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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews: WWF Wrestlemania X7

WWF Wrestlemania X7
April 1, 2001
Houston, TX

It’s over.

Good bye WCW. It was a good run and you put on a great effort, but the WWF has won. When the last Monday Nitro basically became a commercial for Wrestlemania X7 it was over for good.

The WWF set one of the truly great stacked PPV cards of all time for Wrestlemania X7. They were fortunate as unlike last year, no top guys were injured. Last year the WWF was missing The Undertaker and Stone Cold. For Mania X7, they have both. The WWF also did an effective job making new stars, evident by Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit’s run in the latter half of 2000. The WWF owns the wrestling world now. Things can only get better from now on, right? (Hindsight says…ha!)

Let’s talk a little bit about Stone Cold.

Is he as popular as he once was? Is he on the way down? Is he stale? Why are ratings not as strong? Why didn’t his comeback lead to another big ratings streak?

All great questions. At the end of Wrestlemania we’ll see how Vince answered them.

The Card

Houston Astrodome is packed. This is also the first Wrestlemania promo where I really felt the epicness of the event.

Limp Bizkit’s “My Way” was a perfect fit for this event.

Paul Heyman, replacing the temporarily departed Jerry Lawler here, says ECW about three minutes into the broadcast. I chuckled.

Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho© vs. William Regal

It was an interesting time for Jericho. After spending last summer as nearly a top guy, Jericho found himself back in the midcard…at least for now.

Regal was still a relative newcomer, debuting in September. But, we are also at the beginning of perhaps Regal’s best work, as he was clean at this point and a great heel as the Commissioner.

This was the feud that had Jericho peeing in Regal’s tea. A legendary moment if there ever was one. This also had Jericho running in on Regal when he was dressed as Doink.

Fast start, probably because they know they only have about 8 minutes for this.
Jericho almost overshoots Regal on a flying bodypress to the outside. Would have been a bad start to Mania there.

Double underhook suplex on Jericho from the top. Nice move from our Commissioner!

Regal’s STF makes me wonder how WWE ever thought John Cena could pull it off.

Chris Jericho retains by pin in 7:08. Lionsault out of nowhere gets the win. Crowd even seemed surprised. They tried to jam a 15 minute match into an 8 minute match, and while it wasn’t a bad match, it was nothing special and a bit disappointing.

Shane McMahon arrives in a WCW limo!

Bradshaw explains just how important this match in Texas is by going over historical events that took place in the Astrodome. Six man tag is next.

The APA and Tazz vs. The Right to Censor

I don’t recall how Tazz got involved, but the APA and RTC didn’t get along for obvious reasons.

Weird botch when Tazz gets whipped into the ropes and just falls into them and rockets back. Quite strange there.

The APA and Tazz when Bradshaw pinned the Goodfather in 3:52. Clothesline From Hell wins it. Just a way to get the guys on the card and to pop the crowd early on. This would be the end of the RTC (well, Undertaker would end them for good a week later) and virtually the end of Val Venis, Goodfather, Steven Richards and Bull Buchanan. None of these four would ever regain the popularity they had before.

Trish Stratus rolls Linda McMahon into the Astrodome, and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley says she’s late. I kinda forgot about the whole Linda in a catatonic state thing.

Hardcore Championship
Raven© vs. Big Show vs. Kane

While a step down for both Kane and Big Show, Kane it seemed to work for while it just seemed like something for Big Show to do. Show would be stuck in mid and even lower card hell until Survivor Series 2002.

Big Show never even gets to the ring as we’re fighting in the crowd now.

Raven pops up out of nowhere to attack Kane. The story of this match will be Show and Kane going at it, and Raven attacking out of nowhere.

Kane tries to throw Raven through a wall. Ouch.

Smartest move of the match: Big Show locks himself, Raven and the ref in a cage with Kane out. Kane rips the door off its hinges anyway.

Raven gets thrown through a window by Kane. Crowd responded to that for sure.

Show and Kane actually go through a wall this time. Raven attacks. One thing I didn’t like about this match: Raven basically no sells being thrown through a window.

Raven nearly gets run over by a golf cart. I hope he got a good paycheck for this match.

Kane wins the title by pinning Big Show in 9:17. Big Show presses Raven over his head to throw him off the stage, but Kane boots him and they both go flying off. Kane follows with a flying legdrop and wins the title. Garbage wrestling, but it was well done garbage wrestling. This is one of my favorite Hardcore title matches in the history of WWE. Shame they went back to 24/7 soon afterwards. Paul Heyman also somehow makes Raven look like a million bucks on commentary, which is a bonus.

Kurt Angle angrily watches over his tapping out to Benoit. Edge and Christian joke around, but Angle’s serious. Alliances like Angle, Edge and Christian are just things you don’t see in wrestling anymore. They aren’t a team, but they work together and are friends.

European Championship
Test© vs. Eddie Guerrero

No one cared about Test at this point. He had just come off the T and A run, which got Trish over more than anyone else.

Unfortunately, Guerrero was on his way down too. Personal problems had been catching up with Guerrero and he wouldn’t last much longer.

Perry Saturn seconds Guerrero and has a ridiculous hat on. It would only get more ridiculous for Saturn as 2001 went on.

Test actually gets a decent pop. Maybe he was cared about here and I didn’t remember.

Test gets his foot caught in the ropes. I don’t think it was intentional. Guerrero gets him out.

Ref definitely saw Saturn interfere there.

Eddie Guerrero wins the title by pin in 8:30. Test has it won with a big boot, but Dean Malenko pulls him off. Guerrero hits Test with the European title for the win. Match wasn’t bad, it really looked like Eddie Guerrero was doing just about everything to make it good. Test would get a strong push in 2001, but by 2002 it was pretty much over for him as a top guy. Guerrero would fall apart…but then get his life together in 2002 and go on a great three year run. Still, in the long term this match meant nothing.

Mick Foley is the king of the cheap pop.

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle

There wasn’t much of a story here, it basically spawned from Angle being shut out of the world title picture and Benoit and Jericho’s feud running its course. Most recent storyline between them: Benoit made Angle tap out on RAW.

Angle runs down Texas. Brilliant mic work.

We get a straight wrestling match to start. It’s an interesting way to start as 2001 didn’t have a lot of that.

Predictably, Angle takes the first liberty. Amazing how the can make a punch a heel move, but here it is.

This whole match is the prototype from their amazing Royal Rumble 2003 match. The biggest difference? The fans didn’t truly trust Benoit as a good guy yet.

Angle taps to the Crossface! But there’s no referee. That guarantees this program would continue (and it would be great).

Kurt Angle pins Chris Benoit in 14:04. Angle gets a crucifix pin after a sequence, and holds the tights for the win. Finish makes sense to continue the feud, but it was a pretty cheap win for Wrestlemania (next year would be worse). This is a very good match, but they would have better.

Kamala has invaded Regal’s office! Great stuff.

Great line from Heyman. JR: “Why aren’t you in the gimmick battle royal?” Heyman: “What, you want me to bring my telephone in the ring?”

Benoit attacks Angle post-match, and Angle taps out again!

Women’s Championship
Ivory© vs. Chyna

This is the ending of the Chyna broke her neck angle. Considering Chyna is considered equal to the men, there’s not a chance in hell Ivory wins.

Chyna wins the title by pin in 2:38. Chyna begins the burial of the division here. Shame she went crazy, as she was still mega over. Chyna finished with a Gorilla Press Slam, which I wonder was a reference to Warrior going over HHH at Mania XII (or a shot at HHH).

Street Fight: Mick Foley is the Referee
Mr. McMahon vs. Shane McMahon

Vince foreshadows his alliance with Stone Cold in a quick interview with Cole.

I always wondered how Shane got away with being a momma’s boy without being booed for it.

This was also the famous feud where Shane showed up on Nitro and stole WCW.

Shane absolutely destroys Vince…until Stephanie pulls Vince off a table than Shane was flying towards.

That’s all it takes for Trish Stratus to wheel down the comatose Linda McMahon!

Trish turns on Vince! Trish beats up on Stephanie afterwards.

Trish chases Stephanie away, and Vince takes Foley out with a chair (including a chair shot to the back of the head, which Foley wasn’t expecting). Vince rolls the comatose Linda into the ring.

Of course Linda awakens and kicks Vince right in the jewels.

Shane McMahon pinned Mr. McMahon in 14:12. Shane-Terminator (ECW’s gone a month and already we’re stealing moves) puts an explanation mark on a very entertaining street fight. Sure, it’s not really the best “match”, but it was fun all the way. Also, if you’re into the McMahon storylines, you would have loved all of this, as I did.

This is already a pretty great show…and we’re only half way through!

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

At No Mercy ’99, Edge and Christian along with the Hardyz changed the Ladder Match game with their tag team ladder match. At Wrestlemania 2000, the Dudleyz were added. Summerslam was the first official TLC match. All these matches were amazing and stole the show. There had also been lesser known matches in-between, such as a Tables match with the Dudleyz and Hardyz at the 2000 Royal Rumble, for example.

It doesn’t take long for E and C to introduce the ladder and take out the Hardyz!

Something you don’t see in a lot of multi-man ladder matches anymore: build up. We get some minor knockdowns off the ladder early on here.

The Hardyz bring it to the next level by doing their legdrop/splash combo onto Christian off a pair of ladders.

The Dudleyz build a table fort on the outside…back when we may have not realized they would be involved in the finish.

Spike Dudley runs in and hits a Dudley Dawg on Edge off a ladder, then hits Christian with one from the ring to the floor.

Here comes Rhyno!

GORE GORE GORE!

Now Lita’s here! She stops Edge from getting the belts.

Lita breaks a chair over Spike’s head…but then gets the 3D!

Jeff Hardy relives his moment from last year with another 20 Foot Swanton Bomb through a table on the floor!

I believe the hanging off the belts spot was invented here. Jeff Hardy almost hopsteps ladder to ladder to ladder, but the ladder gives. Still ridiculous.

Jeff Hardy in another famous spot, he ends up hanging off the belts…and Edge spears him off a ladder! Crazy. Just crazy.

Rhyno comes in and sends Matt and Bubba through the table fort create earlier off a ladder.

Edge and Christian win the title in 15:47. After that, Rhyno helped Christian up the ladder to get the belts. In my opinion, this is still the greatest multi-man ladder match in history. Innovative spots, crazy bumps, excellent use of Rhyno, Lita and Spike. Just crazy. 2001 is where WWE would oversaturate the ladder match though. Hell, they gave away a TLC on Smackdown two months later (that was also insane).

It’s a shame this match meant nothing in regards to the titles though. The Hardyz were supposed to win, but it was switched when it was decided Undertaker and Kane were getting the belts for Backlash, so heels needed to win.

Still. Amazing.

Gimmick Battle Royal

I won’t get into all the gimmicks, but Doink gets a huge pop. And of course the Gobbledy Gooker. Hillbilly Jim did as well.

The Iron Sheik wins in 3:07. Sheik last gets rid of Sgt. Slaughter. Slaughter with a post-match attack. It was horrible, but that’s the point. It was just a fun battle royal with all the old timers. Bobby Heenan seemed like he had more fun on commentary than he had in years.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

The story was simple. HHH beat Austin at No Way Out and pointed out how he beat everyone that there is to beat. Undertaker told HHH he “ain’t ever beat me”.

HHH Motorhead Live entrance is pretty awesome.

JR brings up that Taker is 8-0 at Mania at this point. Probably the earliest mention of the Streak, other than a 4-0 mention at Mania XI.

This match had no waiting out period. Taker and HHH are just beating the hell out of each other right away. Well, Taker is at least.

It only takes about five minutes, but we have a sledgehammer!

The referee is bumped and Taker gets a chokeslam…but the ref only makes a 2 count. Taker then beats up the ref…and the brawl all over the arena is on!

They end up fighting in the tech/computer area, which is something you don’t see every day. It leads to some awesome visuals, especially when HHH hits Taker with the chair. It feels like a real fight with spectators surrounding them.

Speaking of cool visuals, Taker chokeslams HHH off the tech area, which is like a 10 foot drop (although a replay shows the soft landing for HHH). It looked like Taker dropped HHH off the face of the earth. The moment HHH is up in Taker’s grasp is awesome. Taker comes flying off with an elbow drop for good measure!

We get a Tombstone, which had just become special…but the ref is still gone (way for there to be no 2nd ref!)

In perhaps the forgotten great near Streak-stopper, Taker lifts HHH for the Last Ride, but HHH brings the sledgehammer with him and just whacks Taker in the head with it. I was amazed when I was younger that didn’t finish it.

Undertaker pins HHH in 18:57. HHH makes the mistake of corner punching Taker, as that leads to the Last Ride and 9-0. Just a great knock down drag out brawl. Easily the best Undertaker match of the early American Bad Ass era, at least until Mania X8.

We still have the main event left!

WWF Championship
The Rock© vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

Of course, the promo video for this may be the best over. (Limp Bizkit’s “My Way”).

Austin gets a huge pop and The Rock gets booed for the 1st time as a top babyface…although it wouldn’t be the last time.

Again, no wait period! Austin and Rock tear right into one another!

Kind of a funny moment, but Rock is on the announce table trying to get back to his feet, and the table just falls apart.

In all seriousness, this is an amazing brawl.

Rock explodes out of the corner and nails Austin with a clothesline and the crowd boos the shit out of him. It’s Austin’s crowd in his home state!

There’s something brilliant about having a bloodied Austin trapped in a Sharpshooter at Wrestlemania.

Another amazing idea: Austin busting out the Million Dollar Dream! And JR explains why it’s a big deal!

Here comes Vince!

Rock gets the People’s Elbow, but Vince pulls the Rock off. Some fans boo, realizing what’s about to happen.

It becomes official once Austin asks McMahon for a chair.

Stone Cold wins the title by pin in 28:07. In another genius finish, The Rock, who was getting booed out of the building earlier, gets some big cheers as he survives Austin’s onslaught. Austin pounds The Rock with a chair some 16 or 17 times and gets the pin. Austin and Vince shake hands, which basically marked the end of the Attitude Era and the last boom period in professional wrestling. Great great match. Arguably Austin’s last great match, although I like the Mania XIX match too.

This was the perfect match: two of the biggest wrestling stars of all time at the top of their games. It wasn’t like Hogan-Andre because Andre wasn’t in his prime. It wasn’t like Hogan-Warrior because Warrior wasn’t a sure thing and it was treated like Hogan was passing the torch. It was two guys at the very top of wrestling going toe to toe at the height of wrestling’s popularity at the WWF’s biggest event of the year.

And yet, that’s what makes the ending such a disappointment. Wrestlemania X7 is perfect with the hometown hero completing his comeback and winning the WWF Title. Instead, we got a shocking heel turn that no one wanted. No doubt, Austin was a great heel, but he was a once in a lifetime babyface. The WWF hasn’t reached the level they were at here since. The real Stone Cold was gone, as Austin devolved into a (still entertaining) comedy heel with a serious side to him. Austin wrote in his book about how he thought about just calling an audible when he saw the crowd reaction, realizing that Stone Cold still had the potential to be an elite top face. The finish also showed stubbornness, as Vince had to know he had to change plans after acquiring WCW.

Look, if you have any issues with this show, pro wrestling is not for you. I once thought Wrestlemania XX was the superior show, but really, it’s not. This is perfection, sans the ending. It’ll have to go with 99.9% then.

Hands down, the greatest professional wrestling PPV ever.

Final Grade: A+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Summerslam 2002

SummerSlam_2002

Summerslam 2002
August 25, 2002
Uniondale, NY
Reviewed on April 18, 2014

Background: 2002 was all about change in WWE. After purchasing WCW in 2001 Vince had a virtual monopoly in the wrestling business. This led to some guys not getting pushed as there just weren’t enough spots. Even with the Brand Extension there was just not enough room at the top. Guys like Chris Benoit, Booker T and RVD…and to an extent Jericho still had to wait for their chance.

There are three reasons why spots weren’t available, but one of those reasons was in the process of solving itself. This reason was top guys weren’t going anywhere. Triple H and Undertaker were going to be top guys however you looked at it. This was solving itself though, as The Rock had become a part timer and Stone Cold walked out after Vince tried to shunt him down the card a bit.

The other two reasons are on full display on this PPV. The first is older stars coming back. Hulk Hogan grabbed a main event spot for a few months before this PPV. Here, Shawn Michaels was coming back. That’s another top spot gone (not saying the HBK return was bad, because it wasn’t). The other is Vince still went with his development territory. I’m sure tons of guys were downright shocked when Vince megapushed Brock Lesnar, heck some theorized that’s why Hardcore Holly was stiff with him (and Brock broke his neck). It’s interesting to point out though that Vince was on the money with both of these (even if Brock left two months later).

But change is the theme. If you told me at Summerslam 2001 that Brock Lesnar and Shawn Michaels were going to be in the top two main events at Summerslam 2002…I would have asked who Lesnar was and reminded you that Shawn’s career was over.

Summerslam 2002 is also a great example of just how much talent Vince McMahon actually had of his disposal here. WCW guys, ECW guys, legends, rookies with huge potential, top WWF Attitude guys, it’s all here.

The Card

It is worth mentioning that the theme for Summerslam, Fight, is pretty awesome.

Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio

Story: I don’t quite remember it, but I recall Rey getting a couple of pins on Angle in tags, and Angle being angry about it.

The circumstances of this match are far more interesting anyway. Mysterio had just debuted in WWE about six weeks ago. It was cool that instead of just putting him in the Cruiserweight Division, they gave Rey a top tier storyline right off the bat…which led to the incredible Tag Title matches later in the year with The Guerreros, Edge, Angle and Benoit.

Rey attacks Angle with a springboard headscissors from behind as his music still plays!

Fun opening sequence with leads to Angle almost getting the Ankle Lock.

Mysterio goes for his bodyscissor bulldog, but Angle turns it into a German!

There’s a good story here as Rey had been doing a lot of high flying stuff that we may be accustomed to now as we’ve seen 12 years of WWE Mysterio matches…but at the time was absolutely awesome. But Angle had scouted many of them and comes up with great counters for a lot of it. It was like this way Rey’s first chance with the big leagues, if that makes sense.

Awesome spot where Rey was gonna fly over the top but the ref stopped him…then Rey just jumped over the ref instead! Great stuff.

Rey flips off the top to counter Angle, then hits a springboard dropkick!

Kurt Angle makes Rey Mysterio submit in 9:20. Top rope hurricanrana, but Angle counters by landing on his feet…then getting the Ankle Lock for the win! Incredible opener. Like I said earlier it loses a little luster as we’ve seen these Rey Mysterio matches for years now, but at the time it was something new in a WWE ring. It’s one thing to have that match with Juventud Guerrera. It’s another to have it with a main event guy like Angle. This match is also an example of putting a guy over even as that guy loses. Rey looked great here.

Looks like Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon have to share the General Manager’s office. What an early waste of Eric Bischoff this was.

Chris Jericho vs. Ric Flair

Story: Flair attacked Jericho during a Fozzy performance. They went at it for weeks, and Flair ended up destroying the set in a Fozzy performance.

Flair does not make his flip here.

Pretty much all Jericho early on.

Pretty stupid idea where Jericho had Flair in the Figure Four, but Flair grabbed the ropes and tapped out at the same time. Kinda confusing.

Ric Flair makes Chris Jericho submit in 10:22. Flair gets the Figure Four and someone actually taps out! Match was pretty disappointing considering who was involved. Just a lot of punching and chops. This was during Flair’s no confidence in himself part of his career. Flair going over also seemed odd, but according to Jericho he thought it was a great way to re-establish Flair.

Heyman pep talks Lesnar. THE ROCK IS THE UNDERDOG!

Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge

I believe this rivalry spawned from when Rock and Edge fought Guerrero and Benoit. They went the jealously route then, Edge looks handsome, got everything, etc. etc.

Edge hurts his shoulder on missing a spear and landing on the outside, and the psychology of the match begins.

They even tie in the whole Edge’s shoulder was injured months ago, so good storytelling here.

Eddie with a top rope leap into an arm DDT. Nice!

Eddie is twisting Edge’s arm in every way available. Good stuff.

Edge hits a flying press from the top to the outside, and Eddie takes this awesome bump where he just bounces off the barricade. Just looked cool.

Frog Splash on the arm! Nice idea!

Edge pins Eddue Guerrero in 11:47. Edge gets a Spear out of nowhere for the pin. Finish is lame as it came out of nowhere…and Edge’s arm was suddenly just fine. But the match itself was really good, with great psychology all around.

World Tag Team Championship
Lance Storm and Christian© vs. Booker T and Goldust

Un-Americans in the house!

I never liked Booker T’s delayed kneedrop.

Goldust gets thrown over the top turnbuckle onto the floor, crazy bump for Goldust.

Good heel spot where Booker gets the tag but the ref didn’t see it cause of Storm. You just don’t see that anymore.

Another good heel spot where Storm pulls Booker off the apron, and Goldust gets there and tags no one.

Un-Americans retain when Christian pins Booker T in 9:36. Storm bumps the ref, and Booker hits a double Scissors Kick. He has it won. Test comes down and hits Booker with the big boot for Christian to get the win. Decent match with some good heel stuff. Finish sets up a rematch. A little too much Goldust for my tastes, at least 2002 Goldust.

Makeout contest in WWE New York. Winner makes out with Nidia. Highlight being JR saying he entered the contest a couple of time.

Intercontinental Championship
Chris Benoit© vs. Rob Van Dam

Benoit beat RVD for the title…then jumped to Smackdown. Rematch here. Truthfully I wish there was more story here, as this was one of the few interpromotional matches at the time of the early Brand Extension. There was some part with Dawn Marie and Stacy Keibler messing up paperwork or something, but come on, one RVD attack on a Smackdown could have been cool.

Benoit is another example of someone who deserved to be in a higher spot, but there was no room at the top. Benoit just came off of a year long injury and got no hype coming back and then just got slotted in the IC level as he always did. What a shame.

This was actually kind of a dream match for me when I was kid. Even before I got all smarkish, I knew Benoit and RVD were awesome in the ring.

Benoit has dominated this match, and while it’s been a hard hitting affair it’s a bit disappointing.

I believe this is the only show ever where RVD loses his ponytail.

Benoit with one of my favorite submissions, the double self choke.

Benoit is doing some awesome technical wrestling and really working on the arm…shame that RVD hasn’t sold any arm damage.

Of course now RVD is selling the arm. At least he finally did it.

Rob Van Dam wins the IC Title when he pinned Benoit in 16:30. Five Star for the win! It’s a good match, but really disappointing when you consider these two should have been having incredible matches. RVD seemed a bit out of it. This match was supposed to lead to a Unification match vs. HHH (RVD has unified the Hardcore and European titles earlier in the year), but it didn’t end up quite going that way.

Steph with some creepy laugh to Bischoff. Crazy what a better performer she is now.

The Undertaker vs. Test

Story: Test is the muscle for the Un-Americans, Taker is the American Bad Ass. This had a Taker face turn in it, which was done out of necessity as Lesnar, HHH, Angle were all on the heel side.

Pretty boring match here.

JR saying Oh My God when Test kicked out of the chokeslam was a sign of everyone just trying too hard to get Test over.

The Undertaker pinned Test in 8:18. Storm and Christian show up, but Taker takes them out of course. Taker finishes Test with a Tombstone (what made this match special enough for that?) Taker goes all American out (continuity from Survivor Series 93?!?!). Anyway, match sucked. I feel like this was Test’s last chance to have a good match (see Billy Gunn vs. Benoit at Armageddon 2000), as his career nosedives after this. To be fair though, the booking is the kinda stuff we hate about John Cena today. Did Taker have to bury all three UnAmericans?

Weird crowd shots. I wonder what WWE was censoring there.

Un-Sanctioned Match
Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

Storyline: HBK brought HHH to RAW. HHH and HBK were going to recreate DX…but HHH turned on HBK. Now, the standard young guy thinks he surpassed the older guy story. HHH is the ungrateful star. HHH thinks HBK used him to stay on top five years ago.

Real life story: HBK’s career ended at Wrestlemania XIV. His career was as good as over…but his life turned for the better. HBK changed from the pill popping jackass he was to a born again Christian. HBK also said in his book the more he worked out, the better his back felt. He wanted to do a Streetfight because it was easy to do, and his back wouldn’t take damage (and he was originally gonna do it vs. Vince). This was a HUGE deal. I’m actually shocked it didn’t go on last. It was also supposed to be a one time thing…but as we all know he lasted 8 more years.

I think it’s insane that HBK just went all out right away. I mean 40 seconds in and we already get an over the top rope bodypress.

HBK dominates the first few minutes. Great way to show he’s still at a main event level (kayfabe).

HHH uses the obvious psychology available: Backbreaker from the Game.

HHH continues working on the back, and HBK sells it like a million bucks.

Also worth pointing out that JR is amazing here…talking about how he wants to see HBK’s arms moving to make sure he isn’t paralyzed.

Great heel spot with HHH holding the top rope right in Earl Hebner’s face while HHH had HBK locked in the abdominal stretch. The HHH-Hebner history comes into play here too.

Brutal chair shot to the back. Just awesome psychology.

Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere…which is actually a bit disappointing as it’s the first SCM in a match in like 4 years.

HBK with the nipup and HUGE pop.

Bulldog on the steps!

We’ve got a ladder. Still crazy how HBK went all out here.

Table! HBK didn’t even use tables in his prime.

Splash from the top rope through HHH through the table! What was Shawn thinking?! (Of course, I assume he thought his back was still fucked at this point).

Shawn Michaels pins HHH in 27:20. Elbowdrop off the ladder! Time for SCM…no, blocked! But HBK counters a Pedigree into a pin, 1…2…3! Huge pop! HHH nails HBK in the back with the Sledgehammer, and HBK is carried out. Amazing match, purely five stars. Crazy how HBK just comes back and owns right away. Arn Anderson told HBK before the match, “You need to practice, it’s not like riding a bike”…and then afterwards said “I guess for you it is like riding a bike”. Match of the Year for 2002 Contender for sure.

Absolutely random Howard Finkel banter. This is the first PPV he has announced since Wrestlemania II in this arena! And baseball may be going on strike…but they will always have the Fink. Here comes Trish! Finkel compares her to other Long Island skanks. Trish apologizes for anything she’s done to the Fink…and tells Fink she loves his sexy voice! Now he points out that Trist has the puppies and Finkel has his weiner. Trish then brings out Lillian Garcia and she beats Finkel up. Random fun I guess to serve as a buffer between the two main events. Poor Fink.

WWF Undisputed Championship
The Rock© vs. Brock Lesnar

Story: Brock won this title shot after winning KOTR 2002. Rock won the title in a three way with Angle and Taker. Brock retained his title shot when he took out Hogan on Smackdown. And here we are.

Did anyone look like a superstar from the beginning more than Brock Lesnar?

You can tell they are a little short of time. I assume HHH and HBK went extra.

Lesnar gets a really quick belly to belly and a 2.

Fans are AGAINST The Rock here…they knew he was leaving for a movie.

Double nipup was cool.

Weird selling from the Dragon Screw there.

Let’s Go Lesnar chants!

Worst Sharpshooter ever.

Bearhug spot actually works…as Brock established it when he killed Hogan.

You can tell Brock still didn’t know how to sell correctly at times…he clearly oversells a punch when he flies over the top rope.

Rock drives Paul Heyman through the Announcer’s table with a Rock Bottom!

Lesnar survives a Rock Bottom!

Rock survives a…Brock Bottom?!

Brock Lesnar wins the WWE Title in 16:10. People’s Elbow…but Brock gets up before Rock finishes it and hits a huge clothesline. Finisher reversal sequences ends with a F5 and the title. Big props to the Rock here, not only did he just put over Lesnar clean, but he got a good match out of him (Lesnar was still quite raw here). This match and Lesnar’s HIAC with Taker solidified him as a top guy for good. Well done.

And well done is what you can say about this PPV. But there’s a hidden shame in here. This PPV had A+ potential. You had a match of the year candidate with HBK-HHH, a solid main with Lesnar-Rock. A great Rey-Angle match. A very good RVD-Benoit match. A very good Edge-Eddie match. Historically the show mattered two, Brock Lesnar would be an over main event staple for the next two years…and HBK of course was on the top of the card for the next 8. Rey also showed he could hang with top guys too…and that the idea of being too small didn’t really apply to him (Finlay said it in a shoot once that small guys would hurt the title…except Rey because he was THAT good).

What brings it down? While decent, it’s a shame Jericho and Flair didn’t click. Taker vs. Test was whatever and the tag title match, while solid, also seemed a little off (too much GOldust, not enough Booker T).

But I mean, there’s some great shit here. And The Fink was pretty funny!

Final Grade: A

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF No Mercy 2000

No_mercy_2000

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 Judgment Day 2000

jday2000

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

rr2000

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 WWF Royal Rumble ’99

Royal_Rumble_1999

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.

Women’s Championship: Strap Match
Sable© vs. Luna

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.

WWF Championship: I Quit Match
Mankind© vs. The Rock

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 WWF Survivor Series ’98

SS_98

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?

Women’s Championship
Jacqueline© vs. Sable

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!

World Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outalws© vs. The Headbangers vs. D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry

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+

Pro Wrestling

Ranting About What the Hell Happened At the 2015 Royal Rumble

Does WWE hate their audience?

               I seriously don’t get it.

               How does it make any sense to put Roman Reigns over in the Royal Rumble?

           This isn’t the same thing as 2003 Triple H and his reign of terror over the RAW roster. Whether fans liked it or didn’t, HHH was an established top guy. There was logic there.

            This isn’t the same thing even as HHH beating CM Punk during the Summer of Punk (although that was pretty bad anyway).

         This isn’t even the same thing as last year’s Royal Rumble, where Batista infamously won the Royal Rumble and Daniel Bryan, the clear crowd favorite, wasn’t even in the match. At least you can argue Batista being the returning star with a movie and all.

     This is, for all intents of purposes, outright ignoring your audience. There’s no argument here. There’s just no way could anyone think, at the moment of the 2015 Royal Rumble, that Roman Reigns going over was the way to go. Nothing has led to a point where this would be a remotely good idea. Let’s be clear though, there is money in Roman Reigns…he’s just not READY yet. And there is someone who is more than ready. Someone who is perhaps the most popular wrestler since Stone Cold and The Rock. That person is Daniel Bryan. He is practically a license to print money. The fans CLEARLY want him up top. I mean 2014 pretty much showed that Daniel Bryan should be the future of this company if he was healthy. Even if he isn’t healthy for the long term that’s fine. Let him be the top guy when Roman gets ready. Roman Reigns could be, and if he improves should be the face of Wrestlemania 32. Reigns’ 2015 should be similar to John Cena’s 2004.

     Let’s talk about the Rumble match itself. When Daniel Bryan came in at #10 I was sold that he was winning. When he starting doing all of his risky moves, I was sold he was winning. Obviously Bryan, the former World Champion who never lost the belt, who made a big retirement tease to come back and enter the Rumble, who is the MOST POPULAR PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER IN THE WORLD, was going to be there at the end. It seemed logical that Bryan being #10 meant he was going to be in there in the long run. And if WWE thought he had a long match in him, that could only be a positive thing.

 Daniel Bryan lasted only 10 minutes and 11 seconds. He was eliminated in such a boring manner as well, just being knocked off the apron by Bray Wyatt. It’s gotta be one of the most surprising moments I’ve ever seen as a wrestling fan. If Bryan wasn’t winning, I still fully expected him in the final four. I mean why wouldn’t we? HE’S THE MOST POPULAR WRESTLER IN THE PROMOTION! HE IS THE FORMER WORLD CHAMPION WHO DIDN’T LOSE THE TITLE IN THE RING! I mean what the hell?

      The Royal Rumble was dead at that moment. It’s a shame because it was quite fun up until that point. Still…there was hope. Dean Ambrose or Dolph Ziggler. The fans could buy one of those two. Especially Ziggler. But two men were set to ruin that.

              Look. It’s 2015. Enough with the Big Show and Kane. I’m sorry but we have to move on at some point. I wrote on a message board last year that WWE has to move on and stop with all the part timers. The time has passed. It really has. Kane debuted in 1997 and Glenn Jacobs actually start in 1995. That’s 20 years! Big Show debuted in 1999. Enough! How are we ever going to truly care about this generation and future generations when we can’t get past the Kane and Big Shows of the world? I can understand The Undertaker. I can understand The Rock and Triple H. Those three need to stop too, but at least they were the cream of the crop. But we need to move on. The wrestling business needs to move on. It just has to. I mean there’s more time between Kane’s debut and today than Hulk Hogan’s first World Title and his DEPARTURE from WCW. That’s insane. In no way should I be seeing The Rock beat up Big Show and Kane on a Pay-Per-View in 2015. Those three were in the final four of the Royal Rumble FIFTEEN YEARS ago.

   Let’s talk about our winner. Roman Reigns. Now, I have no problem with Reigns, and as recently as Summerslam I was all for him getting a push. I’m still for him getting a push. He’s got a great look. I can see him becoming a great promo guy (despite the comedy we have now). He should be feuding with the likes of Luke Harper, Bad News Barrett, Cesaro and all of those guys for the IC Title in the next 10 months. Instead he’s jackhammered down our throats. It’s crazy. It’s one thing to force someone down our throats. But at least some fans take to it. Lex Luger still got cheered in 1993 (and when he got booed at the Rumble, Bret Hart got the belt). Diesel was still cheered in 1995. No one is cheering Roman Reigns. No one!

          If you have to get The Rock to help you not get booed out of the building and you still get booed, you shouldn’t be in the main event of Wrestlemania.

          If you cause the fans to cheer for a guy whose gimmick is that he worships Vladimir Putin, you shouldn’t be in the main event of Wrestlemania.

         I don’t get it. Anyone watching the Royal Rumble. From a neutral standpoint. Tell me how Roman Reigns was a better choice than Daniel Bryan. Because I don’t get it. I just don’t.

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the 2001 WWF Royal Rumble

Royal_Rumble_2001

WWF Royal Rumble 2001
January 21, 2001
New Orleans, LA

It’s over.

WCW didn’t really believe it to be so, but at this point it really was. The WWF vs. WCW war hadn’t really mattered to the WWF in over a year. WCW then proceeded to put on one of the worst years, if not the worst year, that a major wrestling promotion had ever put together. While WCW would have some strong moments in 2001 before its demise, it was way too little and way too late.

Meanwhile, the WWF was riding high. New stars such as Kurt Angle had really hit their stride. The WWF was also pushing the hell out of former WCW stars Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, and even taking chances with guys like Rikishi. The WWF had all of that talent while also having their mainstays be at the very top. Stone Cold, HHH, Undertaker, Kane and The Rock were still at the top of their games. While that wouldn’t actually remain viable forever (not enough top spots), at this point the WWF was simply rolling.

Then again, there was some small concerns. Ratings in December were low comparing to past years, and that’s with the ultra-hot Austin comeback. Shouldn’t be a problem on the Road to Wrestlemania though…right?

The Card

WWF World Tag Team Championship: Edge and Christian © vs. The Dudley Boyz

From 2000 on, it’s just safe to assume the Hardyz, E and C and Dudleyz were feuding with one another. The con-chair-to was an awesome move. Shame we won’t ever see it again, although it’s for the best.

I always thought the chemistry between the three teams was awesome…especially since the Dudleyz adapted to the WWF style practically instantly.

This whole match revolves around the Dudleyz having concussions. My how times have changed.

Edge and Christian miss the con-chair-to and D-Von hot tags Bubba! The crowd is very into all of this.

“D-VON! GET THE TABLES!”

The Dudley Boyz win when D-Von Dudley pins Edge in 9:59. Edge and Christian go for the Dudleyz’ WASSUP! Headbutt, but it’s reversed. Edge eats the 3D, and the Dudleyz win the title! Crowd pops huge for a very good opening match. Chemistry was just perfect with these teams.

Drew Carey is here! I think he’s promoting a PPV or something. He talks to HHH and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and promotes his PPV.

Crash Holly then threatens The APA about the Rumble. Good for a laugh.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit © vs. Chris Jericho

Their entire promo video is just them beating the hell out of one another throughout 2000. Sounds good to me.

Benoit and Jericho just go at it right away. No time to waste here.

One of the most cringeworthy moments I’ve ever seen: Benoit goes for a tope…and Jericho whacks him right in the head with a chair. Worse when you think about what ultimately happened with Benoit. What a sick spot.

This is just hard hitting stuff back and forth, not a lot of flying. It’s an old school ladder match and it’s awesome.

Ridiculous ladder teeter-totter spot that got Benoit in the face. Jeez.

Walls of Jericho on top of the ladder!

Benoit misses a top of the ladder diving headbutt. Sick.

Chris Jericho wins the title in 18:48. Jericho nails Benoit with a chair, then shoves him off the ladder and over the top. It’s enough time for Jericho to grab the IC Title. Great great match. One of the best ladder matches of all time. It’s forgotten because of the Benoit deal. Hard hitting, great spots and a great crowd. 2/2 so far tonight!

Drew Carey hits on Trish Stratus…but here comes Vince! Vince isn’t happy…so he has Drew enter the Royal Rumble! When Trish says it would impress her…Drew goes for it!

WWF Women’s Championship: Ivory© vs. Chyna

Storyline here: The Right to Censor injured Chyna’s neck…and Chyna wants revenge.

It may have been fun to see Chyna destroy Ivory at the time, but in retrospect this killed the Women’s title until Trish revived it at the end of the year.

Ivory retains the title via pin in 3:32. Chyna goes for her cartwheel elbow, but goes down and holds her neck. Ivory pins her. Chyna is stretchered out. Really a glorified angle. Chyna would crush Ivory two months later anyway.

Drew Carey meets Kane. Kane should be afraid.

WWF Championship: Kurt Angle© vs. Triple H

Weird match here. HHH and Angle had feuded in 2000 in the love triangle storyline, but we got past that randomly in the last couple of months…and HHH had turned heel on Stone Cold. Suddenly HHH is the #1 contender causing Angle to think he’s against the McMahon family…but he’s still a heel and enlists Trish to help him, which infuriates Stephanie (well that and Vince’s flirtations with Vince). Still, both are heels, and the match actually feels like a backdrop of the Steph-Trish feud sadly.

As a result, except for some early “Angle Sucks” chants, the crowd really isn’t into it.

HHH works on the knee, even using a chair against Angle’s knee against the post. This makes Angle the face of the match then?

HHH with a strange Indian Deathlock. He had been using the Indian Deathlock in late 2000, notably against Benoit at No Mercy 2000.

Trish breaks up a Figure Four, leading to a Steph-Trish catfight…and the crowd goes nuts.

Razor’s Edge! Angle kicks out.

Moonsault from Angle! HHH survives though.

The crowd is on HHH’s side now.

Ref gets taken out…twice! HHH has it won…

Kurt Angle retains by pin in 24:16. Stone Cold comes out and beats the hell out of HHH…and hits him with a Stunner. Angle gets the pin. While this is a very good match, the Trish-Steph angle was distracting, and we didn’t even get remotely a good finish. I mean, I know Angle is a chicken-shit heel, but he really struggled to beat anyone during this reign…this match included.

The Royal Rumble

#1 is Jeff Hardy. #2 is Bull Buchanan.

#3 is Matt Hardy, pretty much ending the Bull Buchanan run.

The Hardyz oddly don’t wait for the next guy and go at it after dumping Bull.

#4 is Faarooq, who fends for himself pretty well for a minute before getting eliminated.

#5 is Drew Carey! Carey watches on the outside…and the Hardyz eliminate each other at the same time! Drew wins!

#6 is Kane. Kane slowly walks around the ring and Drew begs him not to hurt him. Drew hilariously offers money, but Kane says no. Kane is about to chokeslam drew, but #7, Raven saves him with a kendo stick shot. Drew eliminates himself.

It’s a Hardcore Rumble!

Al Snow runs in early and attacks Raven he confirms himself to be #8 shortly.

Raven takes a bowling ball to the nuts. Ouch.

#9 is Saturn. Interestingly, Saturn’s titantron has the same style that would be used for Chris Jericho’s Save.Us campaign later.

#10 is Steve Blackman as the Hardcore Division keeps coming out.

#11 is Grandmaster Sexay. It would be his last appearance until 2004.

Kane literally has a “fuck this moment”. Trash can shot knocks out Grandmaster. Blackman is next. Then Al Snow. Raven goes afterwards….then Saturn as well. Kane has cleaned house!

#12 is The Honky Tonk Man! He wants to sing his song. He does so, before Kane whacks him with a guitar and throws him out.

#13 is The Rock. Business has picked up!

#14 is The Goodfather! Goodfather never recovered from his RTC heel turn sadly.

And Rock takes out the Goodfather. That was fast.

#15 is Tazz, and he lasts less time than the Goodfather does. Kane knocks him out in about 5 seconds.

#16 is Bradshaw. He actually kicks some ass and takes Rock out with a clothesline.

#17 is Albert.

#18 is Hardcore Holly. Five guys in there now.

GETTING ROWDY! #19 is K-Kwik. Amazing that Killings never really got higher than this spot other than his heel run in 2011.

#20 is a Right to Censored Val Venis. It seems like we are just waiting for someone to clean house here.

#21 is William Regal. Test follows at #22, and dumps Regal.

Business picks up now as The Big Show returns and is #23. Show was last seen in July after being sent to OVW to lose weight (which he didn’t do, for the record). He chokeslams everyone in sight and gets rid of K-Kwik and Test. The Rock counters the chokeslam and out goes Show.

Big Show drags Rock under the ropes as #24, Crash Holly gets in. Big Show chokeslams The Rock through the Announcer’s table before leaving.

Undertaker is #25, and he and Kane clean out the ring…and DON’T attack one another (see Hardyz, it works!). Scotty 2 Hotty comes out in total fear, and is promptly chokeslammed and eliminated.

#27 is Stone Cold Steve Austin, leading to one of my all time favorite Rumble moments. Taker and Kane in the ring where Stone Cold comes down with no fear. HHH ruins the moment though by attacking Austin. Austin doesn’t make it to the ring. Rock gets back in and fight Taker and Kane.

#28 is Billy Gunn. Gunn gets some good offense in, probably the last good offense he’d get in until 2013.

#29 is Haku. Haku is the current WCW Hardcore Champion! You knew it was a death knell for WCW when the WWF didn’t even acknowledge that they stole Haku.

#30 is Rikishi. Rikishi sees Austin trying to get back to the ring and tries to take advantage, but Austin springs into action and attacks! Anyway, Rikishi, Gunn, Austin, Rock, Kane, Haku and Undertaker are the final seven.

Austin dumps Haku.

You can see there is a little Austin fatigue at this point. It’s not that Austin couldn’t be a top draw, but his out of nowhere attack of Rikishi would have gotten a huge reaction before. Now, it’s just something Austin did.

Rikishi superkicks Undertaker out!

Rikishi goes for a Banzaii Drop, but Rock knocks him over the top rope. Really bad showing from Rikishi here kayfabe wise. All that hype for #30 and he ended up lasting 5 minutes?

Austin, Gunn, Kane, Rock is the final four. One of these is not like the other.

Gunn hits Austin with the Fameasser…then Austin throws Gunn out just like that. Down to three.

Austin and Rock have locked eyes. These two went at one another at Armageddon the month prior as well.

Austin and Rock going at each other here was a huge deal. It was funny when WWE tried to replicate it with Orton and Cena in 2011.

Austin and Rock keep going at it and Austin even gets a Stunner. Austin tries to dump Rock, but Rock counters and tries to dump Austin. Kane comes from behind and tries to dump both, but only succeeds in dumping Rock (the record setting 11th elimination).

Stone Cold wins the Royal Rumble at 61:55, last eliminating Kane. Austin and Kane go at it, and Kane grabs a chair. Austin gets the chair though and whacks Kane a few times, before clotheslining him over the top for the win. Very good Royal Rumble. Had some slow moments…but clearly had its moments as well.

A really good PPV here. Only one match was lacking, and it only lasted three minutes. Everything else ranged from awesome (the IC Ladder Match) to very good (the WWF Title match). Historically this was Austin’s last great babyface moment of the Attitude Era, and Kane got a historical accolade that took 13 years to beat. Kane did kinda get wasted though after this.

Royal Rumble really had some good stuff. Comedy with Carey, Honky Tonk and Scotty 2 Hotty. Kane’s reign of terror. The hardcore part of the Rumble. The Austin-Rock staredown. The Big Show comeback (it got a good pop and he was a main guy always before this).

The entire show did provide good build-up for Wrestlemania as well. Can’t go wrong there.

Final Grade: A