Connor McGrath
WWF Monday Night RAW
July 24th, 1995
Live from The Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky
Announcers: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler
Welcome to another edition of RAW Before The War. It’s the night after In Your House 2, probably the second best pay per view of the year so far behind Royal Rumble… which isn’t saying much since it’s ’95 but it was still a solid effort. Tonight, we enter a new era of RAW with a new look!
The show opens with a look at Shawn Michaels winning his third WWF Intercontinental Title last night from Jeff Jarrett. This is the second pay per view in a row where they highlighted a match other than the main event on RAW the night after. At this point, I think they were losing faith in Big Daddy Cool as the face of the promotion by the minute.
The new Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels gets the show going with a big non-title match. This is the debut of the new RAW set with the huge R-A-W letters that lasted until the start of the Attitude era.
Non-Title Match: Shawn Michaels Vs Jimmy Del Ray (with Jim Cornette and Dr. Tom Prichard)
Heavenly Bodies are still on the roster despite the fact that we haven’t seen them in a few months. Gigolo and Shawn Michaels battling to see who the TRUE heartthrob in the WWF. I wonder if they have the Bodies in such a big match since they were in Smokey Mountain Wrestling territory for this RAW taping. Jimmy Del Ray kind of looks like the redneck Morgan Spurlock. I love how disgusted Vince is by Del Ray’s grinding. Both these guys are cutting a pretty good pace. Glad to see the Gigolo get plenty of offense. This may be the first time on RAW that the Sweet Chin Music and Shawn “tuning up the band” is referenced. He accidentally hits Dr. Tom with it. Del Ray elbows HBK but gets nailed with the Sweet Chin Music a few seconds later and Shawn Michaels gets the win. Really fun, little match here. Love finding less heralded gems like this on the Network. Fun to watch HBK becoming one of the best workers in the world. As I type that HBK shows the crowd his ass crack. Vince is disgusted by Jimmy Del Ray’s gyrations but laughs off HBK showing his BUTT. HYPOCRISY!
Vince McMahon shows us a clip of Jeff Jarrett’s live debut. Vince says The Roadie has proof that Jeff Jarrett may have been lip synching. GASP! We then get a look at the end of HBK-Jeff Jarrett and also see the post-match squabble between Double J and The Roadie. Jerry Lawler is upset. First Milli Vanilli and now this! Who cares if the music is good? Vince says we’ll never see Double J sing again. *sniff* Last night would be the last we’d see Jarrett for five months.
Vince narrates a video package highlighting the feud between Bret Hart and Hakushi. They’ll face off in the main event tonight. Boy, the angle where Lawler accused Bret Hart of hating the Japanese never really went anywhere. Or did it? I guess we might see later tonight!
The Smoking Gunns Vs John Faulkner and Rich Stockhauser
Jobbers are actually wearing matching tights again. Vince McMahon and The King talk about Louisville being the home of Muhammad Ali and give us some horrible Ali impressions in honor of The Greatest of All Time. The Smoking Gunns win with the Sidewinder as Lawler makes some jokes about OJ Simpson. 1995!
Vince is with Barry Didinsky, whom is wearing an “Ain’t I Great? …Not’ Jeff Jarrett t-shirt… c’mon, EBay. You can get the Ain’t I Great t-shirt and a “With My Baby Tonight” cass-single. Lawler wants to punch Didinsky’s lights out for dissing Double J.
We see a short vignette, advertising a new wrestler from Hollywood, California named Goldust. Pfftt. That guy will be a flash in the pan.
Fatu gives us another tour of the streets of San Francisco. He walks through the parking lot of the Cow Palace. He used to see wrestling here and one day, he’ll wrestle there himself because he doesn’t do drugs and he stayed in school.
Waylon Mercy Vs Gary Scott
Now Waylon Mercy is a WWF superstar with staying power. He shakes the referee and the jobber’s hands then knees the jobber in the breadbasket. Great man.Vince is taken aback by Mercy’s tattoos which seems weird. Twenty years later, most of the roster has tats. Vince and Lawler mention that SummerSlam is taking place at the Igloo in Pittsburgh this year. Waylon wins with the Sleeper and we get a nice closeup of the fake tat on his forehead.
Todd Pettingell is here with our final In Your House 2 report in super 1995 striped shirt that he probably stole from Garth Brooks’ closet. First, some hype for SummerSlam! Sunday August 27th from the Igloo in Pittsburgh. We get some stills of Allied Powers/Owen Hart & Yokozuna match for the WWF Tag Team Titles. the Intercontinental Title match, and some footage of the main event. King Mabel bodyslammed Diesel on the floor but Diesel retained against SID. Hmmm. King Mabel has declared himself the #1 Contender for the WWF World Title. King Mabel (with Sir Mo) cuts a promo on Diesel. King of the Ring is the highest honor in the WWF. He’s only considering granting Diesel a match out of the goodness of his heart. Mabel and Mo’s matching robes and crowns with sunglasses are pretty boss.
Bret Hart Vs Hakushi (With Shinja)
Hakushi got off to a great start in WWF but his career has stalled somewhat. Lawler mispronounces Hideo Nomo’s name. Hope Lawler’s not still commentating when KENTA gets called up. Hakushi jumps Hitman when he’s giving a youngster his sunglasses. Vince announces that Bret Hart Vs Issac Yankem has already been announced for SummerSlam! No one’s seen the good Dr. Yankem in the ring EXCEPT for Lawler. Lawler compares Shinja’s beard to Judge Ito’s. 1995! Hakushi busts out the Flying Space Tiger Drop while Bret’s outside the ring. It warrants an UNBELIEVABLE and a “QUITE a maneuver” from Vince. Hakushi really was freakishly athletic but unfortunately, all of the guys besides Bret who could work well with him in the States at the time, either didn’t want to or were in WCW or ECW. Bret Hart gets the win with the Sharpshooter. After the match, Shinja tries to get some on the Hitman but gets piledriven by Bret. Bret celebrates the big win and Hakushi begins his rapid descent down the card.
HEY! WHat’s Jean Pierre Laffitte doing here (who Vince thinking it’s 1993 refers to as just “Pierre”). He’s got Bret Hart’s jacket! The Hitman’s too busy celebrating to notice.
WWF’s resident egghead The Genius Damien Sandow Dean Douglas is here to deliver his Report Card. Dean Douglas defines the word knowledge then drolly hypes himself up. This is about as boring of a debut as I can remember. It’s like Shane Douglas immediately knew “Crap! This gimmick sucks and I’ll be back in ECW in six months.” Dean Douglas was not a great gimmick but I think Shane deserves a good portion of the blame for such half-assed commitment to it.
Shawn Michaels is backstage! He talks to Vince and Jerry. Jerry Lawler wants the Intercontinental Title! Shawn Michaels tells Kingfish to bring it! And we’re out of time for this week!
Really strong RAW. Best since the night after WrestleMania XI. Not much in the way of storyline development but we get a match featuring Shawn Michaels in his prime against a very capable opponent Jimmy Del Ray and a match featuring Bret Hart in his prime against the underrated Hakushi. Plus an appearance by the always entertaining Waylon Mercy. This is an easy thumbs up and one of the best RAWs of 1995.
Next Week on RAW: Owen Hart & Yokozuna defend the WWF Tag Team Titles against the team of Savio Vega and Razor Ramon plus Bam Bam Bigelow and King Mabel are in action and we’ll an exclusive interview with the new WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels!
