WWF RAW 7/21/1997

Written by: Matt Peddycord

WWF: Raw is War
July 21, 1997
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Metro Centre

The current WWF champs were as follows:
World Champion: The Undertaker (3/23/1997)
Intercontinental Champion: Owen Hart (4/28/1997)
European Champion: Davey Boy Smith (3/3/1997)
World Tag Team Champions: Steve Austin & Dude Love (7/14/1997)

Back to Canada. The Hart Foundation are babyfaces again!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

Vader (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Ken Shamrock
Clips are shown from Vader and Shamrock’s match at IYH: Cold Day in Hell back in May where Vader was left with a broken nose in four or five different places. A little tentative start here. Shamrock catches Vader with the leg roll, but then Vader fires back with a short-arm clothesline. Splash gets two. Bearer beats Shamrock a few times with his shoe. To the floor, Vader tosses Shamrock into the steps. Back in, Shamrock counters a Powerbomb and delivers a Belly to Belly Suplex! Paul distracts Shamrock off a leg grapevine submission and gets punched out. Back inside, Vader hits a splash off the second rope, but a Vader Bomb hits knees! Shamrock’s comeback is cut off as Vader blocks the hurracanrana and dumps him on the floor. As Shamrock gets to his feet, Davey Boy Smith ambushes him and gives Shamrock a RUNNING POWERSLAM on the ramp to get him counted out. (7:02) That is Shamrock’s first TV loss! Hot crowd for all of this. *½

We get our first look at Brakkus. He will pump *clap* you up.

Vince introduces the Hart Foundation (without Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart). They love them in Nova Scotia. Bret said he had a nightmare last week that he was in San Antonio and that it’s good to be in God’s country. Did you ever notice that the USA is shaped like one giant toilet bowl? The reason is because most Americans are full of crap. That’s not exactly completely off base. Bret takes a break for a “US sucks” chant. Nobody from America has stepped up to the plate and answered his challenge to a flag match, which proves his earlier point about Americans being full of crap. He tells the Undertaker that they shouldn’t wait until SummerSlam and should just get it on right here tonight in Halifax. Davey Boy Smith wants to get his hands on Ken Shamrock again – TONIGHT IN HALIFAX. Owen Hart calls Steve Austin a pervert for wanting to kiss his butt if he loses. Of course, he wants to get it on – TONIGHT IN HALIFAX. He doesn’t have to kiss his butt, but Austin can suck his toes. Whoa! Out comes Steve Austin to agree to be a part of the “stupid little flag match” for night. There’s one American, now we just need two more.

Let Us Take You Back to: Raw is War, 7/14/97. Los Boricuas and DOA brawl. Gorilla Monsoon has suspended both gangs for one week so they can cool down, but there is a match between the two gangs now set for SummerSlam.

Brian Christopher vs. Bryan Walsh
Bryan Walsh is Canadian-born, but now resides in Pawtucket. That certainly draws a negative reaction. They take us back to Shotgun Saturday Night where the Lawlers do a number on Scott Putski. King holds a chair over Putski’s face while Brian drops the Tennessee Jam. Christopher beats up Walsh and then *eats* up Walsh’s little Canadian flags he carried with him. Walsh delivers a pair of monkey flips. Christopher fights back with a suplex or two. Walsh looks as boring and vanilla as you could possibly be. Christopher nails one running bulldog, but gets shoved off into the Bobby Eaton corner bump when he tries another one. Brief babyface comeback from Walsh, but Christopher rallies back and hits the Reverse DDT out of the corner to set up the TENNESSEE JAM for the win. (3:54) When JR tells Lawler that the acorn doesn’t fall too far from the tree, King responds saying that JR knows a lot about nuts. Take it for what you will. ¾*

Truth Commission will be in action – next week!

We flashback to May 1995 when the WWF gave away a house, now the WWF is giving away a MILLION DOLLARS. Sable plays the Price is Right girl over the cash that is sitting in a casket. Oh yeah, Marc Mero is standing beside her. Hardly even noticed him there. Hmpfh.

Next up, we see a seven minute video package highlighting how Mick Foley became Dude Love and how Dude Love became Cactus Jack and how Cactus Jack became Mankind and how Mankind became Dude Love. You know the drill.

Earlier today, Steve Austin tells a camera that he doesn’t know if Dude Love is crazy or if he has a lot of guts. Either way, he helped Austin get the job done last week. Even so, Austin still wants to go on the record saying that he doesn’t want a tag team partner, and that’s just the way it is.

Let Us Take You Back to: Raw is War, 7/14/97. The Godwinns assaulted the Legion of Doom. LOD cuts a promo on the Godwinns. Animal admits they broke Henry’s neck, but at least they did it fair and square. I am cracking up. Tell ’em, Hawk. He’s been slopped, he’s been slop dropped, but the LOD is still there. Hawk says they broke Henry’s neck by accident the first time, but the second time won’t be.

The Godwinns vs. The New Blackjacks vs. The Headbangers
Winner of this one gets a WWF tag titles shot next week at Raw. They never stay consistent with these rules. In this match, it’s essentially a triple-threat match and you can only tag your own partner. As you can probably guess with this combination of teams, it’s mostly punch-kick stuff. While the Headbangers finisher gets messed up, Phineas whacks Windham with the slop bucket as Henry covers him for the 1-2-3. (5:35) So there you have it: Godwinns vs. Austin & Dude next week. ¾*

TIME TO ENTER THE WARZONE!

Jim Ross brings out Shawn Michaels to kick off the second hour. He does a back flip off the top rope just to piss people off. Shawn has officially got into heelish dickhead mode. He calls JR “Girth Brooks”, which is pretty funny. He continues with a few jokes directed at Canada. He’s got a couple small Canadian flags sticking out of his shorts. Shawn announces that he’s going to be the next member of the US team in tonight’s flag match. They cut to a few Canucks who look genuinely pissed and/or drunk. As Shawn continues, the crowd wants Bret. Shawn stirs them up a little bit more saying they will get Shawn and Bret in the ring together tonight for the first time in over a year. Anyways, Shawn mentions that he would do anything be at SummerSlam. After much begging and pleading, Shawn is now a part of the main event as the special guest referee. The stipulation is though that he can’t show any favoritism towards the Undertaker. If he does, he can’t wrestle on US soil ever again. If that happens, he says he’ll have to move up here to Canada for the rest of his life. And if you can’t trust Shawn Michaels, who can you trust?

Canadian fans politely tell us Americans that we suck and Canada rules.

The four clues to the SummerSlam Million Dollar Chance are: “The Key” “2A” “Life” “Of Luxury”.

The Patriot vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna)
Not much of a match here. Bret, Owen, and Bulldog come down to confront Vince about this special referee decision. Vince stands up to Bret when he knocks his headset off his head. They get into a hockey fight where Bret’s shirt gets pulled over his head. Patriot comes over trying to help out, but gets beaten up by the Harts and Helmsley and the match is thrown out at 3:00. Agents and referees alike maintain order as we go to commercial. Just amazing tension there.

While Vince tries to gather himself, JR takes us over to Paul Bearer who needs to prove that Kane is alive. Apparently, there’s a statue of the grim reaper (WTF?) cut into two pieces. Taker and Kane each have a piece of that statue and it’s somehow part of their special bond that they would keep as long as they were alive. Paul Bearer has Kane’s piece and knows that Taker has the other half. JR still isn’t convinced that this proves Kane is alive. Paul Bearer demands that JR not push him to force his hand and bring someone like Kane into the WWF.

Goldust (w/Marlena) vs. Faarooq (w/Kama)
Earlier tonight, Marlena has a dress picked out for Brian Pillman. She says he won’t fill it out the dress like she can. As a matter of fact, he can’t even fill out his own tights. Ouch. Well, she would know. Meanwhile, Vince doesn’t think Bret heard the interview because he would never react the way he just did towards Vince. That’s when Vince receives word from the back that Shawn Michaels has been attacked by the Hart Foundation and leaves to go check on the situation. Very weird match as ref Jimmy Korderas sees Kama beating up Goldust on the floor. There’s a DOMINATOR on Goldust, but Korderas doesn’t count the pin and calls for the DQ taking his own sweet time to do so. (3:28) Certainly a filler match. The NOD seems to be quieted down since KOTR and Ahmed’s injury. ¼*

In the back, we see a disoriented Shawn Michaels refuses any help from Vince McMahon or any of the agents.

The Undertaker, Steve Austin & Dude Love vs. Davey Boy Smith, Bret & Owen Hart – Flag Match
Bret declares that before this show can go any further, the Hart Foundation must lead the crowd in the Canadian national anthem. Well, they are in Nova Scotia. No pinfalls in this one – the only way to win is to capture your own country’s flag. Steve Austin and Dude Love come out together to go 3-on-2 with the Harts. Dude Love gets dumped as Austin and Bret get it on. Both Austin and Owen go for their respective flags and both men prevent the other from retrieving it. Commercial break! We come back to see the Undertaker has joined the US team. Owen telegraphs a backdrop on Dude and gets kicked in the mouth. Dude Love goes for the flag, but Owen puts a stop to it. Undertaker gets a tag and business has just picked up. He dominates Owen with a Chokeslam and goes for the “instinctive” cover, but that’s no good here. Austin takes over with a clothesline followed by a suplex. The usual babyfaces at least in America (if there even was such a thing as a babyface in 1997) take advantage of being hated in Canada by cheating on a chinlock. Austin puts his feet on the ropes while UT distracts the ref and Foley helps out with a little added leverage. Dude Love tags and takes over on Owen. Owen spins out of a swinging neckbreaker and hits a cool DDT, but Austin runs in to cut off the tag. Owen blocks a superplex on Austin, but Austin brings Owen over to his corner to tag in Taker as we go to another commercial break. After the break, Owen escapes Foley’s sleeper with a back suplex. He catches Dude Love with a Spinning Heel Kick, but the tag gets cut off again! Austin tags and ducks the enziguri to apply the Sharpshooter, but Owen kicks him off. Owen tries to leap over Austin and make the tag to Bret and DOES so, even though he takes a Spinebuster all the same. Austin turns around into a clothesline and the crowd explodes. Bret wants the ringpost Figure-Four, but Dude Love runs him down with a clothesline. Austin makes the tag to UT and he’s cooking on the Hart Foundation. Chokeslam to Davey Boy leads to a TOMBSTONE attempt. Bret nails him from behind to break it up. They get into a fisticuffs, which sets up a double-KO spot. UT sits up and goes for the flag, but Owen slows him down. Now Bret and Undertaker race for their flags. Brian Pillman comes in out of nowhere and stops UT from grabbing the flag – making it easy for Bret to capture the Canadian flag for the win. (12:45 shown) Certainly a lot of emotion exuding from the crowd. Pretty cool stuff. ***