From the Bowery: HHH - The Game

Posted by Robert Leighty Jr. on 09.02.2008

It's HHH vs Zhumov, and some match from Wrestle War 89. I'm sure that's nothing.

HHH: The Game

-This DVD caught me off guard when it came out in 2002. I didn’t see any ads for it at the time on WWE TV, and just happened to see it on the shelf at my local FYE. I’ll basically by any DVD, but this includes 1 bonus match that makes this a must own disc: HHH vs. Buck Zhumov! Yeah.

-The DVD starts with a video package set to the Drowning Pool version of “Time to Play the Game.” I actually like their version more than the Motorhead version.

-Various WWE officials, and wrestlers put over HHH. Edge mentions that HHH can have a good match with a broomstick. Geez, who else have I heard that about?

-HHH admits to being a lifelong fan, and credits Ric Flair as his inspiration. HHH calls Flair to the ring after SmackDown and thanks him for being The Man. This was before they became inseparable, and this was before the Flair tribute night in Greenville on RAW.

-Austin mentions HHH starting as Terra Ryzing in WCW, and that you could see the potential. Regal follows suit, and basically told HHH he should get out of WCW and head to the WWF.

-Hunter Heart Helmsley debuts in the WWE. Austin says HHH broke out once he got away from the Kliq. The Undertaker covers the MSG incident. HHH earns a ton of respect from the boys by taking all the heat from the incident. To his credit HHH did man up to his punishment. Nick Hogan should take some lessons.

-Next we cover HHH’s summer of 1999 push as he gives a famous interview with JR. HHH uses some not so friendly language, and claims “You talk about being students of the game. I am the fucking Game, JR.” Much like Austin 3:16 a catchphrase was born.

-Foley talks about his idea that a heel has to believe what he is doing is 100% right no matter if it isn’t.

-HHH mentions that he always wanted to be the Top Heel, much like Flair, but only with a little more edge.

-That leads to HHH marrying Stephanie McMahon by drugging her, and taking her to a Vegas Chapel. The usual boy meets girl story. Armageddon 1999 sees Stephanie turning on Vince, and the McMahon-Helmsley era is born.

-HHH becomes a 3 time WWF Champion by defeating the Big Show on RAW. This leads to the money feud with Mankind/Cactus Jack. Great story too as Mankind gets destroyed and embarrassed by HHH and DX. He realized Mankind is not the right person to do battle with HHH at the Rumble in MSG. HHH thinks he is off the hook, but Foley offers a replacement: Cactus Jack. The reaction from HHH is awesome, and it totally sells Jack as a monster threat to the WWF Title.

-HHH gets made into a Star at MSG when he and Jack have one of the greatest brawls in wrestling history. Foley says it best when he says this was all on HHH as he had no Austin or Rock to work with in the match. It was all on their shoulders..

-The Rumble 2000 match was the start of a tremendous hot streak for HHH and the WWF in general. Hell in a Cell, WM 2000, Backlash, and the awesomeness of the HHH/Rock Iron Man Match are covered. That match really needs to be released on a DVD. Personally, I have it burned on a DVD, but it would be nice if others had that option.

-The comic side of HHH is covered. Sure, he may have been a bad ass heel, but he was still pretty damn funny at times. The greatest was the romance angle with himself, Kurt Angle, and Stephanie. The addition of Trish into the love triangle only made things better. This was a rare case where the story was awesome, but they didn’t have the match to finish things.

-Foley laughs at the fact that DX put together a video package of him scratching his ass. It also includes Foley doing a spot where his pants fell down, and we see the skid mark on his underwear. Funny, but something I would rather not have seen.

-The love triangle is covered in more detail, and it lead to a Triangle Match (with The Rock) for the WWF Title at Summer Slam 2000. Nasty spot in the match is shown in full as HHH tries to pedigree Angle through the announce table. The table collapses early, and Angle is driven head first into the arena floor. Everyone started freaking out, but HHH and Rock took control and handled things very well. HHH puts over the Rock for knowing what to do, and puts over Angle for being able to come back and fight through the pain. At the time it was pretty awesome to see Kurt do that, but seeing him fight through injuries some 8 years later is pretty scary.

-WrestleMania X-7: The story seems to be that HHH vs. Shawn was set for WM X-7, but Shawn showed up to a RAW whacked out of his mind on drugs. HHH once again took the heat, and the program with Shawn was dropped. Instead he got fed to the Undertaker in Houston. The match itself was pretty damn sweet, and helped make this The Greatest PPV of All Time (yes, I have it ahead of the 89 Great American Bash).

-The quad injury is covered next. HHH says it was only a matter of time because he was pushing so hard once he got to the Main Event level. As most know by now, HHH tears the quad on RAW while defending the Tag Titles w/ Austin against Benoit and Jericho. HHH finishes the match and even takes the Walls of Jericho on the announce table. That is still pretty awesome to this day. I’m not sure if it would make a completely torn quad any worse, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t feel very good.

-HHH goes to see Dr Andrews in Birmingham, and hears how bad the injury is. HHH gets through the surgery (some nasty footage shown), and the rehab begins. He opts to move to Birmingham and live out of the hotel so he can rehab from open to close. I went through rehab for a knee I blew out a few years ago, and believe me when I say that it sucks.

-He follows the show by having a satellite dish put on his hotel balcony. Funny moment as HHH gives a double thumbs up when mentioning he got the porno channels for free.

-Videos begin to air hyping the return of HHH for Vengeance 2001. The PPV ads were all built around his return, but he was a no go at that point. Lots of people were pissed, but holding it off for the Rumble was probably for the best. I always forget that HHH was basically gone for the entire InVasion angle. The booking of him during the angle had he been around would have been interesting.

-HHH returns to RAW from MSG in Jan of 2002. The pop when his music hit in quite awesome. More than a pop it was like a animalistic roar. Within months though the crowd was back to hating him again, and he had to abandon the babyface run. I’m getting ahead of myself though.

-He wins the Royal Rumble and heads to WM X-8 at the #1 contender for Jericho’s undisputed title. However, HHH vs. Stephanie is what we really wanted to see. Jericho was just the man holding the Unified WWF/World (WCW) Title.

-Before getting to WrestleMania, HHH expresses his love for bodybuilding, and the Mr. Olympia contest. HHH was the 1st non-bodybuilder to grace the cover of flex. I’m sure HHH is truly passionate about watching men in thongs flexing (as I am in watching men in underwear wrestle), but this felt out of place on this DVD. As the WBF has shows us, bodybuilding and pro-wrestling don’t mix.

-The build to Mania doesn’t focus on HHH vs. Jericho, and instead focuses on HHH vs. Stephanie. They have marriage problems and Steph suckers HHH into believing that she is pregnant. The crowd chanting, “It’s not yours” was pretty funny, and probably would have made for a better payoff. Instead we get them renewing their wedding vows on RAW (complete with Vince staring at his daughter’s rack). The doctor ends up being a travel agent, and Linda exposes Stephanie as lying about the pregnancy. HHH destroys the wedding set, and pie faces Stephanie. Chris Jericho undisputed champion heading into WrestleMania. Remember him? Anyone?

-Finally, someone realizes Jericho is involved in the Main Event, and we get hi-lights of their interaction leading to Mania. To his credit, HHH does put Jericho over as a guy who stepped his game up from the previous year to become the undisputed champion.

-Jericho/HHH goes on last at WM, and it’s a decision HHH defends (naturally). I tend to agree that the WWF (or now World Title) match should close the show at WM, but that crowd as Mania was dead after Rock/Hogan.

-The match was mostly Jericho working the injured leg (as he should), but it gets very annoying, as JR fawns all over how tough HHH must be. Listening to JR you would have thought Jericho had ripped off HHH’s leg, and threw it into the 5th row. The crowd didn’t even pop that much when HHH pedigreed Stephanie. HHH wins the match clean with the pedigree, and become the Undisputed Champion.

-HHH takes a shot at smart marks by claiming their views of Stephanie are way off base. He claims her heat is true heat, and not X-Pac heat. He didn’t really say “X-Pac” heat, but that’s what he meant.

-Handicap match for the Undisputed title on RAW ends the HHH/Stephanie feud. Jericho was also involved, but it might as well have been HHH vs. Stephanie. The Game pins Stephanie to retain, and that leads to her being fired. She would be back as the SmackDown General Manager later in the year.

-The DVD ends with more officials talking about how great HHH is, and how much he means to the business. HHH mentions all the people he wants to bury, I mean work with: Hogan, Taker, Nash, Hall, X-Pac, Kane (Katie Vick, ugh!), and of course Rock, Austin. He looks for big things from guys like Test and Edge. Well, 1 out of 2 is pretty good.

Extras

-The Royal Rumble 2000 WWF match is included with 2 different options:
1) You can view the match as it was shown back in 2000
2) The match has alternate audio/video commentary with The Coach and HHH

WWF Title: Street Fight: HHH © vs. Cactus Jack
-Royal Rumble: 2000

-I again must state that I always found “My Time” as quite the awesome entrance music for HHH. Of course it lost it’s power when HHH starting paling around with Vince on screen, but doesn’t mean I don’t miss the song. HHH sends Steph to the back during the entrance, because the shit is on as the kids say (Do they still say that?). Fists fly early and often as the opening bell rings. Jack wins the battle of the fists, and hammers HHH in the corner as the crowd pops. HHH gets out of the ring, but Jack follows with the swinging neckbreaker on the floor. Loud Cactus Jack chant from MSG. The brawling continues on the floor as HHH is bounced off the steps. HHH counters by blasting Jack with the ring bell. HHH challenges Jack to come after him while he is wielding a steel chair. Jack, showing he’s not too bright, charges and gets crushed with a chair shot to the head. No real damage is done as Jack is back on his feet and hits a clothesline. A chair-assisted legdrop keeps Jack in firm control. Back to the floor and HHH gets backdropped over the barrier into the front row. They brawl through the crowd at MSG as Lawler gets in a good dig on the fine people of New York City (“Humanity? It’s New York”). The chaos heads to the aisle and HHH gets backdropped onto a wooden palate. Would have been awesome if Jack would have dropped a headbutt on the crate to show how his head could break ribs. Lots of people may not have gotten the reference, but I would have enjoyed it. The crowd actually starts a “boring” chant, as they want blood. Lawler covers by saying they are chanting for Foley. A garbage can is introduced and HHH continues to get the hell beat out of him. The running knee actually hits for Jack, as HHH gets squashed into the stairs. A 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire is introduced and now the crowd is buzzing. A timely shot to the balls turns the tide for HHH. Irony rears its ugly head as Jack receives the barbed wire treatment. Jack turns the tide and hits his own ball shot, but he uses the barbed wire 2x4: Advantage Jack I’d say. Hebnar tosses the 2x4 out of the ring, and misses the cover by Jack. The cover only gets 2. Jack is pissed someone stole Barbie and he takes out his frustration on the Spanish announce team. Hebnar gets dropped, and Jack blasts HHH in the head with the barbed wire. The bloodletting begins, and we get a hot near fall for Jack. HHH gets the cheese grater treatment with the barbed wire. HHH is sporting a crimson mask at this point. The two men brawl to the announce table as Lawler and Ross run for cover (JR: “HHH is bleeding like a horse”). Jack goes for a piledriver on the table, but HHH reverses to a backdrop. Sadly for Mick, the table doesn’t break and he just bounces. Back in the ring with HHH now in control, but Jack counters a pedigree into a slingshot. HHH is rammed into the barbed wire on the rebound for another hot near fall. Cactus Jack clothesline sends both men over the top and back to the arena floor. Jack charges again, but gets hip tossed into the steel steps. Irish whip sends him flying into the steps for a second time. I always enjoyed how Foley never slowed down as he went into the stairs. He always takes that spot full force. HHH works the injured leg/knee with the 2x4. A close up shot of the gash in HHH’s calf is shown, and it is pretty nasty looking. In a callback to the 1999 Rumble, HHH pulls out handcuffs. Jack fights back, but it only delays the inevitable. HHH is able to subdue Jack enough to get his hands cuffed behind his back. As Cactus tries to fight free, HHH brings the stairs into the ring. HHH charges, but Jack hits a drop toehold that sends HHH face first into the steps. Jack becomes very resourceful by biting and doing whatever else he can with his hands behind his back. Only so much a man can do with no hands, so HHH destroys a chair over the back of Jack. The action spills up the entrance ramp. Pissed off that HHH is committing gimmick infringement, The Rock blasts HHH with a chair. A cop unlocks the cuffs, and Jack is a free man. Back to ringside, and Jack nails a vicious piledriver on the Spanish Announce Table (which doesn’t break). Damn, if this match had taken place in 2008 those 2 tables would be Wellness tested, and suspended for 30 days. The crowd pops as Jack breaks out a large ass bag of thumbtacks. Steph, fearing her meal ticket is about to well, die, distracts Jack. HHH backdrops Jack into the thumbtacks. A pedigree follows, but somehow Jack is able to kick out at two. The crowd is stunned and a huge Foley chant begins. A second pedigree on the thumbtacks finishes @ 26:45.

HHH via Pedigree on thumbtacks for the pin at 26:45
-This is a hugely important match as it turned HHH into a true top-level star in the eyes of the fans. The match itself is a great, intense brawl, but the heat from the crowd wasn’t always there. Since this match was in MSG it was weird that there were times when the crowd was dead. Credit the match for sucking them it as it went along, but I was still left puzzled. I know most have this as a ***** classic brawl, but I can’t bring myself to going that high. I’ve seen Foley and HHH both involved in better brawls (Foley: Mind Games w/ Shawn; HHH: No Way Out w/ Austin). I prefer the No Way Out rematch more, but that’s not to say this wasn’t one hell of a match though. ****1/4

-There is a never-aired Mad TV Sketch featuring HHH.

-HHH mentions how much he idolized Flair and how he wore out tapes of old Flair matches. This segues to:

NWA World Title: Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat © vs. Ric Flair
-Wrestle War 1989

-I miss the days when the ref would check the wrestlers before the match for any foreign objects. Tommy Young is the ref for this match (Young for Hall of Fame 2008). Feeling out process to start, but things get heated when Flair slaps Steamboat in the face. Dragon fires back with his own slap and Flair bails. Flair pushes Steamboat in the corner and rips the hell out of his torso with a chop. The chops start flying and each seems to get more painful. Flair tries to retreat, but runs into a backdrop before finally getting to the floor to catch his breath. I should mention 3 judges are sitting at ringside to determine a winner in case of a draw because that worked so well with Flair/Sting at the Clash. Back in the ring and Flair grabs a side headlock. Dragon powers out and the 2 men battle for an overhand wristlock. The advantage goes to Dragon, and he works an armbar. Instead of just resting, Steamboat punishes the arm with elbows and knees while he has the hold applied. That is awesome, and something Orton needs to do if he is going to keep using chin locks in his matches. Back to their feet, but Steamboat still has the advantage with a hammerlock. Some good mat wrestling, but Flair can’t get the advantage. Dragon turns Flair over into a half nelson for a 1 count. Flair tries to chop out of the hold and is successful. That is until Dragon ducks a chop and rides Flair back to the mat, and goes right for the arm again. More punishing chops and elbows to the damaged arm of Flair. In the corner, and Flair drops the Dragon with a few forearms. More chops are traded, as pieces of skin appear to be flying into the first 2 rows. A Flair Flop sends Flair back to the mat and the arm bar is applied again. It is very apparent that Steamboat is setting up for the chicken wing. Flair powers out of the hold into a fireman’s carry, and places Steamboat on the top rope. Flair charges blindly, but Dragon leapfrogs Flair from the top rope. A Dragon dropkick sends Flair back to the floor. Steamboat is tentative to hit the floor with Flair, and just waits for him to get back in the ring. As a true babyface he breaks the count of Tommy Young because he doesn’t want to retain his title in that manner. Flair just can’t get on track as he is caught with a deep arm drag. That leads to the arm bar as the pressure on the arm and shoulder continues. Flair finally gets some offense with a hip-lock takeover, but an elbow misses. Steamboat gets another deep arm drag, and goes right back to the arm. Back to the corner as that has been the only place where Flair has gotten any offense. That offense so far is: chops and lots of them. The judges all give Steamboat the advantage after the first 15 minutes of the contest. I tend to agree. More vicious chops from Flair as Steamboat sells them like death. He starts to fire back with his, but a thumb to the eye stops him cold. Flair desperately tries to dump Dragon to the floor, but Steamboat keeps getting back in the ring. In the corner Steamboat gets the corner assisted 10 count punches. He whips Flair to the corner for the now famous Flair corner bump. Steamboat goes for a shoulder tackle, but Flair sends him over the top rope (ruled as Steamboat’s momentum carrying him to the floor). Finally, Steamboat is on the outside in Flair Country. Now we go to school as Steamboat gets chopped over the rail into the front row. Flair tries to grab a chair, but Tommy Young stops that. The fans try to console the Dragon as Flair plays to the crowd in the ring. Great visual as they exchange chops over the railing. Back inside the Dragon hits a chop off the top rope, and we get a Flair Flop. A whip to the corner sends Flair over and onto the apron, but his sprint to the other corner is stopped by a chop from the Dragon. Steamboat attempts a crossbody, but Flair simple ducks and the Dragon crashes on the floor. Flair brings Steamboat back in the ring with a slingshot. A knee is dropped, and it seems like it is finally time to go to school. Steamboat continues to fight back, but Flair cuts him off each time with a chop or a punch. A belly to back suplex gets a 2 count for Flair. He continues to go for the cover, but Steamboat gets his shoulder off the mat each time. A high knee drop to the head gets the crowd back on the side of Flair. Beautiful double arm suplex gets another 2 count for Flair. He drops an elbow for another 2 count. Now Flair is pissed and starts jawing with Tommy Young. Dragon ducks a chop, and again goes for a body press, but Flair catches him in a stun gun. Back to the floor, and Steamboat gets suplexed on the floor. This time the judges give the split decision in this period of time to Flair. Overall it is 4 votes Steamboat to 2 votes Flair. Dragon reverses a suplex into a roll-up, but only gets a 2 count. This time it’s Flair, who tries the body press, and he is a little more successful than the Dragon, but the end result is both men crashing to the floor. Flair is the first to his feet and he fires the Dragon into the ring. Up top goes Flair, and of course he is slammed by Steamboat. The crowd is getting behind Steamboat now as he fires away with chops. He hit a big backdrop, and Flair begs for mercy. He suckers the Dragon coming in, but Steamboat is able to reverse an atomic drop into a roll-up for another 2 count. Back to the top rope and a massive superplex is nailed by Steamboat. That was pretty damn impressive. Dragon is able to lock the double arm chicken wing, but Flair is able to get his feet in the ropes. Off the top comes Steamboat with a chop, and he heads up once again. This time Flair shakes the ropes, and Steamboat falls from the top rope to the floor in a nice bump. Dragon gets up from the floor and is limping. Oh boy, that can’t be good. Flair smells blood and starts to destroy the left leg of the Dragon. The figure four is applied to the wrong leg, but that’s a common occurrence for Flair. Remember it’s the straight leg that takes the damage in the hold. The straight leg. Steamboat gets to the ropes to break, but is now fighting on 1 leg. Flair pounds the leg as Steamboat tries to fight him off with chops. Flair gets cocky and delivers a WOO, but Steamboat is having none of that and nails an enzuiguri. Steamboat goes for slam, but Flair rolls though and gets the pin and the title @ 31:30. Hmm, that’s a rather famous finish. Where have I seen that before?

Ric Flair over Steamboat for NWA World Title at 31:30
-This was quite awesome. This match flew by, and never once got dull unlike the above Street Fight from the 2000 Rumble. Even with the constant arm work, nothing ever dragged because they continued to work for the duration of the match. It built to a white-hot finish, and makes this one of the greatest matches you will ever see. With that said, I still won’t put it above Savage/Steamboat from WrestleMania III. I’m not even sure I would have this match in my personal top 10, but there is no denying this is a perfect match. *****

-I’ll clarify by saying that my favorite baseball player when I was younger was Jay Bell, but he clearly wasn’t the best player in baseball. Personally, I have matches that I enjoy more than the Flair/Steamboat match, but I wouldn’t say those matches are better than this Wrestle War match.

-The 11.29.99 RAW where Test was to marry Stephanie McMahon. Of course wrestling history was forever changed on that night as HHH drugged Steph and married her. This led to their on-screen role, which lead to their real off screen romance. Years later we get the real wedding in Sleepy Hollow, and HHH is the heir apparent to the McMahon wrestling empire. HHH is pretty damn funny throughout the “ceremony” with Stephanie at the Little White Chapel.

HHH vs. Buck Zhumov

-This would be HHH’s WWF debut on Wrestling Challenge (4.29.95). JR and Gorilla are the announce team for this historic match. HHH had the blue blood snob gimmick down pretty well for his 1st televised match. Gorilla mentions the size of HHH, but he was almost a cruiserweight at this point. HHH hits an arm wringer, but Zhumov reverses to his own. A hard right breaks for HHH, and he delivers some European uppercuts (shot-out to Regal?), and actually hits a spin wheel kick. I want to see him break that out today. HHH quickly finishes with an ugly looking Diamond Cutter/RKO @ 2:20.

HHH via RKO for pin at 2:20
-This was a squash, but it was to be expected. Seeing a lean HHH busting out a spin wheel kick was pretty amusing, but was nothing-special back then. It was very weird seeing him finish with something other than the pedigree though. Not sure why he dropped the Diamond Cutter, but the Pedigree suits him better. SQUASH

The 411: The Main Feature isn't all that great as it briefly covers the early years, and mainly focuses on late 99 up until WM X-8. HHH is an interesting guy to listen to at times, and can be funny, but this just seemed rushed. The extras are kind of sparse, but it does include 2 pretty awesome matches in full, and the Test/Steph wedding is pretty entertaining as well. Clearly, the main drawing point is getting Steamboat/Flair on DVD. Buy this for that match alone.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]