Fatu vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Fatu starts off straight away, pounding Helmsley before he can even take his coat off. An oddly heelish thing to do, from the clear good guy in this bout. The Samoan wastes no time in sending Hunter outside the ring with a throw, before he slams his head into the ring steps, before sliding him back in. The nobleman finally gets some offense in with a handful, but Fatu charges again. This time he’s punished, as his neck is caught between the ring ropes, as Helmsley delivers a diving punch.
Helmsley takes control and seems to be setting up for the Pedigree, but he hits a piledriver instead. HHH bows before the crowd, to a great heel pop. He continues to where Fatu down, whipping into the ropes, before a sharp knee to the mid section, but hunter can only manage a 2-count. Fatu’s grounded in a headlock but he fights out of it, eventually leading to an amazing clothesline from Triple H, even better than JBL‘s.
Fatu tries to get the better of Hunter with a cheeky roll-up, Hunter hits a DDT, but Fatu no-sells it and starts dancing instead. Big E, is that you? Fatu runs wild with a few shoulder blocks using his size against the considerably smaller opponent. Fatu hits a running bulldog, goes to the top rope, but misses the obvious splash. Hunter hits the pedigree, as he picks up the win.
Winner: Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Seeing the match-up on paper, I thought this would be garbage, but it was actually a really solid opener. It’s weird seeing two stars in the attitude era
wrestle completely differently here. Fatu’s much more athletic, has a much more varied offense and he’s much faster here, while Helmsley doesn’t wrestle at all like the heavyweight he becomes in later years. There’s not much story to this one but I’d recommend it, it’s surprisingly entertaining, especially if you’re a fan of Rikishi or Triple H.
After the match, King asks Hunter how Fatu smelled, but it’s all a stupid set up for another Godwinn run-in. The pig farmer tries to ‘slop’ Hunter, but he uses Lawler as a shield and manages to escape. Already tired of this gimmick and it’s nowhere near finished.
We’re backstage with Dox, Cornette and Davey Boy Smith, as Cornette says his man’ll pin Diesel again and then he’ll be WWF Champion. It was okay when Cornette was talking, but Bulldog isn’t any good at promos, whatsoever.
