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October Classics: The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge & Christian - No Mercy '99

This match was influential in the tag team landscape of the era. This match would lead to the Triangle Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 2000 (or XVI, if you're anal about such things, as I am), which would lead to TLC I at SummerSlam 2000, which would lead to TLC 2 at X-7, etc. Each time out, the teams would try to outdo the last match. This is the one they all built up from. Two part video alert!





Edge & Christian vs Hardy Boyz part1 (No Mercy... by holywrestling

Edge & Christian vs Hardy Boyz part2 (No Mercy... by holywrestling

Comments

  1. BUT DOES IT COUNT AS A TLC MATCH?????

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  2. You forgot the tables match at the Royal Rumble

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  3. IMHO, the greatest ladder match ever.

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  4. Love Lawler's commentary at the bumps they take. "Come on, guys, it's only a hundred grand!"

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  5. All four of fond of talking of how they got to the back and were told "you just became superstars." Cheesy but oh so right.

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  6. after the match at XVI I was really hoping when Summerslam 2000 came around they would drop the Dudleys from the group and let Hardyz and E&C go at it again by themselves.

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  7. Gunther the Nasty LoserOctober 15, 2014 at 1:27 PM

    Terri Invitational Tournament

    TIT

    Get it?!

    ONE WORLD LEADER ATTITUDE, BABY

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  8. Gunther the Nasty LoserOctober 15, 2014 at 1:29 PM

    Jeff Hardy was in it, wasn't he?

    Wait, that's THC

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  9. You said that because Jeff Hardy likes to do the drugs.

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  10. Gunther the Nasty LoserOctober 15, 2014 at 1:31 PM

    TGGI

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  11. YankeesHoganTripleHFanOctober 15, 2014 at 1:31 PM

    Yeah Teri became something of a slut. I assume it was because she was devestated over the breakup of the York Foundation

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  12. One of Vince Russo's going away gifts...

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  13. I think it was just an unfortunate circumstance of Baby Gap being the only place she could afford to shop for shirts.

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  14. That's probably the one he should keep doing. Hopefully it will make him lazy enough to stop trying any creative endeavor.

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  15. I like russo lol

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  16. I had this match on a "best matches of the year" VHS they put out, and I wore that sucker out. This shit blew my little 13 year old mind. I think I may even prefer this one to the matches that followed with the Dudleys, because they didn't go *completely* crazy with the spots yet.

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  17. Baby Gap probably isn't that cheap, it IS still the Gap after all. Maybe she was just really proud of the underside of her boobs.

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  18. Not much hyperbole there either, as this really was a match that left people talking and was acknowledged immediately as their "coming out party"

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  19. This PPV had a pair of legit memorable 'making stars" moments. This match, plus HHH going over Austin in the main event.

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  20. One of my favourite matches ever because I was a huge supporter of these four before many others were, and I had a bunch of people talking to me about how great this match was. I felt like a proud parent.

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  21. "Or XVI if you're anal about these things" meaning what, exactly? I'm anal about people using the correct name for the event, and that one was called Wrestlemania 2000. Just like Wrestlemania 2 was called Wrestlemania 2 and not Wrestlemania II. Deal with it.

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  22. This match changed ladder matches. The next night was awesome for them also. First time I ever heard a crowd giving wrestlers a round of applause.

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  23. Ladder matches can be star makers/level jumpers.


    Michaels/Razor, Rock/Triple H and Edge&Christian/Hardys all did so against each other. Also, The Shield made their stripes in a TLC match in their debut WWE match. That still amazes me. Imagine if they stunk it up in that match and management soured on them?

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  24. Stranger in the AlpsOctober 15, 2014 at 3:28 PM

    I made a journal entry today. It reads: "Today, I was instructed to deal with my OCD about the naming of Wrestlemania XVI as Wrestlemania 2000. I somehow feel that, in retrospect, maybe I used the word "anal" in the incorrect context. When writing about such things, perhaps I should consider that the reading audience might deem my choice of words as inadequate. I cannot recall having ever doubted myself more than I have now. Can I obtain catharsis from this?".
    Consider it dealt with, sir.

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  25. I can't be the only one who intensely dislikes that Rock/Trips match, right?

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  26. Sometimes the "correct" name is really, really stupid.

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  27. I actually looked forward to seeing the Hardys fight Too Much, the Oddities or Kaientai on Shotgun Saturday Night every week in their hideous green plaid tights and headbands.

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  28. Gunther the Nasty LoserOctober 15, 2014 at 4:04 PM

    I don't intensely dislike it, but I am definitely on the side of "what's the big deal?"

    I've tried watching it multiple times and I always get bored.

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  29. My intense dislike comes mostly from the fact that it's regarded so highly by most - my reaction started as "what's the big deal," but as time has gone on I've come to hate it. This may also be due to my intense dislike of pretty much all of Rocky's pre-2001 work.

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  30. I met Terri Runnels at a signing in 2002. I asked her how the York Foundation was doing. She got all mad and asked if I had watched wrestling at all in the last 10 years.

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  31. I'd say it's a tad overrated as well but there's no denying that was the match that solidified them as top players in the WWE.

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  32. She banged everyone in the York foundation -- even Tommy Rich.

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  33. That's hilarious if true. Id think she'd have been flattered you remembered that.

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  34. She got all pissy and I made a joke about how I had not watched one bit of wrestling since 1991 WCW and I was a huge fan of the York Foundation. Molly Holly was at the same signing and was really nice.

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  35. Well, with the Shield it was a huge risk since they were in there with Kane and Ryback on the opposing side.

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  36. She banged two out of three of the Mean Street Posse as well!

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  37. I've not watched it since the PPV but I remember it being a very entertaining match and almost a show stealer if Taker and Austin didn't deliver (I haven't rewatched that one either). It very well might not hold up but at the time it certainly helped elevate HHH beyond being Shawn's flunky and elevated Rocky to potential main eventer...at least thats how I remember it.

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  38. You know what's sad? That WWE doesn't give opportunities like this to mid-carders anymore.

    There's really no reason that they couldn't let some of their current tag-teams go out and steal shows - give a team like Los Matadores twenty minutes and some ladders, and the fans might really take to them.

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  39. This wasn't exactly out of nowhere. These two teams had been having highly-entertaining, short matches for months at this point even before the Terri Invitational. Los Matadores have barely shown any flashes of being capable of the same thing.

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  40. Yep. Like how Wrestlemania 25 was, in WWE's terminology, 'the 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania'. Meaning, I guess, that Wrestlemania 1 was the first anniversary?

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  41. I think it's become part of the accepted Attitude Era narrative that the match was a ***** show stealer which sent Rocky and Trips from obscurity to the stratosphere in one fell swoop, but as with most accepted narratives it's not really in tune with reality, more an idealised half-truth. It has definitely been sold ever since as an era-defining epic, but at the time it was being hyped as the match that would put both competitors over the edge too (before it had even happened). I guess it was the first time that a match featuring either of these two had been presented as a main event of sorts. It was the match that was designed to put both men over that little bit, and it was relentlessly promoted as having been so.


    This said, I did enjoy it when I saw it, and I've caught it a couple of times since. It might help that the show itself is so strong and consistent - in context, it's just another cherry on a thoroughly well ornamented cake.

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  42. Wrestlemania 13 wasn't XIII either.

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  43. Yeah, I get what you mean. This is why the WM16 ladder match, and TLC from that year, are better than every TLC that has succeeded them. They're spot heavy, of course, but they're very, very well structured *matches* too. Everything flows together at a great pace and in a fluid harmony, and there's always something worth watching happening. The later TLCs relied on increasingly convoluted spots that took ages to set up, were usually telegraphed way in advance (and lost a lot of their edge as a result) and little happened in between. TLC III is the worst example of this - the booking just isn't there, with Benoit seemingly written out early because there are too many people in the match and there wouldn't be anything for him to do.

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  44. It took Edge 6 years to reach world title status, Christian 12, Jeff Hardy 9 and Matt never...

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  45. What are you getting at?


    I'm not saying this match made them main eventers. It set both teams on the fast-track to being stars that rejuvenated the tag division and built the foundation for future matches that made them even bigger stars. Before this match, they didn't have a whole lot of identity. Within six months, they were big stars.

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