Original Airdate: August 17, 1998 (taped August 11)
From Des Moines, Iowa; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler
Backstage, Steve Austin is trying to break Vince McMahon’s door down
Austin drives a hearse into the arena, and demands Vince’s presence. Vince comes out (along with Sgt. Slaughter, Pat Patterson, and Gerald Brisco), and Austin lets him know that he doesn’t want to tag with Undertaker anymore. And, in fact, he’ll be stuffing Undertaker in that hearse tonight. Glad we got that straight
Triple Threat Match: Owen Hart v Ken Shamrock v Dan Severn: Owen tackles Ken for mounted punches, as Severn just hangs back, and lets them go. Ken fights him off and manages a suplex ahead of a savate kick, but a clothesline misses, and Hart spinheel kicks him. Owen with a bodyslam to set up a legdrop, as Severn continues to observe. Hart with a backbreaker, followed by a gutwrench suplex for two. Owen unloads in the corner, and a cross corner whip works, but the charge in doesn’t. Ken tries a backdrop, but Hart blocks, and throws a leg-feed enzuigiri. Ken fights him off with right hands, but a clothesline misses, and Hart bodypresses him for two. Ken fires back with a leg lariat, and a rana follows. Ken with a cross corner whip, and he catches Owen with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex on the rebound. Cover, count, but Severn breaks at two. Ken goes after him, allowing Owen to recover with a bridging German suplex for two. Hart throws a standing dropkick to set up the Sharpshooter, but Shamrock blocks.Hart throws a clothesline, but Ken catches the arm, and takes him down into the anklelock. He has it locked, but Severn comes up from behind to put him in a dragon sleeper, and with Owen putting the boots to Ken to assist, Severn gets the win at 4:41. Hart and Shamrock had some good chemistry here! Afterwards, the beating continues, so Steve Blackman comes in to make the save. He backs Severn off, but as Steve goes to check on Shamrock, Dan grabs him in a dragon sleeper as well! Good segment. **
Brawl For All Tournament Semifinal Match: Bart Gunn v Godfather: Godfather is so pissed that he refuses to even offer him the ladies. Bart fights for the takedown, but Godfather blocks him. They throw punches, but neither guy gets much, and things kind of come to a standstill to end the round. Gunn is unofficially ahead on points, but I’d actually give Godfather the slight edge in that round. The second round sees them throwing bombs right away, and Bart tries another (blocked) takedown. Godfather takes him into the corner and unloads, but Bart starts firing off a series of unanswered lefts to put him down. That was quite the barrage, and Godfather is saved by the bell. The third round sees a groggy Godfather trying to do his business, but Bart catches him with a big right hook for the knockout at 3:43. This was easily the best/most entertaining of these Brawl for All matches thus far. *
Backstage, Shamrock and Blackman rearrange some furniture
Gangrel is hanging around
Backstage, Michael Cole announces that Severn has officially signed on as Owen Hart’s trainer for the Lion’s Den match against Shamrock at SummerSlam
Brian Christopher v Gangrel: Gangrel’s entrance through fire was a great touch. Edge is hanging out in the crowd here, scoping out Gangrel. Brian with a sneak attack, and he delivers a 2nd rope bulldog. Gangrel pops up and throws punches, and a sitout tigerbomb gets him two. A criss cross allows Brian to try a neckbreaker, but Gangrel counters with an implant DDT at 1:01. This was super short. ¼*
Backstage, Cole catches up with Shamrock and Blackman, and Ken is murderous when he hears that Severn is on Owen’s side
Backstage, Cole tries to get a word with DX, but the Nation attack them before they can speak
Lawler has ‘Bill Clinton’ on the phone with a message for the nation, and he sounds a lot like Bruce Prichard. For some reason. He notes that the better he is at play time, the better he is at his job, so we should all leave him alone. This was in the thick of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, of course
Skull and 8-Ball v Faarooq and Scorpio: Gosh, this one will be fun to fast type. Lots of back and forth, as we cut away to watch DX and the Nation still fighting backstage. The heel manage to get control on Scorpio, and they work him over. Faarooq gets the tag, but the DX/Nation brawl spills out into the arena, and everyone gets distracted. That allows the DOA to make an illegal switch, and Scorpio gets cradled at 4:23. ¼*
Handicap Street Fight: Triple H, Billy Gunn, Jesse James, and X-Pac v Rock, D-lo Brown, and Mark Henry: Godfather is sitting this one out, I guess. DX hold the high ground, and attack before the bell, taking control. They tee off with trash cans, and everyone trades weapon shots, without much interesting going on. Jeff Jarrett shows up to attack X-Pac, but X-Pac fights back, so Southern Justice come down to attack him. That allows Jarrett to shave off a piece of X-Pac’s hair, so Gunn comes over to make the save, but Justice deal with him. Rock finds a ladder to beat on HHH with until Hunter is bloody, and finally the match is just kind of stopped at 6:17. This was attempting to accomplish a bunch of different things with its time, and didn’t do a particularly effective job at any of them. It also seemed unnecessarily dangerous, with several guys bleeding hardway for this nothing TV match. DUD
Tiger Ali Singh is out, and offers some kid in the crowd $500 to lick his manager’s filthy toes. And the kid is glad to do it. Iowa
Backstage, Sable stretches
Arm Wrestling match: Sable v Jacqueline: You can’t guess what happens here? If not: Sable dominates the battle, so Jacqueline tips the podium over on her, and drops the trophy across her back. She continues the assault, but the Oddities are out to make the save. This wasn’t a great segment
Backstage, Cole catches up with Val Venis, who is ready to run the gauntlet against Kaientai tonight, in order to get his hands on Mr. Yamaguchi
Darren Drozdov is still white trash
Brawl For All Tournament Semifinal Match: Bradshaw v Darren Drozdov: An unintimidated Droz goes right at Bradshaw, throwing shots, but Bradshaw fights him off. Droz survives the barrage without going down, and it’s a full on slugfest as the round ends. No knockdowns or takedowns, but I’d give the round to Bradshaw. The second round picks up right where the first left off, so Droz shoots for a takedown, and gets it as the round ends. It wasn’t a great takedown though, as Bradshaw sat down in it, which probably should be considered a block. But, I guess this isn’t being contested as an amatuer wrestling match, so maybe the rules are different. The third round sees not much of anything, with no takedowns or knockdowns as time expires at 4:15. Bradshaw wins in points, going to the finals against Bart Gunn next week. This wasn’t the best of these matches. ¼*
Al Snow is at a local bar, bemoaning his career, and wishing he stayed in ECW
Backstage, Sable storms down a hallway
Dustin Runnels suggests we curl up with a good book, instead of watching RAW
Sable is out, and calls out Jackie. Jackie appears on the TitanTron instead of coming out, and challenges Sable to a mixed tag at SummerSlam, with any partner she chooses, against Jackie and Marc Mero
Cole is backstage, announcing that Undertaker has arrived
Gauntlet Match: Val Venis v Taka Michinoku, Sho Funaki, Dick Togo, and Men's Teioh: If Val runs the gauntlet, he gets five minutes with Mr. Yamaguchi. Teioh is first in, but quickly misses a dropkick. Val tries an elbowdrop, but that misses, and they criss cross - ending in Teioh reversing him into the corner, and hooking a schoolboy for two. Val fires back with a clothesline, and a big boot finds the mark, as the crowd sits silent. Val with a bridging fisherman suplex at 1:13. Funaki is next in, but his opening salvo of a flying bodypress is countered into a powerslam at 1:27. Togo is up, and hits a springboard dropkick, followed by a springboard twisting headbutt. Val fires back with a powerbomb for two, and a corner clothesline looks to soften Togo for a suplex, but Togo counters to a DDT. Val wins a criss cross with a pair of short-knees, and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker looks to set up a dive, but Togo is up. Val snaps his throat across the top rope, and another powerbomb (a nice one, too) sets up the flying splash at 4:19. That brings Taka in as the last man, and he hits a dazed Venis with a spinheel kick. Another one, but Val catches him in a side suplex this time, and Val unloads with chops in the corner. Val with a cross corner whip and an inverted atomic drop, but a charge misses, and Venis goes over the top. Taka is on him with a flying bodypress on the floor, but Val beats the count to the apron. Taka tries to suplex him back in, but Val blocks, and hits a backelbow on the way inside. Val adds an elbowdrop, and a powerslam gets two. Val with a butterfly suplex for two, but a charge in the corner hits a boot, and Taka goes for the scoop sitout brainbuster, but Venis counters to a bodyslam. Val tries adding a 2nd rope elbowdrop, but it misses, and Taka drills him with the scoop sitout brainbuster at 7:53. This was okay, with Val doing a good job of keeping it interesting with each segment. The rest of Kaientai attack after the bell, and Mrs. Yamaguchi is led out, allowed to slap Venis in response to getting dumped by Val. Venis responds by grabbing a pink SuperSoaker, and covering everyone in a white liquid substance. 1998, if you weren’t sure. * ½
Undertaker is out, and Austin is quick to join him for their promised confrontation. But when Steve hits the ring, ‘Undertaker’ reveals himself as Kane, and beats Austin up. Lawler is quick to go ‘nah, that’s Undertaker, look at the tattoos,’ which Ross quickly throws cold water on. They brawl into the crowd and over to the entrance, where Austin stuffs Kane into the hearse, but as he goes to drive it off, Undertaker is sitting in the driver’s seat. Okay, they got me there… like Lawler, I thought it was Undertaker in a Kane mask. Anyway, not a great segment, and it didn’t really advance the main event angle any. It just felt like spinning (hearse) wheels
BUExperience: There were definite ups and downs with this show, and while it wasn’t terrible, the main event angle is really faltering, and that is a huge negative. A strong main event story can carry a poor show, and will sink a mediocre one even faster. I’m honestly surprised at how weak it has been, as I remember this period as being really hot, and the build to SummerSlam being really great. I was definitely into it at the time. But, I also haven’t seen this since it aired way back in 1998. It definitely does not hold up.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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