A report on Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Dwayne Johnson, King of the Ring (1998), Over the Edge: In Your House and Kane (wrestler)

The main event was a First Blood match featuring Kane defeating Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship.

In the main event WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Dude Love after overcoming biased officiating from Vince McMahon.

The other main match was a Hell in a Cell match featuring The Undertaker defeating Mankind.

Featured matches on the undercard included the 1998 King of the Ring tournament final between Ken Shamrock and The Rock, which Shamrock won to win the tournament.

Following his WWF debut, Kane remained a pivotal component of the company's "Attitude Era" of the late 1990s and early 2000s, defeating the era's "poster boy" Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship in his first pay-per-view (PPV) main event at King of the Ring in June 1998.

The previous month at Over The Edge, Austin retained the WWF Championship against Dude Love despite the efforts of Vince McMahon as special referee and Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson as time keeper and ring announcer respectively.

After the brawl was settled, DX members Road Dogg and Billy Gunn defeated The Rock and D'Lo Brown of The Nation in a tag team match, further enhancing their feud.

On the February 2 episode of Raw Is War, Vader challenged Kane to a match at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, where Kane defeated Vader by pinfall, in the process injuring Vader.

At In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker, The Undertaker launched a fireball into the face of his former manager, Paul Bearer, who had previously had his protégé Mankind do the same to The Undertaker prior to the event.

At Over the Edge: In Your House, Kane defeated Vader in a Mask vs. Mask match.

After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on the April 28, 1997 episode of Raw Is War and suffering a legitimate knee injury in a match against Mankind, Maivia returned in August 1997 and turned heel for the first time in his career by lashing out at fans who had been booing him and joining Faarooq, D'Lo Brown and Kama in the stable called the Nation of Domination.

At D-Generation X: In Your House in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 7, 1997, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated the Rock in under six minutes to retain the Intercontinental Championship.

At King of the Ring

He then successfully defended the Intercontinental title against Faarooq at Over the Edge: In Your House on May 31 in Milwaukee.

The Rock and The Nation then feuded with Triple H and D-Generation X, with the two stable leaders first meeting in the quarter-final of the 1998 King of the Ring tournament, which the Rock won.

Kane returned on the May 29 episode of Raw, when he helped The Undertaker and The Rock fight off the McMahon-Helmsley Faction.

Late in the match, a debuting Dude Love came out to offer assistance.

With Hart out of the way, Austin set his sights on The Rock, who stole Austin's championship belt after Austin suffered a beating by his Nation of Domination stablemates.

The Rock won the WWF Championship for a fifth time at King of the Ring on June 25 in Boston by scoring the winning pin in a six-man tag team match, teaming with Kane and The Undertaker against Shane McMahon, Triple H and Vince McMahon, whom he pinned.

This led to a match between Dude Love and Austin at Unforgiven: In Your House, where Austin hit McMahon with a steel chair, then the following month they had a rematch at Over the Edge: In Your House for the WWF Championship.

McMahon continued to do everything he could to ruin Austin and he finally scored a big victory for his side at King of the Ring.

Austin lost the WWF Championship to Kane in a First Blood match after The Undertaker accidentally hit him with a steel chair while the ref was incapacitated, despite Austin having knocked Kane unconscious and thwarted an earlier intervention by Mankind.

Around this time, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels won the WWF Tag Team Championships from Owen Hart and The British Bulldog, but Michaels was injured and could no longer compete.

At Over the Edge, Dude Love took on Austin for the title.

At King of the Ring in Pittsburgh's Civic Arena on June 28, the two performed in the third Hell in a Cell match, which became one of most notable matches in professional wrestling history.

Following a couple of months of teaming with Kane who together won the WWF Tag Team Championship on two separate occasions and various feuds with Kane, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker, Foley decided that crowds might respond better if Mankind were more of a comedy character, and so he abandoned the tortured soul characteristics and became more of a goofy, broken down oaf.

He and The Rock both reached the finals, where McMahon turned on Mankind.