Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Val Venis vs. Steve Blackman

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The Big Valbowski meets Mr. Party Time.

Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Val Venis vs. Steve Blackman – WWF, 1999

History


On the September 9 Smackdown, Val Venis was squaring off with Ken Shamrock. Shamrock won quickly but refused to release his ankle lock after the bell. Steve Blackman hit the ring to attack Shamrock, but Shamrock quickly hit Blackman. That brought Chris Jericho out to taunt Shamrock, who took off after him. Meanwhile, back in the ring, Blackman attacked the fallen Venis.

On Raw, Blackman was facing D’Lo Brown. While Mark Henry trash talked Brown on commentary, Blackman gained the advantage in the match and headed into his ever present bag of weapons to select a pair of nunchucks. Before he could use them, however, Val hit the ring and blasted Blackman with a kendo stick. Brown planted Blackman with a Sky High and got the win.

Val, in typical form, debuted a new film on Smackdown – Enter the Big Valbowski. In it, Val ignored the blonde in bed to twirl nunchucks around.

On Raw, Val and D’Lo were set to face Blackman and Mark Henry. There was one small catch – Henry was nowhere to be found. The Lo-Down put Blackman away and then GTV lit up the Titantron with footage of Henry enjoying a lap dance backstage.

Smackdown saw Blackman getting his revenge on Henry. Val nailed Blackman low with a kendo stick and then cracked him in the head, giving Henry the opportunity to cover him. After the match, D’Lo hit the ring to attack Henry.

Blackman was facing Shawn Stasiak on Raw. Val slipped down to the ring with another bag that looked identical to Blackman’s bag of tricks and swapped them out. Blackman went into the bag and pulled out, well, let’s just call it a buzzing marital aid. Stasiak rolled the shocked Blackman up and got the win.

That brought us to Unforgiven, where Val and Blackman met one-on-one. Blackman attacked Val (who was carrying Blackman’s bag of tricks) on the way to the ring. In the end, Val got the win and Blackman beat him down. Afterward, paramedics came out to check on Val (including one who would go on to become BB). Blackman threatened her and was attacked by WWF security chief Jim Dotson.

Analysis

Although this angle’s pretty much been forgotten, it gave both men something to do and got them onto Unforgiven. Seeing Val switch his bag of tricks with Blackman’s was also good for a quick laugh.

Overall, the feud didn’t hurt anything and was just a short midcard feud. Still, if its point was to help elevate Blackman, it failed. Blackman would remain simply floating in his spot until the WWF paired him with Al Snow the next year.

Where are they now?

Val Venis remains with the WWE today. He is currently part of the Raw roster.

Steve Blackman was released from the WWE in October of 2002. He has since opened a school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that offers wrestling and MMA training.