Original Airdate: August 10, 1998
From Omaha, Nebraska; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler
Backstage, Mankind is throwing a tantrum, screaming about wanting ‘the truth’
Mankind hits the ring, and summons Vince McMahon, still going on about ‘the truth.’ Vince comes out, and he’s fuming that Mankind is so ‘weak,’ and constantly needing his help. Vince decides to give Mankind the ‘truth,’ by letting him know that, well, no one likes him. Most of all his own partner, Kane. That draws Kane and Paul Bearer out, but Vince thinks Kane is Undertaker in disguise. So he tries to rip his mask off, but the lights die, and when they come up, it’s Undertaker in the ring, choking McMahon. This angle is going off the rails
Backstage, Undertaker goes into Kane’s dressing room
Jacqueline v Luna Vachon: Sable comes out to introduce Luna, for some reason. Luna dominates, so Marc Mero approaches Sable, but Kurrgan scares him away. The referee ends up getting bumped as Jacqueline takes a spill to the outside, and Luna hammers her with mounted punches. Jacqueline comes back with a few snapmares, followed by a headbutt drop the groin. Jacqueline with a bodyslam to set up a dive, but Sable shakes the ropes to drop her. That allows Luna a swinging neckbreaker to set up a flying splash at 2:24. Total junk here. DUD
Backstage, the New Age Outlaws arrive, and they’re in a mood
Brawl For All Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Savio Vega v Darren Drozdov: Ross is already making excuses for Steve Williams here, noting that this environment doesn’t really play to the strengths of wrestlers. Mostly posturing in the opening round, as it feels like both guys are afraid to be the next to get needlessly injured in this tournament. Drozdov wins the round on points, and both guys show some more fire as the second begins. Drozdov dominates the round with several knockdowns, but Savio is still in it, though he clearly loses the round. Vega manages some good shots as the third round starts, but Drozdov takes him down again, as JR makes excuses for Savio. They get into a slugfest as the round ends at 4:37, and they don’t even bother checking the scores before announcing Drozdov as the obvious winner. This wasn’t the most interesting of these matches. DUD
Backstage, Triple H and Chyna arrive
Michael Cole catches up with Chyna, hoping to find out what’s going on with DX, but she shoves him down
Southern Justice v LOD 2000: Hawk falls off the ramp on the way to the ring, and is ‘in no condition,’ as this stupid angle continues. Hawk wants to fight anyway, but gets hauled away, and Animal is left fighting alone. Droz runs out to join the match, but Jeff Jarrett brains him with a guitar, and shaves his head. So no match, really.
X-Pac arrives at the building
DX hit the ring (though making individual entrances), and all call each other ‘jackoffs.’ So, they decide to ‘split’ - which means mooning the crowd. Chyna stops them, but only so she can moon everyone instead. This was stupid and sophomoric. Like a lot of segments from this period
Backstage, Steve Austin mopes
Michael Cole visits Austin’s locker room, and wants to know how Steve feels about Undertaker. Read the room, Mike. Austin responds by taking him into the showers, and drenching him
Bart Gunn is out, and fuming at Ross for making excuses for Steve Williams
Vader v Godfather: Vader takes the women for the night instead of the match, and Ross makes a funny joke about how they should spend the night doing his laundry. Vader makes a crack to Bart on the way out, and gets knocked out (Vader tells Bart to take the women instead of fighting Godfather in the Brawl For All next week), and the girls leave with Godfather. Meanwhile, no match, again.
Backstage, Val Venis and John Wayne Bobbitt arrive
Dustin Runnels suggests we change the channel to a nice nature documentary, instead of watching the filth that is the WWF. Because Jesus
Lawler brings Venis, Bobbitt, and Mrs. Yamaguchi out, and Val acts like he’s been castrated, before revealing that he’s ‘alive and well.’ Apparently, the butcher’s block was cold, and so the blade missed. Also, Bobbitt was the guy who shut the lights off to prevent Mr. Yamaguchi from seeing what he was doing. This is… yeah. And then Venis dumps Mrs. Yamaguchi, since she’s brought him ‘nothing but trouble’
Edge is hanging out in the crowd
Brawl For All Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Marc Mero v Bradshaw: The first round is mostly sparring around, but Bradshaw manages a takedown. The next round sees Bradshaw laying in some shots, and he manages another takedown, and they’re tied at 10 points apiece as the round ends. The last round sees Mero trying to pepper him with lefts, but Bradshaw railroads him into the corner, and hooks a takedown. Bradshaw’s eyes look glassy here, not sure if he caught a shot somewhere. They kind of stagger around for the rest of the round, until time expires at 4:27, and it’s too close to call, so we get a fourth round to settle it. Both guys come out swinging, but Bradshaw manages a takedown. Mero tries one of his own, but can’t quite get it as time expires at 6:12, and Bradshaw is awarded the bout on points. This was one of the better Brawl For All matches. ½*
Backstage, Cole tries to get Undertaker to explain himself, but Undertaker says he’ll let his actions do his explaining in the ring
WWF Tag Team Title Fatal Four-Way Match: Steve Austin and Undertaker v Rock and D-lo Brown v The New Age Outlaws v Kane and Mankind: The graphic for this is odd, as it features Austin holding the old ‘winged eagle’ style title belt. That’s a WCW like miss. Brown is a last minute replacement for Owen Hart, after Ken Shamrock attacks him during the (endless) entrances, and he can’t compete. Austin and Mankind start, and they slug it out. Steve with a suplex for two, so Mankind rakes the eyes, and passes to Brown. D-lo manages to catch Austin with a jumping backelbow for two, as some idiot fan tries to run in, but gets cut off by security. Off all the times to try running in on a match, which is never a good idea to begin with, doing it on this group of guys seems positively suicidal. Billy Gunn tags in and hits Brown with a rocker dropper, followed by a press-drop for two. Billy passes to Jesse James for a kneedrop for two, but D-lo manages a suplex. Tag back to Billy for a hanging vertical suplex on Brown for two when Undertaker saves, allowing Brown a backelbow. Brown tags to Austin, and Steve comes in with fire, running wild on Gunn. Tag to Undertaker to punch Billy over the top, and Steve hustles over to drop Billy across the guardrail. Inside, Undertaker corner whips Gunn, but Billy tags out to Steve, leaving the tag champs in against one another. They don’t take that bait, however, and work together to beat up the Outlaws instead. Undertaker hits Jesse with a ropewalk forearm, and he passes to Brown to hit Jesse with a bodyslam and a legdrop for two. Tag to Rock for a Russian legsweep on Jesse for two, and D-lo tags back to put Jesse in a chinlock. Jesse slugs free, so D-lo uses a sitout spinebuster for two, and Rock hits him with the People’s elbow for two. Mankind tags in off of Rock, and Mankind gets a headvice on James. Things break down and everyone comes in to brawl, Roseanne Barr the door! In the chaos, Kane hits Undertaker with a chokeslam, and we have new champions at 14:29. The work was very basic, but the incredibly hot crowd made this more interesting than the sum of its parts, and the pacing was good. *
BUExperience: This was pretty bad, with a lot of the worst instincts of this era on full display. I think I’d have rather watched that nature documentary.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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