WWF SmackDown Rewind: 11.18.99 – “Do Not Make This Personal”

Previously on the Survivor Series: Stone Cold is hit by a car. Big Show quickly defeats the Big Boss Man’s team and takes Austin’s place in the triple threat, winning the WWF Title. Chyna successfully defends her Intercontinental Title against Chris Jericho and the New Age Outlaws defend their World Tag Team Titles against Mankind and Al Snow.

We find Triple H beating down a bloodied Pat Patterson and the rest of DX – Road Dogg, Mr. Ass and X-Pac – beating down Gerald Brisco. HHH tells Patterson to tell Vince McMahon that he has made things too personal.

Fireworks! The Ovaltron! We are in Cincinnati, Ohio, and loaded up with fan with signs on UPN. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler are on commentary and Tony Chimel is handling introductions.

Sgt. Slaughter meets Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Test at Vince’s limo, giving him the news. Vince: “Patterson and Brisco???” Brisco tells Vince that DX gave him a message to tell Vince that things are too personal. Vince yells for Triple H.

Edge & Christian vs Too Cool (Grandmaster Sexay & Scotty 2 Hotty)

Scotty asks for a mic. “We’s right, we’s wrong, we’s white, we’s strong, we’s is too cool.” Alright. Lawler notes that he knows Ebonics and can translate and then asks Cole if he knows what a “homie” is. Edge and Christian start hot before Too Cool get Edge cornered. Edge flips over them and hits a double neck breaker on both men. Edge gets a missile dropkick for two before brawling outside and being thrown crotch-first into the post by both members of Too Cool. Sexay jumps into a boot and Christian gets the tag. After the referee gets distracted, Too Cool double team and get the win before Edge & Christian get the post-match victory.

Scotty 2 Hotty pins Christian. This was really good. Too Cool are evolving into a great team quickly and Edge & Christian are already strong.

Slaughter knocks on Vince’s door and says HHH refuses to come to his office and demands Vince comes his way instead.

And now, the WWE Slam of the Week presented by THQ’s WrestleMania 2000 for N64: Triple H shoves Vince on Raw, Vince tries to attack and is knocked down.

Vince and gang head to DX’s locker room. Vince calls HHH a chump and says DX isn’t doing any more of their crap. HHH: “Do not make this personal.”

Kurt Angle vs Gangrel (with Luna Vachon)

This is Kurt’s televised SmackDown debut. Luna has joined Gangrel as Lawler points us to a man in the crowd with a “WWF is Immoral” sign, noting he was kicked out of Raw and giving Cole a chance to talk about freedom of expression. Angle ducks out quickly to grab a mic. “How could you people sit here and degrade me? You mean to tell me that you would prefer to cheer for a man who looks like a vampire? I’m an American hero!” Gangrel drops a nice elbow for a two count and then is caught in a suplex, a power slam, and an Angle Slam.

Kurt Angle pins Gangrel. Kurt’s starting to catch on with the crowd. The early Angle days are fascinating.

Test is playing WrestleMania 2000 as Stephanie McMahon opens a present. “Andrew!” It’s a bowl which she threatens to hit him in the head with.

DX are strategizing in their locker room.

After break, Test is still gaming and Stephanie is still opening wedding gifts. Steph finds a stuffed frog and a card. “Your gift is waiting in the limo so hop to it.” Test says he’ll go get it and, yes, it jumped by Mr. Ass. What a dummy. DX tosses Test into an ambulance and tosses garbage on him before throwing him into a trunk. Ass drives off, taking Test on a ride. “I hope that wasn’t too personal for him,” says HHH.

WWF European Championship: WWF European Champion British Bulldog (with Mean Street Posse) vs The Godfather

Godfather says he is not offering Bulldog companionship tonight. The women cozy up to the Posse, who give them money. Godfather notices and is upset as he was not part of this transaction and snatches the “WWF is Immoral” sign from the fan. The Posse stomp down Godfather as Bulldog distracts Tim White. Bulldog scoops up Godfather, hits the running powerslam and gets the pin.

British Bulldog pins Godfather to retain the WWF European Title. This was exactly as good as you’d expect a match between Godfather and Denim-Era Bulldog to be.

HHH and Shane are yelling at DX, saying they want Test back. Stephanie runs in and starts swinging at HHH as well. “Keep her off me or I’ll beat her ass too.”

And now, the WWF Boot of the Week brought to you by Lugz. Big Show chokeslams the Posse on Raw.

Tori is drinking some coffee when Viscera comes up and tells her how hot she is. He says he’d never do what X-Pac did to her. “I’m a big guy, you know what I’m saying?” Kane attacks.

WWF Championship: WWF Champion Big Show vs Hardcore Holly (with Crash Holly)

Yes, this is a thing that is happening and was not advertised at any point prior in the show. Tonight, SmackDown is brought to you by THQ’s WrestleMania 2000, WWF The Music Vol. 4 at NRM, and LEGO MindStorms. Show tosses Hardcore across the ring, Hardcore hits his dropkick and Crash comes to help. Show shoves them both down and butt smashes both of them in the corner. Hardcore feels a big boot and Show chokeslams him. After the pin, Show gives Crash a chokeslam of his own.

The Big Show pins Hardcore Holly to retain the WWF Title. Basic but enjoyable.

Big Boss Man runs out and hits Big Show with his nightstick after the match, clobbering in the head numerous times. Boss Man is #1 contender, Cole shares.

We go outside to see the car has returned and we’re helping Test out of the trunk. His nose is again broken. “At least we’ve got him back,” Vince tells Stephanie.

After break, Test refuses a trip to the hospital. Vince says this will never happen again.

Viscera vs Kane (with Tori)

Kane leaves Tori and tells her to stay back. There’s nothing like experiencing the WWF live, says Cole. The referee falls to the mat in fear of Kane’s pyro. Kane dropkicks Vis to the outside and they brawl. Tori finds her way to ringside and Vis stalks her around, groping her on the bell table before Kane comes to the save. Kane whips Viscera into the ring post and hits him with a clothesline from the top rope. Kane chokeslams Vis for the pin.

Kane pins Viscera. It was fine. *shrugs*

HHH knocks on Vince’s dressing room door. He says this has gone too far and wants to bury the hatchet. He has a wedding gift, a catcher’s mask with a bow.

Jim Ross is on the phone talking to an investigator. “Jerry Lawler? Let me tell you about Jerry Lawler, officer. Jerry Lawler is a restaurant quality ass.” At ringside, Lawler says Ross knows more than he’s saying.

Here’s a look back at Stone Cold being hit by a car.

Vince directs security to his door and says nobody comes in unless their last name is McMahon.

WWF Women’s Championship Hardcore Match: WWF Women’s Champion Ivory vs Luna Vachon vs Jacqueline

Luna breaks a brook over Jacqueline’s back. Jacqueline finds a dustmop and does the same to Luna, Ivory smacks Jacqueline with the mop head. Luna tosses Ivory into the crowd and off they go, Jacqueline chasing. They fight backstage and Ivory tosses Jacqueline into the women’s dressing room, Jimmy Korderas saying he can’t go in and being shoved in by Luna. The brawl continues backstage and Luna slams Jacqueline on a rolling case as we’ve found our way to the concession stand. Luna tosses Jacqueline into a stack of empty boxes, Luna throws some popcorn, Jacqueline hits Ivory over the head with a box of straws. We go into the bathroom and some men pissing at the urinals try to cover up as Ivory is tossed into them. Luna is smacked over the head with a pretzel tray and Ivory pins Jacqueline.

Ivory pins Jacqueline to retain the WWF Women’s Title. This was fun. Let the women do more fun stuff. Let me just take a quick peak at next week’s results.

Oh no…

Anyway, let’s go to Las Vegas, where Mankind is taking Al Snow and Head on vacation as part of UPN’s Vegas Vacation Weekend. Yes, there was once a time that a network getting the rights to show Vegas Vacation was a big deal. Al is recording with a camcorder. They are continually interrupted by a man doing a bad Rock impression, chasing him all around.

Security guards the McMahon dressing room.

Mankind and Al join a band on stage, ride a roller coaster and the Rock fan taunts again. Fans invite them to a strip club. “Our wives will never find out anyway,” Mick says on the nationally televised show. They head to Cheetahs, enjoying some dances that they’re paying for with quarters before a dancer throws a quarter in Mankind’s eye. It looks like Cheetahs closed in 2020, unable to survive the Covid era.

Cole sends us back to Raw, with Chyna offering to snip snip Chris Jericho with a pair of scissors and then Jericho taking Chyna hostage, smashing her thumb with a hammer.

Chris Jericho vs Mark Henry

Sexual Chocolate grabs a mic and says he hates a woman beater. “Chyna and I have an illustrious past. Breaking her thumb means I’m kicking your ass.” I appreciate Mark standing up for his past love. Jericho has a mic of his own tells “Mike Henry” that he can’t believe how stupid he is for standing up for Chyna’s honor. Jericho leaps into a power bomb and dodges a running Henry, hitting him with a bulldog, the Lionsault and getting a quick pin.

Chris Jericho pins Mark Henry. Well, this lasted under a minute. This didn’t do Mark many favors, but he’d have a lot more coming his way.

The Dudley Boyz are on a payphone. Bubba Ray yells that he doesn’t know how to drive.

Lilian Garcia has caught up with The Rock. After the fans chant his name, finally The Rock has come back to Cincinnati. Rock promises to be WWF Champion one day but says he is the People’s Champion. Tonight, he’ll lay the smack down on Big Boss Man’s candy ass if you smell-la-la-la-looow what the Rock is cooking. Crowd in the palm of his hands even for a backstage interview. Nobody was doing it like Rocky.

WWF World Tag Team Championship: WWF World Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Mr. Ass) vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy with Terri Runnels)

Mech Warrior 3 presents Armageddon! If this was 2026, some people in the comments section would be complaining about the Outlaws not changing their music or catchphrases as heels like they do for Seth Rollins. Back and forth for a bit before Matt gets a hot run and backdrops Ass. Jeff goes for a spinning kick in the corner but Dogg ducks, the referee being hit. The Hardys hit Ass with a flying clothesline outside and a double legdrop on Dogg. Jeff hits the Senton and then both Hardys fly onto Dogg, but the ref is out. X-Pac runs out and knocks Matt down with a heel kick, Matt still covering for a very slow two count before Ass pulls Tim White out. X-Pac X-Factors Matt and Dogg covers for the pin.

Road Dogg pins Matt Hardy, the New Age Outlaws defeat the Hardy Boyz to retain the WWF World Tag Team Titles. This started slowly but turned into a fun little match.

Here’s a look at Arnold Schwarzenegger having a ball on last week’s SmackDown. He says that it was fun in an interview with Marissa Mazzola, WWF Publicist (and wife of Shane). Gabriel Bryne (Satan – “End of Days”) says Arnold looked like a tough guy.

Shane laughs and says Test could be in Rocky 6 or 7 if he keeps getting hit. Shane smells a burning smell.

After break, the McMahon men and Test stumble out of the smoky office. Stephanie does not.

WWF Hardcore Champion Big Boss Man (with Prince Albert) vs The Rock

Non-title. We continue on with our program despite Stephanie McMahon possibly burning in an office fire. They brawl outside. Brawl inside. Boss Man tries for a piledriver, Rock body drops him. Boss Man slams Rock and leaps into a kick and DDT, Rock getting a two. Rock tries a Rock Bottom, Boss Man elbows out. Boss Man grabs the nightstick but is Rock Bottomed and pinned in three minutes. Big Boss Man is your #1 contender to the WWF Champion, by the way. Albert attacks after the match, Big Show comes out to chokeslam Albert. The Hollys run out and both take Rock Bottoms. Why are the Hollys there, you ask? Don’t expect an answer.

The Rock pins Big Boss Man. It was quick, made the #1 contender look ineffective and got the Hollys beat up for no particular reason as well.

Triple H joins us for our main event interview. Cole says we have learned Stephanie made it out of another exit and is okay. Well, that’s good then. We cut backstage to Vince telling security to stay with Stephanie, Test and Shane because he has some business to finish. Shane and Test tell him that they’ll be with Steph so security should go with Vince. Dummies. HHH tells us that his title reign burned a hole in Vince because he wasn’t one of Vince’s boys so Vince screwed him. The fans chant “Austin.” He says Vince needs to come down to the ring and go face-to-face with him. “This is personal so leave the police in the back and handle it like a man personally.”

WWF Chairman Vince McMahon does join us, no security following. Vince throws his jacket off and HHH promises to sue if Vince touches him. HHH proposes that Vince gets his lawyers to draw up paperwork that state they’ll have a match. The contract should state that no matter how bad Triple H beats him, Vince can’t do anything to him after the match including firing and fines. He calls for it to be Armageddon as we suddenly see the McMahons at the bottom of a staircase. “Be careful Vince, watch your step!” yells Triple H as Vince runs to the back and the copyright flashes.

Well, SmackDown has certainly found its groove and become a well-rounded, mostly entertaining show. There are still a few duds on the card, but they’re quick. Evil Triple H continues to grow, the tag division keeps the spotlight and even the women got to have a good match that was longer than a minute this week.

Next week on SmackDown: a no DQ match for the WWF Title, a cage match for the WWF World Tag Team Titles, a gravy bowl match and the SmackDown debut of Rikishi Phatu.