WWF In Your House: Degeneration X

(Guest written by Matt)

WWF In Your House: Degeneration X
December 7, 1997
Springfield, Massachussetts
Civic Center (LOL)

This is one of the few WWF payperviews from the twentieth century I’ve never seen. I think at the time we were biased towards it because we were so pissed off at Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels screwing Bret Hart at Survivor Series the month prior, though I’m sure you were way angrier about that than I was.

Late 1997 was perhaps the first period in the company’s history where the TV was better than the payperviews, and here was no exception. I liked this event, but it only really had one standout match, and everything else was average to terrible. There are so many DQs on this show,its clear that they really didn’t understand what the Attitude Era was supposed to be about yet (i.e. Wild West mindset, rulebooks thrown out the window, lax refereeing). In spite of the payperview being named after DX, they really were only involved with their respective matches, and that was a good thing, because it would have become annoying fast had they dominated this show. The show has its share of unintentional laughs, and is a big memory of this time, even though I had never seen it before this week.

1. Light Heavyweight Title Tournament Final: Taka Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher.

This was the best match on the card and the only really exceptionally well wrestled match on the show. What the heck is a “light heavyweight” anyway? I would think either you’re a lightweight or a heavyweight, no? Even though is was pretty geeky, I liked the name “cruiserweight” in WCW better. The tournament looks great but I don’t remember too many of the matches. This one was a well wrestled aerial/technical battle. And it was also hilarious to hear Lawler and Ross bickering and Jerry refusing to admit that Christopher was his son. In the end, Michinoku scored the surprise pin with a reversal into a victory roll.

2. Los Boricuas (Miguel Perez Jr, Jesus Castillo Jr, and Joser Estrada Jr.) defeated DOA (Chainz, Skull, and 8 Ball).

More of the Gang Warz stuff which really got tiring as it extended into 1998. This match was good but not great. Mostly just interesting to see all these weird jobbers wrestling at a payperview, and to hear the crowd actually invested in a match like this, chanting stuff like “Shave Your Back” at Miguel. It was funny how DOA were the unofficial good guys in this feud since most fans were white, but WWF always had them lose to the Boricus and the Nation to avoid being called racist. No different here as Miguel prevents to be hurt, then sneakily comes back and cheats his way to victory.

3. “Toughman Contest”: Butterbean defeated Marvelous Marc Mero by DQ.

The only thing good about this crap was that it led to Marc Mero calling Tom Brandi a “jobber” the next night on Raw. One of the greatest moments of this era, and increased my interest in WWF. Apparently this feud was based on Sable being in that fat undercard attraction’s corner at a boxing payperview and Mero being jealous. Of course I would have had no idea at the time that that even happened, since the internet was in its infancy and I didn’t care about anything but wrestling. This was essentially a four round boxing match (but they weren’t allowed to call it that) and ridiculously Mero beat him up most of the match. Butterbean started to make a comeback late, so Mero kicked him from the ring and hit him with a stool, causing the DQ. Almost as bad as Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T at Wrestlemania 2.

This was followed by The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust and Luna Vachon reading Green Eggs And Ham in a stupid voice. And yes, people paid 40 bucks for this crap!

4. Tag Team Title: New Age Outlaws defeated Legion Of Doom by DQ.

Since I hate both these teams, there was no way I could enjoy this boring match. LOD were way past their prime, and Road Dogg and Bad Ass just annoy me to no end. The match was a mix of brawling and some wrestling and sneaky double teaming coming from the Outlaws. The match ended in a cheap fashion as The Godwinns interfered and Hawk got caught hitting Road Dogg with a slop bucket. Stupid, why not just have the Outlaws win if they were about to be pushed big time?

5. Bootcamp Match: Triple H Hunter Hearst Helmsley (As they call him) defeated Sgt. Slaughter.

What a stupid match! I remember laughing so hard at the time that this was actually a payperview match, but it sort of makes sense given how much DX tortured Slaughter in their early years. Whats also hilarious is Triple H actually sells for the fifty year old, gets beat up through most of the match, which he wouldn’t do for any younger guys. It just seems like the Bootcamp Match is no DQ, but in some respects this is taken to stupid levels as Chyna actually cold clocks the ref and nothing is done. After being beaten up all match long basically, Triple H makes a comeback with Chyna’s help and finally pedigree’s Sarge on a chair to put him away.

6. Jeff Jarrett defeated Undertaker by DQ.

This was when Jarrett was wearing that weird brightly colored costume for some reason. The Bend ‘Em fig I have is wearing that costume so it must be from this era. This matchg is really slow and boring, and makes me wonder when Undertaker actually became a good wrestler, the 2000s maybe? Jarrett is also all Memphis stalling and restholds. Right when Undertaker was about to win, the lights went out, fire exploded and Kane came down. He then chokeslammed Jarrett first, causing the DQ, then stared down and slapped the Undertaker who refused to hit his brother. Good storytelling, I guess, if you can separate out the terribleness of this feud never ending, not even today.

7. Intercontinental Title: Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock.

What a weird match to see on this payperview, considering we were only a little more than a year away from this becoming a never ending feud as well. The Rock was still in the Nation and doing the race thing, and Austin delivered a hilarious promo where he said “Its not a race thing. Its not a color thing. Its a me kicking your ass thing!” This match is a straight up brawl and not much different from their future matches, except the length is much shorter. The whole match is only about five minutes and Austin dominates, finishing him off seriously with a stunner. Hmmm….when did Austin lose the I.C. title anyways?

8. Heavyweight Title: Ken Shamrock defeated Shawn Michaels by DQ.

I really do hate Ken Shamrock so seeing him main event leaves a sour taste with me. I also hate the 90s Shawn Michaels to a large extent, though he was much better in these DX days than he was in 95/96. This probably could have been good, but there was too much interference from Triple H and Chyna, and ended in a cheap DQ when they just ran in and pounded Shamrock down. The match before that wasn’t bad and a proper finish would have helped. How about sneaky interference, allowing Shawn to get a cheating victory?