[1998-09-27-WWF-Breakdown] The Rock vs Ken Shamrock vs Mankind (Cage)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

All three promos before the match are excellent in very different ways. I really appreciate the booking approach here - they had three guys who they saw as around the same level and presented them equally, letting fans decide who they would run with over time. Fans clearly chose Rock and then Foley, and that's how they pushed them. I think Shamrock got the raw end of the deal unfairly, but I still like that approach because it's far less heavy-handed than usual main event pushes. This was lots of fun for seeing Rock get over huge, and while I don't think it really came close to being a great match, primarily because of the inherent problems with triple threats and WWE cage matches, they did an awesome job crafting a series of crowd-pleasing spots.

[soup23]

I didn't like the beginning of this at all with the slow work and lack of cage use. People randomly teaming up and turning. Blah. Then right around the time Rock did the double peoples elbow, this picked up in a huge way. The finishing run was a ton of fun with the crowd getting behind the Rock and Mankind continuing his journey. Shamrock was treated like a two bit player somewhat but I think this was effective for all three men. (**3/4)

[PeteF3]

The beginning lost me, as things were slow and there were some really eye-rolling spots like the triple abdominal stretch. Plus this really would have been better off had the door been locked and this had been climb-out only. I concentrated on the Indians game for awhile and came back and this got a lot better--I didn't notice a turning point, but they smartly had Mankind & Shamrock work over the Rock 2-on-1 to build sympathy on the newly turned babyface, and the crowd slowly gets more and more into things. The big spots down the stretch are much better, especially the double People's Elbow.