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September Classics: Mankind vs. Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock - Breakdown 9/27/98

This was set up the week before on RAW with the three men shown here involved in a triple threat match for a shot at the WWF Championship, but it was ruined by the interference of The Undertaker and Kane. It wasn't until Sunday Night Heat, one hour before the show, that we all would find out that it was a cage match. RUSSO-RIFFIC! The match itself is a pretty good one.....and check out how over The Rock is.



Mankind vs The Rock vs Ken Shamrock by therock38

Comments

  1. I wouldn't say that Rock and Shamrock had no beef with each other, as they faced each other plenty of times from Survivor Series 97 up to King of the Ring 98 and feuded over the IC title. But your point is a good one, nonetheless.

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  2. "Good thing we aren't talking about life, we're talking about comic book movies."

    I fail to see how that dismisses real life application to how superheroes make their decisions.

    "That was sort of the point of the whole Avengers film, they know and trust each other now. Why trust Tony? I don't know, because he laid on the wire vis a vis the nuke he went into another dimension or whatever to get rid of, sort of fulfilling the whole foreshadowing during his and Cap's confrontation."

    What makes you think Rogers didn't think Tony MIGHT BE acting self righteous with building the Hellicarriers? Hydra didn't think they were truly evil, they just believed in the greater good to a SCARY EXTREME. Why would Rogers believe Tony would be above that level of thinking?

    Your thinking about things in black and white terms, when the tone of the movie was above that.

    "He didn't seemingly tell anyone he downloaded the information?"

    He TOLD them he was downloading the information. He DIDN'T tell them what HE SAW/KNOWS.

    "You're arguing a non issue"

    No I'm arguing that you think there was a hole in logic, because you seem to think these heroes trust each other 100% ALL THE TIME. Life isn't that simple, and I don't believe superhero movies should subscribe to the belief that it is, when making something more nuanced like this.

    "As someone I've never heard of from something I've never heard of fame once put it, "Boring.""



    That's code for, "I got nothing".

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  3. I prefer suit-wearing Jericho to some of the other stretches of his career, but at the time, people acted like it was the greatest character in wrestling history, and IMO overrated him even more than they usually do.

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  4. That's the thing -- I didn't want to see him get his ass kicked. He mostly just bored me.

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  5. Although there's a fine line between the two, I think heels should try to be interesting (that's true of anyone on the roster, face or heel) but unlikable. Jericho's character was uninteresting to me, and that's why I didn't like him. He bored me for the most part, and I wasn't particularly excited at the thought of anyone kicking his ass.

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  6. Was Punk Ryback the worst cell match of all time? Maybe Nash-HHH?

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  7. What does everybody want?

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  8. Bah. I can't believe he played into that Monica thing.

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  9. Rock came out of it the much bigger star.

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  10. "RUSSO-RIFFIC" You mean all 3 guys are over as fuck and the crowd is into it?

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  11. It was more in reference to the last-minute change to a cage match an hour before PPV. But I see what you're saying, and don't disagree with it

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  12. Good point. After the lazy "mispronounce name/ass clown/never ever/look at me I'm such a ROCK STAR" schtick that he'd been running into the ground for the past decade, anything was going to seem great. Plus he worked with Michaels and Mysterio, which always helps.

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  13. "Had she won that match and actually put Stephanie in her place, then fans would have been into her"



    You're giving Brie way to much credit.

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  14. Underrated and rarely talked about match. Always been a huge fan of this contest. Mick's dive was just brutal as well.

    This was the match, imo, that it was clear Rock was ready for total stardum

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  15. It was. I was there too. Hogan played the face from the moment the bell rung and we all ate it up.

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  16. Indeed. The Rock ALWAYS managed to keep that intercontinental title away from Shamrock somehow ...

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  17. Agreed. He didn't screw Hogan, he screwed the fans.

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  18. He had the most ammo.

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  19. Rock/Austin/Hogan in the same match is as big as it gets.

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  20. Not even the fact that it was the worst, but the fact that the match had NO REASON to be in the Cell.


    Mind you, a lot of it had to do with Cena being injured (conveniently).

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  21. Yep, although I will admit that he held his own against those two in the ring. The Mysterio/Jericho matches were probably the best series matches for the IC belt in the past decade.

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  22. Yeah, I'm OK with HHH taking the belt at Mania because it capped off his big return from injury, but the Undertaker part was unnecessary.

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  23. Absolutely he did. That doesn't mean Triple H didn't come out of it a star either.

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  24. Nail on the head. I remember this match like it was yesterday and I remember saying that's the guy no doubt.

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  25. *dominant #grammarnazi #sorry

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  26. He probably knew it would give Vince a boner.

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  27. I watched this match for the first time last night on the Network. It just didn't do much for me. But I find that a lot of Attitude era stuff isn't as good as it once seemed.

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  28. I've heard people point to the Foley series as what cemented Rock as a legitimate contender in the eyes of fans, but even here you can tell the crowd's more than ready for him. It was one of the fastest reverses in crowd reactions I can think of - he was meant to be a heel as late as July/August 98, but by Survivor Series he's almost as over as a face as Austin.

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  29. Interesting that Shamrock's final victory in their series was him winning KOTR 98 - a victory that didn't actually elevate him at all.

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  30. I didn't really buy HHH as a legit main eventer until the Armageddon match with Vince, but that's just me. Watching Summerslam 99 back today, he looks like a lost child - just awkwardly stumbling around.

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  31. It's funny that Attitude was such a hot era, given how fucking barren the roster was for most of it. In 97, you had HBK, Bret, Taker and Austin kinda, Mankind vaguely and Vader on the peripheries, dwindling in credibility all the time. In 98, as you say, half the year there were only two real championship contenders - and a fairly empty midcard, too.

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