WWF ROCK BOTTOM POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 1 (01.2%)

Thumbs down 77 (92.8%)

In the middle 5 (06.0%)



BEST MATCH POLL

Mankind vs. Rock 62



WORST MATCH POLL

Oddities vs. Head Bangers 58

Steve Austin vs. Undertaker 9

Even though all this took place 13 months ago, it was the backdrop once again as the WWF came to Vancouver, BC's General Motors Place for the Rock Bottom PPV show on 12/13.

The show, which sold out one month in advance to the tune of 17,677 (announced on TV as 20,042) which was 16,891 paying $416,032 Canadian and another $156,463 Canadian in merchandise, was a pretty bad show for a number of reasons. The finishes were "too cute," for the most part leaving the crowd dead. Four hours continues to be hard to keep a crowd's enthusiasm, and the Undertaker vs. Steve Austin match, which was by far the worst PPV the two have had up to this point, was in spots totally devoid of heat and had a messed up finish, not entirely due to each wrestlers' respective health problems going in. The only good match, the Rock vs. Mankind title match was incredibly devoid of the pre-show storyline psychology in its workings, and while both worked hard and got good pops, the finish was so beyond awful that it pretty well killed the main event that followed. There isn't much good to say about the show other than the WWF is in the position where it can afford a lot of bad PPV shows without being hurt at all.

The show opened with Vince McMahon doing an anti-Canadian diatribe, introducing his son Shane as "A Real American."

A. Duane Gill retained the WWF lightheavyweight title pinning Matt Hardy in 1:02 when Blue Meanie did a run-in and delivered a DDT to Hardy. Fans started chanting "boring" from the moment the bell rang. Hardy took the entire match because the story was that he was going to easily win until the fluke run-in maintaining the Gill Cinderella story. Finally Hardy delivered a splash mountain (as if Kevin Kelly had a clue what it was) and was going for the victory when Meanie ran in. The Gill gimmick wasn't nearly as over as it should have been.

They showed a clip of Mankind attacking Rock before the show started in the luxury boxes and a series of objects, including a plant. Mankind was hilarious as usual, as he nailed him with a plant and called it the "People's Roda Dendrum (hey, I can't spell plants)." He then looked after at the plant and said it wasn't a Roda Dendrum after all. A doctor with a French accent (actually company masseuse Francois Petit) proclaimed Rock had broken ribs and there was no way he could wrestle later in the show. I must say that's a unique angle to put on a pre-game show when you actually tell the audience the title match promised won't be taking place.

B. Kevin Quinn pinned Brian Christopher (Brian Lawler) in 2:23. Quinn, originally from Chicago, has some experience wrestling in Mexico for EMLL. The fans hated him from the start just because they didn't like anyone they didn't know. To make things worse, he missed a lot of spots although he also did some hot spots. Christopher gave him a sunset flip out of the ring ending in a power bomb on the floor. Fans booed a mistimed handspring into body squash by Quinn. Christopher lifted Quinn up for a power bomb, and he was supposed to turn it into a Toyota roll, but messed it up completely, but recovered and got a schoolboy for the win. The fans booed the hell out of Quinn's upset win.

C. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Paul Levesque) pinned Droz (Darren Drozdov) in 1:37 with the Pedigree. Animal walked out on Droz after the match.

D. New Age Outlaws (Brian James & Monty Sopp) beat The Acolytes (John Leyfield & Ron Simmons) in 2:00 via DQ when Ken Shamrock and Big Bossman interfered. Outlaws got out of there and it wound up with the Acolytes fighting with Shamrock & Bossman as the lights went out and Undertaker made one of those taped eerie speeches just as the live Heat was going off the air.

1. Mark Henry & D-Lo Brown (A.C. Connor) beat Godfather (Charles Wright) & Val Venis (Shawn Morley) in 5:56. Godfather came out with four ho's, who stayed at ringside, while Brown came out with Jacqueline and Terri Runnels on each arm. If the Canadian government swarmed down at ringside and took the women hostage, they'd have enough material to produce several medium power nuclear missiles. They tried but it wasn't good. Henry is now being referred to as "Sexual Chocolate." Godfather missed a kick and Brown sold it anyway, eliciting a lot of boos. After Godfather & Venis did a double suplex on Henry, all the women started arguing at ringside and had to be pulled apart. Jacqueline got in the ring and hit Venis with a low blow, and Henry clotheslined him and pinned him after a big splash. 3/4*

2. Head Bangers (Glen Ruth & Charles Warrington) beat Kurrgan (Robert Mallay) & Golga (John Tenta) in 6:52. This match changed in form several times over the week. Originally it was to be an eight-man with Giant Silva & Luna on one side and Tiger Ali Singh & Babu on the other. Babu during the week was extradited back to Ecuador for a combination of having to stand trial for crimes in that country (I swear I'm not making this up) and got having a green card to be in this country, so he's done, at least for now. They were planning to have Luna and Tiger Ali still work the match, but for whatever reason, those plans were changed the day of the show. Whatever form it would have taken, it probably would have been awful, but this form saw Kurrgan in most of the way. Silva with his new hairdo looks remarkably like Andre, even though the resemblance was always there. Crowd dies for the Oddities after the ring entrance. And boy was Kurrgan awful. Golga did his first dropkick in the last five years. Finish saw Golga attempt to do his Earthquake splash on Thrasher, however Mosh had tagged in behind his back, and came off the ropes with a Thesz press for the pin. -*

3. Steve Blackman beat Owen Hart via count out in 10:28. Hart got the most enthusiastic babyface reaction on the entire show. But this match killed the show as the crowd really wanted to have fun booing the American, and the match was booked for Hart to play chickenshit heel to turn the crowd, and when they wouldn't turn, they just killed the whole show. Big chants for "Owen" and "U.S. sux." This was still the second best match on the show as Hart did a great job and Blackman stayed with him. The finish killed it, however. Blackman got Hart in the sharpshooter, which Michael Cole said in something he certainly didn't come up with himself on the spur of the moment, that there's nothing worse than losing to your own hold in your own country. Hart actually made the ropes which got a big pop from the crowd that desperately didn't want to see that finish. Then Hart simply walked out for the count out loss, which may have been the only possible finish that would have killed the crowd. Doesn't better about the live crowd and enthusiasm for the show since the whole purpose of the match was to somehow humiliate a guy who wasn't there through his brother. **1/2

4. The Brood (David Heath & Adam Copeland & Jay Reso) beat Job Squad (Charles Scaggs & Allan Sarven & Robert Howard) in 9:08. Holly had a new buzz haircut to he looked like a much larger version of Scott Taylor. Hey, maybe the Job Squad can get married next. Fans were dead. Work was largely good as everyone worked hard. The most impressive was Christian, and he was the one who scored the pin, so there is some justice in wrestling if you look hard enough. Scorpio did some nice flying. A lot of flying toward the finish so this played a lot like a Lucha match would in front of fans that don't want to see Lucha. I think part of the problem is the previous finish killed the crowd. As they were building to the finish, Snow went to hit Christian with Mr. (Ms?) Head and the shot missed, but Christian sold it anyway like he was shot. Lots of groans and boos from the crowd to that. Scorpio did a moonsault legdrop onto Christian but Edge saved. Edge then leaped off Gangrel's back over the top rope with a crossbody on both Holly and Snow. In the ring, Christian hit the Tommy Rogers "tomokaze," or in Michael Cole vernacular, "that move" on Scorpio for the pin. *1/4

5. Goldust (Dustin Runnels) beat Jeff Jarrett via DQ in 8:02. Actually this match had a lot of heat, which just shows how much everyone wanted to see Debra McMichael naked. And because word was out that WWF had Jacqueline topless on its PPV last week, for sure we'd see Debra naked on this one. I think the only way a match between these two could get over is to promise 17,000 males that they'd see a beauty pageant winner naked at the end. But it was a good match. Goldust used the curtain call (poor Cole didn't know that one either) on Jarrett but Debra distracted the ref. Fans were really into Goldust's near falls. Wonder why? Goldust set up Shattered Dreams. Debra got into the ring and started caressing his butt. Of course he didn't care, which I guess proves he was gay all along. Jarrett took the low blow, but Debra broke the guitar over Goldust's head and Jarrett scored the pin with a reverse Russian leg sweep (Cole didn't know that one either, although saying "flatliner" could be cause for dismissal from employment). Shawn Michaels came out after the match, and although he plays heel, he said he saw Debra interfere, reversed the decision, and ordered Debra to strip. She played it up for all she could. I'm not sure this is what they were teaching here to win all those beauty pageants. Then again

Shawn put a $20 down her top. Not sure if it was an American or Canadian bill because a Canadian bill would probably have been an insult. She stripped down to a thong bikini underwear (they were very careful to show only shots from the front), teased taking off her top, which she eventually did, but before anything was visible, Jarrett and Blue Blazer covered her up and dragged her way. The WWF hasn't delivered on an advertised stip on a PPV since 1978 to begin with, and the idea anyone is going to see that women with no clothes on for just $29.95 just ain't happening this early in the game. Even so, now Debra is over like a big dog, although dog is least applicable description. I can just see it in three weeks, that Jeff Jarrett is going to have all the charisma in the world in his ring intro. **1/2

6. Outlaws beat Ken Shamrock & Big Bossman (Ray Traylor) to retain the WWF tag titles in 17:04. These guys were in a bad position. How do you get a crowd interested after seeing a woman strip? Well, whatever it is, these guys didn't have the answer. A long boring match with only Shamrock looking good. Bossman, unfortunately, is still Ray Traylor once the bell rings. Think that's been written in every single match he's worked. They beat up Road Doggie most of the way, until Billy Gunn, the single greatest athlete in all of sports (although I'm still at a loss as to what he's ever done to deserve that), made the hot tag. After a power bomb delivered off a huracanrana by Ken on Billy (you didn't think Billy was up there doing huracanrana's did you?), and Gunn had the pin, Shawn Michaels pulled ref Tim White out of the ring. Bossman then cracked both Outlaws with his night stick, but as Shamrock went to pin Gunn, he kicked out. Gunn went to suplex Shamrock into the ring, but Michaels scooped his leg and Shamrock landed on top, but Gunn reversed it into a cradle for the pin. Finish was good. 3/4*

7. Mankind beat Rock, but Rock retained the WWF title anyway in 13:32. The movie spoofs continued as Mankind had a meeting with Vince earlier in the show, and the door of the boiler room read "Mankind's office," a spoof on the sign outside the door when Vince met with Bret where it said "Vince's office." Anyway, since Mankind didn't trust Vince, he wanted their business dealings in public before the fans. So when they got in the ring, Mankind demanded that Vince get down on his knees and tell the world that he never submitted at the Survivor Series. Vince wouldn't, claiming Rock told him he heard him say "I Quit" and that was good enough for him. Finally Rock jumped Mankind and we were off. The work itself was real good, but there were parts of the match that were retarded, such as them dropping the entire ribs storyline. After proclaiming Rock with broken ribs, he came out without his ribs taped, the announcers never acknowledged him having broken ribs, he never once sold his ribs and Mankind never once attacked the supposedly injured ribs. It was like halfway through the PPV, somebody on the headset said, that first angle wasn't so hot, and McMahon told everyone, let's just pretend it never happened. Something about breaking ribs by hitting them with a plant didn't look that believable in the first place, and God knows that French doctor didn't look like a real doctor, so therefore it never happened. As the match got going, McMahon ordered ref Mike Ciota to DQ Mankind the first chance he got. At one point Mankind was going to jump off the middle ropes outside onto Rock, but Shane McMahon grabbed him by the legs and Rock flipped him off the ropes and he took a big bump on the floor. Mankind sold it like he was dead. They ended up brawling all over the English announcers position. Mankind went for a chair shot but the re stopped him, and Rock DDT'd him on the chair. Rock hit the Corporate elbow, which is still a big-time face move that brought the crowd unglued, and Mankind kicked out. Mankind did an elbow drop and legdrop for near falls. McMahon told Ciota to DQ Mankind. Ciota was about to, but Mankind piledrove him. McMahon then ordered Mark Eaton to ring the bell, but Mankind beat up Eaton. Rock nailed him with a chair shot and the Rock bottom, but no ref. Shane went to hit Mankind with the title belt, but he moved, and Rock took the blow. Ref Tim White ran in and counted, but Rock kicked out. A hell of a near fall. Rock did a float over DDT for another near fall. Mankind hit a double arm DDT for a near fall. Mankind pulled out Mr. Socko and did the claw, and White signalled for the bell. They announced Mankind winner and new champion, but McMahon then said that since Rock wasn't pinned and he didn't submit, that even though Mankind won the match, Rock was still the champ. Mankind went wild, beating up Vince (including the Mr. Socko claw), Shane (after Shane hit Mankind with two chair shots he didn't sell), Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco before finally Shamrock and Bossman showed up. ***1/4

8. Steve Austin (Steve Williams) beat Undertaker (Mark Calaway) in the Buried Alive match in 21:30. This was one of those deals where anything that could go wrong did. Undertaker is already limited as he's been working for months without a rest on a broken ankle. Austin was suffering from an intestinal virus and had barely eaten the previous week. To make things worse, early in the match he took a bump on the uneven dirt mound on his shoulder which tore his oblique or abdominal muscle on the right side. He worked the rest of the match with the feeling of being stabbed in the side every time he moved his torso, and went to the hospital after the match and actually missed the television tapings which says something since he made TV the day after being dropped on his head by Owen Hart. So he was not himself, particularly as the match progressed. The crowd, hurt by the previous finish, was totally dead, to the point in spots that you actually thought they had turned off the crowd audio, which was positively eerie when Austin was in the ring. They did some decent brawling early outside the ring. They brawled a lot around the grave site. At one point Undertaker took a bump sliding down the mound of dirt. They were fighting at the grave site and Undertaker fell into the grave, but got out and hit Austin with a burial wreath. Both wound up in the grave, but both got out, but not before Austin teased but didn't deliver a shovel shot. By this point the illness and injury appeared to be really taking its toll, as Austin was moving without his usual snap, and his punches were becoming Hogan-like. Taker cracked him in the head with a chair and slammed his back into the post, and finally hit a choke slam. Taker took him in the grave site and threw him into the grave. A cup hit Undertaker which got more of a pop than anything the two wrestlers had done up to this point. Taker started shoveling dirt nowhere near Austin in the grave, which looked bad on camera. Austin got out and hit Taker twice with an oil can. Austin used the stunner and threw Taker into the grave, and left to chase Paul Bearer. Taker sat up and got out. There was a big explosion coming from the grave and out came Kane. Kane came out of the grave, and with those three inch heels to make him look 6-11, he was slipping all over the dirt not able to keep any footing. Taker low blowed him and went for the tombstone, but Kane got away and delivered a tombstone and threw Taker back in the grave. Austin came out with a bulldozer. Somehow the bulldozer got stage fright and couldn't perform. Maybe they should have had Debra strip for it. Anyway, while time stood still and Austin was looking totally po'd, Austin started shoveling dirt into the grave. The bulldozer eventually dumped one load of dirt into the grave, then didn't do a thing again for what seemed like an eternity. This whole scene was dead and took forever. Earl Hebner, I guess getting tired of waiting for a pop that wasn't going to come, raised Austin's hand and the two shared another couple of beers. 3/4*