Raw is War - January 19th 1998

• After a recap of the closing moments of the Royal Rumble - specifically Kane turning on The Undertaker and then setting fire to a casket with him padlocked inside - The Undertaker’s music plays in the arena! It’s not the Deadman, it’s Paul Bearer. Michael Cole calls him “the devil personified” as he laughs on his way to the ring. Bearer laughs at The Undertaker for falling for he and Kane’s trap, and crows about how all the people in the audience fell for it too. They were chanting “Kane” and thought he was going to join forces with The Undertaker and they were very mistaken. Bearer spends quite a few minutes recapping what happened at the Royal Rumble which I think was unnecessary - they showed it to us at the start of the show, and if he’d kept it vague and refused to elaborate they might have generated a few sales of the PPV replay. But I’m not a business man. Bearer screams that The Undertaker is gone and he’s never coming back, but then the lights go out and his music plays. Druids wheel the casket to the ring but when it opens, Kane’s pyro explodes and his music starts and Kane steps out of the casket. That was pretty cool. 

• There’s plenty of hype for “Iron” Mike Tyson appearing on Raw tonight to discuss his likely appearance at Wrestlemania. They showed plenty of shots of him enjoying the Royal Rumble last night but here they show a fun unseen clip of him holding up a fan’s “WCW SUCKS” sign. I liked that. 

• In the D-Generation X locker room, Triple H calls Owen Hart a loser and says he proved that he can’t cut it at the big dance before moving on to praising Shawn Michaels. HBK is faux modest and says that while he is still the WWF Champion, tonight they’re going to go out and find The Undertaker and bring him to Raw for all of us. In the next segment, a Hearse is shown arriving and parking up in the arena. More on that later, obviously.

• The DOA’s Skull, 8-Ball and Chainz take on The Nation of Domination’s Faarooq, D’Lo Brown and Kama Mustafa. During the Royal Rumble match, the five Nation members seemed very happy to immediately turn on and attack each other. There was no attempt to even try and work together, so we’ll see if they’ve mended any fences here. JR really hammers home that Faarooq is the leader of the Nation and everyone needs to fall in line behind him to keep the peace. This match breaks down into a six man brawl so the referee throws it out and disqualifies both teams. Mark Henry and The Rock run down to help The Nation win the fight but they’re followed by Ahmed Johnson and Ken Shamrock - Shamrock still wants The Rock’s Intercontinental title and Ahmed Johnson has been feuding with Faarooq and The Nation in some form or another since the summer of 1996 at this point. 

• Tom Brandi faces Marc Mero. Brandi was beneath Mero last month but now he’s using his real name and has a more serious attitude (as was the style at the time). On their walk to the ring, Mero forces Sable to wear a jacket to cover up her body which says “Property of Marc Mero” on the back. Brandi gets Sable to step aside so he can jump him from behind to start the match. Someone delivers some flowers to Sable during the match which is obviously a big distraction to Mero but after a short back and forth an undetected low blow leads to the TKO and a victory for Mero.

• Out in the parking lot, DX’s “hunt for The Undertaker” leads them to the mysterious hearse but…it’s full of women in little dresses who scream and squeal and drag Triple H and Shawn Michaels inside presumably for an orgy?
• Elsewhere in the parking lot, in the back of a limo with his entourage and a young looking Shane McMahon, Mike Tyson arrives. 

• The Quebecers are back. Last seen on Raw in 1994, the former three time Tag Team Champions have Attitude-era’d up their gimmick a little. Pierre still has his Jean-Pierre Lafitte look in fact, even though the company never acknowledged that they were the same men. Their opponents are Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie. If I’m not mistaken, this marks Terry Funk’s first ever match on Raw. This breaks down and ends via a no contest, just like the opener and after Funk hits a messy dive to the outside on all three other men, Cactus chases the Quebecers away from the ring with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

• Shawn Michaels and DX continue to look for Undertaker and question the minis. Chyna has to hold Max Mini up so that Shawn can look him in the eyes, which was funny.

• Jeff Jarrett (along with NWA Tag Team Champions The Rock N Roll Express and Jim Cornette) defends his NWA North American title against Blackjack Bradshaw. Barry Windham is also at ringside; Bradshaw’s partner and a former NWA Champion. Cornette joins commentary and talks endlessly - on and on and on and on without pausing for breath - about old fashioned wrestling and how he is going to take “this outlaw WWF” and return it to the honour and tradition of the NWA. The finish comes when Windham tries to help Bradshaw and accidentally clotheslines him. Jarrett gets the win and then Windham confirms it WASN’T a mistake when he joins in the NWA stable’s beat down of his now former tag team partner. Barry Windham has defected to the NWA to be managed by Jim Cornette.

• Before the mid-show reset to the War Zone, it looks like DX might have found The Undertaker when the lights go out in their locker room. In the arena after the pyro and opening video, The Undertaker’s music plays and a figure dressed in black is lowered to the ring from the arena roof. Is it The Undertaker, who wasn’t actually inside the burning casket after it was cracked open last night? No, It’s Shawn Michaels in a wig and the Undertaker’s jacket. He dances around as Triple H and Chyna come down dressed for a BBQ with all the gear needed. Triple H makes some jokes about jumbo weenies and giant sausages. See, it’s a BBQ because Kane set Undertaker on fire. Triple H challenges Owen Hart to a European Championship match next week on Raw because even with his knee injury he can take Owen. He ends with a shot at WCW’s Ric Flair, telling all the California girls that they don’t want to take a ride on space mountain, they should take a ride on his “rocket”. Michaels turns his attention to his next challenge, the winner of the 1998 Royal Rumble Stone Cold Steve Austin. He runs down the Rattlesnake - he’s already accomplished everything Austin has and then some and tells him to call “his buddies down South” who’ll confirm that the Heartbreak Kid lays down for absolutely nobody. That’s a thinly veiled insider reference too; the rumours at the time were that Michaels was very unhappy about having to step aside for Austin and “put him over” as champion. More on that as it unfolds.

• Honky Tonk Man joins commentary to watch an eight man tag team match between all four Los Boricuas vs. Owen Hart, the Headbangers and Taka Michinoku. Owen wins with the Sharpshooter and then after the match tells Michael Cole that he knows Triple H and DX are up to something but he accepts the challenge and he’ll see him next week.

• Ahmed Johnson battles The Nation’s Intercontinental Champion The Rock. Backstage before this match, The Nation were trying to recruit Mike Tyson into joining! That really would steal headlines. Mark Henry comes down to the ring and with a well timed chairshot to Ahmed’s back as he runs the ropes, Rocky hits the Rock Bottom to pick up the win and retain his title. Ken Shamrock runs down to stop the attack from going any further but he no doubt wants another match with The Rock for the title, as well as to get his hands on Henry for turning on him last week. 

• There’s been shots all throughout the show of Mike Tyson backstage chatting to officials, Sunny and the LOD as well as The Nation. My personal favourite was Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie encouraging him to hit them with the baseball bat so they can show how tough they are. The most meaningful segment is when he’s with D-Generation X, comparing tattoos with Shawn Michaels and comparing muscles with Chyna. 

• The New Age Outlaws defend the WWF Tag Team Championships against Henry and Phineas Godwin. The Outlaws haven’t really worn the same outfits twice in a row because they usually wear sports tops to taunt the fans but tonight they’re in dungarees and have a little stuffed pig to taunt The Godwins. Billy ditches the dungarees when the match starts and, for the first time, wrestles in a brightly coloured pair of shorts which became his trademark look. I’d imagine that was to show off more of his very impressive body, being that was his main selling point. The Outlaws pick up the win by using the stuffed pig as a weapon and make their getaway, leaving Henry to tear the pig apart and discover half a brick hidden inside! 

• In the main event segment, after a whole show of hyping it up, Vince McMahon brings Mike Tyson down to the ring. I don’t think I can really do justice to what a huge segment this was at the time but Tyson gets a mixed reaction from the people. Just as Vince is about to make the announcement, Rumble winner Stone Cold Steve Austin comes to the ring! There’s nothing mixed about the reaction to him. Here’s the important parts of this segment! 

• Some funny trivia about this segment is that not every member of Tyson’s entourage knew that this was planned and got a little bit over zealous in protecting Iron Mike. Vince McMahon is pissed at Austin and gets a middle finger for his trouble! Has Austin ruined McMahon’s deal with Tyson? This is such a well done segment and for all intents and purposes, felt real! 

Raw is War - January 26th 1998

• Here’s a recap of the events of last week’s Raw, specifically the blow up between Stone Cold and Mike Tyson! The big news here is that Mike Tyson’s deal is that he will be at Wrestlemania 14 as a special referee, but after last week’s altercation Tyson wants to fight Stone Cold instead! 

• In the opening match, the World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry faces The World’s Most Dangerous Man Ken Shamrock. Mark has the entire Nation with him for backup so Kenny brings the DOA and Ahmed Johnson with him. These two groups of five will battle at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House in a “war of attrition”, which is just a ten man tag team match. The Rock arrogantly jostles with Faarooq about who will stand front and centre, and then doesn’t raise his fist with the rest of the group. This match almost immediately devolves into another 10 man brawl with the babyfaces holding the ring and sending the Nation backstage to regroup and lick their wounds.

• The Legion of Doom battles the NWA team of Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham. Jim Cornette joins commentary and spends the match monologuing about the NWA’s heritage and how great Windham is. I’m not sure how the NWA thought letting themselves be portrayed as old fashioned villains on TV was going to do them any favours but that’s none of my business. The LOD lost to The Rock n Roll Express on the previous Shotgun Saturday Night, thanks to interference from Jarrett and Windham. The NWO duo pick up the win here thanks to a shot from Cornette’s tennis racket. Why are the LOD being so relentlessly jobbed out? Well given how sloppy Hawk looked during this match I suspect their infamous “personal demons” were a big factor - these days if someone was a functioning drug addict they’d be taken off TV but in the Attitude era you were kept on TV, but punished with losses. Different times.
• In the DX locker room, Triple H gets his knee bandaged and strapped up by Chyna ahead of his match with Owen Hart. It seems like he is in no condition to compete so I think it's fair to assume he has something up his sleeve. Triple H keeps calling him “Mr. Hanky” which is a South Park reference of course - DX are still comparing Owen to a piece of literal shit. Shawn Michaels is up next and after a long self congratulating speech about how DX are role models that the youth of America to look up to, and then selflessly offers to step aside and not defend his WWF title at Wrestlemania so Stone Cold can fight Mike Tyson instead and he’ll even referee it. HBK doesn’t want to face Stone Cold and is trying to use Tyson as a human shield.

• In a Royal Rumble rematch, Vader takes on Goldust who, along with Luna, is even dressed up like Vader. This isn’t as good as their match at the Rumble PPV but it's not bad either. Vader hits a big powerbomb and then the Vader Bomb but before we can find out if that’ll win the match, the lights go out and Kane appears. His path of destruction continues but Vader shows no fear, attacks Kane and spikes him with a piledriver! Kane sits up just like The Undertaker and then in a very impressive feat of strength, Kane muscles Vader up onto his shoulder and drills him with a Tombstone Piledriver! The Undertaker actually did the same thing to Vader over the summer, but its still very impressive.

• The New Age Outlaws battle Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in a non-title match. Beforehand there’s some fun “earlier today” footage of Mick Foley and Terry Funk out of character talking about how much they enjoy watching Chainsaw and Cactus fight and wrestle like they’re different people. Road Dog and Billy Gunn go on the attack as soon as Chainsaw and Cactus get near the ring and this is an immediately wild brawl with a suplex onto the steel entrance ramp - this seems like it might be an anything goes type tag team match, or at the very least the referee is happy to let them brawl around the ring and use the ringsteps and railings. There’s another big match for No Way Out of Texas: In Your House announced by JR during this; the New Age Outlaws and DX will face Cactus, Chainsaw, Owen Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin in an eight man main event tag team match. Austin and Owen cannot possibly co-exist, but there’s also some big egos on the heel side of the team. This match disintegrates with Cactus and Chainsaw grabbing steel chairs and getting themselves disqualified. It’s worth it as, for the first time since forming this team, Road Dog and Billy get an almighty beating for everything they’ve done. Chainsaw hammers Road Dog with a chair and lays him down with a pile of steel chairs on top of him for a moonsault! It was satisfying seeing these two get the hell kicked out of them after weeks and weeks of getting away with everything.

• Here’s an awesome little video all about the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku

• The Honky Tonk Man serves as guest ring announcer for a Light Heavyweight division match. El Pantera faces Brian Christopher with the winner challenging Taka Michinoku for the gold at No Way Out. This is a good match and JR really ramps up the Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher father/son jokes. He continues to berate the King and demand he admit the connection. Honky Tonk is his cousin too, so they could have and probably should have formed a little family connection group with these three. This is a good match which Pantera wins, and then after the match Lawler and Christopher attack him and beat him up like sore losers.

• Speaking of sore losers, as Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie are being interviewed backstage, Shawn Michaels and Triple H appear and provide a distraction so that Billy Gunn and Road Dog can attack from behind, shoving the chainlink fence over on top of them so that all four men (and Chyna) can hammer on their helpless bodies with trashcans and weapons until referees and security can stop the attack. 

• Back in the ring, Mosh and Thrasher take on Jacques and Pierre, Headbangers vs. Quebecers. The Headbangers win a short match with a sunset flip roll up but get no time to celebrate as the Quebecers attack and beat up Thrasher in the ring with a nice pair of double teams like an assisted spinebuster and then a leg drop onto Mosh’s head while he’s trapped in a Boston crab. 
• Next up, Owen Hart faces Triple H for the European title. Triple H is still pretty clearly injured so when “he” enters, it is immediately apparent that it's Goldust, including wearing a big plastic nose. Luna is even dressed as Chyna for good measure. It seems like this match is officially for the European Championship though as the graphic flashes up on the screen and Luna does have the actual title belt with her. It’s thrown Owen off his game and he struggles a bit with Hunter-dust before locking him in the Sharpshooter for the submission victory. DX appears on the titantron and has a good laugh at Owen for winning this “meaningless” match but their good time is ruined when Commissioner Slaughter comes out and makes a ruling; Goldust was an official substitute for Triple H, therefore Owen Hart is indeed the new WWF European Champion! That wiped the smile off DX’s faces. Good stuff.

• In the main event segment, it's all about Stone Cold and Mike Tyson. After a recap of last week’s events and a sizzle reel of all the various sports reporters and news broadcasters talking about it, Stone Cold is live in the arena to talk about it himself. Don King is back on Raw to talk about it too; he hypes it up like Austin and Tyson ARE going to fight at Wrestlemania BUT, Mike Tyson is barred from fighting so he and Vince McMahon will need to find a more creative way to get these two forces in the same ring at the same time. Why was Tyson barred from fighting? Legal issues, biting an opponent and a jail term for rape is the short answer. What’s Austin’s take on the situation? He wants to fight Tyson and will do it anywhere, at any time and he’s happy to hand out his pager number and do it whenever Tyson wants. Stone Cold throws out a challenge; on February 15th he will be in Houston Texas and he dares “the Baddest Man on the Planet” to show up. That’s the date of the next PPV and, spoilers, but he doesn’t show up at that event. I’m sure we’ll see Iron Mike on Raw again before long. 

Raw is War - February 2nd 1998

• Raw this week opens with another legendary segment; D-Generation X addresses the audience and the TV networks which carry Raw (including a little mention for Sky Sports in the UK!) The joke is that they list all of the words they would never, ever say on television while actually saying them all. It’s all beeped and censored obviously but you can find the uncensored version online! Shawn Michaels wraps up with a Bill Clinton joke. “I did not - I did NOT - sleep with that young intern. As a matter of fact, I was UP ALL NIGHT!” Looking back with a sensible 2026 eye this is all pretty “edge-lord” and faux shock value but in 1998 this was awesome and personally I still think it is pretty awesome. Break it down! I did like Chyna suppressing a smirk and rolling her eyes through all of Shawn and Hunter’s adolescent hijinks.

• In the arena, DX’s political rally continues and with thousands of balloons and Uncle Sam outfits Shawn Michaels and Triple H have one simple message; let Austin and Tyson fight! HBK is pushing and promoting for the fight to happen at Wrestlemania. It’s pretty transparent that DX wants that match so that Michaels doesn’t have to defend the title against the Rattlesnake. Stone Cold comes to the ring and says exactly that and while he knows he can beat the crap out of Mike Tyson, whenever that happens, Shawn Michaels’ ass belongs to Stone Cold Steve Austin and so does the WWF title. To HBK’s credit, he is all business once Austin gets in the ring - as serious as a heart attack when it comes to this match and the WWF Championship. All of this was an excellent 10 - 15 minutes to kick off Raw is War. 

• Chainsaw Charlie faces, of all people, his own tag team partner Cactus Jack. It’s a hardcore rules match and both men bring dumpsters full of weapons to the ring - Cactus’ dumpster is a lot bigger and more impressive. Earlier today they sat down with Jim Ross and explained the reason for this match which is basically pride and respect and a desire to be seen on their own terms as hardcore wrestlers. Mick tells a story about how the “World Champion at the time” told him that no one cared about all of the hardcore stuff and risks he took and he wanted to prove him wrong by being Cactus Jack in the WWF. That man was Shawn Michaels, by the way. It was in 1996 around the time they briefly feuded over the title. This is a fun match and they hit each other with chairs, a ladder and trash cans at the top of the ramp, down to the ring and then back up again. This kind of match was still very fresh to a WWF audience in 1998 so the fans are really into this brawl too.

• Cactus backdrops Funk off a table into the dumpster and then climbs up onto the titantron and gives into the dumpster himself with an elbow drop! The New Age Outlaws take their moment and arrive just in time to slam the lids shut and tie them closed, trapping them inside. Road Dog and Billy Gunn shove the dumpster off the entrance ramp, all the way to the concrete with them no doubt tossed around inside like items in a washing machine! The fans went crazy but JR screamed himself hoarse about the humanity of all of this. For anyone wondering how they did this stunt? They just “did it”. Foley and Funk were inside the dumpster and took that ride, praying they’d be ok. They both were. Officials and referees, as well as a bunch of other wrestlers like The Headbangers and Flash Funk, rush out of the back to check on them. Even heels like Marc Mero and the NWA stable, as well as main eventers like Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock come out to check on Mick and Terry. Sunny screams and cries hysterically in the background which is a bit much, but everyone is worried these two men might be dead! You’ll see plenty of this clip in the video packages for the No Way Out PPV, don’t you worry. There’s a real sense of “gone too far this time” as we get a “candid” shot of Vince McMahon giving the Outlaws a telling off, and Road Dog meekly saying that “they didn’t mean to hurt anybody”. This went on for a while until finally Cactus and Chainsaw were loaded into an ambulance. Tempers flare and some of the other superstars eventually take a swing at the Outlaws for their actions, friends and foes alike united by their disgust at the Tag Team Champions. JR explains the terms “getting over” and how the Outlaws have gone too far, and the commentators even make reference to wrestler’s court, another insider reference. In total this entire segment took up about a third of the entire episode of Raw. 

• Backstage after a commercial break, Triple H and Shawn Michaels get in the New Age Outlaws’ faces as they’re trying to apologise to Jim Ross but their message is very much the opposite - they have to push the bar, push it higher and harder, get ratings and attention and make a name for themselves. It seems like D-Generation X are proud of Road Dog and Billy!

• After the mid-show reset to the War Zone, Michael Cole has taken off to go to the hospital and check on Mick Foley and Terry Funk while Jerry Lawler takes over. The first match is Billy Gunn (who gets a lot of boos from the crowd) challenging Owen Hart for his newly won European title. These two will make up part of the big eight man tag team match at No Way Out, but now Cactus and Chainsaw’s participation is up in the air given what happened earlier. Owen is furious at the Outlaws and beats up Billy with more brawling rather than wrestling. In a nice touch, Jerry Lawler even drops character a little to share his affection for Terry Funk. Owen gets Billy in the Sharpshooter but that just gets Road Dog to attack him, causing the disqualification. Triple H and Shawn Michaels make their way down to the ring and join in. So with Chyna, it’s a five on one assault of the new European Champion. Triple H drops Owen with a DDT on the metal entrance ramp and then, with a lot of encouragement from Michaels and Helmsley, Road Dog and Billy are about to throw Owen Hart off the stage too! Referees and officials show up just in time to put a stop to it and while the Outlaws look disturbed and even ashamed of themselves, DX keeps screaming at them to do what’s necessary and to keep raising the bar and pushing the envelope! 

• Michael Cole provides a telephone update on Mick Foley and Terry Funk - they were rushed to the emergency room and are being worked on by doctors but we have no updates on their conditions as of yet.
• Marc Mero takes on Headbanger Mosh, with Thrasher in his corner. Mero as always berates Sable and after she receives another mysterious gift, makes her leave. He brings out someone who can watch his back; Goldust, dressed as Marylin Manson. I did like his one-night only theme music which was a sort of royalty free instrumental version of Manson’s Beautiful People, which is a great song however you feel about that particular performer. Goldust keeps interfering so Thrasher attacks him but all that does is distract the referee so that he misses Mero’s lowblow. One TKO later and Marc Mero wins - these two men are insecure, starved for attention and hungry for the spotlight so seem to have bonded over that!

• Backstage, Blackjack Bradshaw demands to know when Barry Windham will be man enough to get in the ring with him one on one. Windham continues to hide behind the rest of the NWA Invasion contingent so Bradshaw says he’ll find a partner if he has to and do it as a tag team.

• Faarooq (with the rest of The Nation as backup) takes on Chainz, who brings the rest of the DOA as well as Ken Shamrock and Ahmed Johnson as his backup. You can already feel that this is going to turn into another big brawl can’t you? I spoke too soon! Faarooq keeps getting distracted by the rest of the Nation on the outside so when he goes out to argue with The Rock, he gets himself counted out. He doesn’t even seem to care and is far more focused on barking orders at the other four members and making them fall in line. 

• Bradshaw’s tag team partner turns out to be Flash Funk who is more than happy to back up the big Texan against Windham and Jarrett in a tag team match. Barry reverted back to his classic blonde hair, which he had in his prime. In 1998, he was pretty far past his prime. The Rock N Roll Express took out Funk on the outside, dropping him onto the security rail and that did some damage because referees had to come down and actually take him to the back leaving Bradshaw all alone in this handicap match. He overcomes the odds and clobbers Windham, pins Jarrett with a powerbomb and then fights off Morton and Gibson. Jim Cornette cracks him with his tennis racket but Bradshaw shakes that off and keeps fighting off the entire NWA. The odds are too much for him and they stretch him out in the Figure Four while Windham drops his body across Bradshaw’s bad knee. For the first time since they debuted, the NWA group actually got some decent heat and boos for this beat down. 
• Michael Cole provides another update from the hospital; all hell has broken loose! The police are there, it's chaos in the emergency room and Michael has no idea what's going on. His signal cuts out - what on Earth is going on at that hospital? 
• In the ring, Wink Collins (who was backstage staff in the WWF) tells us all about how quickly the Wrestlemania 14 tickets sold out that morning. His good mood is interrupted by Kane, who seems like he’s about to destroy this poor little guy. He snatches him by the throat but before the worst can happen, Vader interrupts. The big man screams into a microphone so loudly that the audio goes all distorted. Vader screams that Kane got in his business so now at No Way Out he’s going to “put Kane’s fire out” and blasts him with a fire extinguisher. Kane only has one eye so is forced to retreat for the first time since his debut - Kane doesn’t want to retreat and is keen to go back and fight so Paul Bearer has to try and calm him down and convince him to leave. In a weird editing choice, they then show the altercation between Vader and Kane last week AFTER this week’s development? Odd, but JR does confirm that their match is now official for No Way Out. 

• In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin faces Tag Team Champion Road Dog who has had a busy night sending people to the hospital. Austin attacks both Outlaws with fury and the match doesn’t even really start as Billy gets in the ring too. He’s dropped with a Stone Cold Stunner but Triple H and Shawn Michaels arrive for another gang attack. DX and the Outlaws assault Stone Cold and tie him up in the ropes so that HBK can taunt him about how he’ll never, ever be WWF Champion. We then find out what all the commotion was at the hospital - Cactus and Chainsaw woke up, were pissed and rushed back to the arena for a fight! Cactus has no shoes and his arm in a sling while Funk is in a hospital gown with his underwear on show! Hilariously Chainsaw mistimes his run-in and pretty easily caught up with DX and the Outlaws with chainsaw in hand, so they had to just side step him and pretend they’d gotten away. Stone Cold gets back up and sprints backstage to look for and no doubt fight all four men all by himself because that’s how the Rattlesnake rolls. What a dramatic night of Raw with almost every segment playing into the show-long build for No Way Out’s main event eight man tag team match.

Raw is War - February 9th 1998

• Stone Cold Steve Austin opens the show and has a bag with him. He tells Shawn Michaels to come out and fight him because he wants to whip DX’s asses. Shawn, Triple H and Chyna appear on the titantron backstage and have a good laugh at the Rattlesnake for what they did last week. Michaels asks him to give him one good reason he should come and face him tonight - Austin has his belt! Michaels goes to get his championship and finds a little toy version in its carry case, so in the ring Stone Cold shows us the contents of his bag; he’s stolen the WWF Championship belt! Michaels is furious so Stone Cold tells him to come and find him and get it back.

• Sunny looks gorgeous in a pink dress and does her special guest ring announcer duties for a tag team match between the LOD and the NWA’s Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham. Jeff will now defend his NWA North American title against Bradshaw at No Way Out but the story of this match is that Hawk and Animal are on a long losing streak and need to step up their game. In fairness to them, every loss comes as a result of cheating and outside interference. The Rock N Roll Express and Jim Cornette beat up Hawk on the outside of the ring and Jarrett locks him in the Figure Four so Blackjack Bradshaw runs down to the ring to even the odds and chases off the NWA contingent. The LOD lost again, but this time via disqualification.
• Pierre of The Quebecers, along with Jacques who comes out carrying a slop bucket, takes on Henry Godwin with Phineas. These two heel teams will meet at No Way Out, which is news to me. This feud comes from Shotgun Saturday Night as both teams took on different pairs of Los Boricuas and ended up costing each other their respective matches thanks to errant slop bucket shots to the head. That’s fair enough I guess but there’s no explanation on why they were trying to interfere in each other’s matches to begin with! This is actually a pretty good big man match, mostly thanks to Pierre hitting dives to the outside and big senton flips off the top rope. The finish comes when Jacques knocks out Henry with a slop bucket, so Phineas returns the favour and knocks out Pierre. With them both down, Pierre is the one who gets the cover and officially wins the match. 
• Backstage, Chyna puts DX’s plan to get the title belt back into action by recruiting Los Boricuas with promises of money. Chyna also shows off that she speaks fluent Spanish! 

• Brian Christopher and Pantera take on Taka Michinoku and Aguila. Pantera is a babyface and he actually teamed with Taka on Shotgun Saturday Night but there was some miscommunication and Pantera actually moonsaulted his own partner so there’s tension now between the two men who will meet for the Light Heavyweight title at No Way Out. Brian pinned Taka on Shotgun Saturday Night and tonight, with an illegal object hidden in his mask, Pantera knocks the champion out and pins him tonight. It feels like they’re building towards Brian Christopher vs. Taka Michinoku at Wrestlemania as that story has been unfolding for months now. 
• Paul Bearer leads Kane down to the ring for a promo before his match with Vader on PPV. Bearer cries foul about Vader using the fire extinguisher last week which of course is hypocritical given all the horrible things Kane has done. Paul Bearer hands Kane a little plastic clock with Vader’s face on it so he can set it on fire. See, because Vader Time is running out? Feels weird for Kane to be doing prop comedy. Paul Bearer screams that The Undertaker is never, ever going to return either.

• At the start of the War Zone, Faarooq and The Rock take on the team of Chainz and Ken Shamrock. The Rock’s prematch promo is about human genetic cloning? This is still him doing his gimmick of “The Rock talks about current events” which is too odd for me to even talk about. He does have a good line saying that no one in this building is worthy of being cloned apart from himself. After a short back and forth, Shamrock has the match won with an ankle lock on Faarooq until The Rock blasts him right in the face with a brutal chairshot! Faarooq gets the three count but then Shamrock wakes up and snaps! He fights off The Nation but then drops the referee with a belly to belly suplex, followed by his own partner Chainz! He has to be restrained and calmed down by the rest of the DOA and Ahmed Johnson and once he calms down and the emotion and adrenaline wears off, hugs and makes up with his partners for the PPV. 

• There was a press conference for Wrestlemania 14 days before this show and, with Mike Tyson present, it was by far the biggest in the history of the WWF at the time. It was shown on EPSN! There’s the recap of the event that was shown here on Raw

• The main event of Wrestlemania was made official; Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship and Mike Tyson will serve as special guest enforcer; a guest referee who will be outside the ring to make sure the match stays fair and one on one. Austin and Shawn do a better job of putting this match over than I ever can so watch the press conference! I do need to point out that Shawn’s face looked a bit swollen and puffy here; he had a back problem and was going pretty hard with the alcohol and pain pills at the time. This period of time is one of HBK’s darkest, personally speaking which is sad but I’ll talk more about that at Wrestlemania. Meanwhile, back at the arena, Los Boricuas and Chyna go hunting for the Rattlesnake to try and get Shawn’s title belt back. Later in the show, Stone Cold manages to lure them into a room and then quickly padlocks the door behind them with a chain, trapping Los Boricuas in an enclosed area and getting rid of some of DX’s backup.
• Steve Blackman (who has a new entrance where he spins martial arts sticks under a black light) faces Recon of The Truth Commission. Just after the match begins, The Jackyl’s music starts to play and he is lowered from the arena with a podium. He talks about how the WWF and its commentary team keep calling him a cult leader and a maniac but he is just a man with vision whom the WWF fears. He speaks for this entire match, engaged in Intellectual Intercourse with the audience who hang on his every word. The fans eventually started chanting for him to shut up but personally I’m impressed he was able to speak for the entire length of this match without struggling, stumbling or repeating himself. Blackman picks up the submission win with a short arm scissors which takes the Jackyl by surprise. Afterwards, Jackyl berates Sniper and Recon for being losers and slaps him in the face! It seems like Recon might snap and attack him but the Jackyl just laughs in his face, apparently very amused by the whole thing and this strange power he seems to have over these two men.

• WWF Tag Team Champions Bad Ass Billy Gunn and the Road Dog come out and have some fun with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie. They bring a dumpster out and Road Dog is pretty funny, describing it like it's a prize on a gameshow and then they show footage of “Flight 666” last week where the only survivors were himself and his co-pilot “captain Ass”. Cactus and Chainsaw aren’t here tonight so there’s no one to punish them for their antics. They shove the dumpster off the stage and then pull a couple of dummies dressed like Chainsaw and Cactus out of it to perform CPR on. Jerry Lawler didn’t think this was funny last week but this week he’s back to being a heel and laughing at their jokes. 

• Goldust - still in full character as Marylin Manson-dust - has Marc Mero, Luna and Sable with him when he takes on Headbanger Thrasher. This Goldust and Mero pairing are facing The Headbangers at No Way Out and JR asks the obviously question; if Sable is so lovely and innocent and nice, why on Earth does she put up with all of this from Mero and allow herself to be forced to hang out with Goldust and Luna? Sable is forced to go backstage by Mero who can’t stand her getting any attention which Goldust and Luna find very entertaining so late in the match, Sable comes back to the ring looking very focused and slaps Goldust in the face! Thrasher rolls him up and The Headbangers win, thanks to Sable. 
• In the main event segment, D-Generation X heads down to the ring looking far more serious than normal with clear intentions to call out Stone Cold and get Shawn’s title belt back. Michaels talks a big game and promises an ass whipping at No Way Out but he’s not waiting until then to get his title belt back and he wants Stone Cold to come to the ring right now. Austin does exactly that and rushes DX who keep their distance until The New Age Outlaws join them. It looks like Stone Cold is happy to fight all four men single handedly but he doesn’t have to - a revving chainsaw bursts through the ringmat and Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie arrive, followed by Owen Hart coming through the crowd. With the sides even, DX and the Outlaws leave and the show ends with our two teams of four staring down from across the arena. Oh and Chyna stole Michaels’ title belt back during all the commotion too.