with Runnels, putting their needs first and ostensibly being seduced by Mark Henry.
The Headbangers turned heel in November. The Oddities had come to the ring with Insane Clown Posse, who sung their entrance theme at the time and when The Headbangers came to the ring, they joined in dancing with the stable. However, after spraying silly string into the crowd, they then sprayed into the eyes of The Oddities and since then had been utilising weapons and other underhand tactics to win matches. Most notably, they challenged Insane Clown Posse to a match but the two asked The Oddities to substitute for them before the Posse attacked Oddities and helped The Headbangers win.[3]
On September 28, Owen Hart (kayfabe) broke Dan Severn's neck with a piledriver. He announced the following week that he would retire from professional wrestling, however at exactly the same time a lucha libre type character started making appearances called The Blue Blazer. The Blazer was a gimmick of Hart's in the late '80s and this did not escape the fans, or the attention of Steve Blackman. The Blazer began to regularly interfere in matches, using moves that were associated with Hart and eventually Blackman caught up with The Blue Blazer backstage, trying to rip off his mask and prove that it was Hart. When he did this, however, Hart came at Blackman from behind and locked in his dragon sleeperhold. A variety of repeated attacks continued to occur, with The Blazer attacking Blackman, or Blackman attacking The Blazer only for Hart to use this as a distraction to further beat Blackman until on December 7 he officially came out of retirement to meet Blackman at the event.[4]
On December 6's
Goldust challenged Jeff Jarrett to a match in which, if he won, Jarrett's business-like valet Debra
would have to strip naked. Jarrett accepted the match on the condition that without a valet, should Goldust lose he would have to do the same. The following evening on Raw, Goldust came to the ring in just a trenchcoat, flashing Jarrett and causing him to lose his match while later in the evening Debra would do the same to Goldust, but as his opponent Owen Hart was also distracted, it actually helped him win the match.
The feud for the WWF Championship began one month earlier when The Rock had won the title in controversy at Survivor Series when he put Mankind in the Sharpshooter submission and Vince McMahon forced the referee to ring the bell, despite former promises McMahon had made to Mankind. Commissioner Shawn Michaels gave Mankind a match for the title when he revealed that his ties to The Corporation were not as secure as initially thought. Before the event, on Sunday Night Heat Mankind attacked the champion during an interview, damaging his ribs. Mankind, meanwhile, had a contract saying if the Championship was not defended then he would win it by default and throughout the evening McMahon tried to convince him to relinquish the contract.[5]
Although initially a feud of respect, animosity between
Steve Austin arose when Austin lost his WWF Championship in an effective handicap match also including The Undertaker's (kayfabe) brother Kane. Despite both men being screwed at the Survivor Series tournament, Austin received a title match the next evening but amongst a myriad interferences from other wrestlers, The Undertaker came to the ring and hit Austin with a shovel.[6] Despite continuing, Austin eventually passed out at a house show the following Saturday and was admitted into hospital. A live feed from the hospital was used in order for Austin to be interviewed on Raw is War, but during one of the interview segments The Undertaker arrived at the hospital with Paul Bearer, kidnapping him and attempting to bury him alive before changing his mind and embalming him instead. However, just as Undertaker was chanting ceremoniously, Kane burst in and attacked the two of them allowing Austin to make his escape. Wanting to further distance Austin from the WWF Championship, Mr. McMahon capitalized on the rivalry between them, booking them in a Buried Alive match with the winner receiving a spot in the Royal Rumble. The mind games between the two intensified as the weeks went on, with Austin finding an unlikely ally in Kane, who was being chased by asylum orderlies, by directing them towards Undertaker and having him incarcerated, leaving Paul Bearer stranded and eventually thrown down a sewer[7]
and Undertaker retaliating the following week on December 7 by ending a tag team match, also featuring Mankind and Rock, by crucifying Austin in front of the TitanTron.
D'Lo Brown offered little resistance to Val Venis or Godfather when he was tagged in. Similarly when Mark Henry was tagged in, he was thrown around the ring and received the
missile dropkicked him and followed with a pin while Thrasher held Kurrgan's leg to prevent him from breaking up the pincount.[5]
Steve Blackman entered the ring on the receiving end of floor kicks from Owen Hart who then
diving elbow drop. When Blackman would not be pinned, Hart tried to secure him with a sleeper hold but Blackman stood up out of it and regained some momentum, the two clashing with kicks and throws. Hart untied the turnbuckle pad but found himself thrown into it, Blackman then jumping out of the ring to drag Hart's neck onto the top rope. He climbed back in the ring and Hart countered a sleeper with the Dragon Sleeper. Hart followed this with a DDT but when he tried a flying move, Blackman was able to side step him and lock Hart in his own move, the Sharpshooter. Hart crawled for the rope break and then left the ring in pain; Blackman initially followed to fight him but became aware of the referee's count and ran into the ring to win via count out.[5]
In a tag team match between
Gangrel who had more success with Snow, slowly isolating him from the rest of the J.O.B. Squad and keeping him in their corner allowing all three members of The Brood to illegally team up on Snow before Edge wrestled him in earnest in the middle of the ring. Despite taking an enziguiri, Edge managed to clamp Snow's leg so that he could tag in Gangrel but still isolate Snow. Snow managed to counter both of them though, with a spinebuster to Edge, and tagged in Scorpio who met with Christian though soon all six men were in the ring. With the referee distracted, Snow used Head on Christian and Scorpion almost won after Dropping The Bomb but Edge stopped the pin count, then using Gangrel's back to help jump over the ropes to take out the rest of the JOB Squad outside the ring. Stranded on his own, Scorpio took an Impaler from Christian and was pinned.[5]
The fifth match of the night involved
Shattered Dreams and while Debra tried to distract Goldust from doing it, she actually distracted the referee allowing Goldust to perform the illegal move. Jarrett fell out of the ring though, and had to be counted out allowing Debra to strike Goldust down with the guitar making him dazed enough for Jarrett to pin him after hitting him with The Stroke. After the match Commissioner Michaels came to the ring to send Jarrett to the back and ostensibly oversee Goldust stripping. However, he declared Debra to have disqualified Jarrett making her the loser and forcing her to strip to her bra and panties. Before she could take off her bra though Jarrett and the Blue Blazer appeared, covering Debra with the Blazer's cape.[5]
The next match involved
Big Boss Man and Ken Shamrock) (with Shawn Michaels) in their corner. Ken Shamrock controlled Road Dogg in the beginning of the match, with Big Boss Man helping through the ropes. Billy Gunn had to save Road Dogg from Shamrock's ankle lock, becoming the legal man only to also suffer Shamrock's rage until he floored Shamrock with a FameAsser. Despite tagging in the fresh Road Dogg, the Outlaws were once again on the backfoot after a belly to belly slam suplex after which Boss Man used his size to control Road Dogg, jumping on him and into him in the corner. Road Dogg remained isolated, being taken to his corner only to taunt Gunn but not allowed to tag despite some punching reversals. After Boss Man used his body to attack Dogg and Shamrock used a mixture of suplex slams and clotheslines Dogg finally managed to tag Gunn but Boss Man had the referee distracted, with Gunn almost taking out his rage on Shawn Michaels, for which he'd be fired. Boss Man tried to piledrive Road Dogg but was back body dropped out of the ring, rather than tag in Road Dogg elbow dropped on Boss Man but as he tried to climb back into the ring he was held to the floor with Shamrock kicking him. Back inside the ring Road Dogg crawled to his corner and despite having his foot held managed to tag in Gunn on who reversed Shamrock's hurricanrana attempt into a powerbomb. Michaels pulled out the referee when the three count was made allowing Boss Man to strike Gunn with a night stick. Shamrock could not make a pin though and despite Michaels pulling at Gunn's feet in the middle of a suplex, causing him to fall with Shamrock on top of him, Gunn managed to roll over with a pin and retain the titles.[5]
The WWF Championship match was delayed when Mankind tried to have Vince McMahon and The Rock admit that he had not submitted at the
Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco until Corporation members Shamrock and Boss Man subdued him.[5]
for the right to compete in the 1999 Royal Rumble Match.
The two fought back down the walkway towards the ring, Austin smashing Undertaker's head into the crowd barrier and the ring post. Undertaker replied by elbowing him to gain some time, knocking him to the floor with a chair shot and then putting him in the ring only to be clotheslined back out. He returned, undeterred and caught a running Austin by the throat,
grave. Undertaker then started grabbing the soil by hand and piling it on top of Austin, Stone Cold slowly climbed out though and met Undertaker's attempt to stop him by hitting him with a jerrycan. Undertaker fell into the grave with a Stone Cold Stunner and Austin poured a wheelbarrow of soil on him. Austin then left the front of the arena and in the meantime Undertaker sat up, climbing out of the grave. As Undertaker was recovering on the mound, an explosion came from inside the grave and Kane climbed out and began to fight Undertaker on the soil. Undertaker almost eliminated Kane with a tombstone piledriver but was distracted when Austin returned to the arena, driving a backhoe loader
causing Undertaker to drop his brother in confusion. Kane seized on the opportunity to utilize the tombstone piledriver on Undertaker, pushing him into the open grave afterwards. Austin then came out of the digger and instructed the driver to drop the soil on Undertaker. It was still not enough to cover him though and Austin had to shovel some more soil on his opponent before going to the back then returning with some cans of beer, at which point he was declared the winner. After celebrating in the ring, he returned to the grave to pour some beer on the Undertaker as the digger continued to pile on soil.
Aftermath
The Rock and Mankind continued to feud with each other over the WWF Championship throughout the beginning of 1999. Mankind won his first WWF Championship on the January 4 episode of Raw by defeating The Rock in the main event thanks to interference by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The pre-taped episode was a turning point in the
, when The Rock finally lost the WWF Championship to Austin, with Mankind serving as a guest referee.
On the December 14 edition of Raw is War, The Rock defended his WWF Championship against HHH, but due to interference from The Corporation and the debuting Test, The Rock retained his title. Also the New Age Outlaws lost their WWF World Tag Team titles to the Corporate team of Ken Shamrock and Big Boss Man, they would retain them until January 1999, when they would lose the titles to Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart, the last title Hart would hold in his lifetime.
Reception
The event has received generally negative reviews from critics.
In 2008, J.D. Dunn of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 3.5 [Bad], stating, "How bad was this PPV? Steve Blackman was in the best match. I don't think Debra's all that attractive, so the stips for the Jarrett/Goldust match didn't mean much to me outside of drawing heat. The rest was just [God-awful] boring. Unfortunately, while their TV would heat up to the point where they were beating the NBA nearly 7-to-1, the PPVs would continue to flounder off and on until into the summer.
Thumbs way down here."[8]
In 2016, Kevin Pantoja of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 2.5 [Very Bad], stating, "Considering how successful the year of 1998 was for the WWF, it kind of sucks to see the PPV side end on such a whimper. Outside of the WWF Title match, nothing on this show is really any good. There are two decent matches hidden in there but this is an easy skip. Even the main event, which the WWF was mostly nailing at the time, is an abysmal waste of time."[9]
In 2019, CJ of Retro Pro Wrestling described the event as "OK, but nothing special," stating, "This is one of those shows that you keep waiting to get better. Instead, you find yourself sitting there, match after match thinking 'yeah, that was OK, but nothing special.'
That was the frustrating thing about this show. Every match was decent in its own right and nothing was particularly terrible. Even the match involving The Oddities had at least some entertainment value, but other than that, there was nothing that was must-see." He praised the WWF Championship between The Rock and Mankind as an exception.[10]
^Oliver, Greg (December 10, 1998). "Owen Hart ready for Blackman". Slam Wrestling. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2008.
Canadian Online Explorer. November 21, 1998. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
)
Canadian Online Explorer. December 5, 1998. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
