We’re in June 1997 for WWE King of the Ring 1997. How does it fare against WCW Bash at the Beach 1997 and does the KOTR semi-finals and finals stack up? Let’s find out!
The Best of WWE King of the Ring 1997
In the King of the Ring 1997 finals, we have Mankind taking on Young Triple H in a pretty good bout. The finals being better than the rest of the tournament with no qualifiers or semi-finals being bangers is something to be expected of 90s KOTR matches.
Into the Vault: WWE King of the Ring 1997
It’s not a landmark match of this period but it is one of the better matches on the PPV for sure. That said, it went a bit longer than it probably should’ve for these guys at this point.
It’s not that they couldn’t do the length—they did—it’s just that this KOTR overall didn’t really warrant an almost 20-minute final when the rest of the tournament was meh. Hell, in the opening rounds Triple H almost went 19 minutes with Crush. How and why? In the end, Young Triple H got the King of the Ring victory he blew the year prior as a result of the Curtain Call incident.
Overall, this was a really strong showing by two future main eventers. Moving on, Tag Team champions HBK and Stone Cold Steve Austin faced off in a match to determine team captain. Usually, this would be a story we would see in the lead-up to Survivor Series instead this was a duel of egos as there are only two folks in a tag team—unless it’s New Day or the Fabulous Freebirds.
Anyway, this is definitely a dope match that ran for over 22 minutes. I loved the double DQ ending which you probably wouldn’t see coming if you watched it for the first time with no context.
Honestly, this was the main event-quality bout on the show because the actual main event was…well, let’s find out as we look at the rest of KOTR ‘97.
The Rest
Yeah, this show didn’t have more than two bangers going for it. The first semi-final bout on WWE King of the Ring 1997 had this weird vibe where the fans were really into Ahmed Johnson—who was throwing the match—and HHH who was really putting in the work to make this match watchable. He had some serious hustle here.
Meanwhile, the Mankind vs. Jerry Lawler match was pretty balanced with both men playing up to their strengths. Lawler was in great heelish form while Mankind just absorbed punishment before getting the win.
Neither match was anything above adequate with Mankind vs. Lawler being the better of the two. Goldust taking on Crush was a match that was on par with Young Triple H-Ahmed Johnson. One guy was putting in the work—Goldust—while the other guy was there doing their powerhouse thing.
The only difference between those two matches is that Johnson had the crowd behind him. Crush just lulled the crowd into restlessness. Continuing the meh train was The Hart Foundation team of Owen Hart, British Bulldog, and Jim Neidhart taking on Sycho Sid and The Legion of Doom.
On paper, this looked like an interesting, potentially fun match to watch but in reality, it was such as mess that even Owen could pull this beyond being an OK match. I mean, he’s just one guy in a six-man tag. That much carrying would’ve thrown his back out, really.
The main event saw WWE Champion The Undertaker defend his belt against Faarooq. Now, if you’re just looking through match results without looking at the RAW or Shotgun Saturday Night episodes leading up to KOTR ‘97, this match seems random as hell.
However, there was a smidgen of build heading into this match that made sense for them to square off. Should it have been over the WWE title? Ehh, not over Undertaker spanking Nation of Domination members or a tag squabble.
Still, Faarooq—who was been a World champion in the competition years earlier—got the title match and it could’ve been on RAW, honestly. This wasn’t a match to end a PPV on.
WWE King of the Ring 1997 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.25/5)
King of the Ring 1997 could’ve benefited with some matches being replaced and the ones featured either being on Shotgun Saturday Night or the Free for All. There were just too many matches that were mid or below.
Also, the main event should’ve been swapped out with Austin vs. Michaels just to end the show on a strong note. Instead, the whole show just felt like a slog outside of Austin vs. HBK and the KOTR ‘97 finals. The match of the show goes to HBK drawing with Austin, easily.
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