WWF Over the Edge (May 1998)

From Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

Opening Match: LOD 2000 v DOA: Big brawl to start, with Droz and Chainz getting involved as well. Animal starts with Skull all official-like, but quickly takes a DDT and a legdrop. Blind charge misses, and Animal takes him down with a corkscrew legwhip, then blows him low, and that's enough to warrant tags all around. Hawk gets into a shoving match with 8-Ball, as Jim Ross reels off the LODs title history - starting with the AWA. I love when announcers do that, and it's sort of a lost art today (when everybody has held titles dozens of times), but it lends a lot of credibility. 8-Ball tries a piledriver, but Hawk no-sells, and tags so Animal can have the pleasure of chinlocking. Hawk misses a flying clothesline to knock himself out of the ring, and the DOA take over. The crowd naps as they cut the ring in half, and the only thing keeping me awake is Sunny bouncing around on the outside trying to motivate the LOD. Skull misses a 2^nd rope elbowdrop to allow the tag to Animal, and he's a house of arson to trigger a four-way brawl. The DOA try to pull a switcheroo, but Animal ignores it, and powerslams 8-Ball for the pin at 9:58. Oddly, the crowd popped big for that, though they were silent from bell to bell. Really lazy stuff. Not phoned-in, exactly, just sloppy. Not a good start. DUD

Jeff Jarrett v Steve Blackman: Blackman scares him out of the ring with the kendo sticks to start, and we get the patented Double-J stall session. Steve gets sick of it, and baseball slides out after him, then presses him back inside. Steve with a missile dropkick on the way back in, and a springboard axehandle follows. Backdrop, but Jeff sees it coming, and DDTs him. Jeff follows up with lots of strutting, so Blackman kicks at him, and German suplexes him for two. Tree of woe, but Tennessee Lee distracts Blackman, and Jarrett attacks. Dropkick gets two, but Blackman controls a pinfall reversal sequence with a backslide for two. Jarrett with a sleeper, but Blackman reverses - just in case anyone wasn't sure who was booking. Jeff side suplexes out for two, but Steve reverses a vertical suplex - only to miss a slingshot splash. Double-knockout spot, and Steve recovers first with a backbreaker and a spinkick. Series of elbowdrops get two, and the Bicycle Kick hits, but Lee distracts him again. It backfires, and Steve cradles Jarrett for two. Jeff goes for Blackman's kendo stick, but that backfires as well, and gets Steve two. To the top to finish, but there's Lee with the kendo stick, and Jeff covers for the pin at 10:20. Kind of fell apart in the middle, and never recovered. ¼*

Intergender Match: Marc Mero v Sable: If Sable wins, she gets contractual freedom from Mero, and if Mero wins, Sable leaves the WWF. Mero, ever the gentlemen, hits his back and says she can have it if she wants it so damn bad - only to cradle her when she goes for it at 0:31. She had that coming. DUD

Handicap Match: Kaientai v Taka Michinoku and Bradshaw: Big brawl to start, and Bradshaw launches Taka out onto the heels on the floor. Funaki starts with Taka once the dust settles, and dropkicks him, so he passes to Bradshaw. Wise move. Funaki bails, and Bradshaw gets bored, so he just passes back to Taka instead. Mens Teioh comes in and cracks his jaw with a short-clothesline, and he passes back to Bradshaw. Teioh bails, but this time Bradshaw gives chase like they're in the showers and he has an issue. That goes nowhere, so the frustrated Texan passes back to Taka. Dick Togo charges right in with a forearm, and he beats Taka in the corner, but he misses a charge, and takes a tornado DDT for two. Everyone brawls, and Teioh's attempt at diving onto Bradshaw with a plancha gets him slammed, while Taka dives onto Funaki with a moonsault. Inside, Bradshaw grabs Togo, but he's not the legal man, so he gets forced out. Taka gets worked over by Kaientai, but they miss a triple-team, and Taka gets to Bradshaw. He nearly dents the ring with a powerbomb on Funaki, and adds a tiger suplex for Teioh for two. Back to Taka, he gives Togo a Michinoku Driver for two, but gets overwhelmed in a double-team, and Togo FLATTENS him with a senton bomb at 9:54. Didn't click for whatever reason. And no, not just because of Bradshaw - it just didn't gel. ½*

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: The Rock v Faarooq: Rock is sporting a neck brace as a result of an attack by Faarooq earlier, but Faarooq still attacks in the aisle, and rips the brace off. Inside, Faarooq unloads a few clotheslines, and Rock bails. Rock clotheslines him to take control, and inside, he drops the People's Elbow for two. Faarooq shrugs him off and comes back with a bodyslam, but takes a DDT for a pair of two counts. Faarooq manages a spinebuster, but a miscommunication with the referee allows Rock to cradle him in the corner (with two feet on the ropes) at 5:09. Really boring, but it was kept short. DUD

Mask v Mask Match: Kane v Vader: I guess they were just hoping we all forgot that we've already seen Vader without the mask literally hundreds of times. In almost every match he's been in, in fact. See, it's stupid shit like this that got Russo burned at the stake later, but it was all so fresh and exciting at this point, that people were happily looking the other way, especially because the big angles on top were so good. Kane beats him into the corner to start, but Vader comes back with a pair of bodyblocks. Kane reverses a vertical suplex, but the big fat piece of shit dodges an elbow, and hits a short-clothesline. This is going nowhere, and the crowd is napping. Kane with his own short-clothesline, and he casually bodyslams the big guy, then hits a flying clothesline. Big boot, and an eyerake, as the crowd busies themselves with trying to get on camera. Chokeslam, so Vader bails, and comes back with a wrench. Yes, like a giant, cartoon wrench, of all things. He beats Kane with it to give us the illusion that he has a chance here, but the flying moonsault misses, and Kane Tombstones him at 7:20. Total yawner. But, hey, at least now we know what Vader looks like without the mask. There’s that. DUD

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Degeneration-X v The Nation: Jesse James starts with D-Lo Brown, and they trade hammerlocks until D-Lo shoulderblocks him. Brown works a standing side-headlock for a while, but James hiptosses his way out, and short-clotheslines D-Lo before tagging out to Billy Gunn. D-Lo rakes the eyes and passes to Owen Hart, but Billy clotheslines him as he charges in, and hits a press-slam. Again, but Hart slips free, and cracks him with a spinheel kick. Backdrop sets up the Sharpshooter, but Billy rakes the eyes to block, and tags Triple H. Hunter unloads on the nugget, and hits a high knee. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker is worth two, but Hart mulekicks him, and passes to Kama Mustafa. Kama quickly hits an avalanche, but telegraphs a backdrop, and takes a kneeling facebuster. Tag to Gunn, but he loses a criss cross, and gets destroyed in the Nation corner. Brown tries a dropkick, but Gunn counters with a slingshot, and he hits a clothesline to allow the tag to Triple H. Mud holes are stomped, and James hits his dancing kneedrop for two. Gunn with a vertical suplex for two, and back to HHH for a backbreaker to setup a kneedrop for two. James in, but D-Lo manages to evade him long enough to tag Kama, and a cheapshot from Hart allows Mustafa to take over with a savate kick. The Nation cut the ring in half on Road Dogg, but Brown misses a 2^nd rope senton splash, and Jesse gets to Billy. Six-way brawl, and DX spike piledrive D-Lo onto the tag title belt, but Owen saves, and Pedigree's HHH onto it for the pin at 18:00. This wasn't technically bad, it just fell very flat, and was about five minutes too long. *

Main Event: WWF Title Match: Steve Austin v Dude Love: So this time, Vince McMahon play special guest referee, but we also have The Undertaker out there as an enforcer, to make sure he doesn't try any funny business. Also, we have Pat Patterson as the guest ring announcer, and Gerald Brisco as the guest timekeeper. Well, guess we know who the favorite is there. Dude tries a headlock right away, and hits a shoulderblock when Steve tries escaping for a fast two count. Kind of love that referee McMahon wears an earpiece as well, and I sincerely hope he left a recording of himself in Gorilla to shout instructions. Austin tries a headlock next, but Dude escapes, and kneelifts him for two. Mat-based side-headlock by the challenger, but Austin backelbows him, and slaps on his own - as the crowd taunts McMahon with a 'Vince is Gay' chant. 'Shawn is Gay' or GTFO. Austin knocks Dude's false teeth out of his mouth, and decides to grind them into the mat with his boot. That pisses the challenger off, and he attacks, but takes a Thesz press in short order. Clothesline puts him on the floor, but he reverses a whip into the stairs when Austin follows him. McMahon worries that Austin will try saving the title via countout, so he simply decides that there are none, and Dude drags the champ back in for a Russian legsweep - getting two. Dude whips him around the ring for a bit, but Austin comes back with a series of clotheslines. Dude tries the Mandible Claw, but Austin hangs him in the ropes, and they spill out again. Dude goes for the Spanish announce table, so McMahon has Patterson inform us that this is no disqualification as well - he just forgot to mention it before. Dude chokes Stone Cold with an electrical cable, but gets dumped into the timekeepers table, and they spill into the crowd in vicious fashion (Dude taking a brutal bump off of a clothesline) for a brawl. Back to ringside, Austin hits a short-clothesline but inside, he misses the straddling ropechoke. Dude literally kicks him out of the ring, and he follows with a poorly executed swinging neckbreaker on the floor. Hey, maybe don't fuck with the golden goose's neck, idiot? Vince worries that now Dude won't get Austin back in fast enough to finish, so he declares that falls count anywhere, and Dude gets two in the aisle. Backslide in the aisle for two, but Austin takes his head off with a running clothesline, and they fight over to the entrance set - Dude backdropping the champion onto a car for two. Dude charges, but Austin stunguns him onto another car for two - Undertaker ensuring McMahon counts. They fight onto the roof of a car for Steve to try the Stunner, but Dude shoves him off in dramatic fashion - Austin sliding across the hood of another car like a TV cop. That busts the champ open, and Dude sunset flips him for two. He grabs an exhaust pipe, but there's a miscommunication between them, and Austin forgets to sell it. Whoops. Dude keeps beating on him anyway, and a backdrop out there gets two. Snap suplex, and Love climbs onto the roof of a car to dive at Austin with the Cactus-elbow, but Steve rolls out of the way, and covers for two. Austin beats him back to ringside for a shot into the steps, and inside, he goes for the kill, so Pat Patterson trips him, and Dude hits a clothesline - McMahon literally falling over himself to make sure he's in counting position. Dude rams the bloody Austin into an exposed turnbuckle, and hits a running kneesmash in the corner. Chinlock (?), but Austin quickly fights up, and goes for the exposed buckle, but Dude reverses - for two. Chairshot, and Dude adds a double-arm DDT onto it for two. Charge with the chair, but Austin kicks it back into his face, and levels him with a lariat. Steve takes revenge with the chair, but McMahon sees it's over, and won't count the fall. Austin lets off to protest, and while they argue, Dude grabs the chair and charges - hitting McMahon by accident! Austin manages the Stunner in the chaos, but Vince is dead. Another referee charges out to count, so Patterson steps up, and pulls him out at two. Austin is good and pissed now, but the distraction allows Dude to slap on the Claw. Patterson decides to count that fall himself, but Undertaker has had ENOUGH, and pulls HIM out at two, then adds a chokeslam through the announce table for good measure. Meanwhile, Dude still has Austin pinned, so Brisco tries counting, but Undertaker is there, and Gerald goes through the Spanish table. Stunner, but Vince is still dead, so Austin grabs Vince’s limp hand, and counts the fall himself at 22:27. Brilliant! All this stuff is cliché today, but this (along with the Unforgiven match the month before) were the birth of what would become the main event style in the WWF (and WCW later on) for the next few years, so it's certainly influential. Stuff like brawling around the arena, or brawling onto the entrance set were still new concepts - hell, the presence of the sets themselves were new concepts. This is the same stuff I absolutely hated when they started doing it in WCW later on (they pulled this same ‘rules change on the fly’ gag several times in WCWs final year), but again, it was all fresh and exciting in early 1998. Plus, the way the announcers (especially Jim Ross) reacted with disgust at McMahon's tricks really helped get it over. *** ½

BUExperience: The main event is a supremely entertaining brawl, but unfortunately, it’s not enough to save this show as a whole, as the rest of the card is really dull, forgettable stuff. One thing the WWF was great at pulling off during this period is really leaving a good taste in your mouth. Yeah, the undercard was terrible, but the main event was so much damn fun, that it sort of washes it all away at the end, while WCW was doing the complete opposite – their terrible main events often washing away great undercards.

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