Original Airdate: August 4, 1997
From Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler
Ross brings the Hart Foundation out to open the show, and they may be down one Intercontinental title, but they're up one world title, so SummerSlam went pretty well for them overall. Bret feels Shawn Michaels should be barred from every wrestling in the USA again since he, in Bret's view, showed tremendous favor towards Undertaker last night. Yeah, that's a stretch. All this brings Sgt. Slaughter out, and apparently he's the newly appointed Commissioner that President Gorilla Monsoon was talking up last week. And so he notes that Bret will be defending against Patriot at In Your House Ground Zero, which seems pretty random, even by Vince Russo standards. Like, he's been in the promotion all of, what, two weeks? At least they booked him to pin Bret on last week's show to kind of sort of legitimize it. All of this draws new Intercontinental Champion Steve Austin out, and he wants a rematch with Owen Hart right here tonight, doctors be damned. This was a really good segment, though Slaughter feels dead on arrival in this role
Last night, various fans reacted to the WWF Title change on their way out of the building. Cameras or not, who stops on their way out of the building? You make a beeline for your car, and get the hell out of there before traffic. Everyone knows this. Everyone
Backstage, the Nation of Domination is upset about burritos, or something
Ken Shamrock v Kama Mustafa: Commissioner Slaughter continues earning his money by sending the rest of the Nation back to the dressing rooms. I'm honestly surprised Ahmed Johnson managed to get down off of the ring apron without injuring himself, let's be real. Shamrock wants to spar, and Kama obliges, and it's like Brawl for All is here a whole year early! Kama with a corner whip, but a charge misses (kinda, their timing was messed up), and Ken throws rights at him. Kama fights back with rights of his own, and a turnbuckle smash rattles Shamrock. Kama with a bodyslam to set up an elbowdrop for two, and he dumps Ken to the outside for a trip into the post, but Shamrock reverses. That allows the Boricuas to pop out of the crowd and suplex Kama on the floor, and Shamrock capitalizes with a belly-to-belly suplex on the way back in at 3:02. DUD
Brakkus's back is back
Brian Christopher v Taka Michinoku: Sunny acts as the guest ring announcer for this one. Christopher pounds him down at the bell, and a northern lights suplex connects. German suplex, but Taka lands on his feet, and he sticks and moves a bit before running into a powerbomb. Christopher adds a rocker dropper, but a bodypress misses, and Christopher takes a spill over the top. Taka is on him with a springboard flying bodypress into the aisle, but Brian blocks a suplex back in by dropping Taka across the top rope. Inside, Christopher uses a backbreaker and a 2nd rope dropkick. Christopher with a rolling vertical suplex, but Taka counters the third alarm with a cradle at 3:22. Kind of weird seeing these two playing it straight, considering both became part of two of the biggest comedy acts of their generation before long. Solid match, though. **
Slaughter is at Brian Pillman's dressing room, delivering the dress he was to wear tonight. And he'll have to keep on wearing it for every match until he wins one. Well, that's one way to make sure he respects the booker man
Backstage, Paul Bearer notes that he's more of a man than Chyna will ever be. I won't touch that one
Vader v Hunter Hearst Helmsley: HHH attacks before the bell, but Vader reverses a whip into the ropes, and he bodyblocks Hunter down. Vader unloads in the corner, and a short-clothesline connects. Cross corner whip backfires when Helmsley rebounds out with a clothesline, and Hunter unloads in the corner. Criss cross allows Paul Bearer to trip HHH up, so Chyna beats him down, and the distraction allows Helmsley to attack Vader - whipping him into the steps, as the referee counts both men out at 2:15. This might have been good if it wasn't so ridiculously short. DUD
Backstage, Patriot is trying to fake it 'til he makes it
Sultan v Patriot: Sultan attacks while Patriot is busy waiving his flag, and Sultan delivers a side suplex to get control. Clothesline follows, and there are a weird amount of people in this crowd with signs saying 'hi' to a relative + a friend. I've seen those kinds of signs before, but two almost identical ones in the same crowd is new. Patriot quickly comes back, and a flying clothesline leads to the Uncle Slam at 1:45. Afterwards, Bret Hart shows up to get in Patriot's face, but he loses his backup thanks to Slaughter cutting them off in the aisle, and Patriot is able to win a fair fight. I get what they were trying for with Patriot as a challenger for Bret, but it's not working at all thus far, and feels like a huge demotion for the Hitman to boot. I mean, he's spent the year feuding with Austin, Michaels, and Undertaker, and now his first big program after winning the title is this mid-card goof? ¼*
Vince brings Shawn Michaels out to discuss with happened last night, but Shawn is in no mood for McMahon, and tells him to get the fuck out of his ring. Poor Vince must have cried himself to sleep that night. Anyway, Shawn is all pissy that everyone is blaming him for what happened, and one person who seems to be especially blaming him is Undertaker, who shows up to lodge his complaint in person. That sends Shawn running for the hills, but he won't have anywhere to run for long, because he'll be facing Undertaker at Ground Zero. This was good stuff, as Shawn turned the crowd against him with ease, and it's good to see him finally playing a heel again since he's so naturally good at it. His hesitancy to do so is one of the things I disliked about his comeback run in the 2000s, actually
Backstage, Slaughter catches up with Steve Austin's doctor, who notes that Steve has Spinal Shock Syndrome, and he doesn't recommend that Austin wrestle tonight. It's kind of hard to take him seriously when he's dressed like that, though. They couldn't find him a white coat somewhere?
Ahmed Johnson v Chainz: Truly a main event anywhere in the world. Slaughter is back to bounce the Nation again, and he tells the DOA to hit the bricks as well. Well, at least he's consistent. Chainz immediately clips Ahmed's bad leg, and he goes to work on it. Straddling ropechoke misses, however, allowing Ahmed a pair of scoop brainbusters, as the Boricuas show up again. They mess with Chainz's bike, and Ahmed capitalizes with the Pearl River Plunge at 2:10, as some poor Chainz cosplayer at ringside has a fit. Afterwards, the rest of the DOA return to chase the Boricuas away, and the rest of the Nation come back as well... but instead of fighting with the DOA, they beat down Ahmed to kick him out of the group. Wow, I sure hope this leads to an Ahmed/Nation feud to really freshen things up for all involved. DUD
The Godwinns v The Headbangers: Henry Godwinn starts with Thrasher, and gets schooled. Both guys tag out, and Phineas Godwinn runs right into a hiptoss from Mosh, and a dropkick sends Phineas to the outside. He hustles back in, so Mosh uses a drop-toehold to put him down, and Thrasher dives off the middle with a clothesline. Henry responds by charging in with a clothesline, turning the tide, and allowing the Godwinns to cut the ring in half. Mosh gets the hot tag and runs wild, but Henry saves Phineas from a rollup with the Slop Drop, and Phineas pins Mosh at 3:35. Basic, but fine. *
Brian Pillman v Bob Holly: As promised, Pillman is wearing a dress, and Goldust and Marlena are hanging out in the crowd to revel in it. Pillman is all pissed off, and takes it out by blitzing Holly. Backelbow sets up some mounted punches, but Bob reverses a whip into the ropes, and hits an inverted atomic drop to set up a clothesline. Holly with a stomp to the groin, and a powerslam sets up a flying legdrop, as Lawler calls this match 'perverted.' Well, he'd know. Goldust distracts him by waiving a bra around, and Brian takes the bait - getting himself counted out at 2:24. There was no meat on the bones here. ½*
Dude Love v Owen Hart: Since Austin is not medically cleared, his tag partner is sent out in his place. Bret Hart is out for guest commentary here. Owen attacks before the bell, but a cross corner whip gets reversed on him, and Dude bulldogs him down. Love with a short-clothesline, and then a regular clothesline, with a weird setup that sees Dude climb to the top, jump down, and then just do a clothesline. Okay then. Hart comes back with a spinheel kick, but Dude backdrops him over the top, and he follows to smash Owen's face into the announce table. That draws a glare from the Hitman, but Dude keeps focused, and gets Owen in an armbar on the way back in. Into the corner for a ten-punch, and a cross corner whip sets up an elbowdrop for two. Love works a chinlock, but Hart escapes, so Dude shoulderblocks him down. Hiptoss sets up a legdrop for two, and it's back to the armbar, so Owen dumps him to the outside to buy time. Why is one of the security dudes just taking a nap on the ramp? Hart with a flying dropkick on the way back inside, and a vertical suplex sets up some mounted punches. Leg-feed enzuigiri and a bodyslam set up a flying elbowdrop for two, and a dropkick knocks Dude back to the outside, where Bret sends him into the post. He rolls Dude in for Owen to finish with the Sharpshooter, but Austin marches down (taking his sweet time too, thus weakening Owen's finisher by having Dude hang on for longer), and Hart releases the hold as Steve jaws with Bret. As the officials swarm to get between then, Steve is able to shoot off a shot at Owen, and Dude hooks the leg at 10:24. It's really interesting to see how Mick Foley would switch up his styles between his gimmicks, as his work here as Dude is totally different than what he was doing with Mankind just the night before. * ¾
BUExperience: The direction of the promotion coming out of SummerSlam remains mostly interesting, but this was a really rough, thrown together episode. And sometimes that ‘thrown together’ quality can be a positive, but definitely not this week.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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