[1998-07-06-WWF-Raw] The Undertaker vs Kane vs Mankind

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Austin and Vince are both on commentary and do a lot of really entertaining arguing. Undertaker doesn't come out when his music starts, so Vince makes the announcer call him a chickenshit. Therefore, Kane and Mankind will wrestle one-on-one to see who will be the number one contender. This will be No Holds Barred and falls count anywhere. Mankind refuses to fight his friend Kane. Kane grabs a chair and Vince wants him to level Austin but he lays out Mankind, who is just sitting there. I'm guessing he's still unable to work after King of the Ring. He quickly wins the match - but it's not Kane after all. He takes off the mask and he's the Undertaker! Nice swerve.

[soup23]

Mable was still around????

 

 

I love VInce and Austin on commentary on off weeks keeping them in the mix without overdoing it. This was a pretty interesting set up and good reveal of Taker although who knows what happened with Kane. At least Bearer walked out with vince which is a good bit of cohesive storytelling that probably wouldn't occur now. Taker is now the #1 contender and a showdown with Austin is brewing. 1/4 *

[PeteF3]

I had that reaction to Mabel, too. WTF was that??

 

Angle-intensive main event that's barely a match, owing to it being inhuman for even Vince to be asking Mankind to work 2 days after KOTR. They cover for everyone's limitations nicely--Mankind doesn't have to take any bumps, and they keep the ring bathed in red light to cover for the fact that that isn't Kane.

[TravJ1979]

Was this "Shamrock beats former KotR winners" gimmick except he could only realistically wrestle and win against Owen and Mabel. I knew this was Taker from the get go. We are starting to get into the era of WWE I didn't like.