WWF Sunday Night Heat (November 15, 1998)

 

Original Airdate: November 15, 1998

From St. Louis, Missouri; Your Hosts are Michael Cole and Jim Cornette

Survivor Series hype video

The New Legion of Doom v Bob Holly and Scorpio: LOD win a slugfest at the bell, and the dust settles on Animal in with Scorpio. Animal with a bodyslam and a jumping shoulderblock, but Scorpio catches him with a superkick, then adds a spinheel kick. Tag to Holly, but Animal shrugs off a wristlock, and bodyslams him. Tag to Droz, but he misses an elbowdrop, and Holly delivers an inverted atomic drop, then a clothesline. Droz fires back with a jumping clothesline for two, so Scorpio comes in, and Roseanne Barr the door! LOD hit Scorpio with the Doomsday Device, but Al Snow sneaks in to nail Droz with Head, and Scorpio covers at 2:15. ½*

Backstage, the stooges knock on Steve Austin’s door, trying to summon him for a meeting with Vince McMahon. Austin slams the door in their faces 

Val Venis v Tiger Ali Singh: Tiger tries sneak attacking, but Val fights him off in the corner. Tiger dodges a charge, allowing him to pound Venis down, but he gloats, and Val clotheslines him. Val hooks an abdominal stretch, but Tiger blocks a backslide with a mulekick, and he throws a clothesline. Tiger tries a whip into the ropes, but Venis counters with a pair of short-knees into a Russian legsweep. Val with mounted punches, and he goes to the top, but Tiger knocks him to the floor to block a dive. Tiger goes after him with an axehandle from the apron, and he drops Venis across the barricade, before rolling him back inside. He wastes time gloating again, however, and Godfather attacks him out there. That allows Venis to hit a bridging fisherman suplex on the way back in at 2:36. ¼*

A look at various people’s journey to the title tournament at Survivor Series

Backstage, Rock paces

The stooges hit the referees’ lounge, summoning Shane McMahon to go meet his father

Skull and 8-Ball are out to have a match, but before they can get into the ring, Faarooq and Bradshaw show up to attack them - now wearing matching colors, and symbols on their chest, as this is their official debut as a team. I doubt anyone - myself included - could have guessed how successful that pairing would be

Backstage, Kevin Kelly catches up with WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws, but the Headbangers run out to attack them. And then Mark Henry and D-lo Brown join in, and all three teams brawl

Kelly brings Sable out, but before she can say much, Marc Mero interrupts. As he jaws at Sable, Jacqueline pops out, blasting Sable from behind with the WWF Women’s title belt

Backstage, Sable gets checked out by medical personnel 

Steve Blackman v Gangrel: Steve misses an elbowdrop, allowing Gangrel to throw a barrage of punches, and a shoulderblock follows. He tries another, but Steve counters with a superkick, and he throws some chops. Backdrop, but Gangrel blocks, and fires off a clothesline for two. Gangrel with a floatover suplex for two, and he drops Blackman throat-first across the top rope for one. Gangrel loses a slugfest, but manages to tag Steve with a backelbow for two. Gangrel with a corner whip, but a charge in hits a boot, and they get into another slugfest - won by Blackman. Steve adds a dropkick and a belly-to-belly suplex, followed by a jumping shoulderblock. Edge sneaks in with a missile dropkick to end that flurry, however, and Gangrel capitalizes with an implant DDT at 3:19. Afterwards, Blue Blazer rappels down from the rafters, but his harness malfunctions, and he can’t reach the ground. That allows Blackman to attack, and beat him like a pinata. ½*

Backstage, the stooges try to summon Rock

Vince McMahon is out, and he gets his wish: Austin, Rock, and Shane all come out. But, before Vince can tell them what he wants, Undertaker crashes the party. Austin brawls with him right away, and X-Pac runs in to go after Undertaker as well! Big Boss Man runs in to represent Vince in the brawl, and the ring quickly fills with the various participants in the title tournament for a bench clearing brawl to close the show

BUExperience: This was a perfect hard sell/go home show.