WWF Sunday Night Heat (December 20, 1998)

 

Original Airdate: December 20, 1998 (taped December 14)

From Tacoma, Washington; Your Hosts are Kevin Kelly and Shane McMahon

X-Pac v Tiger Ali Singh: The WWF European title is not on the line here. Tiger pounds him early, as I marvel at how much Kelly and Michael Cole sound alike. Them as a two man booth would be unnerving. Tiger with a press-drop, but X-Pac fights back with chops, and lands a jumping clothesline. X-Pac keeps coming with a spinkick, and the bronco buster follows. X-Pac with a sitout facebuster to finish up at 1:44. DUD

Brian Christopher and Kevin Quinn v The Hardy Boyz: Scott Taylor is out on crutches to do guest commentary here. The Boyz get some shine on Christopher, surprisingly, as you’d think that’s what Quinn is out there for. They do get some stuff in on him too, though. Christopher drops Jeff Hardy with a Russian facebuster to end that, and he adds a sitout powerbomb. Quinn nearly screws it up by missing a dive, but Christopher saves him with a flying legdrop on Jeff at 3:03. ½*

Backstage, Mankind is ready to prove himself in fatal four-way against three members of the Corporation 

Al Snow v Droz: Al wins a slugfest to start, and lands a jumping backelbow, as Animal walks away from ringside. Droz manages a powerslam, and a standing dropkick connects, before he pounds Al into the corner. Cross corner whip, but Snow blocks, and clotheslines him, as Hawk shows up at ringside. Droz lands a jumping backelbow, but Hawk gets in his face, and pops him with his medical cast. That allows Snow a scoop sitout brainbuster at 1:21. Afterwards, Hawk promises to reveal Droz’s ‘dark secret’ on RAW tomorrow. DUD

The Headbangers v Golga and Kurrgan: Did this feud ever end? Or even go anywhere? It feels like they just ran this match 100x, and expected us to care… because. The Headbangers attack, but get fought off, and end up on the outside. They open a giant box that the Oddities brought with them, and it turns out to be George Steele! He attacks them for the DQ at 1:03. Well, at least the Steele cameo was fun, if nothing else. And he looked exactly the same as he did in the 80s. DUD

The Glover Rewind is Test debuting on RAW (though still unnamed)

DX is out, and Triple H is fuming that Rock got away with the title on Monday, and the New Age Outlaws are fuming that the tag title was stolen from them. X-Pac seems pretty happy, though. They see Shawn Michaels as the root of all these problems, and promise to neutralize him soon. Triple H reveals Test’s name here, and Test shows up, backing up Rock on the stage. They trade barbs (including HHH calling Rock a ‘monkey,’ and suggesting he do a ‘jig’), but nothing really comes of it all

The New Age Outlaws v Skull and 8-Ball: The DOA are wearing blue jeans instead of black, which is jarring. The heels dominate Jesse James for a bit, but Billy Gunn gets the hot tag, and Roseanne Barr the door. Paul Ellering comes in with the briefcase, but accidentally hits his own man, and Gunn scores the pinfall at 2:42. Afterwards, DOA kick the shit out of Ellering, to end that alliance. DUD

Backstage, the Corporation make their way through the hallways 

WWF Title Fatal Four-Way Match: Rock v Ken Shamrock v Big Boss Man v Mankind: Tags are enforced here, at least giving Mankind a fighting chance. He starts with Boss Man, and gets pounded into the corner right away. Mankind fights back with a clothesline, and he works on Boss Man’s arm from there. Tag to Ken, and he tees off on Mankind, but gets reversed while trying a smash into Rock’s extended boot. Unfortunately for Mankind, he can’t follow up, and gets overwhelmed with Rock and Shamrock gang up. Rock misses a clothesline, allowing Mankind to dump him to the outside, but Shamrock nails him before he can follow up again, as we see Vince McMahon and Test watching on a monitor from backstage. The Corporation continue overwhelming Mankind, as Vince and Test head down to get a closer look at the action. Rock with a DDT for two, and a uranage on a chair, via an assist from Michaels. Rock hits the People’s elbow to finish at 5:52. This was too one sided to be interesting from a workrate perspective, but it worked as a storyline point. Afterwards, Vince comes in to further humiliate Mankind, but DX make the save. ¼*

BUExperience: I generally enjoy Heat, but this was a skippable episode.