This was bound to be a strange night. The idea of some of these matches actually happening was strange. The corporate stipulations involving ownership of the company, booking power, etc. rather than the usual battles for titles or blood was even stranger. RAW versus SmackDown matches didn't seem that unusual thanks to the handling of the brand extension, but the current brand champions that would be wrestling each other later on looked strange on paper.
But possibly the strangest thing of all was seeing Kevin Nash and Kane in the opening match of the evening.
They battled for eight minutes. It was as exciting as a big man match can be. In other words, it wasn't exciting at all. They traded punches and stomps as Nash happily took out his aggression on the Big Red Machine for taking the Diesel name and turning it into a joke eight years ago. There may have been a good reason however that the gimmick was considered a joke when in Glen Jacobs' possession. Not the way it was marketed. Not the storyline that introduced it. The reason may have been simply the condition of the athletes. When Jacobs took on the Diesel persona he hadn't reached his prime yet. His prime was now. Unfortunately for the strikers, Kevin Nash's prime was far behind him.
Kane finished off Nash easily with a choke slam. Doctors helped "Big Sexy" out of the ring afterward with an apparently injured shoulder.
Those eight minutes felt like an eternity to the live crowd. The chants of "boring" filled the building long after both men had exited the ring. The next match more than made up for it.
Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit put on a match that would have wrestling purists talking for days. The iron man match alone would surely help the DVD sales of this event go through the roof if people didn't just download it or buy it on Ebay first. During the match-up Benoit lived up to his old moniker of "The Canadian Crippler" and worked on the back of HBK. The first fall occurred at the 30 minute mark. Shawn Michaels landed his trademark super-kick and got a pin. Chris Benoit soon rebounded, first hitting the triple German suplex to weaken Shawn, then locking in a sharpshooter for a successful submission fall at 45 minutes.
Over in Canada, Bret Hart had just found his smile.
With only 15 minutes remaining Benoit and Michaels pulled out all the stops. It was one signature move and near fall after another. With the clock ticking down both men began trading punches. And even after wrestling for nearly an hour they were still throwing fists faster than Nash and Kane did.
They say a split second can make all the difference in sports and sometimes in life. That was the case tonight. The bell sounded after an hour of wrestling but the crowd still wanted more. Chants of "Five more minutes!" went unanswered as referees pulled the competitors apart. After catching their breaths, each man un-balled a fist and shook hands in center ring for a fight well contested. In every sense of the word this battle had no winners or losers.
The next match would now have greater implications. The strikers needed a victory to ensure the tie breaking Hell in a Cell match. In another strange moment Vince McMahon was actually pulling for Tommy Dreamer to beat Mick Foley. He very much wanted to get his hands on Bischoff. But even more than that, he wanted to unleash his big surprise. Bischoff felt the same way.
Tommy Dreamer made his way out to the ring with a shopping cart full of weapons. Had he been allowed to come out to his ECW theme instead of the most generic rock music WWE could produce the image would have been much cooler looking. Oh well. The only thing that mattered to "The Innovator of Violence" was securing a victory and hopefully reminding Mick Foley what hardcore wrestling truly meant.
Foley came out next in his Cactus Jack persona. The match was once again the exact opposite of the last contest. Whereas Benoit and Michaels put on a scientific wrestling masterpiece, these men simply brawled. What they lacked in ring psychology they made up for with lots of blood. Clearly Foley hadn't forgotten what being hardcore meant.
Unfortunately while he didn't forget how to swing a barbed wire bat or take a hit with a chair, Mick did forget just how badly it all hurt. He forgot how much energy a hardcore match took out of a person. When he wrestled regularly Cactus Jack could work a hardcore style match in his sleep. Now that he was older, slower, and less active in wrestling, the blood loss seemed to be a bit larger, the impact of the weapons on his skull a bit harder. Cactus Jack would still be considered a hardcore legend in the eyes of fans and insiders alike after this evening. But it was very apparent that Jack was a legend because Mick Foley was an author now, not an extreme wrestler. Dreamer hit the DDT on a stop sign and got a win over the bloody Cactus after 15 minutes of mayhem.
Tommy Dreamer had tied the series between team WWE and the strikers. It would all come down to Hell in a Cell.
But first a small break from the series was in order. The crowd needed to be cooled down after all the stipulation matches. RAW and SmackDown champions prepared to do battle in the ring while Vince and Eric prepared backstage for their impending fight.
First up was the Basham Brothers against Ric Flair and Batista. The flirtatious interaction between Shaniqua and "The Nature Boy" made the match far more entertaining then it should have been. Batista hit a powerbomb on Danny Basham for the easy win in five minutes. Two guys no one cares about, one hugely overrated one, and Ric Flair. This match sure did cool off the crowd.
Speaking of overrated and huge, next The Big Show tangled with Randy Orton. Orton was easily chokeslammed and defeated in 30 seconds. It was quite possibly the greatest face response Big Show had ever received.
Finally in the champion versus champion undercard bouts, Triple H wrestled Brock Lesnar. Do I really need to tell you who won?
How appropriate that the future of World Wrestling Entertainment and the talent within it would be decided in a match between Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff. They both entered the cell ready to go. By the end of the night they'd be torn to shreds, but it was actually quite therapeutic. Years of festering hatred toward one another was released just a little bit more in every punch. As McMahon rammed Bischoff's bloody head into the cold steel cage, he remembered how this man had the nerve to put NITRO up against his beloved RAW show years back. Now Bischoff was getting the real battle he always wanted. He was getting a one on one competitive battle directly against Vince McMahon. And he was losing it.
Easy E was not going to lie down and take a beating. He had confidence in his abilities when he began NITRO and he had confidence now. No matter how far ahead Vince pulled in the ratings wars between them, Bischoff always felt he had a chance to rebound right up until the buyout of WCW. His strike began in the first place because he was nothing but a punching bag for so-called WWE superstars. Tonight was his chance for revenge and he was going to take it. His knee met Vince's groin bringing the also bleeding WWE chairman to his knees. Bischoff landed some well placed kicks next in hopes of kicking Vince's head right off his shoulders. At this rate he may not even need that surprise.
The battle went back and forth but it hardly resembled a wrestling match. Much like the real promotional wars between them through the years, both competitors fought dirty. Eric had brass knuckles. Vince had white powder. They bled heavier. They sweated harder. They unleashed their hostilities on one another until both men could barely stand up under their own power. After a double clothesline sent them to the canvas, the lights dimmed. It was time for the surprise.
Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon aren't all that different. Each one thought big when creating new matches. Each tried venturing into other markets. Each broke the rules of pro wrestling; Vince when his promotion went national in the 80s, Bischoff in the way his company competed in the 90s. Each took talent from Japan and ECW through the years. But the biggest similarity of all between them was that each man wanted more than to simply defeat one another. They wanted to humiliate one another. And as it turned out, they each thought of the same man to help them achieve that goal.
That similarity would be Eric Bischoff's downfall.
"MY GOD! MY GOD! IT'S BRUNO SAMMARTINO!"
Jim Ross screamed into his headset as if he'd just seen a ghost. It was a name he had never uttered on a WWE or WWF broadcast. A name he never thought he would ever say. Bruno's title reign has never been matched in wrestling history, yet it is never acknowledged on WWE TV when history of the company is discussed. Vince McMahon made his company into sports-entertainment years ago and Bruno held a grudge ever since. He had wanted nothing to do with the WWF, or WWE as it was now known, for the past 18 years. One would assume he was there to help Eric Bischoff, but one would be wrong.
Despite his advanced age Bruno remained in great shape. It's what kept him recognizable to the announcers. He was in shape enough to rip the steel door off the cell, enter the ring and scoop up a dazed Bischoff. Only he didn't help him to his feet. Instead, he locked the last of the strikers in a bearhug. It was his old signature move that had won him countless matches and broken many opponents' ribs through the years. Tonight it would once again break a rib, and obtain a victory. Only the victory would be for Vince McMahon.
The aftermath wasn't as spectacular as it could've been had the strikers won. Bischoff returned to work as RAW General Manager. Chris Benoit was moved to RAW where he was positioned into a feud with Triple H. Kevin Nash was forced into retirement following his injury. He turned down an office job offer and would make one last attempt for a big paycheck in Japan. Dreamer technically remained on the RAW roster but would probably be free to work elsewhere when his contract was up.
Bruno Sammartino was given a booker job backstage. Perhaps he could help restore some sports to sports-entertainment. He would also be given a lifetime achievement award on RAW by Vince McMahon himself proclaiming Bruno the greatest WWE champion of all time. This was why the former champion chose to help McMahon instead of Bischoff. More than revenge against Vince for changing the sport he loved, Bruno simply wanted to be recognized for all he gave to the business. Hulk Hogan's image was used to promote WrestleMania every year despite his rocky relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment. The Hart family was positively mentioned on WWE programming despite the lawsuit following the death of Owen and the constant bashing from Bret in the Calgary Sun. That's because regardless of his personal feelings toward the individuals, Vince McMahon could not deny what those men did for his company. But he found a way to ignore the contributions of Sammartino. The lack of deserved praise for helping make WWE a successful company today was the deciding factor. With the public acknowledgment of Bruno's contributions to the sport, Vince admitted to being wrong for shunning him all these years. That was all Sammartino really wanted in the first place.
As he watched the award ceremony from backstage, Eric Bischoff couldn't help but smile despite his losing effort to challenge WWE.
Truly, this was a moment of irony.
But possibly the strangest thing of all was seeing Kevin Nash and Kane in the opening match of the evening.
They battled for eight minutes. It was as exciting as a big man match can be. In other words, it wasn't exciting at all. They traded punches and stomps as Nash happily took out his aggression on the Big Red Machine for taking the Diesel name and turning it into a joke eight years ago. There may have been a good reason however that the gimmick was considered a joke when in Glen Jacobs' possession. Not the way it was marketed. Not the storyline that introduced it. The reason may have been simply the condition of the athletes. When Jacobs took on the Diesel persona he hadn't reached his prime yet. His prime was now. Unfortunately for the strikers, Kevin Nash's prime was far behind him.
Kane finished off Nash easily with a choke slam. Doctors helped "Big Sexy" out of the ring afterward with an apparently injured shoulder.
Those eight minutes felt like an eternity to the live crowd. The chants of "boring" filled the building long after both men had exited the ring. The next match more than made up for it.
Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit put on a match that would have wrestling purists talking for days. The iron man match alone would surely help the DVD sales of this event go through the roof if people didn't just download it or buy it on Ebay first. During the match-up Benoit lived up to his old moniker of "The Canadian Crippler" and worked on the back of HBK. The first fall occurred at the 30 minute mark. Shawn Michaels landed his trademark super-kick and got a pin. Chris Benoit soon rebounded, first hitting the triple German suplex to weaken Shawn, then locking in a sharpshooter for a successful submission fall at 45 minutes.
Over in Canada, Bret Hart had just found his smile.
With only 15 minutes remaining Benoit and Michaels pulled out all the stops. It was one signature move and near fall after another. With the clock ticking down both men began trading punches. And even after wrestling for nearly an hour they were still throwing fists faster than Nash and Kane did.
They say a split second can make all the difference in sports and sometimes in life. That was the case tonight. The bell sounded after an hour of wrestling but the crowd still wanted more. Chants of "Five more minutes!" went unanswered as referees pulled the competitors apart. After catching their breaths, each man un-balled a fist and shook hands in center ring for a fight well contested. In every sense of the word this battle had no winners or losers.
The next match would now have greater implications. The strikers needed a victory to ensure the tie breaking Hell in a Cell match. In another strange moment Vince McMahon was actually pulling for Tommy Dreamer to beat Mick Foley. He very much wanted to get his hands on Bischoff. But even more than that, he wanted to unleash his big surprise. Bischoff felt the same way.
Tommy Dreamer made his way out to the ring with a shopping cart full of weapons. Had he been allowed to come out to his ECW theme instead of the most generic rock music WWE could produce the image would have been much cooler looking. Oh well. The only thing that mattered to "The Innovator of Violence" was securing a victory and hopefully reminding Mick Foley what hardcore wrestling truly meant.
Foley came out next in his Cactus Jack persona. The match was once again the exact opposite of the last contest. Whereas Benoit and Michaels put on a scientific wrestling masterpiece, these men simply brawled. What they lacked in ring psychology they made up for with lots of blood. Clearly Foley hadn't forgotten what being hardcore meant.
Unfortunately while he didn't forget how to swing a barbed wire bat or take a hit with a chair, Mick did forget just how badly it all hurt. He forgot how much energy a hardcore match took out of a person. When he wrestled regularly Cactus Jack could work a hardcore style match in his sleep. Now that he was older, slower, and less active in wrestling, the blood loss seemed to be a bit larger, the impact of the weapons on his skull a bit harder. Cactus Jack would still be considered a hardcore legend in the eyes of fans and insiders alike after this evening. But it was very apparent that Jack was a legend because Mick Foley was an author now, not an extreme wrestler. Dreamer hit the DDT on a stop sign and got a win over the bloody Cactus after 15 minutes of mayhem.
Tommy Dreamer had tied the series between team WWE and the strikers. It would all come down to Hell in a Cell.
But first a small break from the series was in order. The crowd needed to be cooled down after all the stipulation matches. RAW and SmackDown champions prepared to do battle in the ring while Vince and Eric prepared backstage for their impending fight.
First up was the Basham Brothers against Ric Flair and Batista. The flirtatious interaction between Shaniqua and "The Nature Boy" made the match far more entertaining then it should have been. Batista hit a powerbomb on Danny Basham for the easy win in five minutes. Two guys no one cares about, one hugely overrated one, and Ric Flair. This match sure did cool off the crowd.
Speaking of overrated and huge, next The Big Show tangled with Randy Orton. Orton was easily chokeslammed and defeated in 30 seconds. It was quite possibly the greatest face response Big Show had ever received.
Finally in the champion versus champion undercard bouts, Triple H wrestled Brock Lesnar. Do I really need to tell you who won?
How appropriate that the future of World Wrestling Entertainment and the talent within it would be decided in a match between Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff. They both entered the cell ready to go. By the end of the night they'd be torn to shreds, but it was actually quite therapeutic. Years of festering hatred toward one another was released just a little bit more in every punch. As McMahon rammed Bischoff's bloody head into the cold steel cage, he remembered how this man had the nerve to put NITRO up against his beloved RAW show years back. Now Bischoff was getting the real battle he always wanted. He was getting a one on one competitive battle directly against Vince McMahon. And he was losing it.
Easy E was not going to lie down and take a beating. He had confidence in his abilities when he began NITRO and he had confidence now. No matter how far ahead Vince pulled in the ratings wars between them, Bischoff always felt he had a chance to rebound right up until the buyout of WCW. His strike began in the first place because he was nothing but a punching bag for so-called WWE superstars. Tonight was his chance for revenge and he was going to take it. His knee met Vince's groin bringing the also bleeding WWE chairman to his knees. Bischoff landed some well placed kicks next in hopes of kicking Vince's head right off his shoulders. At this rate he may not even need that surprise.
The battle went back and forth but it hardly resembled a wrestling match. Much like the real promotional wars between them through the years, both competitors fought dirty. Eric had brass knuckles. Vince had white powder. They bled heavier. They sweated harder. They unleashed their hostilities on one another until both men could barely stand up under their own power. After a double clothesline sent them to the canvas, the lights dimmed. It was time for the surprise.
Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon aren't all that different. Each one thought big when creating new matches. Each tried venturing into other markets. Each broke the rules of pro wrestling; Vince when his promotion went national in the 80s, Bischoff in the way his company competed in the 90s. Each took talent from Japan and ECW through the years. But the biggest similarity of all between them was that each man wanted more than to simply defeat one another. They wanted to humiliate one another. And as it turned out, they each thought of the same man to help them achieve that goal.
That similarity would be Eric Bischoff's downfall.
"MY GOD! MY GOD! IT'S BRUNO SAMMARTINO!"
Jim Ross screamed into his headset as if he'd just seen a ghost. It was a name he had never uttered on a WWE or WWF broadcast. A name he never thought he would ever say. Bruno's title reign has never been matched in wrestling history, yet it is never acknowledged on WWE TV when history of the company is discussed. Vince McMahon made his company into sports-entertainment years ago and Bruno held a grudge ever since. He had wanted nothing to do with the WWF, or WWE as it was now known, for the past 18 years. One would assume he was there to help Eric Bischoff, but one would be wrong.
Despite his advanced age Bruno remained in great shape. It's what kept him recognizable to the announcers. He was in shape enough to rip the steel door off the cell, enter the ring and scoop up a dazed Bischoff. Only he didn't help him to his feet. Instead, he locked the last of the strikers in a bearhug. It was his old signature move that had won him countless matches and broken many opponents' ribs through the years. Tonight it would once again break a rib, and obtain a victory. Only the victory would be for Vince McMahon.
The aftermath wasn't as spectacular as it could've been had the strikers won. Bischoff returned to work as RAW General Manager. Chris Benoit was moved to RAW where he was positioned into a feud with Triple H. Kevin Nash was forced into retirement following his injury. He turned down an office job offer and would make one last attempt for a big paycheck in Japan. Dreamer technically remained on the RAW roster but would probably be free to work elsewhere when his contract was up.
Bruno Sammartino was given a booker job backstage. Perhaps he could help restore some sports to sports-entertainment. He would also be given a lifetime achievement award on RAW by Vince McMahon himself proclaiming Bruno the greatest WWE champion of all time. This was why the former champion chose to help McMahon instead of Bischoff. More than revenge against Vince for changing the sport he loved, Bruno simply wanted to be recognized for all he gave to the business. Hulk Hogan's image was used to promote WrestleMania every year despite his rocky relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment. The Hart family was positively mentioned on WWE programming despite the lawsuit following the death of Owen and the constant bashing from Bret in the Calgary Sun. That's because regardless of his personal feelings toward the individuals, Vince McMahon could not deny what those men did for his company. But he found a way to ignore the contributions of Sammartino. The lack of deserved praise for helping make WWE a successful company today was the deciding factor. With the public acknowledgment of Bruno's contributions to the sport, Vince admitted to being wrong for shunning him all these years. That was all Sammartino really wanted in the first place.
As he watched the award ceremony from backstage, Eric Bischoff couldn't help but smile despite his losing effort to challenge WWE.
Truly, this was a moment of irony.
