Match of the Day - The first triple threat match on Raw

Goldust vs. Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - Intercontinental Championship match - Raw is War/War Zone (1997)

Aside from a few three man matches at house shows, this was the first televised triple threat match to take place in the WWF. The match is for the Intercontinental title and features two individuals whom had held the title previously gunning for the scrap - held at the time by Owen Hart.

To add to this match of firsts, Pat Patterson -  the first Intercontinental champ - plays the roll of the blind guest referee. 'Must be because he's Canadian', Jim Ross says. Why a Canadian would miss a foot on the ropes for a fellow Canadian in kayfabe is beyond me...

Match of the Day - The Marty Garner Pedigree incident

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Marty Garner - WWF Superstars (1996)

Everything was going well and dandy in this 1996 Hunter Hearst Helmsley match against a ham & egger named Marty Garner to promote Helmsley's match against Jake Roberts in the opening round for the King of the Ring tournament. That was until the "Conneticut Blueblood" delivered his trademark finisher still used on a part-time wrestling basis, the pedigree to put away poor Marty Garner. Garner being the inexperienced  rookie that he was mistook the pedigree as something else (like a double underhook suplex or powerbomb) and therefore jumped as if he was going to be lifted up and flipped over. The result: the deadliest looking pedigree of all time!

Marty Garner "fun" facts: He is good friends with Matt and Jeff Hardy as he got his start with them in their North Carolina wrestling promotion, OMEGA as "Cham Pain". He also wrestled as one of the Dupp Brothers in ECW as Puck Dupp and was The Rock's assistant in Walking Tall according to IMDB.

Match of the Day - Triple H goes to boot camp with the commissioner

Triple H vs. Sgt. Slaughter - Boot Camp match - WWF D-Generation X: In Your House (1997)

The commissioner of the WWF at the time, Sgt. Slaughter comes out of retirement and puts his combat boots on to teach the young punk from Connecticut a lesson or two in a good ol' Boot Camp match at a PPV named after Triple H's newly formed stable known as D-Generation X.

What is a Boot Camp match?

Pretty much a Sgt. Slobber-type street fight featuring combat boots rather than wrestling boots.

Let the military honor begin, courtesy of The King.

Theme Results:

Jeans: Triple H

PS: The Sarge's theme music at this time was later used as Kurt Angle's classic "You Suck!" theme!

Match of the Day - Rocky's debut

In honor of The Rock's win last night at the Royal Rumble while he takes a short break from making Disney action adventure movies and shitty sequels to mediocre franchises, here's Rocky's debut way way back in the year 1996.

"Wildman" Marc Mero's Team (Mero, Rocky Maivia, Jake Roberts, and "The Stalker" Barry Windham) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsely's Team (Helmsely, Goldust, Crush, and Jerry Lawler) - Survivor Series match - WWF Survivor Series (1996)

Shortly after Dwayne Johnson showed off his agility and awkward dropkicks at USWA, owned by Jerry Lawler at the time who happens to be in this match, the first 3rd generation superstar was ready to grace the squared-circle deep in the belly of Madison Square Garden where his father and father's father had previously made a name for themselves.

And since Rocky Johnson and Chief Peter Maivia had made a name for themselves, it was decided that Dwayne Johnson take the name of Rocky Johnson and mash it together with Peter Maivia to create - Rocky Maivia. Honestly though, it really didn't matter if he had named himself Peter Johnson at this point, he was a 3rd generation superstar; he was going to be used whether he could wrestle or not.

Whether or not he was going to eventually break out of the spotlight of his elders and become his own on star is another story for another day. Many people can argue when exactly Rocky Maivia became The Rock, the people's champ, but this match is no way near that time. This was the blue chipper era for Dwayne Johnson - long before he could ever image starring in Walking Tall remakes or Mummy spin-offs...

This match consists of a team made of heels captained by Marc "I don't know how to be anyone except Johnny B. Badd" Mero and his rival at the time, Hunter Hearst Helmsely and his team of stalkers, drunks, and Rocky Maivias. Along with Rocky in this match, there are three other 2nd generation wrestlers: Goldust, son of Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, son of Black Mulligan, and Jake Roberts, son of Grizzly Smith. 

Side note:

Also at this time, Jake Roberts was having a small feud with Jerry Lawler in an angle where Robert's "Demons" were openly discussed and paralleled his real life battles with alcohol and cocaine (which they didn't mention of course). This sort of art imitating reality type situation was an early element of the Attitude Era and the more Jerry Springer/soap opera style of wrestling we say from the late 90's (onward basically). The "demons" angle where a wrestler legitimately has a problem and it is thrown into their onscreen character has also been used on Road Warrior Hawk and his much more exploited drug/alcohol problem in the heart of the Attitude Era as well as Scott Hall's drinking problems all throughout his WCW/NWO career. I want to say there was also a small bit where Rowdy Roddy Piper would just get drunk on the Smackdown Brand revamp of Piper's Pit every week, but maybe that was just me subtly wishing I had something to take to get through that Mr. America gimmick. Ayeyeye.

Anyways, here's Rocky Maivia's debut. He wins the match and no one really hates the guts of his gimmick yet.

Enjoy.

Match of the Day - Stone Cold takes on pre-Triple H and JR has some microphone troubles

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - WWF In Your House: Buried Alive (1996)

Long before Triple H hit Stone Cold with a car in an attempt to finally get the spotlight Stone Cold was robbing him of, Triple H was just Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a rich snob from Connecticut who was never going to get over as long as Stone Cold Steve Austin was around.

I don't know if this was ever true or not but rumor has it that Hunter was originally going to win the 1996 King of the Ring - but after losing to Jake Roberts in the first round, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin who would go on to win it all and begin his era with his famous Austin 3:16 speech. Triple H would go on to win the next years King of the Ring tournament but didn't really get over the way Austin did until he took over D-Generation X after another spotlight stealer, The Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels lost his smile... I mean hurt his back or something... a few years later.

This is also at the height of Good ol' JR's "microphone difficulties" which eventually was worked into an angle where he blamed all the messy headphone activity he was getting at Vince McMahon as some sick joke. This then led to the short-lived JR heel-turn remembered mostly by the fact that he brought in Fake Razor Ramon and Diesel, but that a different story for a different day.

Here's the very first PPV match-up of HHH and Stone Cold Steve Austin.