Live Feed Mania – WWF Monday Night Raw 02/15/99

WWF @ Birmingham, AL – Jefferson County Civic Center – February 15, 1999 (13,906; sell out)

It’s the day after WWF St. Valentine’s Day Massacre! The video quality is really bad!

Dark Match!

Brian Logan vs. ???

Horrible transmission issues sees ??? miss a moonsault before local lad Logan wins with a second rope crossbody for a decent pop.

Miguel Perez vs. El Merenguero

Aired on Super Astros 02/21/99

Vince really disliked anyone having “Junior” in their name huh? Merenguero is the former Jesus so technically Los Boricuas explodes!

Perez wastes no time punching away on TAFKA Jesus but Merenguero retaliates with a clothesline. Merenguero holds the ropes to avoid a dropkick but then goes outside anyway. Perez is so disgusted with his lack of ability that both men brawl to the back for the double count out. Crowd cheer and boos at the same time because how else are you going to react?

Papi Chulo & Apolo Dantes vs. Armando Fernandez & Felino

Aired on Super Astros 02/21/99

Hell yeah, Felino! Papi lands a flying elbow that Armando seems unsure how to take so he oversells in the general area of the move. Felino dives into the ring as Papi takes a massive shoulder barge from him. Apolo takes one of the worst body-scissors in the history of human civilization before taking a much better Frankensteiner. Was it a requirement to be on drugs while working Super Astros? Papi seems particularly itchy tonight. Apolo and Papi execute Private Party’s Silly String double team but do it at a third of the speed so crowd aren’t impressed. Felino’s Splash Mountain is lovely but doesn’t end things. Felino’s diving elbow also can’t end so he handsprings directly into a German Suplex catch by Dantes. This match is improving from the Anti-Drug commercial it started off as. Hart Attack But With A Missile Dropkick doesn’t get anything but Papi’s amazing running tope over the ring post definitely does.

Before anything else can happen, Miguel Perez and El Merenguero brawl from the ringside area into the ring to cause all the wrestlers to join in before the ref throws the match out and security are forced to separate them. Back to back non-finishes for the Luchadores is pretty on-point. Match was a collection of spots, some of which were beautiful and some of which were ugly.

The Godfather vs. Buddy Landel

Aired on Shotgun Saturday Night 02/20/99

Mammoth pop for The Godfather. This would be Buddy’s penultimate match for WWF. He’d wrestle the day after this and I’m amazed he committed to somewhere for two dates in a row. Godfather doesn’t know if he should offer Buddy some women or a job. That had to be an inside joke. Buddy makes like the rest of his career and declines success, leading to Godfather squishing his face with some legdrops. Buddy gets a few punches in before getting run over by The Ho Train and pinned with the Pimp Drop at 1:15.

Edge (w/ The Brood) vs. Al Snow (w/ Head)

Aired on Shotgun Saturday Night 02/20/99

Al is very over. Well the concept of oral sex is. I’m surprised Russo resisted the urge to rename him Oral Snow. Edge is very spritely with his bumping to start but the crowd only cares about Al’s top rope crossbody which gets two. Edge flies around only for Al to slow this one down and blow the roof off with just a crazy stare at the camera. Gangrel crotches Al on the top rope which allows Edge to land a wild crossbody to the outside. Edge realises he needs to slow it down and lets the crowd chant for mouth sandwiches. Al recovers to land the waterwheel slam but miss a moonsault. Edge blocks a Boston Crab to send Al backwards which takes out Christian on the ring apron which then causes Al to land forwards and crotch Edge…which everyone ignores so The Brood can interfere behind the ref’s back seconds later anyway to allow Gangrel to land the Implant DDT so Edge can win at 6:03. Match went too long and the finish was all kinds of messed up so nothing changes in Edge matches.

Tiger Ali Singh vs. Viscera (w/ Mideon)

Aired on Shotgun Saturday Night 02/20/99

Tiger Ali Singh sounds a lot like Shane McMahon when he talks. Take my word for it, don’t waste precious bandwidth on listening to him. Supposed heel Vis gets a lovely pop by not being Singh. Also Mideon has an eye in a jar. No memory of that, but as a kid I wanted Mideon’s eye-in-an-eye shirt.

Oh God I remember that looking much cooler when I was little. Then again, I used to watch the Hammerman cartoon despite not knowing who MC Hammer was and kept waiting for him to turn into a hammer. Viscera wins with a splash at 1:27.

Mini Nova vs. Mini Battalion (w/ El Torito)

Aired on Super Astros 02/21/99

YES YES YES. Very quick armdrag exchanges leads to a springboard Frankensteiner which leads to Nova swantoning off the top rope to the outside in the first frigging minute. The mini matches were almost worth tuning in to Super Astros every week. Battalion wrestles with his military hat on and delivers a tilt a whirl with ease before punching Nova around. Nova takes a press slam onto the top rope as both men blow away the rest of the show with their effort. A wild standing splash nearly wins because the ref has been doing a weird thing of counting with a delay so his hand keeps counting three after kick outs. It’s annoying. Reverse powerbomb/armdrag can’t stop Battalion so he attempts to backdrop Nova into the turnbuckles, but instead he holds on in a handstand as Battalion mockingly salutes the crowd. Battalion realises too late that Nova is OK, leading to more headscissor goodness.

Torito tries to grab Nova but Battalion accidentally collides, causing Torito to do a frigging Hamrick Bump off the apron. Nova springboards into a rolling armbar pin to end a sweet match.

Torito attempts sweet revenge but Mini Max runs in to make sure it’s even. This sets up a tag match next week that we will not be seeing!

The Disciples Of Apocalypse (Skull, 8-Ball) & Too Much (Brian Christopher & Scott Taylor) vs. The Oddities (Kurrgan, Giant Silva, Golga, & George Steele)

Aired on Shotgun Saturday Night 02/20/99

George’s penultimate WWF match. He’d have another multi-man match the day later and then like Buddy he’d be done. The sight of him staring blankly as the entire arena dances to the Insane Clown Posse is one of those moments that makes me wonder if the Matrix is functioning OK. Too Much teaming up with the DOA is a choice. If you combine the two you’d get Right Said Fred.

George starts off and triumphantly removes his shirt so he can bite Hotty. Christopher doesn’t want to tag in but Golga and his Cartman shirt make it easier for him. Tenta is still capable of landing big-ass elbow drops even in 1999. Silva tags in so Too Much can ham it up by putting Hotty on Christopher’s shoulders and challenge Silva to a boxing contest. He shoves them both down as the crowd eat this all up. Kurrgan takes on one of The Harrisses with action so basic you could probably play text adventures on it. Kurrgan is YOUR freak in peril as the crowd insinuate something about Hotty’s personal life. Tenta slams Hotty before landing the Earthquake Stomp (but without the bouncing set-up, which just isn’t the same). It all breaks down with Golga chasing Christopher to the back, Golga taking a DDT from either Ron or Don, followed by Christopher being chased back into the ring to pin Golga at 6:19. Daft crap from the Wacky Racists.

George eats the turnbuckle pad for old time’s sake before a stagehand sets up a ladder in the ring and the Freaks take it as their clue to leave.

Raw Is War intro plays and surprisingly the L.O.D. are still in it. Oh they’d wrestle one last time in March, I see.

Shawn Michaels heads out after making a surprise appearance on Sunday Night Heat yesterday. That’s great but he was booked for All American Wrestling. HBK in a very rusty manner reminds us that Stone Cold is going to Wrestlemania because he beat Vince in the cage last night. His opponent will be the current WWF Champion Mankind who was victorious over The Rock, so the stage is set…wait here’s McMahon in a neck brace as he must have a court appearance coming up. Vince tries to get sympathy for his stitches and neck pain. Crowd cheers. Vince acts as pathetic as possible and asks Austin to apologize. Steve naturally apologizes for not kicking his ass sooner. Crowd erupts. Vince points out that everyone knows Mankind didn’t “win” last night as it went to a draw, so Mankind should defend the title tonight. Mankind admits he isn’t 100% so he asks for a week to recover. The Rock shows up to a hellacious reaction to advise Mankind that he doesn’t have seven days or even seven minutes. Crowd are eagerly singing along with The Rock’s catchphrases while also booing him. Mankind points out he has plenty of testicles so he’ll take on The Rock tonight. HBK takes Vince’s hint about making it Michaels’ kind of match so it’ll also be a ladder match. Vince is happy and reminds us that Paul Wight will be the guest ref at WM. Austin flips him off and that’s your intro. It was perfectly fine and also hot as hell, but it was clear HBK’s brain was in Dimension X which explains the even more heavy-handed than usual dialogue. Vince might as well have held up HBK’s dialogue written signs like Lodi.

Debra & WWF Tag Team Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Ivory & D’Lo Brown

Jarrett and Owen retained their tag titles against D’Lo and Mark Henry last night so this is the natural evolution. D’Lo immediately attacks Jarrett who knocks Debra off the apron so she takes an accidental bump. Good start. And end, as the satellite feed calls it a day and logs off.

Also Occurring But Not Recorded

WWF IC Champion Val Venis pinned Billy Gunn after Ryan Shamrock distracted Gunn; after the match, the champion dumped Ryan

Kane & Shane McMahon (w/ Chyna) defeated Triple H & WWF European Champion X-Pac at 4:22 when Shane pinned X-Pac after hitting him with the title belt, given to him by Chyna behind the referee’s back; Shane came to the ring wearing a DX jersey with “X-Punk” written across it;” stipulations stated that if X-Pac was pinned, the winner of the fall would win the title belt (The Best of Raw Vol. 1 & 2)

WWF Hardcore Champion Bob Holly pinned Steve Blackman after Droz interfered and hit Blackman with a steel rod; after the match, Bart Gunn challenged Holly for a title match the following week

The Big Boss Man, Test, & Ken Shamrock fought Mideon & the Acolytes to a no contest when the Undertaker captured Shane McMahon on the ramp and gave him an envelope to give to Vince

The Rock defeated WWF World Champion Mankind in a ladder match to win the title at 13:00 after Paul Wight interfered as the champion had the Mandible Claw applied on the challenger and chokeslammed Mankind off the top of the ladder; following the entrances, Steve Austin appeared to do guest commentary for the match; after the bout, Rock knocked the ladder on top of Mankind who was laid out inside the ring; as the show came to a close, Austin slid into the ring behind the Rock and dropped him with the Stunner before holding up the title belt and throwing it back to the mat

Overall: The more I watch these shows the more I appreciate The Minis.

I’ve been Maffew