WWF RAW is WAR (June 9, 1997)

Original Airdate: June 9, 1997

From Hartford, Connecticut; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jim Ross

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Ahmed Johnson and The Legion of Doom v Faarooq, Crush, and Savio Vega: Hawk starts with Savio, and a criss cross ends in Hawk hitting a hiptoss, followed by a dropkick. Corner clothesline sends Savio to the outside, so Vega tries dragging him out with him, but that ends badly. Tag to Animal for a shoulderblock, so Savio passes to Crush to match power with him. That also ends badly, and Animal knocks him to the outside as well. Tag to Faarooq, which leads to a tag to Ahmed, and suddenly Faarooq doesn't want to come in anymore. Ahmed beats on him in the corner, and we get a funny spot where Faarooq telegraphs a backdrop like an hour in advance, and eats an axekick. All three babyfaces gang up on him in their corner, and Animal hits a powerslam for two. They continue to dominate Faarooq with quick tags, and Ahmed finishes with the Pearl River Plunge at 5:49. This was almost a squash, which is especially weird since Faarooq is coming off of headlining a pay per view one night prior. ½*

 

Vince brings brand new King of the Ring Hunter Hearst Helmsley out for some gloating, and McMahon is disgusted with his actions last night. He Pedigreed Mankind on the announce table! Oh calm down, we're talking about a dude who was literally trying to murder Undertaker with a blowtorch a couple of weeks ago, stop white knighting for him. Anyway, HHH is less thrilled than annoyed, since he was 'supposed to' be King of the Ring a year ago, but Vince's 'politics' denied him his shot. This draws Mankind onto the TitanTron, and he wants a rematch, so Chyna tells him he can kiss her ass. "It's your lucky day, because I'm a good kisser," notes Mankind, before storming the ring... and promptly getting beat down

 

RAW is WAR t-shirt ad, as modeled by Sunny

 

Speaking of tournaments, let's take a look back at the tournament to crown the first ever WWF European champion back in February/March

 

WWF European Title Match: Davey Boy Smith v Goldust: Give it to them, they're trying to make the title seem like a really big deal, and that's a good thing. They measure each other a bit to start, with Davey using power to dominate his challenger. Criss cross allows Goldust to fire off a jumping clothesline, but Bulldog cuts him off with a boot to the midsection (the lower half of the midsection, that is), and Smith adds a hanging vertical suplex. Goldust fights him off again and hits a clothesline, and this time he manages a corner whip to rebound Bulldog into a punch. He unloads in the corner, but Bulldog turns the tables, and cross corner whips him. That sets up the Running Powerslam, but Goldust counters to a DDT - only for Bulldog to get into the ropes at two. Davey pounds him in the corner to set up another cross corner whip, but Goldust's leg gives out, and he collapses at mid-ring. Davey takes him down for a chinlock, but Goldust fights him off at the third arm drop, and a criss cross allows him a bodypress. They spill to the outside for a slugfest, and it ends in a double countout at 9:20. They were trying to make Goldust's title shot into a big deal, but the match fell kind of flat, and without rhythm. Afterwards, Bulldog wants to permanently injure the man, and Marlena's attempts to beg off by way of slapping him somehow don't work. I know, I'm shocked too. Luckily Ken Shamrock runs out to make the save, and he takes off his shirt, which, as any scientist will tell you, makes him at least 25% more dangerous. Smith, a long time exponent of this theory, realizes he has a SummerSlam '94 on his hands, and quickly backs down. Smart man. ¾*

 

Dok Hendrix is outside the Nation of Domination's door, and apparently doesn't understand that 'no' means 'no.' Anyway, the Nation are a'fussin' and a'feudin'. Faarooq storms out of the dressing room and marches to the ring, backed up by everyone except Savio and Crush. And he's good and pissed at 'the jalapeno pepper' and Crush, firing them both. And then he fires all the flunkies, except for D-lo Brown, who he will build a new Nation with. Watching Clarence Mason's reaction to getting fired after kicking all the other flunkies out of the ring is pretty great. And, honestly, Faarooq is right! Look at how the Hart Foundation take care of their leader, and look at how Faarooq fared in the six-man earlier

 

Back in October 1996, Steve Austin broke Brian Pillman's ankle

 

Backstage, Marc Mero is giving Sable a stern talking to

 

The Headbangers v Doug Furnas and Philip LaFon: ECW's Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer show up in the crowd during the entrances. Why does Dreamer look like my grandfather? Has he always been so high waisted? Mosh and LaFon start, as the crowd ignores the match to chant 'ECW' at Heyman and Dreamer, with Ross referencing his past in broadcasting with Paul. And then he immediately follows that up by making a Midnight Express reference, as 1997 continues to get weirder and weirder by the very second. Furnas and LaFon isolate Thrasher and go to work, as the crowd sits on their hands. I mean, you could hear a pin drop out there. Furnas hits a rana for two, so Mosh comes in without a tag, and Roseanne Barr the door. Doug tries another rana, but Thrasher counters with a slam, so Philip comes off the top, but ends up landing on his partner. That allows Thrasher to cover Furnas for the pin at 3:35. The crowd was completely dead for all of it, but it wasn't a poorly worked match, or anything. *

 

Backstage, Jerry Lawler and Rob Van Dam fume over Heyman and Dreamer's appearance. Lawler sounds incredibly low key tonight, like he lost his voice or something

 

Back in November 1996, Austin tried to invade Pillman's home. The clips completely sidestep the gunplay, however

 

The Sega Slam of the Week is HHH putting Mankind through an announce table with a Pedigree at King of the Ring

 

Vince brings WWF Tag Team Champion Steve Austin out for an in-ring interview, and that certainly wakes the crowd up. Why does Vince sound like he's saying 'masturbating' when he says 'dastardly?' So Austin is still gloating over giving Brian Pillman a swirly last night, ahead of his match with Brian here tonight. And he's also accepting the Hart Foundation's challenge for a ten-man tag in Calgary at the next In Your House. You know we're in uncharted territory here when Steve is threatening to beat Gorilla Monsoon's 'fat ass,' beat up Stu and Helen Hart, and he's getting cheered out of the building

 

King of the Ring encore ad, followed by Vince and JR reading comments from AOL users, complete with their screen names

 

Apparently the SummerSlam '96 commercial has won a Promax award, which is a real thing that still exists in 2021. So let's watch a commercial for SummerSlam '96 again

 

On Saturday night at the ECW Arena, Jerry Lawler showed up to cause trouble. No wonder he lost his voice, between that and working King of the Ring last night

 

Flash Funk v Rob Van Dam: Dreamer and Heyman try to go after RVD and Lawler during the entrances, but get nowhere. Jerry sits in on commentary for this one, and he's blaming the Mandible Claw for his loss of voice, which is the kind of nice touch that shows you why he's such a pro. Funk dumps him to the outside for a plancha right away, but Rob gets control, and hits a guillotine legdrop. He dives with a somersault suicida, but Funk is out of position, and RVD wipes out. But Flash still sells it anyway. That was terrible. Rob keeps on him on the way back inside, but loses a slugfest, and Funk hits a spinning roundhouse kick for two. Corner whip sets up a corner splash, and Flash adds a suplex. Flying moonsault gets him two, but a spinheel kick misses, and Van Dam lands a spinkick. Standing moonsault gets him one, and a powerbomb is followed with a somersault cradle for two. Reversal sequence ends in Funk throwing an enzuigiri, but a corner charge ends badly, and Rob uses the split-legged moonsault at 4:27. Afterwards, Heyman and Dreamer hop the rail to attack Lawler, though compared to other things Dreamer might do after hopping a guardrail, it's pretty tame. Vince notes that this is 'not what the WarZone is all about.' Um, sounds like exactly what something called the 'WarZone' is all about, actually. Or maybe this is the Discovery Zone? * ¼

 

Owen Hart v Sycho Sid: Owen's WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line here, and Ken Shamrock is out to do guest commentary. Owen attacks before the bell, and pounds Sid into the corner, choking the big man out with his own vest. Backdrop, but Sid counters with a sloppy facebuster, and adds a big boot. He dumps Hart over the top, so Jim Neidhart distracts the big man, and Owen is able to sweep him down to bash the leg into the post a few times. Owen goes to work on the leg, but Sid manages to block the Sharpshooter. Owen regroups with a missile dropkick (which Sid can't even bother to get into position for), and Neidhart drops Sid across the rail on the outside. That draws Shamrock over to suplex Jim on the floor to keep him out if things, but the damage is done, and Sid is already back inside getting covered for two. The distraction allows Sid to come back with a chokeslam, however, and he hooks the leg at 4:15. Sid looked terrible here, but the crowd still loved the guy, so I can understand why they just kept giving him chance after chance. ¾*

 

Over the weekend on Shotgun Saturday Night, Steve Austin attacked commentator Brian Pillman

 

Sable is out to model a RAW is WAR t-shirt. She looks so awkward here, not nearly as comfortable in this sort of role as Sunny. And apparently Marc Mero agrees, as he comes out to take her away before she embarrasses herself any further

 

And now it's the final installment of Jim Ross's extensive interview with Mankind. We get some serial killer shit this week, with Mankind stewing over how he and Shawn Michaels had the same 'boyhood dream,' but Shawn looks like the Heartbreak Kid, and Mankind looks like a freak. Ross wonders if he's ever been diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder, but Mankind doesn't believe in doctors. "If there's something wrong with my mind, I'd be the first to know." Seriously, this is some creepy shit, made all the creepier by Mick Foley's delivery. He's killing it here. All this builds up to Mankind losing his patience with the interviewer, particularly over Ross's frequent comments about how he 'enjoys' pain, and Jim ends up in the Mandible Claw. Well, that was quite the finish. And this whole thing was truly great, with both guys doing a phenomenal job of getting it over. Foley frequently gets the lion's share of the credit for this, but Ross really hammered it home in so many ways

 

Rockabilly v Bart Gunn: Bart doesn't even get an entrance here, and he's still wearing his 'Smoking Gunns' vest. But we know Rockabilly is a bad guy because his jeans are black. Bart blitzes him, but misses a lariat, and Rockabilly clotheslines him down for two. Criss cross allows Bart a facebuster, and he whips Rockabilly into the ropes for a nice backelbow. Backdrop, but he telegraphs it, and Rockabilly counters with a rocker dropper. Shake Rattle and Roll finishes at 2:54. Well, no wonder we never got a proper pay per view match between these two. ¼*

 

Canadian Collision tour ad

 

Backstage, the Hart Foundation huddle up

 

The SuperSoaker Rewind is Austin breaking Pillman's ankle in October 1996. Again

 

Brian Pillman v Mankind: This is scheduled as Pillman against Steve Austin, but the Foundation attack Steve before the match, and we get this instead after Mankind runs out to make the save. Apparently Austin injured his knee against Shawn Michaels at the pay per view the night before, necessitating the change. And the funny part is we never even get a proper announcement of the change, Mankind just starts brawling with Pillman, and it's an impromptu match. Mankind pounds him in the corner, and a backelbow knocks Pillman to the outside. Mankind clotheslines him on the ramp, so Brian fights back with a suplex out there, and then tosses Mankind into the rail. Poor Mankind is taking these crazy bumps and the camera is barely even catching them. And this is 24 hours after he took some really sick bumps at the PPV. The fact that his career lasted as long as it did is miraculous. Back in, Mankind tries a corner charge, but misses, as Ross references the Hollywood Blonds. Pillman with chops (drawing 'whoos' from the crowd, which I didn't think became a 'thing' until the 2000s), but Mankind fights him off, and delivers an inverted atomic drop. Big boot follows, and Mankind delivers a double-arm DDT. Mandible Claw time, and here come the Hart Foundation for the DQ at 7:15. The resulting beat down draws a hobbled Austin out, and he's backed up by Ken Shamrock to chase the Foundation off. This was actually kind of sad to watch, with Pillman looking barely mobile. I've always been disappointed that we didn't get Austin/Pillman at the PPV, but I imagine it probably would have been pretty terrible, so it was for the best. ¼*

 

BUExperience: Nothing even resembling good wrestling this week, but it was a fun episode. This felt more like a wild outlaw promotion than the polished WWF, and everything felt like summer (whatever that means). Maybe the real life backstage chaos during this taping (which included Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels getting into a real fight that ended in Michaels storming out of the building while threatening to go to WCW, and Bret kept off the episode entirely) had something to do with the atmosphere, I don’t know, but it worked.

 

For those of you who grew up in the era of the WWE owning everything and openly acknowledging both their own and other promotions’ history, it’s hard to explain just how wild and crazy 1997 felt, and this episode is a good example. Hard to believe there was a time when just saying ‘Cactus Jack’ or referencing the Hollywood Blonds was almost revolutionary.

 

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	6/9/97
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.2	3.4
Total Wins	17	66
Win Streak		49
Better Show (as of 6/2)	34	45