Monday Night Raw - April 29th 1996

• Raw kicks off with some big news. Last night after the PPV ended, Gorilla Monsoon named The British Bulldog the number one contender and granted him a WWF Championship match next month. Bulldog couldn’t enjoy it however and marched out into the arena to confront Shawn Michels while he celebrated his victory over Diesel yelling something about Shawn “sleeping with his wife!” What’s that all about? Jerry Lawler promises us that Jim Cornette has details on it later tonight.
• In the opening match Bart Gunn faces Mankind. Bart tries to wrestle and focus on Mankind’s arm and shoulder however Mankind is a brawler, throwing wild strikes and brawling on the outside. He even slams his own head into the security wall to work himself up. Mankind wins with the Mandible Claw and then a few moments later a Jim Ross tries to talk to Bart Gunn about it (the cowboy explains that the move paralyses you, he says he’s never felt anything like it) Mankind attacks him again and locks the hold in until referees manage to pull him off. 

• Stone Cold Steve Austin (with Ted Dibiase) faces Scott Taylor (That’s Scotty 2 Hotty!) Savio Vega joins commentary for this match and issues a challenge for Austin to make their match at In Your House a Caribbean Strap match. Jerry Lawler continually goads Savio calling him a coward and "burrito breath” which is definitely racist. Austin wins with the Million Dollar Dream and then after the match Savio grabs a mic and challenges Stone Cold to the strap match officially. Ted Dibiase refuses and they turn to leave so Vega rushes the ring and whips Stone Cold out of the ring as we go to the commercial break.

• In the ring Vince McMahon interviews British Bulldog, Diana Hart and Jim Cornette, as well as WWF Champion Shawn Michaels and his manager and mentor Jose Lothario. There’s a lot of people in the ring, is what I’m saying. Shawn speaks first and puts himself over; his victory at Wrestlemania and his victory last night were both impressive. He is a fighting champion. The crux of this storyline is that Jim Cornette is accusing HBK of trying to sleep with the Bulldog’s wife. He calls him a pervert and a sexal deviant. He rants like a maniac accusing Michaels of sexual assault as Diana and Bulldog just stand there and look angry at him. Shawn Michaels obviously denies any wrong doing. They make the mistake of letting Diana speak - she’s a garbage promo and speaks very quietly, accusing Michaels of wanting her. Shawn tells her not to flatter herself so she slaps him. HBK laughs it off and says that we all know who wears the pants in their house. That’s too much for Bulldog and he attacks Michaels and the pair of them furiously brawl until being split up by about a dozen referees. 

• The New Rockers take on The Godwins. They debut a new mascot but it makes me a little sad as Phineas basically drags a baby pig to the ring on a leash. I bet that poor little animal was terrified, I hope they took care of it. Vince says that the winners of this match will receive a match with The Bodydonnas for the WWF Tag Team Championships at a later date. Sunny drops in on screen and says she’d be interested to see either of these teams get a title shot against her Bodydonnas but she remains confident that Skip and Zip will win regardless. Phineas has adopted a sort of gentle giant with a wicked temper gimmick so Leif and Marty have to bail out of the ring and let him calm down. Sunny makes her way down to ringside later in the match for a closer look. “Nice pair huh? I mean the title belts!” The crowd starts chanting “Sunny” because they’re mostly boys and men. She has bags of personality too. For all her faults as a human being, I try to focus on the 1996 product as I cover these shows and she was great. For lots of reasons. Sunny actually shows some concern for Phineas on the outside and in the chaos, the match ends via a double count out. Sunny seems really pleased with that and I think that was her plan all along - she didn’t really do anything but now no one gets a Tag Team title match.

• Backstage Jim Ross heads into the bowels of the arena to get an interview with Mankind. He explains how the Mandible Claw works; he spent his years studying all the different pressure points of the human body to find the most dangerous hold he could. He talks about how the move works, putting pressure on the nerves in the jaw. Jim asks if he fears retribution from The Undertaker. Mankind says he was shocked by how easy it was to take out The Undertaker and says he’ll destroy him again whenever and wherever he feels like it. Have a Nice Day! 

• In the main event The Ultimate Warrior makes his in ring debut on Monday Night Raw against Isaac Yankem D.D.S. Jerry Lawler gets up off commentary to be in his evil dentist’s corner for this match. Warrior sprints to the ring, does a lap and then disappears backstage before coming back out and doing it again. I did like that. During this match Vince plugs something called Warrior University and promises more details on WWF Mania at the weekend. Here’s the commercial for it, whatever it was;

• Warrior overpowers Yankem and motors through him with all his trademark moves, pinning him after a big splash in about 90 seconds. An upset Jerry Lawler says he's going to get in the ring and confront Warrior himself but makes his excuses and doesn’t, of course. 

Monday Night Raw - May 6th 1996

• Raw opens up with more slander from Camp Cornette as a woman in silhouette claims that Shawn Michaels ruined her life and her marriage. Later in the show we see the full promo where the woman claims that Shawn took advantage of the fact that her husband was on the road and seduced her before throwing her away like garbage. He ruined her life and marriage, she claims. Vince is clear that the footage was supplied anonymously so the WWF cannot vouch for its validity. The woman does say lots of nice things about Michaels and calls him “the best she ever had” which I’m sure made him happy. 

• The 1-2-3 Kid (with Ted Dibiase) faces Marc Mero in the opener. I’ve mentioned plenty of times that Diesel and Razor Ramon are destined for WCW but so are the 1-2-3 Kid and Dibiase! Hunter Hearst Helmsley is at ringside to watch this match as he has a PPV match with Mero to prepare for. Sable is in a skin tight catsuit and carrying a whip now to go along with Mero’s Wildman gimmick. HHH on commentary has dropped the fake snob/British accent and is just speaking like himself now which is good. This ia a decent match which the 1-2-3 Kid dominates. Helmsley tries to interfere, tripping Mero on the top rope but he counters the Kid’s attempted superplex, twisting into a crossbody and landing on top for the three count. 
• As you’ll recall, last week Savio Vega challenged Stone Cold Steve Austin to a Caribbean Strap match and Austin refused. Well on WWF Superstars Ted Dibiase accepted on his Million Dollar Champion’s behalf but with the stipulation that if Savio loses, he must act as Ted Dibiase’s chauffeur. 
• The British Bulldog faces Fatu. He has his wife Diana, Jim Cornette and Clarence Mason with him. Lawler says that Michaels needs to “Beware of Dog” which is the name given to the next In Your House PPV. They all have names now but it’ll be a while before the names get good. Bulldog has some fun during this match, flipping and cartwheeling around and posing for the crowd a la Shawn Michaels to send a message. Two “Fatu family members” as Vince McMahon calls them come down to ringside to watch this match up close. Bulldog wins with his trademark running powerslam and leaves quickly. The two well dressed Samoans (including Rosey, who is of course the father of future WWE mega star Roman Reigns) get in Fatu’s face; they don’t like his attitude and want him to be a bad guy with them again but he says the fans are his family and refuses to come to the dark side. This is like a prototype for The Bloodline! 

• Last week The Godwins and New Rockers wrestled to a double count out. At the weekend they had a rematch which, thanks to interference by Skip and Zip, The New Rockers won which I think makes them the number one contenders for the WWF Tag Team titles. I guess the Bodydonnas would rather wrestle them than The Godwins. The Bodydonnas have a non-title match against Techno Team 2000. I haven’t seen these guys in well over a year and thought maybe they’d been doing the rounds on the house shows and weekend shows but Vince confirms I’m right by saying HE hasn’t seen them for a long time either. I could check what they’ve been up to but do any of you really care? I certainly don’t. There’s a LOT going on in this match as Harvey Whippleman is shown taking notes during this match; Vince says hes taking notes on the referees for Gorilla Monsoon. Alright then? This is too much to keep track of; you have to pack multiple storylines into every match when you only have a 42 min show every week. It won’t be long now until Raw moves to two hours. The New Rockers are shown watching this match from backstage; they talk about how awesome they are. Vince calls them a pair of cornballs. This is an easy victory for the Tag Team Champions but Vince does his best to give credit to the Techno Team lads. 

• Jim Ross interviews Jim Cornette and Vader about his match with Yokozuna at In Your House. Yoko is apparently 100% and ready to go. Cornette doesn’t say much here and basically just promises Vader will win because he’s a better athlete than Yoko. Enlightening.
• In the main event The Undertaker faces Owen Hart. This is, to my knowledge, the only televised singles match between The Undertaker and Owen Hart. Goldust joins commentary and spends it staring at and creeping out Vince McMahon which is quite funny. Goldust was scheduled to face Undertaker at In Your House (they don’t say whether the Intercontinental title will be on the line or not) and when Vince tells him that President Monsoon has made that a Casket match, Goldust flips out and leaves. He is about to leave the arena but when The Undertaker’s music hits he changes his mind and stays at ringside, apparently unable to escape. Vince pitches this Casket match as punishment from Gorilla for Goldust’s running away from the Ultimate Warrior at the previous PPV. Once the match begins Goldust changes tactics and shifts from fear of The Undertaker to arousal, moaning about how tall he is and how cold his body is. Gross.

• Goldust goes and sexually harasses Paul Bearer, deciding to ramp up his mind games now that he’s got a Casket match to worry about. Bearer runs away leaving Undertaker without his urn. In the ring, Owen Hart works on Undertaker’s leg to cut him down to size and puts in a very strong showing. Undertaker drills Owen Hart with a jumping Tombstone which looked fantastic to win the match and Goldust crosses his arms across his chest. So I guess he’s not afraid anymore? Paul Bearer returns from backstage wheeling a custom made golden casket to the ring, just for Goldust. That’s a nice touch.

Monday Night Raw - May 13th 1996

• They have updated the Raw intro in the past two weeks but they haven’t removed Diesel from it yet. If anything they’ve added more Diesel to it with the powerbomb through the announce table from In Your House. 
• Ahmed Johnson (who Vince tells us won “the Kuwait Cup” during the WWF’s recent tour of Kuwait) faces one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions. Before he comes to the ring, Sunny approaches him backstage and tries to seduce him and get in his head. It would definitely have worked on me but Johnson calls her trash instead and seems unfazed. Ahmed’s opponent is Zip but when he gets in trouble he switches places with Skip, undetected by the referee. Sunny joins them at ringside and as has become her trademark, spends most of the match flouncing around the ring and talking directly to the camera. I like that gimmick. Once again when Skip is in trouble he switches with Zip but this time the referee catches them and stops it. A Pearl River Plunge on Skip gives Ahmed the victory. 

• They show a commercial for Warrior University. I jumped the gun and shared that video two weeks ago. I THINK it's a wrestling school? I can’t imagine a worse person to teach you how to wrestle. 

• Vader takes on Duke “The Dumpster” Droese. I always quite liked Duke but he’s going to get squashed here. Jim Cornette joins commentary for this match and he and Lawler just berate Vince endlessly as he looks sick of his life. Duke misses a splash off the top and pays for it with a Vader Bomb seconds later to give him the victory. 
• In the ring, Vince McMahon interviews The Undertaker and Paul Bearer. He says he’ll make Goldust a big star when he makes him rest in peace. Goldust comes out to interrupt and starts to make sexual comments and passes at The Undertaker. It’s all very creepy. Mankind runs down and attacks him from behind, locking him in the Mandible Claw and making him pass out again. Mankind leaves and Goldust has some fun teasing and taunting The Undertaker, crawling all over him until the Deadman sits up and Goldust flips out and runs away. Vince and Lawler argue over which part was the act; the attraction to The Undertaker or the fear. 

• Justin Hawk Bradshaw faces Aldo Montoya. Bradshaw is still undefeated. Uncle Zeb joins commentary and says that everyone is afraid of the massive Bradshaw name dropping both Yokozuna and the WWF Champion Shawn Michaels. At least he’s aiming high. In truth with the departure of Razor and Diesel there are some big slots at the top of the card to fill. Will those be filled by Bradshaw and Marc Mero? Or Mankind and Stone Cold Steve Autin? Only time will tell. Bradshaw wins with a big boot and brands Aldo.
• The WWF was at the time on a live tour of Kuwait, invited by the royal family personally. A few of the wrestlers on this tour have talked about it in the years since; basically it was a very run down 3rd world country. The important part of this video is that during the tour The British Bulldog attacked Shawn Michaels on the beach and tried to drown him in the Persian gulf! 

• In the main event Shawn Michaels faces (in a non-title match) Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Historically speaking this is obviously a noteworthy match; as I write this in 2026 these two best friends run the entire WWE together both in real life and on screen. This is a good match and as they fight on the outside, Michaels goes over to make eyes at HHH’s female companion for the week. Jerry Lawler rants at her about he’s a womaniser and she should stay away but the hilarity is that Hunter has had a different woman with him every week for a couple of months now. Shawn is pretty giving to his last remaining Klique-mate and Triple H gets plenty of control of this long match. Mr. Perfect saunters down to ringside for a closer look; he’s had issues with Michaels on and off for years and the last time we saw him he was helping Diesel beat him up and hit him with the title belt. Perfect was likely considering an in-ring return but it sadly didn’t come to pass. Not in the WWF anyway. He didn’t make any impact on this match and Michaels wins a back and forth match with a Sweet Chin Music. While he’s celebrating Vince chats to the Bulldog backstage. He has a match with Jake Roberts next week (he’s NOT afraid of snakes) and won’t be distracted by Shawn Michaels sitting in on commentary during it. See you next week! 

Monday Night Raw - May 20th 1996

• It’s been a long time coming but Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman are gone. Their final night was at a house show the prior evening in Madison Square Garden. It was the sight of the infamous Curtain Call as, on their final night in the same company, real life best friends Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley dropped their characters and embraced in the ring with Razor and Diesel. The fans were left shocked as two heels and two babyfaces totally broke character to hug, cry and say goodbye. Management were FURIOUS, as were many in the locker room who saw this as The Klique continuing to do what they wanted with no punishment and disrespect Vince McMahon personally. Hall and Nash were gone from the company and Michaels was the WWF Champion which meant only Triple H was available to suffer for their crimes. His push was cancelled and he spent the next several months shunted down the card because of it. That didn’t last long with him basically just missing out on winning that year’s King of the Ring (which turned out to be for the best). You can read more about the group behind the scenes as well as the infamous “Curtain Call” incident below but in truth, it’s been written about so many times a quick google will give you a ton of opinions and perspectives on it in the 30 years since.
• The Kliq - Wikipedia

• That wasn’t the only big news on that MSG house show; The Godwins defeated The Bodydonnas to become the new WWF Tag Team Champions. Later in the show there’s footage from backstage at MSG as Sunny was spotted coming out of Phineas’ locker room holding a contract. What is she up to? He forced a kiss on her during the Tag Team title match on route to victory. That sets up a match for the Free for All before In Your House with The Godwins making their first title defence against the returning Smoking Gunns. Sunny followed the gold and accompanied The Godwins to the ring for that title defence which I’ll talk about at the PPV. 

• Much like they did with Sunny, the WWF is already ramping up the sex appeal of Sable. She accompanies Marc Mero to the ring for his match against Stone Cold Steve Austin. This is of course pre-neck injury Steve Austin who he wrestles in a totally different style from the one that made him famous in the Attitude era. He is a technical mat wrestler but is definitely injecting more strikes and elbows and dirty tricks as his character evolves. On the surface this is a battle of two guys that Eric Bischoff cut loose from WCW because he didn’t believe they could be main eventers. He was right about one of them but he was hilariously off the mark with the other. You don’t need me to explain which is which. Austin is winning, slamming Mero and taking aim with an elbow off the ropes when Savio Vega runs down and attacks him with a leather strap. Austin escapes mostly unscathed but wins the match via disqualification. That leaves Savio and Marc Mero in the ring and they argue a little over the fact that Savio just cost Marc this match. 

The King of the Ring tournament starts next week with two pretty huge first round matches; Ahmed Johnson vs. Vader and Goldust vs. Ultimate Warrior. Speaking of which, here’s a fun video and a real time capule; The Warrior doing a signing event for his Ultimate Warrior comic book. There were only 5 issues and it was legendarily poor and badly reviewed. I honestly don’t even had time or energy to talk about his comic book so you can learn all about it here thanks to OSW Review:

• The 1-2-3 Kid (with Ted Dibiase) takes on Savio Vega. Big spoilers for who’ll win this match obviously but this is officially the last appearance of the 1-2-3 Kid as he departs for WCW. Ted Dibiase joins commentary and weirdly makes no mention of Stone Cold by name, nor does he acknowledge that the Kid and Austin are the only two members of his Million Dollar Corporation left. Stone Cold has never interacted with anyone but Dibiase on screen. Dibiase and Lawler spend this match making kind of racist jokes about Savio Vega talking about green cards and the like. He distracts him by waving around a chauffeur’s hat which allows the Kid to heel kick him from behind for a near fall. After a decent match Savio rolls up the Kid with a unique move and gets the three count. He gets no time to celebrate as Stone Cold rushes the ring and attacks his PPV opponent. He and the 1-2-3 Kid beat Savio down two on one and he has Dibiase and the Kid hold him so that he can tie him up with the leather strap, binding him in place so that Dibiase can put the chauffeur’s hat on him and taunt him. 

• Jim Ross conducted an interview with Paul Bearer and The Undertaker. In a spooky sight The Undertaker cut his promo while laying inside a casket. He was in the middle of threatening Goldust when suddenly the lid snapped shut. It’s Mankind and Goldust. The bizarre IC Champion keeps Paul Bearer at bay as Mankind wraps a chain around the casket trapping The Undertaker inside. JR tries to open the casket but Mankind returns from backstage with a long steel pole, banging on the casket and denting the lid before tipping it over so it falls off its perch. I hope the casket was properly padded or I bet that hurt like hell. Mankind hammers on the casket with the metal pole over and over until finally being chased off by referees who struggle to get the casket open, wheeling it backstage. Mankind is a monster! 

• Before the main event (Bulldog vs. Jake Roberts) Jim Cornette and Clarence Mason reveal that they have a restraining order against Shawn Michaels on behalf of Diana Hart meaning that he can’t come out to do commentary for this match. Cornette’s rant is interrupted by President Gorilla Monsoon. He takes some time to read the contract and then confirms that he will comply with the restraining order; Diana Hart needs to leave immediately so that Shawn Michaels can come out and get on commentary. That makes the fans happy and HBK walks to the ring right past Diana while she leaves. He doesn’t look very happy but is much friendlier with Vince when he gets there. Shawn once again denies all of Bulldog and co’s claims against him. He says he’d never mess with a married woman (ha!) Lawler spends the match goading Michaels and bringing up Pamela Anderson and Michaels attempting to get with her at Wrestlemania 11. That part is true, but in fairness the fact that she was engaged to Tommy Lee at the time was a secret from everyone including her own family. I think in the Wrestlemania 11 review I might have called him her husband; that’s just me getting my timeline confused. Bulldog spends this match slowly working over Roberts’ knee all while staring daggers at and shouting abuse at Shawn Michaels. Towards the end of the match Diana Hart comes out to confront Shawn, invalidating her own restraining order, and throws water at him. Michaels won’t hit a woman so he punches Cornette. Bulldog attacks Michaels from behind and Raw abruptly ends there. I guess the match ends via disqualification and we’ll find out what happened once the show was off the air at the PPV.