WWE One Night Only
WWE One Night Only
PG | 20 September 1997 (USA)
WWE One Night Only Trailers

WWF One Night Only took place on September 20, 1997 at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England. The event featured eight matches, with two main events. In the first main event, The Undertaker challenged Bret Hart for the WWF Championship in a rematch from the previous month's SummerSlam event, where the Undertaker had lost the title in controversial circumstances. To close the show, Shawn Michaels challenged The British Bulldog for the WWF European Championship, as part of his ongoing feud with The Hart Foundation.

Reviews
SlyGuy21

1st Match: HHH vs Dude Love. Because the Helmsley/Mankind feud had been squeezed dry, they mixed it up by having Foley use another persona. The match is pretty similar to the other matches they've had, they're all starting to bleed together. It's an OK start, but I think the pinnacle was their cage match at SummerSlam. Rating: 3/52nd Match: Al Snow vs Tiger Ali Singh. I remember nothing about this match, and I saw it yesterday. it's only 4 minutes long, so if you have to use the bathroom, it's good for that. Rating: None3rd Match: Los Boricuas vs The Headbangers, WWF Tag team Championships. The Headbangers are surprisingly over with the UK crowd, compared to like 2 weeks ago when they won the titles. The match is entertaining, and a nice break from the gang war feud. Rating: 3.5/54th Match: The Patriot vs 2 Cold Scorpio. Patriot gets booed out of the building the whole match, and I can understand, cuz he really can't wrestle. Despite Flash's best efforts, the match drags on, and Patriot winning puts the crowd in a sour mood. Rating: 2/55th Match: The Godwinns vs The Road Warriors. This feud has lasted a long time, but at least Hawk and Animal are still over. The crowd keeps the match going, with LOD picking up the win. I liked the match, but these teams need to move on from each other. Rating: 3.5/56th Match: Owen Hart vs Vader. This is a 12 minute squash. They do a good job of trying to get you to care about Owen, but despite that, it's just him getting dominated the whole match. The ending is creative, but I feel the match could've worked better had Owen got more offense, even in a losing effort. Rating: 3/57th Match: Bret Hart vs The Undertaker, WWF Championship. This match is great, aside from two things: the length, and the ending. This is almost 30 minutes long, but drags on quite a bit. And I understand the ending, because Taker losing clean is pretty rare, but it's just disappointing to go through a 30 minute match and have it end in a DQ. 90% of the match is good, just a few minor tweaks and it could've been fantastic. Rating: 4/58th Match: Shawn Michaels vs The British Bulldog, WWF European Championship. According to the internet, Davey Boy was supposed to win this match, but Shawn vetoed that in order to become the first Grand Slam Champion. I take that with a ton of salt, because most of the IWC is just rumor with no evidence. So I'll be judging this on the match itself, and it's just OK. It could've been good, but DX decided to play nWo and cheat for over half the match. They cheat the whole match, the crowd hates it, then they win, thus resulting in a ton of water bottles flying into the ring. It could've worked, had WCW not been doing this for over a year now. Shawn got some serious heel heat for this, but he kind of got too much, even for me, and he's my favorite wrestler. It's just a long, drawn-out match with cheap shot after cheap shot, and it's a sour note to end on for me. Rating: 3/5Final Rating: 6 out of 10. Taker's match is good, but the rest of the card struggles to stay engaging. Shawn's match is also too cruel of a way to end a show in my eyes.

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callanvass

Live from Birmingham, EnglandAttendance 11,000Your commentators are Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler & Jim RossHunter Hearst Helmsley Vs Dude LoveHelmsley wins with the Pedigree. This wasn't their best match by any means. It was slow-paced at times and lacking in true excitement. The only good thing about this match is that it's completely watchable.**1/2 out of 5Tiger Ali Singh Vs Leif CassidyCassidy is Al Snow. Singh wins with a bulldog from the top. This was a very poor match. The crowd didn't give a damn about it, and I can't blame them. Singh was one of WWF's failed experiments. * out of 5Tag Team ChampionshipThe Headbangers (C) Vs Savio Vega & Miguel PerezThe Headbangers retain. This match was fairly boring. It featured a very lengthy sequence of Thrasher playing face in peril. I like The Headbangers, but this match was below average. The crowd loved The Headbangers, though.*1/2 out of 5The Patriot Vs Flash FunkThe Patriot receives plenty of boos on his way out. Like an idiot, he carries the American flag with him. The Patriot wins with the Uncle Slam. This was a pretty average match. Flash did some of his high-flying moves to make the match a little more exciting, but it wasn't enough. I was mostly entertained by the crowd's reaction to The Patriot.** out of 5The Legion of Doom Vs The GodwinnsLOD wins with the Doomsday Device. This was every Legion of Doom Vs The Godwinns match you've ever seen. Slow, plodding, and not all that exciting. LOD dominated the feud with The Godwinns. *1/2 out of 5Ken Shamrock comes out to a mixed reaction. He's set to be interviewed by Jim Ross. Ken Shamrock claims he's suffered a punctured lung in his match with Farooq on Raw. Shamrock says he got quite the ovation and he's thankful. Uhhh, check again, bud. Shamrock says he'll take on anyone, anywhere. Billy Gunn comes out to the ring. Billy Gunn says Shamrock doesn't look so tough to him. He says Shamrock makes him sick. Billy Gunn slaps Shamrock, so Shamrock applies the ankle lock to Gunn.Vader vs Owen HartBoth Vader and Owen Hart get good ovations. Owen's is more surprising because he's the heel. Vader wins with a powerslam in mid-air. This was the perfect example of how to execute a big man vs little man match. It went flawlessly. Vader and Owen had great chemistry, and you really believed Owen could pull off the upset. Owen was so great as the underdog, the crowd rallied behind him. ***1/2 out of 5WWF ChampionshipBret Hart (C) Vs The UndertakerThe Undertaker gets a really good reaction. Bret Hart's is a LOUD mixed reaction with more cheers than boos. The crowd can't make up their minds during the entire match. Both get cheers and boos. Anyway, Bret wins by DQ. This match is about on par with their match at the 1996 Royal Rumble. It's a really good match, but flawed as well. It's slow-moving at times, but they both did excellent work. I'm gonna go ahead and give this a good rating.***1/2 out of 5European ChampionshipThe British Bulldog (C) Vs Shawn MichaelsShawn gets booed out of the building aside from a bunch of obnoxious screaming teenage girls. The British Bulldog gets a huge ovation. It's not on the level of his ovation from Summerslam in 92, but it's pretty loud. Shawn wins the title when The British Bulldog can no longer continue after being in the Figure Four. This is a solid match with some magnificent storytelling. The match itself is good, but the storytelling is great. The British Bulldog valiantly fighting against so many odds and almost overcoming them. He looked like a warrior. It also solidified Shawn as a true heel. The fans were so mad they littered the ring with trash.*** out of 5After a relatively mediocre first half, the last three matches deliver. The crowd was red hot all night long and delivered some great atmosphere. Hang in there during the first half, then you'll be rewarded.6.5/10

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amanwhorocks

1. Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vs. Dude Love - HHH won again with a help by Chyna. Just an ordinary bout. 6.5/10 2. Leif Cassidy Vs. Tiger Ali Singh - Completely useless match. Ali won. 5/10 3. WWF World Tag Team Title Match: Savio Vega/Miguel Pérez, Jr. Vs. Champs-The Headbangers - That was one no-special tag action 6.5/10 4. Flash Funk Vs. The Patriot - Flash Funk did some great stuff, but I'm not interested in. 6.5/10 5. Legion of Doom Vs. Godwinns - Wannabe rednecks versus 80's dolls. Most unimpressive match of the night IMHO. 5/10 Ken Shamrock made his thing, because he wanted to be shown, when he couldn't compete.6. Vader Vs. Owen Hart- Vader-finally some real man! Owen cooperated fine with him and we have another heel victory, fourth this evening. Vader's victory on PPV is unusual too. 8/10 7. WWF World Heavyweight Title Match: The Undertaker Vs. Champ-Bret Hart - I never got that ending, if it was an accident or what, but match was fine 8/10 8. WWF European Championship Title Match: Shawn Michaels Vs. Champ-The British Bulldog - I never thought that Bulldog lost in a match of his life in Birmingham. Michales became 100% heel. You must hate him, even if you like him :) 8/10

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Izzit249

This is without a doubt the British ppv the wwf/wwe has/was never able to follow.This is the PPV which saw some fine wrestling matches to end all fine wrestling matches, but also saw the conflict begin between the Hart Foundation and the official birth of Degeneration-X that the USA at the time envied beyond belief.Seeing fantastic wrestling from Vader, Owen Hart, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Triple H and Mick Foley + others, the main event seeing the European title exchange hands from the British Bulldog to Shawn Michaels left British fans and European fans seething anger and hatred towards the WWE and DX. They were absolutely livid, (you have to watch it to understand why).Having seen the build up inc. a story which saw Davey Boy Smith (Bulldog) claim he was going to win this match for his cancer aided sister + other family and his country, the shocking outcome saw the referee end the match due to a supposed knee injury that was causing Smith serious harm, + the birth of DX. DX started by humiliating and assaulting Diana Smith, but saw the Hart Foundation rush to the rescue, but the fans were too livid to see anything good of the h.foundation given the hatred of the world outside Canada their storyline portrayed at this time.Although this provided a confusing situation for Bret Hart to be in for the rest of the year, which saw McMahon the same month ask for Bret's resignation from the wwf, a highly entertaining recommended to all the world.A PPV that Vince has never been able to follow!

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