Summerslam '97

Legacy Review

Summerslam '97

August 3, 1997 from the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The tagline for this show is "Hart & Soul", referencing the Bret/Taker main event. The show opens up immediately with the National Anthem, before another good opening video on the recent career paths of the players in the main event. Pyro! Lots of it. The cage is already set up for the opening match.

Steel Cage Match: Mankind def Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) in 16:25- The likely reason this is opening is so they don't have to take the time to set the cage up later. They're still using the old blue bar cage which is much heavier than a chain link one and can't be lowered from above. Traditional escape only WWF cage match rules here as they try to put an end to this feud, at least for now. Mankind kisses the cage before getting in. HHH dives right for the door at the bell. Mankind stops him. Now HHH tries to climb. Mankind stops that too. Corner beatdown from Mankind. Running knee. Bang bang! Piledriver. The Mandible Claw is already on! Chyna reaches in and chokes Mankind with her belt to break it up. HHH catches a leg, spins Mankind, but eats a Mankind clothesline. Mankind climbs. Chyna also climbs up and stops him. HHH joins him up top. He superplexes Mankind off the top of the cage! HHH goes for the door, thinks, stops and goes back in to dish out more punishment. He could have easily won there. Bold strategy, Cotton. He runs Mankind into the cage on almost every side. Kneedrops and more cage shots. Foley, no surprise, is going into the cage full speed and just about head first. HHH climbs. Mankind grabs a leg to stop him going completely over and drags him back in. Mankind beatdown. Chyna gets a forearm shot in through the cage. HHH inverted atomic drop. Mankind inverted atomic drop and clothesline. HHH facebuster. Mankind lifts HHH in a suplex and HHH's legs get caught on the top of the cage, putting him in a cage tree of woe. Mankind running elbow. Now HHH gets run into the cage. HHH backdrops Mankind into the cage! Double climb and slugfest on the top rope. Both guys take cage shots and fall, with HHH getting crotched on the top rope. Mankind crawls for the door. Chyna slams it in his face, then runs the ref into the door! She gets a chair, climbs and tosses it into the ring. In fact she accidentally tosses it right onto Trips. HHH sets up for a Pedigree onto the chair. Mankind counters and slingshots HHH, who goes into the cage and knocks Chyna down! Double underhook DDT onto the chair! Mankind climbs. Chyna gets in the cage, starts to drag HHH to the door, then realizes she's too early and gets out again. Whoops. Mankind goes all the way to the bottom of the cage....but instead of dropping to the floor to win he stops and thinks, pulls his mask off, and climbs back up! He sits on top of the cage and rips his top off, showing Cactus Jack gear underneath. Cactus Elbow off the top of the cage! He climbs again. Now Chyna is in at the right time and drags HHH to the door, but she's not quick enough as Mankind is down to the floor and wins! As he's lying on the floor Dude Love's music starts playing. Foley taps his foot while lying down, then gets up and dances to it. Solid enough but far from their best match even to this point. It had way too much Chyna, which could have been because of all the "the cage is there to keep Chyna out" talk. The crowd was super into it too. They've fully embraced all aspects of Mick Foley. **3/4

Todd Pettingill is on the old school interview stage with New Jersey governor Christie Todd Whitman. New Jersey had just repealed a tax on sports and/or entertainment attractions and this is WWF's first PPV in the state in 8 years because of it. I'm sure the McMahons were political contributors too. WWF President Gorilla Monsoon presents Whitman with an honorary title belt in what would be one of his final public appearances. After that we see Tiger Jeet Singh is in the crowd with his son Tiger Ali Singh, who would soon be debuting for WWF to soak up as many DUD ratings as a human could possibly receive.

 

Goldust (w/Marlena) def Brian Pillman in 7:15- If Pillman loses this match he has to wear a dress on Raw the following night. Said dress is on display on a mannequin ringside. Pillman was in very bad shape at this point. Injuries had taken their toll on him to the point he was a shell of the wrestler he used to be, and his personal demons were also a major issue that would catch up to him very soon. Pillman jumps Goldust before the bell. He bites Goldust in the corner and chops him. Goldust counters with a springboard back elbow. Mounted punches and Goldust blocks an inverted atomic drop. He gives Pillman a vary rarely seen Greco Roman lip lock. Pillman has to roll to the floor to get over the shock. He uses a test of strength tease to get one up on Goldust, then rolls out and chases Marlena, running into a Goldust clothesline. Goldust rolls with the Dusty jabs in the ring. Pillman counters a backdrop. Suplex. He goes up top. Goldust tosses him. I think Pillman was supposed to land crotch first on the top rope but instead he falls down to the floor. Marlena blows some smoke in his face after I'm pretty sure checking to see if he was OK. Pillman uses Marlena as a shield and DDTs Goldust on the floor. Clothesline off the top for 2. Snap mare/chinlock. Goldust fights out and gets a backslide for 2. Pillman clothesline for 2. Goldust flying clothesline. Open hand slaps are followed by a bit of flip flop and fly. Bulld...no, Pillman counters and Goldust slides all the way to the floor. Goldust does a horrible sunset flip coming back in, almost landing on his head. Pillman struggles mightily to get in position near the ropes, takes a purse shot from Marlena when he finally does, and Goldust gets the pin. Ugly ugly ugly finish. Pillman naturally loses it after, pulling the mannequin apart and trying to rip the dress up. 1/2*

 

The Legion of Doom def The Godwinns in 9:51- Wait, the Godwinns are still on the roster? Phineas suffered a broken neck after landing on his head while taking a Doomsday Device from LOD on Raw earlier in the year, and when he came back the Godwinns turned heel to start their morph into Southern Justice. 2v2 standoff at the start. LOD swings first. Clotheslines send the Godwinns to the floor. Hawk clothesline off the apron while Animal hits a tackle in the ring. Reset with Animal flipping out of an attempted double suplex and hitting a double clothesline. Hawk continues the attack on the floor. Re-reset with Hawk and Henry. Henry snaps Hawk's throat over the top rope. Hawk dodges an apron legdrop and tosses Henry into the steps. Snap mare and legdrops from Hawk. Henry gets some shots in and Hawk in in the wrong part of town. Phineas hangs Hawk up by his neck. Hawk escapes and both sides tag. Animal cranks Henry's arm. Phineas kicks Animal from behind on the apron. Cactus Clothesline from Henry! Animal gets knocked off the apron into the guardrail. Bear hug from Phineas. They do the arm drops and Animal bell rings out but is still cut off from tagging. Phineas tries coming off the second rope. He misses but lands on his feet, then Animal clotheslines him. Tag. Hawk powerslam. He fights off both Godwinns. Corner clothesline. Neckbreaker. DONNYBROOK! The Doomsday Device is broken up, so the LOD hit a spike piledriver and that gets the pin. *1/2

Next up is some more live TV contest hijinks. Pettingill is out with Sunny and Sable (who manage not to murder each other on camera, they did not get along backstage at all). Sunny's outfit is.....hoo boy. She's one of the world's biggest train wrecks now but back then that was a train you'd be OK with riding even if you ended up in the hospital after. Pettingill tries to make live phone calls with the usual issues. One number no one picks up (YOU LOST YOUR CHANCE AT A MILLION DOLLARS!). Another number is disconnected and probably dialed wrong. They finally get someone on the phone and he's not watching Summerslam. Eventually they get through it all with no one winning. I don't think this helped the buyrate any.

WWF European Championship: "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def Ken Shamrock by DQ in 7:29- The European title, first awarded back in February and still in the hands of the inaugural champion Bulldog, is finally being defended on PPV for the first time. Bulldog threw some dog food on Shamrock during the build so there's an extra stip that if Bulldog loses he has to eat the dog food. The can of said dog food is sitting on the commentary table so there's no way at all that's going to get involved during the match. Jump slugfest right at the bell. Shamrock belly to belly suplex. After a horrible looking whip Shamrock gets a leg takedown for the ankle lock and Bulldog quickly grabs a rope. Shamrock clothesline for 2. Corner body shots. Kneelift. Bulldog gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Delayed suplex. Shamrock gets a sunset flip for 2. Another Bulldog clothesline and chinlock. Shamrock starts fighting back so Bulldog low blows him in the corner in full view of the ref. He hits forearms and gets a small package for 2. Shamrock's shoulder gets posted and he falls to the floor. Bulldog whips him into the steps. Another Shamrock flurry is cut off with a low blow. At least the ref didn't see this one. Bulldog is supposed to DDT Shamrock on the floor but they muff it horribly and both end up just kind of flopping down to the floor. Back in with yet another Bulldog chinlock and we can see Shamrock is bleeding from the mouth. Back outside and Shamrock is slammed on the floor. Bulldog grabs a handful of dog food and throws it on Shamrock. Bad move. Shamrock absolutely loses his shit on Bulldog. He grabs the can and whacks Bulldog in the head with it, which is apparently one step too far for the ref and he calls for the bell, DQing Shamrock. Shamrock doesn't give a damn and continues the assault. He puts a sleeper/rear naked choke on Bulldog and won't let go. Every ref in the building is in the ring trying to talk him off. Talk mind you, no one is physically doing anything about it. More officials come in. Finally Shamrock lets it go to a mixed crowd reaction. He doesn't like the officials admonishing him so Tony Garea, Gerald Briscoe and a couple of refs all take belly to belly suplexes. The crowd liked that a lot more and chant "Shamrock". The match showed again that Shamrock was talented but extremely raw, while Bulldog was in "hit a couple of moves and rest" mode. *

 

Los Boricuas def The Disciples of Apocalypse in 9:07- Vince Russo's beloved gang warfare is well and truly underway. Both these groups were born out of the breakup of the original Nation of Domination. Savio Vega founded and leads Boricuas with a few other Puerto Rican wrestlers whose main claim to fame are being a member of Los Boricuas (Jesus, Jose Estrada Jr and Miguel Perez Jr). Crush is the leader of DOA, along with Skull, 8-Ball (the former and now shaved Blu Brothers) and Chainz (Brian "Fake Undertaker" Lee). The Nation is also still a going concern, now consisting of Faarooq, Ahmed Johnson, D'Lo Brown and Kama Mustafa. So basically we've got the black gang, the Hispanic gang, and the white biker gang. Going through all of this is way more interesting than the actual matches to me. I never really cared for any of this stuff. The height of Russo's faction wars was the Kaientai/Oddities match at the following year's Summerslam that was a wonderful comedy match. But I'm getting way off track. The DOA all come in on motorcycles. They charge in and quickly clear the ring. The DOA control for a bit. LB control for a bit. During LB's segment the Nation come in through the crowd and park it ringside. Johnson's neck choker is something else. After a long face in peril run one of the Blu boys (still can't tell them apart) gets a hot tag and quickly everyone's in the pool. Chainz gets thrown out and hits Johnson so Johnson Pearl River Plunges him on the floor. He gets thrown back in and pinned. To no one's surprise the huge brawl continues after the bell. Crush finally breaks it up by riding his motorcycle through everyone. 1/4*

 

Before getting into the next match I want to take a moment and go through where the tag titles are going into this show. When last we left them on PPV Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin were wrestling each other as tag champs at King of the Ring soon after ending the long reign of Owen Hart and the Bulldog. However, they were stripped of the titles in July after a backstage attack by Shawn on Bret Hart. A match was set up that night for the vacant titles between Owen and Bulldog, who had won a #1 contender's tournament, going against Austin and a partner of his choosing since, for once, Austin wasn't involved in the attack. Of all people Austin chose the red hot new crowd favorite Dude Love, Mick Foley's new alternate persona to Mankind. Austin and Love won the match for the titles and still hold them as of this show.

A bit of history during the intros for the next match as very young, very thin and very goateed Michael Cole makes his WWF PPV debut taking his life in his hands by trying to talk to Austin as he's walking to Gorilla. Austin's response? "You're fixing to kiss my ass, son. You and your stupid bow tie".

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin def The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart (c) in 16:16- Owen's been making a huge deal out of pinning Austin in the epic 10 man tag match at Canadian Stampede, so Austin has promised that if he loses his match he will kiss Owen's bare ass. Austin's pops continue to get bigger and bigger. He flips a double bird to Owen as he hits the corners on his entrance. Owen comes from behind and clips Austin's knee before the bell! He posts Austin's knee. Austin punches back. Thesz Press! Owen does a Bret bump in the corner. Austin goes into beatdown mode before transitioning into working Owen's arm for a bit. Owen tries to flip out so Austin gives him an eye poke and goes back on the arm. They do a series of hammerlock reversals and Austin slams Owen. Owen gets a back elbow and Austin goes to the floor. He pulls Owen down in the corner but Owen pulls with his legs to send Austin into the post. He smashes Austin's hand on the steps and starts to pick apart that most dangerous of all Steve Austin weapons- his middle finger. Owen bites Austin's middle finger! He ties Austin up in the ropes. Austin gets free and gives a charging Owen a stun gun! Love the "Stun gun! Stun gun!" call from JR, a definite WCW callback. Owen leaps for a hurricanrana but Austin catches and powerbombs him. Owen is clotheslined 360 to the floor, decides he's had enough and takes a walk. Austin chases, clotheslines him from behind and drags him back. Owen begs off. Austin offers a sarcastic handshake then stomps away. Owen gets his snap belly to belly suplex. Swinging neckbreaker. Legdrop for 2. Elbow off the top for 2. Owen cranks Austin in a neck vice while JR, with unintentional foreshadowing, goes into Austin's history of neck trouble. Austin eye rakes out. Clothesline out of the corner. Austin tries to put on a Sharpshooter but Owen fights it off. Legdrop to the back of the neck from Owen. Springboard crossbody. Austin rolls through it and covers for 2. Owen German suplex for 2. Camel clutch. Austin gets out and they hit the ropes again. Owen counters a backdrop with a DDT for 2. Austin sleeper. Owen sleeper. Austin jawbreakers out. Austin tries coming off the second rope but Owen catches him. Russian leg sweep. Owen puts on a chinlock and moves close to the ropes for extra leverage until Hebner catches him. Austin tries a tiltawhirl. Owen rolls through it to counter, positions Austin for a reverse piledriver, and drops him. Right on his head. For real. Austin is out completely, then comes to and can't move. Owen walks around and messes with the crowd to play for time but you can clearly see he's in shock. You can tell something's wrong for real. After a couple of minutes Austin is finally able to struggle to his knees, where he gets Owen in the worst roll up ever with Owen doing almost all the work, and gets the pin because he was supposed to win the match. He drops again right after and still can't get up. Finally the refs help him to his feet and help him to the back. This is the infamous piledriver incident that broke Austin's neck, forcing him out of action for a while. On the bad side Austin was on a ridiculous hot streak, having phenomenal matches with everyone and this killed that for a while. After coming back he'd have to change his style to almost nothing but straight brawling but, being Austin, he still made it work. On the plus side he stayed on TV while recuperating and the neck injury didn't keep him from talking, so his popularity continued to skyrocket based on that alone. This also led to the traditional piledriver being banned in WWF/E, and it still is to this day. Before the injury the match was superb and likely would have hit the upper echelon if not for that. ***1/2

Commentary vamps for a bit because the last match was supposed to go longer than it did. Bret also kills some time after coming out by asking the Canadian national anthem be played.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def The Undertaker (c) in 28:09- Shawn Michaels is the special guest referee for this match, making it pretty obvious shenanigans are going to go down. Shawn gets his full entrance between Bret and Taker's, and JR quips "All the other referees are going to want pyro now!". In this night of stipulations we have one more: Bret promised that if he failed to win the WWF Title he'd never wrestle in the US again. WWF officials forced him to keep that promise by putting it in the match's contract. Bret grabs the belt from Shawn and whacks Taker with it before the bell. Taker no sells punches, tosses Bret in the corner and lays in quick fire body shots. Clothesline and Bret rolls out to kill the momentum. Taker chases and runs Bret into the guardrail and post. Bret whips Taker into the steps. Taker catches Bret coming off the apron and runs his back into the post. Shawn admonishes him so he does it again. Back in Taker focuses on Bret's back. Backbreaker and bear hug. Bret bites out but runs into a Taker big boot. Bret ducks another big boot and kicks Taker's leg out of his leg. Bret spends the next portion of the match picking Taker's knee apart. Figure four! Paul Bearer makes his way out so commentary can remind us that Kane is coming. If he really is still alive that is. The jury was still out at this point. Taker sees Bearer as he's reversing the figure four. Bret grabs a rope to break. Taker slams Bret's knee....then goes out after Bearer! As Taker's beating Bearer down Bret clips him again from behind. Bearer gets escorted out by refs. Post wraparound figure four from Bret. Shawn counts for the break and he and Bret argue after. Bret gets back on Taker's knee. Now Owen and Pillman come out to ringside. Bret posts Taker's knee again. More Bret and Shawn arguing and more knee work. Taker drops his good leg across Bret's jaw on the mat, gets up, flips over the top rope and goes after Owen and Pillman! Shawn throws the two of them out. Bret runs into a goozle! Choke slam! Taker covers but Shawn's still watching Owen and Pillman being escorted out. Taker grabs Shawn and pulls him up to the apron and they argue. Bret rolls Taker up for 2. Clothesline from Taker and he stalks Shawn again. They go back outside and Bret runs Taker's back into the apron, then the post. New target. Again Bret and Shawn argue with Shawn saying "My patience is wearing thin". Back in Bret works on Taker's back. Backbreaker for 2. Situp. Bret suplex. He gets on the second rope, flips the crowd off, and hits the elbow drop for 2. Another situp. DDT for 2. Taker grabs Bret, lifts and drops him on the top turnbuckle. Headbutt exchange with Bret targeting Taker's back again. Legdrops from Bret. He tries for the Sharpshooter but Taker goozles him. Knee to the gut. Bret gets a boot up in the corner. He runs into another goozle. Slugfest and both guys are down. Taker flying clothesline. Bret bump! Taker big boot/legdrop for 2. Brother. Bret gets on the apron. Taker goozles him and choke slams him off the apron into the ring! Bret kicks out! Taker tries old school but Bret kicks the top rope and Taker falls. It takes them two tries (Taker had a hard time getting his footing right) but eventually Bret superplexes Taker. Sharpshooter! Taker barely moves, but eventually manages to power out so forcefully Bret rolls all the way to the floor! Clothesline from Taker. He calls for the Tombstone. Bret squeaks out. Post wraparound Sharpshooter! Taker powers out again and Bret falls on top of Shawn! Shawn tweaked his knee and is down. Bret gets a chair and whacks Taker in the head with it! He calls Shawn in and covers. Taker kicks out! Shawn sees the chair and confronts Bret with it. Bret clearly says "Fuck you" and spits on Shawn. Shawn's had enough and swings the chair. Bret ducks and Shawn hits Taker in the head! Again! Shawn is furious at himself. Bret covers. Shawn reluctantly gets down, counts three, and immediately rolls out and walks to the back still furious at himself. Taker quickly follows, also furious with Shawn. Bret celebrates in the ring as he's just tied Hulk Hogan's record with his 5th WWF Title win. The crowd throws so much trash in the ring you'd think he was in the NWO. The stands also empty out pretty quickly. The match was well worked and psychologically sound, but also a bit flabby. I'm sure they had to go longer than expected due to the Owen/Austin match ending early. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Solid opener, two good matches at the end, but the middle is a bit rough. Austin's injury tends to overshadow everything else that happened on this show, but it was a major transition show in the main event scene. Taker and Shawn's new feud would take center stage before we hit the final road to Bret vs Shawn at Survivor Series and the Montreal Screwjob.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C