Happy Saturday Everyone!
Today we return to a review theme we’ve had on here before, by looking at a one match show where only one contest has stood the test of time in the general consciousness of the average wrestling fan. This time out we’ve got WWF Over The Edge 1998, a show with a highly regarded and much loved Main Event…and very little else.
The Main Event between Dude Love and Stone Cold is fantastic though, so that’s a bonus. Let’s see how the rest of the card shapes up all of these years later. I actually have Over The Edge 1998 on VHS and used to watch it a lot back in the day, so even if the overall show isn’t amazing I do have a lot of nostalgia for it.
You can view the card by clicking the link below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2018&page=3
The event is emanating from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the 31st of May 1998
Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler
We get the usual great opening video package, highlighting how Vince McMahon wants Stone Cold to conform and do as he’s told, whilst Austin of course refuses. Interestingly they play the song that would become the Brawl 4 All theme over the top of it for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.
Opening Match
The Disciples Of Apocalypse (Skull and 8-Ball) w/ Chainz Vs The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) w/ Sunny and Droz
This was during the “LOD 2000” phase of The Roadie’s career, as they were paired up with Sunny and given some new attire in a hope of rejuvenating their careers, but it didn’t end up working that way and ended with Hawk falling off the titantron. DOA had been babyfaces since their first arrival in 1997, but it was decided to freshen then up with a Heel turn and eventually they’d be paired up with Paul Ellering in a further effort to get them over.
The Road Warriors were of course a big act in the AWA, a promotion that used to run in this neck of the woods regularly, so they get a decent crowd reaction here. Sunny hadn’t gone off a cliff with her personal issues yet at this stage so she looks pretty great in her bikini outfit, although some chump in the crowd blocks the camera during her entrance with a sign. I sometimes think Attitude Era fans just came to the show to wave their signs and didn’t really care about any of the wrestling going on.
Chainz and Droz would like to get involved in this one as well, but it’s a tag match instead and they quickly retreat to the role of corner men following an initial pier six brawl. There’s not a lot of actual wrestling going in on this one, as it’s mostly all four guys slugging one another, but it’s fought at a reasonably quick pace considering the size of everyone involved and it’s fine for an opener. Jim Ross of course loves making all of the historical references to The Road Warriors’ past success, whilst Lawler does a good job getting across how Sunny has revitalised the team.
The Road Warriors get the babyface shine to start, but then Hawk misses a clothesline off the top and that leads to Chainz giving Hawk a cheap shot out on the floor for the cut off. DOA work some heat on Hawk following that, with Hawk doing an okay job of selling it and the offence from the Heels being basic but mostly solid. You’re not going to get exciting high flying action in this one, but for two hefty blokes working over another hefty bloke, the heat segment is serviceable and DOA make sure to cheat on occasion in order to ram home that they are the bad guys.
Animal and Sunny both do a decent job on the apron and at ringside respectively of trying to get the crowd behind Hawk, so the match does at least have some interest from the crowd, although they don’t make a lot of noise following the initial exchanges, which is going to happen with crowds from this Era. It was a bit of shift from TV to pay per view a lot of the time during this Era, as pay per view crowds were probably coming expecting to get a show like Raw but the pay per views were usually more wrestling focused, which a lot of the ticket buying crowd possibly weren’t into.
Animal eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, getting a nice counter to a double back suplex from DOA where he flips over to land on his feet and deliver a big double clothesline. Skull and 8-Ball try doing the old Killer Bees switcheroo gimmick, but Droz notices it and then clobbers the fresh DOA member so that Animal can get a Powerslam for the win. I don’t mind that as a finish as the Heels were already cheating so it kind of served them right, although the negative was that the DOA member clearly looked at Droz before hitting the ropes first, which took away from the finish somewhat and made him look a bit silly.
WINNERS: THE ROAD WARRIORS
RATING: *3/4
Thoughts: This was okay, and if they’d executed the finish properly I probably would have added an extra ¼* to the rating. DOA were a solid, if unexciting, team and The Road Warriors still had a bit of juice in them thanks to the makeover, although that would eventually ebb away when they started doing the angle where Droz was supposedly getting Hawk high in order to discredit him and take his place in the team with Animal
The post-match replay only rams home the silliness with the finish.
WWF Intercontinental Champ The Rock joins us for some promo time, where he insults the crowd. Milwaukee is known for its beer, which Rock claims is because the women are so ugly that it’s the only way the men can find them attractive. Rock was still ironing the kinks out of his character at this stage, but you could see he was well on his way and this was a good promo on his part. Faarooq eventually runs out and tries to give Rock a piledriver on a chair, although he pretty much misses the chair in the process. This is so we can do an injury angle with Rock later on. It would have worked better if Faarooq had actually made the piledriver look like how it was supposed to.
Michael Cole is backstage with WWF Champ Steve Austin, who tells Cole that he’s a “Silly B£st£ard” and that no one has stepped up to watch his back in the Main Event later on.
Match Two
Double J Jeff Jarrett w/ Tennessee Lee Vs The Lethal Weapon Steve Blackman
Jarrett had come back to the WWF in 1997 with a more serious gimmick for about a week until they made him into an Aztec Warrior. When that flopped, they made him a country singer again. Blackman ruined Jarrett’s musical gig back at the April pay per view, so now we have a match to settle things. No offence intended for Blackman, but this is a bit of step down for Jarrett considering that Jarrett’s initial pay per view return in December 97 had seen him wrestle The Undertaker.
Lee is Colonel Rob Parker with a new WWFised name, and he was gone by the time the summer rolled around, which is a shame as he’s a decent manager, but once Jarrett dropped this gimmick there wasn’t really much need for him to stick around. This is a decent match actually, as they work pretty well together and Jarrett does a good job of bumping around in order to make Blackman look good. The match is reacting in crowd reactions, but the actual wrestling is fine.
Blackman gets the babyface shine to start and looks good, getting some nice high impact offence such as a Missile Dropkick, which Jarrett takes well. Lee eventually distracts Blackman though and that allows Jarrett to cut Blackman off and work some heat. Al Snow has snuck into the show in stereotypical Mexican bandit outfit, complete with a sombrero for the Head, and is sitting at the Spanish commentary table here. The story they were going for was that Al Snow wanted a meeting with Vince McMahon in order to get a gig with the WWF, and he was sneaking in to shows in order to try and achieve it, with Lawler stringing him along in storyline.
Snow eventually gets taken out of the building by security, as I feel sorry for the lads in the match as they already had an uphill battle with the crowd here and this has just detracted from the match even more. We get two double downs in this one, which feels a bit excessive when you consider how un-over the match itself is with the crowd, but I can’t deny that the work has been solid. Blackman eventually makes the comeback, getting a nice spin kick in the process, which leads to Lee once again getting involved.
The ref gets distracted by Lee’s shenanigans, which leads to Jarrett trying to use one of Blackman’s martial arts sticks for the win. Blackman fights that off and ends up hitting Jarrett with it instead, which gets two when Jarrett gets his foot on the ropes. Blackman tries heading up top following that, but Lee cracks him with the stick whilst the ref isn’t looking and that’s enough for Jarrett to get a three count.
WINNER: DOUBLE J
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: Decent match actually, the crowd just didn’t really care about it and the Al Snow silliness detracted from it somewhat.
We get clips from Raw, where Marc Mero challenges Sable to find an opponent for him tonight.
Match Three
Lucha de Apuestas
Sable’s Contract Vs Sables’ Career
Marvellous Marc Mero Vs Sable’s handpicked wrestler
Mero and Sable had been at each other’s throats for months, with Mero still holding onto Sable’s contract and refusing to let her to go out on her own. That was a particular trope that Vince Russo liked to use a lot. Anyway, Mero said that he would tear the contract up and allows Sable to go out on her own if she could find a wrestler to defeat him here tonight, but if her handpicked wrestler lost then she would have to leave the WWF forever.
Sable is dressed to fight here, saying that she don’t need no man to fight her battles for her. Well, the Spice Girls were big at the time, so Girl Power™ was in. It’s rare for a woman on a Vince Russo booked show to behave in such an honourable manner to be honest; I guess he was feeling slightly less misogynistic that week. Mero pretends to have had a change of heart and lies down for Sable to earn her freedom, but it’s of course a SWERVE and he counters to pick up the three count.
WINNER: MARC MERO
RATING: N/A
Thoughts: This was an angle instead of a match, with Mero entering a strong performance. The fans didn’t really buy that he was going to follow through on his promise though, which made Sable look kind of dumb for falling for it. This was probably better than Mero just having a match with a random dude though. In all honesty, if they wanted to do this stipulation then they needed to pick someone to fight for Sable and build it up for a while so that this match would have felt important rather than an almost throwaway outing
Mero of course celebrates that like he just won the WWF Title at WrestleMania, whilst Jim Ross is appalled on commentary. Sable would soon be back to work for Vince McMahon in storyline, whilst Mero would try to replace her with Jackie Moore. Sable tries to sell that she’s all upset here, but her acting skills aren’t on the same level of Mero’s.
Michael Cole tries interviewing Sable following that, where she thanks the fans and says goodbye.
Michael Hayes is the locker room with The Nation, where he tells Rock that Commissioner Slaughter is demanding that Rock defend his Title later or he’ll be stripped of the belt.
Match Four
Three on Two Handicap Match
Kai-En-Tai (Dick Togo, Sho Funaki and Mens Teioh) w/ Wally Yamaguchi Vs Blackjack Bradshaw and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion TAKA Michinoki
Kai-En-Tai had arrived in the WWF to bolster the lighter weight division and also give TAKA some fresh opponents, even though he had actually been aligned with them back in Japan. TAKA and Bradshaw had been doing an unlikely duo thing, where Bradshaw had been trying to teach TAKA what it means to be an American. I assume the major part of that was to not get ill unless you’re prepared to sell your house in order to pay for treatment first.
The story of this match is pretty straightforward; when Bradshaw is in there the smaller Japanese lads are in trouble, but they can handle TAKA quite easily and spend most of the match battering him. I think they could have at least let TAKA hold his own with them until they had to cheat to cut him off. This match just makes all of the Japanese wrestlers look silly to one degree or another, as the Heels can’t do anything with Bradshaw and TAKA can’t do anything with them, so all the match serves to do is make Bradshaw look good at the expense of everyone else.
The actual wrestling from the Japanese wrestlers is good when they’re given opportunities to showcase it, with TAKA taking some nice bumps for the Heels and looking good when he’s allowed to get some offence of his own, including an Asai Moonsault at one stage out onto future partner Funaki. TAKA takes an absolute kicking from the Heels following that big move though, with them easily besting him in 1 V 1 situations.
TAKA eventually manages to tag in Bradshaw, which leads to Bradshaw running wild like King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania III, with even Ross referencing Gulliver’s Travels on commentary. This sort of booking just makes the lighter weight wrestlers look silly, even though the Heels are all taking great bumps for the much bigger Bradshaw. TAKA comes in again but he’s quickly cut off and Dick Togo comes off the top rope with a leaping Back Senton Splash and that’s three.
WINNERS: KAI-EN-TAI
RATING: **
Thoughts: The wrestling was mostly fine here but the booking was head scratching as Bradshaw destroyed all of the Heels, who then subsequently destroyed TAKA, making everyone look lesser in the process outside of Bradshaw, which I’m guessing was the point all along…
Sable is leaving the arena.
WWF Attitude video plays, which I can pretty much recite from memory, which shows how effective a marketing scheme it was.
Match Five
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: The Rock Vs Faarooq
Rock had kicked Faarooq out of The Nation of Domination, so Faarooq is looking for revenge. Commissioner Slaughter joins us when Rock doesn’t enter at first, saying that Rock will be stripped of the belt if he can’t compete. I think we’re supposed to enjoy seeing the Heel get forced into the match like this as it’s comeuppance for him being a jerk, but if anything it kind of makes you feel like he’s being cheated as Faarooq wasn’t really provoked into his prior attack.
Faarooq clobbers Rock to start, but Rock manages to cut him off and work a little bit of heat, delivering The People’s Elbow at one stage, back before it was his finisher. It actually gets a decent reaction from the crowd, but nowhere near to how popular it would eventually become as a big move in Rock’s repertoire. I must say, doing the angle where Rock is too injured to wrestle only for him then to get a sustained period of heat kind of makes Faarooq look super lame as a babyface.
Usually in these sorts of situations it’s the babyface coming in injured and that means you can have the Heel work them over with the babyface occasionally fighting back. It doesn’t really work for a Heel to do that as we’re not supposed to be sympathetic towards them, so you kind of have to work the usual match formula. To do so however makes the babyface look super ineffective as a wrestler because they have to spend big chunks of the match getting worked over by an injured opponent.
They do a really messy spot at one stage where Faarooq gets Rock with a Spine Buster but the spot calls for Rock to get his foot on the rope to break the count, so Faarooq hits the move and then they have to manoeuvre themselves into the right place for the spot to work, meaning there’s a long delay before the pin is even made and Faarooq has to pin Rock in a weird way so that Rock can get the foot on the ropes. Rock then quickly pins Faarooq with his feet on the ropes to end this travesty.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: THE ROCK
RATING: ½*
Thoughts: This was one of Rock’s worst pay per view matches from this Era, as they had no chemistry together as opponents and the match was structured in such a way as to make Faarooq look like a dingus who couldn’t put the Heel Champion away even though he’d been basically served up to him on a silver platter
Faarooq is a sore loser and jumps Rock following the match, leading to The Nation running in to beat up Faarooq. D-Generation X makes the save, as this rubbish segment is mercifully brought to a close.
Match Six
Lucha de Apuestas
Mask Vs Mask
Kane w/ Paul Bearer Vs The Man Called Vader
Vince Russo sure liked stipulations didn’t he? This one came about because Kane had caved Vader’s face in with a wrench, so Vader is looking to take Kane’s mask as part of his restitution. This one doesn’t have a lot of crowd reactions outside of Vader hitting the occasional big move to pop them, possibly because the fans don’t really buy that Vader has a chance of winning. It was certainly way too early into Kane’s run for him to lose his mask, and Vader wasn’t over enough at the time to really claim that sort of scalp.
It’s a better match than I remember it being as its mostly two big blokes slugging away with some power moves thrown in, with the occasional rest hold slowing things down. Vader does get some chants at certain points as the match wears on, so the crowd does seem to like him somewhat. Bearer distracts the referee at one stage, I’m guessing in order to let Kane do something devious, but what instead happens is that Vader finds a wrench and hits Kane with it a couple of times before heading up for the Moonsault. Kane is able to dodge the Moonsault though and then calmly hits Vader with a Tombstone for three.
WINNER: KANE
RATING: **
Thoughts: I think this match is widely disliked, and I remember not enjoying it in my younger days, but looking back at it now it wasn’t the worst big man slugfest I’ve seen. Vader was a bit more over than I remembered him being and Kane’s stuff mostly looked okay, but maybe I’m just being generous?
Kane unmasks Vader following that and hands the mask to Paul Bearer, which allows Bearer to put it on and mug for the crowd like a goof. Michael Cole tries to interview Vader following that, but Vader isn’t really interested and just complains about how big he is. I’m not sure where that was supposed to go in storyline, but I did feel kind of sorry for him at the end, so if that’s what they were going for then it worked.
We now get a pretty infamous segment, where Michael Cole brings down AWA legends Mad Dog Vachon and The Crusher in order to give them a plaque and let them say a few words. It’s actually quite nice at first, but Jerry Lawler gets to be Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn’s avatar by entering the ring and insulting the legends by telling them that no one knows who they are. This leads to a tasteless drawn out segment where Lawler steals Vachon’s false leg and ends up getting clocked by Crusher. Apparently Vince McMahon kept egging on Lawler via his headset to get back into the ring to do more and Lawler was a good soldier who did as he was told. This went from being quite nice to needlessly mean spirited very quickly. Okay Vince, we all feel suitably silly for daring to admit that other wrestling than WWWF/WWF/WWE exists and you certainly showed us. Can we get on with the wrestling pay per view that we bought to watch wrestling on now? Cheers.
Semi-Main
The Nation (Owen Hart, D-Lo Brown and The Godfather) w/ Mark Henry Vs D-Generation X (WWF European Champion Triple H and WWF Tag Team Champions Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) w/ X-Pac and Chyna
The Nation had begun a feud with DX as the newly babyface turned DX needed another faction to feud with. They hadn’t quite got the full DX spiel down yet, but they were getting there. Owen and Triple H had been feuding since the turn of the year, but now they’ve swapped alignments with Owen becoming the Heel and Triple H becoming the Face. Owen is drawing some good heat early on, with the crowd saying that he sucks.
The early exchanges are quite good here, with DX getting the babyface shine and bumping both D-Lo and Owen around a bit, with Owen in particular taking some great bumps. The crowd reactions aren’t quite as good as you’d like it to be, but the work is solid. DX gets a pretty extended shine actually, as they look to be putting in some time in this one. Eventually The Nation manages to cut off Road Dogg thanks to an Owen cheap shot and that’s the Heel heat segment.
Road Dogg sells that well and The Nation are good on offence for the most part outside of a rest hold from Kama that drags. The match continues to have disappointing crowd reactions though and the heat segment does feel like it goes on for too long after a certain point. Gunn eventually gets the hot tag, which leads to everything breaking down as everyone goes at it, including Chyna clocking Henry at one stage. Gunn catches D-Lo with a piledriver on the European Title, but the ref is distracted by the fight going on and that allows Owen to come in a Pedigree Triple H on the belt before stealing the pin. Wow, Hunter beaten by his own move, by Owen Hart no less!
WINNERS: THE NATION
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: A well worked match that probably went on for too long and suffered from a disinterested crowd. If you wrote everything down that happened in this one you’d probably think it was a good match, but in execution it ended up being lesser than the sum of its parts. A solid match for the most part and the finish was certainly a good way to get some heat on the Heels, but overall the match felt flat and it didn’t really deliver what you’d hope it would with so many talented wrestlers all involved in one match
DX checks on the downed Triple H following that whilst The Nation retreats. The replay shows that Triple H was actually the one to bring the belt in, so he was the making of his own destruction there.
We get a video package to hype up the next match.
Michael Hayes is backstage with Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, where Vince insists he will referee the Main Event fairly. However, if Austin attacks Vince then the Title will be stripped. Vince making sure to show off his biceps during the promo is pretty funny I’ll give him that. Vince makes sure to state that the bout will end by his hand only.
Main Event
Guest Referee: Vince McMahon
Guest Ring Announcer: Pat Patterson
Guest Time Keeper: Gerald Brisco
WWF Title
Champ: Stone Cold Steve Austin w/ The Undertaker Vs Dude Love
This was one of many Vince master plans with the aim of dethroning that pesky Stone Cold, with him stacking the deck against Austin by being the referee and bringing his stooges along for added support. Undertaker has come down to ensure that Vince referees fairly though, and also to plant seeds for an eventual match down the line with Austin. Paterson of course has glowing ring announcements for Vince, Brisco and Dude, but refuses to introduce a “beer swilling fool” like Austin, which if anything just highlights how impressive Austin’s pop is.
Vince’s double take when Undertakers music hits is pretty darn great, as Vince almost steals the entire match with his facial expressions at points here. Vince may be a very questionable human being, but he was darn good at the performance aspect of this business. Mick Foley and Steve Austin always had good chemistry as opponents, so once the actual wrestling starts it’s really good, with the crowd being utterly gaga for Austin throughout. I think both major American companies would kill for someone to be as over today as Austin is in this match.
We get some side headlocks and a bit of wrestling to start us out, with Dude getting his false teeth knocked out of his mouth, leading to Austin stomping on them. Lawler is quick to the draw by saying that Dude has lost his smile, which Ross of course reacts to with disgust. Dude throws Austin into the ring steps outside the ring at one stage and then works some heat back inside the ring, which gives the crowd a chance to chant and clap for the Champion. Austin gets a neck breaker and then makes a comeback on Dude, with Dude of course taking some nice bumps for him.
The fight spills to the floor and Dude flings Austin over the Spanish announce table whilst out there, which leads to Vince turning the match into a No DQ match on the fly, because he’s the boss and he’s allowed to do so. Vince Russo would reuse this trope a few times, but at the time this was new material for the WWF fans and it works a treat. The intensity of the fight picks up now that No DQ’s are in place, with Dude taking a crazy backwards flip bump off the metal railings from an Austin clothesline at one stage. Mick Foley was lucky to make it out of the 90’s.
Brisco even takes a bump at one stage when he gets sandwiched between the two wrestlers and the railings, although he bravely stands up with the hammer still in hand in a great comic moment. Dude manages to fight back with a neck breaker on the floor, which leads to Vince making the match Falls Count Anywhere as well, which has Jim Ross apoplectic on commentary. Both Ross and Lawler have really added to this match with strong performances on commentary, as Lawler is of course fully on board with all the Heel chicanery whilst Ross is deeply offended.
Both wrestlers brawl over to the entrance area, where some cars have been placed, and both of them take it in turns to take some bumps onto the set. This started out as a solid wrestling match and now it’s turned into a very exciting and hard hitting brawl. They get quite creative with the FCA stipulation as well, with Dude getting a sunset flip off one of the cars onto the concrete for a near fall at one stage. Austin ends up bleeding at one stage, just to add to the jeopardy he’s currently in, but he continues to keep kicking out whilst Ross has kittens on commentary.
Dude takes even more silly bumps, this time a big elbow drop off a stack of cars onto the concrete, with Austin taking his fair share of crazy falls as well, including a back body drop onto the concrete and a big tumble onto the cars. Undertaker keeps a watchful eye on Vince at all times, with Vince even looking up at him in fear whilst making some counts in a nice touch. It explains why Vince isn’t just fast counting Austin out, because he knows Undertaker will batter him right good and proper if he does. That’s the sort of attention to detail that you need in order to make these wild dog and pony show matches work.
Dude gets the better of the bloody Austin back inside the ring and applies a camel clutch, but Austin refuses to give up and manages to hang on. Patterson eventually passes Dude a chair, which leads to Dude giving Austin a loud, yet safe, chair shot to the back before following with the Double Arm DDT for two in a good near fall. Austin manages to kick the chair into Dude’s face and follows up with a big chair shot to the head (Foley thankfully only takes one) and that would appear to be enough for the three count. Vince refuses to count the pin however, leading to Austin jawing with Vince.
Dude tries to clock the distracted Austin with a chair, but Austin ducks and Vince ends up taking one heck of a chair shot, which not surprisingly takes him out of proceedings. Patterson and Brisco both try to deputise as replacement referees, but Undertaker refuses to accept that and Choke Slams them both through the announce tables for a big pop, leading to Austin getting the Stunner on Dude and then using Vince’s limp hand to count the pin, thus meaning the match ended by Vince’s hand just as Vince promised earlier.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN
RATING: ****1/2
Thoughts: This was a definite MOTYC for 1998, as everyone involved in the match delivered, and that includes Brisco, Patterson, Vince and Taker. The wrestling and the storytelling were on point, with great commentary from Ross and Lawler really adding to things. This not only set up Taker as an eventual opponent for Austin but it also created a reason for Mick Foley and Undertaker to wrestle at King of the Ring as well. Just a fantastic match and a great example of how the WWF took the sort of anarchic wild action that ECW was doing so well in the mid-90’s and tweaked it so it would work in a mainstream setting. This was the Raven/Tommy Dreamer dog and pony show in all its glory, but with better production values and wrestling, and once the WWF managed to tap into that then the Monday Night War was all but over because WCW just couldn’t push the envelope as far as the WWF could
Austin and Undertaker stare down briefly following the match in order to set up SummerSlam before Taker leaves and Austin celebrates with the fans to close us out.
In Conclusion
If it wasn’t for the Main Event then this show would potentially be a candidate for the Stinker category, as the under card was a whole lot of nothing. However, that Main Event was top notch stuff and it rescued the show from the abyss. It’s still not a good show, but it’s not a terrible one at least. I still wouldn’t recommend you actually watching the show as a whole, but that Main Event is absolutely worth checking out.
Not a recommended show
