What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - June 30, 1997

by Logan Scisco

-Jim Ross narrates a video package about the Undertaker, who will have his secret revealed tonight by Paul Bearer.

-Vince McMahon, Jerry “the King” Lawler, and Jim Ross are doing the announcing duties and they are broadcasting from Des Moines, Iowa.

-Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna cut a pre-recorded promo, where Helmsley says he might be facing the World’s Most Dangerous Man, but he is bringing the World’s Most Dangerous Woman with him.

-Opening Contest:  Ken Shamrock defeats Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) with a belly-to-belly suplex at 4:38:

Helmsley surprisingly gets in ninety percent of the offense in this match, with much of it being fists, kicks, and chokes, and Chyna continues her streak of making a mark by throwing Shamrock into the steps.  However, Mankind wanders out and that distracts Helmsley and enables Shamrock to pick up the victory.  A throwaway opener, but it sets up Mankind-Helmsley for Canadian Stampede.  Rating:  *

-A video package reviews the Ahmed Johnson heel turn and the emergence of the WWF gang wars.  Ross says that Ahmed had to have knee surgery this week and Ahmed says that when he comes back he’s going to go right after the Undertaker.

-Michael Cole makes his Raw debut by interviewing the Legion of Doom in the locker room.  The LOD say that no one has come close to beating them legally in their WWF tenure and they are ready for Faarooq and D-Lo Brown tonight.

-Sunny has money in her cleavage to hype the One Million Dollar Challenge contest that is affiliated with the SummerSlam pay-per-view.

-Tag Team Tournament Semi-Finals:  Faarooq & D-Lo Brown (w/Kama Mustafa) defeat The Legion of Doom when Faarooq pins Hawk after Henry Godwinn nails Hawk with a bucket:

The Godwinns appear near the entrance to watch the contest and D-Lo faces less of a size disadvantage than he did in the Nation’s first round match last week.  The match proceeds along at a brisk pace and the LOD give D-Lo a Doomsday Device, but the Godwinns interfere and the Nation scores a major upset to make the finals.  Rating:  ¼*

-McMahon interviews Faarooq and Faarooq demands to know why one of the members of the Nation did not get Ahmed Johnson’s scheduled title match with the Undertaker at Canadian Stampede.  When he is told that Vader is getting the shot, Faarooq argues that Vader is getting the shot because he’s white and that the DOA was sent to injure Ahmed by the Undertaker.  Well that would explain why the Undertaker starting riding a bike in 2000.  Savio Vega interrupts the promo and says that he is out for revenge and Savio’s gang, the soon to be called Los Boricuas, interfere and fight the Nation.  When WWF officials get that settled, DOA comes out to the biggest pop of all the groups and join the fight.

-Cole tells us that the Legion of Doom have left the building and he is interrupted by Los Boricuas.  Savio introduces his gang and says that they are in the WWF to kick ass.

-Film of Sunny’s photo shoot for Raw magazine is shown and this includes photos of a liaison with Brian Pillman.

-Footage of Jerry Lawler piledriving wrestlers is shown because he is Brian Christopher’s mentor.

-“Too Sexy” Brian Christopher beats Scott Putski with a rollup after Jerry Lawler interferes at 3:37:

This continues the series of light heavyweight matches that have been on Raw for the last few weeks.  It is somewhat surprising that Putski didn’t establish a more regular role with the company at this time because he had a good look and was competent in the ring.  The crowd really isn’t into this, but the WWF was misguided in just throwing light heavyweights out there and thinking the crowd would react.  The crowds did that in WCW because the cruiserweights were flying through the air and throwing out tons of insane spots.  The WWF did not have those kinds of wrestlers, so they needed to give these guys some mic time and semblance of storylines to make people care.  Putski appears to have the match won with a splash off the top rope, but Lawler interferes and trips Putski when he tries a running powerslam and his son wins.  This was perfectly acceptable and had a good pace, but the screwjob finishes are getting excessive this evening since this is our third in a row.  Rating:  **

-After the match, Lawler and Christopher give Putski a spike piledriver and cut a brief promo.  Lawler throws some ethnic slurs at Putski’s Polish heritage and Christopher stumbles through his part.  This appears to be setting up a future tag team match between Lawler and Christopher and the Putskis.

-Steve Austin’s imitation of Hulk Hogan in ECW, which is on the video Cause Stone Cold Said So is played for the audience.

-The Undertaker is in the locker room and he tells fans that they are going to hear a slanted version of the worst night of his life and it’s a night that changed him forever.  He tells fans not to let their minds to be poisoned by Paul Bearer and to give him a chance to tell his side of the story.

-Ross narrates a video hyping the appearance of the Great Sasuke at the Canadian Stampede.

-Brian Pillman apologizes attacking a fan on Shotgun Saturday Night, which got him banned from that show.  He also apologizes for being the voice of reason and being willing to tell it like it is.

-“The Loose Cannon” Brian Pillman defeats Mankind via count out at 6:01 shown:

Mankind is still wearing the “Pick Me Steve” sign, although he’s not wearing an Austin 3:16 shirt.  Mankind gives Ross a present at the announce table, which ends up being a Mandible Claw hand.  Pillman just takes it out of Ross’s hand and drives it into Mankind’s face and then proceeds to tear up his sign.  Steve Austin appears in the split screen and says that he doesn’t want to team with Mankind because he sucks.  The storyline in this match is that Pillman is losing his mind after getting fired from Shotgun Saturday Night and he tries to stab Mankind with a pencil, which is interrupted by Earl Hebner.  We get a fun brawl, but when Mankind applies the Mandible Claw, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna interfere and when Mankind chases after them he gets counted out.  That brings our screwjob streak to four.  Rating:  **

-Paul Bearer says that he looks forward to revealing the Undertaker’s secret tonight.

-McMahon interviews Bearer, who is attacked by a fan on his way to the ring.  Since it only takes a camera man to take the fan away, I would venture to say that it would have to be a plant.  Bearer says that he was an apprentice for the Undertaker’s father at a funeral home for two years, but he noticed that the Undertaker as a child had the look of the devil.  Despite this, the Undertaker’s younger brother Kane followed his around everywhere and Bearer starts getting a little ridiculous talking about them smoking cigarettes behind a barn.  He said when he came back from college classes one night, the funeral home was burned down and he says the Undertaker did it and killed his family.  The lights flicker in the arena as we go to a commercial break.

-Vader is shown congratulating Bearer backstage on revealing the secret.

-Sable models the cash for the Million Dollar Challenge and Marc Mero is not happy about it.

-Tag Team Tournament Semi-Finals:  Owen Hart & The British Bulldog defeat The Headbangers when Owen pins Mosh with a roll up at 4:07:

With the Legion of Doom eliminated, the tag team tournament has become a mere formality, as it is quite inconceivable that Owen and the Bulldog would do the job here or in the finals.  Bret Hart calls into the show from Calgary and he hypes the Canadian Stampede pay-per-view.  The phone interview takes all the attention away from the match, in which both teams evenly trade offense, but the Bulldog crotches Thrasher when the Headbangers try to do their flying leg drop-powerbomb combination to Owen and Owen rolls up Mosh to advance his team.  Rating:  *½

-After the match, Jim Cornette congratulates his former team and tells them that he wants to introduce his new team that never made it in time for the tournament and the men he brings out are the Headhunters.  Owen and the Bulldog quickly leave, though, so the Headhunters square off with the Headbangers in an awkward exchange, which ends with the Headhunters delivering a flying headbutt and moonsault to their new foes.  This never led to anything.

-The Undertaker addresses his fans from the locker room and says that the funeral home did burn down.  He says Kane and he were playing with matches and they were punished by his father, but he says that Kane probably burned it down because he saw him with embalming liquids as he headed off to do his chores.  He claims to have returned from his chores to see that the funeral home had burned down.  He then says that the event put him on a path of walking in darkness and absorbing the power of death.

-Vader (w/Paul Bearer) defeats Rockabilly (w/The Honky Tonk Man) by disqualification when the Undertaker interferes at 24 seconds:

So we go from a great deal of discussion about death and people burning alive to the Rockabilly theme.  That’s quite a mood shift.  Vader no sells a guitar shot to the back at the beginning of the contest, but before Rockabilly can endure a major beating, the Undertaker runs out and then goes after Bearer.  The Undertaker tells Bearer to tell the world the truth and Bearer tells him that Kane is alive and told him that the Undertaker burned down the funeral home.  After that revelation, Vader hits the Undertaker from behind and runs away.  I'm sure the Internet liked Vader playing a cowardly heel in 1997.

-Call 815-734-1161 to get your copy of Cause Stone Cold Said So for $19.95 (plus $6 shipping & handling)!

-“Stone Cold” Steve Austin beats Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart by disqualification when Bret Hart interferes at 8:10 shown:

This is a small rematch from a few weeks back when these two men faced each other and Austin won in less than two minutes because of a disqualification.  Austin shows off his anti-hero persona by grabbing the ropes on abdominal stretch.  During the commercial break, Bret Hart attacks Ken Shamrock, the only member of Austin’s team at Canadian Stampede in the building, backstage.  The match never seems to click, with Neidhart using lots of rest holds, even though he does take a bump on the entrance ramp for Austin.  Unsurprisingly, Bret runs out and interferes and puts Austin in the ring post figure-four until Mankind rushes out to break it up by putting Bret in a Mandible Claw and that plays us out.  Rating:  ¾*

The Final Report Card:  This show had its moments, with the revelation of the Undertaker’s secret, but the rest of it was a chore to sit through.  The closing segment was fun, but the Austin-Neidhart match was not and the tag team tournament matches were rushed and did nothing for any of the participants.  The screwjob finishes also got tiresome by the end of the evening.  The first thumbs down effort for Raw in a while, but they have a good pay-per-view coming up that we will discuss next week.

Monday Night War Rating:  2.5 (vs. 3.3 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Down