Original Airdate: Monday, January 6th, 1997
Knickerbocker Arena
Albany, New York
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We get a quick promo from Vader ahead of his match with Bret and then Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler hype up the crazy premier of Shotgun Saturday Night. I remember staying up until 2 am because that's when it would show in my area only for it to never air.
Owen Hart vs. Mankind
Vince calls this a type of a tough man match, which is not really what I would consider it at all. Mankind is on the offensive early on and a clothesline sends Owen to the floor. The crowd actually cheers that in this battle of the two smark favorites. Owen fights back and drops Mankind gut first into the guardrail. These two are putting on a solid match here and Mankind hits Owen on the head with a bucket before we go to commercial break. We get a Full Metal commercial and it's still the best. Owen goes off the top but runs into the Mandible Claw. He escapes out but is thrown into the ring post. Mankind hits a piledriver and that's it? They were on their way to a great match before the abrupt finish. I love hearing Mankind's outro music though. Weird finish aside, this was a good opener.
Match Rating: ***
We go to Jose Lothario and Shawn Michaels. Jose is doing better and says that Shawn is going to get his title back. Jose's son is there too and he says that Shawn needs assistance, he'll be there. Shawn's return to his cockier persona really doesn't work with Jose standing there at all.
We see some more highlights from Shotgun Saturday Night. They definitely will not stop caring about that show.
Fake Razor Ramon & Fake Diesel vs. Furnas & Lafon
Honky Tonk Man is out at the announce table. This could be combining 3 of the worst things from this era. The crowd is absolutely dead for this and appropriately so. I know I certainly don't feel like typing what is going on. Then they give this match a commercial break? What were they thinking? We get a Royal Rumble commercial and it's the best part of the match so far. This whole hype of Honky finding his protege is even funnier than it was back in 1996. Furnas finally makes a tag and Lafon hits some kicks to kind of wake up the crowd. Lafon leaps into a big boot of Diesel but then hits a suplex on Razor. Furnas runs into a Razor clothesline and goes for the Razor's Edge. Lafon hits Razor from behind and then Furnas hits a hurricanrana but the pin is broken up. They double clothesline Diesel over the top and hit a crappy variation of the Doomsday Device for the victory. The last 60 seconds were fine and the rest was garbage.
Match Rating: 1/2*
They show Marlena flashing the Sultan on Shotgun Saturday Night. They then interview Bret Hart talking about Shawn Michaels. He hopes that Shawn sticks his nose in his business and then starts talking about Vader until Sid's music hits and Bret goes to the ring and we go to commercial. We see the George and Adam commercial of them being at the Royal Rumble early.
JR introduces Sid into the ring. This is very much LOUD NOISES Sid but I like that they had his music playing during it. Shawn's music hits and out he comes. He goes to the announce table and dances while Sid laughs at him.
Bret Hart vs. Vader
Wow, we even get Superstars highlights of Undertaker hitting a Tombstone on Jim Cornette. We get a pretty basic start to the match and we see Steve Austin watching in the back. Vader goes for the Vader Bomb before teasing the moonsault and then going back to the Vader Bomb. He takes too much time and Bret gets his knees up. Sid comes out and grabs a cameraman and brings him to the back. Austin is out and he gives Bret a Stunner. Vader rolls him in the ring and sets him up for the Vader Bomb. Vader hits it and that's all. The crowd was not as into this as you would have expected. The finish wasn't as well done as they were probably hoping for either. Vader needed the win to have some momentum going into his match with Undertaker and Bret had bigger things coming in the long run. The match was decent overall.
Match Rating: **1/4
We go to the back and Sid hits a powerbomb on Pete Lothario onto a table in the locker room. They show Shawn in the back with Bart Gunn, Aldo Montoya and Savio Vega checking on Pete while Shawn yells.
This was a pretty good show overall that seemed to just be lacking a spark from the crowd. The middle match really sucked the life out of them and they never recovered. I definitely would not be upset to see more of Owen and Mankind going forward though.
Overall Rating: 58%
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