World War 3 '97

Legacy Review

World War 3 '97

November 23, 1997 from The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, MI

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

Hogan vs Sting at Starrcade has already been booked, making this filler PPV even more filler. The big WW3 battle royale is once again for the #1 contendership, and in theory the winner will get a title match at Superbrawl in February. In theory. This is WCW so no one should have much hope of that sticking. This is the second PPV out of the last three that Dusty has missed, and even better Tenay is working the whole show to replace him.

The Faces of Fear (w/Jimmy Hart) def Glacier and Ernest "The Cat" Miller in 9:09- Big 2v2 jump before the bell. Glacier tries to go rapid fire on Meng, but Meng weathers it and drops him with one shot. The faces double up on Meng. Barbarian gets kicked around as well. The arena seems to be lit a bit darker tonight. I think it's because they have the lights off on the rings that aren't being used. Glacier and Meng lose their place for a few seconds, then Meng gets dropkicked into Barbarian. Miller springboards off Meng in the corner into a crossbody onto Barbarian on the floor! OK, that was cool. Glacier then hits a plain old plancha on Meng. Then he makes the moron face move to stalk Hart even though Hart hadn't done anything, allowing Barbarian to jump him from behind. The FOF do their awesome double team backdrop powerbomb that gets a pop from the crowd, heels or no. Miller gets in the ring, with Barbarian waiting forever for him to move so he can whip Glacier in that spot. Finally Barbarian says screw it and whips Glacier right into Miller. Given the lack of selling after I'm thinking that was a legit "get the fuck out of the way" move by Barbarian. Meng continues the high impact stuff on Glacier. The FOF do a war drums beatdown of him in their corner. Meng shoulderbreaker for 2. He hooks on the Tongan Nerve Grip of Massive Pinching +3 and Glacier sells the hell out of it. Glacier tries to pound back on Barbarian but Meng blind tags in and nails him from behind. Glacier flips over Meng, hits a back suplex, and gets the tag to Miller. Miller runs wild with kicks and a couple of pretty nice clotheslines. Hart gets up on the apron and Miller gives him a shot. Again that backfires. Meng grabs him with the Tongan Death Grip! That gets the pin. Pretty dang solid opener, which is a bit of a surprise considering who was in there. Despite the fact both guys had been around forever and were in the latter stages of their careers, the FOF were pretty underrated in this period because they did the stiff power game so well. I can only imagine the classics this version of FOF could have had against teams like the peak Steiners or Doom in the early '90s. **3/4

 

WCW World Television Championship: Saturn (c) (w/Raven) def Disco Inferno in 8:19- Somehow after his disaster of a man vs woman match against Jacqueline at Halloween Havoc WCW turned Disco face. In early November he lost the TV title on Nitro to Saturn, another ECW alum who'd just come in to join the rapidly growing Flock. Saturn's in his wrestling in blue jeans phase. He hiptosses Disco out of the lockup and slaps him. Fireman's carry takedown and another slap. Saturn runs Disco over with a shoulderblock. Off a speed run Disco gets his own hiptoss, then a slam, and Saturn powders. Coming back in he hits Disco over the ref. Another Disco hiptoss. Saturn bails again and is clearly frustrated. Disco slingshots him back in. Clothesline from Saturn. Disco hits an inverted atomic drop and goes nuts pounding Saturn down in the corner. Back elbow and fist drop for 2. Saturn dodges an elbow drop and hits a pumphandle suplex. He goes for a springboard moonsault but Disco dodges. Clothesline for 2. Small package for 2. Saturn gets a backdrop for 2. Standing switches and Disco gets crotched on the top rope. Saturn goes up to the second rope and leaps off with a crossbody onto Disco on the ropes and they both tumble to the floor! That was real close to being very, very ugly. Disco is up first and decides to go after the Flock. While he's fighting them Saturn runs him over from behind. The theme so far tonight has definitely been "Now you see evil will always triumph, because good is dumb". Back in Disco counters a tiger suplex attempt and hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Crossbody off the top. It hits, but Saturn completely no sells it. I guess he was supposed to roll through and they didn't do it right. Rings of Saturn! Disco taps. Eh. **

Mean Gene is in the back with tonight's hotline shill. He's been through every single locker room (hold on, I'm not sure what kind of 900 number we're pushing here) and YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE some of the names back there that may or may not be in the big battle royale tonight. He then brings the Giant in and talks about Giant seeing a doctor. My first assumption is for that huge Hogan like handlebar mustache he's grown, but no, it's for broken bones in his hand. We then get footage from Nitro of Scott Hall breaking said bones on the ring post and steps.

 

Yuji Nagata (w/Sonny Oono) def Ultimo Dragon in 12:45- This is the first of several rematches from Halloween Havoc tonight. Dragon's arm is bandaged up after Nagata hurt it in that match. If Dragon wins tonight he gets 5 minutes with Oono. Thankfully Nagata's lost the silly vest he wore at Halloween Havoc. Excuse me, SLIM JIM'S Halloween Havoc. Nagata plays to the crowd for some boos before getting going. Dragon's looking more at Oono than Nagata at the start. They open up with the usual New Japan style exploratory kicks. Nagata catches Dragon on the bad arm with one. Nice kick/counter exchange that Dragon wins. Handspring elb....no, Nagata catches him! He goes for a cross armbreaker. Dragon rolls over into a cover for 2. Dropkick and Nagata powders. Oono kicks Dragon on the floor. Dragon can't resist the bait and tries to suplex Oono. Nagata jumps him from behind. Again, faces not being smart about things. Back in Dragon works a headlock for a while. Eventually Nagata Saito suplexes out. Or BACKDROPEH as it's usually called on Japanese commentary. He hits some huge kicks while doing some more playing to the crowd. Piledriver for 2. Nagata works a rear naked choke/sleeper. Now it's Dragon's turn to BACKDROPEH out. Nagata's back up first and drops an elbow, followed by more kicks and another piledriver for 2. Kick combo and enzguri from Nagata into a camel clutch. Dragon goes for a suplex. Nagata counters into a Fujiwara armbar attempt! That's what he made Dragon tap out to in the last match. Dragon quickly gets to the ropes before it's on fully. Nagata belly to belly suplex for 2. Dragon flips out of a backdrop and hits his usual rapid fire kick combo. Boot wash! Someone's been watching Otani tape. Dragon goes for a plancha. Nagata tries to kick him in midair. Dragon blocks it and gives Nagata a dragon screw on the floor! Great callback to the last match. Oono lurks in the background but doesn't do anything. Dragon goes up top. Nagata springs up to join him. Dragon sunset bomb for 2. Setup slam. The moonsault hits! Nagata kicks out! Nagata goes for a suplex. Dragon counters into the dragon sleeper! Oono gets on the apron to distract and of course Dragon lets it go. Dragon sets Nagata up top. Top rope hurricanrana! Oono puts Nagata's foot on the rope! Dragon lifts Nagata up while Oono is on the apron again. Oono gets knocked down. Nagata kind of flops on top of Dragon and gets the pin. That finish didn't come off like they wanted to I don't think, it was pretty sloppy. Nagata looked way more comfortable working an American crowd as a heel, but overall it wasn't quite as good as the Halloween Havoc match. Also, heavyweight beats junior heavyweight again. New Japan rules. ***1/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) (w/Ted DiBiase) def The Blue Bloods in 9:45- Annoyed Regal trying to wave away the entrance dry ice fog is pretty funny. The Steiners have the old tag belts because the Outsiders, in true NWO fashion, are toting around the recently redesigned tag belts like they were still champs. Regal's in his rare singlet phase. Scott and Taylor start. Scott shows the strength advantage, hiptossing Taylor across the ring and running him over with a shoulderblock. Taylor manages to get Scott caught in their corner for a short double beatdown. Scott hits the double underhook powerbomb. Regal comes in and runs right into a Rick Steinerline. The Steiners pose while the Bloods regroup on the floor. Taylor has to hold Regal back from going after DiBiase! Fantastic. Reset with Regal and Rick. Regal lets the crowd annoy him before locking up. He tries to out-technical Rick but Rick's power is too much. Regal manages to hit a couple of European uppercuts. I can see why Regal's wearing the singlet. He's, er, ballooned. Apparently this was during the height of his drinking problems and he's definitely put on a lot of weight around the middle. Rick gets Regal down in a sort of Fujiwara armbar. Scott hits a belly to belly suplex. The Steiners trade off working Regal's arm. Regal goes to the old eye poke to escape and tag. Rick grabs Taylor leapfrogging and powerslams him! Classic Steiner ragdolling right there. Regal knees Scott in the back from the apron and Talor 360 clotheslines him to the floor. More European uppercuts from the Bloods as Scott goes mildly in peril. Scott takes Regal out with a Steinerline but Regal hooks his feet to keep him from tagging. Regal hops into another belly to belly. Tag to Rick. Shots and slams for everyone. DONNYBROOK! Rick backdrops Regal, then Scott backdrops Taylor onto Regal! Doomsday bulldog! That's it. Decentish but fairly one sided. **1/4

JJ Dillon is with Mean Gene. He's had enough of letting Raven show up whenever and however he wants, and gives Raven 24 hours to sign an official contract with WCW.

 

Raven's Rules Match: Raven (w/The Flock) def Scotty Riggs in 8:43- Riggs is cosplaying as Jean Pierre Lafitte, or very late run Buffy/Buffy comics era Xander, with his eyepatch from an earlier attack by Raven after Riggs refused to join the Flock. Billy Kidman helpfully explains Raven's Rules to everyone. Riggs' answer is to dive onto the whole Flock! He pounds away on Raven around and in the ring. Swinging neckbreaker followed by a big splash for 2. Raven tights pulls Riggs into the corner, then chokes Riggs with his spare shirt. Heenan has lots of thoughts about the eyepatch and they're all funny. They go to the floor and Raven goes into the steps. Riggs chokes him with a TV cable. Back in Raven hits a desperation jawbreaker. One of the Flock provides Raven with a chair. Chairshot on Riggs. Raven sets the chair up. Whip reversal and Riggs drop toe holds Raven into the chair! After almost a full 10 count with both guys down Riggs leaps over to cover for 2. Riggs chair toss/dropkick combo. Another slow cover and Raven gets a foot on the rope. Riggs bulldogs Raven on the chair! Yet another slow cover and Raven kicks out. Riggs tosses the chair away like it's the chair's fault he's been slow on the cover trigger. Raven slips out of a suplex attempt. DDT! Raven wants a mic. He says he doesn't want to hurt Riggs, why didn't he join him instead. Another DDT. "This is hurting me more than it's hurting you". A third DDT. Raven takes a 10 count KO for the win. The ref calls for medical help, but the Flock carry Riggs away through the crowd instead. Fine match. Raven was a classic high floor/low ceiling guy that you could nearly always count on for a solid match but rarely a truly good one. **1/2

The next match is scheduled to be Mongo vs BILL Goldberg, continuing their feud of former football players. This is well before WCW decided to push Goldberg to the moon. Mongo makes his entrance carrying a giant metal bar. Goldberg's music then hits. Mongo takes a mic and says that's not happening tonight and to get a camera to the back. Goldberg's laid on on the floor in the back! Seriously, he could be an absolutely perfect chalk outline the position he's in. It was Mongo in the backstage hallway with the lead pipe. Commentary notes Mongo has his Super Bowl ring back. Mongo calls out anyone in the locker room to face him. After a minute Debra comes out dragging an extremely reluctant Alex Wright to the ring.

 

Steve "Mongo" McMichael def Alex Wright (w/Debra McMichael) in 3:36- This is another Halloween Havoc rematch. Mongo turns and plays to the crowd just so Wright can jump him from behind. One of Mongo's big problems is he has no natural wrestling instincts whatsoever. Wright takes his jacket off and whips Mongo with it. Mongo thinks that's enough selling and hits a back elbow and a couple of clotheslines. He stomps Wright to the floor. Wright wants to walk but Debra stops him. Back in Mongo faceplants Wright. Side suplex after Wright barely managed to get off the ropes on a run. Wright hits a spinning heel kick. Mongo dodges and Wright Bret bumps in the corner. He hits the 3 point stance tackles and a decently stiff clothesline. About .6 Riki Choshu. They have a bad fumble in the corner where Wright tries something but Mongo says "Screw that, I'm not selling anymore" and hits another side suplex. The tombstone, or "Mongo Spike" as it's now called, finishes it. Mongo squash. 1/4*

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) def Rey Mysterio Jr in 12:42- Yet another Halloween Havoc rematch, where these two put on probably the best match of the entire WCW NWO era and pretty much silenced any doubters about either being potential top guys. In another company at least, that was never going to happen in WCW with Hogan and his buddies having final veto on pretty much everything at the top of the card. Guerrero won the title back from Mysterio on Nitro a couple of weeks before this. They let the crowd breathe with some "Eddie sucks" chants before digging in. Guerrero cranks an arm. Mysterio responds with an armdrag. Guerrero grabs a hammerlock. Mysterio lucha flips him out of the ring. More, louder, "Eddie sucks" chants. Speed run and Mysterio hits a tiltawhirl flying headscissors. Guerrero wraps Mysterio up and grounds him. German suplex! Straight drop back suplex from Guerrero. Abdominal stretch. Mysterio tries to get up on Guerrero's shoulders for a move but slips and falls off. That's the problem with lucha's high risk style, when it goes wrong it tends to go wrong spectacularly. They recover with Guerrero blocking a monkey flip. Mysterio uses the knucklelock to leap to the top rope and springboard headscissors Guerrero to the floor. 619 dive tease. Guerrero trips Mysterio. Back in Mysterio backdrops Guerrero and he lands crotch first on the top rope. He goes for a sunset bomb but again has some issues with execution. Guerrero blocks it and hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker on the floor. They have a fight up top with Guerrero blocking a superplex. They switch positions and Guerrero hits the superplex! That took some fancy footwork on both sides to pull that switch off right. Guerrero goes for the frog splash. Mysterio dodges, but Guerrero rolls through. Mysterio hurricanrana with a cradle for 2. Guerrero plants Mysterio with a flapjack. Mysterio armdrag and flying headscissors for 2. Guerrero hits a basement dropkick right to Mysterio's head. European uppercut. He suplex drops Mysterio on the top rope. Now Guerrero goes for a sunset bomb. Mysterio counters it with a hurricanrana on the floor! Corkscrew senton! Springboard moonsault from Mysterio back in for 2. Mysterio goes for another hurricanrana. Guerrero counters it into a powerbomb! He hooks on the Gory Special. Mysterio bridges with his head and neck to get out of a pin, then flips over into a sunset flip for 2. Spinning heel kick. He sets up for a moonsault on the top rope. Guerrero grabs him and tries a running Ligerbomb. Mysterio goes for a counter, but again slips and falls off Guerrero. Ugly botch #2. Mysterio recovers to leap to the top rope and hits a moonsault for 2. Springboard legdrop. He calls for the springboard hurricanrana to finish it. And it hits! Sort of. That's minor botch #2. Ref Lil' Naitch almost counts 3 but *just* sees Guerrero's landed with a foot on the rope! Everyone thought that was it. Mysterio goes up top again. Guerrero drops him into a hot shot. The frog splash hits and that gets the pin. It was never going to be as good as Halloween Havoc, and while it was still good, those botches really hurt the overall match. ***1/2

The hype train is in full gear for Starrcade, with Tony calling Hogan vs Sting "the biggest match in the history of professional wrestling". Gee, better not mess it up then.

 

No DQ Match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Curt Hennig (c) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 17:57- Yet yet another rematch from Halloween Havoc. Hennig brings a chair in with him on his entrance. He also managed to remember the belt this time. At Halloween Havoc he had the Cruiserweight belt on him. After the bell Hennig stalls like crazy and moves around rings. Flair finally has enough and jumps him on the floor. They do a weak brawl through the crowd before Hennig dumps Flair back over the barricade. Flair gets knocked around ringside for a bit. Hennig brings a TV cable into the ring to choke Flair with. He 360 clotheslines Flair back to the floor. Flair snaps Hennig over the top rope and tosses him out to the floor. Flair goes up top. Double ax handle off the top to the floor! Randy Savage style. But, Flair hurt his leg on the landing. He chops Hennig against the guardrail while trying to shake his knee off. Hennig backdrops Flair on the floor and hits a clothesline. Slide in and cover for 2. He starts working on Flair's hurt knee. Plus hits a legdrop to the crotch. Spinning toe hold from Hennig into an Indian Death Lock. Flair chokes Hennig put Hennig punches him back down. Slugfest while still in the hold. Flair eye pokes to get free. He clips Hennig's knee! Now they both have a bum one. Flair kicks Hennig's leg out of his leg with Hennig almost getting around for a classic 360 sell. Snap mare/kneedrop combo. Flair tries to strut a bit. Chops. Hennig slams Flair off the top rope for 2. Chop exchange in the corner. Hennig gets the edge with some wicked stiff ones. Flair Flop! Haven't seen that for a bit. That's a sign Flair might be getting back in a groove. Back and forth slugging in the corner. Flair gives Hennig the usual hair toss and slide crotch first into the post bit. Hennig can't run on a whip, still selling the knee. More Flair chops. Midring collision and both guys are down. Hennig switches rings to try to get some space. Flair follows and hits a HIGH angle back suplex. Hennig does his snap mare/neck snap combo. Flair Flip! To the floor! Hennig knocks Flair around ringside again until Flair tights pulls him into the guardrail. Flair tries to suplex Hennig back in the ring but his knee gives out. He goes out and gets Hennig's chair. He atomic drops Hennig onto the chair back! Ouch. Then he kicks the chair closed onto Hennig's bad knee! That's fantastic. Flair goes out and gets a fresh chair along with the title belt. Chairshot to Hennig's knee. Flair poses with the belt then tosses it away. Figure four! Hennig gets the belt and whacks Flair with it! He covers and gets the pin. That was way better than the Halloween Havoc match. It started out as rough as that match was, but once they got into the knee work they seemed to finally find a groove and started putting on the kind of match we know they're capable of. The psychology was tight too. ***1/4

 

60 Man World War 3 Battle Royale- There's a couple of new rules this year: wrestlers are free to move ring to ring at any point during the match, and elimination is by touching the floor only. No need to be tossed over the top rope. Basically it's old school women's battle royale rules. Make what jokes you will. Buffer also says that when there's five guys left in each ring they'll consolidate down to one ring, but no one pays that any mind because that rule's never been followed right in either of the two previous editions of this. As usual pretty much the entire roster is in this match so I'm not going to list everyone. Tony's teases of "big names from other companies" turns out to be John Nord (former Berzerker in WWF), who's looking like Dan Spivey in furry boots now, Barry Darsow (former Krusher Kruschev in Jim Crockett, Demolition Smash and Repo Man in WWF, and the Blacktop Bully in pre-NWO Bischoff WCW), and *snigger* Kendall Windham. I suppose an ancient Greg "The Hammer" Valentine might qualify too but I can't remember if he was under contract with WCW as a road agent at the time or not. Anyone hoping for a Bret Hart appearance, this is after Survivor Series '97, was sorely disappointed. The NWO entrants, naturally, get their own entrance. Rick Rude is with the group, just a week after making history by appearing on Raw (taped) and Nitro (live) on the same night. It's pretty cool to see Hennig and Rude together, the last two frontmen for the Heenan Family in WWF. Commentary makes a big deal about Kevin Nash not being with the NWO group. As usual this is a giant clusterfuck with way too much going on for it to have any kind of narrative sense or flow, so again like always I'm checking out until there's 10 guys left. Which, conveniently, is when the refs finally call for one ring consolidation despite what we were told earlier. We've got Lex Luger, the Giant, DDP, Rick Steiner, Booker T, and the entire group of NWO entrants- Scott Hall, Randy Savage, Curt Hennig, Buff Bagwell, and Vincent. The NWO guys refuse to move rings and want the WCW guys to come to them. The WCW guys do and the brawl is on. DDP hits Vincent with the Diamond Cutter. Giant rolls Vincent out to eliminate him. Remember, all they have to do is touch the floor regardless how they leave the ring. Giant doesn't do very much due to his broken hand. Booker and Rick both get eliminated. There's a giant scrum where Giant dumps Bagwell, then Luger and Hennig both get eliminated. It's down to the final four- DDP, Savage, Giant and Hall. Giant gets Hall in the corner and tries to hit him with chops from his unhurt left hand. Savage counters a Cutter attempt with a jawbreaker. He goes up top. Giant blocks him! Savage jumps anyway, right into Giant's waiting arms. Savage eye rakes to get free. Cutter on Savage! Giant blocks DDP from rolling Savage out, he wants to chokeslam him broken hand or no broken hand. With DDP's help he barely pulls it off. Now Savage gets rolled out. Hall's all alone. He moves rings, then does the classic Hall point to the entrance. The NWO's music hits. Commentary expects this to be Nash. After a while no one come out. The music starts up again, and it's Hogan! Hogan's deigned to show up for a B PPV! He gets in the ring as entrant #60. So, he deliberately skipped the vast majority of the match and the refs are going to just let him waltz in now? Seriously? They move back into ring 1 while the crowd chants "We want Sting". Hogan slams Giant. DDP gets crotched on the top rope and Hogan gives him the Back Rake of Death. Giant bear hugs both NWO guys. Sting rappels down from the rafters! If it really is Sting, you can never assume that. Hogan leaves the ring, eliminating himself. Sting hits Giant with the bat! Giant falls out and is gone. At some point DDP got eliminated off screen. Crack camera work, guys. Hall's already officially won the match, but "Sting" stares down with him in the ring. Then he removes his mask.....it's Nash. Of course it is. All the NWO guys come in to celebrate. Once again the main event is reduced to little more than a giant NWO ego stroke, and what should have been a huge win for Hall is completely buried by all the fake Sting antics and usual NWO BS. The only positive is if Hall really does get his title shot that's a good sign for Sting at Starrcade. 1/2*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's a few good or goodish matches sprinkled in, but not enough to keep this from feeling like a giant waste of time show, especially with that turd of a main event.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Survivor Series '99

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '99

November 14, 1999 from the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit, MI

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The one where Austin gets run over by a car.

Survivor Series Match: D'Lo Brown, The Godfather and The Headbangers def The Dudley Boyz and The Acolytes in 9:36- JR says we're getting "Detroit city hos" tonight. Good, that means I don't even have to bother checking to see if one of them might be OK or not. They won't be. Sorry not sorry Detroit readers. Brown is now in his Godfather Junior/"pimp in training" gimmick. If Rosie was the SHIT (Superhero in Training) does that make Brown the PIT? The Headbangers also come out in Godfather inspired gear, complete with crazy over the top afro wigs. Bubba Ray and Mosh start with Mosh still wearing his afro. Bubba pulls the afro off and tosses it away! Speed run and Mosh rolls through a hiptoss, armdrag and backdrop. Bubba comes back with a clothesline. Mosh armdrags D'Von. Thrasher tags in with his afro still on and hits a clothesline for 2. Jawbreaker. He and D'Von have a pretty sloppy exchange. Bradshaw tags in with fists flying. Clothesline from Hell! That got a nicely huge gasp from the crowd. Pin and Thrasher is gone. Mosh comes in with a crossbody off the top for 2. He keeps the armdrag/dropkick thing going. Bubba blind tags in on D'Von. 3D! Mosh is eliminated. Brown comes in hot. Flying forearm. Slam and legdrop for 2. Bradshaw gets knocked off the apron. He goes over, grabs a chair, comes in and whacks Brown with it. That's a DQ and Bradshaw is out. D'Von and Faarooq argue over who gets to pin Brown. Words turn to fists which turns into a brawl up the aisle and the two of them eliminate each other. Bubba comes in and covers Brown for 2. Side suplex for 2. Brown hits his spinebuster for 2. He sets Bubba up on the top rope. Bubba plants Brown with an avalanche spinebuster! Double clothesline. Bubba gets to his corner but there's no one to tag. Brown tags Godfather. Godfather rolls through his usual stuff. Ho Train. Brown hits the frog splash and gets the win. Meh. SURVIVORS: Brown and Godfather  *

 

Kurt Angle def Shawn Stasiak in 5:56- The debut of a legend. Angle, the Olympic gold medal winner in freestyle wrestling at the '96 Atlanta games (WITH A BROKEN FREAKING NECK), signed with WWF in the summer of '98. He spent the next year plus learning the basics in Dory Funk Jr's Stamford based dojo, as well as working matches in WWF affiliated territories, other indies, regular house shows and dark matches during TV tapings. After weeks of preview vignettes touting him being the only Olympic gold medalist in WWF history and calling him "the greatest pure athlete in WWF history", this is his official TV debut. There's also a nice video for Stasiak before the match showing some footage of his father, former WWWF Champion Stan Stasiak. Angle has the right music right from the off. Of course it wasn't made for him, it was originally The Patriot's during his short WWF run a couple of years prior, but it would quickly become synonymous with Angle. Quick fireman's carry takedown from Angle out of the lockup. They go into some nice mat exchanges, which the Attitude Era crowd that's been conditioned to watch all arena brawls chants "Boring" for. There's also a "Let's go Red Wings" chant. Angle gets a hip toss, slam, and then a belly to belly suplex. He's looking plenty fine so far. The crowd is still booing, and not good booing. Stasiak hits a clothesline. He lets Angle practice some selling with a side suplex, snap suplex and flying elbow. Angle fights out of a chinlock and hits a clothesline. Then he rolls out and he looks pissed. He takes a mic from Fink and tells the crowd "You do not boo an Olympic gold medalist!". That right there is the moment everyone in the back should have known Angle would be fine. Classic, instinctive heel work. The way he'd been presented so far I'm not sure if they were planning to start him out as a face or a heel, but that solidified him as a natural heel and that's what they'd run with. Back in Angle hits a horrible dropkick. Needs some work on that one. Stasiak shrugs it off and goes back to the chinlock. Angle rolls through a tiltawhirl to land on his feet, but again Stasiak decides he still needed to be on offense and puts Angle down again. Angle gets a small package for 2. Powerslam for 2. Stasiak drops Angle with a kind of reverse cutter. Probably a signature move of his but it's Shawn Stasiak, I couldn't really be bothered. He goes for a crossbody off the top but Angle dodges. Angle Slam! That gets the pin. Pure in ring work wise that was a fine debut for Angle. Not blowaway awesome, there was still work to be done, but he's clearly got the tools. The crowd shat all over it, but in this instance it's something I wouldn't have worried about too much as this was giving them a totally different wrestling style than they'd gotten used to. They'd come around. **

 

Survivor Series Match: Val Venus, Steve Blackman, "Sexual Chocolate" Mark Henry and Gangrel def WWF European Champion "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and The Mean Street Posse in 9:10- It's all heels in this match. Not the best booking. Bulldog and Venus start with a quick speed run and yet another hiptoss tonight. Bulldog bails into the wrong corner, then realizes and goes over to the right one. Not sure that was intentional or not. Pete Gas tags in, looks at Venus for a minute, then tags right back out to Bulldog. OK then. Bulldog hits the delayed suplex. NOW Gas tags in for real and stomps on Venus. Slugfest. Gas gets a double leg takedown, takes forever to get in position or get a grip, and slingshots Venus into the corner. Suplex for 2. Venus plants Gas with a bulldog. Blackman tags in and kicks Gas around. Big boot and Blackman pins Gas. Rodney comes in with a clothesline on Blackman. After some pretty ugly exchanges Rodney crucifixes Gangrel for 2. Joey Abs hits Gangrel from the apron. The remaining MSP set up a double team but Abs takes Rodney out. Gangrel hits a DDT and Rodney is eliminated. Abs hits Gangrel with a suplex. Henry tags in and he and Abs slug it out for a minute. Abs hot shots Henry! Henry hits a clothesline. He buries Abs with a big splash and the entire MSP has been eliminated. Bulldog is on his own. Realistically he probably was to start with. Henry lifts Bulldog up in a straight up backdrop. Bulldog does a weird twist in midair and has a very ugly landing. After a tag Bulldog gets Gangrel caught on the top rope, superplexes him, and pins him. Blackman comes in with a backbreaker. Bulldog dodges a headbutt off the second rope. He gives Blackman a perfectplex and pins him. Bulldog sunset flips Venus but Henry comes in to make the save. They try a double team but Bulldog double clotheslines them. Venus gets a small package for 2. Bulldog dumps Venus to the floor and shoves Henry to sucker him in. Bad move. Henry gives him an avalanche and a big splash. Venus hits the Money Shot and it's over. Lots of ugly in this one. SURVIVORS: Venus and Henry  3/4*

Michael Cole storms into the heel women's locker room. Ivory's perfectly OK with it.

 

The Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Debra and Tori def WWF Women's Champion Ivory, Terri Runnels, Luna Vachon and Jacqueline in 1:53- Moolah's shock reunion with the women's title lasted all of one week, when Ivory won it back on Raw. Once again a Lawler mute button would be nice. The olds jump Ivory during her entrance. In the ring Tori and Jacqueline botch the hell out of a DDT. The heels work Tori until she hits a double clothesline. Young tags in and slams Ivory. The olds double clothesline her and Young covers for the merciful quick pin. After the bell Debra, who thankfully did nothing in the match, rips Terri's top off just because. The entrances were longer than the match. In this case, I'm not complaining. DUD

 

Kane def X-Pac by DQ in 4:14- Best friends no more. Pac is the one that's done the heel turn, just in time for the peak of the "X-Pac sucks" chants era. Tori is in an on screen relationship with Kane now, and during his prematch promo Pac accuses Kane of being impotent because of his fire injuries. Well if that's true, explain Katie Vick. Checkmate. I apologize for bringing up Katie Vick. Pretty big pop for Kane on his entrance, easily the biggest of the night so far. Pac jumps Kane from behind while he's setting the ring post pyro off. Kane no sells everything and beats Pac down in the corner. Pac dodges on the other side and does his corner kick combo. Kane pops out with a clothesline. He goes up top but Pac dropkicks him off. We get our first proper floor brawling segment of the night, and pretty uninspired at that. Back in Pac hits a couple of spinning heel kicks. He sets Kane up for the bronco buster, which thankfully gets booed. Kane cuts it off with a goozle! Backbreaker from Kane. Big boot. HUGE air clothesline off the top rope. The chokeslam hits! Road Dogg runs in and pulls Kane out of the cover. Kane stalks and gives him a shot. As he gets back in Pac hits the X-Factor! Kane kicks out! Pac comes off the top rope. Kane catches him! He sets up for the Tombstone. Triple H runs in and whacks Kane with the WWF Title belt for the DQ. Oh yeah, Trips is back with DX now as the whole group has gone back heel. DX goes on the 4 on 1 attack. Pac gets set up for the bronco buster again. Tori runs in to try to stop it. Pac kicks her right in the face! Huge "X-Pac sucks" chant as DX leaves and medics run in to check on Tori. *3/4

Promo time with the Rock. Tonight's scheduled main event is a Triple Threat WWF Title match with Trips defending against Rock and Austin, with Vince as the special guest ref. Before Rock can say anything Trips jumps him! They brawl in the back with a gang of officials and refs trying to pull them apart.

 

Handicap Survivor Series Match: The Big Show def WWF Hardcore Champion The Big Boss Man, Mideon, Viscera and Prince Albert in 1:27- This is during the infamous Big Show/Boss Man feud where Boss Man made fun of Show's dead dad. They even play the legendarily awful footage of Boss Man crashing the funeral and trying to tow the coffin away with Show laying on top of it. JR: "We don't need to see that footage ever again". Shoot comments that may or may not have meant to be shoot comments for the win. The saddest thing is that segment and this whole angle is only the third worst thing Boss Man has been involved in this year, after the atrocious Hell in a Cell match against Taker at Wrestlemania where he was hanged from the cage, and the even more atrocious Kennel from Hell match a couple of months ago. You think you've had a bad year, it's nothing compared to Boss Man's 1999. Show was scheduled to team with the Blue Meanie and Kaientai but took them all out in the locker room during Heat because he didn't want anyone in his way. Boss Man has a black armband on tonight, rubbing it in. Show is all business heading to the ring, and as soon as he hits it's murder death kill time. Chokeslam on Mideon, he's done. Chokeslam on Albert, he's done. Crowd didn't even have a chance to start a "Shave your back" chant. Big man slam on Viscera. Chokeslam. Gone. Show wants Boss Man. Boss Man says nah, takes the countout and runs. There's a very good reason beyond the feud they wanted Show to look like an unstoppable force tonight, as we'll see later. SOLE SURVIVOR: Big Show  NR

Promo time with Steve Austin. Now Trips jumps him! He runs deeper into the back and Austin gives chase. We get a glimpse of the rest of the DX guys running, then there's a pretty rough edit to Austin, like they're going to pretape. A car drives through a chain link fence and runs Austin over! GOOD GAWD ALMIGHTY! Austin is out on the ground. Super pissed Vince runs in along with Steph, Test and the medical team with an ambulance and stretcher. After a minute Austin bud JR even joins them, leaving Lawler alone on commentary. To his credit Lawler is in super serious mode and calls it straight with no heel BS or bad Lawler jokes. Trips makes the mistake of showing his face. Vince wants to throw down with him right now! He tells Trips this isn't the sort of thing we do. Trips denies any knowledge of the car. After Austin gets loaded in the ambulance Vince calls for his car to follow them to the hospital. It's both funny and sweet how Steph holds Austin's cap during the whole thing. The final resolution to this was as big a dud, if not bigger, than the Higher Power reveal (I DID IT. FOR THE ROCK.), but this came off pretty damn well and was a hugely dramatic way to write Austin off. This wasn't done by choice, it was necessity as Austin's previously hurt neck was playing up again and he needed major surgery to fix it. His career almost ended right here because of it. He was able to come back, but it would be almost a year before he'd wrestle again.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chyna (c) (w/Miss Kitty) def Chris Jericho in 13:45- Pretty big pop for Jericho as soon as his music hit. He's been a heel since his WWF debut, but has been quickly becoming the cool popular heel. Chyna gets more of a 50/50 reaction. I mentioned that Trips had reunited with DX. That didn't include Chyna since she was fully a face now. Kitty jumped over to her after Jeff Jarrett left to go back to WCW, then Jericho replaced Jarrett as Chyna's feud opponent. Swapping one blonde for another, no one will tell the difference. Jericho jumps Chyna during her entrance. Hockey fight! Jericho shoves Kitty down. Chyna hits a clothesline and both women stomp Jericho out of the ring. Jericho gets whipped into the steps. Chyna tries to launch off of them but Jericho dodges and she goes into the barricade. Back in the ring the Jericho beatdown continues with a pretty big "Jericho" chant from the crowd. Chyna hits a hot shot. Jericho flips over in the corner and Chyna dropkicks him. Standing switch. Jericho low blows Chyna! Then acts like he did something to hurt her. He turns around and Chyna gives him a hurricanrana! Whip reversal and Chyna does the Trips flip in the corner. Jericho springboard plancha! Chyna gets tossed over the announce table and Jericho pours some water on her. He takes off some of the barricade padding and whips Chyna into it. Missile dropkick back in from Jericho for 2. Chyna turns a slam attempt into a small package for 2. Jericho hits a delayed suplex and does the arrogant cover for 2. Chyna fights back to some high pitched cheers, then a bunch of low pitched boos. This match is a fascinating social experiment. Jericho hits a misdirection bulldog (with a horrible Chyna sell) to a big male pop. JR has to acknowledge the fact the crowd seems pretty pro-Jericho. Slingshot splash for 2. Spinning heel kick and kip up. Jericho 360 clotheslines Chyna to the floor. Jericho kisses Kitty! Kitty jumps on Jericho's back and he snap mares her off. Chyna attacks! Jericho gets whipped into the post. Back in Jericho hits a huge powerbomb with a stack up for 2. He goes for the Lionsault. Chyna dodges! Comeback mode activated. Handspring elbow and DDT from Chyna. Hebner goes down. Jericho gets the belt and nails Chyna with it. Chyna kicks out! Kick wham Pedigree! Jericho kicks out! Chyna tries another hurricanrana. Jericho blocks it and puts on the Walls! He tries to keep Chyna in the middle, but after a couple of attempts she manages to get to the ropes. More big boos for that. Jericho sets up a superplex. Kitty gets up on the apron to distract the ref. Chyna low blow! AVALANCHE PEDIGREE! AKA the Pepsi Plunge for those familiar with CM Punk's ROH days. That gets the pin. Damn good stretch run. Jericho carried that to a pretty good match. Chyna's cleared the bar that she can work believably with the men, but she'd had enough matches now it's also becoming pretty obvious that she's got a way to go to becoming actually good. ***1/4

Trips and Pac storm into the McMahon locker room. Shane's now running the show with Vince going to the hospital with Austin. Trips again denies that he had anything to do with the car attack. He says "It's a tragedy, it's horrible......but that means it's not a triple threat anymore tonight right, it's singles?". Shane kicks him out. Steph was still holding Austin's hat the whole time.

 

Survivor Series Match: Too Cool and The Hollys def The Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian (w/Terri Runnels) in 14:26- After tearing down the house with their groundbreaking ladder match at No Mercy the Hardys have turned face and temporarily allied with E&C. It's been forever since Too Cool had been on PPV and JR's got all the "Brian Christopher is Lawler's son" jokes. Scotty and Edge start with shoving and slugging. Chop exchange in the corner. They do a nice long speed/counter run ending with Edge hitting a spinning heel kick. Crash tags in and runs into a drop toe hold. Edge and Matt work some nice double teams on Crash. Matt back suplex for 2. Crash gets crotched and knocked to the floor. Plancha from Matt! Christoper comes in and sunset bombs Matt! That starts off an almost everyone dive run. Hardcore, who naturally doesn't dive, inadvertently backdrops Jeff onto everyone on the floor. Everyone fights on the floor for a bit while Christian works on Crash in the ring. The Hollys hit Christian with a Hart Attack style neckbreaker for 2. Christopher bulldog on Christian for 2 while being his usual super annoying self before and after. I think there's a section in Hell that's nothing more than being locked inside a room with Brian Christopher and Buff Bagwell. Christopher puts his attack goggles on and goes for the bulldog again. Christian counters and Christopher crashes crotch first into the corner, taking out a cameraman in the process. Edge knocks Crash around and spears both Hollys. Christopher dodges Edge, then starts to dance. Spear! Thank you. Scotty dodges and Edge spears Matt! Scotty counters a Jeff Twist of Fate, pushing him into Edge. Hardcore comes in and rolls Edge up for the pin, eliminating him. We've been going pretty lucha rules in this match, ref Tim White is letting guys come in and out without tags as they please. Everyone's selling at least though. Scotty plants Matt with a DDT off the top rope and Matt's gone. Jeff and Scotty trade some near fall cradles. Jeff goes down and Scotty hits the Worm to zero reaction because it was still new. Christopher is literally braying on the apron watching that. Too Cool double powerbomb Jeff for 2. Christopher tosses Jeff across the ring by the hair. Missile dropkick to Jeff's back. Too Cool hit a traditional Hart Attack. Christian saves the pin. The Hollys run in and jump Christian, then have their usual argument over who gets to hit him. While that's going on Too Cool set Jeff up for a double team superplex. Christian comes over, casually low blows them both, and returns to fighting the Hollys. Jeff hits a 450 splash! That eliminates Scotty. Christian and Jeff double team Crash for a bit. Hardcore with a missile dropkick on Christian. Christopher hits a legdrop off the top and Jeff is gone. Christian hits the Edgecution on Christopher and eliminates him. The Hollys work Christian over. Hardcore powerslam for 2. Christian fights off a double team. Unprettier on Crash! That eliminates him. Christian tries a victory roll on Hardcore, but Hardcore blocks it, stacks Christian up, and gets the final pin for the win. Decentish. SOLE SURVIVOR: Hardcore Holly  **1/4

JR interviews Shane in the back. Shane says he's been on the phone with Vince at the emergency room. Austin never lost consciousness but has severe head, neck and back trauma. He then confirms that, despite Trips' demands, the main event will still be a triple threat. Test is standing in the background the whole time looking like the obvious replacement.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws (c) def Al Snow and Mankind (w/Head) in 13:59- Billy Gunn seems to have forgotten his tag belt. If they were serious about DX and the Outlaws being heels shouldn't they have stopped doing their crowd pop prematch shtick? Mankind gets a mic and shows some support for Austin before starting off with Gunn. Lockup and immediately Gunn starts the heel 101 hair pull bitching. Lawler is running with the theory Gunn was the driver of the car that hit Austin because no one saw him backstage that whole time. Would have made more sense than the final resolution. Back and forth slugging. Gunn neckbreaker for 2. He hooks a sleeper on. Mankind tumbles down to the floor with him on his back to break it up. Dogg jumps him down there. The Outlaws try a double team but Dogg hits Gunn. Gunn looks unhappy. Geez, they might break up or something. What do you mean they already did? The Dream does not recall this. Both sides swap with no official tags. What's with that tonight? Were they trying something new? Snow hits a jawbreaker and outmaneuvers Dogg into a clothesline. Suplex for 2. Commentary is talking a lot about the Snow action figure controversy. Long story short: Walmart refused to stock Snow's new figure because parents complained that Head was a real severed head, not a mannequin head. The controversy even hit mainstream media. Mankind beats Dogg down in the corner and hits the running knee. They double team Dogg on the floor and Dogg takes a couple of shots from Toru Yano's red chair. How did that get there? The Dogg beatdown continues in the ring with the challengers using some heel like tactics to keep him in peril. Snow cuts off Dogg's jabs with headbutts. Dogg ducks and finishes the jab run. The tag is cut off but Gunn comes in anyway and we're DONNYBROOKING. The Outlaws double up on Snow to get him in peril. Dogg does a bunch of crotch chops and keeps asking Snow about Head. Keep that up and people might think you're serious. Snow hits a clothesline and both sides properly tag. Mankind's hot tag run leads to everyone in the pool again. Ref Mike Chioda takes a glancing hit that might have been accidental. Gunn hits the Fameasser. Dogg covers but Mankind kicks out. Dogg goes for the pumphandle slam. Mankind low blows him to get out. The challengers hit the double underhook DDT and Snow Plow. Socko's out! Claw on Gunn! And Dogg! Double fisting! A double low blow breaks it up. Gunn takes a Head shot. Mankind covers for 2. Dogg takes Snow out on the floor. With Mankind isolated they hit a spike piledriver, and that gets the pin. Everyone was going through the motions but the end run was decent and it had a logical finish at least. *1/2

After Rock and Trips' entrances Fink says "AND THEIR OPPONENT.....". "WEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLL IT'S THE BIG SHOW". This is why Show was made to look so strong earlier. Show gets a so-so crowd reaction. Test not getting this spot when all the setup was there for it to be him was probably the final indicator that he was never going to be that guy.

 

Triple Threat Match for the WWF Championship: The Big Show def Triple H (c) and The Rock in 16:15- Instead of the advertised guest ref it's Hebner reffing this to start with. Rock and HHH both jump Show before the bell. Show hits a double tackle! Back when he could get off his feet. Big boots on both guys. He goes for a chokeslam on HHH but Rock breaks it up. Chop for HHH. Rock and HHH double clothesline Show 360 to the floor, then immediately go to work on each other. Show pulls Rock out to the floor. Show gets posted and Rock and HHH continue their fight on the floor. Back in Rock gives Show a Russian leg sweep to get him down. He tosses HHH out then sets Show up. Pad off! People's Elbow! HHH breaks the pin up. He hits Rock with a facebuster, then Show scoops Rock up off the rebound and side suplexes him. We go back to the floor with HHH and Show fighting around the stage area. Rock charges in with a running clothesline. A Rock punch puts HHH through a tech table! Show takes a fire extinguisher shot from Rock. Rock suplexes HHH on the floor. Show teases a chokeslam but HHH low blows him. HHH back suplexes Rock in the aisle. Show gives HHH some stair shots. Rock hits show with the bell. HHH tries to lift Show up for a suplex. Rock joins to help and they suplex Show through the Spanish announce table! Now Rock and HHH do the full in crowd brawl. After that they finally get back in the ring with Rock in control. Hebner takes a shot and goes down. HHH counters out of a Rock Bottom. Rock counters a Pedigree. Rock Bottom! No ref. Shane runs out with a ref shirt on! HHH kicks out! Another Rock Bottom! Show pulls Shane out of the ring. He beats Rock down on the English announce table. HHH gets tossed around. Show goes back out to continue beating on Rock. While that's happening Shane takes the belt away from HHH, who had gotten it in the melee. Pedigree on Shane! DX run in and attack Show. Vince is out! He gets the belt and hits HHH with it! Chokeslam! Vince counts the pin! Show wins the WWF Title for the first time, while Vince kept his promise and screwed HHH. I think they were going for yet another Montreal Screwjob callback here, it was mentioned several times during the show, but that part didn't land at all. It's every late '90s main event rolled into one with nothing to make it stand out. Show does look genuinely emotional after his title win at least. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another pretty dreadful Survivor Series. No one seems willing to put any kind of effort into the traditional Survivor Series matches, and I'm not just talking about the wrestlers for that. The rest of the card isn't much better. The only real positive you can say about this show is that between Angle's debut, the Austin car attack and Show's first WWF Title win it's fairly historically significant.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D

Halloween Havoc '97

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '97

October 27, 1997 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

For another year, this is Slim Jim's Halloween Havoc presented by Slim Jim in conjunction with Slim Jim a Slim Jim production. Funded by Slim Jim.

Yuji Nagata (w/Sonny Oono) def Ultimo Dragon in 9:42- Mike Tenay joins the booth for this one. Serious potential here. Dragon has been the best and most consistent in-ring worker in WCW for the past year or so. Nagata is one of my favorite New Japan wrestlers, though he was still developing at this point. He's on his final excursion before returning to New Japan and hitting the main event level around the turn of the millennium. This is part of Oono's feud with Dragon since their breakup and Dragon's face turn, Nagata is the new hired gun Oono's brought in to take Dragon out. Also, it looks like Nagata stole Glacier's vest and repainted it black. Unless I completely missed him on an earlier show, the absolute legend that is "Lil' Naitch" Charles Robinson is making his PPV debut in this match. He's easily one of the top 3 or 4 refs of all time, and still going today. Tommy Young, Red Shoes Unno, then it's a toss up between Lil' Naitch and Mike Chioda for me. Then Hebner. Some New Japan style exploratory kicks start us off. Nagata grabs a waistlock. Dragon grabs the ropes, but Nagata says screw your clean break and attacks. Shoulderblock standoff. Dragon changes direction to build up momentum and wins the second one. He does some crazy maneuvering around Nagata to hit a kick. Nagata ducks a clothesline and hits a fallaway slam-like suplex. Dragon does his handstand on the ropes and goes into the rapid fire kicks. He comes off the ropes, but Nagata grabs him in a rear naked choke. He teases going for Dragon's mask before Lil' Naitch stops him. Dragon does some more dodging and hits a Saito suplex. Nagata nails him with a couple of stiff PKs to the back, then hooks on a camel clutch. Piledriver from Nagata for 2. They have a suplex fight that the larger Nagata wins. If this was New Japan this would be a heavyweight vs junior heavyweight match. Nagata keeps Dragon grounded while trying to play to the crowd American style and not quite pulling it off. More Nagata kicks fire Dragon up. Dragon grabs a kick and gives Nagata a dragon screw! He kicks Nagata to the floor. Plancha attempt. Nagata kicks Dragon right out of the air! We get a quick shot of Raven and the yet-unnamed Flock coming into the crowd. Dragon's asai moonsault hits. Back in he goes for the handspring elbow. Nagata knees him in the back. Dragon blocks a superplex, flips over, and gets a sunset bomb for 2. Setup slam and the moonsault hits for 2. Dragon hits some chops. After a bit of grappling on the top rope Nagata grabs Dragon's arm and snaps it over the top turnbuckle! Stiff kick to the arm and Nagata starts picking it apart. He then switches to a belly to belly suplex for 2. Nagata Lock! But this is the original Lock that goes for the legs, not the arm, so not the best move strategically. They have a bit of a fumble when Dragon counters into the dragon sleeper. Nagata quickly gets his feet under the ropes in what would be marked out of bounds territory in a New Japan ring. Dragon sells the hurt arm and Nagata is back on him. Dragon hits an enzuguri. Open hand slap exchange. Dragon wins that. Another kick combo. Dragon hits the top rope hurricanrana! But the arm is still hurting and he can't follow up. The dragon sleeper is back on. Nagata counters into a Fujiwara armbar on the hurt arm! Dragon taps out almost instantly! After the bell Nagata holds Dragon so Oono can kick the hurt arm as well. Oono then presents Nagata with an envelope with his bonus for a mission accomplished tonight. Very good, very New Japan style match that would have been even better with a more experienced Nagata. ***3/4

Backstage, Jacqueline chases Disco Inferno out of the internet area. Damn, no one will be able to hear Disco on REAL AUDIO now. Yes, that really was a thing. Worked great after you gave it the usual 5-10 minutes of buffering it needed.

 

Chris Jericho def Gedo in 7:18- Gedo, future head booker and manager to the stars in New Japan, is making his WCW debut here. He hadn't fully established himself in New Japan yet at this point, he'd primarily worked in WAR as well as smaller Japanese indys. He's in all bright yellow tonight. Tenay stays in the booth for this one. He tries to correct Dusty and Heenan's pronunciation of Gedo but no one has it right. Lockup stalemate. Gedo slaps Jericho during a corner break, then hides in the ropes. After that is a basic arm wringer/hammerlock exchange with Jericho doing some fancy escapes. A combo from Jericho puts Gedo down. Jericho then gives him a slap receipt and Gedo powders. When he gets back in Jericho stays on the attack. Delayed suplex. Jericho hits some chops. Gedo tries to momentum toss Jericho out but Jericho skins the cat back in. Gedo comes right back with a 360 clothesline. Back in Gedo hits a couple of powerslams for 2. He hooks on a sleeper. Jericho lifts him on his back and drops him. Clothesline with a Gedo 360 sell. Double powerbomb from Jericho for 2. They go up top. Jericho tries a tippy TOP rope hurricanrana, but launches wrong and ends up landing on his head. Yikes. He recovers quickly, going for a plancha while Gedo is on the floor but Gedo kicks him midflight. That wasn't nearly as good as Nagata and Dragon doing the same spot earlier. Gedo dodges around back in and lifts Jericho up into a kneebreaker. He tries coming off the top. Jericho sidesteps, hooks in the full Liontamer, and Gedo taps out. That was as much as you were going to get out of Gedo. **

Mean Gene is with Debra, and for some reason he lets her talk. Debra refuses to spill the beans on who her mystery opponent for Mongo is tonight, other than it's not Jeff Jarrett. Well that would make sense as he'd just gone back to WWF. Mongo then charges in and they have the kind of divorce arguments their lawyers should be shouting at each other with Okerlund in the middle.

 

Title vs Mask Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Mysterio Jr def Eddie Guerrero (c) in 13:51- I'm sure you've heard of this match. Tenay officially goes into OT, working his third match of the night. Mysterio is in the purple Phantom bodysuit that has become synonymous with this match. He's all business heading to the ring. Guerrero is in full dick heel mode and isn't even trying to play to the crowd. Big "Eddie sucks" chant from the crowd after the bell. Guerrero jaws and takes a swing. Mysterio ducks, hits a quick springboard moonsault, and both guys fly around the ring in a crazy move/counter sequence to kick things off. No time wasting here. Mysterio crossbodys Guerrero over the top to the floor! He flips over the top rope trying to outmaneuver Guerrero, but Guerrero is one step ahead, grabbing Mysterio's legs and pulling him off the apron. He gets a huge head of steam and RUNS Mysterio into the ring steps. Slingshot senton from Guerrero back in, followed by chops and European uppercuts. Mysterio counters with a dropkick. He tries a cartwheel, but Guerrero catches him and gives him a back suplex! Brain buster for 2. Tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. Guerrero tries to tear at Mysterio's mask. He hooks on an abdominal stretch and tries to tear the mask again. After a bit Guerrero turns it into a pumphandle backbreaker. He knucklelocks Mysterio and tries for a leverage cover. Mysterio fights back up, flips up top, and hits a MOONSAULT DDT! Holy shit. He dropkicks Guerrero out to the floor. After some apron maneuvering Guerrero dropkicks Mysterio off the apron. Mysterio gets whipped into the guardrail. Back in Guerrero hooks on a camel clutch, laser focused on the back. He goes for the mask again and this time succeeds in tearing Mysterio a new eye hole. An eye hole in the mask. This isn't The Horror Show at Extreme Rules. Gory Special from Guerrero. Mysterio armdrags out! Guerrero avoids a dropkick and hits a basement dropkick to the back. He drops Mysterio with a shoulder backbreaker, then stretches him out with a modified bow and arrow. Speed run and Guerrero hits a back elbow for 2. Mysterio slugs back in the corner. Guerrero gives him a knee to the gut, tosses him, and Mysterio does an absolutely perfect flip seamlessly into the tree of woe. After a basement dropkick Guerrero charges. Mysterio dodges and Guerrero slides crotch first into the SLIM JIM post! As Heenan says, it's not the slide, it's the stop. HUGE height on a Mysterio dive to the floor! Back in Mysterio flips out of another tiltawhirl backbreaker attempt and hits a flash hurricanrana with a cradle for 2! Clothesline from Guerrero. More dodges, Mysterio does the 619 spin and headscissors Guerrero to the floor. Mysterio does a tope con hilo INTO A FLYING HEADSCISSORS ON THE FLOOR! Holy shit again. Corkscrew moonsault back in for a long 2. He goes for a springboard moonsault but Guerrero gets his knees up. Powerbomb with a stack up for 2. Guerrero gives Mysterio a sort of buckle bomb. He charges, but Mysterio lifts him up and drops him face first on the top turnbuckle. Spinning heel kick. He goes for the springboard hurricanrana. Guerrero catches him and gives him a backbreaker! Holy shit again again. Guerrero tries coming off the top. Mysterio dodges, but Guerrero sees it and rolls through. Guerrero lifts and Mysterio gets crotched on the top rope. After a fight up top Guerrero sets up for Splash Mountain. Mysterio twists in midair into a hurricanrana, cradles, and gets the pin and the title! After the bell Mysterio makes the mistake of turning his back on Guerrero to celebrate in camera so naturally Guerrero attacks him from behind, and quickly leaves. A legendary match that deserves its status, with both guys playing to their strengths, both character and wrestling, absolutely perfectly. This is probably the best match of the NWO era, and maybe the best match of Bischoff's entire tenure running WCW (though personally I'd put Flair/Vader at Starrcade '93 a fraction higher). It's also THE seminal lucha style match ever held on US soil. ****3/4

Mean Gene has tonight's Hotline shill, a "clique (or Kliq) in WCW is getting a new member". Red hot scoop there. Worth the 900 number rates. Probably has to do with Raven's group. After that we go to an NWO black and white promo with Bischoff and Hogan and some late arriving music. Bischoff demands a "safe working environment" for Hogan and they threaten to walk out of the main event tonight unless JJ Dillon and WCW brass give them a contract in writing that Sting won't be in the building tonight.

 

Alex Wright (w/Debra) def Steve "Mongo" McMichael in 6:31- The crowd is not impressed with the reveal of Wright as the mystery opponent. They work some basic stuff. Mongo says screw your flippy escapes and hits a slam. Cover for 2 and Wright powders. After due stalling Wright hits an armdrag out of a lockup. He arm wringers Mongo down. European uppercuts. After some shoulderblocks Mongo hits a hiptoss and another slam. Wright gets a boot up in the corner and hits a spinning heel kick. Mongo completely fucks up a tombstone reversal, resets and hits it. Debra starts distracting Lil' Naitch. Why? Because BILL GOLDBERG is here! Yes, Bill. Being a former football guy they decided to have him feud with the other former football guy. Goldberg gives Mongo a gentle spear. He goes for the jackhammer, with Mongo's leg hitting Lil' Naitch in the back so there was no way he didn't know something was happening, and hits it. Then, again with Lil' Naitch clearly seeing what's happening, he drags Wright's carcass on top of Mongo. Lil' Naitch stops pretending, turns around and counts the pin. Debra gives Goldberg something after. It's Mongo's Super Bowl ring! He definitely never got one of those playing for the Falcons. How does she even legally have possession of that if they're not divorced? Wright tries to say something and Goldberg takes him out too because he's a KILLER. Before the run in commentary spent almost the entire match freaking out about Hogan's demands and paying zero attention to what was happening in the ring. Though, being Mongo and Wright, in this case it's about all they deserve. DUD

 

Jacqueline def WCW World Television Champion Disco Inferno in 9:39- Before Chyna was wrestling guys in WWF, WCW put Jacqueline in there with their #1 weasel heel at the time. I honestly don't remember what started this other than I guess Disco being a dick, which he was always a natural at. Commentary is still in full on freakout mode about Hogan when the match starts. The first literally 4+ minutes of this match is Disco stalling like hell, hiding in the ropes, hiding behind the ref and jumping out of the ring. Tedious to the extreme. Finally Jacqueline goes out to chase, hits a shoulderblock and sunset flip back in the ring for 2. Disco does a drop toe hold and one of Jacqueline's boobs comes right out of her top. One move is all it took. Another couple of minutes of time wasting stalling follows with a couple of lame "chases" around the ring. Jacqueline eventually hits a knee to the gut, forearm and goes nuts with some ground and pound. Disco powders again as I think we've now set a world record for the number of times a wrestler voluntarily leaves the ring in a single match. He tries to walk but Jacqueline stops him. Shoulderblock stalemates. Disco tries a hiptoss but Jacqueline lands on her feet. Disco gets crotched on the SLIM JIM ring post. Jacqueline suplexes him on the floor. Clothesline. She's still messing with her top. She manages to land a halfway decent DDT. Crossbody off the top. Disco rolls through it for 2. Jacqueline rolls him up and gets the pin. Someone explain to me why the sunset flip couldn't have been the finish and we could have cut this atrocity in half. Disco's refusal, even as a heel, to hit a woman took all the point out of this before it even started. On top of that Jacqueline, a veteran with a decade of experience, looked like a green rookie during most of this. To make it worse, absolutely nothing came out of this. Oh, and way to make the TV title look like a joke on top of everything else. Booking this at all was brain dead dumb. Giving it ten freaking minutes is almost a war crime. MINUS FIVE STARS

Kind of hard to imagine that Mysterio/Guerrero classic was earlier on this same show.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Curt Hennig (c) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair by DQ in 13:57- Hennig was given Arn Anderson's spot in the Horsemen, then betrayed them to join the NWO and smashed Flair's head in the War Games cage door as he did it. He defeated Horseman Mongo for the US title on the Nitro right after Fall Brawl. Of course these two were very familiar with each other from Flair's WWF run. Hennig has on Flair's red WWF era robe with the sleeves cut off on his entrance. Flair charges in robeless! He drags Hennig out and hits chops. Back in he gives us a bit of a strut and kicks Hennig's leg out of his leg. He charges and knocks Hennig off the apron into the guardrail. Hennig's knee gets posted on the SLIM JIM ring post. Flair gets a chair but misses a shot at the knee. Hennig begs off. Flair lays in the corner chops and jabs. The robe finally comes off and Flair puts it on. More chops and strut as the robe comes off for good. Hennig hits a clothesline, then the neck snap with a not very good Flair sell, like he wasn't sure what was coming. Now Hennig goes after Flair's knee. Meanwhile, commentary's completely out of town again having a massive bitch fest about Hogan's demands. The only time the last three matches they've paid any attention to what was happening in the ring was the last few minutes of the Disco/Jacqueline match. Really, really annoying. Flair and Hennig lose their place a bit before going into a slugfest. Hennig goes back to the knee. Flair eye pokes for some space. Chop exchange and Hennig hits a clothesline for 2. Flair Flip! To the floor! Hennig knocks him around a bit down there. Back in the ref hilariously FREAKS OUT at Hennig's closed fists and hair grabs. Sadly it's the best damn thing in the match so far. Hennig gets on a sleeper. Flair back suplexes out. Hennig positions Flair's head against the post and goes to get a chair, looking to do the War Games door shot again. Flair dodges and fires up on the floor. He slingshots Hennig head first into the SLIM JIM ring post. There's quite a bit of padding on there, not sure how much damage that should have done. Hennig gets the belt and walks. I'm just now noticing that's the wrong belt. It looks like the Cruiserweight belt. Did someone lose the US title belt? Syxx stole it again didn't he. That damn klepto. Flair jumps him and hits a kneedrop in the aisle. Hennig goes fists flying back in. He places the belt in the middle of the ring and tries to Perfectplex Flair onto it. Flair counters and hits a suplex in the general vicinity of the belt. He puts Hennig in the tree of woe, then wraps the belt around Hennig's head. Stomp to the belt! That's enough for the ref and he calls for the DQ. All the other refs hold Flair back from attacking more while fellow NWO members Konnan and Vincent save Hennig and drag him away. Another big time NWO/Horsemen feud letdown. Hennig continues to look awful since his WCW arrival, almost like just finishing a match is a struggle for him. We all know that Flair was in a bad place mentally in this period. *3/4

JJ Dillon has an answer for Bischoff's demands: a signed and notarized contract guaranteeing no Sting tonight, as requested. Not sure that's the best move. You start appeasing terrorists and all they do is push for more. Bischoff is furious, not expecting this to happen and looking for new ways to get Hogan out of the match. He also says "You don't have the stroke" a lot. Oooooooh, insider terms! Edgy! Dillon's body language this whole segment was something else.

Quick note before the next match because it's been something I've been following all year: a couple of weeks prior on Nitro the Steiner Brothers finally defeated the NWO to wrest the tag titles away from them for real. No screwjobs this time. I say NWO instead of the Outsiders because Syxx was teaming with Hall instead of Nash under Freebird Rules.

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger and Scott Hall (w/Syxx) no contest in 13:02- Larry Zbyszko is guest reffing this match, continuing his beef with the NWO in general and Hall personally. I'm no big NWO fan, but I have serious questions about the impartiality of a referee that clearly hates one of the wrestlers in the match. Hall and Zbyszko are already jawing at each other before the bell. Zbyszko wants the toothpick out. Hall gives it to him in his face. Luger attacks and the bell rings. Zbyszko physically pulls Hall off Luger in a corner break. In the next corner when Luger is on top it's more a straight separation. Zbyszko catches Hall pulling Luger's ponytail and reads him the riot act. Despite everything being settled commentary is *still* talking more about the Hogan situation than calling the match in front of them. They do some basic arm stuff and Zbyszko pulls them apart again on a rope break. Hall wants a test of strength. Of course it's a RUSE. He kicks Luger in the gut and stretches his arms out in a butterfly like hold. And the match grinds to a halt as they both just sit there. Finally Luger reverses it and Hall goes into super sell mode before getting in the ropes. Luger pounds Hall down in the corner. Hall counters with an inverted atomic drop and clothesline. Zbyszko and Hall have some disagreements again before Zbyszko catches Syxx trying to get a cheap shot in. Corner clothesline from Hall for 2. Hall's mad about a slow count and he's right. That was a super old school slow count from Zbyszko. Hall fallaway slam for 2. Sleeper. Luger sloooooooooooowly goes down. Arm drops and Luger fires up, back suplexing out. Hall drapes an arm over for a long 2. Hall punches Luger while Luger's on the apron. Again Zbyszko pulls him away. Hall's had enough. He swings, but Zbyszko ducks and backdrops Hall over the top to the floor! Bischoff is out and he's furious at the biased officiating. Zbyszko kicks him off the apron! Both Hall and Luger just get back in the ring before 10. Slugfest. Luger clothesline. He hits a trio of inverted atomic drops with Hall's usual oversell. Not steel plate assisted running forearm. Luger calls for the Rack. Bischoff distracts Zbyszko and Syxx kicks Luger in the head from behind. Hall (with his usual struggle) hits the Razor's Edge and Zbyszko very reluctantly counts 3 with a huge pause between 2 and 3. He then raises Hall's hand as it looks like the match is over. Then, after declaring Hall the winner, he wants to see the replay. Well tough, you already called Hall the winner, you're too late. We get the replay anyway and see Syxx's kick. Zbyszko overturns the call on VAR and demands Hall return to resume the match. Hall wants a fight with Zbyszko. Zbyszko shoves Hall right into the Rack! Syxx and Bischoff run in as Zbyszko calls for the bell. In the confusion it's never clear if Hall submitted or if the match was thrown out, but the official results say no contest so we'll go with that. Zbyszko takes Syxx out with a guillotine. Hall grabs Zbyszko and Bischoff takes him out with one of his karate kicks, probably a front spin rear ankle forward motion air sweep roundhouse kick. Then Bischoff covers Zbyszko with one foot and Hall counts 3. This was all about the Zbyszko angle, which was pretty stupid to start with. 3/4*

 

Ad for the next PPV, World War 3 with the huge 60 man 3 ring battle royale.

 

Las Vegas Sudden Death Match: "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) def Diamond Dallas Page in 18:07- After some time away from each other it's time for the rubber match in this feud that started red hot and was one of the best in WCW in years, but in true late era WCW fashion has been handled poorly and is going out with more of a whimper than a bang. Despite the fancy name this is a regular death match, with victory by 10 count. DDP has taped up ribs as he's had pretty much all feud. Savage won't get in the ring with him after the bell, so DDP hops over the top rope to come to him. Savage gets knocked around ringside before resorting to the old eye poke and taking over. DDP tears Savage's shirt off! Man, we haven't seen shirtless Savage in forever. Back in Savage drops DDP throat first on the top rope. He beats DDP down in the corner. DDP pulls himself back up and goes nuts, as Dusty would say, a'clubberin' Savage in the corner. Double clothesline. Swinging neckbreaker from DDP. He goes for the Diamond Cutter. Savage quickly escapes and goes to the floor. DDP plancha! Savage gets run into the guardrail. Desperation top rope clothesline from Savage. Double ax handle off the top to the floor! DDP gets knocked over the rail into the Flock as Stevie Richards mocks him. Crowd brawl! DDP flops over the rail into the stage area. Whip reversal and Savage gets whipped into the styrofoam tombstones. Slam on a tombstone and it breaks! He whacks Savage over the head with something that was in the area that sounded pretty damn solid. Dusty totally loses it. "HE WOBBLELEGGED HIM!". Savage gets up at 8 and DDP is right back on hm. He pounds Savage back down the aisle toward the ring. DDP goes into the rail and stairs. Head first into the stairs! Savage takes a TV camera! DDP gets his feet up and Savage takes the camera in the face! Sounded like it broke too. Liz comes up and nails the ref with a glass tray! Evil Liz! Then she chokes DDP with the camera cord! Kimberly runs out and stops her! Cat fight! She drags Liz away by the hair all the way to the back. The first ref's carcass gets hauled off as Nick Patrick takes over. Savage is up first, but DDP slugs first. Inverted atomic drop. Front slam piledriver. He calls for the Cutter. Savage uses the ropes to block it. Savage drags himself up to the top rope. He comes down with the elbow but barely. Fantastic selling from Savage. When DDP gets back up Savage slams him. He gets up top again, more easily this time. Fingers up. The full elbow hits! DDP BARELY gets to his feet before 10. Savage comes right up and knees him in the back into the corner. He scoops for a slam, but DDP's feet knock Patrick down. Cutter! What a counter. Patrick is back up and counting. Both are up at 8. Savage hooks for a backslide then low blows DDP. Oh GREAT the NWO Fake Sting is coming out. God forbid we get a clean finish in what had been a hell of a match so far. He whacks DDP in the back with his bat. Tony, finally, shows some brains and says there's no way that was the real Sting. DDP can't get back up and it's over. Savage gets a couple more shots in after the bell and DDP does the stretcher job. Fairly lame finish and the wrong guy won for the final blowoff. Despite that and the fact the feud had cooled off a ton that was damn good match. Everyone usually remembers the Falls Count Anywhere match at Great American Bash the most, but this was the best match of the trilogy. DDP was never the smoothest or most gifted wrestler, but he knew how to lay a match out and work it to maximum effectiveness as well as anyone, while this is probably the last time Savage got anywhere close to his classic WWF form as age and injuries continue to pile up. ***1/2

 

Steel Cage Match: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper def WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan in 13:37- Speaking of rubber matches, here's another one, and one that pretty much no one asked for. Piper defeated Hogan in a non-title match at Starrcade, then Hogan got one back defending the title at Superbrawl. Piper's since settled into the Commissioner role with WCW, but he's getting back in the ring because Hogan. This being a non-title match again is a bit of a giveaway as to the winner. That also keeps the streak alive. The WCW World title has still been defended only three times on PPV this year, and only once since February. Buffer says during his spiel that "The survivor.....if there is a survivor....will be declared the winner". Soooooo is this to the death or something? If it means we never have to suffer through another Piper/Hogan match I might take those terms. This isn't just a regular cage, WCW got out the Hell in a Cell sized/WWF blue bar style oversized cage out for this one. The old Thundercage. Oh, Piper has the belt with him. Another "someone steals the belt" angle from WCW. That makes 3 or 4 times they've done that this year. Hogan does the usual chickenshit heel runaway while Piper poses with the belt and gets his entrance gear off. It does help in that it confirms the door is locked. Piper chases and Hogan tries to climb. That structure is not too stable and it's not securely anchored anywhere, I don't know how high I'd go up that. Piper bites Hogan's ass! That makes Hogan fall back down. The bandana is off! Now Piper bites Hogan's back. And his head. Hogan begs off in the ring. Piper does the two finger eye poke. Atomic drop. Right on the ass bite mark. Commentary points out there's no ref in the ring, making it even more unclear exactly how this match is supposed to be won. Hogan climbs again and Piper low blows him. Hogan blocks a cage shot and runs Piper into it. He shouts to "open the door". For all we know that's how you win. Yup, the door is now unlocked and open. Piper charges up and pushes Hogan out the door. OK, so escaping the cage is not a condition for winning. What is? Tony says "they both got out at the same time" even though Hogan was clearly out first. Hogan swings the door into Piper's face! Piper gets crotched on the guardrail. Hogan says "I'm outta here, I don't need this crap" and walks. Man, real point to having the cage. A Sting stops Hogan in his tracks. Pretty sure that's fake Sting but who knows. Trying to find logic in this match is like trying to analyze the plot of a Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 episode. All you'll get is misery. Piper gets Hogan back in the cage and the door is locked again. Both guys flop around like they've been wrestling for 45 minutes but somehow I think it's not all selling. Piper takes more cage shots. Both guys climb up and fight near the top. Meanwhile, there's a second Sting! A second Sting has appeared! Somehow they get near the top and the whole cage structure doesn't collapse. Nothing happens and they both climb back down. OK then. Back in the ring Hogan whips Piper with hits weightlifting belt. He slaps Piper around while letting him know about it. Then Hogan decides to climb again. No, not there. Over here. He gets to the top and goes over. One of the Stings is waiting for him at the bottom. Piper climbs up and drags him back over. Slugfest on the top of the cage, which is honestly a good visual as tall as it is. There's more Stings! The whole arena has been invaded by Stings! They're like Doinks at this point. Now Piper gets on the cage exterior with Hogan inside. Hogan chokes him on the top bar and pulls him back over. We're still counting Stings as both guys come down and get back in the ring. Piper chokes Hogan with Hogan's own shirt. Hogan has the title belt and whacks Piper with it. Legdrop! Now Hogan calls for the ref to come in and count him out. Hogan drops another leg, covers, and Piper kicks out at 2. So if you can win by pinfall why was there no ref in there to start with? Savage makes his way out and climbs up the cage. Hogan holds Piper. Savage leaps off the top of the cage! He completely misses everyone but still, he came off the top of that cage, that was nuts. He was supposed to hit Hogan so Hogan goes down. Piper tosses Savage out and hooks on the sleeper! Three arm drops and Hogan's out! They got maybe 10% of the crowd reaction they wanted for that win. No pop at all. Dreadful match, nothing made sense, neither guy could or would put any effort into it, just atrocious on every level. The slugfest on the top of the cage and Savage's crazy dive is about all that saves this from MFS status. DUD

 

After the bell Bischoff comes in to help Hogan and Savage. Hogan grabs one of the Stings and tosses him in the cage. His mask comes off and it's clearly not the real Sting. The NWO group handcuff Piper to the cage and go to work on him. Hogan puts the Sting mask on just for the hell of it. A fan comes in from the crowd with Sting face paint on and climbs the cage. The unmasked fake Sting tackles him and holds him down. Hogan and Savage then go nuts on him. Doug Dellinger and the security crew come in and drag him out. After all the weirdness of the match, this might be the weirdest thing of all. It looks like a legit fan run in the way everyone wails on him, but the way they put focus on him instead of turning away it seems like it was planned. I think to this day no one knows for sure which it is. And then the show just ends.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- I don't think there's a single show in the history of professional wrestling that's more of a wild roller coaster ride, match quality wise, than this one is. You've got an all time classic in Mysterio/Guerrero and two really good matches in Nagata/Dragon and Savage/DDP. But then you've got absolute atrocities in Disco/Jacqueline and Hogan/Piper, and just a plain bad match with Mongo/Wright. Commentary being in full bitch fest mode about Hogan half the night instead of calling matches was also extremely annoying. Instead of trying to calculate anything out I'm giving this a grade right in the middle and moving on. Just be warned if you watch this whole show you might need a night in the hospital for severe whiplash.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

No Mercy '99

Legacy Review

No Mercy '99

October 17, 1999 from the Gund Arena in Cleveland, OH

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

This is a historical show right off the bat, as it's the first WWF PPV after the departure of Vince Russo to WCW. Still, these ships aren't turned around right away and with the commercial success WWF has had the past couple of years they preferred to tinker rather than fully overhaul, so Russo's massive influence on the product would still be felt for a while even with him not there.

The Godfather def Mideon (w/Viscera) in 7:31- Has, uh, anyone told Mideon or Viscera the Ministry of Darkness has been dead for months? Because they haven't changed one little bit. While the usual ho shenanigans are going on commentary starts talking about Mideon and dead animals and I don't even want to know where they're going with that. Lockup! In the first match! My God Russo really is gone. A stalemate off that leads to shoving that leads to slugging. Godfather hits a powerslam. Hook kick. Godfather sets up for an early Ho Train but pulls out when he sees Viscera is getting close to the women. Mideon attacks from behind and Godfather gets knocked around on the floor. Jawbreaker from Mideon back in and he goes into his usual dull offense. In other words, straight to the chinlock. Godfather gets a sunset flip but Viscera distracts the ref. Clothesline from Mideon. The heel 2 on 1 stuff continues until Godfather makes a small comeback and goes for the Ho Train again. Mideon gets a boot up and hits another clothesline. He pounds Godfather down in the corner and Viscera gets more shots in. Godfather dodges a Mideon elbow off the second rope. Clotheslines. Slam and legdrop for 2. He goes for a Vader bomb but Mideon gets his knees up. They fight on the floor again and Viscera runs into the post. The Ho Train hits. Godfather follows up with a quick roll up, and that gets the pin. Not good, but not the worst I've seen from either guy. It felt like a short Raw match stretched twice as long as it needed to be. 3/4*

 

WWF Women's Championship: The Fabulous Moolah (w/Mae Young) def Ivory (c) in 3:01- At 76 years old, The Fabulous Moolah is wrestling for the women's title on a PPV. She was the most successful women's wrestler in history to this point, having held versions of both the WWF and NWA women's titles for literally decades. But, SEVENTY SIX YEARS OLD. I already know I'm going to need a Lawler mute button for this match. Ivory dropkicks Moolah from behind before the bell for a quick 2 count. Snap mare/legdrop combo for 2. Moolah forearms back and gives Ivory some classic hair flips. In the corner Moolah very gently puts her knee up and Ivory sells it like a tennis ball bouncing off a wall. Or a LeBron James flop. Moolah goes all the way up to the BOTTOM rope and tries a splash that Ivory in theory dodges but she still got hit. They fumble around for a good while trying to get in position for Young to break up a leverage pin. Young takes multiple shots off the apron while Moolah gets tossed out the other side. Ivory tries a tope suicida but gets no launch and just kind of flops on top of Moolah. Moolah tosses Ivory over the barricade. Ivory hits a crossbody coming back over. Young takes more shots. Ivory gets the belt. Young grabs her to stop her from using it and goes down again. She's taken more bumps than anyone in this match. Moolah rolls Ivory up in slow motion, and Ivory acts like a turtle stuck on its back as Moolah somehow pins her to win the title. At 76 years old, Moolah just won the women's title. And you wonder why no one took women's wrestling seriously back then. DUD

 

The Hollys def The New Age Outlaws by DQ in 10:11- On the Smackdown before this show the Hollys cost the Outlaws the tag titles to the one night only after years apart reuniting Rock N Sock Connection (much to the Rock's chagrin at being forced to keep teaming with Foley). The Outlaws jump on the floor and it's on. Gunn takes Hardcore out on the floor, then joins Dogg in the ring to beat down Crash. Crash tries to slide under Dogg but Dogg gives him his dancing jabs. Gunn takes a charging Hardcore out and Dogg hits the kneedrop. Off a speed run Crash gets Dogg over the top to the floor. Hardcore quickly hops down to jump him. Back in Hardcore his a looooooong delayed suplex. Dogg tries to fight back but Hardcore dreadlocks pulls him back down. If he wears those things.....it's like in football, if you choose to have long hair outside your helmet you can get tackled by it. Hollys double back elbow for 2. Hardcore tries coming off the top but Dogg gets a boot up. Crash cuts the tag off. Dogg stays in peril. He takes Hardcore down with a shoulderblock, but Hardcore quickly bounces back up with a dropkick. He always had one of the prettiest dropkicks in the business. More Holly quick tags. Hardcore goes up top again and gets crotched. Dogg gives him a superplex. Tags on both sides. Gunn runs wild. Press slams. Stinger splashes. He hits Crash with a jackhammer but the ref is distracted. Hardcore slides a chair in. Gunn Fameassers Crash on the chair! The ref sees it and calls for the DQ! Great trap. Clever finish, but after the jump start most of the match was fairly uninspired formula tag stuff. The Outlaws stopped doing things like "giving max effort" about five title reigns ago anyway. The Hollys would defeat RockNSock the next night on Raw to win the tag titles for the first time. *3/4

Good Housekeeping Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chyna def Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/Miss Kitty) in 8:37- This is the culmination of the long Jarrett/Chyna, or more accurately Jarrett vs all women, feud. There's household appliances and utensils all around the ring and on the floor. Anything that is a "household object" can legally be used in the match. Jarrett comes out with the kitchen sink. Always like that. Kitty's outfit tonight is......damn. The upgrade from Debra to Kitty is so huge if you tried to calculate it the calculator would explode. Chyna brings a broom and trash can with her. She pulls Jarrett out to the floor to get things started. Clothesline from Chyna in the ring. Inverted atomic drop and suplex. Jarrett takes some trash can shots. They go to the floor and Chyna checks out what's on the catering table. SAUSAGE SHOT! That's hardcore. She clotheslines Jarrett with a broom. Frying pan shot. Toilet seat over Jarrett's head. I can hear Dusty's "She got a commode lid!" echoing across from another company. More trash can shots. Chyna unpeels a banana and shoves it in Jarrett's face. Jarrett gets run into the post and takes more trash can shots. Chyna clears one of the catering tables off. Jarrett dodges an elbow off the apron and Chyna crashes through the table! Jarrett covers on the floor for 2. Oh, guess it's falls count anywhere too. Chyna takes a trash can shot. Jarrett throws a fish on her! That's not how you do the Fish Slapping Dance. Ironing board shot for Chyna. Corner whip and Chyna does the Trips flip to the floor. Jarrett and Kitty do a bit of recipe mixing while Chyna's down. Jarrett gets some flour but Chyna throws it back in his face. Kitty gets slopped with the eggs and milk combo she was cooking up. Jarrett chop blocks from behind. Figure four! Chyna gets to the ropes. Kitty gives Jarrett some cooking tongs. He comes off the second rope but Chyna low blows him. COOKING TONGS TO THE NADS! That man's going to need an ice pack when this is over. Jarrett takes a pot to the head. Chyna gets a couple of pies and throws them on Jarrett. If you get desperate, a pie in the face....Kitchen sink shot! Jarrett kicks out! Damn, that was a good near fall. Chyna gets a cake and sets up for the Pedigree. Jarrett counters (with Chyna's ass destroying the cake, there's future website material some people would sadly be interested in) and slingshots her right into ref Teddy Long. Kitty gets the title belt for Jarrett. He nails Chyna, covers, and gets the pin. Everyone thinks the match is over and Jarrett leaves. But wait! Long chases him down on the apron. The belt wasn't a household object! It's not legal! He orders Jarrett back. Fink makes it official, this match MUST CONTINUE! Jarrett snaps and tries to put the figure four on Long. Chyna gets Jarrett's guitar and nails him with it! Chyna gets the pin and wins the title! She becomes the first, and still to date only, woman in WWF/E history to win a men's division title. Reasonably fun and certainly unique match. Right after this Jarrett would join Russo in hopping back to WCW. **3/4

 

The Rock def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith in 6:20- Bulldog's cost Rock multiple WWF Title matches so this is Rock looking for some revenge. During the build Rock gave Bulldog a Rock Bottom onto, I kid you not, a giant tray of dog shit. No tag belt for the Rock on his entrance. The less he has to do with Foley the better as far as he's concerned. As soon as the bell rings we're slugging it out. Bulldog gets 360 clotheslined to the floor and we do the standard floor brawling for a bit with chairs, stairs and the announce table. When they get back in Bulldog goes right to the chinlock. Rock fights out but takes a knee to the gut for 2. Off a corner whip Bulldog flips upside down into the corner. Rock hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Bulldog hits a not very delayed suplex. Back to the chinlock and it goes all the way to arm drops. Rock fights out and they half blow a backdrop spot. Bulldog uses the opening from Rock pushing Hebner away to hit a Greco Roman cock punch. Rock gets tied up in the ropes. Bulldog charges. Rock gets free and dodges. DDT from Rock for 2. Bulldog ducks a clothesline, scoops, and hits the powerslam! But they're at the edge of the ring and Rock gets a foot on the rope at 2. Another scoop. Rock squirts free. Rock Bottom! Elbow pad off, People's Elbow, and it's over. That would have been an OK Raw main event. Bulldog, past his prime and barely ever a main eventer anyway with a Hirooki Goto like career of always losing world title matches, is clearly not on Rock's level now and everyone knew it. *1/2

 

T.I.T. Finals Ladder Match: The New Brood (w/Gangrel) def Edge & Christian in 16:30- TIT stands for Terri Invitational Tournament. Saying TIT is more fun. After not doing anything for months Terri (nee Runnels) decided to offer herself....er, her managerial services to one of these two young stud teams, with the winner decided by a best of 5 series. They're tied with two wins each and this is the deciding match. In addition to Terri as a manager, prize #2 for the winner is what's suspended above the ring for this ladder match: a bag containing $100,000 cash. Sorry, Terri's not hanging above the ring. As amusing as that would be. This is also the first ever ladder match in WWF history that wasn't one on one. 2v2 standoff under the bag to start. E&C win the first exchange. They go for the ladders and get jumped from behind. Back in the ring E&C take the Hardyz out again, and again they get jumped as they go for the ladders. This time the Hardyz win the exchange in the ring. They tell Gangrel to get a ladder. He does, but ref Tim White stops him. White throws Gangrel out! Talk about nipping the problem in the bud. Good reffing, Tim. That's why you're in the HOF. While that's going on Edge backdrops Jeff out of the ring! Matt 360 clotheslines Edge. Jeff gets a ladder. Edge dropkicks the ladder into him! Matt hits a clothesline off the apron on Edge. Christian springboard splash onto Matt! Finally Christian is the first one to get a ladder into the ring. They go into a rotating climb and get pulled down run. Matt tips the ladder over while Edge is on it. Everyone starts taking ladder shots. Christian pins Jeff in the corner with the ladder, then runs up it and dropkicks him! Damn. Matt gets whipped into the ladder. He dodges a double team and Edge flies into the ladder. Christian reverse DDTs Jeff off the ladder! Matt back suplexes Christian off the ladder. Edge powerbombs Matt off the ladder. Edge starts to climb. Jeff comes off the top rope with a shotgun dropkick to take him and the ladder down! Edge gets slammed on the ladder. Jeff swanton bomb! Christian gets whipped into the ladder and the Hardyz double team launched leg lairat hits. They clothesline Christian with the ladder. Another corner ladder setup. Jeff climbs the top rope, then leapfrogs over the ladder with a legdrop on Christian! The crowd is really getting into it, likely realizing they're seeing something special. Matt moonsault onto the ladder on top of Christian! While that was happening Edge went over and got the second ladder. Tag team ladder match you see, that means two official ladders. He hits Matt while Jeff climbs the other one. Edge tosses his ladder onto Jeff to knock him down! Matt takes another ladder shot. Jeff is slingshot into a ladder! So is Matt. Edge climbs. Matt tosses the other ladder and everything collapses. A Christian crossbody off the top takes the Hardyz and a ladder out. Matt takes a ladder right in the crotch. And then E&C baseball slide it into him even harder! Jeff gets sandwiched inside a ladder. Edge wheelbarrow slams Christian into the ladder that Jeff is in the middle of. Matt is flapjacked into a ladder in the corner. Jeff hits Christian with a Twist of Fate. Both ladders are set up in the middle. Edge hits Jeff with a Downward Spiral off the ladder! Edge climbs. Matt joins. Twist of Fate off the ladder! Christian and Jeff climb up the same ladder. Christian reaches across and slams Jeff off! Edge throws a ladder right in Matt's face! Matt goes 360 to the floor off that. Edge stacks both ladders up in the corner and E&C set Jeff up to superplex him onto them. Matt makes a save. He and Christian slug it out. Jeff comes off the top rope onto the ladder stack, ricocheting one into Matt and Christian's faces! The crowd is borderline bonkers now. Edge spear on Jeff! Both ladders are set up again. All four climb. Both ladders go down and everyone falls into the ropes! There's bodies everywhere. A damn car crash indeed, JR. Another setup and climb, but this time one ladder is in the middle and the other is just off center. Edge gets just inches away from the bag. Matt goes up to join him while Christian and Jeff fight on the other ladder. Edge fights Matt off. Matt bounces off the ropes into the non-centered ladder and it goes down. Christian goes down with it, but Jeff manages to step over onto the other ladder! Jeff fights Edge off and Edge goes down! Jeff gets the bag of money to win the match! Amazing. What's great is that it's not just a bunch of spots strung together, everything in the match is logical and fits completely within the story and psychology. All four of these guys are now fully made men, and a whole new subgenre of the ladder match has been born. The Dudleyz joining the fun, triple threat ladder matches, the creation of TLC, and eventually huge multi-men ladder matches like Money in the Bank, this where it all started. ****1/2

In the back the Hardyz celebrate with Terri, their third manager since they started in WWF. Gangrel is nowhere to be seen. In fact the next night on Raw the Hardyz would turn face and join E&C in attacking Gangrel, ending the New Brood. Of course Terri wouldn't last long either. After that we cut to a long clip from Heat (there's been a lot of long clips and video packages on this show but none of the ones before now were really worth mentioning) of Mick Foley getting attacked by Val Venus in a bathroom while trying to find the Rock and flogging his book. I always thought Foley was the unquestioned master of selling his own books, until KENTA started pushing his autobiography in New Japan and took it to a whole new level of genius.

The Rock comes out to grace us with a promo. He challenges the winner of the main event, says all the standard Rock catchphrases, and leaves. Just as he's about to disappear behind the stage Triple H attacks him with the sledgehammer! You can tell it's the rubber sledge because Trips is giving him full swings. Rock does the stretcher job out of the arena. It's a Raw segment on PPV, something they'd managed to avoid doing for a while. A backstage attack would have been more efficient. Still, cooling the crowd down after that awesome ladder match isn't the worst idea, and it does lead into something in the main event.

 

Val Venus def Mankind in 9:26- Venus comes out with the copy of Foley's book he appropriated earlier. Out on Thursday, get your copy before they're gone! JR says he's read it and Lawler actually has a funny line, "I was gonna ask who wrote it for him, but now I'm asking who read it to you". Before coming out Mankind checks on his best friend forever Rock. He tells Rock "I'm carrying this out for you!", holding up the tag belt. Rock, naturally, doesn't care. Venus tries to jump with a baseball slide but Mankind sidesteps him. Some typical minor floor brawling follows. Mankind hits a running kneelift in the ring. He goes for the running corner knee but Venus gets a boot up. A back elbow puts him back down and the knee hits on the second go. Crotch legdrop from Mankind. He starts to go for Socko, but then changes his mind and starts rooting around in Venus' tights like one of Venus' co-stars. Part of the catalyst for this feud was Venus carrying around his mocking version of Socko called "Mr. Rocko", which is of course bigger than Socko. That's what Mankind's going for. Not the Big Valbowski. I hope. Mankind slowwwwwwly gets Rocko out in an image that would do gangbusters on a "no context wrestling" account. That sets Venus off and he takes control. Some more back and forth floor brawling follows. Mankind smashes Venus' face into a chair. Venus back suplexes Mankind onto the chair! Minor Foley bump. Mandible Claw! Venus runs the back of Mankind's head into the post to get free. He gets the chair but ref Teddy Long won't let him use it in the ring. Mankind takes the opening to slug back. Venus gives him a Russian leg sweep onto the chair for 2, then pounds away with some elbows. Mankind tries for the double underhook DDT. Venus counters with a leg takedown and smashes Mankind's head on the mat. Cover for 2. Clothesline to the back of Mankind's head for 2. Kneedrop to the back of the head. Can't fault him for staying focused on one body part. Corner clothesline/bulldog combo from Venus. Elbow drop off the second rope to the back of the head. Mankind appears out. Instead of covering Venus goes up for the Money Shot. Mankind dodges! The double underhook DDT hits for 2. Here comes Socko! Rocko is also out. DOUBLE CLAW! Rocko's testicular claw wins out, Mankind goes down, and Venus gets the pin! After the bell Mankind beats Venus down, gets Rocko, double fists and Venus has no interest in that, bailing from the ring. Perfectly acceptable match. I think Foley was interested in trying to help elevate Venus, hence the loss, but guys like Venus' time was quickly coming to an end with Russo gone. **1/2

Back to the Rock, who refuses to take the trip to the local medical facility.

 

Four Corners Elimination Match: X-Pac def Kane, Faarooq and Bradshaw in 10:08- Best friends and tag partners Kane and Pac were starting to have issues while feuding with the Acolytes, so this was booked as a 4 way instead of a tag match. This is two guys legal and you have to tag rules however. As soon as everyone's in the ring it's on. Bradshaw catches a Pac plancha, posts his back and slams him on the floor. The Acolytes double team on Kane. Former scab ref Jimmy Korderas finally gets order with the Acolytes doing straight quick tag work on Kane until Kane drops Faarooq with an enzuguri. Pac tags himself in and wants to go at it with Kane! He shoves Kane! Kane doesn't want to do it. Finally he takes some swings. Pac dodges and hits his corner kicks. Kane comes out of the corner with a clothesline to a pretty big pop. Bradshaw tags himself in to go after Kane. Pac tags Faarooq in and The Acolytes have zero issue going at it. As JR says, it's a regular Saturday night for them. Faarooq hits Bradshaw with a tackle and tags Pac back in. Pac runs right into a Clothesline from Hell! Korderas is with Faarooq, then Kane breaks the pin up. Pac faceplants Faarooq but Bradshaw quickly tags in. The Acolytes continue to keep Pac in peril. Bradshaw goes for the fallaway slam, but Kane comes in, big boots him, and Pac falls on him for a 2 count. Faarooq backbreaker on Pac for 2. Powerslam for 2. Bradshaw hooks on a bear hug. Pac gets free but runs into a big boot. Bradshaw sets up the back superplex. Pac fights free. Tornado DDT! Pac doesn't want to tag! Kane literally pulls him into the corner by the tights and tags him. Clothesline off the top rope on Bradshaw. Big boot on Faarooq. 360 clothesline. Chokeslam on Bradshaw! Pin and Bradshaw is gone. Pac sneaks up to the top rope. Spinning heel kick off the top on Kane! Pac pins Kane! Faarooq jumps Pac from behind and tosses him out. Pac fights out of a powerbomb through the announce table and DDTs Faarooq on the floor. He goes for the bronco buster. Faarooq cuts it off with a spinebuster! After a fight on the top rope Faarooq comes off the second rope, right into the X-Factor! Pac gets the win! Another perfectly acceptable match. Like most of these two guys legal 4 way matches involving two pairs of established partners it had an identity crisis as most of it was worked like a straight tag match. **1/4

 

No Holds Barred Match for the WWF Championship: Triple H (c) def "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 21:53- Things have turned a complete 180 as now Vince is stacking the deck in Austin's favor. This is Austin's first match since Summerslam. On screen it was because of a knee injury but I'm pretty sure he wasn't really hurt, it was just maintenance and rest time because of his neck issues. He was still on TV doing stuff the whole time. Vince comes out during HHH's entrance and takes the sledgehammer away! HHH punches Vince out! Austin charges out and it's on. Both guys legit slip and fall when they get on the uncovered hardwood floor. Huge slugfest in the aisle. HHH gets knocked around the stage area. Austin climbs the hockey rink wall and comes off with a clothesline. HHH takes several guardrail shots. They go into the mandatory late '90s crowd brawl and the camera loses them for a bit. Austin finds a crutch and uses it. After getting back to the stage area Austin appropriates the crane camera and hits HHH with it! HHH gets suplexed in the aisle. Austin crotches him on the ringside barricade and clotheslines him over, setting off crowd brawl #2. HHH backdrops out of a piledriver attempt in a very tight space. Austin counters a Pedigree attempt and slingshots HHH right into ref Mike Chioda, and both go over the barricade! Austin takes a stair shot. Finally they get in the ring for the first time in the match. Austin ducks a clothesline! Stunner! There's no ref! Austin tries to drag Chioda back in the ring. HHH tries to ambush but Austin catches him. He goes for another Stunner. HHH pushes out and Austin runs into Chioda, knocking him off the apron into the barricade! That's two nice bumps Chioda's taken tonight. Pedigree! Again, no ref. Hebner runs in and counts. Austin kicks out! HHH and Hebner get in a shoving match with Hebner giving HHH an earful. Austin Thesz Press. Elbow drop for 2. HHH goes over the top to the floor. Chioda gets carried out before he can get tossed around again. HHH takes an announce table shot and flops over it, cutting off JR's headset. Austin continues pounding and HHH is bleeding a little. Austin chokes him with JR's headset cord. They get back in the ring and JR is back on. Ground and pound from Austin in the ring and a cover for 2. Then HHH gets tossed right back out. Stair shots. Noise! More cable choking. HHH grabs the bell and whacks Austin with it! Another bell shot. HHH suplexes Austin onto the Spanish announce table! Which didn't break. Slugfest back in the ring. HHH hits a back elbow. Austin dodges a kneedrop. HHH chop block to Austin's bad knee. The knee gets posted. HHH starts picking the knee apart. You're seeing in real time the start of the transition from late Austin style brawling to HHH's more traditional wrestling in the main event scene. Austin fights back but HHH plants him with the facebuster for 2. He tries multiple covers and gets frustrated when Austin keeps kicking out. HHH goes out and gets a chair. Austin gets the jump before HHH can use it. HHH then cuts a chairshot off and hits a clothesline. He goes up top but Austin chops the hell out of him. Superplex! They have a fight over the chair. Austin wins. Chairshot to HHH's head! Austin wears HHH out with the chair over and over! Just like what HHH did to him at Summerslam. HHH gets a low blow to cut it off. Rock is out! Taped ribs and all. He's got the sledgehammer! HHH ducks and Rock hits Austin with the sledge! Pedigree on Rock! HHH covers Austin and gets the pin! Damn, that was WAY better than I remembered. The all brawling main event style was starting to wear a bit thin at this point, but they worked the No Holds Barred stip great, told a good story, and Austin and HHH had fantastic chemistry right from the start that would only get better. This really helped cement HHH as a legit main eventer too, something that lots of people still had questions about at this point. The overbooking is par for the course in this era and in this case works fine. ****

The Austin/HHH fight continues in the back. Chyna saves HHH, gets him in a limo and they drive away as the show ends.

Unfortunately whatever was being planned had to be scrapped. Soon after this Austin's neck flared up again for real, necessitating surgery and coming very close to ending his career. To write him off TV they ran the infamous "Austin gets run over" angle at Survivor Series, and Austin would be out nearly a full year. More on that next time.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- As usual there's crap to wade through on the undercard. Everything outside the women's match isn't too bad, but none of it is particularly good. However, at the top you've got a massively historically important and truly great ladder match, plus the first of many Austin/HHH classics that also represents the start of a minor style transition in the main event scene. This is easily one of WWF's best PPVs of the year.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+