Rebellion
October 2, 1999
National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, England

A week removed from Unforgiven and the crowning of Triple H as the new WWF Champion, the WWF once again made the trip across the pond for the second UK exclusive PPV of the year – Rebellion. Rebellion would become the trademark name for the UK event in this half of the year for the remainder of years in which these events were held, and this would also be the last official event with Vince Russo as the head writer for the WWF. He would hand in his resignation over the weekend of this tour and head to WCW and delivered the last nails into the coffin of that company over the course of the next year or so. Anyway, tonight the new WWF Champion puts his title on the line inside a steel cage against the Rock. Aside from that we have a whole bunch of matches that don’t really have any major implications as is common with these events. Please follow me on Twitter at @Mpmcc91 and share your thoughts.

A fairly ordinary video package opens up the show and we head into the arena, where we are welcomed by the unusual commentary team of Jim Ross & Michael Hayes. I guess Lawler wasn’t on the tour. Kind of strange to see Hayes though, as I don’t recall him doing any announcing at this point in his career.

Before our opening match, Jeff Jarrett makes his way out to the ring with Miss Kitty in tow. He’s carrying a vacuum cleaner and gets on the mic ripping on the female fans in attendance. He says that women are only good for cleaning, and he offers 1,000 pounds to any woman who comes in and cleans the ring. Some woman is picked out of the crowd, and as she goes to vacuum up some mess, Jarrett pushes her over and gets her in the figure four. Chyna ends up making the save, continuing their rivalry, and Jarrett is pissed going into his match up next.

WWF Intercontinental Championship:
Jeff Jarrett (c) w/Miss Kitty vs D’Lo Brown
Our first match of the night sees the renewal of an old rivalry. These two of course battled at Summerslam for both the I.C & European titles, with Jarrett coming out victorious thanks to the interference and heel turn of Mark Henry. D’Lo regained the European Championship from Henry at Unforgiven, so we once again have a champion vs champion match here. They actually have a coin toss to determine whose title will be on the line, and Jarrett loses so the I.C title is up. That may make this the only UK PPV in which the European title was not defended (at least while the title was around). D’Lo is still pretty over here and he starts this one out full of momentum, sending Jarrett to the outside. The champion attempts to leave, but D’Lo stops him and they head back into the ring. D’Lo eventually misses a shoulder charge however which allows Jarrett to take control briefly with a tornado DDT. We then get some back and forth with both men getting their usual spots in until Jarrett has D’Lo in the figure four. D’Lo manages to fight out, but Kitty gets up on the apron and distracts the official. Meanwhile, Jarrett grabs the aforementioned vacuum cleaner from the outside and nails D’Lo with it, which gives him the cheap pin to retain the title at 6:00. Pretty fun stuff here for a quick match to get the crowd going. After the match, Jarrett gets on the mic and challenges Chyna to a match later on to get some payback for the earlier incident.
Grade: **1/2

The Godfather vs Gangrel
This was really just thrown together to get these guys on the card, as will be a common theme tonight, as I don’t believe these guys had much interaction at this point. Gangrel is the heel who has pretty much moved into a managerial role for the Hardy Boyz at this point in time, whilst the Godfather always got a good pop. He comes out with his Hos as usual, but he refuses to offer one to Gangrel, saying that the people instead want to see him kick his ass tonight. Hayes does a decent job carrying Lawler’s pervy remarks onto the broadcast as he talks about the Hos at ringside for this one as the Godfather dominates the action in the ring. Gangrel ends up turning the tide with a DDT, but its not enough to keep the Godfather down. Godfather goes for a Ho Train attempt, and whilst he is unsuccessful on the first attempt, he hits it the second go around. He follows up with the Pimp Drop to get the win at 4:04 and celebrates his victory with his ladies to the delight of the crowd. Even referee Tim White gets in on the action. Nothing to talk about here at all, just a quick match to get the crowd to pop for the Godfather.
Grade: 1/2*

Backstage, Chyna accepts Jarrett’s challenge for a match later in the evening. She says Jarrett has Va-Chyna envy, but the British Bulldog barges in and tells her that nobody wants to see her. Chyna retorts by calling him a Bulldog’s ass before leaving to prepare for her match.

Val Venis vs Mark Henry
Another match really just thrown together to fill out the show like you would get on a house show here, as the Porn Star faces off against the Sex Addict. Venis is the face whilst Henry is still a heel here, although if I recall correctly they would swap roles shortly after this event. Of course, Val does his usual sexual innuendo ridden pre-match speech before we get under way. From there, he attempts to get in some shots on his opponent as the match begins, but Henry catches him in a powerslam. It doesn’t phase Val though, as he drops Henry over the ropes and follows up with a baseball slide to take control. Henry attempts to fire back, but Val’s speed works to his advantage for the most part, managing to stay one square ahead of the big man. In the end, the porn star gets Sexual Chocolate down and follows up for the Money Shot which gets the victory at 3:01. Basic filler here that was decent for what it was. Val would get a very brief push after this show so it made sense for him to go over in this one. Henry would be a face again soon enough and would be on the way to setting up the most infamous moment of his Sexual Chocolate persona in the months that followed. Hey Mae, how you doing?
Grade: *

We now go to Mr McMahon’s office where the British Bulldog barges in demanding a WWF title shot in his home country. Vince refuses however, so Bulldog flips out. In the process he throws a trash can which ends up knocking Stephanie unconscious. Vince flips out and Bulldog gets out of there. This would lead to Stephanie developing amnesia and being unable to recognise her fiancee Test for a while.

WWF Women’s Championship:
Ivory (c) vs Tori vs Luna vs Jacqueline
Yeah the women’s division is still sputtering along without any real momentum at this point in time. Ivory is the heel champion, who has had ongoing issues with Tori and Luna over the past few months. They are the faces, whilst Jackie is a heel doing a whole lot of nothing at the moment. The announcers are more preoccupied with the Bulldog situation here and I can’t really blame them. Anyway, Ivory teams up with Jackie and sends her after the other two. Of course, its every woman for themselves, so that allegiance is short lived as the champion gets in Jackie’s face. We get some basic offence here including a four chain sleeper, but there’s not a great deal to talk about. Ivory wraps this one up when she whacks Jacqueline with the title belt and scores the pinfall to continue her reign at 3:16. A sloppy mess here that was at least kept short. JR admits that he is more preoccupied with concern about Stephanie.
Grade: DUD

After showing a replay of the Bulldog/Stephanie incident from moments ago, we see Stephanie being loaded onto a stretcher in the back, whilst the Bulldog shows no remorse for his actions.

Road Dogg vs Chris Jericho w/Mr Hughes
These guys actually have some history going back to Summerslam, when Jericho interrupted Road Dogg during a promo. In the weeks that followed they would come to blows, but Jericho would instead face the Dogg’s buddy X-Pac at Unforgiven, whilst the Road Dogg would reform the New Age Outlaws with Billy Gunn. Speaking of the Outlaws, they are still the reigning WWF Tag Team Champions here, but Dogg heads out alone tonight. Jericho still has Mr Hughes in tow, but he won’t be hanging around much longer. Anyway, they start out brawling in the aisle here and the action ends up spilling over into the crowd. They eventually head back to the ring, with Road Dogg getting the better of the action and the crowd heavily behind him. His momentum is cut off however as Mr Hughes gets in a cheap shot which allows Jericho to work over his opponent. After a brief Road Dogg come back attempt, Jericho follows up with the Walls of Jericho, but his opponent manages to fight out of the hold. Jericho follows up with a series of German Suplexes and goes for a Lionsault, but Road Dogg gets out of the way. Dogg follows up with a Pumphandle slam, but before he can capitalise, Hughes whacks him with a chair, but the referee has been knocked down prior to this. Road Dogg goes after Hughes, but turns into a lowblow from Jericho, who gets on him for the cover, and the recovering official counts the three at 10:29. Decent enough match, but again I have to question not giving Jericho a more conclusive victory, especially with Road Dogg established as a tag wrestler at this point. Sure, he got the pinfall here, but a Lionsault or anything would have looked better than an abrupt low blow. Still, decent stuff, although Jericho would obviously have far better matches over the years that followed. He was just getting started.
Grade: **3/4

We see footage from earlier in the UK tour where fans got to meet the Rock and the Big Show. Back in the arena, the announcers tell us they have no update on the condition of Stephanie.

Chyna vs Jeff Jarrett w/Miss Kitty
This is a continuation from their rivalry that we saw back at Unforgiven. Chyna is pretty much a full blown face by now by the way, her ties with Triple H having been severed in favour of this battle of the sexes rivalry with Jarrett. By the way, the I.C title is not on the line here due to the impromptu nature of the match. Jarrett is still angry about Chyna’s actions earlier, so he storms out to the ring, but walks right into a clothesline from Chyna. He attempts to follow up with a shot from the turnbuckle, but Chyna counters with a low blow. She goes to follow up with a Pedigree, but Jarrett reverses it but his momentum is short lived. Chyna regains herself and delivers an Electric Chair to the Intercontinental Champion, but before she can capitalise, the British Bulldog runs out and hits Chyna with a powerslam, triggering the DQ at 2:22. Pretty much payback from their confrontation backstage earlier. With Chyna down, Jarrett gets the last laugh, locking in the figure four on his adversary. This was more an angle than a match to get some more heat on Jarrett for his eventual loss to Chyna down the line.
Grade: N/A

Before our next match, we get more footage from the fan event involving the Rock and the Big Show, drawing 10,000 fans to a record store. Good times.

No DQ Match:
Kane vs Big Show
These guys have been feuding on and off for a number of months at this point, although there hasn’t really been many developments in terms of their rivalry. Kane is the face here of course. He’s still teaming with X-Pac since losing the tag titles, but that allegiance won’t last too much longer. Big Show on the other hand has pretty much been floating directionless as a heel since Undertaker’s departure, but he’ll get a big shot in the arm down the line soon enough as well. This is a no DQ match, which is probably for the best as these two were never known for having great chemistry together. Show actually connects on Kane with a running dropkick to start this one out, sending the Big Red Machine to the outside. Kane attempts to come back with a dropkick of his own, but the Big Show fights back with his power offence. We get some back and forth from both men hitting their moves to take control, and Kane comes out on top with a DDT to his giant opponent. He goes to follow up with the chokeslam, but Big Show ends up blocking it and goes to grab a chair. Before he can smash his opponent with it however, Kane delivers a big boot, sending the chair into Show’s face and then follows up with a body slam to pick up the win at 7:54. This was fine for what it was, but again nothing really worth looking for. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, although the body slam was a random way to end it. Both men go their separate ways from here and embark upon new rivalries that we will see over the next few shows.
Grade: **

In the back, Michael Cole gets a word with Triple H, the reigning WWF Champion. He hadn’t really come into his own as a heel promo guy at this point, as he cuts a pretty basic interview, saying he doesn’t care about the Chyna/Jarrett issues or the Bulldog incident. All he cares about is kicking the Rock’s ass tonight.

X-Pac vs British Bulldog
Another match just thrown together to get these guys on the show. X-Pac is the face here despite being in England, and he gets a huge pop, although his days as a fan favourite are numbered at this point. Bulldog surprisingly gets almost no reaction at all. It must have been the lack of his classic theme and UK colours through this run. Very strange. Anyway, X-Pac starts this one out with his fast paced striking offence, but he ends up getting caught by the Bulldog, who takes over with a slam and throws his opponent to the outside. He continues to work over his opponent, pounding on. X-Pac as the announcers tell us that Stephanie is going to be staying overnight at a medical facility due to the earlier events. X-Pac eventually launches a come back and connects with the Bronco Buster to wake the crowd back up. His momentum is short lived however, as Bulldog catches him on the ropes and follows up with his trademark powerslam to pick up the victory at 5:10. Considering the guys involved, this was really underwhelming. It wasn’t terrible, but I expected more from these guys, although Bulldog just wasn’t the same over the course of this run. He almost looked out of place and the basic jean attire didn’t help him stand out either.
Grade: *

The Holly Cousins, Crash & Hardcore are backstage. Crash jokes about the English accent and phrases, whilst Hardcore plays his usual serious self. They are up next.

Number 1 Contender Elimination Match:
Edge & Christian vs The Acolytes vs Holly Cousins
Its now time for our showing of the tag division, and as I write that I’m noticing that once again the roster for this show was quite depleted. It must have been a UK tour type of thing as I remember something similar back at No Mercy earlier in the year. Edge & Christian are actually already the number one contenders here apparently, which likely stems from their controversial loss to the Outlaws at Unforgiven thanks to interference from the Hardy Boyz. That feud will really kick off in a few weeks, but for now, they put that title shot up against two other teams in the Acolytes and the Holly Cousins. The Hollys are still doing the argumentative super heavyweight thing as heels, whilst the Acolytes are just badasses who will destroy anyone at this point. Edge and Hardcore start this one out, with the existing number one contenders taking control of the Holly Cousins in the early going. The Acolytes also come in and come to blows with the Cousins, and all six men end up going at it in seconds. Amidst the action, Bradshaw hits Crash with the Clothesline from Hell a few minutes into the match and pins him, eliminating the Holly Cousins from the match. Its now down to the two fan favourite teams. Edge & Christian attempt to double team Bradshaw quickly following the elimination, but Bradshaw comes back and the Acolytes begin to work over Christian with their power advantage. Edge ends up coming in on the hot tag and dropkicks Faarooq, only for Bradshaw to take him out with another Clothesline from Hell. Christian manages to break up the count though, and Edge follows up with a tornado DDT on the Texan to pick up the pin at 9:03. Pretty standard tag match here without much to talk about. Edge & Christian are still the number one contenders, and I was surprised we didn’t see the Hardys out here. Again they were probably left off the tour with about half of the roster.
Grade: **1/2

Our main event is up next, but before that the announcers talk about Stephanie some more. Rock comes out to a huge pop and cuts a promo before the match. Good stuff as you would expect.

WWF Championship – Steel Cage Match:
Triple H (c) vs The Rock
These two were obviously both participants in the six pack challenge that Triple H won a few days prior at Unforgiven to become the WWF Champion, although there’s a little extra history between them that took place in the week of TV between these events. Firstly, the night after Unforgiven on Raw is War, the Rock faced Triple H for the WWF Championship, however the Great One’s chances to win the gold were crushed when the British Bulldog intervened. Later that week on Smackdown, the Bulldog got a shot at Triple H’s title, but the Rock was assigned as the guest referee, and would cost Bulldog the title as payback, which is why Bulldog was demanding a title shot earlier. Of course, Stone Cold Steve Austin is also entitled to a future title shot at the next PPV, but he’s been left off this tour, likely due to his deteriorating neck which he’ll have to take time off for soon enough. Anyway, this one starts out with Rock and the Game going back and forth, trading blows and attempting to escape the cage in the early going. This continues until we get a cool spot as Triple H goes to jump off the turnbuckle and Rock catches him into a Rock Bottom. The move takes both men out, but they recover and go back at it when Trips suplexes Rock down to the ring as the Great One attempt to scale the cage. Rock recovers, and after another escape attempt is thwarted, he goes for the Rock Bottom, but Trips reverses it into the Pedigree. He them grabs a chair and knocks out Earl Hebner who attempts to stop him from using it. With the referee down, Rock actually gets out of the cage, but Triple H follows and they brawl around ringside. Rock busts Triple H open with a chair and gets on the mic to tell the crowd that Triple H is not bleeding blood but monkey piss. He proceeds to destroy Triple H, putting him through the announce table in the process and goes up to climb back into the cage. He’s intercepted however by the British Bulldog looking for revenge from Smackdown. Shane McMahon and the stooges rush out to the Rock’s aid but the Bulldog takes them out and then goes after both Rock and Triple H, who is now back in the ring. Rock takes the Bulldog down with the Rock Bottom, but before he can escape again, Chyna runs down and smashes the door on his skull. Okay, I guess she was still in her weird tweener phase with Triple H after all. She attempts to beat on Rock some more, but Rock throws her off. Triple H and Rock now both attempt to climb out of the cage, but the Bulldog recovers and pulls Rock back. This allows Triple H to escape the cage officially, as witnessed by the referee this time, at 22:17 to retain the WWF Championship. Talk about a clusterfuck in terms of interference. It made sense though, with Bulldog looking for revenge on the Rock, whilst the McMahon family wanted retribution for the incident involving Stephanie earlier in the show, so I can’t fault it too much on that basis. The whole post-escape stuff while the ref was down looked a bit stupid though – why wouldn’t Rock just throw Triple H back in the ring and wait outside for the ref to recover? As a whole it was a decent match for a UK exclusive, but it would be underwhelming as a proper PPV main event. Still easily the match of the night though. The issue was more between Rock and Bulldog than Rock and Triple J here, although the two competitors would have much better matches down the line.
Grade: ***1/4

As Triple H leaves with Chyna, Mr McMahon heads down to the ring and chains the cage door shut, leaving Rock and Bulldog inside. He yells at the man who took out his daughter, whilst Rock takes the Bulldog down with a Rock Bottom followed by the People’s Elbow to send the crowd home happy.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
As I always seem to say with these shows, its hard to rate these UK exclusive events against regular PPVs, as more often than not, they are glorified house shows designed to give the fans a chance to see the stars live in a relatively big show feel. Overall it was a fairly mediocre show with only the main event breaking the three star mark. Triple H retains the title in a match where he was pretty much an afterthought, but his momentum as the top heel in the company would continue to grow over the next few months. As far as the rest of the show is concerned, the Jericho/Road Dogg match was okay for what it was, as were the tag elimination and opening matches, but you can find better stuff elsewhere, which is more often than not the mantra for 1999. There was some solid story progression here though which you usually didn’t get at these events in terms of Bulldog/Rock and Chyna/Jarrett, and the Stephanie thing would carry across onto television going forward, resulting in her wedding to Test being delayed for a few months. A below average show overall, but a fun watch all the same being typical Attitude era fun and all.

Three Stars of the Night:
1. The Rock – with Austin missing this show, Rock took over as the main face, a role he would find himself in for much of the next year after the next few months passed. He did a decent enough job with the crowd of course into him big time.
2. Triple H – he was a bit of an afterthought in the main event, but with the rest of the card being relatively underwhelming, he pretty much gets this by default. A solid, if non-memorable title defence for the heel champion.
3. Chris Jericho – picks up his first pinfall victory on PPV in a quick match, even if doing so by a low blow didn’t look that great. He had a rough first few months after that great promo with the Rock in his debut, but Y2J would come through and deliver as the year turned and never looked back since.

FINAL GRADE: 4 out of 10

ALL TIME PERFORMANCE TALLY:
What I do here is add the three stars of the night with each review so as to keep track of who we can say overall is the greatest PPV performer to any given time. First place scores 3 points, second 2 and third 1. The Rock and Triple H continue that climb to the top of the pack.

Bret Hart = 83
Steve Austin = 82
Shawn Michaels = 67
Mick Foley = 32
The Rock = 32
Randy Savage = 28
Triple H = 26
Undertaker = 25
Owen Hart = 21
Hulk Hogan = 18
X-Pac = 18
Diesel = 15
Ultimate Warrior = 13
Vader = 13
British Bulldog = 12
Ted DiBiase = 10
Razor Ramon = 10
Vince McMahon = 9
Ric Flair = 8
Jim Neidhart = 7
Jerry Lawler = 6
Dynamite Kid = 5
Arn Anderson = 5
Roddy Piper = 5
Mr Perfect = 5
Marty Jannetty = 5
Bob Backlund = 5
Ricky Steamboat = 4
Ax = 4
Smash = 4
Bobby Heenan = 4
D’Lo Brown = 4
Greg Valentine = 3
Tully Blanchard = 3
Tanaka = 3
Bam Bam Bigelow = 3
Sato = 3
Jake Roberts = 3
Hakushi = 3
Yokozuna = 3
Savio Vega = 3
Ken Shamrock = 3
Brutus Beefcake = 2
Paul Orndorff = 2
Shane McMahon = 3
Andre the Giant = 2
Rick Rude = 2
Sgt Slaughter = 2
Jeff Jarrett = 2
Jesse Ventura = 1
Texas Tornado = 1
Tito Santana = 1
Virgil = 1
Scott Steiner = 1
Rick Steiner = 1
Lex Luger = 1
The Roadie = 1
Billy Gunn = 1
Bart Gunn = 1
Marc Mero = 1
Flash Funk = 1
Animal = 1
Hawk = 1
Taka Michinoku = 1
Christian = 1
Test = 1
Chris Jericho = 1

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at @Mpmcc91. Thanks for reading!