FEEDBACK - WWF King of the Ring (1999)

Alan Jones

I have had this on dvd for a while. Tagged classics Double Set with KOTR 2000. I watched it for the first time since I watched it live . This was by far One of the worst PPV's of all time 3 half good matches and a horrible King of the ring tournement. When Road Dogg vs Chyna is the best match of the tournement you know you are in trouble. All Billy Gunn did after this was have a 1 month fued with The Rock and then went back into midcard status. We also never found out who raised the briefcase during the ladder match, must of been the anoymous GM who we also never found out who that was. Being 12 at the time I watched this live I thought this was a fun show but it's sad when you watch a lot of the 99 stuff back and see how bad it was match wise.

P.S As I was surfing through your archives I came across this gem of Wai singing Iris by Goo Goo Dolls. Priceless Stuff.

Dave Crawford

This show was the usual deal from 1999 WWF where the star power of the main events carried things on top of some pretty brutal undercards.

The tournament on this show was an argument in favour of only doing the semi-finals and finals on the PPV as we just had a series of three to five minute matches (except for Road Dogg/Chyna which inexplicably got thirteen minutes) and no one got over as a result. Case in point, the heel run of Mr. Ass coming off of this show was so successful that by September he was a babyface teaming with Road Dogg again.

Edge & Christian and The Hardyz only got five minutes too, but it was decent and they showed flashes of what was to come starting with the T.I.T. later on that year.

We then had the usual convoluted WWF Title match. That's the stuff that was over huge at the time, but really that has to do more with star power then it being a great match or anything. The screwjob finish we got was in vogue in 99 so it's to be expected and I can't really complain. Rock had only officially been a face for two months here, but you'd think it had been years given how everyone was into him.

Speaking of convoluted, then it was main event time. The buildup for this included among plenty of other things Vince turning face and briefly aligning with Austin before being revealed as the Higher Power, the introduction of Stephanie and Linda as TV characters, "Where to, Stephanie?" and her near marriage to The Undertaker, Austin being named CEO of the WWF and finally the agreement to put total control of the company on the line here. The match was nothing special, but in the Internet Wrestling Community the result was months and months of debate over that burning question: Who raised the briefcase so Austin couldn't get it? I thought it was pretty obvious that it was the Big Boss Man since he had been booted from the Corporate Ministry the week before and then was welcomed back in the next night, but a lot of people felt that since it was never directly explained that way that it was just something that made no sense.

Anyways, this wasn't a great show, it had no standout matches and had no lasting repercussions (other then making Mr. Ass the butt (ha ha) of King Of The Ring related jokes) so I can't go any higher then a 2/10.

By the way, the aftermath of this was Steve Austin winning the WWF Title from Undertaker the next night in what I believe is the most watched match in the history of Monday Night Raw.

Alexander Rios

Hello John and Wai, been out of it for a while since post-WrestleMania I have for the most part stopped watching wrestling, main reason is I got a girlfriend and started devoting most of my free time to her....but I'm single now and so I have reverted to my first love of wrestling.

WWF King Of The Ring 1999...damn, a show I remember so well, not a great show by any means but still a show I enjoy watching more than 2012 WWE....and I don't care what anyone says about Billy Gunn winning King Of The Ring and not becoming a main event star in singles, NO King is worse than Mabel, NONE! In fact Billy Gunn might joing the hall of fame on his tag team credentials alone. Other than that, all I remember from this show was an Undertaker-Rock championship match where The Rock had just turned babyface I think, and Undertaker's Ministry had joined the Corporation. (It's me Austin! It was me all along Austin!) and Austin-McMahon milked for its last few true dollars with a Vince/Shane vs. Austin ladder match...and of course who can forget Steve Austin at Titan Towers? Attitude Era sentiment give this show to me a 7/10.

P.S. little known fact, but this show had Kurt Angle in a dark match with Shawn Stasiak in his Meat character.

Cory Gibson

There are a lot of people who tend to romanticize with 1999 WWF. Not to be overly negative, but in my opinion it's a grossly overrated period. The booking and in ring work of the year leave much to be desired and I do not think it's at all surprising that things started to turn around creatively after Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera left for WCW later in the year.

When by my count only two WWF PPVs all year are worth re-watching (Summerslam and No Mercy), I would say that's a pretty bad indictment on the quality of the shows around this time. The 1999 King Of The Ring may be the worst of the bunch. The booking of the tournament itself is a disaster. You got short, below average matches, horrible finishes, plus a lame duck winner who failed to get over as a main event heel despite being slotted into a semi-main event feud with THE ROCK in the subsequent months.

The two main events both suffer from the same problem: egregiously overbooked finishes. The Undertaker and Rock had a fine match, but, were 2 ref bumps, a HHH run in and an ether filled rag really necessary? The conclusion I keep coming to is ''no''. The idea of having a ladder match with 2 non workers and Steve Austin who's neck was a mess at the time is something I would not classify as being one of the better ideas Vince Russo ever had. Not only is the match not particularly any good, it has an extremely insulting finish with the magical briefcase. This conclusion is on par with the Higher Power reveal in it's wretchedness.

In conclusion, this was a horrible show from top to bottom, one of the worst of 1999 easily. Illogical booking was a hallmark of this period and it's very much so prevalent here.

Ah yes, the "Who Moved the Briefcase"? show. I remember as a teenager being really excited to see where that was going to lead, and then they never really explained it. If I recall correctly they later ret-conned it to say it was the Big Boss Man, which would have been the worst non-swerve ever - it's as though they were going to reveal it as some awesome new addition and then whoever it was supposed to be just fell through. Then the next night we got one of the worst "deus ex machina" moments ever where Austin mentions that "by the way, just in case I lost that match, I booked myself into a title match the next night and am contractually permitted to beat up Vince McMahon." As for the rest of the show, I guess they thought the crowd really wanted to see the former DX fight each other over and over because that's what we got, with them building X-Pac as the sentimental underdog only to lose to Billy Gunn. Billy Gunn's KOTR run is remembered for two moments: being verbally bitchslapped by the Rock and being verbally bitchslapped by Edge. The Taker/Rock match was going okay until we got an ether-soaked rag, which made me wish for Joey Styles yelling out "take that crap back to Smoky Mountain!". Anyhow, 4/10 for the show, 8/10 for reminding me to go watch Edge and Rock, two guys with actual mic skills and charisma, just unload on Billy Gunn.

Hello John and Wai, this review brought alot of bad memories. Why would the WWF at the time put Billy Gunn as the king of the ring. If safe to say that Billy was a better tag team wrestler than a single competitor. The rest of the card was pretty bad also. Seeing the Mcmahons inside the main events really did'nt help the situation.The good thing about this main event was the video package. The only good match on card was Edge and Christian vs Hardy's, which I believe was their first meeting ever on Pay per view. I would grade this show 1.5/10. On a side note I think you guys have a awesome city and one of the better ones in Canada for Bachelor party's. Trust me, last weekend was one the best weekend's of my life when I celabrated my brother's bachelor party. If only now the city of Toronto could get rid of Dalton McGuinty, the province of Ontario would be much happier. Keep up the great work guys.