The Sunday Breakdown costs Austin his WWF Title

Sunday Night Heat, which aired from 7-8 P.M. Eastern on the USA Network, was used as a sixty minute infomercial for the pay-per-view, Breakdown.

Vince McMahon made two major announcements. The first was to order another triple threat match between Ken Shamrock, The Rock, and Mankind. Their match last week on Raw ended in a no contest caused by interference from both The Undertaker and Kane. This time, to insure no outside interference, Vince announced the match would take place in a steel cage, with the winner becoming the number one contender to the WWF Title. Mr. McMahon also announced that if anyone interfered in the WWF championship match on pay-per-view, the match would be immediately over, and Austin would be stripped of the title.

Since Triple H would not be able to defend the Intercontinental title due to knee surgery, it was explained that someone broke into DX’s locker room, and struck Hemsley on the knee with a steel pipe. Mark Henry appeared, and was about to leave since his match with Triple would not take place. McMahon offered Henry a match with another WWF champion in a steel cage. Vince ordered Austin to face Henry in a non-title match on Sunday Night Heat. Later in the show, Chyna was shown attacking Henry with a pipe of her own. Austin, disguised as a TV cameraman locked the cage, nailed Mr. McMahon before Kane and the Undertaker climbed the cage.

The opening bout on the Breakdown pay-per-view telecast was The Edge vs. Owen Hart. Hart clearly expected a favorable reaction from the Canadian crowd, but was greeted with chants of “nugget.” A person looking like Edge appeared at ringside, causing him to be distracted, and allowing Hart to gain the pin fall victory.

In an unscheduled match, former ECW stars Al Snow and Scorpio defeated Too Much when Snow hit Taylor with a snow plow.

Mark Mero downed Droz after Jacqueline nailed him with the heel of her show off the top rope, leading to Mero’s Marvelosity finishing maneuver.

Bradshaw defeated Vader in a falls count anywhere match. Most of the bout was fought on the outside of the ring, before the victor nailed Vader with a neck breaker to gain the fall.

Former European champion D-Lo Brown handed newcomer Gangrel his first WWF defeat. Mark Henry appeared at ringside to nail Gangrel into the ringpost, setting up Brown’s low down to steal a win

Next came the match of the night. A triple threat steel cage between Shamrock, Mankind, and The Rock. Clearly, the fans were cheering for The Rock throughout the match. During the match, The Rock delivered a double People’s elbow to the approval of the fans. Mankind hit Shamrock with a double arm DDT, and started to climb out the cage. Before he could escape the cage, The Rock covered Shamrock to win the match.

Val Venis, brought out Dustin Runnel’s real life wife Terri in the next match. Dustin, visibly upset, was no match for Venis’s money shot. The former Marlena and Venis kissed after the bout.

DX members X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws defeated Southern Justice and Jeff Jarrett, when Billy Gunn pinned a member of Southern Justice. At one point in the match, Jarrett nailed X-Pac with a vicious guitar shot on the outside.

In the main event, and as guaranteed by McMahon, Austin lost the WWF Title to both Kane and The Undertaker. The finale saw The Undertaker and Kane choke slam Austin, and both brothers covered Austin for the 1-2-3 victory. No winner was announced, and McMahon grabbed the WWF Championship Belt, and jumped into a limo. When Austin caught up to the vehicle, McMahon flipped him off, and drove away with the belt.

The next WWF pay-per-view is Judgement day on Sunday, October 18th.

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