Raw History: Episode 274 and 275 – The One Where Undertaker Chokeslammed Vince McMahon

Raw History
Episode #274
August 24th, 1998 | CoreStates Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Attendance: 14,727

WWF Champion: Steve Austin (2) since 6/29/98
WWF Intercontinental Champion: The Rock (2) since 12/8/97
WWF Tag Team Champions: Steve Austin (3) and The Undertaker (1) since 7/26/98
WWF European Champion: D-Lo Brown (1) since 7/20/98
WWF Light Heavyweight Champion: TAKA Michinoku (1) since 12/7/97

Again with the backstage segments to start. Kane and The Undertaker walked out of a locker room together. INTRIGUE!

RAW! Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were on commentary for this SummerSlam go home show.

In a wild sighting, The Undertaker and Kane walked out to the ring together. The first time the Brothers of Destruction officially stood side by side as a unit. I wish they didn’t do the backstage tease. Seeing them come out with no prior knowledge would’ve been awesome. According to JR, the Hell in a Cell hung above the ring and we don’t know why. Mr. McMahon arrived shortly after, beaming and gloating about being right all along. Vince said Undertaker could become WWF Champion without him, but he’ll need him in the future. Vince demanded an answer, by the end of the night, on whether he was their friend or foe. Out came Paul Bearer to plead with his son to come back to him instead of his brother. Kane turned his back as Undertaker beat on Bearer. Mankind hit the ring and turned his back to The Undertaker, giving himself up as a sacrifice to save Bearer. The Brothers of Destruction took him out with a spike Tombstone. Steve Austin’s music hit to a MONSTER ovation. Before he could get to the ring, a wall of fire shot up from the stage to keep him back. Austin said he always knew they were working together and understood that his chances against both are limited. So, he vowed to take one of them out before the PPV this Sunday. Outstanding opening segment. Vince was right, the brothers were a dominating force together, Mankind continues his character growth, and Austin gives us something to look forward to for the rest of the show.

TONIGHT ~ The Brawl 4 All Finals between Bart Gunn and Bradshaw! Plus, Chyna calls out The Rock for a confrontation.

Mankind was put in an ambulance after the Tombstone spot earlier.

Dan Severn vs. Ken Shamrock
Commentary hyped this as their encounter, given their two UFC fights. I still think this could’ve been a midcard PPV feud/match if built properly. Instead, it’s thrown away to open a Raw. Severn threw Shamrock around for the most part. When Shamrock started to rally, he got knocked to the ropes. Owen Hart ran in and attacked him until the referee turned and saw, causing a DQ in 2:51. Owen slapped on the Dragon Sleeper until Steve Blackman showed up and pump kicked Severn out of the ring. The heels retreated. The match was kind of nothing until the finish. [NR]

Shamrock snapped and planted Blackman with a belly to belly after the match. Blackman returned the favor before officials separated them.

In the back, medical personnel were knocked out and Mankind pushed a stretcher. Returning from the break, he surfed on the stretcher all the way down the ramp. The Undertaker and Kane being in cahoots is gonna make him do something wild. He got Vince McMahon to book him against Kane in a Hell in a Cell. However, he promised to not enter it, instead planning on tossing Kane through or off it. Mankind also had a bag of thumbtacks, saying Kane will become the world’s largest pin cushion. That’s a big match booked for Raw and Mankind was great with his delivery here.

KING OF THE RING ~ Highlights aired of the famous Mankind/Undertaker Hell in a Cell match.

Kurrgan w/ Sable vs. Marc Mero
The cover theme for The Oddities is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. Sable performed guest ring announcing duties for them and danced with Luna. No Jacqueline with Mero, so he requested Kurrgan fight him one on one with no Oddities at ringside. JR plugged an Oddities/Kaientai SummerSlam match, which has no build. While Kurrgan beat on Mero, a disguised Jacqueline jumped the guardrail and attacked Sable. Mero hit Kurrgan with a low blow to lose in 1:44. Again, another match just there to build an angle. [NR]

X-Pac brought a cameraman with him into a locker room. He then proceeded to piss into Jeff Jarrett’s boots. How funny.

The New Age Outlaws vs. Southern Justice
A drunk Hawk joined the commentary team. This angle is terrible. Jeff Jarrett walked down with no shoes and stole the headset from Hawk, who was falling asleep. Jarrett demanded X-Pac come out and was furious about the prank. He guaranteed he’d beat X-Pac on Sunday and shave his head. There’s not much focus on the match, which the Outlaws won with a sneaky Billy Gunn piledriver in 3:15. It was an actual match, but we didn’t see enough of it. [NR]

The cameraman didn’t follow Jarrett’s instructions to shoot him from the waist up, due to a lack of shoes, so he and Southern Justice attacked him. They proceeded to shave this dude’s head.

WAR ZONE!

Hell in a Cell: WWF Tag Team Champion Kane w/ The Undertaker vs. WWF Tag Team Champion Mankind
JR reminded us that these guys still have a Tag Team Title match on Sunday. Mankind immediately climbed the structure. Officials tried stopping him, so he took them out. After failing to throw a chair up top, he began climbing again. Undertaker climbed up after and pulled him down through the announce table. Think a smaller version of the HBK spot from the first HIAC. This finally entered the Cell and Kane beat on Mankind with steel steps. Mankind snuck under the ring to get a chair and even the odds. The thumbtacks came into play but no matter how hard Mankind fought, Kane was too much of a monster. He hit a Tombstone on the chair, but then Steve Austin came from under the ring to beat on him. That somehow led to a DQ in 7:28. Short but a lot of fun. Carnage everywhere, though that finish holds it back. [***¼]

Steve Austin stomped a mud hole in Kane to a huge ovation. The steel chair shot he delivered to Kane was one of the hardest I recall. Undertaker climbed the cage and attempted to break through as Austin dropped Kane with a Stunner. As soon as Undertaker got his foot through, the Cell began to raise up. Cameras showed Vince was the one raising it to protect his SummerSlam main event. Another Stunner dropped Kane. The fans ate this entire thing up. Another tremendous segment.

Undertaker and Kane remained in the ring after the break. Undertaker said he showed Austin too much respect and called him a coward for what he just did. Tonight, he’ll make sure Austin pays. More intrigue for the rest of the show. Also, the sight of the masked Kane standing there with visible blood on his head was tremendous.

Out came Chyna to confront The Rock. The two biggest movie stars in WWE history. The Rock didn’t show up alone, though, bringing the Nation of Domination and a ladder with him. He stopped to point to the Titantron, showing that DX had been trapped in their locker room by a fork lift. He knew this was a setup and made the first mention of his $500 shirt. Rock then spent time bragging about how he’ll win on Sunday, before turning his attention to Chyna. He insinuated that she wanted to “get some” from him. When she went to attack, the Nation held her down on her knees, which Rock said looked like her natural position. He went to kiss her but then stopped and said he’d never kiss a piece of trash like her. Instead, he told Mark Henry to plant one on her. Before he could, we got the surprise return of Shawn Michaels. He ran off the Nation with a chair and cold clocked Henry on the skull with it. Another strong segment. The subject matter is tough to watch in hindsight and wouldn’t happen now, but it really helped make The Rock despicable and Chyna sympathetic. Also, HBK.

Outside, DX looked for the Nation, who apparently left.

Non-Title Match: WWF Light Heavyweight Champion TAKA Michinoku w/ The Yamaguchi-Sans vs. Val Venis
Shawn Michaels remained on commentary. An attempt at revenge for Val as TAKA was the one Kaientai member he didn’t beat last week. TAKA came out hot and nailed an Asai moonsault. Triple H hit the ring and nailed both men with a chair for a no contest around 1:00. [NR]

Triple H got on the mic and said that Rock’s role at SummerSlam is clear. He’ll be his bitch.

Gangrel vs. X-Pac
Have to assume there’s no clean finish here. X-Pac has a PPV match coming up and Gangrel is brand new. Edge watched from the stands. And as expected, about 1:30 into this, Jeff Jarrett arrived to smash a guitar over X-Pac’s head. Another DQ, but another way to help build SummerSlam. [NR]

Edge entered the ring and attacked Gangrel. JR automatically said there must be something in the past between these two.

Undertaker wheeled a casket around backstage.

STRIDEX TRIPLE ACTION ~ Big moments from the Brawl for All.

Brawl for All Finals: Bart Gunn vs. Bradshaw
This didn’t last long at all. In the first round, Bart avoided takedowns and knocked Bradshaw out to win the whole thing. This one may not have been a shoot, since Gunn seemed to miss on the first knockdown. [NR]

Michael Cole interviewed Vince, who guaranteed he’ll get his answer tonight and it’ll be the answer he wants.

Druids wheeled out a casket to the ring. The Undertaker followed and cut a promo, saying he’d beat Austin man to man. He called out Austin to take a ride on the “Highway to Hell” tonight. Instead, he got Vince McMahon. He wanted to know if he was a friend or foe. Undertaker’s response was to hit him with a Chokeslam. Steve Austin came out of the casket and hilariously talked trash to Vince before facing off with Undertaker. Somehow, Kane came out of the casket too and attacked Austin as revenge for earlier tonight. Undertaker just stood back and watched. Austin found a way to get free and grabbed a steel chair to even things up. The Brothers of Destruction kept him from getting back in the ring. As he headed up the ramp, fire lit up the middle of it, signaling the “Highway to Hell” and giving us a cool little visual to end the show.

EXTRA ATTITUDE ~ Austin threatened to come back down and fight but was kept at bay again. He left before anything more happened. When Vince and the Stooges attempted to exit, Austin returned and beat on them. He laughed as he sent Pat Patterson in the ring to eat a Chokeslam.

MVP: Mankind
LVP: Sable

SummerSlam 1998 Results
WWF European Championship: Val Venis def. D-Lo Brown [c] via DQ in 15:24 [***¼]
The Oddities def. Kaientai in 10:10 [-**]
Hair vs. Hair Match: X-Pac def. Jeff Jarrett in 11:11 [***]
Edge and Sable def. Jacqueline and Marc Mero in 8:26 [*¾]
Lion’s Den Match: Ken Shamrock def. Owen Hart in 9:16 [***½]
WWF Tag Team Championship Falls Count Anywhere Match: The New Age Outlaws def. Mankind [c] in 5:16 [*¼]
WWF Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Triple H def. The Rock [c] in 26:01 [****½]
WWF Championship: Steve Austin [c] def. The Undertaker in 20:52 [***¼]

Raw History
Episode #275
September 5th, 1998 | New Haven Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut | Attendance: 7,607

WWF Champion: Steve Austin (2) since 6/29/98
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Triple H (2) since 8/30/98
WWF Tag Team Champions: The New Age Outlaws (6 and 3) since 8/30/98
WWF European Champion: D-Lo Brown (1) since 7/20/98
WWF Light Heavyweight Champion: TAKA Michinoku (1) since 12/7/97

Due to the US Open, Raw was moved to a late Saturday night slot for this week and the next.

SUMMERSLAM ~ Still images of the main event between Steve Austin and The Undertaker.

RAW! Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler on commentary.

Vince McMahon kicked off the show by making his way to the ring. Even though Steve Austin retained at SummerSlam, he was in a good mood. At the next Pay-Per-View, Breakdown, Vince had a new master plan to take the title off Austin. Before revealing it, Vince took time to call Undertaker a fool for sending Kane to the back during his title match. He also called Kane retarded, before saying they’re both “putrid pussies.” I can’t make this stuff out. That triggered the arrival of the Brothers of Destruction. Vince bailed through the crowd as they gave chase. Not a great start. Vince teased something for the PPV but never got there and the segment ended flatly.

TONIGHT ~ D-Lo Brown defends the European Title against X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws put the Tag Team Titles up against The Rock and Mark Henry.

The Disciples of Apocalypse w/ Paul Ellering vs. Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman
Surprising to see Shamrock and Blackman team up after their brawl last week. About 1:30 into this, Undertaker and Kane showed up to take out their anger on someone, resulting in a DQ. [NR]

While Shamrock was worked over by the DOA outside, Kane and Undertaker assaulted Blackman. Undertaker applied a leg lock and Blackman’s knee was the target. The brothers ran off the DOA to end the segment.

In the bathroom, Val Venis was apparently having what looked like boring sex with a random woman.

SUMMERSLAM ~ Mankind being attacked by Kane was recapped. No word on when or if we’ll see Mankind again.

Vader vs. Val Venis
One of the few guys Vader can face and alphabetically be listed first. Anyway, he overpowered Val early and often. Dustin Runnels patrolled the crowd with a sign trying to get fans to repent. Vader came close to winning with a middle rope splash. I’m surprised he dominated this considering Val was the one getting pushed. Bradshaw, who had an issue with Vader after they teamed on Shotgun, came out to interrupt. However, Kane and The Undertaker arrived again. Bradshaw backed away to avoid a fight as the brothers destroyed Vader and Val. This ended at 3:32. [¾*]

JR plugged the tag debut of Undertaker and Kane on Heat tomorrow against LOD 2000.

In the back, Michael Cole interviewed The Rock and Mark Henry about their Tag Team Title shot. The Rock just promised to lay the smackdown on the champs.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws [c] vs. Mark Henry and The Rock
Rock and Henry aren’t a usual tandem, so they didn’t have a ton in the way of tag offense. For the most part, this worked as the kind of tag you’d expect on TV. They didn’t work anything special into it and followed tag formula. Road Dogg played the babyface in peril throughout. Despite the Outlaws being way popular, the People’s Elbow got a huge pop. In fact, nearly everything The Rock did got a positive response. Dogg avoided a splash and made the hot tag to Billy. Before we could get to a real finish, Chyna hit the ring to tackle Henry and cause a DQ at 7:01. Solid enough. [**]

Mark Henry and The Rock scattered to the back, intimidated by Chyna.

Tiger Ali Singh and Babu came out to bore us. Babu had eaten nothing but sardines for several days and didn’t brush his teeth. Tiger offered pay a woman $500 to make out with Babu. Tiger chose a woman who wore a white tank top and no bra. That doesn’t seem like the thing to wear to a public event like this. Tiger offered her $600 instead because she is good looking. She’s supposed to go for five seconds and Tiger took forever with the count. Eventually, she finished and out came Kane and The Undertaker again. Singh and Babu took Chokeslams for their troubles.

WAR ZONE!

The Headbangers vs. Southern Justice
Changing their names doesn’t mean much. They’re still the Godwinns. Also, where have the Headbangers been? Not that I’m complaining but it’s been a while. This felt like every match they wrestled in 1997, though it was more of a Southern Justice squash. They won with the Problem Solver, better known as the Slop Drop, in 4:42. Boring tag team wrestling. [½*]

Backstage, Kane and The Undertaker used a sledgehammer to break down Vince McMahon’s office door. Vince wasn’t there.

WWF European Championship: D-Lo Brown [c] vs. X-Pac
D-Lo responding to the “D-Lo Sucks” chants by yelling that he doesn’t suck was hilarious and I don’t know why. I also dug Lawler saying D-Lo must overcome a great deal because of how his chest protector constricts his movements. Though Brown isn’t a huge dude, he took on the power role against the speedy X-Pac. This was worked at a quicker pace than anything else on the show. X-Pac eventually hit the X-Factor but Jeff Jarrett ran in to cause the DQ in 3:15. That was fun while it lasted. [**]

Jarrett and X-Pac brawled through the crowd. D-Lo was left alone in the ring as Undertaker and Kane once again showed up. Before they could attack, The Rock ran out to a big ovation. He talked smack, threw a towel at them, and then fought them off. D-Lo booked, leaving Rock alone to take a beating. Babyface Rock is coming.

KABOOM OF THE WEEK ~ Edge’s tag win over Marc Mero at SummerSlam.

Edge vs. Marc Mero w/ Jacqueline
This barely even got going when Gangrel showed up and leveled Edge following a dive outside. We’re talking barely 1:30 of action. [NR]

As Edge and Gangrel brawled in the ring, Kane and Undertaker jumped Mero by the stage.

AL SNOW INTERVIEW ~ Similar to the Mick Foley classic series from 1997, this was Al Snow being interviewed by Jim Ross. Snow spoke about his time in ECW and explained that the voices he hears are similar to when people say they speak to God. He also explained that the voices want to speak to Vince McMahon and not him. A good look into his character.

The Insane Clown Posse came out for a live performance. That was cut out of the episode. What we got was the ending as Hawk joined in on the dancing with the Oddities in his helmet. Droz and Animal arrived for the match.

Droz and LOD 2000 vs. The Oddities w/ Luna Vachon
Hawk attacked the ICP outside while the match went on. He had no clue which side of the ring he belonged on. Hawk tagged himself in and got pinned in 1:33. [NR]

Undertaker and Kane beat up a skinny dude outside.

Los Boricuas vs. Too Much
I was surprised to see how much time this match got. Los Boricuas have barely been relevant for weeks and Too Much aren’t often on TV. The action was about as good as one could expect but nobody cared. The crowd was silent. Too Much won with the Tennessee Jam in 5:07. Why did Kane and Undertaker leave them alone? [*¼]

Jeff Jarrett vs. Scorpio
The new haircut looks much better for Jeff. I feel like that happens often to the loser of a Hair vs. Hair match. Look at Kurt Angle. Jarrett also had new ring gear. Scorpio brought the energy as he always does. He threw himself into the match, picking up some near falls and high spots. Jarrett caught him with a sweet powerbomb as the highlight of the match. Of course, this couldn’t end straight up, as X-Pac attacked Jarrett for the DQ in 4:56. They’re out of hand tonight. The match was fine. [*¾]

As they brawled, more from Kane and The Undertaker as they showed up to attack Scorpio. He fell to a Spike Tombstone as Vince watched from the stage. He ran away to close the show as they spotted him.

MVP: The Rock
LVP: Kane and The Undertaker

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

#274: As a straight up show to watch with no context, there’s not a lot to write home about. The matches are barely there or end in nonsense fashion. However, as a go home show, this is stellar. The main event scene is molten hot and this episode did a lot for it. The same goes for the Rock/HHH story. This episode had a bunch of hot segments that set up the PPV nicely. 8.0

#275: Holy crap. That sucked. The combination of the late Saturday timeslot and no Steve Austin were probably the culprits. Still, there’s no excuse for a show this bad. It was just repetitive as hell. Interference finish after interference finish. Kane and The Undertaker boring things up and down the card. All that worked were two decent title matches and the seeds of babyface Rock being planted. 2.0