FEEDBACK - WWF FULLY LOADED '98

[Deleted]

Post your feedback for our review of WWF FULLY LOADED 1998 from July of 1998 in Fresno, California.

Review-A-Wai will take a look at this show on Wednesday.

WWF FULLY LOADED
Sunday July 26th 1998
Fresno, California
*Kane & Mankind vs. Steve Austin & The Undertaker for the tag titles
*The Rock vs. Triple H in a 2/3 falls match for the Intercontinental title
*Ken Shamrock vs. Owen Hart in a Dungeon Match
*D-Lo Brown vs. X-Pac in a non-title match
*Legion of Doom vs. D.O.A.
*Vader vs. Mark Henry
*Jeff Jarrett vs. Val Venis
*Bradshaw & Terry Funk vs. Scorpio & Faarooq
*Sable vs. Jacqueline in a Bikini Contest

[mexico93]

I hope the wwe network doesn't get used because everything is edited and John should use his tape collection to watch it because the Easter eggs from the tapes are edited from the network

[Brad]

Happy Canada Day Hosers, I’ve got my tuque on, back bacon frying up and just about to crack open a Molson to enjoy Fully Loaded 1998. 

This was the summer I got back into wrestling and I can remember all this building to SummerSlam that year and I loved it. It was a pretty average In Your House event with not much standing out. This version of the Undertaker is my all time favorite and even the Kane character was fresh at the time. Hope you guys caught a glimpse of Vince Russo in that horrible camera transition in one of the WWF.com segments.  I couldn't tell if the Dungeon match was filmed all in one take "They Live" style but if it wasn't the editing was great,  a true part of our heritage.  

Couple of Canadian questions:

You guys would have been watching Canadian children’s television the same years I was and Mr. Dressup was my all time favorite, what about you?

What is your favorite Canadian food? My wife is from Quebec and has introduced me to true authentic poutine with squeaky cheese curds.

[mcwaylon]

This PPV was during the Russo era and it shows. The opening matches range from watchable to bad, so I will focus on the three most notable matches.

The Owen/Shamrock match was okay, but this was done to set-up their superior Lions Den rematch at Summerslam.

The Rock/HHH match was decent with too many run-ins, but this was done to set-up their superior ladder match at Summerslam.

The main event tag title match was fine, but this was done only to further set-up Austin/Taker for Summerslam.

There seems to be a pattern here. To be brief, this PPV was nothing more than a set-up for Summerslam and to promote RAW. This was common during the Russo era, TV was the main focus while the PPVs (except the big 4 PPVs which were still heavily hyped and good quality wise) suffered.

There was no must-see match on this show, as the WWE was focusing everything on Summerslam. This was simply a placeholder PPV designed to hype RAW and Summerslam. Fully Loaded 98 gets a 3.5/10, there were no great matches but nothing was too terrible therefore it is a skip-able show at best.

[Andrew MacDonald]

It definitely seemed like a run of the mill "In Your House" style pay per view, but I guess you can't just throw all the big matches on every pay per view. I will give WWE credit though for attempting to save their big matches for pay per views like SummerSlam for instance. On the plus side, WWE business was so hot, they could get away with doing stuff like this. The show was underwhelming, though there were a few things that caught my eye. I felt Paul Ellering was a great manager despite the team he was put with. He and The Jackyl were great but underused managers that may've had a bigger impact in WWE if they weren't put with such dead acts. My other main observation was how insane the Dungeon match was. German suplexes and flat back bumps on the basement floor made me cringe a bit, and it seemed like one of the more violent matches I've seen in awhile based on the bumps alone. Anyway, other then that and the infamous painted hands on Sable's boobs, a picture which I fondly remembered as a 12 year old, the show had a string of bad matches in the middle of the card and really brought down the rating as a whole. I give it 4 out of 10.

[iangoodfellow]

Ian from Swaffham (pronounced Swaffum, England)

Despite living in the UK, I"m transplanted back to my colonial birthplace - after a brief detour in Fresno, California - thanks to John and Wai's selection this week.

By my tally, the Canadian Content count for this show was 5 (Venis, Korderas, Edge, Patterson, and Owen)

Although the show was a mixed bag, I thoroughly enjoyed the video package used to open the show. It quickly caught me up with the main storyline and provided a series of probing questions that they would call upon throughout the night.

The Rock and HHH stole the show in a match that was everything that went right with the Attitude Era. Solid and hungry young stars, each with a crew of cronies that were certainly over and had the fans eating out of the palm of their hand.

However, for the bad part of the Attitude Era, we have to talk abou the cold open with Jerry Lawler turning into Eugene at the sight of Sable's breasts - to the point that he was still babbling about it while Venis was grinding away. I guess the man had never seen a pair of breasts before that night. Good thing there was a backlit changing screen to help those of us viewing at home. This may have been a show with a porn star making size jokes, and a blimp flying around the arena but in truth nothing screamed 1998 more than the Lawler/Sable segment.

Briefly, there was a lot of filler with Bradshaw attacking Farooq a mere 4 months before they'd team together. I'm surprised that on a show with as many double entendres as the Attitude Era provided us with that the BJ on Bradshaw's tights were allowed to remain. Also, the Owen/Shamrock dungeon match was an interesting idea and I think it was pulled off well. I'd like to see the WWE experiment with more single-camera pre-shot altercations down the line. It used to be a bit of a minor staple and when done well, it can be somewhat of a pallet cleanser to a very steady diet of "The WWE style."

A fun show with over characters and a solid last 2 matches. 6 American Beer Jokes out of 10.

Somebody out there please enjoy a Caesar and a bag of All Dressed Ruffles on my behalf this Canada Day.

[David Dufvenberg]

This show pretty much defines the B show in that era. It was entertaining but never seemed to have the "must see" feeling. It was a big set up for Summerslam which I think was mentioned more than Fully Loaded was.

The Lions Den match was better than I thought it was going to be. They made good use of the limited space they had. The main event told a pretty good story as well. Made me want to go back and watch the episodes of Raw following this show. Austin could do nothing but arm bars and headlocks and the crowd would still go nuts for everything he does. Seemed like everybody on the roster came out early in some fashion but it was nice that they saved Austin's appearance til the actual match to get the maximum pop.

While watching the Triple H/Rock match it actually made me want to see them at Wrestlemanis 32. They were two of the biggest names in wrestling at one point but never had the big Wrestlemania match. There was a lot of interference but the match seemed to benefit from it. Two factions who absolutely hated each other and their leaders were going at it. Obviously it makes sense that they all want to get involved. It was all paced very well and it didn't feel like a half hour had passed. And if it wasn't a full half hour i'm sure Pollock had the stop watch out to let us know.

This wasn't a boring show at all, but there was a lot of unnecessary matches. The main matches though kept this from being a waste of time. I'll give it a 6/10.

[jonr25]

Hey guys. First time poster here. It was a lot of fun going back to 98' to see this show. I thought the Dungeon match was fine given their limitations in the small room. I think they should have filled the room with cats to give it a true Hart Family home vibe. The bikini contest was fun if only for the memories of the conversations about it at school the next day with my friends. The main event was entertaining and definitely made you look forward to the eventual Taker-Austin Summerslam match. Overall, a fun show and I give it 7 Dan Severn Magnum P.I mustaches out of 10