“We grabbed lightning in a bottle that night and it changed everything for all of us.”
It was fitting that a match that launched the careers of four of the greatest of all time should happen in a state synonymous with Halls of Fame. On 17th October, 1999, at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, a little under a mile down the road from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and just shy of 60 miles from the Pro Football HOF in neighbouring Canton) Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz put themselves on the map and changed the face of tag team wrestling forever.
Before TLC there was TIT. The unfortunately Attitude Era-centric abbreviation for the Terri Invitational Tournament (which Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler all to gleefully pointed out on commentary in the opening moments of the bout). The premise was simple: A best-of-five series between two burgeoning tag teams, where the winners would receive $100,000 and the managerial services of Terri Runnels.
At two victories apiece, the teams were tied and in need of a deciding bout that wouldn’t just bring the curtain down on the series, but lift the curtain on four of the brightest young talents at the (then) World Wrestling Federation’s disposal. And while the preceding four matches had gone a long way to making WWF crowds sit up and notice Edge, Christian, Matt and Jeff, what would unfold at No Mercy over 16 and a half death defying minutes would leave them on their feet, demanding more of the madness they had just witnessed.
So rather than stick with tradition and finish the tournament with a fifth straight-up tag match, a unique match type was proposed: the WWF’s first-ever tag team ladder match. From Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon to Triple H and The Rock, the ladder match’s brief history in the old New York territory had enjoyed a glass ceiling shattering hit rate by 1999. Michaels would claim his first WWF Title less than a year after his second rung-ascending classic with Ramon at SummerSlam ’95, while The Bad Guy would be less than 12 months removed from forming the era defining New World Order in WCW with Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan. Triple H, meanwhile, would find himself in the midst of his first WWF Title reign at the very same No Mercy PPV, which would take place a little over a year after he had reigned supreme over The Rock in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam ’98, which of course took place three short months before The People’s Champion became The Corporate (and WWF) Champion at Survivor Series ’98.
In other words – no pressure.
Between the four men, there had already been a modicum of success enjoyed in the World Wrestling Federation. Edge had a one night stand with the Intercontinental Title in July of ’99 and had briefly been affiliated with The Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness as part of the Brood with Christian and Gangrel earlier in the year. The Hardyz, meanwhile, had upset the Acolytes to have a brief run with the Tag Team Titles a few months prior to the commencement of the Terri Invitational. And, lest we forget, the same foursome had raised a few eyebrows with a stellar showing against each other on the undercard of King Of The Ring four months previous to their No Mercy classic.
But for all their flirtations with success throughout the year, nothing could have prepared Edge, Christian and the brothers Hardy for how their careers were about to supernova on the night of 17th October, 1999 in Cleveland’s Gund Arena.
The above quote from Christian that opens this piece, given during an interview with Chris Van Vliet earlier this year, summarises the bout perfectly. A perfect encapsulation of Attitude Era insanity. A quartet of prodigies looking to stand out from the pack with wreckless abandon in order to satiate the appetites of a fanbase that had grown accustomed to carnage and chaos through the many falls of Mick Foley and the blood letting brawls of Steve Austin and Triple H. Sprinkle in the more-than-questionable over sexualising of Terri and you have yourselves a perfect storm of late ’90s jaw-dropping fun.
During the embryonic stages of the bout, Jim Ross predicts the match will become “one of those air traffic control type match ups” and, within minutes of the Hall of Fame announcer making his prediction, bodies are plummeting from various heights and flesh is meeting steel in all manner of twisted and tormented variations.
In the same interview with Van Vliet, Christian shares the story of how everyone behind the curtain in Gorilla position was waiting to give the four young bucks a standing ovation to match the one they had just received from the 18,000 strong crowd on the other side of the curtain. The following night on Raw, another big O would come their way, further cementing the belief that the lightning trapped in the bottle was ready to strike at regular intervals across the next two years.
The match at No Mercy, which would be won by The Hardyz (the only time they would overcome Edge and Christian in ladder based competition) may not receive as much attention as those glorious car wrecks that followed in 2000 and 2001, but it set the table for the introduction of The Dudleys to the dynamic at the turn of the millennium. Three months removed from the Terri Invitational victory, Jeff Hardy was Swanton Bombing off a Madison Square Garden balcony through D-Von Dudley and a couple of tables. Another three months later and the Hardyz, Edge and Christian and The Dudleys would be taking Match of the Night honours at WrestleMania 16 in a triangle ladder match for the Tag Team Titles.
Image: WWE
SummerSlam of the same year would see the evolution of the bouts continue as tables and chairs were officially added to proceedings, with the first TLC match upping the insanity even further, before the trio peaked on the grandest stage of them all once again, with TLC II at WrestleMania 17. On a card that has long been considered one of the most memorable in north American wrestling history, spears would be delivered at 15 feet, top rungs would be Swantoned off, stacked tables would be crashed through and over 60,000 shellshocked fans in the Houston Astrodome would be spending the remainder of the evening, and much of the next few days, trying to process what they had just bore witness to.
That a quarter of a century later, all four men involved at No Mercy are still stepping into the squared circle on a regular basis is nothing short of a miracle. Across the intervening 25 years, 27 world titles have been amassed between this fearless quartet. Their various rivalries have traversed WWE, TNA and AEW. And their collective influence has been felt in every variation of a ladder match ever worked since 17th October, 1999. These four men didn’t merely evolve the ladder match, they altered professional wrestling forever. They, along with The Dudleys, set the benchmark for the places tag team wrestling could go, for what career shortening matches could be put forth by those following in their footsteps as part of future generations.
Suitably for the location of this first tag team ladder match, this was rock and roll wrestling. Fearless, shocking and dangerous. It didn’t merely grab your attention, it gripped onto it and never let go. It was the complete break from tradition. A punk rock progression into the new millennium where the classics could still be admired, but could also be reworked into spine-rattling spectacles that left everybody involved battered and bruised.
Twenty five years ago, two of the greatest tag teams and four of the most important wrestlers of the 21st century were not put on the map. They stamped themselves onto it in Cleveland, Ohio and ensured their collective legacies would be Hall of Fame worthy forever more.
Featured Image Credit: WWE
