Summerslam 1999 - Target Centre, Minneapolis Minnesota, August 22nd 1999

With six titles on the line, two gimmicked weapons matches and a main event with a chaotic build, it’s Summerslam 1999! Little bit of trivia to start us out - this PPV is taking place on Vince McMahon’s 54th birthday. 

The opening video package is all about special referees. Jesse “The Body” Ventura, the legit governor of Minnesota at the time, is the referee. Something which got him a lot of heat from the press and got the WWF a huge amount of media attention too. 

In a pair of short backstage skits, they waste no time in hyping both his appearance - he reads Triple H the riot act about how he will follow the rules - and someone else who isn’t wrestling tonight as newly debuted Chris Jericho has poor Howard Finkle carrying his bags and being his flunky in the parking lot. 

WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships

D’Lo Brown © © vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra)

Debra’s standard PPV attire is blue this month and is showing plenty of skin which means we can’t really hear a word JR says as King whistles at her like a dog. JJ and Debra have had issues for the past month as he’s started doing the old Marc Mero gimmick of being jealous of his beautiful blonde valet. She has basically cost him two matches lately including the one where he dropped the Intercontinental title to European Champion D’Lo Brown. 

Jeff actually sends Debra to the back which draws “asshole” chants so D’Lo brings her back out with him! 

D’Lo is on top of the world with his two championship belts and now Debra on his arm. I’ve mentioned a few times how much of a joy it’s been to see D’Lo improve as a wrestler and performer so it's with an odd sense of pride that I see my boy at the peak of his career here. The fans love him too, or maybe those cheers are for Debra.

The action is fast paced here and the two work quickly with the fans popping for D’Lo’s first couple of near falls. They are hot for this match and event.

Jeff takes control on the outside and starts to work on D’Lo’s arm sending him into the ring post shoulder-first, using a tornado armbreaker off the middle rope which looked good and then tying Brown’s arm up in the ropes with a hammer lock. The fans chant “we want puppies” because of course they do.

D’Lo rallies with an awesome looking running powerbomb and both men are down. 

D’Lo plants Jeff with the Sky High and takes aim with a Frog Splash but Jeff rolls clear and D’Lo instead lands hard off a front flipping senton! 

Debra gets on the apron as Jeff grabs his guitar. While they argue with the referee between them D’Lo’s best friend Mark Henry comes out and takes the guitar from Jeff and blasts D’Lo! 

This next match was set up earlier tonight on Heat and the winners will get a shot at the WWF Tag Team titles tomorrow night on Raw. There was a random drawing and Edge and Christian drew number one. The Hardys are now known as The New Brood and are officially aligned with Gangrel. They drew number two. It’s a gauntlet match basically. Michael Cole explained all of this while interviewing Edge and Christian before the match.

Tag Team Turmoil

The New Brood (Matt and Jeff Hardy w/Gangrel) vs. Edge and Christian vs. The Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarqooq) vs. The Holly Cousins (Hardcore and Crash Holly) vs. Mideon and Viscera vs. Droz and Prince Albert

Edge and Christian enter at number one and Matt and Jeff Hardy (with their new manager Gangrel) enter at number two. The action in this one starts fast two with Edge and Christian showing a bit more teamwork. Christian hits some nice moves like a spinning heel kick but then Gangrel gets in a cheap shot and that lets his new boys take over and hit some double team moves on Christian. They show a nice variety and the fans pop for each one as its stuff they’ve never seen before. Jeff plants Christian with a slam and then follows up with an awesome looking springboard into a moonsault which popped the crowd and the commentators. Then the move that would eventually become known as Poetry in Motion for a near fall. Matt lays out Christian with a snap suplex and Jeff follows with a beautiful Swanton bomb but Edge breaks up the cover. Christian counters a double suplex attempt into a double reverse DDT and gets the tag to Edge. Edge comes in hot and the fight goes to the outside. That leads to an amazing spot as Jeff runs along one barrier and Edge runs along the other until they meet in mid-air at the entrance way with a spear. Christian dives to the outside on Gangrel and then Matt Hardy follows with a moonsault. 

Edge helps Christian block a top rope hurricanrana and he follows with an elbow off the top rope to pin and eliminate Matt Hardy. That was an awesome little exchange between these two teams and you can literally see the fans liking them more and more in each appearance. Team Number three is Viscera and Mideon. This is a very different match as Mideon and Viscera use their size advantage to bully the smaller team but its over fast as they send Viscera to the outside with a double clothesline and Edge pins Mideon off a spear! The fans explode for the fall too. 

Droz and Prince Albert are team number four. They attack fast and isolate Edge, throwing him into the corner and bullying him. He avoids a corner charge by Albert but is quickly shut back down with an awesome looking torture rack into a spinning neckbreaker. Christian breaks up the pin and takes out Droz with a dive to the floor. Edge gets a nearfall when Christian chopblocks Albert and Edge uses the Downward Spiral to pin Albert! Edge and Christian have won three straight. Team number five is the former WWF Tag Team Champions The Acolytes. Faarooq fights with Christian on the outside and an exhausted Edge uses a dive off the top rope on Bradshaw but he’s too tired to follow up and takes a big powerbomb. 

The Acolytes isolate Edge and grind him down. The fans are so behind Edge and Christian now as they overcome these odds. Christian gets the hot tag and gets a near fall on Bradshaw with a tornado DDT.

They use a double team on Faarooq but Bradshaw clobbers Christian with a brutal Clothesline from Hell to finally eliminate them. What an awesome showing from Edge and Christian. Team number six, the cousins team of Hardcore and newly debuted Crash Holly, jumped the gun and came down way too early so they attack Bradshaw and Faarooq right away. The match has a flat finish after the awesome showing from Edge and Christian as The Acolytes pretty easily defeat The Hollys who are too busy fighting each other. The Acolytes will now get a tag team title shot tomorrow night on Raw.

This was a great match thanks entirely to Edge and Christian. This was their real coming out party as a team and they’ll only go from strength to strength from here. 

Ahead of the Hardcore title match, Roaddogg (dressed entirely in white, which looks really odd on him) comes out to the ring. He actually picked up pin fall victories over both The Big Bossman and Al Snow in the past couple of weeks on Raw. He strongly feels that he should have been added to this match but instead he challenges the winner to a title match tomorrow night. The Y2J clock appears on the titantron and after the countdown and light show Chris Jericho, who’s changed his theme song already and has his much more famous theme that he’d have forever now, appears standing at the top of the Lion’s Den cage (to give him some height so the fans can all see him). He says that Summerslam is “Summersham” and is even worse than Raw is Snore. He’s here to save the WWF and runs down all of the matches and talent. No one cares about Roaddogg, he says. In terms of his three appearances so far, this promo is better than The Undertaker and Big Show one but not as good as The Rock one. Roaddogg eventually fires back with some homophobia to end the segment.

Roaddogg then joins commentary for the Hardcore title match. Al Snow leaves Pepper the Chiwawa in a dog carrier backstage. Pepper has been there for Snow and helped him get over the loss of Head. 

WWF Hardcore Championship

The Big Bossman © vs. Al Snow

Al Snow comes out and climbs up one of the cranes at the side of the entrance ramp that makes up the display. He lays in wait and when Bossman comes out Snow dives off onto him and starts the match there! Roaddogg doesn’t want to stay at ringside and so he grabs a mic and follows them around providing live commentary. He picks up Bossman’s nightstick and carries it with him (which will be important later) and the two fight backstage and run each other into concrete and use weapons on each other. We all know the score for these Hardcore title matches by now.

Bossman picks up Pepper’s dog carrier and uses it as a weapon before throwing it away! Someone check on the dog! 

Bossman takes a man’s crutch off him and uses it as a weapon and then throws a gas canister at Snow which smashes a glass fridge, and then tries to tip the fridge onto him! The fight goes to the outside where it’s still nice and sunny. They brawl across the street and use a stop sign as a weapon before heading into a crowded bar!

They destroy quite a few plastic chairs and tables outside before they do inside - this match is getting expensive. 

They fight in the bar and use the yellow pages as a weapon while the local drunks cheer them on. Snow takes a moment to shake a fan’s hand and show a little affection for a pretty lady. They fight into the bathroom and Bossman shoves a urinal cake into Al’s mouth.

Snow smashes a beer bottle on Bossman’s head and then moonsaults off the bar through a table! 

As the two fight into the pool area, Bossman shoves Roaddogg and he responds by clubbing Bossman with his own nightstick which lets Al Snow pin him on a pool table and regain the Hardcore championship! 

Al sprints back to the arena to check on Pepper and finds Stevie Richards (making his first non-Heat appearance) and The Blue Meanie with the dog so he beats them both senseless with weapons and crutches. 

Al Snow is once again the Hardcore champion in a fun match which wasn’t as good as the one at Fully Loaded but I still enjoyed it.

Jesse Ventura speaks to Mankind and once again goes over the rules - he says that the pin fall needs to happen in the ring and they can fight all over the arena but he’s not going to count off things like chair shots or weapons. It needs to end with a wrestling move basically. They make a little political joke about bleeding heart liberals which is funny because that’s what Mick Foley is. 

WWF Women’s Championship

Ivory © vs. Tori

There’s been almost no build for this one on Raw as their only appearance and interaction was the night after Fully Loaded but two weeks ago on Heat Ivory attacked Tori and used a big marker pen to white “slut” across her stomach and “skank” across her back. Because Vince Russo booked it.

This match is, as JR would say, bowling-shoe ugly. The two pull each other's hair and hit sloppy slams as the fans chant “take it off”.

JR calls Tori’s spear “Edge-like” which King laughs off. Tori does almost have it won with a big backwards powerbomb-looking slam and then a crossbody off the middle rope but Ivory kicks out. 

The finish is one of the more famous botches of the era as Tori and Ivory mess up a sunset flip spot, then try to redo it and mess it up again so Ivory just sits down on Tori and then pins her to thankfully end this.

Ivory tries to tear Tori’s top off after the match and Luna runs down to save her and chases the WWF Women’s champion to the back. “What the hell is that?” says JR as Luna ran in which probably wasn’t supposed to be as mean as it sounded.

The Rock is interviewed by Michael Cole and implies that Cole fancies him and is a little homophobic as was the style at the time. He doesn’t say anything noteworthy. The fans will cheer for him during his match with Mr. Ass. Yeah, duh.

Meanwhile backstage Mr. Ass has a “mystery guest” under a sheet that he’s leading through the backstage.

Lion’s Den Weapons match

Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman

There’s a video package for this one which is narrated by King and JR just like the one at Fully Loaded was. It’s short but quite cool and I wonder why they didn’t use this format for video packages long-term? 

The two men are supposed to have to retrieve the weapons hung around the cage to use them but Blackman sneakily already has some nunchucks hidden in the back of his tights. Ken Shamrock debuts some nice new green ring gear for this match. He debuted his blue trunks at Summerslam last year so I guess Summerslam is when he does his yearly gear change.

Shamrock stops Blackman from using the nunchucks and takes control, running Blackman into the cage. That’s the story here - Ken is the most dangerous and proficient hand to hand fighter but Blackman is lethal with weapons (hence “The Lethal Weapon”). Shamrock goes to get a kendo stick but Blackman blocks it and takes control from there. As soon as the weapons got involved Steve was able to take control. 

Blackman uses his sticks (which neither JR or King know what to call) but Shamrock gets back into it as he keeps trying to climb for another weapon and getting shut down by Shamrock. 

He does eventually get a kendo stick and wears on Kenny with body blows and then a big knockout shot to the head. Shamrock is out. They’ve never been too clear on how someone wins this type of match but Blackman seems to have won? The referee won’t open the door for him but it’s not explained why. Shamrock gets up and hits a belly-to-belly suplex and hammers him with the kendo stick with multiple body shots and then a stiff shot to the top of the head. Blackman staggers up and takes a second brutal shot to the head. I think the referee is counting so it seems to be last man standing rules? The bell rings as Shamrock climbs and celebrates on top so I’m still not sure how the winner was decided but Shamrock has won.

This wasn’t as good as the Lion’s Den match with Owen Hart last year, but the real story is that this is Ken Shamrock’s last WWF PPV appearance. He’ll leave the WWF to return to MMA in a couple of weeks and never return. He’s been such an important part of these shows since the very beginning of my journey so that feels like a big loss to me.

“Love her or Leave her” Street Fight

Test vs. Shane McMahon

Test has his ribs taped up (on top of his ring gear which doesn’t make any sense but I guess they need to make sure we can see it) because Shane attacked him with a kendo stick earlier tonight on Heat. Shane has his usual custom PPV ring gear. “I passed the Test”. Shane is alone and hilariously acts surprised when the Mean Street Posse’s music plays. Rodney (arm cast and sling), Pete Gas (neck brace) and Joey Abs (walking cast) enter in Hawaiian shirts with their various injuries. Shane had a sofa set up for them in the front row but apparently didn’t know they were coming. Good stuff. Test took them all out one by one during the build up to this match. 

Test attacks early and Shane is no match for him. He’s easily thrown in and out of the ring and runs into the ring steps but Shane does avoid a big kick to the head that might have killed him. 

You can tell Test is a babyface because his long hair is so blonde and fluffy. When he starts wetting it then you know he’s gone heel, same as Triple H did.

They fight into the crowd and then Test body slams Shane on the ringside mats on the way back in. Test gets in the Posse’s faces and shoves them all down before gorilla pressing Shane into all three of them which sends the sofa tipping over backwards! Great spot. Test uses a steel sheet to knock down all three of them but with it being four on one now he’s swarmed and body slammed on the concrete before being dumped back to ringside for Shane to take control. They even hand him weapons as he blasts Test with a metal mailbox and a stop sign. Shane has a nice framed picture of himself and the Posse and smashes it over Test’s head (with the glass facing the wrong way so it sprays everywhere) and seems to have the match won but Test kicks out! 

There’s multiple shots of Stephanie McMahon watching backstage and JR keeps hammering home how strongly Test must feel for her to endure all of this. 

Shane hits a nice back elbow but then misses a corkscrew moonsault off the top rope and lands hard on his legs.  

Test counters a leapfrog into a powerbomb but thanks to Rodney distracting the referee Shane has time to kick out. 

Shane ducks an attempted running big boot and the referee goes down. The three injured Posse members attack Test at ringside and beat him down with stop signs and weapons, stripping the Spanish announce table and laying Test out on it. This is the first appearance of what would become Shane McMahon’s signature spot as he climbs to the top rope and dives off in an amazing elbow drop to drive Test through the table. It looked amazing and both men are now down and out on the outside with no referee. JR says the word “suicide” about 96 times during this move and the replays of it too. 

The Posse get Shane and Test back into the ring and Shane covers with a weak arm across the chest. The fans start to boo thinking this is the finish but pop huge when Test kicks out. 

Rodney distracts the referee and Pete Gas tries to hit Test with a stop sign but knocks out Shane instead for a close nearfall! Rodney then uses his cast to knock out Test and pulls Shane into the cover for ANOTHER nearfall. The excitement is being cranked up here. 

The fans explode as Pat Patterson and Gerry Brisco return to attack the Mean Street Posse! The Stooges have returned! 

With the Posse taken out Test plants Shane with the pumphandle slam and then finishes with the best looking top rope elbow drop he’s ever done to finally win this street fight. Test has won him and Stephanie’s freedom and Shane has to leave them alone!

This was an awesome match and the fans were so into it as this whole storyline. The fans loudly cheer for Stephanie and Test embracing after the match too! Everyone is so invested and it's amazing stuff. 

WWF Tag Team Championships

X-Pac and Kane © vs. The Unholy Alliance (The Undertaker and The Big Show w/Paul Bearer)

Kane debuts some new ring gear here with the black and red of his custom pallet swapped. It looks very cool. With that, the new mash up theme music and them looking more united than ever in a pre-match interview with Michael Cole, this is the best tag team in the world. This whole storyline has been running since before King of the Ring in one form or another and has been my favourite thing on Raw. The fans have taken to it too and this idea of X-Pac making Kane more human, helping him find his heart, has moved everyone. 

The Undertaker and The Big Show are an awesome intimidating sight too and there is a legit big fight feel for this match. This is the highest profile the tag team titles have felt since the summer of 1998 which ironically also included The Undertaker and Kane. 

The match is pretty much what you’d expect given the sizes of the men involved but Kane goes it alone in the ring and stands up to Big Show and Undertaker. There’s a cool spot early on as The Undertaker tries to chokeslam X-Pac on the outside and Kane in the ring lifts X-Pac out of his brother's arms to save him.

The Big Show and The Undertaker do work Kane over for a bit and he’s reluctant to tag in X-Pac and put his smaller partner in danger but after a double clothesline with The Undertaker he has to make the tag. 

X-Pac shows no fear despite the size difference and actually does pretty well with a big spinning heel kick on The Undertaker. He lights him up with kicks until Big Show pulls him down by his hair and it's now X-Pac’s turn to be worked over. 

The Big Show gorilla presses X-Pac on the outside, dropping him across the ring barrier. Kane goes to save him but Big Show then gorilla presses him until the ring through the ropes. The challengers basically play keep-away with X-Pac and throw him to each other for a beat down every time Kane goes to make the save.

They use a pair of low blows - the first one driving him into the ringpost crotch first and the second a big headbutt down low - and X-Pac is in a bad way. 

The Big Show shuts down an attempted comeback with a bearhug and grinds him down. The action itself is pretty slow and basic but the fans are so into this match and the story is so well defined that it’s enjoyable.

Kane breaks up the pin off a monstrous slam. The Big Show gets X-Pac up for the Show Stopper but Kane stops it and X-Pac uses a low blow and tags in Kane. The low blow has been a lot of X-Pac’s offence in this match.

Kane is on fire (pun intended) and builds some momentum on The Undertaker and The Big Show. X-Pac sends Taker to the outside and drives him into the ring post. X-Pac tags himself in so that he can give The Big Show the Bronco Buster but with The Undertaker taking out Kane it lets The Big Show splat X-Pac with the Show Stopper. He covers arrogantly with one foot on the chest and X-Pac kicks out! The Undertaker is furious and tags in, shoving his partner out of the way. He drives X-Pac with a Tombstone and that’s enough to end it. 

The Undertaker and The Big Show win a storydriven match I enjoyed to become the Tag Team Champions. Despite the victory, The Undertaker seems angry at Big Show for now showing more of a killer instinct on that last cover. 

Jesse Ventua completes the set of patronising dressing downs of the men in the main event tonight as he reminds WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin that the match has to end in the middle of the ring. I get what they were going for though. He is “the law and order” tonight. I bet law and order was a big part of his political campaign.

“Kiss my ass” match

The Rock vs. Mr. Ass

Mr. Ass brings out his mystery person under a black sheet for this “kiss my ass” match where the loser must kiss the winner’s ass. The build for this has been pretty awful in my opinion as Mr. Ass has acted more like a goofy midcarder than a main eventer in the making since winning the King of the Ring - something they’ve barely mentioned. He’s used juvenile comedy and ass talk and The Rock has responded in kind. The person under the sheet was an overweight woman and The Rock will apparently have to kiss her ass when he loses. Hilarious.

The Rock is thankfully still super popular and has the gravitas of a main eventer. This feud was supposed to lift Billy Gunn but has instead dragged down The Rock. 

They waste no time fighting to the outside as The Rock dominates Mr. Ass. He fights him to the outside and leads him up to the ramp to throw him into security walls and slap him around on the concrete. Mr. Ass counters an irish whip into the steel and then follows with a clothesline and I heard The Rock’s back splat on the flat concrete floor. The Rock returns the favour with the same spot but sending Billy into the Lion’s Den cage. 

Back at ringside The Rock is sent hard into the ring steps and King has talked about literally nothing else but the size of the woman at ringside’s ass. 

The Rock puts Jerry Lawler’s crown on Mr. Ass and punches him before passing it back to King. As they fight around the announce desk area Billy Gunn uses the ringbell as a weapon and sends The Rock flying which goes undetected by the referee. 

He gets a nearfall in the ring and then chokes The Rock on the middle rope.

As Mr. Ass works over The Rock in the ring JR joins in on fat-shaming and bullying this poor woman. It’s easy to say that I’m just being sensitive now as an adult in the 2020s but I didn’t think this was funny at the time either. I think that really is the sign that my dislike for this feud isn’t just because I’m a jaded adult - I didn’t care about this match as a 10 year old either and neither did anyone else which is why this match (spoilers) marks the end of Mr. Ass’s main event push. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Billy hits the Fameasser and calls the woman into the ring and positions her in the corner. She lifts her skirt and King loses his mind. The Rock counters, shoves Billy’s face into her ass and then plants him with a Rock Bottom and finishes with a People’s Elbow to end this match. At least the right person won.

This was a dull match that I wouldn’t have enjoyed even if I didn’t also hate the storyline around it. 

WWF Championship

Stone Cold Steve Austin © vs. Triple H w/Chyna vs. Mankind

Special guest referee: Jesse “The Body” Ventura

The video package for this one focuses on the battles for the number one contendership, and is mostly about Triple H, Chyna and Mankind. It sums it all up way better than I could, and it's amazing that as much happened - that's all in a single episode of Raw.

Jesse Ventura comes out first and addresses the fury from the press about his being there. That is true. It was seen as beneath him or trashy to be a part of a wrestling show given his political position. There was a lot of fear right up to the day of the show that he’d back out but on the day he got there and was happy to be a part of it and told all three men in the match that he was game to do whatever they wanted to do.

I hinted at this during the preview article but there was a lot going on backstage in the lead up to this one that maybe explains the disjointed build and all the back and forth about who would even be in the match. We’ll start with the rumour and gossip first - Stone Cold didn’t want to put over Triple H, partly for petty personal reasons related to the way the kliq treated him when he was younger. That was never backed up but does, to be fair, seem to be confirmed by the booking of the finish tonight and Raw tomorrow. For those unaware, “the kliq” was the name given to Triple H’s real life best buddies Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman (X-Pac) where they used their friendship with Vince McMahon and “clout” in the company to hold back the people they didn’t like and make sure they were all promoted to the top of the show. Stone Cold isn’t the only person to have reportedly had major personal issues with those men. 

What isn’t a rumour is Austin’s physical condition. He was a wreck and the countdown to his taking a long, long period off to get his neck surgery was well and truly on. He was in a lot of pain and struggling with numbness and mobility issues. Neither he nor the WWF wanted him to take the time off and so there was all this jostling to keep him off Raw, and to add another person into this match to make it easier on him. There was talk of having him drop the title and not be in this match at all at one point. 

All of that plus the drama around Jesse’s involvement made this a scary one backstage for the company I’m sure.

All three men get the walk backstage with dramatic build up music and this one has a major, big fight feel. The match starts the second Austin hits the ring as he goes right at Triple H and he and Mankind work as a team briefly before Austin wipes him out with a clothesline too. The three trade the advantage in the ring, and Jesse gets involved for the first time when after Chyna pulls Mankind into the ring post he ejects her and sends her to the back! 

Mankind and Triple H unite for a couple of moments to double team Austinwhich gets boos but Mankind just wants to be WWF Champion! It doesn’t last long as they come to blows after Triple H breaks up a pin attempt. 

Triple H has landed multiple shots to Austin’s knee with a steel chair which allows him to lay out and let the other two wrestle and as Mankind tries to dive off the apron on Triple H he misses and splats to the mats. 

Triple H works on Austin’s legs which is smart as it keeps the pressure off his neck and gives him an excuse to stay down but Austin to his credit doesn’t really take it and stays involved, brawling out into the crowd. 

Mankind takes a backdrop on the concrete and Austin throws Triple H back to ringside but gets run into the ring steps. 

Back in the ring Austin counters a Pedigree attempt into a slingshot which sends Triple H to the outside and then hits a Stunner on Mankind. He has the match won until Triple H uses a chair to break up the three count. He flattens Mankind with a brutal chairshot but Jesse refuses to count! He said that no one is winning with a weapon! 

Shane McMahon runs out to question it and gets in Ventura’s face until Stone Cold drops him with a stunner. Jesse picks up Shane and throws him out of the ring and there’s a nice moment between Stone Cold and The Body which I’m sure was for the press. 

There’s another famous botch here and the cameras work hard not to show it as Austin leans over the ropes and gets badly tangled up in the ropes until Triple H comes to save him. Both men have told this story and laughed about it plenty of times since but I bet it wasn’t funny at the time. The video above is Stone Cold talking about it on his Podcast! 

Triple H and Austin go down from a double clothesline and Mankind locks a double Mandible Claw on both men! Triple H goes for a Pedigree but Austin takes him out with a clothesline and all three men are down!

Austin hits a Stunner on Triple H and has it won but Mankind breaks up the three count! 

Triple H hits the Pedigree on Austin and has it won but Mankind is there to knock Triple H out of the way. He quickly follows up with a double arm DDT on Austin and covers to shockingly win the WWF title!

Mankind has pinned Stone Cold and become a three time WWF Champion and it's so nice that after Michael Cole called the first two victories we got to hear Jim Ross scream and mark out for his good friend Foley! A shock finish which kind of took all the air out of the crowd - I don’t think anyone saw this coming. 

Mankind and Jesse Ventura leave very quickly, hustling up the ramp and in the ring Triple H grabs a steel chair and launches a brutal, vicious attack on the now former WWF Champion. He wears out Austin’s legs with chairshot after chairshot as Chyna returns to keep the referees at bay. Triple H is trying to break Austin’’s leg and as this is the excuse for Stone Cold to be off TV for a bit, it’s very believable. Triple H brutalised his legs with that chair.