Yeah, now that I think about it. It felt like the perfect set up to make him a World Champion as a make good for his TV Title reign in ECW to REALLY set him up as the future of the company at that time. Brilliant! 👏 👏 👏
He was arguably at his most popular, and no doubt entertaining as he'll, but it was still way too early imo. It could have created some really interesting storylines in heighsight though. Imagine RVD involuntary taking Austins place as the Alliance leader and Austins reaction. First he begrudgingly embraces him, but then goes even more schizo.
WWF Armageddon Classic PPV (Review) On December12, 1999 at the National Car Rental Center in Sunrise, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On Wrestling With Wregret. my favorite main event of the match was, Triple H Vs. Mr. McMahon in No holds Barred Match would you Please, Brian???
Fun fact: With this win against Booker T, this would be the last time Undertaker won a match at No Mercy. He would lose to Brock Lesnar in 2002 and 2003, JBL in 2004, Randy and Bob Orton in 2005, Mr. Kennedy in 2006, and The Big Show in 2008.
Christ, I stopped watching wrestling around 2004/2005. 'Taker actually put Mr Kennedy over at a PPV? Shows what a goddamn good guy he was and how little of a diva he was also.
5:56 i have to say that Test really is criminally underrated here. The dude was a great worker. Probably one of my favourite Test matches ever. Both him and Kane during that time were really good in the athleticism department. Btw RIP Test, you will be missed.
9:27 Zane makes a good point about Christian joining the Alliance being unnecessary. I would like to see Edge & Christian being forced to team up against a tag team from Team Alliance. Very similar to the dissension angle between Jericho and Rock while both being on Team WWF.
@@kyokugenryudisciple9349 Don't act surprised. Those two are arguably the two top stars on Team WWF. While The Hardyz and the Dudz was a good rivalry, Edge & Christian being forced to team up against them for the tag titles and winning it would be intriguing. I don't know if Zane agrees with me but that's just me being an imaginary booker.
@@kenterminateddq5311 Yeah, in an alternate timeline Edge and Christian Vs. The Dudley Boyz in the Tag Title Unification Steel Cage Match sounds like a good idea.
... were there ANY WWF vs. WWF feuds at this time? It seemed like in order to be a bad guy, you HAD to be on the Alliance. And, credit to Christian, who proved time and time again that he could play the rat fink bastard well, especially in TNA, but this further diluted the poor souls who came in from WCW who already were firmly established as front line cannon fodder. Just a few months ago, DDP was presented as a huge threat, and now he's nothing but a punk ass bitch, and Booker T was reduced to "Great Value Rock" (to be fair, Vince Russo made him Great Value Rock because Vince Russo has no creativity in terms of stuff that actually makes money, but this is just them taking the piss).
Both were two of the better big men of their era, but no one ever gives Test credit. It still impresses me how good his flying elbow was for a man his size, and of course he had one of the best big boots in the business. Plus, both had two of the best theme songs ever!
I know. He was such a big missed opportunity. If it wasn't for Triple H he'd probably have a world title reign. Even I could book him into winning it at the right time
Thinking about it. They could have pulled a 2005 Shawn Michaels with Christian here. Be a Heel and beat Edge at Unforgiven, then either have either one win the Ladder Match and Edge or Christian be in Edge’s spot at Survivor Series the Next Month as US Champion.
@@kyokugenryudisciple9349 A bit off topic but 2005 was when they really should’ve pushed Christian. That when he was hot and primed for a main event run.
@@EzraDair Look at his arm after the chair shot, how it immediately seems to tense up. Also look at his head and the fact that it seems to have connected for real.
High 5 🖐🏻 To Channel 4 for showing these PPVs in the UK 🇬🇧 for free. The hype was real waiting all day and evening for the show to start just hoping you could stay awake for the main event. Good times.
Even as a kid back then I cheered so much when Jericho won that match 🙏 The rock although was popular wasn't stone cold popular with all the die hard adult male fans
One thing I will say about the PPV is that the theme song is still one of my all time favorite PPV themes. It’s amazing how Saliva provided many of their songs for WWE until 2010
Facts, you can tell from Wrestlemania X-Seven (Well even before than with Summerslam 1998 & Armageddon 2000) with licensed music and moving match cards. You can tell…the product was changing before our very eyes…some say for better and/or for worse.
I have such fond memories of this show as a kid. For some reason this was like the only wrestling video tape available at my public library in the early 2000s so I was always renting it and watching it lol
Stacy Keibler vs Torrie Wilson gets 5 stars from me they both looked 🔥 in lingerie and Christian's theme during this time period was awesome and very Catchy great review Brian.
RVD jumping to the WWF side would have made total sense--his whole gimmick in ECW was that he was going to leave the indies/ECW for New York/WWF. He was called Mr. Monday Night for a reason!
I never had a problem with the McMahon family saga back in the day. They were all great in their roles. I've been watching some old clips lately, and Stephanie was fantastic. She played her role to perfection.
Me neither, but around the time the invasion started flopping everyone just started weighing into all the problems in the company, and now aew exists from it.
Nothing will stop Zane and his love of no mercy PPVs. Speaking of which, I was the guy who tagged you on the no mercy 2008 post on Instagram recently. As I saw it, I thought of your review and how you were there with your wife. Hope it brought those good times back to you and I hope you two are doing well right now.
7:38-8:03 Spot on, Brian. Like your (not) father, the great Jim Cornette once said when talking about why he doesn't need to see beautiful women wrestle badly, "I like ice cream and ketchup too but not together."
They def should of pulled the trigger on RVD way before they did & should of gad a wayyyy better run as Champ! Great to see you in/on ROH TV! Keep up the great work My Brother Zane!!!
@@eastsidereviews727 😆🤣 Word Up, You already know Rob & Sabu where Burning it down every chance they got! Especially with the Head Ache that WWEs Backstage/Locker Room politics & Straight Bull Shit had to cause! 🤣 RVD def was The Whole F'N Show! I couldn't get enough of him when I 1st saw him!
I watched this PPV on VHS as a kid. Loved it then even as a kid. Lot of great matches. Now with understanding wrestling more I could watch it again like such a underrated ppv. That edge o matic off the laddder looks like it killed his back. Underrated ladder match because it took place in the invasion angle
Suggestion for your next review: Summerslam 2008. It was the first "PG Era" PPV, but it had a few great matches. Batista vs. Cena, CM Punk vs. JBL, Edge vs. Undertaker in Hell in a Cell. Plus you also get that great Jericho and HBK segment. I think it's a really underrated PPV. It also happens to be the first PPV I ever attended live, but that's beside the point.
Brian just for consideration one day would you do a video on Edge’s first WWE Championship run compared to Christian’s first Impact..TNA..uhhh NWA Championship run as they both were around the same time
This is a fantastic idea, could be a multiple part series comparing the parallels after the team split. - They both continued on as singles mid-carders in WWE - They both had tag team title runs in WWE with other partners around the ruthless aggression era - They both won world titles in separate company’s at a similar time - They we’re reunited in the 2021 Royal Rumble - They both wrestle full time again for major companies. Could be a really interesting series of videos.
@@LooneyTunesBackInActionWasGood I know I'm late, but I legit never saw my notifications for this comment and on that note... No shit? he actually got knocked the f out?
Man guys like angle benoit jericho eddie improved wwe's workrate infinitely better post-2000. It's crazy difference between 1997-99 and 2000-01. Just look at how better the Rock's in ring work was here compared to 98-99.
Agreed. As much as people romanticize the Attitude Era, it really was just a crash TV punch/kick style of programming before the world traveled wrestlers started coming over and helping to improve the in ring style. Guys like Angle, Edge, and Christian also helped tremendously.
I feel like there was a miss opportunity to edit in a Tim Allen "confused grunt" sound when Angle reacted to his belt disappearing in that PPV intro. LOL
This was my first ever pay-per-view I was at live! I was 4 rows away from ring side and I got to keep the chair. I have it on DVD. I still have the ticket and a t shirt from the event as well!
Okay, so this has always been something I've wondered throughout time. Since Austin got the cover on RVD to win the match, shouldn't that have also made Austin the new hardcore champion as well? Wasn't the 24/7 rule always in effect up to the point of RVD retiring the belt later on?
There were assorted periods where the 24/7 aspect of the Hardcore Championship was ignored or suspended, and the Invasion was one of them. During the storyline there were only 2 times that the rule was used. Raw August 13th of 2001 (Jeff Hardy running in to pin RVD which set up their match at Summerslam), and Raw September 10th of 2001 (Kurt Angle won a match, Stone Cold threw him off the entrance ramp, and then he threw RVD off the ramp onto Angle, letting RVD win the belt back).
Austin really was the biggest star ever in the business. Just had everything and got it. Anything he was in seemed important. The Rock Is a megastar as we all know. He is dwarfed by Austin in a wrestling ring. That speaks volumes. Sad his career was cut so short.
Great review, As bad as the invasion angle was it gave us some cracking matches. When you get to Survivor Series 01 I hope you talk about the absolutely bizarre RAW the next night, Acting as though the invasion never happened.
I get that Angle needed to be in the match per his rematch clause, but I think this could've worked better if it was just Austin vs. RVD. It would've been a parallel to the Rock/Jericho match.
I was at the go-home Smackdown, (it was in Montreal). If I remember correctly it was the first televised WWF show in our town since the 97 Survivor series! There was a bunch of speculation, wondering if Vince would show up or not, So when that limo pulled up and Vince came out the crowd went crazy with the "you screwed Brett" chant. That was so much fun. Also, as many people have mentioned, RVD was super over and we were pulling for him to win the title on Sunday! I think they missed a good opportunity with him. If I remember correctly, he stood tall at the end of Smackdown, so that should have been my first hint he was going to loose. Lol
Ivory’s said in various shoot interviews that she fell into the “creative has nothing for you” black hole after Right To Censor split up because she didn’t want to do stuff like pose for Playboy or take part in the the sex-fueled angles women were usually stuck with during the Attitude Era. From like mid-2002 on she started appearing on TV less and less (at least as a wrestler, she was one of the coaches on Tough Enough) and spending more time on the house show circuit, then during her last year and a half with the company she was limited solely to non-wrestling roles like training in OVW and cohosting the short-lived recap show WWE Experience.
I was always a Stone Cold mark, but right after him was Edge and Christian. They were always a highlight of my night. I love how the two work, especially against each other.
Wouldn't have ever guessed I'd say this about a card with this talent and level of superstars. But the match between Kane and Test actually looks like the most interesting and entertaining.
My biggest gripe with the Invasion at the time was that they didnt bring over the ECW titles. The Undisputed Championship shouldnt have been a tournament like it was I always said it shouldve been a Triple Threat winner takes all three titles WWF, WCW, ECW. If i was fantasy booking this the match on this card Jericho wouldve won by DQ from Steph (since they literally always feuded up to this point) or Countout and no title changes hands. Build him up a bit and let it linger a bit. In storyline you let the Rock thing cool off and Jericho becomes obsessed with being a world champion so he goes after the ECW title to get even with Steph who was the kayfabe ECW owner. He succeeds at that. There by eventually qualifying him for the Triple Threat Unification bout. If you still wanted the "he has to do two matches at Vengeance" have Steph invoke her last ECW ownership power right before Survivor Series to book a future ECW title match. Vengeance finally comes along the Triple Threat is a go, no one even remembers Stephs little threat until the paperwork is discovered to have gone through during the merger. Jericho defends in the first match a grueling match on the Vengeance card and then at the end of the night wins (as a face no help, maybe even he overcomes an interference) in the Rock and Stone Cold triple threat. Jericho now gets a massive face push and makes a truly WWF and Alliance Undisputed Title. The match could be booked in a way that the Rock and Stone Cold are more interested in beating each other than Jericho thinking him to be a non-threat to let him rest a bit on the production side of things.
It's mainly because WWF/E didn't fully own ECW until 2002, I believe. ECW was stuck in legal hell after it folded, and when WWF started referring to ECW at the start of the Invasion, they were quickly told to stop, as they were still in the middle of the bankruptcy negotiations; this is also why WCW/ECW wound up just being called "The Alliance". As we can see with the name cards, WWF was eventually allowed to show the ECW logo, but that was really it, as they still couldn't use the any of ECW's championships for legal reasons. Also, the ECW TV Title itself literally went missing about a month or two before ECW folded, so WWF wouldn't have been able to use that one, anyway.
Booker would still need to interfere against Austin during the Triple Threat, otherwise we'll never get that legendary supermarket brawl between the two of them a few weeks after.
They had the hardcore belt though, and it had been established for a couple of years at this time. It wouldn't have made any sense, unless when rvd won it the first time they binned it and brought in the ecw title. That would have given the storyline a bit of bite even I think.
@@KDOGLP Other than the false finish where Jericho beat him for the title in April 2000 and the infamous tag match where HHH tore his quad, Jericho never again got put over by him, not even with a screwy finish.
@@GorditoCrunch343I’m 2 years late on this but HHH did put him over on a episode of Smackdown 2002 in a number 1 contenders match for the Undisputed championship
Random, but I LOVE and miss when all the cameras used to go off in the audience when a special move or finisher happened. Sign of the times but I just remember being young and seeing all the flashing lights it added to the special moves
I certainly get where you're coming from but I think it just made it easier booking for "Good = WWE, Bad + Alliance". I know this is going to be a great comparison but when the terrible GFW invasion happened in Impact, it had no traction because the heels didn't give a shit about it so there was only about 4-5 people trying to battle another company 😂
Back when I first got into wrestling (beginning of '05) I wanted to watch any wrestling that I could and for some reason my local video store only had this to rent 😆 So I've seen this ppv many, many times 😆
Summerslam, this show and Survivor Series i use to watch all the time as a kid. These were the first PPVs I ever got to see new. Not years later or anything. These were the awesome to me as a kid.
My first ever major live show was the Go Home Smackdown before this show in Montreal. (First televised show there since "MONTREAL", if you know what I mean.) 15 minutes before the dark matches started, the crowd was ALREADY going crazy with RVD chants. The guy was WHITE HOT!
Wrestling With Wregret- To this day, what Brian Zane does & says around 7:42-7:47 makes me laugh. On a serious note, however, I can only imagine what it must be like seeing annoying comments from people like that, for example on a daily basis... What Brian Zane said around 7:47-8:03 was spot-on, however.
Check out Kane vs the Rock around summer 2000, it was on RAW. It was a pretty entertaining match that saw Rock do everything he could to keep Kane down.
I had this PPV on video cassette when I was younger, used to watch it monthly along with Judgement Day 2001 and RR03. I think for that reason I see them through rose tinted glasses.
Lost my glasses in August when I took to the ocean on a whim and a wave smacked the back of my head and sent them flying into the water, never to come up again. Been with crappy spares since. Glad it all worked out.
