STW - King of the Ring 1997 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Today we’re looking back at 26 years ago and King of the Ring 1997. This is a sort of forgotten show because of everything going on at the time between Bret Hart’s injury, but there’s so much going on here it’s hard to not cover!

Coming out of Cold Day in Hell it’s obvious the main story is based around Bret Hart & Steve Austin and even in the Observer Dave would bring up that there’s a fear of overexposure of them because of the amount injuries on the roster. Is that a creative fear of yours or these are your two best acts we need to get them on TV as much as possible?

The show from Newark, DE is a major part in WWF history and really feels like it lights the match between Bret & Shawn. Bret goes super long in his show closing interview … Bret claims he didn’t hear his cue… and the show goes off the air while Bret is berating Shawn instead of Shawn superkicking Bret. When something like this happens what’s going on in Gorilla?

How bad is the fall out from this? How hot was Shawn?

Also on that show Ahmed Johnson defeats Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a King of the Ring qualifier by DQ. When do you know Hunter is winning the tournament and why this change when he’s originally eliminated?

Scott Putski debuts on the show as well and defeats Leif Cassidy (Al Snow.) Who made the call to bring Scott in? What did you think of him?

This note in the Observer tickled me Bruce…
“Leif Cassidy gave notice but that was more an attempt to get the WWF to do something with him than a sign he's quitting. His contract is up at the end of July. They had talked with him about doing a gimmick as The Worlds Greatest Mexican Wrestler wearing a mask and spoofing Mexicans, but with the AAA deal falling apart, they never got it off the ground. Since he doesn't have a guaranteed contract and is only on the road as a fill-in, he isn't making all that much money and you can imagine the frustration with not getting a push when far less talented wrestlers who aren't getting over have angles. At the same time, he's been a disappointment in the ring in his big matches.”

This is the most Al Snow thing ever isn’t it?

“Mankind and Paul Bearer (face all wrapped up) did an interview with Bearer saying he was going to reveal something Undertaker doesn't want known unless Undertaker agrees to come back to him.”

How excited are you to get this angle started?

But then you have this right after…

“Faarooq did an interview about Undertaker trying to make it a racial deal, bringing up that there had never been a black WWF champ and said there had only been token IC and U.S. champs mentioning Ahmed Johnson and Bobo Brazil. Undertaker (whose knee is legitimately in bad shape right now) beat Vega via DQ in 3:56 when the entire NOD interfered and Faarooq whipped Undertaker with a belt after the match.”

This…I mean in today’s world it doesn’t look great but was it that much different 26 years ago?

“Van Dam pinned Jeff Hardy in 2:28 with a split-leg moonsault. Van Dam looked good in the squash as all his moves were right on, and he did a great pre- match interview with Jerry Lawler agreeing with Lawler that all the ECW wrestlers were minor leaguers except himself and called himself Mr. Monday Night. This angle was set up by Bruce Prichard and Paul Heyman (who was at the show making sure it went right) so Heyman could have his own outsider heel in his own promotion and expect Van Dam to end up with Raven's heel position (although by that I don't mean as ECW champion, just as one of the top singles heels). Van Dam got more heat than most of the WWF undercard guys on the show, although it came from a vocal few chanting "You sold out!" at him. If that response isn't weird, I can't think of what would be in wrestling. Fans in the front few rows at a WWF show chanting at a guy for selling out because they think he's joined the WWF.”

We’ve discussed this in the past…but the story has always been that Rob did himself no favors in this angle. What do you remember of all this?

The Goldust pieces airing on WWF TV at the time does make it seem like Dusty would be a player in the program and Meltzer even comments on the rumors that Rhodes still has at least one year left on his contract with WCW. Do you think that’s what they were intended to do because that’s what Meltzer speculates.

“Officially Rene Goulet, George Steele and Jay Strongbow are still with the company as agents although they aren't booked for any dates at present. Ring announcer Lance Wright for sure and I believe Bill Dunn and Barry Horowitz were let go.”

Is this just because it was time for them to move on or a shift in business?

The next week Raw is in Mobile, AL in front of a sellout of 6,205 fans and you set a city record of $92,575 for a gate but Meltzer is critical of the show. “Raw has turned into a total copy of Nitro with all the in-feuding and 4:00 or less matches, same open with the same-style pyro and even adding the new announcer at the beginning of the second hour.”

Were there things the WWF saw WCW doing and wanted to make into their own?

Hunter is put back into the tournament replacing Vader because Vader is unable to wrestle still from his match against Shamrock at Cold Day in Hell. The story is that Tim White incorrectly gave Hunter instructions in his match against Ahmed so to avoid a lawsuit he was being put back in…is this just trying to fit a storyline reason to this?

Bob Holly defeats Owen Hart in a non-title match in his hometown…back when the WWF did this…but ends up getting beat down by the rest of the Hart Foundation. Was there an actual thought process to giving Bob a push?

This show also features the beginning of Jim Ross’ and Mick Foley’s sit-down interviews that would transform Mick into a babyface. Did you think this would be as big as it ended up being?

But this Raw is mostly remembered for Shawn’s “Sunny Days” comment towards Bret. Walk me through what happens backstage when this is all done.

Do you think Shawn says Sunny Days if Bret doesn’t go long in the promo the week before?

That promo is to set up Shawn vs. Bret at King of the Ring and if Bret doesn’t beat Michaels in less than 10 minutes he wouldn’t wrestle in the United States again. What do you remember was supposed to be the finish of that match?

This is a lot so directly from the Observer: “Ahmed Johnson did an interview saying that Faarooq was right about the WWF never letting a black hold the title but then said how he's going to win the title for all the fans of all colors. WWF was using the race card

in an attempt to garner interest in Undertaker vs. Faarooq, then at the same time crying about how bad it was to use the race card. Faarooq beat Rocky Maivia in 2:35 with the dominator. When NOD went to attack Rocky, Faarooq stopped them, I guess because Maivia's half-black although that was never expressly said. Undertaker did an interview complaining about how Faarooq is playing the race card. Gee, stupid me, I thought it was Vince McMahon. Paul Bearer got on the screen and said he was going to reveal the secret unless Undertaker agreed to let him manage him again but Undertaker begged him not to and said to give him another week to make up his mind as a ratings tease since the shows are back to head-to-head next week.”

A whole lot to unpack there. Can you help us out Bruce?

Also on this show in one of the more underrated lines of JR’s career…Dakota Runnells is introduced as Mini Marlena as the push to turn Goldust continues and she grabs a microphone and runs away and JR says, “that she was just like her grandfather hogging the mic.”

Sassafras.

The show ends with Michaels & Austin fighting off the Hart Foundation after Austin beats Neidhart in under 2 minutes because of a DQ. Meltzer would compare the nWo to the Hart Foundation and Bret in his book would do the same. What would you say to that comparison?

Monsoon announces that Shawn & Austin will team up next to take on Davey Boy & Owen for the tag team titles. Meltzer is critical that the WWF is having Shawn’s first match back on television…what say you?

PG-13 is let go. From the Observer: “Apparently the guys think it's that Jerry Lawler had them fired because they're working opposition to Lawler in Tennessee, although that's been denied internally. They were told there is a chance they'll be brought back for the light heavyweight division but that would likely be only for television purposes if it happens at all. J.C. Ice had gotten a lot of heat in his short tenure there.”

Was it the King that forced PG-13 out of the company or was it just time to move on?

It’s also reported that the Funkettes weren’t going to be brought back with Flash Funk. It was time to just to cut them out…was it a cost factor?

Before the next Raw in Evansville it’s figured out Bret isn’t going to be ready to wrestle Shawn so that match is off. Do you think it was just the knee injury or in retrospect with everything going on it was probably best to not have these two in the ring with each other is that fair?

In Evansville another gate record is set of $90,148 with 6,765 of a sellout and Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels defeat Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart to win the WWF Tag Team Titles and the crowd goes banana!

How good was this match Bruce?

Jerry Lawler cuts a promo…and well… from the Observer:

“Jerry Lawler then did an interview saying that the reason his father, who he called Oldust, doesn't talk to his son is because he dresses like a "flaming fag" and because he married Marlena, who was like a Target Department store because everyone shops there. Lawler got a huge face reaction in Evansville, and they acknowledged it on TV saying he wrestled there weekly for 20 years. I don't recall Lawler ever wrestling in Evansville weekly, although the idea of what they were saying is pretty much correct. They brought up the Andy Kaufman feud and even that Lawler sued the WWF over the King name years ago. It seems like Jim Ross is trying to be like Mike Tenay on WCW in dispensing lots of legit info, but he doesn't have a Larry Zbyszko or a Dusty Rhodes who are desperate to keep the product in the 19th century. Anyway, Lawler had his working shoes on and had a decent match with Goldust, winning in 5:21 with his feet on the ropes. The crowd booed Goldust out of the building. I'm told that even though Goldust got a great reaction in Mobile, that at the house shows it's been pretty much the same. Lawler got a huge pop doing the piledriver, which they've put over huge in that territory for nearly 20 years or more, but Goldust didn't sell it at all. When Goldust used the piledriver, they booed him hard. Ross noted that Marlena used to be a make-up artist at CNN. Big chant for Lawler. Everyone backstage was amused and perplexed not realizing this was going to happen although the announcers handled it really well on television. So Lawler goes to King of the Ring where he'll face the Mankind vs. Savio Vega winner. Goldust beat up Lawler after the match to more boos and Lawler took a bump where he rolled down the ramp back to ringside. They did get some cheering and some booing when Marlena stepped on Lawler.”

Holee shit Bruce. I don’t even know what to say.

Ahmed Johnson pinned Vader in 3:06 with a spinebuster. It was as if they were killing Vader off because they left him dead. Ken Shamrock did commentary. Vader is scheduled for surgery on his nose sometime this week and will be out of action until late June.”

This was going to be it for this time for Leon wasn’t it?

“They did part II of the Mankind story which was as good as part one, if not better.

They showed him at ringside during a 1983 Don Muraco vs. Jimmy Snuka match at MSG where Snuka dove off the top of the cage. They showed a clip of him diving off the roof of a house and doing a home video from childhood of him doing a pro wrestling interview. They showed him training under Dom DeNucci with a young Shane Douglas and said Cactus Jack was a terrible name for a terrible wrestler and he expected to use the name for a few months before becoming Dude Love, but instead was Cactus Jack for 11 years. They aired some clips from the August 20, 1985 King of the Death matches tournament at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium and will show more next week.”

Can it be understated what these vignettes did for Mick Foley in the long run not just with the fans but with Vince McMahon?

“They were building up Undertaker's decision the entire night. Finally Paul Bearer with his natural light brown hair color (he was supposed to get it bleached blonde last week but after taking all the black stuff out after six years, he was told if he were to bleach it this soon that a lot of the hair would break off) was about to reveal the secret. Undertaker came out and told people to forgive him and hinted he was going to kill, as in murder, Paul right there. He started choking him, but then stopped as though he couldn't kill him, and then bowed down to him and Bearer will now manage him. The secret is something to the effect that there were three graves (actually Bearer got this far)--one of his mom, one for his dad, and the other for him. Apparently Papa Shango did some kind of voodoo to raise Undertaker from the dead, which will be the story to explain his return as Shango is said to have signed a four-year contract and will get a megapush. Shango has been working as the manager of a strip club in Las Vegas for several years. Brian Lee was also considered for this role. As a wrestler, not to manage a strip club in Vegas.”

So how deep was the talk of putting Papa Shango in this spot and not Kane?

“The Steve Austin 3:16 t-shirt, like the Sting shirt in

WCW, is going through the roof. WWF is selling more Austin shirts than any wrestler in

the history of the promotion and that includes Hogan and Warrior in their primes. It's sparked merchandise sales to new records. Right now, less people are attending pro wrestling than during its peak periods, but those who attend, between the higher ticket prices and merchandise, are spending far more money than ever before. WWF, WCW and ECW merchandise are now doing Japan-like numbers. In the WWF's glory days, $2 per person would be considered decent merchandise sales and $4 per person was considered an incredible night. Crockett when his group was hot was doing nowhere close to even those figures. Over the past week plus, WWF did better than $10 per head both in Madison Square Garden and in Auburn Hills and averaged nearly $8 per head for the week which is along the same lines as what WCW has been doing.”

So this is a full year after King of the Ring 96 Bruce. Is this first when it was realized or was it sooner?

This note from the Observer seemed to be some weird news: “Sunny was in Lexington and talked over the p.a. about her 16-year-old niece dying in the car accident last week and her being in the hospital holding her as she was brain dead. She urged the fans to wear safety belts and the fans started booing her. She was really upset backstage afterwards and then backstage she got yelled at by Jack Lanza as well as I guess nobody knew she was going to talk about that.”

Irony at it’s finest…

“Sid was supposed to return on 5/30 in San Jose but now claims to have the flu and won't be back until 6/28 in Los Angeles. I know what you're thinking and so is everyone else. Guess the softball team must have made the playoffs or something. It'll be real interesting to see:1) How large he is. If he really had a bad back and the flu, he'd be way down in muscle size and why do I think he'll show up bigger than ever? 2) How the company will use him if he shows up so large because that'll be an indication the back injury and flu couldn't have been all that bad. My feeling is they'll push him hard again and a few months down the line history will repeat itself. And if it does, if any of you feel sorry for the WWF's bad luck, you should feel more sorry for bad judgement of people who ignore the lessons the past should teach them.”

Did the WWF lose trust in Sid at this time?

“In the angle where the Hart Foundation jumped Bob Holly on 5/19, Brian Pillman used a squeegee as an insider rib.”

How great is this Bruce?

It’s reported in the Observer that there is talk with USA about moving Raw to 9pm. Was that the WWF or USA’s idea? Why 9?

“Raw is War drew a sellout 4,945 and $60,245 on 6/2 in Huntington, WV. Show opened

with Undertaker doing an interview trying to make sure everyone understood he was staying babyface while being with Paul Bearer. Bearer came out and made a comment about ruling the world, which brought out Sid, who challenged Undertaker to a match later in the show.”

Undertaker pinned Sid in 4:47 with a tombstone in a bad match. Sid didn't look like anyone I've seen that was coming back from a back injury and the flu. When Sid showed up, they told him he was doing a job for Undertaker. He said he didn't want to and he was given some threats as to future employment and finally agreed to it.”

With Sid returning you knew you didn’t have a lot of time left so lets get him in the ring and putting over Undertaker is that right?

Were you worried about Taker’s reaction with Paul Bearer being his “manager?”

“Also on the card for Shotgun, Owen & Bulldog beat Holly & Jesse Jammes when Bret hit JJ with a crutch. Crowd got totally out of control throwing things at the Hart Foundation. The ring announcer said they would have to stop the show if the fans didn't stop throwing things, which worked in reverse as it only made them toss even more debris. That's the downside of doing angles to incite a crowd, it incites them into being less controllable. After ten minutes of them holding up the show and a plea by McMahon himself, they were able to re-start the

Shotgun taping.”

This is the first time during the beginning of the Attitude era that something like this took place. What do you remember of Vince going out there to plead with the crowd? Did he fire all of them?

“The original idea of the Paul Bearer surprise has supposedly been changed and Papa Shango won't be part of the angle.

WWF dropped Killer Kowalski from the payroll.”

I mean the Godfather does debut a few weeks later as Kama Mustafa so there was a plan to bring him in right?

Why now for Kowlaski to be out of the company?

“Austin was told by one doctor this week that his injury could be the beginning of a serious neck problem and the doctor suggested he retire. He's going for a second opinion.”

Bruce - this is before the piledriver from Owen at SummerSlam. How bad was Steve beat up at THIS point?

We’re here now Bruce for the show!

The Wrestling Observer readers voted the show a 66.7% thumbs up and it drew 177,000 buys compared to the year before with 197,000 buys main evented by Shawn vs. Bulldog

From Meltzer: “The World Wrestling Federation's fifth annual King of the Ring PPV show had an interesting plot irony.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley was scheduled to win the King of the Ring last year but, largely due to punishment from an incident in Madison Square Garden, wasn't even on the card, having been eliminated in a television preliminary tournament match. Fast forward to this year and Helmsley was eliminated in a television preliminary match, but due to an injury to Vader and several changes in plans, Helmsley was not only put back in the tournament, but given the crown on 6/9 at the Providence Civic Center.

King of the Ring would have to be described as a show that ended up being far better in actuality than it looked on paper. On paper, the tournament didn't look interesting and the only match on the show that appeared to be potentially memorable was Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin. Instead it was a solid, although unspectacular show.”

You’re out Bret, you got Undertaker in this babyface controlled by a heel story with racial overtones against Faarooq, a tournament finale and the tag team champions facing each other. Not exactly a recipe for a super hot show as we’ll get into…

“The show drew 9,312 fans paying $202,963 in the 16,000-seat arena, although Vince McMahon several times announced it as a capacity crowd on the air while Jim Ross' one crowd reference during the broadcast was a more realistic 10,000 fans. The show also did $74,672 in merchandise business.”

“1. Hunter Hearst Helmsley pinned Ahmed Johnson in 7:42 of the first King of the Ring semifinal. The crowd was incredibly hot for this match, but I think more because it was largely a hot crowd than for the two participants. Actually the match was ultra-slow paced and they did very little. Johnson pressed Helmsley over his head three times. Johnson was whipped into the ring steps. There was super heat for the comeback, where Johnson hit a scissors kick and a spinebuster, and set up the Pearl River plunge. Chyna got on the apron and Johnson went after her, allowing Helmsley to knee

him from behind and hit the Pedigree for the win. *”

This is sort of the beginning of the fall from grace for Ahmed but you can see the layers of Hunter becoming a star can you not?

“2. Mankind beat Jerry Lawler in 10:24 with the mandible claw. No Paul Bearer with Mankind again. Mankind did another interview to get over as a face. He's gone back to his Cactus Jack "bang, bang" trademark phrase now that he's a face. Actually this was not a good interview, made even worse by the lack of crowd reaction and the fact that was 10,000 in the building, the only person seemingly reacting was Vince McMahon who was laughing at the humor that nobody seemed to either understand or think was funny. There were some cheers for Mankind as he came out, but almost no babyface pop or reaction to his interview. Lawler came out and insulted the fans and did a monologue with a lot of old jokes which seemed to make sure everyone knew who to cheer for. Jim Ross said that Lawler was discovered by Lance Russell when he was working as a DJ at a radio station and trained by Jackie Fargo. Lawler spent most of the match doing the shortcuts he's famous for such as the work the fake foreign object gimmick. Lawler is one of the smartest workers around, the only problem is his actual performance consists of a 47 year old man trying to do a Jerry Lawler gimmick. But he knew what he was doing, got heat and carried the match. Mankind smashed his head on the steps when Lawler moved as he charged at him, which was a key spot because he was selling his neck the rest of the show. Lawler rammed him into the guard rail twice and gave him a piledriver outside the ring. Lawler even brought a dropkick out of retirement and hit a piledriver in the ring for a near fall. After a messed up neckbreaker spot, Lawler hit a fist drop and went for another piledriver, but Mankind powered out and hit the mandible claw for the win. *¾”

I love both guys but man this just did not click did it?

“Brian Pillman did an interview when Steve Austin snuck up from behind him and beat him up and put his head into a toilet bowl. However, it appeared the water level was so low that Pillman's head wasn't actually in the water.”

I love Meltzer for pointing that out don’t you?

“3. Goldust pinned Crush in 9:56. This match killed the crowd. Ross brought up that the first King of the Ring was in 1986, which is actually the case, but a first in WWF history since they never acknowledged the pre-PPV KOR's when they were an every-so-often event in the Providence/Boston market. Long nerve holds and chinlocks. Crush is just awful. Basically he's Jim Duggan but without the charisma. D.Lo Brown and Clarence Mason went after Marlena and Goldust punched D.Lo but was jumped by Crush to lead to the finish where Goldust hit a DDT for the pin. DUD”

My goodness we are not starting off hot Bruce but what did you think of Crush here? Why did he get so many chances?

“4. Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart & Davey Boy Smith beat Sycho Sid & Legion of Doom in 13:37. Owen did a good job here of carrying the match but Neidhart and Hawk were pathetic and Sid was both good and bad, depending upon the spot. It took them 7:00 of getting the faces over before they finally started the heat spot on Animal. Obviously this wasn't done too well because when he finally made the hot tag to Hawk five minutes later, there was no crowd pop and Hawk

was quickly cut off anyway. Sid got the hot tag, which did get a big pop, and set up doing a power bomb on Smith but instead Hart came off the top rope with a sunset flip for the pin. *¾”

This is the true definition of putting some great workers around some bad workers and it being exactly what you imagined it to be is it not?

“5. Helmsley pinned Mankind in 19:26 to win the KOR tournament. Mankind came out selling his neck injury. There was no heat at all for the first half of the match despite the fact that the work itself was solid. To the fans, at least until the two worked so hard enough to get the crowd into the match, they must have seen this as an unworthy final match. The second half of the match built to a very good match, mainly through Mankind taking crazy bump after crazy bump and the announcers attempting to paint a portrait of him putting on one of the most courageous performances in history. The match itself just didn't reach that level, however. There were even loud boring chants at times. Mankind got the mandible claw on but Chyna pulled Mankind off Helmsley and out of the ring by the hair. Helmsley pulled off Mankind's mask, revealing, why, Cactus Jack, of course.”

Let’s stop right there - when the mask comes off - is there any gasp or fear of it backstage or do you think this was a planned spot for Mick?

“Mankind got in and put the claw on again, but this time Helmsley broke it with fingers to the eyes. Mankind came back with a reverse atomic drop and did his running clothesline where both take the bump over the top rope. Mankind missed a falling elbow drive off the apron when Chyna pulled Helmsley out of the way, and Mankind hit his head on the guard rail. Helmsley whipped Mankind into the steps and gave him a pedigree through McMahon and Ross' announcers table. Chyna then broke the scepter they were going to use in the coronation on Mankind's back. Mankind even took his nestea plunge bump off the apron where he cracks his head on the floor, although the effect of it was weakened because he actually crashed into photographer Tom Buchanan instead of the floor. Finally in the ring Helmsley finished him with the pedigree. After the match Helmsley destroyed Mankind with his crown so the gimmick seems to be King Hunter and Queen Chyna. Mankind crawled back to the dressing room on his hands and knees. ***½”

Just as Foley did throughout his career in the WWF he goes out there and just makes Hunter into a bigger star than he was at this point…really getting him over. How important is Hunter’s win here and Mick’s job in making him?

“Before Austin vs. Michaels, the entire Hart Foundation came to ringside. Bret did an interview talking about the 7/6 PPV from Calgary saying that they challenge any five wrestlers to face them in a ten-man tag, which at that point was scheduled to be Sid & Michaels & Austin & Legion of Doom. Pillman and Bret acted as if they were going to do commentary on the next match but were instead chased away by the agents.”

We have covered Canadian Stampede in the archives and it is one of the most complete WWF pay-per-views so be sure to check that out!

““6. Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin went to a

double disqualification in 22:29. The surprise of this match is that Michaels actually got louder cheers than Austin, mainly because of the intense shrieks from female fans as Michaels was doing things. Austin was never booed, and Michaels was but the cheers for him drowned out the boos in nearly every case. A mentally handicapped fan tried to hit the ring on Austin and Michaels actually dropped the match and helped him to the back. The way it was set up and ended up with so much attention being paid to it made it look like it was a spot designed to make sure Michaels wasn't booed heavily during the match. Both guys worked an excellent match, but it was marred by a lousy behind-the-times finish. Michaels in particular put on another show and Austin seemed to show no signs of a potential career-ending neck injury. Mainly it was Michaels incredible bumps and athleticism that made the match. Match ended with the first ref getting bumped. Michaels went for the superkick but Austin caught the foot and hit the stone cold stunner. No ref to count the pin. Austin got up and got so mad at the groggy ref (Tim White) that he gave him the stunner. Michaels then superkicked Austin and had him pinned, but again no ref. A second ref came in, but instead of counting as Michaels had Austin pinned, he checked on the first ref. White finally got up and counted as Michaels had Austin pinned, but Austin kicked out. Michaels got so frustrated and not getting the pin when he had Austin down so long that he superkicked the second ref. Earl Hebner, a third ref, ran in and disqualified both men for attacking the first two refs. Austin tried to attack Michaels with his tag title belt from behind, but Michaels beat him to the punch. Fans chanted "Bullshit" at the finish. The two eventually stopped fighting and started arguing and left together, yelling at each other all the way to the back. ****”

There’s just no way getting out of this match right? But it really shows you how good these two could be together in the ring…but how different is history if this was going to be Bret vs. Shawn as was originally promoted before Bret’s injury?

“7. Undertaker pinned Faarooq to retain the WWF title in 13:43. The NOD had a lot of presence when they started the gimmick. But they've lost a lot of steam through both overexposure and because their television matches have cured thousands of insomnia, some of whom probably were watching to be entertained rather than put to sleep. It didn't appear that Faarooq was taken seriously as a main event heel. That said, the two worked about as good a match as they could. It was a decent match with the outside shenanigans and storylines adding to it rather than distracting from it.

Faarooq used a powerslam to knock Undertaker down. At this point outside the ring, the NOD began arguing with each other. Faarooq was distracted allowing Undertaker to come from behind with the tombstone for the pin. After the match, Undertaker gave the choke slam to both Savio Vega and Crush. Paul Bearer then told him to choke slam Faarooq. He acted as if he didn't want to, but did it, and Bearer continued to order him to do it. He wound up doing it four times before Johnson came out. The two got nose-to-nose and Undertaker went to choke slam Johnson, but Johnson ducked out of the way and hit the Pearl River plunge on Undertaker and walked out. **¼”

It’s just an odd balance between these two but Meltzer is spot on in my opinion on the Nation at this point. Everyone knew it was time to move on and give it some fresh blood right?

What say you Bruce. Thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle?