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