One of the main rivalries that got the WWF back to the top in 1998 was the blood feud between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince/Mr. McMahon. It had largely been simmering in the background for most of the pay-per-views I've covered from this year, as Vince was largely just an observer as Austin battled Kane, Mankind and The Undertaker throughout the summer. Vince did technically help get the title off Austin at King of the Ring, but struck a major blow at Breakdown, as Austin lost the belt in a triple threat match against Kane and The Undertaker when the two brothers pinned him simultaneously. At Judgment Day, Kane and Undertaker were pitted against each other, with Austin as referee in a role designed to humiliate him, but "Stone Cold" turned it around on the boss, attacking both brothers and declaring himself the champion. It's worth noting that the belt had been held vacant since the triple threat match and would remain so until this show, where a one night tournament would determine a new official champion. This was certainly a bold move from the WWF, going without a world champion for months on end, despite still being in the thick of the war with WCW. The promise of a new champion being crowned was enough for Survivor Series 1998 to pop a good buyrate, beating both the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring, which is quite impressive, as most shows near the end of the year tend to get very little interest from wrestling fans. Let's take a look at what the "Deadly Game" tournament had to offer.
- Survivor Series 1998 comes to you from the Kiel(now Enterprise) Center in St. Louis, Missouri. If you've read any of my other reviews, you probably recognize that location, as it was also the host of Badd Blood just over a year prior. This crowd was mostly into this show, though did quiet down near the end, which I can't fault them for, this show contains a simply ridiculous 14 matches crammed into under 3 hours, which absolutely terrified the sh** out of me going into this review.
- Mankind is being positioned as the "Corporate Champion" going into the tournament, getting an easy win to open the first round against returning jobber Duane Gill. I did enjoy the strange contrast of Foley's wild, partially shredded hair and creepy brown mask being on a guy wearing a full tuxedo, courtesy of a corporate makeover from Vince, it's an intentionally weird look.
- In the second first round match, Al Snow takes on Jeff Jarrett. These two are capable of putting on an entertaining match, but they've only been given 3 and a half minutes to work, so there's only so much you can do. Both men try and brain each other with their gimmicked weapons, as Snow gets the win by bashing Jarrett with Head.
- Another member of The Corporation, the recently returned Big Boss Man, is in action here as he takes on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Austin was fired following his actions at Judgment Day, though was rehired shortly after by Shane McMahon, who is starting to be established as an on-screen character. That fact isn't important right now though, as Austin and Boss Man face off without any outside interference. It's just a complete brawl, with almost no wrestling moves attempted before Boss Man strikes with his nightstick, disqualifying himself and advancing Austin to the next round. Boss Man keeps up the attack, going after Austin's ribs, as Vince watches from the back, enjoying his new enforcer's work and confirming this is all part of his master plan.
- Our next contest is one that certainly has plenty of potential on paper, as European Champion X-Pac takes on Steven(William) Regal. Regal is one of my favorites and his mat-based technical style is a perfect counter to X-Pac's high flying and hard selling, but this match fails to deliver anything worthwhile. That's mostly due to Regal, who isn't exactly at his best, working through a ton of drug problems and likely extremely unmotivated to do much thanks to his terrible "Real Man's Man" gimmick. Regal just works rest holds for most of the match, though he did hit a crunching butterfly suplex off the top rope, just a taste of what he's capable of at his best. After X-Pac is sent to the floor, Regal gives pursuit and both men are counted out, as Commissioner Slaughter tries and fails to get the match restarted, leading to Austin receiving a bye to the next round, much to Vince's dismay. The match may not have been great, but it did at least give us "The King" singing along to Regal's theme music on commentary, which was absolute gold.
- Ken Shamrock is now both a heel and the Intercontinental Champion, winning the belt in a tournament after Triple H had to vacate it. That, plus his triumph at King of the Ring, makes him an obvious favorite, which is smartly played up by JR during his entrance. He's taking on Goldust in another first round match, and I don't have much to say about this one, as Shamrock is taking it easy in preparation for more action to come and Goldust is suffering from more addiction issues than Regal. "The Bizarre One" attempts to hit the Shattered Dream, which referee Jim Korderas puts a stop to, which the crowd boos. Goldust is too distracted with Korderas to see Shamrock recovering, as Ken is able to execute a slightly sloppy hurricanrana and apply the ankle lock for the win.
- We've reached the final first round match, thank God, as The Rock is scheduled to face Triple H in a SummerSlam rematch. But Hunter is still hurt, and The Stooges, Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson enter instead to the D-X theme, giving a couple crotch shots to The Rock, whom Vince is also determined to keep from winning. The Big Boss Man runs in as the replacement for Hunter, and promptly gets rolled up to take a 4 second loss, the fastest in WWE history, as the crowd explodes.
- The quarterfinals now begin, as The Undertaker and Kane were both given byes through the first round before meeting each other. These two are seemingly incapable of a good match, as this one is another stinker, slow and plodding, filled with a lot of chokes and some weak strikes. The crowd doesn't care and I don't either, but Paul Bearer does, as he holds down Kane's leg following a Tombstone Piledriver to get The Undertaker through. I never need to see these two wrestle each other again.
- Mankind now gets to wrestle an actual match following his first round squash, as he takes on Al Snow. They brawl for a bit, before Mankind discover that Mr. Socko has been tied to around Head, which Vince apparently did himself to fire Mankind up. The crowd pops as Foley beats up the mannequin, a very funny spot, before delivering the double arm DDT to Snow and applying the Mandible Claw to advance.
- We're not done yet with the Shamrock-Rock rivalry, though unlike their previous meetings, Rocky is the face and Shamrock is the heel. Not much of any interest to note for most of this, though it does really pick up down the stretch. Rock hits a DDT and gets in a low blow, which is caused by an "accidental" distraction by the Big Boss Man, another story point to be revisited later. Boss Man attempts to toss Shamrock his nightstick, but Rock deftly snatches it out of mid-air and clonks Shamrock in the head for the victory.
- In one of two non-tournament matches, Jacqueline defends the Women's Championship against Sable, as the belt was reactivated a few months prior to give these two something to fight over. This match isn't quite at the level of the two previous mixed tags Sable has competed in, though full credit to Jacqueline, who makes it interesting with her heel work and bumping. A Sable Bomb gives us a title change, and though this match in no way stacks up against what women's wrestling would become in the years to follow, Sable is still very over and Jackie is very talented, so it wasn't terrible.
- The semi-finals are now underway, as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin takes on Mankind. This is yet another brawl, made a bit more interesting as Austin decides to rip off Foley's tuxedo, as this super serious clash of two absolute SOBs threatens to become porn. Austin is able to hit the Stunner after about 8 minutes of brawling, and has the match won before Vince jumps out of his wheelchair to attack the official. Austin hits another Stunner, and Shane, assigned to be a referee on the night, sprints down to the ring to make the count. He gets to 2, then stops, and gives "Stone Cold" the double bird! It's a swerve, bro. The finish is unfortunately botched, as Boss Man was supposed to interfere again, but missed his cue, so everyone has to improvise. Shane just awkwardly leaves the ring, and Austin just gives up pursuing him, before Brisco lands the world's weakest chair shot, allowing Mankind to score the win. I'm not really sure why Shane's betrayal makes any sense in kayfabe, as I guess he hired Austin back just to screw him over, but that was a very risky decision to make, as that left open the possibility that Austin could've just won the whole tournament and become champion again.
- The second semi-final match sees The Undertaker face The Rock, and by this point, the crowd is starting to getting tired. Rock gets to hit a very impressive Samoan drop, really the only thing I remember from this match. Boss Man tries to get involved again, but it's Kane that decides the match, chokeslamming Rock to cost Undertaker a chance to fight for the title. That's a shockingly intelligent move from this supposed supernatural monster to make, and the two brothers brawl into the crowd.
- In a triple threat tag team match, the New Age Outlaws defends their belts against D'Lo Brown and Mark Henry and the Headbangers. This is yet another wild brawl, I hope you haven't gotten tired of that style yet, as one man from each team is allowed to be legal. There is some good stuff to be found, especially when Road Dogg makes a hot tag to Billy Gunn who fights off the other four men, and he finishes off the match, hitting Mosh with a Famasser and a piledriver for the win, which kind of catches the crowd by surprise. It was nice to see something other than a straight singles match, and the Outlaws are just so over that they make this match entertaining all on their own.
- Main event time, finally, as The Rock and Mankind meet in the finals of the "Deadly Game" tournament to crown a new WWF Champion. The crowd is completely dead for the opening few minutes of guess what, plenty of brawling, but do wake up when weapons get involved. Mankind hits Rock with a chair, who responds by hitting the steel steps that Mankind was carrying with a chair of his own, causing Mankind to be pinned to the floor with the steps, and Rock goes wild, pelting the steps with one chair shot after another. Foley sacrifices his body to try and get the crowd back into it, leg dropping Rock off the announce table onto the floor beside it, before later crashing through the Spanish announce table with an elbow drop, as Rock is able to get out of the way. Mankind still has enough left to kick out of the People's Elbow, shocking the crowd, before connecting with a double arm DDT and applying the Mandible Claw. Rock is able to power out and hit a Rock Bottom, which really puts over as a resilient babyface, ironic given what's to come. Vince and Shane McMahon were both chased out of the arena by "Stone Cold" earlier after screwing Austin over, but are back at ringside, ready to re-create the Montreal Screwjob exactly one year later. Rock locks in the Sharpshooter and Vince calls for the bell, as we've got a new WWF Champion. The crowd is confused by the swerve, but slowly start to boo as Vince gets on the mic and explains that they've been duped. Rock cements his scumbag status by attacking the totally bemused Mankind, before Austin returns to clear the ring. "Stone Cold" ends the night with a Stunner to poor Mankind, which was a definite dick move. The man just got screwed out of the world title and betrayed by his surrogate father, what did he do to deserve that? I know he's an a-hole, but I think I'm actually on The Rock's side here, Austin just comes across as a sore loser. What a weird way to end this show.
6/10
From a pure wrestling perspective, this is an absolutely terrible show, one of the worst I've ever watched. From a storytelling perspective, this is an incredible achievement, setting The Rock up as the company's top heel and Mankind as a lovable face who's eventual world title win would be the impetus to the WWF winning the Monday Night War. There's plenty of ways to criticize Survivor Series 1998, but I thought it just came down on the positive end of the spectrum, very ambitious but still incredibly flawed. I really did want to like this one, it is a legendary Attitude Era show and a booking masterclass, but 14 matches on one card was definitely a bad idea that isn't helped by how repetitive so many of them are.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Royal Rumble 1999, site of the brutal "I Quit" match between The Rock and Mankind. See you soon.
- Henry
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