Monday Night Raw - September 23rd 1996

• Raw opens with a brief recap of one event at the PPV; Savio Vega was attacked backstage by “Razor Ramon” and “Diesel” and Jim Ross has promised they will be here tonight despite President Gorilla Monsoon’s insistence that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are NOT under WWF contract.
• In the arena, Mr Perfect is given a grand introduction ahead of the Intercontinental Championship tournament finals. The referee for this match is the first ever IC Champion Pat Patterson. Perfect joins commentary to give his expertise, as a former IC Champion, on this Faarooq vs. Marc Mero match. Sunny and Sable at ringside get most of the attention right off the bat; Sable looks pretty amazing in a sparkly red ball gown. Sunny is a little eager to interfere and is ejected from ringside by Patterson which gets loud boos from the fans. She did look very pretty in her floaty white dress. Faarooq wrestles like a slow power wrestler (and looks stupid in his baby blue gladiator helmet) as Mero tries to keep the speed and tempo up. There’s a couple of points where referee Patterson counts VERY slowly. It's not part of the story, he’s just slow. Sunny doesn’t stay away from the ring for long and comes back down with her purse. The crowd goes MENTAL seeing Sunny and Sable start to fight until being split up by Patterson. While he’s distracted, Faarooq tries to use Sunny’s purse as a weapon but Mero disarms him to use it himself and then hits his Wild Thing shooting star press to pin Faarooq and become the new Intercontinental Champion! Afterwards, Sunny reveals that there was a brick hidden inside her purse. Jim Ross and Mr. Perfect get into the ring to interview the new champion who opens his promo by thanking “my lord and saviour Jesus Christ” and then his best friend and partner in life Sable. He then thanks Mr. Perfect for all of his advice and wisdom and the two shake hands. JR petulantly says “well what about me?” and Mero tells him he’s a great guy too. That was quite funny. 

• Tonight’s show has a real “screw WCW” vibe as not only will we see the return of Razor Ramon and Diesel, apparently, but they “expose” Double J Jeff Jarrett who had JUST signed by WCW. They replay the time Jeff lost the Intercontinental title, focusing in on The Roadie screwing him off accidentally. They show a little bit of his “with my baby tonight” music video before the big reveal; Jeff simply lip synced. We’ll meet “The REAL Double J” next week. Vince McMahon narrates this “exposee” of Jarrett.

• The New WWF Tag Team Champions Bulldog and Owen Hart take on The Bodydonnas in a non-title match. Bulldog and Owen are escorted to the ring by their new manager Clarence Mason. Kevin Kelly explains what happened; Mason took advantage of a groggy, beaten up Jim Cornette and tricked him into signing the paperwork which handed Bulldog and Owen’s managerial duties over to Mason permanently. The commentators bicker over whether Mason is trustworthy or a liar while he does a pretty great impression of Johnnie Cochran. The most important moment in this match is when ECW performer Taz jumps the barrier and runs around the ring with a sign which says “Sabu fears Taz” to hype their feud. JR gives him a LITTLE more attention than the ECW involvement at last night’s PPV, mentioning that they’re a small local promotion operating out of a bingo hall. Owen wins this chaotic match with a Sharpshooter on Skip. 

• Matches confirmed for next week on Raw; Jim Cornette and Vader take on WWF Champion Shawn Michaels and Jose Lothario AND, Razor Ramon makes his in-ring return to the WWF against Savio Vega. Crazy they confirmed that match before we’d even see “Razor” return. 
• During this show there’s a huge, heavy tombstone in the middle of the entrance way which will sit there for the next four weeks to promote the next In Your House; Buried Alive. The main event is already set with the first ever Buried Alive match but another match is announced for the event in Vader vs. Sycho Sid. The Undertaker cuts a pretaped promo from a graveyard, walking around with a shovel and telling Mankind that he has sealed his own fate and will be buried alive but will NEVER rest in peace. 

• Stone Cold Steve Austin joins commentary for the main event which is Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. The Stalker. Austin spends the match talking trash about Bret Hart and says that he spits on the legacy of him and his entire family, saying his parents should have practiced safe sex and he wouldn’t have to beat his ass if and when he returns to the WWF. The match is kind of nothing; I feel absolutely nothing for Barry Windham as The Stalker who’s gimmick is basically that he’s a hunter and as the two of them go back and forth, Mr. Perfect comes down for a closer look at this match. He’s still stealing all of HHH’s women during his matches. That makes the difference and with Hunter distracted by Perfect, Stalker hits a nice superplex with a roll through into a cover to win the match. 
• Jim Ross rushes to the ring the second the match is over because he is desperate to bring out Razor and Diesel and prove that he’s not a liar. He says that before he does that he has something to get off his chest but we’ll not get to hear that part as Kevin Kelly talks over him and throws to a video of Mankind and Paul Bearer in a graveyard, blaming Undertaker for costing him the WWF Championship last night. JR keeps trying to share a personal story but is once again cut off by a commercial break. Third time is the charm and he is finally able to share that he has NO loyalty to the WWF and only has it to himself. He retells his story of how he left a great job with WCW to come to the WWF but was dressed up in a toga and despite being the BEST play by play announcer in the world, the egotistical owner of the WWF Vince McMahon fired him because he was jealous. Jerry Lawler and Kevin Kelly react to him revealing that Vince is the owner like he’s gone too far. That’s a top secret! JR tells us about his first Bells Palsy attack, paralysing the left side of his face and Vince McMahon fired him again. This is a first in WWF history; a real life shoot promo on Raw. Obviously it’s all scripted and I have no idea, in hindsight, why they wanted to turn commentator Jim Ross heel but this was a good promo. He finally brings out Razor Ramon. The camera keeps its distance as long as possible to avoid showing his face but it’s obviously not Scott Hall. Rick Bognar is the man playing “Razor Ramon” and when he gets to the ring he does a fairly terrible impression of Razor before being attacked by Savio Vega. The show ends with the two of them fighting in the ring. 

Monday Night Raw - September 30th 1996

• Raw kicks off with a rematch from the King of the Ring Finals; Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts. During this match the commentators mention that Austin is wrestling Savio Vega at Buried Alive. That’s random. Jerry Lawler taunts Jake with a bottle of booze from ringside. JR mentions that he’s been speaking to Bret Hart who is very unhappy with what Stone Cold has said about him and King asks “was it the real Bret Hart?” which is a good line given all that’s going on with JR and the Fake Razor. He mocks Vince McMahon too and says he never has anything interesting to say that wasn’t scripted for him. Hilarious in hindsight as Vince did eventually become one of the all time great promo guys. Jake puts up a good fight and hits the DDT but Austin gets his foot on the ropes to break the pin. Lawler takes a mouthful of booze and spits it into Jake’s face so that Stone Cold can hit the Stunner and win the match. King gets into the ring and raises Stone Cold’s hand and then the two of them beat up Jake two on one until he’s rescued by a leather strap wielding Savio Vega.

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley comes down to the ring and throws out a challenge to Mr. Perfect to get back in the ring and wrestle him. Perfect hadn’t wrestled since late 1994 and most believed he never would again so I’m not sure exactly where this angle is going. He joins commentary for the next match and spends it running down Perfect and calling him a hasbeen. Perfect speaks to him from backstage and accepts the challenge. He says HHH has a couple of weeks to “get himself in shape” and that no one beats Mr. Perfect.

• The Godwins (with Hillbilly Jim) face The Grimm Twins, who I’ve never seen before. The Tag Team Championship match at the next PPV is already set; The Smoking Gunns have a rematch with Bulldog and Owen. The Godwins won but I was paying way more attention to the HHH and Perfect stuff.
• Following on from last week’s “expose of Double J”, the reveal is completed and the man formerly known as The Roadie is now The Real Double J, Jesse Jammes. I have no idea why his name is spelt that way, maybe that’s his real surname. 

• “Razor Ramon” takes on Savio Vega. Lawler and Kelly are pretty openly disdainful of the fake Razor but JR jumps to his defence. He says that he never once said the names Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, he promised Razor Ramon and Diesel and these are two young, great talents. President Gorilla Monsoon joins commentary and spends the match debating this point with Jim Ross. Gorilla thinks that JR has a bad attitude and that he’s hoodwinked the fans so JR gets angry and asks him if he’s ever been fired by Vince McMahon. Monsoon makes it clear that he does not support or condone JR’s actions. This whole storyline hasn’t aged very well and isn’t fondly thought of but honestly I do find it really interesting. It was SO different to the WWF fans were used to in 1996; breaking the 4th wall and portraying it as real life. JR keeps making the point that he never once claimed he was bringing back Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and was totally honest, which is true. JR takes pleasure in having embarrassed Monsoon and McMahon with this whole stunt. The match goes back and forth until “Diesel” aka Glen Jacobs aka Isaac Yankem comes down to pull Savio out of the ring and getting his buddy disqualified. Razor and Diesel beat up Savio Vega two on one as JR and Gorilla continue to argue about who they really are. Jerry Lawler mentions that Vince McMahon will be back and on commentary WITH JR at In Your House so he might have a bit of a reckoning to face then. I guess we’ll see! 

• More hype for In Your House after a recap of last week’s tournament final; Marc Mero will defend his title against Faarooq. (that match ends up not happening) There’s also a reveal that Sunny and Faarooq have parted way as manager and client already! The Undertaker speaks to us from the graveyard just as Mankind and Paul Bearer did last week. They both say roughly the same thing they did last week about digging their own graves and resting in peace.

• In the main event, WWF Champion Shawn Michaels and Vader battle with their managers as tag team partners. The match is fast paced when Michaels is in control but while JR speaks about how hard working Michaels is and how intense his schedule as champion has been, Vader overwhelms the WWF Champion and puts him down with a powerbomb and then a Vader Bomb to win this match. He’s about to keep the beating going but Sycho Sid runs down to help Shawn and fight his PPV opponent. He’s followed by Goldust who’s slated to face Sid next week and with Shawn fighting back onto his feet, the four of them start to fight as Raw goes off the air. 

Monday Night Raw - October 7th 1996

• Raw kicks off with non-title action and Intercontinental Champion Marc Mero vs. “Diesel”. Jerry Lawler and Kevin Kelly begin the broadcast asking where Jim Ross is but the answer is quickly given as he comes down with Diesel and joins commentary. Apparently yesterday on Livewire, Vince McMahon said he’s got WWF management investigating Jim Ross which he’s not worried about and he calls them all “corporate butt kissers” and says he has nothing to hide. Razor Ramon speaks to the commentary team from backstage saying he may come out to get a closer look at this match up close. There’s loud boos a few moments later when he does exactly that. Razor gets involved and causes a disqualification so the two fakes beat up Mero and Diesel puts him down with a Jackknife powerbomb and honestly it looks much nicer and safer than Nash’s. 

• The Undertaker is still at the graveyard preparing for Mankind. This week he’s digging a grave which seems like a lot of energy to expend for a bit. Mankind won’t “have a nice day” when he’s through with him.
• There’s a video tribute to Mr. Perfect showing his greatest moments to hype up his return to the ring in two weeks against HHH. In other news which I’ll try to keep grouped together, Jerry Lawler is set to face Jake Roberts next week on Raw but claims that Jake has fallen off the wagon and won’t be here next week to wrestle him. 
• The Smoking Gunns battle The New Rockers. They cut a pre-taped promo before the match where Bart is focused on regaining the Tag Team titles but Billy is more bothered about getting Sunny back as their manager. Sunny calls in during this match and teases them before saying that she will consider rejoining them if they can win the gold back. A longer match than I expected with the New Rockers putting up a good fight but a Sidewinder double team gives The Gunns a victory. Billy doesn’t seem to happy; he’s still focused on Sunny. 
• The Real Double J Jesse Jammes appears alongside legendary WWF music producer Jim Johnston. He sings “With my baby tonight” live to confirm that it was his real song all along and that Jeff Jarrett’s entire music career was a hoax. This is another storyline where WWF takes some potshots at WCW performers and breaks the 4th wall a little. Jesse Jammes shares the real life story of he and Jarrett’s fall out backstage (which wasn’t real, obviously, they were and are great friends in real life). He bigs up his own dancing and signing ability but I was mostly distracted by his genuinely enormous eyebrows. Jesse Jammes welcomes Jeff back to the WWF…if he wants to be HIS Roadie.

• In the ring, Jim Ross interviews Vader and Jim Cornette. Vader pinned Shawn Michaels last week and, as I mentioned at Summerslam, the plan was for Vader and Michaels’ feud to continue but backstage dealings and HBK’s real life dislike of working with Vader scuppered that. Vader definitely deserves a shot at the WWF title now in kayfabe at least. JR confirms that the Vader and Sycho Sid match at In Your House now has huge meaning; the winner will get a shot at the WWF title at Survivor Series. Cornette is outaged and says Vader should have the shot already. He pinned him in July, he pinned him last week and he beat him twice at Summerslam (by count and DQ, so no title). Cornette says the WWF is protecting their cash cow and not only will Vader beat Sid, he’ll beat Michaels and become the WWF Champion at Survivor Series. That’s certainly the plan! 

• The Sultan vs. Aldo Montoya. Bob Backlund joins commentary to give his thoughts and comments on his new charge while The Iron Sheik stands at ringside and does the official managing of Sultan. The big man with his evil genii ponytail attached to a bald head smashes Aldo while Bob rants that he’s been ordered to wear sunglasses by the WWF so he can’t see all the evil things going on and hilariously says he can’t hear properly when he doesn’t have his reading glasses. He’s a maniac. Sultan wins with the camel clutch.

• Mankind at the graveyard whimpers to Uncle Paul that he doesn’t want to be buried alive. He sounds terrified. Bearer reassures him that he won’t be, it’ll be Undertaker who is buried alive! Mankind is a scary dude.
• Before the main event, Goldust cuts a pretaped promo talking about the move Sycho. In the promo for this match Todd Pettengill asked “how do you play mind games with a man who lost his mind and has no plans on finding it?” I love that. Sycho Sid gets his now customary massive positive reaction from the crowd and as of earlier tonight now has a chance to get a WWF title match at Survivor Series. Shawn Michaels calls in during this match to give his thoughts on fighting either Sid or Vader. He compares it to being hit by either a shovel or a baseball bat. Sid wins this match pretty quickly with a chokeslam and then powerbomb but is attacked from behind by Vader. He gives Sid a Vader Bomb but the Sycho shakes it off like nothing happened and puts down Vader with a chokeslam too! Cornette drags Vader out of the ring and gets him to leave and Sid celebrates in the ring to close the show. 

Monday Night Raw - October 14th 1996

• Tonight’s big match is another historically interesting one. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. WWF Champion Shawn Michaels (non-title). The two stories going into this one; Stone Cold is a ruthless, merciless buzzsaw who has been insulting and calling out Bret Hart for weeks and months while HBK is exhausted, pushing himself hard as champion and wrestling multiple times a week all over the country. 
• The JR vs. Vince McMahon storyline continues with JR breaking the news that Vince and Lawler will be back on commentary as of next week on Raw. JR tries to goad Kevin Kelly into joining his crusade and get angry about being replaced but Kevin is a company man and doesn’t want to rock the boat. JR takes shots at Kevin Dunn and mocks Vince’s ego. It’s bizarre in 1996 to hear Jim Ross bitterly shooting on the behind the scenes management of the company and I’m not sure what the larger plan was but perhaps there was no larger plan? WCW was doing record business by being “real” and so the WWF lead by new head writer Vince Russo were just trying to keep up with the trend. 
• In the opening match Vader takes on Phineas I. Godwin. Sid comes down to ringside to distract Vader which allows PIG to get in some offence and even bodyslam the 450lbs Vader which is very impressive. Vader blocks the Slop Drop and finishes the pig farmer off with a Vader Bomb. A strong performance ahead of his PPV number one contenders match with Sid.
• In the ring, Jim Ross interviews Mr. Perfect about his in-ring return next week on Raw. He’s all revved up and apparently had an altercation with Stone Cold Steve Austin on Superstars so it seems like they’re gearing up for him to have several feuds and a full in-ring return which is exciting but sadly, didn’t happen. JR conducts this as a normal, serious interview asking about things like ring rust and physical stability. Mr. Perfect rants that he is perfect and about “all these cocky new generation superstars strutting around with their haircuts” and I have no idea what he meant. Probably an inside joke; he was an infamous prankster. He’s ready to fight Triple H next week on Raw. 

• Jerry “The King” Lawler faces Jake “The Snake” Roberts in a Summerslam rematch. King has talked a big game for months now and is still mocking Robert’s sobriety and JR takes the chance to bring up the commentary changes saying that next week Raw will be called by “a terrible stand up comedian who hasn’t provided any analysis in his life and a man who doesn’t even know the names of most of the holds and moves”. Brutal. JR talks over King’s promo mocking Roberts which I’m grateful for. The negative of watching all of these shows back to back is that I am sick to the back teeth of Lawler. Roberts comes out stumbling and holding a bottle in a paper bag. This is very sad and Jake seems to have literally fallen off the wagon which Lawler takes great pleasure in. What a disgusting storyline. Gorilla Monsoon comes down to check on Jake and, with his back to King, he seems to explain that he’s fine and is just pretending! He lets everyone in on the gag except Lawler and, after playing opossum, spikes Lawler with the DDT and pins him in less than 5 seconds. Still not very cool to be mocking the man’s real life substance abuse issues but at least this had a happy ending. He pours the booze into King’s face and then wraps his snake around him so he can freak out and run away. 

• For the fourth week in a row there’s a weird spotlight on the now-WCW-employed Jeff Jarrett with The Real Double J running him down and making him sound like a liar and a user. Jesse Jammes will be getting into the ring at some point soon I’m sure. He is, to be fair, a gifted singer but those eyebrows are still a state! There’s more to come next week where he’ll tell us his stories from his time in the military, specifically in Operation Desert Storm. 

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley battles Freddy Joe Floyd. HHH picks apart Freddy and shows off his technical skills but also has handcuffed his lady to the ringpost this week so that Mr. Perfect can’t steal this one! He still comes down and manages to get the key from a security guard and steals her anyway. HHH goes out to confront him and is knocked on his butt, losing the match via count out. 
• Mankind and Paul Bearer are still at the graveyard (now in the pouring rain) and he screams about how he’s going to bury The Undertaker. This is basically one long promo that they’ve cut up into four chunks to spread out across these four shows. Jim Ross gives his opinion that this match is too dangerous and that Vince McMahon is disgusting for allowing the buried alive match to happen “just to make a buck” even unsanctioned. Later in the show, Undertaker says he will be judge, jury and executioner and even if he has to destroy himself to do it, he will end Mankind and tells him to imagine struggling for breath as you’re buried alive. Haunting. 
• Sunny comes down and, after unveiling a huge banner of herself above the ring, joins commentary for the next match. She flirts a little with Kevin and asks how much money he makes but then loses interest when he says he only “does ok”. The match is The Pug (an amateur wrestler who comes out to The Steiners’ old music) vs. Faarooq. Sunny says that she no longer manages Faarooq but they are still friendly. Faaroq easily wins this match which leads into a recap from Livewire where Ahmed Johnson appeared. Faarooq called in and wished him well in his life outside the WWF. Ahmed fired up and promised that he’s going to kick his ass when he returns. Faarooq takes a “it's not personal, it's just business” approach but Johnson is pissed; it's personal to him! He says he’ll come by Faarooq’s house and they can settle things right now. This was heated, it was good.

• In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels. Stone Cold has really found his feet now, wearing his vest with the silver writing all over it and barking his catchphrases while talking an endless stream of trash. I’m excited for the next few months as he evolves and gets a lot more screen time. Austin and Michaels have a real good match but when Vader comes down, it ends by disqualification. Sid runs down to help out Michaels and in the melee, accidentally hits him with an elbow. Savio Vega runs down to try and get Austin but immediately takes a Stone Cold Stunner! Michaels and Sid get in each other’s faces but ultimately first bump and stay friends heading into the PPV. “Razor Ramon” and “Diesel” also both came out but didn’t get involved in the action and just watched from afar.