Random Network Reviews: WWF Judgment Day 1998

WWF Judgment Day 1998
October 18th, 1998 | Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois | Attendance: 18,153

The previous month, The Undertaker and Kane pinned Steve Austin together in a Triple Threat match. With a finish like that, the WWF Championship was vacated from that night until here, where Kane and Undertaker would wrestle to determine a new champion. Austin has to officiate and if he doesn’t give a winner, he’s fired. High stakes indeed. This was the first ever Judgment Day Pay-Per-View.

The opening video package focuses on the possibility of Steve Austin getting fired and hypes Undertaker vs. Kane. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, as usual, are on commentary.

Al Snow def. Marc Mero w/ Jacqueline in 7:13
Before the match, Jeff Jarrett comes out and tries to fight Snow but Time White prevents it. It does give Mero a cheap shot though. Mero was well beyond his usefulness here, playing third fiddle to Jackie and Sable. Snow turns it around and it takes JR about three minutes to make his first football reference. A Jackie distraction sets up a Mero low blow for two. Even with the help, Mero is unable to take over. Snow talks to Head instead of going for a pin, leading to a missed moonsault. I was about to question why Snow didn’t have Sable as a valet to combat Jackie but Head is probably more useful. Mero makes the mistake of going up top now and missing his shooting star press. It’s weird to see him try that in his boxer gear. His TKO gets countered into the Snow Plow and Al wins. Snow was over and it helped here because the crowd was hot for this. Mero wasn’t about bringing the effort at this time, but Snow made up for it. **¼

Earlier tonight on Heat, Austin arrived and was forced to change in the referee’s locker room. Jim Ross acts like this is some major injustice and complains that it’s a glorified closet. Why is that only a problem for Austin? What about the other officials? They’re human, they deserve better too.

LOD 2000 def. The Disciples of Apocalypse and Paul Ellering in 5:55
This was when the WWF brought Ellering back and everyone though he’d go back with LOD. But SWERVE BRO, in classic Russo fashion he was put with DOA, which nobody wanted. LOD 2000 is Animal, Hawk and Droz. Hawk and Animal beat up the Harris Brothers for a bit. Droz plays face in peril and it leads to the original LOD cleaning house. They hit the Doomsday Device and Droz sneaks in for the pin. It makes sense because Hawk and Animal stood around taunting, but Hawk is pissy about it. Ellering barely did anything, so that was good. However, nobody else brought anything to the table and I was bored out of my mind. ½*

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship: Christian w/ Gangrel def. TAKA Michinoku (c) w/ Yamaguchi-San in 8:34
TAKA is the first champion and has held the gold for ten months. Christian debuted a month earlier at Breakdown, but this is his first match. Way to earn a shot. Though both men are heels, TAKA gets a pop for an awesome springboard plancha. Edge is shown watching in the stands. Inside, it’s Christian’s turn to get a pop on a reverse DDT. He gets two on a trio of suplexes before TAKA shows his effort by taking a big bump over the top. Christian misses a big splash to silence. TAKA nails a cross body but Christian rolls through for two. They trade offense before TAKA hits the tornado DDT. He taunts to almost no reaction. His Michinoku Driver attempt gets reversed into a rollup and we have a new champion. These two worked hard but the crowd killed some of it. They didn’t care about TAKA and didn’t know Christian. You could see potential in Christian. **¾

Goldust def. Val Venis w/ Terri Runnels in 12:07
Goldust returned during this feud after a failed Dustin Runnels run as a preacher. It was awful. Val made one of his films with Terri, making the feud personal. They brawl from the start, which is fitting for the angle. Val takes the first risk with a rare cross body to the outside. Things slow down inside, where Val goes to work on the shoulder. It isn’t the most sensible body part to work, but what gets done is fine. Goldust cuts off the Money Shot and nails a superplex for two. He misses an elbow and Val works a sleeper. There’s a nice touch when Goldust’s glove comes off and we see he’s wearing his wedding ring. Horrible actress Terri hops on the apron to yell at Goldust. Goldust taunts her and ducks a shot from Val. The referee tries to get Terri down and Goldust uses the distraction to kick Val low for the win. Decent psychology at times and I liked some of the storytelling aspects. Goldust’s ring and the low blow as revenge were both good. **¾

Michael Cole takes us to footage of Ken Shamrock attacking and injuring Triple H on Heat. X-Pac comes in to say that the European Title is his focus tonight but he’ll go after Ken on Raw. Or you can just parody him the following year.

WWF European Championship: X-Pac w/ Chyna def. D-Lo Brown (c) in 14:37
D-Lo reminds me of Turk from Scrubs. It takes a minute or so because JR gets in an “educated feet” reference. X-Pac uses his quickness but gets walloped by a clothesline from the champ. Pac tries the bronco buster but D-Lo gets a boot up low to block it. The bump Pac takes from it is great. D-Lo wears down Pac with a chinlock. JR does a good job bringing up Pac being in the finals of an IC Title Tournament on Raw and the toll that took on him. Pac weathers the storm but crashes on another corner bump. Since Pac has a bad back, D-Lo’s Texas cloverleaf is a good idea. In his comeback, Pac hits a big clothesline and succeeds on the bronco buster. A Chyna cheap shot surprises me since Pac is the babyface. Following a ref bump, Mark Henry lumbers out to hit on Chyna. Brown almost steals it after a belt shot but Pac kicks out. He also kicks out of a running powerbomb, so Brown goes up for the Lo Down. Pac catches him in mid-air with a huge X-Factor to win the title. This was the peak in a series of matches between these two that were better than expected. Everything made sense, Pac bumped like a madman and the crowd popped for the finish. ***½

Backstage, The Headbangers get interviewed. They make jokes about the New Age Outlaws being gay and putting themselves over but say tonight the champs will “do the J-O-B on the P-P-V.” When wrestlers throw around terms like that, you know Vince Russo is writing.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Headbangers def. The New Age Outlaws (c) via disqualification in 14:01
The Headbangers jump the Outlaws before the match. It means nothing because it gets turned right around on them. Road Dogg gets blindsided, leading to a heat segment on him. Billy leads a “suck it” chant to try and rally Dogg. Interesting route. Gunn gets a warm tag but ends up getting worked over by the challengers too. Billy shows a few flashes of getting free but nothing more. Road Dogg gets as tired of the match as I was and breaks a boom box over Mosh’s head. They did that to Dogg in the build to this match. This was boring. We got a long heat segment that never ended and a cheap DQ finish. If that was the planned end result, I’d have had this go about five minutes. *¼

Mankind gets interviewed by pre-pubescent Michael Cole. He argues with Mr. Socko and disses Ken Shamrock’s interview skills.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Ken Shamrock (c) def. Mankind in 14:36
At the previous PPV, these two and the Rock met in a Steel Cage match. Rock has moved up in the card a bit, leaving these two to feud for a bit. Shamrock stretches Mankind early. He works the arm, which is odd given his finish. There’s an interesting clash here as Shamrock wants to grapple but Mankind brings the punches and kicks. Ken escapes the Mandible Claw, so Mankind moves things outside, which is his wheelhouse. The ref stops Mick from using a chair then doesn’t DQ Shamrock for whacking Mankind with it. Double arm DDT connects as part of Mick’s rally but he’s too hurt to cover. He busts out the Cactus elbow, which I popped for. Back inside, Shamrock applies the ankle lock. Mankind sells the pain as excruciating. Rather than submit, he applies the Mandible Claw to himself, passing out. I adore that finish. They built it, with great notes from commentary, as a battle of Mankind liking pain and Shamrock thinking he could dish out enough to make Mick give up. Mick making himself pass out was fantastic.***

Ken Shamrock finds out that it wasn’t his ankle lock that won the match and loses his mind. He stomps on Mankind and attacks the referee. Mankind gets up and uses Mr. Socko on him.

Backstage, Big Bossman yells at Michael Cole.

Mark Henry def. The Rock in 5:02
Yes, you read that result right. More on that later though. Henry takes time to recite a poem to Chyna, saying he loved her before the implants. Romantic. Rock is way popular here. He hits a big suplex to start but is quickly overwhelmed by Henry’s power. Rock gets worn down a bit before getting a near fall on a DDT. The People’s Elbow connects but here comes D-Lo. The distraction is enough for Henry to attack and hit a splash. D-Lo holds Rock’s legs to give Henry the win. I know it didn’t hurt Rock in the long run but it wasn’t the best booking move. Henry went nowhere for about another ten years. The match itself was just there and managed to be inoffensive. *¾

WWF Championship: Kane and The Undertaker finished in a no contest at 17:41
Undertaker and Kane come out first to decent reactions but it’s nothing compared to the pop for referee Austin. Austin gives Undertaker a slow count and a fast one for Kane. He doesn’t care either way to be honest. Kane and Undertaker work at a slow pace and everything they do is just boring. The crowd even chant “boring” despite this being a match involving three very over personalities. Undertaker works the leg for what feels like an eternity. The brothers suddenly turn and beat up Austin. I don’t think that’s a good way to win guys. Paul Bearer waddles out with a chair, telling Kane he’s going to hit Taker. He instead hits Kane, who no sells. Taker levels him with the chair and covers but Austin is up and refuses to count. He hits Taker with a Stunner and a chair shot. Austin counts three on both men, resulting in a no contest. Painful match. This was shit and the worst match between the two. Boring, pointless and nothing interesting until Austin went off in the finish, which wasn’t even good because we were “guaranteed” a winner. DUD

Steve Austin dares Vince to fire him since he didn’t declare a winner. Vince doesn’t come out so Austin searches backstage for him. Austin makes it back to the ring and Vince is shown in a press box. He takes a while but finally delivers the first “YOURREEEEEEE FIIIIREEEEDDD!” to end the show.