WWE's Most Notorious Gimmick Match Ever, Explained
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WWE's Attitude Era is remembered quite fondly from fans that watched it firsthand. Even those who started watching wrestling after this time period look back on it and agree that it was possibly the best time to be a fan. However, like anything else, even through an extremely popular period, there are some things that are best to leave in the past. One of those things would be the Kennel From Hell Match at Unforgiven 1999. This match was supposed to be a brutal and serious payoff to an extremely personal feud, but ended up as a complete joke in the wrestling community.
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The Feud Between Al Snow And The Big Boss Man
Al Snow and The Big Boss Man had been feuding over the Hardcore title for a month or so up to this point. Snow had won the belt from the Boss Man at SummerSlam. Boss Man won it back, and they continued to attack each other for a few weeks until The Big Boss Man did something truly despicable. He stole Al Snow's dog, Pepper, who had replaced the surprisingly over mannequin's head Snow used to bring to the ring with him. Big Boss Man told Al Snow to go to his hotel room, and that he would personally hand Pepper back to him.
On the following episode of SmackDown, Snow went to Big Boss Man's hotel room to get his dog. Boss Man gave him some food instead, and it was then revealed that Boss Man had killed, cooked, and fed the dog to Al Snow. Naturally, Al Snow wasn't exactly thrilled that he ate his friend. After Snow had regained the Hardcore Title, he challenged Bossman to a Kennel From Hell Match.
The Infamous Kennel From Hell Match Was A Disaster
The match itself sounds fine on paper. Not good, just fine. A steel cage with a Hell in a Cell over it, surrounded by ferocious rottweilers. The goal was to escape the cages and dogs. Snow and Boss Man would start the match by bumbling around on the cages trying to escape, but not wanting to go near the dogs. After realizing that nothing had really happened yet, they started treating it as a regular Attitude Era Hardcore title match. There were some weapons and blood, but it still wasn't enough to bring life to a match that was doomed from the start.
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The only thing the match really has going for it is the visual of the Hell in a Cell over the Steel Cage. It's something that was never seen before and will never be seen again after the failure this match became. The rottweilers should've added something unique and fresh to the match. However, the dogs weren't even shown on camera because they couldn't be. They were held on tight leashes by their owners so they wouldn't roam around, but that just resulted in the animals spending the entire match using the floor as a bathroom. Not only that, they also spent the entire match trying to mate with each other.
The Many Issues With The Match Were Not Al Snow Or Big Bossman's Fault
Al Snow was always someone who tried to make the best out of a bad situation. He wouldn't argue with what he was given, he simply just tried to make it something entertaining. He felt that was the point of wrestling, and when he was approached by the idea for the Kennel From Hell, he was all for it. The one thing he said, though, was that the dogs needed to be trained. Vince Russo, who hadn't left to destroy WCW yet, assured him that the dogs would be trained, and everything would be just fine.
Unfortunately, when Al Snow arrived to the arena that night, he found out that all WWE did was get a list of owners and dogs from a local veterinarian clinic. Out of all the dogs that were meant to be ferocious creatures that the competitors had to be petrified of, only one had a small amount of training. Al Snow accepts the responsibility for the match being what it was because he feels the buildup was there. Unfortunately for Al, even if the dogs were trained to attack when they hear "attack," there's no reason to believe that this match had any chance in hell, or in a Kennel From Hell, at being good.
For new wrestling fans, Kennel From Hell is a story they hear, and they ask themselves if that actually happened, then they look it up to see that it indeed happen. For fans that watched it live, those three words haunt them. It just goes to show that the Attitude era was not perfect, and for those with a selective memory, they are hard-pressed to find an argument for those twelve minutes of nonsense. It's not even on the level of so bad, it's good. It's just bad. So bad, that it will live on forever for all the wrong reasons.
