Fully Loaded 1999 was WWE’s July offering in 1999 and was an annual PPV during the Attitude Era—at least for a few years, anyway. The 1999 edition took place in Buffalo, New York, and drew over 16,600—a couple thousand higher than Bash at the Beach 1999. Can the main event of Stone Cold vs. The Undertaker in a First Blood match beat a tag team World Championship match?
Let’s dive into WWE Fully Loaded 1999 and see what this show has to offer.
The Best
Honestly, the PPV hardcore matches can be a mixed bag but tend to hover around mid-at-the-minimum. They’re usually serviceable but repetitious.
Hardcore hero Al Snow—he was “Captain Hardcore” in WWE during this period—took on hardcore division natural Big Boss Man. I loved Boss Man in the division. He just seemed like a roaming menace.
Now, the match itself was decent but often times, matches get ascended to being the best just on their placement and what comes before or after. Something different can hit differently even if you can see that it’s not that good.
Al Snow vs. Big Boss Man was another PPV hardcore match but it piqued my interest in the show. The show wasn’t even bad at this point, it was just…steady. It felt like watching HeAT minus the promotion for larger storylines and stars.
This match changed the pace quite a bit and I was actually enjoying something instead of “I didn’t hate it.”
The tag team battle between Billy Gunn & Chyna and Road Dogg & X-Pac was pretty damn entertaining. It also had just enough room to groove. Oddly, this was one of those matches that I saw being promoted via the week of RAW leading up to Fully Loaded 1999 but I was like “Ugh.”
It just wasn’t a match I cared to see but sometimes those are the matches that just click for you. Maybe it’s how much they got down with the little you know they can do. It could be the pace of the match being different.
Hell, one wrestler that you enjoy being involved in the match can make or break it.
Now, I rock with X-Pac. He’s like the Nintendo Seal of Approval sticker that Nintendo would put on quality games. If I see that he’s involved, I expect an acceptable level of quality. This match went over that level and was just enjoyable.
Technically, Triple H could’ve faced The Rock in just a no-DQ match or a street fight and gotten the same end result. This was a good, enjoyable brawl that I can’t say ran too long but there were moments where they could’ve tightened it up.
It was one of the matches worth catching from this show. However, the strap stipulation was totally unnecessary. Going back to the Acolyte Rules match, when it’s advertised, people expected chaos and carnage and not simply a brawl or a melee.
The First Blood stipulation was always one of my least favorite. Stone Cold defended the WWE Championship against The Undertaker in one such match and the bulk of it was actually really good. It was the expected brawl—which is exactly what I wanted.
There were also some stakes. If Austin won, he retained his belt and Vince McMahon would be banned from WWE TV. However, if Taker won, Austin would get no more title shots at the WWE title.
Those are some heavy stakes. Those are stakes laid out by a man who is fed up with this one severe, troublemaking troll—Stone Cold.
To be honest, these are stakes for a big four PPV and not another summer show. Anyway, this was a really good brawl that didn’t need the First Blood stip—just like the semi-main event didn’t need the strap.
The Rest
The opener saw Edge defend the IC title against Jeff Jarrett in a solid-ass match. It wasn’t anything I was anticipating for PPV but you knew it was scheduled. What we got is something that would’ve been a treat on WWE TV but is serviceable on PPV. Plus, they had more than enough room to groove and made the most of it.
Following the opener was the Hardy Boyz defending their Tag Team titles against the Acolytes. The Acolytes kind of have an advantage here with Acolyte Rules—it’s a street fight. However, the Hardy Boyz have wrestled on the edge since the Brood days, they’re at home in a no-DQ setting.
The problem here was that the danger of no-DQ kind of hovered in the background instead of being a feature. I mean, the match type was advertised. Fans expect this to be carnage but they got a decent-ass tag match. I’d say it was a little on the safe side.
D’Lo could’ve spanked Mideon in less time in Mideon’s failed European title defense. As a HeAT or Shotgun match this would’ve been fine because you would’ve probably forgotten about it. However, this was on PPV and it’s just a bleh match. It’s not even bad, it was just…there.
If there was a really hot, exciting match before it, I’d say its placement on the show was fine but it comes after two solid title changes. If anything, Fully Loaded 1999 is still steady at this point.
Kane should’ve brawled most of his gimmick’s run. Instead, we got some tests of his strength and the like. It was necessary since he was brought in as this unstoppable, unfeeling monster…but still, that power-first approach has always been kind of boring.
Speaking of Kane, his match against Big Show was pretty much a storyline thing to get a Big Show turn. Prior to this, he had been aligned with the Union and the guy looked like he should’ve always been a heel. With that said, this wasn’t enjoyable to watch and it would take a while before Kane found his perfect consistency level but this was one for the skip pile.
Fully Loaded 1999 featured several matches that were outside of the ordinary. The Iron Circle match between Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman was one of them.
The match itself had good build on TV but the stipulation needed more build. It was kind of like “Here’s the IRON CIRCLE MATCH!” and boom, there’s the Iron Circle match. It’s something that could’ve been better revisited like the Lion’s Den match.
That aside, it offered something different on the card when you’ve seen “this” already or you’ve seen enough of it.
WWE Fully Loaded 1999 Verdict: Silver Medal (7.25/10)
OK, I was impressed. The stuff that was good was really good or even great while most of the stuff in “The Rest” was actually decent or missing something. Otherwise, the match would’ve been good but definitely would’ve gotten the job done on TV. Our match of the show honors goes to the strap match between the Rock and Triple H.
A close runner-up is the Hardcore title match.
CHECK IT OUT: To get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
