[1998-12-13-WWF-Rock Bottom] The Rock vs Mankind

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I couldn't even follow the angle before this match and it looked like a gigantic waste of time on pay-per-view anyway. Match is overbooked to hell too, but that's what the WWF is at this point. They got the crowd in the last few minutes, but they relied on tons of shortcuts to do it. Mankind wins with the mandible claw and appears to have won the title, but Vince reverses the decision because Rock didn't technically submit. Vince ends up eating a mandible claw but Shane makes the save from behind with a chair before getting the sock himself. Patterson and Brisco come out and suffer the same fate. That finish is the type of territory-killing stuff that would have hurt the WWF big time if they didn't have such great, once-in-a-generation stars on top that could overcome just about anything.

[soup23]

Pre match stuff was weird and convoluted. Finishing stretch here was fun and action was better than Survivor Series. The near fall on the title belt was great. I hated the finish though as Vince essentially just said the title wasn't changing hands which brings into question why the referee called for the bell anyway. They try to get the crowd back with Mick wiping out the Corporation but it feels pretty cheap.

[PeteF3]

Sue me, I thought this was the most enjoyable WWF segment in weeks. The pre-match stuff about Rock forfeiting the title that doesn't go anywhere is a little backward since Rock is a heel, but it served a larger purpose in setting up the I Quit Match at the Rumble, and in that sense with all the emphasis on Mankind not being able to say "I quit," it was very well-done and shows that someone is still thinking long-term amidst all the Russoficiation of the product. I got into the action down the stretch too, and so did the crowd. The finish is a screwjob but an effective and sensible one, since so much emphasis was placed before the match on having to say "I quit" to win the title. This definitely would have been more effective with Ross or another announcer who knew how to get this aspect over, as opposed to Cole who can't talk about anything other than Mankind's lifelong dream. Even then, bits like Finkle about to announce the new champion only to have the mic snatched out of his hand by Vince is one of those little touches that separate the WWF from what WCW is doing. Compare and contrast this with how ham-fisted the Hogan-Flair first-blood match was, or really any other attempt at doing a complicated screw finish in the late '90s.

 

You could argue that this should have all been on Raw, rather than a pay-per-view, but in my mind this kicked the Mankind-Rock feud into another gear.