The 1997 SummerSlam (marketed as SummerSlam: Hart & Soul) was the 10th annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on August 3, 1997, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Seven matches were contested at the event. This event was second to be held in New Jersey with the first previous event in 1989.

The show also included the culmination of a contest in partnership with Discovery Zone with a $1 million prize which nobody actually 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 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 WWE DVD and Blu-ray release The Best of In Your House: Pay-Per-View Classics 1995-1999 in 2013.

The event is perhaps best remembered for the WWF Intercontinental Championship match between Owen Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin that featured Hart delivering a botched piledriver that legitimately injured Austin's neck and temporarily paralyzed him, leaving him with many years of neck issues and potentially derailing the WWF's momentum in the Monday Night War during a time when the WWF could ill afford to lose any more ground to World Championship Wrestling.

In his audio book autobiography, Austin revealed that he and Hart were planning on the spots in the match when Austin (who was booked to win the match and the title) suggested to Hart about performing a piledriver as a false finish, under the condition that it was the knee-drop Tombstone piledriver variant used by The Undertaker as opposed to the more common variant of landing on his butt. Hart said he was more comfortable performing the latter variant but assured Austin that he would not hurt him. Coming off a critically-acclaimed feud with Hart's brother Bret Hart (who gained a reputation of not injuring opponents), Austin obliged.^[8]

However, at the planned spot Hart wasn't able to protect Austin's head, leading to Austin to break his neck and temporarily suffer paralysis. (In an ironic bit of foreshadowing, Jim Ross mentioned several times on commentary about Austin's history of neck problems prior to the botched move.) Austin informed referee Earl Hebner that he could not move and that Hart should not touch him. Once Hebner informed Hart, he started buying time for Austin to recover by taunting the crowd that Austin was about to "kiss his ass" (per the pre-match stipulation if Austin did not win the title) until Austin had recovered enough to perform the "worst roll-up ever" to end the match early and with the scheduled finish of Austin winning the Intercontinental Championship.^[8]

The injury left Austin sidelined for weeks, during a time when the WWF could ill-afford to have their biggest rising star off of television during their lowest point in the Monday Night War, when WCW was in the midst of an 83 week winning streak with WCW Monday Nitro beating out Raw is War.^[9] While Austin was able to recover, he continued to suffer neck issues and was written off television at the 1999 Survivor Series to undergo neck surgery, eventually forcing him to retire at age 38 in 2003.

Austin has since stated that his neck is in good shape and he is in zero pain after his neck surgery was successful. The accident was a source of backstage conflict between the two men, but Austin ultimately forgave Hart, and paid tribute to him on Raw Is War the night after Hart fell to his death at Over the Edge 1999. However, Austin did admit that he does regret that he and Hart were not able to fully discuss the incident at hand before Hart's unexpected death.

The botch, while initially appearing fatal for the WWF in the Monday Night War, ultimately proved to be a speed bump. However, the WWF still took preventative action, legitimately banning the piledriver in 2000.^[10] The Undertaker and Kane were grandfathered to keep using it, as the two were proven safe with the move (though Kane would eventually switch to the much safer chokeslam as his finishing move), while Rikishi began to use the Banzai drop (co-opted by his real-life cousin Yokozuna) as his finishing move. Subsequent wrestlers who used variations of the piledriver on the independent circuit such as Kevin Owens dropped the move from their moveset upon signing with the now-WWE.

In 2006, J.D. Dunn of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 5.0 [Not So Good], stating, "It was headed into "worst PPV ever" territory until the final two matches. The WWF was trying hard to get things going during the summer of '97, but it would take another year before they started to win the war with WCW. Too much mediocre crap in the early matches is a big part of the reason why. Oddly enough, Austin's injury would turn him into more of a talker for the next few months, and he would get even *more* over with the fans. Plus, it led to the anti-authoritarian character that made all that money against Vince McMahon. Mild thumbs up for historical reasons and for Foley, Hart, Austin & Undertaker."^[11]

The event contained several extended promo segments that did not appear to evoke much crowd reaction. For example, then-governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman was given significant time on the microphone and a championship belt, for lowering taxes on professional wrestling events. In another segment, Todd Pettengill spent significant time calling several people on the phone with no one answering, as he stared at a list of names Tammy Lynn Sytch was holding under her cleavage, for a purported million-dollar sweepstakes promotion.^[11]