Original Airdate: November 17, 1997 (taped November 11)
From Cornwall, Ontario, Canada; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jim Cornette
We start with footage of what happened after the show went off the air last week (due to running long), which saw Ken Shamrock schoolboying WWF Champion and European Champion Shawn Michaels for a Commissioner Slaughter counted pinfall… in a match against Triple H
WWF Intercontinental Champion Steve Austin joins us, and he wants Rocky Maivia to put his money where his mouth is. Rocky answers the call, but with the entire Nation of Domination backing him. They attack, and though Austin is able to fight them off, Rocky manages to steal the title belt in the scuffle, and he walks out with it - Austin left fuming
Marc Mero v Jerry Lawler: Mero gets in Butterbean’s face again during the entrances. The announcers note that Sable got kicked in the head by a horse over the last week, which is why she’s wearing sunglasses at night. I’m pretty sure Keith Richards got kicked in the head by a horse every night of the 70s, then. Lawler gets control, but bails to the outside to gloat with (uninvited) guest commentator Brian Christopher, and Mero baseball slides into him. Mero unloads with rights, as Brian continues to play up the silly ‘we’re not related’ deal with Lawler. I still don’t get what the point of that whole thing was meant to be. Lawler suckers him into the ropes and dumps Mero to the outside for Christopher to abuse, and the King uses a turnbuckle smash on the way back in. Snapmare sets up a fistdrop, as Brian harasses Sable on the outside. Jerry with a bodyslam to set up a 2nd rope fistdrop, but Marc dodges that one, and he makes a comeback. He gets distracted by Brian’s antics, allowing the King to deliver a piledriver, but Sable breaks up the pin for the DQ at 4:50. Afterwards, Mero chews Sable out for interfering, and I’m starting to think that black eye may not be horse related after all. DUD
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Jim Ross narrates a video package on Bret Hart’s exit from the WWF (complete with clips of what went down after Survivor Series went off the air), leading into a segment titled ‘Why Bret Why: The Untold Story’ with Ross conducting a pre-recorded sit-down interview with Vince McMahon. And clearly they had a lot of leftover horse makeup from the Sable deal. Kayfabe is all but dead here, with Vince straight up talking about Bret refusing to do a job, and blaming Bret for what happened (‘Bret screwed Bret’). I’m not sure if Vince meant this as a heel turn, but boy, did it ever come off as one (and boy did it ever work). This was a fantastic segment, and one of the rare ones where using the main show to focus on the behind the scenes stuff was actually well warranted. I can imagine this was crazy confusing for anyone who didn’t know any of the backstage stuff at the time, though
Billy Gunn and Jesse James v Savio Vega and Miguel Perez: Gunn and James come out making racist remarks, so Savio and Miguel attack them in the aisle. The brawl comes inside, but Gunn and James quickly get control, so the rest of Los Boricuas run in for the DQ at 0:51. Well, that was a waste of time. But, well, at least it wasn’t a HUGE waste of time. DUD
Ken Shamrock vignette
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Max Mini, Nova, and Taurus v Tarantula, El Torito, and Battalion: Sunny is the guest referee for this, since this promotion has no imagination. They do some flying around, until Kane shows up, and chases them off for a no-contest at 3:36. The Headbangers come out to try and chase Kane off, but that ends badly for them. ¼*
DX join us, so Shawn Michaels can culturally appropriate some jewelry. And, honestly, the worst crime is that it just looks silly on him. Shawn goes on a rant about Ken Shamrock’s ‘win’ last week, and frankly, he’s completely right. Also, he makes a point of again noting that he ran Bret out of town, and since he’s gone, he’s going to do the same to the rest of his friends and family. Triple H then calls Commissioner Slaughter out to answer for his actions last week, and HHH worries that Slaughter’s wife isn’t thrilled with the sergeant's ‘privates.’ That earns Hunter a smack from Slaughter, but the rest of the gang is right there, and it’s beatdown time - complete with HHH giving him a Pedigree, and DX marking him with a toilet paper ‘x.’ Not quite the nWo spray painting dudes, that’s for sure
WWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Eric Shelley v Scott Taylor: They trade wristlocks to start, and the crowd is treating this like the dark match it feels like. Taylor dumps him to the outside for a baseball slide, as Jeff Jarrett calls in to announce that he’ll be wrestling next week. Taylor with a dropkick off the guardrail, and a flying sunset flip gets him two on the way back in. Eric comes back with a sunset flip of his own for two, and a victory roll is worth two. Bridging fisherman suplex gets two, so Scott tries a backslide, but Eric blocks. Scott manages a Samaon drop for two, as Jarrett promises not to ‘let WCW down’ in his performance next week. Uh, what? Taylor with a snapmare and a seated dropkick for two, and he tries a fujiwara armbar, but Eric won’t tap. He comes back with a powerbomb for two, but Taylor manages to get to the top with a flying DDT at 5:28. They were working hard, but the crowd wasn’t giving them anything here. * ¾
Marc Mero is back to accuse Butterbean of stalking Sable, and he challenges him to throw down right here and now. Butterbean hops the rail to accept, and they get in each other’s faces, but a bunch of officials run in to break it up before it goes further. Mero’s doing a good job with this character
More of Why Bret Why, and this time Vince makes clear that the door is open for Hart to return to the promotion some day. I wonder if that would have happened sooner had 1) Owen not died, and 2) Bret didn’t suffer a career ending injury prior to the end of the Monday Night Wars. One of my favorite ‘what ifs,’ actually, as Hart mixing with the 2001 era roster could have produced some incredible dream matches
Goldust v Vader: Doesn’t happen, as Goldust comes out (in his WrestleMania XII outfit) and claims to not have medical clearance to wrestle tonight. And as Vader reviews his documentation, Goldust bashes him in the head with a hammer, and walks out. Well, that’s one way to do it, I guess
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Slaughter is back, and he’s so fed up with DX, that he’ll be stepping back into the ring at In Your House to teach Triple H a lesson
Rocky Maivia v Dude Love: Maivia makes sure to note that this is non-title. Wait, so Mick Foley’s walkout over Montreal lasted all of a day? They feel each other out to start, and Dude dumps him to the outside to get a psychological edge. Dude unloads with rights once Maivia climbs back in, but Rocky drops him with a DDT. Rocky unloads, and a bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop for two. Dude fights him off and uses a series of turnbuckle smashes to set up the Sweet Shin Music, and a double-arm DDT looks to finish, but the Nation runs in at 5:58. Nothing to this one. Afterwards, Austin runs out to try and reclaim his stolen property, but Rocky bails with the belt before Steve can grab it. DUD
BUExperience: The wrestling was terrible throughout, but they did a good job of getting on track for In Your House, and they’ve got a good mix of entertaining characters here, even if the quality of the matches isn’t quite there yet.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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