[1997-04-28-WWF-Raw] Brian Pillman, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith and Steve Austin

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Brian Pillman does a big promo full of religious overtones, even kneeling for a prayer and calling for the demise of Steve Austin. This was semi-controversial at the time if I remember right, but I thought it was great. I don't know if it's confirmation bias, but this reeks of Vince Russo scripting. Austin interrupts him on the Titantron to a huge pop with the crowd chanting his name. It's fun to track his crowd reaction. Last week was a pivotal week in his rise to the top.

 

He finally comes before the crowd to face down Pillman. He gets huge cheers. It turns out it was a trap for Owen and Davey Boy to attack him, but Austin figures that out and takes off. A smart babyface!

 

Pillman asks Owen and Davey Boy to join him in prayer after Austin takes off. Owen's shrieking voice is great! Austin finally grabs an axehandle and chases them out of the ring. Great segment … again.

 

"Give your soul to the Lord or somebody, 'cause your ass is mine!"

[Tim Cooke]

Terrific promo.

 

Don't know how it would get over today with the religious overtones but it was very effective in 1997 and got a ton of heat while pushing the overall storyline forward.

[ajtroma]

The religious overtones did get a lot of heat at the time. This was the second Russo aided show. Last week's angle heavy show with the Goldust semi-shoot bullshit was the first real Russo influence.

 

For the record (and particularly for the folks that bought the Jim Cornette Timeline dvd), it was the South Africa/Muncie, IN RAW that was the one that got a horrible rating, had shitty audio and was the one that Vince flipped his lid over. It wasn't the one in Germany as Cornette seemed to think.

[Kevin Ridge]

Pillman plays up the religion angle and wants to pray for a speedy recovery of Bret Hart and the annihilation of Steve Austin. Pillman moons Austin which draws out Stone Cold. Steve didn’t charge the ring completely and was able to sniff out the ambush by Bulldog and Owen. Pillman, Bulldog and Owen do a knee down prayer for Bret. We see Austin on the Titan Tron looking around backstage for a weapon. The crowd pops when he picks up an Ax handle which actually cause Bulldog and Owen to look up thinking Austin was on the to the ring. Not use to this TV stuff yet. Austin finally shows up and runs off Hart Foundation.

[soup23]

Really controversial feeling stuff from Pillman with the kneeling and hand raising. I dont know if it was legit or how they were playing it but you got a little sense of uneasiness from Owen and Bulldog when they joined him. Austin chases them out and does feel like a bonafide top babyface for probably the first time. Really unique stuff overall.

[BackToBionic]

Pretty cool that there was a "Pillman is God" sign being flashed during the whole religious spiel.

[Dooley]

I loved this segment. Even though Pillman was physically shot, he was still gold on the mic. I liked the slow burn from traditional prayer into wacky religious zealot "strike him down" ranting. It was kind of sad that Austin had to basically throw Pillman over the guardrail during the escape because Pillman couldn't make it on his own.

[PeteF3]

Pillman's spiel would never, ever work today, but for 1997 he got by with it, to some degree. This was a really good segment, with Pillman doing his best job yet of balancing the Loose Cannon, anything-can-happen act with selling a program and getting angles over. We get not one, but two teases of a full-blown confrontation--first Austin snuffs out a trap by the Hart Foundation, then he comes back wielding an axhandle and walking tall, as Bill Watts would say. There's a great little moment as Owen is praying for Bret's recovery and the TitanTron shows Austin finding his weapon--Owen notices the crowd reaction, looks up, but by the time he looks at the screen it's gone back to black, so he continues unaware.

[Exposer]

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.