1 Year in Wrestling

LIVE from the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New YorkAttendance: 17,000Winner: Ric FlairCLASSIC WWF!! One of, if not, my favourite Rumble match of all time.The card also included:The New Hart Foundation v The Orient ExpressRoddy Piper v The MountieLOD v The Natural Disasters

A Year in Review of both 1998 and 2022....apologies to our listeners for the recent radio silence!! I explain in this episode.Happy 2023.

August 30th, 1998: NEW YORK: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: attendance 21,588One of the most iconic PPVs of the Attitude Era... D'Lo Brown (c) defeats Val Venis via DQ to retain the title WWF EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP The Oddities (Kurrgan, Giant Silva & Golga) defeat Kaientai (Taka Michinoku, Funaki, Dick Togo & Men's Teioh)4-ON-3 HANDICAP MATCH X-Pac defeats Jeff JarrettHAIR VS. HAIR Edge & Sable defeat Marc Mero & Jacqueline Ken Shamrock defeats Owen HartLION'S DEN MATCH Triple H defeats The Rock (c) to win the titleWWF INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP LADDER MATCH Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) defeats The Undertaker to retain the titleWWF CHAMPIONSHIP

August 8, 1998: STURGIS, NORTH DAKOTA: 8500 attendance Meng defeats The Barbarian The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) defeat The Dancing Fools (Disco Inferno & Alex Wright)STREET FIGHT Saturn defeats Raven and KanyonRAVEN'S RULES TRIANGLE MATCH Rey Mysterio Jr. defeats Psychosis#1 CONTENDER (WCW CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP) Stevie Ray (c) defeats Chavo Guerrero Jr. to retain the titleWCW WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP Steve McMichael defeats Brian Adams Juventud Guerrera defeats Chris Jericho (c) to win the title(Special referee: Dean Malenko)WCW CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP Winner: GoldbergParticipants: Goldberg, The Giant, Lex Luger, Sting, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Curt Hennig, Scott Norton, Konnan"NWO INVITATIONAL" 9-MAN BATTLE ROYAL Diamond Dallas Page & Jay Leno defeat nWo Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan & Eric Bischoff)

It took place on July 26, 1998, at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California. Nine matches were contested at the event.This is the PPV with the infamous Sable "handprints" bikini competition, as well as The Rock v HHH in a 2/3 falls (30min time limit) match....also Undertaker teams with Steve Austin v Kane and Mankind in the Main Event! Who's side is Undertaker on??

July 12, 1998. Cox Arena in San Raven (w/ Scotty Riggs and Lodi) defeated Saturn in a Raven's Rules match (10:40) Juventud Guerrera defeated Kidman (9:55) Stevie Ray defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr. (1:35) Eddie Guerrero defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr. in a Hair versus Hair match (11:54) Konnan (w/ Lex Luger and Kevin Nash) defeated Disco Inferno (w/ Alex Wright) (2:16) The Giant defeated Kevin Greene (6:58) Rey Misterio, Jr. defeated Chris Jericho to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship (6:00) Booker T defeated Bret Hart by disqualification to retain the WCW World Television Championship (8:28) Goldberg defeated Curt Hennig to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (3:50) Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman (w/ The Disciple) defeated Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone(23:47)

This event is one of the Mount Rushmore events of the Attitude Era, simply due to 1 match...Mankind v Undertaker: Hell in a Cell.The First Blood Match with Austin v Kane is actually quite a sleeper of a main event, which is completely understandable considering it had to follow the HiaC.Ken Shamrock wins King of the Ring in a solid match against The Rock.The Nation is becoming incredibly entertaining with Kama now The Godfather and Mark Henry starting to show some personality. Sable is back! Too Cool do their infamous "Head & Shoulders" gag v Al Snow and Head.The New Age Outlaws take on the NEW Midnight Express.X-Pac takes on Owen Hart.

Goldberg....Da Man....hits 100-0 after destroying Konnan.nWo Wolfpac v nWo Hollywood continues to "heat up" as the usual random double-crosses / jersey switching occurs. Here Curt Hennig and Rick Rude jump Konnan after the match to reveal they are still part of nWo Hollywood.Speaking of Hollywood - Hogan & Hart team up in a pretty rotten match v Piper & Macho Man. Hart did not work well in WCW, did he? Hogan and Hart have little to no chemistry...Piper and Mach end up having a strange match after the tag match.The main event saw Sting (red face paint and all) take on a cigarette-smoking Giant for full custody of the tag belts. The best part of the match was watching Giant smoke cigarettes. If the top of the card was lousy (and it was) then the bottom to middle was actually quite good!Malenko v JerichoChavo v EddyBooker T kicks off the night in match 8 in his best of 7 series with Chris Benoit (how is that for Steiner math!)Booker T then takes on Fit Finlay for the TV Title later in the evening.Kanyon v Saturn

Steve Austin v Dude Love II as the headliner - and what a headliner it was!!All the WWF bells & whistles were here in this match: Vince McMahon as the special guest ref, Undertaker as the outside enforcer, Pat Patterson as the special guest ring announcer and Gerald Brisco as the special guest timekeeper.Brilliant stuff, here. The crowd is absolutely rabid for Austin!Aside from that, we have: - DX vs the Nation in a 6-man tag (which had the crowd surprisingly quiet).- Farooq interrupts The Rock during his promo making fun of the audience, giving him some incredible piledrivers that result in The Rock needing to wear a neck brace.- LOD 2000 vs DOA (*crickets)- Kane v Vader in a mask-vs-mask match that results in the infamous "Look at me! I'm so BIG!!" Vader promo after the match, as well as Paul Bearer putting on Vader's mask and declaring it's "Paul Bearer time!!" All in all this is a decent show, but the main event is what really carries the PPV.

You really get the sense that the wind is coming out of the WCW sails at this point.The 83 weeks of WCW ratings dominance has come to an end...DX invaded a WCW broadcast on April 27th...Aside from the Rise of Goldberg - there isn't a lot positive to say about WCW these days.There are some very strange booking decisions in this PPV: The ending of Macho v Bret Hart is way too over-complicated. Eric Bischoff presenting as a good guy vs an absent Vince McMahon. Babyface Sting teaming with a heel Giant vs nWo Wolfpack Nash & Hall where the hot tags and flow of the match point to Hall/Nash being the bad guys...all this makes for a flat viewing experience. There were some positives:Guerrero v Ultimo Dragon (with a conflicted Chavo in Eddy's corner)Jericho awaits the winner of a Cruiserweight Battle Royal - who happens to be a returning Dean Malenko, wearing Lucha gear.The table being set for the Benoit v Booker T best of 7.

As with our previous episode,  this one is a watch-along as well!We will be watching the last 2 matches of this PPV:DDP v Raven for the US Title (in a Ravens Rules match)Macho Man v Sting for the WCW Title.Curious booking having 2 back-to-back no holds barred matches...🤔Macho Man apparently “fought through the agonizing pain of a torn ACL knee ligament to compete in the main event of Spring Stampede '98."This is also what appears to be the genesis of nWo Wolfpack, as Kevin Nash comes down to help Macho win the title.Also, of note, I watched the Goldberg match (v Saturn) as this is where Goldberg is really picking up some steam! He is closing in on a 75-0 winning streak at this stage of things.The match.....is abysmal. I dare you to try and sit through it. THANKS FOR BEING PATIENT WITH THE LATE RELEASES THIS MONTH!SEE YOU IN MAY.- Matt

Sorry for the late podcasts this month!!I have been focusing all my energy on my career pivot/entrepreneurial pursuits and was travelling last week to boot.Nevertheless, today Chris and I are going to do a watch-along for the main event of 1998 WWF PPV Unforgiven.This match is a CLASSIC!! Steve Austin in his first title defence as WWF Heavyweight Champion vs Dude Love, with Vince McMahon lurking on the outside of the ring.Great stuff here.

This is one of the most pivotal events in modern wrestling history.One of the biggest Main Events in the history of our sport: Steve Austin v Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as the Guest Enforcer at ringside. It doesn't get any bigger, it doesn't get any better. Aside from that 5-star Main Event we had Undertaker take on Kane for the first time in one hell of a match!! There was also the infamous Dumpster Match that saw Terry Funk & Cactus Jack take on the New Age Outlaws. Classic stuff.Also:The Rock v Ken ShamrockLOD 2000 debut in a Tag Team Battle RoyalOwen Hart v HHHI vividly remember this PPV. This was at the start of Wrestling becoming mainstream again. The commentating team of Lawler and Ross is so incredible - Ross is at his absolute best here.I maintain: this is one of the most important WWF PPVs of ALL TIME. 'Nuff Said.

RIP Scott Hall. One of the Greats, no doubt."Hey yo.."Hall finally gets his World War III-promised Title Match against Sting.Hogan v Macho inside a solid steel cage.Match of the Night: DDP v Raven v The Man Who Shall Not Be Named! Killer match. Booker T started off the PPV, yet again, defending his TV Title against Eddy Guerrero. Very solid opener.As Chris mentioned, the undercard of this one was solid and the matches (and crowd) got flatter as the evening progressed.Bret Hart v Curt Hennig was the perfect (pun intended) case of this statement...after so many classic battles over the years, you'd expect these 2 to have a mat classic but it just.. fell ..flat. (Plus Bret Hart has some rotten entrance music at this point). Jericho beats Malenko with one of his 1004 holds...and then Mean Gene lives up to his name and verbally destroys Malenko after the match! Hilarious!Giant looks for revenge for his broken neck at the hands of Kevin Nash.The recently turned-heel Scott Stiener faces off against Lex Luger in a short and ugly contest.Fairly solid outing here, overall.

On the flipside - WCW follows up their brutal January show (Souled Out) with a very solid outing here with SuperBrawl 8!Booker T kicks off the evening with great back-to-back matches against Rick Martel, then Saturn.Scott Steiner finally turns on his brother and joins the nWo in a riveting heel turn that has the crowd explode.Macho Man takes on Lex Luger is a fairly decent outing, on the heels of some nWo tensions between Macho and Hogan.Speaking of Hogan - he waits for Sting in the ring with his weightlifter belt taken off and proceeds to whip Sting and strangle him before the main event can even start! Classic heel Hogan.Bret Hart isn't even on the card, curiously...DDP and Beniot have the match of the night and DDP uses a tremendous variation of the Diamond Cutter to win and then leaves through the audience. Great stuff.Jericho has a tainted victory against Juventud and gets Juvies mask as a trophy.

After such a strong PPV of Royal Rumble 98, this one kind of tanked..Lacking the star-power and a mish-mash of matches..this PPV did very little to bring up the excitment heading into Wrestlemania 14.The high points included: Vader v Kane - very well done match, Vader's best outing in a while and Kane looked like a monster. Steve Austin is OVER. Cactus Jack getting wrapped in barbwire and beaten with brooms in the main event..Hilarious! The NOD takes on a hodgepodge of babyfaces in the War of Attrition match.This is the PPV where Shawn Michaels bowed out of the main event and was curiously replaced by Savio Vega. So it was HHH with the New Age Outlaws and Savio v Cactus, Chainsaw, Owen Hart and Steve Austin.

HAPPY ROYAL RUMBLE WEEKEND!The nostalgia is HEAVY on this one!Some great, classic angles here on this one :Macho Man is absolutely the MVP of the night - his various performances are just amazing to watch as he ramps up the rivalry with The Ultimate Warrior that would lead them to Wrestlemania 7.Sgt Slaughter has become an Iraq-sympathizer as USA/Iraq Desert Storm war tensions rise to an uncomfortable place...Sarge ends up winning the Heavyweight belt from the Warrior due to Macho interference. This sets up the Hogan/Slaughter title match at WM7, as Hogan then wins the Royal Rumble later in the evening.Virgil turns on the Million Dollar Man after their match with Dusty & Dustin Rhodes! Classic stuff.The rapid-fire interviews prior to the Rumble, the purple ring apron, Gorilla Monsoon on commentary...ahhh the memories.And what a STACKED roster WWF had at this time!!