WWF Sunday Night Heat #44 (aired 05/30/99)
Mark of the Quad Cities Arena
Moline, Illinois

Chris

This is a qualifying match for the 1999 King of the Ring. Shamrock won the 1998 version of the tournament and is looking to repeat.

This is a really ideal Sunday Night Heat match. Jarrett takes control early with his beautiful punches before Shamrock rolls him into a leglock and adds some strikes for quick measure. The two men trade battle for control a bit. Shamrock adds some nasty kicks and elbows, Jarrett sells them like the champ he is. Double J eventually gets a quick opportunity for the Figure Four before Shamrock reverses it right back into an ankle lock and wins.

The match is a well-worked c-show sprint, the exact kind of 3-minute match I’d love to see at the start of a TV taping. Unfortunately the Attitude Era crowd is mostly chanting for Debra’s “puppies” throughout the match, though Shamrock and Jarrett do get them into the finish and Jarrett’s guitar smash revenge post-match. I hate the Attitude Era! These idiots in the crowd might be loud but they do not know ball. Fun match!

RATING: HARD

Dan

Folks this is a King of the Ring qualifying match. Do you know what that means? We’re Talking Tourneys!

This is on Heat so I’m going on with tempered expectations. Oh God. This is a week after Owens death. They briefly bring it up before the match starts and before the crowd starts chanting “PUPPIES PUPPIES.” 

Shamrock is in control for the majority of this and his offense looks great. Rolls smoothly into a leg lock. He blasts Double J with a kick to the face. Jarrett gets a brief time to shine before a great finish. Jarrett reverses a hurricarana with a killer power bomb. He goes to lock on the figure 4 but Shamrock reverses it into an ankle lock for the win. 

This is great while it lasted. It mostly works as a microcosm of the Attitude Era. Two great workers give sub five minutes to work in front of a crowd that just wants to see tits. It does make me want to seek out more of their matchups, but I’m fairly certain I’ll be treated to similarly short runtimes. 

Rating: HARD

Sam

The Attitude Era is drowning in bite-sized matches and it at times seems like a personal attack that 99% of them suck butt. Luckily this project is based around The World’s Most Dangerous Man who has a toolbox built for this shit. Extremely explosive offense and almost every match is short enough that your brain doesn’t get fully exposed to the thought that Jeff Jarrett shouldn’t be trading hands with a man not that far removed from fighting for a UFC Championship.

Anywho, everyone else seems to be covering the meat and potatoes of the match in some form or fashion so let’s focus on the two leglocks. The first one comes off a back-body drop counter after Double J seems to have some momentum with some punches and a dropkick. As soon as Ken went over Jarrett, I leaned forward in my chair. The mechanics immediately feel “off”, not wrong but certainly unexpected. I have major attention issues so a spot that catches me off guard and forces me not to go on autopilot is a win for me.

Then there is the finish, a leglock takedown to counter the Figure Four attempt, going right into this gnarly-looking ankle lock. Seriously, this ankle lock has a little grapevine and twists to a 75 degree angle. Gimme that. 

What gets this motor revving is that in a three-minute match you fully Get that any time Ken gets someone in the leglock position, whether using it as a sub or takedown, you know the other guy has a problem. It is so simple but if most other wrestlers try it they’d either screw it up or seem like tryhards. Ken being a Shooter’s Shooter can pull that off and then some

RATING: HARD

FINAL RATING: SUPER HARD