Monday Night Raw – December 28, 1998: We Close It Out With Shawn

Monday Night Raw
Date: December 28, 1998
Location: Pepsi Arena, Albany, New York
Attendance: 11,928
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

Hardcore Title: Road Dogg vs. Val Venis

Al Snow is still covered in blood from last week.

Kane gets a member of DX tonight.

Al Snow vs. Edge

The Brood and the JOB Squad get in a fight post match.

Dennis Knight (Phineas Godwin) is here for no apparent reason.

European Title: X-Pac vs. Big Boss Man

We get a Vince training montage with him drinking raw eggs set to a Rocky sounding song.

Goldust/Steve Blackman vs. Jeff Jarrett/Owen Hart

The Acolytes are kidnapping Dennis Knight and put him in the trunk of his own car before driving off in it.

Intercontinental Title: HHH vs. Ken Shamrock

The crowd is all over Shamrock to start. HHH hits an atomic drop and neckbreaker to send Shamrock to the outside. Cole goes into an explanation about rights of free speech and taking obscene signs away for some reason. Shamrock hits a spinning elbow to take over but HHH comes back with a gordbuster and a baseball slide to take out Test. Shamrock gets in some shots to the knee and HHH is down.

DX comes out for the save until Kane reluctantly clears the ring.

Shamrock and Gunn yell at each other.

The Corporation is looking for someone.

Billy Gunn vs. Godfather

Billy Gunn vs. Kane

Rock comes out for commentary on the main event.

Hardcore Title: Mankind vs. Road Dogg

Shawn arrives with like fifteen minutes left in the show. The match is joined in progress after a break. Rock rips into both guys and is on fire tonight. Roadie is in control to start but the Cactus Clothesline puts both guys on the floor. They head up the ramp with Mankind in control, hitting a suplex on the stage for no cover. Mankind pulls out a table and suplexes it onto Roadie for two.

Road Dogg takes over and they head back towards the ring. That lasts for about two seconds as Mankind drops him face first onto the apron. Mankind pulls out a toolbox but it gets knocked out of his hands. Some cookie sheet shots put Mankind down as security puts a rowdy fan down. Back inside a chair to the back puts Mankind down as does a Russian legsweep onto the chair which gets two. Mankind comes back with a pulling piledriver for two and takes over again.

Another piledriver on the chair gets another two and we head back to the floor. They head into the crowd and Mankind knocks him behind some hockey boards. A shot with a monitor misses Road Dogg and he knocks Mankind through a production assistant into some boxes. Mr. Socko comes out of nowhere and the Claw puts Roadie down as Rock leaves the announce table. Mankind drops an elbow on Roadie on the table but Rock lays out Mankind with a Rock Bottom on the concrete, allowing Road Dogg to get the pin to retain.

Rating: C+. This was when they were starting to get the Hardcore Title formula down and it got a lot better. Road Dogg turned out to be really good at this stuff and the matches were entertaining enough to keep the fans fired up. This was mainly to set up Rock vs. Mankind though which would be a big deal the next week.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/04/24/monday-night-raw-january-4-1999-foley-wins/

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