[1996-09-30-WWF-Raw] Steve Austin vs Jake Roberts / Mankind & Paul Bearer vignette

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The match is almost just an excuse for Lawler to make alcoholic jokes, but at least most of them are really funny. Jake is older and slower, but his in-ring timing and ability to read the crowd is still as good as it ever was, and really, 41 years old by current standards is not old.

 

Jim Ross mentions that he talked to Bret earlier today and Lawler says, "Tell me, was it the real Bret Hart?", which was great.

 

They promote Vince on Livewire, and Ross says if he says something interesting, it would be the first time he had ever said something interesting that wasn't scripted for him in advance. Some of his surly comments are funny at first, but they get old really fast.

 

Lawler spit booze in Jake's face, leaving an opening for Austin to pin him after a stunner.

 

Austin and Lawler double team Jake after the match until Savio makes the save wielding a leather strap.

 

After the match, we get an awesome creepy video with Mankind and Paul Bearer hyping the Buried Alive match.

[Phil Austin]

This and the Shawn tag made me really wish we could see some of the Vince Livewire stuff, especially with 'heelish' Jim Ross involved.

[Tim Evans]

I loved the Lawler/Jake feud. Especially when Jake no showed a USWA match cause he got drunk at the airport and missed his flight. Austin/Jake have good chemistry.

[Zenjo]

This worked well because Jake did look like a broken down alcoholic. At 41 he was the same age as the Rock is now. Okay maybe that's a bit of a harsh physical comparison. The Snake was still fit enough to work at this time.

[El-P]

Back when 41 was old by WWF standarts. Jake does look old though, but this match is pretty good actually, one of the best TV match Jake had since his comeback.

 

Mankind's video was all kind of creepy. I was never a fan of the buried alive stip though, always seemed way too gimmicky.

[PeteF3]

Jake looks terrible, but his timing and ability to control a crowd--and draw the "D-D-T" chant--are still top-notch. They work some good near-falls out of this, and Austin even gets the honor of getting out of a pin attempt after the DDT (with a foot on the rope, not a kickout, but it's something). Lawler spits a swig of Jack Daniels at Jake and that leaves him open for the Stunner. Pretty effective little match that got over 4 or 5 different storylines and future matches.

[soup23]

Action was ok here but Im not sure how strong this made Austin look at this point in his push. Lawler had some funny one liners and JR was annoyed on commentary. I did pop for the Robert ALomar line. Austin stuns Jake with an assist from Lawler.

 

The promo with Mankind and Bearer was good and disturbing in the graveyard.

[Exposer]

Not a bad match. Nothing much, but there's good psychology here. Jake never lost that. Lawler is hilarious on commentary giving JR a hard time about the Fake Razor & Diesel stuff & making light of Jake's personal demons. Austin gets the win here after Lawler spits Jim Beam in Jake's face as a distraction.

 

The Mankind vignette is fucking awesome. He's digging at the ground with his bare hands screaming "If I dig, he will come!" The build for Buried Alive has been fantastic.

[tim]

I thought this was a fun match, very, very basic with Austin working hard bumping and showing ass to put over Jake's limited offense. Though I do agree that for this stage of Austin's push, this is a miscasting of him and he should be more of an ass kicking type heel.

[dawho5]

Love seeing some of the Buried Alive match build represented.  It's easily the best thing the WWF has going right now.  The match was really good, but ultimately doesn't do much for Austin.