Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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As promised, Austin comes back and tries to get in once again. The security guy still won't let him in, so Austin beats him up before coming out to a gigantic pop. Vince is furious until Austin challenges Vince, Patterson and Brisco to a handicap street fight. Vince points out that they don't go to a street fight in suits. Vince says they'll get two out of three in the match, but they won't tell him which two before the match.
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Vince says there are rumors that Austin has a concussion from his clothesline last week, which Jim Ross disputes at the announce booth. He has made the decision to bar Austin from the building tonight. They show footage of Austin's arrival earlier in the evening where he was denied entry into the building. Austin told the security guy he had five minutes to change his mind or he would come back and beat his ass. Meanwhile, Vince introduces Dude Love and I have to give Foley credit for doing such a drastically different promo than he would normally do. He seems to be channeling Bob Backlund and I'm reminded that Vince would have loved him in that role. Then, Vince has words for Dustin Runnels for sticking his nose in everything last week. Vince is outstanding once again and ends up making a Dude Love vs Dustin Runnels main event for RAW, where if Dustin loses, he has to wrestle for 30 days without pay. I really like that as a stip. Man, the WWF is great!
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Last few minutes. Kind of a weird match as Sting is a WCW babyface teaming with an NWO heel against two NWO tweeners. Giant is put in the position to work the crowd from the apron fresh off of a heel turn. So then he makes the hot tag and Nash goes from being the heel to being the babyface. Giant misses a top rope splash. Something about this card killed this match considering that even that didn't get much of a pop. Nash is about to powerbomb Giant when Dusty Rhodes gets on the apron to distract the ref. Hall turns on Nash and Sting and The Giant win the tag titles. What a mess. Why would they put Hall and Nash on opposite sides for the NWO breakup, other than just to swerve people? What an idiotic twist. Now a WCW guy and an NWO guy are tag team champs. I'd roll my eyes, but WCW booking gets far worse than this in the coming two years.
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I was digging this match for the most part, but there's no excuse for the overall lack of heat compared to Jericho-Malenko and even Benoit-Finlay. Nice work from Bret to build to a sharpshooter but the finish was total crap with Elizabeth pretty much just running in because she was needed as a plot device, but not having any type of clear motivation for running in at all. Hogan shows up to almost no reaction and helps Bret win. Hogan couldn't even hit the right leg during his run-in, even though Savage had a brace on and everything.
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They got Michael Buffer to do intros. Tony seems offended by Bischoff's introduction. Buffer's intro of Vince could be so much more ridiculous than it is. So much good material they could have used there. Bischoff ends up winning by forfeit and this was a dramatic waste of time. It's not that the WWF was any less petty at "invading" WCW, but at least they used it to create new stars, where WCW used it just to get over Bischoff. How exactly did Eric win by BOTH forfeit and disqualification?
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There's a white limo outside that WCW cameras are watching. Doug Dillinger investigates the limo while Bobby Heenan makes fun of him. Tony gets in a cheapshot at Jim Ross about carrying Vince's bags. We also get surveillance footage from all over the inside and outside of the arena. Thrilling.
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It's hard for me to pick a favorite because all of the intros are outstanding. It's amazing Jericho was able to get away with doing his own thing and getting himself over for so long without anyone noticing. There were occasional disappointing crowd reactions to Jericho week-to-week, but this pay-per-view was the reward for a great storyline. It's interesting that the WWF-style rapid heel bumping that he talked about not understanding in his book was missing from the match with Malenko, as I think they could have sustained the heat even more had he gone up and down a little more. Not that there was anything wrong with the heat, just an observation. It says something that this is quite possibly the most heated non-Goldberg match of 1998 WCW. -
I was surprised at how hot the crowd was for this match. Benoit has been in lots of good PPV matches in 1998 but this stands out above them all. I love the use of the chair without calling for a DQ if only because that and the increased stiffness and use of holds makes this feel like a Japanese match. I thought Benoit being so easily distracted by Booker T's presence made him look stupid, but this was still a very good match.
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Taz interrupts a Triple Threat promo to make a deal with Shane Douglas - he will watch his back until he's fully healed as long as he gets the first title shot at that point. The group reluctantly agrees and the moment they have their guard down, Taz goes after Douglas's injured arm again. I know it's ECW, but Taz felt like the babyface up until this point, so I don't understand why they did this.
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The FBI are supposed to face the Blue Meanie and Supernova but attack them and lay them out before the bell. Axl & Balls come out and this starts as a crazy brawl before settling into a pretty solid traditional Southern tag. Tommy Rich should forever work in wrestling as a second.
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Undertaker actually wanted to work with Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania because he wasn't sure his body could handle a Lesnar match. There were also concerns that Brock wouldn't take the time to practice the match in advance.
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Whoa, Jamie Dundee heeling on Italians big time and even gets into a fight with Hat Guy at ringside. This is some awesome heat seeking.
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Bischoff holds up signs from the audience calling Vince a coward. Interesting how the announcers don't talk about other things when the boss is making his entrance. He reads a letter from Jerry McDevitt on the air making clear that Vince won't be at the pay-per-view. The best part: "Mr. McMahon is one of Titan's leading television personalities and is responsible for its highest ratings ever. Wow, I bet the other guys in the WWF are happy to hear that!" I love that Tony starts promoting Movies For Guys Who Like Movies at the end of this.
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This looks like a wrestler coming out for a match, but he's just handing out Quest For Camelot t-shirts. I hated when WCW would do outside promotion this way, because it existed in the same reality as wrestling instead of being something separate.
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Mando comments on the Eddy-Chavo problems, which is interspersed with clips of the two. This is really strangely produced.
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Eric Bischoff does his training vignette for a match that isn't happening. He dares Vince to show up at Slamboree.
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We hear from Tommy Dreamer, Bill Alfonso, Lance Storm and Chris Candido (who is pretty obviously taking his supplements) - mostly Candido and Storm hyping the Candido/Sabu vs Storm/RVD match. Funny that they are doing promos in bathrooms.
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Bubba Ray Dudley is terrific at this gimmick, but Gertner is just there to get himself over.
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Austin's partner is revealed to be Vince McMahon on this loaded episode of RAW. Vince in this case does nothing while everyone else works him over. This is the kind of stuff they should have been doing with Daniel Bryan every week. Rock is working really hard here. Vince McMahon ends up clotheslining Austin while Patterson and Brisco come in and gang up on Austin. Austin responds with shots of his own before Dude Love comes in. But then Dustin Rhodes and DX are in the ring and everyone is brawling. The WWF is tremendous.
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Rock announces that he's in the main event against Austin tonight.
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Al Snow gets locked out of the building.
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Dustin Rhodes comes out in all black and sets his Goldust attire on fire. He claims Vince took his dignity away and is the reason he has no relationship with his father, ex-wife or daughter. He announces that Goldust dies tonight. This is a really good, heartfelt promo. I just wish they had more of an idea of how to follow up on it so they wouldn't have to reverse course in a few months.
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DX are clear babyfaces now, as the fans have turned them. Waltman does a lot of the talking in this one and is great. DX establishes a lot of their catchphrases here in a babyface way and people really love them. Owen Hart interrupts them and seems ready to fight all of them on his own before The Nation comes out for backup. Really good stuff - the WWF is on a roll!
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I love how they make fun of WCW being in such a cheap building in Smyrna, as they had moved out of CNN Center at this point. Later, they go to CNN Center and the footage isn't nearly as "shocking" as Jim Ross promised. although this was a big moment.
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Al Snow tries to take Jerry Lawler's place at the broadcast booth and demands to see Vince. Pat Patterson comes out to escort him away.