King of the Ring '98

Legacy Review

King of the Ring '98

June 28, 1998 from The Igloo in Pittsburgh, PA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku and The Headbangers def Kaientai (w/Yamaguchi-San) in 6:41- Taka's got Headbanger gear on under his robe and joins them in their usual prematch moshing. Yamaguchi is decked out in Yomiuri Giants gear, the New York Yankees of Japan's Nippon Baseball league. Teioh and....a Headbanger start. Oh, JR finally says it's Thrasher. Thank you. Never can tell them apart. Back and forth start. Thrasher hits a tiltawhirl slam and powerslam for 2. Headbanger double team hits. The crowd is pretty amped up tonight. Funaki gets pwerbombed. Mosh gives him a hip attack avalanche, and Funaki walks out of the corner with a definite Flair Flop! Taka comes in and hits some chops. Running corner knee and missile dropkick. Funaki rolls out and Taka hits his big dive. When he gets back in Togo sneaks in and hits him from behind. Taka recovers with a monkey flip but Togo backdrops him to the floor. He dodges a Togo baseball slide, but Togo uses the position to grab a headscissors and flip Taka over on the floor. Kaintai double team wheelbarrow slam/faceplant combo as Taka stays in peril. The wrestling among the Japanese guys isn't nearly as crisp or smooth as their match at the last PPV. Togo flying headbutt off the second rope. Another double team attempt from Kaientai but Funaki takes Teioh out. Taka tags both Headbangers. Donnybrook! Funaki misses an elbow off the top rope. The Headbangers give Taka a big assist on a big splash. The Michinoku Driver hits and it's over. By the time Kaintai made their next PPV appearance Taka will have turned and joined the group as part of the infamous angle where they threatened to chop off Val Venus' moneymaker. *3/4

Sable's out. Wait, wasn't she forced to leave the WWF at the last PPV? Yup, and she's already back thanks to Mr. McMahon. Speaking of, Sable introduces Vince and he comes out. With the Stooges, naturally. Patterson and Brisco dismiss Sable. Patterson gives her an extra dismissal with a light pat on the bum. Sable slaps Patterson! I get her reaction, but if there's one man in the company she's got nothing to worry about from it's him. He was probably just trying out something new to see what it felt like. Vince hypes up the main event, runs the crowd down and tells everyone to prepare to be disappointed. Nothing special at all. A segment that only exists because of the effort in this period to make PPVs flow more like Raw, this is several PPVs in a row with a second segment in-ring promo.

 

King of the Ring Semifinals: Ken Shamrock def Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) in 5:29- Jarrett jumps Shamrock as he's getting in the ring but Shamrock quickly gets the upper hand. Big clothesline out of the corner. Suplex for 2. Jarrett ducks a kick and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Short clothesline and dropkick. Shamrock goes for the same kick and connects this time. He clotheslines Jarrett 360 to the floor. Shamrock knocks Jarrett around on the floor, taking a second to back Lee off. Back in Jarrett wants a timeout. Shamrock isn't interested. Lee distracts Shamrock and Jarrett hits a chop block. Shamrock came in with a bum ankle thanks to Owen Hart and the Nation, and now Jarrett goes to work on it, with Lee helping out thanks to some ref distractions. After a minute Shamrock decides that's enough and hits a back elbow, then a heel kick with the same leg Jarrett had just been working. And another one. Guess the leg's fine. Powerslam for 2. Frankensteiner! The ankle lock is on and Jarrett taps almost immediately. After the bell Lee takes a belly to belly suplex because why not. No one was taking Jarrett seriously at this point, he was just a warm body and his super old school gimmick didn't mesh well with all the Attitude going on around him. *1/2

 

King of the Ring Semifinals: WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock def Dan Severn in 4:25- Commentary has been hyping up a possible Shamrock/Severn finals, which would be a UFC rematch. There is a definite pop for Rock when his music hits. First one ever, at least on PPV. The times are indeed changing. Ref Mike Chioda tosses the Nation before the match starts. The first part of the match is old school wrestler Severn getting quick takedowns and crafty Rock escaping with rope breaks. After a few of those exchanges Rock hits a back elbow and gives Severn some shots in the corner. Some very pulled shots. Severn dodges a corner elbow, gives Rock a fireman's carry takedown and hooks on an armbar. Once again Rock makes sure he's never too far from the ropes and gets another break. Rock hits another back elbow and a clothesline. He fires up and gets some more cheers. Suplex for 2. Severn backs Rock into the corner. Rocks cuts him off with an eye rake. Midring collision. Godfather (as Kama Mustafa is now known as) and Mark Henry come out again to distract the ref. That allows D'Lo Brown to come out of the crowd. Severn injured his pecs not long ago, so Brown is wearing a chest protector. He gives Severn a frog splash with the protector still on! Something you'll be seeing from Brown a lot after this as he does the old school injury milking. Rock covers and gets the pin. Thankfully this was short and overbooked, they had zero chemistry together. 3/4*

We get a video recap of Al Snow's Head-based antics since coming back to WWF (unofficially, on screen he was not a currently signed wrestler but looking for a job), including getting on Jerry Lawler's bad side.

 

Too Much def Al Snow and Head in 8:27- If Snow wins this match he'll get his long-sought meeting with Mr. McMahon to try to officially get a job back with the WWF. Head is super duper over. Lots of mannequin heads out in the crowd. It was an idea so out of left field it was instantly fun. That and teenage boys love a good double entendre, and Snow and WWF played right into it. After intros we have the announcement of a surprise guest referee: Jerry Lawler! Oh yeah, I'm sure this'll be called right down the middle. The crowd continues to go nuts for Head so Snow gives her another wave. Everyone loves head. *ahem* Anyway, Snow gets a quick takedown on Taylor. He goes over to have a talk with Head and Taylor jumps him from behind. Snow recovers with an atomic drop and clotheslines. Christopher tags in and spits in Head's direction. He immediately does a Heel 101 phantom hair pull bitch and daddy Lawler of course believes him. Snow goes to punch Christopher in the corner and Lawler blocks it, allowing Christopher to get his own shot in. Snow slams Christopher off the top rope. Snow goes up top and Taylor crotches him. Christopher joins him up there. Snow hits a sunset bomb. He covers and Lawler, to the shock of no one, does the most ridiculous slow count of all time, with Christopher still barely kicking out. Snow clotheslines Christopher 360 to the floor, then backdrops Taylor on top of him. He slams Christopher on the floor and hits him with a Great Muta-style aisle-long running clothesline. Right after he hits that Taylor nails him with a springboard flying forearm. Back in Christopher hits a missile dropkick. Snow wants to tag out to Head. Christopher bites his hand. The heels hit double teams and have obnoxious celebrations. Taylor covers and naturally Lawler fast counts for 2. Snow fights back with a modified German suplex. Christopher hits a bulldog. Snow double DDTs both heels. Tag to Head! Snow whacks both heels with her! Well, she is legal. The Snow Plow hits! Lawler decides he has better thing to do than count. More Head shots. Taylor gets Snow down. Christopher gets out a bottle of Head & Shoulders, puts Head on top of it, then covers her. Head and SHOULDERS, see, now she has shoulders and can be pinned. Lawler counts the 3. Snow and Head's antics could be fun when done right, but that was a deeply stupid match. As soon as Lawler came out as the ref everyone knew how it would play out. 1/2*

 

X-Pac (w/Chyna) def Owen Hart in 8:30- This is Pac's first major match after returning to WWF, I think after waiting out a WCW no-compete but I don't remember for certain. This is also continuing the DX/Nation issues. DX are full fledged faces now with Pac getting a nice ovation. Pac hits Owen with a sliding dropkick during his entrance and jumps all over him. Owen dodges in the corner and does his own beatdown. HARD Pac buckle shots. Owen backbreaker. Spinning heel kick for 2. Pac reverses a corner whip and Owen does the softest, gentlest Bret bump ever. Pac hits a kick and chops. Owen responds with a European uppercut. Perfectplex for 2. Gutwrench suplex for 2. Pac hits a backdrop and clotheslines Owen 360 to the floor. Another clothesline from behind on the floor. Owen reverses a whip on the floor and PAC FLIES into the timekeeper's table! Back in Owen hits a missile dropkick and does a jackknife cover for 2. Sleeper. Pac fights out and put on his own sleeper. Owen gets out and Pac faceplants him. Sloppy corner kicks from Pac. One looked like it caught Owen right in the face. He does the as yet unnamed Bronco Buster. They both go to the top rope, fight, and both tumble down, with Pac going to the floor! That looked like it could have been accidental, but the way the match plays out I think it was planned. Owen's also got a cut above his eye and his eye is swelling shut. Might have been from the fall, but I think it was that kick he caught in the face earlier. Mark Henry runs out and splashes Pac on the floor! Chyna comes over and gets in his face. Vader charges in and tackles Henry! (And had so much momentum he fell down himself) While that's going on Owen has the Sharpshooter on and Pac is tapping out. Chyna DDTs Owen! Vader and Henry were still brawling up the aisle so the ref was still occupied. Pac slowwwwwwly crawls over, and gets the pin. DX punks Owen yet again. OK match, but Pac's ring rust/lack of conditioning showed the second half. We're getting into the period where he'd clearly stopped caring and the fans noticed. There's a reason "X-Pac sucks" chants became a thing even when he was still supposed to be a face. Owen didn't look super motivated either. **1/2

Paul Bearer comes out and explains/retcons some of the Undertaker/Kane history. Another Raw segment on PPV that had zero purpose.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws (c) (w/Chyna) def NWA World Tag Team Champions The New Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) in 9:54- We've got the Gunn brothers on opposite sides here. Holly and Dogg start with some extended basics. Dogg tries to get Holly in the champs' corner but he squeaks free. Tags and the (Smoking) Gunns are in. They go nose to nose with absolutely zero crowd reaction. No one cares about Bart is the problem. No one has since the Gunns broke up. Long speed run, ending with Bart flipping out of a hiptoss and hitting a clothesline. Billy sunset flip into a bridge up/backslide sequence. Fameasser for 2. Big Billy clothesline with a Bart 360 sell. A crotch chop wakes the crowd up. NAO double team on Bart. The New Midnights work Dogg over into their corner. A long, dull Outlaw in peril sequence follows with some sub-real Midnight Express double teams. Holly stands over Dogg, gives him a crotch chop and says "Suck it", then follows up with a very clear unbleeped "Fuck off". Billy hears that, charges in and bulldogs Holly. Dogg rolls Holly up for 2. Holly hits a big right hand to put Dogg back in peril. Dogg gets a boot up when Holly comes off the top rope and gets the hot tag. Everyone in the pool! Cornette whacks Billy with one of the NWA tag belts. Billy kicks out! Billy rolls Holly up for 2. Cornette tries to come in with the belt again. Billy blocks him and they stand off. Chyna low blows Cornette! The NAO hit a double team hot shot and get the pin. The new Midnights were such a heat black hole not even the red hot NAO could get the crowd to care about them. *

 

King of the Ring Finals: Ken Shamrock def The Rock in 14:09- These two were no strangers, having recently had a long feud over the IC title where Rock constantly used Honky Tonk Man-like heel shenanigans to keep the belt. '97 King of the Ring winner Triple H joins commentary to joke around and drop some insider shooty shoot jokes. Both guys let the moment soak a bit and cautiously move in. Shamrock swings a kick. Lockup stalemates. Crazy long speed run, counters and counters, more speed, and finally a Shamrock kick connects. Rock tumbles out to the floor. I mean tumbles. That was a Yokozuna fall. Back in Shamrock hits clotheslines. Rock counters with lots of punchy offense. Shamrock tosses Rock over the top to the floor. Rock takes his time out there. He goes over to commentary and has some words with Trips. Trips takes a mouthful of water and spits it in Rock's face! Shamrock attacks from behind. Rock gets a sneaky style (copyright Rocky Romero) low blow on the floor. Back in Shamrock blocks a suplex and hits one for 2. Now Rock tosses Shamrock over the top to the floor. Shamrock gets his wrist trapped in the ropes on the way down, which was clearly a legit accident because Rock gets him free almost immediately. Rock gets whipped into the guardrail but comes off it with a clothesline. He tries to drop Shamrock on the rail but flat misses, with Shamrock kind of selling it anyway. Rock swinging neckbreaker back in for 2. Shamrock punches back. Rock DDT for 2. Chinlock time. Despite the cheers earlier there's still a very vocal "Rocky sucks" contingent in the floor section. Shamrock fights out and Rock hits a back elbow. He hits the still unnamed People's Elbow for 2. Taking longer for that to get named than I remembered. Rock cuts off another comeback with his spinny DDT for 2. Shamrock hits a back suplex and both guys are down. They're up at 9 and Shamrock goes nuts with a back elbow and spinning kick. Powerslam for 2. Fisherman's suplex from Shamrock for 2. Rock catches Shamrock leaping and gives him a powerslam! He goes for the spinny DDT again. Shamrock blocks it into a northern lights suplex! Rock kicks out! Rock short clothesline for 2. Shamrock responds with a stiff short clothesline of his own for 2. He goes for the frankensteiner. Rock blocks it and drops a hot shot for a LONG 2! Rock has words for the ref after that. When he gets close again Shamrock grabs him. Ankle lock! Rock taps! Shamrock wins King of the Ring! This KOTR win would turn out to be more of a consolation prize as Rock's next IC feud was also set up during this match, a feud where he and Triple H would make each other even bigger stars. The match was pretty hit and miss the first half, but the closing stretch was good. **3/4

 

The whole "consolation prize" idea is reinforced by the fact that Shamrock gets no coronation ceremony or any kind of post-match celebration. We're right on to the next match.

The last two matches are fully intertwined, story wise. After the last PPV, Taker challenged Austin for a title shot. Vince told Taker if he wanted a title shot, he'd have to defeat Kane in a #1 contender's match. During said match, Mankind (Foley had again ditched Dude Love for Mankind, but was still corporate) interfered to cost Taker, reigniting their rivalry from '96 and giving Taker reason for revenge.

 

Hell in a Cell Match: The Undertaker def Mankind in 17:38- You know it's Corporate Mankind, he has a button down shirt and tie on. He takes a look at everything, walks in the cell, walks back out again, then tosses his chair up onto the roof and climbs up! Taker shows very little hesitation in following after his entrance. Once he finally gets his robe off. Mankind punches Taker as he's climbing, trying to get him to fall off, but Taker makes it up. Mankind gives Taker a couple of chairshots. They reposition on the roof, and one of the chain link fence panels comes partially undone. They both stumble but everything stays together. Taker grabs Mankind AND TOSSES HIM OFF THE CELL DOWN ONTO THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! JR: "GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! THEY'VE KILLED HIM!.....AS GOD AS MY WITNESS, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!". Possibly the most famous call in the history of wrestling, for one of the most iconic moments ever, both of which have transcended wrestling into mainstream culture. Mankind is a heap under the remains of the Spanish table. We get replays of the big fall from different angles. Terry Funk (who helped Foley out in planning the insanity in this match) comes out to check, soon followed by a bevy of officials and medics. Taker stays on top of the cell. The cell raises to get a stretcher wheeled in, with Taker still up on it. Vince is even out there looking genuinely concerned and not in character at all. They get Mankind on the stretcher and wheel him away. The cell goes back down and Taker starts to climb down. Mankind gets off the stretcher! He walks back to the ring....AND CLIMBS IT AGAIN. Taker joins him. Taker goozle! Chokeslam! THE ROOF BREAKS AND MANKIND FALLS ALL THE WAY INTO THE RING! Lawler, completely matter of factly: "That's it, he's dead". JR: "SOMEBODY STOP THE DAMN MATCH!". The officials/medics gaggle instantly gets in to check on Foley. Up until the chokeslam spot, believe it or not, everything went as it was supposed to. But the roof break and fall into the ring? That wasn't supposed to happen. The roof broke on its own in a complete accident. Everyone's concern was more than understandable. Foley was knocked out from the fall but came to pretty quickly. Taker gets down and comes in. He attacks Terry Funk. Chokeslam for Funk. LITERALLY out of his shoes. Only Terry Funk. Foley must have given an all clear signal pretty soon after falling because Taker quickly jumps on him and the "real" match begins. Taker hooks up for old school but Mankind knocks him off the rope. The cage door is locked. We get a closeup of Mankind's face and see the famous tooth lodged up his nose. His own tooth. From his mouth. They fight to the floor. Mankind tries to lift the steps but can't, he hurt his shoulder in the first fall. Taker hits the bad shoulder with the steps! A Taker tope suicida misses! He crashes into the cage and is busted open. Mankind runs him into the cage to open it up some more. Piledriver on the chair back in! Taker kicks out! Mankind legdrops the chair into Taker's face. Double underhook DDT. Mankind rolls out again, looks under the ring, and pulls out a bag. He opens it up. THUMBTACKS! HUNDREDS OF THUMBTACKS! To the best of my memory, on top of all the other historic things that happen in this match, this is the first WWF match ever with thumbtacks. Taker teases taking a bump on the tacks. Goozle on Mankind. Break. Taker big boot. Tombstone scoop. Mankind hooks on the Mandible Claw! Taker goes down and they do the arm drops. Taker fight back up, puts Mankind on his back, AND DROPS HIM INTO THE TACKS. It was only a glancing shot, so Foley being Foley he rolls over to get even more of the tacks. JR, in yet another iconic line, calls him a "human pin cushion". CHOKESLAM ONTO THE TACKS! Taker hits the Tombstone, thankfully in a tack-free zone, and gets the pin. After the bell Mankind is slowly strapped up on the stretcher again (and Taker visibly lingers a while to check on him), but gets back up and insists on walking to the back. If Mick Foley wasn't a made man before this, he sure as hell was now. And the Hell in a Cell fully cements its place as one of the most iconic gimmicks in wrestling ever. How you feel about this match depends on your tolerance for crazy, dangerous stunts in wrestling. Personally I'm good with it, though I'm also just fine with leaving most of it in the past. This is easily one of the most famous matches in the history of wrestling, well worked by both guys and should be treated as such. ****1/2

 

First Blood Match for the WWF Championship: Kane (w/Paul Bearer) def "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (c) in 14:52- This is the first ever First Blood match in WWF history. An added stipulation, if Kane loses this match he will set himself on fire. So, outcome pretty clear. There's gas cans all around the ring for if he loses. This is also in the short period where Kane was using that electronic voice box to communicate, which was awful and hilarious at the same time. Austin is also recovering from what I believe was a legitimate staph infection in his elbow that landed him in the hospital for a few days. His elbow is seriously taped up and padded to the point he could be hiding two other people's elbows in there. Austin charges right in, hits the ropes, ducks clotheslines, and hits the Thesz Press! Elbow drop. Austin whacks Kane a couple of times with the belt. Of course with Kane's full face covering mask, getting him to bleed is going to be almost impossible. Which is exactly why Vince made this match. Austin takes a top turnbuckle pad off. Both guys block getting run into it and Kane takes control for a bit. Austin fights off a Tombstone and tosses Kane over the top to the floor. Stair shots. The cell is lowering! What the hell? Who's doing that? Austin takes guardrail and stair shots. Kane whips Austin into the cell! His face hit the bottom of it as it's still lowering. The cell is coming down onto Austin! Kane tries to keep him there but Austin fights out. Kane runs Austin into the cage several more times. JR points out that Hebner said before the match that he won't stop the match for any little scrape, it's got to be full on busted open and bleeding. Austin runs Kane into the doorway post! Now the cage is raising. Kane is dangling in the doorway! Austin pulls him down. He knocks Kane around the rails as they go up the aisle. Kane backdrops out of a piledriver on the floor. He gives Austin a suplex on the ramp. Kane continues beating Austin down around the stage area as the match bogs down a bit. They go back to the ring. Kane gets run into the exposed buckle. Again, the mask helps. Back to the floor again with more rail shots. Austin grabs Lawler's fan and whacks Kane with it! Kane pushes Austin into Hebner and Hebner is down. Kane clothesline off the top back in. He goes for another but Austin dodges. Another exposed buckle shot and mudhole stomp. Austin rams the back of Kane's head into the buckle. Smart. Bypassing the mask. But it doesn't bust him open. Mankind is out! How the hell is he even walking? Austin fights off a chairshot from him as the cell starts lowering again. Stunner on Mankind! Stunner on Kane! Now Taker's out with his own chair. Austin and Taker both tee up their chairs to hit Mankind. Mankind ducks and Taker whacks Austin's chair with his, hitting Austin in the face! Cue up the usual "was that deliberate" questions. Austin's busted open. Taker puts Hebner back in the ring. He opens up one of the gas cans and pours it on Hebner! Kane chairshot on Taker. Austin fights Kane off and whacks him in the head with the chair. Hebner comes to, sees the blood all over Austin's face, and calls for the bell! Kane wins the title! Austin is shocked. We see Vince happy in his luxury suite and the show quickly ends with no follow up. Solid brawl with the usual fun overbooking you got from main events in this period to keep the story going for Raw, where the real money was being made. ***

Austin would win the title back the next night on Raw (ratings pop!), but the issues between himself, Taker and Kane were far from over and would continue all through the summer with even more controversial title match finishes.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's a couple of decent matches earlier in the show, and the main event is solid enough (and important if you're watching the whole Austin/Taker/Kane saga), but the real draw here is what is still the most legendary Hell in a Cell match of all time, with moments that transcended wrestling.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-