WWF Fully Loaded
Fully Loaded was an annual World Wrestling Federation (WWF) pay-per-view (PPV) event, which started in July 1998 and was held for a further two years in July. The first edition of Fully Loaded, held in 1998 was an In Your House pay-per-view. The 1999 edition was simply named Fully Loaded as WWF removed the In Your House subtitle from pay-per-view events after St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House. Fully Loaded was held for one more year in 2000. In 2001, the event's pay-per-view slot was replaced by the one-off Invasion, and eventually was replaced by Vengeance in 2002.
| Fully Loaded | |
|---|---|
| Promotion(s) | World Wrestling Federation |
| First event | Fully Loaded: In Your House |
| Last event | Fully Loaded (2000) |
Fully Loaded dates and venues
| Event | Date | City | Venue | Main Event | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully Loaded: In Your House | July 26, 1998 | Fresno, California | Selland Arena | Kane and Mankind (c) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker for the WWF Tag Team Championship | |||||
| Fully Loaded (1999) | July 25, 1999 | Buffalo, New York | Marine Midland Arena | Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) vs. The Undertaker in a First Blood match for the WWF Championship | |||||
| Fully Loaded (2000) | July 23, 2000 | Dallas, Texas | Reunion Arena | The Rock (c) vs. Chris Benoit for the WWF Championship | |||||
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match | |||||||||
History
Fully Loaded started as an In Your House pay-per-view event in 1998. It was the twenty-third In Your House pay-per-view. Fully Loaded continued to be used as a pay-per-view in July for two more years, before being replaced by WWF Invasion in 2001, that was based on The Invasion storyline between WWF and The Alliance. However, Invasion was used only once before Fully Loaded's slot was given to Vengeance in 2002 and Fully Loaded was discontinued.
1998
The inaugural Fully Loaded event took place on July 26, 1998 at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California. Nine professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the card. Fully Loaded: In Your House was the twenty-third event to be produced under the In Your House chronology. The event had an attendance of 9,855. The event was rated 7 out of 10 by John Powell in Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section.[1] The main event scheduled on the card was a tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Kane and Mankind defended the title against The Undertaker and the reigning WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin and Undertaker defeated Kane and Mankind to win the championship.
In addition to the main event, the undercard featured a Two out of three falls match between The Rock and Triple H for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, which Rock retained after the match ended in a time limit draw. Another featured match was a Dungeon match between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock, officiated by the special guest referee Dan Severn. Hart won the match.
1999
The second Fully Loaded event took place on July 25, 1999 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York. Nine professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the card as well as three matches on Sunday Night Heat before the event aired live. The event had an attendance of 16,605. John Powell rated the event 3 out of 10 in Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section. He explained that "The World Wrestling Federation has fallen into a severe slump. Lacking any heel depth in their roster the federation has been compelled to renew old feuds and perpetuate a McMahon – Austin angle that's months past its expiration date."[2] The main event scheduled on the card was a First Blood match for the WWF Championship. Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Undertaker to retain the title.
Other matches featured on the card were Triple H defeating The Rock in a Strap match, Ken Shamrock defeating Steve Blackman in an Iron Circle match, Jeff Jarrett defeating Edge in a standard wrestling match to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship and Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw) defeating Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) and Michael Hayes in a Handicap match to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.
2000
The third and final Fully Loaded event took place on July 23, 2000 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the card as well as four matches on Sunday Night Heat before the event aired live. The event had an attendance of 16,504. John Powell rated the event 7.5 out of 10 in Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section.[3] The main event scheduled on the card was a standard wrestling match between The Rock and Chris Benoit for the WWF Championship. Rock defeated Benoit to retain the title.
Other matches featured on the card were Triple H defeating Chris Jericho in a Last Man Standing match, The Undertaker defeating Kurt Angle and Val Venis defeating Rikishi in a Steel Cage match to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
References
- John Powell (July 26, 1998). "Austin and Taker win tag team gold". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- John Powell (July 26, 1999). "Fully Loaded recycles Raw material". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- John Powell (July 24, 2000). "WWF stars bleed for the company". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-12-28.