[1998-06-28-WWF-King of the Ring] The Rock vs Ken Shamrock

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Tim Cooke]

I was very amused by the Rock vs. Ken Shamrock King of the Ring final. It’s very much a match you would expect from your WCW mid card at the time, with lots of good moves. This also had a lot of heat for the 6-7 minute stretch of near falls they do, which is the difference from a lot of those WCW matches. But the most amusing thing about this match was for the decent moves and the heat, both guys had trouble with simple irish whip spots. Reversing a floatover DDT into a northern lights suplex? No problem Whipping each other from corner to corner or side to side? Not so easy.

[Loss]

Last few minutes and yeah, this is pretty good. HHH does commentary at ringside and this is the match with the "I'm bi a lot of things ..." comment. Nice heat for this too. Fun to see a workrate Rock. Rock taps out to the anklelock to give Shamrock the KOTR win.

[Zenjo]

They really needed to have a trophy to give to the winner right after the match.

[soup23]

I liked the finish of this match a good bit and it showed how Rock was starting to really get over with the fans as his floatover DDT gets nice reaction. HHH on commentary is as snarky as ever. Shamrock wins which feels like a big victory and a good way for him to win the feud without winning the IC belt.

[Childs]

I can't wait for out '98 review podcast when Loss lays out his plan for how WWF could have made better use of Ken Shamrock.

[Superstar Sleeze]

The Rock vs Ken Shamrock - WWF King of the Ring 98

 

Chyna is bilingual! HHH is bi a lot of things, but lingual isn't one of them! LOL! Had read about this incident, but it way funnier to witness it.

 

Pretty ho-hum match. For two great characters, I did not feel much character work in this. It came off very dry. Rocky bailed a couple times early, but I did not really get the sense Shamrock was overwhelming him. Good use of HHH at ringside to set up chaos and allow Rocky to hit a low blow. Weird layout. Rock gets his ass kicked all year, but escapes with the belt and this match Shamrock gets his win, but gets his ass kicked. Shamrock is decent at selling and Rocky is mechanically proficient. It is just pretty dry. Rock's DDT was pretty sweet and the People's Elbow was cool. Lots of nearfalls for the Rock, clearly for his protection. Thought Shammy's comeback was pretty muted. Liked Shamrock hitting a Northern Lights as a counter to Rock's third DDT attempt. Always a fan of flash submission, but just did not feel the drama in this match. Mechanically fine, but lacked drama and presence.

[PeteF3]

These guys work really hard and clearly have their chemistry down pat from working with each other for 6 months. Yeah, it is dry and low on character work--as far as he's come, Rocky still has that part of his game to improve upon yet. But the crowd is into it and for a company not big on high workrate and match layout in its mid-card and with two rather limited guys, there sure are a lot of creative and close near-falls here. Shamrock is still Just Another Wrestler but this is a good win for him after sort of coming off as a choke artist in his inability to win Rock's IC title.

[TravJ1979]

So Shamrock's KotR win that gets forgotten ten minutes later. At least he got his win over Rock that stuck this time after jobbing to him through Dusty finishes for the first six months of the year. I'll go back and watch the match in full later, but this was okay for what was shown.