Andrew Lutzke
Presented by the Kayfabe Commentaries Crew
Shawn Michaels has back surgery and announces his retirement. Val didn’t pay attention to the Kliq talk when he was in Mexico and the indies and was disappointed that he lost a chance to work with Shawn.
Andre the Giant’s biography special set an A&E ratings record for the show.
“Beyond the Mat” caused mixed emotions in the locker room, and Val has never watched much of it.
Val says the Foley chair shots weren’t viewed negatively as it was all part of being in a tough guy business. He compares concussions’ long term effects to MMA fighters who are able to take punches to the chin for years before the effects lead to people developing “glass jaws”.
Vince McMahon won the ’99 Royal Rumble and lived his dream of being a wrestler. Venis believes that since Vince is the boss more power to him for getting in the ring.
The Ryan Shamrock/Val relationship angle was “fun” and a Russo idea. Venis never heard the rumors that Ken Shamrock nearly was put in an incest angle with his storyline “sister”.
Val Venis was born in Canada as Sean Morley. After high school, Morley utilized former Canadian champ Dewey “The Missing Link” Robertson’s experience as a trainer to learn the wrestling business which led to Morley’s debut in 1994. He would team sporadically with Link’s son Jason Sterling and even got the chance to work with his aging trainer. Morley would go on to work in All Japan Pro Wrestling and eventually don a mask as “Steele” and go on to be a main eventer in CMLL down in Mexico as well as tour the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico.
Bob Backlund is discussed and Val goes off on a political rant.
The Big Show’s natural ability is brought up and Venis says he’d be willing to wrestle Big Show every night for the rest of his career.
Venis was proud to join the legion of legends that preceded him as Intercontinental champion.
Ken Shamrock was a wild worker with great cardio. Val would blow up trying to wear Shamrock down.
Goldberg challenged Steve Austin to a match and offered $100,000; Austin went on Howard Stern and told Goldberg they’ll wrestle when Bill gets to the big time.
Jim Ross had his favorites and loved guys who watched and played sports and so he and Ross never had any deep talks. Venis feels they both respected each other’s abilities in the WWF world.
Val is of the opinion that Michael Cole thinks he is WAY more talented than Jim Ross.
A 1999 incident with Lawler running over the foot of an airport officer leads to Val going off on the police being funded through the theft of “our” wealth through taxes. Okay then.
Everybody ramps up their game for Wrestlemania. Val was in a multi-man match and those are more difficult to work than a one on one situation.
X-Pac and Val smoked a lot of weed together.
Morley would sign with the WWF in 1997 and debut under his porn star gimmick name of Val Venis that spring. Venis was intended to be a heel but the audience at that point was geared to cheer more adult themed gimmicks and Venis quickly became a face.
Venis teamed with Taka Michinoku in an effort to help Taka fend off his fellow Japanese wrestlers known as Kaientai. Taka would eventually turn on him and join Kaientai himself. Val would go on to seduce Kaientai’s manager’s wife, which led to an infamous moment on RAW where Kaientai brought out a huge sausage and used it to show Venis that they intended to “choppy choppy your pee pee”. I would love to offer video of this but I believe it was purged off youtube by the WWF during Linda McMahon’s failed senate run.
(Ed. note: It’s not great, but the footage does exist.)
Anyway – Val was seen strung up in the back with his butt exposed and his wiener on a chop block. Mr. Yamaguchi raised his sword and the TV screen faded to black. The following week Venis revealed the chop block made his penis retract and John Wayne Bobbitt showed up just in time to shut off the lights. Sadly this schlock is probably Val’s best remembered angle. Venis would go on to receive a solid mid-card push – battling Goldust, Ken Shamrock and the New Age Outlaws for the IC title. Val would end up feuding with Steve Blackman and using his martial arts weapons as sex toys. Val and The Godfather also formed an off and on again team before Venis got a minor push into the main event scene in 1999.
Butterbean was respectful and after KO’ing Bart Gunn at Wrestlemania he thought he was going to earn a contract.
Rick Rude dies at 40, prescription drugs are believed to be a factor. Val is bothered by his fellow wrestlers taking similar paths.
The Rock had the “it” factor and it would be hard to replicate the character and success Dwayne enjoyed in ’99.
Sable had a good run on screen but a bunch of heat in the locker room. Val was cool with her and Marc Mero though.
When traveling abroad, the flight in is usually rest time and the flight back is a party and can get wild.
Albert (Tensai), Test and Val were dance club buddies – Albert and Val liked sightseeing together as well.
Val was right behind the entrance way when Owen Hart fell to his death. Venis goes over the chaos that he witnessed being right in the middle of it. Owen was wheeled by him in a gurney and seconds later, Val was sent to the ring to wrestle. Seeing Owen’s wide eyes on the stretcher and then seeing how high the rafters were, made Val realize that Hart was going to die.
Venis doesn’t think Owen would have wanted the show to end.
The next night, the crew was sullen and the atmosphere quiet.
The guys were anxious to work, as they saw it as a sign of respect to Owen.
Austin never spoke of Owen and his heat that stemmed from Owen accidently breaking his neck.
Venis would dump his porn star look and join Trish Stratus, Test and Albert in a mini-stable which led Val to go on to feud with Rikishi over the IC gold. Soon after Venis would be abducted by The Goodfather (Godfather’s new clean image gimmick) and Bull Buchanan and was brainwashed into joining the Right to Censor group led by Steven Richards. They would go onto to feud with the Dudley Boyz, APA, Chyna, Billy Gunn and Tazz. The group would disband in the summer of 2001 and Venis left the WWF till that January in order to get hip surgery.
Venis returned at the Royal Rumble as “The Big Valbowski” returning to his most successful gimmick in a more PG WWF(E) world. His stale character stayed in the Smackdown mid-card until November when he became Eric Bischoff’s “Chief of Staff” and would go on to win the World tag titles with Lance Storm. By mid-2003 he was Val Venis again and going nowhere fast. He would end up as a glorified jobber until 2009. I honestly am shocked he was on the roster that long as I pretty much erased him from my memory after 2003 and I’m as big a wrestling geek as you’ll find.
In later 2009 Venis worked an international tour with Hulk Hogan, which led to Hogan getting Val a run in TNA along with many others on the same tour. A few weeks into his run TNA moved IMPACT to Monday nights in a disastrous attempt to re-start the “Monday night wars”. Mondays were Val’s night to work in Mexico and he quit TNA to continue that pursuit. Venis still actively competes on the indy circuit to this day.
Sable’s 110 million dollar lawsuit against the WWF was frivolous in Val’s opinion – especially her claim that the WWF wanted her to go topless on RAW.
Bradshaw sold his WWE stock quickly after it initiated and was one of the few guys who made money on the stock, which wound up almost 10 dollars a share lower than the initial stock offering which was about 17 bucks, which had risen to 34 dollars shortly thereafter.
Mark Henry was fun to work with and wasn’t afraid to let Val work a bit snug since Henry was so tough.
Jesse Ventura came in to ref Summerslam – Val was reading a Sean Hannity book and Ventura ripped Hannity as a “dirt bag”.
Shawn Michaels bashed Steve Austin on the WWF’s radio show for not jobbing to HHH at Summerslam. Vince sent Shawn home for his comments.
Val had no problem playing a porn star. Val came up with the idea of wearing a towel to the ring.
Vince being all over TV is defended by Val as Vince was willing to take all the abuse and embarrassment that his wrestlers absorbed.
Nicole Bass sues the WWF for 120 million for a stiff guitar shot she took and being sexually molested by The Brooklyn Brawler of all people.
Al Snow ribbed Val by giving Venis’ real cell phone number out on RAW – Venis ended up ribbing the fans who called him by pretending they won 10K from the WWF.
Venis really liked Russo for giving storylines to everyone on the card.
After accidently crippling Darren Drozdov, D-Lo Brown was very upset in the locker room. The boys were not afraid to work with Brown despite the accident.
Val got a chance to meet Gorilla Monsoon and tour his home not too long before his death.
Mae Young put sardines in her underwear to provide a smelly surprise for Eric Bischoff, who was going to receive a “bronco buster” to Eric during a TV segment.
Venis doesn’t read wrestling books and didn’t have interest in Foley’s stories – or anyone’s but Edge’s.
Kurt Angle’s wrestling skills are praised, but Venis thinks Angle doesn’t sell long enough when certain moves hit him.
With Russo gone and sponsors leaving due to RAW’s raunchy content, Val’s push suffered and his ideas largely ignored.
Val wishes he had a chance to work more serious matches with the Benoits of the world – instead of sexually charged angles with the Divas.
Final Thoughts: Part of the joy of these shoots is a certain nostalgia that I feel when watching the guys review their careers and heroics of the past, however despite my love of the product while watching it in 1999, it’s hard to feel nostalgic when many of those who were featured on the shows then – are STILL showing up now. Big Show,Kane, HHH, Vince, Stephanie, The Rock, Kurt Angle etc. Thus this trip back wasn’t as rewarding as other earlier visits down memory lane have been.
On top of that, despite being well spoken, Val is kind of a bore to listen to as his story telling skills lack jazz. He told several multi-minute stories here that I was able to sum up in a sentence. Honestly, I would have probably enjoyed a two hour political discussion on Val’s views more – even if I wouldn’t have agreed on much of it. This DVD was fine for what it was, but I think this was more like opening Al Capone’s Vault than discovering King Tut’s Tomb.
