Connor McGrath
When it comes to recalling the history of Monday Night RAW, we often skip from RAW’s innovative and exciting early days in 1993 to the start of the Monday Night Wars in September of 1995. Thanks to the magic of WWE Network, Culture Crossfire’s Connor McGrath takes a look back at RAW in the nine months before the beginning of the Monday Night Wars against WCW’s Monday Nitro.
Welcome to RAW Before The War, an eight month look back at some of the WORST shows in World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment history! I’m Connor McGrath, your tour guide for this look back at the first two thirds of Monday Night RAW’s 1995 season.
1994 had been one of the most tumultuous years in WWF history with owner Vince McMahon barely avoiding jail time and two of its biggest stars of all time, Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage defecting to rival World Championship Wrestling. It hardly seemed like things could go any worse in 1995.
Or could they? Let’s find out as we take our first look back at RAW before the War!
WWF Monday Night RAW
January 2nd, 1995 (Taped December 12th, 1994)
Taped from Liberty High School in Liberty, New York
Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon & Shawn Michaels
The first RAW of 1995 begins with #1 Contender for the WWF Intercontinental Title Jeff Jarrett and his faithful sidekick The Roadie! Jeff Jarrett says the country world is out tonight to see Jeff Jarrett’s singing debut. An auspicious start to 1995 for Monday Night RAW.
Gorilla Monsoon welcomes us to tonight’s show. He’s filling in for Vince McMahon, who is feeling too under the weather to record commentary for a show he did four weeks ago apparently. Gorilla’s co-host is Shawn Michaels, which is a really odd announce team. Interested to see how these two sound together. Gorilla Monsoon really didn’t seem into announcing after Bobby Heenan left for WCW at the end of ’93 and he seemed even less interested after his son Joey Marella died on the 4th of July in ’94. HBK, I always thought was mildly underrated as a color guy but he never did much as an announcer because well, he didn’t really have to. He’s one of the greatest wrestlers of all time!
Tonight, in addition to the singing debut of Jeff Jarrett, we’re going to see a big tag team match between Lex Luger & British Bulldog and Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka.
Lex Luger & “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith Vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka (with Ted DiBiase)
Ted DiBiase spent most of 1994 putting together the Million Dollar Corporation but 1995 is the year they go for the gold. Lex Luger & The Bulldog aren’t the Allied Powers yet and get separate entrances. Luger goes after Tatanka like a dumbass and gets double-teamed before Bulldog makes the save. Two weeks ago, Tatanka cost Luger a match against IRS and last week on RAW, Luger ran in to cause a double DQ during Tatanka’s match with Bulldog to set this up.
HBK thinks Luger’s ’95 New Year’s Resolution is to stop being an idiot, which I find hilariously true since I don’t think over the course of his career, any wrestler’s been portrayed as more of a dumbass as Luger. The crowd chants “USA” which I find dumb since the only guy who isn’t from the US is on the babyface team. Either that or the good folks of Liberty, New York are big fans of the Million Dollar Corporation..
Gorilla speculates maybe Vince McMahon is sick at the thought of dealing with Shawn Michaels’ antics in 1995. Oh man, Gorilla didn’t know how right he’d be. Gorilla Monsoon and Shawn Michaels debate whether it’s a smart idea for DiBiase to sign his guys up for a match like this while they’re in the WWF Tag Team Titles tournament. See, it’s little conversations like this that make me miss old school wrestling. Guys have big matches all the time and it barely has a standing on their PPV matches. (Andrew Lutzke rant over).
Bulldog gets the Running Powerslam on Tatanka but DiBiase pulls Tatanka out of the ring and both teams brawl around ringside and we get a double countout. You know, I enjoyed this match marginally more than I expected to. I mean, all of these guys were decent to good workers at one point in their careers but that point was necessarily during this era. This was a fine tag match for this era.
While the Keystone Cops try to separate these two teams, we go to Todd Pettingell with a Royal Rumble ’95 Report. Todd thinks no one’s New Year’s Resolution was to see a double countout! Todd is sick of football! Just give the Niners their Super Bowl Rings! He’d rather see 30 WWF superstars battle for a WWF World Title Shot (and the chance to awkwardly put their arm around Pamela Anderson)!
Todd Pettingell has an update on the previous match! They want this match continue! Todd Pettingell says the Royal Rumble is the fastest thirty minutes on TV! Take that, Seinfeld! The Bushwhackers are the only new participants added to the match this week. No wonder why this was the thinnest Rumble ever…
Coming up next! Duke “The Dumpster” Droese! Wait! What is The Roadie doing?
The Roadie putzes around with some audio equipment. Gorilla Monsoon wants this guy out of there! The Roadie scoots away from Duke Droese in amusing fashion.
Duke “The Dumpster” Droese Vs Mike Bell
Duke Droese high fives the Spanish announce team and gives his baseball cap to a little girl in the audience. He’s here to take on Mike Bell. You’re an eight year old in 1995 and sit in the front row of a WWF show hoping Bret Hart will give you his sunglasses and you end up with Duke The Dumpster’s dirty hat. Shawn Michaels hypes the premiere of TekWar, a USA Original Series on Saturday Night. TekWar‘s star William Shatner will be on RAW next week for the second anniversary show. Duke wins with the Trash Compactor.
We get a vignette for Kama The Ultimate Fighting Machine with Kama wrecking fools in the gym and riding a motorcycle around the deserts of Nevada.
An update on the WWF Tag Team Titles tournament. The New Headshrinkers advanced to the semi-finals after they won via disqualification in their match against The New Foundation after Owen Hart whacked Fatu with a boot. I believe this was Neidhart’s last appearance for this run.
Gorilla Monsoon bemoans that it’s 1995 and we still have to put up with The King’s Court. Tonight, Jerry Lawler’s guest is “The King of Harts” Owen Hart. I feel like Owen Hart was Lawler’s guest every third week or so in ’95. Gorilla Monsoon thinks Owen is a DESPICABLE individual for screwing his big brother out of the WWF World Title. Owen’s got the towel Helen Hart used to throw in to lose Bret the WWF World Title after Owen duped her. Owen says this is the beginning of his master plan. Owen says he’s never gonna quit because he’s a winner and he will retire the WWF World Champion. Owen officially enters the 1995 Royal Rumble.
We get an ad for next week’s 2nd Year Anniversary Show. Including sarcastic hype for Harvey Whippleman Vs Howard Finkel. HOW DID WCW THINK THEY COULD COMPETE WITH THIS!?
“Double J” Jeff Jarrett Vs Buck Quartermaine
J-E-Double F Ha Ha J-A-Double R ha ha E-Double T is gonna wipe the match with Buck Quartermaine before he makes his singing debut. I’m not sure where I remember Buck Quartermaine from. Wikipedia tells me he had a cup of coffee in TNA in late ’05/’06 so maybe that. Monsoon says Jarrett stole his strut from “The Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. Shawn Michaels doesn’t know who that is. Jarrett wins with the Figure Four. Jeff Jarrett will be singing after our commercial break!
Jarrett and Roadie check the mics! The levels are off. They want them to bring it out. Gorilla thinks he’s killing time. The Roadie accidentally knocks over the mic stand. HBK buries RAW’s production staff. Gorilla wants Double J to get on with that because SUPER DAVE is gonna be on next. There’s too much feedback. Gorilla: Where’s Kevin Dunn when you need him!? Jarrett and The Roadie finally storm off. Gorilla Monsoon is APPALLED!
Gorilla Monsoon interviews Super Dave Osborne about his new USA Network original series. In a clip from the show, Super Dave’s security guard punches the guy who played the manager in 2Ge+her. Oh man, my head is exploding due to all of the nostalgia.
Lex Luger & “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith Vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka (with Ted DiBiase)
We join the restart of our feature match in progress with Bam Bam Bigelow pummeling Lex Luger. Shawn Michaels says 1995 is not gonna be such a bright year for Lex Luger. Was 1994 that great? Luger quietly (and quickly) fell from the main event into the midcard in ’94 after Mr. Perfect left WWF just as him and Luger were about to feud. Not that that feud would have been gangbusters to begin with. Bulldog & Luger pick up the win after Tatanka accidentally collides with Bam Bam Bigelow on the apron! Bulldog & Luger are on their way to the 1995 Royal Rumble.
After the match, Ted DiBiase berates Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka with Bam Bam bearing the brunt of it. There’s already dissension in the Million Dollar Corporation. The second half of this match wasn’t as good as the first but I like the long term storytelling here of Bam Bam Bigelow being the screw up of the Million Dollar Corporation. Too bad, the payoff sucked but it started well!
And the first RAW of ’95 is in the books! Thanks for reading, folks!
Next Week on RAW: RAW is live from its biggest venue yet, the Summit in Houston, Texas for its 2nd Anniversary Episode! Razor Ramon defends the WWF Intercontinental Title against the 1994 King of the Ring Owen Hart in a rematch of last year’s King of the Ring Finals. Plus Jerry Lawler welcomes Star Trek The USA Network original TekWar star William Shatner to The King’s Court, the merciful end of Harvey Whippleman and Howard Finkel’s “feud” and more action!
