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SummerSlam 1999

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Havoc 98 is in theory not one of the 10 worst PPVs ever from WCW, but it just makes my list because of how infuriated I was at the time. The show was pointlessly overlong and went off the air at 11:00 only to come back on a few minutes later.

 

In all fairness there would likely be more from that horrid early Hogan era of 1994-95 if I had seen those shows. Oddly enough I didn't put the first Uncensored since that show is so laugh out loud bad that it's fun.

 

A lot of pre Hogan WCW shows don't figure into a bottom 10 list simply because while the promotion might be lame or the booking is bad, there's generally some solid wrestling to be found. I thought about HH 1992 but decided that while it's a mediocre show it didn't offend me really, then the HH 98 show took that spot. And I have a soft spot for Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal.

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I love the Ivory storyline. She's a HEEL because she tries to expose her opponents breasts, and Luna is supposed to be a face for making the save. Ok then.

 

I haven't watched the show yet (because I will get there eventually now that I'm doing the SummerSlam boxset deal) but I thought about it some and in the grand scheme of things, it probably still is one of the Fed's better 1999 efforts. It just suffers from Russo fever at times. Prime example - leading up to SummerSlam, people thought Debra was finally going to leave Jarrett. So what do they do? Have Debra turn on Jarrett before the match even starts, then reveal it was a swerve... which was pointless because it was the Henry swerve that cost D`Lo the match! And then they broke up a month later anyway!

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Star rating time, nine years too late.

 

D'Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett for the European and Intercontinental Championships

 

**1/4. The swerve was fucking dumb.

 

Tag Team Turmoil

 

**. Started out really good, finished really shitty.

 

Al Snow vs. The Big Bossman for the Hardcore Championship

 

I loved it. Probably pre-taped, but funny. **3/4. I miss these matches.

 

Tori vs. Ivory for the Women's Championship

 

Botched the ending. Twice. DUD.

 

Steve Blackman vs. Ken Shamrock in a Lion's Den Match w/weapons

 

Liked this too, but the rules were kinda not understandable. JR said you had to exit the door to win, but Shamrock won by knocking Blackman out. Weird. **1/2.

 

Shane McMahon vs. Test in a Street Fight

Overbooked to oblivion, but I think the match still holds up. Enjoyable, worthy of ***.

 

The Undertaker and Big Show vs. X-Pac and Kane for the Tag Team Championships

 

Thought this was alright too. What the hell's going on here? This is probably the best show from 1999 that I've seen. I liked the ending, but good didn't really come of it. The Taker and Show thing was best when they didn't team up and Show chokeslammed Taker through the ring, before it became passe and super lame. **1/4.

 

The Rock vs. Billy Gunn in a Kiss My Ass Match

 

*3/4. Didn't think it was very good. And of course, a fat woman's ass.

 

HHH vs. Mankind vs. Steve Austin w/Jesse Ventura as the special referee for the WWF Championship

 

Best match of the show, but lack of a pop nearly ruined it for me. I'll still say ****. I hadn't seen this in a while, so mild surprise that Austin jobbed 100% squeaky clean.

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I'll never understand why they felt they had to have Halloween Havoc go so long. The funny thing is that even with 12 matches it probably still would have fit into the 3-hour slot if they hadn't added all those interview and Nitro Girl segments. Why add the extra satellite time? They weren't going to get any extra money out of it.

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I had that they didn't want the Ventura, the governor of the state, to give the title to a bad guy so Mankind won it. I think Austin played some politics too and didn't want to drop it to HHH. That's how Foley got into there.

 

This also marked the end of any legitimacy Jesse Ventura had as a politician. He claimed he wanted to clean up the corruption of politics but the only thing he cared about while in office was making himself more money. He confirmed his status as McMahon's whore with this show.

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I didn't think there was anything inherently wrong with a sitting governor doing the show on his day off, but it does suck how he, one of the most vocal people about the need for reforms in wrestling after Owen's death, shut up when Vince came with the big paycheck. Not that I have any respect for him anymore now that's he's joined up with the "WHY DID BUSH KNOCK DOWN THE TOWERS" crowd.

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HHH vs. Mankind vs. Steve Austin w/Jesse Ventura as the special referee for the WWF Championship

 

Best match of the show, but lack of a pop nearly ruined it for me.

 

The fact that it was something like the 15th title change of the year might have had somethig to do with it.

 

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I think that spot where Mankind along with HHH attacked Austin had quite a bit to do with it. Not only that, the finish was kinda out of nowhere, and Austin was top babyface. Seemed totally unexpected.

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Guest Smues
Star rating time, nine years too late.

 

D'Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett for the European and Intercontinental Championships

 

**1/4. The swerve was fucking dumb.

 

Yes it was, but I'm ok with it because it gave Scott Keith the chance to use this line:

Shouldn't have pushed him so hard in those training sessions. There's nothing more dangerous than a fat guy denied his dinner. Ask Mark Madden.

 

Still makes me laugh.

 

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Ventura messed up the finish by holding up 3 fingers the way refs do with 2 fingers after a 2 count, plus I seem to remember that he didn't immediately signal to the timekeeper to ring the bell.

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About Taker/Big Show, they did have a few funny moments.

 

 

I remember there was a tag match on RAW where Taker was having Big Show do all the work, while he (Taker) was at the announce booth on commentary. Towards the end of the match, Taker gets up to get involved, but before he does so, he turns to the announcers and says, "Excuse me." I just thought it was funny that "devil Taker" was so polite.

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I'll never understand why they felt they had to have Halloween Havoc go so long. The funny thing is that even with 12 matches it probably still would have fit into the 3-hour slot if they hadn't added all those interview and Nitro Girl segments. Why add the extra satellite time? They weren't going to get any extra money out of it.

This is a conspiracy theory in of itself, but that show's main event, Goldberg vs. DDP, was the very first time since Hogan came to the company that they didn't have an old WWF star in a pay-per-view main event. It's also the first time that a heavily-pushed Hogan singles match didn't go on last. (Hogan had been in a couple of meaningless undercard tag matches before, which he inevitably won, but they weren't the same thing.) Odd that the first WCW show in which young guys (well, career-wise, in DDP's case anyway) got the main event and Hogan was pushed down to semi JUST SO HAPPENED to be their only show to run unusually long and run out of satellite time, thus making sure that Hogan-Warrior was the last thing we saw, eh? If you think this sounds outlandish, do remember the dubious "fast count" in the Hogan-Sting match which reeked of backstage backstabbing. Plus, when have the Nitro Girls ever danced on PPV besides this show, let alone FIVE fucking times in one night?

 

 

The WWF PPVs in 99 primarily suffered from Russo's usual crappy booking which pushed the soap-opera storylines as being more significant than the actual matches themselves. And there was way too fucking much brawling through the crowd and mediocre hardcore stuff. Usually the main event would be okay since you'd have Vince and his whole team adding their input into that one, but most of the undercard tended to be forgettable filler with a bunch of turns, run-ins, and various other swerves. One that does stand up well in retrospect is Backlash 99, a neat little show which just happened to randomly have a bunch of interesting matches.

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Wrestlemania XV will always hold a special place in my heart as in one match I got to watch fellow Alabamian "Butterbean" beat the holy hell out of Bart Gunn AND see Gorilla Monsoon get a great ovation from the crowd in his last appearance.

 

Gorilla getting a standing ovation was one of my favorite Wrestlemania moments. That's an example of the fans really coming through and showing appreciation to Gorilla for all that he did for the business.

 

 

Ah, those cynical douchebag Philadelphia fans.....

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I think the Havoc 98 show was a case of WCW simply being morons and not clearing 3 1/2 hours with the cable systems before doing the show. To me though if you want to go a lot longer with a PPV, fill it with actual content and not dance routines.

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I always heard the Havoc '98 thing was a plan so they could have an excuse to air the DDP/Goldberg WCW Title match on Nitro right as Raw was starting. It worked. It was the last time Nitro ever beat Raw in the ratings.

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It was a curious plan in that case since my cable company cut out on the show at 11:00 and I missed the finish of Warrior/Hogan but it DID come back on for the main event so I did get to see DDP/Goldberg. WCW may have been stupid enough to do something like this, but I have no idea why Bischoff would want to piss off PPV companies and cable systems.

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Yeah, our big, local cable company cut the PPV off right at the end of Hogan/Warrior and immediately started the replay of the show. My parents' friend who worked there at the time said that they were absolutely flooded with calls the next day from pissed off people asking for refunds because the PPV cut off early.

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