WWF Raw 6/8/98: A Fine Episode of Wrestling TV

I didn't feel like watching AEW tonight, but here's an old episode of Raw filled with a ton of pairings that I loved. I did not write about any of the DX segments, but they happened - were plentiful - and were skipped. 

Kama Mustafa vs. Ken Shamrock

ER: This was an opening round King of the Ring match, and they worked it like a 3 minute round in a Different Style Fight. That's exactly what you want from this pairing, and it's one of the best Kama performances we have. He came off like a cool shoot fighting monster here, integrating kicks and strikes with cool big man pro wrestling like a heavy avalanche, hard clothesline to shamrock's chest, and a brick wall shoulderblock. This had a nice Brawl for All feel to it, but if the fights were actually interesting in a worked way. Kama should have worked like this more often. Shamrock always tried weird things in the first year of his WWF run, here he gets caught in a big slam after leaping up knees first into Kama's shoulders like he was going for his rana on someone super tall, or adlibbing a chest breaker. Shamrock gets a cool roll into the ankle lock, this whole thing ruled. 

Marc Mero/Jeff Jarrett vs. Faarooq/Steve Blackman 

ER: This tag has a cool FMW feel to it, even though it features four guys who didn't work FMW. It's got a martial arts guy, a boxer, a Memphis guy, and a tough guy power wrestler. And they all wrestled as those exact styles so the whole thing was a constant style clash in the best way. Blackman was working somewhat awkwardly timed karate sequences, Jarrett caught Blackman in a nice Russian legsweep, Mero threw punches, Faarooq threw big blocks into shoulder joints and yanked on an arm, it was great. Over in less than 3 minutes, cool combination of the roster. 

Scorpio vs. Owen Hart

ER: This was always a great pairing, and this match is no different. We got this pairing a lot, and it felt more like a regular WCW series, like Malenko/Eddie. The crowd was real icy here for no reason, certainly not for lack of effort. I think Scorpio was pretty low profile at that point and people weren't taking to Owen's tough whiny guy heel turn. Confusing characters aside, the ring action was as fun as you'd expect. They were the only guys on this episode to go off the top rope, and they still worked as snug as the other matches. So you had sturdy landing German suplexes and a big heavy Scorpio crossbody, each had stiff spinkick variations, nice mix of snug work and flying. Owen takes out Scorpio's leg with a real nasty chop block, cool way to set up a submission finish. 

Chainz vs. Darren Drozdov

ER: Chainz was the worker of DOA, but it was pretty surprising to see him (fairly easily) beat Drozdov here. I liked the way they ran into each other, liked how Chainz actually made Droz duck on clotheslines, and thought Chainz made good use of his offense. He's got a good big boot, and a great high rotation powerslam, and he missed a kneedrop off the middle turnbuckle like he was Bobby Eaton. Droz at this point didn't have the poise of a wrestler, not quite blending from one spot to the next very well. Did that get better by a year later? I honestly don't remember anything about the in ring abilities of 1999 Droz. Chainz was gone from WWF this same month, so again it's so weird seeing him get a clean roll up finish, but hey, I'm a Chainz guy. 

Mark Henry vs. Vader

ER: These two weren't in the same place for too long, so I'm glad we got a few singles matches out of it at least. This was the first of their singles matches, and I imagine if these two crossed paths in another time, another place, we could have had some real classics. But I still loved what little we got here, and it really felt like something that could have been good for both if they ran with it. You know it's a big hoss battle when JR compares them with at least four different kinds of animal (we got bulls, Clydesdales, thankfully avoided comparison to large apes, but I got more nervous as he was running through the large mammals), and it's awesome that these two are not only identically sized but really similarly built. They both do these cool full arm strikes while refusing to budge, both standing chest to chest and throwing arms at heads. Henry leans way into throwing a nice elbow strike, Vader boxes his ears, and we get some cool attempts at Vader slamming Henry. Henry makes a show of doing a clean jerk on Vader, snatching him up and walking with him a bit before slamming, and then hits a great elbowdrop and great legdrop (Vader sells the legdrop like Henry landed all his weight on Vader's eye socket). It feels like a big moment when Vader hits a slam on Henry, and I liked how they set up Henry powerslamming Vader after Vader leapt off the middle rope. Sadly, Taker comes down to the ring wearing joggers and a weightlifting sweatshirt that hugs his gut, then relies on these two leaping into his chokeslam. Taker was interrupting stuff all night and it made Henry and Vader look like real dweebs to just lie there and put up literally no fight whatsoever. 

D-Lo Brown vs. Dan Severn

ER: Thankless crowd, but some great stuff happened here. Severn was a little slow on the draw, more hesitation than in his other WWF matches so far, but D-Lo did a really great job of filling in the gaps. Severn kept locking in these real constricting rear waistlocks and gets some heavy landing amateur takedowns. D-Lo throws some nice overhand rights and is surprisingly good at neutralizing Severn as Severn is going for takedowns. I don't remember seeing matches with much D-Lo grappling, and I can't imagine he was doing a ton of that pre-WWF vs. Wolfman or Power Ranger in Smoky Mountain. But you could see it here as Severn goes after takedowns like a Pitbull and D-Lo is great at grabbing Severn's leg to block things and make his body dead weight. That dead weight makes Severn's big suplexes look earned and finisher worthy. D-Lo knocks Severn down with a nice calf kick, then taunts him and clubs him while down, leading to Severn grabbing his arm and throwing him with a trap arm belly to belly. Severn's German suplex is a real highlight, and this one was closer to a Tamon Honda Dead End than any other suplexes being thrown in 1998 WWF. Severn threw D-Lo much more like an MMA suplex, the form looked a lot like Frank Shamrock dropping Igor Zinoviev. It would have been a cool time to try a stoppage finish. The match was already getting a totally icy reception, it's not like a KO stoppage would have made things worse. I'm sure it would have made Severn look like more of a threat than the bow and arrow submission he finished D-Lo with, if only because the application of the hold took far longer than it should have. The hold itself looked awesome when it was finally applied, looked like he could snap D-Lo in half, but the application was unnecessarily sluggish. Still, the overall match was one of the strongest match-ups for Severn, and would like a return match. Wait is this the submission that lead to D'Lo getting his chest protector? Maybe it was a worthwhile finish. 

Val Venis vs. Dustin Runnels

ER: This had kind of a weird match dynamic, as Venis gets his full entrance and long pre-match promo, while Dustin is already waiting in the ring. But Venis works heel through the whole match, and Dustin gets arguably the best in ring babyface reaction of the night. The crowd was mostly quiet through a lot of the wrestling, but when Dustin comes out of the corner punching Venis and hitting a swing for the fences lariat to knock Val to the floor, the crowd was alive. They don't fully capitalize on that reaction, as they quiet things back down as Venis controls with decent punches, and I liked how they worked through a miscommunication. Dustin had gotten Irish whipped into the ropes and came out with a great back sell, dropping to his knees. Val had clearly been running in with a clothesline right as Dustin dropped to his knees, and Val took the opportunity to use his outstretched arm to lock in a sleeper. I really like how they transitioned things back to Dustin, as they do a good version of that transition Faarooq always puts in matches, where he catches knees to his balls after dropping his weight down on his opponent. Venis works it far more plausibly than Faarooq and Dustin aims the knee perfectly. Dustin practically takes Val's arm off with a great arm drag, and the crowd reacts big to Dustin's dropdown uppercut and great old school style bulldog. Sweatpants Undertaker also interrupts this one with chokeslams for both, so we get deprived of another finish. It was cool to hear the crowd so into Dustin, as I'd remembered that being a more unappreciated era for him. 

8-Ball/Skull vs. LOD 2000 vs. New Age Outlaws

ER: This had some rough moments, as both Hawk and Animal looked completely washed, both stumbling and/or losing their balance after multiple spots. Even with unsure footing, Animal hits a great powerslam and Hawk hits a wobbly-but-nice enziguiri. The Outlaws were the ones who saved this, as they actually looked great. The highlight for me was this great drop toehold/kneedrop combo they did, which I get sounds like a way to backhand compliment a match, except it was a perfect drop toehold/kneedrop. Gunn's drop toehold was especially great, really grapevines that leg to force a faceplant, right at the exact moment Road Dogg is there with a knee. This is the match that made the "Outlaw Rule" as both eventually wind up in the ring together while the other four guys have to distract themselves so none of them can get in the ring in time to break up the pin. Strong Outlaw performance in a mostly bad match, but the Outlaw highlights were enough. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE