I elected to skip over King of the Ring 1997, at least for now, due to it's weak card and my general lack of interest in reviewing it. With that, we move ahead to One Night Only, the WWF's first major event in merry old England in over 5 years, coming about 7 weeks after SummerSlam. As you can tell from the pay-per-view poster, shown below, the card for this show went through some major changes thanks to the infamous sit-out piledriver delivered by Owen Hart to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin back in August, which resulted in Austin breaking his neck and being put on the shelf. However, despite a shift in the WWF title match, the main event remained set in stone, as the now-heel Shawn Michaels, rapidly becoming one of the most hated performers in the company, was set to challenge the British Bulldog for Bulldog's European title. Bulldog won his gold at a Raw taping in Germany back in February of this year, and had never lost when competing in his home country. But Shawn was infamous for his backstage politicking at this time, and he had his sights set on the one belt he had never won in the WWF.
- One Night Only comes to you from the NEC (now Resort Worlds) Arena in Birmingham, England, about an hour and a half away from Bulldog's hometown of Golborne in Lancashire. Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry "The King" Lawler are on the call.
- Our opening contest continues the feud between Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Mick Foley's various personas, represented on this night by the groovy Dude Love. Dude spends a good portion of this match working the crowd and having some fun, and I really liked his chops to the shins of Hunter when the latter is trapped in the Tree of Woe in the corner. Dude is setting up for his parody of the Sweet Chin Music, the Sweet Shin Music, but Hunter leaps over the kick, and bails to the floor, where Dude follows and gets knocked loopy by a clothesline from Chyna, who debuted earlier in the year as Hunter's bodyguard. Helmsley takes control with his methodical offense, but Dude gets the place rocking by slamming Helmsley's head off each turnbuckle in the corner, before hitting a top rope arm drag. Dude hits Sweet Shin Music on the second attempt and follows up with a Foley signature, the double arm DDT, but once again, Chyna gets involved. She places Hunter's leg on the bottom rope, and Hunter takes advantage of the moment to nail a Pedigree shortly after for the win. Dude's fun loving attitude and creative offense were the perfect choice to get the crowd ready for the rest of the card, and both in and out of kayfabe, Chyna adds so much to Hunter's gimmick, giving him actual legitimacy and her work in this match really showed how much of a threat she is.
- I only know Tiger Ali Singh by his knock-off Million Dollar Man gimmick and teaming with D'Lo Brown as Lo Down, so it was very strange to see him as a white meat babyface in his match against Leif Cassidy (Al Snow). The crowd does not approve of Singh's pre-match promo, where he takes a hardline stance against drugs and declares himself the messiah, which definitely does not seem like the type of promo a face should be cutting. I mean, CM Punk pulled a similar shtick many years later, and there was no doubt that Punk was a very clear-cut heel in that persona. Singh then beats Cassidy in a short match, winning with a sloppy top rope bulldog.
- The Headbangers pulled off a massive upset victory at the Ground Zero pay-per-view just under two weeks ago, claiming the vacant WWF tag titles in a fatal four-way match, getting some assistance from Steve Austin when it came down to them and Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. Mosh and Thrasher now defend against Los Boricuas (represented by Savio Vega and Miguel Perez Jr.), and look, no matter how you feel about the Headbangers' run as champions, there can be no doubt that they were very over in Birmingham. I have to imagine the growing popularity of heavy metal in Europe played a role in how invested this crowd was in Mosh and Thrasher, or maybe they were just this popular, but they got a few big pops in this match. For the most part, the actual wrestling is very basic, just a lot of the heels cheating and using rest holds, although Perez really impressed me by hitting a standing moonsault, I had no idea he had that in him. Vega misses a standing splash and Mosh gets the hot tag, running wild with strikes and a big slam, all while the building starts to rock. Perez lays out Mosh with a powerbomb, before Thrasher comes flying in, landing with his crotch in Perez's face and getting the three count to retain. Hey, no strategy is off the table if it can lead to victory.
- The Patriot (Dell Wilkes) debuted as the ultimate counter to Bret Hart and anti-American Hart Foundation back in July, and is being geared up for a showdown with Hart next month, so Patriot is giving a bit of a lay-up to build his momentum, a singles win over Flash Funk (2 Cold Scorpio). Patriot's red, white, and blue get-up and his incessant flag waving are, naturally, not extremely popular here in England, which I thought was hilarious, it's always entertaining to see a crowd completely turn against a bland babyface. Once this match gets past rest holds, it does get pretty good, as Funk's silky smooth high flying offense plays off Patriot's power very well. Funk hits a really slick spinning kick, executed at an incredible speed, and also defies gravity on a cool splash that sees Funk rotate in mid-air before crashing down. Patriot trades back with a diving shoulder block, then after Funk's splash isn't enough to end it, Patriot gets his knees up to counter a moonsault and ends it with a Full Nelson slam.
- 1997 was the last truly good year for the Legion of Doom, as while Hawk and Animal would find some success in the years to come, they also endured some absolute crap, like Hawk's alcoholism angle. The two are still mega over at this point, and their entrance was easily one of the highlights of the night, as they pose in the ring while the arena is beset by intense strobe lighting. Hawk and Animal maul their way through the Godwinns, battering both Henry and Phineas, persevering through a few rest holds and a Slop Drop from Henry to put Phineas away with the Doomsday Device. Absolutely nothing special as a match, but the crowd were so enamored with Hawk and Animal that it made the match seem worthwhile.
- Vader turned face shortly after In Your House: Canadian Stampede, joining the pro-US forces to battle the Hart Foundation, resulting in a match with Owen Hart here. Owen is even more popular than the LoD, which I would imagine is likely due to his excellent heel work throughout the summer, and his association with the British Bulldog, which was noted by Jim Ross on commentary as probably also being a factor. Vader does have his supporters, but as this match wears on, it steadily becomes an Owen-centric crowd, with the two-time Slammy winner enduring a lot of punishment from "The Mastodon" and still bringing plenty of fire. After taking a big splash by Vader, Owen lands on his feet during a powerbomb attempt, immediately nailing a step-up enziguri and locking in the Sharpshooter. Vader survives that, but Owen then does the impossible, lifting up Vader to hit a bodyslam, which those in attendance absolutely flipped out for. Owen counters the Vader Bomb, then hits a top rope dropkick and kips-up to a roar of approval, but it all ends up being for naught in the end. Owen gets caught attempting a crossbody, slammed to his doom by the victorious Vader. This was probably close to the finest performance I've seen out of both of these guys, as they both absolutely brought it in front of a ravenous crowd.
- The Undertaker and Bret Hart didn't manage to settle their issues at SummerSlam, thanks to guest referee Shawn Michaels, who was goaded into an accidental chair shot that cost Undertaker his WWF Championship. The gold is now on the line again between Undertaker and Hart, and unlike his younger brother, Bret is not greeted warmly by this audience. Bret does get a pop for quickly unloading some right hands on Undertaker in the corner, as the tempo is immediately set for a hectic and engrossing championship clash. Undertaker emerges triumphant from the early brawl by planting Bret with a chokeslam on the ramp, but Hart does what he does better than anyone, taking apart Undertaker's leg in a vicious assault. Bret cycles through all his best limb-targeting offense, and even though Undertaker does start to gain back some momentum, Bret puts a stop to it by countering a leg drop to the gut, catching the leg of Undertaker and applying the Sharpshooter from the ground, awesome. An incredible sequence sees Undertaker counter another attempt at the Sharpshooter by grabbing Bret by the neck, only for Bret to hobble Undertaker with a kick to the leg, and Undertaker trades back rights and lefts while kneeling. Bret, the scumbag, gives up on actually trying to win the match and snatches the ring bell, intent on getting disqualified, but Undertaker puts a stop to that. After a bit of fracas between Undertaker and the referee over the bell, Undertaker asserts control by whipping Bret into the ring steps and the ring post. At this point, the crowd has now turned on the challenger, an interesting switch, which might be because they're concerned Undertaker is going to pull a Hulk Hogan and no-sell his way to a victory. But at no point does Undertaker stop selling his leg, or seem like he's diminishing anything Bret has done in this match, so that might not be it. Regardless, Undertaker seems to have the match won when he has Bret up for the Tombstone Piledriver, but the champion grabs the ropes, forcing Undertaker to let go. Bret then gets his neck tangled up in the top two ropes, and Undertaker continues to go after the champion despite the referee attempting to call a halt to proceedings in order to save Bret from further harm. In the end, Undertaker is disqualified, a deflating way to end this tremendous match, but it does fit the continuous turn towards the "dark side", furious over losing his gold and paranoid over the secret Paul Bearer holds over his head. Undertaker's fury leads him to chokeslamming both the referee and Gerald Brisco to put an end to this half-hour of drama.
- Main event time, as the British Bulldog and Shawn Michaels clash over the European Championship. Bulldog has dedicated this match to his ailing sister, who has recently come out of a long fight with cancer, and the motivated challenger is in complete control early on. Shawn is at his best bouncing around the ring to put over the power of his opposition, and with the crowd so completely invested in Bulldog emerging victorious, this was all great fun. But screwiness starts to overshadow proceedings when Shawn's hired gun, Rick Rude, turns up, interfering on multiple occasions to save Shawn's behind, including grabbing Bulldog's foot when the champion attempts his running powerslam. Shawn takes control with a few long rest holds, but Bulldog powers out of a seated arm scissors in impressive fashion, planting Shawn on the canvas with just one arm. Bulldog evades Sweet Chin Music, but his chances of retaining continue to diminish as Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna turn up. Bulldog fights off Rude, but an attempted powerslam to Shawn on the floor goes awry when Bulldog's foot slips off the exterior mat and becomes trapped between the mat and the floor. Helmsley takes advantage of the opportunity to hit Bulldog with a Pedigree, and the beaten champion is tossed to the wolves, as Shawn locks in a Figure Four. This hold is applied for what felt like at least five minutes, with Bulldog trying desperately to power out while Shawn gains leverage courtesy of some hand holding with Hunter and Chyna. Finally, Bulldog can't take anymore and fades out, and the match is called. Shawn Michaels is the European Champion, and the fans are having none of it, tossing garbage into the ring and at the new champion and his entourage. Owen and Bret Hart turn up to save Bulldog from more punishment after the bell, one wonders where they were to save him before that point, but D-Generation X all escape to celebrate their controversial win. Shawn winning here definitely felt unnecessary, especially after Bulldog dedicated this match to his legitimately ill sister, as Michaels definitely didn't need this win to draw heat and would end up doing almost nothing as champion. Apparently Shawn had promised to drop the belt back to Bulldog at the next event in the UK, and we'll never know if he would've followed through on that as Bulldog departed the WWF less than two months after this in the aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob.
9/10
Outside of the needlessly lengthy ending to the main event, and the weirdness from Tiger Ali Singh, this was an outstanding show, one of the best the WWF had produced to this point. Even the more forgettable matches on the card, mainly the two tag matches, had the benefit of extremely over face teams, and the final three matches absolutely slapped. The 90s style of wrestling might not be for everyone, as the business has evolved considerably by 2021, but if you enjoy that particular style, this show might be the best version of it you will ever see. If you're interested if finding what came next for the WWF, you can check out my reviews of Badd Blood and Survivor Series.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Unforgiven 1998, where the WWF debuted two of it's most influential and historic gimmick matches: the Inferno match and the Evening Gown match. It's gonna be a riot. See you soon.
- Henry
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