Raw is War - March 30th 1998

Austin and McMahon

The show opens with Vince McMahon swaggering out with the new WWF title belt. He introduces the new champion and Stone Cold enters to a thunderous ovation. He takes the new title and drops the old one on Vince’s foot which he sells. Funny stuff. Vince sucks up to Steve, even saying he loves him. He wants them to work together and Austin to do as he’s told. Stone Cold can do things the easy way or the hard way. Austin says he refuses to do what Vince says and drops him with a Stone Cold Stunner. It’s crazy to think that the next 18 months of main event storylines come from this one opening promo. Vince hasn’t quite nailed on his character here as he’s performing Mr. McMahon as a sort of soft spoken intellectual, calling Steve “Mr. Austin '' and using lots of big words. Later in the show, Vince has Stone Cold arrested for assault and we see the new champion lead away in handcuffs and put in the police car, all while shouting abuse at Vince and promising retribution. Finally, Stone Cold uses his one call from prison to call JR and they play the call over the arena speakers. He promises to get Vince next week. 

D-Generation X grows

Triple H comes out and basically sheds HBK as a member officially, blaming him for buddying up to Mike Tyson, and brings out X-Pac as the new member. This was massive at the time as he had been a featured performer in WCW and a member of the NWO until he hurt his neck. He isn’t cleared to wrestle and wouldn’t for a few months. This was the first noteworthy name to jump ship from WCW to the WWF. This would happen increasingly regularly going forward as the WWF fully turned the ratings tide against WCW. He buries Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishoff too which the commentators react huge to in a “omg i can’t believe he said that” kind of way. He tells us that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall would have jumped too but they were being held hostage by WCW. This shoot stuff would seem lame to me today but at the time this was as edgy as wrestling got. This is a massive babyface turn but it doesn’t last long. The main event is a steel cage match for the officially vacant WWF tag titles. It was explained to us (but not the live crowd) that because Cactus Jack and Terry Funk put the Outlaws “in the wrong dumpster” at Wrestlemania in the Dumpster match, it shouldn’t have counted. We never even got to see them with the physical belts. We get a good look at the big gross bruise on Funk’s back. He’s very injured. The Outlaws come out wearing white t-shirts. Badass’ features Kenny from South Park which I love and the Roaddogg appears to have come from the future as he’s wearing a JOB squad t-shirt, a stable that wouldn’t appear for a few more months, and mentions “the hardcore title '' that they took from Funk and Foley. The crowd isn’t as hot for this as they should be. It’s very short. They tie Funk to the cage and double team Cactus. Then the new DX came out and the four of them violently beat the baby faces to end the show and The New Age Outlaws have now formally and officially joined DX. That means Triple H, Chyna and X-Pac’s would-be face turn lasted less than an hour. The beat down went on a bit too long and was way more graphic than it needed to be in my opinion.

The crowd chanted for Austin during this beat down which would be important later for story purposes.

The New Nation

Promo with The Nation of Domination. The Rock has the new IC title belt which has also been introduced with no fanfare. He is acting a lot more like The Rock we’d come to know than he was at Wrestlemania in that weird Jennifer Flowers segment. The Rock offers his thanks and gratitude to Faarooq “for teaching him a valuable lesson”. Swerve incoming. 

The Rock and Faarooq take on Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman. The Rock abandons Faarooq mid-match and leaves him to get beaten by Shamrock. Post match, Faarooq calls The Rock back out, ready to settle their issues that have been building for months and, with a People’s Eyebrow from The Rock, The Nation finally turn on their former leader, booting him out and letting The Rock take over. D’Lo Brown, Mark Henry and Kama Mustafa beat up Faarooq until referee’s separated them all. This was months in the building and the crowd reacted strongly to it which is great. 

Sable

Marc Mero comes out with Sable for a match with Taka Michinoku. Mero does at least cheat to beat Taka who deserves so much better. Luna comes out and challenges Sable to an evening gown match at the PPV. Amazingly she has to explain what that is as that would be the first one. They used to do tuxedo matches between the men which was less sexual, but still not entirely unsexual. Post match after Mero and Sable leave, a debuting Kaientai jumps the guard rail and beats down Taka. They don’t have names yet. 

Other happenings

• They’re still doing the weird gimmick of the first and second hours of Raw with the first hour being “Raw is War” and the second hour being “the Warzone” with them presented as separate shows with different commentary teams, match graphics and so on. I quite like it really as they set up the second hour as if its continuing storylines and end the first hour on a little cliffhanger. In reality it’s because the 1st hour was head to head with WCW. They drop this pretty soon and I'll use both logos pretty interchangeably until they do.
• LOD squash Los Boricuas. Coked out Sunny promo officially naming them “LOD 2000” post match where she struggles to get her words out and basically has to make the announcement of the name change three times to make sure we didn’t miss it. We know Sunny, it says “LOD 2000” on their ring gear and it appears about 13 times in their titantron video. 
• Kurgan vs. Chainz is terrible but during this, they show a picture in picture of Vince and the stooges waiting on the police for Austin and Sgt. Slaughter stares directly into the camera the whole time which is funny.
• “Worlds greatest promoter” Tennessee Lee. He introduces Double J, Jeff Jarrett who comes out on a horse but the arena lights are out so the horse can hardly be seen so what’s the point? Aguila again doesn’t get an entrance. Didn’t get one at Mania so why would he on Raw? Botched finish as Aguila was supposed to miss his flippy move but Jeff didn’t roll out of the way and they both sold it like he still missed. Blackman runs in and attacks Double J because Jeff ended Blackman’s undefeated streak on Raw just before Wrestlemania. Which is terrible motivation for a babyface by the way, being a sore loser. I bet Jeff cheated but the commentators don’t tell us that.
• The first “Val Venis is coming soon” video plays. He becomes a huge part of the attitude era but it’s crazy to me to see him this early on.
• The Midnight Express defeated The Headbangers for the NWA tag titles. Jim Cornette was on commentary for this and introduced Dan Severn who looks like a mild-mannered high school teacher. He’s the NWA world champion. Literally none of this gets a reaction. Severn beats up the Headbangers post match.
• Kane and Paul Bearer come out and Bearer explains that the idea for the Inferno match came to him in a dream and lays out the challenge for Unforgiven. 

Raw is War - April 6th, 1998

Corporate Rattlesnake

The show opens with Vince McMahon, sans theme song (he won’t get that for about 10 months) who gets a chorus of boos. He explains his generosity of having Stone Cold released from prison the same night last week. He also says that Steve has learned his lesson and accepted Vince’s control which is Vince’s “proudest moment” and promises a new and improved Stone Cold Steve Austin “or your money back”. We’re so early in his run that it’s easy to believe the fans might have thought this was going to be a real heel turn already!  
Michael Cole gives JR a hard time on commentary himself for going corporate and wearing his cowboy hat thanks to Vince which is a true story. JR didn’t want to wear it because he thought it was gimmicky but Vince insisted. Crazy in hindsight as its near impossible to imagine Jim Ross without his cowboy hat now. Lots of mentions all night by the commentators of how young the WWF is in terms of talent and how it’s not the old age home or the masters tour which are more shots at WCW. What’s funny is that in early 1999 when the WWF was winning regularly and WCW was upset, Eric Bishoff initiated a lawsuit against the WWF which claimed, among other things, that the WWF had said mean things like calling their wrestlers old.
Into the second hour, Jerry Lawler swaps out for Michael Cole and Vince McMahon comes out with two police officers to loud Austin chants. Stone Cold comes out in a full suit and tie with an Austin baseball cap. Oh it’s THAT segment. The suit looks a bit big for him, honestly. It was probably one of Vince’s spares. They really drag this out but you can see the turn coming a mile off. Still brilliantly performed though. When Stone Cold reveals it’s a swerve and sheds the suit, throwing each piece into the crowd, the fans lose it. The police officers/extras do just stand there and let Steve hit Vince in the balls which doesn’t make much sense but overall, a great fun segment. 

D-Generation X

When DX comes out, JR is talking a lot about Shawn Michaels and they’re really playing up that he’s been kicked out and isn’t happy about it. At the time, it must have seemed certain that he’d be returning as a babyface to feud with Triple H and DX pretty soon. X-Pac buries WCW again. DX promises a revolution and calls themselves an army. Between that and the WCW burial, they’re coming across strongly as babyfaces despite their massacre of Cactus Jack and Terry Funk last week. Backstage we see them bullying a stage hand and spray painting stuff. If it wasn’t for the commentators decrying it all, we wouldn’t really know they’re heels. There were more skits all night including them pissing on DOA’s motorbikes after Triple H “triple dog dared” the Outlaws after which, the DOA come out and give the most shouty, sweaty, 80s of promos and challenged DX for pissing on their bikes. Then leave. The essence of “that could have been an email.”
DX vs. the DOA in a 6 man tag is the main event The DX team is star studded as its the Euro and Tag champs on one team. Weird production stuff as King and JR talk over the ring announcer. Not something you’d ever hear on WWF programming going forward. X-Pac and King kiss each other’s asses on commentary to make it clear that DX are definitely heels. DX wins, they beat up DOA with chairs and crucify Chainz on the ropes. Much like last week’s beat down, this goes on a bit too long but it’s so that we know they’re definitely heels as their promos and actions backstage will ultimately get them cheered. LOD 2000 makes the save in the end and the show ends with a wild brawl. 

Undertaker and Kane

Promo by The Undertaker where he accepts Kane’s challenge to an inferno match. He also says that as a child “he beat Kane at will” which makes him sound abusive. Kane and Paul Bearer respond via satellite on the tron, and are at The Undertaker’s parents grave side. Kane destroys the tombstones with a sledgehammer and sets fire to the graves themselves! An act that even Jerry Lawler admits was too far. 

Foley's Pity Party

An incredible Mick Foley promo where he puts over Terry Funk and talks about his heartbreak. He heels out on the fans for chanting for Steve Austin when he was injured and helpless. He basically says that the fans don’t deserve Cactus Jack. The crowd is very quiet during all of this but to me it comes across like everyone is paying attention rather than apathy. There’s a real “everyone’s leaning in and listening carefully” vibe which isn’t something you would expect from many crowds in this era. He made a point of mentioning that Steve Austin is his friend but he wants an apology from the fans for cheering for Austin and not him in his hour of need. He says that Cactus Jack is gone now and it comes off like a retirement. This is powerful stuff and worth tracking down. The commentators help sell what they’re doing for here as they react in shock and disappointment that Foley is taking issue with the fans for chanting, and JR in particular seems borderline disgusted at Mick for “feeling sorry for himself” 

The Nation

We see “earlier today” footage of The Nation jumping Faarooq in the car park and beating him senseless. It actually works really well as we see them trading off camera man duties themselves rather than explaining why the WWF camera crew would stand and film this criminal act and not call for security or something. We get our first “smell what The Rock is cooking” sign which is cool. Owen Hart challenges The Rock for his IC title and it’s obviously a really good match but too short to be special. The Rock retains when Chyna gets him disqualified by hitting Owen with a baseball bat.
Ken Shamrock vs. Marc Mero goes to a no contest when The Nation runs in and they beat up Shamrock again. I honestly thought Rock and Shamrock’s deal was done for now.

Other Happenings

• Dan Severn comes out with the NWA world’s title belt and the UFC superfight title belt which is insane in hindsight. Jim Cornette is with him and in total they’ve got 4 title belts between them. We even get footage from the UFC! On RAW! While this is cool, it’s a bit “this guy is hard as nails cos he’s real and everyone else is fake '' for my liking. He squashes Flash Funk (2 cold scorpio) Cornette is very shrill on commentary and it’s cutting through me but I don’t know if that’s just because I don’t like him on a personal level these days.
• Blackman defeats Brian Christopher. Tennessee Lee joins commentary and tells us that Double J will be performing a concert at Unforgiven alongside Sawyer Brown (no idea) Christopher mocks the “Jerry’s kid” chants (that he’s not getting) as he and Jerry Lawler denied that they were related but it was all for comedy as it was painfully obvious and acknowledged by JR that they were father and son. Tennessee Lee then comes back out with a mic (Christ this is getting a lot of time) and introduces Double J who jumps Blackman with a guitar in the ring and cuts his own promo about being the world’s greatest singer and hyping his concert performance at Unforgiven. I think Sawyer Brown is a band rather than a single artist.
• The first ever mixed gender match in WWF history. Luna vs. a man. (they don’t say who) Goldust, who has quietly reverted back to being plain old Goldust apparently beats up the jobber before the bell and then Luna wins with a diving headbutt. Luna is pretty awesome. A well defined gimmick and she can actually work. 
• Another Val Venis video where he talks about the Oscars. Really hitting the nail over the head that he’s a porn star. 

Raw is War - April 13th, 1998

Austin and McMahon….and Dude Love?

Stone Cold opens the show to apparently “settle things with Vince McMahon once and for all” Hahaha imagine. You’ve got another 18 months, minimum. Watching these Raw’s back to back, you see a funny progression of Mr. McMahon coming out with no one, to a couple of security guards, to this week having the stooges (Patterson, Brisco and Sgt. Slaughter) and police in full riot gear. Austin wants to know his PPV opponent and first challenger but all Vince says is that we’ll know “soon” and after a lot of goading and funny taunting from Austin (including saying he could beat Vince with one hand tied behind his back), we get a main event tonight of Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon in a WWF title match and just like that the penny drops - this Raw is the one. This is the night where the WWF ended WCW Monday Nitro’s 84 week ratings winning streak. They’d trade victories back and forth for the next 6 months or so until WWF pulled ahead permanently. We see multiple segments of the Stooges gassing Vince up backstage. Shane McMahon sighting! Huge pop! (from me) This Raw in general marks Patterson and Brisco’s promotion to being full time characters.

Vince comes out and accepts Austin’s challenge for tonight. He talks for too long but this is the kind of stuff that’s missing from modern wrestling - show long storylines running through multiple segments. It makes episodes of Raw stand out if each one has its own little self-contained story within the larger narrative. That’s all Russo, to his credit. Jim Ross leaves commentary to go backstage and try to talk sense into Vince. The commentators sell his accepting the challenge as something that will tear the company apart.
More Vince and stooges stuff backstage where we see them giving Vince advice on how to counter the stunner and how he’s going to “own him” This kind of stuff would only get funnier as we’d continue.
Shane and JR try to talk Vince out of the match as Patterson and Brisco keep hyping him up. Interview with Vince and his posse. He’s nervous but not afraid. He’s not afraid of anything. He trash talks Ted Turner too for extra cool points. 

The main event is hyped up with the long boxing introductions from Tony Chimmel and Vince getting the walk to the ring from backstage. This has a legit big fight feel and they’re making this feel huge! Shane McMahon comes out too. Big pop (from me, the fans don’t react) every time. Austin’s pop gets louder every week. Vince slaps Austin and the collective gasp is hilarious. Everyone is so deeply locked into these characters. Vince goads Austin into competing with one arm tied behind his back, just as he promised earlier. The crowd ruins the moment with a deeply homophobic chant. They really drag this out as there’s a lot of time killing and waiting around for something to happen. If I had to guess, that’s a ratings thing and they wanted this final segment to run long vs. whatever was happening on WCW Nitro. Austin’s hand is bound but Vince is still in the corner talking away to the Stooges for ages. Dude Love’s theme music hits before the bell rings and Mick Foley comes limping out dressed as Dude Love to mass confusion from everyone. He talks for a bit and pledges allegiance to Uncle Vinnie. Vince isn’t keen, and then as Foley teases putting the claw on Vince, Stone Cold approaches from behind and Foley spins and attacks Stone Cold with the mandible claw. In the weeks to come, this is the kind of thing they’d play off as having been Vince’s plan all along but he seems as confused and annoyed as everyone else. The crowd reacts in stunned silence to the whole thing and Vince even challenges Dude Love to a fight himself! He wanted to be WWF champion! 

On the WWE network feed, we get 10 minutes of “Extra attitude” where the cameras kept rolling after the show ended. This is all house show stuff to send the crowd home happy. Austin gets untied, DX come out and jump him, then Kane comes out, then LOD 2000 come out, then Undertaker comes out and we get a wild brawl that ends with Austin beating up DX, hitting a stunner on Roaddogg, pinning him with the referee counting three and then he, LOD 2000 and Undertaker being announced as the winners (?) Still no beer bath. Not yet. 

Kane and The Undertaker

There’s a tag match about to happen but then Undertaker comes out and demolishes all four men which Cole puts over as being Kane’s MO. Undertaker wants to show Kane what evil is all about. He can “feel Kane’s presence” The Undertaker is a Jedi, confirmed. 

Later, a tag match featuring The Headbangers is apparently next but The Undertaker comes out again and demolishes them too. This time he does at least get Kane, who comes out after to stand at the top of the ramp. Paul Bearer challenges Undertaker to fight Kane in a cemetery on top of their parents' graves next week. The crowd boo when he says next week, because they won’t be there for it obviously. 

D-Generation X

The DOA are wrestling Los Boricuas in a tag team chain match for some reason. Would surely make more sense for them to be wrestling DX given the way Raw ended last week and that DX are at ringside! This all just falls apart as DX beats up Chainz with steel chairs. Chainz takes a big Kane bump off a pedigree on the chair (drops to his knees, looks safe as houses) and then a piledriver on the chair too. There’s way too much happening here. DX beat down Skull and 8-ball with Los Boricuas help and then after teasing letting them join DX, beat them up too. For the 3rd week in a row, this goes on for too long while the crowd chants for LOD. It’s ruled a no-contest. Why was this a chain match? Apart from DX using them to choke DOA a bit, the chains were meaningless.

JR spends all night telling us that Owen Hart plans to challenge a member of DX to a match tonight but weirdly it’s DX that comes back out later to challenge him. They tease which one it will be - for what it's worth, Billy is the only one in his ring gear. They haven’t decided how X-Pac is to be pronounced yet. Triple H is pretty funny here, mocking Owen and talking about how they all wrote an essay to decide who’d face him. There was no way DX were staying heels for long with this patter. LOD 2000 came out to back up Owen. X-Pac makes more WCW and NWO references on commentary. Triple H makes a lot of jokes at Sunny’s expense too. Owen wins over Billy Gunn (told you) and bails out with the LOD. JR says “suck it” and we all collectively feel dirty.

The Nation

Faarooq comes out all bandaged up to a pretty good 90s rap theme song. Decent little promo challenging the entire Nation to a fight. The Rock comes out actually dressed as The Rock with the shiny silver shirt and sunglasses indoors. Awesome. Faarooq throws up the fist and is joined by Shamrock and Steve Blackman who appear on the ramp behind The Nation and it turns into a wild brawl. Steve Blackman is a busy guy, being mates with Shamrock and feuding with both The Nation and Double J at the same time.

Other Happenings

• Lord forgive me, it’s Tennessee Lee and Double J. He wrestles Taka Michinoku as Double J’s flyers advertising his concert at Unforgiven rain on the ring. Like for hilariously long after his entrance. They just keep coming. Steve Blackman promises to get Double J at some point in a picture in picture promo. JR mentions that Taka has been assaulted multiple times now including on Shotgun Saturday night by “club kamikaze” who then make an appearance to cause the DQ and beat down Taka again and run off. The “club kamikaze” name doesn’t stick (it's Kaientai), presumably because someone told them that’s really offensive. 
• Terry Funk comes out as just plain old Terry Funk. I am amazed and shocked after his back injury. He calls Cactus Jack a coward and makes a fat joke. He brings out Flash Funk as his new partner which gets ECW chants. Nice that the crowd knows the symbolism of this. They beat The Quebeccers clean who I never expected to see! JR is just calling Flash Funk, Scorpio now. He actually seems really high on him! Jerry Lawler comes out early for commentary during this match because he’s too excited about the Vince/Austin match to wait.
• Luna comes out and cuts a weird promo to no reaction but she wants to fight Sable which does get a pop. Goldust then comes out dressed as Sable and Luna attacks him and strips him. It’s actually really funny as Goldust has the mic to his mouth the whole time and we can hear him doing comedy selling. Sable then runs out and entirely botches a snapmare by the hair and ends up bumping herself harder than she bumps Luna. They fight until Goldust and referees separate them. 
• Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman take on the NWA tag champs in a non-title match which is a pretty clear sign that the faces are winning. Both men look incredible - jacked to the nines. Shamrock gets in Dan Severn’s face pre-match as JR really hypes up their history in the UFC (one win each in their two fights) Shut my mouth, it goes to a double DQ. Might as well have made it for the titles then.
• Another Val Venis video. This one has a sexy naked lady in it with huge fluffy 80s hair. 

Raw is War - April 20th, 1998

Main Event Dude Love

Dude has the “love shack” set up at the top of the ramp and “surprisingly” is now the number 1 contender for the WWF title. Vince McMahon interrupts Dude before he can bring out a guest and fines him $5000 for interfering in his chance to become WWF champion last week. Apparently Dude had no plan to attack Stone Cold but Austin “attacked him from behind” because he’s jealous of The Dude. He says that he won’t face Austin for the title at Unforgiven if Steve comes out and begs. Jim Ross tells us that the WWF office has apparently sent Stone Cold away on some press tour thing so he’s not here yet. 

Stone Cold arrives at the arena as hour two of the show starts and says that he believes McMahon and Dude Love are working together, that it's a conspiracy and promises to beat Vince’s ass tonight. This conspiracy thread is also worked by the commentators wondering if $5000 was really a meaningful fine in the first place.

Vince comes out to join commentary for the Dude Love vs. Steve Blackman main event. Vince says that Dude Love and Austin are the ones working together, which makes no sense as an accusation. They make the whole thing pretty obvious here honestly as Mick Foley had an issue with Austin, the $5000 fine being a token slap on the wrist, Dude saving Vince at the last minute, that it’s suspicious and weird that despite being at odds Vince has made Dude the number 1 contender but seemingly has no idea how he became number 1 contender….it's good stuff really. They’re already dropping Montreal references which will be played out in 2023 but at the time it had only been a few months which makes it either really fresh or incredibly tasteless. The time keeper rings the bell for a submission while Dude has Blackman in an abdominal stretch. Blackman is as confused as anyone and wipes out the time keeper with a judo throw.

Austin sprints to the ring and takes out Dude and Vince! Vince gets in the ring and challenges Austin. Patterson and Brisco run out and both take stunners but the distraction allows Dude time to recover and jump Stone Cold one more time. The implication here is pretty clear - Vince and Dude are together and Vince is going to Montreal screwjob Austin on PPV! 

Undertaker and Kane

At the start of the show, we see Kevin Kelly “live from the cemetery” waiting for Undertaker, Kane and Paul Bearer. 

The Undertaker arrives at the graveyard and goes all “where are they?” and we’re left to assume that Kane and Bearer weren’t there and he’s now gone off looking for them.
We see a mystery hearse arriving at the arena which JR and King assume is driven by The Undertaker as his taste in cars is very on brand. We eventually find out that Paul Bearer and Kane are driving the mystery hearse. Bearer has an untucked shirt and is all dirty like he’s been…digging something up perhaps? Oh dear. After the DX 6 man tag, we’d cut backstage and see two soil covered caskets that Bearer tells us contain The Undertaker’s parents.
Bearer and Kane come out with the coffins already being positioned at the top of the ramp and Bearer is kinda great here. He hams it up and is a bit hokey but in the best way. He crows about having buried the Undertaker’s parents in the cheapest nastiest caskets he could. The Undertaker comes through the crowd and as he rushes up the ramp, Kane pours gasoline all over his father’s coffin. They light daddy Taker on fire, and Kane chokeslams the Undertaker onto his mother’s and we even see human bones and maggots on the closeup! The loud roaring fire noise must be added in post-production. It’s so loud and clear. Jesus Christ almighty.

D-Generation X

DX are laughing about peeing on the DOA’s motorbikes a couple of weeks ago and they “triple dog dare” Triple H to “give the crowd a golden shower from his bazooka” “You mean Helmsley is going to expose himself tonight and urinate on the crowd?” says respected journalist Jim Ross. Triple H comes out wearing a raincoat and sunglasses like a flasher, but you can also see he’s wearing jeans so…..what? They’re still talking like babyfaces despite their vile heel actions. Triple H tries to get the crowd to chant “skanky” at Sunny which feels like a rib but I'd imagine she’s so coked out these days she won’t notice. First mention of the stipulation for Triple H and Owen’s European title match at Unforgiven which will have Chyna suspended above the ring in a shark cage. Triple H pumps up a super soaker and sprays it into the crowd. LOD and Owen come out and want a fight and charge the ring but Sgt. Slaughter stops them and books a 6 man tag main event.
LOD 2000 and Owen Hart vs. The New Age Outlaws and Triple H. Lawler is pretty gross here insinuating that Sunny “likes LOD’s bodies' ' Despite the crowd chanting for LOD at a couple of different points, they are silent for the hot tag. I think the fans still like LOD but aren’t keen on this presentation. It might be helped by a bit of promo time and letting them fire up old school, or at least letting Sunny talk. Chyna abducts Sunny which distracts LOD enough to let the Outlaws win. Billy Gunn is still using the piledriver as a finisher at this stage.

Other Happenings

• First show to open with the updated attitude era WWF signature. It doesn’t sound quite right yet but here's the finished version which debuted at Unforgiven the following Sunday

• The Nation’s theme music has been tweaked but isn’t quite The Rock version of the music yet. They come through the crowd carrying weapons for a Long Island street fight. Returning from the commercial, every member of The Nation has been ejected apart from Kama who is the one facing Faarooq. We do see Shamrock and Blackman backstage with their own weapons being stopped from coming out too. Blackman is the busiest man in the WWF! This match is vicious in theory but the weapons are clearly gimmicked (Kama uses a hammer which bounces like it's made of styrofoam) First mention of Kama being “the Godfather of the Nation” which is an inside joke. They all call him Godfather backstage. That’s not going anywhere. Faarooq wins a match that was a touch too long for what it was.
• Dan Severn has a dull match full of repetitive slams with Headbanger Mosh. 
• Luna comes out and promises to strip Sable naked during the evening gown match which is bound to sell a few PPVs. Goldust (who’s now back to being The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust) has a match with Bradshaw. I don’t like Bradshaw but his offence looks really good here. Club Kamikaze run in and attack Bradshaw, apparently deciding to move on from Taka Michinoku 
• Terry Funk and Scorpio take on the NWA tag champions which sadly means I have to listen to Jim Cornette for a bit. JR is really high on Scorpio and is really putting him and his spectacular offence over. Funk and Scorpio win, beating the NWA tag champs in a non-title match. Dan Severn attacks Scorpio post-match but Funk runs off the NWA invasion lads. Can’t wait for that to end.
• A 4th Val Venis debut video. This one is noteworthy as it has that shot of him coming out of the shower that opens his titantron video.
• Sable comes out wearing a blue sparkly evening gown opposed to her usual black leather/jeans combo so I suspect something’s about to happen here. Michael Cole comes across like a virgin the way he looks at Sable and says bra and panties. They’re really hyping up that we might see Sable naked on PPV. Eugh the 90s.