The first Fully Loaded PPV kicks off with Jeff Jarrett taking on relative newcomer Val Venis. Before the match begins, Kaientai show up and Yamaguchi-san joins the commentator desk. The Kaientai/Venis feud eventually led to Venis nearly getting castrated and saved by John Bobbitt in one of the more memorable and tasteless angles of the Attitude Era. It's a shame that the commentary of this match is so focused on the comedy when Jeff Jarrett ends up putting on a really great performance. Venis wasn't too shabby a worker either, especially back then when he was eager and hungry to show off what he could do. This is a much better match than it might come across on paper and the crowd is into the whole contest. Above-average. (3/5)
The next contest isn't quite as good: D'Lo Brown defending the European Championship against X-Pac. D'Lo's head-bobbing and trash talking is really over the top and fun and he and Waltman are both very capable in-ring performers, but this still didn't quite click for me. It wasn't a bad match, but felt a bit by-the-numbers and underwhelming. (2.5/5)
Backstage, it is announced that The Undertaker has not arrived to the arena yet. We'll see where that goes...
Then we're backstage to hear from Terry Funk, who announces that tonight's tag match with Bradshaw against Farooq and 2 Cold Scorpio will be his last WWE match for awhile. Funk's announcement catches Bradshaw off guard and we've got tension among teammates before the bell even rings. I don't have great memories of Funk's last run in WCW a few years after this, but he was still entertaining here and I really liked his brawling with Scorpio. Things fall apart in the final minutes, though, as Funk is unable to hit his Asai Moonsault and opts instead to just collapse onto Scorpio on the floor. From there, the finishing stretch is a little sloppy, but at least we do get to see Scorpio hit his signature spots. After the match, Bradshaw beats down on Funk, knocks out Scorpio with a lariat on the floor, and hits Farooq with a chair. I don't remember where this angle led at all. (2.5/5)
Vader vs. Mark Henry follows and is not good. I'm a fairly big Vader fan, but he was clearly unmotivated here and, based on a story I heard Mark Henry tell semi-recently, not super interested in putting Henry over. This match doesn't overstay its welcome, but its awkward at times and its clear that Henry is still quite green. I'm curious how this match would've played out if both guys were at their peak, Vader was allowed to be the brutal brawler that he was in Japan, and the finish was something Vader was motivated to make work. (1.5/5)
We get an in-ring segment involving the WWE Tag Team Champions, Kane and Mankind (with Paul Bearer), and the former champions, The New Age Outlaws. Nothing special.
A tag match follows as Paul Ellering's new clients, Skull and 8-Ball, take on his former team, The Legion of Doom. This is the storyline that, if I'm not mistaken, led to the dreadful "Hawk Is a Drug Addict" storyline involving Droz and Hawk attempting suicide by jumping off the Titantron. This match was considerably better than I expected it to be with some surprisingly good brawling and Hawk bumping and selling for the Disciples of Apocalypse, a team that I also tend to think of as being mostly terrible. Now, that's not to say that this was some hidden gem or anything, but there was more energy to it than one would expect. I'm not sure why this went for close to 10 minutes, though. (2/5)
Vince McMahon and the Stooges make their way down the aisle to announce that, should the Undertaker not appear, Steve Austin's partner will be noneother than...the Brooklyn Brawler!
We head to Calgary for the next "match" - Ken Shamrock vs. Owen Hart in Stu Hart's Dungeon with Dan Severn as the special guest referee. This was a unique locale for a match, but I kinda dug it as it reminded me of the wrestling matches my brothers and I would have in my parents' basement growing up, including slamming each other against walls and occasionally putting someone's head through the thin drop ceiling tiles. I also like how, even in this locale, Owen finds a way to try to cheat by grabbing a dumbbell. This is a really unique match in that it mixes elements that one might think wouldn't work but absolutely do here: a weird proto-"cinematic" presentation, Shamrock utilizing MMA holds, lots of really stiff strikes, a ref bump leading to a classic heel cheap finish. On one hand, the 5-minute runtime makes it more like an "angle" than a match, but this probably couldn't have gone on too much longer and still worked as well as it does. "Must see" only because its so unique. (4/5)
The Intercontinental Championship is up for grabs as The Rock defends the title against Triple H in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match. They telegraph the finish a bit by making a big deal out of the 30-minute time limit, both with the announcer making sure to emphasize it and on commentary. Still, this was a very solid outing for the most part. Triple H and The Rock had fantastic chemistry and this was back when both guys were really bumping and selling huge, maximizing their minutes, and obviously working hard to get the big pushes that would come for both over the next 8-12 months. When things slow down and they go into the resthold portions of the match, there is a noticeable lull that prevents this from being a real "classic," but they do spice things up nicely with lots of interference from both the Nation and DX and there are some really good false finishes thrown in too. The Rock was definitely more protected here than Triple H as he got to kickout of X-Pac's finish and didn't have to actually lose to the Pedigree (the fall Triple H wins comes after a Chyna low blow), plus he got to beat Triple H with the Rock Bottom for the first fall. I read one review that said the finish was botched, but I didn't catch that. This was mostly great with very good performances from both stars and the crowd was into it. Maybe not a true "hidden gem" or a "must see" match, but certainly above average. (3.5/5)
The Bikini Contest between Sable and Jacqueline followed. This is the one where Sable is topless with "hands" painted over her breasts, which was very risque for the time and would still be today. One of Jacqueline's boobs also pops out of her bikini top, but it is blurred on Peacock. The best part of this segment is actually Dustin Rhodes' prayer for the contest, a part of his gimmick that I totally forgot he was doing before returning as Goldust some time later.
Main event time - Steve Austin and The Undertaker challenging Mankind and Kane for the WWE Tag Team Championships. Austin looked jacked in this match. The story of the match is all about whether Austin and Taker can trust eachother as Taker will challenging for Stone Cold's World Championship at the next month's SummerSlam show. Seeing Undertaker perform a russian leg sweep on Kane is sorta weird, but I guess he did it to still tease whether or not they were in cahoots? Like, if they were really enemies, he would be using his usual moves on him and not "wrestling holds"? Foley wills this match into being something substantial and main event-level by taking an awesome bump into the announce table and then taking a back body drop on the floor. The crowd is into everything they do because everyone was over, but this still felt very much like a "TV" match than a PPV headliner. (2.5/5)
With a decent Kwang Score of 2.69-out-of-5, Fully Loaded 98' is not a show worth revisiting as a whole, but does show that even before the arrival of Angle, Jericho, and The Radicals, the WWE's midcard was in a much better place than it was a year prior as The Rock, Triple H, X-Pac, Jarrett, and Owen were all dependable performers (if not always involved in interesting storylines) and D'Lo Brown and Val Venis showed potential. Even the Legion of Doom match isn't as bad as it looks on paper. Unfortunately, the lowpoints on this show are really low as the Vader/Henry match is pretty poor and the Bikini Contest is trashy. What really hurts the show overall, though, is that nothing feels important on it. This show is very much a prelude to SummerSlam 98', making it inessential viewing.
FINAL RATING - High Risk Manuever
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