15 MORE Incredible WWE Attitude Era Moments Nobody Ever Talks About
8. The Match BEFORE That Dumpster spot
It's shocking to think about today, but there was a time when The New Age Outlaws were just a struggling tag-team act shoved together because of the dreaded 'creative has nothing else for you [individually]'. A feud with the Legion Of Doom helped Road Dogg and Billy Gunn bed in, but it was their rivalry with 2 other war-weary soldiers that cemented their rise.
On the 2 February 1998 Raw, Cactus Jack met pal Chainsaw Charlie in a bruising bout. This was something Mick Foley pitched as the first in a series of matches that’d decide who was “King Of Hardcore”. Vince McMahon didn’t go for that, but he did go for The Outlaws pushing both Foley and Terry Funk off the stage in a dumpster afterwards
Most fans of the ‘Attitude’ days fondly recall that moment, but the match before it is rarely discussed. That painful-looking bevy of weapon shots and big bumps was a launching point for the coming Hardcore Title division though. These real-life mates battered the crap out of one another with various items of torture, then Cactus backdropped Charlie into a dumpster and hit an elbow drop off the tron before the big angle commenced.
You've probably seen the dumpster spot before, if not live then during recaps at WrestleMania XIV. If you've never watched Jack vs. Chainsaw in full, then give it a look in at some point. You'll find the blueprints for a fledgling division that'd take off before the end of the year and bring ECW's hardcore style to the mainstream.
Friends or not, Foley and Funk refused to hold anything back.