Loss
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This is a good brawl with some clever spots involving weapons, my favorite being Foley rolling a bowling ball at Snow’s nether region. But the match is filled with spots like that. They end up brawling into the DX locker room then get tossed out and Foley falls on top of Snow for the pin. After the match, it turns out Snow went into Rock’s dressing room. It was a trap as he covered his locker room sign with a DX sign. Interesting finish. Lots to enjoy here. -
Stephanie and HHH are here to announce how business will be conducted in the McMahon-Helmsley Era. For starters, Vince and Shane are not here. HHH says a lot of the guys have been held down that will get opportunities now and a lot of wrestlers who have had everything handed to him on a silver platter is going away. Mankind vs Al Snow will take place tonight. Rock will challenge Big Show for the WWF title tonight.
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A House of Pain match is a cage match where you have to chain both members of the opposing team. Once you do that, the House of Pain match begins and you can dish out whatever punishment. We'll see how this works in execution. Roddy Piper broke into the building to don the ref's shirt. Scott Hall was laid out before the match and it looks like Nash may have to go it alone. Creative Control attacks Piper as Goldberg makes his entrance and Jeff Jarrett joins them. Meanwhile, Nash is in the cage alone with Bret doing a number on him. Goldberg runs the heels off and rips the door off the cage and comes in to save Bret but Nash is ready for him. But this leaves an opening for Jarrett to come in the ring and break the guitar over Piper's head. Then Goldberg spears Jarrett, but Nash hits him from behind with a steel pipe. Nash and Jarrett chain Goldberg and Bret to the cage, and also do the same to Piper for good measure. Goldberg breaks the cuffs himself as the show is going off the air. This is a lot of booking.
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Kanyon in his new gimmick as Chris "Champagne" Kanyon, flanked by two women (overcompensating much?) and Clarence Mason as Jay Biggs. Juventud calls him Chris Shampoo! Jay Biggs does commentary to talk about how in-demand Kanyon is in Hollywood. He's terrible at the booth. This is a pretty solid match - nothing memorable, but just fine. DDP gets the Diamond Cutter, but David Flair comes out to nail him with a crowbar. Kanyon is able to roll over and get the pin. When Bigelow comes out to protest the decision, Kanyon breaks a champagne bottle over his head.
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Juventud hums along to "Seek and Destroy". Sting says enough is enough - he wants Lex in the ring right now! "Oh, Lex Luger! Are you ready to see some REAL JUICE, Mike Tenay?" A Sting lookalike comes out of the crowd to attack him and then we find out it was Luger. They end up brawling for a minute and Luger is about to hit Sting with a baseball bat, but Liz stops him. This is a fun brawl. Sting puts Luger in the rack! Liz accidentally gets hit so Sting sets him down and goes to check on Liz, which leaves Luger to attack Sting with the bat.
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Stephanie suggests that the New Age Outlaws work another match and they are hesitant to do it until HHH says Stephanie is the boss now. Stephanie makes the main event of HHH & Test vs New Age Outlaws. Crowd "ooohs" at that's a match with a ton of intrigue after everything that has happened. People were really into this stuff. This post-Russo booking is more fun than most of what Russo did in '99. Test unsurprisingly wrestles most of the match himself and looks good doing it. But he really should have had a PPV main event against HHH. The storyline demanded it. HHH drags Test to his corner for the hot tag then comes in and puts the boots to Test instead while HHH laughs. All three of them beat up Test and Stephanie slaps him in the face. The word "burial" is thrown around loosely. This *is* a Test burial through and through.
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Super hot crowd and celebrity interaction with Wade Boggs at ringside … this is a great showcase for the star power of The Rock. It’s not a great match, but with the HHH-Stephanie run-in in the middle and at the end and the arguing with the Dudley Boys to start, this is really fun stuff. The Dudleys end up getting a decent amount of heel heat once this settles into an actual tag match. Overbooked to hell, but a fantastic Attitude Era time capsule.
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Vince is on a tear looking for DX while Shane tries to talk some sense into him. He knows the DX locker room door down with a sledgehammer but there is no one in there. So Vince decides to go to the ring and calls HHH out, calling him a coward and even a rapist! Instead of HHH, he gets Stephanie with a new look. Stephanie gets in his face and dares him to hit her with the sledgehammer. Stephanie says Vince only has something to blame, recalling that Vince used her as a pawn in the Greater Power angle. That's pretty good motivation, actually. The "SLUT!" chant is off the charts here. She admits the best way to get her dad back was to marry the man he hates the most - HHH. She also says that HHH really turns her on. The two then make out in front of Vince.
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Last few minutes. Bret Hart had been injured apparently and comes back after Goldberg was left to go it alone in the match. This looks well laid out, with Nash pinning the injured Hart while Goldberg was unaware of what was going down. Hall and Nash win the tag titles. Crowd hates that result. How many titles did Scott Hall need anyway?
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Paul Orndorff was told that the Powers That Be wanted to talk to him but he's not sure why he's here. Back in the ring, the Nitro Girls are dancing when Rhonda Singh joins them to show off her dance moves. The fans boo her so she starts beating up the other women. Then we cut to Finlay and Knobs doing more training with Knobs being ordered to jog through water. Then we get a Jerry Flynn vs Norman Smiley match "in the block", which they never fully explained, and only Russo could make that match not be fun. Then we cut to Meng and Tank Abbott brawling and ending up spilling into the block as well. I like the idea of this group of legit tough guys having their own thing, but this wasn't the way to do it. Next we see Orndorff talking to Russo. Russo takes it out on Orndorff that Midnight, who he trained, has been such a thorn in his side, so he is fired. Orndorff protests, so Russo makes a match for him against Creative Control. Ratings.
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Last few minutes. They actually went 30 minutes with this match, which is insane, so no way were we going to include it in full. There's good sports entertainment melodrama, and then there's overwrought and bad sports entertainment melodrama, and this is the latter. Vince is about to destroy HHH with a sledgehammer for the finish when Stephanie asks if she can do it. She can't bring herself to do it, but that leaves Vince open for a pinfall and loss. So HHH wins. Then comes the twist that we're still feeling the effects of today. HHH teases hitting Stephanie with the sledgehammer until she turns around concerned, and her concern turns to a smile and she hugs HHH. Yeah, a lot of how they got there didn't make sense, but this was another great angle that further cemented HHH as the top guy.
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Jericho is a miracle worker to pull off a match this good with Chyna. You can tell he felt like his back was against the wall and he needed to prove he was good in the ring, because he goes all out to have a good match. This really should have been the end of the debate over Jericho's ability to work a match, but Chyna ended up with a black eye, which famously led to Vince blowing a gasket and telling him he wasn't even worth the paper his contract was printed on. Political stuff aside, Jericho created some tremendous false finishes and was able to create movement around Chyna to make her look really athletic, even sometimes throwing himself into moves where she only had to pull off something really simple. This is easily the best match of her career and this just might make my top 100. Jericho wins the IC title. Post-match, Jericho is doing an interview when Chyna tells him he was the better wrestler and shakes his hand before walking away.
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I don't think that's on the Network.
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Yeah, the big complaint I've always heard about them is that they started making every single match a brawl that spills everywhere just because. Phil Schneider once called them the Public Enemy of Joshi.
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They could have charged $14.99 per month from the start but made the promotional focus the content and while there's no way of knowing, I suspect they would have been more successful. There are a myriad of other problems and that wouldn't be a magic cure-all on its own, but it would be better than what we have.
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According to the WON at the time, the rioting started because fans could tell they were getting an angle to change the main event from what was announced. So they could figure out where it was going and they didn't like it. This thread has more details: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/6183-20-years-ago-won-010488/
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Really great column, Matt! Probably my favorite from you. I loved it.
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I love Moolah's music! She and Mae Young are the referees. This is a match in a pool involving Miss Kitty, Jacqueline, B.B. and Ivory. Jacqueline is stripped and quickly eliminated, and B.B. is quickly behind her. Miss Kitty strips Ivory finally to win the Women's Title. Kitty is taking off her dress after the match since she knows people came to see her naked, then she takes her tops off and her boobs are exposed for a split second before she's carted off. Mae Young decides to follow Miss Kitty's lead right after that and tries to strip but Slaughter won't let her. I believe this got them in some hot water, and the official company line, which wasn't true, was that Kitty did that on her own.
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I am going to have to sort through all of these FMW matches for the year, because I really don't want to overrate stuff if I can help it. I honestly don't think I am - I just think their year has been that good. Kuroda's selling annoys the hell out of me in just about every match he's in, but it doesn't detract from the overall match too much. This is another match that lays a foundation with great matwork between Tanaka and Gannosuke before slowly escalating the action. H gets the win which seems like an attempt to redeem him after a rough year. I'm tired and I actually do have a lot of thoughts on this match, but they aren't coming out very well in this post. But this was as good as any FMW match that has happened all year. So no, the ARSION match wasn't the last classic of the 90s.
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Last few minutes. Conway puts Bull in the torture rack when Bolin comes in and hits Conway in the knee with his briefcase for the DQ. Damaja makes the save, but Mr. Black slapjacks both him and Conway. Jim Cornette ends up making the save by going after Bolin, but Mr. Black attacks him. I'm not feeling OVW yet. I realize it's early, but I think a big part of it is Cornette's heavy-handed commentary.