“Into the Vault” is nearing the end of 1998 as we enter October with WWE Judgment Day: In Your House. This is the first show of the old Judgment Day PPV series and took place on October 18 in Rosemont, Illinois.
We have a main event bout between Kane and the Undertaker for the vacant WWE Championship after both men pinned Austin at Breakdown. The outcome also resulted in the famous Zamboni segment on the following RAW.
Let’s dive into to show and find out what was the best and what goes in the rest pile.
The Best of WWE Judgment Day 1998
Do you remember the Light Heavyweight belt in WWE? It didn’t get much love but it had some credible champions such as Taka Michinoku. Even though his defense against Christian was a losing effort, the two put on a rock-solid bout that ran under 9 minutes.
Guys like Taka, Christian, and Mr. Aguila/Essa Rios could’ve easily made this division worth watching if WWE just took WCW cruiserweight division booking. I’d say that this would’ve made for a great opener to get the crowd ready.
Goldust taking on Val Venis was noticeably better than Venis facing Dustin Runnels. Sometimes, that gold and black paint is necessary to really get fans involved in the matches and the storylines. Speaking of the storyline, when Dustin was running with a born-again gimmick and parading around saying “He is Coming”—it was obviously Goldust.
In a match that you kind of knew was going to be good but wasn’t the reason to tune in to WWE Judgment Day 1998, the European title match between champion D’Lo Brown and X-Pac was definitely worth watching. Of the former Nation of Domination young bloods, D’Lo was running right alongside The Rock as far as rapidly improving in-ring and as a character.
His chest protector and constantly being introduced from a different place in Europe actually made this former British Bulldog vanity title interesting during the Attitude Era. As for the match, it was well-paced and pretty exhausting at points. This was an almost 15-minute banger that deserved its time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOFgj23opbY
Rounding out “The Best” and also deserving its time was Ken Shamrock defending the IC title against Mankind. This belt was one of two original Grand Slam titles that Foley never claimed. Shamrock was…Shamrock and Mankind was pretty much a match enhancer but definitely not an enhancement talent.
In the main event and upper midcard picture, Mankind had the best consistency record during this leg of the Attitude Era. If a match involving him wasn’t the match of the show, it was often one the best parts of the show.
This match is no different.
The Rest
Ohh boy. The good thing about “The Rest” this time is that most of the matches are solid. They might be weaker than the above but they’re still watchable. He’ll, some would’ve rocked on a Super Sunday Night HeAT had WWE been able to work that out with USA Network.
Anyway, Al Snow taking on Marc Mero was solid as you’d expect. Honestly, the match could’ve been better considering the talent of these two at this time but they put on an entertaining and somewhat competitive bout with the time they had.
In a rarity, LOD 2000 and the Disciples of Apocalypse had an above-garbage match. It was just five minutes but that was good enough because both teams drag it out when given too much time. So, good on these teams this time.
While there were moments where the match dragged, the World Tag Team title match between champions the New Age Outlaws and the Headbangers was perfectly acceptable. I could see this match on either HeAT as an exciting main event or in the first hour of WWE Judgment Day 1998.
It’s a very flexible match that could’ve been a little better with better placement and a little less time. The lemon of the show was The Rock vs. Mark Henry. As mentioned above, The Rock was improving rapidly as was D’Lo Brown. Owen and The Godfather both had in-ring experience and had gotten their style down already.
Then there’s Mark Henry who seemed to improve slowly and would face several creative attempts in the future. He manages to pin The Rock in just over five minutes in an uninteresting match.
So, this main event between Kane and the Undertaker featured Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special guest referee. In an odd turn, stipulations were placed on Austin where if he didn’t declare a champion, he was out of the WWE.
Austin does what he wants and after over 17 minutes of action, he counts the double pin on both brothers. The match ends in a no-contest. It wasn’t an awful ending but this match was a bit of a slog. It had its moments but overall, someone gave these two a little too much room to groove.
WWE Judgment Day 1998 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.66/5)
Overall, this wasn’t a bad show at all. It was as close to a Silver Medal as this one was going to get with a card that read more like two weeks of HeAT tapings. The match of the show goes to Mankind vs. Shamrock with Taka vs. Christian being a close runner-up.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSccbykEqo
