On the Marc Reviews: Survivor Series 1997

Molson Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; November 9, 1997

Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler

Something important happened at this show, you may have heard “aboot” it. The ring announcer announces the entire PPV in French. Did anyone even realize the tagline for the show was Gang Rulz?

1997 was the year to be a wrestling fan. So much transition between the old and new, storylines were fresh and not recycled over and over; the wrestling was still very good before “characters” were the focus and the in-ring product suffered. Vince Russo was assisting in the booking so the characters were much more “real life” as opposed to the cartoon character types the WWF had been churning out for years. I do not think the WWE will ever release a DVD copy of this PPV for obvious reasons but I managed to track down a copy.

Headbangers & New Blackjacks vs. “Road Dogg” Jessie James, “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn & Godwinns:   The Road Dogg and Billy Gunn just formed as a team a month ago and did not even have a name yet; the stole the Blackjack’s hats and cut them up and then bashed Headbanger Thrasher with a boom box. Blackjack Windham and Phineas Godwinn start off; Windham knocks Phineas to the floor and then suckers Phineas into a test of strength only to nail him. Bradshaw tags in and powerslams Phineas; Godwinn finally gets the advantage and tags in Henry Godwinn. Road Dogg was the original recipient but chicken-shitted out. Hank hammers Bradshaw down; Bradshaw tries a suplex but it is countered and Godwinn gets the suplex. Bradshaw rolls Hank over into an abdominal stretch cradle and gets three; Henry O. Godwinn is ELIMINATED.

Phineas runs in and they trade punches; Windham returns and suplex float-over for two, so he tries a gutwrench suplex and a lariat, both get two. Windham runs into an elbow in the corner and Phineas takes advantage with a running lariat and gets a pinfall; Blackjack Windham is ELIMINATED.

Headbanger Mosh comes in; Phineas tires a drop-down so Mosh elbow drops him. An armbar by Mosh is countered via biting but a dropkick keeps Phineas down; Mosh applies another armbar. Phineas erects himself and hammers Mosh; Billy Gunn tags in to HUGE heel heat. Billy plays to the crowd like a douchebag and receives huge heat; Mosh counters a charge with a boot and clothesline. Wow, the (future) New Age Outlaws were sure over as heels when they first formed before “cool heels” became the fad. Mosh tires a bulldog headlock in the corner but Billy falls forward, stunning him for a three count; Headbanger Mosh is ELIMINATED.

Thrasher heads in but Billy tags Phineas back in; Thrasher fires up the crowd, the Bangers were a pretty over team before they started to job out a lot. Thrasher applies a headlock with a thumb in the eye; Jerry Lawler speculates on the whereabouts of Vince McMahon, Jim Ross assures Lawler that he is presently in the arena, hmmm very interesting… Meanwhile Godwinn and Thrasher battle over an arm wringer. Thrasher gets a hiplock but Godwinn mule kicks free; they run the ropes and Thrasher arm drags him back down into the armbar. Nice sequence. Thrasher hits a faceplant and heads to the top for the Stage Dive and gets three; Phineas I. Godwinn is ELIMINATED.

Road Dogg sneaks in and nails Thrasher from behind; Thrasher quickly takes over and tags in Bradshaw. Short-lariat into a gutwrench powerbomb; Bradshaw gets distracted by Billy on the apron and attacks him there so Road Dogg sneaks up and schoolboys him for three; Blackjack Bradshaw is ELIMINATED.

Bradshaw does not want to leave and kills Road Dogg and Billy Gunn with lariats; Thrasher smartly walks in and attacks Road Dogg in the chaos. Thrasher pummels Road Dogg in the corner and points to his head, where the Outlaws busted him open with the boom box on Raw a few weeks prior to the PPV. Billy sneaks in a knee along the apron and Road Dogg takes over; Road Dogg tries the pump-handle slam but Thrasher hiptosses free. Did that move of Road Dogg ever have a name? Blind tag to Billy; Thrasher counters the pump-handle slam again, this time into a crossbody. The referee does not count as the tag was made; Billy comes off the top with a leg to the back of Thrasher’s head and pins him. Headbanger Thrasher is ELIMINATED and the Road Dogg and Billy Gunn are the survivors. 6/10 This match was made by the characters played and the Bangers and Godwinns weren’t bad workers in the ring; the Outlaws would use their incredible heat generating tactics to become one of the most dominant and over tag teams of the Attitude Era.

Kevin Kelly and Sunny promote the WWF Superstars line.

The Disciples of Apocalypse: Crush, Chainz, Skull & 8-Ball vs. The Truth Commission: Jackyl, Sniper, Recon & Interrogator:   The Interrogator would soon become known as Kurrgan. The truth commission’s leader, the Jackyl, was a David Koresh-like charismatic, power-hungry fanatic, he would eventually appear in ECW as Cyrus of “The Network”; Recon is Bull Buchanan. They all run in for a huge brawl; Interrogator traps Chainz and punches him in the corner. Interrogator was one of those classic WWF invincible big guys so he no-sells a lot here. He quickly plants Chainz with a sidewalk slam and pins him; Chainz is ELIMINATED.

Skull and 8-Ball try to double up on Interrogator but the rest of the Commission comes to his aide; a huge brawl is prevented and Recon and either Skull or 8-Ball, I cannot read his rocker yet, Recon clotheslines him down and powerslams him. Jackyl tags in and drops a top rope knee; 8-Ball no-sells it and finishes Jackyl off with a spinning sidewalk slam. The Jackyl is ELIMINATED.

Sniper comes back in and hammers away as the Jackyl joins for commentary. Recon tags in but misses a top-rope move and the DOA trap him in the corner. Crush drops some legs and hits a belly-to-belly suplex. Recon flips over a backdrop and superkicks 8-Ball; they hit head to head, 8-Ball tumbles to the floor so Skull illegally switches. TWIN MAGIC! Skull levels Recon with a lariat and gets three. Recon is ELIMINATED.

Sniper runs in and eats a swinging neckbreaker; Skull tags in 8-Ball and they hit the H-Bomb but Interrogator distracts the referee allowing Sniper to kick out. Interrogator nails Skull from the apron and Sniper bulldogs him for three; Skull is ELIMINATED.

8-Ball runs in and stomps away; corner clothesline puts Sniper on his ass. Crush tags in and sledges away; he hits a vertical suplex for a nearfall. Crush applies a figure-four head scissors, that’s rare, especially from a biker; haven’t seen too many of them utilize a figure-four head scissors in a bar brawl at the Roadhouse Saloon. 8-Ball returns and they isolate Sniper; double throat chop by 8-Ball. A blind tag is made, 8-Ball plants Sniper with a DDT but the Interrogator kills him with a sidewalk slam for three. 8-Ball is ELIMINATED.

Crush battles against the Interrogator but gets no-sold and hammered down; Sniper tags in and Crush ends him with a 360º powerslam and Sniper is ELIMINATED.

Interrogator charges in and quickly plants Crush with a sidewalk slam and gets three; Crush is ELIMINATED and the Interrogator is the sole-survivor. Sniper, who was still in the ring, rejoins them and they celebrate. 4.5/10 Actually this was surprisingly, much more entertaining that it had any right to be, it wasn’t a great match but it wasn’t painfully awful as well. There was a single purpose to this match and it succeeded: put the Interrogator over as a massive threat.

A bunch of Canadian fans wager on who is winning the main event; sadly on one says that Vince McMahon will screw Bret Hart out of the title and Bret become a martyr for the rest of his career.

Kevin Kelly talks from the WWF America on Line chat room, Steve Austin is there and says his damn neck is fine and doesn’t want anyone’s damn sympathy.

Vader says that Team USA does not like loudmouth Canadians. Steve Blackman says he is nervous but is ready to fight. The British Bulldog and Team Canada say that the United States is full of drug users and degenerates; Canada will win.

Team USA: Vader, Goldust, Marc Mero & Steve Blackman (w/Sable) vs. Team Canada: British Bulldog, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon:   Steve Blackman came to Vader’s aide during a Team Canada beat-down as “a fan” and Vader petitioned him to be hired and placed on Team USA; Vader’s team uses Kurt Angle’s music and the Bulldog’s team uses Bret Hart’s. Goldust has “FU” on his black facepaint that stands for “forever unchained”; Goldust had just broken up with on-stage (and off-stage as well) wife Marlena, where he blamed all of his issues on her and his father Dusty Rhodes. That was beginning his attention getting heel turn into “The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust”, so he isn’t very cooperative here. I think it is weird that the only member of Team Canada that is actually from Canada is Phil LaFon. Mero and the Bulldog start off Mero hits some punches but Davey Boy shoulderblocks him and dropkicks him to the floor. Mero, who was becoming jealous of Sable’s popularity, maneuvers her about ringside and then reenters the ring. Vader tags in and hits a second rope double axe handle; Vader dominates until the Bulldog catches him leaping off the second-rope in a powerslam. Davey Boy ups his power by ten vertical suplexing the 450 pound Vader. LaFon tags in but Vader avalanches him and returns Mero who hits a knee lift. LaFon counters into a spinning wheel kick; Mero takes a punch from all Team Canada members and Neidhart tags in. LaFon returns and tries a suplex but Mero floats-over and rabbit punches the back of his neck. Blackman tags in and hits a bicycle kick; Blackman uses his martial arts to control LaFon. LaFon counters to a DDT and Blackman barely kicks out; Team Canada tries to gang up on him but he Bruce Lee’s their asses. Blackman backdrops LaFon to the floor and follows him out. Blackman gets involved with the rest of Team Canada on the floor and gets counted out. Jim Ross sells it as if he wasn’t too clear on the rules, being a former fan and all, what WWF fan doesn’t know what a count out is? Regardless, Steve Blackman is ELIMINATED.

Mero and the Anvil go at it; Mero gets caught with a sledge off a telegraphed backdrop. Mero schoolboys Neidhart off a missed corner charge for two but Neidhart clotheslines him back down. Anvil misses a second-rope knee drop and Mero talks Vader. Anvil hits a pair of clotheslines to floor Vader; Neidhart eventually runs into the wall known as Vader, an elbow to the balls and a big splash finishes the Anvil. Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart is ELIMINATED.

Phil LaFon charges in and hammers on Vader; LaFon spinning wheel kicks Vader over the top rope to the floor where LaFon shies him into the steel steps. Doug Furnas gets in a few cheap shots on the floor. Back in the ring, Vader launches LaFon across the ring and hits a belly-to-belly suplex. Vader crushes LaFon with a second-rope splash and gets three so Philip LaFon is ELIMINATED.

Doug Furnas heads in and dropkicks Vader; Furnas misses another dropkick and Mero tags in. Mero punches away and climbs to the top and hits his spin-around moonsault press to Furnas and gets two. Furnas hits a spinebuster and the Bulldog tags back in to a huge ovation. Davey Boy hammers Mero in the corner. Marc Mero tries a sunset flip but the Bulldog powers him up and attempts the Bulldog Powerslam but Mero squirts free and punches Davey Boy. Mero hits an elbow and Furnas tags in; they trade punches in the corner and Mero gets the advantage. Mero tries a corner reverse roll-up but Furnas rolls over and pins Mero with a handful of boxer shorts; Marc Mero is ELIMINATED.

Vader comes in and hammers away; Goldust has not tagged into the match, yet. Bulldog returns and peppers him with shots. They focus on Goldust’s broken wrist with a black cast that says “freedom” in gold. Vader vertical suplexes Davey Boy and heads to tag in Goldust who refuses to tag in siting the broken arm. Furnas comes in and applies a headlock but Vader quickly backdrop suplexes him. Vader tries to tag again but Goldust refuses again; Furnas low-blows Vader. The Bulldog heads in but Vader levels him with another clothesline. Goldust continues to look totally uninterested; he drops off the apron this time to avoid the tag. Doug Furnas overhead belly-to-belly suplexes Vader. Impressive. Furnas gets a hurracanrana on Vader but it gets two; Vader nails Furnas and head over to tag. Goldust turns his back, so Vader slaps and flings him into the ring, constituting a tag. Goldust walks off and gets counted out and ELIMINATES himself.

The Bulldog grabs the ring bell as Vader quickly ELIMINATES Doug Furnas with the Vader Bomb.

The referee is busy rolling Furnas out of the ring so he misses Davey Boy clobbering Vader with the ring bell and gets three. Vader is ELIMINATED and the British Bulldog is the sole-survivor. 6/10 Not a bad match with the characterizations beginning to take shape for the foreseeable future; Vader looked rather dominant here but once again fell out of site quickly in the beginning of 1998. The Goldust stuff was interesting and leads to some over-the-top stuff in the weeks ahead as he went full heel; here the tag refusal stuff went a little too long though.

Mankind vs. Kane (w/Paul Bearer):   This is actually Kane’s in-ring debut; this match has one glaring flaw: the entire match is bathed in red light (as did all of Kane’s early beat-downs). It is annoying and would eventually stop shortly after this match; so if I have to suffer through the red light so do you. Kane debuted at Badd Blood: In Your House ripping the door off the first Hell in a Cell and destroying the Undertaker; Undertaker refuses to fight him so Kane has started destroying random Superstars on Raw until they get to the Undertaker. The story for this match is that Kane decimated Dude Love and brought the Mankind character back out of Mick Foley. Mankind cuts a very passionate pre-promo on “Uncle Paul” referring to himself as a pebble, as Paul Bearer did prior to the match-up. Mankind joins him in the aisle and tosses him into the guardrail. Kane Tree Slams him into the steel steps and tosses him into the ring. Back in the ring the match officially begins; Jim Ross attributes the red light to “Kane’s powers”, this is right about the time I really got turned off by the whole Kane/Undertaker feud. Everything in the WWF was going to more reality-based storylines and here we have grown men hurling lightning bolts at each other; I saw it once on The X-Files but that’s The X-Files! Mankind fights back and Cactus Clotheslines him to the floor but Kane lands on his feet and levels Mankind with a clothesline. Kane kills him with a steel step shot on the floor. Um, DQ? Kane continues to dominate with uppercuts; Mankind tries to fire himself up by ripping his hair out but runs right into a big boot. Mankind gets hammered in the corner and runs into a Bossman Slam. Kane boots Mankind to the floor where he flings him into the steps. Mankind fights back dropping Kane into a stungun onto the steel steps; Mankind nails Kane with a chair. Back into the ring, Mankind hits a pulling piledriver; with Kane down, applies the Mandible Claw of Uncle Paul on the floor. Kane recovers and launches Mankind off the apron through the Spanish announce table. Kane pummels him about the ringside area but Mankind kicks Kane in the jimmies and hits a double-arm DDT in the aisle; Mankind drops the Cactus Elbow off the apron. Mankind climbs to the top but Kane JUMPS onto the apron and Flairs Mankind off the top to the floor. Mankind crawls back into the ring where Kane Tombstones him for three. 5/10 Gotta hand it to Mankind for taking a spectacular ass whipping and putting over Kane as the next greatest threat. Kane to his credit is the ONLY character brought into the WWF specifically for an Undertaker feud and survived on to have a pretty good career.

Michael Cole discusses “extra tension” in the locker room with WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter and Vince McMahon. Vince is noticeably nervous in his promo here and says it should be a good match. He is hesitant to pick a winner. Note: the Mr. McMahon character does not begin to appear until 1998 so looking at this promo from 1997 it was weird seeing Vince interviewed and not commentating.

The Legion of Doom’s team discusses the “criminal elements” in the WWF and plan on taking the Nation out.

The Road Warriors: Legion of Doom, Ken Shamrock & Ahmed Johnson vs. Nation of Domination: Faarooq, Rocky Maivia, D’Lo Brown & Kama Mustafa:   This was the heel turn that saved the Rock’s career; LOD are the tag team champions here. Ahmed, after hitting the injury bug, has his entire right leg covered with a series of kneepads and a DonJoy. Road Warrior Hawk starts off with D’Lo and they lock up Hawk no-sells all of D’Lo’s clotheslines. D’Lo hits a piledriver; Hawk, of course, no-sells it and hits a falling neckbreaker. Rocky tags in and quickly hits (the yet unnamed) Rock Bottom, with a little help from Kama on the apron, for three. Road Warrior Hawk is ELIMINATED quickly; possibly too drunk or high to last much longer so they got him out of there early; I’m merely guessing on that one but this was around the time he became a big(ger) problem.

Ahmed wanders in and punches away on the Rock and floors him with an elbow. Kama Mustafa tags in and kicks and punches Ahmed down; with his head shaved and the new singlet, Kama looks a lot more like Papa Shango here. The leader, Faarooq tags in, I don’t think he and Rocky were vying for control yet. Faarooq draws the babyfaces into the ring and D’Lo whips Johnson with a leather strap. Faarooq tries a Dominator but Ahmed slips free and hits the Pearl River Plunge for a surprising three. Faarooq is ELIMINATED.

D’Lo Brown runs in and takes Ahmed down; he climbs to the top and hits the (also unnamed) ‘Lo Down, he elects not to pin him, so Ahmed hits a reverse Falcon Arrow. Maivia tags in and eats a spinebuster. Faarooq, who was still hanging out at ringside, trips up Ahmed and holds his leg down so Maivia can pin him… right in front of the outside referee! Okay…? Ahmed Johnson is ELIMINATED and chases Faarooq to the back.

Animal comes in to deal with Rocky, who gets booed and “Rocky sucks” chants; Animal clotheslines him in the corner and brings in Shamrock for the first time. Rocky gets a dropkick in and brings in Kama. Here we have the ultimate fighter versus the “ultimate fighting machine”; Kama chokes him in the corner with his boot. Shamrock avoids a charge and tags Animal back in. Kama begins to dominate with a headlock until Animal tosses him off; they double clothesline each other. Animal comes back with a back suplex for two. Kama catches Animal with a boot in the corner and kicks away; fans get bored and chant “Rocky sucks”. Animal slams him and D’Lo comes in for a quick distraction allowing Kama a heel-hook kick. Kama showboats with Rocky a little too much, which allows Animal to recover with a dropkick and schoolboy to ELIMINATE Kama Mustafa.

D’Lo comes in as does Ken Shamrock; he dropkicks D’Lo and levels him with a clothesline. D’Lo pokes him in the eye and Rocky sneaks in with a blatant low-blow punch. D’Lo hits a legdrop and gets two so Brown settles down into a chinlock. Shamrock fires back but D’Lo gets a knee in and Shamrock goes back down. A backbreaker by Brown sets up a beautiful springboard second-rope moonsault but it MISSES. Animal and Maivia tag in; Animal dominates both guys with dropkicks. Billy Gunn and the Road Dogg appear in the aisle wearing the pair of LOD spiked shoulderpads they stole to distract Animal; Rocky clotheslines him to the floor where he brawls with them and gets powder in his face and counted out. Road Warrior Animal is ELIMINATED.

Ken Shamrock is alone with D’Lo and Rocky Maivia; D’Lo gives it a go against Shamrock. D’Lo clotheslines him down; Rocky comes in for a double team but Shamrock runs through the double clothesline and floors both of them with his own double clothesline. Shamrock sends Rocky over the top and belly-to-belly suplexes D’Lo into the ankle lock for the tap out; D’Lo Brown is ELIMINATED.

Rocky sneaks in with a chair and waffles Shamrock in the back with it, unbeknownst to the in-ring referee… for two! Maivia is rather frustrated and stomps Shamrock in the corner. Shamrock fires back but Rocky cuts him off with the People’s DDT. Rocky slams him and hits the (unnamed) People’s Elbow for a nearfall. Shamrock pummels Rocky’s midsection and then counters another float-over DDT into a Northern Lights release suplex. Maivia runs into a hurracanrana; Shamrock snaps and armbars Rocky down into the ankle lock for the tap out. Rocky Maivia is ELIMINATED and Ken Shamrock is the sole-survivor. 7/10 Fun match that was the beginning of the Rock’s push to stardom, finally. Everyone played their parts well, it wasn’t spectacular but it wasn’t awful either, and saves for the obvious DQ calls not called, very entertaining.

The Owen Hart/Steve Austin storyline is legendary as Owen accidentally broke Austin’s neck at Summerslam ’97 with a botched Tombstone piledriver, despite losing the IC title to Austin, he gloated about it. Austin was stripped of the belt because of the injury and then assisted Owen in retaining it because he only wanted to defeat Owen to retain it.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Owen Hart (w/British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon) vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin:   Austin’s glass shattering entrance doesn’t completely shatter so he adds a little shoulderblock to it; Owen brings the entire Team Canada with him to ringside. Owen Hart has his awesome “Owen 3:16/I Just Broke Your Neck” t-shirt on; Owen stalls on the floor with his team. Neidhart provides a diversion, taking a Stone Cold Stunner, allowing Owen the advantage. Austin quickly turns the match around but Owen tries a piledriver to huge cheers; Austin backdrops free. Owen tries to wrap Austin’s leg around the ringpost but he counters. Owen tries to leave but Austin clotheslines him in the aisle; Team Canada is kicked from ringside as Austin drags Owen back into the ring. Owen low-blows Austin on the floor and tosses him face first into the destroyed Spanish announce table. Hart wraps an electrical cord around Austin’s neck and dares the referee to disqualify him; Owen even rings the bell himself. Back in the ring, Hart gets some stomps in the corner but Austin reverses and stomps a mudhole in the corner. Austin immediately stuns Owen and pins him to win the title. Post-match Furnas and LaFon return but quickly eat stunners as well. 2.5/10 This was almost a squash match; I assume it was kept short due to Austin’s neck situation. OWEN GOT SCREWED!

The Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels storyline got REALLY personal in the build. It was Bret himself who coined the D-Generation X nickname for HBK and Triple H.

WWF Heavyweight Championship Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Shawn Michaels:   Michales is the European Champion. Well, here we go. We follow Shawn with Triple H, Chyna and Rick Rude from his locker room him but comes out alone. Shawn grabs a Canadian flag, wipes his ass and nose with it and poses over it. Bret is flanked by the British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart and Owen Hart on his way to the entrance. Earl Hebner is the referee. Shawn attacks before the bell but Bret gets the better of it and floors HBK and clotheslines him to the floor. Bret tosses Michaels into the ringpost. Jerry Lawler mentions that he looked over at the timekeeper to see if the match had begun; Bret pummels Shawn out into the crowd. Vince McMahon comes out to sell the “reality” of the situation; Shawn chokes Bret out with a bandana. Jim Ross notes that if Bret loses here it will be his last match in the WWF. Shawn tries to piledrive Bret in the crowd but Bret backdrops him back into ringside. Lawler questions McMahon’s presence. Pat Patterson gets takes out by Bret. There are about six WWF referees trying to get them to go to the ring. Bret suplexes Shawn onto the aisle; HBK tosses Bret into referee Tim White. I never realized that there was this much outside stuff prior to the match starting. They battle up into the entrance ramp and Bret nails Shawn and then referee Jack Doan. Vince gets in Bret’s face demanding he get into the ring. They finally head into the ring where the actual screwing can occur. Bret chokes HBK with a Quebec flag. Bret drops a knee and inverted atomic drops him; Shawn calls a loud spot and Jim Ross calls it trash talking, actually it could have been trash talking knowing these two. Michaels lands the flying forearm and is now in control; now Shawn wraps the Quebec flag around Hart’s throat. Shawn tosses Bret to the floor and follows him out there. This looks like total chaos in and out of the ring as Shawn taunts the fans. Shawn hits a gourdbuster onto the steel steps then steals Bret’s Canadian flag and spikes him with it. Michaels dominates a fight in the aisle; Shawn returns to the ring via top rope double axe handle and segues into a front facelock; Bret fights free and hits a gourdbuster on Shawn. Bret begins to work the leg but Shawn counters with a rear-naked eye rake. Bret continues to work the leg but Shawn bodyslams him. Shawn comes off the top-rope with a crossbody but Bret rolls through for a nearfall. Bret drags Michaels to the corner and applies the ringpost figure-four. Hart methodically works over the leg hitting rope-assisted sit-down splashes. Bret slaps on a figure-four leglock, Shawn fights and eventually rolls onto his belly, and Bret quickly grabs the ropes to break the hold. The fans chant “Bret” as he punches away on Shawn. Bret tosses Shawn into the corner upside-down and then hits his Russian leg sweep, a vertical suplex and a backbreaker. Bret goes to the top-rope but Shawn pulls referee Hebner in between and Bret wipes himself and Hebner out. Shawn rakes Bret’s face and applies the Sharpshooter to Bret! Hebner recovers rather quickly from his bump, immediately calls for the bell, and runs out of the ring. The official decision is Bret submitted to the Sharpshooter and lost the title. Vince McMahon returns to ringside and Jim Ross is “confused” on commentary. Bret Hart spits on McMahon as Triple H and Gerald Brisco escort an “irate” Shawn Michaels, with the WWF title, to the back. The PPV closes there. 9/10 …and there you have it. The actual match itself is quite good with intense crowd reactions. The pre-match brawl is uncharacteristic of the combatants but not of the era. This match is the most controversial match in the history of pro wrestling. The match was excellent and the historical value is also important.

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The 411:  The whole Montreal Screwjob casts a different light on this PPV whereas anyone who watches it looks for clues throughout the show for tip-offs to prove whether it was a work or not. If pro wrestling wasn’t looked at in such a trashy light by the main stream media I guarantee there would be History Channel conspiracy shows about this PPV. Conspiracy theories aside, the ACTUAL wrestling portion of the show is quite good with a lot of characters allowed to morph themselves into whatever character they are most comfortable with as the characters and storylines would propel pushes into the oncoming Attitude Era.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]