Welcome
to the past , a land that time has already visited and has no intention of
having a return match. A place where predictions are pointless and
successes and failures are littered all over the place. In this new column
I’ll be looking back at WWF/E history to find out just what was
happening at this time in recent and not so recent years.
This week, it’s time to look back at a surprising heel turn on Raw in
1995, a man in a dress in 1997 and just who’s driving the hearse back in
1998?
We start in August 1995 when Diesel (Kevin Nash) was WWF Champion, and you
thought Triple H was bad! We were just days away from the worst ever
Summerslam main event of all time: Diesel v King Mabel. Oh
Vince what were you thinking of?
Not a great card that evening on Raw. Would you be staying up late to
watch the 123 Kid (X-Pac) beat The Brooklyn Brawler and the Pirate Jean
Pierre beat Scott Taylor. At least there was The Undertaker beating
Tatanka, but it was the main event that produced the big shock. The
British Bulldog tagged with Diesel against Men on a Mission and he turned
heel on the champ!! Oh poor Diesel!
Forward a couple of years to August 18th 1997and a sad edition of Raw. Sad
because the card that night featured Rick Rude, The British Bulldog,
Owen Hart and Brian Pillman, great talent no longer with us and in the
case of Brian Pillman, his death was just weeks away.
Rick Rude had just rejoined the WWF but was there for protection not
wrestling. He’d attacked Mankind the week before and was on his way to
joining DX. Great main event that night with Shawn Michaels and
Triple H meeting The Undertaker and Mankind.
Lots of misused talent back then, especially Flash Funk (Too Cold
Scorpio). I was just waiting for Vince to bring back Terry Funk and say he
was his half-brother Dudley style. Hey, Flash and Terry Funk, what a tag
team that could have been! As for Rikishi, well he was in a silly
mask with stupid shoes and was ‘The Sultan’ jobbing to Ken Shamrock.
Big news that night was a new member of The Nation of Domination, you
might have heard of him, his name? Rocky Maivia! Back to Brian
Pillman, he was in a dress and would stay that way until he won a match,
he lost to Jesse James (Road Dog) and kept the clothing. He began
his feud with Goldust that would be tragically cut short. Bret Hart was
turning heel and about to feud with Vader and Stone Cold was talking about
that match with Owen Hart at Summerslam that nearly paralysed him.
As for the main event, Undi and Mankind won by DQ thanks to a chair shot
by Michaels.
Finally this week it’s 17 August 1998 and Stone Cold’s feuding with Mr
McMahon, Undertaker and Kane. He arrived in the arena driving a hearse,
then got on top and opened a few cans!
The Brawl for All tournament was at the semi-final stage with Bart Gunn
beating The Godfather and Bradshaw defeating Droz. Making his Raw debut
that night was Gangrel who beat Brian Christopher. Dan Severn won a triple
threat against Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart setting up his feud with
Shamrock that never really worked.
DX won a street fight against the Nation, Jeff Jarrett and Southern
Justice interfered and cut off some of X-Pac’s hair. Sable was still
around and a face, believe it or not she was in an arm wrestling match
with Jacqueline, who was siding with her husband Marc Mero.
Jacqueline won the match setting up a Summerslam feud. Val Venis
lost a gauntlet match to Kaientai and finally Austin attacked Undi who
turned out to be Kane, put the monster in the back of that hearse, only to
find Undi in the driving seat!
More
memories next week, if you’ve got any opinions
about this column email me at: mageditoruk@yahoo.co.uk
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