4. Phineas Godwinn's Revenge

Backlash - Apr.25.1999

The Ministry of Darkness (Midian & The Acolytes) vs The Brood (Edge, Christian & Gangrel)

   Following his star-making victory over Vader at Breakdown in September 1998, Bradshaw had wrestled primarily on Shotgun Saturday Night and house shows, losing to the likes of Steve Blackman and The Godfather. In fact Bradshaw's victory over Vader had seen his star rise so much that our hero didn't appear on Raw again until December and hadn't had a sniff of a PPV match until here, over 6 months later. Despite this, Bradshaw's career in the WWF had gained more traction than at any other point in his tenure. Put together with real life friend Farooq, they formed the team of The Acolytes in November 98 and began steadily racking up victories over the likes of the JOB Squad, LOD 2000, DOA and Val Venis & The Godfather. Initially managed by The Jackyl, he was quickly jettisoned by the duo (and the WWF) as both men hated him for real and in December Farooq and Bradshaw were the first recruits of the Undertaker into his Ministry of Darkness. Now sporting Lovecraftian symbols on their chests and their tights at the behest of Vince Russo, the men were repackaged with an occult gimmick much more fitting in Attitude Era WWF than the gimmick of "cowboy" or "angry black guy". The Acolytes' first order of business was to kidnap The Artist Foremerly Known As Phineas Godwinn and keep him prisoner in a dungeon in some pretty harrowing scenes. 

    A ritual was performed and the former Arkansas pig farmer became Midian and was brought into the fold. Soon they were joined by The Brood and Viscera to complete the unholy stable and began terrorising the whole WWF, giving Bradshaw his first taste of sustained TV exposure and direction. More recently the Brood had been excommunicated from the faction after failing the Undertaker and because Edge and Gangrel attempted to defend Christian when The Undertaker was dishing out a brutal punishment for his failure. That's the story going into this one and by God we have a storyline, proper gimmicks and a proper face vs heel dynamic in a Bradshaw PPV match. It only took them three years but they got there.

   The teams make their entrances as JR fills us in on the story heading into this one. Mileage may vary but I think the occult stuff works well here and its a good look for Farooq and Bradshaw. Obviously the Brood are cool as hell and even Midian looks sort of cool by his own low standards. Midian and Christian start things off while JR talks about the "dark synergies" of the Ministry. Midian's gimmick may have improved from his days as a Godwinn but his offence has yet to progress beyond punches, kicks and chokes. Luckily Christian is no Headbanger Thrasher and he's on hand to quicken the pace, sliding through Midian's legs and hitting a spinning wheel kick.

    Gangrel tags in but is quickly decked by Midian who tags in Bradshaw. Bradshaw sets his stall out no selling Gangrel's attacks and dropping him with a big boot, before hammering away in the corner. Great intensity from the big man as he looks mean and pissed off. King says that of all the members of the Ministry "Mr Bradshaw" is the one to be feared the most. Gangrel ducks a Clothesline and attempts a crossbody but Bradshaw catches him and nails the Fall Away Slam - the first on our timeline by my count. 

    Edge gets a blind tag and The Brood manage to fell Bradshaw with a combination drop toe hold & clothesline and a double suplex. Edge takes Bradshaw to the corner but he just says "fuck that", no selling and punching Edge in the mouth before tagging out to Farooq. More nice offence from the Brood as Edge and Christian hit a combo crucific/dropkick on Farooq and Edge follows up with a spinning wheel kick. Edge's momentum is abruptly cut off as Farooq blasts him with that big Spinebuster. Midian tags in and even he has levelled up as he immediately hits Edge with an impressive stalling vertical suplex.

    The Ministry take control as they cut the ring off and begin working Edge over. Bradshaw tags in and goes for a cover after a big football tackle, which sees things break down as Christian comes in to break it up. Bradshaw looks at Christian as if he can't quite believe the balls on him to have broken up the pin and then hilariously he fights both Gangrel and Christian in their corner while Farooq comes in to put the boots to Edge. Usually that spot would have seen all six men in the ring but Bradshaw is such a hoss that he occupies both men by himself.

    Seemingly apropos of nothing a huge "Midian sucks!" chant breaks out. I mean they aren't wrong but it kinda comes from out of nowhere. Midian teaches them a lesson by tagging in and doing rest holds and axe handles. The Ministry continue building heat on Edge with Bradshaw getting in some cheap shots from the outside and King again tells us how scary Bradshaw is. Edge finally manages to turn the tides with a spear from the middle rope and he gets the hot tag to Christian. 

    A flurry of offence from Christian sees things ratchet up to a frenetic pace and we're clearly on the home stretch. He hits his reverse DDT on Midian for a 2 count, bringing everyone into the ring. The Brood use each other as springboards to hit splashes in the corners and finally Christian hits a tornado DDT on Bradshaw for another 2 count despite Midian still being the legal man. There's a donny brook on the outside while Christian gets a 10 punch spot on Bradshaw that the crowd enthusiastically counts along with - someone really needs to bring the 10 punch spot back. I vote Cody Rhodes. He hits all 10 but Bradshaw is a hoss type Pokemon and cruiserweight's attacks are not very effective so he just shrugs it off and annihilates Christian with a powerbomb. Gangrel slides in and breaks up the pinfall by pulling Bradshaw's hair(?) leaving the door open for Edge and Christian to hit an awesome missile dropkick into a schoolboy for the nearest of near falls.

    Yet more tandem offence from the Brood as Farooq catches Christian on a dive to the outside, only for Edge to hit a baseball slide into Christian's back driving them down. Out of nowhere Viscera appears and splatters Christian against the apron with a charge, rolling him back in for Bradshaw to finish him off with the Clothesline From Hell for the three count.

   Really good stuff in comparison to what we've seen before. Not quite on a par with the Kaientai match but it's clear that there's been an influx of vibrant new talent into the organisation and the work rate has increased ten fold. Even Midian was better here (although wisely this time his involvement was minimal). From a Bradshaw centric point of view this is a much more fully formed and recognisable Bradshaw than we've seen. He's got a gimmick, he's got his signature moves and he's got wins on PPV. Long may it continue.

RATING: 6/10

Win/Loss record: 3 - 6

    

    

    

No Mercy (UK)- May.16.1999

The Ministry of Darkness (Viscera & The Acolytes) vs The Brood (Edge, Christian & Gangrel)

    The Brood are out for revenge following Viscera's interference at Backlash and they're looking to get it here in the UK. You can tell we're in the UK because King guesses that Viscera weighs 36 stone while the Ministry make their entrance. You can also tell we're in the UK because the midcard 6 man tag team match has a full video package to fill time. On paper the match is promising. We know why they're facing off, the Acolytes are at their best hurling smaller guys around, the Brood are cool and Big Vis is an upgrade on Midian.

    

       Viscera and Gangrel start things off with Gangrel peppering Vis with jabs and hitting clotheslines, wobbling the big man but failing to take him down. I always liked these two lads - easy to look back now and view the gimmicks as hokey but I think they both looked cool and they had unique offence. Neither of them is Eddie Guerrero or anything but they're useful entertaining characters. Viscera in particular is good here doing lots of leering facial expressions and showing off his gross teeth. He's basically playing the role of a monster in a horror film and he looks like he's having great fun doing it,

    Gangrel attempts a suplex for some reason but Viscera is 36 stone and easily reverses it for a suplex of his own. Vis misses the big legdrop which allows Gangrel to hit a weird little basement dropkick (unique offence) and a tag to Edge. Edge and Gangrel then drop a load of elbows on Viscera and presumably 18 year old Dolph Ziggler got this on VHS and thought "I'm having that spot". Bradshaw tags in and JR immediately gives us the spiel (6'6, 300 pounds). He drops a couple of Dolph Ziggler elbows of his own for a 2 count before a distraction from Christian allows Edge to level him with a dropkick.

    Edge and Christian drop Bradshaw with the same drop toe hold/clothesline combo that we saw at Backlash and Christian is now randomly just acting as the legal man despite there being no tag. Farooq comes in and does some good shit talking to the crowd after decking Christian. Perhaps surprisingly fast paced stuff considering it's a UK show, Christian hitting a spinning wheel kick and tagging in Edge who springboards off Christian's back for a splash into the corner. Edge gets the wind taken out of his sails however as Farooq once again hits him with that spinebuster. It's a great move.

    Edge gets sent to the outside for Brad to put some cheap shots in and we hear some English noises from the crowd. They keep the fast pace up with loads of quick tags and every other move is an Irish Whip. Christian and Bradshaw find themselves legal men and Bradshaw catches a cross body attempt, hitting the Fall Away Slam which is clearly now an established part of his repertoire. Christian gets sent to the outside and it would be remiss of me if I didn't mention the weird mesh fence that they have instead of a guard rail. They appear to be using a platform at ringside as well just for added weirdness.

    Bradshaw slaps a bearhug on which is maybe more the kind of thing you'd expect to see on a UK show. The Manchester crowd are mad for it however and they rally for Christian right away. Christian fights out but is smashed with a big boot which King compares to a kick from one of the Manchester United players. He then adds that United showed "No Mercy" to "the Spurs" earlier in the day. Seamless, Jerry.

    Viscera tags in and the clunky references continue with JR calling him "Big Ben sized". Christian tries a crucifix but Vis says "NO WAY" and squashes him, getting a 2 count from a lackadaisical cover. Farooq tags in and grabs a sleeper hold, the crowd again responding immediately and willing Christian to his feet. Christian fights back and they do a double-down spot with both men crawling for their respective corner. Farooq tags Viscera but Bradshaw just comes in anyway and the ref goes "yeah he tagged him fair dues" because it's a UK show so who gives a fuck. 

    They settle into a period of the Ministry team working Christian over and going for a pin only for Egde to break it up. At one point they do two of these spots in about 30 seconds and it begins to feel a bit like trying to play a tag match on Smackdown vs Raw. Around this time Shane McMahon and Midian wander out to have a look at the match and a bit of a chat (I should add that The Ministry and The Corporation have now unified into being The Corporate Ministry hence Shane's involvment). 

    Christian hits the Tornado DDT and gets the hot tag to Gangrel who comes in with a spinning back elbow (unique offence) but Bradshaw cuts him off with a big boot and there's clearly some kind of miscue as it looks really awkward and both men almost fall over. More awkwardness as Viscera and Farooq just sort of walk over to the The Brood's corner and there's a big stramash, during which Christian hits a frog splash for a pin attempt but yet again no tag was made.

    Christian and Gangrel combine for a double DDT out of the corner on Bradshaw while everyone else brawls on the outside. Gangrel, again acting as the legal man, goes for a cover while Christian joins the fracas outside the ring. All the chaos allows Midian to sprint down to the ring and hit a DDT on Gangrel on the outside, rolling him back in for Bradshaw to finish him off with the Clothesline From Hell for the three count. Hmm. That sentence sounds oddly familiar.

    The match isn't bad per se but it feels in a lot of ways like a rehash of the bout from the previous month. Even taken on its own merits it does feel a little lazily put together and there's a portion in the middle that just seems to be "tag > irish whip > move > pin attempt > break up the pin > repeat from step 1". Add to that the few little miscues and the frankly bizarre antics of tagging in the wrong person or just not bothering to tag at all and it's definitely a cut below what we saw at Backlash.

RATING: 5/10

Win/Loss record: 4 - 6

    Well that's all for now. Join us next time where I have to talk about the least enjoyable match on the entire timeline bar none