The WWF entered the year 2000, Y2K or Y2J, with all the momentum on their side from their success in 1998 and 1999 and the beginning of the end of WCW and the Monday Night Wars.
Perhaps the main reason why the WWF was so successful was Stone Cold Steve Austin and he spent most of the year on "injured reserve" due to his neck injury being so bad it needed surgery. He was written off TV at the 1999 Survivor Series when he was hit by a car in the parking lot.
With the top guy out of commission, the WWF turned to The Rock and Triple H to lead the company in the first year of the 21st century. At the end of 1999, Triple H "married" Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie and the two began their reign of terror running the WWF as "The McMahon-Helmsley Faction."
Triple H and Stephanie really abused their power as they favored the heels over the faces, especially Triple H and his cronies DX. Stephanie was beginning to be even worse than her father Mr. McMahon was. She turned on her father after he had her kidnapped by The Undertaker the previous year.
While Triple H and Stephanie were fictionally married, they soon began a real life relationship. Despite criticism from fellow wrestlers over Triple H just wanting to get into the company but it was indeed real love. Triple H and Stephanie married in 2003 and remain so this day and have three daughters.
Triple H gave himself a WWF Championship match against the Big Show on the January 3, 2000 episode of Raw is War, the first Raw of the new millennium. With help from DX, Triple H defeated Big Show to win the WWF Championship.
They "fired" Mick Foley after he lost to his former Rock 'N' Sock teammate The Rock on the last Raw of the millennium as part of his punishment for Foley daring to speak up against Triple H and McMahon's reign of terror.
The Rock said he had respect for Foley and demanded that they bring Foley back to the WWF. If they didn't then the whole entire WWF locker room would band together and walk out on Raw. Triple H and Stephanie had no choice but to reinstate Foley back into the WWF.
Foley then reverted to his more violent and hardcore Cactus Jack persona and challenged Triple H to a Street Fight at the Royal Rumble in January at Madison Square Garden. Foley was unsuccessful as he lost a violent street fight to Triple H when he was pedigree'd on thumbtacks that Foley brought into the ring.
The Rock would go on to win the Royal Rumble match for the first time when he last eliminated The Big Show as he would earn the right to take on the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 2000. The Big Show first threw Rock over the top rope, but Rock held on to the rope and pulled Big Show over the top rope to win as both went hit the floor but the officials said Big Show's feet hit the floor first.
The Big Show said he eliminated The Rock as Rock's feet touched the floor before his and he was the winner. Big Show was able to provide Triple H evidence of video tape that Rock's feet indeed hit the floor first. While Big Show should have been the winner, the referee's decision was final but Big Show would face off against The Rock with the winner to get the WrestleMania title shot at No Way Out.
Also at No Way Out, Triple H defended his title against Cactus Jack in a Hell in a Cell match with Mick Foley forced to retire once and for all if he lost. Triple H had allies in a new group called "The Radicalz" (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko).
The foursome each left WCW (despite Benoit winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and quitting the next day) and they debuted on the January 31, 2000 episode of Raw is War as guests of Foley. They soon turned on Foley and aligned themselves with Triple H in return for contracts in the WWF.
At the No Way Out PPV, The Big Show defeated The Rock to win the WWF Title match at WrestleMania 2000. Shane McMahon cost The Rock the match and aligned himself with Big Show. Triple H defeated Foley in a violent Hell in a Cell match when he backdropped him onto the top of the cage as Foley was about to piledrive him onto a barded-wire 2x4 on fire on top of the cage.
Foley fell through the cage all the to the ring similar to one of the wicked bumps he received against The Undertaker in their infamous Hell in a Cell match at the 1998 King of the Ring. Triple H gave him the Pedigree to win the match and end Foley's wrestling career.
Mick Foley had a brilliant career but mounting injuries as a result of numerous hardcore and violent style of matches (like the 1998 thriller against The Undertaker and even the last two against Triple H) forced Foley to retire earlier than he or anyone would have liked.
The Rock won back his WWF Title match against Triple H at WrestleMania 2000 when he defeated The Big Show on the March 13, 2000 edition of Raw is War where if he lost, he would have to leave the WWF. Vince McMahon returned on TV for the first time since the end of 1999 when he helped The Rock win.
The main event at WrestleMania would be changed to a Triple Threat match between Triple H, The Big Show, and The Rock with Shane McMahon in Big Show's corner and Vince in The Rock's corner and of course Stephanie McMahon in her husband's corner.
WWF CEO Linda McMahon then announced that it would a Fatal Four Way match with the retired Mick Foley making one last return in the match as Linda would be in his corner as all four McMahons would be in the corner of each of the contestants.
Triple H won to retain the title at WrestleMania 2000 when Vince and Shane McMahon turned on their respective competitors as Vince hit the Rock with a steel chair. Vince, Shane, and Stephanie celebrated with Triple H as Vince and Shane were now part of The McMahon-Helmsley Faction. The Rock gave each of the McMahons the Rock Bottom and Stephanie the People's Elbow after the match.
Foley would officially retire from in-ring competition following this match. He would not be seen on TV for several months until he was named as WWF Commissioner in June, replacing Shawn Michaels, who too would leave and would not be seen for nearly two years.
On the April 17, 2000 edition of Raw is War, Chris Jericho defeated Triple H to win the WWF Championship when referee Earl Hebner made a fast three-count. However, Triple H forced Hebner to reverse the decision and gave the title back to Triple H as Jericho was not the world champion, for now.
Two weeks later, Triple H defended the title against The Rock. Linda McMahon announced that Stone Cold Steve Austin would return that night for the first time since getting hit by a car at Survivor Series sixth months before and would be in Rock's corner to prevent any interference from the rest of the McMahons.
On the SmackDown episode a few days before the Backlash PPV, Austin was supposedly there and The McMahon-Helmsley Faction along with DX spent all night looking for him and attacked anyone resembling Austin thinking it was him. At the end of the night, Austin was shown sitting in a crane as he dropped a huge steel beam onto the "DX Express" bus causing it to explode.
Austin did not show up initially in the main event match as the McMahons and their cronies outnumbered The Rock. Austin then finally showed up attacking and hitting anyone not named The Rock with a steel chair allowing The Rock to defeat Triple H to win back the WWF Title. Austin would not be seen for a few months.
The next month at Judgment Day, Triple H challenged Rock to a 60-minute Iron Man match for the WWF Title. This was the second ever 60-minute Iron Man match in WWF history behind Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart's classic encounter at WrestleMania XII where Michaels won. Michaels, who was still the WWF Commissioner, would be the special guest referee for this match.
The match would be tied 5-5 late in the match when Michaels was knocked out. DX's Road Dogg and X-Pac along with Shane and Vince McMahon attacked The Rock when all of a sudden, The Undertaker's gong sounded but Kid Rock's "American Bad Ass" played and The Undertaker was seen for the first time since September 1999.
The Undertaker looked a whole lot different than he ever did in the WWF. Instead of the Dead Man look he's maintained since his debut a decade prior, this new Undertaker look dressed like a biker and even rode his Harley Davidson to the ring as he was dubbed "The American Bad Ass." This new Undertaker used Kid Rock's American Bad Ass as his entrance theme which would later be changed to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin."
The Undertaker rode his motorcycle to the ring and attacked Road Dogg, X-Pac, Shane, and Vince. He would then Chokeslam Triple H as well. However, Michaels saw this and disqualified The Rock, giving Triple H a 6-5 advantage and ultimately winning the title albeit controversially and unpopularly.
The Rock teamed with The Undertaker and Kane to take on Triple H and Vince and Shane at King of the Ring with whoever gains the pinfall becomes the WWF Champion. The Rock pinned Vince following the Rock Bottom to win back the WWF Championship.
The winner of the King of the Ring tournament at the PPV was the Olympic Gold Medal winner Kurt Angle. Angle won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and was the first and only Olympic gold medal winner to ever compete in the WWF/E or professional wrestling altogether. Angle was a great amateur wrestler as he was also a two-time NCAA Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion.
Angle almost signed with ECW in 1996, but refused to after Raven "crucified" Sandman on a wooden cross while Angle was in attendance that night doing commentary. He almost signed with the WWF immediately after winning the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta but chose not to.
He eventually signed with the WWF in late 1998 and after a time in the developmental territory, Angle made his actual WWF debut at the 1999 Survivor Series PPV in November, defeating Shawn Stasiak with his Olympic Slam (later changed to Angle Slam).
Fans booed him and even chanted "boring" during his match where he addressed the fans saying they had no right to boo an Olympic hero. He would wear replicas of his gold medals around his neck. Angle proclaimed himself as your "Olympic Hero." Angle wore an amateur wrestling style singlet that was always decked out in red, white, and blue.
Angle's vignettes leading up to his debut stressed the importance of Angle's "three I's": Intensity, Integrity, and Intelligence. Angle came off as arrogant looking down his nose at the fans and thinking he was better than them since he was a gold medal winner. Angle had one of the best entrance themes in the business especially when the fans chanted "you suck!" in unison to his theme.
Angle went undefeated his first two months in the company before losing to Tazz at the Royal Rumble as Tazz was a mystery opponent making his WWF debut. Angle quickly rebounded winning both the European and Intercontinental Championships, declaring himself the "Eurocontinental" Champion.
Unfortunately for Angle, he lost both titles to Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 2000 in a match where both titles were on the line yet he was not pinned in either fall for either title. Angle then lost to Big Show at Backlash where Show dressed as Hulk Hogan as he began imitating other wrestlers. Angle would be preaching abstinence while Big Show was not.
Angle won the King of the Ring tournament by defeating Chris Jericho, Crash Holly, and Rikishi at the PPV to become the number one contender to the WWF Championship. In the finals, Angle impressively gave the 400+ lb. Rikishi an amazing Belly-to-Belly Suplex off the top rope to win the match.
Angle formed an alliance with Edge and Christian as they became known as "Team ECK" (Edge, Christian, and Kurt). The trio were definitely a comedy trio as Edge and Christian were a comedy duo before teaming with Kurt.
Edge and Christian were storyline brothers when they both debuted in the WWF in 1998 as they were real life childhood best friends who loved wrestling. They were both even in attendance at the SkyDome in Toronto at WrestleMania VI.
Edge and Christian were originally a borderline goth duo who eventually ditched that gimmick when they became a pair of cool dudes with comedy routines. Edge and Christian hilariously introduced the "Five Second Pose" where they told the fans "for the benefit of those with flash photography, we will now pose for five seconds only" where they stood still for approximately five seconds.
They would start to use the five second pose to insult fans especially something relevant to the town they were performing at. Some examples are in Boston, they mocked Bill Buckner letting the ball go through his legs, in Cleveland mocking Jose Mesa blowing Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, and in Oakland they were mocking the Raiders losing to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game.
They even dressed as fat Elvises in Memphis as each wore a fat suit and dressed like Elvis with Christian being fat Elvis and Edge being really fat Elvis. They also mocked Bobby Knight in Indianapolis choking a player and getting fired for it. They would seem to get on the fans' side only to blindside them at the end.
Edge and Christian and Angle would mock the Kentucky crowd at Judgment Day by doing a five second pose of a Kentucky jug band. They would all wear straw hats with Edge playing banjo and even wearing crooked teeth while Angle played the jug and Christian the washboard.
Angle even ruined Undertaker's prized motorcycle and tried to pay him back by buying him his own set of two wheels, but it wasn't a motorcycle. Instead, Angle gave Undertaker a scooter as a peace offering but Undertaker would not accept it as he trashed the scooter.
Edge and Christian were involved in a feud with both The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) and The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley). The Dudleys came to the WWF from ECW in September 1999 after being the most successful tag team in ECW history with eight World Tag Team Title reigns between them.
They won their first of a record eight WWF/E World Tag Team Championships by beating the New Age Outlaws at No Way Out. They adopted the similar gimmick they had in ECW by putting opponents through tables while you can hear Bubba yell to D-Von "get the tables." The Hardys were high flyers who rose from the ranks of jobbers to a successful tag team and even successful singles careers.
The three teams fought in a Triangle Ladder Match at WrestleMania 2000. The Dudleys brought their tables into the match as they soon began to be used. In what was a match that stole the show, Edge and Christian won their first of seven World Tag Team Championships when they knocked Matt Hardy off the ladder and through a table.
This match was named Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Match of the Year for 2000 but it also spawned a new type of match between the three unlike any other at SummerSlam 2000. The three would be involved in the first-ever Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (TLC) match. Edge and Christian retained the titles. They would all meet in TLC 2 the following year at WrestleMania and TLC eventually became a WWE PPV.
Kurt Angle, Triple H, and The Rock fought for Rock's WWF Championship in a Triple Threat match. Angle was injured in the match when Triple H Pedigree'd him through a table and gave Angle a concussion and was taken to the back.
Angle came back to the match where he used Triple H's sledgehammer, but Triple H got it and was about to hit Angle, only for Angle to duck and Triple H accidentally hit his wife Stephanie with it. The Rock would win the match to retain the title.
Angle was involved in a love triangle with Triple H and Stephanie where he became infatuated with Stephanie. He bought her flowers and then knocked Triple H out with his sledgehammer and then kissing Stephanie. Angle defeated The Rock at No Mercy in October to win his first WWF Championship less than a year since he debuted in the company in what is perhaps the greatest first year in WWF/E history.
Two of the top Women wrestlers and even managers ever in WWF/E history Trish Stratus and Lita made their debuts during the year. They would be involved in an off-again on-again feud until Trish retired as it was perhaps the best women's feud in WWF/E history.
Trish debuted as manager of Test and Albert (collectively known as "T&A" for tits and asses mainly because of Trish). Trish was also the manager of Val Venis guiding him to the Intercontinental Championship until he lost it. Lita was the manager of The Hardy Boyz. She would eventually have an on-air relationship with Matt Hardy which eventually turned into an out of the ring relationship.
Trish and Lita would face off against each other in singles competition or even mixed tag teams. Lita even won the WWF Women's Championship from Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley before losing it to Ivory late in the year.
Ivory was part of this group The Right to Censor, who were against the sexual nature and violence of the Attitude Era of the WWF. They were led by Stevie Richards as Bull Buchanan and Ivory joined the group and they eventually got two of the wrestlers that displayed the Attitude Era in The Godfather (renamed Goodfather) and the wannabe porn star Val Venis to join them.
They dressed super conservatively wearing a white button down dress shirt with a black tie and black pants (with Ivory wearing a long black skirt and her hair tied back into a bun to look less provocative).
To keep up with the Attitude Era trends, the "World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry was also nicknamed "Sexual Chocolate" because of his "sex addiction" which he admitted to on TV. Henry romanced women in the WWF from Chyna to the 77-year-old Mae Young.
Henry was involved in a very infamous and embarrassing storyline where Young was "pregnant" with Henry's child. Young would be squashed by the 500-lb. Viscera while carrying Henry's child. When she gave birth, all that came out was simply a "hand."
In conjunction with the Attitude Era as well as the popularity of ECW Hardcore Wrestling along with the working relationship between the WWF and ECW, the WWF introduced Hardcore Championship.
The title was first given to Mick Foley in late 1998 by Vince McMahon for cheering him up while he was in the hospital. The original title belt was an old WWF "Winged Eagle" World Heavyweight Championship belt that was originally destroyed by Mr. Perfect smashing it with a hammer and the belt was duck taped together with Hardcore written on it.
Ironically, Foley would only hold the title one time even though he was the first real hardcore style wrestler the company hired. Initially, Hardcore Championship matches were No-Holds Barred, Falls Count Anywhere matches.
Then when Crash Holly won it in 2000, he instituted the "24/7 rule" where the title could be defended at any time anywhere as long as a referee was present. This created some creative and hilarious title changes where a wrestler could be asleep and someone pins him to win the title.
This also led to a number of wrestlers, especially those you wouldn't think of as hardcore wrestlers, such as one of Godfather's Hos as example and old timers Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, being the Hardcore champion. Raven, who joined the WWF in 2000 after a stop in ECW, has the record number of reigns with 27. Holly
WCW would even create their own Hardcore division and championship that lasted until its demise in 2001. WCW's Hardcore Championship matches were mainly Falls Count Anywhere matches but they did not have the 24/7 rule like the WWF as they had to be defended at WCW events at WCW arenas.
Stone Cold Steve Austin returned from the car accident he suffered nine months prior at the September Unforgiven PPV looking for the person who ran him over with the car. Austin attacked anyone and everyone he suspected ran him over with the car. He gave Shane McMahon three Stone Cold Stunners. Austin also debuted a new entrance theme that night that was sung by the hit band Disturbed.
Austin spent the next several weeks on episodes of Raw and SmackDown looking for the attacker as WWF Commissioner Mick Foley was trying to help solve the mystery. Triple H and Kurt Angle comedically tried to blame each other as Austin's attacker. Evidence shockingly was pointing the way of The Rock as it was Rock's car that was used to run down Austin.
It would not be The Rock that ran down Austin. It was announced on the October 9, 2000 episode of Raw is War that Rikishi was the one who hit Austin as Rikishi admitted to doing it for his real life cousin The Rock who he felt that the Samoans were always held back by the WWF and that they always favored the white man for the WWF Championship.
Austin took on Rikishi in a No Holds Barred Match at the No Mercy PPV in what was Austin's first match in nearly a year due to the neck surgery he had. Austin viciously attacked and bloodied Rikishi and attempted to run him over in his truck before police showed up and "arrested" Austin. Rikishi later interfered and accidentally cost his cousin The Rock the WWF Championship against Kurt Angle.
Rikishi asked The Rock to forgive him but Rock refused. Rikishi would ultimately attack Rock and informed everyone that Rock knew about the accident and even gave him the keys to his car. The two squared off at Survivor Series with The Rock victorious but Rikishi viciously attacking him after the match by giving him four Banzai Drops, props to their late cousin Yokozuna.
While Rikishi was the one behind the wheel to run over Austin, he was just an accomplice as someone put him up to it and it wasn't The Rock. Austin was once hit in the back of the head with a wrench by the person behind this while he was on his way to the ring to take down Rikishi.
On the November 6, 2000 episode of Raw is War, Rock was supposed to team with Austin to take on Rikishi and Kurt Angle in the main event. However before the match, someone attacked Rock with a metal pipe and took him out of the match, leaving it a Handicap match. The odds were too great for Austin to overcome as Rikishi and Angle double-teamed him.
All of a sudden, Triple H's music played and he came to the ring carrying a sledgehammer and chased Rikishi and Angle out of the ring. Triple H then hit Austin in the head with the sledgehammer and viciously attacked Austin. He then told everyone he was behind the attack all along as he did it to keep his WWF Championship around his waist at the time and take Austin out of the title picture once and for all.
Austin attempted to get his hands on Triple H as he faced him in a No Disqualification match at Survivor Series. The fight went to the backstage area when Triple H's allies The Radicalz attacked Austin. Triple H took off in a car.
Triple H attempted to run Austin over again like he did the previous year at Survivor Series. However, Austin appeared driving a forklift as he lifted up Triple H's car and dropped it some 30 feet in the air. The car landed on its roof with Triple H "inside" and stuck in the car.
Kurt Angle defended the WWF Championship against The Undertaker at Survivor Series. Angle's Team ECK allies Edge and Christian interfered in the match. Angle went underneath the ring. Undertaker pulled him back into the ring and gave him his new finisher "The Last Ride." The referee did not count three noticing it wasn't Kurt. Instead it was his brother Eric Angle. Kurt rolled Undertaker from behind to win the match and retain the title.
At the final PPV of 2000, Armageddon in December, Mick Foley made Angle defend his title against The Undertaker, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and Rikishi in a six-man Hell in a Cell match. Seeing how this could destroy his top wrestlers' careers, Vince McMahon tried to get all six men to back out of the match but failed to do so. Foley said if anyone got hurt, he'd resign as commissioner.
McMahon, Pat Patterson, and Gerald Brisco tried to destroy the cell with a pickup truck. Foley ordered the police to take all three away. The match was one of the most violent matches in WWF history. The Undertaker threw Rikishi off the side of the cage and he landed onto the bed of the truck McMahon used. Austin gave The Rock the Stunner. Triple H attacked Austin as Angle snuck on top of The Rock to win the match and retain the title.
Due to the violence of the match and Rikishi suffering an injury, Foley promised to resign as Commissioner but refused to do so and kept his job from support of Austin and the fans. However, McMahon ultimately got total control of the WWF and fired Foley. McMahon replaced him as WWF Commissioner with heel wrestler William Regal, who favored the heels over the faces.
To say the WWF was successful in 2000 would be an understatement. The WWF made over $68, nearly $69 million profit. That remains a record earned in professional wrestling for one year well topping WCW's peak of 1998 and the previous year's success of the Attitude Era in what was by far the best time in professional wrestling. WWF/E has not made $60 or more million in a year since.
2001 would be the year of change in professional wrestling as Vince McMahon was about to buy out his competition as well as head over to the grid iron.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Saturday, February 25, 2017
WWF 1999: The Death of Owen Hart; "Mick Foley Put My Butt In This Seat!"; Stone Cold, The Rock, and Triple H Dominate; The Corporate Ministry; SmackDown; Y2J; The Big Show
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
WCW 1999: Fingerpoke of Doom; Beginning of the End of WCW; Sting Briefly Turns Heel; Hogan Returns to Yellow and Red; Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara Come Over from the WWF; Jeff Jarrett Rejoins WCW One Night After Being in the WWF; nWo 2000
As we were going to end the 20th century and venture into a brand new millennium: the 2000s, WCW had still looked like it was going to be a thorn in the side of the WWF. Despite the WWF getting all the momentum of the Attitude Era and the birth of WCW's discarded wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin as they were taking over the ratings war, WCW seemed to still be on sound financial ground to continue the rivalry into the 21st century.
They did just make $50 million in 1998 despite slipping and falling behind the WWF as the top promotion in America. One thing though was that their main source of income all these years, Ted Turner, no longer was in control of WCW following the Time Warner merger and could not just write blank checks to cover their asses. Vince McMahon had no such problem he was the boss and put his heart and soul in it.
Early on in 1999, however, the end of WCW was about to unfold right before our very eyes. It started right off the bat on the January 4, 1999 episode of Monday Nitro. The show took place at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the same venue where Goldberg won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six months before from Hollywood Hulk Hogan on Nitro.
Goldberg since lost the title to nWo Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash at Starrcade '98 in December and along with that Goldberg also lost his undefeated streak, which ended at "173-0." There was supposed to be a title rematch against Goldberg and Nash that night. The match would not go on as a series of abominations transpired over the course of the evening.
The first and really most abomination was that Goldberg was "arrested" and taken to jail because he "aggravated stalked" Miss Elizabeth. It could have been worse believe it or not as the original storyline called for Goldberg to have "raped" her. What the fuck were they thinking?
Hollywood Hogan was at Nitro and he mocked Goldberg for getting arrested as remember Hogan was supposed to be retired and running for President? Nash believed Hogan was behind this and challenged him for the title which Hogan accepted. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was caught lying to the police and they freed Goldberg and were set to bring him back to the Georgia Dome.
Nash took on Hogan for the title in the rematch. After a few minutes of stalling, the two shoved each other. Hogan looked like he was going to punch Nash only for him to touch him in the chest with a finger. Nash went down like he was shot. Hogan suddenly covered Nash for the 1-2-3 and win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a total swerve and it pissed off the fans all over the world.
This was Nash and Hogan doing their best backstage politics. This incident would forever be known as the "Fingerpoke of Doom." Hogan and Nash were joined in the ring celebrating with a mix of nWo Wolfpac and Hollywood members Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, Buff Bagwell, and Elizabeth as the two factions reunited to form nWo Elite.
Goldberg made his way to the ring to attack everyone. nWo Wolfpac member Lex Luger ran in looking to help Goldberg take down the nWo. However, he attacked Goldberg joining nWo Elite as well. They beat on Goldberg and handcuffed him to the ropes and Hall shocked him with his Taser in a truly awful wrestling moment.
The disgrace of WCW did not end at Nitro that night as over in the WWF the same night on Raw, former WCW member Mick Foley, who wrestled as Cactus Jack and was Mankind in the WWF, took on The Rock for the WWF Championship.
The match was taped six days before on December 28, 1998 and played on January 4, 1999 as in those days, WWF hosted a live Raw on Monday and taped the following week's the next night on Tuesday whereas WCW Nitro was live each and every week.
The taped results were given away on Nitro like they did many times on the live Nitro. Announcer Tony Schiavone on orders from Eric Bischoff said that Foley defeated The Rock to win the WWF Championship so don't change the channel. He then infamously added "that's gonna put some butts in the seats!"
After Schiavone said that plus the knowledge that Foley already won the WWF Championship, some 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro on TNN and switched over to Raw on USA to see Foley win the title. Many fans switched back to Nitro to see the ending. Raw is War ended with a 5.7 rating compared to a 5.0 for Nitro.
Throughout the year at WWF events, signs would be seen in the audience reading "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat!!" Nitro had not beaten Raw in the ratings since October 26, 1998 would never beat Raw ever again and the January 4 episode was one of the last Nitros to even come close to Raw in the final ratings for the duration of the "Monday Night Wars."
In fact only three more times would Nitro ever get a 5.0 or higher rating and all three of those times came in the following five weeks (Jan. 11, 25, and Feb. 8, which saw a 5.7 on a week where Raw was preempted by the Westminster Dog Show).
The Fingerpoke of Doom did not immediately affect WCW but it slowly began to dwindle until the bottom completely fell out. It was not just the Fingerpoke of Doom or just Kevin Nash or just Hulk Hogan or just the nWo or just Eric Bischoff or just Thunder or just anything. No one thing could blame WCW's downfall it was a bunch of things collectively working together to kill the promotion. That's teamwork my friends!!!
I don't blame them for trying a swerve as I actually thought it was a great idea minus the Goldberg-Elizabeth angle. It was good to kind of go back to one nWo and try to regain heat as the ultimate bad guys. The reason why it bombed was that everyone was sick of the nWo and ready for something else and everyone was especially sick of Hogan and his creative control B.S.
Nash even got the mask off of Rey Mysterio, which upset Mysterio and his family as the mask in Mexico is about as sacred as you get, but WCW made him take the mask off. Mysterio feuded with Nash over the Latino World Order (LWO) which was a group of Mexican wrestlers sick of the nWo and started their own faction.
Mysterio and Konnan, who was also kicked out of the nWo, lost a tag team match against Nash and Scott Hall where if Mysterio and Konnan lost he lost his mask but if they won, Elizabeth would have to cut her hair. Mysterio was forced to unmask and wrestled the rest of his WCW without a mask. Nash carried the mask with him like it was some sort of trophy.
Mysterio upset Nash on the February 22, 1999 episode of Nitro but lost to Nash at Uncensored in March when Lex Luger interfered and helped Nash. Mysterio, much like the other Cruiserweights, never got a push as the main pushes went to the older Heavyweight wrestlers which was what Eric Bischoff wanted and the Cruiserweights were used as mid-card talent that still got over well with the fans.
The whole 1999 year as a whole for WCW was a major disappointment with a bunch of lousy storylines going nowhere and babyface and heel turns coming out of nowhere with no story to build it up. It would be very quick and random and when the fans did not respond to it or simply like myself confused they switched them right back to a babyface or heel without any warning.
Some examples of lousy storylines were Ric Flair assuming the President of WCW "for life" and going mad with power and even getting committed to a mental hospital and David Flair turning on and reuniting with his father Ric and the whole B.S. with the Hummer. It got to the point where WCW began to simply run out of ideas and since they could not really create new wrestlers they were about to fall apart.
One of the few positives was seeing Diamond Dallas Page win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at age 43, the oldest ever first time World Heavyweight Champion in pro wrestling history. Page defeated Hollywood Hogan, Sting, and champion Ric Flair in a Four Corners match at Spring Stampede in April.
One of the only really great moments in WCW in 1999 was on the March 29 episode of Nitro from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. Bret Hart came out to the partisan Canadian crowd wearing his Calgary Hitmen jersey and basically trashed WCW for not getting any world title shots.
Hart then challenged Goldberg to a match where he could beat him in five minutes or less as Hart took off his Hitmen jersey as he was wearing a Tie Domi Toronto Maple Leafs jersey underneath it to a loud roar from the Toronto crowd.
Goldberg came out and accepted Hart's challenge. Goldberg speared Hart, but Goldberg was not moving. Hart rolled Goldberg over and pinned him as he counted 1-2-3. Hart took off his jersey to show he had a metal plate underneath it. Hart then took the microphone and said "Hey Bischoff, I quit!" and left the ring.
Hart did not quit WCW as he was nursing an injury and needed time off. However before he could come back to the ring, his brother Owen tragically died in an accident flying down to the ring at the WWF PPV Over the Edge from Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on May 23, 1999. Hart took time off and even returned on WCW TV at the July 5, 1999 episode of Nitro from the Georgia Dome.
Hart took about 10 minutes to pour his heart out about his brother Owen. Bret mentioned how some of the fans at the Georgia Dome were disrespectful to Bret talking about his brother how they wanted him to hurry up so they could watch more wrestling just as Bret's time in WCW could not be irritating enough.
Hart returned to action in the fall and even took on fellow Alberta native and someone who trained in the Hart Family Dungeon Chris Benoit on the October 4, 1999 episode of Nitro. It was an Owen Hart tribute as Nitro was held at the same venue where Owen died in Kansas City. The match was amazing as many would think and Bret won by putting Benoit in the Sharpshooter, but the real winner was the fans and of course Owen.
On the April 5, 1999 episode of Nitro, WCW was "rebranded" with a brand new logo, new colors, and new theme music as it was a new era for WCW. The new logo made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The original WCW logo was pretty cool. The new WCW logo was so bad even USA Today made fun of it in their advertisement of WCW Nitro.
The Steiner Brothers reunited at Slamboree in May when Scott helped Rick win the WCW TV Title and Rick returned the favor helping Scott beat Buff Bagwell to retain his U.S. Title. Later that night, the Steiners along with Bret Hart attacked both Sting and Goldberg in the main event.
Scott helped Rick in his match with Sting at The Great American Bash in June when Rick fought Sting backstage and along with MMA/UFC shoot fighter Tank Abbott the three attacked Sting. Scott then sic'd a Doberman on Sting. The Steiner Brothers reunion did not last long though as Scott had to undergo a serious back surgery that nearly ended his career. Rick continued to wrestle single as well as team with other heels.
Hollywood Hogan was injured and took a couple of months off in the summer and came back as the babyface Hulk Hogan and wearing his trademark yellow-and-red for the first time in three years. He also became a babyface and even "Hulked up!" for the first time in three years when he became Hollywood Hogan. While Hogan was out, the nWo just faded away and was nothing but a distant memory.
Hogan won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the sixth and final time on his return on the July 12, 1999 episode of Nitro when he defeated "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Hogan was involved in a feud with his former nWo buddy Kevin Nash. Hogan defeated Nash at Road Wild in August and the loser was forced to "retire."
Hogan next entered a feud with Sting over the fact whether Sting could trust Hogan or not as Lex Luger told Sting not to trust Hogan as he was the same old Hollywood Hogan. Hogan gave Sting a title shot at Fall Brawl in September.
During the course of the match, numerous wrestlers interfered on both men's behalf. Luger attempted to hit Hogan with a baseball bat. But Sting got the bat and attacked Hogan with it, knocking him out and winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and turned heel for the first time in his illustrious WCW career.
Sting's heel run was a disaster from the standpoint of the fans cheered for him very loudly as they were still on Sting's side. Even when an un-face painted Sting attacked WCW Commissioner James J. Dillon for Dillon stripping Sting of the WCW World Title due to his actions at Halloween Havoc, the fans cheered very loudly for Sting beating the hell out of him.
Sting quickly turned back to a babyface when he was betrayed by Luger. They fought at Starrcade '99 and Luger "broke" Sting's arm with the bat and a steel chair. Sting returned in early 2000 to settle the score with The Total Package.
About six years after nearly stabbing Arn Anderson to death and getting fired from WCW because of it, Sid Vicious returned to WCW in June 1999. Sid began this "Millennium Man" gimmick where he was undefeated since returning to WCW and would remain undefeated through the new millennium and would even do better than Goldberg's 173-0 record. Sid lost twice to Goldberg at Halloween Havoc and the new PPV Mayhem ending his unbeaten streak.
WCW was suffering with their first financial losses since 1995. Eric Bischoff continued to build WCW with aging stars in their 40s and even 50s such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Hall, and Sid Vicious making millions of dollars with fat guaranteed contracts.
The younger stars especially the Cruiserweights were never getting pushes whatsoever and were buried. Bischoff also got criticism for taking the World Title off of Goldberg and ending his undefeated streak at Starrcade '98 despite Goldberg being the top draw and him earning nearly $1 million for three shows in December 1998 and January 1999.
WCW was struggling in the second half of 1999 and there were reports that the company was losing approximately $5 million a month. Overall attendance, PPV buys, and ratings were down signficantly. Bischoff knew he needed to turn this around quick or else he'd be out of a job.
Bischoff decided to bring in bands such as KISS, Megadeth, and Insane Clown Posse in to try and raise more awareness and bring more eyes to WCW. KISS was brought in specifically to have their own wrestler the "KISS Demon" which failed dramatically. Having older bands like KISS and Megadeth (I liked Megadeth) instead of what was in at the time like Limp Bizkit and any kind of rap hip pop bombed.
Insane Clown Posse (ICP) came to wrestle in WCW after a brief stint in the WWE in 1998 as they were actual wrestlers despite being known as rappers. They teamed with Raven (before he left WCW), Vampiro, The Great Muta, and The Demon to form the Dark Carnival from 1999-2000. ICP have their own pro wrestling promotion: Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
WCW also brought in Rapper Master P who created a stable called The No Limit Soldiers with a group of wrestlers led by Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr. They feuded with The West Texas Rednecks (Curt Hennig, Barry and Kendall Windham, and Bobby Duncam Jr.) over the Rednecks hating rap music and preferred country.
The Rednecks had this total country redneck gimmick and even recorded a song titled "Rap is Crap (I Hate Rap)." The Soldiers were supposed to be faces while the Rednecks were supposed to be heels. However in the mainly southern-based WCW, the Rednecks were the faces and the Soldiers were heels. The gimmick bombed tremendously.
The super decline in ratings, attendance, PPV buys along with serious financial losses and bombed gimmicks were enough for President of Turner Sports and Bischoff's boss Harvey Schiller, who relieved Eric Bischoff of his duties of President of WCW on September 10, 1999.
The job title of "President of WCW" was eliminated and Bischoff was replaced by WCW accountant Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President. Busch would soon hire WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara on October 5, 1999.
Russo and Ferrara were the writers, Russo head writer, of WWF Raw and their pay-per-views which ultimately went from losing to WCW to beating WCW. Some of Russo's ideas to turn the WWF around was the rise of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character and him fighting with Vince McMahon, who was then known as "Mr. McMahon."
He also came up with D-Generation X, The Rock, Kane vs. The Undertaker, and Mick Foley. His edgy and controversial storylines took Raw from losing to Nitro in the ratings for 84 straight weeks to ultimately beating Nitro as Raw would continue to do so after Russo and Ferrara left.
Russo and Ferrara left the WWF because of the long hours dealing with Vince McMahon as well as an increased workload with the debut of their new hit show SmackDown. WCW wanted Russo and Ferrara to produce the same style of "Crash TV" that the WWF produced in the Attitude Era to increase the ratings.
Russo and Ferrara were given this on-screen gimmick known as "The Powers That Be." They would not be shown on TV only a shadow of them or the backs of their chairs as Russo's voice was heard. Ferrara gained a ton of heat for his "Oklahoma" character where he portrayed Jim Ross with his face purposely slumped due to Ross' bouts of Bells Palsy, which disfigured his face. Pretty much everyone rightfully so hated this.
The Powers That Be often favored the heels over the babyfaces and forced the faces to do things they did not want to do in threats of being fired and often screwed the faces over. Russo decided to take a lot of the older talent in WCW such as Hulk Hogan, Sting, and Ric Flair among many others off of TV at the end of 1999 to make it look like he was ruining them and burying them.
His plan was to build them back up like they were superheroes and come back better than ever to take out the younger guys and Russo. He had Hogan lay down in the middle of the ring in his match against Sting at Halloween Havoc, allowing Sting to simply pin him to win the match and Hogan left the ring never to be seen on TV the rest of the year. He also had Flair buried in a desert somewhere after Halloween Havoc.
Unfortunately, this plan would not go on as planned as Russo was removed as head writer and let go of WCW briefly in January 2000. With the ratings continuing to plummet, WCW needed to bring back Hogan, Flair, and Sting before what was originally planned for damage control as unfortunately there was no storylines for their return and could not get built up.
The Powers That Be even had their "Chosen One" in Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett returned to WCW after a two-year stint in the WWF on the October 18, 1999 episode of Nitro, where he hit Buff Bagwell with a guitar and proclaimed himself "The Chosen One."
Jarrett continued a habit he had in the WWF where he would break a guitar over a wrestler's head and would do so for the remainder of WCW. Jarrett's return to WCW came one night after he lost the WWF Intercontinental Championship to female wrestler Chyna at the WWF No Mercy PPV as he left the company that night. Jarrett appeared on WWF TV one night and on WCW TV the next.
Jarrett's contract expired the day before the PPV and in order for him to show up and lose the title to Chyna, he reportedly held up Vince McMahon for $300,000 or else he wouldn't show. Jarrett appeared and there is bad blood between the WWE and Jarrett this day.
Bret Hart finally got the big break in WCW he had hoped for since being in the company for two years. At the inaugural Mayhem PPV on November 21 in Toronto in Hart's home country of Canada, Hart defeated Sting in the semifinals and Chris Benoit in the finals of the tournament to win the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
Hart also became the only man to win both the WWF/E and WCW Triple Crown Championship.Hart had a new number one contender for his World Title in Goldberg and Hart defended the title against him in the main event at Starrcade '99. During the match, Goldberg gave Hart a superkick and kicked him so hard it gave Hart a concussion, which he did not know he had.
Hart said he suffered up to an additional three concussions in this match due to the hard blows he received to his head by Goldberg and Hart said the kick tore a muscle in his neck that still remains to this day. This concussion ultimately ended his wrestling career and forced him to retire in 2000. Some believe that the concussions ultimately triggered his stroke he suffered in 2002.
The end of the match saw the referee get knocked down. Hart put Goldberg in the Sharpshooter. With the referee down, Roddy Piper came to the ring and called for the bell and awarded the match to Hart despite Goldberg not submitting. This was reminiscent of the Montreal Screwjob in 1997 as Hart was on the other end of the screwjob. Hart walked back to the dressing confused as to what was going on.
The next night on the December 20, 1999 episode of Nitro, it was revealed that Vince Russo forced Piper to call for the bell to make up for what happened to Hart in Montreal in 1997. Hart did not want to win the title this way so he vacated it and decided to take on Goldberg in the main event that night for the vacant World Title.
Again the referee was knocked out in the match. Hart had Goldberg in the Figure Four Leg Lock when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash entered the ring with baseball bats looking to attack both men. Then they suddenly just hit Goldberg with the bats and did not touch Hart. Hart grabbed one of the bats and began whacking Goldberg with it aligning himself with Hall and Nash.
Piper came out to confront the men only for Jeff Jarrett to come to the ring and knock Piper out with his guitar. Hart covered Piper actually not Goldberg but the referee regained consciousness and counted three as Hart won back the World Title. The foursome celebrated by spray-painting "nWo" on Goldberg and Piper and the nWo music played as the nWo once again formed.
They referred to themselves as "nWo 2000" and had black-and-silver instead of the traditional black-and-white. They controlled all of the main titles in WCW as Hart was WCW World Champion, Jarrett was United States Champion, and Hall and Nash were World Tag Team Champions.
The following week on the December 27 episode of Nitro, Scott Steiner came to the ring wearing a back brace and gave an emotional speech that he was retiring due to his back injury. The nWo 2000 came out and mocked him and told him to get out of the ring.
Later that night, Steiner came to the ring wearing his back brace and carrying a baseball bat along with Sid Vicious as they were going to take out the nWo. As Sid was about to Powerbomb Jarrett, Steiner hit Sid with the bat.
He took off his brace and shirt to show he was wearing an nWo t-shirt as he was part of the nWo. They continued to beat on Sid and threw him into a car and were about to run him over in an nWo Monster Truck as the show went off the air.
WCW tried to bring back the nWo one last time to try to turn things around but it would not last too long. The angle would be over early in 2000 when injuries and other interests ended the nWo once and for all in WCW.
WCW entered the final year of the decade/century/millennium with all the momentum on their side only to pretty much destroy it in one year. There was no one thing that ruined WCW it was a collective number of things. One year after making a whopping $50 million, WCW lost $15 million in 1999. The WWF topped what WCW made in 1998-99 by making $56 million.
However as they went into the new millennium, the worst was yet to come. What WCW lost in 1999 was nothing compared to what they were about to endure in 2000.
They did just make $50 million in 1998 despite slipping and falling behind the WWF as the top promotion in America. One thing though was that their main source of income all these years, Ted Turner, no longer was in control of WCW following the Time Warner merger and could not just write blank checks to cover their asses. Vince McMahon had no such problem he was the boss and put his heart and soul in it.
Early on in 1999, however, the end of WCW was about to unfold right before our very eyes. It started right off the bat on the January 4, 1999 episode of Monday Nitro. The show took place at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the same venue where Goldberg won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship six months before from Hollywood Hulk Hogan on Nitro.
Goldberg since lost the title to nWo Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash at Starrcade '98 in December and along with that Goldberg also lost his undefeated streak, which ended at "173-0." There was supposed to be a title rematch against Goldberg and Nash that night. The match would not go on as a series of abominations transpired over the course of the evening.
The first and really most abomination was that Goldberg was "arrested" and taken to jail because he "aggravated stalked" Miss Elizabeth. It could have been worse believe it or not as the original storyline called for Goldberg to have "raped" her. What the fuck were they thinking?
Hollywood Hogan was at Nitro and he mocked Goldberg for getting arrested as remember Hogan was supposed to be retired and running for President? Nash believed Hogan was behind this and challenged him for the title which Hogan accepted. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was caught lying to the police and they freed Goldberg and were set to bring him back to the Georgia Dome.
Nash took on Hogan for the title in the rematch. After a few minutes of stalling, the two shoved each other. Hogan looked like he was going to punch Nash only for him to touch him in the chest with a finger. Nash went down like he was shot. Hogan suddenly covered Nash for the 1-2-3 and win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a total swerve and it pissed off the fans all over the world.
This was Nash and Hogan doing their best backstage politics. This incident would forever be known as the "Fingerpoke of Doom." Hogan and Nash were joined in the ring celebrating with a mix of nWo Wolfpac and Hollywood members Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, Buff Bagwell, and Elizabeth as the two factions reunited to form nWo Elite.
Goldberg made his way to the ring to attack everyone. nWo Wolfpac member Lex Luger ran in looking to help Goldberg take down the nWo. However, he attacked Goldberg joining nWo Elite as well. They beat on Goldberg and handcuffed him to the ropes and Hall shocked him with his Taser in a truly awful wrestling moment.
The disgrace of WCW did not end at Nitro that night as over in the WWF the same night on Raw, former WCW member Mick Foley, who wrestled as Cactus Jack and was Mankind in the WWF, took on The Rock for the WWF Championship.
The match was taped six days before on December 28, 1998 and played on January 4, 1999 as in those days, WWF hosted a live Raw on Monday and taped the following week's the next night on Tuesday whereas WCW Nitro was live each and every week.
The taped results were given away on Nitro like they did many times on the live Nitro. Announcer Tony Schiavone on orders from Eric Bischoff said that Foley defeated The Rock to win the WWF Championship so don't change the channel. He then infamously added "that's gonna put some butts in the seats!"
After Schiavone said that plus the knowledge that Foley already won the WWF Championship, some 600,000 viewers switched from Nitro on TNN and switched over to Raw on USA to see Foley win the title. Many fans switched back to Nitro to see the ending. Raw is War ended with a 5.7 rating compared to a 5.0 for Nitro.
Throughout the year at WWF events, signs would be seen in the audience reading "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat!!" Nitro had not beaten Raw in the ratings since October 26, 1998 would never beat Raw ever again and the January 4 episode was one of the last Nitros to even come close to Raw in the final ratings for the duration of the "Monday Night Wars."
In fact only three more times would Nitro ever get a 5.0 or higher rating and all three of those times came in the following five weeks (Jan. 11, 25, and Feb. 8, which saw a 5.7 on a week where Raw was preempted by the Westminster Dog Show).
The Fingerpoke of Doom did not immediately affect WCW but it slowly began to dwindle until the bottom completely fell out. It was not just the Fingerpoke of Doom or just Kevin Nash or just Hulk Hogan or just the nWo or just Eric Bischoff or just Thunder or just anything. No one thing could blame WCW's downfall it was a bunch of things collectively working together to kill the promotion. That's teamwork my friends!!!
I don't blame them for trying a swerve as I actually thought it was a great idea minus the Goldberg-Elizabeth angle. It was good to kind of go back to one nWo and try to regain heat as the ultimate bad guys. The reason why it bombed was that everyone was sick of the nWo and ready for something else and everyone was especially sick of Hogan and his creative control B.S.
Nash even got the mask off of Rey Mysterio, which upset Mysterio and his family as the mask in Mexico is about as sacred as you get, but WCW made him take the mask off. Mysterio feuded with Nash over the Latino World Order (LWO) which was a group of Mexican wrestlers sick of the nWo and started their own faction.
Mysterio and Konnan, who was also kicked out of the nWo, lost a tag team match against Nash and Scott Hall where if Mysterio and Konnan lost he lost his mask but if they won, Elizabeth would have to cut her hair. Mysterio was forced to unmask and wrestled the rest of his WCW without a mask. Nash carried the mask with him like it was some sort of trophy.
Mysterio upset Nash on the February 22, 1999 episode of Nitro but lost to Nash at Uncensored in March when Lex Luger interfered and helped Nash. Mysterio, much like the other Cruiserweights, never got a push as the main pushes went to the older Heavyweight wrestlers which was what Eric Bischoff wanted and the Cruiserweights were used as mid-card talent that still got over well with the fans.
The whole 1999 year as a whole for WCW was a major disappointment with a bunch of lousy storylines going nowhere and babyface and heel turns coming out of nowhere with no story to build it up. It would be very quick and random and when the fans did not respond to it or simply like myself confused they switched them right back to a babyface or heel without any warning.
Some examples of lousy storylines were Ric Flair assuming the President of WCW "for life" and going mad with power and even getting committed to a mental hospital and David Flair turning on and reuniting with his father Ric and the whole B.S. with the Hummer. It got to the point where WCW began to simply run out of ideas and since they could not really create new wrestlers they were about to fall apart.
One of the few positives was seeing Diamond Dallas Page win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at age 43, the oldest ever first time World Heavyweight Champion in pro wrestling history. Page defeated Hollywood Hogan, Sting, and champion Ric Flair in a Four Corners match at Spring Stampede in April.
One of the only really great moments in WCW in 1999 was on the March 29 episode of Nitro from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. Bret Hart came out to the partisan Canadian crowd wearing his Calgary Hitmen jersey and basically trashed WCW for not getting any world title shots.
Hart then challenged Goldberg to a match where he could beat him in five minutes or less as Hart took off his Hitmen jersey as he was wearing a Tie Domi Toronto Maple Leafs jersey underneath it to a loud roar from the Toronto crowd.
Goldberg came out and accepted Hart's challenge. Goldberg speared Hart, but Goldberg was not moving. Hart rolled Goldberg over and pinned him as he counted 1-2-3. Hart took off his jersey to show he had a metal plate underneath it. Hart then took the microphone and said "Hey Bischoff, I quit!" and left the ring.
Hart did not quit WCW as he was nursing an injury and needed time off. However before he could come back to the ring, his brother Owen tragically died in an accident flying down to the ring at the WWF PPV Over the Edge from Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on May 23, 1999. Hart took time off and even returned on WCW TV at the July 5, 1999 episode of Nitro from the Georgia Dome.
Hart took about 10 minutes to pour his heart out about his brother Owen. Bret mentioned how some of the fans at the Georgia Dome were disrespectful to Bret talking about his brother how they wanted him to hurry up so they could watch more wrestling just as Bret's time in WCW could not be irritating enough.
Hart returned to action in the fall and even took on fellow Alberta native and someone who trained in the Hart Family Dungeon Chris Benoit on the October 4, 1999 episode of Nitro. It was an Owen Hart tribute as Nitro was held at the same venue where Owen died in Kansas City. The match was amazing as many would think and Bret won by putting Benoit in the Sharpshooter, but the real winner was the fans and of course Owen.
On the April 5, 1999 episode of Nitro, WCW was "rebranded" with a brand new logo, new colors, and new theme music as it was a new era for WCW. The new logo made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The original WCW logo was pretty cool. The new WCW logo was so bad even USA Today made fun of it in their advertisement of WCW Nitro.
The Steiner Brothers reunited at Slamboree in May when Scott helped Rick win the WCW TV Title and Rick returned the favor helping Scott beat Buff Bagwell to retain his U.S. Title. Later that night, the Steiners along with Bret Hart attacked both Sting and Goldberg in the main event.
Scott helped Rick in his match with Sting at The Great American Bash in June when Rick fought Sting backstage and along with MMA/UFC shoot fighter Tank Abbott the three attacked Sting. Scott then sic'd a Doberman on Sting. The Steiner Brothers reunion did not last long though as Scott had to undergo a serious back surgery that nearly ended his career. Rick continued to wrestle single as well as team with other heels.
Hollywood Hogan was injured and took a couple of months off in the summer and came back as the babyface Hulk Hogan and wearing his trademark yellow-and-red for the first time in three years. He also became a babyface and even "Hulked up!" for the first time in three years when he became Hollywood Hogan. While Hogan was out, the nWo just faded away and was nothing but a distant memory.
Hogan won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the sixth and final time on his return on the July 12, 1999 episode of Nitro when he defeated "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Hogan was involved in a feud with his former nWo buddy Kevin Nash. Hogan defeated Nash at Road Wild in August and the loser was forced to "retire."
Hogan next entered a feud with Sting over the fact whether Sting could trust Hogan or not as Lex Luger told Sting not to trust Hogan as he was the same old Hollywood Hogan. Hogan gave Sting a title shot at Fall Brawl in September.
During the course of the match, numerous wrestlers interfered on both men's behalf. Luger attempted to hit Hogan with a baseball bat. But Sting got the bat and attacked Hogan with it, knocking him out and winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and turned heel for the first time in his illustrious WCW career.
Sting's heel run was a disaster from the standpoint of the fans cheered for him very loudly as they were still on Sting's side. Even when an un-face painted Sting attacked WCW Commissioner James J. Dillon for Dillon stripping Sting of the WCW World Title due to his actions at Halloween Havoc, the fans cheered very loudly for Sting beating the hell out of him.
Sting quickly turned back to a babyface when he was betrayed by Luger. They fought at Starrcade '99 and Luger "broke" Sting's arm with the bat and a steel chair. Sting returned in early 2000 to settle the score with The Total Package.
About six years after nearly stabbing Arn Anderson to death and getting fired from WCW because of it, Sid Vicious returned to WCW in June 1999. Sid began this "Millennium Man" gimmick where he was undefeated since returning to WCW and would remain undefeated through the new millennium and would even do better than Goldberg's 173-0 record. Sid lost twice to Goldberg at Halloween Havoc and the new PPV Mayhem ending his unbeaten streak.
WCW was suffering with their first financial losses since 1995. Eric Bischoff continued to build WCW with aging stars in their 40s and even 50s such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Hall, and Sid Vicious making millions of dollars with fat guaranteed contracts.
The younger stars especially the Cruiserweights were never getting pushes whatsoever and were buried. Bischoff also got criticism for taking the World Title off of Goldberg and ending his undefeated streak at Starrcade '98 despite Goldberg being the top draw and him earning nearly $1 million for three shows in December 1998 and January 1999.
WCW was struggling in the second half of 1999 and there were reports that the company was losing approximately $5 million a month. Overall attendance, PPV buys, and ratings were down signficantly. Bischoff knew he needed to turn this around quick or else he'd be out of a job.
Bischoff decided to bring in bands such as KISS, Megadeth, and Insane Clown Posse in to try and raise more awareness and bring more eyes to WCW. KISS was brought in specifically to have their own wrestler the "KISS Demon" which failed dramatically. Having older bands like KISS and Megadeth (I liked Megadeth) instead of what was in at the time like Limp Bizkit and any kind of rap hip pop bombed.
Insane Clown Posse (ICP) came to wrestle in WCW after a brief stint in the WWE in 1998 as they were actual wrestlers despite being known as rappers. They teamed with Raven (before he left WCW), Vampiro, The Great Muta, and The Demon to form the Dark Carnival from 1999-2000. ICP have their own pro wrestling promotion: Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
WCW also brought in Rapper Master P who created a stable called The No Limit Soldiers with a group of wrestlers led by Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr. They feuded with The West Texas Rednecks (Curt Hennig, Barry and Kendall Windham, and Bobby Duncam Jr.) over the Rednecks hating rap music and preferred country.
The Rednecks had this total country redneck gimmick and even recorded a song titled "Rap is Crap (I Hate Rap)." The Soldiers were supposed to be faces while the Rednecks were supposed to be heels. However in the mainly southern-based WCW, the Rednecks were the faces and the Soldiers were heels. The gimmick bombed tremendously.
The super decline in ratings, attendance, PPV buys along with serious financial losses and bombed gimmicks were enough for President of Turner Sports and Bischoff's boss Harvey Schiller, who relieved Eric Bischoff of his duties of President of WCW on September 10, 1999.
The job title of "President of WCW" was eliminated and Bischoff was replaced by WCW accountant Bill Busch, who was named Senior Vice President. Busch would soon hire WWF head writer Vince Russo and his colleague Ed Ferrara on October 5, 1999.
Russo and Ferrara were the writers, Russo head writer, of WWF Raw and their pay-per-views which ultimately went from losing to WCW to beating WCW. Some of Russo's ideas to turn the WWF around was the rise of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character and him fighting with Vince McMahon, who was then known as "Mr. McMahon."
He also came up with D-Generation X, The Rock, Kane vs. The Undertaker, and Mick Foley. His edgy and controversial storylines took Raw from losing to Nitro in the ratings for 84 straight weeks to ultimately beating Nitro as Raw would continue to do so after Russo and Ferrara left.
Russo and Ferrara left the WWF because of the long hours dealing with Vince McMahon as well as an increased workload with the debut of their new hit show SmackDown. WCW wanted Russo and Ferrara to produce the same style of "Crash TV" that the WWF produced in the Attitude Era to increase the ratings.
Russo and Ferrara were given this on-screen gimmick known as "The Powers That Be." They would not be shown on TV only a shadow of them or the backs of their chairs as Russo's voice was heard. Ferrara gained a ton of heat for his "Oklahoma" character where he portrayed Jim Ross with his face purposely slumped due to Ross' bouts of Bells Palsy, which disfigured his face. Pretty much everyone rightfully so hated this.
The Powers That Be often favored the heels over the babyfaces and forced the faces to do things they did not want to do in threats of being fired and often screwed the faces over. Russo decided to take a lot of the older talent in WCW such as Hulk Hogan, Sting, and Ric Flair among many others off of TV at the end of 1999 to make it look like he was ruining them and burying them.
His plan was to build them back up like they were superheroes and come back better than ever to take out the younger guys and Russo. He had Hogan lay down in the middle of the ring in his match against Sting at Halloween Havoc, allowing Sting to simply pin him to win the match and Hogan left the ring never to be seen on TV the rest of the year. He also had Flair buried in a desert somewhere after Halloween Havoc.
Unfortunately, this plan would not go on as planned as Russo was removed as head writer and let go of WCW briefly in January 2000. With the ratings continuing to plummet, WCW needed to bring back Hogan, Flair, and Sting before what was originally planned for damage control as unfortunately there was no storylines for their return and could not get built up.
The Powers That Be even had their "Chosen One" in Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett returned to WCW after a two-year stint in the WWF on the October 18, 1999 episode of Nitro, where he hit Buff Bagwell with a guitar and proclaimed himself "The Chosen One."
Jarrett continued a habit he had in the WWF where he would break a guitar over a wrestler's head and would do so for the remainder of WCW. Jarrett's return to WCW came one night after he lost the WWF Intercontinental Championship to female wrestler Chyna at the WWF No Mercy PPV as he left the company that night. Jarrett appeared on WWF TV one night and on WCW TV the next.
Jarrett's contract expired the day before the PPV and in order for him to show up and lose the title to Chyna, he reportedly held up Vince McMahon for $300,000 or else he wouldn't show. Jarrett appeared and there is bad blood between the WWE and Jarrett this day.
Bret Hart finally got the big break in WCW he had hoped for since being in the company for two years. At the inaugural Mayhem PPV on November 21 in Toronto in Hart's home country of Canada, Hart defeated Sting in the semifinals and Chris Benoit in the finals of the tournament to win the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
Hart also became the only man to win both the WWF/E and WCW Triple Crown Championship.Hart had a new number one contender for his World Title in Goldberg and Hart defended the title against him in the main event at Starrcade '99. During the match, Goldberg gave Hart a superkick and kicked him so hard it gave Hart a concussion, which he did not know he had.
Hart said he suffered up to an additional three concussions in this match due to the hard blows he received to his head by Goldberg and Hart said the kick tore a muscle in his neck that still remains to this day. This concussion ultimately ended his wrestling career and forced him to retire in 2000. Some believe that the concussions ultimately triggered his stroke he suffered in 2002.
The end of the match saw the referee get knocked down. Hart put Goldberg in the Sharpshooter. With the referee down, Roddy Piper came to the ring and called for the bell and awarded the match to Hart despite Goldberg not submitting. This was reminiscent of the Montreal Screwjob in 1997 as Hart was on the other end of the screwjob. Hart walked back to the dressing confused as to what was going on.
The next night on the December 20, 1999 episode of Nitro, it was revealed that Vince Russo forced Piper to call for the bell to make up for what happened to Hart in Montreal in 1997. Hart did not want to win the title this way so he vacated it and decided to take on Goldberg in the main event that night for the vacant World Title.
Again the referee was knocked out in the match. Hart had Goldberg in the Figure Four Leg Lock when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash entered the ring with baseball bats looking to attack both men. Then they suddenly just hit Goldberg with the bats and did not touch Hart. Hart grabbed one of the bats and began whacking Goldberg with it aligning himself with Hall and Nash.
Piper came out to confront the men only for Jeff Jarrett to come to the ring and knock Piper out with his guitar. Hart covered Piper actually not Goldberg but the referee regained consciousness and counted three as Hart won back the World Title. The foursome celebrated by spray-painting "nWo" on Goldberg and Piper and the nWo music played as the nWo once again formed.
They referred to themselves as "nWo 2000" and had black-and-silver instead of the traditional black-and-white. They controlled all of the main titles in WCW as Hart was WCW World Champion, Jarrett was United States Champion, and Hall and Nash were World Tag Team Champions.
The following week on the December 27 episode of Nitro, Scott Steiner came to the ring wearing a back brace and gave an emotional speech that he was retiring due to his back injury. The nWo 2000 came out and mocked him and told him to get out of the ring.
Later that night, Steiner came to the ring wearing his back brace and carrying a baseball bat along with Sid Vicious as they were going to take out the nWo. As Sid was about to Powerbomb Jarrett, Steiner hit Sid with the bat.
He took off his brace and shirt to show he was wearing an nWo t-shirt as he was part of the nWo. They continued to beat on Sid and threw him into a car and were about to run him over in an nWo Monster Truck as the show went off the air.
WCW tried to bring back the nWo one last time to try to turn things around but it would not last too long. The angle would be over early in 2000 when injuries and other interests ended the nWo once and for all in WCW.
WCW entered the final year of the decade/century/millennium with all the momentum on their side only to pretty much destroy it in one year. There was no one thing that ruined WCW it was a collective number of things. One year after making a whopping $50 million, WCW lost $15 million in 1999. The WWF topped what WCW made in 1998-99 by making $56 million.
However as they went into the new millennium, the worst was yet to come. What WCW lost in 1999 was nothing compared to what they were about to endure in 2000.
Monday, February 20, 2017
ECW 1999: Taz World Champion and then Leaves; Franchise and the Dudleys Leave as Well; Raven and Sandman Return; RVD Remains on Top; ECW on TNN; The Impact Players
ECW was thriving with its cult-like popularity among the hardcore fans
Despite increased PPVs over the previous two years (four to six-seven by 1999), ECW needed a network television show to help overcome financial hardships. The syndicated ECW Hardcore TV was super popular since the beginnings of ECW but that and PPVs alone could help ECW survive without a legitimate network TV deal.
What was originally The Nashville Network (before it became Spike TV as it is currently known) as it eventually became The National Network or simply "TNN" in 2000 and the owners Westinghouse-CBS decided to put ECW on their station to give ECW their network TV deal they so desperately needed.
TNN replaced their country music and southeast based programming with more exciting youth-oriented to target the 18-49 demographic so the exciting ECW was just what the company needed. They put ECW on their Friday night time slot as part of their "Friday Night Thrill Zone" block along with the roller derby "RollerJam" show. More of ECW on TNN later.
Shane Douglas began 1999 the way 1997 ended and how 1998 began and ended by being the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. He had been the ECW Champion since November 1997 when he was forced to finally defend the title against Taz as January 10th's Guilty as Charged PPV.
Taz made him tap out to the Tazmission to finally win the ECW World Heavyweight Champion and end Douglas' record reign at 406 days. Douglas also had the second-longest reign as ECW World Champion at 385 days from March 1994 to April 1995. For Taz being on top was a long time coming as he had been with the company for six long years and is now finally their world champion.
Taz defended his ECW World Title against old enemy Sabu at March's Living Dangerously PPV where Sabu also defended his FTW Heavyweight Championship in a unification match. After nearly 30 minutes, Taz made Sabu tap out to the Tazzmission to win back his FTW belt and unify the two titles. Taz and Sabu shook hands after the match.
Taz next dealt with the "King of Old School" Steve Corino and his ally Chris Candido and his old school manager Jack Victory. Corino's gimmick was that of a wrestler who detested the hardcore style of ECW and wanted things to go back to the good old days of wrestling and life in general, which was what ECW and the fans were against. This was a way to get the fans to hate Corino. Corino was legitimately a fan of the old school over the hardcore style.
Corino even once interrupted a Limp Bizkit concert to tell singer Fred Durst and the fans this is what is wrong with America as Corino was Canadian. He preferred old school bands to that of that day. Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten, and New Jack were there and attacked Corino.
After Taz dispatched Candido, Corino brought in someone new to try and take out Taz and that was the 6 ft 300 lb. monster known as Rhino. Rhino was a rookie in ECW and made an impact immediately as joined forces with Corino and Victory. However, Rhino could stop the mighty Human Suplex Machine Taz.
Taz defended his ECW World Title against Mike Awesome and Japanese star Masato Tanaka in a Three-Way Dance at the Anarchy Rulz PPV on September 19, 1999. Before the PPV, however, Taz was involved in a bitter contract dispute with ECW management and Paul Heyman. As it turned out, Taz would leave ECW and join the WWF for a really big contract that ECW could not come close to matching.
Word got out that Taz was leaving ECW to go to the WWF as he was still the ECW World Champion. Taz was the first one eliminated in the 3-Way Dance as he slowly walked back to the dressing room as fans knew this was one of the last times they would see Taz in ECW. Awesome pinned Tanaka to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
After losing the ECW World Title, Shane Douglas was set to name the next "Franchise." He had been working with Justin Credible and Lance Storm, who formed the tag team "The Impact Players", and was set to name one of them as the next Franchise of ECW.
Douglas instead named Tommy Dreamer as the next Franchise which incensed both Credible and Storm as both were feuding with Dreamer. They attacked Douglas as Douglas joined forces with Dreamer to take out the Impact Players. Douglas and Dreamer defeated the Impact Players at Living Dangerously in March. Storm has nearly as awesome of an entrance theme as Credible.
Douglas was set to take on Credible at Hardcore Heaven, but his ECW contract expired two weeks before the PPV. After a dispute over money, Douglas left the company that he was the Franchise for and took a really lucrative offer with WCW, where he wrestled in the early 1990s.
Douglas would reunite with former ECW alum Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Raven, and Perry Saturn. It was frustration during his two stints in WCW along with his stint in the WWF as Dean Douglas that helped create his legendary Franchise character in ECW.
Rob Van Dam remained ECW Television Champion throughout all 1999 as he was in the midst of his record 700-day reign as TV Champion. He took on all comers and turned away all comers to remain TV champion. His greatest matches in 1999 were with fellow high flyer Jerry Lynn as the RVD-Lynn matches were some of the best in ECW history.
RVD defended the title against Lynn at the Living Dangerously PPV in March. The match ended in a 20-minute time limit and the referee awarded the title to Lynn based on a referee's decision. Lynn, however, demanded a five-minute extension and lost to RVD after being hit with the Five Star Frog Splash to retain the title.
They faced off again two months later at the Hardcore Heaven PPV in a no time limit match as RVD again retained the title with the Five Star Frog Splash. Despite RVD winning the bulk of the matches, Lynn came out a winner as well for his efforts and work in the ring with one of the best in the company.
Paul Heyman signed a three-year contract with TNN with the thought that this would save ECW but it was not to be. The debut of ECW of TNN was on August 27, 1999; the five-year anniversary of Shane Douglas winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and throwing it on the ground and denouncing the NWA and "Extreme" Championship Wrestling was officially born that night. ECW on TNN was always on Friday nights.
Even though this was to give ECW the shot in the arm to continue to survive, ECW on TNN was a disaster for the company. It was a disaster from the get go as TNN wanted a much more toned down ECW than the hardcore product they've delivered which would reemphasize ECW's violent matches and sexual and graphic nature as this is now on network TV.
The first episode of ECW on TNN was on Friday night August 27 but the actual show itself was nothing more than a clip of show of the highlights of ECW as Heyman scrapped the original shooting of the pilot show due to the lack of attendance and crowd reaction and the overall look of the show.
Instead, Heyman aired the RVD-Jerry Lynn match from Hardcore Heaven along with a quick Taz squash match over the monster Rhino and Spike Dudley's win over Big Sal Graziano. The first show also featured interviews and highlights of the past ECW World and TV Champions including highlights of Douglas throwing down the NWA belt. Heyman and ECW waged war against TNN and their network.
The next week's show aired on September 3 was the actual first show featuring wrestling matches. The Dudley Boyz announced that they too were leaving ECW to go to the WWF. They announced it on the show and to add insult to injury, they defeated Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney to win their record eighth and final ECW World Tag Team Championship.
The Dudleys threatened to take the tag titles with them to the WWF and bash ECW. Buh Buh Ray Dudley challenges Tommy Dreamer to come out and fight them and defend ECW and take the belts away from them. Buh Buh then mentions how they broke Beulah's neck and some derogatory comments about visiting Beulah in the hospital.
Tommy could not take it anymore and ran into the ring only to be double-teamed by the Dudleys. They try to give Dreamer the 3D, but Dreamer counters it by giving D-Von a DDT instead. Then out of nowhere, Raven unexpectedly ran into the ring and hit Buh Buh with the Even Flow DDT and pinned him to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship and sent the Dudleys to the WWF without any titles.
Dreamer then shockingly sees Raven holding the tag titles and giving one to Dreamer as Raven helped his old mortal enemy. Raven returned to ECW after a lousy two years in WCW and he left WCW after Eric Bischoff told him if he didn't like the way it was being run there's the door and Raven left. One of the conditions of Raven leaving WCW was that he could not go to the WWF for one year, but he was able to return to ECW.
Raven was not the only ECW star to return to the company. The Sandman left WCW after a brief disappointing stint and returned at the November to Remember PPV on November 7 from my hometown ECC Burt Flickinger Center in Buffalo also what was my 18th birthday. Sandman teamed with his former enemy Raven and Raven's surprisingly ally Tommy Dreamer to take on Rhino and the Impact Players in the main event.
There was an awesome catfight during the match between my two all-time favorite ECW hotties and hunnies Francine and Dawn Marie. Raven tried to hit Justin Credible with the Singapore Cane, but Credible missed and Raven hit Sandman "accidentally" allowing Rhino and the Impact Players to win.
Also that night, Taz, who had been acting more ruthless since losing his belt and even threatened Joey Styles and choked out Joel Gernter earlier in the night, took on Rob Van Dam for his ECW World TV Title. RVD defeats Taz to retain the title. This was Taz's last match in ECW or so we thought. Also, Mike Awesome retained the ECW World Title in an "awesome" match with Masato Tanaka as these two had some incredible matches in ECW.
Paul Heyman had his problems with TNN over the production of their ECW show and for TNN not giving them much money to produce the show yet wanted it to be like WWF Raw or WCW Nitro. TNN also did very little advertising and promoting the ECW show despite ECW being the highest rated weekly program on TNN during its tenure. There was even commercials for WCW programming during the ECW show.
Heyman hired Don Callis (who was "The Jackyl" in the WWF) as Cyrus the Virus and simply just Cyrus. Cyrus was an announcer as well as a "representative" for TNN or simply "The Network" as Cyrus would criticize ECW for their violent and graphic nature. Cyrus was the mouthpiece of Heyman's issues with the Network.
Cyrus also threatened to cancel ECW and replace it with "RollerJam", which was also on Friday night with ECW as part of the "Friday Night Thrill Zone" on Friday nights. ECW fans hated the show that got so much more preferential treatment over ECW despite its lower ratings while ECW got the top ratings. Cyrus mostly had problems with commentator Joel Gernter for all of his sexual overtones and innuendos while commentating and ring announcing.
The issues with ECW and TNN would continue well into the start of the 21st century and new millennium. It's sad to think 2000 would be the beginning of the end of ECW as hardcore fans would be disappointed in the new millennium.
Despite increased PPVs over the previous two years (four to six-seven by 1999), ECW needed a network television show to help overcome financial hardships. The syndicated ECW Hardcore TV was super popular since the beginnings of ECW but that and PPVs alone could help ECW survive without a legitimate network TV deal.
What was originally The Nashville Network (before it became Spike TV as it is currently known) as it eventually became The National Network or simply "TNN" in 2000 and the owners Westinghouse-CBS decided to put ECW on their station to give ECW their network TV deal they so desperately needed.
TNN replaced their country music and southeast based programming with more exciting youth-oriented to target the 18-49 demographic so the exciting ECW was just what the company needed. They put ECW on their Friday night time slot as part of their "Friday Night Thrill Zone" block along with the roller derby "RollerJam" show. More of ECW on TNN later.
Shane Douglas began 1999 the way 1997 ended and how 1998 began and ended by being the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. He had been the ECW Champion since November 1997 when he was forced to finally defend the title against Taz as January 10th's Guilty as Charged PPV.
Taz made him tap out to the Tazmission to finally win the ECW World Heavyweight Champion and end Douglas' record reign at 406 days. Douglas also had the second-longest reign as ECW World Champion at 385 days from March 1994 to April 1995. For Taz being on top was a long time coming as he had been with the company for six long years and is now finally their world champion.
Taz defended his ECW World Title against old enemy Sabu at March's Living Dangerously PPV where Sabu also defended his FTW Heavyweight Championship in a unification match. After nearly 30 minutes, Taz made Sabu tap out to the Tazzmission to win back his FTW belt and unify the two titles. Taz and Sabu shook hands after the match.
Taz next dealt with the "King of Old School" Steve Corino and his ally Chris Candido and his old school manager Jack Victory. Corino's gimmick was that of a wrestler who detested the hardcore style of ECW and wanted things to go back to the good old days of wrestling and life in general, which was what ECW and the fans were against. This was a way to get the fans to hate Corino. Corino was legitimately a fan of the old school over the hardcore style.
Corino even once interrupted a Limp Bizkit concert to tell singer Fred Durst and the fans this is what is wrong with America as Corino was Canadian. He preferred old school bands to that of that day. Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten, and New Jack were there and attacked Corino.
After Taz dispatched Candido, Corino brought in someone new to try and take out Taz and that was the 6 ft 300 lb. monster known as Rhino. Rhino was a rookie in ECW and made an impact immediately as joined forces with Corino and Victory. However, Rhino could stop the mighty Human Suplex Machine Taz.
Taz defended his ECW World Title against Mike Awesome and Japanese star Masato Tanaka in a Three-Way Dance at the Anarchy Rulz PPV on September 19, 1999. Before the PPV, however, Taz was involved in a bitter contract dispute with ECW management and Paul Heyman. As it turned out, Taz would leave ECW and join the WWF for a really big contract that ECW could not come close to matching.
Word got out that Taz was leaving ECW to go to the WWF as he was still the ECW World Champion. Taz was the first one eliminated in the 3-Way Dance as he slowly walked back to the dressing room as fans knew this was one of the last times they would see Taz in ECW. Awesome pinned Tanaka to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
After losing the ECW World Title, Shane Douglas was set to name the next "Franchise." He had been working with Justin Credible and Lance Storm, who formed the tag team "The Impact Players", and was set to name one of them as the next Franchise of ECW.
Douglas instead named Tommy Dreamer as the next Franchise which incensed both Credible and Storm as both were feuding with Dreamer. They attacked Douglas as Douglas joined forces with Dreamer to take out the Impact Players. Douglas and Dreamer defeated the Impact Players at Living Dangerously in March. Storm has nearly as awesome of an entrance theme as Credible.
Douglas was set to take on Credible at Hardcore Heaven, but his ECW contract expired two weeks before the PPV. After a dispute over money, Douglas left the company that he was the Franchise for and took a really lucrative offer with WCW, where he wrestled in the early 1990s.
Douglas would reunite with former ECW alum Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Raven, and Perry Saturn. It was frustration during his two stints in WCW along with his stint in the WWF as Dean Douglas that helped create his legendary Franchise character in ECW.
Rob Van Dam remained ECW Television Champion throughout all 1999 as he was in the midst of his record 700-day reign as TV Champion. He took on all comers and turned away all comers to remain TV champion. His greatest matches in 1999 were with fellow high flyer Jerry Lynn as the RVD-Lynn matches were some of the best in ECW history.
RVD defended the title against Lynn at the Living Dangerously PPV in March. The match ended in a 20-minute time limit and the referee awarded the title to Lynn based on a referee's decision. Lynn, however, demanded a five-minute extension and lost to RVD after being hit with the Five Star Frog Splash to retain the title.
They faced off again two months later at the Hardcore Heaven PPV in a no time limit match as RVD again retained the title with the Five Star Frog Splash. Despite RVD winning the bulk of the matches, Lynn came out a winner as well for his efforts and work in the ring with one of the best in the company.
Paul Heyman signed a three-year contract with TNN with the thought that this would save ECW but it was not to be. The debut of ECW of TNN was on August 27, 1999; the five-year anniversary of Shane Douglas winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and throwing it on the ground and denouncing the NWA and "Extreme" Championship Wrestling was officially born that night. ECW on TNN was always on Friday nights.
Even though this was to give ECW the shot in the arm to continue to survive, ECW on TNN was a disaster for the company. It was a disaster from the get go as TNN wanted a much more toned down ECW than the hardcore product they've delivered which would reemphasize ECW's violent matches and sexual and graphic nature as this is now on network TV.
The first episode of ECW on TNN was on Friday night August 27 but the actual show itself was nothing more than a clip of show of the highlights of ECW as Heyman scrapped the original shooting of the pilot show due to the lack of attendance and crowd reaction and the overall look of the show.
Instead, Heyman aired the RVD-Jerry Lynn match from Hardcore Heaven along with a quick Taz squash match over the monster Rhino and Spike Dudley's win over Big Sal Graziano. The first show also featured interviews and highlights of the past ECW World and TV Champions including highlights of Douglas throwing down the NWA belt. Heyman and ECW waged war against TNN and their network.
The next week's show aired on September 3 was the actual first show featuring wrestling matches. The Dudley Boyz announced that they too were leaving ECW to go to the WWF. They announced it on the show and to add insult to injury, they defeated Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney to win their record eighth and final ECW World Tag Team Championship.
The Dudleys threatened to take the tag titles with them to the WWF and bash ECW. Buh Buh Ray Dudley challenges Tommy Dreamer to come out and fight them and defend ECW and take the belts away from them. Buh Buh then mentions how they broke Beulah's neck and some derogatory comments about visiting Beulah in the hospital.
Tommy could not take it anymore and ran into the ring only to be double-teamed by the Dudleys. They try to give Dreamer the 3D, but Dreamer counters it by giving D-Von a DDT instead. Then out of nowhere, Raven unexpectedly ran into the ring and hit Buh Buh with the Even Flow DDT and pinned him to win the ECW World Tag Team Championship and sent the Dudleys to the WWF without any titles.
Dreamer then shockingly sees Raven holding the tag titles and giving one to Dreamer as Raven helped his old mortal enemy. Raven returned to ECW after a lousy two years in WCW and he left WCW after Eric Bischoff told him if he didn't like the way it was being run there's the door and Raven left. One of the conditions of Raven leaving WCW was that he could not go to the WWF for one year, but he was able to return to ECW.
Raven was not the only ECW star to return to the company. The Sandman left WCW after a brief disappointing stint and returned at the November to Remember PPV on November 7 from my hometown ECC Burt Flickinger Center in Buffalo also what was my 18th birthday. Sandman teamed with his former enemy Raven and Raven's surprisingly ally Tommy Dreamer to take on Rhino and the Impact Players in the main event.
There was an awesome catfight during the match between my two all-time favorite ECW hotties and hunnies Francine and Dawn Marie. Raven tried to hit Justin Credible with the Singapore Cane, but Credible missed and Raven hit Sandman "accidentally" allowing Rhino and the Impact Players to win.
Also that night, Taz, who had been acting more ruthless since losing his belt and even threatened Joey Styles and choked out Joel Gernter earlier in the night, took on Rob Van Dam for his ECW World TV Title. RVD defeats Taz to retain the title. This was Taz's last match in ECW or so we thought. Also, Mike Awesome retained the ECW World Title in an "awesome" match with Masato Tanaka as these two had some incredible matches in ECW.
Paul Heyman had his problems with TNN over the production of their ECW show and for TNN not giving them much money to produce the show yet wanted it to be like WWF Raw or WCW Nitro. TNN also did very little advertising and promoting the ECW show despite ECW being the highest rated weekly program on TNN during its tenure. There was even commercials for WCW programming during the ECW show.
Heyman hired Don Callis (who was "The Jackyl" in the WWF) as Cyrus the Virus and simply just Cyrus. Cyrus was an announcer as well as a "representative" for TNN or simply "The Network" as Cyrus would criticize ECW for their violent and graphic nature. Cyrus was the mouthpiece of Heyman's issues with the Network.
Cyrus also threatened to cancel ECW and replace it with "RollerJam", which was also on Friday night with ECW as part of the "Friday Night Thrill Zone" on Friday nights. ECW fans hated the show that got so much more preferential treatment over ECW despite its lower ratings while ECW got the top ratings. Cyrus mostly had problems with commentator Joel Gernter for all of his sexual overtones and innuendos while commentating and ring announcing.
The issues with ECW and TNN would continue well into the start of the 21st century and new millennium. It's sad to think 2000 would be the beginning of the end of ECW as hardcore fans would be disappointed in the new millennium.
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