WWF Survivor Series 1997 (Version II)

Original Airdate: November 9, 1997

 

From Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

 

Opening Survivor Series Elimination Match: Billy Gunn, Jesse James, and The Godwinns v The Headbangers and The New Blackjacks: Phineas Godwinn and Blackjack Windham start, and Windham gets the better of a shoulderblock exchange, and Phineas takes a breather on the outside. Back in, Windham keeps control with a bodyslam, and he passes to Blackjack Bradshaw for a powerslam for two. Bradshaw unloads in the corner, but a charge hits boot, and Phineas tags out to Henry Godwinn. Henry hammers Bradshaw, but a turnbuckle smash gets reversed, and Bradshaw delivers a Russian legsweep for two. Vertical suplex, but Henry reverses for two, and a cross corner whip rebounds Bradshaw into a clothesline for two. Another whip into the ropes, but Bradshaw stops short, and hooks an abdominal cradle at 3:51. Phineas rushes in to trade blows with Bradshaw after the pin, but he loses that exchange, and Windham tags in to vertical suplex him for two. He’s so out of shape at this point that he couldn’t even manage the floatover. Gutwrench suplex gets him two, and a jumping clothesline is worth two. Corner whip works, but the charge in doesn’t, and Phineas clotheslines him at 5:12. Mosh comes in with boots, and an elbowdrop allows him to hold an armbar, but Phineas bites him to escape. Mosh recovers with a dropkick, and a drop-toehold allows him to get the armbar back on. Phineas escapes and passes to Billy Gunn for a double team backelbow, and Gunn works Mosh over in dull fashion. You’d think he’d have a little more in his arsenal, but it’s literally all punch-kick stuff. Corner charge hits boot, allowing Mosh a clothesline, but Gunn counters a bulldog with a facebuster at 8:40. That whole portion of the match was surprisingly brutal. Dust settles on Phineas and Thrasher next, as Ross goes over the rules for the dozenth time. I get doing that later, when they had tons of casuals watching, but their audience at this point was literally the hardest of the hardcores. We know how it works. Thrasher works a wristlock for a while, as I notice that Jesse James has ‘Road Dog’ with only one ‘g’ on his shirt. Guess Vince Russo hadn’t gotten ahold of that one yet. The match just drags on with nothing happening as Thrasher works the hold, until he delivers a facebuster, and dives with a flying seated senton at 12:38. The teammates aren’t even pretending to try and save here, which is annoying. James is next in, but Thrasher quickly fights him off, and passes to Bradshaw to knock him around proper. Short-clothesline and a gutwrench powerbomb find their marks, so Gunn assists with a distraction, and Jesse schoolboys at 13:45. That was pretty clearly a two count, but we’re rolling with it. Let’s just hope the officiating for the rest of the night will be beyond reproach. Thrasher comes in to continue to bore us with punch-kick stuff on Jesse, until Gunn takes a lazy cheap shot from the apron. That leads to a really awkward sequence where they can’t seem to decide what to do, ending in Thrasher toppling Jesse during a pumphandle-slam attempt, but Gunn diving in with a flying legdrop to break the cover (despite missing by a good two feet), and Billy pins him at 15:25.

Survivors: Billy Gunn, Jesse James

Oh God. This went along okay for the first few minutes, but ground to a complete halt after Windham’s elimination, and then became a deep sea of amateurishness, punctuated with botches. ¼* (Original rating: DUD)

 

Survivor Series Elimination Match: The Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush, Chainz, Skull, and 8-Ball) v The Truth Commission (Jackyl, Recon, Sniper, and Interrogator): Bret’s contract was so big that the DOA don’t even get their bikes tonight. DOA run in to kick start the match, but Chainz loses an exchange with Interrogator, and eats a sidewalk slam at 1:19. Recon slams 8-Ball around from there, and Jackyl tags in with a flying kneedrop, but 8-Ball no-sells it, and turns Jackyl into a grease stain with another sidewalk slam at 2:52. Sidewalk slam: it’s the new clothesline! Sniper comes in with a jumping backelbow on 8-Ball for two, and a bodypress is worth two, as Jackyl retreats to the commentary table now that he’s out. Sniper is looking really rough around the edges out there. Recon tries a flying axehandle, but 8-Ball dodges, and DOA gang up on him in their corner. Crush tags in with a pair of legdrops, followed by a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Skull blasts Recon with a big clothesline to knock him out of the match at 5:20. Sniper comes in, but the DOA have their way with him, so Interrogator takes a cheap shot, and Sniper bulldogs Skull at 6:30. We’re just hustling through this one, and thank God. 8-Ball nails Sniper with a clothesline after the elimination, and a snapmare sets up an elbowdrop. Over to Crush for an axehandle to the lower back, and a suplex is worth two. Crush works a headscissors, and it’s back to Ball, as they cut the ring in half on Sniper. The idiot 8-Ball accidentally whips him right into a tag to Interrogator, however, and a sidewalk slam sends Ball packing at 8:51. The crowd didn’t even react to that, wow. Like, not even a courtesy round of applause - nothing. Sniper tags in to try and polish off Crush, but gets fought off, and Crush eliminates him with a slam at 9:48. And then Interrogator just kills Crush at 9:59.

Survivor: Interrogator

For those keeping track, that’s four eliminations via sidewalk slam. This was not good (like, at all), but at least it was quick. ¼* (Original rating: DUD)

 

Survivor Series Elimination Match: Team USA (Goldust, Marc Mero, Vader, and Steve Blackman) v Team Canada (Davey Boy Smith, Jim Neidhart, Doug Furnas, and Philip LaFon): Wait, is the ring announcer doing all the introductions in French? Never noticed that before, but I dig it. Kind of weird that Ross straight up tells us that there’s only one Canadian in the whole match. It’s true, but usually they don’t highlight stuff like that for kayfabe purposes. Mero and Bulldog start, and Marc tries using his fists, but Bulldog shoulderblocks him, and knocks him to the outside with a dropkick. Mero manages a wristlock on the way back in, and Vader tags in with an axehandle off the middle. He unloads in Davey in the corner, and a short-clothesline connects. Bodyblock puts Bulldog on his ass, but a dive off the middle ends badly when Smith catches him in a powerslam. Hanging vertical suplex works, and LaFon tags in - only to eat an avalanche from the big man. Back to Mero for a kneelift, but a criss cross goes Phil’s way with a spinheel kick, and he adds a clothesline for two. Suplex, but Mero blocks, and Blackman (still being sold as a ‘a ticket buying fan just six days ago’ - a precedent I’m still surprised never came back to bite them in the ass harder) tags in with a bicycle kick, followed by a standing dropkick. Elbowdrop gets him two, but LaFon catches him with a knee, and delivers a DDT for two. Crucifix gets two, but a roundhouse kick misses, and Steve chops him in the throat. That brings the rest of Canada in, but Blackman fights them all off - only to forget about the count, and get counted out at 5:08. Dust settles on Mero and Neidhart, and Jim clobbers him when Marc telegraphs a backdrop. Avalanche, but Mero dodges, and hooks a schoolboy for two. Tag to Vader, and Jim actually wins a power showdown with him, before running into an elbow in the corner. That allows Vader a splash, and the Anvil has been shotput at 6:55. LaFon hustles in with a pair of superkicks, and spinheel kick sends Vader over the top. I know it was always part of his act, but Vader sells way too much. It might have been fine elsewhere, but they were never going to take him seriously that way in the WWF, and it was a major miscalculation on his part. Inside, LaFon botches taking a freaking cross corner whip somehow, and Vader belly-to-belly suplexes him to set up a 2nd rope splash at 8:31. Furnas comes in with a dropkick, but a second one misses, and Mero tags back in. He unloads on Doug with rights and lefts, and a flying moonsault press gets him two. That one looked super ugly. Furnas fights him off with a spinebuster to allow the tag to Davey, and Bulldog scrambles Marc’s brains with a series of turnbuckle smashes. Running powerslam looks to finish, but Mero blocks, and clocks him with a big right. Backelbow follows, but Bulldog tags out before Mero can finish him off. Marc keeps it going on Furnas, and a sunset flip gets two - only to have Doug reverse at 11:20. Vader clobbers Furnas right after the fall, but loses a criss cross to a jumping clothesline, and Smith is able to tag back in. Davey tries a vertical suplex, but Vader reverses it. He wants to tag out, but Goldust refuses, allowing Furnas to tag in and jump Vader. Vader manages to fight him off via side suplex, but Goldust still refuses to tag in, allowing Doug a low blow for two. Back to Bulldog, but he blows a corner charge, and Vader clotheslines him. This is all backwards, considering the Americans are heels in this town. Goldust again refuses a tag, and the Canadians continue working Vader over, until he finally forces Goldust in via a slap-to-the-face tag. Well, it’s legal. Goldust doesn’t appreciate it, however, and walks out on the match at 16:21. That whole section could have stood to lose two minutes. Vader is fired up now, and manages to fight off a double team, and the Vaderbomb ends Furnas at 16:57. But while Vader is doing that, Bulldog has armed himself with the ring bell, and he knocks Vader silly with it for the pin at 17:08.

Survivor: Davey Boy Smith

The portion with Goldust’s refusal to get into the match dragged on a bit too long, and some of the booking was weird (like positioning the Americans to work as babyfaces), but it was generally fine otherwise, and the Canadians had tremendous crowd support to bolster things. ** (Original rating: * ½)

 

Mankind v Kane: Mankind attacks during the entrances, but Kane no-sells a smash into the guardrail, and sends Mankind crashing into the steps. I think. We’re doing the red light gimmick here, and it’s impossible to see what’s going on. Inside to officially start the match, where Kane keeps hammering him. Mankind fights back with a cactus clothesline, but Kane lands on his feet, and clotheslines him on the floor. Kane chucks the steps at him for good measure, and he continues to work him over as they had back in, albeit in super dull, ultra-plodding fashion. It’s just all punch/kick/choke here, like an old Undertaker match. Which, yeah, I get was the point, but it doesn’t make it interesting to watch. Mankind grabs a chair to comeback, but Kane mostly no-sells it, so Mankind gives him a pulling piledriver. He stops to beat up Paul Bearer, but that proves to be a huge mistake when Kane recovers, and launches him through an announce table from the apron! Well, that’ll safely save this thing from ‘DUD’ territory, at least. Mankind comes back with an elbowdrop on the floor from the apron, but an attempt at a dive off the middle out there ends in Kane slamming him all the way down to the floor. Inside, the tombstone finishes at 9:29 (10:31 total). To put it diplomatically, this sucked (outside of a couple of predictable big bumps from Mankind). But, hey, if you need a guy to go out there and kill himself to put a new guy over, who better? Though, as much as he’s the best guy in the world for this role, he’s also the dirt worst, since he’s too big a star to sacrifice in a four minute squash, even though that’s what this realistically needed to be. ½* (Original rating: ½*)

 

Survivor Series Elimination Match: Ken Shamrock, Ahmed Johnson, and The Legion of Doom v Faarooq, Rocky Maivia, Kama Mustafa, and D-lo Brown: Hawk and Brown start, and Hawk powers him around. Brown tries a piledriver, but Hawk does his usual no-sell, and he drops Brown with a neckbreaker. Tag to Rocky, but Hawk is still all fired up, so the Kama takes a cheap shot, and Maivia hits a uranage at 1:13. Rocky wants to celebrate, but it’s cut short by Ahmed, and Maivia eats a backelbow. Rocky tags out to Kama, and he manages to put Ahmed down long enough, allowing the Nation to gang up. Ahmed’s ‘I’m ready for bed’ form of selling is terrible, and in general, he just looks so broken down and sad here. Hard to believe it’s only been two short years since his energetic showing at the 1995 edition of the show. Faarooq goes for the dominator to put him away, but Johnson counters with the Pearl River Plunge at 3:37. Brown is next in, and he hits a dive, but Ahmed gets fired up, and drops him with a gourdbuster. Brown tags out, but the incoming Rocky gets caught in a spinebuster. Plunge, but Faarooq trips Johnson up, and Rocky gets a leveraged pin at 5:16. Good riddance, Johnson was stinking the joint up. Dust settles on Animal and Rocky next, and Animal dominates. Over to Ken for a clothesline and a dropkick, so Rocky goes to the eyes to buy time, and he passes to Kama. Kama bootchokes him in the corner, but an avalanche misses, and Animal is able to tag back in. Kama gets control of him with a front-facelock, but Animal escapes, and delivers a side suplex for two. Jumping shoulderblock finds the mark, and a bodyslam is worth two. Distraction from Brown allows Kama a savate kick, but he showboats, and Animal schoolboys at 9:51. “He’ll be joining Faarooq in the shower,” notes an oblivious JR. Dust settles on Shamrock and Brown next, and Ken takes his head off with a clothesline. Some well timed cheating helps the Nation turn the tide back, however, and they work Shamrock over. Brown with a backbreaker to set up a springboard moonsault, but Ken dodges it. That allows both men to tag, and Animal comes in hot. Cue Jesse James and Billy Gunn to distract him, and Animal gets counted out after taking the bait at 14:06. Shamrock is ready to fight both guys, but the referee is a real fuddy-duddy, and so we get a one-on-one with Brown instead. D-lo pounds on him for a bit, but a double-team goes badly, and Ken puts him in the anklelock at 16:09. Rocky blasts Ken with a chair as the referee is distracted with helping Brown out of the ring, but it only gets a two count. Rocky responds by unloading in the corner, and a floatover DDT gets him two. Bodyslam sets up the (not yet ‘people’s’) elbowdrop for two, but Ken comes back with a northern lights suplex to counter another DDT. Rana follows, and man, these French-Canadian security guards look so humorless. Shamrock with the anklelock to win it at 19:33.

Survivor: Ken Shamrock

What’s up with all the ‘sole survivor’ booking tonight? This was long and meandering, and like so many other matches tonight, felt like it was being stretched out to fill time. * (Original rating: *)

 

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Owen Hart v Steve Austin: Owen does a bunch of stalling on the outside to avoid starting the match, and Jim Neidhart comes in to try a sneak attack, but Steve fights him off. That allows Owen to come in and jump Austin anyway, and he goes for a piledriver, but Austin counters via backdrop. Hart bails, and manages to hook Austin from the floor, sweeping him into a shot with the post, as the Hart Foundation get ejected. Steve reverses him into the post, so Owen decides to walk out, but Austin chases him down in the aisle. Back in, but Hart bails again, and this time mulekicks his challenger away when Steve chases. Hart sends him into the wreckage of the announce table from earlier, and chokes him with a cable, begging the referee to disqualify him. Inside, Owen keeps angling for a DQ, but the official won’t play ball. Steve goes to the eyes to shake him off, so Owen tries the same reversal into a tombstone that worked at SummerSlam, but Austin counters with the Stunner at 4:03. I liked how the ending called back to SummerSlam, though the announcers didn’t do a good job (or any job, really) of explaining it. This was not good, with Austin still recovering from his career threatening injury, and he hadn’t worked out his new ring style yet. It was also really short, though that was to be somewhat expected. ¼* (Original rating: DUD)

 

Main Event: WWF Title Match: Bret Hart v Shawn Michaels: Shawn’s WWF European title is not on the line here. The kid who got the shades from Bret here should probably eBay those things. Michaels attacks before the bell, but Bret fights off the blitz, and unloads on the challenger. Clothesline sends Shawn flying over the top, and Hart is on his tail for a trip to the post. Into the steps next, as the Hitman gives Shawn a serious beating. They spill into the crowd, with Hart just laying into him out there, and even some of the fans trying to get their licks in as well. The brawl gets so intense that a bunch of officials (including Vince McMahon) make their way down to ringside, which is unusual, but I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything. Back to ringside, Shawn chokes Bret down with the American flag, and they spill back into the crowd for another brawl - Michaels dominating this one. He tries a piledriver on the floor, but Bret backdrops him back to ringside, and delivers a big kick downstairs. Hart beats him up the aisle, so Shawn tries another piledriver, but Bret backdrops him again. Hart adds a vertical suplex on the floor, and he unloads with rights, as officials surround them actively trying to restore order, giving the whole thing a chaotic feel that’s missing from modern brawls. They make it over to the entrance set, where Shawn takes some bumps, and Hart decks an official for trying to stop his assault. Vince comes over to plead with Bret to take it to the ring, but Hart will get there when he’s good and ready, and right now, he’s ready to continue toying with Michaels. They make it back inside so the match can officially start (not sure why it hadn’t started already, the action started with both guys in the ring), and Hart chokes him with the Quebec flag. Hart with a legdrop and an inverted atomic drop, but a criss cross goes Shawn’s way with a jumping forearm. Michaels punts him right in the face before choking him with the flag, and he’s having a ball antagonizing the crowd here - the fans eating it all right up. Back to the outside so Michaels can pound him right in front of Hart’s most vocal fans, and he uses a gourdbuster on the steps out there. Shawn breaks the Canadian flag (to big heat) to free up the pole, and he uses that to beat on Hart with as well. Flying axehandle finds the mark as they go back inside, and the challenger works a front-facelock. Hart escapes, and sweeps the leg, going to work on it. Shawn goes to the eyes to cut that off, however, and bodyslam leads to a flying bodypress, but Hart rolls through for two. That allows Bret to swipe at the knee again, and he works a ringpost figure four. Inside, a standard figure four looks to finish, as security seems to have their hands full with some very aggressive fans. Michaels reverses the hold, but Hart is immediately in the ropes. Bret cross corner whips him into a Russian legsweep for two, and a vertical suplex is worth two. Backbreaker sets up a dive off the top, but Michaels shoves the referee into the flightpath to block. That allows Michaels to put Bret in the sharpshooter, and the bell rings at 12:17 (19:56 total), in the most infamous finish in pro-wrestling history. I covered most of the historical stuff in the V.1 review, so I’ll just touch on the actual wrestling here. This wasn’t a classic, but it was a good brawl, and both guys were working very well together, especially for two guys who could barely stand the sight of the other. The work was crisp, smooth, and realistic. It’s too bad they didn’t have a chance to kick it into a higher gear in the last leg, though. *** (Original rating: ** ½)

 

BUExperience: It’s amazing how little I remember about this card. Outside of the last two matches, literally all of this was a complete blank to me. And maybe that’s not so surprising, considering it’s a pretty bad show, with the historical significance of the main event being nearly the only redeeming quality.

 

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