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00:40WWF One Night Only was a UK exclusive pay-per-view event that took place on September 20, 1997,
00:47so this was in between the ground zero and bad blood in your house pay-per-views. One
00:52night only was quite a big deal, the WWF partnered up with Sky Television to offer an exclusive
00:56pay-per-view for the UK market, something that had never been done before. In order to maximise
01:02pay-per-view sales, the WWF booked a European Championship match to headline the show, Champion
01:07Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, taking on Shawn Michaels of D-Generation X. The outcome
01:13of the main event was highly unpredictable and to this day, fans debate over the finish
01:18and whether the WWF done the right thing during their first UK exclusive pay-per-view event.
01:23Today, we're going to look at the British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels at One Night Only.
01:31Davey Boy Smith was crowned the first ever European Champion after winning a tournament
01:35held in Germany. The tournament finals took place on February 26, 1997 but didn't air
01:41on American television until March 3rd on Monday Night Raw. The final match between Davey and
01:47Owen Hart is definitely worth your time, the overall broadcast quality leaves a lot to be
01:51desired, but once you get past the presentation, you're left with a good, pure wrestling match.
01:56Davey would proudly wear the European Championship for the months that followed, the belt was
02:01featured heavily in the summer house show loop, but quite a few European title matches also
02:05happened on TV. In a way, the European title initially just felt like Davey Boy's belt,
02:11in 1997 and during Davey's run in the Hart Foundation, the British Bulldog became synonymous
02:16with the European title.
02:19When Sky Television and the WWF agreed to broadcast a special UK exclusive pay-per-view in September
02:25of 1997, it made sense for Davey Boy Smith to headline the show. Five years prior, the British
02:31Bulldogs' intercontinental title win at Summerslam 92 had provided British wrestling fans with a
02:36genuine feel-good moment, and even though times had changed, Smith was still loved by fans in
02:42the UK. One Night Only was kind of a homecoming for the British Bulldog, Smith had of course
02:47worked plenty of UK shows after Summerslam in Wembley, but what you need to understand
02:52here is that One Night Only was heavily promoted in the UK. While fans in America may look at
02:58One Night Only and see the event as a glorified house show, here in the UK, the advertising
03:02and promotion for the event was quite extraordinary. I specifically remember seeing newspaper advertisements
03:08for the event, something that wasn't done here for typical shows, and you couldn't watch
03:12any other program on Sky Sports without seeing advertisements for One Night Only. As a quick
03:18side note, while One Night Only was marketed as a UK exclusive show, it was also available
03:23in Canadian pay-per-view markets. To explain this, Bret Hart said he had blocked the United
03:28States from getting the show due to a clause in his contract. Good stuff. The WWF also done
03:34a big promotional tour, sending talent to British talk shows to tell potential viewers that
03:39they should order One Night Only on Sky box office. Naturally, the British Bulldog appeared
03:44on radio shows and television broadcasts, and Davey Boy promised the British public that he
03:50would defeat Shawn Michaels at the special event while dedicating the upcoming victory to
03:54his sister Tracy. Tracy was battling cancer at the time.
04:01I don't think I need to talk about Shawn Michaels in 1997 too much here because you guys already
04:06know the story, but to summarise, Shawn had turned heel after Summerslam 97 while aligning
04:11himself with Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Chyna and Ravishing Rick Rude. This group was known
04:17as D-Generation X and their main rivals were Bret Hart and the Hart Foundation, of which Davey
04:22Boy was a member. Shawn's rivalry with Bret Hart had reached its boiling point during the
04:27summer of 97. Political manoeuvring and backstage fighting had completely tarnished HBK and the
04:33hitmans relationship, both on a personal and professional level, and there was a very real
04:39dislike between the two men, to put it lightly. Something I want to point out though and something
04:43I find interesting is the fact that the Shawn Michaels vs Davey Boy Smith match at One Night
04:48Stand was announced before Shawn turned heel. So for example, if you watch Summerslam 97, you'll
04:55hear Vince and Jim Ross talk about the special UK PPV while announcing the Michaels vs Smith
05:00main event.
05:02So we have the Hart Foundation and D-Generation X at each other's throats as we go into One
05:08Night Only. Held in the Birmingham NEC arena, Bret would have his hands full with The Undertaker
05:13in the semi-main spot while Davey Boy Smith and Shawn Michaels would close the show. The crowd
05:18who showed up at One Night Only were excellent as they got traded to a, quote, proper WWF show,
05:24show. One Night Only was very different when compared to other live events that the WWF
05:28brought to the UK during this time period. Many UK fans watched American PPV events with
05:34envy, wanting to be part of these big shows but never getting the chance to do so. And
05:39again, American audiences may look at One Night Only and think that it's nothing special,
05:43but for fans in the United Kingdom, it was big. The heavy promotion, the TV advertising,
05:48newspapers, magazines… the UK was finally getting something like a WWF PPV event after waiting,
05:54for five years, so the audience that sold out the NEC were excited and ready for action.
06:00Fans were treated to appearances from Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Vader, Mick Foley and Hunter
06:05Hurst Hemsley, just to name a few before the main event, and throughout the show, the UK fans
06:11were very vocal and they were very loud. They definitely had their favourite superstars and
06:16they let everyone know who they liked and who they didn't.
06:22The story of the British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels was played out through the entire show. The
06:28event opened up with a video showing us a young Davey Boy Smith while Vince McMahon talked about
06:32the Bulldog coming home to defend the European Championship. Smith had a pre-taped interview
06:38that was also shown in the middle of the event where he once again dedicated his match to his
06:43sister Tracy, and Davey talked about how he dropped weight in order to keep up with the much faster
06:49Shawn Michaels. Shawn had a backstage promo spot just before the match where HBK said he would
06:54win the European Championship and he had become the very first Grand Slam winner in WWF history.
07:01The audience response was of course very negative towards Shawn, but what's so shocking about
07:06one night only in the European Championship main event is the fact that Shawn Michaels was absolutely
07:12right here. HBK was going into the Birmingham NEC and he was booked to defeat the British Bulldog
07:19in the middle of the ring. I don't think anyone could have expected what was going to happen here.
07:24Let's first look at the match and then we'll talk about how and why this all happened. I'll give you
07:29a
07:29small spoiler though, it was all Shawn Michaels idea. Shawn comes to the ring and initially fans are
07:37excited to see the heartbreak hit, in particular the female fans. While kissing girls of a questionable
07:42age and sticking a British Bulldog action figure down his tights, HBK gets a decent crowd response,
07:49but remember, the UK were starved of big superstars and big shows at the time. Practically everyone got
07:54a decent ovation at one night only and it wasn't until the matches played out where you would hear the
07:59cheers and the boos. Don't worry though, this audience would soon be turning very, very cold
08:05towards Shawn Michaels. Davey comes out with his sister Tracy. It does look like it's a little too
08:10much for her to be honest, but Davey had dedicated the match to her and we can only assume that
08:14Davey
08:15wanted to give his sister a moment that she would remember. I'll just mention here too that Tracy
08:20passed away in 1999 at the age of 26. Davey gets a thunderous ovation, though a massive Bulldog
08:27chant breaks out as Davey holds up the union jack. Shawn pretends to leave the arena only to check
08:32himself out on the titantron before returning. Shawn must have been loving all of this, HBK knew what
08:38was going to happen, the more they chanted for the bulldog, the more heat the finish was going to generate.
08:45As unsavoury as Shawn Michaels was during mid to late 1997, his in-ring heel work was unrivalled.
08:52Shawn's athletic ability, mixed with his animated theatrics made for great television, the man you
08:58love to hate, he knows he's good and he's not afraid to show it, and his defensive and sailing
09:03abilities are just as entertaining as his offensive skills. Shawn's backstage conduct would never win
09:09him any awards but his in-ring work definitely would. With that being said, Davey boy is no slouch
09:15in this match either. The bulldog is a bit of a strange case when it comes to main events,
09:20sometimes he was average and sometimes he was really good, and the Davey we got at this UK
09:25pay per view was really good, especially in the first 5 minutes or so. The bout starts with Shawn
09:31constantly getting overpowered. A great spot sees Davey and Shawn tying up and HBK trying to use the
09:37top turnbuckle to his advantage, only for Davey to throw Shawn from one side of the ring to the other.
09:42Shawn plays up and he pretends to leave the arena once again, but Davey unceremoniously dumps HBK back into
09:49the ring. The audience were getting what they wanted here as Davey lifts Shawn up above his head,
09:54teasing the crowd here by going from one side of the ring to the other. So far, so good. A
10:00back body
10:00drop sends Shawn over the top rope and this gets a great pop. Davey then slows the match down by
10:05bringing Shawn to the mat. Shawn fights his way out and he gets things warmed up by poking Davey in
10:10the eye,
10:11but the bulldog answers with a big sit down powerbomb. Not a typical British bulldog move, but it looked pretty
10:17impressive.
10:17Davey flattens Shawn by reversing a crucifix pin attempt with a Samoan drop, but then the bulldog
10:24makes a costly mistake. He applies a surfboard stretch while keeping his own shoulders to the mat.
10:30Referee Earl Hebner has no choice but to count a pin attempt, forcing the bulldog to release the hold.
10:36Davey argues with the referee and Shawn takes advantage by blindsiding the bulldog. Davey tries to fight back
10:43and he delivers a vertical suplex, but then we see Rick Roode making his way to the ring. It's from
10:49this point onwards where the match begins falling apart.
10:55As soon as Roode comes to the ring, he begins interfering in the match. Davey boy gets rammed
11:00into the ring post on the outside and Shawn follows up with a double x handle from the top rope.
11:05Fans
11:06begin looking to the entranceway, waiting for a Hart Foundation member to come out and even the odds,
11:10but it doesn't happen. Instead, Roode is allowed to deliver more punishment on the outside. It's
11:16fine though, right? I mean, this is only a little UK house show and Davey boy will eventually overcome
11:21these odds, giving fans a reason to go home happy and all that stuff. Shawn applies a sleeper hold
11:27in the middle of the ring, but Davey gets out with a side suplex. Shawn stays on the offence with
11:32a
11:33forceful Irish whip into the corner and then we see the short arm scissors that Shawn applies on rare
11:38occasions. Davey is once again able to show off his power by lifting Shawn while the arm scissors is
11:44still applied, drilling Shawn's back into the mat. The two men then dash into each other and both
11:50competitors are on the mat. The audience begins booing loudly as Triple H and Chyna make their way to the
11:56ring. As the crowd chants, we want Brett, Davey begins mounting a comeback, but it's now only a matter of
12:03time before Triple H and Chyna get involved. The crowd wants the heart foundation to come out and
12:08even the odds, but again, it doesn't happen. Eventually, Shawn gets the upper hand, we see
12:13not one, but two diving elbows from the heartbreak kid, but when Shawn goes for the superkick, Davey
12:19is able to reverse it. The bulldog scoops up Shawn for the running powerslam, but Rick Roode takes
12:24hold of Davey's leg. Davey is able to get away from Roode and Shawn gets clotheslined over the top rope,
12:30but things go from bad to worse when the fight spills to the outside. Davey scoops up Shawn once
12:35again for a running powerslam, but he falls over, catching his foot on the guardrail,
12:40and this results in the bulldog taking sweet chin music. The other members of DX try to force the
12:46guardrail further into Davey's knee before Triple H nails the pedigree, still no sign of the heart
12:52foundation. Shawn then takes Davey's knee brace off and he throws it to the bulldog's wife Diana and sister
12:58Tracy, and then Shawn applies a figure 4 leg lock. Hunter and Chyna help Shawn apply pressure while
13:05the bulldog screams in agony. The bulldog makes his way to the ropes, but Rick Roode punches Davey
13:10behind the referee's back. The figure 4 remains locked in and the fans are now on the edge of
13:15their seats, just waiting for Davey to power out. A loud bulldog chant breaks out in the arena,
13:21Hunter and Chyna continue to assist HBK, and eventually, the referee is forced to stop the match.
13:28That's right, Shawn Michaels just beat the British bulldog in the middle of the ring in England,
13:33and the fans didn't know how to take it.
13:40Immediately after the bell rings, fans start throwing garbage into the ring. Shawn grabs a
13:45microphone and he says… Alright all you limeys, I want you to take a look at your champion and then
13:51take a look at the new grand slam winner. Heart family, this is for you. And Diana Smith,
13:57my sweetheart, this one is especially for you baby. Triple H tells Davey boy to scream for his country
14:05as Shawn applies the figure 4 once again. Diana gets in the ring and she tries to stop Shawn by
14:10using
14:10Davey's knee brace, but Chyna grabs Diana. Finally, after all this time, Owen and Brett show up,
14:17but D-Generation X quickly get out of the ring. The fans are now livid as Shawn celebrates his
14:22victory. The heartbreak kid rubs it in everyone's face with an over the top celebration that gets him
14:28even more heat. It really wasn't the outcome that people expected, especially for a UK show like this.
14:35Davey boy Smith and the rest of the hearts had been completely humiliated in the middle of the ring,
14:39while Shawn laughed and danced all the way back to the United States. If Shawn wanted to get the audience
14:45fired up, well, he done a stellar job at one night only. The atmosphere after the final bell is extremely
14:52tense and if Shawn hung around for much longer, well, who knows what could have happened. The show goes
14:57off the air with a defeated British bulldog trying to pull himself back to his feet.
15:04So, what happened here? Practically everyone in the NEC arena would have bet money that Davey would
15:09win the match. It was pretty much a given that if the WWF were coming back to the UK to
15:14put on a big show,
15:15then it's natural that the audience would get sent home happy, but this didn't happen.
15:19Well, as mentioned earlier, it was Shawn's idea to flip the finish. Davey was booked to win the match,
15:25but on the day of the pay-per-view, Shawn approached Vince McMahon and the creative team
15:28and he requested that the finish got changed. This is what Shawn wrote in his book.
15:34Before we could get to my rematch with Undertaker at Bad Blood in October, we had to get through a
15:40special pay-per-view that was being held in Birmingham, England on September 20th. Davey
15:44Boy Smith was the European champion and he was from Birmingham. That isn't crack by the way,
15:49but anyway. I told the creative team, if you'll want to get me some heat, have me screw him for
15:54the
15:54title in his hometown. They loved the idea. Davey was so over in England and he never lost there,
16:00screwing him out of the title in front of his hometown fans was a good business decision
16:05because I would generate a ton of heat. Davey never once expressed to us that he was upset
16:11with our plans, but he wasn't the kind of guy who would just say anything to your face,
16:16he would do it in the back. He wasn't mean, that's just the way he was brought up in the
16:20business,
16:21you bury guys behind their back. It's my understanding that Brett really got him wound up
16:26about losing in his hometown. For Brett, the most important thing was not about what was
16:31right for business, but about looking like the good guy in the eyes of the wrestling industry.
16:38Brett Hart wrote about the match in his book too. The Hitman said…
16:42Before the show I talked with a little boy who'd been burned in a fire, his ears were gone. Then
16:48I
16:48found time to say hello to Davey's family. Davey had made the huge mistake of promising in
16:53interviews with the British tabloids that he'd win his title match for his sister Tracy, who was dying
16:58of cancer. He'd been told he was going over, but on the day of the show, Vince and Sean changed
17:03the
17:03outcome. Davey was devastated. Sean had openly bragged about how he was not doing jobs for anyone,
17:09but nobody wanted to believe he had such nerve. This went against the code of all wrestlers. Usually
17:15Vince or Pat would give me my finishes, but now Sean, Hunter and Briscoe were there to oversee.
17:19Something was going very wrong. China grabbed Diana from behind his own and I finally charged down the
17:26ramp with everyone wondering where the hell we'd been all this time. As I pretended to help the
17:31wounded Davey boy back to the dressing room, we passed the burned little boy and Davey's sister Tracy,
17:37who was terribly upset and crying. I thought, in wrestling, never make a promise you can't deliver.
17:44I saw the light die in Davey's eyes that day, darkness seeping into a heart that was giving out.
17:52To give you a little more insight on how this all affected Davey boy, here's another quote from
17:57Bret's book. Bret's talking about a house show here, I believe, where he was booked into a match
18:02with The Undertaker.
18:04That night, during my match with Taker, I did my usual job of taking a severe beating. So severe,
18:10in fact, that an overwrought mentally challenged kid hit the ring to protect me. When I came back
18:15through the curtain, still wearing my belt, he broke away from the police, in tears, to hug me and tell
18:21me that he loved me. For some reason, this scene was too hard for Davey to bear and he told
18:27Lanza he
18:27was going home. For how long, no one knew. This got me curious and I decided to look up Davey
18:35boy's work
18:36schedule after one night only and right enough, Davey disappeared from WWF TV following a house show
18:41in Toledo, Ohio for around two weeks. I went back to Bret's book and yes, Bret confirms the date and
18:49location.
18:54I might get some negative feedback on this but honestly, I think Shawn winning the match was the
18:59right thing to do. Now, I don't agree about changing the match outcome on the day of the show. Davey
19:05ended up looking really bad after telling anyone who would listen that he was going to win and of
19:10course, because Davey thought he was going over, he dedicated the match to his sick sister. It's pretty
19:15much guaranteed that if Davey knew he was going to lose, then he wouldn't have dedicated the match.
19:20The way Shawn went about getting the finish changed is just plain wrong and someone politicking to get
19:25what they want is always a crappy thing to do. No one is defending Shawn Michaels here. But consider
19:31this, if Davey won the match at one night only, then no one would remember it. It would have been
19:36another run of the mill international show with a predictable outcome. The reaction that Shawn got
19:41after the match may have been extremely hostile but it was also extremely different and that's what
19:47wrestling shows need to be or else we end up where we are today. You also need to think of
19:52Davey
19:52boy's position within the world wrestling federation at the time. The WWF is an American product,
19:58it's main customer base is in America and the show's going to continue in the United States long
20:02after this one night only show. Davey may have been a hero in the UK for one night but back
20:08in the
20:08states, he was straight into the midcard once again. With Shawn's rivalry with the heart foundation,
20:13HBK could go back to the states and brag about taking the European title away in the bulldogs
20:18backyard and the amount of heat Shawn gathered would have been way more effective than Davey returning to
20:24the states, still the European champion. Again, I have to stress, the way the WWF and Shawn Michaels went
20:30about things was truly awful and it was very underhanded to say the least, but I do think Shawn winning
20:36at
20:36one night only had more upside than Davey going over. One night only is now remembered as the show where
20:43HBK won the European title while pissing off an entire country, it helped to make one night only
20:48a show that fans wanted to see years later and it helped one night only stand out in a year
20:54that was
20:54filled with good pay-per-views. It was even immortalised in a WWF 2K game, that's something that
21:00doesn't happen for UK shows and I think it's safe to say that this wouldn't have happened if Davey
21:05Boy won the match in a predictable manner. The match outcome also didn't affect the WWF's positioning
21:11with Sky TV, it was actually a success that led to even more UK exclusive pay-per-views including
21:17Capital Carnage, Rebellion and the Insurrection shows.
21:23It's been reported that the idea here was for the Bulldog to return to England the following year and win
21:29the
21:29European title back, but due to the Montreal incident, that of course didn't happen. Instead, there was
21:35practically nothing set up for Davey Boy when he did return to the United States. He became disheartened
21:40with wrestling and as Bret says and as we proved with the dates, Davey Boy went back home for a
21:46while
21:46to get his head straight. One night only was probably Davey's most prolific match of 1997 and it's kind of
21:53a
21:53shame that he left the company with such a bad taste in his mouth. Davey would return to the WWF
21:58after
21:59Montreal and after his second WCW stint, but we'll look at that another time. As for the European title,
22:06well, Sean didn't really care much for the championship after it granted him the name of
22:10Grand Slam champion. Sean would drop the belt to his buddy Triple H by laying down for the future King
22:15of Kings in the middle of the ring, adding another title to the long list of championships that Sean didn't
22:21drop in a traditional sense. One night only though in the HBK vs Bulldog main event is still very much
22:27worth your time just to see the crowd reaction afterwards and just to see a logical wrestling
22:32outcome getting thrown out the window in favour of generating heat. Much like the Montreal match
22:38featuring Bret and Sean, the outcome overshadows the in-ring action and rightfully so, but take the
22:44time to watch the bout itself and you'll also find an entertaining wrestling match. As always, thank you for
22:50watching.
23:20Thank you.
23:21Thank you.
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