Forgotten Favorites 02.19.09: Breakdown 1998 - The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Mankind

Posted by Jim Grimm on 02.19.2009

Three men will step into the Steel Cage but only one can emerge as the number one contender. Relive the Attitude Era with this classic triple threat match!

Well here's another week, another column, and yet another complaint that I have no general disclaimer that explains the purpose of this article. In case you haven't been here before, it goes like this: The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

And if that hasn't piqued your interest, hell, I don't know what will. Perhaps ... a Steel Cage?



Breakdown - September 27, 1998
Steel Cage Match
The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Mankind

HOW IT WENT DOWN

On August 30th, 1998, the Highway to Hell ran straight into the heart of New York City. That night Madison Square Garden hosted the eleventh annual SummerSlam, an event headlined by Steve Austin defending his WWE Championship against The Undertaker in arguably the most hyped title match of the year (outside of the Tyson-hype of Mania 14). But the title combatants weren't the only stars to shine inside MSG that night. Ken Shamrock, steadily building steam since his recent King of the Ring victory, had stepped into the Lion's Den to soundly defeat rival Owen Hart, seemingly signifying a not too distant main event push. Mankind, stranded by his partner Kane, lost in a valiant fighting effort when defending the Tag Team Titles all alone against the New Age Outlaws in a No Holds Barred match. And The Rock, although technically having left SummerSlam a loser, put on the best match of his career up until that point in the Ladder Match blowoff to his summer-long feud with Triple H over the Intercontinental Title. All three men were poised to turn a new corner in their careers, and each of them were about to intersect in a way unfathomable in just the early months of 1998.

Steve Austin successfully defended his WWE Title against The Undertaker that night. All summer long, it had been hinted that perhaps Kane and Undertaker had formed a secret pact to look out for one another. Kane was most certainly a heel at this point, doing the bidding of his evil father Paul Bearer alongside fellow tortured soul Mankind. Taker, however, rode the Tweener Train for a good couple of months, although he remained primarily babyface-ish. Therefore the suggestion of an alliance between Undertaker and his demonic brother -- the same brother he'd spent the first half of the year battling -- was certainly an extraordinary claim. It wasn't until shortly before SummerSlam that it was revealed that, yes indeed, the Brothers of Destruction were on the same page. While Taker refused Kane's help in his SummerSlam title match, the two would soon after form a unified anti-Austin front in the name of ending Stone Cold's title reign. Even if you weren't watching then, I'm pretty sure that based on it being 1998 and an Austin angle you can fairly easily guess that Vince McMahon was involved, and yes, he was. Kane and Taker's goal was simply for one of them to become the WWE Champion; so considering McMahon's goal was for anyone to be WWE Champion except Austin, he naturally entered into a business arrangement with the Brothers of Destruction, hoping to guarantee a swift ending to Stone Cold's reign as champion.

Now, since we got that out of the way, let's go back to Shamrock, Mankind, and The Rock. Coming out of SummerSlam, there was a whole mess of change on the way. Shamrock's star was shining brighter than ever; he had seemed to have done all he could in the realm of the mega-over midcard babyface and a main event (or at least semi-main event) push seemed on the horizon. The heel heat Mankind once garnered alongside Kane had seemingly disappeared with the dissolution of their tag team. Foley was painted as the sympathetic, more-guts-than-brains goofball, and fans started to connect with him in a way they never had before. And speaking of new fan reactions, this dude named The Rock was just starting to become insanely over. Although he served as one of the most over heels in the company as the Intercontinental Champion, fans began to take a shine to the self-proclaimed People's Champ as the summer of 1998 drew to a close. Once SummerSlam had passed and the DX-Nation rivalry had finally been put to rest, fans were itching for The Rock to finally dump his henchmen and break out on his own. Well, wrestling fans asked, and wrestling fans received.

So let's see how this all ties together. On an episode of Raw shortly after SummerSlam, The Rock took on Kane in a one on one contest. Although he didn't receive any of the help he demanded from the Nation, he was still able to emerge victorious. Several other instances would follow where Nation members would fail to know their roles, and naturally, The Great One became upset. While the Nation was crumbling and leaving The Rock on his own, Mankind was a man against the world as well, left without a tag partner or an Uncle Paul to guide him. Having been abandoned by Kane in favor of Undertaker, Mankind sought revenge on his replacement on that same night that The Rock defeated Kane. Rock and Mankind, being booked more and more as faces as each week progressed, were eventually fighting alongside one another against the Brothers of Destruction. Ken Shamrock, eager to finally enter the WWE Title picture, became an ally of Mankind and The Rock in the war against the evil voodoo zombie heels.

In an effort to throw a wrench into any potential stable that the three men could form -- and thus hurt the anti-Austin machine of Taker and Kane -- Vince McMahon set up a Triple Threat match on the September 21st edition of Raw Is War, the last televised event before the following Sunday's Breakdown PPV. Mankind, Rock, and Shamrock were all thrown in the ring with a damn good reason to tear each other apart, considering a WWE Title shot on next week's Raw was riding on the outcome. Temporary alliances meant nothing with a title shot on the line, as these three guys did their damndest to put each other out of commission. But in the end, those damned evil voodoo zombie heels just had to get involved and throw their Satanic weight around, demolishing all three guys and forcing a no contest. A number one contender could not be named.

But wait! That Sunday night WWE hosted its first and last Breakdown PPV -- replaced the following September by Unforgiven -- an event headlined by Stone Cold defending his title in a Triple Threat against Undertaker and Kane. It seemed that the three potential number one contenders from Raw were going to be without a match at the PPV, that was until Vince McMahon made an announcement on Sunday Night Heat. Since a number one contender had to be named, a rematch was scheduled for that night on PPV. Austin, Taker, and Kane would fight it out in a Triple Threat for the title in the main event, but another Triple Threat match would also take place between The Rock, Mankind, and Ken Shamrock. And what's better than last minute PPV additions? Last minute STEEL CAGE PPV additions!






Part 1





Part 2





Part 3

WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

Spring 1997: A foul-mouthed Texas Rattlesnake, hated since his debut over a year prior, suddenly started to earn the biggest babyface pops of the show. Fall 2002: "The Next Big Thing," despite being booked as a destructive monster heel, was just getting started on his way to becoming the E's top face. Fall 2003: An Untouchable man with a doctorate in thuganomics went from a slimy midcard heel to the hero of (at first) the IWC and (later) tiny illiterate children worldwide.

These were times when the fans -- not the WWE creative staff -- dictated the future of professional wrestling. And just like the fans were responsible for the face turns of Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, and John Cena, it was the same audience that demanded a change in the way The Rock was presented to them in 1998. There's a certain Jim Ross quote that stands out to me (although I can't pinpoint the DVD documentary it's featured on) in regards to the fans suddenly cheering heels with the dawn of the Attitude Era: "The fans made the right choice, as they always do." And that is the philosophy that ensures satisfaction for both the home viewers and the dollar signs in Vinny Mac's eyes. There was no plan to trade face/heel affiliations between Bret Hart and Steve Austin at the outset of their feud, and yet by its conclusion Stone Cold was the most over babyface in the company, working his way towards becoming the most commercially successful babyface in the history of the world. Suck on that, Hulkster.

It's an interesting time when a crowd starts to turn a wrestler. The heel-crazy IWC is often against such turns, since in the last few years it's often led to severely watering down previously dynamic characters (you can guess who I'm thinking of), but there's no denying that it's an exciting time for fans. I was a big-time eleven year old mark for heel Rocky in 1998, and when a babyface push seemed imminent after SummerSlam I was ecstatic. Watch this Cage match from Breakdown and you'll see that I was clearly not alone in my enthusiasm. The crowd in Ontario gave The Rock the kind of babyface support he could have only dreamed of a year and a half prior when he was actually supposed to earn those kinds of reactions. And just as the fans had forced a Rocky heel turn in 1997, they again forced him in the opposite direction once the Nation fell apart in '98. Once WWE acted on the influence of the crowd, both in '97 and '98, The Rock's career flourished, and as a result, so did WWE. The fans made the right choice. As they always do.

But The Rock wasn't the only one going through some changes. As stated earlier, Mankind was also on the verge of a full-fledged face turn. Although he'd been booked pretty consistently as a heel up until SummerSlam, it was at King of the Ring in June when Foley's career started to move in a different direction. Fans had known Mick Foley was tough as nails regardless of the name he wrestled under, but when a masked, tie-wearing Mankind was thrown off Hell In A Cell by The Undertaker, a Hardcore Legend's spot was solidified in WWE. He wasn't so much the schizophrenic psycho in the boiler room anymore as much as he was the admirable underdog. Soon after, when the naive Foley was manipulated by Vince McMahon in his Survivor Series masterplan, fans got behind Mankind even more. Within a couple of months, Mankind had won his first WWE Championship and was main eventing PPVs with a freshly re-heeled Rock. This Breakdown Cage match was an interesting stop along the road to the peak of Mick Foley's career, which no one at the time could've predicted would've come as a babyface WWE Champion.

And let's not forget The World's Most Dangerous Man. While he was astoundingly over in his role as a mid-card face, things started to change around the time of Breakdown. The Cage match itself features one of the first resounding "Shamrock sucks!" chants of the former UFC fighter's WWE career. And it wasn't even so much that the fans hated Shamrock as much as they were just head over heels for The Rock. And while fans may not have been overwhelmingly clamoring for a Shamrock heel turn, they ultimately made the right choice (as they always do) in getting the ball rolling on it. In response to the crowd, Shamrock made that Cage match his heelest (did I just invent an adjective?) to date, and from there the writing was on the wall. Within a month Shamrock had won a televised tournament for the vacant IC Title, and, surprise surprise, he turned heel by aligning with Vince McMahon. And if this Cage match didn't happen -- and earn the crowd response it did -- I have my doubts as to whether The World's Most Dangerous IC Title Reign would've happened when it did.

And then you have the particulars of the match itself that make the action well worth revisiting. Before the match we got three badass promos (well, two badass promos and a Shamrock promo), the highlight of which was Foley's refusal to "sell that abortion" called The People's Elbow. And while 1998 isn't necessarily known for having the best action inside the ring, these three guys were the exception to the rule when they stepped inside that Cage. We got a creatively worked Triple Threat (by WWE's 1998 standards) with several memorable spots that involved all three men. There was the greatness of the DOUBLE Abdominal Stretch, not to mention the pure joygasm of a DOUBLE People's Elbow (or DOUBLE Abortion according to Mankind, which he did sell, just for the record). Fans got an all-around great match at an exciting time in each of these guys' careers. I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't want to remember this match.


Mankind: Pro-Life ... The Rock: Pro-Elbow


WHY IT ISN'T REMEMBERED

So yeah, that thing I just said about there being no reason to not remember this match, that was a lie. There's one big reason: Breakdown blew, big time. Owen Hart and a young Edge opened the show with an exciting first match, but, besides the Cage match, everything was downhill from there. The JOB Squad vs. Too Much, Marc Mero vs. Droz, and Bradshaw vs. Vader were just a few of the five-star classics fans were treated to for their PPV purchase. Even the Austin/Taker/Kane main event, featuring three of the Attitude Era's brightest stars, fell flat on its face both in hype and in execution. Fans knew they were essentially going to see a Handicap match for the WWE Title, and the general assumption was that a Double Stunner would lead to yet another successful title defense for the Bionic Redneck. However, while the match did play out as the expected Handicap match (which, as you can guess, was incredibly exciting), the finish saw Taker and Kane pin Austin at the same time, thus crowning no champion and leading to McMahon hauling ass out of the arena with the title belt. And while I'm not one to argue with unexpected finishes, the ending to the match was complete horseshit, especially for a PPV main event. Fans don't pay to see a twenty-minute shitfest main event end in an even bigger shitfest of a finish, one that forces viewers to tune into Raw the next night to get any answers about said shitfest(s) they just put themselves through.

Breakdown was in no way, shape, or form a memorable wrestling card. That is except for a certain Triple Threat inside a Cage. Aside from the pure shittiness of the card itself, also hurting this match's legacy is the fact that this was the first and last Breakdown PPV. I'm not sure what circumstances surround the abandonment of the Breakdown name in 1999, although I'm not ruling out the possibility that 98's installment blew so hard that the E was hoping we had forgotten about it. DVD Anthology sets have already secured the legacies of matches that took place on the major cards, be they WrestleMania, SummerSlam, or Royal Rumble. And with the growing tradition of other events (No Way Out, Backlash, Unforgiven), more Anthologies are sure to come. But where does this leave Breakdown? As far as I've been able to research, Breakdown has not been released on DVD and likely never will be. WWE has occasionally re-released older PPV DVDs and packaged them together, but I've got serious doubts about Breakdown making WWE's list anytime soon. So as a discontinued PPV, Breakdown has gone the way of the likes of Invasion and Fully Loaded, with the responsibility of tradition left in the hands of wrestling fans

But Breakdown being almost completely worthless isn't the only thing working against this Cage match. These three guys had plenty of other more significant interaction during 1998, and if WWE's going to look back on it, they're surely not looking at Breakdown first. Ken Shamrock spent the first half of '98 battling the Nation of Domination and chasing The Rock's Intercontinental Title. Title matches were held at both Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, and the two men would cross paths yet again in both the King of the Ring and Survivor Series tournaments. Shamrock didn't do battle with Foley too often, but if any attention is given to a rivalry between the two it would likely go to their IC Title match one month after Breakdown at the Judgment Day PPV. And I'm pretty confident I don't have to go into detail on the horde of matches Mankind would have with The Rock in late '98, all of which were miles ahead of Breakdown in terms of historical significance. So while this Cage match may have been a hell of a performance by these three guys, there's no denying that the other times they all faced off in '98 were slightly more historical.


These two battled a'plenty in 1998


WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

I'm not very optimistic about this one. With Breakdown sucking so much and these guys having had plenty of other more important matches, I just can't see how this Cage match can really hold up. Of course, this is only concerning WWE's treatment of the match. The E may have given up on this match (and card), but wrestling fans don't forget very easily.

So while Breakdown '98 as a whole may be forgotten, let us not forget the Triple Threat greatness it gave us inside the Steel Cage.


Feedback! (or, Proof That The World Knows I Exist!)

I think the problem with the Rey vs. Tajiri feud is that all their matches kind of run together. They had a bunch of good matches but not one that stood out above the rest. Having that one great match is always going to be remembered more than having a solid series with no standout bouts.

Posted By: Guest#7422

I can see where you're coming from, and you've got a point. Rey and Tajiri did have an awesome series of 10-12 minute matches but were never given the chance to go out there for an extended period of time. I think it's more a case of them not being given the opportunity to have that one standout bout than it is them being incapable of doing it. But again I guess that comes back to WWE's inability to take the CW Title seriously. But even then, I still prefer the shorter Rey-Tajiri matches to the more notable Rey-Hardy matches, but that's just me.

i miss the cw title

Posted By: Guest#5299

You and me both, dude. It was entirely worthless for the last couple years of its existence, but for a while there CW Title matches were guaranteed to be showstealers. Never say never, but I'm pretty pessimistic about the title's return at anytime in the near future, if ever. Guys like Rey, CM Punk, and the Hardys making it into the main event means that the days of relegating the smaller guys to jerking the curtain are behind us (at least for now), so a mid-card title for a lower weight class is useless in WWE's eyes at this point.

Awesome Column, I'm really starting to enjoy reliving these old matches again (most of which I've still got on tape in the basement somewhere.
All the Tajiri/Rey matches were great but as the first poster said they all kinda ran together, also the problem was although Tajiri was pretty over he was never given a decent storyline or character development after the failed Invasion angle except his short run w/ Eddie while Chavo was out injured so as great as the matches were they're gonna be forgotten by the masses.

Smackdown was totally the "A" show at the time despite what McMahonagement tried to push Raw as the top brand, just goes to show what a guy like Heyman can do with an awesome roster like SD! 2002-03 had and makes it a bigger shame that he's no longer in wrestling because TNA's strong point is the roster, it's as good as the SD! roster from that time but they are so lacking in creative direction it gives me brain-ache.

Posted By: PJ

Sadly, you're right about Tajiri. The guy had all the tools to be one of the company's top performers, and yet WWE never fully got behind him. His feud with Rey was really the last glimmer of hope for Tajiri, since the debuting Akio and Sakoda seemed as if they would legitimize Tajiri as a badass stable leader. And for a couple weeks there, it actually worked. The only problem was that within another couple of weeks WWE remembered it didn't take Tajiri seriously, and thus, yo was de-pushed.

And Heyman is a miracle worker, but I'm not sure even he can save TNA. I won't go so far as to say TNA is flooded with over-selling spot monkeys and aged leeches of the industry (although I guess I just kind of did), but we'll have to agree to disagree about their roster being comparable to 02-03 era SmackDown. TNA has some exceptional talent, but the majority of the roster underwhelms/irritates me. And then there are the great minds of wrestling that book TNA's programming, but that's another rant for another time.

Damn, Smackdown in 2002-2004 was incredible. The SD 6, the CW's like Hurricane, Noble and Kidman, Brock, Taker and Big Show (when them 3 were at their best) and then later on Haas and Benjamin. I loved heel Cena too then.

Tajari was just incredible however. I used to say that he was the best wrestler in the WWE as EVERY single match he had was fantastic. I love that guy and hope one day he will return to the WWE.

I have you some suggestions for future articles before but most of them were PPV matches. I'll say a few more PPV matches that I think are very underated;

X-Pac vs Kidman- InVasion 2001
We all know that Jeff and RVD stole the show, but this was a very good contest. It's hilarious how even when defending the WWF the fans still boo X-Pac.

Tajari vs X-Pac- Summerslam 2001
I liked this match too, very good I think. Both of them kicked the crap out of eachother! The final Light-Heavyweight title match.

Lance Storm vs Edge- Summerslam 2001
From the same PPV as the above one these two battles over the IC belt and had a great opener to a very good PPV. Probably Lance's best match in the WWE.

Hardyz vs Dudleyz vs E&C vs X-Factor- Insurextion 2001
Lesnar vs Edge- Rebellion 2002
Both of these are on PPV, but since nobody watches the British PPV's they are forgotten

Okay now for some non-PPV matches, all featuring 411's favorite Rob Van Dam.

RVD vs Stone Cold- Smackdown 2001
I think this was prior to Unforgiven. Austin was the WWF champ and RVD the hardcore and they had a fantastic match on SD. Rob took what I think is the greatest Stone Cold Stunner I have ever seen!

RVD vs Tommy Dreamer- Raw 2002
Now this would have to be Tommy's best WWE match. Dreamer was the hardcore champion and Van Dam the IC champion. This was when they stupidly united all the championship belts on Raw and thus this is the final hardcore title match. Not a bad way for it to go out.

RVD vs Jerry Lynn- Sunday Night Heat 2001
Okay it's not as good as their ECW matches but as far as Heat matches go this is fantastic! Another great hardcore title match.

Back in the day I didn't have Sky Sports and so the only wrestling I could watch was Heat so here are some others that I liked from it.

Kurt Angle vs Essa Rios- Heat 2001
Angle was the WWF champion at this point so when he showed up on Heat I was amazed. I was even more amazed at how close Essa Rios came to beating him. NOBODY has ever been as good at beating people but putting them over at the same time as Kurt is.

Dean Malenko vs Crash Holly- Heat 2001
Dean Malenko was always on heat in 01 defending his Light-Heavyweight title and he always won. Not this night! It's not a ***** match or anything but it's not bad and I was in shock that Crash Holly won and also at seeing the incredible Molly-Go-Round for the first time.

Posted By: Tim

I'm with you on the hopes for a Tajiri return. The guy was always one of my favorites, and he'd be a vast improvement over some of the guys we're subjected to these days (Mike Knox and Kizarny, I'm looking at you).

And suggestions, hot damn! I haven't seen the X-Pac/Kidman match, but I can vouch for the goodness of X-Pac/Tajiri, and it does have some historical signifance, since it was, as you said, the last LHW Title match on PPV. The Storm-Edge match is another great one, marking Edge's first real IC Title win. And your point has been proven about British PPVs, since I haven't seen Insurrextion or Rebellion (though the thought of Edge/Lesnar gives me all kinds of warm feelings inside).

I don't specifically recall an RVD-Austin match on SmackDown, but I definitely remember the tension between them in the Alliance. They had a hell of a Triple Threat with Kurt Angle at No Mercy that year, another match that isn't often remembered. I fondly remember that RVD/Dreamer match, since it was the kind of Hardcore Title match we should've been seeing all along. If every title match was like that one, there would've been no need to do away with the belt. But sadly, it was too little too late. The Heat match with Jerry Lynn got a decent amount of bashing at the time since WWE edited it for time constraints, but it was still a hell of a WWE match. Not up to their ECW standards as you said, but still a great match.

I'm sure I have this match on tape. There was a time between late '02 to early '04 where I taped EVERY cruiserweight match from SmackDown and Velocity and every Michaels match from Raw cos it could be his last (which seenmingly resulted in a kickass tag team or six-man tag match ME every week) so I'm sure I have this somewhere.

After the smoke cleared from the SmackDown Six era and they went their separate ways the CW title became the focal point of SD for me. Hell, I could even stomach Cole then. This was also the time when Velocity was WWEs best show in terms of quality wrestling and presented to us the too-good-for-his-own-good Josh "I should be calling Raw" Mathews.

But the title's disappearance makes sense. Each brand gets four belts so we obviously had to make room for the Diva's championship.

Ahem. Yeah.

Posted By: neverAcquiesce

I get the feeling maybe you don't respect the Diva's Championship. I can't imagine why. It's so glamorous and, uh, pretty.

I also miss Velocity and my tolerance of Michael Cole. For a while there I would've said Cole and Tazz were the superior announce team, even though the very thought of it now makes me a little queasy.

My favourite cruiserweight match in the WWE was Noble v Hurricane at KOTR i thought it was amazing when Helms busted out the swinging neckbreaker from the top rope

2 more criminally underused talents :(

Posted By: IOV

Great match from a great PPV. I actually considered covering KOTR 02's Angle-Hogan this week but opted not to. But yeah, Noble and Hurricane were indeed criminally underused despite having a hot feud with a few very hot matches.

Kurt Angle vs Essa Rios- Heat 2001
Angle was the WWF champion at this point so when he showed up on Heat I was amazed. I was even more amazed at how close Essa Rios came to beating him. NOBODY has ever been as good at beating people but putting them over at the same time as Kurt is.

I remember that match very, very fondly.

I totally miss the Cruiserweight title and Tajiri now. Great column.

Posted By: blitzkid

The people have spoken, Vince. We demand a CW Title and Yoshihiro Tajiri. Now dammit.

Christ, I miss Tajiri. I hope he comes back at some point, he was always one of my favorites.

Posted By: Hawkeye

See response above.

fuckin hornswoggle ruined it

Posted By: Guest#5540

Midgets and the Irish often ruin everything. And since I'm half Irish and I once talked to a midget, I think I can get away with saying that.

Mark my words... at some point in the next few years Edge and Randy Orton will have an AWESOME feud...

Posted By: Guest#8911

I'm with you on that one. As long as they stay healthy and make the right business decisions, Edge and Orton are going to be around for a long time. It's inevitable that they'll cross paths at some point, and when they do, we're in for a hell of a fight.

Dude u have to do one of these for Edge vs. Rob Van Dam for the WWE Title at Vengeance 06. One of the best matches on the card is overshadowed by John Cena making Sabu his bitch and a poor attempt at a DX comeback...AGAINST MALE CHEERLEADERS??? I'm gotta get a smoke...

Posted By: Guest

Much like this week's Cage match, Edge/RVD was the diamond in the rough of an underwhelming PPV card. Vengeance '06 was completely horrible aside from the WWE Title match and a rare appearance by Carlito's charisma in a backstage segment. Putting DX against the Spirit Squad in a Handicap PPV main event was a slap in the face of wrestling fans, but then again so was most of DX's booking in 2006.

Two forgotten favorites come to mind

Christian vs Shawn Micheals from early 2005 during the HBK-Edge fued.

Christian vs Randy Orton from late 2004 post survivor series.

Posted By: guest

Obsessive wrestling minds apparently think alike. These two are already on my list for potential articles. At the time I'd hoped that Christian-HBK would lead to a feud and eventual push for Captain Charisma, but of course that was impossible in WWE. Nevertheless, they still had a great match. And the Christian-Orton match was pure badass, with a wicked RKO finish that I'm forced to rewind every time I watch.

I love this match. I miss Tajiri. I guess we are getting someone else to kick people as hard as possible with low ki but we need the Japenese Buzzsaw.

I also used to tape every HBK match in 2003 because I too thought it could be the last one.

Posted By: Eddie Chicago

Low-Ki ain't got nothing on Tajiri. Same with CM Punk. Not to discredit the kicking abilities of those two guys, but nobody does it quite like Tajiri. And yeah, I've also got way too many televised HBK matches at my disposal, considering I too was fooled into thinking it would be his last run.

- -

Alright, guys, that'll do it for this week. I went back to '98 on this one because I was afraid of overdoing it on the 02-04 coverage, but next week we may be back to another SmackDown classic. Maybe I should just rename the column Forgotten 2003-Era SmackDown Matches. Or maybe not.

You know the deal. Stay safe and out of jail.