Monday Night Raw - September 25th 1995

• At the start of Raw there’s big news - Diesel and Shawn Michaels won the WWF Tag Team Championships last night in controversial fashion. Thanks to the debut of another non-wrestler character, lawyer Clarence Mason, Jim Cornette got them stripped of their titles and awarded back to Yokozuna and Owen Hart. For those keeping track, that’s the second time The Klique won the Tag Team titles and then lost them without actually losing to anyone. Yoko and Owen will defend their titles tonight against The Smoking Gunns.

• In the opening match, Marty Jannetty makes his on-screen return to the company in a match with Bodydonna Skip. This is a surprise - Marty’s real life legal issues over injuring a jobber are now cleared up. Dean Douglas comes out to get a closer look at this match, making notes and grading the men involved. This is a decent back and forth match - Sunny tries to get involved a couple of times but it backfires with her distracting and even slapping her own man as Marty gives them the runaround. Marty hits the Rocker Dropper and probably has it won but goes to the top rope for a diving fist drop for good measure. Marty wins and the fans are actually pretty into him! Skip has lost most of his matches since debuting but he has a gimmick and a valet so he’s not a jobber. Yet. 
• After a recap of last night’s main event and an explanation of why Owen and Yokozuna are champions again (Owen wasn’t legally part of the tag team match and so pinning him shouldn’t have counted which is fair enough), they defend their Tag Team titles against the men they beat at Wrestlemania 11, Billy and Bart Gunn. I mentioned a few months ago that I was interested to find out when Raw moved away from its mostly jobber-squash-matches presentation and you can really see it happening here - there’s been at least two proper name vs. name matches per show for a couple of months now and there’s no jobber matches on this episode at all. Billy and Bart have no issues with Owen but a well timed tag to Yokozuna gets the champions back into the match. They dominate and pick apart Billy with tags in and out but a hot tag to Bart turns the tide. The Gunns hit a Side Winder on Owen Hart and when Yokozuna tries to break it up with a splash he misses and hits his own partner. The Gunns send Yokozuna out of the ring with a double drop kick and pick up the victory and win the Tag Team Championships! Diesel and Shawn Michaels come down to celebrate with the Gunns so we know there’s no tension between babyfaces.

• Before the main event in lieu of the classic “PPV Report” segments with Todd Pettengill, President Gorilla Monsoon announces the next In Your House card along with Dok Hendrix. I’ll talk about each match in time over the next four weeks in this Preview but the big reveals are Shawn Michaels defending the Intercontinental Championship against Dean Douglas and Diesel defending the WWF Championship against the British Bulldog.

• That leads neatly into this show’s main event of Bulldog vs. The Undertaker, who has his own match at In Your House 4 against King Mabel. This is a good match with Undertaker dominating until a well timed chop block and some focus on Undertaker’s legs. He seems to have a few feuds on the horizon as in addition to King Mabel and Sir Mo coming out to watch from the entrance ramp, Waylon Mercy is shown watching from the audience too. Undertaker avoids a powerslam, kicks out after being spiked by a nice piledriver and rallies with a chokeslam but as he prepares to drill Bulldog with the Tombstone, Mabel  comes to the ring. He drops Undertaker with a big belly to belly suplex and that causes a disqualification. Undertaker wins but doesn’t look like a winner as King Mabel and the Bulldog beat him down with a powerslam and 568lbs leg drop. WWF Champion Diesel and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels rush to the ring and chase off both heels and stand guard so that Undertaker has time to sit up. Owen Hart and Yokozuna also come to ringside, followed by The Smoking Gunns and we get a big stand off between the babyface and heel contingents while referees work to restore order.

• After a commercial break, Shawn Michaels and Diesel are still in the ring with HBK’s theme song playing. Vince and Lawler recap all the events between Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid at In Your House and King speculates that the Kid has been negotiating with the Million Dollar Man. That seems out of the blue? They hype up next week’s Raw with Razor vs. the 1-2-3 Kid all while Michaels and Diesel keen the live fans entertained by dancing. An odd way to end Raw! 

Monday Night Raw - October 2nd 1995

• Raw kicks off with Razor Ramon vs. The 1-2-3 Kid. This story is slightly nuanced by this point as initially it seemed like they’d hurt each other’s feelings by accident thanks to the actions of Dean Douglas but Vince has speculated more than once now that the issues go deeper and the 1-2-3 Kid is up to something. Jerry Lawler has run with that and speculated that the 1-2-3 Kid feels disrespected and is negotiating with Ted Dibiase and plans to join the Million Dollar Corporation. I said it just moments ago during the previous episode of Raw but that element of the story feels a bit out of the blue. Surely Lawler is lying? As the two friends go back and forth, Dean Douglas comes out onto the entrance ramp to take notes and critique their performances. He doesn’t stay for long. The match doesn’t last long either and Razor drops the Kid with a big stiff clothesline which is somehow enough for the three count. The 1-2-3 Kid is angry and slaps Razor in the face, demanding a rematch immediately. They keep wrestling and the referee lets it go, apparently agreeing to let a second match occur right away. Razor is aggressive and keeps telling the Kid to let it go but he continually slaps Ramon in the face, telling him to keep bringing it. He is determined to earn Razor’s respect. The 1-2-3 Kid comes off the top rope and is caught and slammed in a powerbomb. That gets another three count but the Kid STILL won’t let it go and demands another match so on they go. Razor has now beaten him twice and seems happy to keep beating and dominating on his little buddy if that's what he wants. Ramon is about to hit the Razor’s Edge but takes pity on the Kid and just takes him down in a small package instead, pinning him for the third time without doing more damage than necessary like a babyface. Razor helps him to his feet and they shake hands and it seems like they have finally put their differences aside and are friends again. 

• In rather bizarre news, this Raw aired the day before the end of the infamous OJ Simpson trial. Vince promoted a phone-in poll to see what the WWF audience thinks of his guilt and weirdly rather than the proceeds going to a domestic abuse charity, given what the trial was about (he murdered his wife, allegedly) the proceeds go to a child abuse charity instead. A very good cause obviously but still. Vince also invited The Pope (yes, really) to attend a WWF hosted charity event at Madison Square Garden. Jesus. At the end of the show the results of this phone in poll are shown - given that Raw was pre-taped, the results were never going to be legit but Vince plays it safe with a 49/51 split on the poll anyway. Lots of people wasted their money to vote in that poll which is very dishonest but at least all the money goes to charity.

• Vince briefly runs down part of the In Your House card and in addition to the matches mentioned last week, Goldust will make his in-ring debut against the returning Marty Jannetty. 

• Barry Horowitz tries to continue his winning ways against Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Vince mentions during this match that Horowitz is now tag team partners with Hakushi who he’s trying to teach the American way. Barry puts up a good fight here and gets plenty of near falls but a well timed Pedigree gives HHH another victory. 
• The team of PG-13 - JC Ice and Wolfy D - take on a pair of jobbers. Who are PG-13? Two skinny white boys with a rapper gimmick. They’re the USWA Tag Team Champions which was Jerry Lawler’s promotion down in Memphis - Vince allowed talent to go back and forth between the company and everyone from Sid to Undertaker to Bret Hart made appearances in the USWA during this period. Before the match they issue a challenge to the new WWF Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns which I’m sure will be accepted. PG-13 win with a double team bulldog. 

• In the main event, Bret Hart battles thieving pirate Jean Pierre Lafitte in a rematch from In Your House 3. There was a big announcement made last week which I saved for during this match - Bret Hart will challenge for the WWF Championship whoever the champion may be at the 1995 Survivor Series. Will it be Bret vs. Diesel, or Bret vs. Bulldog? Either match has appeal and plenty of history. After a heated back and forth with Jerry Lawler acting as Pierre’s cheerleader, Bret uses a superplex and a Sharpshooter to pick up another win in a 10+ minute match which was probably better than their In Your House match. Good stuff from Bret as always. After the match as Bret gets in Lawler’s face over the constant abuse during the match. King keeps him distracted long enough for Isaac Yankem D.D.S to assault Hart from behind, dropping him with a DDT on the floor. As he’s being helped to the back by referees after a commercial break, Vince tells us that President Monsoon has booked a steel cage match between Bret and Yankem in two weeks on Raw. 

• Next week’s main event is a huge six man tag team match and both teams have some comments for each other at the close of the show. I’ll talk a lot more about that next week obviously. 

Monday Night Raw - October 9th 1995

• When Raw opens the heel team of Yokozuna, British Bulldog and Owen Hart are already assembled in the ring. They appear to have all entered to Yoko’s theme but Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Diesel get their own entrances. Vince McMahon describes this match as a “six man tag extraordinaire” three times in less than 4 minutes. Before the match begins, Shawn Michaels’ transition to being a main eventer continues as there’s a video from a recent charity event. The usually brash and cocky Heartbreak Kid appears out of character and speaks humble and emotionally about how much he likes being a role model for kids and how he’s not as cool as he acts on TV. I liked that. This is a high energy match and with three of the top babyfaces on one team it's basically a crowd pleasing house show match which the fans loved. For the second week in a row the creepy Waylon Mercy is shown watching Undertaker’s match from afar but Jerry Lawler says he has his eyes on Diesel ahead of their non-title match at the weekend. Yeah ok, that doesn’t explain what he was doing last week though. As it happens, this is the last time we’ll see Mercy on TV and that match (a count out victory over Diesel on Superstars) was his final televised match - Dan Spivey was forced to retire in October 1995 due to nagging injuries and never wrestled again. A sad end to an odd character who didn’t make much of an impact on me personally but is fondly remembered by some. Back on Raw, Shawn Michaels is isolated and worked over by Yoko, Hart and Bulldog with quick tags and illegal double teams behind the referee’s back. After a tag to Diesel the match breaks down and in the chaos with all six men brawling in and out of the ring, Bulldog drills Diesel with an over the shoulder powerslam for the victory! Bulldog has pinned the WWF Champion. King Mabel heads down to the ring and he and Yokozuna beat down Undertaker, taking it in turns to drop leg drop after leg drop across the face of the deadman. With everyone’s focus on that in the ring, Dean Douglas runs down and attacks his own PPV appearance, picking him up and driving him ribs-first onto the ring steps. Its absolute pandemonium with Undertaker absorbing about 30 leg drops in the middle of the ring and Michaels and Diesel both also left laid out. This provided some heat for two of the In Your House matches but in kayfabe at least, got one of them cancelled. Two days after this episode of Raw aired on a house show, King Mabel accidentally shattered The Undertaker’s orbital bone causing him to need surgery and be missing for a few weeks. The injury and time off was blamed in the storyline on this beating we just witnessed. We’ll find out who replaces Undertaker soon enough.

• In a weird use of TV time, in order to build up Bret Hart vs. Isaac Yankem in a steel cage match next week they show more or less the entire Hart vs. Yankem match from Summerslam including Jerry Lawler’s interference. I’m obviously not going to recap all of that because I did at Summerslam.
• Fatu takes on Bodydonna Skip. The big Samoan has no problems with Skip and even a distraction from Sunny doesn’t help. A splash off the top rope gives Fatu the victory and then he taunts Skip and Sunny with some jumping jacks.
• Later in the show, Dok Hendrix brings us a medical update on HBK, Diesel and Undertaker. He doesn’t have much of one for us - they’re too hurt to really talk to him about it but Undertaker has taken the worst of it. Elsewhere, Jim Ross tries to interview the perpetrators and speaks to Jim Cornette and a baseball cap wearing Bulldog who is jubilant at having pinned the WWF Champion tonight. Cornette monologues endlessly without pausing for breath in the way he always did and that brings Raw to an end. This was a very quick episode with only one real match and the rest of the show being focused on that storyline.

Monday Night Raw - October 16th 1995

• Raw kicks off with American Blueblood Hunter Hearst Helmsley (spraying the fans and the commentators with perfume) vs. Doink the Clown. HHH has a match at In Your House with Fatu, and Doink hasn’t really been “a thing” in about two years now so no prizes for guessing who wins this match. He does it with a Pedigree.
• Backstage, Barry Horowitz teaches Hakushi about American baseball and, in more important news, President Gorilla Monsoon announced who Undertaker’s replacement will be at In Your House - it’ll be Yokozuna vs. King Mabel now as Undertaker is injured, as discussed last week. I’ll discuss it more at the PPV too, no doubt. There’s another big change to the In Your House card as Shawn Michaels is also injured. Vince and Lawler mentioned it in passing commentary and I’m sure they’ll give us more details on that later too. 

• Paul Bearer cuts a pre-recorded promo promising that Undertaker will have his revenge on both King Mabel and Yokozuna when he returns to action.

• WWF Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns defend their titles against the USWA’s PG-13. I guess one jobber squash match two weeks ago was enough to make JC Ice and Wolfy D the number one contenders, or maybe Billy and Bart are just fighting champions. Billy and Bart are also slated to defend the Tag Team titles at In Your House against Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid, assuming they survive this match with the titles. The smaller men cheat to get the advantage but whenever Billy or Bart get a chance they throw PG-13 around with ease. A side-winder on JC Ice gives the Gunns the victory.

• The previous weekend Jim Cornette and the British Bulldog had some comments for Diesel and the WWF Championship match at In Your House. As Cornette talks, Bulldog’s eyes wander all over the place and he looks like he’s on something which sadly based on his history and how he died, he almost certainly was. Bulldog talks about the lack of respect and promises that he will be the next WWF Champion.

• Another newly debuting superstar is coming soon for us all to look forward to; Ahmed Johnson. I’m not really sure what they’re doing for with this gimmick but I guess he’s just a hard working babyface. Nothing wrong with a little more diversity on these shows of course.

• Dean Douglas faces a local jobber which gives Vince and Lawler a chance to talk about the injuries sustained by Shawn Michaels - he was attacked outside a night club in New York and violently beaten up by 10 men, knocked unconscious and had his face slammed into a car. That sounds brutal and unprovoked which is how it’ll be portrayed on TV but in reality, Michaels was out of it on booze and pills and was beaten up for having a big mouth while fellow WWF Superstars 1-2-3 Kid and Bulldog were too stoned to help him. The substance abuse in the WWF in 1995 was rife and didn’t often impact the on screen product. Douglas wins this match with a fisherman suplex. They talk about his Intercontinental title defence against Dean Douglas like it’s going to happen but spoilers - it doesn’t. More on that at In Your House.
• Speaking of In Your House, Vince and Lawler run down the card and give special attention to the in-ring debut of Goldust against Marty Jannetty. Goldust has some comments for Jannetty of his own but he was speaking as a whisper and I could barely understand him.
• Ahead of tonight’s main event steel cage match Jerry Lawler has been told by Gorilla Monsoon that if he interferes in this match at all he’ll be locked in a shark case and raised up to the ceiling of the arena to dangle and keep him out of Bret Hart’s way. Yankem is a big bruiser and so he just overwhelmed Bret with punches and clubs against the case, slowly working him over before quickly trying to climb out. Bret puts a stop to that. Vince calls this a 15 feet high steel cage which is hilarious as if that was accurate it means Yankem is 14 feet tall. Bret has a chance to escape but the referee is unable to unlock the cage door. It becomes painfully clear that Jerry Lawler has swapped the padlock and so the referee has the wrong key. Bret locks the evil dentist in the Sharpshooter and makes him submit which counts for nothing in this match. The Hitman starts to climb and is about to escape when Jerry Lawler runs up the cage and punches him back into the ring. That stops Bret from winning but brings Gorilla Monsoon down to ringside to fulfil his promise - he forces King into the shark cage and he’s hoisted high above the arena floor to powerlessly watch the match continue without his interference. After a long back and forth and some close calls, Bret Hart eventually manages to climb out and win the match. Raw ends with Jerry Lawler still swinging about the ring screaming about how afraid he is of heights with Bret’s music playing in victory.