In Your House

[davertfnewman]

Fair play, misremembered it. I always have it in my mind that Rock had a "no big deal, I'll get my win back soon with more people watching" look on his face.

[Supremo]

Seems an appropriate place to post this.

Chris Benoit?

Kurt Angle?

All just wannabe Ahmed Johnsons.

 

[air_raid]

On 4/8/2026 at 3:24 PM, davertfnewman said:

Fair play, misremembered it. I always have it in my mind that Rock had a "no big deal, I'll get my win back soon with more people watching" look on his face.

I don’t think Rock ever gave too much of a shit about wins and losses. He lost a top contenders match to Boss Man prior to Armageddon 99 and to Al Snow a couple of weeks later. Doubt he even flinched, had no bearing on him being the man.

[davertfnewman]

Yeah, but while it didn't hurt his aura it didn't help their respective auras when they lost back to him.

[air_raid]

57 minutes ago, Ralphy said:

to be honest, Watching WWF as a then 13/14 year old, i could of cared less about "auras" and more about someone getting sacrificed, boobs, and Austin beating McMahon senseless, so im sure many of us around that age couldn't of cared too much about those sort of things, with in reason 

[Supremo]

Rock Bottom features Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match.

Commentary mull over how Stone Cold could possibly win, since he’s facing the, “master,” of this match. Buried Alive matches are described as, “The Undertaker’s speciality.”

There had been precisely one previous Buried Alive match before this one. In that match The Undertaker lost to Mankind and was buried alive, ostensibly suffocating to death.

Pro-wrestling is so fucking stupid. I love it.

Edited April 15 by Supremo

[wandshogun09]

He didn’t have a great track record in Casket matches either really did he? He won more of them than Buried Alive but he got his head smashed in by about 97 people at the 94 Rumble and got locked in the casket and set on fire by his own brother at the 98 Rumble. Taker’s shit isn’t he? Can’t even boss his own gimmick matches.

On the subject of Rock Bottom, did Austin and Taker ever have a really great match together? Leaving the ‘Buried Alive’ match out of it, I barely remember the Cold Day In Hell match from 97. Highway To Hell the following year was a letdown after a hot build up. I don’t remember enjoying their PPV matches in 99 - give them a pass for Over The Edge for obvious reasons but the ‘First Blood’ match at Fully Loaded was a bit crap from memory. And the Backlash 2002 match might just be the worst match of Austin’s career. Maybe not Taker’s though because he managed to follow up with two more absolute rotters against Hogan and Triple H on the very next two PPVs. Genuinely struggling to think of a match they had that I liked. Maybe there was a TV match in there somewhere that was decent but the big matches were mostly wank. 

[BomberPat]

I'm sure when Undertaker was on Stone Cold's podcast, Austin said that one of his biggest regrets was that he felt they never had a really good match together.

[wandshogun09]

15 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I'm sure when Undertaker was on Stone Cold's podcast, Austin said that one of his biggest regrets was that he felt they never had a really good match together.

Makes sense. The chemistry always just seemed a little bit off for whatever reason. Even when they added more people, it never really got any better. Like the three way with Kane at Breakdown or the Austin/Triple H vs Taker/Kane match at Backlash 2001. They just never quite seemed to click. Then you had Austin get knocked goofy in the middle of their SummerSlam 98 match, which wouldn’t have helped. And the dogshit Backlash 02 match I mentioned before came when Austin was completely burnt out and just about to ‘take his ball and go home’. Couple that with a big dollop of 2002, short haired ‘American Bad Ass’ Taker and all the ingredients for a complete stinker were there. That particular one was never gonna be anything other than a turd. 

Edited April 15 by wandshogun09

[davertfnewman]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

There had been precisely one previous Buried Alive match before this one. In that match The Undertaker lost to Mankind and was buried alive, ostensibly suffocating to death.

Undertaker actually won that one and was in the process of fully burying Mankind until the Executioner interrupted it and a gang of heels buried 'Taker.

Also, best Austin/Undertaker match? At least nobody got concussed.

 

[BarryOVega]

The match from Fully Loaded ‘99 is probably second only to Austin/Dude Love from OTE ‘98 for my favourite attitude era match, the crowd go mental for absolutely everything, XPac’s run in was great and even with a slightly clunky finish it’s a great match

Not watched it in years but the Raw match where Austin won the title back a few weeks before Fully Loaded was decent if I remember, the insane crowd might be responsible for my memory of that though 

[Supremo]

1 hour ago, davertfnewman said:

Undertaker actually won that one and was in the process of fully burying Mankind until the Executioner interrupted it and a gang of heels buried 'Taker.

Oh my god, you’re right! I’d complete forgotten! Can’t believe Big Mark even worked me with his backstage politics! Made me think he’d put Mick over when he hadn’t!

I feel like DDP!

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

He didn’t have a great track record in Casket matches either really did he? He won more of them than Buried Alive but he got his head smashed in by about 97 people at the 94 Rumble and got locked in the casket and set on fire by his own brother at the 98 Rumble.

Lost one to Goldust too. Match existed so he could lose without getting pinned.

He lost most Buried Alive matches too. To Austin, to Vince, to Kane.

[davertfnewman]

The first casket or coffin matches he was in were against Warrior and he lost. First ones he won were with Kamala.

[Supremo]

It’s bad news for Pat McAfee, as Rock Bottom spells disaster for all the Attitude Era Super Fans.

It’s been the trend of all the In Your House events from 1998. Buildings are sold out. Everything is super hot. Everything is extremely over. But everything is also extremely shit. Nothing has aged worse.

There’s no greater example than Jeff Jarrett vs. Goldust in a Striptease Match. If Goldust wins, Debra has to strip. If Jeff wins, Goldust has to strip. Urgh. Shit match. Grim stipulation. But worst of all is the white hot reaction. Crowd go ballistic for everything. Biting on every near-fall. You’d think this was the Wrestlemania main event between the company’s top heel and babyface for the way the crowd are invested. Irresistible Force (Debra’s tits) vs. The Immovable Object (Goldust’s dick).

Double J wins a rubbish, short match after Debra hits Goldust with the guitar, but before Goldust can strip heel commissioner Shawn Michaels comes down to reverse the decision. Debra is then forced to strip against her will and everyone has a grand old time. “Whooo! Women being forced to do sexual things without consent!” 1998 was a very, very different time.

It became so uncomfortable to watch, I ended up looking into how old Vince Russo was at the time. I was a thirteen year old virgin, who could only dream of doing a shag, so I can half justify why I would have enjoyed this, but at the time Vinny Ru was thirty seven years old. Fucking hell, bro.

A wretched show, but then all is forgiven when Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out for the main event. What a superstar. Watching these shows back, you realise how he’s carrying everything. Anything other than Stone Cold that is even slightly over is thanks entirely to osmosis. He is what’s over. He is the boom. Everything else is just along for the ride.

What I found funny watching Steve here is how he doesn’t do anything they drill into their signees now. He doesn’t hit his marks. He doesn’t find the hard camera. He simply storms out like an authentic maniac and kicks ass. Wild how little they take from the biggest star of all time when developing their talent nowadays.

Last thing to mention is the hilarious, AEW-level prop disaster they experience during the finish of the Buried Alive Match. I remember Foley explaining how difficult it was to bury Undertaker with a tiny, crap shovel in their Buried Alive Match in ‘96, which is why all the heels are rushed out to help him save some time, so to avoid a similar incident here Steve brings out a massive digger. Smart.

However, the lad operating has an absolute shocker. Spinning about, stalling, failing to pick up any dirt, and it goes on forever. We’re live, pal! In the end they just switch the trap door and Undertaker essentially vanishes from the grave, with no more dirt in the grave than before, with Steve getting so tired of waiting that he starts celebrating with beers. From what I can remember, every Buried Alive match after this has the digger already set up above the grave, pre-filled with dirt, so they obviously learned a valuable lesson. Don’t work with kids, animals or heavy machinery. Steve should have given the digger a Stunner.

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre next. At the opening of the show Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler promise us, “closure,” on what will be the, “final chapter,” of Stone Cold vs. Vince McMahon.

The actual final interaction between them would be Vince taking a Stunner at Wrestlemania 38. 23 years, 1 month and 20 days later!

Edited April 23 by Supremo