Live Feed Mania – WWF Monday Night Raw 12/14/98
By Maffew Gregg on 12 March 2025
Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome – December 14, 1998 (17,508; sell out)
It’s the night after IYH: Rock Bottom and Super Mario 3D’s brother Richard Land has supplied us with another exciting Live Feed! Well it can’t be worse than the PPV.
The Fink welcomes us to the Tacoma Dome which he renames the War Zone. I mean “War Dome” was right there. Fink runs through the disclaimers about not throwing shit into the ring and adds something that I haven’t heard very often during these shows: he says if people refuse to stop throwing shit into the ring, WWF reserves the right to cancel the show and no-one gets refunds. This period must have had some really rowdy fans for them to introduce that new stipulation.
Oh, right.
Sumito vs. Timothy Flowers
Flowers gets the “already in the ring” treatment but Sumito gets Papi Chulo’s sweet theme. Flowers kept that name all the way up to his retirement in 2018. Why? Sumito is announced as being from the Isle Of Samoa but he didn’t do much until his retirement in 2006 so he can’t have Rikishi blood in him.
The lads do their best to test the ring while absorbing some truly vicious boos. “Who the hell are these punks???” is yelled loud enough for the cameras to pick up. Sumito throws a load of rubbish clotheslines & knee-drops. They do the same exact spot twice for some reason before Flowers wins by reversing a suplex into a small package at 2:29, with Fink announcing Sumito as the winner even though it was Flowers. Ha! They play Sumito’s music anyway because who gives a fuck.
Michael Cole, Max Mini, Hugo Savinovich, Carlos Cabrera all makes their entrance to Welcome To The Jungle which is definitely a song I associate with these guys. Also there’s a pole set up in the corner as there’s a Guitar On A Pole match later because Russo.
Armando Fernandez vs. Sho Funaki (w/ Yamaguchi-San)
Aired on Super Astros – 12/27/98
Fernandez is known as Toscano and because he’s a Real Ass Luchadore, he’s still going strong in 2025 aged 51. Funaki retired in 2015.
Funaki whips him but Fernandez just stops and looks dumb so Funaki elbows him and Fernandez takes the Rikishi/Billy Gunn/Jannetty/Dustin Rhodes bump. Fernandez comes off the top with what Funaki thinks is going to be a crossbody but is instead an armdrag and oh God this is rough. Thankfully a beautiful plancha turns the tide for Fernandez. For two whole seconds because Funaki completely ignores it to come back with a dropkick. Funaki turns a monkey flip into a Reverse Powerbomb for two which looked stiff. Fernandez is only just able to snap powerslam Funaki before landing a lovely twirling plancha to end it at 2:50.
Woof. I’m glad that didn’t go long as the dives and spinning stuff were well executed but everything else was as smooth as barbed wire dental floss.
We skip ahead (satellites do that when were bored) to Ken Shamrock & Big Boss Man attacking Kane in the ring until some medics are able to wrap a strait jacket around the Big Red Machine. Crowd chant for Austin to come save Kane but why the hell would he do that? Kane tries to resist but a few stick shots and an Ankle Lock put him to sleep and he’s carried away. That’s how they dealt with Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
We clip ahead again to Vince McMahon vowing to shove his own sock down Mankind’s gullet like he’s a female member of staff. Triple H moons the crowd to loud cheers and encourages a female fan to do the same. And she does because it’s 1998.
Shane McMahon heads out to a weird techno dance song to commentate alongside Kevin Kelly. Oh then we get a look at Shane’s Titantron during this time and it’s Chris Jericho’s first video, with the helicopter shots of the city and the guy standing up. There’s no giant JERICHO letters, obviously.
The J.O.B. Squad (The Blue Meanie & WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Duane Gill) vs. The Acolytes (Bradshaw & Faarooq)
Aired on Shotgun – 12/19/98
Take a guess who Bradshaw goes for. Acolytes start by pounding away and ignoring the ref. Gill takes a meaty Bradshaw clothesline and lays there on the mat while Faarooq batters Meanie. Gill takes another vicious clothesline before being tossed outside for Faarooq to land the Dominator on the outside (drawing a loud “Oh fuck!” from Shane) allowing Bradshaw to attack Meanie on the outside before the ref throws the match out at 2:38. Where was this ref in 2005?
Shane McMahon watches Faarooq give Gillberg the Dominator on the outside and yells “OH FUCK! GOD DAMN!”
WWF Satellite Feed December 14th 1998
— forever botchamania (@maffewgregg.bsky.social) 13 January 2025 at 23:33
I didn’t care about The Acolytes as a kid but as an adult I very much enjoy their one-sided OTT beatings.
Papi Chulo vs. Buddy Wayne
Aired on Super Astros – 12/27/98
Hey it’s Nick’s dad. Mr. Aguila is still going to this day at 47 so is definitely a Real Ass Luchadore. Shane encourages a fan sat behind him to charge the ring as an initiation. He doesn’t.
Buddy knows how to take basic lucha offence but Papi somehow misses his arm on an armdrag so he takes a phantom bump. Crowd boo. Why did WWF have non-lucha jobbers for the luchadores? It’s asking for trouble. Papi crotches Buddy on the ropes then lands a spinning leg kick to send him outside as the crowd don’t give a damn about this. Papi counters an up-and-over into a sit-out face-first slam thing that I don’t know the name of at 1:56.
WWF European Title
X-Pac (c) vs. Tiger Ali Singh
Aired on Sunday Night Heat – 12/20/98
The intro and pyro to Sunday Night Heat wakes up the crowd as does X-Pac’s theme and entrance. It’s enough to keep them awake during Tiger’s entrance as he “hails from the continent of Asia.”
Shane and Kelly do their bit for TV talking to the camera while the crowd’s hot and then Shane asks “Dad” via his head-set if that was OK. Tiger overpowers X-Pac with basic arse moves while Shane signs autographs for the fans. Pac comes back with kicks with one absolutely wiping out Tiger, causing Shane to yell “beautiful potato shot!”
Bronco Buster, X-Factor, pin at 1:52.
Highlight was Shane calling Vince “Dad” because I assumed he’d have some weird nickname for him like “Captain Fuck” or something.
(edit: I asked X-Pac about that one kick, and he insisted he didn’t do that very often to people. But he wanted to make sure Tiger sold it for a change and added “lol”.)
Al Snow makes his entrance for his match with LOD Droz but that’s enough for the satellite to tap out and crash into the Atlantic Ocean.
Stuff that also happened but wasn’t recorded:
El Merenguero defeated Apollo Dantes via disqualification when Armando Fernandez told the referee about Dantes using a foreign object; as the show came to a close, Dantes put Fermandez in the Apollo 13
Val Venis & the Godfather defeated Edge & Gangrel when Val scored the pin with the fisherman’s suplex
Goldust defeated the Blue Blazer via disqualification when Jeff Jarrett interfered as Goldust attempted the Shattered Dreams; after the bout, Steve Blackman made the save and unmasked the Blazer to reveal him as being Owen Hart
Mark Henry & D-Lo Brown (w/ Terri & Jackie) defeated Al Snow & Bob Holly when Henry pinned Holly with a bodyslam after Jackie interfered
WWF IC Champion Ken Shamrock & WWF Hardcore Champion the Big Bossman (w/ Shawn Michaels) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions the Road Dogg & Billy Gunn to win the titles when Gunn submitted to Shamrock’s ankle lock after Michaels hit the title holder in the ankle with Bossman’s nightstick
Jeff Jarrett (w/ Debra) pinned Steve Blackman in a guitar on a pole match after Owen Hart interfered with a second guitar
Kane fought Mankind to a no contest when Vince McMahon challenged Mankind to a streetfight as Kane was put in a straightjacket by orderlies; moments thereafter, the Corporation came to McMahon’s aid as he was being attacked backstage
WWF World Champion the Rock pinned Triple H after Shawn Michaels hit the challenger with the title belt and Test interfered (Test’s debut)
Kevin Quinn & Brian Christopher defeated Matt & Jeff Hardy
The Headbangers defeated the Oddities via disqualification
Billy Gunn & the Road Dogg defeated Skull & 8-Ball
WWF World Champion the Rock defeated the Big Bossman, Ken Shamrock, and Mankind
Overall: Some crappy matches and Shane McMahon commentating. Interesting to see how badly the Super Astros experiment was handled but outside of that, this was one for the really, really nerdy wrestling fan who has ran out of used ring gear to sniff.