WWF Over the Edge: In Your House, Milwaukee, WI
A request for the 25th anniversary of this match, which I’ve just barely missed by a matter of minutes when I start, but oh well.
This is a legendary match. Austin’s first WWF title reign started at WrestleMania XIV in March ’98, of course, and who was his first world title feud? Why, it’s Mick Foley, as the reimagined character of his childhood, Dude Love! Truthfully, with Shawn Michaels out, the WWF didn’t have any super, crazy obvious first feud for Austin. So when in doubt, call on Mick. Austin didn’t need legitimizing as top dog in the ways Rock or HHH would later, but he needed a good first opponent, and you knew you could count on Foley. Who else was it gonna be? The roster was honestly really thin for how hot the product was getting.
As a side note, this is the first WWF PPV to get the TV-14 rating.
(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)
Austin and the Dude also had some history from the summer of ’97, when they were makeshift tag champs briefly. They had their first match of this feud at Unforgiven the month prior, which Dude won by DQ. For this one, Vince McMahon is the referee, plus Pat Patterson is the guest ring announcer and Gerald Brisco is the guest timekeeper.
This is still early in the Austin-Vince story, but it’s heating up fast. After Austin got Vince arrested, Stone Cold made a condition for release that Vince apologize, and also that there be someone as a sort of enforcer to make sure Vince does his job at Over the Edge. Vince accepted both, and the enforcer turned out to be Undertaker. So it’s a whole lot of stuff.
Vince and the Stooges promise to be unbiased in a pre-match interview with Dok Hendrix. But Vince also says that if Stone Cold “in any way assaults” him, he will stop it and award the WWF title to Dude Love. Only his hand will end the match! There’s more play on Montreal, which wasn’t that long ago.
Howard Finkel starts us off with a long, drawn-out introduction for Pat Patterson, who takes over on the mic and gives a similar introduction to Gerald Brisco, which includes the address and phone number of the Brisco Bros. Body Shop. And then one for Vince, obviously.
JR wonders who the enforcer guy will be still, it wasn’t made official. But it’s who was set up, Undertaker. Before Undertaker or Austin, it’s Dude Love with another drawn-out introduction.
Dude’s got his hair pulled back, he’s got some dentures in to look good and corporate, nice and cleaned up, wearing a blazer over his Dude Love wrestling gear. Patterson gives Austin a derogatory introduction, which everyone cheers every insult about him being a beer-swilling fool or a disgrace to every human being alive today. Then Patterson refuses to actually “introduce a bum.”
Austin’s music hits and the crowd is ready anyway. He swaggers down to the ring, Vince annoyed by him, Dude sort of indifferent about the whole presentation. Right before Vince can ring the bell, Undertaker’s music hits, and we have our completely obvious volunteer to see that things are square.
Bell rings, here we go. Dude tries for an early cover and Vince makes a fairly fast count. Probably slightly faster than ol’ Nicky Patrick at Starrcade ’97. Austin notices, and so does Undertaker. Dude and Austin with some headlock takeover wrestling early. Suddenly, a massive chant of “Vince is gay” goes up. Lawler asks what they’re saying and Ross has to quickly cover with, “I think they’re saying ‘Vince is dead.’ I think that’s what they’re saying.” It makes no sense but realistically Lawler just shouldn’t have asked.
Dude loses his partial denture, Austin stomps on it and throws it into the crowd. The match starts picking up as they go outside and Austin gets whipped into the steps. Big “let’s go Stone Cold” chant as Dude hits a Russian legsweep for two and bites Austin. Crowd just red hot for Austin.
Austin comes back with a swinging neckbreaker, a clothesline, another clothesline, another. Mudhole stomp in the corner. Whip to the other side is reversed, Dude ducks a clothesline and gets the Mandible Claw, but then Austin fights him off and Foley winds up with his neck stuck in the ropes, the way he lost half his ear in Germany.
Everyone outside again after Dude is released from the ropes. Dude with a hiptoss over the Spanish desk, and Pat Patterson “reminds” everyone that this is no DQ. It had not been announced as such. Dude choking Austin with a camera cord since he can.
Fight at the timekeeper’s table, with Brisco getting wiped out as Austin takes over, and Austin violently clotheslines Dude into the crowd. JR loves it. Austin comes back over and just walks on Brisco for fun. Undertaker right there in Vince’s face to keep up.
Back in the ring, Austin in full control, but the running rope-assisted Mike Enos misses. Brisco gets up, woozy, showing he’s still got the hammer. Dude with a baseball slide that knocks Austin out to the floor, then a swinging neckbreaker out in the entrance. Vince sprints over to Patterson, who is ordered to “remind” everyone that this is falls count anywhere, then he rushes back over to make a two count on Austin. Dude goes for a championship backslide in the aisle but it gets just two.
Foley wanders off, but turns around into Austin drilling him with a running clothesline. The entrance set has a lot of old busted cars, and Austin gets backdropped onto the hood of a Honda, smashing the windshield with his boot. A pin on the hood gets two.
Dude gets hotshotted onto what JR believes is a Gremlin. I do not know cars, but it is a car. Austin with a pin on the trunk of a jalopy. Patterson and Brisco are right nearby now. Austin gets them up on a car and goes for a Stunner, but gets shoved over another damn car, a big old Mercury. Dude with a sunset flip off the Mercury for two.
Dude has a big metal pipe and gingerly hits Austin with it because it is simply too heavy to do safely. Austin firing back with right hands, and he’s busted open now, too. Austin goes for a piledriver on the floor, but it’s a backdrop and another Dude two count. Dude with a suplay on the floor. Vince is excited. Undertaker is right there but is staying out of the way. He is here only to observe Vince.
Dude gets up on the old Mercury and dives with his elbow, but Austin rolls out of the way in plenty of time, and Dude eats floor. Austin gets two there. Undertaker right there, and Vince is clearly scared of him but trying not to show it too much.
Back to ringside, and Dude hits the steps now. Into the ring, Austin baically trying to wear Dude down. Off the ropes, reversed, Patterson trips Austin and Dude hits a clothesline. Vince is a shit referee and almost falls over Dude, who unloads right hands on Austin. JR brings up one of the things about Foley that could sometimes go just understated enough in these years of his career: Behind all of the gimmicks and changes, heel or face, whatever, he is mean, and has a truly nasty streak.
And that’s on display as Dude takes over again. No smile, no dancing, no fluff, he’s pretty much in Cactus Jack mode now. Austin’s offense in this match is almost exclusively right hands to this point, and every little rally falls short pretty quickly. Patterson passes Dude a chair, and it goes right into the gut of Austin, then hard over his back.
Double-arm DDT hits on the chair and as always doesn’t win shit. Austin gets a boot up on a chair charge, then another clothesline, the rest of his offense. Austin gets the chair, slaps it off the top rope and accidentally whacks himself in the neck, then SMACKS Foley with it.
Vince refuses to count. But Austin also can’t touch Vince. Foley gets the chair, Austin ducks, and Dude lays McMahon the fuck out! STUNNER! Cover, but no ref, until Mike Chioda sprints in for two, and Patterson pulls him out before he can finish, then decks Chioda.
Mandible Claw on Austin but Vince is still out, too. Undertaker is right there, and he yanks Patterson out when Pat tries to make a count. Patterson chokeslammed through the commentary desk right in front of JR and Lawler! Crowd wild for it! Brisco tries to make the count, same result through the Spanish desk.
Dude tries the claw again, no go, STUNNER! Austin pulls Vince over, grabs his hand, and counts the three, which apparently will simply count! The normal timekeeper rings the bell, Howard Finkel makes the announcement. Well, it ended by Vince’s hand, just as he promised.
Austin is still WWF champion — and Undertaker has his eyes locked right on him. Austin stares right back. They’d met for the WWF title in the spring of ’97 when Taker was champ after WrestleMania 13, and you get the sense without anyone saying it that they know they’re on a collision course again. They’d meet at SummerSlam in August at MSG in a match that was pretty much snakebit from several angles.
Truly classic Attitude Era stuff, where the main events were the jam and the undercard took a good while to catch up. There’s really a “Big Five” of this period of the WWF — I’m being generous to Triple H — and two of them are here, with a third kinda-sorta involved. Austin was the biggest star, with respect to how big Rock got, too, and as far as drawing power goes, they were miles ahead of the others. But when you needed someone to get in there and give the others something where you knew they would deliver and they needed it, Foley was the MVP, over and over and over again. He was never gonna be The Guy, but goddamn did he defy the odds and become an extremely important Guy all the same.
A great brawl, a hot crowd, all the wild chaos and bullshit that Vince and his cronies took directly from ECW booking. A prime time example of what took the WWF back to the top.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 