Today In Wrestling History 6/28: Mick Foley Thrown Off Hell In A Cell, Benoit's Doctor Raided, More
* 18 years ago in 1997, WCW held a special house show called Saturday Nitro at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. Unlike most house shows, it was hyped on TV, had the Nitro set as as well as the Nitro Girls dancers, and was streamed live on WCW's website. Well, sort of: It was the first of a few "pay-per-listen" shows that WCW tried in the next year or so, with Mike Tenay, Mark Madden, and Gene Okerlund on commentary. They used RealAudio, which was the premiere format for streaming audio at the time but has long since been rendered obsolete. There were two big stories coming out of the event:
After the main event of The Outsiders (using the Fugees' "Ready or Not" as entrance music, which was their tradition at house shows) vs. Lex Luger and The Giant (Big Show), Sting answered an earlier challenge from Hulk Hogan. They had a brief in-ring fight that the crowd reacted to as if it was an actual match, though of course it turned out that there was no sanctioning after Sting put Hogan in the Scorpion Deathlock.
On the undercard, Chris Jericho won the WCW Cruiserweight Championship from Syxx in something of a surprise. Jericho was to face the winner of a Syxx vs. Rey Mysterio match, and after Syxx won, Jericho made quick work of him, evading the Bronco Buster and hitting a spin kick to win the title in under a minute.
* 17 years ago in 1998, the WWF had the King of the Ring '98 pay-per-view live from the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In other words, the show where the Undertaker threw Mick Foley (as Mankind) off the roof of the Hell in a Cell cage.
The idea came from a conversation Foley had with Terry Funk. He'd worked with The Undertaker so much and they needed to do something to make it different from their other matches. Funk's suggestion? Start on top of the cage. So they did, then they fought to the edge...and Undertaker calmy chucked Foley off. In terms of trying to control the fall, Foley actually did an amazing job, grabbing the edge of the cage to guide himself towards the Spanish announcers' table. While Jim Ross has sworn he had no idea it was going to happen (and quite frankly, that's obvious listening to his call), it's never been said if the Spanish team knew, though one would hope that they were told.
Being that the table hadn't been cleared of monitors and other assorted sundries, Foley didn't exactly land flat. Still, he was able to get up off the stretcher and continue the match, climbing back up to the roof to rejoin The Undertaker.
What happened next has been the subject of much debate for years: The Undertaker chokeslammed Foley through the roof, and he landed hard in the ring. Foley has always insisted that the spot didn't go off as intended, first saying the cage wasn't supposed to break but later explaining that the panel would pop away at an angle so he could safely slide into the ring. Instead, he went through hard and fast. Worse, there was a chair on that panel that followed him in and hit him in the face, breaking his jaw.
While the original version is a bit ridiculous (the cage was clearly gimmicked, as it almost collapsed earlier and zip ties fell into the ring when he took the bump), the later version is plausible. It was likely just hard to account for what would work.
The main event saw Kane win the WWF Championship from Steve Austin in a first blood match. As wacky Attitude Era stacked deck storytelling goes, this is one of the better examples. Mr. McMahon wants the title off Austin, so he books him against a monster in a leather mask and bodysuit in a match where the goal is to break your opponent's skin.
Fans speculated that Austin would win by somehow busting open Kane's exposed arm (not unprecedented, Dusty Rhodes bladed his arm a number of times), only for him to show up in a new outfit with both arms covered. The introduction of the new outfit also allowed The Undertaker to pose as Kane in later angles while covering his tattoos. The match culminated in Undertaker accidentally hitting Austin with a chair and giving his brother the title...for about 24 hours.
* 16 years ago in 1999, the WWF aired a live Monday Night Raw from the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, which featured the most watched match and segment in the history of cable television. That would be the show closer where Steve Austin defeated The Undertaker to regain the WWF Championship. It was explained that Austin signed the match as his last act as CEO before losing control of the company the previous night at King of the Ring.
The match itself wasn't especially good, as The Undertaker was fairly sluggish in the ring at the time and the finish was badly botched. It didn't really matter, though, as it was a world title match with two huge stars main eventing Raw during a boom period. The match did a 9.5 rating with 10.72 million viewers watching, a mark that may never be equaled. Vince Russo often claims that "The Rock: This is Your Life" holds the record to prove a point about skits being what the masses really want, but it did an 8.4 rating. To show the kind of interest that match had relative to everything else, the show itself averaged a 6.8 rating.
- 8 years ago in 2007, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raided the office of Dr. Phil Astin III, the "personal physician" of Chris Benoit. Astin had publicly admitted to prescribing testosterone replacement therapy to Benoit even though experts had deemed he prescribed about 10 times the normal amount for a month's supply. Which is to say it was in bodybuilding dosages, which was illegal, and thus it's safe to say the timing was not coincidental.
When Astin was indicted and eventually convicted, however, he was not charged with prescribing the steroids, just painkillers and tranquilizers, as prosecutors felt it would confuse the jury. While the patients who received drugs illegally were named only by their initials, the pro wrestlers' identities were deduced pretty quickly, though it's safe to say we can only be sure about Chris and Nancy Benoit.