So was the year 1997 the best ever for the World Wrestling Federation or WWE? Well, I can tell you this.

If you were somebody that grew up during this time, one, you probably absolutely fell in love

with it given the shifting direction the company went in. Two, it's basically when the actuary

it kicked off and three, if you were tuning in 1996, all of a sudden it felt like you were watching

a different promotion. But the sheer 180 of the whole damn thing was so surprising, mostly because WCW Nitro was whipping WWF Raw's ass. So I today, Simon Mello, thought we would sit down, and that's right, we're going to go through a timeline of 1997, so if you were there, you can relive it, and if you don't, you're about to be educated, or you're going to be like Simon, you don't know what you're talking about. It's true. We saw on 11th January, 1997, obviously, and this is when Vince McMahon is an experiment mode because we get shotgun Saturday night. Now listen, I don't want to be that guy. But quite clearly somebody had been tuning into ECW and went, I think we should probably borrow some of their ideas. So they came up with this. This was the second episode that the World Wrestling Federation had ever done as well. And it was kind of weird. They basically did the location shoot or the venue was various nightclubs across New York City. Because I guess Vince Raman saw that and thought, oh yeah, that's cool. And it kind of was cool. But as for the shows themselves, when it just felt like old-school

WWE. I mean, it was essentially window dressing to try and make you think they were edgy and hip again. And this, we started to push the envelope too, because one of the things we did on these shows was tell you, oh my gosh, guess what we've discovered, and I guess this does tie into the 90s because they were everywhere, we've got a sunny sex tape. I don't mean like the sun that shines down on the earth.

In case you are super young to professional wrestling, essentially the first ever diva, if remember that era, was sunny. So let's pretend to our audience that you may be about to see her naked. Because Vincent Man has a weird sense of humor though. This actually led to Tickle Me Elmo footage. It's not a joke. That's what they showed, and all of a sudden the screen cut to black. So this was a little bit like fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramone. McMan hadn't worked out. It's probably best not to try your audience, especially when your competition is getting better numbers. So as above, I suppose the idea is risque, but the execution was absolutely ridiculous, but once again it goes back to the

thing that I've accidentally talked about too much already. How is WWF Raw going to stop WCW Nitro,

which by this point, the end of 1996 into 1997, was an absolute beast and many people

couldn't believe it. Thanks to the NWO and Hulk Hogan turning heel, if you were only going to watch one wrestling product, you'll probably pick that one. I do not forget that the way that the WWF was going to stop this way down the line was by teasing an Austin versus McMahon match. So keep that in your head, the idea of the tease, which brings us to the 1997 Royal Rumble. That went down on January the 19th and look, even back here when the WWF was struggling, this was still a massive deal. It was the second biggest payview of the year, which is why, as I've got it written down here, they ran the Alamadrome, or however you pronounce it, because I am a British idiot. And this was a huge venue, and it was in Texas, hence why Sean Michaels got put in a top spot. Now, a lot of people will tell you that maybe a lot of this venue was papered, but again, there's no actual evidence out there, so we'll just have to discuss it. And you also get Triple H's the Intercontinental Champion, challenging Gold Deaths on this pay-per-view, and that feud was going to run right through WrestleMania. Armey Johnson also defeated Farouk, but by disqualification. So you can go back all of this way to 1997, all of a sudden see some of the problems that we're seeing today. Nobody wants a DQ when you are running something like the Royal Rumble, but because Vincent Mann hadn't really plotted out where he wanted to go, well, I was like, you know what, screw it? We'll just do a DQ. Vader versus the Undertaker, it's mostly okay. I mean, it's a bit like a big slapping man meat match, but never really gets going. And really one of the reasons we have gone through all this is because that's where the star power kind of ended, of course, apart from Sean Michaels, which is why slap bang in the middle of the Rumble, all of a sudden you get a match from AAA. That's right, the Mexican promotion. they were allowed to fly around the ring because one Vince McMahon understood they were exciting

but also two when he was looking up and down That's right, the Mexican promotion. They were allowed to fly around the ring because,

one, Vince McMahon understood they were exciting, but also two, when he was looking up and down the card and going, I don't know who else I can put here. Now, it's crazy as well, because do not forget if there was one thing that Vince hated doing, it was admitting that other wrestling promotions existed, but you can actually see this if you go through other yearly timelines, if his back was against a wall, all of a sudden all his rules went out of the window.

See, it's funny to say this as well now, but... But you can actually see this if you go through other yearly timelines. If his back was against a wall, all of a sudden all his rules went out of the window.

See, it's funny to say this as well now, but Steve Austin winning the Royal Rumble was a massive surprise.

And actually, if we lean into this, I don't think he was meant to win it at all.

Because before this, during the pre-show, Vince Rousseau had gone so overboard by saying, well, you know what?

I think Brett Hart is going to win. McMahon felt like he'd given the game away because yes, the hitman was meant to win, but all of a sudden at the last minute he thought, screw it, we'll just put Steve over and then we can figure everything else out at the next paint of you. And you absolutely can see that happening on TV too if you do go watch the roar after the Royal Rumble, which of course brings us to our main event. the hometown hero, Sean Michaels was taking on the one and only Sid Justice. Now of course, HBK would win back the WWF title here for reasons I'm sure you can figure out, but I also have some statistics. Because the pay-per-view itself is 27% down, box office-wise from 1996, and as soon as Vincent Mann hears that, something goes in his head, we've got to do some changing. Now let's go back to the fact that the hitman was meant to win the Royal Rumble. That was because at WrestleMania 13. The main event was meant to be Sean Michaels versus Brett Hart round two. And given that Sean Michaels had won the year before, this was going to be giving Brett Hart his big wing back. Surprise, surprise, Brett was very excited about this when Sean Michaels exited stage left. This was the 13th February episode of Raw and I'm sure you've heard this time and time again. But Sean Michaels walked to the ring and said, man, I've lost my smile. I'm going to have to retire because I have a knee that doesn't work anymore. Now this comes right from Brett Hart's book. He said that nobody backstage, three quarters of the roster, believed Sean Michaels, and thought he was just doing this because he had won that title back. And less than a month later, he was relinquishing it because he couldn't stand the fact he could put somebody else over. Now, maybe that's true, maybe that's not true. But when you remember what the heartbreak kid was like in early 1997, well, there's a lot of evidence that's just it was right. I mean, the whole losing smile thing became a meme that people still talk about today. When you moved out to one side, it meant the World Wrestling Federation was now in a terrible position because this was the anchor for WrestleMania 13, which meant now they didn't have the main event and they were going to have to move the players all around the places. So now this was really that good, although oddly the follow-up pay-per-view to the Royal Rumble, the final four, I think is superb, maybe just because I was young, but a fetus and I was enjoying it. But because Steve Austin had been eliminated from the Rumble, but no referee had seen him when he stuck back in the ring and eliminated three other guys, well the only fair thing to

do was to do this match and the winner, given that Sean Michaels had just given up the belt,

was going to become the flipping WWF champion.

That means you do get Austin versus Brett versus Vader versus the Undertaker, which I just

think was cool, especially because back then doing a fall way in WWE, felt super original.

And when Brett Hart does win, to become the champion again, well, once again these days,

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