the Slop Drop on Mosh. Thrasher makes the save and as Henry is busy beating him up Mosh hits a seated senton splash off the ropes on Phineas to pick up the victory for the Headbangers. This wasn’t a great match but it definitely wasn’t bad either. The Headbangers are the number one contenders for the WWF Tag Team Championships tomorrow night on Raw.

Before the next match, the Honky Tony Man comes out to the ring and they show off a bunch of hall of famers at ringside, specifically Arnold Skaaland and Captain Lou Albano. Honky joins commentary for the next match which makes sense as he was, until 2022, the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time.

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Rocky Maivia © vs. The Sultan (w/Bob Backlund and The Iron Sheik) 

There’s a real “WWF Classics” vibe to this match with Honky on commentary, the hall of famers in the crowd, former WWF Champions Backlund and Sheik in Sultan’s corner and Rocky’s recent pairing with Tony Atlas who was his father’s tag team championship partner. It seems like the way they’re pushing Maivia is to have him be endorsed by lots of old-timers but Lawler doesn’t like him and keeps calling him lucky. That’s one of those things that is funnier in hindsight. 

Rocky’s grown out his hair a little and looks a lot more like The Rock that we all know and love, although that depends on what era of wrestling you watched because to most people they probably know him best as the entirely bald Dwayne Johnson. 

The Sultan is a man of many gimmicks including ones I’ve already seen and covered on this site but he’s best known as Rikishi. The real life cousin of The Rock these two went on to work together a bunch of times over the next 4 years or so and this wasn’t even the last time they wrestled on PPV. 

Rocky is fired up and takes it right to the challenger but Sultan bails to the outside to regroup and suckers the rookie in, sending him into the ring post and then slowing things down in the ring. It was promoted a lot on TV in the build up but two days before this PPV were the annual Slammy Awards. Rocky Maivia beat out Stone Cold, Mankind, Flash Funk and Marc Mero to win the New Sensation Slammy. 

Honky spends the match ranting about how this young rookie isn’t as good as he thinks he is and doesn’t deserve to be in this position. I guess he’s a heel so the point is for him to be unreasonable. Rocky fights up out of a long, long sleeper hold and gets on a roll with clotheslines and dropkicks before hitting his trademark shoulder breaker. Backlund distracts the referee so that the three count doesn’t happen and Rocky walks right into a superkick and then a piledriver for a pair of very close near falls. Sultan seems to have this match in the bag but a well timed small package roll up out of no where gives Rocky the victory and he retains the Intercontinental championship in a pretty nothing match.

Jim Ross goes to speak to The Rock about his first Wrestlemania victory but before he can say much, sore loser Sultan hits him from behind (which knocks down JR too) and he and Sheik beat him down two on one. Sheik even breaks out the camel clutch! Rocky is rescued by his rather Rocky Johnson and the two of them fight off the heels and hit a pair of bodyslams on the Iron Sheik! This was an emotional moment I’m sure as Rocky and his dad were going through a rough patch at the time and his dad being there was a genuine surprise. Sadly I suspect it had more to do with the Wrestlemania payday than with patching things up with his son.

Backstage Dok Hendrix interviews “the Slammy award winning” Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna. HHH won the “best hair” Slammy. He refuses to provide any details on Chyna and says it's no one’s business and that Marlena better run for her life from his huge amazon. She does have a very impressive physique! 

Goldust (w/Marlena) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna)

Jerry Lawler is a heel just like Helmsley and Chyna but wastes no time rattling off a bunch of ugly jokes aimed at poor Chyna. Goldust and Marlena are also Slammy winners; best couple! They beat our HHH and Chyna, Mero and Sable and Hilary and Bill Clinton. Yes, really. 

This match marks the debut of Goldust’s new black and gold ring gear which was his permanant look for the rest of this gimmick’s lifespan. I think it looks much better. He and HHH keep their distance from each other but once they do get together Goldust rocks him with a right hand and is super aggressive, punching and brawling with Hunter and sending him to the outside to regroup. He keeps up the pressure and gets Hunter’s arms tied up in the ropes so that he’s free to use him as a punch bag and wear him out. Vince and JR take the opportunity to make a bunch of jokes about how big HHH’s nose is and Lawler joins in while trying to “defend” him. I’ve pointed this out before but jokes about how big Helmsley’s nose is continued for years and years, stopping around the time that he dated his way into the McMahon family and started sitting in on booking meetings. A coincidence I’m sure. 

HHH tries to bring Goldust off the top rope with a superplex but Goldust holds the ropes and blocks it for so long that Hunter gives up and just shoves him to the outside instead, banging his face on the apron on the way down. That gives him his opening to slow things down and after a top rope axe handle he grinds the bizarre one down in the ring. HHH is really, really aggressive and hammers him over and over and over with hard kicks to the chest. It’s justified given how many times Goldust cost him the Intercontinental title. 

HHH slowly picks Goldust apart with him trying to fight back, launching a string of punches and a quick move like a swinging neckbreaker before being shut back down by a stiff clothesline or a well timed DDT. Vince calls this a see-saw match which i don’t think is accurate; HHH is dominating. He tries for another axe handle off the top rope but Goldust blocks that with a big…rear tackle? I’m not sure how to describe it but he basically jumps up and throws his own arse at Helmsley. Goldust gets back into it, sending HHH to the corner, flipping upside down and then catching him on the rebound with a bulldog headlock. Chyna must sense that he’s in trouble so picks that moment to wander around the ring and intimidate Marlena. Goldust is about to hit the Curtain Call but when he sees Marlena in trouble drops him to go and lift her to safety. Triple H hits him from behind which knocks Marlena off the apron and into Chyna’s arms and while she bearhugs and shakes Marlena on the outside, Helmsley hits Goldust with the Pedigree to pick up the win. Not a bad match at all, very fundamentally sound but how much you enjoy this depends on how invested you are in the story.

Backstage in the AOL room where fans can speak to WWF Superstars Shawn Michaels pantomimes being unable to use a computer; funny stuff and this has become a bit of a meme for wrestling fans. It’s one of those things that aged very poorly as in 1997 the internet was on the cusp of becoming as important in our lives as water and electricity as it is now, but lots of objectively young people like Shawn Michaels were happy to say it “just wasn’t for them” and act like everyone else was a nerd for being into it. 

WWF Tag Team Championships

Owen Hart and WWF European Champion The British Bulldog © vs. Mankind and Vader (w/Paul Bearer)

I’ve said this before about PPV matches from this era where the match was booked and THEN the build up happened. Owen Hart now has two Slammy awards; he won “best bowtie” on Friday. Bulldog has his two championship belts too so this pair looks like a million dollars. Jim Ross catches them for an interview and asks Owen about his comments that he is smarter than Bulldog and that makes him the leader of the team. Mankind and Vader are very much a united force but the champions have been teasing a break up for a while. 

This is the third year in a row that Owen Hart has been Tag Team Champion at Wrestlemania, winning the gold at 11 and holding it but not defending it last year at 12. The build between these two teams who are technically babyfaces comes down to wanting the championships which is fair enough. Mankind and Vader had a long history from outside of the WWF which was never acknowledged on TV; Vader is the man who ripped off Mick Foley’s ear! 

Owen and Vader kick things off as the legal men but the big man has no problem slamming around the smaller King of Harts with a scoop slam and then catching a hurricanrana and turning it into a powerbomb. He sets up the Vader Bomb very early but Bulldog makes the save with a punch to the tummy. It breaks down and the crowd united behind Bulldog and Owen after a double clothesline and a double running drop kick. Bulldog has no problem with either Mankind or Vader as legal men but the match spills to the outside and Vader hits him from behind with the urn to knock him down and let the challengers isolate and work over the European Champion with quick tags and a string of near falls off  a suplex and a splash off the middle rope. Bulldog’s toughness is the big story of this match as the monster heels hit him with big move after big move. 

Bulldog counters Vader’s dive off the ropes into a powerslam and tags in Owen who comes in with a missile dropkick and kip up but then runs into a big clubbing smash from Vader which he bumps hard for. That looked great.

Mankind and Vader then work over Owen inside the ring and out with a nice double team backbreaker and elbow drop combination off the apron. I’ve said in the build up to this that I got vibes that Bulldog was turning babyface and Owen would feud with him but as obnoxious as Owen Hart is and as talented at playing the heel as he is, I’m getting babyface vibes from him too in this match. He endures a long beating from Mankind and Vader kicking out of suplexes and slams until finally making the hot tag to Bulldog who runs through them both and bounces Mankind from corner to corner. He counter’s Bulldog’s powerslam attempt with a Mandible Claw. Vader bumps Owen into them and the legal men tumble out of the ring.

Mankind won’t release the claw on the outside and the referee begins counting so quickly you can see this finish coming a mile away - Mankind and Bulldog are both counted out and the match ends in a draw. Owen and Bulldog retain the WWF Tag Team Championships and referees finally manage to get Mankind off of him and the challengers to leave. This match was pretty dull but could have been improved significantly by either committing to Bulldog and Owen’s face turn, or having Owen turn on Bulldog once and for all. 

Submission match

Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Special Guest Referee: Ken Shamrock

This match gets a video package which is fitting given that Stone Cold first started calling Bret Hart out almost a year ago. It does a good job of painting Bret as on the slow turn to the dark side as a crybaby while highlighting that Austin’s popularity is growing. I loved this.I left Ken Shamrock’s introduction in the video too because look at the SIZE of him! 

Austin does get a big cheer when he comes out but not as loud as it would become. This PPV has the iconic glass shattering entrance as Stone Cold walks through a big pane of class with Austin 3:16 printed on which collapses at his feet. I’m eagerly awaiting him getting his Rattlesnake nickname but so far he’s been called a jackyl, a coyote and a vulture. He's clearly an animal of prey. He has no fear getting right in Shamrock’s face and making sure he calls it right down the middle. He says there isn’t a man on the face of the Earth who can make him submit - he’s so cool. Bret is still popular but Vince gets really on his case about how much he’s whined lately and for attacking both himself and Pat Patterson on Raw.

Austin tackles Bret the second he steps through the ropes and the two of them roll around on the mat trading punches and brawling like their lives depend on it! Austin grabs a headlock so Bret shoves Austin hard into the ring post but Stone Cold counters a suplex attempt and drops him groin first onto the security wall and clotheslines Bret out. They are fighting with SUCH intensity that you feel like they really might hate each other and in a spot which gets a BIG reaction from the commentary trio the two of them fight up into the stands and the crowd; that became Austin’s trademark but was very new in 1997.

They fight amongst the people who go NUTS for every right hand and throw into a security rail. Austin tries to piledrive Bret on the concrete but he counters with a backdrop not just onto the floor but on the stairs and he tumbles back towards the ring. Back at ringside Bret leaps up onto the security barrier and comes flying off with an axe handle but is then reversed into the ringsteps! Stone Cold comes off the apron with a clothesline but gets a big pop by giving the fingers to Bret first. I probably can’t do this justice by just recapping the brawl blow for blow so I’ll try to just capture the spirit. I’m not sure when Stone Cold started wearing his iconic knee brace which he wore for the rest of his career but this match is the first time I’ve noticed it. 

In the ring Bret works on Stone Cold’s knee with kicks and slamming it on the mat, zeroing in on the brace. In a desperate move Austin suckers Bret in and drops him with a Stone Cold Stunner! If pinfalls counted he’d probably have the match won right here but by the time he stumbles back to his feet selling his knee, Bret goes right back to the leg and drags him to the corner wrapping a Figure Four on him around the ring post. Austin screams and bangs the mat but refuses to quit so Bret breaks the hold and goes to get some weapons - the ring bell and a steel chair. Bret gets boos from the crowd when he uses it on Stone Cold’s leg. He wants to do to Austin what Austin did to Brian Pillman but Stone Cold is up and clobbers Bret with the chair bringing him down off the ropes the hard way and lights him up with a big shot to the back. Austin looks like he’s putting the focus on the Hitman’s back for his own submission attempt and bounces him around with slams and suplexes to follow up on that pair of chair shots. He locks in an unusual octopus submission hold putting pressure on Bret’s neck but isn’t happy with it and shifts to a boston crab instead to focus on the lower back. Shamrock has his first real impact on the match having to break up that hold when Bret gets to the ropes. The crowd cheers when Stone Cold wants to lock the Sharpshooter on Bret and boos when he stops that with a thumb to the eye. 

Bret rolls to the outside and as they trade blows Bret sends Austin flying into the time keeper area and striking his head on the security rail. Stone Cold comes up bleeding heavily and there’s a story there; Vince told everyone up and down the card that there was to be NO bleeding on this show. It was banned. Austin and Bret decided their match needed it (and they were right) so agreed to this blade job. Stone Cold had never bladed in his career so he trusted Bret to do it for him and it was absolutely seamless; Austin came up bleeding from a spot no one expected would make him bleed and so it looked entirely legit. They didn’t admit to Vince that it was intentional for years. 

Bret hammers Austin on the outside with punches and then back in the ring goes into his familiar finishing routine with the sidesweep and pin point elbow. He rams the edge of the steel chair into Austin’s bad knee over and over as the crowd gets very loud and JR screams that he’s trying to break Stone Cold’s leg! Austin finally stops Bret’s onslaught with a well timed and hard kick to the balls! Bret collapses and Vince says that it might have been deserved; if Vince has turned on you then you’re definitely a heel now. Austin is worked up and even with a fountain of blood running down his face he hammers Bret with punches and stomps the life out of him in the corner before bringing him down hard with a big superplex. That looked SO good - really high impact. 

Stone Cold wraps an electrical cord around Bret’s neck and tries to choke the life out of him but Bret is crafty and grabs the ring bell that he put on the apron earlier and swings it backwards clocking Stone Cold in the back of the head! Bret locks him in the Sharpshooter and what follows is one of the most legendary moments in WWF or WWE history and one of the most famous photos of all time.

Stone Cold, locked in the Sharpshooter with a torrent of blood rushing down his face he pushes himself up on his arms and REFUSES to quit. He will not submit and fights as hard as he can to break the hold. The fans cheer for him and explode when he almost breaks the hold but Bret holds on and keeps it dug in deep. Stone Cold will not submit just like he said he wouldn’t and after what feels like a lifetime he passes out. The blood loss and pain is too much and Ken Shamrock breaks the hold and awards the match, via technical knockout, to Bret Hart. This was an AWESOME match and remains one of my favourite wrestling matches of all time. The finish of this match is a masterclass in story telling as Bret Hart is now fully a heel in the eyes of the fans as a whiner and crybaby while Stone Cold, a hero who refused to give up and never once backed down, is a solid fan favourite. I loved it. 

Bret isn’t satisfied - he’s annoyed that Austin never actually quit - so he starts going after him again and Shamrock is forced to lift him in a waist lock and throw him across the ring! Is Bret going to try his luck against the World’s most dangerous man? No and the crowd boo the Hitman for backing down like that. He even argues with the fans in the front row and he flips middle fingers at them as he leaves. Stone Cold refuses medical attention and pulls himself to his feet even dropping a referee with a Stone Cold Stunner rather than accept help! He will walk out of Wrestlemania on his own power and secure in the knowledge that he never gave up, just like he said he wouldn’t. The toughest S.O.B in the WWF. 

My boy Todd Pettengill interviews the Nation of Domination backstage. You might be wondering why we don’t see as much of Todd as we used to; he had a second full time job hosting his own radio show so his commitments with the WWF had been refused significantly by this point. Faarooq doesn’t say much “I will win” (I’m paraphrasing)

Chicago Street Fight

Ahmed Johnson and The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) vs. The Nation of Domination (Faarooq, Crush and Savio Vega w/Nation members)

Much like the previous match the Faarooq and Ahmed feud has been going since last summer so hopefully this is the end point of the story. The Nation have a bunch of weapons including trash cans, stop signs and 2x4s which they bring to the ring with them. Ahmed has his own special LOD entrance gear for the night and the three of them come out together to Hawk and Animal’s theme music. The crowd went NUTS for the Roadwarriors who were both proudly from Chicago. JR has some fun pointing out that amongst all the weapons there actually IS the kitchen sink. 

The LOD and Ahmed quickly clear all three legal Nation members out of the ring and then throw around the non-wrestler ones too including D’Lo Brown and Clarence Mason himself. It’s difficult to recap this action as the six men in this match pair off and fight around the ring, hitting each other with trash cans and signs. It’s an entertaining brawl thanks to the crowd cheering for every weapons shot to a Nation member. Animal gets a hold of Faarooq’s nightstick and Hawk batters Savio Vega with a 2x4. Animal hits a sloppy piledriver on Faarooq on top of the French announce table which didn’t quite work - they fell to the side more than sat down, I assume to avoid possibly injuring the leader of the Nation for real. 

After a few minutes of brawling and using trash cans on everyone in sight, the Nation wraps a noose around Ahmed Johnson and try to hang him which is a pretty dark spot but amazingly not the last time a noose would appear at Wrestlemania (see you at Wrestlemania 15).

Things start to look bad for our valiant babyfaces as Faarooq hangs Hawk with the noose and Crush beats on Animal with a wrench while the rest of the Nation swarm Ahmed Johnson on the outside. Hawk grabs the rope and pulls Faaroooq to the outside where he takes an ugly and painful looking bump from the middle rope to the floor! With everyone fighting in and out of the ring things settle down with Ahmed and Faarooq in the ring. Animal clears out a bunch of Nation members with a fire extinguisher and he and Hawk drop Crush with the Doomsday Device. Ahmed hits him with a 2x4 and Animal steals the cover to end this very entertaining brawl with a victory for Ahmed and the LOD. The Nation aren’t satisfied and rush the ring and Ahmed has the last word hitting the Pearl River Plunge on one member and they finish with a double Doomsday Device on PG-13! Where did Faarooq go? I wonder if him apparently abandoning his Nation will be a plot point moving forward? This was good fun. 

Before we get to the main event Shawn Michaels makes his entrance to join the commentary desk for the WWF title match. He slowly walks to the ring slapping hands and hugging fans; he and Bret Hart’s Ironman match last year won the Match of the Year Slammy and we should have got a rematch tonight but HBK faked his knee injury to avoid losing to Bret Hart. I have explained the issue and I’ve tried to be diplomatic but there’s no real debating the point. Shawn Michaels famously refused to lose to most people but most specifically to his hated rival Bret Hart. Shawn spends so long doing laps of the ring slapping fans’ hands that his theme song loops twice. 

Todd interviews The Man, the WWF Champion Sycho Sid. This is the biggest event of the year and Sid whisper-shouts about how he’s not afraid of the dark or The Undertaker and is the master and ruler of the world. Sid is awesome.

WWF Championship

Sycho Sid © vs. The Undertaker

Special Guest Commentator: Shawn Michaels

The Undertaker has some special ring gear tonight, entering wearing his classic attire with the hat, coat and grey gloves. The attire he wore when he won his first WWF Championship. The attire he wore when he made his Wrestlemania debut against Jimmy Snuka in 1991. That’s pretty cool. This isn’t Sid’s first Wrestlemania main event - in 1992 he battled Hulk Hogan to a double disqualification which was overshadowed by the return of the Ultimate Warrior. Undertaker’s first title reign was also a bust because of Hogan so this feels like a Hogan-less do-over for both of these men. I’ve been recapping it all night so I might as well do it here too; Undertaker won three Slammy awards on Friday for Best Tattoo, Best entrance music and Star of the highest magnitude.

Before this match begins Bret Hart comes to the ring and calls Shawn Michaels a faker and tells him to stay out of the match. He threatens both Sid and Undertaker, calling them frauds and says that he should be in this match. Shawn makes fake baby crying noises and the WWF Champion gets sick of listening to the Hitman and drops him with a powerbomb! Sid tells him to “take his whining ass out of here!” and that gets a big cheer from the crowd. Hart is helped to the back by referees and officials and finally the match begins with Undertaker attacking Sid from behind. He hammers Sid with big right hands and beats him up in the corner - this is a classic big man vs. big man match and they don’t do anything fancy in the early going, slamming each other around the ring.

Sid grinds Undertaker down with a bearhug so that HBK has a space to talk about his knee injury and return to the ring which will hopefully be quite soon. Undertaker is clotheslined to the outside but lands on his feet so Sid baseball slides him up and over the announce desk - a scary bump, it looked like Undertaker landed RIGHT on his head. He’s ok though and Sid drops Undertaker across the security wall and then slams him on the announce desk. At this point Vince McMahon says that earlier tonight Gorilla Monsoon made this a no disqualification match? Since when? That feels like it was added in commentary to explain why the referee is letting them fight outside the ring for so long rather than an actual rule change. Back in the ring Sid focuses on the Deadman’s back with a deep camel clutch and then a big scoop slam off the ropes. The match has slowed right down and while Sid is not technically a heel - he’s really popular and feuds with faces and heels alike - works as the heel in this match.

Undertaker finally battles back and strings together some big moves of his own with a slam and a nerve hold but that doesn’t last long before Sid gets back into it with a back suplex and a near fall. Sid goes to the middle rope and comes off with a big axe handle to the back of the head but doesn’t go for the cover and instead goes to the middle rope again. This time it's a flying clothesline. His third attempt is caught with a big punch to the gut and the two are very evenly matched. Sid is blocked from going to the very top rope but Sid fights off the superplex attempt and gives Undertaker a Tombstone! The Deadman kicks out and Sid can’t believe it. He takes Undertaker out of the ring and Bret Hart comes out AGAIN and blasts Sid with a pair of chair shots to the back!

He’s quickly dragged out by referees and officials but the damage is done and Undertaker is no fool, taking advantage with a shot the ring post and a big chokeslam in the middle of the ring. Sid kicks out and ducks a big jumping clothesline. He sets up his powerbomb but Bret Hart comes out AGAIN and distracts Sid. He’s knocked off the apron but Sid walks right into a Tombstone! The Undertaker wins the WWF Championship for the second time in his career thanks to a lot of interference by a bitter Bret Hart. No one seems to mind and this still feels like a big moment for the Deadman who by this point had MORE than earned his second run with the gold. 

Undertaker celebrates with the gold in the middle of the ring as Shawn Michaels tells us how much this man deserves to be champion and we’re out! 

This was a good show! Bret vs. Stone Cold is one of my all time favourite matches, the Chicago Street Fight was good fun, I liked the main event more than I expected to and nothing on the show was “bad” even if some of it wasn’t quite “good” either. This felt like a bit of a coming out party for Rocky Maivia and there’s big storyline developments with Bret Hart’s heel turn and a new WWF Champion so add all that together with Stone Cold’s face turn and the arrival of Raw is War and the WWF feels like it’s making some big steps in a good direction. Awesome stuff.