WWF Wrestlers Who Had a Bad 1998

WWF Wrestlers Who Had a Bad 1998
July 13, 2023
By Ryan Porzl

I think it's universally known that 1998 was an amazing year for the WWF (now WWE). After struggling during The New Generation era of the early 90s and then getting their clock cleaned by WCW during the late 90s, they would finally turn things around and enjoy a resurgence with The Attitude Era in 1998. Things couldn't be better for the WWF and many of their wrestlers had good to phenomenal years. Both Steve Austin and The Rock, the two biggest names of the era, made it to the top in 1998. Meanwhile, Mick Foley had a rollercoaster year that saw him fulfill a dream, Kane had his first full year and won gold, Triple H continued to climb the ladder. and The Undertaker was still a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, not every wrestler had a great year. In many ways, 1998 was not just a bad year for some wrestlers but arguably one of the worst years of their careers. With 1998 being a quarter century old and since I feel this could be a fun article, I figure why not take a look at the wrestlers who, quite frankly, had a miserable 1998.

Note: I don't own the pictures. I got them on Google.

10. Steven Regal- Obviously, many longtime wrestling fans are familiar with William Regal and his Hall of Fame WWE career. However, it wasn't always the case and Regal would make quite a poor first impression. After originally starting in his native England during the 1980s and early 1990s, Regal gained fame as "Lord Steven Regal" during his five year run in WCW from 1993-1998 where he became a four time WCW World Television Champion. After leaving WCW, Regal signed with the WWF in the spring of 1998 and it looked like things were leading to big things. Apparently, the original plan for Regal was to enter the WWF as a hired gun of Vince McMahon, along with Steve Williams (more on him in a bit), to take out Steve Austin. Unfortunately, Regal's WWF run was over before it began. Years prior to his WWF debut, Regal would suffer an injury and began abusing painkillers and other drugs as a result. On top of that, Regal also ballooned in weight and prior to his scheduled debut, he suffered bouts of pneumonia which left him hospitalized. Regal would make his debut in June 1998 but after some poor showings, he was quickly taken off TV and sent to train with Dory Funk Jr. which resulted in Regal suffering from injuries which kept him off TV even longer. Regal eventually returned in October 1998 with his infamous "Real Man's Man" gimmick but not much came of it outside of Regal entering the Deadly Games tournament for the vacant WWF Championship at Survivor Series 1998. Before the year was done, Regal's drug addiction saw him off TV again and he would be sent to rehab in January 1999 before being released that April. While everything worked out in the long run for Regal, his first run was a mess and a period of his career he probably will never look back on fondly outside of the fact he eventually overcame it. 

9. Kaientai- Japanese wrestlers appearing in the WWF/WWE is nothing new. Many Japanese legends have appeared for the WWE for decades including Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, Akira Maeda, Riki Choshu, Tiger Mask I, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Jumping Bomb Angels, Bull Nakano, and Aja Kong. Meanwhile, WWE currently has Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka, and IYO Sky while others such as KENTA and Kairi Sane have come and gone. During 1998, The WWF had their share of Japanese talents but you can argue they didn't do them justice and that was the stable known as Kaientai. Kaientai was a stable first started in Japan in 1994 for Michinoku Pro and would go on to feature such talent as TAKA Michinoku, Sho Funaki, Mens Teioh, and Dick Togo. Each of these wrestlers started in the early 1990s and mainly competed for smaller Puroresu promotions such as Michinoku Pro, Universal Lucha Libre, and FMW. TAKA, Teioh, and Togo would also make a memorable appearance at ECW's Barely Legal PPV in 1997 as the bWo Japan (a parody of New Japan stable nWo Japan). Their manager Yamaguchi-San was a jack of all trades working in smaller Japanese promotions as a referee, promoter, and commentator while also working as a sports journalist. After several great matches with Great Sasuke, TAKA made it to the WWF first in late 1997 and things started fine as he won the revived WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and made two successful title defenses on PPV against Pantera at In Your House: No Way Out of Texas and Aguila at Wrestlemania XIV. However, after the rest of Kaientai showed up following WMXIV, it kind of went downhill. During the remainder of the spring and early summer, TAKA would feud with them in tag matches that largely amounted to nothing. The group eventually had their biggest claim to fame when they feuded with Val Venis after Venis slept with Yamaguchi-San's wife (also later revealed to be TAKA's sister) which saw TAKA rejoin the group and Yamaguchi-San both threatening and attempted to castrate Venis with a katana. After the Venis feud, the group got squashed by The Oddities at Summerslam 1998 and TAKA, after doing almost nothing with the Light Heavyweight Championship for months, would lose the belt to Christian at In Your House: Judgement Day in October. By the end of the year, Yamaguchi-San, Teioh, and Togo would all leave the promotion. All in all, TAKA started the year good but it doesn't take a genius to figure out someone's year is bad when their most memorable moment was trying to castrate a wrestler with a porn star gimmick.

8. The Rock n' Roll Express- Whenever longtime wrestling fans think of tag team wrestling, one team they always think of is The Rock n' Roll Express. Consisting of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, the team began in 1983 in Memphis for the Continental Wrestling Association and would dominate the tag team scene almost everywhere they went including the Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and the National Wrestling Alliance winning gold everywhere. The team also became legendary for their feud with the second and third versions of The Midnight Express which is considered one of, if not, the greatest tag team rivalry of all time. One of the few major promotions the team couldn't replicate their success in was The WWF. After originally making special appearances for the promotion for Pay-Per-Views, TV, and house shows from 1993-1994 while being on loan from Smoky Mountain Wrestling, the team would officially join the WWF in 1998 but they weren't able to recapture the magic for many reasons. First is their style as The Rock n' Roll were a great southern style, never say die babyface tag team but their style didn't fit in 1998 WWF that was about to enter The Attitude Era. Second was the team was put in the lame NWA stable led by former nemesis Jim Cornette and also featuring Jeff Jarrett and Barry Windham and while they were awarded the NWA World Tag Team Championship, it did nothing for them. Third was the team was barely used and never pushed. In the four months they were in The WWF, they wrestled a grand total of thirteen matches. Even worse is of the thirteen matches, they only won two with the first being on the February 16, 1998 RAW Is War where they retained the NWA Tag Titles against The Headbangers by DQ and the second was the February 28, 1998 Shogun Saturday Night when they defeated The Godwinns. With all this, the team was doomed to fail and fail they did. After doing next to nothing with the NWA and losing the tag titles to The Headbangers, they were betrayed by Cornette and reignited their feud with him and The New Midnight Express (Bombastic Bob and Bodacious Bart) but this wasn't the 80s or even the early 90s so WWF fans had no interest. Eventually, the team would bottom out with a lackluster match against The New Midnights at In Your House: Unforgiven in April 1998 where they couldn't turn the clock back and were bounced by May, ending their run after only four months. In the end, the only good thing with The RnRs run was they did get a Wrestlemania moment participating in the Fifteen Tag Team Battle Royal at Wrestlemania XIV and their run wasn't long so they didn't have as bad a run in 1998 as others. In the end, The Rock n' Roll Express have plenty of great moments and memories for fans to treasure from their Hall of Fame career but those moments and memories will not be found in their 1998 WWF stuff.

7. Goldust- Goldust was a memorable character during the end of The New Generation Era and the beginning of The Attitude Era. He was a flamboyant character that proved controversial but had people talking while Dustin Runnels was always a good talent who can hang with the best. By 1998, Goldust enjoyed several memorable feuds with Razor Ramon, Roddy Piper, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Brian Pillman along with two Intercontinental Title reigns. Unlike most on this list, Goldust's 1998 was largely lousy as he felt lost and spinning his wheels. He entered 1998 as The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust, a gimmick that saw the already bizarre Goldust be cranked to 11 and spent the early part of the year in forgettable midcard feuds with Vader and then with Marc Mero and Sable while being managed by Luna Vachon. After TAFKA Goldust began losing steam and not going anywhere, the WWF decided to drop the character with Dustin Runnels wrestling as himself with his gimmick being a born again Christian but it failed to catch on and he became a jobber. Eventually, during his feud with Val Venis, Runnels brought back the Goldust character by September 1998 and eventually ended 1998 lacking much direction outside of participating in the Deadly Games tournament at Survivor Series 1998 for the vacant WWF Championship. Unlike most on this list who made it due to horrible booking or injuries or health issues or bad luck, Goldust makes it because his 1998 felt like a year where the company didn't seem to know what to do with him as they started the year trying to reinvent him only to eventually go back to square one by the end of the year but nothing really helped.

6. Savio Vega- Vega was someone who was always a reliable midcard hand for The WWF but by 1998 was another spinning in his wheels and participating in a certain, controversial tournament, would end his WWF run with injuries. Vega turned pro in 1985 and enjoyed success as a well traveled journeyman mostly enjoying success in his native Puerto Rico while also competing in The United States, Mexico, and Japan. In late 1993, he joined the WWF as Kwang the Ninja before being repackaged as "The Caribbean Legend" Savio Vega in May 1995. From 1995-1997, Vega was a good midcard hand making it to the finals of the 1995 KOTR tournament and had a great rivalry with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. After turning heel, he joined The Nation of Domination in early 1997 before being fired by the group and forming his own stable Los Boricuas which took part in the critically panned "Gang Warz" angle. By 1998, Vega was still leading The Boricuas but he wasn't doing much else. The only good thing to come out of his 1998 was replacing an injured Shawn Michaels in the eight man tag match at In Your House: No Way Out of Texas. Aside from that, it was a lousy year as he entered the 1998 Royal Rumble but didn't make much of an impression before being eliminated by eventual winner Austin. He then teamed with fellow Boricua Miguel Perez in the Wrestlemania XIV fifteen team battle royal but was the first eliminated. He then failed to appear on another WWF PPV for the rest of the year. As he struggled to make a blip on the WWF radar, The WWF created the controversial tough man contest: The Brawl For All. Perhaps figuring he had nothing to lose, Vega entered but like many would regret it. After defeating Brakkus in the first round, he eventually lost in the quarterfinals to Darren Drozdov. To make things worse, Vega would be among many of the participants to suffer a bad injury, injuring his arm and would quietly be released shortly after thus ending his WWF run after five years. Vega was a solid hand for the promotion and while he likely would've eventually been released, it's a shame to see Vega fall into irrelevance before suffering an injury and then was released.

5. Steve Williams- And now, we get to the obvious names. Williams disastrous experience in the WWF is pretty much universally known by this point but I'll bring it up again. Turning pro in 1982, Williams made a name for himself in Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling/Universal Wrestling Federation and NWA/WCW during the 1980s where he mostly excelled as a tag team wrestler but did achieve singles success as the final UWF Heavyweight Champion. After working with New Japan in the late 80s, Williams jumped to All Japan in 1990 and established his legend with critically acclaimed performances and his Miracle Violence Connection tag team with Terry Gordy. The biggest moment of his career saw him defeat Mitsuharu Misawa for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship on July 28, 1994, ending Misawa's record setting near two year reign. After being courted by the WWF in 1995 and 1997, Williams finally made the jump in the spring of 1998. As is well known, the original plan for Williams was to eventually build him up for a huge main event feud with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Originally, it was rumored Williams would be brought in as a hired gun, alongside William Regal, by Vince McMahon to target Austin. As the idea was dropped, The WWF would introduce one of wrestling's most disastrous ideas: a tough man competition called The Brawl For All. Unlike wrestling in general, The BFA would be legit and thus was strictly voluntarily. Still, with Williams being known as one of wrestling's biggest legit "tough guys" both he and the Federation assumed he blitz through the field, win it, and thus set the stage for the Steve Austin feud. Unfortunately, what no one thought of was the fact that while legit tough, he never actually boxed before. Another issue was Williams was 38 years old which means he was nearing the end of his athletic prime. Finally, Williams hadn't done much athletic competition for sixteen years and since then accumulated sixteen years of mileage from his wrestling career. Williams would defeat Pierre of the Quebecers (the future PCO) in the first round before running into Bart Gunn in the quarterfinals. The fight was a disaster as Williams was not only brutally knocked out, thus killing his tough guy image, but suffered serious injuries to his hamstring and jaw putting him on the shelf for the rest of the year. Williams would eventually return but not until 1999 but he didn't last long before Vince completely gave up on him and he would eventually be released. Williams did very little in 1998 but it's amazing how much of an awful year it was. He gave up a comfortable and stable gig with All Japan in order to come to the WWF with the promise of a big payday and feud against the biggest star of the era only to lose it all after participating in a terrible tough man contest that saw his WWF run end before it began.

4. The Legion of Doom- Another obvious name on this list. Like the Rock n' Roll Express, it's impossible to not think of LOD when thinking about tag teams. Consisting of Hawk and Animal, the two became one of wrestling's biggest acts throughout the majority of the 1980s and early 1990s thanks to their larger than life looks, charisma, and "chew 'em up and spit 'em out" in-ring style. They captured gold and tournaments in Georgia Championship Wrestling, American Wrestling Association, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, and World Wrestling Federation all the while engaging in matches with many legendary acts including Ivan and Nikita Koloff to The Midnight Express to The Four Horsemen to Dusty Rhodes. By 1998, The LOD had seen better days. Though coming off a second tag title run in late 1997 for The WWF, the team was clearly losing steam as they weren't getting younger, both had mileage especially Animal who had a bad back from a 1992 injury, and Hawk still struggled with drug addiction. Going into 1998, it became clear to WWF that The LOD would be better off putting over new acts such as the then tag team champions The New Age Outlaws. The year began ok as they challenged The Outlaws for the titles at Royal Rumble 1998 and won by DQ. After teasing a possible breakup, the team were repackaged as LOD 2000 for Wrestlemania XIV giving them a new look, a new manager in Sunny, and they went on to win the fifteen team battle royal. Unfortunately, that was the end of the good they had and it was all downhill after that. The team rematched The Outlaws at In Your House: Unforgiven only to lose. After that, Sunny was dropped by WWF due to her own problems and the team hooked up with newcomer Darren Drozdov. The summer would see the team's stock plummet even further as Hawk entered The Brawl For All and would be one of many to suffer an injury. Upon returning, the team did an angle where they brought back former manager "Precious" Paul Ellering to manage them again, only for Ellering to turn heel and announce he was managing Disciples of Apocalypse (8-Ball and Skull) but it didn't work out as the spark was gone from The LOD, Ellering didn't seem to have it in his heart to go against his old charges, and DOA are, well, DOA. As this angle was going, The WWF then controversially decided to exploit Hawk's personal issues and turn them into an angle with Hawk showing up to WWF TV messed up and supposedly under the influence of something. The story was obviously in poor taste and it was sad to watch a legend go out on TV making a fool out of himself. The angle would infamously culminate in November 1998 when Hawk threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the titantron only to be pushed off by Drozdov, who was later revealed to be Hawk's enabler in order to replace him in the team. By the end of the year, The LOD were off TV and would leave The WWF in early 1999 following a few appearances. While The LOD's legacies are secure and they'll always be up there with all time great teams, it's a shame that many people's last memory of them was this dreadful year.

3. Vader- Don't tell me you didn't see this one coming. Anybody who knows 1998 WWF won't be the least surprised "The Man They Call" Vader would make this list though they must be surprised he's only number three but it does make sense as you'll see. Turning pro in 1985, Vader worked in America during his early years, mostly The AWA, before hitting it big by going to New Japan in 1987 where he got the Vader gimmick. From 1987-1995, Vader was one of wrestling's biggest stars enjoying massive success in both New Japan and later WCW while also working for the Mexican based Universal Wrestling Association and the German/Austrian Catch Wrestling Association where he won world titles in each promotion. Upon arriving in The World Wrestling Federation in 1996, big things were expected from him but in the end, Vader's WWF run is usually considered a big disappointment. Despite this, his 1996 and 1997 weren't bad as he did have big matches, rivalries, and even wins against the likes of The Hart Foundation, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker while getting several shots at the WWF Championship. However, by 1998, Vader's WWF run would crash and burn. Vader would enter the year with a midcard feud with Goldust where he beat him at Royal Rumble 1998 but after that, he was on job duty. For the winter and spring, Vader would spend time feuding and constantly losing to Kane while having an injury in between with the last loss at In Your House: Over The Edge famously saw Vader think of himself as a "Big Fat Piece of Shit". After the Kane stuff, Vader's stock plummeted as he spent the remainder of his WWF tenure as a jobber putting over midcarders like Mark Henry, Bradshaw, and Marc Mero who had little to no direction. Eventually, things got bad enough that Vader asked and received his release where he bolted by the end of October. While things got better for Vader post WWF and he had a legendary career before it, The WWF run will always be considered his weakest with 1998 being rock bottom in his career.

2. Owen Hart- When you think of wrestlers who had a miserable 1998, you don't immediately go to Owen Hart like you would for Steve Williams, The Legion of Doom, and/or Vader but make no mistake, Owen's 1998 was as bad, if not worse, than all theirs. A member of the legendary Hart Family, Owen turned pro in 1983 for his father Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. He spent the first eight years of his career in Stampede, New Japan, a cup of coffee run in WCW, and a run in the WWF as The Blue Blazer. By 1991, Owen made it back to The WWF as himself but it wasn't until 1993 when he began feuding with brother Bret that led to his career finally taking off. By the end of 1997, Owen was in an interesting situation. He was emerging as a future WWF Champion. Bret was gone following his infamous exit due to The Montreal Screwjob. He was the last of the Harts still around as brothers-in-law The British Bulldog and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart decided to follow Bret to WCW. With his career rising over the years, no longer having to be in Bret's shadow, and potential hot programs with Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon, it looked like 1998 was going to be a break out year for "The Black Hart". Instead, the year was a colossal disappointment due to backstage politics and bad booking. First issue that hurt Owen was backstage politics. After facing Michaels on the December 29, 1997 edition of RAW Is WAR where he defeated Michaels by disqualification which allowed Michaels to retain the WWF Championship, it looked like the feud would go into Royal Rumble 1998 but the feud ended there. Rumors have circulated over the years that Michaels refused to work with Owen due to being afraid Owen would try to hurt him due to The Montreal Screwjob. Things got worse when Steve Austin defeated Michaels at Wrestlemania XIV and became the face of the promotion as Austin never forgave Owen for injuring him with a botched piledriver at Summerslam 1997 and he made it clear he had no desire of working with Owen again. With the two top names of 1998 pretty much wanting nothing to do with him, Owen's main event run was stopped cold. As a result, Owen was sent to the midcard for the year as he got to first feud with Michaels' flunky Triple H over the European Championship which Owen won in January but against Goldust who was subbing for an injured HHH. Owen held the title for two months before losing it back to HHH and then proceeded to suffer loss after loss to him which further killed Owen's momentum. While he would eventually pin Triple H to end the feud at In Your House; Over The Edge, it did nothing for him. With "The Black Hart" dead in the water, The WWF had Owen do a weak heel turn and join The Nation which further did nothing for him. From there, he continued falling down the ladder throughout 1998 putting over X-Pac, then Ken Shamrock, and finally, Steve Blackman with Owen losing to the latter by walking out and taking a count out loss like a coward in his home country of Canada. In many ways, Owen's 1998 was similar to Bret's 1995 in that it felt like WWF decided to put him with every pet project they had in an attempt to get them over and elevate them although at least Bret won most of his matches while you couldn't say that for Owen. While Owen's 1998 isn't as infamous as others on this list, it's still quite depressing to see how much he had going for him in January only to see him ice cold by December. It can be argued nobody had as much potential squandered in 1998 than Owen in all of American wrestling.

1. Shawn Michaels- Once again, probably not a name you think of off the bat but anybody that knows Michaels' 1998 would have to agree he probably had the worst. It's hard to believe someone who main evented two of the big five PPVs including Wrestlemania, was the WWF Champion, the top star entering the year, and the leader of the top stable in the company could be on this list but that's the case. Michaels would barely work in 1998 as he wrestled a grand total of six matches (four being house shows). As is well known, Michaels' 1998 turn upside down less than three weeks into the new year when during his casket match title defense against The Undertaker at Royal Rumble 1998 he took a back body drop out of the ring and his lower back hit the tip of the casket thus herniating two discs and crushing another. Reportedly, Michaels didn't know the extent of his injury until two days later when he couldn't get out of bed. With Michaels hurt, he was kept out of the ring outside of promos and segments to hype his Wrestlemania title defense against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Michaels wouldn't work for over two months until March when he dropped the WWF Championship to Austin at Wrestlemania XIV. After that, Michaels' 1998 was pretty much over as he wouldn't compete for the rest of the year and spent most of it at home trying to rehab before eventually getting surgery in 1999 which kept him out for several years. With Michaels under a big WWF contract, The WWF would make attempts to bring him back throughout the year either as a guest commentator or replacing Sgt. Slaughter as Commissioner but personal issues would also see him away for long periods. All in all, there isn't much to say about Michaels because his year was pretty much done at the beginning of Spring. As mentioned, he gets the number one spot because of the downfall he went through in 1998 and while it ended up working out for him in the long run, it was still a bad year for HBK.