On Rewind-A-Wai #110, we will be discussing WWF’s Thursday Raw Thursday from Feb. 1997.
This show was selected by Espresso Executive Producer @NealFlanagan.
With the weekly series moved to Thursday night, the show was centered around the announcement by Shawn Michaels that he was vacating the WWF Championship.
We will go through the entirety of the story involving Michaels and the circumstances surrounding this move, Raw moving to two hours and going live on a weekly basis, all the major headlines from this week in 1997, and a complete review of this edition of Raw.
Post your feedback and/or questions related to the show in the thread below.
WWF Thursday Raw Thursday
February 13, 1997
Lowell, Massachusetts
*Bret Hart vs. Vader
*WWF Tag Team Championship: Owen Hart & British Bulldog (c) vs. Crush & Faarooq
*Steve Austin vs. Sid
*The Undertaker vs. Savio Vega
*The Head Bangers vs. Bob Holly & Aldo Montoya
*Intercontinental Championship: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (c) vs. Rocky Maivia
Given one of the key things on this episode is the company putting the IC title on Rocky Maivia, wondering if I could get your brief thoughts on what his subsequent reign/turn says about the company’s attitudes to fan reaction, then and now. The company eventually saw the white meat babyface version wasn’t working, turned Rock heel, and eventually ended up with one of their biggest stars of all time.
To what do you attribute their subsequent refusal to do likewise with people like Cena, or to drag their feet for so long on others, like Roman? Is it just that Cena and Roman, while they were getting “mixed” reactions were still drawing (unlike Rock during his face run), the fact that they were higher on the card, lack of real external competition, or a combination of all of the above?
Cena and Roman being huge merchandise sellers are one of the reason’s for not turning them heel in the first place (For Cena it was the main reason). Rocky Maivia was not over to as a strong baby face and they didn’t have to worry about merch sales being affected because he didn’t even have merchandise to sell. (I don’t even think they sold any Rocky Maivia merch to begin with, I could be wrong?)
When WWE Network launched for some weird reason, this was one of the first things I watched with my friend Ryan. On paper it does sound better then I recalled, as when I heard this was picked I really wondered why. But I do recall Rocky vs Hunter, mostly for the fun of seeing this career rivals so early on. Hope you guys enjoyed!
I remember exactly where I was when this episode aired. I was 11 years old and my school was on Winter Break. I went to a friend’s house for a sleepover and once it got close to the evening when Raw was starting, I found out that my buddy did not have cable TV. I was a diehard WWF kid and desperate to watch “Thursday Raw Thursday” so I faked a stomach ache and said I needed to go home. My mom picked me up and when I got home, I flipped on the TV just in time to see the infamous speech by HBK. My mom, realizing the real reason I had come home was not pleased but at least she let me finish the episode.
Thought you guys might appreciate the story of me being a terrible friend as a child.