1998 Discussion

Discuss Raw in 1998.

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Road Dogg – RAW IS WAR 02/02/98
I went into this expecting an alright match-up, maybe something around the 6 minute mark since there wasn’t long left on the show. But nope, I didn’t even get that. Austin and Road Dogg brawl for about a minute and things are starting out nicely until DX spoils the fun like some Class-A Cunts. Alas, not all hope was lost. Foley & Funk show up to make the save, they look like genuine retards with retard strength to match. I suppose that’s an accurate enough description for them actually. Show finish with Austin ripping up a DX shirt, what a waste of perfectly good clothing..

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kane – RAW IS WAR 03/02/98
I set my expectations low considering what happened in the last match. It’s another shortie alright, except this time we don’t even get contact between the two blaggards. Literally just after walking out onto the stage, Austin gets attacked by DX and receives a scrumcious little Sweet Chin Music for his trouble. Oh Shawn, you shithead. <3

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock – RAW IS WAR 03/24/98
What do you know? There’s actually some time left on the show, this match might actually get some time. And get some time it did, well by Attitude Era RAW standards anyway, 8 minutes for those keeping track. If I had to describe this match, in a nutshell, it’s simple yet executed in such a way that the simplest thing is entertaining. Basically, Austin starts off strong but it doesn’t last. He gets an FIP segment allowing Rock to carry out all the dickhead-related acts he wants. Eventually, Austin makes a comeback and gets a quick win. I love HBK coming out after being all ‘GIMME A PIECE OF HIM’ but HHH is all like ‘Leave it brah, leave it, spark up a jazzy and chill out’. Not too shabby if you ask me.

***

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon – RAW IS WAR 04/13/98
Believe it or not, I’d never seen this entire segment before this. Throughout the night, the build-up to this was just beyond brilliance, I get at least a moderate chuckle out of Vince’s ‘OH HELL YEAH’ every time. There was a real main-event feel for this which is really stupid considering it’s Vince but fuck it, It’s Vince! JR is priceless every second of the way; ‘I just bought a house....I HAVE A MORTGAGE TO PAY DAMMIT’. The whole stalling with the arm-tieing thing was just perfect for building heat. I sat there with a smirk the whole time. Alas, Just before things finally reach a blinding crisis point, Dude ‘motherfucking’ Love comes out and beats the shit out of Austin. It may not even be worthy of considering a ‘match’ but fuck it, this shit is legendary.

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Goldust – RAW IS WAR 04/27/98
This was a real typical Austin has the odds stacked against him scenario. Gerry Brisco is the referee and Vince is the timekeeper so you spend the entire time waiting for them to do something rather than really giving a shit what ‘s going on between the wrestlers. It’s 1998 Goldust though, so it’s ok to not give a shit. 2010 Goldust is a whole different story. When I wasn’t getting giddy for some Comporate interference, I judged some of the wrestling to be leaning more towards the negative side of the scale, it just wasn’t engaging for me in the slightest. I blame fat Goldust. After some mediocre wrestling, bad-guy malarky from Vince & Brisco along with some shweet Dude Love interference, we finish with Austin celebrating in the ring...he didn’t win, it was a draw. Oh well, fuck it. There’s nobody about to challenge a beer bath so I’ll not question it. It’s Steve Austin after all. What a mad cunt. He could find Wally all day long.

Stone Cold Steve Austin & Mr. McMahon vs. The Rock & D’Lo Brown –RAW IS WAR 05/11/98
I can’t say I went in expecting much from this one, Vince being Austin’s partner was pretty neat though. Austin starts like a house of fire, hitting anything that moves. Everything goes his way until Rock throws him into the steps, which sounded a lot more painful than your usual step-bump. Vince’s expressions are great, he’s such a fantsatic bullshitter. I wanna punch him already. Things were pretty standard in-ring wise. D’Lo missed his finish so Corporation come down and try to stop Austin winning, Like thieves in the night, the fenians of the WWF, DX come running in and for whatever reason, the show has the finish now. This growing trend of the show ending in a brawl is beginning to get annoying. I might kill someone.

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Gerald Brisco & Pat Patterson – RAW IS WAR 05/18/98
This kind of speaks for itself doesn’t it? After some initial offence by Brisco & Patterson, (who used brass knucks, GO PAT!) Austin proceeds to kick the shit out of everything in site. Eventually, Dude Love comes out and gives Austin a wee slap, I’ll not lie, I love Foley in a suit. Vince even gets a few shots in too, cocky piece of shit. Show ends in CHAOS!!! once again.

Stone Cold Steve Austin & Undertaker vs. Kane & Mankind – RAW IS WAR 06/15/98
To my knowledge, this is the second HIAC ever, although I don’t know if I’d count this as a ‘proper’ HIAC. It’s pretty quick, but I suppose it was only a teaser to KOTR in fairness. The only thing that actually happens in the cell is Taker beating Bearer to a bloody pulp. Oh yeah, Taker came up through the ring,, he looked like a dog that had been burrowing for days. While all that goes on inside the cell, Austin was fighting off Mankind & Kane in standard enough Attitude Era fashion. Seeing Kane hobbling on top of the cell looked funny, he must’ve pooed himself at least 25 times. The show goes off the air with Austin beating the bejaysus out of Kane. Arrrrrg, Give me a finish Vine, I dare YOU!

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kane – RAW IS WAR 06/29/98
Wow, this was superb. Seriously captivating stuff. So Kane won the title the night before at KOTR and there’s a big match atmoshphere as Austin gets his rematch less than 24 hours after losing the title. In the beginning there’s no clear cut advantage, just some textbook back & forth shizzle. Austin eventually gets the upper hand and begins turning the arena into a car-wreck. Thr crowd’s extremely hot here, I mean REALLY hot. Kane looks like a legit main eventer here too, it’s a shame he dropped down to mid-carder status within the next year.

Austin knows he’ll struggle going punch for punch with Kane so he tries to chop down the big redwood., because he’s Texan and he does that. Right? It doesn’t do much good though, Kane still throws Austin around like a frizbee at a 10 year old’s birhtday party. Austin’s having an awesome little FIP towards the end. Also, Kane & Bearer have an unbelieveable amount of heat here. They’re satan’s disciples in the eyes of the crowd. The finishing sequence is pretty neat and the it hits you like a bullet between the eyes. Brilliant, brilliant stuff for a 10 minute sprint.

***3/4

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kane & Mankind – RAW IS WAR 07/20/98
Yep, this was pretty much what I expected it to be. Austin gets his ass whipped for a while but then makes Kane and Mankind look like dunces. Eventually, this handicap match turns into a tag-match simply because Taker walks out, he must have some serious stroke on Vinny Mac’s lower-regions. There’s some solid enough in-ring stuff, Foley bumps a little bit, you wouldn’t even think the HIAC bump affected him in the slightest. Taker doesn’t get tagged in once but hits Kane with the chair to bring an end to the match. The ending was pretty cool, you know why? It wasn’t a brawl! Austin just laid everyone out and celebrated while I refilled my Pepsi.

Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Undertaker vs. The New Age Outlaws – RAW IS WAR 07/27/98
By this stage, Austin & Taker are tag-champs. That’s great and all but I prefer my Austin in singles competition, especially when he’s World Champ. Austin & Taker make a neat enough team actually so it’s not so bad. The match itself was standard enough stuff, a bit of back-and-forth, A works over B for so long but never really establishes ‘control’. However, some fans kept throwing beach balls into the ring only to have Austin kick them right back, funny shit. I can’t say this was anything memorable really but it’s good nonetheless. At least it’s not a waste of time anyway Oh yeah, everyone was over like rover but that’s par for the course at this stage

Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Undertaker vs. The Rock & Owen Hart – RAW IS WAR 08/03/98
I went in expecting good things, and what do you know? I got them for once! Austin & Taker were a fresh team here and actually showed some really good chemistry considering the amount of time they’d been tagging for. Rock really showed great signs of showing the beginnings of his ‘larger than life’ character. As for Owen, he just looked hungry to have a good match. The action itself was your usual run off the mill stuff until Owen chop-blocks Taker mid-Chokeslam. From there on it, this match just builds and builds. Austin has a bossy little FIP but that’s expected, this continues until Taker gets the hot tag and wins with Tombstone, while at the same time Austin unleashes hell on The Rock on the outside. Unfortunately, I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth AGAIN as the show ends in a brawl AGAIN between 4 tag-teams.

***3/4

Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Undertaker vs. Kane & Mankind vs. The Rock & D-Lo Brown vs. The New Age Outlaws – RAW IS WAR 08/10/98
I’m usually a fan of these big multi-man matches as long as they don’t turn into a cluster-fuck. Thankfully, this one didn’t. Austin and Mankind start off things strong and they only get better. Hell, even a fan jumps the rail. Why? It’s because he clearly wanted some sweaty man body. Everything’s really fun all throughout, work-rate isn’t taken TOO seriously but I think it works here. We even get signs of tension between Austin and Taker when they both get tagged in at the same time even though they’re on the same team. It’s a nice little touch building towards their Summerslam match if anything. Just when everyone looks knackered, everything breaks loose. In the heat of it all, Kane gets the win like a true cunt. We get a mandatory big intense stare-down between Austin and Taker at the end. But alas, it leads to fuck all, not even a punch.

***1/2

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Ken Shamrock – RAW IS WAR 09/14/98
I’m not exactly familiar with Shamrock’s work, so this shit is all new to me. I’d say he’s good and all, but his matches just aren’t something I can see myself going out of my way to watch. TO THE MATCH! Early on, Austin struggled getting to grips with Shamrock, probably since he wasn’t your ordinary brawler like half the company. But I like seeing something different after so many brawling-based matches.

After a little while, Austin tries to play the hold-for-hold game with him and doesn’t fare too badly. Of course, it wouldn’t be 1998 without a little bit of brawling, but it’s kept to a minimum, which is something fresh. Although, The fans aren’t too impressed, they don’t react well to a lot of the submission based wrestling. Those bloodthirsty philistines, when will they learn? After some bumping and a low blow for good measure, the match ends in typical bullshit fashion when Kane & Undertaker interfere but Rock/Mankind make the save. Raw goes off the air with Austin stalking Vince with a chair.

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