The success of Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Attitude Era from 1998 carried all the way through 1999 and into the new millennium. It didn't hurt that WCW was on its way to a massive free fall at the same time and the company once thought to put the WWF and Vince McMahon out of business was soon on its way out the door.
1999 the final year of the millennium and 20th century provided the audience what they wanted in terms of attitude. But it also provided us with sadness and tragedy. On May 23, 1999 from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri for the Over the Edge PPV, Owen Hart tragically was killed.
He was trying to descend from rafters down to the ring and the harness malfunctioned and he fell 70 feet to the ring and died instantly. Owen was portraying the superhero gimmick "The Blue Blazer" and his gimmick was to "fly" to the ring. However, this was what killed him. The accident was not shown on TV as cameras quickly turned away from the ring and showed the audience.
Owen was set to challenge and defeat The Godfather to win the Intercontinental Championship. Jim Ross told the audience that this was not part of the act that it was in fact a real life situation. About an hour after the accident, Jim Ross told the audience watching that Owen Hart indeed died at the age of 34 years old. The fans at the event, however, were not informed of his death at the event.
Vince McMahon insisted on finishing the PPV as fellow wrestlers and WWF employees were visibly upset over what had transpired. McMahon was criticized and rightfully so for continuing the show after a wrestler died. The Over the Edge name was never used again following Owen's death and they canceled the encore presentation.
The PPV was never released on home video until the debut of the WWE Network in 2014 as it was put on it in the PPV lineup as it was edited to not show and mention Owen's death. Owen's wife Martha and his family sued the WWF over Owen's death and the case was settled out of court for $18 million.
The WWF canceled four live events in Canada and one in Illinois. The next night on the May 24, 1999 episode of Raw is War, the show was held with the wrestlers given options as to whether or not to work that night. The show was a tribute to the life and memory of Owen and the episode was called "Raw is Owen."
Many wrestlers such as Mick Foley, Edge, Triple H, Chyna, Bradshaw, Mark Henry (who read a poem), Dustin Runnels, Paul Bearer (who also read a poem), X-Pac, and others poured their hearts out emotionally to give their thoughts and memories about Owen. Owen's good friend and tag team partner Jeff Jarrett also spoke and fought and defeated Test with Owen's own Sharpshooter as a tribute to his fallen friend.
Jarrett defeated The Godfather the next week's episode of Raw to win the Intercontinental Championship that Owen was supposed to win the night of his passing. Jarrett screamed Owen's name as he won the title. The Raw is Owen show ended with Stone Cold Steve Austin coming to the ring and had a few beers in the ring and toasted one last one to the picture of Owen shown on the TitanTron.
On the January 4, 1999 episode of Raw is War, which was actually taped on December 29, 1998 and showed six days later as it was at the time, Mick Foley as Mankind defeated The Rock to win his first WWF Chamopionship with help from D-X and Austin. That night is forever believed to be the turning point to the WWF winning the Monday Night Wars once and for all.
That same night on Nitro, there was the ever infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom" incident where Hulk Hogan poked his finger at Kevin Nash's chest and Nash went down and Hogan pinned him to win the WCW World Title in a major swerve that seemingly pissed off the fans.
During the Nitro broadcast, Tony Schiavone on orders from Eric Bischoff gave away that night's Raw main event of Mankind beating The Rock since Raw was taped the week before like Bischoff had done many times before.
Schiavone mentioned how Mick Foley was a former WCW wrestler and then added "that's gonna put some butts in the seats!" After he said that some 600,000 fans watching Nitro immediately switched over to Raw to see Foley beat The Rock. Signs would then show up at upcoming WWF events reading "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat!"
Although many turned Nitro back on since Nitro ended five minutes after 11, Raw still outdrew them 5.7 to 5.0. Nitro only got a 5.0 rating only three more times and they came in the next month with a 5.7 being the highest on Feb. 8 when Raw was replaced that week by the Westminster Dog Show. WCW was already on their way down prior to Jan. 4 but many believe this was the real beginning of the end.
After beating Raw for 84 straight weeks from June 17, 1996 until April 13, 1998, Nitro only won the ratings war eight more times and none since October 26, 1998. By the end of 1999 ratings for Nitro were falling into the lowers 3s and into the 2s as they entered the 21st century as Raw was doubling even occasionally tripling Nitro's ratings.
Mick Foley lost his WWF Championship to The Rock in an I Quit match at the Royal Rumble. It was one of the most violent matches in WWF/WWE history where Foley took as many as 11-12 unprotected chair shots. This match was featured in the documentary "Beyond the Mat" as his family was sitting at ringside in horror. Foley lost when he was unconscious and a tape of him saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview was heard.
Foley got a title rematch with The Rock on the special Halftime Heat during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII in what was one of the more shittier Super Bowls featuring the Broncos and Falcons. The match took place in an empty arena with absolutely no one sitting in the stands. Foley won the title back from The Rock.
Mr. McMahon attempted to screw Austin out of going to the main event at WrestleMania XV by having him enter the Royal Rumble first as Austin would have a tough task of winning his third straight Royal Rumble. McMahon himself even entered the Royal Rumble and would enter 30th. WWF Commissioner Shawn Michaels, however, made McMahon enter second.
Austin and McMahon started the match 1st and 2nd with Austin beating the hell out of him. McMahon escaped the ring under the ropes as Austin chased after him and fought him in the crowd and backstage. The Corporation ambushed Austin and got him sent out of the arena on a stretcher.
Neither McMahon or Austin were officially eliminated since they weren't thrown over the top rope and McMahon returned to do commentary for the match. The 1999 Royal Rumble match even featured the first woman wrestler to ever compete in the Royal Rumble as Chyna entered the match 30th after winning a special Corporation vs. DX battle royal with the winner to enter the match 30th as she even eliminated Mark Henry by clotheslining him over the top rope.
Austin came back to the arena and re-entered the match and took everyone out and eliminated everyone in the ring including Chyna. Austin then attacked McMahon at the announce table and threw him back in the ring as McMahon was the only other person left in the Royal Rumble.
The Rock came to the ring and taunted Austin with the WWF Championship, allowing McMahon to sneak up from behind and throw Austin over the top rope to eliminate him as McMahon won the Royal Rumble. McMahon was to go to the main event at WrestleMania but he chose to turn it down. Shawn Michaels then announced since McMahon was turning the title shot down, Austin would take his place.
Austin then decided to put his WrestleMania title shot on the line to fight McMahon in a steel cage match on Valentine's Day at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House. This was also the last PPV to use the name In Your House as every former In Your House PPV simply went by the PPV name.
Austin dominated the match when all of a sudden, the 7 ft tall Paul Wight, known as The Giant in WCW, made his WWF debut and came inside the cage to attack Austin as he would align himself with McMahon and The Corporation.
Wight picked up Austin and threw him to the side of the cage, but the cage broke and since Austin landed on the floor, he was declared the winner and would face the WWF Champion. Wight left WCW after his contract expired in early 1999 as he was sick of being in WCW and signed a 10-year contract with the WWF. Soon after he began to be called "The Big Show" as he presently is known as.
Wight had an impact again the next night on the February 15 episode of Raw when he interfered in the WWF Championship ladder match between Mankind and The Rock. He Chokeslammed Mankind off the ladder allowing The Rock to climb the ladder and win back the title. Rock would have to defend the WWF Title against Austin in the main event at WrestleMania XV.
Before WrestleMania on the March 22, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Austin drove a Coors Light truck to the ring and proceeded to give The Rock, Vince and Shane McMahon a "beer bath" by spraying them with beer. Austin defeated The Rock to win the WWF Championship in the main event at WrestleMania.
WrestleMania XV saw all kinds of swerves and double-crossing. A couple months before, Chyna betrayed Triple H and DX and joined The Corporation. Chyna helped Triple H defeat Kane at WrestleMania as it seemed she rejoined DX and left The Corporation, or so it seemed. Later that night, Triple H and Chyna betrayed X-Pac and cost him his match with Shane McMahon as Triple H joined The Corporation along with Chyna.
X-Pac continued to team with DX's New Age Outlaws and formed an unlikely alliance with Kane after Kane was screwed over by Triple H and Chyna. Kane and X-Pac formed a successful tag team winning the World Tag Team Championship twice. Kane even gained a girlfriend in Tori. Kane also spoke his first words without an electrolarynx by saying DX's slogan "Suck it!"
The New Age Outlaws split up for a while as Billy Gunn and Road Dogg did not get along. Gunn began his Mr. Ass gimmick and one of the most awesome songs ever. Triple H and Gunn feuded with Road Dogg and X-Pac over the DX naming rights.
By the end of the year, The New Age Outlaws reunited and soon reunited with Triple H and X-Pac to reform DX as they were now heels. X-Pac looked to have had Kane join them too before turning on him saying he won't be a part of DX. Even Kane's girlfriend Tori betrayed him and joined with X-Pac and DX.
The Undertaker began appearing more sinister and demonic at the beginning of 1999 as he planned to unleash his "Ministry of Darkness" on the WWF. The Undertaker and Paul Bearer would perform Satanic rituals and sacrifices and get wrestlers to turn over to the dark side.
One time, Farooq and Bradshaw (then known as "The Acolytes") abducted Dennis Knight and had him detained down in the basement of a building. They unchained him and took him to see "He." He was revealed as The Undertaker and Knight was rechristened as "Mideon."
At the Royal Rumble, The Acolytes and Mideon abducted the nearly 500-lb. Mabel and he would be rechristened "Viscera." They would form The Ministry of Darkness. Storyline brothers Edge and Christian and their vampire-goth manager Gangrel (as the trio collectively were known as "The Brood") joined The Ministry as well.
While it seemed nutty, it began to get serious as The Undertaker was referring to himself as the second coming of the Lord of Darkness and he wanted to take over the WWF from Vince McMahon. To further enhance the evilness of Undertaker's new character, he revealed he was the one that started the fire in the funeral home that "killed" his parents and almost killed his "brother" Kane.
McMahon believed The Undertaker was taking this way too far. Vince even called Undertaker by his real first name of Mark to make this look like it wasn't part of the act. Undertaker would then target McMahon and his family since he wanted to take over the WWF.
The Undertaker left a burning crucifix resembling Undertaker's symbol on McMahon's front yard. Undertaker then burned a teddy bear on fire as it reduced McMahon to tears as the bear belonged to McMahon's daughter Stephanie McMahon as this was the first mention of her on TV as she soon began to appear on TV.
Vince had his Corporation members attempt to take out The Undertaker and The Ministry of Darkness. His enforcer Big Boss Man lost to The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania XV. After the match, The Brood lowered a noose to Undertaker, who proceeded to "hang" the Boss Man.
Ken Shamrock found Vince's daughter Stephanie crying in the boiler room with Undertaker's symbol painted on her forehead as she was taken and held captive. The Undertaker attempted to abduct Shamrock's storyline "sister" Ryan Shamrock. Shamrock beat Christian to get the information where Ryan was and where Stephanie was.
The Ministry captured Ken and was about to "sacrifice" him. As punishment for revealing the information to Shamrock, The Undertaker "flogged" Christian. He then ordered Edge and Gangrel to sacrifice Christian but The Brood refused as they turned on the Ministry and left them.
Vince then pleaded with his old enemy Stone Cold Steve Austin to help him in his battle with The Undertaker. He even offered Austin the custom "Smoking Skull" WWF Championship belt that he took from Austin the previous year to help him out.
Shane took the belt and gave it to The Rock. Austin fought The Rock outside near a bridge where Rock threw Austin off the bridge into the river as well as the Smoking Skull belt as revenge for Austin throwing Rock's Intercontinental Championship into a river in 1997. The Rock threw a mock funeral for Austin where Austin would crash it driving a monster truck and crushing Rock's limousine.
Shane threw his father out of The Corporation as he took over control claiming that his father had gone "too soft" as Shane appeared to be even more ego-maniacal than his father was. Shane even threw The Rock out of the Corporation as well after Rock failed to beat Austin at Backlash.
At the end of the Backlash PPV, Stephanie got into her limo when all of a sudden, The Undertaker was in the driver seat and drove away with her as he abducted her. The next night on the April 26, 1999 episode of Raw is War, The Undertaker had Stephanie tied to his symbol.
He was going to perform a "black wedding" where he would become the owner of the WWF. After former Corporation members Ken Shamrock, The Big Show, and Mankind failed to stop the wedding, Austin successfully managed to stop the wedding and save Stephanie as Vince was so grateful towards his former nemesis.
On the pilot episode of WWF's new show SmackDown on Thursday night, April 29 on UPN, Shane McMahon announced that The Corporation joined forces with The Ministry of Darkness to for "The Corporate Ministry." Shane had to hold members back of The Corporation to save Stephanie but Shane held them back and now we know why.
Austin teamed with former nemesis The Rock to defeat The Undertaker and Triple H in the main event of the pilot episode. SmackDown would ultimately get picked up and would be a fixture of WWF/E TV but more on that later. Vince ultimately revealed a new faction called "The Union" featuring former Corporation members Ken Shamrock, Test, The Big Show, and Mankind.
Austin would defend the WWF Title against The Undertaker at the aforementioned Over the Edge PPV. Austin managed to handcuff Undertaker to his symbol much like Undertaker did to Austin the year before. Austin lost the title to Undertaker at Over the Edge where Owen Hart died.
The Undertaker would reference he was taking orders from a "higher power" as it was believed to be Satan himself. On an episode of Raw, The Ministry attacked Austin and tied him in the ropes when all of a sudden, they each got down on one knee and bowed to this druid who was walking to the ring, presumably the "Higher Power." He revealed himself only to Austin and Austin uttered the words "you son of a bitch."
In June, Vince McMahon ordered the Higher Power to reveal himself even thinking it was Shane McMahon. The Higher Power was in the ring when Shane invited Vince to come to the ring to get a good look. Vince appeared on the TitanTron demanding he reveal himself. As he took off his hood the Higher Power was revealed to be none other than Mr. McMahon himself!!!
Vince revealed he was behind this whole thing as a way to get rid of Austin and he even set the kidnapping of his daughter Stephanie up. Vince's wife Linda McMahon and Stephanie came out saying how angry they were at Vince especially having him kidnap his own daughter and put her in harm's way just to get back at Austin.
Linda and Stephanie told the crowd that each of the four McMahons "owned" 25% of the company and Linda and Stephanie turned their 25% shares of the company over to the new WWF "CEO" Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin now "owned" 50% of the company whereas Vince and Shane each only owned 25% meaning Austin was indeed their boss. Austin then shared a beer with both Linda and Stephanie.
Austin would then become the CEO and even raise hell at Titan Towers in New York, making Vince and Shane's life a living hell. He even once had a secretary be rude when answering the phone. Vince and Shane challenged Austin to a Handicap Ladder Match at King of the Ring with 100% ownership of the company was at stake and Austin agreed.
Vince and Shane McMahon defeated Austin at King of the Ring when a member of the Corporate Ministry raised the briefcase when Austin tried to get it and lowered it for the McMahons to win back full ownership of the WWF. Austin was no longer in charge of the company.
The next night on the June 28, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Austin revealed while he was CEO he made a WWF Championship match between he and The Undertaker that night. Austin defeated The Undertaker to win back the WWF Title only for Undertaker to hit him in the head with the belt.
Austin defeated The Undertaker the following month at Fully Loaded in a First Blood match with help from X-Pac and Austin smashing a camera in Undertaker's head. As a result, Vince McMahon could "no longer appear on WWF TV again." Austin then gave McMahon the Stunner as a goodbye. McMahon of course would not be off TV long.
The Corporate Ministry disbanded as Undertaker formed "The Unholy Alliance" with Big Show and former Ministry of Darkness members Mideon and Viscera. Undertaker and Big Show won the WWF Tag Team Championships twice. Undertaker would not wrestle in September as he was dealing with a serious groin injury and would not return until May 2000.
1999 saw the rise of Jim Ross becoming the best announcer in WWF/E history. Ross put up with a lot of Bullshit during his time there and he persevered. Just like in 1996 when they tried to turn him into a heel and failed, they attempted to do the same thing in 1999 and it failed this time as well.
Ross suffered his first bout of Bell's Palsy in January 1994 and was told by Vince McMahon in February that his contract would not be renewed and would not have a job. Ross was briefly brought back to replace McMahon on TV when McMahon was preparing for his Steroid Trial.
After the trial, Ross was once again out of a job with the WWF as he worked with Smoky Mountain Wrestling with his good friend Jim Cornette as well as the Atlanta Falcons. He would return to the WWF in 1995 where after working on their secondary shows, he began to work PPVs and their flagship show in 1996, where's he remained since.
In December 1998 at the British PPV Capital Carnage, Ross suffered his second bout of Bell's Palsy that disfigured his face that temporarily paralyzed the right side of his face and he had a long road back. Earlier that same day, JR was informed that his mother passed away. Ross took time off to recover from the illness.
Ross returned in March 1999 as part of the storyline that Vince McMahon fired him because no one wanted to look at his disfigured face and Ross was extremely bitter about being replaced at the announce table. He'd even refer himself as "Good Ol' J.R."
He even angrily confronted Bart Gunn on his return to Raw and said "Dr. Death" Steve Williams would take him out and even slapped Gunn in the face. As Gunn was about to attack Ross, Williams attacked Gunn as Ross turned heel once again and had Williams as his own personal "enforcer."
Ross was replaced by Michael Cole as announcer of Raw and on PPVs while he was away. Ross would come out on Raw and create his own announce table in front of Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler and do his own announcing on Raw for several weeks.
Ross then confronted Cole on stealing his job which Cole said he was not. Ross then kicked Cole in the nuts and then walked over to the head announce table next to Lawler. Ross was supposed to be the heel and it was supposed to be a heel move, yet the crowd cheered Ross loudly as this ended his heel run.
Ross officially took back his seat at the head announce table for Raw and PPVS starting at the main event at WrestleMania XV. Ross and Lawler were perhaps the best ever announce tandem in WWF/E history (some might say Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon). Ross would definitely go down as one of the best announcers ever in pro wrestling and certainly one of my favorites.
Lawler did very well as the heel announcer since he joined the WWF in 1992. He was definitely one of my favorites. Lawler's over-the-top announcing when it came to the hot women of the WWF and making sexual comments made him the voice of the Attitude Era. He would always refer to woman's boobs as "puppies!"
Chris Jericho spent years on independent circuits trying to break into the big time of professional wrestling. While he did wrestle in WCW from 1996-1999, the results were mixed as he referred to it as a disappointing time since WCW did not want to push him and only push the older, more established wrestlers. Jericho would be far down on the depth chart especially when the nWo ruled the company.
Jericho left WCW to come to the WWF in the summer of 1999. As part of his gimmick, Jericho referred to himself as "Y2J" a play on the "Y2K" virus that had the world up in arms when it came to the upcoming year 2000 and new millennium. Prior to making his debut, vignettes were shown of a clock counting down to the new millennium, well actually Jericho's debut.
On the August 9, 1999 episode of Raw is War from Chicago, the clock finally ran out interrupting The Rock while he was doing a promo in the ring. Jericho is made his WWF debut as pronounced "Raw is Jericho!" His awesome entrance theme was done by his own rock metal band "Fozzy." Jericho's promo was awesome and was perhaps the best WWF/E debut ever.
Jericho's promos were awesome as he is one of the best in the business ever at promos. His in-ring ability was not too shabby either. Jericho feuded with Road Dogg Jesse James after putting him through a table. He then feuded with Chyna over Chyna's Intercontinental Championship as she was the first woman to win a men's title.
Jericho lost to her at Survivor Series and he was embarrassed for losing as Chyna continued to rub it in his face. He retaliated by tying her up to a chair and hitting her in the thumb with a hammer. He defeated her to win the Intercontinental Championship at Armageddon. They would soon form an alliance and Jericho would turn face.
The feud with Chyna nearly got Jericho fired as he tells the story how Vince McMahon wanted him to not let up on her even though she's a woman and he's a man. Jericho punched her hard during a match which caused her to have a black eye. This caused real problems backstage between Jericho and Chyna's then-boyfriend Triple H as Triple H hated him for hurting his girlfriend.
Triple H tried to get Jericho fired for this and did not like him especially since Jericho came over from WCW, WWF's main competition. Jericho was told to have a great match against X-Pac or else he'd be fired. Long story short, he did and was kept on and remains one of the greatest stars in WWE history. Even he and Triple H get along well these days.
Former enemies The Rock and Mankind started teaming together albeit not by design as Mankind helped The Rock in his battle with The Undertaker and Big Show. They defeated them to win the WWF World Tag Team Championships, their first of three reigns.
They traded the titles with Undertaker and Big Show twice and also traded with the newly reformed New Age Outlaws before losing it to the Holly Cousins (Hardcore and Crash Holly). They were named "The Rock 'n' Sock Connection" due to Mankind using his smelly sock Mr. Socko.
They're completely different personalities clashed mostly with The Rock being sick of Mankind. This led to the highest rated segment in Raw history on the September 27, 1999 episode of Raw is raw as the segment was titled "This is Your Life."
Mankind invited Rock to the ring and had balloons and confetti and brought several people from Rock's past to the ring such as his sixth grade teacher, high school football coach, and his high school sweetheart as Rock told each of them to get the hell out of the ring.
He also gave him several presents and even presented him with Yurpo the Clown, the same clown Mankind brought to try and cheer up Mr. McMahon the year before as Rock did the "it doesn't matter what your name is!" schtick. Mankind told Rock she Happy Birthday as Rock told him it wasn't his birthday. The segment drew an 8.4 rating, the highest rated segment ever,
WWF's second-highest ranked show behind Raw, SmackDown debuted back on April 29, 1999 as the pilot but the first actual episode of SmackDown was shown on Thursday Night August 26, 1999 from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on UPI.
The shows were actually taped on Tuesday night at aired on Thursdays. The airings would switch to Friday nights back to Thursdays before being live on Tuesdays starting in 2016. SmackDown first originally included an oval-shaped TitanTron dubbed the "OvalTron." That would be replaced two years later with a giant fist punching through glass.
Unlike WCW's "B Show" Thunder, the top guys appeared and wrestled on SmackDown. As a result, the product was very good and the ratings were even better. The main event The Rock taking on Triple H for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship as WWF Commissioner and special guest referee cost Rock the match allowing Triple H to retain the title.
It was a lot of work to wrestle on two major shows and it even became stressful on the creative team and their writers, especially then-head write Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara. They would leave the WWF and head over to WCW to be the head writers there in October.
Russo said he was never home to see his family and spend time with his wife and kids and asked McMahon for more time off or more money. McMahon denied both requests saying he paid him "enough money to hire a nanny." That was not true in Russo's case and the fact that he felt he took a shot at his family was enough for Russo to jump ship to WCW and Ferrara went with him.
Russo and Ferrara, who were both responsible for the WWF's growing popularity and success with the creation of the Attitude Era, would try to employee the same tactics over at the sinking ship known as WCW and try to resurrect that company. Ironically, neither could help WCW as it would soon go out of business while the WWF continued to grow and thrive without the two of them.
1999 was the year we really saw Stephanie McMahon become a main character that she remains pretty much to this day. Stephanie would have not one but two near weddings while the first one she was taken hostage by The Undertaker.
Test fell in love with Stephanie and asked her out and even proposed to marry her much to her brother Shane's dismay. Test defeated Shane at SummerSlam where stipulations meant Shane had to give Test his blessing to date and eventually marry his sister. Shane soon joined forces with Test.
Triple H definitely rose to prominence in the second half of 1999 as he became known as "The Cerebral Assassin" and "The Game." Triple H became the household name main event star when he defeated Mankind to win his first WWF Championship on the August 23, 1999 episode of Raw is War.
Triple H began a feud with Vince McMahon after saying some not so good things about his wife Linda. Triple H was forced to defend his WWF title on the September 16, 1999 episode of SmackDown but he got the choice to face anyone he wanted. He chose none other than Vince McMahon.
With help from Stone Cold Steve Austin, McMahon defeated Triple H to win the WWF Championship. Vince forfeited the title since he was not a wrestler and decided the winner of the Six Pack Challenge at the upcoming Unforgiven PPV would be the new champion. Triple H won the six pack challenge to win back the WWF Title.
Triple H was forced to defend the title in a Triple Threat match against Austin and The Rock at Survivor Series. However before the match, Austin would get hit by a car and was taken out of the match as he was sent to the hospital. Vince blamed Triple H and DX (as Triple H reunited with DX before Survivor Series) for hitting Austin with the car but they denied any involvement.
In reality, Austin needed to have neck surgery from the injury he suffered from the botched piledriver from Owen Hart in 1997 and needed time off so him being run over by a car was used to write him off TV. The Big Show replaced Austin and won the WWF Championship with help from Vince when he hit Triple H in the head with the WWF Championship belt.
Test was supposed to marry Stephanie McMahon and their wedding was to take place on the November 29, 1999 episode of Raw is War. Triple H interrupted the ceremony to show that he drugged Stephanie and they got married at a chapel in Las Vegas much to the dismay of Test, Vince, and apparently Stephanie, or so we think.
Triple H fought Vince at Armageddon on December 12 where if Vince won, Triple H would sign an annulment to no longer be married to Stephanie. However at the match, Stephanie turned on her father allowing Triple H to win the match allowing her to remain married to Triple H. Triple H and Stephanie would celebrate by kissing in the ring.
The next night on the December 13 episode of Raw is War, Triple H and Stephanie embraced their new relationship and marriage as they now ruled the WWF. This ushered in the McMahon-Helmsley Era or Faction. They often favored the heels especially Triple H and DX while making really unfavorable matches for the faces.
One of the wrestlers who objected to this was Mick Foley, who protested what Triple H and McMahon were doing. Triple H and DX often attacked Foley for his resistance against the McMahon-Helmsley Faction.
They ordered Foley to take on his former tag team partner The Rock in a loser leaves the WWF match. The Rock won and Foley was "forced to leave the WWF." The McMahon-Helmsley Faction would make the lives of many WWF wrestlers and employees very difficult in the new millennium as we will see.
When WCW made a then-record $50 million in 1998, the WWF topped that by making $56 million from May 1, 1998 until April 30, 1999. The earnings would even go up more in 2000 while WCW was losing record amounts of money and ECW was on the verge of folding.
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