WWF Monday Night RAW Review thread

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Since there is a Nitro Review thread , I have decided to go back and do a RAW Review thread. The only difference is ...I won't go back to January 1993. No I plan to skip ahead to September 11th , 1995 actually. To where the MONDAY NIGHT WAR began.


WWF Monday Night RAW - September 11th , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

RAW opens with the plug "The World Wrestling Federation , for over 50 years ...." plug. While its true Vince's grandfather formed the territory in the 1940's/50's , the WWWF wouldn't come to exist as a solo ran promotion til 1960's. But hey , the WWF was the establishment folks. Then we go to Summerslam from 2 weeks ago as Vince verbally goes bonkers over this ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. "The heart , the desire , the intestinal fortitude of both men !!" It comes across as a Mick Foley parody now.

Vince plugs the action of the new Generation of WWF superstars. McMahon plugs that fresh off that hot match between Michaels and Ramon , HBK has to face Psycho Sid Vicious tonight. While Ramon has the challenge of an angry British Bulldog who 2 weeks earlier jumped Diesel and gave him a beat down. Vince fresh off the challenge of WCW Nitro proclaims this is the NEW FALL SEASON of WWF RAW.

RAW opens with the weirdest intro I have seen in years. In fact I don't remember it ...but the intro is a song called "I Like It Rough" and we see Shawn Michaels doing a dance routine on the roof with people racing to fence wanting RAW. Then cop cars and finally the show begins as Jerry Lawler and Vince McMahon welcome us to Monday Night Raw.

Right up off the bat is Razor who 2 weeks earlier encountered Dean Douglas who told The Dean he was "all fluff , no stuff" at Summerslam. He gave him a smack in the face. Out coming to the ring is the British Bulldog who as Lawler claims has a new streamlined look after cutting his oily stringy hair. Jim Cornette is his manager. Before the match , Razor throws a toothpick in his face.

This match starts off pretty solid as Bulldog shows his skills , he was pretty damn agile for his size. But Ramon has the attitude and comically does his paint brushing arm bar submission. Lawler at this point was pure heel announcer mode and supported the heels fully. McMahon himself wonders how healthy Ramon can be after his hard fought ladder match as Bulldog takes advantage with power moves.

Ramon fights back and makes the comeback , then throws Bulldog by accident into the referee. Then after a Razor's Edge , he waits for the pin as out comes Dean Douglas. Shane delivers a flying ax handle across the back from Douglas. Then the 1-2-3 Kid arrives and takes an ass kicking from Douglas for his trouble. Bulldog makes the cover and 1-2-3 Kid recovers and tries a flying body splash and lands across his buddy Razor. This leads into Bulldog beating down the Kid and Razor , as both are left laying .

In ring after commercial Vince McMahon decides to interview them both . McMahon brings up that Ramon will face Douglas at In Your House in a couple weeks. Then its claimed that the referee called a DQ on the Kid for climbing the top rope and awarded the match to Bulldog. So obviously this is insane because I always heard if you actually touch the guy you get DQ'd in pro wrestling. Anyhow ole Vinnie Mac seems to bring up how the Kid cost his pal the match and the Kid counters that Ramon cost him a match last week.

The Kid wants the retrospect from Ramon his best friend who he believes that Razor is treating him like a little kid out there. So he challenges him to a match next week. Ramon plugs that anything can happen in the W-W-F now and brings up his classic ladder match and Dean Douglas. But what is distracting as all hell is Lawler's commentary. Its the most idiotic piece happening as the angle in ring is being distracted as Lawler chimes in over the guys. Why he won't wait til this segment is over is beyond me , but he keeps talking every few seconds and its taken away from the segment.

Ramon claims his little buddy he made famous wants a piece of him one more time , he's gonna do it. He says if everyone wants it , he will face the Kid next week. Then we go right to a promo vignette where Yokozuma & Owen Hart will face Men on a Mission . Yoko and Owen were WWF World Tag team champions and WWF President at the time Gorilla Monsoon made this match to shake things up basically. They will meet next week.

Up next in action is the Smoking Gunns facing Rad Radford and the Brooklyn Brawler. The bad guy heels try jumping Billy and Bart quickly , but pay the price. Rad Radford was supposed to be a grunge wrestler ala the cool Raven from ECW and failed. Radford if you look closely is Louie Spicolli. During this match , McMahon decides to wish Tom Landry a happy birthday for god knows what reason. Lawler rips that and claims like the wrestlers in ring , this is a NEW GENERATION out there. Billy and Bart beat the jobber team.

In a weird vignette we see Goldust over looking Hollywood or whatever city they are in. Goldust claims that there are ghouls out at night and its the creatures of the night. That they follow the Undertaker. Gold has no darkness , it shines only light . As he claims he will face Undertaker soon.

Out next to compete is Dr. Issac Yankem as we see a replay from Summerslam where him and Lawler tried taking Bret Hart out. Yankem is facing Scotty Taylor and even delivers a choke slam that looks familiar. Yankem is pretty lean and quick out there , wrestling in his medical jogging type pants. He then delivers the D.D.S , which is basically his version of the D.D.T. finisher.

Todd Pettengill is up to discuss the In Your House PPV coming September 24th. If anyone hasn't forgotten him , picture the most uncool guy next to Michael Cole , multiply it by 100. The Toddster (his own nickname for himself) tried to be a cool guy but came across so lame , I questioned my humanity. Anyhow the big plug at this In Your House was the Triple Headed tag match. Where Diesel , Shawn Michaels would face Yokozuma and Owen Hart. Whoever won , they'd get that title. All the belts were on the line.

End of Part 1

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Also as Jim Ross said on the Action Zone (another short lived WWF Show) that possibly Owen and Yoko may cost themselves the match by getting DQ'd. But Gorilla Monsoon ended that idea as he claims if anyone gets a DQ to save their belts , they lose. So its gonna be a straight finish for this match clearly. Todd then promotes Bret Hart vs Jean Pierre Lafitte (a pirate). Lafitte is actually Carl Ouellet , a former part of the Quebeckers Tag team. He actually in reading does have a glass eye due to an injury at 12 years old and would wear an eye patch at times.

This started as a feud when LaFitte stole a pair of Hart sunglasses from a kid at ringside. The next match is Bam Bam Bigalow vs the British Bulldog. Bam Bam is the face in this one , weirdly. Then its Savio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy. Which was a unique as hell character and would partly inspire Samuel Shaw years later in TNA. Out to the ring comes Psycho Sid as his music was pretty awesome. He is THE MASTER....AND RULER...OF THE WORLD folks. Then some uncool dude hawks Shawn Michael's hat for sale and sunglasses. You can own the hat for $25.00 plus $4 bucks shipping and handling. Look like a member of the Village People for $29 bucks folks. You also get wool at the top of it and dear god....the sunglasses ! You get the heart shaped sunglasses.

We get a brief Shawn Michaels promo as Shawn claims tonight he ends the chapter of Sid Vicious in his life and playfully does a uhhh at the ladder as he passes it. At this point McMahon had realized that he needed to push Michaels and pretty much made him the vocal point of this RAW and show soon. His real push had began then after Vince realized he should have pushed him in 1995.

HBK is in rare form and doing a lot with his speed and moves. Ted Dibiase is the manager of Sid outside the ring, Of course its not helping Sid's case that the Master and Ruler of the world is under-estimating Shawn Michaels. Eventually Sid catches HBK and starts using his power moves against him. Soon enough as the referee is distracted , Ted Dibiase kicks Shawn . McMahon points out that if Shawn gets counted out he can save his IC Title. But that isn't gonna happen as he crawls in at 9 count.

In ring Sid drives Shawn into the mat with a choke slam but where he has Shawn down he celebrates. Then he walks over in ease and wants to deliver the power bomb and with a last gasp Michaels throws him over him. Then rallies back to battle against the monster Sid. And as Bischoff claimed on Nitro airing across from RAW , Michaels defeats Sid with 3 super kicks for the win ! Finally ending his feud with Vicious. Poor Ted can't believe it and puts his head down in disgust after this match.

Vince celebrates this win as he claims that this is the New WWF Generation. Its then in ring Shawn starts a victory strip tease (and I am not kidding folks...he starts a victory strip tease) deal where if Hogan had the pose down , Shawn starts removing something from his pants and teases pulling down his pants for the kids watching at home. He then stops himself and acts shocked at what he was doing .

We get a WWF In Your House as some teenage kid opens the doors as Smoking Gunns , Bushwackers and more come and crash the house. I guess Bret Hart , Shawn Michaels and Diesel was busy to come to the house.

Backstage a happy Shawn Michaels and Diesel celebrate his win as they have a hug. Dox Hendrix (aka Michael Hayes) runs over to interview Shawn and Diesel about the Triple Header tag match in 2 weeks. HBK admits he's been spending the past few months fixing the bad things he's done in his life. Becoming best pals with his buddy Big Daddy Cool and getting back the IC Title. Diesel makes a fun rhyme "Were the chaps with all the straps" to finish the interview.

Then they plug next weeks show which was already recorded as we see spots of it for RAW.


The Bad - Its still amazing that you can get DQ'd and cost someone a match by climbing a top rope. But tonight it happened. I still scratch my head at that one.

The funniest part is Vince is seeing WCW's challenge a week later and decides to proclaim that this is the New Fall Season of the WWF and that this is the NEW GENERATION of WWF Stars. In a sense it really was in a way. Vince had watched WCW just raid Lex Luger and earlier taken Randy Savage , so he needed to build around his young roster of talent like Shawn Michaels , Bret Hart , Razor Ramon and Diesel. And he was doing that. It was just however gonna take time and its clear a taped show wasn't the best move to counter Nitro.

The Smoking Gunns vs 2 jobbers wasn't what I'd call a great tag team match. I wasn't demanding that ...that is for sure. It thankfully ended quick. Plus that Issac Yankem match was boring so I went to the bathroom and came back and it was still going. It too finally ended and I can see why Yankem didn't last in the WWF.

What the hell was up with the Shawn Michaels near strip tease segment ? This was a kids show at this point folks.

OVERALL : *** outta 5. Basically the opening and closing of this RAW made the show. The challenge of Nitro had Bischoff give away the ending since RAW was taped , but HBK put on a good show as usual. The 3 super kicks to Sid was a nice touch. You got the sense that Michaels had pretty much pushed for the Clique to have this RAW and it paid off. Both segments was best , and I'll forget the rest of the boring parts hopefully.

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WWF Monday Night RAW - September 18th , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

We get a run down from the last week on RAW replay and how impressive Dean Douglas looked at destroying 1,2,3 Kid and costing Razor Ramon the match. Then we see The Kid issue a challenge to Razor and the whole ....answer from Razor of..."If ya want it , you got it !" Now we get to the RAW opening with just insanely funny Shawn Michaels doing a stripper routine dancing on the roof by a helicopter and more.

This RAW is coming to you from Thursday from what the announcers claim and its a rematch fro the Kid and Razor Ramon. Its shown that back in May 1993 , The Kid defeated Razor on RAW. So here we go folks as it starts quick as the Kid jumps Razor before he can be ready. The fast kicks and punches work as Ramon is knocked outta the ring and pissed. He finally catches The Kid and starts kicking field goals in the corner with his body.

Ramon is using his strength and size to put it on The Kid. Ramon makes a gesture that , the Kid wanted this match so he's giving him what he wanted. Vince is playing that the Kid wants respect from his mentor , Razor Ramon. Its a pretty damn solid match for what were getting. Its size and strength vs Speed and agility at its best and even though Razor's twice the size of Kid , he's giving him as good as he gets. There have been some near close falls and each time the Kid or Razor have kicked out.

McMahon believes Razor's not really turning loose on Kid like he would a real enemy due to his friendship. The referee takes a ref bump as both men collide into him. Outta the back comes Dean Douglas who does a flying body splash onto Ramon's back as the Kid doesn't seem to know as he had fallen outside with the referee. The Kid crawls into the ring and makes a cover as the ref makes the 3 count. This was a solid match before the run in and all. Post match the 1,2,3 Kid celebrates the win.

Backstage Dean has the Report Card ready for this match as he claims that he gives The Kid ...a D. Which is the Kid is Dumb enough to believe he defeated Razor alone and he never could. Then he gives Razor an E. Which is Elevate because Razor believes he can elevate to the high standards of one Dean Douglas. He gives himself an A+ because his performance tonight equals that. Then a N which stands for NO BRAINER he will defeat Ramon this Sunday at In Your House. What's that spell....DEAN. Hey its not the most perfect gimmick but Shane was selling this gimmick fully and ends it with scratching the chalk board folks !

Tonight we see Kama the Ultimate Fighting Machine and Tanaka facing Savio Vega and Bob "Sparkplug" Holly . Savio is doing his dance in ring and seems pretty happy. Vega is clearing the ring , dancing like Dusty Rhodes and having fun. Tanaka and Kama are with Ted Dibiase who before this match was shown getting Hog Slopped by the Godwins on WWF Superstars. During this match both Kama and Tanaka use some great heel strategy to distract and anger the hot head Holly.

At this point you could tell Tanaka wasn't the in shape guy he once was. His run in the company was drawing to a close as we know at this stage. Eventually the heels and the Million Dollar Corporation is just too much to overcome for Vega and a Nascar driver trying to be a wrestler. They leave the ring and don't look happy. This match wasn't that good beyond the silly heel antics at distracting Holly.

Backstage we see Razor isn't happy as he cuts a promo on Dean Douglas. He claims if Dean wants to take him to school , well that is fine chico , because the classroom will be the ring and that is where he runs things. After the match and pledging to carve Dean up , we see a promo of Wrestlemania 11 Special that will air September 30th on Saturday.

In ring we see Jean Pierre LaFitte ready to face jobber Bryan Ross. LaFitte has been stealing a lot of stuff. Like Bret's sunglasses from a fan and then this past weekend his jacket. I'm wondering if I could claim I was a pirate and committed acts of theft I'd get outta it. Bret Hart gets a call over this and even he chuckles over the whole ..."Do Pirates really exist in this time ?" Lawler rips Bret which has Hart counter he knew Jerry would love the guy as a liar and thief always go along together. Bret pledges to put an end to LaFitte once and for all at In Your House.

Back in ring Bryan Ross is doing as well as any jobber could....which isn't good at all. LaFitte nails his swanton bomb finisher from the top rope and after winning puts a pirate flag over him. The people work to reinforce the ring after this for what is coming as we get a promo for Diesel/HBK vs Yokozuma/Owen Hart.

We see the poor guys being forced to carry Mabel...aka King Mabel to the ring for this match. You can see them swearing at having to carry that big heavy guy on his throne. Then we get a replay of how he became a King of the Ring and then facing Diesel in a god awful match at Summerslam. Its no shock poor Diesel had the lowest drawing WWF World Championship reign ever.

Out comes Owen Hart and Yokozuna to face Men on a Mission. What corner of hell did Vince conceive this match ? I mean this is like the worst idea for a tag match ever. And the tag titles aren't on the line ? What the crap is this being done for ? My only guess is its to hint at the potential god awful Mabel vs Yokozuna match as the two men have a stare down before the match begins. Sir Mo is working against Owen Hart , who is really the only real guy who can put on a decent match here.

During this match what is weird is that Men on the Mission are playing the bigger heels here using tactics to tick off Yoko. Then comically in this match Hart decides to pay back the guys by doing his own dirty heel tactics by having Yoko get in the ring to challenge Mabel as he works over Mo outside into the ring steps. Mabel finally comes and helps his brother. Finally we get to see the match up that Vince creams himself over ...Yokozuna vs Mabel. King Mo gets the advantage and throws Owen Hart on him.

Eventually Owen and Yoko end this nightmare match . In an interview post match Shawn mocks Owen's nose getting bigger over the lies him and Jim Cornette have been telling . Diesel claims that the dudes are coming home with all the hardware come In Your House. In ring they get Cornette who hypes his men up as McMahon plays up "These are 2 dudes with attitudes in Shawn Michaels and Diesel." Cornette counters with a joke , "After this Sunday , its gonna be 2 dudes who are yellow .."

Yokozuna shows off his tag team title as Cornette claims that he could be a 3 time WWF World Champion or Owen can show he's The Best There Is and Will Ever Be come Sunday. Then Cornette claims that can Shawn and Diesel actually put their old personal issues behind them and work together as a team like his guys can.

Back from commercial McMahon and Lawler promote the big Triple Header Match and Lawler predicts that Yokozuna will become WWF World Champion for a 3rd time. McMahon claims you never know who will walk out with what title come In Your House. Then they show vignettes promoting British Bulldog vs Undertaker for next week's RAW. Dark sides will collide next week on RAW !


The Bad - Dear fuck this was bad. I mean right after a great opening match with Ramon/Kid , we soon got a stream of matches that got worse. After a short Million Dollar Corporation tag team match which was better for its heel antics , then we got a jobber match and a Main event that was horror inducing. At the end of the night its no shock the fans were turning to WCW at this stage.

The saddest part is watching Yokozuna who sadly was nearing the end of his last big push in the company. In sad terms Yoko had gained a ton of weight to play the sumo wrestler gimmick the WWF wanted in the 1990's but then was told he needed to drop said weight because he couldn't get medically cleared or licensed to work in some states by 1997. He never could drop that weight sad to say. Here was Yoko in 1991 by the way....




OVERALL : **1/2 . Bad ideas and execution seemed to mark this RAW. Why the tag team match was the Main Event stuns me , but they obviously was trying to draw interest from fans for the In Your House PPV coming up. The best match was the opening one and it should have aired later. Instead it was an opening match , the best one. Fans should just skip everything after that because they sure as hell didn't miss anything.

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WWF Monday Night Raw - September 25th , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

Tonight as Vince McMahon discusses , the greatest phenom in the WWF will take on the British Bulldog. Who at In Your House substituted in a bit of heel chicanery for Owen Hart. Owen comes out and believes he can take advantage of the situation and a jacknife power bomb later he is out of the WWF Tag team titles. The 2 Dudes with Attitudes team is the new WWF Tag team champions.

So what happens is Jim Cornette throws a temper tantrum , gets a lawyer named Clarence Mason and faces off with Gorilla Monsoon in the board room where Gorilla hands back the WWF tag team titles ...for fuck knows what reason. Because honestly , this is pro wrestling and somehow having a lawyer present means you can curb the rules. It worked for Jericho in WCW folks. Anyhow there is a rematch set for between all 4 men for those same tag team titles at some point.

The show opens as Marty Jannetty has returned to the WWF after a couple years away. In ring is one half of the Bodydonna's "Skip" (aka Chris Candido). Sunny is out with him at this point as you have to wonder if this is where Tammy was staying with Shawn at the time or before. Anyhow the fans are hot for Marty and he soon blows a kiss to Sunny. In a comical spot outside the ring with Skip as Sunny is fuming she has her back turned. So he turns and hugs her real quick as Skip would do. She realizes seconds in and goes to slap him as he dukes and she smacks her boyfriend in the face. Great comedy.

This comedy ends as Sunny soon helps her man get the advantage. Out comes Dean Douglas as he's at the top of the ramp taking notes on this match. Like any great teacher would do folks. Candido is just showing how good a worker he was and is giving Jannetty a wrestling lesson in ring. Lawler keeps telling us all at home what poor shape Jannetty is in and how his arteries must be hard. Unlike Skip who is a fitness trainer.

Jannetty battles back and soon enough seems in control and nearly loses again once Sunny grabs his leg. Then as the match rolls along Jannetty does a version of the fameasser finisher Billy Gunn would do. Then climbs the top rope and nails the fist drop that Jerry Lawler would do for the win. Its a nice victory for the returning Jannetty basically. Soon we go to where Gorilla Monsoon faced Jim Cornette's attorney.

In the meeting Clarence Mason claims that Monsoon made British Bulldog the co-champion for that one night and since Owen Hart shouldn't have been there , they shouldn't have lost the WWF Tag team titles. So he wasn't the legal man and shouldn't have been pinned. The belts went back until the final deal where Yokozuna and Owen Hart have to face the Smoking Gunns tonight on RAW , Cornette goes bonkers. That was a nice touch.

After Yoko and Owen come out , Dox Hendrix plugs selling the Triple Header title match that did nothing at all. Imagine buying that shirt for the inflated WWF price and the match itself had a smozz ending where the winners didn't get the belts ? I'd be pissed. The back of the shirt says 4 Superstars , 3 Titles , 2 Teams , and 1 Match. It should also say ...0 chance the belts change hands after it.

The Smoking Gunns are out as this is the team that Owen Hart & Yokozuna beat at Wrestlemania 11 for the tag team titles. When we return from commercials Bart Gunn and Owen Hart are doing a hell of a job and going fast. Then in comes Billy Gunn....a young Billy Gunn. Lawler claims that the young Gunn brothers are emotionally scared because they never got over Gunsmoke being cancelled. Soon Owen tags in Yoko as this is a hell of a challenge for Billy. Vince claims he's over 600 pounds.

Back on a teleprompter watching is the 2 Dudes with Attitudes , studying Yokozuna and Owen Hart for the rematch soon. The heels take the advantage awhile with Yoko and stay in control a good while. Billy Gunn nearly gets a couple surprise pins on Owen Hart as he manages to keep that control and stop him from making the come back tag to Bart. Lawler brags up the skills of Clarence Mason. Who is actually named Herman Stevens Jr and after the wrestling business ...is an actual lawyer in Florida folks.

Billy after taking such a long beat down finally makes the hot tag to Bart who is cleaning house and taking down Owen. Soon after Owen makes the save , all 4 men are in and things break down quickly for the heels. The Gunns are on top of everything and finally comically manage to pin Owen after Yoko body splashes him. They regain the WWF tag team titles and out to give them some high fives is Shawn Michaels and Diesel. HBK mocks poor Cornette who thought he had saved his guys the championships and then lost them the next night !

We come to a vignette where they do a comical police music to Jean Pierre LaFitte and his 3 counts of robbery. He has been sentenced to execution by the Excellence of Execution next week on RAW. Then we will get 1,2,3 Kid vs Razor Ramon next week on RAW in the final match to settle things once and for all. The celebration continues as now all 3 Championships are around the waists of the faces of the company after months.

As they go to the back out comes Gorilla Monsoon who is out to tell Dox Hendrix about the next In Your House PPV in October. This one will gave Dean Douglas vs Shawn Michaels , British Bulldog vs Diesel for the WWF World title and Undertaker vs Mabel. Whoever has the belt after that In Your House will have to face Bret Hart soon. He is the #1 contender after that. The Bulldog walks down to the ring as Monsoon makes this announcement .

McMahon promotes that Bulldog will get his 1st ever chance to be WWF World Champion. That he's never had that chance til now. But tonight he's gonna get past the Undertaker and that is easier said than done. Paul Bearer leads the Undertaker out . Bulldog doesn't look happy to be facing this guy but soon enough the match begins and Taker chases after Bulldog. Wanting to put him down quickly.

Taker does his top rope foot step move and due to Cornette shaking the rope , it gives Bulldog time to pull him down. It doesn't last long as Undertaker sits up seconds later. Then outside the ring Taker screws up and grabs Cornette by the throat and is ready to send him to a choke slam end. But the Bulldog saves his manager and clips Undertaker's knee out. During the match right as they go to commercial King Mabel and Sir Mo watch the Undertaker , scouting him for the match ahead at In Your House. Elsewhere watching is...Waylon Mercy ?

Bulldog manages to keep the advantage and even nails a pretty cool pile driver on Taker. But each time the Bulldog does a move and tries for the pin , much to his shock the Undertaker keeps sitting up. As it looks like Taker is ready to finish off the Bulldog , out comes Mabel into the ring. Bulldog knees Undertaker into Mabel who delivers his finisher. Then the Bulldog does his finisher and finally a big splash. Finally after the fans chant for Diesel , out comes HBK & Diesel. As the ring empties.

The heels surround the ring as the Smoking Gunns come out to take up for Diesel and HBK. Taker remains down as Bearer is checking on him. We go to the commercial and its an ad for Wrestlemania 11 special on Fox coming September 30th . Undertaker finally manages to stand on his own as he seems surprised to see that everyone came out for him. Diesel and Undertaker share a stare down a few seconds and then shake hands.

In ring Shawn Michaels does his dance steps as Vince acts like this is the greatest thing ever. We go to a replay of last night where Razor lost to Dean Douglas due to problems with Bob Backlund outside and the 1,2,3 Kid. We see that the Kid and Ramon will clash next week over this. They also promote Bret Hart vs Jean Pierre LaFitte . All while Shawn is dancing like crazy for the show to end. How much dancing can Shawn do as this show goes to an ending ?


The Bad - Unlike last week's show where it was some pretty terrible matches , including a jobber match of all things....this weeks show was about better matches and more. This weeks show had them open with Jannetty/Skp (Candido) which was pretty solid. Marty is a capable guy out there. He's no star machine like Shawn , but Marty can have some good matches when he wants to do it. Plus the whole hug moment with Sunny did make me chuckle.

I think the dumbest thing was the stipulation they had pretty much claimed "A Title Change is coming" where someone was gonna win a new title or the Tag Team titles. It was a dumb Dusty style finish as the next night , it was all back to normal again. They even rub it in peoples faces by advertising a damn shirt of a match that had its stipulation ...NOT HAPPEN. I can only guess that this is how Vince lost $6 million dollars in 1995.

And is there a way to end RAW's now without Shawn doing a semi strip tease routine each week ? I mean a couple weeks ago we got that and to open RAW's each week we get him doing that in front of a helicopter. Please tell me you can end a RAW without this.


OVERALL : **** Outta 5. While none of the matches will blow you away in this hour , it was a steady show where you saw Jannetty/Skip (Candido) , The Smoking Gunns/Yokozuna & Owen Hart and finally Undertaker/British Bulldog. We did get a nice WWF Tag team title change , even though it was one we really were screwed outta seeing promoted.

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WWF Monday Night RAW - October 2nd , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

We see a replay of the last week on RAW where the Smoking Gunns regained their WWF World tag team titles from Yokozuna and Owen Hart. Then we see Razor Ramon vs 1,2,3 Kid for the 3rd and final time as the WWF promotes. That they have had some issues the last few weeks and we see where Dean Douglas got involved. Lawler claims he has inside information if he gets involved tonight. Then we see clips of Jean Pierre LaFitte vs Bret Hart from 2 weeks ago at In Your House. Carl Ouellet (LaFitte) isn't a bad worker as he shows some decent stuff against Bret Hart. They will face each other tonight.

From 2 weeks ago at In Your House , The Kid helps give Ramon a 3 count as Razor throws him outta the ring before the referee sees him. This allows Douglas to get the pin on him there. Lawler claims he saw The Kid speaking to Ted Dibiase and he doesn't know what it was about. The Kid soon fires back on Razor as they face each other. The fact Kid has so much speed and uses his legs at will helps a lot.

As the match goes , out comes Dean Douglas to take some notes on this match. Because its all about knowledge folks , knowledge is power ! As the match goes along the Kid tries a flying kick and he misses. This allows Razor to nail a running clothesline and gets the win. The Kid isn't happy and demands yet another match and they start to wrestle some more. Razor at first seems ready to put him out with a Razor's Edge but hooks an abdominal stretch and then a submission slapping him in the head to stop.

But the Kid won't stop as Razor again tries to stop him. He keeps looking at the ref and asking what can he do. Each time the Kid slaps him and wants more. McMahon claims this is the actual 3rd match tonight. Razor gives the sign for the RE finisher but won't do that to his friendship so he wraps him in a small package as he gets the 3rd pin against him. Razor helps him up as he shakes his hand as he then tries a small package for a quick pin and fails.

The Kid wants Razor to do the Razor's Edge on him but Razor is like , what is this for. Finally at the end he won't do his little pal like that so they shake hands and share a hug. Razor gives him props for his moxie and not wanting to stay down. McMahon and Lawler promote In Your House and that Goldust will debut against Marty Jannetty (quite a change from a potential Goldust/Undertaker feud promoted a couple weeks ago eh) and how life long WWF jobber Barry Horowitz stunned the world by pinning Skip for the 3rd time at Summerslam.

We get a replay of last weeks Vince McMahon wet dream of the horrible potential Mabel/Undertaker feud. Where Mabel laid out the Deadman. Up next we see Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs Horowitz . When asked if Barry has a chance against him , Hunter looks into the camera and goes , "Not a chance..." He's playing the prim proper blue blood snob here and even is spraying perfume like Rick Martel. Which he's not as cool as Martel and his "Arrogance" cologne. During this Vince hypes a Simpson Voteline where he questions the 9 year old kids watching his program to call a 1-900 number and vote YES or NO on his guilt. The money goes to a charity that prevents child abuse.

I'm sure Vince's attended audience was like..."Daddy , who is OJ Simpson ? Any why does the WWF want me to vote on his innocence or guilt ?"

The match begins as Lawler points out it took Barry 5 years to get his 1st win while Helmsley is undefeated in the WWF. He quickly lets his arrogant act get in control as he slaps around Horowitz and nearly loses to him. Then during this Vince claims that the Pope "John Paul II" is gonna be at Madison Square Garden for something. Its these weird cultural things Vince seems to believe either his teenage or child audience wants to know. Like , hey kids ya know the Pope is gonna be at Madison Square Garden !

Horowitz is being dominated and makes a comeback and tries a few pin attempts to get the pin. Its pretty cool until Helmsley nails the pedigree finisher and gets the win. Barry was running the underdog gimmick that basically ECW was running with Mikey Whipreck , but with less success.

After a Bret Hart spot where he was punishing LaFitte 2 weeks ago at In Your House , the WWF has the debut of PG-13 from the USWA. Lawler's connections basically allowed PG-13 to get this spot. JC Ice and Wolfie D are doing the white hip hop act 10 years before Cena would rise to fame with it. They even cut a promo during this match against Sunny Rogers and Al Brown against the Smoking Gunns. Claiming they are the USWA Tag team champions so they are there for the WWF Tag team champions.

Basically its a jobber match and the heel tag team is strutting and doing silly hip hop act and we get a unique version of the bull dog. Then they do a co move that Lawler calls the "double dog" and finally nail the finisher. We get a promo of next weeks big main event of a 6 man tag of HBK , Diesel and Undertaker against Yokozuna , Owen Hart and Bulldog. Before the LaFitte/Hart match , Dox Hendrix hawks more WWF merch as he has a kid in a Bret Hart shirt. Hendrix tells us much like Disney does by putting its cartoons in the vault and won't sell them on certain platforms a number of years , this Bret Hart shirt is the last you'll see. You best buy it now folks !

LaFitte starts off in heel control , beating down Bret Hart as the young fans aren't happy over this. McMahon promotes that Bret Hart will face the winner of Bulldog/Diesel at Survivor Series. Bret soon regains control and crunches him into the steel pole. Bret seems to be taking this one personal since LaFitte stole his jacket weeks ago . Lawler applauds and cheers on LaFitte since he's had problems with Bret before this and the last 2+ years.

During this match LaFitte does a diving head butt and Bret continues to sell for him. Letting him keep the heel advantage a good while to make him a threat. The fans boo as Lawler jokes that Bret is starting to look like his old man Stu. He can hardly move as fans rally behind The Excellence of Execution. Bret tries a brief comeback and LaFitte stops it. The fans continue to rally behind him. Each time Lawler wants to come down and get involved in this match as McMahon tells him to sit down.

Once outside both men brawl and Bret Hart eats the steel steps as Lawler laughs and applauds this. As things look bleak Bret starts to do the 5 Moves of Doom sequence but can't finish off LaFitte with normal moves. Everyone is waiting on the sharpshooter . Then LaFitte does a rolling slam as Bret kicks out and Lawler is now worried. After stopping the cannonball finisher , Bret superplexes and puts down LaFitte for good with the sharpshooter as Lawler cries no ! McMahon applauds Bret as being THE BEST THERE IS , THE BEST THERE WAS AND BEST THERE EVER WILL BE !

Post match Bret Hart hears Lawler dissing him as he walks over and tells Lawler if he has a problem come on. Well they argue as Bret throws Lawler over the guard rail and beats him down , out comes Issac Yankem. The evil dentist delivers his D.D.S finisher on the concrete floor. Lawler after this attack plays the victim card and Monsoon has granted a match after this in a steel cage between Yankem and Bret Hart coming in a couple weeks. This way Lawler can't get involved.

The bad heels (Owen Hart , British Bulldog and Yokozuna) cut a promo on facing HBK , Diesel and Undertaker in the 6 man next week. The response back is classic as Shawn and Diesel proclaim as Champs they can do whatever they want to. Undertaker's promo is chilling , "You all feel its gonna be a party , but you shall see what darkness awaits you boys next week.....REST...IN...PEACE..."

Meanwhile after all this and hyping his call in poll , 51% believe OJ wasn't guilty. Well thanks to the WWF Justice System , OJ isn't guilty. So sayeth the WWF. The show ends as McMahon airs Lawler being punched over the railing by Bret Hart.


The Bad - This RAW had Vince's weird fascination with the world events going insane. The whole OJ poll he promoted and wanted to charge for charity was pretty comical. I just wonder how rigged it was and how many actual people called to vote on it in 1995 ?

After a hot opening match yet again , the show bogged down into jobber matches basically. Its been 4 weeks of Nitro and Vince is throwing Barry Horowitz and a jobber tag team against the PG-13. And speaking of PG-13 , basically the 2 guys were 16 time USWA Tag team champions because they pretty much were the only real tag team in that territory. In fact if you wiki it ...they were USWA Tag team champions from 1993-1996 , 16 times and were the last champions the territory had when it closed in 1997.


OVERALL : ***1/2 outta 5. In this RAW the opening and closing pretty much was the best part of the show. The Kid/Razor program was very solid and the fact the Kid won't take losing so easy was a nice touch. Fans wanted Razor to deliver the finisher but he wouldn't....which was good storytelling. Then you Bret Hart who sold the best for Carl Ouellet and let him showcase some things. Sadly for Ouellet , he'd run sadly into Clique politics backstage soon after this and his career would never be the same again in the WWF.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WWF Monday Night RAW - October 9th , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

I noticing more of the RAW opening video , its like a mob of people are racing to a fence to see Shawn Michaels do a strip tease dance. Vince claims they are welcoming us to a special Columbus Day RAW. Is it weird of me not to expect McMahon to have kids or wrestlers discuss Columbus Day now ? Anyhow they plan to throw the big 6 man match right from the start as Vinnie Mac is now likely feeling that WCW Nitro pressure. So he gives us the main event right off the friggen bat folks of Owen Hart , Bulldog and Yokozuna vs HBK , Diesel and Undertaker.

Things are going calm and then suddenly the lights go out. Its weird to see Undertaker come out first since he's really ....the friggen Undertaker of all people. But the company was pushing Diesel and Shawn Michaels at this point. Vince shows us a video of Shawn going to a school to reward kids with 98% attendance for the school year. Yes folks.....I shared a big laugh at seeing this and what he was doing backstage for awhile. (Ya know refusing to put guys over and work , losing his smile and so forth)

Shawn claims the kids put things in perspective for him which I think didn't last long. He comes down and does his routine and then comes Diesel finally and well , its again weird to see him last and Undertaker 1st come out. The match starts off with Shawn vs Owen and he puts on a show and is so damn smooth in ring. The guy is just ON and at this point was destined for bigger things. After the faces clear the ring , we get a cool super big boot from Undertaker & Diesel on Yokozuna.

Vince promotes Taker/Mabel which is so sickening bad , It shows you how outta touch he was at times in 1995. Waylon Mercy comes out to watch Diesel as they have a non-title match ahead that weekend. In ring the heels finally take advantage when Yokozuna finally gets a hold of Shawn Michaels and delivers a sit down splash , nearly killing him ! Michaels then plays Ricky Morton and becomes the face in peril. As this happens , out comes Dean Douglas who is out taking notes on HBK. He faces him in 2 weeks at In Your House for the IC Title.

Owen Hart is showing some good stuff and heel work against Michaels. Right when he goes to deliver a flying head butt , the dumb commercial break comes up. After it , Owen missed it and it finally after minutes of a beating , Shawn makes the hot tag to Big Daddy Cool. Then in the weird type of finish and it makes me wonder if possibly King Mabel was late coming to the ring or if say they were setting things up for Wrestlemania ; Undertaker saves Diesel from a pin by Bulldog after he hits his finish on him. Then basically slowly gets outta the ring as he can see Yokozuna stand there...who delivers his leg drop finish and allows Bulldog to get the win.

Post match all hell breaks loose as Diesel is getting beaten up by Owen Hart and Bulldog. King Mabel and Yokozuna are beating down Undertaker , smashing him repeatedly. While outside the ring Dean Douglas destroys Shawn Michaels by dropping his chest first on ring steps in a front suplex. The bad guys are owning this opening of RAW. All 3 faces are down and needing carried out now. Referees are out trying to save everyone and finally things are calm down enough to try and revive everyone.

Vince shows us the Bret Hart/LaFitte match where Lawler got himself personally involved and used Dr. Issac Yankem to jump him from behind. Lawler claims the plan is unfolding and laughs over it all. That he knew Bret would get involved. McMahon promotes the Hart/Yankem steelcage match that will be coming next week. He then traces it to their 1st match at Summerslam. Its then Vince claims Monsoon has made a rule if Lawler gets involved in the steel cage match , he will be placed inside a smaller cage , above the ring !

Lawler contends no one would dare put him inside the cage since he's a King. We continue to see this match on this RAW which is a weird thing to see the WWF show a replay of a match from a PPV from 2 months ago to fill time on RAW. But they basically gave the main event of RAW away to start so they have to do this it appears. In the replay Lawler gets involved and taunts Hart at the PPV. McMahon warns Lawler he's gonna be in a smaller cage if he gets involved.

The best part of this Summerslam match is where Bret ties up Yankem's feet in the corner and then goes and beats the piss outta Lawler awhile. Its keeps going and Lawler can't stop himself and both men get DQ'd as they wrap his head in the ropes and choke him out . The match ends as referees have to help him.

In ring Skip and Sunny are waiting as he will face Fatu....(aka Rikishi). Ok I'm sorry this is "Making a Difference Fatu" who at this point wasn't Rikishi and no longer a part of the Headshrinkers. Fatu was basically repackaged and spoke perfect . He also detailed his past life and nearly dying after a drive by shooting. This oddly didn't get Fatu over.

Vince promotes the WWF Tour-de-Force which is cards the company is having that week at various cities. Candido is comic gold as he stops mid match with Fatu and starts doing jumping jacks in the middle of the ring. Sadly for Candido a brilliant wrestler , saddled with a horrible gimmick he just couldn;t get past. Sunny tries to help her man . Fatu is wearing trunks that make me think he raided a circus clowns closet. Or maybe Doink's.

McMahon tells us that Dox Hendrix (Michael Hayes) is backstage and will be by Diesel's locker room to likely interview him soon. Skip (Candido) is getting several close pins but keeps hurting his hand on Fatu's head repeatedly. Then later in the match , Skip does a diving head butt from the top rope to his head and suffers for it. Sunny tries to help her man but Skip keeps trying to super plex him from the top rope and then suffers a big splash from the top rope. Post match Fatu does jumping jacks !

Dox is seen pacing backstage and Vince shows us what happened earlier in the night as all the faces were destroyed by the bad guy heels of the company. Dean Douglas destruction of Shawn Michaels is shown . Dox tells us that Michaels collapsed after trying to speak to him. Big Daddy Cool has ...lost his Cool according to him and Undertaker isn't in the mood to talk. Hendrix will do an ambush interview if he wants but McMahon tells him no. Meanwhile great announcer Jim Ross is left to interview people as Jim Cornette is having a moment of utter joy. Then like a televangelist he asks us at home to put our hands on the TV screen over this.

Cornette puts over how Bulldog has been denied for a number of years and ignored. The Bulldog warns Diesel that he can't have anywhere to hide up North in Canada where In Your House is at . That he's got a bone to pick and its gonna happen. Cornette puts over that Bulldog's hat he's wearing was a gift from Princess Di. Which....really ? Anyhow Bulldog's promo over beating Bret Hart in front of 80,000+ people proves he can beat anyone in the WWF. He pledges to take the title back to England. King Mabel shows up and claims Bulldog is his homey now.

Back from this McMahon taunts that Lawler is gonna be going in a cage possibly. The vignette is aired of Bret Hart seeking revenge and to finish off Issac Yankem once and for all.

The Bad - Vince clearly is feeling the pressure as he pretty much throws his RAW Main event on right at 9pm to try and combat Nitro from taking viewers. Of course it left the rest of the program in a hell of a spot as nothing else was good.

You can tell the company was in a weak position in late 1995 as they had nothing to put on after this and basically aired 10-15 minutes of a Summerslam PPV match that everyone had already saw at this stage or knew the results of it. Then he put on Fatu vs Skip and that basically was the last match of the night. If your ending a show with "Making a Difference Fatu vs Skip ...your program isn't that good.


OVERALL : **1/2 . Beyond the opening segment and match , this was a great deal. The bad guys and Bulldog look impressive. The finish was wonky as Taker clearly saw Yokozuna leg drop Diesel , but didn't help. After this the show suffered and just died . This is a case where Vince was worried about the 9pm viewers not switching over so he threw the Main Event on to start , then neglected to realize he had nothing else to end RAW on.