Vince McMahon entered 1998 hated and vilified for screwing Bret Hart out of the WWF Championship at Survivor Series. Vince even did a two-part interview saying "Bret Screwed Bret." McMahon figured he'd capitalize on being despised making him an evil on-screen character as the owner "Mr. McMahon."
After already screwing over Hart and he left to go to WCW, McMahon's target now was the rebellious, anti-establishment, anti-hero "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Austin drew the ire of McMahon late in 1997 due to Austin Stone Cold Stunning him and various other actions that McMahon did not approve of.
Austin was the top performer in the WWF and was the company's most popular wrestler maybe ever. Austin started 1998 off by winning the Royal Rumble for the second year in a row and earned a WWF Championship match against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV.
Austin was not Mr. McMahon's choice as the champion of his company as he felt the WWF Champion should project a corporate image which was not Austin. Vince McMahon, however, felt that Austin should be his WWF Champion due to his rising popularity and ability to draw and sell merchandise. He felt Austin would be the perfect face of the new Attitude Era,
The night after the Royal Rumble, McMahon brought in former heavyweight Boxing champion Mike Tyson to the ring and introduced him as the special guest referee (soon just special ring enforcer) for the WWF Championship main event at WrestleMania. Austin got into a confrontation where he gave Tyson the middle finger and proclaimed himself to be the "baddest man on the planet" not Tyson.
Austin's confrontation made McMahon very mad and embarrassed him. The fact that Mike Tyson was in a WWF ring brought the WWF so much attention from the national media because it was Mike Tyson. The country and the world soon tuned in to watch the WWF since it was now really cool.
Tyson would get into a confrontation with DX shortly before WrestleMania when Shawn Michaels challenged Tyson to a fight. After the two pushed and shoved each other, Michaels grabbed and tore Tyson's shirt only to reveal that Tyson was wearing a DX t-shirt underneath as he joined DX.
Austin took on Michaels for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV on March 29, 1998 from the Fleet Center in Boston. The referee would be knocked out during the match. Michaels tried Sweet Chin Music, but Austin caught his foot and spun him around and delivered the Stone Cold Stunner. Tyson then jumped into the ring and counted 1-2-3 as Austin won the WWF Championship for the first time.
Austin handed Tyson an "Austin 3:16" t-shirt and celebrated the win. An irate Michaels confronted Tyson and Tyson responded by knocking him out with a right-hand punch and draped the Austin t-shirt over him.
This officially ushered in the Attitude Era as the WWF New Generation logo would be replace by the WWF "scratched" logo, which would remain until 2014 with a minor change when the name changed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002 as the logo was simply a "W."
This would be the final match for Michaels for over four years as he suffered a serious back injury and was forced to retire. He suffered the back injury during his Casket match with The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble. Michaels would return to the WWF later in 1998, first as an announcer and later as the WWF Commissioner, a position he would hold until 2000.
The next night on Raw, Austin was handed a new WWF Championship belt, replacing the old "winged Eagle" title belt, by Vince McMahon himself, who was booed by the fans. Austin would soon replace it with his own "Smoking Skull" belt to the dismay of McMahon. As McMahon congratulated him on winning the title but did not like his attitude or actions. Austin responded by stunning McMahon.
The next week on the April 6 episode of Raw, McMahon again called Austin to the ring as he claimed he had a new and improved Austin as Austin came out wearing a suit and tie. McMahon takes a picture of himself with Austin wearing a suit. Austin then goes Austin 3:16 as he begins to take off his suit to further piss off McMahon. Austin then punches McMahon in the nuts and takes a picture of him doubled over in pain.
The following week on the April 13 Raw, Austin challenged McMahon to a match in the ring where Austin promised to beat him with one arm tied behind his back. As much as the fans wanted to see Austin kick McMahon's ass, McMahon initially declined. Later on, however, McMahon ultimately accepted the challenge and the match everyone wanted to see was on.
For the first time in McMahon's career, McMahon was about to wrestle in the ring. Austin would have his one arm tied behind his back and the match was about to be on when all of a sudden, Dude Love came out and tried to talk some sense into both of them. Suddenly, Love attacked Austin and gave him the Mandible Claw.
Even though we didn't get to see the Austin-McMahon match, many fans tuned in to see McMahon hopefully get his butt kicked. The April 13 episode of Raw marked the first time since June 10, 1996 that Raw beat Nitro after Nitro won the head-to-head ratings battle 84 straight weeks. This would be the turning point in the WWF ultimately beating WCW.
McMahon became this on-screen evil Mr. McMahon character as the boss everyone has that they hate and they live vicariously through Austin beating him up as they want to do to their bosses they can't stand. Everyone can relate to this and this was one of the biggest reasons why the WWF started to kick WCW's tail.
McMahon heard the reaction to people hating him for screwing Bret Hart out of the WWF Title at the 1997 Survivor Series so he figured he would create the Mr. McMahon character and cash in and cash in is what he did. He could not find a better wrestler to work with to make his life a living hell than Austin since Austin was a man of the people and McMahon hated the people.
McMahon along with his "Corporate Stooges" Gerald Brisco, Pat Patterson, and WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter (soon just Brisco and Patterson) would do whatever it took to screw face wrestlers, especially Austin, and get the belt off of Austin but to no avail.
The Undertaker started 1998 refusing to fight his brother Kane, who came to the WWF late in 1997 and began challenging his brother to fight. Soon Kane began helping his brother out in Undertaker's feud with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and DX as they seemed to be reunited.
At January's Royal Rumble, Kane helped Undertaker fight off a bunch of heel wrestlers who were attacking Undertaker during Undertaker's WWF Championship Casket Match against Michaels. All of a sudden, Kane attacked Undertaker and put him in the casket and locked it. Kane then took an ax and began chopping at the wooden casket and poured gasoline all over and set it on fire.
The Undertaker returned at WrestleMania XIV to take on Kane and defeated him with three Tombstone Piledrivers. Kane attacked Undertaker after the match and gave him a Tombstone onto a steel chair. Undertaker fought Kane in an "Inferno Match" the next month at Unforgiven: In Your House. Undertaker won when he set Kane's arm on fire.
The Undertaker and Kane fought over who would be the number one contender to Stone Cold Steve Austin's WWF Championship. Kane got the nod to take on Austin at King of the Ring for the title when he defeated Undertaker with help from Mankind. Undertaker rekindled his old feud with Mankind, who was now wearing an untucked white dress shirt with a loose necktie.
While Kane was set to take on Austin for the WWF Title at King of the Ring, the 1998 King of the Ring PPV would famously be known for The Undertaker vs. Mankind Hell in a Cell match that is perhaps the most violent in WWF/E history and one of the most violent in pro wrestling history. It is also one of the most talked about matches in wrestling history.
Mick Foley was talking with his good friend Terry Funk about the match before the event about how to make this match memorable and top the first-ever Hell in a Cell match the previous year between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels at Badd Blood. Funk said that Foley should let Undertaker throw him off the top of the cage.
The event took place on June 28, 1998 from the Civic Arena (The Igloo) in Pittsburgh, PA. The match started with both Undertaker and Mankind climbing the cell and wrestling on top of the cage. Right off the bat, Undertaker threw Foley off the top of the cage and Foley fell through the Spanish announce table as he fell some 22 feet.
Jim Ross would famoulsy yell "Good God almighty! Good God almighty! That killed him! As God as my witness, he is broken in half!" Foley was just lying there unconscious. Funk was the first one to check on Foley followed by the WWF medical crew as well as a concerned-looking Vince McMahon.
Foley was loaded onto a stretcher and was about to be taken to the back when all of a sudden, Foley got up and out of the stretcher and began walking back to the cage smiling and laughing. Foley began climbing back up the cage despite suffering a dislocated shoulder and the match continued.
Foley took his next gigantic fall and this one was perhaps even worse than the first one if you can believe it. They again fought on top of the cage. The combined weight of both men, both around 300 lbs. each, caused the metal fasteners on the cage to come off and the cage to give way since it can't support that much weight.
Undertaker Chokeslammed Foley on top of the cage but the cage completely gave way causing Foley to crash down hard on the canvas in the ring and a steel chair landing on top of him, knocking him unconscious in a totally unplanned bump.
Ross then yelled "Good God, Good God! Will somebody stop the damn match? Enough's enough!" Fellow announcer Jerry "The King" Lawler then quietly said "That's it, he's dead!" Many, including Undertaker himself, thought Foley was dead right there. Foley said in his book had he taken the Chokeslam properly he might be dead. Thankfully he took it absolutely wrong.
Foley was tended to by the medical staff and again continued the match despite two of the most awful bumps in pro wrestling history. For any normal wrestler, most could not take one of those bumps let alone and especially not both in one night and ever wrestle again. Foley was no normal wrestler as he made a career out taking the nasty bumps and falls.
Foley was shown on the camera smiling with blood on his lips and a tooth that was not knocked out of him from the fall hanging from his nose. The match mercifully ended when The Undertaker Chokeslammed Foley onto a pile of thumbtacks that Foley poured onto the ring and gave him the Tombstone Piledriver to win the match.
Both men, especially Foley, received standing ovations following the match. Many of the spots and bumps from the match has been prohibited from ever being duplicated in future matches. Vince McMahon thanked Foley for all he had done but made Foley to promise he will never do anything like that ever again. Foley says he forgot a lot of the match and had to watch it back on video to write about it in his autobiography.
Believe it or not, Foley's night was not done as he and the Undertaker interfered in the main event First Blood WWF Championship match between Steve Austin and Kane. Undertaker accidentally hit Austin with a steel chair, causing him to bleed and giving Kane the championship. Austin regained the title from Kane the following night on Raw.
Soon after, The Undertaker and Kane started working together to try and get the WWF Title off of Austin. Austin had been using a special custom-made "Smoking Skull" WWF Championship belt to replace the one he just got after WrestleMania and this did not please Mr. McMahon whatsoever.
Eventually, Mr. McMahon used the brothers to get the title off of Austin by scheduling a Triple Threat title match at Breakdown: In Your House in September with a special stipulation that The Undertaker and Kane could not pin each other. The Undertaker and Kane pinned Austin simultaneously to win the WWF Championship from Austin.
While only one of the brothers could be the champion, McMahon was just happy to get the title off of Austin. Austin attacked McMahon and McMahon ripped both brothers apart for not protecting him. Undertaker and Kane viciously attacked McMahon and sent him into the hospital with a broken leg.
While he was in the hospital, McMahon was greeted by numerous unwanted visitors. One of those unwanted visitors was Austin, who dressed as a doctor to attack McMahon in his hospital bed. Austin hit McMahon in the head with a bedpan and then stuck an enema up his ass.
McMahon made a match for the vacant WWF Title the next month at Judgment Day: In Your House between The Undertaker and Kane with Austin being the special guest referee. If Austin did not call the match down the line, he would be fired.
Paul Bearer betrayed Kane by hitting him with a steel chair and joined forces with The Undertaker during the match, turning Undertaker heel for the first time since 1992. Undertaker knocked Kane out with the chair.
Austin gave Undertaker the Stunner and then hit him with the chair. He then counted both men out and declared himself the WWF Champion. McMahon then announced that Austin was "fired" as he began to use his trademark phrase "you're fired!" for the first time. Austin then drank beer as the event went off the air.
The next night on the October 19, 1998 episode of Raw is War, Austin came out and attacked a wheel chair bound McMahon and had him in the middle of the ring. He held a gun to his head and fired out a flag that read "Bang 3:16!" He handed McMahon a piece of paper as McMahon had peed his pants.
It was revealed the piece a paper was a five-year contract with a guaranteed WWF Championship match. It was signed by McMahon's son Shane McMahon. As punishment, Vince stripped Shane's ownership stake in the company and demoted him to a referee.
It was announced that the vacant WWF Championship would be crowned the following month at the Survivor Series in a 14-man "Deadly Games" Tournament. Since they were the last two to have battled for the title, The Undertaker and Kane were given byes to the second round of the tournament.
The Attitude Era brought a ton of heat, violence, sex, and super controversial storylines that would make soap operas cringe. None were more than that of Road Warrior Hawk of the legendary Road Warriors or Legion of Doom along with his long time tag team partner Animal.
For 1998, The Legion of Doom got a third member in newcomer Darren Drozdov, who was known as "Puke." Drozdov was a former NFL player with the Denver Broncos who was known for puking before every game and even puking during a game on Monday Night Football.
Drozdov was hired in the WWF simply because he can regurgitate on command as was shown on the 1999 documentary Beyond the Mat where he was meeting with Vince McMahon, who told him to vomit in a trashcan and he was hired on the spot.
Meanwhile, the WWF began incorporating Hawk's real life drug and alcohol problems in their storylines. Animal deemed Hawk unfit to wrestle as it appeared Hawk appeared at matches either drunk or high and appeared to have suicidal tendencies and had Puke take his place.
Then on an episode of Raw, Hawk was on top of the TitanTron. Animal was trying to talk him down while Puke climbed the top and try to get Hawk down. Puke appeared to have pushed Hawk off the TitanTron and he "fell off" the TitanTron apparently "killing him."
It was revealed that Puke enabled Hawk's drug addiction to get rid of him and take his place in the L.O.D. and was thrown out of the group. Animal and Hawk were so upset over the angle that both men left the WWF shortly after.
Puke, who would later be called Droz, would ultimately suffer a serious injury that ended his wrestling career and left him as a quadriplegic in 1999. Droz was accidentally injured during a match with D'Lo Brown when Brown gave him a running powerbomb and could not get a proper grip on Droz while Droz did not jump properly to take the move and landed on his head and neck.
Hawk's personal demons were about to get the best of him but he eventually cleaned up and turned his life around. Hawk reunited with and teamed with Animal to make a surprise appearance on Raw in May 2003 when they took on and lost to World Tag Team Champions Rob Van Dam and Kane.
Hawk, just like Animal, became a born-again christian in 2003 as he cleaned up his act. Sadly on October 19, 2003, Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) died in his sleep from a sudden heart attack. Animal (Joe Laurinaitis) wrestled again in the WWE in 2005-2006, winning the WWE Tag Team Titles with new partner Jon Heidenreich and Animal dedicated the win to the memory of Hawk.
In 1998, there was this group of weirdos and freaks called "The Parade of Human Oddities" (simply known as The Oddities). The group was formed and led by their manager The Jackyl (Don Callis). The group featured Golga (John Tenta, Earthquake under a mask and carried an Eric Cartman doll), the 7 ft tall Kurrgan, and the even taller Giant Silva. Luna Vachon was also part of the group.
They were originally a group of heels but turned into fun loving faces when The Jackyl left them and was replaced by Sable. The new face group danced after matches. Their theme was performed by Insane Clown Posse as ICP even joined the group. ICP would turn on The Oddities at the end of 1998 during their feud with The Headbangers when ICP helped The Headbangers attack them.
Shawn Michaels was forced to retire following WrestleMania XIV due to a then-career ending back injury and his DX partner Triple H was forced to take over the lead role of DX. The night after WrestleMania on the March 30, 1998 episode of Raw, Triple H said that Michaels "dropped the ball" and he picked it up and will carry it as the new leader of DX along with his girlfriend Chyna.
Triple H then introduced his Kliq buddy Sean Waltman as Waltman returned to the WWF as "X-Pac." Waltman was recently fired by Eric Bischoff and WCW and Waltman responded to recent comments by Hulk Hogan on WCW TV saying Waltman "could not cut the mustard and run with the nWo."
Waltman then ripped on Hogan to a loud standing ovation and then ripped Bischoff for firing him and then said Scott Hall and Kevin Nash would be in the WWF if they weren't being held hostage by their contracts. Bischoff responded to Waltman's comments the following week simply replying "bite me!"
Later that night, Triple H and X-Pac interfered and helped The New Age Outlaws regain the WWF Tag Team Championship from Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie (Terry Funk) in a Steel Cage match when the four brutally beat up the duo. The Outlaws officially joined DX to form the "DX Army."
The New Age Outlaws were a team that was formed late in 1997 when the Road Dogg Jesse James and "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn joined forces after their singles careers were going nowhere. The duo were very brash and very cocky and showed no respect whatsoever to older wrestlers and authority figures, just like DX.
They made an immediate impact upon joining forces by viciously attacking such tag teams like the Legion of Doom (shaving off one of Hawk's signature dual mohawks) and stealing their signature spiked shoulder pads as well as Cactus and Chainsaw by locking them in a dumpster and shoving them off the stage, "severely injuring them."
The Outlaws did not have an entrance theme at first with Road Dogg saying disparaging remarks on a microphone about their opponents and the fans on their way to the ring. Eventually, they got a totally killer entrance theme with Road Dogg still on the mic.
The team would pull off some upsets by winning matches out of nowhere by cheating and take off running. When they defeated Legion of Doom to win the WWF Tag Team Championship for the first time by cheating, the Outlaws ran as fast as they could and ran right to the parking lot into a car waiting for them and they sped out of there.
The Outlaws had been helping out DX when it was Shawn Michaels and Triple H, forming an alliance with them until officially joining Triple H, X-Pac, and Chyna the night after WrestleMania. Even Chyna herself began to be more womanly with plastic surgeries and breast implants to make her look more attractive and less like a manly bodybuilder when she first broke into the sport.
The DX Army soon began doing some of the most hilarious and memorable skits in WWF/E history. The best promo took place on the April 27 episode of Raw as Raw was from Hampton, Virginia. Meanwhile, WCW Nitro was in Norfolk, Virginia, approximately 15 minutes away as Raw and Nitro were really close to each other for the first time ever.
So DX decided to drive out to The Scope in Norfolk where Nitro was held. They appeared at Nitro driving an Army Jeep with a cannon on it and DX was wearing camouflage as they were "declaring war" on WCW. They said WCW handed out free tickets to fans outside the arena to fill their arenas.
They were yelling to demand that Scott Hall and Kevin Nash be let go from their contracts as they sported black armbands that read POWCW (Prisoner of WCW). They tried to enter the arena in their Jeep via the loading dock, but the door was shut on them before they could enter.
On the May 11 episode of Raw, DX "invaded" WCW Headquarters at CNN One Center in Atlanta to secure meetings with Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner. Then two weeks later on Raw, Triple "flew over the arena where WCW Nitro took place in a plane" and skywrote "WCW Sucks" and "DX Says Suck It!"
DX was originally supposed to be a group of heels but their antics really got over very well with the fans and soon became faces. They would feud with The Nation of Domination, who now had Owen Hart in the fold as Owen turned heel and since he was feuding with Triple H and DX, he figured he'd join The Nation.
The Nation of Domination would be led by The Rock after The Rock ousted former Farooq from the group. The Rock and Farooq had been fighting over who was in charge of The Nation after Farooq believed The Rock had been undermining him. The night after WrestleMania, The Rock and the rest of the Nation attacked Farooq and threw him out of the group.
Under Farooq, the Nation was more of a militant group that resembled the Black Panthers. Under The Rock's leadership, the Nation soon began adopting the Rock's cool mannerisms and The Nation itself was a group of cool, hip guys. D'Lo Brown began doing his awesome head bobble on his way to the ring. "The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry became "Sexual Chocolate" as a man who had a sex addiction.
Mine and most people's favorite was turning Kama Mustafa into the legendary pimp character "The Godfather." Godfather would soon come to the ring with his Ho's and even began giving some of his Ho's to his opponent in exchange to not wrestle him, most would take the women.
The Nation's theme music even changed to reflect their new cool ways. The Rock would use this as his main entrance theme it eventually spawned to what is was long after The Nation ended and he was a major superstar on his own.
Even though The Rock was supposed to be an arrogant, narcissistic, bully of a heel, he was getting over great with the fans who loved his insulting and killer promos. Since he joined The Nation the previous year, the Rock always talked in the third person: "The Rock says...."
The Rock would soon call himself "The People's Champion." His other finishing move besides The Rock Bottom, an over-the-top selling elbow drop, would be called "The People's Elbow." Rock would often raise his one eyebrow, "The People's Eyebrow."
The Rock would further get over with his sayings "Do you smell what The Rock is cooking?", "The Rock Says know your role and shut your mouth!", "Jabroni", "it doesn't matter" whenever he asked someone a question, and then "finally The Rock has come back to (whatever city they are in at that moment)."
DX dressed like and mocked The Nation of Domination on the July 6, 1998 episode of Raw is War in a truly memorable segment. Triple portrayed The Rock as "The Crock" and asked "do you smell what The Crock is cooking" as it was cooking in the bathroom.
Road Dogg played D'Lo Brown, Billy Gunn played The Godfather, X-Pac was Mark Henry, and impressionist Jason Sensation played Owen Hart. The Nation did not take kindly to this and attacked DX whenever they could, taking the rivalry to new heights.
The Rock lost his Intercontinental Championship to Triple H in a thrilling Ladder Match at SummerSlam '98. The Rock's popularity forced the WWF to start putting him in the main event World Title picture and he soon turned babyface and left The Nation shortly after SummerSlam.
One of the things that made the Attitude Era very successful and soon defeat WCW and establish themselves as the top wrestling promotion in America was that they pushed the envelope to bring more sexual content to the fans. They began using their women on their roster as sex objects to further generate interest from their male demographic.
Sunny was considered to be the WWF's first "Diva" and was the hottest thing in the WWF for several years and was AOL's most downloaded woman of 1996. However, she left the company in the middle of 1998 and would soon be replaced by Rena Mero known as "Sable" as the company's hottest woman.
Sable had been in the WWF since 1996 when she joined her then-husband Marc Mero. She debuted as one of Triple H's female companions that accompanied him to the ring. Sable quickly became one of the most popular on-air personalities in the company's history.
Sable's popularity escalated to the point that she began to appear on covers of numerous wrestling magazines but other mainstream such as TV Guide but most notably was the cover of Playboy twice in April 1999 and September 1999, becoming the first woman to appear on the cover of Playboy twice in the same year.
Sable most famous or infamous moment in her career came at the July 1998 Fully Loaded PPV when she went against Jacqueline in a bikini contest. Sable came out wearing a t-shirt and then took it off to expose just a tank top as she said Mr. McMahon wanted her to dress more conservatively.
She took off the tank top and to the delight of the crowd and those watching the event, she had nothing on except two black handprints covering her exposed breasts as she won the contest by getting a huge ovation from the crowd. McMahon disqualified her the next night on Raw for not wearing a bikini and she replied by giving him a double middle finger.
Sable also began to wrestle as women's wrestling began to take off. Sable took on Jacqueline in the finals of the reactivated WWF Women's Championship (that was deactivated when Madusa Miceli joined WCW and threw the WWF Women's Championship in the trash on WCW Nitro).
Sable lost to Jacqueline but defeated her for the title at Survivor Series in November. Sable would abruptly leave the WWF in mid-1999. Other Divas began to appear in the WWF such as Debra, Marlena (Terri Runnels), and Chyna.
Mankind soon changed his character since he could no longer take the bumps that he was used to. His body could no longer sustain the dangerous bumps that had done for many years so he had to do what he could to stay relevant on TV. The final straw was his Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker at King of the Ring.
He was no longer this deranged character who took massive bumps to get over with the crowd. Instead, he was goofy and funny and even lovable character. This helped Mankind really get over with the fans as he was more of a sympathetic character than a lunatic.
The first such incident of the new Mankind character came on the October 5, 1998 episode of Raw when he visited the injured Mr. McMahon in the hospital after The Undertaker and Kane attacked him and sent him there. McMahon was very irritated with numerous guests and none more annoying than Mankind.
Mankind did what he could to cheer McMahon up as he was getting very annoyed. He had a female clown that made balloon animals as it was not cheering him up rather irritating him. Mankind said he had another visitor for McMahon as he had a sock puppet named "Mr. Socko" to cheer him up before McMahon angrily told them to get out.
Mr. Socko was very popular with the fans as Mankind began using Mr. Socko more and more in promos and then in wrestling. He would pull out his smelly old sock Mr. Socko from his pants and put it on his hand and stuffed it down his opponent's throats like he did with the mandible claw.
While McMahon did not appreciate Mankind's attempts to cheer him up at the moment, he soon revealed it meant a lot to him as he began to be a "father figure" to Mankind and attempted to groom him as his future WWF Champion or his own "Corporate" Champion. He even awarded Mankind with the new Hardcore Championship.
At the "Deadly Games Tournament" for the vacant WWF Championship at Survivor Series, McMahon endorsed and would do everything in his power to make Mankind the new WWF Champion. McMahon also wanted to make sure Stone Cold Steve Austin as well as The Rock did not win the WWF Championship.
We obviously know why he didn't want Austin to win but the reason he did not want The Rock to win was because The Rock was the "people's champion" and McMahon had a problem with the people. He tried to make sure The Rock did not even enter the tournament, but The Rock managed to get to Survivor Series.
To make sure Mankind won the title, McMahon made Mankind take on jobber Duane Gill as Mankind quickly defeated him. Austin took on McMahon's bodyguard the Big Boss Man (who returned to the WWF) and won by DQ as the Boss Man viciously assaulted Austin with his nightstick to try to take him out of the tournament.
The Boss Man took on The Rock later in round one but The Rock quickly rolled Boss Man as soon as he entered the match as the match ended in just three seconds, the fastest match in WWF history. Austin did advance to the semifinals because X-Pac and Stephen Regal fought to a time limit draw.
The Undertaker defeated Kane in the second round as Paul Bearer helped Undertaker. Mankind defeated Al Snow to advance to the semifinals as did The Rock, who defeated Ken Shamrock with botched interference from the Big Boss Man who attempted to give Shamrock the nightstick only for The Rock to intercept it and use it on Shamrock.
The Rock locked to have lost to The Undertaker in the semifinals when Kane interfered and gave The Rock a chokeslam, getting his brother disqualified and sending The Rock to the finals as The Undertaker and Kane fought all the way into the crowd.
Steve Austin fought Mr. McMahon's handpicked champion Mankind in the other semifinal matchup. McMahon was at ringside sitting in a wheel chair, but got out of his wheelchair to show he was not injured when he pulled the referee out of the ring just as he was about to count three for Austin.
Austin gave Mankind the Stone Cold Stunner when McMahon's son Shane McMahon ran down to the ring wearing a referee's uniform. He counted one, two, but then stopped counting. As Austin looked at Shane, Shane flipped him off. McMahon's cronies Gerald Brisco and Sgt. Slaughter interfered and hit Austin with a chair, allowing Mankind to win to advance to the finals.
Austin chased after the McMahons in a car. Mankind fought The Rock in the finals as the McMahons fooled Austin by not leaving and came to ringside. The Rock got Mankind in the Sharpshooter. Despite Mankind not giving up, Mr. McMahon called for the bell to ring to give The Rock the win and the WWF Championship.
McMahon once again pulled a screw job at Survivor Series very reminiscent of the Montreal Screwjob at the previous year's Survivor Series. McMahon showed all along that his plan was for The Rock to be his new champion and he used Mankind all along. The Rock, Vince, and Shane McMahon celebrated the victory and attacked Mankind only for Austin to run down to the ring to attack all three.
The next night on Raw, Mr. McMahon announced the formation of "The Corporation" with himself, his son Shane, his corporate stooges Gerald Brisco, Pat Patterson, and WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter, the Big Boss Man, Ken Shamrock, and of course his "corporate champion" The Rock.
The Corporation would feud with Austin, Mankind, and DX especially after former DX member Shawn Michaels, who became the new commissioner replacing Slaughter, turned his back on his DX brethren and joined The Corporation.
Kane soon joined The Corporation to prevent them from sending him to a mental institution. They also added newcomer Test, who first appeared at a WWF event as an unnamed security guard for the band Motley Crue during a concert on WWF TV. They also did what they could to keep the title around The Rock's waist.
1998 was the turning point of the WWF/E taking over from WCW as the number one pro wrestling company in the USA and one of the top in the world. Instead of losing money for years, the WWF started profiting of over $8 million from May 1, 1997 to April 30, 1998 and then a record $56 million from May 1, 1998 to April 30, 1999.
Raw finally beat WCW's Nitro in ratings after losing for two years. Raw last lost to Nitro on October 26, 1998 and Raw never lost again to Nitro until it bought WCW from them in March 2001. The WWF had the Attitude Era led by Stone Cold Steve Austin to overtake what seemed to be the same old stale product WCW had been delivering since the end of 1998 until its demise in 2001.
McMahon was fortunate he was not Ted Turner who did not want that kind of "smut" on his network and was more family oriented than McMahon who used cussing and swearing and storylines that really shocked and awed everyone but that was the way the wrestling world was heading.
McMahon would soon grab a stranglehold on his competition as the 20th century was about to come to a close and we approached the 21st century.
No comments:
Post a Comment