Summerslam 1999
Eurocontinental Championship match: D'Lo Brown (c) vs. Jeff Jarrett
D'Lo won both championships by beating Mideon for the Euro title at Fully Loaded, and beating Jarrett on an episode of Raw, becoming the first wrestler to hold both titles simultaneously. Jarrett, pretty much in the infancy of his woman beater character, comes out with Debra, but sends her to the back. She then comes out with D'Lo, which is never a good sign for faces that do that, really. D'Lo was in a hell of a groove at this point, putting out good matches on a regular basis, and he was really over, too. He became crap near the end of his WWE run, but he was at his best here. Jarrett tries to attack D'Lo from behind, but D'Lo comes back with some VICIOUS armdragging. D'Lo controls with a couple of powerslams to start. D'Lo counters a leapfrog into a Sky High for two He jumps off the second rope, but is caught by Jarrett into a sideslam or an elbow, which was a pretty cool spot. A Jarrett dropkick, nice-looking as always, knocks D'Lo to the floor. Jarrett follows up with a baseball-slide dropkick. They brawl outside, and Jarrett gets the better of that exchange by sending D'Lo into the post, hurting his arm. Jarrett works on it like a pro, including a SWANK~ tornado single-arm DDT. It's pretty weird psychology in that Jarrett uses the figure-four, but if a guy injures his arm on the outside, why the hell not work on it, regardless of finisher? Also, it would be hard for D'Lo to use powerbombs with a bad wing. Jarrett goes for the 10-punch, but D'Lo hotshots him, and gets a running sitout powerbomb. Cool. D'Lo makes the CAAAAAAA-LAAAAASSSSICCCCC COMEBACK~, as he hits a tilt-a-whirl, heel-kick, and the SHAKY-SHAKY LEGDROP~! D'Lo tries for THE FAT-ASSED FRONT SENTON THAT DOTH NEVER HIT, and it, shockingly, doesn't hit. Jarrett grabs the guitar, as an EL KABONG seems imminent, as Debra distracts the ref. Mark Henry, actually getting a POP (!), runs down, as the fans think he's there to save the day for D'Lo. Mark grabs the guitar from Jarrett, and clocks D'Lo with it. Whoa. Jarrett gets the pin and both titles. Jarrett is credited with the shortest European title reign in WWE history, as he gave the title to Mark Henry on Raw the next night. Really good opener, with some decent arm psychology and nice work all-round. ***1/4
Tag Team Turmoil
Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz - The winner of the whole thing got a tag title shot the next night on Raw. Edge and Christian get a really good pop, as they were still faces at this point, and still went through the crowd in their entrance. The Hardyz were part of the New Brood with Gangrel, so they were the heels here, and not particularly over. The ladder match a couple of months later would change that. A quick start, as Christian leaps off of Matt's back and hits Jeff with a crossbody in the corner. Christian hits a spinning heel kick, something you'll NEVER see him do nowadays. A Gangrel cheapshot turns the tide, as the Hardyz get a double-front suplex. They then take off their shirts, which garners SILENCE. That's pretty weird, considering that, a couple of months earlier, every female (and some of the guys) would be screaming to the top of their lungs for that. Jeff gets a beautiful springboard moonsault for a pair. Later, Jeff hits the Swanton Bomb, and damn, it was gorgeous back then. A double backdrop is countered by Christian into a double diving inverted DDT, and Edge gets the HOT tag. Then, in a terrific spot, Edge and Jeff run the rails at ringside, and Edge spears Jeff on his way down. Just awesome. Gangrel interference is thwarted by a Christian springboard plancha, and Matt hits Christian and Gangrel with a moonsault press to the floor. Edge takes Matt down with an Electric Chair Drop, and Christian hits a frog splash-lookin' elbowdrop for the three. Really hot way to start off the match. **1/2
Edge & Christian vs. Viscera & Mideon - Good lord. Phineas Godwinn and Mabel. Thankfully, it's quick and painless, as The Walking Garbage Bag and the Nekkid One get in some craptastic offense, but E&C come back, double-teaming Viscera out of the ring, and Edge spears Mideon for the pin, as the crowd is just nuts for E&C. DUD
Edge & Christian vs. Droz & Prince Albert - I really wonder where Droz would be nowadays if he wasn't injured a month or two after this. Prince Albert was only in WWE for a few months around this time, and was basically Shotgun Saturday Night fodder. His gimmick here was that he was Droz's piercing and tattoo guy, who has a shitload of piercings himself. Albert hits a spinning torture rack neckbreaker. Nice move. Christian dives onto Droz on the outside, and Edge uses the Downward Spiral for the pin. 1/4*
Edge & Christian vs. Acolytes - The Acolytes pound the crap out of Edge for a while, and both sides get the hot tag, as Bradshaw and Christian enter the fray. Edge and Faaaaaaaaaaaaaarooooooooooooq brawl on the outside, as Christian hits a tornado DDT for two. Moments later, Bradshaw hits the Clothesline from Heck for the three, deflating the crowd somewhat. *1/4
Acolytes vs. The Hollys - Crash had just made his debut on the Raw before this show. Crash is hit with the Dominator quickly here. Everything after this is basically either Hardcore and Crash arguing, or the Acolytes killing them. The ending comes when Hardcore tosses Crash out of the ring, and is hit with a double spinebuster for the Acolytes win. * The match, as a whole, was super-hot when Edge and Christian were in there, but it cooled down when the Acolytes started dominating. Still quite worthwhile, though. ***1/4 overall.
Road Dogg comes out for a promo, basically challenging the Hardcore champion to a match on Raw the next night, but Chris Jericho appears in the crowd to some big-time heat. He cuts a hilarious promo, ripping on Road Dogg's spelling ability and D-X in general. Road Dogg's response is almost as funny. Good segment.
Hardcore Championship: Al Snow vs. Big Bossman (c)
Why, yes, this was the feud that led to Al Snow eating his chihuahua, resulting in the infamous Kennel From Hell match. God love Russo. Good start, as Snow enters first, but waits on one of the setpieces for Bossman to arrive. That's pretty brilliant, and nobody does that enough. Road Dogg follows the action as an "on the spot" commentator, and he's pretty funny here. They brawl to the back, where the camera misses them going through a table. They get up, and brawl some more, as a chalkboard gets used, and an empty Pepsi case gets brutalized. They go outside, and Snow is rammed into a left turn sign. They go across the street and go into a local pub, while some moron with a cellphone blocks the camera and says "Hi, Mom! I'm a dumbshit!". Into the bar, where they pass by Scott Hall, who barfs on camera. In a funny spot, Snow hits on a cute chick, then hits Bossman with the newspaper stand. Into the bathroom, where the URINAL CAKE OF INTERNAL DISCOMBOBULATION AND SLIGHT LOSS OF APPETITE is rubbed into Bossman's face. Al Snow then hits a moonsault off the bar onto Bossman, through a table. To the pool room, where Bossman shoves Dogg away. Big mistake, as Dogg, who had been carrying Bossman's nightstick the whole time, clocks Bossman with it. Snow then takes two billiard balls, hits Bossman in the groin with them, and pins him on the pool table to win the Hardcore title. Fun, entertaining, and silly little crapfest. At least they were creative with Hardcore matches back then, instead of just having two guys hitting each other with trashcans all the time. **3/4
Women's Championship: Ivory (c) vs. Tori
You think Trish matches are bad (though I don't think they're bad personally)? Then watch THIS. Only two spots to note here, the first one being Ivory doing a giant swing, and sitting out for the landing. The other one was the Tori Suplex, which was Tori doing a powerbomb, except that she fell backwards, thus having Ivory land face-first. That was a pretty cool move. The rest was amateurish crap. Ivory wins after sitting on Tori after a sunset flip attempt. Well, it was too short to be offensive. 1/4* Ivory tries to rip Tori's clothes off (WOOOO!), but Luna comes down and saves. No one cared.
Lion's Den Weapons match: Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman
This would be Shamrock's last WWE PPV appearance, as he would leave WWE for PRIDE a month later. This would have been a really good feud if Shamrock didn't win the Iron Circle match a month before, as people weren't taking Blackman as any kind of threat here. Basically, the concept of the match is that they're in a Lion's Den, which was a cool-looking Octagon knock-off, and there are martial arts weapons surrounding it. There's a pair of sticks, a kendo stick, and a bamboo cane up there. I was hoping for an NES and an inflatable shark up there, but no dice. This one got a lot of fairly bad reviews because of the lack of clarity of the rules, though, if you listen, the ref counts to ten when one of the wrestlers are down, so it's basically a Last Man Standing match. The announcers have no idea about that, so they sell it as if the winner is the one that escapes the Lion's Den. SMELL THE CONTINUITY~! Blackman reaches into his pants and whips outÉa pair of nunchuks. They trade shots with each other, until Shamrock tosses the nunchucks out of the Den, then Shamrock dominates Blackman for a while. They ram each other into the mesh various times in different instances. Shamrock gets the bamboo cane and tries to take out Blackman, but he blocks a shot, and beats on Ken with it. It doesn't sound exciting, but it's a pretty cool match so far. Blackman gets the sticks and wails on Shamrock with them. IT'S PARTY TIME~! Shamrock comes back with a powerslam, but Blackman hits an enzuigiri and goes for the kendo stick. He makes Shamrock his bitch, just like Ortiz did a while ago, and takes his head off with a stiff-looking shot. Shamrock gets up just before ten. Shamrock then snaps and goes to school on Blackman, hitting him right on the nape with the stick. That was nearly the finish, but Blackman staggers up, and Shamrock hits a home run on top of Blackman's head, and Blackman's down for the ten. There were some damn good, stiff weapons shots, and the match was well-worked as a whole, though it paled in comparison to Summerslam 1998's Lion's Den match. I feel like one of the few people who liked this match, but c'est la vie. The announcers really screw it up for the less-attentive viewers, though. ***
Love Her or Leave Her Greenwich Streetfight: Test vs. Shane McMahon
The back story here is that Test and Stephanie McMahon were a regular item on TV, but Shane, not wanting his sister to be romantically linked to a wrestler, and the Mean Street Posse try to take Test out of the picture altogether, launching various sneak attacks on him. Test then snapped, and injured the three Posse members, leaving Pete Gas with broken ribs and a bad neck, Rodney with a separated shoulder and a broken arm, and Joey Abs with a crushed ankle. It left just Shane for Test, thus the match was made. If Test won, him and Steph would receive Shane's blessing. If Shane won, Test could not see Steph again. Neat fact: Test said in an interview that he actually watches this match once a month religiously, because that was his best match. Can't argue with him there. After Shane makes his entrance, the Posse, with appropriate casts on their injured parts (and decked out in Hawaiian shirts. Huzzah!), make their way to ringside, where there is a couch set up behind the barrier. Awesome. Test pretty much murders Shane for the first little while, kicking his ass in the ring, outside the ring, and into the crowd. Shane gets a little blur of offense, but Test catches him coming off the rail with a powerslam on the floor. Joey Abs manages to spew champagne in Test's face, but it only served to piss him off. Then, in a great spot, Test presses Shane over his head, and tosses him onto the Posse, knocking the couch over in the process. He then beats the hell out of them all with a cookie sheet. The Posse gets the better of him, though, as they beat him down, and toss him out near the announce table. They hand Shane some weapons, including a mailbox and a couple of road signs. Shane then gets one of the most hilarious weapons I've seen, as the Posse hands him a framed portrait of themselves. That's brilliant. Shane smashes it over Test's head, but only gets two in the ring. Shane actually goes for a twisting moonsault, but misses. That looked pretty cool. Test blocks a leapfrog with a powerbomb, but one of the Posse members is distracting the ref, so Test only got two off of it. The ref is bumped after a big boot, and Test kills Shane some more, including some shots with a stop sign. The Posse takes Test out, and lays him on the Spanish table. Shane then debuts the Shane-O-Mac elbow through the Spanish table. That RULED the first time it was done, and the crowd agrees with me. Just an awesome spot in the day. After several replays of it, both guys are rolled back into the ring by the Posse, and it only gets two. The crowd is going batshit at this point, seriously. Joey distracts the ref, which allows Pete Gas to accidentally nail Shane with a road sign, but Rodney clocks Test. Test kicks out again, hyping the crowd up further. The Stooges make their return to take out the Posse, and getting a great reaction in the process. Test then finishes Shane off with a pumphandle slam and an elbowdrop, and the crowd was just crazy, as Stephanie came down to celebrate with Test. That is probably the best out of all the McMahononized overbooked brawls I've seen. The booking was absolutely spot on, as they did everything at the right time to produce the maximum dramatic effect, and to tell a wonderful story. The effort was also great, considering it was a rookie against a non-wrestler. THIS should have made Test a star, but they really dropped the ball with him. IMO, one of the best matches of 1999. ****, and that is no typo.
Tag Team Titles: X-Pac & Kane vs. Undertaker & Big Show
This is the first appearance of Kane's reverse-colored ring attire, which kicks ass. Undertaker had a different, and cool, remix of his theme song around this time. Brawl to start, with Kane taking on Show, and X-Pac getting his ass beaten by Taker. JR says this little gem: "X-Pac is just about out-hossed by Undertaker". Seriously, he said "out-hossed". Great spot happens when X-Pac is outside taunting Undertaker with the crotch chop, and Taker just elbows him right down. Somebody needed to do that one of these days. Taker goes to chokeslam X-Pac, but Kane intercepts Taker, and pulls X-Pac into the ring. I like the story here, where X-Pac tries to prove himself in the land of the giants, and to prove to himself that he is not holding Kane back. Waltman was usually a good babyface, but a terrible heel. Taker and Kane go at it, leading to Kane's flying clothesline, resulting in a tag to Big Show, who was a LOT more useless back then. Kane is "methodically" (to quote JR) getting pounded on by Big Show, until X-Pac is tagged in. That ain't gonna work out too well for Sean. Big Show expectedly kills X-Pac, including a press slam from the outside to the inside, throwing X-Pac over the top rope. Taker then prevents any future Waltmans from plaguing the earth by posting X-Pac crotch-first into the post. Big Show then drops his head right into X-Pac's private area. Man, does X-Pac hate his testicles or something? Just watch his No Mercy 2000 cage match with Jericho, where he gets crotched at least three times in that match. Sean, it's called a vasectomy. Anyways, Show gets Pac into a bearhug, then turns it into a two-handed front chokeslam (think Reese's front special in Revenge). Show signals for the Showstopper, but Kane blocks it with a big boot, and X-Pac goes low. Taker then tries to stop Pac from making the tag, but gets his own jingle bells rocked by Pac. Hot tag to Kane, and he kicks ass. He sets Show up for an X-Pac Bronco Buster, and he goes after Undertaker on the outside. Big Show no-sells the Bronco Buster (DAMN RIGHT~!) and hits the Showstopper. He just places his foot on Pac's chest, and X-Pac kicks out. Taker is all like "What the hell was THAT?!?!", and tags himself in. Then he looks to Show, and he's all like "See, Fatass, THIS is how you do it!", then he Tombstones Pac for the tag titles. He then chews Show out on their way back. Man, this was looking to suck ass on paper, but everyone put forth a commendable effort here, especially Taker, Kane, and X-Pac. **3/4
Kiss My Ass match: The Rock vs. Mr. Ass
This was basically WWE's (first) lame attempt to elevate Billy Gunn to main-event status, so they feuded him with Rock and put them in a lame gimmick match. I thought Billy Gunn had the ghost of Mark Madden coming with him to ringside, but the sheet is removed and it turns out to be some fat chick with a big ass. So, I was off a bit. Rock gets a good pop, and the crowd was mega-hot for him throughout the whole match. Rock, rightfully, smacks Mr. Bum around for a while, then they take it to the staging area, where they ram each other into the setpieces and the Lion's Den. Gunn takes over back in the ring, where he hits the neckbreaker, the Jackhammer, and the STINGAH SPLASH~. Rock comes back with a Samoan drop and the wraparound DDT for some two counts. Rock Bottom is countered, and Billy hits the Fame-Ass-Er, or "Paymaster", as my closed captioning said once. Billy Gunn has the fat chick roll in the ring, instead of, you know, trying to win the match and waiting to do it afterwards. She lifts up her skirt to reveal that, yes, she has an ass whiter and chunkier than six-year old milk. Gunn tries to make Rock kiss her ass, but Rock thwarts that attempt, drops Billy, and rubs his face into her ass. She looks to be enjoying herself. Rock Bottom and People's Elbow end this Billy Gunn experiment. Good effort, like most other matches at this event, but it just didn't really click that well, mostly because of Billy's uselsessness. Still decent, though. **1/2
WWF Championship: Steve Austin (c) vs. Mankind vs. Triple H
The guest ref is, of course, Jesse Ventura. It was originally going to be Triple H vs. Stone Cold, but Austin's health was worsening, as he was nearing immediate neck surgery, and they didn't think HHH could carry his end of a main-event match of this magnitude without Austin being at full health. As the weeks went on, the match went from Steve Austin vs. HHH to Steve Austin vs. Chyna. Mankind returned after knee surgery and beat Chyna, so it stood as Mankind vs. Austin. Mankind and HHH pinned each other in a #1 Contender's match, so it became HHH vs. Austin vs. Mankind. Ventura grabs the mic and proclaims that he doesn't care that the media will think of him as a disgrace for reffing this match. Good for him. HHH wore chain mail to the ring, which he should have worn during his feud with Steiner. They could have had a chain mail-modeling contest. HHH gets double-teamed to start, and tossed. Mankind tries to shake Austin's hand, but Austin lets him know he's number one, in his own unique way, then whallops Mankind. HHH hits Austin's knee with a chair, and starts to work it over, with Mankind's help. In a cute spot, Mankind tells HHH to do a figure four, but Mankind legdrops Austin and goes for the cover while HHH is applying the move. If HHH had the move fully applied, Mankind could have easily gotten the pin. I'd love to see that finish in a triple threat match. Chyna crotches Mankind into the post, and gets sent to the back by Ventura. Mankind lays there for a while, as HHH and Austin go at it. Mick knocks HHH to the floor, and misses a flipping dive off the apron. Ouch. HHH and Austin brawl into the crowd for a bit, but Jesse wants it in the ring, so they go back. See, it's nice to have a ref that asserts his authoritah. Mankind is hit with the Stunner, but HHH breaks it up with a wicked chairshot. He then hits Mankind with the chair, but Jesse refuses to count. Hey, he warned him about using chairs. HHH keeps demanding that Jesse count, and Jesse just walks around the ring, basically whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Shane comes out, but gets Stunned. Jesse picks him up, and tosses him out to a HUGE pop. Jesse: "That's for your old man, you little bastard!". Great stuff. Mankind gets the Socko Claw on both guys, but Austin kicks Mick in his more prominent gut. HHH gets Stunner, but Mick saves. Austin gets Pedigreed, but Mick takes HHH out, and hits the double-arm DDT for the three. Who saw THAT coming? Not only Mankind winning, but Austin being the one to job? It's not often that the champ is pinned in a triple threat match, and it's weird to see Austin job clean back then. Mick would then transition the title to HHH the next night. HHH takes out his frustrations on Austin's knee with a chair, as Mankind and Jesse celebrate up the aisle. Really good match, considering all the factors, as all three clicked, busted their asses, and everything went right. ***3/4
DVD Extras
There's a pretty decent assortment of extras here. Definitely more than quite a few non-Wrestlemania PPV DVDs. There's highlight packages for the Eurocontinental title match, the Streetfight, the tag title match, Rock/Ass, and the WWE title match, all of which are well-done. There's also alternate commentary done on the WWE title match done by Austin, Mankind, and HHH. They're pretty kayfabed, but also interesting. HHH is especially pretty funny here. There's also a Ventura section, featuring a Confidential-type segment, a press conference, and his confrontation with HHH on Raw. All-in-all, not a bad set of extras.
Verdict: Cut out the Women's match, and you get a show where the effort is very prevalent, and the result is a consistently entertaining, fun, and solid three hours. The Greenwich Streetfight and the main event are especially worth checking out.
Recommended.
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