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What's the story?
The Madison Square Garden 'Curtain Call' is one of the most iconic moments in professional wrestling history for many reasons. One of those reasons was that because of the involvement of Triple H in the 'Curtain Call', it indirectly kick-started the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin, and to a lesser degree, Kane.
411Mania.com carried transcripts of Jim Ross discussing the situation on his Grillin Jim podcast.
In case you didn't know...
During a house show at Madison Square Garden in 1996, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and Diesel all hugged in the middle of the ring and bowed to the audience after a steel cage match involving Michaels and Diesel.
It broke kayfabe due to the fact that Michaels and Ramon were faces and Diesel and Hunter Hearst Helmsley were heels.
The heart of the matter
The 'Curtain Call' was a prime example of the Kliq doing whatever they wanted to regardless of the possible repercussions from management. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were both on their way to WCW, so they couldn't be punished. And Michaels was the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion who held a lot of power in the WWE at that time, so he wasn't going to be punished.
Since the lone person that could be punished for breaking kayfabe in that manner was Triple H, it forced officials to cancel Triple H's planned victory in the upcoming King of the Ring Tournament.
Because Triple H lost his win in the tournament after the 'Curtain Call', it meant that someone else needed be chosen to win the whole thing instead. That man turned out to be Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the rest is now history.
“It’s ironic here that the Curtain Call indirectly helped everybody discover the Stone Cold Steve Austin character. The Curtain Call as it would play out, helped Glenn Jacobs get rid of Doctor Yankem, have a stop-off as the phony Diesel, but more importantly it took him to Kane. And Kane became one of the longest-running main event stars in the history of the company.
Jacobs debuted shortly after in 1996 when he attacked The Undertaker after a match. It was explained in storyline that Kane was the Undertaker's younger brother and it finally got Jacobs out from under previously unfortunate gimmicks like Isaac Yankem and Fake Diesel.
Even though the moment was taboo because it led to a break in kayfabe, Ross was okay with it happening since it's aftermath helped create two of the best superstars of all time.
"It helped create a new atmosphere, new attitude for WWE. And just in the sense of two guys, Steve Austin and Kane, they were byproducts of that chaos. That’s called a win to me. So the Curtain Call was what it was, unsavory to some. I get it. But the fact that we could get Austin and Kane both out of that scenario, squeeze that out of the fruit. Pretty damned good.”
What's next?
Sometimes things are created by accident, like the Yes Movement being created by WWE's insistence to not push Daniel Bryan and the recent success of Becky Lynch.
As long as some positives can be taken from situations like the 'Curtain Call', then they are more acceptable in the long wrong.
