Opinion
Cook’s Top 5: 1997 Wrestling Memories
Steve Cook continues his journey through time with a look at 1997, an infamous year in pro wrestling, and a nefarious year for Mr. Cook…
Steve Cook continues his journey through time with a look at 1997, an infamous year in pro wrestling, and a nefarious year for Mr. Cook…
I told you last week how 1996 was all about laying the seeds for the future. 1997 saw some of those seeds start to blossom.
Every major wrestling promotion was on fire this year. WCW had never been bigger. ECW was getting onto PPV television, which would take them to another financial level. Then there was the WWF, which had one of the most eventful years of its existence. There were definitely some bumps in the road, but this was the year where the WWF got its groove back.
Let’s go back to 1997 and continue my thirtieth anniversary celebration with my five biggest memories of one of wrestling’s most notable years.
5. The Black Box
I’ve been telling on myself a lot lately, and here’s something else I took part in when I was younger that some of you may frown upon. Or, perhaps some of you may identify with it. You know how cable comes with a black box? Well, sometime in the 1990s, somebody started producing illegal black boxes that made PPV & premium channels like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax & The Movie Channel available without a certain amount of money per event or month.
Somebody in my family obtained one during 1997, which meant I could watch wrestling PPVs as they happened. Up until this point, I was stuck watching these events months after they happened via Blockbuster Video. The world opened up. I was so excited to watch PPVs live & living color. Then when I found out about the Hot Choice channel…well let’s just say I learned a good number of things my parents were too embarrassed to talk about. YEAH BUDDY.
4. The Starrcade Debacle
WCW had a really good 1997. It was all about the build to Starrcade, featuring the match we had wanted to see since 1996’s Fall Brawl. Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting. The Stinger had hung out in the rafters for several months & changed his wardrobe to a darker Crow-style look. He became a bigger star than ever, and everybody was ready to see him take the title off of Hogan in dominating fashion.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Hogan dominated the match & even got a fair 3-count over Sting. One problem: it was supposed to be a fast count and was sold as such by the announcers & Bret Hart, a troubleshooting referee on this evening that decided there wasn’t going to be any funny business. Another problem: Sting didn’t do a whole heck of a lot during the match. It was a tremendous letdown, and unfortunately a sign of things to come. Even though 1998 had its high points too.
3. USA vs. Canada
It all started with the greatest face/heel turn of all time. Bret Hart broke bad while the fans were finally allowed to cheer for Steve Austin. There was a bit of a twist though. See, Canada and pretty much every country other than the United States still looked up to Bret as a hero figure. It was only in the USA where the culture had been overtaken by tawdry material like the Jerry Springer Show, Howard Stern’s radio show & whatever Donald Trump was doing at the time that the fans had grown tired of Bret’s squeaky-clean persona. So, Bret doubled down on his representing Canda and got his entire family back together. Bret, Owen, Davey Boy Smith, Jim Neidhart & Brian Pillman formed a new Hart Foundation that ran roughshod over the WWF for most of 1997.
Bret has said this was the most fun period of his career, and as a fan it was one of the most fun times for me as well. Raw went up to Canada fairly often in 1997, and it was cool to see the crowd reactions to different wrestlers change by the week. Every WWF crowd in 1997 was hot. Calgary’s Canadian Stampede crowd might have been the hottest of all time from start to finish. WCW still led in the ratings, but the WWF was winning over the audience on the streets. You could tell it was only a matter of time before the WWF took the top spot, and this angle had a lot to do with it.
2. Austin Stuns McMahon
Steve Austin had a serious injury at SummerSlam that would play a major factor in cutting his career short. At this time, he was as hot as any WWF babyface had ever been even if he wasn’t able to wrestle, so he had to remain on TV every week doing things. Mainly delivering the Stone Cold Stunner to people.
Tension had been building between Austin & the friendly lead announcer for months, and it was bound to come to a head at some point. When it finally did at Madison Square Garden, the reaction from the crowd was similar to what I imagine it would be if the Knicks won the NBA Finals. Vince’s terrible sell of the move just added to the moment.
1. “Bret Screwed Bret”
It’s only one of the most talked about moments in pro wrestling history. A night that changed the course of wrestling for good. I don’t need to sit here and tell you about the circumstances behind the Montreal Screwjob. Since we’re back in 1997, we need to talk about my initial reaction.
Vince McMahon was full of shit.
What we saw on television was pretty shady, then we saw an interview with Vince where he came off like a man with his head up his rear end. I’m sure there were those that sympathized with Vince, but the pro-Bret camp was definitely the majority. To their credit, the WWF was smart enough to realize this, and were more likely to go along with public opinion than they would be in later years. Vince’s move towards being an evil boss that had already started earlier in the year picked up speed. As for Bret, he moved on to WCW, and the less said about that the better.
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Opinion
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions
Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM
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Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
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Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
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Opinion
AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams
AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.
It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.
At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!
#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?
First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.
Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.
That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.
#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.
Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.
The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.
As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.
So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.
#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.
I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.
Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…
Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.
Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?
About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast
CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!
Powered by RedCircle
Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!