-Vince McMahon retiring and HHH and Stephanie taking over and what that will look like. Hopefully the end of the multiple camera takes.
-Today, Project 45 lands in the year 1998 as we take a look at the first episode of Sunday Night Heat from the WWF.
-1998: First year working in Student housing as an RA. A field I am still in.
-The premiere episode of Sunday Night Heat was shown on the USA Network on August 2, 1998. It was recorded July 27, 1998 from the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA.
-WWF Intro.
-Heat Intro.
-Vince McMahon comes to the top of the ramp and the crowd boos him. He says allow me to introduce to you the host and the star of Sunday Night Heat, Shane McMahon! Shane comes out and hugs his dad. He then goes back and gets two beautiful ladies to escort him to ringside where he will do commentary with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Shane and his two companions get settled as we see Edge come down through the crowd.
-Edge vs. Jeff Jarrett with Tennessee Lee: Jarrett has the sparklers that say JJ go off. That's a lot of pyro. Jarrett attacks Edge before he gets his jacket off as the bell rings. Jarrett pulls the jacket over Edge's head and gets him down. He then gets Edge in the corner and the jacket comes off. Jarrett with a corner whip and a series of right hands. Edge reverses an Irish whip and hits Jarrett with a face first flapjack. Edge then hits a spear. He runs the back of Jarrett's head into the mat several times. Edge goes out to the apron, but gets distracted by Lee and is hit from behind by Jarrett and knocked off of the apron onto the barricade. Jarrett with a baseball slide to knock Edge back into the barricade. Jarrett brings Edge back in and continues to assault him. Edge reverses an Irish whip, misses a clothesline, and hits a reverse Russian leg sweep. Jarrett goes up top and hits a crossbody. Edge rolls through and gets a two count. Jarrett attacks Edge with a kick. Jarrett with a DDT. Jarrett choking Edge. Edge with some right hands to Jarrett as Shane McMahon's own personal makeup lady reapplies some makeup to him. Edge with an Irish whip, drops his head early, and Jarrett kicks him in the face. Jarrett then kicks Edge down. Jarrett goes for a suplex. Edge slips behind him. He then kicks Jarrett and hits two snap suplexes and hits the Impaler for a two count. Edge with an Irish whip and an inverted atomic drop. He then clotheslines Jarrett to the outside. Jarrett gives Tennessee Lee a signal and Lee goes for Edge's leg to hook it, but gets caught by the referee and Edge suplexes Jarrett back in. Jarrett with some punches. Edge reverses an Irish whip and Lee hooks Jarrett's leg by accident. Edge then pins Jarrett. Tennessee Lee gets in the ring livid as Edge is announced as the winner. Edge then leaves through the crowd. Jarrett and Lee arguing in the ring. Jarrett then walks off.
-Amy Hunter Cornelius and Mario Lopez from Pacific Blue are shown in the audience.
-HHH, X-Pac, and Chyna are shown in the back.
-DX comes out after the break. They are going to be interviewed by Jerry Lawler because the next night on Raw, Mr. McMahon has said that HHH and X-Pac have to wrestle each other. HHH does the are you ready suck it chant. Lawler asks X-Pac about the match the next night. X-Pac says HHH and X-Pac are nothing but pros. They're going out on Raw and they're going to rip it up and then afterwards they're going to shake hands and Vince McMahon can suck it. HHH says from the very beginning of DX when he and Chyna and HBK formed DX, Vince McMahon couldn't stand it could he? Because they did exactly what they wanted. They said what they wanted. They kicked what ass they wanted to. They showed their ass when they wanted to. But the bottom line is they were the most titillating sections of that show every week. And when he says titillating, he pauses and the crowd cheers wildly. He says I think you know what I mean. Who's got the goods, because he's got the time. He singles out a woman in the crows and asks the crowd who wants to see the goods? She then flashes the crowd in the most 1998 shot of the night. Her friend flashes the crowd as well. Shane McMahon is cheering his future brother-in-law on as we have reached the creepy portion of our show. He and HHH then do the suck it gesture to each other.
-Vignette on Droz.
-The Headbangers Mosh and Thrasher and Droz vs. Kaientai with Yamaguchi: They show Kaintai promising to chop Val Venis' pee-pee off as yes folks, we are in that era. Val Venis' music hits before the match starts and he comes out arm in arm with Mrs. Yamaguchi. Kaintai trying to keep Yamaguchi away and cover his eyes. Mosh and Funaki start. Mosh with a side headlock. Funaki pushes off. Mosh comes back with a shoulder block. Mosh runs the ropes. Funaki with drop downs and leapfrogs to avoid him. Mosh with an arm drag into an arm bar. He then kicks Funaki in the back several times. Droz tagged in. Mosh holds Funaki on the top rope for Droz to come down on Funaki's back. He gets a two count. Funaki rakes Droz's eyes and tags Togo in. Droz ducks a clothesline before hitting a clothesline of his own. Droz with a right hand. Droz with a kick and a corner whip. Togo gets his boot up on the charge. Teioh tagged in and he and Togo with a double Irish whip and boot and a double bulldog to Droz. Teioh gets a two count, but Droz with an impactful kick out. Teioh tries to scoop slam Droz, but can't lift him up so Droz scoop slams him down instead. When they come back from a commercial break, Togo has tagged in and hits a big leg drop on Thrasher, who was also tagged in. He gets a one count. Togo with a fist drop on Droz. Togo with a rear chin lock on Thrasher, but has his hands on Thrasher's eyes instead of his chin as referee Mike Chioda counts him, they keep showing Val Venis and Mrs. Yamaguchi on the top of the ramp. Togo with a corner whip, but Thrasher moves on the corner charge and Funaki hits him from behind. Togo gets a front face lock on and tags Teioh in. Teioh with shots and chops before tagging Funaki in. He scoop slams Thrasher. He goes up top for a flying elbow drop, but Thrasher moves. Both Droz and Teioh tagged in. Droz clotheslines all the members of Kaientai. He then scoop slams them as all 6 men are in the ring now. The Headbangers and Droz run all the members of Kaientai together in the middle of the ring. Then everyone but the legal men get out and Droz scoop slams Teioh. Droz hits a sit out power bomb to get the three count. Val Venis then sends Mrs. Yamagucho to the locker room area. He and Kaientai face off outside the ring. Kaientai leaves and Venis goes over to Amy Hunter Cornelius of Pac Blue. He pushes Mario Lopez out of the way. Lopez comes over the barricade and hits Venis with a double leg takedown as the referees try to get him away. They get separated.
-Flashback to the bikini contest between Sable and Jackie at Fully Loaded and its fallout.
-WWF European Championship Match. D-Lo Brown with Mark Henry vs. Ken Shamrock: D-Lo tries to attack Shamrock before the bell rings, but he ducks it and hits D-Lo with a back elbow. Shamrock with a right. D-Lo reverses an Irish whip and goes for a dropkick, but Shamrock holds on to the ropes. Shamrock with an Irish whip and a flip to D-Lo. Shamrock with another right hand and an Irish whip and a kick to D-Lo. D-Lo throws Shamrock to the outside. D-Lo points to his knee and asks referee Tim White to look at it, allowing Henry to clothesline Shamrock on the outside. Back in, D-Lo hits Shamrock with a clothesline as Dan Severn is shown coming to ringside along with Steve Blackman. D-Lo hits Shamrock with a thrust kick. D-Lo with some head and body shots to Shamrock and a scoop slam. D-Lo goes to the second rope and hits Shamrock with an elbow. He gets a two count. D-Lo chopping Shamrock in the corner. Shamrock reverses a corner whip and hits a belly to belly suplex, but Shamrock is too hurt to cover D-Lo. A double count going. Both up and exchanging blows. Shamrock reverses an Irish whip and hits a Frankensteiner on D-Lo, who rolls to the outside woozy. D-Lo shoves Severn trying to get back in the ring and Severn grabs him and attacks him in the ring and Shamrock is disqualified. Blackman tries to get Severn off of D-Lo. D-Lo is angry. He grabs his title and leaves. Shamrock is pissed and Blackman is trying to keep him and Severn apart. Severn gets out of the ring and walks back up the aisle. Shamrock tears up the ringside area.
-Highlights from the Brawl for All.
-Steve Austin is shown in the back watching a monitor.
-Kane and Mankind with Paul Bearer vs. The Rock and Owen Hart: A Rocky Sucks chant goes out as Rock and Hart make their way to the ring. The bell rings and Hart and Mankind start. Hart with a wrist lock. Mankind reverses it. He then brings Hart's arm over his shoulder and pulls down on it. He does it again. Hart flips out and reverses the move. Mankind comes back with a big right hand to Hart. Mankind with an Irish whip. He drops his head and Hart kicks him in the face. Mankind comes back with a clothesline. Mankind with a running elbow to Hart, but Hart moves out of the way at the last second and Mankind hits the mat. Rock tagged in. He hits Mankind with several right hands. He drives Mankind's head into the turnbuckle and hits him. Mankind rakes the Rock's face. Mankind with a right hand and runs Rock into Kane's outstretched boot. Kane tagged in. Kane runs Rock into the turnbuckle. Kane with some right hand shots to the Rock in the corner as Hart looks on. Kane choking Rock in the corner. Kane with a corner whip and a clothesline to Rock. Kane drops an elbow on Rock. Then a right hand thrust to the Rock. Kane with an Irish whip. Rock spins around Kane and hits a DDT as the chant of nugget goes out towards Hart. Rock gets a two count. Rock clotheslines Kane out of the ring as Hart covers his ears to keep the chant out. Kane lands on his feet on the outside. Kane gets up on the apron and the Rock comes over so Kane guillotines him on the top rope. Kane goes up top and comes off with a flying choke slam to Rock. When they come back from the commercial break, Mankind is in and getting beat down by Hart in the Nation's corner and referee Earl Hebner is trying to get Kane out of the ring. The Rock tagged in. The Rock stomping Mankind on the ground. He then chokes Mankind on the top rope before slingshotting him back in. Rock gets Mankind in the corner and hits him with a series of head and body shots. Mankind comes back with a series of right hands. Mankind tries to run Rock into the turnbuckle, but Rock blocks it and runs Mankind in instead. Rock then runs Mankind into Hart's boot and Hart tagged in. He hits Mankind with a headbutt and Irish whips him. He misses a spinning heel kick when Mankind ducks. Mankind with a double arm DDT to Hart. Kane tagged in. He hits Hart with several right hands in the corner. Kane with a corner whip to Hart and then just lifts him up by the neck when he comes out of the corner. He slams him down. Kane with an Irish whip and a big boot. Kane with an Irish whip, Hart ducks a clothesline attempt, but Kane grabs him by the throat. Hart with several kicks to get out. Kane grabs his leg and Hart hits an enziguri. Hart goes up top and hits a missile dropkick and gets a two count. Kane with a choke slam. Kane goes for the tombstone, but the Rock comes in and hits Kane with a forearm to break it up. Mankind drags Hart to the outside and starts to beat him up. Kane comes out as well. All four fighting on the outside now. Hart slides back into the ring before the 10 count to win the match for his team.
-Michael Cole interviews Steve Austin. He asks Austin why he threw the Undertaker a beer on last week's episode of Raw. Does that show a sign of solidarity? Austin says he looked thirsty, so he threw him a beer. It didn't mean anything else to him. Cole says that brings him to his next question. He drank the beer, but had turned his back when Austin was attacked by Kane and Mankind on the outside. Austin says it was stupid of him to drop his guard, but by the same token, Undertaker did lift a finger to help him out. None. Not that Austin need his help. He has all the respect for Owen Hart and the Rock as a tag team. When the bell rings, someone's going to get their ass beat. And whether it's Rocky, Owen Hart, or the Undertaker, it doesn't make any difference to him, they're still going to be the tag team champions whether he likes it or not when the match is over. That's all Austin has to say to Michael Cole because he's starting to piss him off.
-They then sign off from Heat.
-Final Thoughts: Not a bad first show. Shane did okay on commentary for it to be his first time. An interesting show that gets lost in the shuffle one year later after Smackdown debuts.