Quotes: Eve of Destruction
December 31, 1999 / January 1, 2000
This was a special New Year's Eve show which began at 11:00 p.m. on December 31 and wrapped up about thirty seconds after midnight. It featured top matches from WWF history, including comments from wrestlers and WWF personalities concerning the matches. KOTR '98, Hell In a Cell match: Mankind vs. the Undertaker. St. Valentine's Day Massacre '99, cage match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon. WrestleMania XV: X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon for the WWF European championship. Review of the year's Austin/McMahon wars. No Mercy 1999, Tag Team ladder match: Edge/Christian vs. the Hardy Boyz. Special millennium surprise at midnight.
King of the Ring 1998, Hell in a Cell match: Mankind vs. the Undertaker
"He was born Mick Foley, on Long Island, New York. He says when he gets inside the steel, he will feel at home!"
-- J.R. as Mankind approaches the cell
"Look at this... this guy feels no pain, or if he feels pain, he enjoys it!"
-- Lawler as Mankind begins to ascend to the top of the cage
"Of all the things he's lost, I think he misses his mind the most."
-- Lawler on Mankind
"A cage match is not something I've been very good at over the years... Undertaker had a broken bone in his foot. The only other Hell in a Cell match on record in history was the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, where they put on maybe the match of the year in 1997. So I really thought, heading into it, that the possibility of stinking up the place was kind of high."
-- Mankind on the match
"Apparently the Hell in a Cell match is officially underway..."
-- J.R. as Mankind attacks the Undertaker atop the cell with a chair
"Good God almighty! Good God almighty! They killed him!"
-- J.R. as the Undertaker throws Mankind through the Spanish announcers' table from the top of the cell (I'm still wondering who "they" is)
"Us, as wrestlers... we watch the show and we see things that the regular people don't see, that... you wonder if the guy's hurt or not. And that was definitely the one thing I, you know... I gasped, because I wondered if he was ever going to get up or not."
-- the Big Boss Man on Mankind's fall
"I was just scared. I mean, this is sports entertainment, but that was... wow."
-- D'Lo Brown on Mankind's fall
"When it happened, I don't think I was so much worried because I couldn't believe that I had just seen it. And then, when they replayed it on the little monitor back there... I really didn't even watch it again. I could kind of watch it out of the corner of my eye, but it... it was devastating."
-- Steve Austin on Mankind's fall
"I wasn't in THAT much pain when I hit. I was jarred, I was, y'know, not comfortable, but I felt in my heart that I could continue the match."
-- Mankind on his fall
"How in the HELL is he standing?"
-- J.R. as Mankind insists on continuing the match
"I could visualize the crowd. I just thought, "This is a great response!" I figured at that moment everyone thought the match was over, and we proved them wrong. The adrenaline I had was unbelievable as the crowd realized I was climbing one side, and the Undertaker was climbing the other."
-- Mankind on his decision to continue
"When he started climbing back up, just... oh, total goosebumps taking me over!"
-- Jeff Hardy on the match
"I could barely even climb up the cage when I was healthy to START the match!"
-- Mankind on his second scaling of the cage
"That's it; he's dead."
-- Lawler after Mankind fell through the top of the cage
"When he fell through the cage, the top of the cage into the ring... I didn't think he was going to get up. I thought it broke his hips, or broke his back. He was just a cooked noodle."
-- Road Dogg on Mankind's second fall
"I'd never seen anyone fall that far and land so hard in my entire life, and to top it off the chair fell on top of him and knocked his teeth out."
-- D'Lo Brown on Mankind's second fall
"The poor son of a-- he's broken in half!"
-- J.R.
"It is a testament to his want and need to entertain in his crazy-ass way, and that's just him."
-- the Rock on Mankind
"I was not actually hurting because I was unconscious."
-- Mankind on the second fall
"They said I was smiling. What I was actually trying to do was stick my tongue through the hole underneath my lip. I was trying to stick that tongue out; it actually was protruding a little bit, but you couldn't actually see it because of all the blood in my beard."
-- Mankind on his facial expressions after the second fall
"Undertaker and Mankind are in hell. Hell is in Pittsburgh tonight!" -- J.R. as the match continues
"WHAT is that?"
"...Thumbtacks."
"Uh-uh!"
"This is... off the page."
-- Lawler and J.R. as Mankind pours a sackful of thumbtacks onto the mat
"Mercifully, this is over."
-- Lawler as the Undertaker gets the pinfall
"There were some close calls in there for every one of the boys who was standing; it was a "curtain sellout," as they call it in the back. Everybody felt every bump he took and I guarantee you, he's still feeling some of them today."
-- Road Dogg on the match and Mankind
"Yeah, I would do it again! I would do it again with Mankind."
-- the Undertaker on the match
"I honestly am sick of the match, you know? There are other things I have done in my career that didn't involve me being knocked out or sent to the emergency room that I'm very proud of, but no one wants to talk about them. I'm flattered that people like it that much; deep down inside I'm very proud of the match, but I feel like... I've done more than just get knocked out on a pay-per-view."
-- Mankind on the match
"These two men gave you everything in their body! They gave you of their soul here tonight!"
-- J.R.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1999, cage match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon
"To go in there with your boss and beat the hell out of him... that's a good time for Stone Cold Steve Austin."
-- Austin on the match
"The chase is on!"
-- Michael Cole as Austin starts chasing Vince around ringside
"His flight was probably a lot nicer than his landing."
-- Mankind on Vince's fall from the top of the cage
"If you watch that real closely, you see the corner of the edge of the table that was driven right up into McMahon's spine..."
"...Which cracked his tailbone, by the way. At that point, also, his head hit the monitor... Vince was out."
-- J.R. and Shane McMahon on Vince's fall from the top of the cage
"Everybody sat with bated breath going, "Is he okay?"
"The whole back room was silent, just watching, just like, "Please get up. Please get up." I knew he wasn't... I knew he was hurt, bad."
-- D'Lo Brown and Shane McMahon on Vince's fall from the top of the cage
"If you want me to finish this can of whoop ass, gimmie a hell yeah!"
-- Austin, just before going to drag Vince off the stretcher and force him to return to the match
"McMahon is flipping off the rattlesnake!"
-- Michael Cole as Vince tells Austin what he thinks of him
"I figured he wanted some more pounding, so I went back in and gave it to him."
-- Austin on Vince's gesture
In-between match reviews...
"In 1999, the hardcore Hollys set the standard for the superheavyweight division. But in the year 2000, we're gonna raise that bar just a little bit higher. We're gonna raise that bar so high, ain't NOBODY gonna touch the hardcore Hollys. And you know where you and I are gonna be tonight at midnight?"
"Where?"
"I'm gonna be in the gym, and your little ass is gonna be right behind me."
"But what about the girls, cousin?"
"Forget the girls! Bring a magazine; you can go to the bathroom after we're finished."
-- Hardcore and Crash Holly on their plans for the New Year
St. Valentine's Day Massacre '99, Last Man Standing match: the Rock vs. Mankind for the WWF championship.
"I had been dropping elbows for fifteen years and I thought I was good at it, but I thought, maybe if I just add that little run, and then stop and drop the elbow, it would be even more magical, even more devastating."
-- Mankind on his version of the People's Elbow
"It's still the worst-looking move I've ever seen, but it's like a guilty pleasure. I had to try it once."
-- Mankind on the People's Elbow
"I think this match, more than any other, really established who the Rock was as a character."
-- Michael Cole
"Know you role, Mi-- GET YOUR CANDY ASS out of the Rock's chair! The Rock is here now to add a little bit of class to the show!"
-- the Rock, joining commentary while Mankind recovers from a particularly nasty blow
"Look at the Rock's competition! Look at him! It looks like a big monkey came down here, took a CRAP, and out came Mankind!"
-- the Rock, continuing to call his own match
"It got a fantastic response; a great reaction."
-- the Rock, reflecting later on his match
"Memphis, Tennessee... this is the Rock's gift to you!"
-- the Rock, just before breaking into "SmackDown Hotel"
"I thought he was a little off-key."
-- Mankind on the Rock's performance
"He really shouldn't give up his day job."
-- Edge on the Rock's performance
"Rock feels so lone-- AGGHHRK!"
-- the Rock who, after bending low to serenade the prone Mankind, got a mouthful of mandible claw
In between match reviews...
"The entire world wants to know exactly what the Rock feels about the new millennium; EXACTLY what the Great One feels about the new millennium. Well, the Rock feels like this. The Rock says, he guaran-damn-tees to continue to entertain the millions... and millions... and... millions of Rock's fans. The Rock says, that without a shadow of a doubt, he is the absolute BEST this industry has to offer. The Rock has raised the bar in sports entertainment, to a plateau very few, IF any, probably NONE... have the courage, the aptitude, or, quite frankly, the talent to reach. The Rock says this-- every other jabroni in the WWF, EVERY OTHER JABRONI walking God's green earth is simply a passenger on the Rock's vessel. The Rock's vessel, riding the waves of the people's ocean! The Rock says this-- in 1999, going into 2000, going into the next millennium. The Rock says, this is the year of the Rock! The millennium of the Brahma Bull! The Rock says without a shadow of a doubt, he will go down in the history books as being THE MOST electrifying man in sports entertainment. And, of course, without a shadow of a doubt, THE BEST damn WWF champion there ever was. If you smell... what the Rock... is cookin'."
-- The Rock (strange to hear him talking with no crowd going nuts in the background)
WrestleMania XV: X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon for the WWF European championship.
"WrestleMania's the granddaddy of them all, and to actually compete in it... I never thought, going to the first WrestleMania back in 1985, that fifteen years later I'd be competing in WrestleMania 15."
-- Shane McMahon
"WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year, and... you have a match that's kind of a prominent match on the show, and it's with somebody that's never had a match before. So the pressure's on you to come through. You don't know... how is Shane going to be out there?"
-- X-Pac
"I'm thinking to myself, "I wonder if he'd do that with the Rock."
-- X-Pac when Shane McMahon decided to give him the People's Elbow during their match
"We kept hitting each other harder and harder and harder. I kept bringing it to him, and he was like, "Bring it, you son of a bitch!"... nailing him with it, and he just kept getting up and getting up; I was like, damn! So he nailed me; all of a sudden I dropped the belt, and he lit my ass UP with that thing!"
-- Shane McMahon
"People dream about going to WrestleMania their entire lives... some people never make it. I had the privilege of competing in THE show... that was probably one of the best moments of my life."
-- Shane McMahon
In between match reviews...
"The end of the millennium? You know what it means to ME? I think the world's going to come to an end, and I think we're all gonna die! I mean, alpha omega? Question answer? Walrus and eggman, coo-coo-ca-choo [??]; that whole thing. We've only got a few minutes left, and my last few minutes... I think I'm going to go get a little Head." (starts poking around) "Where the hell are ya? Oh, there you are! Come here." (seizes Head by the hair and takes her on camera with a grin) "Thank you!"
-- Al Snow
Review of the year's Austin/McMahon wars
"Firing up the zamboni was a lot of fun..."
-- Austin
"I remember one of the guys in the back that worked in the building looked at him like he was crazy, because of the big light fixtures that they use for interviews actually got hooked onto the zamboni, and he dragged it all the way out of the building and broke it into a million pieces. It was really funny, just to see him overtly run over equipment like that. That's Steve Austin."
-- Matt Hardy
"It wasn't necessarily the fastest, most powerful thing I've ever driven to the ring, but it had a flat hood so I could run off the edge of it and hit McMahon with a clothesline in the ring."
-- Austin
"I remember the beer truck."
"Probably the beer truck was my favorite."
-- Road Dogg and Mankind, reminiscing on some of Austin's greatest moments
"That was fun; it almost knocked down part of the RAW set."
-- Austin on driving the beer truck into the arena
"It was a big Three Stooges, Keystone Cops scene with Vince slipping and sliding in the beer..."
-- Road Dogg
"While I had my finger on the nozzle, I was going to give myself a drink... if I still had my tonsils, it probably would have washed them down my throat!"
-- Austin
"THAT'S THE ROCK'S CAR!!"
-- the Rock in-ring, watching on the TitanTron as Austin uses a monster truck to flatten the Rock's car behind the arena
No Mercy 1999, Tag Team ladder match: Edge/Christian vs. the Hardy Boyz
"You know, a lot of the guys were saying, "Be careful." They knew we were all going to take chances. And..." (glares at his brother) "...JEFF HARDY, especially, takes chances when he's in the ring. So, you know, they worried he was going to kill himself, as well as the rest of us. But I remember Steve Austin came by... Stone Cold looked at us and said, "Hardys, be careful out there." We said, "Well, we'll be as careful as we can be." He said, "I know what you mean."
-- Matt Hardy on the match
"We were very nervous, because there was so much that could go wrong, and there was a lot of pressure on us."
-- Matt Hardy
"I think any time that a match is structured where you have something as inanimate and unpredictable as ladders, you have more concern about the participants."
-- J.R.
"Me personally, I mean... I love wrestling more than I love life, so I was willing to put everything on the line for this match. We're willing to do that every time we come out to the ring, because when we go out there, we love giving the fans everything we have in our bodies."
-- Matt Hardy
"As far as these four guys were concerned, this was the biggest night of their careers."
-- J.R.
"When you climb up the ladders, when you're climbing, the ring is moving underneath you, so they're really unstable."
"When you get up there, it's a lot higher than you think. When you're sitting down looking at it, you think, "Oh, well, that's not too bad." Then when you get up there and you add the actual six feet that you have with the height of your body and you set your eyes down and you say, wow, that's a long ways."
-- Christian and Matt Hardy
"The camera over top of the ladder, to me, was one of the greatest parts of that match, because it really showed just how far and how long it is until you hit."
-- Edge
"When you add that height, a lot of the moves are so much harder to control, too, because it's so much different than doing it just on the mat."
-- Jeff Hardy
"My favorite was the see-saw spot, because that was my idea, and right before I was fixing to jump, I was SO thrilled to hear the fans' reaction."
-- Jeff Hardy
"My elbows were pretty banged up; I had a hole in one elbow from the see-saw. I tried to get my arm up but it actually put me down; it almost knocked me out."
-- Christian
"The whole deal with getting through that ladder match was just sucking it up and being a man."
-- Matt Hardy
MATT HARDY: "The finish was basically... we were all sort of disoriented; we were setting the ladders up to climb again. We get up to the top; I whack Edge, boom boom boom; he was beating me up..."
EDGE: "I pie-faced him off; he hit the ropes and hit the ladder that Christian and Jeff were on, which tottered over--"
JEFF HARDY: "So as ours fell..."
MATT HARDY: "He stepped onto the ladder where I had been previously."
EDGE: "Pushed me off, and Jeff grabbed the money, the sack of change, and fell."
JEFF HARDY: "It wouldn't come out at first, so what better way to get the bag out than just let all your weight go?"
MATT HARDY: "He jerked it and sacrificed his body."
JEFF HARDY: "Totally got the wind knocked out of me."
"After the match was done and Matt and Jeff were gone, we collected ourselves; we stood up... and they gave us a standing ovation. I thought, wow, that's a really cool feeling; that's a really cool thing."
-- Edge
"We went back, and everyone was watching back at the monitors. They all clapped for us and gave us a standing ovation; it was SO cool."
-- Matt Hardy
"I remember, specifically, Mick Foley coming up, and Mick being one of the top guys, to me this was a pretty special thing... he came up and said, "Guys, you just cemented your spot." And I'll always remember that because of where Mick was; he didn't need to say that, and he did."
-- Edge
"I can sum of this match in one word. Heart."
-- Terri
The Millennium surprise...
"Welcome to... 2000 is Jericho! And I know a lot of people are worried about the millennium bug, but when it's all said and done, no one is going to remember Y2K, because all they're going to be talking about is Y2J!"
-- Chris Jericho, officially the first WWF personality to appear on television in 2000
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