Exposer

Another awesome Austin promo. Austin comes out with a wheelchair & the axehandle he got earlier & challenges Bret to a wheelchair match! Awesome. He touches on Taker in this as well before Bret shows up on the tron saying Austin will take a ride in the same ambulance as Bret by the end of the show.

Owen dedicates the match to Bret. Ok for what it is. It's fairly slow in parts. Rocky hitting a Rock Bottom to no reaction & for a simple near fall is crazy to see. Owen gets a flash pin finish & celebrates with Bret in a great moment on the stage. Davey making Bret's wheelchair do wheelies is the highlight.

Heel Bret is amazing. Great promo. He comes out in his wheelchair & goes on this long rant about being a hero & the American fans being despicable. The line about his mother being American is my favorite part. What a bitter asshole. I love it.

This is so great. Pillman comes out & starts praying for the heeling of Bret Hart & the demise of Steve Austin. Literally praying. Amazing. Austin comes up on the tron & threatens Pillman. In a hilarious moment, Pillman "turns the other cheek" at him. Austin comes out after Pillman but is run off by Owen & Davey. We then proceed to get a PRAYER CIRCLE ON MONDAY NIGHT RAW IS WAR with the HF. Incredible. Austin shows up with an axe handle & runs them off to end the segment. Awesome start to the show. The hits just keep on coming.

Great show closing segment. What a RAW. Austin is tremendous here cutting a promo on the fans who cheer him & Vince who's gotten behind him a bit saying he's accomplished everything he has without their support & doesn't need it or want it. I loved him finally moving towards The Undertaker match as he's dealt with Bret now. The promo on Taker is strong. Owen & Davey attack him mid sentence & wail away. Vince tries to break it up but gets shoved by Owen for his troubles. Shawn comes back & chases them away with a chair again. Austin gets up on his own but is attacked by the returning Brian Pillman. Pillman levels him with some chairshots before trying to "Pillmanize" him & get payback. Shawn shows up a third time with a chair & chases Pillman off to close. Amazing RAW.

My God this is great. One of the five or so best angles in WWF history. Austin's calm before the storm leaning over the turnbuckle before Bret's music hits is awesome. Bret stalls & HF attack Austin from behind. It's 3 on 1 until Shawn Michaels comes through to the crowd to his biggest pop since the Rumble & clears the ring of Owen & Davey. I loved Bret taunting the fans as he takes advantage of the prone Austin. Bret once again tries to "Pillmanize" Austin but Austin moves out of the way. This allows Austin enough time to get the chair & whack Bret in his hurt knee from the night before. Austin stalks Bret & destroys him with the chair. Bret flipping Austin the bird before the fatal leg shot & as he was being turned into the sharpshooter are great moments. Austin has the sharpshooter on for a long time as officials finally break it up. Owen & Davey return to help Bret to the back. The next few segments are incredible television with Bret getting put on a stretcher & into the ambulance. We get a great moment with Gorilla sending Austin out of the building as well as Austin & Shawn bickering in the locker room. Just amazing stuff. The big kick is Austin hiding in the ambulance & attacking Bret some more for good measure. The Austin-Owen/Davey brawl after that is intense as hell with Owen getting in some wicked shots. Owen & Davey vow to kill Austin by the end of the night. A tremendous piece of business.

I'm sympathetic with Vader here too. What a dumb question. The WWF making fun of him for being detained is bizarre though. I forget that Lawler is one hell of an artist. That Vader drawing is fantastic. Shamrock cuts an anti-bully promo to hype his match with Vader at Cold Day in Hell. Weird. Then he challenges Mike Tyson to a fight in a WWF ring as a publicity stunt. Also weird.

This feud someone gets better & better. Austin wants a street fight with Bret now. He even forces the producers to put up a one minute clock on the Titantron. Bret doesn't show up but does via the tron. After some back & forth he agrees to the match. Austin hunts him down in the back because he wants to go at it right then & there. The scene where he's trying to break into the HF dressing room is amazing. Bret is tremendous during it being as nonchalant as possible. Such a cocky jerk here. Great segment.

Really good match. They're both tryting to hurt one another & that comes across very much in the match. Austin's selling is fantastic & Bret's knee attack is equally as such. Little moments like Austin going for a cover early & grabbing Bret's hair while at it & later in the match forgoing a cover so he can punch Bret in the face are excellent. I loved Austin putting the sharpshooter on Bret. Tremendous callback to Mania. Neither guy could lose at this point so the HF run in is fine. Hot post-match with Bret trying cripple Austin but that backfires with Austin taking out Bret's knee with a chair. Bret is helped to the back by his HF brethren & Monsoon to close. This feud probably is the best in WWF history. Every match, segment, & angle delivers. More than half of them feature classic, transcendent moments. Special stuff.

Good match. Strong beginning & ending with a weak middle portion. Foley takes some insane bumps in this. The most memorable one here of course is his head first bump through an announce table. Crazy spot. Taker retains with the tombstone. He targets Bearer after the match & Foley is unable to get the lighter working for the fireball spot. It's an awkward minute or so before Taker gets control of it & throws the fireball in Bearer's face. Great payback angle. The execution is bad but the result is all the same & still very effective.

Pretty sexy stuff. Yeah, Sable is no Sunny in my book.

Good promo. Austin convinces Gorilla to sign a match for he & Bret at Revenge of the Taker. Austin complains a little himself saying he's been held down. Vince disagrees. Austin guarantees he'll beat Bret's ass at the PPV.

Shawn talks about how great he is, but makes sure to point out he has his problems too. Ha Ha Ha. Mostly though, he spends the entire time running down Bret & talking about how bad of a human being he is. This is absurd. One of the most obnoxious promos of all time. He even does a mocking dance for Bret. Fuck off. By the way, his knee doesn't look to be hurting him at all. Owen & Davey Boy are as annoyed as I am & run down to attack Shawn, but he grabs a chair. Shawn keeps them at bay & is able to run them off. In typical Shawn fashion he does a fucking handstand on the chair. What an asshole. He's way more unlikable than Bret. As Loss once said, Bret is working an angle & Shawn is shooting/venting.

Ok match in full that lost me at times. Rocky is strong fundamentally but doesn't know how to best use his charisma effectively. He certainly wasn't going to be able to use it well as a white meat baby face. Tough start for him. Bret locks in the ringpost figure four & gets DQed for not letting go. Austin comes out & brawls with Bret. However, The Hart Foundation has been formed so Owen & Davey come out & help Bret with Austin. LOD run HF off with Austin in pursuit of Bret to close the show. Hot ending.

Austin is so great. This is another awesome promo from him. He talks about how the blood beat him, not Bret. He's pissed because he didn't quit & wants more of Bret. Bret interrupts & tells Austin he's through with him since he's beaten him multiple times. In a great moment, Austin tells him he'll have to kill him to be through with him. I love Steve Austin. Austin goes scorched earth on Bret in tremendous fashion to finish the interview off. This is a really great RAW.

Really good angle. Bearer begs The Undertaker to take him back as his manager. It all seems like bullshit since Taker won the title & Bearer wants to be associated with the champion. I loved Taker locking the casket because he knows he can't fully trust Bearer anymore. Taker is a smart face & senses that Bearer maybe full of shit like I do & tricks him into thinking he's accepted his forgiveness. Taker punches him in the face & stalks him before Mankind crawls out from under the ring throws a fireball in Taker's eyes. That looked great. Great heel set up by Bearer & Mankind. They hug it out & are chased off by Sid. I loved Taker's selling of it as he starts swinging at refs & falls into the crowd blindly. Awesome segment.

What a great match! I might have liked this better than the 3/3 match. It's even worked differently. Not so much an athletic contest like the first match, but more of an old school match that has nice progression mixed in with some good brawling. The finish is classic. Bret comes out & tackles Davey Boy preventing him from wailing away at Owen with a chair. He breaks up their fight & cuts an amazing promo about family values. He says American fans have caused the riffs in the Hart family over the years presenting he & Davey's Summerslam 92 (they're competitive but hug after the match) & late 95 feud (hate filled feud based on jealously & resentment) as comparisons. That's brilliant continuity. He reminds Owen of their brotherhood in a legitimately touching moment. Owen & Davey listen to Bret's speech & agree to sort out their differences with a big group hug. Bret's disdainful look at the fans booing is incredible. One of the best WWF moments of all time. Tremendous angle. The 1997 Hart Foundation is born.

Bret does a long recap of his comeback which never gets dull or boring. He's explaining himself & his actions. Giving the full story is important with such a major turn like this. Great promo. Bret has turned full heel here & blames the American fans for his problems. He's resentful for them cheering Shawn & Austin over him. I loved him apologizing to his international fans. Great touch. He also calls Shawn's "girly magazines," "gay magazines" in a funny moment. Shawn comes out & defends American fans while also rubbing alcohol in the wound trolling Bret on the "gay magazine" line. Bret's had enough & attacks Shawn's bad knee from behind. He puts on the ring post figure four & gets run off by Sid. Tremendous segment that sets the stage for the next year in WWF. Classic stuff.

Solid tag match. A backdrop for the Owen-Davey Boy dissension of course. The brawl is fun. Owen demands a rematch for the European Title & Davey Boy obliges. Strong way to open up the show. This is a set-up for the big angle the following week. Looking forward to 1997 Hart Foundation.

This match isnt bad at all in my opinion. The first two minutes suck. I'd call it decent. The ringside brawling is a good idea in a match like this even if I think there was too much of it in a row on this show. Some of the holds were boring. I loved Sid hitting the tombstone for a nearfall. One angry fan must have bought that as a finish & tossed something in the ring because of it. Bret interferes causing Sid to get tombstoned. That's all she wrote & Taker wins the title to a huge pop. Taker's post-match celebration is cool & features another legendary image with him doing his pose holding the belt. Strong ending to the show even if Taker's title win is background noise to the other stuff going on in the main event.

Bret is such an ass here. It's great. He cuts promos on Shawn, Taker, & Sid each getting a special little Bret tirade. The Taker one is awesome with Bret saying shutting the cage door on his head was closing the door on a friendship. Bret's so delusional he thought Taker was his friend. Hilarious. The Shawn one is just as great with Bret calling Shawn out for his fake "pussyfoot" injury. Tremendous. Sid beating his ass is awesome. I loved Sid taunting him afterwards too. Great segment.

Fun match that went a bit too long & should never have followed Bret-Austin. The crowd is still really hot for it, but two stipulation matches like that should never go back to back on a card. The Animal piledriver spot is less sad & more terrifying to me. Faarooq almost died. In fact, Faarooq almost died twice in this match as he takes an insane free fall bump to the floor on his side from the top rope. The noose stuff is pretty wild. Ok finish. Fun post-match with PG-13 taking big bumps off the double Doomsday Device.

One of the greatest matches of all time when story, build, presentation, ring work, & legacy are considered. Tremendous from bell to bell. Austin's bloody struggle in the sharpshooter is certainly the most memorable image, but the opening bell with Austin looking to the side & then charging at Bret is an image that isn't talked about enough. Other highlights include the pop for the ring post figure four & Bret attempting to "Pillmanize" Austin in an awesome callback spot. The crowd brawling, which is the only small negative of the match, even has Austin taking a brutal back body drop in the aisle. The finish is the greatest finish in WWE history. It solidified Bret's heel turn & began the road towards Austin's megastar baby face run. Bret is a total scumbag in the post-match attacking Austin's bad knee. Shamrock's waist lock gets a big pop & Bret-Shamrock is even teased in a cool moment. Bret leaving gets a chorus of boos which is a testament to his performance considering he got massive cheers during portions of the match. Austin refuses assistance & stuns a referee to chants of his name as he walks to the back on his own accord. This is probably the most important match in WWE history & it went pretty much perfectly.

Austin cuts an awesome promo on Shamrock threatening to beat his ass again. He brings up being King of the Ring as justification for his actions in a nice moment of continuity. He's an exceptional promo at this point. The match itself is fine. Not much to it until all of the interference starts. The four main eventers for Mania brawling on top of the cage is a wild scene. People probably weren't sure what was going to happen at the time. Taker slams the cage door on Bret to save his title shot allowing Sid to scale the cage & retain. Bret's tirade is classic. It's uncensored on The Network by the way too. Vince takes a great bump off the shove. Sid, Taker, & Austin all come back out to start a huge brawl. Bret strikes first with that awesome tope. The only downside was Shawn coming out, which was interesting at first, then he wandered around looking for a weapon like a goof. Nonetheless, a really great go-home segment & one of the best go-home segments in WWE history.

This is unbelievable. Shawn is already the most detestable guy in the company. He & Vince being all buddy, buddy & palling around in this is so ridiculous. Shawn fakes his "knee injury" a little longer & doesn't give any real discernible information on his status. He then invites himself to WrestleMania. God, what an asshole.