wrestling / Video Reviews
Dunn’s Countdown to Summerslam: Summerslam ’98
August 19, 2006 | Posted by
8
The 411 Rating
8.5
Community Grade
Val came, he saw, and he came again. D’Lo now hales from Helsinki, Finland. D’Lo is to 1998 what Christian is to 2005, getting himself incredibly over by being a big prick. Val hits him in the chest protector, which is fruitless. D’Lo avalanches him with the protector as Ross wonders if D’Lo’s a slow healer. Val comes back with a Russian Legsweep and dropkicks D’Lo to the outside. D’Lo blocks a reverse rollup, but Val gets a spinebuster as we take a look at Edge out in the crowd. Val misses a splash and takes hard bump off a cross-corner whip. D’Lo runs into an Exploder but levels Val with a clothesline. The legdrop (not yet “shaky shaky”) gets two. A leg lariat gets two. An elbowdrop gets two. D’Lo gets a Texas Cloverleaf on Val. Val rolls out of the way of a senton. Val gets his faux-Kobashi kneedrives and sets D’Lo up with a backdrop. Val comes off the top, but D’Lo catches him with a Skyhigh Powerbomb. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! A few in the crowd get behind D’Lo. He hits Val with a DDT, but it only gets two. Val catches D’Lo coming off the top for a powerslam. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Val snaps D’Lo’s neck off the top rope. A Butterfly Suplex and slam set up the Money Shot, but D’Lo gets his knees up to counter. D’Lo badly botches a piledriver, but gets a Running Powerbomb on the second try. He goes for the Lowdown (frogsplash), but Val rolls out of the way. Val rips off D’Lo’s chest protector and powerslams him. Val puts on the chest protector and goes up top. The ref tries to stop him an accidentally crotches him. Val tosses him aside as a result and gets disqualified at 15:24. A solid opener, but a horrible finish. **1/2
ICP plays the Oddities down to the ring. Taka starts out with Golga (John Tenta). He rams Golga’s head into the turnbuckle as Ross professes his love for ICP. Golga ruins one of Yamaguchi’s shoes. Sho Funaki and Kurrgan go at it next. Kurrgan gets a Bossman slam, prompting Kai en Tai to attack. He fends them all off and growls. Say, what exactly was Golga supposed to be? Was he like “the Gimp” from “Pulp Fiction”, or was there some other inspiration? I know he had a Cartman fixation, but then so did every member of the internet. Butters is the money character. Kai en Tai calls for Silva to get in then runs away. Taka makes Dick Togo get in. Silva gives all four men the Andre the Giant treatment. Silva press slams Taka onto the other members of Kai en Tai. KDX comes back with a series of splashes on Golga and then does their usual quadruple-teaming. The match breaks down as Luna comes in to break up Yamaguchi’s interference. The giants chokeslam all four KDX members, and Golga splashes them for the pin at 10:12. I’ve heard this called the worst match in Summerslam history, but that does a disservice to the wonderful job Kai en Tai did to make the match entertaining. Oh, and there’s nothing wrong with comedy matches. 1/2*
Commissioner Slaughter comes down and makes Southern Justice head back to the locker room. Finkel comes out in DX colors as an honorary member. Oddly enough, he still wears a bowtie. What is he — Tucker Carlson? Jarrett attack X-Pac from behind, but the Pac comes back with a spinning wheel kick. He clotheslines Jarrett out and springboards out on top of him. The brawl on the outside. Jarrett rams X-Pac’s crotch on the ringpost. Ha ha! TRONNED! X-Pac goes into hypersell mode. He takes a hard bump off a corner whip and then runs right into a powerslam. He comes back with a Tornado DDT as the crowd chants “Let’s go, X-Pac!” No, really. Jarrett catches him in a sleeper. X-Pac elbows out of it and reverses to one of his own. X-Pac goes for a blind crossbody, but Jarrett darts out of the way. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Jarrett ducks a spinning wheel kick. Jarrett gets the figure-four for no real reason. It gets several two counts. X-Pac makes the ropes and gets the Broncobuster. Jarrett blocks a charge and comes off the top with a bodypress. X-Pac rolls through. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! X-Pac counters a huracanrana! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! They fight over reverse rollups as Finkel cheers on from ringside. Jarrett blocks another Broncobuster with a boot to the crotch. Finkel gets up on the apron to argue, so Jarrett goes after him. He turns around into the X-Factor, but X-Pac can’t cover right away. Southern Justice returns and attacks Pac with the guitar, but X-Pac takes it away and knocks Jarrett out with it. ONE, TWO, THREE! X-Pac picks up the win at 11:11, and he along with The New Age Outlaws, the Headbangers, and Darren Drozdov give Jarrett the hairstyle he’s had ever since. Pretty good back and forth match from two guys who used to be solid pros. ***
The mystery partner is…Edge, making is PPV wrestling debut. He stops brooding in the crowd and works his way down to ringside. Wow, he’s already over, and the crowd hasn’t even seen him wrestle yet. Edge gets a series of Japanese Armdrags. Jacqueline tags in but runs away when Sable comes in. Edge gets a flapjack, but Jackie trips him up from the outside. Mero gives him a kneelift. Edge runs right into the TKO (F5), but he counters to a DDT. Sable tags in and gets her some of Jackie. She gets her own TKO, but Mero pulls her off a cover. Edge takes Jackie to the outside and spanks her. Back in, he gets a two count off a flying crossbody. Mero accidentally knocks Jackie off the apron and gets schoolboyed for two. Mero gets a Samoan Drop and goes up, but Edge crotches him. Sable tags in and gives Mero the huracanrana. Jackie breaks up the count but headbutts Mero in the crotch. Edge slams Sable onto Mero for the win at 8:26. Edge became a hot property after this and got involved in a feud with another popular guy — Gangrel. *1/4
The Lion’s Den is set up in a theatre instead of the arena. Shamrock takes him down and goes for a jujigatame. Owen reverses to a Sharpshooter attempt. Shamrock gets a few hard clotheslines in and chokes Owen out with his own shirt. He springboards off the cage into a back elbowt. Owen whips him into the chain link a few times and hits his enzuigiri. He hotshots Shamrock’s face into the fence and gets a backbreaker. Shamrock counters a huracanrana to a powerbomb. He hits another springboard back elbow. Owen counters a third one to a powerslam. Owen gets a belly-to-belly and puts Shamrock in the Sharpshooter. Shamrock thrust kicks him, but Owen slams his face into the cage and applies the reverse choke. Shamrock walks up the cage and flips over Owen into a wakigatame. He segues to the anklelock for the tapout submission at 9:16. Good, but awkward because of the pro-style technique in a UFC-ish environment. **3/4
Kane turned on Mankind and realigned himself with the Undertaker, so he’s not likely to help Mick. The Outlaws bring a trash receptacle to ringside. Mankind wins a chair duel with Billy Gunn. The Outlaws swarm him and stomp him down in the corner. They give him a Con-chair-to only with cookie sheets. Mankind backdrops Gunn to the floor and gives Road Dogg a running knee. Road Dogg sets up a table in the corner, but Mankind reverses Billy into it. The Outlaws get a doublteam neckbreaker drop for two. They powerbomb him through a pair of chairs, but that doesn’t work either. Finally, they give him a spiked piledriver on the belt to regain the titles at 5:16. The Outlaws put Mankind in the trash receptacle. Suddenly, Kane pops out of the receptacle and smashes Mankind with a sledgehammer. 3/4*
During the summer of 1998, these two were just two midcarders that could go either way. They wound up making each other huge stars, and this is the culmination of that battle. In a bizarre twist, Rock is the hot heel while Triple H is your #3 babyface behind Austin & Undertaker (assuming you count both of those guys as faces). Hunter hits a facebuster early and slips out of the Rock Bottom. Rock backdrops HHH to the floor off a Pedigree attempt. They fight out into the aisle. Hunter goes for the ladder, but Rocky jumps him from behind and whips him into the ladder. Rock sets up the ladder in the ring and goes up, but Hunter jumps off the turnbuckle and knocks him down. Hunter goes up, but Rock yanks him down, injuring his leg (legit). Rock goes right to work on the leg as the chants of “Rocky Sucks” rain down on him. Rock sandwiches the knee in the ladder and stomps on it. He then brings in a chair and slams it down on the ladder, drawing “oohs” from the crowd. Remember, this was only the third major ladder match in the WWF, and people had barely heard of the Hardy Boys. Rock goes up but Hunter makes the last-second save. They go back outside where Rock slingshots Hunter into the ladder. It’s odd watching Hunter take all the same bumps he does as a heel and hearing the fans go “ohhh” in sympathy. Helmsley tries a Pedigree on the floor, but Rock backdrops him on top of the ladder. Mark Henry tosses another ladder in as Chyna helps Hunter up. Henry runs interference, but Chyna knocks him down with a forearm. Helmsley makes it just in time to push Rock over. Of course, that was a really slow climb by the Rock. They repeat the spot but trade places, and Rock pushes the ladder out from under Hunter. Rock drops him with a DDT, and both men are out of it. They both go up and slug it out on top. Rock wins and shoves Hunter to the mat. Hunter staggers back and pushes the ladder over again. Rock BOUNCES off the top. Hunter counters a ladder shot with a chairshot, but Rock slams him down on the ladder and hits the People’s Elbow on Hunter. Suddenly, the fans are on the Rock’s side! Hunter goes up and tries to come off the ladder onto Rocky, but Rock catches him with THE ROCK BOTTOM! Rock goes up, but Hunter grabs a handful of tights to yank him down. Helmsley gets the PEDIGREE! Mark Henry goes all Memphis on Triple H with a handful of powder. Helmesley goes up anyway. Rock catches up with him, but Chyna sneaks in and gives Rock a low blow. Hunter climbs the rest of the way and retrieves the Intercontinental Title at 26:06! Big pop for that. Hunter would actually be too injured to defend the title and wound up forfeiting it a few months later. Rock would tease a face turn before getting elevated to the World title, but this is the match that pushed them into that upper echelon. It actually ages a little better than the later matches because the crux of the match was the viciousness and storyline rather than increasingly dangerous spots. ****
Austin gets another glass-shattering entrance. That’s so cool. There was some backstage controversy as Vince Russo wanted Taker to come into the match a clear heel with Austin and Taker hating each other. Instead, he got overruled, and this is a more respectful match. Russo did get his way a year later as Taker went full heel. They slug it out until Taker goes after the arm. Austin surprises everyone by wrestling and going after Taker’s arm then after his injured knee. They slug it out again, with Austin yanking Taker off the top rope. Kane comes down to observe, but the Undertaker sends him to the back because he wants a one-on-one contest. Taker chokeslams Austin from the apron to the inside of the ring! They work in the obligatory brawl into the crowd segment that seemed to happen in every main event from 1998 until Austin’s injuries caught up with him 1999. Back in, Taker darts out of the ring to avoid a Stunner and rams Austin’s back into the ringpost. He puts Austin on the Spanish Announce Table and puts him THROUGH it with a legdrop off the top! And there’s your last big Taker spot for quite a while. Back in, it only gets two. They clothesline each other for a double KO spot. Austin gets sort of a blind Stunner, but it only gets two. Taker ducks a swing and gets another chokeslam for two and crotches Austin on the top rope. Taker goes for the ropewalk forearm, but Austin lowblows him on the way down and hits the Stunner for the win at 20:50. Taker doesn’t like it, but he hands Austin the title anyway. The usual good Austin match from 1998 where there isn’t much more than brawling back and forth, but it’s intense and gets the crowd into it. Kane comes back out, and Kane and Undertaker stare down Austin from the aisle. ***
The 411: The WWF's red hot summer of 1998 concluded here with Austin retaining over the honorable Undertaker. Despite the fact that Vince Russo gets burned in effigy on an almost daily basis, the combination of his ideas and Jim Ross' temperance really clicked. The fanbase grew by leaps and bound from the point where they were on the brink of annihilation early in the year to a worldwide phenomenon by the time 1999 rolled around. This PPV is the bellwether that showed that this particular grouping of performers was about to hit on something big. Easy thumbs up for Summerslam '98. |
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Final Score: 8.0 [ Very Good ] legend |
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