The Stephanie/HHH/Vince Storyline From Late '99

[GlitchMarner]

I was watching some YT clips from this angle earlier today and yesterday and this shit was gold - way better than any angle I can recall from the last number of years. I was into it when it happened and re-watching the videos was enjoyable all these years later.

The ramifications of the angle did a lot to permanently alter the WWE and wrestling landscape and not necessarily for the better, however. As good as HHH was in late '99, he would later basically use his relationship with the McMahons to push himself to the moon and bury others.

But let's focus on this particular angle here... I do think one negative about it is that it really buries Test. He comes across as weak and as such a tool, never really able to stand up for himself. Instead of going hard after HHH, he breaks up cordially with Steph and is willing to just kind of step aside. That's not very manly behavior for a guy who relied a lot on his look and size to get over.

What do you remember about this storyline?

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[Ozz]

I remember I hated Test from day 1 and never cared about him.

No complaints, not much in the WWF main event those days was a miss.

 

[GKJ]

This was actually the storyline when I first started watching. I think the wedding was the first Raw I ever saw. Test was front and center in this as the guy who was supposed to be a huge face star and didn’t even get a PPV match out of it.

 

[Megahab]

And Test was teaming with HHH soon after this as if nothing happened.

I don't think Test was going to be a main eventer but this could have got him a lot higher on the card than he ended up.

 

[varano]

I remember HHH drugging stephanie, married her, and insinuating that he raped her.

 

[GlitchMarner]

I remember HHH drugging stephanie, married her, and insinuating that he raped her.

I think that when she turned on Vince, the insinuation was that they had set the whole thing up and she had been complicit in it all along. She wanted to get back at Vince for some of the things he had done to her (having her sacrificed in a wedding to The Undertaker etc) and decided the best way was to marry the man he hated the most. She said she did like Test but wasn't ready for marriage and that's what Vince wanted for her.

 

[JackSlater]

I enjoy trashy, soapy wrestling and consider this good stuff and HHH's best period by far. Really transitioned him out of the DX stuff effectively, and he needed to make that transition. It was all fairly consistent with the sort of deranged Vince McMahon we'd been presented in the last year+.

The angle really does bury Test, but I don't see that as a negative really. Test sucked and it's better that we were spared a real main event Test push, even if that was an unintended consequence. Love triangle angles often bury someone, though they can work in some situations like Raven-Dreamer-Beulah.

 

[Megahab]

I enjoy trashy, soapy wrestling and consider this good stuff and HHH's best period by far. Really transitioned him out of the DX stuff effectively, and he needed to make that transition. It was all fairly consistent with the sort of deranged Vince McMahon we'd been presented in the last year+.

The angle really does bury Test, but I don't see that as a negative really. Test sucked and it's better that we were spared a real main event Test push, even if that was an unintended consequence. Love triangle angles often bury someone, though they can work in some situations like Raven-Dreamer-Beulah.

I think I'm the only one that thinks Test would be pretty decent in the ring for his size. He just seemed inconsistent.

 

[JackSlater]

I think I'm the only one that thinks Test would be pretty decent in the ring for his size. He just seemed inconsistent.

You and Stacy Keibler I guess.

Spoiler

 

[Megahab]

You and Stacy Keibler I guess.

Spoiler

If I remember right, Test was getting over with this gimmick and he was going to be pushed. He was even scheduled for a PPV match with Jericho at No Way Out 2003. But there was a snow storm the night of the show and Test and Stacy got heat for not making proper travel arrangements. They missed the show and the match was replaced by Jeff Hardy vs. Jericho. The testicle gimmick was dropped, Test was put into a shitty feud with Scott Steiner and never really recovered from that.

 

[JackSlater]

If I remember right, Test was getting over with this gimmick and he was going to be pushed. He was even scheduled for a PPV match with Jericho at No Way Out 2003. But there was a snow storm the night of the show and Test and Stacy got heat for not making proper travel arrangements. They missed the show and the match was replaced by Jeff Hardy vs. Jericho. The testicle gimmick was dropped, Test was put into a shitty feud with Scott Steiner and never really recovered from that.

I don't remember that but it certainly sounds true. To be fair, can't blame Test for taking his time travelling around with Stacy Keibler. Or being careful about a snowstorm I guess. Not surprising stuff for WWE of that time. I do however strongly remember that Steiner feud and how it was used to bury Test. Which was particularly wasteful when Steiner was then completely buried when he went on to face HHH.

 

[Megahab]

I don't remember that but it certainly sounds true. To be fair, can't blame Test for taking his time travelling around with Stacy Keibler. Or being careful about a snowstorm I guess. Not surprising stuff for WWE of that time.

I think the heat was because everyone knew a storm was coming and they were advised to travel the night before. But Test ignored that and waited until the day of the show when the storm had already hit.

I just looked it up and I was a bit off. They missed the Raw before the PPV. As punishment for not putting better effort in to make Raw, they were pulled off the PPV.

 

[93gilmour93]

I remember HHH drugging stephanie, married her, and insinuating that he raped her.

 

[Voight]

One thing I'll always give Vince/Stephanie credit for his allowing The Rock, Jericho and everybody else to call her a prostitute, wh*re and whatever else they wanted. They knew it would be huge for the ratings and thus, result in more $$$$.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

I remember HHH drugging stephanie, married her, and insinuating that he raped her.

I mean, that's still dwarfed by Triple H actually humping an insinuated corpse on live TV.

 

[Kaner9]

I mean, that's still dwarfed by Triple H actually humping an insinuated corpse on live TV.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GAME UHHHHHHH. That's just how ya play it.

 

[JianYang]

I mean, that's still dwarfed by Triple H actually humping an insinuated corpse on live TV.

Lol, I thought that was kane.

Either way, this all sounds like a Russo kind of idea.

 

[ShelbyZ]

I just remember Test being kind of out of his element in that high profile of a program. He had a good look and was passable as a powerful guy in the ring, but he was super green on the mic and decidedly wooden in the character/charisma department.

IIRC, Test was the last of a handful of mid card guys WWF experimented with in programs with main event guys like the infamous Rock and Billy Gunn debacle, Big Show and Bossman, and Val Venis and Mankind.

I think Test seemed like the best fit because he was still relatively young, wasn't doing a whole lot at the time and had some history feuding with Shane and HHH while he was a member of the Union of People You Oughta Respect, Shane (or was it Son?) - (Or UPYORS)

But I just remember the whole thing getting little response outside of the wedding double cross or Mae Young's bachelorette party antics... The crowd cared little when Test went to avenge Stephanie against the jeans clad British Bulldog for hitting her with a trash can and delaying their first wedding date or when he basically got buried after it was revealed Stephanie staged it all to get back at her Dad for the higher power crap.

In retrospect, given it was the Attitude Era, the angle might have been more fun and memorable -especially the Shane/McMahon family disapproval part- if instead of Test it was someone like Val Venis, Viscera, Droz or the Blue Meanie

And Test was teaming with HHH soon after this as if nothing happened.

I don't think Test was going to be a main eventer but this could have got him a lot higher on the card than he ended up.

IIRC, Stephanie used her new found authority with Vince gone to force Test to team with HHH against the Outlaws in a match that just became a 3 on 1 maybe 3 weeks or so after the big wedding day reveal. But, otherwise you're right, months later Test would turn heel again and along with Albert and Trish, do some of the McMahon-Helmsley's dirty work against baby faces without any real connecting of the dots with him and Stephanie.

 

[Megahab]

I just remember Test being kind of out of his element in that high profile of a program. He had a good look and was passable as a powerful guy in the ring, but he was super green on the mic and decidedly wooden in the character/charisma department.

IIRC, Test was the last of a handful of mid card guys WWF experimented with in programs with main event guys like the infamous Rock and Billy Gunn debacle, Big Show and Bossman, and Val Venis and Mankind.

I never really thought of that but you're right. They must have been some kind of initiative of giving mid card guys a shot with main event guys in late 1999. The guys you mentioned (Boss Man, Val, Billy Gunn), plus British Bulldog was in the world title picture for a bit, Xpac feuding with Kane, Al Snow vs Foley, and there was the plan of Jarrett doing a feud with Austin but I think Austin refused.

Side note: just looked up Armageddon 1999 results. This was a few weeks after the wedding angle that should have been huge for Test. So I figured maybe they gave a somewhat big match at Armageddon. Nope. He lost to Al Snow on the pre-show Sunday Night Heat that night.

 

[ShelbyZ]

I never really thought of that but you're right. They must have been some kind of initiative of giving mid card guys a shot with main event guys in late 1999. The guys you mentioned (Boss Man, Val, Billy Gunn), plus British Bulldog was in the world title picture for a bit, Xpac feuding with Kane, Al Snow vs Foley, and there was the plan of Jarrett doing a feud with Austin but I think Austin refused.

Side note: just looked up Armageddon 1999 results. This was a few weeks after the wedding angle that should have been huge for Test. So I figured maybe they gave a somewhat big match at Armageddon. Nope. He lost to Al Snow on the pre-show Sunday Night Heat that night.

I think technically HHH was part of that experiment as well, and was obviously the most successful after they broke him off from DX and put him in the WWF title mix with Austin, Foley and Taker. I forgot about the Al Snow/Mankind program. I do also recall the scrapped Jarrett/Austin program, and IIRC, Austin also refused a program with Billy Gunn around that time frame as well.

My guess for why the WWF was doing that is because they must have been aware that they would eventually have some big holes at the upper-mid and top part of the card and wanted to be prepared:

-Owen Hart was tragically gone
-Goldust left while he was a fixture in the IC title picture
-Perhaps they were aware ahead of time that Jarrett was leaving
-Shamrock wanted to leave to get back into MMA
-Taker had been limping since the infamous HIAC with Foley and needed surgery
-Austin needed his neck surgery
-I'm guessing they were aware of Foley's plans to retire well in advance
-The Rock was getting his first acting gigs in 1999 as well
-Honorable mention might go to Dr. Death Steve Williams, who they apparently had big plans for when he returned after WM15 with heel JR before getting injured again

Back to the Test/Stephanie story... Another thing that might've been a factor in Test's burial was the abrupt change in the creative department that happened right in the middle of it. The whole angle started under Russo, who IIRC left for WCW within days of the UK show where Bulldog tossed the trash can at Stephanie.