So after a three
months absence, I have returned so that the Blog can finish up looking back at
1998 when the World Wrestling Federation finally turned the tide against World
Championship Wrestling. When we left off,
the Rock was tearing it up as the newly crowned corporate heel champion, but he
has Mankind in hot pursuit of the title that he thought was in the bag at
Survivor Series. Steve Austin was still
feuding with the Undertaker, something that segments of the audience are
growing tired of, and the New Age Outlaws teased joining the Corporation before
realigning with D-Generation X. The
Corporation still has Commissioner Shawn Michaels in their pocket, though. And Debra McMichael, newly arrived from WCW,
has reunited with Jeff Jarrett, ignoring the fact that he called her a “dumb
blonde” when he returned to the company in 1997.
-WWF Champion The
Rock shows up at Planet Hollywood in Vancouver, British Columbia. He promises that future pay-per-views will be
named after him and tells us to enjoy the action. The Rock getting a pay-per-view named after
him fit nicely into existing storylines as it constituted a reward for going
heel.
-Michael Cole and
Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada. Ross is absent
due to his mother’s recent passing. The
opening is where Cole says that there is two tons of dirt near the grave and
the tombstone weighs “in excess of three thousand pounds,” thereby serving as
great fodder for recappers of the future.
-D-Lo Brown &
Mark Henry (w/PMS) defeat Supply & Demand (w/The Hos) when Henry pins Venis
after a splash at 5:58:
The WWF should have done more with the Supply &
Demand tag team of Val Venis and the Godfather since the tag division was
relatively weak at this point in the company’s history (and would remain so
until the summer of 1999). The “Pretty
Mean Sisters” faction of Terri Runnels and Jacqueline align themselves with
D-Lo and Henry at this show, although the reasons for it are not
explained. D-Lo draws a lot of heat,
with the crowd showering him with “D-Lo sucks!” chants on several occasions. The hos and PMS get into a predictable confrontation
on the floor, creating a distraction that allows Jacqueline to pull Venis’s
tights down and produce the finish. This
was standard RAW fare that was made better by the hot crowd. Rating: **¼
-Footage of Mankind
attacking the Rock earlier in the day when he was being interviewed by Michael
Cole in a skybox. The Rock’s ribs are
allegedly hurt, but he is willing to fight against doctor’s orders so that he
can keep the title.
-The Headbangers
beat Kurrgan & Golga (w/Giant Silva & Luna Vachon) when Mosh pins Golga
after the Stage Dive at 6:52:
Cole tells us that the Headbangers “defrocked” Luna by
cutting her hair on a recent episode of RAW, which is not the appropriate use
of that word. That does not keep him
from continuing to use it, though. These
two teams had been feuding on RAW, with the Headbangers turning on the Oddities
and then getting the Insane Clown Posse to defect to their side. The Oddities were seemingly okay with this
defection, though, because they are still using the ICP’s engineered theme music. If this was booked as a three minute match it
would be acceptable, but it just keeps dragging as the Headbangers can only do
so much with their opponents. The ending
is botched, with Golga taking forever to run the ropes and ending up too far
away to take the Stage Dive. Rating:
¾*
-Vince McMahon,
Shane McMahon, and the stooges huddle to discuss how they help the Rock defend
the title tonight. Patterson suggests
getting hockey equipment and ambushing Mankind.
Brisco just offers to get Mr. McMahon some coffee, a humorous connection
back to a few months ago when the stooges abandoned McMahon and left him at the
mercy of Steve Austin.
-Steve Blackman beats
Owen Hart via count out at 10:28:
The crowd inverts the face-heel dynamic since Owen is a
beloved Canadian. Cole tells us that
Owen has “perfected” the Sharpshooter, which makes sense when you compare his
Sharpshooter with the Rock’s version. I
await him telling us that Owen was the “architect” of the Hart family. This is a bit of a weird bout as both men
trade offense throughout without really building to the proper transitions and
then Owen gets sent chest-first into an exposed turnbuckle and barely sells it. Blackman gets booed out of the building after
locking Owen into the Sharpshooter, but he gets out and then heads to the
locker room to lose. Talk about a finish
wiping out ten minutes of hard work. Rating:
**½
-Vince McMahon
wanders around backstage looking for Mankind.
He finds the boiler room, which has a “Mankind’s office” sign on the
door that McMahon rips off in disgust.
He tentatively walks in to negotiate with the Rock’s opponent for the
evening.
-The Brood beats
the J.O.B. Squad (w/Head) when Christian pins Scorpio after the Impaler at 9:08:
The Brood gimmick was ahead of its time. It was seeking to capitalize on the “goth”
look that was all the rage in the late 1990s among jaded youth, but it would
have had more popularity with the Twilight
craze that swept the nation a decade later.
As another aside, how many stables in wrestling history have had the
hired help go on to have better careers than the leader? Snow might be over, but the crowd is not
buying into this J.O.B. Squad concept, sitting on their hands for much of this
despite all six guys doing their best to get a reaction. Cole and Lawler are also disinterested,
debating the merits of Paul McCartney music and Cole insisting that he listens
to “the new stuff.” After what feels
like an eternity we get to the ending sequence, which has a few cool spots such
as Edge launching off of Gangrel to plancha Al Snow and Bob Holly, but a spot
fest a good match does not make. Rating:
**
-Mankind and
McMahon continue to negotiate backstage, although we cannot hear what they are
saying.
-Striptease
Match: Goldust beats “Double J” Jeff
Jarrett (w/Debra McMichael) via reverse decision at 8:03:
So the stipulations of this non-PG match are that if
Goldust wins then Debra must strip, but if Jarrett wins Goldust has to
strip. Knowing Vince, I am surprised
they did not do a swerve, have Goldust lose clean, and then strip to tick of
GLAAD. The stipulation helps give a dull
match some heat and after Goldust hits Shattered Dreams, Debra smashes Goldust
with a guitar behind the referee’s back.
Somehow the broken bits of guitar in the ring do not bother the referee
as Jarrett hits the Stroke to seemingly win.
However, Commissioner Shawn Michaels comes out and reverses the
decision. Debra strips out of her
business suit, but before she can go further the Blue Blazer interrupts. What, you really did not think they were
going to go through with this stipulation?
Rating: ½*
-McMahon leaves the
boiler room and seems to be in a good mood.
-WWF Tag Team
Championship Match: The New Age Outlaws
(Champions) defeat The Big Bossman & Ken Shamrock (w/Shawn Michaels) when
Billy Gunn pins Ken Shamrock with an inside cradle at 17:06:
The Bossman-Shamrock tag team is often overlooked when
people think of the Attitude Era, but I thought it had some appeal since both guys’
styles complemented each other well. If
Ross was on commentary he would say that the heat sequence was “deliberate” as Shamrock
and Bossman grind the match to a snail’s pace so they can beat on the Road
Dogg. In Cole’s third embarrassing error
of the night he refers to the Bossman’s night stick as “a baton.” Based on how the Outlaws feud with the
Corporation was going it seemed like a given that they would lose the tag team
titles here, thereby giving them a program for the early winter of 1999. However, although Michaels trips Gunn when he
tries to suplex Shamrock back into the ring, Gunn reverses the cover and the
Outlaws retain. What really hurt this
match was that during the heat sequence Shamrock and the Bossman never seemed
to have a coherent strategy to work on a body part and they never went for a
cover. Why would you do that when
wrestling the tag team champions? Rating:
*½
-A video package recaps
the ongoing Rock-Mankind feud.
-McMahon tells
Shane and the Rock that the contract for the title match will be altered in the
ring and that Mankind just wants witnesses.
-After entrances
for the next match, Vince McMahon steps in the ring and makes fun of a hole in
Mankind’s tights. Mankind says he will
cross out the contract clause that says he gets the title if the Rock cannot
wrestle, but only if McMahon admits that he never heard Mankind submit at the
Survivor Series and do so on his knees.
McMahon refuses to do so, saying that the Rock heard him submit at
Survivor Series and that was good enough for him, so we end up having our
scheduled title match after all…
-WWF Championship
Match: Mankind beats The Rock (Champion
w/Vince & Shane McMahon) with the Mandible Claw at 13:34:
Mankind’s theme has some awful techno beat as he heads to
the ring. There was something about
techno beats that the WWF music team could not get away from during this period
as they also tried to do it with parts of the Rock’s theme and had to abandon
that when it also sounded horrid. They
try to rip off Over the Edge with Vince telling the referee to disqualify Mankind
“for any legitimate reason” after he beats the Rock to a pulp on the arena
floor. The Rock is also good for comedy
here, taking a headset and cutting a promo on Mankind as he smashes his face
into the commentary table, but then keep it on as Mankind makes a
comeback. Vince tries to get the referee
to disqualify Mankind after a low blow, but in a shrewd move that Bret Hart
should have done in Montreal, Mankind decks takes out the referee and the
timekeeper. All of this leads to a new
referee coming in, which makes little sense because the first referee would
have disqualified Mankind at this point for piledriving him, and that produces
some hot near-falls with each man’s signature moves. A Mandible Claw seems to give Mankind the
title, but McMahon announces after the match that since the Rock never
submitted he cannot lose the championship.
Did the WWF give a one night contract to Dusty Rhodes with these
finishes? Fun match once the overbooking
began, but it was not on the same level as their Survivor Series bout. Rating: **¾
-After the bout,
Mankind puts both McMahons in the Mandible Claw and beats on the stooges, but
eventually Ken Shamrock and the Big Bossman run in to beat him down.
-A video package recaps
the Steve Austin-Undertaker feud.
-Buried Alive
Match: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin defeats
The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) at 21:31:
Austin has to win this match to get a slot in the Royal
Rumble per the orders of Vince McMahon.
That is a classic example of the booking getting too cute because it
basically constituted a spoiler since there was no way Austin was not going to
be in the Rumble match. In a Buried
Alive match I always wonder why the wrestlers never stay near the grave. Why go back to the ring, which has more give
to it than concrete and why not use all the shovels and such around the grave
to wear out your opponent? Wrestling
logic I suppose. As Austin has noted in
recent years, the stipulation ruined this bout as he and the Undertaker could
only build drama near the grave and it made the match too much of a choking and
punching encounter. Cole gaffe #4 rears
its ugly head as he refers to “the Royal Rumble tournament” that is on the line
between these two. And for those
wondering why I am being hard on Cole, I have to think of something to keep me
preoccupied with this match which just meanders all around the arena without
any rhyme or reason to it. Eventually, Austin
hits a Stunner to send the Undertaker into the grave and walks off. This allows the Undertaker to get out, but an
explosion out of the grave sends out Kane, who Tombstones the Undertaker back
into the grave and Austin brings out a backhoe.
However, to really top off this awful match, the backhoe takes forever to
dump dirt on the Undertaker and then takes too long to rake the dirt in. Austin soon tires of shoveling dirt and drinks
beer, finally being declared the winner.
Rating: DUD
The Final Report: 1998 featured several fun WWF pay-per-views,
but this show was not one of them. As
has been the case for much of the year, the top of the card has to excel to
cover for a deficient midcard and that did not happen here. If anything, the show had lots of oddly
booked finishes with Mankind going over the Rock but not winning the title, the
Outlaws retaining when it may have made more sense to give the titles over to
the Corporation, and Owen Hart losing in a puzzling count out after a
competitive match. The Debra stripping
nonsense, Kane popping out of a grave like Michael Myers, and the overbooking
of the title match was Russo in overdrive.
Yet there were already some danger signs with Russo in the sense that
some of his material was recycling old concepts, such as going back to the Over
the Edge well in the Rock-Mankind match.
Avoid this show on the Network because the memorable moments of December
1998 happened on RAW.
Attendance:
20,042
Buyrate:
0.78 (+0.34 over previous year)
Show Rating:
Thumbs Down
I wouldn't want to upset Gay and Lesbian Alliance President Abraham J. SImpson.
ReplyDeleteI love the techno beat mankind music.
ReplyDeleteNot a great show by any means but I remember having a hell of a fun time watching it with friends back when you could actually get a group of people together to watch wrestling.
ReplyDeleteIt just seemed out of his character to me. I expected him to start putting on a dance move. The crash music they later gave him was much better, but I guess you can't fault them for trying to spice up the theme he'd had since 1996.
ReplyDeleteOh, Rock Bottom. Where Goldust got 1987 Hulk Hogan reactions for one night only.
ReplyDeleteI don't miss the smut aspects of wrestling very much.
ReplyDeleteCole just keeps saying something like that every couple of years. Luckily, he got it out of his system at TLC with the "800 lb stairs."
ReplyDeleteI will always love Survivor Series 98 for all the twists and turns on a single story thread throughout the night, because watching that with one friend who was a fan and two friends who were open-minded non-fans was sooo much fun.
ReplyDeleteMan, knowing where the Blue Blazer thing was headed really takes the fun out of it...
ReplyDeleteThis was the first ppv I ordered. I remember loving it back then. Doesnt seem like it's something id like now after reading it though
ReplyDeleteThe only good thing about the techno music is listening to it as austin throws his hat at vince while the crowd goes nuts after mankind winning his first world title on raw shortly after this
ReplyDeleteI remember this show because it was sponsored by the video game Glover, and JR said "Gotta love the glove"
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I watched this on scramblevision and thought the absurdities in the main event were hilarious. It's all so over-the-top stupid that you couldn't help but enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteIt's been nearly 16 years since Owen's tragic death, and yet watching his final run as the Blue Blazer today is no less depressing.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree more. I'm not embarrassed to be watching fake fights,but I always felt stupid when a family member would walk in and there's Sunny stripping. 1. It makes you look like a pervert, and 2. It makes you look like an idiotic pervert,since it never went any further than a Victoria's Secret commercial anyway.
ReplyDeleteMichael Cole's first night, Oct 97 ppv pre-show, DX shoves him around and soaks him in the shower... still amazing
ReplyDeleteHe is a communist, after all.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Logan. I missed this column.
ReplyDeleteWWF being connected with World of Darkness was the weirdest nerd crossover ever.
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