83 Weeks - When Eric Kissed Linda [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Our topic of the show today is SummerSlam from 20 years ago. 

And somehow…it involves you and a McMahon…but this time it’s going to be Shane McMahon. What was your relationship like with Shane during your time in the WWE?

When you’re told the idea is you & Shane…we know you were never involved creatively but was there a level of … does Shane believe that you tried to put his family business out of business?

The road to your match with Shane at SummerSlam begins in the summer…shockingly enough…when you force Kane into a mask vs. title match with Triple H and it takes place on Raw from Madison Square Garden on June 23rd. Kane loses…unmasks…and attacks his tag team partner Rob Van Dam. What did you think of the idea of Kane losing his mask and going into a mental breakdown?

The next few weeks on Raw Kane is going…crazy so to speak…and you have to deal with a lot of it because your co-GM Steve Austin is off.

It’s June 30th in Buffalo and its a memorable night for you for many reasons. You tell Kane early on in the night - who has a towel over his head so that his face isn’t seen…that in the name of ratings Kane has to go out there. Kane refuses…you offer him a World Title shot…he still refuses…then you give the shot to Van Dam and tell Kane if he doesn’t go out in front of the crowd he’s fired. On shows like this where you have a lot to do - how much stressful is it?

Speaking of RVD - did you see him on AEW this past week? Dude barely ages.

You’re threatening everyone and their job…including Terri Runnels as an interviewer…do you think Vince is scripting this like you’re him?

You would restart numerous matches that night to get the finish you wanted - too much EB on the show right?

Somehow the Rob Van Dam - Triple H main event ends with you being chokeslammed off the stage by Kane. This is quite the bump and a hell of a fall - what do you remember of this Eric?

The next week you’re off TV selling the injury - you just wanted off TV for July 4th didn’t you?

You’d return on July 14th wearing a neck brace and being a guest on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel but the real highlight of that show is Kane lighting JR’s ass on fire during a sitdown interview. It leads to you coming out and blaming Austin for this and that Linda McMahon would be here next week to fire Austin. How much fun were you having in this role?

Well the show is in LA at the Staples Center…and here’s Dave Meltzer for you:

“The much hyped Raw on 7/21 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles featuring Austin’s future. Bischoff came out in a suit. He blamed Kane’s reign of terror on Austin. Linda McMahon came out. The less said about her acting the better. Kane is now under house arrest. J.R. won’t press charges. But Kane can come to work and set people on fire.

The logical flaws in the Kane storyline have reached proportions unheard since the days of the invisible man and The Monster built in a lab in Transylvania. I just got a Japanese magazine with shots the day Kane unmasked, which was only a few weeks ago. He had a burned up monster face. Now we’re told the monster face was just his imagination. Well, all well and good except for what he looked like when he unmasked.”

I mean…Meltzer is pretty funny here isn’t he?

“Austin came out wanting to give Kane a beating for what he did to his best friend J.R. Hell, I wanted to give Kane a beating for forcing me to have to listen to Coach and King botch up calling the rest of the show. Linda explained he can’t put his hands on anyone, unless they provoke him. Somehow I have this feeling that if push may come to shove, Kane may provoke him. Austin was given the ultimatum. He can fight people and quit as GM, and give Bischoff full control, or he can come back and have to wait to be provoked. He walked off saying he had to think about it. Linda then told both Austin and Bischoff to take the rest of the night off. Austin went peacefully. They’ve sure forgot how to protect top characters….”

Were you surprised they had Austin walk off this way? It is odd to see Steve booked like this isn’t it?

“RVD vs. Kane never got started. Kane was led to the ring in chains by police. This ended up making no sense. Kane ditched Van Dam near the entrance by throwing him into the Raw set. The agents and refs came out. No, the police that were there minutes earlier with this uncontrolled fugitive were nowhere to be found.

Linda McMahon came back out. Kane stalked her. John Laurinaitis tried to make the save, but you knew that wasn’t going to happen. Show ended with Kane giving Linda a tombstone piledriver at the top of the stage. He protected her very well. So who is going to get revenge?”

This Linda piledriver looked so bad - that it makes you wonder why they would even do it? What did you think of all this creative at the time?

From the Observer

Raw notes from 7/28 in Colorado Springs. Vince opened the show vowing to get revenge on Kane for what he did to Linda. Vince said that he’s not a good husband and everyone knows that, but that Kane would be brought to the building by the police and meet Vince in the ring….

There’s a lot of irony in there Eric…but moving on with the rest of the recap…

“Vince went to fight Kane. He told the officers to take his shackles off. Vince browbeat the monster Kane, who didn’t do a thing. Then Vince did a promo that everyone should learn from. It was so good. Then, after such good work, he did an about-face and wanted to manage Kane. Austin came out to say he was staying as GM and wanted Kane to provoke him. Kane just stood there and wouldn’t touch Austin even though he dared him.

Finally Shane McMahon returned and attacked Kane. Vince tried to save Kane, but Shane decked Vince and chased Kane to the back, potatoing him with two chair shots and Kane took a bump off the stage into the same gimmicked setup Bischoff took a few weeks back. There was so little logic to any of this. Kane, after taking the bump, sat up and laughed. They made the guy a monster so Shane McMahon could lay him out…”

There’s often been complaints by many that the McMahons are made to look super human…and really Shane doing this with Kane does make him stronger than Kane does it not?

From the Observer

“Raw on 8/4 from Vancouver. Show opened with Shane wanting a match with Kane. Shane’s gone gray since the last time we saw him. Bischoff came out and said he also hated Kane, but that Vince had called and ordered Kane vs. RVD at SummerSlam, and said Shane had to leave the building. Shane refused to leave. Austin came out and this long segment ended with Bischoff vs. Shane as the main event.”

You and Shane and Austin in a ring together…not something you imagined 4 years earlier did you?

“Main saw Bischoff pin Shane in a no DQ in 3:21. Match was terrible for the first 30 seconds until Kane came out. Shane beat the hell out of Kane. It was funny, in the way that you laugh at how preposterous the booking is. Shane was potatoing the poor monstrous giant, and even split his lip open. Kane came back with a tombstone on the steps and threw him into the ring for Bischoff to pin him. Bischoff had a bloody nose, although Shane never hit him once. They played it up like Bischoff pinning Shane was one of the biggest wins in the history of Raw.”

How did you end up with the bloody nose Eric? Shane does have a bit of a reputation of not exactly pulling punches…

The story of this beginning with Kane chokeslamming you off a stage and now here he is piledriving Shane to help you win a match…seems like there was a lot of detours to get there right?

It should also be noted:

The much-hyped Shane vs. Bischoff match gained 1,061,000 new viewers to a 5.14 rating and 6.45 million viewers.

6.45 million viewers Eric. Talk about a change in the last 20 years?

The next week on Raw from the Observer:

The convoluted and nonsensical Raw storylines continued on 8/11 in Moline. Show opened with Bischoff showing up bragging about his win over Shane. He called Shane the wrestling version of Frank Sinatra Jr. (a guy who only made it because his father was a big star). Isn’t that David Flair? He said if it wasn’t for Shane’s last name, he’d be an even bigger loser. Jim Ross returned to a big pop. He said he wouldn’t file charges against Kane because he’s important to Raw. Uh, Kane is already locked up. But he would file a lawsuit against Bischoff for providing an unsafe work environment. Okay, wouldn’t that be suing the company? He said he’s suing Bischoff both civilly and criminally. I didn’t even think the latter was possible. Bischoff told Coach to leave and make space for the greatest wrestling announcer of all-time.”

Eric - this is just tongue in cheek stuff but did any of this make sense to anyone?

“Austin came out and he had a plan. He came out with a contract and said JR would drop all charges provided Bischoff signed for a match. Bischoff, without reading the contract (you’d think after this angle being done 600 times over the past 30 years with heels not reading contracts that Bischoff wouldn’t fall for it, but to think that you’d have to really suspend disbelief because it would require you to believe that Bischoff actually paid attention to wrestling angles when he was growing up). Anyway, Bischoff thought he was signing to meet Shane, but it was actually Kane….”

This is just suspending disbelief right?

“Bischoff beat Kane via count out. Kane had Bischoff up for the choke slam forever, but then eased him down and walked out of the ring, losing via count out. Kane said he did it because he didn’t want to make the fans happy. Later in the show Austin said the contract had read that Shane would face the winner (Bischoff) at SummerSlam.”

How does it feel to be up in a choke slam for that long?

Were you nervous about wrestling Shane?

In what is most remembered as being one of the worst go-home shows in the history of Raw…from the Observer

“Common sense was the enemy on the 8/18 Raw from Grand Rapids. As was good wrestling. But we had implied rape, attempted murder, car jacking, blatant false advertising and involuntary servitude on the worst Raw in months, a week before the No. 3 show of the year….

Shane McMahon was back, and was going to set Kane on fire and beat up Bischoff. He even brought gasoline out…”

I mean…what are we doing Eric? Did this bring you back to Russo era memories?

“How could I forget Linda McMahon, in one of the worst series of skits ever, and this includes public access wrestling and Thunder under Nash, the zombie that took over the body of Linda McMahon was back for the first time since the tombstone. She looked fine. Luckily she had a neck collar on the table in her office since she couldn’t sell enough to wear it. During Raw, what was the CEO of the company doing? Why, she was smarter than all of us. She was on the internet and reading magazines, and believe me, I wished I was by this point. In the middle of her interview, the doorbell kept ringing. She apologized, but didn’t answer it. Things must be tough for people whose wealth is down around $700 million these days to not have any help. Luckily, Bischoff let himself in. He knew she’d be alone because Shane was at Raw and Vince was on the road with Smackdown. It was far worse. He started hitting on her like the slime that he is. He even called to our attention that Linda is a big-breasted beauty. Imagine scripting this. Okay, now imagine scripting this scene involving your 53-year- old wife who can’t act? When the scene ended, Bischoff forced herself on Linda for a long kiss, and then wanted to take her to the bedroom. All the teenage boys watching the show were going, “This is great, just like seeing grandma naked.” Well, it must appeal to someone. Maybe 60-year-old guys? No, they tuned out of wrestling in 1999. Shane saw this and called home. You’d think he’d call the police or the next door neighbor, or dad, or Rosey, or at the very worst, Pete Gas. But instead, he was furious, stole a car, and drove off. Yeah, that’ll do a lot of good. He left his gasoline can behind.”

ERIC - OUT OF ALL OF THIS - TELL ME THIS - FROM GRAND RAPIDS TO CONNECTICUT…WHAT WAS HE GOING TO DO?

What did Loree think of all this?

Seriously - what in the hell was all this? How did you keep a straight face? How much did Vince enjoy producing this?

We’re finally at the show so let’s fire up your Peacock machine and watch along with us…

SummerSlam - Season 16 - Episode 1

35:49 seconds…that’s 35 minutes and 49 seconds…

From the Observer recap

Before your match…

“Backstage, Christian was mad at Bischoff, asking how they could have a SummerSlam and not even have the IC champ on the card. Bischoff should have told him the truth. That belt doesn’t really mean a thing and was brought back just to pacify mid-carders that will never get elevated and fans who don’t realize just how useless it is when the champ isn’t even among the top six in the promotion. Anyway, we realized just how useless it was when Bischoff first blamed it on Austin, and then, when Christian offered to help him out in his match with Shane, Bischoff said he had it already taken care of. Yes, we are to believe that Bischoff felt Jonathan Coachman was tougher than the IC champion. Even worse, it exposed the promotion felt Coachman was a more valuable performer.”

I mean my goodness did someone not like Christian?

“3. Shane McMahon pinned Eric Bischoff in 10:35. Yes, these guys got the same amount of time as the U.S. title match. Even worse, on the WWE’s SummerSlam website, this was listed as the main event on the show. (President of New Media = Shane McMahon if you’re trying to figure it out).

“Bischoff started the festivities with a discussion that thrilled almost no one. He couldn’t understand why Vince McMahon would go on the road and eat hamburger when there was a juicy piece of filet mignon at home. Bischoff basically told us that he and Linda didn’t just do it, but did it multiple times. Being that most WWE fans these days check out at about the age of 30, so I’m younger than the average NFL or baseball fan but far too old to watch wrestling, and well, I don’t buy Linda as a sex symbol, so imagine how the 18-year-olds watching view this. Anyway, just so we knew Bischoff was making up stuff (didn’t that go out in high school?), later in the show Linda came out, Bischoff started to back off, and she slapped him. I guess he never did it and there was no rape. Nor any entertainment value.”

“Shane threw Bischoff around until the secret weapon, Coachman, turned heel and hit McMahon with a chair shot. They doubled on Shane for a while with Coach badly calling the action, and doing so in an Oklahoma twang and J.R. cadence. Geez, this wasn’t funny in WCW. Coach took some badly timed bumps as Shane made his comeback and gave Bischoff a DDT. But Coachman gave Shane a low blow, which brought out Austin to save this mess. Yes, this was living proof that they could book Austin in a match surrounded by pig manure and he’d still get the biggest pop of the show. Coachman claimed Austin couldn’t touch him unless provoked. Shane then shoved Coachman to where he bumped into Austin. Austin punched Coach, who took the dive about two feet before the punch got there. No fool is that man, but no wrestler is he either. Austin threw him out of the ring, and Coach dead weighted, not on purpose of course but just because there is an art that needs to be learned to do this stuff, so it made Austin’s throw look bad. Doesn’t matter as Austin can do no wrong in the people’s eyes. Bischoff was still selling the DDT from minutes earlier. Shane grabbed Bischoff’s hand to punch Austin. Stunner time. Shane then delivered an elbow off the top rope through the Spanish announcers table for the pin outside the ring, since Bischoff changed the rules to falls count anywhere. 1/2*”

Eric - what do you all remember and what do you think?

After the show:

“The show, held on the 58th birthday of Vince McMahon, featured a post-show birthday celebration for the boss in the ring. Most of the wrestlers, both faces and heels, came out. Those missing were Angle, Lesnar, Goldberg and Bischoff. They tried to get McMahon to sing, but

he refused unless Undertaker did a spinaroonie (Undertaker has steadfastly refused when goaded by wrestlers to do any dancing or spinaroonies). Undertaker got out of it by saying he would do it if Booker T showed him how. Of course Booker T wasn’t even there. HHH said that Big Show had been practicing, and he did a horrible version of one. Undertaker left the ring, guring he was in trouble. Bubba Ray Dudley went to bring him back, but that was all worked out because Bubba started selling like Undertaker had punched him. Austin kept goading Vince into singing but Vince, who was still selling his back through all this from the Angle slam onto the chairs, looked to be in a bad mood. Pat Patterson started singing “My Way” and Vince & Linda started making out in the middle of the ring. Now that must have been cute. Vince finally said that even though he’s 58, “I will outlive you all!” to the audience…”

Did you watch this? What did you think of all this?

Looking back - where does this rank during your time in the WWE?