We’re diving into WWE King of the Ring 1998, a PPV with some interesting stuff going down as well as some surprises. While Austin defends his WWE Championship against Kane in a “First Blood Match”, there is one match that absolutely steals the show and becomes one of the truly iconic bouts in WWE history.
The Best of WWE King of the Ring 1998
It took until the fifth match on a nine-match card for a strong match to show itself in the form of X-Pac vs. Owen Hart. While these two had better matches, for an Attitude Era PPV, this match was damn good and really fun to watch. It had a snappy pace that worked perfectly and both guys made the most of the little time they had.
I’d say that this bout definitely deserved a little more time to give these dudes more room to groove but they did a great job in under ten minutes. If this had some sort of stakes involved, it would’ve been a barn-burner for sure.
Shamrock and The Rock are two guys who should’ve reached the heights of WWE together during the Attitude Era. They worked so well together and both had an insane amount of momentum. Their feud played out extremely well and the finals of the 1998 KOTR was one of the best in some time from an in-ring action standpoint.
These two just had great chemistry and their finals match is definitely worth watching.
Now, we’re at the serious business portion of King of the Ring 1998 as The Undertaker takes on mortal enemy Mankind in the Hell in a Cell! We’ve all heard of this match, we’ve all seen this match. However, if you haven’t seen it—which is surprising as hell—watch it.
This is one of those matches that is peak WWE spectacle and peak wrestling spectacle.
It’s not just violence and spots for violence’s sake, there is a story going down of a dangerous, overpowering monster—The Undertaker—really trying to put away a dangerous, unyielding madman—Mankind. And it works. It’s a flawless story with some solid build heading into it.
If you want maximum thrills and spills that will leave you stunned, check it out or rewatch it. Hell, I watch this match multiple times a year and it’s one of my favorites.
Stone Cold Steve Austin defending his WWE title against Kane should’ve been better than it was as well. Austin was always at his best when the odds were against him and the stakes were high. In this case, it was a “First Blood Match” against a masked giant. If Kane won, he became champion but if he lost, he was to set himself on fire.
That was juicy enough to watch if you were a kid and wrestling still had that magic to it. The build to this was great but the match itself was entertaining and the action was fine but it was totally eclipsed by the Hell in a Cell bout, no question. Also, the finals of the 1998 King of the Ring was more exciting to watch.
The Rest
While it wasn’t a truly great match or even a good one, the opener was kind of unusual in that it wasn’t a match where I’d say skipping it is strongly recommended. Taka Michinoku teams up with The Headbangers to take on Kaientai in this one and it’s actually a pretty fun match.
Unlike his team with Justin Bradshaw, Taka actually has some help that will mix it up with the Kaientai boys. With a little more time and if the Headbangers put just a drop or two more pressure on the pedal, this could’ve been pretty good.
Six-man tag team matches always worked better when the gas is on and the pace is either fast or frantic in my opinion. The Headbangers were able to do it but just didn’t.
Jeff Jarrett taking on Ken Shamrock should’ve been better than it was since we had Double J who could get it done in the ring and keep things together and Shamrock who had a lot of momentum and hype. Shamrock’s lack of selling hurt things here but given that they did in the time given, I’m not going to sh** on it.
I mean, at least this wasn’t ten or fifteen minutes.
Now, a bout worth sh**ting on was The Rock taking on Dan Severn. The Rock was riding high as IC champion and he was a definite star that WWE was invested in. I always liked the aura around Dan Severn and he had this dope-ass theme song but he just didn’t translate well to pro wrestling at this time.
Or rather, he didn’t translate to WWE well. Elsewhere in wrestling, he had a spot even if most of those matches were in the bleeding and crawling NWA during his most active period. In WWE, he just got lost in the shuffle as there were openers and lower-midcarders with more charisma that fit WWE better.
Also, The Rock and The Beast just didn’t work well. There was nothing that said they would, they just met up in the semi-finals of King of the Ring 1998.
Ugh, I liked Too Much—competent and cocky young wrestlers with a cool theme song—before Too Cool. They just always seemed to fit the B-show vibe of shows like Shotgun Saturday Night. Al Snow was a good wrestler who actually got better with age and really found himself with the madman gimmick. However, this wasn’t a match I needed on the PPV. It ran a bit long for what we had going on as Snow didn’t have an actual partner, just Head.
The Tag Team title match between champions The New Age Outlaws and The New Midnight Express should’ve been slightly better than it was but it definitely wasn’t a bad match at all. I’d say it was as mid as mid could be, honestly.
There was no “umph” to it and it didn’t really get fans involved or excited. It was a match that was just there but would’ve been a good cool down if King of the Ring 1998 was stacked with dope matches throughout.
WWE King of the Ring 1998 Verdict: Silver Medal (2.7/5)
Hell in a Cell is our match of the night and it totally carried the rating of this event. While there were some bangers and strong bouts on King of the Ring 1998, that match overshadowed everything else. The runner-up is Ken Shamrock defeating The Rock to win the 1998 KOTR. As for the rest of the show, as I said, there were a few strong bouts but most of it was standard Attitude Era PPV mediocrity.
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