SUMMERSLAM 1999
August 22, 1999 Minneapolis, MN
Target Center
Change was in the wind during 1999. After having a phenomenal run as champion Steve Austin was showing signs of fatigue and his body was breaking down. The World Title picture needed to be changed and with The Rock turning babyface a new heel was needed. How quick can you say HHH?
The Tag team scene was also finally starting to heat up with Edge and Christian, The Hardys, The Hollys and the APA all starting to take hold. Soon they would be joined by The Dudleys and Too Cool and things really got good, but more on that next year. Here we had Tag Team Turmoil to showcase what talent the WWE had in their ranks.
Jeff Jarrett and D’Lo brown battled over the IC and European championships and yup, The Curse of the IC Champion continued as D’Lo lost his one and only championship to Jeff Jarrett. A match just as notable for Debra’s bikini as for any sort of match quality.
For most the big highlight of SumemrSlam was Jesse Ventura coming back to the WWF and being special guest ref for the main event. Hot off becoming the Governor of Minnesota, Ventura took a lot of heat for getting back into bed with wrestling but as he said at the start of the match “I’m proud to be a wrestler” making all of us true marks proud.
The big match highlights were Mick Foley winning his 3rd WWF Championship and Test leaving a huge impression on everyone having an outstanding match with Shane McMahon.
To give their thoughts of about SummerSlam 1999 are…
Greg De Marco: Greg plies his trade doing The Wrestling 5 & 1 every Sunday and can also be found has a regular contributor to But & Sell and he also has his very own podcast. Greg is a very busy cat.
Jonathan Solomon: Jonathan has been a mainstay of the MMA section of 411 since 2008 and currently contributes The Juggernaut MMA News Report and The MMA Weekly Ranking.
Intercontinental & European Championships – D-Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett Winner: Jeff Jarrett via pinfall to regain the IC Championship and also become the European Champion. Time: 7:27
Tag Team Gauntlet: Edge & Christian vs. The New Brood vs. Mideon & Viscera vs. Droz & Prince Albert vs. The Acolytes vs. The Hollys Winner: Edge & Christian beat Matt & Jeff Hardy (5:02) .
Edge & Christian beat Mideon & Viscera (1:59)
Edge & Christian beat Droz & Prince Albert (1:49)
Farooq & Bradshaw beat Christian & Edge (4:45)
Farooq & Bradshaw beat Bob & Crash Holly (2:48) Time: 16:23 (total)
>Hardcore Championship: The Big Bossman vs. Al Snow Winner: Al Snow to become Hardcore Champion. Time: 7:27
Woman’s Championship – Ivory vs. Tori Winner: Ivory via pinfall to retain. Time: 4:08
Lion’s Den Weapons Match: Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman Winner: Ken Shamrock via KO. Time: 9:06
Love Her or Leave Her Match: Test vs. Shane McMahon Winner: Test via pinfall. Time: 12:04
Tag Team Championship Match: Kane & X-Pac vs. The Undertaker & The Big Show Winner: The Undertaker & The Big Show via pinfall. Time: 12:01
Kiss My Ass Match: Billy Gunn vs The Rock Winner: The Rock via pinfall. Time: 10:12
WWF Championship: Triple Threat Match: Steve Austin vs. Mankind vs. Triple H Winner: Mankind via pinfall to regain the WWF Championship. Time: 16:23
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Best Match: Stone Cold vs. HHH vs. Mankind (Gov. Ventura as referee) – Everything clicked for this match which turned out to be one of the best triple threat matches of the period in WWE. Plus, it featured the recently elected Governor of Minnesota, Jesse “The Body” Ventura as referee in his return to the company. Austin was the defending champion and the three-way featured all sorts of action thanks to each man busting their ass. Foley offers to team with Austin and gets nailed as a result. Later on, Foley has a short team with HHH before it falls apart. Austin and Hunter brawled into the crowd, before going to the hot finish. After some shady business, HHH tries to pin Austin but Ventura refuses. Shane McMahon comes out to protest and gets tossed out of the ring by the Governor in an awesome moment. After a back and forth segment of finishers and saves, it was Mankind who scored the PINFALL on Stone Cold to win his second WWE championship. A tremendous triple threat all the way through. Worst Match: Ivory vs. Tori – This was a short womens title match and thankfully so. This is actually the only match on the show you could say is outright bad. Highlight: Y2J’s WWE PPV Debut – Chris Jericho debuted on RAW less than two weeks earlier and they were doing the slow build with him, allowing him to talk up a storm before actually making his in-ring debut. At Summerslam, he interrupted Road Dogg and was his usual entertaining self: “You think you can come out here and impress people by spelling your name – R, O, A, D, D, O, Double G – you want to impress me? Spell lugubrious.” Hidden Highlight: Billy Gunn & The Rock: OOPS – This episode did not take place on the PPV itself but on the live pre-show and I recall it so vividly like it happened yesterday. One of the WWE announcers was doing a spot in the parking lot, waiting for someone to show up. Out of the corner of the picture, strolling along came Billy Gunn and The Rock talking to each other as though they were pals. Once they realized the camera was shooting, the expression on their faces was priceless as they hurried out of the shot. Of course, Gunn and Rocky were involved in a feud at the time. As for the “Kiss My Ass” match, of course Gunn didn’t do much with one of his million chances as a singles competitor. In the end, he had his head shoved in some large woman’s ass. Jim Ross’ call of the moment was hilariously blunt, “The Rock just put Billy Gunn’s face in that large woman’s ass!” MVP: Shane McMahon & Test – I would have put this in the best match spot if the main event was not so damn great. This was Test’s first big PPV match. He and Stephanie wanted date or something to that effect but he would have to deal with her big brother first. At first glance, it makes for one corny situation but the match was way better than it had right to be. The big spot of the match was a flying elbow off the top rope through Test on an announcers table by Shane. He’d go on to take even bigger risks in matches but this was the first one that made people go nuts. In the end, Test beat Shane with a diving elbow of his own and everything was right for Test and Steph…well, until Triple H stuck his nose in later. Overall Rating:8.0 – A hell of a show indeed with entertaining matches throughout. Jeff Jarrett and D’Lo Brown kicked off the show over the IC and Euro straps and there was a fun tag team gauntlet style match (including one instance where Edge and Christian battled the heel Hardy Boys). This show also featured the first “LIONS DEN WEAPONS MATCH” which was confusing because I’m still not sure what the rules were. Shamrock and Steve Blackman were in this cage structure with weapons near the top and the two just waked each other with whatever they could find. Also on the show was an entertaining tag title match between Taker & Big Show and Kane & X-Pac. A good show from top to bottom.
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Best Match: Shane McMahon vs. Test. Shane was still very much an unknown entity in the ring. Sure he had a good match with X-Pac at WM that year, but face it he ain’t no Bret Hart who had been the best performed wrestler for Vince for nearly 10 years straight. With the advent of the Mean Street Posses and the whole Test/Stephanie angle, this turned into a perfect storm of angle and booking and thankfully, as we know now, Shane is athletically gifted and had no problem taking bumps and doing the odd big move. This match had hard work from all involved, the right man going over and insane heat. Most predicted this the start of Test becoming a main event player, but by the end of the year he was jobbed out angle-wise to HHH and part of a tag team with Albert by WM 2000. Worst Match: The womens match, of course but I’m not going to include it because that will likely be the same answer here for ever SummerSlam we look back at. Out of the mens matches I would have to say The Rock and Billy Gunn stunk up the joint. Billy was a perfect tag wrestler with a good look, but he was never going to translate to being a singles star and The Rock was nowhere near ready to carry someone to anything watchable. Plus he was a newly turned face and even he acknowledges that he was really in the groove as a fan favourite and wasn’t working at his best. Highlight: Mick Foley winning another WWF Championship. This was a swerve that worked as most of us knew the HHH was going to become champion but the word around the ‘hood was that Austin didn’t want to job. Foley was added to help the match itself as Austin’s knees were shot to hell and the thought was the extra body would help the match out. It also provided a useful way to transition the title form Austin to HHH and create quite the feel good moment as it was completely unexpected. Of course the next night HHH became champion and to silence all those that took this as a sign Austin didn’t want to job, 2 months later he lost to Hunter at No Mercy. Hidden Highlight: The Tag Team Title Match. This was better than it had any right to be. Undertaker was barely able to walk, Big Show was…erm, Big Show and we all know about Kane. Smartly, this match was built around X-Pac trying to survive in the land of the giants and him bumping like a madman and keeping from getting murdered. Show looked impressive as he was able to just toss Waltman around like a ragdoll and X-Pac got a huge gift when he was able to kick out of the chokeslam. A fun little match that has been lost over time. MVP: Bret Hart…sorry, that is sort of a reflex when it comes to SummerSlam MVP’s. Test would get my vote. He made his big moment count and he should have ridden this win all the way into Survivor Series and WWF Title win but that’s another column for another time. He put in maximum effort here and should be rewarded as such. Overall Rating: 7-ish. This is a tough one to rate because only one match really stood out but the rest (outside of the ladies match) were competent wrestling matches that all hovered around the ** or *** star range. It was entertaining with enough going on to never get boring. If this sucker had a super main event, we would be talking about it as a great PPV. However, it is just pretty good.
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Best Match: Mankind vs. Steve Austin vs. Triple H – This match had Jesse Ventura as the special guest referee. I felt like the WWF needed to do a title change here to make Ventura’s appearance seem important, but they couldn’t really have the heel go over and get a feel good moment with it. So Foley almost had to win this one. But the match itself was great, and the special guest referee role was utilized perfectly. Worst Match: Tag Team Turmoil – This started off well, but was all downhill from there. Edge & Christian pull off three wins, only to get destroyed by The Acolytes, who proceed to destroy The Holly Cousins and get the win. Yawn. Highlight: Test vs. Shane McMahon – Test got a little push out of the whole Stephanie relationship (even if Triple H was the big winner). This match was an awesome showing by both men. It was Test’s biggest match to date, and he made the most of it. The booking was perfect for the era, and the right guy went over. Hidden Highlight: Shane McMahon interjected himself into the main event—a decision that ended with him flying over the top rope thanks to Jesse Ventura. Ventura then delivers the line of the night: “That one’s for your old man, you little bastard!” MVP: Shane McMahon – Shane O’Mac put some serious work into putting Test over, then came back out to enhance the main event. Overall Rating: 8 – Great show, despite the tag team turmoil. It had the best Lion’s Den match and a great opener in Jarrett vs. D-Lo that also deserve mention along with everything else already discussed.
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