SummerSlam (1997)

The 1997 SummerSlam, promoted as SummerSlam: Hart & Soul, was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the 10th annual SummerSlam and took place on August 3, 1997, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This was the second SummerSlam to be held at the venue, after the 1989 event when it was known as the Brendan Byrne Arena (renamed in 1996). Seven matches were contested at the event. The promotional title was a reference to the rivalry between Bret Hart and The Undertaker. This was the main event of the show where Hart defeated Undertaker to win the WWF Championship which had Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. If Hart had lost the match, he would have never been able to wrestle in the United States ever again, and additionally, if Michaels had shown any bias towards either competitor, he too would have never been able to wrestle in the United States ever again. The event also included the culmination of a contest in partnership with Discovery Zone with a US$1 million prize which nobody won. It included several attempted calls where nobody was home. The contest ended after a potential winner failed to guess the proper key to the casket containing the prize money. The event also marked the first WWF pay-per-view appearance of commentator Michael Cole, and the last WWF pay-per-view appearance of Todd Pettengill, who left the company before returning to host segments and matches of the DVD and Blu-ray release The Best of In Your House: Pay-Per-View Classics 1995–1999 in 2013.