Original Airdate: April 13, 1998
From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Host is Jim Ross, with Michael Cole (hour one), and with Jerry Lawler (hour two)
WWF Champion Steve Austin hits the ring to start, and calls Vince McMahon out because he wants to know who he’s fighting at Unforgiven. Vince comes out (complete with security force), but Vince ‘hasn’t decided’ who he’ll be facing yet. Steve doesn’t like that, but he wants a challenge, and offers to put the title on the line tonight… against Vince himself
Backstage, Vince mulls Austin’s challenge alongside his cronies, who are trying to talk him into it
Chain Match: Savio Vega and Jose Estrada v Skull and 8-Ball: DX are hanging around at ringside here, which quickly turns into a brawl with the rest of the Disciples of Apocalypse on the outside. Meanwhile, punch kick, punch kick in the ring, and Triple H leaves Chainz unconscious following a Pedigree on a chair. The New Age Outlaws add a spike piledriver on the ramp for good measure, before DX just run in on Skull and 8-Ball for the DQ at 2:17. There was a match in the background, but that’s all it was: background noise. DUD
Backstage, Shane McMahon tries talking Vince out of accepting the challenge
DOA gets carried out on stretchers following the beating from DX
Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor v Aguila and Pantera: Vince shows up before the bell, unable to wait until after the match to get whatever he needs to get off his chest off his chest. Interesting line here, as he discussed the heritage of the company, and notes that he’d like to see his kids and grandkids in charge one day, and for generations to come. Yeah, well, plans change, as they say. Anyway, McMahon accepts the challenge, because he’s had enough of Austin, and needs to get him gone. Okay, so with that out of the way, back to the tag match… but now the lights die before they can ring the bell, and Undertaker interrupts. He beats all four guys up to clear the ring by force, and cuts a promo on Kane
The Starburst Slam of the Week is Austin stunning McMahon last week
Backstage, Kevin Kelly reports that Jim Ross came backstage during the break to try (unsuccessfully) to talk Vince out of fighting Austin tonight. Little bits like this are adding a lot to this angle
Taka Michinoku v Jeff Jarrett: The WWF Light Heavyweight gold is not on the line tonight. Jeff attacks before the bell, as Steve Blackman split screens in to promise revenge on Jarrett for last week. He doesn’t seem too upset, though. Meanwhile, Tennessee Lee stops by the commentary table to hype up Jeff’s singing debut at Unforgiven. Haven’t we already done that angle? But this time it includes a bunch of flyers raining down from the ceiling, so, you know, different. Jeff with a superplex and a dropkick, but Taka dumps him to the outside. He threatens a dive, but Kaientai run in on him for the DQ at 2:30. Another barely-match. DUD
Backstage, Austin laughs off Vince’s bravado
Backstage, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco give Vince tips. This episode is kind of the ‘official’ start of Patterson and Brisco as McMahon’s stooges, and it’s a great fit right from the jump
Faarooq comes out (complete with new music), and he challenges the entire Nation of Domination to fight him, in response to last week. They come out to respond, and of course, Rock does the talking. They advance, when Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman show up to back Faarooq (complete with fist raising), and it’s a big brawl until officials can jump in
The 10-321 Rewind is Cactus Jack getting all dark last week. Yeah, I too miss the days when he’d just lightheartedly beat on guys with barbed wire baseball bats
The Quebecers v Terry Funk and 2 Cold Scorpio: Apparently he’s back to being just ‘Terry Funk’ again, and Scorpio is back to being Scorpio. Why change his name from ‘Flash Funk’ on the night he teams with Terry? It’s right there! The heels attacks Terry before the bell, and go to work on him. Scorpio catches a tag, but quickly gets into trouble, and the heels work him over. They miss their finisher, however, and Scorpio hits Pierre with a flying 450 splash at 2:16. This was the first proper match of the night. Even if it sucked. DUD
Luna Vachon comes out to call Sable out, since calling people out was the style of the time, you see. But instead of Sable, she gets Goldust in drag. So that goes on for a bit, until the real Sable runs out and tackles Luna for a few seconds until officials break it up
Backstage, Austin laces up his boots
The New Midnight Express v Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman: Dan Severn is with the Midnights here, and he gets in Shamrock’s face before the bell. Ken and Steve dominate with ease, but Steve misses a 2nd rope headbutt drop, and that turns the tide. The Express go to work, but Ken gets the tag, and Roseanne Barr the door. The babyfaces dominate, and suddenly the referee decides to throw it out at 3:44. No idea what that finish was supposed to be, as there were no weapons being used, just the usual thing that happens at the end of literally every tag match in history. DUD
Backstage, Vince is warming up
Kevin Kelly comes into Vince’s locker room, and he’s got Sgt. Slaughter in there along with Patterson and Brisco now. Kevin wants to know if he’s ‘afraid,’ but Vince notes that he’s not even scared of Ted Turner, so he certainly isn’t afraid of Austin
The Headbangers are in the ring for a match, but Undertaker shows up before their opponents can get introduced, and beats them up like he did to the other guys earlier. This time, it draws Kane and Paul Bearer out, and they’ll take on Undertaker next week… in a cemetery. Oh, like a cinematic match?
Backstage, Austin struts around, possibly heading out to the arena
Val Venis vignette
Backstage, Vince gives us tickets to the gun show
Billy Gunn v Owen Hart: Owen is backed up by LOD 2000 here to counteract DX, who are sitting in on commentary. Gunn takes control with a hanging vertical suplex, and a kneedrop gets him two, as DX crack jokes about LOD. Gunn with a chinlock, but Owen escapes, and throws a bodypress for two. Billy fights back with a clothesline, but Owen keeps coming with an inverted atomic drop, and a spinheel kick. Leg-feed enzuigiri gets him two, and an atomic drop allows him to clothesline Gunn over the top. Hart suplexes him back in for two, and the Sharpshooter looks to finish, but Chyna distracts him. Hart stupidly takes the bait, allowing Gunn to knock him out of the ring. DX advances, but LOD cut them off, and Hart snapmares Billy on the way back in. Bodyslam leads to a missile dropkick for two, and a neckbreaker gets him two. Backdrop, but Gunn counters with a rocker dropper, as Ross promises no more commercial breaks in the episode. Still quite a bit of run time left in this one, that’ll be quite a feat. Gunn goes for the kill, but wastes time playing to the crowd, and Owen schoolboys at 9:23. This was, like, a real wrestling match, and stuff. * ¼
Backstage, McMahon makes the long walk to the ring
WWF Title Match: Steve Austin v Vince McMahon: Ross worrying about what’s going to happen to the company after Austin kills McMahon is pretty funny. “I just bought a house!” Vince slaps Steve across the face before the bell, showing no fear. Steve is ready to get going, but Vince reminds him that he (offhandedly) said he could beat Vince with ‘one hand tied behind (his) back,’ and McMahon wants him to honor it. And he wants his ‘stunner arm’ tied. So Steve complies, and they do a bunch of jawing, trading verbal barbs as Vince stalls for time. Brisco sets him up with a mouthpiece to give him one last layer of protection, and it’s finally time to ring the bell… when Dude Love’s music kicks on. Dude comes out, and he wants everyone to ‘just get along.’ Vince responds by shoving Dude down, so Love goes after him with the mandible claw. Austin tries to ‘save’ so he can get Vince himself, but Dude responds by turning the claw on him instead. That leaves Steve unconscious, and McMahon struts off, with no match happening.
BUExperience: Man, no wonder they ran the ‘crash TV’ concept into the ground after this crashiest crash TV episode drew their first win against Nitro. This barely qualified as a wrestling show, but you know what, it was super entertaining, and flew by. This style of wrestling definitely isn’t what I’m looking for out of the sport, but it has its place, and you can’t argue with the success.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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