What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – October 19, 1998

–A video package
recaps Vince McMahon firing Steve Austin last night at Judgment Day.

–Jim Ross and Jerry
“The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

–All of the WWF
superstars head to the ring for an announcement from Vince McMahon.  McMahon comes out and announces that a one
night, sixteen man tournament will take place at the Survivor Series to
crown a new WWF champion.  McMahon closes
by saying that he hopes all of the superstars in the ring learned not to cross
him last night and that a new saying will be sweeping the country that says “McMahon
3:16:  I have the brass to fire your ass.”  What makes this segment funny is Mankind
eating everything up in the ring as he continues to try to suck up to McMahon.  Before McMahon leaves, though, Austin is
shown with a rifle on the Titantron.  We
go to break after that.  1 for 1

–The stooges and
the Big Bossman accompany McMahon to his locker room.  He sends the Bossman to get his family
and get out of town.  Austin is shown in
his truck polishing a rifle.  This has a plot
hole in the sense that McMahon could just call the cops and have Austin removed
for constituting a threat.

–Footage of
D-Generation X visiting Motley Crew’s tour bus is shown.

–Opening Non-Title
Contest:  X-Pac (European Champion w/Chyna)
pins Ken Shamrock (Intercontinental Champion) after the X-Factor after Mankind
interferes at 4:15:

This is obviously a rematch from last week’s
Intercontinental title tournament final. 
You know that plot hole I talked about above?  Well, they go backstage and close it by
saying that police officers have been called to the arena.  Speaking of police, officers come to
ringside, handcuff Chyna, and take her backstage.  All of that is probably due to Mark Henry’s
sexual harassment lawsuit.  Watching
these 1998 X-Pac matches, he missed the Bronco Buster in nearly each big
match.  Mankind wanders out to ringside and despite putting Shamrock in
the Mandible Claw, the referee does not call for a disqualification and X-Pac
capitalizes to win.  Rating:  ** (1 for 1)

–Police put Chyna
in a cruiser and send her away.  Officers
then approach Austin in his truck, but seem more interested in getting his
autograph than investigating him.  One of
the officers kids is named Bret.  Not
sure if that is an intentional reference or not.  McMahon has a meltdown backstage that the
officers did not do anything.  After the
commercial break, McMahon demands that an officer go after Austin, but the
officer refuses to “put their life in danger” and leaves.

–The Headbangers
defeat LOD 2000 (w/Hawk) when Thrasher pins Droz with a schoolboy at 1:54:

The Headbangers make fun of the New Age Outlaws
introduction and wear toy tag team title belts. 
You see, they think they are the rightful tag team champions after
beating the Outlaws by disqualification last night at Judgment Day.  This Headbangers push is so random since they
meant very little throughout 1998 up to this point, but the tag division is
pretty light on heel teams.  Somehow,
Droz does not break his neck before the awful D-Lo incident in this match when
the Headbangers drop him right on his head when trying a double inverted
suplex.  This abbreviated match ends when
Droz gets distracted by Hawk and rolled up. 
Did Hawk do it on purpose?

–The stooges leave
McMahon alone to get coffee, hilariously falling over themselves with excuses
to leave.  Mankind visits McMahon after
the break and brings him some candy.  For
once, McMahon is happy to see Mankind since he has no protection from Austin.

–The Undertaker and
Paul Bearer, newly reunited at Judgment Day, come to the ring.  The Undertaker announces that Bearer will
help him lead his Ministry of Darkness.  Evidently
Bearer has helped refocus the Undertaker on what is important and the
Undertaker promises to unleash a plague on the rest of the WWF.  Bearer proclaims that he has used Kane his
entire life because he is weak and stupid and that the last straw of their
relationship was when Kane refused his help last night.  In response to that, Ross says that Bearer is
a “rotund demon.”  This segment is
important for the Kane-Undertaker storyline because the Undertaker takes
responsibility for setting the fire that killed their parents.  The Undertaker admits to committing homicide
on national television because he wanted to kill his weak brother.  I am glad that all the cops in the arena
tonight have more important things to do! 
Kane walks out and challenges his brother to a casket match tonight.  At least when we got repetitive matches in
the past they put a stipulation on it.  3 for 3

–Mankind and
McMahon have a bonding experience, with Mankind saying that McMahon should hire
Austin back so they can form a clique of them, Austin, and Mr. Socko.  Mankind tries to get McMahon to play Twister
and McMahon goes on a tirade and kicks him out. 
Ah, back when the WWF could do good humor.  4 for
4

–Steve Blackman
beats “Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra McMichael) via disqualification when the
Blue Blazer interferes at 2:27:

Jarrett promised a surprise for this show and that was welcoming back the “dumb blonde” he ranted about being paired
with in WCW when he came back to the company in the fall of 1997.  This is a complete sellout of Jarrett’s
entire justification for coming back to the company as he criticized the
country music gimmick too, yet reverted to that by the spring.  Criticisms aside, this marked a transition of
the Jarrett character from the Southern Justice era to a more serious commodity.  The crowd works up its crude chant for Debra
to show her assets, which makes me wonder if that is why the WWF created the “puppies”
chant as a tamer version.  Blackman nails
Jarrett with his pump kick, but the Blue Blazer runs in and gives Blackman a
belly-to-belly suplex, thereby causing a disqualification.

–After the bell,
Jarrett prepares to hit Blackman with his guitar, but Al Snow steps into the
ring.  However, Debra distracts Snow and
he ends up eating the guitar shot instead.

–A phone rings in
McMahon’s locker room and like a horror film he agonizes over whether he should
answer it.  Austin is on the other end
and tells McMahon that his time is up and he is coming to get him.  The stooges are taking a really long coffee
break.  After the commercial break,
McMahon is on the phone with his limo driver and tries to arrange an
escape.  He carefully drives his
wheelchair to the parking lot, but when he gets to his limo Austin is inside
and takes control of McMahon’s wheelchair, directing him back into the arena
with his compound bow in tow.  As Austin
harasses McMahon, intentionally driving him into door and walls, none of the
other WWF employees seem to care and many of them take pictures of the event.  As McMahon screams about his ankle, Austin tells
him he used to work in the hospital and can fix it, but that just makes McMahon
panic more.  Austin directs McMahon back
to his locker room and slams the door in the cameraman’s face.  5 for
5

–X-Pac’s X-Factor
to D-Lo Brown at Judgment Day is the WWF Warzone Slam of the Week.

–Austin asks
McMahon if he has ever been hunting and McMahon says yes, but he never killed
anything.  McMahon admits that it was
just a safari and he just took pictures. 
In response, Austin pulls out a knife and asks whether he thinks it
would be enough to kill an elephant. 
These segments are awesome.

–The Rock beats
D-Lo Brown (w/Mark Henry) with a Rock Bottom at 3:43:

The Rock has some AWFUL theme music here that has a disco
spin on the narrative part of his theme. 
It is one of the worst themes I have ever heard and thank god they
changed it because you just cannot imagine the Rock as a main eventer with it.  D-Lo tries to rally after getting hit with a
People’s Elbow, but jumps into a Rock Bottom for the finish.  D-Lo needs to quit doing that.  Rating:  ** (6 for 6)

–After the match,
D-Lo and Henry beat on the Rock and Henry gives him a splash as WWF officials
intervene.

–Austin continues
to threaten McMahon with his knife, even motioning to stab him.  Austin tells McMahon not to worry because
when he finishes him off tonight he will go quickly.  Austin then moves to explaining what damage a
compound hunting bow can do.

–Tiger Ali Singh is
back after a prolonged absence.  Babu
acts as if he is cooking on a grill and Ali offers $500 to a person to swallow
the cassava he has prepared.  A sketchy
older woman is drawn from the crowd and does it.  The Godfather comes in at the end and says
that the woman who swallowed the cassava used to be one of his hos and as a
result he is entitled to some of her income. 
Tiger Ali Singh takes exception to that, but the guy cannot even brawl
properly.  Effective use of the Godfather
that saved this embarrassing segment.  7 for 7

–Austin forces
McMahon to squeal like a pig under threat of getting shot with a bow.  He moves to re-enact the scene from Misery
where Kathy Bates breaks James Caan’s legs. 
Austin places a piece of lumber between McMahon’s legs and goes to find
a sledgehammer.  Chances are he will not
be able to find one because Triple H has the only one in his possession.

–Ross and Lawler
recap the Goldust-Val Venis match from Judgment Day.

–Val Venis
(w/Terri Runnels) pins Mankind after Ken Shamrock interferes at 3:33:

Venis is still selling the effects of Goldust’s low blow
from the previous evening.  Lawler spends
part of the match wondering if Venis and the Godfather ho in the Tiger Ali
segment have ever gotten together. 
Mankind applies the Mandible Claw, but Ken Shamrock wanders out and
smashes Mankind in the knee with a chair, causing him to lose this boring
match.  Rating:  * (7 for 8)

–After the match,
Mankind and Shamrock brawl into the crowd. 
Goldust comes on the Titantron after that and tells Venis that he is
going to keep shattering his dreams.  The
best part of this promo is that Goldust goes back to quoting movie lines, which
was his specialty in 1995 and 1996. 
After the promo, Terri tells Venis something that he is disgusted with
and walks off.  It does not take a genius
to figure out what that was to the astute viewer.

–Austin promises
McMahon that he is going to carry out his plans for him tonight and that
McMahon will not feel anything.  They bet
on who will win the casket match and McMahon reluctantly picks Kane.  Austin says if Kane wins they will do things
the easy way, but any other outcome will mean the hard way.

–Casket
Match:  Kane wrestles The Undertaker
(w/Paul Bearer) to a no contest at 4:48:

This is the first WWF casket match to ever air on free
television.  The match features a weird
spot where the Undertaker closes the casket on both men and they proceed to
rumble around in there and destroy it. 
After laying Kane out with a chair, the Undertaker and Bearer leave and
that’s that.  Wow, what a complete waste
of time.  Can they not give Kane ONE win
over the Undertaker in a singles match of some sort?  Rating:  DUD (7 for 9)

–Austin wheels
McMahon out to the ring and in a tribute to the Running Man, they rehash
McMahon’s bold words from earlier in the evening.  He gives McMahon a letter, which he says
McMahon will not like, and has McMahon face the Titantron.  Austin puts a gun to McMahon’s head and pulls
the trigger, but it’s a toy that says “Bang 3:16.”  Austin calls attention to the fact that
McMahon has wet himself and gives him a Stone Cold Stunner.  One of the better endings in RAW history.   8 for 10