May 23rd, 1999
Over The Edge
Live from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri
Attendance: 16,472
Question. For those readers that were watching WWF in 1999, how many of you can honestly recall three things that happened at Over the Edge without using Wikipedia or some other outside source? I’m willing to bet that most of you are doing your best Dean Ambrose “nope” impression right now. Everything that happened on this show was overshadowed by the tragic death of Owen Hart, who was scheduled to face (and, if the rumors are to be believed, beat) the Godfather for the Intercontinental Championship under his Blue Blazer gimmick. While every wrestling fan remembers this night for the tragic accident that occurred, you almost never hear anybody talk about the show itself. That’s understandable since it’s kinda hard to care about a fake pro-wrestling show when a real life tragedy such as the Owen accident occurs. Still, it brings up an interesting question. Had the Owen tragedy not occurred, how would fans have reacted to this show? Was it actually any good? Let’s find out. This show was headlined by Stone Cold defending his WWF championship against the Undertaker. Vince McMahon, supporting Austin, and Shane McMahon, supporting Taker, were the special refs.
– Fun fact about this show: this was the first non big-4 PPV to not be promoted under the “In Your House” name.
– It’s worth noting that on the WWE Network version of the show, WWE added a graphic at the beginning of the show paying tribute to Owen.
– The actual broadcast starts with a video where the Undertaker is talking about the upcoming apocalyptic DOOM~! where everything you and I hold dear will be destroyed! Taker basically tells Austin that if he wants beef, bring the ruckus. He warns Austin, however, that the Corporate Ministry ain’t nuthin’ to fuck with. Oh yeah, the Corporation and Ministry (but not Test and Ken Shamrock) aligned at some point between Backlash and this show. Also, lots of talk of taking souls and destroying lives, typical Undertaker stuff. Pretty cool video.
– Our announcers for the evening are good ol’ JR and The King.
– Earlier in the night on Sunday Night Heat, Stone Cold was supposed to face Mideon on orders from Shane McMahon but Vince took Austin’s place, presumably so Austin will be fresh for the main event. Not sure why Vince couldn’t just unbook the match but ok. Either way, Vince’s ankle got messed up after Mideon placed it on the steel steps and whacked it with a chair. The announcers say they hope they will have an update on our favorite Genetic Jackhammer soon.
Match #1
WWF Tag Team Championships
“That Dude” X-Pac and “THAT’S GOTTA BE” Kane(c) vs. D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry (w/Ivory)
– Kane and X-Pac come out separately. This is the epitome of nit-picking but I’m not a fan of that. You guys are the tag champs for crying out loud, come out together.
– Henry comes out in street clothes because 1999 motherfuckers. Also, he’s bald
– Ivory seriously looks like she just came off a 3-day crack binge. I know that human beings not named Magiconz can’t look amazing every day but jeez, she’s looking rough this particular night.
– D-Lo and Henry are obviously the heels as the crowd breaks out in a huge “D-Lo sucks!” chant. The Brown Man disagrees.
– Brown and Pac start it off. After exchanging a couple of holds, Brown puts Pac in a headlock which the degenerate creatively gets out of by grabbing the ref and using him to balance himself as he flips out of the move. Really cool spot.
-An embarrassed Brown begins going to work on Pac with punches but Pac catches him with a Back Suplex. Pac tries to go for the Bronco Buster but Brown rolls out of the ring.
– Henry and Kane get tagged in and the two behemoths waste no time in going after each other.
– In what actually is a visually impressive spot, Henry press slams Kane as we get the typical “BAH GAWD, THE STRENGTH!” rabble from the announcers. Kane no-sells the move and immediately pops back up to hit Henry with a clothesline.
– Kane just did a dropkick! It’s easy to forget because he’s been around for so long and he’s all old and slow now but Kane was a hell of an athlete at this point. He moves really well for a guy his size. He’s also the most over guy in this match.
-Tremendous spot where Henry goes running back to his corner like a little bitch after getting beat up by Kane and tags D-Lo in, refusing to get back in and fight Kane. Even D-Lo is like “brah, you serious right now?”
– D-Lo goes in and tries to take care of business for his team by rocking Kane with some punches. Kane just goes “lol”, however, and comes back with some strikes of his own that are much more effective.
– Pac tags in and shows off his educated feet with some kicks. He is soon cut off by a thumb to the eye before Henry smashes his balls into the ringpost behind the ref’s back
– Brown and Henry cut the ring in half and begin working over Pac, not allowing him to tag out and just generally being dastardly heels.
– After being worked over for like a minute, Pac teases tagging Kane but D-Lo comes in and tries to break it up. He throws Pac out of the ring but this allows Kane to come in illegally and start beating some ass. The ref pushes Kane back towards his corner as Henry tosses Pac chest-first on the barricade.
– D-Lo hits a sweet looking Liger Bomb but Kane breaks up the pin.
– D-Lo tries to show the world how fancy he is by hopping into the ring and doing a swank Corkscrew Somersault off the middle turnbuckle but crashes and burns.
– D-Lo tags out to Henry but it doesn’t matter because Kane gets the hot tag! He comes in as the proverbial house of fire and runs wild on Sexual Chocolate.
– Match breaks down as Pac tries to go for a Plancha on the outside to Henry but the big man catches him and rams him back first into the ringpost.
– Meanwhile, in the ring, Kane is getting the best of D-Lo but is sucker-punched by Henry while trying to run the ropes. D-Lo takes advantage of the distraction and tries to pin Kane but is literally thrown out of the ring as Kane no-sells it and sits up.
– Kane is too much of a goon for Henry and D-Lo so they try to beat up Pac on the outside. Kane shows why he is Pac’s big homie by doing a Clothesline off the top rope to the outside! Kane has been working his ass off this entire match.
“Suck it, you fat computer marks!”
– Henry rolls back into the ring and Kane nails him with another Clothesline off the top. He covers the challenger but D-Lo is right there to save the match. Pac gets involved again and gives a Bronco Buster to D-Lo. The teabagging session gets cut short by Henry who attacks Pac from behind. Revenge is swift for Sexual Chocolate as he is quickly planted with a Chokeslam to give the champions the victory.
– Damn good match. That really was the perfect opener. It was fun, fast-paced, and didn’t overstay it’s welcome. Everyone involved did well but Kane was the MVP of this match for sure. It’s kinda sad watching Kane in 1999 fly all over the place and then looking at THE DEMON KANE dick around on Raw in 2014. Really, it’s like night and day
– Backstage, Michael “Black as” Cole informs us that Vince may not be able to ref the main event tonight due to the ass-whooping he sustained on Heat.
– Kevin Kelly is standing by with Hardcore Holly. Apparently, Holly attacked Al Snow’s imaginary friend or something. Swear to god, Holly talks about how he used to have an imaginary friend named “little Joe” before saying that Snow’s friends may be imaginary but the pain he’s gonna feel tonight is very real. It was about as good as a Hardcore Holly promo can be. That is, not very. Highlight was Holly stumbling over his words when he tried to use a big word that I would bet money he doesn’t know the actual meaning of. It’s like he just heard a new word and decided he was gonna use it on PPV to show the world he’s not a dumb hick.
Match #2
Hardcore Championship
Hardcore Holly vs. Al Snow(c)(w/Head & Pierre)
– Jesus Christ, these two again!? Come on now, does this feud ever end?
– I guess Holly is the clear-cut heel now since he stops and looks at the crowd with disdain on his way to the ring.
– Snow is super over.
– Snow tries to whack Holly with Pierre, which appears to be a stuffed deer head (I think, don’t quote me on that), to start off the match but misses.
– Match almost immediately goes to the outside. Snow gets the advantage and acts “crazy” for a bit before getting nailed in the head with a cookie sheet.
– Holly tries to use the fire extinguisher but is too dumb to work it. Snow returns the favor form earlier and hits Holly with the cookie sheet before spraying the fire extinguisher in his face.
– They brawl out to the lobby of the building. They dick around for a bit and throw various food items at each other.
– They fight their way back to the ring and Snow does a cool looking Leg-Drop off the barricade.
-Back in the ring now, Snow stomps Holly in the nuts before throwing a chair and a table in the ring.
– Snow, like a goddamn idiot, spent too much time throwing plunder in the ring and Holly catches him with the Falcon Arrow which might have actually been his finisher at this point. Snow kicks out though so sucks to be Holly.
– Snow hits his Snow Plow finisher and Holly kicks out. Why are dudes kicking out of finishers in the second match of the night? It’s just trying to do too much. Finisher kick-outs are supposed to add matches, this is just gonna take away from matches later on in the show. It wasn’t like the kick-outs were sold as a big deal either. They just randomly hit their finisher and their opponent even more randomly kicked out of it. Bush league stuff.
– Snow kicks Holly in the balls. He tries to go in for the kill and hit Holly with Head but Holly ducks it and DDT’s Snow on a chair. Not the finish.
– Snow is selling the DDT like death as Holly can’t even drag him up to his feet. Suddenly, Snow has a burst of energy and Powerbombs Holly through a table set-up in the ring for the win.
– Well, that was poopy. Seriously, it feels like nothing happened in the 8 minutes or so they wrestled. Remember how I was saying that Kane had a good night? These guys had a bad night. Easily the worst match out of their PPV trilogy and if I never see another Hardcore match between these two, it will be too soon. I’m so burnt out on Hardcore wackiness because of these guys.
– I will give Snow credit for selling the match hard as he stumbles up the ramp and struggles to stay on his feet.
– Cole is backstage with the stooges, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco. Patterson is convinced that Vince’s ankle is broken.
– It is very important to note that the Owen accident happened after the Hardcore title match so the mood of the show had obviously changed by this point.
Match #3
Mixed Tag Match
Jeff Jarrett & Debra (w/puppies) vs. Val Venis & Nicole Bass
– Debra is wearing a shirt with puppies on them because subtlety is for nerds. Also, she is the Women’s champion for some reason.
– Apparently, Nicole is trying to bang Venis. Who isn’t?
– Venis and Jarrett start it out. Jarrett quickly gains the advantage and puts the porn star on the backfoot before Venis catches him with a nice-looking Powerslam.
– Venis tags in Nicole meaning that Jarrett has to tag in his prized puppies.
– Debra shows no fear of the bigger woman as she slaps Nicole and tries to put on a Sleeper. Bass powers her way out it and Debra is forced to tag out to Double J.
– Some creep in the crowd screams “COME ON, BABY!” at Debra. I didn’t know that Chris Jericho was in the crowd.
– Due to the rules (men only being allowed to hit men and vice versa with women), Venis has to get tagged in and is immediately put in a sleeper. He quickly escapes it and begins beating on Jarrett, taking a moment out to show Sable how “the grind” is really done.
– Venis misses an elbow off the second turnbuckle and gets planted with the Stroke but Nicole breaks up the pin.
-While Jarrett argues with the ref, Debra tries to hit Nicole in the back with a guitar but the guitar doesn’t even break as Nicole no-sells the shot. Nicole then ripped Debra’s top off, leaving her just in a lace bra and booty shorts.
– As Nicole celebrates, Jarrett sneaks up behind her and teases hitting her with the Acoustic Equalizer but Venis sneaks up behind HIM and hits a Back Suplex. One Money Shot later and that’s all she wrote.
– Not much of note here. The match just kinda came and went. Inoffensive but certainly not memorable.
– After the match, Nicole pulls Venis for some sloppy kissing. It’s all good as Venis seems to have liked the kiss and has a big goofy smile on his face. Also, just realized that Nicole has started bleeding from his neck for some reason.
“I hate you so much, boner.”
– Backstage, Cole tries to get a word with Vince who is being carted into an ambulance. Vince rightfully tells him to fuck off before Shane pops up to mock his dad and basically promises to screw Austin out of the title since he’s gonna be the only ref in the match.
– Backstage with Kevin Kelly, Road Dogg cuts a short but sweet promo where he calls Billy Gunn a “P to the U to the double S.” Dogg asks Kelly who he thinks is gonna win the match and Kelly says he doesn’t know. Of course, this prompts Dogg to do his “Yo ass better call somebody!” catchphrase before heading out to the ring.
Match #4
The New Age Outlaws Collide!
Road Dogg vs. “Mr. Ass” Billy Gunn
– This match was caused by Gunn turning his back on DX and deciding that he wanted to be a singles star. Yeah, I’m sure that will work out for him. A goofy video plays before the match where the lyrics in DX’s theme are used to explain Gunn’s actions. I got what they were going for but it was hard to take seriously.
– Before the match, Road Dogg cuts a “Rah-Rah” promo where he replaces his usual act with “I’m just the the guy that wants to kick Billy Gunn’s ass more than anybody…IN THE WOOOOOOOORRLD!”
– Gunn also cuts a promo backstage with Kevin Kelly where he says that for the past two years, he’s carried RD like a bad case of the clap. Basically, it’s the same “I’m HBK, you’re the Jannetty bitch” promo that every wrestler cuts when they turn on their tag partner.
– Gunn is officially using his “I’M AN ASS MAN” theme. Awesome. That song is one of the best pieces of music WWE has ever produced.
– Gunn pulls Road Dogg out of the ring and both men start swinging as the match starts.
– After dominating the opening moments of the bout, Gunn gets send out of the ring with a Clothesline. I guess that one clothesline was on the level of a Stan Hansen Lariat because not even a minute into the match, Gunn is ready to call it a day and head to the back. Road Dogg, of course, stops him and starts beating on him on the ramp.
– Gunn takes a great bump as he gets sent into the steel steps.
– Road Dogg’s white boy dreads are hilariously awful.
– Gunn regains the advantage after sending Dogg tumbling to the outside.
– Crowd goes mild as Gunn works over Dogg with some dull offense and some even duller showboating.
– Gunn applies the worst Camel Clutch I’ve ever seen. It’s clear as day that no pressure is being put on RD’s back. He ain’t making anybody humble with this.
lol.
– It’s obvious that these guys are still shook up by what happened to Owen because they are phoning it in so hard right now. Lots of boring rest holds
– The crowd, which was pretty hot at the start of the show, is now significantly quieter.
– RD finally starts making his comeback and the crowd is starting to get back into it.
– After Dogg runs wilds for maybe 30 seconds, Gunn rolls to the outside and grabs the timekeeper’s hammer. He whacks Dogg with it in clear view of the ref. Ref Tim White completely ruins the spot by looking directly at Gunn when he hits Dogg with the hammer when he was supposed to be looking away.
– James gets his Davey Richards on as he totally no-sells the hammer shot after getting thrown back in the ring. They dick around for another 30 seconds or so before Gunn uses his wrist tape to briefly choke Dogg before hitting the Fame-Asser for the win. Well, that was stupid. Why would you have a weapon shot and then not have that be the finish?
– Bad match but I can’t really blame them. On any other night, they may have had a better match but wrestling was obviously the last thing on their minds on this night.