by Logan Scisco
-Jim Ross and Michael Cole are in the booth
and they are taped from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This is the go home show for Over the Edge.
-Vince McMahon, Pat
Patterson, Gerald Brisco, and two police officers walk out and McMahon gloats
that he assaulted WWF Champion Steve Austin at the end of last week’s show and
got away with it. Austin then walks out
and gets the police officers to arrest McMahon for assault. When Patterson and Brisco get into
altercations with the officers when they handcuff McMahon, the police officers
arrest them for obstruction. Austin then
dumps a beer on McMahon as the crowd goes wild.
THIS is how you give a heel their comeuppance and it fits perfectly with
last week’s legal storyline. The crowd
loved this segment and it is one of the better opening segments of RAW
ever. 1 for 1
-Opening
Contest: LOD 2000 & Darren Drozdov defeat
The Disciples of Apocalypse when Droz pins Chainz after a sitout powerbomb at 4:08
This is Drozdov’s debut and he was LOD 2000’s mystery
partner in this contest, something that the crowd finds rather
underwhelming. After watching Beyond the Mat I cannot divorce
associating Droz with McMahon screaming “HE’S GONNA PUKE” over and over
again. Droz works in some basic offense
that you would expect from a rookie and he gets the winning fall in a bad
match. Rating: ½* (1 for 2)
-Call 815-734-1161
to get your Steve Austin “Hell Yeah” t-shirt for $25 (plus shipping &
handling charges)!
-Austin helps
police put McMahon and the stooges into a squad car in the back.
-Dan “The Beast”
Severn beats Owen Hart via disqualification when the Nation interferes at 3:14:
This is not a conventional WWF match as Owen and Severn
experiment with a quasi-shoot style that you would see in Pancrase. As a result, the crowd really isn’t sure how
to react to it and Cole and Ross aren’t sure how to sell it either. Owen eventually gets outmaneuvered by Severn
and placed in an armbar, but the Nation runs in to save Owen from a submission
loss. Severn eats two splashes from Mark
Henry as a result. I liked what they
were going for here, but they did not have enough time to develop it. Rating: *½ (1 for 3)
-Steve Austin’s
appearance on MTV Celebrity Deathmatch is chronicled.
-Vince McMahon and
the stooges are shown jawing with the officers and rocking the squad car
backstage.
-Edge is coming!
-Hank the Angry Drunken
Dwarf and Crackhead Bob, who have been guests on the Howard Stern Show, come
out with the Jackyl. Hank curses a lot
about the Internet and Bob says some other nonsense. The Jackyl introduces more Oddities, which include
“Princess” Luna (Vachon), Golga (John Tenta under a mask with knots on his
head)), and Giant Silva (billed at this time as “The Largest Man in the World”). The oddities hug Jackyl and the Headbangers
make their entrance for the next match.
This whole thing just screams awkward.
1 for 4
-Golga (w/The
Oddities) beats Thrasher (w/Mosh) with a powerslam at 2:55:
Crackhead Bob joins the commentary team with the Jackyl. Golga works in the old Earthquake-style
powerslam to win as a wink to the fans as to his true identity and Giant Silva
destroys Mosh after the match, as well as the referee. You can tell that Ross thinks this is
completely stupid by the tone of his voice, but Cole was eating it up (of
course).
-Al Snow is shown
hanging out in the crowd.
-Steve Austin is
shown conversing with the police officers by the police car McMahon and the stooges
are held in.
-The interaction
between Kane and the Undertaker on last week’s show is the Super Soaker 1500
Rewind segment.
-Vader defeats “Double
J” Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) via disqualification when Kane interferes at
3:58:
Vader looks much better here than he did a few weeks ago
on RAW and he destroys Jarrett for three-quarters of the match. Kane runs in before he can deliver a Vader
Bomb and destroys him before WWF officials intervene. Rating: * (1 for 5)
-As a condition for
his and his stooges release, McMahon apologizes to Austin and then gives a
death glare to the camera to send us into hour two, where Jerry “the King”
Lawler replaces Cole.
-McMahon comes out
with the stooges, seemingly chastened by his encounter with the law tonight,
and says there is not a single WWF superstar that can intimidate him at Over
the Edge and make him call the match fairly.
McMahon books Austin to face the Undertaker in tonight’s main event and
appears proud of himself. A second
entertaining promo by McMahon tonight. 2 for 6
-D-Generation X is
shown at a local airfield and they make some jokes about flying a plane.
-Al Snow comes out
of the crowd and gets in Lawler’s face and demands to meet with McMahon. Lawler insists that Snow met McMahon last
week.
-Non-Title
Match: Taka Michinoku (WWF Light
Heavyweight Champion) beats Dick Togo (w/Yamaguchi-San) with a hurricanrana at
3:50:
I have no idea why they did not make this for the title
to at least let Michinoku chalk up a title defense on RAW. This is a fun match as both men exchange fast
paced moves and Michinoku scrapes by Togo.
See, if this was for the title they could have worked in a filler match
for Over the Edge and made Togo a contender.
It would have also added some weight to the Taka-Kaientai feud. After the bout, Michinoku tries to go after
Yamaguchi-San, but Kaientai demolish him before he can inflict damage. Rating: **½ (3 for 7)
-Val Venis hitting
the Money Shot on 2 Cold Scorpio is the Gastrol GTX Slam of the Week.
-DX is back at the
airfield joking around, but they have no idea where Triple H is. Road Dogg does work in a funny “Rockabilly”
reference that Billy Gunn takes exception to.
-Faarooq beats “Marvelous”
Marc Mero (w/Sable) with a clothesline at 2:28:
Sable aggressively disrobes Mero before the match, which
further underlies the tension between the two.
The Ross football meter goes to 1:03 for this match and he makes sure to
include that Mero was a former Golden Gloves champion. Sable distracts Mero and causes him to lose
another match. This leads to Mero getting
on the mic after the match and arranging a match for Over the Edge between
himself and someone of Sable’s choosing.
If Sable’s chosen superstar wins, she gets her freedom, but if Mero wins
Sable has to leave the WWF forever.
-Call
1-900-747-4WWF to find out what the newest front office shakeups are in the
wrestling world!
-A video package
hypes “WWF model citizen” Pat Patterson.
-Triple H is shown “flying”
an aircraft and making sexual references.
He paints some anti-WCW and anti-Nation slogans in the sky. This whole thing was a waste. 3 for
8
-Non-Title
Match: The Rock (Intercontinental
Champion w/Mark Henry) wrestles Triple H (European Champion w/Chyna) to a
double count out at 7:58 shown:
The Rock gives the audience his opinion on the new drug,
Viagra, before the match. This match is
more warmly received than it was a year prior, which shows how adding a few
pieces (e.g. Chyna) and flipping the alignments of the characters can overcome
some initial booking difficulties. Chyna
and Mark Henry have their first big time confrontation in this match after both
of them interfere. Both men show signs
that they are the next big things in the business as they work through a good
encounter, assisted by their seconds.
This is a situation where a double count out finish was warranted to
deepen the DX-Nation feud. Rating:
*** (4 for 9)
-After the match,
Faarooq comes out and gives the Rock a piledriver by the entrance. Triple H laughs in the ring.
-McMahon is
announced as the special guest referee for the Austin-Undertaker match, but the
match never takes place as the Undertaker, who has not been in a good mood
lately, takes exception to McMahon flexing his muscles during his
entrance. The Undertaker stares down
McMahon and chokeslams him, but before he can give him a Tombstone, Kane runs
in and they brawl into the crowd. As the
stooges held McMahon up in the ring, Austin’s music sounds and it’s Stunners
galore to send the crowd into a frenzy.
Austin ties McMahon into the ropes and goes to hit him with a chair, but
Dude Love runs out and eats the chair shot instead and McMahon gets away. I miss endings like this. 5 for
10
The Final Report Card: This is the very definition of a WWF show in
1998: a lackluster undercard sandwiched
between a red hot top angle. The
McMahon-Austin segments steal the show and do a great job setting up Over the
Edge. This show also gave a test run for
the Rock-Triple H feud that would dominate the summer of 1998, so it has that
going for it as well. Our next review
will cover Over the Edge 1998 and then we will go into the June RAWs.
As an aside, would the readers prefer to
have my disguise the results rather than putting them before expressing my
thoughts on the match? I can do
whatever, but I just assumed that most readers saw these shows in their youth
and remembered a good chunk of them.
Just taking the temperature of the blog in that regard as I continue
fine tuning my recaps.
So, here is our Over the Edge card:
WWF Championship Match with Vince McMahon as
Guest Referee, Pat Patterson as Guest Ring Announcer, and Gerald Brisco as
Guest Timekeeper: Steve Austin
(Champion) vs. Dude Love
Intercontinental Championship Match: The Rock (Champion) vs. Faarooq
Mask vs. Mask Match: Vader vs. Kane
Freedom vs. Career Match: ?????? vs. Marc Mero
The New Age Outlaws & Triple H vs. Owen
Hart, Kama Mustafa & D-Lo Brown
Steve Blackman vs. Jeff Jarrett
LOD 2000 vs. The Disciples of Apocalypse
Monday Night War Rating: 4.2 (vs. 4.2 for Nitro)
Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up