Mike Reviews WWF In Your House 25: Judgment Day 1998

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’re heading back to 1998 this week with WWF Judgment Day 1998. I’m reviewing this because I intend to tackle Halloween Havoc 98 next week and I thought I’d review the WWF’s pay per view offering from October 1998 as well in the interest of balance. Plus, I’ve already watched the Main Event previously so I can just re-use the review for that and then just watch the undercard which, unlike the Main Event, is mostly good. Thus I get to watch 2 hours of decent wrestling and don’t have to watch an absolute clanger at the end of it.

The system works!

The big storyline coming into Judgment Day 1998 is that the WWF Title is vacant and Stone Cold is going to have to referee the bout that decides the new Champion, which is a task he is none-too-pleased about. Elsewhere we’ve got D-Lo Brown and X-Pac mixing it up, as well as Rock taking on Mark Henry.

If you’d like to view the full card for Judgment Day 1998 you can do so by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2041&page=3

The event is emanating from Rosemont, Illinois on the 18th of October 1998

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry The King Lawler

We get the usual opening montage, where it focuses on Vince threatening to fire Stone Cold if he doesn’t behave later on.

Opening Match
Marvellous Marc Mero w/ WWF World Women’s Champ Jackie Moore Vs Al Snow w/ Head

I don’t think there was much in the way of a storyline here, but Snow was a decent opening match act at the time and was getting over as a wacky character. Snow’s main issue seems to be with Jeff Jarrett, who tries to start something at the beginning of the bout due to Snow costing him a recent match with Scorpio. Interestingly it looked like Jarrett was trying to replace Mero in the match, which you’d think the Heel Mero would be okay with as it means he gets an easy night, but instead Mero jumps Snow from behind and the match is on. There are a lot of folks with Al Snow signs and foam heads in the crowd, and they chant along with his pre-match promo as well. It could just be that the crowd is fired up because it’s the opener, but Snow seems pretty darn over here.

This is an Attitude Era show, so the crowd goes pretty quiet once the actual wrestling starts as they didn’t normally come to these events to watch wrestlers do wrestling, but the action itself is decent, with Snow getting the best of things before squishing Mero’s mid-section with a Moonsault. Jackie distracts Snow, and that allows Mero to clock Snow right in the Cassidy’s before working some heat. Jackie does a good job as Mero’s manager, attacking Snow when the referee isn’t looking and just generally being a nuisance for the Snowster whilst being good support to her man. Mero actually busts out a very nice flipping body press off the ropes at one stage, which gets two from the ref.

Mero does a good job of mugging to the crowd whilst Snow sells and times his hope spots well, so the crowd gradually gets more into the wrestling as the match progresses. Snow makes the comeback and gets a nice sit out Powerbomb, but instead of going for the pin Snow heads up to the top and Jackie interferes again, which almost leads to Mero stealing the victory. Mero gets a Samoan Drop and stops to taunt, which proves to be a mistake as it means Snow has enough time to roll out of the way and avoid Mero’s Shooting Star Press attempt. Wow, Mero has his working boots on tonight. Mero tries to win it with the TKO, but Snow slips out and gets the Snow Plough (Northern Lights Bomber) for the win.

WINNER: AL SNOW
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Decent opener, as both wrestlers were working hard there and the crowd eventually got into the match after being slow to react at first. The clean pin was very pleasing as well

Earlier tonight, Stone Cold Steve Austin shows up and tries to head to the locker room, but The Stooges send him to the referees changing room instead, which is just a closet somewhere in the building. I can totally buy that the WWF would make their referees change in a place like that actually.

Match Two
The Disciples Of Apocalypse (8-Ball and Skull) and Paul Ellering Vs The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk, Road Warrior Animal and Road Warrior Droz)

The story here is that Ellering used to manage The Road Warriors, but now he’s ditched them for The DOA. The Road Warriors have taken Droz on as their new partner, but Droz has designs on replacing Hawk, which would lead to Droz trying to keep Hawk hooked on drugs so as to discredit him in Animal’s eyes. The Attitude Era everyone! The Road Warriors were actually from Minnesota, but they always announced them as being from Chicago, so that gets them a nice pop from the Illinois crowd. Hawk is actually described as being the “alternate” for Droz here, which was designed to build tension between the two.

Animal runs wild to start, delivering a dropkick, which he always did when he wanted to show he was putting in pay per view effort. This is the first show I’ve watched since Droz’s sad death earlier in the year. He was seriously injured in 1999 and was forced into early retirement, but he always seemed like a positive upbeat dude and he was a very athletic guy who looked like he had some real potential in wrestling, but sadly that potential was never realised. Droz plays the role of the babyface in peril here, which he does a decent job at. Ellering looks pretty hench here, and he does quite well on the few occasions he’s asked to get in there and wrestle.

Droz eventually manages to catch one of The DOA with a DDT and then makes the hot tag to Hawk. Things break down very quickly, with Hawk and Animal getting The DOOMsday Device onto one of The DOA for the three count, although it was Droz who got the pin, which annoys Hawk. This was another step in them trying to build a rift in the team, with the idea being that Droz was going to ease Hawk out by gradually turning Animal against him, as Animal would already be close to the end of his tether with Hawk due to Hawk’s personal issues. The payoff for this was Droz “accidentally” shoving Hawk of the Titan-Tron on Raw (Yes, that actually happened) and then Droz turning on Animal, with Hawk returning for the save, at which point they pretty much just ended the storyline without getting Droz another partner and paying it off somehow. Because Attitude Era.

WINNERS: THE ROAD WARRIORS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The crowd wasn’t really that into this, but it wasn’t terrible or anything. Just a bit on the dull side more than anything else

Jim Ross tells us that this is the biggest crowd the WWF has had in this arena since WrestleMania 13.

Match Three
WWF World Light Heavyweight Title
Champ: TAKA Michinoku w/ Wally Yamaguchi Vs Christian w/ Gangrel

TAKA had been the Champ for going on 10 months at this stage, mainly because they didn’t really have that many challengers for him, nor did they treat the belt like it was important. Christian had recently debuted as an ally of Gangrel, with the storyline being that he was Edge’s brother. Edge was kind of at odds with Gangrel at the time, with it being presented that they had had a prior friendship or alliance that had since disintegrated. Jim Ross is of course befuddled by the “Gothic Lifestyle” that Christian and Gangrel lead. If Transylvania had a football team I bet he’d be less befuddled. “Well, they may wear frilly shirts, but at least they know their way around the gridiron bah God!”

They start this one hot, with TAKA sending Christian to the floor and following with a dive, whilst Edge is standing in the crowd and watching the match, although an idiot fan is deliberately trying to hold up their lame homemade sign in the way so that we can’t get a good view of him. Christian eventually gets some sustained offence of his own back inside the ring, getting his trademark falling reverse DDT at one stage, before busting out Simon Diamond’s “Simon Series” of suplexes. TAKA takes one heck of a spill out to the floor on a low bridge at one stage, which leads to Christian getting a nice dive to the floor.

I think TAKA is ostensibly playing the role of the babyface in this one, but he’d been a Heel since the summer so the crowd isn’t really into the idea of getting behind him, whilst Christian and Gangrel were kind of more tweener-like at the time. The wrestling itself has been good stuff, and the crowd has popped for some of the spots, but they’ve been quiet for most of it. If they actually liked TAKA then the match might have more heat as the action has been what it’s needed to be and TAKA has done a good job selling everything whilst on the defensive.

TAKA eventually makes the comeback, getting a nice Asai Moonsault before flipping off the crowd when they don’t cheer for him, as I ponder why they didn’t just have Christian working as the Face in this one as he was still new enough that the crowd would have probably gone along with it more. We get some near falls as the match heads into the closing stretch, with both wrestlers having chances to win it until their opponent is able to kick out. The two wrestlers are working quite well together actually, with the height difference not really being an issue. TAKA eventually has Christian down, but he takes too long in going for the Michinoku Driver II and Christian is able to counter it to a roll up for three, and a noticeable pop from the crowd.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: CHRISTIAN
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: We get a hat-trick of pin fall finishes on a WWF show from 1998. I’m guessing Satan had to shovel some snow out of the drive of his mansion in Hell on the morning of this show or something! The wrestling itself was good stuff, as they gelled well together as opponents and Christian got enough offence in the match itself that the roll-up finish didn’t feel too flukey or undeserved. The only thing it lacked was a hotter crowd, which I think could have been helped by having Christian work as the babyface for the night and take the heat, as I think there was a better chance of the crowd getting behind him as a fresh-faced newcomer rather than an established Heel in TAKA

Edge doesn’t have much of a reaction in the crowd as he watches his “brother” leave with Gangrel and his belt.

We get a video package to hype up the next match, as I still wonder who I’m supposed to actually be cheering for.

Match Four
Val Venis w/ Terri Runnels Vs Goldust

Goldust had dumped Terri quite brutally at the end of 1997, so she’d shacked up with Venis as a way to get him back. At the time I think that was supposed to be a babyface move on Terri’s part as Dustin was doing a “the Attitude Era is bad” gimmick at the time. However, he’s since gone back to being Goldust in order to deal with the threat of Venis after Val beat him handily at the previous pay per view event. This was a storyline where no one in it was remotely likeable, although I THINK we’re supposed to like Goldust at this stage, but don’t hold me to that.

Goldust cuts off Venis’ mic before the match starts and before Val can do his dirty intro promo, and then enters to a decent reaction from the crowd. I think Venis kind of working this as the babyface to start, as he goes after Goldust aggressively in the early stages and peppers him with punches before sending him to the floor, which feels like something a fired up babyface would do, whilst Goldust does things like dropping Venis onto the ring steps and gouging the eyes, which are traditionally more heelish. Goldust appears to cut Venis off and get the heat, which seems like a strange way to structure this seeing as the live crowd seems to like Goldust more, so him fighting from behind and making a comeback would seem to make more sense.

The wrestling itself is good here, with both wrestlers doing a solid job of getting across their mutual dislike for one another and laying in the offence in order to help display that further. The crowd reactions aren’t really there for it though, as the fans seem to want to cheer for Goldust and the match is laid out in a way that doesn’t really encourage that. They possibly decide to call an audible on that at one stage, as Goldust misses a charge into the corner and comes up selling his shoulder, leading to Venis working some arm-based holds for a bit in order to get the crowd to clap for Goldust, which ends up happening.

It’s interesting as it really felt like Goldust was getting the heat there and they decided to switch it because they knew it wasn’t working, which I have to commend both of them for if that is indeed the case as it’s switched the structure around to something the crowd is actually interested in and they do get behind Goldust, as he does a good job selling his arm and Venis shows some intensity whilst working the holds. Venis eventually heads up top with the aim to end things, but Goldust cuts Venis off and then delivers a big Superplex for a two count, only to then miss an elbow drop from the second rope in order to restore parity. Venis goes to a Sleeper Hold following that, with Goldust fighting out of it and that leading to a double down. We see that Goldust still has his wedding ring on, whilst Terri still has hers on as well…

Anyway, Goldust gets a bulldog and looks to end things, which leads to Terri getting on the apron in order to yell at him. Goldust has no interest in debating her, whilst the referee tries to get her to step down. This allows Goldust an opening to kick Venis right in the Morley’s and then make the cover for the three count, as I still wonder just who I’m supposed to be cheering for and supporting in this rivalry? Once again every single one of these people are booked as just thoroughly unlikable people. Terri is a devious harlot, Venis is a sleazy scumbag and Goldust is a freaky dude in face paint who left his wife and keeps kicking people in the dick. I wouldn’t want to be within 100 miles of ANY of these people!

WINNER: GOLDUST
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The wrestling wasn’t bad here, and the crowd got a bit more into it once they started having Venis get some heat on Goldust, but it took them a while to get there

Michael Cole is backstage in the interview area, where he shows us footage from HeAT where Ken Shamrock beat up Triple H in the car park earlier whilst referees held Chyna back from helping him out. I think Tri was gone until December with that injury. X-Pac shows up and says that he’ll deal with Ken Shamrock tomorrow and D-Lo Brown right now.

Match Five
WWF European Title
Champ: D-Lo Brown Vs X-Pac w/ Chyna

D-Lo and X-Pac had a pretty nifty feud for the belt in 1998, having good matches and raising the value of the belt in the process. It’s probably the most important the belt ever was outside of Davey Boy Smith’s initial run and a period where Kurt Angle had it. Mark Henry had played a big role in D-Lo regaining the belt from X-Pac on an episode of Raw. The gimmick D-Lo had going as European Champ was that he’d be announced as being from a different European City every time he wrestled, with Milan, Italy being his “hometown” on this occasion. That was such a great little touch that actually gave something unique to the belt.

Brown bullies X-Pac around to start, with X-Pac selling that all well and the crowd getting on D-Lo’s case by saying that he does the opposite of blowing. It’s an interesting way to structure the match actually, as they’ve essentially avoided doing a babyface shine. It actually works well for the dynamic these two have, with X-Pac being the smaller quicker wrestler and D-Lo being more powerful and cocky. X-Pac makes a very brief comeback at one stage and goes for the Bronco Buster, but Brown puts his foot up to stop it and then works a chin lock on a crotched X-Pac. I liked that spot as it shows that both wrestlers are very familiar with one another after all of their matches, as D-Lo knew the move was coming.

D-Lo eventually starts getting cocky and making lackadaisical covers, suggesting that winning the belt back from X-Pac has given him too much of a sense of security, even though he’s dominated this match. It seems that no matter what X-Pac does, Brown always has a counter of some kind for it that allows him to get back on top of things. It’s one of those match structures that would come across like a squash if it they weren’t going somewhere with it, as X-Pac’s refusal to stay down is helping make him look like a defiant babyface, even though he’s spent the majority of this match getting clobbered by the Champion.

Eventually X-Pac is able to dodge a D-Lo senton from the top, which gives us the double down and the fired up comeback from X-Pac, with the crowd responding to it. X-Pac manages to get the Bronco this time now that he has Brown on the ropes, and Chyna even gets a shot in at one stage too that the crowd appreciates. The referee ends up getting bumped, which leads to Mark Henry coming down to try and help his buddy. Henry was infatuated with Chyna at the time and had a sexual harassment lawsuit out on her. Henry distracts Chyna, and that leads to D-Lo hitting X-Pac with the Title belt as Henry throws the ref back in the ring. Brown gets two from the resulting pin attempt, in a very nicely executed near fall, as they are really letting these guys go out there and have a great match. D-Lo heads up top for a splash, but X-Pac sees it coming and counters to the X-Factor for the last gasp win and a big pop.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: X-PAC
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was a really great match, as they were given a decent chunk of time to tell a story and they went with a different match structure to normal by taking away the babyface shine and letting X-Pac just get battered for the majority of the match until he got over a gutsy underdog who wouldn’t stay down. The finish was another good example of how the two wrestlers knew one another so well also, as X-Pac was able to counter one of D-Lo’s main moves into his finisher right at the death for the upset win. Letting them have all the gaga with Henry, Chyna and the belt shot helped too, as it made it stick out from other stuff on the undercard, which had mostly been played straight up to that point

Michael Cole is backstage and said that Paul Bearer was seen earlier going into Undertaker’s dressing room. The Head Bangers show up and cut a promo on the New Age Outlaws ahead of the next match, implying that the Champs are gay for one another. Because suggesting that someone was gay was a BITING insult and the HEIGHT of comedy in 1998.

Match Six
WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) vs The Head Bangers (Head Banger Mosh and Head Banger Thrasher)

The Bangers had gone Heel around the summer after beating up The Oddities. The Outlaws and Bangers had feuded a lot in 97, so this is just continuing that. The Bangers interrupt The Outlaws during their entrance promo, which thus robs the crowd of the best parts of The Champ’s act and thus makes The Bangers even bigger Heels. This was during the period where Jim Ross kept referring to Billy Gunn as a “horse” in an effort to get him over. I mean, horses are impressive creatures no doubt, but they’re hardly renowned for their fighting acumen are they? What does comparing him to a horse even mean? You can tempt him out of the locker room before his match by offering him sugar lumps? Every meat eating French person harbours desires to kill him and eat him?

The Outlaws quickly regain control of things and work a standard babyface shine on the challengers, which kind of negates The Bangers’ opening attempt to jump start. They might as well have just started the match normally considering how the opening exchanges have played out. Eventually Mosh gets a blind tag and catches Road Dog with a Thesz Press when Road Dogg is coming off the ropes, and that gives us the cut off into the heat segment. Road Dogg sells that well and The Bangers look good on offence, although the crowd isn’t really making much noise for it, which tended to happen with The Outlaws during their matches, even though they could work the formula just fine.

Gunn eventually manages to get the crowd to make some noise by getting them to yell “S-ck It”, which motivates Road Dogg to make the hot tag. Gunn runs wild on the challengers, although he does my pet peeve of chasing the Heels around to bump them rather than waiting in the middle and letting the Heels come to him, which is always a smoother way of doing it. Gunn running around trying to attack them just looks clumsy, as Gunn wasn’t always the most graceful of combatants when it came to getting around the ring. Gunn’s hot tag segment actually goes awry when Thrasher low bridges him, which leads to our second heat segment as they appear to be going for the ol’ Rock ‘N’ Roll Express double heat here.

Gunn actually manages to get a flying head scissors for a double down at one stage, but he can’t get over to make the tag thanks to Thrasher. As has been a trend with this show tonight, as the match has gone on the crowd has started to get more invested in it. They’ve been kind of a tough crowd all night, but when they’ve been giving a well-built match they’ve usually responded to it, with this bout being a good example of that as The Head Bangers have just kept beating up The Outlaws and The Outlaws have just kept selling it until they’ve managed to get the crowd to care about it. Eventually Road Dogg gets sick of seeing his partner get clobbered and he hits Mosh with a boom box for the DQ.

WINNERS BY DQ: THE HEAD BANGERS (NEW AGE OUTLAWS RETAIN)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This felt like The Head Bangers were Champions in waiting, as they really took the fight to The New Age Outlaws and came across as strong Heel threat to the Champs. Both Road Dogg and Billy Gunn sold well and they managed to get the crowd invested in the contest the longer it went on. The wrestling wasn’t amazing or anything, but it was solid stuff for the most part that followed the tag team formula. The finish was disappointing of course, but it was the first non-finish of the evening and it actually worked for the story they were telling with The Head Bangers due to eventually get another Title shot, so you can show it a bit more leeway

Michael Cole is backstage and says that Paul Bearer is currently in Kane’s locker room. Mankind and Mr. Socko walk over so that they can cut a promo ahead of the next match. Mankind says that Ken Shamrock’s promos are so brutal that they are the second leading cause for teenage suicide, but he concedes that Shamrock is a darn good wrestler. This leads to Mankind having a brief argument with Socko before heading to the ring. This was a funny promo

Match Seven
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: The World’s Most Dangerous Man Ken Shamrock Vs Mankind

Shamrock and Mankind had been waring for a couple of months, with both wanting a shot at the WWF Title and both failing. Shamrock, Mankind and Rock had briefly been aligned in order to take out Undertaker and Kane for their own selfish means, but then that alliance crumbled and now they’re fighting again. Triple H had been the IC Champ, but a knee injury meant he had to vacate it, so they had a tournament on Raw with Shamrock picking up the win in the Final over X-Pac.

Shamrock mostly tries working holds in this one, targeting both the legs and arms of Mankind. Mankind sells all of that well whilst trying to find ways out of the holds so that he can get back into the contest. It’s actually quite interesting to see Mankind work this kind of match, as it shows he had more strings to his bow than just being a wild brawler as he’s holding his end of things just fine in a more technically focused contest here. Mankind actually manages to briefly get the Mandible Claw applied OUTTA NOWHERE at one stage, but Shamrock is able to get out of the ring before it gets fully locked in.

The fight heads to the outside following that, with a chair getting involved and Mankind of course getting clobbered with it at one stage, although the referee lets it go for some reason. Ross seems to think it’s the ref showing some leniency because he knows that a DQ win won’t allow Mankind to win the belt, which might not be the most airtight excuse I’ve ever heard but it’s at least somewhat feasible and some quick thinking that highlighted why Ross was arguably the best in the business at the time. Mankind manages to get the Double Arm DDT back inside the ring, and that leads to the double down.

Mankind makes the full comeback following that, doing his forearms in the corner followed by the running knee, before busting out the Tree of Woe for good measure as he’s busting out all the classic offence here. Shamrock is actually doing a good job selling for everything too, and he takes some nice bumps at points as well. The Cactus Clothesline sends both wrestlers to the floor and then Mankind follows with the elbow off the apron, as he’s busting out quite a lot of old school Cactus Jack moves here, which I’m starting to think might be intentional as Mick Foley would do some call-backs to previous Faces of Foley sometimes.

Shamrock manages to catch Mankind with a powerslam out on the floor following the elbow though and Mankind lands ankle first on the steps, injuring the body part in the process. Shamrock goes to the ankle lock back inside following that, with Mankind doing the big sell job but being unable to escape the hold. Rather than giving Shamrock the satisfaction of making him tap out however, Mankind instead decides to apply the Mandible Claw to himself, thus passing out via his own hold rather than Shamrock’s. Shamrock “wins” regardless, although it doesn’t feel like a win to him.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KEN SHAMROCK
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: I know the finish will be too wacky for some and I totally understand why, but I did kind of like it in that it was a way for Mankind to cheat Shamrock out of a proper win whilst still giving us an actual finish. The match itself was a lot of fun, as Mankind did some more technical based wrestling in the early stages before busting out some of the trademark brawling spots we know him for down the closing stretch, with Shamrock carrying his end of things well and the action being good fun

Shamrock beats up Mankind some more following the match and then suplexes the ref for good measure. However, he doesn’t know when to let it go and that leads to Mankind sinking in the Mr. Socko assisted Mandible Claw in order to stand tall at the end.

Michael Cole is trying to get an interview with Vince, but The Big Boss Man won’t allow it.

Semi-Main
The Human Root Canal Mark Henry Vs The People’s Champ The Rock

Henry and Rock had been members of The Nation, but that faction has split and now they’re feuding after Henry and D-Lo attacked Rock on Raw. Henry was doing a poem gimmick at the time, so he dedicates one to Chyna. They eventually went on a date and things seemed to be going well until Henry tried it on with one of Chyna’s friends. Rock runs wild with punches and clotheslines on Henry to start, and even gets a vertical suplex at one stage. Though that was assuredly impressive, I think you want to build to bumping a guy Henry’s size rather than just doing it right out of the gate like Rock is doing here.

Henry eventually manages to knock Rock down and drops an elbow for the cut off, which leads to Rock selling. Rock does his best to make Henry look good here by taking big bumps for all of his offence, but Henry was pretty awful in the ring during this time and they were partly giving him silly gimmicks like being constantly humiliated by Chyna in an effort to quit his lucrative contract, but Henry held firm and eventually became a passable worker in the latter 00’s. Rock eventually makes a comeback and gets a DDT for two before getting a body slam with ease and prepping for The People’s Elbow.

Rock successfully delivers the move, but then D-Lo Brown joins us for a distraction, leading to Henry getting a big Splash for the pin whilst D-Lo holds down Rock’s foot. Well, it wasn’t a clean pin at least, but Henry essentially shaking off the People’s Elbow like that was awe inspiringly awful booking.

WINNER: MARK HENRY
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: No, I don’t know why they put Mark Henry over The Rock a month before Rock won the WWF Title. The match wasn’t especially good either, with Rock bumping the much bigger Henry with ease, and Henry not really delivering the goods from an in-ring perspective when it was his time to control things. Honestly a better match here would have been Rock peppering Henry with some punches to start before Henry bulled him down, leading to Henry working a bit of heat and then Rock making comeback where he bumped Henry once or maybe twice until it was time for D-Lo to show up. Oh, and DON’T have Henry pop right up from one of The Rock’s finishers! They could have got much more out of that slam and People’s Elbow if Henry hadn’t taken a bump yet

Rock almost laughs about losing that one, which negates the effectiveness of the result somewhat, and I actually can’t blame him in all honesty. There was no sane universe where you would have Mark Henry pin The Rock in the October of 1998. None whatsoever. Shake it off Rock and move on to whatever you’re doing next.

WWF Title
Title Vacant
Guest Referee: Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Undertaker Vs Kane

Right, buckle in for the back story for this one. Stone Cold was the WWF Champ, but evil owner Vince McMahon Jr. finally managed to find a way to take it off him by basically putting him in a glorified handicap match with Taker and Kane at the Breakdown pay per view in September 1998. That match ended with Taker and Kane getting a double choke slam for a double pin. However, after Austin had attacked a crowing Vince on Raw by driving a Zamboni into the building (It was the 90’s) Vince got so annoyed that he made this match as a way to punish Taker and Kane for not protecting him enough to his liking.

Taker and Kane weren’t happy about this and promptly destroyed Vince’s ankle in retribution. Vince decided to mess with Austin by forcing him to be the referee in the Title match so he’d have to hand over the belt to his successor. Austin of course said he would just whup Taker and Kane in such a situation, so Vince decreed that if Austin didn’t humble himself by counting the winning fall then he would be fired. In reality this was all just a way to string out crowning a new Champion for another month so that they would have a reason to do the well-received Deadly Game (“Cos It’s a Deadly Game!”) tournament the following month at Survivor Series.

The WWF had a noticeable formula during this time period where the under cards on big events would tend to be pretty lousy but they’d end the show strong to send everyone home happy. However, both this event and the Breakdown one preceding it are atypical in that regard, as their under cards are generally decent but the show closing bouts are stinkers. It’s not like Undertaker and Kane are incapable of having an entertaining match (I personally don’t mind the match from Mania XIV for instance) but those ones usually had a clear Face/Heel divide. In this one both men are the dreaded “Shades of Grey”, with the crowd more interested in what babyface ref Stone Cold is going to do.

The result is a slow, plodding match where the crowd doesn’t really have anyone to cheer for, thus meaning it’s pretty dull as a result. Austin has fun messing with both of the competitors by mixing up slow and fast counts, which is the only time the crowd gets invested. Taker and Kane are hardly dogging it, but their styles are always going to produce a certain type of match, which is why you need a strong story for the crowd to connect with in order to make it work, and we don’t have that here. It’s just Taker and Kane doing their usual moves in a back and forth brawl, whilst the crowd murmurs along.

Taker eventually targets Kane’s leg and starts working it over, which might work as a way to build sympathy for Kane if the crowd cared about him. As it is, they just chant for Austin whilst The Take kicks away at the appendage and goes to the leg grapevine he was trying to get over as a secondary finisher at the time. I think they even went as far as having him “injure” Steve Blackman with it to try and get it over, but ultimately it didn’t work. Taker would finally achieve the secondary submission finisher he so craved with The Hell’s Gate though, which is a tribute to perseverance if nothing else.

Kane actually doesn’t sell the leg work that badly, it’s just very boring to see him lie around for minutes on end whilst Taker works through every leg hold he knows how to do. Austin doesn’t bother upholding the rules and lets Taker basically do what he wants, including hanging Kane in the Tree of Woe and then attacking the leg. Without a referee to count, Taker kind of just has to let Kane back down and start stomping the leg again, which looks silly and kind of explains why they have a ref there to do that stuff in the first place.

The fans start going from being bored to outright restless, which was similar to how they reacted the previous month when Taker and Kane endlessly pummelled Austin in the Triple Threat match. Kane does manage to make a comeback, but there’s zero reaction to it. I can only assume that they felt the crowd would get behind Kane if they had him play the subtle Face role, but that hasn’t been the case. Taker and Kane eventually decide to double up on Austin, which at least gets the crowd to care again as they boo the 2 on 1 attack. Jim Ross on commentary suggests that they are doing this so that a replacement referee will come down, which is yet another example of the sort of thinking on your feet stuff that made him such a great commentator.

Kane manages to choke slam Taker following that, but of course Austin is down and can’t count the fall. Paul Bearer comes down to the ring, ostensibly to help Kane as they’d been aligned for most of the year, but we get the first proper “someone betrays Kane, please feel sorry for him” moment in his career, as Bearer turns on Kane with a chair shot and realigns with Taker. Austin refuses to count however and drops Taker with a Stunner and a chair shot before counting both men down for the non-finish. You know what, they could have had Austin drape Kane over Taker there and it probably would have gotten a pop. That being said, Deadly Game (“Cos it’s a Deadly Game!”) was pretty much perfect for what it was and you wouldn’t have gotten that with WWF Champ Kane (Unless Vince stripped him of the belt the next night or something, which would have only annoyed people)

NO CONTEST
RATING: *

Thoughts: This was pretty boring and the crowd was turning on it. The actual work itself wasn’t disastrous or anything, but for two guys with this sort of wrestling style you need an invested crowd for it to work and this crowd was anything but invested. Interestingly, you can actually do this finish on WWF No Mercy for the N64 in guest referee mode. You just have to knock both guys down so it says they are “losing it” and then press the count button and the referee will declare it a no contest. It blew my mind the first time that I realised you could do that.

Austin goes looking for Vince following the match, but Vince eventually shows up from a safe distance and fires Austin. Austin doesn’t really seem to care very much though and drinks some beer to close us out. He wasn’t “fired” for long though, and was in the Deadly Game (Cos it’s a Deadly Game!”) Tournament the following month thanks to Shane McMahon.

In Conclusion

There was some good stuff on the under card here, and if you shut it off before the final two matches you’ve got a pretty darn solid two hours of wrestling to enjoy. Sadly the last two matches drag things down a bit, so that impacts the overall quality of the show. If the Main Event had delivered then this would be an easy thumbs up and recommendation, but as it is it’s only a thumbs leaning up. Still though, a WWF pay per view from 1998 where 7 of the 9 matches end decisively is NOT to be sniffed at, so that certainly helps the show’s cause.

Mild Recommendation