WWF: Raw is War
July 13, 1998
East Rutherford, NJ
Continental Airlines Arena

The current WWF champs are as follows:
WWF Champion: Steve Austin (6/29/1998)
Intercontinental Champion: The Rock (12/8/1997)
World Tag Team Champions: The New Age Outlaws (3/30/1998)
European Champion: Triple H (3/17/1998)
Light Heavyweight Champion: TAKA Michinoku (12/7/1997)

TIME TO GET RAW! Your hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

Shawn Michaels makes a surprise return and joins JR and the King for commentary. He’s even trimmed his hair and shaved and everything! The reason he’s back? Bash at the Beach was so bad, he felt personally responsible to the wrestling fan to come back and hopefully make them all happy again.

• The Undertaker vs. Vader
  

Paul Bearer, Kane, and Mankind head out to ringside to “get a closer look”. Lots of back and forth clubbering to start. Taker hits Old School and clotheslines Vader to the floor. He can’t keep his eyes off Kane and Mankind though. Back in, Vader powerslams UT to take control. He slugs Taker down and elbow drops the inside of the thigh. Time for the Flying Splash. That gets two. Shawn says you won’t beat Taker without hooking the leg. That time spent at the Gorilla Monsoon School of Broadcasting is really paying off for him. Taker comes right back with the Chokeslam and the TOMBSTONE gets the win. (4:37) Mankind wants to nail UT with a chair right after the bell, but Kane grabs it away from him. As Taker retreats to the floor and grabs his own chair, Kane knocks out Vader instead. These two just went through the motions to get to that ending. *

Hey look, Edge is in the audience! Geez, you hurt *one* Puerto Rican guy and you’re ordered to sit with the marks.

• Brawl For All: Bart Gunn vs. Bob Holly
  

The New Midnight Express EXPLODES~! Ross tells us Jim Cornette has resigned as their manager because Bart and Bob have entered the “Brawl for All”. No Danny Hodge tonight. It’s that cutie Jack Doan. Holly shoves Gunn back to let everybody know there’s “heat” here. Unfortunately, everything sucked in the first round after the shove. Alright, round two. Bart lets Bob hit him in the body while he tries to set up good shots to the head. Well, that round was an improvement. Bart staggers Bob in the third round, but no knockout. Bart wins by landing the most punches at a score of 15-0. Bart looks for the handshake – and Bob PIE-FACES him. A brief scuffle ensues, but it’s quickly broken up.

After they replay parts of the Nation parody by DX, we are finally gonna hear from the Nation themselves. Before we go to the Nation, Jason Sensation joins the commentary table to do some other imitations of the WWF superstars besides Owen. When he does Bret Hart, Shawn sarcastically wonders who Bret is and calls him a mid-carder. Jason says he’s living a life long dream here and tells he has nothing but respect for everybody here. Lawler really loves the Owen Hart bit.

Now back to the locker room with the Nation. The Rock lays down all his catchphrases on Triple H. The Godfather tells Billy Gunn that pimpin’ ain’t easy. Mark Henry thinks X-Pac needs to worry more about his hands around his scrony neck instead of his chest. D’Lo feels Road Dogg needs to better recognize that he ain’t the one to mess with. As for Owen, he wants to come down to ringside and slap the piss out of Jason Sensation. YES. While Lawler keeps egging on Jason Sensation to imitate Owen Hart, Owen runs down to ringside and does exactly what he said he would do: slap the piss out of Jason Sensation. Owen then takes Jason Sensation into the ring and puts him in the SHARPSHOOTER. YES. I love it. The Nation comes down to try and cool down Owen when DX runs out for a big brawl. The Nation clears out and we go to commercial.

• The Rock & Owen Hart vs. X-Pac & Triple H (w/Chyna)
  

Ross says that the Rock and Triple H will meet at Fully Loaded in a 2/3 falls title-for-title match. Shawn lets out that “shit” is out to go down with two Kliq members in the ring. Yes, that made it through the censors. Rock cuts off X-Pac with a Samoan Drop and tags in Owen for a flying elbow drop for two. Ross asks Michaels what his relationship is with DX – he’s just cool doing commentary right now. Owen whips X-Pac hard into the corner and delivers a Belly to Belly Suplex for two. X-Pac tries a crossbody out of the corner, but Owen ducks and X-Pac crashes. Rock tags in and pounds away in the corner. X-Pac comes back with a spinning heel kick, but Rock floors him with a clothesline. Time for the People’s Elbow for 1-2-NO! Sick of what’s going down, Triple H and Chyna stick their noses into the match allowing Rock to punch X-Pac in the dick. Rock goes over to yell at Chyna, Owen heads down the apron to yell at Chyna thus distracting the ref, and Triple H wallops the Rock in the face with the European title. X-Pac rolls over onto the Rock for 1-2-NO! The Rock knocks Triple H off the apron, but turns around into the X-FACTOR as X-Pac picks up the upset win. (6:30) Good little tag match here. **½

• Marc Mero (w/Jacqueline) vs. Steve Blackman
  

Sable comes out to commentate on this next match and the bikini contest she’ll be in at the Fully Loaded PPV. The crowd is so into this match, they’re chanting “Sable”. While she and Jackie start yelling at each other, Mero low blows Blackman and delivers a Samoan drop instead of the TKO. For some reason, Jacqueline heads up to the top rope hoping to splash Blackman, but Sable trips her up. So confused by what happened, Mero turns around into a BICYCLE KICK for the win. (2:16) Ross – “BIKINIS? Yeah!” ¼*

• WWF World Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws (c) (w/Chyna) vs. Kane & Mankind (w/Paul Bearer)
  

Mankind starts out biting away on Road Dogg, but the NAO quickly fight back and start working on Mankind’s shoulder. Gunn drills Mankind with an armbreaker DDT and then instructs him to “suck it”. Mankind rolls out and takes a belt shot to the shoulder by Chyna. Undertaker sees it happening, but does nothing about it. Back inside, Mankind misses a corner charge and runs his shoulder into the post, OBVS. Gunn tries a double sledge from the middle rope, but flies down into the MANDIBLE CLAW. Road Dogg punches Mankind in the face to stop that. Tag to Kane, Road Dogg prevents Gunn from taking a Chokeslam, but Gunn still gets nailed with a clothesline by Mankind. To the floor, Mankind whips Billy knees first into the steps. Meanwhile, the Rock and Owen Hart waltz down the aisle. Gunn and Mankind collide to set up the HOT TAG TO ROAD DOGG! JR hypes Austin and Taker meeting Kane and Mankind at Fully Loaded. HBK – “Worlds colliding! Worlds colliding!” Shake Rattle and Roll to Kane stuns him, but doesn’t knock him down. Gunn grabs Mankind for a nice piledriver. Together, the NAO punch Kane until he’s doubled over for the FAMOUSER. Hey look, Triple H and X-Pac head out to beat up Owen and Rock. As Mark Henry comes down to help out, Gunn goes out to even the score and help his DX buddies because he’s not in the ring to see D’Lo Brown come out of nowhere to give Road Dogg a Frog Splash while wearing his dreaded chest protector! While D’Lo makes a run for it, Kane delivers the TOMBSTONE to Road Dogg and picks up the win and the tag titles. (5:30) Interesting tidbit: despite Mick Foley becoming a three-time WWF tag team champion in this match, this is the first time he has won the tag titles as Mankind. Over the span of one year, he was able to secure the WWF tag title belts once with all three different personas. *½

Backstage, we see Triple H pleading DX’s case to Mr. McMahon himself. McMahon has been awfully quiet tonight. Then again, so has Stone Cold Steve Austin.

• Too Much & TAKA Michinoku vs. Kaientai (w/Yamaguchi-san)
  

Too Much shines early on, but TAKA and his Michinoku Driver causes the other members of Kaientai to jump him before the damage is done. Too Much scares them off though. Some heel miscommunication allows TAKA to tag out to Christopher. He delivers a sitout powerbomb to Togo. Tag to Taylor, they deliver a Midnight Express double team legdrop move. Before Taylor did the WORM, he just danced towards hitting an elbow drop. Because he took too long, here he misses. During the Taylor heat segment, he gets into a scuffle with TAKA causing them to shove each other. Taylor gets grabbed by Kaientai and slammed for the FLYING SENTON from Dick Togo to get the win. (3:39) Christopher stomps TAKA and throws him to the floor. While Too Much console each other and Kaientai celebrate the win, VAL VENIS comes out and shows Yamaguchi-san a video entitled “Land of the Rising Venis” starring Val and…Mrs. Yamaguchi. AWKWEIRD! So let’s see, Venis steals a guy’s wife – and HE’S the GOOD guy in this feud? Welcome to the Attitude Era, folks. *½

SLAM OF THE WEEK (brought to you by Skittles): RAW, 7/6/98. Undertaker giving people chokeslams.

Vince McMahon comes out to the ring. Finally! He brings out the Undertaker and longwindedly asks UT the question whether or not he is in cahoots with Kane. Taker grabs the mic and tells Vince that he can go to hell. Vince timidly asks Taker who he thinks he is. As Taker backs Vince into a corner, we hear glass breaking as STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN shows up. Since he’s teaming with the Undertaker at Fully Loaded against Kane and Mankind, he wants to know where UT is coming from as well. Maybe Austin can get an answer out of Taker since McMahon can’t. Taker tells Austin he can go to hell, too. So much for that. Next thing we know, D-Generation X comes out because they want to know whether or not they get a rematch for the WWF tag titles tonight. Triple H has an idea to settle this whole thing about their rematch and to find out where the Undertaker’s allegiance truly lies: add Taker and Austin to the rematch as special enforcers. McMahon likes the idea and grants the New Age Outlaws their rematch for the WWF tag titles. You know, this Triple H guy shows some promise for being a booker some day!

• Brawl For All: Kama vs. Dan Severn
  

Severn keeps trying for takedowns while the crowd chants “boring”. Round one grants Severn one takedown, which is worth five points. Round two, same story. Lawler says these people want to see some haymakers. Crowd now chants that they want wrestling. In round three, our esteemed commentators are now openly rooting for the Godfather to paste him. So at the end of three rounds, Severn wins even though they cried how takedowns won’t win you the Brawl for All. Weird. BORING.

• WWF World Tag Team Championship: Kane & Mankind (c) (w/Paul Bearer) vs. The New Age Outlaws (w/Chyna)
  

Pissed off after losing the belts, the Outlaws are hot to trot to start. Gunn picks up half the stairs and hits Mankind in the face. With Mankind down, Gunn and Road Dogg tear down Kane at the knees. Now they go after Mankind for a double suplex on the ramp, but Kane knocks them over with a double clothesline before the damage is done. Back in, Kane and Mankind abuse Road Dogg on their side of town. Kane hits a Side Slam and the Flying Clothesline for two. Mankind delivers a swinging neckbreaker for another nearfall. More corner abuse on Road Dogg. Billy Gunn comes into the ring and simply takes over while Road Dogg goes to the apron. The ref takes a Stinger Splash from Gunn and now he’s done. Kane and Road Dogg take center stage. Kane headbutts Road Dogg, but Road Dogg low blows him and puts Kane in an inside cradle! Austin slides into the ring to count the pinfall, but UNDERTAKER PULLS HIM OUT OF THE RING! Now they go nose to nose. Kane gives Road Dogg a Chokeslam. Now Undertaker slides into the ring to count the pinfall, but Austin pulls UT out to the floor to stop the count. As they go nose to nose again, Kane blindsides Austin and chokes him down into the corner. Taker punches Mankind into another corner for a preview of Fully Loaded. Here comes the Nation to beat up on the New Age Outlaws. The rest of D-Generation X comes out to join the party. Austin fights back and gives Kane a STONE COLD STUNNER! It’s BONZO GONZO. No decision. (8:00 or so) Now Austin and UT are clearing out the ring with Stunners and Chokeslams as RAW once again comes to a close. *

Oww, mercy! Until next time, so long for now.