My Time: The Rise of HHH (WWF, 1999)

Hey yo Stud Muffins & Gypsy Queens,

First off, just want to again promote how fucking awesome the Steve Austin Show is. As, you'll see below, I had good laugh at Austin's expense during the Summerslam '99 when he nearly topples over the ropes and gets himself stuck. I didn't have the 411 on this situation. Some guy named Ross wanted to know what was up and Austin dropped that 411 on us and made the story even funnier.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H or HHH) has been a firebrand on the internet since I can remember (I started reading sites like Wrestleline in 1999). Back in 1999, the controversy if he was being pushed too hard and too fast given his crowd response or whether he could work convincingly as a heel. I distinctly remember an article by Scott Keith in 1999 that claimed HHH did not have the offensive firepower to work heel citing that a heel has to lead and control the majority of a match by conventional standards. I would say after watching HHH matches given that it is 1999 WWF not 1986 NWA, HHH had all the fundamental wrestling tools to carry his end of a WWF main event match. In fact, I think he brought an ingredient to the table that had been lost for sometime in that he was a much better bumper than any heel they had in a long time. Plus, I think his high knee cutoff of a babyface hope spot is a really effective spot. From, a pure work prespective, HHH had everything he needed to be a main event player, but what he lacked was the organic support that his peers had before they were stars.

Triple H parties like it is 1999!

The manufactured push for HHH also differed greatly from the recently developed stars: Steve Austin, Mankind and The Rock. All three of those guys were created organically by the crowd response. Hell, Foley and Austin were not even supposed to be stars. Triple H's push felt forced and artificial.  Triple H was getting good pops as the leader of D-X, but he was not going to be pushed as sophomoric, wise-cracking degenerate, but as a sadistic egomaniac that was consumed about getting to the top of the business, which is a key difference as Austin, Foley and The Rock were not playing very different gimmicks from what got them to the dance to begin with. Now in Triple H's defense, he was being pushed to be the No.1 Heel in the company so unlike the other three who became huge babyface successes he was not supposed to endear himself to the crowd, but you could not shake the feeling that just was not what people wanted.

I remember as a kid feeling like HHH really did not belong. It is the same way I felt about Edge and Jeff Hardy for a long time that those wrestlers just were not main event material. I could ramble on about that for pages and pages, but I really just wanted to describe that gut feeling I had. Was the Triple H push the first in the long line of artificial pushes by the WWF to tell the fans what they want? I'd argue that yes it was. However, this top to down approach to star-making has created main event stars in the past decade, but in recent years we have seen the fan rebel in a populist movements rallying around CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. They are demanding their voices back after having lost them in the past decade. Remember, Vince McMahon once fired us all on National TV. O, Vince! It is a bit outside the scope of this blog, but WWE has become so similar to WCW in a lot ways. It used to be the anger of "smart marks" was directed at WCW for holding down their idols: Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho etc..., but then it is almost like when WWF bought WCW in 2001 it purchased their inability to properly push talent according to crowd response along with haphazard and myopic booking. As a WCW fan, WCW was a lot more fun because of the loose management structure than the micro-managed WWE, which has all of WCW's bad traits and seemingly none of the good ones. Point is that this all coincided with the Rise of Triple H. Is he a bit insecure that even with all the bells and whistles that he never achieved Rock or Austin status? Eventually if you tell people something enough they will start to believe it, case in point with the status of HHH as the great bastion of wrestling psychology and a throwback to yesteryear when men were men and had Chester A. Arthur's facial hair. The WWF/E promotional machine still works smart marks, but in a different way training them to believe that all Triple H was one of the best wrestlers of all time and a great ring general.

The Great HHH Debate on PlaceToBeNation.com fueled my desire to take a look back on Triple H's career so that I could decide for myself. Going into this, I have mixed feelings on Triple H. Outside of a few matches, he has rarely blown me away in the ring. At the same time, he really does not suck. On the stick, he can be a blowhard that rambles aimlessly, but on the other hand I can find him pretty damn funny (when he sang "When you wish upon a star" to Daniel Bryan last year that was gold). As a character, I can appreciate the idea of a heel that wants to be strong and protected to make someone, but he never really made anyone (ok, Batista) and he never had a good grasp of his own character. The character, I described above, as an egomaniac hell-bent on making it is probably a good description of who HHH is and I think if they had some fun with that they could have done a better job with his gimmick. I think the biggest problem with HHH was that he was so deeply entrenched in wrestling culture. You will often hear HHH is a real student of the game. He wants to continue the lineage of Flair and Race. He watches footage of Bockwinkel and Stevens, don't you know! Whenever, you have seen so much wrestling you want to do it all. When you try to do it all, you are half-assing everything and nothing gets accomplished. In addition to that problem, is he know how wrestling works, but I don't think he knows why it works. I learned in my entrepreneurial studies class that a differentiated product or a great distribution strategy or low cost structure is what separates the successful companies from the failures. It is how the company each element of the company works in tandem towards success. It is an interlocking system and you take out one element and the company crumbles. Ric Flair works because every aspect of Ric Flair worked towards making a great product. Triple H missed the boat that Flair was not a badass in the ring. This is my running hypothesis: HHH being a "student of the game" actually hurt him in the ring because he became a wrestler that understood "how", but not "why"

a. He saw something he liked it, but did not fully understand why it worked and thus caused half-ass implementation
b. Made him more mechanical. He knew that a babyface should shine, take heat and make a comeback, but this caused him to go through the motions rather than feel it.
c. He tried to emulate others and especially tried to be everyone at once. God, I love Ric Flair, but damn being invincible like Hulk Hogan is pretty cool so why choose, why not be both.

I don't doubt that HHH watched and watches as much or more wrestling than all of us. He just interprets it a lot differently. I would love to talk to him about 80s wrestling because I want to be able to pinpoint where that departure is from how I view wrestling.

I will come back to this hypothesis as I continue to watch more Triple H and see if it is valid. Before, I forget Chyna had the best wrestling psychology of anyone in 1999 that I have seen so far.

Choice cut from Triple H's early 1999 run:

Triple H vs X-Pac - Backlash 1999

Historical Matches:

WWF World Champion Steve Austin vs Mankind vs Triple H - Summerslam 1999 - HHH's first PPV main event

WWF World Champion Mankind vs Triple H - RAW 08/24/99 - HHH's first WWF World Title.

She could take me to the psychology learning tree anytime ;)

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WWF World Champion The Rock vs Triple H w/Chyna - RAW 1/25/99 I Quit

One night after my pick for the 1999 WWF MOTY, The Rock has another "I Quit" match, but this one is against the leader of the babyface D-X, Triple H. The main takeaways from this match were HHH understood what he had to do, but did not connect as well to the crowd whereas sometimes I would question The Rock's decisions, but he had such undeniable charisma that he came off as such a natural. Also note to Cena, track pants >>> jorts, just saying dude.

The beginning of the match is some really well-timed HHH offense, his punches look great, he uses the high knee really smartly and punctuates the corner punches with a crotch chops. Even with Rocky bumping and selling the chin, there was not a lot of popping and I think HHH needed to go that extra mile. My biggest fear of going back to this era will be the "tour of the arena" segments, but this was kept short. I did not like some of Rocky's cutoffs, but he had a good one ringside when he used HHH's trunks to pull him into timekeeper, he talked some trash on his monkey ass and then delivered the Corporate Elbow with the bell hammer onto the bell onto HHH. That was a fun spot. The Rock berates HHH to get him and HHH tells him to "SUCK IT". Big pop for that and atta boy, Trips! Rock feeds and bumps for Triple H like a champ, facebuster on knee into the Pedigree. HHH says it ain't over and Pedigrees him on the floor and now he is talking some trash to The Rock is about to do it on the announcer's table until the Corporation hits the ring. Bossman (it is so weird to think how high up the card he was in 1999 WWF) tells HHH to say I Quit or else his chicky poo gets it. Triple H bows down and says I Quit. Of course, Chyna promptly gives him a low blow and she is in the Corporation so that kinda sucks for him. Thus begins probably the most complicated WWF storyline Russo ever ran with 8 million turns between HHH, Chyna, X-Pac and Kane. As for the match, I enjoyed the hell out of The Rock with his selling and bumping. He was a great stooge in all of this. HHH held up his end of the match was starting to show some fire after he told him to "Suck it". Maybe there is some hope for Mr. Helmsley. It was a pretty entertaining short RAW match. **3/4

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Triple H vs Kane - RAW 2/1/99 Steel Cage Match

Do you believe in miracles? It is not a MOTYC (well it is 1999 so it might be), it is not great, but gosh darn it these two had a good match. No wrestler elicits apathy from me quite like Kane, but seeing him back in his original costume definitely made me nostalgic for my childhood. They treated him like a monster the whole match. Kane was booked way stronger in this match than HHH to the point where it was almost shocking that they would book any babyface (HHH is the face in this match) like this. You had HHH crawling for the door just to escape the monster and X-Pac liberally interfering at the finish. Yes, HHH wins the match, but as wrestling fans we know it is whether you win or lose, but how you are presented and HHH was presented as escaping by the skin of his teeth. At first glance, I thought this was a disconnect from the story as HHH should be fired up to get revenge, but his heat is not with Kane it is with Chyna so it is easier to explain why HHH just wants to survive. Short of drawing blood, Kane did a pretty good job being an imposing, invulnerable force of nature. Hell, he kept things moving as well. He had his working boots on for this mauling. HHH did well to time and escalate his hope spots. He realizes that wrestling moves were not cutting it and he became focused on ramming Kane's head into cage, or using a steel chair (nothing has changed the zombie sit-up is still badass) or he kicks Kane's leg out during a top rope chokeslam attempt to crotch him. HHH had to use tricks to get out from underneath the monster. He actually showed some good fire once he had Kane crotched ramming him into the cage, the big high knee, but Kane back body drops out of the Pedigree and hits the Chokeslam. This triggers X-Pac slamming the door in Kane's face and holding him at bay while HHH climbs over the top (has to kick Chyna off first). My issues with match were that Kane sometime forgot his role as a monster and would act like a normal wrestler just trying to win. Kane should want to destroy HHH before leaving because he is a sadist and eviscerates people for his own personal pleasure (Big Pop! :) ) and sometimes he would make attempts while HHH was still up. HHH did not sell very well for Kane, who from an offensive standpoint looked great. HHH could have really taken this to the next level if he made you believe he was fighting for his life in there against the Big Red Machine. The way the match was laid out with Kane in control for the vast majority, HHH escape attempts to the door, X-Pac interference it is clearly the story they are telling, but HHH needed to go that extra mile and really sell it. I came in expecting the most boring match ever and came away thinking maybe there is hope for 1999. I know for a fact that I do like the next match I am going to review: HHH vs. X-Pac so this may not be so bad. ***

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NECK PSYCHOLOGY~!

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Triple H w/Chyna vs X-Pac - Backlash 1999

Backlash 1999 is a lone beacon of light in the tempest of shit known as 1999. The best Rock/Austin match of 1999, a surprisingly good Undertaker/Shamrock match and a strong fundamentals match between the Kliq members. For those keeping track at home, Triple H & Chyna have gone corporate and X-Pac is fighting the good fight to change the world one crotch chop at a time with his new BFF, Kane. Since they worked this pretty straight, the Attitude Era crowd did get a bit restless at times, but X-Pac gave a great babyface performance and is such an excellent worker. He really was one of the few great workers the WWF had in the Attitude Era. Helmsley slaps him early and X-Pac is on him with full court press and HHH cant escape his wrath. The kids start an "X-Pac" chant, which warms my heart even though X-Pac and kids should not mix, but then the adult males chime in with "Sucks!". X-Pac, two previous neck surgeries under his belt, takes a ridiculous bump over the top rope. Sit down and shut the fuck up while a master works. HHH looks to come off the apron and still X-Pac catches him with a punch to gut. They are working a great shine sequence establishing X-Pac is pissed off and came here to fight. Chyna trips him up going for the Bronco Buster and that gives HHH time to dodge and the impact causes the fragile neck of X-Pac to be injured. Helmsley immediately rocks him with a clothesline. He is just equally relentlessly as X-Pac was in the shine on working over the neck. He lets Chyna get a lick in to draw some more heat. I loved his punches to the back of head/neck area because you know how fragile that part of the body is. JR is on fuckin point selling this match and the risk to X-Pac career and how HHH is a sadistic son of a bitch. Those moments of righteous indignation towards Lawler were awesome that's how you "Think shoot, but work" on commentary. The crowd does get restless when Trips works the neck holds (I enjoyed HHH asking the ref loudly for a time check), but I thought they kept things moving with X-Pac timing his hope spots and HHH using cutoffs like pulling him down by the hair or sending him out for Chyna to press slam neck-first on the barricade. Neck psychology is not the easiest to work, but I thought this was one of the more effective efforts. HHH grabs a sleeper and X-Pac reverses into his own, but this did not get the pop that it would have even just two years earlier in 1997. It must have been strange wrestling in the Attitude Era. HHH rams X-Pac's back into the corner, but X-Pac is firing up and hits a tornado DDT. Chyna distracts the ref while X-Pac goes low with a headbutt. HHH uses a leverage move to send X-Pac crashing back to the outside, but you cant deny X-Pac and he sends HHH into the steps, but in his overzealousness wipes out the ref with a baseball slide. He is able to hit the X-Factor, but there is no ref. Chyna hits the low blow and the Slop Drop (NECK PSYCHOLOGY!) this triggers Kane. Chokeslams for everyone and he sets up both of the heels for the Bronco Buster, which is the feel good moment before HHH hits the Pedigree and wins. HHH going over is clearly the right call, but I would have loved a better finish. They were working this great fundamental match with X-Pac the plucky overachiever with the bad neck versus the sadistic bully that may have underestimated his opponent, but was now showing no remorse in dissecting him. You slap a finish on that story and you got yourself a MOTYC, but with the Attitude Era finish it is just feels disjointed. ***3/4

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Triple H w/Chyna vs Mankind - RAW 5/31/99 Falls Count Anywhere

No one is going to confuse this with their classic '97 RAW Falls Count Anywhere match, but it was fine. I actually thought HHH was a lot better in this than Foley. Foley just kept no selling to get to the next spot whereas Helmsley sold the wear and tear of the match. Helmsley also out-bumped Foley in this match which is saying something taking flat back bumps on chair and his trademark corner bump (which got the biggest pop outside of the finish). I did like Foley's backslide on the floor even though the crowd did not bite. Is this first appearance of the sledgehammer? I know Foley mentioned that HHH Tonya Harding'd him at the at last PPV, but sounded like he used a pipe in that match. Foley no-sells a chair shot and a sledgehammer low blow with the endgame being to put Socko on Chyna (Chyna had been checking on Mankind's Manhood in the shower) to pop the crowd. HHH blasts Foley's knee with the sledgehammer to win and the comes back beats up the officials and further works over the knee only to have The Rock make the save. Is that the birth of the Rock n Sock connection? This was a pretty good Triple H performance that continued to his trajectory to being the top heel in the company.

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Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock vs The Undertaker - RAW 6/14/99

This is a glorified handicap match as Corporation and Ministry of Darkness have merged to form the awkwardly named Corporate Ministry. I cant wait for the Wyatt Authority and the inevitable Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan match. The more things change the more they stay the same. Ten year old Martin was deathly afraid of The Undertaker (and The Brood for that matter) and was not happy that his hero, Vinny Mac was in cahoots with the Lord of Darkness. I love Steve Austin now, but at the time he seemed so mean-spirited, loud, unruly to me while Vince was just trying to keep decorum and run his company in peace while Austin kept ruining things. I was an interesting ten year old. Anyways, beyond reliving my childhood, this match is pretty fuckin boring. I will say The Rock being so friggin' over is the only thing that saves this because this is ten minutes of clubbering and random brief hope spots for ten minutes. I will say HHH does not get enough credit for his high knee. It is up there with Jumbo Tsuruta's it is a really nice looking high knee. Undertaker does the ropewalk (finally a highspot!), but HHH inadvertently crotches him. Mergers can be so difficult. The Rock finally has isolated HHH and unloads, but the ref gets caught in the crossfire. Now Taker accidentally bumps HHH out of the way and he takes the Rock Bottom and People's Elbow, but Chyna pulls out the ref and HHH breaks it up. The endgame sees Chyna accidentally trip Taker, who is hot at her and gozzles her so HHH does not take too kindly to that (he did quit for her when he had the WWF Title in hand back in January so this is internally consistent) so Taker gives him a Stunner via the ropes and HHH walks into the Rock Bottom so that Rocky can face Taker for the title at KOTR. It was the first real boring Attitude Era style match with lots of clubbering and a little bit of arena touring. The takeaway was The Rock was really fuckin' over.

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WWF World Champion The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs. Triple H w/Chyna - RAW  6/21/99

You can say what you want about this era of TV, but I always enjoyed the episodic nature of the TV with strands of continuity connecting each episode. Too often, now, the episodes feel like standalone shows. Triple H and The Undertaker butted heads in their match against The Rock last week and ultimately Triple H wants to be the Champ so it is natural for them to have a match even though they are both heels. That is the appropriate booking in my mind. This match shocked the hell out of me. I came in with the preconceived notion that 1999 Undertaker was absolutely awful, but he wrestled great from underneath with great selling for HHH. Taker plays the babyface because he is the more natural face and that HHH is being positioned to be the new ultra-heel. Undertaker wins an early slugfest, but HHH slipped in a kick to the knee during a goozle that has Taker favoring it. Taker seems to further jam it off his Ropewalk and HHH is all over it. He wrenches the knee and even Chyna gets in on the action. Taker attempts to mount a comeback nasty headbutt, all this hair adds to the match. HHH tries to stymie him by attacking as he returns to the ring, but to no avail he goes for the ride and takes his corner bump. Taker still moving gingerly so HHH scoops his legs up and wraps his leg around the post. HHH applies the Figure-4 on the CORRECT leg can this man do no wrong? Taker goozle in the figure-4 and I am getting excited for this closing stretch, but it is 1999. Chyna get nervous and is in with the chair Taker stops her and here comes The Rock to lay the Smackdown on his Dead Roody-Poo Candy Ass. HHH hightails out of it. The Rock and Bossman (they teased a Bossman face turn!?!?!?!?) beat off the Ministry and tie Paul Bearer to the Brahama Bull symbol and Rocky has some choice words for the Lord of Darkness. It is too bad they went with that finish because this match was well on its way to being the best RAW match so far. It does set up the reason for HHH to cost Rocky the World Title because he cost him the title here and one can argue Trips was in pretty good shape having softened up Taker's knee. It is surprisingly good match until the Attitude Era finish. 

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Thats how I felt watching their matches in 1999

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Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock - RAW Steel Cage Match 7/5/99

What a piece of monkey crap this was! The only thing saving this match was the fact The Rock was just so damn over it didn't matter that this match made no sense because the crowd just wanted to cheer for The Rock. There is a real disconnect between the angle and the way the match is wrestled, which is a pet peeve of mine. Rock cost HHH the title and then HHH cost Rocky the title and JR is blithering how this is so damn personal so Rock tries to escape three minutes in after he punches HHH a couple time.

WHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT????

HHH knocks him off and he does a great bump off the turnbuckle. Also, I don't know if 1999 in general has short shine segments, it was the evil HHH holding people down that caused short shine segments or the fact Rock preferred taking heat right away, but HHH is in control pretty quickly. Then there is weird bit with handcuffs. HHH is in control so it is not like he desperately needs the handcuffs. So I guess he wants to really kick the Rock's ass, but he never uses them and at the first sign of trouble (low blow by The Rock) he heads to escape (HHH cutoff via swinging neckbreaker) and the handcuffs are never used.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT???

 Rocky throws HHH off the top turnbuckle and this levels the playing field. Chyna, who is the best worker in this match, knocks Tim White out with the cage (finally someone used the cage) and drags HHH out. Rock follows and catapults HHH into the cage, who does a pretty good sell. Rock drags him back in and shuts the door. I was half-expecting that he would just start climbing give the rampant non-psychology at this point. Rock actually starts throwing him into the cage and hits a Samoan Drop. He tries to escape again?!??!?! Seriously dude that's all the anger you could muster. Chyna actually sells her anxiety better than Rocky is selling anything (anger or injury). HHH hits a facebuster and sends him into the cage and levels the playing field again. They battle on top of the cage and HHH with the spot of the match pokes Rock in the eye and cracks him with a chair. To be consistent with how inane this match has been, Triple H decides to go through the door which is diagonally opposed to him and he staggers and crotches himself of the ropes and tied himself up albeit stupid it was a good heel spot. The race is on and Rocky wins.

Personally, I think the onus for this pile of shit needs to fall on The Rock as the avenging babyface he needed to be the one that wanted to stay in that cage until he kicked some ass, but he never seemed too inclined to kick ass as he was ready to leave as soon as possible. Triple H was adequate as a heel he did some things well like show ass at the finish and worked good cutoffs like his high knee, but he too needed to show better aggression, but I think Rock is more to blame. There you have it Chyna out worked the both of them.

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Triple H w/Chyna & Vince McMahon vs The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer - 

RAW 7/19/99 No. 1 Contender's match

The winner faces Austin for the WWF Title at Fully Loaded in a First Blood: End of an Era Match. It is an End of Era because if the Corporate Ministry member loses then Vinny Mac is off TV and Austin loses he will never get a shot at the championship again. This angle got me off WWF TV until I started watching again for HHH/Steph marriage because I was such a huge McMahon fan at the time. Then Russo ruined my beloved WCW and I had to start watching WWF simultaneously (I never gave up on WCW until about Fall of 2000). So McMahon is having this match to see which Corporate Ministry member is best fit to defeat Austin. I don't know based on what I have seen from Taker this muthafucka could still go in 1999. I know he had a rep for being lazy in this era, but he was flying around and that was an excellent shine sequence (Taker was the de facto face). I thought they did a good job using Chyna to transition to HHH's control. HHH using the high knee as a cutoff is just fantastic. Seriously, I think these two had a kickass match in them in 1999 it is too bad we never got it. Steve Austin hits the ring after Taker chokeslams HHH and a melee ensues with Rocky joining the fray. Austin locks Taker in an ambulance and busts McMahon open for old time's sake. Taker comes back and busts Austin open to sell the stip for Fully Loaded. I wish Taker/HHH had a chance to have a match in 1999 because I think they could have rocked it. This was solid, fundamental angle building, which I enjoyed.

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Triple H vs The Rock - WWF Fully Loaded '99 Strap Match No. 1 Contenders

HHH has since cut the famed My Time "shoot" promo. I didn't think it was that shooty. It used some real-life backstage stuff to feed the fire of HHH's rise, but it was not a super shoot promo or anything.

The last Rock/HHH match was just nonsensical this match was plain fuckin boring. It was a typical Attitude Era brawl and there just so happened to be a strap connecting them. Even Lawler was begging for someone to use the strap either to choke or whip somebody. The Rock cuts a promo and with promos like that there is a reason why his in ring work could be shit. Rock does not even get strapped in he just lays the Smackdown on HHH's candy ass. He even takes a picture of this with a hot broad's disposable camera (damn she had nice toned arms). HHH, having been disrespected, takes over with punches and it is all down hill. There is some boring brawling by the Spanish Announce Table. Then some boring brawling in the ring. Then some boring brawling in the crowd. Then some boring brawl by the entrance area. Hey HHH finally whipped The Rock! I don't care if this gimmick was arbitrary and capricious for the feud the onus is on the wrestlers to use it. Rock starts to mount a comeback, but HHH high knee stymies him. The high knee cutoff is the best spot in HHH arsenal at this point. Chyna is out to signal that finish is starting. Thank God! HHH is all like "I want to do this myself" and Chyna is all like "That is not what you said last night in bed, tune changer". Rock Bottom! Rock is all like "Let me take a deep breath through my nose for the umpteenth time" and HHH cracks him in the People's jewels. This apparently the first time People's Jewels was coined because Lawler found it hilarious. HHH throws Rock to outside and says to hell with the strap. JR's indignation about this is hilarious. To paraphrase his tone: "That's not right. That's just not right. The ref should give him a stern talking to. I am going to write a polite, but tough letter about this." Rock hits the DDT, but Billy Gunn in see through tights is bethonged and  hits Rock's head with a dong. Ok it was a club, but I couldn't miss that rhyme. HHH is pissed that he has had all this help! I bet he is going to be super passive aggressive about who  should clean the hotel room that night. Rock somehow manages to find and hit HHH's shrunken testicles so that he can hit the Most Electrifying Move in Sports Entertainment. Gunn pulls Rock off via the strap and HHH hits the Pedigree to win. The first half was wicked boring. HHH was just punching and punching. The Rock's go to move was to breathe deeply through his nose. The finish was pretty funny with all the Attitude Era hijinx. Total dogshit match and one of the worst matches I have watched in a real long time. 

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WWF World Heavyweight Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Triple H vs Mankind - Summerslam 1999

Yep, this is the first thing I watched on the WWE network. Judge away. :) Besides the fact that you have to guess where the match would begin and the incessant buffering throughout, the better video quality over youtube was worth it.

Jesse "The Body" Ventura is the special guest referee for the match since it was held in Minnesota where he was governor at the time. The Body reads HHH and Foley the Riot Act and he won't be putting up with any bullshit tonight. I have head different reasons for why Mankind was added to the match: 1. Austin did not want to job the title to HHH 2. They did not want Ventura to have declare HHH (a heel) the new Champ. If it really is reason #2, then why Austin have to lose anyways other than because Austin did not want to job the title to HHH. Feel free to present new information because I am unsure of this, but based on the information I know this seems to be the reason. In the storylines, it did make sense because HHH put Foley on the shelf back in May so it only makes sense that he would want to exact some vengeance. I watched this match about a year ago and did not think much of it. This time around I thought HHH really outshone both Austin and Foley in this match. Austin was clearly hurting and needed time off. Foley was coming back from an injury was still shaking off that ring rust. Based on what I have seen, HHH is clearly the best WWF main event worker and it is not really close. He bumps big, he shines a babyface up real nice, he heels pretty well. He needs to work on his heat segments, but overall he is a pretty solid performer at this point.

At the beginning of the match, HHH bounces around like a pinball for the broken down Austin and ailing Foley. Mankind goes in for the hug with Austin and Austin gives him the big 'ol FU. Austin whoops both their asses. Chyna, who has really impressed me on the outside, shoves Mankind into the post, which draws Ventura's attention so that HHH can wrap a chair around Austin's knee. This incapacitates Austin and HHH and Mankind go at it. I thought they did a pretty good job with the hardest part of triple threat matches the transitions from pairing to pairing. Mankind gets the Mandible Claw, but no Socko, so it is not as potent without his special junk juice (alliteration is just too damn tempting). Chyna trips up Foley and posts him. The Body throws Chyna out. In their protest (Chyna did a great job,), Austin makes a beeline for Hunter and floors him. Helmsley is able to wrap Stone Cold's knee around the post and now HHH/Foley double team Austin. Mankind calls for HHH to do the Figure-4, but goes for the cover himself. WWE network censors HHH's audible "What the fuck are you doing". I wonder if they will censor all his spot calling. Mankind hits the Cactus Clothesline, but crashes and burns on the somersault plancha onto the floor. O Foley. Austin is back up, but HHH goes back to work on the knee, but Austin pulls his legs in and HHH goes nose first into the post. Austin's mindless brawling is really tiresome. Foley and HHH take two really good back bumps for Austin. It is painfully obvious how badly Austin needed a year off at this point, but given the crowd reactions he gets it is so hard to pull the trigger on that. I am glad doctor's orders finally reigned supreme. Austin catapults HHH into Mankind and STUNNER to Foley!

HHH breaks it up with chair and wallops Foley in the head unprotected with the chair. O Foley. The Body refuses to count for Triple H. The crowd pops huge. They tease HHH/Body confrontation (should have milked it longer) before Shane O Mac comes out in the glorious "I just passed The Test" shirt. I had forgotten about that. Austin hits a weak ass Stunner on Shane that still draws a pop and Ventura gets a bigger pop for throwing the little bastard out of the ring. In his excitement, Austin nearly toppled over the ropes and got caught in them, which had me laughing heartily. Mankind applies the double Manible Claw, but only one has the special junk juice soaked sock. HHH was not choking down that sock so he had the wherewithal to break out of it and go for the Pedigree. Austin clobbers him. Austin STUNNER TO HHH. PEDIGREE TO AUSTIN! DOUBLE ARM DDT TO AUSTIN! And Mankind wins?!?!?!?!??!?!

I think the current 8 million false finish/finisher/finisher reversals/finisher steal style had me all fucked up because this seemed downright abrupt after only 4 finishers! Even though, I full well knew that Foley won this match I was still taken by surprise and that crowd sure was too. I actually enjoyed this match just fine and thought HHH was really good as the glue. Austin was running at 25% and his brawling was tepid and tiresome. Foley brought a couple bumps, but not much else to the table. Still, whoever called this match got it right because there was no downtime, everything kept moving, and transitions were well worked.   ***1/4

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WWF World Heavyweight Champion Mankind vs Triple H - RAW 8/23/99

HHH threatened to break JR's arm in order to get a championship match and then broke it anyways so Foley denied him then Shane O Mac forced Mankind to defend anyways. It was actually a great douchey start because HHH knew he could get away with it all because he had Shane O Mac in his pocket, The Rock is out to do some guest commentary and is mostly enjoyable on commentary. Chyna is out with HHH because she is selling Double J's guitar shot from earlier. HHH is rocking some chain mail before the match. Did I miss chain mail being really in between 1999-2000 that both HHH and Steiner were rocking it. O finally, Shane O Mac is your special guest ref. They actually do an early spot to establish that Shane will be biased to HHH when Foley goes for an early cover and Shane O jaws with Rocky. Psychology! The match gets really weird as they put what usually is the finish stretch in the beginning as Mankind's shine segment. He Socko's Shane, HHH and an ailing Chyna (who sells throughout the match and post-match.) HHH did not love Chyna for her body, he loved her for her beautiful wrestling mind. :)

Triple H Irish whips Foley into Chyna who hiptosses him so that he does his usual leg bump onto the steps. Outside of the high knee cutoff, HHH really has nothing during his heat segments. He is much better at bumping at this point. Foley's comeback is weak. Cole mentions that Mankind is fired up because the injury to JR and really I did not feel that at all. Mankind was just wrestling. I would have loved so bigger HHH pinball bumping, but I don't blame HHH because it is not like Mankind was giving him anything to bump off of it. Shane awakes and hits Mankind with a chair and he no sells it. However, Triple takes advantage to paste Foley with a chair and might as well clobber The Rock for good measure. He hits the Pedigree for the victory. Chyna grabbing her head celebrates with Triple H. It was a pretty anti-climatic victory.

This match is really strange. You have Mankind taking out Shane and busting out Socko like they were going to finish early. Then they had a tedious heat segment followed by a quick finish. It just does not build towards anything. Given the amount of investment they put into HHH's push, they really would have busted out the big fireworks.

On the docket, we got the last batch of matches from 2000-2002 in Japan as we look at the last matches the Four Corners of Heaven had together in pre-split All Japan. Finally, we wrap it all up in a big awards ceremony for 2000-2002 naming the best matches in different categories. Stay Frosty!

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