Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW World War 3 ’98

WW399

WCW World War 3 98
November 22, 1998
Auburn Hills, MI
Reviewed on March 1, 2014

Background: 1998 was the beginning of the end for WCW (it was probably really Starrcade 97…but whatever). With the WWF having their best year in probably 10 or 11 years, they had turned the tide and had been winning the Monday Night ratings war. This was still before WCW was dead in the water though, and they certainly still had the talent to overtake the WWF.

WCW had just been relieved of one of its biggest talent acquisition failures as The Warrior had just finished up. Hollywood Hogan also would be gone at this point…running for president!

I’m not sure what the official story is, but it is accepted that Kevin Nash was the booker at this point. Watching this show, I understand why (although I don’t actually think the booking of Nash is that awful here).

Even the card itself though…showed that WCW would probably never regain the lead. For example, Goldberg. WCW’s 1998 cash cow. He’s not on this Pay-Per-View. In fact, Chris Jericho ran an entertaining angle against Goldberg for months, hoping to put on “the greatest squash match of all time”. Jericho’s wrestling Bobby Duncam Jr. here.

It is also interesting to point out that one of WCW’s calling cards was that they had great action in its undercard, then big names in the main event. You see at this point, that while some of the undercard is solid, it isn’t nearly at the level as 96 or 97 (or even earlier in 98) WCW.

Also, the main event is in fact not the World War 3 Battle Royal…but a US Title match between Bret Hart and Diamond Dallas Page. Just a quirky decision there. I get putting Page in the main though, he has been in every main since Bash At the Beach.

The Card

The opening is something I would expect for a WCW Playstation game. That’s not a bad thing though.

Here comes a limo!

Oh, Goldberg’s here? I’m so confused since he isn’t on the match card.

Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay are your announcers.

Talking about Hogan not being here…and perhaps we’ll see him on Nitro! Already advertising Nitro.

Mean Gene Okerlund: WCW HOTLINE!

Wrath vs. Glacier

Sub-Zero vs. Smoke match coming up.

I like Wrath’s theme. I’m guessing this is post-Vandenberg Wrath, as he doesn’t even have that cool entrance attire.

I guess Glacier is the heel?

Wrath shoves Glaicer out of the ring. Crowd says that yeah, Glaicer is the heel.

Glacier hits some kicks. I’m sure Glacier is a legit martial artists, but he really never learned how to use those skills in professional wrestling. Glacier always looks really stiff before doing any martial arts moves and it usually takes away from his matches. Steve Blackman was really good at this.

Mike Tenay tells us that Wrath is going to be on the Mortal Kombat TV show. Shocking.

Wrath actually looks pretty good here. Surprised Vince didn’t give him a bigger run when Wrath was Adam Bomb. Not saying it would have been successful, but his size makes him seem like a WWF guy.

Glacier just did this terrible hook spin kick. Looked horrible.

Wrath pins Glacier in 8:22. Wrath blocks Glacier’s thumb spike submission and hits the generic big man finisher…the Pump Handle Slam! (The Meltdown). Best Wrath and Glacier match I’ve ever seen. Wrath actually looked solid. This was a glorified squash.

Bret Hart promo video. I always thought Bret Hart was at his best playing a bitter heel. He talks trash about guys like Lex Luger, Chris Benoit and DDP. Anyone who says Bret Hart can’t talk stopped watching him after 1996.

Stevie Ray vs. Konnan

NWO music! At this point it could mean anyone, and in this case its Stevie Ray. I guess this is a NWO B Team vs. Wolfpac B Team match?

I always thought Konnan had some unique moves…but I never saw any psychology from him whatsoever. His rolling clothesline is something you didn’t see a lot of guys do.

Stevie Ray’s offense usually includes a lot of clubbing blows and the random kick. And that’s what we get here.

A lot of rest holds 5 minutes in.

I never liked how often WCW would talk about other storylines and ignore the match in the ring. Right now they are talking about Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldberg. Hey, why isn’t that match on this card?

Stevie Ray defeated Konnan by DQ at 6:55. Vincent accidentally hits Stevie Ray with the slapjack. Konnan does some punches, than hits the ref out of anger or something to cause the DQ. Then Booker T comes out to save him, which angers Stevie Ray because he’s tough and doesn’t need help. Boring match, stupid finish.

Ernest Miller and Sonny Oono vs. Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi

How the hell did Perry Saturn get involved in this? Wasn’t he just fighting Raven?

The Kaz Hayashi-Perry Saturn theme mash-up is just strange.

Is there a weirder team out there for a PPV match than Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi?

Some time killing early on. Ernest Miller tells Hayashi to leave in 5 seconds then turns his back on him. Kaz tags in Saturn. Funny I suppose.

Miller beats up Kaz, and then tags in Oono. Hayashi no-sells Oono’s offense and Oono offers him money. I guess this is a comedy match then?

Saturn vs. Miller is pretty good. Saturn always had a good array of suplexes. Also a nice legsweep by the Cat when Saturn went for a side kick.

Cat sends Oono in to fight Saturn and of course Saturn gets the advantage.

This match has no flow whatsoever…and way too much Sonny Oono.

Oono just missed three chops to the ground and let Hayashi tag in Saturn. Looks a lot worse than it reads.

Ernest Miller and Sonny Oono def. Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi when Oono pinned Saturn in 8:04. Saturn is about to suplex Oono, and the Cat hits him with a kick to the throat. Oono lands on him to get the win. Match had no flow or chemistry whatsoever. Also, was the point to make Saturn and Hayashi look awful? Because that’s what it did.

Chris Jericho and Lee Marshall!

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera© vs. Billy Kidman

This should be good!

Both Kidman’s and Juvi’s themes are awesome.

I guess Juvi is part of the LWO! Eddy Guerrero comes out to explain that Juvi is in the LWO!

Rey Mysterio Jr. comes out with a LWO t-shirt to say that he should have the Cruiser title shot, but because Juvi is champ, Rey shouldn’t have the shot. Guerrero explains that you need to make sacrifices for family.

Early rocker dropper form Juvi. He then hits a flying headscissors which Kidman sells like a million bucks.

Juvi is now a full blown heel after the LWO thing.

Top rope legdrop from Kidman. I really thought Kidman was going to be a star in pro wrestling watching him in 1998.

The Kidman vs. Juvi battles (and there are a bunch of them in 1998) is really a representative of the last great days of the WCW Cruiserweight division.

Kidman hits a perfect dropkick as Juvi was coming off the top. Great timing.

Juvi hits a perfect top rope hurricanrana to the outside! Very nicely done.

This match seems slow-paced compared to their Bash at the Beach 98 encounter. Maybe to put over that Juvi is a heel now?

Wow. Juvi tosses Kidman into a 2nd ring, and then does a double springboard dropkick! He kinda falls on the second jump, but it was still impressive enough.

Wow again. Kidman sends Juvi from one ring to another with a hurricanrana, then leaps ring to ring with a cross bodyblock. Great innovation with the two rings.

More double ring action. Juvi does a springboard hurricanrana…sending Kidman into a different ring again!

Juvi misses the 450…but he lands on his feet. Hurricanrana for a really close two count! (Looks like Kidman didn’t kick out in time). Juvi slaps the ref…but doesn’t get DQed.

Billy Kidman pins Juventud Guerrera in 15:27 to win the title. Rey Jr. holds Kidman on the top rope and Juvi crashes to the mat on a hurricanrana attempt. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press for the win. Great match. Great spots from ring to ring.

Eddy Guerrero tells Rey Jr. to make a choice, in the LWO or out? Rey Jr. says no and runs from the LWO members in the ring.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Buff Bagwell and some guy dressed as a NWO referee come out with Scotty Steiner.

The NWO is beating down on Rick Steiner in the back. The Giant drags Rick out to the ring. Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell beat down on Rick Steiner.

Rick manages to make a comeback, but he’s selling the attack from the NWO.

Tony Schiavone mentions that it would be nice to see the Steiners go at it 1 on 1. I couldn’t agree more. Almost like they should save it for a PPV or something.

Scott Steiner and Rick Steiner wrestled to a no contest. Hey it’s DA MAN. Goldberg’s here to make the save. The World Champ makes the save on a middle of the card match. Not like he should be defending the title or anything.

Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall

Hall comes out with various NWO members.

Eric Bischoff is out here before Nash comes out.

Bischoff orders the NWO members to beat the crap out of Scott Hall. Nash runs out to make the save!

Big Outsiders chant breaks out. Hall makes a peace offering, but Kevin Nash leaves Hall in the ring. So I guess we aren’t getting the match?

Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall was cancelled.

WCW TV Championship
Chris Jericho© vs. Bobby Duncam Jr.

Of all the wrestlers in WCW, why does Bobby Duncam Jr. of all people get a TV title shot?

Ralphus is a stroke of genius.

Gotta be honest, you can tell Jericho doesn’t want to be there. The nixing of the Goldberg angle was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Jericho and a WCW run.

Jericho busts out one of my favorite submissions, the crossbow surfboard.

Bobby Duncam Jr. feels like the homeless man’s Curt Hennig.

Jericho is doing all he can to make the match entertaining. Jumps off the railing with a clothesline. Missile dropkick. I just don’t see why anyone should care about Duncam.

Jericho goes for the Lion Tamer and the crowd erupts. They boo when Duncam breaks it.

Chris Jericho retains when he pinned Bobby Duncam Jr. in 13:19. Jericho nails Duncam Jr. in the back of the head with the TV title for the pin. Jericho tried, but Bobby Duncam Jr. offered a whole lot of nothing. Match was pretty boring.

World War 3: The 60 Man 3 Ring Battle Royal

Winner gets a WCW World Title match at Starrcade!

I’m going to just name some random guys here.

Apparently you can be pinned in this match too. How about that.

Alex Wright is out first!
Barry Darsow!
Bobby Blaze!
Chip Minton!

I swear they should have hyped Chris Adams as Stone Cold’s trainer.

Hogan, Horace Hogan brother!

BARRY HOROWITZ!

Other than Jericho, so far Juvi has been the best heel on the show.

Wow The Renegade was really out of shape at this point.

Super Calo!
Villiano V…but not IV!
Kendall Windham!

I see most of the top WCW guys in this, only missing Sting and Ric Flair. I know Randy Savage was injured.

It’s hard to keep track of anything in these. Breakdown: 60 men, 3 rings. 1 WAR!

I’m rooting for Horowitz.

Normal Smiley was the first to go!

Kevin Nash is practically dumping his entire ring out.

Scott Putski is gone. WWF almost built their Lightheavyweight Division around him!

You can eliminate anyone by just throwing them from the ring. Over the top rope doesn’t matter.

Kevin Nash took out his whole ring in like 3 minutes. He stands there awaiting the other two rings.

We’re down to 35 people. 1 person in ring 3 (Nash).

We’re fighting down to 20 men for 1 ring.

The Giant begins to dump some, but then the entire ring jumps on him!

In WCW terms, Wright/Both Guerreros/Benoit/Saturn/Disco/ vs. The Giant is a huge advantage for the Giant.

Rey Jr. is the last man eliminated before we come down to 1 ring!

I like all the hype about Nash’s strategy. All he did was just dump people as fast as possible.

Saturn and Miller eliminate one another and go at it, bad blood from earlier! Down to 18.

So long Alex Wright and Chavo!

And there goes Eddie! And Disco Inferno!

And Kidman! Down to 13 just like that.

Nash and The Giant go at it. I predict those will be the final two. Or Nash and Hall.

Outsiders double team the Giant. Crowd gets into it.

Lex Luger dumps Stevie Ray.

Mongo dumps Scott Norton and Nash dumps Norton.

Nash, Giant, Hall, Booker, Benoit, Malenko, Wrath, Luger, Konnan and Scott Steiner left.

Bam Bam Bigelow shows up, and Goldberg comes out to attack Bigelow! It’s almost like they should have had a match or something.

8 guys left. I lost count somehow, but Scott Steiner is gone.

Oh, Wrath is gone too.

Booker T is gone, 7 left.

Konnan, Nash and Luger for the Wolfpac. Benoit and Malenko for the Horsemen. Giant and Scott Hall in there as well.

Konnan eliminates himself trying to get rid of Hall.

Nash becomes the ring general to 5 on 1 the Giant, which the crowd erupts for.

They do it! Giant is gone!

Luger and Nash get rid of Benoit, while Hall gets rid of Malenko. Luger vs. Nash vs. Hall. 3 WWF 94 mainstays.

Kevin Nash wins the 60 Man Battle Royal, last eliminating Lex Luger at 22:31. Luger tries to rack eliminate Hall, but Nash hits a big boot and both Luger and Hall go over the top. Weak ending as Luger didn’t go over the top well. I don’t particularly like the World War 3 Battle Royal in general as there are way too many guys who don’t have a chance in hell, but I do actually like the way this was booked, which I’ll explain later in the conclusion of this review. Short version, if you are going to want Nash to be strong for Goldberg, dominating the Battle Royal was a good way to make it happen.

WCW US Championship
Diamond Dallas Page© vs. Bret Hart

Michael Buffer is out to announce the main event!

DDP is wearing the US Title upside down….

DDP dives over the top rope on to the Hitman to get this thing going.

Bret does subtle small things as a heel that he doesn’t do as a face. I like how Bret wrestles with a sense of arrogance as a heel, like a “it’s obvious I’m better than you” style. Hard to explain.

I do like that the Diamond Cutter can be done at any point. It makes for a lot of great fakes and can suddenly get the crowd into it.

This match has been pretty disappointing so far. I think it is a combo of DDP not being a great wrestler, and WCW Bret Hart just not being the same Bret Hart.

Bret going for a tombstone and DDP reversing it into his own tombstone was a nice spot.

Match is picking up. Nice belly to belly from Page. DDP then busts out this weird piledriver-pedigree spot. A pancake maybe?

I actually like DDP’s version of the sharpshooter, the going down to one knee part of it. Looked kinda of cool.

The Figure Four around the ring post is one of my favorite moves in wrestling ever. Such an effective visual.

Bret continues to methodically work on the leg of Page. For whatever reason, this is missing the mark. It’s the standard Bret Hart match, but the crowd just can’t get into it.

DDP just busted out the post figure four. Turnabout is fair play!

DDP has a chair! Charles Robinson tries to grab it, and Bret shoves Page into Robinson, knocking him out.

Diamond Dallas Page pinned Bret Hart to retain the title in 18:31. NWO ref from earlier comes back. Bret nails Page with brass knucks and locks in the Sharpshooter, to which the NWO ref calls for the bell and awards the US title to Page (NWO ref has authority then?). WCW ref Mickie Jay says no, and Page nails Bret with the Diamond Cutter. 1…2…3. Finish is okay I guess. To be honest, match was lacking. It looked like two guys just going through the motions.

Very up and down card. Opener was better than it had any right to be, but I wouldn’t call it good.

Konnan vs. Stevie Ray was whatever and had a crap finish.

Miller and Oono vs. Hayashi and Saturn was non-sensical and stupid. And it buried Saturn. Why not just do Saturn vs. Miller?

Cruiser Title match was very very good. Juvi’s heel turn was great and he played it well.

Now here is where I have a lot of issues with the show. I’m sure both Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner and Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall were big matches for this show. Both didn’t happen. Both were non-matches. And to be fair, that’s pretty bs.

Chris Jericho vs. Bobby Duncam Jr. was a waste of space. Poor Jericho. 13 minutes too!

60 Man Battle Royal was what it was. I only really like one version of this match (the first one, 1995). That being said, it is booked rather well. While we can debate till we are blue in the face about Nash being the man to eventually beat Goldberg and all, if that is the route they are going, then Nash needed to dominate this match. And he did. I think Nash last eliminating the Giant on his own would have been a better finish, and the actual finish was a bit weak, but it was doable. Nash was also mega over here.

Nash being mega over makes me wonder why the World War 3 Battle Royal didn’t close the show. It would have made perfect sense.

The US Title Main Event was a bit lackluster and felt like both men was just going through the motions. The finish is okay I suppose. Unfortunately I think Bret Hart had been booked into oblivion at that point and he’s not cared for as a heel, even though he plays it quite well. I do think Hart vs. Page could have been a main event feud for WCW, and I guess this is the closest they’ll get.

A lot of stupid crap was a foreshadowing of WCW’s future. It’s an okay PPV at best. Undercard really needed some work and the main events were passable…but that’s it.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Survivor Series ’98

SS_98

WWF Survivor Series 98: The Deadly Game
November 15, 1998
St. Louis, MO
March 15, 2014

Background: The WWF has started to regularly win the Monday Night War. Yes, WCW would still win once in a while, but the WWF had control. Vince Russo’s Crash TV was in full effect as you will see here. There are 14 matches on this card, which is a ludicrous amount.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, the #1 man in the WWF, had been screwed out of the WWF Title at Breakdown and hadn’t even gotten a chance to regain the title. This tournament was supposed to be his rematch. The Undertaker and Kane were feuding throughout 1998. The Rock, Mankind and Triple H were coming into their own and at least one of them looked to be a star main eventer in 1999 (all three of them would make it). Mr. McMahon was the biggest heel in wrestling. He recently had demoted Shane McMahon to referee status.

WWF Attitude was in full swing here. I think there is some good and bad on this show, and I’ll get to each.

The Card

The main focus of the show is a 14 Man Tournament to decide the new WWF Champion. Smart money storyline wise was on Mankind as he seemed to be who Mr. McMahon wanted to be champion.

It’s 14 man because Taker and Kane got byes and start in the 2nd round.

I love the Deadly Game theme.

Here comes Vince. He’s still in a wheelchair after Taker and Kane dropped the stairs on his leg.

Great intro by Vince. “An individual who is looking to take one small leap for man, one giant leap for Mankind”.

Mankind is slated to face a mystery opponent. A lot of people thought this would be the return of Shawn Michaels. Not quite.

Mankind is in a tux. And he hugs McMahon. Just awesome.

When Vince says “WCW” he gets massive heat.

It’s DUANE GILL!

Deadly Game Round 1: Mankind vs. Duane Gill

Mankind pins Duane Gill in 0:30. Double Arm DDT, cradle for the win. Obviously a non-match, but the story is that Vince is making this as easy as possible for Mankind.

On Heat Jacqueline attacked Sable. She cuts an angry promo on her. Sable couldn’t really talk either.

Deadly Game Round 1: Jeff Jarrett vs. Al Snow

Winner faces Mankind in round 2.

Debra’sPPV debut here.

Al Snow was pretty over here. Or really Head was over.

Apparently Mankind’s Socko is a headband for Head. I guess that spoils the winner.

Al Snow does a weird corner flip.

Top rope guillotine legdrop misses.

Nice spinebuster counter into the DDT from Snow.

Al Snow takes way too big of a bump when he bangs his head on Jarrett’s back.

Al Snow pins Jeff Jarrett in 3:31. Jarrett grabs Head and Snow grabs the Guitar, but Jarrett misses the Head shot. Snow gets Head back and nails Jarrett for the win. Ok for three minutes, even if the finish was whatever. Snow vs. Mankind in Round 2.

Deadly Game Round 1: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Big Bossman

Stone Cold wins by DQ in 3:20. Bossman slides out and when Austin slides out to follow, Bossman gets him with the nightstick. Bossman proceeds to beat the crap out of Stone Cold with the nightstick, story being he is weakening Austin for later, which I guess makes sense. Vince looks happy about what happened. Nothing notable in the match itself.

Deadly Game Round 1: X-Pac vs. Steven Regal

Winners takes on Stone Cold.

This is a Real Man’s Man William Regal.

Regal’s pushing muscle taunt is great.

Weirdly placed catapult by Regal. Wonder if that was intentional or not.

Match is all submission wrestling from Regal.

Regal’s selling is fantastic.

Double underhook suplex on X-Pac from the top. X-Pac survives.

Double Countout at 8:10. X-Pac and Regal go at it on the outside and are counted out. Vince sends Sgt. Slaughter to start a 5 minute overtime. It doesn’t start though as X-Pac (I think is legit hurt) and Regal runs after him for some reason. I think it’s botched as Regal is all in the ring at first and his running after X-Pac was unnatural. Anyway, Vince is angry that Austin gets a bye. Why not make it a triple-threat? You’re the boss. Anyway, finish sucked. Weird it got the most time of all the first round matches.

Deadly Game Round 1: Ken Shamrock vs. Goldust

Heel Shamrock is the best Shamrock.

Goldust had just returned (he was Dustin Runnels for most of 98) and was pretty over.

Shamrock with a great counter to the Shattered Dreams! He pulls the ref in front of him!

Ken Shamrock makes Goldust submit in 5:56. Shamrock gets a leaping off the top rope into a frankensteiner combination. Belly to belly then ankle lock for the submission win. Match was 70-30 Shamrock, which makes sense since he was the Jobber to the Stars at that point, and Goldust was closer to the midcard. Okay match.

Deadly Game Round 1: The Rock vs. Triple H

Winner of this faces Shamrock.

Rock is megaover.

Instead of Triple H…here come The Stooges! Brisco specifically does some big crotch crops coming in, which is hilarious. Amazing how Vince made Patterson and Brisco into stars in 1998.

Patterson announces that…The Bossman will replace HHH!

The Rock pins the Big Bossman in 0:03. Roll-up and it’s over. This actually makes sense later. This got the biggest pop of the night up to this point.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: The Undertaker vs. Kane

I’ll preface this by saying this may be my least favorite Undertaker match ever, and I’ll explain why shortly.

This Darker Side theme is the best Taker’s ever had in my opinion.

Undertaker does this awkward sidekick I’ve never seen him do.

Undertaker was trying a spinning toe hold or a Figure Four. Kane kicked out, but weird.

It’s weird to see Taker do the work on the leg story.

Kane with a bad looking top rope clothesline. He also awkwardly jumped over the top rope.

Horrible chokeslam from Kane…but I think that was on Taker.

Undertaker pins Kane in 7:16. Paul Bearer distracts Kane, and then Kane walks into a Tombstone. Taker actually hooks the leg and Bearer holds down Kane’s other leg for the three, which is a nice touch. But still. Match sucked. Undertaker, while I guess being all evil was going back to the no selling route. But he’s not supposed to do that against Kane. Kane peaked from his debut until this event. Kane had been protected from his debut as a very very tough to beat monster. And this match killed that aura as Taker disposes of him in 7 minutes in a horrible match. And you know what? Kane never truly recovered. This was the end of unstoppable monster Kane, as in a few months he was going to the insane asylum and feuding with Chyna. What a shame. Terrible overall.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: Mankind vs. Al Snow

Winner faces Stone Cold, who got a bye.

Mankind is still in the tux.

Al Snow just uses a chair and the ref doesn’t call for the DQ. How WCW 2000 like (at least the PPVs I reviewed so far). Dammit Russo.

Mankind finds Socko on Head…and beats up Head. Ok.

Match has oddly been all Al Snow.

Socko is over.

Mankind makes Al Snow submit in 3:55. Socko for the win. The Socko-Head stuff was bizarre, but I mean, it’s another 4 minute whatever match. Al Snow got in a lot of offense though, which was odd.

Deadly Game Quarterfinal: Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock

Winner faces The Undertaker.

Like Taker and Kane, this is the fourth PPV match of the year between these two, with another involving Mankind. First time with Shamrock as the heel and Rock as the face though.

Nice suplex by Shamrock that led to a pin where he hooked the head. You don’t see that often.

JR points out that Rock made his debut two years earlier at Survivor Series. The changes he made in two years was incredible.

Bossman is here. I’m a little sick of him to be honest.

The Rock hilariously sells the frankensteiner.

Ankle Lock is in. Fans are alive here, as they might believe this is the finish.

Rock also comes off the ropes very awkwardly in the next sequence leading to a double clothesline.

The Rock pins Ken Shamrock in 8:20. Rock Bottom attempt…but Shamrock counters with a belly to belly that Rock doesn’t go up for (was Rock really this bad as a worker then?). Bossman tosses the nightstick in the ring…but Rock catches it instead of Shamrock and he knocks out Shamrock for the win. This would make sense later as well. We have Rock vs. Taker and Austin vs. Mankind as the semifinals. Match was definitely the 2nd weakest of the Rock-Shamrock series…Mania was worse, but Mania was barely a match.

Paul Bearer says Taker will walk out champ. What else would he say really?

Women’s Championship
Jacqueline© vs. Sable

No idea why the Women’s title returned at this stage. Jackie beat Sable with Marc Mero’s interference a couple months ago for the new title.

Shane McMahon is the referee here, which is genius. Subtly plants a seed for later.

Horrible TKO by Sable. Sable is not really a wrestler.

Sable Bomb on the floor to Marc Mero. Yes this killed Mero, but who cares about Mero anyway?

Talking a lot about how Shane McMahon was demoted to ref by Vince. Again, this works well for later.

Sable pins Jackie to win the title in 3:14. Sable Bomb for the win. Sable can’t wrestle, but really no one cares. Nor should they.

Deadly Game Semifinal: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mankind

The card just took a serious turn here. Probably because this is the first match that’s really in doubt in terms of who would win.

Here comes Vince! Huge boos.

Mankind practically runs away from the Stunner and the Stooges have to coax him back. Austin breaks up the Stooge meeting.

This is a great back and forth match. Best of the night easily.

Double Arm DDT on the chair! Austin with a really close kickout…and Vince stands up!

Stunner! 1…2…McMahon is up! He takes out the referee! He’s healed!

Mankind pins Stone Cold in 10:23. He is a botched ending (according to Stone Cold himself). To be fair I knew something was wrong the first time I saw this. Austin gets another stunner. Shane slides in, 1…2…where’s 3? 3? Where’s 3? Double bird to Austin from Shane. That’s an amazing turn there. But here is where it goes to hell, as Austin goes after Shane and the Bossman is supposed to attack Austin here…but there’s no Bossman. Austin even turns around and is shocked at no Bossman. The actual finish is awful (Foley said so himself on his book), as Gerald Brisco hits the worst chair shot in PPV history. Literally. Worse than anything Lance Storm ever did. And Austin jobs to that. Austin should have kicked out on principle and let Mick hit him. Vince and the Stooges hightail it. Austin in pursuit in a car. Could have been one of the all time great finishes. Thanks Bossman.

Deadly Game Semifinal: The Undertaker vs. The Rock

Winner takes on Mankind in the final! Crowd is a bit deflated because Austin is gone…but they still have The Rock!

This PPV officially will be the first since the Royal Rumble to not have Austin in the final match.

This is mostly Undertaker here, which makes sense as this is Rock’s first real dash with a main eventer I believe. It would make perfect sense if Taker puts over Rock here.

Bossman is still here. Again.

Rock mocks Taker with a sit-up, too bad crowd didn’t react to it.

Bossman messes up a People’s Elbow…which doesn’t make sense for later.

Taker nails the Bossman!

The Rock defeats Undertaker by DQ in 8:23. Taker tosses Rock to Kane…Chokeslam to Kane to get Taker DQed. Kane then goes at it with Taker. That finish absolutely blows, and here is why. It actually makes perfect sense for Kane to do that…but then it opens the can of worms of why doesn’t EVERYONE do that. Like, every champ, just get yourself DQed. It’s fine to threaten that once in a while, but don’t actually do it. Anyway, Mankind vs. Rock finals.

Mankind promo. He has one more hill…no, one more rock to climb, if ya smell what the sock is cookin!

World Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outalws© vs. The Headbangers vs. D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry

Road Dogg’s intro will always be awesome.

Mosh with this great springboard bodypress to the outside. Don’t remember him ever doing that.

Match is an absolute mess by the way. Tags that don’t make sense for example. Jerry Lawler points this out as soon as I write it about how many guys are supposed to be in the ring.

I don’t remember D’Lo having a top rope hurricanrana in his repertoire.

It looks like Road Dogg legitimately hurt his hand on an earlier double flapjack from the Bangers.

The Future Lo Down with the double team!

Mosh with one of the more awesome low blows to D’Lo.

Road Dogg absolutely blows a spot. Billy Gunn gets the hot tag and immediately gets hit with D’Lo’s Sky High, which is a pinning combination. Road Dogg goes flying at Mark Henry instead of making the save. Referee Tim White doesn’t count…as it’s clear he expected Dogg to break up the pin. He makes the count and a Headbanger just makes the save. Yikes.

The New Age Outlaws retain when Billy Gunn pins Mosh in 10:08. Awful match. JR diplomatically says so with the classic “this was a unique match”. Gunn won with a piledriver which didn’t even look fluid. Awful match. Terrible.

Deadly Game Final: WWF Championship
Mankind vs. The Rock

OMG, Vince and Shane are still here!

Match is very slow and the crowd is dead. Just a lot of back and forth punching.

Interesting note. A few moments in Mankind locks in a chinlock. According to Foley’s book, they had no idea what to do in this match and basically call it in the ring during that chinlock.

Vince and Shane get some life out of the crowd.

Rock nails Mankind with a plastic garbage can…but not before a fan knocks it out of Rock’s hand first.

We get some chair action. At least JR has an explanation for it (Vince would never DQ Foley in this scenario).

Rock nails Foley with a chair while he has the steps, then beats the crap out of the stairs with Foley under them. Crowd really got into that…then went back to silent.

Rock sells a low blow in a hilarious manner. 2nd bad sell job from The Rock tonight.

Cactus Flying Elbow even gets no reaction.

Mankind with a legdrop on the desk that kinda misses the desk.

Mankind leaps from the second rope at the Rock on the floor…but misses and smashes through the table. Interesting note here, this was the move that served as the catalyst to Foley’s retirement in 2000, as he tears his meniscus here.

The Rock wins the WWF Title by submission in 17:10. Socko Claw into a Rock Bottom…but Rock only gets two! Rock shoots the Eyebrow at the McMahons. Sharpshooter…and Foley gets Montreal’d. McMahons and Rock hug in the ring to win the title. Match was pretty bad as you can tell they didn’t know what to do, but the finish was what mattered.

Vince and Shane cut a promo about what happened. The Rock cuts one as well, pointing out that the fans should kiss his ass.

Mankind says he’s confused as he didn’t submit, and the McMahons and The Rock beat him up.

Austin’s back!

Stunner to The Rock!

Stunner to Mankind!

Okay, this show is tough to grade.

There are two trains of thought here. One, wrestling wise, this show was absolutely awful. In fact, for in ring action, it would be a F. We had two non-matches (Mankind-Gill, Rock-Bossman), a downright horrible match (Tag title), and multiple horrible finishes (X-Pac-Regal, Austin-Mankind, Taker-Rock and even Taker-Kane if you don’t like how buried Kane was here). There’s not a good match on this show, although Mankind and Austin would have gotten there without the weak ending.

But storyline wise, this was an A. When you have a cast of characters that people care about, all this swerving and screwing and crazy stuff actually works. Hell, it is how the Attitude Era worked. There are very good stories here. Rock-Bossman made sense…because the McMahon’s were backing Rock. Bossman tossing the nightstick, maybe it was intentional to Rock, again now makes sense. Vince using Mankind to eliminate Austin…makes sense. Sure there are hiccups (Bossman trying to screw Rock against Taker), but it mostly works. They even tie up some other ends on RAW the next night.

Historically, this PPV is huge too. The Rock and Mankind come out as top tier players, and in fact would be the WWF Title match for every PPV until Wrestlemania (and their matches would get a lot better too). Also this established Shane as a top authority figure as well.

I can’t get past a couple of things though to put this in B range. The Mankind-Austin finish was so weak. I mean, this was the first time Austin was pinned by one guy on TV since July of 97! And the first time it happened in a 1 on 1 match since May of 97! That’s a long damn time! And I can’t get past the killing of Kane and really, the greenness of The Rock. I assume internet forums for 1998 thought Rocky still sucked, and well, it seemed like he still did.

What a mixed bag of everything. But it was perfectly fine for what the WWF needed at that point. And that does give it a little extra credit. Better to be good at one thing (story telling) than average at everything. That’s how Hogan-Andre got by, didn’t it? And really, the 1999 PPVs mostly suck in the ring, and that was the biggest year for the business.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Halloween Havoc ’98

hh13

WCW Halloween Havoc ‘98
October 25, 1998
Las Vegas, NV
Reviewed on November 24, 2014

Off the heels of the destruction of the War Games gimmick…Hogan vs. Warrior! A lot has been made about this match over time, mainly that Hogan had Warrior brought in to get his win back. Whatever. Let’s just be surprised that this match didn’t main event the show.

The Warrior was the latest in line for an attempt by WCW to overtake the ratings war that the WWF was more or less winning. If WCW just had Goldberg wrestle top or even near top guys (like Jericho) I think WCW would have been more competitive. Instead, he’s stuck wrestling Meng in World Title matches somehow. Goldberg’s PPV title defense list so far: Curt Hennig in the semi-main at Bash at the Beach (understandable though), a battle royal victory at Road Wild (less understandable) and a no-show at Fall Brawl (completely unacceptable). That does change here though, for what it is worth.

Still, WCW was on a long road down…and things would get worse before they got better.

Note: I am reviewing this PPV as if the power doesn’t go out before the main event. Yes, many PPV subscribers lost connection to the show. Probably because it set for a three hour slot, and this running time here reads 3:15.

The Card

Hogan-Warrior hype video. I don’t even understand it all really. You are telling me they couldn’t have used Goldberg in Warrior’s place for this feud? That would have drawn HUGE.

The Halloween Havoc ’98 set is awesome.

The Nitro Girls? Um…this isn’t Nitro. How about we don’t waste time? Jeez.

Rick Steiner interview with Mean Gene. This is a PPV right? How about some matches?

Buff Bagwell is out here. Apparently he’s sick of Scott Steiner. He wants to help out Rick. I mean I know how this turns out…but its OBVIOUS Buff is gonna betray him, isn’t it?

Rick Steiner is a dumbass.

Eight minutes in…and we have a match!

WCW Television Championship
Chris Jericho© vs. Raven

Kinda funny background. Two guys who got over as heels basically putting together their own programs in 1998 was Raven and Chris Jericho. Raven just finished his feud with Saturn. Jericho was in the midst of trying to get a PPV match with Goldberg. We’re told this was just added…which means two of the most talented acts of WCW ’98 weren’t even on the card.

Raven also has a losing streak gimmick going on. I hate that idea as guys on losing streaks shouldn’t be getting title shots.

Jericho’s actually playing the face here. Raven decides he doesn’t want to wrestle, but Jericho wants to please his Jerichoholics. Jericho’s promo is a foreshadowing of his 2000 style.

Jericho gets impaled on the steel railing. Action packed from the start.

Raven hits a dropkick after running up the steps, and Jericho yells “HELP ME!” Awesome.

Some great sequences. Raven actually ducks Jericho’s back jump kick which leads to a belly to belly.

Fans really getting behind Raven here.

Jericho survives the Evenflow!

Chris Jericho retains by submission in 7:49. Raven crashes into Kanyon on the apron, but almost gets a 2nd Evenflow…until Jericho counters into the Lion Tamer. Quick tap out. Announcers talk about someone like Raven tapping out quickly, implying he just quit the match.

Seriously, a Hogan promo?

Meng vs. Wrath

Somersault off the apron from Wrath! He should have used that when he was Adam Bomb.

Wrath pins Meng in 4:23. Impressive Meltdown for the win. Wrath gets a good pop too. Meng didn’t seem to really be, er…trying, but this probably was Wrath’s best workrate run. The fans were into him…until Nash squashed him.

#1 Contender to the Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera vs. Disco Inferno

This match has a really stupid ending that isn’t realized until Nitro the next night. Just note that the Cruiserweight Title match is tonight.

Disco in the Cruiserweight division is rather meh…although I believe he did the weight limit gimmick deal. I just don’t understand why we have Disco going for the Cruiser title when you have guys like Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero on the roster.

Disco busts out a macarana. Great stuff.

Very good back and forth match here.

Disco Inferno pins Juventud Guerrera in 9:39. Jumping piledriver downs Juvi for the pin! I’ll get into why this was stupid after Disco vs. Kidman. This was quite a good match though. Pretty good start to the PPV wrestling wise at least.

NITRO GIRLS AGAIN?!

Scott Steiner comes out to challenge Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell for the Tag titles. For some reason Steiner can replace Scott Hall in the Hall and Giant tag team. Whatever. FREEBIRD RULES!

Scott Steiner agrees that if Bagwell and Rick win the titles, he’ll face Rick one on one.

Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright

Apparently Fit Finlay ended Alex Wright’s dad’s career with a broken leg 15 years ago or something.

Alex Wright pins Fit Finlay in 5:09. Neckbreaker out of nowhere for the win. Boring match. If you told me Finlay would be an upper midcard guy in WWE eight years later I woulda called you crazy.

Ernest Miller interview about him being the greatest.

Saturn vs. Lodi

I guess this is a spinoff of the Saturn vs. Flock feud?

Saturn’s new look just doesn’t work.

Saturn got no reaction. What a shame. He was mega over a month ago.

Saturn pins Lodi in 3:50. Death Valley Driver for the win. Total squash. Not sure why it was on PPV. Lodi was a bit funny trying to keep track of his signs I guess.

Nitro Girls a third time. It’s not fucking Nitro.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Billy Kidman© vs. Disco Inferno

Kidman beat Juvi for the title the night after Fall Brawl. Disco is here due to his win earlier tonight.

Disco nails the piledriver…but it’s not enough.

We get a macarana driver attempt, but Kidman facebusters Disco out of it.

Kidman retains in 10:49. Shooting Star Press for the win. Not as good as Disco-Juvi earlier, but still good. Here’s why’s it’s stupid. Kidman would defend the Cruiser title on Nitro against….

Juventud Guerrera! Whatever.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Giant and Scott Steiner © vs. Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell

Chucky references. Oh goodie.

It takes about four minutes for Bagwell to turn on Rick. Rick looking like an idiot was a big reason he didn’t get over from this. He was getting a great reaction before all this too. It would only get worse for Rick sadly.

Rick Steiner wins the title in 8:24. What? Rick Steiner makes the comeback and hits a Top Rope Bulldog on the Giant to win the title! HUGE reaction!

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Buff Bagwell comes back in a disguise and nails Rick Steiner with a slapjack. The disguise was totally unnecessary.

Rick Steiner pins Scott Steiner in 5:00. Top rope bulldog for the win. Really disappointing for a grudge match. It still only goes downhill for Rick…unless you were a Judy Bagwell fan.

Scott Hall vs. Kevin Nash

Story here: The Outsiders broke up when the NWO factions split, with Hall picking Hollywood.

In my opinion, this should have happened at Starrcade.

Hall was doing his “drunk” angle at this time. It actually leads to Hall pretending he’s wasted to get a cheap shot on Nash.

Early Hall dominance….then a Hall promo. Wasting time for sure.

Nash eventually takes control…then beats the crap out of Hall for a good five minutes.

Scott Hall wins via countout in 14:19. Nash hits two Jackknife Powerbombs (he fucks up each though)…tells Hall to suck it…then walks out. Not sure if that was ever explained. As we will see with Hogan-Warrior later, this was a match that was a lot better years ago in the WWF with Vince calling the shots (Summerslam ’94). It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t good either.

Nitro Girls for the fourth time.

WCW United States Championship
Bret Hart © vs. Sting

Another match that shoulda been slated for Starrcade!

I’m not even sure if Bret is NWO here. He didn’t use NWO music here.

Mike Tenay says this won’t be a technical wrestling match. I guess he’s never watched Bret Hart or something.

This is marketed as the Sharpshooter vs. the Scorpion.

Pretty boring first half…even though there’s nothing really wrong with this match. Just seems like two guys going through the motions.

Bret legdropping the ref is a highlight of the match.

Bret Hart wins when Sting doesn’t answer the ref in the Sharpshooter in 15:09. Bret beats the crap out of Sting with a baseball bat then locks him in the Sharpshooter. How un-Bret Hart like. Also pretty boring and disappointing for a dream match like Bret vs. Sting.

Sting does a stretcher job and wouldn’t be seen until March or so.

Hollywood Hogan vs. The Warrior

We are shown Horace Hogan getting beat down by NWO Hollywood. I would think Horace isn’t a big enough name to interfere here…

The opening sequence isn’t that bad!

Really weird criss crossing off the ropes spot leading to a bodyslam from Hogan…which Warrior no sells!

Random ref bump…and Hogan adds a kneedrop for no reason. Really hasn’t been that awful so far.

The famous logroll spot. Hogan misses two elbowdrops, and Warriors rolls into him with…a roll attack?

It only goes downhill from here. Hogan tries to light some flash paper to throw a fireball at Warrior…and instead it blows up in his face.

Hollywood Hogan pinned The Warrior in 14:07. Horace Hogan comes in and nails Warrior with a chair shot for the Hogan victory. The opening sequence was decent but it went downhill from there. Sharply downhill. Warrior and Hogan do a whole lot of nothing for the last 11 minutes with highlights being a logroll spot, a failed fireball spot and a match as important as this one ending with Horace Hogan involved in the finish. That doesn’t even consider the many missed kicks and messed up bumps taken (specifically by Warrior). Horrible. One of the worst PPV matches ever. Luckily, WCW didn’t put it as the main event!

WCW World Championship
Goldberg © vs. Diamond Dallas Page

I never liked the security for Goldberg. If you are so tough, why need security?

Pretty cool lockup that goes flying out of the ring.

Goldberg completed a backflip…but Page smartly trips him a second time! Great spot!

Nice drop toehold from Page. Great match so far!

Flying hurricanrana from DDP!

Page calls for the Diamond Cutter….and gets speared! Goldberg got him good too!

One of the most iconic moments in WCW history…Goldberg goes for the Jackhammer…only for Page to twist it into the Diamond Cutter! Page can’t capitalize though.

Goldberg retains by pin in 10:29. Page suplex gets turned into the Jackhammer for the win. Easily Goldberg’s best match ever, and arguably Page’s as well. Perfectly complimented the ideas of Goldberg the destroyer against the underdog Page. If there’s an argument to say that you could have built a company around Page, this match would be the launching point of the argument. Great match. It also tremendously helped the PPV.

I can’t give this PPV too much credit as there was a lot of bad and waste. Less is more would be a perfect description of this show. We don’t need the Nitro Girls four times. We don’t need matches like Saturn vs. Lodi or Finlay vs. Alex Wright. We don’t need non-sensical cruiserweight division booking. What we do need is more main events like Goldberg vs. Page and more openers like Raven vs. Jericho. Overall, the card was pretty good and a hell of a big improvement over Fall Brawl.

There’s only so much you can do though when one of the worst PPV matches of all time is on the card though. Warrior vs. Hogan was a joke. Nash vs. Hall wasn’t much better. Page and Goldberg saved this main events for sure.

Fun fact: Warrior made one more appearance on Nitro the next night…and it was the last time Nitro beat RAW for a full night.

But good thing for WCW is that they didn’t keep the Warrior on TV. His time had past.

Sadly in a few months Hogan wouldn’t realize his had as well.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Fall Brawl ’98

fallbrawl98

WCW Fall Brawl ‘98
September 13, 1998
Winston-Salem, MA
Reviewed on November 13, 2014

What the hell is going on?

Ten months ago it was supposed to be over. WCW had gotten Bret Hart. WCW had the super hot Sting vs. Hogan feud. WCW had the NWO. Even the raw rookie Goldberg somehow became one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling.

And WCW…is losing?

This is the equivalent of an all-star team in sports without thought of making a “team”. It’s hard to find a top guy in WCW booked correctly except for Diamond Dallas Page at this point. Hogan? Stale. Nash? Acting half his age trying to be the “cool” heel or face or whatever (although he’d get mega over by the end of the year). Sting? Buried in Washington D.C. last December and replaced by some guy in red face paint. Don’t even get me started on Goldberg. All the momentum in the world and somehow Goldberg still plays second fiddle to Hogan. In fact, Goldberg hadn’t even wrestled a last match main event since his title win in July.

Of course there’s Bret Hart too. One of the biggest wastes in wrestling history was Bret Hart in WCW.

Most recently WCW signed The Warrior as well. He went right after Hogan and…

And well let’s get right to it. Fall Brawl means WAR GAMES! The Warrior in War Games! Who knows what will happen?!

The Card

Opening video reminds us that Team Hollywood in War Games is Hollywood Hogan, Stevie Ray and Bret Hart. One of those is not like the other.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” Well, wait a night.

Tony Schiavone talks about the new rules for War Games. Three teams! It can end before all nine men get into the ring (um…what? Why would that happen from an entertainment standpoint?). Also winner gets a World Title shot at Halloween Havoc. So much for the team aspect eh?

Ernest Miller being held by security. Fuck if I know the storyline there.

Gene Okerlund talks about the rest of the card. Why? We already sold the PPV, no?

It’s Chris Jericho! Jericho is one of the best parts of WCW 1998. He’s calling out Goldberg and says Goldberg accepted a match against Jericho tonight! Title vs. title!

Alex Wight and Disco Inferno vs. The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart

I like how we get separate entrances for Wright and Inferno. Double the dancing!

USA chant to Alex Wright. The British Bulldog was in the ring opposing him.

A whole lot of nothing to start this thing…other than Anvil dancing.

Bulldog can still land on his feet after being monkey flipped from the corner. Impressive.

Bulldog screws up a stun gun. It’s amazing how different the Bulldog and Neidhart are in terms of giving a shit here. In WWF 1997, the Bulldog and Neidhart showed great intensity. Here? Meh.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” Yeah no one cares about this boring match.

Neidhart misses a slingshot shoulder block. I don’t think he was supposed to miss.

Bulldog actually screws up picking Disco up for the Running Powerslam. Sad.

Bulldog and Neidhart win when Bulldog pinned Disco in 11:03. Bulldog eventually gets the Running Powerslam for the win. Bad boring match. This match is also infamous for the Bulldog injuring his back on the Warrior’s trap door.

Not the typical WCW opening match goodness sadly.

Scott Steiner has a doctor’s note! No Steiner vs. Steiner tonight.

No wait! JJ Dillion calls him on his bs! The match is on!

Title vs. Title
Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg

JPS! Ralphus and the Jerichoholic NINJA!

Jericho is just absolutely brilliant here.

And it’s a midget Goldberg!

Chris Jericho vs. Mini-Goldberg

Mini-Goldberg gets a spear in! You know HHH stole this idea a year later on Smackdownm using Gillberg.

Chris Jericho wins by submission in 1:15. Liontamer! Jericho is brilliant.

Norman Smiley vs. Ernest Miller

Angle here? Smiley asked Miller what his problem was after Miller attacked The Armstrong Brothers. That’s it.

Miller pins Smiley in 5:07. Top rope feliner I think was the finish…but Smiley didn’t go all the way down. Smiley hits a 2nd for the win. A whole lot of nothing for five minutes. Not a good sign when the best part of the first 45 minutes of the show is a Jericho joke match.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Angle began when Scott turned on Rick back in February at Superbrawl. Buff Bagwell’s serious injury was used as an angle between them as well, where Bagwell faked being friends. Scott did all he can to avoid fighting Rick, but Dillion said it has to happen at Fall Brawl. So here we are.

Crowd is very into this.

Really good brawl to start! Crowd is really into Rick Steiner. I’m starting to think they should have pushed Rick big as a face here. Too bad though as…

No Contest in 5:30. Bagwell tried to attack, but Rick Steiner slams him into the 2nd turnbuckle. Bagwell goes limp. The announcers treat it as a shoot. It takes about 10 minutes to get Bagwell into the ambulance…and then Scott and Bagwell attack Rick! It was a ruse! A great brawl turned into a bullshit angle. Ah well.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera© vs. Silver King

Silver King? Really?

Sunset flip botch! Woo!

Inverted top rope frankensteiner is pretty cool. Shocked it only got 2.

Juventud Guerrera retains in 8:36 by pin. Weak Juvi Driver, then the 450 for the win. Decent. Pretty low on the standard WCW Cruiserweight Title match quality tier. I don’t think anyone saw Silver King winning either. Best match of the night by default.

Drunk Scott Hall and Konnan have a confronation.

Raven’s Rules: If Raven wins, the Flock disbands, if Saturn wins, he becomes Raven’s slave. Kanyon is handcuffed to the ringpost.
Raven vs. Saturn

I enjoyed this match two months ago, so I am all for it again.

Back at Bash at the Beach, Saturn had broken free from the Flock. Now Saturn is trying to save the others from Raven. I don’t remember how Kanyon ended up officially in the Flock to be fair.

This one has more wrestling than the last…but Saturn picks it up with a tope!

One of the big shocks: The Flock comes to help Raven finish off Saturn…but Kidman takes out Raven with a missile dropkick!

That’s followed by a great false finish with the DVD!

Kanyon breaks free, Flatlines Saturn, the locks himself back up. I laughed.

Saturn kills Lodi with a DVD through the table on the floor!

A lot of great false finishes. Saturn survivies an Evenflow!

Saturn frees the Flock at 14:04. DVD wins it! Great second half of the match. I still prefer their July encounter though. Kidman would become a star instantly, winning the Cruiserweight Title the next night. Somehow, despite the big reactions for Saturn here…he would be getting pinned by Sonny Oono two months later. Whatever. Still a solid match.

Curt Hennig vs. Dean Malenko

For some reason these two had a cage match on Nitro. Doing things backwards…aren’t we.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” At least it makes sense, since Hennig turned on the Horsemen at this event in the same building last year.

This is a fun little match where Malenko beats the crap out of Hennig’s leg. I like it in terms of building up Malenko’s aggressiveness.

Malenko wins by DQ in 7:38. Malenko nails Hennig with the Hennig-Plex…but Rick Rude runs in to cause the DQ. Arn Anderson looks to make the save, but gets taken out. No Flair. He would come tomorrow. Still, not bad. The last three matches have at least taken this show past F potential.

Konnan vs. Scott Hall

The drunk Scott Hall angle. Horrible.

He actually gets a drink while applying an abdominal stretch.

Hall has it won, but wants another drink. Konnan kicks the drink out of Hall’s hand (and it hits a fan, nice) and hits a facebuster.

Konnan makes Scott Hall submit in 12:03. Tequila Sunrise for the win. Horrible. It’s still hard to believe something like that was on TV, much less Pay-Per-View.

#1 Contender War Games
Team Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray) vs. Team Wolfpac (Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Sting) vs. Team WCW (Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page and The Warrior)

DDP is #1. Bret Hart #2. The team psychology is already non-existant.

Stevie Ray is next! Well…it was a good five minutes between Bret and Page I guess.

So 0 Wolfpac, 2 Hollywood and 1 WCW. Yeah that makes sense.

Here comes Sting! Crowd comes alive!

Sting kicks Stevie Ray’s ass, and leaps from one ring to the other with a flying clothesline!

Piper’s in, looking like a nut. It’s all punches and kicks though.

Here comes Lex Luger! There really isn’t a whole lot happening between each segment.

Kevin Nash next! Big reaction. Hogan and Warrior left.

Hogan’s out early! So much for rules!

Hogan slapjacks everyone but Stevie Ray.

For some reason, Hogan doesn’t go to pin anyone.

We’re just waiting for the Warrior here.

As soon as the pin attempt happens there’s SMOKE EVERYWHERE!

WARRIOR’S IN THE RING! Hogan nails him from behind!

More smoke….it’s a fake Warrior? Whatever, here comes THE WARRIOR!

A few punches and Hogan goes through the door of the cage to escape. Hogan locks himself out of the cage (well, Warrior goes for the door and it slightly opens…and Warrior avoids the door. Nice). Warrior gets all angry, kicks the top part of the cage to get out, blows his quad and then gets some more punches in. Even though it’s a match and both are participants, security breaks them up. Imagine if that happen at Bad Blood ’97.

Now that the angle is over, Stevie Ray accidentally hits (I think it missed and Bret knew it) Bret Hart with a slapjack, and a Diamond Cutter to Stevie Ray!

Diamond Dallas Page wins in 20:06 when he pinned Steve Ray. Bret tries to make the save but fails as Page pins Stevie Ray for the Title shot. Absolutely horrible. The worst War Games in the history of the match. It’s not even close really. One of…if not THE worst major PPV main event in professional wrestling history. Your match was a 5 minute solid Bret-Page match, entrances and punches (except for Sting, who did some good stuff). Kevin Nash’s entire night was a few forearms before getting hit with the slapjack and taking two legdrops. The Hogan-Warrior angle was an embarrassment. Page getting the win at the end was pure afterthought.

Here’s another thing about this PPV.

No Rey Mysterio Jr. or Eddie Guerrero (but Silver King!)
No Chris Benoit.
No….Goldberg. No fucking Goldberg.

At the end of Hennig-Malenko we were in D range. The show overall was a whole lot of nothing. The only real positive I saw storyline wise was Saturn vs. Raven.

Well drunk Scott Hall didn’t help. The show basically rested on the main event. Considering it’s possibly the worst main event in professional wrestling history, that should tell you all you need to know.

WCW somehow still hung in there ratings wise…although not for long.

Final Grade: F

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Bash at the Beach ’98

bashatthebeach98

WCW Bash at the Beach 98
July 13, 1998
San Diego, CA
Reviewed on March 18, 2014

Background: I wrote a bit about how WCW was going downhill in 1998…but to be fair they were still doing very well at this particular point. To Eric Bischoff the Monday Night War was everything. When he started losing in April of 98 he began to hotshot big main events that would have drawn big money on PPV. Eventually it would cost him. Yes, Goldberg pinning Hollywood Hogan clean for the World Title was a huge moment. But millions upon millions of PPV revenue was flushed down the toilet for that move.

WCW though, still had some aces up their sleeves. At Wrestlemania XIV, the WWF brought in Mike Tyson and it worked out handsomely for them. WCW had its own list of celebrities, and while the later crap with Jay Leno probably hurt the business in the long run, the big tag team match of Hogan and Dennis Rodman against DDP and Karl Malone seemed like it would work. Hell, Malone was in better shape than 80% of the roster, and Rodman at least was there the year before.

This card is missing some top tier guys, but hey, sometimes that’s how you get some undercard exposure. I remember this being a fun show, so let’s see if it holds up.

The Card

Mean Gene plugs the hotline of course.

Raven’s Rules
Saturn vs. Raven

Raven’s Rules of course means no rules.

Storyline here: Saturn is the one to break away from the Flock. It came to a head when Saturn needed to beat Kanyon at the Great American Bash and despite interference from a bunch of Mortis’s, Saturn still lost. Raven was one of the Mortis’s.

Saturn owns early on. Raven always knew how to sell guardrail spots.

Saturn falls off the top rope, but perfectly recovers and hits a dropkick. Mike Tenay puts it over as well, which was nice.

Somehow Tony Schiavone calls Raven getting a table “a chair”. Bobby Heenan kills him for it and it’s great.

Saturn misses a springboard…something…but it looked pretty rehearsed.

Raven with one of my favorite spots: The Russian Legsweep into the guardrail.

Springboard twisting legdrop on a chair on Raven’s face!

One of the better ref bumps, Saturn with Air Sabu and Saturn ends up kicking Nick Patrick in the face.

Bulldog headlock on the steps! Saturn has dominated.

Saturn makes a Raven sandwich with two tables, but Kanyon comes and pulls Raven out. Saturn jumps waaayyy too late to make that believable. Kanyon nails Raven with a Flatliner on an open chair though!

Raven pins Saturn in 10:40. Saturn superkicks Raven in the face while Raven was holding a chair. Cover, but Riggs runs in to break it up. Saturn hits him with the Death Valley Driver. Raven though, uses the interference to hit the Evenflow DDT for the win. Fun brawl. Great use of the chair. Shows that WCW didn’t need cruiserweights to have a hot opener every show.

Mena Gene brings out Eddy Guerrero! He puts over Chavo’s craziness, especially in regards to his decision to wrestle Stevie Ray before he wrestles Eddy. Eddy wasn’t a great promo man yet. Unless you like run-on sentences.

Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera

Here’s someone who got over from the Flock: Kidman. This was still the itchy heroin addict Kidman.

Small story: Who’s finisher is better? Juvi’s 450 or Kidman’s 7 Year Itch (the Shooting Star Press). Juvi also wrestled and beat the Flock’s monster Reese last month.

Apparently this is Kidman’s 1st PPV match.

Referee total ignores Lodi beating up Juvi. Kidman’s top rope dive though misses Juvi and he nails Lodi, then Juvi goes flying himself to take out Lodi and Kidman.

Awesome reverse catapult from Kidman to Juvi. I think that’s what it’s called.

Powerbomb/sunset flip off the apron from Juvi to Kidman. Nice.

Double leg underhook powerbomb from Kidman to Juvi off the top! Nice!

Juvi crotches Kidman on the top rope…then outside to inside hurricanrana for a two. Very nice!

Kidman German…but Juvi lands on his feet then hits the Juvi Driver! Only two!

Juventud Guerrera pins Kidman in 9:55. Kidman misses the 7 Year Itch…and Juvi follows with the 450 for the win. Very fun match. WCW smartly continued the Cruiserweight division with these two on top through the end of 98.

Lee Marshall and Konnan. Konnan asks if Skittles had a shirt give away. I guess that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard Konnan say.

Stevie Ray vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Story: Chavo challenges Stevie Ray even though he was already facing Eddy later.

Heenan calls Chavo Captain Cupcake. Imagine if they went with that for the MIA later on?

Chavo Guerrero Jr.’s insane 1998 run was great. Best thing he ever did.

Eddy makes his way down to watch the match, obviously rooting for Stevie Ray to pound Chavo.

Chavo dedicates the match to Eddy!

Stevie Ray makes Chavo Guerrero Jr. submit in 1:35. Chavo does some comedy spots…then submits to a handshake! He’s so tired now, I guess it’s time for him to face Eddy! Eddy is furious. Great booking here.

Hair vs. Hair
Eddy Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Eddy has major heat. Smh WCW, smh.

Chavo with more comedy. You know who Chavo reminds me of here? Santino!

Angry Eddy Guerrero is the best Eddy Guerrero.

This is just a well wrestled match here.

Perfect tilt a whil backbreaker on Eddy from Chavo!

Eddy Guerrero pins Chavo Guerrero Jr. in 11:54. Great ending. Chavo goes for Eddy’s finisher, the Frog Splash but Eddy gets the feet up. Eddy then plants Chavo with Chavo’s move the Tornado DDT (a move he should have kept). Eddy though goes for the scissors! Eddy misses a Frog Splash and Chavo hits his Tornado DDT. Chavo then goes for the scissors! Eddy rolls up Chavo for the win. Chavo scares Eddy away though…then cuts his own hair! Chavo was so over as a nutcase here. Three good matches in a row (not counting Ray-Chavo, lol).

Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay talk about the Chris Jericho-Dean Malenko feud. You can tell he wasn’t told about the bonus match until that moment.

BONUS MATCH
Konnan vs. Disco Inferno

Alex Wright and Disco try to get with the “lingo” of the Hispanic scene. It’s pretty funny to be honest.

Only Wolfpac appearance of the show. But we get Lex Luger and Kevin Nash at ringside, so there’s that.

Konnan made Disco Inferno submit in 2:16. Disco throws Konnan outside for Alex Wright to attack. Wright dances afterwards and Luger comes around and racks him. This distracts the ref, and Kevin Nash comes in and kills Disco with a jackknife. Tequila Sunrise (awesome submission) for the win. I mean, it was 2 minutes and Disco got no offense, but it was fun at least.

The Giant vs. Kevin Greene

NWO time. This originally was Giant and Curt Hennig vs. Greene and Goldberg, but got split when Goldberg won the title.

The Giant pinned Kevin Greene in 6:58. Not much to say here. Smartly booked with a lot of hit and run from Greene but Giant’s power being too much. Greene finally knocks Giant down…but a mistake leads to him running into the big hand and the chokeslam for the win. Certainly not horrible. Greene could have been a solid wrestler I think.

Marshall is now with Curt Hennig. Hennig says he has the secret to beat Goldberg. Inexperience!

More recap of Jericho-Malenko, and how Malenko was suspended because he attacked Jericho even though he wasn’t supposed to. This feud was the highlight of Malenko’s career, and propelled Jericho to superstardom.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: No DQ
Chris Jericho© vs. ???

Jericho comes out with a top hat and cane. Jericho equals buyrates afterall, so he’s gonna perform. JJ Dillion shows up and offers Jericho a local opponent (not before sucking up to Jericho. Good stuff all around). Jericho takes it. Huge pop for Rey Mysterio Jr., as he is from San Diego! Brilliant!

There is a story here too! Jericho injured Rey back at Souled Out, solidifying his heel turn.

Of course Jericho works on the knee. Good psychology.

Funny spots here. Jericho runs up the beach ladder in the set (which has tons of sand around). Rey pulls Jericho off the ladder into the sand, which Schiavone has to sell as “oh, that’s a soft landing, but the sand is irritating!” Mysterio then with the top of the ladder hurricanrana on the sand!

Jericho misses a top rope knee drop and lands on the chair…and now Mysterio works on Jericho’s knee! Dropkick to a chair on the knee as well!

Rey Mysterio Jr. wins the title when he pinned Jericho in 6:00. Jericho goes for the Liontamer, but Mysterio escapes! Here comes Malenko! This distracts Jericho enough for Rey to roll him up on a Liontamer attempt for the win! Jericho runs from Malenko, but Arn Anderson helps him get Jericho. This foreshadowed the Four Horsemen return. Because of the Malenko appearance, Jericho was awarded the title back on Nitro. Okay match, other than the top of the ladder deal you can tell Mysterio didn’t want to do any flying yet with the knee injury. Still, cool moments all around and Jericho is hilarious in the pre-match stuff.

TV Championship
Booker T© vs. Bret Hart

Story: Bret got involved in the Best of 7 Series that Booker T and Chris Benoit had. Booker challenged Bret.

Looks like unmotivated Bret here sadly.

Match I think is designed to put Booker T over with the upper-level guys, but this looks like Bret going down a level unfortunately.

Good psychology here…Booker T does his Spinarooni but doesn’t pop up, Heenan points out it’s because of the knee. Nice.

Booker T wins by DQ in 8:28. Booker with a dive over the rop…and Bret catches him midway with a chair! Bret bashes Booker’s knee with a chair…then my favorite hold…the Figure Four around the ring post! What an awesome move. Stevie Ray shows up slowly and Bret leaves. It planted seeds for the Harlem Heat problems later. Okay match, kinda boring. Finish is also meh but Bret made the beat down look good. Stevie Ray says Booker doesn’t need medical help and helps him back.

Video recap of Goldberg’s world title win. It was pretty damn awesome.

WCW World Championship
Goldberg© vs. Curt Hennig

Goldberg looks pretty damn incredible with the Big Gold Belt.

Goldberg is 111-0 here.

Goldberg retains when he pins Hennig in 3:50. Goldberg kicks out of the Hennig-Plex and wins with the Spear-Jackhammer combo. Hennig did something new here going for Goldberg’s leg, but it didn’t matter. Nothing wrong with this, helped Goldberg get that first title defense out of the way.

Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman vs. Karl Malone and Diamond Dallas Page

A lot of stalling early on with the Malone-Rodman start.

Rodman is a great chickenshit heel.

Malone slams Hogan!

Rodman with the armdrag on Page!

Rodman messes up something leading to a collision of the heads. Rumors were Rodman wasn’t in great condition to perform here.

Surprising that Malone plays babyface in peril.

Now Page is the babyface in peril. Long tag match with not a lot happening.

Hogan and Rodman win when Hogan pins Page in 23:47. Page nails the Diamond Cutter on Hogan. Rodman runs in, but Malone Diamond Cutters him for a huge pop. Malone tries to pin Rodman out of inexperience, and The Disciple hits a stunner on Page for the Hogan pin. I mean, it was a spectacle. I think other than the Diamond Cutter a bodyslam was the biggest high spot. It’s supposed to be a spectacle though and I do think overall it’s booked well. Malone gets some moments. Rodman gets some moments. This could have been A LOT worse.

Bash at the Beach 98…is pretty entertaining overall. Good matches to start, big names to finish. Some good moments with Mysterio and Goldberg’s first title defense. There really isn’t a bad match on the card (although some boring ones), but everything had SOME entertainment value somewhere.

These were WCW’s last great days. They never ran with Page. They didn’t even seriously run with Goldberg somehow. They didn’t run with Raven. Or Jericho. Wasted talent all over the place that did some good stuff on this PPV.

But this show itself? It’s pretty good. Three good opening matches. Good comedy with Chavo and Jericho. Big main event. Goldberg squashing a high tiered guy. All good.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF King of the Ring ’98

Kotr98

WWF King of the Ring ‘98
June 28, 1998
Pittsburgh, PA
Reviewed on June 7, 2014

We are in the Attitude Era! The WWF had just taken over the Monday Night ratings War…but it was still a dogfight. The WWF was pushing new guys, and that fresh edge was helping over the same old on Nitro. Only The Undertaker was held over from the top of the card. Stone Cold, Kane, The Rock, Triple H, Ken Shamrock and Mick Foley were all guys getting their chance at the top or near the top.

The thing about the Attitude Era is that it was riveting television. Anything could happen at any time on any given Monday. As long as the card was headlined by Stone Cold in some way, it didn’t really matter what the rest looked like (as this card will show). Honestly, how many people can even name a match that wasn’t one of the three big matches on this show? (Some even forget about Shamrock vs. Rock).

Let’s watch some classic WWF Attitude!

The Card

There’s an awesome opening video hyping up the Austin vs. Kane and Taker vs. Mankind matches.

The Headbangers and TAKA Michinoku vs. Ka ent ai

I was always surprise that the Headbangers somehow got lost in the shuffle in the Attitude Era…since they seemed tailor made for it.

This was part of the long running Taka and random vs. Ka ent ai. Most notably teaming with Taka later was Bradshaw.

Ka ent ai is Togo, Funaki and Teioh. I think it’s interesting that of the six men in this match, it was Funaki who had the longest WWF/E career.

While I think Taka is a good wrestler, all of his pre-1999 WWF matches followed the SAME exact formula.

Togo and Funaki with a great facebuster-bulldog sequence.

Taka and the Headbangers win when Taka pins Funaki in 6:44. Michinoku Driver for the win. Short fun opener here. Good thing to get the crowd going.

Sable time!

She introduces Vince! This was part of the Vince re-hired Sable angle after Marc Mero beat her. Pat Patterson slaps Sable’s ass, which JR of course makes a subtle gay joke. It’s also pretty funny now that I know Patterson’s orientation.

Vince runs down Austin on the mic of course. Time waster here.

King of the Ring Semi-Final
Ken Shamrock vs. Jeff Jarrett

This easily could have been an early NWA-TNA World Title feud.

I’m a Jeff Jarrett fan, but the mid 90s Double J persona was waaaaaay dated here. He’d change gimmicks by Summerslam.

“Ain’t I Great?” Not really at this point Jeff.

Ken Shamrock advances via submission in 5:29. Shamrock hits his bad ass frankensteiner, then the Ankle Lock wins it. No surprise. Match was what it was: Jarrett putting Shamrock over.

King of the Ring Semi-Final
Dan Severn vs. The Rock

It was smart to have Shamrock winning 1st, as at least it’s somewhat believable Severn can win here.

Severn’s WWF legacy would be causing D’Lo Brown to wear a chest protector.

Severn doesn’t throw punches. Pretty much the opposite of the Attitude Era style.

The Rock advances via pin in 4:25. D’Lo with the Lo-Down…new chest protector and all! Rock gets the pin. Match sucked. Severn was about 15 years too late as a top bad guy. He might have been a real life bad ass, but he was an awful sports entertainer. Rock cuts a solid promo and was well on his way to being a top guy.

If Al Snow wins, he gets a meeting with Vince McMahon
Al Snow and Head vs. Too Much

Head is a mannequin head, in case anyone doesn’t know.

Al Snow had just returned with the Head gimmick after developing it in ECW.

If you were to tell me Too Much would be WWF World Tag Team Champions as a kid watching in 1998, and that they’d win the titles two years later, I’d laugh my ass off.

There is a story here. Al Snow was trying to get a job, and somehow that led to stealing Jerry Lawler’s crown. Apparently Lawler can get Snow a meeting with Vince.

Snow: “Boys, get ready, you’re about to get a little head like you’ve never gotten it before”. WWE Attitude folks!

Lawler is revealed as ref!

Al Snow alternates beating up Scott Taylor and talking to Head. Good stuff.

Of course Lawler blatantly cheats.

Al Snow with a ridiculous long running clothesline on the outside…then Scott Taylor “hits” a springboard chop? Ugly.

JR can’t even take the match seriously.

Tag to the Head! JR even justifies Lawler not counting a Snow pinfall because Head was legal.

Too Much wins when Brian Christopher pins Head in 8:26. Oh man. Snow hits the Snowplow on Taylor, but Christopher attaches a bottle of Head and Shoulders to Head and pins it for the win. Ok the match was awful as you’d expect, but let me say something about this. This match is a great example of why WWF ’98 worked and WCW 2000 didn’t. This match furthered Al Snow’s character. As silly as this all was, storywise this actually made sense. Now, that’s not saying this should have been on PPV, because this is a RAW match if I ever saw one, but there is something positive to gain from it.

Owen Hart vs. X-Pac

Rematch of the ’94 KOTR here.

Sad storyline decent for Owen here. We went from shoving HBK through a table, to jobbing to HHH a lot, to fighting X-Pac. Clearly Owen wasn’t getting the main event push.

What a 12 months before this for Owen. He was feuding with Austin at one point.

I didn’t watch a lot of Syxx in WCW, but this I believe is the debut of the mat wrestling X-Pac. This was because of his broken neck he suffered at the end of his WCW run.

Owen’s gimmick was that of a guy who was done being taken advantaged of and was done being a nice guy. This just didn’t work for Owen. He was a lot better as the whiny heel.

Terrible Bronco Buster there. I wonder if Own purposely didn’t want X-Pac’s nuts in his face.

Owen with a terrible fall off the top, clearly messed that up.

X-Pac pins Owen Hart in 8:30. Mark Henry comes out and splashes X-Pac…to which Vader (talk about someone who’s really fallen from 12 months prior) attacks him. Owen locks X-Pac in the sharpshooter, but Chyna takes him out with a DDT (and busts Owen’s nose, wonder if that was a botch). X-Pac wins it there. Okay match, surprising small screw-ups near the end with the Bronco Buster and Owen’s top rope fall.

Paul Bearer comes out. He cuts an awesome promo about how proud he will be of his son Kane when he wins the World Title, and how Kane always wanted to be The Undertaker when he was young.

WWF World Tag Team Champions
The New Age Outlaws © vs. The New Midnight Express

Dirty little secret: the WWF Tag Team division absolutely blew in the early Attitude Era. Outside of the Outlaws, the division as made up of the Express, the underused Headbangers, the Godwinns/Southern Justice, the DOA and a washed-up LOD. That’s why the following makes up the list of non Outlaw champs: Kane and Mankind, Taker and Kane and Bossman and Shamrock. The division wouldn’t really pick up to mid-99, then of course in 2000.

One interesting storyline here: The Smokin’ Gunns are on opposite sides.

This was Bob Holly’s first repackaging. Could have been worse I guess.

Pretty awesome landing on the feet from Bart on a Billy hip toss.

Road Dogg is your Outlaw in peril.

Cornette gets involved with the NWA Tag Title, but Billy survives a pin attempt.

Cornette famously ranted about this. Cornette threatened to hit Billy with the title belt again, but Billy cornered him. Chyna was on the wrong side of the ring and was supposed to low blow Cornette…and she takes forever doing it, leaving Billy Gunn standing there.

New Age Outalws retain when Gunn pinned Holly in 9:34. A double stun gun gets the pin (what an awful finish). Not a bad match, but I mean, there’s a huge difference in statue for the Outlaws and the New Express, even at this stage. Match was solid.

King of the Ring Finals
The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock

HHH, last year’s winner, comes out for commentary.

There is a story here. Shamrock had chased Rock’s IC title for the first half of the year, but kept coming up short.

Rock-HHH get into a shoving match on the outside, as they were feuding. Good touch there.

The commentary is pretty distracting with HHH making dick jokes every 20 seconds.

Shamrock clearly leaps into a powerslam, but impressive enough I guess…

Nice reversal of the Floatover DDT into a Northern Lights suplex from Shamrock!

Ken Shamrock becomes King of the Ring via submission in 14:09. Rock argues with the ref and gets rolled into the Ankle Lock for the win. Very good match, probably the best of the Rock’s career at that point. Of course, hindsight being 20/20…I’m sure Vince wishes Rock won this tournament now. By the way, HHH’s commentary was horrible and annoying. I get that was the character, but it was just unnecessary.

Hell in a Cell
The Undertaker vs. Mankind

Story here: Where do I begin? Probably the first real Attitude feud that really began in 1996. Undertaker vs. Mankind was an amazing feud and that only added to the intrigue here. For recent storyline, Mankind cost Taker a title shot against Austin.

On the real life advice of Terry Funk, the match begins on top of the cage.

Mankind’s climb to the top of the cage does have some comedic value. Foley himself mentions how he wasn’t even sure if he’d make it to the top, and he lost feeling in his hand to get up there.

You can see Taker limp down to the ring when he goes down the rampway…he had a broken foot here (and still climbs the cell better than Foley).

Taker’s gimmick was getting a lot darker at this point. He had also shown some signs of the 2000 American Bad Ass as well.

Three minutes in…and Taker throws Foley off the cell through the table! It’s still one of the damnest spots I’d ever seen, especially since it was so sudden. There was absolutely no build-up. One second Foley was punching Taker. The next he’s flying off the cell.

Kayfabe is broken everywhere by Funk and Vince.

The crowd reaction is pretty nuts too. He literally hear people screaming in horror as Foley flies off.

Undertaker looks pretty damn bad ass standing on top of the cell.

Foley gets up and comes back…also one of the damnest things ever in wrestling.

30 seconds later Taker chokeslams Foley and the ceiling caves in…and Foley slams hard, and I mean hard on the canvas. I still cringe when I see that. Somehow the match continues. Taker chokeslams Funk, buying Foley time.

The match somehow continues. Foley causes Taker to crotch the top rope when Taker tries Old School, which in reality was Taker trying to buy Foley more time.

Ha, Taker clearly blades on camera after missing a dive and crashing headfirst into the cage.

Piledriver on a chair by Foley! Somehow Mankind might win this thing!

Thumbtack time! Unfortunately Foley’s the one who goes back first into them after a Mandible Claw attempt.

Undertaker pins Mankind in 17:00. Foley gets sent into the tacks again with a chokeslam! Tombstone wins it for Undertaker. Ok, there are two trains of thoughts with this match generally: it’s one of the greatest matches in WWE history, or it’s the most overrated match in WWE history. I’m in one of the greatest ever camp (2nd best HIAC match behind the original). This is because the brutality of the match matched the rivalry. If Undertaker had done this to HHH or something, I’d be like wtf? But Mankind and Undertaker had already done everything to one another over the past two years. Even though it wasn’t completely intentional, it made sense that something like this had to happen. This match is also one of the most influential matches in WWE history. Every huge table bump in the future really started here. And Of course, this was the major league thumbtack debut. This match also helped solidify Mankind as a main event player (although, Mr. Socko was needed to finish that process). It also was the match that made Undertaker’s heel turn a lot more effective, as a real mean streak was established. Lastly, anytime fans talk about a match for years and years after it takes place, then the match didn’t suck. Not all matches have to be artistically perfect. Amazing match. Probably in my top 10 all time.

WWF World Championship: First Blood. If Kane Does Not Win the Title He Will Set Himself On Fire
Stone Cold Steve Austin© vs. Kane

I wish the whole Kane setting himself on fire deal wasn’t a part of this…as it made it clear Kane was winning (then again…after the Cell match it wouldn’t shock me to see Kane light himself on fire).

Austin had a bad staph infection here, if you are wondering about the white elbow brace.

The cage actually comes down when Kane is dominating, and raises when Austin is winning. Not sure why that was done.

I don’t know if it’s because of Austin’s injury, but this brawl really isn’t that good.

Ref bump in a First Blood match? Sure why not.

Mankind comes down to the ring with a chair. I hate this for the record.

Stunner on Foley!

Stunner on Kane!

Here comes the Undertaker!

Kane wins the WWF Title by blood draw in 15:58. Taker aims for Mankind…but nails Austin with the chair on accident? Maybe? Austin blades on camera, and is busted wide open! Taker revives the ref (good way to do shades of grey here). Austin cleans house, but the ref finally sees the blood and awards the title to the KOed Kane. I do hate this finish, but I get why it happened this way. Match was not good though. It seemed like Austin was in slow motion here, and with his injuries he probably was. I also hate Mankind coming out here. Kinda demeans the Cell match a little…real as it was. As for Kane…well, he’d have a long title reign. 24 hours is more than most can say.

Really tough show to grade. It’s known today for one match and one match only. To be fair, that match owns. Too bad the main event was all over the place. Shamrock-Rock was pretty forgotten (because in hindsight, the wrong man won) and the rest of the card, while by no means bad (except for that Too Much-Snow thing), I wouldn’t call it good. Or memorable. The New Midnight Express? Headbangers teaming with Taka?

But when your PPV has one of the most talked about matches in wrestling history, the other stuff doesn’t really matter THAT much, right?
Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Slamboree ’98

slamboree98

WWF Slamboree ‘98
May 17, 1998
Worcester, MA
Reviewed on August 27, 2014

The WWF was coming back!

Eric Bischoff had probably thought he won the war 7 months prior when he signed Bret Hart, the then-WWF Champion, in late 1997. Somehow though, led by Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. McMahon, the WWF came storming back and a month prior had taken the TV ratings lead. Bischoff panicked. While WCW did hotshot some big main events on Nitro already, now it was really go time. The WCW title changed hands on the Nitro after Spring Stampede, which was the week after the WWF re-took the lead. In the months after this Goldberg would win the WCW Title on Nitro, the ultimate hotshot move.

Bischoff seemed to be ignorant toward who was drawing for the WWF. It probably hurt him that Austin and Mick Foley were main eventing, two guys Bischoff had let go from WCW over the last few years. It led to Bischoff stating that Vince’s character was the reason for the ratings…and actually challenged him to show up at Slamboree (with loads of legal issues obviously). It will go down as one of the most bush league things WCW had ever done.

It was WCW’s own damn fault for being in this spot. The terrible booking ruined Sting’s run after over a year of build-up. Then Randy Savage caught fire and somehow he got ruined too. Bret was already directionless…although to be honest it looked like he didn’t give a damn at this point (which’s he’s admitted no less).

WCW wasn’t quite in 2nd place yet, but the companies were neck and neck. The WWF was on the rise. WCW was falling. With proper booking WCW could perhaps make a move to squash the WWF…but it would be hard.

Notably, Slamboree is run in a “WWF town”, Worcester, MA (where Foley would win World Title #1 in December). I think that explains the two main events.

The Card

Cool intro music!

The main WCW storyline was that the NWO was splintering, and no one seemed to know who’s side was on who’s. The biggest thing is that Giant (he dropped the “the” for some reason) joined the NWO before this PPV. Yet still him and WCW-bred Sting are facingThe Outsiders for the Tag Titles.

And we get some Bischoff stuff about the challenge to Vince. Vince of course never brought up this on RAW, which was the smart thing to do.

WCW Television Championship
Fit Finley © vs. Chris Benoit

Story here: Booker T has been bringing life to both his singles career and the TV title ranks with his reigns…but somehow Finley took the title from him. Benoit beat Booker to get this match.

Crowd gets into it early on a Benoit chop.

Odd mistake on a bridge sequence. The start of the match has taken the crowd out of it. I think that chop was letting on this was gonna be a hard hitting contest and then we got some technical holds, which the fans weren’t expecting.

I probably haven’t seen enough Finley from the late 90s, because from the looks of this he pretty much sucks. (He was solid in the mid 2000s).

Benoit nails Finley with a chair right in front of the ref. I guess no DQ?

Benoit goes for a suicide dive but Finley puts up the chair, leading to Benoit going in head first. A cool spot for its time, but admittedly I now cringe anything Benoit takes a chair shot to the head in any way. Nevermind this was done tons better at Royal Rumble 2001.

Benoit is pretty over here. Finley just wasn’t the guy to get heat on him.

Here comes Booker T! Benoit turns his attention too.

Finley nails Benoit in the back of the head (and it looked like he actually kicked him) with a baseball slide.

Finley retains by pin in 14:52. Tombstone Piledriver! Finley wins it and the crowd hates it. Finley would lose the title to Booker I believe shortly thereafter, leading to the critically acclaimed Best of 7 series between Booker and Benoit. Finley kinda disappears with random appearaces until 2006. Surprisingly bad match. I would have never guessed it but it just didn’t click between these two.

Jericho with Lee Marshall. Jericho was the evolutionary Zack Ryder for the record.

Lex Luger vs. Brian Adams

A pretty surprisingly departure from workrate leading to the big names for this show. Lex though kept dropping down the card ever since Road Wild 1997 where he lost the WCW title to Hogan. He was still pretty over at this point though.

Pretty slow offense from Luger on the outside. It’s like he couldn’t even be bothered to actually follow through on moves.

Yikes. Brian Adams almost fucks up a piledriver. Looked horrible. He didn’t even kick his legs out the whole way.

Lex Luger wins by submission in 5:05. Torture Rack for the win. Pretty uninspiring offense everywhere. Very bad match. Unless you like random kicking and punching everywhere with no rhyme or reason. Luger was over though, fans popped for the Rack.

Saturn speaks. Originally the Flock was supposed to wrestle Goldberg in a gauntlet match to see if the Flock would stay together or disband. But this was the lead up to Saturn’s turn on the Flock, as he says he wants Goldberg one on one, and if the Flock doesn’t like it too bad.

Cruiserweight Battle Royal
Super Calo vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr., vs. Ciclope vs. Damien 666 vs. El Dandy vs. El Grio vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Marty Jannetty vs. Billy Kidman vs. Evan Karagias vs. Lenny Lane vs. Psychosis vs. Silver King vs. Johnny Swinger vs. Villiano IV

Story here: Chris Jericho had become one of the best performers on either show. He was booked brilliantly too. He injured Rey Jr. at Souled Out, unmasked Juvi and forced Dean Malenko into a sabbatical after beating him and talking trash about his family. Jericho had been collecting trophies of the people he’d beat and humiliate, such as Juvi’s mask.

Chris Jericho announces all the participants (hilariously burying them all). Best one might be “if Silver King wrestles 12 more matches he gets upgraded to Gold King” and “representing Villiano 1 through 62, Villiano IV!”

Odds are this comes down to Kidman vs. Guerrera. Chavo would be a dark horse. Everyone else was just there. I mean Marty Jannetty?

Chavo should have never stopped using the Tornado DDT. Brilliant move.

Psycohsis’s bump into the ropes was always awesome.

Down to Chavo, Kidman, Ciclope, Psychosis and Juvi.

Kidman gets rid of Chavo.

Psychosis terrible telegrapshs his elimination. Juvi dumps Kidman.

Ciclope wins at 8:27. One of the greatest WCW swerves of all time. Juvi and Ciclope shake, and Juvi eliminates himself. Ciclope unmasks…and it’s DEAN MALENKO. Crowd pops HUGE!

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Chris Jericho © vs. Dean Malenko

Malenko kicks Jericho’s ass early on.

Jericho actually gets the upperhand with a nice slingshot.

Jericho yells that “this is a conspiracy!”

Jericho was such a tremendous heel. As soon as he gets the advantage the fear is gone and he’s an arrogant jerk again. Put over Jericho huge too.

Jericho slaps Malenko. Total arrogance.

Malenko nails Jericho off the top rope with a gutbuster, but messes it up and injures his knee a bit.

Dean Malenko makes Chris Jericho submit in 7:02 and wins the title. WE GOIN TO TEXAS! Crowd pops HUGE when Jericho taps out. The match actually wasn’t all that great, but the whole angle was so well done that really, who gives a shit. Awesome moments all around. This was the angle that showed that Chris Jericho could be a top star. And, the aftermath was done correctly, as with all due respect to Malenko, the star to be made here was Jericho. He’d get the belt back on a technicality (Malenko wasn’t an official participant in the match!), leading to ANOTHER great moment at Bash at the Beach 1998. Too bad WCW didn’t like money.

Vinnie Mac cam! Was there really any surprise they got sued?

Bowery Death Match
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Raven

Story here: I actually don’t completely remember. I know Page and Raven had problems from the Flock vs. Benoit series in late 1997 and it led to this. There was a triple jeopardy match between the three at Uncensored. It was odd as the Raven feud seemed to be between Page being near the top of the card. I mean, he’d be wrestling Hogan and Rodman in two months.

This is a cage with a roof, but with Last Man Standing rules. There are weapons in the corner. It’s basically the TNA Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match.

Raven also came out with a Riot Squad for protection from “fans”. I believe this was an extension of when Goldberg beat him for the US title, as the fans threw Raven back into the squared circle.

A VCR is in the ring!

Raven takes an awesome into the cage bump by way of noose.

Page tries to hang Raven of the cage top. Jeez.

VCR TO THE HEAD OF RAVEN!

In all seriousness somehow this match sucks too. Just weapon hit, 10 count, weapon hit, 10 count etc. Schiavone also says that there are a lot of RPMs behind a cookie sheet shot. Safe to say Tony didn’t watch NASCAR.

Ref takes a hit to the back of the head with a trash can!

The Flock are here and they fight through Raven’s Riot Squad? Okay?

For some reason Van Hammer was waiting under the ring to attack the Flock.

Riot Squad in the ring! They attack Page…and they are Kidman and Horace! No one really cares.

Page takes out Horace with a Diamond Cutter, and takes out Kidman with a cool Cutter where Kidman was hanging from the top of the cage.

Page survives an Evenflow.

Diamond Cutter by Raven! He might beat Page with his own move and that’s a really believable finish.

DDP wins in 14:35. DDP survives again. Raven goes for a chair shot, but Page ducks and hits the Daimond Cutter. Page JUST gets up in time. It was done well where fans weren’t sure if it was a draw or not, so well done there. I understand the cage’s purpose, but the cage turned this into a boring uninspiring hardcore match. And some weird Riot Squard booking where Van Hammer got involved. I mean the hell? Should have been a lot better than it was.

A Riot Squad member handcuffs the Flock to the cage and then beats up Raven. And it’s Mortis! Mortis unmasks, which is a first. He is angry because Raven didn’t let him into the Flock. He copies the Tommy Dreamer chairshot from ECW and Raven sells it beautifully. Fans don’t know what to make of all of this. Apparently he has always been one of the “fans” that’s attacked Raven. This led to a weird match with a billion Mortis’s at the Great American Bash though.

Vinnie Mac cam!

We get some storyline about Giant and Sting. It’s pretty non-sensical, which I will get to.

Eddy Guerrero vs. The Ultimo Dragon

I believe if Dragon wins this match, Chavo Guerrero Jr. is freed from Eddy Guerrero.

Where was the Dragon in that Cruiserweight Battle Royal?

Shame Eddy Guerrero wasn’t all there personally at this point. He’s another who would have been the best heel in the business at this point. Of course Guerrero would redeem himself years later.

Pretty cool test of strength sequence from both.

Schiavone actually brings up a good reason why Eddy and Ultimo weren’t in the Battle Royal earlier. That they both were involved in this family issue and it mattered so much to both that they wanted to be 100%. I’m fine with that.

The crowd is dead for this. The Ultimo Dragon sadly was just a guy at this point. The thing is the heat is with Chavo in this storyline.

The fans come alive as a fat white guy takes his shirt off in the crowd.

Pretty cool inverted airplane backbreaker from Ultimo there.

Pretty cool reversal from Eddie. Dragon had him in the Dragon Sleeper, but Eddy flipped over and locked The Dragon his own move.

Eddy Guerrero pins the Ultimo Dragon in 11:09. Eddy holds the ropes on the Dragon Sleeper, and Chavo kicks his hand off. Dragon though accidentally spin kicks Chavo off the apron. Eddy nails Dragon with a suplex and the Frog Splash for the win. Chavo then beats the crap out of the Ultimo Dragon because he lost. It’s great character development for Chavo, as this was the moment that he snapped and he got over. Match was pretty disappointing considering who was involved. But it was decent enough.

Vince McMahon locker room! I mean seriously. Why not throw up one for Stone Cold while you are at it.

WCW US Championship
Goldberg© vs. Saturn

Saturn lost to Goldberg last month, and is out to prove himself…WITHOUT the Flock.

Saturn with a nice dropkick off the apron and Goldberg crashes into the guardrail. Maybe Saturn will become the one in 87-1!

Springboard dropkick off a chair by Saturn. And we get a weird taunt from Saturn. Weird because he was supposed to be turning face.

Goldberg retains in 7:01. Saturn goes for another springboard but Goldberg spears him in midair! Jackhammer ends it. Pretty entertaining Goldberg squash! Not bad at all! I wonder if this was Goldberg’s best match at this point.

Pretty awesome Raven Great American Bash promo.

Eric Bischoff vs. Vince McMahon

I covered the storyline for this in the background info. It’s a waste of time, but eventually Bischoff has Vince counted out because Vince obviously didn’t show up. I hope the lawsuit was worth it. I wonder if Michael Buffer was ever embarrassed doing this stuff for WCW.

Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage

Story here: Savage finally left the NWO for good. This happened because he beat Sting for the WCW Title at Spring Stampede, but Hollywood Hogan won it from him the next day with surprising help from Bret. There’s a lot of who’s side is who on and stuff, but this is the precursor to the Black and White vs. Wolfpac stuff.

Roddy Piper is the referee. I don’t really know why to be honest.

Savage actually still has NWO music. So he didn’t really leave. He just would transition to the Wolfpac.

Buffer actually announces Savage is wearing Red and Black of the Wolfpac. So I don’t know where the transition happens, but the Outsiders are in the main event.

Bret trying to smash Savage with the steel steps seemed so un-Bret Hart like.

We get some fighting in the crowd action.

Overall you can just see the passion gone from Bret Hart. He’s just going through the motions here.

Also, Bret Hart doesn’t fit as a heel here. The only time being a heel worked for him was the Pro-Canada deal. That only worked because he really believed a lot of the things he was saying.

Sharpshooter…but here comes Miss Elizabeth!

Savage reverses the Sharpshooter into his own…which seems odd.

Liz gets in and shoves Piper.

For some reason Bret nails Piper in the back of the head with brass knuckles. Ok?

Hollywood Hogan is here! He trips up Savage and slams his leg in the ringpost.

Bret Hart makes Savage submit in 16:38. Sharpshooter wins it. I guess Bret is part of NWO Hollywood now? The motivations don’t make a lot of sense for anyone to be fair. Bret wanted a title shot in all this. Match was decent. It was clear Bret didn’t care and Savage was past his prime as a worker here. Also, on Nitro Piper reversed this decision, for whatever that’s worth.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Outsiders © vs. Sting and Giant

Story here: Giant joined the NWO on Nitro and offered a shirt to Sting. No idea why this match is still happening…but it is. You’d think Sting would back out.

I THINK based on watching that Nash and Hall are Wolfpac at this point. Nash and Hall come out in Red and Black, so tells you how much I knew about the story.

Scott Hall seems to stumble on his way out. They come down with Dusty Rhodes and it looks like they are holding Hall up, which is embarrassing. He seems fine once he hits the ring though.

Hall with a “yeah, we missed you too”. Seems like a WWF reference to me.

Survey time!

Hey at least Sting is in the main event!

I can’t think of why Sting would still team with Giant now that he’s NWO. Whatever.

Scott Hall makes fun of Giant. Pretty smart booking that will be unveiled later.

Kevin Nash gets a huge pop when tagged in.

Fans are behind the Wolfpac in general. “Let’s go Wolfpac” chants.

Sting terrible takes a big boot. I was once told by a friend of mine that it was okay that Hogan beat Sting at Starrcade because Sting was suddenly a shell of his former self. I don’t know if I believe that, but I don’t remember a lot of great Sting 1998 matches.

Wolfpac now use heel tactics on Sting (abdominal stretch, partner grabs the arm). How confusing.

Wrestling in 1998 would be a lot less embarrassing if everyone didn’t point to their dick every 2 minutes.

Giant goes for a top rope splash…but misses.

Giant and Sting win the title when Giant pins Nash in 14:46. Nash goes to jackknife Giant, but Hall nails Nash with the title belt! Hall turns! Sting is shocked as well, although I mean, I have no idea what outcome here would have made Sting happy. Giant wants Sting to join the NWO as the PPV comes to a close. Match was pretty decent and well booked too. Hall and Giant never go at it which is smart booking here. Sure, everyone’s motivations were all screwed up (for the last time, why would Sting want to be in this match?) but at least we had a direction here. It led to Sting joining the Wolfpac.

Weird PPV as the usual awesome undercard actually wasn’t awesome at all. It wasn’t even good. But I have to give some credit to Slamboree 1998. Chavo Guerrero Jr., Mortis/Kanyon, Saturn, and especially Chris Jericho show some promise with storylines here. Chris Jericho steals the show and gives Slamboree a boost by himself with the Malenko-Jericho angle going off as well as it did. The main events were decent, which is better than the usual WCW bad. We could have done without the Bischoff-Vince thing for sure.

Too much silliness and not enough good stuff to get it into B range. But not all bad either.

Just listen to that pop for Dean Malenko!

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Wrestlepalooza ’98

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Wrestlepalooza ‘98
May 3, 1998
Marietta, GA
Reviewed on January 15, 2015

Bi-monthly PPVs for ECW?!

Yes (well almost, they’d get 4 this year). Whether or not ECW was making money at this point there was no doubt it was leaving its mark on pro wrestling. And now they’ve established the one PPV every two months schedule. Things honestly were looking up for ECW at this point, but they faced a big problem.

ECW wasn’t that special anymore.

WWF Attitude was in full swing. At one time ECW was the edgy underground best kept secret in wrestling. Now, the WWF is doing the same thing with bigger stars and higher production values. Of course, at first this would probably only mean good things for ECW. The wrestling business booming only meant good thing for all wrestling promotions in the United States. And ECW did prosper a little bit because of it. But once the WWF and WCW really raided their stars, they were dead in the water.

Still, May 1998 was an exciting time for ECW. Wrestling was booming. ECW itself had been on PPV for 11 months now. They have some marketable and recognizable stars. Let’s see if the 5th ECW PPV can improve upon the last few, and if Paul E. can make a real run at the big two.

The Card

The Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido and Tracey Smothers) vs. The BWO (Super Nova and The Blue Meanie)

Meanie and Nova are said to weigh over a combined 600 pounds. Just how big IS Meanie?

“WHERE’S MY PIZZA! WHERE’S MY PIZZA!”

One thing I first saw in ECW were unique combo moves. For example, Nova bulldogs Nova and legdrops Smothers at the same time.

Tommy Rich stops the match and challenges the BWO to a dance contest. Smothers gets booed. Meanie is cheered. The referee even does some dancing…and Smothers attacks Meanie from behind. Fun, and good heat from Smothers there.

For some reason THE REFEREE slams Smothers and Guido, and even tries to pin Guido with Meanie making the two count. Fun I guess, but what the hell sense did that make?

Some obvious spot calling with Nova backdropping Guido over the top rope.

Screwed up double corner running attack there. No idea who that was on though.

Another timing misstep, as Nova almost attacks Guido too early.

The BWO wins when Nova pins Guido in 9:27. Nova hits the Novacane (One Shot And You Feel Nothing!) for the win. Novacane is a Flatliner. A fun opener, although it died down after all the silly spots earlier on. Still, it did its job and got the crowd going…as if the ECW needed to get going.

Mikey Whipwreck vs. Justin Credible

This feud had been going on since November to Remember, where I wondered why Mikey of all people was ending Credible’s undefeated streak. Mikey would actually beat Credible again, but Credible would injure Mikey in return. I think this is intended to be the blowoff.

Whipwreck’s in there like a house of fire!

Pretty awesome guardrail bump from Mikey there. He was going for a Russian Legsweep off the apron.

Awesome story from Joey Styles here: Steve Austin (current WWF Champ) came to ECW years ago and got pinned by Whipwreck (true). They say Austin learned the Stunner from Whipwreck! Of course Joey mentions Credible’s finisher is a corkscrew Tombstone…obviously referencing The Undertaker.

Jason puts Mikey on a table and Credible climbs the railing to jump, but Mikey fights out. He then throws a chair at Credible but misses mostly…and actually HITS a fan. Where’s the lawsuit there? Suplex off the railing through the table was a nice spot though. Even if the set up looked terrible.

Credible with the HBK corner flip.

Credible and Whipwreck mess up a sequence that leads to a Whippersnapper, but we get a 2nd one anyway.

Whippersnapper to Chasity off the top!

Justin Credible pins Mikey Whipwreck in 9:54. Poorly done That’s Incredible on a chair ends it. Really had a lot of screwed up spots toward the end. I don’t think it was horrible, but this wasn’t good either. Not sure this was the type of win to further get Credible over, but at least he won this time.

Axl Rotten promo. He’s not as bad as you’d think.

ECW World Tag Team Championship
Lance Storm and Chris Candido© vs. The Chair Swingin’ Freaks (Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten)

The story here is that Candido and Storm do not like one another. I do remember this led to the RVD and Sabu tag title run which had a well booked setup. I’ll write about it after the match.

Anyway, at Living Dangerously he had that crazy Dream Partner tag match where Storm picked Sunny. So this is an extension of that.

Some funny things from Candido: he comes out with Storm but then goes back and demands his own entrance. Then he demands the team be announced with his name first. Good stuff.

Candido: “I’m a fighting champion…and Lance is here too!”

Rotten and Candido with some chain wrestling. Styles says Rotten is the most underrated wrestler in ECW and that he’s not a chair swinging freak. This match is going to suck is we get 10 minutes of Axl Rotten wrestling, I’m just saying…

Can’t lie…this Mahoney and Rotten wrestling match isn’t that bad! Nice swinging senton from Axl as well.

Candido with a handing vertical suplex to Axl…and crowd responds with a “You Took Steroids” chant. Sure it wasn’t the Bodydonna regimen?

Sunny randomly runs in for some reason. Storm saves her from Mahoney, furthering the tension between the champs.

Candido and Storm retain the title in 12:04. Storm hits Mahoney with a springboard dropkick, but only gets two as Candido hits him a chair. Candido then pins Mahoney himself for the win. Ending seemed out of nowhere and got no reaction. While I enjoyed the match at the outset, it got really boring really fast. No one wants to see Mahoney and Rotten not brawl afterall. Not good at all here.

Storm and Candido brawl down the aisle. This would lead to another Dream Partner tag match, where Candido would pick Sabu and Storm would pick RVD as they were also not getting along (we will see why later). Throughout that match, RVD and Sabu got on the same page and Storm and Candido were pissed about it, thus working together and challenging Sabu and RVD with the belts on the line. Oddly enough Storm missed that show (not sure if it’s kayfabe or not actually), and it was Shane Douglas and Candido defending against RVD and Sabu. RVD and Sabu won the belts there. This led to the Triple Threat vs. Taz, RVD and Sabu match all the way in November.

Anyway, three subpar matches so far. Not a good start here.

Legends segment here. Junkyard Dog makes one of his last appearances before his death. We also get Dirty Dick Slater, The Masked Superstar and Bob Armstrong. Interesting that ECW fans had such an appreciative respect for legends. It’s a very old school NWA like thing.

We get ECW World Champ Shane Douglas next. The elbow injury was legit of course, as it would cost him time over the summer as he held the title over a year before dropping it to Taz in January.

Douglas runs down the WWF, of course, and takes shots at HBK. He specifically refers to the IC title incident where HBK handed Douglas the belt after his Marine attack. He then runs down Flair of course. Not surprisingly, HBK and Flair don’t care for Douglas.

Here comes Taz! Of course, back in July Taz had won the TV title from Douglas in 3 minutes. Now Taz wants Douglas’ World Title.

Taz wants Douglas to hand the title to him. They go at it, and Taz makes Douglas tap immediately. Good thing he didn’t put the belt on the line immediately. Douglas’ protector, Bam Bam Bigelow attacks Taz. Taz gets carried out by security and busts a car window in the process. Like Heyman can afford that…

I will say this is a TV angle and waste of time on the PPV. Why are we doing this?

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. New Jack

What a random idea for a match. I have no clue if there was a story here or what.

There’s a Godzilla action figure balls shot in this match. That should probably say it all.

New Jack comes off a balcony with a guitar, but barely hits Bigelow and it looked terrible. Like this whole match.

Bam Bam Bigelow pins New Jack in 8:43. Bigelow gets up first from the balcony jump and carries New Jack back to the ring. Terrible Greetings From Asbury Park (didn’t remotely hit) and it’s over. Horrible all around. A weak brawl leads to the weak guitar balcony spot, then another minute to carry New Jack back to the ring. Who thought any of that was a good idea?

The Dudley Boyz vs. The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer

Story here: 3D broke Sandman’s neck. Revenge time.

Sandman interrupts Gertner. That’s kind of a shame.

The first spot of the match is botched, as Sandman and Dreamer try to double clothesline Big Dick Dudley over the top and fail horribly.

Sandman with a crazy guillotine legdrop on two chairs on the Dudleyz heads on the railing.

Sandman takes a bump on the railing inside the ring, and sells the neck injury. And the match slows to a crawl as he gets a stretcher ride.

We have a pretty terrible double team of Dreamer going on. This match just died after the Sandman stretcher job.

Dudleyz with a con-chair-to…but they obviously don’t hit Dreamer’s head! Man this is bad. Fans let them know it too.

Spike Dudley is here! For some reason the ref counts a pin by Spike on the Dudleyz. Whatever.

Pretty awesome Tree of Woe spot by Spike, dropkicking a chair in D-Von’s face after running off Dreamer AND Bubba.

The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer win via double pin in 11:19. Sandman comes back and beats the crap out of all the Dudleyz. Double DDT for the win. I liked the ending, but the match was the shits. That’s two awful matches in a row. This story would lead to the breaking of the neck of Beulah.

ECW Television Championship
Rob Van Dam© vs. Sabu

Originally this was TV Champ Bigelow vs. Sabu, but RVD upset Bam Bam in the “warm-up” match to win the title. RVD and Sabu were having their issues before, so now they have to fight in a TV title match it’s only gotten worse.

Side story: Bill Alfonso has referee Jeff Jones in his pocket. Alfonso manages both though.

RVD and Sabu start with an awesome wrestling sequence where each one avoids the other’s chain initiation (like Sabu avoiding the RVD monkey flip).

RVD is on the mic here. He says that he and Sabu really have a plan. RVD shoves Jeff Jones into the corner and calls for Air Sabu, but Sabu turns on RVD and kicks RVD in the face. The hell was that?

RVD messes up the surfboard as Sabu falls all the way over.

Sabu tries to drive RVD through a table, but RVD moves out of the way. Sabu still tries to launch himself at RVD anyway and uses the table as a springboard. Match is picking up a bit.

Great chair throw from Sabu that knocks RVD from the top rope to the floor.

There’s some good booking here where Alfonso refuses to help RVD and Sabu with their spots. He points out he’s gonna be a winner anyway you look at it. That’s a good point actually.

RVD with the springboard back kick that sends Sabu to the floor. He follows up with a beautiful somersault over the top rope.

Nice moonsault from Sabu where he springs off the top with his legs.

Joey says “These two are friends?!” Well, the storyline says apparently not.

Sabu goes for his crazy springboard DDT through a table, but he doesn’t get it good and the table doesn’t break.

This has turned into a spot-rest-spot match.

At least the spots are pretty cool. Springboard hurricanrana from the railing to the floor by Sabu!

Weak Van Daminator there. Sabu kicks out fortunately.

Sabu survives the not quite yet five star frog splash.

Sabu brings a table into the ring, and by not fault of his own one of the legs break. It hurts the momentum of a pretty good second half of the match there.

Bad leaping side kick and Sabu “lands” on the table. Match is falling apart here.

The frog splash through Sabu and the table WAS awesome though!

Pretty awesome springboard knee to the face from Sabu. That almost got three.

Rob Van Dam retains via time limit draw in 30:00. RVD and Sabu go for pins off moonsaults before the bell rings out of nowhere. There was a lot of ugly stuff in this…but some of the spots were pretty awesome and innovative (At least for the United States). I feel like one fan could call this a great four star match…another would say this was complete shit. I’m somewhere in the middle. I did really enjoy the 2nd half of the match. Even if the draw is bullshit, it did further the storyline that Bill Alfonso was trying to make peace here. This match DID help make RVD though, although the powers of Paul Heyman had something to do with that, as I’ll explain at the end. I’m not sure if this match is going to save this PPV from an F though.

We are reminded by Shane Douglas about his injuries. To be fair, the broken arm was legit and he would get surgery shortly. I don’t know about the others though.

We basically get a career montage of Douglas for some reason. I think if we bought the PPV we would know who he is. These are ways to kill time to be honest.

We get a decent serious Al Snow promo.16 years has led him to this moment! He says he’s winning because Head told him so!

ECW World Championship
Shane Douglas © vs. Al Snow

Story: Al Snow was Lance Storm’s second dream partner at Living Dangerously, and he beat Douglas there. So he got this match here. Douglas has told us about his injuries many times. I get he’s trying to prove ECW guys are the toughest…but it doesn’t quite work for the heel. I mean if Snow wins…he just beat a crippled champion, right?

The foamheads all over the arena is kinda crazy. This whole run extended Al’s career by about five years.

Shane Douglas sets up a bunch of chairs in the middle of the ring, but it only leads to Al Snow awkwardly falling on them. Weird.

Powerbomb on two of the chairs works though.

Al Snow gets a nice Asai Moonsault onto Bigelow and Candido, who had tried to interfere.

Shane Douglas retains when he pins Al Snow in 11:19. Al Snow botches a top rope sunset flip, and Douglas does the Bret Hart-Leo Burke finish (Summerslam ’92, Mania X) gets the pin on Al Snow. The entire locker room had come to ringside for some reason, and lift Snow and Douglas on their shoulders like this was the five star classic to end all five star classics. This match is decent at best. It’s hardly main event caliber. And worst yet, the story involved painted Douglas as some courageous babyface (again…although he actually was at November to Remember). Snow of course was headed to the WWF, and promptly feuded with Too Much. I’m that made ECW look great.

Anyway, yikes. That’s really all that can be said. This PPV is pretty bad. There’s only one match that really could flirt in the good territory, and that’s RVD vs. Sabu. Everything else ranges from decent to awful. This clearly below previous ECW PPV standards.

Well there is some fun at least in the beginning. Also, watching this show I do understand the direction the characters are going in, and there are several good storylines that are pushed here. RVD-Sabu, Candido-Storm, Taz-Douglas all moved forward in their feuds.

Sabu-RVD had half a very good match, so there is that. Honestly for its time it probably was considered great, finish and all.

I think that’s enough to get past the F. At least I know what’s going on, where it’s going, and the logic of most things. The right people went over. All that stuff does matter.

By the way, I watched ECW Hardcore TV at the time, and listening to Paul E. I would have thought RVD-Sabu and Douglas-Snow were the best two matches in wrestling history. That man really was a genius.

ECW needs to step up its game if it wants to compete even remotely with the WWF and WCW.

Final Grade: D

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania XIV

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WWE Wrestlemania XIV
March 29, 1998
Boston, MA
Reviewed on April 10, 2014

Background: The WWF was coming back!

After getting their ass handed to them in the Monday Night Wars, the WWF finally switched gears to an edgier product in late 1997. The results were almost immediate. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the hottest thing in either company. De-Generation X had made the NWO look old and dated. The media had gotten behind the WWF, especially with Mike Tyson slated to be at Wrestlemania. Tyson had bit Evander Holyfield’s ear off only seven months before.

This was a huge make or break show. If it was good…the WWF was probably in great shape in the future (which is how it worked out). If it sucked? WCW might have been able to hold on and end the WWF. It wasn’t likely it would suck though, as this was a well-built show with some good matches set up. The right guys were in the main event. New guys were ready to make an impact. It would be hard for the WWF to screw this up.

It’s worth noting that WWF Champion Shawn Michaels injured his back at the Royal Rumble. There was talk back and forth about whether he’d show up to even defend the title…but I think he always would have. I don’t believe The Undertaker taped fist story or any of that. I actually believe the account Shawn wrote in his book. He was a pain in the ass, threatened not to show up a lot, got his own dressing room, took No Way Out off and got pissed afterwards. I buy that.

Anyway, this is the PPV that set up the WWF taking back the ratings lead two weeks later.

The Card

15 Team Battle Royal: Winner gets a WWF World Tag Team Championship Match

We don’t see all the entrances…but we have a Los Boricuas team, Chainz and Bradshaw, two Nation teams, the Truth Commission, Flash Funk and Steve Blackman, the new Midnight Express, the Godwinns, the DOA, the Rock’N’Roll Express, Headbangers, Too Much and the Quebecers. Oh, and the Legion of Doom has returned! LOD 2000 is with Sunny! Gee, I wonder who wins this one.

To be fair, Sunny leading the return of the LOD would have been a great moment…if the LOD didn’t become a joke and Sunny didn’t fall apart. Ah well.

Fans are also very into LOD. So there is that as well.

Sunny and Cornette argue on the outside. There is practically no way this doesn’t come down to the New Midnight Express and LOD 2000.

Kurrgan and Barry Windham make appearances. Way too much going on.

Always thought it was weird that the Quebecers were so wasted in their 2nd WWF run.

Midnight Express, Godwinns, DOA and LOD left. Sounds about right.

DOA is thanks to the Godwinns. DOA come back in and take out the Godwinns. There is a feud I’m happy we never saw.

Godwinns attack LOD. They did feud in 1997, so it makes sense.

LOD 2000 wins in 8:19. They double clothesline the New Midnight Express out to win. This would set up one last New Age Outlaws vs. LOD match at Unforgiven, but LOD never regained the popularity they had in the late 80s/early 90s. Battle royal was just a way to get everyone on the card. Unless you thought Flash Funk and Steve Blackman or Chainz and Bradshaw were long time tag teams. Didn’t help that the winner was obvious from the beginning.

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship
Taka Michinoku© vs. Aguila

Aguila is the future Essa Rios.

This was the WWF trying to carve in their own high flying division, but it would never even remotely get close to the WCW Cruiserweight division…and WWF fans never really cared anyway.

Aguila gets the jobber introduction…which should tell you who’s going to win this one.

Really nice top rope moonsault to the outside from Aguila.

Aguila looks really good here to be fair. Nice spots. Springboard armdrag.

Aguila with an over the top corkscrew tope con hilo!

Taka Michinoku retains by pin in 5:47. Aguila comes up the top but Taka dropkicks him on the way down. Michinoku Driver gets the pin. Fun little match. Aguila was interesting as all of his high spots got a good reaction, but his stomps and chops looked really fake and uninspired. Also, the dirty secret of Taka Michinoku here: In this WWF run, if you saw one Taka match you’ve seen them all. While this is a fun little match, it isn’t even close to the level WCW was doing. WWF lost its chance when The Great Sasuke didn’t stick around.

The Rock with Gennifer Flowers. Hilarious interview. Amazing the difference between Rocky Maivia in 1997 and The Rock in 1998. Absolutely amazing.

WWF European Championship
Triple H© vs. Owen Hart

Story: This is an extension of the HBK-Bret Hart feud. HHH and Owen ended up feuding. Somehow Owen never beat HHH in this feud. Also, to keep Chyna from interfering, Sgt. Slaughter will be handcuffed to her. There was also an Owen Hart ankle injury in all this.

Owen starts by double leg tripping HHH. Owen was wrestling a really aggressive style here to be the Blackhart. Too bad it didn’t go anywhere.

Match is revolving around the ankle injury…which makes sense and is good psychology!

Sharpshooter got a huge reaction.

Triple H retains by pin in 11:27. Chyna helps HHH get to the ropes in the Sharpshooter…then tosses powder in Sgt. Slaughter’s eyes. Low blow to Owen then Pedigree. Good match here. Didn’t bury Owen as it looked like Owen had it won if it weren’t for Chyna. With that being said, this was the right decision as Owen Hart had no shot at being a main eventer in the WWF anymore (despite what people say about the Game gimmick after Owen died). Austin never wanted to work with him again, so that was that. They were clearly going with HHH.

Mixed Tag Match
TAFKA Goldust and Luna vs. Marc Mero and Sable

Story here: Fucking weird. Mero is jealous of Sable. Somehow Mero decided to use Goldust as his valet. Somehow Luna got involved cause Sable is the pretty girl everyone loves. Mero got angry at Goldust protecting Sable once. We still aren’t sure if Sable can rely on Mero. It’s a lot weird than this, but this is the basic story.

Sable kicks Goldust in the face, to the surprise of everyone.

The Goldust-Mero sequence is actually pretty solid. Fans don’t care though, they just want Sable.

Sable beats the crap out of Luna…and it looks damn good to be fair.

Nice TKO counter to the DDT from Goldust.

Mero busts out the Merosault…which is a 180 jump on the top into the moonsault. He hadn’t busted that out since the Wildman days.

Sable and Marc Mero win when Sable pinned Luna in 9:05 Sable hits a powerbomb and a TKO on Luna for the win. This match was really good…and I don’t remember it being good! I would have never guessed. Of course, I assume Sable here was why they brought in the Women’s title a few months later…since it seemed like Sable could wrestle.

We have Jeff Jarrett bringing Gennifer Flowers to the ring. Jarrett was in the IC title match only three years ago at Mania, interestingly enough. She says Jarrett great. No one cares.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
The Rock© vs. Ken Shamrock

Story: They actually went at it at the Rumble, but Rock got himself DQed. This match has the stip that if Rock Is DQed, he still loses the title. The Nation is out here, sans Faarooq. This was during that power struggle.

Shamrock just murderalizes Rock here.

Rock does get a People’s Elbow in…before it was called that.

Rock with a cringeworthy steel chair shot to Shamrock!

Rock taps out! Shamrock wins!

The Rock retains by reverse decision in 4:49. Shamrock snaps again! He keeps going for the Ankle Lock then takes out some referees. Faarooq turns on Rock here by not helping him. Rock gets carried away on a stretcher…and the ref reverses the decision. Shamrock attacks Rock again (Rock was hilariously holding up the title despite being carried away, funny stuff). While the finish is whatever (since surely this happens in other matches) it was pretty well done, and somehow Rock got more over despite getting killed.

WWF World Tag Team Championship: Dumpster Match
The New Age Outlaws© vs. Chainsaw Charlie and Cactus Jack

Story: This all began with the famous dumpster ride. They were on opposite sides of the No Way Out 8 Man tag as well.

This works like a Casket Match…just with a dumpster.

Foley actually tries his upside down Crack Smash off the apron but misses Road Dogg and hits the dumpster…and lands on his head. Jeez.

Russian Legsweep into the Dumpster. Foley is taking an ass kicking.

Billy Gunn and Cactus go flying through the dumpster lid from a ladder. Jeez.

Terry Funk takes a POWERBOMB into the dumpster.

Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie win the title in 10:00. They fight backstage, and eventually they get the Outlaws on a forklift and deposit them in a different dumpster (which would cause the title to be held up the next night). Not really a good match…it was pretty disjointed with the random Foley or Funk bump. Ending was strange too. A precursor to the Hardcore Title division for sure. While I said it wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad either.

Pete Rose comes out and cuts a heel promo on Boston, which is awesome. Finkel calls him a surefire future Hall of Famer…which is true for WWE! Kane’s feud with Rose begins here with a Tombstone!

The Undertaker vs. Kane

Story: Very similar to Bret vs. Owen in 1994, except with more death stuff and Paul Bearer. That being said, this was a well built story that led to this feud. Taker accidentally (or, as we were told later, purposely) killed his family, but Kane survived. Kane wants revenge. Paul Bearer was with Kane for the last 20 years. Taker refused to fight him. Kane locked him in a casket and burned it. And here we are. Kane also had beaten up everyone and was undefeated at this point. For the record, it’s funny that Taker refused to fight Kane…then fought him probably 500 times over the next 13 years…if not more.

Taker had that awesome “O Carmin Fortuna” entrance. First time he did this. Probably still the best one unless you take the Mania XX version.

This is the first time the Undertaker as the underdog story actually worked. Unless you took Giant Gonzales seriously. Watching Kane no-sell Taker punches is a bit odd, and was very odd at the time.

I think at the time the whole idea of Kane was that he was better than the Undertaker at everything (kayfabe wise). Bigger, stronger, more agility, etc. And actually, I would have bet at the time they thought Taker would last 4-5 more years and then Kane would be the new Undertaker. Never worked out that way.

Undertaker somehow climbs to Kane’s shoulders in one move…but then gets dropped head first. A weird sequence for both.

This is a really well booked match. Big time chokeslam by Kane. Kane has dominated this match.

Really long chinlock here. Kinda hurting what was a really good match so far.

Undertaker knocks Kane to the floor…but when he goes for the tope Kane slams him through the announcer’s table! What a spot!

Taker just kicks out of a Kane Tombstone! Barely!

Shocker as Kane kicks out of Taker’s Tombstone (a first, although Hogan got up from one once)!

Second Tombstone! Kane just kicks out again! Fans are stunned.

The Undertaker pinned Kane in 16:58. Third Tombstone…and Kane still kicks out, but does so a moment too late. What a well booked match. Even though Taker won, it still looks like Kane was the dominant brother. It took three tombstones at a time where one was automatic death. A very solid big man match…although that headlock was annoying. If you wanna know why I hate the Survivor Series 98 match between these two, just watch this match and see the difference. Kane also destroys Taker post-match. Kane lost the battle, but won the war.

WWF World Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Story: Austin won the Rumble and HBK was the champ. Mike Tyson was brought in to be the special enforcer and him and Austin had a famous altercation…and Tyson eventually joined HBK’s De-Generation X! The buildup was fantastic. You can tell Tyson was having a lot of fun (I bet Tyson would have been an awesome professional wrestler) with the whole thing. DX was the hottest thing in all of wrestling not named Stone Cold, and that includes the NWO.

Backstage story: HBK’s back was screwed up from the Casket Match in January. Of course, there were questions if he’d even make it to Mania and do the job for Stone Cold. Austin stated he was worried about that in his book…HBK said he was adamant about putting Austin over in his. And since HBK ended up doing it, hard not to side with his story.

Austin gets one of the biggest pops in history during his entrance. He was fucking over, that’s for sure.

HBK says “this is for you Earl” on camera, as referee Earl Hebner was in the hospital. Pretty classy for HBK there.

Even though it happened for HHH’s entrance, the live DX entrance is one of my favorites.

Something that is cool about this match: Neither Austin nor Michaels had someone who could match them attitude wise. Austin had finished with Owen Hart and a not main event ready Rock. HBK finished with Bret, Undertaker and Shamrock. It really added to this match. For every suck-it from Michaels there’s a middle finger from Austin.

Michaels still takes some bad ass bumps for someone with back problems.

A lot of outside brawling once HHH is ejected. Another thing about this match is HBK wasn’t the high flying HBK here…but instead a brawler. This is more 2002 Shawn than 1996 Shawn.

Austin busts out the old Stun Gun.

You can see Michaels tending to the back pretty much the whole match. It starts as just a hand on the back.

Michaels gets no lift whatsoever on his flying forearm. You can tell his back is fucked.

Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the title by pin in 20:01. HBK goes for Sweet Chin, but Austin ducks. Stunner is countered, then Austin hits the classic SCM block, spin around, Stunner sequence for the win. Mike Tyson makes the (fast) count. Whatever, great finish. Match itself wasn’t much to say in terms of spots…but it was still a bad ass back and forth match. Hard hitting, good brawling, good action. Tyson’s turn to Austin’s side is funny too. This of course gave Austin the title and launched the most successful WWF era ever.

The WWF needed a great Wrestlemania and it delivered. The only match that could be considered bad had a good moment at least (Tag Battle royal), and everything else ranged from decent o pretty fucking good. Taker vs. Kane elicits different opinions from a lot of people, but it was the perfect match to continue to get Kane over despite losing. In terms of action, this was a B+/A- PPV.

But then there is the historical aspect. So much of the midcard here was the future of the foundation of the WWF coming into their own. Hunter Hearst Helmsley was pretty much dead, here is Triple H. Rocky Maivia was firmly The Rock. Kane went from storyline to legit WWF Championship material. Cactus Jack took some sick bumps and became Austin’s first challenger. And of course, the Austin era began here.

And you’ve gotta give Shawn Michaels credit for the main event.

Final Grade: A

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews ECW Living Dangerously ’98

Living_Dangerously_1998

ECW Living Dangerously ‘98
March 1, 1998
Asbury Park, NJ
Reviewed on August 28, 2014

“ECW!”

“ECW!”

So, are we too late?

No one doubts that ECW revolutionized the business, but four PPVs in ECW was slowly growing but not nearly at the level of the big two. Unfortunately for ECW, that show on USA called RAW began to look quite similar. As most who experienced ECW would tell you, ECW peaked in 1995. It’s not to say that it wasn’t a solid show in in 1997 and 1998, but nothing was really something that blew you away anymore. Sure Sabu was nuts and Taz was a bad ass…but I mean Stone Cold was a bigger bad ass and Mick Foley just as insane.

Still, as wrestling was in the rise, it could only be a good thing for ECW (hindsight note: probably not true). Sure the show didn’t stick out as much…but it still was different overall.

The Card

ECW always would start like an Attitude RAW or Smackdown, with someone coming to the arena. In this case, it’s our pissed off TV Champ, Taz!

I believe this is the debut of the old school WCW ramp being in ECW.

The FBI vs. Jerry Lynn and Chris Chetti

The FBI’s Network dubbed music is pretty something. It’s originally the N-Trance remix of “Stayin’ Alive”.

This is when Chris Chetti was being pushed as the first Graduate of the House of Hardcore. He was pretty bland but had a solid heel turn in 1999 (he always had an awesome finish, the double springboard moonsault). Jerry Lynn was still a lower card guy here, he wouldn’t get made by RVD until a year later.

Guido with some good chicken-shit dancing there. It looked ridiculous.

Guido actually gives Chetti the Italian “FU” taunt while in an armbar. Good stuff early on.

Jerry Lynn goes airborne to the floor! Chetti follows up with a springboard double clothesline. Real fun stuff so far.

I never get why the whole distract the ref so the manager can attack thing happened in ECW. It’s no DQ in ECW!

Tracy Smothers clearly calls out a spot for Tommy Rich to get on the apron. I mean, Guido was the star of the team anyway.

Tracy Smothers kinda killed this match. Offense was pretty boring.

Jerry Lynn in to save it!

Well, maybe not, the FBI and Lynn botch some flapjack to I think what was supposed to be a double DDT.

Jerry Lynn and Chris Chetti win in 8:19 when Lynn pinned Smothers. Clusterfuck, then Rich runs in and accidentally nails Smothers with the flag. Lynn gets the pin after taking out Rich. Smothers shoves Rich afterwards. I forgot the payoff here, but it seems like the wrong team one unless the FBI was breaking up here. Still, a decent match overall with a fun beginning.

We see videos of W*ING Kanmura and Masato Tanaka, as they are to go at it. It makes the next deal confusing…even though Joey Styles asks if anyone has seen Kanmura.

Masato Tanaka vs. Doug Furnas

Lance Wright comes out with Doug Furnas…STILL pushing the WWF vs. ECW angle that should have ended for good at November to Remember with RVD vs. Dreamer. Also, Doug Furnas? Seriously? That’s who the WWF is bringing in?

Furnas was always a solid hand, even if he was one of the most boring wrestlers ever. I liked his long term partner Phil Lafon though.

Tanaka comes out with a FMW flag. ECW and FMW were kinda working together at this point.

Good powerslam from Furnas!

They work a really boring figure four spot.

Tornado DDT off the top is botched. Not sure what happened but Tanaka didn’t land right for it.

Tanaka runs into Furnas and falls. Horrible botches here. Furnas tries to save it by dropping Tanaka on his head a couple of times.

Furnas goes for some pins and Wright tells him not go for some pins to punish Tanaka.

They screw up again! Tanaka off the ropes and both men come to a standstill!

Masato Tanaka pinned Doug Furnas in 5:46. Tanaka finishes with a weak Roaring Elbow and the crowd seems surprised that’s the finish. Wright gets angry that Furnas lost and berates him because he was “nearly a WWF Legend” as Wright namedrops every WWF suit out there. Furnas doesn’t seem to care and he lays out Wright. Furnas puts an ECW shirt on and tells Wright to tell Vince to kiss his ass. Yeah like Doug Furnas has leverage there. Anyway, match was horrible. I didn’t know Masato Tanaka has a side to him that’s pretty terrible. Or Furnas. Not sure who’s fault it was.

Joey Styles tells us that Sandman vs. Sabu was taped earlier but PPV censors refuse to air it. Jason and Nicole Bass make Joey Styles play a tape of Tommy Dreamer showing up. Ok? Jason says Beulah left Dreamer.

Rob Van Dam vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

Scorpio was on the WWF payroll here, in-between his Flash Funk and JOB Squad days. Not sure if this was the return or if he came back to hype this at all.

RVD wears an awesome Louie Spicolli tribute shirt.

In a lot of ways RVD took Scorpio’s position on the card as dominating TV Champ. So in ECW history this is like a weird type of dream match. Joey is trying to hype it that way.

Mat wrestling is pretty slow to start. I think the problem isn’t the match, but that the fans were pretty bored from the last match.

I think there was a botch by RVD, but Scorpio made it look cool with a knee to the face. By the way, how did Vince screw up Scorpio the way he did? Guy had natural charisma.

Bridging sequence seems slow…only it ends in a really cool way with Scorpio flipping to his feet.

Match picks up on the outside. RVD misses a stage moonsault but lands on his feet.

Match isn’t really jelling and we get a “This match sucks” chant. Not sure why it’s all technical wrestling because that’s the wrong way to go with these two by far.

Scorpio Bomb! Time for this to pick up!

Nice moonsault from Scorpio!

Four Star Frog Splash! Hey, it wasn’t his finish yet.

Somersault legdrop! Nice moves, but this is just spot after spot now.

Split Legged Moonsault is the rich man’s version of Starship Pain.

Pretty crappy looking Van Daminator on the stage. I’m so disappointed in this match.

Scorpio with a piledriver on the stage/ramp whatever. Some randomly good stuff in this horribly disjointed match. Scorpio does a reverse Tombstone on the stage next.

In one of the stranger ref bumps, ref holds RVD back and Scorpio dropkicks him, leading to RVD landing on top of Scorpio. Top rope splash then misses…but hits the ref.

Wow! RVD mocks Scorpio then does a PERFECT 450 Splash…only Scorpio moves. What a shame! Would have been a great finish.

Scorpio barely makes his 450…but it’s Sabu!

Arabian Skullcrusher to Scorpio! Scorpio kicks out. Here comes The Sandman! He’s chasing Sabu!

I see where Kofi Kingston stole the Thunder in Paradise From.

Rob Van Dam pins Scorpio in 27:10. RVD rolls Scorpio up in a tight package off a hiptoss for the win. How underwhelming! Crazy as I’ve seen this match before and liked it, and it was known as the beginning of RVD’s “great worker” run. But uh…the match pretty much sucked. I’ll give it some credit though as there were some cool spots, like RVD’s 450 and awesome Split Legged Moonsault. There was a nice spin kick off the top in there as well. It was a long 27 minutes.

Scorpio attacks RVD after a handshake after RVD was being an arrogant jerk. Sabu comes back in to attack Scorpio. They are about to table Scorpio but Sandman makes the save. We get the worse looking “Frankensander” in the history of the business, and Sabu’s feet break the end of the table. That gets an “ECW!” chant. Yikes. Fans give Scorpio a nice ovation at the end though. Scorpio and Sandman share some beers.

We get a promo vid about Lance Storm and Chris Candido…and their issues which has a World Tag Team Title run in there…but also a Triple Threat storyline.

Hardcore Chair Swingin’ Freaks vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Spike Dudley and New Jack

Joel Gertner time!

Gertner is awesome. Here’s a gimmick you’ll never see on WWE TV.

I really wonder where he came up with these limericks.

Yeah I’m sure D-Von is 169 pounds. The ECW Super Cruiserweight Champion of the World! (His words, not mine!)

Balls Mahoney looks like a homeless Bam Bam Bigelow with hair.

Why are we getting armdrags by Axl Rotten. Joey Styles calls him the most underrated wrestler in ECW. Really now?

Spike and New Jack are no where to be seen. It’s 3 on 2 with the Dudleyz and Big Dick Dudley against Rotten and Mahoney. HERE COMES NEW JACK!

By the way, here is someone who might be the most underrated worker in ECW. New Jack. Seriously. Guy is one of the best garbage wrestlers ever and always had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

I have no idea but I’ve always been entertained by New Jack killing the Dudleyz. You know he did this for like 2 years straight and people loved it. Wait till we get to Heatwave 99!

Spike Dudley has shown up!

One of the craziest moments in ECW history here. The Dudleyz lie on tables and New Jack and Spike jump off a balcony that had to be at least 15 feet high! While of course things have topped that now, there was NOTHING like that on a wrestling PPV at that point. Even now it just looks deadly. I remember reading about it in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and it just seemed like the damnest thing.

We get a terrible Tornado DDT by Spike. Better than Tanaka’s earlier though.

New Jack and Spike Dudley win in 13:25. Spike and Jack double guitar shot the Dudleyz, then Spike drops Bubba with the Acid Drop. 187 Chair Splash later wins it. If you don’t like garbage wrestling this isn’t for you, but like the four way at N2R, this was just fun garbage with a ridiculous balcony dive. I enjoyed it. What can I say.

So many hype videos. This one of Justin Credible…getting beat up by Mikey Whipwreck? Really showcasing Credible injuring him, but it started odd. We then see the mean streak in Justin Credible leading up to the feud with Dreamer.

We got a porn star! Jenna Jameson in the house. We get her first interview with Justin Credible!

Credible tells her off because he says he has Beulah! That’s actually great build of a confident character right there.

Justin Credible vs. Tommy Dreamer

Now Jenna wants to interview Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer just outright kisses her. Sure Beulah loved that…

Actually storyline wise she probably wanted a piece of that.

Dreamer looks ready tonight. Great Tree of Woe chair dropkick.

Drop toe hold into a chair…but it was the back part of the seat. Never saw it done that way. Looked like it hurt.

Here comes Beulah! She fakes being with Credible then low blows Credible and spikes Jason with a DDT!

Nicole Bass ragdolls Beulah…AND WE GET A WARDROBE MALFUNCTION FROM BASS. FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Mikey Whipwreck is in. Whippersnapper to Bass.

Tommy Dreamer pins Justin Credible in 8:58. Dreamer finishes Credible with a Dreamer DDT. I actually enjoyed this one. It was nothing great, but it was putting Credible over by showing he could hang with Dreamer. Told a solid story. Then again Nicole Bass’s shirt dropping almost killed me right then and there.

We get history of how Bam Bam Bigelow went from losing the ECW World Title to Shane Douglas to turning on Taz and joining the Triple Threat.

ECW World Television Championship
Taz© vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Story here: Bam Bam looked to Taz to get revenge on Douglas…only to turn on him.

Sidenote: Bigelow’s hometown is Asbury Park, NJ. And the fans love him.

Taz just armdrags Bigelow over his head. Great display of power. Doing a good job of not making Taz the underdog, something that killed him in the WWF.

Taz LEVELS Bigelow with a clothesline. Didn’t expect that.

Taz suplexes Bigelow on his head into the crowd and a row of chairs! Pretty sick.

Bigelow kind of misses his big moonsault, but gets an arm and it seemed just passable. Joey Styles kinda saves it on commentary by being honest about it.

Taz drops Bigelow face first through a table, which was an odd spot to say the least.

We get a choke him out chant. So much for the Bigelow getting cheers deal. Weird.

Now Bam Bam chants. So confusing.

Match has slowed to a crawl with some weak brawling on the outside.

Taz gets them back into it by taking shots and demanding Bigelow bring it…when Bigelow falls down on a kick attempt.

Crazy ECW moment #2! Taz locks in the Tazmission! Bigelow taps but the ref didn’t see it…then Bigelow drops back…and they go flying through the ring!

Bam Bam Bigelow wins the TV title in 13:37 by pin. Bigelow pulls Taz from the hole and pins him for the title win! Admittedly a genius finish! Taz was on such a hot streak that he couldn’t lose and they let him lose in way where he would lose no credibility whatsoever! The fans absolutely popped when they saw the ring break as well. Match slowed a bit at the end, but it was pretty solid and SHOULD have main evented this show.

Paul E. yells at Joey Styles to buy him time, then demands he play the Sandman-Sabu Cane match that was taped earlier that censors said not to air on PPV! Styles argues, then calls for it.

Dueling Canes Match
Sabu vs. The Sandman

I covered this feud mostly for the November to Remember review. They were still going at it at this point.
One of the weirdest openings to a match, Sabu attacks Sandman…only somehow Sabu is so well disguised…that’s it’s actually Rob Van Dam? Then the real Sabu attacks Sandman. Somehow that was well done. Especially since Sabu and RVD look nothing alike other than body build.

Nice guardrail corner table splash from Sabu on Sandman.

Triple Jump Moonsault on the ramp! Nice, even if Sandman was trying to roll away.

Creative ref bump. Ref standing behind a propped table and Sabu hit it, nailing the ref.

RVD comes flying in and takes out Sandman as he was propping Sabu on a table, leading to the table breaking. RVD is still in Sabu costume. It’s so good that if I were just watching and not paying attention I’d think it was the real Sabu.

The Sabus take Sandman out with a double legdrop through the table on the ramp!

Sabu pins The Sandman in 9:21. Sabu rolls Sandman in for the pin. I liked this match! So much better than that crap at N2R ’97. The RVD as Sabu thing was pretty creative. The spots hit and seemed to be in a rhythm. And when Sabu and Sandman’s stuff hit, its good stuff. There are two issues with this though. One: why did the censors not want this aired? It wasn’t that crazy and the New Jack stuff was FAR worse. Two: after the opening minute there wasn’t a cane to be seen in a dueling canes match. Still, liked the match. Pretty good overall with a solid finish too.

Styles complains about not following the format and that we were supposed to have Al Snow vs. John Kronus. Oh no!

Dream Partner Tag Team Match
Chris Candido and ? vs. Lance Storm and ?

Funny note, the corner of the ring with the hole has caution tape around it. Sounds perfect for a five star classic! The hole is still clearly there.

Francine looks incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Shane Douglas is Candido’s partner of course.

There are tons of styrofoam heads in the crowd if anyone is wondering who Storm’s partner is going to be.

There’s a funny convo in the ring with Douglas and the ref…where it seems like Douglas is disgusted that there’s a hole in the ring. I don’t blame him!

Lance Storm’s partner is…Sunny!

Yeah, this is a horrid idea. Styles thinks its genius because Candido and Douglas won’t hit Sunny. So I guess Storm is okay with the handicap match then?

Sunny turns on Storm about 2 minutes in by hitting him with a cookie sheet. You know if you wonder why Lance Storm never got over as a top face it was probably because of this stupidity. Sunny hilariously falls into the hole at one point.

Lance Storm yells that he’s gonna give Candido head. Here comes Al Snow!

The rave party thing does look cool.

We have heads being thrown into the ring and the camera spinning around. I’m gonna be sick.

Al Snow throws Douglas into the hole.

Al Snow and Lance Storm win in 4:49 when Snow pinned Douglas. Snowplow for the win. Crowd pops huge for that horrific main event. The Al Snow stuff is cool though, so I will give them that. Not sure why this couldn’t be the semi-main though, as Bam Bam winning the TV title would have left the crowd happy. But I mean that was a farce of a match for a main event.

Strange show. Gotta give credit for ECW giving it everything it’s got though. It was definitely a big effort from everyone. And there was good stuff here! Credible vs. Dreamer was decent sans Nicole Bass. Bigelow vs. Taz had a great holy shit moment and a good story too. New Jack and Spike Dudley also provided a holy shit moment. Even Sabu vs. Sandman was fun. Hell if the opening matches were better and RVD vs. Scorpio wasn’t so disappointing and long (20% of the show!), this could have gotten the best grade for any ECW PPV so far. But it was so that’s that.

But then there’s the main event. How do you close the show on a match like that? I mean it was really a glorified angle, no? The whole thing was ludicrous. Lance Storm picking Sunny as a fake to just pick Al Snow even makes no sense. It’s a surprise partner. Just pick Al Snow! It didn’t help that Joey Styles was making him out to be a nobody though hyping up the match with Kronus though.

Good effort ECW, but too much disappointment, no really great matches and a shit main event doesn’t let me boost it into that B range.

Final Grade: C+