1997 Summary and Awards

I feel as if I’ve seen enough of both shows (Raw and Nitro) to have my own preference by this point. Taking any bias out of it, it’s the WWF and it's not even close! There’s a few reasons why, but here’s a direct quote by Kevin Nash that sums it up perfectly. “Anyone who worked for Vince at the time, recognised WCW as the ‘89 Mets” For those of you who aren’t baseball fans, the '89 Mets where a hot team with some great players, but didn’t have the salary, history, or glamour to sustain any level of success. Think of the WWF being the New York Yankees, and WCW as the '89 Mets'. Another great point Kevin Nash made, was that WCW was the first company to sell ticket’s purely based of the name ‘Nitro’. Say what you want about Bischoff and co, but the entire draw for WCW at the time was it’s name value, and the fact that they were seen as the cool and trendy ‘alternative’. As opposed to the WWF who were selling matches, PPVs and star value such as Austin, The Rock and Shawn Michaels.

Now as much I disliked Nitro at times, I will concede a show like that was always better enjoyed with a beer and a hotdog (they were actively targeting the younger, cooler college crowd) so obviously you’re not going to enjoy it as much if your actively scoring and analysing it. But I HAD to review it, as to have some kind of yard stick for how the two shows measured up head to head. And in my newest feature, I have done just that, as I have tallied EVERY SINGLE WEEKLY score, to give a median average across the year for both shows. But before I share my findings, a quick run down on how my rating system works. I’m almost like a reverse Dave Meltzer. You could probably add a 0.25-0.5 star to ANY of my reviews if that helps you sleep better at night (apart from if I say the show was dogshit, then just take my word for it!)

1. Anything under 2.5 is subpar, the lower down the scale, the worse it is…

2. 2.5 is acceptable television. This carries over for any PPV, Nitro or Raw. It’s not bad, and it’s nothing special either, it’s average. Because of this, MOST OF MY SCORES are actually 2.5. The reality is that most week to week TVs rarely exceeded expectations. Is EVERY Starbucks you ever have amazing? No, but you still stop by every day before work to get your fix. This is the same principle…

3. 2.75-3 stars is good to highly entertaining. This is what most TVs were realistically striving for week to week. You wouldn’t hit it every time, but when you did it was a good week for your brand. This is like when the barista flirts with you slightly and dots the i in your name with a love heart before handing you your coffee. It’s a good start to the day…

4. 3.25-3.5 stars is REALLY GOOD. (I had an another Starbucks analogy for this but let’s try and keep things clean, kids read these articles!) Usually the max for any TV due to the shorter format and inability to build and hype matches EVERY single week, but still this score makes it a MUST WATCH (I have given this score to one or two TVs before) For a PPV this rule carries over, except a PPV can exceed it because…

5. 4 Stars is most likely reserved for top tier PPVs! Think of a WrestleMania 30 or a really fun Royal Rumble if your favourite superstar ACTUALLY won that year, instead of the person everyone on the IWC annoyingly and correctly predicted 4 weeks prior. It would be hard to achieve this on a shorter TV format as explained due to a lack of build into the matches, but in theory it could happen. Again, I have scored one or two PPVs at this point 3.5, but never 4. (Although I’m sure I will in the near future) Plus, the standard was usually held higher for a PPV, seeing as you were, you know, PAYING FOR IT! The clues in the name folks…

6. 4.25 stars is WrestleMania 39, but in a universe where Cody ACTUALLY went over on night 2, or if the Rock called out Roman on night one. Take your pick…

7. 4.5-4.75 This is nearly perfect. So at this point you may as well give it 5 stars… DAVE! Why doesn’t Kurt Angle have a single 5 star match, huh, huh? He was a wrestling machine, he won an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WITH…sorry, I had a moment then. Anyway, WrestleMania X7 comes after my timeline, but if I were to rank it, I’d probably get as high as 4.75 before giving it 5 stars out of principle alone. As Hannah Montana once sang in the opening credits to her hit show “Nothing in life is perfect, but in the rare instances you come close, you deserve your flowers.” It was something like that, I’ve since cancelled my Disney+ subscription so it’s been a minute…

Enough bad jokes anyway, here’s what I managed to calculate. For the first 6 months of the year, Raw was actually on top averaging 2.5 stars dead even, as opposed to Nitro who was just a shade under 2.25. We can attribute this to Raw having one of the stronger episodes in the companies history (26th May ‘97) which featured one of the best main-events the show had featured to date in HBK & Austin Vs Owen Hart & The Bulldog (which would actually turn out to be one of my MOTY contenders), as well as edge of the seat stuff with Paul Bearer threatening to reveal The Undertakers secret ‘not so little younger brother’ Kane. This alongside The WWF having the early year advantage due to The Rumble and WrestleMania (That’s 3 months of TV taken care without having to do a whole lot) and it was always going to be hard for WCW to compete in the late winter to early spring months. Nitro would improve massively, showcasing some of their best TV to date in mid to late 97, coincidentally, just as The WWF would start to struggle. That being said, the final 6 months saw Raw maintain their 2.5 star average. Yet again, showing they were (in my opinion at least) the more stable and consistent product)

So for Nitro, even though it wasn’t really my thing, across the entire year they still averaged around 2.3 stars per show (weird number I know, but that was the median across every show) compared to Raw which held a steady 2.5 average. Which is pretty impressive considering that A) I didn’t like the nWo. B) I HATED the constant 4 minute main events that always ended in some kind of DQ run-in. C) The inconsistent booking in general! That said, 97 Nitro is widely considered as the company’s peak, and I can almost see why. The roster was there talent wise, and irregardless of wether you liked them or not, ‘97 was the nWo at their best!

The problem was that the episodes were either fantastic (that might be getting carried away, so let’s use the word entertaining instead) or absolutely trash. Hence the sub 2.5 average. BUT, if they were consistently terrible, they wouldn’t have come CLOSE to hitting that number (feel free to refer to my guide on why 2.5 stars/middle of the road rating is an acceptable TV rating ) Because keep in mind, these guys were writing, performing, directing and agenting new matches and angles, EVERY SINGLE WEEK. For 52 weeks of the year straight! So after I broke it all down, I had a new found respect for WCW and what they were trying to achieve. It still wasn’t to my taste, but it was far from bad television!

Anyway, time for the awards.

And the top PPVs were as follows-

1. IYH 16: Canadian Stampede- 3.75 ⭐️

2. IYH 13: Final Four- 3.5 ⭐️

3. WCW Uncensored ‘97- 3.5 ⭐️

4. WWF One Night Only ‘97- 3.5 ⭐️

5. WCW Bash at the Beach ‘97- 3.25 ⭐️

6. WCW Slamboree ‘97- 3 ⭐️

7. Badd Blood: In Your House  ‘97- 3 ⭐️

8. Survivor Series ‘97- 2.75 ⭐️

9. SummerSlam ‘97- 2.75 ⭐️

10. WCW Fall Brawl ‘97: War Games- 2.75 ⭐️

Allow me to start at the top and discuss Canadian Stampede because I do have some issues with it. It’s actually regarded as a ‘top 10 PPV of ALL time’ according to a list created by the WWE. Dave Meltzer even awarded it as the “best major wrestling show of 1997”, so hey. At least my scale matches up with a so called professional “wrestling journalist”. But….in my opinion, it was very much a one match show! Again feel free to go back and read my July ‘97 review if you want a more in depth review. But here are my cliff notes. The opener between Hunter and Mankind was VERY entertaining albeit short, clocking in at around 13 minutes. It also ended via double count-out, which was fine as it made sense for what they were both doing at the time. The LHW match between The Great Sasuke and Taka Michinoku was probably the best cruiser style match the WWF had produced until that point! That being said, it was a great match as far as an acrobatic display. But had zero heat or any meaning behind it whatsoever.

Taker/Vader for the WWF title had BAGS of potential, but for me was actually the worst match of the night, underwhelming massively! They just didn’t click for some reason. And as great as the 10 man main-event of ‘The Hart Foundation Vs Team WWF match’ was. I absolutely HATED the screwy finish! Owen Hart winning via roll up while the entire Hart Family brawled at ringside, was simply FAR too much going on all at once for me. Put simply, it took to much attention away from what should have been a really cool moment and a HUGE pop for Owen in front of his hometown crowd.

But look, first time viewing, I obviously scored it highly enough to put it above any other PPV that occurred that year, and that seems to be the general consensus anyway. My point is, it may be slightly overrated and to call it a top 10 WWF PPV off all time, is pushing it slightly in my opinion. A very good PPV, but far from perfect.

MOTY awards

26/5/97- Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels Vs Owen Hart & British Bulldog (Raw is War) MOTY Contender 3

This was AS GOOD as a TV match you’d ever see. Add in the fact it was a tag match (I’m not usually the biggest fan of that particular stipulation as they can become overly formulaic and predictable) So the fact this ranks inside my top 3 speaks VOLUMES as to just how good it was. This was very much a ‘strange bedfellows’ angle, as Austin and Michaels were both feuding at the time, with Austin constantly stating that he refused to link up with the heartbreak kid, and try to win the titles “by his damn self!” Without spoiling the match for anyone who hasn’t watched it, if you do fall into that category, do yourself a favour and look it up. The storytelling, pop at the end and in-ring efforts from 4 of the best workers in the company at the time was the perfect recipe for what would be a sensational main-event

5/10/97- The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels (Bad Blood) MOTY Contender 2

Perhaps controversially, the argument could be made that THIS was the best match Shawn even had with The Deadman (and yes, that includes the two back to back classics they held at Mania 25 and 26 respectively) I’m not sure I quite fall into that camp. But I can say this. It may very well be….THE BEST CELL MATCH OF ALL TIME! From both a cinematic standpoint (it really was wonderfully produced), the in-ring and drama aspects all speak for itself and I’ve already reviewed this match on my Bad Blood ‘97 edition, so feel free to go back and read that. But then the debut of Kane. Undoubtedly….THE BEST DEBUT for one of THE BEST ALL ROUND CHARACTERS pro-wrestling has ever seen. So, with all of that being said. What could possibly by number one?

23/3/97- Steve Austin Vs Bret Hart (WrestleMania 13) MOTY Contender 1

Slightly predictable, maybe. But it’s predictable for a reason! It is my opinion that Austin and Bret had some of, if not THE BEST chemistry I’ve ever seen between two top level workers (I’m talking about main-event, superstar calibre) That’s quite unusual. If you want proof, check out their match at the following years Survivor Series in ‘96, also my MOTY selection, narrowly beating out another Shawn Michaels effort as he faced Mankind at In Your House 10: Mind Games (Ironically, another shout for one of, if not Mankind’s BEST match during his WWF run)

My point is this, Austin and Bret just KNEW how to work with each other, and when they did, they usually stuck gold each and every time! The draw of seeing two big names pitted one on one is usually enough for some people (Cody/Roman, Rock/Cena etc) But will any of those matches EVER be talked about in the same vein as Bret/Austin at WM13?

Anyway, back to Mania 13. Add in the double turn at the end which was executed to perfection, and the fact from a technical standpoint it was, in my opinion, faultless. Steve Austin/Bret Hart wins my MOTY award for ‘97. Personally speaking, it is my favourite match of all time anyway, so maybe I’m being slightly biased. And it was very close between this and the HIAC. The ONLY deciding factor for me was this. If you removed the gimmick of it being a ‘Hell in a Cell’ match, would it be remembered as fondly. Probably not. It was still a fantastic match, every match on this list is! But the fact Austin and Bret worked that match with less gimmicks to aid them, makes it slightly more impressive to me.

As always, thanks for reading! Your support, views and likes are the reason I stay engaged. If nobody read, I wouldn’t write. So thank you ❤️

Finally, if you enjoyed this particular piece, please like, share and subscribe, because it took me a REALLY long time to rewatch certain events/matches and manually calculate the week by week averages. I don’t have a hot, young blond PA dealing with the monotonous admin side of things for me (not yet anyway, fingers crossed)

Also, if these yearly summaries aren’t your thing, then feel free to skip them next time. I just enjoy adding context to my opinions and backing them up, rather than just awarding random ratings for various events with no rhyme or reason. My first reviews for 1998 will be posted shortly, including THAT Royal Rumble casket match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, that nearly ended Shawn’s career, as well as the fallout from all of the Hogan/Sting shenanigans. Hopefully the first Nitro of ‘98 will actually show the GODDAMN finish to the one that proceeded it. We’re still waiting Eric! It should be good stuff hopefully, so as always…stay tuned 👀