What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - April 28, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-A video package summarizes the interactions between Bret Hart and Steve Austin on last week’s show.  There’s a cool timeline in the bottom right of the screen that tells the time of their various interactions on last week’s show.

-Vince McMahon, Jerry “the King” Lawler, and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are coming to us from Omaha, Nebraska.

-Brian Pillman comes out and says that he has a sensitive side and asks the crowd to pray with him.  Pillman prays for Bret Hart’s quick and successful recovery, the people that enjoyed the street fight on last week’s show, and the destruction of Steve Austin.  Austin comes on the Titantron and says Pillman better pray that he doesn’t come down to the ring because Bret won’t be there to save him.  Pillman taunts Austin further, so Austin arrives, but outwits a sneak attack by the Bulldog and Owen and makes his exit through the crowd.  Pillman continues his prayer with Owen and the Bulldog, who continue to pray for Bret.  Owen does a hilarious job, as usual, but Austin comes down with an axe handle and breaks up the Hart Foundation’s prayer.  A great opening segment, with Pillman doing a great job on the mic.  Austin’s heat is off the charts here.

-McMahon tells us that Bret Hart is on his way to the arena and the announce crew hypes Owen Hart challenging Rocky Maivia for the Intercontinental title and the British Bulldog facing the Undertaker.

-Pillman is shown continuing his prayer in the locker room.

-Opening Contest:  Flash Funk pins Rockabilly (w/The Honky Tonk Man) with a hurricanrana at 4:22:

You can tell this is a great crowd because Rockabilly actually gets a reaction.  Bret is shown arriving in the arena in the back of an ambulance under an armed guard, which is a great visual.  Funk flies all over the place in an attempt to make this the first interesting match of Rockabilly’s career, but Rockabilly finds a way to slow things down when he seizes control.  Rockabilly dances too much after a tornado DDT and he wants the Honky Tonk Man to deck Funk on the apron, but miscommunication results and Rockabilly gets pinned.  However, to get his heat back, Rockabilly nails Funk with the Honky Tonk Man’s guitar.  Rating:  *

-Owen and the Bulldog wheel Bret out onto the entrance ramp and he rants about how America hates people that tell the truth.  Bret tells the crowd that they are sick and depraved because of their lust for violence and the crowd pops huge for that.  Bret does a great put down of the “USA” chant by saying “my mother’s American” and smiling and says he’d love to send Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to the hospital this evening.  This was another awesome promo and Bret was at his best on the mic with this anti-American character.

-Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon say that they haven’t been accepted by American wrestling fans because they are wrestlers and not entertainers.  They complain that they haven’t won the tag team titles because the crowd isn’t behind them.  This was Furnas and LaFon’s heel turn, but they lacked the mic skills to make this work.

-The Legion of Doom defeat Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon when Animal pins Furnas after a Hawk flying clothesline at 3:46:

The Legion of Doom had broken Henry Godwinn’s neck with a Doomsday Device on the Shotgun Saturday Night leading up to this show.  This match is an interesting clash of styles, as the Legion of Doom’s power offense goes against the technical skills of their opponents.  They run through an abbreviated tag team formula, with everyone getting involved around the three minute mark and the Legion prevail because they are the only credible face team in the tag division.  I wish I could have seen these two teams square off on pay-per-view.  Rating:  *½

-Ross interviews Furnas and LaFon, who demand a rematch because the referee cost them this encounter.

-The Headbangers interrupting Sunny’s segment on Shotgun Saturday Night is shown.

-Sunny comes out to model the Austin 3:16 t-shirt, which you buy for $20.00 (plus shipping & handling).  Finally, a piece of merchandise that actually made the company money!

-McMahon interviews Ahmed Johnson, who sent the Sultan to the hospital with his 2x4 attack last week.  Ahmed flips out thinking about the gauntlet match he has with the Nation at the In Your House and tells Vince to remember he was a gang member.  Vince’s reply is hilarious:  “I think we’ve had enough of this.”

-The British Bulldog preps Owen for his match with Rocky Maivia for the Intercontinental title and Brian Pillman offers some prayers with the

-Marlena’s attack on Chyna on Raw last week is the Super Clean Slam of the Week.

-Intercontinental Championship Match:  Owen Hart defeats “The Rock” Rocky Maivia (Champion) with a bridge cradle at 8:24 to win the title:

The British Bulldog wheels Bret onto the entrance ramp so that he can watch his brother wrestle for the Intercontinental title and Owen dedicates the match to Bret.  In a telling sign, the Hart Foundation is the most hated group on the roster, but Maivia comes out and does not even generate de facto face heat during his entrance.  Owen spends a good deal of the match working the leg and kicks out of the soon to be named Rock Bottom when Maivia stages his comeback.  Owen floats over Maivia during this rally and wraps him up in a bridging cradle and that’s enough to give Owen his first WWF singles title.  The Bulldog and Bret stage a fun celebration, with Bret taking the belt and the Bulldog wheeling him in circles.  Owen bumped around well for Maivia, but his victory didn’t feel like a big deal because of who he beat for the belt.  Rating:  **½

-Steve Austin comes out with a wheelchair and an axe handle and sits in the center of the ring.  Austin asks the crowd if they want to see a wheelchair match and he asks Bret to come out.  However, Austin changes his mind and says that he’d just end up getting out of the wheelchair and destroying Bret.  Austin tells the Undertaker that at In Your House he’s going to win the title, but as he turns to leave, the Hart Foundation appears on the Titantron and Bret promises Austin that he will end up in the ambulance that he arrived in for tonight’s show.

-Vader’s outburst on Good Morning Kuwait that got him detained in Kuwait is shown.

-A video package highlights Ken Shamrock’s UFC career and what he has done in the WWF so far.

-Vader defeats “The Real Double J” Jesse James with a Vader Bomb at 1:35:

If they sought to effectively rebuild Vader, they would have had him ambush James during his entrance and beat him to a pulp without an actual match taking place.  As it stands, we do get a match, but a massacre is a better way to put it as Vader destroys James with his big moves.  The crowd pops big for the beating.

-Ross interviews Vader and asks if Vader has any remorse or shame for what he did in Kuwait and how he embarrassed his family and the WWF.  Vader says he has no regrets and he apologizes for nothing.  Ross asks Vader if he overreacted and Vader begins to bully him.  Ross breaks kayfabe and calls Vader “Leon”, trying to sell this as Vader breaking from the script, but Shamrock comes to Ross’s rescue and gives him a belly-to-belly suplex.  The crowd is hot for Shamrock-Vader, so the segment did what it was supposed to do .

-Goldust tells Marlena that she isn’t to follow him to the ring tonight when he faces Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

-Goldust defeats Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) by count out at 4:46 shown:

This is like the Godwinns-Smoking Gunns feud in 1996 in the sense that the feud went on forever without giving us any quality matches.  I’m quite surprised they never tried to run a mixed tag team match on pay-per-view out of this pairing.  Yes, the Marlena-Chyna parts wouldn’t have set the world on fire, but they could have easily booked around it.  This match proceeds like many of their previous ones, with Goldust starting with a quick flurry and Helmsley slowing it down.  Luckily we get a commercial break to spare us much of that.  Marlena comes down to ringside when Chyna attacks Goldust and when Goldust distracts Chyna, Marlena throws powder in Chyna’s eyes.  Blinded, Chyna goes after Helmsley and raises him off his feet with a choke, which is something I bet she wishes she could do these days.  That costs Helmsley the match and honestly this was the first tolerable match in their feud.  Rating:  **

-WWF Champion The Undertaker appears on the Titantron and gives some generic comments about facing Steve Austin at In Your House.

-Sable comes out and models an Undertaker t-shirt, which you can buy for $20 (plus shipping & handling).

-Brian Pillman prays for the British Bulldog to have the strength to defeat the Undertaker.

-Non-Title Match:  The Undertaker (WWF Champion) defeats The British Bulldog (European Champion) by disqualification when Owen Hart interferes at 1:10 shown:

Like Owen earlier, Bret is wheeled onto the entrance ramp and the Bulldog speaks highly of Bret.  The Bulldog doesn’t quite understand non-title, as he pledges to win the WWF title for the Hart Foundation.  After the Bulldog turned heel in 1995, he and the Undertaker seemed to face off on Raw at least two times a year in singles matches and those matches were usually main events.  There’s not much in this one, as we cut to a break twenty seconds in and Owen interferes to prevent the Bulldog from getting finished off after a chokeslam. 

-Steve Austin runs in to go after Owen and the Bulldog and Austin proceeds to grab the WWF title and celebrate with it.  The Undertaker confronts him, but quickly eats a Stunner after Austin throws the WWF title to the ground.  The Undertaker quickly revives himself, though, and chokeslams Austin.  Austin recovers and notes that Bret is by himself on the entrance ramp and goes near him, but Jim Neidhart appears and rescues Bret.  Bret smiles and smashes Austin with his crutch and Austin falls off the entrance ramp as we close the show.  Paramedics tend to Austin, thereby making Bret’s prophesy of Austin riding to the hospital in the ambulance he arrived in come true.  A great closing segment and we now have the complete Hart Foundation of Bret, Owen, Bulldog, Neidhart, and Pillman.

-The camera cuts to Pillman in the back who looks into the camera with a smile and crazy eyes.

The Final Report Card:  This Raw was bolstered by some great promo work and a hot crowd that got behind many of the big moments on the show.  Owen winning the Intercontinental title made all of the anti-Maivia diehards happy and there was a great story arch in this show as well, with Bret promising to send Austin to the hospital and accomplishing that goal at the end of the show.  A great effort of storytelling that put you on the edge of your seat for next week’s show.

Monday Night War Rating:  2.7 (vs. 3.4 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up