10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1999
1. The Stone Cold Truth...
...is what, exactly?
At Survivor Series 1999, Stone Cold Steve Austin was hit by a car during the show. This ruled him out of the planned main event WWE Championship clash against Triple H and The Rock, and indeed out of all physicality for the better part of a year save for a memorable Backlash 2000 cameo in April.
With the whole story being remembered more for the terrible payoff involving Rikishi than anything that happened in the aftermath of the attack, it escapes criticism for being one of the worst ever bait-and-switches in company history. "Card subject to change" exists for a reason, but the Wrestling Observer had it that promoter and performer knew enough by November 5th - nine days before the show - that test results on his previously-injured neck were enough to rule him out of action immediately.
The in-ring records back this up too - Austin wrestled his last match for just short of a full year on November 1st, suggesting that even if Survivor Series was a goer, he probably couldn't be risked for any other dates in the interim.
For his part, Bruce Prichard disputes the timeline, suggesting on his podcast that they all knew “probably the day before, or night before...I don’t think anybody else found out until late the night before. And again, it was still on the ropes. Could go either way. And I think they finally made the decision late the night before. I didn’t know until the day of”.
The ambiguity around the decision was the last of the show's concerns - it was a total stinker of a pay-per-view that appeared to suggest Vince Russo's acrimonious departure from the creative team would make things worse.
It was a different time.