Original Airdate: Monday, March 31st, 1997
Peoria Civic Center
Peoria, lllinois
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We get a Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels video package showing Bret attacking Shawn and putting the Figure Four on the ring post before we go to the pyro intro. I really don't get why Netflix wouldn't put up the Raw from the night after WrestleMania. That always seems like it should be an obvious choice, even if it wasn't a good episode. They then show Owen Hart and British Bulldog brawling from last week and Owen challenging Bulldog for the European Championship.
European Championship Match
Owen Hart vs. British Bulldog
Bulldog is slapping hands down to the ring and then Owen hits the baseball slide before he gets into the ring just in case you were wondering who the face and heel were for this breakup. Owen continues attacking him and we still have no ring bell. Owen throws Bulldog into the ring and hits a crossbody off the top rope for a 2 count after the bell rings. If you didn't know that Owen and Bulldog were brother in law's, you will after watching this match. They show that Bulldog and Owen will defend their titles against Legion Of Doom at In Your House. This one is off to another good start, as these two clearly bring out the best in one another. Owen nails Bulldog with a piledriver right into the commercial break. During the break, Owen hit a top rope elbow drop and we come back to Owen still in control. Bulldog blocks a top rope move by Owen and puts on the Sharpshooter. Owen quickly gets out and hits the enzuigiri. Owen dives to the outside and Bulldog catches him and drops him on the guardrail. Bulldog suplexes Owen on the steel ramp. Back in the ring, Bulldog hits a press slam and then accidentally hits the referee when running the ropes. Owen goes outside and grabs a chair but Bulldog knocks it out of his hands. Bulldog knocks him down and grabs the chair. In runs Bret Hart to grab Bulldog and then uses the chair on Bulldog's throat. He then tells Owen to let up and is getting in the middle to break up the fight. Bret grabs the mic and tells them that this is what all these people want. He talks about family values and then tells them that they need them. He blames the fans for what they made them do to each other. He says that Americans don't understand family and talks about how he was always there for Owen when they were kids. He tells them that he loves them and they all hug to boos. This was a pretty memorable moment, especially since Bret and Owen had feuded for about 2 years straight. The match was really good before all the drama.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Out comes Sunny to join the announce team.
El Mosco vs. Super Nova
The crowd obviously has no investment in this one so a small amount start chanting "Sunny". Most of this revolves around live event dates and Sunny trying to speak Spanish. The match is fine so far. Super Nova tries a top rope into a hurricanrana but it doesn't look great. Sunny goes to the Spanish announce table and Nova hits a dive to the floor. Nova misses a moonsault and Mosco hits a powerbomb. He hits a springboard corkscrew and that's all for this one. They gave a good effort.
Match Rating: *
Legion of Doom are out for an interview with Jim Ross. Animal tells Bret, Owen and Bulldog to not threaten the integrity of the USA. He tells us that they will take those tag team belts back to Chicago after In Your House. Hawk talks about dog dumplings.
Honky Tonk Man is out for the next match.
Jesse James vs. Jerry Fox
Honky says that the search is almost over. James hits what JR calls a clothesline. It looks like Fox didn't know what to do. James hits an atomic drop and Fox leaps out of the ring. James hits a clothesline for real this time and then hits the pump handle slam for the victory. Babyface James is one of the worst characters of the 90s. Honky comes in the ring and offers James his guitar. James looks excited and calls Honky the greatest Intercontinental champ of all time. He says he doesn't know what to say right now, but he knows what to do. He tunes up the guitar and then smashes it. It gets a better pop than I was expecting. He tells him it is a little out of tune and walks awa. This was all bad.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Crush & Savio Vega vs. Adam O'Brien & Rod Bell
Don't miss La Femme Nikita after we are done with Raw tonight. This match doesn't matter so we go to Shawn Michaels on the phone. He says he has a lot to say to Bret Hart but he's not going to do it over the phone. Crush hits his backbreaker and Savio then holds him for his old Demolition finisher. This was a match.
Match Rating: 1/4*
They show Ken Shamrock putting on the ankle lock on Billy Gunn and his involvement in the Bret/Austin match. Next week, Shamrock will be in a No Holds Barred exhibition.
Paul Bearer is headed to the ring and they show from last week when Paul Bearer was begging Undertaker to take him back. He tells us that he made a mistake. He says that he held Taker back but he needs to come back home. The lights start to flicker and the music hits. Taker says that he will never forget his betrayal, but he may be able to forgive. He hands the title to Bearer and then nails him with a right hand. He follows Bearer up towards the ramp and is about to hit him with the urn and out comes Mankind from under the ring and puts fire in the eyes of Taker. Out comes Sid and he goes after Mankind. Taker goes out through the crowd to go to commercial.
We go backstage to Sid and he says that if Mankind wants to play with fire, he is dealing with someone who knows how to play with fire.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Goldust
Goldust runs down the ramp and goes right after Helmsley. Helmsley is able to eventually slow him down and hits a clothesline on the ramp. We get a pretty standard match from these two, so I start putting in my fantasy football waivers. Helmsley hits a leap off the top rope to the floor and Chyna is out on the ramp into the commercial break. Goldust hits the Curtain Call and in comes Chyna to kick Goldust in the ribs. The bell rings and Chyna hits a spin kick. They continue the attack and a bunch of officials come down to stop it. Helsley attacks Pat Patterson and Patterson fights back. Vince is doing his future heel voice and then he and Chyna are stomping away on Patterson. This was to continue the feud and put more shine on Chyna.
Match Rating: **
Out comes Steve Austin for an interview with McMahon. Austin says that he never said "I quit". He calls out Bret for saying that he beat him to a bloody pulp. It was the ring post, not Bret. He doesn't care who you put him against, he'll get the job done. He calls out Bret, but Bret shows up on the Titan Tron. Bret says he's finished with Austin, but Austin says that you have to kill him to be finished with him. We get the famous line of Austin saying that when he looks at Bret's grave, it will say "Here lies Bret Hart, the biggest piece of crap that ever walked the face of the Earth".
Intercontinental Championship Match
Bret Hart vs. Rocky Maivia
They show Tony Atlas sitting in the crowd. The match gets off to a little bit of a slow start. Bret mostly dominates the entire match. We finally get a Rocky comeback and he hits a fisherman suplex for a 2 count. Rocky hits a belly to belly and another 2 count. Rocky sort of hits the tornado DDT. He would get much better at that in the future. Rocky climbs up to the top rope and hits the crossbody. Bret rolls through and almost squeaks out the victory. Earl Hebner was in a weird position for that. Bret trips up Rocky and he puts on the Figure Four on the ring post. Hebner tries to get him to break the hold but he doesn't listen and we get another DQ finish. Out comes Austin and he starts attacking Bret. Bulldog and Owen come out and we have a 3 on 1. Legion of Doom come out and they chase them away and that's how the show ends. The match was decent and picked up at the end.
Match Rating: **
This was another good show, even if there was some stuff that was pretty pointless. The stuff that was supposed to be good delivered though and the Bret/Owen/Bulldog reunion was something that always stood out to me as one of the better moments of 1997.
Overall Rating: 68%
