WWF RAW- November 9, 1998

- Yep, yet another Attitude Era RAW show. I don't know any of the angles going into this show, but here we go.

So, on to the action...

X-Pac vs. The Undertaker

Pretty big match to start the show off here. I doubt it'll last very long. That's not because of either participant, but because I believe its here to advance the angle between X-Pac and Kane.

'Taker stalks Pac to start. X-Pac ducks a punch and lays in some kicks in the corner. 'Taker catches Pac as he stops to taunt, and throws him to the corner for some punching and stomping. Suddenly the lights go out and Kane's pyro goes off. He walks to the ring and, in an "infamous" moment "shoots" a "fireball" in X-Pac's face.

Winner: No Contest

Rating: DUD- Do I have to explain?

- X-Pac is, of coure, stretchered out.

After that, we're back to the action.

Val Venis (w/Terri Runnels) vs. Steve Blackman

- In my last RAW review Venis and Blackman were two of the better workers on the whole show. So, they should have a good match here.

Before the match begins Val kicks Terri to the back.

To start, Blackman charges Val, as he's resting in the corner. Val moves and punches away. Blackman gets whipped across, Venis charges and eats a boot. Blackman charges and takes a drop toehold. Back up, Irish whip, Blackman ducks a clothesline and hits a sidekick. Blackman dropkicks Val to the corner. Blackman chops away and gets a few well placed punches. Blackman hits a double-underhook suplex. Blackman forearms Val's neck a few times. He chops Val's throat. Blackman goes to an odd looking chinlock. Val fights up and elbows his way out. A running shoulderlbock knocks Blackman down. Blackman gets a clothesline. Blackman hits a snap-suplex with a bridge for two. Blackman chops and kicks away, he hits an elbow drop. Back up, Val takes a corner whip. Blackman runs into a backelbow. Blackman counters a charge with an armdrag. Two big martial arts kicks put Val down for two. Back up, Blackman hits a bodyslam. He drops an elbow. Blackman tries a clothesline and gets backdropped over the top. From the apron Blackman scores with a kick but a sunset flip attempt misses. Inside, Blackman reverses a crossbody for two. Val ducks a clothesline and nails one of his own. Val gets his trademark running knees on the ropes. Val hits a Russian Legsweep and does his stupid gyrating taunt. Terri, obviously kind of mad from earlier comes out of nowhere and lowblows Val from behind, drawing the disqualification. Damn...

Terri bails to the back as The Blue Blazer comes down to stomp on Blackman.

Winner: Val Venis (By Disqualification)

Rating: *1/2- I expected more from these two. The match was okay, but Terri's antics kind of ruined it.

- In the back, Mankind's getting a haircut.

Our next match is a triple threat match, featuring D'Lo Brown wrestling Mosh and The Road Dogg in a triple threat match.

D'Lo Brown (w/Mark Henry) vs. "The Road Dogg" Jesse James (w/Billy Gunn) vs. Mosh (w/Thrasher)

- This match was part of the buildup for the triple-threat tag match at Survivor Series 1998, just to let you know.

D'Lo jumps the gun early, pounding Road Dogg down in the corner. Dogg hammers out, and its a slugfest. D'Lo takes control with a few punches knocking Dogg down. Mosh finally makes it to the ring, he avoids a D'Lo clothesline and they exchange some punches. Mosh takes control as Dogg hits him from behind. Dogg hits a bodyslam. He reverses a D'Lo Irish whip, leapfrogs D'Lo and D'Lo and Mosh have a little meeting of the minds moment sending Mosh to the floor. Dogg clotheslines D'Lo down. Mosh clotheslines Dogg down. He goes to some mounted punching. Mosh with a whip across, its reversed, he ducks a clothesline and rolls Dogg up for two. Back up, Dogg scores with a toehold, D'Lo drops a leg on Mosh and covers for two. Dogg covers Mosh but D'Lo breaks it up. D'Lo hits a bodyslam on Dogg. A second rope elbow drop gets two. Mosh breaks it, covers, D'Lo breaks it. Back up, D'Lo pounds Mosh and drops him over the top turnbuckle with a snake eyes. D'Lo now attacks Dogg with some punches in the corner. Dogg takes a whip to the corner but avoids a charge. Mosh gets the ten-punch with D'Lo facing away from him. From behind, Road Dogg rolls him up for two. Back up, Mosh chokes Dogg on the ropes. D'Lo goes to help as I notice the refferee is actually Shane McMahon. What the Hell? Mosh and D'Lo continue to choke the Dogg. With both men standing on his back, Mosh dumps D'Lo over the top. Mosh covers Dogg, but gets pulled to the floor. D'Lo decks Mosh and snap-suplexes Dogg on the inside. D'Lo stops to taunt long enough for Mosh to drop a leg and almost pin Road Dogg. D'Lo breaks it with a kick. D'Lo hits a falling headbutt to Dogg's pound puppies and he and Mosh stomp away.

I'm amazed this thing isn't over yet......

In a "surprising" moment, Mosh turns on D'Lo and hits a DDT. Mosh tries a top-rope legdrop on Dogg, but misses. D'Lo tries the Low Down on Mosh but he moves. Everyone sells for a minute before they come to. Road Dogg fights back with his usual stuff. He gets his "Shaky, Shaky" punches followed by a double clothesline. Dogg goes spastic with the crotch chops, but D'Lo counters a whip with a sit-out powerbomb. D'Lo stands up to taunt and turns around into Mosh's stage dive. That gets three.

Winner: Mosh

Rating: *- Not too bad considering the participants involved. While D'Lo was pretty good no one here was really a wrestling dynamo by any means and the match quality reflects that.

- Post match, Billy Gunn comes hits the ring and cleans house of the 'Bangers and Henry/'D'Lo.

- Interview: Jeff Jarrett gives a generic heel promo and Debra looks hot. 'Nuff said.

- Backstage, Mankind's getting a pedicure.

(Yep, you read that right, unfortunately......)

Our next match should be a pretty solid one; Goldust faces off with Jeff Jarrett

Goldust vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra)

Goldust enters first. Terri's there begging him to take her back. She's back in her old Marlena outift with the gold dress and a cigar.

Jarrett makes his entrance, Debra distracts Goldie to start and Jarrett knees him to the floor. Jarrett follows him with some punching before throwing him back in. Jarrett scores with a crossbody, Goldie rolls through and counters for two. Goldie scores with a few punches, a whip and a mid-ring butt splash. I never liked that move. Jarrett counters a whip to the corner. He charges and catches a boot. Goldie misses a clothesline but catches Jarrett with an atomic drop. Jarrett gets clotheslined over the top. Jarrett drags Goldie out, but gets beaten to the punch. Jarrett eats some steps. Debra distracts Goldie (and can you blame him?) allowing Jarrett to score with a clothesline. Back inside, Goldie hits his uppercut when Jarrett sets early off a whip. Goldie scores with a running bulldog for two. Jarrett suffers the ten punch in the corner before Goldie sets up for the Shattered Dreams. Jarrett begs off as Debra comes in to talk Goldie out of it. With him distracted Jarrett escapes to the floor. Goldie decides to take the time to plant a big nasty kiss on Deb. Goldie turns around into a guitar shot moments later.

Winner: Goldust (By Disqualification)

Rating: 3/4*- Another little 3/4* star match. Jarrett and Goldust could have a much better match if they wanted to.

- We cut backstage to see The Rock arriving to the arena.

- Cole interviews The Rock and he says he's going to "lay the smack down on Mark Henry's fat ass". Literally moments after Rock walks into his dressing room Goldust and Jarrett brawl past Cole. Goldust takes over, but before he can do too much damage the Blue Blazer blindsides Goldie.

Back to the in-ring action Ken Shamrock is down and ready to wrestle Mankind.

Ken Shamrock vs. Mankind- Hardcore Match

- Vince McMahon is down to watch this match. This was the time period where Vince was grooming Mankind to be his new "corporate champion" after the Rock "turned-face" and left the corporation.

Mankind enters wearing a suit. Shamrock attacks quickly with some punching and kicking offense. Irish whip, Mankind catches a backelbow. Shamrock stomps away. Back up, Mankind gets whipped across, Shamrock catches him with a jumping heel kick. Shamrock hits a couple kneedrops. Back up, Mankind decks Shamrock with a single punch. He hits him with a shoe and pulls off his suit jacket and chokes away with it. Mankind with a choke over the second rope. In the corner, Mankind kicks away in his socks and sets Shamrock up for the tree of woe. Mankind hits an elbow. Mankind drags Shamrock to the floor and sets up for a vertical suplex; Shamrock cradles him for two. Mankind recovers and eats a kick and a clothesline. Shamrock hammers away wth Mankind's shoe. Mankind slumps into a chair and eats a few kicks. Shamrock hits him with the hardcore belt. Shamrock continues to pound on Mankind as Mankind eats some announce table. Shamrock continues to punch away. Mankind counters a clothesline with a backdrop sending Shamrock crashing down on the table. Mankind punches and stomps Shamrock down behind the announce table. Talk about a real punchy-kicky match.......

Mankind tosses a chair and then Shamrock back inside. Shamrock counters a piledriver with a backdrop in the ring as Jerry Lawler makes fun of Mankind's ugly shoes. Mankind tries to roll out, but gets caught and punched a bit before being clotheslined over the top. Shamrock follows and tries a whip to the steps but Mankind counters. Mankind covers for two. Shamrock gets tossed to the humanoids, he kicks and hammers away as Mankind comes over the barricade after him. Shamrock chokes with some camera wire. Mankind counters with a Mandible Claw, Shamrock breaks it with a modified belly-to-belly onto the steps. Shamrock follows up with a couple kicks and a whip to the apron before scoring with a belly-to-belly suplex. Shamrock screams and goes for the ankle lock, Mankind counters with a low blow and scores with a big chairshot. A DDT on to the chair gets two for Mankind. Shamrock recovers and rolls out of the way of a couple more chairshots, so Mankind simply stomps away. Mankind goes to a headlock and gets back-suplexed on the steel stage for two. Back up Shamrock tries for a running chair shot but gets backdropped on the steel staging. Mankind stops to taunt and turns around into a sick chairshot. Shamrock stops to taunt and Bossman (who was out with Vince) hits him with his nightstick and Mankind covers for three.

Winner: Mankind (By Pinfall)

Rating: ***- Really well put together little brawl. Mankind and Shamrock always seemed to click, and this was pretty good.

- Austin comes down to cut a promo. Bossman interrupts him promising he'll make Austin "serve hard time." (ohh, kinky......)

- Cut backstage; the Rock is layed out.

Back to the action.

Al Snow (w/Head) vs. Tiger Ali Singh (w/Babu)

Its our long-awaited rematch to the epic Leif Cassidy/Tiger match from 1997's One Night Only. That match sucked, and this one probably will too.

Incidentally, Babu, Tiger's man servant wants to come back to the WWE.

Snow jumps Tiger with the head to start. Tiger stalls on the floor as Debra's tits followed shortly by Debra comes sauntering down to the ring. Snow and Deb's man Jeff Jarrett are in the first round of the Title Tournament at the '98 Survivor Series, just to let you know. Meanwhile Tiger slaps Babu and throws him inside. Snow taunts Babu. Babu hammers Snow and whips him off, Snow reverses and hits a knee to the gut. Snow nails a wheel-barrow German suplex. He stomps away. Babu eats some turnbuckle. Snow gets a bodyslam and is distracted by Tiger. Babu jumps Snow with some puncing and takes control. Babu punches away in the corner. Snow reverses a whip to the corner. He hits the ropes, Tiger lowbridges him causing him to crash and burn on the floor. On the floor Tiger stomps away. Snow fights back with some trapped-arm headbutts and a clothesline. Snow chases Tiger into the ring, but he escapes. Snow hits the Snowplow on Babu for the win.

Winner: Al Snow

Rating: DUD- Complete nothing match. Babu wasn't even a "real" wrestler at the time and Tiger was too low on the totem pole to even matter.

Postmatch, Debra grabs Snow's mannequin head. Distracted, Tiger hits a bulldog from behind for the win(???)

Winner: Tiger Ali Singh

Rating: DUD- I'm confused. Not like it matters, anyway. Tiger sucked never meant anything anyway.

- I don't see what the point of that was. The Babu stuff was meaningless, and the outcome of Tiger/Snow could've been the same anyway, without all the stupid Babu stuff that came first.

- We cut backstage to see Rock being loaded into an ambulance. Vince says he'll soon be unemployted.

Back to the action and our next match is; Edge wrestling Kane.

- I can't beleive this nothing match, with Kane embrolied in a feud with Undertaker, being fed a lower carder in the form of Edge became a Main Event level feud six years later.

My how times have changed......

Edge vs. Kane

I love the Brood's music. I must mention that. Kane makes his entrance with a torch and gasoline can in hand. That can't be good.

Why hasn't anyone arrested Kane for attempting to kill X-Pac with that fireball earlier?

Edge charges to start, he avoids a clothesline and an elbow but gets big-booted down. Kane hits Great Khali's finisher. Edge eats turnbuckle and Kane hammers away. Kane with a choke in the corner. Edge gets Irish whipped, Kane sets early and catches a kick to the face. Edge avoids a clothesline and clotheslines Kane over the top. Kane lands on his feet and drags Edge to the floor to hammer on him. Edge goes to the barricade. Kane tosses Edge back in. Edge catches Kane with a kick and a couple punches. Kane shuts him down with knee to the gut. Kane gets a whip and a bodyslam. Edge avoids an elbow drop. Edge slugs away, but Kane no sells. Off the ropes, Edge ducks a big boot. Edge tries a hurricanranna but Kane stuffs his ass with a powerbomb. Edge is muscled to the top. Gangrel distracts the ref, Chrisitan grabs Kane's leg to distract him. Edge catches Kane with flying dropkick but he doesn't go down. Edge hits a DDT but Kane sits back up. Kane pounds his way back into it and uppercuts Edge over the top. Edge lands on the apron and gets pounded on. Edge gets hung over the top. Kane hits a flying clothesline. Christian tries to distract Kane but gets nailed. Edge gets pressed out on top of Gangrel. Kane rolls to the floor and decks Christian. Kane hits running springboard clothesline off the steps on Edge. Back up, Gangrel eats some barricade. Kane tosses Edge back in, but gets beat down by Gangrel and Christian. A baseball slide dropkick from Edge goes unsold. A crossbody takes Kane down. Moments later Christian and Gangrel stupidly interfere in plain view of the ref drawing the disqualification on Edge. Why would they do that if Edge already had the advantage?

Stupid.......

Winner: Kane (By Disqualification)

Rating: *- Not too bad. Kane looked good and motivated, and it wasn't a squash like I thought it would be- so that's cool.

- After the match Kane beats up all three guys. He tries to set them on fire but a bunch of officials talk him out of it.

Before the main event McMahon cuts an anti-Rock promo. Mark Henry makes his entrance.

Main Event- The Rock vs. Mark Henry (w/D'Lo Brown)

The Rock makes his entrance and simply blitzkriegs Henry with some punching. Rock kicks away in the corner and punches Henry down before stomping him some more. Rock chokes away with his boot before smashing Henry's head to the buckle. Henry takes a whip to the corner. Rocky scores with a hard knockdown clothesline. Rock stomps away and drags Henry to the apron to hammer him across the throat. Rock drags Henry out and Henry eats some steps. Rock continues punching away. Henry reverses a whip to the barricade. Henry stops to taunt and gets run over with a clothesline. Rocky tries to pick Henry up but gets caught in the little boulders. Back inside Henry stomps away. Henry works over Rocky's back with couple forearm shots. Henry chokes Rock over the second rope. D'Lo Brown gets a cheapshot from the outside. Inside Rock blocks two vertical suplex attempts and gets one of his own. Rock follows up with some stomping and clubberin'. Henry gets whipped to the corner. He avoids a charge and knocks Rocky down with a clothesline. Henry lands a big elbow for two. Back up, Henry catches Rock in a bearhug off a whip. Rock withers in pain, or maybe its just the smell, for a moment before pounding his way out of it. Henry goes to the eyes to maintain control. A whip is reversed, and Rock powerslams Henry for two. Back up, Rock ducks a clothesline and punches away before running Henry over with a clothesline of his own. Rocky hits a series of knockdown clotheslines and gets a Russian legsweep for two. D'Lo distracts the ref for whatever reason, and Rocky goes downstairs with a punch. Back up, Henry reverses a whip and catches Rock with a powerslam for two.

Rocky comes back to his feet and stumbles to the corner. D'Lo distracts the ref while the Bossman tries to interfere and handcuff Rock to the ring post, but Bossman winds up being handcuffed instead. Vince and the stooges charge the ring as Rock hits a DDT. D'Lo pulls the ref before he can count. D'Lo runs into a Rock clothesline and gets clotheslined over the top. Inside Henry clotheslines himself into a Rock Bottom. Rocky follows up with a People's Elbow for the pin as another ref runs out to make the count.

Winner: The Rock (By Pinfall)

Rating: *1/2- Shockingly good match. Henry's a fucking slug of a wrestler but Rocky defintiely carried his big butt to a decent match.

As the show goes off the air Rocky Rock Bottoms a helpless Vince.

Final Thoughts: Another stock and standard RAW. A couple decent matches, a good brawl, and a shockingly decent Rock/Mark Henry main event.

Reccomend: Yes. If you're a fan of this era of wrestling or anyone involved here then go ahead. Otherwise, take it or leave it.