What the World Was Watching: Fully Loaded 1998 - In Your House

by Logan Scisco

-The video package raises the big questions for tonight’s main event:  Will Kane and the Undertaker work together?  Will Mankind be the odd man out?  Is Vince McMahon organizing everything?  Hopefully tonight we will find some answers!

-Jim Ross and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Fresno, California.

-Opening Contest:  Val Venis pins “Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) with a rollup at 7:51:

This is Venis’s pay-per-view debut and he teases stripping before Jarrett’s entrance puts a stop to that.  Kaientai tries to get a spot at ringside for the match, but they and Southern Justice are evicted before the opening bell.  Yamaguchi-San is allowed to do commentary, though, and Lawler tries to get more information on what his relationship is like with his wife.  This is a very solid opener, with Venis pulling several false finishes before running Jarrett into Tennessee Lee and getting the win.  Venis remains undefeated.  Rating:  ***

-After the match, Venis tells Yamaguchi-San that he will never “measure up” to the Big Valbowski.

-Non-Title Match:  D-Lo Brown (European Champion w/The Godfather) beats X-Pac (w/Chyna) with a Sky High at 8:26:

This is the first of a series of matches that these two would have in 1998.  The European title functioned as the WWF’s version of WCW’s TV championship during the late 1990s and it gave someone trying to make a name for themselves like D-Lo something to do.  Ross makes sure we know that D-Lo is a Certified Public Accountant.  The chest protector gimmick is quite brilliant because not only can D-Lo do more harm to his opponents if he hits a splash or the Lo Down, but he also does a lot of damage to himself if he misses those moves.  D-Lo gets the win to continue building him as more than a paper champion, although he gets an assisted distraction from the Godfather to finish X-Pac off.  These two would go on to have better matches, but this was still a solid effort.  Rating:  **½

-Kevin Kelly and Tom Pritchard let us know from the WWF.com center backstage that the Undertaker has not yet shown up.

-Terry Funk tells the audience that the next match is going to be his last for a while because he is so beaten up.  Bradshaw, his teammate for the next match, is not very happy about hearing this news.  Since Bradshaw has had a rough 1998, I can’t say that I blame him.  Besides, it is pretty lousy to tell your tag team partner that you are leaving the company right before walking through the curtain.

-Faarooq & Scorpio defeat Terry Funk & Bradshaw when Scorpio pins Funk with a 450 splash at 6:49:

Scorpio abandoned teaming with Terry Funk to work with Faarooq and they had wrestled a few matches on Shotgun Saturday Night in the weeks leading up to this.  We get an entertaining and stiff exchange between the future Acolytes in this bout and Bradshaw brings his working boots by going to the top rope on several occasions.  Since this match was hastily added to the card, you might think it’s just filler, but we get some very entertaining wrestling until an awkward brawling segment at the end.  The crowd does not appreciate it, but that is more of a fault of not giving many of the guys in the match a sense of direction in the booking than anything else.  After the bout, Bradshaw takes out his frustration on Funk and decimates Scorpio and Faarooq for good measure.  Rating:  **

-Mark Henry pins Vader with a splash at 5:03:

These two actually have an issue as Henry and Vader ruined each other’s chances of advancing in the King of the Ring last month.  Their feud has largely been relegated to Shotgun Saturday Night.  This match is a complete train wreck as Vader is not capable of carrying the younger Henry and we get awkward combinations of power moves.  Henry kicks out of Vader’s splash off the second rope and then unceremoniously finishes him with a splash that causes the crowd to moan.  It’s just sad to see Vader reduced to the level of an enhancement talent, especially if you grew up following his WCW career.  Rating:  ½*

-Kelly and Pritchard continue to discuss whether the Undertaker is going to show up on tonight’s show.

-WWF Tag Team Champions Kane & Mankind walk out with Paul Bearer.  Bearer gloats about how the Undertaker does not want to face Kane because he wants to keep his main event spot at SummerSlam.  The New Age Outlaws show up and issue a challenge to Kane & Mankind for the titles tomorrow night on RAW.  When they do not get a response, they tear into the champions and WWF officials have to separate them.  Seeing Billy Gunn and Kane share 50-50 offense in this segment is just so wrong.

-Ross and Lawler recap Hawk showing up late to save Animal from the DOA on the last edition of RAW.

-The Disciples of Apocalypse (w/Paul Ellering) defeat LOD 2000 when 8-Ball pins Animal after a DDT at 8:51:

With Sunny out of the picture, I no longer have a reason to care about the LOD.  You can sense how the LOD are past their expiration date by listening to the crowd, as they get very little reaction for anything in the match.  They also do not care about the DOA’s constant cheating throughout the contest.  Ellering’s excited attempts at interference are laughable as he continually whiffs in his attempts to make a difference.  It takes forever for Animal to get the hot tag and Skull does eat a Doomsday Device, but the match continues a little longer and the DOA do an illegal switch and win.  You would think that the LOD would have that scouted based on the numerous times they have faced the DOA up to this point.  The WWF gave this way too much time and after this bout the LOD, DOA, and Ellering should have been cut loose for good.  Unfortunately, this feud continued!  Rating:  DUD

-Vince McMahon and his stooges come out and McMahon says that he is not to blame if the Undertaker does not show up.  Instead, he points the finger at Steve Austin based on his provocations of the Undertaker.  McMahon reads the “card subject to change” addendum on the programs that the crowd bought before the show and announces that Austin’s “suitable replacement” for tonight’s main event if the Undertaker no shows is the Brooklyn Brawler.  Forgetting about this sixteen years later, I cracked up pretty hard at this, especially because the Brawler comes out screaming “I’m ready” and is all amped up.

-Hart Family Dungeon Match with Dan Severn as Special Guest Referee:  Owen Hart defeats Ken Shamrock with a crossface at 4:54:

This is the first extensive footage of the famous Hart Dungeon on television.  It appeared in some video packages before this show, but we actually get a match that takes place in it.  Shamrock walking down the steps to the basement is like something out of a C-level horror film.  This is a submission match and they work a quasi-UFC/WWE style that I am sure was not taught in the actual Dungeon by Stu Hart.  I am more amazed that they managed to work a five minute match within the confines of the Dungeon than anything else.  However, since this Vince Russo we need some type of ref bump, so sure enough that happens with Severn getting knocked loopy, thereby allowing Owen to hit Shamrock with a dumbbell and then tapping Shamrock’s hand on the canvas when Severn awakes to win.  Seriously, they booked a screwjob for this!  Finish aside, this was a fun change of pace, but I can’t get past some of the ridiculousness of the contest like Shamrock’s head going through some drywall and Owen swinging off pipes.  Rating:  **

-Two-Out-of-Three Falls Match for the Intercontinental Championship:  The Rock (Champion) wrestles Triple H (w/Chyna) to a time limit draw at 30:00:

This match has a caveat on the traditional two-out-of-three falls format as there is a mandatory one minute rest period between falls.  The WWE’s current creative team should be forced to rewatch this DX-Nation feud and realize how you can go about making a secondary title important.  Ross and Lawler hyping the thirty minute time limit is a clue of where this match is heading, especially since that time limit was not discussed in the build to the match.  Sure enough, after both men’s factions interfere at various points and after exchanging falls, with the Rock winning the first after a Rock Bottom at 20:20 and Triple H winning the second after Chyna DDT’s the Rock on a chair at 26:34, the time limit expires.  This is deemed as the first “classic” between the Rock and Triple H, but most of the heat on the match comes from interference (five run-ins!) and not from the two participants.  Also, they really struggled to continue the match with unique moves after the twenty minute mark.  It felt like this was a fifteen minute match drawn out to thirty minutes.  Their Judgment Day Iron Man match in 2000 would fix these problems and because both men’s characters had reached another level, it was a much better match.  Rating:  ***

-After the bell, the Nation and D-Generation X brawl, with DX standing tall in the ring.

-Kevin Kelly and Tom Pritchard inform us that the Undertaker arrived during the Intercontinental title match.

-A video package hypes the bikini contest between Sable and Jacqueline.

-Bikini Contest:  Jacqueline (w/Marc Mero) beats Sable by disqualification:

Before the contest, Dustin Runnels issues a prayer.  Why that did not produce a feud with Jerry Lawler, the WWF’s resident pervert is beyond me, but I guess Runnels feud with Val Venis made the same point.  Jacqueline has a wardrobe malfunction by dancing too much in her bikini.  Sable goes without a top and wears body paint, which she says was not what Vince McMahon wanted.  That’s not a bikini, though, so she loses by disqualification.  Seriously, a disqualification in a bikini contest!?!?

-After the contest, McMahon walks to the ring and covers Sable.  This McMahon-Sable angle is not making any sense in light of existing storylines.

-A video package chronicles the events leading up to the main event for the WWF tag team titles.

-WWF Tag Team Championship Match:  “Stone Cold” Steve Austin & The Undertaker defeat Kane & Mankind (Champions w/Paul Bearer) when The Undertaker pins Kane after a Tombstone at to win the titles at 17:27:

This is the first time that the WWF tag team titles are on the line in a pay-per-view main event since In Your House 3 in September 1995.  I really feel bad for Mankind as the odd man out in this main event angle, but he was actually able to capitalize on that later for his late 1998 run.  The Undertaker and Kane are skittish about contact throughout the match, lending some credence to the view that they are working together, but the Undertaker reluctantly agrees to hot tag in and fight Kane late in the match.  You see, we are back to the “tag team partners that do not like each other” that has been an Austin staple since he first won the tag team titles with Shawn Michaels in the summer of 1997.  I do not like the WWF champion holding the tag titles to build their feud since it weakens the overall tag division, so the result of this match was rather silly.  The crowd was into this, but it was really an extended RAW main event.  That said, what did you expect from a throwaway pay-per-view before SummerSlam?  Rating:  **

The Final Report Card:  Despite achieving an all-time record buyrate for In Your House shows, this was the very definition of a middle of the road pay-per-view.  Outside of the LOD-DOA debacle, there was nothing that was awful about this show, but there was also nothing really great or memorable aside from Sable’s moment, and that was lessened when she later did Playboy.  Triple H and the Rock, as well as Shamrock and Owen, would go on to have better, more memorable contests at SummerSlam.  If you are looking to burn some time, this is as decent a card as any to watch, but do not expect anything fantastic.

Attendance:  9,855

Buyrate:  0.9 (+0.31 over previous year)

Show Evaluation:  Neutral