Fully Loaded 1999
Billed as the End of an Era, Fully Loaded 1999 was built around the McMahon-Austin feud that started a year and a half previous, coming to a head. In the main event of the show, whilst defending his WWE Championship against The Undertaker; Stone Cold Steve Austin had the chance to vanquish Vince McMahon from WWE.
Their championship match would be fought under First Blood rules, a match where you must make your opponent bleed first. The show opens with footage of Sunday Night Heat, taking place earlier in the evening, which saw The Undertaker attack Austin, cutting open his forehead. Jim Ross and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler who are on commentary explain that this leaves Austin at a disadvantage as he will be forced to compete with a fresh wound. Michael Cole interviews Vince and Shane McMahon about the attack with Vince guaranteeing that Austin will never be champion again after tonight.
The first match of the evening saw Jeff Jarrett and Edge face off. We were told that a day earlier at a WWE house show in Edge’s hometown of Toronto that Edge pinned Jarrett to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. On this evening, Jarrett defeated Edge to win the championship back after interference from Gangrel and Debra.
As Jarrett celebrated in the ring, a furious Austin stormed the ring and attacks Jarrett giving him the Stone Cold Stunner. Austin grabbed a microphone whilst in the centre of the ring said that it is revenge for Undertaker’s attack earlier and promised to open a can of whoop-ass on The Deadman.
Steve Austin exited out the back as the next match was introduced.
The Hardy Boyz, defended their WWE Tag Team Championships teaming alongside Michael Hayes against The Acolytes. The match was a 3 on 2 No Disqualification Handicap Match. Bradshaw and Farooq double-teamed Hayes and pinned him to secure the victory which meant The Acolytes regained the Tag Team Championships without pinning the champions. Not long after this, Hardy Boyz would swap Michael Hayes for Gangrel as their manager and create The New Brood.
After the match, Austin was seen storming through the backstage area searching for The Undertaker, continuing the show's long storyline. Whilst Austin searches, the show continues with a European Championship Match. Back at Wrestlemania XV, Shane McMahon pinned X-Pac after Triple H betrayed him, which cost the former 1–2–3 Kid his European Championship. McMahon had no interest in defending his championship though and Mideon was awarded the title after locating it in McMahon’s bag.
D’Lo Brown defeated Mideon to capture the WWE European Championship and in the next match.
The Big Bossman defeated Al Snow to win the WWE Hardcore Championship in a wild brawl that ended outside the arena. Before the match though, we saw Austin searching for The Undertaker once again as Michael Cole interviewed Snow.
In the next match, The Big Show pinned Kane with assistance from special guest referee Hardcore Holly. After the match, Holly and Big Show started beating on Kane, but this brought out Kane tag team partner X-Pac. Whilst X-Pac took out Holly, The Undertaker made his way to ringside. The Undertaker and Kane had fallen out in recent weeks. The Brothers of Destruction had started to work together, but Kane found out that The Undertaker had delivered a chokeslam to X-Pac. Kane would deliver a chokeslam on his brother, choosing his friend over family which led to an emotional scene on RAW where X-Pac and Kane embraced with a hug. On this evening, The Big Show and The Undertaker teamed up to take down Kane and X-Pac by laying them out on the canvas.
The Undertaker left the ring content with the carnage that had been left in his wake, but he was suddenly interrupted by Stone Cold Steve Austin backstage. Austin and The Undertaker brawled across the backstage area with Stone Cold managing to slice open The Deadman, which drew blood. The main event was now on even playing field with both men nursing similar wounds.
With parked cars surrounding them in a parking garage, Ken Shamrock defeated Steve Blackman in a creative yet satisfying Iron Circle match, which was really more a fight. This match was considered Unsanctioned by WWF and the only way to win was to exit the circle of cars.
Afterwards, Terry Taylor attempted to interview a furious Undertaker, but this only made the leader of the Ministry of Darkness more upset.
Undertaker: “The most dangerous animal is a hurt animal and if you stay in my face much longer, you’re going to be the one bleeding, Taylor. You understand, huh?”
Taylor was then thrown into the wall.
A tag team match was up next where former DX members were going head-to-head in battle for the D-Generation X name and trademark.
The evening following the Royal Rumble, Chyna turned her back on D-Generation X and joined forces with Vince McMahon. At Wrestlemania, Triple H turned his back on his best friend X-Pac and his DX teammates to join Chyna. This later created tension between the New Age Outlaws, and they collided at Over The Edge and a month later where Billy Gunn was crowned 1999 King of the Ring by pinning X-Pac in the final.
In this match, Road Dogg and X-Pac picked up the victory with Road Dogg pinning his former tag team partner Billy Gunn following a Pumphandle Slam to earn the rights to D-Generation X.
Former D-Generation X leader Triple H faced The Rock in a Fully Loaded Strap Match where falls count anywhere. Thanks to the reinforcement of Gunn and Chyna, Triple H managed to pull off the victory, which earned him a WWE Championship shot at Summerslam one month later. Understandably, this provided him him with vested interest in the main event.
Before the main event, Vince McMahon made his way to the commentary desk with an explanation that it was his desire to have a closer look at the pending match.
The First Blood Match was a finale to a storyline arc between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker that initiated at King of the Ring 1998. When defending his WWE Championship against Kane in a First Blood Match at the June 1998 event, The Undertaker interfered costing Austin the match and his championship. That set off a whole year programme between the pair where they they would headline Summerslam, face each other in a buried alive match and square off for the WWE Championship on numerous occasions. This main event was not only the end of an era between Austin and McMahon, but it was also the finale in a yearlong feud between Stone Cold and The Undertaker.
Austin and The Undertaker began with an intense brawl as they two would make their way up the entranceway. While on commentary, yelled instructions for The Deadman to cause Austin to bleed. In the ring, Taker got caught up in the ropes, Austin looked to capitalize on this opportunity with a chair in hand. Shane McMahon sprinted down to ring in order to prevent this scenario from transpiring, which caused a chaotic but superb sequence to conclude the match. Austin smashed Shane McMahon across the head with the chair as he ran into the ring.
Undertaker managed to get himself free, but Austin would execute the Stone Cold Stunner on him. In order to prevent Austin from winning, Vince McMahon crawled into the ring and got involved, but was unsuccessful. Undertaker had possession of a chair and struck Austin across the back with it before throwing referee Earl Hebner into the turnbuckle. This brought down X-Pac, who came out looking for revenge from the attack earlier in the night, bringing the evening’s central story full circle. X-Pac hit a spinning heel kick into the chair against Undertaker's face. Utilizing this distraction, Austin grabbed a television camera and struck Undertaker across the head with it. After recording, The Undertaker hoisted Austin into the Tombstone position, but Earl Hebner would come to his senses and noticed that The Deadman was bleeding, which signalled a successful title defense for Stone Cold.
Austin retains and Vince is forced to leave the company!
Naturally, the chaos continued to ensue with Austin delivering another Stunner to The Undertaker along with one on Vince McMahon for good measure. Triple H, the new number one contender, stormed down to the ring and attacked Austin. During the commotion, The Rock appeared and stood toe to toe with Triple H. The Undertaker and Austin launched into another brawl until officials separated them. To close out the show, Austin would deliver one final Stunner to McMahon and celebrated with beer.
A goodbye Stunner on Vince McMahon. Credit: WWE Network
The seeds of the Fully Loaded story started to come to fruition during Sunday Night Night while gradually building up tension to a crescendo with the main event. The show also elevated Triple H into a main event role whilst also advancing X-Pac to a higher status where he would be prepared to face the likes of The Undertaker and Big Show.
As advertised, the end of the show also signified the conclusion of a nearly two year rivalry between Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin. A rivalry that created the biggest boom in wrestling history and ultimately won WWE the Monday Night Wars.
While this marked the end of an era, it also was just the beginning of a new chapter.
