Summerslam 1999: A Retrospective Look

[Dagger Dias]

This summer I'll be looking back on each of the previous Summerslam events, one by one. Every few days I will submit a new topic until we reach 2014's edition of the 2nd biggest brand in WWE.

This thread will be for discussing.... Summerslam 1999!

Summerslam 1999 took place on August 22, 1999. It was held at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here are the results of the matches from this show:



1. Jeff Jarrett (with Debra) defeated D'Lo Brown (c) in a singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and WWF European Championship (07:28)

2. The Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw) last eliminated The Holly Cousins (Hardcore and Crash) to win a tag team turmoil match to determine the number one contender to the WWF Tag Team Championship (17:27)

3. Al Snow defeated Big Boss Man (c) in a Hardcore match for the WWF Hardcore Championship (07:25)

4. Ivory (c) defeated Tori in a singles match for the WWF Women's Championship (04:11)

5. Ken Shamrock defeated Steve Blackman in a Lion's Den Weapons match (09:05)

6. Test defeated Shane McMahon in a Greenwich Street Fight "Love Her or Leave Her" match (12:14)

7. The Unholy Alliance (The Undertaker and Big Show) (with Paul Bearer) defeated X-Pac and Kane (c) in a tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship (12:00)

8. The Rock defeated Mr. Ass in a Kiss My Ass match (10:11)

9. Mankind defeated Steve Austin (c) and Triple H (with Chyna) in a triple threat match for the WWF Championship with Jesse Ventura as the special guest referee (16:24)




Now, here are some discussion questions concerning the event:

What was your favorite match on this show, and why did you like it the most? What about the worst match of this show, why did you like it the least?

If you could change a few things about Summerslam 1999, what would it be and why?

You may only use wrestlers who were available at the roster at that time or make changes that could have realistically taken place in August 1999. Please keep in mind the situations going into the show such as who could actually have been pushed into a title match, or what songs existed back then if you wanted to change the show's theme music, and so forth.

You may only discuss Summerslam 1999 in this thread. The remaining Summerslam events will be getting their own retrospective threads, any posts regarding other events will be considered spam and you risk getting an infraction.

Discuss!

 

[Wolf Pac]

Not great like the previous two, but it was still a good Summerslam. Best Match was clearly Test vs. Shane and Worst Match was Ivory vs. Tori. The biggest story coming into the PPV was Jesse Ventura refereeing the main event, and there's been a lot of theories as to why Mankind was added to the Triple Threat and I've always wondered about it myself. The first is that Austin refused to drop the title to Triple H, which I don't believe for a second. Second is that Jesse didn't wanna raise the hand of a heel in Minnesota. And the third is that Austin had an injured knee, so they put Foley in so Austin wouldn't have to do a lot of work in the match. The third reason is the most believable as it came out of Foley's mouth, Triple H destroyed Austin's leg after the match, putting him on the shelf for a month, and Austin would take a loss to Triple H at No Mercy. It could've also had to do with Jesse's reason though. This leads me to my changes.

Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) vs. The Rock vs. Triple H for the WWF Title

Instead of Mankind, I think they should've added The Rock to the main event instead. I know Rock had lost a #1 Contender Strap Match to Triple H at Fully Loaded, but on Raw they were doing this whole thing where the #1 Contender spot was being traded around from Triple H to Chyna (thank goodness they didn't go ahead with Chyna vs. Austin) to Mankind to Triple H & Mankind. Once Triple H lost it to Chyna, Rock should've been in the running again (also Russo was booking, so would it have really mattered if it had made any sense?). I think Rock in the Triple Threat would have improved the quality of the match as he had great chemistry in the ring with both Austin and Triple H. Rock could've taken the belt and then Triple H could've won it from him for the first time on the first episode of Smackdown.

Mankind vs. Billy Gunn

With Mankind replaced by Rock in the Triple Threat, he can go up against Billy Gunn, and maybe the WWE's greatest jobber could do some wonders with him like he did for Orton and Edge. And if not, well they had to try with Billy anyway after winning the King Of The Ring. Cut out the whole "Kiss My Ass" stuff though, it was terrible. It also would've made the match a lot less predictable as to who would win.

Ivory (c) vs. Jacqueline for the WWF Womens Title

Tori was absolutely awful, and these two should've had a one-on-one PPV match for the Womens belt at some point.

Chris Jericho vs. Road Dogg

Not sure why they saved Jericho's in-ring debut for Smackdown but I would've moved it up to here instead. Y2J's debut would've been another notable thing about this Summerslam along with the main event and Test vs. Shane.

 

[The Brain]

During my years on this forum I've been pretty vocal about my dislike (comparatively speaking) for the WWF in 1999. SummerSlam was the bright spot in a bad year. It wasn't among the best SummerSlam events but it was by far the best ppv of 1999.

I really liked the tag title match. It was X Pac & Kane vs. Undertaker & Big Show in one of the more underrated storylines of the time. X Pac was trying to humanize Kane and make him realize he wasn't a monster. He could be a normal guy and even have some friends. Undertaker had the Ministry gimmick going and was at his most evil. He felt betrayed and ashamed that his brother was leaving the dark side. Taker decided to find a new protege that was bigger and badder than Kane to replace his brother. Taker and Show acted like the big bullies on the block and would beat up Kane's smaller friend bringing out unexpected emotion in Kane that we never knew existed. I thought the story was well done even if the match didn't stand out as anything special.

My favorite match of the night was Test vs. Shane McMahon in the Love Her Or Leave Her match. The stipulation was if Shane won Test would have to stop seeing Stephanie. If Test won Shane would stay out of their personal life. It was a good streetfight and the WWF usually did a good job in matches that were built on emotion. I liked the involvement of the Mean Street Posse and the revenge of the Stooges. In the end the good guy won proving an old and simple formula still worked perfectly well in the wacky booking world of 1999.

My least favorite match was Al Snow vs. Big Boss Man. It wasn't terrible for what it was but I was never a big fan of matches that ended up backstage and liked it even less when they left the arena all together. This match ended on a pool table at a bar across the street from the arena. Again, not terrible for what it was but just not my thing.

My big change is the main event. It should have been Steve Austin defending the title against Triple H one on one. This was Triple H's time to shine and everyone could feel that. There was no reason to include Mankind in the main event. I felt that killed the momentum of the show. What makes it even worse was Mankind won. This should have been Triple H's night. I'm convinced HHH would have won the title had Jesse Ventura not been the guest referee. SummerSlam was in Minnesota and Ventura was governor. I'm sure everyone involved wanted him to raise the hand of a fan favorite at the end of the night. It was cool seeing Jesse in the WWF again but it's a shame his appearance had to change the result of a main event championship match. I may be wrong on that but considering HHH won the title from Mankind the very next night I'm confident in my opinion. The irony is HHH is exactly the type of guy Jesse would have supported during his WWF days. The politician couldn't support the heel though so we got a bogus main event.

I probably would have left Mankind off the show. Sounds strange to leave a big name off a big show but remember he was out with injury for a few months and returned only about a week before SummerSlam anyway. His return could have easily waited. If anything I would have done Mankind vs. Chris Jericho. Jericho just had his famous debut in that segment with The Rock. His gimmick was running down the WWF and calling it boring. He was here to save the WWF. Mankind would have been the perfect guy to try to shut Jericho up and put over the new guy strong.

 

[Judah's Lion]

SummerSlam 99 was solid enough but definitely had some head-scratching moments and missed opportunities. i'd switch a few guys around on the card to try and deliver a better all around ppv.

1. Jeff Jarrett (with Debra) defeated D'Lo Brown (c) in a singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and WWF European Championship (07:28). this was a pretty under-rated mini feud for the two mid-card titles. strange to think that D'Lo was the first to "unify" them and become the Euro-Continental Champion. the Mark Henry turn was not entirely unpredictable but made sense and gave us another decent little feud between D'Lo and Henry from here on out. leave this match as is.

2. The Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw) last eliminated The Holly Cousins (Hardcore and Crash) to win a tag team turmoil match to determine the number one contender to the WWF Tag Team Championship (17:27). i'd add the New Age Outlaws to this turmoil match and have them be the last team eliminated by the Acolytes. the Ministry of Darkness and DX had some history together already by this point and the Acolytes and the Outlaws had a great, albeit pretty short, match at Royal Rumble 2000. their feud can begin by adding the Outlaws to the mix.

3. Al Snow defeated Big Boss Man (c) in a Hardcore match for the WWF Hardcore Championship (07:25). decent hardcore match between two guys that fit the mold very well. they already had quite a bit of history coming into SummerSlam and continued even further on. i'd add Mankind as the Special Referee since he's got history with both men and, as much as i loved him in the main event, he didn't belong in the WWF Title picture. having him follow and call the match as Road Dogg did would have been fun and kept him on the card, even if not in a wrestling capacity.

4. Ivory (c) defeated Tori in a singles match for the WWF Women's Championship (04:11). i don't have anything better here, so i guess leave it as is. maybe have Chyna involved in some way?

5. Ken Shamrock defeated Steve Blackman in a Lion's Den Weapons match (09:05). here's a pretty major change. i'd have Shamrock in a match with the debuting Chris Jericho. he had already interrupted the Rock with the Millennium Countdown and even made an appearance at SummerSlam. i'd bring Jericho's debut wrestling match here also and go against a pretty solid opponent. Jericho and Shamrock ran a program together not long after this anyway that culminated in a First Blood Match. maybe have that gimmick here? Jericho can run down Shamrock in the few weeks before SummerSlam and beat Shamrock so badly that he bleeds internally. it'd be a much stronger debut than he got on Smackdown.

6. Test defeated Shane McMahon in a Greenwich Street Fight "Love Her or Leave Her" match (12:14). this is my match of the night. it was a ton of fun and the booking was downright brilliant. the involvement of the Mean Street Posse and the Stooges was absolutely perfect. just flat out loved everything about this match.

7. The Unholy Alliance (The Undertaker and Big Show) (with Paul Bearer) defeated X-Pac and Kane (c) in a tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship (12:00). highly under-rated feud and match between the two teams. i popped pretty big when X-Pac kicked out of Big Show's Choke Slam. never saw that before this match. just a really emotional feud that played out well with all four men.

8. The Rock defeated Mr. Ass in a Kiss My Ass match (10:11). i guess i'd give this match an "A" for effort, but honestly i'd scrap it entirely. the best part of this match was the Rock making fun of Billy Gunn, praying to God and putting poison ivy in his butt lotion, etc. other than that, which was comedy gold on the mic to be sure, the match and feud overall was pretty disappointing. again, put Billy Gunn with Road Dogg in the Tag Team Turmoil Match and free up the Rock for the main event.

9. Mankind defeated Steve Austin (c) and Triple H (with Chyna) in a triple threat match for the WWF Championship with Jesse Ventura as the special guest referee (16:24). and here's my biggest change. Austin vs. Triple H vs. Rock. this is the Triple Threat Match that never happened but always should have. and this was the perfect night to do it. keep Jesse Ventura as the Special Referee and let any of these three guys win. i'd think Triple H makes the most sense, especially for a first time World Title reign, but really any superstar would make me happy.

so there's my SummerSlam card for 99. i loved seeing Mankind win the World Title for his third and final time, but it really didn't make much sense. making the Triple Threat Match that everyone wanted and that we never saw would have been a much better main event for the second biggest show of the year.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Best Match: The Main Event... Even though I would have changed it, it still felt like a big match and it delivered, in my opinion.
Worst Match: The Diva's or the Al Snow match.

As for changes, I would have done a few things.

1. Booked Austin vs HHH one on one and probably ditched Ventura and Mankind altogether.

2. Booked The Rock vs Jericho. They debuted Jericho in a big way, and then immediately pushed him down the card. Keep his debut strong and have him take on The Rock here. But who wins? You can't have Jericho lose his first match, and The Rock while being one of the top guys in the company was kind of on a losing streak and needed a win. I'd have put Jericho over, but if not, book it as a DQ with Jericho beating Rock with a weapon and maybe have Mankind come out to make the "save".

3. I know they really wanted to push Billy Gunn, and he won the KOTR and was feuding with his D-X pals. Sure, give him the KOTR win, but have a proper blowoff to the NAO with a match here vs Road Dogg. It was too soon to push him to the main event scene, and after they fed him to Rock, his push was over. If they really wanted to push him, they could have done it better.

So the card would look like this:

WWF World Championship
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin 'C' vs Triple H

The Rock vs "Y2J" Chris Jericho

Greenwich Street Fight
Test vs Shane McMahon

WWF Tag Team Championship
The Unholy Alliance (Undertaker & Big Show) 'C' vs Kane & X-Pac

Road Dogg Jesse James vs Bad Ass Billy Gunn