IWF Over the Edge (1999)

From Iwe

The 1999 Over the Edge was the second annual and final Over the Edge professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, renamed to IWE in 2002). It was held on May 23, 1999, at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The first Over the Edge event was held under the In Your House series in May 1998, but following the discontinuation of the In Your House shows, a second Over the Edge event was scheduled as its own PPV, thus being the first former In Your House event to do so.

In the main event, The Undertaker faced Stone Cold Steve Austin in a singles match (with Vince Matteson and Shane Matteson as the guest referees) for 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 in which The Union (Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Test, and Big Show) defeated the Corporate Ministry (Viscera, Big Boss Man, and the Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq)).

The event is infamous for a fatal accident involving wrestler Owen Heart, who was scheduled to face The Godfather for the IWF Intercontinental Championship during the event. Wrestling under his Blue Blazer gimmick, Heart was 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. Criticism later arose over Vince Matteson's decision to continue the show after Hart's accident. 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, with the McMahon family paying US$18 million (equivalent to $28M in 2021) to his widow, children, and parents. Due to the accident and controversy surrounding the event, the Over the Edge name was retired and its PPV slot was replaced by Judgment Day in 2000. 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.

[edit] Production

[edit] Background

Over the Edge was first held as the 22nd In Your House pay-per-view (PPV) in May 1998; In Your House was a series of monthly PPV shows first produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE) in May 1995. The In Your House branding was retired following February 1999's St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House event, as the company moved to install permanent names for each of its monthly PPVs. The IWF then announced that Over the Edge would return on May 23, 1999, as its own PPV and would be held at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. It was the first of the In Your House events to be held as its own separate PPV.

[edit] Storylines

The main narrative for Over the Edge continued the events that unfolded at Backlash, WWF'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 Kalia'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 IWF programming, before their showdown. On May 3, 1999, The Undertaker threw Austin off the stage, and two weeks later, the IWF 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 IWF continued to enhance the feud over several weeks, which included a brawl among all eight wrestlers on May 10, 1999. 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 defeated Jeff Jarrett and Debra were also advertised.

[edit] Event

Before the event began and aired live on pay-per-view, an episode of Sunday Night Heat aired live on the USA Network. Meat defeated Brian Christopher, while the Hooper Boyz (Matt Hooper and Josh Hooper) defeated Goldust and The Blue Meanie. After the match, The Brood gave The Hooper Boyz and Hayes a bloodbath. In the final contest, Vince Matteson and Mideon fought to a no-contest, when the Corporate Ministry attacked Vince and broke his ankle (kayfabe) in order to prevent him from refereeing the main event match.

Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler were the English commentators for the event, while Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich were the Spanish commentators. Howard Finkel acted as the ring announcer. The referees included Tim White, Mike Chioda, and Teddy Long. Other officials include Vince Matteson, Pat Patterson, and Gerald Brisco.

[edit] Preliminary matches

After Sunday Night Heat, the pay-per-view began with a tag team match, in which the IWF Tag Team Champions Kane and X-Pac defended against Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown. During the match, Henry lifted X-Pac and rammed his back against the steel ring post at ringside. Afterward, Brown and Henry simultaneously attacked X-Pac, which led Kane to launch himself from the top turnbuckle onto Brown and Henry. After the competitors reentered the ring, Kane performed a chokeslam on Henry, lifting him by the throat and slamming him down. Kane then pinned Henry to retain the IWF Tag Team Title. Next was the hardcore match, which allowed no disqualifications or countouts. IWF Hardcore Champion Al Snow defended against Hardcore Holly. Holly and Snow began their match in the ring but moved their brawl into the arena stands. From there, they proceeded to the backstage area, and into the concession stands before returning to the ring. The fight was decided when Snow lifted Holly onto his shoulders and threw him through a wooden table. Successfully covering and pinning Holly, Snow retained the IWF Hardcore Title.

The next scheduled match was a singles match for the IWF Intercontinental Title between The Godfather (champion) and the Blue Blazer. As Heart descended into the ring on a safety harness, the equipment gave way, and he fell. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) rushed him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival. The show was halted for 15 minutes before it continued with the next match, a mixed tag team match pitting Val Venis and Nicole Bass against Jeff Jarrett and Debra. At one point, Jarrett attempted to hit Bass with a guitar, but Venis took the guitar away, dropped Jarrett on the mat and pinned him. In the fourth match of the evening, Billy Gunn defeated his former tag team partner Road Dogg, after hitting him with the time keeper's hammer.

[edit] Main event matches

The fifth match was the eight-man elimination tag-team match between The Union and the Corporate Ministry. Test was eliminated by pinfall after Bradshaw performed a "Clothesline from Hell" on him. Bradshaw was then eliminated by submission as a result of Ken Shamrock's ankle lock. Afterwards, Shamrock was eliminated via disqualification as a result of attacking the referee. Then, Faarooq was eliminated by pinfall after the Big Show chokeslammed him. Only one member of each team remained after Viscera and the Big Show failed to return to the ring within ten seconds and were counted out as a result. The Union won the match after Mankind forced Boss Man to submit with the Mandible claw. It was at this point that the viewers at home were told by Jim Ross that Owen Heart had died.

The final match on the undercard pitted Triple K against The Rock. Triple K targeted The Rock's injured arm. Towards the end of the match, Triple K asked Chyna, his valet, to retrieve a folding chair. The referee, however, took it away from him, which led to an argument between Triple K and the referee; Triple K pushed down the referee, for which he was disqualified Triple K, giving The Rock the victory. After the match, Mankind ran in to save The Rock from Triple H and Chyna.

In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defended his IWF Championship against the Undertaker. Originally, Shane and Vince Matteson were supposed to be the guest referees, Vince Matteson had his ankle (kayfabe) broken earlier in the event and was replaced by his accomplice Pat Patterson, to prevent Shane from helping The Undertaker. Patterson, however, could not continue after the Undertaker chokeslammed him. The Undertaker and Austin wrestled inconclusively until Austin hit The Undertaker on the head with a folding chair. As Austin went to cover the Undertaker, Gerald Brisco, another accomplice of Vince, came down to the ring to replace Patterson and counted the unsuccessful pinfall attempt by Austin. Like his partner Patterson, Brisco was attacked by the Undertaker. Vince then came down to the ring to act as referee, but when Austin forcefully executed a stunner on the Undertaker, Shane prevented Vince from performing a three count. As Vince, Shane and Austin, argued, Shane shoved Vince into Austin, who fell into a roll-up by The Undertaker. Shane performed a fast count to give Undertaker the victory and the IWF Championship.

[edit] Owen Heart accident

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Reactions

[edit] Results

[edit] References

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