Connor McGrath
WWF Monday Night RAW
August 14th, 1995
Live from The Memorial Auditorium in Worcester, Massachusetts
Announcers: Vince McMahon, Ted DiBiase (opener), and Dok Hendrix
We’re less than two weeks away from SummerSlam ’95! Last week, Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels suffered a near career ending injury at the hands of King Mabel. This week, Shawn Michaels has to defend the title against another King, the legendary Jerry Lawler! Lawler cuts a promo on HBK. He tells HBK that King Lawler will finish what King Mabel started!
We’re live from the Memorial Auditorium in Worcester, Massachusetts this week. Cawthon’s erroneously says this shows from the much, much larger Worcester Centrum but WWF really wasn’t running a lot of shows at huge 10,000+ seat arenas at the state of the game. Heck, the 3,000 seat Auditorium seemed big time by Summer ’95 WWF standards. I think ECW did a few shows at this venue too.
“The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase is filling in as color commentator since Lawler’s in tonight’s main event.
Waylon Mercy Vs Doink The Clown
We haven’t seen Doink in a while. He’s on his way out at this point. He doesn’t have Dink with him. Thank goodness. Vince calls him Anna Nichole Smith’s favorite wrestler. Huh? I know there was the viral video of Anna Nichole right before her death, slurring with clown makeup on but that was like ten years after this! Waylon gets a decent amount of cheers, presumably from the smarks in attendance. Vince and DiBiase discuss whether or not Henry Godwinn will join the Million Dollar Corporation. MDM will NEVER have a dirty hog farmer in his Corporation, HOG is just a dirty guy he hired for a dirty job. DiBiase likes Waylon Mercy though. Yeah, I’d say at least half of the crowd is cheering for Mercy. This is the infamous match where the crowd chants “Kill The Clown.” Yeah, the cartoon era of WWF was over. Too bad it took Vince another year and a half or so to realize it himself! Mercy wins with a Sleeper.
We get the first interview from Goldust. It’s filmed in front of a green screen of Warner Brothers Animation Studio (with big Tiny Toons Adventures and Batman: The Animated Series logos on it! 1995). I don’t think they quite knew what Goldust’s gimmick was yet. He just seems like a generic weirdo wearing bodypaint at this point.
Ted DiBiase likes Goldust! He’s a man with class unlike that bacon breath Henry O. Godwinn. HOG charges out. He’s not scheduled until later on. DiBiase tells him to calm down. HOG makes DiBiase beg on his knees. DiBiase pleads with him but gets slopped anyway. The crowd goes wild for the HOG, making me want to take back some of the nice things I said about them during the opener!
Dok Hendrix runs out in a white suit with no shirt underneath to fill in for DiBiase. He rambles a mile a minute about how his Cub Scout training taught him to be prepared. Was Dok’s initial gimmick “screaming cokehead?”
The Smoking Gunns Vs Bill Garrett and Cody Wade
Garrett and Wade’s tights are goofy as hell. Bart hits one of the most awkward hip tosses ever on Wade. These jobbers are awful as hell. Luckily, this match ends a minute and a half or so end when The Smoking Gunns finish Garrett with the Sidewinder. During this match, Vince and Dok talk about the Gunns’ newly announced match at SummerSlam with The Blu Twinns. I’m sure people were tripping over each other to buy the PPV to see that match back in August of ’95.
Dean Douglas calls out Bret Hart. Douglas gives Bret Hart an F. As bad as Douglas’ gimmick was in paper, I think Shane deserves at least 25% of the blame as he looks about as excited as a guy waiting for a colonoscopy doing this schtick. Damien Sandow had the same gimmick and was able to almost, sort of make it work with his commitment to the cheesiness. Hell, Austin sort of tried to make the Ringmaster work. Douglas line of thinking, at this point, was probably “If I do a bad enough job with this, maybe they’ll just let me be the Franchise.” It didn’t help these segments that Douglas was calling out guys he’d have no interaction with for the rest of his run.
HBK cuts a promo on the video screen. He’s not concerned. All of the King’s Horses and Men can’t keep HBK from gyrating again. Vince McMahon is wicked psyched for HBK gyrating.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vs Jeff Hardy
Funny to think that this match would main event PPVs thirteen years later. Triple H’s entrance isn’t even shown here. Some old ladies golf clap for him though. Speaking of old ladies, Vince hypes Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot being on USA Network later this week. That movie was about as good of an idea as Mantaur. Jeff’s tights are ugly as hell. Even at this stage though, he shows some glimpses of potential. At least, he can take a hiptoss. Vince shills America Online. Triple H wins with the Pedigree. Smarks like him too for some reason. Helmsley is having his pay per view debut at SummerSlam against the speedster Bob Holly.
Speaking of SummerSlam, here’s Todd Pettingell with the SummerSlam ’95 Insider! Barry Horowitz Vs Skip is another match newly announced. Barry Horowitz beat Skip again yesterday on Superstars. Barry Horowitz is on a WWF PPV! Again, fans tripping over themselves to buy this show. 123 Kid Vs Hakushi is another match that Gorilla announced by demand of the people. Todd Pettingell takes a jab at Dok Hendrix’s schtick being outdated and Dok gets flustered.
Vince hypes WrestleMania: The Special airing on an undisclosed network to kick off the ’95-’96 Fall Season in the indeterminate future. Relive Bam Bam Bigelow Vs LT… or don’t.
Henry O. Godwinn Vs Russ Greenberg
Russ Greenberg is pretty jacked by jobber standards. HOG is still wrestling like a heel. Coked up Dok calls out Hank Godwinn and says he’s a marked man by the Million Dollar Dorporation. Godmann wins with the Slop Drop. Dok freaks out. HOG slops Greeenberg after the match.
Now another Issac Yankem DDS vignette. HOW DID WCW THINK THEY COULD COMPETE WITH THIS!?
Non Title Match: Shawn Michaels Vs Jerry “The King” Lawler
I’m pretty psyched to watch this one. Both of these guys are awesome workers with completely different styles. Interesting to see how they’ll work together. Dok says he saw SID and Lawler chatting backstage. Vince wants to know what could THOSE TWO POSSIBLY BE TALKING ABOUT!? Dok’s lips are sealed.
Meanwhile elsewhere backstage, 123 Kid and Savio Vega play Pogs WWF Mat Caps. Barry Didinsky’s got to be at ringside but these guys are holding him up! Oh well! Didinsky shells an uncut sheet of Mat Caps with 18k gold Slammer being available for $19.90. Included is a three month subscription to WWF Magazine! This is the most 1995 segment ever.
HBK clowns with Lawler to start the match. They point this is a non-title match for the first time. What is this, WCW? This match is kind of a letdown as both guys seem to be coasting on their charisma and doing as little as possible. Which I mean…good for them since doing stuff like this extended their careers by decades but was kind of hoping for a bit more. I like HBK blocking the piledriver by doing sort of a hand stand when Lawler tried to spike him into the mat. SID is here! He grabs the Intercontinental Title. HEY SID! You aren’t in the IC Title match at SummerSlam anymore. HBK knocks out Lawler with the Sweet Chin Music. SID runs in to draw the DQ. SID chokeslams Michaels. SID goes for the Powerbomb but Razor Ramon runs in for the save. Michaels goes for the Sweet Chin Music on SID but Razor pulls him out of the way. Razor goes for the Razor’s Edge on SID but Lawler runs in to bring his old buddy LORD HUMONGOUS back to safety. Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels wrestle over the IC Belt. It’s gonna be a Ladder Match at SummerSlam, folks. WE GOTTA GO TO COMMERCIAL.
When we come back, Diesel is attempting to calm things down. Dok wants violence. Razor & Michaels can’t wait for SummerSlam!
Next Week on RAW: The Undertaker continues his war with The Million Dollar Corporation when he takes on Tatanka! Plus Men on a Mission (featuring #1 WWF World Title Contender King Mabel…still weird) are in action! Join me as I recap the last episode RAW before the Monday Night War!
