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 - The Raw Bowl

The Smoking Guns vs. Yokozuna & Owen Hart vs. Savio Vega & Razor Ramon vs. Sid & 1-2-3 Kid - The Raw Bowl - Monday Night Raw (1996)

Here's a match with just as many rules and regulations as the big game tonight.  All that is missing is a Bronco Buster and Sid wearing a number 22!? jersey. 

The rules to this match are actually pretty simple; it's just a tag team elimination match were if one member of the team gets pinned/submitted, that team is out of the game... err, match. Also, any wrestler can tag in any other wrestler whether it be their teammate or not - a stipulation that saw Owen Hart tag in Bart Gunn's own tag team partner, Billy, etc. Throw in Earl Hebner with a whistle and a yellow flag, cover the green canvas with yard lines, give the teams one time out, and voilà, you got the first and only, Raw Bowl.

Match of the Day - Oh you didn't know? Team Rockabilly & Jesse James?

The Rockabilly & Jesse James vs. Los Boricuas (Jesus Castillo & Jose Estrada, Jr.) - Shotgun Saturday Night (1997)

YOU better call somebody; because it happened. Before the New Age Outlaws where crotch-chopping their way to 5 tag team championships, plus the one they got almost 14 years later this weekend, they were just two guys with actual outlaw-like gimmicks. It might sound cool at first, but when I say "outlaw", I really just mean "cowboy" and there was also some Honky Tonk Man, country bumpkin nonsense to it, too. While The Rockabilly (that was pre-Ass Man/Mr. Ass/Bad Ass Billy Gunn), and Jesse James (previously The Roadie/Double J and Pre-Road Dogg) made an appearance here together under the guidance of the Honky Tonk Man himself, this team was not yet assembled on the main show, Monday Night Raw. No, it wasn't until a few weeks after this match (featuring two halves of the Puerto Rican gang, Los Boricuas) that The Rockabilly and Jesse James would be seen again, this time cracking HTM's skull with his own guitar.

Match of the Day - Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie take out the trash at WM14!

Here's another great gimmick match from 90's era WrestleMania:

Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie vs. The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & Road Dogg) - first ever Dumpster match for the WWF tag team championship - WrestleMania XIV (1998)

Oh yes, the dumpster match!

After Chainsaw Charlie AKA 53 year old Terry Funk and his tag team partner, Cactus Jack were sent for a ride in a dumpster courtesy of the New Age Outlaws on Raw, the hardcore legends were certainly looking for revenge. So, what better way to get their revenge than by taking on the two young punks, Billy Gunn and Road Dogg, in a special match featuring the very same type of trash container that Foley and Funk almost had their careers come to a crashing end in when they were pushed off the ramp on Raw 2 months prier. Despite the titles being on the line in this match, this wasn't about winning the gold for the hardcore legends. No, it was all about punishing Gunn and Road Dogg and then taking out the trash...

The result: Chainsaw Charlie and Cactus Jack do end up taking out the trash big time with the help of the trusty forklift! But because they used a dumpster in the backstage area rather than the designated one for the match, the New Age Outlaws lobbied for the titles to be dropped. So, the next night on Raw the titles were contested in a cage match with the two teams from the dumpster match facing off one last time. The match ended with the New Age Outlaws getting their titles back thanks to the help of their new brotherhood: D-Generation X!

And yes, Mick Foley does take a huge bump, this time in the form of a ladder spot into the dumpster. There was no need for the ladder in this match other than for Foley to take a nasty bump from a high place once again.

Theme results:

WrestleMania: WMXIV

Match of the Day - DX take on The Oddities w/The Inane Clown Posse

D-Generation X (Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, & X-Pac) vs. The Oddities (Kurrgan, Golga, & Giant Silva) - Raw is War (1998)

I know, I know, ICP again? Well, at least they're not wresting this time. Wouldn't that be something, though?

Psych! It would be awful.

I'm not going to lie, The Oddities, consisting of Kurrgan (the really big guy that fought Sherlock Holmes in the first RD Jr. series), Giant Silva (the 90's Great Khali if Great Khali could wrestle even a little), and Golga (a smaller John "Earthquake" Tenta under a gold mask and a love for Cartman) along with D-Generation X had my favorite entrance music of this time. I was young...

Not too long after this, Shaggy and Scoob... I mean... Violent J, would turn their backs on The Oddities and side with an even more off-color team, The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher).

Match of the Day - Bart vs Billy: the Gunn family feud!

Bart Gunn vs. Billy Gun - WWF Monday Night RAW (1996)

In this gripping brother versus brother bout, we see Billy Gunn in the darker jeans taking on Bart Gunn in the lighter jeans on RAW late 1996.

Though this match looks like the works of a long running feud a la Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty Rockers split, the outcome of Bart Gunn inadvertently injuring Billy Gunn's neck (causing the kayfabe wives of both Gunn's to run out of the crowd in hysteria) and pretty much ending the storyline right there dead in its tracks.

The wives were never seen or mentioned again and the Gunn's pretty much were never brothers again. While Billy was taking some time off after getting written off RAW for a while due to this incident, Bart would become "Bodacious" Bart in the new Midnight Express with Bob Holly ("Bombastic" Bob). Billy would eventually return as The Rockabilly which lasted just about as long as The New Midnight Express and the whole NWA invasion storyline.

...And the rest is history.

Theme results:

Jeans: Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn.

Match of the Day - Road Dogg gets his a-double-crooked-letter handed to him by Bradshaw

The new Age Outlaws (c) vs. The Acolytes - WWF Royal Rumble (2000)

Speaking of tag teams in 2000, here's two of the all time greatest tag teams, The New Age Outlaws and The Acolytes (soon to be starting their own protection agency as APA). With Road Dogg and Badd Ass Billy Gunn and their charismatic attitudes and The Acolytes with their brute strength, these two teams didn't need tables, ladders, and chairs to prove they were great. Dogg and Gunn did need the help of their friend X-Pac to win this match however.

This match is mostly memorable for the fact that Bradshaw, a competitor who didn't know his own strength, supposedly knocked out The Road Dogg not once but twice during this match. The New Age Outlaws would still retain the titles after the ref bump and interference by Pac, but just to watch Bradshaw and Faarooq manhandle James and Gunn like they were The Roadie and Rockabilly again, man, really made The Acolytes look tough.

Maybe I'm just bias because this was about the time I really started to get into the WWF but RR 2000 has to one of the most memorable Royal Rumbles in the history of Royal Rumbles. And that's tough for even me to say because I've seen every Royal Rumble until RR 2009.

This Royal Rumble as featured the debut of Tazz in WWF, The spot hungry Hardy Boyz taking on the wood hungry Dudley Boyz in the first-ever tag team tables match, the swimsuit contest where Mae Young flashes her "puppies", the forgettable Chris Jericho vs. Chyna feud moment when Hardcore Holly was also involved, The unforgettable return of Cactus Jack 2000 vs. Triple H in the street fight where Hunter gets a piece of plywood stuck in his leg, and the Royal Rumble match that The Rock wins and Taka Michinoku takes a hilariously painful looking bump.