Written by: Kevin Kindelberger
WWF Monday Night RAW 6/22/98
It is late: The go home show, RAW wins again with a 4.3 to 4.1.
Paul is lounging at his home.
Vince comes out and introduces the next WWF champ and here comes Kane. Vince calls this an opportunity of a lifetime especially after his childhood. He continues about Kane’s rejection, ridicule, scorn and abuse and those days will be gone forever after this Sunday. He will take his place with all the people who have come before him and it is his destiny. No force on Earth can stop destiny, not even Stone Cold. He will dedicate this title match to his father and challenges Austin like he has never been challenged before. This type of match has never been held before. There is no such thing as a pinfall or submission, countouts or DQ’s do not exist either. OH FUCK….it is a First Blood match. Those suck balls, ask TNA about that! I guess it was novel then. Vince wants to know how confident SCSA in retaining the title, as Kane is extremely confident and Kane will speak publicly for the first time about a contract he signed. Shit, this is getting worse, he has a voice box and if he does not win the title he will set himself on fire. I mean, I know wrestling is fake but I think that is illegal. Vince just said that Kane will breathe his last breath. They bring in cops to add realism and now just advocated self-immolation. Who wrote that shit?
Match 1: Ken Shamrock v. Mark Henry
Nation is sent to the back. Shamrock gets in some offense (KoTR qualifying match) but is powerslammed. Henry does not go for the cover and instead pulls him up and after the whip into the corner squashes him. He drops an elbow onto the back of the head. Henry hits him in the ribs and puts him in a bearhug. He tosses Shamrock and puts him back into it. Shamrock escapes and for some reason tries for a sunset flip and gets sat on. Henry puts him back into the bearhug. Shamrock escapes again, and Henry falls to the floor after a hurracarana. Vader runs down and blasts Henry who slowly rolls back into the ring and right into a belly to belly and it is over.
**1/2 Decent.
Shamrock has qualified for the Tournament and Cole asks how he feels: He feels great and will win on Sunday.
They show Edge lounging by the railing and he will debut tonight.
After the commercial they show him standing in the crowd again.
Match 2: Dustin Runnels v. X Pac
Pac is just destroying Runnels. He knocks him around the ring, knocks him to the floor and back in the ring flies into him. He is finally caught and dropped on the ropes a couple of times and after a couple of clotheslines Dustin gets two. He slows it down by going after the arm, Pac escapes and hits a flying tackle. Dustin falls to the floor where Chyna runs him over as Pac rests in the ring and distracted the ref. Pac leaps off the apron, nails him, and back in the ring snaps him over and connects with the guillotine legdrops and applies a rear chinlock. Dustin gets to his feet but is kicked and then dropped with a heel kick. Back to the chinlock but this time Dustin punches out and bulldogs him and then nails him with a right. Dustin has fallen low as Cole claims this would be an upset. After a suplex he gets a two count. Pac is run into the coner and whipped into the other and he goes for his bulldog but Chyna trips him up, and he just turns away from her and Pac kicks his head off for the win.
**1/2 Decent, nice long match.
HHH has come down and Dustin is willing to shake but gets the crotch chop instead.
Paul is at his house and JR wnats to know what he thinks about Kane setting himself on fire. Paul know that he will do it, but he will not have to do it as Paul will be by his side at the PPV.
Lawler is in the ring, and yells he does not like head as Snow comes in dressed as an old woman. Lawler has set up a meeting with Vince and he wants his crown back. Snow yells at Head for stealing it. Lawler is baffled and wants his crown. They make the exchange as Snow calls Head a thief. It is not an appointment but a contract signed by Vince. He yells at Head for basically saying he cannot read fast. Al wants to know if Brian Christopher is Lawler’s son, as he has to face him and Scott Taylor in order to get into the WWF. Now Snow flips that he has to do the job at the PPV. Lawler reminds him that if he loses he is out of the WWF. Snow gets on his back and wants to be pinned to get it over with. He calls out Too Much, as their name is now….Lawler does. Snow beats them up with Head and accepts the challenge at the PPV and runs through the crowd.
Kevin Kelly is at SCSA’s door and we get his answer to Kane’s challenge soon.
Match 3: Marc Mero v. Jeff Jarrett
The winner faces Shamrock in the first round at the PPV. The fans chant for Sable and this upsets Mero. JJ tries to take advantage but is taken down. Mero springs off the top with a moonsault and gets a near fall. JJ gets in some offense, off the whip he kicks Mero and then practically powerbombs him into the ropes. JJ gets a two count and then stomps on him and goes for a back suplex but Mero lands on his feet, only to be kicked and then dropkicked. Mero bulldogs him after JJ telegraphs the backdrop but then misses the elbow drop. Mero rolls him up for two. JJ is up and drops him with a shot to the head, runs his head into the corner and then does his typical choke out on the ropes and then leaps on him. JJ struts and goes off the ropes and Jackie trips him up. Lee runs over and is held back by the ref and this allows Mero to nut JJ, and hit the TKO or wannabe Diamond Cutter. Jackie is yelling at the ref. Here comes Sable who must have had her boobs enhanced….again. Mero is yelling and turns right into a DDT and it is over.
**1/2 Another decent match.
Kevin Kelly tells him that he is in the final four at the PPV and JJ declares he will be crowned as the king of the WWF.
Match 4: Road Dog v. Kane
Outlaws do their spiel. Road Dog thumbs the eye after being sent into the corner. But Kane just unloads on him with some clotheslines. He drops him with a big boot and then chokes him out. Kane is manhandling him, tossing him around like a ragdoll. He thrusts him into the corner but Road Dog ducks a blow and clotheslines him to the floor. Kane lands on his feet and then bounces Dog’s throat off the top rope, and connects with a flying clothesline. Kane misses in the corner but whips Dog who ducks only to be goozled. Road Dog nuts him but is grabbed by the back of his hair and brought back in and chokeslammed and then finished off with the Tombstone.
** Crowd is really silent during Kane matches. Road Dog really should not get in one blow but I guess he is the tag champ.
Paul declares he will be at the PPV as he is healing. UT wanted to shut him up and that is why he was attacked. Paul’s lights blink and there is a scream as UT has entered the house and Paul gets beaten up again! The lights have gone out as Paul is getting pummeled.
Match 5: Edge v. Jose Estrada
Edge gets the crowd behind him early as he dismantles Jose; he knocks him to the floor and Edge leaps over the top and crashes into him and Jose is counted out.
** Not a great debut….unless Jose is really hurt. His head was hit by Edge’s leg.
Kane is all upset by what happened to Paul and Mankind is trying to calm him.
Jose is being carted off.
Match 6: Dan Severn v. Owen Hart
They battle back and forth. Owen takes him down but is tackled and given a German suplex. Owen comes back with Perfect Plex and gets a two count. Owen gives him a backbreaker and puts him in a clutch. Dan is up and he runs Owen into the corner and nails him with a belly to belly. Owen though drops him and goes and gets a chair. Dan takes it from him and the ref tries to hold him back as Owen retreats to the floor. X Pac runs down and blasts him with the chair and Dan finishes him off.
*1/2 Severn cannot wrestle.
The Nation runs down to check on Owen.
Jose did break his neck….damn, no wonder Edge was bitter as it was a really shitty debut. I wonder what this will do for his early career.
Rock has the mic and wants a piece of DX and here they come as refs and Slaughter try to hold them back.
Match 7: Rock (c) v. HHH (c)
Rock hammers him, sends him for the ride, drops him with a back elbow and gets a two count. Rock keeps up the pressure but he is back suplexed and now HHH pounds him in the corner. He suplexes him and drills him with the knee getting a two count. Rock ducks after the whip and DDT’s HHH and then jaws at Chyna. He makes the belated cover for a two count. Rock gets two more after a back suplex. They batter one another, exchanging shots but HHH is dropped and choked out on the ropes. Rock slugs him over and over in the corner. The ref calls him off and the Rock chases him off and then uses his boot to choke out HHH. He pulls up HHH, crotch chops at him, HHH blocks a punch and unleashes a flurry finally dropping him with a high knee and now a knee lift. HHH clotheslines him and the Rock rolls to the floor. HHH heads out after him only to get his head bashed into the steps. Rock rolls back into the ring. Chyna is in and she comes in from behind and kicks him in the nuts and DDT’s him. HHH gets in the ring, covers him and the Rock barely kicks out. HHH puts him in a sleeper. Rock reverses it, and HHH powers out and goes for the Pedigree but Rock nuts him and finishes him with the Perfect Plex.
*** Best match of the night and I am really getting tired of Chyna.
DX runs down and assaults Rock and now the Nation comes and joins the melee.
Kane is rocking back and forth as Mankind tries to calm him down.
Mankind has the mic and tells UT that he is urinating on his grave and calls him a cowardly sonofabitch. He never thought that it would apply to UT but what else is he? Paul is not a wrestler and UT just attacked him for no reason. UT could be arrested and put behind bars but blood is thicker than water and Mankind will have a surprise for him. Kane will have the title, Mankind will take out UT and Paul will have his soul.
Match 8: Mankind v. Billy Gunn
Mankind starts off with some knees and then clotheslines him to the floor and of course Chyna gets involved. Why the fuck is she never kicked out. Now the ref wants her to leave and Mankind attacks Billy from behind and pounds him as Chyna slowly heads to the back. Gunn gets his head rammed into the steps. Gunn reverses a whip sending Mankind over the top of the steps. Gunn’s offensive is short-lived as Mankind rolls him back into the ring and gets a two count. Gunn though puts him in a sleeper but is backed into the corner. Gunn kicks him in the head but walks right into a clothesline and is dumped to the floor. Mankind launches the elbow from the apron and Mankind has the steel steps but Gunn dropkicks them into him. Gunn stomps on him. He rolls him back into the ring and goes for a piledriver but is backdropped and Mankind finishes him with the Claw.
** Normally I would be baffled as to why the tag champs both lost but they are terrible.
Mankind has run to the back and Kane is not there and he cannot find him.
Here comes Sable. She introduces Austin. He wants her to give Vince a message and raises her middle finger for her and to tell him it is from Stone Cold. If he is a marked man then he is not hard to find. He looks under the ring, and is ready to beat someone’s ass. He accepts Kane’s little stipulation and would accept any type of match. He has bled before and is not afraid to bleed again. But when the belt is on the line then Kane’s big, dead ass will belong to Austin. If Kane is dumb to set himself on fire then Austin will by the hot dogs and beer and he will sit around and watch him burn. If he starts to go out then Austin will throw another log on the fire…..Kane comes to the top of the ramp and stares down at Austin, raises his arms and blood is dumped down on top of Austin. Oh, Fuck the voicebox and he states that this Sunday the blood will be for real.
**1/2 This was the go home show? Gimmick match at the PPV, a voicebox, and blood dumping down. Goddamn that is awful. There was some decent wrestling. Too bad Edge’s debut was marred by a fucked up plancha. Now WWF can afford to keep Austin in the background like WCW did with the nWo two years ago. However, the show is hurt by it as the gimmicks are not that great and the other personalities are fairly dull. Now Nitro has issues but I am wondering how they are losing right now. Some RAW’s are great but then we get quasi-stinkers like this one that over booked and quite nonsensical from a logic point of view and I am looking at it from wrestling logic….hopefully the PPV is better but I am nervous.