Welcome back folks, for another episode of WWE Vintage Collection.
We come in firstly to see Ahmed Johnson talking about his injury, and we’re introduced to the tournament that was started to find a new Intercontinental title holder. Which occurred after he had to forfeit it in the summer of 96 due to injury at the hands of Farooq.
Our first match comes from September 6th, 1996 and is between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mark Mero. This one is already going when we come in, and both men are locking up, and Mero hits the first punch. Austin locks in an arm lock, which Mero reverses, and we see some back and forth between the two men trying to get a three count. Austin ends up outside and takes a little while to get back in. We also are informed that we have Brian Pillman on commentary. The two men keep going, and all we’re really seeing is pin attempts. The footage jumps here and now we’re seeing more back and forth until Austin manages to drop Mero chest first into the top rope. Austin misses an elbow from the ropes, and we see the men use the corners to inflict damage on each other. Mero gets in 6 counted punches and a nice backdrop which goes into a nice high risk top rope maneuver. But its not enough to knock Austin out of this, as he keeps getting his shoulder up. And when Austin knocks Mero outside he then takes out his anger on the ref, pushing him down, which is enough to get Austin disqualified. Austin continues the beat-down and hits a Stone Cold Stunner. And both men just keep on fighting until it’s broken up by a large quantity of referees. Your winner in this first round match, Mark Mero.
Back from the ad break, and we’re shown footage from the first round match between Owen Hart & British Bulldog. Where we see that Owen Hart wins and makes it through to the next round.
The second first round matches comes from September 6th, 1996. And it’s between Sycho Sid and Hunter Hearst Helmsley (a young Triple H). Sid is owning this match to begin with, and Helmsley takes an opportunity to reverse things with a neckbreaker, and of course, he showboats in the ring after this. Eventually Helmsley hits a knee drop, and another knee drop, but only gets a near fall. Helmsley tries to keep it going with punches, but things turn around again and Sid gets in a chokeslam followed by a powerbomb. During this we’re also shown that Mr Perfect is walking towards the ring. A three count occurs and Sid takes out the win in this one. And Mr Perfect walks out with the woman who was in Helmsleys corner.
So far in this tournament we have three men continuing on, Owen Hart, Mark Mero and Sycho Sid.
The third match comes from September 9th, 1996. And it is between Farooq & Savio Vega for the final spot in the semi finals. Farooq is in control as we begin with a headlock locked in. And Sunny is getting involved on the edge pulling Farooq’s legs to help intensify the headlock. Savio manages to get a few hits in, but it doesn’t last long at all. Farooq holds in a submission move for a while, and when it stops, Farooq just keeps on going. Until he botches a flying headbutt and both men lie in the middle of the ring. The first man moving is Savio and he gets in a superkick. But again, it doesn’t take long for Farooq to get back on top of this. Farooq keeps wearing Vega down with yet another headlock. Both men keep trying in this match. A lot of back and forth action eventually leads to a gutwrench powerbomb and the victory for Farooq.
We’re back again. Straight into the semi finals now. And this match is between Owen Hart and “The Wildman” Mark Mero. Straight into the action, a bit of back and forth. Mero gets in a hold, but Hart breaks it and gets a spinning heel kick in, followed by a double arm suplex and a near fall. Hart continues on top by locking in a headlock on Mero. Mero manages to get in one reversal to a near fall, but Hart just gets back on top and straight back into a headlock. Hart takes it high risk getting in a flying drop kick off the top rope. And again, goes back into a headlock. It takes Mero a little, but he manages to counter, which lasts about 2 seconds before Hart hits Mero over the head with the cast on his wrist. But its not enough. And the footage jumps here to Hart being seemingly on top until he messes up and lands crotch first into the turnbuckles. Mero takes over here, getting in a drop kick sending Hart outside the ring. They come back in, and as both men are running they smack heads in the middle of the ring. Hart then turns away from the ref, removes the cast from his hand, and hits Mero over the head with it. Which only leads to a 2 count. Hart stands up to fight with the ref, Mero pulls the cast off Hart and hits him with it leading to a three count. The ref who obviously didn’t see the weapon calls the match to Mero.
Off into the second semi final match now. And we’re at ringside for a match between Farooq and Sycho Sid. Farooq starts off strong with a belly to belly suplex. Things slow down with a headlock as we watch Ahmed Johnson in another screen talking about how what Farooq did was wrong. Finally we get back full screen into the ring, and Farooq is still dominating. He comes off the top ropes, and Sid reverses the movement and powerslams Farooq down. Both men get back up, and then down again with a double clothesline. We get to a 9 count with both men still down. Farooq is the first man up, and goes into another headlock. Farooq tries to slam his backside down on Sid, but Sid moves and both men are again on the ground. The footage jumps, and we see Farooq hit a flying headbutt. It looks like Farooq is going to hit his finisher, but Sid reverses things and manages to get Farooq up in a chokeslam. Sunny is distracting the ref, while Farooq slides out to get a steel chair. Which he immediately uses on Sid. But only for a 2 count. Sid retrieves the chair and hits Farooq with it, leading to his disqualification. But it doesn’t stop him from continuing the chair shots. The winner of this one, Farooq by DQ.
We’re up to the final match of the tournament now. This match is to find the next Intercontinental belt holder. And it’s made clear to us that neither man in this final hasn’t actually held the belt before. But, into the match now and its between Farooq with Sunny and Mark Mero with Sable on September 23, 1996. The men get straight into things, and both go back and forth with moves on each other. An insiguri kick from Farooq is the first move to actually make a difference in things. Mero hits off things for himself with an arm drag and sends Farooq outside the ring, and follows him over the top ropes. Mero hits a Mero-sault off the top ropes when they go back into the ring, but it leads to Farooq managing to send Mero up over the top ropes again. This time Sable helps him back up onto the apron, where Farooq just ends up smashing into him, sending back off onto the ground again. And we go to an ad break.
Now we’re back again, and it looks like Farooq is still on top of this. According to the commentary Sunny has been sent backstage for getting involved in the match. Mero manages to reverse things with a sunset flip into a near fall, but again, Farooq gets back into the lead here, locking in a headlock. When things get going again, Mero tries to gain the advantage but to no avail. Farooq climbs to the top ropes, and gets crotched when Mero bounces off the ropes. Mero hits a hurricanrana off the top ropes and gets a near fall. Another double clothesline, and both men are down. This is when Sunny comes back out to ringside and we watch Sunny and Sable try and get a fight started outside the ring which distracts the ref. Farooq tries to use Sunny’s purse as a weapon on Mero, but Mero manages to get it and then uses it himself. Farooq is down, Mero goes to the top ropes to try and hit his finisher “The Wildthing” (a shooting star press) and he hits it, gets the three count, and the new IC champion is Wildman Mark Mero. We also see what was inside the purse when Sunny grabs it again, and there was a brick in there.
This week has been fun, proving that the WWE can actually pull off a tournament. (now, we just need them to bring back a tournament competition to their current shows). And join us again in a weeks time to see what else the WWE video vault has to offer.
