Raw is War - April 26th, 1999

An Unholy Wedding

A very sad and serious looking Vince McMahon arrives in his limo in the parking lot, being consoled by Gerry Brisco and Pat Patterson. His daughter Stephanie was abducted by The Undertaker in the closing moments of Backlash only 24 hours ago.

Backstage The Stooges try to convince McMahon to go to the cops but Vince says that he has all the paperwork with him and he’s going to give The Undertaker what he wants. The implication is that The Undertaker has fully kidnapped her and sent a ransom demanding no cops and something that involves paperwork. After the break, the three of them are sitting with their heads in their hands awaiting a phone call.

McMahon and The Stooges receive the phone call they were waiting for. It’s The Undertaker (obviously) and Vince confirms that the paperwork he’s brought in exchange for Stephanie’s safe return gives control of the WWF to The Undertaker. He also refers to himself as Stephanie’s soul mate, and tells Vince that he needs to have Stone Cold deliver the paperwork to the loading dock of a hotel. Vince knows Austin won’t help him, but The Undertaker doesn’t care. Speaking of whom, WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin (with his Smoking Skull belt) comes out in the arena moments later for an interview in the ring with Michael Cole. Michael starts it but Austin just snatches the mic and tells him to get out of the ring. Stone Cold gives a little bit of respect to The Rock, but mostly that he beat The Rock’s ass. Before he can go any further, Vince McMahon comes out! Vince speaks quietly and humbly - this isn’t the Mr. McMahon we know. He asks Austin for his help, to which Steve laughs. Vince pleads to Austin that this isn’t about them, it's about his innocent daughter. Austin doesn’t give a rat's ass about Vince’s problems. Vince trips over his words and struggles to get it out - he explains that The Undertaker has demanded that Austin deliver this documentation to him so that Stephanie can be released. Austin makes Vince repeat that Vince McMahon needs Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin actually seems taken aback that Vince really said it. He MUST be desperate. Stone Cold refuses to let up - Vince has made his life miserable for 15 months and he won’t forgive or forget. Austin says that Stone Cold also needs Vince McMahon…to kiss his ass! He refuses to help Vince, or Stephanie. 

Backstage after an advert for Smackdown special later the same week, The Stooges ask Vince what’s his plan now? He has no choice - he’s off to deliver the paperwork to The Undertaker’s location by himself.

Backstage as Stone Cold walks through the back he runs into The Big Show. Show gives Austin a little attitude about not helping Stephanie.

We get a shot of Vince McMahon out at the loading dock with his briefcase waiting for The Undertaker. Stone Cold is also watching on a monitor and even looks like he might feel sorry for Vince. 

After the third shot of Vince McMahon waiting patiently for The Undertaker, elsewhere backstage The Ministry of Darkness is dragging a screaming Stephanie McMahon through the back dressed in black, followed by The Undertaker and a laughing Paul Bearer.

The Ministry carried Stephanie McMahon to the ring, strapped to The Undertaker’s symbol. They awkwardly position her on the ropes, propped up at 45 degrees as Paul Bearer begins a wedding ceremony! She is to be married to the Lord of Darkness, The Undertaker! Ken Shamrock tries to rescue her with a baseball bat but is shut down and immediately splashed by Viscera. The Big Show then tries to make the save but he’s quickly beaten up and wiped out of the ring by The Undertaker himself using Kenny’s baseball bat. The ceremony proceeds and just as we reach “you may now kiss your bride” the glass shatters and Austin sprints to the ring. He fights off The Ministry and thanks to several brutal, vile chair shots to the head of Bradshaw, Faarooq, Viscera and finally Mideon (after a Stone Cold Stunner) The Undertaker does a runner and Austin unties Steph who throws her arms around the Rattlesnake in thanks. He awkwardly doesn’t want to hug her back and keeps his arms to his sides which made me laugh. This was an awesome segment and Stone Cold looked like John Wayne himself running in for the heroic save. Vince McMahon comes down to get his daughter and thanks Stone Cold.  

Corporate Champion no-more

In the arena, the show opens with The Corporate Champion The Rock. He was very close to getting the title back last night at Backlash. Jim Cornette on commentary blames Shane McMahon’s miscues for him not being champion, and says that The Rock is so talented that he never needed all the Corporate shortcuts. He’s right too, and that is a very important plot point. There’s a “Rocky” chant as he sucks up a little to the crowd. Much like when he turned babyface after The Nation, The Rock’s promos have shifted from talking trash about the crowd to focusing on opponents. He considers showing Austin respect and giving him some credit but stops short and calls him trailer park trash. He’s back to calling himself The People’s Champion a lot more recently too. He even lets the fans do the singalong spots and doesn’t cut them off. This is 110% a babyface turn. The Rock says he has one problem - a 200lbs piece of steaming, stinking monkey crap named Shane McMahon! He told Shane not to get involved but he didn’t listen and cost him the WWF title. Before The Rock can go any further, Shane Mcmahon comes out flanked by his entire Corporation 2.0. Bossman, Triple H, Chyna, Test and the Mean Street Posse. Shane says that The Rock let the Corporation down by spending too much time having fun, entertaining the people instead of trying to win the title. It gets very personal as Shane calls The Rock monkey crap and The Rock says he’ll kick Shane’s ass. Triple H goes for a cheapshot so The Rock lays him out. He pauses, looking at the crowd before he makes this decision but throws a punch at Chyna! The Corporation lay into The Rock and beat him down! Shane climbs onto The Rock and chokes him with Bossman’s nightstick. Before The Corporation leaves the arena, The Rock challenges Shane McMahon to a singles match tonight which Shane accepts! 

Backstage, The Corporation is gassing up Shane all believing that he can take The People’s champ. Shane sends Rodney to get a Rock shirt so that he can make his usual custom ring gear.

Shane McMahon comes out for his match with The Rock and to everyone’s surprise, has no backup with him. The Rock dominates and The Mean Street Posse quickly run in and both take Rock Bottoms. The Rock sets up The People’s Elbow on Shane but now Triple H attacks from behind. With Chyna’s help, Triple H plants The Rock with the Pedigree. Chyna mounts The Rock and hammers him with punches as Shane holds the referee at bay. This match has been thrown out as Triple H and Chyna stomp away. Eventually The Corporation has had enough of attacking The Rock and leaves him laid out.

X-Pac and Kane

The Brood take on the WWF tag team champions X-Pac and Kane. X-Pac’s music and titantron video glitches out during his entrance and the music has to restart after a bit of silence. It wasn’t an angle or anything, I think it was just actual tech issues. X-Pac and Kane show a bit more affection by chatting to each other before the match. They seem to have bonded as champions. They’re scheduled to defend the tag titles against The New Age Outlaws this Thursday on the premier of Smackdown! (Yeah I’ll be covering it) Christian and Gangrel actually try a little twin magic but it doesn’t matter and Kane wins with the chokeslam on Edge pretty quickly. It’s actually pretty good booking as X-Pac and Kane communicate really effectively with body language that they’ve become friendly. Post match, The Brood gave Kane a bloodbath. He flips out when the lights come back on and instinctively chokeslams X-Pac over the ring barrier into the crowd. So much for that friendship. 

There’s a couple of different shots of X-Pac running around backstage looking for Kane.

X-Pac comes out to the ring and calls his tag team partner Kane out to the ring to clear the air. He’s jumped from behind by Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett, and that’s followed closely by Kane. He walks to the ring slowly which means X-Pac gets beat up longer than he needed to which is unintentionally funny. Kane clears out Jeff and Owen with big boots and uppercuts and Jeff takes a huge chokeslam. X-Pac confronts Kane over his actions earlier and shoves him until Kane grabs him by the throat and chokeslams him too! Kane considers leaving but instead he shows regret and helps X-Pac up, carrying him to the back. 

Other Happenings

• Jim Ross has been joined on commentary this week by Jim Cornette as Jerry Lawler was off defending himself in court against some allegations made by an underage girl. Seriously. 
• Val Venis has a match against D’Lo Brown. Last night on Heat, Val Venis ended up in a handicap match against D’Lo and Ivory. He was “rescued” by the massive Nicole Bass who ran out to chokeslam Ivory and then said that she would like Val’s “slide trombone” in her “brass section” Alright then. Val is in control of the match and as he gyrates and taunts D’Lo, Nicole Bass comes to ringside and distracts him. He is not keen. The distraction allows D’Lo to hit the big sit out powerbomb he calls Sky High to win the match. Nicole gets into the ring to check on Venis and Ivory jumps on her back! She’s quickly dumped out of the ring and wants a kiss but Val is having none of it and leaves. The commentators are pretty nasty about Nicole’s appearance.
• Backstage Michael Cole interviews Bad Ass Billy Gunn ahead of his match with Triple H. He basically calls X-Pac a loser and says that as usual, it's up to Mr. Ass to get the job done correctly. He walks off and Roaddogg makes a face - he wasn’t a fan of that. The match immediately follows and Billy Gunn debuts new solo theme music, his iconic “I’m an Ass Man” song. The fans don’t really react not knowing what to make of it. Triple H still has his long wrestling gear on but he’s changed up his upper torso with the new hair and the elbow pads and hand and wrist tape. He’s slowly morphing into main event Triple H. Billy seems to hurt his leg during an awkward bodyslam and Triple H goes right to work on it. The commentators refer to Bad Ass Billy Gunn entirely as Mr. Ass. Between that and the new theme song they are pushing this subtle gimmick change HARD. This is a decent match and as Triple H distracts the referee, Chyna slams Mr. Ass into the ring post. Roaddogg comes out and as he and Chyna have words on the ramp, Triple H wins with the Pedigree in the ring. 

• Backstage Shane McMahon pep talks Test and The Big Bossman ahead of their tag team match. Test leaves first and Shane has some private instructions for Bossman which we can’t hear. Their opponents are Mankind and The Big Show who had that brutal Boiler Room Brawl just 24 hours previous. I don’t know if they’ve lowered the titantron specifically for this spot but I like that every time The Big Show comes out he has to duck. He is massive. Last night on Heat, Bossman and Test had a little miscommunication which caused Bossman to lose to Kane and then Bossman seems to have intentionally cost Test a match against Viscera as retaliation. Two midcard heels having issues vs. two babyface main eventers. The outcome feels somewhat obvious here. Bossman andTest clearly aren’t getting on as they ignore each other's tags but they are able to beat up Mankind. Show gets the tag and wears out both heels. Bossman throws Test to the wolves and runs away. Mankind defeats Test with the Mandible Claw and he and Big Show quickly take their leave. After the match, Bossman gets in Test’s face. Test shoves him so Bossman retaliates by attacking Test with the nightstick in the back of the head and then in the ribs.
• Former Hardcore champion Hardcore Holly is attacking the new Hardcore champion Al Snow, hammering on him with a metal pipe and a trash can. Holly steals the title belt and says that Snow can have it back when he agrees to a rematch.
• A black and white vignette for Beaver to Cleavage. It’s a parody of a very old sitcom, Leave it to Beaver. The joke is that his “mum” has massive boobs. They teased this the other week and it’s as awful as I remember. Beaver Cleavage is played by Mosh of the Headbangers.
• The Intercontinental Champion The Godfather (with four hoes) takes on Jeff Jarrett (with Debra) in what we’re told is a non-title match, but the graphic for the Intercontinental title does flash up on the screen. That turns out to be a production error that spoilers what was about to happen - Jarrett challenges Godfather to put the IC title on the line. He agrees on the grounds that if Godfather wins then Debra has to join the hoe train. As the two men wrestle in the ring, Val Venis comes out to admire Debra. He’s quickly followed by Nicole Bass and Val runs off. The distraction allows Godfather to schoolboy Jeff and win with a roll up. Godfather retains the title and Debra now has to join the hoe train. She seems happy enough to get in the ring but Owen Hart arrives to grab Debra and along with Jeff Jarrett the three of them take off. 
• Skit for the debut of Meat. He’s played by Shawn Staziak and has Terri Runnels and Jacqueline all over him, feeling him up. He’s their “Meat” y’see.

• Bradshaw takes on Ken Shamrock. These two have traded assaults with baseball bats between last week’s Raw and last night at Backlash. Shamrock is still furious at The Ministry for kidnapping his sister (fair) and comes out with the baseball bat and dressed for a street fight. He’s jumped from behind by Bradshaw’s tag team partner Faarooq. The Acolytes beat down Kenny two on one until being rescued by former Corporation buddy Test, who would also appear to now be ex-Corporate himself. The Acolytes run off, and Sharock and Test seem to come to an accord.

Smackdown! - April 29th, 1999

The Corporate Ministry

The show opens with Vince McMahon and his daughter Stephanie, flanked by many armed security guards. The crowd chants “asshole” and Vince smiles through it, saying that he has been but he wants to change. He’s not so proud of some of his recent business accomplishments. He’s stepped on toes and been ruthless and done it at the expense of his family. He’s going to take the first step in taking back control of the company tonight. He’s a changed man - this ordeal with Stephanie has made him appreciate the finer things in life. He issues a personal thank you to Ken Shamrock and to The Big Show for trying to rescue Stephanie but he needs to give the biggest thank you to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stephanie thanks them too, and the crowd gets gross even by 1999 standards as she recounts her ordeal and they loudly pop for her saying she was stripped of her clothes and again for saying The Undertaker touched her. 

Vince starts a promise to Stone Cold but he’s cut off by No Chance, with Shane and the entire Corporation coming to the ring. They’ve lost another member in Test this past week on Raw. Shane does get an even louder “asshole” chant from the fans. Shane takes issue with Vince apologising and seeming to have lost his edge, and says that if Stephanie was in real danger he’d have stepped in. Shane won’t let Vince speak and kicks him and Stephanie out of the ring, sarcastically calling her “daddy’s little girl” about seven times. That’ll be a t-shirt. Shane books Stone Cold and The Rock in a tag team match tonight against two volunteers. Triple H steps up first but before we get another, the lights go out and The Undertaker appears on the titantron to volunteer. Austin ruined his plans on Raw so tonight he’s going to make him pay. That’s a big main event!

Backstage The Rock talks to himself, angry he’s being made to team with Stone Cold but he wants to lay the smackdown on Triple H even more.

The Rock comes out to the ring to talk about tonight's main event. He runs down Triple H, The Undertaker and The Corporation and is very funny in doing so. I never recap exactly what he says because honestly I couldn’t do it justice. The WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out. Austin says that to him The Rock will always be a punk kid spitting nursery rhymes. They both make it clear they’ll never be friends but are united tonight. 

Before they can get into it anymore, Shane McMahon comes out onto the stage. Vince and Stephanie have left the building after Shane’s words and actions earlier. Shane says he loves that they can’t get along because his plan is getting bigger and better. The Undertaker comes out and stands side by side with Shane. Shane has formed a union with the man who kidnapped his own sister! The entire Corporation and The Ministry come out one by one to stand together on the stage. With this enormous mass of humanity up on the stage and The Undertaker’s music playing, Shane introduces us to The Corporate Ministry! 

For the main event, Triple H comes out to “No Chance” with Chyna and the Mean Street Posse. The Undertaker comes out with Paul Bearer and Shane McMahon. The commentators really hammer home this unholy alliance, speculating about how long Shane may have been in cahoots with The Undertaker. Were they working together all along, or has he now formed this union with the man who kidnapped his sister fresh? And which one of those is worse? The Rock, like a stupid babyface, bravely gets into the ring and tries to fight Triple H and Undertaker two on one. Triple H runs out to meet Austin on the ramp and he and the WWF Champion brawl around the outside while The Rock turns the tables on The Undertaker. The match breaks down as The Big Show, Mankind, Test and Ken Shamrock run to the ring to brawl with the interfering Corporate Ministry. It’s chaos and as all of the interfering parties rush off, Shane McMahon tries to get in the ring and he’s stopped by Vince McMahon! Vince punches Shane out and gets in the ring and symbolically takes a bullet for Austin, getting blasted in the head by a chair from The Undertaker! Austin stuns The Undertaker! Shane mounts his unconscious dad and starts punching him until Austin drops him with a Stunner too and the first ever Smackdown! ends with Stone Cold having a beer bash.

Babyfaces Unite

The Big Show takes on Test. Test is no longer a member of The Corporation after his dealings with The Big Bossman on Raw. As the match starts up, Bossman makes his way to the ring twirling his nightstick. The Big Show easily defeats Test with the chokeslam. Bossman gets in the ring and seems to want to make friends with Show, who is having none of it and chases him out of the ring. Bossman circles back and attacks Test with the nightstick. The Big Show can’t let that stand and goes back to rescue the man he’s just defeated, chasing Show to the back. 

Interview with Ken Shamrock ahead of his street fight with Bradshaw. He promises to break Bradshaw’s legs, arms and spirit. Menacing. The match itself is right after - Bradshaw is in his ring gear and has the baseball bat, and is jumped on the ramp by Shamrock in jeans and a t-shirt. Shamrock uses the baseball bat and chokes Bradshaw out to win the match.

Mankind has a pre-match promo ahead of his match with The Corporate Ministry’s Bossman. Bossman tries to run but The Big Show and Test come to the ring and throw him back into a waiting Mankind who locks in the Mandible Claw for the victory.

The End of D-Generation X (again) ?

There’s an interview with X-Pac and Kane where they don’t seem to have quite resolved their issues from Raw but are focused on keeping the tag team titles. Another interview later with The New Age Outlaws about facing their DX buddy X-Pac and when Roaddogg refers to X-Pac as a close friend, Mr. Ass cuts him off and gets angry. There’s no friends when it comes to these titles. For the match, X-Pac and Kane enter separately but despite having his own new solo theme song (I’m an Ass Man) Billy Gunn does still enter with the Roaddogg. 

He’s all business and rushes to the ring without his usual taunting and posing. When Roaddogg is in the ring with X-Pac the action is fast paced but respectful however Mr. Ass is significantly more aggressive, throwing stiff right hands at X-Pac’s head. They isolate him from Kane until a hot tag. The Outlaws try to double team Kane but he’s too big and strong and rallies with a double clothesline. He does at one point grab his own partner by the throat. He doesn’t know right from wrong and just attacks anyone who comes near him, explain the commentators. Mr. Ass has the match won with the Fameasser but X-Pac breaks up the pin and shortly after X-Pac pins Billy with a roll up after a little miscommunication. X-Pac grabs his title belt and just leaves, not celebrating with Kane. After the break, Billy and Roaddogg have a loud argument in the parking lot where Mr. Ass actually says he’ll never team with Roaddogg again. After The Brood segment, Billy Gunn is running around backstage looking for X-Pac.

After a couple of segments looking for him, Mr. Ass finds X-Pac and attacks his DX buddy until Kane rescues his tag team partner. 

Other Happenings

• This episode isn’t available on the WWE Network for some reason so I had to procure a copy from other *ahem* totally legit means. It was worth tracking down though as with it being a one-off TV special (at the time) they load it up with significant story developments. Smackdown won’t become a weekly TV series until August. For fans of this type of thing, the show does have the classic Smackdown! theme song but it's basically in the Raw is War arena right down to the entrance stage, ring ropes and ring aprons. The commentary team is Michael Cole and Jim Cornette because Jerry Lawler was off defending himself in court to beat a sex offender charge. (Editors note; this episode was available on the WWE Network afterall, the episodes were just listed out of order and I couldn't find it. Whoops!)
• Backstage Jeff Jarrett and Debra are looking for Owen Hart, but elsewhere The Blue Blazer is running through the back. It’s clearly Owen as in his very distinctive voice he says that he’s here to be the WWF’s superhero.
• Val Venis takes on Jeff Jarrett. Val and Debra have been giving each other the eye and that seems to have properly pissed off Jeff. He does, to be fair, have a t-shirt telling people not to do that. This was supposed to be Owen Hart taking on Val but Jeff is taking his place. Before the bell even rings, The Blue Blazer jumps Val from behind and that's the match we get instead. With a little help from Jeff and a distraction from Debra, The Blazer wins and post match they attack him two on one. Nicole Bass rushes to the ring to make the save but it's actually Val Venis who she was there to save that gets out of the ring and runs away from her. This whole storyline is so mean to poor Nicole. With Debra, Jeff and Owen/The Blue Blazer still in the ring, the Intercontinental champion The Godfather runs to the ring. He beat Jeff Jarrett on Raw so Debra was supposed to become a hoe. He chases Jeff and Owen out of the ring and Debra seems into the idea (because all women in this era are either prudes which makes them heels or sluts which makes them babyfaces) but Jeff and The Blazer jump Godfather from behind and put the boots to him and leave him laid out in the ring. After an ad break, Kevin Kelly interviews The Blue Blazer (who refuses to admit he’s Owen Hart) The Blazer is taking a stand against all of the cleavage and sexual content in the WWF. The WWF needs a hero and all the little Blue Blazers out there need to take their vitamins, say their prayers and drink their milk. He’s a parody of white meat babyfaces like Hulk Hogan in the 80s and he’s awesome at it.

• Droz, accompanied by Prince Albert who made his debut on Sunday Night Heat recently as Droz’s personal piercing artist, takes on D’Lo Brown who still has Ivory with him. This is the first time I’ve seen Droz for a while as he hasn’t been on Raw much. D’Lo hits a nice running powerbomb out of the corner. Albert gets his partner disqualified by powerslamming D’Lo. Ivory runs away and Droz and Albert pin down D’Lo to apparently give him a piercing against his will but a returning Mark Henry in a lovely sand coloured suit runs to the ring and makes the save, chasing them both off. 

• A video package about Sable “going Hollywood” consisted of clips of her on various talk shows and making TV appearances. 
• Doc Hendrix/Michael Hayes is in the ring and welcomes The Brood for an in ring interview. This is them “breaking their silence” as they’ve never cut a promo. Gangrel starts and delivers what sounds like a very scripted promo, stopping to chuckle awkwardly every so often. He also trips over some of his words. This is perhaps one of the worst promos I’ve ever heard. Edge isn’t any better. They’re doing this really deep in character goth stuff rather than just speaking like human beings. Gangrel calls Doc by his real name “Michael” and then they give him a bloodbath.

Raw is War - May 3rd, 1999

Shane throws his weight around

Shane comes to the ring with The Corporate Ministry, complete with a new theme song. (A sort of demonic goth version of No Chance, which is awesome) It’s Shane, The Undertaker, Paul Bearer, Triple H, Chyna, The Big Bossman, Mideon, Viscera, Bradshaw, Faarooq, Rodney and Pete Gas. A mix of talent to be sure. The group being formed is important enough that here's the video from the start of this Raw recapping it all from Smackdown!

Shane talks about compassion and how much compassion he has for the people as he runs through all the cliche heel “you people and your pathetic lives” schtick. He passes the mic off to Triple H to take aim at The Rock and promises to end his career at Over the Edge. Next up is The Undertaker who will face Austin for the WWF title at Over the Edge. The Undertaker says he hates everyone, but Austin more than most. Austin loves to play the hero and rescue people and he’s going to execute Stone Cold at the PPV and take the WWF title. He says that Austin will be the ultimate sacrifice. Shane names himself as the special referee for the WWF title match at Over the Edge, and tells Vince he needs to hurry up and get to the arena because it’s the final piece of his master plan. He's interrupted before he can finish by Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Test and The Big Show. They’re all carrying 2x4s. Mankind says they all worked with The Corporation at one point and now they’re united as disgruntled former employees. They’re The Union. Mankind implies that as terrible as Vince was, at least the pay was good. Shane isn’t paying people enough and is running the company into the ground. The Union head to the ring and armed with their 2x4s manage to send the Corporate Ministry packing. The fans actually do chant “Union” too so it seems to have worked.

Backstage outside of Shane McMahon’s office we can hear him angrily ranting about The Union. After the break, Shane McMahon and The Corporate Ministry come back out with Shane carrying a clipboard. He tells everyone to throw away their format sheers and programs because he’s changing the show. He books a fatal four match match with Bossman, Mideon, Viscera and Test. Three on one. He books Mankind in a hardcore handicap match against both Bradshaw and Faarooq. He books Triple H in a singles match with Ken Shamrock, but after a whisper in his ear from Triple H, Chyna is added as the special referee. He books The Mean Street Posse in a tag team match against Patterson and Brisco! Vince’s stooges against Shane’s stooges. He books The Big Show in a singles match with The Undertaker (which The Undertaker doesn’t seem happy about) He ends on something for his own personal amusement - Debra vs. Sable in an evening gown match. Triple H keeps whispering things into Shane’s ear, apparently calling some shots. He books Stone Cold vs. The Rock tonight too in a lumberjack match with the entire Corporate Ministry around the ring. Shane has one more match to make but before he does, Vince McMahon comes out. He shows no fear coming all the way to the ring! He’s followed closely behind by Stephanie and Linda McMahon with security. The entire McMahon family is in the ring for the first time ever. Shane challenges Vince to a match tonight. Vince refuses and hands the mic off to Linda to see if Shane will listen to his mother. Shane tells her to shut her mouth and Vince first up, grabbing Shane by the lapels. He calms down in the face of these massive odds and leaves the ring. The crowd loudly chants “kick his ass.” Vince, Linda and Stephanie take their leave together and Shane says “hey Vince, I could have him do it again. Who do you think was the mastermind behind Stephanie being kidnapped? I knew Daddy’s little girl was in trouble and you would crumble. How do you think The Undertaker got into our house? Got her teddy bear? Got those photos?” Vince actually runs to the ring to attack Shane but gets attacked and beaten up by the entire Ministry. Shane calls them off and our Vince vs. Shane match is set! Backstage after the break, Linda and Stephanie try to talk Vince out of it but he bellows that he’s going to kick Shane’s ass! He demands security to take Linda and Stephanie to the hotel.

The Mean Street Posse take on The stooges. Patterson and Brisco aren’t even dressed to compete and are in full suits though to be fair, the Posse are in sweater vests. The stooges actually get a pop. They beat up the Posse and are declared the winners after beating them out of the ring.

Backstage Shane and The Undertaker lead The Ministry through the back for “an office visit” which JR and King assume means Vince’s office. After the Test fourway match, The Ministry leave Vince’s office with Vince laid on the floor badly beaten up.

Test in a four way match against three members of The Corporate Ministry. This is basically a three on one handicap match. It ends up being longer than I’d expected and doesn’t have a finish as Test gets beaten down until the rest of The Union rescue him.

Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon. Shane talks some trash but Vince hobbles out anyway. Shane attacks his father on the ramp and the match doesn’t last long as Vince actually wins despite his badly pre-beaten state with a Stunner! The fans chant “loser” at Shane. This was shockingly short as of all the matches I expected to get a ton of interference tonight I thought it would be the one with the two non-wrestlers.

Mankind armed with a 2x4 takes on The Acolytes in a handicap match. Bradshaw has a shovel with him which he hits Mick with as he fights with Faarooq. Faarooq takes the 2x4 and the two men beat down Mankind. Bradshaw tosses the ring steps into the ring and holds Mick up for Faarooq to blast him in the face with them. The fans keep chanting for “Foley” as he’s mugged by The Acolytes. Mankind endures a beating until mounting a comeback with a trash can. Faarooq accidentally hits Bradshaw with a chair and Foley follows up with a double arm DDT and puts on Mr. Socko but the Acolytes are quickly backup and with a stiff double powerbomb through a pair of set up steel chairs, win the match. The first of Shane’s evil plans to actually work out tonight. 

The Union’s Ken Shamrock vs. The Corporate Ministry’s Triple H with Chyna as the special referee. Triple H still has the generic heel music he debuted at Backlash. Chyna enters with Triple H and makes Shamrock do all the usual referee checks. Shamrock dominates with submission attempts with Chyna not even trying to ask if Triple H submits. Chyna hangs back and doesn’t stop Triple H’s cheating and counting very fast for his pin attempt. She rakes Shamrock's eyes to break up his submission attempt and covers her eyes when Triple H tells her he’s about to do a low blow. Ken does mount a comeback with some slams and a heel kick but Chyna refuses to count. This match was honestly too long as they cycle through all the heel referee spots. We all knew where it was going. Shamrock gets Triple H in the ankle lock and Chyna helps him get to the ropes. Ken won’t break it and Chyna gets on his back. He goes to belly-to-belly suplex her but Triple H makes the save. A low blow from Chyna leads to a Pedigree and obviously a Triple H victory. 

The Big Show vs. The Undertaker for the first time ever. Big Show was a big (lol) signing from WCW but they’ve cycled through all kinds of huge dream matches for him on episodes of Raw because at this time, the Monday Night War for ratings against WCW was the only thing that mattered. Every Raw is loaded up with massive marquee matches and storyline developments because it just had to be. Big Show dominates by lifting The Undertaker in a way he never had. It’s wild seeing Taker look small compared to someone else. On the outside, Paul Bearer gives Undertaker some liquid which King and JR say is ether and he douses his elbow pad in it. The Undertaker hops onto Show’s back and locks in a sleeper burying the ether soaked elbow pad into his face.The Big Show quickly fades to his knees and Bearer slides a baseball bat to The Undertaker who smashes it over The Big Show’s head. It explodes into splinters and The Big Show drops, unconscious and The Undertaker kicks and chokes at the unmoving Big Show before leaving.

The main event is The Rock vs. WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin in a non-title match, with the entire Corporate Ministry around the ring as lumberjacks. The match doesn’t start as The Ministry gets in the ring and starts to beat down the two babyfaces. Vince McMahon comes out and tells The Union to run down and save them followed by every babyface in the company. The Godfather, Hardcore Holly, Al Snow, The Brood, DX and a bunch more. I don’t know where everyone goes through as it breaks down into Triple H and The Undertaker double teaming The Rock at the top of the ramp as Chyna and Bearer look on. Stone Cold appears at the side for the save and at the top of the ramp The Undertaker and Austin brawl on the lift The Brood use for their entrance and disappear down into the stage. 

Triple H and Chyna double team The Rock. He fights back and even punches Chyna. During the brawl, The Rock takes a fall off the ramp down to the concrete just as Stone Cold and The Undertaker arrive. The Undertaker throws Austin off the ramp too crashing through some tables. Triple H and The Undertaker stand and look down on their PPV opponents, both destroyed and thrown from the ramp. 

Other Happenings

• At the start of the show, JR calls Jerry Lawler “the teflon King” That’s because nothing sticks to him - he’d just managed to avoid another charge as a sex offender and it wasn’t the first time. That’s why he missed Raw and Smackdown last week and definitely isn’t something they should be making jokes about.
• Bad Ass Billy Gunn, who is mid-rebrand into Mr. Ass, comes out. He had a big falling out with Roaddogg on Smackdown and even attacked X-Pac like a sore loser backstage after they failed to get the tag titles back. He made it worse last night on Heat after giving X-Pac an apology, he attacked him and even the Roaddogg. Mr. Ass is facing X-Pac here tonight. This match is heated and after a low blow, Mr. Ass wins with the Fameasser. He cements his heel turn by continuing the beating after the match and even going out to get a steel chair. He sets up a piledriver on the chair but Roaddogg runs out to stop him. Billy attacks his partner and The New Age Outlaws fight each other. Billy cracks Roaddogg with a stiff chair shot to the head and then X-Pac’s tag team partner Kane makes his way out - with full entrance - but Billy slides out of the ring and makes his escape just as Kane arrives. D-Generation X would now seem to be down to just the two members - X-Pac and Roaddogg - but perhaps Kane will join? He picks up X-Pac and carries him to the back. 

• Debra comes out first (and alone) for an evening gown match with the WWF Women’s Champion Sable. Sable’s music plays but she isn’t here. She appears on the titantron and says that she’d love to be there but she's at the Playboy mansion getting ready for her 2nd Playboy appearance. Sable does say there's a stunt double who turns out to be Nicole Bass. She has her hair down, makeup done and in an evening gown herself. King is needlessly nasty about Nicole’s appearance. JR calls King “teflon” again here because you definitely want to make light of someone who has escaped legal proceedings for being a sex offender more than once. Debra strips her own dress off rather than fight Nicole. Bass goes to attack her anyway and Jeff Jarrett runs to the ring and smashes a guitar over her! Val Venis runs to the ring and sends Jeff packing. Is he trying to bond with Nicole or does he just like Debra? In the end, he picks Debra up and carries her to the back leaving Jeff on the outside chasing them, and poor Nicole Bass out of it in the ring. During the break, Jeff caught up to Val backstage and the two were separated by multiple officials. 

Raw is War - May 10th, 1999

Shawn Michaels throws HIS weight around

Backstage we see The Corporate Ministry arrive and then elsewhere separately - led by Vince McMahon, sans suit jacket with his sleeves rolled up - The Union. There’s a couple of shots of these two groups walking through the backstage area before The Union makes it to the arena first.

The Union - Vince McMahon, Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Test and The Big Show - along with four riot police. All five men are carrying 2x4s too. Vince says that he's turned his back on his family and that The Union is going to bust up his new WWF. Shane McMahon then comes out and says he has a new family. The two groups advance and this looks like it might become a brawl however they’re interrupted by Shawn Michaels on the titantron. The commissioner criticises Shane’s matchmaking last week and makes some changes to Over the Edge. He adds Vince to the WWF title match as a second referee alongside Shane. Vince is happy with that. He books Bradshaw vs. Faarooq tonight with The Union as lumberjacks, he books Test vs. Bossman in a nightstick on a pole match, he books Ken Shamrock vs. Chyna, he books the Mean Street Posse against The Stooges where the losers must leave the WWF forever, he books The Big Show vs. Paul Bearer and says that if The Undertaker interferes then he loses his WWF title shot, he books “for one night only” Cactus Jack against Viscera and Mideon, he re-books one of Shane’s from last week - the Debra vs. Sable evening gowns match and tonight if Sable doesn’t show up again then she's stripped of the title. Finally in the main event it’ll be Vince, The Rock and Stone Cold vs. Shane, Triple H and The Undertaker with himself as the special referee. Shane says he won’t let Patterson, Brisco or Michaels into the building so Shawn has the three masked security guards remove their helmets - it's Patterson, Brisco and HBK himself! The promo was pre-taped! 

The Big Show takes on Paul Bearer. Paul refuses to go to the ring so HBK forces him to, and joins commentary. The Big Show hammers Paul and gives him a big elbow drop. He asks HBK if they can remove the stipulation about The Undertaker’s interference because he wants Undertaker to come out and fight him! The Undertaker seems reluctant to get into the ring and stands and watches as The Big Show continues to drop elbows on Bearer. The entire Corporate Ministry rushed the ring and attacked The Big Show but The Union came out shortly after to make the save. 

The Big Bossman vs. Test in a nightstick on a pole match. This is very dull and as Test gets the nightstick, Bossman uses an extendable baton he had in his pocket for a cheap shot and then uses the nightstick to knock out Test for the three count. 

Cactus Jack - armed with two basketballs - takes on Viscera and Mideon in a hardcore handicap match. The Corporate Ministry lads have trash cans and lids with them. This is physical and Mick takes a couple of brutal chair shots to the head but in the end he is able to pin Mideon with a running elbow off the apron. 

Michael Cole interviews Chyna about her match with Ken Shamrock. She talks about how she’s on her period which makes her extra moody. A man definitely wrote that promo.

Bradshaw vs. Faarooq with The Big Show, Test and Ken Shamrock around the ring as lumberjacks. Before the bell rings, Faarooq says that Shawn can’t make him fight his partner and they both know who’d win. Bradshaw takes issue with that. He’s proven for 6 months that he can out drink him and tonight he’s going to prove he can outfight him. Neither man is willing to concede the other is tougher and so it turns physical and they trade blows. Mankind does come out to join the lumberjacks half way through. The Union are quick to throw them back inside whenever they leave the ring. The two trade big moves like powerbombs and powerslams for near falls. They fight over the top rope and The Union throws them back into the ring again. Mideon and Viscera and the Bossman come out to stop the Acolytes from fighting but they turn on them and start fighting them too! Eventually the Corporate Ministry calms down and stops fighting each other. The Union get in the ring with their 2x4s and as most of the Ministry members escape, Viscera is left behind to take several 2x4 shots to the back. 

Backstage Patterson and Brisco laugh about all the greats they’ve beaten in their careers. They face Rodney and Pete Gas and the losers must leave the WWF. The Posse debut a titantron video and their own theme song but Patterson and Brisco come out Real American which popped me but the fans don’t really react to it. JR laughs his ass off. King and JR trade jokes about Hogan which I also really enjoyed. Patterson uses his riot helmet from earlier as a weapon and stops the Posse from whipping Brisco with their belt. This match isn’t good but it is fun. Brisco locks a figure four on Pete Gas as Patterson locks the Boston Crab on Rodney! The Posse tap out and are gone! 

Michael Cole interviews Ken Shamrock and in a promo that's very unlike him he is soft spoken and genuine and thanks Shawn Michaels for the chance to get even, but says that he doesn’t want to hit a woman.

My Time! Kinda! Triple H accompanies Chyna to the ring for her match with Shamrock and they have an instrumental version of his awesome My Time theme as their entrance song. Big fan! Shamrock refuses to fight Chyna but she keeps pushing him and slapping him until he eventually grabs her by the throat. Triple H hits him from behind but he shoves him off and plants Chyna with a belly-to-belly suplex and then snaps, furious at himself for striking a woman. Chyna seems unscathed. 

The main event is a six man tag team match. With commissioner Shawn Michaels as the referee, Shane McMahon, The Undertaker and Triple H of the Corporate Ministry take on Mr. McMahon, The Rock (who has a cast on his arm after being thrown off the stage last week) and the WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. A bit of trivia - this is the highest rated match segment in WWF history. Something insane like 15 million people watched this happen live. The WWF had been beating WCW for a while but this was a big exclamation point. In addition to getting his My Time theme song earlier, Triple H has moved to the short trunks he’d wear for the rest of his career. Main event Triple H has finally arrived. Vince enters first, then The Rock. The Undertaker plants Vince with a tombstone and drags him out of the ring. Triple H and Shane double team The Rock in the ring as The Undertaker wraps cables around VInce’s neck outside the ring. The Undertaker and Austin fight up the entrance ramp as The Rock fights off Triple H and Shane in the ring. It’s a chaotic scene! After a Rock Bottom on Triple H and more fighting, Stone Cold wins for his team with a Stunner on Shane McMahon. Stone Cold shares a beer with referee Shawn Michaels to close the show. 

Goodbye Sable

Debra challenges Sable for the WWF Women’s title in an evening gown match. Sable has Nicole Bass with her and she’s already hardly wearing clothes to begin with. Shawn Michaels has stayed on commentary after the Show/Bearer match. Sable does her pre-match “Are you ready for The Grind?” promo and does a little dance in her underwear. Before the match begins, Val Venis makes his way to the ring and continues his flirtation with Debra. While Debra is distracted, Sable pulls her dress off and just like that, Sable wins this evening gown match. Nicole Bass tries to make her move on Val and Jeff Jarrett blasts him with a guitar. This is all chaos. Michael Cole gets in the ring to interview Sable. She’s too busy and good for us. Shawn Michaels gets in the ring and says that in his opinion, the woman who got stripped is the one who was the real winner. Therefore Debra is the real winner and therefore she’s the new WWF Women’s Champion! This is Sable’s last appearance during this run - between her attitude problems alienating everyone backstage and her lack of interest in wrestling, it was only a matter of time. She would sue the company for sexual harassment, claiming she was forced to do a storyline as Vince McMahon’s mistress. Ironically that's the role she’d play when she returned to the WWE in 2003. Goodbye Sable, I won’t miss you. 

Other Happenings

• In the arena, Kane is out first. Last night on Heat, Mr. Ass got involved in his and X-Pac’s match with The Acolytes and Kane has been hell bent on getting his hands on Billy since. Kane seems to be coming out of his shell and learning to trust X-Pac more and more. It's back and forth and Billy gets the advantage when Kane’s leg gets tied up in the ropes leaving him hanging outside the ring. Billy kicks away at Kane’s unprotected head until X-Pac and Roaddogg run down. Roaddogg is only in socks! He and Billy brawl into the crowd and fight off and the match is thrown out. X-Pac tries to get Kane untied and is jumped by D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry! They have a shot at the tag titles at Over the Edge, I guess by virtue of being the number one contenders before Mark’s knee injury. Referees separate the brawl. 
• Another “Beaver Cleavage” video package where he makes a blowjob joke about the woman playing his mum.

• Backstage Michael Cole interviews Val Venis. Val wants him in the ring tonight. 
• Jeff Jarrett and Debra come out for Jeff’s match with Val Venis. Jeff mocks Val before the match and Venis sprints to the ring. Val is very upset that Jeff is stopping him from getting with Debra but most so that he had a guitar smashed over his head. The two fight around the ring. Once its in the ring this is surprisingly competitive and they trade moves and near falls back and forth. A pair of decent workers having a good match as the crowd chants “we want puppies” and King is a full on creep on commentary. Debra gets onto the apron and distracts Val, throwing her new WWF women’s title belt to Jeff who uses it as a weapon. I guess she isn’t interested in Val after all. Jeff wins off the title belt shot.

Raw is War - May 17th, 1999

The Corporate Ministry’s three targets

The Corporate Ministry (Minus Undertaker, Triple H and Chyna) comes out lead by Shane McMahon. Shane says that tonight is the eve of Judgment Day and they’ll lay waste to their opponents tonight. The Union aren’t here yet and Shane implies that he caused their car troubles somehow. With The Union not being here it means that they can focus on their three targets. The first one is Vince McMahon.

Backstage a panicky Brisco and Patterson lock and barricade Vince’s office door and after the break, Shane is leading most of The Ministry to Vince’s office. This all unfolds quickly as inside the locker room, The Undertaker, Triple H and Chyna bust out of a cupboard already inside and attack Vince and the stooges. After the break, Vince is loaded into an ambulance.

WWF Champion Stone Cold comes out to talk about his WWF title match with The Undertaker at Over the Edge and his match with Triple H tonight. He is fired up. Before he leaves the ring, Shane McMahon comes out flanked by the entire Corporate Ministry once again. Shane’s had enough of Austin. The Undertaker and Paul Bearer try to go right to the ring but Shane asks him to wait. Shane makes the same promise as he did at Backlash - if Austin even looks at him funny he’ll disqualify him and award the title to The Undertaker. He says that The Ministry can arrange for Stone Cold to be in a hospital bed next to Vince. Ken Shamrock jumps Shane from behind and then the rest of The Union follow. The two groups brawl and Stone Cold manages to get Paul Bearer into the ring. He goads Taker to come back and drops Bearer with a Stunner.

The Undertaker (with no Paul Bearer after he got a Stunner before) takes on The Rock in a Casket match, which was booked by Shane McMahon of course. It doesn’t go long before he Undertaker’s Ministry friends run in and with the help of a sledgehammer, Triple H breaks The Rock’s cast and locks him inside the casket to give The Undertaker the win. He flips the casket of its stand onto the floor and then hammers the metal casket with his sledgehammer, badly denting the lid and punching several holes in it. During the break, the casket was wheeled to the back and the lid opened. The officials react strongly to apparently seeing a bloodied Rock and call for an ambulance. After The Brood match, The Rock is seen being loaded into an ambulance and is covered in blood from his head.

Backstage Michael Cole interviews Stone Cold about presumably being The Corporate Ministry’s third target. He says there's no way he’s leaving in an ambulance but the interview is disturbed by a chaotic brawl between The Ministry and The Union at the end of the hall.

The Big Show (with the rest of The Union) takes on The Big Bossman (with The Acolytes and Mideon). The groups immediately start to fight and Bossman openly uses his nightstick to take control of the match. The brawling factions disappear to the back and honestly Show gives Bossman way too much offence. He did use a low blow and his nightstick though to be fair. The Big Show wins it quickly with his big driving chokeslam - the Showstopper - which looked awesome. 

Out in the parking lot, The Corporate Ministry escaped in a car and The entire Union followed in their own car.

Triple H (with the kinda awesome instrumental version of My Time) comes out with Shane McMahon and Chyna for the main event. A non-title match with the WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. This turns out to be a really great 15 minute main event, especially for the weekly show. It is PPV quality as the two men brawl around the ring, into the crowd and take turns throwing each other around the announce table. It’s our first proper look at this new main event Triple H with the big stories told through the segments and commentators tonight being that he is significantly more vicious and violent now, and that he is a supreme technical wrestling master, with his match with Austin being brawler vs. wrestler. It was effective, this doesn’t feel like the same guy who was in DX a couple of months ago. The match is great but doesn’t get a finish as The Undertaker comes to the ring and gets Triple H disqualified. The Undertaker’s symbol lowers dramatically from the arena roof (with Shane and Triple H carefully guiding it into position) and The Corporate Ministry coming out to help crucifiy Austin. The Union returns too and the two factions brawl once again which allows Austin to turn the tables and handcuff The Undertaker to his own symbol and call for it to be raised! Raw ends with a defiant Austin at the top of the ramp giving The Undertaker the two finger salute as The Undertaker hangs high above the ring on his own symbol, demonically laughing!

Owen Hart’s final appearance

Jeff Jarrett teams with The Blue Blazer to take on Val Venis and Intercontinental Champion The Godfather. At Over the Edge Val Venis is teaming with Nicole Bass to take on Jeff Jarrett and Debra in a mixed tag team match, and The Blue Blazer - a goodie two-shoes parody of babyface Hulk Hogan, challenges for the Intercontinental title in a feud over The Godfather’s morally dubious character. The Blazer and Godfather feud has been ongoing for a couple of weeks but I believe chunks of it has been removed from the WWE Network version of these shows as for obvious reasons, that match doesn’t take place at the PPV. Nicole Bass does come out to confront Debra and the distraction allows The Godfather to win for his team with the Death Valley Driver on The Blue Blazer/Owen Hart in what is Owen Hart’s last televised appearance. I’ll talk about Owen a lot more at the PPV and in the next Preview article.

A Hardcore rematch

The Hardcore Champion Al Snow. He hasn’t been on Raw much lately but his feud with Hardcore Holly has continued mostly on Sunday Night Heat. There’s a nice video recap of the feud here which hopefully we’ll also see at the PPV but if not, I'll grab it from this Raw to include. Basically, Hardcore Holly kidnapped Head so Al Snow got a new mascot in the form of a stuffed moose head wearing an eye patch named Pierre. Holly murdered Pierre by smashing him/it on the ring post and here, Snow gives him a funeral, throwing his favourite items into a box - a tape of his episode of Columbo, a Sammy Davis Jr tape, a pair of reading glasses with one eye covered and his favourite nightie (which has a big tire tread on it) This was funny. Holly comes out and disrespects Pierre, gets blasted with Head and takes a Snow Plough. Al Snow confirms that yes, Holly can have his hardcore title rematch at Over the Edge. 

Other Happenings

• The show opens with what's left of D-Generation X. The last two members, Roaddogg and one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions X-Pac. They’re joined shortly after by X-Pac’s championship partner Kane. Roaddogg is facing Billy Gunn at Over the Edge and X-Pac and Kane will defend the tag team titles against D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry. That’s who their opponents are here for a six man tag team match. Mark Henry has put on a lot of weight and has new ring gear that covers him up. He does also have a massive knee brace on. This is a wild match with everyone getting their moves in. Roaddogg in particular looks really good in this one until D’Lo shuts him down. Kane tries to double chokeslam Mark and D’Lo until Billy saves them. As Henry and Kane fight on the outside and Roaddogg and Mr. Ass fight up the ramp it leaves X-Pac and D’Lo in the ring to finish the match, which doesn’t happen and the match is thrown out when The Corporate Ministry comes out for their opening promo.

• P.M.S - pretty mean sisters - have added Ryan Shamrock to the group since we last saw them. Terri Runnels and Jacqueline also have their man, Meat. Meat is facing Test. This match is pretty dull but these two big, young, muscular good looking men do their best to show off their moves. I can’t imagine I’ll have many Meat appearances to mention this but he once wrestled a match with a very noticeable erection thanks to all the stroking and so on from PMS at ringside. In the end Jackie gets her man disqualified with a missile dropkick in front of the referee. As Meat and PMS kick away at Test, Tori comes to the ring. King seems very confident that she’s also to join the group of women but instead she attacks them and saves Test!
• Michael Hayes after getting a bloodbath on the first ever Smackdown has adopted The Hardy Boys as his protogees and those three men take on The Brood in a six man tag team match. I believe this is Matt and Jeff Hardy’s first proper appearance on Raw as I've been doing this and fittingly they’re in a match against Edge and Christian! This is a fast paced match that ends in a no contest as the two teams all get in the ring and fight with each other until the referee throws it out.
• Another Beaver Cleavage segment. This week we found out his name is Harry Beaver. Hilarious.