March 25, 1996:
Overview: We are just six days away from WrestleMania 12! On this go-home edition of Raw, the show opens up with Shawn taking on Leif Cassidy of the "New Rockers." Leif Cassidy, is of course, Al Snow. This should be a nice, little tune-up for Shawn going into WrestleMania just six days later. Bret is also ringside to do commentary on the match with Vince.
Review: Shawn comes down to the ring and he is doing his 'Kliq-Cam' gimmick of filming the fans with his camcorder:
Both guys lockup as Leif has Shawn in the corner, but lets him go. Shawn shoulder-blocks Leif down, arm-drag takedown as Shawn takes control early in the match with an armbar. Leif works out of it, both guys run the ropes and Shawn hits him with a crossbody, and goes back into the armbar. Shawn has firm control of the match thus far.
Cassidy takes control by hitting what can be described as a spine-buster type of maneuver as he takes control. He then puts Shawn in a surfboard like maneuver as they go to commercial. Cassidy hits Shawn with a vertical suplex and then puts Shawn in a chinlock as he maintains control of the match. Shawn starts to get up and gets out of with a few right hands. Both guys trade small-package combo pin attempts that all result in two counts for both men. Leif pokes Shawn in the eye and takes control and hits Shawn with this:
So, after Shawn nearly dies, Cassidy puts the boots to Shawn and stomps him a few times to kill time and give Shawn some time to recover. Leif puts Shawn on the top rope and hits him with a super-plex! Cassidy goes for the pin and gets a two count.
Both guys trade right hands and Cassidy once again puts Shawn on the top. But this time Shawn counters it by throwing Leif onto the mat and following it up with a huge flying clothesline from the top! Both guys are down, but Cassidy gets up first, and then Shawn nips up! Shawn hits an atomic drop and then peppers him with punches in the corner. Shawn gets tripped up by Marty on the outside and goes. This makes Bret get up and remove Marty from the situation. This distracts Leif, and enables Shawn to hit some SWEET CHIN MUSIC on Cassidy for the win!
After the match, Shawn immediately goes to Marty on the outside of the ring to get him back for tripping him during the match, on his way to Marty, Shawn kind of pushes Bret out of the with his one hand, and this pissed Bret off and we finally get a staredown for Shawn and Bret:
Analysis: Shawn keeps his momentum with another victory, this time just 6 days away from the biggest match of his life. Match was nothing special. It almost seemed as if ALwas alittle nervous in this match or something. Who knows. But the story is Shawn and Bret finally have a confrontation of some kind in this build to WM. It was simple but effective. I get not wanting them to touch and save that anticipation for WrestleMania, but I would've had them one brawl before WM, probably right here on this Raw before it gets broken up in like a minute or so as Raw goes off the air. Still, this was a simple but effective segment, though.