WWF Heat 8/2/1998

Written by: Bob Colling

World Wrestling Federation presents Heat
Date: 8/2/1998
From: Anaheim, CA

Matches:
1.) Edge defeated Jeff Jarrett
2.) Droz & The Headbangers defeated Dick Togo, Mens Teioh & Sho Funaki
3.) WWF European Champion D’Lo Brown defeated Ken Shamrock by disqualification to retain the title
4.) WWF Intercontinental Champion the Rock & Owen Hart defeated Mankind & Kane by disqualification in a number one contenders match

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Vince McMahon introduces the host of Heat his own son, Shane McMahon. He comes down with two attractive ladies.

2.) Jarrett quickly goes after Edge and uses his jacket to blind him briefly while delivering a few shots. Edge drops Jarrett with a flapjack and hits a spear! Edge gets distracted by Tennessee Lee and is knocked off the apron into the guard railing. Jarrett plants Edge with a reverse Russian leg sweep (The Stroke) and heads to the top rope. Jeff leaps off and hits a cross body but Edge rolls through for a near fall. Jarrett plants Edge with a nice DDT. Jeff continues his control with a few stomps. Edge counters a suplex attempt to hit a snap duplex a couple of times and hits a front sit-out suplex for a near fall. Edge clotheslines Jarrett over the top to the floor. Edge brings Jarrett back into the ring form the apron with a suplex. Tennessee Lee accidentally trips Jarrett and Edge gets the win! (**. I enjoyed the action here as they kept a good pace and provided some solid moves. It’s interesting to see these guys use their famous finishing moves as just another move in their offense. The finish was a little cheap, but still a good match for Heat considering it got less than four minutes.)

3.) Degeneration X makes their way down to the ring. Triple H asks the fans if they are ready, and they sure are ready. Jerry Lawler talks about X-Pac and Triple H having to wrestle to earn a shot at the WWF Intercontinental Championship match. Pac says they are nothing but professionals and they will shake hands after the match. They tell Vince to suck it. HHH says that the group has always done whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it. HHH wants fans to show their breasts and they find a girl in the front row but a girl is not interested in doing that. Um, wait a second she just did it. The things people could do in 1998.

4.) Val Venis is on the ramp way with the wife of Yamaguchi during the six man tag match. Mosh and Funaki kick off the match with Mosh hitting a backdrop and a hip toss. Droz drops across Funaki’s back to retain control until an eye rake stops that. Droz hits Togo with a big clothesline and works over Togo with a few strikes. Togo tags in Teioh and they hit Droz with a bulldog. Funaki tries to slam Droz, but that doesn’t work well and Droz hits one of his own. Togo leg drops Thrasher as we return from commercial. Togo misses a splash in the corner but they retain control of the match. Funaki comes off the top but misses an elbow drop on Thrasher. Droz gets tagged in and cleans house with clotheslines and scoop slams. Droz plants Teioh with a power bomb and gets the win. After the match, Val Venis makes his way down to the ring but there isn’t any confrontation. Instead, Venis hits on a female star of Pacific Blue. He shoves Mario Lopez away a couple of times. Lopez jumps the rail and tackles Venis! (*. A simple match but the focus was on Droz, who is really green at this point.)

5.) Brown sneaks in from behind and tries to attack Shamrock but doesn’t work to his liking. Shamrock arm drags Brown and delivers a kick to the chest. Brown backdrops Shamrock to the floor where Mark Henry delivers a clothesline while the referee is distracted. Back in the ring, Brown clotheslines Shamrock and a spinning heel kick. Dan Severn and Steve Blackman are at ringside now as well. Brown hits an elbow from the top for a near fall. Shamrock takes D’Lo over with a belly to belly suplex. Shamrock hits a hurricanrana and Brown bails to the floor where he shoves Severn. Severn enters the ring and attacks Brown to cause a DQ. After the match, Shamrock is livid with the result. Steve Blackman is playing peacemaker as Severn casually walks away from the ring. (*. Give these guys ten minutes and a clean finish and I think we get a good match.)

6.) A pretty big main event for Heat. Mankind and Owen kick off the match with Mankind getting the advantage early on working on Owen’s arm. Owen runs into a clothesline but avoids an elbow drop. Rock gets tagged in and hammers away on Mankind. Kane gets the tag and sends Rock into the corner. Kane clotheslines Rock and drops a forearm. Rock plants Kane with a float over DDT but can’t get a three count. Rock clotheslines Kane over the top to the floor. Kane comes off the top to hit a clothesline as we go to commercial. Back from break, Mankind is being worked over by the heels. Mankind ducks under a spinning heel kick to plant Owen with a double arm DDT! Kane gets tagged in and works over Hart in the corner. Kane big boots Hart and goes for a choke slam but Owen gets out of it with a kick to the head. Owen heads to the top and hits a missile dropkick for a near fall. Kane choke slams Owen and goes for the tombstone. Rock enters to make the save and all four men start to brawl on the floor. Owen gets back to the ring and they win by count-out. (*1/2. Well, nothing great of a match. The finish makes sense as you don’t want to damage anyone in the match. The action just left a lot to be desired.)

7.) Michael Cole interviews Steve Austin about tossing the Undertaker a beer. He says Taker just drank the beer and then seemingly turned on Austin by allowing Kane to attack him on the floor. Austin says he and Taker are just a tag team and nothing more than that. Austin tells Cole they will still be the WWF World Tag Team Champions after tomorrow night.

Final Thoughts:
A below-average episode of Heat to kick off the series. They had some strong name power but the action failed to deliver much entertainment. Seems like WWF doesn’t have a strong enough roster to handle another hour like Heat. We’ll see how it progresses over time.

Thanks for reading.