Pro Wrestling Love vol. 13: Best of WWF Attitude Era 1998-2001 (Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley)

Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 13:

The Greatest Matches of WWF 1998-2001

Objective:  Break up the Greatest Match Ever Project (hosted at gwe.freeforums.project.net) into more manageable chunks to help me build my Top 100 List for the project.

Motivation: Contribute to the discussion around these matches to enrich my own understanding of pro wrestling and give a fresh perspective for old matches and even hopefully discover great pro wrestling matches that have been hidden by the sands of time.

Subject: This thirteenth volume of Pro Wrestling Love begins the Top 12 countdown of the best matches to take place in the World Wrestling Federation from 1998-2001. To me, this is the Attitude Era, I think some people would tack a year on at the beginning and end, but I would argue 1997 and 1998 are two very distinct landscapes. The year 1997 had Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels as the focal point and both were gone in 1998. In 1998, Stone Cold Steve Austin won the title and never looked back. The year 2001 saw WWF buy their competition, WCW and it also Austin’s last full time year. The year 2002 feels like more of a transition year and the first year where they really tried to capitalize on nostalgia with first the New World Order and then Hulk Hogan.   You can revisit past Pro Wrestling Love Volumes at ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com. You can check out the full version of these reviews in ProWrestlingOnly.com by going to the forums and finding the folders associated with the date of the match.

FIVE STARS!

Honorable Mentions

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Vince McMahon – St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Steel Cage Match

WWF World Champion Triple H vs Vince McMahon – Smackdown 9/16/99

Going back and watching Attitude Era TV and you will understand how awesome the Mr. McMahon character is. We all know about the classic McMahon heel character and there is no better match to showcase that than  hos blowoff steel cage match against Austin in February 1999. However, what is an underrated is how damn good walking tall babyface defending his family honor, Vince McMahon is. I think the HHH vs Mr. McMahon match from Smackdown is legitimately great and is a hidden gem.

WWF World Champion The Rock vs Mankind – RAW 1/4/99

Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy wins the big one! It is the feel good moment of the Attitude Era. I don’t need to say more.

WWF World Tag Champions Dudleyz vs Hardyz vs Edge & Christian – Wrestlemania X-7

WWF World Tag Team Champions Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs Dudleyz vs Hardyz vs Edge & Christian – Smackdown 5/24/01 TLC

The last matches out. As with all TLC matches these are super fun car crash stunt show daredevil matches.

The Twelfth to Seventh Best Matches of WWF from 1998-2001

#12. Owen Hart vs Ken Shamrock – Fully Loaded 1998 Dungeon Match

Owen Hart wrestled this match in Zubaz short. FIVE STARS!

This is an incredibly compelling and gripping five minute sprint. Shamrock needed more of these. This takes place in the vaunted Hart Family Dungeon. It is a shoot-style (ok as shoot style as WWF would get). It feels like a bar room brawl. Part of this match’s charm is how well it is shot. It close up and tight. It feels gritty and real. The work is so snug. They worked the throws, strikes and slams into the wall so organically. The best part was the straight front kick from Shamrock that sent Owen flying into the wall. Owen cheats like a muthafucka with a low blow, lead pipe and then the dumbbell finish. Owen was at his self-congratulating best here. All the cheating protected Shamrock for the Lion’s Den rematch at Summerslam. So stiff, so explosive, a great five minute sprint with unique camera work and atmosphere.

#11. Kurt Angle vs Shane McMahon – King Of The Ring 2001

I can already hear my good buddy, Charles (the head & founder of ProWrestlingOnly.com) groaning at this selection. So here’s my defense. Kurt Angle was touted as an Olympic Gold Medalist. But he never wrestled as one from his debut through 2001. He was presented as a cowardly heel who bumped and was outsmarted by babyfaces. Even, when he played babyface he sold like any other wrestler would. He is not Brock Lesnar. He is not Ronda Rousey. He did not wrestle like an Olympic Wrestler. If you take people’s criticism of this match to its logical conclusion only Brock Lesnar should have been able to Kurt Angle. Still, how do you cover for the fact that Shane McMahon the pudgy, untrained Greenwich-born boss’ son can hang with a conventional pro wrestler, Kurt Angle.

We need to bear in mind Kurt Angle already had two matches going into this match as he was taking part in the King of the Ring tournament (lost to Edge in the finals). Kurt takes ShaneOMac down with ease, but you have to remember Angle is the heel. So there’s an established narrative of the overconfident heel being shown up by the babyface during the shine that’s what happens here. Angle leaves himself in a prone position and Shame wisely punts him in the ribs and reigns down haymakers. That requires no skill, but it will injure Angle. That gives Shane an opening. When Angle begins his comeback, gets on his bike and turns into a track meet, again no wrestling skill. Then he goes aerial with the barricade. This is an established strategy against shooters most famously used by CM Punk at Summerslam 2013 against Brock Lesnar. Then he goes for a Kendo Stick and brains him! This match is totally credible. He is taking advantage of Angle’s overconfidence and using weapons, a totally valid offensive strategy. My main criticism of the match is that Shane sucks at selling. He is so bad at selling that he is in over his head and eliciting sympathy. This would have skyrocketed up the charts. Shane’s weapons-based dominance comes to an end when he eats trash can on a Shooting Star Press. He went for a home run and got burnt. This is when the match famously goes up the entrance ramp. I had seen the famous moment when Angle throws Shane through the glass on Don’t Try This Home ad. I did NOT know that the first time he tried IT DID NOT BREAK AND HE LANDED RIGHT ON HIS HEAD! HOLY SHIT! Then when they went through they both got cut up really bad. Did they use real glass? Those are two crazy muthafuckas! Wow! That’s Foley-level batshit insanity. The rest of the match is still brutal. I liked Shane getting one last hope spot courtesy of a lowblow, again a credible way to put Shane on offense. Angle beating the tar out of him with a piece of table and the Super Angle slam is a great finish. It is too bad Shane is not every a little but sympathetic. One of the best individual Kurt Angle performances, sadistic on top and vulnerable when he needed to be. They did a great job coming up with smart, credible ways to get Shane on offense and that breaking glass window spots were insane. Awesome brawl.  

HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!

#10. WWF World Tag Team Champions Edge & Christian vs Hardyz vs Dudleyz
Summerslam 2000 TLC

The Hardyz vs Edge & Christian Ladder Match at No Mercy 1999 innovated the car crash, stunt show, daredevil matches that are now a staple of WWF programming. It is here at Summerslam that they cemented this genre’s place in the WWF forever. Now TLC has a PPV named after is and almost all major PPVs have a match like this to fill out the card and get a lot of people on the show. So why did this one make the list as opposed to the other two that were merely honorable mentions. The difference is the finish. The Mania finish is a crazy series of three massive highspots, but the actual finish is anti-climatic. Here I think each elimination of a person is smart and spectacular. These are fun Summer action, blockbusters. Don’t overthink them. Just enjoy.

#9. WWF World Heavyweight Champion Mankind vs The Rock – Royal Rumble 1999 I Quit Match

WWF Match of The Year, 1999

The only match of this countdown that I watched live. I was an odd child for many reasons, but one of the myriad was that I hated asking my parents to buy me stuff. I told you I was weird. The one exception would be wrestling Pay Per Views, but I was judicious. I still only wanted them to buy the special ones. Like Spring Stampede 1998, a meaningless PPV for many people, but Macho Man Randy Savage was challenging for the World Championship for the first time since I became a fan. He won too! The less said about the next night on Nitro the better (I still have the Nitro match on VHS from when I recorded Nitros). The next PPV I was interested was a Royal Rumble. What is not to love? 30 WRESTLERS! That’s a kid’s dream. Plus it was the height of Austin vs McMahon and my favorite character, Mr. McMahon was going to be in the Royal Rumble! I was sold! I told you I was a weird kid. As a by-product, I did get to watch this match. Man, it has stuck with me since and always thought this was one helluva brawl. It is famous for Rock giving Mankind like 15 unprotected steel chair shots to the head while Foley is handcuffed in front of his family. It is brutal to watch, but also compelling.

I am going to do this review backwards. The screwjob finish is about the only way out unless you want to completely shatter a heel's credibility. Theres no way you can have a babyface say I Quit. So why not just play the tape of Foley saying I Quit at the beginning of the match. Well, there was a lot of enmity between the two. The Rock really did hate Foley at the time so you think he would want to dish out some pain after being humiliated earlier in the month losing to Foley. I'll give them a pass on the finish. I think was serviceable and what needed to be done. 

Now the chairshots. They were brutal and plentiful. I lost count. It is definitely one of the more brutal things you will ever see in wrestling. To have his kids front row for Mick Foley's Masochistic Theatre of Pain is weird. I have never read his book. I think I listened to him once on Austin's podcast, but I kinda forget the deal. I think he had a shoot grudge with The Rock afterwards. I have a hard time believing The Rock went into business for himself. It just seems very much in Foley's nature to invite this level of sick pain. It is definitely one of the nastier ways to end a match. 

Now the electrocution bump. Horrible setup. The Rock just climbing up there for no reason. Foley takes the bump, sparks fly. Cool bump and the lights go out. Shane-O Mac sells it by coming out to stop the match. The Rock gets all indignant that he is going to make his fat ass say I Quit. I liked the People's Elbow on the chair. The ballshots were great hope spots in the handcuffs.  

Everything before Foley Masochistic Theatre of Pain (electrocution bump and chairshots) was awesome! Like they were well on their way to a classic. Great babyface shine. Foley was rocking. Rocky was bumping. I loved stuff like Rock whipping Foley into the steps for his first bit of offense after the Mankind onslaught, he gets cocky and starts jaw-jacking on commentary. Foley attacks him. Rocky had only hit one move. He had NOT cemented advantage and he paid for it. Great stuff! Loved the Double Arm DDT and Mr. Socko early. Great climatic way to end the shine. It is definitely in Foley's nature to want more pain. He lives for pain and it is not enough. The Rock's heat segment was entertaining as hell. Ringing the bell in the ear, singing a little bit, Evian Spew on Foley. Then Foley's hot comeback which leads to the electrocution bump. 

Great, hate-filled beginning, terrible setup for the big bump, good stuff directly after the big bump, sick, self-indulgent Foley's Theatre of pain is way too much and the screwjob finish is serviceable. Overall I think this is WWF MOTY for 1999 (terrible year) and still a really interesting match to watch. ****1/4

#8. Dudleyz vs Hardyz – Royal Rumble 2000  Tables Match

In my mind, this is the smartest Tables match in history and the best of all the “car crash” matches. What helps this match so much is that every single spot was motivated by trying to put someone through the table to win the match. It was not crazy spots for the sake of crazy spots.  They were trying to win the match the whole time and as a by-product they were entertaining the fans.  This match is also helped by the rules. You have to put your opponent through a table and the partners have to go through consecutively, which means that there is a lot of misses so a lot more table carnage. People are just flying through tables at a break-neck pace. There are so many awesome, badass spots in this. The finish is spectacular with Bubba falling from the balcony through the table and then Jeff Hardy swandives onto Devon through table. The Hardyz were a good looking tag team and were always gonna be over with the women. To get them over with men they needed to prove their mettle against gnarly monsters in violent bouts and this did that in spades. Definitely check this one out!

#7. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs Triple H – No Way Out 2001 Three Stages of Hell

I’ll try not to write a review as long as this match. :P Actually, one of the reasons I picked this countdown to do was because I am sick and don’t feel like writing much. There is not much in-depth analysis necessary for Attitude Era matches. However, this is a looooooong match. Actually the reason, why it is number 7 and not higher and also not in contention for being a candidate to make the top 100 matches of all time is because it is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong match. Did I mention this match is really, really fucking loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong?

All kidding aside, the first two falls are humdingers and feature some really good wrestling. The first fall is a straight wrestling match. Stone Cold’s return in late 2000 brought traditional wrestling to forefront and this will be seen in the next volume where four of the six matches feature Stone Cold in 2001. What this does so well is mix traditional wrestling with hate and urgency. Austin is a totally house of fire from jump and HHH is overwhelmed. It really sets the tone for the match. Love that the first chance he gets HHH goes for the Pedigree and it really puts over his desperation. There is really great arm psychology set up by Austin hitting single-arm DDT out of the Pedigree attempt. Tenacious is how I would describe Austin. He always gives maximal effort. We get double limb psychology! When did I wake up in Crockett? HHH chop blocks the leg. There is a great moment where HHH looks to wrap Austin’s leg around the post only for Austin to use his leg to pull HHH shoulder-first into the post. Amazing! The double limb psychology really makes this first fall a total treat. KICK WHAM STUNNER! You honestly didn’t need another two falls. This was an incredible match unto itself.

The next fall is a street fight. The story of this fall is how the hell does HHH figure out a way to hit his kill shot, the Pedigree when Austin is wrestling like a lunatic. HHH was on his bicycle trying to run from the crazed Austin. He was wrestling like a man possessed. I really liked Austin doing the Garvin stomp but with a steel chair! We really are in Crockett! HHH finds his opening via barbed wire covered 2x4. He goes for the Pedigree on the announce (while selling the arm!), only to be back dropped on the Spanish Announce Table, which explodes. The ring bell sets up another Pedigree attempt, but again HHH takes a gnarly back body drop this time from the ring to the floor. Finally, third time is a charm, it is ‘ol Sweet Lady Sledge that is enough to put Austin down to hit a Pedigree. Loved the escalation and how Austin was constantly fighting back and HHH was fighting through it but with weapons to earn the Pedigree. Another tremendous fall.

Unfortunately, there is a third fall in the steel cage. It just drags. The street fight was a spirited, fast-paced brawl. This is one of those methodical, drawn out HHH snoozefests. Things get especially shaky with them each kicking out of the other’s finisher. Remember how hard HHH tried to use the Pedigree and he finally got the second fall. Remember how one Stunner in the first fall spelled Game Over. Yeah, I didn’t like that. They both go for weapon shots and nail each other simultaneously and Trips falls on Austin. I will say the finish at least fits in with the overarching narrative. Austin’s loss here before Wrestlemania X-7 feeds his self-doubt which leads to his heel turn at Mania. The first two falls are tremendous some of the best wrestling either man has done in his career. Sadly they ran out of gas in the third fall.