Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Austin

[4.0] "I find this match quite disappointing. For the first real lock up of Steve Austin and Ken Shamrock after the whole Bret and Austin Mania business you'd think this would be a bit of a wild, hard-hitting brawl that goes outside quite a bit or has Austin having to batter Shamrock to get around all of his mat-based offense potential. Instead, it's mostly a very slow affair that has a much more, almost out of character, considerate Austin doing a lot of submissions and headlocks to keep Shamrock grounded and wear him down until the DQ finish. The crowd to me seems just as equally quelled and confused as me given they only get hyped up during the few times Austin breaks out the usual offense or Ken manages to get on top (still surprisingly getting cheers even when apposing Austin) but otherwise just aren't that excited by what's being presented to them, and i'm partial to agree. It is fascinating to see Austin in 1998 busting out offense like a Suplex which he hadn't done in a minute following the neck injury and wouldn't again for a very long time until near the end of his career when he has the (much better than this in my opinion) "Traditional Wrestling Match" with Ric Flair on Raw, but it doesn't mean much when those are only brief moments of action with all the slow and standard offense that isn't playing to either guy's strengths. I also get that this match would later be properly ended with a proper match finish to make up for the disqualification that happens here, and that this is a Attitude Era Raw, but the finish after all this long plodding doesn't exactly help me feel positive about this match. It's not a bad match per se there's a few fun moment like when they go outside for a brief moment but I think what these two could do with one another, even with Steve's more limited offense following his neck injury, could have been really hot but instead it's sort of left on lukewarm at best for whatever reason."

[5.0] "The action itself was pretty good for a TV match from 1998. However, it felt like they spent an eternity in sleeper holds and the amount of spot calling was pretty distracting, it happened the entire match. As a small nitpick, they also did the classic going to the corner while pulling the referee low blow spot, which was the THIRD time it happened this episode alone."

[8.0] "A pretty underrated tv match here between Ken Shamrock and Steve Austin before the shenanigans happened. They displayed good chemistry here, Austin working as the heel here made this match more interesting because of some of the little tricks he was doing to try and win this match. Which shows you how dangerous Steve viewed Shamrock as a threat to his title. ***.75"

[7.0] "Another Raw match with a DQ finish, but this was really good! Austin shows a really good intensity to him after getting screwed over in the opening segment and it keeps the match at a fast pace, while Shamrock does well with the technical side of things so you see a little bit of what Austin used to bring to the table before his neck injury. The match is essentially there to advance storylines where Undertaker and Kane eventually interfering, but Rock and Mankind end up making an unlikely save for Austin and Shamrock, but this was still a good showing for Austin and Shamrock because the in ring action was strong and left the door open for a bigger rematch."

[7.0] "This was a pretty good main event. Steve Austin was on top of the world, especially as he was in the middle of his feud with Mr. McMahon. Ken Shamrock is one of the Attitude Era stars that doesn't get talked about as much as others, but he had a pretty good run in WWE. This had a nice mix of technical wrestling and good brawling, with both men being seen as equal. It ended in a No Contest when Undertaker and Kane came out to attack both men, then it became an all out brawl when The Rock and Mankind made their presence felt. This was a lot of fun and perfectly encapsulates the best part of the Attitude Era. ***1/2"

[5.0] "This was okay. I feel like the match was going great up until about halfway through when they just started locking in headlocks, felt the match got a bit slow and lazy there. The amount of loud calls was infuriating in this match as well. The finish however whilst a bit crammed in was fun. Nice to see Rocky finally getting over."

[7.0] "This rocked! Compared to most main events on Raw at this time this was an actual WRESTLING match and not just a silly brawl with tons of interference. Austin clearly was calling this match and he made Shamrock look great. Ken was on the receiving end of most of the offense but looked strong as Austin couldn't put him away. Eventually an attitude era ending ruined what was a great TV match with tons of interference and brawling to close the show."

[6.0] "Surprisingly, it was a solid decent matchup, and on the weekly, among the many mediocre ones in the era of attitude. It's a pity the ending again happened in the style of that era and did not give a normal outcome to the match."

[7.0] "This was a GREAT match, ruined by the ending, one of the best RAW matches this year, this is the kind of wrestling I like."

[6.0] "The start to this match is really intense and physical, they had a nice brawl in the early going. The middle has a bit too many rest holds for my liking but the ending is good with back and forth action up until the brothers of destruction interfere in the match.***"

[7.0] "Shamrock and Austin have a surprisingly decent match going on with some good back and forth and decent pacing. Knowing who is in the ring there's obviously not going to be much in the way of flashy spots, the closest we get i probably Austin jumping from the turnbuckle with a flying elbow. Undertaker and Kane come down from the entrance to assault both of them! And there's Mankind! AND ROCKY ATTACKS TAKER! Austin gets a chair and slams both Taker and Kane while Mr. McMahon looks on distressed from the walkway."