The Wrestling Observer Yearbook '97: The Last Time WWF Was Number Two
Page 74
WWF KING OF THE RING
(June 8, Providence, RI)
Attendance: 9,312
Live gate: $202,963
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.50/$1.59 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
100 (66.7%), 29 (19.3%), 21 (14.0%)
Best match: 118 - Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin, 35 - Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Worst match: 42 - Goldust vs. Crush, 20 - Legion of Doom & Sycho Sid vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart
Highlights: Undertaker pinned Faarooq in 13:43 to retain the WWF title in a match better than it seemed on paper when distraction in the NOD caused Undertaker to use a tombstone to get the title (**1/4). Shawn Michaels actually got louder cheers than Steve Austin in their double disqualification match at 22:29 (****) while Hunter Hearst Helmsley captured the King of the Ring tournament that had been promised him one year earlier beating Mankind in 19:26 of the finals (***1/2).
WCW GREAT AMERICAN BASH
(June 15, Moline, IL)
Attendance: 9,613 (8,538 paid)
Live gate: $142,118
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.60/$1.88 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
41 (30.8%), 52 (39.1%), 40 (30.1%)
Best match: 55 - Ultimo Dragon vs. Psicosis, 35- Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage
Worst match: 44 - Konnan vs. Hugh Morrus, 17 - Steve McMichael vs. Kevin Greene
Highlights: Randy Savage pinned Diamond Dallas Page due to outside help from Scott Hall in a wild falls count anywhere lights out match main event in 16:56 (***3/4). Kevin Nash & Scott Hall retained the WCW tag titles beating Ric Flair & Roddy Piper when Flair was fighting with Syxx backstage leaving Piper by himself in 10:02 (**1/4). In yet another battle of football players, Kevin Greene pinned Steve McMichael in 9:21 (**). Greene showed incredible potential as a wrestler being able to work a match that good with McMichael, which most seasoned top stars were unable to do. In a womens title vs. retirement match, Akira Hokuto beat Madusa in 11:41 (***) and Madusa never has resurfaced in WCW despite still being under contract.
WWF CANADIAN STAMPEDE
(July 6, Calgary, Canada)
Attendance: 12,151 (10,974 paid)
Live gate: $229,598 (Canadian)
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.59/$1.32 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
256 (99.6%), 1 (0.4%), 0 (0.0%)
Best match: 169 - Bret & Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart & Brian Pillman & Davey Boy Smith vs. Goldust & Legion of Doom & Steve Austin & Ken Shamrock, 42 - Great Sasuke vs. Taka Michinoku
Worst match: 74 - Godwinns vs. Blackjacks (pre-game show), 45 - Undertaker vs. Vader
Highlights: For a show that had little interest coming in and only four matches, it was arguably not only the best PPV show of the year but the best in the history of the WWF. All four matches were good to excellent, with The Hart Foundation (Bret & Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith & Brian Pillman & Jim Neidhart) as unbelievable babyfaces in Calgary despite being portrayed as heels on television beating Steve Austin & Legion of Doom & Ken Shamrock & Goldust when Owen pinned Austin in 24:31 (****1/4). Undertaker retained the WWF title pinning Vader in 12:39 (***1/4). In a match designed to set up Great Sasuke as the star of the WWF’s light heavyweight division, it was Taka Michinoku, in doing the job, who got over and by the end of the year was the WWF’s champion (****) and Mankind went to a double count out with HHH (***).
WCW BASH AT THE BEACH
(July 13, Daytona Beach, FL)
Attendance: 7,851 sellout (6,354 paid)
Live gate: $150,870
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.89/$2.79 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
149 (71.6%), 29 (13.9%), 30 (14.4%)
Best match: 86 - Hector Garza & Juventud Guerrera & Lizmark Jr. vs. La Parka & Psicosis & Villano IV, 71 - Ultimo Dragon vs. Chris Jericho
Worst match: 57 - Jeff Jarrett vs. Steve McMichael, 36 - Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. Lex Luger & The Giant
Highlights: Lex Luger & The Giant beat Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman in 22:30 when Luger beat Hogan with the torture rack submission to set up their singles feud later in the year. After the match Luger racked Rodman and also Randy Savage. While not a good wrestling match per se, it was far better than anyone had the right to expect considering the participants and had super heat (*1/2). In other top matches, Roddy Piper beat Ric Flair (***1/4) in a surprisingly good match, Scott Hall & Randy Savage beat Diamond Dallas Page & debuting Curt Hennig in 9:35 (1/2*), Jeff Jarrett kept the U.S. title beating Steve McMichael in 6:56 (DUD), Chris Benoit beat Kevin Sullivan in a loser must retire match in 13:10 (***1/2), Rick & Scott Steiner earned a tag title shot beating Great Muta & Masahiro Chono in 11:37 (***1/4), Chris Jericho retained the WCW cruiserweight title pinning Ultimo Dragon in 12:55 (****1/4) and a tremendous six-man saw Juventud Guerrera & Hector Garza & Lizmark Jr. beat La Parka & Psicosis & Villano IV in 10:08 (****1/4).
UFC 14: SHOWDOWN
(July 27, Birmingham, AL)
Attendance:
Live gate:
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.53/$850,000
Thumbs up/down/middle:
110 (90.9%), 5 (4.1%), 6 (5.0%)
Best match: 113 - Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith
Worst match: 49 - Joe Moreiera vs. Yuri Vaulin
Highlights: In UFC’s most memorable match of the year, Maurice Smith captured the heavyweight title beating Mark Coleman in what was something of a title unification match with Smith holding the strap of th defunct EFC. Up to that point it had been a night for the wrestlers with Kevin Jackson winning the under-200 pound tournament with ease, and Mark Kerr capturing the heavyweight tournament with little competition.
WWF SUMMERSLAM
(August 3, East Rutherford, NJ)
Attendance: 20,213 sellout (17,361 paid)
Live gate: $523,514
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.8/$2.76 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
111 (45.3%), 107 (43.7%), 27 (11.0%)
Best match: 99 - Bret Hart vs. Undertaker, 57 - Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart
Worst match: 97 - Los Boricuas vs. DOA, 37 - Legion of Doom vs. Godwinns
Highlights: The injury to Steve Austin several minutes before the scheduled conclusion of an IC title match against Owen Hart, which Austin won at 16:16, took the luster away from one of the big shows of the year (**3/4). In the main event, Bret Hart regained the WWF title from Undertaker when special ref Shawn Michaels hit Undertaker with a chair, thus turning heel, when Hart ducked in 28:09 (***). In other key matches, Mankind beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a cage match in 16:25 (**1/2) and Davey Boy Smith retained the European title beating Ken Shamrock via DQ in 7:29 (*3/4).
WCW ROAD WILD
(August 9, Sturgis, SD)
Attendance: 6,500
Live gate: $0
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.65/$2.09 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
8 (6.0%), 119 (88.8%), 7 (5.2%)
Best match: 35 - Alex Wright vs. Chris Jericho, 10 - Steiners vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash
Worst match: 27 - Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger, 13 - Diamond Dallas Page vs. Curt Hennig
Highlights: Hulk Hogan, who had lost the WCW title to Lex Luger six days earlier, regained it due to Scott Hall, as an impostor Sting, hitting Luger with a baseball bat. Marcus Bagwell, Syxx, Vincent and Kevin Nash all interfered as well in 16:15 (1/2*). In a match that was originally to be a tag title change but the finish was changed at the 11th hour, Steiners beat Kevin Nash & Scott Hall via DQ in 15:29 (*3/4), while Giant pinned Randy Savage in 6:05 (*), Curt Hennig beat Diamond Dallas Page in 9:41 (3/4*), Ric Flair pinned Syxx in 11:06 (*1/4) and Alex Wright pinned Chris Jericho to keep the cruiserweight title in 13:03 (***).
ECW HARDCORE HEAVEN
(August 17, Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Attendance: 1,950 (1,650 paid)
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.21/$325,000
Thumbs up/down/middle:
104 (42.3%), 137 (55.7%), 5 (2.0%)
Best match: 97 - Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk vs. Sabu, 37 - Al Snow vs. Rob Van Dam
Worst match: 53 - Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Spike Dudley, 34 - Tommy Dreamer vs. Jerry Lawler
Highlights: In a night that for the most part didn’t work including one of the worst skits in recorded history where Sandman was drinking and driving an ambulance looking for the arena, Shane Douglas won a three-way dance over ECW champion Sabu and Terry Funk by pinning Funk in 26:37 (***1/2). In an inter-promotional match, Tommy Dreamer pinned Jerry Lawler in 18:57 with outside interference from Jake Roberts and Sunny among others (1/2*) and The Dudleys retained the ECW tag titles beating PG-13 in 10:58 (**).
WWF GROUND ZERO
(September 7, Louisville, KY)
Attendance: 4,963 sellout
Live gate: $82,228
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.45/$1.58 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
62 (42.2%), 39 (26.5%), 46 (31.3%)
Best match: 73 - Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker, 32 - Bret Hart vs. Patriot
Worst match: 84 - Faarooq vs. Crush vs. Savio Vega, 29 - Four-corners tag match
Highlights: Undertaker and Shawn Michaels battled to a no contest in 16:03 (although with the pre-match brawl it went closer to 23:00) in the main event (***3/4) of a fairly forgettable show. Bret Hart retained the WWF title via submission over The Patriot with the sharpshooter in 19:20 (***1/4) and Head Bangers won the WWF tag titles in a four-corners match over Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith, Godwinns and Legion of Doom in an awful match (DUD).
WCW FALL BRAWL
(September 14, Winston-Salem, NC)
Attendance: 11,939 sellout (11,024 paid)
Live gate: $213,330
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.53/$1.74 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
68 (68.0%), 20 (20.0%), 12 (12.0%)
Best match: 41 - Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho, 23 - Alex Wright vs. Ultimo Dragon
Worst match: 30 - Giant vs. Scott Norton, 22 - War Games
Highlights: Team NWO of Marcus Bagwell & Kevin Nash & Syxx & Konnan beat Team Horseman of Ric Flair & Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael who were to team with Curt Hennig, who did basically the same injury angle he did one year earlier in WWF with Hunter Hearst Helmsley to screw Marc Mero, and ended up turning on Flair and the Horseman causing them to lose the War Games in 19:37 (**1/2). The second half of the show was so-so, but the first half was tremendous. Lex Luger & Diamond Dallas Page beat Scott Hall & Randy Savage when Larry Zbyszko counted as Luger pinned Hall in 10:19 (**), Giant pinned Scott Norton with a choke slam in 5:27 (*), Alex Wright kept the TV title pinning Ultimo Dragon in 18:43 (***1/2) and Eddie Guerrero kept the cruiserweight title beating Chris Jericho in 17:19 (***3/4).
WWF BADD BLOOD
(October 5, St. Louis, MO)
Attendance: 21,151 sellout (17,404 paid)
Live gate: $212,550
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.6/$2.11 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
72 (49.7%), 34 (23.4%), 39 (26.9%)
Best match: 119 - Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker
Worst match: 39 - Los Boricuas vs. DOA, 31 - Head Bangers vs. Godwinns
Highlights: Under the cloud of Brian Pillman’s death a few hours earlier, WWF went on with the show with few highlights aside from arguably the greatest cage match in history where Shawn Michaels beat Undertaker in 29:59 due to interference from Kane to earn the next WWF title shot (*****) and a ceremony honoring former NWA champions like The Funks, Harley Race, Jack Brisco, Gene Kiniski and Lou Thesz along with long-time St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick. Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith beat what was advertised as a flag match but the rules changed at the last minute to be a regular match over Vader & Patriot in 23:13, Owen Hart won the vacant IC title in the tourney finals from Faarooq in 7:12 and Godwinns won the tag titles from Head Bangers in 12:17, all of which were subdued at best performances.
IWF THE CONTENDERS
(October 11, Sioux City, IA)
Attendance: 250
Live gate:
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.03/$72,000
Thumbs up/down/middle:
11 (14.1%), 56 (71.8%), 11 (14.1%)
Best match: 37 - Frank Shamrock vs. Dan Henderson, 13 - Tom Erikson vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Worst match: 17 - Townsend Saunders vs. Andre Pedernarias, 9 - Dennis Hall vs. Joao Roque
Highlights: In a show which featured a tremendous caliber of athletes but a poor concept, John Perretti attempted to get stars of NHB through the PPV censors that were destroying NHB by doing a submissions only show between wrestlers and submission experts. The scoring rules were never explained. The matches, featuring no strikes and lots of defensive moves were generally boring. Most of the wrestlers had trouble with the submission fights’ guards. The wrestling contingent was furious because the wrestlers, without the ability to strike and head-butt from the top, couldn’t do much due to lack of submission skill. The Jiu Jitsu contingent was furious because they thought the rules favored the wrestlers when it came to point systems. Nobody bought the show. And a few days later, this group was defunct. The star of the show was Frank Shamrock, who made two-time Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson submit in just 56 seconds to an ankle lock. Kenny Monday, one of the great wrestlers of his era, lost to an ankle lock in just 45 seconds against Matt Hume. Tom Erikson, America’s best freestyle heavyweight, won via decision against RINGS’ Tsuyoshi Kikuchi.
UFC 15: COLLISION COURSE
(October 17, Bay St. Louis, MS)
Attendance: 1,500 sellout
Live gate:
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.5/$708,000
Thumbs up/down/middle:
139 (96.5%), 2 (1.4%), 3 (2.1%)
Best match: 64 - Vitor Belfort vs. Randy Couture, 50 - Carlao Baretto vs. Dave Beneteau
Worst match: 24 - Mark Kerr vs. Gregory Stott, 23 - Mark Kerr vs. Dwane Cason
Highlights: Randy Couture derailed Vitor Belfort in an upset in 8:17 as the biggest story of one of the best UFC shows in history. In the main event, Maurice Smith made late out-of-shape replacement Tank Abbott quit due to leg kicks in 8:11 while Mark Kerr went to 7-0 in easily winning his second straight heavyweight tournament. UFC would end up losing Kerr due to legal problems after this show. The show also featured one of the closest and best UFC matches in history with David Beneteau upsetting Carlao Barreto via decision after 15:00.
WCW HALLOWEEN HAVOC
(October 16, Paradise, NV)
Attendance: 12,457 sellout (10,138 paid)
Live gate: $297,508
Est. buy rate/revenue:
1.1/$3.62 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
90 (43.5%), 82 (39.6%), 35 (16.9%)
Best match: 183 - Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Eddie Guerrero, 7 - Randy Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page
Worst match: 83 - Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper, 37 - Alex Wright vs. Steve McMichael
Highlights: This show will best be remembered for the third match on the show, where Rey Misterio Jr. won the cruiserweight title from Eddie Guerrero in a match where he was originally scheduled to lose his mask in 13:51 (****3/4). Otherwise it was a lackluster show headed up by a main event that’ll forever be known as the “Age in the Cage” match where Roddy Piper won a poor non-title match over Hulk Hogan in 13:37 (DUD). Randy Savage beat Diamond Dallas Page when Hogan, dressed as Sting, interfered in 18:07 (***1/4), Lex Luger beat Scott Hall in 13:02 with Larry Zbyszko as ref (3/4*), Curt Hennig beat Ric Flair via DQ in 13:57 (*3/4).
WWF SURVIVOR SERIES
(November 9, Montreal, Canada)
Attendance: 20,593 sellout (18,101 paid)
Live gate: $447,284 Canadian
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.89/$3.14 m
illion
Thumbs up/down/middle:
81 (35.8%), 87 (38.5%), 58 (25.7%)
Best match: 147 - Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, 23 - Kane vs. Mankind
Worst match: 77 - Truth Commission vs. DOA, 55 - Jesse Jammes & Billy Gunn & Godwinns vs. Head Bangers & Blackjacks
Highlights: Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart to win the WWF title in 12:11 of the famous double-cross finish in the historical climax of the show when Vince McMahon ordered ref Earl Hebner, a long-time close friend of Hart’s, to call for the bell and rule it a submission without Hart’s knowledge some five minutes before the match was scheduled to end.With Hart actually reversing the hold as the bell was called, a large percentage of fans watching realized it was all screwed up (***3/4). That finish took all the attention away from the show, which included Steve Austin regaining the IC title from Owen Hart in 4:04 in a match well below par because both men were wrestling injured (*) topping off a series of elimination tag team matches.
WCW WORLD WAR 3
(November 23, Auburn Hills, MI)
Attendance: 17,128 (15,735 paid)
Live gate: $395,831
Est. buy rate/revenue:
0.56/$1.84 million
Thumbs up/down/middle:
27 (21.1%), 87 (68.0%), 14 (10.9%)
Best match: 77 - Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr., 13 - Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig
Worst match: 40 - Battle Royal, 38 - Alex Wright vs. Steve McMichael
Highlights: Another poor show headlined by the annual three-ring 60 man Battle Royal won by Scott Hall in 29:48. It was noteworthy as Battle Royal rules were changed from over-the-top eliminations to simply rolling someone under the ropes would be an elimination (1/2*), and for Hulk Hogan (who arrived unadvertised) and Kevin Nash (dressed as Sting), the highest paid performers on the show both coming out only for the finish. Curt Hennig retained the U.S. title pinning Ric Flair in 17:57 (**1/2). Eddie Guerrero retained the cruiserweight title pinning Rey Misterio Jr. in 12:42 (****). Steiners retained the WCW tag titles beating Steven Regal & David Taylor in 9:45 when Rick pinned Regal after a sky high bulldog (**) and Perry Saturn pinned Disco Inferno to retain the TV title in 8:19 (1/4*).