[1999-07-05-WWF-Raw] HHH vs The Rock (Cage)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Pretty solid cage match with lots of heat. A ref bump in a cage match with no ref inside the ring is impressive, but this match is well laid out and shows where these guys are at this point in time. It's probably good to check in on them once a year bare minimum. Chyna interferes enough that this is ostensibly a handicap match. Rock takes a lot of shots that normally lead to blood without bleeding. Fun babyfaces-overcomes-all-the-odds match. Billy Gunn attacks Rock with a Fameasser on the floor after the match and the two work over Rock after the match.

[tim]

Solidly good, very heated match. One of the better WWF matches of the year.

[Tim Evans]

Good cage match that its weird to see on tv. Chyna does her best Sherri Martel impersonation. HHH has fully embraced his Game persona. Rock takes a hellacious chair shot to the head.

[soup23]

Solid if unspectacular match which for 1999 WWF is pretty good. The ref bump and overbooking was eye rolling but hey its the Russo era. Rock fights back and the heat is nuclear. I did appreciate him doing some neat stuff like diving off the top that you didn't typically see. Rock narrowly wins and is immediately attacked by Billy Gunn afterwards setting up their SummerSlam match. **1/ 2

[PeteF3]

Not quite as heated as the previous week but a bit better of a TV main event, and it shows how far Rock and even Triple H have come that the WWF can put on a compelling, presumably eyeball-drawing main event with absolutely no involvement from Austin or McMahon. Between this and the upcoming stip barring Vince from television, *somebody* was still thinking forward at this point. Compare and contrast with the height of the NWO which had no end in sight.