King of the Ring 1999 - Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro North Carolina, June 27th, 1999

The King of the Ring! I like the opening graphics but they’re very focused on the King of the Ring tournament which is funny because the build to this event certainly wasn’t! The tournament tonight will mostly involve chairshots to the head (you'll see what I mean). I should also draw attention to the "graphic design is my passion" looking ass poster for the event. Not a fan. 

The video package focuses on the main event and we wasted no time getting to some story. “It was all kicking off on Heat” - me, multiple occasions.

Earlier tonight Shane McMahon was made to wrestle Ken Shamrock - Shamrock has been hellbent on taking out The McMahons after feeling used and manipulated by the Higher Power and Higher Power Jr. 

The returning Steve Blackman is acting as a sort of paid hitman on McMahon's behalf and he attacked Ken Shamrock - just as he did last week on Raw - with a kendo stick and badly injured Kenny with him coughing up blood. Graphic. Apparently Shane is also too hurt to compete in tonight's main event and that is the real story of the night. 

I don’t really know where to include this bit of trivia either but in a dark match before Sunday Night Heat earlier, Meat wrestled a newly signed Olympic Gold Medal winning Kurt Angle.

King of the Ring Quarter final

X-Pac vs. Hardcore Holly

The build for the King of the Ring tournament took place entirely on Sunday Night Heat. All the qualifiers were a few weeks ago and since then it’s been odd pairings in tag matches and fatal fourways and so on having the eight quarter finalists interact as much as possible. Not a terrible strategy honestly, I wish I’d seen some of it. To get here Holly defeated Al Snow and X-Pac defeated The Big Bossman. Neither match lasted longer than three minutes.

This match is too short to be good or bad as after getting frustrated by his early flurry of offence Hardcore gets himself a steel chair and blasts X-Pac with a hard shot. He is obviously disqualified and X-Pac advances to the semi-finals. He’ll sell his neck for the rest of the night. 

X-Pac’s “only other DX member” bestie Roaddogg runs down to stop Holly from taking the beating any further. 

Backstage a gassed Hardcore Holly struggles to speak and reminds us of two things - his new nickname is “The Big Shot” and that he’s feuding with The Big Show. Big Show actually tried to drop a car on him during a hardcore match on Raw, which we do see footage of during The Big Show’s entrance for the next match. 

King of the Ring Quarter final

Kane vs. The Big Show

This is a “first time ever” match but is a pairing that we’d see over and over and over for the next ten to fifteen years. Kane defeated Test in a short match to qualify and Big Show beat Droz in a sub-one-minute match to advance. 

JR and King have some fun making fun of internet rumours and dirt sheets during this which is pretty funny in hindsight. It was only 1999 afterall. 

Gentlemen, set your dials to “methodical” for this one. Kane does get a near fall off a nice flying clothesline. The referee goes down when Show goes for a big boot and Kane ducks. Hardcore Holly runs in with a steel chair to hit Big Show but Kane stops him and plants him with a chokeslam. Kane uses a low blow to get control too - they’re both babyfaces but The Big Show is so massive and strong Kane has to do what he can. He locks his hand around Big Show’s throat and the fans pop for an attempted chokeslam but instead he holds on and Show drops to one knee being choked out. The fans get quieter and quieter, then chant “Big Show” and then start to loudly boo the spot which goes on for far too long. Kane strangles him with one hand for a solid two minutes - I’d have thought my Network feed froze if it wasn’t for King and JR talking over it. 

Big Show does eventually power out and Kane cracks him in the head with one of the hardest chair shots I’ve ever seen to cover and win. Kane advances to the semi-finals. 

Backstage Michael Cole interviews Vince McMahon about Shane’s condition. Shane is too hurt to compete and Vince angrily demands the EMTs (but they’re busy with Ken Shamrock and his serious internal bleeding.)

King of the Ring Quarter final

Ken Shamrock vs. Mr. Ass

Mr. Ass advanced with a victory over Viscera and Shamrock defeated Jeff Jarrett. Billy has one of the tag team title belts with him - he’s not the champion but this past week on Raw during a six man tag team match where his partners were the Tag Team Champions The Acolytes, Billy said the tag titles were on the line and when he won by pinning X-Pac, took one of the titles as his reward. 

Before the match, Mr. Ass tells everyone that Ken is running scared and isn’t really hurt and demands to win by forfeit. Shamrock is too brave to be smart and throws down the medical personnel and heads out to the ring anyway.

Mr. Ass goes aggressively on the offence and hammers Kenny’s ribs and back as King cheers him on. 

Ken does get a couple of comeback spots with a rolling leg lock on the floor, and avoiding Gunn’s attempt to dive on him from the top rope. Shamrock keeps screaming and swearing to himself as he hits moves and goes for the hurricanrana which Mr. Ass counters into a sitdown powerbomb. When he hits the mat a load of blood sprays from his mouth and that's too much - the referee rings the bell and declares Mr. Ass the winner. Billy Gunn advances to the semi-finals to face Kane.

After the match a wounded Shamrock throws the referee out of the ring in a fury as he clutches his belly, blood streaming from his mouth. 

Kevin Kelly interviews Chyna about being the first woman in this tournament. She says “balls” for a cheap pop. Kevin also asks Triple H what his thoughts are on tonight’s WWF title match since he’s challenged the winner. Triple H and Chyna are still officially in the Corporate Ministry with The Undertaker but his refusal to play second fiddle and drive to win the title has caused a lot of cracks. 

King of the Ring Quarter final

Roaddogg vs. Chyna (w/Triple H)

This is the debut of the proper version of My Time as both Triple H and Chyna have been using an instrumental version of it for over a month now. It’s ironic Chyna came out to it before Triple H did. To get here Roaddogg defeated The Godfather and Chyna defeated Val Venis. 

Roaddogg debuted a new solo-version of his pre-match promo before this and the fans haven’t caught on. It’s not very good.

King laughs about him talking about DX because they’re dead. They’re not, and JR sticks up for them - there’s still two members. Earlier tonight on Heat, Chyna got in a cheap low blow on Roaddogg and she and Triple H gave a beating to Roaddogg.

Roaddogg doesn’t want to hit a woman and that’s his downfall here as he tries to wrestle and keep it fair but Chyna throws punches and forearms trying to frustrate him. 

King is very misogynistic during this laughing about the idea of a woman wrestling men. 

The two keep it simple and this is a story-driven match with Roaddogg having better technique but Chyna probably being stronger and more willing to fight rather than wrestle. 

Triple H gets in cheapshots which King hilariously claims to have missed despite it being right in front of him. 

Chyna slowly works over Roaddogg until he’s finally had enough and throws her to the outside where Triple H gets more cheap shots and whips Roaddogg into the ring steps and the apron. There is way more chat between JR and King about the idea of hitting a woman and casual misogyny than anything else. 

Roaddogg’s comeback is shut down with a nice DDT and a very close near fall. 

She gets some nice heat too by mocking Roaddogg’s “Shake rattle and roll” knee drop. 

There’s a badly botched spot as Roaddogg was supposed to reverse Chyna’s sleeper into one of his own but they mistimed it off the ropes and had a bit of awkward manoeuvring in the corner for him to get the sleeper locked in. 

When the referee goes down, Triple H cracks Roaddogg with a chain for a close near fall and its at that point that the Roaddogg has had enough and starts to fight back properly throwing punches and hanging her up on the ropes. The fans explode for his comeback!

Commissioner Shawn Michaels comes down to eject Triple H from ringside for his constant cheating and with everyone distracted, Chyna hits a stiff low blow on Roaddogg…and sells her arm! He’s wearing a cup which he shows off and then plants Chyna with the pumphandle slam for the victory and to advance to the semi-finals to face his buddy X-Pac. The last two members of DX collide. 

This was easily the best match of the four quarter finals tonight and the best Roaddogg match that wasn’t hardcore rules. Really enjoyed the story of this.

Michael Cole interviews The Rock about his WWF title match tonight. The Undertaker set fire to a huge Brahma Bull symbol on Heat earlier tonight. It has, obviously, not intimidated The Rock. 

Number 1 Contendership for the WWF Tag Team Championships

The Brood (Edge and Christian) (w/Gangrel) vs. The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) (w/Michael Hayes)

This is a rematch from earlier tonight on Sunday Night Heat as these two teams met and the match was ruined when the WWF Tag Team Champions The Acolytes ran in and beat up everyone. Bradshaw also challenged Mr. Ass to a match tomorrow night on Raw for stealing his tag title belt.

This feud has been going since the end of April when The Brood gave a bloodbath to Michael Hayes/Doc Hendrix on the first episode of Smackdown so he went out and found a young hungry tag team to manage and get his revenge. 

This is the start of a very long streak with one or both of these tag teams being prominently featured on every PPV going forward. The fans are quiet here but these will become two of the most over and popular acts of this entire era.

Edge counters Jeff in the corner into a stiff Alabama Slam and he tags out to Matt shortly after. It’s so awesome to see these four like this - young, in amazing shape, lightning fast and eager to make themselves famous. The action is so crisp and clean and The Hardys get a loud squeal from the women in attendance when they remove their tops. I guess they were hot before they were popular. 

Edge gets on a roll and strings some moves together but Michael Hayes hits him from behind with the referee distracted allowing Jeff to take over. Michael Hayes rushes in again but eats a spear from Edge and then as The Hardys set up what would become their trademark Poetry in Motion move in the corner Edge dives off the middle rope and catches Jeff with a spear in midair which gets a reaction and a huge reaction from JR. 

Gangrel tries to help his team and sprays blood at Jeff, who moves and it gets Edge instead. 

One Twist of Fate later and The Hardy Boys are the number one contenders for the tag team championships! 

Post match there doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings between Gangrel and Edge. JR must have gotten Matt and Jeff Hardy mixed up about ten times during this short match. A taste of things to come.

Michael Cole interviews WWF Champion The Undertaker ahead of his defence and he calls Cole’s question stupid. Fair. Valid.

Mr. McMahon comes out into the arena next, flying solo which is odd for him. No entourage. He’s here to say that thanks to commissioner Michaels putting Shane in a match with Ken Shamrock earlier, Shane will not be able to compete tonight. That means that tonight’s main event is cancelled. Shawn Michaels comes out himself to stop Vince there - the match will definitely take place tonight with a suitable replacement in Shane’s spot. Vince perks up at that - it’ll be Stone Cold taking on Vince McMahon and a “suitable replacement”. Vince McMahon says that after tonight he’ll be the showstopper, he’ll be the main event and he’ll be the 100% owner of the World Wrestling Federation. King gushes about how brilliant and genius Mr. McMahon is as JR rattles off all the horrible and evil things he’s done this year. 

King of the Ring Semi final

Mr. Ass vs. Kane

I haven’t really mentioned Mr. Ass’s new “Ass man” music because he’s had it for a little while but it remains as amusing now as it was 20+ years ago. 

This match is pretty full as Mr. Ass keeps his distance from Kane and manages to get control with an impressively high dropkick into Kane’s face while he’s carrying the ringsteps sending them back into his head. Billy then slowly works over Kane in the ring who sells for far too long.

Noteworthy is JR sarcastically asking King if he’d ever sue someone over the “King” moniker. He would and did - he sued the WWF over it in fact. 

Kane finally fights back and as Mr. Ass goes outside and gets a steel chair, The Big Show heads to the ring. He unarms Billy and when Kane leans over the top rope he blasts him which allows Mr. Ass to quickly pin Kane and advance to the finals. This was a very dull five minutes.

Kevin Kelly speaks to X-Pac and Roaddogg separately ahead of this next match. They’re the only two members of DX left and both talk about how much they want to win, and the importance of winning. “May the better man win” 

King of the Ring Semi final

X-Pac vs. Roaddogg

X-Pac is heavily selling his neck from earlier and shoos the pyro guys out of the ring - he forgoes his usual pageantry. Roaddogg does a little too, doing his entrance but stopping short of the full spiel on the way to the ring. Both men are respectful of nothing usually but they are respectful to each other. 

King says he fully expects that they’ll fall out during this and that will finally be the end of D-Generation X. 

X-Pac is quick using snap mares, baseball slide dropkicks and suplexes. He’s wasting no time. 

Roaddogg comes back and works quickly through his own trademark moves. They’re cycling through spots at a rapid pace. 

X-Pac counters an attempted Pumphandle slam into the X-Factor to win this and head to the finals against Mr. Ass. 

Post match, both men embrace and leave together. DX is alive and well, much to King’s annoyance.

WWF Championship

The Undertaker © (w/Paul Bearer) vs. The Rock

The video package for this one features a lot more about the Corporate Ministry’s dissension than anything about The Rock. Not a huge fan of the odd techno music at the start.

In hindsight, this should have been a triple threat match that also included Triple H. He’s so involved in this title scene anyway and it would allow them to include all of The Rock and Triple H’s feud from the previous month which was a lot more interesting than the build up to this match. I do wonder if the build to this match was cut short due to losing a week of Raw because of the Owen hart tribute show.

For some reason The Rock’s music plays for an eternity before he finally walks out. He actually looks in a pretty bad mood which makes me wonder what was being said backstage. This version of The Undertaker’s music has really grown on me and I think has replaced the version before this as my favourite one. It has an atmosphere and a level of epic that can’t be understated.

The fans loudly chant “Rocky” and this one starts very quickly. The Undertaker clobbers the referee before the bell for no reason and with the referee down, The Rock quickly hits the Rock Bottom and has the visual three count with no referee to count! A second referee eventually runs down but is pulled out of the ring and punched out by Paul Bearer.

The Undertaker recovers quickly with a massive chokeslam just as the original referee recovers but The Rock kicks out. 

The two trade right hands and fight to the outside and brawl up the ramp. The referee actually follows them to stay near the action instead of staying in the ring to count because Attitude Era.

The Rock is clotheslined on the concrete but comes back moments later - the momentum as they fight on the outside swings back and forth rapidly but as they fight up the ramp we get a good look at the entrance ramp and display which is a massive scaffolding built out of ladders. That’ll be important later.

The Rock foolishly tries to suplex the much larger man on the ramp but its countered and The Rock has a rough landing. 

Finally back in the ring, The Undertaker slows the match right down and works on The Rock’s arm until a counter of the top rope tight walk and The Rock gets a bottle of water and spits it in The Undertaker’s face. The two fight back out into the crowd. It’s funny, it’s like they know the match is dull when they’re in the ring so they keep fighting to the outside. 

Back at ringside The Rock tries to use a chair but The Undertaker blocks with the ringbell and the chair goes right back in the challenger’s face. Taker chokes Rocky for a bit and then as he talks to the referee Paul Bearer is able to take off his shoe and hit The Rock with it and laughs maniacally. Paul Bearer is underrated as a performer and it’s a shame he’s been given so little to do since pairing back up with The Undertaker. 

The champion hits a massive DDT and locks in a chin lock to grind down The Rock. 

After a long period of working him over slowly, The Rock counters a Tombstone attempt into a DDT for another near fall. The referee goes down as The Rock is whipped into him, and The Rock with a scoop slam and a People’s Elbow and for the second time in the match The Rock has a visual three count with no referee to count.

Paul Bearer gets up on the apron and hands an ether soaked rag to The Undertaker who tries to use it on The Rock. The People’s Champ is too quick with a pair of clotheslines and he uses the rag instead. The Undertaker fades and starts to pass out but its now that Triple H - in his ring gear which he wasn’t earlier - runs to the ring and spikes The Rock with a Pedigree and takes off like a thief in the night. JR gets some great sound bites calling Triple H all kinds of names. 

The referee recovers but it's academic as after a near fall on the knocked out Rock, he stumbles into a Tombstone piledriver and The Undertaker retains the WWF Championship in a match that was much better than I remembered it being as a kid. I always thought this was a boring match but I really appreciated it now. 

Backstage commissioner Michaels has security drag Triple H out of the arena. I wasn’t the only one who found Triple H being in his ring gear suspicious and as Vince protests that Triple H is his tag team partner Triple H is forcefully removed. “No shit Sherlock, you think I didn’t figure that out?” With his “suitable replacement” ejected from the arena Vince gets on the phone with someone and demands that they turn around and come back to the arena. 

King of the Ring final

X-Pac vs. Mr. Ass

I think this is odd booking personally as a lot of the build for this featured Mr. Ass and Roaddogg’s feud continuing.That seems like a natural final here with a ton of story and heat behind it, plus no one remembers that they even had a match at Over the Edge. 

Still, for a one night storyline “look how brave and tough X-Pac is” is a good one and he’s still selling his neck from Hardcore Holly’s assault earlier. His neck was the big story in his match with other former-DX mate Triple H at Backlash too.  

X-Pac looks exhausted and emotional and Mr. Ass looks fresh as a daisy. He’s been open about planning to focus on Pac’s neck. His holding one of the Tag Team title belts via dodgy means is kind of distracting from the main point here which is that he might be about to become King. 

Mr. Ass works on X-Pac’s neck very aggressively just like he promised and while X-Pac gets the odd move in he’s unable to string them together. Looking at the match times for the brackets, Roaddogg and Chyna wasn’t just the longest quarter finals match tonight, it was the only match in the entire tournament to last longer than 7 minutes. 11 of the 15 matches were shorter than 4 minutes in fact.

The finish of this is decent at least even if it was flat and came out of nowhere. Mr. Ass hit a diving Fameasser off the top rope to win the match and the tournament. 

There’s no ceremony, no crown, no pomp or circumstance - just Mr. Ass celebrating in front of a quiet crowd while neither King nor JR sound particularly interested, all while holding a Tag Team title belt that isn’t his. This entire tournament was underwhelming and the finish to the finals didn’t exactly save it. 

There’s a fair bit of faff before the main event gets going as we still need to find out who Vince McMahon’s partner is going to be! Shane was hurt by Ken Shamrock and Triple H was apparently the backup plan but was kicked out of the arena by Shawn Michaels. Vince enters first and introduces his partner - the Lethal Weapon, Steve Blackman! He’s been the McMahon’s hired gun twice now and is the reason Ken Shamrock was spewing up blood earlier so is a solid choice. As Vince seemingly explains what a ladder match is to Blackman the titantron shows GTV - a gimmick which popped up four weeks ago on Raw - and the candid camera footage reveals that Shane McMahon is in fine health and was laughing about pulling one over on HBK! Shane tries to make a run for it but Michaels catches him and frog marches him to the ring. “Blackman, get your G.I Joe looking ass to stepping” I laughed out loud. So yes Shane has been caught out and the match will proceed as advertised. 

Handicap Ladder match for Ownership of the WWF

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon

This is a really good fun video package, and its well worth seeking out as much of the “Austin at WWF HQ” footage as you can too because those are all great.

The one thing that does become very clear here though is that Vince McMahon being “the greater power” doesn’t make any sense. Even if you buy that he hates Austin so much he was willing to create this huge scheme just to cost him the WWF title to The Undertaker and to mess with him, The Undertaker was targeting Vince before Wrestlemania which means that Vince’s evil plan to stop Stone Cold from becoming WWF champion not only included Stone Cold winning the title at Wrestlemania but also helping him retain it at Backlash. In fact, The Undertaker first mentioned a "higher power" back in February before Stone Cold was even going to Wrestlemania so Vince I guess also expected to lose that steel cage match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre?

So…it’s best not to think about it. Just enjoy it folks.

The pop for Austin is enormous tonight, and The McMahon’s keep their distance and talk strategy on the outside and decide to get the ladder right away. Stone Cold bowls them both over with a big double clothesline and we’re off and running.

Stone Cold dominates both McMahons and they look exhausted almost immediately. He beats them both down until eventually Vince is able to distract and Shane gets a cheap shot in! They overwhelm Austin and pummelled him but as soon as Vince goes to get the ladder Stone Cold sends Shane to the ringsteps and goes to catch Vince.

At the top of the ramp Austin throws Vince into the metal entrance way. Shane clubs him from behind but it has no effect so he runs away and climbs up the ladder scaffolding! He gives Austin the finger and lures Stone Cold up, which he does, and Stone Cold punches Shane and sends him flying off, dropping seven or eight feet to the concrete ramp. 

Every time one of the McMahon’s rushes Stone Cold he catches them and sends them back to the steel. He starts throwing Shane and Vince into the ladders that are supporting the roof of the structure one by one until there’s only one ladder left, which Austin pulls out with a chain and sends the entire superstructure of ladders crashing down onto both McMahons! 

At ringside Stone Cold lays Shane on the Spanish announce table and drives him through it with an elbow from the ladder! Vince climbs the ladder on the outside and Austin follows which lets Vince dump the ladder over and Austin bounces violently off the English announce table which doesn’t break and he skids off onto the concrete!

Vince climbs in the ring and gets close but Stone Cold is there to use a sort of modified suplex to bring him crashing to the mat from the ladder. 

Austin climbs but Shane shoves the ladder over and Steve hits hard but he holds onto the ladder not letting the McMahons use it. 

Shane gets up on Vince’s shoulders to try and reach the briefcase without a ladder and Austin gets up, punching Vince which brings down Shane.

With a pair of Stunners on both McMahon boys Austin has this match in the bag.

He sets up the ladder and climbs but as he reaches for the briefcase, it raises into the air! Austin goes a rung higher and reaches again and it goes even higher! Austin gets out of the ring and goes to confront the production staff at ringside about who raised the briefcase. No one knows who controls it. 

Vince uses this lull to climb to the briefcase which is now lowering but Stone Cold stops that. Shane actually sacrifices his own dad, shoving over the ladder with both men on top! 

Shane climbs and the briefcase drops down into his waiting arms. The McMahons win and are once again in control of the World Wrestling Federation.

Stone Cold has been screwed once again, but the big question now is who raised and lowered the briefcase?