Category Archives: Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF No Mercy 2000

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

No Mercy 2000
October 22, 2000
Albany, NY
Reviewed on March 23, 2014

Background: The WWF-WCW war for all intents and purposes was over. The WWF had a checkmark next to every conceivable comparison you could make. Biggest stars? Check. Best wrestlers? Check. Most compelling storylines? Check. Characters fans cared the most about? Check. I could go on and on, but the war was just about over.

But interestingly enough, and this is sometimes forgotten over time, but the WWF had actually passed their peak as well. While numbers were still quite strong across the board, the RAW rating had went from a consistent high 5s to mid 6s (and sometimes low 7s) to high 4s to sometimes 6 flat. Once again, obviously great numbers, but not the super sky high numbers the WWF did through 1999 and early 2000. There were some reasons for that. One of which was the main storyline here, but also who those new characters were.

Although I personally prefer a combination of great wrestling and great storytelling…Crash TV at one point really was the way to go for the highest ratings. In 2000 the WWF moved away from that. There was a new focus on great matches and a lot of it had to do with the new talent WWF acquires or brought up though 2000 (Radicalz, Kurt Angle, William Regal, emergence of Edge, Christian and Hardyz). And well, the real draw of wrestling usually isn’t wrestling.

The other big thing going on at the time that really is up for debate is what Stone Cold Steve Austin’s return to the WWF meant in terms of business. For whatever reason, it didn’t do the crazy great business that Austin’s name on the marquee used to do. Once again it isn’t to say that it wasn’t successful, but ratings didn’t bump and actually trended downward once Austin came back. Now, while I’m using Austin’s comeback as a reference point here, I actually don’t think its Austin’s fault that ratings didn’t rise when he came back. It’s just the WWF, great matches and all, had its time in the Crash TV era. You can only have the same guys on top for so long before people don’t care anymore, at least in TV land. What Austin was doing in 1998 and 1999 was revolutionary. In 2000, it was the norm. I assume that’s why they went with the heel turn in 2001.

Anyway, I do think the main storyline coming into his comeback also hurt a bit. I get the idea to elevate Rikishi to the top, he was getting great face reactions, but this was totally out of left field and even the WWF kinda retconned it when HHH was the accomplice (even though, I did like Rikishi’s reasoning). This storyline needed a big payoff (HHH was logical, although it’s too bad HBK wasn’t active here). For the record this angle is my reasoning of why Undertaker can’t lose his Wrestlemania streak to just anyone to get them over. The fans won’t buy it. It needs to go to a top or near top guy to further cement them (like Daniel Bryan!)

Anyway, No Mercy 2000! The return of the Rattlesnake!

The Card

Awesome opening promo. It’s a takeoff of Stone Cold’s Survivor Series 96 promo with Bret Hart (the black and white I’m gonna kick your ass thing). “I’m looking at Rikishi, and I’m looking at deadman”.

Dudley Boyz Tag Team Elimination Invitational
Too Cool vs. Lo-Down vs. Raven and Tazz vs. the Dudley Boyz vs. Goodfather and Bull Buchanan

Funny enough, Too Cool look like Public Enemy bringing a table with them and dancing.

This is like a Tag Team Turmoil match…just you gotta put someone through a table to eliminate them.

D’Lo looks a bit out of shape. This was his last gimmick before he was gone.

Some talk about Edge and Christian being sick and unable to be in this match. This is part of something awesome later.

Both Lo-Down members end up going through a table. Too Cool advances.

Tazz and Raven next. This could have been an ECW dream match at one time.

Grandmaster Sexay’s feet accidentally destroy a table. That didn’t give away that it was gimmicked now did it? (And Big Show should be angered he lost the IC title for the same thing in 2012).

Scotty does a WORM under a table. Nice.

Scotty gets double suplexes through the table right after. I swear Scotty loses more matches when he does the worm than when he doesn’t.

Dudley time. They didn’t even get last position in their own match.

It’s amazing how the former ECW Tag Champs are destroying two former ECW World Champs.

D-Von legdrops Tazz through a table. Here come the RTC!

The Dudley Boyz win in 12:18. Stupid finish here. Bull accidentally clotheslines the referee. Bubba powerbombs Bull Buchanan through the table, but the ref didn’t see it since he’s out. Goodfather with the chair shot takes out Bubba and he lands in the table wreckage Ref wakes up and calls it for the RTC…which would have been a fine finish for the heels cheating to win. But a 2nd ref comes in and tells the 1st ref what happened…match restart…3D through table for win. So, why don’t we have two referees for everything then? Still a fun little match though.

We get a quick Trish, Test and Albert discussion about it being okay if Trish’s boobs fall out. I’m sure everyone agrees.

By gawd, it’s Rikishi! He’s got a sledgehammer!

At lot of the commentary during the tables match was that Stone Cold wasn’t at the arena yet. JR guarantees he will be.

Lita and the APA vs. Trish and T & A

Lita had the worst theme music in the WWF at this time.

Story here: Strip poker game with Trish, Test, Albert and the APA went wrong. Also Trish hates Lita. SO here we are.

T & A beats the crap out of the APA backstage.

It’s a 3 on 1 attack on Lita…but of course the Hardyz make the save. I mean, it would have been stupid if they hadn’t, right?

No match, which is always stupid, but I don’t think it was made until late anyway, and it’s way to get them all on the PPV I guess.

Edge and Christian backstage and not sick! Pretty awesome interview using the word nuts. Anyway, they’ll be there to watch Los Conquistadores win the tag titles!

Steel Cage Match
X-Pac vs. Chris Jericho

I believe the story stems off of the HHH vs. Jericho feud through the summer. Jericho beat X-Pac at Unforgiven. They’ve been feuding since.

Weird start where Jericho baseball slides X-Pac as he was coming through the door. So they end up fighting around the outside. I usually don’t like cage matches that have outside fighting, with a few exceptions.

Jericho rockets X-Pac into the cage…and I do believe X-Pac injured his neck there which is why we don’t see him again until February.

Backdrop into the cage and X-Pac lands on his head (although the ropes helped break the fall). That might have been where the injury happened.

X-Pac goes for the pin. I never understood those spots where people go for pins in non-pinfall matches.

Big boos for the Bronco Buster.

Powerbomb from the top rope. To be honest, some of these spots are cool, but the match just isn’t clicking.

Jericho gets a Walls on the top of the cage, but it looks like crap…and Jericho goes crashing back into the ring.

Chris Jericho wins by escape in 10:40. Okay, here is one of the best cage match spots ever. X-Pac has it won and is about to escape. X-Pac stands on the top of the open door and celebrates, and Jericho dropkicks the cage making X-Pac crotch the door! Jericho escapes for the win. Finish was great. Match was fine I guess. Problems with it were that fans were disappointed Jericho had went from fighting HHH and Benoit to X-Pac so they never thought he was losing…and X-Pac heat started around this time.

Steve Blackman at WWF New York!

Foley’s Office. Rikishi demands to know where Austin is. Foley said if he doesn’t show, he’ll raise Rikishi’s hand.

Apparently Eddie Guerrero got hurt against Billy Gunn on RAW for an IC title match. So…

Eddie Guerrero and Chyna vs. Val Venis and Steven Richards

This was the last days of Mr. Ass. At least until 2003. Gunn would lose the name to the RTC in a few weeks.

Chyna was still very over at this point. I don’t know where it went off the rails for her exactly, but she was done in nine months. Gunn would be done as a potential top guy after having a bad match with Benoit in December.

I do think they should have went with the Outlaws again here as they would have been a perfect foil for RTC.

Some psychology! They work on Gunn’s shoulder, which he just came back from having surgery on.

Never liked Chyna’s cartwheel elbow. The elbow part was always so weak.

Val Venis and Steven Richards win when Val pins Chyna in 7:10. Goodfather and Bull take out Gunn (to no DQ?). Chyna is about to Pedigree Val, but Guerrero wins in and smashes her in the back with a pipe disguised by flowers. Val gets the win. Nothing really to say here. Not bad, not good. Not anything. RTC were natural heat magnets and Chyna was pretty damn over.

HHH is backstage. This was his small time as a face before the Austin angle played out. Stephanie McMahon wants to be at ringside with HHH. HHH thinks it’s too dangerous for her to be at ringside with Benoit out there. They start to argue a bit when she talks about helping her business partner Kurt Angle.

No Holds Barred
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Rikishi

Just as Foley comes out to raise Rikishi’s hand…here comes Austin in a truck!

Austin gets a huge pop of course.

This is ALL Austin. All Austin. I’ll explain why that wasn’t the way to go afterwards.

Austin beats the shit out of Rikishi with a chair. Rikishi’s busted. Rikishi has gotten a little offense and a kick in.

Stone Cold and Rikishi wrestled to a no contest in 9:21. Austin puts Rikishi in his truck and brings him to the street. Austin then tries to run over Rikishi, but the police intervene and arrest Austin. Pretty sure that means Rikishi should be the winner, but whatever. The brawl is pretty good for what it is, but the problem is the booking all the way. I’m going to take some time to explain what’s wrong with this angle and where and why it went wrong, assuming that no matter what the WWF was going to go with Rikishi. And by the way, if Austin gets arrested here, shouldn’t Rikishi have been arrested for running over Austin in the first place?

Okay, so I wrote earlier in the background about why Rikishi was not the best choice for the angle…but once WWF decided it was him, they had to stick with it. The first match between the two here at No Mercy needed to be a 50:50 (or even a Rikishi beat down)…although understandably you want Stone Cold to look good and kick ass on his return match. Here’s why you can’t have an Austin beatdown: it kills Rikishi.

Think of it this way. Wrestlemania XXX, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt. If Cena kills Wyatt in a 10 minute match, what happens? It’s practically the end of Wyatt. What if Wyatt beats down Cena or it’s a 50:50 match where Cena barely wins? Heck what if it’s a five minute squashing of season, what happens? Makes Wyatt look like gold and doesn’t hurt Cena one bit. For example, Wyatt beating Daniel Bryan at the Royal Rumble is perfect. Made Wyatt look great, didn’t hurt Bryan one bit.

Well the idea of taking Rikishi seriously as a top guy went to hell. Rikishi had flashes with the main event…but this was his first true test and he looked like a chump. AND when he went back to a dancing fool eight months later well, I believe that was one of the storylines that killed the goodwill of the fans from the Attitude era. Even if he flopped as a heel (not like his turn to babyface worked or anything), the thing he did (running over Austin) was bad enough that he had to stay there. By the way once HHH was involved in the feud, well, you might as well have stuck a fork in Rikishi as it is. (Also for the record, the four guys WWF was pushing toward the top in 2000 were Angle, Benoit, Jericho and Rikishi. The only one to get a big win over a main eventer was Angle, and not surprisingly, he was the biggest star of the four up until 2008).

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

WWF European Championship
William Regal© vs. Naked Mideon

Regal tells us that Foley said Mideon had to wear clothes. Thank god.

Early on Mideon teases the shirt taking off and Regal is disgusted. Regal’s facial reactions are amazing.

Shirt comes off. Ugh.

OH MY GOD CENSOR THAT SHIT NETWORK. Pants went flying off.

William Regal retains the title by pin in 6:10. There is a funny moment at the end as Regal goes for the Regal Stretch but doesn’t want to touch Mideon (understandable) and goes for the Regal Cutter instead. By otherwise that was awful. How Naked Mideon didn’t win the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Worst Gimmick is beyond me. Yes this is worse than the shit WCW did to Mike Awesome.

Now for some awesomeness. They show the Kurt Angle-Rock “interview”. Angle spliced up old Rock interviews to make it seem like he ran down Stone Cold and that fans don’t want Rock to win tonight. Great stuff. Angle was hilarious.

Now for some more awesomeness! The Los Conquistadores! They are interviewed by Kevin Kelly (no idea Kelly made it this long). Of course Kelly gets no answers.

WWF World Tag Team Championship
The Hardy Boyz© vs. Los Conquistadores

Story here: The Hardyz beat Edge and Christian and Mick Foley said no more tag title shots. Suddenly Los Conquistadores returned to the WWF and won a tag team battle royal to win this title shot. Oddly they never seem to be in the same video shot as Edge and Christian…so of course everyone thinks they are Edge and Christian. At this moment we don’t have proof though.

They play it up so great. Somersaults. The way they walk to the ring. Conversing with the Spanish announcers. Edge and Chri….I mean the Los Conquistadores are great.

The worked disgust of Jim Ross is incredible.

Another awesome thing here. The match sucks…but it has to because Edge and Christian have a totally different moveset than Los Conquistadores.

We finally do get a flying dive over the top that Christian normally does. But still.

Los Conquistadores win the title when Uno (I think) pins Matt Hardy. Matt unmakes Dos…but Dos has ANOTHER mask on! Brilliant! Uno hits the Unprettier for the win! Crowd pops for it too! Match sucked…but it was supposed to! Great stuff.

Ugh it must have been cut out for some reason…but there’s an interview afterwards with the new Tag Champs and then Edge and Christian walk into the shot and make the challenge for tomorrow on RAW! That had a great payoff as well. Great angle to extend the Hardyz vs. E and C feud.

Triple H vs. Chris Benoit

Story here: Benoit headbutted Stephanie. HHH wants revenge.

HHH works on the knee. I don’t think the technical route made sense for the story…but that’s not a big deal. Not like it’s Orton vs. HHH at Mania which made no sense.

Lawler and Ross state that they are shocked that HHH is outwrestling Benoit. Which just puts both guys over.

HHH busts out an Indian Deathlock! How come we don’t see that anymore?

He then bridges the Deathlock with a neck vise! Nice!

Now Benoit works on the arm. Hammerlock back suplex. Great old school technical wrestling match.

Perfect inverted suplex from HHH. This is really shaping up as a great match.

Full nelson suplex from Benoit!

Another one!

HHH gets out of a Crossface by getting to his feet and hitting a Death Valley Driver!

Stephanie’s out here! Slap to Benoit! This leads to…

Triple H pins Chris Benoit in 18:33. Great Crossface to Pedigree to Crossface to Pedigree counterfest that HHH ends with a low blow, the Pedigree and the pin. Great match. Shame that it didn’t propel Benoit to the main event. I feel like in this match HHH was out to prove that he’s just as much of a wrestler as Benoit is. He isn’t, but I mean, he can be damn good when he wants to be.

AH! Here’s the Edge and Christian-Los Conquistadores backstage thing I was wondering about earlier!

WWF World Championship
The Rock© vs. Kurt Angle

Story here: Match has weird dynamics storywise, as The Rock is caught between two storylines…the Rikishi-Austin one and the HHH-Stephanie-Angle triangle. Stephanie is in Angle’s corner because she is out to prove she’s not a liability at ringside.

Match is suddenly announced as a no DQ match.

Really driving home the Stephanie factor early as Angle takes control over a Steph distraction.

Also establishing the Angle meanstreak with a chair shot.

HHH is watching this match on a TV that is seriously blue.

Rock smashes a steel chair on Angle’s ankle! Ouch!

Rock with a good sharpshooter! Angle taps…but Steph distracts the referee. I don’t like Angle’s tapout there to be honest, way too early.

You know what’s weird? Watching an Angle match with him going for the Ankle Lock every two minutes. Angle didn’t have that in his arsenal I believe until February 2001 and the rematch with the Rock.

More Steph interference…and Angle gets a belt shot to the head on The Rock! But Rock survives!

Rock and Angle just have awesome chemistry.

I always liked Rock’s belly to belly suplex/throw.

Rock Bottom to Stephanie!

Angle just stops the People’s Elbow on Stephanie though.

HHH is down here. Pedigree to the Rock after he attacked Angle!

Now we have Rikishi down here.

Angle knew to attack him…Rikishi hit him back and rolled him back into the ring.

Kurt Angle wins the WWF Title by pin in 21:01. Rikishi accidentally nails Rock with a butt avalanche and a superkick. Olympic Slam to Rikishi! A perfect Olympic Slam to The Rock for the 1…2…3! Angle ends the show with one of the most iconic World title victory celebrations with the dropping to the knees and crying. Rock bitches out Rikishi, and rightfully so. Interference was a bit much, but a great match is a great match.

I already expressed my frustration with the Rikishi-Austin angle earlier. The rest of it was fine, although proving Stephanie matters was a bit much. I can’t put this show in the A range though. While there is some really good stuff, including basically all of the last half of the show there was a lot of stuff that didn’t matter (Cage, sadly Austin-Rikishi). Also Naked Mideon is the absolute worst.

I can’t get past Austin-Rikishi. Fun brawl sure, but if I paid for this show when it first aired, I would have felt a bit ripped off with it. And it was the first step that killed Rikishi.

Very good show overall though.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam 2000

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Summerslam ‘00
August 27, 2000
Raleigh, NC
Reviewed on August 1, 2014

Could the WWF survive without Stone Cold Steve Austin?

The answer was clearly yes. The Rock and Triple H carried the main events while newcomers like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit were all on their way to becoming stars. Add in a fresh Undertaker and you were still very strong up top. Ratings had survived Austin’s departure just fine with consistent low 6s and high 5s each week. It may have not been quite the Attitude Era, but people were still watching.

Interestingly though, the WWF Attitude product was different by this time. There were still your Attitude gimmicks…but it wasn’t AS much as 1999. Instead, you got top notch wrestling from Jericho, Benoit, Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Edge and Christian, The Hardyz and Dudleyz. Even guys like Tazz, while not a big a draw as he hoped to be, was an improvement in opening matches than the Blue Meanie.

Of course, there is a small debate that this style led to ratings falling off at the end of 2000 (I think the real reason is “I did it for da Rock” and that disappointment), but for now, it was full steam ahead. As a bonus, WCW was practically dead at this point quality rise. I had reviewed New Blood Rising and it would only get worse with Halloween Havoc a couple of months later.

So, Summerslam 2000!

The Card

Interesting intro promo for Summerslam, going with the love triangle of Angle-HHH and Stephanie, playing Ode to Joy, which coincidentally was HHH’s old theme.

I also think a lot of the visuals were in Christian’s future titantron (white masks in opera).

Right to Censor vs. Rikishi and Too Cool

Right to Censor is one of the greatest midcard acts in wrestling history. Perfect heel group for this era.

The Rikishi heel turn sadly killed Too Cool…although Christopher would have done that in 2001 anyway.

Victoria actually debuted as a Godfather ho at this time, then joined Rikishi and Too Cool when he turned into the Goodfather.

Goodfather actually shoves Victoria and ho #2 down. “Save the hos” chant. Good heat.

For those who think the RTC killed the Godfather and later Val Venis, I think the WWF going public killed that.

Right to Censor defeats Too Cool and Rikishi in 5:12 when Richards pinned Scotty. Scotty goes for a WORM that will obviously be countered somehow as Buchanan is in the middle of the ring and Scotty doesn’t have room to do it. Richards Steven Kicks him and that’s that. Match wasn’t much, but the crowd was hot for the whole thing as Too Cool and Rikishi were over as hell, and so was RTC.

We get a history of the Kurt-Steph-HHH triangle…and Kurt kissed Steph on Smackdown, which added a whole new element.

Hardcore Champ Shane McMahon! Steve Blackman finds him. Although I am not a big Shane fan, this is my favorite feud of his.

Road Dogg vs. X-Pac

People stopped caring about the rest of DX after King of the Ring 2000. Road Dogg and X-Pac kept going, but eventually had problems and this led to a “friendly rivalry”. Considering Road Dogg was rapping with K-Kwik a few months later and X-Pac was nowhere to be seen (due to injury to be fair) that should tell you how this went.

Road Dogg kicks X-Pac in the ass and he sells it as way stronger than it was and goes flying out of the ring. Looked funny I guess.

To me since I just watched Mania XI, this feels like a culmination of a five year storyline (the Kid vs. Roadie stuff after the IC title match).

To be clear, no one cares about this. DX died with the McMahon-Helmsley Era. I think it always hurt, especially Road Dogg, that Billy Gunn got injured as the Outlaws were still a big deal earlier in the year.

X-Pac pins Road Dogg in 4:42. Low blow from X-Pac and X Factor for the win. Pretty bad. And still no one cares. X-Pac declares it’s over, Road Dogg fakes a handshake and gets revenge. X-Pac would get to fight Jericho before he got hurt at least.

Intercontinental Championship
Val Venis© and Trish Stratus vs. Eddie Guerrero and Chyna

The catch here is Val can lose the title if Trish is pinned or made to submit.

The Eddie Guerrero and Chyna team seemed so random after years of HHH and Chyna. Of course, it was entertaining, probably because everything Guerrero did was. Trish laments Chyna being centerfold material and asks Val Venis who’s prettier, and Val snaps at her. I always liked this dynamic, as Test and Albert were always clearly Trish’s henchmen, while Val actually stood up to her. Not that it mattered soon.

Weird double team mistiming early on where the ref just lets Eddie do it after stopping him.

At this point if you told me Trish would be arguably the greatest WWE Women’s wrestler of all time and Chyna would be unemployed in 8 months I wouldn’t have believed you.
Chyna wins the title when she pins Trish in 7:13. Chyna gets Trish alone and press slams her for the win. Match was a surprising mess, as Guerrero seemed off with several timing issues. The booking is weird too. I’d get protecting Val if he was gonna be in the hunt, but Val joined RTC right after this. So why the tag? Why not a triple threat. I do understand Chyna needing to win as it set up Guerrero’s heel turn. Match quality wise, this card is off to a tough start, but the characters not Road Dogg and X-Pac are over and it doesn’t really matter.

It’s amazing how much better Stephanie McMahon is now than she was in 2000.

Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz

Yeah, the Tazz run didn’t last. The feud here is Tazz came back as a thug after a middle of the year injury and attacked guys like Al Snow and Rikishi. Then he attacked JR for some reason and this led to a feud with Lawler. Tazz did have one of the all time great heel lines to JR: “I’d slap you in the face, but it looks like God already did it”, a reference to his balls palsy. Tazz looked pretty bad ass in this build up, too bad it’s being wasted on Lawler. On Smackdown Tazz smashed in the window on Lawler’s rental car, with JR in it (blinding him).

Tazz comes out with a cowboy hat acting blind, which is pretty funny.

Lawler dominates the first part of the match. Well then.

Tazz takes over, but it’s nothing exciting at all.

Tazz with a missed senton bomb, which is odd considering I’d never seen Tazz do that and his neck was always an injury concern.

Tazz no sells the piledriver! How ECW of him!

Jerry Lawler pins Tazz in 4:24. Tazz chokes Lawler out with the Tazmission, but the ref was knocked down. Tazz calls out JR while choking out Lawler…so JR gets a glass jar of candy and smashes it over Tazz’s head. Lawler gets the pin to a big pop. Good moment, but if Tazz wasn’t dead before he was as good as dead losing to Lawler. Also, another subpar match.

WWF Hardcore Championship
Shane McMahon© vs. Steve Blackman

Shane gets interviewed…but Blackman finds him again. We head to the ring!

For those who liked the 24/7 Crash run, I always thought Blackman’s run was more entertaining.

Shane runs for his life!

Shane takes an entertaining ass kicking in a garbage can.

Lawler is disappointed that he doesn’t think Shane can tap out in a Hardcore match. Er…why not?

Jeez, a half crab, but Blackman also wraps a strap around Shane’s throat and pulls. Sick hold.

Here comes T and A to “even” the odds! This is how Shane matches should be booked.

Good midcard note you don’t see anymore. JR explaining why Test, who was left at the altar by Stephanie last year, is helping Shane (Test last saw Stephanie and was counting his blessings). You just don’t see that anymore.

They go for a drop the amp spot on Blackman, same move they took out Big Show with at Judgment Day. Blackman moves.

Blackman beats the crap out of T and A with a kendo stick, then Shane runs by climbing the titantron!

Steve Blackman wins the Hardcore Title in 10:08. Blackman chases Shane up the titantron and catches his legs with the kendo stick (also underrated, as Shane didn’t just stop to wait for Blackman). Blackman gets some shots to the back…and Shane goes flying 50 feet! Blackman climbs down a little, then drops a elbow drop from about 20 feet up! Wow. Obvious pin here. Really fun Hardcore match that could have helped rebuild the Hardcore division after 24/7. You know what amazes me? Even though fans were really into Blackman and all…he never got over from this at all. Once he stopped fighting Shane, no one cared about Blackman again. Very odd. Really fun match though.

Stephanie is distraught about Shane, and Kurt comes in with the line of the show (“I think he just got the wind knocked out of him”). They hug, but Mick Foley comes in and says that Shane might have hurt his kisser. Funny stuff.

Best Two of Three Falls
Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

Interesting feud here. So, the Judgment Day match seemed to be the blow off between these two as Jericho moved to HHH and Benoit had feuds with Rock and Rikishi. But, once those feuds ended it seemed like there was nowhere else to put these guys, so they just continued their feud. Of course, this feud was incredible and they’d have one more PPV match at Royal Rumble 2001. Then they’d be tag champs.

Jericho and Benoit take the referee out of the ring with their roll around punch sequence. Creative and unique.

STF from Benoit. Regal would be here soon so that would be the end of that.

Benoit gets the crossface 5 minutes in and Jericho taps. Normally I’d be against that, but I’ll explain at the end why I am okay with it and I think it’s actually genius.

Benoit let’s go…and goes for it again! Jericho can’t tap out this time obviously and fights it. Great psychology there all around.

Another unique submission. Benoit locks Jericho in the Tree of Woe, then goes to the outside and puts him in a Full Nelson. Jeez.

Jericho fights back and counters a German into the Liontamer, and Jericho gets the tap out, tying the match at 1-1.

Perfect powerbomb reversal from Jericho, but Benoit reverses one to pin, which Jericho bridges out of it. Perfect.

Benoit then busts out a full nelson (Dragon) suplex!

Top rope frankensteiner…but Jericho actually leaped up there! Jericho lands on the shoulder Benoit’s been working on, so he can’t make the pin right away. Still, some amazing stuff here.

Lionsault, but more Jericho shoulder stuff.

Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho 2-1 in 15:33. Jericho gets a roll-up, but Benoit with an awesome reversal in which he also grabs the bottom rope to win! Awesome match with awesome psychology. The commentary really put over that Jericho chose to tap in the first fall to survive, which is why I am okay with it. These last two matches have really kicked Summerslam into gear.

HHH has arrived! They replay Angle and Steph from earlier, and Lawler even thought Angle’s “wind knocked out of him” line was ridiculous.

WWF World Tag Team Championship: Tables, Ladders and Chairs
Edge and Christian© vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz

We already know this is awesome.

Small dynamic change from Wrestlemania 2000’s Triangle Ladder Match. Edge and Christian are now cocky chicken-shit heels. The Dudleyz are faces due to powerbombing women through tables. Hardyz are exciting faces.

TLC was such a cool concept, even if the only difference is that chairs and tables are readily available (because you could use them in regular ladder matches) around the ring. WWE has a PPV named after the match now, which should say how marketable it was…it also should get credit for Money in the Bank as well.

The Hardyz are the hometown team!

Matt Hardy busts out some Sabu chair throwing.

Bubba gets his leg caught in the ladder as he’s thrown off. That coulda been a lot worse.

Bubba Bomb from the top of a ladder!

Matt Hardy gets tossed into a ladder…I don’t know how to describe it, but it also seesaws and takes out Jeff. You don’t see creative spots like that in today’s MITBs.

WASSSSSSUPPPPP!

D-VON! GET THE TABLES!

Jeff Hardy looks dead from the seesaw.

Christian gets 3Ded through the table!

Bubba begins to build his own resting place with the table structure on the outside.

Jeff’s leap over the ladder legdrop always owned.

Jeff goes for another crazy Swanton on the outside, but unlike Wrestlemania 2000…Bubba moves! Jeff’s broken on the outside.

Bubba goes flying through the 8 billion tables on the outside! Serves you right Bubba!

Lita saves the titles for the Hardyz as Edge and Christian were guaranteed to win it!

Matt Hardy gets tosses through ANOTHER table structure I didn’t notice…then Edge takes out Lita with a spear!

First ever hanging from the titles spot from D-Von and Jeff, and crowd pops huge when D-Von actually crashes to the mat.

Edge and Christian retain the title in 19:33. Once Jeff and D-Von crash, Edge and Christian are all that’s left. Somehow still the 2nd best mutli-man ladder match ever (Mania X7). All the MITB’s are great, but there’s so much creativity here and it never looks like they are just setting up spots. Also, big credit for this being the first match at this level of its kind. Absolutely incredible.

It took three days, but HHH finally confronts Steph about the kiss. Steph sells Angle down the river of course.

Stinkface Match
The Kat vs. Terri

For some reason Al Snow is with the Kat.

These two actually fought at Mania.

Oh, Snow was feuding with Perry Saturn here, who was with Terri.

I mean, the crowd loved it, so I get why it’s here. I’ll leave it at that.

The Kat wins in 3:06 Here’s a Al Snow Head shot in this, for what it’s worth. Something to bring down the crowd I guess.

APA is at the bar!

The Undertaker vs. Kane

I sense this was to be Big Show vs. Undertaker, as there is a much forgotten Big Show return and heel turn, but I guess WWE wasn’t happy with him since Taker got revenge and tossed Big Show off the stage and he was gone till the Rumble. Kane then turned heel because Taker returned “as one of them” and Kane is a MONSTER. Really the same logic that he used to bury Taker alive three years later.

This was the start of the new Kane look, the “Bret Hart look”.

Randomly this is a No DQ brawl. We never got a bell here.

Taker rips part of Kane’s mask off, which is the only thing making this match worthwhile.

Taker goes for the mask again!

Taker gets it off, and he kinda see Kane’s face! A lot bigger of a deal then. Then Kane runs for it. The bell never rang, so this isn’t an official match? Not sure why it was done this way but whatever. Not really good either, just a random brawl when we’ve seen two better ones earlier in this show. A very forced storyline.

WWF Championship
The Rock© vs. Kurt Angle vs. Triple H

Angle’s shot at the main event. The HHH-Steph-Angle love triangle was the main part of the feud, with the Rock kinda on the side. They got this title shot by double pinning Chris Jericho.

The love triangle was also smartly hinted at as early as December 99, when HHH and Steph would watch in the locker room and she would call Kurt cute. You don’t see things like that anymore either.

Angle on the mic tells HHH he gave his wife more passion that he ever could. I loved how Angle’s character got more confident after his feud with Undertaker in July. Of course, HHH comes down to beat the crap out of Angle.

The infamous table breaking spot happens here. HHH goes to Pedigree Angle through the table, but the table gives way too early, and Angle gets a concussion. It’s CLEAR what happens to Angle here as well, he looks totally out of it. Really scary moment in retrospect (and then too).

HHH gets the sledgehammer, but here comes the Rock!

For the record, this entire match was improvised from Rock and HHH as Angle had to be carried to the back, and while he played a part in the finish, it’s all HHH vs. Rock.

HHH actually comes down and stops the stretcher and hits Kurt with two punches. Of course they are worked, but it’s interesting they did that (although it made sense storyline wise).

Stephanie comes out to tend to Angle. Even the backstage improvising was smart.

You see Hebner say something to HHH with the camera goes away from while HHH yells at Steph to get the belt for a spot. According to some research, Hebner told HHH that he (I assume Vince) wanted Stephanie to go to the back, to film the upcoming angle.

Sledgehammer to The Rock. I guess it’s a given it’s no DQ for this too.

Backstage Stephanie begs Angle to help HHH as Rock took control. Angle says he’ll do it for her.

Here comes Angle with Steph. Angle is dazed, and I assume he’s acting now.

Angle pulls Rock’s leg as he hits the ropes, leading to a Pedigree. HHH clearly checks on Angle to see if he’s in position, then goes for the pin as Angle breaks it up.

Angle nearly stealing the title got a huge reaction as he pinned Rock after that pedigree.

Angle seems to be on point. While wrestling with a concussion is seriously dangerous, Bret Hart sadly showed it could be done at the end of 1999.

HHH accidentally punches Stephanie, then Angle takes HHH out with the hammer!

The Rock retains the title in 24:33 when he pinned HHH. Rock dumps Angle, then the People’s Elbow to the KOed HHH wins it. Considering the match was already screwed up from the start, Rock and HHH saved it and the ending was very good. In fact, they pulled it all off so well people had no idea if Kurt was really hurt until later. Angle then carries Stephanie to the back, continuing that. I will say though, especially as I’m older and I’ve learned more about concussions, that sending Angle back out there kinda scares me. That doesn’t seem like a safe decision. Also, HHH vs. Rock, while good, didn’t have the normal heat it had earlier in year as Angle vs. HHH was the main story here (and a hot one at that) and Rock was just a part of this one. This is especially apparent as the crowd doesn’t buy too much until Angle returns.

The WWF PPVs of 2000 are…pretty awesome it seems. Summerslam was another excellent show with Beniot vs. Jericho, TLC, the main event and Blackman vs. Shane. Historically it put Kurt Angle in his first PPV main event and he somehow shined despite getting legit hurt and not being in 90% of it. TLC also debuted here and is part of WWE today. Once Austin came back booking did get a bit jumbled (as this whole Angle-HHH thing was leading to a HHH face turn which died when he became Rikishi’s accomplice), although that jumbling seemed apparent with Benoit, Kane, Taker and Jericho anyway.

Can’t give it a solid A as there was some stuff here that was meh (Lawler-Tazz, Kat-Terri, Road Dogg-X-Pac) and the main did have some small issues. But it’s still a great show.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW New Blood Rising

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW New Blood Rising
August 13, 2000
Vancouver, BC
Reviewed on March 9, 2014

Background: We’re a little earlier in the trainwreck era of WCW. The Millionaire’s Club vs. New Blood had fallen apart with the Hulk Hogan-Vince Russo Bash At the Beach 2000 debacle. It does make the PPV name a bit funny, although I guess you can argue that the New Blood were now going forward with the promotion. There are way too many negatives at this point that you could read in any WCW book or article or whatever. So, I’ll focus on some positives. I believe there are three.

1. There are some good wrestlers in the company. Maybe they’ll get pushed (lol).

2. There are some hot women in the company.

3. Booker T is the WCW World Champion.

If done correctly, #3 could help WCW a lot. Of course, it wasn’t. Let’s get to this trainwreck of a show.

The Card

I’m a Jeff Jarrett fan…but he never should have been a top guy.

Ugh, Mark Madden.

Ladder Match
Three Count (Evan Karagias, Shannon Moore and Shane Helms) vs. The Jung Dragons (Kaz Hayashi, Jamie-San, Yun Yang)

Three Count has Tank Abbott with them and they sing! I am a Three Count fan, I can’t lie.

Jamie-San is Jamie Knoble.

They are fighting for a gold record AND a recording contract.

For some reason is starts as a six man tag match…no idea why there’s any tagging or anything in a ladder match.

Yang backdrops Moore into a propped ladder…but only his leg hits and that looked like it worked.

Ouch Yang gets crotched on a ladder rung, I don’t remember ever seeing that.

It’s a Dragons Sandwich on a ladder. Moore with the splash, which looked bad.

Dueling Springboard Doomsday Devices, one pro Dragons and one pro 3 Count.

Jamie with the crossbody from the top of a ladder onto the floor and various opponents! Nice.

Tank Abbott is on the apron and a bit distracting…

Helms runs up a step on a ladder to neckbreaker Jamie off. Very nice!

Suplex from the ladder on Hayashi!

Helms superkicks a ladder into Yang! Very nice spots here.

Yang does the Daniel Bryan run up the corner flip…only on a ladder with Jamie behind it! Very nice.

Moore goes from the top to the outside and splashes a ladder to cause a see-saw…that nails Jamie-San and Helms in the face!

Ugly double splash from the top of the ladder to Moore.

Yang gets the gold record! Match isn’t over yet though. Why not just grab the contract too?

Yang falls off the ladder and the record ends up in Abbott’s hands! What was the point then?

Jamie top rope legdrops Karagias when he’s in a ladder sandwich…but did it to his head without any effect from the ladder.

Sick powerbomb from Jamie to Moore off the ladder.

Abbott whipes out both guys going up ladders for the contract.

Three Counts Wins in 11:32. Karagias runs up to get the record contract. I’m confused, so the Dragons get nothing for getting the record? Whatever. Other than Tank Abbott being ridiculously distracting on the apron, this was a good match. It’s not nearly as good as the WWF’s first TLC (which was being run at about the same time frame), but a fun match with some sloppiness to it. Good start to New Blood Rising!

Backstage Filthy Animals at in Commissioner Cat’s office. They want a Tag Title shot on Nitro and wanna referee the match tonight in exchange for helping The Cat beat The Great Muta. Miller says okay but he doesn’t need the help. Disqo tries to be street or something and the Cat throws him out.

Ernest Miller vs. The Great Muta

I wonder how embarrassed The Great Muta is to be there.

The Cat: “Muta, I know you don’t understand English, so let me say this so you understand”….then he proceeds to speak English…what?

Muta with some solid chain wrestling early on.

This match has a lot of kicks.

Here comes Tygress! Remember, the Animals said they would help the Cat.

Nice Dragon Screw from Muta!

GREEN MIST!

Tygress knocks out Muta with a chair. Tygress has now owned Shane Douglas and The Great Muta in the PPVs I’ve watched.

Ernest Miller pins The Great Muta in 6:47. Feliner for the win. Poor Great Muta. Ironically I could see this being a good kick boxing fight, as a wrestling match, it was okay thanks to some Muta stuff.

Buff Bagwell is looking for his mother. Sigh.

Judy Bagwell on a Pole Match
Positively Kanyon vs. Buff Bagwell

It’s really going to be Judy Bagwell on a forklift. I guess that makes more sense?

This is one of the better wrestler impersonations out there (Kanyon as DDP). Surprised Vince McMahon didn’t do a double DDP thing in the InVasion.

Bagwell goes right for the forklift. That actually makes sense.

See, Bagwell playing to the crowd makes no sense here. His mother is on the line, be serious!

They still focus on the broken Bagwell neck of two years earlier, which actually makes sense I guess. It would make more sense with a specific angle in there.

Kanyon takes off a turnbuckle pad!

Kanyon nails a nice neckbreaker.

Kanyon into the exposes corner!

BANG! KANYON CUTTER! Bagwell kicks out!

Here comes David Arquette. I had no idea he was around past Slamboree.

Buff Bagwell pins Kanyon in 6:45. Double Buff Blockbuster to Kanyon and Arquette. Whatever. This whole match was whatever. The gimmick itself is also stupid, but I guess Buff reuniting with his mom was a good moment? Kanyon Cutter to Arquette. Good riddance.

We’ve got a bunch of cops and a stretch limo with Canadian flags outside. It’s Lance Storm. That was pretty awesome to be honest.

Apparently Goldberg was injured in a motorcycle accident last night. They repeat the whole will Goldberg wrestle drama a couple months later at Havoc too.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Kronik© vs. The Perfect Event (Sean Stasiak and Chuck Palumbo) vs. Sean O’Haire and Mark Jindrak vs. The Misfits in Action (Gen. Rection and Cpl. Cajun)

Filthy Animals are here to be the referees. Whatever.

Konnan says the MIA need to be soaked in talent because they are missing a lot. I agree!

Konnan then says Jindrak and O’Haire have no charisma. Correct again, although O’Haire would get some.

I think it’s funny that Kronik use their last names when Crush and Wrath are tons better.

Disqo is the in ring official.

Konnan is going overboard on commentary. Some of the comments are funny, but now he’s burying everyone.

I like how Disco Inferno’s entire WCW career was basically him trying to be cool and failing.

Stasiak hilariously sells a full nelson.

Palumbo botches a side kick on Clarke. Or Clarke messes up. One of the two. Maybe both.

Disqo slow counts Kronik.

Somehow Tygress gets a Bronco Buster in. She’s a ref you know.

Disqo slow counts Cajun as well. It’s a Canadian Count according to Konnan.

Rection just took a shameful bump to the outside.

The Animals clearly want O’Haire and Jindrak to win.

Dark Carnival here. Attack Kronik.

Kronik retains when Clarke pinned Palumbo in 12:22. Double Chokeslam to Palumbo, then Lt. Loco runs in and attacks Disqo and takes the ref shirt. Then he counts the pin for Kronik. Just so you know, Loco is a member of MIA…so he screwed his own team over there. Pretty bad clusterfuck here that I lost track of. You had 8 guys in there + 4 Filthy Animal referees +2 Dark Carnival members (didn’t see the Demon) + 1 Lt. Loco ref run it. That’s 15 guys for fucks sake. And Loco did something non-sensical. What-fucking-ever. The story is that The Animals thought O’Haire and Jindrak would be the easiest to win the titles from tomorrow.

Jeff Jarrett backstage. Bright green shirt is distracting. Talks trash about Booker T.

Strap Match
The Franchise vs. Billy Kidman

Douglas has Torrie Wilson with him. So that’s a good thing.

Apparently you can win this strap match by pin.

I like how Kidman comes without his shirt on. The strap match, you’d think, is the one match where he should wear his shirt.

Mark Madden finally made a comment that made me yell at my screen to shut up. Someething about Kidman failing at pole matches if you know what I mean.

Madden also asks if Torrie put on a couple pounds. Of course Torrie here is thin and beautiful.

Crowd is in this though, huge heat for Douglas, which didn’t exist three months later.

Scott Hudson is even making Torrie is fat jokes? I don’t understand.

Apparently there’s a sex tape in this angle. I’m just gonna focus on the match.

Nice reverse camel clutch snapback from Douglas. This match has been a real bore so far though.

A lot of the commentary is based around praise for them not using the strap. Which Douglas isn’t. So why is this a Strap Match?

Nice leaping hurricanrana from Kidman off the top.

Billy Kidman pins Shane Douglas in 8:22. Kidman hits the Kid Krusher (Killswitch) for the win. Then he spanks Torrie with the strap. Douglas attacks Kidman then decides to HANG Kidman with the strap. Horrible image. Vito runs in to make the save. Mark Madden says that at least Kidman can say he was well hung. Fuck off Mark Madden. Reno runs in to attack Vito. Vito takes him out too. For the match itself, it was pretty boring for the most part…but the crowd was into it. Kind of a waste of Kidman’s high flying ability since he’s tied to the strap. Hanging was unnecessary.

Booker T in the house. He gets attacked by Jarrett by his car. He crushes Booker’s knee with the car door. I like it.

Mud Rip the Clothes Off Match
Major Gunns vs. Miss Hancock

I’m sighing cause I know what happens here.

This match starts in the ring. I guess that’s okay.

How does Major Gunns make a slap look bad? Whatever, this match isn’t about that.

Why is this a wrestling match for.

Why is there a pin attempt and a count? What?

Another pin attempt. I don’t know the rules here.

The wrestling wasn’t absolutely awful I guess.

Stacy does a dance when on the 2nd rope. Awesome.

Hilariously bad set up for a top rope sunset flip. Stacy had to stagger forward.

Stacy is selling a pain in her stomach.

They are getting toward the mud and Gunns is nearly naked. I’m sure I appreciated this more as a teenager.

They’re in the mud!

Major Gunns pins Miss Hancock in 6:43. Stacy dances in the mud…then hurls over. Major Gunns gets the pin. Keibler is still doubled over in pain and David Flair shows up. Major Gunns tries to help her too. They are trying to make this seem like a shoot. Somehow a mud wrestling match began as a normal wrestling match. It was good eye candy, which I guess is the purpose, but we didn’t need all that (not as bad as you would think) wrestling and certainly not this horrible fake shoot storyline.

Interview with the Dark Carnival. Vampiro is like the anti-Great Muta. Vampiro says this is The Demon’s test to see if he can hang with the Juggalo Army.

Now Tony Schiavone talks about how this Miss Hancock thing wasn’t part of this show and all this bullshit. Whatever, let’s keep moving.

The Demon vs. Sting

Sting comes from the rafters. I guess the Owen Hart thing taught Vince Russo nothing.

Sting pins the Demon in 0:52. Stinger Splash, Scorpion Deathdrop for the win. Nice waste of one of your top draws. Vampiro and Muta show up and try to HANG Sting with cable from the ceiling. ANOTHER hanging? Kronik makes the save and Sting leaves. Kronik offers Muta and Vampiro a Tag Title shot later. Woo? What a waste of Sting.

We’re backstage, and Booker is hurt!

WCW US/Canadian Championship
Lance Storm© vs. Mike Awesome

Fat Chick Thriller here…at least his music was good this time.

Canadian crowd marks out for Lance Storm! As they should.

Lance Storm with a great promo here about how the USA thinks they own the world. He’s right you know.

Storm says that Canadian Championship Rule 32B states he can select a special referee. Crowd goes nuts for Bret Hart, chanting “we want Bret”.

Storm announces Jacques Rougeau as the referee. Way to get a fellow CANADIAN booed in Canada WCW. Seriously. And this choice gets even dumber 15 minutes from now.

Canadian National Anthem is always awesome.

Awesome dominating early on here.

Nice superkick from Storm.

Mike Awesome busts out a table.

ECW chant in Canada. Nice.

Awesome slips off the top rope…but recovers nicely with a clothesline.

Great powerbomb after sending Storm sky high! The ref in the ring counts the three…but wait, the Canadian Rulebook states that a 5 count is required!

Nice Alabama Slam from Mike Awesome.

Only a three count on the pin!

Dragon Sleeper on Storm. Scott Hudson wonders if that’s a tribute to Ultimo Dragon because Dragon once held 10 titles and Storm has three. Um…wouldn’t Awesome be the one doing the tribute? Unless that’s a shoot comment.

Storm submits…but WAIT…no submissions in a Canadian Rules Match! That woulda screwed Bret back in the day.

Another three count! No close 4 counts yet though.

Four count by Awesome on Storm!

Awesome Splash. Five count! But WAIT! It’s Texas Death rules. Storm gets a 10 count to answer.

Weakish chair shot by Storm. Never Lance’s specialty.

Four count! Four and a half!

Lance Storm retains the title in 11:28. Both men through a table! BUT WAIT! Whoever gets up first after a table spot wins the match! Rougeau then decks Awesome as he was getting up. Storm wins…and the Canadian crowd pops big!

It’s Bret Hart! Bret comes down and looks disgusted at the cheap way Storm just won…but then all three hug. The crowd pop because it’s Canada…but if this is what was going to happen…

WHY NOT JUST USE BRET AS THE REFEREE?

Anyway, this isn’t that bad, but the problem is how it is booked. It made Lance Storm look awful. He gets beat by Mike Awesome in like five different ways and then can’t even get a legitimate win over Awesome at the end. And since the match wasn’t about Awesome at all, it doesn’t help him either. But it wasn’t that bad. This was a knock-off of Stone Cold vs. Dude Love at Over the Edge 98.

We’re backstage with Kevin Nash! Still no Goldberg. Nash says he cares about two things: money and the belt. “I’m going over Steiner” tonight.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Kronik© vs. The Dark Carnival (The Great Muta and Vampiro)

You know in EWR where you overuse a guy on a show and you get sick of them? That’s how I feel about Vampiro and Muta right now. Shame about Muta, you know, since he’s Muta.

Schiavone and Madden imply that it wasn’t a motorcycle accident that shelved Goldberg, but that something went down backstage. This is going to be really stupid later.

Vampiro looks like he’s trying. So there’s that.

Adams military presses Vampiro…but Vampiro lands on his feet when he wasn’t supposed to clearly. Not a surprise.

Brian Adams as the babyface in peril doesn’t really work.

Adams with the revenge no-sell: a dropkick to the knees.

The Great Muta is really wasted here.

Referee gets MISTED.

Oh god the Harris Bros.

The Great Muta and Vampiro win the titles when Muta pinned Clarke in 9:06. Harris Bros. hit the H-Bomb on Clarke. Muta moonsault for the win. I guess the Harris Bros. wanted revenge on Adams for leaving DOA in 1997? Anyway, this match was boring.

Booker T interview. Jarrett didn’t finish the job. Etc.

#1 Contender to the World Title Match
Kevin Nash vs. Scott Steiner vs. Goldberg (maybe)

GOLDBERG musc!

No Goldberg though.

GOLDBERG music again!

Worst Goldberg sign ever in the crowd. It was on box cardboard.

No Goldberg again.

GOLDBERG’s here with taped ribs.

Wow Nash botches getting into the ring. He stepped over the top rope and his leg got caught.

Some hard hitting action here. It’s nothing exciting, as the crowd busts out a boring chant, but I mean, it’s not horrible or anything.

Kevin Nash goes for the Jackknife…but Goldberg decides to escape. Nash gives Goldberg a perplexed look and Goldberg bails. Russo meets Goldberg near the entrance and Goldberg says fuck you. REALITY.

Let the shoot conversation commence.

There’s some unintentional comedy here, as the commentators talk about how Goldberg left because going up for the Jackknife would make him look bad, but Nash and Scott Steiner are pros and will improvise a finish. Nash and Steiner. Most professional wrestlers out there for sure.

Steiner just shoves the ref as Midajah low blows Nash.

Nash low blow. Midajah comes back and elbow drops Nash in the nuts. That was unique.

Awful DDT from Nash. Madden says he’s never seen Nash do a DDT. It’s obvious why.

Kevin Nash wins when he pins Scott Steiner in 10:48. Jackknife for the win! Obviously the shoot stuff is garbage and stupid, but the match itself isn’t as bad as you’d expect. Once again, it’s nothing particularly good, but not really bad either.

WCW World Championship
Booker T© vs. Jeff Jarrett

Booker’s selling the knee from earlier.

Jarrett attacks before the bell!

Booker with a nice blocked dropkick powerbomb spot. Although it was pretty early for that.

I do like Booker doing all his kicks and high risk moves…then selling the leg when he does them. Good storytelling.

I guess there’s No DQ here, as Jarrett smashes Booker’s knee with a chair.

Jarrett drops too early on the Scissors Kick…but whatever, SPINAROONI…and Booker accidentally knocks out the ref with the spinarooni. Seriously?

Harlem Sidekick….NO Jarrett smashes Booker’s leg with a guitar! I thought that was great to be honest.

Figure Four! Ref is back. Apparently doesn’t notice the guitar remnants though.

Jarrett holds onto the hold the literal max time after the rope break. A little too long.

Ref tries to help Booker up…and Jarrett accidentally nails the ref with the title.

Booker sets up a table on the outside. Book-End through the table…but it didn’t really look good.

Jarrett with a weak chairshot to the ref…thinking he was Booker.

Stroke on an open chair…which didn’t look great either. 3rd ref in, Booker kicks out.

Horrible swinging neckbreaker on the chair by Booker. Two count.

Booker T retains the title when he pinned Jarrett in 14:54. Book-End for the win. Okay match, weirdness and screw ups at the end kinda ruined it. Good that Booker was getting an established 2000 title reign…since no one else in WCW was.

There are some positives in this thing, although certainly more negatives. First I will say this is better than Halloween Havoc 2000 for sure. There is a good match for the opener, a decent Storm match and a decent main event. The only atrocious things on this show is the Stacy Keibler thing and the two different hanging attempts. Even the Goldberg stuff…it may be stupid but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Booker vs. Jarrett is a decent main event. I will say this though.

They should have run a legit 25 minute Storm vs. Awesome Canadian Title Match as the main. Have Bret Hart be at ringside or a commentator or something. Lance Storm was megaover here and obviously so was Bret.

A lot of bad stuff, some horrible stuff, some decent stuff and a little good. It’s enough to avoid the flat out F, but it was close.

Final Grade: D

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Judgment Day 2000

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

Judgment Day 2000
May 21, 2000
Louisville, KY
Reviewed on April 8, 2014

Background: WCW was just coming off a period where David Arquette was the World Champ. That alone should tell you everything about were the WWF vs. WCW war was at.

This is an interesting time period for the WWF. Stone Cold’s future was in doubt. Other than Backlash, we hadn’t see Stone Cold and again wouldn’t until September. Vince had put all of his eggs in two new baskets: The Rock and Triple H. The Rock was more natural here, he was already megaover and there was a good chance that if Austin never had to take time off that Vince would have run with him in 2000 anyway. HHH was more of the question mark. He was already being groomed as a top heel in 1999, in fact he was champ when Austin went out, but it always did (and still does) feel a little forced. It’s not as if the WWF had a choice though. They needed new top guys. Austin and Undertaker were hurt, Mick Foley was retired, Kane still wasn’t quite there and Big Showwasn’t grabbing the opportunities being thrown at him. So Rock vs. HHH was a natural on top.

In terms of the in ring product…the WWF was arguable in the best shape ever. Acquisitions such as the Radicalz, Chris Jericho and the Dudley Boyz bolstered the midcard. In addition homegrown talent like Edge, Christian, the Hardyz and Kurt Angle were just as good as those acquisitions if not better. Gone were the days of guys like DOA and Bluedust piling up in the midcard. The WWF arguably had the best pure wrestling in the world at this point.

WWF was now rolling. Let’s see how it continued to go.

The Card

McMahon-Helmsley Faction runs down the card for the most part. They also make Hardcore Champ Gerald Brisco get them coffee. Good stuff.

Brisco gets attacked by the Headbangers! He gets away I think.

Totally forgot about the HBK as the ref dynamic.

Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian vs. Rikishi and Too Cool

Angle stutters a lot in his promo.

Story: E and C had just turned heel and joined up with Angle. Too Cool was chasing them for the tag belts.

5 Second Pose! The Jug Band!

It’s amazing how in the span of a month Edge and Christian went from bland faces to amazing heels.

Crowd is hot for all six guys here.

Real creative save from Grandmaster on the irish whip to the corner to Scotty.

It’s amazing how over Too Cool was.

Huge Rikishi chant.

Angle gets the Stinkface!

Edge even had a spear in 2000, how about that.

Rikishi and Too Cool win when Rikishi pinned Edge in 9:46. Rikishi goes for the Rikishi Driver, but Christian whacks him with the ring bell. Grandmaster though drops the Hip Hop Drop…and Angle is just too late to break up the pin. Really fun opener. Matters so much when all six guys are over.

Michael Cole interrogates HBK.

WWF European Championship
Eddie Guerrero© vs. Perry Saturn vs. Dean Malenko

Story: Well, the Radicalz got their contracts, and now it is each man for themselves. Guerrero was with Chyna here…and was the face.

The WWE fans never really got Malenko or Saturn.

Match is wrestled well, but no one cares about anyone that isn’t Eddie here.

Top rope gut buster from Malenko to Eddie! Nice!

Saturn just steals everyone’s moves.

Eddie Guerrero wins when he pins Malenko in 7:57. Chyna takes out Saturn with a shot with the flowers…then drops Malenko face first on them. Of course there’s a pipe in there. Eddie rolls Dean up for the win. Fans were not really into it, but popped for Eddie’s win. Decent match, but disappointing considering who was involved.

Replay of Brisco winning the Hardcore title when Crash was sleeping.

Now we get Brisco all paranoid. I don’t like 24/7, but the Brisco stuff was hilarious. Brisco shits himself when he sees himself in the mirror…and then punches the mirror anyway. Great stuff.

Falls Count Anywhere
Big Show vs. Shane McMahon

Story: Big Show went Hollywood and wanted to have fun after Wrestlemania. Shane was pissed that Show was eliminated 1st in the title match at Mania which embarrassed Shane. Shane called Show a fat, unmotivated slob. Considering how this played out, I wonder how much real life played into this feud.

Big Show has that Aggression theme. I actually liked it for him here.

Show beats the crap out of Shane for a few minutes…but here comes the Bossman!

T and A out here as well to help Shane.

Funny moment as Big Show breaks a part of the stage to hit Shane…but he sells it as something really heavy. A few seconds later Test picks it up like it’s nothing.

Shane McMahon pins Big Show in 7:12. Shane tries to escape by climbing up the titantron, but Show catches him. Bull Buchanan comes in and beats Show up with a nightstick. Shane pushes a huge amp on Show’s leg, then smashes a cinderblock on Show’s head for the win. I usually hate Shane McMahon matches, but I like this one. Shane McMahon should never have any offense in matches against top guys, and he didn’t here. This was the only way he could win. Other than the Conspiracy angle a couple months later, Show was practically gone till Royal Rumble 2001. He was supposed to lose weight, but he returned fatter somehow.

Brisco tries to get a moment of sleep, but the refs move in to win the title. Brisco was upset.

HBK-HHH backstage discussion. Quite casual.

Intercontinental Championship: Submission Match
Chris Benoit© vs. Chris Jericho

Story: Jericho’s been chasing Benoit’s title. Jericho messed Benoit’s eye up at Backlash. Benoit asked for the submission match. So what’s the better submission, the Walls or the Crossface? Benoit has a brace because Hardcore Holly smashed Benoit’s knee with a chair on Smackdown.

Benoit works on the shoulder of course.

Jericho goes for a pin! Know the rules Jericho!

Jericho gets the brace off!

Jericho then beats the crap out of Benoit with the brace!

Awesome Walls of Jericho in the ropes! Benoit screams in pain!

Benoit counters a Walls with a brace shot to the face.

Chris Benoit makes Chris Jericho pass out to retain the title in 13:27. Benoit has the Crossface. Jericho tries to escape, but Benoit turns it into a choke crossface and Jericho passes out and the ref calls it. While I thought the finish was bad ass at one time…obviously it’s kinda uncomfortable to watch now because of what Benoit ended up doing. Anyway, match was hard hitting and quite good…and the worst Jericho and Benoit would have in the WWE. Which says a lot about those two. But good match, told a good story.

More Hardcore Champ action! He beats up a couple of vendors. Proactive champ!

Rock tells HBK that he better call it down the middle. They were playing off HBK screwing The Rock back on the first Smackdown.

Tables Match
DX (X-Pac and Road Dogg) vs. the Dudley Boyz

Story here: The Dudleyz wanted to put Tori through a table. Tori actually splashes Bubba through one. And here we are.

I love the Aggression DX theme.

Tori distracts the ref when the Dudleyz do the Wassup headbutt (pre-wassup though). I hate that. It’s a tables match, who cares if the ref sees?

Again I don’t get the normal tag rules. Lawler points out that the Bubba should just run over the ref. He’s 100% right you know.

Road Dogg drives D-Von with the Armstrong Slam through a table. That’s 1 Dudley.

Bubba powerbombs X-Pac through. So 1 vs. 1 table wise.

Bubba AND Road Dogg hip toss the ref through a table! GREAT! Ref was annoying.

Hardcore Champ Brisco is here.

3D through a table…but the ref is out!

DX wins in 10:55. Bubba tries to put Tori through a table, but Brisco saves her. Ref sees the X-Factor through the table and DX wins! Hated the structure of the match…as a regular tag match made no sense here. But the finish was fun and set-up a “rematch” (if you include dumpsters) the next month. Brisco gets driven through a table. No one tries to take his title though.

“As I lay me down to sleep…my soul is mine to keep etc. etc.” His Judgment Day is Coming! I wonder what that means?!?!

WWF Championship: 60 Minute Iron Man Match
The Rock© vs. Triple H

Story here: This was the feud of the first half of 2000. Rock vs. HHH. Rock won the title at Backlash. This is the rematch. HBK as the ref was supposed to play off what he did on the first Smackdown and the fact he was in the first ever 60 minute Iron Man match at Mania 12.

They kept the Finkel botch in this version! Finkel announced HHH as the WWF World Champion here. I think it is said he was reading the result.

HHH tells the Faction to go to the back…because he wants to do this on his own.

Lawler’s telling a great story early on about conserving energy.

The Rock hits a Rock Bottom out of nowhere in 10 minutes for the first fall. That is the only thing I dislike about this match…HHH shouldn’t go down to a random Rock Bottom in 10 minutes.

Figure Four by the Rock!

HHH gets his first fall at the 25 minute mark. Makes a lot more sense, as Rock can go down to a Pedigree in 25 minutes.

HHH rolls up a dazed Rock for a 2nd fall! Great booking there! Use that clock!

When we pass the 30 minute mark, Lawler says this is the longest match both Rock and HHH have ever had. Well, they both have lasted 50 minutes + in Royal Rumbles at this point…

Piledriver! HHH goes up 3-1! I like how once that Pedigree hit Rock’s health was very low and doesn’t recover. That’s how an Iron Man match should work. Half the match still to go.

The way this match is being built, every move, even a sleeper, matters. Just awesome.

They start to build up HBK not allowing HHH to break the rules. This will matter soon.

Floatover DDT gets a 2nd fall for the Rock. It was botched though, and just a regular DDT. Weird how I like HHH’s falls a lot better than Rock’s.

HHH blasts Rock with a chair in HBK’s clear sight at the 46 minute mark! We are tied! And HBK called it!

HHH then pins Rock to get the 4-3 advantage. Amazing spot. Fans got excited for Rock to tie…just for him to be in a worst spot now. Great stuff.

Sleeper works this time for HHH! Two fall lead with 13 minutes to go!

HHH’s Harley Race flip takes out a camera man. Still, can Rock get 2 falls in 12 minutes?

HHH kicks out of a superplex…which was masterful as it looked like a must win for Rock there.

Rock Pedigrees HHH on the Announcer’s Table! It gets a count out and Rock is within 1 fall! HHH makes it back just in time to avoid a 2nd fall. Three minutes to go!

McMahons are back!

People’s Elbow with 2 minutes left…we are tied!

All hell breaks loose now. HBK takes out Shane and Vince, but he gets knocked off the apron. DX gets in there…but the nursery rhymes begin. The Undertaker has return and he kicks the crap out of everyone! Huge pop!

HHH wins the title, winning 6 to 5. With 8 seconds to go, Taker chokeslams HHH, which HBK does see and later segments would show video evidence of this. I do think the finish is a little messed up, but it works enough. HBK calls for the DQ, and HHH wins. Incredible match. Best of Rock’s career. One of the best of HHH’s. Still the best Iron Man match in WWE history. It was sixty minutes of non-stop action that actually told a story throughout. Undertaker’s return was also a huge moment.

This PPV owns. You’ve got no bad matches and only one that’s merely ok (Tables). Opener was good. Euro was decent. Shane vs. Show was booked correctly and entertaining. IC was very good. Main event was absolutely top notch with a classic sports entertainment finish. Match also showed that Rock could go sixty minutes, which was a damn surprise…and I’m sure HHH gained tons of respect after this one.

Historically, this show didn’t matter other than the Undertaker comeback (Rock would take back the title the next month, and Benoit and Jericho didn’t move up the card yet). But sometimes a damn good show is just a damn good show. Bonus points for awesome main event, of course.

Final Grade: A

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Royal Rumble 2000

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Royal Rumble 2000
January 23, 2000
New York, NY
Reviewed on January 7, 2015

You knew WCW was dead when the WWF’s biggest problem wasn’t their competition anymore. No, the WWF’s problem was that for the first time in this wrestling boom, they were left without Stone Cold Steve Austin.

After Survivor Series, the main event seemed really thin without Austin and an injured Undertaker. Big Show had won the WWF Title, but was in a midcard feud with the Big Bossman. Mankind had gotten ridiculously out of shape, and was busy in tag teams with Al Snow. Kane had lost some of his luster for sure stemming from the teaming and now feuding with X-Pac angle. Only Triple H and The Rock seemed poised for the very top at this point. Someone had to replace Austin at the top, and who better than the Rock?

But the WWF built the 2000 Royal Rumble so well that none of this mattered. First off was due to the hard work of Mick Foley. Foley was debating about ending his career and wanted a last run as a babyface against HHH. Vince initially shot it down, telling Mick he was too fat (“Mick, you’re huge”) at this point and it wouldn’t work. But when he realized Big Show wasn’t ready for the very top yet and the crowd wasn’t there for him, he decided to go with Foley vs. HHH at the Rumble. This made tons of sense as well, as The Rock seemed like an obvious Royal Rumble winner. I assume Undertaker, who was due to return at the Rumble, would have been the Rock’s biggest hurdle, but Taker hurt his arm in rehab and wasn’t able to return yet. Suddenly, with a motivated Mick Foley, the Royal Rumble seemed like a bad ass show.

The Card

Awesome opening video. You know a Rumble card is built well when the World Title match is just as hyped as the Rumble match itself.

Kurt Angle vs. ???

Angle had been on a winning streak since his debut at Survivor Series. He had been an entertaining heel since his debut for sure.

There had been Tazz videos on RAW and Smackdown over the past few weeks. So it’s not like the opponent was really in doubt.

Angle runs down Patrick Ewing, with his 100% correct assessment that the Knicks can’t win a title with him.

The crowd pops HUGE for Tazz.

One thing that was absolutely true and was half the reason Tazz never made it as a top guy: he was too small, and he wasn’t a Benoit type.

Belly to belly off the top gets Tazz a close two.

Tazz suplexes Angle all around for a minute. See, the idea of “keeping someone strong” is bs sometimes. This didn’t hurt Angle one bit.

Tazz makes Angle pass out in 3:10. Tazz locks on the Tazzmission and Angle passes out. The angle is weird here, as King and JR call it a choke and not a sleeper, giving Kurt an out in regards to the undefeated streak. Angle does a stretcher job. Fun match that got the point across. A great moment too.

For the record, the other thing that killed Tazz was when Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko showed up the next week. Became hard to care about Tazz’s debut at that point.

Tag Team Tables Match
The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz

This is when Terri was with the Hardyz. The Hardyz made themselves (despite a previous tag title reign) with the tag team ladder match back at No Mercy. This is the first ever Tag Tables Match.

We get a PG version of the Dudley ECW promo. Bubba Ray says his hero is John Rocker. Rocker of course was the Atlanta Braves closer who said bad things about New Yorkers.

Jeff justs nails Bubba with a chair. Ouch!

Bubba Ray Dudley throws a table into Jeff as he was running off the barricade! Nice.

Matt and Jeff drive Bubba through a table! Jeff off the top rope and Matt off a ladder. This was on the floor as well!

Awesome spot here. D-Von moves out of the way as Matt tries to drive him through a table and Matt goes flying though. But then D-Von moved to where another table was and Jeff tried to drive him though, but HE missed too.

Dudleyz put a table on the steps in the ring…and Matt gets powerbombed through!

Random genius booking about these matches: the fact that when one member of a team goes through a table they DON’T get sent to the back leaving a handicap match.

First ever table stack, but it’s Bubba who goes flying through as Matt nails him in the head with a steel chair. First time we’ve ever seen that.

The Hardy Boyz win in 10:19. Matt puts D-Von on two tables, and Jeff hits the Swanton Bomb off the balcony for the win. Awesome. One of the matches that led to the TLC era. Also one of matches that really put the nail in the coffin for ECW, as this was a well produced version of the balcony stuff ECW had done in the past.

While I cringe at concussion based angles, Kurt’s pretty hilarious here with “did I win? Did I win? I’m undefeated?”

Bikini Contest: Jacqueline, BB, Ivory, Terri, Mae Young, The Kat and Luna

Ugh. Terri famously steals the show here, only for Mae Young’s top to come off and for her to be crowned the winner.

It’s interesting to see the state of the WWF Divas (well they weren’t called that yet) after Sable but before Lita and Trish Stratus. I mean outside of Chyna, the most popular women were Kat and Terri.

Thank god that horriblness is over. That might have been the worst moment in WWE and Madison Square Garden history. Mark Henry did make the save.

I will say Lawler’s comments about the Kat are a lot funnier in retrospect.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho© vs. Chyna© vs. Hardcore Holly

Yeah, Jericho and Chyna were both the IC Champion. Not a very memorable moment for the IC title for sure. Jericho and Chyna can’t decide who gets to bring the title out, so Earl Hebner does.

I can’t remember for the life of me how Hardcore Holly got dragged into this.

Chyna gets booed by the MSG crowd while there’s a big pop for Jericho.

I do think it’s a shame Chyna was nuts, because I think there was a lot of money to be made with her.

Holly going for a hurricanrana was begging for a Walls counter. I mean really.

I don’t think Chyna is trying. Gets tossed on the outside and doesn’t land correctly. Then misses a dropkick when trying to kick a chair in Holly’s face.

Double top rope splash! Thankfully Holly kicks out.

Chris Jericho becomes undisputed IC Champion when he pinned Chyna in 7:31. Bulldog and lionsault for the win. I think there’s a spot there where Jericho doesn’t know what to do, but either it’s edited or it’s not as obvious as Jericho made it out to be. Anyway, the Chyna-Jericho angle wouldn’t end till a couple of months later when she went with Eddie.

Rock promo. As long as he can get by Mosh and Crash, he’s unstoppable in the Rumble!

WWF World Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outlaws© vs. The Acolytes

Fun fact: this would be the last pre A.P.A Acolyte match.

Ref bump 2 minutes in. Okay then.

The New Age Outlaws retain when Gunn pinned Bradshaw in 2:35. Fameasser for the win. This got cut for time obviously, as HHH vs. Cactus Jack is getting a half hour. BUT, we couldn’t cut a minute or two off of Mae Young?

WWF World Championship: Street Fight
Triple H© vs. Cactus Jack

Amazing build for this one. HHH fired Foley during the beginning of the McMahon-Helmsley era, but The Rock forced a Foley comeback. Mankind, in what today is still a top 10 Smackdown moment, transformed into Cactus Jack and got this street fight. HHH promised that what Rock did to Foley at the 99 Rumble in the I Quit match will pale in comparison to what happens at the 2000 Rumble.

We get the early establishment that HHH isn’t completely scared of Jack…but he has to make sure he has a chair with him when challenging him.

Legdrop on HHH’s face with a chair. Ouch.

Some really great brawling early on. Suplexes on wooden pallets and garbage cans.

Barbie in the house. That would be Foley’s nickname for his 2×4 with barbed wire.

Earl Hebner takes Barbie and hides it behind the Spanish announce table…but when Jack threatens Hebner he gives it up! Nice creativity you don’t see anymore.

Jack beats the living shit out of HHH with Barbie, including a head shot that leads to HHH bleeding all over the place.

Jack goes for the piledriver on the desk, but HHH counters with a backdrop.

Some more violence and out come the handcuffs…shades of last year’s Rumble.

Wicked chair shot that breaks the chair…and Foley stays on his feet! He ends up taking another shot and crashing to the floor with no way to protect himself, being in handcuffs and all.

Underrated great spot here: Jack is begging HHH to smack him with the chair, and HHH goes to do so…only for The Rock to come out and nail HHH with a chair and leave. Jack gets freed by a cop.

Piledriver on the desk happens this time and it doesn’t break. It looked like it killed HHH though.

As if this wasn’t violent enough…thumbtacks!

Jack gets backdropped on the tacks!

Jack kicks out of the pedigree…and the crowd goes NUTS.

Triple H retains by pin in 26:55. HHH follows up with a Pedigree on the thumbtacks! The pin follows and with that, an argument for both Mick Foley’s and HHH’s best matches ever. HHH gets stretchered out…but somehow Cactus Jack isn’t done with him. HHH takes another shot from Barbie for good measure.

An incredible, knock down, drag out violent brawl. This match is the one that turned HHH into upper midcarder ridiculously hanging with Austin and Rock to bonafide bad ass top heel here. It’s also jarring watching the last eight months of Mankind matches…then watching this one. Incredible all around.

2000 Royal Rumble

D’Lo Brown is #1 and Grandmaster Sexay is #2. Not quite Austin and McMahon.

JR with the comment of the night. Lawler: “Grandmaster Sexay? I thought he was luckier than this.” JR: “Some say Grandmaster was unlucky at birth”. Sexay is Lawler’s son, of course.

#3 is Mosh. Rock was worried about him!

It always seemed weird that the Headbangers didn’t make it in the Attitude Era.

Taka Michinoku and Funaki run out. The story here is that they were angered they weren’t in the Rumble. They are taken care of quickly.

#4 is Christian. He would have a big 2000.

#5 is Rikishi. Rikishi had been getting big reactions and got put over with a near win over HHH for the title. A long run here could really cement him as a major player. He gets a huge reaction here and dumps Mosh right away.

Rikishi gets rid of Christian right away too. He tosses D’Lo, and then we are left with RIkishi and Grandmaster.

#6 is Scotty 2 Hotty. In a memorable moment, they dance. Right at the end Rikishi tosses Scotty and Grandmaster, stating it’s just business. Good stuff.

Steve Blackman is #7 to face off with Rikishi. Rikishi gets him out in a minute.

Viscera is #8, creating the monster vs. monster show down and stopping Rikishi’s momentum.

Maybe not, Rikishi eliminates Vis on his own! #9 is the Bossman.

Bossman stops Rikishi’s momentum a really smart way…by not getting into the ring until #10, Test comes down. Test and Bossman had a feud of some kind I think here.

#11 is The British Bulldog. #12 is Gangrel. Not really a lot happening here.

Funaki and Taka run in again…and again are tossed out. Taka takes a crazy bump over the top there and gets knocked out.

Good reaction for #13, Edge, but really outside of Rikishi this has been a really weak first half of the Rumble.

#14 is Mr. Bob Backlund! JR with another great line: “What the hell is Bob Backlund doing here?”

Everyone tosses Rikishi, really killing any star power the ring had. Still, a star making performance from Rikishi there.

Crowd erupts for #15, which is Chris Jericho. He dropkicks Backlund out.

The Rock’s other fear, #16 is Crash Holly!

#17 is Chyna. She suplexes Jericho out…and Bossman eliminates her quickly. Lame.

#18 is Faarooq. At least he’s fresh! Mean Street Posse run in, which leads to Faarooq’s elimination from the Bossman.

#19 is Road Dogg. #20 is Al Snow. We’re waiting for Rock and Big Show here.

Road Dogg gets the Bulldog out.

#21 is Val Venis. Funaki is back…but he is gone once again.

#22 is Prince Albert. He and the Bossman have an issue and they go at it. Edge is gone as well.

This is Rumble where Road Dogg held onto the bottom rope the whole time. Genius stuff.

#23 is Hardcore Holly.

#24 is FINALLY The Rock. Gets rid of Bossman right away.

#25 is Billy Gunn.

The Rock eliminates his biggest rival: Crash Holly.

#26 is the Big Show. The main players are here.

Big Show kicks Test out of the Rumble, and Gangrel is next.

#27 is Bradshaw. The Posse wastes no time in attacking Bradshaw. Bradshaw takes care of them, but the Outlaws dump him.

#28 is Kane. Funny thing here: the build-up basically told us Show or Rock was winning this thing, but on Smackdown the WWF must have realized they needed to make it seem someone else could win, thus, Kane won a three man battle royal between him, Rock and Show. WWF really didn’t know how to book Kane without Undertaker being involved.

Kane gets rid of Val.

#29 is Godfather. Always an easy pop.

Kane gets rid of Albert.

Funaki is back for a fourth time! And he’s gone again.

Lawler took way too much pleasure in Taka getting hurt.

#30 is X-Pac. Your winner is in the ring (he was before this too). I believe X-Pac won a match for #30.

Hardcore Holly is gone. As is the Godfather.

Rock gets rid of Snow. Billy Gunn dumps his partner. Kane gets rid of him too.

Kane, Big Show, Rock and X-Pac.

Rock tosses X-Pac, but ref was dealing with Kane and the Outlaws on the outside. Interesting they used the cheating angle here.

Big powerslam from Kane to the Show! But X-Pac gets rid of him!

Big Show military presses X-Pac and he’s gone. Rock vs. Big Show.

The Rock wins in 51:54. Big Show chokeslams Rock, then takes his time to toss him. Rock counters though and hangs onto the top rope…and Big Show crashes to the floor. Rock cuts a promo, but Big Show attacks!

I found this to be a pretty weak Rumble overall. Other than Rikishi’s run, the first 2/3rds of it is a whole lot of nothing. Just midcarder after midcarder after midcarder (with Bob Backlund!). Still, everything after the Rock showed up was hot, and the right man won (kinda, the storyline would be that Rock’s feet actually hit, allowing Big Show to get a rematch with him at No Way Out…which led to the 4 Way at Mania).

Average Rumble aside…this is one of those times the rest of the show on the Rumble card was really fantastic. Opener was a great moment, Tag Tables was awesome, World Title match was incredible. If there wasn’t some random garbage in there (tag titles and Mae Young), this would be a clear easy A. But it’s still not much worse than that.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Mayhem ’99

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW Mayhem 99
November 21, 1999
Toronto, Ontario, CA
Reviewed on March 20, 2014

Background: Twelve months before this Vince Russo was the primary booker for the Survivor Series 98 Deadly Game tournament…which was average at best. I’m sure he one of the first things he wanted to do was re-create that idea in WCW…considering that is one of the first things he did. I don’t think the idea is terrible…but the tournament itself was a bit of a mess. Still, the Russo era had begun.

Let’s talk a little WCW 99. At this point the WWF had run away with the Monday Night Wars, and WCW hiring Russo was their answer. The issue with WCW was that the whole creating new stars thing wasn’t happening. Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Sting, Randy Savage and the “addition” of Sid Vicious were WCW’s main storyline throughout the summer. Well, Hogan, Sting, Nash and Savage had been on top for years now. It was time to change. Sid wasn’t (and never is) the answer. Thing is WCW had the new guys! Bill Goldberg was being wasted. Goldberg should have been at the very top, but somehow was fighting Rick Steiner or The Jersey Triad. Speaking of the Triad, Diamond Dallas Page got about a month on top (turning heel no less) before being shunted right back to the midcard. Bret Hart too was absolutely wasted in the first half of 1999. Hart may have not been a fresh face…but he would have been fresh in WCW’s main event.

To quickly explain why there’s a World Title tournament in the first place: Sting beat Hulk Hogan for the title when Hogan just laid down (UGH!). Somehow a Goldberg-Sting match happened at Havoc and Goldberg won the title. Sting attacked a ref and said he never agreed to defend the title but JJ Dillion stripped Sting of the belt because of that attack. Don’t know the story of why Goldberg lost a first round match to Bret Hart. Anyway, that’s how we are here. We are down to the semi-finals. Benoit vs. Jarrett andBret vs. Sting. This group of four is actually exciting!

The Card

We get a recap of the tournament. I missed the Hart-Goldberg explanation. 2/3rd of the matches seemed to have some crazy stip or interference, but that’s how we got to Jarrett, Benoit, Bret and Sting.

WCW World Title Tournament: Semi-Final
Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit

Jarrett had just turned up in WCW after leaving the WWF in October. Benoit is someone fans everywhere wanted to see get a chance at the top. Great having these two in this position.

We’re in Canada, so obviously fans are really hot for Benoit.

We’re getting Tornado DDTs and Superplexes early on here.

This is a pretty fun opener. I don’t get the high impact moves earlier.

Oh god Creative Control is here. That’s Ron and Don Harris of course.

Nice false finish with the sunset flip counter from Benoit.

Chris Benoit advances when he pins Jeff Jarrett in 9:27. Benoit has it won after a Swandive Heabutt, but one of the Creative Control members breaks it up. Jarrett gets control as a result and his the Stroke…but Dustin Rhodes shows up and breaks that up. Creative Control tries to nail Benoit with a guitar, but Benoit gets it and smashes Jarrett with it for the win. Pretty solid opener (even if the finish is overbooked nonsense), and crowd was very into it because of Benoit and Canada. I’d say Jarrett is a step or two behind Benoit in the ring…but who wasn’t really?

Creative Control beat down Benoit afterwards.

Jarrett and Creative Control beat down Disco Inferno for no reason. I guess they are frustrated!

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Disco Inferno© vs. Evan Karagias

$25,000 grand apparently on the line too.

Yikes. Not exactly Malenko vs. Mysterio here. Or even Chavo vs. Helms.

Madusa is with Karagias. Talk about plastic.

Disco comes out selling the beatdown from earlier.

That’s Tony Marinara, or Tony Mamaluke with Disco.

Marinara’s commentary is awful. Worst fake Italian accent ever. I also don’t remember any of this.

Match is boring. Fans start chanting boring. They got it right!

A lot of the commentary is about the $25,000 being worth a lot to Disco, as if it is his life. I guess being Cruiserweight Champ doesn’t pay?

Evan Karagias wins the title in 8:28. Madusa slaps Disco. Marinara tries to hit on Madusa, but Karagias confronts. Disco accidentally nails Marinara with a chair. Karagias gets a crossbody for the win. To think the Cruiserweight Division would be worse off two months later. This sucked all around. By the way, why not just steal Little Guido from ECW for the Marinara role? Would have been a lot better.

Bret Hart is here!

The off screen Powers that Be. Of course it’s Russo. He admonishes Jarrett for not winning the WCW title tonight.

Norman Smiley interview…and of course he screams when a sound is made!

WCW Hardcore Title Match
Norman Smiley vs. Brian Knobbs

This is to crown the first ever Hardcore Champ. No idea about the story.

Smiley has a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey on (actually he has the whole hockey gear on EXCEPT a helmet. Smart). I guess he’s the face!

A lot of Knobbs in a garbage can. Feels about right.

Some really bad shots with garbage can lids here.

Norman Smiley wins the title by pin in 7:27. Creative ending spot! Knobbs whips Norman into an elevator but misses an avalanche. Jimmy Hart, Knobbs’ manager tries to hit Smiley with a garbage can but the elevator closes. He reopens it…but accidentally hits Knobbs! Smiley gets the win. Match was a poor version of what the WWF was doing at the time. Just a lot of you hit me I hit you…but Jimmy Hart does steal the show a bit with the food throwing and ending. I would say that this is the way to use Knobbs.

Knobbs throws Jimmy Hart into some food afterwards.

Revolution promo. Gonna make the Filthy Animals extinct like the dinosaurs!

Animals respond. A lot lamer than the Revolution promo.

Tony Mariana tells Disco that on Nitro he’s bringing the boys…and Disco thinks he’s a dead man.

The Revolution (Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko and Asya) vs. The Filthy Animals (Eddy Guerrero, Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson)

When the Radicalz collide!

This is an elimination match.

Saturn takes out his fellow future Radicalz with an Asai Moonsault to the outside!

Asya just takes out Kidman with a clothesline.

Somehow this match has lost all flow.

Eddy accidentally elbows Kidman, and Saturn eliminates him with a roll up. In three minutes. Huge Eddy chants though.

For some reason Malenko isn’t finishing his moves well. Like he doesn’t want to hurt Guerrero in real life or something.

Huge vertical suplex by Asya to Guerrero.

Guerrero pins Malenko with a hurricanrana.

Saturn accidentally kicks Asya, and Guerrero eliminates her with the frog splash. Funny enough, the Filthy Animal theme accidentally plays for a second.

Saturn makes Eddy submit to the Rings of Saturn. Shane Douglas, idiot he is, claims that Eddy tapped. If you saw the Rings of Saturn, you’see why that made no sense.

Saturn vs. Torrie!

The Revolution wins when Saturn pins Torrie at 10:55. Saturn hits a low blow and Torrie sells it (commentators wonder if that hurts a woman) and gets the pin. No wonder he left in two months. Somehow (considering the participants) the match was a mess. Only Eddy Guerrero seemed to want to be there. Also, obligatory Asya is a Chyna ripoff statement. It’s even in the name.

Creative Control and Jeff Jarrett attacks Buff Bagwell!

Retirement Match
Curt Hennig vs. Buff Bagwell

It’s really only Hennig’s career on the line I believe. Same as Flair’s 2008 retirement deal. Of course Hennig was a heel here, so I’m not sure how it was supposed to work.

We get Creative Control and Jarrett instead of Bagwell and they attack Hennig. But then Bagwell comes in to chase them off. Not sure about what sense that made.

Another boring match. I assume Hennig wasn’t into anything at this point either. Crowd with some boring chants.

Buff Bagwell ends Curt Hennig’s career by pin in 7:47. Buff Blockbuster for the win. Fans do give Hennig a standing ovation. Of course, there’s no reason to really buy this…heck Schiovane and Heenan give it a half-assed effort to. Hennig was back with a few weeks I think. Match was boring. Nothing happened.

Heel Sting promo! He brings up a good point that he shouldn’t have lost the title in the first place.

WCW World Title Tournament: Semi-Final
Bret Hart vs. Sting

Bret comes out with a Wayne Gretzky jersey.

Personal gut feeling here: I always wondered if Bret told WCW he wasn’t coming back unless he got the belt put on him after Owen died.

This is really Shades of Grey Sting…as he did get screwed by the Powers that Be.

This is the only crowd to probably hate Sting…and it took Bret Hart and Canada to get it done.

Bret gets the referee on a top rope ax smash.

Luger’s out here.

Bret then attacks Luger! Sharpshooter!

Ref calls for the bell! DQs Sting because Luger and Hart were going at it.

Bret wants it to keep going. And he succeeds. Match restarted.

Bret Hart advances by making Sting submit in 9:27. Scorpion reversed into the Sharpshooter. Didn’t need the Luger run-in, but it helped make Bret look like a solid face. He get a handshake afterwards, which I think makes Sting a face? Match wasn’t much unfortunately, but Bret got a strong win at least. Bret vs. Benoit in Canada!

Luger says Bret hurt his neck. Says he can’t go tonight.

Dog Collar Match
Vampiro vs. Berlyn

Vampiro is announced from Toronto. No reaction.

Here comes OKLAHOMA!

Berlyn nails the ref with the collar. Somehow Jerry Only and The Wall are involved.

Jerry Only can’t even do a suplex. Maybe because he’s not a wrestler.

Vampiro makes Berlyn submit in 4:57. Camel clutch with the chain for the win. Horrible. Berlyn never even wore the Collar. It was more of a tornado tag than anything. Wall walked out of Berlyn. Terrible match that made no sense. Dr. Death attacks Jerry Only and Vampiro afterwards.

About the Oklahoma thing. Honestly, it wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the mocking Bell’s Palsy thing. But of course, they had to do that, which was pretty damn tasteless.

Scott Hall interview. He has both the TV and US Titles.

Curt Hennig is leaving. Shaking people’s hands.

Kimberly Page is here! She will face David Flair later. Yay?

”The Total Package” Lex Luger vs. Meng

Luger still has the neck brace.

A lot of no-selling from both sides here.

Tony Schiavone basically tells the story of the match before it happens, that the neck brace is to block the Tongan Death Grip.

Meng pins Lex Luger in 5:23. Miss Elizabeth accidentally sprays mace in Luger’s face (not well done at all). Meng rips off the brace and Tongan Death Grip for three. Horrible.

Hitman interview. Luger randomly walks by looking for Elizabeth.

US and TV Title Match
Scott Hall© vs. ???

So the story here is that Hall was supposed to originally face TV Champ Rick Steiner but Steiner got hurt, awarding Hall the TV title. The new opponent is…..Booker T. No pop for Booker though.

Booker gets a “Rocky” chant. This crowd seems very WWF strong, for the record (Hall and Hennig pops, nevermind Bret). I wonder if they’ll boo Goldberg later.

God Jarrett and Creative Control again.

Scott Hall retains both titles when he pins Booker T in 6:04. Booker takes out both of Creative Control, but Jarrett’s distraction leads to the Outsider’s Edge for the pin. Boring match. Put Scott Hall on the list of people who don’t want to be there.

Creative Control attacks Booker T.

BONG!

It’s…Midnight, who takes out Creative Control. Another female bodybuilder. At least it wasn’t Seven.

Luger is still looking for Elizabeth.

Kimberly vs. David Flair

Alright, let’s get to this story. Kimberly invited David Flair into her room when DDP wasn’t around. For some reason Ric Flair came instead. Started a fight between David and Kimberly. David Flair then went all The Shining on Kimberly with a crowbar. Weird all around.

Ah Kimberly Page…the main reason why the Undertaker vs. DDP stalker angle was real shit.

Flair with a weird non-sell of a low blow.

Kimberly gets out of being hit with a crowbar by practically teasing a blowjob…then she pulls out the cup and low bridges Flair.

No Contest in 4:55. Kanyon and DDP take out Flair…but then Arn Anderson comes out to save him. Flair then beats the crap out of Anderson with the crowbar. Utter garbage. Arn Anderson does do a great sell job though.

I Quit Match
Goldberg vs. Sid

Boos for Goldberg! Although light.

Goldberg sucks chant!

Huge Sid chants!

Armbreaker and Sid’s arm is hurt!

Goldberg wins when Sid passes out in 5:30. Cobra clutch and Sid passes out in 5 minutes. I think Jerry Flynn put up a bigger fight. Not a good match.

Luger interview. Still didn’t find Elzabeth. He gets even.

WCW World Title Tournament Final
Chris Benoit vs. Bret Hart

You know what’s interesting? I think this match is clearly the right way to go…but the Canadian crowd doesn’t know who to go with. I mean they are cheering for Bret…but they don’t want Benoit to lose.

There was this Canadian fan who attacked Benoit earlier that I didn’t mention as I didn’t think it was important…but he does show up here too and attacks Benoit. Turns out it was Malenko! No DQ called or anything though.

Tombstone from Benoit! Swandive Headbutt!

Scott Hall takes out the referee. Kevin Nash is here too.

Goldberg is here and he takes out Nash with a spear! Bret takes out Hall.

Heenan points out that the referee is going to let this all go without a DQ as the match is too important. I’m okay with that actually.

Split screen now. The World Title match…and the Outsiders/Goldberg confrontation.

Bret Hart wins the World Title when Benoit submits in 17:44. Great sequence at the end where Benoit is playing dead…only for him to come alive and hit the triple Germans. Benoit goes for the Crossface…but Bret gets the Sharpshooter and the win. Good match tarnished by the silly interference midway. I guess disappointing based on what Benoit and Hart could do (the Owen tribute match was WAY better), but still good. Bret’s family celebrates with him. Crowd pops big for the Sharpshooter.

So that’s Mayhem.

It’s a shame that there’s so much crap here because you can see some potential trying to break out with this card. Even though there is way too much interference, at least there were some stories in there that kinda sorta made sense. The Nash, Hall, Goldberg run-ins would lead to Hall/Nash vs. Goldberg and Hart and then NWO 2000, so there is that. The workrate overall was okay, even good in some case (Benoit). And Bret vs. Benoit was pretty new for a WCW main event. Probably the best main event match WCW had in a long time. Even the stuff with Kimberly and Flair and Arn Anderson. If it leads somewhere, okay, maybe something can work (no idea what it led to, I think a DDP vs. David Flair match somewhere). The Marinara-Disco stuff lead to the debut of a new team (Big Vito and Johnny the Bull), which is good. There’s potential!

I’m all for giving this PPV a C+ for effort. Here’s why I can’t:

Still a lot of crap. While the Kimberly-Flair stuff could have worked…the match itself was garbage. Luger vs. Meng? Bad. Hennig’s retirement? Waste of time. Even Revolution vs. Animals was disappointing and lame. Vampiro vs. Berlyn didn’t make sense. All that alone drops it to a C. And then you have Oklahoma. Fuck off Ed Ferrara.

By the way WCW went directly downhill after this. It was once said that Vince Russo can write one hell of a first chapter. For the record, here is a list of the next few WCW World Champions.

Bret Hart (Mayhem)
Vacant
Bret Hart
Vacant
Chris Benoit
Vacant
Sid
Vacant
Kevin Nash
Sid
Vacant

The only question is…how much was Vacant making?

Anyway, this would be the last time WCW would have even potentially good storylines going. It was a mess from this point forward.

Final Grade: C-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede ’99

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW Spring Stampede ‘99
April 11, 1999
Tacoma, WA
Reviewed on July 4, 2014

WCW Spring Stampede interests me for one reason. It’s generally regarded that anything past late ’98 for WCW pretty much sucks. Yet, this card actually has very positive reviews. I’m really just curious to see what this show did as opposed to what WCW was doing in early ’99 (where it was pretty much awful).

WCW at this point was getting their ass kicked bad by the WWF in the ratings. While there were many reasons on why this was happening, the most recent was the Goldberg-Hall-Nash-Hogan Starrcade and Finger Poke of Doom debacle. WCW never recovered from that. Ric Flair also returned to the main event…and as great as Flair is, this is a perfect time to show that no new guys were getting pushed to the main event, sans for one (and he isn’t really even new).

How did Spring Stampede ’99 break through and actually be a good show for WCW? Is it actually good, or just good smelling shit? Let’s see.

The Card

This might be the first PPV with the new logo.

#1 Contender to the Cruiserweight Championship
Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera

I like how if you watch Juvi here and back at Bash at the Beach ’98, you would have never known he had a heel turn with the LWO inbetween.

Commentary is making fun of Thunder? What?

Ha and they take a shot at Larry Z!

Some great sequences that Blitzkrieg impressively lands on his feet…but he does mess up a tilt a whirl backbreaker.

Juvi busts out the surfboard!

They do the flying off the top rope getting caught with a dropkick spot…but on the floor, which was cool.

Blitzkrieg with a crazy springboard moonsault onto Juvi on the floor. Wow.

They botch something off the top rope, it looked like a Blitzkrieg falls back on Juvi off the top spot.

Blitz misses one of the sicker top rope moves…the Sky Twister Press!

Crazy sunset flip off the top from Blitz.

Juvi hits a Juvi Driver off the top! Wow!

Juventud pins Blitzkrieg in 11:11. After the top rope Juvi Driver the pin was academic. I’m torn here. One on hand, they tried a lot of cool stuff and some of it was downright awesome. On the other, I hate high flying matches with messed up spots, as it looks like a performance as opposed to a wrestling match. In the end I’ll go with good, not great. Interestingly, some think this is one of the best matches of all of WCW. Let’s not go crazy here.

Hardcore Match
Hardcore Hak vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

I did think WCW trying to create a Hardcore Division with former WCW wrestlers was a great idea. Too bad it didn’t stick.

It is a bit of a waste for Bigelow though.

It is also interesting to note that Sandman got in good shape for WCW…he did the same for ECW 2K6.

Hak-ton Bomb off the stage wagon through Bigelow and a table! Eat your heart out Jeff Hardy.

For some reason Tony is explaining that the garbage can doesn’t really hurt but makes a great sound? What the fuck?

Ha, Tenay and Heenan make fun of him after a great garbage can shot.

Hak and Bigelow screw up a DDT I think? Maybe a suplex. I think Hak went for a suplex and Bigelow dropped for a DDT.

Another Hak-ton Bomb, this time on a ladder on Bigelow. Sandman is a sicko.

Hak goes flying off the ladder and throw the table!

Bam Bam Bigelow pins Hardcore Hak in 11:33. Bigelow is about to slam Hak with a safety rail, but Chasity causes a distraction but can’t get the fire extinguisher going. Bigelow gets it working and takes out Chasity. Hak hits the White Russian Legsweep on the safety rail, but eventually Bigelow hits a weird brainbuster through the table (which got a great reaction) on Hak for the win. Pretty entertaining Hardcore Match. Let’s quickly talk about why WCW blew it here and how frustrating it is to listen to the commentary here.

Tony Schiavone already buried the idea of garbage can shots (why?), but after the match all three are laughing about what they saw, with Tony giving a condescending “fans, don’t try this at home”. Not for safety reasons, it is more from a “this is stupid” standpoint. Why the commentary team wants to bury their own product just speaks volumes about WCW sometimes. Hak and Bigelow put on a good brawl and it’s basically laughed about. I hate this company sometimes.

Scotty Riggs vs. Mikey Whipwreck

I have no recollection of this Rick Marterl rip off gimmick Scotty Riggs is doing in WCW.

A lot of hip gyrations from Riggs. Well, two good matches was a good start to the PPV.

Mikey was pretty underrated as a wrestler.

Ouch, Mikey takes a bump off the apron and crashes back/head first into the railing.

Oddly Riggs looks like Randy “The Ram”.

“Boring” chant for Scotty’s offense. You know it’s bad when you are better off as a pirate.

Scotty Riggs pins Mikey Whipwreck in 7:03. Flying forearm for the win (is he just copying Luger from 92?). Out of nowhere win. Match sucked, although Whipwreck tried. Riggs didn’t last much longer. At least they tried to get someone new over though. Not sure why Riggs was the guy.

Disco Inferno makes fun of Konnan’s music video.

Konnan vs. Disco Inferno

Odd history here: Konnan was part of the Wolfpac…and Disco had some weird association with them.

Konnan calls Disco a straight up strawberry. Well then.

Konnan pins Disco Inferno in 9:17. Konnan hits Disco with his own move, the Chartbuster/Last Dance/STONE COLD STUNNER for the win. Interestingly, this match was to put Disco over and Disco dominated the match. Big difference from the Bash at the Beach ’98 “bonus match”. While the choices are odd, WCW does seem to be trying to push some guys higher up, Riggs and Disco are two examples so far.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Rey Mysterio Jr.(c) vs. Billy Kidman

They are the co-holders of the Tag Team Title. Winner faces Juvi on Nitro.

This is all post LWO (thankfully). Unfortunately this is the beginning of the maskless Rey era.

Commentary goes silent!

Some good sequences so far…but it does feel like they are going through the motions a bit.

Ref is fast counting everything for some reason.

Kidman actually does a running Shooting Star Press off the apron. No crowd reaction. Really odd match dynamics here.

Tenay with a funny slip: “Both men look like they’ve lost a step from the opening match…I mean opening part of the bout”. That’s probably true, Juvi vs. Blitzkrieg was better.

I am amazed that the crowd just does not give a shit about this match.

Really nice counter to a top rope bulldog from Rey.

The ref counts are really distracting.

Rey pins Kidman in 15:32 to retain. Top rope hurricanrana. This is like one of those EWR matches that got “bad show syndrome”. Everything looked nice, but crowd just didn’t care and it felt a little like they were going through the motions. My theory? They didn’t build up anything as they busted out hurricanranas right away in the opening sequence. Also, I think people may have been against maskless Rey. Kidman got some face reactions, and while he is, Rey didn’t get the same.

Seeing the replay on how they won the tag belts kinda killed my maskless Rey theory.

Raven and Saturn vs. Benoit and Malenko

I should say I loved the idea of Rey and Kidman (flyers) vs. Saturn and Raven (hardcore) vs. Benoit and Malenko (technical).

Benoit and Malenko are part of the Horsemen of course. So Double A is out here.

Raven and Saturn reconciling was pretty cool too. I forgot the story with that though.

Crowd is really hot here…like they know this is going to own.

Shame it isn’t being referenced, but there was history between Benoit and the Flock at one time too.

The Charles Robinson as the ref is an interesting part of this match as well.

Saturn kicks all kinds of ass at one point and takes out Double A at one point…but Malenko stops him.

Malenko dropkicks Saturn into a German Suplex by Benoit!

DVD from Saturn, cover is broken up by a Benoit diving Headbutt!

Raven droptoeholds Benoit on a chair…no DQs? Ah this is great, who cares.

Benoit and Malenko win when Malenko pins Raven in 14:11. Evenflow takes out Malenko and Raven covers. Double A puts a chair on Raven’s head and Benoit hits the Flying Headbutt on the chair (for fuck sakes Benoit) and blades no less. Malenko pins. Great back and forth tag match. Shoulda re-built the division around these two and Mysterio and Kidman.

WCW US Title Tournament Final
Booker T vs. Scott Steiner

In Jericho’s last great WCW moment, he actually got to be in this tournament twice via loophole, and he lost to both of these guys.

To be fair, these are the two (and Jericho, probably) that WCW should built towards the future with.

This is a rematch also, as Booker beat Steiner at Uncensored for the TV title.

“Steroids” chant midway through. Match has been pretty damn slow.

Time to bump some refs!

Steiner busts out the top rope frankensteiner!

Scott Steiner wins the title in 15:37. Steiner hits Booker with a hidden object for the win. Pretty meh match, although the frankensteiner was a nice touch. 13 minutes of nothing before that with unnecessary ref bumps.

Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg

Story here is obvious: Kevin Nash is the only man to beat Goldberg as he did at Starrcade. REMATCH TIME.

Match is ALL Kevin Nash early on.

Spear attempt…but Kevin Nash leapfrogs it and Goldberg takes out the ref! Lex Luger attacks!

Goldberg pins Kevin Nash in 7:41. Goldberg hits the spear and jackhammer on Nash after getting rid of Luger. Goldberg evens the score. Nash jobs clean! Of course the match isn’t much to write home about, but it was well booked. Made Nash look strong (even if he didn’t need it) and made Goldberg look strong too. That must mean Goldberg is slated for the title right? Lol.

WCW World Championship: Four Corners Match, Randy Savage is the Special Referee
Ric Flair© vs. Hollywood Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting

One fall here.

Ah, the Savage comeback, roided up and all.

My god Gorgeous George…

Flair was a heel here, although it was the result of a weird double turn with Hogan.

Hogan was kinda a face? Came back with the red and yellow later in the year.

DDP also had turned heel.

Sting was the only one with a clear alignment, which was face.

Pretty action packed start!

Hogan is doing the Hulkamania stuff. No selling Flair’s chops, etc.

Page busts out the Bret Hart Figure Four around the ring post!

They carry Hogan out…which is a little hokey as it was just one move (although a devastating one). I guess it’s believable. Eric Bischoff, who has no kayfabe power at this point, shows up here to add legitimacy. See, they did this before Russo.

Tombstone from Page to Sting! Flair with the save!

Double sleeper….double jawbreaker. Never seen that before (well, the jawbreaker).

Sting has….Hulked Up!

Flair locks Sting in the Figure Four, but Sting gets to the ropes. Ref Savage kicks Sting’s hand off then drags Flair and Sting to the center…and drops the BIG ELBOW on Flair?!

Diamond Dallas Page wins the WCW World Title in 17:27 when he pinned Flair. All three get to their feet and Page drops Flair with the Diamond Cutter and wins his first World Title. Overall this was…pretty good! All four men gave it a great effort (even Hogan, for half a match). Action never really stopped. I don’t remember what the explanation for what Savage did was though. Still, a very good main event with the top guys in their giving it their all.

Let’s talk about the DDP decision for a second. I do think DDP could have won the WCW World title so I have no issues with that…but WCW absolutely wasted it here. Page was a big time face in 1998 and his building to the WCW World Title could have been a great story in 1999 (or even he could have been the man to beat Goldberg at Starrcade ‘98). But it was wasted here…and I think he only held it for a couple weeks before he traded it with Sting, then lost it to Nash (who lost it to a returning Hogan).

A pretty good show with little historical significance as Russo was only five months away. Somehow in a couple months we had Sid in the main event despite a roster with Flair, Sting, Savage, Hogan, Goldberg, Nash etc. Still, Scott Steiner moved up the chain a bit I guess.

Some really good matches here: Juvi vs. Blitz had its faults but had some great moments (and a bad ass finish). Hak vs. Bigelow was probably the last time either gave a shit, and it resulted in a good hardcore match. Kidman vs. Rey tried, just missed for some reason. Malenko and Benoit vs. Saturn and Raven owned. Nash vs. Goldberg was fine for what it was, and the main event was actually good for what it was. Only real miss was Riggs vs. Whipwreck. Even Konnan vs. Disco had a solid story to it.

Very good show, perhaps the last of the WCW era.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Royal Rumble ’99

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Royal Rumble 1999
January 24, 1999
Anaheim, CA
December 7, 2014

WWF Attitude is in full force.

The WWF has taken a strong lead in the Monday Night Wars, winning for about 15 straight weeks at this point. While WCW was still putting on a strong fight at this point…and even having some good shows, their decisions at the top killed them long term (booking of Goldberg, The Fingerpoke of Doom). WCW wouldn’t turn into a complete disaster until somewhere in May or June.

But the WWF is at its strongest point since perhaps the Hulkamania days. Riding the Stone Cold vs. Mr. McMahon wave, the WWF had changed wrestling. Crash TV is the norm. While at the time this was amazing, revolutionary stuff, and a lot of it still is, the WWF would find getting past Crash TV very difficult. No doubt Vince wasn’t thinking about that in January 1999.

More good news in 1999 was that some guys were coming into their own as legitimate draws. 1998 was mostly built on Austin vs. McMahon, with Undertaker, Kane and Mick Foley as supporting players at the top. At the end of ’98, Taker was still going strong, as was Kane. Foley solidified his main event status and comes into this event as the World Champion. The Rock, who two years prior was one of the worst babyfaces in wrestling, now is the most charismatic guy in wrestling and may even lead the WWF past the Austin era. Triple H is getting close to the top as well, and he’d get there by Summerslam.

Good luck WCW.

The Card

The PPV was the debut of the “No Chance In Hell” theme, which Vince adopted for himself. Perfect fit. We get a video explaining how we got Austin to be #1 and Vince to be #2 in the Rumble. I’ll get into that when the match comes up.

Road Dogg vs. Big Bossman

Road Dogg and Bossman were feuding over the Hardcore title…which was an extension of the Outlaws vs. Bossman and Shamrock for the Tag belts…which was an extension of DX vs. the Corporation.

This isn’t for the Hardcore title…which is disappointing. I believe though it’s because of the brutality we will see later with Rock and Mankind.

I have no expectations for this. None.

Big Bossman pins Road Dogg in 11:30. Admittedly surprised at this finish. Bossman Slam puts Road Dogg down. Kinda deflating for the crowd. Road Dogg was never a great worker, but the fans reacted to everything he did at this point. Probably why he got the IC title later.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Ken Shamrock© vs. Billy Gunn

This was the first attempt to get Billy Gunn over as a singles guy. I don’t count Rockabilly.

Ryan Shamrock had debuted at this point. Billy Gunn mooned her to get Shamrock to agree to a title match. Sure why not.

Billy Gunn just never had it in the ring.

Gunn just doesn’t do anything exciting. But like Road Dogg, he got an awesome reaction at this time.

It’s Val Venis! DDT! I think Venis was trying to sleep with Ryan Shamrock.

Ken Shamrock makes Billy Gunn submit in 14:24. Gunn rolls his ankle…and Shamrock locks in the ankle lock to make Gunn submit. Big night for the Corporation so far. Rumors were that Gunn did something stupid I don’t recall that got him in trouble. Two boring matches to start though.

Shane McMahon pumps Vince up!

WWF European Championship
X-Pac© vs. Gangrel

Michael Cole says that X-Pac is “perhaps the greatest European Champion ever”…the belt’s been around for about 20 months at this point. How long can that list be?

X-Pac sells a hangman with a somersault. At least he’s trying.

X-Pac comes off the top…and Gangrel tries to reverse the crossbody but doesn’t get the complete rotation. Teddy Long (remember when he was a ref?!) counts 3, which wasn’t the finish.

X-Pac pins Gangrel in 5:51 to retain. X-Factor wins. Despite the fuck-up, it wasn’t too bad. X-Pac carried it for sure. Better than his DX companions for sure.

Shane McMahon comes out to some generic WWF music. Good times. He was in some feud with Sable at the time that I can’t remember. It may have led to her heel turn.

Luna’s music is someone’s generic theme I just can’t remember.

Luna attacked Sable in HeAt, and Sable has a “chronic” back injury as a result. Shane wants her to vacate the title.

Sable says to ring the bell though!

No idea why this is a Strap Match.

Sable wins in 4:43. They set up the same finish that happens in every strap match ever…where one touches the turnbuckles and the other secretly does as well, only to jump ahead on the last one. A twist here…a “fan” who is Sable’s stalker interferes and costs Luna the match. That would be Tori.

Mankind won the title on the first RAW of 1999, and refused the Rock a rematch. Rock said he’d do any match type to get the rematch, but when he said he’d quit trying…Mankind accepted. An I Quit Match was set. It was booked around Mankind taunting Rock that this was a match he couldn’t possibly lose as no one could ever make Mankind say I Quit.

The Corporation hired Mabel to squash Mankind earlier, which he did. It would be Mabel’s lone night as a member of the Corporation…

Hilarious spot where Rock gets on commentary for a moment. Jerry Lawler tries to warn Rock…but Rock tells him to shut his mouth…before getting attacked.

Rock rings Mankind’s bell!

Rock tries to Rock Bottom Mankind through the table…but the table gives way.

We’ve got a Ladder! Mankind tries to elbow Rock who’s under a ladder…but it doesn’t work out well for him as he misses.

Rock and Mankind fight up on a balcony…and Rock punches Mankind off into some electrical equipment. Unforuntately for the match…the bump itself wasn’t too insane, but it turns into an overkill of sparks…and the lights go out in the arena. Michael Cole tries to sell it like Hell in a Cell…and Shane McMahon even comes out to try to end it…but it doesn’t nearly have the same effect.

On the plus side, Rock really gets his mean streak put over, as he says no matter what Mankind will quit and forces the match to continue.

Here comes the handcuffs. This is about to get ugly.

Mankind actually gets back on the offensive with handcuffs on. Not many guys could pull that off convincingly.

One of the scariest moments in professional wrestling…even at the time. The Rock nails Mankind with chairshot after chairshot to Mankind’s unprotected skull.

Rock also misses a cue to hit Mankind in the back…and continually hits him in the head.

The Rock wins the title in 21:44. After a sickening shot that knocks Foley down, Rock asks is Foley quits again. Foley is heard saying “I QUIT, I QUIT, I QUIT!” and Rock wins the title. It was revealed on RAW that it was a recording to screw Foley. This is a great brawl that’s hurt by the production stunt in the middle…and the finish is a bit much. Still a great brawl, and Rock’s best match at this point. There are three other significant things about this match that has to be considered though.

First: the finish. WWF backed themselves into a corner here with this stipulation. After Hell in a Cell…you really had to kill Mankind to get him to quit. Foley wrote about this in Foley is Good. They discussed different finishes, one where Foley’s wife calls it but it was explained why that wouldn’t work. I have two proposals for a finish. The most sensible was Mankind being knocked out, a la Austin at Mania 13. The second is having Mankind go over. It’s not like he wouldn’t go over anyway during the Superbowl and fight to a draw at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre as champ. Didn’t have to nearly kill Foley here.

Second: This was the match that ended Foley’s career in his mind as a full time wrestler. He talks about how the love of performing was gone after this match.

Third: With that we know about concussions it’s horrifying to watch. I don’t know if Foley got a concussion here…but the footage is just crazy to watch.

1999 Royal Rumble

Stone Cold is #1, Mr. McMahon is #2.

Austin was told he was not getting anymore World Title shots after the RAW after Survivor Series. But to get Austin McMahon dangled a Royal Rumble spot…if he could beat Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match. He did so. Vince then drew #1 for Austin.

Vince decided to enter himself as #30. This backfired when the Corporation lost Commissioner Shawn Michaels. HBK said since Vince entered the Rumble, he would be considered a WWF Superstar. Shawn made Vince #2.

Vince also put a $100,000 bounty on Austin’s head.

I think it’s funny that Vince looks so much better than Austin shape wise. Nothing against Austin…it says more about Vince.

Austin vs. Vince is a huge deal.

Austin beats the crap out of Austin the first two minutes.

#3 is Golga! Golga attacks Austin…for that bounty. Austin dumps Golga in about 15 seconds. At least he can say he was eliminated by Austin and Hulk Hogan in Royal Rumbles!

Vince hightails it…and Austin chases. They both slide under the bottom rope.

#4 is Droz. No one cares. They are watching Austin vs. Vince in the back.

Vince lures Austin into the women’s bathroom…it’s a trap! The Corporation beats the crap out of Austin!

#5 is Edge. Early in the career of the future 11 time World Champ.

#6 is GILLBERG! Edge takes him out in about 3 seconds.

#7 is Steve Blackman. Crowd really has died down since the beginning, obviously. Shoulda threw someone in there who, um…, matters. Like Road Dogg.

Droz with his best Scorpion impression.

#8 is THE BEAST. No not Brock Lesnar. Dan Severn.

If there was someone who didn’t fit the WWF style…it’s Dan Severn.

Austin is being carried out of the restroom and is being loaded into an ambulance.

#9 is Tiger Ali Singh. No one cares about any of these guys. Only Edge would become anything…although in Droz’s case that’s bad luck.

#10 is The Blue Meanie. I mean sure why not.

#11 is…no one? Well, Mabel smashes Mosh into a wall. So I guess #11 is Mabel.

Mabel dumps Severn and Blackman.

#12 is Road Dogg. Crowd wakes up!

Mabel takes out Droz and Meanie.

Road Dogg gets Edge. Some freakiness is about to happen though…

Lights go out…here comes The Undertaker! Old Taker music plays as well, which is odd.

The Ministry of Darkness abducts Mabel and would later turn him into Viscera. Inintended continuity too, as last time Mabel was a full time guy he just got finished feuding with Undertaker! Anyway, someone eliminated Mabel. Road Dogg doesn’t seem to care.

#13 is Gangrel.

Gangrel lasts about 30 seconds. We’re gonna watch Road Dogg stand around I guess.

#14 is Kurrgan!

#15 is Al Snow!

Not a lot happening here. I think it’s about to pick up shortly though.

Snow was pretty over (or at least Head was). He should have been there earlier to help with the crowd reaction.

Snow is gone, just like that by Road Dogg.
#16 is Goldust. A weird case…as Goldust got a huge face reaction when he turned back into Goldust in October on Val Venis…but has begun to turn heel. A real shame there…although I don’t think Goldust was in the right frame of mind at this point anyway.

#17 is the Godfather. Another great choice of someone who should have been in this match about 12 people ago.

#18 is Kane. Business has just picked up. They should have waited one week with the nuthouse angle, as Kane could have been a great last defense for the Corporation against Austin here.

Kane cleans house of course.

Another angle! The white coats are here to get Kane. Kane eliminates himself…he should have went under the bottom rope…and escapes through the crowd. Crowd is bummed.

#19 is Shamrock. Vince also reappears and sits in commentary.

#20 is a limping Billy Gunn. Not sure how coming out without a boot is a good idea…but that’s what Gunn decides. Perhaps it’s the ol’ swelling ankle theory.

#21 is Test.

We cut to the Ministry shoving Mabel into a hearse…but then we hear an ambulance! Austin is back!

#22 is the Bossman. Austin is back! He chases Vince…but SHamrock cuts him off! Austin dumps Shamrock!

#23 is Triple H!

#24 is Val Venis. Somehow he got in the upper tier class in this Rumble.

#25 is X-Pac. Pretty sure he’s not the lightest Royal Rumble competitor ever. I mean I’d have to look, but one of the Mexicans in ’97 I think beats that.

#26 is Mark Henry. He was more Sexual Chocolate here and less Hall of Pain…for sure.

#27 is Jeff Jarrett. The crowd is cheering. For Debra of course.

#28 is D’Lo Brown. I think Terri was on drugs there…

Austin dumps Test.

X-Pac’s out next.

HHH gets rid of Jarrett.

#29 is Owen Hart. Big reaction for him. Too bad he was never getting a chance with Austin on top. It wouldn’t matter soon anyway, sadly.

#30 is Chyna! First women ever.

Chyna eliminates Mark Henry…and Austin clotheslines her out!

Austin, HHH, Val, D’Lo, Owen, Bossman and Vince left.

HHH takes out Val.

Austin drops HHH with a Stunner…and he’s gone.

Austin dumps Owen. D’Lo gets the Lo-Down on Austin but Bossman dumps him. Austin immediately hits Bossman with a Stunner and he’s gone.

Austin vs. McMahon. Austin beats the hell out of him…but here comes The Rock!

Mr. McMahon wins the Royal Rumble in 56:38. Rock and Austin go at it on the apron, and Vince dumps Austin to win! Vince, Shane, and the Stooges celebrate the close the show!

I like this Royal Rumble a lot more than others do…even though it definitely does have it’s faults. Let’s get into it.

The pros: A lot of people didn’t like that the match was made a mockery of (not unlike World War 3 ’98 actually) with the Vince-Austin storyline, nevermind the Kane and Undertaker angle. Here’s why not only do I not mind it…but I think it was the right way to go. This is undoubtedly the most predictable Royal Rumble ever. There is no way this doesn’t come down to Austin and McMahon. No way whatsoever. Every other year you can make a case for another scenario perhaps with the exception of 2000 (it was coming Rock vs. Big Show no matter what). Let’s look at “modern” Rumbles. 2001? Sure Austin woulda have been there, but there were many who thought Rock was actually winning and facing Austin at Mania that way. 2002? Supposed to come down to Austin vs. Taker vs. HHH somehow. Didn’t. 2003? Brock was the safe choice, but Booker T did get some hype for it (despite how it went) and people thought Undertaker was coming back dead. 2004 could have been a lot of people who weren’t Benoit. 2005 coulda been Cena. 2006 Rey was a shocker. No one knew that was the 2007 plan. Etc. etc.

Anyway, since Austin vs. McMahon was the surest thing in Rumble history…why not have fun with it? No one is believing that Owen Hart and D’Lo Brown were threats. Even HHH wasn’t at that level yet. The only guy that it could work with is Kane. But it’s the Attitude Era! Do something new with the Rumble! Everyone only really cares about Austin anyway.

The cons: The booking of the rest of the match is terrible. Nevermind the obvious tiering of the competitors from jobbers (3 through 17 other than Road Dogg were jobbers). So much for randomization. And there’s so much standing around. Droz stands around with no one to fight. Road Dogg stands around. Shamrock stands around. Horrible flow.

So I see both sides. It’s a B Rumble for me, and Rock vs. Mankind was a great match…even if it’s tough to watch now. The rest of the card though sucks. Sucks horribly. Heels also win 4 out of 6 and the 4 most important matches on the card. Odd as well.

There’s too much to defend here…but I did enjoy the Rumble match for the mess that it was. I can’t quite put this into the B range though when considering everything.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW World War 3 ’98

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WCW World War 3 98
November 22, 1998
Auburn Hills, MI
Reviewed on March 1, 2014

Background: 1998 was the beginning of the end for WCW (it was probably really Starrcade 97…but whatever). With the WWF having their best year in probably 10 or 11 years, they had turned the tide and had been winning the Monday Night ratings war. This was still before WCW was dead in the water though, and they certainly still had the talent to overtake the WWF.

WCW had just been relieved of one of its biggest talent acquisition failures as The Warrior had just finished up. Hollywood Hogan also would be gone at this point…running for president!

I’m not sure what the official story is, but it is accepted that Kevin Nash was the booker at this point. Watching this show, I understand why (although I don’t actually think the booking of Nash is that awful here).

Even the card itself though…showed that WCW would probably never regain the lead. For example, Goldberg. WCW’s 1998 cash cow. He’s not on this Pay-Per-View. In fact, Chris Jericho ran an entertaining angle against Goldberg for months, hoping to put on “the greatest squash match of all time”. Jericho’s wrestling Bobby Duncam Jr. here.

It is also interesting to point out that one of WCW’s calling cards was that they had great action in its undercard, then big names in the main event. You see at this point, that while some of the undercard is solid, it isn’t nearly at the level as 96 or 97 (or even earlier in 98) WCW.

Also, the main event is in fact not the World War 3 Battle Royal…but a US Title match between Bret Hart and Diamond Dallas Page. Just a quirky decision there. I get putting Page in the main though, he has been in every main since Bash At the Beach.

The Card

The opening is something I would expect for a WCW Playstation game. That’s not a bad thing though.

Here comes a limo!

Oh, Goldberg’s here? I’m so confused since he isn’t on the match card.

Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay are your announcers.

Talking about Hogan not being here…and perhaps we’ll see him on Nitro! Already advertising Nitro.

Mean Gene Okerlund: WCW HOTLINE!

Wrath vs. Glacier

Sub-Zero vs. Smoke match coming up.

I like Wrath’s theme. I’m guessing this is post-Vandenberg Wrath, as he doesn’t even have that cool entrance attire.

I guess Glacier is the heel?

Wrath shoves Glaicer out of the ring. Crowd says that yeah, Glaicer is the heel.

Glacier hits some kicks. I’m sure Glacier is a legit martial artists, but he really never learned how to use those skills in professional wrestling. Glacier always looks really stiff before doing any martial arts moves and it usually takes away from his matches. Steve Blackman was really good at this.

Mike Tenay tells us that Wrath is going to be on the Mortal Kombat TV show. Shocking.

Wrath actually looks pretty good here. Surprised Vince didn’t give him a bigger run when Wrath was Adam Bomb. Not saying it would have been successful, but his size makes him seem like a WWF guy.

Glacier just did this terrible hook spin kick. Looked horrible.

Wrath pins Glacier in 8:22. Wrath blocks Glacier’s thumb spike submission and hits the generic big man finisher…the Pump Handle Slam! (The Meltdown). Best Wrath and Glacier match I’ve ever seen. Wrath actually looked solid. This was a glorified squash.

Bret Hart promo video. I always thought Bret Hart was at his best playing a bitter heel. He talks trash about guys like Lex Luger, Chris Benoit and DDP. Anyone who says Bret Hart can’t talk stopped watching him after 1996.

Stevie Ray vs. Konnan

NWO music! At this point it could mean anyone, and in this case its Stevie Ray. I guess this is a NWO B Team vs. Wolfpac B Team match?

I always thought Konnan had some unique moves…but I never saw any psychology from him whatsoever. His rolling clothesline is something you didn’t see a lot of guys do.

Stevie Ray’s offense usually includes a lot of clubbing blows and the random kick. And that’s what we get here.

A lot of rest holds 5 minutes in.

I never liked how often WCW would talk about other storylines and ignore the match in the ring. Right now they are talking about Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldberg. Hey, why isn’t that match on this card?

Stevie Ray defeated Konnan by DQ at 6:55. Vincent accidentally hits Stevie Ray with the slapjack. Konnan does some punches, than hits the ref out of anger or something to cause the DQ. Then Booker T comes out to save him, which angers Stevie Ray because he’s tough and doesn’t need help. Boring match, stupid finish.

Ernest Miller and Sonny Oono vs. Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi

How the hell did Perry Saturn get involved in this? Wasn’t he just fighting Raven?

The Kaz Hayashi-Perry Saturn theme mash-up is just strange.

Is there a weirder team out there for a PPV match than Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi?

Some time killing early on. Ernest Miller tells Hayashi to leave in 5 seconds then turns his back on him. Kaz tags in Saturn. Funny I suppose.

Miller beats up Kaz, and then tags in Oono. Hayashi no-sells Oono’s offense and Oono offers him money. I guess this is a comedy match then?

Saturn vs. Miller is pretty good. Saturn always had a good array of suplexes. Also a nice legsweep by the Cat when Saturn went for a side kick.

Cat sends Oono in to fight Saturn and of course Saturn gets the advantage.

This match has no flow whatsoever…and way too much Sonny Oono.

Oono just missed three chops to the ground and let Hayashi tag in Saturn. Looks a lot worse than it reads.

Ernest Miller and Sonny Oono def. Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi when Oono pinned Saturn in 8:04. Saturn is about to suplex Oono, and the Cat hits him with a kick to the throat. Oono lands on him to get the win. Match had no flow or chemistry whatsoever. Also, was the point to make Saturn and Hayashi look awful? Because that’s what it did.

Chris Jericho and Lee Marshall!

This should be good!

Both Kidman’s and Juvi’s themes are awesome.

I guess Juvi is part of the LWO! Eddy Guerrero comes out to explain that Juvi is in the LWO!

Rey Mysterio Jr. comes out with a LWO t-shirt to say that he should have the Cruiser title shot, but because Juvi is champ, Rey shouldn’t have the shot. Guerrero explains that you need to make sacrifices for family.

Early rocker dropper form Juvi. He then hits a flying headscissors which Kidman sells like a million bucks.

Juvi is now a full blown heel after the LWO thing.

Top rope legdrop from Kidman. I really thought Kidman was going to be a star in pro wrestling watching him in 1998.

The Kidman vs. Juvi battles (and there are a bunch of them in 1998) is really a representative of the last great days of the WCW Cruiserweight division.

Kidman hits a perfect dropkick as Juvi was coming off the top. Great timing.

Juvi hits a perfect top rope hurricanrana to the outside! Very nicely done.

This match seems slow-paced compared to their Bash at the Beach 98 encounter. Maybe to put over that Juvi is a heel now?

Wow. Juvi tosses Kidman into a 2nd ring, and then does a double springboard dropkick! He kinda falls on the second jump, but it was still impressive enough.

Wow again. Kidman sends Juvi from one ring to another with a hurricanrana, then leaps ring to ring with a cross bodyblock. Great innovation with the two rings.

More double ring action. Juvi does a springboard hurricanrana…sending Kidman into a different ring again!

Juvi misses the 450…but he lands on his feet. Hurricanrana for a really close two count! (Looks like Kidman didn’t kick out in time). Juvi slaps the ref…but doesn’t get DQed.

Billy Kidman pins Juventud Guerrera in 15:27 to win the title. Rey Jr. holds Kidman on the top rope and Juvi crashes to the mat on a hurricanrana attempt. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press for the win. Great match. Great spots from ring to ring.

Eddy Guerrero tells Rey Jr. to make a choice, in the LWO or out? Rey Jr. says no and runs from the LWO members in the ring.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Buff Bagwell and some guy dressed as a NWO referee come out with Scotty Steiner.

The NWO is beating down on Rick Steiner in the back. The Giant drags Rick out to the ring. Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell beat down on Rick Steiner.

Rick manages to make a comeback, but he’s selling the attack from the NWO.

Tony Schiavone mentions that it would be nice to see the Steiners go at it 1 on 1. I couldn’t agree more. Almost like they should save it for a PPV or something.

Scott Steiner and Rick Steiner wrestled to a no contest. Hey it’s DA MAN. Goldberg’s here to make the save. The World Champ makes the save on a middle of the card match. Not like he should be defending the title or anything.

Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall

Hall comes out with various NWO members.

Eric Bischoff is out here before Nash comes out.

Bischoff orders the NWO members to beat the crap out of Scott Hall. Nash runs out to make the save!

Big Outsiders chant breaks out. Hall makes a peace offering, but Kevin Nash leaves Hall in the ring. So I guess we aren’t getting the match?

Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall was cancelled.

Of all the wrestlers in WCW, why does Bobby Duncam Jr. of all people get a TV title shot?

Ralphus is a stroke of genius.

Gotta be honest, you can tell Jericho doesn’t want to be there. The nixing of the Goldberg angle was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Jericho and a WCW run.

Jericho busts out one of my favorite submissions, the crossbow surfboard.

Bobby Duncam Jr. feels like the homeless man’s Curt Hennig.

Jericho is doing all he can to make the match entertaining. Jumps off the railing with a clothesline. Missile dropkick. I just don’t see why anyone should care about Duncam.

Jericho goes for the Lion Tamer and the crowd erupts. They boo when Duncam breaks it.

Chris Jericho retains when he pinned Bobby Duncam Jr. in 13:19. Jericho nails Duncam Jr. in the back of the head with the TV title for the pin. Jericho tried, but Bobby Duncam Jr. offered a whole lot of nothing. Match was pretty boring.

World War 3: The 60 Man 3 Ring Battle Royal

Winner gets a WCW World Title match at Starrcade!

I’m going to just name some random guys here.

Apparently you can be pinned in this match too. How about that.

Alex Wright is out first!
Barry Darsow!
Bobby Blaze!
Chip Minton!

I swear they should have hyped Chris Adams as Stone Cold’s trainer.

Hogan, Horace Hogan brother!

BARRY HOROWITZ!

Other than Jericho, so far Juvi has been the best heel on the show.

Wow The Renegade was really out of shape at this point.

Super Calo!
Villiano V…but not IV!
Kendall Windham!

I see most of the top WCW guys in this, only missing Sting and Ric Flair. I know Randy Savage was injured.

It’s hard to keep track of anything in these. Breakdown: 60 men, 3 rings. 1 WAR!

I’m rooting for Horowitz.

Normal Smiley was the first to go!

Kevin Nash is practically dumping his entire ring out.

Scott Putski is gone. WWF almost built their Lightheavyweight Division around him!

You can eliminate anyone by just throwing them from the ring. Over the top rope doesn’t matter.

Kevin Nash took out his whole ring in like 3 minutes. He stands there awaiting the other two rings.

We’re down to 35 people. 1 person in ring 3 (Nash).

We’re fighting down to 20 men for 1 ring.

The Giant begins to dump some, but then the entire ring jumps on him!

In WCW terms, Wright/Both Guerreros/Benoit/Saturn/Disco/ vs. The Giant is a huge advantage for the Giant.

Rey Jr. is the last man eliminated before we come down to 1 ring!

I like all the hype about Nash’s strategy. All he did was just dump people as fast as possible.

Saturn and Miller eliminate one another and go at it, bad blood from earlier! Down to 18.

So long Alex Wright and Chavo!

And there goes Eddie! And Disco Inferno!

And Kidman! Down to 13 just like that.

Nash and The Giant go at it. I predict those will be the final two. Or Nash and Hall.

Outsiders double team the Giant. Crowd gets into it.

Lex Luger dumps Stevie Ray.

Mongo dumps Scott Norton and Nash dumps Norton.

Nash, Giant, Hall, Booker, Benoit, Malenko, Wrath, Luger, Konnan and Scott Steiner left.

Bam Bam Bigelow shows up, and Goldberg comes out to attack Bigelow! It’s almost like they should have had a match or something.

8 guys left. I lost count somehow, but Scott Steiner is gone.

Oh, Wrath is gone too.

Booker T is gone, 7 left.

Konnan, Nash and Luger for the Wolfpac. Benoit and Malenko for the Horsemen. Giant and Scott Hall in there as well.

Konnan eliminates himself trying to get rid of Hall.

Nash becomes the ring general to 5 on 1 the Giant, which the crowd erupts for.

They do it! Giant is gone!

Luger and Nash get rid of Benoit, while Hall gets rid of Malenko. Luger vs. Nash vs. Hall. 3 WWF 94 mainstays.

Kevin Nash wins the 60 Man Battle Royal, last eliminating Lex Luger at 22:31. Luger tries to rack eliminate Hall, but Nash hits a big boot and both Luger and Hall go over the top. Weak ending as Luger didn’t go over the top well. I don’t particularly like the World War 3 Battle Royal in general as there are way too many guys who don’t have a chance in hell, but I do actually like the way this was booked, which I’ll explain later in the conclusion of this review. Short version, if you are going to want Nash to be strong for Goldberg, dominating the Battle Royal was a good way to make it happen.

Michael Buffer is out to announce the main event!

DDP is wearing the US Title upside down….

DDP dives over the top rope on to the Hitman to get this thing going.

Bret does subtle small things as a heel that he doesn’t do as a face. I like how Bret wrestles with a sense of arrogance as a heel, like a “it’s obvious I’m better than you” style. Hard to explain.

I do like that the Diamond Cutter can be done at any point. It makes for a lot of great fakes and can suddenly get the crowd into it.

This match has been pretty disappointing so far. I think it is a combo of DDP not being a great wrestler, and WCW Bret Hart just not being the same Bret Hart.

Bret going for a tombstone and DDP reversing it into his own tombstone was a nice spot.

Match is picking up. Nice belly to belly from Page. DDP then busts out this weird piledriver-pedigree spot. A pancake maybe?

I actually like DDP’s version of the sharpshooter, the going down to one knee part of it. Looked kinda of cool.

The Figure Four around the ring post is one of my favorite moves in wrestling ever. Such an effective visual.

Bret continues to methodically work on the leg of Page. For whatever reason, this is missing the mark. It’s the standard Bret Hart match, but the crowd just can’t get into it.

DDP just busted out the post figure four. Turnabout is fair play!

DDP has a chair! Charles Robinson tries to grab it, and Bret shoves Page into Robinson, knocking him out.

Diamond Dallas Page pinned Bret Hart to retain the title in 18:31. NWO ref from earlier comes back. Bret nails Page with brass knucks and locks in the Sharpshooter, to which the NWO ref calls for the bell and awards the US title to Page (NWO ref has authority then?). WCW ref Mickie Jay says no, and Page nails Bret with the Diamond Cutter. 1…2…3. Finish is okay I guess. To be honest, match was lacking. It looked like two guys just going through the motions.

Very up and down card. Opener was better than it had any right to be, but I wouldn’t call it good.

Konnan vs. Stevie Ray was whatever and had a crap finish.

Miller and Oono vs. Hayashi and Saturn was non-sensical and stupid. And it buried Saturn. Why not just do Saturn vs. Miller?

Cruiser Title match was very very good. Juvi’s heel turn was great and he played it well.

Now here is where I have a lot of issues with the show. I’m sure both Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner and Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall were big matches for this show. Both didn’t happen. Both were non-matches. And to be fair, that’s pretty bs.

Chris Jericho vs. Bobby Duncam Jr. was a waste of space. Poor Jericho. 13 minutes too!

60 Man Battle Royal was what it was. I only really like one version of this match (the first one, 1995). That being said, it is booked rather well. While we can debate till we are blue in the face about Nash being the man to eventually beat Goldberg and all, if that is the route they are going, then Nash needed to dominate this match. And he did. I think Nash last eliminating the Giant on his own would have been a better finish, and the actual finish was a bit weak, but it was doable. Nash was also mega over here.

Nash being mega over makes me wonder why the World War 3 Battle Royal didn’t close the show. It would have made perfect sense.

The US Title Main Event was a bit lackluster and felt like both men was just going through the motions. The finish is okay I suppose. Unfortunately I think Bret Hart had been booked into oblivion at that point and he’s not cared for as a heel, even though he plays it quite well. I do think Hart vs. Page could have been a main event feud for WCW, and I guess this is the closest they’ll get.

A lot of stupid crap was a foreshadowing of WCW’s future. It’s an okay PPV at best. Undercard really needed some work and the main events were passable…but that’s it.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Survivor Series ’98

March 20, 2015 rdtworldofsport@gmail.com

WWF Survivor Series 98: The Deadly Game
November 15, 1998
St. Louis, MO
March 15, 2014

Background: The WWF has started to regularly win the Monday Night War. Yes, WCW would still win once in a while, but the WWF had control. Vince Russo’s Crash TV was in full effect as you will see here. There are 14 matches on this card, which is a ludicrous amount.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, the #1 man in the WWF, had been screwed out of the WWF Title at Breakdown and hadn’t even gotten a chance to regain the title. This tournament was supposed to be his rematch. The Undertaker and Kane were feuding throughout 1998. The Rock, Mankind and Triple H were coming into their own and at least one of them looked to be a star main eventer in 1999 (all three of them would make it). Mr. McMahon was the biggest heel in wrestling. He recently had demoted Shane McMahon to referee status.

WWF Attitude was in full swing here. I think there is some good and bad on this show, and I’ll get to each.

The Card

The main focus of the show is a 14 Man Tournament to decide the new WWF Champion. Smart money storyline wise was on Mankind as he seemed to be who Mr. McMahon wanted to be champion.

It’s 14 man because Taker and Kane got byes and start in the 2nd round.

I love the Deadly Game theme.

Here comes Vince. He’s still in a wheelchair after Taker and Kane dropped the stairs on his leg.

Great intro by Vince. “An individual who is looking to take one small leap for man, one giant leap for Mankind”.

Mankind is slated to face a mystery opponent. A lot of people thought this would be the return of Shawn Michaels. Not quite.

Mankind is in a tux. And he hugs McMahon. Just awesome.

When Vince says “WCW” he gets massive heat.

It’s DUANE GILL!

Deadly Game Round 1: Mankind vs. Duane Gill

Mankind pins Duane Gill in 0:30. Double Arm DDT, cradle for the win. Obviously a non-match, but the story is that Vince is making this as easy as possible for Mankind.

On Heat Jacqueline attacked Sable. She cuts an angry promo on her. Sable couldn’t really talk either.

Deadly Game Round 1: Jeff Jarrett vs. Al Snow

Winner faces Mankind in round 2.

Debra’sPPV debut here.

Al Snow was pretty over here. Or really Head was over.

Apparently Mankind’s Socko is a headband for Head. I guess that spoils the winner.

Al Snow does a weird corner flip.

Top rope guillotine legdrop misses.

Nice spinebuster counter into the DDT from Snow.

Al Snow takes way too big of a bump when he bangs his head on Jarrett’s back.

Al Snow pins Jeff Jarrett in 3:31. Jarrett grabs Head and Snow grabs the Guitar, but Jarrett misses the Head shot. Snow gets Head back and nails Jarrett for the win. Ok for three minutes, even if the finish was whatever. Snow vs. Mankind in Round 2.

Deadly Game Round 1: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Big Bossman

Stone Cold wins by DQ in 3:20. Bossman slides out and when Austin slides out to follow, Bossman gets him with the nightstick. Bossman proceeds to beat the crap out of Stone Cold with the nightstick, story being he is weakening Austin for later, which I guess makes sense. Vince looks happy about what happened. Nothing notable in the match itself.

Deadly Game Round 1: X-Pac vs. Steven Regal

Winners takes on Stone Cold.

This is a Real Man’s Man William Regal.

Regal’s pushing muscle taunt is great.

Weirdly placed catapult by Regal. Wonder if that was intentional or not.

Match is all submission wrestling from Regal.

Regal’s selling is fantastic.

Double underhook suplex on X-Pac from the top. X-Pac survives.

Double Countout at 8:10. X-Pac and Regal go at it on the outside and are counted out. Vince sends Sgt. Slaughter to start a 5 minute overtime. It doesn’t start though as X-Pac (I think is legit hurt) and Regal runs after him for some reason. I think it’s botched as Regal is all in the ring at first and his running after X-Pac was unnatural. Anyway, Vince is angry that Austin gets a bye. Why not make it a triple-threat? You’re the boss. Anyway, finish sucked. Weird it got the most time of all the first round matches.

Deadly Game Round 1: Ken Shamrock vs. Goldust

Heel Shamrock is the best Shamrock.

Goldust had just returned (he was Dustin Runnels for most of 98) and was pretty over.

Shamrock with a great counter to the Shattered Dreams! He pulls the ref in front of him!

Ken Shamrock makes Goldust submit in 5:56. Shamrock gets a leaping off the top rope into a frankensteiner combination. Belly to belly then ankle lock for the submission win. Match was 70-30 Shamrock, which makes sense since he was the Jobber to the Stars at that point, and Goldust was closer to the midcard. Okay match.

Deadly Game Round 1: The Rock vs. Triple H

Winner of this faces Shamrock.

Rock is megaover.

Instead of Triple H…here come The Stooges! Brisco specifically does some big crotch crops coming in, which is hilarious. Amazing how Vince made Patterson and Brisco into stars in 1998.

Patterson announces that…The Bossman will replace HHH!

The Rock pins the Big Bossman in 0:03. Roll-up and it’s over. This actually makes sense later. This got the biggest pop of the night up to this point.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: The Undertaker vs. Kane

I’ll preface this by saying this may be my least favorite Undertaker match ever, and I’ll explain why shortly.

This Darker Side theme is the best Taker’s ever had in my opinion.

Undertaker does this awkward sidekick I’ve never seen him do.

Undertaker was trying a spinning toe hold or a Figure Four. Kane kicked out, but weird.

It’s weird to see Taker do the work on the leg story.

Kane with a bad looking top rope clothesline. He also awkwardly jumped over the top rope.

Horrible chokeslam from Kane…but I think that was on Taker.

Undertaker pins Kane in 7:16. Paul Bearer distracts Kane, and then Kane walks into a Tombstone. Taker actually hooks the leg and Bearer holds down Kane’s other leg for the three, which is a nice touch. But still. Match sucked. Undertaker, while I guess being all evil was going back to the no selling route. But he’s not supposed to do that against Kane. Kane peaked from his debut until this event. Kane had been protected from his debut as a very very tough to beat monster. And this match killed that aura as Taker disposes of him in 7 minutes in a horrible match. And you know what? Kane never truly recovered. This was the end of unstoppable monster Kane, as in a few months he was going to the insane asylum and feuding with Chyna. What a shame. Terrible overall.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: Mankind vs. Al Snow

Winner faces Stone Cold, who got a bye.

Mankind is still in the tux.

Al Snow just uses a chair and the ref doesn’t call for the DQ. How WCW 2000 like (at least the PPVs I reviewed so far). Dammit Russo.

Mankind finds Socko on Head…and beats up Head. Ok.

Match has oddly been all Al Snow.

Socko is over.

Mankind makes Al Snow submit in 3:55. Socko for the win. The Socko-Head stuff was bizarre, but I mean, it’s another 4 minute whatever match. Al Snow got in a lot of offense though, which was odd.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock

Winner faces The Undertaker.

Like Taker and Kane, this is the fourth PPV match of the year between these two, with another involving Mankind. First time with Shamrock as the heel and Rock as the face though.

Nice suplex by Shamrock that led to a pin where he hooked the head. You don’t see that often.

JR points out that Rock made his debut two years earlier at Survivor Series. The changes he made in two years was incredible.

Bossman is here. I’m a little sick of him to be honest.

The Rock hilariously sells the frankensteiner.

Ankle Lock is in. Fans are alive here, as they might believe this is the finish.

Rock also comes off the ropes very awkwardly in the next sequence leading to a double clothesline.

The Rock pins Ken Shamrock in 8:20. Rock Bottom attempt…but Shamrock counters with a belly to belly that Rock doesn’t go up for (was Rock really this bad as a worker then?). Bossman tosses the nightstick in the ring…but Rock catches it instead of Shamrock and he knocks out Shamrock for the win. This would make sense later as well. We have Rock vs. Taker and Austin vs. Mankind as the semifinals. Match was definitely the 2nd weakest of the Rock-Shamrock series…Mania was worse, but Mania was barely a match.

Paul Bearer says Taker will walk out champ. What else would he say really?

No idea why the Women’s title returned at this stage. Jackie beat Sable with Marc Mero’s interference a couple months ago for the new title.

Shane McMahon is the referee here, which is genius. Subtly plants a seed for later.

Horrible TKO by Sable. Sable is not really a wrestler.

Sable Bomb on the floor to Marc Mero. Yes this killed Mero, but who cares about Mero anyway?

Talking a lot about how Shane McMahon was demoted to ref by Vince. Again, this works well for later.

Sable pins Jackie to win the title in 3:14. Sable Bomb for the win. Sable can’t wrestle, but really no one cares. Nor should they.

Deadly Game Semifinal: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mankind

The card just took a serious turn here. Probably because this is the first match that’s really in doubt in terms of who would win.

Here comes Vince! Huge boos.

Mankind practically runs away from the Stunner and the Stooges have to coax him back. Austin breaks up the Stooge meeting.

This is a great back and forth match. Best of the night easily.

Double Arm DDT on the chair! Austin with a really close kickout…and Vince stands up!

Stunner! 1…2…McMahon is up! He takes out the referee! He’s healed!

Mankind pins Stone Cold in 10:23. He is a botched ending (according to Stone Cold himself). To be fair I knew something was wrong the first time I saw this. Austin gets another stunner. Shane slides in, 1…2…where’s 3? 3? Where’s 3? Double bird to Austin from Shane. That’s an amazing turn there. But here is where it goes to hell, as Austin goes after Shane and the Bossman is supposed to attack Austin here…but there’s no Bossman. Austin even turns around and is shocked at no Bossman. The actual finish is awful (Foley said so himself on his book), as Gerald Brisco hits the worst chair shot in PPV history. Literally. Worse than anything Lance Storm ever did. And Austin jobs to that. Austin should have kicked out on principle and let Mick hit him. Vince and the Stooges hightail it. Austin in pursuit in a car. Could have been one of the all time great finishes. Thanks Bossman.

Deadly Game Semifinal: The Undertaker vs. The Rock

Winner takes on Mankind in the final! Crowd is a bit deflated because Austin is gone…but they still have The Rock!

This PPV officially will be the first since the Royal Rumble to not have Austin in the final match.

This is mostly Undertaker here, which makes sense as this is Rock’s first real dash with a main eventer I believe. It would make perfect sense if Taker puts over Rock here.

Bossman is still here. Again.

Rock mocks Taker with a sit-up, too bad crowd didn’t react to it.

Bossman messes up a People’s Elbow…which doesn’t make sense for later.

Taker nails the Bossman!

The Rock defeats Undertaker by DQ in 8:23. Taker tosses Rock to Kane…Chokeslam to Kane to get Taker DQed. Kane then goes at it with Taker. That finish absolutely blows, and here is why. It actually makes perfect sense for Kane to do that…but then it opens the can of worms of why doesn’t EVERYONE do that. Like, every champ, just get yourself DQed. It’s fine to threaten that once in a while, but don’t actually do it. Anyway, Mankind vs. Rock finals.

Mankind promo. He has one more hill…no, one more rock to climb, if ya smell what the sock is cookin!

Road Dogg’s intro will always be awesome.

Mosh with this great springboard bodypress to the outside. Don’t remember him ever doing that.

Match is an absolute mess by the way. Tags that don’t make sense for example. Jerry Lawler points this out as soon as I write it about how many guys are supposed to be in the ring.

I don’t remember D’Lo having a top rope hurricanrana in his repertoire.

It looks like Road Dogg legitimately hurt his hand on an earlier double flapjack from the Bangers.

The Future Lo Down with the double team!

Mosh with one of the more awesome low blows to D’Lo.

Road Dogg absolutely blows a spot. Billy Gunn gets the hot tag and immediately gets hit with D’Lo’s Sky High, which is a pinning combination. Road Dogg goes flying at Mark Henry instead of making the save. Referee Tim White doesn’t count…as it’s clear he expected Dogg to break up the pin. He makes the count and a Headbanger just makes the save. Yikes.

The New Age Outlaws retain when Billy Gunn pins Mosh in 10:08. Awful match. JR diplomatically says so with the classic “this was a unique match”. Gunn won with a piledriver which didn’t even look fluid. Awful match. Terrible.

Deadly Game Final: WWF Championship
Mankind vs. The Rock

OMG, Vince and Shane are still here!

Match is very slow and the crowd is dead. Just a lot of back and forth punching.

Interesting note. A few moments in Mankind locks in a chinlock. According to Foley’s book, they had no idea what to do in this match and basically call it in the ring during that chinlock.

Vince and Shane get some life out of the crowd.

Rock nails Mankind with a plastic garbage can…but not before a fan knocks it out of Rock’s hand first.

We get some chair action. At least JR has an explanation for it (Vince would never DQ Foley in this scenario).

Rock nails Foley with a chair while he has the steps, then beats the crap out of the stairs with Foley under them. Crowd really got into that…then went back to silent.

Rock sells a low blow in a hilarious manner. 2nd bad sell job from The Rock tonight.

Cactus Flying Elbow even gets no reaction.

Mankind with a legdrop on the desk that kinda misses the desk.

Mankind leaps from the second rope at the Rock on the floor…but misses and smashes through the table. Interesting note here, this was the move that served as the catalyst to Foley’s retirement in 2000, as he tears his meniscus here.

The Rock wins the WWF Title by submission in 17:10. Socko Claw into a Rock Bottom…but Rock only gets two! Rock shoots the Eyebrow at the McMahons. Sharpshooter…and Foley gets Montreal’d. McMahons and Rock hug in the ring to win the title. Match was pretty bad as you can tell they didn’t know what to do, but the finish was what mattered.

Vince and Shane cut a promo about what happened. The Rock cuts one as well, pointing out that the fans should kiss his ass.

Mankind says he’s confused as he didn’t submit, and the McMahons and The Rock beat him up.

Austin’s back!

Stunner to The Rock!

Stunner to Mankind!

Okay, this show is tough to grade.

There are two trains of thought here. One, wrestling wise, this show was absolutely awful. In fact, for in ring action, it would be a F. We had two non-matches (Mankind-Gill, Rock-Bossman), a downright horrible match (Tag title), and multiple horrible finishes (X-Pac-Regal, Austin-Mankind, Taker-Rock and even Taker-Kane if you don’t like how buried Kane was here). There’s not a good match on this show, although Mankind and Austin would have gotten there without the weak ending.

But storyline wise, this was an A. When you have a cast of characters that people care about, all this swerving and screwing and crazy stuff actually works. Hell, it is how the Attitude Era worked. There are very good stories here. Rock-Bossman made sense…because the McMahon’s were backing Rock. Bossman tossing the nightstick, maybe it was intentional to Rock, again now makes sense. Vince using Mankind to eliminate Austin…makes sense. Sure there are hiccups (Bossman trying to screw Rock against Taker), but it mostly works. They even tie up some other ends on RAW the next night.

Historically, this PPV is huge too. The Rock and Mankind come out as top tier players, and in fact would be the WWF Title match for every PPV until Wrestlemania (and their matches would get a lot better too). Also this established Shane as a top authority figure as well.

I can’t get past a couple of things though to put this in B range. The Mankind-Austin finish was so weak. I mean, this was the first time Austin was pinned by one guy on TV since July of 97! And the first time it happened in a 1 on 1 match since May of 97! That’s a long damn time! And I can’t get past the killing of Kane and really, the greenness of The Rock. I assume internet forums for 1998 thought Rocky still sucked, and well, it seemed like he still did.

What a mixed bag of everything. But it was perfectly fine for what the WWF needed at that point. And that does give it a little extra credit. Better to be good at one thing (story telling) than average at everything. That’s how Hogan-Andre got by, didn’t it? And really, the 1999 PPVs mostly suck in the ring, and that was the biggest year for the business.

Final Grade: C+

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