WWE Vault: Best Of D’Lo Brown: They Did Recognize (Includes Full Video)
Best Of D’Lo Brown
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Jonathan Coachman
This is firmly in the “sure why not” category and I’m curious to see what they have with Brown. He’s one of the underrated good hands of his era and worked well with anyone. There are some good options in here and I’d like to see where they go. That’s the point of this series but they’ve been hit or miss at times. Let’s get to it.
Quick opening video.
From Monday Night Raw, July 2, 1998. Given that the 2nd would have been a Thursday, I’m thinking that’s an error. My guess is this would be July 20.
European Title: D’Lo Brown vs. HHH
Brown, with fellow Nation Of Domination member The Rock, is challenging and Chyna is here with HHH. An early slam has HHH down and the head shaking Brown (in his chest protector) so HHH grabs a headlock for some head slapping. A shot to the nose (JR makes his required joke) gets Brown out of trouble but he has to escape an early Pedigree attempt.
Brown bails outside to yell at Chyna, who hits him in the face (HHH approves). Back in and Brown grabs a quick Sky High for two, followed by a weird looking spinwheel kick. A jumping knee to the face cuts Brown off and a suplex drops him again. The Rock trips HHH so Chyna posts him, which draws out Mark Henry to distract Chyna again. The Pedigree is loaded up but Rock comes in with a Rock Bottom to give brown the pin and the title at 6:00.
Rating: C. The match was just another part of the Nation/Rock vs. DX/HHH feud, which was a huge part of the summer. Brown winning the title got it away from HHH, who could go after Rock’s Intercontinental Title in the coming weeks. It wasn’t much to see, but Brown would get better in a hurry.
Also of note: this match was taped on July 14. I was at a house show on the 18th and Brown was announced as champion before this show aired, which was a rare situation of spoiling TV for pretty much no reason given that it was just a house show.
From Summerslam 1998.
European Title: D’Lo Brown vs. Val Venis
Brown is defending and I knew this would be on here. Ever the good champion, Brown is now residing in Helsinki, Finland (as opposed to Helsinki, Montana). They fight up against the ropes to start until Brown lets him go for some head shaking. More grappling goes to a standoff, with Venis knocking him into the corner. Venis’ forearm to the chest just hurts himself due to the chest protector, which does indeed protect Brown’s chest.
A standing splash knocks Venis down and a running splash in the corner makes it worse. The missed charge sends Brown into the corner though, with the impact somehow hurting him. Venis dropkicks him down and they run the ropes a bit, with neither being able to get very far. A nice spinebuster plants Brown and we cut to some weird newcomer in the crowd named Edge.
Venis misses a running splash, with JR pointing out that it was kind of dumb to try on someone wearing a chest protector. Brown grabs a suplex but stops to glare at the crowd some more, allowing Venis to bust out a t-bone suplex of all things. One heck of a clothesline gets Brown out of trouble and he drops a leg, which he leaves over Venis’ neck for the cover.
Thankfully commentary mocks him for the “cover” so Brown hits a leg lariat to get them back on his side. A middle rope elbow gets two more but Venis is back up, only for his back to give out on a slam attempt. Brown grabs a Texas Cloverleaf, which Brown just releases when it doesn’t work. Brown stays on the back with a slam (Lawler: “Here comes some more!” That sound byte was used in the Attitude game for Nintendo 64.) but takes way too long loading up a middle rope backsplash.
Venis makes a comeback with a backdrop but dives into a sitout spinebuster and they’re both down. Back up and Brown plants him with a DDT for two, with Venis’ powerslam getting the same. Venis plants him again but the Money Shot hits raised knees. Brock tries a Liger Bomb but can’t get Venis up, instead just dropping him on his head. Another attempt works, though the Low Down doesn’t as Venis gets away this time.
Some right hands have Brown staggered and Venis gets smart by removing the chest protector. And then Venis gets dumb by putting it on instead, with the referee grabbing Venis’ foot to accidentally crotch him on top. Venis gets in an atomic drop and shoves the referee, which may be earned but it also draws the DQ at 15:25.
Rating: B. This is one of those matches that I’ve seen a bunch of times but it still more than holds up as a hidden gem. You had two young guys being given the biggest chance they’ve ever had and making the most of it. That’s not something you see very often and my goodness it worked. Heck of a match here and one the best ever for both of them.
From Monday Night Raw, October 5, 1998 (actually a Monday this time).
European Title: D’Lo Brown vs. X-Pac
Brown, with Mark Henry, is challenging and Chyna is here with X-Pac. The brawl is on fast with Brown grabbing a powerslam to cut him off early. The leg lariat gives Brown two and we hit the chinlock. With that going on, cue a man at ringside to give Chyna an envelope and then run back into the crowd. Chyna reads whatever is in the envelope and Henry says “it’s from me”.
The fans are all over Brown as Chyna and Henry glare at each other from opposite sides of the ring. X-Pac suplexes his way to freedom but misses an elbow, allowing Brown to grab a side slam for two. The Low Down misses as X-Pac rolls away (even though it went so far that he didn’t need to move) and a jumping spinwheel kick drops Brown again. There’s the Bronco Buster but Henry trips X-Pac and then pulls his dive out of the air for a drive into the apron. That and he Low Down give Brown the title at 5:17.
Rating: C. This was a pretty slow match for a lot of the time they had, but the bigger problem was the focus on Henry vs. Chyna. That took way too much of the attention away from the match, which was only so interesting in the first place. Brown getting the title only means so much, but DX vs. the Nation was still going, because the feud could never die.
From Monday Night Raw, August 2, 1999.
European Title/Intercontinental Title: D’Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett
Title for title and Jarrett (Intercontinental Champion) has Debra with him. Brown is out of the Nation now, a good guy, and has his awesome theme song. They slug it out to start and the referee has to break it up, which you don’t see very often. Brown counters a dropkick into a sitout powerbomb for two and Jarrett is already set to walk. Back in and Jarrett dropkicks him out of the air, meaning it’s time for some choking on the ropes. After yelling at Debra for a bit, Jarrett grabs a sleeper.
Lawler gets in a funny line about how Brown’s head is always tilted to one side or the other as Brown fights up. A swinging neckbreaker gives Jarrett two and it’s time to be frustrated. Brown catapults him into the corner and hits the finger point legdrop for two. The referee gets bumped so Debra brings in the belts. That and an open jacket try to distract Brown, who grabs a belt and clocks Jarrett to become a double champion at 6:12.
Rating: C. On one hand, it was nice to see Brown, an up and coming star, get a cool honor like this. It doesn’t need to be a long reign (and it wasn’t) but it’s something he can brag about for the rest of his career. That being said, Lawler came as close as he could to sinking this match on his own. The constant puppies talk put all of the focus on Debra rather than the important match, which happened far too often for Lawler. Just shut up about it for two seconds already.
From Smackdown, September 25, 2000.
Lo Down vs. Hardy Boyz
That would be Brown/Chaz because I guess they both needed something to do. After looking at HHH sending Stephanie McMahon some flowers, we’re ready to go. The Hardys get jumped to start and Brown flapjacks Chaz onto Matt. A running tornado DDT gets Matt out of trouble and it’s off to Jeff for a double elbow.
Brown comes in as well but Chaz crotches Jeff against the post. A double release suplex drops Jeff again and a belly to back suplex cuts off his comeback bid. Brown misses a springboard moonsault though and the tag brings in Matt as everything breaks down. Poetry In Motion sets up the Twist Of Fate and Swanton to pin Chaz at 6:05.
Rating: B-. I’m not entirely sure why this was included as it’s just ok, with Low Down showing some aggression and getting to look decent against the Hardys. That being said, it’s not like they looked like the next big thing and it was a pretty standard Hardys match. Maybe they wanted the name value, but this was kind of a strange choice.
Post match Lo Down lays the Hardys out without much trouble.
From Sunday Night Heat, September 1, 2002.
D’Lo Brown vs. Raven
Brown is a commentator and leaves Coach on his own on commentary, as apparently he’s mad at us. Raven bails to the floor to start and then does it again before Brown hammers away back inside. A quick toss into the post cuts Brown off and a middle rope knee drives the shoulder to the mat.
The Raven Effect is blocked but Brown misses a middle rope elbow. They knock each other down with Brown getting up first to start the comeback. The finger point legdrop gets two and a swinging Side Effect gets the same. Raven powerbombs him out of the corner and puts his feet on the ropes for two but Brown counters the Raven Effect into the Sky High for the pin at 5:28.
Rating: C+. This was an interesting addition as the fans clearly liked Brown well enough and it felt like a grudge match. That’s more than I would have expected from this one and it was a nice treat compared to everything else that we’ve gotten on here, as it’s nice to get something of a surprise. Nice match here and kind of a different era from Brown.
From Monday Night Raw, October 7, 2002.
D’Lo Brown vs. HHH
Non-title Blindfold match and Ric Flair is here with HHH. They reach for each other to start and miss right hands, with HHH taking him into the corner and yelling. Naturally he’s yelling at an empty corner as Brown moves but it makes for a good visual. HHH catches him again and tries a Pedigree, which is countered into a backdrop. The Sky High sends HHH rolling to the apron and Flair comes in for a distraction. That’s enough for HHH to lift the hood and hit the Pedigree for the win at 2:36. Huh? Why in the world was this included? And that’s how it wraps up? Nice job guys.
Overall Rating: B-. Brown is a great example of someone who was a steady hand with cool music and a rather bouncy head. He was never a major star but he was a regular in the Attitude Era and beyond, regularly in the ring against some big names. It’s nice to see someone like him get some attention, though some of those latter choices were strange and came off like an attempt to make this a bit longer. Still though, hearing that song again so many times was worth the effort.
Results
D’Lo Brown b. HHH – Rock Bottom
D’Lo Brown b. Val Venis via DQ when Venis shoved the referee
D’Lo Brown b. X-Pac – Low Down
D’Lo Brown b. Jeff Jarrett – Belt shot
Hardy Boyz b. Lo Down – Swanton to Chaz
D’Lo Brown b. Raven – Sky High
HHH b. D’Lo Brown – Pedigree
Remember to follow me on Twitter and Bluesky @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at: