Dan The Wrestling Fan.

#164: Edge & Christian vs. The Brood, WWE No Mercy (10/17/1999).

This is the finals of the Terri Invitational Tournament (I’ll let you figure out the abbreviated version of that) and it is the first ever Tag Team Ladder Match. The winning team gets $100,000, and the managerial services (among other things, I assume?) of Terri Runnels.

So, you’ve probably heard of this one. This tournament, and its reward, is very much WWE in 1999. Terri is hot, and whoever wins her services gets to go all night long with her every night. Fine, whatever. That being said, this match is very much NOT WWE in 1999. It’s one of the most revolutionary matches of all time, and it laid the groundwork for a style of wrestling that is still prominent, for better and for worse, to this day.

The Brood, if you don’t know, is just Matt & Jeff Hardy, who have sided with Gangrel, the former partner of Edge & Christian, who is no longer affiliated with the two Toronto natives.

Edge & Christian come out to a good pop, and Edge acknowledges it with a nod, which I’ve always found super cool for some reason.

The Brood, with Gangrel enter through that fire hold that The Brood is known for, and it’s always cool. Just to make it easier on myself, I’m just going to call them the Hardys. Yes, commentary, this is the Terri Invitational Tournament – T.I.T. Get it?

The bell rings, and both team stare at the money and each other. Both teams go at it quickly, Back body drop and a hip toss to the Hardys, and all four men go for ladders right away. Edge goes to work on Matt Hardy, while Christian attacks Jeff Hardy. Christian gets whipped into Jeff, and he and Edge go for ladders again, until Matt cuts them off. All four men are back in the ring, and the Hardys double team Edge, and then go to double stomp on Christian. They instruct Gangrel to bring them a ladder, but he’s ejected from ringside!

Edge back body drops Jeff to the floor, then comes off the apron with a dropkick that sends a ladder into Jeff’s face. Matt dives off the apron with a clothesline. Christian comes from the middle rope with a crossbody to Matt on the outside. Christian sets the ladder up, and Jeff pulls him off. He goes to climb, and Edge pulls him off. Edge makes the climb, and Matt flips the ladder backwards, dropping Edge.

Jeff and Christian fight over the ladder, and Christian forces Jeff into the corner with it, and Christian runs up the ladder with a dropkick in the corner! Edge irish whips Matt into the ladder, and he jumps off Christian’s back with a splash! Jeff grabs the ladder and sets it up. He climbs, and Christian meets him half way and hits a reverse DDT to the mat below. Christian makes the climb, and Matt grabs him with a back suplex off the ladder.

Matt makes the climb, but Edge grabs him and powerbombs him off the side to the mat. Edge climbs now, but Jeff is on the top rope, and he dropkicks Edge off the ladder! Matt powerslams Edge on the ladder, and Jeff hits the Swanton Bomb off the top rope to Edge! Matt places the ladder in the corner, and the Hardys irish whip Christian into it. Jeff hits a diving leg drop into Christian. The Hardys lift the ladder, and send it into Christian, and hard!

The Hardys set the ladder up, and Jeff dives over the ladder from the top rope with a leg drop to Christian! The crowd loves that! They set the ladder across Christian’s body, and Matt hits a moonsault to the ladder, crushing Christian. Jeff sets it up, and here comes Edge with another ladder. He sends it into Matt’s gut, then knocks Jeff off the ladder with it. He tosses it at Matt in the corner, then monkey flips Jeff into his brother. Edge makes the climb next, and Matt throws the other ladder at Edge, who falls down. The Hardys lift the ladder, and go to hit Edge, but Christian hits a crossbody to them, knocking them down!

Edge & Christian send a ladder into Matt’s nuts, then dropkick it into them! Now they place Jeff inside the ladder, and close it on his body repeatedly! Then, Edge drops Christian on the ladder, crushing Jeff! Edge & Christian flapjack Matt into a ladder in the corner. Both ladders get set up in the ring, as Jeff hits a neckbreaker to Christian. Edge and Jeff climb the ladders, and Edge hits the Downward Spiral off the ladder to Jeff!

Edge is back up the ladder, and here comes Matt to cut him off. Matt hits a neckbreaker off the ladder to Edge off the ladder, as Christian and Jeff are back in the ring. They make the climb up next, and they’re super close to the top. Christian hits a hip toss to Jeff, and both men crash to the mat! Edge grabs a ladder and hits Matt so hard, he goes out of the ring. Edge & Christian position the ladders as a catapult, as Christian places Jeff on the top rope.

Christian goes to suplex Jeff off, but Matt cuts him off. Jeff flies off the top rope, and hits the ladder, catapulting it right into Christian’s face! We get a genuine standing ovation from the fans in Columbus off of that one. All four men are down, and then they get both ladders set up, and now all four are climbing up for the money. Christian and Jeff go tumbling down to the outside, and so do Edge and Matt! They’re down again, as the crowd explodes in approval! You can see so many of them standing and clapping.

Edge climbs up one ladder with Matt, while Jeff and Christian climb the other. Matt punches away at Edge, while Christian punches at Jeff. Edge knocks Matt off, and he bounces into the other ladder, knocking Christian over, and Jeff over into the opposing ladder! He knocks Edge off, and after a few seconds, he’s able to pull the money sack down and win the match! Jim Ross calls it one of the most amazing displays he’s ever seen. The Hardys celebrate, as Matt drags his brother away with the money. They’ve won the services of Terri Runnels, and $100,000. Post match, the Gund Arena is standing and clapping at the efforts, and Edge & Christian in the ring acknowledge it with appreciation.

In the 1990s, Dave Meltzer’s opinion of wrestling was held in much higher regard than it is today. No, seriously, I’m not making that up. At one point, his take on wrestling was something a majority of people really respected. In the Wrestling Observer Year End Awards for 1999, this match came in 2nd place out of everything else from that year. The other matches it beat that also happened in WWE? The Steve Austin/Rock match from Backlash, and The Rock/Mankind I Quit Match from the Royal Rumble. It beat out the Owen Hart Tribute Match between Bret Hart and Chris Benoit that happened a few weeks before it. And the only match it didn’t beat? The Triple Crown Title match between Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi from June 11th, a match I’ve covered, and a match that is easily one of the greatest of all time.

Time has shown us that this match can be looked at as dated. There’s nothing here in 1999 that you don’t see on a weekly TV episode of wrestling in 2024. The offense is very basic for a ladder match, and there’s very little in the way of psychology other than both teams are trying to obliterate the other so that they can climb the ladder. That may not seem like much today, but in 1999? This was revolutionary! And you have to consider that at this time, ECW was still very much in business, and even they weren’t doing things like this. This match is legendary, and it’s groundbreaking. It changed American wrestling forever, because something like this wasn’t common in 1999. The only real Ladder matches WWE fans had seen to this point (both Shawn Michaels/Razor Ramon matches, and the Triple H/Rock match) were a lot slower paced, with the high spots being minimal, and the focus being on hurting your opponent. Here, these four were still hurting each other, but the risks had gone up significantly. People lost their minds when Shawn Michaels hit a splash off a ladder to Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X. Here, the Hardys are doing a fucking catapult spot with two ladders.

The effort and the athleticism in this match was something not common in WWE at this point and time, but in the coming 12 months, it would become a major focus for the company. Both teams, young and daring, took every chance in the book here to steal the show, and that’s exactly what they did. They put their bodies on the line, and they put in the work. And in a great moment, the fans themselves took notice of this, and gave them all a standing ovation multiple times in this match.

It’s no surprise then, that all four men not only went on to become legendary singles wrestlers and multi time world champions, but all four are somehow still active in wrestling today (The Hardys just won the TNA World Tag Team Championships at Bound for Glory as I write this, Adam Copeland is recovering from a leg injury apart of AEW, and Christian Cage is in AEW talking shit about your dead dad). Those great runs all started here, when four young guys competed in a first time ever match, with a shitty stipulation involving probably sexualizing a woman, and they changed the game forever.

An all time classic match, a watershed moment for American wrestling, and the starting point of a hot period of tag team wrestling in WWE that would last until 2001.