Survivor Series 1999 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit MIchigan, November 14th, 1999

I’m not sure whether to info-dump at the start of the show or let it unfold but let's get it out of the way - Stone Cold Steve Austin does not wrestle on this PPV, and the WWF knew that at least a week ago. Steve has been ignoring neck pain for a long time now and as the pain has increased and he’s started to experience numbness and loss of feeling in his arms and legs, he could ignore it no more. He needed major surgery and would be taking a long, long time off. On a personal level, it must have killed him - Stone Cold loved his job more than is healthy, and walking away when he and the company were at their peak must have broken his heart. He’s about to miss the company’s hottest year ever. For the WWF it must have been scary too - will they continue to grow and explode without their biggest star? Spoiler - yes.

But still. They didn’t know that. 

I mentioned at the end of the Preview article that this event came second in The Wrestling Observer’s year end awards for “most disgusting promotional tactic” in 1999. What did they do? Well, they knew the Texas Rattlesnake wouldn’t be able to wrestle but chose to withhold that information. They sold this PPV on Stone Cold being in the main event even though they knew it wouldn’t happen. That is pretty shocking, to be fair. It upset a lot of people at the time.

ANYWAY, onto the show. The 13th annual Survivor Series! Annoyingly on the WWE Network version of the event it goes RIGHT into a video package before the WWE signature even plays which made it a pain for me to capture. It’s actually not great anyway, you aren’t missing much.

The video focuses on Survivor Series’ history as the most controversial PPV in WWF history and how the triple threat main event with Vince McMahon as referee seems set up for something dramatic to take place. Twists and turns all over the place.

At the top of the show, JR’s excitement for the show is about the ten great matches and three titles on the line. King’s excitement is about the puppies, kittens and hoes. “Puppies and Kittens and Hoes, oh my”. I hate Jerry Lawler.

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

D’Lo Brown, The Godfather and The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) vs. The Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq) and The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley)

The Godfather is all in white, with an entourage of five hoes. His promos have shifted fully to the “I love weed” era. D’Lo Brown and both Headbangers come out to The Godfather’s music and are all dressed as The Godfather. It really suits D’Lo honestly. Mosh and Thrasher both have huge afro wigs, which is cultural appropriation but it’s fine because Godfather and D’Lo both love it.

The Dudleyz want hoes, and the Godfather says “n-n-n-no”. Bubba Ray drops the stuttering gimmick soon. It’s weird that they’re teaming with The Acolytes as they were enemies quite recently, and Bradshaw and Faarooq have been half-face-turning lately. They’re really leaned into the bar-loving, beer drinking character they’d become best known for.

There are three members of The Nation of Domination in this match which isn’t mentioned. That feels like a lifetime ago now. The action is fast paced and Thrasher is the first man eliminated with a Clothesline from Hell from Bradshaw. Mosh goes out second after a 3D from Bubba Ray and D-Von. For those unaware, the 3D is a double team move where D-Von lifts the opponent and Bubba runs in and jumps up, catching their head and driving them down with a cutter. It’s a great looking double team move. Bradshaw gets himself disqualified and eliminated third with a brutal chairshot to D’Lo,and then his own partner in Bubba Ray.

Faarooq and D-Von then start fighting each other and get double counted out to be eliminated fourth and fifth. That leaves Bubba Ray Dudley all alone with D’Lo and The Godfather. He puts up a good fight and kicks out of a couple of big moves from D’Lo before countering a top rope hurricanrana into a powerbomb off the top rope which looks awesome and gets a near fall. D’Lo gets the hot tag to The Godfather but Bubba has no one to tag and is quickly finished off by the Hoe Train and then a Frog Splash. D’Lo pins Bubba Ray to eliminate him and the winners and survivors are The Godfather and D’Lo Brown, who dance and celebrate with the hoes. Referee Tim White also gets involved as he always does. Every time they do this “the hoes dance with the referee” spot, it's ALWAYS Tim White.

Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Stasiak

Kurt Angle! Preaching his three Is. Integrity. Intensity. Intelligence.

For those unaware, Kurt Angle’s Olympic Gold Medal in freestyle wrestling is absolutely, 100% legitimate.

“The most celebrated real athlete in WWF history” is praised by Jim Ross for his legitimate, incredible sports background. He is criticised and ripped on by Jerry Lawler for the “real” athlete part. They haven’t decided on his presentation yet and he gets near silence from the live crowd. Little do these people know that he will become one of the WWF’s biggest stars.

He has his proper theme song here, and they show a video package for Shawn Staziak’s father Stan, who was WWWF champion back in the 70s. 

The match starts with some fast paced technical wrestling and the fans chant “boring” as Jim Ross calls this a different style than we’re used to seeing.

Kurt moves lightning fast, and his moves are so crisp and polished already. He is a natural. The story is simple as Angle uses wrestling slams and throws and is superior to Staziak in that way, so he resorts to striking and kicks to take control using the WWF style. Kurt rallies and takes a moment to get out of the ring and grab a mic;

“You do NOT boo an Olympic gold medalist, you must show me some respect!”

As it happens, this is Shawn Staziak’s PPV debut too. He misses a top rope crossbody and Angle follows up with a high-angle suplex which would become known as the Olympic Slam, but then renamed the Angle Slam when the Olympics committee threatened legal action (yes, really). Kurt wins his debut match which was short but very technically proficient.

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

WWF European Champion The British Bulldog and The Mean Street Posse (Rodney, Pete Gas and Joey Abs) vs. Gangrel, Steve Blackman, Mark Henry and Val Venis

Val Venis enters first. This match is weird as none of these eight men were involved with each other, and are all heels. Val and Mark would be a good tag team - the porn star and the sex addict - but Val is still in the midst of his “main event push” and never ending feud with Mankind. When European Champion Bulldog comes out, he’s carrying the belt loosely at his side with the face plate turned away from the camera. That really annoyed me - I love that title belt. 

Bulldog opens up with Val Venis. He’s switched to new ring gear and instead of his usual pink trunks with a silver V, it’s black trunks with a pink V. Pete Gas and Rodney only started training to be wrestlers after Wrestlemania 15 and this is the first time they’ve actually been in a ring, doing moves. Pete Gas is the better of the two, but is first eliminated by a martial arts kick from Steve Blackman. Rodney is eliminated quickly after with a big DDT from Gangrel. JR is pretty offensive, saying that King needs to say “Sexual Chocolate” with more of an “ethnic slant”. Jesus Christ Jim, no he doesn’t. Joey Abs goes out next with a big splash from Mark Henry which leaves the European champion all alone against four opponents. Bulldog holds his own and eliminates Gangrel with a superplex, and then Steve Blackman with a fisherman suplex. Bulldog’s main event run ended with his loss to The Rock at No Mercy, and he hasn’t cut a promo since, but they haven’t given up on him and put the European title on him and gave him an entourage. He looks really strong here and fights off Val and Mark Henry single handedly for a while but the fans are SILENT watching all these midcard heels fight. No one cares who wins out of all these bad guys. After a couple of minutes, Henry knocks Bulldog down and splashes him, and then Val follows with the Money Shot to eliminate him. Val Venis and Mark Henry are the winners and survivors. 

Backstage, Michael Cole tries to get an interview with the WWF Women’s Champion Ivory and in a very out of character moment, she drags him into the women’s locker room where she, Jacqueline, Luna and Terri Runnels are all best friends and tease and flirt with him before he runs off. Remember last month when Luna and Ivory tried to kill each other in a Hardcore match? 

Eight Woman Tag Team Match

WWF Women’s Champion Ivory, Jacqueline, Luna and Terri Runnels vs. Tori, Debra, Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young

The babyface team seems vastly undermatched here as it’s two 70+ year olds and a non-wrestler teaming with Tori. JR and King talk a lot about Tori’s relationship with Kane, which was casually revealed in a backstage segment a couple of weeks ago. Tori is “romantically linked” with Kane but we’ll talk about that in the next match.

King loses his mind for Debra - first time we’ve seen her since No Mercy. I feel dirty just listening to him. 

This match isn’t elimination rules because there’s so many old women and non-wrestlers in it. Mae Young, Moolah, Terri and Debra can’t be expected to bump and be pinned, or to pin anyone else. This is as good a place as any to share this story since it won’t come up during this run of the Attitude era - in late 2001 when WCW was being folded into the WWF roster, Terri was asked if she would train to be a wrestler as they wanted some experienced women and known faces to make up the numbers in the women's division with all the new faces. She was even promised a run as women’s champion. She refused and was released shortly after as she was useless if she wouldn’t wrestle. Anyway, this is her first ever official match, as far as I’m aware. 

Mae Young attacks Ivory before the match but when the bell rings, unsurprisingly, its Tori who does most of the wrestling for her team. Moolah does mix it up with Ivory and she and Mae hit a double clothesline which looked terrible and gets the only cheer of the match. 

Moolah pins Ivory to win the match officially, and then Debra pulls off Terri’s top after the bell.

Officially the team of Tori, Moolah, Mae Young and Debra won but this match was maybe three minutes from bell to bell so it hardly matters.

Moolah does celebrate with the women’s title belt afterwards too, but that’s not hers. Ivory goes out and fights with her to try and get it back.

Lillian Garcia interviews X-Pac. He makes fun of her, and says he has nothing to prove since he carried Kane for months and then pinned him at No Mercy. This isn’t a good promo as he trips over his words and calls Kane sexually frustrated and impotent. I hope Kane beats him silly in both storyline and real life.

Kane vs. X-Pac

X-Pac enters first and then jumps his former tag team championship partner while he’s doing his pyro during his entrance. X-Pac strikes hard and fast but Kane shrugs off his spinning heel kicks and throws the smaller man around the ring.

King insinuates that Kane’s relationship with Tori is what broke this team up, rather than X-Pac turning heel, joining DX and then beating Kane down four on one. There’s a ton of “Kane has a small and/or burned penis” jokes from King during this too. He talks relentlessly about sexual frustration honestly.

After a short match, Kane plants X-Pac with a chokeslam and covers but it's awkward as he obviously tries to make sure his feet are near the ropes. Sure enough, Roaddogg runs down and pulls Kane off the cover. The distraction let's X-Pac hit an X-Factor but Kane kicks out! 

X-Pac jumps off the top rope and Kane catches him and turns it into a Tombstone piledriver but before he can hit the move, Triple H turns in and hits him in the face with the WWF title belt.

As DX beat down Kane three on one (Mr. Ass is missing) Tori runs down to check on her man and X-Pac blasts her with a spinning heel kick (which gets a strong reaction from the live crowd). DX bail out of the ring and Kane rushes to check on his girlfriend as medical personnel run down to check on her and wake her up. On the replay, X-Pac looked shocked to learn that it was Tori he kicked - it seemed to be an accident. 

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock but before he can say anything, he’s jumped by Triple H who seems to be luring The Rock outside. The People’s Champion doesn’t take the bait.

One on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

The Big Show vs. WWF Hardcore Champion The Big Bossman, Prince Albert, Mideon and Viscera

Earlier tonight on Sunday Night Heat, The Big Show attacked his three partners. He didn’t want any and was assigned The Blue Meanie and Kaientai but Show demolished all three of them in the locker room.

Prince Albert enters first (with his piercing kit - haven’t seen that for a while) followed by Mideon and Viscera and finally Hardcore Champion The Big Bossman. Viscera had updated his theme music but he’s back to using the same one as Mideon he’s had for months. Bossman is wearing a black armband for Big Show’s father. Can someone sarcastically wear an armband? Apparently. 

The Big Show rushes the ring and attacks. He chokeslams and pins Mideon in seconds. The Albert seconds later. To everyone’s shock he bodyslams and then chokeslams the enormous 500lbs Viscera and pins him too! It’s one on one with Show and Bossman, but Bossman who has been watching on the apron just hops down and leaves. He wants no part of The Big Show and loses via countout. The Big Show has single handedly eliminated the entire opposing team - the only man in WWF history to do it, which is a record that stands to this day - and chases off after Bossman. 

Kevin Kelly interviews Stone Cold Steve Austin and just like earlier with The Rock, he’s jumped by Triple H who attempts to lure Austin outside. Stone Cold is too angry and takes the bait, rushing outside.

Out in the parking lot, Stone Cold Steve Austin paces and tries to find Triple until he is suddenly - and there’s no other way to put it - run over by a car. It looked really good and believable, and he’s mowed down. My describing it was always going to struggle to capture the gravity of the situation so here’s the whole segment. It’s a nice touch that the video is 3 minutes and 16 seconds long. 

There’s a fair bit of time filling here as it's treated like a real and serious incident. Vince McMahon and an ambulance are on the scene. While the McMahon’s check on the Rattlesnake who isn’t moving, DX shows up to ask what happened and deny any involvement. Vince angrily goes after Triple H. Jim Ross leaves the commentary position to go backstage and check too. 

It’s all very upsetting and feels way too real. Well until Vince and Shane start screaming at DX - that’s all very storyline. 

This is how Stone Cold Steve Austin, the biggest star in the history of the sport, is written off of TV for the next 10 months. He had serious neck surgery, which he has needed for months at this point and takes the better part of a year to recover. This PPV is very much the pivot point where the Attitude era switches gears for the new millennium. The first half of the Attitude era was so heavily reliant on Austin’s antics and now, those are over. To the fans watching live, it must have seemed like another obstacle for the Rattlesnake to overcome and it would take a few weeks for people to register that he wouldn’t be back any time soon. Fortunately for the WWF, The Rock is there to carry the burden as the new top babyface and box office draw. 

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Chyna © (w/Miss Kitty) vs. Chris Jericho

The mood for us at home and on commentary is a sombre one, worried about Stone Cold. It didn’t come across as that serious in the arena apparently as the crowd mugs behind King and tries to get TV time. Chris Jericho gets a decent reaction too. 

Chyna finally has the proper version of her solo theme song to debut here. I mentioned it in the Preview article but the Intercontinental title belt has finally been updated. From the night after Wrestlemania 14 up until No Mercy last month, it was the new design but with the old blocky WWF logo. It now has the scratch attitude WWF logo and looks much nicer and polished too. The European title belt was similarly updated after No Mercy but as of the past Smackdown, the tag title belts still have the old block logo. Maybe no one else finds this interesting but I do! 

The match starts aggressively out on the floor - Jericho smashed a glass bottle on Chyna’s head on Smackdown - but Y2J is stronger and chokes her with an electrical cord on the floor outside the ring.

This is a good point to talk about - in Y2J’s autobiography he spoke VERY negatively about his experiences working with Chyna. She didn’t like him and neither did Triple H, her real life boyfriend at the time. She wasn’t a great wrestler but thought she was and so wouldn’t take his lead and or advice and acted very arrogantly towards him. He was struggling to make friends backstage but fortunately for him, on TV the fans were getting louder and louder for him which protected his push and kept him on TV and being protected.

Miss Kitty is wearing so little clothing at ringside that from some angles she looks naked. 

Chyna comes back with a hurricanarana and mounted punches but Jericho works really viciously and takes her back to ringside, slamming her into the announce desk and into the timekeeper area. He gives her a missile dropkick in the ring but she kicks out. 

While arguing with Miss Kitty and beating up Chyna outside, Y2J forces a kiss on Kitty. She jumps on his back which is enough distraction for Chyna to come back with a spear and get some offence in on the challenger.

Chyna hits the handspring elbow in the corner and a nice DDT for a nearfall. There’s a big cheer when Y2J kicks out and the fans have well and truly shifted. They can’t “Jericho” and boo Chyna’s moves. There’s a huge cheer when he hits her with the Intercontinental title belt behind the referee’s back, and what could generously be called a mixed reaction when she kicks out. I think Jericho’s anti-woman rhetoric has made all the men turn on Chyna.

She hits a Pedigree and there's a huge cheer from the men in the crowd when Y2J kicks out. He counters a hurricanrana attempt into the Walls of Jericho (which does now finally have its name) but the champion crawls and gets to the ropes to break the hold.

He puts her up on the top rope and sets up a superplex attempt but Miss Kitty shoves at his ankle and distracts the referee. Chyna uses that to hit a low blow and then follows up with (kind of) a Pedigree off the top rope to pin Jericho and retain her title in what ended up being a really good match! 

In the McMahon locker room, Triple H goes in to find Vince. He is angrily accosted by Shane McMahon who accuses DX of being behind the hit and run. Triple H’s concern falls apart quickly as he's more interested in what this means for the main event. Vince would seem to no longer be the referee either as he’s gone to the hospital. He gives a half-assed apology to Stephanie and Test as he leaves the room too. He’s more interested in his own title reign than Stone Cold’s health.

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

Edge, Christian and The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) vs. The Holly Cousins (Hardcore and Crash Holly) and Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmaster Sexay)

Terri Runnels has been Matt and Jeff’s manager for a month now and she adds, to be generous, nothing to their presentation. They are at an all time high thanks to the tag team ladder match and their performances there. Edge and Christian too. This is the last four on four match of the night and should be the best one. Edge and Scotty start off with some quick exchanges and Scotty is really good. This is basically seven talented, fast paced light heavyweight workers…and Hardcore Holly. 

Jim Ross is really harsh about Too Cool on commentary, and continues his relentless berating of Brian Christopher and jokes about how he is actually Jerry Lawler’s son. He is, but both he and King continue to deny it on TV for comedic effect. It doesn’t stop King from being his biggest fan. Edge is the first man eliminated after some miscommunication between himself and Matt Hardy. That’s a shock - Edge is probably the most pushed man on his team. Scotty 2 Hotty eliminates Matt Hardy moments later so it's now two vs. four. Terri Runnels distracts the referee and that lets Christian hit a low blow on Scotty and Jeff to hit a 450 splash to eliminate Scotty 2 Hotty. Christian and Jeff Hardy work really well together as a team but Hardcore Holly counters an attempted Poetry in Motion with a missile dropkick to Jeff Hardy in midair! That looked amazing and eliminated Jeff Hardy. Christian eliminates Grandmaster Sexay with a reverse DDT and that leaves Christian two on one against the former tag team champions, The Holly Cousins. 

They brutalise Christian with some really aggressive double teaming punches and kicks. As this match goes on, King constantly being on JR’s case about Stone Cold’s being run over earlier starts to get really annoying. Christian weathers the storm and eliminates Crash Holly with an Unprettier. He and Hardcore Holly trade moves but Holly counters an attempted victory roll with a cradle of his own to pin Christian. Hardcore Holly is the winner and sole survivor of the match. This was a good match but ruined by King and JR’s commentary.

Backstage, Shane McMahon along with Stephanie and Test gives us an update on Stone Cold. He is conscious but has suffered extreme head, neck and back trauma. JR asks if tonight’s main event will now be a one on one match but Shane says no - it will still be a triple threat match, but it will not include Stone Cold Steve Austin.

WWF Tag Team Championships

The New Age Outlaws © (Roaddogg and Mr. Ass) vs. Mankind and Al Snow

When The New Age Outlaws come out, King and JR argue again about who might have been driving the car that hit Stone Cold. It hasn’t been mentioned yet but it should be noted that Billy Gunn wasn’t there with the rest of DX earlier. He’s also wearing plain black shorts, and doesn’t have his WWF Tag Team title belt with him. That all looks super suspicious but in truth, Mr. Ass was just delayed in getting to the arena due to some travel issues. 

King does bring it up and point it out so his travel woes on the day end up feeding nicely into the storyline.

Al Snow has Head with him again - Mankind gifted it to him on Smackdown. Before the match begins, Mankind sends his love and well wishes to Stone Cold Steve Austin. 

Snow has had a tough couple of weeks, and I talked about it during the Preview too. His action figure was pulled from shelves amid an uproar by women’s rights groups and parents as it was claimed it came with a severed human head, and promoted domestic violence against women. There was even a spoof on Saturday Night Live about it.

It was Head. You know, the mannequin head he’s carried with him every week for the better part of a year. 

Mankind and Al Snow isolate and work over Roaddogg which is the standard New Age Outlaw match formula but it doesn’t work as well with them being the heels now. 

The match is pretty uneventful, and Mr. Ass gets a Fameasser on Mankind but he’s able to kick out.

A skirmish on the outside sees Roaddogg send Snow into the ring steps and then they follow up with a Spike Piledriver on Mankind to retain the tag team championships in a pretty dull match. I’m shocked The Outlaws retained so cleanly.

After more bickering between Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross where King seems to be intentionally riling up JR, The Rock enters first for the main event that we still don't know all the details of. WWF Champion Triple H is next (sans D-Generation X)

Earl Hebner is in the ring as referee and all we know for sure is that Shane McMahon said this would still be a triple threat match. Howard Finkle announces their opponent…..and The Big Show’s theme music plays! 

WWF Championship

Triple H © vs. The Rock vs. The Big Show

The Big Show has demolished seven men already tonight without breaking a sweat and now he has a shot at the WWF Championship, subbing in for the injured Stone Cold. Triple H and The Rock actually work together against the 500lbs giant but he is motivated and pumped up and dominates them both! It breaks down and Show dominates the champion out of the ring. The Rock hits the People’s Elbow early on The Big Show but Triple H breaks up the cover. He works on The Rock as the 500 pounder recovers. 

The Big Show hits such basic moves but his size makes them impressive. He flattens The Rock with a sidewalk slam and kicks Triple H up the ramp. The Rock follows and we get the classic Attitude era main event trope of a fight at the top of the ramp with all three men running each other into the steel railings and entrance display. The Rock uses a fire extinguisher as a weapon to knock down Big Show, and then suplexes Triple H out on the concrete floor.

Back to ringside, Triple H and The Rock double suplex The Big Show through the announce table!

back in the ring a reversed Irish whip knocks down referee Earl Hebner. The Rock counters a Pedigree into a Rock Bottom and covers but there's no referee to count! 

Shane McMahon runs to the ring but it's too late and Triple H kicks out. He immediately hits a second Rock Bottom but this time The Big Show stops the count, dragging The Rock to the outside. The fight around the outside as in the ring a frustrated Triple H gives a Pedigree to Shane. 

The Big Show attacks him but The Outlaws and X-Pac swarm the ring and attack both Big Show and The Rock. The fans sadly start chanting “Austin” clearly not believing he was really gone. The Big Show plants Mr. Ass with a chokeslam. Vince McMahon runs to the ring and hits Triple H with the WWF title belt!

The Big Show follows up with a massive chokeslam on Triple H and Vince McMahon counts the three! The Big Show is the new WWF Champion! 

D-Generation X helps Triple H to the back as Vince checks on a downed Shane. The Rock is furious at the whole situation, and the show closes on a tearful Big Show celebrating in the ring with the WWF title belt.