The Attitude Era begins to take hold!!

Start this one up and what's the first thing I see? You guessed it: Michael Hickenbottom, Vince McMahon's "Boy Toy" graces the entrance, proving once again that the WWF empire revolves solely around him thanks to his massive suck-up power. I'm tempted to turn this one off already and give it a 1-star rating simply because it's all going to center around Hickenbottom again...as do practically all of the WWF pay-per-views since his arrival and behind-closed-doors continuing stay in Vinnie Mac's office. So many other gifted, TALENTED professionals in the WWF universe of "sports entertainment" yet they never get/got a chance to shine, thanks to his self-serving, self-seeking ambitions that McMahon only stoked...and fed. The card starts with a weird _"My Career or Marlena"_ match between the "Golddust" character and Brian Pillman, where Pillman stated that if Golddust could pin him, he (Pillman) would _"leave the WWF forever"_; if Golddust did NOT pin Pillman, Pillman would "win" Golddust's (real-life) wife, Marlena, for 30 days. Just weird all the way around and of course the ending was twisted (as is everything related to Pillman). Next up is another ho-hum match between two newcomers to the WWF: Scott Putski vs Brian Christopher. The son of legendary wrestler Ivan Putski squares off against some obnoxious kid whom everyone thinks/professes to be the son of perennial loudmouth Jerry Lawler. Does anyone even CARE who "wins" this particular match? It _did_ end on a rather strange note, however... but let's move on. Next on the card was a "triple-threat" match between "Farooq" - representing his "Nation of Domination" - vs Savio Vega, representing whatever his gang was - vs. "Crush" (Bryan Adams) who was representing his gang of bikers. (Yeah, they all had different names but I wasn't interested enough to catch them all.) While I've always found the "Triple Threat" matches to be an interesting concept, this one was kind of slow and plodding and not real exciting at all. It had a unique ending but again, nothing to really remember when it was all over. Unfortunately (at least to me), it seems all three of these guys have overstayed their welcome and just don't really draw a big pop anymore. After this was a weird midget match; haven't seen one of those in quite some time...and haven't missed 'em. This, as per usual, was purely for entertainment purposes, with a lot of acrobatics, silly antics, and an even worse conclusion that was even lamer than usual. Entertaining? I suppose it was, to a very minor degree, but more than that, it was an added 20 minutes that could've been cut from an overly-long and uninteresting card to begin with. Now we get to what's probably the best part of the card...and if the "Attitude Era" hadn't already begun, it seems pretty obvious that it began tonight with the appearance of an injured "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, who was ordered to surrender his half of the WWF tag-team championship after sustaining a severe (and very real) neck injury during the previous PPV event against Owen Hart. Austin comes out and the mic is uncensored as Stone Cold lays down "the bottom line" to everyone, including WWF "Commissioner" Sgt. Slaughter. Undoubtedly the highlight of the entire PPV right here. LOL Now we move to a "Fatal Four-Way" tag-team match for the now-vacated tag team championship. This involved the Legion of Doom (the Road Warriors, Hawk & Animal) vs The Headbangers vs The Godwinns vs British Bulldog/Owen Hart. Like so many other matches, it was difficult for me to get engaged here simply because I'm not much of a fan of ANY of these teams, with the possible exception of the Legion of Doom. The problem is, as I've noted in previous commentaries on these PPV cards, the Legion of Doom seems to have lost that brutality that made them so endearing in their early career. Not sure if the WWF toned them down or if Hawk's (Mike Hegstrand) drinking/substance abuse had already started taking its toll on him, but in either case, they just don't seem the unstoppable, unbeatable duo they used to be. With that in mind, it was hard for me to really get interested in this match and I was ready for it to end as soon as it started. The finish, however, turned out to be much more entertaining than I had expected, so if you're contemplating this one, don't skip this particular match; it's slow, yes, but the payoff is worth it. Moving on, we have the match between Bret 'Hitman-And-Arrogant-Canadian' Hart vs "The Patriot", who was essentially a "temp" brought in to push the "heel turn" of Bret Hart a little further. It's well-known that The Patriot was essentially an unknown so you pretty much knew going in how the match was going to turn out. Bret was always so much better as a "face" than a "heel" (although he pulled the act off quite well when paired with Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart in the original _Hart Foundation_ tagteam) but they were really pushing him as an arrogant Canadian who hated Americans. The match was not dull but having a strong foresight as to what would happen, it was easy to lose interest. After this comes the 'main event' match between The Undertaker vs "Shawn Michaels". And while I openly admit that I have little respect or admiration for Michael Hickenbottom, I _will_ give him credit: He could take a bump. He's always had a tendency to oversell (the infamous match against Hulk Hogan was exaggerated beyond belief simply because Hickenbottom refused to put Hogan over and wanted it clearly on display) and here was no exception but I'll give him credit: He put his body at risk, taking major bumps on the steel walkway, the concrete floor, etc. The match was definitely entertaining, and I'm assuming that, if there was ever such a thing as an "official start" to the "Attitude Era", this was the beginning. Not only did 'Hunter Hearst Helmsley' (still toting that blueblood name and not yet going by the "Triple H" monikor) and his sidekick Chyna come to ringside to interfere and aid Shawn Michaels, but I also noted that Helmsley did the infamous "crotch chop" (or whatever that vulgar motion was called) in the direction of some fans. (Side Note: It was pretty amusing overhearing what some of the fans were saying to 'Helmsley' there at ringside.) The match ended pretty much in a melee, but it was still entertaining. Certainly not the worst PPV I've watched yet but still seemed to be lacking in really entertaining content. Watch it if you're bored or just trying to catch up on past WWF stuff.