Song of the Day - I'm So Tired

Fugazi - I'm So Tired from Instrumental Soundtrack (1999)

Piano ballad about being tired.

Happy Birthday, Ian Mackaye.

Last.fm

Match of the Day - Ken Shamrock looks to massacre Val Venis on Valentine's Day '99

Val Venis vs. Ken Shamrock - Intercontinental title match - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House (1999)



Nothing says St. Valentine's Day like beating up an adult film star who's infatuated with your sister.

Since no WWF Official would referee this match, as it was too much for even Senior Official Earl Hebner to handle, a special someone had to step up to the task of reffing this very attitudinal era match. That special someone was Mr. Ass Billy Gunn who wasn't doing anything to begin with, so hey, might as well throw him in the mix to add to this already sexually charged match.

From WWF's one and only PPV themed after the 1929 Al Capone conspired 7-man massacre.

Match of the Day - RIP Mae Young

Mae Young vs. Fabulous Moolah - WWF Smackdown! (1999)

Today Mae Young passed away after being misreported that she had passed away almost a week ago.

While there is very little footage of Mae Young in her prime, I think it's very appropriate to honor Mae by showing her work that she did with Fabulous Moolah back in 1999 anyway. Mae Young will forever be remembered as that fearless and tough old lady that took bumps off the stage onto tables, called the PG Divas of today sluts, and gave birth to a hand. 

I actually had the chance to see Mae Young wrestle at an indy show when I was younger and I was certain that she was going to wrestle well into her 100's. Still, 90 years old is pretty damn good. 

RIP 

Match of the Day - The American Dragon tours FMW w/ Lance Cade in 1999

American Dragon & Lance Cade vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Yoshinori Sasaki - FMW (1999)

Two rookies from Texas Wrestling Academy taking a tour of Japan in 1999.

Here's a rare match, it's American Dragon, mask and all, along with his tag team partner also from the states, Lance Cade taking on Frontier Wrestling Alliance's Hisakatsu Oya and Yoshinori Sasaki. It's a bit slow, but it pays off once you realize that that guy in the silly dragon mask is now over as rover in WWE currently. Damn right, that's because that kid in the red, white, and blue costume is Daniel Bryan, the Goatface Killah of WWE.

Unfortunately Lance Cade, who did happen to move onto WWE and become a three-time World Tag Team Champion, passed away in 2010 due to heart failure.

Fun Fact #654: In 2012 Daniel Bryan was awarded the "Most Animal-Friendly Athlete" award, and was honored in his town as they announced that January 13th would be renamed, "Daniel Bryan Day". Yesterday was definitely Daniel Bryan Day!

Match of the Day - Jeff Jarrett teaches Chyna how to be a woman in his last match ever in WWF

Hardcore Wednesday:

Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Chyna - Good Housekeeping match for the Intercontinental title - No Mercy (1999)

In order to prove that Chyna was really a woman, Jeff Jarrett issued a special challenge to the "Ninth Wonder in the World" to put her female skills to the test. The challenge: a Good Housekeeping match. What exactly is a Good Housekeeping match, you ask? Clearly it is a match filled with any sort of object that could be found in the house that women might use. So yep, Jeff Jarrett tried to beat Chyna with everything... including the kitchen sink.

This match is pretty significant not only because it was the first ever match featuring a man and a woman fighting each other with household objects and no one got arrested for domestic abuse on PPV, it was also significant because it was the last WWF/E match for Jeff Jarrett (who was wrestling without a contract and technically wasn't a WWF superstar) and was also the first time that a female wrestle, yep Chyna, won the Intercontinental title or any other title that wasn't in a female division in the WWF/E!

Now, this Good Housekeeping match might sound a little ridiculous and the last hurrah of Vince Russo (who was also leaving for WCW at the time) on paper, but from the looks of the promo shown before the match, this was seemingly one of the better and more well put together rivalries of late-1999. Even if this match revolved around Jarrett trying to hit Chyna with "every household appliance known to woman".

While Jeff Jarrett has yet to step in a WWF/E ring since this match, he did have a run in with Chyna again a couple years back when Kurt Angle brought her out as his "mistress" tag team partner against Jarrett and Angle's former wife, Karen. However, this was after Chyna stopped wrestling and started doing porn instead. So...

Thanks TNA.

Theme results:

Final match: Jeff Jarrett in WWF/E

PS: There were so many jokes for this match and I just couldn't write them all down. My apologies.

Match of the Day - X-Punk whips Shane-O-Mac and HHH & Chyna join the dark side at WM15

X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon - European title match - WrestleMania XV (1999)

As a much younger, full time mark, I had a special best of WrestleMania DVD (one of the first DVDs I ever owned) that chronicled some of the best matches and events at the grandest stage of them all from WMI to WMXV. Whether it was the fact that my attention spend gave out right before the end of the video and I was getting antsy or that this particular WrestleMania was just the most exciting to my young brain, I remember always getting really amped up when this match was being recapped! 

And then there's the swerve: As X-Pac laid out Shane McMahon via the X-Factor and was about to cover him for the won, Triple H and Chyna come down to ringside and pulled Test out of the ring. Then Chyna distracted the ref while Triple H climbed into the ring and does the unthinkable. Triple H pedigrees X-Pac and drapes Shane-O-Mac over his unconscious friend, signifying that Triple H and Chyna had turned on their own team/stable and gone to the dark side: The Corporation.

Just one year before this, Triple H introduced the returning X-Pac as the new member of D-Generation X on Raw the night after WMXIV!

Theme results:

WrestleMania: WMXV

Song of the Day - Love Leaves Its Abusers

Songs: Ohia - Love Leaves Its Abusers from Axxess & Ace (1999)

Jason Molina's death only adds more sadness to his already beautifully sad music.

RIP.

Last.fm

Match of the Day - Triple H's third match of the night on Smackdown! in 1999

Triple H vs. Mankind - Boiler Room match - Smackdown! (1999)

Flip back over to WWF in 2000 and you would see a lot of Triple H. This was at the height of HHH's push as himself and meant he was in the spotlight a lot. Some say it could be due to the lack of Stone Cold at times and others could say it was due to him banging Mr. McMahon's daughter, Steph, never the less, late 1999-2000 was all HHH.

On one Thursday night Smackdown! (remember those) in late 1999 though, There was a lot more Triple H than the normal Triple H show... See, Triple H that night would actually be in 5 matches! If he couldn't win 3 out of 5 of them that night HHH would not get his title shot he had won Yep, this was just his third bout here taking on his soon-to-be foe, Mankind in Mankind's specialty match, a Boiler Room Brawl.

A Boiler Room Brawl is when two competitors fight inside the confines of the arena's un-padded boiler room with the winner being the first person out of the room.

Triple H gets his second win of that night after escaping the boiler room unharmed thanks to someone pushing Mankind off of a high place for another Mankind super bump. I believe it was later relieved to be Chyna but I honestly do not remember when and how it was relieved...

Theme Results

Non-ring: a boiler room.

Match of the Day - Spring Break-Out w/ Rey Mysterio & Ric Flair!

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ric Flair - World Heavyweight title match - WCW Nitro Spring Break-Out (1999)

What better way to kick off my Spring Break then with a little blast from the past featuring Ric Flair taking on the unmasked Rey Mysterio Jr. in Rey Rey's first World Heavyweight title shot (according to Michael Buffer) at WCW's coverage of Monday Night Nitro at Panama City Beach, Florida for their annual Spring Break-Out special. AKA the WCW with the swimming pool around the ring!

This match isn't so much a blast from the past as much as it just reminds me of how much MTV and other teenager-friendly channels on TV used to broadcast Spring Break related events like this one at Club La Vela.

Match of the Day - WCW's ill-fated hardcore division

Hardcore Wednesday

Norman Smiley vs. Brian Knobbs - WCW Mayhem (1999)

In the height of hardcore wrestling in the mainstream, WCW tried to cash in on this new brand of weapon-based wrestling like WWF had successfully done by creating their very own hardcore division. And as the hardcore division was a great way for wrestlers who couldn't really wrestle to prove themselves in a Mick Foley sort of fashion, wrestlers like Brian Knobbs, Hardcore Hak (Sandman in WCW), 3 Count, Crowbar, Carl Ouellet and many others finally had a purpose in life.

So, what better person to win the title during the official crowning match at Mayhem 1999? Fit Finlay? Nope. Hak? Nah. Terry Funk? Not yet...

Turns out it was Screamin' Norman Smiley, the flamboyant, Santino Marella of the late-90's/early 2000's (since he also appealed to kids), wiggly black wrestler who always wrestled in different sports equipment (this match in particular as a Toronto maple Leaf hockey player). I guess that was his thing, I don't remember. And by his thing, I'm talking about the sports equipment gimmick...

Norman Smiley, the unlikely suspect for the hardcore division, actually became the first WCW hardcore champion after defeating Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs thanks to Jimmy Hart who hit his own Managee with a trash can as he was coming out of an elevator backstage. Silly as it may seem though, did it really matter who was hardcore champion at this point? It was already a gimmick division and was already being perfected by WWF anyways.

I still think these sort of hardcore matches are fun to watch regardless of how dumb they may look in retrospect. WCW's hardcore division is still better than watching people whack each other around with fluorescent light tubes any day...

Match of the Day - The Rock Bottom British Bulldog-shit incident

The Rock and Sock Connection vs. The British Bulldog and Val Venis - WWF Raw is War (1999)

Recently on NFT Presents, I've brought up some pretty memorable Rock moments and feuds such as his many battles with Mankind to his eventual partnership with the deranged man, but this match right here may be a little less known to some people. In the heart of one of The Rock's lesser-known feuds, the one with the British Bulldog, who now just wears jeans out to the ring because hey, it's the attitude era, Bulldog finds himself in deep, well, doo-doo when he had to take on The Rock, the man he screwed out of the title about a month before.

In anticipation for their one on one match at No Mercy 1999, The British Bulldog teamed up with Val Venis to take on The Rock and Val Venis's rival for a short period of time, Mankind. The match would come to a climactic end when Mankind chased Venis into the back with Mr. Socko leaving The Rock to finish The Bulldog off all by himself. Before the match, The Rock and Mankind had gather a bit of bulldog feces and put it on a big tray to bring to the ring to show Davey Boy just what he was. The tray soon made its way into the ring were The Rock got a hold of The British Bulldog and delivered a Rock Bottom into the dog poop!

The dog poop! The dog poop! The dog poop! - Michael Cole

The Rock and Mankind then get the win via dog poop TKO.

Theme results:

Jeans: The British Bulldog

Match of the Day - The Rock and Mankind fight in an empty arena at halftime during Superbowl XXXIII

The Rock vs. Mankind - Empty Arena Match for the WWF World Championship - Halftime Heat (1999)

Here's a little something-something for all the halftime lovers out there. Yay, football!

Not satisfied with Beyonce's breathtaking performance tonight? Watch this classic featuring Mankind taking on Th Rock for his World title in a very special Heat that was aired during the halftime of the 1999 Super Bowl on USA.

This match was only a week after Rock and Mankind's very intense "I Quit" match at the Royal Rumble. Unfortunately for The Rock in this match, he did not drink his milk that morning which costed him the win to Mankind tried to kill him with a forklift!

WWE should have had more of these Halftime Heat programs. I would have loved to see CM Punk taking on The Rock in an empty arena match this year...

Enjoy!

Match of the Day - Special guest referee 4-way ladder match... must be WCW

Bret Hart vs. Scott Hall vs. Goldberg vs. Sid Vicious - Texas Tornado Ladder Match for the WCW US Heavyweight Championship WCW Nitro (1999)

Today is the first time I have actually heard of this match. It's a four man ladder match featuring Razor Ramon - I mean Scott Hall, Bret Hart (who was in the first WWF ladder match - though Hall's ladder matches are more recognized as firsts), Sid Vicious, and Bill Goldberg. Oh yeah, and the special referee was Kevin Nash because fuck it this is WCW and there needs to be a special referee in a match where one person wins by climbing a ladder to retrieve a belt hanging high above the ring and that's it.

One must also put into account that WCW at this point was essentially the Kevin Nash/Scott Hall show and lacked a lot of substance. So, in a not so surprising turn of event, Nash knocks out Bret Hart who has the title in his grasp with a nightstick at the top of the ladder... Nash then miraculously catches the title as Hart drops to the mat which allows Scott Hall to climb the ladder and snag the title from Nash's hands.

There was also a bit with Rick Steiner and his heel run as he comes out to attack his former friend, Sid Vicious. WCW wasn't the Rick Steiner show though so his little spotlight and impact was overshadowed by what Nash and Hall were really up in this match. Steiner, who was the TV champ at the time would soon lose the title at Mayhem because he was too injured to compete. The title was then given to, yep you guessed it, Scott Hall. 

Scott Hall eventually throws the TV Championship away a week later...

Literally though, he throws it into a trashcan on Nitro.

All in all, this is not one match you will be seeing on a ladder match compilation anytime soon (unless the next Ladder Match DVD runs out of good or legitimate ladder matches). 

It is however a hell of a good look at what WCW was like in 1999. 

Song of the Day - Swimming the Channel vs. Driving the Chunnel

Botch - Swimming the Channel vs. Driving the Chunnel from We Are The Romans (1999)

It's not Aghamistam but it's mighty close...

Last.fm

Match of the Day - Rock 'n' Sock Connection are in grave danger!

The Rock & Mankind (c) vs. The Undertaker & The Big Show - WWF Smackdown! (1999)

In yet another interesting tag team confrontation, the ever-popular, Rock 'n' Sock Connection of The Rock and Mankind took on the ever-evil team of pony-tail era Big Show and The Undertaker in the very first tag team "Buried Alive" match. That's right! A tag team member buried alive match.

The first and only tag team Buried Alive match in WWF/E was unlike other specialty tag team matches like a tag team cage match or a tag team tables match in that only one man from either team needed to be buried AKA thrown in a rectangular hole and "completely" covered by dirt. This is contrary to the cage and table matches where both team members must escape the cage (usually, if they don't want to go for a dumb pinfall or something like that) or both team members must be put through a table for the win.

The result of the match comes out to be a shocking turn of events as super heel, Triple H hits The Big Show in the "back of the head", as Michael Cole puts it, with his signature sledgehammer but then buries Mankind by himself for the team of The Big Show and The Undertaker to win the match and Mankind and Rock's tag team titles. An Ambulance immediately appears at the dirt mound to pick up Mankind, but as Triple H goes to help the EMT's by opening the Ambulance doors for them - a real jerk, let the EMT's do their job - out pops the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin then throws HHH in the back of the Ambulance and drives it out to the parking lot where Austin would then "commandeer" a semi and rams it into the Ambulance with HHH still inside...

Yeah, I know... all that on Smackdown!

This was back when SD! was essentially the blue version of Raw on Thursday nights.

Overall reaction: First, the bump that Mankind takes after being thrown from the stage to the grave looks super painful. Mick Foley was and forever will be known as the guy who could take the most punishment to his body and get right back up, but I honestly do not think that that poor man had to take so many falls to live up to the reputation he made for himself after Hell in the Cell #2. I mean we got it, Mick was unbreakable, but was repeatedly having him fall or thrown off of something really worth it at this point? Some may disagree. I however feel that Mick proved himself a worthy competitor even without the the scientific wrestling ability at this time in his career and didn't always need to be getting handcuffed and hit with a dozen chair shots or, in this case, taking a super hard bump for no reason. Yeah, no reason; the bump wasn't even necessary as the show was going to end with Triple H getting killed by Austin via vehicular manslaughter anyway.

Secondly, this is The Undertaker's first and only Buried Alive match where he is not buried alive. Undertaker, the only person who has wrestled in every one of this type of match in WWF/E (currently), was 1-1 coming into this match but thanks to HHH and only HHH, who wasn't even in this match to began with, buries Mankind for Taker's second win (believe it or not) and the only time Taker escaped un-buried.

Thirdly, no Buried Alive match has ever been won cleanly. What I mean by this is that almost every match out of the five Buried Alive matches that have taken place, an individual/individuals has interfered and buries the loser completely. In the first Buried Alive (officially won by The Undertaker but often forgotten), The Executioner played by masked Terry Gordy comes out to save Mankind from the grave and buries The Undertaker all the way to the top with the help of the heels (including HHH no less); in the second Buried Alive match, Taker vs. Austin, Austin gets help from Taker's baby brother, the Big Red Machine, Kane; in this Buried Alive match, Triple H buries Mankind (who was already buried in the first BA match) all by himself; in the 2003 Buried Alive match between Taker and Mr. McMahon, Kane (now unmasked kane) once again interferes and buries Undertaker whole with the crane digger; and in the last Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights 2010, Kane buries Undertaker for the third time with the crane thanks to the interference by NEXUS.

Just thought I'd spread a little history today, I guess.

Match of the Day - WWF goes UFC... kinda

Owen Hart vs. Steve Blackman - WWF Sunday Night Heat (1999)

In an attempt to sort of get fans interested in more mixed martial arts type wrestling such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship where stars like Ken Shamrock and Don Severn were from, a little cage was constructed to contain athletes in a match known as the "Lion's Den".

The original concept for the Lion's Den was that the only way to win was via submission. This would later change as rules for cage matches always seem to in pro wrestling, and the opportunity to win by pin-fall was later excepted - along with weapons.

Dan Severn, serving as ref for this match, is in a neck brace for this match as Owen Hart "dropped him on his head" with the same tombstone piledriver that legitimately broke Stone Cold Steve Austin's neck a year and a half prier. It is later revealed that  Severn was not hurt and actually jumps into the den and beats up on "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman - not Owen.

All in all, this is just what I would expect WWF to look like if Vince ever introduced a UFC-side of the company.

Speaking of Vince, Mr. McMahon himself actually fought (I guess that's what you would call it) in one of the other Lion's Den matches against the man who has been in pretty much every Lion's Den match except this one mentioned above, Ken Shamrock.

Match of the Day - Bob Holly becomes the "Hardcore championship"

Al Snow vs. Bob Holly - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House (1999)

It was either this or Al Snow wrestling himself.

Seriously though, this match actually came about because Al Snow decided to wrestle himself for the Hardcore title one night on Raw. It wasn't too long after Al had smacked his head with the microphone, hit himself with a chair, fire extinguished his face, broke a broom over his dome, and moonsaulted a table did his J.O.B. squad teammate, Bob Holly come out to talk some sense into him.

Sense was something Al could not grasp at this time however, and a hardcore match was set up at the Valentine's Day themed In Your House PPV between the two teammates, thus ending the J.O.B. Squad and turning Bob Holly into 'Hardcore' Holly.

Also at this time, Al Snow and Road Dogg were co-holders of the Hardcore title. Since Road Dogg was "injured backstage" and couldn't compete, the title was stripped of him and up for grabs in this match.

Al Snow vs. Hardcore Holly by Stinger1981

This match is pretty much a lost gem brought back to life by the WWE after they put it on their Falls Count Anywhere compilation DVD released earlier this year. It features Al and Bob fighting all over the arena, even outside and into the Mississippi River where Bob ends up wrapping Al in some wire fencing for the win.

Overall reaction to the match: While I remember renting this event on VHS at a local Blockbuster by my house as a kid, I truthfully can not recall watching this match. I remember the Blue Meanie/Bluedust/Goldust match, The Last Man Standing match between Mankind and The Rock, and, more clearly than the rest, the steel cage main event match between Mr. McMahon and Stone Cold where Paul Wight (Big Show) climbs out from under the mat and slams the rattlesnake right out of the cage... But I do not remember this match. 

It happened though, and this is proof. 

This is the match that Bob Holly really cemented himself as "hardcore". Before this he was a jobber/NASCAR driver named Thurman "Sparky" Plugg, a member of the failed attempt at a new 'Midnight Express' as "Bombastic Bob", or just a midcard wrestler in a jobber faction. So after winning this match and proving himself to be hardcore material, Bob became actully became somebody. he became Hardcore Holly, a very rough and tough SOB. 

Here's to two of the most underrated superstars in WWE history.

Bonus: "Bob Holly becomes the fourth hardcore "CHAMPIONSHIP" in WWF history." - Thanks Michael Cole for that wonderfully botched analysis.