WWF Survivor Series, Tampa, FL
A year prior to this, then-WWF champion Triple H was the mastermind behind a vehicular assault on Stone Cold Steve Austin at the Survivor Series. Rikishi was the driver, but when Austin returned nearly a year later, HHH ultimately was revealed as the man with the plan. So now Austin is here for revenge in Tampa in no disqualification match!
HHH, subtle as always, makes a lot of Brooding and Psychotic faces during his entrance. Austin is cold and cool coming out to his Disturbed theme.
We get going quick, with Austin just unloading right hand after right hand on HHH, who is coming in with a back injury. Austin just battering HHH to start.
JR: “You think he’s gonna be man enough to come in here without some backup?”
Lawler: “You’re questioning HHH’s manhood now?”
JR: “Not his manhood. Just his integrity. Not his manhood!”
Stone Cold Steve Austin The Ragin’ Redneck targeting the lower back of The Game The Cerebral Assassin Triple H, as Triple H is coming in with back issues, probably from carrying the company most of the year. You’ll note his back was fine the rest of his career when he sucked.
Helmsley hits a facebuster, but builds no momentum as Austin ducks a clothesline and gets the Thesz press and pummel, then his goofy elbow drop. Austin’s goofy elbow drop is underrated in the canon of goofy elbow drops.
Fight goes to the floor and into the entrance aisle, where Austin continues to completely dominate, bouncing HHH’s head off the guardrails. Austin tries to hit HHH with a big steel chunk of set but HHH avoids that and takes over with his own brawling. Austin put onto a table in the TV tech area, but comes right off of it and they head deeper into the production area weeds. HHH hits Austin with something or other as they start heading backstage. JR suspects this is all a set-up to run Austin into the Radicals, with whomst HHH has some type agreement, and Austin fights his way back out to the tech area.
Austin goes for a suplay on the floor in the entrance aisle, but HHH blocks and hits his own instead. Back to ringside and Austin gets sent crashing into the steps. Then Austin sends HHH into the steps even harder a moment later, and now they’re fighting at the timekeeper’s table. Austin hits HHH with a TV monitor, and HHH goes down in a corner so he can blade, if I recall. Yep.
Austin whacks HHH in the head with a beer cooler and then busts out a Steveweiser. “Ya sumbitch, I’m THIRSTY!” He takes down some of the Cold One before hitting HHH with the can.
HHH goes back into the ring and Austin grabs the ring bell before yelling at someone, “Clean that shit up!” speaking of the huge mess he made over at the timekeeper’s table. HHH pounces on Austin coming back into the ring, but Austin is back at him, and HHH has to go low. It’s no DQ, so it’s fine.
Austin goes for the Stunner, HHH counters with a reverse neckbreaker. He hits another one a minute or two later when Austin tries to mount a little comeback. Lawler suspects Austin may be having abdominal cramps from drinking beer. Lawler, for a bit of trivia, is a teetotaler. His only vice is Coca-Cola. Well, I mean, for substances.
Back to the floor with Hunter in control. He looks to Pedigree Austin on the base of the steps, but Austin backdrops him over through the commentary desk. More brawling in the rubble, Austin with the edge. Back into the ring and Hunter’s begging off, but Stone Cold Steve will not hear of mercy. He stomps the mudhole in the corner.
STUNNER! But Austin does not go for the cover, confusing the crowd and Ross and Lawler. He leaves the ring and fetches a chair instead. He doesn’t take the chair to HHH, wrapping the ankle in it instead. But then he changes his mind and puts it on his neck. HHH rolls out before Austin can capitalize, though, by beheading HHH basically.
HHH trying to crawl out of here, but Austin is behind him and they’re throwing right hands and making their way down the aisle again, then to the tech area, and now backstage. Getting pushed into boxes and what have you. HHH gets whipped into a Powerade machine.
And now the son of a bitch Radicals are attacking! Eddie Guerrero gets HHH away from the scene while Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn put it on Stone Cold Steve, then Eddie comes back and gets some shots in, too. An army of referees come in and try to break up the Radicals assault.
Now we cut to HHH getting into a sedan, and then back to Benoit and Austin fighting it out, with Benoit winning the exchange for a moment, and then Austin chases Benoit outside, where HHH is waiting in a sedan to do another car attack. But Austin doesn’t appear, and then he disappears. HHH orders Benoit to find Austin.
We get a lot of audio of HHH talking to himself. “He’s here somewhere! (mumblemumble),” etc., and then Austin is in a forklift, lifting HHH’s sedan off the ground. Eventually Austin lifts the car high as HHH begs and begs for mercy, then Stone Cold Steve lets it go as HHH shouts, “Holy shiiiit!” And that’s the end of the show.
The match itself is a good brawl, a lot of energy, good pace to it, no real down periods. But the ending is what everyone remembers, one of the dumbest, most over the top endings in wrestling history, which covers a lot of ground at this point. And there are pros and cons there. The cons are obvious, the big one being that this is so stupid it takes you out of any sense that anything happening here is “real.” The pros center on this being so stupid it can’t help but fucking rule in its own way. And it brought Austin back for what really wound up being last great run in 2001.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
You must be logged in to post a comment.