King of the Ring 1998 - Civic Arena, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, June 28th, 1998

It has been a wild month since Over the Edge! Mick Foley is Mankind again and has formed himself a demented little family with “Uncle Paul” Paul Bearer and his son Kane. The Undertaker has his sights set firmly on Stone Cold’s WWF Championship but has a big (and very famous) speed bump in his way tonight in Hell in a Cell.

The opening video package has Classy Freddie Blassy on narrator duty so you know it’s a big one. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at ringside and there are huge, red petrol (gasoline if you’re American) cans all over the announce table and ringside area in case Kane has to deliver on his promise tonight. He’ll set himself on fire if he doesn’t win the WWF title. 

The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku vs. Kaientai (Dick Togo, Sho Funaki and Men’s Teioh)

This is the first of two bonus matches here tonight, only added to the PPV earlier in the day. 

Taka is dressed like one of the Headbangers and doesn’t have his light heavyweight title belt with him. Jerry Lawler is still all over him with insults. I think he just hates Japanese people.

Kaientai actually gets booed, which is nice. They didn’t get much of a reaction at all on Raw. It’s a lively crowd in Pittsburg. We even get a Taka chant early on. This is short and fast paced and Taka wins with his Michinoku Driver which is good news for me because I get to hear Taka’s awesome theme song (he came out to The Headbanger’s music)

Sable makes a sudden appearance. She’s back under suspicious and unexplained circumstances hired personally by Vince McMahon. “I’m not saying Sable is gorgeous but I know a lot of men who’d marry her dog just to join her family” Thank you Jim Ross.

She gets a lot of love and noise, but it quickly turns to boos as she introduces the owner of the WWF, Mr. Vince McMahon who swaggers to the ring with a smile accompanied by a cream coloured jacket wearing Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco. A Sable steps out of the ring, Patterson pats her on the butt so she slaps him! “I dare having a woman slap me” Bless Pat, he’s been in the United States for decades and can still barely speak English. More “Pat is secretly a gay” ribbing in front of us all. 

Vince asks the fans if they’re here to see a new WWF Champion (boos) or to see Kane set himself on fire (lots of cheers) This crowd is rabid. 

Vince delivers a long speech calling the fans here in attendance disappointments to their parents, and that their parents were probably disappointments too. His point is that tonight we’ll all be very disappointed when Kane wins the WWF title. This felt longer than the previous six man tag team match. (because it was)

King of the Ring Semi finals

Ken Shamrock vs. Double J, Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee)

To get to this match, Ken Shamrock had to run through Kama Mustafa and Mark Henry. Double J handed losses to Faarooq and Marc Mero. 

Jeff has added Southern Justice (the repackaged Godwins wearing suits) to his entourage but they aren’t here tonight. This is good but very short. Double J strikes fast and hard but Shamrock won’t be denied and he hits a belly to belly and locks in an ankle lock to which Jarrett taps almost instantly. Ken Shamrock is the first man to enter the finals.

King of the Ring Semi finals

Dan Savern vs. WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock

The Rock defeated Vader and Triple H to reach this match. Severn tapped out D’Lo Brown and Owen Hart. The D’Lo match in particular is memorable (and important, pay attention) as he injured D’Lo and tore the muscles in his chest. The Rock does bring Kama and Mark Henry to the ring with him but they are stopped and escorted to the back before even reaching the ring. 

Severn wrestles this match with his t-shirt off in his plain black trunks. This is the first match he hasn’t kept his light grey t-shirt on for. Every single one to this point, he’s kept on the grey t-shirt with its big wet sweat patch. He’s thicc. His style doesn’t quite mesh with the WWF style. He’s trying to grapple and The Rock is trying to sports entertain. The fans actually get behind him as he taunts and makes fun of Severn every time he has the advantage. Even his little leg shakes as he stomps - his every movement is dripping with charisma. 

Kama and Mark return to the ring and distract the referee, allowing D’Lo Brown wearing his spiffy new chest protector to come through the crowd and hammer Severn with a frog splash and slink off in the night. The Rock picks up an easy win and advances to the finals. That gives us a Wrestlemania rematch of The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock but this time it’s for the King of the Ring. 

Video package reminding us of all of Al Snow shenanigans over the last couple of months involving Jerry Lawler. King promised Al a private meeting with Vince in exchange for protection on an episode of Raw. I’m not sure why Al wants this private meeting and he never actually said. I assume to try and get a job but maybe he’s just a big fan? Lawler set up this match, mostly to shut up Al Snow.

Too Much (Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor) vs. Al Snow and Head

Special referee: Jerry “The King” Lawler

If Al Snow wins, he gets a meeting with Vince McMahon

Jim Ross teases Jerry Lawler about how much he looks like Brian Christopher, as Jerry beams and talks about how handsome Too Much are. Al Snow doesn’t have theme music yet. JR keeps pointing out that there’s no referee until the grand reveal that The King himself will be acting as the special referee! Head is propped up on the turnbuckle as Al’s partner. Snow gets a decent cheer and reaction from the fans which is nice to see. I love Al Snow. With Jerry in the ring, it gives JR free reign to make jokes about Brian Christopher and King’s family resemblance. 

Brian got a lot more TV time pre-Wrestlemania in his feud over the light heavyweight title with Taka but I do like his pairing with Scott Taylor. They’d get a major push and a lot more popular as Too Cool but I’m getting ahead of myself. Christopher has bags of charisma and Taylor is a great wrestler. 

Al has a really obvious three count and King walks very slowly over to make the count, pausing for seconds in between each mat slap. He had a visual 15 count but King only counted two before Brian kicked out. He also counts lightning fast for Brian’s pin attempts.

Too Much work over Al Snow for a while until he gets control with a double DDT and tags Head. He hits both men with Head and hits the Snow Plough on Christopher but King won’t count because Head is legal. As Al Snow works over Scott Taylor. Jerry Lawler retrieves a bottle of head and shoulders from ringside and passes it to Brian who plugs it into the bottom of the Head and pins…him? Her? It? Because the Head…has shoulders y’see? Jesus.

As Too Much leaves, Brian gets in close to the camera and explains the Head and Shoulders gag to us two or three times to make sure it landed. 

X-Pac (w/Chyna) vs. Owen Hart

Prior to this match starting, Jim Ross recaps their issues. It was within the wider Nation vs. DX feud, but Owen cost X-Pac his KOTR qualifier against Triple H, and then X-Pac hit Owen in the back with a steel chair. On the slow motion replay, we see the corner of the chair catch the back of Owen’s head and bust him open. That needed seven staples to close. 

These two men also met at the 1994 King of the Ring, which Owen won. He made the then-123 tap out to the sharpshooter in the semi-finals. 

As JR talks about the counties this show is being broadcast in, when he reaches the Arab countries Jerry sarcastically says “oh yeah don’t forget about them” I wonder if he was fed that line by Vince McMahon? Lawler makes such a relentless tirade of racist jokes during Japanese or Mexican wrestlers matches, it could be either.

Now that Owen Hart is a heel in The Nation, Jerry Lawler loves him again.

X-Pac gets worked over as Owen focuses on his surgically repaired neck but X-Pac gets control with the X-factor (it's not his finish yet, and JR calls it a unique manoeuvre) followed by a spinning heel kick and then the bronco buster which both commentators ignore for some reason despite its theatrics. 

X-Pac is on the outside and gets splashed by an interfering Mark Henry. Before The Nation can capitalise, Vader (who’s feuding with Mark) sprints to the ring and hits Henry with such force he knocks himself off his feet which is either impressive or a bit hilarious depending on how you feel about Vader’s weight gain. Owen locks X-Pac in the sharpshooter back in the ring but as the referee pays attention to Vader and Mark’s brawl, Chyna slips in and spikes Owen with a DDT which allows X-Pac to get the three count. 

This was good because both guys are really good but it was too short to be special. The combined in ring time of the first four matches here tonight adds up to about 22 minutes. The crowd did perk up majorly for all the interference and tom foolery at the finish. 

Paul Bearer comes to the ring and tells us about how Kane used to sit and watch his older brother on WWF Superstars and say that he wants to be like him. He gets emotional talking about Kane’s childhood and says that tonight he’ll be so proud to be the father and the manager of the WWF champion! This was actually really good - Paul Bearer doesn’t get anywhere near the love he deserves for his character and promo skills. 

WWF Tag Team Championship

The New Age Outlaws © (Roaddogg and Bad Ass Billy Gunn w/Chyna) vs. NWA Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (Bodacious Bart and Bombastic Bob) (with Jim Cornette)

This is our second of two bonus matches. This one is a bonus in that it is additional, but not that it adds any quality. The Outlaws rattle through their usual opening banter and it's as entertaining as ever. They’re significantly more popular with this crowd than they were last month. Billy Gunn is jacked - he looks like a million dollars.

This is kind of bullshit as on Raw a couple of weeks ago there was a Tag Team Royal Rumble for a shot at the WWF tag titles. Kane and Mankind won and are the number 1 contenders. They’re both busy tonight which is fair enough, but Bob and Bart were literally eliminated first in that match!

This should feel really historic as the NWA Tag Champions face the WWF Tag Champions but no one cares. The NWA invasion has failed and at this point are still around just to lose to the real stars. 

Roaddogg has cut his hair and lost the extra long dreadlocks. He looks better. 

JR does at least acknowledge during this that Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn are “brothers” (they are not) and were tag team champions together (which they were, three times as The Smoking Gunns) The crowd is silent for their big stare down.

The company has changed so much in the last three years and the popularity of the WWF is exploding so much that it’s not hard to believe these fans just don’t know the history. This match is fun when The Outlaws are laughing and joking and using their movies but slows to a crawl when The Midnight Express start working over Roaddogg and at one point, Bombastic Bob audibly shouts “fuck you” at the Roaddogg. Bob has big fluffy blonde hair but it’s starting to thin at the front. It’s turning into a skullet. After Roaddogg gets the hot tag to Billy we get one of the all time famous botches. Jim Cornette gets in the ring and Billy backs him up into the corner and JC has to stand there waiting for what feels like an eternity for Chyna to low blow him. Chyna was badly out of position and had to sprint around the ring to get behind him. 

The Outlaws hit a hot shot across the top rope and pin Bob to end this match. 

This match was as long as both of the King of the Ring semi final matches combined. That’s criminal. To be fair, two of those lads have to wrestle again tonight so it’s fair enough to keep them short.

Chyna has had a very busy night as after helping X-Pac and The New Age Outlaws win their respective matches, she comes back out immediately with the European Champion Triple H to be guest commentator for the King of the Ring finals. Triple H won it last year. He tears off his t-shirt and throws it to the crowd which was stupid as he now has to sit at the desk with no top on. 

King of the Ring final

WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock

Triple H keeps calling The Rock “The Crock” which isn’t as clever as he thinks it is. He continually slags off Rocky but he does at least talk about how important the King of the Ring is with himself and Austin being the last two winners. 

Jim Ross talks about how The Rock had The Nation all the way through this but Ken Shamrock has been a one man band. Triple H asks if that means he plays his own instrument which..yeah, fair. That’s quite funny. 

We see that Chyna has joined the Spanish commentary team and that she speaks fluent Spanish which is impressive. Triple H makes a joke about Taco Bell because of course he does. A huge part of the attitude era appears to be based on Americans not respecting other cultures or nationalities. It was the 90s brah. 

When The Rock does confront Triple H, he calls Rocky “fuzzy top” which does just actually seem really racist? (Black people have fuzzy/frizzy/naturally curly hair. It has its own texture)

The Rock spits water in his face and the match continues as Triple H promises he’ll have words with The Crock backstage. 

Shamrock gets his wrist caught in the ropes as he goes over the top rope which looks really painful and could have dislocated his shoulder. The Rock does a good job of getting him untangled while also looking like he’s putting the boots to him which was well done. 

Every time Shamrock starts to get control again, The Rock shuts him back down with a big move including a beautiful float over DDT.

Triple H gets some good digs in at WCW on commentary, talking about how in the WWF your success is based on your own skills and how you get it done in the ring and not “how much stroke you’ve got with the guy running the show” That’s hilarious in hindsight given what Triple H would become best known for later in his career. 

Triple H and Jim Ross make a couple of insider comments about how terrible the Too Much/Al Snow match was earlier. That it set the business back 10 years, and that some attempts at humour just don’t quite land with everybody. That sums up DX in general really. For every segment that would be remembered and talked about decades later, there’s two or three totally lame ones that don’t work at all. 

Hunter’s commentary is good because as much as he rips on these guys and makes jokes, he’s careful not to bury them and maintains how good they both are because he knows that it helps him when he feuds with or wrestles them both later on. 

The finishing moments are really strong with big moves and kick outs back and forth until Shamrock counters The Rock into an ankle lock. The Rock does his best to hold on, but is forced to tap out.

JR goes mental, really excited that Ken Shamrock is the 1998 King of the Ring! The crowd is happy too. This feels like a big moment for Shamrock.

Hell in a Cell match

The Undertaker vs. Mankind

As the Cell lowers to the ring, we get almost all of the famous Hell in a Cell soundbites from King and JR that they’d use in video packages for the next 15 years. 

I knew this match was coming of course. I’ve spent weeks thinking about what I'd even say. What can I say? Do I need to describe this? If you’ve never seen it - stop reading and go and watch it. This is possibly the most famous match in wrestling history. As I write this, it’s about a week since the 25th anniversary of it. WWE released a video on YouTube of Mick Foley and The Undertaker watching it together and discussing it that is also well worth a watch.

This match changed everything. The WWF literally got new rings after this, replacing the rock hard ones with no give they’d been using for decades. This match shortened Mick Foley’s career and set the bar unrealistically high for these types of weapons and gimmick matches going forward. 

I cannot do this match justice and so, I’m not going to try. It is incredible. I’ve seen this before many times but I swear, I got goosebumps up and down my entire back and neck and arms over and over as I watched it again here.  But what I will add is that everyone remembers the big spots - Mankind flying off the Cell to the announce table, Mankind crashing through the Cell to the ring (which is the one that really hurt, and even knocked him unconscious briefly) and the multiple bumps onto the thumb tacks - but this is a brilliant match in itself. The drama and emotion is off the page but the actual back and forth in between these huge spots is great too. 

Mick Foley talked a lot about this match in his first book - the list of injuries he suffered is legendary - but where he was in his career at the time is also very interesting. He felt lost and like he had fallen down the card after his failed main event run as heel Dude Love and was sceptical that the fans would take to Mankind or whether anyone would care about another match between himself and The Undertaker after their long feud in 1996. This match is the reason everyone started to love Mick Foley and led to his best stuff as a fan favourite later in the year and beyond. I even got a little emotional at the finish. God I love Mick Foley. 

I hope that whoever is reading this took the time to go and watch this 15 - 20 minutes of PPV here. 

First Blood Match for the WWF Championship

Stone Cold Steve Austin © vs. Kane (w/Paul Bearer)

If Kane loses, he will set himself on fire.

Video hype package for this one;

Austin has a huge bandage on his right arm and below. He had a nasty staph infection and JR informs us that he spent three days the previous week in the hospital being treated for dehydration. “Stone Cold won’t make excuses but there’s no way he’s at 100%” 

Stone Cold is aggressive at the start, hitting clotheslines and a Thez press and driving Kane’s face into the exposed turnbuckle. He’s hammering at Kane’s head trying to bust him open and while Kane bumps off every shot, he keeps getting right back up. 

Kane has his left arm - usually exposed in his ring gear - completely covered up too. He’s making this as difficult for Austin as humanly possible. Austin should have worn a football helmet and hockey pads.

We see a couple of shots throughout the match of Vince McMahon and an uncomfortable looking Sable watching on from the luxury box at the top of the arena.

As they brawl, the Hell in a Cell starts to lower back down to the arena floor. The commentators lose it - who is controlling it? Why is it lowering? What’s going on? Kane pins down Stone Cold who almost gets crushed by it and they do a really good job of making this feel really close and dangerous with Austin moving just at the last second. 

The Cell starts to raise and Austin gets Kane straddled by his tummy across the bar at the bottom of the door so he gets lifted about nine feet off the ground, dangling while Stone Cold hammers him with punches until he flips and falls down. That was cool.

After some brawling up the ramp and both men taking bumps on the concrete and thrown into all the steel and stage equipment they head back to the ring where the Cell has settled about 15 feet off the ground. It’s probably blocking quite a lot of people’s views in the crowd.

The referee takes a hard bump on the outside, being squashed between a charging Kane and the steel barrier at ringside.

Mankind hobbles to the ring carrying a steel chair. That is insane. It’s been about 20 minutes since his ordeal in the Cell and he’s here doing a run-in. Kane has such a good friend. He tries to help but takes a Stunner. The Undertaker follows and swings his chair for Mankind but he ducks (or collapses, it could be either - the man is half dead) and Taker makes contact with Austin, busting him wide open! Kinda! Austin actually rolls onto his front and does a really blatant blade job. Still! It seems that the Undertaker bust open Austin by accident but that doesn’t explain what happens next - Taker picks up the referee and puts him in the ring, pouring petrol (or gasoline if you’re American) all over him to wake him up and see Stone Cold drenched in blood. 

Austin blasts Kane with a brutal chair shot just as Earl Hebner rolls over and sees Austin. He rings the bell and Kane is declared the winner of this first blood match. We have a new WWF Champion!

The PPV closes on a shot of Vince McMahon in his luxury sky box, smiling proudly. He finally screwed Stone Cold just like wanted to. 

This is a great PPV. The first half of the card are all very short matches but that just means it’s five solid minutes of action with no fat to trim. The King of the Ring final between Rock and Shamrock is a good match and felt like a big moment. The next crop of main eventers is maturing, especially with Triple H on commentary. The main event was a wild and wacky brawl and was very entertaining throughout. And the big shock at the end of the show - Austin losing the title - was a legit shocker. He’d beaten Vince’s odds so many times, we all assumed he’d do it again. Kane did so well, winning the title in his first PPV main event only 8 months into his career (!)