Monday Night Raw – February 3, 1997: The Night That The Lights Were Out In Toronto
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Night Raw
Date: February 3, 1997
Location: SkyDome, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Attendance: 25,268
Commentators: Jim Ross, Vince McMahon, Doc Hendrix
Keep in mind there was no February 10 show and the next episode is on Thursday February 13.
We open with a clip of the end of the Rumble with Austin sneaking back inside and stealing the Rumble from Bret.
Vader vs. Steve Austin
The arena is half dark to cover up the fact that so many seats are empty. Yeah there are 25,000 people there, but Wrestlemania VI had 67,000 in the same building. Bret comes out before the match and jumps Austin but Vader goes after Hart for no apparent reason. Bret is finally taken out and the match gets started. Austin jumps Vader as he gets in the ring and stomps Vader into the corner in a rare visual. Steve makes the mistake of spitting at Vader though and the monster runs him over.
Rating: C. Not much of a match but it was a solid brawl. Austin and Vader could punch as well as anyone so it was fun enough. I loved the slam to Vader which was treated like nothing special here but most of the time got a huge reaction from the announcers. You could see the star in Austin kicking at the door and the hinges were about to break.
Thursday Raw Thursday (no idea why they called it that) ad.
Savio Vega vs. Flash Funk
Savio has recently joined the new Nation of Domination. He goes after the arm to start but Funk (2 Cold Scorpio) easily nips up, only to be pounded right back into the corner. Funk gets a sloppy sunset flip for two but Savio chokes him down for a few four counts. More forearms to the back have Funk in trouble but he Funks Up to a nice pop. Vega is rammed into all four buckles and a rotating splash from the top gets two. Funk dives off the top to take out the Nation but Savio avoids a moonsault and scores a fast pin.
Vince interviews Peta Wilson, a very good looking blonde actress, of La Femme Nikita. Nothing to see here but Vince talks about sex of course.
Tag Titles: Doug Furnas/Phillip LaFon vs. Owen Hart/British Bulldog
Back with Furnas being clotheslined down for two before snapping off a great looking overhead belly to belly, sending Bulldog to the mat. LaFon finally comes in with clotheslines all around as everything breaks down. A bad looking jumping DDT gets a three count on Owen but his foot was on the rope. The champions double team LaFon but Bulldog turns his head and backdrops Owen to the floor. Smith powerslams LaFon down but Owen gets countered out.
Owen is fine and it was a ruse, even though Bulldog could have gotten the pin.
We go to the Rumble again to see Ahmed Johnson eliminating Farrooq with a big board.
Crush vs. Goldust
The Blackjacks are coming. Great.
We come back from a break with a shot of the half empty upper deck. Nice job tech guys.
Intercontinental Title: Marc Mero vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
A not great looking vertical suplex (he almost dropped Mero) gets an easily broken two count and the knee drop gets the same. Mero escapes a suplex and gets two off a rollup, only to get caught in a facebuster. We take a break and come back with both guys down and Mero slamming HHH face first into the mat. Mero scores with a clothesline and knee lift as the match is picking up a bit. HHH is sent out to the floor for a big flip dive over the top from Mero.
Back in and a somersault legdrop gets two on the champion and Mero pounds away in the corner. He charges into a boot in the corner but still manages to crotch Helmsley down on top. A top rope hurricanrana puts HHH down but a delayed cover is only good for two. Helmsley comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to put both guys down. Why did he stop using moves like that? He gets back to form by taking the pad off a buckle but walks into a Samoan drop. The Merosault is good for two and the referee sees the exposed buckle. The distraction lets HHH pull out a foreign object for the retaining knockout.
We get another clip from the Rumble with Lawler jumping into the ring and getting eliminated by two punches from Bret. Jerry going back to commentary and finishing the sentence he started when he jumped into the ring was awesome.
Farrooq/Mankind vs. Ahmed Johnson/Undertaker
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