Talk about it here.

Last few minutes. Shawn is doing commentary. Bret is squashing the guy for most of this. He covers Patriot after a ref bump, but the ref isn't there to make the count. Shawn distracts Bret long enough for Patriot to roll up Bret and score a huge upset.

I bloody HATE Earl Hebner's "dramatic" three count cadence.

This is great. Someone apart from me going on about what a awful referee Earl Hebner is.

Can you tell from watching this that Wilkes doesn't have a tricep?

I bloody HATE Earl Hebner's "dramatic" three count cadence.

Arrghhh! Hebner is the worst!

 

Anyways Bret ends up taking a loss to the Patriot! Bret was awesome during 97 but this is part of the year for him that was below par.

The 'funny' scroll at the bottom about Le Femme Nikita is back. The ref bump on this was dreadful. Shawn is insulting Bret on commentary then decides to interject himself. This distracts Bret and we get a huge upset against Bret 6 days before his title match. Hebner's slow count was dreadful.

Both men play their anthems before the match, and they actually have the audacity to book Bret to jump Patriot in the middle of The Star-Spangled Banner--that was ballsy and eyebrow-raising at the time, even moreso than the O Canada interruption by Austin, and would never, ever fly a few years later. That pisses the crowd off as much as Bret's earlier promo, and we start getting bottles thrown at the ring in a sight you really didn't see outside of WCW and even that had seemingly been toned down in recent weeks. Pretty basic match, as Shawn does commentary and does a decent job at getting the angles and wrestlers over as opposed to just himself. He then needlessly interjects himself in the match and gives Patriot an upset win. Patriot badly needed a rebound after being thrown to the wolves for his wrestling debut the previous week, but I wish they'd had Bret do something to provoke Shawn like knock his headset off or something. Would have also served as good foreshadowing for SummerSlam.

There are five guys I can think of off the top of my head that WWF let keep their established gimmicks/names as opposed to reinventing them into a new character. Andre(maybe?), King Kong Bundy, Kamala, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair...and The Patriot. I can understand why they would hire Wilkes, but why let him keep the gimmick people saw him use in WCW? Was it part of some bigger deal they were trying to put together with the Japanese?

Well, Andre *was* his WWF character, and there are myriad other guys in the early expansion era who kept their character: Savage, Billy Jack, Hercules, John Studd, the Freebirds, Killer Khan, Nikolai Volkoff, Windham in '84, and on and on and on. And just this calendar year you had Pillman.

Fair enough, but keeping The Patriot gimmick on Del Wilkes in 1997 seemed a little odd.

The gimmick had more value than the wrestler, no?

That and he was a Jim Cornette Guy, I believe, and Cornette would be one person to fight to keep him as is.

That and he was a Jim Cornette Guy, I believe, and Cornette would be one person to fight to keep him as is.

Bruce Prichard has talked him up a lot so he might have been more of a Prichard guy than Cornette's as they had worked together in Global. As far as "why did he get to keep his gimmick?" it was pretty much tailor made for what they were doing in 1997 and let him come in immediately at the top of the card.

Prichard and Cornette talking him up makes a little more sense now.

The match isn't good, but this is tremendous as a segment. Bret comes out to insane heat again & demands production to play the Canadian national anthem. Crazy heat for this. The Patriot comes out to Kurt Angle's theme! He asks for the Star Spangled Banner to be played to a big pop. Bret attacks him during the Star Spangled Banner. Holy shit. The fans are livid as Bret continues to attack The Patriot while the anthem is still playing. Surreal to see. The end of the anthem gets a huge pop. The match isn't much, but Pittsburgh hates Bret. There's a ref bump & Bret goes for the cover, but Shawn Michaels, who's his obnoxios self on commentary, pulls Bret off. Bret is pissed & gets distracted with Shawn leading to The Patriot rolling him up & pinning him to a massive pop! Bret is furious & goes after Patriot up the ramp as officials hold him back & fans throw miniature US flags at him! Insane. Shawn stands on the announce table & starts stripping to taunt Bret. Bret goes after him, but Taker's music hits & he shows up to an awesome visual as his entrance smoke engulfs him to close the show. Awesome go-home segment for Summerslam. The WWF is on a roll!