[Mr. Pike Central]

[SIZE="3"]#9

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Dude Love
WWE Championship Match (Over The Edge 1998)[/SIZE]

Full Match: (Part 1)
(Part 2)
(Part 3)

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If the last match resemble the craziness that was 1999 WWE, then this is the match that started it all. This match was the beginning of the Main Event sequences that you would see in PPV during those times. From refs being knocked down, to interferences, to interferences of those interferences, WWE had a formula that worked for the most part if only for so long. This match was pretty crazy. Just watch it, the crowd reaction for Stone Cold Steve Austin was just unreal. One of the bigger Austin pops from that Era.

The storyline is that Vince McMahon sees Dude Love as his corporate champion. Mick Foley was Dude Love here and he remodeled himself to look as corporate as possible to appease McMahon. Gone was the tie-dyed colors and in was a tie, hair comb back, and a suit. Together they unite to get the WWE championship off of Austin. Mick Foley was fired the next night on RAW and came back as a corporate looking Mankind.

McMahon did a great promo where he made it seem almost impossible for Austin to retain. He added stipulations where...

. Gerald Brisco was a timekeeper
. Pat Patterson was the ring announcer
. Mr. McMahon was the special guest referee
. Through out the match, Pat Paterson would change the stipulations from NO DQ match to Falls Count Anywhere match.


Without McMahon pinning the count, how could Austin win? Well, Undertaker ended up just making himself the special enforcer just because he could. The match was over the top. Everyone played their roles perfectly. Little things that Austin did is really what made him the best wrestler of that time. For example, Austin stomps on Dude Love's artificial teeth after punching it out of his mouth. Him flipping off McMahon at every chance he could get.


This match is a classic and one of the first of its kind. They take it to the entrance ramp. Possibly one of the best looking entrances in a PPV ever, they brawl and throw one another over beaten up cars. True car wreck of a match this but in a great way. Even Patterson and Brisco get chokeslammed thru a table back then when they didn't take off the TVs. Quite possibly one of the biggest pops of all time. Real fun match.