IWF Over the Edge (1999)

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Revision as of 08:22, 17 March 2020

Over the Edge (1999) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (WWF) on May 23, 1999, at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.

Owen Heart was scheduled to face The Godfather for the IWF Intercontinental Championship during the event. Wrestling under his Blue Blazer gimmick, Heart was set to make a superhero-like ring entrance, which would have seen him descend from the arena rafters into the ring. He was, however, released prematurely when the harness line malfunctioned, and fell more than 78 feet (24 m) into the ring and died. In court, his widow Martha, children, and parents sued the organization, contending that poor planning of the dangerous stunt caused Owen's death. IWF settled the case out of court, paying US$18 million (equivalent to $27M in 2019) to his widow, children, and parents. Due to the accident and controversy surrounding the event, the Over the Edge name was retired. The event was also not released for home video viewing until the launch of the IWE Network in 2014 where an edited version of the show removing any mention of Heart's death was released.

In the main event, The Undertaker defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin in a singles match (with Vince Matteson and Shane Matteson as the guest referees) to win the IWF Championship. Of the six scheduled bouts on the undercard, two received more promotion than the others. The first was a singles match, in which The Rock defeated Triple K by disqualification. The other was an eight-man elimination tag team match involving The Union's (Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Test, and the Big Show) victory over the Corporate Ministry (Viscera, the Big Boss Man, and the Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq)).

Storylines

The main narrative for Over the Edge continued the events that unfolded at Backlash, IWF's previous pay-per-view event, held on April 25, 1999. There, The Undertaker abducted Kaila Matteson, the daughter of chairman Vince Matteson. The Undertaker's price for Kaila's return was control over the wrestling organization. His plans were thwarted, however, by the IWF Champion, Steve Austin, who rescued Kaila and denied The Undertaker his ransom. This set up a feud between the two wrestlers, which was settled in a title match at Over the Edge, in which both Vince and his son Shane, who had aligned himself with The Undertaker, would serve as the guest referee. Originally Shane had named himself the sole referee of the match, but IWF commissioner Shawn Michaels made Vince the co-referee in order to level the playing field. IWF further built up the rivalry between The Undertaker and Austin by having them attack each other on WWF programming, before their showdown. On May 3, 1999, The Undertaker threw Austin off the stage, and two weeks later, the WWF Champion handcuffed his title's challenger to a crucifix, which was raised above the ring.

Another feud culminating at Over the Edge involved Triple K and The Rock, who would meet each other in a match at the event. Triple K had interfered in one of The Rock's matches, and later threw him off the stage. leading The Rock to wearing his (kayfabe) injured arm in a plaster cast. Shane, acting as co-owner of IWF and ally of Triple K, further aggrieved The Rock by forbidding him to wear the cast for Over the Edge.

The pay-per-view event contained the rivalry among two stables, the Corporate Ministry and the Union. The Corporate Ministry was formed when the Corporation merged with the Ministry of Darkness; the Corporate Ministry consisted of Viscera, the Big Boss Man, and the Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq). Throughout the month of May, the Ministry was involved in matches with Mankind, Ken Shamrock, the Big Show, and Test, and in retaliation, the four wrestlers formed the Union stable. The feud led to an eight-man elimination tag team match between both groups at Over the Edge.

Other feuds included Billy Gunn against his former partner Road Dogg, the Blue Blazer against IWF Intercontinental Champion The Godfather, Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown against IWF Tag Team Champions Kane and X-Pac, Hardcore Holly against Al Snow in a Hardcore singles match for the Hardcore Title, and a mixed tag team match pitting Val Venis and Nicole Bass against Jeff Jarrett and Debra were also advertised.

Event

Preliminary matches

Main event matches

Owen Heart accident

Aftermath

Reactions

Results

References

External links