Background: The match came as a result of Owen Hart coming ringside and assaulting unofficial D-Generation X member Jason Sensation after Sensation impersonated Owen the previous week during DX’s mockery of the Nation. After Hart applied the Sharpshooter on Sensation inside the ring, DX came out to save him.
Raw is War
East Rutherford, NJ
July 13, 1998
Triple H & X-Pac vs. Owen Hart & The Rock
Dey started a clubberin’ immediately, with the action spilling to the floor and The Nation of Domination contingent of Hart and Maivia trying to take a powder. With the crowd fully supporting D-Generation X, the referee watched as The Rock took it to X-Pac when the action finally returned inside. Ducking and dodging, the smaller X-Pac was able to hit the ropes in an attempt to turn things around. Instead, X-Pac ran into Rocky’s Samoan drop to give The Rock an early near fall. Tagging out to Owen gave The Rock the chance to set up Hart’s elbow drop. A sickening Irish whip into the turnbuckles dropped X-Pac; as did Hart’s follow up belly to belly suplex. The Rock became the legal man after Hart utilized a backbreaker, picking up where his partner left off by peppering X-Pac’s face with right hands. But The Rock’s anger toward the referee trying to do his job cost him as X-Pac gained enough space to unleash a spinning heel kick. Fresh and able to recover quickly, The Rock caught X-Pac getting up via the clothesline prior to setting up and executing his People’s Elbow … to earn a near fall!
The Rock, mouthing off to lure Triple H into the ring, punched X-Pac low. Thankfully for the DX members, Chyna was there to distract the referee from seeing The Rock get bashed in the head with the European Championship belt by Triple H. X-Pac rolled over to cover The Rock, but The Nation leader got a shoulder up just in the knick of time. X-Pac was crawling toward his partner when The Rock got up and knocked Triple H off the apron. But The Rock took his eyes off the prize and walked into X-Pac’s X-Factor face buster. X-Pac made the cover as Owen tried to keep Triple H down, only to miss an opportunity to stop the three count on The Rock.
Winners: Triple H & X-Pac (6:34)
Is It A Classic: A fun little encounter to get everyone ready for Triple H vs. The Rock for the pay-per-view that would occur the upcoming weekend while keeping the future opponents away from each other. It also gave X-Pac a big win that would catapult him into title contention. Not a classic, but a nice little piece of work to set up the money match.
