The True Lurid Story Of Free WWE UK Pay-Per-Views
The Intercontinental and Tag Team Title matches were mundane affairs that passed by without much in the way of incident, which says rather a lot about the prestige of the midcard championships, since the former changed hands.
The WWF Heavyweight Title had maintained its prestige, and it was contested here infamously in a seminal, unforgettable Street Fight between Triple H and Cactus Jack. An excessively brutal and shocking match loaded with storytelling substance, Trips emerged from it a barbed wire-punctured warrior. In a grotesque but compelling finish, Mick Foley landed face-first on a smattering of thumb tacks. One of the greatest plunder brawls ever, it completed the trifecta of Attitude Era controversy: stunts, t*ts, and ultra-violence.
The Royal Rumble match was unremarkable, in contrast to the wildest sub-two hours the WWF had ever promoted, but there was such a ghoulish contrast to the way in which Taka Michinoku's pratfall was sold against the opener. Taka was legit hurt - his face popped and he required medical treatment - and yet Jerry Lawler switched voice mode from 'Owen Hart' to 'PUPPIES!', he was so delighted by the slapstick quality of the bump. So overjoyed was Lawler, in fact, that he requested multiple replays of the incident.
On January 23rd, 2000, the WWF promoted - as its introduction to the UK general public - a "video nasty", the likes of which were exploited by a sales-desperate tabloid racket under the bullsh*t premise of aghast moral authority. Channel 4 management was livid, and to put into context just how bad it had to have been, the broadcaster itself was hardly a paragon of virtue.
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