Monday Night RAW (January 1st, 1996)
It's the first episode of 1996, and they've got this fuckin' whacky gimmick called the RAW Bowl.
Four teams: The Smoking Gunns, Yokozuna & Owen Hart, Sycho Sid & 1-2-3 Kid, and Razor Ramon & Savio Vega. WWE has decided to go all out, with Earl Hebner even dressed up as a fuckin' football referee, and a bajillion football references by Vince and Lawler. All 8 guys even have "jerseys" with numbers on the back. This is beyond corny (and speaking of, Corny is there too!).
Goldust shows up in the middle of the match to watch longingly at Razor, because that storyline is still going on. Vince McMahon actually throwing out penalty names like encroachment and illegal formations really shows Vince actually watches something other than WWE programming.
When Sid gets in the ring, it's absolutely hard to deny that he is over as fuck with this Maryland crowd. Razor gets eliminated after 1-2-3 Kid calls... time out, and then Sid ambushes Razor and knocks him out. Apparently teams can call timeout at least once during the matchup? Hart & Yoko are eliminated when the ref doesn't see Yokozuna call timeout after accidentally squashing Owen. After a bit of back and forth, Razor comes back and fucks over Sid and Kid, costing them the win.
If you can get past the obnoxious football references, Jerry Lawler chatting with some chick named "Miss RAW Bowl", and the weird-ass rules of the match, this... isn't actually a bad match. If anything, it's a bit underwhelming considering four of the talents in the ring are all-time greats: Owen, Razor, Savio, and Sean Waltman.
Oh yeah, and this is the show where the "Billionaire Ted" skits debut, Vader's first on-screen appearance is on this show too, and Kevin Nash squashes Mabel in 8 seconds. So yeah. Not much to see on this show.
