WWF Raw – August 24th, 1998 – Corestates Center – Philadelphia, PA
WWF Raw opens with The Undertaker and Kane silently walking through a door one after the other. No one’s mentioned it, but I think they might be in cahoots!
Too much Shawn, and not enough smile! It’s time for WWF Raw, which is the last before SummerSlam.
The Undertaker enters to a mixed reaction, walking down the ramp side by side. Jim Ross notes that “the Hell in a Cell” is hanging above the ring before birthday boy Vince McMahon walks triumphantly down to the ring. Vince is especially smug tonight, having been proven correct about Kane and Taker. Maybe, Ross wonders, he can explain why “the hell” is hanging over the ring. “The cell”, he then says, correcting himself.
McMahon says Kane and Taker have “come out of the casket”, which draws a big laugh from Jerry Lawler. Vince tells the audience that he told them so. “I told you so”, he says. He told us so. McMahon acknowledges that, with the help of Kane, Undertaker won’t need the boss in order to beat Stone Cold, but that he will need Vince down the line. Therefore, McMahon demands to know, by the end of the broadcast, whether Taker will be his friend.
Paul Bearer joins the discussion as fans heckle him for his weight. Bearer is nearly in tears over his son joining forces with his worst enemy. Paul loved Kane, unlike his “sleazy whore” of a mother, so he begs his son to destroy the Undertaker. Instead, Taker destroys Bearer while Kane turns his back.
Mankind then shambles to the ring, offering no resistance as the brothers pummel him and deliver a spike tombstone. Vince, audibly aroused by the display, urges The Undertaker on in his quest to beat Steve Austin for the title.
Speaking of Austin, Stone Cold attempts to come to the ring but is blocked by a wall of pyro on the ramp. The champion vows to take someone out tonight and, taking offense to the fire, promises to burn Taker’s ass at SummerSlam.
Ken Shamrock now faces Dan Severn one-on-one for only the third time ever; the first two times were in UFC. This seems like the kind of match they should save for pay-per-view, unless you’ve ever seen a Dan Severn match.
WWF Raw returns with Mankind being loaded into an ambulance. Surely that’s the last we’ve seen of Mankind “for some time to come”, and definitely for the rest of the night.
Severn double-legs Shamrock and puts on a leg lock, which Shamrock counters by rising to his feet. He’s in prime Sharpshooter position, but he doesn’t take advantage. The two men grapple on the ground more until Severn powerbombs Shamrock. He declines to make a cover, however, and Jim Ross notes that these two men are looking only for a tapout or knockout. Dan then makes a number of pin attempts. Severn backs Shamrock into the ropes and is held off by the referee, during which time Owen Hart runs down and takes cheap shots on Ken. It’s the perfect crime until Owen gets into the ring and chokes out Shamrock in plain view of the referee, drawing a disqualification. It’s a shame, because these were the best three minutes of Severn’s pro wrestling career.
Steve Blackman makes the save and cleans house before Ken Shamrock inevitably suplexes him because he’s a jerk. Blackman retaliates in kind as the guys in zebra stripes separate the “friends”; Dave Hebner is there too, but he’s in horizontal stripes. “He is not sane at this moment”, says Ross of Shamrock, just before Ken slams his own head repeatedly into the steps.
Backstage, EMTs are down as Mankind rolls a stretcher around. The sound bleeds into the “Highway to Hell” video for Austin vs. Undertaker. SummerSlam begins at a new, later start time, 8pm EST, thanks to Sunday Night Heat.
When WWF Raw returns, Mankind rides a stretcher down the ramp, having taken the entire commercial break to bring it to Gorilla position. Well, he was injured, so he’s entitled to take his sweet time. He has a sack of thumbtacks with him somehow; he must have taken a detour to the locker room during the commercial. It makes sense now!
Mankind cuts a babyface promo about facing Kane in the cell tonight, which is undercut by his praise of Vince McMahon for being right about the taker-Kane collusion. Also, Mankind says he’s going to get his ass kicked, and that he’s an idiot for having another Hell in a Cell match, but he’s going to do it anyway. His plan is to throw Kane off the roof and put him into the tacks. Foley name-drops Philadelphia for the cheap pop, cuts his face with a single thumbtack, and walks off with his old, delicate piano theme. A video package, prepared by Vince McMahon, then airs of the Hell in a Cell match from King of the Ring.
Sable comes to the ring just before the break, and Jim Ross doesn’t know why. My guess is she’s going to introduce the Oddities and/or call Jacqueline a whore. When WWF Raw returns, Sable brings out Kurrgan, then dances with Luna to the Insane Clown Posse theme. Kurrgan takes on Marc Mero, who arrives without Jackie and dares Kurrgan to send the Oddities away.
As the match gets underway, Jim Ross notes that the Oddities will face Kaientai at SummerSlam (for reasons not explained), which complicates Sable’s search for a tag partner against Mero and Jacqueline. Kurrgan predictably dominates the much smaller Mero until a Rastarafian tackles Sable outside the ring and chokes her out. In fact, it’s Jacqueline. With Kurrgan distracted, Marc punches him in the groin and gets disqualified.
Backstage, X-Pac urinates in a pair of cowboy boots as a prank. But whose? There aren’t any women in the WWF who wear cowboy boots.
WWF Raw returns with Southern Justice in the ring. “Hey!” says someone off screen in a Fat Albert voice.
“Uh, kill his mic”, says Jim Ross before reading some ad copy.
“Hey, Jerry”, says Fat Albert. It turns out to be a drunken Road Warrior Hawk, who has seated himself at the announce desk for some “color dysentery”. Hawk reminisces about Memphis in the 80s.
Meanwhile, the New Age Outlaws make their entrance, and a presumably sober Road Dogg nonetheless introduces the team as the “New A Lout” before correcting himself. He is wearing sunglasses that make him look like the Hamburglar. Billy Gunn wears a shirt for Trenton’s minor league hockey team, the Titans. They are in Philadelphia.
The microphone mishaps continue when Double J marches to ringside in socks and grabs a mic that’s turned off. Jarrett then commandeers Hawk’s headset and demands to see X-Pac, his hair-vs-hair SummerSlam opponent and boot-urinator. “Don’t piss me off”, says Jarrett to the cameraman. “Don’t shoot my feet again!” Are these puns intentional?
There is a match going on, but the focus is on Jarrett’s rant. “Did X-Pac pee in your boots?” asks Lawler, slowly catching on. Jeff then lays out a challenge to X-Pac, promising to shave him bald after beating him at SummerSlam. “Shave him bald!?” asks Jerry Lawler, forgetting that Jim Ross already announced this stipulation.
Ross tries to refocus attention onto the match, which ends when Billy Gunn sneaks in, piledrives Dennis Knight, and allows Road Dogg to make the pin. Double J then takes out his frustrations on cameraman Tom Balridge, whose head he shaves. More like Tom Bald-ridge!
After a commercial break, it’s time for Hell in a Cell. Kane’s music plays, but he doesn’t appear. “Where is he?” ask the two announcers. “Ah, there he is”, says Lawler when Kane shows up immediately after. Initially flanked by Undertaker, Kane enters the cell alone, but Mankind attempts to climb to the roof. He gives up after referees offer slight resistance (and he realizes he can barely climb the thing). After a scuffle with Kane, Mankind once again tries to ascend the cage, trying in vain to throw a chair onto the roof; The Undertaker pulls Mankind off the cage and through the announce table one or two feet below.
As Kane drags Mankind into the cell, Jerry Lawler says Vince McMahon must be smiling. Jim Ross wonders why McMahon would want this to happen, and Jerry struggles for an answer. Uh, just because.
Kane punishes Mankind with the steel steps, leading Ross to call him demonic. “He turned his back on his own father”, notes Ross, forgetting that his father is evil and that Jim had been begging Kane to turn his back on him since he debuted. Kane planchas Mankind on the outside of the ring, but Mankind then disappears under the ring and emerges with a chair; Foley whacks Kane right over the head with it. “Who’s your daddy, Kane?” asks Ross, even though he already knows the answer.
Mankind starts to empty his tack sack, but Kane cuts him off. Mankind retaliates with forearms. “Kane with a suplex!” says Ross, though it was in fact Mankind with a piledriver. Kane, now with two buttocks full of thumbtacks, stands up and chokeslams his opponent and tag partner, then tombstones him. At Taker’s behest, Kane then hits Mankind with three chairshots and another tombstone (the piledriver, not an actual grave marker). This last one was delivered onto a steel chair. Before the referee can count to three, however, Steve Austin rushes in, having hid under the ring (presumably during Kane’s lights-out entrance).
Stone Cold proceeds to stomp a mud hole in Kane; as the Undertaker climbs to the roof of the cell, Austin delivers a chair shot to Kane’s head (which cameras miss) and a Stunner. Taker kicks his way through the roof, but Vince raises the cage before he can reach Austin, stranding him high above the ring.
When WWF Raw returns, Kane and the Undertaker are in the ring. Kane is bleeding, though it’s hard to tell. Taker calls Stone Cold a coward for hiding and attacking Kane unprovoked, then promises Austin will meet his destiny tonight.
Chyna is here to challenge The Rock, wearing the same outfit from last week. What a faux pas! Rocky arrives in his khaki shorts and loafers and shortly thereafter is joined by the rest of the Nation. At this point, Lawler suggests Chyna retreat to Martha’s Vineyard (referring to—you guessed it—Bill Clinton). The Nation sets up a ladder menacingly in the corner; D-X, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found, having been barricaded in their locker room with a forklift. The Rock vows to climb the ladder rung by damn rung at SummerSlam, then hits on Chyna. “Chyna, you just need to get some”, says Rock, at which point an indignant Jim Ross says Chyna isn’t an intern. Clinton!
Chyna lunges at the Rock (non-sexually) but is accosted by the rest of the Nation (except Godfather, who is out with a concussion from last week’s Brawl for All). “Put her down on her knees where she belongs!” orders Rock. Disgusting—Chyna’s not here to scrub your floors!
The Rock grabs her chin, tells her to pucker up, then enlists Mark Henry to do the honors. The Olympian licks his chops, but Shawn Michaels storms the ring with a steel chair and clears the ring. HBK nails Henry in the head with a chair. It’s always a surprise to see Shawn show up post-Wrestlemania 14, given that none of his teased comebacks would materialize for the next four years.
When WWF Raw returns, DX is out of their locker room and looking for the Nation. Shawn Michaels is on commentary now.
Val Venis is here to wrestle another match with Kaientai, despite three whole weeks having passed since they tried to chop off his penis. Move on! Regardless, tonight he faces Taka Michinoku, who pinned Venis in the gauntlet match last week. Once again, this seems like the kind of match to feature at SummerSlam. Venis makes an off-color Philly cheesesteak joke about meat and buns, despite the presence of children. Mrs. Yamaguchi, for instance, who is making her final appearance (It’s back-to-school season, after all).
The action starts off at a blistering pace and ends when Triple H storms the ring and whacks Venis in the back with a chair. The angry D-X leader then dents the chair right over Taka’s head, making Michinoku the fourth man to take an unprotected chair shot to the skull tonight. It’s worth it, though, to show how mad Triple H is at The Rock. Or “pissed”, as Michaels puts it before Jim Ross reminds him that Shawn’s mama is watching. Should I add that to the tally? At SummerSlam, says Hunter, The Rock will know his role as Triple H’s bitch. Is Hunter’s mama watching, too?
When WWF Raw comes back from break, Jim Ross gets on a live mic and tells the audience to watch the Titantron. The “Highway to Hell” SummerSlam video makes its world premiere (ignoring the shortened versions shown over the past few weeks). Austin vs. Undertaker looks to be an all-time classic as long as no one gets concussed and forgets the spots.
Next, X-Pac takes on the “weird” and “strange” Gangrel. He drinks “whatever it is in that goblet” before his match. X-Pac, meanwhile, wrestles for perhaps the last time before getting shaved bald (according to the stipulation for his match with Jeff Jarrett). Shortly into the match, cameras catch Edge in the crowd. X-Pac jams his crotch into Gangrel’s face, but Double J ruins the fun by smashing his SummerSlam opponent with a guitar. X-Pac apparently pissed him off in defiance of the slogan written on his guitar. Jim Ross, however, won’t read it, as his mama’s watching. “Don’t PO me off, or something like that,” says Ross.
Post-match, Triple H and Chyna run Jarrett off and check on X-Pac, and Edge brawls with Gangrel, catfight style.
The Undertaker rolls a black coffin backstage before WWF Raw goes to commercial.
It’s now time for the Brawl For All finals; the winner gets $75,000, and the loser 25k. Tonight’s Stri-Dex Triple Action consists of Bradshaw punching Mark Canterbury and Bart Gunn knocking out two guys.
Both men come out swinging, and soon Bart has knocked Bradshaw down. Bradshaw is clearly loopy, but Jack Dohn isn’t a licensed boxing referee and so he allows the fight to continue. After a standing eight count, Bradshaw (eventually) tells the ref that he can continue, at which point Bart knocks him out for real.
Bart Gunn getting knocked out in 0:35 gets all the attention, but I prefer the 0:41 knockout of JBL because JBL gets knocked out. #wwe
— Art O’Donnell (@art0donnell.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Congratulations Bart! And enjoy the replays!
You have to watch it from different angles. Again and again. And again and again and again. #jbl #wwe #attitudeera #raw
— Art O’Donnell (@art0donnell.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Backstage, Michael Cole has a word with Vince McMahon about his friendship offer to Kane and The Undertaker. It’s not very productive.
The Undertaker’s druid music plays said druids to the ring with the casket. The druids are barely concealing their faces, so it’s fortunate the lights are turned down and the cameras aren’t focusing on them. Next, Taker himself walks down the ramp as the announcers speculate on who, if anyone, is inside the box.
Taker says his match with Austin will be all on the level, one on one. But when he challenges Stone Cold to a fight right now, the boss shows up instead and asks, “Friend or foe?” Undertaker responds by chokeslamming him. Steve Austin then emerges from the coffin and… taunts Vince McMahon. So are Austin and Undertaker in cahoots, too?
Kane then emerges from the same coffin like it’s a clown car. Did Austin not notice there was a seven-foot tall man lying in the same box as him? Or were they cuddling in there?Kane attacks his coffin-mate before Austin grabs a chair; a referee separates the two, and Austin retreats up the ramp, which catches on fire.
Final tally:
4 DQs
1 No-Contest
1 KO
1 JR’s Mama
1 HBK’s Mama
2 Men in a coffin