81.
Al Snow & Head vs Too Much
King of the Ring 1998
Jerry Lawler is your special guest referee for this match. In the words of JR, “he must went to the Vince McMahon refereeing academy”.
Long before they hit lightning in a bottle with the Too Cool gimmick, the team of Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor were a lower card heatless tag team. They are the opponents of the newly returned Al Snow, and his mannequin, Head. Thanks to the madness of Vince McMahon at Backlash 2006, this is only the second weirdest tag team partner in WWE history.
Growing up I never really warmed to Al Snow. Maybe it’s because at the time this match aired, I was just 7 years old and didn’t understand or get the “Head” reference. By the time I was old enough to know such things, it came at a point where Al had been on TV doing this for several years, and my indifference was then boredom. There’s no denying Al and Head were a popular act, and it wasn’t unwarranted as Al was a naturally very funny on-screen personality. In retrospect, Al Snow was very much a “you had to be there” gimmick, much like a lot of the Attitude Era.
Al Snow returned to the WWE in May 1998 trying to get a job. Several backstage skits would air each week where he and Head were trying to get into the building wearing various disguises. This would lead to the set up for this match where Snow stole King’s crown. In return, King put together this tag match and said if Al Snow and Head win, Al Snow gets a meeting with Vince McMahon to get himself a job. But it’s not all easy going for Al Snow, as Jerry Lawler is revealed at the pay-per-view to be the special guest referee. Lawler pretending to be shocked while pulling out a referee shirt from under the ring is pretty funny.
One consequence of having Lawler in the match as opposed to commentary is you miss out on some Lawler commentating for Brian Christopher (Lawler’s real life son), which is always hilarious when they’re both heels. Instead, JR is commentating solo here. The match features a lot of evil referee antics, such as reprimanding Al Snow for pulling hair when he never touched it, or chastising Al for closed fists while turning a blind eye to Too Much. On the discord I touched on the greatness of Dude Love vs Steve Austin from Over the Edge 1998. Arguably the greatest overbooked match in WWE history, and the ultimate example of an evil heel referee match. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that just one month later they were running a second such match, and over the next year they would whore out this concept on an almost monthly basis. The match itself feels a lot longer than its 8 minute run time. I think the biggest problem, outside of the obvious nonsense of fighting a manikin head, is that Too Much are a heatless jobber team. Despite the popularity of Al Snow, the crowd dies a death when Too Much are on offence, and the special referee aspect allows the match to be dragged on far longer than it should be. Eventually Al Snow gets the hot tag to which JR gives a great line “Head is the legal man … what the hell am I saying!?”.
The finish is, of course, infamous and one of the main reasons this match is so memorable. How do you pin just a head? Well you attach a bottle of Head and Shoulders to it. This allows Brian Christopher to pin head for the three count. It’s one of the dumbest finishes in wrestling history, the absurdity of which is difficult to put into words. And I hate myself because I also think it’s kind of clever. The suspicion I have is that someone suggested this as a concept during a creative meeting and then they planned out the entire match after the fact.
If nothing else, this match serves as a reminder of the incredible run of popularity that WWE would go through over the next couple of years. The three men in this match would not progress much higher up the card, but because everything WWE was touching turned to gold, they all became far more popular than their push warranted.
Up Next - Our very first Wrestlemania main event. So I guess you can call this the best of the worst Wrestlemania main events.
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