WWE Survivor Series
November 15, 1998
Vince McMahon (In his wheel chair) and the stooges starts off the show plugging the one night tournament for the WWE World Title. First out is Mankind, McMahon's hand pick choice to win it all. This is also around the time that Foley started wearing the dress shirt. His opponent is a mystery though. Out comes the index cards and McMahon gives a long introduction for the former WWE star with an impressive win/loss record and who eventually found his way to WCW in 1996. Ladies and gentlemen, back in the WWE:
Mankind vs Dwayne Gill
You might know Gill better as Gillberg. As he makes his way down to the ring, pyro is set off, scaring Gill. Gill barely gets in the ring before he's attacked by Foley. Double armed DDT. Foley looks for Mr. Socko, but isn't there, so he just rolls Gill up securing a pass to the next round.
A complete squash with Gill not getting in a single move. However, I was laughing the entire time, so the match accomplished it's goal. Some fun and a free pass for Foley. Interesting way to start off the show though. 30 Seconds. 1 Star. Jeff Jarrett vs Al Snow
Debra had just arrived in the WWE from WCW the previous month giving Jarrett the last tool he needed to be a top midcard heel the following year. Snow had cost Jarrett a match in the IC title tournament in October as well, giving this match a little backstory. Mr. Socko is wrapped around Head. Remember that, that'll come into play later on. Snow nails a nice running senton off of the steps on the outside. Back in, there's some nice moves hit, but neither wrestler seem to be trying too hard to put on a good match. Debra steals Head and gives it to Jarrett. Snow grabs Jarrett's guitar countering the attack. The ref pulls the guitar away giving Snow the distraction to nail Jarrett with Head earning him the victory.
These two looked like they had some good chemistry together. However, with both going on decreased speed, it was hard to be anything too special. I would of loved to see what these two could of produced with some time. Still pretty good for what little time they did have. 4 Minutes. 2 Stars. The Boss Man vs Steve Austin
Like Debra, Boss Man had just returned to the WWE the previous month. Since returning, he's been McMahon's head of security and his main purpose is to ensure that Austin can't get by. A lot of brawling and a Lou Thesz Press by Austin. On the outside, Boss Man grabs his nightstand and hits Austin in the ribs. The ref calls for the bell, but Boss Man keeps attacking Austin. Austin gets to go to the next round, but the question is what kind of condition will he be in?
Short match again, but the crowd was super hot. It's good for storyline purposes and both guys did their job. 4 Minutes. 2 Stars. Steven Regal vs X-Pac
Regal had debuted in the WWE in the summer as the blue blood, but since then, he took some time off and returned as 'The Real Man's Man'. Luckily, he didn't stay in the WWE long enough for it to ruin his career. X-Pac is currently the European champion, which infuriated Regal. That would lead to Regal attacking Pac on the Raws leading up to the PPV. A lot of knees and typical Regal greatness from this. X-Pac is able to hit the Bronco Buster (90's version of the 619...a move that's over but so weak). They head to the floor where Regal nails a Butterfly Suplex on Pac. The ref calls for the bell resulting in a double count out. Steve Austin gets a bye to the Semi-Finals.
The first match of the night that was actually given a little time. And for that time, we were given some real wrestling. How do the fans show their gratitude? Dead silence. Just one of the things I can't stand about the Attitude Era. Sadly, Regal would head to rehab after this and we never got to see the feud end. 9 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars. Ken Shamrock vs Goldust
Goldust had just returned to the gimmick from his disastrous summer run as Dustin Runnels. Shamrock is the current IC champion. Both are faces, but by late Summer, the fans started hating on Shamrock. Shamrock busts out a bunch of Heel Kicks while working over Goldust's head. Seems like a good idea with only a ten minute time limit. Goldust sets up Shamrock for Shattered Dreams, but the ref gets in the way. Middle rope Hurricrana by Shamrock. A bit weak looking, but still pretty cool. Shamrock really looks like he's trying hard out there. Belly-to-belly and the Ankle lock gets Shamrock the submission win.
Thus far, Shamrock had the best strategy in this whole thing. Go for the head and try to knock someone out. Even if it doesn't work, you might be able to make them woozy enough that you can easily get in your Ankle Lock. Almost a squash with how little moves Goldust got in. These two would see more of each other in early 1999. 6 Minutes. 2 3/4 Stars. The Rock vs Triple H
The Rock had just been turned face by the fans. After Breakdown, the Nation turned on Rock making him a full fledged face. It's because of that popularity, Mr McMahon now hates him and lumps The Rock in with Austin as two guys he's trying to ensure doesn't win. Pat Patterson and Jerry Brisco comes down to the ring and Brisco claims that Hunter has no-showed (He was still out with a knee injury) so as a result, The Rock has a new opponent, leading to:
The Rock vs The Big Boss Man
The Boss Man runs down and heads in the ring, Rocky quickly rolls him up and gets a surprise pin. Jim Ross claims it was a new record of only 4 seconds. It's probably more around 7-8 though. The Boss Man looks upset and Rocky gets to an old rival to the next round.
It's kind of hard to judge an 8 second match. It accomplished what it wanted to do. The fans seemed to enjoy it instead of hating the fact that they were short changed a match. It's kind of a shame that Hunter was still out, another Hunter/Rock match could of really helped this PPV. 10 Seconds. 1/2 Star. The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs Kane
This is the first semi-finals match. Both men received a bye into the second round. This entire tournament was created partially because of these two. At Breakdown, McMahon booked Austin vs Kane vs Taker in hopes to finally get the title off of Austin for good. That's exactly what happened. The problem is, both Kane and Taker were covering Austin to get the pin. McMahon then decided to book them against each other at Judgment Day (Formerly an October PPV) with Austin as the guest referee. When Austin ruled himself the winner, the title remained vacated. McMahon finally had enough of Austin and fired him. That's where Shane McMahon comes into play, but I'll save that for later. Anyways, after spending the summer at odds until finally reuniting, Taker had officially turned heel while Kane was more of a tweener. Paul Bearer and Taker also reunited. So finally, this is the forth one-on-one PPV match between the brothers for the year. A lot of brawling in this match. Kane goes for his trademark flying closeline from the top rope, but he did it awkwardly that it looked more like a crossbody. Either way, it was still the high light of the match. A little fighting on the outside, leads the pair back in the ring where Kane chokeslams Taker. Paul Bearer gets on the apron for the distraction. In a historic moment, Bearer ducks a punch by Kane to remain on the apron. Taker uses the distraction to get back on his feet and hit the Tombstone for the victory. With that, their 1998 is finally over.
When it comes down to it, Kane and Taker were never that good wrestling each other. Wrestlemania 20 is a great example of that. However, in 1998 (Especially Wrestlemania 14), it was special enough that it felt new and unpredictable. After the first match, an inferno match and a guest referee match, there wasn't really anything the brothers could do to hook fans into the match. As a result, it's mostly just a brawl with minimal crowd reaction. My biggest gripe with the match is how easily Taker pinned Kane. At Wrestlemania, it took the Undertaker 3 (!) Tombstones to finally defeat Kane. At the time, that was unheard of. However, we're now supposed to believe that Kane can be put away with only one? And in less than half the time it took at WM? I do prefer this over their Wrestlemania XX match though. 8 Minutes. 2 Stars. Mankind vs Al Snow
Fun little fact, this is the first Pay Per View since the Hardcore title was created. Foley is still the champion, albeit never defending it. During the match, there's a camera cut to the back with Mr. McMahon talking to the stooges about how he stole Mr. Socko and wrapped it around the head of well...Head. McMahon believes Foley will go crazy once he sees that Snow has it. Snow once again impresses by hitting a couple of quality moves. Don't get me wrong, the match still sucks, but it's nice to see Snow trying to add a couple of moves to it. Snow tries to use Head, but Foley breaks it up and sends Snow lying on the mat with a suplex. It's at that moment, Foley sees his beloved sock wrapped around Head. Foley regains the mighty sock and begins to pummel Head. We're talking about punches and kicks here. Snow tries to get a pin on Foley, but Foley hits the Double Armed DDT and uses Mr. Socko to make the ref call for the bell. I'm not sure if he won by submission, pinfall (I know his shoulders were on the mat for at least three seconds) or referee discretion. Whatever it is, Foley moves on to face Austin in the semi-finals while Snow is left smiling after getting Socko crammed down his throat.
I highly doubt anyone expects a technical classic between these two. Without them able to use weapons, they were really left with only using punches. Add in the fact that it's barely longer than a commercial break, this wasn't good at all. I'll give it some credit for being comical at times and for fitting storyline purposes. Thus far, McMahon has made the path for Foley to become Champion fairly easily. 4 Minutes. 1 3/4 Stars. Ken Shamrock vs The Rock
To say these two knows each other well, would be an understatement. It was at last year's Survivor Series, Shamrock forced Rocky to submit to win an elimination match. At Royal Rumble, Rocky retained the IC title by DQ against Shamrock. Later on in the Rumble match, Rocky eliminated Shamrock. At No Way Out of Texas, Shamrock forced The Rock to submit to win the match for his team in a 10 man tag. At Wrestlemania, Shamrock defeated The Rock for the IC title, but the decision was reversed when Shamrock refused to release Rocky from the Ankle Lock. Mayhem in Manchester, an UK PPV, saw Shamrock win a tag match over Rocky. At Unforgiven, Shamrock's team defeated The Nation in an 8 man tag. Ken Shamrock became the King of the Ring after beating The Rock in the finals. Finally, The Rock became the number 1 contender to the WWE Title by pinning Ken Shamrock in a triple threat cage match at Breakdown. Anyways, Rocky sprays some drink in the face of Shamrock, which I believe was the first time he did that on Pay Per View. The Boss Man makes his way down to the ring looking to get some revenge on Rocky. Hurricrana and Shamrock locks in the Ankle Lock. Rocky is able to reach the ropes. People's Elbow only gets a 2 count. Shamrock reverses a Rock Bottom into a belly-to-belly. Boss Man climbs on the apron distracting the ref as he throws his nightstick to Shamrock. But wait, Rocky catches it. Shamrock is hit in the gut and that's enough for The Rock to get his first pinfall one-on-one PPV victory over Shamrock this year. With that, The Rock is the final semi-final entry.
With the amount of time the Rock's have faced each other in 1998, they could of wrestled the match blindfolded. That doesn't mean they were able to easily put on a 4 star match, but it was more than passable. The extra time compared to everything else helped too. This would end up being Rocky's retribution for losing at King of the Ring. As much as McMahon pushed for it, the fans weren't accepting Shamrock as a top guy. After tonight, The Rock would clearly be above Shamrock in rank for the rest of Shamrock's WWE career. 9 Minutes. 3 Stars. Jacqueline vs Sable - Women's Title Match
Another historic moment tonight as this would be the first time the Woman's title would be on the line at a WWE Pay Per View since Summerslam 1995. After Alundra Blayze left the WWE for WCW in late 1995, the Women's title remained defunct. The title was brought back in September with Jacqueline defeating Sable to be the champion. With the exception of Luna, there wasn't even any other women wrestlers in the WWE at this point, so a tournament wasn't even possible. The backstory of the feud is after months of being mishandled by Marc Mero, Sable left him. Mero quickly got with Jacqueline (Another one who left WCW). Shane McMahon is your referee tonight. TKO by Sable, but Mero pulls her out of the ring. So since Mero was upset that she always stole the spotlight, people actually cared about her and that the WWE couldn't care less about Mero, Mero wouldn't stand for Sable using his own move. Sable just gives him a ball shot and a Sable Bomb on the ring floor. Back in, Sable nails another Sable Bomb to pin Jacqueline to win the Women's Title.
Too short to be anything special. I did enjoy seeing Mero get his ass kicked, that's always fun to check out. Other than that, this is forgettable. On the plus side, the fans were happy with Sable winning. Sable was a lot like Michelle McCool. She was still learning the moves when she was pushed down our throats. The only difference is that the fans couldn't get enough of Sable. 4 Minutes. 1 Star. Mankind vs Steve Austin
After Austin was fired by McMahon, Shane McMahon (Who wasn't a full time character at this point) came out and objected to how his father was running things. He resigned Steve Austin to a five year contract. Due to that, Vince dumped Shane all the way down to being a lowly referee. Austin is still showing the effects of the nightstick attack from earlier as he makes his way down the ring. As soon as Austin steps in the ring, he attacks Foley. McMahon and the Stooges comes out to get a better view. Foley narrowly escapes a stunner and decides that's as close to Steve that he wants to get. The Stooges are trying to drag Mankind back when Austin runs down and does a triple meeting of the minds. Back in, Foley cheats some much to the disdain of Jim Ross, who's in full on homoerotic love for Austin tonight. Austin reverses a piledriver and gives Foley a Stunner. 1...2...NO, Vince McMahon leaped from his wheelchair to break up the fall. Foley tries Mr. Socko, so Austin just gives him another Stunner. The referee is attacked by the Stooges. Austin covers Foley. Shane McMahon runs in from the back and counts...1...2...Shane stops and gives Austin the double fingers and runs off with his family. Shane was in on it from the beginning~! Austin struggles in deciding to go after them or find a way to beat Mankind. Because of that, there's an awkward few moments where Austin is half in and half out of the ring, not sure what he should do. The Stooges hit the ring and Brisco gives Austin one of the worst chair shots in the history of mankind (HA!). Foley covers Austin to pick up the victory and go on to the finals.
This would be the third one-one-one PPV match these two had in 1998. It's easily the weakest due to the minimal hardcore fighting and time restraints, but it's the first PPV quality match of the night. This was mainly storyline driven and would the start of the road to Wrestlemania for Austin in trying to overcome the odds of no one being on his side. 11 Minutes. 3 1/4 Stars. The Undertaker vs The Rock
So now that Austin is out, it leaves only one more enemy to remove in order for the next WWE champion to be McMahon approved. This is also the first major meeting between Rocky and Taker. A lot of brawling in the ring. A lot of brawling on the outside. Some brawling in the fans. Back in, Rocky goes for the People's Elbow, the The Boss Man (God damn he's on here a lot) comes out and holds the leg of Rock. Boss Man climbs on the apron, but Taker knocks him off. Just to show how much of a bad ass Taker was, he'll kick anyone's ass, face or heel.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Taker has Rock set up for a Chokeslam, but Kane comes out. Undertaker releases Rock and Kane quickly chokeslams Rocky, drawing the DQ. Ross and Lawler at first question if Kane is back with Taker until it becomes obvious that Kane actually used his head for once and purposely attacked the Rock in order to DQ his brother.
These two would have a much better brawl style match the following year at King of the Ring. With two major stars, the fans were actually into the match (They were extremely hot and cold for the night). What is most interesting for me is Kane's intentions. Was it just to cost Taker the match out of hatred or was there more to it? Well anyone who knows what happens over the next few months should be able to figure what I'm eluding to. 9 Minutes. 2 Stars. The New Age Outlaws vs The Headbangers vs Mark Henry and D-Lo Brown - WWE Tag Team Titles Match
HUGE ass NAO sign out in the fans. Sadly, that's the other good thing about this match. This is a triple threat tag match. The rules are "Simple", 3 men will always be in the match. However, it seems as if the superstars didn't even know the rules. It started out with Mosh and Gunn and eventually D-Lo realized he could be in. Then there's a lot of no tags. Tim White, realizes that he needs to get things in order so he forces wrestlers to tag...sometimes. White even allows tags that he doesn't see. Road Dogg ends up being the face-in-peril for most of the match. In a truly hysterical moment, Thrasher attacks D-Lo, but D-Lo convinces them to team up to perform the old Beverly Brothers/TWGTT Leapfrog hotshot move that the Headbangers had begun using. Thrasher runs to the ropes, but then just lowblows D-Lo. Come on D-Lo, did you really think you could trust him, he LITERALLY just hit you.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. The fans are completely dead in this match. It seems as if I'm not alone in not understanding a single thing in this. Gunn finally ends it with a piledriver to a Headbanger.
No one knew what the rules were for this match, so it was a complete cluster fuck. The wrestling was terrible, the crowd was dead and this was the first match in which I was bored during. Easily one of the worst tag matches I've ever seen. 10 Minutes. 1/4 Star. Mankind vs The Rock
Here we go, the finals of the Deadly Games tournament. And what a tournament it's been. One one side, we have Mankind, the man the McMahons wanted to win this. On the other, the Rock, the man who the McMahons didn't want to get bye. Both men have had an easy time getting this far. Ironically, The Rock probably had the easiest time. Some forgettable wrestling to start the match. The McMahons head down to the ring to get a closer look. Boss Man had already left, so sadly we won't be seeing more of him, which should be bad news for The Rock right? Foley tries ramming the steel steps into Rocky, but Rocky nails Foley with a chair and gives repeated shots to the stairs with the chair, creating a pretty cool image. Foley goes for the Cactus Elbow, but Rock moves out of the way sending Foley through the table. On the English announce table, Foley drops a legdrop on Rocky. Back in, the People's Elbow only gets a 2 count. Mr. Socko~!! Rocky holds out long enough to get his arm in place for the ROCK BOTTOM. The Rock looks over at Mr. McMahon and gives the People Eyebrow. SHARPSHOOTER by the Rock. Mr. McMahon calls for the bell in a scene straight out of Montreal. The Rock is your NEW WWE World Champion. Post-match has McMahon revealing the hidden alliance with the Rock. Foley acts confused since he knows he didn't get pinned or submitted so Rocky just nails him with the title. The birth of the Corporation has begun. Steve Austin runs back out to battle with The Rock. STUNNER. Austin sends Rocky out of the ring. Foley stands back up only to get Stunned. JR believes it'll put some sense back in Foley's head.
The first half of the match was fairly boring. Once they made it more of a hardcore match, it improved greatly. These two would end up facing each other a half dozen times over the next few months. This is nothing more than the prologue to much greater things. The biggest thing about this was the Rock's heel turn that shocked everyone. When Rock was first announced the winner, there were a lot of fans cheering, however; it slowly died down once everyone realized what really happened. Mr. McMahon had hand picked the brackets. Everyone believed he had made it so that Foley would win. However, looking back, it became clear that it was The Rock he was helping out. Foley was nothing more than a simple minded foe who could easily be fooled in the final match. With the Boss Man possibly Kane, everyone ensured that Rocky would win. Storyline-wise, this was fantastic. Match-wise, it's easily the best match of the night, but it's below par for the other matches. 18 Minutes. 3 1/2 stars. Overall
Matchwise, this was one of the worst WWE PPV's ever. The best match is at best just good. There's so much crap on this PPV. With so many matches (14) very few were actually given any significant time. Much like Wrestlemania 4, a full 4 round tournament rules in poor matches. On the other hand, in my opinion, this is the single most significant WWE PPV of the Attitude Era. Things that began on this PPV would end up being the things that would put the WWE over top of WCW permanently. This one PPV set up enough storylines and future matches to get the WWE through to Wrestlemania. How many PPV's are there that has no or little impact for the future? As bad as the wrestling was, this actually has a purpose. It's the PPV that beat WCW once and for all. For that, it's a must see show.
Best Match: Mankind vs The Rock
Worst Match: New Age Outlaws vs D-Lo/Henry vs Headbangers
Overall Grade: B+
Linear Mode
