Favourite UK WWF/WWE PPV

[Wolf Pac]

Summerslam 1992 doesn't count. I'm talking strictly UK WWF/WWE PPV's like Rampage, Battle Royal At The Albert Hall, One Night Only, Mayhem In Manchester, Capital Carnage, Insurrextion, Rebellion and anything else I may have forgotten.

For me, it's Capital Carnage.

This capped off my favourite year in the WWF, 1998. In the main event we saw the 4 guys who spent the majority of that year in the main event scene feuding with each other, compete in a Fatal 4 Way, Austin vs. Undertaker vs. Kane vs. Mankind, and it was a fun exciting wild brawl. The Rock defended the WWF Championship against X-Pac in a great WWF Championship match, the crowd were really behind X-Pac and wanted him to win the title. X-Pac looked like he could believably win the belt and came close. Other matches on the card I liked were Triple H vs. Jeff Jarrett, Val Venis vs. Goldust, New Age Outlaws vs. The Nation, Al Snow vs. Gangrel, Sable and Christian vs. Mero and Jacqueline etc. Vince along with Shane, Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson cut a harsh promo during the show on the UK, just really laying into the British crowd, lol. We also saw an appearance from Vinnie Jones, who was coming off hot from Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels that year. I loved Vinnie's appearance and the two toughest sumbitches Austin & Vinnie in the ring at the same time drinking a beer together to close the PPV was an awesome moment. We also saw Jacqueline's boobs. Usually on UK PPV's, storylines and feuds from the major weekly shows/PPV's weren't acknowledged, which made the UK PPV's seem unimportant but on this show they did acknowledge the storylines and feuds from the major shows, which made this show look important. The crowd really seemed to dig the show and had a good time. Unfortunately I found out recently that JR suffered his second bells-palsy attack on this show but other than that, I absolutely loved this show.

 

[Goldie]

I think One Night Only in September 1997 as a decent card

Being based in England- the Birmingham NEC arena- the main event wasn’t the WWE world title match between Bret Hart and the Undertaker- it was the European title match between the British Bulldog and Shawn Michaels.
Leading up to the PPV- Davey understood he was going over- it was unheard of him to lose in the UK- home soil.
He also claimed in the media that he would dedicate the match to his cancer stricken sister Tracy.

However on the day of the PPV Shawn changed Vinces mind- and the end was switched to a victory for HBK.
Davey and Shawn always gelled well together and put on a really decent match – and the other DX member came in and interfered, 4 on 1 at times- with Davey eventually passing out to the figure 4 leglock (not quitting in front of his patriotic home crowd)…

The emotion of the crowd was off the scale- they were genuinely infuriated that Davey had lost in front of his home crowd- made worse still has Shawn mocked them and mocked Dina Hart on the microphone. Bulldogs sister was in tears, visibly upset … watched her brother pass out to the figure 4, and died not long after.
Eventually the Harts made the save- though bret says in his book that having to leave it so late, it made them look a bunch of chumps as the damage was already done whilst the crowd has been desperate for them to save Davey.
The DX guys were pelted with garbage on their way to the back.

Davey was promised a return win over Shawn the next April- but of course that never happened with the Montreal Screwjob just 2 months away.
It was a shame Davey had to lose- but the match was so political and the crowd so incensed, that it lives long in the memory.

Aside from that Bret and Taker had a strong world title match- despite the screwy DQ finish.
Vader and Owen Hart worked a good big man vs little man match, and the earlier card matches included LOD beating the Godwins, and HHH beating Dude Love (Mick Foley).

This was the first big show in the UK for several years after the WWF lost its popularity from 1993-96…. So they pulled out all the stops to make it a good show… even if other UK shows have since been a bit lacklustre

 

[King Patrick Star]

My favorite WWE United Kingdom pay per view is Rebellion 2001. Yes, it has everything to do with the event taking place during the Invasion angle. One of my favorite parts of the show was the backstage skit with the Alliance. I couldn’t find a clip, but here’s the transcript I came across.

Shane McMahon: "It's all about momentum and man, do we have momentum going for us! With the position of Kurt Angle, oh, man, the Alliance is on the roll! History once again can be made tonight!"

Steve Austin: "You're damn right we got momentum. The Alliance has, we got Kurt Angle with us right now, right here tonight and we don't have to worry about Survivor Series, we're right here in Manchester, Stone Cold Steve Austin is gonna go out there and for the World Wrestling Federation Championship whip the Rock's ass."

Kurt Angle: "Yeah!"

Steve Austin: "Hey, I'm trying to talk. I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about you. Can you get the job done?"

Kurt Angle: "Yeah! I, I'm gonna beat Chris Jericho for the WCW title tonight! You can count on me!"

Shane McMahon: "Now we have all the gold. Do you all understand? Now we have all the power, all the gold! That's it."

Kurt Angle: "Hey, I don't know if you guys noticed this, but this table is round. We're in England! You get it? Knights of the Round Table. Yeah! Think about this. Stone Cold, you could be, you could be King Arthur!"

Steve Austin: "What?"

Kurt Angle: "Yes. Debra, you could be, you could be Guinevere. Yeah. And Shane you could be Merlin!"

Shane McMahon: "A magician?"

Kurt Angle: "Yeah, a magician! And, and, and me I could be Sir Galahad. Yeah. And and and since we're good knights, we need bad knights, too."

Steve Austin: "I'm having a bad night right now."

Kurt Angle: "What?"

Steve Austin: "Merlin, can you make me disappear?"

Kurt Angle: "Ahh, what I say, we gotta have bad knights. The Rock, he could be Sir Lancelot."

Steve Austin: "You're sick! You're pathetic! Tables, Knights, Guinevere, Galahad, What? What?"

Kurt Angle: "What?"

Steve Austin: "What?"

Kurt Angle: "What?"

Steve Austin: "What?"

Kurt Angle: "What?"

Steve Austin: "You're pathetic! In Texas you ain't got on this crap about knights and round tables, that's why I'm sick to be here, Kurt."

Kurt Angle: "But we were-"

Steve Austin: "But I'm trying to I know, but I'm trying to take you out of my way but it's real, real hard, Kurt. Go out there and do what you're supposed to do. Don't worry about me."

Kurt Angle: "I will."

Steve Austin: "Debra, let's go."

Kurt Angle: "Good luck… Steve"

That was funny!!

 

[The Man Of 1004 Holds]

The one night only ppv was awesome. Im from Birmingham, was 7 at the time and a massive Shawn Michaels fan so that night will always stand out to me.

But as a kid i had the VHS of the battle royal at the royal albert hall and man what a great show that was and it needs to get added to the network.
Gorilla and Bobby on commentary at there best and Nastys, Rockers, LOD, Taker, Flair, Piper, Boss Man, Hacksaw, Bulldog all on the card.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Mayhem In Manchester was a fun show I went to the Saturday after Mania 14... for some reason I seem to remember it may have aired on Sky in the UK but I don't think was an actually PPV in the US.

It had some memorable unscripted moments like Hawk grabbing the mic mid match and telling Road Dog he sucked...getting "only for money" in response, Ken Shamrock blowing the hot tag by leaping the rope and falling on his face and Taker's gear being lost at the airport, so they had an improvised start to the match with him fighting Kane from the back in street clothes and Austin v Trips for the title.

There was a real sense of "a new start" and this really was the kick off to the Attitude Era... Seeing Austin, Cactus Jack and The Rock for the first time was pretty thrilling and with the Outlaws only joining DX that week, and them attacking Taker backstage to start the Kane match...the show itself there was some freshness to proceedings. It is on the Network although heavily edited, so some of the funnier moments mentioned are not there...and didn't make the VHS. I get the feeling this was a "pilot" for more UK PPV's rather than a full blown one, but it's memorable for sure.

Someone mentioned Capital Carnage which was a few months later and I felt that Mayhem was the better show all round although Carnage was the "official PPV", we saw different people on it, like Gangrel, X-Pac, Steve Blackman and Droz - but there wasn't as much fun, more squashes and the Vinnie Jones bit wasn't as good as the other poster remembers... the "It's been emotional..." thing was too obvious and quite badly acted by Vinny, yes it's Vinny Jones but it sounded forced... Compared to other movie star cameos they've had, this one didn't work and for me it was a disappointing show.

 

[Goldie]

The one night only ppv was awesome. Im from Birmingham, was 7 at the time and a massive Shawn Michaels fan so that night will always stand out to me.

But as a kid i had the VHS of the battle royal at the royal albert hall and man what a great show that was and it needs to get added to the network.
Gorilla and Bobby on commentary at there best and Nastys, Rockers, LOD, Taker, Flair, Piper, Boss Man, Hacksaw, Bulldog all on the card.

I used to have that show on video.
Davey Boy won the big battle royal at the end.... it was at the end of 1991, because I remember Davey referenced this win in his promo for the 1992 Royal Rumble.

Flair was new to the WWF here- I think he went over Tito Santanna... and Heenan was hilarious on commentary saying that Hogan wasn't at the show because he was scared of Flair! (I think Hogan was at a premiere for his flick Subberban Commando!)

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

The Battle Toyal at the Albert Hall show was decent, and a rare example of a well-booked battle royal match; it was also the first wrestling VHS my brother and I owned.

I also have a soft spot for Insurrexion 2001, which was the first live show I ever attended, at Earl's Court (now demolished) in London. Not a classic show but was good fun.

The best show, though, has to be One Night Only, in 1997. If you look back on the show, in many ways it was the true birth of D-Generation X, and thus a key point in the onset of the Attitude Era. Up to then, WWE had dipped their toes in the waters of Attitude but not fully embraced it - Mankind v Triple H, for example, at Summerslam just a month earlier was contested in WWE's safer, less barbaric blue barred steel cage - and DX were one of the keys to make the switch to more adult themes, which would begin to crop up more and more, including the sheer bloodshed of the first Hell in a Cell at the Bad Blood ppv just weeks later.

As a proud Englishman, I was always a big supporter of Davey Boy Smith. Yet I firmly believe that having him lose his European Championship here to Shawn Michaels wasabsolutely the correct decision. The fan reaction to the result, especially the way it went down with plenty of outside interference, really amped up the heel aspect of DX (who I think were still a month away from officially getting their name) - remember, Shawn Michaels was only newly a heel, and his turn hadn't really been fully embraced by the fans, many of whom still wanted to cheer him (partially due to the strange subtle way he turned - it didn't come across as a full-blown heel turn until he beat the Bulldog at One Night Only).

In terms of the rest of the card, the first half of the show was typical filler that British fans had come to expect when WWE toured these shores; but the final three matches were all excellent. A rare heel v heel foray with Owen Hart v Vader (Vader really put on some great matches with a variety of opponents in 1997, it beggars belief WWE didn't really know what to do with him); a world title match between Undertaker and Bret Hart which was really good despite the unorthodox finish, and the match everyone remembers, Bulldog v Michaels.

Not just the best UK ppv, but a really important show in WWE history, in hindsight