Gimmick Some Lovin': No Disqualification Match

My Rating

It's impossible to find fault with an ending like this, even if the wrestling leading to it isn't the best.I'm of two minds about this match. As a demonstration of wrestling, it's pretty dismal. There are very few actual moves, and most of what occurs is brawling, weapon shots, and interference (the fact that the closing sequence featured a string of at least four instances of the latter two in the span of a minute is the epitome of Russo).

If I were to watch this match on mute with no knowledge of its context, my rating would be a firm 2/10, not much more than a standard television match from this period.

However, as an artefact of professional wrestling, and as a demonstration of effective character work making a storyline, as opposed to the story's shock value, this match is perfection. It's everything the "sport" is supposed to be: drama, emotion, tension, and an "oh my god!" release when the underdog finally wins the big one.

Don't even try to blame "the booking committee" for that one.

WWE, throughout much of its territory, was a "babyface territory," where the booking was focused on a good guy champion attempting to retain his championship against a murderer's row of monstrous challengers (i.e. Hogan's 1984-1993 run).

In this time period, the company began experimenting more with an NWA-influenced "heel territory" booking, because the territory really did belong to the business's biggest heel: McMahon himself. Like Flair taking the popularity of men like Dusty, Sting, and Steamboat into the stratosphere years earlier, the Mr. McMahon persona gives this match and Foley's win a Midas touch like no other.

Credit this to Vince Russo's storytelling all you want, but it's really the payoff of tremendous investment in character by a much more important Vince.

Again, as a wrestling match, I'd go 2/10, but as professional wrestling, I'd go the full monty and give this 10/10.

Meltzer Says:

I can't, for the life of me, find Meltzer's ratings for this one, but it's safe to say he found it more palatable than WCW's one-move "Fingerpoke of Doom" that aired simultaneously, wherein Hogan poked Nash in the chest for the three-count, the NWO reunion, and the WCW Championship (and all the subsequent mediocrity it garnered).