1998
The first major change of 1998 is the Royal Rumble. For one, Chyna takes Owen's spot and takes a few guys (maybe a Godwinn, Steve Blackman, just lower card guys) before getting sent out by Ken Shamrock. Then, we have the winner of the match. Instead of Austin, it ends up being Triple H. No Way Out of Texas: In Your House has its main event cut down to just a non-sanctioned tag between the Outlaws vs. Cactus Jack/Chainsaw Charlie but the big change is at WrestleMania XIV.
So, first we have the European Title match, which is now TAFKA Goldust (ugh...) as the reigning champ, having taken the title from Hunter after the Rumble. He defends against Marc Mero and keeps it. Meanwhile, Triple H becomes world champion. Yes, in 1998. I don't even know if they could still get Tyson without Austin, all I can say is the crowd was not sold on this at all. Not helping matters was the Hart Family vs. nWo feud going on in WCW, where Bret lead Owen, Jim and the Bulldog in taking on the nWo, building off the Fall of the nWo storyline started by Eric Bischoff as he began to transition away from the stable after Starrcade 1997.
But while the nWo was slowly being chipped away, Triple H did try to establish himself by sending Shawn onto the bench (yeah, he still took that casket bump) and forming the DX Army, comprised of him, X-Pac, Chyna and the New Age Outlaws. It started off hot enough, but most saw it as the blatant nWo knock-off it was. Hunter would keep his world title over Dude Love at Unforgiven: In Your House and at Over the Edge: In Your House. At King of the Ring, he unmasked Kane in a Title vs. Mask match thanks to interference from the DX Army, who also had the tag titles around the Outlaws' waists. At Fully Loaded: In Your House, Triple H would keep in a fatal four-way against Mankind, Kane and the Undertaker while The Outlaws keep over the LOD. The Rock is the only one to hold gold that isn't D-X, beating X-Pac in a two out of three falls match at 2-1 at the PPV.
At SummerSlam, the Outlwas would keep over Mankind (whose partner, Kane, had abandoned him) X-Pac would win the IC title in a ladder match against the Rock and Triple H would retain over the Undertaker. The stable is now fully draped in gold, but the company is losing steam. Without a rebellious babyface to stand up to him, Vince opted to pull himself from TV permanently after the Screwjob and focus on keeping business afloat, but ratings began a slow decline since SummerSlam of last year and have only gotten worse with each major star to depart. The fact that a tweener stable like DX were pushed as the face of the company at this time was not helping things, especially since people believed Triple H wasn't ready to be the main star of the show.
However, the DX train kept rolling with Hunter pinning Kane and Undertaker at the same time to keep the World title once again. At Judgment Day: In Your House, the Outlaws keep the tag titles through DQ, X-Pac keeps the IC title against Mankind and Triple H keeps the World title against Ken Shamrock. The Reign of Terror would end at Survivor Series 1998, with D'Lo Brown and Mark Henry taking the tag titles, Ken Shamrock winning the IC strap and the Rock, who was building up momentum over the year, defeating Triple H for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
At Capital Carnage, The Rock would defeat X-Pac to defend the World Title while Triple H would beat Mankind, Kane and the Undertaker in a Fatal Four-Way match. Hunter would beat Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match at the final PPV of 1998, Rock Bottom: In Your House while The Rock kept his title against Mankind. The WWF began to slowly turn things around, but WCW was still winning the ratings war.
