WWF RAW is WAR (March 31, 1997)

 Original Airdate: March 31, 1997 (taped March 25)

From Peoria, Illinois; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler

WWF European Title Match: Davey Boy Smith v Owen Hart: Owen attacks with a baseball slide while Bulldog is making his entrance, and he sends Smith into the steps and post out there before taking it inside to officially start the match. Hart dives with a flying twisting bodypress for two, so Davey tries starting a slugfest, but Owen kicks him in the puppies to cut that off. Well, that'll stop just about anyone. Hart with a pair of cross corner whips and a clothesline for two, and he works a chinlock. Bulldog fights free, so Owen throws a knee to put him back down, and he tries for the Sharpshooter, but Smith blocks. Hart pounds him back down for a reverse chinlock, but Bulldog fights free again, so Owen tries throwing another knee, but Davey counters with a schoolboy for two. Bulldog with a corner whip, but Owen uses his boot to block the resulting charge, and he cracks the champ with a series of uppercuts until Davey counters one with a backslide for two. Hart responds with a standing dropkick for two, and a piledriver gets two. Flying elbowdrop for two, and a corkscrew legwhip sets up some abuse to the knee from the challenger. Vertical suplex gets Owen two, so he tries wearing the champion down with another chinlock, and a criss corner whip sets up a jumping backelbow. Owen dives with a flying dropkick, but Davey catches the legs, and turns it into a sharpshooter! That doesn't last long, and Hart fights out into a leg-feed enzuigiri. Owen takes him upstairs for a superplex, but Bulldog blocks, so Owen knocks him to the floor instead. Plancha, but Bulldog catches him, and drops his challenger across the guardrail. Inside, Davey makes a comeback, and a catapult into the corner gets him two. Pop-up flapjack gets two, and a backdrop leads to Bulldog clotheslining him over the top. Owen bails, but Bulldog is on his tail with a vertical suplex on the ramp, and he drags the challenger back inside. Press-slam gets two, but the referee gets bumped during a criss cross, and Owen capitalizes with a spinheel kick. He grabs a chair to finish him off, but Bulldog knocks it away from him. He grabs it to use for himself, but Bret Hart runs out to tackle him down, pinning Davey to the mat, and holding Owen off from doing anything - the match a no-contest at 13:30. Both combatants are still pretty hot, but Bret works to cool them both down, and asks them why they're tearing their team and family apart just to give these stupid American fans what they want. So Bret gives this great, personal speech about how they all used to be so close, but the fans tore them apart, and how they need to put their differences aside, because he needs them. This was unbelievably great stuff, rooted in realism, and I was marking out really hard for it in 1997. Which wasn't easy, because I really didn't like what was happening to the Hitman character, but seeing him make up with his family was pretty touching. And Bret is just incredible here, hitting all the right notes, and knocking it out of the park with his facial expressions and mannerisms. Even Lawler is moved to tears, in a great touch. The match itself was nowhere near the level of the Berlin match, but was still quite good, and this was more about the angle than anything else anyway. ** ½

 

Super Nova v El Mosco: Sunny joins us for guest commentary, since her gimmick is no longer the tag team title slut, but someone who just likes watching bad wrestling, apparently. The announcers pay no attention to this anyway, and spend the entire match hyping other things. Apparently Bret Hart will face Sycho Sid at In Your House - which totally did not happen. Sunny, meanwhile, looks like she's on a different planet, and goes over to harass the Spanish announce team instead of watching this match. Mosco with a slingshot moonsault at 3:53. Really sloppy, but it was so inconsequential that who really cares. ½*

 

Ross brings the Legion of Doom out for an in-ring interview about their upcoming tag title shot against Owen and Bulldog at In Your House. When it comes to LOD promos, shorter is better. Anyway, apparently they represent America now, which is something of a stretch

 

Jesse James v Jerry Fox: Honky Tonk Man is out to do guest commentary for this one, still searching for that protégé to take to greatness. Hey, maybe it'll be Jerry Fox. Jesse has a small child from the crowd as his guest manager tonight, and the poor kid looks like he wants to shoot himself. But, at least, he's color coordinated with Jesse. I've seriously never seen a kid look more miserable, though. I would have killed to be in a WWF ring as a kid, even if it was with Jesse James. Stupid little punk. Jesse with a pumphandle-slam at 1:27. Afterwards, Honky comes in to flat out offer Jesse his services as a mentor and manager, but James smashes up his guitar as a refusal. What a jerk! Just say 'no,' no reason to wreck a guys personal property. DUD

 

The PlayStation Slam of the Week is Chyna bodyslamming Bart Gunn on last week's episode

 

Crush and Savio Vega v Rod Bell and Adam O'Brien: We get a full Nation beat down on the jobbers in the early going, which seems pretty extreme, all considered. Like, can't Crush and Savio handle two no namers on their own? Shawn Michaels calls in to tell us he's less healthy now than he was before Bret Hart beat him up last week. Boy, did he need to go to medical school to make that kind of diagnosis? Adam actually tries making a comeback, but it goes nowhere in a hurry, and a decapitator finishes at 3:17. This was pretty boring, but at least we know Shawn Michaels' temperature, so that's something. DUD

 

Paul Bearer comes out, making his case to become WWF Champion Undertaker's manager once more. Sure, now that he's world champion. So Undertaker comes out to respond, which he does in the form of kicking Bearer's ass. Well, at least he had a reason. Not like that jerk Jesse James. That draws Mankind out to make the save by throwing a fireball in Undertaker's face, so Sycho Sid runs out to chase him off before any more damage can be done to the champion. This was pretty weak, especially compared to the brilliant Hart family stuff. Undertaker's reign was such a bore

 

Backstage, Sycho Sid is live, pal

 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley v Goldust: Both Chyna and Marlena are barred from ringside. Goldust charges in to kick start the match, unloading on Hunter in the corner, and using a cross corner whip to set up a bulldog. Another cross corner whip sends HHH over the top, and Goldust is on him with a clothesline on the floor, before rolling him back inside. Goldust with an earringer and a hip attack, but a bodypress misses, and he takes a spill to the outside. HHH is on him with a baseball slide and a bodyslam on the floor, and he uses a high knee on the way back in. Hunter works him over, but Goldust escapes a chinlock, and uses a bodypress for two. HHH cuts off the comeback with a DDT for two, and he dumps Goldust to the outside, then dives off the middle rope at him on the floor. Chyna shows up at the top of the ramp, but as Goldust gains control on the way back in, she starts marching down. Where are all of the officials that are supposed to be keeping her away from the ring? Goldust hits the Curtain Call, but Chyna attacks him for the DQ at 10:50 before he can score a pinfall. The beat down continues after the match, until Pat Patterson, of all people, makes the save. Well, that would certainly be an interesting ally for Goldust. Not sure why all of their matches tended to be so underwhelming, since Goldust is an energetic babyface, and HHH was great at pinballing around the ring for guys. But then, he was really boring on offense... and most of these matches were structured around HHH on offense. *

 

Vince brings Steve Austin out for an in-ring interview, in his first appearance since WrestleMania, and the crowd loves the guy. They were already cheering him before, but after the performance at WrestleMania, and after Bret's behavior, it's making it all the easier to cheer the guy. Austin talks shit, which draws Bret onto the Titan Tron to respond, and this feud remains hotter than anything else in wrestling at this point - including the nWo

 

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Rocky Maivia v Bret Hart: This would obviously become a huge dream match later on, but at this point it was no big deal. It's still so weird seeing Bret make his entrance to a chorus of boos. Bret gets forced into the corner during the initial lockup, so he bails to the outside to stall. Back in, they trade holds for a while, until Bret gets control, and pounds the champion. Bret with an inverted atomic drop to set up a clothesline, and a Russian legsweep sets up a legdrop. Hart takes him into the corner to pound on, as the announcers work overtime to get Bret's new direction over. Hart with a side suplex for two, but a backdrop gets countered with a small package for two, as Lawler tries to use Martin Lawrence (of all people) as an example of why Bret is right about America. Bret with a backbreaker to set up the 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop, but Rocky dodges, and Maivia makes a comeback. Bridging fisherman's suplex gets two, and a belly-to-belly suplex is worth two. Floatover DDT leads to the flying bodypress, but Bret rolls through for two. Rocky retains control, so Bret goes low, and drags the champ into the corner for the ring post figure four! He wrenches it on, ignoring the referee's calls for a break, and Hart gets himself disqualified at 11:25. This was pretty boring. Afterwards, we get to the good stuff, as Steve Austin runs in to attack Bret, but Bulldog and Owen run in to make the save, and triple team Stone Cold until the Legion of Doom chase them off. ½* 

 

BUExperience: Anything involving the Hart Family and Steve Austin remains great, but there’s a lot of crap on the show too, like the AAA guys, Honky Tonk Man, and pretty much everything else below the main events. A decent two hours, that could have been a really tight one hour.

 

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	3/31/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.7	3.4
Total Wins	17	56
Win Streak		39
Better Show (as of 3/24)	28	42