Fall Brawl '97

Legacy Review

Fall Brawl '97

September 14, 1997 from the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and rotating guests

WCW saw War Games was coming up on the calendar, so to get ready they cranked up an NWO/Four Horsemen feud that, with hindsight, looks like it was designed solely to destroy whatever credibility the Horsemen had left. During the build the now fully retired Arn Anderson gave Curt Hennig his old spot in the Horsemen, and after that the NWO did their (in)famous Four Horsemen impersonation segment on Nitro. I'm not sure why Dusty is missing this show but I'm not examining the gift horse's dentistry.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Eddie Guerrero def Chris Jericho (c) in 17:19- Mike Tenay starts the show as the third man in the booth to kick us off. This is a rematch from the last Clash. There's a big "Eddie sucks" chant at the start and Guerrero slides out to stall. I'd say before or after the bell, but unless I was spacing there was never a bell to start this match. Lockup, Jericho hits an armdrag, and Guerrero goes right to the heel 101 phantom hair pull bitch. Headlock/headscissors run, stalemate and another hair pull bitch. Guerrero takes a huge bump off a Jericho shoulderblock. Jericho armdrags out of some Guerrero arm work. Guerrero's frustrated. Another lockup and Guerrero hits some European uppercuts and chops in the corner. More Jericho armdrags and he does a bit of arm work. He tries to stretch out an armbreaker. After a few failed escapes Guerrero eventually works into a cradle for 2. He goes for a magistral cradle. Jericho counters with his own magistral for 2. Back on Guerrero's arm. Speed run and Guerrero takes a HIGH elevation hot shot. Lionsault! That gets a 2 count. Jericho goes back to the arm. Guerrero leaps over the top rope while still being held and snaps Jericho's throat over the top rope. Dropkicks to Jericho's back and Guerrero targets the back to wear down. Straight drop back suplex. Guerrero hooks up for a surfboard and turns it into another back stretch. Jericho's facial expressions in the hold are amazing. He slowly fights up to his feet, then manages to reverse the hold. Another European uppercut puts Jericho back down. More back punishment. Gory Special! Jericho reverses it! Guerrero gets up on Jericho's shoulders and Jericho faceplants him on the mat. Guerrero does some dodges, knucklelocks Jericho, and tries to walk the top rope. Jericho crotches him and gives him his own version of a bronco buster. The springboard dropkick puts Guerrero on the apron. Jericho teases a powerbomb on or off the apron, but instead hot shots Guerrero again and they both fall down into the guardrail. Back in we get a long counter run and Jericho hits a HUGE release German suplex for 2. Guerrero counters a powerbomb attempt into a uranage. Jericho powerslam for 2. Guerrero gets tossed across the ring and Jericho hits a leg lariat for 2. Flapjack. Jericho tries another magistral. Guerrero blocks and covers for 2. Double powerbomb from Jericho. He sets up for a superplex. Guerrero counters in midair with a crossbody! He hops up the other side. Frog splash! Guerrero gets the pin and the title! What a match. *This* is what these guys can do, and so early in their careers. One thing I really liked is how well paced it was, almost like an early '90s WCW Light Heavyweight match or even a New Japan junior match with lots of mat and body part work that never got dull or boring. ****1/2

 

The Steiner Brothers (w/Ted DiBiase) def Harlem Heat (w/Miss Jacqueline) in 11:44- Larry Zbyszko replaces Tenay in the booth. DiBiase being paired with the Steiners is so weird. I get doing it right after him leaving the NWO, but it should have been a temporary thing. Lots of jawing before the bell before Scott and Ray start. Scott clean breaks in the corner. Ray doesn't. They go back and forth for a bit. Ray hits a side suplex. Scott hits a belly to belly suplex and Ray powders. Booker tags in. Scott cranks his arm. Booker slaps on a full nelson! That's different. Booker tries coming off the top but Scott catches and belly to bellys him. Press slam. The Steiners clear the ring and pose, and Heat regroup on the floor again. The Steiners work some quick tags on Booker. Booker gets his boot up on Rick and hits a side kick. Ray beats Rick down. Rick catches Booker leaping and slams him for 2. Tag to Scott. Ray distracts and Booker superkicks Scott 360 over the top rope! Fantastic flop by Scott there. Everyone fumbles around on the floor a bit, seeming to want to do a Jacqueline gets a hit in spot but they bail at the last second. Rick breaks up a TV cable choke. Back in Booker ducks a Steinerline and hits a flying forearm for 2. Scott catches another side kick attempt and slams Booker. He *just* gets to Rick for a tag. Steinerline! Steinerline! Heat get tossed around. Bulldog off the top! Heat manage to double team Rick. The Heat Seeker hits! Rick kicks out! I think Scott was supposed to save but was out of position so Rick kicked out. The Steiners hit the Steinerline/German combo, and that gets the pin! That was actually pretty damn good, despite a couple of sloppy patches. That was about as good as the Steiner have looked at any point in this post-peak period. ***

 

WCW World Television Championship: Alex Wright (c) def Ultimo Dragon in 18:43- Tenay rejoins the booth but Zbyszko doesn't leave, giving us the AEW sized 4 man booth. This is another rematch from the Clash, where Wright defeated Dragon for the title. Wright gets a quick slam after the lockup. He starts dancing. Dragon dropkicks him in the back! Thank you. Wright powders. Back in they trade wristlocks with flippy escapes. Wright pulls Dragon's mask and they both work some headlocks and counters. Big Dragon shoulderblock and he goes into a kick combo. A heel kick completely whiffs. Dragon recovers and superkicks Wright to the floor instead. Wright hits a hot shot. Corner chops and more dancing. Spinning heel kick for 2. Front slam piledriver. The next 5 minutes or so are Wright working that identity crisis chinlock/sleeper again, hitting a few shots, back to the chinsleeper, rinse and repeat. It's very dull as you'd expect from Wright and drags the match down. Eventually Dragon gets a sunset flip. Wright counters then starts dancing, so Dragon rolls him up for 2. Wright goes for a superplex but Dragon fights it off. He comes off the top but Wright gets his boots up. Standing switch, Wright hits a back elbow and heel kick. Snap suplex. He comes off the top and Dragon takes his turn to get his boots up. More rapid fire kicks and Wright falls to the floor. Asai moonsault! Dragon hits a hurricanrana in the ring but can't follow up. Chop exchange with both guys on their knees. Dragon hits a basement dropkick. Wright crotches Dragon on the top rope and dropkicks him to the floor. Plancha! Back in Dragon hits a double underhook suplex for 2. Tiger suplex! Wright escapes at 2. They trade counters on the top rope and Dragon hits a sunset bomb for 2. Setup slam and Dragon moonsault for 2. He hits another hurricanrana but Wright reverses the cradle for 2. Dragon tries coming off the top but Wright dropkicks him in midair for a long 2. Wright small package for 2. Dragon magistral for 2. The top rope hurricanrana hits. Dragon sleeper! Wright quickly gets a rope break. Dragon tries again but Wright jawbreakers out. German suplex! That gets the pin! That was easily Dragon's "worst" PPV match in quite a while. There was way too much Wright in control for it to be good, and even in other parts of the match Dragon looked slightly off for whatever reason. **3/4

The NWO interrupt tonight's Mean Gene hotline shill (Arn Anderson is SEETHING about the NWO impersonating the Horsemen segment, which is probably a shoot interview) to lay out Hennig in the locker room.

 

Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) def Dean Malenko in 14:53- Tenay is again out and we're left with Zbyszko as the 3rd man for the night. Sadly it's for reasons beyond taking up space in the booth, as we'll see later. Maybe Dusty being out isn't such a good thing after all. The winner of this match, in theory, gets a US title shot against Mongo at Halloween Havoc. Before the bell Jarrett hops out and tells Debra to take a hike so she won't be a distraction. Jarrett hits an armdrag out of the lockup, struts and chills in the corner. Yeah, if there's one guy you're not going to provoke with those antics it's the Ice Man. Jarrett escapes a hammerlock then somehow complains about a hair pull after a shoulderblock. Malenko gets a drop toe hold but Jarrett reverses the hammerlock. They trade some more basic counters before Malenko does another drop toe hold and walks over Jarrett. Jarrett takes his turn for a drop toe hold but Malenko dodges the follow up elbow drop. Malenko hits a dropkick and Jarrett powders. Back in Jarrett works a headlock. Speed run and some Malenko punches put Jarrett down. Jarrett ducks a punch and hooks on the sleeper. Malenko quickly falls into the ropes. He leaps over the top rope, goes up and hits a double ax handle. Superplex from Malenko. Jarrett dodges a dropkick and tries a jackknife cover. Malenko rolls through it to lay in some ground and pound. German suplex. The cloverleaf is on! Jarrett grabs a rope. Debra's back out. What was the point of sending her away? Malenko hits a crossbody and both guys tumble over the ropes to the floor. Baseball slide from Malenko. He attacks Jarrett's knee on the floor. Leg lariat back in for 2. Jarrett hits a back elbow and starts in on his own knee work. Malenko tries a suplex but Jarrett falls on him for 2. Malenko sleeper! Jarrett back suplexes out. He comes off the second rope, avoids Malenko's counter boot up, and uses the leg offered to go for the figure four. Malenko small packages him for 2. Backslide for 2 Swinging neckbreaker from Jarrett. Cradle counters for near falls. Malenko blocks a kneebreaker. Jarrett with a chop block! Figure four! Malenko submits! Still trying to figure out the point of sending Debra off. Malenko's a machine and Jarrett is capable of a great match the rare instances he's actually motivated, but this was merely OK. Jarrett wouldn't get the title shot at Halloween Havoc because by the time that show rolled around he'd jumped back to WWF. **1/2

Another NWO promo segment brought to you by no one is taking this seriously.

 

Wrath and Mortis (w/James Vandenberg) def The Faces of Fear in 12:22- I don't know if my brain can take Wrath or Mortis wrestling anyone on a PPV that's not Glacier. Barbarian and Mortis start with some back and forth pounding. Clothesline from Barbarian for 2. Meng pounds Mortis down. Mortis dodges a corner splash and tags. Wrath and Meng go full on crazy brawl. Wrath hits a clothesline off the second rope. Both FOF beat on Mortis. Backdrop into a powerbomb double team from the FOF. Wrath breaks the pin up. Barbarian hits a pumphandle slam. Mortis gets caught in the wrong corner. Clotheslines from Mortis only hulk Meng up. Big Meng chops. Barbarian goes up top but Vandenberg shakes the rope to knock him down. Barbarian fights off a superplex but leaps down into a Wrath boot. Meanwhile Meng is chasing Vandenberg. Wrath and Mortis hit a double team neckbreaker. Meng just gets back in to break the pin up. Wrath hits a backbreaker followed by a Vader bomb elbow for 2. Mortis drops Barbarian with a standing legdrop. Clothesline off the top from Wrath. Barbarian goes into the stairs, then the stairs go into Barbarian. Wrath and Mortis hit a double team superplex! OK, that was cool. Definitely woke the crowd up. Tags on both sides and Meng goes nuts. Powerslam on Wrath. Meng kicks Mortis in the face. Splash off the top and it's everyone in the pool time. Vandenberg tries to get a shot in but Meng gives him and Mortis the rare Double Fist Tongan Death Grip. Wrath comes in, gives Meng a uranage, and that gets the pin. It's nicely stiff and physical but nothing special. **

 

The Giant def Scott Norton in 5:27- Our first NWO match of the night with Norton representing them. Commentary pushes the idea that Giant could be a ringer for the Horsemen in War Games if Hennig is indeed out. They quickly get to slugging. Giant has to help Norton get over the top rope after an attempt at a 360 to the floor. Giant gets posted. Norton takes a suplex on the floor. As soon as they get back in the ring Norton clotheslines Giant back out, going over the top himself. Back in again Giant lays in the clubbing blows until Norton blatantly low blows him. He manages to get Giant up for a hot shot, then goes into the usual Norton punchy chokey stuff. Along with a couple of avalanches. He back suplexes Giant! Giant does the chokeslam gesture from the ground, then kips up! With a bit of help from the ropes but still. Dropkick from Giant! Chokeslam and it's done. Giant is definitely trying to show he can do more than people think he can. *

 

No DQ: Diamond Dallas Page and "The Total Package" Lex Luger def "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Scott Hall (w/Elizabeth) in 10:19- Yet another rematch from the Clash here, though in that match Hall and Savage defended the tag titles under Freebird rules. No such luck tonight. Hall wants to start with Luger and gets him. Long lockup fight that Luger eventually wins. Zbyszko calls Hall the "most overrated wrestler in the world". Luger hits Hall with the running forearm of I guess the STEEL PLATE OF DEATH is out now. Savage runs in and Luger takes them both out. The crowd wants DDP and gets him. Hall runs through some of his usual arm work on him. DDP jabs back with Hall doing his drunk-like sell. Something he was very familiar with. Inverted atomic drop with more Hall oversell. DDP hits the front piledriver and punches Savage out. Savage responds by tripping DDP, allowing Hall to nail him from behind. DDP goes in peril. Hall hits the fallaway slam for 2. DDP fights out of the NWO corner but the tag is cut off. Hall stomps Luger down into the gap between rings. Savage tosses DDP over the top rope across rings. Hall tosses him back over the other way. The ref's not a fan of the ring swapping so Hall punches him out. Savage goes into full beatdown stall mode on DDP while all the "important" stuff happens in the other ring. A backup ref comes in and Hall takes him out. There is now a stack of referee bodies in ring 2. Zbyszko loses it, leaving the booth and heading to the ring. He's had enough of Hall. He and Hall jaw and wave hands around at each other while Luger slowly pulls himself up from the canyon that apparently exists in the between rings gap. Once he's finally in position Zbyszko shoves Hall, Luger rolls him up, and Zbyszko fast counts 3. And the bell rings. So what, is Zbyszko an official referee now? All about the angle. This was just the start of Zbyszko being the new legend foil for the NWO. 3/4*

 

War Games: Team NWO def The Four Horsemen in 19:38- Curt Hennig is not out with his Horsemen teammates to start the match. The Horsemen don't get quite the crowd reaction you'd expect in Horsemen country. Could just be the way WCW has the crowd mic'd, they could never really get that right.

P1. Buff Bagwell & Chris Benoit- Cross-ring staredown to start. Benoit makes the first move while Bagwell, like he always did, finds the camera. He gives Benoit some flexes. Then slaps Benoit! No one ever accused of Bagwell of, well, being anything other than a dumbass. Benoit quickly sends him flying into the cage. He pounds Bagwell down and is looking extra ornery tonight. He suplexes Bagwell's back into the cage. Big chops. Bagwell dodges the headbutt off the top rope. "We want Sting" chant from the crowd as Bagwell takes over. Benoit gets backdropped into the cage. Meanwhile, the heels win the coin toss. I'm shocked. SHOCKED. Benoit gets a comeback flurry the last 20 seconds of the period.

P2. Konnan- He tries coming off the top rope but Benoit uses Bagwell holding him to kick him. Snap suplex for Konnan, then Benoit slams Bagwell on Konnan. Both NWO guys eat cage. Konnan hits a DDT as the 2 on 1 starts to take over. Bagwell, naturally, finds the camera to do some mugging.

P3. Steve "Mongo" McMichael- Slams for everyone. 3 point stance chop block on Konnan. We get pair offs in different rings, Benoit with Bagwell, and Mongo with Konnan. It's all Horsemen in control the entire period.

P4. Syxx- Benoit ambushes him as he comes in and Syxx takes a cage shot. So does Bagwell. Mongo throws Syxx up into the roof. Benoit hooks the crossface on Syxx but Bagwell breaks it up as the numbers advantage again gives the NWO the edge. Hennig is coming out! His arm is in a sling but he's here. Flair does a quick examination on it.

P5. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair- He's all over the NWO guys. Again with the even numbers the Horseman keep control the whole period.

P6. Kevin Nash- He hits a quick side suplex on Flair. Benoit tries to attack but goes into the cage instead. Big boot for Mongo. Another "We want Sting" chant. Flair low blows Syxx and Bagwell and hooks the figure four on Syxx.

P7. Curt Hennig- The sling is off! Hennig had handcuffs in there! All part of the plan. Wait, HENNIG ATTACKS MONGO! What the hell? And Flair! Yup, once again it's the "new guy comes to WCW, suckers the WCW guys in and was with the NWO all along" angle. Mongo and Benoit both get handcuffed to the cage. A couple of refs run in, leaving the "locked door" unlocked, and one of them hands Nash a mic. Nash goes around the horn trying to get one of the Horsemen to surrender. No dice. Flair takes a Nash powerbomb, but still no one will give up. Finally Hennig goes out the very unlocked door, drags Flair across, and threatens to smash Flair's head in with the door. Mongo says "stop it", which I guess is good enough because the bell rings. Hennig murders Flair anyway. While the refs wrap Flair's head up with a towel, the now 5 NWO guys celebrate. Nash says on the mic that was the death of the Horsemen in Horsemen country. Sadly he pretty much wasn't wrong. A disgusted Tony quickly signs off and end show. They were building up a pretty nice War Games match, not blowaway great but pretty good, with Benoit in particular absolutely killing it out there (no pun intended), but that ending angle left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. ***1/4

The worst part was the Horsemen never got a chance at any kind of revenge. Flair would disband the group literally weeks later. It would stay dead for a year, and when the Horsemen were eventually brought back it probably would have been better off if they'd stayed dead. Yet more proof that in this era of WCW literally everything was subservient to making sure the NWO always looked good.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- As usual there's some really good stuff on the undercard, including a Jericho/Guerrero classic that gets overshadowed by what Guerrero did with Rey Mysterio at the next PPV, before the NWO stuff kicks in. Match quality wise it's not as bad as usual, but leaves zero doubt that still after over a year nothing in WCW was more important than the NWO. Even if World champ Hogan couldn't be bothered to show up half the time.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

Rebellion '99

Legacy Review

Rebellion '99

October 2, 1999 from the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England

Commentary: Jim Ross and Michael Hayes

This is the second of the two UK exclusive PPVs for '99, the first year to have two. The Rebellion name will stick for the fall show until the last one in 2002. It's only 6 days since Unforgiven and the UK PPVs have been little more than glorified house shows for most of them so I don't expect much big to happen here. On the plus side, this is the first UK PPV without a Tiger Ali Singh match. Not sure why Hayes is subbing for Lawler here. Might have to do with Lawler's failed Memphis mayoral campaign, this would be peak campaign season. One other thing, judging by the official match times and what's actually on the broadcast a good number of these matches seem to be clipped. All I can do it rate them based on what I can see.

There is one important bit of history here, as this is the last major WWF show to be booked by Vince Russo. Almost immediately after the crew got back to the US Russo handed in his papers and took off for WCW to put the final nails in their coffin.

Jeff Jarrett makes his entrance for the opening match, with Miss Kitty and ...a vacuum cleaner. So *that's* how they're going to get the air out.....shit, sorry, wrong movie. Jarrett does his usual anti-woman "all they're good for is cooking, cleaning and making babies" shtick and offers 1000 quid (or 1000 bucks, he floats between the two) to any woman that can prove his point. After some misfires he pulls a woman from the audience that looks like she might be underage. Jarrett pours some stuff in the ring and gets the woman to hoover it up. She doesn't do a good enough job so Jarrett shoves her. Figure four! The lady from the crowd sells it about as well as you'd expect from a non-indie wrestler plant (horribly). Chyna runs out and makes the save, 360 clotheslining Jarrett out of the ring. While Jarrett's recovering we have a coin toss in the ring to determine which title the opening match will be for. The IC title wins.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/Miss Kitty) def WWF European Champion D'Lo Brown in 6:12- Not defending the European title on a UK show is certainly a choice. A jump start leads to some quick back and forth. Some of that Jarrett made mess is still in the ring. Brown hits a powerslam for 2. Spinebuster for 2. Jarrett grabs a rope, bails, takes the belt and leaves. Brown chases him down in the aisle and runs him back in. Jarrett gets the sleeper! After arm drops Brown comes back and counters into a delayed suplex. Brown comes off the second rope. Jarrett dropkicks him in midair! Jarrett dodges in the corner and hits the avalanche armbar slam. Brown hits a powerbomb and both guys are down. Brown gets up first and starts rolling on offense. He comes off the second rope again but Jarrett gets a boot up. Sunset flip. Brown counters with a stack up for 2. Brown hits a superplex, but Jarrett cradles him on the landing for 2. He goes for the figure four but Brown pushes out. Kitty gets on the apron. While she's distracting everyone Jarrett hits Brown with the vacuum cleaner! Cover and it's over. Perfectly acceptable. **1/2

After the match Jarrett challenges Chyna for a match tonight to settle things once and for all.

 

The Godfather def Gangrel in 6:19- Godfather's extra sized Ho Train entrance takes *forever*. As usual maybe 20% of them are OK. Gangrel seems to want one of the women. Godfather says nah. Once the ring is finally cleared of hos we get a basic start. Godfather blocks a hiptoss and hits a clothesline. He gives Gangrel all around the world buckle shots. Gangrel does some dodges and hits a DDT. He knocks Godfather around with some very basic offense. Slam and a pair of elbow drops for 2. Clothesline off the second rope for 2. Godfather dodges another shot off the second rope and goes into comeback mode. Legdrop for 2. Ho Train! The Pimp Drop hits and it's over. I think Godfather's entrance was longer than the match. 3/4*

Chyna is with Michael Cole and accepts Jarrett's challenge with a horrible promo. Bulldog interrupts (to boos even in England) and says he doesn't want to wrestle that "long haired freak" X-Pac tonight, he wants a title shot and he's going to go demand that from Vince RIGHT NOW.

 

Val Venus def Mark Henry in 3:47- Venus tries and badly misses in his prematch promo. Think his one note act was wearing pretty thin at this point. Venus ducks the lockup and throws some punches. I'd say "pounds" but with Venus that could be taken completely differently. Henry hits a powerslam for 2. Venus dumps Henry over the top and out. Baseball slide. He tries a slam on the floor and of course it fails miserably. Henry drops him on the guardrail. Back in Venus does some more weebles wobble stuff with Henry. He dodges a Henry avalanche and hits a Russian leg sweep for 2. Venus slips out of a press slam attempt and rolls Henry up for 2. He kicks Henry's leg out of his leg and .5 bulldogs him. Money Shot! That's it. Wow, that was a freaking squash. Henry got almost nothing in. Though with Henry that's probably for the best. 1/2*

We cut to the back and Cole is following Bulldog as he CHARGES into the McMahon family room. Vince, Shane and Steph are all there. Bulldog demands a title shot. Vince reminds him he already got one recently on weekly TV. Bulldog goes full ROID RAGE and tosses a trash can across the room! Shane and Vince look shocked and run across the room. STEPH'S DOWN!

 

Four Corners Match for the WWF Women's Championship: Ivory (c) def Tori, Luna Vachon and Jacqueline in 6:51- I'm sure there's some existing alliances here but honestly with this era of the women's division I couldn't be bothered. Neither could the writers half the time. Luna jumps Ivory to start. Tori suplexes Ivory. Everyone takes a turn to play "stomp the champ". Lots of covering and arguing and Ivory eventually does the smart thing and slides out to let the rest of them fight. Jacqueline tosses Luna and Tori around before being double suplexed. Double cover and Ivory comes back to break that up. Jacqueline and Ivory, who I'm guessing based on this were allies going in, start arguing and fighting. They do a big domino sleeper spot followed by a ricochet jawbreaker that puts everyone down. Ref Tim White gets squashed on a bunch of pin kickouts. Finally Ivory hits Jacqueline with the belt and pins her. It's a 1999 women's match. DUD

Steph is getting carted out on a stretcher with a neckbrace on. This, in a rare case of a UK PPV mattering, lead to the angle where Steph had amnesia for a bit. Pulling from more of the soap opera cliche classics. Cole is with with Bulldog elsewhere in the building, who gives zero fucks about hurting Steph while also maiming his promo. Man, what's with these promos tonight? Everyone's struggling with them.

 

Chris Jericho (w/Mr. Hughes) def WWF Tag Team Champion Road Dogg in 11:58- I'd love it if this match is because Dogg finally looked up "lugubrious" in the dictionary and decided it was an insult. Actually it's because Jarrett hurt Dogg's back so badly he had to miss a whole week or two of action. Career threatening. Dogg jumps Jericho from behind on the floor during Jericho's entrance. After getting in to ring the bell they go right back out and go into crowd brawl mode. When they get back to ringside Jericho gets run into the rail a couple of times. Back in the ring Jericho gets the edge. Dogg gives Jericho a HUGE hot shot. Corner X-Pac like kicks from Dogg. Jericho hits a corner clothesline. On a corner whip the other way Jericho flips upside down into the tree of woe and Dogg hits a corner dropkick. Now it's Jericho's turn to hit a hot shot. The springboard dropkick sends Dogg to the floor. Hughes gets a shot in. Jericho suplexes Dogg back in. Arrogant cover! Dogg reverses a double arm wringer. Jericho flips over and kicks out. Slingshot splash for 2. Hayes mentions the ref strike on commentary. Please, never ever bring that up again. So dumb. Jericho pushes the ref's count with chokes. Springboard bulldog! That gets a 2 count. Dogg starts to come back and Jericho gets crotched up top. Dogg hits a superplex. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Jericho double leg takedown and he goes for the Walls. Dogg flips him to get free. German suplex from Jericho! Dogg dodges the Lionsault! He cranks up the dancing jabs. Jericho ducks and ref Mike Chioda takes one! Hughes comes in and nails Dogg with a chair. Cover and slow count. Dogg kicks out! Dogg hits a flying forearm. Hughes gets on the apron and takes a shot. Hey, my TV went out! What the hell? It's back! Jericho's covering and gets the pin! What? Low blow? From Jericho? No way, you can't be serious. **3/4

 

Chyna def Jeff Jarrett (w/Miss Kitty) by DQ in 4:28- Jarrett charges in and it's on. Chyna hits a clothesline. Jarrett gets a back elbow. He comes off the second rope crotch first onto Chyna's arm. Chyna goes for the Pedigree but Jarrett counters and slingshots her into the corner. Chyna hits an electric chair. Every single spot in this match so far was also in their Unforgiven match. Here's a new one: Bulldog runs in and attacks Chyna for a DQ. He plants her with the powerslam. After Bulldog leaves Jarrett puts the figure four on Chyna just because. 1/4*

 

No DQ: Kane def The Big Show in 8:38- These two have been feuding for months and pretty much nothing good has come out of it, but they're both big guys so it continues. Vince rules. They go nose to nose before the bell and we get some back and forth slugging. Show hits a running dropkick that sends Kane 360 to the floor! Well, "hits" is a stretch. Show dropkicked and the gust of air from it hit Kane. Kane punches away in the corner until Show shoves him off. Show hits some knees in the corner. Kane hits a clothesline. And a standing dropkick! He tries a slam but Show blocks it. Slow, plodding Show offense time. He starts hitting some corner chops. After a few Kane blocks and slugs back. Bret bump from Kane and Show, with extreme difficulty, gives him a reverse DDT for 2. Boston crab from Show, but he put it on right by the ropes so they actually have to move further away from them. Kane starts to power crawl and Show just gives up on the hold. That was pointless. Enguzuri from Kane! He scoops but Show falls on him. Kane dodges an elbow drop. DDT from Kane. Clothesline off the top rope. Goozle! Show kicks free and Kane falls to the floor. Show throws him into the WOODEN stairs. No noise. Show goes over and gets a chair. Kane kicks it back in his face, gets the impossible big guy bodyslam, and that gets the pin. *

 

"The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def X-Pac in 5:23- Bulldog's getting booed in his home country so I guess they succeeded on that front. After working Unforgiven in his classic tights he's now wrestling in his Attitude Era blue jeans. Lockup! Bulldog pushes Pac out. Pac gets an armdrag and crotch chops. Bulldog cranks a headlock. Pac flips out of a blocked hiptoss but leaps right into a Bulldog slam. Bulldog tosses him out and Pac gets run into the guardrail. Delayed suplex from Bulldog back in for 2. Pac fights out of a chinlock but runs into a knee to the gut. They've been working it fine and I appreciate the classics in wrestling, but everything in this match has been paint by numbers super generic so far. The most basic layout you could imagine. Bulldog goes back to the chinlock and they do the arm drops. Pac quickly counters out of a sleeper and hits a heel kick. Kick combo. Bronco buster. Bulldog presses Pac, crotches him on the top rope, then scoops him up from that position, hits the powerslam, and it's over. Again, it's worked fine, but it's a super generic match. *3/4

Crash Holly confounds Hardcore Holly with the fact that in the UK pounds are money and you weigh in stone.

 

Triangle Elimination Match: Edge & Christian def The Hollys and The Acolytes in 8:42- E&C are still officially #1 contenders despite losing a title match at Unforgiven, and are defending that spot in this match. The Hollys are announced as "over 800 pounds". I guess the "delusional superhevyweight" thing is still going. Crash carries his scale to the ring as part of that. The Hollys, of course, argue before the bell. Lots of jawing after the bell among all the teams before Hardcore and Edge start. Quick speed run and Edge hits a backdrop, followed by a leg lariat. More speed and dropkick from Hardcore. Crash tags in and immediately gets knocked around. Eye poke on Christian and we have a double tag. Faarooq powerslams Hardcore for 2. Hardcore counters a Dominator attempt into a back suplex. After a tag Hardcore saves Crash from Bradshaw, until Bradshaw hits the back superplex. Hardcore comes in illegally and suplexes Bradshaw, then starts knocking Faarooq around. Clothesline from Hell on Crash! Bradshaw pins Crash and the Hollys are gone. Edge flies in with a missile dropkick on Bradshaw for 2. Swinging neckbreaker. E&C double tackle on Bradshaw. Bradshaw plants Edge with a big boot. Edge ducks a Faarooq clothesline and hits a spinning heel kick. Bradshaw gets the tag and cuts Edge off. Edge backdrops out of a powerbomb. Tag to Christian. Bradshaw catches Christian on a double team and hits the fallaway slam. Faarooq slaps on a bear hug. Christian punches out but runs into a spinebuster for 2. Acolyte sloppy double slam for 2. Christian continues to stay in peril. He gets a faceplant on Faarooq. The tag is cut off again. Christian slips out of the Dominator. DDT! Tag to Edge! Dropkicks for everyone. Christian plancha on Faarooq! Brasdshaw Clothesline from Hell on Edge! Christian slides in, saves the pin, then slides back out to continue with Faarooq. Smooth. Edge fights off a Bradshaw superplex. Tornado DDT! That gets the win! The Hollys were their usual mess, but the Acolytes and E&C did some really nice formula tag and power vs speed stuff. **1/4

While the cage is being set up we get a long video recap of all the goings on between Trips, Rock, Bulldog and Austin in the past week since Unforgiven. The most notable thing is the famous moment on Smackdown when Rock did a People's Elbow on Bulldog sliding across the ring in his fancy shoes and somehow keeping his balance. Side thought, I'm not sure why Austin didn't make the trip to the UK. He hadn't been wrestling for a month or so, probably resting his post-Owen Hart piledriver incident messed up neck during what's traditionally the slower season. Of course it turned out to be bad timing because Austin was about to be out for quite a bit longer. Fortunately they had built up other stars to fill the gap in the interim.

 

Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship: Triple H (c) def The Rock in 20:33- The cage is the old blue car cage painted black. It's classic WWF escape only rules tonight. Birmingham is bonkers for the Rock. Rock cuts a longish Willy Wonka themed promo before the match. Weird but OK. Both guys let thing soak in a bit before we start with some extended back and forth slugging. HHH hits a back elbow and makes the first climb attempt. Rock pulls him back down and pops him again. More punchy/kicky from Rock, but not in a dull way. That was his wheelhouse. He gives HHH a back elbow and goes to climb. After a HHH distraction Rock tries coming off the second rope but HHH gives him a shot in the gut. HHH pounds Rock down in the corner and hits the Harley Race high knee. Rock hits a swinging neckbreaker. Another climb attempt. HHH pulls him down and Rock goes face first into the top turnbuckle with a typical crazy Rock sell. Rock is the first one to go into the cage. More back and forth slugging. Rock gets a Samoan drop. HHH facebuster and clothesline. He climbs and gets halfway over the cage top before Rock pulls him back down. There was almost a Shawn Michaels bare ass moment there but they avoided it. Rock climbs and gets over to the other side. HHH manages to drag him back over. Slugfest standing on the top rope. Both fall and get crotched! Icepacks on standby. Another near HHH ass exposure on a climb attempt. He decides to leap off the top rope....RIGHT INTO A ROCK BOTTOM! Rock tries to climb. HHH gets to him quickly and back suplexes him off the ropes. Rock slugs back and hits a powerslam. HHH pulls Rock down from another climb. Rock hooks up for the Rock Bottom. HHH quickly back elbows out. Pedigree! HHH crawls for the door. Rock just grabs a foot before he can get out. HHH grabs a chair that's conveniently in arm's reach and tries to bring it in. Hebner tries to take the chair away. HHH hits him with the chair and he collapses! Rock falls out the door and hits the floor! Commentary thinks he's won, but Hebner is out and can't call it. They fight around the ring and, even in a cage match, we get the mandatory late '90s main event crowd brawl. HHH takes a couple of announce table shots. Rock gets a mic and says he's won but the ref didn't see it, so here's a present. Chairshot to HHH's head! Rock then grabs a commentary headset and calls his own match. HHH is bleeding. Rock beats him on the announce table some more. Rock climbs up the cage a couple of rungs, not too high. Elbow off the cage! The announce table half breaks. Rock drags HHH back into the ring. All around the world cage shots for HHH. DDT. Hebner is finally stirring. Rock decides to climb instead of using the door. Not sure about that, that's pure stubbornness. Here comes Bulldog. You knew he was getting involved. He drags Rock back up the cage into the ring. Here comes Shane! Shane is all over the Bulldog! For Steph! Bulldog quickly overpowers him. He powerslams Shane on the floor! Patterson and Brisco come out and Bulldog takes them out too. Bulldog gets in the ring and pounds on both Rock and HHH. He hates everyone. Rock low blows Bulldog to put him down. Rock Bottom on HHH! Rock crawls for the door. Now Chyna is out. She slams the door on Rock. HHH climbs and gets over. Rock grabs his hair and drags him back up. Slugfest on the top of the cage. Chyna climbs up. Rock pops her! Bulldog drags Rock down. HHH takes that opening to fall to the floor and win. Solidly good match with all the overbooking that was mandatory in this era, but at this point these two could probably have a good match with each other in their sleep. ***1/4

 

After the bell Vince struts down the aisle, past HHH and to the ring. He locks the cage door and flips Bulldog off! Rock Bottom on Bulldog! People's Elbow! Sending the crowd home happy and end show.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Pretty much another UK house show on TV, but not a totally terrible one and at least this one has an angle that plays into the "main canon" so to speak.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Clash of the Champions XXXV

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXXV

August 21, 1997 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

Welcome to the very last Clash of the Champions. The Clash started back in 1988 as a direct basic cable counter to Wrestlemania 4, during the months when Jim Crockett and WWF were constantly playing scheduling games with each other. In large part thanks to the Ric Flair/Sting match that cemented Sting as a main event player and made him an overnight star the Clash stuck, becoming an important fixture on the calendar in the days when PPVs were scarce. After the Turner buyout of Crockett to create WCW the Clash stayed, remaining a major show to one degree or another during the tenures of Jim Herd, Kip Frey and Bill Watts despite the increasing number of PPVs. Things changed after Eric Bischoff took over. Bischoff wasn't a fan of the Clash concept as he felt it took away from PPV buys, and after the start of Nitro to kick off the Monday Night Wars the Clash became completely redundant. The past few years it's been little more than a contractually obligated C show. After tonight, the contract is over.

As for tonight, we're smack in the middle between the last PPV, Road Wild, and the upcoming Fall Brawl. We get a clip from this past Monday's Nitro of JJ Dillon demanding Sting finally give him an answer between now and the Clash on what exactly he wants. Sting comes out and points to a bunch of "Sting vs Hogan" signs that were in no way planted in the crowd. Tony seems to think that was a satisfactory answer. No word yet on if Dillon got the message or not. The NWO has also declared tonight will be the one year birthday celebration for the group. More like a year and a month but whatever. It's like someone in the office realized they didn't do this at the real one year anniversary back at Bash at the Beach.

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Steve "Mongo" McMichael def Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/Debra) in 8:07- To recap: Jarrett stole Mongo's wife, won the US title and got kicked out of the Horsemen after no one really wanted him there in the first place. Mongo is all business heading to the ring. After the lockup Jarrett slides under, hits a slam, struts and brags. Jarrett outdodges Mongo and hits him with his own 3 point stance chop block, then chills in the corner. Mongo is understandably a bit pissed off. Jarrett bails, lets Mongo turn around and attacks from behind. Mongo hits a clothesline and Jarrett powders. Commercial. We come back with Jarrett throwing Mongo into the stairs. Jarrett does some choking in the ring with a Debra assist. Suplex from Jarrett. Sleeper! After arm drops Mongo slowly fights up. Mongo with a sleeper! Debra gets on the apron. Eddie Guerrero runs out. He takes the US belt and gets on the top rope. Mongo dodges and Jarrett gets it! Mongo tosses Guerrero out, covers, and gets the pin for his first ever title. Lord help us. Jarrett's good heel work threatened to make it interesting at the start, but ultimately it's a Mongo match. Guerrero also 100% won that match for Mongo, it was all Jarrett up until then so I'm not sure how that was supposed to do Mongo any good. 1/2*

After the bell hussy Debra tries to cozy back up to Mongo. Mongo tells her to piss off. Alex Wright comes out with Mean Gene and drops some German in a very awkward promo. After commercial Mean Gene does some cross promotion with the TBS Dinner & A Movie guys and drops an awful "jerk chicken" joke.

 

No DQ: Raven def Stevie Richards in 5:01- This is both guys' official first WCW match after coming in earlier in the summer from ECW as outside invaders. Commentary says Raven still doesn't have a WCW contract. Raven comes in from the crowd, assumes promo position in the corner, takes a mic and demands this match be no DQ. It's all Raven to start and he tosses Richards out. Corkscrew plancha! Back in Raven snap mares Richards around until Richards counters with a backslide for 2. Once again it's all Raven and Richards gets tossed out again. Raven hits a couple of Cactus Jack style elbows off the apron, then tosses a chair in the ring. He drop toe holds Richard's face into the chair. Bulldog into the chair! Raven sets the chair up in the corner. Richards reverses and Raven goes into the chair! Raven is still up first. Richards slugs back and hits a flying forearm. Side suplex for 2. Richards tunes up the band. Raven blocks the superkick. Richards maneuvers him into a roll up for 2. Raven clothesline for 2. He plants Richards with the DDT and it's over. An extended squash, but it's not a horrible true introduction for Raven to the WCW audience. It's about all Richards deserves anyway. *1/2

Mike Tenay introduces a short biographical piece on Ultimo Dragon. He's been in WCW for a good two years, so I guess now is as good a time as any. This is also when WCW finally stopped all the "Ultimate Dragon" nonsense and started using his proper name again. I've been calling him Ultimo Dragon all along in these reviews, because that's always been his correct name. Of course this means Dusty spends half of the next match stumbling over trying to say "Ultimo".

 

WCW World Television Championship: Alex Wright def Ultimo Dragon (c) in 13:55- Wright had just dropped the Cruiserweight title back to Chris Jericho and is now getting a shot at the next belt up. Tenay joins the booth for this one. After a cautious start Wright strikes first with an armdrag out of a lockup. Next sequence he manages to outwrestle Dragon again. They do an extended sequence where both guys grab arm wringers with the other escaping. Wright eventually takes a rope break, and uses the opening for an eye poke. He stomps on Dragon a bit. Shoulderblock standoff. On the second try Wright goes down. He begs off. Dragon hits some chops. The corner handstand and kick leads into a classic Dragon rapid fire kick combo, followed by the stiff PKs to the back. Wright jawbreakers out of a chinlock. He powerbombs Dragon! Instead of covering he wastes time, which Heenan gets all over him for. Backbreaker and a very slow cover for 2. European uppercut and another backbreaker for 2. Gutwrench suplex for 2 and we go to commercial. Then there's a super important NWO promo flogging Syxx's shirt, then we finally come back with Wright holding a half chinlock half sleeper. They have a great speed sequence and Wright hits a clothesline. Setup slam. Wright gets HUGE height on a stomp off the top rope. There's more than a few Golden Age ROH venues where his head would have been through the ceiling. Speaking of, I've got some Golden Age ROH DVD sets I really need to get around to reviewing sometime. Wrestler compilations, not full shows, probably why I haven't done it yet. One day. Wright gives us some of his awful dancing then puts the chinsleeperlock back on, with some rope leverage help. Dragon fights free, hits the ropes, ducks, ducks again, slides under, flips out of a backdrop, and puts on his own sleeper! Wright tries to back suplex counter but Dragon flips over and hits his own. Chop exchange. Wright gets another European uppercut and a back suplex. He gets on the apron to climb up top. Dragon springboard dropkicks him to the floor! Wright dodges a plancha. Asai moonsault! Dragon sets Wright up top. Wright fights and goes for a superplex. Dragon counters midair and Wright drops down face first. Magistral cradle for 2. Wright counters the handspring elbow with a back elbow. He tries a leverage pin for 2. Standing switches, Wright blocks the tiger suplex, and both guys trade cradle counters. Wright hits the German suplex, and that gets a clean pin for the title! Good cruiserweight style match for the TV title. Wright will never be particularly good but is clearly a more natural heel, while Dragon continues to very quietly be one of the best in-ring workers on the WCW roster. Maybe the best. ***1/4

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) def Eddie Guerrero in 6:41- As mentioned, Jericho is freshly on Cruiserweight title reign #2 after taking it back from Wright. Guerrero's strangely been off the big shows for most of the year. I'm not sure he was injured, just hasn't been booked, which I would call a misfire. Guerrero jaws a lot after the bell. He goes out of the lockup into a hammerlock and snap mares Jericho, then says "That all you got?". Jericho plays to the crowd a bit. Takedown from Guerrero. Jericho spins into an armdrag, then hits another one and a dropkick. Guerrero immediately does the hair pull bitch to the ref. Jericho hits a shoulderblock, then catches Guerrero leapfrogging and press slams him! You don't usually see Jericho break out pure power moves like that. Guerrero quickly crawls on his knees to the ref and tries to hide, then slides out. More stalling. Guerrero sneaks around and jumps Jericho from behind. Leg lariat. Slingshot senton. He puts Jericho up top and hits a hurricanrana for 2. Guerrero walks the top rope and goes for another hurricanrana, but Jericho blocks it and hits a powerbomb. Giant swing! Both guys need time to recover. Jericho hits a spinning heel kick. Guerrero goes to the floor. Jericho tries for a springboard crossbody but slips off the top rope and falls to the floor. Hope that was deliberate selling still being dizzy from the swing. They get on the apron. Jericho suplexes Guerrero out of the ring to the floor! Back in Guerrero hits a superplex for 2. Long crazy counter sequence. Jericho hits a HUGE release German for 2. Another series of counters and cradle counters. Jericho manages to get on top of Guerrero while he's completely stacked up and gets a 3 count! After the bell Guerrero lays Jericho out, puts the belt on top of him, and hits a frog splash. The slow first part of the match would have been good groundwork laying if they were going 20 minutes on PPV, I'm surprised they did that knowing how little time they had, but it got good as you'd expect from these two after that. They definitely need that 20 minute PPV match. ***

 

Psychosis, Villano IV, Villano V and Silver King (w/Sonny Oono) def Juventud Guerrera, Hector Garza, Lizmark Jr and Super Calo in 4:52- Lucha, er, quados (trios plus one) rules here so tagging and selling are optional. Tenay checks in again for this one. It's an 8 man lucha match barely getting 5 minutes, I'm not going to spend a bunch of time on this because you can probably work out how it goes. Calo and Villano IV open with some extended back and forth. Garza and Silver King get crazy flippy with each other. Psychosis knocks Juvy around before it's everyone run in time. EVERYBODY DIVE! Heenan: "It's like 8 cabbies in Mexico City fighting over a fare!". Fantastic. Oono helps out Psychosis to counter a Calo move, Psychosis hits the legdrop off the top and that gets the pin. Fun condensed lucha spotfest. ***

Mean Gene is back with the Dinner & A Movie guys. Things get suspicious when all their dishes are named after Savage or the NWO, except for the cream puffs, those are WCW. Heel turn! Savage comes out, stops Okerlund from leaving and says this is the kickoff of the NWO's birthday celebrations. A giant NWO birthday cake appears, with the hands of stagehands hilariously coming into frame to light the sparklers on the cake. Vince is tossing his headset at a monitor right now. The D&M guys call DDP out and get their wish. DDP trashes the whole set and lays one of the guys out with a Diamond Cutter. Harmless TBS cross-promotion fun.

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Curt Hennig def Konnan and Syxx in 5:09- Konnan and Syxx look like two drunks trying to get each other home from the bar after closing on their entrance. I'm probably not far off from the truth. Konnan and Hennig start with Konnan taking a gum spit. Hammerlock standoff. More surprisingly spunky counters and stalemate. Hennig gets stuck in the heel corner. Syxx wraps up an arm wringer. Hennig uses that to drag him to his corner and tag Flair. Syxx hits a shoulderblock and gives Flair some ground and pound. Chop from Flair. Syxx hits a backdrop. More Flair chops. He hits the snap mare/kneedrop combo for 2. Syxx takes a backdrop. Hennig kneelift on Syxx. Konnan tags in and Hennig jumps him while he's coming through the ropes. Hennig ends up in the wrong corner again. Flair runs in and it's donnybrooking time. He goes for the figure four on Konnan. Hennig tosses Syxx, but accidentally right into Flair's leg. Henning gets the Perfectplex on Konnan and gets the pin. They had a ton of energy but not much time to do anything with it, and the finish was a bit of a mess. *3/4

Mean Gene joins the winners in the ring, determined to once and for all to get an answer from Hennig on whether or not he's a Horseman. Hennig's answer? "No". "No you're not a Horseman or no you won't answer tonight?" "That's right". Flair looks put out and they both leave.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Scott Hall and "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) (w/Elizabeth and Kevin Nash) def "The Total Package" Lex Luger and Diamond Dallas Page in 9:55- The whole NWO (minus Hogan of course, he doesn't show up for C shows) comes out as white and black balloons pour down to continue the birthday celebrations. As they're all hanging out in the ring Nash says this match is now a tag title match with Savage defending in his place. I didn't think Nash had the book yet. Wait, he's not world champion. Dead giveaway he doesn't yet. After being champs 7-8 months they just now invoke Freebird Rules. I'd question that, but of course WCW let them get away with anything. After the challengers make their entrance most of the NWO group leaves. There are balloons popping EVERYWHERE. It's like 5 straight minutes of pyro going off sound. After much discussion Luger and Hall start with a rough lockup. Luger eventually powers Hall down. Hall tights pulls Luger to the floor. Nash runs up and hits Luger from behind. Former evil ref Nick Patrick tosses Nash out! Luger gets double teamed for a bit, until he dodges an elbow drop and gets a tag. DDP takes everyone out. Clothesline on Savage. Hall trips DDP, then Savage hits him with a clothesline. Hall hits the fallaway slam for 2. More double teams follow. DDP tries to fight out of the heel corner but the tag is cut off. Savage tosses DDP to the floor INTO THE BALLOONS! Double ax handle off the apron from Savage. Hall corner clothesline back in. He ties DDP up and slaps him on his back in a very humiliating way. DDP ducks a Hall clothesline, hits his own clothesline, and tags. Luger has clotheslines for everyone. He tosses Savage out. Torture Rack on Hall! Savage breaks it up, then gives DDP a thumb in the eye. Blinded DDP Diamond Cutters Luger! Hall slowly crawls over, gets an arm over, and gets the pin. Solid enough. Like most of their title defenses the Outsiders/NWO team spent 90% of the match on offense. **1/2

The whole NWO gang comes out again, this time with Bischoff, to cap off the birthday celebration. Bischoff says for birthday presents he still wants an NWO only show and Hogan wants more limos and jets. Dark music starts playing. The lights flicker. Sting is here! He's up in the rafters with a vulture. A child voiceover talks about light fighting against darkness. All the lights go out. For a long while. When they come back up the vulture is on the top rope. Bischoff is scared of it and slowly takes a note it's holding. The camera zooms in on the vulture and end show. Eh. It kinda works. I've seen worse.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The Clash doesn't go out with a bang, but it's a solidly average show and that's the best it's been in a while. Crazy symbolism to have the final shot of the last Clash be a vulture.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

Unforgiven '99

Legacy Review

Unforgiven '99

September 26, 1999 from the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, NC

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

For the second straight year we're getting a fall full of Russorific WWF Championship shenanigans. In 1998 it was the controversial Austin/Kane First Blood match, then the more controversial Kane/Taker double pin on Austin in a Triple Threat match, that led to months of the title being vacant before the Rock won his first title in the Wrestlemania 4 style Deadly Game tournament at Survivor Series. For the encore this year? First off, Mankind pulled off a huge upset win for the title at Summerslam, pinning then-champ Austin in a Triple Threat match that Triple H was also in. The next night on Raw, Trips defeated Mankind one on one (as one on one as Attitude Era main events got) to win the WWF Title for the first time ever. A few weeks after that on one of the earliest episodes of the new show Smackdown, Trips would select none other than Vincent Kennedy McMahon to defend his title against. Vince had been off TV per the stips of the main event in Fully Loaded, but Trips had been making moves on Linda McMahon and Vince, as we all know a man ever dedicated to his wife, stepped in to defend her. Thanks to help from guest referee Shane McMahon and Austin, Vince won the top title of his own company. Don't ask, it's Russo. On the following Raw, Vince (who's somehow a babyface at this point, don't ask it's Russo) voluntarily relinquished the title in order to comply with the "not allowed on TV" stip again. The first ever Six Pack Challenge match was then set up for tonight to settle the vacant title.

If that's not enough, this is a historical show for another reason- it's Vince Russo's final US PPV as WWF's booker. By the time No Mercy came in late October (the next UK exclusive PPV is between these shows) Russo had departed for WCW, who were convinced they'd stolen the key piece that had led WWF to overtake them the past couple of years. How wrong they turned out to be.

The opening video for this show is....unique. There's definitely some influence from the early Smackdown set on the stage. And here's one more for the "don't ask, it's Russo" files on his way out, they're doing a storyline that the referees are on strike due to "unsafe working conditions". Really. There's a shot of all the regular refs picketing outside the arena. All the matches tonight are handled by "scab" referees.

Val Venus def Steve Blackman in 6:33- This feud started when Venus snuck into Blackman's weapons bag and put one of his sex toys in it. Really. Venus has the bag with him on his entrance. Steve "Brooklyn Brawler" Lombardi is the scab ref for this match. Jump start from Blackman. Venus ducks a roundhouse kick and hits a clothesline. Blackman gets pounded down in the corner. After a run of counters Blackman dropkicks Venus to the floor. Venus gets crotched on the top rope coming back in. Blackman adds more injury to insult with an inverted atomic drop. They go back to the floor with Venus on top....in control....whatever. Venus gets whipped into the stairs. Noise! Blackman posts his back, slides him back in and covers for 2. Old school Lombardi is counting a bit slower than the norm. Venus hits his ripcord knees and a Russian leg sweep. Hip swivel over Blackman and cover for 2. Blackman hits a crossbody. Venus rolls through it for 2. Spinebuster from Blackman with a jackknife cover for 2. Venus hits a bulldog and DDT, goes up top, the Money Shot hits, and it's over. Bleh. *1/4

After the bell Venus goes for the bag (which didn't come into play the entire match) and takes a kendo stick out. Blackman attacks, takes the stick, and whacks Venus over the head with it with what had become his signature KO shot. Medics come out to tend to Venus. Blackman tries to stop them but the huge head WWF security guy with the leather beret tackles him and gets him out of the ring.

Lillian Garcia makes her WWF PPV debut backstage, interviewing Mark Henry. Henry makes a suggestion in Lillian's ear, and Lillian slaps him silly! After that we get another shot of the picketing refs to confirm they're still out there.

 

WWF European Championship: D'Lo Brown def "Sexual Chocolate" Mark Henry (c) in 9:11- Henry pulled off one of the best heel turns of the late Russo WWF era, turning on former best friend Brown at Summerslam because Brown thought he was a fat bastard and was trying to save him from a stroke through diet and exercise. Tom Pritchard, apparently the "head" scab ref, is working this match in his blue workout pants. I guess when you're a scab you don't bother dressing properly. Bubba Ray Dudley did a better job at Wrestlemania 40 last night (as I type this). Henry has two ladies on his arm as he makes his entrance. He takes a mic, says he's not defending the title tonight and tells the ladies to go and start the car. He blames Lillian's slap for giving him a "brainurism". I really hope that was a deliberate mis-wording. It gets super annoying because Lawler repeats it every 30 seconds the whole match. Brown's music hits, he comes out and attacks Henry in the aisle. Henry knocks him around a bit on the floor, brainurism forgotten. They get in the ring and the bell rings to officially start. Brown goes into dodge mode and tries to pound Henry down. Spinebuster from Brown for 2. Elbow off the second rope for 2. Henry drops Brown on the top turnbuckle. Brown dodges and Henry crashes into the ropes. He goes to the floor. Brown tope! Crossbody off the top back in from Brown for 2. Henry hits a press powerslam for 2. Slam, clothesline and it's chinlock time! Henry hits some more ugly clotheslines. Brown crossbody for 2. He goes for another but Henry catches and slams him. Legdrop for 2. Avlanache. He puts Brown on the top rope and hits a kind of burning hammer for 2. Brown slides under and hits a hurricanrana! Henry actually just about got himself over for that. Flying forearm and heel kick from Brown. Signature legdrop for 2. Henry hits a half assed corner clothesline. He looks blown up. I wish I was kidding. He gives Brown some mounted punches. Brown counters with another spinebuster! Frog splash! Brown gets the pin and wins the title back! Brown's in his peak when he was pretty damn good, but even after a couple of years of work Henry was still just this side of godawful and Brown was only going to get so much out of him. 3/4*

After a backstage Acolytes promo we cut to Chaz (former Headbanger Mosh) being beat up backstage because they thought he was beating his girlfriend or something. It's more Russo stupidity, and I'm pretty sure it ends after Russo leaves so whatever. It looks even dumber when juxtaposed with what's next. We then cut to a Debra promo, with Miss Kitty (The Kat/Stacey Carter, who Lawler was in a real life relationship with despite her barely being older than Lawler's son). Jeff Jarrett interrupts, tells Debra to piss off, and drags Kitty away to be in his corner.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/Miss Kitty) def Chyna by DQ in 11:52- The whole build to this match has been Jarrett beating up on women and putting them in the figure four, including The Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young, the first of many angles with them to come over the next several years. Because of that Chyna is a face here despite still being with heel Triple H. She comes out to Trips' music and gets a pretty big pop. Harvey Wippleman is the scab ref for this one. With Kitty out there Lawler is uber annoying the whole match. Another jump start. Must be Wrestlemania. Chyna hits a shoulderblock and clothesline. Jarrett tries coming off the second rope but his crotch somehow falls on Chyna's arm. Jarrett gets 360 clotheslined to the floor. He drags Chyna down and posts her hooha. Chyna takes some floor beating, while Jarrett takes a moment to move Kitty Savage/Elizabeth style. Jarrett crossbody off the top back in for 2. He ducks a Chyna elbow and hits a dropkick. Chyna does the Trips flip in the corner and hits a clothesline from the apron. Jarrett hits a superplex into a cradle for 2. Armbar slam off the second rope. We get a shot of Moolah and Mae Young sitting ringside. Chyna outmaneuvers Jarrett in the corner and hits an electric chair. Jarrett ducks a clothesline and hooks on the sleeper. After arm drops Chyna fights out and suplexes Jarrett. Powerslam for 2. She counters Jarrett into a powerbomb for 2. Jarrett hits his own powerbomb and goes for the figure four. Chyna pushes out and Jarrett does a crazy flop all the way over the top rope to the floor. Can't say he's not trying. Chyna gives Jarrett a chairshot! That was right in front of Wippleman. These scab refs have no clue what they're doing. Jarrett gets backdropped onto the Spanish announce table! Back in Chyna hooks up for a Pedigree. Jarrett counters with a slingshot and Wippleman goes down. Jarrett tells Kitty to get the guitar. Moolah and Young are in and pounding on Jarrett! And Jarrett's actually selling it! They double slam Jarrett! Jarrett double clothesline on them! Lawler loses it laughing. He continues beating on both women, kicking them out of the ring. Debra comes out, shoves Kitty down, and nails Jarrett with the guitar! Huge pop for that. Chyna covers and Wippleman counts 3! But wait, here comes Tom Pritchard, and he's bringing a Dusty Finish with him. They review the replay on the tron and Pritchard DQ's Chyna, giving Jarrett the match. Chyna attacks Pritchard and gives him a Pedigree before leaving. The bulk of the match was OK with Chyna continuing to look competent with the guys and Jarrett working hard to make it work, but all the overbooking was just dumb. *1/2

 

The Acolytes def The Dudley Boyz in 7:28- The ECW legend Dudleyz are making their WWF PPV debut, still in their ECW tie dye gear for now. They'd recently signed with WWF as part of the under the table partnership between WWF and ECW for talent to go one way and money the other. They get zero reaction from the crowd as they weren't established outside of Philly or hardcore circles yet. Bubba Ray takes a mic and does his stuttering bit, then D-Von lays down some testimony. Lawler makes sure to get his "Extremely Crappy Wrestling" in. Regular ref Jimmy Korderas has crossed the picket line to work this match. The Acolytes charge in and we're four for four on jump starts tonight. Faarooq pounds Bubba down in the corner as things quickly settle in. Bubba responds with an avalanche and suplex. Faarooq gets his knees up on a splash. The Acolytes hit a double team faceplant. Big boot from Bradshaw. Bubba slams Bradshaw and hits a senton off the second rope for 2. Lawler is still going on about Moolah and Young getting beat up. Someone find a damn off switch on him please. Or a reset button, something. He's been horrible tonight. Bradshaw hits a superplex and hits a fairly weak (for him) spear that sends he and Bubba tumbling to the floor. Bubba hits some chops on the floor but gets whipped into the stairs. Noise! Cover back in for 2 as Faarooq says "ECW that!" from the apron. Instantly better than almost anything Lawler's said tonight. Bubba ducks the Clothesline from Hell and hits a belly to belly suplex for 2. Tag. D-Von ducks a big boot and tackles Bradshaw. Swinging neckbreaker. Bradshaw catches D-Von and hits a fallaway slam. Faarooq hits a powerslam for 2. D-Von plants him with a DDT but Bradshaw cuts the tag off. D-Von dodges an elbow drop and gets the tag. The Dudleyz hit a double team neckbreaker that JR calls the 3D. Clearly he needs to watch more tape. DONNYBROOK! Bubba powerbomb/D-Von headbutt off the top combo for 2. D-Von gets crotched on the top rope and Bradshaw hits a back superplex for 2. Bubba runs in and faceplants Bradshaw from behind. 3D on Faarooq! That goof Stevie Richards runs in. He's been doing a gimmick of impersonating WWF wrestlers. Tonight it's the Acolytes. He's got the UPN logo (Smackdown's network) painted on his chest Acolyte style. Richards superkick on D-Von! Faarooq covers for the pin. The Acolytes thank Richards in the only way they know how- laying him out. Then Faarooq shakes his hand while he's down. On paper you'd think these two teams would work really well together, but as hard as they were trying (and they were) it just never came together. Another dumb interference finish also let it down. *3/4

 

Hardcore Match for the WWF Women's Championship: Ivory (c) def Luna Vachon in 3:37- Right after the last match we cut to the back with Luna attacking Ivory from behind with a trash can. I guess this match is on then. They brawl in the hallway and spend the first part of the match throwing everything in sight at each other with the other one dodging: a monitor, a drinks tray, a phone. They go in an office area and Luna uses a copy machine to make copies of Ivory's face. I said face. JR gets the SNL reference in. Some curtains go down. Cameraman down! Luna gets stuffed in a trash can. Scab ref Wippleman refuses to count because Luna's shoulders aren't down in the trash can. Ivory gets tossed on some boxes. Luna climbs up on a forklift. Splash off the forklift! Ivory kicks out! A mic stand gets murdered. Tori decides to insinuate herself in all this and gets stuffed in a footlocker for her trouble. Ivory whacks Luna with what I think is a pool cue and gets the pin. A total mess, though the forklift spot was decent. 1/4*

Ivory decides to interrupt a Moolah and Mae Young promo and gets an old lady beatdown for it.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws (c) def Edge and Christian in 11:09- Billy Gunn singles push? What Billy Gunn singles push? Huh? The Outlaws broke up? BILLY GUNN won King of the Ring? I don't remember any of that. Good thing too, that would have been really dumb. Stop it with the crazy talk. All kidding aside, the Outlaws had just won the titles back on the Smackdown before this, literally their first night back together. Who did they beat? A little team called The Rock N Sock Connection. Yup, that's happening right now. Real ref Korderas is in again for this one. This is a face vs face match. Finally we have our first non-jump start of the night as Gunn and Edge start with a LOCKUP! Gunn shoves on the break and Edge goes "OK". They roll through some very refreshing basics like an actual wrestling match. Edge hits a hiptoss, some armdrags and a drop toe hold. Gunn back suplexes out of a headlock. Dogg hammerlocks Edge into a roll up for 2. Christian blind tags in and hits some dropkicks and his own armdrag. Gunn grabs Christian's hair from the apron and Dogg pops him off the distraction. The Outlaws roll through some double teams. Gunn press slams Christian down gut first onto Dogg's knee. Christian comes back with some punchy kicky and gets a tag. Dogg hits his signature jabs and jive elbow on Edge. Christian run in and they toss Dogg over the top after a bit of an awkward sequence. From here on E&C clearly decide they're the heels in this match, which given the dynamic is the right call. Dogg goes into the stairs. Noise! He gets his back run into the apron a couple of times and E&C work on the back for a bit. Dogg comes back on Christian. Crossbody collision! Nice. Edge tags in and cuts Dogg off from tagging. E&C beat Dogg down in their corner and do some quick tag double teams. After launching off Edge Dogg punches Christian out of midair! E&C go for a double backdrop. Dogg turns it into a double DDT! Tag to Gunn! Gunn runs wild. Powerslam on Christian. Everyone in the pool! Christian hits a reverse DDT on Gunn. Dogg hooks Christian up for the pumphandle slam but he escapes. Edge spear on Dogg! But while he was doing that Gangrel and Matt Hardy pull Christian out of the ring! Jeff Hardy missile dropkick on Edge! Gunn hits the Fameasser! That gets the pin. After the bell the E&C chase the New Brood to the back. Well, that was a refreshingly old school tag match here in old Crockett country, making it completely different to anything on the card so far, though once again it was hurt by the fact that we aren't allowed to have any clean finishes. E&C continue to look better and better every time out there. **3/4

To recap the epic storytelling that's brought us to the next legendary matchup: Boss Man murdered Head by putting a crowbar through her, er, head. To replace her Snow got a chihuahua named Pepper. After a bit Boss Man not only kidnapped Pepper, not only murdered her, but went full Scott Tenorman on Snow with her. If you don't know that reference look up South Park. Then to top it all off he pissed on Pepper's grave. So, as logically as a witch weighing the same as a duck, that brings us to the one and thankfully only Kennel from Hell match in wrestling history.

Kennel from Hell Match for the WWF Hardcore Championship: Al Snow (c) def The Big Boss Man in 11:42- This match is so epic, it has the blue bar steel cage INSIDE the Hell in a Cell cage. The object of the match is to escape BOTH cages. Which in theory is supposed to be made more difficult by the rabid, trained to attack rottweilers surrounding the ring inside the Cell. The problem is they're nowhere to be seen when the match starts. The bell rings as Boss Man gets in the Cell with no dogs anywhere. They brawl for a bit at the blue cage door. Snow uses the nightstick and holds the door shut on Boss Man. I have zero idea what that's supposed to accomplish other than stall. And, finally, here come the dogs! Every one of them on a leash with a handler. JR tries his damndest but they look about as vicious as my aunt and uncle's litter of corgis. The dogs stay outside the Cell as the wrestlers continue to stall. Finally the dogs are brought inside the Cell, with one of them clearly marking his territory on camera, which again sets Lawler off. It's not even the worst thing they do during the match but it didn't take long for the production people to realize they're much better off not putting them on camera at all. JR cries "Look at the size of that rottweiler!". Yeah, and he looks like all he wants to do is play. Boss Man climbs the blue cage as one of the dogs barks. Snow gets a shovel out of his bag of toys and hits the cage with it. He flips over the cage, more stalling, and Snow falls down. He runs away from the dogs that are clearly only barking at each other. Snow climbs the Cell and crosses over onto the blue cage. More weak brawling on the cage. The crowd is getting pretty restless. Boss Man superplexes Snow into the ring to try to get them going. The dogs continue to say hi to each other and it's about this point they give up trying to show them on screen. Both guys in the ring are barely even trying. Zero effort. Maybe even negative effort. Boss Man hits some cookie sheet shots and Snow is bleeding a little. Boss Man gets some pliers and cuts a hole in the roof of the Cell. Understandable. If he walked around ringside he might end up stepping in some dog shit or something. Snow hits him with a bat, breaking it. Boss Man makes some half assed attempt to use the pliers on Snow's ear. He gets some powder out and Snow throws it back in his face. Stick shot and now Boss Man is slightly bleeding. After running Boss Man into the cage Snow takes the pliers and loosens a bottom turnbuckle, something that leads to absolutely nothing later. Boss Man hits some shovel shots and handcuffs Snow to the ropes. He starts to climb to the hole in the roof. Snow snaps the handcuffs off, shakes the cage and Boss Man gets crotched on the top rope. Snow gets Head out! Head is alive! Sadly that makes more sense than a lot of other stuff in this match. Head shot for Boss Man. They start the climb chase on both sides. Snow strides over onto the inside of the Cell while Boss Man starts to get through the roof hole. Snow swings himself through the door, "runs" from the dogs and mercifully ends the torture. There's a reason this is universally considered one of the worst matches in WWF history. Even Russo called it his worst booked match ever, and THAT'S saying something. It's so bad, it belongs on the same list as some of WCW's worst gimmick matches. I can't think of a more vicious insult than that. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

The saddest part of all of this? Being hanged from the Hell in a Cell cage at Wrestlemania wasn't even the low point of Boss Man's year. He might be wishing they'd left him up there.

 

X-Pac def Chris Jericho (w/Curtis Hughes) by DQ in 13:10- This was supposed to be Jericho vs Ken Shamrock after Hughes took Shamrock out on weekly TV, but Shamrock packed up and decided to go back to MMA right before this show. I don't think "took his ball and went home" is unfair. Lots of stalling during the entrances while the blue bar cage is taken down, and hopefully the ringside area is cleaned up. There's stuff out there that by most city ordinances needs to be cleaned up by the dog owners. Head scab ref Blue Pants Pritchard is back for this one. There's some prior history here as Jericho defeated Pac as Syxx for his first WCW Cruiserweight title, then they had a PPV match at Halloween Havoc later in '97. After the bell they do some standing switches, Jericho gets a takedown, and stalemate. Good back and forth run, double kip up and another stalemate. Jericho hits some chops. He ducks a Pac heel kick and hits a clothesline, then suplex drops Pac on the top rope. More chops in the corner. Pac dodges and hits his corner kick combo. Jericho dodges the coming bronco buster, but Pac sees it and lands on his feet. Pac goes for the X-Factor. Jericho grabs his legs to counter and starts to hook on the Walls. Pac flips Jericho out to the floor. Springboard crossbody! Hughes hits a clothesline on Pac. Right in front of Pritchard, and he doesn't do anything about it but lightly admonish Hughes. Must have gone to Red Shoes ref school. Jericho hits a suplex on the floor. Back in Jericho gets a missile dropkick for 2. He stretches Pac's arms out in a submission hold. "Ask him!" Pac tries a tiltahirl but Jericho blocks it and hits a backbreaker. So far this has been really good, but around this point the crowd gets distracted by some stupidity going on somewhere else in the arena, stays distracted for a good 5 minutes or more, and it slowly starts affecting what's happening in the ring. Jericho hits a slingshot splash for 2. After that they go into stall mode while waiting for the crowd to get undistracted. The problem is the crowd refuses to get undistracted, so they try to continue anyway. Jericho hits a back elbow, hits the Lionsault and does some ground and pound while the crowd is almost in another county. Finally they start coming back in. Oh, with an "X-Pac sucks" chant. Guess it is about time for the crowd to turn on him. JR tries to say the crowd is chanting for Pac while avoiding the lightning bolts shooting down from heaven. Jericho hits the springboard dropkick and Hughes gets another shot on Pac. The crowd starts chanting "we want" something I can't make out, probably something to do with whatever had them so damn fascinated for so long that wasn't what had been by far the best match of the night. In other words as sympathetic as I am to the anti-Pac sentiment I'm pretty much in "fuck this crowd" mode right now. Pac gets a boot up in the corner and hits a couple of heel kicks. Something happens with him and Hughes we can't quite make out because of the bad camera angle, then he hits Jericho with a springboard clothesline for 2. He goes for the bronco buster but Jericho uses the old boot in the crotch trick. Senton off the second rope for 2. Double underhook backbreaker. Pac hits a superplex. Jericho with a double powerbomb. Pac flips Jericho upside down in the corner into the tree of woe. Bronco buster on upside down Jericho! Of course the crowd still pops for that shitty move even after all the "X-Pac sucks" chants. Hughes comes in the ring and takes out both Pritchard and Pac for the cheap DQ. After the bell Road Dogg runs in and helps Pac fight the heels off. Another shit finish. I'm guessing that after the Shamrock substitution no one wanted to do the job. Still, they were going great until the crowd suddenly lost all reason. The whole thing was just weird after that. ***

Undertaker was originally scheduled to be in the main event, but on the last Smackdown before this show he refused to participate in a casket match with Triple H, even when threatened he'd lose his spot at Unforgiven, and walked out. This was to cover a groin injury he'd sustained in a motorcycle accident. He'd return for a couple of joint WWF/IWA house shows in Puerto Rico in December, but soon after tore his pec and ended up on the shelf again, which included missing Wrestlemania for only the second time in his career. When he eventually returned to TV in May of 2000 it was as the brand new American Bad Ass/Biker Taker. For tonight, the recently WWF-returned British Bulldog is taking his place. He had to do a quickie heel turn on the last SD to keep the face/heel numbers even in the match, helping Triple H win a match over the Rock. Both men deny any alliance.

 

Six Pack Challenge for the Vacant WWF Championship: Triple H def The Rock, Mankind, Kane, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and The Big Show in 20:28- Austin is the special guest enforcer for this match and has been promised a shot at the winner, a shot he'll get at No Mercy next month. He makes his entrance last, then goes over and joins commentary. For the record the Rock's entrance pop was almost as big as Austin's. This is "two men legal, tag in and out" rules and they surprisingly stick to them for most of the match. Picket line crosser Korderas is working this match. Rock and Bulldog kick us off and it's all Rock to start. HHH tags in and beats Rock down some. Rock hot shots HHH for 2. Kane tags himself in when Rock leans back for one of his crazy over the top punches and continues the beating on HHH. Kane gives old rival Show a shot on the apron. Show responds by pushing Kane off the top rope. HHH tags Mankind in, then punches him out! Mankind beats HHH down in the corner and hits the running knee. Kane and Mankind go back and forth for a bit. Show tags in and is all over Kane. Backbreaker and he stretches Kane out on his knee. Kane hits some clotheslines and an enzuguri on Show. Bulldog takes a Kane big boot. Rock gets in with the Bulldog looking for some revenge for the last Smackdown. Bulldog hits Rock with the delayed suplex. Mankind gets tagged in, doesn't want to get into it with tag partner and lifelong best friend Rock, and tags right back out. Rock gets out of a Kane Tombstone attempt and hits a Russian leg sweep for 2. Kane side suplex on Rock. Rock and Mankind work together a little bit. Mankind piledriver on Kane for 2. HHH and Mankind kick off the mandatory long floor brawl portion of tonight's main event. Mankind gets suplexed in the aisle. Rock hits a full speed running clothesline on HHH! Here comes everyone and the big all over the place floor brawl is on. Mankind piledrives HHH on the stairs! Bulldog and Mankind are the first back in the ring. Mankind wants to double team him with Rock but Rock is not particularly interested. While that's going on the regular "striking" referees make their way into the arena. They're off the picket line and staring Korderas down for having the GALL to be a scab. Good thing it's only the refs' union, as unions go they're about as soft as a feather pillow. Show and Rock argue in the ring over who gets to be legal. Show works Mankind over for a bit while Korderas is distracted by the other refs. Show hits a big elbow drop. Rock breaks the pin up. Mankind tags Rock in. Rock does some weebles wobble with Show, gets him down on the 3rd clothesline, and covers. HHH breaks up the pin. Rock and HHH slug it out on the floor. Rock snatches Austin's beer right out of his hand, takes a swig, and spits it in HHH's face! Austin tries to sound pissed but is on camera and looks amused more than anything. He probably didn't know that was coming. Mankind hits a DDT on Kane. Kane slowly and with difficulty lifts Mankind up from the mat, gets him in position, and hits the Tombstone! Show tosses Kane out before he can cover and calls for the chokeslam. Kane clotheslines him off the top rope! Bulldog powerslam on Kane. HHH Pedigree on Bulldog! Guess that partnership is over, at least for tonight. Rock pounds HHH out of the ring. Mankind double underhook DDT on Rock! That wily son of a bitch. First class mind games. Socko is out! Claw on Rock! Rock counters with a Rock Bottom! He drapes an arm over and HHH breaks the pin up. Show takes everyone out, clearing the ring. Chokeslam on Mankind! The refs pull Korderas out before he can count 3! They're stomping away on Korderas like he owes them money! Now this is more the union attitude I'm accustomed to. Austin leaves commentary and takes all the refs out! He probably leaped at the excuse to do it for a legitimate reason. Rock hits HHH with a DDT. Austin gets in the ring to take over as ref and counts 2. HHH high knee on Rock. Rock Bottom on HHH! Pad off. People's Elbow! Now Austin gets pulled out of the ring. Bulldog's still backing HHH up and gives Rock a chair shot. Austin gets back in, takes the chair, and nails Bulldog with it! But while that was happening HHH hit the Pedigree on Rock! He covers, and Austin has no choice but to count 3 to give HHH his second WWF Title. After the bell Austin tries to be the bigger man and raise HHH's hand. HHH snatches the belt out of his hand and sticks it in his face to taunt him! STUNNER! Austin does some beer bash celebration to send the crowd home happy. That could have been a giant cluster, but it was well laid out and everyone did their part right and it turned out pretty damn good. The only part I didn't enjoy was all the striking refs interfering in the match stuff, which was so freaking stupid. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The last two matches save this from being another bottom of the barrel 1999 B PPV. Instead it's that layer of crusty stuff just above the bottom of the barrel. The Kennel from Hell match is atrocious, but it's that level of legendary atrociousness you really should check out once just to laugh at or marvel at just how awful all this can be.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Wrestlemania XL Quick Thoughts

Johnny Legacy's Deep Thoughts

Wrestlemania XL Quick Thoughts

Like last year, this is just a bunch of bite sized thoughts immediately after the big show, plus some off the cuff ratings. I was watching at someone else's house with a (for me) larger group so things can certainly change whenever I go back to watch it over again. But hey, that's what full reviews are for.

Night 1

Women's World Title: Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch- A highly anticipated match that mostly delivered, though it's not on the same level as Ripley/Charlotte from 39. I'm going to assume the illness commentary talked about for Becky was legit and that might have affected her here, she did look unusually off at points. Ripley retaining was the right call, going into the show(s) she was the retention I was most sure about. She's the best in the ring on the women's roster in WWE right now, maybe the whole world, and this title reign deserves to keep going. ****

Raw/SD Tag Team Titles Ladder Match- The giant clusterfuck that was exactly what it needed to be. Even more impressive is that even with the huge number of guys involved they still managed to do some storytelling rather than just having a bunch of high spots. Though the high spots were certainly spectacular. The titles being split again was an expected "surprise", but it's still satisfying when it actually happens. Truth fully deserved getting his WM moment with all the great character work he's done since coming back. Side thought, with Vince gone it was nice not to have commentary shoving "WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT" down out throats every few minutes. ****1/4

Andrade & ReyRey vs Dom & Escobar- A fun enough match with lots of nods to these guys' lucha roots. The Jason Kelce run in was a nice enough bit of fun for the Philly crowd. As a Cowboys fan and Eagles/pretty much all Philly sports fans hater it didn't do much for me but that's fine. One of these days Dom needs to get a win over his deadbeat dad. ***

 

Uso vs Uso- The clear disappointment of the show. Hindsight being perfect these guys might have been better served by a semi-main or even main event on a B PPV rather than a WM midcard match as they didn't get much time to really do much. They got some good and necessary story bits in, but the match never hit anywhere close to high gear. **1/4

Damage CTRL vs Belair/Cargill/Naomi- This match existed for one reason: continuing the emergence of Jade Cargill. As a huge Asuka and Kairi fan I would have like more for them on the big stage, but for what it was it was fine. It's amazing how, based on what we've seen so far, Cargill has learned more from 4-5 months in the WWE PC than she did in two years with AEW. She definitely looks like a megastar on the rise. **1/2

Intercontinental Title: Gunther vs Sami Zayn- It was time. From the moment WALTER made his first appearance in NXT UK I was a fan. I'd heard plenty about him before then, but that was the first time I'd actually seen him and he didn't disappoint. But I knew going in this was Sami's night, and it should be. Gunther's done everything he can with the IC title and it's time to move on to bigger things. The entire presentation around this was amazing with Sami's family, Chad Gable, and KO all getting moments with him in his backstage walk. The match itself was fantastic, but also not *quite* on the same level as previous Gunther IC title defenses or, if you want to compare, Sami's NXT title matches. A minor quibble. The strangest thing to me was, I was the biggest Gunther fan in the room in our watch group, but I was the only one that picked Sami to win and was the happiest about it afterward. ****1/4

Cody/Rollins vs Rock/Reigns- Between the long video package, the even longer entrances and a long time of standing around "atmosphere soaking" when the crowd was clearly ready for the action to start it felt like it took FOREVER for this to get going, but once it did it was amazing. With Rock in and the way the story was going a full on Attitude Era style main event was expected, and that's pretty much what we got. Crowd brawl, check. Stage brawl, check. Announce table broken, check. All that was missing was the run ins, but as expected there was plenty of that on Sunday. I also want to give credit to the Rock. There were a lot of "Rock's gonna be blown up walking down the aisle" jokes in my group, including from me, but the tag match allowed him to pace himself and in the end he put in his best in-ring performance since probably the handicap tag match at WM 20. The result was also right, as now the deck's fully stacked against Cody going into Sunday. Cole's "Cody is screwed" as soon as the 3 count hit was perfect. ****1/2

Night 2

World Heavyweight Title: Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre (Priest cashes in)- There's no denying the influence of Brock Lesnar's post-2012 style on the WWE main event scene, as his "go straight to the big stuff/finisher spam" style match is seen regularly there now. This was the latest example, but in context of the story it worked. McIntyre knew Rollins was hurt from last night and went right for the jugular. They even did the nod to the Sheamus/Daniel Bryan WM 28 debacle, something I was expecting might happen. Rollins was absolutely amazing in this match, selling everything like a maniac and fighting to get his shots in, probably knowing it was going to be his last turn at bat for a while. McIntyre finally got his well deserved title win in front of fans, especially with all the work he's been doing the last few months, though personally I think he's been a little *too* obsessed with one CM Punk. But, once again, all part of the story. Instead of celebrating his title win, McIntyre decided continuing to troll Punk was more important. Unfortunately for him it was in Punk's face, and finally Punk decided enough was enough. Enter Damien Priest. Just the second ever WM MITB cash-in, and it was spectacular. There's all kinds of avenues this can go from here. ****

Philly Street Fight: Final Testament vs The Pride- Bubba Ray Dudley being the special guest ref for this was a great touch, and turned an otherwise bland match into something fun by the end. He even looked the part. Tucked in shirt, earpiece in, all of it. Hire him as a full time ref. I'm not sure if anyone's really connected with the overarching story that's going on here but they sure are trying. **3/4

AJ Styles vs LA Knight- I have a feeling this is the kind of match that will be better on subsequent viewings, without the weight of everything that's coming after stifling it a bit. That said, they did a much better job in this spot than the Uso boys the night before. They'd done a lot of work to put together almost an old school blood feud, and the match was very physical reflecting that. Knight rightly gets a big win in his first WM, while Styles, in my opinion neck and neck with Bryan Danielson as the best wrestler of his generation, continues his late career wind down while still being able to go. ***1/2

US Title Triple Threat: Logan Paul vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens- As I've mentioned before, I had no idea who Logan Paul was before he came to WWE because online streamers are not something I pay attention to. I still watch Angry Video Game Nerd, that's about the closest I get. Since getting to know him through WWE, I've come to regard him as a total douche that I can't stand, but as much as I hate it there's no doubt he's a natural in the ring. What might be even more impressive about this match is he didn't have to rely on one of his huge high spots to make it work, just pure heel psychology. Being in there with KO and Orton certainly helped too. KO is still a main event level wrestler that strangely almost never gets main event spots (and still one of my personal favorites), and while I've never been an Orton fan there's no denying the clear blast he's been having since coming back. Paul's run continuing is probably the right call al things considered. ***3/4

Women's Title: Io Shairi Iyo Sky vs Bayley- I almost expected Bayley's old music to hit during her entrance, or the resurrection of the Bayley Buddies. This was the best women's match of the weekend. Great performance, hard hitting for the women, amazing storytelling. Joshi legend Shairi/Sky should get a ton of credit for a long run no one expected her to have and hopefully it's not the last one. I'd been worried for a long while that Bayley's injuries had finally caught up to her in the ring, but when it mattered she delivered here. I have a feeling that Damage CTRL is not done with her yet. ****1/2

WWE Championship BLOODLINE RULES: Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes- With apologies to everyone else, in pure old school wrestling style this is what the entire weekend was about. Cody's win is an instant immortal WM moment. The one on one portion of the match went on longer than I expected to, and it was phenomenal on its own. These two guys work fantastically together. But, we all knew after last night the run-ins were coming, and boy did they not disappoint. I kind of wish that most weren't done modern style with the music hitting, but the music is what gets the pops. Rollins was the quiet MVP here, coming in with the old Shield gear on. Yes, Reigns destroyed him as soon as he hit the ring, but the psychological impact of seeing Rollins in that mode again threw him off his game just enough to give Cody the opening he needed. Rollins kept his promise. Having Rock, Cena and even the Undertaker (instead of the expected Steve Austin) involved made this the most epic interpretation of the classic Attitude Era style overbooking. I hope it doesn't become a regular thing, but as a one off it was spectacular and a fitting end to one of the biggest stories in WWE history. And hey, Reigns wanted Bloodline Rules. ****3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- I'm a cynical old man so I have a real hard time putting anything new on the top of any lists. Right now I'm not sure if WM 40 *quite* gets into the group of my absolute all time favorite WMs with 17, 19 and 20. At worst it's definitely made the next group down of my "also favorites" along with 3, 7, 8, 18, 28 and 30. The Triple H era is here, and I'm so excited to see what the future holds. I'm a Paul Levesque Guy. A