Thursday, February 13th, 1997
Memorial Auditorium
Lowell, Massachusetts
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Call it a hunch, but I think this one is an important episode. I also am pretty confident that it takes place on a Thursday. We even get a unique intro with the voiceover guy saying Thursday Raw Thursday like 5 times and then Vince welcomes us to Thursday Raw Thursday.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Helmsley has kind of gained some momentum here for the first time in a long time with the new entrance music and slightly more aggressive style. Rocky has kind of been floundering a little bit. I do like the old school 1993 Raw vibe of this small arena. We're only 4 and a half minutes into this show and if you were drinking every time they said "Thursday Raw Thursday", you'd be dead. JR refers to Helmsley as "cerebral", which is kind of fun given his nickname down the road. JR had that one cooking for some time. They do keep bringing up the fact that Shawn Michaels is forfeiting his WWF Championship tonight, which truly is one of the biggest storylines of the late 90s that is still mocked to this day. Out comes Honky Tonk Man, as that is still a thing they are trying to make work. After Helmsley has been controlling most of the match, Rocky comes back with a back body drop. Rocky goes up top and hits a crossbody but Helmsley rolls through and gets a close call out of it. Helmsley hits a superplex and gets another 2 count. Helmsley sets Rocky up for the Pedigree, but he falls to his knees. He gets Rocky back up to his feet and Rocky uses an inside cradle to pull off the upset victory and become new champion. He gets the obligatory title change pop here and then is immediately interviewed by Dok Hendrix. He says he is going to give the best that he can give. This match actually was pretty good. They got time and I thought they mostly delivered here.
Match Rating: **3/4
We get an In Your House: Final Four commercial. I'm looking forward to seeing that one again since it has been a long time.
Out comes Sunny to a big pop. She's just here to announce the next match since no one cares about it.
Headbangers vs. Aldo Montoya & Bob Holly
We're speaking my language with this match. This is very 1995 to me and I am here for it. The Headbangers were a fun team at the time. Holly hits a hurricanrana on Mosh and follows up with a dropkick. Meanwhile, Vince is talking about Shawn Michaels' belly button. This match really only exists so that they can talk about Shawn. We also get a Duckman promo during this match. Aldo gets a hot tag that isn't that hot. He goes up to the top rope and hits a crossbody for a 2 count. Headbangers quickly hit their powerbomb leg drop finisher for the win. That was a good finisher that I kind of forgot about, even if they kind of pull it off a little dangerously. This existed.
Match Rating: 1/2*
We come back from commercial and Vince introduces Gorilla Monsoon, who is already in the ring. He then brings out Shawn Michaels for the soon to be infamous moment. Shawn's trying to give this heartfelt interview and the crowd starts chanting "We want Sid!". He talks about his knee injury and that he's going to go back home and see what's left of him. This leads to the losing my smile moment and that he doesn't care if people are going to make fun of him. 29 years later, they still are. He says last year was the most wonderful year of his life as he's tearing up. He thanks Vince and the fans and says he's going home. He hugs Vince and Gorilla before heading out.
When we come back from commercial, we get serious Vince thanking Shawn and hoping that he will return back to the ring after his surgery. Even Lawler is serious.
Savio Vega vs. Undertaker
We come back from commercial and Taker is attacking Savio. Savio just recently joined that Nation at a house show and is still wearing his red cutoff tee. Taker hits a big boot and a leg drop for a 2 count. Savio does get some offense in, which makes sense because he is Taker's buddy. Taker runs into a spin kick in the corner. Shades of Kwang there. Taker makes a comeback and hits a weird looking leaping leg drop. Taker hits a chokeslam and that's all. The Nation comes in after the match is over and Taker starts brawling with all of them. Crush and Faarooq run in from the back and then out comes Ahmed Johnson to make the save. The crowd was really into all of this. I'm surprised the match got as much time as it did, but it was fine.
Match Rating: *1/2
Steve Austin vs. Sid
During Austin's entrance, we get a Gorilla Monsoon backstage interview with Dok Hendrix. He hypes up the Final Four match being for the WWF Championship. Gorilla says that Sid will get a title shot against the winner of the WWF Championship. We get a brawl and they keep up a pretty good pace to start. The crowd is very much into this match also. Lawler thinks we'll see this same exact match on Raw Monday. Bret Hart just randomly comes into the ring and attacks Austin, causing Sid to lose the match by disqualification. Sid confronts Bret when Austin gets thrown out of the ring and they start brawling. They go at it for awhile before they are finally split up. This was too short to be much.
Match Rating: *
We go backstage to Vader and he talks about beating both Taker and Austin and now Bret is next.
Jerry Lawler is shown filling out a Western Union money transfer to his mom so that she can buy him a Valentine's gift. We then get a recap of the Shawn interview from earlier.
Faarooq & Crush vs. Owen Hart & British Bulldog
Crush hits a dangerous looking piledriver on Bulldog before dumping him out of the ring. We get a Bret promo with Bret saying pretty nice things about Shawn for some reason. They probably should have done this during the Aldo Montoya match instead. Owen gets a hot tag and hits the spinning heel kick. He then gets thrown over the top and injures his knee. Faarooq and Bulldog battle and then the bell rings for Owen being counted out. They are dominating Bulldog and Owen tries to get back in but his knee hurts too badly. The Nation stands tall and their music plays. This was whatever.
Match Rating: *1/4
We get a Final Four commercial. Did they announce any of the other matches for this show?
Vader vs. Bret Hart
There isn't a whole lot of time left here. Right after Bret's music stops, Taker's music hits and he comes out. He says that he's not getting any respect and that he will win on Sunday. Vader then clubs Bret and we are under way. He dumps Bret out of the ring and then Austin comes down and stomps on Bret as we go on a commercial break. When we come back, Austin and Vader are in the ring with Vader in control. Bret is able to get the Sharpshooter on for a moment and then Vader grabs the ropes. Vader goes up for a moonsault and misses. Austin is in the crowd during this also. Bret covers Vader and gets the victory? This was short but solid.
Match Rating: *3/4
This was a very energetic show with a hot crowd and matches that people actually wanted to see. You got a title change and a lot of interaction between the top contenders. However, this is most famous for the Shawn Michaels promo and that is a pretty historic moment in its own right. Overall, this is a good show that was a good example of what this era was like when it was on.
Overall Rating: 72%
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