Monday Night Raw – March 17, 1997: Bret Snaps
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Night Raw
Date: March 17, 1997
Location: War Memorial, Syracuse, New York
Attendance: 4,737
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Vince McMahon
Legion of Doom vs. Savio Vega/Crush
Split screen #4 shows no Faarooq but we go to a full screen (thankfully with a monitor showing the match) to see Faarooq jump Johnson with a nightstick. Animal comes in off the hot tag and hits a double clothesline as everything breaks down. Crush gets loaded up for the Doomsday Device but Faarooq comes in with the nightstick for the DQ.
We look at the Slammy nominations for Freedom of Speech: Jerry Lawler, Paul Heyman, Steve Austin, Howard Stern (never appeared in WWF) and Faarooq. Guess who won.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Flash Funk
Chyna is officially named for the first time here. It takes forever to get her out of the ring, even when Flash threatens to hit her. Vince talks about HHH being more arrogant lately as Funk armdrags him down a few times and scores with a dropkick to send HHH to the floor. Back in and the pre-Game counters a reverse leapfrog into an electric chair drop to take over.
Shawn Michaels arrives.
Mini Vader/Mini Mankind vs. Mini Goldust/Mascarita Sagrada
Sagrada comes in to actually do something exciting with his insanely fast flips and wristdrags. Mankind is sent to the floor but Vader sneaks in with a big running clothesline to the back of the head. It seems like this is under lucha libre rules, meaning going to the floor counts as a tag. Everyone winds up outside with Goldust hitting a cannonball off the apron to take Vader down, leaving Sagrada to victory roll Mankind for the pin. This was what it was.
Sagrada shoves Vader off the stage and hits a big (work with me here) cross body to take him down.
Gorilla Monsoon announces that the cage match will indeed be for the title. When was this ever in doubt?
Mike Bell vs. The Sultan
Rocky is on commentary as Sultan piledrives, splashes and clutches Bell to win in less than a minute.
Hour #2 begins.
Vader vs. British Bulldog
Slammy ad.
Billy Gunn vs. Aaron Ferguson
Sid tells Austin to stay out of his business because he rules the world.
The cage is being set up so the announcers preview the main event.
WWF World Title: Sycho Sid vs. Bret Hart
This brings out Sid, Undertaker and Austin with the big men pairing off for a brawl in the ring while Austin hammers on Bret outside. Bret fights back and nails Pat Patterson as Sid and Undertaker try to chokeslam each other. Undertaker starts getting the better of it as Shawn slowly walks down the ramp as Bret and Austin keep fighting. Michaels looks at both of them and gets in the ring with a chair as Sid and Undertaker fight to the floor to end the show.
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