Original Airdate: March 9, 1998 (taped March 3)
From Wheeling, West Virginia; Your Host is Jim Ross, with Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly (hour one), and with Jerry Lawler (hour two)
Rock and Faarooq v Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman: Faarooq and Blackman start, and Faarooq manages to pound him in the corner after denying Steve a clean break. Steve fights back with a bicycle kick, and he passes to Ken, but Shamrock walks into a spinebuster. Tag to Rock for a People’s Elbow (now named), and back to Faarooq for a backdrop, but Shamrock counters with a facebuster. That allows Steve to tag in, but Faarooq goes to the eyes to slow him down, and Rock tags to hammer Blackman in the corner. Cross corner whip, but Steve reverses, and delivers a dropkick. Small package gets Steve a two count, but he walks into a clothesline, and the sound mixing is really weird here, with the crowd turned way down for whatever reason. Faarooq with a powerslam for two, but Steve fights back with a spinkick, and he makes a hot tag to Shamrock. Ken runs wild on Rocky, and a powerslam gets him two. Rana gets another two when Faarooq saves, so Steve comes in, but that’s met with the Nation of Domination pouncing for the DQ at 4:22. This felt really directionless. Afterwards, Rock sends the Nation away so he can beat Ken down by himself, but that predictably backfires on him, and Rock ends up tapping to the anklelock, with Faarooq refusing to send the gang down to save. ¼*
Triple H and Chyna join us to talk trash at WWF European Champion Owen Hart, and WWF Champion Shawn Michaels joins us with a pre-recorded video to gloat about bringing Mike Tyson into DX. This was pretty weak, with Shawn (one of the best promos in the business at this point) literally phoning in his build for the biggest show of the year
WWF European Title Match: Owen Hart v Barry Windham: Triple H sits in on commentary for this one. They spend some time measuring each other to start, and Barry takes control, but Owen fights him off with a side suplex. Windham fires back with a jumping clothesline for two, and he dumps Hart to the outside, as Ross and HHH get into a funny back-and-forth when Hunter has the gall to make fun of the size of Owen’s nose. Inside, Windham side suplexes him for two, and a DDT is worth two. Cross corner whip, but Owen reverses, and delivers a backdrop. Spinheel kick finds the mark, and he corners Windham for a ten-punch count. Hart with a hiptoss, and he goes upstairs with a missile dropkick. Sharpshooter looks to finish, so Jim Cornette distracts him, and Owen takes the bait. You’d think, of all people, Owen would be wise to Cornette’s tactics. Windham tries a sneak attack, but Hart backdrops him over the top. He follows, but gets jumped by Chyna out there, and gets counted out at 5:05. Another listless contest. Afterwards, Bradshaw runs out to attack Windham, chasing him off. ¼*
Backstage, Marc Mero puts Sable in handcuffs
Backstage, Jerry Lawler catches up with Kane and Paul Bearer, who gloat over injuring Vader, but when the subject turns to Undertaker, suddenly all sorts of things start moving and shaking, as we up the supernatural aspect of the angle again
Brian Christopher v Aguila: Brian attacks from behind at the bell, which, as I always say, is the victim's fault in those situations. Why would you have your back turned at the bell? Brian dumps him over the top, but Aguila comes back in with a springboard, and a dropkick knocks Brian to the outside. Aguila is on him with a dive, then goes back up with a springboard moonsault press out there as well. Inside, Aguila delivers a spinheel kick, but a handspring backelbow gets countered into a Russian facebuster. Sitout tombstone piledriver rattles Aguila, and I’m frankly surprised anyone in this promotion was getting the greenlight to use that move at this point. Brian adds a suplex for two, and a neckbreaker follows. He dumps Aguila to the apron to set up a sunset bomb on the floor, and he gets in WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku’s face out there. That allows Aguila to recover, and he knocks Brian off the top on the way back in. Aguila with a missile dropkick, and a headscissors takedown, as the lights flicker. Aguila goes for a submission, so Jerry Lawler distracts him, and Brian is able to escape. Aguila stays focused with a slam, and he goes upstairs, so Jerry gets more direct - crotching him on the top turnbuckle for the DQ at 4:49. There was solid work in this, but the match ultimately felt adrift, with no proper flow to it. *
The WrestleMania Millennium Moment is Andre the Giant winning the battle royal at WrestleMania 2
Steve Austin storms out, angry that Vince McMahon had the audacity to call Mike Tyson the ‘baddest man on the planet’ last week. So he demands Vince come out to face him, so Steve can show him what’s what. Vince doesn’t show, but officials do. They threaten to suspend him if he doesn’t leave, but Austin calls their bluff: WrestleMania is just weeks away, they’re not going to do a thing to him. Steve stages a sit-in until McMahon comes out, and Vince tries to play it down as ‘just a figure of speech,’ but Austin isn’t having it. He grills McMahon over whether he’d like to see Steve as WWF Champion, and then tries goading McMahon into hitting him so he can retaliate. Vince won’t take the bait, so Steve tears his jacket apart, and dares him to fire or suspend him with WrestleMania around the corner. Vince is fuming, but ultimately walks away. This was a tremendous segment. It’s interesting how little actual interaction Austin and Michaels had for the build, with Steve more focused on Tyson and McMahon most of the time. It’s working, and one of the most interesting programs in wrestling at that time, but you can’t ignore that Shawn almost seems like an afterthought
The Quebecers v Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie: The Quebecers in powder blue gear is just wrong. Wrong. Big brawl right off the bat, and Jacques eats a neckbreaker from Charlie for two. A distraction from Pierre allows Jacques to turn the tide, they work Charlie over. Pierre misses a dive to allow a tag to Jack, and Roseanne Barr the door! Charlie tries a flying moonsault on Jacques, but misses, and Pierre brings Jack off the top with a rana for two. Both of those guys seem too big for the physics of that to work. Charlie recovers to save, and Jack delivers a double-arm DDT at 5:25. Afterwards, WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws attack them with a chair to build their WrestleMania match. ½*
The 10-321 Slam of the Week is Undertaker making his return last week. Sometimes 1998 doesn’t feel like that long ago, and then you see ads for stuff like 10-321, and you realize that we live in an entirely different reality
Kane and Paul Bearer join us for their usual boring promo on Undertaker, when the lights die, and Undertaker appears in the ring behind them. Then they die again, and he’s gone when they come back up. Well, that was good and pointless
Goldust v Marc Mero: Luna Vachon and Sable are each handcuffed to a ring post here. Marc with rights and lefts to start, and a kneelift finds the mark. Backdrop connects, and Goldust bails, but Marc is on his tail. That allows Luna to trip Mero up, and Goldust capitalizes with an axehandle, then drops Marc across the guardrail. Inside, Goldust delivers a jumping clothesline for two, and a vertical suplex follows, but instead of covering, Goldust goes after Sable. That allows Mero to recover, and he drags Goldust back in. Cross corner whip, but Goldust reverses, and the referee gets bumped in the process. Goldust delivers the Curtain Call, but there’s no referee. Goldust doesn’t seem to mind though, and drops a leg on the official so he can steal the handcuff key. He frees Luna, allowing her to attack the still locked Sable, until Mero can save. Sable gets free, and everyone chases each other to the back, so I guess it’s a no-contest at 5:40, though no decision is ever actually announced. ½*
Backstage, Goldust and Luna issue a challenge to Mero and Sable for a mixed-tag team match at WrestleMania
Video package on Mike Tyson’s various adventures in the WWF thus far
Earlier today, Ross sat down with Tyson to question whether or not Mike can be impartial at WrestleMania. He’s literally a member of DX now. Mike was right to storm out after that stupid question
Triple H v Savio Vega: There’s less than two minutes left in the episode, so don’t expect much here. They do a lockup, and Austin immediately runs down for the no-contest at 0:30. Steve starts passing out stunners, when Shawn Michaels suddenly bursts onto the scene, and hits Steve with a superkick! DUD
BUExperience: Very good episode this week. The wrestling itself continues to become an afterthought, but the storylines and pacing are all really good, and the show is packed with interesting characters, and entertaining as hell.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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