King of the Ring 1998

King of the Ring 1998 was the sixth annual King of the Ring professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on June 28, 1998 at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Nine matches were scheduled on the event's card. The main event was a First Blood match featuring Kane defeating Steve Austin for the WWF Championship. The other main match was a Hell in a Cell match featuring The Undertaker defeating Mankind. Featured matches on the undercard included the KOTR tournament final between Ken Shamrock and The Rock, which Shamrock won to win the tournament and a Tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship between The New Age Outlaws defeating The New Midnight Express, to retain the championship.

This event produced arguably the most famous Hell in a Cell match of all time, pitting The Undertaker against Mankind. A couple of minutes into the match, The Undertaker threw Mankind off of the top of the cell, which was a full 16 feet, onto the Spanish Announce table. The footage of that fall has since become one of the most used and viewed video in professional wrestling history.

Background[]

The main feud heading into King of the Ring was between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kane over the WWF Championship. On the June 1st episode of Raw Is War, Kane defeated The Undertaker to become the number one contender for the WWF Championship. The previous month at Over The Edge, Austin retained the WWF Championship against Dude Love despite the efforts of Vince McMahon as special referee and Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson as time keeper and ring announcer respectively. On the June 15th episode of Raw, McMahon announced that the match between Austin and Kane would be a first blood match a match in which a wrestler who makes his opponent bleed from his face or mouth would be declared the winner. Kane through an electronic voice box declares that if he loses the match he would set himself on fire. Later that night, Austin came to the ring and accepted the match at King of the Ring. Kane came out and had fake blood drenched from the ceiling on Austin.

Another feud heading into King of the Ring was between Mankind and The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match. This would be the second singles Hell in a Cell match in history with the first being the one between Shawn Michaels and Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House the previous year. On the June 15th episode of Raw, Mankind and Kane teamed up against Stone Cold Steve Austin and Undertaker in the second Hell in a Cell match. The bout ended in a no-contest with Undertaker attacking Paul Bearer (who was aligned with Mankind and Kane) inside the cell, while Austin attacked Kane at the top of the structure. This led to a third Hell in a Cell match between Mankind and Undertaker at King of the Ring.

Aftermath[]

The next night on Raw, Austin defeated Kane to regain the WWF Championship and began a feud with both Kane and the Undertaker which lasted through September. At In Your House 23: Fully Loaded in July, Austin and Undertaker defeated Kane and Mankind for the WWF Tag Team Championship, but dropped the titles back to them in a fatal-four-way match on the August 10 edition of Raw.

Kane and the Undertaker were gradually revealed to be in cahoots with each other over the WWF Championship. As part of the storyline Kane turned on Mankind at SummerSlam, losing the tag team titles to the New Age Outlaws, and Undertaker ordered his brother not to interfere in his title match with Austin in the main event. The feud culminated in a match at In Your House:Breakdown in September where Kane and Undertaker simultaneously pinned Austin. This led to a match between Kane and Undertaker at Judgment Day: In Your House in October where Austin, who was the special referee, attacked both men and refused to count a fall. After the match Undertaker turned on Kane and reunited with Paul Bearer, reigniting their feud.

Results[]

Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
(c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.

The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) and Taka Michinoku defeated Kaientai (Funaki, Men's Teioh, and Dick Togo) (6:41)
Ken Shamrock defeated Jeff Jarrett (w/ Tennessee Lee) (5:29)
The Rock defeated Dan Severn (4:25)
Too Much (Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor) defeated Al Snow and Head with Jerry Lawler as Special Guest Referee (8:27)
X-Pac (w/ Chyna) defeated Owen Hart (8:30)
The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) (c) (w/ Chyna) defeated The New Midnight Express (Bombastic Bob and Bodacious Bart) for the WWF Tag Team Championship (09:54)
Ken Shamrock defeated The Rock (14:09)
The Undertaker defeated Mankind in a Hell in a Cell match (16:00)
Kane (w/ Paul Bearer) defeated Steve Austin (c) in a First Blood match for the WWF Championship (14:52)

King of the Ring bracket[]

First Round
(TV)

Quarterfinals
(TV)

Semifinals
(PPV)

Final
(PPV)

Vader

The Rock