The mid ‘90s were dominated by whiney babies politicking on and off screen. It felt cool to some at the time, but looking back it’s pretty annoying. So along came Steve Austin, who kept his politicking out of the dirt sheets (for a while) and channeled it on-screen into a blue collar badass character that at the same time was dope as hell and gave a generation of young men the wrong idea about how to express themselves. But I’m not a psychologist, I’m a wrestling fan, so here’s a look at an era dominated by men who were presented as either rage monsters, narcissists, or schizophrenics.
Oh also, thanks to Vince Russo (probably), this portion of the series covers less time than any other because that dude loved moving the title around.
March 29, 1998 – Boston, Massachusetts
Steve Austin def. Shawn Michaels {WWF Championship Match}
From WrestleMania XIV. This had a really great intensity that frankly had been missing from most of the title changes in WWE’s history. I wonder if that’s because the champions losing the titles were being babies. Flair vs. Savage had it, and the Fatal Four Way match had it, and it’s not a coincidence that those were the two best title matches to this point. This also told a great story with Austin being outclassed and HBK looking like he’d put down the upstart without much of a problem, especially with Tyson in his camp. But Austin showed the champ that he was overconfident, avoided his finisher over and over and got the win with outside enforcer Tyson’s help at 20:01. ****
June 28, 1998 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Kane def. Steve Austin {WWF Championship First Blood Match}
From the sixth King of the Ring. The commentators had to bend over backwards to make sense of the cell going up and down during this match, and of Austin’s back bleeding early on in a First Blood match but the damn thing continuing. Why didn’t Austin just wear a shirt? Why didn’t Jim Ross spend the match decrying how unfair it was that Kane was completely covered up and couldn’t really lose this the match? Beyond that, I thought this was actually a decent brawl. It leaned on floor bumps more than it did on rest holds, and I’m always for that. Sadly, the stipulation just ruined it. I mostly hated Mankind no-selling death in the previous match to interfere in this match too. Also, Austin bladed on camera at 15:58. There’s a lot to dislike about this match, but it wasn’t boring. **
June 19, 1998 – Cleveland, Ohio
Steve Austin def. Kane {WWF Championship Match}
From Raw 266. Without all the nonsense, these two had a pretty solid match, especially by the standards of Kane at the time. The first half of the match was all Austin, full of energy and a lot of fun. Kane took over and things slowed down, though the big man moved pretty quickly around this time. The finish was solid, and clean too, with Austin hitting the stunner at 8:27 to keep Kane’s reign short. One of Kane’s better matches. ***
September 27, 1998 – Hamilton, Ontario
The Undertaker and Kane def. Steve Austin {WWF Championship Triple Threat Match}
From Breakdown: In Your House. For all the fun brawling in the Austin vs. Kane matches, throwing Undertaker into the mix and adding more time brought the intensity of the proceedings way down. There were a couple tense moments and things got kind of fun when Kane and Undertaker briefly fought each other, but way too much of this match was a drag. And while it’s hard to argue given how much money WWF was drawing at the time, this faux handicap match felt like it belonged on TV, not on PPV. Kane and the Undertaker double pinned Austin 22:18, and the title was held up as vacant. *¼
November 15, 1998 – St. Louis, Missouri
The Rock def. Mankind {WWF Championship Match}
A match between Kane and Undertaker a month after Breakdown ended in a no contest thanks to Austin, so the title was decided in a tournament at the 12th annual Survivor Series. Watching this as a teenager, it felt like the Montreal Screwjob had happened such a long time ago. In hindsight, a year was not nearly long enough to wait to run the same kind of angle in the main event of Survivor Series. They somehow made 17 minutes feel like 30 here, and the callback felt unbelievably lazy. The last five minutes or so were starting to heat up, but everything before that and the garbage finish at 17:10 left me hating this. It really sucks that this is how the Rock won his first title. *¾
January 4, 1999 – Worcester, Massachusetts
Mankind def. The Rock {WWF Championship No Disqualification Match}
From Raw 293. This isn’t much of a match outside of a couple of insanely rough shots with the ring bell (which actually rings on impact) and the title belt (which gives off a loud smack) from Rock to Mankind. That and of course the escalating pop that starts with Billy Gunn attacking an interfering Ken Shamrock, then Austin blowing the roof off the place when he runs in, and finally the crowd nearly rioting in support of Mankind’s win at 8:42. It was the first time I think since Sammartino that I’ve seen the fans look this insane. It’s also hilarious that WCW basically gave WWF free advertising for this match on the air on Nitro, leading to them getting slammed in the ratings. Other companies should definitely heed this cautionary tale. ***
January 24, 1999 – Anaheim, California
The Rock def. Mankind {WWF Championship I Quit Match}
From the 12th Royal Rumble. Before the match even starts, the commentators talk about all the shots to the head Mankind had taken on Raw the week before. On the one hand, I’d like to think about this match in the context of what these guys were thinking when they performed. The spectacle of this thing is pretty incredible, and Mankind was more compelling in handcuffs than anyone I’ve ever seen in any other wrestling match save for maybe Tommaso Ciampa. The last few minutes were really powerful, with the exclamation being the heel commentating Jerry Lawlor originally cheering Rock’s chair shots on eventually getting fed up and saying it was enough. But we know the Rock took advantage of Mankind here. And it’s frankly impossible to watch this in 2020 without feeling pretty disgusted. There were moments when the Rock could have hit a chair shot to the back, and it looked like Mankind wanted him to do that, and Rock waited and moved around and hit the gnarly head shots from every angle. I’m not going to pretend this wasn’t entertaining because we happen to know so much about CTE now, but it’s upsetting to watch. I’m still going to give them credit for what they went through. A fake soundbite of Mankind quitting rang out over the speakers at 21:46, giving Rock the title back. ****
January 31, 1999 – Tucson, Arizona
Mankind def. The Rock {WWF Championship Empty Arena Match}
From Halftime Heat. This was a lot more violent than I remembered, though I hadn’t watched it in 21 years so it’s not like I remembered it all that well at all. Mankind falling halfway down the stairs was particularly rough, as was Rock hitting him while he was down with a chair so soon after the Royal Rumble (two days in real life). The fake sound effects in the back were a little silly, and truly the match just got sillier and sillier until it ended. But given the throwback vibe of the gimmick I’m kind of into it. Minus several thousand points for the Rock fat shaming a background actress. Mankind won at 17:20 by using a forklift to pin the Rock. ***¼
February 15, 1999 – Birmingham, Alabama
The Rock def. Mankind {WWF Championship Ladder Match}
From Raw 299. Having Steve Austin sit in on commentary and talk about how stupid it was for Rock and Mankind to brawl so much rather than go for the belt didn’t make that fact any less annoying. What did make it less annoying is that it was their hatred of each other that kept them from going for the belt, not goofy ladder spots they wanted to hit. The brawling was quite good, the crowd was hot, and the only shame is that Paul Wight’s interference was so tied into the finish. Rock retrieved the title at 12:58. ***½
March 28, 1999 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Steve Austin def. The Rock {WWF Championship No Disqualification Match}
From WrestleMania XV. This was not a great match by any stretch, simply a good one in the brawling main event style of the time. Most of it didn’t feel particularly WrestleMania worthy. But in hindsight it’s a historically important match, as Vince McMahon’s interference and the use of the chair was paralleled in the vastly superior rematch they had exactly two years later. Mankind eventually took his place as the guest referee and counted Austin’s win at 16:52. ***¼
May 23, 1999 – Kansas City, Missouri
The Undertaker def. Steve Austin {WWF Championship Match}
From Over the Edge, unfortunately. I don’t want to say too much about this match in the negative because the extenuating circumstances were about as dark as they could possibly be in wrestling. Owen Hart Had just died in front of everybody, so I’m not sure how we could’ve expected a stellar performance from Austin for the Undertaker. The crowd was pretty hot for Austin, so it’s not like the entire thing was a bust. But most of the match was punching and walking around. That lasted almost 20 minutes. And honestly, the referee shenanigans featuring guest refs Vince and Shane McMahon at the end were the only part of the match that was any fun. This match isn’t on the WWE Network and I don’t recommend going out of your way to see it, as it’s kind of macabre and very sad. Undertaker won at 22:58 after Shane made a fast count on a roll up. **
June 28, 1999 – Charlotte, North Carolina
Steve Austin def. The Undertaker {WWF Championship Match}
From Raw 318. They weren’t making a big deal out of episode numbers on Raw much at this point, but it would have been very cool had Austin won the title two weeks earlier. Here is where it becomes clear that the PPV match wasn’t bad because of the circumstances only. There were no extenuating circumstances on this episode of Raw and the match still sucked. Both guys were just totally broken down at this point, suffering from injuries and in dire need of time off. So we got 12 minutes of punches and kicks and that’s about it. Austin got his belt back at 12:02. *¾
With two of their biggest stars hobbling through the main event scene and barely able to move, it was time to elevate someone new. In the next part, we see the beginning of the main event career of one of the most interesting wrestlers of all time.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
