Original Airdate: May 4, 1998 (taped April 28)
From Richmond, Virginia; Your Host is Jim Ross, with Michael Cole (hour one), and with Jerry Lawler (hour two)
We open with the Love Shack, but instead of Dude Love, we get Mick Foley. And he’s so angry about getting passed over by Goldust last week that he’s ready to quit being Dude Love altogether. That draws Vince McMahon out to give us a look at the skills he used to get guys to go along with even the worst of gimmicks, and he talks Foley off the ledge. That then draws WWF Champion Steve Austin out, and he literally tears down the set of the Shack to end the segment
Rock and Owen Hart v Faarooq and Steve Blackman: The babyfaces run in to trigger a brawl, and it spills to the outside right away. The dust settles on Rock and Faarooq, and Faarooq quickly delivers the dominator for two, Owen saving. Rock tags out, but Hart gets clobbered before he can do anything, and Steve trips him up. Blackman works the leg, and he passes to Faarooq for more of the same. Rock catches a tag and drops Faarooq with a DDT, and Owen tags back in with a neckbreaker to set up a 2nd rope elbowdrop for two. Suplex, but Faarooq counters with a cradle for two, so Hart delivers a legdrop to cut him off. The Nation of Domination work Faarooq over, but Owen gets caught in a spinebuster, and Blackman gets the hot tag. He runs wild, and Hart takes a bicycle kick. That allows Steve to go for the arm, but Rock saves, and Roseanne Barr the door. Jeff Jarrett shows up during the chaos, and he nails Blackman, allowing Hart a spinheel kick at 6:21. ¼*
Vince narrates a video package about Gerald Brisco… which quickly becomes a platform for Brisco to kiss Vince’s ass. Great stuff
Edge vignette
DX come out to hype up the New Age Outlaws defending the WWF Tag Team title against DOA later, when LOD 2000 interrupt, and offer to make it an 8-man tag instead. And apparently DOA are cool with it because… reasons? Like, seriously, I can’t come up with any logical one. But then, this is Vince Russo’s era, so ‘logic’ isn’t exactly important
WWF Attitude Ad
Savio Vega v Dan Severn: Dan with a belly-to-belly suplex right away, and he tries keeping it grounded, but Vega fights to a vertical base. Severn goes for a front-facelock, but Vega gets into the ropes before Dan can take him down. Dan with another suplex, so Savio starts hammering him with forearms, and he chokes Dan in the corner. Vega with chops and a hiptoss for two, but Severn escapes a hold with a suplex, and slaps on an armbar for the submission at 1:36. Not much to this one, though the limited bits we got weren’t bad. ½*
Backstage, Jerry Lawler and Paul Bearer get caught on a hot mic discussing Paul ‘nailing’ Undertaker’s mother. I like the framing device they used here, it felt a lot more realistic than if they’d done some interview. For all of the negatives of this era, there were lots of homeruns too
After the commercial break, Lawler apologizes for what happened, not realizing their locker room talk was caught on a hot mic. It happens
Video package of Sable weight training. I think
Marc Mero v Jeff Jarrett: Steve Blackman runs in to attack Jarrett before the bell, and they brawl, so the match is called off. Okay then
The Tekken 3 Slam of the Week is the DOA beating the New Age Outlaws last week
Eight-Person Tag Team Match: Triple H, Billy Gunn, Jesse James, and Chyna v Hawk, Animal, Skull, and 8-Ball: X-Pac must still have been injured at this point, because he still hasn’t wrestled a single match since returning (and wouldn’t until June). Jesse and Animal start, and Animal steamrolls him a bit. A powerslam sets up an elbowdrop, and it’s over to 8-Ball for a punch. Jesse goes to the eyes to allow the tag to HHH, but 8-Ball nails him with a big boot before tagging Skull. Skull with a vertical suplex for two, as Lawler loses his mind at the idea of Chyna wrestling the men. Yeah, the novelty of that wouldn’t last long. Gunn tags in to hit Skull with a rocker dropper, and he passes to Chyna to hit Skull with a rana for two. Back to Road Dogg for a series of right hands, and DX continue working Skull over. He manages to fight HHH off long enough for the tag to Hawk, and he briefly runs wild, before eating a kneeling facebuster from HHH. Back to Chyna to put the boots to Hawk, but a trip to the middle rope ends in her taking a bump over the top. She completely no-sells it, however, and comes in with a low blow. Hawk’s partners protest, allowing DX to come in and but the boots to Hawk behind the official’s back. They work Hawk over, but 8-Ball gets the hot tag - only for the partnership between LOD 2000 and the DOA to fall apart. They all start brawling on the outside as DX laugh it up in the ring, laughing all the way to a countout victory at 8:00. ¾*
Goldust v Kane: Goldust goes at him right away, and actually manages to hammer Kane into the corner before getting shrugged off. Goldust goes after the burned arm to get some traction, but Kane dumps him to the outside for a smash into the apron. Inside, Kane delivers a big boot, but Undertaker runs down, attacking Paul Bearer. That distracts Kane, and he goes after Undertaker on the outside to hand Goldust the countout victory at 1:53. We’re really getting the quality wrestling tonight, huh? ¼*
Video package detailing the history between Mick Foley and Terry Funk
Val Venis vignette, featuring Jenna Jameson to really up the ante
Falls Count Anywhere Match: Mick Foley v Terry Funk: Steve Austin sits in on commentary here, and we get Pat Patterson as a surprise guest referee, which Austin is not a fan of. “Please tell me this is a rib.” Slugfest to start, dominated by Funk. He dumps Mick to the outside, and follows to beat on Foley with a chair out there, drawing blood early on. And from the back of Mick’s head, since these two don’t play around. Foley returns fire with the chair, so Funk smashes his face into the announce table, and then feeds him the guardrail next. Inside, Funk tries a backdrop, but Foley counters with a swinging neckbreaker, as suddenly Austin’s microphone starts having mysterious technical difficulties. Foley with a swinging neckbreaker on the floor for two, as Austin’s replacement headset (stolen from Lawler) starts ‘malfunctioning’ too. Steve responds by knocking Jerry out cold, as Funk rams Foley into the steps, and whacks him with a chair again. Foley with a backdrop on the exposed concrete, and they spill into the crowd next for a brawl over to a concession stand. Foley actually suplexes the vendor in a funny spot, and Funk climbs onto the bleachers for a flying moonsault press out there. That hurts him as well though, and Foley recovers first, piledriving Terry through a table. They fight underneath the bleachers, where the camera man loses them, and we pick things up backstage, where Foley throws him into a wall for two. Back out into the arena, where the crowd has significantly cooled off due to all the backstage stuff. Mick with a DDT on the ramp for two, and man, Austin may be one of the best promos in history, but his commentary sure leaves a lot to be desired. Into the ring, Foley puts the boots to him, and a clothesline sends both men tumbling over the top. They fight onto the announce table, where Foley hits him with a chair assisted elbowdrop, but he gets in Austin’s face. Nothing comes of it, however, and Foley covers Funk for two on the way back into the ring. Foley with a double-arm DDT for two, and a piledriver follows, as Ross repeats an earlier line about car wrecks on I-95. He’s usually better than that. Mick adds another piledriver on a chair, and that’s all she wrote at 15:12. This wasn’t really my cup of tea, but they worked so hard that it eventually worked. The crowd was pretty dead for it after they came back from the backstage portion, though. Afterwards, Austin comes in to throw a beer in Mick’s face, and the blinded Foley takes out Patterson. Austin gets in his face, so Patterson grabs a chair, but Steve hits him with a stunner, as Foley walks away - only to be met at the top of the ramp by Vince McMahon, and the dudettes. Mick embraces them all, and they all dance, as Steve has trouble keeping it together. Vince was absolutely tremendous here. * ½
BUExperience: As an overall episode this wasn’t the best, but there were definitely some positive moments, like the Lawler/Bearer confessional, or the main event. Big rating too, as the WWF starts to really take off.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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