Raw is War - August 23rd, 1999

Time to play The Game

The show opens with a recap of the big events from the Summerslam main event. Mankind is the WWF Champion for the third time, and after the match Triple H violently wore out Stone Cold’s legs with a steel chair for a very, very long time.

Jim Ross opens the show in the ring for an interview with the new WWF Champion Mankind but before he’s done introducing him he’s cut off by Triple H and Chyna. Triple H wasn’t just obsessed with becoming WWF Champion at Summerslam he was absolutely convinced it would happen. There will be no celebration tonight at his expense. Summerslam was “his night” but he got screwed. Unrelated - Chyna looks very pretty here. This is a very good promo honestly. Triple H is absolutely furious and was the rightful number one contender but had a million obstacles thrown at him. It’s true. He’s a very hateable person but he’s right. Mick Foley stole his thunder. Whether he deserved to have his thunder stolen is another matter. He does take credit for having “crippled the Rattlesnake” last night and revels in Austin’s injury. JR keeps trying to leave the ring but Triple H won’t let him. He points out that Austin and Foley are “his boys” as the fans chant for “Austin”. He’s not here tonight folks. Triple H accuses JR of enjoying his pain and then clamps him in an armbar, wrenching it. 

Chyna holds the mic with a smile as Triple H demands a title match tonight from Mankind or he’ll break JR’s arm. Mankind does come out and God I love seeing him with the WWF title belt. Mankind says that he never had to threaten JR to get a title shot and he can have the match tonight. Triple H breaks JR’s arm and bails out of the ring as Mankind checks on him. There was a hilariously fake sounding and badly timed “crack” sound effect which ruined the moment sadly. Mankind says that since he broke his arm, he’ll break his promise. No title match tonight. Shane McMahon then comes out (to loud “asshole” chants) and says that Mankind will keep his promise and Triple H will face him for the WWF title tonight. After the break JR is loaded into an ambulance and replaced by Michael Cole. King keeps talking about the “sound” of the arm breaking. Stop pointing it out. 

The Rock faces Gangrel, who has The New Brood with him (Matt and Jeff Hardy). The Rock has a funny pre-match promo where he talks about asses and monkey piss. Standard. The Rock pretty easily dominates but with some help from Matt and Jeff, Gangrel takes over and gets some offence in. Edge and Christian run to the ring and chase The Hardys off through the crowd and with it now one on one, The Rock easily finishes off Gangrel with a Rock Bottom and People’s Elbow. The fans were red hot for The Rock. Lillian’s announcement of the winner was so bad it made me laugh out loud. The Rock considers leaving after the match but stops and takes a moment to make fun of Triple H and Mankind. He says that “they” are holding The Rock down and wasting his time with people like Billy Gunn and Gangrel (which is harsh but fair enough). He says that's going to take matters into his own hands. 

Kevin Kelly provides a medical update on Stone Cold Steve Austin. I feel like this should have been a bigger announcement. “Severe tendon and ligament damage in both knees” apparently. His knees are pretty bad but the real reason they’re writing him off TV is for his neck. He then pivots to an interview with Mankind who calls Triple H dumb for taking a sledgehammer to his knee, for breaking JR’s arm and for taking out Austin.

The Rock comes out to sit in on commentary for the WWF title match between Mankind and Triple H. Shane McMahon enters next in a referee shirt. Triple H’s ring announcement by Lillian Garcia is her worst all night. The two go blow for blow until Mankind puts on Mr. Socko and clamps the claw on Shane, sending him out of the ring. Chyna runs in and gets a Mandible Claw too. Mankind drops Triple H with the double arm DDT and has the match won but the replacement referee is too slow and Triple H kicks out. Triple H takes control and works on Mankind’s leg but honestly I was more distracted by The Rock’s commentary as he is loudly homophobic and bullies Michael Cole. As the two fight on the outside, Shane McMahon recovers and hits Mankind with a chair which he no-sells. It is enough of a distraction to let Triple H blast him with a brutal shot, and then follows up with one to The Rock’s head too. 

Triple H loads Mankind into the ring and spikes him with the Pedigree and Shane McMahon shoves down Earl Hebner so that he can count the three. Triple H wins his first WWF Championship. To be fair, as much as he’s been the most despicable, hateful heel lately he has been the uncrowned champion for about a month now. He doesn’t even really look that happy to have won the title honestly and I have to imagine the circumstances (winning it on Raw instead of at the PPV, Austin reportedly refusing to drop the title to him) was a lot of reason why. Still though, a new WWF Champion and after all my jokes about “main event Triple H” slowly coming together, he is finally there.

The Unholy Alliance

Kane and X-Pac come out and join the commentary desk for the next match which is the new WWF Tag Team Champions The Undertaker and Big Show defending against the winners of the Tag Team Turmoil, Bradshaw and Faarooq. The match is short as The Acolytes get in Kane’s face and the ensuing brawl causes a DQ finish. The two heel teams turn on Kane and X-Pac as Big Show plants X-Pac with a massive chokeslam in the ring as The Undertaker blasts Kane in the head with a chair. 

The new WWF Tag Team Champions come back out later in the show to sit in on commentary for Kane and X-Pac’s match with Mideon and Viscera. It’s here that I notice that Jeff Jarrett’s guitar is still sitting on top of the commentary desk for some reason. Has that been there all night? Bradshaw and Faarooq come out to stand at the bottom of the ramp and watch this match up close too. Bearer actually cracks a couple of good jokes on commentary which I think got Taker laughing once or twice off mic. Show has nothing to add. With The Acolytes beating up Kane on the outside two on one, Viscera easily squashes and pins X-Pac. 

Midcard title ructions 

The new Intercontinental and European Champion Jeff Jarrett comes out with Debra and Mark Henry - who is now fully back to being Sexual Chocolate, which they haven’t really said about him since he returned from his knee injury. Jeff thanks Mark Henry for helping him win both titles last night by presenting him with the European Championship. He then thanks Debra by giving her her own personal assistant - Miss Kitty. This is the debut of Stacey Carter who would become the object of King’s obsession for the next 18 months however in this case it’s not as bad since she’s his real life girlfriend (and I believe around twenty years younger than him). Mark Henry is scheduled to face Meat but while Meat’s music plays, D’Lo Brown attacks him and gives him a brutal beating. It will apparently be D’Lo Brown facing Mark Henry instead and he isn’t even dressed to compete. D’Lo would seem to quickly have the European title won but Jeff Jarrett breaks up the pin to cause a disqualification and the heels all leave together. 

Jeff Jarrett mentioned in his promo that he had an open contract backstage for an Intercontinental title match tonight. Mr. Ass is looking for a pen and asks Chyna to guard the contact while he gets one, but then Chyna signs it instead! Billy would be seen again looking for Chyna a couple of times later in the show.

Mr. Ass comes out to the ring and asks Chyna to come out. He’s annoyed that she “stole” his Intercontinental title match tonight. As the two bicker, Jeff Jarrett slides into the ring and smashes a guitar violently over the back of Chyna’s head. Miss Kitty grabs the guitar from the announce desk and tries to give that to Jeff but Mr. Ass intercepts it and blasts Jeff with it instead, who is then tended to by Debra and Miss Kitty. I knew it was weird that there was a guitar on the announce desk - must have been put there by a stage hand too early or something.

Other Happenings

• This show is the debut of Lillian Garcia as ring announcer! She is very terrible for a while (and certainly on this show), I’m sure I’ll periodically mention her. 
• Roaddogg challenged the winner of the Hardcore title match last night at Summerslam and that match is happening here. As Roaddogg runs through his opening promo he’s jumped from behind by the new Hardcore champion Al Snow. This is good but before it really gets going, Chris Jericho runs down. Roaddogg powerbombs Al through a table but before he can go for the cover he’s jumped and the two fight up the entrance ramp and Michael Cole makes several very lame “millennium bug” jokes. The Big Bossman runs down and gets in some cheap shots on Snow with the nightstick and then abducts Snow’s dog Pepper in his dog carrier. Poor Pepper. Backstage Roaddogg and Chris Jericho continue to brawl with Roaddogg getting the upper hand. Bossman clubs Roaddogg with his nightstick as he makes his way through the back and hops into a waiting car, driving off with the dog as Snow tries to chase. We’d see Snow a couple of times through the night looking distraught about Pepper.

• Backstage Test and Stephanie McMahon have a touching little moment where he says he has a surprise and then Test brings Stephanie out to the ring. Lillian Garcia announces them like she’s never spoken words out loud before and is surprised by each one in turn. Test lays it on pretty thick about having to “pop questions” so that we all see what's coming. Shane McMahon sprints out to the ring before he can ask her anything. Shane promised after his loss last night that he wouldn’t get involved in their relationship anymore but this is too far for him. Stephanie “fires up” and gives a big emotional speech to Shane about how she loves Test and Shane can’t ruin this for her. Test gets down on one knee and proposes. She says that she loves Test, but she needs some time. I guess she feels like she can’t say yes while she knows that her brother is so against it. 

• The Blonde Bytch Project! Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie do a parody of The Blair Witch Project. The “blonde Bytch” in question was a dig at Sable but we’ll get there. I think. Maybe. I don’t think they will finish this. Cole said there will be part 2 on Smackdown, but it's certainly not on the network version of the show so we’re one and done with this. 
• Chris Jericho berates his flunky Howard Finkle for not helping him out when Roaddogg attacked him earlier. He calls him Edward which made me laugh. He needs a warrior. Howard pantomimes having a big think.Later, Howard is seen in a locker room psyching himself up and telling himself that he’s a warrior over and over.
• Tori challenges Ivory to an evening gown match for the WWF women’s title on Smackdown. The match ended up being non-title so it was either a bad promo or I misunderstood. We'll blame Tori.
• Howard Finkle runs to the ring to The Ultimate Warrior’s theme song and gets a laugh by mimicking his entrance. He tells us all that Chris Jericho is here to benefit and save us all and make the WWF a better place. He believes in Chris Jericho. He wants to prove that he’s a warrior and challenges Roaddogg to a fight! Roaddogg obliges and comes out to apparently fight The Fink. Howard shoves Roaddogg, who laughs him off and tells him to calm down. A couple of pushes wind him up but before he beats up the ring announcer, the lights go out and Jericho’s music plays. Jericho jumps Roaddogg from behind in the ring and hits a really nice double powerbomb which is sadly not a move he’d use for long. 
• Kevin Kelly interviews Hardcore Holly about his cousin Crash and their issues. Holly says that Crash needs to accept that he’s the true super heavyweight. Hardcore has an “invitation only” battle of the super heavyweights tonight. Crash then headed out to the ring, followed by Hardcore. They come out to the same music and trade stiff blows and brawl and fight out into the crowd right away. They didn’t say this is a hardcore rules match but the referee has gone with them through the crowd to the backstage area so I assume it is. They fight outside and the match just...ends because the cameraman didn't follow them outside. 

Smackdown! - August 26th, 1999

The Sheriff is back in town

The very first weekly episode of Smackdown opens with a recap of Triple H’s ascension to the WWF title and victory on Raw. It’s a decent video package so I’ll stick it here.

This is the debut of the oval titantron and the specialised Smackdown arena, and the first people out are the new WWF Champion Triple H and Chyna. He cuts a very angry promo about having been held back and now he’s the man. He, for only the second time, calls himself The Game. He promises that the WWF can line them all up and he’ll mow them all down. 

The Rock comes out and tells Triple H he sucks, among other things before challenging him to a WWF title match tonight. The Rock has these people in the palm of his hand. Triple H says The Rock isn’t in his league so there’s no title match tonight. The Rock, obviously, is having none of it and makes his way to the ring being very funny as he does until commissioner Shawn Michaels appears. The people want the match and what the people want, the people get. Shawn makes the match for tonight official - The Rock vs. Triple H for the WWF Championship, with himself as the special guest referee. It seems like the segment is over until Shane McMahon appears in the ring - I assume from the crowd - and he can’t cancel or change the match so just adds himself to it as a second referee. Shawn says that Shane will be busy tonight as he has a match tonight with Mankind. Mankind comes out and mimic’s The Rock’s promo from before as he heads to the ring. The Rock and Mankind have had enough and get in the ring with Shane being easily beaten up. The Rock hammers Triple H in the corner until the Mean Street Posse run in to make the save. Shane and Triple H leave and The Rock drops all three of them with Rock Bottoms. 

Lillian Garcia interviews Triple H who says that Shawn Michaels better call tonight's main event down the middle or he will make sure he never walks again, to which JR reacts with shock and disgust.

In the main event of the first proper Smackdown, The Rock challenges new Champion Triple H who looks awesome during his entrance with the title belt. Shawn Michaels calls it down the middle, and when Chyna low blows The Rock ring in front of her he doesn’t call for the DQ and ejects her from ringside instead. After arguing and being distracted The Rock retakes control with a DDT but Triple H kicks out by the time Michaels gets to the ring. Just then Shane McMahon comes out. He was supposed to be the second referee but everyone was shocked to see him. The Rock has the match won a second time after a big hangman on the ropes but Shane distracts the referee to stop the count. As The Rock goes for the People’s Elbow, commissioner Michaels knocks him out with the Sweet Chin Music! 

Triple H hits the Pedigree and it's over. Triple H retains the WWF title and Smackdown closes with him celebrating with Shane McMahon, Chyna and Shawn Michaels. 

McMahon Family Drama (feat. Mankind)

Stephanie McMahon calls Test out to the ring to give him his answer to his marriage proposal from Raw. He gets back down on one knee and presents her with a ring, asking again. She gives an enthusiastic yes and the two embrace to loud (mostly female sounding) cheers. The Mean Street Posse and Shane McMahon run down and Shane holds Steph at bay while the Posse beat up Test three on one until Mankind comes down with a chair to save the day. He blasts all three Posse members with the chair. Mankind says he refuses to walk down the ramp a third time tonight and he wants the match now. Mankind even offers Shane a free shot and leaves the chair for him, turning his back. Mankind over-sells the chairshot but is playing opossum and beats Shane up. There’s no referee out here for the match though. Shane tries to escape over the announce desk but Mankind easily catches him to continue the attack. The brawl expands as The Stooges (Pat Patterson and Gerry Brisco) come out to help Test fight the three members of the Posse as Mankind flattens Shane with a double arm DDT and readies Socko. Chyna and Triple H rush to the ring to help out and with a distraction and a low blow Shane is able to pin Mankind!

Chris Jericho makes enemies

Chris Jericho makes his WWF in-ring debut against Roaddogg. Jericho focuses his offence on Roaddogg’s lower back and then sets a table up in the ring. He tries to put Roaddogg through it with a suplex which is countered and Roaddogg builds some momentum. Jericho comes back with his double powerbomb, with the second one being right through the table. He then locks Roaddogg in the Walls of Jericho, which doesn’t have a name yet. Some of the crowd cheer the move, obviously recognising it from WCW. JR and King really hammer home that Roaddogg’s back is badly injured. 

Backstage after the break, Jericho points out Tony Chimmel as the ring announcer on a TV monitor to Howard and gets him all riled up with more “warrior” talk and tells him to go out and attack Tony! Jericho then laughs about how easily he manipulated him. Howard knocks down Tony and tries to take over but Chimmel attacks back HARD and gets a big pop. It’s weirdly vicious. He clears The Fink out of the ring and resumes his job. Chris Jericho then comes out to check on his flunky and berates him as they head to the back. Tony introduces the participants for the next match, with the first one being Ken Shamrock. He has an altercation with Jericho as they pass each other on the ramp, bumping shoulders. Jericho then sends Howard to get Kenny, who grabs his hand and twists his fingers. Jericho runs around the ring the long way and blasts Shamrock in the back with a steel chair! The two run away and Ken Shamrock pursues. 

Chris Jericho makes his escape in a white car, abandoning Howard Finkle. Shamrock catches him and as he threatens him, Finkle wets himself.

Other Happenings

• Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Ass in a non-title match after their interaction on Raw (where Billy wanted a title shot, Chyna got involved and Billy ended up smashing a guitar over Jeff’s head). Chyna comes down to watch this match a little closer and Miss Kitty tries to hit her with a guitar. Chyna blocks it and swings it, blasting Debra with it! That was Miss Kitty’s fault. Mr. Ass wins with a roll up while Jeff is distracted and after the match as he tries to moon Chyna, she hits him with a low blow. Mr. Ass has a non-title victory, and Chyna has a contract signed so they would both seem to be owed an IC title match.

• Lillian Garcia, perhaps the world's worst ring announcer, interviews Al Snow who begs Bossman to take good care of Pepper and return him. Even the King is sad about the fate of the little dog.
• The Big Bossman comes out to the ring and tells Al Snow that he can have Pepper back in exchange for a Hardcore title match. Al obviously agrees and after the ad break he’s in the ring with the title belt waiting for Bossman. He comes out carrying Pepper who is wearing a tiny little black muzzle. I hope the dog is ok. He gives the dog to King to mind during the match. Bossman probably could have just told Snow to lay down for him but this is a proper match. Snow keeps getting distracted by Pepper which lets Bossman knock him out with the nightstick and cover on the outside to win the Hardcore title. He leaves with the belt and takes Pepper with him too! He promised to give Pepper back! This is the start of several months of Bossman being the worst human being who ever lived. Poor Al would be seen a couple more times tonight looking for Pepper and Bossman.

• Kane and X-Pac enter first for a triple threat Tag Team Championship match. The Acolytes are the other challengers to The Undertaker and Big Show. The Undertaker actually takes a seat at the commentary desk and says that this is tough love. If the Big Show wants his knowledge and wisdom he has to retain the tag team titles solo. This is a good match and impressively, The Big Show does retain the titles with a chokeslam to X-Pac while The Acolytes beat down Kane two on one at ringside. 

• Backstage X-Pac leaves the arena, telling Kane to leave him alone and calling himself the “weak link”. Kane actually shouts “SEAN!” after his partner. 
• Michael Cole has a sit down interview with Stone Cold, who has a massive bandage on his leg. He talks about the ligament damage in his leg and promises that Triple H has hell to pay. He’s very focused on a comeback. 
• Ivory defends her women’s championship against Tori in an evening gown match. Tori isn’t in an evening gown and is instead wearing a massive white men’s shirt as a dress. It’s oddly sexual. I thought they were pretty clear that this match was for the title but JR says that this is non-title. With a spear Tori manages to rip Ivory’s dress off and she wins the match. She does keep the beating going until Luna runs down and holds Tori back.

Raw is War - August 30th, 1999

New WWF Tag Team Champions

The Rock opens the show. JR recaps the events of Smackdown, specifically that he’d be the WWF champion right now if it wasn’t for commissioner Shawn Michaels siding with his old buddy Triple H. The Rock is pretty funny making fun of Triple H and HBK. The fans are hanging on his every word too. It’s amazing watching these shows back and realising he was just as funny and effortless as everyone says he was. The Rock counts to five and when Triple H doesn’t show, he goes backstage looking for him checking the women’s bathroom. He gets jumped by Triple H, Chyna and Shane McMahon. 

Mankind is quick on the scene to save the day and the heels run off. Moments later, Shane McMahon heads out to the ring with the Mean Street Posse. He says that since Mankind and The Rock both want a shot at the WWF Champion Triple H they can have it tonight…if they can first win their qualifying matches. The Rock will face The Undertaker in a no disqualification, falls count anywhere match. Mankind’s match is a three on one handicap match with the entire Posse, with himself as the referee. Mankind comes right out and the match starts. Shane turns his back and allows Rodney, Pete Gas and Joey Abs to brutalise Mankind with various weapons behind his back, only periodically pretending to admonish them. In the end, Mankind mounts a comeback and has the match won until Triple H runs in. Mankind fights him off and knocks down Shane who then calls for the bell. Lillian Garcia mistakenly announces Mankind as the winner via DQ but Shane runs back to the ring and berates her until she announces that The Mean Street Posse wins by disqualification. No title shot for Mankind.

Michael Cole interviews The Undertaker backstage who menacingly threatens to jam his first down The Rock’s throat. That seems extreme. After a commercial for Smackdown, The Undertaker goes out to the ring for his match with The Rock and he has Paul Bearer and his tag team championship partner The Big Show with him. Before the match starts, The Undertaker gets on the mic and says The Rock hasn’t earned the respect to get a beating from him and so The Big Show will wrestle him instead. Show doesn’t seem too happy about it. The truth is The Undertaker is weeks away from taking some time off for surgery and this storyline with making The Big Show go it alone as his partner is just so he can avoid wrestling. The Rock gets a nearfall early with a Russian leg sweep on the ramp. The the two fight around the ring, The Rock gets in The Undertaker’s face and gets attacked from behind which lets The Big Show chokeslam The Rock through the announce table and pin him with a foot on the chest. Lillian announces The Undertaker as the winner because she’s rubbish. No title shot for The Rock either. Triple H runs down to attack The Rock and The Undertaker grabs him by the throat! Mankind comes down to attack Triple H and instead he gets a beating from the tag team champions instead. Triple H makes his getaway and The Big Show and The Undertaker leave The Rock and Mankind laid out.

The Rock comes back out to the ring and looks furious. He calls out The Big Show and The Undertaker and says he wants them both tonight in a handicap match because it takes more than a chokeslam through the table to keep him down. He says he’s going to take The Undertaker’s head and shove it up The Big Show’s ass. It was a lot funnier how he said it. Mankind comes out and says that he knows The Rock doesn’t like him and after their history, he doesn’t like The Rock either but the people want him as The Rock’s partner, they need him as The Rock’s partner and he wants to be The Rock’s partner. So instead of a challenge to a handicap match, The Rock and Mankind challenge for the Tag Team Championships. Mankind steals all of The Rock’s catchphrases and the live crowd is SO into it. The Rock agrees! But does tell him to never steal his catchphrases again. Mankind joins in on “If ya smell…” and The Rock stops short. These two are comedy magic together from the get go. Later on we’d see them getting ready together and Mankind suggesting he do the People’s Elbow.

In the main event, The Rock and Mankind challenge The Undertaker and The Big Show for the tag team titles. The Undertaker shoves Show into the ring to take them both on solo and the babyfaces easily dominate and beat him down, tagging in and out while The Undertaker just watches. As the match continues and The Big Show dominates, Paul Bearer who had been noted as being absent, comes down to the ring and shows something to The Undertaker. He hops off the apron and (with a heavy limp) leaves The Big Show all alone. No one seems to know what was shown to him that made him leave but this is more creative booking to have The Undertaker not wrestle due to his need for hip surgery (hence the limp). The Rock kicks out of a chokeslam thanks to Mankind causing a delay in going for the pin and with a Mr. Socko-clad Mandible Claw, a stiff chairshot from The Rock and then a DOUBLE People’s Elbow (with Mankind throwing Socko into the crowd and then dropping his elbow into The Big Show’s crotch) The Rock and Mankind become the WWF Tag Team Champions! 

Y2J provokes the World’s Most Dangerous Man

A medical update on the Roaddogg after having his back worked on by Chris Jericho in his debut match. Jericho has given him a crushed disk in his back, apparently.

Ken Shamrock faces Gangrel. It’s weird seeing Shamrock in his green trunks as he only debuted them at Summerslam and he leaves very soon so this is a very short window of time where he wears them. Shamrock wins a short, boring match with the ankle lock. Howard Finkle comes down and tells Ken to watch the titantron and then runs away. Chris Jericho’s titantron video plays while Ken paces in the ring waiting. Jericho isn’t in the arena - he’s up on the big screen! He challenges Shamrock to a fight on Smackdown. 

The Women’s Division gets a bit of attention!

WWF Women’s Champion Ivory is interviewed in the ring by Michael Cole. She calls him a pervert and accuses him of checking her out. She calls Tori a slut over and over again until Tori runs in and attacks and the two fight on top of Michael Cole. Luna then runs in to fight, followed by Jacqueline and the four women fight until referees separate the four. It’s broadly speaking the same tactic they used to demonstrate the depth of the tag team division earlier but it does work and its nice to see a women’s division with multiple characters and good wrestlers, even if the presentation is still distinctly unfeminist.

Other Happenings

• Backstage Michael Cole interviews a sad and serious Al Snow who pleads with Bossman to return Pepper. While he talks, there's the sound of a man and woman loudly having sex behind them, which Cole and Snow do both react to. That would turn out to be Meat and Chaz’s girlfriend which theres more about elsewhere. Following the ad break, the Hardcore Champion the Big Bossman heads out to the ring and calls Al Snow out to the ring. Bossman issues an apology to Al Snow. He says that on Smackdown, Al Snow can come to his hotel room and he’ll return Pepper and make it up to him. He even shakes his hand. The fans boo and tell Al not to trust him or accept the handshake but Snow has no choice.

• X-Pac, who is down on himself and calling himself the weak link in his team with Kane lately, takes on Taka Michinoku! My boy! He hasn’t been on Raw for a long time. He has Funaki with him, saving a Japanese flag. The story here is that perhaps X-Pac is better off in singles matches like this with guys his own size than being in tag teams and mixing it up in “the land of the giants”. X-Pac sets up the Bronco Buster but with help from Funaki Taka gets control and does an amazing springboard moonsault to the floor. This was really good but only a couple of minutes long really. X-Pac wins with the X-Factor, and gives one to Funaki after the match for good measure. 
• Backstage, the teams of Mideon and Viscera, Droz and Albert, and The Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards protest at not being included in the next match, which is a four team elimination match with the winners being strong contenders for a tag title shot one would assume. It’s Edge and Christian vs. Matt and Jeff Hardy vs. The Acolytes vs. Hardcore and Crash Holly. The match starts and all eight men brawl until the three teams from the back all come out to try and join in. With all seven tag teams fighting in and round the ring and The Acolytes using bits of the announce table and other things as weapons, referees spill out to break it up and the match is thrown out. If nothing else, it's pretty impressive to see the depth of the tag team division. 

• Meat, accompanied by only Terri Runnels without the rest of PMS who I think have fizzled out as a group, comes out and after Terri has a little flirtation with The Rock, we get the first GTV in a while. It’s Meat with Chaz’s girlfriend Maryana getting it on (that’s who we could hear during the Al Snow interview) Chaz runs out and attacks Meat and when Mariyana runs down to separate them she gets attacked by Terri. 
• Backstage Miss Kitty does Debra’s makeup for her and sucks up to her, and then the pair of them accompany the Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett to the ring. He’s teaming with the European Champion Mark Henry against D’Lo Brown (who looks in amazing shape) and Mr. Ass. After the entrance, Chyna comes out as she too has her eyes set on the Intercontinental title and joins commentary. After a short match, Chyna tries to hit Jeff with his guitar but he ducks and she knocks out Mr. Ass instead which lets Jeff cover and win the match for his team.
• Michael Cole interviews Test about his upcoming wedding. He calls out Pat Patterson and Gerry Brisco and asks them both to be his Best Man. They agree and they all hug. 

Smackdown! - September 2nd, 1999

Shane McMahon throws his weight around (again)

Mankind - with his tag team title belt - comes out to the ring. He talks about embarrassment and how losing to Shane last week was the most embarrassing moment of his life. He doesn’t want to talk about that though, he wants to talk about The Great One. The fans chant “Rocky”. He basically repeats his promo from Raw and then brings The Rock out. He even joins in the “Rocky” chants as the People’s Champion makes his entrance. The Rock says they’ll probably never be friends but he does respect how crazy Mankind is. They seem happy enough to be champions and work together. 

They’re interrupted by the WWF Champion Triple H, Chyna and Shane McMahon. Shane says that while they might be tag team champions, he knows they’re both still focused on the WWF title and so he books them against each other tonight for the number one contendership. Shane says that he wants to see them go at it like they used to and not let their new friendship get in the way. Shane says that tonight Triple H will defend the WWF title tonight to prove that he is The Game against “that bald headed SOB, and that’s the bottom line” and everyone cheers assuming that it’s Stone Cold. It won’t be. Before they leave, Mankind gives The Rock a wink and a nod and suggests that he let Mankind win. The fans chant “Rocky”. The Rock, unsurprisingly, isn’t keen. 

Triple H heads out to the ring for his WWF title defence and he seems very concerned who Shane has for him to face. Shane comes out and after some more build up that it might be Stone Cold, it is in fact the WWF Light heavyweight champion Gilberg. Triple H obviously easily defeats Gilberg. 

The Rock faces Mankind in a battle of tag team champions, which hasn’t happened for a long time. The two go at it hard and heavy with the number one contendership on the line. The drive to be WWF Champion supersedes everything. The referee goes down as the two tussle. Mankind gets the Mandible Claw and Shane McMahon runs in and takes over as referee. The Rock counters into a Rock Bottom and with both men down, Chyna and Triple H run to the ring and attack both men. Mankind dispatches with Chyna and then the tag champions double team Triple H out of the ring. Shane McMahon calls for the bell and declares that the match ends a double disqualification. No number one contender. Backstage after the break, Shane says he feels bad for The Rock and Mankind and he’s going to make it up to them tonight.

Shane McMahon comes out with WWF Champion Triple H and Chyna and says that he’s going to give Mankind and The Rock another shot at becoming number one contender. They’ll restart the match with himself as the referee. He’s interrupted by Test who brings out the other two owners of the WWF, Linda and Stephanie McMahon. They’d been showing a limo in the parking lot all night and this is who was inside. Linda uses her power to overrule Shane and says that Mankind and Rock won’t face each other, they’ll instead team up and face Triple H and Shane in a tag team match which Shane insists should be for the tag team titles.

In the main event, WWF Champion Triple H and Shane McMahon challenge The Rock and Mankind for the WWF Tag Team titles. Mankind enters first and is beaten up two on one until The Rock finally makes his entrance and the match breaks down into a tag team match. Triple H helps Shane get control with a stiff chairshot to the back and then slamming him on the announce table. Mankind gets worked over and even has to take Shane’s Bronco Buster. Mankind gets the Mandible Claw on Triple H but Chyna hits him low behind the referee’s back. Mankind gets the hot tag to The Rock who lays the smackdown on Triple H and almost has the cover off a DDT until Shane breaks it up. Triple H comes back but with the referee watching Mankind and Shane fight on the outside, Mr. Ass runs down and gives Triple H the Fameasser as revenge for the start of the show tonight. The Rock follows up with the People’s Elbow and retains the tag team titles for himself and Mankind. 

A debut from Dudleyville

As a result of the seven team melee on Raw, there is a Tag Team Royal Rumble to determine the next challengers for the tag team titles. The first two teams are Hardcore and Crash Holly and Viscera and Mideon. The Holly’s manage to eliminate the big men thanks to some miscommunication and the next team is Droz and Albert. It’s another tag team turmoil match rather than being a Royal Rumble like Michael Cole said. The Hollys win this round too but Albert gets a parting shot on which means that the next team - The Hardys - are able to easily and quickly pin Hardcore Holly. Next up is The Acolytes (who still have the same theme music as Viscera and Mideon) who brutalise The Hardys. The Acolytes easily defeat them after a mistimed double team. The next team is Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie. Meanie walks to the ring very slowly and Richards is double power bombed and pinned before he even gets there. Given Bradshaw’s history with ECW alumni, I don’t blame him for taking his time. The last team is Edge and Christian who put up a great fight against The Acolytes until the match is ruined by The Dudley Boyz! A big debut! In blue tie-dye they use 2x4s and hammer both teams and cause the disqualification. Backstage Lillian Garcia interviews them and we meet Bubba Ray’s stuttering gimmick, and D-Von’s preacher gimmick. They haven’t decided on the spelling of Bubba’s name yet so I’ll try and keep it consistent but I’m not making any promises. 

Chyna tries to make more history

My Time starts and the crowd boos assuming it's Triple H, but it is in fact the number one contender for the Intercontinental title Chyna. She is defending that right and her title shot at Unforgiven tonight against Mr. Ass. Going right in with a match and not a promo is unique for this era! Before the match gets going, the Intercontinental Champion himself Jeff Jarrett comes out with Debra and Miss Kitty. He’s branded this group as “Jarrett Enterprises” and he joins commentary to watch this match. This is a good match with Billy using his strength and Chyna using her speed and athletics to escape. The referee goes down and Mr. Ass hits the Fameasser and has the match won until Triple H runs down and plants him with a Pedigree, letting Chyna become the number one contender for the IC title officially. 

Other Happenings

• The Big Show (with his own theme song for the first time in a while) comes out to the ring. He’s had enough of The Undertaker’s tough love. He’s had enough of the rules and the games and demands that he come out now and face him. He gets Paul Bearer instead. Bearer tells Show that he can’t speak to Taker like that so Show hits him with a big boot and says he doesn’t want the messenger, he wants the man himself. The lights go out and The Undertaker’s music plays as he walks out onto the stage. The Undertaker gets in Show’s face, but then pulls him in close and whispers something to him. Show looks confused and shaken by whatever was said. Undertaker congratulates Show on taking down Paul, but then grabs him by the throat and tells him to never disrespect him again. The two then leave together. This as it turns out is Paul Bearer’s last appearance for a while. I’m not sure why he was taken off TV but The Undertaker doesn’t stick around for much longer either so maybe it’s related?

• For the second week in a row, Howard Finkle who’s been all gassed up by Chris Jericho confronts Tony Chimmel and challenges him to a tuxedo match with the winner being the full time ring announcer. He attacks and the match happens as we get multiple shots backstage of Jericho watching on a monitor and laughing about how much he’s manipulated Fink. Chimmel easily dominates and strips Howard. Later, Jericho has a funny little moment suggesting he set Howard up as an underwear model.
• Val Venis who I feel like we haven’t seen for a while takes on Ken Shamrock who’s been so busy looking for Chris Jericho he hasn’t even changed and is in his jeans. Shamrock wins with the ankle lock. Steve Blackman runs in for some reason - i think he’s feuding with Val? - and gets taken down by Ken who then charges off after Chris Jericho who was taunting him from the top of the ramp. Shamrock chases him backstage and with some help from a wig-wearing Howard Finkle, knocks him out with a weapon and then has Howard take pictures of him as he holds an unconscious Shamrock in the Walls of Jericho. Back in the ring, Steve Blackman hammers Val with the kendo stick Shamrock left behind.

• Al Snow goes to the Bossman’s hotel room to get Pepper back and in one of my all time most hated segments, Bossman has Snow eat a meal he’s prepared for him which he then reveals to be Pepper which he killed and had cooked. Snow vomits as Bossman brutally beats him. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler react with disgust back in the arena. Obviously in real life, the dog was alive and well and fine and these two had a good laugh about the whole storyline. Shout out to Snow for calling Bossman “Ray” all throughout to make it feel real. 

• Backstage, X-Pac explains to Kane that he’s sick of all the “Kane’s little buddy” talk and being the weak link so he asks Kane to stay in the back so he can prove himself. X-Pac is facing Chris Jericho. Ken Shamrock, who has had his issues with Jericho, was seen arriving at the arena backstage and his music hits before the match starts as he rushes the ring. X-Pac tries to stop him, wanting to have his match first. Ken does calm down and get out of the ring allowing Jericho and X-Pac’s match to start. After Shamrock leave, X-Pac and Jericho wrestle and The Undertaker and Big Show come out onto the stage to watch, apparently still having issues with X-Pac. The action here is good and Jericho actually hits the Lionsault which would become his finisher but only gets a two count here. X-Pac hits the Bronco Buster but before he can do anymore, The Big Show rushes the ring and throws X-Pac around using a Gorilla press. Jericho goes to join commentary and talk some trash but Ken Shamrock sprints to the ring and chases him through the crowd. As Big Show readies to plant X-Pac with a chokeslam, Kane runs down and makes the save and sends Show packing. 

Raw is War - September 6th, 1999

The Game targets everyone

They wasted no time this week with The Rock entering first for a WWF Tag Team title match. He and Mankind are set to defend against Kane and X-Pac. The Rock takes a moment to make fun of Kane’s voice box. Kane and X-Pac’s combined theme does play but only Kane comes out. He keeps looking to the back but X-Pac seems to have left him high and dry. JR speculates that it may be a falling out because X-Pac asked Kane to stay away from the ring during his match on Smackdown but he did come out to save him from Big Show. Which honestly is stupid but pride is what it is. 

Kane asks for the bell to be rung but before anyone comes to blows, the WWF Champion Triple H comes out and steps in to be Kane’s partner! After the match does begin, Chyna comes out carrying a sledgehammer and waits at ringside. Kane is unhappy to have Triple H out there and refuses to tag in when he has the chance. The champ does eventually tag himself in so Kane clotheslines him out of the ring. He wants nothing to do with him. Kane gets Kane for a chokeslam and Triple H hits him in the back with the sledgehammer. The Rock finishes off with a Rock Bottom and the People’s Elbow to officially win the match but Kane is out cold from the sledgehammer blow. 

After The Rock and Mankind leave, Triple H hovers over the still out-cold Kane and kicks at him like he’s a deadbody. He leans in too close and Kane grabs him by the throat so Triple H kicks him in the head and hits him twice more in the chest and then ribs with the sledgehammer. The Undertaker and The Big Show come out and Triple H bails out. Did Undertaker and Big Show come out to rescue Kane or was that just an accidental byproduct of them chasing the WWF Champion? Kane hobbles out of the ring and walks up the ramp in obvious pain from the sledgehammer blows.

Jim Ross announces at ringside to the cameras and to King that Stone Cold Steve Austin will be on Smackdown this week.

Triple H comes out to the ring to talk about his recent run, which has been impressive. He beat and crippled Stone Cold, he crippled and then took Mankind’s WWF title, he beat up the People’s Champion The Rock and earlier tonight he crippled Kane. He says that Linda McMahon needs to stay out of his business. He does call himself The Game multiple times too which is now officially his nickname. He’s then interrupted by Mr. Ass who has seemingly turned babyface from targeting Jeff Jarrett and now half-feuding with Chyna and Triple H. He cost Triple H the tag team titles on Smackdown (as payback for Triple H costing him a shot at the IC title to Chyna). Mr. Ass says that he knows Triple H really well and that he was recruited to DX so that Triple H wouldn’t have to face him. He calls Triple H an “asshole” and weirdly Billy’s theme music starts playing for a moment before they realise the segment isn’t over and it stops. Triple H offers Billy Gunn a WWF title match tonight! 

Before the main event, Earl Hebner tells Chyna there's been enough issues with women tonight and so she should stay away from the ring. She doesn’t listen but then true to his word, when she comes out with Triple H je does eject her right away. Billy Gunn attacks Triple H on the ramp while he protests and the match starts. Mr. Ass challenges for the WWF title. The crowd is absolutely silent during this because, let's face it, there’s no chance Billy is winning this. As Mr. Ass builds some momentum and actually has control of the match, Shane McMahon comes down to the ring. Earl Hebner gets out to confront him and with he and a couple more referees arguing with Shane, Triple H tries to use the WWF title belt as a weapon. Billy ducks and hits a belt shot of his own which gets a really close near fall. As he argues with the referee, Triple H accidentally crushes him. Gunn hits the Fameasser and has another three count but Earl isn’t there to count. Triple H goes for the Pedigree and Mr. Ass uses the referee being down to deliver a low blow and both men are down! JR really excitedly cheers on Billy which is odd until you remember Triple H broke his arm two weeks ago. Triple H in the end hits the Pedigree and retains his title. 

Shane McMahon and Chyna come out to celebrate with him and as they’re in the ring Kane, who is still selling being hit with three sledgehammer blows earlier, comes out and fights all three, drilling Chyna with a chokeslam and then no-selling Triple H’s punches and giving him one too. Kane finishes with a third big chokeslam on Shane! 

Jeff Jarrett - feminist icon

Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett who will defend the title against Chyna at Unforgiven has an exhibition match tonight against Jacqueline. I guess to prove he has no issue beating up a woman. He has Miss Kitty with him but no Debra. Jeff is good to his word and shows no mercy and attacks Jackie hard and aggressively with prejudice. The fans are too busy chanting “we want Debra” to pay attention. Jackie gets a bit of offence but it's shut back down and then Jeff works on Jackie’s leg and clamps in the figure four submission to win the match. Afterwards with Miss Kitty holding the referee back, Jeff smashes his guitar over Jackie’s head.

A first ever for the Women’s Championship

Ivory defends her WWF Women’s title against Tori in the first ever women’s hardcore match. Tori attacks Ivory mid-prematch promo wearing a shirt, a thong and nothing else and the two fight and brawl into the showers (featuring a cameo from a towel wearing Jacqueline) and have quite a nasty fight around the backstage wearing almost no clothing until finally Ivory smashes a mirror over Tori’s head and covers here to retain the title. It’s especially scary given Tori’s bare legs and feet with all that broken glass laying around. Lillian’s announcement of the winner is her worst one on this show. Ivory uses a curling iron to give a nasty burn on Tori’s back (complete with fake sounding sizzling sound effects).

Other Happenings

• Terry Taylor interviews Val Venis about Steve Blackman and his unprovoked attack on Smackdown. Blackman wore him out with a kendo stick for seemingly no reason.
• Edge and Christian take on The Acolytes for the number one contendership for the tag team titles. They were the final two teams in tag team turmoil on Smackdown before the finish was ruined by the debuting Dudley Boyz. This is a good but short match with Edge and Christian winning an arguably upset with a missile dropkick into a roll up. Backstage Edge and Christian are interviewed and in what must have felt like a huge moment for them in their careers get to talk about The Rock and Mankind, legit main eventers. The Acolytes approach to attack them but are jumped by The Dudley Boyz with some trash cans! 

• GTV! Val Venis makes a joke about The Big Show’s penis at the urinal and gets beaten up for it.
• Michael Cole interviews Meat who cuts a Russo-esque promo where he “drops the gimmick” and says he wants to go by his real name, Shawn Staziak. As he’s talking about his father - former WWF Champion Stan Staziak - he’s jumped by the Mean Street Posse for no reason.
• Val Venis heads out to the ring and is in a serious and foul mood. He calls out The Big Show for attacking him in the bathroom. Would he still have done this if we hadn’t seen it on GTV? Backstage, The Big Show doesn’t seem to be bothered but The Undertaker winds him up and so he goes out to take care of his business. Val tries his best but he is easily dispatched by Show who throws him around and finishes him with the chokeslam. As Val tries to recover in the ring, Blackman jumps him again and beats him across the back and head with a kendo stick. 
• Terry Taylor interviews Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley, who talk about being eight time world tag team champions (in ECW) and say that they aren’t afraid of The Acolytes. Bubba stutters and D-Von does the “Dudley commandments” but before he finishes them they’re attacked by Bradshaw and Faarooq who return the favour from the beatings on Smackdown and earlier. 
• Lillian Garcia is in the ring about to announce the next match but is interrupted by Howard Finkle. He says he’s the best of all time and that she should get out of the ring, which she does. He’s supposed to be a heel but he is so much better than Lilliam I’m just glad to see him. He gives a big comedy “oh no” when he sees which match he’s now announcing - it’s Ken Shamrock who chases him around the ring and easily catches him. Before he can hurt him, Jericho’s music plays and Shamrock is distracted. Jericho is on the titantron again and says that for attacking Fink, he’s made him too mad. He says that UFC is fake and that here in the real world, Jericho is the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Jericho promises him a face to face confrontation this week on Smackdown and Ken takes off, sprinting backstage.
• The three members of the Mean Street Posse (who are, to the shock of everyone, accompanied by Terri Runnels) take on Test, Pat Patterson and Gerry Brisco. Big pop for the Stooges coming out to “Real American” (from me anyway). It tickles me to no end that WCW sued the WWF for saying their wrestlers were old. The Posse jump the stooges three on two but Test arrives to save the day. Shawn Staziak FKA Meat comes out to lend a hand too and Test easily pins Rodney with a top rope elbow drop. OH and the Posse jumped Meat earlier and now they’re with Terri so I see what the connection is. None of this was laid out by the commentators and I was left to piece it together myself. 
• Hardcore and Crash Holly are scheduled to face The Hardy Boyz but its the debut of a classic gimmick as the super heavyweight Hollys have a set of scales with them and insist on weighing their opponents as they only want to wrestle other super heavyweights. None of the New Brood meet weight and so Hardcore won’t wrestle them but Matt and Jeff attack and the bell rings anyway. The Hollys win a short spirited match and afterwards the New Brood give Crash Holly a bloodbath. Hardcore laughs at his cousin’s misfortune and the Hollys start fighting again!

• The Big Show and The Undertaker challenge The Rock and Mankind to a rematch for the Tag Team titles on Smackdown - specifically a buried alive tag team match. Later in a very funny promo Mankind and The Rock would accept.
• Al Snow who has seemingly been driven off the deep end by the loss of Pepper is back in his old Avatar outfit from his days as a masked jobber in the new gen WWF. He puts on the mask and cuts a promo as a superhero, here to save us all from monsters. Mid-promo he comes to his senses and makes some funny jokes about his previous runs before barking like a dog, and scribbling gibberish all over JR’s notepad before running off. He has snapped. 
• Another GTV segment as this time Chaz’s girlfriend Mariyana cries on a payphone to someone named Stacey asking her to “please talk to him and get him to return my calls”. 
• The European champion Mark Henry joins commentary to watch D’Lo Brown face Steve Blackman. The match is short and after Val Venis sneaks into the ring to knock out Blackman with a kendo stick and steal his bag of weapons, D’Lo wins with the Frog Splash off the top. Post-match as he tries to celebrate, Mark Henry rushes the ring and attacks him with a pair of very impressive slams.

Smackdown! - September 9th, 1999

The Rattlesnake strikes

As Triple H continues the burial (despite the protests by camera hog and all around terrible performer Earl Hebner) an ambulance backs into the arena. Triple H goes to open it but to his shock it contains Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin’s music plays as Stone Cold beats Triple H around the grave while the crowd loses their minds! Austin fights the WWF Champion, sending his body flying up and down the mound of dirt before he locks Triple H in the back of the ambulance. Austin jumps in the front and drives the ambulance out into the parking lot, parks it up and then with Triple H still inside, violently crashes into the side of it with a huge truck! And then he backs up and does it again! An incredible spectacle to end the episode and it's been too long since we had some old fashioned Stone Cold vehicular mayhem! 

Buried Alive!

The tag team champions The Rock and Mankind arrive at the arena. The Rock apparently let Mick ride to the arena in the trunk of his limo. It’s fun imagining these two characters hanging out off camera and “bonding”.

Lillian Garcia interviews The Rock and Mankind who promise victory in the buried alive tag team match tonight in a very funny promo.

The main event is the team of The Undertaker and The Big Show challenging The Rock and Mankind for the WWF Tag Team titles in the first ever (and only ever) tag team buried alive match. It’ll be interesting to see how much The Undertaker does in this match as he’s badly needed hip surgery for a while and it’s become increasingly obvious that they’re avoiding having him wrestle. My question is answered pretty quickly as he does wrestle. Or brawl at least - he avoids bumping as much as he can. Michael Cole seems unclear on the rules as to how one team wins this. This one is wild and is hard to recap! 

The Big Show effortlessly carries Mankind up to the grave site and after a steel chair shot from The Rock to The Undertaker, he follows. All four men end up at the top of the ramp fighting in and out of the grave. The Rock tries to manually bury The Big Show but it takes so long that he gets out and just looks dirty. In an awesome spot, The Big Show throws Mankind from the entrance ramp a long distance into the grave. It looked incredible. The Rock and The Undertaker fight backstage as The Big Show begins to bury Mankind. Mankind fights back with the Mandible Claw and both end up inside the grave. Mankind does eventually get Show to pass out and into the grave and he starts to shovel dirt in. Meanwhile, as The Undertaker and The Rock fight backstage Triple H attacks The Rock. Taker leaves and heads back to the ring. Kane attacks Triple H! Chyna hits him with a chair which he no-sells and then pursues Chyna. Back in the arena, The Undertaker attacks Mankind and revives The Big Show (by screaming “get up!” at him). The Undertaker blasts Mankind with a shovel and the two fight to keep him in the grave and bury him. Mick won’t stay down and just keeps fighting up. As Show buries a finally-down Mankind, The Rock returns and he and The Undertaker resume their brawl across the entrance ramp. Triple H appears at ringside and hits The Big Show in the back of the head with the sledgehammer, knocking him out completely. 

He then continues the job, burying Mankind. The Undertaker and The Big Show regain the WWF Tag Team titles and Triple H continues to make enemies everywhere he goes. Trying to keep the related parts of the show together is challenging as Triple H is everywhere at the moment and messing with everyone so there’s more of what Triple H got up to this week in the next section and leads into why he was against The Undertaker and The Big Show too. Triple H remained at the grave and continued burying Mankind, which is what led into “the Rattlesnake returns” section that ended the show.

Kane has a rough night

Right into the action this week as outside the arena, Triple H and Chyna are attacking Kane in the parking lot with some pipes. To everyone’s surprise, The Undertaker and The Big Show run them off and save Kane. The Undertaker would seem to be trying to recruit Kane into realising his potential as a monster and trying to get him to ditch X-Pac. 

Out in the parking lot after the Hardcore title match, Kane who is now in his ring gear pours gasoline all over Triple H’s car. Triple H dives into the car trying to get some of his property to safety so Kane pours gas all over him and Chyna too! They run off as Kane chases them with a lighter. 

After the tag team match, with The Hardys and Gangrel still in the ring, the lights go out and when they come up Kane is in the ring. He plants all three with chokeslams, grabs the mic and promises to burn the flesh from Triple H’s body, and then signals his pyro! 

Triple H, soaked in gasoline, says that if Kane wants him he can have a WWF title match tonight and he’ll have the title in one hand and a sledgehammer in the other.

X-Pac comes out to the arena and calls out Kane. He says that Kane has been WWF champion before and he knows he can do it again. X-Pac says that he and Kane’s partnership is over. X-Pac doesn’t want to be the weak link and it's no good for him and it's no good for Kane. Kane needs to go it alone and win the WWF title. Kane seems very upset to have lost his best friend. 

Triple H, accompanied by a sledgehammer wielding Chyna, comes out first to defend his WWF title against Kane. Kane was backstage carrying a blowtorch and a can of gasoline. Kane dominates until Chyna gets on the mic and tells him she’ll talk to X-Pac for him. It distracts Kane enough for Triple H to land a low blow and get control again. Kane does come back and after a clothesline from the top rope and a chokeslam seems to have the match won but Chyna hits Kane in the back with the sledgehammer. Triple H follows up with a Pedigree and retains the WWF title. Triple H has only been champion for two weeks or so but thanks to the addition of Smackdown and him being all over every show, it feels like he’s had a proper reign already! Post match Chyna brings the hammer into the ring and the two are ready to do more damage until The Undertaker and The Big Show come out and rescue Kane. The Undertaker is trying hard to win Kane over and that would be an incredible stable of super heavyweights.

Other Happenings

• In the arena, Hardcore Champion The Big Bossman gloats about what he did to Pepper and tells Snow that as crazy as he is, no one is as crazy as the Bossman. He says that if there’s any dog-lovers in the back, they can come out and take his open challenge. It is accepted by the returning British Bulldog (who comes out to a poppy remix of his classic theme) and he looks rough in jeans and a light grey hoodie which is all wet and just looks dirty. Bulldog dominates Bossman and knocks him out with his own nightstick to become the new Hardcore champion! As he leaves, Al Snow comes out as his old New Rockets personal, dancing and he takes the notepad page that he was scribbling on on Raw and stuffs it into Bossman’s mouth! As he leaves, Bulldog stops him and hands him the Hardcore title belt and raises his arm! So that’s two title changes in as many minutes, I think?

• Edge and Christian make their entrance through the crowd as normal but are followed by Stevie Richards who’s dressed as Gangrel. This is for a tag team match with Matt and Jeff Hardy. Edge and Christian seem to be unaware of why Stevie is there but he takes a position at ringside as their manager. This is a good match and Stevie ends up actually helping Edge and Christian win.
• As the British Bulldog leaves the building, Lilian Garcia tries to talk to him but he’s having none of it. “No comment”
• In the back, two men in Lucha masks speaking very poor fake Spanish arrive. It’s very obviously Chris Jericho and Howard Finkle. 
• Hardcore Holly comes out to the ring and says he wants a match tonight with a real super heavyweight. Crash has the scales ready to weigh whoever comes out. Chyna is the one who comes out, apparently accepting Holly’s challenge. Holly says he won’t wrestle a woman, but if she was a man those “200lbs sacks of silicone on her chest” might make her a super heavyweight. As he turns his back, Chyna picks up the scale and hits Hardcore in the back with it. The bell rings and this match is official. With Crash on the apron, Chyna knocks him off with a forearm too. As Hardcore argues with Crash about why he’s even wrestling a woman and a non-super heavyweight, Chyna hits a DDT and has the match won but Jeff Jarrett runs in and attacks his number one contender. Chyna is rescued by Mr. Ass who seems to want to renew his friendship with her. Or not as he helps her up and then plants her with the Fameasser! Crash laughs at Hardcore for almost getting beat by a girl and the two cousins come to blows again.
• Bradshaw takes on Bubba Ray Dudley in his in ring debut. The Dudleys and Acolytes feud has been super physical as they jump each other with weapons. Bradshaw is famous, in real life, for being exceptionally stiff with newcomers and young guys especially those who came in from ECW so I’m sure this was a trial by fire as Bubba had to show no weakness and give as good as he gets. The match ends in a disqualification as Faarooq and D-Von get in the ring too and the two tag teams brawl until being split up by an army of referees and officials.
• A furious Big Bossman is interviewed by a terrified looking Lillian Garcia who promises swift and brutal revenge on both Al Snow and the British Bulldog. 
• Test and Stephanie McMahon - engaged to be married - come out to the ring. Stephanie calls out her mother Linda, Pat Patterson and Gerry Brisco (who come out to Real American) because she had an announcement to make. They’ve set a date for the wedding which will be on Monday, October 11th and they want to invite the entire world to watch it on Raw is War. The good mood is ruined by the theme music of the Mean Street Posse, who are led to the ring by Terri Runnels. As Stephanie pleads for them to just lead her and Andrew (Test’s real name) alone, Shane McMahon then comes out looking serious. Shane puts down his foot and tells the Posse to get out of the ring. “The war with Test is over”. Shane does give what sounds like a heartfelt apology to both Stephanie and Test and formally gives them his blessing. He shakes Test’s hand and hugs Stephanie and Linda. 

• Ken Shamrock who has been looking for Jericho all night heads out to the ring for his “one on one confrontation” with Y2J. Shamrock cuts an angry promo about having to come back and find Jericho and as he walks up the ramp, Jericho’s entrance music and video plays. Unbeknown to Ken, Jericho has been lowered to the ring in a cage! He’s hiding inside with a baseball bat. Shamrock furiously tries to get to him through the bars but can’t quite reach. This is actually really clever! Jericho proves that Shamrock needs protecting from him and has the pictures of him putting the walls of Jericho on Kenny last week up on the titantron. Shamrock manages to get the baseball bat from him and bangs on the cage. Jericho calls for the cage to be raised but backstage Howard is too busy arguing with Lillian Garcia to do it! Shamrock manages to bend the bars and pulls Y2J out of the cage and beats him up, slamming him into the cage and pounding him with mounted punches. The referees come down to break them up but Shamrock has snapped and starts suplexing referees instead allowing Jericho to escape. Backstage after the commercial break Jericho makes a quick getaway but after making Fink open the door for him, he fires him and drives off without him! 
• Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett comes out with Debra and Miss Kitty - Jarrett Enterprises - and is proudly unpolitically correct. He says he's embarrassed to wrestle a woman and a woman’s place is in the kitchen. Chyna is in this weird grey area where she’s playing a babyface in her feud with Jarrett but also still playing the heel sidekick of Triple H. She’ll commit to one of them soon. Jarrett spots that the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young are in the front row tonight. He calls Moolah into the ring. Now this is the start of Moolah sticking around as a regular character and sometimes wrestler for a while, and obviously many things have come out about her in recent years that make her, arguably, one of the most evil people in the history of the business. Not in the fun way that Bossman is either. He asks Moolah if back in her day women knew their place. She says that she would have wrestled the men but they were all scared of her. Jarrett responds by smashing his guitar over Moolah’s head and then locking Mae Young in the figure four leglock! Even Debra and Miss Kitty were disgusted by his actions. I’ll be honest - I laughed. It’s so ridiculous and over the top, smashing a guitar over the head of a nearly 70 year old woman. Outrageous and I loved it.

• For the first time in a very long time we get one of Val Venis’ adult videos. “Enter the Big Valbowski”. He has Blackman’s bag of weapons and implies that he’s been using them as sex toys.

Raw is War - September 13th, 1999

Linda McMahon puts The Game in his place

Raw opens with a video recap of the many enemies Triple H has made in the past couple of weeks. From there is a montage of different people awaiting the arrival of the WWF Champion, The Undertaker and The Big Show, Kane, The Rock and Mankind all spread out through the backstage. Triple H then does arrive at the arena in the parking lot with a huge armed security detail! 

In the arena, Linda McMahon heads down to the ring flanked by Patterson and Brisco. Linda stepped in to stop her son Shane from abusing his power last week and Triple H name dropped her and told her to stay out of his business on Smackdown. She announces a five man, no holds barred match tonight between The Undertaker, Big Show, Kane, The Rock and Mankind. The first man to score a pin fall or submission will be the number one contender and challenge the WWF Champion at Unforgiven. Linda also says that Triple H might not be the champion by Unforgiven because she thinks that Stone Cold is going to turn up tonight and demand a title shot and she plans on granting it. That brings Triple H and Chyna out to the ring in a rage. 

Triple H immediately attacks the stooges and he and Chyna beat up and kick Pat and Gerry out of the ring. He gets in Linda’s face and tells her to go back to Stamford. The Undertaker and Big Show, and The Rock and Mankind come through the crowd and overwhelm Triple H’s security, rushing the ring. Kane comes out with his entrance music and Triple H escapes with Kane giving chase while The Rock and Mankind clear Undertaker and Big Show out of the ring and stand tall.

When Stone Cold is shown arriving through the parking lot, JR loses his mind screaming that the Rattlesnake will get a WWF title match tonight.

Stone Cold Steve Austin who has his knee braces on but weirdly doesn’t have any of his other ring gear (he's in jean shorts and one of his t-shirts) heads to the ring for his WWF title match with Triple H. Austin actually has braces on both knees now and that’s the way it’ll be until the end of his career. He doesn’t even have knee pads on under his braces! Triple H isn’t dressed to wrestle either in jeans and a leather jacket, but does have Chyna and a massive number of security guards with him. He stops on the ramp and says there won’t be a WWF title match tonight as because of Austin’s attack on Smackdown, he’s called the police and there is a warrant for Stone Cold’s arrest. He sends his security down to the ring and they arrest a very pissed off Rattlesnake, cuffing his hands behind his back. There are at least fifteen police officers in the ring. Triple H does get a cheap shot in while he’s cuffed, and after the break we see that he followed them all the way out to the parking lot to wave goodbye as he’s loaded in the police car. Triple H has another angry altercation with Linda McMahon on his way back into the arena too. Later, we’d see the stooges trying to convince Linda to leave the building in case something bad happens to her.

The five man main event is every man for himself, but the WWF Tag Team Champions The Undertaker and The Big Show enter together to their tag team music, but without their title belts. Mankind enters next and in a moment that doesn’t make sense, the bell rings while The Undertaker and Show attack him two on one, before the other two men have entered. The Rock is next and with all four men fighting in the ring, Kane’s pyro makes everyone jump and he enters last. It really felt like the plan for Unforgiven was for Kane to challenge Triple H and the other four to pair off in a tag team title rematch. That’s not what happens. Mideon and Viscera come down to the ring and stand guard at ringside which seems to baffle JR and King too. They attack Mankind on the outside and pummelled him before throwing him back inside. Mideon tells JR and King something about the “learning tree” which is what The Undertaker keeps saying so they would appear to be working with The Undertaker again. Mini-Ministry reunion. This is just a chaotic brawl and the referee goes down when The Undertaker punches him. The Rock hits the People’s Elbow and when Tim White comes down to count Kane punches him out. More referees come down and the five men get more focused on knocking down the referees and officials than each other. Earl Hebner runs down to the ring and stops short, surveying all the knocked down referees before waving it off and just leaving. Multiple random superstars start coming down to help control it with Crash Holly getting a massive chokeslam, Droz taking a Rock Bottom, Stevie Richards getting a chokeslam and Albert getting the Mandible Claw. The locker room empties as the entire roster fills the ring to separate these five fighting main eventers! 

Triple H and Chyna come out to the ring. The WWF Champion calls Linda McMahon out to the ring and demands that she tell the whole world that Stone Cold forfeited his title shot and that he is now at the bottom of the pile. She refuses and tries to leave and Triple H grabs her arm! “No chance” plays and JR and King assume that it’s Shane who’s back but for the first time since July, it’s Vince McMahon! He gets a big babyface pop. He gets in the ring and shoves Triple H. He gave his word he would stay out of WWF business but this is personal now. That’s his wife. Triple H gets a massive babyface reaction here. “Listen here to son of a bitch! Who the HELL do you think you are?!” I got goosebumps! 

Vince pulls off his jacket and throws it at Triple H but before they come to blows, Austin’s music hits and he sprints to the ring and attacks. The bell rings, Earl Hebner is in the ring and this is apparently an official match! Austin beats Triple H around the ring as neither man is dressed to compete and throws him across the announce table. Stone Cold is all over Triple H! He chokes him with the cable at ringside as JR screams himself hoarse in excitement! Austin gets over excited and is too focused on hurting Triple H. He blasts him with chair shots and readies to attack his legs but Earl Hebner steps in. He takes a big punch for his troubles and that causes the disqualification. The show ends with Austin beating Triple H up and down the entrance ramp. During "Extra Attitude" on the WWE Network, the cage from earlier lowers and Stone Cold continues beating Triple H silly to send the live fans home happy. 

Jeff Jarrett wages war on women

Michael Cole interviews Jeff Jarrett who is happy and proud of what he did to Moolah and Mae Young on Smackdown. He has an open challenge to any woman to face him tonight and he wants Chyna to come down to ringside and watch. As Jeff continues to be wildly sexiest, Debra looks increasingly unimpressed with Jeff while Miss Kitty seems really into it. Jeff cuts broadly the same promo out in the ring while Debra and Miss Kitty smile like idiots in the background. This is peak Vince Russo. The challenge is accepted by Luna, who runs to the ring and is immediately stomped on. Jeff looks like he’s working really stiff with her and shows no mercy. The WWF Women’s Champion Ivory runs down to the ring and hits Luna with the guitar before running off. Jeff is furious at Luna being announced as the winner of the match (vis disqualification) and he berates and takes Lillian Garcia into the ring. While Debra and even Miss Kitty protests and tries to stop him he locks her in the figure four! Jeff Jarrett is a maniac and is eventually shown out of the ring by the referees. Lillian is a dreadful ring announcer but she didn’t deserve this.

Terry Taylor interviews Chyna after the commercial break and she says she isn’t impressed by Jeff Jarrett but she’s going to win the Intercontinental title at unforgiven. She gives an ominous warning to Stone Cold too.

Y2Jail

A steel cage lowers to the ring and to everyone’s surprise, Y2J Chris Jericho comes out. JR says he’s slated to face Ken Shamrock at Unforgiven. That doesn’t happen but we’ll get to it. Jericho gets into the “Y2Jail” and makes fun of Ken Shamrock and laughs about how he’s “the world’s most dangerous man” and actually gets some laughs from the crowds for his insults. Jericho says that he scoured the globe to find the most dangerous submission shoot fighter he could find. It’s “Gotch Gracie” and a big man dressed in black with a black mask comes out to the ring to near silence, while Jericho rattles off all his fake accomplishments. Chris slowly works him over with submission holds and eventually wins with the Walls of Jericho. 

Ken Shamrock comes out and attacks Jericho and “Gotch Gracie” saves the day. The two beat down Shamrock in the cage and when Gracie unmasks we learn that he is in fact Curtis Hughes who is Jericho’s new bodyguard. I’ll talk more about him at Unforgiven but he is dreadful and doesn’t stick around for long. This is also Ken Shamrock’s last appearance on Raw, but I’ll talk about that at the PPV.

Other Happenings

• D-Von Dudley (accompanied by Bubba Ray, which is spelt Buh Buh Ray this week) takes on Faarooq in a strap match. Bubba does a stuttering pre-match promo which actually gets a decent reaction from the crowd considering how new they are. The match is short and D-Von wins when Bubba hits Faarooq with a chair behind the referee’s back. Bubba knocks out Bradshaw with the ring steps and the Dudleys beat down The Acolytes and leave, looking strong.

• Jim Ross in the ring calls out The British Bulldog. He has a totally different theme song to the one he had on Smackdown. Bulldog did what he did on Smackdown (winning the Hardcore title and then giving it to Al Snow) because he needed to prove to everyone that he’s not a joke and is here to be a winner. (he looks a bit like a joke in his ugly green suit). He says he’s here to win the WWF title and he will achieve that goal. The Big Bossman then comes out and says that no one sticks their nose in his business. Bossman reaches the ring but before he gets in, Al Snow comes out onto the stage and asks if Ray got his “love letter” and says it was a special challenge to a special match. He has had a vision of something special and challenges Bossman to a “Kennel from hell” match for the Hardcore title at Unforgiven. He explains the layout of the match and it sounds fine in theory - the steel cage around the ring, the hell in a cell over the top and then the first to escape both cages wins but there will be loads of angry dogs in the gap in between. He then asks for some of the dogs to come out and they honestly look pretty well behaved but we’re supposed to believe they’re flesh eating monsters. Bulldog is just standing in the ring watching during all of this. The crowd did at least pop for Snow’s jokes. Bulldog attacks Bossman and the two fight around the ring. The dogs chase Bossman into the crowd (with some help from their handlers). I hope these dogs were ok in front of this massive crowd. 
• Backstage the Mean Street Posse’s Joey Abs says that he loves Shane but he’s not going to listen to him and leave Test alone. He calls Stephanie a tramp too! In the back after the ad break, medical personell run through the back to check on someone that turns out to be Shane McMahon. Rodney and Pete Gas accompany Joey Abs to the ring for his match with Test. Unlike most Posse matches, Joey actually shows off some moves. He’s the only trained wrestler of the three. Test wins with a gutwrench powerbomb and as the three Posse members attack him after the match, Shane McMahon sprints to the ring and attacks them, helping out Test! He’s beating up his oldest friends and siding with his future brother-in-law! Shane McMahon might have just turned babyface! Test and Shane chase the Posse all the way out of the arena and even jump into Shane’s car to go after them. 

• The Godfather, for the first time in months, is back on Raw. JR and King are talking about this being his return too so I think maybe he was injured. His opponent is Chaz and in a picture-in-picture interview he reveals that Mariyana and he have split up. He says it was amicable and even though she cheated on him with Shawn Staziak there’s no hard feelings. He did the “mature, gentlemanly thing” according to JR. Godfather doesn’t even offer Chaz the hoes - he isn’t having a lot of luck with the women lately. Mariyana comes down to the ring and reveals a black eye and keeps saying “Chaz, why?” Godfather and the commentators jump to the conclusion that Chaz beat her and Godfather fires up and wins the match with the hoe train and a Pimp Drop (death valley driver). Chaz allegedly beating his gf is treated as a sad, serious matter opposed to Jeff Jarrett busting musical instruments over women’s heads which is treated as spectacle. 

• There’s a recap of the X-Pac and Kane tag team break up. X-Pac is being a bit self pitying and calling himself the weak link and that Kane will be better off without him so he ended the team much to Kane’s mismay.
• Backstage after a commercial break, the referees all complain to senior referee Earl Hebner about the working conditions and how much they’re all being attacked recently but especially tonight.
• D’Lo Brown teams up with Val Venis to face their Unforgiven opponents of European Champion Mark Henry and Steve Blackman. Blackman comes out first but when Mark’s music plays he doesn’t appear. We saw D’Lo Brown paying a big sum of money to The Godfather. With it being two on one, Val and D’Lo easily defeat Blackman. After the match, we see GTV footage of The Godfather’s ladies giving Mark Henry a lap dance and that’s obviously what D’Lo spent his money on. 

Smackdown! - September 16th, 1999

McMahon does the unthinkable

Stone Cold Steve Austin opens the show properly, coming out to the ring. He says that just because he got disqualified on Raw, he isn’t done with Triple H by a long shot. His focus on Raw was beating Triple H’s ass, and now his focus is on getting the WWF title back. He says as badly as Triple H beat him down at Summerslam, he didn’t beat him down enough because as long as Austin is walking, Triple H is in his crosshairs. Tonight, we can do things the easy way, or we can do things the hard way. He can come out and give Austin his rematch for the WWF title tonight, no holds barred or, the hard way is that he’ll be carted out of the building in a body bag. Michael Cole mentions, as Triple H comes out with Chyna and his massive security entourage, that he’ll defend the WWF title at Unforgiven in a “6 pack challenge” against The Rock, Mankind, Kane, The Big Show and The Undertaker. Triple H says that Austin blew his chance on Raw and so Stone Cold can kiss his ass. Triple H says he has been ordered to defend the WWF title tonight on Smackdown and he will defend it against “a main event competitor” and it will be against someone Austin has shared the ring with. Austin promises that he’s going to follow Triple H all night, and that by the end of tonight he will get his hands on him. 

The Rock enters first for a five man Royal Rumble featuring the challenges at Unforgiven. He has a classic funny promo and these types of multiman matches benefit The Rock because he gets to run through them all and make fun of them in turn. He notably doesn’t make fun of Mankind - I guess he has grown on him. The Big Show starts the match with him. Mankind is number three and Kane is number four. There’s only a minute between entrants so there isn’t much to say!

The Undertaker enters last in jeans and a t-shirt. He's basically dressed as an American Badass Taker with a bandana and sunglasses.  He joins commentary instead. This is more of them keeping Taker out of the ring because he needs surgery. Interestingly The Undertaker talks pretty openly about trying to recruit Kane to he and The Big Show’s team. Kane gets double clotheslined out by Rock and Mankind, then Mankind is dumped by The Big Show. As The Rock and Show fight on the ropes, Taker slides into the ring and dumps them both out to win this mini-Royal Rumble. The Big Show gets in Undertaker’s face and Viscera and Mideon come down to back up their former and I guess new boss. 

The Rock gets in the ring and knocks out Mideon and Viscera with a chair but has it kicked back in his face by Show. The three huge men assault The Rock as The Undertaker watches on. 

WWF Champion Triple H comes out to defend the WWF title. He says hes allowed to pick his own referee and so he picks Shane McMahon. Shane reacts to it backstage as he and Triple H have previously been friends but of course Triple H has all this drama going on with Linda and Vince at the moment, and Shane is a good guy now! Vince and Linda are also backstage. Triple H has his security team making a human wall at the top of the ramp not letting anyone through without Triple H’s say-so. Triple H runs through the five likely suspects having already ruled out Austin and insults each one in turn. He eventually says he wants to defend the title against Vince McMahon! Vince isn’t keen but he keeps goading him and even insults Linda. Shane obviously isn’t happy about this either. He says that Vince wants to be a hero to Linda and his family and this is his chance. Vince does reluctantly come out to the ring. Vince says that this isn’t happening and tells Triple H to come backstage and talk about this. Vince reminds us that hes not supposed to get involved in business. He warns him not to make this too personal. All of this because Triple H didn’t like being put in his place by Linda. He makes one more crack about Linda and so Vince attacks him from behind! Shane rings the bell and this is official. Triple H takes over and beats down Vince with ease. Shane stays back and doesn’t actually get involved but he does cheer on his dad as referee. This is so different to the times Austin beat up Vince as he’s the good guy here, and Triple H’s attack is more focused and vicious than the theatrical beatings Austin gave him. Chyna even gets in a cheap shot. Vince flails with punches and hits a low blow which Shane obviously lets go. Triple H takes the fight to the outside and drags it out, choking him with the electrical cables and driving Vince through the announce table with an elbow drop off the security barrier. Theres a huge wet patch on Vince’s shirt from a spilled drink or something which i’m sure was the most uncomfortable part of this. He loads Vince back into the ring and blasts him with a steel chair, busting Vince wide open. Shane tackles Triple H but is quickly subdued by Chyna. Triple H hits Shane in the head with a chairshot too and the blood is flowing down Vince’s face. Linda comes down to the ring with Patterson and Brisco, who attack Triple H but are beaten up by him and Chyna. Linda is all alone in the ring and Chyna grabs her too. She’s going to make her watch Triple H Pedigree and finish off her husband. Triple H is pure evil in this moment. Stone Cold’s music hits and he comes through the crowd, attacking Triple H and dropping both he and Chyna with stunners. 

He revives Shane to count the three and Vince McMahon has won the WWF Championship! Stone Cold takes off through the crowd as Triple H’s security chases him. Triple H is furious and leaves while Shane, Linda and the Stooges help a bloody Vince to his feet. Vince McMahon is the WWF Champion! 

Shane McMahon - supportive brother

Shane McMahon comes out to the ring and is dressed to compete. He gets a quiet reaction as he has technically turned babyface but it hasn’t been long enough since the fans were chanting “asshole” at him. He calls out the Mean Street Posse. He wants a match with Joey Abs. All three members of the Posse come out (with Terri Runnels) and Shane actually dives over the top rope onto all three of them. Theres no referee for this “match” because they’re all on strike and so the Posse attack and beat up Shane three on one while the fans chant for “Test”. Gerry Brisco does come out in a referee shirt and gets this down to a proper one on one match between Shane and Joey Abs. Shane seems to have the match won after a spinning elbow but Rodney pulls Gerry out of the ring and fights with him. Pete Gas and Gerry fight outside the ring as Shane fights off Rodney and Joey Abs in the ring. Pat Patterson comes down now to act as referee and when he tries to count a small package, Rodney pulls him out of the ring now! Shane hits a nice twisting splash off the top rope and Shawn Staziak runs in in a referee shirt to count the three! Shawn had some run ins with the Posse after Terri recruited them as her new boy toys so that kind of makes sense. Stephanie comes down to check on Shane and boots Joey in the ribs for good measure. Shane seems to be all buddy-buddy with Test and Stephanie now.

Jeff Jarrett goes too far

WWF Women’s Champion Ivory comes out and calls Cindy Margolis - who they’ve shown sitting in the crowd a few times already - into the ring. They’re acting like she’s mega famous but a quick google reveals that her show was cancelled after 15 episodes, and her biggest movie role was as a fembot in Austin Powers. She has done very little since. She’s very pretty though. Ivory has her lay down, and then Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett runs down and puts her in the figure four! Ivory is into it and celebrates with him, but then he takes her down and puts her in the figure four too! Jeff’s war against women continues as he sends a message to Chyna. He got a cheer for attacking Ivory because she kind of deserved it but poor Cindy. 

As Cindy Margolis is loaded into an ambulance, Jeff Jarrett stops by to shout abuse at her. Gentleman and defender of women Test shows up to have a go at Jeff and the two brawl. Jeff challenges Test to a match tonight.

Test challenges Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental title but this match turns into chaos as the Mean Street Posse comes out to mess with Test, followed by Stephanie and Shane McMahon and their new best friend apparently, Shawn Staziak. It turns into a wild chaotic eight man brawl as the fans loudly chant “we want puppies” instead of paying any attention. Jeff Jarrett uses a jumping shoulder breaker off the middle ropes to “injure Test” and then Jeff takes down Stephanie apparently planning on putting HER in the figure four but he's tackled out of the ring by Shane McMahon! Later it is implied that Test has a separated shoulder and we see Stephanie helping him leave the arena. 

Other Happenings

• At the top of the show, there’s footage out in the parking lot from earlier today. The WWF referees are all on strike! This is in response to the massive amount of abuse they all took on Raw.
• Mark Henry defends the European title against fellow heel Steve Blackman. This is off the back of Blackman being angry at Mark for no-showing their tag team match on Raw, being too busy with the Godfather’s ladies. This match is officiated by replacement referee Tony Garea. The referees being on strike will continue for a couple of weeks. 
• Chris Jericho accompanies his bodyguard Curtis Hughes to the ring for his match with Ken Shamrock. Before the match, Jericho says that Shamrock begged him for forgiveness and licked his shoe backstage. He then brings out the referee for this one,a fat man in a Lucha mask named “El Dopeo”. It’s Howard Finkle. Jericho joins commentary and makes friends with Jerry Lawler. Hughes is pretty terrible and does the “big man slowly works over his opponent” offence. Shamrock chases Jericho around the ring which lets Curtis get control. The referee doesn’t ring the bell and ignores Jericho and Hughes' obvious cheating and double team. He does disqualify Shamrock for “refusing to break a submission hold” and so Shamrock beats him up after the match while Jericho escapes with Hughes.

• Hardcore and Crash Holly have challenged Chyna and a partner of her choice to a tag team match. Chyna comes out solo and goes it alone. She easily deals with Hardcore and low blows both Hollys as they bicker. The two get control of Chyna and Mr. Ass runs in to be her partner because now that he’s a big babyface again, even though he’s had his issues with Chyna he doesn’t want to see her get beat up two on one. Chyna is actually getting a lot of cheers for mixing it up with the men, especially from the female fans. They really need to split her from Triple H and let her just be a babyface. Mr. Ass gets the hot tag and runs through both Hardcore and Crash with ease, pinning Crash off the Fameasser. Chyna seems angry at him for helping - she wanted to do it alone to send a message to Jeff Jarrett. While she argues with him, Jeff Jarrett slides into the ring and hits her with a frying pan! Billy Gunn has helped her enough for one night and just leaves. Miss Kitty and Chyna come down with a shopping bag and Jeff Jarrett puts an apron on the unconscious Chyna and puts the frying pan in one hand and a big cooking spoon in the other. This week Debra and Miss Kitty seem quite into him being a big misogynist. Pick a lane ladies.
• The Big Bossman faces Al Snow in a “pepper on a pole” match (because Russo) as the remains of Pepper are placed in a paper bag and hung above the ring. Before the match Bossman promises to win and then shove the booked remains of Pepper down Snow’s throat. They give away how pre-taped all of this is as the doggie bag that Bossman had before the match backstage is already at the top of the enormous pole when he gets to the ring. This match isn’t for Snow’s Hardcore title and this is a weird case of building up a PPV match by just…doing the match on TV beforehand. The British Bulldog comes out with the big dogs that are scheduled to be a part of the Kennel from Hell match at Unforgiven and chase Bossman allowing Snow to win the match and recover Pepper’s remains.

Raw is War - September 20th, 1999

McMahon does the right thing

Recap of the events of Smackdown where Triple H’s war with everyone “angry at the world” mission that had him at odds with Linda McMahon culminated in him losing the WWF Championship to Vince McMahon! 

In the arena, the show is opened by the new WWF Champion VInce McMahon which is so weird, it has to be typed out in full each time. He is a proper babyface now too by virtue of him being at odds with Triple H and Triple H being the most evil man alive (other than The Big Bossman maybe). He reminds us all that he did agree to not get involved in WWF business and he plans on sticking to that, so tonight he is relinquishing the WWF title and declaring it vacant. It will be on the line in the 6 pack challenge at Unforgiven. Stone Cold Steve Austin then comes out to the ring and the fans are very happy to see him - they’re in Texas this week and he always gets a louder reaction there. Austin says that while he might hate Vince’s guts and Vince might still hate him, the WWF hasn’t been the same without him. Vince says that since Vince is taking himself out of the 6 pack challenge, Stone Cold wants to take his place. Vince says that he can’t promise that or give him that because he’s banned from taking part in business activities. Triple H comes out and says that it will be him in the 6 pack challenge, not Austin. Triple H is pissed off. Shane McMahon then comes out and books Triple H and Chyna in a tag team match against himself and Vince tonight! Austin says that Vince needs to be a man and take back control of his company from his hot head son. Vince says he can’t come back because of their stipulation at Fully Loaded. Austin says that he can reinstate Vince per that same contract and that he’ll reinstate Vince as long as he gets a title shot. Vince agrees and is back in the saddle! Triple H can be in the 6 pack challenge because the five other men involved are going to kick his ass, and then Stone Cold can have a one on one title match against the winner. He also says that since the referees are on strike, Stone Cold will be the special enforcer at Unforgiven! Some pretty enormous announcements to open Raw, and Stone Cold actually leaves with the now vacant WWF title belt. 

Triple H and Chyna enter first for the tag team match with the McMahons. Triple H cuts another angry at everyone pre-match promo. Shane enters alone and we see on the titantron that Vince is trapped in his locker room with a forklift. It's not really said who it was that did that but it seems like it might have been Shane, not wanting his dad to get hurt because he already has Test ready to step in. Shane spears Chyna and takes her down and Test beats up Triple H. When the match breaks down, Shane gets worked over until a hot tag to Test. Once it’s back down to Shane vs. Triple H, Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett attacks Test. Chyna sees it and chases him off and those two fight up the ramp leaving Triple H all alone. He’s a main eventer though and easily fights off both men and plants Test and then Shane with a pair of Pedigrees. 

He doesn’t go for the cover and instead gets a steel chair and target’s Test’s already injured shoulder and then hammers Shane McMahon across the back. As Triple H heads up the ramp and reaches the stage he turns right into a big steel chair shot to the head from Vince McMahon! 

The Rock n’ Sock Connection rides again

Backstage The Undertaker gives his lackeys their marching orders, sending them to the boiler room to attack Mankind. Mideon, Viscera and The Big Show attack him one after another but thankfully for Mick Foley, The Rock arrives and saves him from the beating. 

Michael Cole interviews Mankind who continues to rip off The Rock’s catchphrases and says that The Rock is obviously his best friend because he saved him. Mankind challenges The Undertaker and The Big Show to a tag team title match tonight! The Rock enters and is more interested in how they broke The Rock’s rolex! He does a very funny “talking trash in his sleep” bit which makes Mick Foley corpse. He has massively hit his strike with the comedy stuff in the past month. After the break, Michael Cole is with the tag team champions who accept Mankind’s challenge but The Undertaker says the match will be under “darkside rules” but doesn’t specify what that means.

Backstage as Mankind and The Rock head to the ring as a team and The Big Show walks solo through the back dressed like a 500lbs goth, The Undertaker is elsewhere talking to Kane! More “will they, won’t they” from the brothers. Undertaker’s been trying to recruit Kane for a while now. He seems to want all the super heavyweights in one stable of monsters which isn’t a bad idea. Mankind enters first followed by The Rock. Despite having already done a fair bit of talking tonight, The Rock does cut a pre-match promo making fun of The Undertaker, Mideon and Viscera who he assumes will get involved in this match. The Undertaker joins commentary and it's noteworthy that The Rock isn’t dressed to wrestle here and is in his street clothes. So is The Big Show. The Rock was right and Mideon and Viscera do come down to the ring and get up on the apron apparently also being in this match. So it’s three on two. As they fight around the ring, Kane comes out and The Undertaker smugly assumes he’s there to help him and his darkside contingent. He plants The Big Show with a flying clothesline and that allows The Rock to give Mideon the People’s Elbow and win the match. The Rock and Mankind are once again tag team champions thanks to Kane. 

After looking around backstage for Kane in a fury, The Undertaker comes back out to the ring. He’s walking with a notable limp now and I’ve mentioned it a bunch over the past few weeks but then working so hard to find excuses for him not wrestling is hard to ignore once you see it. The Undertaker says that he was ready to forgive Kane and welcome him into the fold but Kane has once again let him down and he calls Kane out, who obliges. Before they come to blows, Mideon, Viscera and The Big Show come down. The Undertaker jumps him from behind and the four men beat him down at ringside and drench him in gasoline. They ready a lighter to set Kane on fire but Mankind and The Rock arrive with baseball bats to save the day. You’d assume partly because it’s the right thing to do, and partly as a thank you for helping them win the tag team titles. This is The Undertaker’s last appearance on Raw until May 2000.

Y2J

There's a video package for the Chris Jericho vs. Ken Shamrock match that's scheduled for Unforgiven. It’s actually been a really enjoyable feud but sadly the match doesn’t happen. I’ll stick the video package for it here just so you can all enjoy a bit of Chris Jericho's early days;

Chris Jericho along with Curtis Hughes takes on Mr. Ass. He has too many names and I’m never sure what to call him. Bad Ass Billy Gunn. You know who I mean. This is Jericho’s first ever match on Raw. It's also the debut of his trademark springboard dropkick to an opponent on the apron. This is a really good short TV match and the finish comes when Hughes spikes Billy with a DDT on the exposed concrete at ringside while the referee is distracted and loads him back into the ring for Jericho to lock in the Walls of Jericho on a knocked out opponent to win the match. 

Other Happenings

• Backstage in a very funny little segment, a sweet old security guard tells The Rock that it's her birthday. He asks her name and you can see him visibly and physically restraining himself from being nasty to her. He sings Smackdown Hotel for her and gives her $100 to buy herself a present. 

• WWF Women’s Champion Ivory heads out to the ring. She’ll defend the title at Unforgiven against Luna. She gets some cheap heat by talking about all the rats and cockroaches she’s seen in the area. She does an open challenge to fight a fan in attendance in a non-title match and picks one at random who turns out to be Luna in a wig. Luna beats Ivory senseless and with a powerbomb and a DDT, pins the women’s champion in a very quick non-title match.
• D’Lo Brown is interviewed by Michael Cole about the breakdown of his friendship with Mark Henry and his European title match at Unforgiven. He’s jumped by Mark who beats him up with a trash can and takes off. Later, D’Lo jumps in his car and drives off, apparently chasing Mark Henry. Later in the show, D’Lo would find Sexual Chocolate in a strip club and beat him up in front of the strippers.
• Terry Taylor talks to Test and Stephanie McMahon. Jeff separated his shoulder last week and put his hands on Stephanie. Test fires up and challenges Jeff to a street fight tonight but Jarrett appears and says that no, it’ll be a mixed tag team match with him and Debra vs. Test and Steph! Steph accepts.
• The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz. These two teams will eventually become synonymous with each other and this era of tag team wrestling but here, there’s all just babies. The Acolytes who are scheduled to face The Dudleys at Unforgiven come out to the ring before the match starts and circle the ring, joining commentary to watch. Bradshaw rants and makes some off-color shoot comments about ECW and the way they treated Public Enemy. I’ll talk a bit about that at Unforgiven. Stevie Richards comes out dressed as Dudley and gets into a fight with Gangrel. He’s been dressing up and trying to join teams lately. Bubba powerbombs Jeff on the outside and after Matt misses a moonsault, they finish him the the 3D to win the match. The Acolytes get in the ring and in an odd moment, The Hardys and Acolytes find themselves working together and the tag teams fight off through the crowd.
• Backstage as Debra and Miss Kitty protest to Debra having to wrestle tonight, Jeff actually attacks Jan the makeup lady and puts her in the figure four! 

• When they come out for the match, Debra’s ring gear is basically a silver bikini and boots. She and Miss Kitty seem to have already forgiven Jeff for his actions seconds ago and are all smiles. Debra wants nothing to do with the match and Test motors through Jarrett planting him with the pump handle slam and then a huge top rope elbow drop. He tags Stephanie in and she pins the Intercontinental Champion! After Test and Stephanie leave, Jarrett berates Debra and puts her in the figure four! Between Jeff beating up every woman he sees, Bossman skinning and cooking a dog and Triple H hitting people in the head with sledgehammers, the WWF in 1999 has a toxic man problem.
• Backstage Terry Taylor interviews Mariyana who has a new bruise on her mouth. She is accusing Chaz of beating her. She might be legitimately the worst actress I’ve ever seen in my life. Chaz tries to explain himself and strongly denies the allegations but no one seems to believe him and Mariyana has him arrested. 
• Steve Blackman is supposed to be facing Chaz but as he’s been arrested, his place is taken by Shawn Staziak. Val Venis comes out and joins commentary to watch and talk about his Unforgiven opponent Steve Blackman. Val has Blackman’s bag of weapons with him. Blackman does go out and get the bag but when he pulls one out to use, it's a sex toy instead! Staziak wins with a roll up.
• Earlier today at a graveyard, Al Snow had a tasteful funeral for Pepper. GTV then caught the Bossman going there and peeing on Pepper’s grave. Jesus. They actually just show a still image as even for the WWF, this was too far. That’s what JR and King say anyway. Bossman enters the arena but before he can say much, Hardcore and Crash Holly come out. Hardcore says that it takes a tough man to pick on a poor little animal, but let's see how tough he is against him in a hardcore match right now. It's a short physical match but mostly exists so that JR can explain the rules to the Kennel from Hell match at Unforgiven. Snow appears on the titantron and gives a demonstration of the dogs for Unforgiven attacking something. The distraction allows Crash to hit Bossman with a wrench and Hardcore to win the match. Bossman’s eye is swollen and bloody after the match.

• As Triple H and Chyna make their way through the back for their tag team match with the McMahons, Chyna is jumped by Jeff Jarrett! He doesn’t do much damage before he’s pulled off by security.

Smackdown! - September 23rd, 1999

Smackdown opens with Vince McMahon who introduces the man who claims he’s going to win the WWF title this Sunday at Unforgiven, Triple H. Now that Vince is back in full control, he is free to make matches and throw his weight around. He says the headache he had from the chairshot on Raw is nothing compared to the full blown migraine he’ll give him tonight. Vince is pretty awesome here and growls out a great promo. It’s weird seeing him abuse a superstar he’s feuding with and get cheered for doing it. He says that Triple H is going to face all five of his opponents at Unforgiven tonight one after another. 

He’ll face The Rock in a “Brahma Bull rope match”! He’ll face The Undertaker in a casket match! He’ll face Mankind in a boiler room brawl! He’ll face Kane in an Inferno match! He’ll face The Big Show in a “chokeslam challenge” match! All five of them tonight. Vince says that he doesn’t have to win all five matches to keep his spot at Unforgiven but he does have to win at least three out of the five. His first opponent tonight is The Big Show! Triple H is freaking out in a fury through all of this.

Triple H vs. The Big Show in a “chokeslam challenge” with the first man to hit a chokeslam on the other wins. Triple H has no chance here. The Big Show is angry and focused and throws The Game around with ease. The Big Show spikes Triple H with a massive chokeslam to win the match and then hits him with a second one for good measure. Chyna does save him from a third at least.

Kane enters first for his Inferno match with Triple H. If this was a normal match Kane would have won as he dominates and chokeslams Triple H. He gets distracted though as The Undertaker, Viscera and Mideon drag a beaten and bloody X-Pac out onto the stage. Kane climbs to the top rope and dives out onto Viscera and Mideon but is shoved into the flames, his glove catching fire. Kane no-sells the fact that he's on fire and goes to check on X-Pac, still burning! Kane is more concerned about X-Pac’s well-being and flips out backstage trying to tend to his partner.

Triple H’s next challenge is the casket match. It was supposed to be with The Undertaker but he’s now walked out - apparently of the WWF in general - so Vince replaces him with Mideon and Viscera and makes it a handicap casket match. With some help from Chyna, Triple H plants Mideon with a Pedigree and puts him in the casket, seemingly winning but then Shane comes out and says that to win, Triple H has to put both of them in the casket at the same time. 

Which is a hilarious farce because they won’t fit. They hammer Triple H down, Viscera kills him with a series of splashes and they roll his limp body into the casket to win the match. So Triple H has to win both his match with Mankind and with The Rock to keep his spot at Unforgiven. And we still don’t know who’ll now replace The Undertaker.

Backstage The British Bulldog is looking for Vince McMahon. Later in a segment Bulldog explains to Vince that he was promised a WWF title match when he returned. Vince agrees and puts him into the 6 pack challenge in The Undertaker’s place. He also agrees to let him be the special guest referee for the main event tonight which is The Rock and Triple H’s Brahma Bull rope match.

Triple H in his fourth match of the night faces Mankind in a boiler room brawl. Mankind is already waiting for him and the two go at it hard and heavy. It’s pretty brutal and Mankind takes a rough suplex onto the concrete and a pile of loose screws and bolts. Triple H tries to use a pipe as a weapon but Mick ducks and locks in the Mandible Claw. With Triple H passed out from the claw, Mankind climbs up high and takes aim with a big elbow drop but as he gets a run up, someone hits him with a weapon and he falls short, crashing through a table to the concrete. Triple H crawls out the door to win the match.

In the main event, with the Bulldog as the special referee, The Rock faces Triple H in a Brahma Bullrope match. It’s basically a strap match but with a big thick rope instead. Triple H must win this match to keep his spot in the 6 pack challenge at Unforgiven. This is basically wrestled as a falls count anywhere, no disqualification match and they fight out in the crowd. Back in the ring, Triple H gets in Bulldog’s face and gives him a couple of shoves but the referee isn’t backing down. With Chyna taken out again by Jeff Jarrett, The Rock plants Triple H with a Rock Bottom and sets up for the People’s Elbow but he’s suddenly clotheslined by the British Bulldog! He hits his running powerslam finisher and then Triple H hits the Pedigree and wins the match to remain in the 6 pack challenge and he and the Bulldog beat down The Rock two on one to close Smackdown.

A very unlikely reunion and new Tag Team Champions

The Rock and Mankind come out separately and cut a comedy promo about being in Dallas and making fun of Triple H. Roaddogg interrupts them, making his first appearance since Jericho injured his back five weeks ago. He says that the tag team titles mean a lot to him, and he’s here to challenge them. He says no one wants to see the boiler room brawl with Triple H, or the Brahma Bull rope match with Triple H - they want a tag team title match tonight! He brings out Mr. Ass and The New Age Outlaws are back together. This is very out of the blue! There is a referee in the ring and it seems that we have a WWF Tag Team title match right now. Cole and Hayes on commentary speculate about how The Outlaws have gotten back together and that there must be more to the story than it seems. The match itself is a standard tag team match with Roaddogg being isolated by the champions. After a hot tag to Mr. Ass and a little miscommunication between Mankind and The Rock, Billy pins Mankind with the Fameasser and The New Age Outlaws are the WWF Tag Team Champions for the fourth time!

A pair of big goodbyes

Backstage, The Undertaker brags about what he did to X-Pac with Show, Viscera and Mideon. The Undertaker is told that he has to stay and face Triple H in a casket match but he leaves anyway. Vince stops him and tells Taker he orders it and he has to do it. Undertaker refuses to do as he’s told. Vince tells Taker that if he doesn’t do the casket match then he’s removed from the 6 pack challenge! The Undertaker says it's fine with him and just walks out! So The Undertaker is gone, and there’s now a space in the 6 pack challenge. This is the last time we’ll see The Undertaker for about six months as he had been putting it off for a while and avoiding wrestling but he badly needed hip surgery and the pain finally caught up with him. 

Ken Shamrock takes on Chris Jericho in a First Blood match. Jericho comes out wearing a full set of hockey pads and a helmet, carrying a hockey stick. Hes the smartest man in wrestling. Shamrock beats up Jericho and tries to make him bleed but thanks to the pads and helmet he’s safe. Just as Ken gets Jericho’s mask off, Curtis Hughes attacks. Shamrock is too much for him but it does let Jericho get the hockey stick and use it as a weapon. Hughes holds Shamrock prone which allows Jericho to hit a splash from the top rope. Shamrock is bleeding from the mouth and so he loses. Chris Jericho defeats and apparently injures Ken Shamrock.

This would turn out to be Ken Shamrock’s last WWF appearance. He asked to be released from his contract so that he could return to the UFC. It was said that there were no hard feelings but he would never return. In 2020 he’d come out as “covid is a hoax” type so we’re probably better off without him, but I’ll talk a bit more about him at Unforgiven.

Other Happenings

• Michael Hayes joins Michael Cole on commentary this week instead of Jerry Lawler. I believe King was off doing “running for Mayor of Memphis” things. He obviously didn’t win - he came a distant third.
• The referees are still on strike and earlier today The Dudley Boyz attacked referee Teddy Long outside the arena which Michael Hayes explains was to send a message to Faarooq ahead of their tag team match at Unforgiven. Teddy and Faarooq have a long friendship (which is true, Teddy managed him in WCW)
• X-Pac takes on European Champion Mark Henry in his continuing battle in the land of the giants. Mark is supposed to defend the title against D’Lo Brown at Unforgiven and before the match starts, D’Lo comes on out. He joins commentary and is mostly nasty about Mark’s weight. I actually think he looks like he’s lost weight. X-Pac wins the match via countout so Mark keeps the European title. After the match D’Lo tries to attack Mark but gets run into the ring post instead. 
• Backstage Lillian Garcia interviews Luna who suggests that her Women’s title match at Unforgiven should be hardcore rules. Later in the show, Lillian interviews Ivory who talks about the importance of the women’s title which was nice, and calls Luna a wild animal accepting her challenge. 
• Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett comes out with Miss Kitty. He no longer has Debra after putting her in the figure four on Raw. He says hes a man’s man and he’s going to “bitch slap” Chyna at Unforgiven and put her in her place. A female ringside assistant tries to tell Jeff to wrap up his promo because we’re tight on time so he goes out and throws her into the ring and puts her in the figure four. Chyna runs down and knocks him out cold with a frying pan. She returns the favour from last week and puts him in an apron and gives him the frying pan. She also steals his trunks and puts them on - she wears the pants, y’see. This all gets a loud cheer, mostly from the women in the crowd. She would be such a popular babyface if she’d just ditch Triple H. Later in the show during the main event, Jeff would attack Chyna at ringside and knock her out with the frying pan again.

• Hardcore and Crash Holly come out. Hardcore says that on Raw he didn’t just do Al Snow’s dead dog a favour, he did him a favour too by blinding and beating The Bossman. He wants a favour in return and Snow comes out. As the two of them wrestle (I guess the favour was just for a match) The Bossman appears on the titantron and he’s taunting the dogs for the kennel from hell match in the back of a car. Why is Bossman abusing animals so much? Hardcore beats a distracted Snow with some help from Crash. Bossman runs down with a chain wrapped around his first and punches Snow out and makes him eat dog food.