#130 – SummerSlam 1998
We take the highway to hell on the way to SummerSlam to review this Attitude Era classic featuring a main event between Stone Cold and the Undertaker and a classic ladder match between the Rock and HHH the made both men’s careers. We are pleased to announce the THIRD SEASON OSWP box set that is now available at flairchop.com for $9.99 featuring two new unreleased bonus episodes – Clash of the Champions 9 with the Flair/Funk “I Quit” match and the 1988 Royal Rumble. We are even more pleased to announce you can now purchase the box set digitally through our website if you just want to download the files. If you’ve already downloaded all 25 episodes and just want to download the bonus episodes, those are available for only $5.99 by clicking on the banner on the right side of the page. We also now offer individual digital download of the third season if you just want a single episode. Thanks for continuing to support the show! We’ll see you…at the matches!
Yo, people!
1st poster and 1st correction – 😉
Sorry Dre: It’s just “Edge”, definitely not “THE Edge”
(see his own Twitter https://twitter.com/EdgeRatedR
“Adam (Edge) Copeland”).
Ken Shamrock was a pro wrestler first (South Atlantic),
went to Japan, wrestled and was the co-founder of
“Pancrase”, one of the early MMA-Groups.
then competed in UFC 1.
Peace!
Thanks for backing me up on Edge! I honestly had no idea Ken did pro wrestling before UFC. Anyone have video footage of this?
If you search Wayne Shamrock on Youtube, there’s all kinds of early MMA gems from Ken “Wayne” Shamrock.
Look out for Vince Torelli
(that was Ken’s name as a werstler)
Nice example (with Lou Thesz on commentary!):
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R15y6lEBAVY
Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXP-cGW2RF0
Great podcast, as always, guys. I, too, would always get together with a bunch of friends to watch PPVs around in this era, be it WWF or WCW.
RE: Your tag team poll – It was really tough not voting for the Midnight Express, especially as I recently revisited the Midnight Express vs. the Original Midnight Express match from Starrcade ’88: True Gritt. What a stellar contest. Still, even after watching that, it would be difficult to bump the Harts, Brainbusters, or Bulldogs out of my top three.
A clarification: Southern Justice had been in the WWF for quite some time before Summerslam 1998, but they were known as the slop bucket-wielding Godwinns. (Prior to that in the early 90s, they wrestled in WCW as Tex Slazinger & Shanghai Pierce, where they were rarely found at the pay winda, if you weeell.)
One of them (Mark Canterbury) retired shortly after this and the other (Dennis Knight) became Mideon of the Ministry of Darkness, and later Naked Mideon.
That MnX vs MnX feud was great, but you’re right it’s hard to pick just a top three and those three you mentioned were great. One of the things that made the MnX so great was that they made other teams like the RNR look so good that they made you love the other team more.
And oh god Naked Mideon. I had blocked that out of my head.
Loved hearing you guys describe your Summerslam 2014 plans. The Royal Rumble used to be one of my favorite days of the entire year because we would each put in $5 for every name we wanted out of the hat. The person who drew the winner would take home the pot. This bit of gambling is where I distinctly remember snapping into the realization of how scripted wrestling is. We must have been like 11 or 12 or so and one of my friends drew whatever number happened to be the Repo Man. Repo Man comes out and instead of entering the ring, he kind of snuck around on the apron trying to hide and avoid any confrontation. Kind of a genius little funny character move. Anyway, my friend gets all excited and proclaims that Repo is going to do that all match and he’s going to win the money. It hit me right then…NO. No he’s not. There is absolutely 0 chance Repo Man wins. And the “magic” of wrestling was gone. Short story long…man, I miss getting together with buddies to watch PPV’s…that’s the way wrestling should be and I always enjoy listening to you guys give just a little glimpse into your lives as fans. Keep up the awesome work.
We still do the Rumble lottery! One of my favorite times of the year. There are certain death numbers you always dread pulling from the hat.
Suck it.
Know your role, jabroni.
Finally a Val Venis match! I am from and reside in the same hometown as the Big Valbowski, who used to and still might have a ring set up at his house. I used to see him at the gym quite a bit in the Attitude era and afterwards, there is no one to this day that can match the amount of sweat that would stream off of that guy. He must have had to drink 4 gallons of Gatorade to stay hydrated. At one point, a few years back he did a camp at Gold’s Gym in town, here is the article:
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2010/06/29/grappling-a-dream
He also trained former TNA Champ, Bobby Roode, who resides and is from my hometown as well and he is seen so frequently around town that he’s just a regular guy and not even considered much of a celebrity.
Great job as usual guys, I can’t believe how much I’ve forgotten about the Attitude era and how long ago it actually was!
For what it’s worth, Shawn Michaels started the “Nugget” thing with Owen Hart when he compared Hart to that little piece of fecal matter that won’t go down the toilet no matter how many times you flush.
Hey guys, another stellar show. SUMMERSLAM ’98, brought back great memories. I wanted to comment on the GREATEST TAG-TEAMS of 80’s poll you had. There were some great tag teams mentioned (Road Warriors are #1 in book) but I feel a lot of other tag teams weren’t even mentioned. So here’s something I came with:
TOP 5IVE UNDERRATED TAG TEAMS OF THE 80’s
1. Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood
(their matches with Sgt. Slaughter and Don Kernodle and the Briscos were legendary)
2. “The Dynamic Duo” Gino Hernandez and Tully Blanchard
(they caused havoc in the World Class area…before there was Arn and Tully, it was Gino and Tully)
3. The U.S. Express: Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham
(best workers in the biz)
4. Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody
(they did more damage in Japan than Godzilla and Pokeman)
5. Jack and Jerry Brisco
(as babyfaces, they were good…as heels, they were incredible)
Honorable mention goes to
a. The Russians- Ivan Koloff and Nikta Koloff
b. The Assassins
I guess you have to be of a certain age to appreciate some these tag teams. Here’s a FANTASY DREAM MATCH: The Fabulous Rougeaus vs Jack and Jerry Brisco (instant classic)…
Guys keep up the good work and keep coming off those top ropes…THANKS…
Great episode as ever guys!
Nice to hear your anecdotes about waching pay-per-view in college – that sounded like wonderful evenings.
Remind me that around that time, there was that dorky, unpleasant guy around our group that used to invite us to watch pay-per-view and share the bill – and none of us would go. But since he was so desperate to hook with us, he would give me the show on VHS the week after, only for me to watch it with a couple of friends at my place.
Sound mean I know, but I guess with the Million Dollar Man, Ric Flair and Co as role models I couldn’t turn any better 😉
Hey guys, I can’t take credit for finding this out, but I heard a story about why The Great Sasuke’s time was so short in WWE.
Apparently he was slated to win the Light Heavyweight Title, and they had only brought in Taka so they could have great matches. Sasuke had told some Japanese media that when he won the title he would refuse to defend it in the US and would not give the title back. Or something like that. WWE found out, and got rid of him, and ended the working relationship with Michinoku Pro. But they ended up signing and keeping Taka.
I also found out that Michinoku Pro was actually founded by The Great Sasuke. I always assumed it was Taka. No idea where I would have gotten that from :p
Haven’t finished listening to the episode yet, but just wanted to get this out there so I don’t forget. And someone else already mentioned that Southern Justice were the Godwinns.
Great job once again by Black Cat and THE DRE.
Excellent episode as usual Black Cat & Dre.
* Had tremendous laughs on the train last night listening to this. I’m sure people around me were like: “uh…who’s “Stone Cold” Steve Austin? Why would he be pitching underwear…?”
* I thought of the quote from the Muta episode re: him selecting flavors of mist like one would at a Mexican restaurant during my late-night burrito run. I await Muta’s opening of a Asian-Mexican fusion taqueria in the Mission District (of San Francisco).
* Correction: The Iranian Hostage Crisis was from 1979-1981. Iron Sheik’s gimmick with the Iranian flag was a bit later around his WWF run. I’m pretty sure while in AWA & the various NWA territories he just did the Persian Club gimmick. In 1981, he also had several matches against Ivan Koloff. http://www.infinitecore.ca/superstar/index.php?threadid=83413
* Top Underrated Tag-Teams of the 1980’s:
1. The New Breed – They predicted the popularity and resurgence of The Transformers, time-travel and the political ascendancy of Dusty Rhodes. Silicon Valley has YET to credit them, WTF?!?
2. Hansen & Brody – The true devastation incorporated.
3. Ted DiBase & Dr. Death in Mid-South
4. The Mulkey’s – Gave average schlubs like me hope.
5. The PYTs (Pretty Young Things) Norvell Austin & Koko B. Ware + “Thriller Jackets” = excellent.
I’d checked out of WWF by 1998, but the year before last, I had a sudden urge to buy loads of old ppv’s on dvd (there was no sign of the network at that point). This was one of the shows and I really enjoyed it and was a good solid event with decent matches.
I was a fan of Shamrock, but I think his biggest problem and reason he didn’t really make it was that he couldn’t lead a match. He reminded me a little of The Ultimate Warrior, with his agressive, no selling manner. I think it really hurt him, when they started changing his character, but I believe, if they had left him as a psycho tweener, then he could have had a longer WWF career.
No Conquistadors or The killer bees? 😉