Raw is War - October 19th, 1998

Austin goes hunting

The show opens with confetti and balloons falling from the roof while loud circus-like celebration music plays. Vince is in a jubilant mood after firing Stone Cold. The entire WWF roster is in and around the ring. Noteworthy spots in the crowd - Kaientai in all their blue and white ring gear, The Hardy Boys! (dressed like the Young Bucks) Bob Holly is still wearing his Midnight Express gear, The Rock, DX, Mankind, Shamrock and all the big stars are out there too. The only people I don’t see are Undertaker and Kane. Vince eventually comes out flanked by Sgt. Slaughter, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, Big Bossman and some other security guards. He firstly announces that at Survivor Series we’ll see a 16 man, one night tournament to crown a WWF Champion. He brags about firing Austin, repeating his “screw you, you’re fired” line from last night. He says that Austin is out hunting for a job and King thinks it's hilarious. Vince enthusiastically tells us that firing Austin felt better than sex. Creep. He issues a warning to everyone in the ring - none of them are as big as Vince McMahon. “McMahon 3:16 says I’ve got the brass to fire your ass' ' McMahon thinks it's hilarious but before he can leave, we get a live shot of Stone Cold outside in the parking lot, sitting in his pickup truck with a massive machine gun! Jesus Christ! Backstage, after a break, McMahon’s entourage runs to his office and he sends Bossman off to check on his family. “Get them the hell away from here” Vince insists that the camera man stays to document anything that may happen. Austin is sitting polishing a large hunting rifle. This has suddenly gotten VERY sinister.

The camera catches two police detectives arriving as they go to check on Austin. He has a nice friendly conversation with them about his multiple guns. They ask him for his autograph! Vince is absolutely furious at the fact that they didn’t arrest him and drag Stone Cold away. Vince tells his security guard to take his gun and dog and go to arrest Austin but he doesn’t want to endanger his life. “Screw you, i’m out of here”

Patterson goes to get coffee for the group, but then Brisco and Slaughter both go with him, leaving Vince alone. After the commercial we see a terrified Vince sitting alone in his wheelchair. A knock on the door scares him but it’s Mankind and Mr. Socko! He’s here to look after Vinny, convinced that Mr. McMahon likes him very much but really he’s just happy to have someone here to protect him. JR says that McMahon is taking advantage of Mick and manipulating him again.

Mankind is keeping Vince company, munching snacks and speaking with his mouth full encouraging Vince to rehire Austin so that the four of them can be friends (he’s including Socko) He has board games and after an ad break is playing twister. Vince loses his temper at Mick’s goofing around and tells him to get out of his office. Mankind is the best.

Vince is now back on his own. The phone rings and it’s Austin. “Your time is up you sorry bastard, i’m coming to get you” After a commercial, Vince is on the phone to his limo driver and giving him very specific instructions of where to park and wait for him. Vince makes a run for the limo in his motorised wheelchair but as he climbs in one side of the limo, Austin appears at the other, chasing him through the back. McMahon begs for his life as Austin wheels him back inside the arena carrying a massive hunting bow. He roughs Vince up, throwing him in and out of the chair while Vince screams about his still broken ankle. Austin brings Vince back to his office and shuts the door behind them. 

Austin grills Vince about whether he’s ever been hunting or killed something. Vince mekely says he was on safari and took pictures. Austin shows off a very sharp knife while McMahon struggles not to cry. 

Stone Cold continues to taunt Vince with a knife, and stabs an apple. He’s heavily implying that he’s about to kill Vince McMahon before the end of this show. 

Stone Cold makes Vince oink like a pig and makes some jokes about deliverance and the movie Misery. This is going on for way too long and is just making Austin look like a psychopath. It’s not funny anymore, it's too much and too cruel. Vince screams for help so Austin gags him with duct tape and binds him to his wheelchair before leaving the room. 

Austin doesn’t want to cause Vince physical pain - he has bigger plans for firing him in front of the world last night and we’ll find out what his plan is tonight. He berates Vince who cries and begs for his life. Austin puts a TV on and says they’re going to play “bet your life” and makes Vince bet who’ll win between Kane and Undertaker. If Kane wins they can do things “the easy way” and any other outcome means they do things “the hard way”

Cutting back to Vince’s office after the Undertaker and Kane match, hopefully the final Austin and McMahon segment for tonight. Austin laughs about how Mr. McMahon lost his bet on that match and then wheels him out of the room and all the way through the arena and out to the ring. It takes an ice age for them to get out to the arena which I'm positive was a ratings thing and they wanted the show to overrun to help them against WCW. Austin gets Vince on his knees in the ring and makes him cry and tells him how pathetic he is and how he makes him sick. He replays the clip of Vince gloating from the start of the show. He stuffs a folded up piece of paper into Vince’s jacket pocket to read later. The fans give a “hell yeah” for Austin murdering someone. He pulls out a gun which Vince hammy oversells, before putting it to Vince’s head and pulling the trigger. “Bang 3:16” on a little flag unfurls. Vince has wet himself. This was way too much. He stands Vince up to show off that he’s wet himself and then drops him with a stunner for good measure. Welp, let this be known that this is the night Stone Cold went too far and made me feel sorry for Vince McMahon. There’s a reason this mad night isn’t remembered as well as all of Steve’s insane vehicle shenanigans and it’s because it was too much. Too silly. 

A dramatic change of direction for The Undertaker

The Undertaker enters with Paul Bearer. They would appear to officially be back together. He has a lot of explaining to do. The Undertaker says there has been a reconciliation, which gets boos and “brother Paul has come home to lead his Ministry of Darkness” How could The Undertaker align himself with such an evil, despicable individual but he says that right there is the reason. Paul is a man of vision and he has allowed Undertaker to clear his head and refocus on why he is here. Undertaker says this is a new era, and he and Paul and their Ministry of Darkness will rule the WWF. He draws a “you’re either with us, or against us” line in the sand. Paul says to Kane that he used him - he’s stupid and weak and cannot even speak. “He’s your son for goodness sake, you rotund demon!” says JR which made me laugh out loud. The Undertaker retcons his own history, now saying he set the fire that killed his parents and burned Kane on purpose because Kane is weak. Kane’s music and then the man himself interrupts. Kane is pushing a casket and uses his voice box to challenge The Undertaker to a casket match tonight and promises that his brother will rest in peace. Kane was cool, and is pretty over as a babyface.

Kane vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) in a casket match and we do now thankfully after a couple of months of will they-won’t they and them acting as tweeners, have a clearly defined good guy and bad guy again. Kane is pretty popular and Undertaker is leaning into pure evil with Bearer as his manager again. They start having an actual match but it doesn’t last long. Undertaker DDT’s Kane inside the casket and the lid shuts on them both. There’s lots of struggling and they end up smashing their way out of the casket which was a cool idea for a spot but I don’t think the casket broke as much as they wanted it to. The match ends with a no contest as the casket has been destroyed. Kane chases Paul Bearer up the ramp and The Undertaker blasts him with a steel chair from behind, saving Bearer. The Undertaker leaves with his new buddy Paul Bearer, and Kane sits up, grabs a steel chair and follows them. 

Other Happenings

• Ken Shamrock out for a non-title match. You can hear balloons randomly popping throughout this from the opening segment. He’s facing X-Pac so I guess it’s a non-title match for him too as the new European champion. We get a little backstage skit of DX going to meet Motley Crew in their tour bus before the show. They make some jokes about Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson’s sex tape of course. Motley Crew are performing live on Heat and next week’s Raw? For some reason? As Chyna watches at ringside, she's suddenly arrested! Cuffed and led to the back. That’s presumably related to Mark Henry’s lawsuit. Mankind comes out and Shamrock pulls him into the ring. Mick locks in the mandible claw briefly but Shamrock escapes with a belly to belly suplex, and then walks into an X-Factor (which finally has its name) and X-Pac wins the match! He runs to the back to see what happened to Chyna who we find being loaded into a police car while The New Age Outlaws protest. This is the last time we see Chyna for a good few weeks.
• The Headbangers are in the ring with a couple of toy WWF Tag Team Championship belts and give their own mock version of The New Age Outlaws’ opening spiel. They’re facing Animal and Droz of the LOD. They have officially dropped 2000 and are just announced as “the Legion of Doom” Hawk is still the alternate for the team until he gets his mind right after rehab. Hawk tries to give some advice to Droz and distracts him for a roll up and victory by The Headbangers. Droz blames Hawk for the loss and distracting him.
• Steve Blackman is facing Jeff Jarrett for about the 40th time in 1998, but there’s been big developments as Jeff Jarrett has ditched Southern Justice and now has Debra McMichael (she drops the surname soon) as his new manager. The fans chant “show your tits” at her which is pretty gross even for 1998. She’s jumped ship from WCW and JR speculates about the nature of her relationship with Jarrett. Blackman gets jumped by The Blue Blazer again, and he and Jarrett work together. The fans chant “nugget” and JR pretty openly says that we know it’s Owen Hart. Al Snow comes out but before he can hit Jarrett with Head, Debra distracts him allowing Jeff to smash a guitar over Al Snow’s head instead.

• The Rock comes out to a very weird theme song with his usual catchphrases playing over some synth music. They’re obviously trying to get him some new singles babyface music but this sucks and doesn’t last. He’s facing former Nation mate D’Lo Brown who cost him his match with Mark Henry at Judgment Day. Mark is at ringside for this one too. The Rock wins a short match with the Rock Bottom and then D’Lo and Mark attack and beat him up after the match. The Rock doesn’t seem to be nearly as over this week and i think it’s because of how pants his new music is, honestly.
• Mankind faces Val Venis (w/Terri Runnels) Val is still selling being kicked in the plums by Golddust last night at the PPV. Shamrock comes out and hits Mankind in the leg with a chair and Val wins with a small package. Mankind takes off after Shamrock and they brawl through the crowd including with chairs but mostly punches and slamming each other into things and disappear. With Val and Terri still in the ring, Goldust’s music plays and he promises over the arena speakers that “nothing is over” and promises to shatter Val’s dreams “again and again and again” Terri whispers something to Val and he freaks out and leaves her alone in the ring. He dumped Mrs. Yamaguchi-san because she wasn’t worth the hassle afterall.

• Tiger Ali Singh in an enormously oversized suit. This week’s challenge is for someone in the crowd to swallow Babu’s giant hotdog whole, which he’s preparing on a BBQ in the ring. Babu hands over the 12” sausage and the woman easily deepthroats it so Tiger throws the cash at her. King is very impressed. The Godfather comes out to claim that this woman is one of his hoes, and as we can tell she was a very good hoe. Tiger says that she doesn’t get the money because she's a professional. Tiger throws Babu at The Godfather and tries to attack but Godfather fights them both off and we get a pull apart brawl. JR makes a joke about Tiger driving a taxi because of racism.

Raw is War - October 26th, 1998

Stone Cold is “back” 

Clip showing that Stone cold arrived earlier today, all smiles.

Vince comes out on the ramp. It's set up for motley crews performance later tonight. Vince holds us responsible for last week and for cheering on Austin’s antics in general. “Where are your values?” he asks the audience, which is a line King would say over and over for the rest of the night. He even has a go at his stooges for leaving him alone last week to face the music. He lists all his upsets and the fans chant “asshole”. His feelings have been hurt, worse of all. Vince says that Austin stuffed a legal document in his pocket last week, but doesn't say what it was. Vince has a team of lawyers with him, in addition to the stooges.

Backstage, a skit with Vince telling his lawyers he wants something broken. There's lots of these throughout the first hour. 

Michael Cole asks Austin about the document. He has someone in his locker room with him who tells him not to say anything.

Vince comes out of his meeting with his lawyers. It hasn't gone well. He's furious. 

Michael Cole hears from Shane McMahon that the McMahon family have a statement. After the ad break, Stone Cold comes out into the arena. The fans are so loud we can barely hear the commentators. Austin promised Vince last week he wouldn't be in pain, wouldn't feel a thing and he didn't. That is true. He finally reveals that the legal document is - surprise - a new five year contract with one guaranteed title shot. Austin says he'll only ever leave the WWF if he quits. Vince comes out and is furious and books Austin in an I quit match tonight with Ken Shamrock. Vince says that Austin should be ashamed of the wedge he's driven. He says he's set an example for 28 years and that Austin has turned an underachieving kid into a monster. With that, Shane McMahon appears at ringside and it's revealed that yes, it was Shane who signed Stone Cold. This is Shane's first appearance as a proper on screen character rather than just a commentator. Shane calls out Vince's ego and says he had to step in. This is a decent babyface promo. Vince cries as Shane berates Vince for not caring about him and nothing ever being good enough. Vince is a bad dad. The fans are quiet but in a way that feels like they're paying attention to this. They’re listening and respectful and Shane even wells up as he talks. They cheer Shane's moments. 

As Shane leaves the arena, Austin tosses him a beer. 

Michael Cole asks Vince how he feels - he doesn’t answer, tearful. The McMahon family has been torn apart by the rattlesnake.

Vince leaves the arena and the stooges promise that they’ll “get Austin” tonight.

Shamrock says that his match with Austin isn’t about titles because he has to earn a shot at his IC title which is pretty cool. He wants to hurt Austin tonight.

Ken Shamrock out first for the main event. He is finally wearing the IC title belt and not just carrying it and looks really cool. That belt suits him and he’s in such good shape. That’s what a wrestler should look like with a title belt. The Stooges follow Shamrock out too to be at ringside for this match. The match starts hard and physical with Austin choking Shamrock with a t-shirt and pounding him down in the corner. Austin doesn’t have his wrists taped and looks odd. Shamrock gets control during a brawl on the outside and the stooges cheer him on. It’s nice to see Ken get some offence in after their last match on Raw which was a one sided domination by Stone Cold. Brisco tries to get involved when Austin retakes control and Patterson knocks out the referee for trying to stop him. Mankind runs in and mandible claws Shamrock which allows Austin to knock him out cold with a stiff chairshot to the head. He makes Ken’s limp arm tap out in front of the ref and Stone Cold wins. Then he stuns Brisco, Patterson and Slaughter to end Raw on a high. 

D-Generation X and a new odd-ball Tag Team

X-Pac defends the European title against Steve Blackman. They trade Big kicks and strikes. X-Pac goes to the outside and is attacked by a man’s man, Steven Regal. The Outlaws and referees rush out and Regal strikes anything that moves.

The New Age Outlaws and X-Pac come out with Motley Crew who perform live. Concerts in wrestling don't work. This is actually Test's debut as he's playing a bodyguard here. They play “Wildside” in full and it takes ages.

Michael Cole interviews Al Snow and Mankind who’ll challenge for the tag titles next. They argue over whether Head is stupider than Mr. Socko. Mankind takes another shot at how dumb the People’s Elbow is. This is funny.

The New Age Outlaws fresh off their performance with Motley Crew earlier defending the tag titles. Al Snow is popular. There’s a lot of foam heads in the crowd. Billy is so strong, gorilla pressing Snow and holding him up for ages. Mankind and Snow have a chance to win. Mankind with a double arm DDT and gets Mr. Socko. Billy stops it and after a bit of arguing about who gets to use Head, Snow hits the Snow Plough on Roaddogg and has the three but the referee is distracted. Roaddogg wins by rolling up Al while he and Mick argue over who gets to win. Before The Outlaws can celebrate, D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry arrive and attack Roaddogg and Mr. Ass, pounding them down in the corner. Mankind has Head and Al Snow has Mr. Socko and they reluctantly trade each other for their special friends. 

Other Happenings

• I don’t talk loads about the ratings war with WCW but this is a good bit of trivia I think. Raw lost this week’s ratings battle to WCW. On the other channel they had Goldberg winning the WCW title from Hollywood Hogan in Atlanta. Why do I mention it? Because this is the last time WCW ever won the ratings battle. The company would remain popular and profitable for a little while longer, and they’d been going back and forth with victories since April 1998, but this week marks the last time WCW Monday Nitro ever defeated WWF Raw is War head to head. 
• Droz vs. The Rock. He has his new proper music and it's my favourite version of his song. There's a lot of Rock signs. Speculation about being number 1 contender getting Rock a bye or something in the Deadly Games tournament. That would make sense. “Rocky” chants. I like Droz but his moves look sloppy and legit painful. The Rock uses Rock Bottom and then the peoples elbow to win the match. First time he's done them in that order. King has fully turned on The Rock now. Mega face. Hawk tries to console Droz who shoves him. Animal plays peacekeeper. 

• Kane vs. Gangrel. Battle of the banger theme songs. Christian has a black shirt but doesn't have his light heavyweight title with him. Kane had been very distraught about Paul Bearer. Kane is a solid fan favourite. Christian tries to help but it doesn't work. Kane wins with a chokeslam. The two try to jump Kane post-match but he fights them both off until Edge appears and helps Gangrel and Christian to everyone’s shock. And the Brood is born. The three attack Kane but he sits up so they run away, scared. 

• Tiger Ali Singh's first actual match. He's announced as being from the continent of Asia. Jesus. Another debut - Godfather's theme song! He doesn't have his hoes with him. This is pretty rubbish. Godfather does whip Tiger in the face with his belt at one point. The fans get distracted by something else happening in the crowd, and then start doing a Mexican wave. This was a disaster for Tiger’s first match, and for the proper debut of The Godfather’s new gimmick. They do pop for Godfather clotheslining Tiger out of the ring after it goes to a double DQ.
• The Oddities are here with the Insane Clown Posse. It’s ICP’s first official match. The crowd is super into the theme song, all waving their arms along with the music and The Oddities. This act is so over, I wonder when and why they disappear. ICP, Kurrgan and Golga are facing Kaientai in an 8 man tag. Loud ICP chant and a big pop for Violent J’s tag in. He hits some basic wrestler-in-training moves and throws Funaki out of the ring for Shaggy 2 Dope to beat up on the outside. Shaggy hits a top rope leg drop and then ICP throws the referee out of the ring and loses via DQ. The Oddities are very upset about it and they have words. Kaientai win! (by DQ)
• Goldust vs. Marc Mero. Goldust sets up Mero for the shattered dreams, Jacke protests and gets kissed against her will, then Goldust boots Mero low and gets DQd. Post match as Jackie checks on Marc, Sable comes out and challenges her to a match at Survivor Series for the WWF Women’s Championship.

Raw is War - November 2nd, 1998

Vince McMahon on the warpath

The show opens with a recap from Sunday Night Heat where Shane explained that he has a new vision for the WWF with no screwjobs, no stooges, no McMahon ego (imagine) and the big story tonight is how will Vince respond.

Shane opens Raw looking cool in a leather jacket and all smiles and gets a massive cheer. Vince is apparently not here yet. Shane says that on November 16th, the day after Survivor Series, Stone Cold will get his promised title shot against the tournament winner. He is “acting chairman” and welcomes Stone Cold to the ring to an even bigger pop. (they’re in Texas) Before Austin can speak, the stooges wheel Vince McMahon out to cut them off. He ends the speculation about whether he’s going to disappear or retire - he calls it poppycock. He promises to not step down until the day he dies to which Shane smiles and shakes his head. He says none of us are invited to his funeral. No friends, no family and no WWF superstars. “When I die, I wanna go straight to hell!” Vince strips Shane of his management position and reduces him to being “a lowly referee” and being on the ring crew. He also changes Shane’s promise - Austin’s title shot won’t be a singles match on Raw after Survivor Series, he’ll just be in the 16 man tournament at the PPV and that counts as his title shot. He’ll face The Big Bossman in the opening round. Mankind, The Rock, Ken Shamrock, The Undertaker and Kane are the other big names already announced for it. Vince addresses the constant “asshole” chants he gets and says he’s no asshole, it's “all of you” There’s also a steel cage hanging above the ring and we don’t know why, which JR brings to our attention. During the ad break, Vince and Bossman came to ringside and threatened JR. He needs to behave himself and tow the corporate line or else, and that the cage means that tonight somebody will be paying “hard time” We didn’t see it in the clip but he apparently also yelled at King and told him to lose the crown and King outfit. 

We get another clip of Vince having a go at Michael Cole backstage, including getting Bossman to choke him.

Another Vince on a rampage segment as Bossman restrains Jim Cornette as Vince tells him off for “his stupid outfits and 1980s rasslin crap” and tells him to get with the program on commentary too.

Vince runs into a very young Shaqille O’Neil who’s sitting with a bunch of WWF superstars and then kicks him out of the backstage for not having a backstage pass.

Mankind looks for Mr. Socko all over the arena and then sets off to find Mr. McMahon. He’ll know where to look. Given Vince’s mood and treatment of Mick previously this will surely go badly.

Backstage, Mankind has found Vince and is trying to get him to help him look for Mr. Socko. Vince is weirdly being nice to Mankind. He has a present for him in fact - it's the WWF Hardcore Championship belt. He awards it to Mankind for promising not to interfere in Shamrock’s match tonight. He says Mankind is “like a son to him” and Mick calls him “dad” while Vince looks disgusted. What is he up to?

The Rock is facing Ken Shamrock for the Intercontinental title. We see Vince backstage having a private conversation with Shamrock and he chases the cameras so we can’t hear what’s being said. Before the match starts, Vince comes out to say that since he has a problem with “the people” then he has a problem with “the people’s champion” and says that this match isn’t just for the IC title, if The Rock doesn’t win the IC title then he’s no longer number 1 contender to the WWF title, and he’s out of the tournament at Survivor Series. Vince and the stooges stay out on the ramp to watch this match. This is a good match, these two work really well together and have had plenty of practice. The Rock made me laugh doing a big wide bug-eyed sell for being caught in a belly to belly suplex. Shamrock has the ankle lock for a long time but The Rock gets to the ropes. The ref goes down, Shamrock tries to use a chair but it backfires and The Rock is able to hit the People’s Elbow. He goes to revive the referee and Shamrock blasts him with a chair to lose via DQ. Because The Rock didn’t win the IC title he’s no longer the number 1 contender and no longer in the Deadly Games tournament. Vince calls The Rock “the people’s chump”

After a recap and a commercial, The Rock is in his locker room kicking stuff over and losing his temper, demanding to see “that piece of trash McMahon” 

Some police officers arrive and Vince tells them to arrest The Rock for threatening his life.

The Rock is arrested and forced into a police car, trash talking the cops the whole time as Vince looks on with a smile.

Vince and his entourage come out with the steel cage lowered for someone to serve “hard time” and JR and King are both worried it’ll be them given the way Vince has been having a pop at all the staff all night. They’ve been hyping up this “someone is going to serve a hard time” angle all night long. The stooges have Vince’s coffee and he sends Bossman to inspect the cage. He sends Brisco and Patterson inside too to “check the cage’s strength. Bossman locks the door behind them and with himself, Slaughter, Patterson and Brisco all locked in the cage, Vince explains that the people serving hard time will be Patterson, Brisco and Slaughter and Bossman lays into all three of them with his nightstick presumably for abandoning Vince a couple of weeks ago when Austin kidnapped him. The fans chant Austin as Bossman slams them into the cage and uses the nightstick. The three of them don’t really sell and stumble around begging Vince for forgiveness when Bossman clubs them in the head with his nightstick - something that could kill a man in real life. This is obviously designed to make Bossman look like a killer ahead of facing Austin at Survivor Series in the first round. This goes on for way too long until finally Stone Cold rushes the ring and climbs the cage. He attacks Bossman and Patterson goes after Austin which allows Bossman to take control. Patterson helping the person who Vince sent to attack him is some real stockholm syndrome stuff. Bossman hammers Austin with a nightstick until Shane unlocks the door and gets inside.

Bossman doesn’t hit Shane but looks to Vince for approval first. The crowd chants for Shane! Vince doesn’t throw his son to the wolves and spares him. In the midst of all this confusion, The Undertaker’s music plays and to everyone’s shock, The Undertaker and Paul Bearer come to the ring. The Undertaker gets in the cage and shuts the door wanting to punish Austin himself for not being WWF Champion. Austin puts up a good fight but he’s been beaten senseless with a nightstick already. As Undertaker beats on Stone Cold, Kane’s music hits for the fourth time tonight and he comes to the ring. Undertaker and Austin stop fighting and watch Kane approach. Kane triggers his ringpost pyro and it sets the cage on fight! The three men brawl in the ring surrounded by steel and flames as the show goes off the air. A pretty awesome end. 

It’s a Deadly Game

We get a look at the Deadly Games tournament bracket at Survivor Series. Noteworthy things - Triple H is in it against The Rock but we haven’t seen him wrestle in about two months and his knee is still hurt as far as we know, Kane and Undertaker both have byes which is fair given their connection to the title being vacant but will face each other in the quarter-finals and Mankind has a mystery opponent (who everyone at the time thought would be a returning Shawn Michaels or even someone coming from WCW making their debut).

The Blue Blazer!

Owen Hart comes out as himself with a sincere expression. He retired after accidentally breaking Dan Severn’s neck a few weeks ago. Severn comes out and calls Owen insincere. He says that Owen is a liar and says he’s sorry and retired but is running around as The Blue Blazer. Severn is not a charismatic man and has an odd voice. He says Owen stole his livelihood and he’s scum and Owen responds by attacking him (in a neck collar too, he sells it like death) Steve Blackman runs in and chases Owen off as JR demands an ambulance for Dan Severn and sure enough after an ad break he is quickly loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher. As Steve Blackman watches the ambulance leave he’s attacked by Owen Hart and...The Blue Blazer? JR is shocked and confused.

Val Venis vs. Jeff Jarrett and we see footage from Sunday Night Heat of Val dumping Terri for being pregnant. Jeff has Debra with him again and JR again speculates that it's more than a business relationship. So? The Blue Blazer comes down and shoves Val off the top rope and he and Jeff share an understanding before the Blazer runs off again. JR is having none of it and says it's Owen Hart as King plays dumb.

Other Happenings

• DX’s New Age Outlaws and X-Pac face The Brood in a 6 man tag team match. Gangrel comes up through the stage floor through a ring of fire with his goblet of blood, and then Christian and Edge meet him at the top of the ramp. Edge is all smiles and Chistian has his light heavyweight title across his shoulder. They look pretty awesome and Gangrel’s theme is still awesome. The match doesn’t go long before Kane comes out to his music and chokeslams all three members of The Brood, as payback for their attack on him last week.

• The Headbangers come out dressed as The New Age Outlaws and mock them which is actually pretty good! They’re facing D’Lo and Mark Henry in a number 1 contenders match for a tag title shot at Survivor Series. The match doesn’t last long as Kane comes out for the third time to chokeslam Mosh and D’Lo and signal his pyro for the third time.

• Droz out for a match with Hawk. We see clips of last night on Sunday Night Heat, Hawk accidentally cost Animal and Droz a match against - wait for it - The Hardy Boys. When Hawk comes out he’s stumbling again and looks drunk. King is nasty about it. Hawk can’t even defend himself and Droz jumps and attacks him as the referees implore the referee to stop it. The bell hasn’t rung to be fair. Animal comes out slowly and watches for a bit before finally dragging Droz off and sending him to the back. Animal berates Hawk in the ring. This is all just kind of a bummer.
• Michael Cole interviews Al Snow and Mankind who are teaming up again this week. Al calls Cole “Todd” and Mankind makes a joke about the “inside secrets of pro-wrestling” special that aired the previous night. That’s a famous load of nonsense.
• The Oddities are facing Mankind and Al Snow. The fans have started to really take to Mankind, and Al Snow is popular too. JR confirms that amazingly, Al Snow is in the Deadly Games tournament at Survivor Series too. Mankind dances and encourages Kurrgan to dance with him, but it allows Snow and Mick to jump the much bigger man. The fans chant “we want Head” During this we’re told that Vince’s angry rampage through the back has had him yelling at poor Howard Finkle. Mankind seems to have the match won but can’t find Socko and so won’t use the mandible claw. He even takes his trainer off and has bare feet. That leaves Al Snow to get double teamed but he uses Head as a weapon and actually puts up a really good fight against both Golga and Kurrgan until finally getting chokeslammed and splashed for the three count. A really big win for The Oddities. 
• Real Man’s Man, Steven Regal comes out to his hilarious theme song dressed as a lumberjack and wearing a builders hat. He looks miserable and honestly quite out of it. He defeated Bradshaw last night on Heat and is also in the Deadly Games tournament. He grabs a microphone and slurs his way through his promo. Not in a Hawk pretend way, but in a very real way that we’re supposed to just ignore. He spoke about this era of his career in his autobiography and Regal was absolutely off his face on pills at this time and says he barely remembers these few months which is sad. His open challenge for “a real man” is answered by Goldust. Regal looks terrible here and it just makes me sad. He’s sloppy and struggling and botching everything. He can hardly run the ropes. JR tells us that on Heat last night, Terri revealed that she and Val are pregnant, which is the big news she whispered to him last week. Val kicked her to the curb. “We’re not pregnant, YOU’RE pregnant” Terri comes to the ring during this match in her old Marlena outfit to try and make things up with her estranged husband. Kane does come out during this as well, chokeslamming both men. JR says that he doesn’t know right from wrong, and that without his father or someone to guide him, he’s just like a wild animal. Terri gets in the ring to check on Goldust and Kane grabs her and picks her up for a chokeslam too but referees and officials stop it before he plants her. He releases Terri and chokeslams one of the officials instead.

Raw is War - November 9th, 1998

The People vs. McMahon

Tonight The Rock is facing Mark Henry in a match where if The Rock loses then he’s fired. Backstage as we cut to ad break, Michael Cole exclaims over and over that The Rock has been attacked while paramedics run to his locker room. He is being worked on and “no one saw anything” but someone hit him in the back of the head.

The Rock is being worked on by EMTs and Michael Cole speaks to Vince. The Rock has been told that if he doesn’t win by pinfall or submission tonight he’s fired and Cole wants to know if that has changed with The Rock being injured and unable to compete. It has not. 

The Rock is being attended to by EMTs and is still laying in the exact same spot with them still checking the back of his head which makes them all look stupid. It’s been like 30 minutes. Vince taunts him about soon being unemployed.

McMahon is wheeled out onto the ramp by Patterson, Brisco, Sgt Slaughter and Bossman. Vince wants to be positioned at ringside to watch tonight’s main event. All night this has been promoted as “the people vs. McMahon” with some jokes made about Vince’s previous legal troubles and victory over the feds in court. Vince makes fun of the Dallas Cowboys and demands The Rock come out. Shane eventually comes out carrying a microphone. He tells his dad to cut the crap. He tries to talk sense into his father and they make some comments about Vince beating Shane as a kid. Shane refuses to leave so Vince sets the Bossman on him. Before it turns nasty, Stone Cold sprints to the ring and knocks Bossman out of the ring, stealing his nightstick and leaving with Shane. After an ad break, Mark Henry makes his way to the ring with D’Lo Brown. Vince and his cronies are all still at ringside. They play The Rock’s music a couple of times with Vince very confident that he won’t show up but he does eventually come out walking with a slight stagger and slipping on his elbow pads. He’s in his black Adidas tracksuit. It hasn’t actually been said that if The Rock wins this he’s also back into the Deadly Games tournament but that seems to be the implication from JR. Mark slowly works over The Rock and the finish comes when Bossman tries to handcuff The Rock to the top rope but The Rock reverses it and Bossman ends up handcuffed. He DDTs Mark but D’Lo stops the count. The Rock delivers the Rock Bottom to Mark Henry and Shane McMahon runs down to count the three count. The Rock wins and is back in the Survivor Series. With the stooges and co all down or handcuffed, The Rock manages to get Vince in the ring and after laying the smackdown on Patterson and Brisco, Vince hits Rock Bottom and gets the People’s Elbow! 

The Hardcore Champion

Mankind arrives at the arena proudly carrying his hardcore championship. He’s greeted by Mr. McMahon and the stooges. They’re all smiles and he tells Mankind he’s doing to defend the hardcore title tonight against Ken Shamrock. He says Mick has more titles coming in his future and takes him off to give him a makeover and make him “look like a champion”

Mankind is getting a haircut, paid for by Vince, and looks clean shaven under his mask too.

Mankind is getting a pedicure and is sad that he still hasn’t found Mr. Socko. Mankind says Mr. McMahon is helping him look and he has a new family with Gerry, Pat, Sgt and “dad”

The answer to a trivia question - the first ever hardcore championship match - is Mankind vs. Ken Shamrock. Mankind has his hair tied back, clean shaven under his mask and wearing tuxedo including smart slip on shoes which come off during the brawl so Mankind wrestles most of this match in his socks. They brawl all over the arena and ringside using chairs and taking brutal shots to the head and wicked bumps on the ring steps, announce tables and entrance ramp. This is really good. In the end, with McMahon and his entourage at the top of the ramp, Bossman knocks out Shamrock with his nightstick and Mankind wins the match. Vince looks disgusted as Mankind hugs him.

Kane Unchained

The show starts with X-Pac vs. The Undertaker. This came from last night on Heat when X-Pac was slated to defend the European title against Steven Regal but Undertaker chokeslammed X-Pac instead. Before this match really gets going, Kane comes out to confront his brother again. Kane gets in the ring and fires a fireball from his hand at The Undertaker but he sidesteps it and it hits X-Pac in the face instead who sells it with screams and writhing on the mat. The Undertaker leaves and Kane pursues him up the ramp. The lights in the arena come back on and Roaddogg and Billy Gunn are in the ring checking on X-Pac with some paramedics. After a recap and advert for Survivor Series he’s being checked on as Roaddogg says “you’ll be fine” over and over.

Edge is facing Kane in a match that would main event PPVs about 10 years later. Edge comes out with Gangrel and Christian to the full Brood entrance. Kane comes out carrying a can of gasoline and a blowtorch. His story lately has become that he doesn’t know right from wrong and without Paul Bearer or Undertaker to guide him, he’s just a wild animal. A ship without a rudder. He keeps attacking everyone. This is short but really good and Edge gets a chance to show some personality and show off some of his nice moveset. Kane knocks down Christian and picks up Edge in a gorilla press and throws him to the outside. Gangrel was standing too far back and failed to catch him and it looked really painful. Kane dominates all three men on the outside until they eventually gang on him three on one. Kane does fight them off again and chokeslams all three Brood members one by one. Three awesome looking chokeslams too. He stacks their lifeless bodies up on each other and goes to get the gasoline. The referee tries to stop him so he gets chokeslammed and added to the pile of bodies too. The commentators implore for someone to come out and make the save or to cut to an ad break as Kane pours gasoline all over all four men but before he can light the blowtorch, a crowd of referees and officials swarm the ring and get Kane’s potential victims out of the ring. King decries Kane’s psychotic actions as Kane goes into the crowd and snatches a fan with silly hair, chokeslamming him over the barrier back into the ringside area, before leaving through the crowd. Kane is terrifying! 

Other Happenings

• Val Venis comes out for his match and has Terri sneaking to ringside behind him. She’s going to accompany him to ringside against his will. Val Venis revealed on Heat last night that he’s had a vasectomy and so Terri must have been cheating on him if she’s pregnant. Val does finally spot Terri and tells her to get to the back. Val is facing Steve Blackman. Terri sneaks back out and low blows Val Venis, and then Blackman gets jumped by Owen Hart and The Blue Blazer as JR is very confused. We were all sure that they were one and the same.
• The New Age Outlaws enter and Roaddogg reveals that due to the finish of the number 1 contenders tag match last week, it's a triple threat for the tag titles at Survivor Series. This is a triple threat match between Roaddogg, Mosh and D’Lo Brown. This match is actually being refereed by Shane McMahon, with almost nothing made of it. Vince did say he was being demoted to being just a referee. D’Lo still has “European champion” on his tights and yes, still has his chest protector. “Shane has a lot of character, he must take after his mother”. D’Lo hits Sky High on Roaddoog but then walks into a stage dive by Mosh and wins it. Billy Gunn gets into the ring and he and Roaddogg clear out their challengers and celebrate anyway. 
• Jeff Jarrett says that Al Snow pisses him off prior to his match with Goldust. Before the match begins, Terri comes out dressed as Marlena again and tries to buddy up to Goldust but he tells her to beat it too. JR calls Debra evil and is very mean about her which feels like a massive overreaction considering that she hasn’t done anything. He continues to speculate that she and Jeff are “more than business partners” and I still don’t know why we care? He keeps talking about her finances too which I think is a joke either about WCW paying people too much, or about her divorce from NFL player Steve McMichael. Probably both? She distracts Goldust who starts to unzip his onesie and plants a big kiss on her. Jeff smashes his guitar over Goldust’s head and barks that he shouldn’t have pissed him off.
• Video highlight reel about Jesse the body Ventura becoming governor of minnesota. 
• Interview with The Rock who is facing Mark Henry tonight with his career on the line. Vince rattles off all his catchphrases and calls Vince a piece of trash. Before we cut away, Goldust attacks Jeff Jarrett backstage and is really vicious about it! The Blue Blazer comes to the rescue, saving Jeff Jarrett and allowing him to get control of the brawl before referees break it all up. 
• Stone Cold comes out and gets a mega reaction. He’s been back for two weeks (he never really left) and says that he’s had an easy time of it compared to how it was before and that makes him think Vince is up to something. He smells another plan in the works. He’s interrupted by the Bossman who says that Mr. McMahon is paying him a lot of money to do his bidding and calls Austin a dumb son of a bitch and he’s going to break everyone one of his bones and put him in a wheelchair. Stone Cold wants Bossman to come down and fight him right now but Bossman says he's making him wait until Survivor Series. Bossman came across as pretty badass here. Before he leaves, Stone Cold grabs a beer from ringside and chugs it on the ropes. This would become the norm but hasn’t yet. This marks the first time since I started doing these reviews that Stone Cold’s involvement in the show was relegated to “Other happenings”
• Al Snow vs. Tiger Ali Singh w/Babu. Babu throws flower petals as Tiger walks to the ring. Tiger refuses to lower himself to face Snow and makes Babu do it instead. Debra comes out to watch this match. Snow and Jarrett have been feuding and face each other in the first round at Survivor Series. Head has Socko tied around it which explains why Mankind can’t find it. Snow hits the Snow Plough and has the match won but he gets distracted by Debra playing with Head and Tiger jumps him from behind and wins with a bulldog. This was Al Snow’s first loss in the WWF during this comeback.
• Video of Sable working out. This is all the promotion her women’s title match at Survivor Series will get but that's fine since they’ve been feuding since the beginning of time anyway.

And so Survivor Series is set, the 14 man Deadly Games Tournament is all slated to take place on the same night and the graphic for that is repeated at the bottom here. Other matches set for the show;

WWF Women’s Championship

Jacqueline © w/Marc Mero) vs. Sable

WWF Tag Team Championships

The New Age Outlaws © (Roaddogg and Bad Ass Billy Gunn) vs. The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) vs. D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry

The Deadly Game tournament for the Vacant WWF Championship