Why you love 1997 WWF (the little things)

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

Even though WCW was still beating WWF in the ratings, many consider 97 WWF to be some of the best wrestling/story telling in wrestling history. We all know the major reasons why this time was awesome, but I want to hear what are some of the little things that made you love this time in history.

Piledrivers:
One of the most bad ass moves in wrestling and 97 was full of piledrivers. You couldn't go an episode of Raw without seeing someone deliver one.

Figure Four on the ring posts:
Much like the piledriver, you always saw a figure four on the ring post. But unlike the piledriver it wasn't everyone who was doing it. This was a Bret Hart special and it was Austin and Michaels who were at the business end of the hold. The figure four is cool enough, but when you add the ring posts and the visual of the man appling the hold laying out on the outside to apply the hold it goes down as one of the coolest moves in history.

 

[RobertTheBruce]

The piledriver also gained infamy in 1997 from the Owen Hart/SCSA incident at that years Summerslam.

For me 1997 was the peak (as well as being the end) of the Federation Years. A ton of great stables with their own unique story arcs and feuds, innovative matches, probably the richest the WWF/WWE talent pool of any era and meaningful mid card title and tag team feuds.

Shamrock, Bulldog, Owen Hart, Vader, Goldust and Farooq all did their finest work in 1997.

 

[ianrapleyuk]

Here is my reasons why i liked "wwf" back then

Story telling
Every feud had a story so you got to the ppv and every match had weeks of build unlike now where they concentrate on 1-2 maybe sometimes 3 and the other matches are just thrown together with no build or reason to invest in it

Blood
This might be such a simple small thing but when people busted other open (ok bladed) it kinda made u feel like the feud was personal and they really hated eachother which kinda drew you into the story and at the end of the match usually the winner would be blooded and beaten and have trouble standing. unlike now when the feud doesnt seem personal and the winner gets up within seconds and celebrates like they wasnt even hurt

Titles meant something
Again every title meant something from the wwe championship to i.c to tag titles and even if a match wasnt for a title it sometimes felt like a main event when you had top stars facing eachother

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

I liked WWF in 1997 because despite the fact WCW was the top company at the time, there were still things WWF valued in the way of their presentation, that you just don't see in today's WWE. Also, let us not forget that while it was a gradual thing, the build to Steve Austin's rise to stardom was something special to behold.

Things like the Intercontinental and Tag Team Titles still meant something, and the World Title was booked a lot better I think, granted title reigns were shorter but nowhere near as God awfully short as they got in the Attitude Era. You didn't burn out on redundancy with feuds like you have in recent years, I mean for Christ's sake Randy Orton and John Cena less than one year ago wrestled each other for the World Title. Something they've been doing for almost a decade.

Man, I long for days like this again, even though this was during the company's less than glamorous time.

 

[Wald]

1997 was the pinnacle year for me because it was the perfect blend of the New Generation Era and the Attitude Era. You could see that the business and the company was evolving but it hadn't reached the ridiculousness that the Attitude Era would become quite yet. There was enough there for old school wrestling fans and drops of what would become known as the Attitude Era for the new fans coming in.

A lot of wrestlers really stepped up their game this year too. Bret Hart had his best year, and one of the greatest of all time, with the change of direction in his character adding an edge. HBK floundered for the first half of the year but put together DX by the end and evolved. Stone Cold built off his Survivor Series match at the end of 1996 and had a breakout year in the company. The Rock debuted, the Hart Foundation came together, the Undertaker broke out of being a two dimensional deadman and Mick Foley had another great year.

The WWF creative team deserve a lot of praise too for putting together the Hart Foundation vs the USA angle, genuinely one of the all time great angles that laid a great framework for the entire year.

On PPV you had some real classics too, from a very good Royal Rumble to the classic Austin vs Hitman match at Wrestlemania 13 to Canadian Stampede to the awesome HBK vs Taker series, including the debut of the Hell In the Cell (still the best HitC match to my mind).

Of course you had the controversy that would run through the Monday Night Wars as well. HBK's fake/real knee injury and the Montreal Screwjob being chief among them. So news wise there was probably never a bigger year in the WWF's history. All this happening as people were just starting to get the internet in their homes and get some backstage gossip as well, the proper beginning of smarkdom.

Fantastic times to be a fan basically

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

1997 was my favourite era in the WWF well up until a certain point the Hart Austin feud was amazing, as was the Cabnada vs USA feud. Wrestlemania 13 will forever be my favourite Mania. Also Summerslam 97 was my favourite Summerslam aswell.

It's just a shame that Bret left in November and Shawnee Michaels was been a tw** aswell. His refusal to put Bulldog over at One Night Only pissed me off big time. It's why I think he's hit a cheek to mins about Hogan not putting him over, justice there in my eyes.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The main thing I remember about 96 and 97 (not just 97 alone) was you were starting to see faces you never thought you would in the WWF... Guys like Brian Pillman, The Patriot, Vader, Ron Simmons, Mick Foley and even the Headbangers and ECW crew...

It was like Vince finally woke up to the world of wrestling outside his door and started to use it to his advantage... that RAW where ECW showed up AND the LOD returned is still the best ever.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

I first watched WWF in 1990 (Summerslam 1990 was the first card I ever saw), and I watched as many ppvs on VHS as possible, and bought WWF Magazine almost every month between Survivor Series 1993 and King of the Ring 1997. But 1997 was the year I TRULY got invested in wrestling, starting with the Royal Rumble, which my brother taped for me.

A poor Rumble match on the whole, until the final 10 participants, and a very inventive finish, which helped further the Bret Hart 'screwed' storyline (how ironic that would finish with the ultimate Screwjob just 10 months later), whilst pushing Austin (who entered at #5) AND leaving several potential options for WWF.

The next few months were a bit of a clusterfuck due to first Michaels and then the Hitman taking time off for various reasons; a disjointed Wrestlemania, a couple of average-at-best In Your House cards and finally King of the Ring left the Undertaker as an unexpected champion for 5 months, with some solid defences in that time.

Until Wrestlemania X7, I firmly believed Canadian Stampede to be the best WWF card ever - and since my Dad got Sky just after the King of the Ring, it was the first ppv I could actually watch live, a great start. The headline feud, the Hart Foundation vs Austin and by proxy the USA was expertly done, a rare example of the creative team NOT trying to get a heel faction over as much as possible, they openly welcomed the Hart Foundation being perceived as faces in Canada and Great Britain - this is my favourite 'small thing' of the year.

I enjoyed the other factions as well, mainly because it have them scope to face each other and kept away lesser performers like Savio Vega and the late Crush from ruining the top of the card.

The formation of D-generation X was done VERY well, coming after the accidental chair shot at Summerslam - the moment where Bret Hart gave then their name is one of my favourite quotes: "you're nothing but a bunch of degenerates"; DX also played off Sgt Slaughter very well, a nice touch.

The idea of a light heavyweight division began - and sadly ended with the knee injury to Scott Putski. You can't build a division on 2 men (Taka Michinoku and Brian Christopher) but add a third and you've got a chance, sadly Putski's injury put paid to that. But the early vestiges were excellent - a brilliant series between Taka and the Great Sasuke.

Other good matches include Ken Shamrock nearly beating Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels on successive Raws until outside interference - he came so close to the title at one point I believed he had a shot at winning the Royal Rumble in 1998.

And then the debut of Hell in a Cell and the Kane storyline/debut. Still the best HIAC match IMO and Kane is obviously still around today.

A very good year, which allowed WWF the platform to build to once again be the number 1 company in wrestling

 

[Creepy Old Man]

1997 was the best ever year for wrestling. WWF and WCW were at their creative peaks.

I actually preferred the rugged 1997 Austin to the slightly tamer 1998 one. People tend to forget that he was already a pay-per-view headliner and the #1 merchandise draw in the industry by early 1997. On top of that we had Bret, Shawn, Undertaker, Foley, Vader, Goldust, Owen, Davey, Pillman, Shamrock and the Road Warriors. New Age Outlaws and Kane didn't hit until the fall, but the Kane storyline was compelling and had been playing out since the spring. The Rock wasn't a main-eventer yet but was a prominent upper-mid carder, ditto Triple H.

An awesome time.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I agree, there was something that just felt very authentic about the product in 1997, in both WWF and WCW. The super heroes were gone, and real bad ass characters like the nWo and Austin were taking over. To me there was a very rough, rugged appeal to the shows back then. Could have been the intensity between the top players, obviously the Bret/Shawn hatred felt real because it was. But also the Bret/Austin hatred just felt real. Same with Austin/Pillman. Nothing on the show, despite being "scripted", actually felt acted, phoney or forced.