Time to finish off my coverage of the WWF's 1999 pay-per-view calendar, as we move to No Mercy, which was actually the second event of the year to bear that name, with a special UK version of No Mercy taking place in May, ironically also featuring Triple H and Steve Austin in the main event. Though most of the build to this show heavily featured Hunter and "Stone Cold", their Anything Goes match to close the night is not the reason why it's well remembered. No, that honor goes instead to the show-stealing ladder match between Edge and Christian and the Hardy Boyz, a match so good it ended the rivalry between both teams, turning all four men into potential megastars and setting the stage for the next decade of WWE programming. Add on to that the infamous story of Jeff Jarrett holding up Vince McMahon for a six figure payout just hours before the show began, and you've got the recipe for one extremely interesting night of action.
- No Mercy 1999 comes to you from the Gund Arena(now Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse) in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of many WWE pay-per-view to take place in the venue. Cleveland crowds don't have the greatest reputation, at least with me, as every single show I've ever watched emanating from there always has a rather dead crowd, and unfortunately this one was no exception. As always, JR and The King are on the call, and I'll need to give out about Jerry later in the review as he was just terrible here.
- Opening things up are The Godfather and Mideon, a questionable choice for an opening contest to be sure. At least Godfather is over, but there's little exciting wrestling to be found here, killing any possible momentum the show could've had at the start. Both men slowly trade head locks and the occasional big slam, with Viscera running interference on the outside, before Godfather is able to pick up the win. A rather auspicious start to the night to be sure.
- The action certainly isn't getting any better in our next contest, as Ivory defends her Women's Championship against the Fabulous Moolah, who is in her mid seventies at this time. Everything about this match is embarrassing, both the decision to book the immobile sex trafficker Moolah in a title match and also the profoundly stupid decision to let her win. At least Mae Young was there to try and save it by taking some incredibly risky bumps, especially at her age, that got the crowd into it and made Ivory look like a real dastardly heel, but Ivory still lost so Young's great bumping didn't actually do much for her. This is 3 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
- This show is still stuck in the doldrums for the third match of the night, as the New Age Outlaws take on Crash and Hardcore Holly. This booked to be a very standard tag match, with the heels cutting off the ring and building to a hot tag, making most of the match boring as sh**, as the Hollys have little in the way of interesting offense in their arsenal. Billy Gunn's hot tag is good, as it always inevitably was, but the finish is a bit strange, as he delivers a Famouser on Crash onto a chair that Hardcore slid into the ring, which is apparently enough to get Gunn disqualified. I guess it makes sense, but the finish really deflated the crowd, yet another really dumb booking decision.
- Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett has been one of the best heels in the company the past few months, working a misogynistic gimmick that has shockingly aged pretty well. Jarrett's incredible work has gotten Chyna super over as a top face, standing up to Double J and his mistreatment of women, leading to a Good Housekeeping match on this show, where a large variety of household objects could be used as weapons. As mentioned at the top of my review, Jarrett held up Vince for a reported $300,000-$500,000 payout hours before the event went on the air, as he was about to sign with WCW and still needed to drop the belt. I assume that booking for the match was completely unchanged by this altercation, as Jeff and Chyna are shown to be on a pretty equal level here. They have fun hitting each other with anything they can find while Ross and Lawler entertain themselves on commentary with puns. The biggest highlight comes when Chyna hits Jarrett with an actual kitchen sink to a monster pop, just the kind of pure corniness I love in my wrestling. The finish is incredibly strange, as Jeff knocks out Chyna with his IC belt and just pins her, which does make her look a little weak. The match isn't over though, as the official reverses the decision, claiming that the title isn't a household item, which Lawler rightfully retorts that it is one in Jeff Jarrett's household. That screwiness aside, Chyna gets another huge pop for braining Jeff with own guitar and scoring the win, which is a very fitting way for him to go down. Chyna was one of the defining stars of the Attitude Era, so it only makes sense for her to get a big win like this one and a historic moment as the first woman to win a singles title. The match may not have included much actual wrestling, but it was fun, and that's all that really matters.
- For some reason, The Rock has been feuding with the British Bulldog throughout the fall of 1999, one of his least remembered opponents during the Attitude Era. They have a perfectly acceptable match here, as while Bulldog is on his last legs, he still has something to offer and bumps well to put over Rock's somewhat weak offense. Rock wins with the People's Elbow, before calling out the winner of the main event for a title match, getting a couple sledgehammer shots from Triple H as his answer.
- Here we go folks, it's time for Edge and Christian versus Matt and Jeff Hardy in a ladder match, with Terri Runnels' managerial services on the line. Terri's role in this match and storyline has pretty much been forgotten by history, but unfortunately her involvement did just enough to slightly ruin the match. Don't get me wrong, it was still terrific and by far the best match I've seen from the WWF all year, with all four men taking some insane chances and pulling off incredibly innovative spots, but Jerry Lawler really drags everything down on commentary. He just can't shut up about Terri's looks and what "services" she'll be offering the winners, and it makes the whole thing feel very crass. Still, it was great and big props need to go out to all four guys, who were working at an insane pace and barely gave themselves or the crowd a moment to breathe. The biggest highlight has to be Jeff's fantastic leap over a standing ladder into a leg drop that nearly caused me to fall off my chair in pure shock, that was a wild spot. Jeff really is the most obvious star here, as expected in an environment like this, and he gets the win, jumping from one ladder to another to knock Edge to the ground and retrieve the bag of money. While the TLC wars to come from both of these teams were probably better, at least because the matches were treated more seriously, this was an awesome spectacle that stands as an early highlight for several future legends.
- The unenviable task of somehow following that up goes to Val Venis and Mankind, and it's safe to say they definitely failed that goal. In fairness, they've been given no help from creative as their feud is ice cold, with Val impossible to take seriously as a top heel and Mankind completely directionless with Rock setting his sights on the world title. Nothing is abjectly wrong with this match, but neither does much to get the crowd on their side, and all 9 minutes are contested in almost total silence. The finish is once again weird, as Mankind has the Mandible Claw on Val, who somehow gets the win anyway, as he has a testicular claw on Foley and passes out on top of Mick for the pinfall.
- X-Pac is continuing to receive a pretty big push, as he manages to go over tag team partner Kane, and both members of the Acolytes in an elimination match. Kane does at least get one elimination, chokeslamming Bradshaw to a nice pop, before going down to a spinning heel kick from X-Pac. This feels like it should've been a much bigger moment, but the crowd is already starting to turn on X-Pac and loves Kane, so they're not too happy about it. X-Pac manages to catch Farooq in mid-air with a sloppy looking X-Factor to pick up the win, and while the story of X-Pac thriving in the land of the giants was executed well, it's also what caused audiences to turn eventually turn on him. He's receiving the kind of booking guys like Hulk Hogan, John Cena and Roman Reigns have gotten, but is so much smaller than all of those guys for something like this to be genuinely believable.
- Main event time, as Triple H defends the WWF Championship against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. As we saw last time, their feud began at SummerSlam two months prior, and they've just been going after each other at every turn, with their feud getting hot enough for Vince to make it an Anything Goes match on Sunday Night Heat. Austin isn't far away from needing to go in for neck surgery, so he isn't really capable of too much but does still hold his own in a long, vicious brawl. They spend the opening half of the match fighting all over the arena, with Austin even using the arm of a boom mic as a weapon, which gets a pop. They eventually get back inside the ring, but exit again very quickly to brawl around the announce desk. Finally, The Rock runs in with a sledgehammer of his own, gunning for Triple H but taking down Austin instead, setting the stage for a triple threat match at the Survivor Series that would never happen. Hunter is able to retain his title by hitting Rock with a Pedigree and pinning Austin, before high tailing it to Chyna's waiting car, as they speed away. Chyna and Triple H still being allies is a bit strange, as she's been working face against Jarrett as the defender of women, but being aligned with the top heel makes her a bit difficult to cheer for. Of course, that problem would be remedied shortly afterward when Triple H shotgun married Stephanie, but that's a story for another time. Either way, this match was an entertaining brawl, not a surprise considering the talent of both men, though Triple H would have much better matches in the year to come.
6/10
The ladder match, minus Jerry Lawler's commentary, was terrific, and the Good Housekeeping match and main event were fun garbage brawls, but No Mercy 1999 is really bogged down by a bad undercard and an uninterested crowd. My apologies to Cleveland, who I'm probably going to rag on a lot during these reviews, but the Attitude Era was known for hot crowds, so it's always disappointing when an event has one as cold as this.
We now move into a new millennium and the year 2000, and with the WWF's product getting more and more modern, it's time for me to start covering more shows. I now intend to go back to the original goal of this series, reviewing every single pay-per-view, though I will be excluding the UK events. We'll see if this is something I can stick too, but I'm going to give it the old college try. Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Royal Rumble 2000. See you soon.
- Henry
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