WTWWW WWE — page 51

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – March 8, 1999

By LScisco on 26th July 2016

–A video package chronicles Steve Austin attacking the Rock on Sunday Night Heat and Paul Wight not trying to save the Rock from the assault.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are calling the action and they are live from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – March 1, 1999

By LScisco on 12th July 2016

–A video package recaps the Undertaker’s recent threats against Vince McMahon, culminating in the Undertaker burning a teddy bear at the end of last week’s RAW.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are doing commentary and they are live from Cleveland, Ohio.

–The Corporation comes out and Vince McMahon discusses how the audience does not understand his capacity to love. He fires Kane for losing the inferno match to the Undertaker last week and has orderlies come down to send Kane to the insane asylum. However, Chyna comes to Kane’s aid and they fight them off. Chyna tells McMahon that she can control Kane and asks for Kane to be booked against Steve Austin, with Kane’s job on the line. McMahon counters by also putting Chyna’s job on the line. Mankind then joins the festivities and volunteers to referee the Steve Austin-Kane match to prove himself worthy of refereeing the title match at WrestleMania XV. McMahon agrees on the condition that Mankind is able to defeat the Undertaker on tonight’s show (this is later clarified in the broadcast to mean that McMahon will consider Mankind for the role at WrestleMania based on how the match goes). The Undertaker’s voice then comes on via the loudspeakers and he says that he has already told McMahon what he is going to take from him.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – February 22, 1999

By LScisco on 5th July 2016

–A video package recaps the Rock winning the WWF title in a ladder match against Mankind on last week’s show.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are taped from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

–Vince McMahon comes out to hype tonight’s Inferno Match between the Undertaker and Kane. He welcomes Paul Wight to the ring, who is booked to be the guest referee at WrestleMania. Cole is trying to get Wight over as “The Big Nasty,” so I guess it is good that “The Big Show” name was chosen instead. WWF Champion The Rock also comes out, quickly getting into a verbal confrontation with Wight, telling him to “Know his role.” McMahon’s efforts at playing peacemaker get nowhere until Mankind marches onto the stage and volunteers to referee the WrestleMania main event, as well as referee a Rock-Wight encounter tonight. Wight then proceeds to challenge the Rock to a match, which the Rock gladly accepts and he says he will put the WWF title on the line too.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – February 15, 1999

By LScisco on 21st June 2016

–A series of narrated photographs recaps last night’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre pay-per-view.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Birmingham, Alabama.

–Commissioner Shawn Michaels comes out and welcomes out the participants in the WrestleMania main event: WWF Champion Mankind and Steve Austin. Before anything can be said between them, Vince McMahon interrupts, wearing a neck brace and selling his beating from Austin the previous night. McMahon claims to be a broken man and that he wants a fresh start with Austin on the condition that Austin apologizes. Austin does apologize, but only for beating McMahon more than he intended. McMahon tells Michaels that people deserve a WWF title rematch between Mankind and the Rock because their match last night ended in a draw so he needs to do his job and book it for tonight. Mankind says he needs a week to recover, bringing out the Rock, who continues to goad Michaels into booking a title match for this evening. Mankind decides to take on the Rock after all and to make sure that there is a winner Michaels announces that tonight’s title match will be a ladder match. After that, McMahon welcomes out Paul Wight, who he says will be the special guest referee of the title match at WrestleMania. Austin simply flips him off from the ring to end the segment.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House

By LScisco on 14th June 2016

So after being away for several months due to some work obligations, “What the World Was Watching” returns by picking up where we left off in 1999. The Steve Austin-Vince McMahon rivalry is continuing and they are set to do battle in a steel cage match where if Austin loses then he surrenders his WrestleMania title shot. The Undertaker is busy with his Ministry of Darkness nonsense and Mankind is keeping the Rock busy before WrestleMania.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are doing commentary and they are live from Memphis, Tennessee.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Saturday Night Raw – February 13, 1999

By LScisco on 26th January 2016

–Even though it is the height of the Attitude Era, RAW was still being pre-empted by the Westminster Dog Show. As a result, this is Saturday Night Raw. At least it is in Skydome and that is always a cool visual.

–A video package recaps the Austin-McMahon feud from the Royal Rumble up to last week’s show.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are taped from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This is the “go home” show for St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – February 1, 1999

By LScisco on 19th January 2016

–Footage of Mankind defeating the Rock for the WWF title during Halftime Heat is shown. There was a spoiler for that match since this show was taped nearly a week before that match aired.

–Shane McMahon tells the Corporation that Vince McMahon is on a separate assignment in Texas, so he lets them know that he is in charge. Test, Ken Shamrock, and the Big Bossman have no idea where Kane is.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are taped from Tucson, Arizona.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – January 25, 1999

By LScisco on 12th January 2016

–Pictures and audio excerpts recap last night’s Royal Rumble match.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth from Phoenix, Arizona.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Royal Rumble 1999

By LScisco on 5th January 2016

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Anaheim, California.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – January 18, 1999

By LScisco on 29th December 2015

-Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are taped from Beaumont, Texas. This is the go home show for the Royal Rumble.

–Cole is in the ring to interview Steve Austin, but Austin just turns it into a single man segment as he rips the microphone out of Cole’s hands. This is just a generic “build promo” for the Rumble, with Austin recapping a month’s worth of storylines about how he will be the first entrant, Vince McMahon will be the second entrant, and that all twenty-nine men will want to throw him out so that they can receive $100,000 from Vince.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – January 11, 1999

By LScisco on 22nd December 2015

It has been a long time since the World Was Watching appeared here on the Blog. That was partly due to some career moves on my part and just a general lack of time. That is solved for the time being, though, so we will head back into 1999. The last recap ended – somewhat fittingly – with Mankind’s upset title victory over the Rock. The Road Dogg also defended his Hardcore title against Al Snow out in the snow on the last show and the tasteless Terri Runnels pregnancy angle began with D-Lo Brown. Needless to say, 1999 will be a combination of some memorable moments and some really wacky Russo booking.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Houston, Texas.

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – January 4, 1999

By LScisco on 16th June 2015

I had a small scare
last week as I could not find my 1999 RAW DVD set to recap these shows. I eventually found it, so we trudge forth
into another year of WWF action. One
could argue that 1999 was a turning point in the Monday Night Wars as the WWF
expanded its lead over WCW, although there were several times when WCW may have
been able to capitalize on the WWF pushing some midcard talents up the card to
regain the lead. This is also the height
of Vince Russo’s power within the company as he will be booking RAWs until
October.

–Michael Cole and Jerry “the King” Lawler are
doing commentary and they are taped from Worchester, Massachusetts.

–A video package recaps
Shawn Michaels getting fired on last week’s show and giving Sweet Chin Music to
Vince McMahon. Kevin Kelly narrates a
small tribute to his career, which Vince hilariously interrupts by shouting “Get
that sentimental crap off the screen!”
The Corporation walks out with him and Vince promises that Michaels will
not be attending the show since he is not brave. As Vince talks, Brisco sneakily attaches a Brisco
Brothers Body Shop sign to Kane’s back without him knowing, which is a great
touch. The Titantron
shows that Michaels has showed up backstage and quickly comes onto the stage
with D-Generation X. Michael Cole
screams about whether this means DX and Shawn Michaels are back together, a
question that should obviously answer itself.
We get some corporate speak as Michaels says that he has an ironclad
contract as commissioner so Vince cannot fire him. After replaying the Royal Rumble drawing that
Vince and Shane McMahon held several weeks ago where Vince received #30 after
wishing he was #2, Michaels gives Vince his wish. I have to give them credit for justifying
this with Michaels saying that when Vince entered the Rumble he became a
wrestler and under Michaels power.
Michaels also promises to give Vince a surprise before tonight’s show is
over and that it will drive him “Stone Cold crazy.”

–Opening Non-Title
Contest: Steve Blackman pins Ken
Shamrock (Champion) after Billy Gunn gives Shamrock a Fameasser at 3:25:

The former mixed martial arts allies collide here and Dan
Severn walks out a minute into the bout still sporting a neck brace. After a few brief minutes of action, Shamrock
nails Severn when Severn gets on the apron and Billy Gunn uses that opportunity
to interfere and cost Shamrock the match.
How Severn fits into all of this, since he is feuding with Owen Hart, is
not explained. Rating: *

–The Rock and Vince
McMahon are on the cover of Southwest Spirit magazine!

–The camera catches
Ken Shamrock and Billy Gunn brawling backstage before WWF officials separate
them.

–Mankind comes out
and says that he wants a WWF title shot against the Rock at the Royal Rumble
since he beat him at Rock Bottom. He
calls out Vince, who walks out and runs down how Mankind doing things to
appease the people is pathetic. Vince
says that Mankind does not deserve to be the number one contender because he
has not paid his dues and that he will probably never wrestle for the title
again. Instead, Vince books a match
between Mankind and Triple H, with the winner getting to enter the Royal
Rumble. A guest referee will officiate
the match and that referee will be Shane McMahon. Austin-McMahon gets a lot of attention from
1998-1999, but the Vince-Mankind interactions were a close rival to that feud
in terms of compelling and entertaining television.

–Chyna and her friend
Sammi are shown talking backstage.

–Mark Henry beats
Goldust via disqualification after Goldust hits Shattered Dreams at 3:40:

Henry really needs a new ring attire as he is still
sporting his Nation of Domination-style gear.
Cole makes sure that we know all about Henry’s “tree trunk size legs.” Word is that such a moniker was quite an
honor before Big Show showed up the following month with his “frying pan size
hands.” Henry has Goldust beat until
Chyna and Sammi appear on the ramp and this distractions causes Henry to fall
prey to Shattered Dreams. I never got
the logic of the Shattered Dreams move.
Why use something like that in clear view of the referee when you know
it will get you disqualified? Rating:
¾*

–After the match,
Chyna and Sammi come to the ring, with Chyna confessing to Henry that he is too
much man for her, and that she and Sammi want to take a load off of his
mind. Henry faints at this offer.

–Congratulations to
Jesse Ventura, who was inaugurated as Minnesota’s governor earlier in the
day. You see, all of this was due to the
WWF giving him an opportunity years ago!
What is interesting is that Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the inauguration
and would become California’s governor four years later.

–Dennis Knight is
shown chained in a cellar at an undisclosed location.

–Test and The
Godfather (w/the Hos) wrestle to a double disqualification at 1:59:

This is before Test got the theme that repeated his name
over and over again so he has this weird country-style tune that is not fitting for a former Metallica bodyguard.
The Godfather does not offer Test the hos, so you know that he means
business. Cole also lets us know that
Test has “amazing athletic ability” for – get this – stepping over the top
rope! Test and the Godfather brawl on
the floor as the referee loses control of the match and Val Venis runs down to
fight with Test before WWF officials break them up. If you recall, Test and Venis have a
lingering issue from the last show where Test cost Venis his Hardcore title
shot.

–Shawn Michaels is
shown having a fun conversation with DX backstage. Cole is still shocked that they are back
together!

–Royal Rumble
Qualifying Match with Shane McMahon as the Special Guest Referee: Triple H (w/Chyna) defeats Mankind with a
sunset flip at 2:55:

This is a pretty mediocre match, but there’s a reason behind
all of it. Mankind dominates much of the
action until Triple H hits a sunset flip from the apron and Shane McMahon,
after kicking Mankind’s hands away from the ropes, registers a quick three
count. Triple H gets on the mic to tell
Mankind that he does not regret winning in such a fashion as it gets him closer
to the WWF title, but he also wishes him a “Happy New Year!” by Pedigreeing
Shane. Mankind proceeds to put Shane in
a submission hold and threatens to break his shoulder unless Vince gives
him a title shot later in the evening.
Vince agrees to that and also agrees to make it no disqualification
under duress. This was such a great
piece of storytelling as the McMahons master plan backfired and babyface
elements that shared a common hatred of the McMahons worked together to make
that happen.

–After the segment,
WWF Champion The Rock angrily walks out and complains to Vince about being
booked to defend the title.

–D-Lo Brown
wrestles Edge to a no contest at 4:30:

This match does not have a story, but it serves as a
small trial run for two guys that the company had high hopes for at the
time. Only one of them eventually made
it to main event status, but that is the way things go sometimes. D-Lo hits a nice Sky High when Edge dives off
the top rope, but PMS walks out to take all of the attention away from that. Terri
Runnels, who is showing her “pregnancy,” distracts D-Lo and when D-Lo goes
after her, Terri falls off the steps.
This is the infamous “miscarriage angle” that Jim Cornette still gets
hot about in shoot interviews and with good reason as this served little purpose and probably bothered some viewers who may have gone through
such an awful experience in their lives.
And of course, the whole thing also ruined this match. Rating: *½

–Shane McMahon,
Gerald Brisco, Pat Patterson, and Kane walk out, with Kane still sporting the
sign on his back from earlier in the show.
I love how Kane is such an outcast that not a single person backstage
bothered to tell him about it for the last ninety minutes. Shane gets on the mic and books an impromptu
handicap match that pits the stooges against Kane since they were “remotely
responsible” for Mankind’s attack him a few weeks ago. Patterson hilariously offers Kane a
cigarette, which is rebuffed, and the stooges eat some chokeslams. Kane also teases chokeslamming Shane, but is
convinced not to do so under threat of going back to the insane asylum.

–Dennis Knight begs
for help as the Acolytes tell him that “It’s time.” I would be begging for mercy if someone tried
to get me to watch that pay-per-view again too!

–Hardcore
Championship Match: The Road Dogg
(Champion) beats Al Snow (w/Head) 8:35 with a piledriver on some wooden crates:

Snow has still not gotten over his bloodbath at the hands
of the Brood, sporting his blood drenched shirt from several weeks ago. Snow kills himself to get over here, going
through a table on a moonsault off the ringside barrier and taking chairshots
and cookie sheet shots to the head.
Speaking of cookie sheets, Road Dogg adds a small touch by unbending a
cookie sheet after he smacks Snow with it, which in wrestling terms makes his
blows pack more power or something like that.
What the match is notable for is that spills out of the arena
where a snow shower is taking place.
Referee Jack Doan cannot even maintain his footing as he keeps sliding
on black ice. Road Dogg ends the match
with a piledriver, continuing his run of entertaining title defenses. Rating: ***

–The Acolytes toss
Dennis Knight into a smoky room where screams can be heard and close the door
behind him.

–Shawn Michaels
leaves the arena to get the “Stone Cold surprise” and wishes DX well. After Michaels leaves, Triple H suggests to
the camera that things may not turn out well and sure enough, Michaels cannot
get into his car because he has the wrong key.
He is locked out of the arena and a voice calls his name as we head to
commercial. When we return, he is a
bloody mess on the hood of his car and is attended to by medical personnel. A
replay shows that the Corporation was responsible for the assault.

–No
Disqualification Match for the WWF Championship Match: Mankind (w/D-Generation X) pins The Rock
(Champion w/The Corporation) to win the title after Steve Austin hits the Rock
with a chair at 8:48:

The Rock is recovering from his gyno surgery, so he is
wrestling his track outfit here. An
entertaining sequence takes place when the Rock rips off Cole’s headset to give
some comments and then Mankind beats up the Rock, takes the headset, and
announces to the world that he has “testicular fortitude” in a really corny
way. They make full use of the no
disqualification stipulation, with the Rock putting Mankind through the
announce table with a Rock Bottom and punishing him with the stairs and ring
bell. Lawler makes sure to take a dig at
WCW too by saying that this “is not a title match that begins two minutes
before the show ends.” Despite being no
disqualification, the Rock feels that he has to hide hitting Mankind with the
title and the same is true for the return of Steve Austin to arguably the
loudest pop in the history of the company – interference that gives Mankind an
improbabe WWF championship run. It
never gets old seeing Austin return here as people jump up and down in the
front row and lose their mind at the title change. Another great part of the end sequence is Billy
Gunn moving at 100 miles per hour to knock Shamrock for a loop after Shamrock
blasts Mankind with a chair. The match was
not good, but the heat for the closing sequence was incredible. Rating: **¼

The Final Report: This is a notable show in the company’s
history because WCW famously had Tony Schiavone spoil Mankind’s victory
by saying that “Cactus Jack” would be winning the title and sarcastically
saying “that’ll put butts in the seats!”
The spoiler did not cause RAW to lose the ratings battle that night, but
it is a myth that viewers immediately turned off Nitro when they heard
Schiavone’s words and flocked over to RAW.
Still, that idea has acquired its own place in WWF lore like the DX “tank”
turning the Monday Night Wars around.
The title change and the build up to it is what makes this RAW fun and
it overshadows the offensive stuff such as the Terri miscarriage angle and the
other silly booking related to Mark Henry and Sammi. Unfortunately, not all shows would be able to
make up for Russo’s weird ideas in 1999, but at least this one hit a
home run to start the year.

Monday Night War Rating: 5.7 (vs. 5.0 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation:
Thumbs Up

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – December 28, 1998

By LScisco on 2nd June 2015

–A video package
recaps last week’s show where Shane McMahon assumed temporary control and was summarily
destroyed by Mankind. Kane also went “corporate”
for the first time in his career by attacking D-Generation X to end the show.

–Michael Cole and
Jerry “The King” Lawler are tonight’s commentary team and they are live from
Albany, New York. Cole is still calling
the show “the best action adventure series on television.”

–Vince McMahon
tells Shane McMahon that everyone that attacked him last week will pay. He pledges to humiliate and fire Commissioner
Shawn Michaels when he shows up at the arena.
The Corporation then invades the arena’s boiler room en masse looking
for Mankind. Mankind eventually launches
a sneak attack, but cannot fight off a boatload of guys on his own. Vince tells Mankind that he will get a
Hardcore title shot later in the evening as a belated Christmas gift, although
this will require some rebooking because Hardcore Champion The Road Dogg is
booked to face Val Venis in the opener.
The booking is doing a good job making Kane a sympathetic figure as the
stooges keep yelling at him.

–Opening Contest
for the Hardcore Championship: The Road
Dogg (Champion) and Val Venis wrestle to a no contest at 1:50:

Based on the previous segment, it is no surprise that the
Corporation walks out to ringside less than two minutes into this bout. Test attacks Venis as referee Earl Hebner
calls for the bell, not quite understanding the rules of a Hardcore title bout,
and D-Generation X comes out to protect Road Dogg.

–Vince McMahon
informs the Road Dogg that he will defend his title against Mankind and says
that Commissioner Shawn Michaels will be fired for not helping Shane last
week. This is a nice crazy Vince promo
as he goes nuts about his desire to fire Michaels, which he says he would love
to do to every member of the audience.

–Al Snow is still
freaking out over last week’s bloodbath at the hands of the Brood, but it is
unclear whether he received another bloodbath or has not changed out of the
clothes he had on last week.

–Vince talks with
Kane as the stooges make fun of Kane behind his back. Vince assigns Kane the task of going after an
unspecified member of D-Generation X.

–Edge beats Al
Snow (w/Head) via disqualification when Snow hits Edge with Head at 2:49:

Edge uses his original entrance theme and does not have
the Brood here, which does not fit within existing storylines, especially if
Snow is angry over last week’s bloodbath.
The Head is different for this bout as it is shaved and also has blood
on it. Snow squashes Edge here, hitting
him with a million headbutts and destroying him with Head until the Brood and
JOB Squad run out. For all intents and
purposes, Edge should be carted out of here on a stretcher, but he merely walks
out as if nothing happened and smiles at the JOB Squad. For his part, Snow escapes through the
audience for some reason.

–Sable warms up
backstage for her Women’s title defense tonight.

–Sable winning the
Women’s title from Jacqueline at Survivor Series is the Glover Slam of the Week.

–Dennis Knight,
formerly of Southern Justice, is shown talking with X-Pac backstage.

–The next match is
supposed to be Sable defending the WWF Women’s title. Before it gets started, the yet-to-be-named
Tori gets into the ring and presents Sable with a white rose before being
carted off by security. Sable is booked
to face Spider Lady, who attacks her from behind and whips her with a
belt. The Oddities, who now have George “the
Animal” Steele with them, rush the ring and Spider Lady unmasks to reveal Luna
Vachon. What you thought the Fabulous
Moolah was trying to “shoot” her way to another title? Luna screams that it is her time and she
needs to get more respect, while Cole is just outraged that Luna would do such
a thing to a loving, compassionate creature like Sable. When we return from the commercial break, the
Oddities tend to Sable’s injuries backstage.

–European
Championship Match: X-Pac (Champion) wrestles
The Big Bossman to a double disqualification at 5:13:

The previous night on Sunday Night Heat, Kane defeated
X-Pac in a non-title match and this match is the continuation of his punishment
for doing the Bronco Buster to Shane McMahon on last week’s show. X-Pac is really over here, especially when he
makes his comeback, and Test tries to run interference, but in a nice piece of
continuity Val Venis makes the save. We
are still without a clean finish tonight, but the crowd still loved this. Rating: *¾

–We get our first
training vignette for Vince in the Royal Rumble. These were some of the funniest vignettes of
the Attitude Era as Shane functioned as a merciless trainer and Vince
complained the whole way about doing sit ups with weights and drinking egg
yokes. Vince’s cries of “I HATE AUSTIN!”
were also great as he got into his workouts.

–Goldust &
Steve Blackman defeats “Double J” Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart (w/Debra) when
Blackman schoolboys Owen at 3:17:

The announcers will just not let the “Shawn Michaels is
going to be fired!” story go, talking about it on an average of once per
minute. The WWF is no longer using Debra’s
full name, just calling her “Debra” because the WWE has never cared for its
female stars to have first and last names.
This may also be due to the fact that Debra divorced Steve McMichael in
October and the WWF finally got with the times.
Owen locks Blackman in the Sharpshooter when Dan Severn randomly walks
out in a neck brace and confronts him.
After about forty seconds of that, Blackman and Goldust win via the WWF trademarked
distraction rollup. What is funny is
that after the match, Severn just calmly walks up the ramp with the heels no more
than ten yards behind him. Way to sell
that angle! Rating: *

–Triple H and Chyna
are really focused as they make their way to the Gorilla position.

–The Acolytes beat
up Dennis Knight in the parking lot, toss him into the trunk of their car, and
drive away.

–Intercontinental
Championship Match: Triple H (w/The New
Age Outlaws & Chyna) beats Ken Shamrock (Champion w/Test & The Big
Bossman) by disqualification when Shamrock refuses to release the anklelock at 6:26:

Instead of booking Billy Gunn to face Shamrock, they
really should have slotted Triple H into that position since you already had
the built-in story of how Triple H never lost the Intercontinental title and
was trying to get back what was rightfully his.
This match is noticeable for me because Triple H pulls out the old N64
move of blasting Test with a baseball slide when Test gets too close to the
apron. The company is really hurting
Shamrock’s finish as all the top stars keep getting to the ropes to escape it,
but his decision not to break the hold here fits within the existing
story. A good match, although Triple H
could have sold the knee better during the closing sequence. Rating: **½

–After the bell,
the Corporation and D-Generation X brawl, with the Corporation winning after
Kane reluctantly gets into the ring.

–Billy Gunn
temporarily winning the Intercontinental title from Ken Shamrock is the
10-10-220 Rewind segment.

–Kevin Kelly
interviews Gunn, but before Gunn can say much of note, Shamrock crashes the
segment. None of this goes anywhere.

–Mark Henry and
D-Lo Brown walk out and Henry apologizes to Chyna for fooling around with PMS
last week. PMS come out, with Henry hilariously
hiding behind D-Lo, who calls PMS “ring rats.”
Chyna then makes an entrance and sticks up for Henry, telling PMS to “stay
away from her man.” Jacqueline makes the
mistake of not heeding Chyna’s advice and gets shoved to the canvas as Henry
jumps for joy. This was great too because
Terri immediately fled from Chyna, possibly remembering getting choked out and
being flung around like a ragdoll in the winter of 1997. If you follow all of the shows through 1998,
this segment works really well. I marked
out for it.

–The Corporation
has another meeting backstage and when we get back they are going through the
locker room looking for someone.

–We get a video package
that recaps 1998. The problem with the
video is that they do not put things in chronological order so we just bounce
around to different segments and matches.

–The Corporation attacks
the Godfather backstage, who was booked to face Billy Gunn in the next match.

–Kane (w/Shane
McMahon, Pat Patterson & Gerald Brisco) defeats Billy Gunn by disqualification
when X-Pac interferes at 3:54:

With the Godfather on the shelf, Kane is inserted into
his place by Shane McMahon. Ken Shamrock
attacks Gunn from behind minutes into the match and applies the ankle
lock. Kane chokeslams Billy and appears
headed for a win, but the stooges have him repeat the chokeslam two more
times. Before Kane can hit the move a
third time, D-Generation X runs in to make the save. Rating: *

–WWF Champion The
Rock walks out to do guest commentary for the main event.

–Commissioner Shawn
Michaels is shown arriving to the arena, which is humorous because the show is
nearly over.

–Hardcore
Championship Match: The Road Dogg
(Champion) pins Mankind after the Rock this Mankind with a Rock Bottom at 9:08
shown:

The match starts during the commercial break so we join
it in progress. The Rock’s commentary
brings this match up a notch as he puts himself over, but also puts over the
talent of both competitors. There are
weapons used here, but at least they are used creatively with Mankind leg
dropping a chair onto Road Dogg’s face and Road Dogg using the chair for a side
Russian leg sweep. One spot that makes
no sense here is that Road Dogg breaks up a pin by getting his feet on the
ropes as you would figure rope breaks should not apply in a match where the
rules are suspended. Mankind appears headed
for a win after he elbow drops the Road Dogg through a table in the crowd, but
the Rock leaves the booth and interferes to put the Road Dogg over. Fans are so crazy over the Rock that four or
five security guards have to push back the sea of humanity that surrounds the
bout to get the Rock back to the locker room.
The Road Dogg was arguably the best Hardcore champion in WWF history,
putting on lots of entertaining title defenses before the garbage came to
overwhelm the actual wrestling. In a
nice touch, Road Dogg sees the way that he won the match and hates the fact
that he needed interference to retain the title. Rating: ***¼

–Vince McMahon
comes to the ring and calls out Shawn Michaels.
Vince recounts how he was the reason for Michaels success and shows
footage from March where Michaels said that he did not need Vince as much as
Vince needed him. Vince then proceeds to
fire Michaels and parts by saying that he does not laying down for anyone. This, predictably, ends with Michaels
delivering Sweet Chin Music and simulating a lewd act on Vince before the
Corporation runs out.

The Final Report Card: Quite the entertaining RAW to close out 1998. The main event was one of the better hardcore
matches in the company’s history and the closing segment and the Chyna-Mark
Henry-PMS segment stole the show. It is
a testament to how good the roster was built during this time that Steve Austin’s
absence is hardly missed. However, if you
look at the ratings, WCW has been gradually narrowing the Monday Night War gap
with RAW since Austin disappeared after Rock Bottom.

With the 1998 RAW reviews in the books,
where would the Blog like to head next?
Should we go into 1999 with RAW or should we go back to look at 1993-1995,
Superstars from 1994-1997, Prime Time Wrestling from 1991-1992, the Action Zone
from 1994-1995, Shotgun Saturday Night from 1997-1998, Sunday Night Heat of
1998, or recap the old Coliseum Video “Best of” videos of the 1980s? Whichever option gets the most support is
where I will head for next week and as always, thanks for reading and
interacting with these reviews.

Monday Night War Rating: 4.9 (vs. 4.6 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – December 21, 1998

By LScisco on 26th May 2015

–Vince McMahon
tells the stooges that he is leaving to briefly train for the Royal Rumble (because
he supposedly could not do this earlier in the day) and he says he will come
back with a “Christmas bonus” for the Corporation. He leaves Shane in charge of tonight’s show,
but reminds the stooges that he will hold them responsible for Shane’s
actions. Once Vince drives off, Shane
races toward the arena because he has a lot of things to do.

–Michael Cole and
Jerry “The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are taped from Spokane,
Washington. Cole welcomes us to the “greatest action adventure series on
television!” whatever that means.

–The Corporation
walks out to a generic techno beat and some of the Corporation’s initial
Titantron video was later incorporated into the “Hollywood Rock” Titantron. Before Shane McMahon can begin his monologue,
D-Generation X walks out and brings out Mankind who hilariously tries to look
cool by using DX’s gestures.
Commissioner Shawn Michaels books Billy Gunn to face Ken Shamrock, Road
Dogg to face Big Bossman, and Triple H & X-Pac to face The Rock & Test
(who is referred to as the “corporate insurance policy”). As revenge for Mankind beating up Vince last
week, Shane decides to face him in the ring over the objections of the stooges. Mankind and DX laugh at Shane’s challenge and
Mankind does some awful crotch chops on his way to the back.

–Cole hypes the
latest edition of People Magazine, which featured Steve Austin as a “breakout”
star of 1998.

–D-Lo Brown talks
to Mark Henry and tries to convince him not to fool around with the ladies in the
locker room because they have a match to attend to.

–Opening
Contest: Al Snow (w/Head) beats Gangrel
with the Snow Plow at 3:00:

Teddy Long is the referee but he does not turn this into
a tag match. Snow and Gangrel go back
and forth in a match that does not really have much rhyme or reason to it. Snow goes over clean by hitting a Snow Plow
out of nowhere. After the match, the
Brood attacks Snow in the dark and gives him a bloodbath. I cannot remember if this bloodbath stuff is
leading anywhere, but are we to assume that Gangrel cares more about pouring
blood on his opponents than winning? Rating:
*½

–We are shown
footage of Snow freaking out about the bloodbath during the commercial break.

–Intercontinental
Championship Match: Billy Gunn defeats
Ken Shamrock (Champion) by reversing a victory roll at 8:21:

Shamrock gets arguably the biggest heel heat in his
career as the Spokane crowd works up a loud “Shamrock sucks!” chant. After the four minute mark, this really picks
up as Shamrock works the knee and Billy gets some well-timed hope spots to keep
the crowd engaged. Billy appears to have
won the title as this was announced as a title match, but Commissioner Shawn
Michaels steps in to say that he never booked the match that way so Shamrock
keeps the title. The WWF loved that
finish in December, having used a version of it at Rock Bottom. After the match, Gunn moons Michaels, but
Shamrock takes him out. Rating:
***

–Hawk costing Droz
a match against Al Snow on Sunday Night Heat is the Playstation Slam of the
Week.

–Hawk walks out
after having fallen off the Titantron the night after Survivor Series. The WWF was so concerned about him that they
never bothered providing an update about his condition on subsequent RAWs. Hawk says that Droz was his dope pusher and
enabler, doing so in an effort to take Hawk’s job. Hawk pledges to get revenge when he heals up,
but Droz comes out and attacks him from behind. Animal comes down and tosses Droz off of Hawk,
but the partners do not have a full reconciliation.

–Mark Henry says
that he is ready to have some fun with PMS and goes into their locker
room. D-Lo Brown is beside himself at
his partner’s behavior.

–Footage of Steve
Austin giving Santa a Stone Cold Stunner last year is shown.

–Steve Blackman
defeats The Blue Blazer via disqualification when Owen Hart interferes at 2:22:

Before the bout, Owen Hart comes out and says that he has
proven that he is not the Blue Blazer and that part of the “Blue Blazer lives
inside each and every one of us.” He
then says on commentary that he hopes the Blazer gets unmasked so that “he can
get to the bottom of this” and compares his plight to OJ Simpson and Bill
Clinton. Blackman beats the Blazer up
like a jobber until Owen predictably runs in for a two-on-one beatdown before
Goldust intervenes. He and Blackman
unmask the Blazer to reveal Jeff Jarrett.
Jarrett tosses the Blazer cape back over his head as Owen shouts that he
does not know who the Blazer is. For
comedy this is okay, but this angle is just doing nothing for everyone
involved.

–PMS say that they
are going to take a shower as Henry watches.

–Hardcore
Championship Match: The Road Dogg pins
The Big Bossman (Champion) when Mankind blasts the Bossman with a steel bar to
win the title at 6:55:

This is initially billed as non-title, but Road Dogg
goads the Bossman into putting the title on the line. One could point to this match as when hardcore
matches jumped the shark as Road Dogg starts pulling out conveniently placed
cookie sheets and buckets from underneath the ring to attack the Bossman. It is unfortunate that the Bossman is no
longer with us as his ring attire in 1998 foreshadowed the Shield so he would
fit right in. Speaking of ring attire,
the Bossman goes to it to find objects to beat down Road Dogg such as a noose
(who knew wrestling could produce such vibrant social commentary?) and crack
cocaine (okay, it is just powder but it is funnier if you think it is crack
because why would police just carry random pouches of white powder?). To send the silliness factor up a notch, the
finish comes when Mankind throws a net over the Bossman and blasts him with a
steel bar to give the Road Dogg the title.
I hated this at first, but both guys stepped it up a notch when it went
into the crowd. Rating: **¼

–PMS help Henry get
out of his clothes and put a collar on him.
They then have him get on a massage table where they put a ball in his
mouth and put whipped cream on him.

–A promo video sees
Jeff Jarrett rant about what pisses him off.

–The stooges try to
convince Shane McMahon not to square off with Mankind.

–PMS now blindfold
Henry and strap him down to the table.

–Bob Holly &
Scorpio beat The Acolytes via disqualification at 3:20:

The Acolytes are still nothing more than Faarooq and
Bradshaw desperately trying to revive their careers. The referee has no control of this as it is
just a wild brawl and somehow the Acolytes are the ones that get disqualified. Rating: DUD

–Shane McMahon runs
toward the Gorilla position backstage as the stooges run after him and beg him
not to fight Mankind.

–Shane’s challenge
to Mankind is the Glover Rewind segment.

–Mankind beats
Shane McMahon (w/Pat Patterson & Gerald Brisco) via disqualification when
the Rock interferes at 3:04:

Shane comes out to the Brawl for All music which is a
nice touch. The Corporation comes out
early into the match, but Shawn Michaels does not let them rush the ring when
Shane gets in trouble. Mankind gives
Shane a chair, but no sells the chair shot he receives. He then dispatches of the stooges with
ease. Somehow all of this is legal and
the Rock eventually hits the ring to lay out Mankind when Shane becomes trapped
in the Mandible Claw. As Mankind and the
Rock brawl at ringside, X-Pac does a Bronco Buster to Shane until the
Corporation rescues him. Not much of a
match, but it was still entertaining. Rating:
*

–Classie Freddie
Blassie plays the part of “vulgar Santa” in a WWF Attitude vignette.

–The stooges are
worried about how they are going to be punished by Vince when he comes back to
the arena.

–D-Lo tries to get
Henry from PMS, but cannot get into their locker room and has to head the ring
alone. Footage from the PMS locker room
shows PMS whipping Henry and there is a clamp on him as well.

–The Headbangers
beat D-Lo Brown with a double flapjack at 2:42:

Lawler spends his time during this match providing
details on the other abuse PMS is putting Henry through in the locker room. D-Lo puts up a good fight here, but cannot
beat the former tag team champions.
Henry walks out after the finish looking the worse for wear and D-Lo
shows no sympathy.

–Patterson tells
Brisco to keep his mouth shut as Vince arrives back at the arena. Brisco does not follow instructions, makes
Vince angry, and then hilarious asks Patterson if he thinks they will still get
their Christmas bonus.

–Check out the
latest edition of Tattoo magazine that talks about the Undertaker!

–Triple H &
X-Pac (w/D-Generation X) wrestle The Rock & Test (w/The Corporation) to a
no contest at 10:30:

Prior to the match, Shawn Michaels expels D-Generation X
from ringside, but Vince walks out and overrules him. Test just does some basic offense here,
getting repetitive with delivering several knees in the corner, but does a good
job looking imposing and versatile. When
it looks as if the Rock will finish off Triple H, the arena’s lights go out and
Kane walks out, but he chokeslams Triple H instead of going after his former
enemies. He also takes out the rest of
D-Generation X, including Chyna as the show goes off the air. So Kane was the “Christmas bonus.” At least he did not come out as the “Christmas
Creature.” It would have been nice to
get a clear finish after sitting through this, but it does keep everyone
reasonably protected so it served that purpose.
Rating: **

The Final Report: After the Road Dogg-Bossman match, this show
lost a lot of direction. We had the
ridiculous PMS-Mark Henry stuff crowding the show (and probably leaving some
parents horrified and deciding that their children would not be watching WWF
programming in the near future) and then a weird Kane turn at the end (which in
the long run would not last very long).
Some of the impact of the end of the slow loses its luster since Kane
has been around forever; has turned 20,000 times or so; and the character has
lost all meaning. The Corporation was
also becoming way too big for its own good at this point, starting to mirror
the NWO in late 1996 when everyone and their mother, father, aunt, uncle, and
cousin decided to join up. If you watch
this show, follow the first half but then abandon it after the Hardcore title
switch.

Monday Night War Rating: 4.7 (vs. 4.0 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Neutral

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – December 14, 1998

By LScisco on 19th May 2015

–Pictures and
commentary from last night’s Rock Bottom pay-per-view are aired.

–Michael Cole and
Jerry “The King” Lawler are doing commentary and they are live from Tacoma,
Washington.

–D-Generation X
comes out dressed as the Corporation as Cole is so nice to tell us that all of
this is supposed to be funny over and over again. Jason Sensation also makes a return as
Commissioner Shawn Michaels. Aside from
Sensation, the only entertaining part of this segment is X-Pac’s imitation of
Shamrock where he screams about how he is in the zone and how its “five knuckle
shuffle time!” After this long segment
comes to a close, Shawn Michaels, the Big Bossman, Ken Shamrock, and the Rock
walk out. Michaels books a rematch of
last night’s tag team title match between the New Age Outlaws and Shamrock and
the Bossman. Michaels takes a dig at
Triple H as being a “midcarder for life,” but Triple H goads the Rock into
putting the WWF title on the line in the main event.

–Vince McMahon
gives a pep talk to the Corporation in the locker room, ending it with a promise to go after Kane
since Kane is deemed as one of the primary reasons Steve Austin qualified for
the Royal Rumble at Rock Bottom.

–Opening
Contest: Supply & Demand (w/The Hos)
defeat Edge & Christian (w/Gangrel) when Val Venis pins Christian with a
fisherman’s suplex at 2:34:

The Godfather was beginning to get the “Pimpin’ ain’t
easy” line over at this point, adding to the number of catchphrases by the
company’s stars. The Brood is so weird
that the Godfather does not bother to give them any hos. Edge and Christian make one of their first
appearances as a tag team as the company was realizing that they could put on
better matches than Edge and Gangrel. Or
maybe the company realized that if you are going to bill Edge and Christian as
brothers that it was nonsensical to not have them for a tag team. This is just a quick TV bout, typical of the
era, with the ending being messy as Venis enters the ring too late after a
blind tag and Edge does not even bother trying to break up the final pin. With the Brood’s gimmick you would think
Russo would find more for these guys to do, but they keep losing to other
midcard acts week after week.

–After the match,
Gangrel says that there is going to be a bloodbath the next time that the Brood
appears.

–Kevin Kelly
interviews Steve Blackman who says he will unmask the Blue Blazer tonight. For a guy who is a legitimate bad ass like
Blackman, it is a shame that he cannot cut a convincing promo.

–Goldust beats The
Blue Blazer via disqualification when Jeff Jarrett interferes at 2:10:

This is a revenge match from the previous evening as the
Blue Blazer kept Debra McMichael from finishing her striptease at Rock
Bottom. As several have commented in my
reviews it is tough to watch this Blue Blazer angle when you know how it is
going to end in six months. This match
hardly gets going before Jeff Jarrett interferes to break up Shattered Dreams. Steve Blackman lives up to his promise to
also do a run-in and he does unmask the Blazer as Owen. Why not do the unmasking on
pay-per-view? In a humorous bit, Jarrett
tosses a black cloth over Owen’s head as if he is too ugly to be seen after the
unmasking.

–Mark Henry gets
ready for a match backstage.

–The New Age
Outlaws and the Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock are prevented from having a
confrontation backstage by WWF officials.

–Mark Henry &
D-Lo Brown (w/PMS) beats Scorpio & Bob Holly (w/Al Snow, Duane Gill &
The Blue Meanie) when Henry pins Holly after a powerslam at 3:00:

This might be the RAW debut of the “Sexual Chocolate”
theme song, although it is not a great tag team entrance theme since it does
not work for D-Lo. Before the match,
Henry talks about his date with Chyna and how it got intimate, with D-Lo giving
fantastic facial expressions throughout.
The Chyna angle is where Henry started to show the personality that made
him an effective superstar as he participated in some ridiculous segments that
were meant to discourage him and get him to quit. The whole point of this match is to keep
building D-Lo and Henry, as well as PMS, and the JOB Squad are manhandled and
outwitted. Rating: *

–Mankind’s attack
on the Rock before the Rock Bottom pay-per-view is the Acclaim Sports Slam of
the Week.

–WWF Tag Team
Championship Match: Ken Shamrock &
The Big Bossman (w/Shawn Michaels) defeat The New Age Outlaws (Champions) when
Shamrock makes Billy Gunn submit to the ankle lock to win the titles at 6:45:

One fan has a big “Clinton 3:16” sign near the front of
the ring that cracks me up since that is not something that you would expect to
see at a wrestling show. Unlike last
night’s pay-per-view, the challengers focus on a body part, targeting Billy
Gunn’s left knee after Shamrock smashes a chair into it. The Road Dogg also gets a chair to the back
and a Bossman slam, which leads to a second hot tag to Gunn, which is a bad
idea since he is fighting on one leg.
Still, it takes a Michaels night stick shot to the back of the head to
put the Outlaws down for the count. So
why could we not have just done this finish last night? Rating: **

–Vince and Shane
McMahon walk out to conduct the drawing of Steve Austin’s number for the Royal
Rumble. Vince says that he will get
revenge against Kane and Mankind tonight and he books them to face each other
in a no holds barred match. In the
subsequent drawing, Austin is awarded #1, but you see, the drawing is rigged as
it appears that all of the numbers in the tumbler are #1. To make Austin’s job of winning the Rumble
even more difficult, Vince also promises to give the superstar that tosses
Austin over the top rope $100,000 (which will be taken from one of Shane’s
trust funds). As a final announcement,
Vince says that another participant in the Rumble match, someone who is the
only person that “could save Ted Turner’s WCW,” will be him. Shane proceeds to draw a number out of the
tumbler for Vince and he gets #30.
Christening his new theme song, Vince says there is “no chance in hell”
that Austin will win the Rumble. Mankind
then appears on the Titantron from the boiler room and challenges Vince to a
match instead of facing Kane, but Vince does not accept.

–Get your Jesse
“the Body” Ventura videotape! You know,
the guy that the WWF tried to purge from its history until he won the Minnesota
gubernatorial election!

–Debra McMichael’s
striptease at Rock Bottom is the Glover Rewind segment.

–Vince huddles with
stooges about what to do with Mankind until deciding that he is better off
coming up with his own solution for the problem. Gerald Brisco is still offering to get him
coffee.

–Guitar on a Pole
Match: “Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra
McMichael) pins Steve Blackman after Owen Hart hits Blackman with a guitar at
3:33:

Russo’s pole fetish finally finds its way to television
here. It would have made more sense to
book this as Jarrett-Goldust since Goldust is the one that got blasted with a
guitar last night at Rock Bottom. Debra
starts stripping to distract Blackman and allow Jarrett to get the guitar, but
then we also get a ref bump after Blackman avoids getting hit with it. Then, Owen Hart runs in with a guitar and
hits Blackman to give his partner in crime a victory. This match was like a sick preview of what
Russo would do to WCW a couple of years later.
Rating: *

–Tiger Ali Singh
calls the stooges into his locker room where “Bloodbath” has been written on
the wall. He said that he does not want
to compete tonight under these conditions.

–Vince tells Shane
that he is going to face Mankind tonight, but he will do it his way.

–The next match is
booked as Gangrel-Tiger Ali Singh, but it never gets started as Tiger tries to
flee but the Broods prevents him from doing so, beat him down, and pour blood
on him. You have to use your imagination
for all of this, though, because it takes place in the darkness of the Brood’s
entrance.

–No Holds Barred
Match: Mankind and Kane wrestle to a
no-contest at 4:28:

In this match, Lawler claims that the steps weigh 150
pounds, but last year’s TLCS pay-per-view told me they were over 500
pounds. Poor Art Donovan would be so
confused. This match is more about
angles as Mankind and Kane brawl for a few minutes before Vince comes out and
asks Mankind to come into the parking lot to face him in a street fight. Then, while we are away at a commercial
break, Ken Shamrock and the Big Bossman beatdown Kane so that orderlies can
take him to a mental institution.
Meanwhile, Mankind destroys Vince in the parking lot before the Rock
shows up and Rock Bottoms Mankind on the hood of a car. Rating: *

–WWF Championship
Match: The Rock (Champion w/Shawn
Michaels) defeats Triple H (w/Chyna) when Test interferes at 10:49:

Seeing the Rock and Michaels by each other just makes you
wish that they would have had a match at some point. This match shows how wild crowds used to be
as people mob Triple H during his entrance when he gets close to the guardrail
and some fans even try to prevent the Rock from attacking Triple H near the
ringside barrier on the floor. The Rock
is bit too liberal with the chinlocks in this one, but one could say the same
for Triple H’s knee attacks in this era.
In true WWE style, they kick out of each other’s big moves, but when the
referee is distracted Test makes his in-ring debut by nailing Triple H with a pumphandle
slam and helping the Rock retain. Rating:
***

The Final Report: Despite the absence of Steve Austin this show
effectively framed some of the big angles heading into the Royal Rumble
pay-per-view. The matches were really abbreviated,
something that could be expected of WWF television at the time, but the main
event was solid since the Rock and Triple H usually had fantastic
chemistry. On the basis of the main
event and the entertaining McMahon segments, this show garners a thumbs up.

Monday Night War Rating: 5.2 (vs. 4.2 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Rock Bottom – In Your House

By LScisco on 12th May 2015

So after a three
months absence, I have returned so that the Blog can finish up looking back at
1998 when the World Wrestling Federation finally turned the tide against World
Championship Wrestling. When we left off,
the Rock was tearing it up as the newly crowned corporate heel champion, but he
has Mankind in hot pursuit of the title that he thought was in the bag at
Survivor Series. Steve Austin was still
feuding with the Undertaker, something that segments of the audience are
growing tired of, and the New Age Outlaws teased joining the Corporation before
realigning with D-Generation X. The
Corporation still has Commissioner Shawn Michaels in their pocket, though. And Debra McMichael, newly arrived from WCW,
has reunited with Jeff Jarrett, ignoring the fact that he called her a “dumb
blonde” when he returned to the company in 1997.

–WWF Champion The
Rock shows up at Planet Hollywood in Vancouver, British Columbia. He promises that future pay-per-views will be
named after him and tells us to enjoy the action. The Rock getting a pay-per-view named after
him fit nicely into existing storylines as it constituted a reward for going
heel.

–Michael Cole and
Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada. Ross is absent
due to his mother’s recent passing. The
opening is where Cole says that there is two tons of dirt near the grave and
the tombstone weighs “in excess of three thousand pounds,” thereby serving as
great fodder for recappers of the future.

–D-Lo Brown &
Mark Henry (w/PMS) defeat Supply & Demand (w/The Hos) when Henry pins Venis
after a splash at 5:58:

The WWF should have done more with the Supply &
Demand tag team of Val Venis and the Godfather since the tag division was
relatively weak at this point in the company’s history (and would remain so
until the summer of 1999). The “Pretty
Mean Sisters” faction of Terri Runnels and Jacqueline align themselves with
D-Lo and Henry at this show, although the reasons for it are not
explained. D-Lo draws a lot of heat,
with the crowd showering him with “D-Lo sucks!” chants on several occasions. The hos and PMS get into a predictable confrontation
on the floor, creating a distraction that allows Jacqueline to pull Venis’s
tights down and produce the finish. This
was standard RAW fare that was made better by the hot crowd. Rating: **¼

–Footage of Mankind
attacking the Rock earlier in the day when he was being interviewed by Michael
Cole in a skybox. The Rock’s ribs are
allegedly hurt, but he is willing to fight against doctor’s orders so that he
can keep the title.

–The Headbangers
beat Kurrgan & Golga (w/Giant Silva & Luna Vachon) when Mosh pins Golga
after the Stage Dive at 6:52:

Cole tells us that the Headbangers “defrocked” Luna by
cutting her hair on a recent episode of RAW, which is not the appropriate use
of that word. That does not keep him
from continuing to use it, though. These
two teams had been feuding on RAW, with the Headbangers turning on the Oddities
and then getting the Insane Clown Posse to defect to their side. The Oddities were seemingly okay with this
defection, though, because they are still using the ICP’s engineered theme music. If this was booked as a three minute match it
would be acceptable, but it just keeps dragging as the Headbangers can only do
so much with their opponents. The ending
is botched, with Golga taking forever to run the ropes and ending up too far
away to take the Stage Dive. Rating:
¾*

–Vince McMahon,
Shane McMahon, and the stooges huddle to discuss how they help the Rock defend
the title tonight. Patterson suggests
getting hockey equipment and ambushing Mankind.
Brisco just offers to get Mr. McMahon some coffee, a humorous connection
back to a few months ago when the stooges abandoned McMahon and left him at the
mercy of Steve Austin.

–Steve Blackman beats
Owen Hart via count out at 10:28:

The crowd inverts the face-heel dynamic since Owen is a
beloved Canadian. Cole tells us that
Owen has “perfected” the Sharpshooter, which makes sense when you compare his
Sharpshooter with the Rock’s version. I
await him telling us that Owen was the “architect” of the Hart family. This is a bit of a weird bout as both men
trade offense throughout without really building to the proper transitions and
then Owen gets sent chest-first into an exposed turnbuckle and barely sells it. Blackman gets booed out of the building after
locking Owen into the Sharpshooter, but he gets out and then heads to the
locker room to lose. Talk about a finish
wiping out ten minutes of hard work. Rating:
**½

–Vince McMahon
wanders around backstage looking for Mankind.
He finds the boiler room, which has a “Mankind’s office” sign on the
door that McMahon rips off in disgust.
He tentatively walks in to negotiate with the Rock’s opponent for the
evening.

–The Brood beats
the J.O.B. Squad (w/Head) when Christian pins Scorpio after the Impaler at 9:08:

The Brood gimmick was ahead of its time. It was seeking to capitalize on the “goth”
look that was all the rage in the late 1990s among jaded youth, but it would
have had more popularity with the Twilight
craze that swept the nation a decade later.
As another aside, how many stables in wrestling history have had the
hired help go on to have better careers than the leader? Snow might be over, but the crowd is not
buying into this J.O.B. Squad concept, sitting on their hands for much of this
despite all six guys doing their best to get a reaction. Cole and Lawler are also disinterested,
debating the merits of Paul McCartney music and Cole insisting that he listens
to “the new stuff.” After what feels
like an eternity we get to the ending sequence, which has a few cool spots such
as Edge launching off of Gangrel to plancha Al Snow and Bob Holly, but a spot
fest a good match does not make. Rating:
**

–Mankind and
McMahon continue to negotiate backstage, although we cannot hear what they are
saying.

–Striptease
Match: Goldust beats “Double J” Jeff
Jarrett (w/Debra McMichael) via reverse decision at 8:03:

So the stipulations of this non-PG match are that if
Goldust wins then Debra must strip, but if Jarrett wins Goldust has to
strip. Knowing Vince, I am surprised
they did not do a swerve, have Goldust lose clean, and then strip to tick of
GLAAD. The stipulation helps give a dull
match some heat and after Goldust hits Shattered Dreams, Debra smashes Goldust
with a guitar behind the referee’s back.
Somehow the broken bits of guitar in the ring do not bother the referee
as Jarrett hits the Stroke to seemingly win.
However, Commissioner Shawn Michaels comes out and reverses the
decision. Debra strips out of her
business suit, but before she can go further the Blue Blazer interrupts. What, you really did not think they were
going to go through with this stipulation?
Rating: ½*

–McMahon leaves the
boiler room and seems to be in a good mood.

–WWF Tag Team
Championship Match: The New Age Outlaws
(Champions) defeat The Big Bossman & Ken Shamrock (w/Shawn Michaels) when
Billy Gunn pins Ken Shamrock with an inside cradle at 17:06:

The Bossman-Shamrock tag team is often overlooked when
people think of the Attitude Era, but I thought it had some appeal since both guys’
styles complemented each other well. If
Ross was on commentary he would say that the heat sequence was “deliberate” as Shamrock
and Bossman grind the match to a snail’s pace so they can beat on the Road
Dogg. In Cole’s third embarrassing error
of the night he refers to the Bossman’s night stick as “a baton.” Based on how the Outlaws feud with the
Corporation was going it seemed like a given that they would lose the tag team
titles here, thereby giving them a program for the early winter of 1999. However, although Michaels trips Gunn when he
tries to suplex Shamrock back into the ring, Gunn reverses the cover and the
Outlaws retain. What really hurt this
match was that during the heat sequence Shamrock and the Bossman never seemed
to have a coherent strategy to work on a body part and they never went for a
cover. Why would you do that when
wrestling the tag team champions? Rating:
*½

–A video package recaps
the ongoing Rock-Mankind feud.

–McMahon tells
Shane and the Rock that the contract for the title match will be altered in the
ring and that Mankind just wants witnesses.

–After entrances
for the next match, Vince McMahon steps in the ring and makes fun of a hole in
Mankind’s tights. Mankind says he will
cross out the contract clause that says he gets the title if the Rock cannot
wrestle, but only if McMahon admits that he never heard Mankind submit at the
Survivor Series and do so on his knees.
McMahon refuses to do so, saying that the Rock heard him submit at
Survivor Series and that was good enough for him, so we end up having our
scheduled title match after all…

–WWF Championship
Match: Mankind beats The Rock (Champion
w/Vince & Shane McMahon) with the Mandible Claw at 13:34:

Mankind’s theme has some awful techno beat as he heads to
the ring. There was something about
techno beats that the WWF music team could not get away from during this period
as they also tried to do it with parts of the Rock’s theme and had to abandon
that when it also sounded horrid. They
try to rip off Over the Edge with Vince telling the referee to disqualify Mankind
“for any legitimate reason” after he beats the Rock to a pulp on the arena
floor. The Rock is also good for comedy
here, taking a headset and cutting a promo on Mankind as he smashes his face
into the commentary table, but then keep it on as Mankind makes a
comeback. Vince tries to get the referee
to disqualify Mankind after a low blow, but in a shrewd move that Bret Hart
should have done in Montreal, Mankind decks takes out the referee and the
timekeeper. All of this leads to a new
referee coming in, which makes little sense because the first referee would
have disqualified Mankind at this point for piledriving him, and that produces
some hot near-falls with each man’s signature moves. A Mandible Claw seems to give Mankind the
title, but McMahon announces after the match that since the Rock never
submitted he cannot lose the championship.
Did the WWF give a one night contract to Dusty Rhodes with these
finishes? Fun match once the overbooking
began, but it was not on the same level as their Survivor Series bout. Rating: **¾

–After the bout,
Mankind puts both McMahons in the Mandible Claw and beats on the stooges, but
eventually Ken Shamrock and the Big Bossman run in to beat him down.

–A video package recaps
the Steve Austin-Undertaker feud.

–Buried Alive
Match: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin defeats
The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) at 21:31:

Austin has to win this match to get a slot in the Royal
Rumble per the orders of Vince McMahon.
That is a classic example of the booking getting too cute because it
basically constituted a spoiler since there was no way Austin was not going to
be in the Rumble match. In a Buried
Alive match I always wonder why the wrestlers never stay near the grave. Why go back to the ring, which has more give
to it than concrete and why not use all the shovels and such around the grave
to wear out your opponent? Wrestling
logic I suppose. As Austin has noted in
recent years, the stipulation ruined this bout as he and the Undertaker could
only build drama near the grave and it made the match too much of a choking and
punching encounter. Cole gaffe #4 rears
its ugly head as he refers to “the Royal Rumble tournament” that is on the line
between these two. And for those
wondering why I am being hard on Cole, I have to think of something to keep me
preoccupied with this match which just meanders all around the arena without
any rhyme or reason to it. Eventually, Austin
hits a Stunner to send the Undertaker into the grave and walks off. This allows the Undertaker to get out, but an
explosion out of the grave sends out Kane, who Tombstones the Undertaker back
into the grave and Austin brings out a backhoe.
However, to really top off this awful match, the backhoe takes forever to
dump dirt on the Undertaker and then takes too long to rake the dirt in. Austin soon tires of shoveling dirt and drinks
beer, finally being declared the winner.
Rating: DUD

The Final Report: 1998 featured several fun WWF pay-per-views,
but this show was not one of them. As
has been the case for much of the year, the top of the card has to excel to
cover for a deficient midcard and that did not happen here. If anything, the show had lots of oddly
booked finishes with Mankind going over the Rock but not winning the title, the
Outlaws retaining when it may have made more sense to give the titles over to
the Corporation, and Owen Hart losing in a puzzling count out after a
competitive match. The Debra stripping
nonsense, Kane popping out of a grave like Michael Myers, and the overbooking
of the title match was Russo in overdrive.
Yet there were already some danger signs with Russo in the sense that
some of his material was recycling old concepts, such as going back to the Over
the Edge well in the Rock-Mankind match.
Avoid this show on the Network because the memorable moments of December
1998 happened on RAW.

Attendance:
20,042

Buyrate:
0.78 (+0.34 over previous year)

Show Rating:
Thumbs Down

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – December 7, 1998

By LScisco on 3rd February 2015

by Logan Scisco

–A video package
recaps Steve Austin and Kane beating up Paul Bearer on last week’s show. We are also reminded of the Big Bossman
beating Mankind for the Hardcore title.

–Michael Cole and
Jerry “The King” Lawler are doing commentary for tonight’s go home show for
Rock Bottom: In Your House. Jim Ross was on a hiatus for this show
because his mother had passed away. In
his first sentence, Cole lets us know that RAW is the “most controversial
sports entertainment television show.”
It is easy to be a leader when you are in a category of one. This show was taped in New Haven,
Connecticut.

–Triple H, X-Pac,
and Chyna walk out and Triple H calls out the New Age Outlaws, who have been
flirting with the Corporation. The
Outlaws walk out in suits and the Road Dogg announces them as the Corporate
Outlaws. Commissioner Shawn Michaels
comes out at the behest of the Outlaws and he and Triple H shoot at each other,
with Triple H saying that he carried Michaels around when he no longer should
have been wearing the WWF title.
Michaels books Triple H and X-Pac to face the Big Bossman and Ken
Shamrock in a “anything goes match” later in the evening, saying that if the
Outlaws get involved then “so be it.” At
the end of the segment, the McMahons shake the Outlaws hands near the
entrance. All the inside references here
might have been fun in 1998, but it does not translate well to today. Also, the segment lacked a lot of intensity
from all sides. 0 for 1

–Backstage, Triple
H tells Chyna to watch he and X-Pac’s back in their tag match tonight.

–Opening
Contest: D-Lo Brown (w/Mark Henry) pins
“Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra McMichael) with a cradle at 4:17:

This is a rematch from Sunday Night Heat, where D-Lo
Brown clocked Jarrett with his own guitar.
Jarrett is booked to face Goldust at Rock Bottom in a striptease
match. D-Lo dominates much of the match,
nearly killing Jarrett with the running powerbomb. Again, why did no one in the locker room
force D-Lo to quit using that move? Of course,
we cannot have a RAW match these days without a distraction and Goldust walks out
in a raincoat. He flashes Debra, leading
to D-Lo cradling Jarrett and winning.
These two guys were just going through the motions until Goldust walked
out. Rating: *½ (0 for 2)

–Steve Austin tells
Tony Garea that he is angry over what has been going on lately in the WWF.

–Call 814-734-1161
to get your WWF cologne for men for $19.99 (plus $4 shipping &
handling)! Adam and George sell it in a
mock NWO ad.

–Clips of Vince
McMahon’s talk at Oxford University is shown.
Evidently it was a give-and-take talk with students, so I can only
imagine the type of questions that he fielded.

–The Headbangers
defeat Gangrel & Edge via disqualification when Luna Vachon interferes at
2:06:

It is just weird to see several matches of this Edge and
Gangrel team when you are so used to seeing Edge and Christian together. After each team exchanges cool double team
moves, Luna runs out and attacks the Headbangers. She is followed by Tiger Ali Singh and Babu
for some reason and the Oddities then run out and destroy the Headbangers. Uh, okay.
It also does not make a lot of sense for the Oddities to still use the
ICP theme music when they were turned on by that same group. The match was less than three minutes, so it
gets no rating.

–Mankind says that
he will not leave Steve Austin’s side for their scheduled tag team match
against the Rock and Mankind

–Paul Bearer
getting stuffed into a sewer on last week’s show is the Glover Rewind segment.

–Vince McMahon gets
in Paul Bearer’s face backstage and demands to know if the Undertaker will work
with the Rock tonight. Bearer says
McMahon has nothing to worry about.

–Goldust beats
Owen Hart with a schoolboy at 4:17:

Owen unretired the previous night on Sunday Night Heat in
order to face Steve Blackman at Rock Bottom.
At least Owen’s retirement lasted longer than John Cena’s firing and the
Authority’s banishment. Unfortunately,
it did not last long enough for his sake.
We get a decent back-and-forth bout until Debra does her own version of
the raincoat trick, which distracts Owen more than Goldust and produces the
finish. Just television filler here and
the finish was completely predictable. Rating:
*½ (0 for 3)

–Footage of WWF
superstars talking to British fans before the Capital Carnage event is
shown. Some British fans give their take
on WWF action, but unfortunately we do not get any gems like SummerSlam 1992.

–Before the next
match, the Godfather and Val Venis come out with the hos. The Godfather says he is going to give one of
the fans two hos tonight and picks out a fat guy named Bob from the audience. I guess this was the WWF’s 1998 version of
Make a Wish? 0 for 4

–The Acolytes
(w/Jackyl) wrestle Supply & Demand to a double disqualification in 57
seconds:

This is Bradshaw gimmick change number four, but this one
finally got him over with the audience.
Amazing what you can do if you take two hard-hitting guys, team them up,
and give them some momentum. Both teams
brawl inside and outside the ring, not paying any heed to the referee’s
directions and get disqualified. If this
builds to a future match, this was perfectly acceptable booking.

–Steve Austin
hitting the Undertaker with a shovel is the JVC Kaboom! of the Week.

–Austin walks out
and says that the Undertaker will receive no mercy at Rock Bottom. The Undertaker gives a voiceover in response,
as his symbol – not to be confused with a cross so as not to draw unnecessary
heat from Christian groups – is hoisted up in the air. The Undertaker promises to sacrifice Austin
and his symbol goes up in flames. The Austin
promo was solid here, but the Undertaker’s Ministry garbage is already old at
this point. I think I just have
Austin-Undertaker fatigue. 0 for 5

–Mankind is shown
talking to himself, upset that Austin does not consider him a friend, as he
exits the boiler room of the arena.

–Steve Blackman
defeats Tiger Ali Singh (w/Babu) with a pump kick at 2:13:

As I keep getting exposed to bad Tiger Ali Singh matches,
it goes to show how the hype for this guy was completely unwarranted in the
fall of 1997. In fact, the hype for
Singh and Taka Michinoku appeared unwarranted by this point since Michinoku was
DOA after losing the Light Heavyweight title.
At least they put Blackman over clean as a sheet here.

–After the match,
the Blue Blazer comes to attack Blackman, but trips running down the ramp. Blackman attacks him, but Owen Hart appears
and slams Blackman on the ramp. You see,
they are not the same person!

–Mankind looks for
Steve Austin backstage, with a garbage bag over his shoulder. He finally finds Austin’s locker room.

–Get the new
edition of Rolling Stone. Steve Austin
is profiled in it!

–Mark Henry
(w/D-Lo Brown) beats Darren Drozdov (w/Animal) with a splash at 3:27:

We are just getting vague updates about Hawk’s condition
after falling off the Titantron a few weeks ago, so someone must have come to
their senses and realized that that segment was in poor taste. Henry is a bumping machine in this match,
taking a nasty spill to the floor and flipping himself into the steps. Chyna walks out and instead of decking Henry,
she decks Droz, thereby helping Henry pick up the win. Very rough bout, but that is more on Droz
than Henry. Rating: ½* (0 for 6)

–A camera catches
the New Age Outlaws talking strategy with Shawn Michaels, the Big Bossman, and
Ken Shamrock.

–No Holds
Barred: Triple H & X-Pac (w/Chyna)
defeat The Big Bossman & Ken Shamrock 8:18

This is Triple H’s first in-ring appearance on RAW after
he returned from injury on last week’s show.
The Big Bossman starts the match by wanting to use his night stick and
then tosses it aside like a moron to wrestle a regular bout. There is a funny moment early in the match
when X-Pac asks the audience if they want him to tag Triple H, which gets a
tepid response. In another fun spot, the
steps fall on the Big Bossman after his attempt to ram them into X-Pac fails. According to the statistics we received at
TLC two months ago, that should have killed him. One thing that irks me about matches like
this is that they should function as tornado tags since the rules are suspended
(see LOD-Nasty Boys at SummerSlam 1991 for this same criticism). Eventually, the New Age Outlaws walk out, but
when Billy Gunn gets the opportunity to deck Triple H with a chair he nails
Shamrock instead. SWERVE! Somehow this leads to a disqualification, or
something like that, in a NO HOLDS BARRED match. Rating: *½ (0 for 7)

–Mankind exits
Steve Austin’s locker room.

–D-Generation X
celebrates their swerve in the locker room.

–Steve Austin
arrives in his locker room and finds a trash bag with a beer in it.

–Steve Austin
& Mankind beat The Rock & The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) by
disqualification when the Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock interfere at 8:18:

Mankind must have stiffed Earl Hebner on some shirt sales
because he starts the match before Austin even comes to the ring. The excitement is too much for Michael Cole,
who has lost his voice by this point in the show. This bout is a vintage Attitude Era brawl,
with four-way action starting the match and everyone getting in their big spots
before the inevitable run-in by the Corporation. Rating: ** (1 for 8)

–After the bell,
the Bossman handcuffs Mankind to the top rope while the Undertaker blasts
Austin with the timekeeper’s bell and a chair.
The Undertaker carries Austin up the ramp and the druids tie Austin to
the Undertaker’s symbol, raising it as the show goes off the air. And where is Kane? Somehow all this ridiculousness means that
Austin is in trouble at Rock Bottom because the Undertaker has taken his “mind,
body, and soul.” People say the 1994
Rumble stuff is bad, but this is much, much worse. I was laughing at my television due to how
stupid this was. 1 for 9

The Final Report Card: Survivor Series was a great show from a
storytelling perspective, but the company is in a dead period before the
eventual Rock-Austin showdown at WrestleMania.
The lack of a strong build for Rock-Mankind, which is relying heavily
upon what happened at Survivor Series and not much else, and fatigue with the
Austin-Undertaker feud means that something in the midcard needs to stand out,
but nothing is since it is so weak. Think
about it: Owen Hart is basically a
comedy act with this Blue Blazer story, the LOD 2000 storyline has fizzled
after Hawk fell off the Titantron, the Godfather is wandering around with Val
Venis as a quasi-tag team, and the Brood are just randomly inserted into
matches with very little direction. As
things stand, Mark Henry is arguably the MVP of midcard storylines because at
least his issue with Chyna is interesting.
Another criticism of this show is that the company could have gotten a
few more weeks of mileage out of the Outlaws feigning that they had gone
corporate. They burned through that
storyline too quickly. Just skip this
show if they ever upload 1998 RAWs to the Network and get to Rock Bottom. You will not miss anything.

Monday Night War Rating: 5.15 (vs. 4.2 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Thumbs Down

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – November 30, 1998

By LScisco on 27th January 2015

by Logan Scisco

–A video package
recaps how the Undertaker tried to embalm Steve Austin alive on last week’s
show. The Undertaker and Paul Bearer are
shown talking backstage moments before the show went on the air.

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

–Steve Austin is
shown arriving at the arena with a shovel.
The Headbangers and the Insane Clown Posse are already in the ring, so
Austin proceeds to give all of them – save Shaggy 2 Dope – a Stunner. Getting on the mic, Austin promises to use
his shovel against the Undertaker. A
throwaway segment and I am never a fan of one guy taking out tag teams. 0 for
1

–Mark Henry is
shown getting ready for his date with Chyna.
D-Lo Brown tries to make sure he looks good.

–Ross hypes Austin
and the Undertaker being on TV Guide. He
reminds viewers that if they cannot find them they will have to settle for the
“retired” Hulk Hogan or the “Austin wannabe” Goldberg. Austin is still looking for Vince in the
back. He runs into Stephanie McMahon,
who is not identified as such, and she says she has not seen Vince around.

–Opening Non-Title
Contest: The New Age Outlaws (WWF Tag
Team Champions) defeat Gangrel & Edge (w/Christian) by disqualification
when Christian hits Billy Gunn with a tag team title belt at 2:56:

The previous night on Sunday Night Heat, the Corporation
was attempting to recruit the Outlaws and they appear on the ramp to watch the
match. Typical 1998 accelerated tag team
match here, although a young Edge shows off by doing a super hurricanrana on
the Road Dogg and taking a powerbomb off the second rope from Billy Gunn. After Christian runs interference to prevent
a Gunn piledriver, the Big Bossman and Ken Sharmock run in and beatdown the
Brood. So are the Brood faces or heels
at this point? I am so confused with
their booking.

–Steve Austin
continues to search for the Undertaker backstage, checking out several
freezers. Predictably, he walks into one
to investigate, but gets locked in by the Undertaker and Paul Bearer.

–Steve Austin
giving Stunners to the Headbangers and Violent J earlier in the show is the
Glover Rewind segment.

–Mark Henry is
nervously excited for his date and he asks D-Lo to accompany him to give him
confidence. D-Lo reluctantly agrees to
go.

–The Undertaker
comes out and calls out Kane because we definitely need to see more of
that. They briefly battle over whether
someone will be eternally damned before the Undertaker gives Kane a Tombstone. Paul Bearer brings some orderlies from a
mental institution to the ring, but Kane beats up a couple of them before
walking through the crowd. Sadly, this
ridiculous angle would continue. 0 for 2

–D-Lo complains
that he is not dressed right for Mark Henry’s date, but Henry has a jacket for
him and a pair of sunglasses. However,
he hands him a chauffeur hat next, meaning that D-Lo needs to drive Henry’s
limo. That was a good comic twist on
that sketch. After the commercial break,
Chyna is not happy to see Henry at the hotel and she refuses to accept the
flowers Henry offers her. She is puzzled
that D-Lo is the chauffer, which is pretty funny.

–X-Pac comes out
and calls out Shawn Michaels, angry about Michaels costing him his match
against the Rock last week. Michaels
threatens to “send him back to that money pit in Atlanta,” but refuses to fight
him because he is not an active wrestler.
He books X-Pac to face Ken Shamrock, with the European title being on
the line. He exits to D-Generation X’s
music because “he was DX before DX was cool.”
At least this was short, but they did not give X-Pac a lot of mic time
here. 0 for 3

–Mark Henry and
Chyna arrive at their date location, where Chyna pulls out the price tag for
Henry’s flowers (they are $1.99).

–A camera shot of
the freezer shows that Austin has escaped.

–On the date, Mark
Henry botches the pronunciation of Perrier water.

–Goldust defeats
“Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra McMichael) via disqualification when Owen Hart
interferes at 3:26:

This bout is a rematch from three weeks ago where Jarrett
blasted Goldust with a guitar and the two had a locker room fight. Owen Hart is on guest commentary for the
match and he tries hard to keep a straight face when talking about the
Henry-Chyna date with Lawler. By itself,
this match has very little heat. Goldust
dominates, with Jarrett only avoiding defeat when Debra puts his foot on the
rope after a Curtain Call. Debra gets in
the way of Shattered Dreams and her distraction leads to Owen attacking Goldust
from behind. This show is falling into a
really bad habit over the last few episodes of having no clean finishes. Rating: *¼ (0 for 4)

–After the bell,
the Blue Blazer appears to help attack Goldust, but suddenly the Blazer turns
on Owen. The Blazer unmasks to reveal
Steve Blackman to arguably the biggest pop Blackman has received up to this
point in his career.

–A split screen
shows Austin looking for the Undertaker backstage, while Paul Bearer and the
orderlies look for Kane.

–Al Snow nailing
Ken Shamrock in the head with Head on last week’s show is the Medievil Slam of
the Week.

–Hardcore
Championship Ladder Match: The Big
Bossman defeats Mankind (Champion) to win the title at 6:11:

This is the first ladder match to be held on RAW. Shawn Michaels does commentary and scores
some of Mankind’s moves since he says Mankind is going to try to outdo him in
the match type that made him famous. If
you hate the slow climb, you will not like this one as Mankind does it within
the first several minutes where it makes no sense to do it. When Mankind appears set to win, the Rock
interferes and the Bossman wins. Of all
the WWF ladder matches up to this point, this was clearly the worst. Everything was rushed and there was not a lot
of wrestling between the climb spots. Rating:
* (0 for 5)

–The Undertaker and
Paul Bearer think they have found Kane.
After the break, the Undertaker and Kane fight in a dark room in the
arena. The Undertaker comes out on top
and tells Bearer to get the orderlies as he tries to put Kane in a body
bag. However, Austin comes out of the
darkness and breaks his shovel over the Undertaker’s head. You can see where this is going…

–Non-Title
Match: Duane Gill (Light Heavyweight
Champion w/The Pasadena Chargers) pins “Marvelous” Marc Mero after the Blue
Meanie tosses Mero off the top rope at 2:08:

Before the match, Mero says that if he cannot beat Gill
that he will never appear again. The
youth football team that Gill coaches comes to the ring, since he is wrestling
in his hometown. As expected, Mero
manhandles Gill, but the Blue Meanie interferes and Gill wins. This was Mero’s last in-ring appearance on
WWF television.

–Bearer directs the
orderlies to get Kane.

–Mark Henry reads
Chyna a poem and she proceeds to guzzle down lots of alcohol. He says that they need to go dancing after
having dinner.

–European
Championship Match: Ken Shamrock (Intercontinental
Champion) defeats X-Pac (Champion) via disqualification when Triple H
interferes at 4:47:

This is our first good bout of the evening, well that is
until interference runs its course again.
X-Pac hits the X-Factor, but Shawn Michaels distracts the referee and
the Big Bossman clocks X-Pac. However,
when Shamrock applies the ankle lock, Triple H runs in, which gets a pretty
sizable pop. This warrants a point for
Triple H alone as I am a mark for surprise returns. Rating: ** (1 for 6)

–The orderlies
place the filled body bag on a stretcher and strap it in.

–Mark Henry dances
because, well of course, but Chyna does not want to dance. Henry leaves for the restroom, leaving an
opportunity for some guys to hit on Chyna.
She does not take kindly to that, leading to her clocking one of them
and Henry beats up another. This was
fun, especially when Henry threw a guy across the bar.

–Val Venis (w/The
Godfather & Hos) beats Tiger Ali Singh (w/Babu) via disqualification when
Terri Runnels interferes at 2:58

This feud between Tiger Ali Singh and the Godfather is
just going nowhere and doing very little for either guy. That still beats today’s product where guys
wrestle each other with little backstory, but some Attitude Era feuds never
seemed to click and this is one of them.
The hos neutralize Babu, while PMS comes out and interferes in the bout. What a mess this was, and this was our fourth
disqualification finish of the evening.
We are also six-for-six when it comes to run-in finishes.

–After the bout,
the Acolytes, who recently debuted elsewhere on WWF programming, destroy Tiger
Ali Singh and Babu. Why have these guys
beat up Singh and Babu and not a face team, though? The Jackyl was the initial manager of the
Acolytes as well, but that did not last long.

–The ambulance that
is supposed to take Kane to the mental facility departs, but Steve Austin and
Kane are shown watching footage of the whole thing in the back. One guess who was in the body bag and is
headed for the mental health facility.

–Shane McMahon
comes out to say that Sable is about to learn a lesson in humility. She comes out and models WWF Attitude
cologne, which costs $19.99 (plus $4 shipping & handling). Shane asks to smell it and tries to do so all
over Sable, but she squirts it in his face.
You see, it is all funny! 1 for 7

–Non-Title
Match: The Rock (WWF Champion) defeats
Al Snow (w/Head) with the Rock Bottom at 4:57:

The Rock is back to using some kind of weird theme
music. It is slightly better than the
disco theme they tried to give him a month earlier, but the beat for this theme
is one of those generic numbers you would get on the No Mercy video game. It just does not add to the atmosphere or fit
the Rock at all. Compared to other RAW
main events of this period, this has only a fraction of the expected crowd
reaction, an indication that tonight’s show has not delivered. The Rock hilariously delivers the Corporate
Elbow to Head after a ref bump, which wakes up the crowd, and then beats Snow
clean. Snow does get a visual pin on the
Rock by hitting him with Head in between all of that. Rating:
*½ (1 for 8)

–After the match,
the Rock, Ken Shamrock, and the Big Bossman beatdown Al Snow and Mankind. The JOB Squad finally makes a save.

–Paul Bearer runs
into Austin backstage when he tries to unlock the freezer Austin was placed in
earlier. The freezer opens to reveal
Kane and they haul Bearer out to the ring.
Austin prevents Kane from immediately beating up Bearer or getting a gas
can. Instead, he opts to cut Bearer’s
shirt and tie with a pair of scissors and teases stabbing him. Austin aborts that idea too and they take him
outside and open a manhole cover. They
shove Bearer down into the sewer head-first to close the show. How is that punishment worse than killing
someone? 1 for 9

The Final Report Card: Most of these shows have been good for the
last few months, but this show is beginning to illustrate how Russo is getting
a little too much creative control for his own good. Every match, save for the WWF title match at
the end, had a run-in finish and the majority had disqualification finishes. I do not mind DQ endings, but if you use them
too much throughout the show it really burns out the crowd and gets
irritating. Some of these other angles
are also getting really ridiculous.
Austin throwing a guy down a sewer?
The hos gawking over Babu?
Medical orderlies going after Kane?
Things are really going off the rail.

Monday Night War Rating: 5.0 (vs. 4.2 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Thumbs Down

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – November 23, 1998

By LScisco on 20th January 2015

by Logan Scisco

–A video package
recaps all the major happenings on last week’s show: Steve Austin and the Rock fighting for the
WWF title and Ken Shamrock joining the Corporation.

–Jim Ross and Jerry
“The King” Lawler are doing commentary and they are taped from Columbus,
Ohio. Ross lets us know that Austin suffered
a blackout in San Jose, California at a WWF event.

–Vince and Shane
McMahon and the stooges come out. Vince
says he had nothing to do with the Undertaker’s attack on Austin at the end of
last week’s show. He says he is naming a
new WWF commissioner in order to please the fans and that this new commissioner
will not answer to him unless it deals with Austin. Vince then goes into 1996 mode in welcoming
out Shawn Michaels as the new commissioner, which gets a mixed reaction. Michaels proceeds to book a WWF title match
between the Rock and X-Pac, which shocks Vince, and Michaels gives the
D-Generation X crotch chop on his way out.
Having Michaels back adds some extra energy to the show, so this was a
good booking decision. 1 for 1

–Kevin Kelly
interviews the Insane Clown Posse and the Oddities. The ICP is facing the Headbangers tonight,
but the ICP says that they are not ready to wrestle, so Kurrgan and Golga need
to take their place. Kurrgan and Golga
accept.

–The Headbangers
defeat Kurrgan & Golga (w/Luna Vachon, Giant Silva & The Insane Clown
Posse) when Mosh pins Golga with a schoolboy at 1:30:

The Headbangers really need to do something different now
in light of their heel turn. They are
sporting the same look and doing the same act.
Golga has also started doing this weird move where he pulls his shirt up
before doing a corner splash, which somehow makes the move more dangerous. You do not have to be a genius to see a heel
turn coming from the ICP here – for the second time in a month – as Violent J
gets knocked off the apron by Golga, which leads to the finish. After the match, they beat down the Oddities
and cut Luna’s hair.

–A video package chronicles
Kane’s recent path of destruction, highlighting how he tried to set the Brood
on fire several weeks ago.

–Steve Blackman
beats The Blue Blazer with a pump kick at 2:57:

The Blazer gets a pop coming out, although the volume of
the commentary makes it tough to decipher if it is genuine or piped in. It is clear early in the match that the
Blazer is not Owen Hart because he does not hit the right octave on Owen’s “woo!” He also botches the enziguri. Blackman wins a messy bout, but when he goes
to unmask the Blazer he gets attacked by Owen Hart. So who is the Blazer?!?!

–Footage is shown
of Austin blacking out at a house show in San Jose, which Ross says was a
byproduct of getting hit in the head with a shovel by the Undertaker on last
week’s show.

–Shawn Michaels and
Vince McMahon are shown exchanging words backstage.

–Gangrel &
Edge (w/Christian) beat Mark Henry & D-Lo Brown when Gangrel pins Henry
after a schoolboy at 7:08:

Low midcard act or not, the Brood still had arguably the
best entrance in the company at the time.
Gangrel and Edge showcase some nice double team moves, including a
double DDT off the second rope, but their timing needs work. Ross makes sure we know that Henry is a “400
pounder who can dunk a basketball.” D-Lo
nearly botches his running powerbomb on Edge, another warning sign that he
needed to eliminate that move from his arsenal.
Everyone tries really hard in this match to get over, incorporating some
fun moves, but Gangrel’s sloppy ring work is exposed relative to the other
three guys. This match gives us our
second distraction finish of the night, as Chyna comes out and distracts Henry. Rating: **½ (2 for 2)

–After the match,
Chyna says she will go on a date with Henry and Henry falls to the canvas in
joy. He gives D-Lo a hug and in a nice
touch, D-Lo screams because of his “chest injury.”

–Steve Austin tells
doctors at the medical facility that he is tired of being there, but they tell
him he has a severe concussion and needs to take a few weeks off. He is given a sedative and is told he can
leave the facility in the morning.

–The Undertaker
nailing Austin with a shovel, with added sound effect, is the JVC Kaboom! of
the Week.

–Shawn Michaels is
shown talking with D-Generation X, carrying on like old times.

–Goldust wrestles “Marvelous”
Marc Mero to a no-contest at 3:57:

Mero no longer has Jacqueline by his side because he
fired her on Sunday Night Heat after she accidentally cost him a match against
the Big Bossman. These two cannot seem
to have a match without women involved as Terri Runnels struts out to the ring
in a skimpy outfit followed by Jacqueline.
Goldust sets Mero up for Shattered Dreams, but gets low blowed by
Jacqueline and Terri comes in and finishes the move on Mero. This is the beginning of Terri and Jacqueline’s
PMS faction, which gave us Meat. Sad to
see two guys of Goldust and Mero’s caliber wasted like this. Rating: ** (2 for 3)

–Steve Austin signs
an autograph for one of the medical attendants and tells Ross that the
Undertaker has hell to pay and is not going to make it to the Buried Alive
match at Rock Bottom.

–The end to the WWF
title match on last week’s RAW is the Glover Rewind segment.

–Triple Threat
Match for the Hardcore Championship:
Mankind (Champion) beats Ken Shamrock & The Big Bossman when Mankind
pins Shamrock after Al Snow clocks Shamrock with Head at 8:26:

This match came from last week’s show when the Bossman
and Shamrock prevented Mankind from getting to Vince McMahon in the main event. This is one of those “conspiracy”-style
matches where it is a de facto handicap match designed to take Mankind’s
Hardcore title. Things look bleak for
Mankind before the JOB Squad comes to his aid and help him pull out the win. These Hardcore matches were more fun than
later incarnations because it was before the genre became really cartoonish
with weapons. Rating: *** (3 for 4)

–After the match,
Mankind tries to go after Vince McMahon on the ramp, but gets attacked by
Shamrock and the Bossman.

–Footage shows a
hearse outside of Austin’s medical facility.
The Undertaker and Paul Bearer then smother Austin with chloroform. The Undertaker tells Austin that he is about
to go on his last ride. After the
commercial break, the Undertaker and Bearer put Austin in the hearse and speed
away. How they got his body through
security I have no idea.

–WWF Light Heavyweight
Championship Match: Dwayne Gill pins
Christian (Champion w/Edge & Gangrel) to win the title after Scorpio hits
Christian when a slingshot splash at 2:26:

The light heavyweight title has not been defended on RAW
in ages. Christian manhandles Gill, but
makes the cardinal sin of continuing to pick his shoulders up off the mat, which
he ends up regretting later when the JOB Squad intervenes. If the light heavyweight title had any
credibility it was gone after this match.
As a side note, Gill would remain champion until briefly returning to
the company to job it to the debuting Essa Rios in February 2000. That match was where Lita immediately drew
all the attention away from Rios by giving Gill a moonsault after the bell.

–Michael Cole
interviews Gill, who enjoys a piped in crowd pop as he says that this victory
is one of the greatest moments of his life.

–The hearse stops
in a deserted field where an empty grave is located. Paul Bearer commands the Undertaker to dig
the grave deeper. Steve Austin stirs
back to life to try attacking Bearer, but the Undertaker puts him in a
chokehold and they reapply the chloroform.
The Undertaker decides that burying Austin alive is too good for him, so
he decides to embalm him instead.

–The next match is
scheduled to be the Godfather-Tiger Ali Singh, who used to have a feud going
that has been forgotten about. Before
the bell, Stephen Regal urges Singh not to take the deal with the hos and they
double team the Godfather before Val Venis makes the save. This gives us the origin of the “Supply &
Demand” tag team. Oh, and Venis also
gets the hos because he evened the odds.
For some reason I think that would still not muster John Cena to make a
save on a show today.

–Shawn Michaels is
shown arguing with the Corporation yet again.
After the commercial break, he also talks with Earl Hebner, probably in
a nod to Montreal.

–Non-Title
Match: Scorpio & Bob Holly (w/Al
Snow & Dwayne Gill) beat The New Age Outlaws (WWF Tag Team Champions) when
Scorpio pins Billy Gunn after Mankind clocks Gunn with a leaf blower at 5:23:

The crowd has a lot of energy for this match, working up
an “O-H-I-O” chant and reminding the fans at home that “Michigan sucks.” A camera edit gets rid of a botch, but aside
from that this match is pretty good. We
get yet another run-in finish, though, as Mankind interferes as payback for the
JOB Squad helping him out earlier and gives them a win over the tag team
champions. Crowd was not happy with the
finish. So, does this mean that the JOB
Squad “are in contention” for a title shot now?
Rating: ** (4 for 5)

–After the bell,
Ken Shamrock and the Big Bossman hit the ring to beat up Mankind and the
Outlaws beat up the rest of the JOB Squad.
The stooges then try to recruit the Outlaws into the Corporation after
the match, talking to them as they head to the back.

–The hearse pulls
up to a funeral home.

–Call 815-734-1161
to get your D-Generation X football jersey for $39.99 (plus $9 shipping and
handling)!

–The Undertaker puts
Steve Austin on an embalming table.
After commercial, the Undertaker tells Austin that he is going to
experience the worst pain of his life.
The Undertaker chants a lot of stuff in tongues, but when he goes to
stab Austin, Kane breaks in and makes the save.
Bearer tries to finish the job, but Austin blocks him and crawls
away. This was interesting and kept
viewers following the show, but how did Kane find out Austin was abducted? That is a plot hole I cannot overlook. 4 for
6

–WWF Championship
Match: The Rock (Champion) defeats X-Pac
with the Corporate Elbow at 8:32:

Shawn Michaels gets rid of the seconds for both men,
making this a one-on-one encounter. On
paper, one would think this was a great chance to keep building X-Pac as a
talent worthy of the upper midcard and put over the Rock as a heel, but they
have to rush lots of this because of time.
It really picks up during the last three minutes, with some near-falls
that the crowd completely buys into.
Ross’s commentary helps with that.
But what would tonight be without one last twist, especially with Russo
booking, so Michaels takes a chair from the Rock and blasts X-Pac, thereby
putting the Rock over. Rating:
**½ (5 for 7)

–After the match,
Michaels celebrates with the Corporation as the New Age Outlaws brawl with The
Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock.

The Final Report Card: I could have done without many of the distraction
and run-in finishes on this show, but at the very least they advanced some new
stables and angles. We can debate whether
those new stables and angles were any good, but they did give the show some
positive momentum. Some criticized the
HBK turn at the time, saying that they burned through it way too fast, but just
going with the flow of the storylines, I do not mind. I guess I am just a fan of the crash TV model
in some respects, but I can see where some people would hate this show if they
never cared for the Austin-Undertaker feud, hated the HBK heel turn, and/or
hated PMS and the JOB Squad. I really
miss the crowd dynamics of some of these shows as well, as the WWF staged
several of them in college towns and RAW came off as a party and celebration
more than a wrestling show. We do not
get that anymore outside of NXT (and little wonder that people actually like it).

Monday Night War Rating: 4.9 (vs. 4.5 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up

Rants

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – November 16, 1998

By LScisco on 13th January 2015

by Logan Scisco

–A video package
recaps Shane McMahon screwing Steve Austin over in the WWF title tournament
semi-finals last night at the Survivor Series.

–We get a new RAW
intro where it was always hard to know the exact lyrics, so I always make up my
own, even if they did not make any sense.
So my life in the box and soy la vie!!!

–Jim Ross and Jerry
“The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Lexington,
Kentucky. I remember really wanting to
go to this show, but my dad refused to get tickets for it since he hated
wrestling. He would finally cave and get
tickets for Thunder the next year. At
least that show would feature Hulk Hogan, but it is still a downer to know that
I missed a post-pay-per-view RAW.

–Vince McMahon,
Shane McMahon, the Big Bossman, and the stooges come out to massive boos and
Vince rips the crowd for being hypocrites because they kiss up to their bosses on
a regular basis and should do it more.
He introduces the new WWF champion, the Rock, who gets a ton of heel
heat and the crowd chants “Rocky sucks” to his theme
music. The Rock justifies his heel turn
by saying that he did what he had to do to get ahead, unlike the trash in the
crowd that get by on minimum wage. He
also brings up the “Die Rocky die” and “Rocky sucks” chants from his initial
face run, saying he never forgot that and he rechristens the People’s Elbow as
the Corporate Elbow. Vince goes to
explain the conspiracy and he informs Steve Austin when he walks out that under his new contract he cannot touch Vince
unless provoked. Austin shows footage of
how Shane promised him a post-Survivor Series title shot two weeks ago on RAW. Vince says that that shot was changed to Survivor
Series, but Austin counters with legalize, saying that he has a contract
promising him a title match tonight and Judge Mills Lane confirms it. The crowd loses its mind over this news and
McMahon is incensed. They covered a lot
of bases here, but kept things moving in such a way as to keep you interested
throughout this lengthy segment. 1 for 1

–Opening
Contest: The New Age Outlaws & X-Pac
defeat The Oddities (w/Luna Vachon & The Insane Clown Posse) when Billy
Gunn pins Kurrgan at 2:52:

Remember the Insane Clown Posse’s heel turn on the
Oddities a few weeks ago? Well, things
appear to be patched up before the match, but tensions continue as Shaggy 2
Dope accidentally delivers a flying elbow smash to Kurrgan instead of Billy
Gunn to cost the Oddities the match.

–After the match,
the Headbangers do a hit and run attack on the Road Dogg.

–An angry Mankind
arrives at the arena, screaming that he is coming home.

–Call 815-734-1161
to get your DX football jersey for $39.99 (plus $9 shipping &
handling). The sports jersey items were
some of the best the WWF was selling during this period.

–Vince directs the
Big Bossman to stay close to him and asks the stooges to go take care of
Mankind. None of them want to do it, so
Vince assigns Pat Patterson the job since he knows Mankind the best. He reminds him that Mankind is gullible.

–Intercontinental
Champion Ken Shamrock walks out and says that he was screwed at Survivor Series. He issues a challenge to the Bossman and says
he will put his Intercontinental title on the line. These shorter promos that cut straight the
point were the way to go with Shamrock.

–Val Venis beats
Mark Henry (w/D-Lo Brown) with a schoolboy at 2:37:

Ross and Lawler use this match to take jabs at Paula
Jones and her nose job. Chyna makes her
return on the ramp after some back and forth action, distracting Henry, who
loses in the WWF trademarked distraction rollup finish that had not yet become
a running joke at this point.

–After the match,
Henry says he just wants to have a nice dinner with Chyna “with no sex
involved.” He reads a poem to her, but
Chyna just walks to the back.

–Steve Austin gets
some coffee, with a Pepsi cup placed as a convenient product placement. Does this mean CM Punk will even the odds
tonight? TUNE INTO….you get the idea (©
Scott Keith 1998. All rights reserved.).

–Patterson tells
Vince that he could not find Mankind in the arena and Vince hilariously
responds “you could not find your ass.”
Gerald Brisco volunteers to find Mankind.

– Steve Blackman
& Goldust defeat “Double J” Jeff Jarrett & The Blue Blazer (w/Debra
McMichael) when Blackman pins the Blazer after a pump kick at 2:09:

This match is the result of an angle on last week’s show
where both men were attacked by the Blue Blazer. Ross calls the Blazer outfit something out of
“1960s lucha libre.” This is an
accelerated tag match, where the Blazer jobs in short order to a pump kick, but
you see, it is not Owen Hart under the mask, as Owen runs in for a beatdown on
Blackman after the bout.

–Brisco says there
are some weird noises in the boiler room and he was too scared to go in. Commissioner Slaughter calls him a wuss and
Vince freaks. Slaughter is sent after
Mankind. After the break, Slaughter
comes back and says that Patterson and Brisco are needed to reason with
him. Vince recommends getting some riot
gear to take care of the Mankind problem and that he expects the problem to be
solved in short order. Now THIS is good
comedy.

–The Godfather
(w/Hos) beats Stephen Regal via forfeit when Regal takes the hos:

Is the Godfather worthy of the Hall of Fame? I have to think so as he
successfully pulled off two popular gimmicks with Papa Shango and being a
pimp. Regal’s facial expressions as the
hos flaunt their stuff are great. He
eventually settles for the hos and the Godfather wins via forfeit. However, as Regal is leaving, the Godfather
lets him know that “England is just for the fags,” (chalk that up to something
that will be censored on the WWE Network) which leads to a pull apart brawl
between the two.

–Backstage, Kane
destroys parts of the production crew.
Unfortunately, Kevin Dunn is not among the casualties.

–Steve Austin being
screwed by Shane McMahon in his match against Mankind at Survivor Series is the
Glover Rewind segment.

–Intercontinental
Championship Match: Ken Shamrock
(Champion) wrestles The Big Bossman to a double disqualification at 3:55

Average brawl between these two, which culminates in the
referee getting decked by both of them.
Eventually WWF officials intervene to stop the fight, but the pull apart
brawl does not come across as well. Rating:
*½ (1 for 2)

–After officials
separate Shamrock and the Bossman, Vince and Shane McMahon walk out. Vince tells Shamrock that he can use a man
with his set of skills and that they are a lot alike because they came from
broken homes. He promises Shamrock a
family if he aligns with him and Shamrock shakes Vince, Shane, and the Bossman’s
hands. Vince’s manipulation of the roster continues.

–Some fans seek
Kane’s autograph outside of the arena and he chokes one of them against the
wall. A police siren can be heard in the
distance. He walks off into the mean
streets of Lexington.

–Edge &
Gangrel (w/Christian) defeat LOD 2000 via count out at 2:12:

This is the Droz and Animal combination of LOD 2000. Hawk walks out less than two minutes into the
match and begins walking up the Titantron.
Droz and Animal go to investigate and get counted out.

–After the
commercial break, Animal tries to talk Hawk, who is threatening to go out in a
blaze of glory, off the Titantron. Paul
Ellering says he cares about Hawk’s life and Droz climbs the Titantron. He seems to shove Hawk off and we go to
commercial. I get what they were going
for here, but this was really tasteless and segments like this are a turn off
to viewers who may have struggled with suicide.
1 for 3

–And the fans
quickly forget about that awful segment because Sable, the new WWF Women’s
champion is here for an interview with Michael Cole! Shane McMahon quickly interrupts her
interview to say that she is a creation of his father, which Sable refutes. Shane says that real women like Sable work real
hard for their place, but Sable says that she is not for sale. Like other Sable segments, this has a
punchline and not much else. 1 for 4

–The Rock’s attack
on Mankind at the end of Survivor Series is the MediEvil Slam of the Week.

–The stooges, wearing
UK Football helmets and pads head into the boiler room of Rupp Arena for
Mankind. Patterson screams “Mankind we
love you,” which cracks me up.
Unsurprisingly, Mankind attacks them, much of which we cannot see
because it is so dark. 2 for 5

–Before the main
event, Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, the Big Bossman, and Ken Shamrock walk
out. Vince says he is not happy about
the upcoming WWF title match and ridicules the Southern hospitality he is
receiving due to the “asshole” chants.
He says that this is Austin’s last title shot.

–WWF Championship
Match: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin defeats
The Rock (Champion w/Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, The Big Bossman & Ken
Shamrock) by disqualification when the Undertaker interferes at 7:59:

This was a great piece of booking because Austin regained
the WWF title after he lost it to Kane at the King of the Ring, so it was not
beyond the realm of possibility that he would regain the title immediately from
the Rock. Despite not getting much
action throughout the show, the crowd is engaged in this match from bell to
bell, as both men fight into the crowd and all around ringside. The match is a really abbreviated version of
what Austin and the Rock will do later and is used more as a vehicle to advance
other feuds as Mankind runs out six minutes in to try to get at Vince, but ends
up brawling with the Bossman instead, and the Undertaker does a run-in after
Austin hits a Stunner to cost him the title.
This bout is a prime example of how a crowd can take an average match
and make it seem like something special.
Rating: **½ (3 for 6)

The Final Report Card: I could have done without the Hawk nonsense,
but this show was really all about the Austin-Rock title match and it was a
ratings coup in that regard, drawing the second-highest rating in the U.S. for
a RAW up to this point and pulling in a big rating on TSN in Canada. You could hear some of the moans in the crowd
at the prospect of more Undertaker-Austin, but at least we have a pissed off
Mankind to rally behind for a few months before WrestleMania.

Monday Night War Rating: 5.5 (vs. 4.3 for Nitro)

Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up

Rants