What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw - August 3, 1998

by Logan Scisco

-Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler are doing commentary and they are taped from San Diego, California.

-The Nation of Domination comes out for the opening segment, as the Rock and Owen Hart are facing Steve Austin and the Undertaker for the tag team titles later tonight.  The Rock urges Austin and the Undertaker to come out and immediately defend the titles, but Commissioner Slaughter walks out instead.  The Rock gives him a smackdown on the mic and Austin and the Undertaker arrive.  Austin slides into the ring to fight the Rock and Owen, but the Undertaker gets distracted by Kane near the entrance and does not help his partner.  Mankind and the Undertaker end up brawling near the entrance as Austin takes a beating before recovering and forcing the Rock and Owen to flee.  1 for 1

-Opening Contest:  Golga (w/The Oddities & Sable) beats “Marvelous” Marc Mero (w/Jacqueline) with a seated senton splash at 3:11:

Mero and Jacqueline are sporting the trophy that Jacqueline earned for winning the Fully Loaded bikini contest.  Sable unveils a “surprise” by accompanying Golga to the ring.  Kurrgan and Giant Silva walk out in tuxedos and Kurrgan sings the Miss America song before Luna Vachon walks out.  This was the Oddities face turn and the Jackyl, who had been managing them, is nowhere to be found.  This follows the usual big man-small man formula and when Jacqueline tries to interfere, Luna attacks her.  Silva chokeslams Mero behind the referee’s back and that sets up Golga’s win.  This is prime for a Wrestlecrap induction.  Rating:  * (1 for 2)

-Brawl for All Quarter-Final Match:  The Godfather defeats Scorpio via decision:

Now, readers of this column might say “Wait Logan, I thought Dan Severn already beat the Godfather?” and if you asked that question you would be right.  However, Severn withdrew from the tournament because he said he had nothing to prove, so the Godfather was put back in.  I hate that and would have preferred Scorpio to be given a bye to the semi-finals.  Scorpio rejects the Godfather’s overture to take the hos, which was a bad idea in retrospect because he cannot overcome the Godfather’s size advantage and loses.  Disappointing contest, as I expected Scorpio to try to use takedowns to win the bout.  1 for 3

-Michael Cole interviews the New Age Outlaws, who say that they are not intimidated by Kane & Mankind, who they will face tonight.

-Kane & Mankind (w/Paul Bearer) beat The New Age Outlaws when Kane pins The Road Dogg with a Tombstone at 5:19:

In a smart move, the Outlaws pull Mankind out of the ring and beat him down while Kane is doing his routine of making fire come out of the ring posts.  However, Kane is the real strength of the team and the Outlaws cannot find a way to deal with him.  When the Road Dogg ends up alone with Kane, we get the predictable result of him eating a Tombstone.  You will notice that in these big Outlaws matches the Road Dogg always ends up eating the pin.  This had its moments, but was rushed and messy, especially near the end.  Rating:  *½ (1 for 4)

-Ross and Lawler recap Hawk’s poor condition on last week’s show.  Hawk apologizes for his behavior last week and asks for forgiveness.

-Jeff Jarrett and Tennessee Lee say that Jarrett is going to scare Hawk straight “Jeff Jarrett style,” whatever that means.

-Hawk pins “Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) with a neckbreaker at 2:31:

Hawk is not under the influence this week, so he is able to perform his usual trademark moves and no sells.  Jarrett is recently having trouble with Tennessee Lee, who keeps botching interference, and after Lee fails to get his belt off in time for Jarrett to use it, Hawk catches the country music star off guard to pick up a win.  After the bout, Southern Justice attack the LOD because, you know, Godwinns-LOD set the world on fire in 1997.

-Vince McMahon walks to the ring with his stooges.  He predicts a tag team title change tonight and continues to advance his theory that the Undertaker and Kane are working together.  He asks the Undertaker to come out and explain himself based on last week’s show, where Kane attacked Austin as the Undertaker looked on in the ring.  Austin crashes the party before the Undertaker can say a word and says he only wants to beat the Undertaker at SummerSlam.  As Austin leaves, the Undertaker tells him that McMahon wants them to fight among themselves and offers to give Austin one of the tag team title belts.  Austin accepts and the Undertaker makes it clear that he is going to be watching Austin’s back to keep him safe for SummerSlam.  This was a nice way to pay off the Undertaker walking around with both tag team titles since Fully Loaded.  2 for 5

-The Rock tells the commentary team that he could care less about Austin and the Undertaker’s issues.

-Highlights from the Intercontinental title triple threat match on last week’s RAW constitute the Stridex Triple Action segment.

-#1 Contender’s Match for the Intercontinental Championship:  Triple H (w/Chyna) beats X-Pac with a Pedigree at 5:04:

Triple H is on Pacific Blue this week!  This is our usual solid Kliq matchup, with Triple H targeting X-Pac’s neck in the early going and X-Pac making a rally at the end.  Chyna, who should be impartial in the match, trips X-Pac before he can do a Bronco Buster and that results in Triple H taking advantage of the situation and getting an Intercontinental title shot against the Rock at SummerSlam.  After the match, X-Pac argues with Triple H, who feigns ignorance about Chyna’s interference.  Rating:  **¼ (3 for 6)

-Val Venis & Taka Michinoku wrestle Dick Togo & Funaki (w/Yamaguchi-San, Men’s Teoh & Yamaguchi-San’s Wife) to a no-contest at 1:43:

Ross gives me a good laugh by saying that San Diego is “Ryan Leaf country.”  I bet you cannot find a single person in San Diego today that would refer to Leaf in such glowing terms.  I like how we still do not have a name for Yamagachi-San’s wife despite her being on television for nearly a month at this point.  When Venis goes to tag in Michinoku after absorbing some of Kaientai’s early offense, Michinoku dropkicks him in the face, thereby turning heel.  You see, Mrs. Yamaguchi-San is Michinoku’s sister.  Kaientai beat Venis up and carry him backstage, where no one seems to care that he might get his private region severed.

-European Championship Match:  D-Lo Brown (w/Mark Henry) beats Dan Severn (w/Steve Blackman) via disqualification when Ken Shamrock interferes at 2:34:

This match was booked after D-Lo antagonized Severn and got him to interfere in a match against Ken Shamrock on Sunday Night Heat.  The same situation takes place here, as Severn has Brown on the ropes before Shamrock comes down the ring and takes out Mark Henry and Brown in view of the referee.  Severn is not happy about this development to say the least.

-D-Lo celebrates his victory, but Edge comes out of nowhere and attacks him by the entrance before walking away.  When D-Lo comes to, he has no idea what happened.

-Kaientai is shown beating down Venis some more backstage.  It’s funny to hear Ross try to verbally reprimand them like a parent:  “Don’t do that!  Stop that!”

-Tiger Ali Singh, who has not been seen on WWF television since 1997, when he was referred to as a can’t miss prospect, comes out.  This time, he is sporting a mixture of an anti-American and million dollar man gimmick where he pays audience members to do degrading things.  He has his servant Babu select an obese American woman from the crowd and pays her $500 for each piece of clothing she takes off.  The facial expressions of some people in the audience to this is priceless.  The woman goes to take off her bra, but Singh changes the rules and pays her to put clothes back on.  Singh was pretty entertaining in this segment.  Unfortunately for him, his ring work was awful.  4 for 7

-Backstage, Yamaguchi-San has the camera crew leave Kaientai’s locker room, where they are carrying Val Venis to a cutting board.

-Call 815-734-1161 to get your Steve Austin 3:16 baseball jersey $39.99 (plus $9 shipping & handling)!

-WWF Tag Team Championship Match:  “Stone Cold” Steve Austin & The Undertaker (Champions) defeat The Rock & Owen Hart when The Undertaker pins Owen Hart with a Tombstone at 11:12:

Austin is a one man heat machine as the crowd eats up everything he does or has done to him.  Owen and the Rock keep cheating as much as they can to maintain the advantage, but eventually Austin fights out of a Sharpshooter and a Rock Bottom to get the Undertaker into the match, where the fate of the heels is eventually sealed.  It’s hard to tell how much genuine heat this had based on it being a taped show, but you could tell by the crowd’s physical reactions that they really got into his match.  The beginning stages with the Undertaker were slow, but Austin really took things up a notch when he got in the ring and in peril.  Rating:  *** (5 for 8)

-After the bell, Mankind hits the ring and puts the Undertaker in a Mandible Claw.  As Austin is still fighting the Rock near the announce table, Kane steps into the ring and smashes Mankind with a chair, although he may have been aiming for the Undertaker.  The Undertaker takes the chair, but instead of hitting Kane, he hits Mankind again.  The New Age Outlaws hit the ring to go after Kane and the Undertaker, but Austin comes back to aid his partner.

-WWF officials are shown breaking down the door to Kaientai’s dressing room and find Val Venis held up with his tights down.  Yamaguchi-San has a sword held up high and he comes down with it, but the lights in the room go dark and that ends the show.

The Final Report Card:  If you watch this RAW, go ahead and skip ahead to the McMahon-Austin-Undertaker segment because the first half of this show was awful.  After McMahon’s segment, the show righted itself and we got a fun main event to close.  The “choppy choppy” angle is silly, but it is one of those over the top angles that you can sit back and get a good laugh out of sixteen years later.  I wouldn’t recommend showing it to a new fan, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad when looking back at one of the high points of WWF history.

Monday Night War Rating:  4.9 (vs. 4.2 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Up