Well, the two Dusts, Blue and Gold, collided Mankind and the Rock half killed each other, Al Snow and Hardcore Holly brawled into the street and Steve Austin booked himself a title shot at Wrestlemania in this thoroughly entertaining PPV, that turned out to be far better than the Wrestlemania show it was building towards.
THe story going in was that Mr McMahon, following his Royal Rumble victory, announced that he would not be cashing in his title shot at Wrestlemania. WWE Commissioner Shawn Michaels then stepped in and gave the title shot to Austin, the runner up in the Royal Rumble. Austin offered to put his title shot on the line for the chance to go one on one with Vince.
There was little clue that anything remotely good was going to come out of the night in our first match, which saw the battle between Goldust and The Job Squad's Bluedust. I never liked watching the Blue Meanie character, and was happy, even more than a decade later, to see him lose here in short fashion.
This was followed by a nice hardcore match between Al Snow and Hardcore Holly, who were both members of the JOB Squad. Holly and Snow were simply never more entertaining than at this stage in their careers. They both seemed made for cutting tough guy promos, smashing people in the head with stuff and wrestling in freezing water, all of which happens here, and Holly wins the title. Enjoyable spectacle.
Next match was another forgettable one with Boss Man taking on Mideon. Mideon had been a hog farmer in a previous gimmick, and here was a particularly useless member of Undertaker's ministry. I've never really had much opinion on him, positive or negative, as a worker. This was a short match, won easily by Boss Man, which was made to set up a Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Boss Man at Wrestlemania.
Next match saw Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett retain the tag team titles over Mark Henry and D Lo Brown. This was a match I struggled to pay much attention too, with the grim realisation that just three months later Jarrett was giving a heartfelt and incredibly moving pre-recorded tribute on RAW after Owen had fallen to his death prior to a match in one of the most horrendous tragedies in pro wrestling history.
Next match saw Val Venis defeat Ken Shamrock to win the Intercontinental Championship in a decent match with a rather vulgar back story involving Venis making an "adult movie" with Ken's sister Ryan, who was then mooned by Billy Gunn, who was the guest referee. RYan accompanied Venis to ringside, helped him make a ropebreak and then slapped him allowing Venis to get the roll up pin and win the match. Well Ryan was hot and Val's gimmick was a porn star. Didn't require a creative genius to work that storyline out.
OK, next match was from the brief period in time where Chyna had joined the Corporation, but Triple H and X-Pac stayed in DX. Chyna got Kane for a tag team partner. I seem to remember Kane had joined the Corporation under threat from McMahon to have him put into a mental asylum, but don't try to follow every angle at this stage in history. You'll either go insane or die laughing. Kane a Chyna win after a chokeslam. Not a terrible match.
NExt up was the big WWE title match between the Rock and Mankind. This was the fourth time these two had met for the Championship, with the results reversing each time. To try and settle things once and for all, they faced off here in a Last Man Standing Match. These two were always great together, whether as opponents or later as a tag team, and this was no exception. They have a long, brutal brawl which eventually ends in a double ten count following both men smashing each other with running chairshots simultaneously. So it looked like Mankind would be going to Wrestlemania.
Brings us to the main event of the evening which is the official first in ring meeting between Steve Austin and VInce McMahon with the #1 contendership at stake. McMahon gets absolutely pounded, takes one of the funniest bumps of all time, off the top of a cage and onto a table and then has to sit back and watch as his trump card, the Big Show, throws Austin into the cage so hard that the wall Austin lands on comes unstuck and swings him to victory. Finally Austin is going to Wrestlemania!!! But he would not be wrestling Mankind, who lost the WWE Title to the Rock in a ladder match the following night after interference from Big Show. The main event would be Rock vs Austin, and it doesn't get much bigger than that!
THe story going in was that Mr McMahon, following his Royal Rumble victory, announced that he would not be cashing in his title shot at Wrestlemania. WWE Commissioner Shawn Michaels then stepped in and gave the title shot to Austin, the runner up in the Royal Rumble. Austin offered to put his title shot on the line for the chance to go one on one with Vince.
There was little clue that anything remotely good was going to come out of the night in our first match, which saw the battle between Goldust and The Job Squad's Bluedust. I never liked watching the Blue Meanie character, and was happy, even more than a decade later, to see him lose here in short fashion.
This was followed by a nice hardcore match between Al Snow and Hardcore Holly, who were both members of the JOB Squad. Holly and Snow were simply never more entertaining than at this stage in their careers. They both seemed made for cutting tough guy promos, smashing people in the head with stuff and wrestling in freezing water, all of which happens here, and Holly wins the title. Enjoyable spectacle.
Next match was another forgettable one with Boss Man taking on Mideon. Mideon had been a hog farmer in a previous gimmick, and here was a particularly useless member of Undertaker's ministry. I've never really had much opinion on him, positive or negative, as a worker. This was a short match, won easily by Boss Man, which was made to set up a Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Boss Man at Wrestlemania.
Next match saw Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett retain the tag team titles over Mark Henry and D Lo Brown. This was a match I struggled to pay much attention too, with the grim realisation that just three months later Jarrett was giving a heartfelt and incredibly moving pre-recorded tribute on RAW after Owen had fallen to his death prior to a match in one of the most horrendous tragedies in pro wrestling history.
Next match saw Val Venis defeat Ken Shamrock to win the Intercontinental Championship in a decent match with a rather vulgar back story involving Venis making an "adult movie" with Ken's sister Ryan, who was then mooned by Billy Gunn, who was the guest referee. RYan accompanied Venis to ringside, helped him make a ropebreak and then slapped him allowing Venis to get the roll up pin and win the match. Well Ryan was hot and Val's gimmick was a porn star. Didn't require a creative genius to work that storyline out.
OK, next match was from the brief period in time where Chyna had joined the Corporation, but Triple H and X-Pac stayed in DX. Chyna got Kane for a tag team partner. I seem to remember Kane had joined the Corporation under threat from McMahon to have him put into a mental asylum, but don't try to follow every angle at this stage in history. You'll either go insane or die laughing. Kane a Chyna win after a chokeslam. Not a terrible match.
NExt up was the big WWE title match between the Rock and Mankind. This was the fourth time these two had met for the Championship, with the results reversing each time. To try and settle things once and for all, they faced off here in a Last Man Standing Match. These two were always great together, whether as opponents or later as a tag team, and this was no exception. They have a long, brutal brawl which eventually ends in a double ten count following both men smashing each other with running chairshots simultaneously. So it looked like Mankind would be going to Wrestlemania.
Brings us to the main event of the evening which is the official first in ring meeting between Steve Austin and VInce McMahon with the #1 contendership at stake. McMahon gets absolutely pounded, takes one of the funniest bumps of all time, off the top of a cage and onto a table and then has to sit back and watch as his trump card, the Big Show, throws Austin into the cage so hard that the wall Austin lands on comes unstuck and swings him to victory. Finally Austin is going to Wrestlemania!!! But he would not be wrestling Mankind, who lost the WWE Title to the Rock in a ladder match the following night after interference from Big Show. The main event would be Rock vs Austin, and it doesn't get much bigger than that!