Grilling JR - Ground Zero 1997 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Today we’re looking at In Your House Ground Zero PPV - which took place 25 years ago this month and was the first 3-hour In Your House PPV.

We’ll start with the night after SummerSlam 97. We covered this show on an early Grilling JR episode - #14 which you can check out in the archives.

But a quick recap of the main highlights:

Mankind defeated HHH in an awesome cage match to open the show.

Goldust defeated Brian Pillman with the stipulation now that Pillman has to wear a dress for 30 days when he wrestles, until he wins a match.

Bret Hart defeats the Undertaker to become 5-time WWF Champion after guest referee Shawn Michaels accidentally knocks out Taker with a chairshot when he was aiming for Bret.

Probably the most noteworthy was Steve Austin breaking his neck after a botched piledriver from Owen Hart, but finishing the match with the planned finish to pin Owen and win the IC Title.

What do you remember about the night of SummerSlam and everyone’s concerns for Steve as to whether this could be a career ended for him?

The night after SummerSlam, Raw was in Bethlehem, PA in a small arena to host Raw in with the big stage and TitanTron, as only 4,665 people are in the building - but that’s a sell out.

To compare, Nitro on this night is at the Palace of Auburn Hills, MI in front of 17,616 people.

Sgt. Slaughter is introduced as the new WWF Commissioner on the show - taking over the on screen WWF President role held by Gorilla Monsoon.

Do you know why Slaughter was chosen for this on-screen role? Was Gorilla just tired of traveling now and his health was struggling?

Monsoon would only make one more televised appearance in the WWF when he was introduced at WrestleMania XV in Philadelphia, but he did continue doing commentary for the international broadcasts of WWF TV for the next 2 years as that would only require travel to Stamford once a week.

Slaughter announces the Patriot - Del Wilkes would be getting the title shot at new champion Bret Hart at the upcoming Ground Zero PPV.

Why was Patriot given the shot? Was it just to really amp up the whole America vs Canada feud? Did you think he had what it took to be in a prominent main event role?

Austin is already immediately back on TV doing promos and not taking anytime off. Was this Steve saying he’s still coming to work to do something, instead of resting up at home - or even in hospital  like he should have been?

Brian Pillman is forced to wear a dress in his match vs Bob Holly - who is still in his race car driver tights by the way - and Brian loses after a distraction from Goldust and Marlena. Did Cornette come up with the idea of the dress gimmick?

While Pillman is great at pulling off this angle, would you agree the wearing a dress gimmick gets old after seeing it after a few minutes?

The highlight of the show is Shawn Michaels establishing his heel turn in a promo basically telling the fans to kiss his ass, and then sneaking away like a cowardly heel when Undertaker appears.

Shawn comes across as such a natural heel here - did you prefer him as a babyface or heel?

Paul Bearer also does a promo reminding Taker that Kane is coming - we are still 2 months away from Kane debuting and this slow build for months really worked did it not?

It’s Dude Love vs. Owen Hart in the main event. Meltzer is critical of it though:

“Dude Love over Owen Hart in 11:18 when Austin KO'd Hart with a Slammy. Since Dude does none of the Cactus mannerisms and crazy bumps, he wrestles like a second match guy. It was bad.”

What does Dave want, Foley can’t keep killing himself every night! I’m sure Mick welcomed the change in character and wrestling style at the time, right?

It’s also reported that the original plan was for Shawn Michaels to cost Austin and Dude Love the tag titles this night - back to Owen and Bulldog - but obviously this was changed with Austin not being able to wrestle.

The following week Meltzer reports about a promotion in the company for you!

“Jim Ross has been elevated to Senior Vice President of Titan Sports and is the highest ranking official in the company not named McMahon.

He's in charge of things like contract negotiations and talent recruiting along with playing a major role in booking the house shows and PPV shows. The ultimate decisions are, have been and likely always will be in the hands of Vince McMahon.”

Is this accurate for the time that you were the highest ranking official not named McMahon?

There’s reports about problems with Sid and how he was released from the company:

“The situation with Sid is that he wasn't immediately fired. There was some sort of clause in his right about $400,000 per year guaranteed contract, which may have been an injury clause, that WWF felt they had the right to cancel it. He was then offered a new deal which was a nightly deal which basically had he worked a complete schedule would have earned him the same $400,000 per, so something along with lines of $2,000 to $2,500 per shot and maybe more for PPVs, which he turned down, feeling his existing contract shouldn't have been canceled. At that point he was fired and is threatening legal action back.”

Do you remember there been a bunch of headaches in the handling of how Sid was let go from the company?

The next Raw on the road to Ground Zero was in Biloxi, Mississippi in front of a sell out crowd of 6,814 people. This was the first week Raw was moved back up to its original 9pm ET slot, but this means of course the show would now finish at 11pm. Nitro would still be running 8-10pm

“WCW did great in the unopposed first hour, won by a strong 3.85 to 2.55 in the head-to-head hour, and handed WWF a great lead-in for the third hour where WWF did a 3.35 rating (going against a 1.88 for a replay of the first hour of Nitro on TNT), its best hour in a long time.

If anything, the message this sends to WCW based on this week and the big numbers for the previous week's three hour show is that three hour weekly shows look to be the answer. It may not be the answer a lot of people want to hear, but you can't ignore the numbers in a ratings-driven business. How quickly and if that will be implemented will be this week's story. Even with handing WWF the lead-in, WCW won by a wide margin, but WWF is also in a position where if it back-loads its biggest angles for the second hour which no doubt it will do, they'll have a larger audience watching than before unless WCW makes the move to go to three hours weekly.”

Was the mindset to start putting all the big storylines in the unopposed second hour? Nitro would eventually expand to 3 hours in January 1998.

Some notes from the Biloxi Raw:

“Flash Funk pinned Pillman in 3:16 when Pillman was distracted by them showing a tape of him getting dressed on the video screen, so he has to wear the dress another week.”

Do you think with a better gimmick - Flash Funk / 2 Cold Scorpio could have gotten further than he did in WWE?

“Dude Love did a 70s style Superstar Billy Graham interview. Michaels appeared on the screen and made fun of him for being out of date. Fans are into Dude Love as this inside rib they're a part of, but the interview was like a green rookie copying Billy Graham or Dusty Rhodes and not that well.”

I’m seeing a trend of Meltzer not being a fan of the fun loving Dude Love character. In the long run out of the 3 characters this one would be the shortest and toughest to take as a babyface. It was always meant to be a short run though correct?

“Shamrock & Patriot beat Owen & Bulldog in 11:17 when Patriot pinned Bulldog after a full nelson drop on a chair. Patriot needs wins like this to give him credibility since he's in a PPV main event. From a booking standpoint it made sense. As a match it was just okay.

Patriot, who was over surprisingly huge which I think is partially because his accent gets over better in the South, challenged Bret to come out. Bret did and they brawled, with Owen, Pillman and Bulldog involved and they choked and attempted to bury him under the Canadian flag.”

A big moment on this Raw - Rocky Maivia returns from injury - costs Chainz a match with Faarooq - and joins the Nation of Domination.

For the main event, Dude Love has transformed into Mankind, and loses to Shawn Michaels in a great match thanks to interference from a returning Ravishing Rick Rude as Shawn’s insurance policy.

HHH and Chyna also get involved and we’re seeing the early stages of DX here.

Meltzer would report about Rick Rude’s appearance:

“Rick Rude was brought in as part of the working agreement with Paul Heyman. Rude appeared and in exchange, Ross plugged the ECW PPV show and the Lawler-Dreamer match several times on Raw (for this weekend).

The original deal was for it to be a one-time only thing, but judging from the TV, Rude will be Michaels' bodyguard on TV for the time being (since Michaels isn't going on the road soon). He'll likely still work some ECW as well. As of press time, all Rude had committed to in the future is the ECW PPV show this Sunday and the Raw in Atlantic City on Monday. Rude has no contract with ECW (although ECW did do an angle where Rude claimed to have signed a long-term contract) and it's likely he'll be offered a deal by WWF that would allow him to still work ECW. Heyman thinks Rude's character is unique enough to where he'd be fine with him working both places. It appears bringing back Rude and Sgt. Slaughter is to bring back the famous names from the 80s to combat WCW using all the 80s big names that are drawing the 30+ age bracket fans that are killing WWF in the Monday ratings.”

Were there immediate attempts to get Rude signed up to a contract and he just wouldn’t do it?

This of course bites you in the ass later in the year when Rude jumped ship to WCW and debuted on a live Nitro the same night he is on a taped episode of Raw.

Tommy Dreamer pins Jerry Lawler at the ECW Hardcore Heaven PPV on 8/16.

Lawler plugs the Ground Zero PPV before the match, which also includes cameo appearances from Rude, Jake Roberts and even Sunny.

This is pretty much the end of this cross promotion deal with ECW that had been going on a few months.

Was this an internal nightmare dealing with ECW that in the end of it helped them more than it helped the WWF?

Raw on 8/18 drew a sellout 8,672 paying $155,261 in Atlantic City, NJ.

Meltzer would report:

“Apparently last week when Michaels found out about Rude doing the bodyguard gimmick, he cried and complained because he didn't want Rude and if he wanted a bodyguard he wanted Helmsley, so Rude will be with him a little longer but then move on to other things, if everything works out.”

Do you recall Shawn being unhappy about Rude’s involvement?

Owen Hart & Bulldog beat LOD in 4:57 when Godwinns came out and Henry hit Animal with a bucket and Owen pinned him. Godwinns beat on LOD after the match until for some reason (well, obviously since they are building up a four-way) Owen & Bulldog made the save, but then LOD attacked both teams.

Ken Shamrock beat Sultan with an ankle lock after using the belly-to-belly on both Sultan and Iron Sheik in 3:16.

The Sultan - Fatu - another guy in desperate need of a new gimmick, right?

Although I’m impressed that Iron Sheik took a bump here.

“NOD came out and Faarooq did a strong interview.

Rocky Maivia blamed the fans for saying Rocky sux and Die Rocky Die when he was a babyface for his choice. He pushed hard that it wasn't a racial deal. DOA were on the video wall and challenged them to come into the parking lot for a fight.

They had the fight, which ended with Los Boricuas stealing the bikes and driving off, and DOA chasing after them. During the melee, Kama's head accidentally went through the windshield of a car which happened to be Jim Cornette's in real life.”

Do you remember Cornette’s reaction to this?

You can see Rock as a heel is already light years ahead of his ability to connect with an audience as a babyface. But I feel like without his introduction and original gimmick and starting as a heel…you wouldn’t have gotten those Die Rocky Die chants…so in the long run it really helped.

“Jesse Jammes beat Pillman via DQ in 1:47 when Goldust ran in and dropped an elbow on Jammes causing Pillman to lose and have to wear the dress one more week. After the match Pillman challenged Goldust to a match on the PPV where if he loses, he leaves the WWF forever, but if he wins, he gets Marlena for 30 days. Goldust refused. Pillman then said that their daughter Dakota was really his daughter. Goldust freaked out and then Marlena out of nowhere accepted, and Goldust acted like he couldn't understand where Marlena was coming from.”

This…I mean I know today definitely not but back then this was just…it was rough was it not?

“Patriot pinned Vader clean with the full nelson drop which they are calling Uncle Slam in 4:55. Vader didn't look as good as you'd think, but the storyline got over well as after the match, Vader jumped Patriot and was about to squash him, when Bret ran in and buried Patriot under the Canadian flag. Vader was mad about Bret doing it and broke the flagpole, and it wound up with Vader and Bret going at it - Owen & Bulldog then attacked Vader until Patriot made the save for Vader.”

So we’re trying to keep Patriot strong leading into the PPV, and also turning Vader babyface. Do you think Vader had what it took to be a top babyface?

“TV main was Undertaker & Mankind over Michaels & Helmsley via DQ in 12:18. Rude came out and was about to hit Undertaker with a chair but Undertaker turned around and Rude dropped the chair. Michaels wound up hitting Taker with the chair for the DQ and Taker did a major blade job on himself.”

Are we taking advantage of the later finish for Raw with the major blade job here? Or was Taker just a bit heavy handed?

Does anyone bring up - man Taker and Mankind - they’ve been mortal enemies for so long against each other and now they’re just fucking tag team partners out of nowhere. I know the enemy of my enemy thing…but this just seems like forgotten history does it not?

Some others thing Dave was reporting at the time:

“Mark Henry is being brought back to training after recovering from his broken leg. At one point it was thought he'd never be back, but now they are bringing him back to training but somewhat skeptical of whether or not he'll make it because he got the rep the last time of thinking he was a star and not wanting to learn anything.”

It may have took a while, but boy in the long run this was a great decision to keep trying with Mark wasn’t it?

“Yokozuna is still under contract but they want him to get down to 400 pounds and it just isn't happening. He had a recent heart scare but his heart recovered after changing his medication.”

Were the hopes realistic that Yoko could drop the weight and come back to work?

“Of the six minis that were signed, five of them are Mascarita Sagrada, Mascarita Sagrada Jr., Octagoncito and Espectritos I & II (aka Mini Vader & Mini Mankind). They may be repackaged and given new names. Mascarita Jr. will probably get the biggest push out of the group and they'll try to heavily market him with the novelty of being the world's smallest professional athlete.”

Was this your decision Jim to bring the minis in and sign them? Is it just for an extra attraction for the shows?

We also have an update on Austin from the neck injury suffered a couple of weeks earlier:

“After his exam by noted Philadelphia neck specialist Dr. Joseph Torg, the current prognosis on Steve Austin is that he'll be out of action for a minimum of two months. Among other injuries, Austin, 32, suffered a bruise of the spine along with his fairly significant neck problems that were a combination of both the recent jar and the cumulative effect of the wear-and-tear of his wrestling career. The injury has resulted in continual tingling in his shoulders, similar to if one sleeps wrong on their shoulders and wakes up with their limb asleep. The feeling was that Austin would eventually be able to wrestle although the first doctor he saw in Texas recommended he retire and warned him that suffering another serious injury of the type would put him at risk of paralysis. Due to that, he'll likely have to modify his style in the ring and not take certain bumps that could potentially aggravate the injury. The basic prognosis was that after laying off and doing rehab for the next two months, he'd be re-examined and at that time he'd have a better idea of when he could return to the ring.”

How often are you in conversation with Steve? Are you the go between for Vince for him and the doctors?

“The episodes of Raw that would have normally aired on 8/25 and 9/1 - the go-home shows for the PPV - were pre-empted for the US Open on the USA Network, and were bumped to Friday late night slots on 8/29 and 9/5 (changed a week earlier from scheduled Saturday night airings)”

This was a normal thing with the WWF getting bumped for tennis on USA dating back to the 80s, but was this always a sour point with everyone about the USA deal having to get bumped every year for this and the dog show?

The first of these “Friday Night’s Main Event” shows aired at 11.45pm ET instead of starting in its scheduled 11pm slot due to Pete Sampras’ tennis match going long, and only drew a 1.6 rating.

Raw in its normal slot the week before drew nearly double with a 3.1 rating so this has to be frustrating, right?

Same story the week after with only a 1.6 rating in the show airing 2 days before the PPV.

Both shows were taped on 8/23 and you did get to call both shows Jim - the first show with Cornette, and the second show with your old pal Dok Hendrix.

Can you tell us the differences in working with both men?

“Reports live were really negative, complaining about none of the advertised matches taking place and the redundancy of the finishes. The latter complaint was too valid as virtually every "competitive" match on the show ended with a heel run-in DQ finish.

No major angles and the biggest name debuting was Jerry Lynn, who lost to Taka Michinoku in what was said to have been the best match on the card, and then later beat Steve Casey.”

Was there any consideration to get Lynn in full-time in 1997?

There were two interesting video features on the second show.

They did an interview with Del Wilkes - unmasked - at his home to hype up his match with Bret.

Was this just to try “humanize” this guy who we’ve never seen the face of before?

They also showed Austin doing target practice at his ranch. His targets were signed photos that “the office” had sent him in a care package.

His targets were Vince, yourself and Monsoon representing “the office” and also Owen Hart.

Jim the anti-authority gimmick is really picking up with Austin getting more over from these types of promos than actually wrestling in a wrestling ring. Austin’s connection with the audience was so strong and these little vignettes if you will just nail that home don’t they?

The boost in running 3-hour PPVs…not only does the price increase but the workload increases with having to put together more programs and get more people involved. In the long run was this a benefit to the creative side as we know it’ll be a benefit to the bottom dollar as well.

The show is somewhat well received with Wrestling Observer readers giving it a 48.2% thumbs up, 21.1% thumbs down and 30.7% in the middle. And there’s some rough stuff in here don’t get me wrong but I think the Taker - Shawn match is so well remembered that many forget what is actually on this show.

“The show drew 126,000 buys - way down from the 225,000 of SummerSlam 97 a month earlier (that’s a 99,000 drop)

Slightly up from the September PPV the prior year which drew 120,000”

Look this is the first pay-per-view with the same price tag as a pay-per-view the previous month that WWF had done in forever…I think Tuesday in Texas was the only example of it…so it does take some time to build it up as something special but again coming off SummerSlam and a hot show this has to be somewhat of a disappointment does it not?

“The event sold out weeks in advance in the 6,000-seat Louisville Gardens, with 4,963 paying $82,228 and another $44,184 in merchandise.”

What kind of sign is it when you’re packing a 6,000 seat arena and making over $125,000 but pay-per-view is down so heavily? Is it being there live is more entertaining for a higher price point than sitting at home and watching? Is that creative?

The first ever match of Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels was notable for yet another world-

class performance by Michaels. The fact Bret Hart beat Patriot in the WWF title match should have surprised nobody, but the near burial of Patriot, just a few weeks after arriving in the WWF, was. The Head Bangers winning the WWF tag team title in the Fatal Four way, which given the workrate was an appropriate name for the match, was a surprise, although the finish, where Austin giving Owen Hart a stone cold stunner causing his duo with Davey Boy Smith to lose, shouldn't have been.

The next attempt to push the minis from Mexico highlighted their ability to do spots, but the attempt to turn them into 1960s "mighty midgets" doing the Sky Low Low and Fuzzy Cupid spots were woefully outdated. The triangle match was a strong Worst match of the year candidate.

“1. Brian Pillman pinned Goldust in 11:05. They introduced a new aspect of the storyline, that Pillman and Terri (Marlena) had a relationship before she married Dustin, and that Pillman was the one who dumped Terri and she went to Dustin on the rebound. As far as factual truth goes, I believe there is something to some of that. Pillman didn't wear the dress to the ring which was the original plan. Although Pillman is limited by his bad ankle, this was his best performance since his accident. He took a lot of hard bumps including a stun gun on his face on the ring steps. He tried a bulldog but Goldust threw him off and he crotched himself. He took a suplex on the ramp. He was crotched on the post. There were chants of both "Goldust sux" and "Pillman sux." Pillman even took a bump off the top rope outside the ring crashing throat first on the guard rail. Marlena slapped Pillman. Pillman missed a dropkick off the top rope and Goldust went for the curtain call but in doing so, the ref was knocked out. Marlena tried to hit Pillman with her purse, which had a brick in it. Pillman got the purse from her and hit Goldust with it instead and scored the win. Lawler grabbed the purse and pulled the brick out. At the same time, Pillman dragged Marlena off with him and threw her into his car and drove off while Goldust tried to chase them down. For the rest of the show, Lawler kept making remarks like the two were together in a motel. The angle aspect was great and match was good. **½”

This is a marked improvement from their match the previous month at SummerSlam. Do you think it took Dustin a little to get comfortable in the angle or they just had more time together?

Any idea why Pillman didn’t wear the dress since that was the whole gimmick to begin with?

Did Dustin, Brian or Terri at any point raise any type of objection to this?

This is super soap operay-Vince Russo?

“2. Brian Christopher beat Scott Putski via count out in 4:40. Fans chanted "Jerry's Kid" at Christopher. Even though the show was in Louisville, USWA territory where Christopher has been a face for years, the crowd reaction to him was mixed and the crowd didn't react to him as everyone expected they would as the home town hero. Fans really weren't into this match like you'd think. They were just getting started when Christopher hit a pescado but landed low and Putski's knee went out

catching him. Putski couldn't get up and they showed a close-up of his knee out of position. Putski was carried out on a stretcher. The word we got is that Putski suffered a torn quadricep (front thigh) muscle and had surgery the next day and would be out of action three months. Lawler went out to do a monologue on him, but apparently seeing the severity of the injury, stopped. 1/2*”

Live TV and it’s hard to handle when this type of thing happens.

What did you think of the younger Putski?

Was there any reason Putski was not brought back after his injury?

“3. Savio Vega won a triangle match over Faarooq and Crush in 11:39. They mentioned that Simmons would be going next weekend to Florida State University's football game for their Hall of Fame ceremony. Crush, or at least Crush's bike, got the only pop coming out. Faarooq whipped Crush with a belt. Crush got the belt and whipped him back. Crowd was dead. The match wound up with one pinning another and the third guy would make the save since the first guy scoring the pin wins in these ridiculous rules. Lots of near falls but none were exciting. Match went too long and got really bad. In particular, Vega and Faarooq blew a neckbreaker spot worse than you'd expect from two guys in their first pro match. The match disintegrated from that point into one of the worst matches you'll ever see. Crush finally hit Faarooq with a heart punch, but before he could score the pin, Vega hit him with a spinning heel kick and pinned Crush. The finish would be best described as a mercy killing.

-*½”

I mean I don’t know what else to say here Jim but bowling shoe ugly right?

“4. Max Mini pinned El Torito in 9:20. This was the repacked Mexican minis, and they were because Antonio Pena threatened WWF with legal action saying he owned the rights and created the names. Max will be pushed as the world's smallest professional athlete. The first 2:00 were incredible with Torito serving as a base for Mini to do all those quick spinning head scissors type moves and a flip tope which popped the crowd. It was also almost the only Lucha that they did. Then they started doing 60s U.S. "mighty midget" spots. Max biting Torito's butt got no crowd reaction, although when he bit the ref's butt and the ref chased him around the ring and he ran into Lawler's arms and put on the crown, it did get a crowd response. Torito started destroying Max although that got no reaction. It went too long and was starting to die since Max is actually very inexperienced and has probably only worked a handful of singles matches in his career, as these guys would do much better in tags. As they went to the finish, it picked up with the amazing acrobatic spots including Max doing an Asai moonsault (called a plancha by Ross) and got the win with a sunset flip. It appeared from the reaction here that people who had never seen the two before were

really wowed by the high spots, but those who had seen them in their element were disappointed at the overall match. **¾”

Why do you think the minis seemingly don’t have a place in mainstream wrestling today?

Next came the ceremony where Dude Love and Steve Austin were to give up the tag title belts to Sgt. Slaughter. Dude gave his up. Austin came out to the expected huge pop and began running down Jim Ross, Vince McMahon and Sgt. Slaughter and threw his belt down. He called Ross fat ass and when Ross praised him, Austin gave Ross the stunner. The crowd chanted "Slaughter sux" as they were helping Ross out. It appeared Ross was supposed to do a stretcher job but they had used the stretcher for Putski and forgot to bring it back. Austin's mic work and performance in this angle along with the Michaels performance in the main event pretty well stole the show. This left McMahon, who appeared to be really tired on the air, and Lawler, to announce the rest of the show alone.

Was this your first in-ring bump Jim?

Did you and Steve have to practice it a few times?

Previously you had done the spots where Backlund put the crossface chicken wing on you in the crowd, and Mankind put the mandible claw on you in a backstage interview.

How about the stretcher not being ready for you? Was that a pain in the ass on live TV?

Did anyone expect the pop Steve got when he hit you with it?

“5. The Head Bangers won the WWF tag titles in a four- corners elimination match over Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith, Legion of Doom and Godwinns.

Awful.

Bulldog has dropped even more weight probably to make it easier on his bad knee. Owen was a one-man match, but since he was hardly ever in, that says all you need to know about the match. LOD was DQ'd first for wearing out Godwinns with the bucket that they had brought in at 9:54. Thrasher did a running dive off Mosh's back and nailed Phineas on the floor. Finally Thrasher pinned Phineas with a sunset flip in 12:12. Hart & Bulldog vs. Bangers wasn't good either. At one point they missed up either a clothesline or a crucifix spot with Bulldog and Thrasher. The match was into the negatives except the last minute was good, ending with Hart putting Mosh in the scorpion, but Austin ran in and gave Hart the stunner and Mosh scored the pin to win the titles. DUD”

We see these types of matches nowadays all the time - 4-way tags, 3-way matches, and I think 25 years later it’s much easier and the talent is much better at putting this type of stuff together. Was it a hard transition for some of these guys back then to do these types of matches?

“6. Bret Hart beat The Patriot in 19:20 to retain the WWF title. From a psychology standpoint this was a very good match but it was lackluster in other ways. Patriot wasn't over at all to the crowd until the end despite the big build up and being in a more Southern oriented city. Patriot worked on Bret's left arm. Bret worked on Patriot's left knee including doing the figure four around the post. Smith came out and the crowd chanted for Austin. Finally Smith tripped Patriot and Bret got a near fall with a rolling reverse. At another point Bret and Smith collided and Patriot got a near fall with a schoolboy. Vader then showed up and attacked both Smith and Hart and they did a four- way. Vader and Smith brawled to the back leaving it as a singles match again. Patriot got near falls after a shoulderblock off the top (Patriot missile), and an atomic drop into a back suplex combo. Hart came back with a stun gun, bulldog and forearm off the top rope. After a ref bump (considering there were four more to come in the main event, this was slightly more than overkill Dusty booking) Patriot got the Uncle slam but no ref to count the fall. After a few more near falls, Patriot got the sharpshooter on. Bret reversed the hold into his own sharpshooter and got the submission. It was a great story match of an All Japan main event variety, but unlike an All Japan title match, it only had so-so execution. After the match Bret gave Patriot a piledriver, broke his American flag and choked him with it, and ended up decking Pat Patterson as well. It was hard to figure out after having Patriot do a submission job why he was buried so badly in the post match as well. ***¼”

Was it already figured it was time to move on from Del and this was the way out? He would only be around until late October and severely depushed after this.

This is not the beginning of a title run I’m sure Bret wanted to have. Do you know if he was frustrated?

“7. Undertaker went to a no contest with Shawn Michaels in 16:03. Actually the whole deal went closer to 23 minutes between a nearly five minute pre-match brawl and a few minute post-match brawl. Excellent work, but plagued by so many ref bumps and contrived booking gimmicks that the crowd was numb well before the finish. Undertaker punched out the first ref before the bell even rang and beat Michaels all over the arena with Michaels taking awesome bumps.

At one point Undertaker threw the ref over the top rope onto Michaels on the floor, although Michaels was one step too far back and didn't catch the ref well. Michaels took bumps and the ramp and into the bushes where the house-set was set up. He rolled all the way down the ramp, was choked with a cable cord and thrown into the rail. Finally about five minutes after they started, the bell rang to start the match when a second ref came out. It continued as a Michaels bumpathon.

The second ref ended up being hit with a chair inadvertently. Michaels used two elbows off the top, but by the time a ref recovered, Undertaker kicked out. Rick Rude came out and threw Michaels Knux and he KO'd Undertaker, but the ref was still down. The ref recovered, but Undertaker kicked out, and Michaels stomped on and decked ref Earl Hebner. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna came out. They whipped Taker into the ring steps which he took on his knees. At this point, a third ref came out and Michaels attacked him. Michaels bled hardway under the eye. Undertaker got the Knux from Michaels trunks and hit Michaels and Helmsley with them, but when the ref finally recovered, Michaels kicked out. Undertaker then chokeslammed Hebner. Yet another ref ran out, this time being Tim White, and he ruled it a no contest as the crowd booed the finish.

Undertaker continued to brawl after the match with Michaels and Helmsley. Helmsley decked Tim White. Michaels tried to hit Undertaker with a chair as he was tied in the ropes but Undertaker kicked the chair into Michaels' face. All the agents ran in with Michaels decking Gerald Brisco and kicking Tony Garea. At this point a ton of wrestlers ran in, and as they were dragging Michaels out of the ring, Undertaker did a running dive over the top rope to the floor, caught by about a dozen guys, but the dive would have made Psicosis or Great Sasuke proud. ***¾”

This show is well remembered by the Taker dive but the action is great but it is way overbooked. Looking back - was it just a way to get to Hell in a Cell and to show how chaotic it would be and that’s why you need the Cell?

When you end a pay-per-view like this…and I know the internet wasn’t as prominent back then - did you view it as a snub to the paying customer that you spent $30 for the first time on an In Your House and the show ends without a conclusive finish in a first time big pay-per-view singles match between two long time stars? Because people still feel that way now.

Is it frustrating to have this type of match - two big stars - and you’re not there to call it because you were beat up earlier in the night?

What say you Jim? Thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, thumbs down?