It has been a couple of slow weeks in the WWE. Kevin Owens is still the best thing going on in sports entertainment right now. I can never get tired of Seth Rollins, and the Divas continue to make the NXT women look like world class wrestlers by comparison. So I thought I would look back at a random episode of the attitude era. I started watching somewhere in the middle of 1998 so I was hoping to catch an episode I have yet to see, instead this episode took place October 12, 1998 and has one of my most memorable moments of the attitude era.
Instantly I am taken back to the opening intro, much like today “Then, Now, Forever intro”
The show starts with Mr. McMahon driving his personal corvette to the arena where he is met by the stooges, Patterson and Brisco.
We don’t get the opening theme but we do start with Tag Team champions, The New Age Outlaws. This really is the heyday of WWE isn’t it? They are taking on LOD 2000 made up of Animal and Droz, while Hawk does guest commentary. I don’t remember LOD 2000. They don’t get much coverage when the attitude era is looked back on. Within minutes of the match starting, a team of by the name DOA attacks LOD 2000. While DOA and LOD 2000 are fighting on the outside, the Headbangers smash the Road Dogg over the head with a boom box. Now the interesting thing about this matchup is it was for the Tag Team Titles, and six days from this episode was the PPV Judgment Day. It was made clear by the announcers that the New Age Outlaws are defending the tittles against the Headbangers. I remember this being a common trope, The tittles defended on a regular bases even when a PPV match was announced with the titles on the line. By doing this it makes the non PPV title match less interesting because as far as I can remember, very rarely did the title change hands when a match was already announced, so you know it was not going to change hands on RAW. Road Dogg was busted open, very clearly this was the attitude era, we already have blood.
There is a cut to McMahon in his office waiting on Stone Cold, we see Kane entering the arena in a track suit, odd.
There is apparently going to be an intercontinental championship tournament this episode, I hit the jack pot when this episode was picked for me.
The first match is Steve Blackmon and Ken Shamrock. Shamrock I feel always kind of got a raw deal, He was one of my favorites growing up and wanted to see him again but his time has passed. The match is quick with Shamrock focusing on an injured Blackmon who is recovering from knee surgery. After the match the Blue Blazer attacks both Blackmon and Shamrock and I get sad realizing that is not a name I have heard in a long time.
Next there is a video package of Goldust who makes his return this episode. This is of note because Goldust is still wrestling seventeen years later.
The next match of the tournaments is Val Venis and Marc Mero.
King Makes note that both superstars were acompioneid by Terri Runnels and Jacqueline respectively which tells us they are probably going to get into it. The match ends with Venis hitting a fisherman’s suplex thanks to the distraction from Terri and indeed the two women start fighting. Probably the most interesting thing about this is Jacqueline is the Women’s champion, something a majority of wrestling fans would wish replace the divas championship. The crowd started chanting “Sable”. Sable really was the most over Woman in WWF.
We get a funny advertisement for WWF “The Music” which is sold at “Blockbuster” multiple outdated references there.
Sable starts to be interviewed and doesn’t say two words, instead runs into the women’s dressing room and grabs Jacqueline to pull her out to the arena so they can start fighting. Anything to promote the PPV I guess.
Next match in the tournament is Mankind vs. Mark Henry.
This was just a few months before Mankind wins his first WWF championship, and around the time he switched from deranged lunatic to lovable goof. Mr. Socko is still new and believe it or not, Mankind somehow looks like he is in better shape than he is today. I always remember Mankind being a bigger guy, but compared to today, I worry about Mick Foley’s health. Mark Henry had also just started to court Chyna, who makes an appearance in this match and man I forgot how popular she was. Something I never would have caught when I was younger was Mankind is wearing a Dude Love shirt under his Mankind gear. Really funny Easter egg for those who catch it. Mankind wins with a Mr. Socko, which he gets from his foot instead of inside his trunks.
We cut to the moment I alluded to earlier, Stone Cold arrives in a cement truck. The suspense is killing me.
Next match in the tournament is Jeff Jarrett VS X-Pac. Again, X-pac was one of my favorites growing up, even after he was getting “X-Pac heat”. I was always kind of drawn to him because he is a smaller guy, and who doesn’t love a good underdog story? Funny moment early on when JR refers to Jarrett as Double J, his former ring name. X-Pac picks up a win in one of my favorite endings of the night. Jarrett went to grab his guitar to hit X-Pac with but instead finds Al Snows mannequin head.
We cut back to Austin in the cement truck and I urge you to find this video on YouTube. Watching a corvette get filled with cement is an image you will never forget. Afterward, Austin is in the ring cutting a promo and this is notable because it took 47 minutes to get to the first in ring promo. It was short, quick and to the point. He talked about how he going to be a good ref when he officiates the WWF championship match between Kane and Undertaker. Mr. McMahon comes out with a K-9 unit and responds just as quickly saying if Austin doesn’t crown a new champ, he will be fired. That’s it. End of promo for the episode, now we get action the rest of the night.
Round two of the tournament starts when Val Venis starts to come out to the ring and Shamrock attacks him before he can get to the ring. This is something that doesn’t seem to happen very often anymore but I remember it happening a lot growing up. Shamrock used a lot of submission moves in this match and again, it made me realize that there is not really a submission specialist in the WWE anymore. Rusev to an extent but when he faces guys like Cena, you know he is not going to win with a tap out. Shamrock ends up winning with an ankle lock
After the match Goldust comes back and attacks Val Venis. While Mankind looked better in 1998, I think I can honestly say Goldust looks great today compared to back then.
X-Pac and Mankind face off in the semi finals of the tournament which is interesting because as far as I know, these two guys are baby faces, or possibly this is before Mankind turned. Mankind does seem to be playing the heel this match. X-Pac wins the same way he did the first time, with a roll up after Shamrock interferes.
The finals of this tournament is X-Pac and Ken Shamrock. I am conflicted who I want to win this match (even though I know who wins). Shamrock started the match by attacking X-Pac viscously. Shamrock is almost playing the Ryback role. Throwing X-Pac around in impressive fashion. Shamrock gets the win after A couple of ankle locks and becomes the new Intercontinental championship.
Our main event is one that today’s audience longs for. Undertaker and Kane VS Stone Cold and The Rock. This is before the Rocks first championship and before he becomes the top heel in the company. The match starts off simply enough, some good back and forth effort. Rock hits a people elbow early in the match, I guess this was long before it become part of his finishing moves. Than the outside of the ring gets pretty crowded as Paul Bearer comes out followed by Mark Henry and D’lo Brown (Henry is facing Rock at the upcoming PPV). After Austin gets the hot tag, Rock gets attacked by D’lo and Henry leaving Austin by himself who gets beat down by Kane, Undertaker and finally the Big Bossman making his return. The episode ends that way with JR’s shriek urging us to tune in this Sunday to see who will walk out WWF Champion.
Breaking it down now, this was an interesting look at how far we’ve come in seventeen years, and on the same side how little. There were nine matches on the card, none of them longer than 5 minutes with the main event being the exception. I went back and looked at match lengths from late 2014 and they varied in a couple different ways. Some were just as bad in match length, maybe that added another minute here or there but for a three hour show, you would think they could afford to let matches go ten minutes or so. Some of the more recent Raws didn’t have nine matches but made up for it by allowing the matches to exceed 10-12 minutes. The other odd thing about this attitude era episode of Raw was how many run ins there were before or after a match. Half the matches had a screwy finish because of outside interference and the others had someone attack a competitor after the match. I would argue that we have seen less of that because of the three hour show, there is not a rush to get everyone on the card anymore.
Here is my big takeaway: They sold me on Judgment day 1998 with the main event alone. I can’t wait to see what happens with Stone Cold being the referee in the main event for a world title he feels like he was screwed out of. I feel today’s shows are largely hit and miss when it comes to getting me excited for the main event. And yes this such a small sample size for a show that runs 52 weeks a year. Was this a better show than today’s product? That is hard to say really. These are two very different products in very different eras. It wasn’t better, but it was certainly different, and after seventeen years, that’s not a bad thing a
