Review: WWF-WWE Over The Edge 1998

Brett Mix’s- WWF Over The Edge 1998 Review:

 

 

“Austin, Austin, Austin! has overcome all the ODDS once again! Stone Cold has done it!!!” -Jim Ross

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In Memory of Randy “MACHO MAN” Savage

 ?-This is the first Review I’ve written after my favourite wrestler (Savage aka Poffo) has passed. I dedicate this Review to him. You’ll be missed by everyone in the wrestling world Randy.

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-WWF Over The Edge 1998 was a wrestling (PPV) event produced by the WWF. The event took place on Sunday, May the 31st 1998 in front of 9,822 fans at the Milwaukee Center Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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-This main feud heading into Over the Edge was between Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin, the rebellious WWF Champion who would face Dude Love and McMahon stacked the odds against Austin on this night to make sure there would be a new WWF Champion.

-The Undertaker was interested in the WWF title match so he watched at ring-side but did not compete at this event.

-This was the 1st of two Over The Edge PPV events, they scrapped the name of the event after thThe 1999 PPV where Owen Hart fell to his death.

-This was In Your House #22.

-This Event got a PPV buyrate of 0.58 which was considered DECENT considering the card, but a little dissapointing considering the Raw ratings were getting much, much higher, and by this point Raw had snapped Nitro and their winning streak due to the Austin-McMahon rivalry.

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-During this event Mad Dog Vachon (Now a WWE Hall of Famer) and The Crusher were both recognized for their past achievments in Wrestling. It was a pretty funny segment considering Jerry Lawler (at his heel best) got in the ring, took off the artificial leg of Mad Dog and tried to mess around.

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-Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler did commentary for the PPV.

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Now onto the PPV…..

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1) Opening Contest- The D.O.A. (8-Bull and Skull) (With Chainz) vs L.O.D. 2000 (Hawn and Animal) (With Sunny and Droz)

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To begin, for this show I am not going to do my usual play by play followed by overall thoughts, rather, I am going to just give my thoughts on the match instead.

Over The Edge 1998 opened with Sunny and the New LOD coming out with a lot of momentum and a hot crowd in the attitude era ready for some tag-team action.

Road Warrior Hawkman-handled the DOA which was like a Demolition re-created and that is a pretty solid re- creation.

In the end at 9:56 THE LOD won the match.

This opener was a little slow to be honest but the crowd factor certainly didn’t help.

I imagine some Morgue’s are louder then Milwaukee was for this opener.

For some reason the DOA never got much out of the crowd no matter who they were up against. Maybe fans just didn’t dig the Biking gimmick.

Either way this was by all means decent.

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** 1/4

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2) Jeff Jarrett (With Tennessee Lee) vs Steve Blackman

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This was a solid-undercard-match here on Over the Edge 98.

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This match was good, it finished 10:18 when Double J won.

A dead crowd once more but a pretty good story from a methodical stand-point.

Double J was always a little underrated and even he was never main event material in the WWF (I agree with Steve Austin there) he could still get a lot out of mid-carders like Scott Hall and Steve Blackman here for instance.

He also could have good matches with the likes of D-Lo Brown, X-Pac, etc….

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** 1/2

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3) Marc Mero vs Sable in an Intergender Match

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Marc Mero, if he lost had to give Sable her freedom.

Mero said he would not battle her and he could not believe it had come to all of this considering their history together and sucked her into believing him.

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He layed down for the pinfall.

Sable covers Mero.

Mero turns her over and gets the quick, 1-2-3, Lawler calls it brilliant.

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In the end at 0:21 Mero out-smarted Sable and got the victory.

Mero tells Sable to get the hell out of the WWF.

A slick move and one of the only times I found myself marking for Mero. The guy is a complete idiot these days.

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This match was pretty creative I suppose but Sable came back pretty shortly as they all due.

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1/2*

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4) Kaientai (Dick Togo, Mens Teioh, and Sho Funaki) vs Taka Michinoku and Justin Bradshaw in a Handicap match

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A lot of back and forth work here that the crowd did not care for in the least

In the end at 9:54 Kaientai ended up getting the win.

A little ahead of its time this one was.

WC Dubbya were putting on a lot of quick ones, WWF tried to compete a little bit but no one cared about the characters.

Plus they had a fine influx of Power and quick, aerial competitor’s in this one.

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This match was decent in a lot of areas.

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** 1/2

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5) The Rock (c) vs Farooq for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

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Rock had gotten injured earlier in the night after Farooq piledrived him and Owen was worried about the health of the great one at Over the Edge. Kind of Ironic the following year it would be the other way around and FOR REAL.

Rock did not show up the first few times his music was played but when forced he sold the neck and competed because he had been a great IC Champion to this point.

Some of the crowd started to dig The Rock who was really coming into his own around this time, and the other half chanted Rocky Sucks so he was over no matter what. Just what you want if you are a promoter handling talent

The Rock had length when bragging about his reign and rightfully so.

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In the end at 5:02 The Rock found away to hold on as he usually did.

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This match was pretty dissapointing to say the least but given the storyline it made sense for it to be short.

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1/2*

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6) Vader vs Kane (With Paul Bearer) in a Mask vs Mask match

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Loser had to un-mask.

Two tough guys going at it here.

Funny thing is I remember being on a chat-line on WWF.com during this match and I still remember people complaining about if Vader lossed since they had seen him numerous times without a mask. I guess they forgot Kane was Glen Jacobs, Isaac Yankem and the Fake Diesel or wanted to see the burns that we were all told about from the character of Kane. Hard to believe as of this writing in 2011 I have been apart of the IWC since 1997, fourteen years. One thing has remained constant in that time. People bitch.

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Vader irishwhippdr Kane and went for a moonsault and missed. Kane won.

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In the end at 7:20 Kane defeated Vader and Vader unmasked calling himself a fat piece of Shi* in the process post match.

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This match was kept relatively short and that was good thing.

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* 1/4

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7) The Nation (Owen Hart, Kama Mustafa, and D-Lo Brown) (with Mark Henry) vs DX (Triple H, Bad Ass Billy Gunn, and Road Dogg) (with Chyna and X-Pac)

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One of the more underrated feuds in the WWF.

The WCW had a larger faction war with the WCW vs the nWo but the WWF had DX versus the Nation which was certainly entertaining in segments, but not always the matches.

The crowd was rather dead for this one.

Owen Hart competing at his final Over the Edge, the event he would die at the following year and teaming with the man he was supposed to face the next year in Charles Wright. (AKA the Godfather) which is a little ironic I suppose)

Owen was working well as a face but they went back TO HIS natural route as a heel.

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Frequenmt tags in and out of this one. Thr Road Doggg Jesse James would take it to D-LO ansd then Owen Hart tooooooooooook it to Road Dogg. Road Dogg with a good advantage on Owen.

Owen Hart with a dangerous Inziguri to the Dogg. Owen and Dogg really carried the bulk of this match, or the good wrestling part. HHH, D-Lo and Gunn were alright as well I suppose.

Kama has times where he comes in witrh a rerverse chinlockvon Road Dogg.

Boring in areas.

Owen wins the matchwith the Pedgiree on HHH. Finally the Sole Survivor gets the win on HHH.

In the end 18:33 The Nation got the win after Owen finally got the upperhand on HHH.

Owen was the king of this Over the Edge anyways.

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* 1/4

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8 ) Main Event- Dude Love vs Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) with Vince McMahon the special referee for the WWF Championship

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The only time Dude Love ever appears near Foley’s favourite performances.

For good reason here.

Hilarious intro where the stooges suck up to everyone on the McMahon-heel side and they even had the Brisco Brothers advertising as apart of the stage set up. Brilliant.

Austin was insane over.

A red hot crowd in Milwaukee (The Birth place of Austin 3:16) helped a top notch attitude era brawl where both injured bodies bumped like hell all match to produce a classic.

Steve Austin and Mick Foley bump like crazy in this wild war.

Here we go.

Fans chant Austin, Austin, Austin, every chance they get.

Dude Love and Austin circle one another and McMahon tells Austin to back off, he flips him off to a huge ovation.

Austin in great shape here. Austin into a side headlock hit with a shoulder block by Foley. A quick count by McMahon and Austin questions it.

Major Austin chants now as Undertaker who was a tweener at this point stands outside the ring. Dude Love buries his knee to the abdomen of Austin and then off the ropes hits a side headlock takedown.

Austin begins to fight back with a reverse elbow and a side headlock takeover of his own.
Some technical wrestling with brawling to ensure this is a Classic.

Crowd chant `Vince is Gay`, but Ross covers it up or has horrible ears saying the crowd are saying Vince is dead. Austin flipped Dude over and stomped on Dude`s teeth.
Austin kicked at by Dude. Dude headbutts Austin in the corner.

Love irishwhipped Austin and he ducked a clothesline hitting the Thesz Press. Austin clotheslines Dude to the floor to a major ovation. Austin rammed Mick into the barricade. Austin then got tossed into the steel steps. Dude Love slams Austin into the barricade then the steps, McMahon trashtalks him.

Dude Love with a side Russian Legsweep. Austin kicked on Dude in the corner, a reverse irishwhip and a Mandible Claw but Austin hangs the Dude inthe ropes.

An awesome attitude era brawl.

Foley lost an ear that way.

Undertaker makes sure McMahon is being an appropriate official. Dude Love stomps on Austin as Patterson makes the match a NO DQ match as of now.

Lawler and King are great on commentary in 1998 and 99, just tremendous.

Dude Love choked the Rattlesnake with cords. Austin fought back beating the hell out of

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Dude Love flipping him off and then dropping him with a clothesline. Austin brought Mick in with a huge clothesline.

Austin rolls Dude back into the ring and choked him out on the middle rope before getting caught on a charge. Dude avoided it, as Stone Cold crashed and burned. Foley hit a baseball slide into Austin onto the floor. Dude Love slides out of the ring and hits a swinging neckbreaker onto the concrete floor.

Patterson now says Falls Count Anywhere. Dude Love with a backslide on the concrete and McMahon only gets a two count.

Austin comes back charging at Foley taking him down with a clothesline. Austin ran at Dude and he got backdropped onto a carhood from the entrance stage and the windshield crashed open from Stone Cold`s boot.

McMahon made a two count on a car.

Everything about this match is Classic.

Great environment, great battle, great story. Austin battled back with rights but Dude rakes the eyes. Austin with a hotshot, stungun onto a car and Dude Love kicked out at two. Undertaker there to make sure McMahon counts properly.

Austin on top of a car goes for a Stunner but Dude shoved him to the concrete. Dude on top of a car hit a sunset flip onto the concrete from the hood of a car and got a close two.

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Amazing.

Steve rammed into the steel barricade by Mrs. Foley`s baby boy. Hey, I`ve always wanted to say that.

Dude with a lead pipe holds it in the air. Austin struggling to his feet is hit with it is a bloody mess. A suplex onto the concrete but Dude elects not to cover a bloody Austin. Dude Love takes his time driving the elbow onto Austin off of a car hood but Steve moves. Austin covered Dude Love but Austin got a long two from McMahon. Austin kicked at Dude Love some more and rams him into the steps. Dude is bloodied and has Austin in a claw, grabs a chair and smacked Stone Cold down.
Dude Love with a double armed ddt to Austin onto a chair, and he just kicks out. McMahon is pissed. Austin kicked a chair into the face of Dude Love. Austin smacks Dude in the face, McMahon doesen`t count. Fans boo.

Austin goes after McMahon, Dude hits McMahon with a chair as Austin ducks.
Stunner! Keota counts a two as Patterson dragged him out of the ring. The claw on Austin. Taker grabbed Patterson, chokeslam through the table. Brisco goes to count and now Taker chokeslams him through the other.

Austin hit a Stunner on Foley again!

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In the end at 24:45 Steve Austin got the three after counting his own pin that ended by McMahon`s hand only as said before the match.

Austin simply just followed the rules.

Memorable moments in the match include:

King saying Foley lost his smile once he loses his teeth! Jr’s reaction to that in a sarcastic tone. That commentary duo was legendary in 1998.
Also who could forget Austin stomping on Foley’s teeth on the canvas. Absolute Gold.

The ending is incredibally memorable with help from the Undertaker and bumping by the Stooges. This is the attitude era at its finest in the Austin Era.

This match is an absolute clinic and a top match in both men’s career. Far and away the best match they ever had together.

What a way to end the only good Over the Edge PPV.

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**** 1/2

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Final Rating for WWF Over the Edge 1998 = 5.5/10

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This show had a magnificent main event. One of the best matches in both the career of Austin and Foley. Arguably in the top 10-15 Austin matches and definitely a top 5-10 Foley match. Not much else from the event was that memorable tbh. The Main Event scores about 2.5-3 points.

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