IWF Survivor Series (1998)

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Survivor Suries (1998)
Promotional poster
Tagline(s)	"Deadly game"
Theme song(s)	"Deadly Game" by Jim Johnston
Imformation
Promotion	International Wrestling Federation
Sponsor	Nestlé Crunch
Date	November 15, 1998
Attendance	21,779
Venue	Kiel Center
City	St. Louis, Missouri
Pay-per-view chronology
Judgment Day: In Your House	Survivor Series (1998)	Capital Carnage
Survivor Series chronology
Survivor Series (1997)	Survivor Series (1998)	Survivor Series (1999)

Survivor Series (1998) was the twelfth annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF). It was sponsored 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 IWF Championship titled Deadly Game. It was the first tournament held with the IWF 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 IWF Women's Championship since it had been reactivated and a triple threat tag team match for the IWF 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.

Background

As the central focus of Survivor Series was the Deadly Games tournament, the build up involved many interlinking feuds. Arguably the cause of the tournament goes back to WrestleMania XIV in March, where Steve Johnson won the IWF Championship. Johnson's working class, blue collar style and manner clashed with IWF Chairman Mr. Ackeret 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. Firstly he brought back Dude Love, though he 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 hardcore matches). After two attempts, including one with Ackeret as referee, Love still did not recover the gold and seemed to bring about more woe to Ackeret. Ackeret turned to Paul Bearer and sought about setting up his son Kane in a match at June's King of the Ring which Johnson lost but only thanks to interference from Kane's (fictional) half-brother The Undertaker who, despite having animosity towards his brother, did not want to see him hurt Having been thrown to the wayside by Ackeret, Love returned to his psychologically fragile alter-ego Mankind, soon changing his dress from rags to an unintentionally scruffy parody of his father-figure Ackeret. Both Mankind and Kane formed an ad-hoc tag team which Ackeret sponsored in a bid to take on Undertaker, who had been defending Austin while similarly vying for a title shot. Shortly before August pay-per-view SummerSlam, it was revealed that Undertaker and Kane had been in cahoots. Johnson retained the title at SummerSlam, but Ackeret was not done. At the next pay-per-view, he forced Johnson to face both Kane and Undertaker in a match that essentially became a handicap match after Ackeret added the stipulation that the brothers could not pin each other. Johnson lost the championship, but since he was simultaneously pinned by Kane and Undertaker the title was held up. To rectify the situation, Ackeret booked a match between the two brothers at Judgment Day: In Your House. To further mock Steve Johnson, he was designated as referee and Ackeret threatened to fire him if he didn't perform his duties. Johnson defied the order and attacked Undertaker after he had turned on Kane, then counted both brothers out and declared himself the winner and champion. Ackeret then made good on his threat to fire Johnson, and the title was left vacant. To rectify this, Deadly Game was set up, a knock-out tournament contest between a wide array of wrestlers in the company.

Despite being fired, Johnson was at Raw the night after Judgment Day and held Ackeret hostage at gunpoint, though when Johnson went to fire his gun it turned out to be a joke gun, with a sign saying BANG! 3:16 on it; Johnson left the ring when Ackeret soiled himself, having given him a piece of paper. Johnson 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 Ackeret's son Dustin, who had his owner rights suspended by his father and was demoted to a referee.

As well as Johnson, Ackeret seemed to have a new target of hatred. On November 2 edition of Raw, Ackeret 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 Ackeret had The Rock arrested, much like he had done months before with Johnson. The following week Ackeret threatened him with expulsion from the company if he could not win a match against former Nation of Domination stable mate Steven Larson. Despite the odds being stacked in his favor with Ackeret's entourage at ring side distracting the referee, Dustin Ackeret ran down after Rock had performed the Rock Bottom, a lifting side slam, on Larson 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 Ackeret mentioning it on Heat.

While many wrestlers became the target of Dustin Ackeret's ire, one wrestler returned to being his favorite. With his son ostensibly turning on him, Mankind tried to cheer Ackeret up and was treated as a surrogate child. Ackeret awarded him a new belt, the IWF 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 mocking each other's mascots who they talked to, Mr. Socko and Head. In a tag team match Mr. Socko went missing and it later transpired that Mr. Ackeret 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, but when Kane and Undertaker created an allegiance 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 his son with, revealing on Raw that he had returned to being Undertaker's mentor.

Steven Kapphan had been having vignettes airing for his return for weeks under the gimmick of 'a man's man' but when he did make his appearance known, it was by attacking the European Champion X-Pac from behind on October 26. Another wrestler would make his debut standing by Mr. Ackeret's side as a masked man in a SWAT style uniform, defending him from Johnson's attacks. The enforcer turned out to be the returning Big Boss Man, after a stint in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), who had taken on the role of personal bodyguard for Ackeret.

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. Sable was further humiliated when Jacqueline cut a piece of her hair and wrapped it into her own hair, but appeared on Raw, October 26, to demand 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 the 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 Steven Larson 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.

Event

First Round

The opening match was part of the Deadly Game tournament and saw Mr. Ackeret welcome Mankind to the ring, he then announced his mystery opponent as a IWF veteran who had a record setting win-loss record before jumping ship to WCW. The grandiose introduction turned out to be ironic, though, as his opponent was the jobber Dwayne Gill. Despite the ten minute time limit, designed to make sure matches began swiftly, the match barely lasted one minute as Mankind knocked Gill to the floor and rolled him up for a pin.

Al Snow's match against Jeff Jarrett began with Snow following Jarret's valet, Debra McMichael but soon entered the ring. Snow took the first advantage, using the ropes to aid him with a neckbreaker but mistiming a flying leg drop. A succession of reversed pin counts from both parties ensued with neither wrestler winning, turning into a DDT from Snow. With both men on the mat, Debra walked onto the apron with Snow's mannequin head to distract the referee and allow Jarrett to pick it up. Snow himself grabbed Jarrett's guitar and swung for Jarrett, but missed and received Head. Jarrett went to attack him again in the corner but a kick from Snow allowed him to grab the Head and smack into it Jarrett's face, allowing a victory via pinfall when the referee finally looked back. Snow would face Mankind in the quarter finals.

Big Boss Man met Steve Johnson on the walkway for their fight, with Johnson throwing Boss Man into the steel steps before the match was officially under way. Inside the ring Boss Man used his punches to subdue Johnson before choking him in the middle of the ring. Crowd support inspired Johnson to fight back with a clothesline, shoulder barging his opponent into the turnbuckle before stomping a mudhole. After being Irish whipped against the ropes, Boss Man escaped the ring and when Austin caught up with him, he was met with a night stick from the Boss Man. The referee awarded the match via disqualification to Johnson but that did not stop the onslaught from Boss Man's nightstick, much to the delight of Mr. Ackeret

The fourth Deadly Games match, between European Champion X-Pac and Stephen Kapphan, saw X-Pac's fast paced style take advantage over Kapphan until a mistimed bronco buster in the corner left X-Pac in pain, Kapphan pulling him out to fit a seated abdominal stretch on him. Kapphan's mat-based technical style kept X-Pac slowed down and without much of his arsenal. Having slowed X-Pac down, Kapphan ventured to the top rope with his opponent, utilizing a double-underhook suplex from the top turnbuckle to put pressure on X-Pac's fragile neck. Despite picking up some offense, X-Pac went for a top rope maneuver too quickly and Regal shook the ropes, causing him to fall off to the outside. Kapphan quickly followed with a double underhook suplex reversed into a suplex from X-Pac. The bell was rung as both men were counted out but Ackeret sent out Commissioner Slaughter to restart the match with a five minute time limit; however X-Pac was already halfway up the ramp, nursing his neck injury and amidst confusion it appeared the match would not be restarted, giving Steve Johnson a bye through to the semi-finals.

The next match, between Ken Shamrock and Goldust, began as a high-speed encounter with both wrestlers making many running attacks, until Shamrock had Goldust on the floor at which point he began to use a chin lock to slow him down. Goldust regained some momentum after standing up and, although Shamrock was able to reverse it initially Goldust soon had some advantage in the match. Things changed though when Goldust set his opponent up for the illegal move, Shattered Dreams. As Goldust made the run up, the referee jumped in the way to prevent the low blow which gave Shamrock the time to jump up to the top rope, jumping onto Goldust for a hurricarana, following it up immediately with an ankle lock that made Goldust tap out.

The last of the matches from the first round had The Rock booked against a returning Triple K. Despite Triple K's D-Generation X music playing, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco came to the ring to make the announcement that despite a no-show from Triple K, presumably due to his knee injury, the match would not be forfeited. The last minute replacement was Big Boss Man who ran to the ring, only to be rolled into a pin for the shortest match in IWF history - four seconds.

Quarter Finals

The first of the quarter final matches, which saw the time limit increased to fifteen minutes, was between two wrestlers who received byes through the first round, the warring brothers Undertaker and Kane. Both threw each other around the ring before the match was taken briefly outside, Undertaker thrown into the crowd barrier and Kane stomped into the steel steps. Although Kane would retake the advantage in the ring, a jumping elbow drop met with the mat when Undertaker set up. Undertaker used the opportunity to take out Kane's knee, using a number of attacks and holds on it. Undertaker pushed the rules to the limit by choking Kane in the corner and as the referee reprimanded him, Kane was able to recuperate to fight back. After a series of punches and a flying lariat the two were even again, this was symbolised when Undertaker grabbed Kane's throat for a chokeslam from a running attack. Kane did the same and eventually was able to deliver the chokeslam. Before he could pin his brother though, Paul Bearer jumped on the apron to distract Kane and in the interim period Undertaker stood up to deliver a tombstone piledriver and pin his brother, with Bearer holding Kane's leg down.

Mankind met Al Snow next, with Snow throwing Mankind around the ring and barging him to the floor before dropkicking him to the outside. Mankind tried to balance things by grabbing a steel chair but Snow took it off him and hit him twice (without disqualification), before mistiming an attack to the ring post allowing for Mankind to take charge. Having been beaten in the ring, Snow crawled to Head to use as a weapon but swung and missed, allowing Mankind to deliver a back drop. As he did, Head came away in his hand and he realized Mr. Socko was tied round Head's head. The rage saw him beat the mannequin, stamping on it before turning his attention back to Al Snow to land a double-armed DDT and then the mandible claw to win the match and setting up a match for Steve Johnson in the next round.

The final second round match was between the long-feuding Shamrock and The Rock. Rock began his attack instantly, punching and clotheslining Shamrock before the latter replied with a suplex. Rock was not down for long, coming out of a kneeling position with another clothesline before chasing Shamrock out of the ring and spitting water into his face but receiving steel steps in the shoulder for it. Big Boss Man came to the ring as Shamrock moved from a chin lock into his ankle lock. Rock held on and slowly crawled for the ring break. After breaking away both men collided with a double clothesline allowing both men to recover and, after a failed pin attempt, stand up and fight again. Rock dynamically swung around Shamrock's body to secure a DDT attempt and as Boss Man distracted the referee, punched Shamrock in the crotch. Despite this, and a People's Elbow, Shamrock still kicked out and managed to reverse a Rock Bottom attempt into a belly-to-belly suplex. Boss Man tried to interfere again, slyly throwing a night stick to Shamrock as the referee was distracted. Rock intercepted the night stick though, allowing him to strike down Shamrock and make a pinfall.

Results

Tournaments bracket

References

External links