Kevin’s Random Reviews: WWF Capital Carnage 1998

WWF Capital Carnage
December 6th, 1998 | London Arena in London, England | Attendance: 10,441

IT’S CAP-CAP-CAPITAL CARNAGE IN THE LONDON-LONDON-LONDON ARENA! I remember that commercial all too well. The WWF was riding the hot streak of Steve Austin and the Attitude Era at this point. In 1997, they ran a UK-exclusive PPV called One Night Only, which had a noteworthy moment. A bit over a year later, they returned for Capital Carnage. This was the only Capital Carnage PPV ever, but the WWF did begin running two UK PPVs a year following this.

An opening video package hyped the Fatal Four Way main event and the issues these guys have had with each other lately. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler handled commentary.

Al Snow vs. Gangrel
I miss Gangrel and his theme. Brood vs. JOB Squad. A way quicker opening exchange than I expected. These guys looked like they were bringing the effort. Gangrel held serve for a bit, before Snow rallied with some solid offense, including a Northern light suplex. The Brood came to ringside. He missed a moonsault, leading Gangrel to hit a double arm suplex. They botched a tornado DDT that triggered Christian getting on the apron. Snow hit Gangrel with Head, only for Edge to deliver a missile dropkick. Gangrel covered and got the win a 5:51. Solid little opener. They did better offense than I expected and I can’t help but pop for the Brood. [**]

In the boiler room, Mankind cut a promo. He called it the coldest boiler room he’s ever been in, before hyping the main event.

The Headbangers vs. The Legion of Doom
This was during the awful suicidal Hawk angle. After falling off the Titantron three weeks ago, he’s out and Droz is in. The story has also called for Droz to showcase his inexperience. That’s not hard considering how green he was. The Headbangers isolated him and worked as the heels. Animal cleaned house when he got the hot tag. Droz tagged back in like an idiot, and got rolled up to lose in 3:21. Nothing Droz did seemed to click and neither team was interesting. [¼*]

Post-match, Animal and Droz got into a small pull apart brawl.

Undertaker was interviewed backstage about his feud with Steve Austin. It’s a generic promo, made funny by Undertaker’s eyebrow piercing.

Goldust vs. Val Venis
We were treated to a long recap of the Venis/Goldust/Terri angle. Val cut one of his signature promos before the bell. The fight went outside early on and Val was sent into the steel steps. The exchanges continued to have a bit of heat behind them. Each punch felt like it had some malice and the whips to the corner sounded hard. Lawler noted that he once tricked a girl to marry him by convincing her she was pregnant. What? By the way, he mentioned pregnancy because Terri claimed she currently was. They worked in a spot where Goldust fell onto the Big Valbowski. Goldust went for Shattered Dreams, but Val pulled the referee in as a shield. He then used a school boy to win in 5:33. I thought this was pretty good. Well executed stuff, with a bit of added heat. [**½]

Goldust attacked Val after the match and hit Shattered Dreams to the crowd’s liking.

Clips of Vince McMahon giving a speech at Oxford University were shown.

Vince, Shane and the Stooges came to the stage for a promo. Pat Patterson announced that the Rock would not face “Hunter Hearst Hemsley” (that always bothered me like when William Regal would say YOUMANGA) and instead defend the WWF Title against X-Pac. HHH would face Jeff Jarrett. No specific reason given for the change. Brisco spoke next, to announce that Vinnie Jones was at the show tonight. That led Shane to suggest that Vinnie Jones was gay. Vince ended by getting cheap heat for ragging on the UK. This segment dragged on. It was a waste of time and had no place on a PPV.

Edge vs. Tiger Ali Singh
Tiger dedicated the match to his forefathers in India. Tiger was dreadful. He was supposed to get pushed, but just never got any good. Edge was in control for basically the whole match. No need to let Tiger get in offense and ruin things. After hitting a missile dropkick, Edge went for a cross body. Tiger countered into a powerslam and got his feet on the ropes to steal it in 2:52. Too short to be offensive, but Tiger truly sucked. [½*]

Tiger tried a post-match attack and had it turned around on him.

Michael Cole brought out Vinnie Jones for an interview. He kept it short and just said he’s ready to fight if provoked.

Christian and WWF Women’s Champion Sable vs. Jacqueline and Marc Mero
They aired clips of Mero losing recently thanks to Jacqueline, so he fired her. Then, Mero said he’d quit if he lost to Duane Gill, which happened. This is his last “contracted” match. Sable and Christian have no affiliation, except that she teamed with Edge at SummerSlam. Jacqueline beat up her partner before the match. Jacqueline was more willing to fight Christian than Sable. Mero was a good sport here, taking a spot where he got his pants pulled down. Christian and Mero handled the bulk of the match, with Sable coming in for some tandem stuff. Sable got the final tag, kicked Marc low and nailed the Sable Bomb. Mero walked off, leaving Jacqueline alone to eat some fake looking punches from Sable. TKO ended it in 4:49. That was rather entertaining thanks to Christian and Mero. [*¾]

Jacqueline attacked the referee after the match, leading Sable to rip her top off and expose her giant fake boobs to the audience. The WWE Network blurred it out, but I remember having the VHS and it being unedited.

Backstage, Kane did some pacing.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Ken Shamrock [c] w/ Big Bossman vs. Steve Blackman
The challenger’s not even a real person. JR did his best to hype Blackman, but the crowd only seemed to care about chanting stuff towards Bossman. Despite the focus on him, the in-ring action was moving at a fast pace. Shoutout to Shamrock for taking the Bret bump in the corner. He slowed down the pace with a front face lock. Blackman’s comeback was cut short by a Bossman cheap shot with the nightstick. Shamrock applied the Ankle Lock and Blackman submitted at 6:51. Solid enough action, though nobody bought Blackman as a threat. [**]

To continue the trend of post-match stuff, Bossman jumped Blackman.

WWF Champion The Rock was interviewed. He called X-Pac a “bony jabroni” and teased running through catchphrases of past wrestlers before using his own. Yea, it was clear why he was the champ.

Jeff Jarrett w/ Debra vs. Triple H w/ Chyna
DON’T PISS ME OFF! It was the precursor to SLAPNUTS. The crotch chop pyro for Hunter was timed horribly. Unlike a lot of the matches tonight, these guys opened a bit slower. The pace picked up when Jarrett hit a flying cross and single arm DDT. He used to do that move a lot, yet never had much else to follow it up. Not like his finisher involved the arm or anything. Debra got involved, yet Chyna did nothing about it. They worked in the old school sleeper spot, where the babyface holds his arm up after dropping it twice. Hunter started in with generic offense until Debra tried distracting him. Chyna threatened her, so she slid in to get closer to HHH. He crotch chopped her as Jarrett brought in a chair. Chyna stopped him from using it and Jarrett fell to a Pedigree in 6:55. A fine match with some good back and forth. Not the best effort from either man, though. You’d be surprised to learn that in a year and a half, they’d be the top heels of WWF and WCW. [**½]

Backstage, Steve Austin was interviewed and was in his usual pissed off mood.

A D-Lo Brown vignette aired, set to the British Bulldog theme, of him walking around London and acting like he runs the place. Great stuff.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws [c] vs. D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry
Clips were shown of Henry taking Chyna out on a date on Raw, which was on a Friday. The Outlaws were crazy over and everything they did got a big pop. Gunn nailed Brown with an impressive press slam, but met his match when Henry entered. Mark got put in a bear hug that the fans were surprisingly loud for. The champs took Henry out with a double dropkick. That led to Dogg coming in and getting isolated for the heat segment. It wasn’t a strong segment. Gunn got the hot tag and did his thing. All of a sudden, he nailed a piledriver on D-Lo to retain the gold at 10:11.Decent tag match, with an energetic opening. The heat segment lacked and I was surprised the finish was so abrupt. [**¼]

A video package aired to recap Vince’s master plan to put the WWF Title on the Rock at Survivor Series. The music in the background is great and I’ve always loved this video.

WWF Championship: The Rock [c] vs. WWF European Champion X-Pac
JR got to comment about the WWF not being a “retirement home,” basically throwing shade at WCW. Pac started quickly, busting out ARMDRAGS and spin kicks. Rock had enough of that and walked out, but was stopped by HHH and Chyna. Pac missed a Bronco Buster, which turned the tide and put the Rock in control. He took it to the mat, wearing down Pac. The Corporate Elbow wasn’t enough, so Rock went back to a headlock on the mat. The fans completely bit on a near fall when Chyna hit Rock with a low blow and Pac rolled him up. Rock could no longer take X-Pac lightly. He used the ropes for leverage on a pin, a far cry from a lazy cover earlier in the match. Following a ref bump, HHH hit Rock with the title, leading to another big near fall. Rock bailed after taking the Bronco Buster. He went after Chyna, which caused HHH to hit him for the cheap DQ at 12:34. That was oddly laid out, as the faces did almost all the cheating. Yet, it worked. The fans bought into X-Pac pulling off the upset more than once. With a better finish, this might be remembered more fondly. [***¼]

Rock got on the mic after the match, causing HHH and X-Pac to beat him up. Ken Shamrock tried making the save, but they were sent packing.

Kane vs. Mankind vs. Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
Shane McMahon was the guest ring announcer. He introduced a guest timekeeper (Pat Patterson), commentator (Vince McMahon), referee (Gerald Brisco) and enforcer (Big Bossman).Vinnie Jones came out and started a fight with Bossman. Brisco ejected him via red card. Mankind and Kane started brawling before Taker and Austin even showed up. The ovation for Austin was insane. The guys paired off, with two in the ring and two outside for the most part. Lots of brawling fitting of the Attitude Era main event style. Vince continually shouted for everyone to go after Austin. Why not just book a handicap match? Kane and Taker eventually teamed up on Austin like it was Breakdown: In Your House again. A chair got brought in and almost everyone took a shot with it. Brisco didn’t count three for Austin twice, including after a Stunner on Kane. That got him a right hand. Taker took out Austin, but there was no referee. Earl Hebner showed up and Austin drilled Kane with another Stunner to win in 16:05. A solid main event. All four guys worked hard during a good brawl, though it was nothing special. [***]

Vinnie Jones returned after the match for another shot to Big Bossman. Earl Hebner got in some cheap shots on Bossman on his way out. Vince was fuming as Austin, Jones, and Hebner shared a beer to close the show.

4.0

The final score: review Poor

The 411

Like most UK only Pay-Per-Views, this didn’t feature a ton of quality performances. However, the crowd was molten hot for everything, which helped each match along. The guys didn’t have to give their all, because the fans would eat it up either way. Rock/X-Pac and the main event were both good matches that ended the show on a relatively high note. Of the ten matches, only two are flat out bad and those go about six combined minutes. The rest of the show is painfully average and not really something you need to check out.