WWF Unforgiven 1998 (Version II)

Original Airdate: April 26, 1998

From Greensboro, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Opening Six-Man Tag Team Match: Rock, D-lo Brown, and Mark Henry v Faarooq, Ken Shamrock, and Steve Blackman: Brown and Blackman start, and they measure each other early on. D-lo gets control, but Blackman starts throwing strikes, so Brown uses a snap suplex. Elbowdrop, but Steve rolls out of the way, and throws a standing dropkick. Steve uses an armdrag into an armbar, and he passes to Ken to work a wristlock, so Brown goes to the eyes. Good reaction for Shamrock there. Ken takes him down for a kneebar, but Brown is in the ropes right away, so Ken tags Faarooq in. Brown browns his pants in response, but takes a cheap shot, so Faarooq drops him with a spinebuster. Faarooq with a bodyslam, and Steve tags in with a snap suplex of his own, and he armdrags Brown into another armbar. D-lo quickly escapes, and passes to Mark - Henry pounding Steve down. A two-alarm no-release backbreaker sets up an elbowdrop, and Brown tags back in with a sitout powerbomb for two. Steve gets a tag off to Faarooq, but Faarooq telegraphs a backdrop, and Brown counters with a facebuster. Tag to Rock to put the boots to him, and back to Henry, but he fails to cut the ring in half, and Steve tags in. Henry powerslams him after a cheap shot from Rock, and Brown tags in with chops in the corner. The Nation of Domination go to work on Blackman, until Steve dodges a dive from Brown, and Faarooq gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Rock catches Faarooq with a DDT for two, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and Faarooq hits the dominator at 12:56. While this wasn’t boring in the way a resthold exhibition would have been, the flow was really weird, and the match felt like it dragged badly. ¾* (Original rating: * ½)

WWF European Title Match: Triple H v Owen Hart: Chyna is locked in a shark cage hanging over ringside for this one. Owen attacks on the floor as HHH is distracted with examining the cage, and he beats the champion up the aisle. Hart sends Hunter flying into the side of the cage before the officials can raise it up, and Owen adds a suplex in the aisle. Hart rolls him into the ring just so he can have the pleasure of clotheslining him back out, and Hart adds a baseball slide. Hart drops Helmsley across the guardrail before bringing it back inside, where he delivers a backbreaker. Owen with a series of chops, but a ten-punch count backfires when HHH counters by dropping him across the top turnbuckle. A criss cross allows Helmsley a high knee, and he puts the boots to his challenger in the corner. HHH with a vertical suplex to set up a kneedrop for two, and an inverted atomic drop sets up a clothesline. Helmsley works a dragon sleeper from there, but Owen fights so HHH goes back to hammering him instead. A swinging neckbreaker gets the champion two, allowing him to try the dragon sleeper again, but Hart fights free. Hart unloads in the corner, but misses a charge, and HHH violently sends him into the turnbuckles. Kneeling facebuster gets HHH two, and man, Owen is making literally everything HHH does look absolutely devastating. Back to the dragon sleeper, but Owen fights to a vertical base, and uses a bridging German suplex for two, as Chyna bends the bars on the cage. Owen keeps on HHH with a belly-to-belly suplex, and a leg-feed enzuigiri gets another two. Inverted atomic drop sets up a spinheel kick for two, and a piledriver sets up a flying elbowdrop, as Chyna starts climbing out of the cage. HHH tries attacking, but Owen fights off the effort, as Chyna looks for a way down. Owen with a DDT to set up the Sharpshooter, as the cage lowers (with Jesse James apparently at the controls), allowing Chyna to get to the ground. That distraction allows HHH to try for the Pedigree, but Owen counters with a catapult into the turnbuckles. That allows the challenger a pedigree of his own, but X-Pac runs in to bash him with a fire extinguisher - giving HHH the pin at 13:53. This was generally solid, but Triple H’s heat segment was really dull (with a lot of focus on a random dragon sleeper that he never used before or after this), and the WrestleMania match was decidedly better. * ½ (Original rating: *)

NWA World Tag Team Title Match: The New Midnight Express v The Rock 'n' Roll Express: Well, if you’re going to try this, I guess Greensboro is the place to do it. Bob and Robert Gibson start, and Gibson wins a criss cross, knocking Bob to the outside. Back in, Bob grabs a headlock, but Gibson armdrags his way out, as Ross talks about how they won the NWA World Tag Team title right here in this building before… back in 1986. He also gets a funny dig in about how they’re still rockers, but more ‘classic rock’ these days. Meanwhile, there are literally rows of empty seats throughout the building, as everyone takes a bathroom break for this cold match. The champs take control of and work over - wait for it - Ricky Morton, until Gibson gets the hot tag. The challengers hit Bart with a combo, bot Jim Cornette comes in, and Bob bulldogs Robert for Bart to pin at 7:10. This was ice cold, but not poorly worked, or anything. ¾* (Original rating: DUD)

Evening Gown Match: Sable v Luna Vachon: Sable is wearing a surprisingly conservative dress here, like she’s going to a funeral. Anyway, there’s really no point to doing any sort of play-by-play here… they do a bunch of squabbling, clothes get torn, Lawler pervs out - you know the drill. Sable ends up getting distracted by Marc Mero, allowing Luna to rip her dress off for the win at 2:32. This was total junk as a match, but it was kept short, worked for what it was, and delivered what was promised. You can’t really fault it. DUD (Original rating: DUD)

WWF Tag Team Title Match: The New Age Outlaws v LOD 2000: Billy Gunn and Animal start, and they do some posturing. A big criss cross ends in Animal clotheslining him around for two, so Jesse James comes in for a double team, but Animal shrugs them off. He holds Jesse in a wristlock, and it’s over to Hawk for a 2nd rope punch. A powerslam follows, so Road Dogg tries a backdrop, but Hawk matslams him to block, and adds a fistdrop. Tag to Gunn, but Hawk backdrops him to keep control of the match, and a jumping shoulderblock finds the mark. Hawk with a shoulderbreaker for two (which took two tries, after a botch of the first attempt), and Animal tags back in for stereo backelbows for two. Animal holds a chinlock, and a powerslam gets two, so James comes in without a tag, but Hawk is there to cut him off. A brawl sees the LOD try the Doomsday Device, but Billy clips Animal’s knee to block it. That allows the Outlaws to take control of Animal, and they cut the ring in half, as the match grinds to a halt. Everyone in this thing is over, but the heat segment is dull as hell, and the crowd (rightly) isn’t giving them anything. Animal fights Billy off with a corkscrew legwhip to allow the tag to Hawk, and Roseanne Barr the door! A flying splash on Jesse looks to put it away, so Gunn drills him with the title belt, and James covers… for two! That was a great and very convincing near fall. The Outlaws try another belt shot, but it backfires this time, and Hawk bridging German suplexes Jesse at 11:56. Huge pop for the title change, but it quickly turns to groans when the referee announces that it was actually a double pin, and therefore the Outlaws retain. I guess the bookers never heard the old saying about those who don’t learn from history if they’re doing that finish in this town. ¾* (Original rating: ½*)

Inferno Match: Kane v Undertaker: Undertaker hammers on him to start, and delivers the ropewalk forearm, as the crowd oohs and ahhs over the flames. Undertaker with a cross corner whip, but Kane blocks the charge in, and Undertaker nearly falls into the flame. Kane with a cross corner whip to rebound Undertaker into a clothesline, and a matslam follows. Boy, I hope this isn’t going to be a long one, because we’re less than four minutes in, and it’s already incredibly slow. Kane gets a chair and hits Undertaker with it in between dull punch/kick stuff, and a chokeslam connect. Undertaker comes back with a chokeslam of his own, but Kane gets right up, and both guys throw big boots for a double knockout spot. A criss cross sees Undertaker miss a jumping clothesline, allowing Kane a sidewalk slam. Kane goes up for a flying clothesline, but Undertaker crotches him on the top to block, and superplexes him off. He chucks Kane over the top, so Kane decides to walk out, and there’s nothing Undertaker can do to go after him. Vader shows up to beat Kane back towards the ring, when Undertaker decides to throw caution to the wind, and suicide dives over the ropes and flames onto both! That draws Paul Bearer over with a chair, but Undertaker no-sells the shot, and uses the weapon on Kane. He stops to beat up Bearer, so Kane grabs the chair, but Undertaker kicks it back in his face - knocking Kane’s arm into the fire for the win at 15:47. Another boring outing between the two (with many, many, many more to come), as surrounding the ring with fire limited what they could do until they finally broke out of the ring, and the novelty wore off kind of fast. There’s a reason there haven’t been that many Inferno matches in the twenty five years since. ½* (Original rating: DUD)

Main Event: WWF Title Match: Steve Austin v Dude Love: Dude attacks before the bell to kickstart the match, but Austin fights him off, and a backelbow knocks Love to the outside. Steve chases him back inside, and dives on him with a Thesz press to set up mounted punches, followed by a pointed elbowdrop. Turnbuckle smash leads to Steve bashing Dude’s head into the mat a bunch of times, and a spinebuster sets up another pointed elbowdrop. Steve with a straddling ropechoke to set up a pointed elbowdrop on the apron, and Dude falls out of the ring. Steve is on him with a smash into the guardrail out there, and he tries taking it inside, but Love hightails it up the aisle. Austin chases with a clothesline at the entrance set, and they fight onto the bandstand, where Austin bodyslams his challenger. Steve tosses Dude off of the bandstand for a bump on the exposed concrete, and Steve beats him back to ringside. Love takes another bump on the floor off of a clothesline, and Steve drops him across the rail for good measure. Steve dives off the apron with an axehandle before bringing it back inside, where the champion uses a ropechoke. Straddling version, but Dude dodges, and corner whips Austin to set up a bulldog on the rebound. Love adds an elbowdrop, and the crowd is surprisingly quiet here, considering the level of talent in the ring, and the fact that they’re having a good match thus far. Love chokes him down in the corner, as the crowd comes back to life to chant for Austin. Steve throws them a bone by throwing a clothesline at Dude, but Love blocks the follow-up with a knee. Love works a chinlock/bodyscissors combo as Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson, and Gerald Brisco make their way down to ringside, taking a seat right beside the timekeeper. Austin fights out of the hold and stomps Dude’s groin, but gets distracted by McMahon, and Love schoolboys for two. Backdrop, but Austin blocks, and clotheslines the challenger. He bashes Love’s leg into the post from there, leaving Love limping on the outside. Steve tries a piledriver on the floor, but Dude backdrops him to block, and bashes him into the rail. Vince comes over to taunt Austin a little, but it only serves to fire the champion up, and Steve goes after the boss. Love attacks before he can get his hands on McMahon, however, and he tries suplexing Austin back into the ring, but Steve keeps blocking. Love responds by snapping Steve’s throat across the top rope instead, as Vince instructs the official not to count him out. Austin beats the count, so Dude puts him in an abdominal stretch, and McMahon shouts at the timekeeper to ring the bell. Luckily, Austin is able to reverse the hold before that can happen, and they end up spilling back to the outside. Dude bashes his head into the steps out there, and he tries a suplex on the floor, but Steve reverses it into the steps! Man, Dude just can’t sleep at night if he doesn’t meet his ‘sick bump’ quota, can he? Austin takes him inside for a backdrop, but Dude counters with a swinging neckbreaker. Sweet Shin Music, but Austin blocks, and the referee ends up getting bumped in the crossfire. Steve tries the stunner, but Love counters to the mandible claw with no referee! Steve slugs free, so Love goes low, as McMahon tries to revive the referee. Love tries for the claw again, but Austin backdrops him over the top to block. Steve tries grabbing a chair as he follows, but McMahon runs interference, and Love ends up hitting the champion with the weapon. Again, but Austin reverses, and then clocks Vince with it for good measure! Inside, Steve delivers the stunner, but there’s no referee. Austin responds by counting his own pinfall, and apparently that’s going to count, because Steve’s music starts playing at 18:49. But then Brisco has words with the officials, and the decision gets announced as Love winning by disqualification. This was a good brawl that basically established the style and hallmarks that would dominate the WWF main event scene for the next few years. *** ¼ (Original rating: **)

BUExperience: The promotion was red hot at this point, but this show was kind of a disappointment, with some poor wrestling and bad finishes throughout. The main event was good, the rest not so much, but it was all somewhat entertaining regardless, so it’s hard to call it a complete flop. Just a disappointment. 

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