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Jesse Ventura's return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999.

The show on 8/22 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, was paced by five title changes out of six titles at stake, included the main belt in the main event, plus a shockingly good Shane McMahon vs. Test match which was almost unanimously the best match on the show. The show, which sold out within 90 minutes of tickets being put on sale months ago, drew 17,370 fans (announced as 19,404 on television), of which 15,973 paid $557,129 and another $168,456 in merchandise sales. It's too early to get PPV estimates, but it was generally expected going in to be either the first or second most buys for a wrestling PPV show in history. The all-time record was approximately 800,000 buys for Wrestlemania (the real number as opposed to the announced 875,000) this year.

Mankind wound up as WWF champion coming out of the main event, a decision apparently made a few days before the match because of internet reports that took it as a given (it was the plan going in but nothing in wrestling as far as finishes are a given until after they happen) that Helmsley was winning the title beating Mankind and blaming Austin for not doing the job in a situation that he may never have refused to do the job in the first place. There was a lot of talk within wrestling in the days leading to the show about Shawn Michaels (who of all people should talk about people who don't do clean jobs to lose titles) getting in Helmsley's ear and Austin refusing to do the job. At the end of the week the decision was made for Austin to do the job for Mankind for a double surprise of the expected finish, and give the title to Helmsley for his run the next night at Raw in Ames, IA, which is how it all went down.

As expected, the show, due to Ventura, led all newscasts Sunday and Monday in Minnesota and garnered front page newspaper coverage, plus was covered strongly nationally. In Minnesota, the newscasts generally noted that the wrestling fans enjoyed the show, but that many people who bought the show out of curiosity of seeing Ventura (the show did triple the usual number of buys in Minnesota) ranged from shocked to aghast at what they saw, in particular Ventura's usage of the word "bullshit," which they felt was undignified for a Governor. There were also numerous complaints among the general public, particularly women, at the portrayal of the large unattractive woman as a comedy figure to be mocked in the Rock vs. Billy Gunn match. Ventura himself apparently liked how everything went down and the WWF must have loved all the publicity it generated, not to mention the buys and the fact it diminished the Owen Hart story and product controversy story as p.r. problems, since there are already talks going on for him to appear at Wrestlemania on 4/2 at the Anaheim Arrowhead Pond.

Ventura, however, at a press conference on 8/24 refused to answer any questions regarding wrestling because he termed appearing in wrestling is his "personal life" and his spokespeople said he thinks that reporters questioning him on his appearance were "out to get him." He has agreed, over the next two weeks, to do one-on-one interviews with carefully selected reporters (ie, those who have never been critical of him in the past). The basic feeling among his constituents appears to be that his supports still love him, feeling they elected a character and by doing wrestling he's being the character they elected; his detractors have added another reason to criticize him; and those on the fence were for the most part "slightly shocked" by what they saw.

During the show, Ventura was shown backstage doing short vignettes with all three participants in the main event, telling them he was going to enforce law and order in the ring. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna got in his face and said they'd do what they wanted, Mankind responded in childlike character fashion, and Austin simply walked off. In the ring, Ventura responded to his critics by saying how a lot of people in the media think he's a disgrace for being there, but that he's proud to have been a wrestler, to an enormous pop. The criticism of Ventura's appearance on the show was varied, much of it simplistic simply implying wrestling as inherently low-rent entertainment beneath his dignity. But a lot of it was valid, having nothing to do with wrestling itself, but of Ventura's hiding his money deal and trying to portray it publicly as a $100,000 charity appearance, of Ventura taking the biggest payoff of his life (Ventura has never had anything close to a money deal in his political or entertainment career approaching what he most likely got for this one shot appearance) from a company that does business within his state not to mention several of his views all of a sudden changing on wrestling since the deal came up. There was even a court case three days before the show where the Minnesota branch of Common Cause, a liberal political action group, filed a suit attempting to prevent Ventura from doing the gig claiming it was a conflict of interest. Judge Kathleen Gearin threw the suit out immediately claiming it had no legal basis and that it failed to show how anyone would be harmed, grounds needed to grand a temporary restraining order, if Ventura did the show. While there was considerable debate within Minnesota about their Governor doing pro wrestling, overall his popularity appeared to remain intact. Locally it appeared the media was stronger on the issue of him using his Governorship to get the payday, but hiding the terms of the agreement from the public. The fact that the average Minnesota family is about to receive a $662 tax rebate couldn't have made Ventura's timing of this appearance with little effect on his personal popularity any better. There were agreements made that Ventura would never be put in a position for even the slightest risk of injury, which is why he didn't even throw a punch, the classic celebrity ref spot, and also he insisted upon not being referred to during the WWF shows as Governor Jesse Ventura after the criticism of his using the office for private gain got stronger, and over the last few weeks was simply called by his old wrestling name, "Jesse the Body Ventura."

Ventura, who like most Presidents, seems to have aged greatly under the stress of being a heavily criticized public figure, had a few set up spots during the main event. The first was when he ordered Chyna away from ringside after she had crotched Mankind against the ringpost. The second was when he refused to count a pinfall by Helmsley after he had hit both Mankind and Austin with chair shots. His verbal in-ring arguments with both Helmsley and Shane McMahon, who then came out, included more profanity than one would have expected. It was clear the WWF heavily toned down the controversial aspects of their presentation with Ventura part of the show and the mainstream media spotlight looking on at what Ventura had aligned himself with. The gratuitous sex aspects of the show were heavily toned down, they removed their most controversial mainstream characters--the pimp, prostitutes and porn star characters (who at one point were scheduled as part of the tag team elimination series), and there was no blading. It was only after Austin had delivered the stunner to McMahon that Ventura threw him out of the ring, a spot that required little danger for Ventura with Ventura screaming at McMahon, "That's for your old man, you little bastard." As in most cases when celebrity referees are brought in, it ended with Ventura raising the babyfaces hand, in this case Mankind, as the new WWF champion. The show ended with Helmsley and Chyna destroying Austin's bad knee for an injury angle, with the fans chanting for Ventura to make the save for Austin, but alas, that didn't happen.

In what appears to be a major plus for this and future PPV shows, they have eliminate the live Sunday Night Heat matches from the presentation. While Heat was done live, it was a series of music videos with a few backstage interviews and vignettes (Rock giving John Randall of the Vikings a t-shirt and Chris Jericho arriving with Howard Finkel carrying his bags as the new Ralphus). The crowd wasn't asked to arrive 90 minutes before the PPV started, and thus the dead undercard crowd which has been a fixture at most WWF events over the past year was somewhat remedied and the show didn't drag.

1. Jeff Jarrett won the IC and European titles from D-Lo Brown (Accie Connor) in 7:28. They heavily teased a Jarrett/Debra break-up including Jarrett ordering Debra to leave. Debra came back with Brown. Jarrett worked on Brown's left shoulder early on including doing the old Midnight Express divorce court on it off the middle ropes. Brown came back with a power bomb, but collapsed rather than make the pin. After Brown missed a somersault splash off the top, Jarrett grabbed the guitar. A noticeably slimmed down Mark Henry (well, as slimmed down as Mark Henry could be in a few weeks) ran in and took the guitar from Jarrett, but instead turned on Brown and clocked him with it and Jarrett scored the pin. Jarrett, Debra and Henry all left together. **1/4

2. The next item was a succession of tag team matches where the winners would continue until all the teams were eliminated, and that team would get a title shot at Raw the next night. Some of it was good, but the booking made the finish totally anti-climactic. It opened with the best actual wrestling match on the show, as Edge (Adam Copeland) & Christian (Jay Reso) beat Matt & Jeff Hardy in 5:02. Gangrel came out with the Hardy Boyz. Fast paced match with a lot of good moves, similar to Lucha Libre style. The finish was strong with Edge and Jeff both walking the barricades and Edge leaping off with a spear in a really creative spot that didn't hit perfectly. Christian delivered a plancha onto Jeff, and then Matt did a moonsault off the top rope to the floor. In the ring, Christian pinned Matt after an elbow drop off the top rope. Crowd really enjoyed the finish. ***1/4

3. Christian & Edge beat Mideon (Dennis Knight) & Viscera (Nelson Frazier Jr.) in 1:59. Crowd was dead after the previous match. Viscera did show some mobility delivering a rolling heel kick. Finish saw Viscera squash Mideon in the corner when Edge moved, and then Edge pinned Mideon with a spear. 1/2*

4. Christian & Edge beat Droz (Darren Drozdov) & Prince Albert (Matt Bloom) in 1:49. Albert did a torture rack into a neckbreaker. Christian delivered a pescado onto Droz and Edge pinned Albert after a downward spiral (same as flatliner). Although short, it was very good for what it was. **

5. Faarooq (Ron Simmons) & Bradshaw (John Layfield) beat Christian & Edge in 4:15. This wasn't as good. Christian got a good near fall on Bradshaw with a tornado DDT. The Hollys came out early. Bradshaw pinned Christian after a lariat. *3/4


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If the morale in WCW was bad, it's gotten worse after a botched up power play attempt by Eric Bischoff. Bischoff called a meeting of the wrestlers before Nitro on 8/23 in Las Vegas and began singling out various wrestlers for public tongue-lashings. He began by saying that he was going to turn things around and only wanted wrestlers in the company who wanted to be in the company. -- esspn