WWF Heat 8/23/1998

Written by: Bob Colling

World Wrestling Federation presents Heat
Date: 8/23/1998
From: Des Moines, IA

Matches:
1.) Southern Justice defeated Golga & Kurrgan by disqualification
2.) WWF European Champion D’Lo Brown fought Road Warrior Animal to a no contest
3.) Dan Severn & Owen Hart defeated the Headbangers
4.) WWF Lightweight Champion Taka Michinoku defeated Scorpio to retain the title
5.) Jeff Jarrett defeated Droz by disqualification

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) The Oddities and Southern Justice are scheduled to have a tag match but WWF Intercontinental Champion the Rock comes out and places a ladder at the top of the ramp way but leaves the ladder and the match begins.

2.) Kurrgan and Dennis kick off the tag bout with Kurrgan hitting a clothesline and stomps Dennis briefly before tagging in Golga. Golga works over Dennis with strikes and a head ram. Golga is not affected by the head rams in the corner but is still worked over by Mark. Mark takes Golga over with a duplex for a near fall. We see Dustin Rhodes carrying a sign in the crowd claiming “he is coming back.” Golga splashes Dennis in the corner and goes for the sit down splash but Dennis avoids the move. Mark tags in and delivers a quick clothesline. Mark nearly wins with a reverse DDT and now Luna Vachon enters to cause a DQ. Jeff Jarrett comes into the ring and leaves the ring when Giant Silva entered. Silva plants Mark with a huge choke slam. (*. A quick and painless match for the most part. I don’t know why there wasn’t a clean finish for that one, but oh well. It’s not like the company is doing anything with either team.)

3.) Road Warrior Hawk appears prior to the next match and believes the match is a tag match. Mark Henry comes out and attacks Hawk with a splash on the floor. Animal gets double teamed by the Nation members. Henry slams Animal and Brown hits a top rope frog splash. Droz comes running down with a steel chair but the heels bail to the floor. So much for that match.

4.) Owen and Thrasher start the tag match with Thrasher taking Owen over with a few hip tosses and hits a dropkick. Severn tags in and quickly tackles Thrasher. Mosh tags in and begins to work over Dan’s left arm. Mosh changes his attack by focusing on the left knee and it looks incredibly awkward and unnatural for Mosh to work over the limb. Owen hits a spinning heel kick and stomps away on Thrasher after a spinning heel kick. Thrasher avoids a splash in the corner and Mosh comes back into the ring. Mosh splashes Owen in the corner and follows up with a scoop slam. Mosh gets a near fall after a power slam on Hart and all four men are in the ring. Owen locks in a dragon sleeper it looks like and forces Mosh to submit while Severn sent Thrasher to the floor. (1/2*. That was a badly worked match by the Headbangers as Thrasher basically sent himself to the floor. Mosh’s idea of working the leg was good in theory had he actually known how to properly work the leg. It just looked rather awful.)

5.) WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock makes his way to the ring with the ladder to cut a promo. Makes me wonder why he was inclined to bring it to the ramp way at the beginning of the show. Rock rips on the fans calling them all trailer park trash. Rock mentions that HHH challenged him to a ladder match at SummerSlam and accepts the challenge. Rock is confident that he will leave Madison Square Garden with the championship around his waist. He says that HHH will realize that nobody is as great as the People’s Champion.

6.) Taka and Scorpio start off with some basic wrestling until Taka knocks Scorpio to the floor with a spinning heel kick. Taka takes Scorpio out with a springboard moonsault to the floor. Taka’s manager accidentally clotheslines Taka on the floor, and Scorpio hits a quick power bomb back in the ring. Scorpio drops Taka with a super kick and signals for a 450 splash but first delivers a Death Valley Driver. Scorpio hits a moonsault but the referee gets distracted. Taka dropkicks Scorpio and hits the Michinoku Driver for the win. (1/2*. A really quick match but it’s clear these two would have really good matches. Kind of the negatives of quick match booking.) After the match, Val Venis is on the ramp and says that he will be carrying a big stick and will unload on Taka.

7.) The main event starts with about three minutes left in the show, so this will be a quick one. Jarrett quickly goes to work over Droz with strikes and stomps. Jarrett hits a reverse side Russian leg sweep and continues to pummel Droz. Droz drops Jarrett with a leaping elbow strike and clotheslines Jeff to the floor. They go to the floor where Droz is sent into the ring post shoulder first. X-Pac appears through the crowd and attacks Jarrett with a spinning heel kick. Droz holds Jarrett and Pac takes a few strains of Jarrett’s hair! (NR. Not a match as it was just more angle advancement for Pac/Jarrett.)

Final Thoughts:
The show seemed to be more about building up feuds for SummerSlam instead of putting on long matches, which is acceptable for Heat. Taka/Scorpio could have really had a great match if it was given only five minutes. A thumbs down for Heat this week.

Thanks for reading.