Fully Loaded '98: In Your House

Legacy Review

Fully Loaded '98: In Your House

July 26, 1998 from the Selland Arena in Fresno, CA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Before even the WWF Attitude signature we open with Jerry Lawler accosting Sable to try to get a glimpse of her bikini for tonight. We have some changing screen innuendo fun and Lawler's reaction is....

 

 

Val Venus def Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee & Southern Justice) in 7:50- Months after his much hyped WWF debut with one of the signature gimmicks of the Attitude Era, Venus is making his PPV debut and is still billed as undefeated. He teases fully stripping down after his entrance and gets interrupted by Lee. Southern Justice are the repackaged Godwinns now acting as Jarrett's muscle. Spoiler: they weren't really brothers. Nothing is real anymore. Ref Tim White tosses them out before the match starts. Kainetai's music hits and they make their way down to the ring. White also gets rid of them, but Yamaguchi-San goes over and joins commentary. Jarrett is just a hanger on here (his current WWF run in a nutshell), as the real feud is between Venus and Kainetai after it's been revealed that Yamaguchi's wife was once one of Venus' co-stars in his former career. Pure Russo. That feud would lead to the infamous attempted ritual castration of Venus, one of the most controversial Raw segments of the era. Jarrett and Venus struggle with the basics at the start and Jarrett gets his strut in. Yamaguchi is deliberately hard to make out, but it sounds like he's doing dialogue from South Park's Black Friday trilogy, "Oh, your American penis SO BIG. Japanese penis, very small". Venus gets a drop toe hold and does his crotch thrust pose over Jarrett. JR finally reins commentary back in to actually, you know, call the match. Jarrett ducks a crossbody but on the follow up Venus hot shots him for 2. Running knees to the gut and a Russian leg sweep from Venus. Jarrett tries a sunset flip but Venus blocks it. Jarrett hits a powerbomb and clotheslines Venus 360 to the floor. Lee gets a kick in. Jarrett baseball slide. Chopfest back in the ring. Jarrett blocks a uranage into a DDT. Sleeper. Venus gets out and puts on his own sleeper. Jarrett back suplexes out. Belly to belly suplex from Venus. After a bit of speed he hits an inverted atomic drop and clothesline. Venus perfectplex for 2. Jarrett dodges in the corner and hits a crossbody off the top for a long 2. Venus hits a powerslam. He goes up top for the Money Shot. Lee knocks him down and Jarrett hits a superplex. Figure four attempt into a small package for 2. Lee gets on the apron. Jarrett gets run into him and Venus rolls him up for the pin. They had a lot to overcome, including themselves at the start, but got going OK after a bit. Being paired up with the very over Venus finally got the crowd to care a little about Jarrett for the first time in a while. After the bell Venus cuts a promo on Yamaguchi about how he "can't measure up to the Big Valbowski". **

 

WWF European Champion D'Lo Brown (w/The Godfather) def X-Pac (w/Chyna) in 8:26- This is part of the continuing issues between the Nation and DX. Brown defeated Triple H for the title the previous week on Raw, with a big assist from the Rock. No worries for Trips, he already had bigger places to be. This gave birth to one of my favorite great but mostly forgotten about gimmicks ever- whenever he was European champion Brown would have a different European city as his hometown for his intros. Not yet though, tonight it's still Chicago. Unless there's a Chicago in Europe I never noticed. He's also still wearing the huge chest protector for the torn pec that clearly healed weeks ago. Brown uses the protector to hit a shoulderblock at the start that puts Pac down hard, with typical Brown mocking after. The crowd is very into things. Pac hits armdrags, kips up and gives Brown a crotch chop. They go speed. Pac hits a hiptoss and spinning heel kick. Brown responds with his own spinning heel kick for 2. Lawler is still going on about Sable. That intro was pretty short, he might not have had time for some bunk time and is still worked up. Pac misses a dive in the corner and Brown hits a clothesline for 2. During a long chinlock the crowd starts to get bored and chants for Chyna. Pac takes a HARD whip into the turnbuckles. Brown snap mare and legdrop. Chops from Brown. Pac dodges in the corner but Brown ducks Pac's spinning heel kick. It's a spinning heel kick kind of match. Brown slam and elbow off the second rope for 2. Pac jawbreakers out of another chinlock but gets killed with another clothesline. Brown's moonsault misses, with the chest protector doing more harm than good on that landing. Pac hits the ropes, ducks a clothesline, and hits a back kick. Bronco buster. Both the seconds get on the apron. Godfather hits Pac from behind while the ref is with Chyna, and Brown hits the Sky High spinebuster to win. Didn't do a lot for me. *1/2

We get a quick shot of the enigmatic, mysterious Edge in the crowd. JR: "Well, everyone's here". It's a blink and you'll miss it PPV debut for the future legend. After that we go to Kevin Kelley and Tom Pritchard in the WWF.com room with breaking news! The Undertaker has not arrived at the arena yet! So unlike him.

 

Faarooq and Scorpio def Bradshaw and Terry Funk in 6:51- Flash Funk has gotten some of his old name back. Before the match Funk (Terry) announces that this will be his last match in WWF for 6 months "or so". Bradshaw looks none to pleased at this information. It turned out it'd be his last WWF match for a very long while. After taking a few months off he'd head back to ECW for a bit, then end of life WCW for his last run there. His next WWF/E appearance wouldn't be until 2006 as part of the ECW revival. Bradshaw and Scorpio start. JR mentions they've both qualified for Brawl for All. Oh GREAT, that's here isn't it. Fortunately it was all on Raw, not PPV, so I'm not getting into it. It sucked, that's as far as I'll go. Bradshaw runs Scorpio over with a shoulderblock. Scorpio slides under and hits a dropkick, followed by a hurricanrana. Faarooq tags in but has to pull Bradshaw away from Scorpio. Big Bradshaw corner clothesline. Tackle off the top rope for 2. Funk tags in to a small pop. Neckbreaker for 2. Faarooq backbreaker for 2. Bradshaw runs in with a big boot. He tags in and comes off the top. Faarooq catches and powerslams him for 2. Scorpio hits a kneelift and powerslam. He goes up top. Funk falls into the ropes on the apron to knock him down. Bradshaw goes up and hits a back superplex for 2. Powerbomb from Bradshaw that hits despite Scorpio's attempt to fight it. Funk tosses Scorpio out and whips him into the rail. He gets on the second rope. JR thinks he's going to moonsault, but instead Funk does a simple dive that Scorpio doesn't seem sure what to do with. Funk rolls Scorpio up and Faarooq makes a very late save. Scorpio goes up top and hits a reverse splash for 2. Legdrop off the top for 2. Everyone in the pool! Scorpio hits the 450 splash and gets the pin. Afterward Bradshaw gets pissed at Funk for losing and takes him out, then Scorpio and Faarooq for good measure to turn heel. *

 

Mark Henry def Vader in 5:03- Boom! No hesitation full body charge right after the bell and no one moves. Another one. Henry tries to slam Vader, legit loses his grip, scoops again, gets it, and drops an elbow. Vader rolls out and you can clearly hear him shout "FUCK!". JR tries to cover by saying he's mad he let Henry get him. No, I don't think that's it. Back in Henry continues the onslaught of horribly green wrestling with very pulled weak shots in the corner. Shoulderblock and another big elbow drop from Henry. Legdrop for 2. Sunset flip (!) from Henry and Vader squashes him. Vader big splash for 2. Here come the corner potatoes. He's not laying too hard into Henry though, surprising after what happened earlier. Avalanche and short clothesline from Vader and he tosses Henry out. Whip into the stairs. More potato shots back in. Vader slam and splash off the second rope for 2. Henry comes back with a powerslam. Big splash and it's over. One of Henry's worst matches. Vader was constantly having to visibly reposition him and loudly call spots, and Henry kept looking unsure of what he was doing, especially whenever he had to run. Maybe being in there with someone of Vader's reputation scared him, but considering how it went Vader went easy on him. 1/4*

Back to the WWF.com room and Taker is still not here. Kelley says there's people out searching for him. Did they get Leslie Nielsen? He has experience Taker hunting. While Kelley's talking Kane's music hits. Nice touch of him jumping when the pyro hits. I laughed. The new tag champs of Kane and Mankind come out with Paul Bearer. Bearer gloats at Taker's imminent no-show because he's scared of Kane. The former tag champs the New Age Outlaws interrupt. Road Dogg challenges them to a rematch on Raw. When they get no answer, they attack. The officials gaggle runs out to break the brawl up. Another Raw segment on PPV that feels totally out of place.

 

The Disciples of Apocalypse (w/Paul Ellering) def LOD 2000 in 8:50- This feud continues with no end in sight. Since we last saw the LOD, Sunny has been fired from the WWF (reportedly due to her issues with rising star Sable, drug problems and no-showing shows), while Paul Ellering has been brought back in, but to oppose LOD rather than mange them again. He's got the moniker of "Mr. Dot Com", which I guess is a swipe at internet fans but I don't know if anyone but Russo got the joke. This is also toward the start of the angle where Hawk's real life drug problems would be brought on screen, a bad move for everyone. Animal immediately gets caught in the DOA corner, which is good because I don't have to bother trying to figure out who's Skull and who's 8-Ball. JR certainly doesn't. After about a million elbow drops Animal ducks a bunch of shots, hits a double clothesline and tags. Hawk clothesline off the top rope. The LOD hit a Hart Attack! Nice. Hawk neckbreaker. After that is the inevitable Hawk posts his shoulder spot. He falls to the floor and immediately gets jumped on. Ellering even tries to get involved. He's enthusiastic, I'll give him that. Don't know if he's accomplishing anything more than that. JR questions his sanity on commentary. Other than that it's a pretty typical bland Hawk Road Warrior in peril run with the usual stuff from these teams. Eventually Hawk dodges, hits clotheslines and tags. Animal runs wild. The Doomsday Device hits! The pin is broken up. Ellering takes a shot. The DOA swap guys, plant Animal with a DDT, and get the pin. What you'd expect from late '90s LOD and the DOA. 3/4*

Vince comes out with his usual stooge entourage, including Commissioner Slaughter who's been stoogified and is now with the group. Vince says don't blame him if Taker no shows, he's just the promoter. He gets his brainy specs out to confirm on the official card from the program (man I miss those), where it does indeed say "card subject to change". Not only that, if a wrestler can't make it beyond the promoter's control, he can name a suitable replacement. And here he is....THE BROOKLYN BRAWLER! Eh, Austin could still win.

 

Dungeon Match: Owen Hart def Ken Shamrock in 4:53- This is another early foray into what would be a staple of the COVID era in wrestling, the cinematic match. This is "live" (pretaped) from the actual famous Dungeon in the basement of the Hart family home, where Stu Hart trained all his kids how to wrestle, as well as many of the other greats of multiple eras. It's submission only rules and Dan Severn is the guest referee. Shamrock gets a dramatic entrance through an upper floor door, down the stairs and down the hallway. The cut to a closeup of Severn shouting "Let's fight!" is pretty much a giveaway this is pretaped and edited. They start off with some mat wrestling. Literally mat, the floor of the Dungeon is nothing but a thin mat over the floor. Stalemate. Shamrock kicks Owen into the wood paneled wall and tosses him. More runs into the wall. Owen gets a low blow and manages to do a spinning heel kick in the tight space. Shamrock gets run face first into the wall. German suplex from Owen! They're going for it, that's for sure. Owen takes some hard shots into the wall. He leaps up, grabs a pipe on the ceiling, kicks Shamrock, then uses the position to hurricanrana him! Shamrock throws Owen into one of the weight racks on the wall. Some of that looks like film cans too. Don't hurt those, history needs those. Shamrock tries to use the same ceiling pipe but Owen grabs and powerbombs him. He throws Shamrock up into the pipe! Then runs his head into the ceiling! Another hole joins the many already up there. The Sharpshooter is on. Shamrock tries to counter out into the ankle lock but Owen escapes. Owen ducks a kick and Severn gets hit! Owen grabs a weight and waffles Shamrock with it! Shamrock is out. Owen puts on a part of a crossface to try to make it look convincing, then uses the unconscious Shamrock's arm to make it look like he's tapping out! Severn calls it. Fun little unique match that both guys worked hard to make work, and they kept it short so it didn't overstay its welcome. **3/4

 

Two out of Three Falls Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Rock (c) and Triple H (w/Chyna) go to a 30:00 time limit draw- Both guys come out with their full groups but everyone is tossed except Chyna. Big "Rocky sucks" chant on his entrance. Back to normal after the small pop he got at King of the Ring.

FIRST FALL- Lots of jawing after the bell. A crotch chop sets Rock off. Slugfest. Commentary is talking about the time limit a lot. I mean a LOT. Foreshadowing much? HHH gets knocked around, then comes back with clotheslines. Chyna gets a shot in to a big cheer. Rock backdrops out of an early Pedigree attempt.. HHH tosses him over the top and they brawl in the aisle. Rock gets slammed on the floor. They work back toward the ring with Rock desperately trying to get some space. HHH takes a stair shot. Rock corner whip back in and clothesline for 2. HHH swinging neckbreaker. Suplex and kneedrop. Corner beatdown tradeoff with both guys hitting big chops. Trips flip! Rock suplexes him on the floor. Mark Henry is out. He splashes HHH on the floor! Billy Gunn comes out to chase him off. In the confusion Rock whacks HHH with the IC title belt. HHH kicks out! Rock swinging neckbreaker for 2. After a chinlock HHH's comeback is cut off with a clothesline. Back out and HHH takes a rail shot. Rock chokes him with a TV cable. Back in Rock goes for his spinny DDT, has a little difficulty but manages to get around and hit it. Another chinlock with arm drops. Again HHH's comeback is cut off. He fires up again and hits corner elbows on Rock. Harley Race high knee. Rock with a hot shot! Now Godfather is out. The NAO come out to block him and they all leave. Corner stomps from the Rock. Ref Mike Chioda takes umbrage at Rock ignoring his instructions and they argue. For a while. But it's another Rock ploy! Brown is out now. HHH fights him off and whacks him with the European title belt. HHH walks into a Rock Bottom! That gets the first fall.

SECOND FALL- There's a full one minute rest period between each fall for this match. The bell rings to restart with Rock still in control. More floor beatdown. HHH comes off the rail with a clothesline. Rock gets slingshot onto the Spanish announce table. Setup slam back in. People's Elbow! Finally that has a name now. HHH kicks out! Clothesline from HHH and both guys are down. Brown's still out there. He gets on the apron. Chyna runs over, pulls him down and pops him. Pac runs in. X-Factor! HHH covers. Rock kicks out! HHH gets a chair. Rock takes it away, swings, but HHH ducks and he nails Chioda! Chyna takes the opening and comes in. Low blow on Rock! She DDTs Rock onto the chair! HHH covers and gets the pin!

THIRD FALL- As soon as the bell rings to restart HHH covers the still prone Rock again, but there's no ref! Chioda was being helped to the back. Hebner runs in and counts, but Rock's had enough time and kicks out. Fink says there's 2 minutes left. Good, nice to see WWF doing time left calls for once. They go back out and Rock gets whipped into the apron and clotheslined. HHH facebuster back in and huge clothesline for 2. 1 minute left. Rock ducks a clothesline and plants HHH with a Samoan drop! Slugfest. HHH blocks a Rock Bottom. The Pedigree hits! But Hebner waves off the count. The time limit's expired, but the timekeeper leaves Hebner hanging and rings the bell late, confusing the crowd. Both groups run in and brawl a bit before leaving. For an initial test run to see how HHH and Rock would handle a main event like match, that held together extremely well. Imagine how much better they'll be with some more seasoning. All the overbooking with both groups getting involved worked as well in the context of the larger Nation/DX feud. ***1/4

Back to the WWF.com room. Taker is here! We have footage as proof! Damn shame for Brooklyn Brawler, he could have had the night of his career. After that we get a video recap of the Sable/Jacqueline feud leading up to tonight's bikini contest. After Sable finally dumped Marc Mero, Mero brought Jacqueline in as her replacement. Sable didn't like that and the catty bitch fight was on. The whole video feels like watching a Jerry Springer episode. Russo trash TV at its height.

Before the contest starts Dustin Runnels (Goldust no more) interrupts to say a quick prayer. Honestly as a Christian this offends me more than anything because the mocking tone is patently obvious. Not from Dustin himself, from the segment in general. Lawler is unimpressed. After Dustin leaves MC Lawler quickly gets things going. Nothing much to say here, especially as I've never been into either of these two. Now if it was Sunny, train wreck or no she was always nice to look at in her prime. Jacqueline wears little, and even flashes a nipple at one point that has to be pixelated out. I assume it wasn't on the live broadcast. Sable, after a "this is all Mr. McMahon would let me wear" tease, wears even less. In fact it's her famous "handprints over boobs" outfit. Vince comes out to cover Sable up and shuffles her away. Mero tries to argue Jacqueline wins by DQ because Sable's handprints weren't technically a bikini.. That'll have to be referred upward to the International Bikini Athletic Commission. The whole segment was blatant trash TV T&A, with Sable's "outfit" bordering on softcore porn. Not preaching, just observing.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: WWF Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Undertaker def Kane and Mankind (c) (w/Paul Bearer) in 17:28- The elaborate feud between these four guys continues. Kane and Mankind are 100% on the same page. Austin and Taker less so. The center of the feud right now is what side is Taker on, Austin's or secretly Kane's. It doesn't help that an Austin/Taker WWF Title match has already been signed for Summerslam, thanks to a #1 contender's match on Raw where Taker won dressed as Kane. Taker has new music here, the first version of what would be his Ministry of Darkness music. Which is, ultimately, where all this is going, hence the questions around where Taker's head it at. Taker stops Austin in the aisle during his entrance, but the staredown is short as they're jumped from behind by the champs. Big brawl on the floor. After they get in the ring Austin flips Taker off before going to work on Mankind. Mankind runs Austin into Kane's knee. Thesz Press on Kane. Kane blocks a Stunner. He rolls out and goes up the aisle. Austin charges and hits him with a running clothesline. Double noggin knocker on the heels. Taker tags in to the slight surprise of commentary. Russian leg sweep on Kane. Taker flips Austin off! Austin likes it! Avalanches from Taker on Mankind. Old school hits. Mankind punches back and they trade shots in the corner. Blind tag to Kane. Kane chokeslam on Taker! Taker goes in peril with beatdowns from both heels. Corner running knee from Mankind. Double underhook DDT. Austin saves the pin. Cactus Clothesline! Kane pops Taker when he hits the floor. Mankind sets up for the Cactus Elbow. Austin pushes him off the apron into the Spanish announce table! Foley out here doing crazy bumps barely a month after almost dying in Hell in a Cell. Taker backdrops Mankind on the floor, but Kane uses that to nail him with a clothesline. Taker DDT on Mankind back in. Kane pushes Taker into a tag to Austin! Austin goes nuts. DONNYBROOK! Mankind throws a chair in, but Austin gets it and whacks Kane in the head. Hebner's distracted, and by the time he counts Kane kicks out. Kane big boot. Austin gets tossed over the top rope and Mankind jumps him as soon as he hits the floor. Beatdown around the announce tables. More beatdown in the ring as Austin is now in peril. Mankind drops an elbow for 2. Double clothesline. Kane cuts the tag off. Slam and legdrop for 2. Taker steps in the ring and stares at Hebner while Austin gets choked down in the heel corner. Chokeslam from Kane. Mankind wants the Tombstone. Austin escapes! Stunner on Kane! Mankind runs in and puts the Mandible Claw on Austin! Stunner on Mankind. Taker's just chilling on the apron while all this is going on, not a care in the world. Kane tries to hold back Austin from tagging. Taker hesitates, then finally puts his hand out and gets the tag. He wails away on both champs. Chokeslam on Kane. One for Mankind. Tombstone on Kane! Austin cuts Mankind off, and Taker gets the pin! New champs! Taker takes both belts and leaves alone, with an upset Austin looking on as the show closes. They'd end up dropping them back to Kane and Mankind on Raw before Summerslam. The match had moments, but overall didn't come together as well as it could have. **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A pretty typical B PPV just marking time until Summerslam. The Rock/Trips match is worth checking out if you're tracking the important steps in their careers.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-