Monday Night Raw  - December 5th 1994

• Shawn Michaels joins commentary with Vince for tonight’s show. Vince mentions that Michaels is now a former Tag Team Champion, confirming the titles have been stripped from him and Diesel again. HBK hilariously takes the mic off Vince and says that he doesn’t need to be a spotlight hog a he steps in front of Vince and totally takes over the screen and show, with Vince looking put out behind him. Great stuff.

• He introduces “his very good friend” Double J who enters with someone behind him. Vince comments on how sloppy camera work focused on one of the ringside assistants instead of Jarrett. He takes his position at ringside - this is the debut of The Roadie, who’ll be a fixture for a long long time. More on him later. British Bulldog is Jeff’s big opponent tonight. This is a good match with Jeff needing to use sneaky tactics to slow down the big, powerful Bulldog who throws Jeff around and gets big cheers for doing so. Michaels is fantastic on commentary, cheering on fellow heel Jarrett and mocking Bulldog. The man at ringside - still no name - is pointed out by Vince a few times and the way he cheers on Jarrett and actually keeps fans from touching him on the outside confirms that whoever he is, he IS in Jarrett’s corner. There’s a nice spot as Jarrett tries to escape but Bulldog lifts him in a Gorilla press and walks him back to the ring. The unnamed assistant of Jarrett was hiding under the ring and grabbed Bulldog’s ankle, trapping him on the outside just long enough to get counted out. Genius finish, I liked that a lot. Jarrett wins, and has some new backup.

• The 1-2-3 Kid battles Barry Horowitz. Michaels refers to a kick to the face as “chin music” during this match which is interesting. He lights up Horowitz with kicks and defeats him with a roll up.
• Another debut as the trailer promoting next week’s Bob Backlund vs. Doink match is narrated by a female announcer. I’m sure we’ll meet her properly very soon.
• Kwang faces Scott Taylor. The match doesn’t matter, but Kwang’s manager Harvey Whippleman challenges Howard Finkle to a fight at ringside and steals all the focus anyway. Kwang wins and it looks like Harvey and Howard are dusting off their feud from the start of the year.

• On the King’s Court, after a long build up about his very special mystery guest’s identity, Shawn Michaels hops up into the ring. He takes all credit for Diesel being the champion - no one had ever heard of Diesel until he plucked him from obscurity and he is the special one, and the star. It goes on like that and he tells Big Daddy Cool to come and find him, if he wants to fight about it.

• There’s a video promoting the arrival of Japanese superstar Hakushi. More on him soon.

• In the main event, The Bushwackers face the team of Well Dunne (that’s Steven Well and Timothy Dunne). Their manager Harvey Whippleman antagonises Howard Finkle before the match again too. The big news during this match is that the now vacant Tag Team Championships will be contested in a tournament. The matches will all take place on WWF Superstars with the finals taking place at the Royal Rumble on January 22nd. I’m sure we’ll get updates on the progress of the tournament on Raw, even if I don’t get to see the actual tournament matches. The Bushwackers work for all their usual comedy spots as Well Dunne wrestle like real wrestlers, despite their ridiculous ring gear. Harvey grabs Butch’s ankle to stop the Bushwacker’s momentum and his team capitalise with a double team for the victory. Howard Finkle tells the referee what happened and tries to get the match restarted and the two of them start to fight at ringside. 
• After a commercial break, Bob Backlund has come out to discuss his big match with Doink next week. He uses big words and Michaels nods and pulls faces next to him, throwing in a little “yeah!” after Backlund’s threats towards the clown. The fans chant for Diesel as he rants like a mad man. 

Monday Night Raw  - December 12th 1994

• Raw kicks off with pre-recorded comments by both Bob Backlund and Doink. Doink tells Bob he respects him, but he has his own amateur wrestling background and will be more than a match for the former two time WWF Champion. Dink enters in place of Doink and looks like he’s going to start the match but it’s a ruse and Doink attacks from behind, getting the early advantage over Backlund before it settles into a proper wrestling match. During this match, Vince promotes that Backlund will be wrestling Diesel for the WWF title on the WWF’s winter house show tour, and Michaels says he’ll be in Backlund’s corner for many of those matches because they’ve become good friends off the back of both hating Diesel. Backlund has no problems with Doink but this match lasts longer than you’d expect. He stretches, grapples and wears out Doink on the mat and weathers a comeback kicking out of quite a few roll ups before finishing him off with the Chickenwing. This match was grueling enough that Doink’s face paint all came off, his ring gear came loose and his wig came up at one point to reveal his natural brown hair. Bob won’t release the hold after Doink submits and it takes pleading by Dink and three referees to break it up and save the clown. 

• Jeff Jarret comes to us live from Las Vegas to talk about the “Double J sweepstakes” It is unclear whether that’s a real contest or just some weird thing he said. 
• The brackets are announced for the WWF Tag Team Championship tournament.

• Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon faces Mark Starr. Shawn says Razor might be the only person who can confirm who is better out of him and Diesel, having wrestled both so many times. Razor catches a crossbody and loses his balance but really quickly recovers, selling his knee and telling Starr to go after his leg. Really nice and smart. Razor finishes the jobber off with a Razor’s Edge.
• Jerry Lawler hosts another edition of The King’s Court. He makes fun of McMahon’s smelly socks which gives Shawn a big laugh. I really like Michaels on commentary! He’s so quick. King’s guest this week is IRS, who brings a pair of druids to the ring with him. IRS talks about how dead people don’t pay taxes, and throws out some references to sports heroes who hadn’t been paying their own taxes. IRS says that the power of the urn is nothing compared to the power of money, and his druids. Undertaker is a tax cheat - you get it. He has a match with Lex Lugar next week and much like Undertaker, says one of his friends is one of HIS worst enemies. He means Tatanka for Lex but I have no idea who he means for Undertaker. I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

• Aldo Montoya faces Nick Barberri, who I just discovered I’ve been spelling his name wrong for months. Harvey Whippleman comes to ringside for no real reason? Aldo wins with a jumping bulldog off the middle rope. Harvey Whippleman confronts Howard Finkle again - Well Dunne and The Bushwackers are having a rematch next week and this time Howard will be in Butch and Luke’s corner. Whippleman shoves him back into his seat like a jerk bully. 
• On the 100th episode of WWF Mania, Todd Pettengill got a new co-host in Stephanie Wyand. She was the female voice over announcer I mentioned last week too and she’ll be a bit of a fixture on shows going forward much like my boy Todd himself. 

• In the main event, King Kong Bundy (with Ted Dibiase) batters Bobby Knight, slamming him around the ring and finishing him off with a big splash in the corner. They’re pushing Bundy hard, especially with pinning Lex at Survivor Series. Raw ends with a big sell for Lex Lugar vs. IRS next week and an appearance by Santa Claus who gifts Shawn Michaels a plastic and foam replica of the WWF Women’s Championship belt. Hilarious.

Monday Night Raw  - December 19th 1994

• Shawn Michaels and Vince are in the festive spirit this week with their Santa hats. All four of these episodes of Raw were taped together which probably isn’t obvious if you’re not watching them literally back to back.

• The show kicks off with IRS vs. Lex Lugar. Lex overpowers IRS but is thrown to the outside and his druids get in some cheap shots on the fallen Lex. The druids are played by a variety of people including Jimmy Del Ray, Barry Horowitz and the Brooklyn Brawler. Before the commercial break, the camera zooms in on the druid’s exposed hand and he’s wearing a very familiar ring. After some more interference by the druid, Lex goes after him and rmeoves his hood - it’s Tatanka! Lex gets counted out and so IRS wins, and then Lex is beaten up two on one by IRS and Tatanaka and left laying at ringside.
• There’s an energetic recap of the first round match in the Tag Team title tournament. Mo has finally returned from his injury, but he and Mabel were defeated by Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow (thanks to lots of interference by King Kong Bundy). 
• Backstage, the Bushwackers warm up for their match with Well Dunne alongside honorary Bushwacker for the night, Howard Finkle. 

• Jeff Jarrett is in Las Vegas again. He drops in on a Country music show and meets some celebrity I’ve never heard of. He plugs his album “Ain’t I Great?” and gets some advice on how to get his name up in lights in Las Vegas. 

• The Smoking Gunns face two jobbers. Texas native Shawn Michaels has a lot of fun during this match running down these two cowboys and calling them red necks, as well as mocking Vince for trying to engage with Southern hobbies like bull riding. The Gunns pick up the win.
• I am getting very tired of the weekly King’s Court segment. Jerry Lawler really dominates Raw these days. His guest this week is Bob Backlund. He mentions Bret Hart and, in between using lots of bit words, compares Diesel to a dinosaur and says that his Chickenwing will make him extinct. He also calls Diesel Kevin Nash, which Michaels takes great joy in telling us is Diesel’s real name and that he was the one who told Bob that. They’re really building up this Backlund vs. Diesel match, it’s a shame its on the house show circuit rather than TV or PPV.

• Thurman Plug has had a name change. He is now officially “Sparkplug” Bob Holly. That’s so much better, and it makes it a lot easier for me to talk about him because Thurman is a dumb name. A big diving elbow drop gives Bob Holly the victory.
• In the first Royal Rumble Report, there’s two big announcements for “the world’s largest beach party”. Pamela Anderson will be there, which is quite a big deal as in 1995 she was probably the most famous woman on the planet, and Bret Hart will get his rematch for the WWF title. Diesel makes some comments - he told Bret he could have his rematch whenever he wanted and he really jumped on that opportunity. He makes fun of Bret for wearing pink and says black and chrome are “a man’s colours”. Lame. There’s a bunch of names announced for the Royal Rumble match too including Lex Lugar, Bob Backlund, all the various mid-carders you’d expect like Adam Bomb and Doink, plus the returning Dick Murdoch. I’ll have more to say (nothing good) about him at the Rumble itself. 

• The Bushwackers (with Howard Finkle) face Well Dunne (with Harvey Whippleman). The heels isolate Luke and work him over with quick tags but when Harvey tries to get involved, Howard pulls his pants down. In the distraction, Dunne gets rolled up and the Bushwackers win. 
• In a pre-recorded comedy bit, Mabel is sitting on Santa’s lap. He’s so heavy that jolly old saint Nick can’t speak, so they swap positions. 

• Jim Neidhart batters a jobber in the main event while Vince speculates that he and Owen will have a terrible Christmas being estranged from the rest of the Hart family. Mean. I’ll end this episode by linking to something I’m sure a lot of kids in 1994 got for Christmas - the commercial for WWF Raw on the Sega Genesis. Interesting that it ends with an electronic voice saying “Raw is War” 

Monday Night Raw  - December 26th 1994

• Raw kicks off with Tatanka vs. The British Bulldog. Before the match, Shawn Michaels (who’s still on commentary) chats to Ted Dibiase about what a nice, expensive Christmas they both had. This is a powerhouse match - Bulldog obviously, but Tatanka is deceptively thick and strong. This is a back and forth match - it’s not bad, but there’s not a lot to say. The fans come out of their seats when Bulldog starts to build some momentum but after Dibiase pulls down the ropes and causes him to take a tumble to the outside, Lex Lugar comes out to stop an injustice. Tatanka attacks Lugar, the match ends by disqualification and Bam Bam runs down to help out his Million Dollar team mate. The four men fight until referees fill the ring to split it all up. Lex and Bulldog actually look pretty well suited to be a tag team. Interesting. The official ruling of the match is a double disqualification. 

• In the Royal Rumble report, Todd runs down more participants for the Royal Rumble match which now includes Bulldog, Shawn Michaels and Men on a Mission’s Mabel and Mo, now that they’re both out of the Tag Team tournament. Another match has been added to the card - Razor defends the Intercontinental title against Jeff Jarrrett, and Bret Hart has some pre-recorded comments for Diesel. He got what he wanted for Christmas; a title shot against Diesel, and he gives him credit for being a fighting champion and not backing down. 

• Henry O. Godwin, the pig farmer from Arkansas makes his in ring debut against Mike Bell. He’s a rough and ready brawler and grinds him down on the mat before finishing him off with reverse DDT which he calls the Slop Drop. Shawn spends a lot of this match talking about his own chances at the Royal Rumble. I noticed during this episode of Raw that he starts almost every sentence with the phrase “I’ve got news for ya….”. 

• There’s a video promoting the arrival of Hakushi, as well as some clips of him beating up jobbers in either dark matches, or matches on Superstars and the weekend shows. Hakushi is an awesome wrestler, I’m interested to see how he’s going to be portrayed.

• Jerry Lawler starts off this week’s episode of The King’s Court by talking about how the holidays are upon us, talking about Christmas in the future tense. He’s obviously forgotten that even though this show was filmed weeks before Christmas, it would be airing after Christmas. His guest is the new WWF Champion Diesel. There’s a bit of tension as Shawn Michaels is of course his main rival since his face turn and he’s sat on commentary. King offers Diesel a handshake and Big Daddy Cool squeezes his hand until he pleads for mercy. Lawler then rants at Diesel for what felt like hours about how Shawn Michaels is so much better than him, how everything he has he owes to Michaels, how Bob Backlund is going to slap the Chickenwing on him and make him submit, and how he’s a sap for wishing Bret Hart well and offering him a title shot - if the Chickenwing doesn’t beat him then the Sharpshooter will and his big Christmas wish is that somehow Diesel and Bret both manage to take each other out. The champion has FINALLY had enough and takes Jerry Lawler’s crown, throws him out of the ring and then takes a seat on the throne. 

• In this week’s Tag Team Championship tournament update, the Heavenly Bodies advanced to join Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow in the semi-finals. 
• Kwang faces Scott Myers. I cannot stress how little I care about Kwang. The fans give him zero reaction - you could hear a pin drop. Howard Finkle chimes in with some pre-recorded comments during this. He apologises to Harvey Whippleman for pulling his pants off last week, he was only trying to stop him from interfering. Kwang wins. Snore. 
• There’s another new superstar on the way; Kama the Supreme Fighting Machine. Long time fans will know him as The Godfather, or Papa Shango. Kama is his Ultimate fighter gimmick with strikes and submissions. We’ll find out if he’s actually good enough to perform that gimmick.
• Backstage, Stephanie Wyand interviews Ted Dibiase who responds to Lex Lugar and the British Bulldog’s challenge - a tag team match against Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow is accepted for next week. 
• In this week’s main event, The Undertaker makes his first appearance on Raw in a few months to face the Brooklyn Brawler. He beats him up for a few minutes and finishes him off with the tombstone. Dominant, and a couple of IRS’s druids come out to stare down with Undertaker ahead of their match which has now been confirmed for the Royal Rumble. And so ends another year of Raw, see you in 1995 with a bit of a change to how I lay all this out!