Burning Hammer Tape Review #9

CellJr300 On

WWF: Capital Carnage 1998
December 06, 1998

--Taped from London, England, United Kingdom

--Your hosts are JR & King

--Gangrel V. Al Snow. Despite being a heel everywhere else in the world Gangrel gets a nice face pop from the British crowd. Snow then gets quite possibly the biggest pop I've ever heard him get anywhere, at any time in his career during his entrance. They mess up a Leapfrog when Gangrel doesn't jump high enough, and Snow doesn't duck low enough, which causes Snow to hit Gangrel in the nuts with his head. Snow with a SWEET~ Ocean Cyclone Suplex. Gangrel then hits his SWANK~ Inverted Tiger Suplex for a 2 count. Gangrel gets the pin at 5:54 after Edge interferes and hits a Missile Dropkick on Snow. *1/2 Didn't really go anywhere, and the interference at the end was unnecessary.

--LOD 2000 V. Headbangers. LOD consisted of Animal & Droz at this time, and this was right after the hysterically funny, and really stupid, Hawk tries to commit suicide episode of Raw. The Headbangers are Mosh & Thrasher. Headbangers pull out the Leapfrog Choke double team move that Badd Company used to use, and World's Greatest Tag Team uses today. Mosh gets the pin on Animal at 3:20 with a Rollup. 3/4* Pointless match.

--Val Venis V. Goldust. Venis gets the pin at 5:34 with a Rollup. ** Nothing terribly impressive, but nothing really bad, this was every basic Venis & Goldust match from around this time rolled into one.

--Tiger Ali Singh V. Edge. Oh great, just what this show needs to make it better, a Tiger Ali Singh match. Singh gets the pin with his feet on the ropes at 2:52 after hitting a sloppy Powerslam to counter a top-rope Crossbody by Edge. 1/4* Singh was not good, and Edge was nowhere near ready to be the person carrying a match.

--Mixed-Gender Match: Marc Mero, Jacqueline V. Christian, Sable. Mixed-Gender rules are different from Inter-Gender rules in that males have to wrestle males, and females have to wrestle females, and there isn't supposed to be any wrestling between males and females. Sable gets the pin on Jacqueline at 4:50 with a TKO, as Mero quietly exits the arena in what would be his last WWF match. 1/2* A comedy match that wasn't all that funny. Post-match Jacqueline goes after the referee, but when Sable goes after Jacqueline she rips off her shirt exposing her breasts, and what big breasts they are. This was clearly an intended spot, and would make it the first instance of allowed nudity on WWF television, and not the Kat incident from Armageddon 1999.

--WWF Intercontinental Championship Match: Steve Blackman V. Ken Shamrock (W/Big Bossman). Shamrock wins the match via submission at 6:51 with an Anklelock after Bossman hit Blackman in the ankle with his baton. * Yet another bland by the numbers match.

--Jeff Jarrett (W/Debra) V. Triple H (W/Chyna). Triple H was originally supposed to face Rock for the WWF Heavyweight Championship, but for some reason his match was changed to this one on the night of the PPV. Triple H gets the pin at 6:56 with a Pedigree. *1/2 More basic wrestling that didn't really lead anywhere.

--WWF Tag Team Championship Match: Mark Henry, D-Lo Brown V. New Age Outlaws. Gunn gets the pin on D-Lo at 10:11 with a Piledriver. *1/2 None of the participants seemed to be on the same page at any point during this match and the match came out feeling real weird as a result.

--WWF Heavyweight Championship Match: X-Pac V. Rock. Nice criss-cross sequence leads to a Flying Clothesline by Pac. A trifecta of Spin Kicks by Pac send Rock out to the floor where he decides to bail on the match until Triple H & Chyna come down & force him back into the ring. Rock wins the match by disqualification at 12:34 after Triple H attacked him outside the ring. **1/2 The match was good at certain points, but Rock was too Chinlock happy in the middle, and the overbooked BS ending didn't help.

--Fatal 4 Way, No Disqualification Match: Mankind V. Kane V. Undertaker (W/Paul Bearer) V. Steve Austin. Match is already overbooked before it can even start with Shane McMahon as the gust ring announcer, Pat Patterson as the guest timekeeper, Gerald Brisco as the guest referee, Mr. McMahon as the guest commentator, Big Bossman as the special enforcer, and British football star Vinnie Jones as the other special enforcer. I watch football, but I have no idea who Vinnie Jones is, or why he's important, so if any of my British peeps could fill me in it'd be greatly appreciated, and before I can even finish typing that question Brisco pulls out a red card and ejects Jones from ringside. One fall for the win rules are in effect in this match. A whole lot of punching & kicking, followed by a hearty helping of absolutely nothing going on happens in the first thirteen minutes of the match. Undertaker absolutely kills Mankind with a chairshot to the head. Austin wins by pinning Kane after hitting an Ace Crusher at 16:12. * A punch & kick fest, with a healthy abundance of overbooked crap tossed in for that extra special shitty match appeal.

--Final Flash: This was during the height of Vince Russo's run with the book in the WWF, and this show was emblematic of that time and of Russo's general booking style. All the undercard matches were real short, there was a lot of interference all throughout the night, and the main event was an overbooked clusterfuck. I hated Russo's booking, so it's no real surprise that I hated this show as well.

Not Recommended.

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