Well Bret Hart was gone from the WWE and with it his Hart Foundation. WWE CHampion Shawn Michaels was running amok along with his D-Generation X buddies Triple H and Chyna, earning the ire of WWE Commissioner Sgt Slaughter. There were scores to be settled and titles to be defended as 1997 came to an end.
But before the matches for existing titles it was time for a brand new title to be inaugurated, the WWE Light Heavyweight Title. This was part of WWE's continuing effort to compete with the strong cruiserweight division in rival company WCW. The WWE announced a tournament where the new champion would be crowned. The final match in the tournament happened here, and it was decent opener won by Taka Michinoku over Brian Christopher. The Light Heavyweight division never really had the time invested in it by the WWE to take off, with many of the initial members becoming regular losers and eventually getting released with little fan fare.
Next up saw a continuation in the rivalry between the Los Buricuas (Miguel Perez, Jose Estrada and Jesus Castillo) and the Disciples of the Apocalypse (Chainz, Skull and 8-ball) who had been feuding for most of the latter part of the year. This one was won by the Boricuas with Estrada pinning Chainz to end a poor match.
Now it was time for Marc Mero, who was always billed as a "Golden Glove Winner" come out and lose in the fourth round to Butterbean in an embarrassing match. Mero was well beaten and ended up being disqualified after hitting Butterbean below the belt.
Next match saw the New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg Jesse James and Bad Ass Billy Gunn) successfully defend the WWE Tag Team Championships against the Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal). The LOD were well past their prime and this was another disappointing match in their second WWE tenure.
As mentioned at the start, the antics of D-Generation X had earned the ire of WWE Commissioner Sgt Slaughter and so he booked himself in a "Boot Camp" match with Triple H. Triple H though had an ally in his corner Chyna, who came proved decisive in this match, hitting Slaughter with a low blow and allowing Triple H to hit the pedigree for the win in another bad match.
Well Undertaker's little brother Kane had made his presence felt at recent PPVs, costing the Undertaker the No.1 contendership at Badd Blood and destroying Mankind at Survivor Series. Here he would play a part again as his brother took on "Double J" Jeff Jarrett. With Undertaker in complete control Kane came to the ring and choke slammed Jarrett, getting the Undertaker disqualified. How long would it be before the Undertaker finally got in the ring with his kid brother and settled this once and for all.
Next came the first chapter in one of professional wrestling's biggest ever rivalries as Intercontinental Champion Steve Austin took on The Nation of Domination's The Rock. This was actually not a great match, being more of an angle than anything, but it was quite an entertaining angle, which ended with Austin hitting the stone cold stunner on Rock to retain the title.
Finally came the main event with the cocky leader of D-Generation X and WWE Champion Shawn MIchaels putting the title on the line against "The Man" Ken Shamrock. Shamrock had been very impressive in his WWE career up to this point and in this match pushed the champion all the way and looked a likely winner before Triple H and Chyna came in and assaulted him, giving him a DQ victory but not the title in a decent match. Who was going to stand up to these degenerates? No sooner had the question formed in our minds and it was answered with Owen "The Black" Hart, the sole survivor knocking Michaels out of the ring and escaping into the crowd. It was a nice end to the show but had no bearing on future stories.
Well there you have it. There wasn't a lot of great wrestling on this show, but it somehow managed to be an entertaining three hours in spite of itself.
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