Original Airdate: July 13, 1998
From East Rutherford, New Jersey; Your Hosts are Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Shawn Michaels - in his first appearance since WrestleMania XIV. And he’s looking good and moving well for a dude who was supposedly near crippled. Watching him here, you’d think he’d be back in the ring by SummerSlam
Undertaker v Vader: Kane, Mankind, and Paul Bearer join us at ringside for this one. Undertaker slugs him around to start, and delivers a jumping clothesline, then a corner whip. Vader rebounds with a shoulderblock, and he throws a clothesline of his own, then unloads in the corner. A cross corner whip rebounds Undertaker into a backdrop, but Undertaker counters with a rocker dropper for two. Undertaker delivers the ropewalk forearm, and a clothesline sends Vader over the top. Undertaker follows to smash him into the guardrail, but he gets distracted by Kane’s presence, and Vader catches him with a powerslam on the way in. Vader lands a clothesline to set up a splash for two, and he delivers a few elbowdrops. Vader delivers a 2nd rope splash for two, but Undertaker comes back with a chokeslam, and the tombstone finishes at 4:37. This was fine. Afterwards, Mankind comes in with a chair, but Kane takes it away before he can hit Undertaker… and hits Vader with it instead. *
Brawl For All Tournament First Round Match: Bart Gunn v Bob Holly: Bart dominates the first round, throwing lots of fists, though unable to get a knockdown, with Holly mostly on defense. Sign in the crowd: ‘Bob Holly makes me melancholy.’ Not sure why I find that hilarious, but I do. Bart continues to knock him around in the second round, and Holly is doing nothing but playing defense here. Bart looks bigger and badder here than he normally does, too. The final round sees Bob trying to land something, but Bart just kind of dances around, and nearly gets Holly cornered, but Bob slips away. Bart is being gentle at this point, looking like he knows he has it won on points, and not needing to hurt his friend for no reason. Time expires at 4:26, and Gunn wins on points, as expected. DUD
Backstage, the Nation of Domination fumes about DX
Jason Sensation is out, following his performance as ‘Owen Hart’ last week in DX’s parody skit. Oh, that was last week? I guess the Network version omitted it due to the blackface. And I called that episode ‘not memorable.’ Ha. He’s making jokes about Owen, so Hart runs down, and slaps him so hard his mouth bleeds, then holds him in the Sharpshooter, until DX saves
Rock and Owen Hart v Triple H and X-Pac: Big brawl to start, and HHH hits Owen with a kneeling facebuster, before clotheslining him over the top. X-Pac catches Rock with a spinheel kick before dumping him, and DX holds the high ground. The dust settles on Rock and X-Pac, and Rock slugs him into the corner. Rock with a Samoan drop for two, and a tag to Owen allows Hart a flying elbowdrop for two. The Nation work X-Pac over, cutting the ring in half, and Rock delivers the Peoples elbow for two. That draws Chyna onto the apron, and the distraction allows HHH to bash Rock with the WWF European title belt. X-Pac covers for two, and he drops Rock with a sitout facebuster at 6:30, after Rock wastes time trying to take Hunter out with a cheap shot. Triple H never even tagged in here, was he injured, or something? He was working on other shows, so I’m guessing not. Just weird booking. *
Marc Mero v Steve Blackman: Sable is out for commentary here, and Shawn seems to be competing with Lawler for the most cringey things to say to her. Mero hammers him at the bell, but misses a clothesline, so Blackman throws a spinkick. Sable on commentary is not a good idea. Blackman with a facebuster, and a backelbow gets him two, as the crowd ignores the match to chant for Sable. Steve with a snap suplex for two, and a backbreaker follows, as Jacqueline gets in Sable’s face. That distracts the referee, and Mero puts Blackman down with a TKO, but Jackie ends up getting nailed by Sable. That distracts Mero, and Blackman nails him with a bicycle kick at 2:13. Rough match, but no one cared about it anyway, it was just background for the Sable/Jackie stuff. DUD
Backstage, DX are in conference
Backstage, Paul Bearer peps Kane and Mankind up
WWF Tag Team Title Match: The New Age Outlaws v Kane and Mankind: Undertaker comes out to hang around ringside for this. Jesse James and Mankind start, and Mankind pounds him into the corner, as Shawn puts over Mankind’s Hell in a Cell performance. Tag to Billy Gunn, and he hammers on Mankind, and delivers a single-arm DDT. Mankind bails, so Chyna whacks him with the title belt out there, and James works his arm as they go back inside, focusing on his bad shoulder. The Outlaws cut the ring in half, but Billy lands in a mandible claw when trying a 2nd rope axehandle, and Kane tags in. Chokeslam, but Jesse saves, and Billy bails. Inside, the challengers work Billy over, as Rock and Owen Hart show up on the ramp. The levels of overbooking during this period were insane. Hot tag Jesse, and he runs wild on Kane, which is pretty funny, really. Meanwhile, the rest of DX run out to brawl with the Nation, and in the chaos, D-lo Brown hits James with a flying splash. That allows Kane a tombstone, and we have new champions at 5:06. The match was a total nothing, paint-by-numbers piece. ¼*
Backstage, Triple H complains to Vince McMahon about the title loss, and wants him to do something about it
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Taka Michinoku, Brian Christopher, and Scott Taylor v Dick Togo, Sho Funaki, and Men's Teioh: Brian and Funaki start, and a criss cross goes Brian’s way with a monkey flip. Over to Taylor for a combo, but Teioh catches a tag. Taylor drops him with a pump-handle slam, and Taka tags in for a cross corner dropkick. Taka adds a missile dropkick, but gets jumped by all the heels before he can follow up. The dust settles on Brian and Togo, and Brian uses a sitout powerbomb. Tag to Taylor for another combo for two, but an elbowdrop misses, and Togo bodyslams him to set up a 2nd rope moonsault for two. Taylor comes back with a side suplex for two, as Michaels makes a very racist remark on commentary. So the blackface gets pulled, but that’s alright? Noted. Togo with a flying senton splash on Taylor at 3:37. Good spots, but no psychology, storytelling, or crowd engagement. Afterwards, Val Venis comes out to reveal that, in response to Kaientai’s attack on him last week, he went and fucked Mr. Yamaguchi’s wife. Well, that escalated quickly. ½*
Backstage, Vince McMahon ponders
The Skittles Slam of the Week is Undertaker chokeslamming a bunch of guys on last week's show
Vince is out, and he brings Undertaker with him. That’s Undertaker’s third, complete entrance on this show so far. No wonder they had to go to three hours. Vince wants Undertaker to explain his behavior in the top contenders match last week, but before he can, WWF Champion Steve Austin is out, demanding an explanation of his own. Undertaker tells them both to go to hell, but before Steve can respond (verbally or physically), DX is out, wanting to bend Vince’s ear about the tag title loss earlier. They demand a rematch for tonight, and they want three referees: with Austin and Undertaker being two of them. And that’s too perfect for Vince to pass up, so he books it. No wonder HHH ended up an executive: he knows how to make a deal
Backstage, Dan Severn and Godfather warm up, via split screen
Brawl For All Tournament First Round Match: Dan Severn v Godfather: Dan looks for a takedown, but can’t get it, and keeps falling on his ass. He looks surprisingly bad here. Godfather holds his own, but doesn’t really land anything either, mostly just blocks takedowns for the duration of the round. The second round opens with Godfather throwing a good right, but Dan ties him up in the ropes, and manages a takedown. Dan goes for another one, but Godfather kind of blocks, and the round ends there. Dan is looking really aggressive here, not breaking or following instructions from the referee. The final round sees more posturing, but Godfather seems more sure of himself this time. Dan is trying for a takedown as the match ends at 4:42, with Severn winning on points. DUD
Backstage, Austin and Undertaker prepare, via split screen. Austin’s version: drinking!
WWF Tag Team Title Match: Kane and Mankind v The New Age Outlaws: The ring announcer seems legitimately lost here. Steve Austin and Undertaker are the outside enforcers, as promised. Which makes it entrance #4 for Undertaker tonight. Big brawl to start, initiated by the challengers. The Outlaws manage to double up and target Kane’s leg, and they drag Mankind onto the ramp for a tandem suplex, but Kane saves. Inside, Kane isolates Jesse James, and goes to work on him. Tag to Mankind to continue working over James, so Billy Gunn just comes in, and the referee ends up getting bumped in the chaos. Jesse hooks Kane in a small package, so Austin tries to count, but Undertaker pulls him out at two. That allows Kane to recover with a chokeslam on Jesse, and Undertaker looks to count, but now Austin breaks. That ends up turning into a brawl between Kane/Austin and Mankind/Undertaker, and soon after the Nation and DX run in - everyone brawling until we go off the air with no decision announced at 7:48, likely a no contest. This was shit, and on par with the cliche Nitro main events where they just tread water until the nWo runs in. Only in a much longer match, the Nitro ones were usually, like, three minutes. DUD
BUExperience: Lots of excitement this week, with very focused booking. Lots of stuff was messy, sure, but most everything felt like it had direction, and a path.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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