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 **** 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 **** 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.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WWF Monday Night RAW - October 16th , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

Before this the WWE Network airs an anti smoking PSA about some alien trying to crawl inside a man's mouth. Picture something as funny as Spaceballs folks. Anyhow we get 3 promos from Issac Yankem , Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart. Yankem sounds like someone....can't put my finger on it. Anyhow Bret Hart vows to wipe the tarter and gingivitis of Yankem and Lawler away tonight inside the steel cage.

In ring we see Hunter Heart Helmsley as he sprays perfume on McMahon and Lawler at ringside. Its there Vince warns Lawler again that Gorilla Monsoon has warned him he can not get involved or he goes inside a cage. Helmsley is facing Doink the Clown as he runs out. At this point Doink wasn't Matt Bourne anymore and was basically a kids act. Not the cool evil clown we all loved. Doink is making good fun of Hunter's nose and more by grabbing it and pulling it around the ring much to comedy.

But Doink is having too much fun goofing on Helmsley he turns his back and the blue blood takes advantage of him. McMahon promotes that Helmsley is facing Making a Difference Fatu this week at the In Your House PPV. Helmsley is a pretty good wrestler at this stage as he's not as big as he'd become physically and can move better in ring at this stage. He quickly makes short work of Doink and nails the pedigree.

Backstage we see Hakushi get Americanized by Barry Horowitz some more as he teaches him things about baseball. Like who is on a Baby Ruth bar. I'm pretty sure Hakushi would be better off getting an encyclopedia than listen to Barry Horowitz. Anyhow the next match is up as its a tag team match with the newly arriving PG-13 getting a WWF Tag team title shot so quick against the Smokin Gunns. Wolfie and Ice cut a promo claiming its the last rodeo for the cowboys and they'll be riding home with the tag team belts.

Before the match , due to an injury to Undertaker last week ; WWF President Gorilla Monsoon has to change the match now at In Your House. Now its gonna be....King Mabel facing the man who helped him put Taker on the shelf....Yokozuna. Monsoon proclaims its 600 pounds vs 500 pounds. So basically its over 1,100+ pounds of **** in the ring they plan to put on a PPV now. Is there any wonder Vince was losing money at this stage.

What makes this such a comical match is the fact that Wolfie D and JC Ice are so skinny and really look like teenage kids next to the Gunns its funny. Wolfie and Ice both love to do dance steps and clown and each time they eat a clothesline as they turn their backs and do this. Eventually they manage to get the heel advantage but Wolfie D and JC Ice look like a couple kids you'd see hanging in your trailer park.

The Gunns make short work of the smaller PG-13 and that I believe was the high light of their short lived WWF stay in 1995. They clearly wasn't ready or fit for WWF TV then. A fact Wolfie trips through the ropes to try and make the save as Bart was supposed to hit him as the 3 count comes down. On a vignette we get the Alundra Blayze vs Bertha Faye for the WWF Women's championship coming on RAW next week.

We see over the weekend show Bulldog get interviewed by Bulldog . Cornette claims that Bulldog suckered Diesel into that match so he could embarrass him and then get the WWF World title he has wanted. That he's given up friends and more to get that title. Bulldog gets angry over Hendrix claiming he got lucky perhaps by Diesel taking a leg drop from Yokozuna.

Ahmed Johnson cuts a promo vignette about honor and family. About his mother sacrificing so he can go to school and be a better man. That is honor as he claims. We see last week where Dean Douglas took out Shawn Michaels post match. Then before the match starts with Douglas facing a man named Hot Bod (a jobber essentially) McMahon reveals what happened to Shawn Michaels over the weekend at a Syracuse night club.

Basically the real gist of the story is ...Shawn was being an ******* like he was then in the 1990's and hit on this Marine's wife. She turned him down and he got irked by this. Her husband didn't take kindly to Shawn's behavior and pretty much beat his ass in the parking lot. None of Michael's friends jumped in because a bunch of Marines were in that bar and would have likely beaten the **** outta them all.

End of Part #1

[SUPERECWFAN1]

In WWF World , saying that Shawn Michaels was beaten by a Marine ...one sole man who pretty much beat him up would kill his reputation. So they created this story to claim that it was 10 guys who all beat up Shawn and that he was fighting them all like something from fucking Predator. To make it more comical is they pretty much made those guys and friends with him (Justin Credible and others) stand by this silly story. Lawler basically is comically revealing the real story as Vince isn't happy during the broadcast.

As Dean punishes the jobber , Vince calls the brave Shawn Michaels on the phone to discuss his horrible injuries. How they threw him face first into a car and more. Michaels claims he will be at In Your House to face Douglas even with his face and body all beaten to a pulp. Backstage Dok Hendrix hawks more merch like Don West. Now we know where that guy learned to hawk t-shirts and merch don't we.

Anyhow the big steel cage is being lowered for the Bret Hart/Issac Yankem match and the smaller steelcage is set in case Lawler gets involved tonight. He vows he won't and that he's scared of heights. Vince runs down the In Your House card.

Bulldog vs Diesel - WWF World title match
Shawn Michaels vs Dean Douglas - IC Title match.
Smokin Gunns vs Razor Ramon/1,2,3 Kid
Fatu vs Hunter Heart Helmsley
Marty Jannetty vs Goldust (making his debut)

We get a Goldust promo as he doesn't care that Marty is a former teen idol and that he will give him a special makeover. We then get highlights of the Mabel/Undertaker program that was supposed to happen and events leading to that. Paul Bearer talks about Undertaker's face being crushed by those 2 men. Bearer pledges that his Undertaker will return to action for vengeance and punish the souls of Yokozuna and Mabel. OOoooohh noooo.....

There is a promo for a 20 man Over The Top Rope match for a shot at whoever walks outta In Your House as IC Champion. The promo puts over how everyone in the company wants WWF gold. Seemingly that has changed as nowadays everyone in the company wants to play and comepete in Madden 16 and gives little fucks over being a champion anymore.

Yankem jumps Bret to start this cage match as Lawler cheers him on. That he hopes Yankem knocks all the teeth from Bret Hart . Soon as the match goes Bret gets back in control of things. Bret tries to escape the cage early but gets caught. Both men try and escape each time and they get cut off . This cage match is in the old classic WWF steelcage with blue bars. This also has rules where the referee can unlock the cage door. The referee however struggles with unlocking the cage door and its revealed that Lawler took the actual lock from the cage to try and help his man win.

As the match goes along the WWF has a special hotline to float the bullshit story over Shawn Michaels being beaten up by 10 Marines. You can call and hear them try and float that folks back in 1995. Bret decides to take care of business as he locks in the sharpshooter as Yankem can't escape from it as he hopes he weakened him down enough. Then as Lawler watches he freaks out that Hart is gonna win , he runs over and costs him exiting the cage. But he screwed up by getting involved and Monsoon brings security to lock him up in the smaller cage.

Lawler freaks the **** out and Bret smacks him down the cage to lock him away. He gets put in the air as he deserves that . The kids chant "Burger King" repeatedly as he begs Vince to let him down. While Bret and Yankem battle inside the big cage. This is pretty dangerous nowadays as the cage is 50-100 feet in the air above the ring.

Bret makes his move to leave and tries several times as Issac Yankem stops him. Above the ring Lawler begs and pleads for Vince to let him down . His nose starts bleeding as his fear of heights he claims is setting in. This punishment seems to fit for Lawler who has made life hell for Bret Hart a good while. Yankem nails the DDS finisher on Bret Hart. As McMahon claims he could have won this match twice but Lawler screwed him over and he stops him finally.

During the match Lawler throws down a key to Yankem so he can escape . But Bret stops him and decides to punish Yankem for all he's done as he tosses the chain and key away as he begins the 5 moves of doom sequence and exits the cage finally. Winning the match and ending his feud with Yankem finally. McMahon begs to be put down as post match McMahon claims they are having problems putting the small cage down due to some cables and he could be stuck there a couple hours.

The show ends as a smiling Vince promotes In Your House .


The Bad - This show was a better one overall than the one last week. It was a full show but man did it have some weird things happening for it.

PG-13 after 2-3 weeks in the company get a WWF World tag team title shot and it ended the brief run they had there. PG-13 was really small guys (maybe 170 pounds soaking wet folks) and they hadn't really done much beyond beat up a jobber team. And suddenly they get a tag team title match. They would stay in USWA til the very end of the companies existence as it faded away essentially.

The Shawn Michaels story is one of the silliest , dumbest possible things ever. That suddenly 10 Marines beat up Shawn at a night club parking lot was really the funniest part of this RAW. As I said above , they couldn't tell the real story and yes folks as far as I know....no charges against anyone was ever filed or done. Because Shawn started that fight and lost then.

Also at this point Shawn refused to wrestle Shane Douglas (Dean) and put him over as IC Champion at this PPV. Michaels pulled a power play and demanded that Razor Ramon (one of his Clique buddies) win the IC Title. Vince knowing he needed Shawn for his Wrestlemania push did what he demanded. Shane meanwhile pretty much after this told Vince and Shawn to both go get fucked and walked from the company after In Your House. Heading back to ECW.

OVERALL : *** Outta 5. A decent opening match for Helmsley and the Main Event was solid. But the middle of the show dragged along as PG-13 clearly weren't guys you'd want on the main WWF stage at this point. Also the fact that Shawn comically 2 weeks ago goes to a school where 98% attendance is being awarded to children and he pretty much takes his ball and goes home at the PPV refusing to put someone over. You can't write this one folks.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WWF Monday Night RAW - October 23rd , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

We get a clip of Bret Hart and Diesel slugging it out from In Your House and tonights show will have WWF Women's Championship match between Bertha Faye/Alundra Blayze and the 20 Man Over the Top Rope Battle Royal. The winner gets a shot at the new IC Champion , Razor Ramon due to how Shane was screwed over by Clique politics.

Marty Jannetty , Psycho Sid and Issac Yankem is the last ones to the ring for the 20 Superstars in this battle royal. They have prerecorded comments from Sid first who talks so low about being the alpha predator as one man. That he is ...The Master....and ruler of the world. Jannetty cuts a promo that is so different and light heart I had to laugh at this one. Jannetty claims he will win and get a shot at Ramon next week.

King Kong Bundy was in this one and a long , long way from his former dominant heel against Hogan from 1986. He gets thrown out first . There is a number of guys in this from Hunter Hearst Helmsley , Aldo Montoya , Skip , Kama , Savio Vega , Duke "the Dumpster" Drose , Jean Pierre LaFitte , Owen Hart and more. Out went Aldo next. Alas poor Montoya we did not know you.

Helmsley nearly goes out but saves himself repeatedly. A number of guys gang up on Owen Hart but manages to save himself as well a few times. Bob Holly is eliminated next as its clear no one likes Nascar. Sid big boots The Dumpster outta the ring next. Hakushi is the next one tossed out as he tried to help Horowitz. Lawler claims a horrible thought crossed his mind that Horowitz could win this. As he said this "Making a Difference Fatu" is eliminated next.

Horowitz then throws Skip over as McMahon loves that one. Horowitz , 1,2,3 Kid , Henry Godwinn , Kama and Rad Radford were eliminated at the commercial break. Then suddenly out goes Issac Yankem ! Sid goes out next in a shocking elimination from Bam Bam Bigalow. LaFitte eliminates Bigalow at commercial break as now were down to 4 guys in ring. Cornette is out there for Owen Hart as he tries to toss Jannetty who locks his feet in the ropes twice to save himself.

Owen saves himself from Janetty while Savio Vega manages to skin the cat and get between the 2nd rope and save himself. McMahon reveals that Gorilla Monsoon had to take the belt from Michaels last night due to his horrible ...sever concussion he took from the 10 Marines he fought in a parking lot. Jannetty nearly gets eliminated as he hangs on the ropes and then hooks Vega's head and throws him out. LaFitte senses he can knock Marty out next but suddenly the guy ducks and out he goes !

Its now Marty Jannetty vs. Owen Hart folks. The King of Hearts vs the Teen Idol. Owen manages to save himself and hangs on the apron as Marty keeps hitting him. He holds onto the middle rope and after dropping his head across the ropes , crawls back inside. He nearly throws Jannetty over as he again is able to hook and stand on the ropes , saving himself. Suddenly Marty goes through the middle rope as Cornette tries to hit him with the racket. Jannetty goes after him and then the Bulldog jumps and pummels him outside.

He is in a weak state and he then gets thrown back over the top rope by Owen Hart as he tries to run the ropes. The ending was lackluster really as it had no drama like the earlier match had. Owen celebrates and after a commercial for WWF the Arcade Game , outside the ring Lawler interviews him. He will face Razor Ramon for the WWF IC Title next week on RAW. Owen uses Bret's catchphrase and proclaims how he beat the best the WWF had to offer .

We get a replay of what happened last night at In Your House and Bret's new "Take no ****" policy from anyone. Diesel nearly falls on the announce table as Bret tries to hold him back in a nice gesture. He gets pie faced by Diesel in anger over this. Then outside the ring , Bulldog slaps his brother-in-law. This sets off The Hitman who gets in ring and starts beating the **** outta Bulldog for this. Then Diesel gets angry that Bret Hart cost him the match and beating Bulldog as they fight at the end.

Dok Hendrix runs down the Karate Fighters Survivor Series Slam Jam. He promotes the WILDCARD 8 man Tag team match which will have heels/faces co-exist ...or try to. Shawn Michaels will return after his savage battle against 10 Marines. He is forced to team with Psycho Sid and British Bulldog. With the debuting Ahmed Johnson as well. Across from that is the giving his 2 months notice already Dean Douglas , Yokozuna , Owen Hart and....Razor Ramon ? Dok tells Vince something is going on as its Bob Backlund in the crowd who is campaigning for President and would fair better than Bob Dole actually.

Ahmed is making his debut and tells Michaels he will have his back at Survivor Series. But he warns Sid and Bulldog they better play it straight and no games there. We cut back to the campaigning in Canada , Backlund as McMahon promotes the debut of Avatar (aka Al Snow). Then we see a clip of Bertha Faye and her manager Harvey Whippleman who pledges his love to Bertha.

Out comes Avatar (Snow) who looks as happy as I'd be in that gimmick. Ok basically Snow is playing a masked man but he comes out without the mask on , then he ....puts the mask on in ring. McMahon claims he undergoes a metamorphosis of some kind when he puts the mask on . Lawler jokes about this and how he suddenly becomes a karate fighter with the mask on. Avatar is facing Brian Ross in a jobber match basically.

Snow is trying to play a high flying type in the Rob Van Dam mold and nearly falls off the top rope as he tries to fly outside on Ross. Of course he shows some good things in ring and shows his talent that had long been on the indie scene. What is sad is it took Snow 13 years to get a shot at the big stage in a company and even then...its a loser gimmick like this one. Eventually Avatar does a finish where he stands on a man's stomach and then jumps into the air and does a body splash.


END OF PART #1

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Barry Didinsky is up next to sell whatever worthless crap the WWF had him peddling to viewers that week. This week Vince is trying to sell WWF Stand-Up cut outs of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels for $25 bucks apiece. You can bring this **** home and make your parents wanna take the credit card away kids. I'll just let this link from Wrestlecrap explain Barry's pitching products in 1995.

http://www.wrestlecrap.com/inductions/barry-didinsky/

Imagine Bret Hart at your dinner table kids. Vince promotes Alundra Blayze getting ready for Bertha Faye as she does some side kicks backstage. He promotes Shawn Michaels commentary and how he was in grief over Monsoon stripping him of the title . Sadness being he refused to do a job. Anyhow we get a vignette over Goldust and he will be showing up next week making his 1st TV appearance.

Harvey Whippleman comes out with Bertha Faye , his trailer park queen. Vince brings up that Harvey weighs 138 while Bertha weighs over 200 pounds. It seems Harvey is hugely jealous of his woman around other men which is pretty funny. Alundra Blayze is out as fans pop for her in this match. Bertha Faye is Rhonda Sing and she had been wrestling since we was 18 (since 1979) and sadly she would pass away in 2001 of a heart attack.

At this point interest in Women's wrestling in the WWF was pretty dead. Some blame this storyline and the fact Vince McMahon decided to have his popular female champion lose to someone they didn't really think was on her level. It also didn't help that Vince asked Bertha Faye to not do power moves because it would show up the men on his roster. Yes...he actually did that.

During the match as its pretty decent , Lawler makes jokes about Madusa's nose. He then claims she is resorting to every cheap tactic she knows with all the hair pulling. She is having problems putting this bigger lady down and she then attempts a pile driver on her but it fails. Blayze then does a frankensteiner on Bertha catching her in the ropes in a nice spot. Whippleman tries to get involved and she runs into him. This allows Blayze to back drop her and get the pin. Becoming WWF Women's Champion for the 3rd time. Post match an angry Bertha Faye chases Whippleman to the back.

Now we get Jim Ross in his sit down interview with Shawn Michaels. Its there Michaels acts low key as possible and claims no one can doubt his worth ethic. Which...nearly makes me fall over laughing considering what he had done at this point. Shawn then screws up and claims that it was 9 Marines who beat him up and cost him to give up the belt to an undeserving guy in Shane Douglas. But he didn't keep it long. Michaels claims he will meet with doctors to check his brain and he will be cleared soon....likely next week.

The show ends there as Vince promotes next weeks RAW which will have the big IC Title match of Razor Ramon vs Owen Hart.


The Bad - The 20 Man Battle Royal was a very fun opening match for this RAW. We saw a lot of good spots and moments from Owen Hart , Jannetty and even Sid. The ending was pretty lackluster and it left a lot to be desired really . That was my big complaint over it.

You got the debut of Al Snow in a gimmick even he seemed to hate as the look on his face showed. The Avatar gimmick was silly as Snow would come into the ring and put a mask on his face and wrestle. Isn't a masked man supposed to be "mysterious" ?

The Shawn Michaels interview was pretty comical for the aspect Shawn forgot the WWF's lie they were telling earlier about 10 Marines...as he claims its now 9. I suspect next week it will be 10 again and possibly higher. Shawn Michaels fought the entire 5th Regiment of Marines in one swoop folks !


OVERALL : *** Outta 5. The opening again was solid except for the ending and again the show suffered through the rest. The Main Event of Bertha Faye/Alundra Blayze was ok. But had few bright spots. The Shawn Michaels interview is good for the comedy factor of lying and then bragging his work ethic he has.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WWF Monday Night RAW - October 30th . 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

Its the witching hour upon us as Todd Pettengill promotes . Its a special Halloween themed RAW as Owen Hart won the Battle Royal to get a IC Title match. Ramon was the 1st , 4 time IC Champion as the WWF claims. Goldust almost makes his 1st TV appearance on RAW tonight . RAW opening is changed more to focus on the roster it appears fighting in ring.

Jerry Lawler is dressed as a surgeon in his costume. McMahon is dressed as ...a convict. A fact Lawler makes an inner dig at something and then playfully checks Vince's chest and claims he has no heart. The Spanish announce team is dressed up too. Savio Vega comes out all dancing and happy. He shakes everyone's hand but won't shake Lawler's as Vince laughs over that. Vega will face Goldust making his TV debut.

Lawler claims Goldust favorite music is Halloween and Michael Myers. McMahon claims that in his contract , he has demanded special lighting and more for his entrance. As gold sparkles down from the lights , Goldust takes this opportunity to jump Savio Vega. The fans seemed to dig Vega's energy at times as he would be pumped and more in ring. But the heel Dustin Rhodes gains quick control as Vega gets the fans behind him by rallying at certain points.

McMahon claims that Goldust is a Ru Paul type which is so weird against the product they are tring for. Vega rallies again as Vince proclaims he could make Goldust a box office flop. But then he does a weird wrap up pin on Vega that takes advantage of his hurt shoulder. Its a weird pin to see and I don't know how long he used it.

With Dok Hendrix his face is painted orange like a werewolf is my guess. At Survivor Series this 3rd match between Bret Hart and Diesel will have a no DQ rule since outside interference ruined the last 2 encounters. Also it will have no time limit. Then outta nowhere there is a confrontation going on backstage as Ramon and Owen Hart had got into a shoving match. By the time we get backstage we see that 1,2,3 Kid is keeping Razor away from Owen as The Bad Guy wants to settle things right there.

We get a silly Karate Fighters deal where Barry Horowitz debate the finer things like Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth and Coke or Pepsi. The only way they can settle things is by taking it to the ring. Not the wrestling ring....The Karate Fighters toy by Milton Bradley while Hakushi is Kensuke Shinzaki. In fact his gimmick was pretty damn cool when he 1st came in as he barely spoke , had a silent entrance and had tattoos down his body and face. Then Vince decided he need to be a face and learn to accept America into his heart and this is what we get.

After Hakushi loses to Horowitz at the game , he demands a rematch as we see them face each other. Marty Jannetty is out to face Joe "Hot Bod" Dorgan in this jobber squash match as usual. Goldust's entrance earlier has made the entire arena smokey filled which as Lawler claims has added a Halloween element to the show. We flash to a small group of fans with a hand made sign that reads , "The Jerry "The King" Lawler fan club". Next week McMahon promotes Issac Yankem/Lawler teaming to face Bret Hart & Hakushi. The match ends as Jannetty does the super knuckle punch that Lawler uses , from the very top rope.

We get a vignette of how Hakushi once was against Bret Hart and a heated rival. But now he's making amends and teaming against 2 of Bret's heated foes. Then next week Jannetty will face British Bulldog. In ring McMahon interviews Jim Cornette and Bulldog. Cornette isn't at all happy at what happened with Monsoon passing his man , the Bulldog over again. Then Cornette claims he had Diesel set up where he wanted and ready to finish him off for the WWF World Champion , but Bret Hart got involved.


END OF PART #1

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So he hates Bret's guts for costing him and he wants him. Cornette then had to go get Clarence Mason to sue Monsoon for what has happened. Then Mason vows to get involved on Cornette's behalf of what happened. He claims that the actions of Monsoon in his contract basically says the Winner of the match will face Bret Hart at Survivor Series. He asks who won the match ? Bulldog by DQ. So he demands that Bret Hart give Bulldog a match and he will push that it happen using his legal experience.

Cornette is also pissed at Monsoon for how he is trying to split his guys up at this wildcard match. That his men should be a team , not facing each other. He also isn't happy that Bulldog has to face Jannetty. Bulldog gets on the mic finally taunts Jannetty , that he doesn't belong in the same ring , the same place or has the same class as the British Bulldog. He will use him as a stepping stone next week. This talk pisses off Jannetty who runs out and beats down Bulldog and Cornette.

Then he sees Mason as the lawyer shakes in some fear as Marty teases hitting him as he claims he will sue him and more. He sinks in the corner and begs off. Marty teases and acts close to hitting him and stops. Back from commercial we see what happened with the Smokin Gunns and Razor/Kid at In Your House. Where the Kid gets so angry at losing he lashes out and beats down the Smokin Gunns. In ring the Gunns are facing a jobber tag team that really gets no introduction.

The one jobber has the word "Apollo" on his tights and is called Otis Apollo. Which is so comical since he is so outta shape , he doesn't look like no really built guy who should have that name. During the match the 1,2,3 Kid cuts a promo claiming that he apologizes for what happened at In Your House. That his anger got the best of him. But if the Gunns are the type of champions they claim to be , they will grant him and Razor another shot at the WWF Tag team championship. The Gunns quickly win and I never got the 2nd jobbers name.

Bret Hart cuts a promo after the match against Diesel and says he has nothing but respect for him and he's a hell of a wrestler. But that will mean nothing come Survivor Series. He's only had 1 shot and that was at the Royal Rumble and now the rules are in his favor. No DQ , no countout ...there must be a winner. He'll see him at Survivor Series. After the promo and we return from commercial , Lawler claims how he's angry that Bret never mentioned him or Yankem as they have a tag team match next week.

Owen Hart comes out to face The Bad Guy , Razor Ramon for the IC Title. Barry Didinsky stands near the fans and hawks more horrible WWF merch you can own. If you buy either the kids WWF World title or the Kids WWF IC Title , you get 3 8x10's of either Diesel or Razor Ramon. Each item is only $20 and you can't get them anywhere else. Except nowadays at flea markets for nothing and toy shops.

Paul Bearer cuts a promo on Mabel , how King Mabel crushed his face and made it even too gruesome for even Halloween. But he's coming....oooohh yesss My Undertaker is reeeturning.

Razor comes to the ring in some anger as he slides inside and starts beating on Owen. Then throwing him out. The King of Hearts isn't happy as he stomps up the steps frustrated to really start this match. McMahon claims that Michaels will return to action on Friday at a show. Minutes after he says this the WWF Hotline at the bottom claims you can call the 1-900 number for $1.49 a minute and learn the updates of his medical clearance.

During the match as things go along with Razor in control , they bring up how at Survivor Series ....Razor Ramon and Owen Hart will be teammates . Which is pretty insane. Cornette tries to get involved and eats a fist from Razor during this. Out comes Yokozuna as Cornette cries to Mr. Fuji and Yoko about how that bad bully hurt his eye.

Eventually Owen gets the heel advantage as he drop kicks Razor into the steel guard rail outside the ring. The fans get behind Razor and cheer him on huge. Razor tries to rally back but Owen stays ahead of him. Making him pay basically. The fans continue to get behind the Bad Guy. He gets a close fall and wants the referee to raise his hand as the ref tells him he didn't win.

Eventually both men lay each other out after a commercial. Then as Razor takes control we go to another quick commercial as we return The Bad Guy is ready to finish off the King of Hearts with the Razor's Edge. Yokozuna however climbs in and lays some destruction down on Razor. Then outta the back comes 1,2,3 Kid who tries to save his friend. But the Kid is 500 pounds over matched and he eats a huge leg drop that destroys him.

As things look dark outta the back comes Ahmed Johnson ! He stands behind Yokozuna and once the big sumo turns he is picked up like nothing and body slammed. I mean ...holy ****. It was incredible to watch Johnson seemingly do this (since Luger was the only one and he barely body slammed him) with better ease. Johnson stands as Bulldog races out and he backs off. Johnson taunts him to bring it on as the show ends.


The Bad - Beyond the debut of Goldust on TV and the main event with Ramon/Hart , this show wasn't good. Maybe again its the fact the WWF was taping weeks of TV in advance and they couldn't really fill the hour with the thin talent roster they had. At this stage the WWF's main event talent depth wasn't fully at its strength. You had Bret Hart , Diesel , Shawn Michaels , Undertaker and Razor Ramon. Everyone else seemed below that mark.


OVERALL : *** Outta 5. Goldust's debut was nicely timed for Halloween and even the arena itself seemed to become more smoke filled and gloomy as Lawler pointed out due to that. It was the perfect deal for that show. Ahmed slamming Yokozuna was a holy **** moment and seemed to hint that this guy had a big future in the WWF.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WWF Monday Night RAW - November 6th , 1995



Your Hosts - Dok Hendrix & Vince McMahon

Ahmed Johnson is shown slamming Yokozuna with pretty much ease. This show was prerecorded as we can see with highlights of what could happen with Henry Godwinn perhaps being slopped by Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Bret Hart getting hit with Jerry Lawler's chair. With Jerry Lawler in action , Dok Hendrix has replaced him at the announce booth.

The opening match is British Bulldog vs Marty Jannetty where last week Marty beat down Bulldog and Cornette. Then tortured Mason with perhaps hitting him and mentally fucking with him. Jannetty starts off with some decent offense and does look pretty decent in ring. He'll never be Michaels for sure in ring. Due to his outside the ring issues , but Marty was always an ok worker. A good low/mid card worker.

Mason cuts a promo where no one needs to worry about him. He has the law and legal experience on his side. Due to his sending a strong threatening memo to Gorilla Monsoon , his client the British Bulldog will face the WWF Champion at the December In Your House. Bulldog is using his strength and power advantage on Jannetty now. The crowd slowly builds a Marty chant to get behind him.

After Jannetty tries a crucifix pin and Bulldog kicks out , he nearly turns Marty's body inside out with a wicked clothesline ! As the match goes , Bulldog uses his power to do rest holds and submissions to wear the quicker Jannetty down. Then he rallies and delivers a cool Buff blockbuster off the rope on Bulldog. As Jannetty is fully rallying back he nearly gets the pinfall. But then rams himself into the turnbuckle and hurts his shoulder. Bulldog uses this to do his running power slam for the win.

In a prerecorded segment Vince McMahon hires a man to imitate President Bill Clinton. He cuts a promo on being American. Hendrix interviews Cornette and Bulldog at ringside. Monsoon only did what he did by making the In Your House match happen because he knew he was in trouble. Then he claims Monsoon is trying to shake up the balance of power and it won't work. He threatens Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson. Then the Bulldog claims he will make him and Cornette's dreams come true at In Your House in December.

Backstage we see Bret Hart with Barry Horowitz trying to get Hakushi to understand the tag team match they have tonight. Bret symbolizes them as a team and goes , we #1 ok. Hakushi seems to understand. Vince McMahon brings up what happened on WWF Superstars and we see Jerry Lawler interview Goldust. Then Bam Bam Bigalow comes out and calls him a freak and wants a match. Goldust looks at him and goes..."Look in your eyes ....Hate saves a man. Ben Hur...1959."

Goldust agrees to the match at Survivor Series as he claims Bam Bam will remember the name.....GOOOOOOLDUUUSST. Up next is Henry Godwinn facing jobber Terry Richards. Richards is a pretty decent sized guy . They show clips of what happened 2 weeks ago on WWF Superstars as Helmsley ordered the slop bucket be taken to the back. Next week on RAW he has a match with Godwinn. This match doesn't last long as Godwinn delivers the slop drop for the win.

Then outta the back comes Helmsley as he jumps Godwinn from behind . He then pedigrees him on the floor to knock him out . After this he puts gloves on and gets the flop bucket and slops the hog farmer. Godwinn gets up slowly and McMahon promotes he's gonna be an ANGRY hog farmer. We get Todd Pettengill who promotes Survivor Series next .

Todd details that King Mabel issued a challenge for Undertaker at Survivor Series. The Undertaker has accepted it and its gonna be an 8 man elimination match basically. On Team Darkside is ....Making a Difference Fatu (WTF ?) , Henry Godwinn (WTF II ? ) , and Savio Vega (WTF III ?) . Mabel has Jerry Lawler (well he's a King too) , HHH (Him and Godwinn are feuding of course) and Issac Yankem (WTF ?) and his team is Team Royals. Either way this is just a bizarre 8 man tag as Lawler , Fatu , Vega and Yankam haven't done anything.

Why can't they just do Mabel/Undertaker at Survivor Series. Todd wonders what the Takers face will look like then. We get a promo from Bearer and Undertaker who faces away from the camera as he promises that "No one on Team Royal will survive....no one will survive the Undertaker's wraith." I pity Jerry Lawler in this one.

We get Diesel vs Bret Hart at Survivor Series for the WWF World title. Diesel's promo is about how this is the 3rd and final time for them. They will finally settle who the better man is. He's gonna face BIG DADDY COOL there. Then we go back to ring where Kama the fighting machine is coming out. Ted Dibiase is his manager at this point. Barry Didinsky is out to sell you a shitload of shitty pong for $21 folks. Just what the hell did Vince not try and sell to make a buck in the 1990's ?

Its the perfect holiday gift he claims , he then claims he's the Mayor of Merchandise . Maybe Mayor of Crappy Merchandise. Kama is facing jobber Tony Roy. On the phone Vince talks to Shawn Michaels who returned to action this past Friday. Making a hell of a recovery from all those marines who beat his ass supposedly. Shawn promotes that he has all the guys against him at Survivor Series and then jokes we could see him beat up by 9 guys again. He seems in a happy mood for a guy who was beaten up by his claim of 9 Marines.

Shawn is asked to pick a winner between Bret Hart & Diesel for the WWF World Championship. But Shawn can't pick it because both are his friends and both are great at what they do. The best man will win that night. In ring Kama makes short work of the jobber as McMahon has to hang up from Shawn. This irks Dok Hendrix who wanted to speak to Shawn since he's his favorite superstar. Its almost insanely funny to see someone like Michael Hayes get mad because he can't speak to another man on the phone.

Razor Ramon vs Sid is promoted as a championship match for RAW next week. The belt can change hands on DQ or count out. Also the fact 1,2,3 Kid is the special referee for this match. Out comes Jerry Lawler and Issac Yankem for this tag match. The WWF goes to a commercial as we get another Karate Fighters segment as this week its the Smokin Gunns. Finally out comes Bret Hart and Hakushi.

The fireworks go off as Bret hands his sunglasses to a kid at ringside. Which I always thought was cool of him to do. At ringside there is a few kids dressed as Goldust with Kings crowns on. They are chanting Burger King at Lawler which was a funny thing to see. Bret Hart quickly goes to work in dismantling Issac Yankem to start this match.

Hakushi is in and he gets some elevation on that hand spring elbow into the corner turnbuckle. How the WWF could miss on this guy shocks me. Both guys are working Yankem over , teaching him a lesson. Its later in the match the heels start to work the Japanese star over. Being the evil heels we know them as. Comically Vince claims that he favors the Royals at Survivor Series. Lawler finally is tagged in and mocks Bret Hart , taunting him and he nails his finisher pile driver on Hakushi.

Yet doesn't cover him and gloats all around the ring. Taunting the fans and he delivers a 2nd pile driver. This time he goes over and provokes Bret Hart yet again. This is to punish Hakushi and both men beat on the young star. Eventually the 2 heels get to cocky and Hakushi makes the hot tag as Bret Hart comes in and cleans house. He quickly takes care of Lawler and he starts beating down on Yankem, He locks on the sharpshooter as Yankem taps like crazy. Lawler grabs a weird chair and wants to nail the referee.

Barry Horowitz gets the chair from Lawler and threatens him with it. Then the referee rings the bell as Horowitz is threatening him too much it seems. Weirdest fucking DQ ever. Anyhow Bret and Barry try to protest this but the referee won't listen. Lawler and Yankem leave happy as hell. Then after the WWF Tour-de-Force deal , McMahon and Hendrix promote next weeks show.

We get previews of next weeks show , already prerecorded with a few scenes shown.

The Bad : The opening and ending match was perhaps the only high points. Again Vince's roster is suffering from being so thin and him recording so many shows at one time. After a decent opening match on RAW , he then has 2 jobber matches straight with Kama and Henry Godwinn. Sure HHH made things interesting at the end , but it still didn't help.

The referee ringing a bell because Horowitz was threatening to hit someone is the most silly thing. Weeks ago a referee rang the bell because 1,2,3 Kid climbed the top rope and was ready to jump off. Now this one.

OVERALL : **1/2 outta 5. Vince's prerecorded shows were struggling very badly against Nitro as we can tell. The show came across so taped that every segment seemed to be predetermined. Like we get someone selling crappy stuff , then a match ...then a promo and then guy selling crap again. The selling of pong crap was pretty funny and summed up Vince McMahon's WWF in 1995.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WWF Monday Night RAW : November 13th , 1995



Your Hosts - Jerry Lawler & Vince McMahon

Before RAW begins we get the run down of the recent Ramon/1,2,3 Kid situation that during shows on the WWF's Tour-de-Force , have seen Kid and Razor tease tension. Gorilla Monsoon doesn't wanna leave nothing to chance and instead of having the Kid replaced as referee or having a 2nd referee there , has decided to change the stipulation of Psycho Sid vs Razor Ramon and make it a non-title match tonight. Because why give fans a free IC Title match while that is what WCW is doing with title matches ? I'm VINCENT KENNEDY MCMAHON DAMN IT !!!

The match and growing feud with Henry Godwinn and Hunter Hearst Helmsley began when Helmsley jumped him from behind and slopped him. This was not a career highlight for Hunter. Helmsley quickly jumps Godwinn before the match and smashes him in the ring steps and then sprays cologne on him. Then as Godwinn takes himself time to get in to pretty much show Hunter he doesn't care , he SLOPS HIMSELF and laughs. Showing he's a country boy who doesn't give a **** for a prim city blue blood. Helmsley runs like hell to not be touched by slop and falls in it !

He makes his escape as Godwinn chases after him . Cool story...Mark Canterbury is actually from West Virginia and was working in my home town at one point after his WWF career had ended. Backstage Lawler scares Dok Hendrix who is backstage to discuss Survivor Series. Around this time they discuss the ill-timed move the Republicans made to shut down the government. Its part of the reason Vince hired an actor to imitate Bill Clinton.

Hendrix shows a clip from this past weekend where Ted Dibiase warned Jim Cornette that he had better not get involved or betray his team. Psycho Sid himself gives the point to Jim to symbolize , you best not screw over ...THE MASTER....AND RULER ...OF THE WORLD ! We come back as Vince takes us to a Shawn Michaels vignette about his fake concussion he suffered so he didn't have to job to Shane Douglas at the last PPV. Where he forfeited the title away.

Shawn puts over being the most exciting athlete in the business and he makes a point to show that being "big" doesn't make you the best in the business. That he believes in putting on a show for people and stealing the show. Its a great vignette and shows how Michaels elevated himself due to just his ring work and character he made.

Ahmed Johnson is making TV in ring debut facing a jobber. Johnson tries to be nice and extends his hand to shake Jake Steele's hand. Which you know he's gonna damn well pay for that. Johnson's face is growing angry as Steele is doing heel punches and kicks. Then Ahmed decapitates Steele with a clothesline. HBK cuts a promo claiming he has a good friend on his team finally and after seeing him slam Yokozuna , he knows they will SURVIVE together.

Johnson is just a force of nature as he is destroying this jobber with some power moves like a cool spin buster. He then nails his finisher...a tiger bomb. A group of fans stand and chant "Your the Man !" Vince wonders if Ahmed could do that possibly to Yokozuna. I don't doubt he couldn't. Post match Johnson again warns Sid and Bulldog they better not come in and mess around. Or he'll break em off something.

Our good salesman Barry Didinsky shows up and is selling of all things for 1996..... WWF Calendars. He shows off the WWF superstars for each month. For $21 you can get Big Daddy Cool's gloves he wears and also his sunglasses. All of that for $21 as WWF was taking a bath on Diesel merch it appears. A cool damn vignette airs of Diesel/Bret Hart at Survivor Series. Diesel vows to "Take care of you once and for all !" Bret vows , "The truck stops here !" At the end we get the line from Diesel...."I don't like your odds."

Vince has Diesel and Bret Hart in separate places on TVs interviewing them. Diesel claims Bret is a great athlete and wrestler. But he feels that we will see at Survivor Series. Then we go to Bret who is asked about Diesel being the leader of the new WWF Generation. Its there Bret discusses how his mother shouldn't have been allowed to throw the towel into the ring at last years Survivor Series. That he'd still be WWF Champion right now if that silliness hadn't happened. Then we see Bret almost make Big Daddy Cool tap at Royal Rumble and Bret feels that Diesel's not been pressed as hard as that since.

McMahon comically strokes the fire between both men as he asks about jealously and more. Bret does say Diesel's done great with big guys but with guys like him and Shawn have that technical edge. That at the 20 minute mark he's just warming up. He wonders if Diesel's been ducking good technical wrestlers like him and Bulldog possibly. Diesel denies this , why would he wrestle Bret at Royal Rumble and Shawn at Wrestlemania if this was the case. Big Daddy Cool claims he knows he has gotta come out quick , that he's gotta knock out Bret Hart quick because he can't let it go long. Bret is asked about Diesel's size at close to 7 foot tall and 300 pounds....but he claims he's gonna keep his strategy ...wear him down and take it a long match.

End of Part #1

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Diesel puts over that Bret has been there for 10 years. That he's a true star of the company. He puts over Bret being a tough challenge and that their matches have been tough and he wants to beat him and knows he can. Bret himself is asked why face this guy because he's been at the top twice before. But as Bret puts over its not about money or anything like that. Its about memories and what you can look back on at being the best. And he's gonna prove he's the best and beat Diesel at Survivor Series.

After this great head to head discussion (and it was) we get another Karate Fighters sell job for that crappy toy that the WWF is forced to sell. Vince McMahon faces Jerry Lawler who beats him. Then its revealed Lawler taped his guys foot down so he wouldn't fall and Vince claims he cheated. Then as Vince stops he decides to taunt The King by saying the Royals this weekend at Survivor Series will need to be lucky to face...The Undertaker as the music chimes. Lawler looks scared shitless at that.

King Mabel is carried out and you can tell the WWF guys are straining to carry the big guy on his throne to the ring. Lawler promotes how they will re-arrange Taker's face that was crushed. Make it better as he laughs. Undertaker cuts a promo in darkness and claims this Sunday night he will exact revenge on Mabel for what he did. Mabel is facing a jobber meanwhile named Roy Raymond. During this Lawler claims he hopes Mabel even more weight so he can crush Undertaker this weekend.

Raymond's most effect move ...a dropkick that Mabel shrugs off like it was nothing. I actually feel sorry for Roy Raymond the jobber out there. He's taking a beating out there. Mabel wins in convincing fashion and Lawler makes some weird jokes about the Browns leaving Cleveland , The NY Jets and some store in England hinting about people taking a crap. Its pretty dumb jokes as Vince doesn't care.

After a vignette from the guy acting like Bill Clinton as he discusses the New WWF Generation and Survivor Series ...we go to Psycho Sid vs Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championship , oh its not....ok . I forgot Vince made this a non-title after promoting it last week and telling viewers HA HA. Sid comes out and looks at the camera as he's the MASTER....RULER...OF THE WORLD.

Last weekend on Superstars we see Razor Ramon/1,2,3 Kid facing the Smoking Gunns for the WWF Tag team championship. Razor made 3 saves and weirdly the referee DQ'd him for actually saving his tag team partner from being pinned....in a damn tag match. These WWF referees are moronic as hell. The Kid didn't like Razor costing them the match and that tension carried over this past shows.

Sid takes the heel advantage quickly as the Kid seems to be acting impartial thus far as special guest referee. Fans aren't happy with Psycho Sid. They clearly don't know who MASTER and RULER OF THE WORLD is. Razor tries to rally back and suddenly gets back dropped over the top rope. During this match out comes Dean Douglas who decides to attack Ramon outside the ring . He then bad mouths the Bad Guy.

Sid tries to inflict punishment on Razor and Lawler claims how embarrassing it will be if Ramon has to say he quits and gives up to Sid. Both guys are down as the Kid starts a 10 count as things are seemingly going fair. Then as Razor rallies back and starts to get in control , he goes for the Razor's edge and gets the big man Sid up for a Razor's edge. Its then the 1,2,3 Kid turns and pulls Sid's foot down as it helps him kick Razor and deliver the power bomb. The Kid then fast counts Sid !

Monsoon's gut feeling was right that the Kid couldn't be trusted. Lawler claims Monsoon was right that you couldn't trust the Kid. Ted Dibiase comes over and sticks the $5 in Razor's mouth. The Kid then comes over and takes it. McMahon claims The Kid has sold out to Ted Dibiase's money ! He's sold out damn it.

After a WWF Tour-de-Force deal , we get McMahon's being so hurt by The Kid's turn on his good friend Razor Ramon. That the Bad Guy did so much for the 1,2,3 Kid. Lawler jokes he can call himself the Million Dollar Kid now. Backstage we see Jim Ross interview Dean Douglas team as he questions why he'd attack his own partner at Survivor Series. Douglas laughs as Cornette puts over that Dean should be the rightful IC Champion (he should). But before Douglas can say a word out comes Razor who jumps him and the show ends right there.


The Bad - There wasn't a match for like 20-30 minutes. Until Ahmed Johnson made his in ring debut on RAW against a jobber. The Helmsley/Godwinn match ended with just one or two moves and a dude slopping himself and then we got so many minutes of promos and more.

Then the highly built up IC Championship match that the company plugged last week , it was called off for a normal match with just a heel turn factored in. At this point I believe Shane saw that he'd not get the title or push as now it was gonna be Kid/Ramon as a program for that belt. So you can see why he decided to leave as the politics got too much.

Too many jobber matches honestly. Again RAW was losing because it just had nothing important match wise against Nitro. As one guy claimed...Bischoff was essentially giving you a free PPV nearly each week. Vince meanwhile wasn't willing to give you anything and was losing due to that fact.


OVERALL : ** outta 5. The Main event was a terrible match , the opening match didn't happen and you had 2 jobber matches. The only good things about this RAW was the debut in ring of Ahmed Johnson and the Diesel/Bret Hart segment with McMahon interviewing them. It actually was a nice segment (a fact the WWE tried years later with Lashley...and failed) and both men cut very convincing promos. It gave the WWF World title match a big fight atmosphere. So there was that. The rest of this show was terrible.