1996 began the way 1995 ended with Bret Hart on top as WWF Champion, The Kliq running the show backstage, and the WWF struggling in both ratings and financially as they were beginning to lose to WCW.
WCW would basically copy what the WWF had been doing but had more money and resources to make it more successful. The WWF would soon lose more of their top performers to WCW and nearly lost their biggest. However, they gained a major diamond in the rough that was discarded the previous year by WCW.
Bret Hart began the year defending his title against The Undertaker, Diesel, and Shawn Michaels. Hart lost to The Undertaker by disqualification at the Royal Rumble when Diesel pulled the referee out of the ring as the ref was about to count three to screw The Undertaker out of the title as the title could not change hands on a disqualification.
The Undertaker would pay back Diesel back at February's In Your House PPV when Diesel took on Hart for the title in a Steel Cage match. As Diesel was about to win the title, The Undertaker appeared from the bottom of the ring and pulled Diesel under the ring while Hart escaped the cage and retained the title. Diesel would lose to The Undertaker at WrestleMania XII.
Shawn Michaels returned to the ring at the Royal Rumble from his near "career-ending" concussion suffered at the hands of the beating he suffered the previous October outside a bar in Syracuse as well as a kick to the back of the head from Owen Hart. Michaels won the Royal Rumble for the second year in a row and challenged Bret Hart for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XII.
To make their match memorable, Michaels and Bret would face each other in the WWF's first-ever televised 60-minute Iron Man match for the WWF Title at WrestleMania. Leading up to their historic Iron Man match, videos would be shown of both Michaels and Hart training for the match.
Michaels would look young and hip in his training while Hart looked weak as they showed him being taken down and pinned by his father Stu Hart. The WWF was doing everything to push Michaels to be their champion and have Hart pass the torch to him.
The Iron Man match was outstanding as the two traded move for move and near fall after near fall as they were both in tip top shape and looked like they could go two hours instead of one. Hart had Michaels locked in the Sharpshooter when time expired. Both men did not have a fall and the match was a draw as Hart retained the WWF Title, or so we thought.
WWF President Gorilla Monsoon declared that the match would restart in "sudden death overtime" and there must be a winner. Michaels would hit Hart with not one but two Sweet Chin Music superkicks to win his first WWF Championship. Michaels would supposedly tell Hart to "Get the hell out of my ring" after taking the title as it would set up a feud at a later date.
The feud would be put on hold as Hart would go on hiatus for seven months as he wanted to take some time off to spend with his family and even act in the TV series Lonesome Dove. He would go on tour in Europe and South Africa while finishing up his contract as he would not be seen in the United States until October.
In the meantime, Michaels would defend his WWF Championship the rest of the year against wrestlers like The British Bulldog, newcomer Vader, who left WCW to come to the WWF, another newcomer and former WCW wrestler Mick Foley (known as Mankind), and his former bodyguard-turned enemy-turned friend and returned enemy Sycho Sid.
He would lose the title to Sid at the Survivor Series in November. Michaels like usual wanted to work with his Kliq mates as WWF Champion, but there would be one problem. Three of the five members of The Kliq would leave the WWF for greener pastures in WCW.
In early 1996, Scott Hall's contract with the WWF was coming to an end and after receiving a fully guaranteed contract that offered significantly more than what the WWF could and would afford with WCW.
WCW's contract also called for Hall to work more than half the amount of dates that the WWF required so half the work for more than double, maybe triple the pay so Hall announced he was leaving the WWF to go WCW as he gave his 90-day notice.
Hall soon convinced Kevin Nash to join him in WCW and shortly after, Nash gave his 90-day notice to the WWF and too would join Hall in WCW as both Hall and Nash would return to WCW where they started. Hall and Nash would be two of the most highly-paid wrestlers in history at that time.
Hall and Nash would finish their remaining WWF commitments. Hall would be suspended six weeks for failing a drug test that according to Hall he took a long time before and all of a sudden, he was notified he failed it when he gave them his notice. Nash lost to The Undertaker at WrestleMania for his final WrestleMania appearance in six years.
Nash had a brief feud with Shawn Michaels following WrestleMania and lost to him for the WWF Title at April's In Your House: Good Friends Better Enemies. Hall returned for that event and lost to Vader. This would be Hall and Nash's final WWF TV appearances until 2002 as this was Hall's final TV appearance as Razor Ramon.
Hall and Nash had a European tour and their final WWF matches would take place at a house show on May 19, 1996 from the legendary Madison Square Garden. Hall and Nash would work with their Kliq buddies Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Hall fought Helmsley and Nash took on Michaels for the WWF Title in a Steel Cage match in the main event.
Before the event, Michaels and Helmsley asked Vince McMahon if they could give Hall and Nash a proper sendoff to WCW at the end of the night. McMahon initially was against it as at the time, wrestling promotions wanted their wrestlers to remain "kayfabe" (in character) as faces and heels were mostly forbidden to hang out in public to protect the integrity of the business.
This was really before the internet got really big so it was easier to have their performers remain in character and protect the business. Since this was a house show and would not be televised, there would be no video of this to get out so he let The Kliq celebrate Hall and Nash's farewell.
What McMahon did not know was that two fans at the event snuck in a camcorder to record the event. Hall lost to Helmsley in the final match prior to the main event. Nash lost to Michaels in the Steel Cage main event.
Right after the main event was over, Hall and Helmsley ran into the ring as the four began to hug and embrace in the middle of the ring, something that had not been witnessed ever at a pro wrestling event. There would never be celebrations in the ring especially with faces and heels at the same time. Even wrestlers leaving the promotion would never be publicized except on their 900-hotline.
Soon after, video footage of the event seeing The Kliq celebrate in the ring would be shown and McMahon would be livid as the integrity of his company and business was violated. This incident would be commonly referred to as the "MSG Incident" or "The Curtain Call."
McMahon felt pressure from the other wrestlers and personnel in the WWF and needed to punish someone for this. With Hall and Nash gone over to WCW, they would not be punished. Shawn Michaels would not be punished as well as he was the WWF Champion and the top wrestler in the company.
So the brunt of the punishment fell on Hunter Hearst Helmsley. He was supposed to win that year's King of the Ring, but that honor would go to newcomer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Helmsley would fall to mid card and lose until later in the year he would receive a push and climb back up.
Helmsley took the punishment in stride and never complained and it earned the respect of many, including The Undertaker. He would end the year as Intercontinental Champion.
The Kliq would soon lose another member as The 1-2-3 Kid, Sean Waltman, left the WWF to join his buddies Hall and Nash in WCW. This left only Michaels and Helmsley as the only members of The Kliq in the WWF as according to Michaels, The Kliq "expanded" territories not disbanded.
Despite the fact Hall and Nash left for WCW, the WWF still owned the naming rights to Razor Ramon and Diesel and announced that Razor and Diesel were coming back to the WWF. Announcer Jim Ross kept saying they were coming back but everyone doubted him and told him to stop mentioning their names on air since Hall and Nash work for WCW.
On the September 23, 1996 episode of Raw, Ross delivered a worked-shoot promo where he ran down then-announcer Vince McMahon as the WWF owner and mentioned how he suffered his first bout of Bell's Palsy and was "fired" because of it in 1994. Ross was supposed to turn heel but it did not last. He then introduced Razor Ramon and Diesel as Razor Ramon's and Diesel's music played/
It wasn't Hall and Nash as it was two imposter wrestlers as fake "Razor Ramon" and fake "Diesel." The angle would not be received well and would soon be dropped. Glenn Jacobs portrayed "Diesel" before he would become known as The Undertaker's "brother" Kane.
Helmsley's punishment for the "Curtain Call" was the opening and break Steve Austin was finally looking for. Helmsley was supposed to win the King of the Ring for 1996 but now that honor would be bestowed upon Austin.
Austin joined the WWF in December 1995 as the "Ringmaster", the master of the ring. Austin hated that gimmick and who could blame him but he needed a paycheck. Austin was paired with the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase as his "Million Dollar Champion", a fake title belt that was never defended.
Austin wanted a name and character change so after some name suggestions by both Austin and the WWF, they finally agreed upon "Stone Cold" Steve Austin after Austin's then-wife suggested it to him. The name was based on a serial killer nicknamed "Stone Cold" on a movie he and his wife saw and Austin shaved off his long blonde hair to completely bald and grew a goatee.
Austin began a trend where being bald is awesome and gave men losing their hair plenty of hope of being bald. Instead of letting it thin or buying a wig, shave your head!! Austin's hair was thinning and if he kept it up he'd eventually look like Hulk Hogan, long blonde hair but no hair on top of his head. Austin began this gimmick where he had ice water in his veins and attacked anyone and everyone who got in his way, face or heel.
Austin soon went on his own after he lost a strap match to Savio Vega at May's In Your House and Ted DiBiase was forced to leave the WWF as a result. In reality, DiBiase left the WWF to join WCW. Austin claimed in interviews he lost on purpose as he didn't need DiBiase or anyone managing him as he could do it on his own as he was a loner.
Austin began his path to superstardom at June's King of the Ring PPV as he defeated Marc Mero, formerly Johnny B. Badd in WCW as he joined the WWF like Austin did under his real name, in the semifinals. Austin soon unleashed his new finishing move: the Stone Cold Stunner as it became one of the best finishing moves in pro wrestling history.
During the match with Mero, Austin suffered a cut on his lip and it was busted open. He was taken to the local hospital to get stitches and he walked back from the hospital to the arena to further grew his legacy. In the finals of the King of the Ring, he took on Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who returned to the WWF that year for the first time in four years.
Roberts had been battling drug and alcohol problems throughout his career and was even on a hiatus from wrestling. All his personal demons were documented on WWF TV as Roberts portrayed a born-again Christian and even brought an albino python to the ring with him named "Revelations."
Austin defeated Roberts to win the 1996 King of the Ring. Austin's coronation ceremony would be the birth of perhaps the greatest superstar in WWF/E history. Austin mocked Roberts' Christian beliefs saying "you have your psalms and John 3:16. Well 'Austin 3:16' says I just whipped your ass!"
"Austin 3:16" would be the most recognized and trademarked phrase in WWF/E history. "Austin 3:16" was also one of the best selling t-shirts in WWE merchandise history. This moment was one of if not the first moment of the start of the WWF/E's Attitude Era. Austin would eventually be the cornerstone of the WWF becoming number one going into the 21st century.
Austin soon began this persona where he would kick anyone and everyone's ass that he so pleased and it did not matter if they were a babyface or a heel. Austin would end each promo by saying "that's the bottom line 'cause Stone Cold said so!"
Austin would begin to cuss and swear and flip people the middle finger on TV and even drink beer on WWF TV in a time where profanity and especially drinking alcohol was definitely not allowed on WWF TV. ECW yes, WWF and WCW no.
Despite being a heel, the top heel in the company, the fans loudly cheered and supported Austin as the fans were sick of the same old garbage the WWF had been giving fans the last several years. They were sick of the same clean cut good guy and they looked at Austin as an anti-hero. Austin of course said he didn't give a "rat's ass" what the fans thought and flipped them off to keep him a heel.
During the summer and fall of 1996, Austin was kicking everyone's ass in his way and he soon wanted a new challenge. He would go and call out Bret "The Hitman" Hart constantly and challenged him to a match. Hart was on hiatus with the company yet Austin continued to call him out and calling him a "coward" for hiding from him.
Austin's good friend and former Hollywood Blonde teammate in WCW Brian Pillman signed with the WWF in the summer of 1996. He left WCW early that year as Eric Bischoff released him from his contract to go to ECW as a work to further develop and enhance his "Loose Cannon" character.
On April 15, 1996, Pillman was involved in a serious car accident when he slammed his Hummer H1 into a tree after he fell asleep. He suffered near-fatal injuries as he was in a coma for a week and suffered a shattered ankle as doctors fused the ankle into a walking position.
While he was rehabbing from the injury, Pillman negotiated with Eric Bischoff to return to WCW while secretly negotiating with Vince McMahon and the WWF. McMahon and the WWF gave him a better offer amazingly as Pillman signed the first guaranteed contract in WWF history as McMahon wanted to compensate for the loss of top talent to WCW.
Pillman would appear on WWF TV as an announcer and doing in-ring interviews while he was rehabbing his ankle. Pillman would side with Austin as Austin's lackey if you will at first as a potential Hollywood Blondes reunion was hinted even though Austin did not want to be friends with anyone.
Pillman, however, would side with Bret Hart as well since Pillman had a closeness with the Hart Family since he trained up in Calgary in Stu Hart's Dungeon starting as a pro wrestler and even wrestled in Stu's Stampede Wrestling up in Calgary.
To show why Austin was a snake, or "Texas Rattlesnake" as Jim Ross famously referred him as, Austin attacked Pillman after Pillman was shown to be cheering for Hart on an episode of Superstars in October.
Austin hit Pillman in the bad leg with his own cane and then put his bad ankle in between a steel chair and jumped on it several times, "re-breaking" his ankle dubbing it the "Pillmanizer" and saying "DTA: Don't Trust Anyone."
This would lead to the most famous or infamous incident and moment in WWF/E history on the November 4, 1996 edition of RAW named "Pillman's Got a Gun." Pillman would be shown recovering from the attack at his home in suburban Cincinnati with his wife Melanie and family as WWF interviewer Kevin Kelly was at his home interviewing him on RAW.
Austin threatened to go to Pillman's home, break into his home, and finish him off. Pillman's friends would be outside the home surrounding it to prevent Austin from entering the home. Pillman then told everyone if Austin did come into the home, he would be a "dead man walking" as "Austin 3:16 would meet Pillman 9MM" as Pillman pulled out a 9MM hand gun and threatened to shoot him.
Austin would eventually make his way to his house and beat up some of his friends. Eventually, Austin broke into Pillman's house and soon as he entered, Pillman aimed the gun at him as the camera faded to black as you can hear shots being fired.
The feed went back on as Pillman's friends were dragging Austin from the house, Pillman aimed the gun at Austin and yelled "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch!" Pillman then mistakenly yelled "get out of the fucking way!" on live television that could not be edited out. The WWF and Pillman apologized for the incident.
The animosity between these two seemed so surreal that this incident seemed real and not scripted. I remember watching and wondering this is fake and scripted, right? I even had my doubts. They did a masterful job of this to make it look legit as the WWF was going far away from the cartoonish and silly angles they had in the past to more serious adult ones.
Bret Hart was taking time off after WrestleMania XII to focus on acting and just resting from all the years of wrestling. Hart's contract with the WWF expired and Hart was looking to return to the WWF. However, WCW came calling and offered a contract of three years worth nearly $9 million, close to $3 million, about double a year of what the WWF was offering, which was double what Hart was making before.
Hart's "heart" if you will and loyalty remained with Vince McMahon and the WWF, but could not ignore the offer WCW was making. McMahon did not want to lose his top star to WCW so he decided to give him an unprecedented 20-year contract with the first three for wrestling and the remaining years working in the front office with the WWF.
Eventually, Hart made his decision in October 1996 to re-sign with the WWF and announced the decision live on the October 21 edition of RAW. Soon after, he accepted the challenge of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to face him at the Survivor Series in November from the legendary Madison Square Garden.
Their match at Survivor Series was a classic as it was the start of a thrilling rivalry between the two. Hart showed a little bit of rust being off for nearly eight months, but still looked like the Hitman of old. Hart rolled up Austin after being locked into the Million Dollar Dream for the win after nearly 30 minutes of thrilling action. The match established that Hart still had it and that Austin was the next superstar in the WWF.
Billionaire Ted's "Wrasslin' War Room" skits began in January 1996. Vince McMahon decided to make fun of Ted Turner and even Turner's CNN's top guy Larry King as well as WWF "turncoats" who signed with WCW Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, and even "Mean" Gene Okerlund by creating characters based on them in parody skits.
Turner would be "Billionaire Ted", Hogan would be "The Hukster", Savage was "The Nacho Man", Okerlund was "Scheme Gene", and King was "Larry Fling" with the show "Larry Fling Live." They would mock Turner's bad business practices of losing money and stealing his wrestlers.
Hogan and Savage would be mocked for being too old and over the hill and that WCW can't create their own stars and have to steal theirs. Okerlund was mocked for having the 1-900 hotline that made up a bunch of rumors that weren't true just to make a buck.
WCW retaliated by bringing in Scott Hall and Kevin Nash as two WWF wrestlers coming to WCW to lead a hostile takeover by the WWF and even used their Razor Ramon and Diesel characters. The WWF soon put a stop to this by filing a lawsuit against WCW to stop saying the WWF is taking over and to stop having Hall and Nash use their WWF characters and their names.
Hall, Nash, and eventually Hulk Hogan would form what is known as the New World Order ("nWo") as they were taking over WCW as an independent group not the WWF. The group was "funded" by Ted DiBiase to take over WCW.
The weekly realistic feeling nWo takeover and invasion angle on Nitro would put WCW on top of the WWF in the weekly "Monday Night Wars." WCW would beat the WWF in head-to-head ratings on Monday Night as Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for 84 straight head-to-head weeks from June 17, 1996 until April 13, 1998.
The Ultimate Warrior returned at WrestleMania XII to quickly squash Hunter Hearst Helmsley. This was the Warrior's first appearance in the WWF in over three years. The Warrior was back for the third time in the WWF and quickly pushed for the short time he was back.
The Warrior was scheduled to team up with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson to take on Vader, Owen Hart, and Davey Boy Smith at the In Your House PPV in July. However before the PPV, Warrior was fired once again by Vince McMahon and the WWF for no-showing events. Warrior claimed the WWF had been selling his merchandise without giving him a percentage of the sales.
The Warrior and the WWF had lawsuits over the rights to the names The Warrior and Ultimate Warrior and character with the courts ruling in favor of The Warrior. The WWE released a DVD about The Warrior titled "The Self-Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior" where the WWE basically mocked and buried The Warrior on the DVD which led to another lawsuit by The Warrior, which was eventually dismissed.
Finally in 2013, The Ultimate Warrior buried the hatchet with Vince McMahon and the WWE and began appearing at WrestleCon at WrestleMania 29 doing some work with them on their video game WWE 2K14. In 2014, The Ultimate Warrior was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and his induction took place on April 5, 2014.
He appeared the next night at WrestleMania XXX. The next night on April 7 on RAW, The Warrior appeared as he gave a speech as it turned out to be his final appearance on TV or in public in general. Sadly the next day on April 8, The Ultimate Warrior passed away at the age of 54.
Roddy Piper returned early in 1996 after newcomer Vader, from WCW, attacked WWF President Gorilla Monsoon and "injured" him to take him off TV for a few months. Piper was announced as the interim WWF President. He ran afoul of a peculiar individual by the name of Goldust.
Goldust was Dustin Runnels, formerly Dustin Rhodes in WCW, who came to the WWF dressed in a gold and black jumpsuit with a robe over it and gold and black face paint and a long platinum blonde hair wig over his short blonde hair. Goldust was obsessed with movies and film as he would creep out his opponents by using homosexual-like sexual mannerisms to play mind games with them.
The WWF would really push the envelope with homosexuality which never really been a thing in the past. There was even talks that he was transgender. This was the antithesis of the actual Dustin Runnels in real life as he is a Texas Cowboy redneck that chewed tobacco. Dustin did a great job with his character as tough as it could be as he truly wanted to break out of the shadow of being known as Dusty Rhodes' son.
Goldust's first real feud was with Razor Ramon, where he would flirt with Razor by sending him messages and gifts to screw with his head. He beat him for the Intercontinental Championship at the Royal Rumble. Goldust soon unveiled his then-real life wife Terri as his new valet Marlena.
Goldust would soon flirt with Roddy Piper as Piper challenged him to a "Hollywood Backlot Brawl" at WrestleMania XII and promised to "Make a man out of him." The match started in Hollywood as it was taped shortly before WrestleMania.
This would be Dustin Runnels' second such strange match in as many years following his match the previous year at Uncensored wrestling on the back of an 18-wheeler that got him fired from WCW.
The brawl in the Hollywood backlot was entertaining but Goldust got into his gold Cadillac and tried to run over Piper and fled the scene. Piper got into his white Ford Bronco and began chasing after Goldust on the LA Freeway just like the eery scene of O.J. Simpson running from the cops in a similar looking white Bronco on the same expressway two years prior.
Both men drove their respective vehicles to The Pond in Anaheim where WrestleMania XII was being held. Piper and Goldust fought to the ring and unofficially Piper won when he stripped Goldust of his gold jumpsuit as he wore some ladies undergarments underneath and fled. Piper left the WWF shortly after and showed up in WCW at the end of the year.
The end of the year saw Goldust turn face feuding with Hunter Hearst Helmsley over Helmsley being infatuated with his valet Marlena. Goldust did not like Helmsley trying to get with his wife. Jerry "The King" Lawler even asked Goldust if he was queer to which Goldust said "no" and then punched Lawler to further cement his face turn as the fans really got behind him.
The WWF signed "The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry to a 10-year contract shortly after the 1996 Summer Olympics. Henry first appeared on the March 11, 1996 episode of RAW where Jerry Lawler was ridiculing him in an interview and Henry picked Lawler up and press slammed him.
Henry made his next appearance at SummerSlam doing commentary for the Lawler-Jake Roberts match. In the weeks leading up to SummerSlam, Lawler began mocking Roberts' alcohol and drug problems in what was an absolutely shocking angle in professional wrestling at the time.
His promo at SummerSlam before their match was classic as the WWF was entering the Attitude Era. Lawler defeated Roberts by hitting him with a Jim Beam bottle. Lawler then poured the Jim Beam on him until Henry ran Lawler off. The next month at In Your House, Henry made Lawler submit in his WWF debut.
They tried to sign another Olympian in Gold Medal amateur wrestler in Kurt Angle after the 1996 Summer Olympics after he won the gold medal. Angle, however, turned down the offer. He appeared at an ECW event later that year well check the 1996 ECW page whenever that's up. Eventually, Angle signed with the WWF in 1998 and became one of the promotion's top wrestlers.
1996 was also the year of Sunny. She joined the WWF in 1995 as the on and offscreen girlfriend of Skip (Chris Candido) and she was the manager of Skip and his new tag team partner Zip (Tom Pritchard) in 1996. She led them to the WWF Tag Team Championship.
After The Bodydonnas lost the titles to the Godwinns (Henry and Phineas Godwinn), she soon left the Bodydonnas to be the new manager of the Godwinns. Then the Smoking Gunns beat the Godwinns and she soon followed them until they lost the titles, which caused Bart and Billy Gunn to separate. She said she would follow the gold wherever it went.
Sunny is considered the WWF's first Diva. Sunny was so popular due to her good looks and sex appeal as the WWF was really getting away from the cartoonish gimmicks and more towards adult-oriented entertainment. She was also AOL's most downloaded woman of 1996.
She was the first manager for former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ron Simmons, who joined the WWF as Farooq Asaad who was a gladiator who wore this weird blue and black gladiator outfit with weirdly shaped helmet. His debut came on the July 22, 1996 episode of Raw, where he attacked Ahmed Johnson during his match. Johnson unfortunately suffered a real-life kidney problems and they used Simmons' attack in the story.
Farooq eventually ditched Sunny and the gladiator gimmick and soon created The Nation of Domination. Farooq would soon act like a Nation of Islam and Black Panther member. He would have African American manager Clarence Mason as his new manager and had three unnamed African American men with him. The Nation soon grew to include other wrestlers.
1996 saw the berth of one of the best characters ever as Mick Foley signed in the WWF and was known as the Mankind. Mankind was this deranged lunatic who lived in a boiler room and wore a leather mask, squealed, shrieked "Mommy!", talked to a pet rat named "George", and pulled out his hair. He would often say his signature catchphrase "Have a nice day!"
Mankind made his WWF debut on the April 1, 1996 episode of Raw, the night after WrestleMania XII. He took on Bob Holly and defeated him with a move he used called the "Mandible Claw" where he stuck his middle and ring fingers down his opponents throat, which caused his opponents to go into unconsciousness and even sometimes "vomit." After he won the match, more gentler piano music played as Mankind was all calm and in a "happier place."
Later that night, Mankind interfered in The Undertaker's match with Justin Hawk Bradshaw (John Bradshaw Layfield). He would attack and manhandle The Undertaker rather easily and even put him in the Mandible Claw as Mick Foley entered into a high profile feud rather quickly.
Mankind continued to attack The Undertaker at will during or after Undertaker's matches as it looked like he owned The Undertaker. Mankind even popped out of a casket during The Undertaker's Casket match with Goldust at In Your House 8.
He put Undertaker in the Mandible Claw and threw him into and locked the casket, costing him another match. They faced each other at King of the Ring, where Mankind won when he put The Undertaker in the Mandible Claw. Paul Bearer tried to hit Mankind with the urn, but mistakenly hit Undertaker with it.
The Undertaker faced Mankind in the first ever "Boiler Room Brawl" at SummerSlam as Mankind had the home field advantage. The point of the match was the two fought in the arena's boiler room and to win you had to fight your way to the ring and grab the urn from Bearer.
The Undertaker looked to have won the match as he went to grab the urn from Bearer. However, Bearer refused to give the urn to Undertaker and then hit him with the urn. He gave the urn to Mankind as he betrayed The Undertaker after over five years being his manager. Mankind took Bearer as his new manager and even referred to him as "Uncle Paul."
Mankind earned a WWF Championship match with Shawn Michaels the next month at In Your House. The Undertaker and Vader interfered and attacked both men for a no-contest. Mick Foley said this was his best match ever. Mankind continued his feud with The Undertaker for the remainder of 1996.
Mankind fought The Undertaker in a Buried Alive match at In Your House: Buried Alive where the winner had to "bury" his opponent in a grave. Mankind won with help from The Executioner (Terry Gordy) and other heels to bury The Undertaker alive. The Undertaker came back and defeated Mankind at Survivor Series.
Dwayne Johnson made his WWF debut late in 1996 as "Rocky Maivia." The WWF hyped him up as their first third generation wrestler with his father Rocky Johnson and grandfather "High Chief" Peter Maivia. This would be before he would be famously known as "The Rock", one of the best superstars the WWF/E has ever had.
Johnson is from the legendary Anoa'i family with uncles Afa and Sika (The Wild Samoans) and his cousins Rodney (Yokozuna), Solofa (Fatu and later Rikishi), Matt (Rosey), and Eddie (Umaga). Current WWE Superstar Roman Reigns is also from the Anoa'i family among many other greats.
Rocky Maivia was a clean-cut, do no wrong babyface that was pushed early on despite having no experience and was nicknamed "The Blue Chipper." He made his in-ring debut at the Survivor Series in an eight-man Survivor Series Elimination match where Maivia was the sole survivor after eliminating Crush and Goldust.
Even though 1996 started the ground work for the upcoming "Attitude Era" along with its bright future superstars, the WWF was getting killed by WCW in ratings and in bringing in the elite talent with Ted Turner's budget.
Vince McMahon and the WWF did not have anywhere near the budget WCW had when it came to signing the biggest stars to guaranteed contracts. It would nearly put the WWF out of business.
The WWF started losing to WCW in May when the nWo was formed with former WWF Superstars Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan and pretty much was unbeaten for nearly two years.
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