85.
Jesse Jammes vs. Rockabilly
In Your House 14 - Revenge of the Taker
Talk about a match that feels out of place for its time. By April 1997, the wrestling landscape had changed dramatically. The nWo had debuted in the summer the previous year, introducing a new edgier side to the WWE’s primary competition. WWE took a bit of time to catch up to this, but on the back of the push of Steve Austin, as well as the change in character for Bret Hart, there were signs that the WWE were on its way to its own edgier brand of television. That change didn’t come overnight, and while the seeds had been planted for what would become the Attitude Era, there were still plenty on the card that reflected the mid-90s New Generation of WWF. An era of wrestling that no longer complemented the culture of the late 90s.
Sometimes it is funny how life precedes itself. Both men in this match had a largely unspectacular career to this point, mostly floundering within the lower card and tag division. Tonight, Billy Gunn debuts his new gimmick as Honky Tonk Man’s protégé, Rockabilly. Honky Tonk Man had been teasing his new protégé for weeks, including offering Billy the chance two weeks earlier. As if the prospect of the Honky Tonk Man’s protege isn’t anticlimactic enough, but the big reveal is … the guy that he approached two weeks earlier. I can’t really recall any time in wrestling where a mystery reveal is just someone that was teased a couple weeks earlier. The rumour is that Honky Tonk Man’s protégé was intended to be Disco Inferno, but due to a no-compete clause in his contract the timeline didn’t work and WWE were left scrambling for a replacement. I can’t think of many things worse than Billy Gunn in this role, but Disco Inferno would have been pretty damn close.
Jesse Jammes is not having much of a better time himself, as his own gimmick mimicked that of the now departed Jeff Jarrett.
If I had to describe this match in a word, it would be sad. The match is not good by any means - in fact it is quite terrible - but to have a match with so little heat must be demoralising for the talent. No matter what antics Billy, Jesse Jammes or the Honky Tonk Man tried to pull, there was no getting a reaction out of this crowd here. I think we’ve all been part of a crowd like this. Whether at a wrestling show, or perhaps at a stand up comedy show - when there’s performers on stage that are getting zero reaction and at a certain point I almost start to pity them.
Between just about every move, Rockabilly takes the time to do a little shuffle to gloat to try and revive the crowd. Nothing happening and instead you just have this guy in an outdated gimmick doing a lame little shuffle to crickets. This is embarrassing. Eventually those shimmies would inevitably come back to bite him when Jammes would roll him up for the win.
In a way, if this were anyone but Billy Gunn, this is a career ender. However WWE were always enamoured with Billy, and would constantly push and re-push him in an attempt to get that winning formula to make him a star, meaning he got more opportunities even after this disaster. In a twist of irony, the lowest point of Rockabilly’s career is against the man that he would later go on to become synonymous with. By the end of 1997, the New Age Outlaws had formed seemingly from nowhere. Their chemistry and personality finally shined as the Attitude Era developed. Instead of playing campy country musicians, they were edgy and brash. In a way, when I find myself feeling sorry for these two for what they must have felt during this night, I remind myself that in less than a year they would go on to become one of the most popular acts in the history of WWE. And in a way, I find that little irony that this match exists between these two a little heartwarming in its own perverse way.
Up Next - After a few matches of just bad matches, no we have bad wrestling that comes under the category of “entertaining shite”. This time featuring attempted murder and vehicular manslaughter.
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