Survivor Series 1998 1998-11-15

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Event
Survivor Series 1998

Date
Sun 15th November 1998 (UTC)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
WWE

Season
1998

Round
56

Status

Location

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Description

Survivor Series: Deadly Game was the 12th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It was presented by Nestlé Crunch and took place on November 15, 1998 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Fourteen professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card, a noticeably higher number than most pay-per-view events because the main focus of the card was a tournament for the vacant WWF Championship. It was the first tournament held with the WWF Championship on the line in ten years, the last being at WrestleMania IV. Both tournaments were 14-man tournaments instead of the regular 8 or 16-man tournaments. Aside from the tournament, two other championship matches occurred: the first defense of the WWF Women's Championship since it had been reactivated and a triple threat tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship.

This event was also the first Survivor Series not to feature the traditional Survivor Series elimination-style tag team match, although the notion of survival is apparent in the knockout tournament. The only other time a Survivor Series event has not featured the traditional match is in 2002 but did feature the inaugural Elimination Chamber match, a match type also based on survival.

As the central focus of Survivor Series was the tournament titled Deadly Games, with the vacant WWF Championship at stake. The build up involved many interlinking feuds.

In March, Steve Austin had won the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV. Austin's working class, blue collar style and manner clashed with WWF Chairman Mr. McMahon and his corporate notions of who he wanted to represent his company. He then set about trying to mould a challenger in his own image to dethrone Austin. At first he brought back Dude Love, who soon abandoned his hippy style gimmick in favor of a suit - even wearing his false teeth (Foley was known for his scruffy look, including various missing teeth from a variety of matches). After two attempts by Love to win the gold, including one with McMahon as referee, failed, McMahon turned to Paul Bearer and sought about setting up Kane in a match at June's King of the Ring which Austin lost but only thanks to interference from Kane's (Kayfabe) half-brother The Undertaker who, despite having animosity towards his brother, did not want to see him hurt - Austin won his title back the following evening. Having been thrown to the wayside by McMahon, Love returned to his psychologically fragile alter-ego Mankind, soon changing his dress from rags to an unintentionally scruffy parody of his father-figure McMahon. Both Mankind and Kane formed an ad-hoc tag team which McMahon sponsored in a bid to take on the Undertaker, who had been defending Austin while similarly vying for a title shot. Shortly before SummerSlam in August, it was revealed that Undertaker and Kane had been in cahoots. Austin retained the title at SummerSlam, but McMahon was not done. At the next pay-per-view, he forced Austin to face both Kane and Undertaker in a match that essentially became a handicap match after McMahon added the stipulation that the brothers could not pin each other. Austin lost the championship, but since he was simultaneously pinned by Kane and Undertaker the title was held up. To rectify the situation, McMahon booked a match between the two brothers at Judgment Day: In Your House. To further mock Steve Austin, he was designated as referee and McMahon threatened to fire him if he didn't perform his duties. Austin defied the order and attacked both Undertaker and Kane, then counted both brothers out and declared himself the winner and champion. McMahon then made good on his threat to fire Austin, and the title was left vacant. To rectify this, a single elimination tournament between a wide array of wrestlers in the company was set up.

Despite being fired, Austin was at Raw Is War the night after Judgment Day and held McMahon hostage at gunpoint, though when Austin went to fire his gun it turned out to be a joke gun, with a sign saying BANG! 3:16 on it; Austin left the ring when McMahon soiled himself, having given him a piece of paper. Austin revealed the following week that the paper was a five-year contract that guaranteed him a championship match and most shockingly of all, the contract had been signed by Mr McMahon's son Shane, who had his owner rights suspended by his father and was demoted to a referee.

As well as Austin, McMahon seemed to have a new target of hatred. On the November 2 edition of Raw Is War, McMahon declared to the self-styled People's Champion that because he had a problem with the people, he had a problem with The Rock. He then ordered Rock into an Intercontinental match with Ken Shamrock, with Rock's tournament spot on the line. Shamrock hit him with a chair and thus he won, but only by disqualification and thus lost his tournament spot. Afterwards McMahon had The Rock arrested, much like he had done months before with Austin. The following week McMahon threatened him with expulsion from the company if he could not win a match against former Nation of Domination stable mate Mark Henry. Despite the odds being stacked in his favor with McMahon's entourage at ring side distracting the referee, Shane McMahon ran down after Rock had performed the Rock Bottom, a lifting side slam, on Henry and counted the pinfall to secure Rock's employment and, presumably, earning back his spot in the tournament although this was never specifically mentioned other than McMahon mentioning it on Heat.

While many wrestlers became the target of Vince McMahon's ire, one wrestler returned to being his favorite. With his son ostensibly turning on him, Mankind tried to cheer McMahon up and was treated as a surrogate child. McMahon awarded him a new belt, the WWF Hardcore Championship, as well as giving him a makeover, including a pedicure, haircut and tailored suit, gearing him up to win the tournament. As well as being a Hardcore Champion, Mankind had formed an ad hoc tag team with Al Snow; the humorous duo mocked each other's mascots which they talked to, Mr. Socko and Head. In a tag team match Mr. Socko went missing and it later transpired that Mr. McMahon had wrapped it round Al Snow's Head in order to provoke his wrath. Snow himself had also had several run-ins with Jeff Jarrett, after Jarrett had opened his guitar case only to find Head inside, instead of his trademark weapon.

Family problems were abound elsewhere with the return of Paul Bearer at Judgment Day. Bearer had been at Kane's side ever since his debut the previous October at Badd Blood, but when Kane and Undertaker allied to take down Austin, Kane turned his back on Bearer and allowed Undertaker to beat him. When Bearer returned he seemed to be on Kane's side, but in fact he gave a chair to Undertaker to strike Kane with, revealing on Raw that he had returned to being Undertaker's mentor.

For weeks, vignettes had announced the arrival of Steven Regal under the gimmick of "a man's man". Regal made his debut by attacking the European Champion X-Pac from behind on Raw. Also, a masked man in a SWAT style uniform appeared alongside Mr. McMahon to defend him against Austin's attacks. The enforcer turned out to be the returning Big Boss Man, who after a stint in World Championship Wrestling had taken on the role of personal bodyguard for McMahon.

The two other feuds going into the event were both championship feuds. Marc Mero grew jealous of his valet Sable and the attention she gained, eventually having her fired by defeating her in a match. When she returned as a wrestler in her own right, Mero employed a new valet Jacqueline and the two naturally squared off. Firstly they had a bikini contest, which Sable won by popularity, but was disqualified as her bikini consisted of handprints. The two then had an arm wrestling contest, which ended with Jacqueline cracking the bikini contest trophy over the head of Sable. When Sable revealed the Women's Championship had been reactivated, the two met for a match on Raw, in which Jacqueline won due to Mero holding Sable's legs down. After Sable was further humiliated when Jacqueline cut a piece of her hair and wrapped it into her own hair, Sable demanded a championship match.

The Headbangers had met the New Age Outlaws the previous month and after dominating most of the match, won via disqualification when Road Dogg broke a boombox over Mosh's head. Despite titles not changing hands by disqualification, the Headbangers began to declare themselves champions, coming to the ring with toy replica belts and parodying New Age Outlaws pre-match speeches. With the dissolution of The Nation, D'Lo Brown and Mark Henry stayed together as a tag team and with Brown's feud with X-Pac over the European title, by messing with one D-Generate, he picked an unwitting fight with the Outlaws too.

Reports

Result List

Result Description
Deadly Game Tournament First Round Match
Mankind defeats Duane Gill (0:30)

Deadly Game Tournament First Round Match
Al Snow defeats Jeff Jarrett (with Debra) (3:31)

Deadly Game Tournament First Round Match
Steve Austin defeats The Big Bossman by DQ (3:20)

Deadly Game Tournament First Round Match
Steven Regal vs. X-Pac - Double Count Out (8:10)

Deadly Game Tournament First Round Match
Ken Shamrock defeats Goldust (5:56)

Deadly Game Tournament First Round Match
The Rock defeats The Big Bossman (0:03)

Deadly Game Tournament Second Round Match
The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeats Kane (7:16)

Deadly Game Tournament Second Round Match
Mankind defeats Al Snow (3:55)

Deadly Game Tournament Second Round Match
The Rock defeats Ken Shamrock (8:20)

WWF World Women's Title Match
Sable defeats Jacqueline (with Marc Mero) (c) (3:14) - TITLE CHANGE !!!

Deadly Game Tournament Semi Final Match
Mankind defeats Steve Austin (10:27)

Deadly Game Tournament Semi Final Match
The Rock defeats The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) by DQ (8:23)

WWF World Tag Team Title Three Way Dance
The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & The Road Dogg) (c) defeat D-Lo Brown & Mark Henry and The Head Bangers (Mosh & Thrasher) (10:10)

WWF World Heavyweight Title Deadly Game Tournament Final Match (vacant)
The Rock defeats Mankind (17:10) - TITLE CHANGE !!!

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