[1999-12-13-WWF-Raw] The Rock & Mankind vs D-Von & Bubba Ray Dudley

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Super hot crowd and celebrity interaction with Wade Boggs at ringside … this is a great showcase for the star power of The Rock. It’s not a great match, but with the HHH-Stephanie run-in in the middle and at the end and the arguing with the Dudley Boys to start, this is really fun stuff. The Dudleys end up getting a decent amount of heel heat once this settles into an actual tag match. Overbooked to hell, but a fantastic Attitude Era time capsule.

[Tim Evans]

Bubba takes a bad chairshot to the head and seems concussed. After the second HHH run in, this becomes a mess. Al Snow shows up as a ref with a Vince mask and does the Vince walk. Overbooked to hell but the heat was incredible.

[tim]

Fun piece of overbooking. The Rock is on fire at this point, the visual of the crowd going mad for the people's elbow is great.

[PeteF3]

Rock kisses up to Tampa Bay Devil Ray HOFer Wade Boggs--of course Boggs was a longtime wrestling fan but it's a good illustration of where wrestling was at this point.

 

Fun energetic match, though I don't know if all the HHH/Stephanie involvement was necessary, nor was the false finish--that said, they did need to get the idea over that HHH and Stephanie were now in charge and drunk with power. The idea of Snow not actually being a licensed referee and thus the pin not counting is the kind of minor attention to detail that Russo was incapable of but still welcomed even in the era of wins, losses, and rules not really mattering.