Wrestling Nostalgia: The First Edition of SmackDown in August of 1999

Hey, guys, really fun show for you. On this Wrestling Nostalgia episode
where we take a look back at the very first SmackDown that debuted on the
UPN network that occurred on August twenty sixth, nineteen ninety nine, headlined by
The Rock versus Triple H for the WWF Championship and Sean Michaels as the special
guest referee. We're gonna go through the card of course, listen to some
audio, and go through some other things. Let's get everything started right now.
It's time for your weekly fix of wrestling nostalgia. When we look at
wrestling's past eras from the Attitude era to the Reality era. I'd like to
think, then maybe this company will be better after Vince McMahon's dead, But
the fact is it's it's gonna get taken over by his idiotic daughter and his
dufest son in law and the rest of his stupid family us add here on
the podcasts. All right, guys, let's get into your wrestling nostalgia show.
One of my favorite shows of the week, and I know that some
of you also feel the same way. So we're gonna get things rolling again
in just a second. But first, I'd like to welcome you to the
show. If you're new, I know we do have some listeners that are
new. You can check us out anywhere that podcasts are available, and we're
here six times a week, sometimes more. We do a whole lot of
audio here, more than most I would say. I would say that there
are a very select few out there that do as much audio as we do,
and I'm proud of that. I'm certainly looking to maybe add more shows,
but that would mean adding more time, of which I'm not a magician,
so I can't create that, but we're certainly looking into it, and
you know, listen, I'll put this out there quickly, and if you're
interested in potentially contributing in an audio fashion to the show, meaning if you'd
like to cover something maybe that we don't cover here, or provide an alternate
perspective, get in touch with me REALWWE podcast at gmail dot com and let
me know what you're thinking about, because adding another show may not be a
bad idea, because we do have a day or two. Believe it or
not that we don't have any audio dropping. We have six shows, but
sometimes we have multiple shows drop it in one day. So maybe on say
Friday, you'd like to drop a show to my listeners, let me know
again if you're interested. Previous audio experiences preferred, and obviously a passion for
wrestling, which I assume you have if you're here. So the other thing
is that if you guys want to listen to or actually watch a really awesome
YouTube channel, and I'm plugging this because I love it. It's not because
I'm getting paid to say this. It is The Botch Guy on YouTube loves
wrestling just as much as we do here, and is entertaining as hell and
reacts to moments that happen on Ron SmackDown on pay per views, and it's
just really well done, very easy to watch and listen to, and believe
it or not, him and I are going to be doing a collaborative Summer
Slam review, so stay tuned for that, stay tuned for the details of
exactly what day and time that will be dropping, and maybe you'll even see
yours truly on a video stream, So that is certainly the goal. But
check out the Botch Guy. He has, I mean, like sixty six
thousand and counting subscribers, one of the fastest growing YouTube pro wrestling analysis channels
that are out there, and so we're looking forward to working with the Botch
guy and being able to just talk some wrestling, because that's what the fun
part is, right, That's why we're here. That's why you're listening to
my voice as we speak where as I speak. Okay, So head on
over to the website though, by the way, ww podcast dot com,
and that's because we have all of our podcasts there and I'm working on tweaking
some things myself and learning how to design a website and not just like the
plug and play and drop stuff, not like hey, drag and drop your
image here. No, no, no, like actually I don't want to
get into coding and stuff, but it's it's heading that way. So I'm
learning on doing it myself instead of trying to pay people lots of money to
do it. But also the reason I'm inviting you to the website is because
we have a new contributor there and Cody Churchill who has dropped an article on
the website about women's wrestling if it has truly and finally taken over the men's
division in WWE. Very well written, it'll make you think and check it
out. It's on our featured page on the homepage, but also if you
click on Opinions it's there too, so check it out. It's really worth
the read. A short, quick read, but certainly well written, and
I think it'll get your gears going. Alrighty, well, today we are
diving into the first SmackDown. Now, you may be saying to yourself,
if you are if you've been watching wrestling as long as I have, you
with through the Attitude era, and you remember the first SmackDown, you may
be saying, hey, well, well wait a minute, Matt, wait,
this isn't the first SmackDown. August twenty sixth was not the first SmackDown
ever debuted, and you would be right. August of nineteen ninety or I'm
sorry, April of nineteen ninety nine actually was the very first episode of SmackDown,
and it essentially used the same raw set. It was a test run
and it went very well, and it was it was debuted on UPN and
I guess you could say that the August twenty sixth episode, because it went
from April till August till he had another SmackDown episode was the debut of the
weekly SmackDown series. So April was kind of a one off test run,
and then we went to the every week starting August twenty sixth, nineteen ninety
nine. That was the start of the weekly SmackDown as we know it today
and has yet to take a week off. Yeah, holidays sometimes interfere with
that, but a mid nine to eleven amid any world disasters or world pandemics,
SmackDown rolls on. I mean, it hasn't missed a beat. And
it's been twenty one years now since SmackDown has debuted, and I'm considering this
really the debut SmackDown. Okay, I understand it's April for those of you
that are looking at the dates and googling it and thinking I'm a fool,
I understand it's April, but I'm considering the weekly debut of that show started
in August, on August twenty sixth. Then, to be honest, I
think the August twenty sixth version of SmackDown had a lot more going forward anyway,
with the main event being the Rock versus Triple H for the WWF Championship
and guess who was the special guest referee, Yeah, HBK, which was
probably the biggest wildcard of the entire match, and it's certainly proved to be
that I remember. Well, we'll get into it, but in honor of
the first inaugural weekly series of SmackDown, I think you might remember this,
or maybe it's a new theme to you. But take a listen. I'm
sure that many of you just had a nostalgic flashback and when that guitar string
hits, you remember the rock, just the rock's face, right, I
mean, you can picture this intro. This intro is iconic for SmackDown.
And that was the very first original theme for SmackDown, and that was called
let me look at the name of this thing. The name of this was
Everybody on the ground. So that was quite an iconic theme. Maybe I'll
do like a show on just themes for shows as they've evolved over the years,
and that certainly brings you back, don't it. That's what it's all
about, right, That's what this is about, is nostalgia. Hence the
wrestling Nostalgia episode. So and oh, by the way, guys, I'll
also be doing I have a voicemail, another voicemail from another listener. I'll
beginning to just a few minutes too. Towards maybe in the middle of the
show for a break type thing, and then obviously we'll finish out with SmackDown
the main event. Okay, but let's look at the first Let's look at
the rest of the card, because beyond the Rock versus Triple H, what
was and who was on this card? Well, let's look at the results,
and of course I had to google this, you think I remember.
I mean, let's be real. In a dark match, yes, a
dark match. It was Kurt Angle defeating the California Kid in a dark match.
How about that? And this is also don't forget Kurt Angle was to
win his very first WWF Championship against The Rock in October of what was it,
October of two thousand, So Kurt Angle was still getting off of his
feet at this point, wasn't really one hundred percent in front of in front
of the audience, so to speak, in front of the camera. So
in a dark match, yeah, Kurt Angle defeating the California Kid. Amazing.
Kurt Angle wasn't even featured on TV here, just just crazy. Okay.
In another dark match, we got several here, I mean there's like
five of them here. Edge with Christian defeated Matt Hardy, who was with
Jeff Hardy. Right, and boy, that is certainly one that you look
at and you go, how are they also in the dark? How are
they in the dark match? Why aren't they featured on the show? Right?
Well, you have to remember the timeframe August of nineteen ninety nine.
This is prior to TLC. TLC wasn't a thing. TLC didn't exist yet.
The first TLC match didn't take place until Summer Slam of two thousand.
So yeah, we were still a year away from anyone even knowing what TLC
meant. So you can forget all those high spots that Jeff and Matt Hardy
and Christian and Edge and the Dudley Boys when they came along. You can
forget all those highlights. They didn't exist in our brains yet. So this
is Edge with Christian defeating Matt Hardy with Jeff Hardy. Now, at this
time Edge had certainly removed himself from the brood and so he was on a
singles venture with now Christian as they are a team, as Matt and Jeff
Hardy are. But this is prior to again to all the TLC stuff,
and does anyone ever. I know there's a bit of a sidebar. If
you don't know who the Brood are are, I would recommend you just YouTube
them. I don't ever know as I look back, because I'm thinking of
Edge, who was a part of the Brood with Gangrel or that group,
I feel like never really got off of the ground. From what I can
recall, they did get involved with the Ministry, and I know that they
merged with the Ministry of Darkness and that whole deal when it eventually became the
Corporate Ministry. So it was basically half the Roster against stone cold Steve Boston,
which is what the whole purpose of the whole thing was, and it
was really the world against Stone cold Steve Austin. But the Brute itself actually
originally consisted of Edge and Christian and Gangrel, so not just Edge as I'm
thinking back here, but also Christian. So they broke off and I were
no longer a part of the Brood. But if you don't know who the
Brood are again google it. YouTube it. They were like I guess modern
day vampires, and Gangrel would be coming through the stage holding a chalice of
blood usually and certainly like very very kind of demonic's just I guess scary music.
I mean, I was only thirteen years old at the time that this
this group was doing their thing, and I don't know what I ever know
what the purpose of them was, right, Like, what were they?
What were they? Does anybody have an answer for me? Like? What
what was the purpose of the brood? Well, I mean, I know
they were they were primarily positioned as heels, but I don't know what they
were. I don't remember them getting a lot of mic time. It was
just the visual of the blood in his cup and it would be all over
his teeth that had you know, he gangrel put in vampire teeth. I
mean, I'm serious, he I mean he certainly looked the part, but
it was bizarre. I don't know what to make of it other than it
just being sports entertainment y anyway, I mean, I'm not ratting on the
group. I just don't know what the purpose of them are. So anyway,
circling back, boy, I got to see how quickly I get lost.
But that's what nostalgia does. So I'm not really apologizing. It's just
kind of the way it goes with nostalgia. So the next match was Dlo
Brown defeating Hardcore Holly with Crash Holly by d Q and from what I gather,
again, I don't remember this match itself, but the Dlo Brown vest.
Does anybody remember the vest that he wore as he claimed that he had
broken ribs and that he just continued to wear it at an obscene at an
ob scene length and way beyond anybody that would have been injured that long with
a broken ribs. It was a chest protector, but he'd use it as
a weapon. I actually, looking back, kind of liked it. But
at the same time, my brain of thirty five years old and looking at
wrestling in a more critical way of things that just should make sense is how
would and why would the ww officials allow him to wear that chest protector knowing
that, yeah, it protects him, but he could also use it as
a weapon if he does his splash, And that's what he did and clearly
used it to win many matches. So it's cool. It's kind of a
definitely a heat grabber, but I don't know how it could be applicable to
today in today's logic, But then again, today's logic sometimes doesn't exist,
So just like this past week on Raw when Sasha Banks clearly clearly through the
belt to Osca and tried to pull in Eddie Guerrero. That just did not
happen. It just didn't have and she the referee turned around too quick,
and she did the whole belt throwing and tried to get Oscar disqualified. But
the referee clearly saw it, but he wasn't supposed to. And you could
tell that was the case. We all know here's the thing and the whole
Sasha Banks tribute to Eddie Guerrero. We all know Snoop Dogg's your cousin.
We all know that you were inspired by Eddie Guerrero. We get it.
We get it. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing. I mean
we all. I think many, many, many, many fans looked at
Eddie Guerrero as one of the top guys ever to do this, especially in
his death and looking back on his career. But I don't need now Sasha
Banks to start mimicking Eddie Guerrero. Particularly Eddie Garrew was a heel, a
beloved heel. Sasha Banks is a true heel, not a beloved heel.
Eddie Garrel was charmingly good at being a heel, which kind of made it
babyface. He turned the three Cardinal sins into something you could cheer for.
Think about that, lying, cheating, and stealing if I mean, you
don't need to be Christian to know that they're part of the Ten Commandments.
And he took those things and was able to make it something so endearing and
enjoyable to watch that even though he did those things, you still were rooting
for him to cheat in a match. Who the hell else does that name
today? One person that is able to cheat in a match, purposely cheat,
know they're gonna cheat, and cheer for them to cheat so they can
get the victory. It's really counterintuitive to most heal logic, which made what
Eddie Gero did even more amazing. The ability for him to play with emotion
was absolutely crazy. So I don't need Sasha Banks mimicking a guy that used
it as really he did it in he in a heal fashion, but so
endearing and well done and fittest character so perfectly that it was actually a baby
face move. So I don't know why Asasha was doing this. We all
we get we get it. Your you're trivit to Eddie, that's great,
but it didn't make sense and it was well badly executed. So okay,
see how quickly we go down the rabbit hole. Okay, so that's the
third dark match. The fourth dark Match, Valvenus defeated Mark Henry. Wow,
all right, I'm sure many of you know who Mark Henry is.
Does anybody out there raise your hand, class know who Valvenus is? Anybody
well Valvenus as you remember, because I'm gonna assume that you do. It
was a rhetorical question. By the way, I don't know really where the
apex of this man's career was. Maybe it was as the ladies man,
the porn star, or maybe Choppy Choppy your pp. Anybody remember that with
Kayan Tai? I remember that actually closed raw you're so used to in the
Attitude and the Attitude era, having stone cold Steve Austin come out to beat
somebody up or in the main event, or you're waiting for that glass to
crash, and it was I remember such a stark difference. I don't know
what was going on with Austin that week. Maybe it was hunting season and
he always he got usually a week or two off for three weeks off during
hunting season in the w WF and maybe that's the reason, but I just
remember it was like, wait, what, how are these guys closing the
show? And if you remember, Kay and Tai had found that Yamaguchi had
Yamagucci's son his wife. I think his name is actually Yamagucci son. I'm
really drawing from a deep, deep memory here had an affair. His wife
had an affair with Alpha Us and it was discovered that this happened, and
they threatened Valvenus at the beginning of the show, saying that they're going to
chop he choppy his peepee. And they brought out a big salami as a
demonstration and put it on like a piece of water or a chopping block,
and took a Samurai sword and sliced it in half and gave Valvinus a visual
as to what they're going to do. And actually at the end of the
match, we had Valvinus flirting with was Valvinus was the main event. I
don't Rember who was facing and Kay and Tai ended up beating him down to
the main event and carrying him to the back and they put him in a
back room a locker room somewhere and Yamaguchi Sun had a Samurai sword and it
was going to do exactly what he said he was going to do at the
beginning of the show. And as he lifts the sword, the lights go
out and you hear the sword hit and people go oh, and you're thinking,
oh, my god, did did he really slice off Valvenus's you know
what? Right? I mean, I remember just like thinking that was the
closing segment of Raw. It was. It kept me watching. I mean,
it was absolutely ridiculous, but that's what we're wrestling was in the nineties,
late nineties particularly, so anybody else remember that. I'd love to know
what you guys think about this, because I don't know why the hell that
my brain drove into Kayan Thai land with who was it, Taka Michinoku.
Maybe that's who he faced in the main event. I'll have to look that
up sometime. So anyway, Valvenus or maybe actually, here's where I was
going. Valvenus's career apex was as Chief Morley with Eric Bischoff. Maybe that's
the apex of his career. I know that actually Valvenus had a match with
Stone Cold Steve Austin during the Attitude era as he challenged Austin. I remember
one Monday night in Austin said, I'll accept your stupid challenge, really saying
that, you know, I don't have to lower myself to beat you,
but I'm going to do anyway. And I don't know where do you think
Valvinus's career APEX was. Where is it? I might have been Chief Morley.
You could argue he got more camera time that way, but I know
that actually Valvenus is really into cannabis, and I know I think he was
on Jericho's podcast a number of years ago talking about cannabis and being an advocate
for it. So I don't know, for whatever that's worth. But it
was Valvinus defeating Mark Henry in the Dark match. Okay, final dark match.
Yeah, we're still in the dark matches. There were five dark matches.
So Gang Grell defeated Chaz with Marianna. Why do I not remember her?
I don't know Marianna or Marianna. Oh boy, I actually cannot tell
you. I'm the host of this show and I don't know who Mariana is.
If I saw her, I probably would know, but I talked to
you guys earlier about Gangrel if you remember him defeating Chaz. Really, it
sounds seems like kind of a forgettable match. So let's let's move on here
to the to the main show. Mister Ass defeated Jeff Jarrett with Miss Kitty
and Deborah, So Jeff Jarret's still around here. Mister Ass from Billy Gunn
to mister assh is in a program here with Jeff Jarrett, and boy,
oh boy, isn't it funny? Twenty one years later, if we had
anyone called Miss Kitty, if any woman in the WWE was called Miss Kitty
today, holy cow, it would be an uproar. There would be an
uproar, an absolute uproar. So uh, just crazy the way that things
have evolved. But mister ass was victorious on this night, defeating Jeff Jarrett.
All right, let's take a little bit of a break and listen to
the voicemail that the sh Show got and we'll respond to it right now.
Hey man, how's it going, Anthony here? I just had a real
quick question to run by you. I was beginning with my buddy the other
day about what would have happened if the Rock never left, and what kind
of impacts it would have had on the careers of other WWE's superstars like John
Cina, Randy Orton, and Batista, who came up right after the time
where The Rock left in about two thousand and four to two thousand and five.
What brand do you think you would have been on. I just want
to get your thoughts on that, and I think that it's a really cool
topic to have because when The Rocks about out full time in two thousand and
two, two thousand and three, he was still right on top of his
game. Anyway, then I hope to hear back from me on your show,
and I'll talk to you soon. Oh wow, I really had no
idea that that was Anthony. I didn't screen any of these before I played
them. I just just did it as is and glad hear from me,
Anthony. So I didn't expect it, but hey, cool. So here's
what I think about The Rock. That's a deep topic. This could be
a show of in and of itself, but I'll give you the short version
of it, and I'll say this, had The Rock not gone to Hollywood,
had The Rock decided to stay in WWE and flesh out the rest of
his career, because yes, he was at the top of his game in
two thousand and two, two thousand and three, two thousand and four.
He came back. He did some Mick Foley WrestleMania stuff at WrestleMania twenty.
He came back and occasionally showed himself on Raw to help Eugene or to make
an appearance here and there, But he never really obviously came back and just
slowly evolved into a Hollywood figure. That being said, the easiest question for
me to answer out of the pile of questions that you gave me was I
think the Rock would have been drafted to SmackDown. He feels like a SmackDown
guy. He he coined the phrase SmackDown laiath the smacketh down right, So
I think you would have been a great face of SmackDown. At the same
time, you would have liked to have Austin leading Raw, but Austin had
left after his final match in March of two thousand and three, so the
question would have been who is going to lead Raw? Right? I mean,
you could have John Cena. Undertaker always feels like a SmackDown guy.
He just feels smacked down for whatever reason, and so I think the Rock
would have been on SmackDown. But Vince always treats Raw like it's his first
child. I mentioned this on my show last night. Vince feels and will
always feel, and we continue to see evidence of it that Raw is this
firstborn child and SmackDown is the forgotten redheaded stepchild that lives in the broom cupboard
under the stairs. That's how a lot of times SmackDown feels. It just
does. So I'll say SmackDown. I wouldn't bet the farm on it,
and we'll never know, but that's my answer. Yeah. As far as
how long he would have lasted, hmm, probably into I'd say the mid
to possibly late two thousands, depending on his work schedule or taxing on his
body is what I should say. Probably to the he might have made it
to the beginning of the PG era, wrestling on a semi full time basis,
but probably phasing out by that point and then coming in occasionally for a
WrestleMania match. He would have probably adopted the Undertaker's schedule of WrestleMania's only starting
around twenty ten, that would have been my guess, but probably full time
from two thousand and to two thousand and six, two thousand and seven,
and then started to realize, Hey, you know, I can't do this
full time gig much longer. Let me start to look at the long term
health of my body, my family, what do I want out of my
life beyond wrestling, and started to pull back around two thousand and seven,
two thousand and eight and then into the PG era, which would not have
been kind to his character, and same to Austin's. Thank god these characters
didn't exist or weren't thought of during the PG era, But I think it
would have been handcuffed in the PG era, same with Austin obviously. But
yeah, that's my question. That's my answer is I think he would have
been going to oh seven to eight and then on Undertaker schedule there after.
So as far as yeah, Batista, he would have had some great opponents,
certainly him and John Cena had it actually happened organically and not after the
fact. I know they had their two WrestleMania matches, I understand, but
I'm talking a full week to week program that could have happened. That would
have been a lot of fun. You could have had Rock Undertaker, you
could have had Rock Sean Michaels, the beloved match that never happened, the
Rock versus Sean Michaels. That is something that we all would have loved to
have seen. But yeah, him and Batista, there's oh, there's so
many there's so much potential there. But again we'll never know other than video
games what the outcomes would be. I mean, that's the only way to
play our matchups is talking about it or in Fantasyland of video games. So
yeah, those are my thoughts again, Moy you look at you look at
the potential rivalries that he could have had. It is unsettling because you're so
excited about something that's never going to happen. So great to hear from you,
Anthony, and we'll definitely have to have you back on the show soon.
Alrighty, well, let's get back to the first SmackDown that happened on
a weekly basis in August of nineteen ninety nine, So let's go down the
card. The next was the Unholy Alliance as they were then known, the
Undertaker and Big Show, that's what that was with Paul Bear defeated Caine and
x Pac and Apa, which were Bradshaw and Faruke not JBL yet he was
then not known as JBL, just Bradshaw and a triple threat tag team match
to retain the WWUF Tag Team Championship. So the Undertaker and Big Show were
champions. They defeated Kanaan XPOC and then the Apa. Boy, that's a
I do not remember that. I'm gonna have to go back and watch this
whole thing in full. I watched snippets of it. Obviously, the main
event is the key here, and we'll get to that in just a couple
of minutes. But boy, they were then known as the Unholy Alliance.
That is uh. I remember Jim Ross saying that, but I didn't know
that was the actual name of the group. That makes sense. That makes
sense. Undertaker and Big Show, yeah, definitely uh. And and my
god, Paul Bear what an unsung hero he was for the Undertaker in Kane's
characters, Boy, oh boy, I mean, Paul Bear was just you
couldn't ask for a better manager. Yeah, he didn't really take a bump
that often, but I don't think he needed to because he's so damn good
at His facial expressions were better than any manager I've ever seen. That includes
Bobby the brain Heenan that includes Paul Hayman. I'm talking facial expressions, not
talking ability of promo or ability to take a bump. We all know that
Bobby the brain Heenan took bumps, probably better than any manager could. But
yeah, anyway, Cain and XPOC we're a team. I don't think for
long, because I do recall Tombstone Tory, and that happened I believe in
two thousand. So Cain gets in a relationship with Tory, and XPOC ends
up being a girlfriend Steeler, I think, and Kane gets angry at XPOC
and and Tory and ends up tombstoning Tory, not Tory Wilson, but I
think she was just Tory. I don't know if she had a last name.
But the crowd popped like crazy, just blew up. You ever want
to see something that is one of the best cane clips you've ever seen,
And I'm talking like one that will give you goosebumps, and that is in
smack. If you google this, I don't go to google YouTube it.
Cain returns two thousand. That's exactly what you need to YouTube. If you
return YouTube, Cain returns two thousand. It's the very first search result and
it is It will give you goosebumps. This is not where he Tombstone's toy.
You can search that out that's on SmackDown. This is a raw clip,
but Cain just to search like Tombstone toy and you'll see it. The
crowd loses their minds. But this one, to me might have been Cain's
biggest moment of his career in terms of pop and just the reaction from the
crowd. And this is also a time don't forget Stone Col's not around.
He was out for surgery. So okay, back to back to the card
here, Big boss Man defeated Al Snow to win the Hardcore Championship. Big
boss Man, Wow, all right, and Al Snow, here's a funny
story that you guys are gonna get a kick out of. I did not
understand Al Snow's entrance music, and I didn't get the pun about what does
everybody want? What does everybody need? Right? I didn't understand. I
thought he literally was talking about the mannequin head, which in his world he
was, but there's also the secondary implication of what it is, right,
So I felt like quite an idiot, And honestly, that kind of shows
and speaks to my innocence at that age, which I guess is a good
thing. I guess that's a good thing, but depending on your view.
But I didn't get it. I did not get it at that time,
even at thirteen years old. Did anybody else understand it? I'm probably the
only idiot out there. It took me some time after Alsonow had come and
gone, you know, into my twenties. I'm thinking, you know,
he just kind of popping my head randomly, and I'm like, how did
I not get that? Right? How did I not get that? So
just something to laugh at or just shake your head out, like how did
you not get that? Bro? I don't know. I just didn't.
I just didn't. Because he literally had a mannequin head, so that's what
I thought he was referring to him, Like why does everybody need the mannequin
head? That doesn't make sense to me. I feel like a fool.
But Big boss Man the most iconic memories I have a boss Man. As
we're kind of going through character by character here and having Big Boss Man win
the Hardcore Championship, which is today's twenty four to seven title equivalent, although
I would argue the Hardcore Championship had more value because I don't think it changed
hands nearly as much as it does today with the twenty four to seven title.
Big boss Man I remember two things, being the handyman for Vince McMahon
and trying to do take out Stone Cold. And I also remember him hanging
from the cell, literally hanging with a noose as the Undertaker defeated him at
WrestleMania in Hell in a cell. Undertaker literally hung the boss Man, the
Big boss Man, from the cell. Think about that? Think about that
today? Oh my god, if imagine if WWE hung somebody from anything much
less a cell with a noose. I can't even think about that. I
mean, I'm not offended. I'm honestly, you have to really make an
effort, concerned effort to offend me. That does not offend me. But
imagine today's audience and sponsors and super sensitive people losing their minds over this.
I mean, wwud be shut down in a week. So just if you
don't believe me, and it might be off the WW network, I'm sure
they might have xnaye that that's something else you can probably YouTube. If you
just YouTube Big Boss Man hanging, it's pretty graphic. Even at the time,
I was like, why are they doing this? Why is Undertaker suddenly
infatuated with hanging people? It was disturbing even at that age and in the
timeframe of the Attitude era. As raunchy as it was, this was something
more serious, like this is somebody You're actually trying to kill them. That's
different. So road Dog defeated Chris Jericho by disqualification. So again I don't
particularly remember this program with road Dog and Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho had just
debuted, and we all know when he did probably one of the more iconic
debuts in WWE history, interrupting the Rock and being the culprit behind the Y
two K Countdown. So he had just really been He's brand new, fresh
to the scene and facing road Dog, and he won by d Q.
I'm gonna guess that the DQ is because Jericho cheated to h or just use
the blunt object or low blowed broad Dog. I'd have to go back and
look. But road Dog defeated Jericho by DQ. Then we get Shane McMahon
defeating Mankind. How about that, Shane McMahon defeated Mankind. You know,
Shane. Shane's a guy that at this time was absolutely a powerhouse heel and
aligned to himself with Vince McMahon, and he was he was a prodigal son.
He was part of the corporate ministry which was yet to be formed.
And this was also a guy that I think at the time could have been
if he wanted to truly maintain an active competitor status in full time, could
have been one of the bigger heels. And he was a heel, but
kind of in a special attraction kind of way. And obviously he would go
on to be there for another what eight nine years before he went off and
went to China and made sneakers or something. I don't know what he did
in China or he was no he was about the cable or something. Wasn't
he in China? But he also has an affinity for sneakers. I mean,
weird facts about Shane, but okay, moving on. Tory defeated Ivory
in an evening gown match. Let me repeat that. Tory, the one
that gets tombstone by Caine in about a year defeats Ivory in an evening gown
match. Again, I will continue to say, imagine if today's women had
an evening gown match. This is akin to like a Playboy pillow fight.
It's bad. It's bad, but we all accepted it. We all accepted
it. This was just part of the very male driven audience that WWE was
just sucking money out of. Was scantily clad women on your TV screen along
with just blood and guts. That's the essence of what pro wrestling was from
ninety seven to two thousand and eight was blood, guts and boobs. That's
what it was. I honestly, and I can say this being serious because
I know that many of you are whatever, but that's fine. But the
truth is, and some of you may feel the same way that even during
this era, even in it, I was a teenage boy at the time,
mid teens, I still was not watching wrestling to watch this. It
still was not something that I would watch to go, oh, I can't
wait till you know Tori and an Ivory hookup in an evening gown match.
It still was not me to me, a draw. It was more of
a distraction. If we want to see santily clad women, we all know
where to go. Pretty easy to find even in ninety nine. Even in
nineteen ninety nine some of us, most of us actually still had dial up,
so you know, things took a while to load, but we all
knew where and how to get it. And I didn't watch wrestling to kind
of get the half baked version of it, right. I was more of
an either give it all or or don't bother. I'm in dangerous territory now.
But my point is I did not watch wrestling to watch this. I
really truly didn't. I was about stone Cold, I was about the Rock.
I was about just loud reactions, zany wacky stuff going on, unpredictable
shows, the Rock everything. That's what I was watching wrestling for, and
I still watch it for. And I'm glad that the women obviously have evolved
and or at least been presented in a much more respectable way, and to
their credit, have I think, maybe taken over the men's division. You
could argue in some ways. Right, check out that article on my site
you might be convinced. So there it is. That's the card leading up
to the main event, and here comes some audio from it. I'll give
it to you in a minute, but let me set the stage here.
This is Triple H who's the champion at the time, the WWF Champion with
China facing off against the Rock with Sean Michaels as the special guest referee.
This is easily easily the biggest thing that I remember from this show, and
with good reason. It's the two biggest names fighting for the biggest championship that
the company has to offer, and a Hall of Famer is a special guest
referee, and it's the closing match of the show, which means usually what
you see last you remember the best, so you have all that working for
it, which is probably why my long term memory has solidified this as the
only memory that I have, or the strongest memory that I have from the
very first Weekly edition. I gotta say Weekly, because you guys will all
be oh, it was April. I know it was April, the first
one, but Weekly. That's what I remember the most about that show was
this and a single moment of this show because I was so angry and you'll
hear why. So let's get to it. Let's listen to a little bit
of this match as we we uh we live it together and Chilenger wait and
have two Balls, who then is the Biggles Champion, one of the best,
a young superstar, twenty seven year own Rock sixty five two seventy five.
But I thought Sparts was gonna play a second ago and Sean Michaels took
that do you have tile out of the hands of Unterhearst Hampton. But I
guarantee you that Sewn Michaels just can't wait to put that tin of thumb into
the hands of the Rock here to night, I Rock the big one champion,
most of the tiny rock those what a slide to be on top o
the tum You tell me that the Mountain like the Rock, all right,
He's on everything. I like listen doing talk, I know what to play
the SmackDown dude. I'm just telling you this isn't there the way Trip Blake's
being three to here Woolfson could not be a bigger match in this spin event
here on our premiere s back end. Again, thank you very much for
being with us. We'll be when you each and every week round here,
every third tonight here on you can and the Red Ray Shawn Michael's calls with
a veil and look at that intensity. These two young Gladiators, helms,
they own your right, the w W chant, the challenger, and here
we go. All right, so then the match starts there and just you
forget about the Rocks entrance music. It was just so kind of laid back
at the beginning. I mean, it was obviously I've evolved into a much
more high energy theme, but the crowd was squarely in the corner of the
Rock. We didn't know where Michael stood at the beginning of the show.
Michaels did come out and really play the neutral cards slash slight hinting towards Babyface,
and uh so you kind of thought that this may actually be an even
Stephen match, and that the championship isn't going to be decided in the hands
of a referee, but rather the hands of the competitors. So this match
lasted, let me see here, a good almost ten minutes. Wasn't a
very long main event, but this was certainly one that is memorable for just
again, one massive moment, and well let's before we get to that moment,
of course, let's uh, let's take a listen to some of the
audio from during the match. That is a lay one of their HBK doesn't
WoT that not Jack conspiracy. I'm telling you a little bit. She's a
man und thing turner light towards every times bear advantage that Hi could muster the
house. He knows there's turple lights. He's gonna leaves said and done.
Where's the power? Let Sean Sean Michaels, Oh my god, Cherry comes.
I'm sprinting down the Rampay Michael's delay with China, Dave hells me enough
time to regroup there somewhat. The chimpion isn't a bad play here. China's
gone, You're gonna have got tailet tippardy when they're saying, many, what's
he doing out here? Can? I don't know. He cans the owner.
He can do whatever he wants to. I know that. So a
little bit of audio here China gets thrown out after a blatant low blow.
Uh. Then Shane comes out and Shawn Michaels is wearing his typical Seawn Michael's
referee outfit. I mean he's not even in stripes. He's the commissioner at
this time, so he can, I guess do what he but he's in
like I mean, super short tight shorts they're like spandex shorts, and so
Sean had yet to uh, I guess find God, which is his whole
life changed and it was documented in his book and came back in two thousand
and two a totally new man. So he was still the kind of the
Shawn Michaels of old and not able to compete in the ring. Still his
back injury had been plaguing him for many many months and was not resolved.
And was the commissioner, but it was a commissioner that wasn't there every week,
so it felt special. So let's let's kind of move on here.
Shane McMahon comes out to try to aid Triple H in this matchup, and
uh, well, let's let's take a listen to how this thing evolves before
we get to the close of the match. By the champion, I don't
lock the sun of a gun, but he's got a hell of an athlete.
Is Triple H perfectly executed right in the head. There's a lateral press
bottle two go to kick out by the rock on their fault and now Triple
LFE has the talents are grounded. The ww title on the line right here
to I don't smect it. So there we have it a little bit of
a pause. Here, things slow down a little bit, and it's amazing
how easily you're able to absorb a story when it's not told one hundred miles
an hour. Amazing that we all look back at these matches and think how
great they were, and yet they are in slow motion compared to today.
I prefer, you, guys know, I prefer the slower match type,
that not painfully slow, but one that you can absorb what's happening in every
move means more. I don't need today's style to tell me a story,
right, But that's my preference. Obviously, I'm outvoted considering how the wrestling
product has evolved over the last five years. Certainly is certainly is much different
than the product that we saw back in two thousand. But here we go.
Here's the big moment. The Rock scores with the the Spinebuster, and
well, y'all know what's coming. Oh no, we're having now here it
comes. We're gonna champion stuck here here John Michaels the Super Rock, What
my what did just what is this? John Michael's just tugger tipped the Rock
with the wrong title on this shot. I think I thought, oh no,
that's all rock have the time of one that's had a green and then
I turn you temp me. I can't believe it. Who reason too?
We've done Truth and Commisioner, but at this collusion, oh my god,
triump blanket. Still I'm not don't you have tampion? We got roller good
corner, I'm truth, the Commissioner and a sun of them. I'm don't
you have time? You have Tamking. I can't believe they have a get
either. Don't think I'm kind of back Pado was accepted. That was all
a ruse. I'm counting this title of one I swept. So they don't
know about you. Way on if they are, don't come to contend.
If you don't know that it gets up from the rock bottom and the people's
elbow, nobody kid and you know, well, let's take a look at
it. Exactly what happened? I thought we were fixing to see did you
hear that? Look? All right? So there there we go. I
mean, they're doing replays at this point. Who you know? It's it's
really just brings back so many memories of that time, and particularly how angry
I was about Sean Michaels. However, had I smartened up to wrestling at
that point, I'd only been watching wrestling for a couple of years, I
would have known that anytime an announcer says, and we're going to have a
new champion, you immediately know what class. Yeah, the answer is you
immediately know whatever they say is the opposite of what's going to happen. So
that the second and the problem is today's announcers are still guilty of this.
Why why do they continue to do this? It's uh such a cardinal sin
as an announcer. Don't tell me we're gonna have a new champion, because
now I immediately know we're not. Instantly, without question, it's probably a
one hundred percent fail rate for announcers when they say that. There's gotta be
a ninety nine to one hundred percent chance of any time an announcer says those
words, it's not going to happen. So, but I was buying in
at the time. I remember the rock hitting it, I remember Sean Michaels
hitting the Sweet Chin music, and I was thinking, what right I was?
I was angry, but it was it. Maybe want to tune in
next week. Anger creates an emotion of wanting to see justice and what do
you do next week at tune in? You don't go. I'm so angry
at this product. I don't I'm done watching because I didn't get to see
my babyface win. No, because it makes the anticipation and the drive to
see your babyface your hero get that victory and get revenge. That's I think
what's missing today in some aspects. Although Randy Orton is certainly killing it,
Seth Rollins is certainly killing it, but that is an overlooked and over I
think it's an emotion that WWE creative avoids in fans. They don't want fans
angry when they need to realize anger is an emotion that they need to tap
into and you use it as a strength because it is so The only shame
coming out of this is HBK never got a program with The Rock had this
problem. You know, it's a shame because this would have been a perfect
time for it to happen, with Shawn Michaels super kicking the Rock and costing
him the WWF championship blatantly and The Rock then able to retaliate. If I
recall the you know, Sean just kind of went back into hiding after this,
and The Rock wasn't able to do a damn thing about it, and
Michael's never got what he had coming to him, which is a shame because
that program could have been just lights out and the things never lined up.
The Rock and HBK never quite lined up for a strong program to be presented
to us, which is a shame. But anyway, guys, thank you
so much for listening tonight. Wrestling nostalgia is always one of my favorites,
and I know that it's some of your favorites as well. And I'll be
back on either Saturday or Sunday. I gotta figure out with my co host
what exactly what day works for them. It's either gonna be Saturday or Sunday
to recap everything that happens this week in wrestling. I'm thinking Sunday. Sunday
has been kind of working better for me, so probably Sunday. I'll be
back, and again, a couple of things. If you are interested in
contributing in an audio capacity, whether you want your own podcast here to present
a different view on things or do something different that we're not already doing email
me at REALWWE Podcasts at gmail dot com. And you can also so contribute
in a writing capacity at REALWWE podcast at gmail dot com if you are interested
in writing a column or an opinion piece, or really even capturing news for
the site. If you want to be a news contributor, that is how
you can do it. I'm very interested into in hearing from you guys,
because we want to make this show bigger, better. We're trying to grow
at a time that's kind of slow for wrestling. Ratings are down at an
all time low, right, and now you have sports coming back. Granted
there's no audience, but you have sports or fans and attendants. Rather,
you have sports coming back, major league sports that are now going to take
even more viewers away from wrestling. So it could be a very very historic
time for ratings in wrestling land, not just in WWE, but across the
board, Impact and AW and others. So we'll have to see. But
we're here, We're here through it all as we eventually will get through this
and be back to our normal sea you know people, Oh it's the new
normal, you know what, Screw the new normal. We will eventually back
to the life we knew before this whole thing happened. And I know we'll
be back without stupid masks, in an arena packed to the rafters with screaming
fans and no masks, and they'll they'll be close as they want. They
don't have to be six feet apart. So everyone's, oh, there's never
gonna be You're not gonna go back to normal. Yeah you will, because
guess what, Vaccines are a thing. And once vaccines come out and it's
safe and it's you know, you have a high percentage of the population vaccinated,
things will go back to normal. You're not gonna live with masks forever,
and you're not gonna socially distanced forever. So it's coming. I really
believe that. So all right, anyway, Tomorrow you'll hear your Awn NXT
reviews, and Saturday you'll hear from our HSP team cover SmackDown and give a
live review for that show as well. So boy, a lot more shows.
Four more shows coming to you this week as we round out the final
days of July and just unbelievably turn the calendar to Augus. It's unbelievable that
August is just a couple of days away, So all right, everybody,
thanks so much for listening. Hit us up on our website or give us
a rating review on Apple Podcast. It does help us out in a big
way. Tell a friend if you like the show, and as always,
I'll talk to you next time.