One Night Only was a 1997 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the American promotion World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on Saturday, September 20, 1997, at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England and aired exclusively in Canada and the United Kingdom. The event featured eight matches, with two main events. In the first main event, The Undertaker challenged Bret Hart for the WWF Championship, which Hart retained. In the second main event match, which closed the show, Shawn Michaels defeated The British Bulldog to win the WWF European Championship.

Production

Background

In 1997, the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) scheduled a United Kingdom pay-per-view (PPV) event titled One Night Only. It took place on Saturday, September 20, 1997, at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England. The event aired exclusively in Canada and the United Kingdom, where for the latter, it aired exclusively on Sky Box Office and the show was heavily promoted.

Storylines

One Night Only featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw Is War, and other WWF television programs.

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 through interference from special guest referee Shawn Michaels. This bout was not featured on the promotional poster for the event, which Hart resented, and attributed to the backstage politics of Shawn Michaels, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley; he said The Undertaker was similarly bemused by the omission (the match was also inexplicably removed from the North American VHS release, but included on the British VHS release, and the later DVD release on both sides of the Atlantic). To close the show, Michaels challenged The British Bulldog for the WWF European Championship, as part of his ongoing feud with The Hart Foundation. The WWF Tag Team Championship was also defended on the card, with Los Boricuas members Savio Vega and Miguel Pérez, Jr. challenging champions, The Headbangers.

The event was available on pay-per-view in Canada and Europe, but not in the United States: the storyline reason for this was that WWF Champion Bret Hart—then employing an Anti-American gimmick—had used a clause in his contract to block the event from being shown live in the US. It was subsequently released on home video there. In contrast to his hated heel status in the US, Bret Hart got mostly cheers from the British crowd in Birmingham, although his opponent The Undertaker got even more cheers. The British Bulldog got the biggest cheers of the night, while his opponent Shawn Michaels got most of the boos, and heel heat, especially after Michaels taunted the British crowd following the main event ending controversially.

Reception

Fin Martin of professional wrestling magazine Power Slam described One Night Only as "a sensation", adding: "the card remains the WWF/WWE's best ever in-ring presentation on [UK] shores. The fireworks were provided by the last three matches, all of which were superb." He described Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker as "an epic encounter (over 28 minutes), which was the last truly great match of 'The Hitman's' career", and credited Michaels for having given "the heel performance of the year."

The WWF sold a full 11,000 tickets for the event. With restricted availability, the event, nonetheless, generated a 0.05 buy rate, equating to approximately 20,000 buys.

Results

Other on-screen talent

See also

• 1997 in professional wrestling

• Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom

References