Wrestling - http://maxpages.com/wwfstoncold316/WWF_No

The card started at 7pm UK time (2pm EST. Standard).
Not much hype went into it; the WWF's third UK-only
PPV after the terrific "One Night Only" in '97 and
pretty sub-par "Capital Carnage" late last year. The
card had few matches of interest - would the bookers
turn it up on the night for another successful WWF
event?

<> Shane McMahon Interview

McMahon seemed REALLY off in this interview with
the ministry. Perhaps the time difference and jet lag
were affecting him; as usual, he made lots of threats
but nothing that anybody cares about. He made lots of
mistakes.

<> Gillberg vs. Tiger Ali Singh

J.R. says "Tiger will face Goldberg" - he pauses for five
seconds before correcting himself, with Lawler piping in "there's
not much difference, is there?".Lawler's right.Goldberg is taller,
stronger, younger, more talented, more successful, a different
person with a different name from a different state and a differ-
ent personality, but they DO both have bald heads. Hearing this
just reminds me how Mark Madden said some time ago that J.R. is
as big a shill as anyone with a company, but for some reason he's
more respected; I have no love lost for Madden, but he's right.
Ross has been annoying me more and more recently, and is far from
the bastion of objective commentary he used to be. Lawler is a
walking hormone, and the amount of garbage he talks exceeds the
definition of hyperbole.

Tiger started with some good mike work, talking about how his
culture provided so much to that of England. I don't think they've
done anything with him since. J.R. claims a piped chant is real.
Ugh. Nobody really knows who he is over here as much as in the U.S.
Ross reminds us he's the reigning Lightheavyweight champion - why?
to embarrass the WWF even more? When's the last time he defended
the title?

Gillberg actually started off fast, and the fans popped big
for him. Tiger got a press, but Gillberg came back with a slam and
hit the spear (it looked stupid that Singh even sold it, he's so
much bigger). Gillberg starts grunting as Tiger recovers and goes
up behind, kicking him in the shin; however,he didn't make contact,
and Gillberg didn't know what to sell. To make matters worse, they
do it again. Tiger gives up and just slaps on a neck-breaker for
the three count. Man, I feel soured on the whole night already.

<> The Brood vs. Acolytes & Viscera

Chris Sabga and I found The Acolytes' mic work on RAW last
week hilarious - whatever it is they are capable of, it's not being
fully exploited right now. Viscera sucks. I still hate thinking
about how they fired Vader only to hire a fatter and considerably
(considerably) less talented big man. I have a terrible fear that
he's going to get the pin in this match, despite the fact that he's
overrated and everyone else in there is underrated, particularly Edge.

Viscera and Gangrel started off, with the latter trying to
knock the 500lber off his feet. He took the advantage and hit a
splash before failing a vertical suplex. Viscera went to counter,
but screwed it up the first time. Gangrel rallied and made a tag
to Edge.

Viscera tags Bradshaw, who slams Edge and hits a pair of
stiff Dutch Mantel - like elbows. Christian distracts Bradshaw so
Edge can hit a dropkick.Christian comes in and hits a clothesline
on Bradshaw as he resists Edge's drop toe hold. Legal men are now
Simmons and Christian.

Christian hits a reverse heel kick, tags Edge. Double team, Edge
whips Simmons in and hits a springboard cross-body in the corner,
but is quickly caught in a stiff spinebuster. Viscera comes back
in, hits a shoulder block and an elbow drop for two.Simmons back
in, goes for a back body but is drilled with a DDT. Christian
tags in and hits a series of dropkicks on Bradshaw.Off the ropes,
reversal,double duck down by Christian before he is caught in an
attempted cross body and drilled with a Scott Hall like fallaway
slam by Bradshaw.

The big man hits two Irish whips and follows up on the back
with a bear hug. Christian escapes, but catches a boot as he comes
off the ropes. Viscera tags in and hits a nice walking side slam
on the smallest man in the bout and goes in for a choke. Christian
goes for a crucifix, but is drilled with a Samoan drop. Simmons
comes back in and goes for a headlock.

Hot crowd, pushes Christian into a fast comeback, and he
hits a face slam. Hot tag buildup, Bradshaw tags in and cuts off
his opponent before he can make the tag. Whip by Bradshaw, goes
for a splash but is met with two feet, and again. Christian
charges but is planted with a big time powerslam. Edge again
makes the save. They continue to build Christian to the hot tag;
he hits an inside cradle for two.

Just when the wrestling was at a passable level, Shane McMahon
comes to the ring entrance with Midian. You can smell the workrate
drop.

Christian is put on the top turnbuckle, but is again saved by
his team mates. Gangrel comes in and hits a tornado DDT on Bradhsaw,
making the hot tag. Off the ropes, Gangrel does two drop downs and
a cross body (familiar sequence), but is caught before Edge helps
him knock his man over.

Christian hits a frog splash for a near fall on Bradshaw.
Double DDT from the second rope by Edge and Christian doesn't get
the three either. Midian runs down (wow, his workrate has improved)
and DDT's Christian on the floor, throws him in,hands his team the
victory. It was a sucky ending to a match I otherwise enjoyed.
Why'd they have to go for that finish? It's not like a clean ending
would have been a major problem. The fans were pissed about it too.

<> Steve Blackman vs. Droz

Blackman looks the same as always. Droz looks like a goofball -
both these guys need real gimmicks, personalities, a reason to love
or hate them. Not much heat here. Both this and the opener are six
months old. Weird matches tonight. With Gillberg and Blackman, I
almost expect Greg Valentine or the late Dino Bravo to show up .

The match is horribly bland. It's not that the stars aren't
talented, but there was no progression, no heat and really no
interest in the match at all, and nothing happened worth not-
hing. Blackman won after ten minutes by submission.

<> Kane vs. Midian

Sleeper match of the evening; I was dreading this one, but it
was somehow void of many restholds or stupid brawling. I always
liked Kane more than the average critic. The match wasn't good
at all, but it just didn't suck as badly as I thought it would.
It was short and to the point, with Kane hitting the chokeslam
before Shane (Erragh, go away, PLEASE) came down with the rest
of his boys to kick his butt. X-Pac eventually came in to make
the save.

<> Sable vs. Tori

Sable didn't get as big a pop as usual due to her breasts
being mostly covered up. Her grind one-liner is older than Jerry
Lawler's toupee. She pulled out of the match, stating she had a
cold, and put Nicole Bass in her place. Bass choke slammed Tori
and pinned her. It's official. The women aren't going to wrestle.
We don't need a match, any excuse to get Sable out there. What a
waste of time. I'm sure everyone in the industry is proud of how
Sable manages to remember the same, difficult line again and
again, and wiggle her silicone-implanted breasts until half the
men in the audience are grabbing their girlfriends and running
for the bathroom. What a talent. Bravo.

<> Foley got on the microphone, talking about his upcoming
match. He was original and hilarious as always. He mentioned
Manchester's football team Manchester United, who today
won the English premier league title (very important title
in England). He mentioned that he'd talked to Davey Boy Smith
earlier in the day, saying that Smith told him to go away and
let him get back to sleep, as he'd forgotten about the time
difference (England is five hours ahead of eastern time).
Pretty entertaining.

<> Shane McMahon vs. X-Pac (European Title)

X-Pac didn't get as big a pop as usual - he's been buried
by the bookers a bit recently. McMahon charged and was side-stepped
out of the ring. Pac caught him a second time as he came in as he
took a pretty good bump over the top rope to the outside again.

This was probably the best match on the card. It was
annoying to see McMahon again, he was ALL OVER the event, he
interjected himself into almost every match. When he wasn't
over-selling he wasn't that bad, certainly better than a lot
of wrestlers in the WWF right now. I think he's probably
better than Billy Gunn.

The ending was terrible, as usual. There were four screwjobs
in a row before X-Pac finally lost the match via pinfall, thanks
to the horde of associates who came out to interfere. It's not
even worth repeating, folks, you've seen it all before.

<> Mankind vs. Billy Gunn.

Boy does Gunn suck (that's a Herb Kunze quote). He's a
hard worker, but his offence is boring as the day is long. He
dominated the opening minutes of the bout with brawling which
was horribly boring, and a really low workrate. Foley kept
the crowd in it, as the English mob were solidly behind him.

He got into the match about eight minutes in, hit a
running knee and got a chair from outside. Referee Teddy long
stopped him from using it, which gave Gunn the opportunity
to take the advantage again before his opponent turned a back
body drop attempt into a double underhook DDT.

After the bell rang for a two count (no idea why), Mankind
was drilled on the chair with the "Fame Asser". Huge push for
Billy Gunn, but judging by this match he doesn't deserve it
at all.

<> They had a brief tribute to Davey Boy Smith which is very
strange - they showed some clips of him, mentioned his back
injury and wished him the best.

<> Steve Austin vs. Undertaker vs. HHH

Austin and the Undertaker have now been in the ring on
seventy three pay per view matches. That doesn't include
RAWs, just PPV matches.

Hunter charged at Austin in the isle, only to be
clotheslined. They fought back to the rampway, where Austin
slammed Hunter, before the Taker took him out from behind.
Hunter looks physically a lot like Shane Douglas these days.

For some obscure reason, a fan in the audience had a sign
saying "Yes, I am a Model". You're seven years too late, son.
Hunter and Taker began teaming on Austin, choking him with
microphone wires and brawling nonsensically. They eventually
fought back to the ring, where Austin hit a Thez Press on
HHH and then "The Phenom" again blindsided him.

They brawled around again for a while. Austin hit a vertical
suplex on Hunter on the concrete. He went to Powerbomb Taker,
but was backdropped. Brawling. Austin hit both guys with a
chair, got a two on Hunter. Brawling. Austin was being stom-
ped, but Hunter got in Taker's face about sharing him (or
something).Taker chokeslammed him,but Austin grabbed Taker's
legs and wishboned him off the ring post. He then took Helm-
sley and brawled around ringside with him too. He Rammed
Hunter's head into the steps, but he didn't come close to
hitting them.

A few minutes later, Hunter breaks up Taker's figure four
leglock, which causes a brawl between the two on the outside
(which Taker dominates). Bearer threatens Chyna. Austin goes
after Taker again, as does Hunter. It basically turns into a
three way. Jim Ross continues to have to explain to Lawler
why they break up each others' pins. It was so stupid.

Austin counters the Pedigree into a catapult, which Taker
catches to drill Hunter with the chokeslam. Austin breaks up the
pin. A few stunners later, Austin goes for the pin. The ref then
stalls BIG TIME as they wait for re-enforcements in the form of
The Corporate Ministry to come down. Ultimately,they're too slow,
and Taker just "recovers" and breaks the pin on Hunter himself.
Ministry hits the ring to beat up Austin. "Shane McMahon had it
all figured out!" screams J.R., talking about how the match was
made no-holds barred. "It's no DQ! The ref can't do anything!".
Jesus Christ, that Shane McMahon is a freakin' genius. I never
would have thought of interfering.

X-Pac, Kane, The Brood and Mankind soon run down and turn the
match into a major brawl.

Hunter holds Austin for Chyna; she does a cool back-flip,
forward cartwheel into a splash only to have Austin kick her in
the gut. He hits the Stunner while Hunter is sleeping,then hits
HHH himself with it for the win. After the match, X-Pac and
Austin beat up Chyna, Shane and Hunter, and give all three the
Bronco Buster and have some beers.

<> Card Conclusion.

For some unknown reason the card only ran 2:15.

The card stank big time. Every match had an unoriginal, run-
in ending, there were NO good matches, there simply weren't any.
The effort was even worse than WCW's last PPV offering, it was
just that bad. None of the matches had any effort put into them,
as the booking committee relied of run-ins and screw-jobs, with
nothing interesting or original whatsoever. If this was a RAW-
IS-WAR, it'd be thumbs down. Even the fans who care more about
angles than wrestling have nothing to harp about, because there
were no new ones developed, right down to where the main event
was a total re-enactment of IYH Judgement Day last fall where
Kane and Taker took on Austin instead of Hunter and Taker.

Greenhill

Scold9b@aol.com,

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Page Updated Sat May 22, 1999 9:04pm EDT