I think Regal was the only guy with Benoit MANLY enough to take the chop to the face unless I'm mistaken?
Review the Last Wrestling Match You Watched
- Thread starter Fuji Vice
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Regal's the only one I know of that took the chop. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if Dave Finlay has taken it too.
WWE Unforgiven
September 26, 1999
This would be a PPV with the running storyline of the WWE referees on strike due to an unsafe working environment. As a result, the WWE has enlisted in some scab refs. Yes, you were supposed to care about a referee angle.
Val Venis vs Steve Blackman
Your scab referee is the Brooklyn Brawler. This was set-up when Steve Blackman found a sex toy from Venis in his bag of Lethal Weapon-y weapons. For whatever reason, Blackman was a heel at this point of his career. As expected, he was pretty terrible due to having the personality and charisma of a stone. Venis is really over though, so he helps keep the crowd somewhat engaged. Fairly unremarkable match with Black in charge for the majority. Skip to the end and Venis picks up the win with a DDT followed by the Money Shot. After the match, Venis tries to hit Blackman with a Kendo stick, but Blackman kicks Venis in the back and breaks the Kendo stick over Venis' head. It's when the medical crew comes out (Including the busty BB), that Blackman tries to keep them back, which leads to an incident where the head of security, Jim Dotson, spears Blackman. Nothing would ever come about it. This was your typical Heat match where it's inoffensive, but entirely forgettable. 2 1/4 Stars.
Mark Henry (c) vs D-Lo Brown - WWE European Title
Your scab referee is Dr. Tom Prichard. D-Lo was worried about Mark Henry's weight so he forced Henry to lose weight. This didn't set right with Henry and he'd take out his frustrations by costing D-Lo the IC/European Title at Summerslam against Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett, showing his gratitude to Henry, gave Sexual Chocolate the European Title. This would be the second time since June that someone became European Champion because the champion gave him the title. Is it any wonder that no one cared about the belt? D-Lo's at the peak of his career in terms of popularity. He may just be the most over midcard the WWE has in September 1999. Mark Henry received a dead reaction from the crowd. The crowd reaction was either high when D-Lo was in charge or completely silent if Henry was. Henry's pretty horrible in this and the poor guy didn't even have the sense to hold D-Lo's head snug in a headlock. Yet again, you have an unremarkable match that would have fit in nicely with Sunday Night Heat. D-Lo picks up the win for yet another European Title reign following the Lo Down. D-Lo's awesome, but even he couldn't carry Henry. 1 3/4 Stars.
A Michael Cole interview of the Acolytes is cut short when the cameraman picks up the image of Chaz (Headbanger Mosh) being attacked by a bunch of lowcarders. You see, Chaz's girlfriend, Marianna, accused Chaz of beating her. So the WWE wrestlers are very anti-physical abuse on women. Keep that in mind with the next match.
Jeff Jarrett (c) w/Miss Kitty vs Chyna - WWE IC Title
Harvey Wippleman is your scab referee for the match. In the build-up to this match, Jarrett had been attacking various women including The Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. In addition, he and Debra split up due to Jarrett's new attitude. If you just focus on this match alone, it's really difficult understanding how Chyna's the face and Jarrett's the heel. Jarrett never even cheats while Chyna low blows him and nails him with a chair. During a ref bump, Fabolous Moolah and Mae Young hit the ring to stop Jarrett from using a guitar. After being savagely attacked and slammed, Jarrett overcomes the odds and hits a double closeline on the old women. Jim Ross went beserzk on Jarrett, calling him every name in the book. Personally, I don't see any problem with it since Moolah and Young attacked him. It continues with Jarrett about to lock in the Figure Four when Debra runs out and hits him with the guitar. Wippleman wakes up and gives Chyna the win. It's only then that head scab referee, Tom Prichard, came out to tell Whippleman what really happened. That causes Whippleman to reverse his decision and award the match to Jarrett. Even though Prichard was just trying to keep things fair, Chyna attacks him, low blow and nails the Pedigree. Seriously, how was Chyna the face in this?! Whether it was cheating, using weapons or having help, she acted far more like the heel in this than Jarrett. Credit though to Jarrett. Jarrett worked hard to try and have a decent match with Chyna. It ends up looking as if Jarrett is having a match for himself, where Chyna, Moolah and Young just has to stand there and pretend they're the reason for Jarrett's big bumps. A+ for Mr. Jarrett. Sadly, this would by the first of five straight PPV's where Chyna fought in an IC title match. There is no God. 2 1/4 Stars.
So I guess the male wrestlers don't mind Jarrett beating on women. Poor Chaz.
The Dudley Boyz vs The Acolytes
Your final scab referee is Jimmy Korderas, an official WWE referee that crossed the picket lines~! This would be the Dudley Boyz' WWE PPV debut. The Dudley Boyz had only started wrestling on Raw and Smackdown earlier in the month. Unfortunately, due to being so new, they aren't over with the WWE audience. Worse yet, since the Acolytes are in an awkward stage where they're no longer members of the Ministry of Darkness, but they haven't created the APA gimmick yet. As a result, they're not over either. So the crowd could not have been more dead. As JR would say, this was a slobber knocker with mostly just brawling before newcomer, Stevie Richards, dressed as a remember of the Acolytes (Instead of cult symbols on his chest, he has the UPN logo
: ) runs out and hits a super kick to help give the Acolytes the win. To show their gratitude to Richards, who's entire gimmick was parodying others at this point, the Acolytes attacked Richards. Who were the heels and who were the babyfaces? Who knows. I kind of enjoyed the brawling, but it's probably not the best thing to have these two teams on PPV when you know they're not going to garner a reaction. 2 Stars.
Ivory (c) vs Luna - WWE Women's Title - Hardcore Match
It's your standard Hardcore Title match from '99, only with two women. It isn't anything amazing, but it's a bit fun just for the unusual nature of it all. Highlight of the backstage fight was Luna jumping off of a forklift. Tori, who was feuding with Ivory at the time, tried attacking Ivory, but Ivory easily fought her off before beating Luna. I don't know how to rate this, but I'll just say it's far more entertaining than most women matches in the WWE. Thumbs Up.
The New Age Outlaws (c) vs Edge and Christian - WWE Tag Titles
The recently reunited Outlaws defeated the Rock 'n' Sock Connection for the titles on the last episode of Smackdown. As a result, this match was made earlier on Heat. Seriously, who ordered this PPV?! Once again, you have a problem of a team not being over. Edge and Christian was showing a lot of potential around this time, but they hadn't given the fans a reason to care. The Outlaws were really over, but with Road Dogg playing the face-in-peril for a good amount of the match, the crowd reaction was pretty lackluster. The match itself was just fine though. Even though E&C were faces, they played the subtle heels in keeping Road Dogg away from Billy Gunn. Since Road Dogg had just returned to the WWE following an injured back (Caused by Chris Jericho), E&C concentrated on that. While E&C looked to have the match won, the referee is busy with Road Dogg when The New Brood ran in. Gangrel and Matt Hardy pulled Christian out while Jeff Hardy hit Edge with a Missile Dropkick. Billy Gunn covered and picked up the team for his team. As far as New Age Outlaws PPV matches, this has to be one of the better ones (Not saying a lot there). Not surprising, E&C looked really good, even if they were unover. Now, if only the WWE could figure out a way to fix that problem. Who knows, maybe you can figure out how to get the New Brood over too, while you're at it...2 3/4 Stars.
Al Snow (c) vs The Boss Man - WWE Hardcore Title - Kennel From Hell Match
So.Much.Wrestlecrap. The build-up to this match featured Boss Man feeding Pepper, Snow's dog, to an unknowing Al Snow. The Kennel From Hell involves the the old big blue bars cage inside of a Hell in a Cell cage. In between both are several rottweilers. So to win, you have to escape the blue cage, avoid the man eating dogs and ease the HIAC. If there's one positive note to this match, it's that Snow and Boss Man tried...they really did. Early on, Snow climbed up the HIAC from the inside before jumping to the blue cage. Boss Man pulled out a pair of wire cutters, as an attempt to climb out of the top of the HIAC. Al Snow forced Boss Man's arm out of the blue cage. As he won the match, Snow leaped from the blue cage onto the HIAC before quickly dropping down and leaving. All of this was done to avoid any interaction with the dogs. They're all great ideas. The problem is that the dogs weren't vicious. Immediately upon entering the HIAC, the dogs begin peeing all over the place. The only time they barked was when they were fighting with each other. They didn't seem the least bit curious about Boss Man or Snow. Sadly, this means Snow and Boss Man look like fools for going so out of their way to avoid the dogs. Without a doubt, this is the most infamous bad match of all time. It does, however; have a certain amount of Wrestlecrap fun to it. Is it bad? Yes. Does it have some morbid entertainment value? Yes. If nothing else, people are still talking about this match today. Can you say that about any other match on this PPV? 5 Wrestlecrap Stars.
Chris Jericho w/Mr. Hughes vs X-Pac
Jericho's WWE PPV debut. This was scheduled to be Jericho vs Ken Shamrock (Jericho's first WWE feud), but Shamrock bailed and left the company. So earlier tonight on Heat, X-Pac was officially inserted into the match. On the plus side, even before the Shamrock/Jericho feud began, Jericho's first matches in the WWE was against X-Pac and Road Dogg, where he would injure them with power bombs through tables. So This might be a last minute replacement, but it's still a feud. Yet again, you have a case of a worker who wasn't over with the WWE audience, which caused the crowd not to care. Even though Jericho's debut was big, he really only became over with the WWE audience after he turned face. To make matters worse, something was going down in the crowd to distract the fans. At various points, they would cheer or boo. If I'm not mistaken, there was even a "We want beer!" chant. Jericho looked noticeably confused by all of this. Both guys put in a lot of effort, but it was rather difficult getting into the action. With X-Pac close to victory, Mr. Hughes came in and attacked Pac and the referee to draw the lame DQ. Road Dogg eventually ran out to make the save from the two-on-one beat down. Rather disappointing knowing how enjoyable their 2000 matches were. 2 1/2 Stars.
Before the main event, let's have a quick look back at the title changes starting at Summerslam up to this main event where we know we'll have a new champion. The WWE Title had three new champions (Foley, Hunter, McMahon) and of course the one that will happen next to make four. The IC title only saw one new champion (Jarrett). The tag titles saw five new champions crowned (Show/Taker, Rock/Foley, Show/Taker, Rock/Foley and Outlaws). The European Title had three new champions (Jarrett, Henry and D-Lo). The Hardcore title had four title changes (Snow, Boss Man, Bulldog and Snow). Neither the Women's title nor the Light Heavyweight Title changed hands. So from Summerslam to Unforgiven, the WWE saw a grand total of 17 title changes! Three of them were either awarded to someone or was declared vacant! Seriously, how did anyone see any values in titles in 1999?
Triple H vs British Bulldog vs The Big Show vs Kane vs Mankind vs The Rock - WWE World Title
So Mr. McMahon won the WWE Title from Triple H on Smackdown. Since Vinnie Mac was a face at the time, he gave up the title because it wasn't right for him to be the champion. Meanwhile, Steve Austin was the #1 contender to the title. So before he can get his title shot, the WWE must first find a champion for Austin to challenge. This match was very 1999 where it's mostly just brawling, big spots, but the crowd is really into it. It's actually a pretty fun match where the action never dies down and for once, everyone is over with the audience. There's a story of the match where Mankind doesn't want to fight Rock, so the audience is led to believe Mankind will help Rock win the belt. Just as Steve Austin (Who was the special enforcer of the match, but commentated during the bout) predicted, Mankind has a plan and turns on Rock at the right moment near the end. During the chaotic finish, the striking referees of Earl Hebner and company came out and attacked their turncoat, Jimmy Korderas, for crossing the picket line. This forces Austin to take over as referee. Just as Rocky nearly has the match won against Hunter, Bulldog rolls in the ring and nails The Rock with a steel chair. One Pedigree later, Hunter has Rock covered and Austin reluctantly counts to three. Hunter's your NEW World Champion, which means McMahon gave up the WWE Title in order to give it back to the man who he beat it for. That's some Vince Russo logic for you. On a poor PPV like this, there's a lot more enjoyment in this than you'd expect. Easy MOTN. 3 Stars.
After the match, Austin hands Triple H the World Title. Hunter makes the mistake of taunting Austin, so Stone Cold hits Hunter with a Stunner to close out the PPV.
Overall
Without a doubt, this was an one match show. When you factor in The Undertaker taking time off due to injuries, Austin commentating and the six guys in the main event, the rest of the PPV lacked the top eight guys in the company. With talents like the Dudley Boyz, Chris Jericho and E&C being not yet over with the crowd, it made for a really depressing undercard. What makes this show memorable is that the wrestling world was turned upside down just a week later as Vince Russo would leave the WWE for WCW. So for all of you Russo lovers (All five of you), this was your last chance to see your terrible Russo bookings on a WWE PPV. The fall of 1999 brought on a lot of changes for the WWE. New talents such as the above mentioned unover guys, The Hardy Boyz, and a certain Olympic Gold Medalist, who was waiting for his debut, are all being primed to take over the WWE. Others like D-Lo Brown, Jeff Jarrett, Al Snow, Boss Man and Val Venis were unknowingly close to their end of the road. The WWE had a new top heel that would remain in that very spot for the next five+ years. Unforgiven 1999 may not be a good PPV, but you're witnessing change in progress. The ironic thing is that the biggest reason to watch this show is the pure Wrestlecrap entertainment of the Kennel From Hell Match. When that's the most memorable match on a PPV, you know you've just witnessed a true dud of a show. Unforgiven indeed.
September 26, 1999
This would be a PPV with the running storyline of the WWE referees on strike due to an unsafe working environment. As a result, the WWE has enlisted in some scab refs. Yes, you were supposed to care about a referee angle.
Val Venis vs Steve Blackman
Your scab referee is the Brooklyn Brawler. This was set-up when Steve Blackman found a sex toy from Venis in his bag of Lethal Weapon-y weapons. For whatever reason, Blackman was a heel at this point of his career. As expected, he was pretty terrible due to having the personality and charisma of a stone. Venis is really over though, so he helps keep the crowd somewhat engaged. Fairly unremarkable match with Black in charge for the majority. Skip to the end and Venis picks up the win with a DDT followed by the Money Shot. After the match, Venis tries to hit Blackman with a Kendo stick, but Blackman kicks Venis in the back and breaks the Kendo stick over Venis' head. It's when the medical crew comes out (Including the busty BB), that Blackman tries to keep them back, which leads to an incident where the head of security, Jim Dotson, spears Blackman. Nothing would ever come about it. This was your typical Heat match where it's inoffensive, but entirely forgettable. 2 1/4 Stars.
Mark Henry (c) vs D-Lo Brown - WWE European Title
Your scab referee is Dr. Tom Prichard. D-Lo was worried about Mark Henry's weight so he forced Henry to lose weight. This didn't set right with Henry and he'd take out his frustrations by costing D-Lo the IC/European Title at Summerslam against Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett, showing his gratitude to Henry, gave Sexual Chocolate the European Title. This would be the second time since June that someone became European Champion because the champion gave him the title. Is it any wonder that no one cared about the belt? D-Lo's at the peak of his career in terms of popularity. He may just be the most over midcard the WWE has in September 1999. Mark Henry received a dead reaction from the crowd. The crowd reaction was either high when D-Lo was in charge or completely silent if Henry was. Henry's pretty horrible in this and the poor guy didn't even have the sense to hold D-Lo's head snug in a headlock. Yet again, you have an unremarkable match that would have fit in nicely with Sunday Night Heat. D-Lo picks up the win for yet another European Title reign following the Lo Down. D-Lo's awesome, but even he couldn't carry Henry. 1 3/4 Stars.
A Michael Cole interview of the Acolytes is cut short when the cameraman picks up the image of Chaz (Headbanger Mosh) being attacked by a bunch of lowcarders. You see, Chaz's girlfriend, Marianna, accused Chaz of beating her. So the WWE wrestlers are very anti-physical abuse on women. Keep that in mind with the next match.
Jeff Jarrett (c) w/Miss Kitty vs Chyna - WWE IC Title
Harvey Wippleman is your scab referee for the match. In the build-up to this match, Jarrett had been attacking various women including The Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. In addition, he and Debra split up due to Jarrett's new attitude. If you just focus on this match alone, it's really difficult understanding how Chyna's the face and Jarrett's the heel. Jarrett never even cheats while Chyna low blows him and nails him with a chair. During a ref bump, Fabolous Moolah and Mae Young hit the ring to stop Jarrett from using a guitar. After being savagely attacked and slammed, Jarrett overcomes the odds and hits a double closeline on the old women. Jim Ross went beserzk on Jarrett, calling him every name in the book. Personally, I don't see any problem with it since Moolah and Young attacked him. It continues with Jarrett about to lock in the Figure Four when Debra runs out and hits him with the guitar. Wippleman wakes up and gives Chyna the win. It's only then that head scab referee, Tom Prichard, came out to tell Whippleman what really happened. That causes Whippleman to reverse his decision and award the match to Jarrett. Even though Prichard was just trying to keep things fair, Chyna attacks him, low blow and nails the Pedigree. Seriously, how was Chyna the face in this?! Whether it was cheating, using weapons or having help, she acted far more like the heel in this than Jarrett. Credit though to Jarrett. Jarrett worked hard to try and have a decent match with Chyna. It ends up looking as if Jarrett is having a match for himself, where Chyna, Moolah and Young just has to stand there and pretend they're the reason for Jarrett's big bumps. A+ for Mr. Jarrett. Sadly, this would by the first of five straight PPV's where Chyna fought in an IC title match. There is no God. 2 1/4 Stars.
So I guess the male wrestlers don't mind Jarrett beating on women. Poor Chaz.
The Dudley Boyz vs The Acolytes
Your final scab referee is Jimmy Korderas, an official WWE referee that crossed the picket lines~! This would be the Dudley Boyz' WWE PPV debut. The Dudley Boyz had only started wrestling on Raw and Smackdown earlier in the month. Unfortunately, due to being so new, they aren't over with the WWE audience. Worse yet, since the Acolytes are in an awkward stage where they're no longer members of the Ministry of Darkness, but they haven't created the APA gimmick yet. As a result, they're not over either. So the crowd could not have been more dead. As JR would say, this was a slobber knocker with mostly just brawling before newcomer, Stevie Richards, dressed as a remember of the Acolytes (Instead of cult symbols on his chest, he has the UPN logo
: ) runs out and hits a super kick to help give the Acolytes the win. To show their gratitude to Richards, who's entire gimmick was parodying others at this point, the Acolytes attacked Richards. Who were the heels and who were the babyfaces? Who knows. I kind of enjoyed the brawling, but it's probably not the best thing to have these two teams on PPV when you know they're not going to garner a reaction. 2 Stars.Ivory (c) vs Luna - WWE Women's Title - Hardcore Match
It's your standard Hardcore Title match from '99, only with two women. It isn't anything amazing, but it's a bit fun just for the unusual nature of it all. Highlight of the backstage fight was Luna jumping off of a forklift. Tori, who was feuding with Ivory at the time, tried attacking Ivory, but Ivory easily fought her off before beating Luna. I don't know how to rate this, but I'll just say it's far more entertaining than most women matches in the WWE. Thumbs Up.
The New Age Outlaws (c) vs Edge and Christian - WWE Tag Titles
The recently reunited Outlaws defeated the Rock 'n' Sock Connection for the titles on the last episode of Smackdown. As a result, this match was made earlier on Heat. Seriously, who ordered this PPV?! Once again, you have a problem of a team not being over. Edge and Christian was showing a lot of potential around this time, but they hadn't given the fans a reason to care. The Outlaws were really over, but with Road Dogg playing the face-in-peril for a good amount of the match, the crowd reaction was pretty lackluster. The match itself was just fine though. Even though E&C were faces, they played the subtle heels in keeping Road Dogg away from Billy Gunn. Since Road Dogg had just returned to the WWE following an injured back (Caused by Chris Jericho), E&C concentrated on that. While E&C looked to have the match won, the referee is busy with Road Dogg when The New Brood ran in. Gangrel and Matt Hardy pulled Christian out while Jeff Hardy hit Edge with a Missile Dropkick. Billy Gunn covered and picked up the team for his team. As far as New Age Outlaws PPV matches, this has to be one of the better ones (Not saying a lot there). Not surprising, E&C looked really good, even if they were unover. Now, if only the WWE could figure out a way to fix that problem. Who knows, maybe you can figure out how to get the New Brood over too, while you're at it...2 3/4 Stars.
Al Snow (c) vs The Boss Man - WWE Hardcore Title - Kennel From Hell Match
So.Much.Wrestlecrap. The build-up to this match featured Boss Man feeding Pepper, Snow's dog, to an unknowing Al Snow. The Kennel From Hell involves the the old big blue bars cage inside of a Hell in a Cell cage. In between both are several rottweilers. So to win, you have to escape the blue cage, avoid the man eating dogs and ease the HIAC. If there's one positive note to this match, it's that Snow and Boss Man tried...they really did. Early on, Snow climbed up the HIAC from the inside before jumping to the blue cage. Boss Man pulled out a pair of wire cutters, as an attempt to climb out of the top of the HIAC. Al Snow forced Boss Man's arm out of the blue cage. As he won the match, Snow leaped from the blue cage onto the HIAC before quickly dropping down and leaving. All of this was done to avoid any interaction with the dogs. They're all great ideas. The problem is that the dogs weren't vicious. Immediately upon entering the HIAC, the dogs begin peeing all over the place. The only time they barked was when they were fighting with each other. They didn't seem the least bit curious about Boss Man or Snow. Sadly, this means Snow and Boss Man look like fools for going so out of their way to avoid the dogs. Without a doubt, this is the most infamous bad match of all time. It does, however; have a certain amount of Wrestlecrap fun to it. Is it bad? Yes. Does it have some morbid entertainment value? Yes. If nothing else, people are still talking about this match today. Can you say that about any other match on this PPV? 5 Wrestlecrap Stars.
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Boss Man - Heel of the Year.
Boss Man - Heel of the Year.
Chris Jericho w/Mr. Hughes vs X-Pac
Jericho's WWE PPV debut. This was scheduled to be Jericho vs Ken Shamrock (Jericho's first WWE feud), but Shamrock bailed and left the company. So earlier tonight on Heat, X-Pac was officially inserted into the match. On the plus side, even before the Shamrock/Jericho feud began, Jericho's first matches in the WWE was against X-Pac and Road Dogg, where he would injure them with power bombs through tables. So This might be a last minute replacement, but it's still a feud. Yet again, you have a case of a worker who wasn't over with the WWE audience, which caused the crowd not to care. Even though Jericho's debut was big, he really only became over with the WWE audience after he turned face. To make matters worse, something was going down in the crowd to distract the fans. At various points, they would cheer or boo. If I'm not mistaken, there was even a "We want beer!" chant. Jericho looked noticeably confused by all of this. Both guys put in a lot of effort, but it was rather difficult getting into the action. With X-Pac close to victory, Mr. Hughes came in and attacked Pac and the referee to draw the lame DQ. Road Dogg eventually ran out to make the save from the two-on-one beat down. Rather disappointing knowing how enjoyable their 2000 matches were. 2 1/2 Stars.
Before the main event, let's have a quick look back at the title changes starting at Summerslam up to this main event where we know we'll have a new champion. The WWE Title had three new champions (Foley, Hunter, McMahon) and of course the one that will happen next to make four. The IC title only saw one new champion (Jarrett). The tag titles saw five new champions crowned (Show/Taker, Rock/Foley, Show/Taker, Rock/Foley and Outlaws). The European Title had three new champions (Jarrett, Henry and D-Lo). The Hardcore title had four title changes (Snow, Boss Man, Bulldog and Snow). Neither the Women's title nor the Light Heavyweight Title changed hands. So from Summerslam to Unforgiven, the WWE saw a grand total of 17 title changes! Three of them were either awarded to someone or was declared vacant! Seriously, how did anyone see any values in titles in 1999?
Triple H vs British Bulldog vs The Big Show vs Kane vs Mankind vs The Rock - WWE World Title
So Mr. McMahon won the WWE Title from Triple H on Smackdown. Since Vinnie Mac was a face at the time, he gave up the title because it wasn't right for him to be the champion. Meanwhile, Steve Austin was the #1 contender to the title. So before he can get his title shot, the WWE must first find a champion for Austin to challenge. This match was very 1999 where it's mostly just brawling, big spots, but the crowd is really into it. It's actually a pretty fun match where the action never dies down and for once, everyone is over with the audience. There's a story of the match where Mankind doesn't want to fight Rock, so the audience is led to believe Mankind will help Rock win the belt. Just as Steve Austin (Who was the special enforcer of the match, but commentated during the bout) predicted, Mankind has a plan and turns on Rock at the right moment near the end. During the chaotic finish, the striking referees of Earl Hebner and company came out and attacked their turncoat, Jimmy Korderas, for crossing the picket line. This forces Austin to take over as referee. Just as Rocky nearly has the match won against Hunter, Bulldog rolls in the ring and nails The Rock with a steel chair. One Pedigree later, Hunter has Rock covered and Austin reluctantly counts to three. Hunter's your NEW World Champion, which means McMahon gave up the WWE Title in order to give it back to the man who he beat it for. That's some Vince Russo logic for you. On a poor PPV like this, there's a lot more enjoyment in this than you'd expect. Easy MOTN. 3 Stars.
After the match, Austin hands Triple H the World Title. Hunter makes the mistake of taunting Austin, so Stone Cold hits Hunter with a Stunner to close out the PPV.
Overall
Without a doubt, this was an one match show. When you factor in The Undertaker taking time off due to injuries, Austin commentating and the six guys in the main event, the rest of the PPV lacked the top eight guys in the company. With talents like the Dudley Boyz, Chris Jericho and E&C being not yet over with the crowd, it made for a really depressing undercard. What makes this show memorable is that the wrestling world was turned upside down just a week later as Vince Russo would leave the WWE for WCW. So for all of you Russo lovers (All five of you), this was your last chance to see your terrible Russo bookings on a WWE PPV. The fall of 1999 brought on a lot of changes for the WWE. New talents such as the above mentioned unover guys, The Hardy Boyz, and a certain Olympic Gold Medalist, who was waiting for his debut, are all being primed to take over the WWE. Others like D-Lo Brown, Jeff Jarrett, Al Snow, Boss Man and Val Venis were unknowingly close to their end of the road. The WWE had a new top heel that would remain in that very spot for the next five+ years. Unforgiven 1999 may not be a good PPV, but you're witnessing change in progress. The ironic thing is that the biggest reason to watch this show is the pure Wrestlecrap entertainment of the Kennel From Hell Match. When that's the most memorable match on a PPV, you know you've just witnessed a true dud of a show. Unforgiven indeed.
Bryan Danielson vs Munenori Sawa - EVOLVE 5
First time seeing Sawa. He's a very eccentric wrestler that reminds me a bit of Delirious. He's always doing moves that I don't even think he knows he's going to do before hand. Even though this wasn't a comedy match, I get the impression Sawa could be a pro at working a comedy match with the best. Some of Sawa's highlights include his slap combos, zombie performance while in the ropes and a wacky baseball like pitch punch. For Danielson, he did a lot of his trademark spots. There was the old "I can't get out!" gag when Danielson has a leglock on Sawa while Sawa's in the ropes. The multiple elbows spots. Danielson even picks up the win with the LeBell Lock just to remind the fans that this is the finisher that matters now. The best moment of the match was the slap combo fest that resulted in Danielson getting fed up and spitting in Sawa's face before both guys go off on each other. Clocking in at under fifteen minutes, it's a condense Danielson match. For some odd reason, this won "EVOLVE Match of the Year" as voted by the EVOLVE fans. Personally, I didn't even think it was the best AmDrag EVOLVE match. Hero vs Ikuto Hidaka blew both of the matches out of the water though. 3 3/4 Stars.
First time seeing Sawa. He's a very eccentric wrestler that reminds me a bit of Delirious. He's always doing moves that I don't even think he knows he's going to do before hand. Even though this wasn't a comedy match, I get the impression Sawa could be a pro at working a comedy match with the best. Some of Sawa's highlights include his slap combos, zombie performance while in the ropes and a wacky baseball like pitch punch. For Danielson, he did a lot of his trademark spots. There was the old "I can't get out!" gag when Danielson has a leglock on Sawa while Sawa's in the ropes. The multiple elbows spots. Danielson even picks up the win with the LeBell Lock just to remind the fans that this is the finisher that matters now. The best moment of the match was the slap combo fest that resulted in Danielson getting fed up and spitting in Sawa's face before both guys go off on each other. Clocking in at under fifteen minutes, it's a condense Danielson match. For some odd reason, this won "EVOLVE Match of the Year" as voted by the EVOLVE fans. Personally, I didn't even think it was the best AmDrag EVOLVE match. Hero vs Ikuto Hidaka blew both of the matches out of the water though. 3 3/4 Stars.
El Generico vs Samuray Del Sol - EVOLVE 14
First time seeing Del Sol. I don't care what he does in the future, but please don't take off the mask. Remove the mask and he's just another tiny wrestler. Del Sol may just be a spot monkey, but he's incredible. The only downside is that he isn't too polished. So there's a few times he's either botching a spot or it comes off looking awkward. That being said, when he does hit a spot successfully...WOW. I really dig Generico's evolution into becoming a veteran who's irritated at all of these young guys who are faster than him. It's like Generico is seeing these guys as versions of himself when he was younger and it pisses him off that he can't keep up with them. It made for some semblance of a story in this spotfest. The downside is that Generico didn't look too pleased to be there. Maybe it's just me, but the look of the place was just depressing. You had maybe a hundred fans inside of a bar and they couldn't even get the timing down for their claps. However, the match was all about showing Del Sol against the bigger star and it did make me want to see more Del Sol. I'm hoping he can slowly improve and won't be overly reliant on his MOVEZ~! but it's safe to say he's one of the biggest breakout stars of 2012. Anyways, Generico picks up the win with the top rope brainbuster. Not great, but good enough for a spotfest. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Generico gets on the mic and puts Del Sol over. Generico offers a rematch any time Del Sol wants. Del Sol only has an one word response "Tomorrow". Ha, okay then. From there, Christina Von Eerie comes out and cuts an overly long and boring promo about how Generico is crazy for thinking he can just come into DGUSA. She slaps him a couple of times and mockingly claims Generico doesn't have the balls to do anything. It's when Von Eerie turns her back, she ends up turning back around right into an Ole Kick in the corner. Instantly, Generico is shocked at what he did. The kick saved the promo from a horrible death.
First time seeing Del Sol. I don't care what he does in the future, but please don't take off the mask. Remove the mask and he's just another tiny wrestler. Del Sol may just be a spot monkey, but he's incredible. The only downside is that he isn't too polished. So there's a few times he's either botching a spot or it comes off looking awkward. That being said, when he does hit a spot successfully...WOW. I really dig Generico's evolution into becoming a veteran who's irritated at all of these young guys who are faster than him. It's like Generico is seeing these guys as versions of himself when he was younger and it pisses him off that he can't keep up with them. It made for some semblance of a story in this spotfest. The downside is that Generico didn't look too pleased to be there. Maybe it's just me, but the look of the place was just depressing. You had maybe a hundred fans inside of a bar and they couldn't even get the timing down for their claps. However, the match was all about showing Del Sol against the bigger star and it did make me want to see more Del Sol. I'm hoping he can slowly improve and won't be overly reliant on his MOVEZ~! but it's safe to say he's one of the biggest breakout stars of 2012. Anyways, Generico picks up the win with the top rope brainbuster. Not great, but good enough for a spotfest. 3 1/4 Stars.
After the match, Generico gets on the mic and puts Del Sol over. Generico offers a rematch any time Del Sol wants. Del Sol only has an one word response "Tomorrow". Ha, okay then. From there, Christina Von Eerie comes out and cuts an overly long and boring promo about how Generico is crazy for thinking he can just come into DGUSA. She slaps him a couple of times and mockingly claims Generico doesn't have the balls to do anything. It's when Von Eerie turns her back, she ends up turning back around right into an Ole Kick in the corner. Instantly, Generico is shocked at what he did. The kick saved the promo from a horrible death.
Bobby Fish vs Jon Davis - EVOLVE 16
The finals of the Style Battle tournament. The idea is with both guys being total losers (Fish losing at the first four EVOLVE shows and Davis recently thinking about quitting after losing two matches he should have won), both guys desperately need this tournament win. First time seeing Davis as a singles wrestler. Being that he has some decent size for an indy wrestler, he was at his best whenever he was hitting power moves (I dig his jumping pounce). The problem is like any big man in indy wrestler, he purposely tries to work a normal style. I don't get it. Why are you hitting moonsaults? There's a million indy wrestlers who's doing the same thing. You're different, exploit your differences. Fish remains a guy with potential, even if he sometimes feels like a poor man's Davey Richards. The action was a bit slow, but I got into the match once the story of Fish working on Davis' ankle came into play. Davis winning with his 3 Seconds Around the World power bomb was a bit deflating, but it at least plays into the story of Davis needing some wins if he's going to continue to wrestle. Good for an undercard match, but if the main event quality of EVOLVE really went down after the first year. 3 Stars.
The finals of the Style Battle tournament. The idea is with both guys being total losers (Fish losing at the first four EVOLVE shows and Davis recently thinking about quitting after losing two matches he should have won), both guys desperately need this tournament win. First time seeing Davis as a singles wrestler. Being that he has some decent size for an indy wrestler, he was at his best whenever he was hitting power moves (I dig his jumping pounce). The problem is like any big man in indy wrestler, he purposely tries to work a normal style. I don't get it. Why are you hitting moonsaults? There's a million indy wrestlers who's doing the same thing. You're different, exploit your differences. Fish remains a guy with potential, even if he sometimes feels like a poor man's Davey Richards. The action was a bit slow, but I got into the match once the story of Fish working on Davis' ankle came into play. Davis winning with his 3 Seconds Around the World power bomb was a bit deflating, but it at least plays into the story of Davis needing some wins if he's going to continue to wrestle. Good for an undercard match, but if the main event quality of EVOLVE really went down after the first year. 3 Stars.
Katsuyori Shibata and Kazunari Murakami vs Yoshihiro Takayama and Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW - March 21, 2004
More Shibata/Takayama short greatness. The match revolves around three parts. Part one has Shibata and Takayama trading strikes. Shibata holds his own and manages to score the most strikes, but Takayama keeps besting him with a big move like a leg trapped Tazplex. The second story begins once Takayama and Shibata tags out. Tanahashi is going into the match with a bad shoulder, so despite initially getting the best of Murakami, Murakami quickly targets the injured body part and Tanahashi is completely useless. The third part is all hell breaking loose. Shibata runs around to the other side of the ring to attack Takayama, who was still on the apron. Shibata has helped from some red masked guy and I'm guessing their manager. They end up fighting to the back (With cameras~!) where Shibata shockingly knocks Tak out with a choke. Back at ringside, the ultra coward Murakami is still attacking a defenseless Tanahashi on the outside. Just in case you still don't know who the heels are, Murakami rolls back in and lets the ref count out Tanahashi and then goes back out to attack Tanahashi again. The match may be really short (Just under six minutes, but probably closer to four and a half once the fighting on the outside started), but it's a hell of a story. If the purpose was to advance the feud and make me want to keep watching, they succeeded in a huge way. Shibata and Murakami came off like a pair of dominant heels. 2 1/4 Stars.
The devastation Shibata and Murakami left behind:
Takayama - One of the biggest men in NJPW.
Tanahashi - Future Ace of NJPW.
More Shibata/Takayama short greatness. The match revolves around three parts. Part one has Shibata and Takayama trading strikes. Shibata holds his own and manages to score the most strikes, but Takayama keeps besting him with a big move like a leg trapped Tazplex. The second story begins once Takayama and Shibata tags out. Tanahashi is going into the match with a bad shoulder, so despite initially getting the best of Murakami, Murakami quickly targets the injured body part and Tanahashi is completely useless. The third part is all hell breaking loose. Shibata runs around to the other side of the ring to attack Takayama, who was still on the apron. Shibata has helped from some red masked guy and I'm guessing their manager. They end up fighting to the back (With cameras~!) where Shibata shockingly knocks Tak out with a choke. Back at ringside, the ultra coward Murakami is still attacking a defenseless Tanahashi on the outside. Just in case you still don't know who the heels are, Murakami rolls back in and lets the ref count out Tanahashi and then goes back out to attack Tanahashi again. The match may be really short (Just under six minutes, but probably closer to four and a half once the fighting on the outside started), but it's a hell of a story. If the purpose was to advance the feud and make me want to keep watching, they succeeded in a huge way. Shibata and Murakami came off like a pair of dominant heels. 2 1/4 Stars.
The devastation Shibata and Murakami left behind:
Takayama - One of the biggest men in NJPW.
Tanahashi - Future Ace of NJPW.
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Katsuyori Shibata vs Yutaka Yoshie - NJPW's G1 Clixmax - August 14, 2004
I believe this is late in the tournament. Yoshie is a big fat Japanese guy who wears a pink singlet. Once you see him, it's difficult forgetting him. I don't know if I'd say he was a "Good" wrestler, but the guy knows his character. Most of his moves were built around using his weight to squash Shibata. The first five minutes were all Yoshie. For Shibata, he manages to come back because while Yoshie has the weight advantage, he's also entirely one dimensional. So all it takes is for Shibata to hang in there and once he gets the opportunity, kill Yoshi with a series of strikes and kicks. The classic NES boss-like battle comes to an end after a Shibata back drop driver and followed up with a swift kick to the head. Yoshie can't answer the 10 count. I had my doubts about this due to Yoshie's look, but it was a very smartly booked short match. 2 3/4 Stars.
Worst lap dance ever.
Katsuyori Shibata vs Toshiaki Kawada - NJPW - November 3, 2004
Oh yeah. Here you have a match where Shibata hopes to just get the best of Kawada by doing his MMA routine of a ton of strikes. This only pisses Kawada off and Shibata pays for it. To stretch it out, both men locked in a submission hold. Shibata with his choke and Kawada with his famed Stretch Plum (If you're not screaming it, you're not pronouncing it correctly). The ending begins with this great "Your turn, my turn" strike exchange. However, it's done at such a high speed that it doesn't have the Davey Richards issue of "Why are you just waiting to be hit?" Kawada gets sick of this little brat and destroys him with a well placed punch. A kick against the head and a knee drop to Shibata head gives Kawada the win. Pretty great veteran vs younger star short match. 3 Stars.
Katsuyori Shibata vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW - January 4, 2006
The final Jan 4 show before it became Wrestle Kingdom. I guess Shibata had left the year before and was killing time in other companies before leaving wrestling to do the MMA thing full time. I was greatly disappointed by this because I had my hopes too high. On paper, it seemed like a match that had epic classic written all over it. You have Tanahashi on the cusp of becoming NJPW's top guy meeting the guy making his big return for one night. It should be a great story. Instead, it's 12 minutes of mostly Shibata kicking Tanahashi's ass. The strikes delivered by Shibata were entertaining, but there wasn't enough back and forth to make this feel like anything above being an extended squash. The ending is a bit similar to the Shibata/Yoshie match, only Shibata opted to just kick Tanahashi a couple more times in the head before pinning him. It's good if you have your expectations fair. 2 3/4 Stars.
I believe this is late in the tournament. Yoshie is a big fat Japanese guy who wears a pink singlet. Once you see him, it's difficult forgetting him. I don't know if I'd say he was a "Good" wrestler, but the guy knows his character. Most of his moves were built around using his weight to squash Shibata. The first five minutes were all Yoshie. For Shibata, he manages to come back because while Yoshie has the weight advantage, he's also entirely one dimensional. So all it takes is for Shibata to hang in there and once he gets the opportunity, kill Yoshi with a series of strikes and kicks. The classic NES boss-like battle comes to an end after a Shibata back drop driver and followed up with a swift kick to the head. Yoshie can't answer the 10 count. I had my doubts about this due to Yoshie's look, but it was a very smartly booked short match. 2 3/4 Stars.
Worst lap dance ever.
Katsuyori Shibata vs Toshiaki Kawada - NJPW - November 3, 2004
Oh yeah. Here you have a match where Shibata hopes to just get the best of Kawada by doing his MMA routine of a ton of strikes. This only pisses Kawada off and Shibata pays for it. To stretch it out, both men locked in a submission hold. Shibata with his choke and Kawada with his famed Stretch Plum (If you're not screaming it, you're not pronouncing it correctly). The ending begins with this great "Your turn, my turn" strike exchange. However, it's done at such a high speed that it doesn't have the Davey Richards issue of "Why are you just waiting to be hit?" Kawada gets sick of this little brat and destroys him with a well placed punch. A kick against the head and a knee drop to Shibata head gives Kawada the win. Pretty great veteran vs younger star short match. 3 Stars.
Katsuyori Shibata vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW - January 4, 2006
The final Jan 4 show before it became Wrestle Kingdom. I guess Shibata had left the year before and was killing time in other companies before leaving wrestling to do the MMA thing full time. I was greatly disappointed by this because I had my hopes too high. On paper, it seemed like a match that had epic classic written all over it. You have Tanahashi on the cusp of becoming NJPW's top guy meeting the guy making his big return for one night. It should be a great story. Instead, it's 12 minutes of mostly Shibata kicking Tanahashi's ass. The strikes delivered by Shibata were entertaining, but there wasn't enough back and forth to make this feel like anything above being an extended squash. The ending is a bit similar to the Shibata/Yoshie match, only Shibata opted to just kick Tanahashi a couple more times in the head before pinning him. It's good if you have your expectations fair. 2 3/4 Stars.
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Yujiro Takahashi - IWGP Title - Power Struggle 2012
Well this was a let down. Everything that was done to make their G1 match special, it was ignored here. Right away, you start with the fans. The G1 fans were loud throughout the match in support of Yujiro while giving Tanahashi some serious Cena-like reactions. They don't even bother cheering on Yujiro here. One of my favorite things about NJPW is their finisher protection. In their G1 match, Yujiro never even hit his Tokyo Pimps finisher. Here, Tanahashi did. There's a lot of pointless knee work in this match while their G1 match is devoid of any knee work by Tanahashi. There's an absolute horrible spot where Yujiro hit a fisherman buster on the outside and tried to get Tanahashi counted out. Unless I'm mistaken, you can't win belts in Japan by count-out. So while something like that would have been fine in their G1 match, it comes off stupid here. Maybe the root of all of the problems is just that no one believed Yujiro had a chance to win this match, whereas in the G1 match, it's not unbelievable. I don't want to say this match is terrible or anything. Tanahashi seems incapable of putting on a bad match and Yujiro has his own good qualities. That being said, it's the worst IWGP title defense this year and it makes me feel like a fool pimping the match because of how good their G1 match was. As you can probably guess, if you want a much better Yujiro/Tanahashi match, watch their G1 match. If you want a really good Tanahashi title defense at Power Struggle, watch his match against Toru Yano at Power Struggle '11. 3 1/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe vs Nigel McGuinness - It All Begins
Joe's first ROH match since losing the ROH Title while Nigel is still trying to find his role in the company. Interesting enough, they created a whole story built around Nigel McGuinness' headstand in the corner. I guess in a previous tag, Nigel tried his headstand, but Joe killed him with his running kick. Here, Nigel did it again with Joe charging at him, but Nigel avoids it at the last minute. Second time it's tried, Nigel manages to catch Joe off guard with the headstand double kick. Finally, Nigel tries to get cute and attempts it one last time, but Joe finally connects with the running kick. This sets Joe off and he destroys Nigel with some knees before making him tap out to the choke. It was a low key affair, but Nigel had a few good moments of being shown that he has some serious potential through is arm work. However, Nigel made the grave mistake of not taking Joe seriously enough as a threat. 3 1/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe (c) vs Nigel McGuinness - ROH Pure Title - The Future is Now
Times are much happier for Joe since he won the Pure Title a month ago and Nigel's just begun his feud with Colt Cabana. The story here is all about the Pure rules. For Nigel, he's a natural at manipulating the rules in his advantage. He spent a good amount of time locking in submission holds near the ropes to force Joe to use a rope break. When Joe was down to zero rope breaks left, Nigel locked in a figure four variation around the middle rope while Nigel stood on the outside. Nigel kept it on until the 19 count before rolling back. Meanwhile, poor Joe is an unnatural fit for the Pure division and makes the critical mistake early on of hitting a closed fist to draw the warning. Thanks to the rules, Joe is no longer the obvious winner. Instead, it actually seems like Nigel has a great chance to win the belt. With Nigel working over the arm again, Joe did a hell of a job at selling it. During his signature STF spot, Joe was unable to lock his hands, so he opted to use his good hand to hold his bad elbow to complete some sort of lock. Once again, Nigel tried to get cute by sitting on the top turnbuckle when Joe just chops him to set-up the Muscle Buster for the victory. Joe won not because he was the better man, but because Nigel made one little mistake. For a Pure match, this was great storytelling. 3 3/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe (c) vs Nigel McGuinness - ROH Pure Title - Dragon Gate Invasion
Joe's now a TNA guy while Nigel has fully become a heel. While the last match showed Nigel was better equipped for the Pure matches than Joe, this one only made it even more obvious. Here, Nigel bent the rules to his advantage. Early on, this involves punching Joe behind the ref's back. Eventually, Joe can't take it anymore and he lays Nigel out with a punch in front of the ref to draw a warning. Later, Nigel uses a chair to strike Joe's arm while Joe's going for his suicide dive. While Nigel does lose a rope break, it accomplishes it's goal of weakening Joe. Finally, Nigel kicks Joe in the face to anger Joe enough to punch Nigel again, thus losing his final rope break. So now you have a hurt Joe, being outsmarted by a guy who still has a few rope breaks left. A well timed Tower of London allows Nigel to pick up the win and the title despite Joe's leg being on a rope. Thus, Joe loses the Pure Title because Nigel outsmarted him to give up his three rope breaks, when the match would have continued under traditional rules. Not quite as good as the last match, but Nigel's character added so much more entertainment value thanks to using the Pure rules to really define his character. 3 1/2 Stars.
Joe's first ROH match since losing the ROH Title while Nigel is still trying to find his role in the company. Interesting enough, they created a whole story built around Nigel McGuinness' headstand in the corner. I guess in a previous tag, Nigel tried his headstand, but Joe killed him with his running kick. Here, Nigel did it again with Joe charging at him, but Nigel avoids it at the last minute. Second time it's tried, Nigel manages to catch Joe off guard with the headstand double kick. Finally, Nigel tries to get cute and attempts it one last time, but Joe finally connects with the running kick. This sets Joe off and he destroys Nigel with some knees before making him tap out to the choke. It was a low key affair, but Nigel had a few good moments of being shown that he has some serious potential through is arm work. However, Nigel made the grave mistake of not taking Joe seriously enough as a threat. 3 1/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe (c) vs Nigel McGuinness - ROH Pure Title - The Future is Now
Times are much happier for Joe since he won the Pure Title a month ago and Nigel's just begun his feud with Colt Cabana. The story here is all about the Pure rules. For Nigel, he's a natural at manipulating the rules in his advantage. He spent a good amount of time locking in submission holds near the ropes to force Joe to use a rope break. When Joe was down to zero rope breaks left, Nigel locked in a figure four variation around the middle rope while Nigel stood on the outside. Nigel kept it on until the 19 count before rolling back. Meanwhile, poor Joe is an unnatural fit for the Pure division and makes the critical mistake early on of hitting a closed fist to draw the warning. Thanks to the rules, Joe is no longer the obvious winner. Instead, it actually seems like Nigel has a great chance to win the belt. With Nigel working over the arm again, Joe did a hell of a job at selling it. During his signature STF spot, Joe was unable to lock his hands, so he opted to use his good hand to hold his bad elbow to complete some sort of lock. Once again, Nigel tried to get cute by sitting on the top turnbuckle when Joe just chops him to set-up the Muscle Buster for the victory. Joe won not because he was the better man, but because Nigel made one little mistake. For a Pure match, this was great storytelling. 3 3/4 Stars.
Samoa Joe (c) vs Nigel McGuinness - ROH Pure Title - Dragon Gate Invasion
Joe's now a TNA guy while Nigel has fully become a heel. While the last match showed Nigel was better equipped for the Pure matches than Joe, this one only made it even more obvious. Here, Nigel bent the rules to his advantage. Early on, this involves punching Joe behind the ref's back. Eventually, Joe can't take it anymore and he lays Nigel out with a punch in front of the ref to draw a warning. Later, Nigel uses a chair to strike Joe's arm while Joe's going for his suicide dive. While Nigel does lose a rope break, it accomplishes it's goal of weakening Joe. Finally, Nigel kicks Joe in the face to anger Joe enough to punch Nigel again, thus losing his final rope break. So now you have a hurt Joe, being outsmarted by a guy who still has a few rope breaks left. A well timed Tower of London allows Nigel to pick up the win and the title despite Joe's leg being on a rope. Thus, Joe loses the Pure Title because Nigel outsmarted him to give up his three rope breaks, when the match would have continued under traditional rules. Not quite as good as the last match, but Nigel's character added so much more entertainment value thanks to using the Pure rules to really define his character. 3 1/2 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1988
The very first televised Royal Rumble match. For you trivia buffs, entrant #3 Butch Reed, makes history as being the first wrestler in Rumble history to be eliminated. This Rumble plays out much differently than others. There's the obvious fact that there's only twenty men, but perhaps the biggest is that the whole concept of "Every man for himself" hasn't been established yet. With the exception of one brief moment where Harley Race and Boris Zhukov are fighting (I'm going to have to assume that was a mistake) heels only fought faces and faces only fought heels. Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are even openly talking about how a babyface in trouble needs another face to come out to help him. This element ends up making the match feel like the battle royal version of War Games.
The match is broken up into two halves. The first half plays up to the War Games mentality. It begins with playing towards the feud with Bret Hart and Tito Santana starting off. The WWE makes the wise decision of having Santana play the babyface in peril when numbers #3 and #4 are revealed to be Butch Reed and Jim Neidhart. This finally brings out Jake Roberts (Makes history as the first man ever to eliminate a wrestler in the Rumble) to make the big save. This babyface rally only continues until Harley Race comes out at #6 to give the heels the advantage again. Finally, they begin to do away with this story with babyfaces Jim Brunzell and Sam Houston to cause the heels to lose the advantage. That leads directly into the second half of the match. While one guy didn't really stand out in the first half too much (Although you could say Bret Hart due to surviving for so long and playing the double teaming heel), the second half showcases a lot of performances. There's #19, One Man Gang, who eliminates four wrestlers. Then there's Jake Roberts and Bret Hart, the two iron men of the Rumble. Both of them survived for over twenty minutes. Obviously, winner, Jim Duggan, gets the spotlight for his great performance. Duggan not only survives for nearly fifteen minutes (Longer than almost 3/4 of the wrestlers), but he eliminates three men at the end. This especially looks good for Duggan since he survived the final three against heels, Dino Bravo and One Man Gang. While I'm not a fan of either guy, I loved the little story of One Man Gang and Bravo's partnership. They eliminated Don Muraco (Final four) by Bravo holding Muraco and One Man Gang charging at him. A minute later, they try to do the same thing to Duggan, but Duggan moves out of the way, causing Bravo to be eliminated by Gang.
Now, it's not a perfect Rumble. A lot of the late entrants don't really get a chance to do anything of value. Surprisingly, this includes Junkyard Dog (Probably the #2 face in the match) and The Ultimate Warrior. You can also tell that the match feels a little incomplete with only twenty wrestlers. Lastly, the star power wasn't anything too impressive. Looking at who was in the Rumble, Duggan was sorta the obvious winner as he had a firm spot as the #3 babyface in the company in 1988 (Behind Hogan and Savage). Without Hogan, Savage, Andre, DiBiase, Bigelow, Brutus, Steamboat or Honky Tonk Man, I'm not sure how "Big" of a win this is for Duggan. Still, it's a really fun match that plays out differently from future Rumbles. 3 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1989
Demolition drawing 1 and 2 is without a doubt my favorite start to any Rumble. The first third stays pretty enjoyable thanks to Andre kicking some serious ass and everyone trying to beat him down. Andre eliminating himself thanks to Damien being brought into the ring by Jake Roberts showcased why the Royal Rumble could be so useful - when booked right, you can advance feuds. One of the problems with this match is that Vince hadn't learned how to keep all parts of the match entertaining. Once Andre was eliminated, everything was quiet until Hogan came in at the end of the second third. Things get really interesting when Hogan eliminates Bad News Brown and Randy Savage (Another feud showcased). Savage's fit and Hogan's "What did I do?!" is the biggest moment of the Hogan/Savage slow build up to this point. As soon as Savage leaves, we're treated to seeing another feud - Hogan vs Twin Towers. Shockingly, Hogan's elimination by the team is both a great thing and a bad thing. It's great that it was unpredicted, but once Hogan cheats to eliminate Boss Man soon afterward, the match is left without any stars until number 30. The likes of Brutus Beefcake and Hercules (At least then when he still mattered) was decent enough garnish, but it's not enough to make the fans care about the match. Vince was at least smart enough to have DiBiase carry the ending by buying his way into the 30th spot, but ending up alone by the eventual winner - Big John Studd. Studd's win would prove to be irrelevant as poor health would stop any big push from happening.
Overall, it has it's dull moments, but there's also some legendary Rumble moments such as the Demolition fighting, Hogan/Savage tension and DiBiase paying to get the 30th spot. Luckily, Vince would fix the star power at the end for 1990. Hogan, Rude, Perfect and Hercules is a much more impressive final four than Studd, DiBiase, Martel and Akeem. 3 Stars.
The very first televised Royal Rumble match. For you trivia buffs, entrant #3 Butch Reed, makes history as being the first wrestler in Rumble history to be eliminated. This Rumble plays out much differently than others. There's the obvious fact that there's only twenty men, but perhaps the biggest is that the whole concept of "Every man for himself" hasn't been established yet. With the exception of one brief moment where Harley Race and Boris Zhukov are fighting (I'm going to have to assume that was a mistake) heels only fought faces and faces only fought heels. Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are even openly talking about how a babyface in trouble needs another face to come out to help him. This element ends up making the match feel like the battle royal version of War Games.
The match is broken up into two halves. The first half plays up to the War Games mentality. It begins with playing towards the feud with Bret Hart and Tito Santana starting off. The WWE makes the wise decision of having Santana play the babyface in peril when numbers #3 and #4 are revealed to be Butch Reed and Jim Neidhart. This finally brings out Jake Roberts (Makes history as the first man ever to eliminate a wrestler in the Rumble) to make the big save. This babyface rally only continues until Harley Race comes out at #6 to give the heels the advantage again. Finally, they begin to do away with this story with babyfaces Jim Brunzell and Sam Houston to cause the heels to lose the advantage. That leads directly into the second half of the match. While one guy didn't really stand out in the first half too much (Although you could say Bret Hart due to surviving for so long and playing the double teaming heel), the second half showcases a lot of performances. There's #19, One Man Gang, who eliminates four wrestlers. Then there's Jake Roberts and Bret Hart, the two iron men of the Rumble. Both of them survived for over twenty minutes. Obviously, winner, Jim Duggan, gets the spotlight for his great performance. Duggan not only survives for nearly fifteen minutes (Longer than almost 3/4 of the wrestlers), but he eliminates three men at the end. This especially looks good for Duggan since he survived the final three against heels, Dino Bravo and One Man Gang. While I'm not a fan of either guy, I loved the little story of One Man Gang and Bravo's partnership. They eliminated Don Muraco (Final four) by Bravo holding Muraco and One Man Gang charging at him. A minute later, they try to do the same thing to Duggan, but Duggan moves out of the way, causing Bravo to be eliminated by Gang.
Now, it's not a perfect Rumble. A lot of the late entrants don't really get a chance to do anything of value. Surprisingly, this includes Junkyard Dog (Probably the #2 face in the match) and The Ultimate Warrior. You can also tell that the match feels a little incomplete with only twenty wrestlers. Lastly, the star power wasn't anything too impressive. Looking at who was in the Rumble, Duggan was sorta the obvious winner as he had a firm spot as the #3 babyface in the company in 1988 (Behind Hogan and Savage). Without Hogan, Savage, Andre, DiBiase, Bigelow, Brutus, Steamboat or Honky Tonk Man, I'm not sure how "Big" of a win this is for Duggan. Still, it's a really fun match that plays out differently from future Rumbles. 3 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1989
Demolition drawing 1 and 2 is without a doubt my favorite start to any Rumble. The first third stays pretty enjoyable thanks to Andre kicking some serious ass and everyone trying to beat him down. Andre eliminating himself thanks to Damien being brought into the ring by Jake Roberts showcased why the Royal Rumble could be so useful - when booked right, you can advance feuds. One of the problems with this match is that Vince hadn't learned how to keep all parts of the match entertaining. Once Andre was eliminated, everything was quiet until Hogan came in at the end of the second third. Things get really interesting when Hogan eliminates Bad News Brown and Randy Savage (Another feud showcased). Savage's fit and Hogan's "What did I do?!" is the biggest moment of the Hogan/Savage slow build up to this point. As soon as Savage leaves, we're treated to seeing another feud - Hogan vs Twin Towers. Shockingly, Hogan's elimination by the team is both a great thing and a bad thing. It's great that it was unpredicted, but once Hogan cheats to eliminate Boss Man soon afterward, the match is left without any stars until number 30. The likes of Brutus Beefcake and Hercules (At least then when he still mattered) was decent enough garnish, but it's not enough to make the fans care about the match. Vince was at least smart enough to have DiBiase carry the ending by buying his way into the 30th spot, but ending up alone by the eventual winner - Big John Studd. Studd's win would prove to be irrelevant as poor health would stop any big push from happening.
Overall, it has it's dull moments, but there's also some legendary Rumble moments such as the Demolition fighting, Hogan/Savage tension and DiBiase paying to get the 30th spot. Luckily, Vince would fix the star power at the end for 1990. Hogan, Rude, Perfect and Hercules is a much more impressive final four than Studd, DiBiase, Martel and Akeem. 3 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1990
Talk about an underrated classic. Starts off with DiBiase having to start off at number 1 when he bought his way into the 30th spot the previous year. That doesn't stop him from easily eliminating Koko B Ware and Marty Jannetty though. First big moment occurs with Jake Roberts coming in at the number 4 spot. Think Austin's reaction in the 1997 Rumble when Bret came out. Things only get better as the ring has it's first four men in at one time. DiBiase, Roberts, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage makes one hell of an early battle. I love the team that DiBiase and Savage had going on early on. The final ten are rounded out with Bret Hart coming out to a good reaction and Dusty Rhodes continuing his feud by coming out at number 10 to fight with Savage. The second third begins in a huge way with Demolition and the Colossal Connection coming out one after another (Throw in a pointless Red Rooster in the middle for kicks). Plenty of good fighting between the waring team. The second third trudges ahead with Snuka, Neidhart, Bravo and the huge Earthquake. Still, the attention was on the Connection/Demolition showdown and DiBiase still being in the match. We get some buildup for Wrestlemania with Piper and Bad News Brown fighting to the back after they eliminated each other. The biggest moment of this third is Demolition eliminating Andre the Giant for one of the big shockers of the night. The final third begins in a huge way with the Ultimate Warrior coming out and going right after his rival Dino Bravo. Bravo sucks, but he at least has a reason to be in the match. The fun only continues with Strike Force colliding by coming out one after another. By 25, the WWE Champion Hulk Hogan comes out. One by one, everyone is eliminated until it's just Hogan and Warrior. Favorite moment in the entire Rumble history as these two go at it with the crowd going crazy.
The final wrestlers come in with mostly heels and the random Hercules. Hogan does the unthinkable and eliminates Warrior. Once it's the final two of Hennig and Hogan, we get one last big standoff. Perfect's main event run may have been extremely short, but this is a big moment during it. There's some scandal with Perfect originally being booked to win the match, but Hogan nixed the idea. Personally, I don't see the point of Hennig winning. Maybe Warrior, but Hogan was a fine winner. Hands down, my favorite Rumble ever. They found time to showcase a total of 5 future matches for Wrestlemania. Star power wise, it's loaded with only a couple of wastes. I would have swapped out Koko and Red Rooster for Big Boss Man and Jim Duggan, but everyone else had some star power or were being used well at the time. Good luck finding that this year with such "Stars" as Zack Ryder, Yoshi Tatsu and Primo. One of only two true MOTYC's from the WWE in 1990. Go figure, The Ultimate Warrior played a huge part in both. 4 1/4 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1991
This match happens to be sandwiched between my favorite Royal Rumble (1990) and the best Royal Rumble (1992) match. The problem is that it makes all of the faults of this Rumble stand out even more. The main problem is that there wasn't enough stars. You really only have Hulk Hogan, Earthquake and Mr. Perfect as potential winners. That's quite the decline when you look at the other two Rumbles. 1990 had Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Rick Rude, The Ultimate Warrior, Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes while 1992 had Ric Flair, The Undertaker (Granted, he was in 1991, but he was still a newcomer compared to being a former WWE champion in 1992), Sid, Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage and Sgt. Slaughter. The lack of star power is made worse since the three potential winners all come out one after another in the 20's. Once those wrestlers were in, the match did improve some.
If there's one star of the match, it was Rick Martel. Lasting over 50 minutes, Martel was always doing something. Running from Jake Roberts, fighting Tito Santana or just somehow hanging on to the ropes to not be eliminated, Martel added some story to the match. The single worst part of the match was when Hogan no-sell Earthquake's Earthquake sit down finisher. They had just spent the past nine or so months making that move look as if it's nearly putting Hogan out of the business, why would you suddenly have Hogan no sell it? The match has it's moments though, so it's easily better than the 1995, 1999 and the other horrible Rumbles. Still, it's quite the drop in quality from 1990 and 1992. 3 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1992
If there's one match in the history of wrestling that best illustrates how amazing commentary can help make a great match even better, it's this. When you talk about Bobby Heenan, the commentator, typically this is the match you best remember him from. He's basically the man. Heenan manages to be a heel, but provides enough comedy and doesn't bury the faces to make him a blueprint of how all heel commentators should be. Michael Cole could really learn something from Heenan. That being said, I feel Gorilla Monsoon's part in the success of this goes unappreciated. Part of what made Heenan so good was that he had great chemistry with Monsoon and Monsoon knew how to antagonize an already stressed out Brain. Monsoon didn't have any reason to keep mentioning the fact that no one (Up to this point) who had drawn numbers 1-5 had been there at the end other to cause Heenan to freak out even more. Replace Gorilla Monsoon with another play-by-play commentator such as Vince McMahon or Sean Mooney and Heenan wouldn't have been as entertaining.
Just as you have to give Heenan credit for the success of this match, he had a very important tag team partner in the form of Ric Flair. Flair manages to kick ass, look exhausted and appear devastated at the appearance of certain wrestlers. For as much of a heel and a cheater that Flair is, even his biggest kayfabe hater has to be impressed with how he did. Just as Heenan had the underrated Monsoon, Flair had a supporting cast of characters who helped him tell the amazing story that is the '92 Rumble. First, there's Davey Boy Smith. Early on, he's the beast of the Rumble. Bulldog ended up eliminating the first three wrestlers (DiBiase, Sags and Haku) all on his own. In addition, Smith lasted one of the longest amount of times. The interaction between Flair and Bulldog would lay the foundation for the story of the '95 Rumble with Bulldog and Shawn Michaels. Speaking of which, Michaels continued the tradition of being the man who just wouldn't be eliminated. This is the important role in the Rumble where the wrestler is always in trouble, but he somehow manages to hang in there. This would be his role in the Rumble until he passed it along to Triple H in 1996. Then there's Roddy Piper. Being the man that was feuding with Flair at the moment, he and Flair created the first in a long line of Rumble moments where the exhausted heel is devastated to learn that the next guy out is his enemy. Piper also allows Bobby Heenan to get in his most famous line of praising Piper when he was helping Flair, but then quickly changing his tune when Piper goes back on the attack on Slick Ric.
Despite all of the praise this match gets, I do feel as if the star power is grossly overstated. Are there some major names? Sure, but there's also a lot of lowcarders. I believe a lot of this misconception of the star power comes from a lot of formerly major names who are at incredibly low points in their careers. Take Kerry Von Erich, for example. I always see his name brought up for the star power, yet, the guy had been a lowcarder ever since he lost the IC title over a year prior. By this point, he's just killing time until he's fired. He may have been a major name in the 1980's, but Jimmy Snuka was just a JTTS at this point. The booking of Ted DiBiase annoys me a lot as they had Bulldog eliminate him in under two minutes. Now, DiBiase was one of the bigger stars in the match. Sure, he wasn't as big as he was a couple of years prior, but his name still means something. Why get rid of him so early when you have such "Names" as Skinner, The Warlord, The Berzerker, Col. Mustafa and Hercules coming out later? Honestly, Smith eliminating anyone in the first two minutes would have received just as big of a reaction as DiBiase. On the plus side, a lot of my issues with lack of star power in Rumbles is increased because the WWE left big stars out to be in the undercard. Unlike in future years, the WWE didn't leave out legit main eventers so that they wouldn't pull double duty. Still, the inclusion of The Natural Disasters (Size alone makes them more useful than a nobody like Skinner), the Legion of Doom, The Mountie (Kind of low, but still bigger than some) and Bret Hart (Granted, he was in the middle of contract negotiations) would have helped the overall impressiveness of the Rumble list. This is a big reason why I feel 1992's star power is overrated while 1990 offers a much better selection of men. However, thanks to Heenan and Flair, I'd say 1992 is slightly better than 1990 as a whole, even if 1990 is my all time favorite. An amazing match and an early MOTYC. 4 1/2 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1993
One year removed from the most well known Rumble in history. Similarly to 1990 and it's follow-up, 1992 and 1993 are completely different Rumbles. While 1992 was everything great about the Rumble, 1993 showcases a lot of the bad. The biggest flaw of this match is the star power. Not having Hulk Hogan was bad enough, but you barely had anyone of real value. You did have Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Mr. Perfect, Ted DiBiase, Yokozuna and I suppose Earthquake, but everyone else is complete filler. While they may be huge stars in their respective companies, Carlos Colon and Genichiro Tenryu are nobodies in this. Future stars of Owen Hart and Jerry Lawler haven't been in the angle that would make them stars (Ironically, Bret Hart for both of them). The rest of the line-up is filled with the likes of The Repo Man, Max Moon and Terry Taylor. They're absolutely meaningless in this. The lack of crowd reaction makes it perfectly clear that the crowd isn't too impressive.
I found the first ten to be the most interesting. You had a nice little start between Ric Flair and Bob Backlund. It's such a cool idea to have the NWA World Champion battling the WWWF Champion. As usual, Bobby Heenan does a great job commentating and showing concern for his man. #9 Genichiro Tenryu, provides my biggest markout moment of the match with a chopfest with Ric Flair. Despite the greatness, Tenryu isn't a star in the WWE, so it didn't get a reaction. Luckily, Mr. Perfect finishes out the top 10 with a battle with Ric Flair to give us a little preview of their 'Loser Leaves Town' match the next night on Raw. The second third is highlighted with Mr. Perfect eliminating Ric Flair and the debut of Giant Gonzalez. Gonzalez may have been incredibly cheesy, but it's still an impressive debut with Taker doing a swell job at being dominated. The final third is a rushed finale with a lot of quick eliminations that mattered very little. The highlight would be Yokozuna's dominance. The ending between Yoko and Savage was a little dull, but they at least picked two of the few over guys to conclude the show. Savage trying to pin Yoko makes for an embarrassingly way to conclude the match.
The biggest crowd reaction would be Bob Backlund being eliminated by Yokozuna. Proof that the iron man will get anyone over with the crowd, Backlund came out to complete silence, but when he was eliminated, the entire arena booed. Looking back, I have to wonder the point of giving Backlund this rub. They wouldn't do anything with Backlund until the summer of '94, so this was just wasted. Earthquake was involved in three stare downs with only one of them getting a reaction (Vs Yoko). While I can understand not carrying about Quake vs Jerry Sags, the battle between the Natural Disasters was interesting. The crowd just didn't care about that stare down and most of the things in this match. The real pity is that the WWE had some good booking in the match. With the right wrestlers, this could have been a great Rumble. Instead, the Rumble falls flat as a true example of how far the star power had dropped since the peak of the 80's. Still, it wouldn't be as bad as 1995. For that, 1993 is a tolerable, but unremarkable Rumble. 2 1/2 Stars.
*Note* Poor Ted DiBiase. After buying his way into the 30th spot in 1989, he ended up with spots 1, 2 and 4 in his other Rumble appearances.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1994
Diesel's early one man show starts the Rumble off with a bang. Despite being a heel, once he's eliminated, the crowd chants his name. It's really the start of Diesel's monster push. Lack of stars in this hurt a lot. Minus Diesel, Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Shawn Michaels, Mabel (Just due to his size), and maybe Tatanka and Owen Hart, no one else had a chance to win. Once Diesel was eliminated, the match dragged on until Bret came out. Great selling of the knee by Bret. After the 30th entrant came out, quick eliminations followed that is always lame. Other good moments include Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels slugging it out when Marty entered. The ending drops the rating a lot. It's easily the worst ending in Rumble history. A good 8 minutes was wasted at the end in trying to find a real winner. At the end of the picture montage to close the PPV, you actually see a camera man who has the perfect angle to see everything, yet we never get to see that angle. It started off with potential, but it slowly just dropped until the unsatisfying ending. Still, Diesel's booking is a thing of beauty. 3 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1995
So what happens when you have a thin roster? Lower the wait time between entrants to 60 seconds! Probably the biggest compliment I can give to the match is that the time reduction ended up being a wise idea. With so few real stars, the crowd wasn't going to be too loud. So instead of relying on the wrestlers, the WWE booked the match so that the biggest draw (The countdown) would be front and center. Typically though, I wouldn't be a fan of such short entrant times. It seems like by the time the wrestler hits the ring and goes after a target, the ten second countdown is just moments away. As a result, the story of the match is pretty non existent.
Without a doubt, the star of the match was Shawn Michaels. Besides always having the interaction between Michaels and Bulldog, you had the fun series of spots of Michaels nearly being eliminated. Every time a wrestler would press Michaels (God, it seemed like everyone did this
: ), it would get a huge reaction. Other moments of the match I enjoyed was the big stand off being Mabel and King Kong Bundy. I don't care how boring Mabel or Bundy were in the mid 90's, any time two huge men collide, it's fun for all. Lastly, I enjoyed the two Bret Hart moments where he came out and attacked Owen Hart and Bob Backlund. I'm a huge fan of any time Bret shows off his intensity. Now the problem - star power. The WWE made a huge mistake including so few stars in the match. On a night where we saw Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Jeff Jarrett, Bam Bam Bigelow and The 1-2-3 Kid all in action in the undercard, it left the Rumble pretty scarce. I'm not even sure why the WWE wouldn't have their stars pull double duty when we saw it in past and future Rumbles. Two of the very few stars in the Rumble, Owen Hart and Bob Backlund, were in the Rumble for less than 20 seconds combined. Having three midcarders (Bulldog, Luger and Michaels) as the only real star power in the match makes for one incredibly weak match. Once #30 comes out, the match drags to a halt with a boring few minutes when we're waiting for the ring to lose a wrestler. It's just further shows how badly the WWE needed stars. I'm not Michaels' biggest fan, but HBK dragged this match into being watchable. 2 1/4 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1996
It's a Rumble in which Shawn Michaels makes history as only the second man in history to win the match two years in a row. It's the WWE PPV debut of Steve Austin. It's even the return of Jake Roberts after being away for nearly four years. However, all of that is forgotten in favor of the man they call...VADER. Vader may have only been in the match for a little over ten minutes, but the guy made a hell of a first impression in his WWE debut. Vader does so much in those ten minutes that you're not even talking about Shawn Michaels winning, you're thinking of all of the great moments with Vader once the match is over. For me, the best aspect of Vader's debut was how he used otherwise irrelevant wrestlers in the Rumble and made them useful. God bless him, but Savio Vega didn't have a chance in hell to win the match. Yet, he's in the match to be the personal bitch of Vader. The beat down that Vader and Yokozuna gives Vega is stuff legends are born from. Then there's the huge twin Headhunters, who had a cup of coffee with the WWE in the mid 90's. They mattered in the Rumble because it was so impressive seeing Vader demolish both of them on his own. Bob Holly may have lasted the forty minutes in the match (Second longest this year), but his most memorable moments in the match was the first person to feel Vader's rage. Lastly, there's the dominant Yokozuna. The showdown between Yoko and Vader was one of the cooler big man vs big man moments in Rumble history. Shawn Michaels' eliminating both Yoko and Vader at the same time remains one of my most memorable eliminations.
For a good portion of the match, the WWE managed to keep the Rumble feeling exciting, despite the lack of stars. Personally, I credit Vader for most of that. Unfortunately, they rush the ending and we end up with very little drama. Diesel turning around right into a super kick from Shawn Michaels was a damn awesome way to end the Rumble, but there wasn't any story at the end. Davey Boy Smith, one of the biggest stars in the match is barely even in the match before he's eliminated during the final four. Typically in Rumbles, we have that moment around the final four where everyone stops what they're doing and alliances are made. This was the perfect chance to put Shawn and Diesel together to add extra emphasis to Shawn kick at the end. What makes this so disappointing to me is that the WWE managed to create a really fun Rumble with not much star power only to half ass it at the end. Better than expected Rumble, but in my eyes, the real winner wasn't Shawn Michaels, it was Big Van f'n Vader. 3 1/4 Stars.
Royal Rumble Match - Royal Rumble 1997
With a huge crowd of over 60,000 fans (Let's ignore the fact that the WWE had to lower ticket prices to $10) and Steve Austin scores the biggest win up to this point, the WWE puts on an amazingly terrible match. With the exception of the little angle between Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith with Hart throwing his partner out, the entire first two thirds of the Rumble is a complete waste. It's never a good sign when the first countdown is set to happen and the WWE is having technical difficulties. Poor fake Razor Ramon comes out to #3 without theme music, a countdown or even a buzzer going off. The cameramen completely missed getting a shot of Faarooq before Ahmed Johnson jumped over the top rope to chase after him. It looked as if Ahmed randomly just left. Jake Roberts comes out, but doesn't even get a chance to take the snake out of the bag. Hell, with how small the bag was, I'm not even convinced if there WAS a snake. What was even the point of involving Roberts in this?
Speaking of involving wrestlers that shouldn't have been in this, there's the Mexican stars. Sure, Mil Mascaras, received a small reaction, but Latin Lover (Who looked good out there), Pierroth, Jr. and Cibernetico came out to dead reactions. Wasn't the point of involving these stars because they'd be popular in the heavy Hispanic demo of San Antonio? WORTHLESS, I say...WORTHLESS~! Guys like Bart Gunn, The Sultan and Jesse Jammes all meaningless, so I suppose they didn't leave out any notable stars in favor of the Mexican wrestlers. Somehow, the WWE even managed to make formerly awesome Rumble workers like Vader feel so irrelevant. The WWE left nearly every major star to come in during the final ten. Sadly, the likes of Bret Hart, Steve Austin, Vader, The Undertaker and Terry Funk fails to create an exciting final few minutes.
There were two real highlights of the match. Steve Austin's reaction to Bret Hart coming out (Same spot as Flair/Piper from 1992) is the stuff legends are born from. Surprisingly, it wasn't Austin who was the star for me though. It was Jerry Lawler. As a surprise entrant, he was in the middle of a sentence as he left the commentator's table, only to be punched and closelined out withing seconds by Bret Hart. A hurt Lawler returns to the table to finish the sentence. As the Rumble goes on, there's a running gag of Lawler not remembering the fact that he was in the Rumble. Yay~! Concussions are fun! Lawler's awesome though. Just like 1994, the WWE decided to have a different sort of ending to see if it'd work. While I applaud the WWE for trying something new, just like 1994, it failed. Having Austin eliminated, but still come back to win goes against past Rumbles. Remember just last year when Gorilla Monsoon ran down to get Vader out of the ring? We found out that Vince McMahon was at the Gorilla position during the 2005 Rumble. Even Jack Tunney made an appearance during the 1992 Rumble. So with many ring officials and other WWE guys in the arena, NO ONE came out to tell the refs what happened? Furthermore, the main event of the following PPV makes little sense as well. Why is it that Faarooq could be eliminated by Ahmed Johnson's obscenely large 2x4, but Vader and Taker would have another chance due to Austin eliminating them after he was thrown out? Then there's New Diesel. The future Kane was the legit runner up for the Rumble, but he doesn't get a title shot at the next show? BULL****! Bret Hart (Legit winner) and New Diesel were screwed.
The camera work sucked. The countdown timer sucked. The booking sucked. The ending sucked. Changing the rules of the Rumble so that you can eliminate yourself sucked. Mil Mascaras eliminating himself despite the fact that he climbed to the top rope after stepping out between the middle and top rope sucked. The wrestlers chosen for the Rumble sucked. Jerry Lawler is GOD. Somehow, even worse than 1995. 1 3/4 Stars.