The Hi-Jacking of Highway to Hell
I like to keep things as positive as possible.
I like WWE.
I like AEW.
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It was summer of ’98.
The Highway to Hell.
WWF had gained control of the Monday Night ratings war earlier in the year, and was looking to keep their foot on the throttle to maintain control by building up one of the best Summerslam cards in their history. In my opinion, it was their best. With the second best built Stone Cold match during his run as the top guy in the business, Austin and Undertaker would collide in the main event of Summerslam. With Stone Cold in the middle of his feud with McMahon, this was all just a plan to get the WWF Title away from the Rattlesnake. With one of the greatest feuds of all time being the driving force and adding The Deadman to the equation, this head to head between two icons of the business was set up for to be the best match of the night…
But prior to those two coming out for the Main Event, we would get one of the best ladder matches of all time. And honestly it doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Whereas Taker and Austin would put on a great main event, which would help solidify this as my favorite Summerslam of all time, there were two young and hungry guys that took an opportunity and would make it impossible to top the show they were about to give the fans.
This wouldn’t be the first time The Rock and Triple would face off. As a matter of fact, when The Rock would capture his first gold in WWF it would be Triple H’s first reign as IC Champ that he would end.
To put this as simple as possible, this match would be the best match to go in to the catalog of one of the key feuds that brought the WWF back to its prominence. A lot of times these days, people often talk about needing another Stone Cold and Rock kind of talents that can carry the shows. Not to take anything away from Austin and Rock, it was a great feud and definitely was a very big deal. But I disagree with the thought of needing to duplicate them and these two are why. Stone Cold was nearing his end during the time The Rock reached the top whereas Triple H and Rock were both very young, climbing the ladder to the top and reaching that pinnacle right at the same time. They used each other to elevate themselves and give the company two main event guys that could carry them to the next level in the world of sports entertainment. The crowd watched them grow together, two foes who could face off until the end playing the heel and face whenever needed. A rivalry for the ages.
So let’s revisit this classic match.
Intercontinental Championship Match
The match would start off in the worst way. The live performance that Triple H came to the ring with was just awful. There is no other way to put it. Triple H would destroy the instruments afterwards but I was just left wondering why he didn’t do it earlier to save us from that thing they tried to call a performance. But once the bell rang, it was magic. The Rock would work over H’s knee, which he had attacked earlier that night. At one point he would wedge his leg in between the ladder and kick it before taking a chair to it several times while Triple H sold it perfectly. One of the best things about watching this match now is noticing that for about 90% of this match, we only had one ladder. There were no spots that called for the ladder to be broken. There were no spots that called for multiple ladders just to get a cheap pop. It was very reminiscent of the HBK/Razor ladder match where it was used as a weapon instead of as a prop like most of the matches are today. Chyna and Henry would get involved a few times, but never enough to make the match itself seem like it was getting out of control. A lot of this match would consist of The Rock(playing the heel) getting in a lot of offense on Triple H. This is the match that I believe opened up a lof of eyes on how tough Triple H truly was. There was a lot of drops on the ladder that he took that made me squirm, but he just kept coming back.
At this point in time, The Rock was ahead in the race to main event level between these two. This is the match that Triple H caught up to him. Outside of the baseball slide in to the ladder, that would have the top crash in to The Rock’s head, there was not many bumps that The Rock would take with the ladder. Triple H carried the brutality of this one and really helped elevate it from a good match to an absolutely great match. Every bump and spot in this match served a purpose that would effortlessly lead in to the next spot.
As we reached the end, and it looked like Triple H had the match in hand, he would be blinded by powder being thrown in his face by Mark Henry. But even while blinded, Triple H would make the climb to try and claim the IC Title and cement himself as a prime time player in the WWF. Leading DX wasn’t enough at this point in time, he needed this win. As he is reaching for the title, he would be stopped by The Rock who had reached the top himself and would start throwing hands. As Triple H slipped and held on with his last bit of energy, Chyna would make her presence known and even the odds as she would low blow The Rock, causing him to fall to the mat. Triple H would recuperate, climb to the top once again and claim the IC Title for his second time.
After this match, it was very clear what the landscape of WWF would look like in the very near future. These two were not there yet, but it wouldn’t be much longer and this was their warning to the top guys. As a matter of fact, The Rock would go on to win his first WWF Title just a few months later and then Triple H would win his first a year later. Over the next few years, the battles would continue between the two with each match always delivering. But none of those matches would ever top what they gave us on the night of August 30th, 1998.
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