WWF Attitude Era Series Part 36: WWF Over the Edge 1998

It is time to look at WWF Over the Edge 1988, headlined by Stone Cold Steve Austin takes on Dude Love for the WWF Championship with the odds stacked against Austin. The odds are stacked against Austin. This is Part 36 of the WWF Attitude Era Series.

At WWF Over the Edge 1998, Stone Cold Steve Austin puts the WWF Championship on the line against Dude Love, with Pat Patterson as the guest ring announcer, Gerald Brisco as the guest time keeper, and Vince McMahon himself as the special referee. Also Kane meets Vader in a Mask vs. Mask Match, as well as DX taking on the Nation of Domination in a six man tag team match, and Faarooq takes on the Rock for the WWF Intercontinental Title Match. This is WWF Over the Edge 1998, Part 36 of the WWF Attitude Era Series.

WWF Over the Edge 1998

We open up with quite the intro, most certainly one of the more interesting ones, comparing Vince McMahon to a dictator. Which is fitting in many ways, in both real life and in storylines.

LOD 2000 defeated DOA

This match as expected was the pits. And this feud is far from over, we got months and months more to go. Droz and Chainz find themselves involved and Animal pins 8-Ball. Not a good way to open up this show.

Faarooq jumps the Rock, taking him out with a violent piledriver, as he comes out to say a few words. This leaves the Rock’s participation in tonight’s Pay Per View in doubt.

Jeff Jarrett defeated Steve Blackman

This is one of those matches that would happen in hour one on RAW and I’d promptly forget about it five minutes later. Not a bad match, but rather underwhelming. Tennessee Lee interjects himself, allowing Jarrett to use the kendo stick on Blackman and score the tainted win. Jeff Jarrett is just dying interest wise as we get further along and I think to an extent, until the feud with X-Pac, he didn’t really capture much interest and even then, it was on shaky ground.

Marc Mero defeated Sable

Sable was supposed to find a man to fight Mero, but she is going to fight her own battle. Mero seems remorseful that it has lead to this and he appears to lie down but tricks Sable into a roll up for the pin. As a result of prematch stipulation, Sable has to leave the World Wrestling Federation. Well for about two weeks, but we’ll get to that when we get to that. Match was just really an angle.

Shoichi Funaki, Dick Togo, and MEN’S Teioh defeated TAKA Michinoku and Bradshaw.

Fun for this match. Who would think that out of all of the members of Kaientai, Funaki would be the one to stick around the longest and become Smackdown’s number one announcer. Bradshaw sticks out like a sore thumb but not as much as you’d think. Togo gets the win with the Senton, to set up a future match with TAKA, well in theory anyway.

The Rock defeated Faarooq with a roll up to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title.

Kind of a letdown given all of the build up, just slightly over five minutes. The Rock would go onto a feud with Triple H that would yield much better matches and Faarooq would kind of stagger in limbo for months, before he teamed with Bradshaw later in that year to form the Acolytes(later the APA). The Rock scores the cheap heel pin to get the win. Match was kind of meh.

Kane defeated Vader in a Mask vs. Mask Match.

This is pretty much the last dance for Vader as part of US Wrestling goes. He’ll have some moments in Japan and he’ll be in WWF until October, but this is the end of him really meaning anything as far as American casual wrestling fans are concerned. This is setting up Kane for something big. The match was kind of a few steps beneath the match at No Way Out of Texas. Vader obviously does not care and he’s been beaten down by WWF. Kane hits the Tombstone for the pin, and Vader loses his mask, which mattered little, as he took it off in pretty much big match in the heat of battle back in WCW. Paul Bearer parades around with the mask and Vader calls himself a fat piece of s***.

The Nation of Domination of Kama Mustafa, Owen Hart, and D’Lo Brown defeated DX of Triple H, Billy Gunn, and the Road Dogg.

Six men tag team matches tend to be rather solid for the most part and this match is no exception to that move. Owen Hart gets the pin on Triple H, hitting him with his own Pedigree for the pin. Although Owen wouldn’t really feud with Triple H much longer, rather going into feuds with X-Pac and then Ken Shamrock in the summer of 1998.

Time to take a look at Dude Love vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship.

Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Dude Love to retain the WWF Championship.

The match is rather epic, from Pat Patterson’s ring introductions all the way to the ending moments. Austin has the Undertaker watching his back against any potential tomfoolery. An awesome match and the only time this kind of match is done right, becoming no countout, no disqualification, and falls count anywhere on the fly. The Undertaker wipes out Patterson and Brisco with choke slams through tables. Dude Love goes to nail Austin with the chair but Austin avoids it and Dude cracks Mr. McMahon, the special referee for this match, right in the head. Austin grabs Vince’s hand after hitting the Stone Cold Stunner on Dude and counts the pin. A great match to headline a rather average show.

Austin is still the champion but he has a rather tough challenge on the horizon. Find out more with all of the fallout of Over the Edge 1998 in Part 37 in the WWF Attitude Era Series.

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