WWF Capital Carnage

report by TBR Editor Blake Norton <> Gangrel defeated Al Snow Snow came in to a huge pop; you'd swear he was back in ECW, as the crowd got heavily into "head" chants and foghorns.One thing which must be noted is that all countries (to my experience) outside the U.S. generally appreciate their wrestling a lot more, due to the fact that they're not bombarded and totally oversaturated with talent.They get excited to see anyone out there, and for me, the crowd being into a match makes the difference between enjoying it to a degree and really being into it. SummerSlam '92, European Championship (at the start of '97), One Night Only, and a host of Canadian PPVs have all maintained the theory; tonight was no exception. The two put on a solid bout, Snow looked a little off; he dropped like a rock on the cross body and seemed disoriented when going for a tornado DDT. It was a high impact bout, as can be expected, especially with Gangrel. The match itself was basic, with basic wrestling throughout the midstages before the finish; Edge came down and hit a missile dropkick on Snow when the ref was distracted. If it was given more than the six minutes (and Snow looked to have a little jetlag, per- haps) it could have been great with the crowd. It should have gone twenty. Mankind up next with an interview; he got a big pop after the usual high-class delivery. <> Headbangers defeated the LOD Five minute match; very little in it. Droz looked like a ballet dancer with his leapfrogs, but there wasn't much going on wrestling- wise. The big result came at the end; Droz pushed Animal out and was subsequently pinned when going for glory. They actually came head to head and Animal started beating on the new LOD member before walking off after the refs separated them. Twice during the match, once at the start and once at the melay at the end, the crowd chanted "We want Hawk"; this storyline is really picking up. <> Val Venis defeated Goldust "The tower of London and the Big Valbowski have a lot in common; We both go up and down; and we both house the crown jewels!" Runnels looked excellent in this match, as good as he has at any time this year, putting in a lot of pace. Venis is pretty solid, and didn't disappoint at all. Nothing unpredictable in the match, but with a lot of effort from both stars. Again it was short, with Venis winning by pinfall after using the official to his advantage; Goldust delivered the shattered dreams kick after the match. <> Vince at Oxford They next showed video footage of Vince McMahon at Oxford University; he was witty and in a fun-heel persona. The students and facility seemed very warm to him, and looked to have fun. <> The Three Stooges Next, Pat Patterson revealed that Rock would meet a different opponent in the main event; HHH was his original opponent.("Hemsley"? HELM, HELM - Patterson said the name like four times, it was no fluke).Hunter is instead to go against Jeff Jarrett (so he won't get the night off anyway). X-Pac will take on The Rock. Shane McMahon took the mike; Vinny Jones (the soccer Star who is going to accompany Steve Austin tonight) was accused of being the boyfriend of George Michaels (he referred to an interview he did on English TV last night, which was really fabulous, BTW).McMahon got into his heel attitude by calling "Tea Time" "A load of crap". The crowd chanted "A**hole". "You English have convinced your- selves that your nation is the greatest on earth... *BIG POP*.... it's the most dignified and civilized on earth... let me tell you, the rest of the world does not agree with that. As a matter of fact, history will prove that the British were the most vile (eleven five syllable words) people on the face of the earth". The crowd just chanted more and more.... "Every single one of you wishes you were American... you're not, and I am! America will do as it's always done to Great Britain; it will take what it wants and when it wants it!" (Asshole! Asshole!). The speech was about four times as long as that; how he did it wit- hout cue cards is beyond me. Got some real good heat, though; as with the last time they were in Britain (They turned Owen face for the night by having Lawler badmouth the English and then Owen coming out to disagree), they'll probably use it to get over who they want for the rest of the night as heel or face. Next up,Tiger Ali Singh vs. Edge. Singh badmouths Britain too. Man. Tough evening. Last year he beat Al Snow (then Leif Cassidy); This year he beat Edge. He's doing fine in the UK, shame he's not doing much in the US. <> Tiger Ali Singh def. Edge Indeed; Edge played face for the match, aided a lot by Tiger cheating for the finish and Edge beating him up afterwards. The match was too short to even call. Two minutes? Three? We'll start getting into the title matches soon, which should be given a lot longer. <> Vinny Jones interview with Michael Cole Vinny Jones next came out to a big pop from the crowd; the cameras were a little shaky, I wouldn't be surprised if it was from the crowd stamping on the ground in approval. The crowd were totally into the rightfully-named "British Bad Boy", former soccer star Jones (You wouldn't believe how many times I've seen him on the news here in Ireland (UK Television).... not necessarily the sport section). He badmouthed Vince, and was even more over. Next up, Mark Mero and Jackie vs. Christian and Sable. Jackie attacked Mero before the bell. <> Mark Mero / Jackie vs. Sable / Christian This match was actually the best of the evening up to this point; a lot of action, a lot of crowd into it, not too much posturing that it took away from the match. Nice pace, a lot of fun antics and generally entertaining wrestling (and I'm usually not up for gimmick matches, which inter-gender matches invariably turn out to be in practice). Thumbs up to Mero; he's put up with a lot and really put Sable (and the whole roster) over. JR said that this is, by Mero's own word, "Marvelous Mark Mero's last match in the WWF". His hair is looking more and more like it did when he was Johnny B. Badd by the day...hmm. Sable won it over Jackie via pinfall when Mero left and Christian followed him. Sable stripped Jackie's top off while on the ref's shoulders after the match (don't ask); she got real, real RAW, in full camera view. All JR could say was "that wasn't supposed to happen". How many times is that? Four? Five? Jerry didn't open his mouth for another full three minutes. Jackie is a really talented lady, it's a little distressing to think that she's turning the breast show into a permanent gimmick.I remember Booker T. talking (I believe it was a shoot interview) about how she never really melded with Harlem Heat and how Sherri would always be "the lady" who fit with them, and the real "Sister". That's off the top of my head, as a character reference, but it's sad to think that this kind of thing is becoming a permanent part of the WWF's program. There's no way in hell that this piece wasn't scripted tonight. <> Ken Shamrock def. Steve Blackman The match was a reasonably boring ten minute affair; incredibly predictable offense, a lot of brawling, little progression. The crowd felt the same way. Bossman helped in the finish, hitting Blackman's leg with a steel rod from the outside before Shamrock locked in the ankle lock. The Rock delivered another hilarious interview; as he was finishing off, he said "so whatcha gonna do when the 24' pythons.... wait..... ". The crowd popped big; he ripped off Steve Austin, Ric Flair (with a big "Whoo!")and Bret Hart before hitting his own line (delivered in a really hilarious manner) and the corporate eyebrow. <> Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Jeff Jarrett Very interesting battle; two of the most technically sound and yet boring to watch wrestlers in the business. Hunter may be over now, but Jarrett would be too if he was given the same push. Basically, it could have gone either way; either brilliant or terrible.As it turned out, they put on the match of the night so far. Hunter got a huge pop (and looked happy to be back in the game, really enthusiastic in saluting the crowd). Chyna looked great as always (very much like Sensational Sherri at Summerslam '92;it seemed to be missing a rear panel, but that's quite beside the point). Debra's face looked like modern art; you couldn't tell what was what. Too much makeup. I always liked Chyna. She's just plain cool. Jarrett was wrestling very well as always; and getting no crowd reaction..... as always. It was a very Solid affair; not simply due to the angle, not simply due to the interference, not simply due to the wrestling; but a very sound blend of them all to provide a match that really had a lot of continuity and focused primarily on in-ring action, as a good match always should. The pace just kept getting quicker as we went on. It must be said that it seemed that Helmsley was itching to get back in there, and seemed to have a very positive effect on the match;that's the reason that one often sees breaks before big PPVs (more in the days of yesteryear than today), because the stars are itching to go and not still physically hungover from last night's battles in a town a hundred miles away. For the finish, Debra came in to the ring and seemed to offer HHH a strip tease as JJ was on the outside; perhaps Jackie was supposed to lose her top. HHH, after some stalling, told her to "suck it" in his own special way. Jarrett came in behind and tried to hit him with a chair; Chyna stopped him, and Hunter hit the pedigree; three count and the pin. <> Austin interview Big crowd pop. Didn't say a whole lot, hyping the fatal four way tonight. <> D-Lo video footage; rather humorous, of him exploring London. He visited the main sites and did some pretty funny pieces, such as arguing with a local (I believe it was,though D-Lo called him a tourist) on how to pronounce the name of the river Thames. The "Tourist" was, of course, correct. <> NAO def. D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry The NAO were over big time. A problem they always seem to have, their offense (particularly Armstrong) is very predictable and styled in such a distinctive manner you get tired of seeing it over and over. Gunn on the ropes..... same stick all the way along. You've seen the match before, in most cases. The moves are neither elaborate enough (Shaking knee drops? Swagger punches?)nor executed with enough ability to be worth seeing every time, as Bret Hart has gotten away with using the same basic offense (is it just me or is his knowledge of holds, or at least, applied holds way over-rated?) for the last ten years. The match was reasonably solid, but like Hawk has done to frustrating extremes in recent times with the LOD, Road Dog did his Road Kill routine again; after getting his ass kicked for several minutes, he was laid to rest as Gunn came in and took on both of the opposition (with not much success, I might add) for quite a while; Road Dog was motionless for several minutes more. The match would have worked better as a fast-paced fast-tag affair. The end was weird; Gunn pinned Brown after a piledriver. Simple as that. It was nice to have it clean. Henry was on the apron. Road Dog was unconscious (still). It came out of nowhere. Good match.All good workers, either by crowd handling, in-ring ability or both. Henry looked good, I really like how he's coming along. There was a huge video entrance to the world title match, showing full highlights of Rock's victor(y/ies) at Survivor Series and Shawn Michaels taking out X-Pac with a chair on RAW two weeks ago. X-Pac got a good pop, and The Rock got one heck of an ovation. <> The Rock def. X-Pac Tremendous match. It got a huge time slot (as I said earlier, they were really hurrying up the earlier bouts). It had basically anything you could ask for; half way through,the Rock got on the mike and said "to hell with this match", taking off up the ramp; HHH and Chyna blocked him off as X-pac brought him back to the ring. They teased a near fall near the end when Chyna came in and hit a low blow; 1-2-..... kick out. Same deal with the spin kick, the crowd was getting even more into it. Rock reversed a cross body and got the foot on the rope for leverage, but another teased ending was kicked out of. Shortly thereafter, The Rock went to hit X-pac with the title belt, missed, Hunter came in from behind and hit Rock with his own..... big buildup.... 1.........2......... Kick out. Really good stuff. The crowd was way into it, and the chemistry was flowing. The end came in an unfortunate manner; Hunter attacked Rock on the outside, and Rock got the DQ win. It really didn't make a whole lot of sense,that kind of thing happens all the time and nothing is done about it. Rock got on the mike.... "Rock leaves England the world champ, if you can smell..." (he was then blindsided by Hunter and X-Pac before he could finish). Shamrock came down and was prom- ptly knocked to the outside by Hunter. DX celebrated in the ring, but the ending was a little disappointing for the match. <> Steve Austin wins the Fatal Four Way Shane McMahon made a few changes to the Fatal Fourway; Pat Patterson as guest time keeper for one. (The fans chanted "You fat bastard"). Lawler : Is that a curtsey? (On the part of Patterson) Ross: Well, he's done that before..... Shane then announced that Brisco would be the special referee ("The referee's a wanker" chant). Vince McMahon came down to be the special guest commentator;and finally Big Bossman was intro- duced as "an enforcer" (more chants of "You fat bastard"). Vinny Jones was again introduced by the main announcer, as the crowd got really into the main event atmosphere (which was really electric). Jones and Bossman had a staredown to a lot of heat; Jones is a real character, and pushed Bossman out of the ring. The crowd lost it. In one of the funniest parts of the night,Brisco gave him the "red card" (literally giving him a red card, as in Soccer), and "sent him off". Shane called his act "hooliganistic" on the microphone, which is a take-off on the trouble that was been experienced with English soccer fans (hooliganism has become a buzz word in relation to them), who are largely considered some of the worst in Europe. Mankind finally starts his intro, followed by Kane. They start brawling right off the bat; Taker and Austin are yet to come down, as the bell rings and it starts at a one on one. The crowd chants "Austin" before the Undertaker's music starts (huge pop,lights go out, cigarette lighters abundant). The two brothers start beating on Mankind. Only one man left to come down....... The glass breaks as the crowd goes ballistic. Austin moves down the ramp as Taker sees him and starts running towards him. The ramp is cool; blue velvet, only about five feet wide and lined with a 5-inch side barrier. They battle up and down it, back to the ring where Kane and Mankind are still battling it out. Taker attacks Kane as the crowd chants into "Austin, Austin". This would set the tone for most of the match. They maintained some sort of order by breaking the match up into two one-on-ones and swapping on occasions. At one point, Undertaker is choking Mankind, so Kane chokes Taker with the cable from behind, and Austin gets Taker; the continuity begins to degrade more from there. It became a flat out brawl. Several minutes later, Foley and Austin have an organized exchange, which works well. Ultimately it ends up three against one on Austin (four on one if you count Socko);Mankind tries to help Austin again, chairing Kane. (even though he offered him his hand earlier and got a kick in the gut for it). These ending minutes were a lot better than the rest of the match. Austin gets the stunner on Kane, but Brisco won't count; Taker comes in and Choke slams Kane,then Austin; before he gets the three Foley comes in and breaks it up. Earl Heb- ner comes in and makes the count on Kane after another Stunner. For the conclusion, Vinny Jones comes back down and Hebner starts kicking Big Bossman in the gut (after he got a stunner) and giving him the "double birds" after kicking him out of the ring. Austin calls for the beers and Hebner, Austin and Jones all slug down the liquid with great haste. I'd heard house show reports of Hebner drinking with Austin; it was really very funny. I nearly threw up seeing him throw his middle fingers around so flagrantly.The crowd were well into the scenario. Whoever supplied the other cans start- ed throwing even more into the ring;he comes back three full times and is celebrating as long as Hulk Hogan in 1988.