Original Airdate: Monday, March 3rd, 1997
Onondaga War Memorial
Syracuse, New York
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We are now in the Raw is War era with the Titan Tron and the big pyro to kick off the show. Looking back on it, it still feels like a big momentum shift even after all these years. I wish we would have access to the first episode, but for some reason they chose to leave that one out.
Legion Of Doom vs. Crush & Savio Vega
Apparently, Faarooq is barred from ringside. LOD starts the brawl outside the ring and we are underway. They interview Ahmed Johnson during the match to hype up the Chicago Street Fight at WrestleMania. We go to Faarooq now and he talks about the solidarity between he and the Nation of Domination. They show highlights of Ahmed at the Madison Square Garden house show last night. He was about to beat Savio Vega and then the Nation attacked him. Meanwhile, Hawk hits a dropkick on Crush as we go to a commercial break. We see a Slam of the Week and it is Undertaker chokeslamming Sid and then leaping over the top rope on top of Mankind and Vader. I wouldn't have to recap that if I could have seen it. They go back to Faarooq, but he's not there. They then go to Ahmed and he gets attacked from behind by Faarooq with a nightstick. Back in the ring, Animal has Savio up for the Doomsday Device but Faarooq attacks him from behind with the nightstick and we have our first non-finish of the night. The rest of the Nation joins in and out comes Ahmed with the 2x4 to even the score. He hits a Pear River Plunge on one of the PG-13 members and then D'Lo Brown gets hit with the Doomsday Device. This was all it really needed to be, which was to build a little more interest in this match before the big show.
Match Rating: *1/2
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Flash Funk
This is actually a match I would want to see go longer than you expect, since that's Hunter's favorite thing to do. Unfortunately, this will probably be quick. Funk clothesline Hunter over the top but misses with the baseball slide and eats a clothesline. La Femme Nikita is up next. Funk hits a top rope leg drop but Chyna grabs his ankle during the pin. Hunter hits a German suplex into a bridge and gets a 2. Hunter goes off the top and eats a superkick from Funk for a 2. Shenanigans ensue and Helmsley hits a Pedigree for the victory. This was a spirited squash. After the match, Chyna holds Flash so Helmsley can continue his attack.
Match Rating: **
They show Shawn Michaels arriving in the building.
Mini Vader & Mini Mankind vs. Mini Goldust & Mascarita Sagrada Jr.
The mini's get the Vader entrance music. They show New Jersey allowing pro wrestling back in the state, which will lead to SummerSlam being there. Before the Raw after WrestleMania was really a thing, this year it will take place in Rockford, Illinois. Big back body drop by Mini Vader on Mini Goldust. It's pretty standard stuff until Mascarita comes in and the crowd responds appropriately. He honestly was the closest thing they had to a cruiserweight on WCW's level. Mini Vader comes in and kicks him in the back of the head though. Mini Goldust comes back with a dropkick and then does a flip off the apron. Mascarita gets a victory roll in on Mini Mankind and picks up the win. This was too short to be anything good, but the fans were very much into Mascarita and nothing else. After the match, Vader is thrown off the stage and then Mascarita hits a dive to the floor.
Match Rating: *
We go to Gorilla Monsoon to explain what's going on with the title match tonight. Gorilla says he promised this match would be for the title because Bret deserves it even if the timing stinks and that the Undertaker hates it. Gorilla says it isn't unfair because Bret has ended up on the short end of the stick. Gorilla stands by it and it will be for the title. I love Gorilla.
After commercial, Bret Hart is out for an interview in the ring with Kevin Kelly. Bret wants to change the face of WrestleMania 13 and he's thankful for Gorilla looking at the situation a little closer. He won the Royal Rumble, he won the Final Four and he's a 4 time champion. He says the Undertaker doesn't have to worry because he'll give him his shot. He shifts to Steve Austin and says that he is in for the worst lashing of his life. He hopes Ken Shamrock calls it down the middle and that he's close enough to hear the words "I quit".
It's time for a WrestleMania 13 hockey jersey for $69.99 and the denim jacket for $99. For reference, that is $146 and $202 in 2026 money. That's insane. Rocky Maivia is out to join the announce team for the next match.
Sultan vs. Mike Bell
I always liked the Sultan's music. Sultan attacks before the bell and in less than a minute has the Camel Clutch on for the quick victory. This upcoming match has nothing going for it, so they give us a quick stare down and we see the closest to The Rock as we have seen so far. Out comes Tony Atlas to keep Rocky back.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We get a quick WrestleMania reminder before we go into intro #2 for the night. We get more pyro too. Kudos to the guy in the Barry Sanders jersey. Out comes Shawn Michaels to a mostly female pop. We unfortunately get the same generic interview here leading to him that when he comes back, the clothes are coming off. Shawn is a disappointed with Vince that he didn't call to invite him to WrestleMania. Vince is unbearable here with his facial expressions. Shawn invites himself to WrestleMania. The interviews tonight haven't been very good and I say that as fans of Bret and Shawn.
They show Undertaker slamming one of the sides of the blue cage down to the ground.
Vader vs. British Bulldog
I'm not really sure why they had Vader beat Undertaker at Royal Rumble, only to have him in a heatless tag title match at WrestleMania. Bulldog hits a nice delayed vertical suplex and the crowd is quite into Bulldog here. This is a lot more spirited than I was expecting. Vader hits a big splash and that gets a nearfall. Bulldog catches Vader during a splash attempt in the corner and hits a body slam. Bulldog gets Vader up on his shoulder and Mankind grabs Vader's leg. Owen goes after him and the bell rings. Owen is getting double teamed by Vader and Mankind until Bulldog snags the urn from Paul Bearer and attacks both men. Bulldog is your winner by DQ here. Like I said, this really had no right to be as spirited as it was, but I appreciate the effort.
Match Rating: **
Ken Shamrock is out to join the announce team.
Billy Gunn vs. Aaron Ferguson
Billy tries to show off to Shamrock with a submission hold. Did they have any reason for having Shamrock out for this match? He puts on an arm hold and Ferguson submits. He goes up to Shamrock after the match and invites him in the ring. Billy mocks the way Shamrock goes to lock up before Shamrock immediately takes him down. Shamrock then takes him down by his leg to put on the ankle lock. Billy grabs a chair, but the referee stops him from coming in. This made Billy look like a jobber, which I guess he is.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We go to Austin and he sticks up for Billy. Austin gives us a Hollywood Blondes camera move by Austin as he's calling Shamrock a piece of trash. Austin says that he'll be the champion after WrestleMania. They show them setting up the cage, so it's time to stall some more, so let's go backstage to Sid. He tells Austin to stay out of his business.
Steel Cage Match For The WWF Championship
Bret Hart vs. Sid
We have a good amount of time left here, so we should get a proper main event. Sid is trying to crawl out of the cage and Bret grabs his leg. Austin runs out and shuts the door and we go to commercial break. When we come back, Sid hits a powerbomb on Bret and starts to climb. Austin also starts climbing and starts hitting some right hands on Sid at the top of the cage. Sid fights back, but eventually Austin and Bret are both hammering away on Sid. This is about as spry as Austin ever looked in his WWF run. Out comes Undertaker and he climbs the cage. All 4 men are up there and Taker prevents Bret from climbing out of the cage. The best part of all of this is the squeaking noise the cage is making. Austin is the first man to fall and then Bret hits a superplex on Sid. Austin hits Taker with a chair on the outside. Inside, Bret is trying to leave through the door and Sid is climbing. Taker slams the door on Bret and Sid drops to the ground. What was Austin doing there? That was kind of odd. They even show a replay and make no mention of where Austin was. The chaos of this all was fun.
Match Rating: **1/4
Vince goes into interview Bret and we get a lot of vulgarity from Bret as he talks about being screwed. This is as fired up as we had ever seen Bret up to this point and the most curse words we probably had ever seen up to this point. Austin is on the Titan Tron and he calls Bret a loser. They just start yelling on top of each other until Sid is out there again. Undertaker is out now too and Bret hits a dive through the ropes on Undertaker. Austin is out now and he starts wailing on Bret. Now Sid and Taker start going at it. Then out comes Shawn Michaels? He watches over Bret and Austin as they battle on the ramp and then makes his way towards the ring. Sid and Taker are now on the outside and Shawn grabs a chair and we go off the air? Well, like I said the chaotic nature of the ending made this enjoyable.
This was another good show in a string of them. Obviously, Netflix is probably trying to eliminate some of the weaker episodes, but I can only go with what they give me. I am definitely more excited to re-watch WrestleMania 13 than I was before this episode.
Overall Rating: 70%
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