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 one where Diesel tries to use Mad Dog Vachon's fake leg as a weapon

Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels - No Holds Barred match for the WWF Championship - In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies (1996)

Today, Canadian wrestling legend, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon passed away at age 84. Maurice, along with being part of the Vachon family, was also a multiple time heavyweight champion in AWA and WWE Hall of Famer. No disrespect to the man what-so-ever, but - despite all these accolades and accomplishments and rivalries with guys like The Crusher or Dick the Bruiser - I will always remember him most for his participation in the Diesel/Michaels match at In Your House 7 in 1996.

The match between Diesel and his former tag team partner, Shawn Michaels is a notable match in of itself as it serves as the last match that Kevin Nash ever played the character of Diesel in WWF before jumping ship to WCW (not counting a couple of years ago where Nash was dressed in the Diesel gear during his Royal Rumble return). The match was also a "No Holds Barred" match for Michaels' WWF championship and the first PPV or televised match Mad Dog Vachon ever got involved in. Well, a part of him got involved at least. See, Mad Dog Vachon was just a spectator in the audience that night until Diesel got out of the ring mid-match and threw the 67 year old man over the guardrail. Diesel then grabbed at Vachon's leg and ripped it off revealing an artificial leg that Vachon had from losing his real leg in a hit-and-run accident. That's when Diesel took Vachon's prosthetic leg and brought it into the ring to use against Michaels.

Unfortunately for Diesel, the leg was snagged away from him by the Heart Break Kid - who ended up using it to tune up the band and harness super "Mad Dog" powers for a devastating Sweet Chin Music. So devastating in fact that Kevin Nash was never seen in the WWE again until 2002. In a way, one could argue that it was the power of Mad Dog Vachon (and his fake leg) that drove Kevin Nash away all along.

Match of the Debut - The first Hell in a Cell and... that's gotta be Kane!

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels - first Hell in a Cell match - WWF Bad Blood: In Your House (1997)

The match that started it all: the very first "Hell in a Cell" match. The main differences between a Hell in a Cell match and a regular WWF/E cage match is that the cage is wider with room for the wrestlers to go outside the ring, there's a roof on the cage, and you can't win via escaping the structure.

While this match between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels marked the first Hell in a Cell match, the match is probably remembered more for its ending. The ending goes like this: Just as Undertaker is about to finish off a bloodied Michaels after blasting him over the head with a blue steel chair, the lights got and from the darkness appears Paul Bearer, Taker's former manager, following a large figure clad in black and red from head to toe. After weeks of Bearer mentioning that Taker has a long lost brother, it is finally confirmed that he is still alive and looking for his brother. As the large individual walks to the cell, Vince McMahon from his headphones reveals, "that's gotta be... that's gotta be Kane!" before ripping the cage door right off its hinges. The two brothers of similar height then square off in the middle of the ring until Kane makes his move and takes out Taker using the Phenom's own tombstone piledriver and forever cementing his legacy as the Big Red Machine!

This match also features a fair amount of brawling outside the ring and on top of the cell, Michaels abusing cameramen, and a bump off the cage that will forever be overshadowed by the legendary bump that Mankind takes in the next Hell in a Cell match.

Match of the Day - Owen Hart fights Ken Shamrock in his own house!

Owen Hart vs. Ken Shamrock - Stu Hart's Dungeon match - WWF Fully Loaded: In Your House (1998)

The Black Hart takes on The World's Most Dangerous Man in the closest thing to home field advantage in this 1998 gem from Fully Loaded. Not only was this match held in Stu Hart's "Dungeon" where many great superstars learned the way of wrestling, it was also a submission match featuring the referee duties of Dan Severn just to add to the uniqueness of this forgotten match.

Wrestling fans always heard about this Dungeon, but few had ever seen it. Turns out this training facility once operated by the Hart family was just a basement with a tarp over the ground. Guess all those stories about how tough and enduring the Dungeon was - adding in the Stu Hart screaming in your face factor -  were pretty accurate.

Theme Results

Non-ring: Stu Hart's Dungeon

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 - 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.

Match of the Day - Taker and The Executioner tear down the house!

The Undertaker vs. The Executioner - WWF In Your House: It's Time (1996)

In yet another incident of The Undertaker taking on whoever and whatever WWF had to throw at him, this time in the form of Terry Gordy as The Executioner, things got almost extreme in '96 when Taker decided to take the house down...

Literally.

This was also an Armageddon rules match AKA a last man standing match where you must pin your opponent before the ten count is started.

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.