WWE: The Attitude Era 3-Disc Set DVD Review
Released: November 20, 2012

DISC THREE:

• WWF European & Intercontinental Champion D’Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) – (SummerSlam 1999)
  

Jarrett sends his lady friend to the back early, which ignites the crowd. Instead, D’Lo agrees to let Debra walk out with him. Oh, boy. Here we go. D’Lo owns Jarrett to start constantly being one step ahead. He finally cuts off Brown with an elbow as he comes off the top. To the floor, Jarrett gets in some extracurricular activities. Back in, Jarrett gives D’Lo a tornado armbar DDT, then tells Debra exactly where she can stand. D’Lo fights back with a running Ligerbomb. Both men up, Jarrett charges into a tilt-a-whirl sideslam. Shaky Shaky Leg Drop gets two. He’s feeling like going for the Lo Down, but Jarrett moves. As Debra hops up on the apron to do what she does, Jarrett grabs his GEE-TAR. While Jarrett yells at Debra to get down, all of a sudden Mark Henry appears to take the guitar away from Jeff to KABONG D’Lo. Cover by Jarrett, 1-2-3. (7:28) And of course, Jeff and Debra are back together. That was the plan all along! So both titles go to Jarrett, but he gives the belt with the lesser prestige to Mark Henry for helping him out and turning on D’Lo. Soon enough, the D’Lo push was derailed as he was instrumental in crippling Droz, as Chris Jericho took the spot that arguably could have gone to D’Lo, which probably at the time just meant more IC title runs and jobbing to Chyna. Who knows. **

• WWF Tag Team Champions The Rock n Sock Connection vs. The Unholy Alliance – Buried Alive Match (Smackdown, 9/9/99)
  

A ‘buried alive’ match?! For free? Why not. Mankind pairs with the Big Show while the Rock battles the Undertaker. Rock tries to help his buddy or not his buddy – whatever, it’s his tag partner – by giving Show the People’s Elbow, but Taker yanks him out. Back to what they were doing before. The SHOWSTOPPER puts Mankind down long enough for Show to carry him halfway up the ramp. They brawl the rest of the way over to the gravesite. Meanwhile, Rock and Taker are hitting each other with chairs. Rock saves Mankind from certain burial. They Golota the Big Show with the shovel, and then shovel clothesline him into the grave. Rock N Sock start pouring the cold, dark soil onto the Big Show until Taker finally appears to temporarily put the kibosh on that. Taker wants to soupbone the Rock into the grave, but Rock listens to the PEOPLE, and returns fire. More brawling ensues as Show heaves Mankind into the grave. When Show meets up with Mankind, Show eats MR. SOCKO. Once Show is incapacitated, Mankind begins to shovel the dirt. Next thing we know, Rock and Taker are fighting BACKSTAGE~! HHH appears and ambushes the Rock. Kane enters and takes care of Triple H. That is until Chyna whacks Kane with a chair, which just serves to distract Kane more than hurt him. Taker makes it back to the gravesite and helps out the Big Show with Mankind. As they start to shovel dirt, the Rock returns as well and mixes it up with the Undertaker. Oh snap, here comes HHH with his not-quite-yet trusty sledgehammer. While Show is busy shoveling dirt on top of Mankind, Triple H swings the hammer and NAILS Big Show in the back of the head to send him tumbling down the gravesite! All HHH wanted was to shovel the dirt on top of Mankind to return the tag belts back to the Unholy Alliance. (11:43) Well, that was madness. So much going on. Speaking of so much going on, Steve Austin comes out and beats HHH into an ambulance, and then runs into the ambulance with a semi. Moderately fun brawl, but nothing to write home about. *½

• Steve Austin & Jim Ross vs. Triple H & Chyna – (Raw is War, 10/11/99)
  

Surprisingly enough, this was not the main event on this show. It was Rock N Sock against of all people the British Bulldog and Val Venis. I believe this is JR’s first match (maybe ever?) of many embarrassments on Raw. He comes out to the Oklahoma Sooners fight song while wearing Stone Cold 3:16 baseball jersey. Of course he comes out by himself, and flips off HHH. Triple H promptly stomps him into oblivion. *GLASS SHATTERS*. Here comes Austin to save the day. HHH meets Austin on the rampway for a brawl. Meanwhile, I believe Chyna is choking JR. Austin and HHH wind up brawling all the way through the crowd and clear out the building, leaving us with two non-wrestlers in the ring. I mean, let’s face it. Chyna can’t wrestle. She hits JR with something resembling a PEDIGREE. She wants the Figure-Four and mimics Jeff Jarrett, but here he comes to whack her with a TOASTER! Down comes Miss Kitty with a laundromat-sized hamper. Jeff dumps Chyna into the hamper and wheels her backstage. Next thing we know, Austin is beating HHH back inside the building. Because hey, just having JR lying in the ring is *not* what I call entertainment. They fight over by what appears to be a fake concession stand. IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN TUPELO, FOLKS! While HHH is laid out on top of a bunch of beer cans, Austin tells HHH he’s got somebody he wants him to meet. They play Austin’s music as he returns to ringside. He gets up on top of the announce table and enjoys a beer or two. (almost 9:00?) No decision or final bell. Whatever. This was just Attitude Era non-sense. Backstage while Kitty pleads for Jeff to stop, he shoves the laundry hamper off the edge of a loading dock. Michael Cole is DISGUSTED~! No rating.

Boss Man’s Sympathy for Big Show’s Dad – (Raw is War, 11/18/99): In arguably the worst angle of the Attitude Era, the Big Bossman reads a poem bashing the Big Shows father who had just ”passed away”. In reality, Big Shows father had passed away several years before, but the angle was done in poor taste and Big Show’s first world title reign in the WWF surely flopped because of it.

The Wedding of Stephanie McMahon & Andrew “Test” Martin – (Raw is War, 11/29/99): The infamous moment that changed the course of WWE history. Storyline-wise, Test had been dating Steph for months and won a “Love Her or Leave Her” street fight with her brother Shane. Well, Steph had been fighting amnesia. However at the wedding, HHH interrupted to show Steph was drugged and had already married HHH in Vegas. This of course was all a ruse as HHH and Steph were in cahoots the next month, and started the McMahon/Helmsley regime, leading up to their real-life relationship.

• The Godfather & D’Lo Brown (w/The Whores) vs. Too Cool – (Smackdown, 1/27/00)
  

All I can think of when I see this match is the Smackdown 2 video game. Smackdown 1 can suck it. By the way, I should mention that there are a lot of whores at ringside. My goodness. Scotty and D’Lo start us off. Remember when these two were jobbers? At this point, more people were watching them then SID VICIOUS~! Think about that, if you want to. Scotty controls early with a headlock. In his own way, he avoids a hiptoss and flips over D’Lo to hit a snap suplex. Kip up, moonwalk, and tag to GMS. He runs right into a drop toehold. Crossbody and bulldog out of the corner helps the Grandmaster fight back. Back to Scotty, D’Lo tags out. Godfather nails the hook kick and tries the WHORE TRAIN, but nobody there. With nothing to do, Scotty 2 Hotty randomly does the WORM. The whores see this and are pretty impressed. Since the Godfather likes to party and knows the whores do too, he decides they should all just party now and fight another day. (2:45) WHAT THE WHAT. Everybody starts dancing until Mark Henry and Mae Young interrupt with an announcement: Mae is pregnant. Everybody starts vomiting while Mark and Mae dance at the top of the ramp. Well, even though I don’t think this should be on here, that announcement at least explains what this is all doing on a DVD.

• WWF Hardcore Champion Crash Holly vs. Hardcore Holly – (Raw is War, 3/27/00)
  

Last Thursday night on Smackdown, Hardcore Holly tried to beat Crash for the Hardcore title while being his tag partner in a match against Al Snow and Steve Blackman. Luckily for Crash, Hardcore was unsuccessful. 24/7 rules, ya’ll. As soon as this gets going, Tazz, the Headbangers, Viscera all storm the ring to get a quick pin on the Hardcore champion. Crash gets away, but runs into the Mean Street Posse backstage! Once he escapes that battle, Crash asks Kaientai where the door is. They seize the moment and try to win the Hardcore title as well. Now everybody who was trying to get at Crash in the ring is now stalking him again. Crash makes it out of the building and hides behind some trashcans as all ten men continue looking for him. With all their backs turned, Crash runs back inside and locks the door to keep them out. Why would you even want the Hardcore title if this is what you have to live with? (2:00) Justa quick example of the 24/7 period. Nothing to rate here.

• WWF European Champion Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero – (Raw is War, 4/3/00)
  

This is the night after WrestleMania 2000 where Jericho won the European title. Eddie’s still a member of the Radicalz group and is about to break away and transform into the Latino Heat character. Guerrero’s on the stick during his entrance. Chyna wants some Latino Heat! “I mean, last night at WrestleMania, you were coming out of your pants just at the sight of me.” Yeah, her pants ripped. Anyways, Eddie’s here to make all his ancestors from Spain proud by winning the European title. Slugfest to start, but Eddie quickly gets launched off into the corner and then launched into the air! Guerrero sunset flips out of a powerbomb and catches Jericho with a clothesline. He takes a second to pose for Chyna – trying to be all seductive. Eddie grabs a sleeper, but Jericho escapes with a back suplex. To the floor they go as the camera cuts away to what appears to be Stephanie McMahon’s dressing room (?). They go back to live action REAL quick (somebody fell back on a lever perhaps?). Eddie’s running away from Jericho’s chops and then turns around to poke Jericho in the eyes. Back in, Eddie hits a Brainbuster, winks at Chyna, and heads up top for the FROG SPLASH. Jericho moves and Eddie rolls through, but runs into a powerslam. Jericho gets the running face slam for two. Eddie takes a drop toehold into the ref which puts Tim White on the floor. Double Powerbomb by Jericho! LIONSAULT connects! No ref. Chyna goes over to check on the ref. Since he’s out of it, she crawls in the ring and counts 1-2-3. Uhh, that doesn’t count. Chyna raises Jericho’s arm in victory…and then pulls him in for a DDT! Eddie covers as Chyna throws Tim White in the ring to count 1-2-3. (5:38) We’ve got a NEW European champion. Thus begins the Latino Heat era for Eddie Guerrero. More angle importance than anything that went on in the five minutes before Chyna turned on Jericho. **

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Val Venis (w/Trish Stratus) vs. Rikishi – Cage Match (Fully Loaded 2000)
  

From easily one of my favorite PPVs. Anybody ever wonder why they never turned Val’s haircut into an angle, or is that just too 1984? He won the IC title with his porn star hair, and then went into the crew cut. Rikishi throws Val into the cage a bunch to start. He nearly climbs out, but then has to stop Venis from crawling out the door, and then levels him with a back suplex. Val clips the knee and returns the favor smashing Rikishi’s face into the mesh. Venis nearly falls victim to the Stinkface, but it was all just to bait Rikishi into a low blow. Val fires back with a big clothesline to trigger the inside-out sell job. That gets two. They climb onto the top rope only for Venis to make Rikishi fall back onto the mat. He walks down the side of the top rope to elbow drop Rikishi. He could have just climbed out, but no. It’s the SPIRIT OF COMPETITION~! Slow cover gets two. Val climbs all the way up to the rim of the cage, but Rikishi pulls him back inside. As they fight on the top rope, they both get crotched. Whoops. We notice Venis has a little cut above his left eye. Now HERE COMES RIKISHI! Samoan drop, Buttalanche, and the BANZAI DROP gets 1-2-NO! Venis gets his foot on the bottom rope. He walks over to the door, but Trish slams the door in his face. Venis hits a reverse neckbreaker, and follows with the MONEY SHOT for 1-2-NO! Having her recent problems with Trish, here comes Lita to whip and strip her backstage. Meanwhile, Rikishi sends Val crashing off the top rope as they both try and climb out. The ref gets knocked down as well. Sensing a Jimmy Snuka moment, Rikishi heads up to the rim and delivers a SUPERFLY SPLASH to Venis! That’ll do it for Val, folks! The whole building is chanting for Rikishi. As he heads for the door, Tazz appears and smashes a camera in Rikishi’s face. Val rolls over and covers Rikishi as the ref wakes up and counts the 1-2-3. (14:11) This was a perfectly fine cage match. It had all the elements of a good one with a mega-huge finish. ***¼

• WWF World Tag Team Champions Edge & Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz – TLC Match (SummerSlam 2000)
  

In its infancy, the TLC match concept was actually quite brilliant as all three teams got over using tables, ladders, and chairs. Since this match, at least one of the original six men in this match have competed in every TLC match in WWE. The Hardyz take everybody down to start using chairs. They try Poetry in Motion on Bubba, but he blocks that by throwing a chair at Jeff. Christian corner splashes D-Von by springing off a chair, then Edge trips D-Von face down onto the chair. CHAIRS! CHAIRS! CHAIRS! Here comes a ladder. Bubba avoids being splashed onto a ladder up against the ropes by bouncing the ladder back in Edge’s face. DDT to Christian. Bubba starts to make the first climb to the belts and takes a double-powerbomb to the canvas. Now we have two ladders set up under the belts. D-Von brawls to the top with Jeff and they both get brought down with a Russian legsweep by Edge. Christian tries to climb, but Bubba brings him down with a SUPER BUBBA BOMB! The see-saw ladder effect gets put into position as Matt eats the ladder. Such a NASTY spot. Jeff ducks a double chair swing from E&C, but then Bubba runs them all down with a ladder. Wassup Headbutt off the ladder to Edge! D-VON! GET THE TABLE! Christian takes a 3D through a table. With the Dudleyz in total control, they set up a double stack of tables in the aisleway. Edge blasts Bubba with a chair, but turns around into a TWIST OF FATE from Matt. He follows up with a flying legdrop off the ladder, leaving Jeff to follow *that* up with a leapfrog over the ladder flying legdrop. Edge gets sandwiched in a ladder by Matt and Christian tries to save by going up top, only to be slammed onto Edge to do further damage to his partner. On the outside, Jeff tries to recreate the SWANTON BOMB OFF THE LADDER THROUGH A TABLE spot he completed at WrestleMania 2000, but this time Bubba moves out of the way and Jeff crashes and burns. Christian brings Matt down off the ladder with a reverse DDT. Edge and D-Von hotshot each other off the ladder. That leaves Bubba Ray as the only man standing. He’s wobbly, but he makes the climb and gets all the way to the top when E&C get to their feet and turn the ladder over, sending Bubba Ray crashing through the double stack of tables! E&C head up the ladder, but here comes LITA to turn the ladder over the opposite way and crotch them on the top rope! Jeff has been wiped out, so Matt is the Hardyz only hope. He gets all the way up the ladder when D-Von flips the ladder as Matt falls BACKWARDS through a table over at the barricade! That’s just sick. Since Lita cost him his chance to win, Edge runs over and SPEARS Lita down on the floor. Her head looked like it cracked on a ladder too! Jeff and D-Von fight to the top of the ladder. They give up on clubbing each other as each man grabs a title belt! Edge comes in and turns the ladder over, leaving Jeff and D-Von hanging from the belts! Jeff manages to kick D-Von down as the crowd ERUPTS, but he can’t grab both belts. E&C take a ladder and jab it into Jeff’s side. And with that, he falls to the canvas as well. That’s it. E&C climb one of the 20 foot ladders and retrieve their belts for the win. (14:32) Nobody had seen anything like that match. Awesome stuff with everybody bumping like madmen. Plus, they did an excellent job by spreading out the spots among all three of the weapons to make them all seem a bit scarier than before. *****

• WWF Champion Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin vs. The Rock vs. The Undertaker vs. Triple H vs. Rikishi – Hell in a Cell (Armageddon 2000)
  

With so much going on among these six guys, this was an EPIC idea for a main event at the time. Big brawl to start. That shouldn’t shock you. UT and Angle, Austin and HHH, and Rock with Rikishi. HHH hits the Facebuster on Austin, but he comes back with the Thesz Press and Bossman straddle for two. High Knee from H, and he goes after Austin’s knees. Back to brawling, Austin rakes HHH’s face along the cage all the way around the ring to bust him open. Rikishi saves HHH from Austin and wants an alliance, but Triple H doesn’t trust him as far as he could throw him, and drops Rikishi with a PEDIGREE. He covers, but Rock makes the save. Rock starts working over HHH just like old times, but in comes Angle to stop him with the OLYMPIC SLAM for two. STUNNER to Angle! Taker makes Austin pay with a Chokeslam for 1-2-NO! HHH yanks out Taker, but gets thrown into the cage a bunch. Not wanting all of his top talent in this career-threatening match, Vince McMahon and the Stooges bring a huge truck down to ringside to try and tear the cage down. He gets the door ripped off just as Commissioner Foley heads out and takes care of business, but the truck is still left at ringside. Everybody brawls out into the aisle to fight on the Armageddon set, which is a bunch of old junk cars almost identical to the Over the Edge 1998 set. Rock wants the Rock Bottom on the top of a car, but HHH doesn’t and low blows the Rock so he can drop him with a PEDIGREE instead. That makes Rocky bleed. Austin puts a stop to HHH’s onslaught with a catapult onto a car. Angle and Taker have made it over to the timekeeper’s table where Angle nails Taker in the face with a chair, causing Taker to bleed. Meanwhile, Austin and HHH climb the cage and trade punches up there. It peaks with a STONE COLD STUNNER. Now Angle and Taker head up to meet them. Austin and HHH decide to climb down though, while Rock and Rikishi begin the climb. A stagehand throws a chair to Taker, which seems incredibly unfair. Angle takes a nasty chairshot on the top of his head. Not sure what happened with the Rock, but Rikishi comes over and wallops Taker with the chair. Angle gets away, but Rikishi is left to take a CHOKESLAM FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE ONTO THE TRUCK BED. Inside the ring, it is as if time had stopped. Everybody takes a moment to look at Rikishi, who is certainly done at this point. Okay, enough. Your upcoming WrestleMania main event heats up in the ring. Rock avoids the Stunner and hits the Spinebuster. He winds up for the People’s Elbow, but HHH runs him over. Rock lays the Smackdown on HHH, and catches Angle charging into a ROCK BOTTOM! Cover, 1-2-NO! Austin saves the day. STONE COLD STUNNER to Rock! Austin covers for 1-2-NO! HHH stops the count. Looks like they gave each other a neckbreaker as Angle crawls over on top of Rock for the lucky 1-2-3. (32:14) Everybody pulled out all the stops in this one and together they put on heck of a show. Aside of the action, it’s always been a personal favorite of mine because of how all the feuds were intertwined. It’s just amazing seeing these six guys in there. Heck, even Rikishi gets kudos from me in this one. ****

Final Thoughts: The match selection ranges from interesting to just plain confusing. Too much from the Rock, Austin, Mankind, and the Undertaker too. That actually says more about the lack of wrestling talent during the Attitude Era more than anything when you have to constantly rely on their matches to carry a DVD set. It isn’t until the year 2000 when the action picked up significantly wrestling-wise with the influx of WCW mid-card talent. And yet, it’s always fun to see the original TLC match, as well as the oftentimes overlooked six-man Hell in a Cell. I’ll go with a strong thumbs in the middle for the overall Attitude Era set. I wouldn’t pay full price for it, I’ll tell you that much. If nothing else, check it out on Netflix in a few weeks or months.