Over the Edge: In Your House - Wisconsin Centre Arena in Milwaukee Wisconsin, May 31st, 1998

Ken Shamrock is on the poster for this event - he’s the only person on the poster for this event in fact - but this marks the single PPV in all of 1998 on which he doesn’t appear. Unfortunate timing I’d imagine. He's still out selling a broken ankle given to him by Owen Hart and a steel chair.

One of the more memorable opening video packages from this era focused entirely on Austin and McMahon. It hits the plot points (Dude Love is Vince’s corporate champion in waiting, McMahon is the referee, Brisco is the time keeper, Patterson is the ring announcer, it’s a big conspiracy. “It’s Austin against the World here” says Jim Ross. The actual video has lots of black and white footage of dictators throughout history interspersed with Vince, and a robotic woman’s voice welcoming us to “Mr. McMahon’s Utopia” and that we will Conform. It’s cool. Or at least I think, so, you can judge for yourself;

The WWE Network version of the event has some production music as the event’s theme song but it’s so loud and clear over the crowd and commentators that it sounds dubbed in. They mustn’t have had the rights to the song they actually used in 1998. 

LOD 2000 (Hawk and Animal w/Droz and Sunny) vs. The DOA (8-Ball and Skull w/Chainz)

Oh Sunny is back! She’s been missing from the last three or four Raw’s so I thought she had just quietly departed the company in a haze of the dreaded “personal demons” . It's not long until that does happen, sadly. She still looks amazing here. JR and King talk about the history of the AWA in this area (they’re in Milwaukee)  

We hear the DOA’s motorbike engines revving before their theme music even starts. JR puts the motorbikes over more than the wrestlers which is fair enough honestly. Chainz never seems to wrestle on any of these shows so he must be utterly useless in the ring EVEN compared to 8-Ball and Skull who are useless.

King is especially pervy about Sunny during the start of this one which is only really noteworthy in that because she’s a babyface, he’s actually been quite mean about her recently.

The crowd is more unsettled than loud but they do pop for Hawk hitting a blatant low blow behind the referee’s back. Your baby faces ladies and gentlemen. JR is trying hard to put over the LOD for having won the AWA, NWA and WWF tag team titles which is the 80s/early 90s version of having been WWE, WCW and ECW tag team champions….which is the late 90s/early 2000s version of having been WWE and AEW tag team champions today (there isn’t a 3rd company in the United States anymore)

JR wants us to believe that the DOA are winning over “new fans” (which simply wasn't true) and that they’re the future of the tag team division. Don’t worry guys, they’re gone soon.

Droz and Chainz start brawling on the outside which actually gets a decent reaction and a VERY brief “puke” chant. Droz is known as “puke” to his friends, and is famous for vomiting on live TV during the NFL’s Monday Night Football. Sports entertainment beckoned shortly thereafter, naturally. 

This is pretty slow. It only goes 10 minutes but it feels longer. The DOA do work heel with lots of slow, wearing down sleepers and chin locks while Sunny tries to get the crowd to chant for LOD.

The finish comes when after a distraction by Chainz and attempted twin magic, Droz clocks one of the DOA (I dunno which, they’re twins, the one who tried to be sneaky) and Animal wins with a scoop powerslam. 

The Rock comes out to the ring and looks cool as hell with the Intercontinental title belt slung over his shoulder. No sunglasses though. JR tells us that this is unscheduled and the IC title match isn’t until later in the show. 

More “Smell what The Rock is cooking” signs. Now that it’s the intro to his theme song, it’s officially a catchphrase.

The Rock cuts a promo on “the beer capital of the world.” He runs down Milwaukie and the fans here in attendance. This is obviously designed to get some love for Faarooq who sadly is not that popular. Speaking of whom, he rushes the ring to attack The Rock. He grabs a chair and before the referees can separate them, Faarooq piledrives The Rock on the chair...kinda. He actually kicks the chair aside accidentally as he positions the move and misses the chair by about a foot. Jim Ross puts it over huge that he hit the chair but King is honest with us and acknowledges that he missed the chair completely. The rest of The Nation come out and show great concern for Rocky as he sells his neck. This takes an age as they put a surgical collar on The Rock and stretcher him away from the ring. Very odd to have the heel look so sympathetic here. The fans chant “bullshit”. Owen Hart is funny during all of this as he barks orders at the EMTs and referees and shows great concern for The Rock.

Brief Michael Cole interview with WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. He calls this the house where Austin 3:16 was born. They’re in the same arena as King of the Ring 1996 where he made that classic speech. Austin confirms that no one has stepped up to be in his corner and watch his back. He says everyone is probably afraid of Vince, but that “McMahon’s ass will always belong to Stone Cold Steve Austin” which sounds dirtier than he intended I'm sure.

Double J, Jeff Jarrett (w/Tennessee Lee) vs. Steve Blackman

Tennesee Lee is introduced by Howard Finkle first so that he can then in turn ring announce Double J. He has the big flashing JJ hung above the ring. Jim Ross talks about his new mean streak which is important and continues for the rest of the year leading to a full on gimmick change at the end of the summer which is long overdue. 

This feud has been going on for months. Double J handed Blackman his first (and so far only) legit singles loss before Wrestlemania via shady means and they’ve been brawling and running in on each other's matches ever since. 

They start fighting on the outside and then back in. This is really quick and intense. Night and day compared to the opener. Cool spot where Blackman puts Jeff in a tree of woe and then goes outside and pulls him back by the face.

During this match we see that Al Snow - who is pestering Jerry Lawler to get him a meeting with Vince about a job - is at the Spanish announce table dressed in stereotypical Mexican attire. 

They trade the advantage back and forth until Tennessee Lee distracts Blackman and the referee. They skirmish a little and in the end, Tennessee Lee hits Blackman in the back with one of his own martial arts sticks as he was preparing to dive off the top rope. Double J picks up an easy three count.

This was better than I expected but the crowd weren’t interested sadly. 

Marc Mero vs. Sable

If Sable loses, she has to leave the WWF

One of the selling points of this match was finding out who would represent Sable. Jerry Lawler was pushing for it to be him because I assume he wants Sable to owe him a favour. Big creep.

Marvellous Marc Mero looks very full of himself as he enters, and holds up Sable’s contract which has nice big MARC MERO and SABLE and CONTRACT on it so we really understand. I’ve said it a few times but this kind of angle where contracts are magical and enforced like this is pure Vince Russo. He wrote multiple storylines like this in WCW and TNA too where possessing a contract means you literally own another human being, no questions asked. Jim Ross mentions that he saw The Undertaker backstage during the PPV preview and speculates that he might be Sable’s mystery man. Even the Deadman loves tits, I guess? 

Sable comes out in her ring gear. The crowd whoops and hollers like they’re at a strip club. 

Mero seems genuinely sad that Sable hates him so much, she is willing to fight him herself just to be free of him. 

As popular as Sable is, she’s so soft spoken and unemotional on the mic. She does get a distinctly feminine crowd reaction for her “I don’t need no man” line.

Mero lays down for Sable to be an honourable man and lets her pin him, but as she lays down he quickly flips her over into a tight cradle and gets a three count! Sable is banished from the World Wrestling Federation. Jerry Lawler laughs about it as Marc Mero celebrates like he’s won the world title. He tries to lead the crowd in a song “nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye” but they obviously aren’t into it and he is just a dreadful singer.

Michael Cole catches Sable backstage for an interview and she struggles to pretend to cry and says goodbye to her fans. Forever. I’m welling up here.

Backstage we see The Nation tending to a loudly distressed Rock. Owen Hart has his shades on and his new yellow and black “DANGER” Nation gear which is cool. He stares right at the camera and while we can’t hear what he’s saying, he seems very upset. Owen’s great. Doc Hendrix informs us that The Rock has been ordered to defend the Intercontinental title tonight despite his neck injury by Sgt Slaughter or he will be stripped of the title. That’s…odd. Slaughter is a villain, being friends with Vince and at odds with Austin so him forcing heel Rock to wrestle bravely despite his injury makes The Rock seem like the wounded babyface in this whole scenario.

Handicap match

Kaientai (Dick Togo, Mens Teioh and Sho Funaki w/ Yamaguchi-san) vs. Bradshaw and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku

King continues to laugh about Sable’s misfortune all through this match.

Bradshaw isn’t a nice person in real life but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t look awesome here. His theme song is great and he throws Taka around as a weapon. 

The Kaientai lads work over Taka and this match is strong with lots of nice, crisp action. 

Jerry continually asks JR why Bradshaw would ever be friends with Taka. We’ve seen at least one skit on Raw in the build up of them being friends. Maybe Taka is just a really nice guy? 

Dick Togo hits a sort of wheel barrow backwards powerbomb and Funaki hits a nice jackhammer. The action here looks so good. Taka is still the light heavyweight champion and I think him defending in a string of one on one matches against these lads would have been awesome.

Jim Ross ignores King as he continually brings up Sable until he finally explodes and suggests Lawler needs therapy for his various issues with women. Hitting a bit close to the bone there, Jim. 

We do get a bit of an explanation as to what Kaientai’s issues are with Taka. They were all friends when they wrestled in Japan and Kaientai apparently took issue with Michinoku becoming “Americanised” which would also explain why they don’t like his “big brother type figure” in Bradshaw. Alright, I quite like that. 

Bradshaw gets the hot tag and runs through Kaientai with some more awesome looking moves including a wicked powerbomb. He doesn’t just bury them as they gang up on him and get some advantage. In the end, a chokeslam bomb and senton bomb off the top rope combo onto Taka gets the win for Kaientai. 

You know what? This match was AWESOME. Every one of the four Japanese lads got to hit multiple, great looking moves and Bradshaw looked like the best wrestler in the world rattling through them and throwing them around. Well worth watching.

We see a shot of Sable leaving the arena (still in her little revealing ring gear) and King laughs some more. Something tells me this won’t be the last time we see her. (it is tonight though)

WWF Intercontinental Championship

The Rock © vs. Faarooq

Faarooq comes out to literally no reaction. It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

They play The Rock’s music twice but he doesn’t come out. We’re then joined by WWF Commissioner Sgt Slaughter who gets on the mic and tells us that “Rocky Maivia will defend the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship” and he is ordered to come out within 10 seconds or he will “represent and give” Mr. Faarooq the Intercontinental heavyweight championship. Never has someone made so many fluffs in such few words. 

The Rock does indeed come out walking gingerly and wearing a neck brace. How is Faarooq the good guy here? How is The Rock the bad guy? I guess we’re supposed to believe The Rock deserves this. He takes off the neckbrace pretty quickly. I’m not sure why The Rock’s neck injury is making him limp?

They fight in the ring, they fight on the outside but it’s not long enough to be good or bad. The crowd is very quiet for this. People’s Elbow gets a bit of a reaction. 

In the end, a weird finish as Faarooq gets a three count but the referee spots that The Rock’s foot is on the ropes and waves it off. During their bickering, The Rock rolls up Faarooq and gets his feet on the ropes for the cheap three. This match was pretty rubbish but it was only 5 minutes long.

Faarooq hits The Rock with two piledrivers post match until The Nation runs in for the save. Followed by DX! They brawl and the good guys clear out the ring. Weirdly, King has shifted his opinion and is now anti-DX after being their biggest fan all month. And the babyface turn is complete. 

Mask vs. Mask

Vader vs. Kane (w/Paul Bearer)

I’ve no idea why this is “mask vs. mask” ? King talks a lot about Vader’s “gross, twisted face” but we’ve literally seen Vader with no mask a dozen times. He often takes it off himself mid-match. I guess maybe they’re implying his face was disfigured by Kane back in February? 

This match should feel bigger. They initially feuded at the start of the year and at No Way Out, Kane hit Vader in the face with a wrench. Vader took two months off, missing Wrestlemania, for “reconstructive surgery” but in truth, they sent Vader to fat camp. JR is pretty mean about Vader’s weight and lack of speed on commentary. They’re publicly shaming him for putting on weight. They did the same to Yokozuna and they’ll eventually do the same to The Big Show (but we’ll get to that)

It’s very slow. Lots of clotheslines and choke spots. The fans do rally a bit behind Vader and chant for him. We know that Undertaker is in the building and he’s the one Kane is really feuding with. 

Kane hits a good looking chokeslam and Vader rolls out to the floor. He grabs the same wrench Kane used on him and hits Kane in the gut and then the back but Kane doesn't sell it and doesn’t even leave his feet. Back to the ring and Vader misses a really impressive looking moonsault and stumbles into an awesome looking tombstone! The crowd was so quiet but this last little sprint looked so good and it’s so impressive Kane got him up, and how great Vader’s moonsault looked. Vader loses.

Post match, his mask is removed. Paul Bearer puts it on and smugly declares “it’s Paul Bearer time” to the camera. I laughed.

As Vader leaves the ring, he’s stopped for an interview with Michael Cole who is really down on himself. He calls himself “a big fat piece of shit” and sulks off. Probably back to fat camp. 

WWF honours a couple of legends

Michael Cole gets into the ring and brings out a couple of wrestling legends of the local Milwaukee area - Mad Dog Vachon (who has one leg and is helped to the ring by two ladies in evening gowns) and then The Crusher (who has one much prettier lady in an evening gown) The crowd give them a loud, respectful ovation. There are legit The Crusher signs in the crowd. JR is happy to see them and honour them but Jerry Lawler dumps all over this. He’s never heard of them, doesn’t respect them. Cole presents them both with plaques. Mad Dog Vachon gives a lovely speech thanking his wife and telling us Luna is his niece. English isn’t his first language (he’s French-Canadian) King talks over them and chants “boring” I get what they’re going for but it comes across way more mean spirited than I’m sure they intended. Jerry then gets in the ring and goes after them verbally with his classic evil stand up comic routine. The crowd pops when the cigar chomping Crusher takes his suit jacket off. Jerry decides to try and grab Mad Dog’s fake leg and gets chased out the ring after a punch to the throat which he sells big. This is lost on me but the live crowd loves it. King seems like he’s giving up and puts his headset back on but then has a change of heart and rushes back in, managing to grab Mad Dog’s fake leg! The crowd boos him as Crusher chases a false leg carrying King around. He does at least get the leg back and hits King with it to a loud cheer. This segment seems so odd and out of place but I enjoyed it. It was good fun and the fans were into it.

The Nation (D’Lo Brown, Kama Mustafa and Owen Hart w/Mark Henry) vs. D-Generation X (WWF European Champion Triple H and WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (Roaddogg and Bad Ass Billy Gunn) w/X-Pac and Chyna)

Classic opening banter from Triple H and the Outlaws. The fans are really loud and excited for them. 

Owen Hart joined The Nation (they’ve dropped “of Domination”) the night after Unforgiven. He was apparently co-leader with The Rock, something they mentioned a couple of times on Raw but isn’t mentioned here. Some ring gear mentions - Owen looks awesome in his yellow and black “DANGER” singlet. Triple H is wearing some proper long tights with his Triple H logo on them which is only interesting in that every other match so far has had him wrestling in what looked like black combat trousers complete with belt. Billy Gunn is the only person in DX not wearing mostly black in his bright blue “MR. ASS” trunks. Loud “Owen sucks” chant. On this show there’s a really clear disparity between the attitude era acts who are working and getting over (DX, The Nation, Sable), and which ones aren’t. (Faarooq, Double J, LOD 2000)

This is pretty slow moving and a classic WWF tag team match. The heels work over one of the babyfaces (almost always Roaddogg in New Age Outlaw matches, and it is here too) until a hot tag. Once you see the pattern it cannot be unseen.The crowd are really hot for DX which does help. 

JR takes this match to remind us of the youth of the WWF roster at this time. D’Lo and Roaddogg are both in their early 20s here and Triple H is only 28.

The mid-point of this match becomes a bit of a coming out party for D’Lo Brown. He’s still pretty chubby here but he’s showing a lot of personality and he carries a great deal of the match. He shows off some great looking moves including a powerbomb and a moonsault. When Billy Gunn finally gets his hot tag, he comes in on fire but the crowd aren’t as wild for it as they could have been due to the long period of watching Roaddogg slowly worked over previously. Billy hits “the Rocker Dropper” which they aren’t calling the Famasser yet. Triple H and Billy Gunn hit a spike piledriver on D’Lo Brown onto one of the tag title belts. Triple H has the cover but before the referee sees it, Owen Hart runs in and Pedigrees Triple H onto the belt. He throws it clear and gets the pin himself! It only took three PPVs but Owen Hart has finally pinned Triple H. A chaotic finish for sure. 

Post match, DX gathers around a downed Triple H who is selling a lot. Fair play - it was his own finisher that got used on him, he might as well make it look really strong. 

This is the second longest match on the show and only a couple of minutes shorter than the main event so I question the logic of having this go on just before the main event. The Nation/DX issues deepen but this feud properly kicks into high gear when the focus shifts to the two leaders for the summer - Triple H vs The Rock.

WWF Championship

Stone Cold Steve Austin © vs. Dude Love

Special Referee: Vince McMahon

Special Ring Announcer: Pat Patterson

Special Time Keeper: Gerald Brisco

A nice video package fills us in on the story for tonight’s main event. We see all the events from the previous five weeks of Raw especially where Austin has Vince arrested for bragging about assaulting him in front of some police officers. Still one of my all time favourite segments/Raw-long storylines. This video actually makes it pretty obvious who’s going to be in Stone Cold’s corner tonight...

Doc Hendrix interviews Vince before he makes his way to the ring and asks if we’ll have a new champion tonight. Vince promises to call the match down the middle to knowing smirks and laughs from Brisco and Patterson. Vince says that if Austin touches him, he will end the match and award the title to Dude Love. He hammers home that this match will end “by his hand only” 

Howard Finkle reads a glowing appraisal of Pat Patterson who comes out first as our special ring announcer. Pop for JR saying “wink wink” after the tournament for the first IC title in Rio de Janeiro is mentioned. (the tournament was fictional. He was simply awarded the title) Pat proceeded to give similar special promotions for our time keeper, special referee and challenger respectively. The crowd gives it all good heat. My favourite lines being;

Pat Patterson “a role model for children and a friend to us all”

Gerald Brisco ``like a beating drum on the reservation, this man is truly the beating heart of America '' (Gerry pauses to point at the Brisco Bros Bodyshop graffiti on one of the scrapped cars at the top of the ramp that make up tonight’s special stage. And Patterson reads off the address and phone number of the business! Hilarious)

Vince McMahon “there are no words to describe what this American Icon means to all of us”

He then refused to make the announcement for “that bum” Stone Cold and called him a disgrace, a beer swilling punk and other insults. The crowd pops after each one too. This was all really funny I thought. It’s so blatant and The Stooges are tremendous in this role. They’d only get funnier too. Making Pat Patterson the ring announcer is definitely a rib. His English is terrible and he mixes up every single plural and singular (the fan loves Dude Love, he will become the champions, etc)

The pop for Stone Cold is, obviously, the biggest all night. Vince takes great pleasure in taking the title from Stone Cold to hold it up. Just before Vince rings the bell, The Undertaker’s theme music hits and the arena lights go out. Like I said, the video package made it pretty blatant but we do indeed appear to have our volunteer to watch Stone Cold’s back tonight. The Undertaker does his full entrance and after exchanging glances with an amused looking Austin, takes position at ringside. Finally…the bell rings. 

A huge amount of build up and this has a big fight feel because of it. The crowd pops huge for Austin sticking his fingers up right in Vince’s face. The crowd starts chanting “Vince is Gay” which is distasteful but in credit to the WWF, the men in the ring all ignore it and JR says he believes they’re chanting “Vince is Dead” which Jerry doesn’t challenge him on. 

We get light screwy-ness from Vince with fast counts for Dude off of basic moves and pin attempts but it's as they brawl on the outside we hear Vince screaming at Stone Cold that there will be no count outs tonight. The crowd is so loud for Austin. Dude gets the mandible claw on Stone Cold who throws him over the top rope to break it and he gets his head twisted between the top and middle ropes and hung. Pat Patterson reminds us at the behest of our referee that this match has no disqualifications. JR objects strongly as Dude Love chokes Austin with an electrical cord at ringside. I won’t recap every spot because there’s a lot of them but one that made me laugh is that we heard Foley loudly say “I’m trying Vince, I’m trying” while Vince encourages him.

As they brawl up the ramp, we get another reminder from Pat Patterson that this match is Falls Count Anywhere. JR is furious. They brawl at the top of the ramp and Austin gets slammed a couple of times on a car where he busts the windshield with his legs and then slides off head first onto concrete. McMahon actually counts multiple pin fall attempts at the top of the ramp too. This is a wild brawl. Hilariously, Patterson and Brisco have both followed up to the top of the ramp and Brisco is carrying the ring bell so he can ring it immediately. 

The brawling at the top of the ramp, throwing each up onto and then off of the pile of scrapped cars is awesome. 

As they fight and suplex each other on the concrete back towards the ring I notice that The Undertaker has also followed them up the ramp and is ominously standing right behind Vince. As he counts a (very slow) pinfall attempt by Stone Cold, he glances over his shoulder at the Deadman. 

Back in the ring, Vince asks for Patterson to hand a chair to Dude Love. His cheating is getting more and more blatant as he grows more and more desperate. 

Stone Cold clearly has the victory off a stiff chairshot to the head but Vince refuses to count. As Austin argues with Vince, Dude attacks from behind and accidentally knocks out Vince with the chair!

Stunner on Dude Love! Another referee runs in to make the count but Patterson pulls him out of the ring! Dude Love gets the mandible claw and Patterson tries to make the count himself but Undertaker picks now to spring into action. He drags Patterson out and chokeslams him through the English announce table. Then Brisco tries to play referee and meets the same fate through the Spanish announce table. Austin hits another stunner on Dude Love and uses Vince McMahon’s limp, lifeless arm to count his own three count! Howard Finkle announces him the winner and still the WWF Champion as The Undertaker watches on, menacingly. To be continued lads.

Stone Cold celebrates a hard fought victory and my God, what an incredible main event. A wild brawl with a plethora of awesome spots and action and a crazy, overbooked finish which at the time was still a very fresh concept. Seeing Austin in the ring with the title belt, covered in his own blood, stepping over an unconscious Vince McMahon…just amazing stuff. Grinning ear to ear. 

Over the Edge was a PPV of two halves. The undercard had a couple of dud matches in front of a lifeless crowd. The only thing worth seeing is the Kaientai/Bradshaw and Taka handicap match which was brilliant but short. There’s some other highlights (the final couple of minutes of Kane vs. Vader is great) but the easy match of the night was the main event. Stone Cold’s popularity was only increasing and everything from the silly stuff with the Stooges before the match to the match itself, to the wild finish was perfect. Well worth seeking out if you haven’t already seen the match. Brilliant stuff from everyone involved. It was nice to see The Undertaker apparently moving onto something other than Kane too.