What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - June 1, 1998

by Logan Scisco

-Vince McMahon narrates a video package where he hilariously says that last night’s WWF title match was fair, that Dude Love lost because of his own incompetent, and Austin will go down as one of the most “cold hearted” WWF superstars of all-time after last night.  Imagine Vince’s crazy Survivor Series lead-in packages and that’s what this was all about.

-Jim Ross and Michael Cole are in the booth and they are live from Chicago, Illinois.

-Mick Foley, still displaying parts of the Dude Love persona, kicks off the broadcast sitting in a chair in the middle of the ring and admits that Steve Austin kicked his ass last night at Over the Edge.  He calls out Vince McMahon and apologies to him for letting him down, but hopes he can still be the number one contender after the great match he had last night.  McMahon demands that Foley get on his knees if he wants to apologize, but Foley refuses and admits that hitting McMahon with a chair last night felt good.  McMahon dares Foley hit him with a chair again, but makes clear that doing so will risk his financial future.  After Foley backs down, McMahon announces that Foley’s services are no longer required because where Steve Austin makes him money, Foley just makes him sick.  The Dude Love theme plays and McMahon dances around Foley.  Segments like this are why the Mr. McMahon persona has a claim as the greatest heel of all time and this exposes the Big Show-Authority debacle earlier in the year as awful.  1 for 1

-LOD 2000, Darren Drozdov, and Sunny are shown waiting backstage for the Disciples of Apocalypse because they are having a Chicago street fight against them tonight.

-Opening Chicago Street Fight:  LOD 2000 & Darren Drozdov (w/Sunny) battle The Disciples of Apocalypse to a no contest at 4:04:

This entire match unfolds by the arena entrance and its lots of mindless garbage brawling.  It devolves into a war of attrition as the LOD and Skull and 8-Ball take each other out, leaving Chainz and Droz brawling alone.  Their brawl causes them to collide with the Undertaker, who is entering the arena, and he lays them both out.  Well, that was a big waste of time.  Rating:  ¼* (1 for 2)

-The Undertaker is shown interrogating people in the backstage area about Vince McMahon’s whereabouts.

-Val Venis pins Papi Chulo with the Money Shot at 3:36:

Papi Chulo is Aguila without the mask since the light heavyweight division doesn’t matter anymore.  Chulo gets in a few token moves, but this is a squash to continue building up Venis.  This did a better job showcasing Venis’s skills than his debut against 2 Cold Scorpio.  2 for 3

-Call 815-734-1161 to get your “Don’t Trust Anybody” Steve Austin t-shirt for $25 (plus $6 shipping & handling)!

-The Undertaker is in the ring after the commercial break cuts arguably his best promo about how Vince McMahon took advantage of his loyalty to the company and made him squash giants to protect himself and his handpicked champions.  He claims that McMahon does not want him representing the company and demands a WWF title shot.  McMahon comes out, riles the Undertaker up, and books him tonight in a number one contender’s match against Kane.

-The Undertaker’s chokeslam of Pat Patterson through an announce table at Over the Edge is the JVC Kaboom! of the Week.  Patterson deserved some type of financial bonus for taking that bump because he completely laid out for it.

-The announce crew recaps what happened in the Sable-Marc Mero match last night at Over the Edge.

-King of the Ring Qualifying Match:  “Marvelous” Marc Mero (w/Jacqueline) beats “The Lethal Weapon” Steve Blackman with the Wild Thing at 2:55:

This is our first qualifying match for the 1998 King of the Ring Tournament and this year’s tournament, like previous years, will see the semi-finals showcased on pay-per-view.  Since that’s the case, I’m not sure why they continue to call these qualifying matches as opposed to first round matches.  Anyway, before the match, Mero introduces Jacqueline, known to USWA fans as Miss Texas, as his new valet.  Jacqueline distracts the referee to help Mero hit his usual low blow, but Mero finishes Blackman with the Wild Thing instead of the TKO.  In a funny spot, Cole yells “TKO!” after Mero hits a Samoan Drop before the Wild Thing and Ross has to correct him.  Cole also can’t remember whether it has been years or months since the Wild Thing was last used by Mero.  Is this match a sign of a new push for Mero?  Time will tell as Mero now moves on to face either Jeff Jarrett or Faarooq in the first round.

-Steve Austin’s appearance of Madcow’s radio show is shown.

-Edge’s new vignette announces that he is both light and dark, nothing and everything, as well as everywhere and invisibile.

-Jerry “the King” Lawler joins Ross for hour two.

-Six-Man Elimination Match:  The Rock, Owen Hart & D-Lo Brown beats Triple H & The New Age Outlaws when Owen Hart becomes the sole survivor after Ken Shamrock interferes at 7:28 shown:

Previous Eliminations:  Billy Gunn pins D-Lo Brown with a piledriver at 1:29; The Rock pins The Road Dogg with a Rock Bottom at 2:25; Owen Hart pins Billy Gunn with a spinning heel kick at 3:47; Triple H pins the Rock with a Pedigree at 6:56

Commissioner Slaughter does his overdone shtick of sending Chyna, X-Pac, Kama Mustafa, and Mark Henry to the locker room before this match.  Chyna is allowed to come back down to the ring after Triple H is left against Owen and the Rock, which makes no sense, and she distracts Owen to facilitate the Rock’s elimination.  However, we don’t get another chapter of Triple H-Owen as Ken Shamrock attacks Owen for a big pop.  Yet another example of how feuds carefully overlapped during the Attitude Era and made weekly television exciting.  I am a mark for elimination matches, but the eliminations in this happened too quickly for TV time constraints.  The crowd was buzzing for the whole match, though.  Rating:  **½ (3 for 4)

-After the bell, the Nation of Domination attacks Shamrock and Dan Severn makes the save.  Shamrock and Severn have a brief staredown, which excites the Chicago crowd, but they do not physically engage.  After Severn leaves, Triple H attacks Shamrock when it is announced that Owen won by disqualification and WWF officials have to separate them.

-Vince McMahon is shown shaking hands with Kane in the locker room as Paul Bearer looks on approvingly.

-Tennessee Lee introduces his newest tag team, Southern Justice, who are the Godwinns in suits.  Their purpose is to serve as Jeff Jarrett’s backup.

-King of the Ring Qualifying Match:  “Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee & Southern Justice) beats Faarooq after hitting Faarooq with a belt buckle at 3:21:

The Chicago crowd works up a mocking “We want Flair!” chant at Jarrett early in this bout.  Once Southern Justice were welcomed out this match ceased to have much suspense.  As I said in the Over the Edge review, Faarooq has very little identity as a face, even more so now that his feud with the Nation has died off, so Jarrett going over in this bad match is the right call here.  Rating:  * (3 for 5)

-A video package hypes the charity work of the McMahon family.  This would have made a great campaign commercial for Linda’s Senate campaign.

-WWF Light Heavyweight Championship Match:  Taka Michinoku (w/Bradshaw) defeats Funaki (w/Kaientai) with the Michinoku Driver at 3:11:

I bet Dick Togo was angry that he did not get a title shot after taking Michinoku to the limit on last week’s show.  Al Snow makes an appearance at ringside, dressed in stereotypical Japanese clothing and posing as a ringside photographer, but he is soon evicted.  A fun, fast paced match between these two that is a breath of fresh air after the last bout.  It’s just a shame that Michinoku didn’t get to wrestle the members of Kaientai in longer singles matches on RAW.  Rating:  **¼ (4 for 6)

-Paul Bearer tells Jim Ross from the backstage area that his son is bound to be WWF champion and he can defeat the Undertaker on tonight’s show.

-Al Snow yells at the Head in the parking lot for causing them to get evicted from the show.

-Vince McMahon comes by to do commentary duties with Ross and Lawler for the rest of the show.

-King of the Ring Qualifying Match:  Mark Henry pins Terry Funk with a splash at 4:54:

Despite being in the company since 1996, Henry only has a handful of RAW in-ring appearances to his credit because of injuries.  Funk does a fantastic job walking him through his match, which features Funk using everything he knows, from chairs to an Asai moonsault to take the bigger Henry down and failing in the end due to age and Henry’s brute strength.  I probably overrated this, but I enjoyed the story it told, which was better than any other match that has been on the show tonight.  Rating:  *** (5 for 7)

-WWF Champion Steve Austin comes out to do commentary for the next match with Ross, Lawler, and McMahon.

-#1 Contender’s Match for the WWF Championship:  Kane (w/Paul Bearer) defeats The Undertaker with a Tombstone after Mankind interferes at 6:27:

In terms of wins and losses, it is really unfair to make the Undertaker beat Kane for a third time to get a title show since he beat him at WrestleMania and in an Inferno Match at Unforgiven.  It’s sort of like how it is tough for a sports team to beat another team three times in the course of a season.  It’s funny to hear McMahon question whether the Undertaker is too old in this match and he and Austin have some entertaining banter on commentary, although it comes close to overwhelming the match.  Forced to work at a faster pace for television, this is the best encounter between these two so far and Kane gets the title shot at the King of the Ring thanks to Mick Foley’s interference.  Rating:  **½ (6 for 8)

-After the match, Kane looks over Austin at the announce table and Austin takes exception to that and the crowd wants a brawl.  However, Kane just motions that the title will soon be around his waist and his pyro goes off as he walks to the back.  The Undertaker revives and fights with Mankind and that convinces Vince McMahon to tell Ross that he might just rehire Foley since he is showing him some guts.

The Final Report Card:  This was Chicago, so a hot crowd could be expected, but the crowd heat for the entire show was off the charts and the WWE would kill for a crowd like this today.  It’s a testament to how well the entire card has been built from the recently debuted Val Venis all the way to Austin.  Vince McMahon's awesome character also carried the first hour of the show and properly advanced the major angles.  The ending was not as hot as previous RAWs and they would have been better served just having the Undertaker and Mankind brawl to the back than staging an average brawl around the ring as the show played out, but that’s a minor complaint.  EASY thumbs up this week.

Monday Night War Rating:  4.4 (vs. 3.7 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up