Connor McGrath
WWF Monday Night RAW
August 7th, 1995 (Taped July 24th, 1995)
From Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky
Announcers: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler
(photos courtesy of Stephen Gray and WWE Network)
We’re less than three weeks away from SummerSlam ’95 and under a month away from the start of the Monday Night Wars! We’ve got a huge double main event on Monday Night RAW so let’s head down to ringside. We start off with footage from the finish of last week’s Camp Cornette/Razor Ramon & Savio Vega match for the Tag Team Titles. Last week, time ran out but this week, we’ll see the rematch! And we’ll see WWF World Champion Diesel, in his first match since being injured at In Your House II by King Mabel, taking on Mabel’s sidekick Sir Mo in a non title match. Diesel threatens to take Sir Mo to “the castle of coolness.” That’s really not much of a threat, Big Daddy Cool…
WWF Tag Team Titles Match: Owen Hart & Yokozuna (c) (with Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) Vs Razor Ramon and Savio Vega
These four were pretty good together. I think in another world where Sid Vs Shawn Michaels happens at SummerSlam ’95, this would have been the WWF Tag Team Titles match at SummerSlam ’95. Actually, I don’t think the WWF Tag Team Titles were defended at all at that show. Vince mentions the ladder match in passing so I guess Sid Vs Shawn Michaels had already been changed to Shawn Michaels Vs Razor Ramon Ladder Match II. This one is understandably a bit more resthold heavy and not quite as good as last week’s effort but still decent. You know considering his size, Yoko still moved fairly well for a guy of his size at this point. He wasn’t near as good as he was in ’92/’93 but he didn’t really fall off the rails until the next year. Yokozuna gets the pin on Savio after a Samoan Drop and legdrop. Next, we go to Dean Douglas for The Report Card.
Dean Douglas badmouths the team of Savio Vega & Razor Ramon. He gives them a grade of two Ts. That stands for Terrible Twosome.
Up next, a visit to Issac Yankem’s dentist office. HOW DID WCW TTHINK THEY COULD COMPETE WITH THIS!? They spend way too much on dumb special effects for this segment.
Fatu Vs Tony DeVito
Fatu is making his first appearance as a singles wrestler. Fatu wrestles wearing a knit cap for the first part of the match. 1995! Vince McMahon and Lawler talk about Lawler’s Intercontinental Title shot against Shawn Michaels next week on the show. Lawler calls out Fatu for being pudgy and Vince calls out Lawler for calling out Fatu for being pudgy. Fatu hits a sweet Diamond Cutter/ RKO, which Vince calls a “Samoan Bulldog.” Fatu gets the win with a big splash. Always dug Fatu, even though this motivational speaker gimmick was the pits.
Vince McMahon hypes WWF being available for fundraisers. This really is reminder of how low WWF’s popularity was at the time that they were pandering to try and appear at high schools and colleges.
It’s time for the SummerSlam ’95 Report, Presented by Stridex!
Todd is joined by new interim WWF President Gorilla Monsoon. Gorilla Monsoon is going to be the most fan friendly President in WWF history. He proves this by having a rematch of one of the most memorable matches of this era—the ladder match between Shawn Michaels & Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Title. He says he’s the interim President so he won’t have to deal with the corporate politics and get bogged down to a long term. He also announces Alundra Blayze Vs Bertha Faye for the WWF Women’s Title.
Todd promises that this would be the greatest SummerSlam ever…
Diesel Vs Sir Mo
Finally, everybody’s least favorite member of Men on a Mission gets to main event RAW. The lights are on bright. Vince says Mabel is in the house and so is Shawn Michaels. This is a pretty lousy match. Vince even does the sort of veiled acknowledgement of it by talking about how Sir Mo isn’t a great scientific wrestler. Big Mabel waddles out to yell at HBK on the ring apron. Mabel goes to attack Diesel but is scared off by Shawn Michaels. Kind of an absurd visual to see the 6’8″, 500 pound Mabel scared off by 5’11”, 220 pound HBK. WWF really had started making Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels look like a bigger deal than World Champion Diesel at this point. Diesel gets the win with the Jackknife Powerbomb. After the match, Mabel attacks Diesel. Shawn Michaels fights off Mabel for a bit but eventually Mabel slams him against the ring post. Big Daddy Cool fights off the King and checks on his little buddy. Has Shawn Michaels hurt his back again? Lawler trolls everybody about his match with HBK next week.
Next Week on RAW: RAW is live from the Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts! Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defends the title against Jerry “The King” Lawler plus the undefeated Waylon Mercy takes on Doink The Clown!
