Monday Night Raw – April 13, 1998: Tonight Is The Night

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 13, 1998
Location: CoreStates Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 14,280
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

Tonight it’s Vince vs. Austin. Do you really need anything more than that? Also we find out who the new big bad is as far as Vince’s new cronie goes so that should be interesting. The reason this show is important from a historical standpoint though is because this is the night that Raw FINALLY broke through the barrier and beat Nitro in the ratings for the first time in nearly two years Anyway there isn’t much else here but DX is on the rise. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the corporate makeover from last week and Vince getting hit in the balls.

Here’s Austin to open the show. He wants to straighten things out with Vince so Vince better come out here because if not he’ll hold up the whole show. Austin won’t beat him up. He just wants to talk this time. Riiiiiiiiight. Vince eventually comes out very slowly, flanked by the Stooges. Two security guards in riot gear come out too.

With Vince in the ring, Austin’s first question is who is he fighting for the title at the next PPV. It’s in less than two weeks so he kind of needs to know. Austin goes on a long rant about why Vince hates him, saying he uses bad language and drinks beers, which isn’t what Vince wants as a champion. Austin thinks Vince wants to be the WWF Champion himself. That wouldn’t happen for over a year.

Austin says he’s going to put the title on the line tonight and he wants to do it against Mr. Vince McMahon. BIG reaction for that. Austin makes two mistakes, saying Vince can pick the referee and that he can beat Vince with one arm tied behind his back. Vince either is going to do this in the ring or he’ll go to the back and beat him up anyway. Vince has 30 minutes to make up his mind. Oh and don’t try to leave because Austin already beat up the limo driver and flattened all four tires.

After a break the Stooges tell Vince he needs to stop this tonight. Vince isn’t sure.

Los Boricuas vs. Disciplex of Apocalypse

This is a chain match but it’s really weird. They’re attached to the posts instead of each other. The chains are really long though. DX comes out before the bell and are the main focus of the match. Chainz jumps Billy Gunn but DX destroys him, eventually hitting a Pedigree on a chair on the floor. There’s a spike piledriver on the floor also. The match hasn’t been looked at at all. DX comes in to beat down the DOA in the ring and the whole thing is thrown out. Not even a match but rather a way to make DX look dominant. Los Boricuas get beaten down post match, presumably for their improper Spanish grammar.

The Stooges are in the back with Vince again and Shane is here too. He offers to fight Austin for Vince but Vince says no. This might have been Shane’s on screen debut with him being acknowledged as Vince’s son.

Here’s Vince again sans security. Vince talks about how the WWF is in his blood and he hopes to pass it on to his children and their children. Austin has no honor though. He doesn’t want to do this, but sometimes a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. The fight with Austin is on for tonight. The Stooges come out to applaud.

JR goes to the back to try to stop the match from happening.

Too Much vs. Aguila/Pantera

The lights go out as JR is leaving. It’s not Kane though. It’s the Dead Man himself and he raises the lights quickly. Everyone but Christopher gets a chokeslam and Taylor gets a tombstone. No match of course.

Taker says Kane is now the hunted instead of the hunter. Taker can feel Kane here and the show isn’t going anywhere until we see Kane.

After a break Kevin Kelly shows us a clip of JR and Shane trying to argue with the Stooges. Vince says he’s doing it and sends for his gym bag. JR is sent back to commentary.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Taka Michinoku

Blackman is doing a split screen interview. A punch of leaflets dropped from the ceiling promoting Sawyer Brown being at Unforgiven. Taka gets a quick crossbody off the top but Jeff hits a superplex to change the momentum. Taka sends him to the floor and Kai En Tai (Club Kamikaze) comes in to beat him down and it’s a DQ. Match was really short again.

Austin isn’t surprised Vince accpted the match.

The Stooges are teaching Vince how to counter the Stunner.

Ok see here’s a major difference between today’s product and this product. Look at the previous two events on the show, as in the last two lines of text. Those two things combined to be less than 60 seconds. We hear from Austin and we continue to hear from Vince. Neither segment felt rushed, neither segment was pointless, and we got something out of both. Vince is going to at least try to fight and Austin doesn’t care (big news of course). Today, this would have taken five minutes or so. Everything today is so drawn out that it takes away time from other stuff later. Big difference and a noticeable one.

Here’s Faarooq to a new rap song instead of the Nation theme. He calls out the Nation and here they are. Rock says he’ll bring it right now but Shamrock and Blackman come out before the 3-1 beating can happen.

Terry Funk/2 Cold Scorpio vs. Quebecers

It’s a three man commentary team now. Funk comes out to Cactus’ old music. Funk gives Scorpio a big entrance, calling him a Funk and a guy that Vince had held back. The Quebecers double team Terry as the ECW chants begin. Remember we’re in Philly. Scorpio comes in and cleans house but walks into a belly to belly off the top. Funk comes in and the 450 ends Pierre soon thereafter. Just a quick match and not long enough to grade. This was the last appearance of the Quebecers on Raw.

Here’s Luna who wants to talk to Sable. Waiting for Unforgiven is worse than PMS according to Luna. Well that group had Jackie in it so it couldn’t be good. After the intro to hour 2, here’s Sabledust. Sable comes out after Goldie is stripped for the catfight.

New Midnight Express vs. Steve Blackman/Ken Shamrock’s

The Midnights are the NWA tag champions but this is non-title. Shamrock and Severn stare each other down in the middle of the ring which would be like Lesnar and Mir staring each other down in a Raw ring. Bart vs. Shamrock to start us off. Off to Blackman while Ross makes fun of the names Bombastic and Bodacious.

Bob screws up a rana and the booing begins. Blackman misses a middle rope headbutt and the fans really aren’t all that interested in this. Shamrock comes back in as this match is dragging after being in there less than three minutes. And there go the Midnights, apparently due to a double DQ. Was there a point to this?

Rating: D. Stupid little match here that no one was interested in. The botch looked bad and the whole match didn’t mean anything. Why the titles weren’t on the line is probably due to some very stupid reason that only the NWA understands or cares about in the slightest. Pointless all around.

Vince says he isn’t afraid, talking about how he wasn’t afraid of the government or Ted Turner.

Here’s Undertaker again to interrupt whatever the Headbangers were going to do. He beats both of them up and there go the lights again. It’s Kane this time to a surprisingly big pop. Bearer says next week Taker can meet them both in the cemetary.

Val Venis is getting ready for his next film, “Lust in Space.” He sits with two chicks who have parts of them censored. See, this is another difference between today and back then. Take guys in TNA like Gunner and Crimson. We know NOTHING about them. They’re intense and that’s about it. With this minute of talking from Val, we know almost everything we need to know about the character. It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s interesting, and we know what we’re getting. WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO DO ANYMORE???

Here’s DX to answer an open challenge from Owen Hart. DX apparently held an essay contest to determine who gets to fight Owen and jokes are made about their characters. Billy is the winner due to including some drawings depicting Owen with farm animals.

Owen Hart vs. Billy Gunn

LOD comes out to second Owen. We get a quick break and come back with Billy in control. DX is on commentary and talking about cheese. Billy gets a suplex and a chinlock The Canadian hits a spinwheel kick for two. Chyna distracts Owen from hooking the Sharpshooter and Billy knocks him to the floor. HHH tries to jump Hart but LOD makes the save.

That takes us to another break. Back with Owen ramming Billy’s head into the buckle. There’s a missile dropkick for a close two. Fameasser (called the Rocker Dropper) gets two. Billy hits a solid powerslam but gets rolled up out of nowhere for the pin. HHH’s reaction is awesome as he loses his mind over the pin.

Rating: C-. Not much of a match here as the majority of it was in commercials. The ending was decent as Billy hit a great powerslam but just celebrated too much. Not a horrible match but we didn’t see enough of it to be anything great. Owen would join the Nation soon enough for no apparent reason.

Vince is on his way to the ring and we’re out of commercials now. Vince is ripped and we get the Vince Walk which hasn’t been seen before I don’t think.

WWF World Title: Vince McMahon vs. Steve Austin

This should have headlined Mania 15. Vince slaps Austin while the Stooges and Slaughter are there for backup. Vince grabs the mic and mentions the one arm tied behind your back line that Austin said earlier. He insists it’s the right arm, the Stunner arm. After a ton of stalling, heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Dude!

Dude Love comes out and says he doesn’t feel much love here tonight. He says he has to protect Vince because Vince signs the checks. Vince shoves Dude after he talks nice about Foley so Dude loads up the Claw. Austin comes over out of boredom. Love is the new big bad from Vince and is the opponent at Unforgiven. Again, Foley is used to make the new megastar look good.

Overall Rating: B-. This show was about one thing: Austin vs. Vince. It set up the next two months of PPVs in about 3 minutes which isn’t bad. The rest of the show isn’t all that great but once DX starts feuding with the Nation it’s all gravy baby as a good friend of mine would say. Anyway, not a great show here but the Austin vs. Vince stuff has that unmistakeable energy that only they had.

 

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