Skip to main content

Worst in the World: The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997

GANG WARZ! In 1996, the WWF had a bunch of mid card stables and decided to have them feud with each other, all at the same time. It was the Nation of Domination, one of the most memorable factions of the Attitude Era, Los Boricuas, a group of Puerto Rican wrestlers so forgettable I guarantee you can only name one person at most from that group, and the two teams that face off in this entry of the Worst in the World, the Truth Commission and the Disciples of Apocolypse. "Who?", you might be asking. Well, let's take a look.
The Truth Commission, led by The Jackyl, or Cyrus the Virus in ECW, was a militant group from South Africa consisting of Kurrgan, Recon (Bull Buchannan), and Sniper. I had never heard of these guys until they came up on the list. The Disciples of Apocolypse were a biker gang led by Crush and consisted of "The Underfaker" Chainz and 8-Ball & Skull, aka The Harris Brothers, with legendary Road Warriors manager Paul Ellering in their corner, but not in this match. The two incredibly forgettable teams square off in a traditional Survivor Series elimination tag match. Let's get into it.
We kick off with a brawl before Chainz and Kurrgan square off in the ring. After countering the ten corner punches spot, Kurrgan botches an atomic drop to the point where Chainz doesn't sell it at all, and they go back to the corner punches. Kurrgan counters again, this time throwing Chainz into the corner before going for the most telegraphed corner splash in history. Kurrgan has to jump head first into the turnbuckle to sell as Chainz fails to knock him off his feet before Kurrgan eliminates him with a sidewalk slam. God, Kurrgan is just about useless, he moves very slowly and botches quite a bit.
Recon & 8-Ball/Skull enter and 8-Ball/Skull gets beat up. Jackyl tags in and hits a diving knee drop, which 8-Ball/Skull COMPLETELY NO-SELLS before hitting a spinning sidewalk slam to eliminate The Jackyl, evening it up at 3-3. You know you're in trouble when everybody in the match is doing generic big guy moves. The two teams go back and forth, including Recon doing all the work on a back body drop as 8-Ball/Skull just bends over. He doesn't even move up, he just lets Recon flip over him without moving. Jim Ross keeps talking about how he can't tell 8-Ball and Skull apart. 8-Ball/Skull goes flying out of the ring on a shoulder tackle that floors Recon too, which prompts the other one to get in the ring and eliminate Recon with a clothesline. And not a JBL or Stan Hansen "I'm going to hit you as hard as I can" clothesline, a super weak clothesline. The crowd remains silent because how much of a jobber do you have to be get eliminated with a clothesline. This is awful.
8-Ball & Skull hit a double chokeslam, but Kurrgan distracts the referee, allowing Sniper to recover and kick out of the pin. Kurrgan & Sniper double team 8-Ball/Skull, eliminating him with a running bulldog. Jesus, sidewalk slams, clotheslines, running bulldogs. I'm sorry, is this Survivor Series 1997, or Survivor Series 1987? These are not finishing moves anymore. What, is someone going to tap out to the abdominal stretch next? Whatever, at least one of the Harris Brothers is out.
It's 2-2 now. Because he can't tell 8-Ball & Skull apart, JR decides to say the one in the ring is 8-Ball. Yeah, that's how that works. The DOA work over Sniper in the ring until Kurrgan makes a blind tag and eliminates the other Harris Brother with another sidewalk slam, leaving Crush against Kurrgan & Sniper. Crush quickly eliminates Sniper with a scoop slam...sort of. Immediately after the pinfall, Kurrgan hits another sidewalk slam to get the win. JR says that we're going to see great things from the Truth Commission. Shouldn't have gotten your hopes up, JR, as the Truth Commission would disband in 1998.

The Verdict

That was awful. Nobody in the match was a good worker, and two of the worst workers (8-Ball & Skull) were kept in the match for the longest time, which makes the opposite of sense. Everyone got eliminated off of very basic, safe moves anyone can do, and except for Kurrgan, who was booked to look like a beast, nobody got over with this. It's no wonder nobody remembers the Truth Commission now, and that the Gang Warz of the WWF is usually remembered as the Nation of Domination vs Los Boricuas vs DOA. 

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1.  Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  3. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
  4. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  5. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  6. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
  7. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
  8. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  9. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
  10. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
  11. Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
  12. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  13. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  14. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  15. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  16. Paul Ellering vs Teddy Long-Capital Combat
  17. Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
  18. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  19. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
  20. Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
  21. Finlay & Little Bastard vs The Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman-No Way Out 2007
  22. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  23. Yokozuna vs King Mabel-In Your House 4
  24. Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
  25. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  26. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  27. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  28. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  29. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
  30. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  31. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
  32. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  33. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  34. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
  35. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
  36. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  37. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  38. Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
  39. PN News & Bobby Eaton vs Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor-Great American Bash 1991
  40. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  41. Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
  42. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
  43.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  44. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  45. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
  46. The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Renegade Warriors-Halloween Havoc 1990
  47. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
  48. Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
  49. Bray Wyatt vs John Cena-Extreme Rules 2014
  50. Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
  51. Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
  52. David Flair vs Kimberly Page-Mayhem 1999
  53. The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997
  54. Teddy Long vs Eric Bischoff-Survivor Series 2005
  55. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  56. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  57. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  58. Mr. T vs Roddy Piper-WrestleMania 2
  59. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  60. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  61. Oz vs Tim Parker-SuperBrawl
  62. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  63. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
  64. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  65. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
  66. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  67. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
  68. Ultimate Warrior vs Goldust-In Your House 7
  69. Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
  70. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009
And up next is...
Well at least I know these people.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share if you enjoyed. Also, check out my Patreon

Comments

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse

Worst in the World: What is the Worst Wrestling Match of All Time?

  Note: This series is based off a YouTube series " The Search for the Worst " by I Hate Everything, where he reviews every movie on IMDB's Bottom 100. It's a great, funny series and I'd recommend checking it out. Have you ever just thought to yourself "What is the worst match of all time?"? I don't mean something like a boring John Cena-Randy Orton match, I mean a match where the wrestlers have zero chemistry, little wrestling ability, or literally no idea what they are actually doing. I've thought about this for a while, and I've decided to finally figure it out. So I'm going to watch any match that is: a) A winner of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for the Worst Worked Match of the Year. or:  b) Listed on the 100 worst rated wrestling matches of all time on the Internet Wrestling Database .   (Note: Some matches appear on awards that aren't on the list.) There are 115 (EDIT: Now 99)  matches on here. I pu

Worst in the World: The Reina de Reinas Championship Four-Way-AAA Triplemanía XXV

  Rest in peace to both Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt. Two incredible performers who will be missed dearly. Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. In 2014, Lucha Underground would premiere on the El Rey Network. Combining high-flying, death-defying wrestling with heavily stylized, cinematic segments that more closely resembled an AMC show than what you'd see on Monday Night Raw, Lucha Underground was a hit. Along with just being a unique, enjoyable wrestling experience, the show also provided a launching pad for several of the wrestlers, whether they be American wrestlers getting their biggest exposure to date in Ricochet (Prince Puma) and Jeff Cobb (Matanza Cueto), ex-WWE superstar John Morrison finding new life as Johnny Mundo, or luchadors like Pentagon Jr. and Fenix branching out into the United States. The latter is the case for Sexy Star. Debuting in 2006, Sexy Star would spend the first eight years of her career wrestl