WrestleMania XIV

Legacy Review

WrestleMania XIV

March 29, 1998 from the FleetCenter in Boston

 

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

 

The Attitude Era is now in full swing. Most people say this show is the start of it, but I made my case why I think Wrestlemania 13 the year before is the true start and we're now getting into the full meat of it. On paper, considering the current roster, this is a pretty good looking card and the first Wrestlemania card in a while to really look like WRESTLEMANIA.

After a really good intro video highlighting the tradition of Wrestlemania, in contrast to WWF's current era of stars, there's no pyro to start and we jump right into intros for the first match.

#1 Contender's Tag Team Battle Royale- Most of the 15 participating teams are already at ringside. The Nation of Domination team of Faarooq and Kama Mustafa get their entrance right as the show starts. After that is the introduction of the "mystery team" in this match, the Legion of Doom in their new guise as LOD 2000 with much upgraded entrance gear, new hairstyles, and Sunny as their manager in an outfit that leaves very little to the imagination. I'm not complaining. They'd been holding Sunny back from managing for over a year because she always overshadowed the guys she managed, but I guess they figured LOD were popular enough that wouldn't be a problem. In contrast to their new gear Hawk has his old school facepaint on. This was a pretty big shock because last we saw LOD they were fighting with each other and everyone assumed they'd broken up. This is when one member is eliminated their partner is also out rules, but they're not adhered to very well, almost as if WCW was putting this match together. The winner gets a tag title shot at next month's PPV, Unforgiven: In Your House. The bell rings and the huge brawl is on. I'm not going to get into huge detail on this, it's a battle royale filled with jobbers. They do start eliminations quickly though, which I appreciate. One of the members of Los Boriquas seems to get hurt for real right at the start, so Savio Vega gets dumped early so he can help his partner to the back. Jim Cornette and Sunny jaw at each other. Barry Windham, who's not in the match, runs in and eliminates Chainz solely so his partner Bradshaw would also be eliminated. Why Bradshaw was partnering with Chainz in the first place, you've got me. One historical note: Brian Christopher is partnering with Scott Taylor on a major show for the first time. Taylor would later change his name to Scotty 2 Hotty and the team would become Attitude Era staple Too Cool. The final four teams are Skull and 8-Ball from the Disciples of Apocalypse, the Godwinns, the New Midnight Express (Bob Holly and Bart Gunn), and the LOD. The LOD and Godwinns renew their feud. Henry Godwinn eliminates one of the DOA guys. They run back in and dump Phineas, but at the same time Hawk eliminates Henry so they're gone no matter what. The Godwinns attack LOD with their buckets after. The Midnights take advantage and try to dump Hawk but nothing doing. Animal comes in with clotheslines and a powerslam, and the LOD dump both Midnights on either end of the ring to win. Not much going on here but the crowd is still nuts for the LOD no matter how bad they've gotten in the ring as they get late in their careers. 1/2*

We get footage of some of the various events that took place around Boston during Wrestlemania weekend. No Axxess, yet.

 

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship: Taka Michinoku (c) def Aguila in 5:57- Aguila is only 19 years old here and just starting his career out. He gets a jobber entrance which doesn't bode well for his chances. They go right into speed mode with Aguila hitting a Japanese armdrag, flying headscissors and spinning heel kick. Taka goes to the floor and Aguila baseball slides him. Asai moonsault! Apron suplex standoff. A Taka dropkick sends Aguila to the floor. Taka hits his springboard dive to the floor. Corner running elbow back in and basement dropkicks from Taka. Aguila backdrops Taka back to the floor. Taka goes up top. Aguila springboard armdrags him off. Some more lucha style armdrags sends Taka out again. Aguila corkscrew plancha! Back in Taka misses a corkscrew off the top. Aguila moonsault for 2. Hard elbow from Taka. They have a fight up on the ropes. Taka tries a splash but Aguila gets his knees up. Springboard hurricanrana from Aguila. Taka hits a missile dropkick. He goes for the Michinoku Driver. Aguila escapes, tries for a hurricanrana but Taka blocks it into a powerbomb. Taka misses a moonsault. Aguila magistral cradle for 2. He comes off the top but Taka dropkicks him in midair! Michinoku Driver! It's over. It's more of a spotfest than the usual Taka match, probably thanks to Aguila still being so young. Definitely more lucha than Japanese style. **3/4

Next up is a pretaped interview from the Rock focused on what he would do if he was president. Or "ruler". Telling homeless people he doesn't give a damn if they live in Maytag or Frigidaire boxes, just stay off the lawn of the Rock's palatial estate is my favorite answer. The less said about who's conducting the interview the better. Rock continues to improve each and every time out there.

 

WWF European Championship: Triple H (c) (w/Chyna) def Owen Hart in 11:29- When Owen Hart returned a month after the Montreal Screwjob it looked like he'd get a revenge feud with Shawn Michaels, but got shuffled down into a feud with his DX teammate Triple H instead. They've traded the European title back and forth a couple of times during the feud, with Trips winning it back on Raw a couple of weeks before this. HHH gets a live band playout for his entrance, but only an instrumental version of the DX theme, no lyrics. Because she's gotten so involved in matches there's an extra stipulation that Chyna will be handcuffed to longtime DX adversary Commissioner Slaughter. Needless to say Chyna is not happy with this arrangement, but Slaughter sneaks a cuff on her wrist while her back is turned. Owen jumps as soon as he hits the ring. Backdrop and clothesline. Mounted punches. Hurricanrana for 2. HHH gets a back elbow counter. Owen goes to the floor. Slaughter holds Chyna back. HHH comes off the apron but Owen runs him into the guardrail. Back in he goes for the Sharpshooter. HHH eye rakes out. Facebuster. Big clothesline from HHH and he stomps Owen down in the corner. Owen ducks a clothesline but HHH hits him with a high knee on the other side for 2. Suplex. Owen slugs back. HHH gets a boot up in the corner and hits a DDT for 2. Finally he kicks Owen's bad ankle that DX had hurt in prior weeks (commentary had been wondering why he hadn't gone for that already) and starts picking it apart. JR says Owen's cast on that ankle came off "literally this morning". Owen tries to fight back but HHH stays on it. After a corner whip reversal HHH gets a boot up again, but this time Owen anticipates it, slides under, and crotches HHH on the post. That'll give you a negative attitude. Owen missile dropkick for 2. Snap belly to belly for 2. Spinning heel kick for 2. HHH does a .5 Trips flip and Owen nails him with the enzuguri. But that hurt his ankle again. He slowly crawls over to cover and HHH just kicks out. HHH blocks a hurricanrana into a powerbomb for 2. Owen crossbody off the top for 2. HHH goes for the Pedigree. Owen counters and tries for the Sharpshooter again. HHH pushes out, which backs Owen into the corner, then he flops down on HHH's crotch. That'll give you a real negative attitude. Another slow cover for 2. HHH goes for the Pedigree again. They roll through a couple of counters and Owen gets the Sharpshooter hooked on! Chyna helps HHH with the last few inches to get to the ropes, handcuffs or no handcuffs. Owen pounds HHH down on the mat and gets a warning from the ref. Chyna throws powder in Slaughter's face! Low blow on Owen! Kick wham Pedigree! That gets the pin. Once the cuffs are off Chyna takes Slaughter out. Good match, but it felt slightly off in parts, mostly in the first half, and the whole hurt ankle angle never went anywhere. ***

 

Mixed Tag Team Mach: "Marvelous" Marc Mero and Sable def The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust and Luna in 9:11- This whole crazy feud is vintage Russo. Mero had turned heel because he got sick of Sable upstaging him and treated her like shit. He paired up with TAFKAG for reasons and they got along OK (JR's line was "the two most insecure men in the WWF"), but Luna and Sable didn't. Their constant fighting eventually made Mero and Goldust turn on each other. Basically everyone is a heel in this match except Sable, and the crowd is bonkers for her, wanting her to finally turn on Mero. Normal mixed tag rules here, men vs men and women vs women. The guys start as Goldust jumps before the bell. Mero counters with a flying headscissors and clothesline. Goldust scurries away to make a tag. Luna is all fired up....until Mero tags Sable in, then she runs. She goes all around the ring and tags right back out to huge boos. Mero backdrop on Goldust. He tags Sable in. Sable holds the top rope to get her leg up enough to give Goldust a sort of superkick. Luna still won't get in. Mero goes into boxing punches on Goldust. Goldust gets a boot up in the corner and a clothesline. He drops Mero over the top rope. Luna gets a shot in. Mero crossbody for 2. Midring collision. Tags. Sable takes Luna down! Ground and pound. Corner kicks. She pops Goldust on the apron. Sable clotheslines Luna and Luna sloooooowly with difficulty gets 360 and over. The guys go out and Mero whips Goldust into the steps. He goes for a splash back in but Goldust gets his knees up. Sable distracts the ref, inadvertently, and Mero takes advantage for a low blow. He goes for the TKO. Goldust counters into a DDT for 2. Mero escapes a Curtain Call attempt and hits a kneelift. He goes up top and whips out the old Mero moonsault (barely) for 2. Mero's offense had become much more grounded due to injuries, he hadn't done that in a long while. Goldust hits a back elbow. He goes up top but Mero falls into the ropes to crotch him. Mero hurricanrana! Luna gets a kick in from the apron. They try a double team but Goldust takes Luna out and Mero gets a roll up for 2. He barely gets Goldust up for the TKO and hits it. Luna breaks the pin up. Sable tags in and covers Goldust. Luna tries a splash off the top, but Sable moves and she splashes Goldust! Sable hits a powerbomb! Luna kicks out! Luna's pissed and attacks. Sable weathers the storm, gets Luna up, and hits the TKO! That gets the pin! The crowd goes nuts for that, but the long hoped for Sable breakup from Mero will have to wait for another night as they leave together after the win. That was way better than it had any right to be and the crowd was into it the whole time. Sable certainly looked green as hell in her first proper match, but she hit her big moves right when she had to. **1/2

Tennessee Lee (formerly Col. Robert Parker in WCW) is in the ring and brings out his client Jeff Jarrett, as well as special celebrity guest Gennifer Flowers. No idea who she is? Not surprised if you weren't old enough to live through it and remember. I'll just say she's one of Bill Clinton's women and leave it at that. She's the special guest ring announcer for this next match. That whole little bit was totally pointless but at least it was short.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Rock (c) (w/The Nation of Domination) def Ken Shamrock by DQ in 4:49- Shamrock has been trying to wrest the IC title from the Rock for months, and most of the time Rock Honky Tonk Manned his way out by getting DQ'd, so tonight the DQ rule has been waived and Rock can lose the title on a DQ. Shamrock does the Ultimate Warrior run down the aisle and it's on. Rock ducks an elbow and clothesline but eats a kick. 360 clothesline. Rock tries to walk but Shamrock chases him. Slugfest on the aisle. Rock gets a corner whip reversal back in. Shamrock pops out with clothesline. He goes ground and pound and sort of starts to snap but holds it in. Rock uses his tights to pull Shamrock to the floor. The Nation goons manage to stay out of it thanks to the DQ rule. Setup slam back in and Rock hits the still unnamed People's Elbow for 2. Shamrock uses momentum to toss Rock over the top. Clothesline on the floor. Shamrock gets a chair. Uh oh. The ref tries to take it away. Shamrock tosses the ref down! Rock gets the chair and whacks Shamrock with it right in the face! Cover for 2. Shamrock hits a back elbow and a sort of dropkick. Powerslam for 2. The ankle lock is on! Rock taps! Shamrock finally wins the title! After the bell the Nation guys try to jump but Shamrock belly to belly suplexes them all, even Mark Henry. The ankle lock is back on. Faarooq comes out. He starts to get in the ring, stops.....he flips Rock off and leaves him to die! Big story culmination there. A gaggle of refs finally get Shamrock off. Shamrock snaps and belly to bellys the plant indie wrestler refs and officials. While that's going on the Rock gets taken out on a stretcher. The real refs and officials come in. After a discussion, and Fink doing a very rare Lillian botch (think the mic fritzed), it's announced that the decision has been reversed and Rock wins by DQ! An enraged Shamrock charges up the aisle, dumps Rock off the stretcher, and tosses him around the band area before dropping the belt on him and leaving. As a general rule you want definitive finishes on the biggest show of the year, but I'll be damned if this doesn't work good. They knew Rock was finally starting to get real traction and wisely wanted to keep going with it. This is totally in character for him, and it kept in Shamrock's character as a wild loose canon that could barely control himself. The match was as good as could be with them having to rush it for all the postmatch stuff to fit in. **

 

Dumpster Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie def The New Age Outlaws (c) in 10:01- So what is a Dumpster Match? Well, it's exactly like a Casket Match except it's a dumpster instead of a casket, and the dumpster had two lids instead of one. This stip came about from the famous moment on Raw where the Outlaws tossed Jack and Funk off the stage in a dumpster, giving JR one of his greatest "THERE'S HUMAN BEINGS IN THERE GODDAMMIT" moments. As soon as Dogg's usual promo is over we're fighting on the floor. Jack runs Dogg into the dumpster then hits him with a running knee against it. Dogg fights being put inside. Jack whacks him with what I think is a cake pan. There's a whole kitchen set of baking pans down there. Jack sets up for a dive off the apron. Gunn uses a baseball slide to push Dogg out of the way and Jack crashes into the dumpster! Very well done. Funk gets backdropped from the ring into the dumpster! Dogg Russian leg sweeps Jack against the dumpster. Funk gets out. The heels smash the lids down on both Jack and Funk's heads. Repeatedly. Jack's in. Gunn rips Funk's shirt off and chops him. Funk is in. One lid is shut. Jack just stops the second one being closed. Mandible Claw on Dogg! And Gunn! Dogg gets dragged into the dumpster. Cookie sheet shots fly for everyone. They actually get in the ring for a second with both Jack and Funk hitting neckbreakers. Jack hits Gunn with the Cactus Elbow using a cookie sheet. Funk DDTs Dogg on a cookie sheet in the ring. Jack gets a ladder out from under the ring and sets it up inside. He climbs. Gunn climbs on the other side and they slug it out on the ladder. Dogg whacks Funk, who falls backward into the ladder, knocking it over and knocking both Jack and Gunn off it into the dumpster! Gunn powerbombs Funk into the dumpster. Jack is out and the Outlaws drag him all the way past the stage to the back. TV goes into some replays of the big ladder spot while they try to find a camera backstage. We're back to Gunn and Dogg knocking Jack around backstage with lots of noisy things falling. Jack comes back with chairshots to both heels. Double underhook DDT to Dogg on a wooden palette! A palette that's attached to a forklift. Jack tosses Gunn on top of Dogg while Funk hops on the controls and raises the palette up. Wait, there's a dumpster back here! Funk uses the forklift to dump Gunn and Dogg into it! Jack closes the lids and it's over! For good measure Funk blocks the lids from reopening with the palette. New champs! Very innovative and fun plunder brawl and a very clever finish. ***1/4

It would turn out that finish was too clever for its own good. The next night on Raw Jack and Funk were forced to relinquish the titles because they didn't put the Outlaws in the legal dumpster. The title change did stay on the books however. The same teams had a rematch in a steel cage later that night, won by the Outlaws for their second title win.

Next up is a long recap of the Undertaker/Kane saga. After months of teasing Kane made his big debut at Badd Blood in October and cost Taker the first Hell in a Cell match to Shawn Michaels. Kane repeatedly tried to get Taker to fight him but Taker steadfastly refused to fight his own brother. Around the first of the year Kane appeared to accept that and even indicated he might be back on Taker's side.....until he cost Taker his title match at the Royal Rumble, also against Shawn Michaels, then lit the casket Taker was in on fire. After Taker came back from the dead (again) he was finally ready to fight his own flesh and blood. They spent the rest of the time before WM throwing lightning bolts at each other. Over the top, but being Taker and Kane it worked.

Before the match Pete Rose comes out to be the special guest ring announcer. Yes, I'm sure you know what's coming. First Rose builds some heat up for himself by running down the Red Sox, who can't win a World Series, and throws out a lot of Billy Buckner jokes. Man, it's been nearly 20 damn years since the Curse was broken, and the Sox have won three more titles since then. It's almost hard to remember back to when the Curse was still a thing. Kane comes out, sees Rose, scoops him up and Tombstones him! The tradition begins. Afterward Taker gets his full druid special entrance.

 

The Undertaker def Kane (w/Paul Bearer) in 17:05- Taker and Kane go nose to nose in an iconic image. Taker gets the first shot. Kane slowly backs up but otherwise is unfazed. Kane gets a back elbow and they go back and forth in the corner. Short clothesline from Kane. Taker tries a crossbody but Kane catches him and drops him upside down in the corner. Taker's being manhandled in a way he never has before, even with all the superheavyweights he spent years wrestling. Corner whips with Taker absolutely flying into the buckles. Taker gets draped across the top rope and Kane hits a fistdrop off the top. The beatdown continues. Taker works his way up into an electric chair position but Kane drops him. They go outside and Taker gets dropped on the guardrail. Kane drops the steps on him. Bearer gets some cheap shots in. Kane suplexes Taker off the apron back in. Taker hits a clothesline out of the corner. Kane with a choke slam! He covers but pulls Taker up at 2, wanting to inflict more punishment. Taker fights out of a chinlock. The comeback is cut off with a Kane clothesline. Another chinlock. Taker slowly works up and drops Kane on the top rope. A big boot sends Kane off the apron but he lands on his feet. Taker goes for his over the top tope! Kane dodges and Taker CRASHES INTO THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! Savinovich down! Kane hits a clothesline off the top back in and covers for 2. Back and forth slugging. Taker scoops! Kane reverses! Tombstone! Taker kicks out! Taker punches finally start to stagger Kane. A clothesline puts Kane down for the first time all match. Scoop. Taker Tombstone! Kane kicks out! Huge legdrop from Taker. A second Tombstone! Kane BARELY gets a shoulder up again! Taker clothesline off the top rope. A THIRD Tombstone! Kane finally can't get back up and Taker wins! A pissed of Bearer throws a chair in after the bell. He gets in the ring. Taker sees him and down goes Bearer! Kane whacks Taker with the chair, Tombstones him on it, and leaves. This was a heavyweight fight for the ages. Two guys throwing the biggest haymakers, no one staying down for long, fantastic storytelling. Even without the postmatch angle Kane lost nothing in defeat as Taker had to almost literally murder him to keep him down for a 3 count. This is easily the first truly good match of the Streak. Taker goes to 7-0 at WM. ***1/2

 

WWF Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin def "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c) (w/Triple H and Chyna) in 20:08- Mike Tyson is the special guest enforcer for this match, and openly on the side of DX. Shawn is coming in with a legitimately hurt back from hitting it on the casket in his match at the Rumble and is just trying to gut through it before what's expected to be a long recovery. This is also the official finale for the greatest wrestling title belt ever made, the winged eagle, after almost exactly 10 years of service. The Attitude Era modified winged eagle will take over after this show. Full on Austin pop in Boston, while Shawn is not liked in Boston at all. Shawn gets a live play in of the DX theme for his entrance. Shawn dances around at the start trying to annoy Austin. Not sure how smart that is. Austin lets him know he's number one with both hands. Shawn ducks lockups and hits jabs. Austin charges and Shawn runs around the ring and back in. Austin nails him with a hard forearm followed by buckle shots. Shawn tries to get away again but Austin grabs his tights and we get the mandatory late '90 Shawn ass exposure. Austin backdrops Shawn over the top rope and down onto HHH! HHH attacks Austin from behind and runs him into the guardrail. That pisses ref Mike Chioda (working his first WM main event with Hebner in the hospital) off. He has a word with Fink, and Fink announces that HHH and Chyna are OUTTA HERE! While they're arguing Shawn hits a double ax handle off the apron. Austin takes HHH out as he's leaving! Shawn clotheslines him from behind. He grabs a cymbal from the band area and throws it on Austin. Austin gets whipped into the dumpster from the tag title match. They work their way back to the ring. Shawn comes off the top rope but Austin catches him. Shawn flip in the corner at 150 MPH! That was nuts. Inverted atomic drop from Austin. Austin hits his old WCW finisher, the stun gun, for 2. Shawn slips out of a Stunner attempt. Austin punches him off the apron and Shawn falls onto the main announce table. Vintage Austin elbows back in for 2. Shawn jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Shawn tries to post Austin's knee but Austin pulls him into the post. Shawn backdrops Austin over the guardrail into the crowd! Bell shot from Shawn! At this point it becomes clear how bad Shawn's back is bothering him. He's visibly fighting it and will continue to do so the rest of the match. He keeps Austin grounded back in to try to preserve his back for later in the match. After a snap mare Shawn really winces, cranks his back and shouts "Damn it!". Gut stomp and Shawn flips the crowd off. Austin takedown! He pummels Shawn! Shawn gets tossed over the top to the floor. He gets Austin down and this time successfully posts his knee, then starts picking it apart. Austin pushes Shawn into the corner and rolls him up for 2. Shawn gets back on the knee. Austin goes outside to try to get some space. Shawn baseball slides him into the announce table! Tyson throws Austin back in. Austin argues with Tyson about that and Shawn clips his knee. Figure four! Serious rope leverage from Shawn and he gets some near falls. Austin drags Shawn to the middle of the ring away from the ropes, a nice and smart reversal of what usually happens, and reverses it. Shawn lets go. Quick Austin punches. Post slingshot for 2. Shawn hooks on a sleeper. Austin backs him into the corner, but Chioda gets squashed in the mix and is down. Austin drops Shawn on the top turnbuckle. Corner mudhole stomp. Backdrop. Shawn hits the flying forearm. Kip up! Top rope elbow. The band tunes up. Austin ducks the superkick! Shawn escapes the Stunner again! Another superkick duck. Kick wham Stunner! Tyson comes in and counts 3! Austin wins the title! It was a fast count but whatever. During his celebration Austin offers Tyson an Austin 3:16 shirt and Tyson accepts. Shawn gets up and is not happy with Tyson. Tyson decks Shawn! There's a handful of matches you can point to in WWF/E history that are without question era changing matches. This is one of them. The match itself doesn't quite get up to great but Shawn did the best he could with the condition he was in. In the immortal words of JR, the Austin era has begun. ***3/4

Shawn would end up officially retiring after this match, losing over 4 years of his career to the back injury before returning for Summerslam 2002. Of course during that time he was able to fix himself emotionally and spiritually, so in the end it was probably a plus. He'd also still make semi-regular appearances on TV in other roles in the intervening time as well. Meanwhile, the following night on Raw Triple H would assume official leadership of DX while bringing in new members: the New Age Outlaws, and the returning Sean Waltman as X-Pac, formerly the 1-2-3 Kid in New Generation era WWF and NWO member Syxx in WCW.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's no single match that will blow you away or make any all time great WM matches lists, but there's consistent quality top to bottom from a period not generally known for in-ring quality. Add in the historical significance of the last two matches, and you've got a damn solid Wrestlemania.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B

Superbrawl VI

Legacy Review

Superbrawl VI

February 11, 1996 from the Bayfront Arena in St. Petersburg, FL

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

 

Tonight is a double steel cage double main event, with Randy Savage defending the World title against Ric Flair once again, and Hulk Hogan once again taking on the Giant. As you'd expect, the order those matches should be in and the one they are in are two completely different things.

Street Fight: The Nasty Boys def Public Enemy in 7:49- Apparently this is also falls count anywhere. PE had just come in from ECW and were immediately put in a hardcore brawl feud with the Nastys, the only thing these two teams are capable of doing halfway decently so (I might pass out from shock typing this) smart move by WCW. PE get cheers on their entrance and it's a 50/50 reaction at best for the Nastys, who are supposed to still be the faces here. Interesting. And we're nowhere near Philly to boot. As soon as everyone's in the ring the brawl is on. Knobbs is immediately tossed over the top rope. Grunge tries coming off the apron but Knobbs throws something in his face. Think it was soda, hard to tell because they were on a super wide hard camera shot. Rock's already bringing a table in. Sags intercepts him with a chair. Chairshots for everyone! Knobbs gets posted and set up on the table. Rock gets poised to come off the apron. Knobbs grabs him and slams him off the apron through the table! Sags gets a trash can. Dusty calls it plunder. Heenan says its his lunch pail. He also has no idea what plunder means. Sags wails away with trash can lid shots. He piledrivers Grunge through the trash can. Cover but Grunge gets a foot on the rope. Now Sags takes some lid shots. Knobbs and Rock go to the "merch area" way back on the floor. Knobbs suplexes Rock through a table! More chairshots as all four guys start fighting back there. Knobbs throws what looks like water toward Grunge's face but Grunge uses a trash can lid like a shield to block it! Nice. Sags gets bulldogged onto a chair. More chair and lid shots fly. Sags drops a table on Rock. Knobbs gets set up on a table again. Rock goes all the way up into Kota Ibushi territory. Senton off the arena wall! Knobbs dodges and Rock crashes through the table! Knobbs covers and gets the pin. Fun garbage match, but it went a bit too long as they were running out of stuff to do the last couple of minutes before the finish. ***

Mean Gene gets right into tonight's hotline shill: there's a rumor that two former WWF champions are on their way to WCW, and who it is would be a surprise even in "offices in the New York area". The first teases have begun.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd (c) (w/the Diamond Doll) def Diamond Dallas Page in 14:59- Somehow, this feud continues. They are putting on fairly quality matches though so I can't complain too much. Tonight's added stip is the rest of DDP's lottery winnings Kimberly's bingo winnings, $6.6 million, are on the line, as is Kimberly herself. Again. DDP comes out with roses that he tries to give to Kimberly. Badd jumps him from behind while he does. DDP gets whipped into the guardrail. He catches Badd coming back in. After some brawling Badd flips DDP back over the top back to the floor. Double ax handle off the apron. Slingshot legdrop back in for 2. DDP begs off and jaws with Kimberly. Reset lockup. Nice reversal sequence with Badd keeping the upper hand. Badd wins a backslide fight for 2. Small package for 2. Speed run and DDP nails Badd with a hot shot. Low blow elbow drop. Gutbuster. DDP wants a 10 from Kimberly. Not happening. Badd collapses on a whip attempt, still nursing his hurt ribs/groinal area. Another try and Badd gets a sunset flip. DDP counters. Badd counters the counter for 2. DDP stays on Badd's hurt ribs with stomps and gives Badd some aggressive arrogant slaps. Badd tries a hiptoss. DDP counters into a DDT! That was nice. But then he wastes time gloating and again demands a 10 from Kimberly. Kimberly gives him a 0! She waves the card in DDP's direction and he sells it, falling back into a Badd roll up for 2. Never give Kimberly anything to do other than stand there and look pretty. DDP hooks on a chinlock, climbs up the ropes to keep Badd from countering, then plays the rope leverage game with the ref and Kimberly trying to help Badd but just distracting the ref more. Badd gets up and does some more counters into a Gedo clutch for a long 2. DDP tries covers with tights holding but doesn't get anywhere. Sluggy comeback from Badd and he floors DDP. Double ax handle off the top rope. He returns the earlier favor by dropping an elbow in DDP's gut. Sunset flip off the top! DDP kicks out! Badd sit out powerbomb for 2. DDP maneuvers to the apron and snaps Badd over the top rope. Badd dodges in the corner and gets another roll up for 2. DDP gets an elbow up in the corner (with a great delayed sell from Badd) and a rope leverage cover for 2. He blocks a Badd flying headscissors attempt into a slam! Another great counter. DDP hooks on a weird sleeper with one arm on the back of Badd's head. Badd jawbreakers out and slaps on his own sleeper. DDP backs him into the corner. Another flying headscissors attempt is blocked again. But Badd learned from the first one, turns DDP over, and hits a tombstone! That gets the pin! Probably their best match yet as both guys continue to develop their strengths: Badd's athleticism (something we'd see a lot more of early in his WWF run), and DDP's match layouts and counterwrestling. Unsurprisingly Badd gives Kimberly the money. ***1/4

Speaking of Badd's WWF run, this would be his last PPV match for WCW. He was unhappy with the angle he was having to do with Kimberly and decided to pursue other opportunities. He'd drop the TV title to Lex Luger on his way out, and get laid out by DDP one last time, before making his WWF debut in March under his real name, Marc Mero.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting and "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) def Harlem Heat in 11:49- This is Heat's rematch after getting beat for the titles on Nitro in January. Sting and Luger have been doing this pretty decent "one guy is a face and one guy is a heel but we're still friends" story, but Luger's constant cheating is finally starting to wear on Sting going into this. The winner of this match has to defend the titles again later on in the night against the Road Warriors. Not sure why they're doing it this way but OK. The Roadies want to face Luger and Sting bad, so they've promised to make sure they keep the belts for later, making the outcome of this even more obvious. Sting and Booker start, which would be one hell of a singles match with both guys in their primes. Booker gets the first shots in. Sting reverses a corner whip and hits a clothesline. Headlock/headscissors counters end in a stalemate. Luger tags in with forearms. Booker gets a boot up in the corner and hits his own forearms. A Heat double back elbow sends Luger to the floor and he takes his time recovering. Sting hops down and talks him back in. Luger tags out to Sting and Sting doesn't seem so sure about it. Ray pounds him down. Sting hiptoss and dropkick. Ray does the ol' eye poke to kill his momentum. Nice tackle from Booker. Sting hits kicks and a faceplant. Luger gets back in and hits a kneelift for 2. Back suplex. Luger and Booker take turns missing elbow drops. Booker spinaroonie off his and he hits a heel kick! Luger goes champ in peril. Ray tags in to suck out any good this match might have had. Clothesline for 2. Luger gets a boot up in the corner and hits a horrible clothesline. Ray cuts the tag off. Atrocious powerbomb from Ray. Just fugly. After that he goes to the Nerve Pinch of Time Wasting +1. Thankfully Booker tags back in. He hits a scissors kick, but then wastes time gloating. He suckers Sting in and gets Luger back in the heel corner. Then they do the "ref didn't see the tag" spot. Sting doesn't give a damn and we're DONNYBROOKING. Stinger Splash on Booker. Sting gets tossed over the top rope. The LOD are out. Animal whacks Ray in the gut with a steel plate or something similar. Luger falls on top of him and gets the pin. LOD word kept. After the match Sting is happy, thinking Luger finally won clean. Man, does he ever figure things out the right way? The match was pretty decent when Sting and Booker were in, much less so with any other combinations. *1/2

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Konnan (c) def One Man Gang in 7:27- Konnan ended OMG's inexplicable one month reign on non-Nitro weekly TV a couple of weeks prior. Well, Konnan's reign is just as inexplicable but it was all politics, trying to keep him happy while he was bringing in lucha talent for the soon to happen cruiserweight division. Zero reaction for Konnan on his entrance, other than a few random guys at ringside chanting for him on camera, probably at the behest of the cameraman. I've caught WCW cameramen coaching parts of the crowd on more than one occasion. Konnan turns his back for no reason right after the bell like an idiot and OMG jumps him. Generic big man beatdown stuff follows. For some perspective, OMG's "peak", using the term very loosely, was 10 years ago in the mid '80s. Konnan flips over in the corner and hits a couple of basement dropkicks to try to chop the big man down. Horrible Konnan dropkick off the second rope. Almost as bad crossbody in the ropes and both guys slowly tumble out to the floor. And then Konnad (as Dusty calls him) caps off the trilogy of crap with a terrible dive out to the floor. OMG snaps Konnan over the top rope to take back over. He hits a legdrop and side suplex. Konnan tries to punch back. OMG headbutts him. The dull beatdown continues. Konnan hits a kicks to the knee and rapid fire strikes. He goes up top, then flips over in perfect position just asking for OMG to pick him up. Konnan uses that to hit a pretty ugly flying headscissors. More dropkicks until OMG "dodges" one, really Konnan telegraphed missing it a mile away. The 747 splash hits but OMG pulls Konnan up at 2. OMG goes up to the second rope. Konnan dodges before OMG even jumps but he goes anyway and splats on the mat. Konnan goes up top, hits some kind of terrible senton thingy, and gets the pin. A festival of crap. DUD

 

"I Respect You" Strap Match: "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan def "Flyin'" Brian Pillman in 1:36- You want crazy Brian Pillman? Here you go. This is born out of the Dungeon of Doom and Four Horsemen having issues with each other the last few weeks. Apparently this is an impromptu match. Tony quickly explains the rules: there's a strap, but to win you have to get your opponent to say "I respect you", like an I quit match. Sullivan is going full speed to the ring, no time wasted. Pillman charges in and attacks without ever putting the strap on. He whips Sullivan. As soon as Sullivan fights back Pillman corners the ref, takes the mic, drops the now legendary "I respect you, booker man!", turns around and leaves. Everyone is confused. Of course commentary ignores the "booker man" part. One story is Pillman wanted out of WCW, so he acted out on screen in his loose canon style until they couldn't take it anymore. And it finally worked as Bischoff fired him the next day. There's another story that Sullivan was in on this the whole time and they improvised the whole thing just the two of them, and no one but them two knew about it. The idea was to work a super-realistic angle on everyone, including Pillman pretending to want to be fired backstage, but it was so realistic when Pillman asked for his release WCW gave it to him for real. Personally I'm more inclined to believe the first version. NR

Sullivan stalls in the ring while the ref gets the strap set up. After a couple of minutes Arn Anderson comes out in street clothes. Sullivan whips him. Arn takes his shirt off, gets strapped up and ready to fight. In his golf shorts.

 

"The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan and Arn Anderson no-contest in 3:45- Quick Arn beatdown to start. He ties Sullivan up and tries to get him to quit. Sullivan gets an eye poke and strap to the crotch. He whips Arn around and tells him to "say it". Arn comes back and drops a knee right in Sullivan's crotch. He chokes and hangs Sullivan. Sullivan uses the strap to flip Arn over the top rope. Both guys are posted. When they get back in the ring Ric Flair comes out. He gets in between them and demands this stops. He gets the mic and cuts a promo for both main event matches tonight, saying Savage and Hogan are done. Arn and Sullivan agree to a cease fire. This would be the true start of the Alliance to End Hulkamania. The whole thing felt thrown together on the fly. I'm not rating any of it because something like this is impossible to say if it was good or bad because it's so freaking strange. It's easily one of the weirdest things you'll ever see make it on screen in a wrestling show. NR

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting & "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) and The Road Warriors double countout in 13:56- Luger slow walks his entrance and takes absolutely forever stalling, not wanting to get in there with the LOD, even after encouragement from Sting. After literally about 5 minutes of this things finally get going with Sting and Hawk. Hawk shoulderblock and dropkick. Sting takes a walk around the ring to recover and suckers Hawk in. Back in Hawk goes for his neckbreaker but it's blocked by Sting, I think. That was pretty ugly whatever the intention was. Afterwords they do some mat wrestling. Hawk?! Mat wrestling? Yup. He puts on a sort of STF, Sting gets to the ropes. Animal cranks Sting's arm. Luger tags in. Lots of caution before Luger gets the first blow. Animal big boot and powerslam for 2. Hawk hits a couple of corner clotheslines. Luger's tossed out and whipped into the guardrail. Sting helps him back in. Luger eye pokes Hawk and works him over a bit. Sting suplex for 2. Sting and Animal collide and Sting does that "accidental" fall onto the groin that he does every match. Hard to call that accidental. Luger wants in bad and fires away on Animal. Inverted atomic drop. Sting faceplants Animal and goes up top. Big splash, but Animal gets his knees up. Both sides tag. Hawk pounds on Luger. Tackle, legdrop and signature Hawk fistdrops. Hawk hooks on a sleeper. Luger quickly jawbreakers out. Tags. Stinger Splash on Animal. He goes for the Scorpion Death Lock but Hawk murders him with a clothesline. Hawk wraps Sting up in a body scissors. A Sting sunset flip is countered. Sting tries to roll Hawk up. Hawk again kills him with a clothesline. Animal gives Sting a neck crank. Luger tries to come in. Hawk cuts him off. Violently. Sting hits a suplex. Animal pops right back up! Animal hits a suplex. Sting pops right back up! Animal dropkick. Everyone's in the pool and brawling again. The fight goes to the floor and both teams are counted out. The fight continues all the way back through the curtain. The match started out very rough but they worked themselves into something pretty decent by the end. Lame finish, but they didn't want to take the belts off Sting and Luger yet and the LOD almost never jobbed. **1/2

Ad for the second annual Uncensored, coming in March. The first Uncensored was one of the worst PPVs ever, surely the second one can't be as bad, right? After that they do the classic bit where Savage interrupts Elizabeth before she can talk.

 

Steel Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Woman) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) (w/Miss Elizabeth) in 18:52- Flair stalls getting in the cage to psych Savage out. He takes a mic and gives Elizabeth one last chance to switch sides. Savage says no for her. More stalling riles Savage up even more. When Flair finally gets in Savage is all over him. While they fight in one corner the ref takes his sweet time closing and locking the door on the opposite end. Flair snap mare/kneedrop combo. Savage is run into the cage and falls in the ropes upside down. Flair decks the ref! And stomps on him! Not sure what that was about. Savage gets a backslide but the ref is still down. Savage backdrop. The ref is back up. Toughest ref in the history of wrestling, what an amazing recovery. Savage hits clotheslines for 2 and pounds Flair some more. He goes for a cage shot but Flair pushes out and Savage FLIES into the cage! Flair back elbow for 2. More chops. Flair goes up top and of course gets slammed off. Savage hooks on a figure four! He gets a couple of near falls out of it as Flair fights. Flair grabs a rope but there's no rope breaks. Finally Savage lets go frustrated he couldn't put Flair away, and stomps Flair right in the face! Straight right from Savage for a long 2. Setup slam. Savage climbs all the way to the top of the cage! Flair catches him coming down! Delayed suplex from Flair, still selling the knee afterward. Slow cover for 2 and Flair tries more covers after. Savage goes into the cage again. Man, Savage has been selling the hell out of these cage shots. Fantastic work. Flair hooks on the figure four! He gets a bit of extra rope leverage while Savage about tears the ref's shirt off fighting it. Savage grabs the ropes, then grabs the cage. I guess that's good for a break because the ref physically forces Flair to break the hold. Flair goes for the figure four again. Savage rolls him up for 2. They do their usual chops/jabs exchange. Flair's run into the cage! Savage gives him the cheese grater. More cage shots and Flair is bleeding. Savage pounds the cut. Flair inverted atomic drop counter. Flair Flop! Flair tries to climb up. Savage grabs him and almost pulls his trunks completely off! Flair falls and gets crotched on the rope. Savage covers for another long 2. Whatever idiot is working as timekeeper rings the bell. Two count, dummy. Savage chokes and Flair hits a low blow. Flair is fired up and attacks. Savage counters and Flair goes into the cage again. The door opens. After all that work the ref did on it earlier? He goes over to lock it again. The camera goes to a super wide shot because no one wants to get yelled at from Turner corporate for showing blood on their no blood show. Savage gets backdropped into the cage. Woman tries to throw powder in Savage's face but he ducks it. But it's just a distraction, as on the other side Elizabeth is giving Flair one of her shoes! Savage rolls Flair up with tights the same way he won their Wrestlemania 8 match. Flair kicks out, waffles Savage with Elizabeth's shoe, and covers for the pin and the title! Elizabeth has turned on Savage! All of Flair's years of work on her has finally paid off. It's officially world title win number 13 per WCW. Hogan comes out with a chair, gets pissed at Elizabeth, then runs all the heels off. Another fantastic Flair/Savage match. Much like their Great American Bash match they did a great job of making it look like a real fight as much as a wrestling match. It got run into the ground after, but this first turn by Elizabeth on Savage really was shocking. It's a new era. ****

 

Steel Cage Match: Hulk Hogan def The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan) in 15:04- Because Hogan had to main event. Unlike the last match this is WWF style escape rules because that's also what Hogan wanted. Hogan's got a bandage over one of his eyes from an attack by the Dungeon of Doom on Nitro. Hogan climbs into the cage the long way around to get in and start the match. He immediately eye rakes Giant and runs him into the cage. There's a small but vocal group of fans chanting "Hogan sucks". The first part of the match is the usual Hogan punchy/bitey/back rakey offense before he tries for a slam and fails. Completely predictable. Giant lets loose with clubbing blows. After a knucklelock he puts Hogan in the inevitable bear hug. Hogan bites out but Giant throws him into the cage. He finally goes for the hurt eye (even commentary was wondering him what was taking so long), ripping the bandage off. After a Giant slam Hogan dodges an elbow drop. He throws some punches and goes for another slam which also ends poorly. Giant's done the exact same corner whip and low kick three times already. Hogan takes more cage shots. Giant suplex. He tries to leave through the door but Hogan stops him. Backbreaker from Giant and the bear hug is on again. For a while. Finally Hogan fights out. Another Giant low kick. Goozle and choke slam. Hulk Up. Giant acts shocked. Please. Hogan runs Giant into the cage about a bazillion times with Giant getting kinda sorta busted open. Big boot. Legdrop. A second. A third. Hogan climbs. Giant is back up and follows. After a chopfest Hogan knocks him off back into the ring, barely gets himself over the top of the cage, and down to the floor for the most predictable win ever. The crowd was almost completely out of it, as much as any Hogan WCW match to date. Utter trash. DUD

As soon as Hogan hits the floor Sullivan whacks him with a chair. Hogan confiscates it. The entire Dungeon of Doom runs out and corner Hogan in the cage. Hogan, being Hogan, fights them all off. All eight of them. And they wonder why no one took the DOD seriously. As the DOD retreat their newest member, the LOCH NESS MONSTER (British wrestling legend Giant Haystacks), comes out while the Giant curiously leaves completely. The whole DOD hold Loch Ness back from getting in and the show ends with Hogan celebrating as usual. This whole segment was so terrible it almost defies description.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It started out good, fell off a cliff, recovered with a great Flair/Savage world title match, then suffered rapid unscheduled disassembly quicker than SpaceX's Starship rocket. The whole Pillman/Sullivan oddity in the middle is one of those extremely strange things that has to be seen once.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

No Way Out of Texas: In Your House

Legacy Review

No Way Out of Texas: In Your House

February 15, 1998 from the Compaq Center in Houston, TX

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

We're on the road to Wrestlemania 14. The No Way Out name is making its debut here, and after a year off would continue as the February PPV for nearly a decade. Minus the "of Texas" part of course. Even though it was being gradually retired the In Your House name was hitting a milestone tonight, this is the 20th In Your House show.

The big mystery tonight, because there has to be a mystery in this era, is who will replace the injured WWF Champion Shawn Michaels in the main event. Shawn hurt his back falling on the casket during his match with the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, hurt it bad, and WWF was just trying to get him to Wrestlemania. The main event has just recently been made an unsanctioned match so WWF can be out of any liability from what happens in it. I think it's safe to say at this point the house set is gone for good. The famous WWF Attitude shirt has also recently been released, the camera crew and quite a few fans are wearing it.

The Headbangers def "Marvelous" Marc Mero and The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust (w/Luna and Sable) in 13:53- Sable gets her usual pop which pisses off Mero. I really don't remember why Mero and Goldust are teaming up. Something to do with Mero trying to get advice from Goldust on how to dump a woman like Goldust did Marlena? Probably a "don't ask, it's Russo" situation. Goldust is now in his "Marilyndust" phase where he's ripping off Marilyn Manson's look. Luna and Sable have issues and keep trying to go at it, which is probably the whole reason for the teamup in the first place. Before the match starts Mero orders Sable to return to the locker room. Mero and, er, Mosh start. Thanks JR. I can never tell those two apart. Mero whips out the boxing jabs early. Mosh dodges in the corner, hits a reverse avalanche on the other side and clotheslines Mero 360 to the floor. Luna and Goldust give Mero the old HP restore hug. Back in Thrasher hits a clothesline off the second rope. Goldust tags in and walks into a drop toe hold. The Headbangers work him over. Mosh backdrop. Double team suplex, Mero breaks the pin up. The Bangers stay in control until Mero gets a blind tag in and hits a kneelift. More Sable chants from the crowd. Thrasher hits a series of shoulderblocks. Goldust pulls the top rope down and Thrasher falls to the floor. Goldust drops him on the steps. Thrasher's busted open. Early blood. What is this, a mid-'80s NWA show? Flying clothesline from Goldust back in. Thrasher goes full Banger in peril for a while. He and Goldust do simultaneous crossbodys with Thrasher getting a cover for 2. The heels continue to stay in control. Mero tells the ref to check Thrasher's cut, takes some tape off his fist and chokes Thrasher with it. Mero barely gets Thrasher over for a powerbomb. Thrasher blocks the TKO into a DDT. Crawl and tags. Double flapjack on Goldust. Thrasher goes up top but Luna pulls him down. Sable comes back out! Mero hits the TKO on Mosh. He sees Sable, goes out to stop her, and both guys have to hold their women back. The Headbangers do the twin magic switch in the ring. Mero gets back in and Thrasher Paul Smackages him for the pin. Afterward Sable and Luna still want to fight. The officials gaggle, including Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, run in to stop them. Goldust literally carries Luna to the back. Sable and Mero continue to argue. Sable pushes Mero! The match was OK standard tag formula. Considering who was in there it wasn't really too terribly bad. *3/4

 

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship: Taka Michinoku (c) def Pantera in 10:09- This is Taka's first PPV defense after winning the revived title at DX: IYH in December. Pantera was a veteran of CMLL who was working a limited deal with WWF. I think WWF wanted to put together the same kind of cruiserweight division WCW had so much success with, but never really fully committed to putting the work or time in to do it. Sunny is the guest ring announcer to get her on TV. Zero reaction for Pantera for his entrance, even in a city close to his home base. Taka gets an OK pop. He was starting to become a bit of a cult favorite in hardcore fan circles. Brian Christopher comes out before the bell and joins commentary. Oh joy. After the initial jockeying Taka hits a spinning heel kick. Pantera breaks the lucha out, armdragging Taka to the floor and hitting a tope con hilo. More armdrags and flying headscissors back in. Taka throws Pantera out and hits him with a top rope springboard dive. Basement dropkicks from Taka. Pantera gets Taka on the apron, goes up top, and hits a flying headscissors that bounces Taka off the apron! THE HARDEST PART OF THE RING TM. Pantera tope suicida through the corner ropes! Taka's back crashed into the guardrail on that and now Pantera has a hurt part to target. Double underhook backbreaker and camel clutch. Pantera continues to work the back and hooks on a surfboard. Taka tries to chop back. Pantera backdrops him HUGE over the top to the floor! Another top con hilo landing on Taka's hurt back! Back in Pantera continues the back work. Taka goes up top but Pantera hurricanranas him off. Moonsault! Taka kicks out! A second moonsault misses. Taka knee off the top. He goes for the Michinoku Driver. Pantera counters into a small package for 2. Taka powerbomb for 2. Missile dropkick. The Michinoku Driver hits and it's over. After the match Christopher teases an attack but dad Lawler stops him. Taka dives onto both from the top rope! The Lawler boys try to corner Taka but he escapes through the crowd. They got their high spots in and the psychology around Taka's hurt back was pretty tight, but they also had some bad communication at times (not effortless chemistry for sure) and the crowd didn't really give a damn. Also having both Lawler and Christopher on commentary was awful. Horrendous. I literally got a headache having to listen to them (not a joke, I seriously just popped a couple of aspirin), and their constant BS overwhelmed the match on TV. Poor JR tried his damndest to call the match but couldn't help but get sucked in too. **1/4

 

The Godwinns def The Quebecers in 11:15- Jacques Rougeau unretired in '96 and the Quebecers had a short run in WCW as the Amazing French Canadians (a callback to the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers), and now they're back in WWF, as it turned out for a short time. Their gear is completely different to their Mountie-inspired first WWF run. Pierre has still got the eyepatch from his run as Jean Pierre Lafitte and looks more PCO-like than ever. Jacques, with his impressively developing bald spot, and Phineas start. One problem with this match is I have no idea who, if anyone, are supposed to be the faces here. The crowd sure doesn't know, or care, and is deader than dead. Jacques ducks lockups, struts and stalls. When they get going it's a basic start. Jacuqes hits a dropkick and reverse slam. Henry tags in and runs Jacques over. Pierre and Henry trade arm wringers and hammerlocks. Pierre shows a bit of wrestling acumen. The Quebecers stomp Henry down in the corner. Henry hits a double clothesline. Phineas arm slam on Jacques and the Godwinns work his arm for a bit. Phineas catches Jacques leaping and hits a spinebuster. Legdrop for 2. Jacques counters a Henry backdrop but the tag is cut off. The Godwinns work the ref to beat Jacques down in the corner. Jacques gets a sunset flip for 2, then stays in peril for a bit longer. He jawbreakers out of a Henry chinlock. Instead of tagging he goes for a piledriver, which Henry backdrops out of. Jacques gets a boot up in the corner, hits a flying uppercut, rolls and tags to a completely silent reaction. Pierre hits a powerslam. Quebecers double hot shot on Phineas. Jacques hits the piledriver. They whip out and hit the old Quebecers finish. Henry breaks the pin up. Ugh. Can this match please be over? Jacques dives onto Henry on the floor. Henry gets right back up, clotheslines Pierre from the apron, and Phineas falls on him for the pin. After the match the Godwinns attack with their buckets. Very not good. 1/4*

The New Age Outlaws are upset that they're not part of the decision making process on who will be their replacement tag partner tonight and promise to take the respect they're due.

 

NWA North American Heavyweight Championship: Bradshaw def Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/Jim Cornette) by DQ in 8:33- The NWA invasion of WWF is in full swing. Imagine typing that sentence in 1988. Unfortunately it's 1998 and the NWA is barely holding onto surviving, so this "invasion" isn't exactly setting the world on fire. Rather, it's another pretty half-baked and half-executed idea, like WWF's light heavyweight division. Jarrett comes out with fellow NWA members Barry Windham and the Rock N Roll Express. Bradshaw had tagged with Windham as the New Blackjacks before the NWA came in and Windham went with his old buddies. During his entrance Bradshaw runs everyone off with his rope. The ref says Cornette can stay because he has a manager's license, but Windham and the RNR have to leave. While that's happening Jarrett tries to jump Bradshaw but gets jumped instead. Bradshaw whips Jarrett with his chaps. He hits some stiff shots in the corner. Say what you will about Bradshaw/JBL's wrestling ability, but he liked to hit hard. A Jarrett backdrop counter is no sold. Big boot from Bradshaw and he clotheslines Jarrett 360 to the floor. Jarrett and Cornette hug. Bradshaw comes up and gives them a double noggin knocker. He stays focused on Cornette. Jarrett takes advantage and hits him from behind. Dropkick and flying clothesline from Jarrett back in. Dropkick off the second rope for 2. Jarrett and Cornette take turns choking Bradshaw on the rope. Bradshaw chases Cornette again and runs into a Jarrett clothesline. Jarrett goes for a backdrop. Bradshaw counters with a horrible small package for 2. He counters a Jarrett sunset flip and hits another huge stiff chop. Dodge and Jarrett gets crotched in the ropes. Cornette gets a racket shot on Bradshaw's already hurt knee. Jarrett starts to pick it apart. Bradshaw pushes out of a figure four attempt. Jarrett ducks a clothesline and hits a DDT. He goes up top but Bradshaw hits the ropes and he's crotched again. Someone's going to need an icepack after this match. Jarrett blocks a superplex. He comes off the top but Bradshaw catches him and hits a fallaway slam. Powerbomb. Cornette gets on the apron and gets flipped in. The heels are run into each other. Jarrett gets the racket and whacks Bradshaw, drawing the DQ. After the bell the NWA gang beats Bradshaw down until the Legion of Doom come in to make the save. Very meh. *1/2

Triple H says his and Shawn's phones have been ringing off the hook because everyone wants into DX. He says no one is good enough to replace Shawn, so tonight's match will be a handicap match. Michael Cole says if that's the case WWF will appoint a partner. Trips says whatever, we don't care, he can hold the ropes up.

Rock tries to speak for the Nation during their promo but Faarooq cuts him off, says he's the leader and he'll talk. While he does Rock absolutely steals the whole scene with his gestures and facial expressions. It's incredible how far he's come in the past 6 months or so, he's getting better practically every single day.

 

War of Attrition Match: Ahmed Johnson, Ken Shamrock and The Disciples of Apocalypse def The Nation of Domination in 13:44- The issues between Shamrock and the Nation, and more specifically Shamrock and Rock over the Intercontinental title, continue. What is a War of Attrition match? Well judging by the name you'd assume it'd be an elimination match, like Survivor Series. It probably should be but nope, it's a plain old one fall regular rules match with a catchy name. Brown and Skull start with some high impact back and forth. Shamrock tags in to a pop and hits a running back elbow on Brown. Kama pounds on Chainz. Chainz counters with a big boot, slam, and a bunch of running elbow drops that look a mile off the target. Henry comes in and wants Johnson. Johnson obliges and they slug it out. Henry pounds away with clubbing blows. Johnson manages to slam him and Henry tags out. That was miles better than their awful exchange in the Rumble. Brown gets some shots in on Johnson. Johnson hits a falcon arrow. Brown goes up top. Johnson tries to roll away but Brown goes long range and still hits him with the frog splash! Farrooq tags in, wants Johnson to get up and hits a tackle. He goes for another but Johnson counters with a spinebuster. Rock breaks up the Pearl River Plunge. 8-Ball powerslams Faarooq for 2. Shamrock and Rock are both in. Rock hits a DDT for 2 and stomps Shamrock down in the corner. The DOA guys quick tag Kama. Kama catches one with a stiff elbow and he goes face in peril for a while. Even commentary doesn't know if it's Skull or 8-Ball. Rock hits the still unnamed People's Elbow but it's getting fancier and more focus every time. The Nation work the Greco Roman Nut Punch in. Finally Skull or 8-Ball dodges a (very nice) Brown moonsault and tag out. Shamrock and Rock are legal again, but it's DONNYBROOKING TIME as everyone runs in! Shamrock hits Rock with a belly to belly suplex as the ring clears. Ankle lock! Rock taps! Surprisingly borderline decent considering most everyone involved. There was a lot of effort going on out there. **

After the bell Rock is pissed at Faarooq. Everyone in the Nation tries to come to blows except Kama, who plays peacemaker. Rock walks. Faarooq orders him back in. Rock comes back and they argue some more. Faarooq gets the troops organized for their pose. Rock seems reluctant but goes through with it anyway. Bullet Club is fine.

Austin doesn't give a damn who the mystery partner is, an ass whooping is an ass whooping no matter who you give it to, and he'll start with Cole if he doesn't shut up.

 

Kane (w/Paul Bearer) def Vader in 11:00- Kane took his revenge on his brother by locking him in a casket and setting it on fire at the Rumble. In the weeks after Bearer used every acceptable euphemism on TV for "he's dead" and Taker so far hadn't been seen since. In stepped Vader as the next monster in Kane's path of destruction. They go nose to nose when Kane gets in the ring and the crowd eats up every bit of it. Slugfest at the bell. Thankfully Kane's special red match lighting is gone. After a short clothesline from Kane Vader rolls out and the slugfest continues on the floor. Big "Vader" chant from the crowd. Kane gets the edge and punches Vader off the apron. Back in Vader ducks a punch, grabs a waistlock and pounds the back of Kane's neck with potato shots. He flips Kane over the top to the floor. Kane gets posted. Vader is snapped over the top rope. Kane clothesline off the top rope back in. Corner beatdown and chokes from Kane. He suplexes Vader. Vader dangles over the top rope and Kane hits a fistdrop off the top that flips him back in the ring. Corner clothesline. Vader fights back with some seriously straight right hands. Kane punches back and slams Vader. Vader comes back with a tackle and clotheslines Kane over the top. Kane, like his brother, lands on his feet. Kane hits a DDT back in. Vader hits more stiff clothesline like shots. Avalanche. Kane goozle. Vader low blows him. Short clothesline. Big splash. Kane is down for as long as anyone's gotten him down so far. Vader stets him up in the corner. Vader Bomb? No, he's going all the way up. VADERSAULT! It hits! Kane sits right back up! Another tackle and 360 clothesline from Vader. Slugfest on the floor. Vader gets a fire extinguisher and sprays Kane with it! Gotta put the fire out somehow. Powerbomb from Vader. Bearer distracts and Kane sits up again. Chokeslam! Tomestone! It's over. Afterward Kane gets a very fake looking wrench and whacks Vader in the face with it. Vader does the big stretcher job after. Pretty solid match. Yeah, Kane barely sold anything but that's what worked for the character, I have no issues. Kane's early months in WWF continue to go spectacularly. **1/2

 

Unsanctioned Match: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, WWF European Champion Owen Hart, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie def Triple H, Savio Vega and WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (w/Chyna) in 17:37- The Outlaws come out in Tennessee Oilers shirts to rile the crowd up. Vega being announced as the mystery partner thrills precisely no one. As part of their ongoing feud Owen won the European title on the Raw after the Rumble by defeating not HHH, but Goldust dressed as HHH. Don't ask, it's Russo. Everyone brings some toys with them, but Jack has a whole giant wheelbarrow full and they all get tossed into the ring. The Austin pop is definitely here. Austin jumps Gunn and we're on with EVERYONE fighting. Thesz press. Inverted atomic drop and trash can lid shot. Gunn escapes the Stunner. HHH does the Trips Flip and rebounds back into an Austin clothesline. Austin hits HHH with a mop. Jack and Dogg fight in the ring. Austin breaks the mop handle over HHH. Charlie whacks Dogg with a bag of something heavy for 2. Dogg gets run into a table that was set up in the corner. Owen flips Gunn through the table. Sharpshooter! HHH breaks it up. Chairs and trash cans are still flying all over the place. Austin takes some lid shots. HHH pummels Charlie with a can. Charlie wants more! DDT onto the lid. Owen enzuguri on HHH. Dogg breaks up the Sharpshooter with a chair. Dogg powerbombs Charlie onto chairs. Things finally settle down as Hebner gets the teams to stand on the apron rather than fight. Gunn piledrives Charlie on a lid. Jack saves the pin. The heels continue to knock Charlie around. Austin tosses a trash can from the apron straight into Gunn's face! Hebner doesn't see Charlie tag Owen and practically tackles Owen himself to get him back to the apron. Charlie gets Dogg down and makes the tag to Jack. Jack runs wild. DDT on Dunn for 2. Mandible Claw on Dogg and Gunn! HHH breaks it up with a low blow. Cactus Clothesline on Gunn. Dogg distracts and Gunn DDTs Jack on the floor. HHH suplex on Jack back in for 2. Vega brings in a coil of barbed wire and wraps it around Jack. Chairshots for Jack. Jack dodges and Gunn whacks Dogg with a chair. Tag to Austin! Cans of whoop ass are opened for the whole heel team. Stunner on Dogg! That gets the pin! Gunn takes a Stunner for the road. After the heels clear off Chyna gets in Austin's face. She shoves him. Twice. Austin tries to walk away but Chyna flips him off. Stunner on Chyna! Well she was asking for it. The crowd goes insane for that. I think Austin is ready for his title match at Wrestlemania, and to be the face of the company. The match was fun garbage match chaos for the first half and a solid hardcore tag for the second. ***1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Pretty much wheel spinning heading into Wrestlemania, and Russo era shows are never going to provide much in the match quality department. Most of the heavy WM build lifting was being done on Raw because getting those weekly ratings pops were what the Monday Night Wars were all about.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Clash of the Champions XXXII

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXXII

January 26, 1996 from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

This is the second straight year the January Clash has taken place at Ceasar's Palace. Apparently there was a business reason as there was some big TV executives convention taking place in Vegas at the same time. The show opens with footage from the previous night's Nitro (also in Caesar's) of Randy Savage defeating Ric Flair to take back the world title just a few weeks after dropping it to Flair at Starrcade. The hotshotting between the two was well and truly on, and not done yet. After the match Savage chastised Hulk Hogan for celebrating too much. "You're celebrating like you won the match. *I* won the match." Years of pent up anger at Hogan being unleashed right there. After that we also get a clip of Sting and Lex Luger culminating their "we're on opposite sides but we're still friends" angle by defeating Harlem Heat for the tag titles. Naturally Luger won by cheating, exploding a roll of coins over Stevie Ray's head to pin him, leaving Sting to wonder exactly how Luger ended up winning while he was out on the floor.

During their usual intro Tony and Heenan mention that both the returning Miss Elizabeth and the Super Bowl bound Kevin Greene of the Steelers (who would lose to the Cowboys the following Sunday) would be in the corner of Savage and Hogan tonight. After that we cut to Mean Gene at A Little White Chapel in Vegas, a famous shotgun wedding location. The wedding between Col. Robert Parker and Sherri will be taking place there tonight.

The Nasty Boys and Public Enemy double DQ in 4:00- ECW legends Public Enemy had made their WCW debut the week prior (after also apparently getting overtures from WWF) and made a statement by putting one of the Nastys through a table because that's what ECW people do. Ugh, the crowd chants for the Nastys. Don't do that, all you're going to do is encourage them. Fortunately, both these teams were proficient at precisely one thing so maybe the similarity in styles will help. Jawing at the start leads to slugging. All four guys continuously fight the whole short match, it never stops. Knobbs kills Grunge with a clothesline. Sags and Rock take turns whipping each other into the barricade. Grunge dodges in the corner and does the last thing you'd expect to see in this match- a wrestling move. In this case it's a back suplex on Knobbs. Rock stands on the barricade to try to hit something on Sags, but Sags kicks the rail and Rock gets crotched on it. Sags walks back up the aisle. Kobbs pulls the top rope down and Grunge crashes to the floor. Sags is back, and he's got a table with him. A very large and very thick table that doesn't look to be made for easy breaking. He slides it in the ring and sets it up in the corner. Sags tries to run Rock into the table but Rock counters with a bulldog. Rock moonsault on Knobbs for 2. Knobbs knocks Rock off the apron, who does a weird and nasty looking straight down fall. Sags piledriver on Grunge. The Nastys set the table up. Ref Nick Patrick, clearly an old school guy, does a preemptive call for the bell because things have already gone too far. PE get Knobbs on the table and Rock moonsaults him. As expected, the table cracks a bit but doesn't break. Sags takes one of the pieces broken off the side and uses it as a weapon. After that Sags lifts the whole table up and throws it on top of Grunge on the floor! Shit. The table does break after that and Sags chases Grunge to the back with the small piece as we head to commercial. *1/2

 

Dean Malenko def "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright in 5:29- Malenko recently signed with WCW full time, and was already known as both The Iceman and The Man of 1000 Holds. On a recent WCW Saturday Night he held a Texas cloverleaf on Alex Wright a bit too long and hurt Wright's leg, so Wright is out for revenge. Basic but intense start. Both guys escape from headscissors. Mat stalemate. A good speed/counter run follows, ending with Wright hitting a dropkick and flying headscissors that sends Malenko to the floor. Back in Malenko dodges an enzuguri and drops an elbow right on Wright's hurt leg. Malenko starts to pick it apart. Dragon screw! Wright sold that horribly, I'm surprised he didn't hurt his leg for real doing that. Wright hits a back elbow in the corner and does a springboard crossbody that wasn't 100% on target. European uppercuts. Shotgun dropkick. Hey, the leg is just fine I guess. Malenko hits a Saito suplex. He goes up top but Wright dropkicks him and hits a superplex. What hurt leg? German suplex from Wright for 2. Malenko dodges a dropkick and hits a clothesline. Wright flips over in the corner, but Malenko uses the opening to hit his hurt leg again with a basement dropkick. Jackknife cover. Wright clearly kicks out but the ref says it was 3 anyway. Another one for the botched WCW finishes file. Decent match with Malenko looking great, but it was really hurt by Wright's spotty at best selling of the hurt leg that was supposed to be the focal point of the whole match. **

Kevin Sullivan comes out for a scheduled match against Disco Inferno. Inferno's music hits, but a real Elvis impersonator comes out instead. He says he's here to deliver a singing telegram from Inferno. No, really, that's OK oh hell he's singing......oh God it's awful. The Elvis impersonator on that Red Dwarf episode sang so much better. Apparently the telegram says Inferno's blowing the match off to be at the wedding but we need Tony to translate that for us after. After the cats are scraped off the ceiling Sullivan attacks "Elvis" and gives him the double stomp. The bell rang to start a match but never rang to end it so I'm not counting it.

Back to Okerlund at the chapel. Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater arrive but they have no idea where Parker is. Last they saw him he had "1000 1s" and was sitting at a craps table.

Eric Bischoff brings out new tag champs Sting and Luger. After a bit of bragging from Luger the WCW returning Road Warriors come out. Animal had finally been cleared to wrestle again after being out nearly 4 years with back problems. Sting is thrilled to see them. Luger less so. The Roadies want a shot at the belts. Sting says hell yes anytime. Luger says now wait a minute, there's a lot of other teams in line, these guys need some warm up matches and maybe they'll be ready in time. Hawk takes issue with that, saying the LOD have a beatings quota that needs to be met. Bischoff pulls the mic away right before Hawk starts to say "WHAT A RUSH" and afterward Hawk looks at him like he's ready to kill him.

After that is a pretaped interview with Paul Orndorff, who says the injury he suffered at the hands of the Four Horsemen is likely career ending, but they still haven't seen the last of him. It turns out they had, as he really would retire after this.

Back to Mean Gene. Parker arrives in a cab, then tries to hit Okerlund up for the fare. That's not good. Parker says he's really done it this time, those Vegas thieves took all his money! He also gets a call on his '90s cell phone from someone that's asking if he's really going to go through with the wedding. He promises he is. Everyone assumes it's Sherri on the other side of the call.

 

"Flyin'" Brian Pillman def Eddie Guerrero in 5:59- This would be a tremendous match if given time on a PPV. Pillman is fully 100% into his loose canon phase now. Every police captain in the country is trying to take his badge and gun away, that's how loose canon he is. Pillman loses it with the crowd before the bell. More mind games stalling follows. Guerrero shoves and Pillman goes out again, giving Tony a little shove as he goes by. Remember, in these days WCW had the announce table literally touching one side of the ring. Back in Pillman finally locks up. Guerrero cranks a headlock and hits a shoulderblock. He blocks a Pillman roll up and dropkicks him back out to the floor. Pillman gets up and for some reason goes after Heenan, pulling Heenan's jacket off. Heenan shouts "What the fuck are you doing?", throws his headset off and gets away jacketless. I'm honestly surprised that's still on there unbleeped on the Network. Guess they don't care if it's WCW. Not that I'm complaining. A clearly very pissed off Heenan takes a long walk to compose himself while the match completely stops. I think Pillman realized he pushed a bit too far. When Heenan makes his way back around Pillman kneels down in front of him, maybe apologizing, then offers a handshake to Guerrero. Heenan gets back on and apologizes for swearing. Tony sounds pretty clear that it's all good. The match gets back going with Guerrero hitting a tiltawhirl backbreaker. Pillman with an eye poke and bite, then he chokes Guerrero. More dropkicks from Guerrero. Pillman goes out again. Back in they go back and forth a bit. Guerrero hits a DDT off the second rope for 2. Pillman gets a corner takedown and puts his feet on the ropes but Guerrero still kicks out. Pillman argues with the ref and Guerrero rolls him up for 2. More speed, Pillman hits a crossbody, grabs a handful of tights and gets the 3. After the bell Pillman apparently can't help himself and slides out of the ring to the point his feet are on the announce table. Heenan bails again. The match was fine once they finally got going. **1/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting and Lex Luger (c) def The Blue Bloods in 7:47- Sting and Regal start. Regal flexes an arm and Sting is unimpressed. Sting mocks Regal's bow which Regal has a hilarious reaction to. They finally make contact with an arm wringer tradeoff. Sting shoulderblock that Regal sells the hell out of. Dropkick from Sting after an uppercut dodge. Sting does the bell ring clap around Regal's ears and he *really* sells the hell out of that, wobbling around like his equilibrium has been completely shot. The Sting/Regal interactions this whole sequence have been fantastic. Eaton eye pokes Luger and tosses him outside. Luger backdrops Eaton on the floor! Reset as Eaton recovers. Regal tags back in and he's MAD. Servant flogging mad. Lockup and Luger gets Regal into the corner. Regal gets his face right in the camera and shouts "Unhand me!". He gets a cheap shot in over the ref. Luger tries to fight out of the heel corner but gets eye poked. Eaton swinging neckbreaker. Luger goes face in peril and gets beat down a bit more. Eaton kneedrop off the top rope. Regal puts on the Regal stretch! Sting breaks it up. Luger tries to catch Eaton coming off the top rope but legit drops him. They recover and do a midring collision. Hot tag to Sting. DONNYBROOK! Eaton comes off the top rope but hits Regal! Scorpion Death Lock! Eaton submits. Fun house show style stuff. **1/2

Sherri arrives for her wedding and is not impressed with the setup. Parker shows her his "last dollar". Sherri is very unhappy, partially because she didn't know that Parker gambled at all. They argue for a bit. Parker takes her over to show her the wedding RV Buck and Slater got for them and that doesn't help any.

Bischoff brings Pillman out for an interview. Pillman's got an unzipped fly to go along with the nipple exposing cutout on his shirt. He says "This is live TV Bischoff" and threatens to say the seven words you can't say on TV. Bischoff cuts the interview off quick. I wonder if Pillman genuinely surprised him with that, I wouldn't be surprised. What a loose canon.

 

Konnan def Psicosis in 5:26- Professor Mike Tenay joins us for this match. Psicosis is making his WCW debut. Tenay rightfully points out that Konnan had previously wrestled in WCW, back at Starrcade '90 as part of the international tag team tournament on that show, where he teamed with Rey Mysterio Sr. Konnan is also billed as the "Mexican Heavyweight Champion" and this is called a title defense, but I have no idea what belt that is and there's no record of this being any kind of sanctioned title match so I'm skipping right over that. Konnan has the AAA logo on his tights. A quick armdrag from Konnan sends Psicosis to the floor but he jumps right back in. Konnan literally kicks Psicosis in the ass and Psicosis does some kind of weird leap off the top rope off of that. Konnan wraps him up in a submission hold. Psicosis gets to the ropes. A pair of German suplexes from Konnan. He slingshots Psicosis onto the mat then puts on an STF like hold before another rope break. Psicosis hits a spinning heel kick. He wraps Konnan up in a headcissors like hold. Konnan escapes into a single leg crab. Konnan shrugs off chops and hits an armdrag off the top rope. Flying headscissors. Basement dropkick/DDT combo. Psicosis hits a shotgun dropkick off the top rope. Konnan goes to the floor and Psicosis hits him with a tope. Back in Konnan sets Psicosis up top and plants him with an avalanche German suplex. He hooks Psicosis up in a kind of trapped arm/paradise lock hold crossed with a cloverleaf and Psicosis submits. This never really came together. *3/4

Back to the wedding scene and Sherri is changing in the limo with her feet sticking out. Parker is still begging for money. After commercial we're ready to begin the festivities. Okerlund walks Sherri down the "aisle" to the drive thru window, which is all they can afford now. Okerlund mentions the phone call Parker got earlier to Sherri. Sherri says she doesn't know anything about a phone call, she didn't make it. The drive thru receptionist starts proceedings. Sherri is clearly freezing in the nighttime January weather in her thin dress. Before anyone can say "I do" a woman comes out of the RV. It's Medusa! She attacks Sherri! Right into the table! There goes the wedding spread. They have a roll around cat fight before Heat get Sherri out and off to safety. Guess we know who made the phone call now. Disco Inferno nicked all the champagne bottles and runs off with them.

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair and The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart) def WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan (w/Miss Elizabeth and Kevin Greene) in 9:52- Savage and Hogan have a bunch of women with them on their entrance, including former Flair manager Woman. Elizabeth gets her own entrance for her big return to wrestling, the last time she was seen was at Wrestlemania 8 in '92, right before she and Savage divorced in real life. Who was Savage feuding with and wrestling then? Ric Flair. Flair and Savage start with Flair mocking Greene. Greene gets in, teases a tackle and Flair bails. Flair gets a mic and says he doesn't want to be responsible for Greene missing the Super Bowl because Flair hurt him. Lockup and Flair chops. Savage hits a backdrop and clotheslines. Flair Flip! Right onto the corner cameraman! Flair walks into a Hogan big boot. Savage slap and Flair begs off, takes the opening and gets a kick in. More chops. Giant gets a shot in. Savage gets a backslide for 2. Jabs put Flair down. Flair's had enough and tags out to Giant. Hogan wants in and does. Giant wins the lockups. Hogan goes down from the gentlest shoulderblock ever. He tries to slam Giant but of course fails miserably. Tony brings up the Wrestlemania 3 match and Heenan is still arguing the early cover after Hogan couldn't slam Andre was a 3 count. Fantastic. Pillar to post Giant beating with what little he could do. Hogan dodges an elbow drop and gets the slam, but he's still hurt. Tag to Flair. Delayed suplex on Hogan. Mini Hulk up. Hogan backdrop and clothesline. Eye rake trade off. Flair, the expert, wins that one. Hogan gets trapped in the heel corner. Giant gets Hogan out to the floor but doesn't seem to have much idea what to do with him. Hogan no sells Flair chops back in. Flair cuts off the corner clothesline with a back elbow. Hogan slams Flair off the top rope. Tag to Savage. Double ax handle off the top. Everyone in the pool! Hogan clothesline Giant 360 to the floor. Savage elbow on Flair! Hart distracts the ref. Flair gets his usual knucks out, waffles Savage, and gets the pin. After the bell both the Zodiac from the Dungeon of Doom and Pillman from the Horsemen run in. Hogan gets help from Greene in tossing them out. That was all Greene was going to do considering he had an f'n Super Bowl to play in the following Sunday. It's amazing the Steelers let him show up at all. Not that they had any chance against the '90s dynasty Cowboys anyway, even if it was that meathead Barry Switzer coaching Jimmy's team by then. The match was OK enough thanks to Flair and Savage. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The Nitro the night before having two major title changes tells you all you need to know about how much of a priority the Clash was by this point. None at all. Still, this wasn't terrible. Most of the matches and the whole long wedding arc were all watchable enough. With Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Konnan and Psicosis all on the same card you can see the first pieces of what would be WCW's legendary cruiserweight division being put together.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Royal Rumble '98

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '98

January 18, 1998 from the San Jose Arena in San Jose, CA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The famous "scratch logo", the symbol of the Attitude Era, is making its debut tonight. At least as the watermark on screen, it's not on anything else yet. The stage setup continues to evolve into a more Attitude Era look too, with tonight's mostly being a couple of light rigging circles. Oh, and Mike Tyson's here. His first appearance gets big boos from the crowd.

Vader def The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust (w/Luna) in 7:51- I'm not even going to try to describe TAFKAG's outfit. His facepaint is green and his hair is dyed blue. Vader gets a nice little pop. It's so weird when he's a face. These two weren't completely unfamiliar, they had a few matches in WCW, including a really good one at Clash of the Champions XXIX in '94. Dustin's a very different person now though. Both these guys will be in the Rumble later, the roster was still a bit thin so Rumble double duty was common in this era. TAFKAG jumps Vader as soon as he gets in the ring. Vader reverses a whip and hits his tackle. Avalanche. TAFKAG bails to the floor. After a minute Vader charges him from behind and Luna goes down as well. JR makes sure to tell us Steve Austin hasn't arrived at the arena yet. Vader tosses TAFKAG into the stairs. Goldust did not look like he wanted to take that shot at all, that was horrible. Back in TAFKAG begs off. Vader hits some open hand slaps and a backdrop. Luna grabs Vader's boot to distract and TAFKAG hits him with a clothesline. Diving clothesline. TAFKAG hits a couple of shots a bit south of Tijuana. Vader gets run into the steps on the floor and Luna dives in with a shoe shot. Back in TAFKAG hits mounted punches with the classic Goldust chest rub, and he kisses Vader! An enraged Vader pops out of the corner with a huge clothesline. TAFKAG goes for a bodyslam, which naturally doesn't work. Vader suplex and big splash for 2. Short clothesline. He sets up for the Vader Bomb. Luna distracts the ref and TAFKAG low blows Vader. Sunset flip but Vader squashes him. Another Vader Bomb setup. Luna runs in and jumps on Vader's back. Vader says screw it and hits the Vader Bomb with Luna on his back! That gets the pin. Bleh match, but that fun ending is worth a small bump. *1/4

We go backstage to Austin arriving at the arena. Young goateed Michael Cole wants to know why he's late. "Just park my damn truck and don't get a scratch on it or I'll whoop your ass!". After Austin heads inside the Godwinns accost Cole to find out where Austin went.

 

Max Mini, Nova and Mosaic def El Torito, Tarantula and Battalion in 7:48- It's the one year anniversary of WWF's deal with AAA to bring in some of their guys for the Rumble in San Antonio. The only ones that stuck around long term was a group of lucha midgets, and they're making their final WWF PPV appearance tonight. Sunny is the guest ref in WWF's continual quest to find her something, anything, to do on TV that wasn't managing. Lucha rules for this one so tagging and selling are optional. None of these guys will be in the Rumble later. That would have been something. The match starts with all three heels in turn getting taken down to the floor. Mini is still one hell of a wee little spark plug. Everything gets kind of a "samey" look though because almost all the sequences end with the face doing an armdrag. Mosaic hits some flying headscissors for variety. Mini continues to do the bulk of the work in the ring. Sunny gets caught in the middle at one point and helps Mini out with some double team moves. Such biased officiating. Mosaic hits a little tope con hilo to kick of a run of everyone doing dives to the floor. After that Mini gives Torito a headscissors off the top rope and crucifixes him for the pin. OK lucha midget spotfest. It's kind of too bad there was no market at all for any kind of midget's division, Mini would absolutely have been the star of that. *3/4

The Nation of Domination is at Austin's locker room door. Faarooq tells new member Mark Henry to go in and kick Austin's ass. Guess this is his initiation. Henry kicks the door in, all the Nation members charge in.....and find nothing but an Austin foam middle finger sitting on a chair waiting for them! Fantastic. After that we see both Vince and Shane in the suite with Tyson.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Rock (c) def Ken Shamrock by DQ in 10:53- Shamrock went through all the members of the Nation on weekly TV to get this shot. During a tag match on Raw Mark Henry turned on him to join the Nation. Also during the preshow the whole Nation was arguing with each other over which of them was going to win the Rumble. Both of these guys will be in the Rumble later. Rock comes out by himself with no Nation backup. The "Rocky sucks" chants start quickly so Rock grabs a mic to rile the crowd up more. He's really starting to get the hang of the character. Still a long way to go though. After the bell both guys move in cautiously for a lockup....and Rock ducks out. More caution and Shamrock swings a kick. Now they lock up. Rock tries to get a cheap shot on a corner break but Shamrock dodges. Another lockup and again Rock tries a cheap shot. This time Shamrock blocks and hits his own punch. Speed run and Shamrock hits a kick. A punch sends Rock 360 to the floor. Back in Rock goes into his kicky punchy offense. Corner clothesline. Corner whip the other way and Shamrock pops out with a clothesline. He goes for a hurricanrana but Rock blocks it and drops him with a hot shot. More kicky punchy and Rock chokes Shamrock in the corner. Shamrock comes back with a punch flurry but Rock cuts it off with an eye rake. Shamrock ducks a clothesline and hits a crossbody for 2. Fisherman's suplex for 2. Rock is up with a clothesline. Spinny DDT for 2. To the CHINLOCK! This is deliberate to piss the crowd off, the way Rock puts it on with such a dramatic flourish. After Shamrock gets out Rock goes for another spinny DDT but Shamrock blocks it into a suplex. Shamrock's swinging and Rock tries to beg off. Shamrock powerslam for 2. He does a bit of ground and pound and almost snaps but manages to maintain control. Hurricanrana! Kama and D'Lo Brown are out. While they're distracting Rock gets knucks out and nails Shamrock with them. He hides the knucks in Shamrock's tights. Cunning. Cover. Shamrock kicks out! Brown's foot is caught up in the ropes and the ref has to help get him out. I think that was a legit accident. Shamrock belly to belly! Cover and a pin! Shamrock wins the title! But wait. Rock complains that Shamrock hit him with something way more than just his fist. The ref checks Shamrock, feels something, points at his tights and says "What the hell is that?". Shamrock reaches in....and pulls out the knucks! The ref reverses the decision, grabs the belt, hands it back to Rock, and says Rock wins by DQ! Naturally Shamrock commits some reficide after while Rock quickly gets the hell out of town. Decentish match, with the Dusty finish being both dumb and great at the same time. Lots of the Attitude Era in a nutshell, really. **1/4

Now Los Boriquas are looking for Austin. The whole world is after him. They run into a locker room and see the back of someone's bald head, naturally assume it's Austin, and attack. Of course it's the Disciples of Apocalypse locker room and a huge gang fight (Vince Russo TM) ensues.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Legion of Doom def The New Age Outlaws (c) by DQ in 7:56- The legendary veteran team (who frankly were a few years past their sell by date by now) are challenging the thrown together team that were quickly establishing themselves as much more than that. During the build the NAO shaved off one of the famous two strips of hair on Hawk's head and hurt Animal's back to the point he barely got cleared for this match. Not far from the truth as Animal had gone through years of back trouble. The NAO have their full famous entrance now, and are both wearing Bret Favre jerseys to rile up the Bay Area crowd. The Packers had knocked the 49ers out of the playoffs two years in a row. During LOD's entrance JR mentions them winning the triple crown of major US tag titles for the era: AWA, NWA and WWF. Only team to ever do that. The NAO jump from behind before the bell. Animal powerslams Dogg and the NAO go to the floor to regroup. They tease walking but LOD drag them back in. Dogg begs off in the ring. Hawk hits his usual stuff, barely getting any air time on the fist drop, while Animal does even less. Dogg gets an eye poke and tags. Gunn runs into a vicious stiff Hawk Thesz press that didn't look to be completely intentional. Animal powerslams both NAO. The LOD keep Gunn under control. Hawk puts on an STF for like 3 seconds. Dogg trips Animal, pulls him out and whips him into the stairs. He attacks Animal's bad back while Hawk looks like he doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing. Finally he attacks Gunn. The NAO try to double team but Hawk hits a double clothesline, but right after does his usual fly into the post and fall to the floor. Dogg gets a pair of handcuffs and handcuffs Hawk to the bottom turnbuckle on the floor. The NAO try to work Animal over but he also hits a double clothesline. The ref actually turns around and looks at Hawk, then goes "OK, looks legit, guess he handcuffed himself on there" and turns back around! Gunn comes off the top. Animal catches and tries to powerslam him, but can't keep control and drops Gunn right on his head. Dogg comes in with a chairshot for the cheap DQ, which almost feels like a mercy after that match. The NAO continue to beat Animal down until Hawk snaps the handcuffs off to make the save. Woof. The NAO weren't exactly known for their wrestling acumen and the LOD were just a mess at this point. 1/4*

 

Royal Rumble- The main story going into the Rumble was defending Rumble winner Austin both pissing literally everyone off and being seen as the biggest threat, putting a giant target on his back. Old school two minute intervals tonight. Man, no one does the Rumble rules breakdown like Howard Finkel did.

1. & 2. Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie- Jack brings trash cans with him to the ring. Charlie is Terry Funk. He was in last year's Rumble as a one off, but was now back in WWF for a longer run. He debuted the Charlie character the month prior as a friendly play on the various personas of his good buddy Mick Foley. They had been an on and off tag team since then, but it's Foley and Funk, they have no issue going at it. Charlie brings his chainsaw in with him and swings at Jack with it. Jack goes out and throws chairs in the ring. One goes right into the chainsaw. Jack gets back in and the bell rings to officially start things. Charlie blocks a chair with his chainsaw! The chainsaw goes down but is still running. Chairshots all around as a ref slides in to get the chainsaw out. Good thing it had been neutered. Charlie wants a shot in the head and gets it. He goes wobblelegged but doesn't go down. He wants another one, but Jack offers the chair instead and wants to take a shot of his own. Charlie gives him one. And another. Charlie gets Jack upside down as we get our first countdown of the night.

3. Tom Brandi- Who? I'd completely understand if you were asking that. This is Salvadore Sincere (also who?) under his real name. Jack and Charlie stop fighting, throw Brandi out as soon as he hits the ring, then continue what they were doing. Jack suplexes Charlie onto chairs! Man, that got almost nothing from the crowd. We need an ECW crowd. Charlie dangles upside down by his legs.

4. WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock- He picks the bones of Jack and Charlie, who've worn themselves out fighting each other. Jack nails Rock with a trash can, then puts it on Rock and he and Charlie take turns whacking him.

5. Headbanger Mosh- While Mosh is walking down the aisle Charlie throws a chair at him! Mosh DDTs Charlie but Charlie gets right back up and does some more classic Funk wobblelegged selling. Charlie gets Mosh down in the corner, climbs up, and does a moonsault! Well, mostly. He also wasn't close to hitting anything but hey, 50+ year old Terry Funk doing a moonsault. Damn.

6. Phineas Godwinn- Rock and Phineas beat Mosh down. Charlie hits Rock with some chops.

7. 8-Ball- Charlie ducks a charge and Jack is eliminated. Lawler says his sources have told him "someone" in the back has managed to take out Austin. Charlie dangles by his legs again.

8. Blackjack Bradshaw- The future JBL. Charlie almost tosses Rock out but he lands on the apron. Charlie sort of skins the cat, using the ropes to pull himself back up onto the apron.

9. Owen Hart- Post-Montreal Screwjob Owen is now going by "Sole Survivor" and "The Blackhart". He gets a decent pop. Before he can get anywhere Jeff Jarrett jumps him from behind! Jarrett's manager Jim Cornette gives Owen a racket shot. Owen had a feud going with Triple H (more on that later), I can't for the life of me remember why he and Jarrett would have a beef at this point. Maybe they didn't and it's totally random, I wouldn't put that past Russo. After the beatdown Owen never makes it to the ring.

10. Steve Blackman- He goes after Charlie and flips him over the top but again Charlie barely dangles by the ropes and pulls himself back up. 8-Ball piledrives Charlie. Bradshaw hits a short clothesline on Mosh.

11. D'Lo Brown- Nation representative number two. Charlie is dangling again. Rock beats Blackman down in the corner. Brown and Rock team up...then start hitting each other! Every man for himself.

12. Kurrgan- He no sells a bunch of stuff (or just plain doesn't know how to sell, I'd believe that) and dumps Mosh. Blackman swings a big kick in Kurrgan's direction that I'm not sure was no sold or just plain missed.

13. "Marvelous" Marc Mero- Sable is out as well and she gets the pop. Mero goes into boxing mode on Blackman. Kurrgan tosses Blackman out. Blackman still looked extremely raw out there.

14. Ken Shamrock- He comes in with a kick flurry on Kurrgan. A bunch of guys gang up and eliminate Kurrgan. Rock hits the still as yet unnamed People's Elbow on Charlie with no fanfare.

15. Headbanger Thrasher- Bradshaw has been stiffing the shit out of everyone. Mero tries to punch him and Bradshaw cuts it off with what looked like a damn stiff knee to the gut. Guess he didn't want to be bothered. Mero does a bunch of dancing around looking for someone to fight. No one seems to want to work with him.

16. Mankind- Wait a minute. I'm seeing Mick Foley double! Yes, he's back out again with another persona. He goes right after Charlie and their fight is back on. Mankind eliminates Charlie! As usual old Terry Funk looked like he was having a blast out there and did his best to liven things up. Shamrock finds Rock and pummels him in the corner, then tries to get him over the top.

17. The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust- He's got a fresh coat of face paint and a fresh outfit that just as ridiculous as the last one. His whole character was "edgy for the sake of edgy" as WWF was looking to see just how far they could push the boundaries. Mero's dancing around again desperately looking for someone to work with. TAFKAG eliminates Mankind.

18. NWA North American Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett- This is during the short Jim Cornette-led "NWA invasion" angle, with Jarrett as the leader of the group. The angle also included the Rock N Roll Express getting a WWF run, as well as Cornette creating another (and hugely inferior) version of the Midnight Express with regular WWF guys. Owen Hart is back! He attacks Jarrett! Spinning heel kick. Jarrett recovers to toss Owen over the top, but Owen skins the cat back in and eliminates Jarrett! Even though he missed his entry spot Owen's allowed to stay in.

19. The Honky Tonk Man- Behind HTM Triple H, on crutches, and Chyna can also be seen making their way out. While that's going on Rock eliminates Shamrock. Chyna tries to hit Owen with a crutch. Owen blocks it, but it was just a distraction as Trips comes from the side, whacks Owen with the other crutch, and Owen is eliminated. Damage done, they leave. I know I said I'd get into the details of this feud. I will with the WWF Title match, it's relevant there.

20. Ahmed Johnson- He does not look in good shape at all. We get a replay showing Rock low blowed Shamrock before eliminating him. I don't think that issue is over.

21. Mark Henry- The newest Nation member and third in the match. He goes right for old Nation rival (and sometimes member) Johnson. They brawl really weakly. Henry was still green and Johnson, frankly, sucked. After a ton of stalling Henry throws some powder in Johnson's face that ends up going nowhere at all.

22. Nobody- It's never mentioned on the TV broadcast but this was supposed to be Skull's spot. He was either legitimately injured or was just selling the beating from the earlier backstage segment. Commentary thinks it was supposed to be Austin. Brown and Henry mercifully eliminate Johnson. Henry also eliminates Phineas. Poor ref Jack Doan took an inadvertent foot in the face as Phineas was coming down. But he's a ref, he's OK. Phineas and Johnson brawl to the back because why not. Brown and Henry start fighting each other.

23. Kama Mustafa- Four Nation guys in and they're all still in the match.

24. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin- Lawler's sources are as good as Bobby Heenan's. Big pop for Austin, but not a massive one because this crowd just didn't have it in them. Everything stops in the ring as soon as they hear Austin's music. But Austin, as usual, is one step ahead. He comes in behind them through the crowd! Mero is eliminated! 8-Ball is eliminated! Austin low blows Brown and chokes him with his vest.

25. Henry Godwinn- He goes right for Austin. The Nation guys are all still fighting each other.

26. Savio Vega- Vega brings his whole Los Boriquas stable with him. They attack Austin and Austin fights them off. Vega escapes taking a Stunner. Austin gives TAFKAG a Greco Roman Nut Stomp.

27. Faarooq- The whole Nation is in and none of them have been eliminated. Rock tosses Austin through the ropes to the floor. Faarooq attacks Rock! The Nation continue fighting. Austin and Rock brawl on the floor while Lawler insists Austin's been eliminated.

28. Dude Love- What?! I'm seeing Mick Foley triple! That's right, this is the all of the Three Faces of Foley enter Rumble. Love eliminates Bradshaw, who got a nice run. TAFKAG takes some more hard shots in and out of the ring. Rock hits a People's Elbow on Brown. Austin attacks Rock again.

29. Chainz- Faarooq attacks Rock again, then eliminates Brown. The first Nation guy is finally gone, and at the hands of another Nation member.

30. Vader- He goes right for TAFKAG. HTM is eliminated. There's lots of guys left at the end run as there's been no big elimination runs yet. Austin eliminates Thrasher. And Kama. Vega tries a spinning heel kick but Austin ducks and eliminates Vega. TAFKAS eliminates Vader. Godwinn is eliminated. Chainz eliminates TAFKAG. Chainz got an elimination, and during the end run? Austin eliminates Chainz, who goes out in the corner and lands on the steps. Ouch. Faarooq gets Henry over and on the apron. Henry starts to step back in, getting one foot back in the ring, then Faarooq punches him and he falls out and is called eliminated. Sloppy.

FINAL FOUR: Rock, Austin, Faarooq and Love. Old tag partners Austin and Love team up on the Nation guys. They're whipped into each other. Sweet Shin Music on Rock! Double underhook DDT on Faarooq! Austin attacks Love! Mandible Claw on Austin! Austin low blows to get out. Faarooq eliminates Love. He gets Austin up in the corner to try to get him out. Rock sees, but instead of helping just sits down and pretends to be winded. After a minute Rock sneaks up from behind and eliminates Faarooq! It's down to Rock and Austin! Again the crowd manages to wake up for this last bit. I don't know what's going on with them tonight but this has been a lame crowd. Rock and Austin slug it out in the middle of the ring. Austin gets Rock over the top but he lands on the apron and gets back in. Stunner! Rock goes out! Austin wins his second Rumble in a row!

Austin joins Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels as the only two time Rumble winners, and crazily enough they all won back to back (Hogan in '90 and '91, Shawn in '95 and '96). Rock didn't win but he did get the ironman run at a little over 50 minutes, and once again when Austin and Rock were in the ring together you were seeing the immediate future of the company. Rock has come a long way. After some wobbles, and the departure of Bret Hart, WWF was finally fully ready to push Austin as the face of the company. This was an OK Rumble. There were quite a few dead spots and a fair amount of jobberitis, but in this era more than any other WWF went for storytelling over wrestling quality and they managed to do some good angle and character work during the course of the Rumble. The final four run was pretty good too. It was also blatantly obvious Austin was going to win. **3/4

Mike Tyson is super pumped his boy Cold Stone won.

When Owen Hart made his surprise return at the December PPV just a month after the Montreal Screwjob and attacked Shawn, the next big money match seemed obvious. Then it didn't happen. Might have been Kliq politics, might have been Vince not fully trusting the last Hart left in the company (Owen never got any kind of main event run post-Screwjob before his untimely death in May '99). Probably both. Instead Owen was shuffled down into a feud with DX #2 and current European champion Triple H. For the Rumble title match, Shawn's blood feud with the Undertaker from the previous year was rekindled one more time. Along with all of this Taker is still dealing with his brother Kane. Kane had repeatedly attacked Taker to try to goad him into a match, with Taker steadfastly refusing to fight his own brother. On the last Raw before the Rumble Shawn tried to get Kane to join DX. Taker came out and made him regret it. After that Kane appeared on stage and appeared to salute Taker. Taker saluted him back. Problems resolved? Are the brothers on the same page now?

 

Casket Match for the WWF Championship: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c) (w/DX) def The Undertaker in 20:30- Taker's only lost one casket match in his career, also at the Rumble in '94 in a WWF Title match with Yokozuna. That time it took half the heel locker room to get him in the casket. Shawn tries to stick and move with jabs at the start. Taker's unfazed and pushes Shawn out of mounted punches. Goozle. Shawn kicks to get out. Shawn springboard off the second rope but Taker catches him by the throat! Taker tries to press Shawn, possibly into the casket, but Shawn escapes. He charges and Taker backdrops him over the top rope. On the way down Shawn's back hits against the very edge of the casket. It doesn't look like much, but we've just seen the cause of the injury that will take 4 years from Shawn's career (but also give him the time he needed to fix himself mentally and spiritually). You can see him fighting his back a bit the next few minutes but for the most part he gets through the rest of this match fine, at least on the surface. Taker goes out and knocks Shawn around on the floor. Press slam on the floor! Taker kicks Shawn into the casket. Shawn immediately gets back out. Back in Shawn tries to speed around Taker but goes down again. Arm wringers from Taker and old school hits. Corner body shots. Shawn flip to the floor. He snaps Taker over the top rope. Shawn tries coming off the top back in but Taker powerslams him. He rolls Shawn into the casket. The lid closes, but Shawn just barely has one hand still sticking out. The lid opens and Shawn throws powder in Taker's face! Taker manages to land a blind shot but after that Shawn gives him some measured jabs in the corner. Taker goozles again and tries to choke slam Shawn in the corner. Shawn gets his feet up on the top rope to break it up. Moonsault! Shawn Cactus clothesline! He has a bit of trouble getting in the right position to skin the cat after. Taker pulls him out and runs him into the barricade. Shawn whips Taker into the steps, then drops the steps on Taker's back. Piledriver on the steps! Trips comes over and gets some crutch shots in. Shawn follows up with some chair shots. Flying back elbow back in. He rolls Taker in the casket but Taker fights out. Shawn counters a backdrop with a swinging neckbreaker. Sleeper. Taker goes down, fights back up and Saito suplexes out. Shawn flying forearm and kip up. Elbow of the top. The band tunes up. Superkick! He rolls Taker into the casket, then decided to gloat by straddling the casket and giving Taker a crotch chop. Taker zeros in on the target Shawn indicated and grabs a Greco Roman Nut Lock! Backdrop from Taker back in. Shawn flip 2 and he lands back in the ring. Taker clothesline. Big boot. Shawn ducks the flying clothesline and Taker slides into the casket. Shawn elbow off the top rope into the casket! The lid closes with them both in there. Guess the match is a draw then. Shawn tries to fight out but Taker drags him back in and the lid closes again. When it opens back up Taker is swinging. Shawn ducks a big boot. Goozle! Huge chokeslam! Tombstone scoop. Taker steps over the top rope. TOMBSTONE OFF THE APRON INTO THE CASKET! Chyna takes the ref out. The New Age Outlaws and Los Boriquas all run out and attack Taker. It's '94 all over again. The lights go out. Kane is here! He fights all the goons off and clears the ring! DX get Shawn out of the casket and they all get the hell out of town. Kane and Taker stare off.....and Kane punches Taker! Beatdown from Kane. He chokeslams Taker into the casket! The lid closes! Shawn wins even though he was halfway to Oakland by then. Paul Bearer locks the casket shut and he and Kane roll it away. Man, it is '94 again. If this ends with Marty Janetty wearing a Taker suit and rising up into wrestling heaven again I'm leaving. Kane and Bearer stop with the casket just in front of the stage. Kane chops a hole in the lid with an ax, then pours gasoline inside and all around the casket. He sets the casket on fire! BAH GAWD THERE'S A HUMAN BEING IN THERE! End show. The match was good, and the best casket match ever to that point, but not nearly on the level of the other Shawn/Taker classics. ***1/2

Maybe Taker should stop having casket matches at the Rumble. They never end well for him.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- '98 would be the year WWF took the #1 spot back from WCW, partially due to WCW's own missteps (they had just had the disaster that was Starrcade '97, which was the start of the wheels coming off the bus) but also from their own product absolutely catching fire the next couple of years. As I mentioned earlier, during this period more than ever WWF's product was more about the stories and characters (and swerves) than match quality, and on that level this show mostly delivers, which helps make up for the lack of any real standout matches.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C