Monday Night RAW (#93)
Date: 2 January 1995
Location: Liberty High School; Liberty, NY
Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon & Shawn Michaels
Tonight, Double J sings!
This is the last of the holiday taping cycle from a high school gym in New York and looks incredibly low rent. For some reason Grumpy Gorilla is covering this one in front of the green screen with HBK.
Lex Luger & The British Bulldog fought The Million Dollar Corporation (Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka) to a double count out (8:46)
Luger and Bulldog are not yet The Allied Powers, as you sense they still see Luger as a star for now. Lex gets attacked on arrival before Bulldog can make his entrance, and the heels quickly get the upper hand, putting the heat on Lex in what is a very basic, chronically dull tag team match. Eventually, Lex makes it to his corner and gets the hot tag, letting Bulldog run wild for a bit. Then things head out to the floor for a lazy double countout. Snooze fest with a crappy finish, but we'll come back to this later. *
Royal Rumble Report now as Todd Pettengill hilariously shits all over the finish of the last match before running down the card for the Royal Rumble. Also, Pamela Anderson will be there! Hopefully she scats and tells the snowman to stay away (iykyk). Meanwhile, The Roadie is getting shit together for Jarrett's big performance. This is a rare mid-nineties gimmick I actually quite dig.
Duke Droese def. Mike Bell (1:34)
Very straight-forward squash here with little to no selling of any kind by Dumpster. Probably for the best. An awesome looking Trash Compactor finishes it. At least he had one good move.
Papa Shango Kama is coming! On a motorbike!
King's Court now with Owen Hart. I think Neidhart had been fired at this point as Owen comes out to meet King alone. Owen has a bombshell to share, which is that he'll win the WWF Championship and never lose it, unlike Bret. Very on brand for Owen. This was an awkward segment as Owen was never comfortable talking for too long and Gorilla was jabbering constantly over the top of it.
Jeff Jarrett def. Buck Quartermaine (2:52)
Before he sings, Jarrett has a ham 'n' egger to bounce. This was another brief squash with very little offense given to Quartermaine at all, as Double J took it easy and mostly strutted around before synching in the figure-four for the win.
Post-match, it's time for Double J to perform, but in a predictable bit the mic is too loud, the spotlight goes missing, and the mic stand collapses. Monsoon actually blames Kevin Dunn for this and they didn't edit it out. I guess Dunn must have been gnawing his way through a redwood or something.
In what I can only assume was a USA Network cross-promotional bit, Super Dave Osborne gets into mischief, including a pretty hilarious stunt-gone-wrong that made me wish I was watching his show instead.
Lex Luger & British Bulldog def. The Million Dollar Corporation (4:58)
After the non-finish earlier, it's declared that the match must continue! Great. It pretty much resumes the same formula as earlier, with Lex getting beaten down by the heels. More interestingly, HBK absolutely buries Luger on the call for a lack of talent. He gets to Bulldog for the hot tag once again and Davey cleans house. Tatanka gets whipped into Bam Bam on the apron and Bulldog makes the cover for the win. This didn't need to exist. 1/2*
As the heels leave, DiBiase gets on top of Bam Bam, so it's pretty obvious where that's going. And we're outta time.
Overall, thumbs way down for this show, which came off lazy and thoughtless in pretty much every way.
NEXT WEEK: RAW has its second birthday; Razor faces Owen (that should be good); Shatner reunites with King; and Whippleman takes on Fink in a Tuexedo Match! Good lord.
Date: 2 January 1995
Location: Liberty High School; Liberty, NY
Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon & Shawn Michaels
Tonight, Double J sings!
This is the last of the holiday taping cycle from a high school gym in New York and looks incredibly low rent. For some reason Grumpy Gorilla is covering this one in front of the green screen with HBK.
Lex Luger & The British Bulldog fought The Million Dollar Corporation (Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka) to a double count out (8:46)
Luger and Bulldog are not yet The Allied Powers, as you sense they still see Luger as a star for now. Lex gets attacked on arrival before Bulldog can make his entrance, and the heels quickly get the upper hand, putting the heat on Lex in what is a very basic, chronically dull tag team match. Eventually, Lex makes it to his corner and gets the hot tag, letting Bulldog run wild for a bit. Then things head out to the floor for a lazy double countout. Snooze fest with a crappy finish, but we'll come back to this later. *
Royal Rumble Report now as Todd Pettengill hilariously shits all over the finish of the last match before running down the card for the Royal Rumble. Also, Pamela Anderson will be there! Hopefully she scats and tells the snowman to stay away (iykyk). Meanwhile, The Roadie is getting shit together for Jarrett's big performance. This is a rare mid-nineties gimmick I actually quite dig.
Duke Droese def. Mike Bell (1:34)
Very straight-forward squash here with little to no selling of any kind by Dumpster. Probably for the best. An awesome looking Trash Compactor finishes it. At least he had one good move.
King's Court now with Owen Hart. I think Neidhart had been fired at this point as Owen comes out to meet King alone. Owen has a bombshell to share, which is that he'll win the WWF Championship and never lose it, unlike Bret. Very on brand for Owen. This was an awkward segment as Owen was never comfortable talking for too long and Gorilla was jabbering constantly over the top of it.
Jeff Jarrett def. Buck Quartermaine (2:52)
Before he sings, Jarrett has a ham 'n' egger to bounce. This was another brief squash with very little offense given to Quartermaine at all, as Double J took it easy and mostly strutted around before synching in the figure-four for the win.
Post-match, it's time for Double J to perform, but in a predictable bit the mic is too loud, the spotlight goes missing, and the mic stand collapses. Monsoon actually blames Kevin Dunn for this and they didn't edit it out. I guess Dunn must have been gnawing his way through a redwood or something.
In what I can only assume was a USA Network cross-promotional bit, Super Dave Osborne gets into mischief, including a pretty hilarious stunt-gone-wrong that made me wish I was watching his show instead.
Lex Luger & British Bulldog def. The Million Dollar Corporation (4:58)
After the non-finish earlier, it's declared that the match must continue! Great. It pretty much resumes the same formula as earlier, with Lex getting beaten down by the heels. More interestingly, HBK absolutely buries Luger on the call for a lack of talent. He gets to Bulldog for the hot tag once again and Davey cleans house. Tatanka gets whipped into Bam Bam on the apron and Bulldog makes the cover for the win. This didn't need to exist. 1/2*
As the heels leave, DiBiase gets on top of Bam Bam, so it's pretty obvious where that's going. And we're outta time.
Overall, thumbs way down for this show, which came off lazy and thoughtless in pretty much every way.
NEXT WEEK: RAW has its second birthday; Razor faces Owen (that should be good); Shatner reunites with King; and Whippleman takes on Fink in a Tuexedo Match! Good lord.
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