Summerslam '98

Legacy Review

Summerslam '98

August 30, 1998 from Madison Square Garden in New York City

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The tagline for this show is "Highway to Hell", playing off the ongoing Austin vs Undertaker/Kane feud, with a really cool stage setup in the classic MSG stage spot. The entrance is a giant iron gate, like a cemetery gate, with red light behind it and the actual highway on the floor. This show is Summerslam's 10th anniversary, and with it comes the first logo change in the show's history, a pretty crappy one that would only last the one year. Also making its PPV debut tonight- the modern WWF/E padded ringside barricade. No more classic guardrails, at least until NXT comes along. Tony Chimel is doing ring announcing on PPV for the first time, as Howard Finkel is otherwise engaged tonight.

WWF European Championship: D'Lo Brown (c) def Val Venus by DQ in 15:24- Brown's announced European home town tonight is Helsinki, Finland. He's still wearing the chest protector, milking that old pec injury for all its worth. Roll around lockup at the start with a surprising clean break and an even more surprising low 5 slap. Another roll around lockup. This time Brown takes a cheap shot, then hides in the ropes. Venus forearms the chest protector and hurts himself. Brown Vader-style tackle with the protector, followed by an avalanche. Venus dodges another and hits a Russian leg sweep. Dropkick and Brown rolls out. Long speed run back in, lots of good counters, and Venus ends it by planting a spinebuster. We get a shot of Edge in the crowd again. Clothesline from Venus, but he misses the follow up splash. Brown quickly counters a sleeper with a back suplex. Hard Brown corner whip. Slugfest. Venus ducks a clothesline and hits an exploder suplex. Clothesline from Brown. Slam and legdrop for 2. Sloppy spinning heel kick for 2. Elbow off the second rope for 2. After a suplex fight Brown gets a takedown and puts on a cloverleaf. He can't hold on and lets go before Venus gets to the ropes. Venus dodges a senton off the second rope and goes into comeback flurry mode. He tries coming off the second rope. Brown catches and powerbombs him! Nice. Slow cover for a long 2. More counters and Brown hits a DDT for 2. They go up top and Brown fights off a superplex. He tries coming off the second rope but Venus catches and powerslams him for 2. After some rather odd maneuverings in the corner Venus hits a double underhook suplex. He goes up top for the Money Shot. Brown gets his knees up! Brown goes for a powerbomb but can't hold Venus and legit drops him. Another try. This time Brown pulls it off, a running Ligerbomb-like powerbomb. He goes up for the frog splash. Venus dodges! Venus fires up with punches. He takes Brown's protector off! Powerslam from Venus. He puts the protector on and goes up top. The ref tries to stop him, grabs Venus' foot, and Venus falls down and gets crotched! That's on the ref. Venus recovers to hit an inverted atomic drop and clothesline. The ref tries to stop him again and Venus tosses him aside. Brown grabs Venus and gets the protector off him as the ref calls for the bell, DQ'ing Venus. Venus takes his frustrations out on the ref and gives him the Money Shot because that's what you did in these days. Quality opener, bordering on good, but it had some very blatant rough spots and that ending was crap. It was refreshing how the whole match stayed in the ring too, very much a contrast in this era. **3/4

Michael Cole is in the back with the hearse Austin destroyed earlier in the night on Heat. Mankind is there also. Mankind and Kane are still the tag champs, but recently Kane turned on Mankind to realign himself with Taker (don't ask, it's Russo). He's hoping Taker and/or Kane were in there. No such luck. Mankind is disappointed his planned exit ride for Kane is no longer available, but he's still got his sledgehammer so he's good. Triple H hadn't copyrighted sledgehammers yet.

 

Handicap Match: The Oddities (w/Luna Vachon and The Insane Clown Posse) def Kaientai (w/Yamaguchi-San) in 10:10- The Oddities are Kurrgan, Giant Silva, and Cartman obsessed Golga (John Tenta/Earthquake with a mask). In other words, Golga is by far the best worker in the group and he's nearly a decade past whatever prime he had. Their entrance is cut out on the Network copy for rights reasons, ICP played them down. Since their last PPV appearance Light Heavyweight champ Taka Michinoku has turned heel and joined Kaintai following their feud with (and attempted castration of) Val Venus. Taka and Golga start. Golga no sells buckle shots. Kaientai all bump around for the first of many times tonight. Golga goes around and steals Yamaguchi's brand new shoes! They stink apparently, as confirmed by all Oddities members. Golga pours water in them! Yamaguchi runs in and gets taken out. Kaientai have a discussion before getting back in. Kurrgan offers to fight Funaki on his knees. They get going and, shockingly, Kurrgan's power is too much. Kaintai all jump in and get fought off again. Yamaguchi ends up in the middle of a tug of war and all of Kaientai goes down again. Silva tags in and Kaientai run from him. Taka loses rock paper scissors, gets in....and tags Togo! Togo makes a quick sign of the cross and dives in....right into a choke slam. Kaientai try to pile on the kaiju and all get fought off. Silva stacks Kaientai up in the corner and corner whips them into each other, then presses Taka down onto all of them. Golga powerslam on Togo. Funaki and Teioh double dropkick him. They slam Golga! All of Kaientai hit moves off the top rope onto Golga. More Kaientai group offense. Golga ends it with a quadruple clothesline! He dodges splashes, rolls and tags Kurrgan. Everyone in the pool! Luna cuts Yamaguchi off and slams him. Everyone in Kaientai gets choke slammed! Golga covers all four of them and gets the pin! The video immediately cuts off again because of another ICP song. No it's not technically a "good match", but I really don't get the hate this match gets. It's no masterpiece for sure, but it's a fun comedy match thanks to Kainetai bouncing around like bouncy rubber balls and I enjoy watching it. *1/2

Earlier in the night on Heat, Jeff Jarrett shaved Fink's hair off (what there was of it), one of many people he's done that to recently. DX made the save.

 

Hair vs Hair Match: X-Pac (w/Howard Finkel) def Jeff Jarrett (w/Southern Justice) in 11:11- After months (years?) of crusty staleness Jarrett is finally slowly starting to morph into the more attitude filled version we know mostly from his later WCW years, slap nuts. One step was losing Tennessee Lee (Col. Robert Parker), who was no longer with WWF. Commissioner Slaughter tosses Southern Justice before the match starts. Fink is out with Pac, and in DX gear! He does the crotch chop! And tells Jarrett to suck it! Fantastic. Jarrett jumps from behind and we get an extended back and forth start. Pac hits a spinning heel kick and 360 clotheslines Jarrett to the floor. Springboard dive to the floor! Pac casually dodges Jarrett's sunset flip back in. Why didn't more guys do that? Speed run. Jarrett slides under and hits a dropkick. Another dropkick sends Pac to the floor. Jarrett lifts Pac into atomic drop position and runs his crotch into the post! The beatdown continues in the ring with enthusiastic Pac selling. Pac gets a boot up in the corner but runs into a powerslam for 2. Pac tornado DDT and a slow cover for 2. He hits some corner kicks. Jarrett slaps on a sleeper. Pac goes down and they do the arm drops. Pac fights out and puts on his own sleeper. Jarrett lifts him and crotches him on the top rope. Pac fights off a back superplex and goes for a reverse crossbody. Jarrett dodges and Pac splats on the mat. Cover for 2. More back and forth. Pac hits a glancing spinning heel kick and both guys go down for a while. Not sure that went as planned. Jarrett slaps on the figure four. Pac tries to reverse but Jarrett fights it off. After a couple of near falls Pac grabs the rope. Jarrett goes for it again and Pac pushes him into the corner. Back suplex. Bronco buster! Put me on the list of people that aren't a fan of that move, just for the record. Jarrett gets a back elbow. Crossbody off the top rope. Pac rolls through it for 2. Jarrett leaps, but Pac catches and powerbombs him for 2. Jarrett dodges in the corner and stacks Pac up for 2. Pac reverses for 2. He goes for the Bronco buster again. Jarrett puts his foot up and Pac's crotch runs right into it. Third shot there tonight. He's going to need an ice pack after this match. Fink gets on the apron, arguing the low blow. Jarrett punches him! X-Factor! Slow cover. Jarrett kicks out! Southern Justice are back out. It's a Jarrett match, you know what's coming. Pac dodges the guitar shot, nails Jarrett with it, and gets the pin. Jarrett definitely had an extra spring in his step compared to the rest of this WWF run to this point. ***

After the bell the New Age Outlaws run Southern Justice off. The Headbangers and Droz, also Jarrett haircut victims, come out to help and the ritual sacrifice of Jarrett's hair takes place.

 

Mixed Tag Team Match: Sable and a mystery partner def "Marvelous" Marc Mero and Jacqueline in 8:26- Sable comes out alone, then gets a mic and says "let me introduce you to my partner"....."YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME". It's Edge! Edge comes down through the crowd to make his PPV in-ring debut. He was undefeated in WWF to this point. He gets a nice reaction too. The guys start. Mero gets the quick edge....er, advantage. Damn, gotta watch that wording for Edge matches now. Edge hits a tiltawhirl flying headscissors and some Japanese armdrags. Mero tags out. Sable is all kinds of fired up to get in. Jacqueline is all kinds of fired up to avoid Sable. She quickly bails and tags right back out. Edge hits Mero with a flapjack. Jacqueline grabs his foot. Mero with a kneelift. The heels take turns choking Edge on the ropes. Edge counters the TKO into a DDT. Tags. Sable quickly takes Jacqueline down and pounds on her. Corner kicks and a hair toss. Sable with a shot for Mero! They run around the ring and Mero blocks Sable. Sable low blow! She sets Mero up for a Sable bomb. Jacqueline attacks from behind. Sable hits Jacqueline with a TKO! Mero breaks the pin up. They argue on the floor and Jacqueline again attacks from behind off the apron. Back in Sable dodges and Jacqueline takes Mero out. Angry forearm from Sable and she tags Edge. Edge running plancha on Mero! Jacqueline jumps on his back. Edge gets her on his knee and spanks her! Back in Edge hits a crossbody off the top for 2. He hangs Mero on the top rope and drops him with a neckbreaker. Jacqueline gets Mero's foot on the rope. Mero wipes Jacqueline out and Edge rolls him up for 2. Samoan drop from Mero. He goes up top. Edge hits the ropes and he's crotched. Tag. Sable goes up and hurricanranas Mero! Jacqueline tries a splash off the top but gets Mero! They really need to work on their teamwork. Edge plants Mero with his finisher at the time, Downward Spiral. Then he gets Sable up in a wheelbarrow, drops her on Mero, and Sable gets the pin! Very nice PPV debut for young Edge. As usual Sable looked very rough at smaller points in the match but hit all her big stuff right. **

Cole is in the back with Mankind, who's devastated that he's lost his sledgehammer. He tells Cole he might as well give up and forfeit the tag belts right now. Cole says people paid to see him and that sets Mankind off even more. Vince steps in, convinces Mankind that defending the tag titles by himself will make him a LEGEND, this match is his kind of rules, and finds him some weapons to replace the lost sledgehammer. Mankind says what the hell, immortality is something he's always been interested in, and he has 13 words for DX: "HOW MUCH WOOD COULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK IF A WOODCHUCK COULD CHUCK WOOD?". Once again, Mick Foley, criminally underrated promo game. He was one of the absolute best.

 

Lion's Den Match: Ken Shamrock def Owen Hart (w/Dan Severn) in 9:15- This is a follow up to Owen and Shamrock's match in the Hart Dungeon at the last PPV. I'm pretty sure this one really is live though. This takes place in the MSG Theater, adjacent to the main arena, which is a cool venue with a bit of an indie show vibe, especially with how the audio is miced up. The Lion's Den itself is a mini MMA style cage. The door is locked and we're on. Owen is quickly backed into the cage and some back and forth mat grappling follows. Shamrock takes a cage shot and both guys trade some ground and pound. Back suplex from Shamrock. He gets a rear naked choke on. Owen low blows out. Clothesline from Shamrock, followed by knees to Owen's face. Something caught Owen flush as he's bleeding from the mouth a bit. Shamrock rips Owen's shirt off and chokes him with it. Leap off the cage from Shamrock and he kicks Owen. Hiptoss slam. Owen dodges and Shamrock goes face first into one of the cage beams. Enzuguri! More cage shots for Shamrock. Owen backbreaker. Shamrock backdrops out of a piledriver, then fights off the Sharpshooter. Owen leaps, but Shamrock catches and powerbombs him. Huge Shamrock clothesline and some more kicks. He comes off the cage again. Owen catches and powerslams him! Belly to belly suplex. The Sharpshooter is on! Shamrock crawls up the cage to get out of it. Tornado DDT from Shamrock. More kicks and clotheslines. Owen counters into a dragon sleeper, which is apparently supposed to be some kind of MMA choke Severn taught him. Shamrock walks up the cage to get out. Ankle lock! Severn walks out on Owen as he taps out. Like the Dungeon match, a unique spectacle that they pulled off well. ***

 

Falls Count Anywhere Handicap Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws def Mankind (c) in 5:17- Mankind comes out to give it a shot on his own. The NAO bring out a dumpster, a callback to their feud with Foley and Terry Funk during Wrestlemania season. They run right into Mankind cookie sheet shots. Bang bang! Mankind and Gunn both get chairs and sword fight with them. Mankind wins. Before he can do anything else Dogg grabs the chair from behind and the NAO jump all over Mankind. They pummel him with baking sheet shots. Gunn gets backdropped over the top to the floor. Mankind running knee on Dogg with the baking sheet! Swinging neckbreaker on Gunn on the floor and cover for 2. Dogg cuts off a Cactus Elbow. Double team on the floor and Mankind is thrown backwards into the dumpster side. The NAO set up a table in the ring corner. Mankind reverses and Gunn goes through it! NAO double team neckbreaker for 2. They set chairs up and powerbomb Mankind through them for 2. Mankind refuses to die. The NAO get Mankind's tag belt out, spike piledrive him on it, and that gets the pin. After the bell they toss Mankind in the dumpster. Kane is in there! With the sledgehammer! Hey, we found it. Sledgehammer shot on Mankind in the dumpster! JR acts like Kane just murdered him even though we couldn't see anything. Pretty solid plunder brawl match considering the unusual booking. On one hand it's disappointing they didn't do more with the falls count anywhere stip, but on the other hand a short match fit perfectly with Mankind trying to go it alone. **1/4

 

Ladder Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Triple H (w/Chyna) def The Rock (c) (w/Mark Henry) in 25:58- Officially this is WWF's third televised ladder match, the first one in three years, the first that wasn't Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon, and all three have been for the IC title. Triple H gets the full DX Band playdown for his entrance again, with Trips putting Chris Warren on his shoulders and tearing apart the drum set after. Lots of "Rocky sucks" and boos for Rock's entrance. Ref Mike Chioda hooks the belt up (correctly, Shawn doesn't need to come out and angrily fix it) and we're on. Rock throws some very clear F bombs on camera before taking the first shot. HHH hits a huge clothesline and does some ground and pound. Facebuster. Rock hooks up for the Rock Bottom but HHH fights out. Rock backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt, sending HHH to the floor. Rock goes for the one and only ladder. I miss the days there weren't 47 ladders all around the ring. HHH jumps him from behind and knocks him around what little aisle there is at MSG. They get back in without the ladder. Speed run and HHH hits the high knee. He goes for the ladder and Rock jumps him from behind. Down goes the ladder! First ladder bump and it's not even in the ring yet. Rock sets the ladder up against the ring apron. Double whip reversal and HHH goes into the ladder! Followed by a quick Rock clothesline. Now the ladder is in the ring. Rock sets it up and starts climbing. HHH comes off the top rope onto Rock's back! The ladder falls on top of HHH! That didn't miss his head by much. HHH swings the ladder into Rock! Then drops it on him! Rock stops HHH climbing and HHH tweaks the knee Rock had hurt earlier in the night on Heat again. Rock goes to work on it. He drops the ladder on HHH's knee! Then puts HHH leg inside the ladder and stomps it! Then nails the ladder with a chair! Knee posting with the crowd starting to get much more 50/50, there's some dueling chants happening. Rock sets the ladder up on the floor from the steps to the barricade, then drops HHH's knee on it! He sets the ladder back up in the ring and starts slowly climbing. The ladder is getting a bit rickety after all that damage. HHH very slowly gets back in (with Rock having to do some very obvious stalling), pushes Rock off the ladder, and then pushes the ladder clear out of the ring. He sets it up against the barricade. Rock blocks a ladder shot. Takedown and Rock slingshots HHH into the ladder! Long delayed Trips flop and he goes face first into the Spanish announce table! Fantastic. Some more brawling in the entrance aisle follows with the ladder ending up on the floor there. HHH sets up for a Pedigree into the ladder. Rock backdrops him onto the ladder! Henry gets the backup ladder from under the ring and slides it in. Rock sets up and climbs. HHH has to fight through Henry (leading to more Rock stalling) but eventually gets in and pushes the ladder down, sending Rock to the floor. HHH baseball slides the top of the ladder into Rock's face! Rock is busted open. HHH starts to climb. Now Rock pushes the ladder, but instead of going with it HHH leaps and goes straight down! Rock props ladder 1 up on top of the corner. Whip reversals. Rock adjusts midmove and plants HHH with a DDT instead. He sets up ladder 2 and starts climbing. HHH climbs the other side. Slugfest. Rock tosses HHH down into ladder 1! But on the rebound HHH runs into ladder 2, knocking it and Rock down! Chyna hands HHH a chair. Rock picks the ladder up. HHH chairshots the ladder into Rock's face! More chair to ladder shots with Rock under it. Rock slams HHH onto the ladder, then strikes the pose. Everyone knows what's coming now, and Rock gets a HUGE pop for it. The crowd has fully turned. People's Elbow with HHH on the ladder! There are now "Rocky" chants echoing around MSG with no "sucks" to be heard. HHH gets the ladder up and climbs. He fights Rock off, then tries to dive onto him, but dives right into a Rock Bottom! Rock climbs. HHH tights pulls him down. Pedigree! Henry throws powder in HHH's face. HHH climbs anyway, feeling his way up. Rock climbs the other side. Punches and HHH slides down. Chyna comes in and low blows Rock! The decks are clear! HHH climbs.....reaches.....and gets the belt to win! Rock's title reign ends at 264 days, the longest IC title reign since Mr. Perfect's second reign in '90-'91, and thanks to Attitude Era title hotshotting it would be by far the longest for over 5 years. Those are two completely made men in the ring right now. Absolutely incredible match, and all the better for being completely different than the previous legendary ladder matches. The Shawn/Ramon matches were a little more high spot oriented, while this match was all about brutality and airtight psychology. The only criticism is the slow climb stalling was pretty obvious at several points. ****1/2

 

WWF Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (c) def The Undertaker in 20:52- Despite Kane aligning with Taker again Taker is still officially a face and this is a respectful face vs face match, which is reportedly at odds with how Russo wanted it to go. Taker has even promised Kane will not get involved. Even with all that Taker's look and presentation continues to get closer to Ministry of Darkness Taker. Austin gets the big show glass shatter entrance again. It works right this time. Since the last PPV Austin has also gotten the personalized smoking skull title belt. Austin jaws before the bell, then tries some stick and move. Taker tosses him in the corner and goes to work. Austin fires back. Taker clothesline. Double bird from Austin and they lock up. Arm wringer tradeoff. Austin ducks a short clothesline into a roll up for 2. Drop toe hold from Austin that commentary is shocked by (JR saw Austin in WCW, he should know better) and Austin works Taker's arm a bit. Backdrop counter kick from Austin but then he strangely goes down. I think Taker's head hit him in the chin as he was going up. They fumble a little, redo the spot, and Taker hits a suplex. Speed run. Austin tries a Thesz Press but Taker catches and hot shots him! Taker starts working Austin's back. After a bit Austin rolls out. He pulls Taker down and starts attacking his knee. Back in Taker hits the flying clothesline. He goes for old school. Austin flips him off the top rope and goes back on the knee. Kane makes his way out. Austin sees him. Kane starts to get in the ring, but Taker tells him no and to leave. Surprisingly Kane does. Austin attacks with more knee work, then goes out to make sure Kane really does leave. Taker goozle! Chokeslam from the apron into the ring! Austin 360 clotheslines Taker out and the knee gets tweaked again. They brawl all around the ringside area, and into the crowd! At any point here now that brawl through the crowd will become mandatory in every WWF PPV main event for a while. Taker backdrops Austin on the floor and clotheslines him over the barricade back to ringside. Austin attacks back in. Taker backs out of a Stunner attempt and falls over the top back to the floor. He sets up the Spanish announce table. Austin gets draped over it. Taker goes up top. Legdrop off the top down onto the table! The table doesn't break! Taker and Austin slide off it down to the floor. Hebner turns the table over to check on them and THEN it comes apart. Of course. Taker slides Austin back in and covers. Austin kicks out! Austin dodges a Taker avalanche but Taker stays in control. Double clothesline. Austin comes back up slugging. Thesz Press! Not a very good one though. Austin's clearly not right. Corner whip and Austin Bret bumps. He tries to Stunner Taker on the rebound but they collide and go down. Not sure that went to plan. Chokeslam! Taker calls for the Tombstone. Austin squirts free. They have some slow motion counters (again Austin doesn't look right) and Taker lifts Austin and drops him crotch first on the top rope. Russian leg sweep. Taker hooks up for old school again. Austin low blows him as he's coming down! Stunner! Austin gets the pin! After the bell a shocked and pissed Taker still stays a good sport and hands the belt back to Austin. Taker and Kane watch from the entrance as Austin celebrates (and has some trouble climbing the ropes to pose) as the show ends. Austin famously got knocked loopy at some point during this match. It's hard to tell where, I think it was early, but it doesn't really start to affect him until late when it's clear he's not entirely there. Still good though, but it could have been even better. ***1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- If you wanted to point to a single show where WWF solidified its late '90s rise not only past WCW, but into mainstream culture, this would probably be the one. It still stands up as one of the greatest Summerslams ever, and probably the best overall show WWF put on in '98 with, very unusually for a Russo-led show, a heavy focus on wrestling instead of angles.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-