Throwback Thursday: Looking back WWE Survivor Series 1998
WWE Survivor Series 1998
Date: Nov. 14, 1998
Venue: Kiel Center, St. Louis, Mo.
Match results:
- Deadly Game tournament first round – Mankind def. Duane Gill
- Deadly Game tournament first round – Al Snow def. Jeff Jarrett
- Deadly Game tournament first round – Steve Austin def. Big Boss Man via disqualification
- Deadly Game tournament first round - X-Pac fought Steven Regal to a double count out
- Deadly Game tournament first round – Ken Shamrock def. Goldust
- Deadly Game tournament first round – The Rock def. Big Boss Man
- Deadly Game tournament quarterfinal – The Undertaker def. Kane
- Deadly Game tournament quarterfinal – Mankind def. Al Snow
- Deadly Game tournament quarterfinal – The Rock def. Ken Shamrock
- WWE Women's Championship – Sable def. Jacqueline
- Deadly Game tournament semifinal – Mankind def. Steve Austin
- Deadly Game tournament semifinal – The Rock def. The Undertaker
- WWE Tag Team Championship – The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg & Billy Gunn) def. D'Lo Brown & Mark Henry & The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher)
- WWE Championship (Deadly Game tournament final) – The Rock def. Mankind
Observations:
- Coincidently this was the last Survivor Series to take place in the city of St. Louis until this year's event. This year's event will even take place in the same building. Back in 1998, it was known as the Kiel Center. It is now known as the Scottrade Center.
- This event was mostly centered the Deadly Game tournament, a 14-man, single-elimination tournament to decide a new WWE Champion, which was vacated at In Your House: Judgment Day. Because of the tournament, it marked the first time in the event's history that there wasn't a traditional Survivor Series match on the card.
With the tournament and the lack of actual Survivor Series matches, it made for this Survivor Series to be one of the most unique and memorable in the history of the event.
- The end of the Deadly Game tournament was also very memorable as it was the first WWE Championship win for The Rock, albeit in controversial fashion. The Rock was quickly shooting up the babyface ladder heading into the event and was marked as one of the two men Vince McMahon did not want to win the title with the other being Steve Austin. On the surface, McMahon's chosen man was Mankind.
Eventually, the tournament came down to McMahon's chosen man and the People's Champion. Instead of helping out Mankind, McMahon, in a shocking turn of events, had secretly chosen The Rock to be his corporate champion. The Rock went from being the No. 2 babyface behind Austin to being the most hated man in the promotion.
Mankind, on the other hand, went from the aloof pawn for McMahon to being a very sympathetic babyface. All of this set in motion a heated and entertaining rivalry between The Rock and Mankind, which served as the prelude to the massive feud between The Rock and Austin.
The way it all played out was pretty cool as well, with McMahon ringing the bell while Mankind was in the sharpshooter, which was a throwback to the previous year's Survivor Series where the same thing occurred in a much more real circumstance.
- Speaking of Mankind, his outro music was sick, twisted and awesome all at the same time. Mankind was the first wrestler WWE history to have an entrance theme and have a completely different song play when he won. If you weren't aware of his music before watching this event, you got real familiar with it afterward because it played after all three of his victories during the Deadly Game tournament.
- Seeing McMahon miraculously rise from his wheel chair after making sure Austin didn't win the WWE Championship was pretty hilarious. At the time, staunch Austin fans probably weren't laughing too much, but in hindsight, it's always funny to see McMahon ham it up.
- For whatever reason, McMahon's overtime ruling after the Steven Regal-X-Pac match was simply ignored. He went through the trouble of having Sgt. Slaughter run to the ring to relay the message to Howard Finkel, but X-Pac just walked away because he was unable to continue. Instead of Steven Regal staying in the ring to wait for X-Pac to get counted out, he inexplicably chased after him, rendering the overtime null and void I guess. I get why this happened, it was so that McMahon's plot to keep Austin out of the semifinals was thwarted, but the way it played didn't make a ton of sense.
- Speaking Regal, his gimmick was downright awful. What was even worse was the personal issues he was dealing with at this point of his life. To say that Regal wasn't in the best of mental states during this time period would be an understatement. His horrible "Man's man" gimmick was just the symbolization of that. Despite wearing this awful gimmick, Regal still managed to work in his patented maroon knee pads and boots. The color was a staple of his ring attire for years. Regal has since righted himself and has gone on to play a great influence in the careers of numerous wrestlers, including Daniel Bryan, who wears maroon in homage to Regal.
- Poor Big Boss Man was eliminated from the Deadly Game tournament not once, but twice. He first eliminated himself during his match against Austin after purposely using his nightstick to damage the former champion. His use of the nightstick caused him to be disqualified. When he was inserted to replace Triple H against The Rock, he was quickly rolled up for the three count to be eliminated for the second time. Poor guy
- The wrestling on this show wasn't particularly great, but that wasn't the selling point for this era in WWE anyway. What was fantastic was Jim Ross on commentary. Everyone knows that Ross was and still is a master behind the microphone, but the reason why he is held in such high regard is because of the little things. Little things like mentioning how old the wrestlers were added a coat of realism to the sometimes-unbelievable sport. Not to mention the emotion he displayed, when it was called for, always added a nice amount of salt and pepper to the steak the viewers were watching at home.