Original Airdate: August 24, 1998
From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler
Undertaker and Kane stalk into the building
Vince McMahon, Undertaker, and Kane hit the ring, and Vince is gloating about being right that Undertaker and Kane are pals. Vince blesses the union… provided they’re on his side in his war against Steve Austin. He gives them until the end of the show as a deadline to swear their allegiance, or suffer the consequences. That draws Paul Bearer out to plead with Kane to kill Undertaker, but that just earns Bearer a beating. That draws Mankind out to stand up for Paul, but the Brothers of Destruction take him out with a spike tombstone. I don’t remember them doing that often, but they should have. So that brings Austin out, and he doesn’t care what they’re all doing, he’s beating Undertaker at SummerSlam regardless. Not a great segment, but did what it needed to as far as establishing where we are in the story
Backstage, Mankind gets loaded into an ambulance to put over the severity of that spike tombstone
Ken Shamrock v Dan Severn: Severn with a takedown right away, and he goes to a grapevine, but Ken escapes. Ken goes to the ankle, but Dan blocks the hold attempt, and they scuffle on the mat a bit. They end up in the ropes, and Dan hits a powerbomb for one. Dan with a gourdbuster for two, and a fireman’s carry allows him an armbar, but Ken hiptosses his way out. Ken with a cross corner whip, but Severn reverses, and hits a powerslam for two on the rebound. Dan with another fireman’s carry, and he goes for a double-leg, but they’re in the ropes. That allows Owen Hart to run out, attacking Shamrock for the DQ at 2:53. Shamrock and Severn, boring? Well, I never. Afterwards, Steve Blackman runs in to make the save for Ken. ¼*
Mankind breaks out of the ambulance, and rides a stretcher down to ringside. Mankind brings a bag of thumbtacks into the ring, and wants redemption, in the form of the Hell in a Cell match, tonight. Lucky one just happens to be hanging over the ring
Marc Mero v Kurrgan: Sable is out to act as the guest ring announcer for this, though only for Kurrgan. Marc slugs at him at the bell, but a turnbuckle smash gets reversed, and Kurrgan lands a clothesline. Kurrgan with a corner whip, but a kneesmash in the corner misses, and Marc peppers him with punches. Kurrgan fights him off with a bearhug into a scrapbuster, as Jacqueline pops out of the crowd to attack Sable. That distracts Kurrgan, allowing Mero a low blow, but the referee sees it, and calls the DQ at 1:46. DUD
Backstage, X-Pac pisses in Jeff Jarrett’s cowboy boots
The New Age Outlaws v Southern Justice: Hawk sits in on commentary, ‘drunk,’ and doing things like asking Jerry if he remembers telling him to ‘no sell the piledriver at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1986.’ Im digging it. Billy Gunn starts with Mark Canterbury, as Jeff Jarrett shows up, fuming about what X-Pac did. He demands that Ross get X-Pac out here, as Mark hits Billy with a wheelbarrow facebuster. Over to Dennis Knight with an elbowdrop on Gunn, but Billy fights him off, and unloads mounted punches. Tag to Jesse James to hammers Knight with rights for two, and Gunn sneaks in to drop Dennis on his head with a piledriver for Jesse to pin at 2:54. Afterwards, with no X-Pac around, Jarrett takes his frustrations out on a camera guy - beating him up, and shaving his head. DUD
Backstage, Undertaker and Kane are walking. Where? We don’t know. Just getting their steps in
Hell in a Cell Match: Kane v Mankind: Officials block Mankind from climbing the cell from the outside, so Mankind settles for slamming the door at Kane instead. Mankind tries throwing a chair onto the top of the cell, but he can’t get it up there, and it ends up falling on Lawler at commentary. That was needlessly dangerous, and could have easily hit a fan. Mankind starts climbing, so Undertaker shows up, following him up the side, and dropping him through an announce table. That was nothing compared to the King of the Ring bump, but it was a big bump in the general sense. Kane drags Mankind back to the door to take it inside, and you can really see the difference in how the ringside area was laid out back then, as the cell is so close to the guardrail that they can barely walk past. Kane hits him with the steps inside of the cell, and he hits a plancha. Mankind fights back with a chair, and he goes for the tacks, but Kane punches him before he can use them. Kane tries a chokeslam, so Mankind goes for the mandible claw, but Kane blocks. That leads to Mankind throwing a series of punches, followed by a piledriver, with Kane slumping over into the tacks following impact. Mankind goes to the top rope, but Kane blasts him with a chair to knock him off, and delivers a chokeslam. The tombstone follows, but Undertaker instructs him to do more damage. Kane obliges with a pair of chair shots to the skull, but Mankind gets back up, so Kane gives him a tombstone on the chair. Cover, but Steve Austin pops out from underneath the ring, and attacks Kane for the DQ at 7:40. DQ? Hasn’t it been long established that there are no disqualifications in these matches? Hell, it was established when Kane interfered in the very first one. So Austin beats Kane up as Undertaker fumes, but he can’t get in. Undertaker climbs to the top of the cell, and busts through the roof, but Vince starts raising the cage to prevent them from getting their hands on each other before SummerSlam. The match felt like a King of the Ring-lite type of deal, but the overall segment was tremendous. I’m surprised they didn’t close the show with this, but I’m guessing there’ll be more confrontation to come before the evening is over. * ¾
After the dust settles, and we’re back from commercial, Undertaker is still fuming, and promises that Austin has now sealed his fate
Chyna is out, and demands an audience with Rock. Instead, she gets the whole Nation. Rock quickly reveals that he’s locked DX in the back, leaving Chyna feeling cornered. Well, she started it. But then it takes a really dark turn, as Rock decides to sexually assault her. But, he’s too disgusted by her to do it himself, and orders Mark Henry to. Mark moves in, but before he can do it, Shawn Michaels runs out with a chair to make the save. He gets a great ovation, and it’s too bad he was still on the shelf, because he would have been a good fit to return in this role
DX storm around the parking lot, looking for the Nation
Taka Michinoku v Val Venis: Shawn Michaels hangs around to do commentary here, and sticks around for the rest of the show. Michinoku’s WWF Light Heavyweight title is not on the line here. Michinoku tries a sneak attack, and lands a spinheel kick. A dropkick puts Val on the outside, and Michinoku is on him with a springboard moonsault press into the aisle. Baseball slide, but Val dodges, and corner whips Michinoku on the way in. Val with a German suplex, but Michinoku lands on his feet. Val puts him back down and goes up with the flying splash, but Triple H runs in to attack both guys with a chair at 1:03. Afterwards, HHH swears revenge on Rock, promising to make him his ‘bitch’ at SummerSlam. ½*
Backstage, Gangrel has a tongue
X-Pac v Gangrel: Gangrel attacks to kick start, the match, but loses a criss cross when X-Pac throws a spinheel kick. Gangrel fires back with a powerslam for two, so X-Pac tries another spinheel, but gets caught in a slam. That allows Gangrel a flying headbutt drop, but X-Pac dodges, as we spot Edge observing in the crowd. X-Pac unloads with strikes in the corner, and a bootchoke leads to the bronco buster. But before he can follow up, Jarrett is out, smashing a guitar over X-Pac’s head for the DQ at 1:34. This had potential, but basically amounted to just treading water until the run in. Afterwards, Edge runs in, attacking Gangrel for a beating. ¾*
Backstage, Bart Gunn and Bradshaw warm up, via split screen
Backstage, Undertaker is wheeling a casket around
The Stridex Triple Action is clips from the earlier Brawl For All rounds
Brawl For All Tournament Final Match: Bart Gunn v Bradshaw: They slug it out a little, and Gunn quickly gets the better of it, and knocks Bradshaw on his ass. Bradshaw staggers up, looking woozy, and Bart quickly knocks him out with a one-two punch at 0:42. Wow, after weeks of matches ending on decisions, Gunn just went out there and knocked his head off in under a minute. I know the Brawl for All is pretty much universally reviled - and rightly so in terms of the risks it posed to the roster - but I actually found it pretty entertaining most of the time. Not every match was a great watch, but overall it was a solid little departure from the norm. DUD
Backstage, Michael Cole is with Vince, who hasn’t gotten his answer yet, but he isn’t too worried about it
A bunch of druids (very slowly) wheel a casket out, and they’re using some really great chanting music to set the mood here. So once the casket is finally down there, Undertaker walks down to the ring, and promises Austin that Kane will stay out of the match at SummerSlam. But Undertaker doesn’t want to wait for Sunday, and calls Austin out right now. He gets Vince instead, who demands an answer: are they friends of foes. Undertaker responds by chokeslamming him, and Austin pops out of the casket! He gets in Undertaker’s face, but now Kane suddenly pops out of the same casket, and attacks Steve from behind. “How in the hell did that happen?!” shouts JR. Cuddling, Jim. Cuddling. Kane dominates Steve, but Austin manages to get out, and grabs a chair to keep them at bay. As Austin walks up the ramp, a trail of fire pops out of the grates, in a great visual to end the show
BUExperience: This was a really good episode, and really made you want to see SummerSlam. They did a good job of selling the card top to bottom here.
Monday Night Wars Rating Chart
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