WWF 1999: A lot Can Happen in a Year

[totti]

This time last year the World Wrestling Federation were on fire, they could do no wrong. An increasing fan base, a once feared rival making mistake after mistake and they were able to boast some of hottest new stars to ever hit the business. The future looked very exciting and the wrestling industry had began a boom nobody would have believed possible. Two great company were neck and neck willing to do anything to undermine the other. It was an extremely exciting time to be a wrestling fan. Coming out of a successful paper view which saw the remarkably popular 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin walk out with the prestigious WWF World Heavyweight Championship after beating Shawn Michaels; the WWF looked to be hot on the heels of the number one wrestling promotion in the World, World Championship Wrestling, but what can only be described as one of the most unluckiest years in the company’s long history was about to begin and the future of the WWF would, at times, look very uncertain indeed.

 

 

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The backstory will be brief, mainly bullet pointing the more important events to occur that month and will ultimately begin the night after Wrestlemania 15 once the year long backstory is finished. I wanted to get back into writing a diary, but the only thing that really interests me is this time period so I thought I would at least try a different take on things and create some fictional events to try and keep it fresh. It has been planned really since the summer, but I was obviously just biding my time for the release of TEW 2013, so even though time is probably going to be an issue at least there is a lot of writing ready to use.

[totti]

April/May/June 1998: Steadying the Ship

 

After what seemed like such a fantastic breakthrough for the World Wrestling Federation just days later things started to unravel. It was revealed the new Champion and current face of the company Steve Austin had re-aggravated a serious neck injury he had sustained earlier in his career and would require immediate surgery with a chance he would not be able to wrestle ever again. Austin as expected didn't take the news lightly and gave his word to Vince that he would return to doing what he loved as soon as he could, but Vince knew in the back of his mind that after the surgery even Austin would be having second thoughts for his future health. This news couldn't have come at a worse time with former Champion Shawn Michaels already having to take time off for a very serious back injury he sustained just months prior at the Royal Rumble. As things were looking, the once exciting talent the WWF could boast was becoming very depleted and they were left thin across the World Title scene.

 

Vince's sensed a sort of opportunity and used Austin's injury as an angle having a large masked man attack Austin as he arrived at the arena for Austin to announce the next week on Raw that due to the injuries sustained by the unknown man he had to relinquish his newly won Title and take time off to heal up to the dismay of virtually every fan in the arena. He vowed to his loving fanbase he would return and recapture what is rightfully his. Vince came out to announce a tournament starting next week on Raw for the vacated Title with the final being held at Unforgiven. The final came down to The Undertaker and Mankind arguably the two biggest stars still left with the company and won by The Undertaker who it looked like was going to have to be the man to carry the company through the loss of its two biggest stars. The following pay per view Over the Edge saw The Undertaker defending the gold in a rematch against Mankind. After beating Manking he then entered a program with his half brother Kane for the World Title beating him at King of the Ring, but things were about to heat up even more between the two, literally.

 

It was two fairly quiet months in other regards with the major change being a continued aspect of the company from the latter stages of last year. The WWF was still pushing it's more edgier and darker look trying to promote that anything was possible and continued to pull out more twists and turns you than you would expect to see from a good drama series.

 

The Rock continued his stronghold of the IC Title, but left The Nation of Domination as his popularity was starting to blossom. This began a program against The Nation with Farooq vying for the Championship belt and calling The Rock a traitor, in each meeting The Rock would come out on top despite the outside interference. An unlikely ally would come to The Rock's aid in the month of June, the deranged Mankind who had developed a more humorous side. Despite The Rock's constant pleas for Mankind to stay away, he kept coming to save Rocky only for Rocky to attack him setting up a feud between the two.

 

The tag team titles were won back by The New Age Outlaws who joined Triple H and a returning X-Pac in the rebellious faction, Degeneration-X. Triple H resumed sole control after Shawn Michaels was sidelined and the group played many pranks throughout the next three months setting up various feuds around the company as DX's popularity and momentum continued to skyrocket. Owen Hart was the main crusader against DX using the Bret Hart angle to his full advantage to gain sympathy from the crowd and ended the month on a high with a tough fought win at King of the Ring against X-Pac.

 

The King of the Ring tournament came down to Intercontinental Champion The Rock, Ken Shamrock, Triple H and Goldust. Jeff Jarrett had been beaten by Goldust in the previous round and cost him in a match with Triple H, but in a surprising turn Ken Shamrock hung in to defeat The Rock with his ankle lock and went on the be crowned King of The Ring, winning a shot at the belt anytime within the next year. Shamrock had been given a mouthpiece figure, Jim Cornette, who with his promos was trying to push Shamrock to the moon, and it was working. Combined with Cornette's charisma and Shamrock's hard, exciting fighting style things were definitely going in the right direction for 'The World's Most Dangerous Man'.

 

Despite the injuries Vince McMahon had done a great job steadying the ship and an array of new stars had begun to debut including an impressive Olympic gold medalist named Kurt Angle who, combined with his charisma and excellent wrestling background seemed to have the total package. He remained undefeated at the end of June as did Edge and Christian, a young tag team who were billed as brothers. Yes things were going well and it seemed the bad luck had ended for the WWF, but would it last?