WWE Survivor Series 1998: 5 Awesome Things And 5 That Sucked

1. The Booking Of The Rock Was Masterful As The New WWE Corporate Champion

Survivor Series 1998 should always be remembered as the night The Rock went from just a superstar to a bonafide main event performer that was elevated thanks to his performance and how well he was booked. At the time, Rock was gaining momentum as a babyface that the fans loved. By the end of the night, he was the most hated guy in WWE. The booking of it was brilliant. The Rock's first opponent was supposed to be Triple H, but he was out with knee surgery. Instead, he faced The Big Boss Man, who already had a match earlier in the night. Rock pinned him with an inside cradle in three seconds in what is one of the shortest WWE matches ever. It made it look like he outsmarted McMahon's heel corporate group. Up next was Rock vs. Ken Shamrock, who was a rival of Rock in 1998. Big Boss Man showed up to interfere. It looked like he was tossing Shamrock his nightstick to use, but Rock caught it instead and used it to knock out Shamrock to win the match. They made it look like BBM was there to help Shamrock. We found out later that it went exactly as the Corporation had planned. The Rock faced off with The Undertaker in the semifinals. It wasn't a very good match, but the booking made sense. Kane showed up, hit Rock with a Chokeslam and that gave Rock the victory to move on in the tournament. Kane was there to cause problems for his brother The Undertaker and he did so by giving The Rock the win. In the main event, The Rock faced Mankind in the finals of the World Title tournament. Fans wanted The Rock to win while it looked like Vince & Shane McMahon were pulling for Mankind. They had a very physical brawl that went 18 minutes. Rock hit a Rock Bottom and got a two count. Rock applied a Sharpshooter by the ropes. He stared at Vince McMahon at ringside, gave him the People's Elbow and McMahon called for the bell as The Rock became the WWE Champion. Mankind looked confused because he didn't give up. Rock gave a hug to Vince & Shane as he officially sold out to become the new WWE Corporate Champion. It was WWE's way of re-doing the Survivor Series 1997 finish except this was more of a wrestling angle than a real life situation where Bret Hart had no idea what was going to happen. Clever booking by WWE. Three of the four wins were cheap while the first one was booked like a fluke with the inside cradle. Every finish was well thought out and orchestrated perfectly. It may not have been a night of great matches for him, but it really was one of the best nights of his career where he became a much bigger star in winning his first WWE World Title when he was just 26 years old.