Vince Russo Tries To Explain What Went Wrong With “Kennel From Hell” Match

Former WWE writer Vince Russo did his best to explain why the infamous “Kennel From Hell” match from the Attitude Era was so terrible.

There is only one Kennel From Hell match in WWE history and there’s a good reason why. That reason is because it was terrible. When WWE fans are asked about the worst matches in company history, many of them might mention Kennel From Hell if they saw it because of how silly it was.

The story was that the evil Big Boss Man killed Al Snow’s precious dog Pepper and Boss Man served it to him as dinner! Snow didn’t know until after he started eating his own dog.

To settle this “intense” rivalry, WWE put them in a Kennel From Hell Match at Unforgiven 1999 with Al Snow defending the Hardcore Title against Big Boss Man. Kennel From Hell meant that there was a Hell in a Cell structure surrounding the ring, then there was a traditional blue cage by the ring and they had dogs surrounding the ring as well.

In order to win the Kennel From Hell, the wrestlers had to escape the cage and Hell in a Cell structure. The dogs surrounding the ring didn’t do much of anything with some people claiming that they pooed at ringside. Anyway, Snow got the win and WWE never did the match again.

During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet’s Insight on YouTube, former WWE writer Vince Russo, who came up with the Kennel From Hell idea, tried to explain what went wrong.

“I’d rather try something new than repeat a match we’ve seen a billion times before that’s how I am. I’d rather try something new then just go back to the well a million times. The Dog Kennel from Hell is probably number one, and I’ll tell you why, Chris I swear this is the God honest truth.”

“I think of the concept because The Boss Man, our story revolved around the little dog Pepper. Okay, so I thought of the concept but in my head, in my head they are attack dogs, you know, they’re police dogs, the teeth are out and saliva is coming out and they’re circling the ring, that’s the picture in my head.”

“So now bro, I’m at the building and they bring the dogs in and [someone says] Vince here are the dogs for the match. I walk over to look at the dogs and bro, the first dog licked my hand. And I’m like, bro, I never thought of what if they’re not attack dogs? What if they are pets? Do you know what I’m saying?”

“Like that’s exactly what happened bro these were the lamest, laziest [dogs]. I swear to God, and like I said I 1,000% blame myself for that because I never took that into consideration. I’m literally convinced these are going to be attack dogs. So since they weren’t that actually sucked.”

That means Vince Russo is blaming the dogs for that match being terrible rather than the match concept. Sure, bro.

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