Monday Night Raw - February 19th, 1996

• The night after In Your House 6 begins, as all shows do now, with the gorgeous Sunny warning us that viewer discretion is advised. I know I’ve said before that Sunny is a bad person and I don’t want to glorify her BUT there’s no denying her impact on these shows. 

• The show kicks off with Razor Ramon challenging Goldust for the Intercontinental Championship. If you read my In Your House coverage you know that by this point, in real life, Scott Hall and others had broken the news to Vince that they’d be leaving the company for WCW. That makes this the last time I’ll see Razor Ramon for a couple of months as, out of spite, Vince suspended Razor for two months meaning he’ll miss Wrestlemania and a big pay day. I actually think that’s fair enough given that they shouldn’t be giving TV time to someone who’s got one foot out the door. It was too late to change their plans for Diesel though so Kevin Nash is safe. All of that probably gives away the outcome of this match doesn’t it? It’s been six weeks since her debut so as you’d expect, Marlena now has her name and she uses her feminine wiles to distract Razor. It doesn’t work and he sees Goldust’s sneak attack coming and bounces him around the ring still wearing his ring jacket. Razor dominates and Goldust eventually leaves the ring, running away and giving Razor the victory via count out. Post match, Razor grabs the mic and calls Goldust a coward. He says he doesn’t want the title, he wants Goldust’s ass. He then turns his attention to the WWF President Roddy Piper and says that he doesn’t want his kids watching “this kind of stuff” on TV. That feels incredibly homophobic. He challenges Goldust “anywhere, any time”. So setting something up for the future, that makes me think I’ve got my dates wrong and Nash, Hall and Waltman hadn’t broken the news to Vince about their leaving yet. It was definitely this week, regardless.

• In the opening video, Vince mentioned “the Ultimate Warrior!” of all people. What is that about? Well acting president of the WWF is bringing him back to the WWF! I’ll talk a lot more about him at Wrestlemania of course.

• In the SlamJam, Dok Hendrix recaps the results of In Your House and makes two big Wrestlemania main events official; Bret vs. Shawn for the WWF Championship and The Undertaker vs. Diesel. That’s Undertaker’s biggest Mania match in years at this point.

• In the ring, Barry Horowitz and Aldo Montoya are awaiting The Bodydonnas for their scheduled tag team match but instead it's Vader who comes to the ring led by Jim Cornette. Vader demolishes both men - he’s REALLY rough and stiff and it looked like he probably hurt them legit - and roars at the crowd. Vader seems like a really unsafe worker to my eyes.

• Marty Jannetty takes on The Ringmaster. He’s shaved his head, looks more serious as he makes his way to the ring and Vince McMahon calls him “stone cold” as Steve Austin was already pushing for a name and gimmick change backstage. Vince mentions that Marty has a new tag team partner and will be in “the tag team tournament” as well as the returning Bushwackers. What tag team tournament? Well it hasn’t been mentioned on Raw or on PPV but Billy needs neck surgery. He won’t be gone for too long but it means The Smoking Gunns have been forced to vacate the Tag Team Championships. The tournament finals take place on the Wrestlemania 12 Free for All so I’ll try and find that show when I get to the PPV. Marty puts up a good showing here against the Million Dollar Champion but the Ringmaster dominates and grapples Marty, stretching him out with submission holds and eventually makes him submit to the Million Dollar Dream. Well actually, Marty passes out so he wins by technical knockout really. Vince calls him “stone cold” again at the end of the match. 

• For the third show in a row there’s a video promoting the arrival of new character Mankind. This one tells us a little more about him, he rants like a mad man about having had his teeth knocked out and his ear ripped off. He appears to be wearing his ring gear and mask in this one but shrouded in shadows we still can’t get a good look at this demented monster. 
• The Undertaker faces Tatanka. He has Ted Dibiase with him which confirms he IS still in the Million Dollar Corporation despite having barely been on TV in months for personal reasons. As the two wrestle, Diesel comes down to ringside carrying an axe and grabs a camera man, leading him backstage. After a commercial break, live footage from backstage shows us Diesel absolutely destroying The Undertaker’s casket. It goes on for minutes as he angrily shreds the thing to splinters with axe blow after axe blow. Meanwhile in the ring, Undertaker hits the chokeslam and Tombstone combo to pick up the win seemingly unaware of what Diesel has done backstage. Obviously not that big of a deal that he smashed the casket but it sends a pretty clear and unflattering message doesn’t it? Undertaker looks angry about it regardless once he sees it playing on the video wall and rushes backstage. Jerry Lawler hops off commentary and takes off with a camera and mic of his own to find out whats going on.

• The dumb Billionaire Ted stuff continues with a rubbish parody of Larry King. This is lost on me, Larry King is one of those American things that I’m aware of but have no real knowledge of. I said it at the PPV and in the last Preview but this joke has very much run its course now. The jokes aren’t terrible here, mocking Hogan and Savage but going really hard on alleged “financial irregularities” in the way Turner is running WCW. The show does thankfully end with Undertaker and Bearer getting backstage and seeing the smashed casket and not on this lame “comedy”.

Monday Night Raw - February 26th, 1996

• Raw opens up with Isaac Yankem D.D.S vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts. I haven’t talked much about Jake’s return but this was the period of his life where he was loudly and proudly a born again Christian who had cleaned up his act. Sadly neither thing was true at all. The story here is that Jerry Lawler is very scared of Jake’s snake hence dispatching his personal evil dentist to deal with him. Jake wins with the DDT.

• Diesel faces Bob Holly. Big Daddy Cool spends the match acting paranoid, looking over his shoulder and clearly distracted by The Undertaker. It allows Holly to get in more offence than you’d expect but Diesel wins with the Jackknife. After the match he looks around and dares Undertaker to pop out at him again. He’s leaving but suddenly loses his cool when the Undertaker’s gong sounds and the arena lights start to flicker and go out. Undertaker appears as if by magic in the middle of the ring and so Diesel rushes back to confront him. The lights go back out and more magic; The Undertaker is gone! This is the first taste of the mind games and special effects Undertaker used for most of his career. It’s cool and definitely wasn’t overdone at the time. He appears on the big screen and tells Diesel that he is the master of the mind game and Diesel should prepare for the Dark Side. I loved this.

• Ahmed Johnson faces Shinobi. He’s another masked man played by the future Al Snow. He was also wrestling intermittently as Avatar, and now as Leif Cassidy, teaming with Marty Jannetty as one half of The New Rockers. Busy guy. Goldust calls in during this match and reads a poem that he’s written about acting President Roddy Piper. He’s turned his mind games and sexual advances towards the Hot Rod. Ahmed picks up the win with the Pearl River Plunge. 
• Another creepy Mankind introduction video. This week he talks about his mommy like a serial killer and shows off the rat he’s befriended. 

• Last week I mentioned the tournament for the vacant tag team titles and Dok Hendrix provides an update. Owen Hart and the British Bulldog have advanced and next week on Superstars The New Rockers (who I just mentioned!) take on The Godwins. Nice to get an update from time to time, thanks Dok. 

• In the ring, Vince McMahon conducts a face to face interview with the Wrestlemania main event of both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. As HBK makes his way to the ring, Jerry Lawler does a good job of running down Michaels while also listing his many very impressive accolades. On commentary both Vince and Jerry have begun to push the narrative that winning the WWF title at Wrestlemania is Shawn Michaels’ boyhood dream. Both these guys are very popular and, as they’re both babyfaces, they’re respectful and Shawn actually claps for Bret. I’ve not really talked about their real life relationship off camera because at this point, there wasn’t much to say. There was a respect there, but I’ll talk a great deal more about them at Wrestlemania. The two men overuse the word respect while talking about how great they both are - there’s a tension between them as they wish each other luck, praise each other but continue to call themselves better. It’s good stuff. The crowd are split somewhat and cheer and boo both men in equal measure. They talk about their conditioning and how they’re both as good as they’ve ever been. Bret compares himself to the energizer bunny. The conversation is interrupted by Rowdy Roddy Piper. He mentions the mixed reaction and uses that as an excuse to heap praise on both guys and how great they are. He has a great joke saying that he heard Bret even managed to beat Roddy Piper one time but he’s not sure because he wasn’t there. Both guys laugh at that. Roddy does a poor job of explaining his announcement but basically this is the ultimate test of conditioning where we are guaranteed a winner - they will wrestle for one full hour at Wrestlemania and whoever gets the most falls in that hour is the winner. The first ever Iron Man match. He tells them to shake hands because they’ll HATE each other after Wrestlemania. They do and we are set for Wrestlemania! This was another great segment. 

• In the main event, Owen Hart and British Bulldog face their former team mate Yokozuna in a handicap match. As it stands Yoko still has a singles match with Vader set for Wrestlemania. Yoko dominates both men with Owen and Bulldog only managing to build offence when they work together. Yoko runs through both with a double clothesline and it looks like they’re in trouble until Vader comes down and wipes out Yokozuna with a clothesline. He wins by disqualification but is beaten up three on one. Fortunately for Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts run down (well Jake walks slowly) and make the save. Vader stands up to both but backs off and runs away when the snake makes an appearance.

• I was ready to call this a great episode of Raw but sadly there’s MORE Billionaire Ted “comedy” to end the show. The joke is that Ted owns all the media so it’s a suck up puff piece and unfair journalism. Larry Fling has The Huckster and Nacho Man as his guests with jokes about male pattern baldness, Hogan recently being injured by a woman’s shoe (Ric Flair used a high heel shoe as a weapon to beat him on a WCW show which is dumb, in fairness) and an allegation that Macho Man’s real life Liz might have been unfaithful (which is pretty nasty). Vince was just lashing out and making mean jokes about his former employees and I think if you enjoy the scandal and were amused by the WWF’s first foray into breaking the fourth wall and taking pot shots at other companies you’d find this funny. I’m over it. 

Monday Night Raw - March 4th, 1996

• Two big matches for tonight’s show; both halves of the Wrestlemania Iron Man main event will be in action. Shawn Michaels vs. the 1-2-3 Kid and Bret Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley. ALSO, Goldust is here with a movie about Roddy Piper and we’ll learn the fate of the Ultimate Warrior. Man, the Monday Night War has them really starting to stack these shows. Whether the stuff they’re stacked is any good is a matter of personal preference but for my money, having watched from the first episode of Raw, there’s been a dramatic uptick in quality of these shows.
• Shawn Michaels opens the show with the 1-2-3 Kid already in the ring. The Kid rushes Michaels and gets backdropped out of the ring so that HBK can keep dancing and finish his entrance like nothing happened. That was great. This is a good match and Bret Hart is shown watching backstage. Vince speaks to him and he’s impressed by Michaels but rightly points out that he won’t find things half as easy against him at Wrestlemania. Vince basically interviews Bret during this match, asking questions about conditioning and the challenge of wrestling for a full hour at Wrestlemania. After a good back and forth Michaels wins with the Sweet Chin Music superkick and then dances with one of his young fans in the ring - a member of The Klique. 

• In a Shattered Dreams Production, directed by Marlena, Goldust appears in Piper’s Pit and monologues about the huge teenage crush he had on Roddy Piper. He makes multiple innuendos about masturbating but loses me when he keeps calling the kilt “a skirt”. As a Scotsman, I hate him. Goldust does a terrible job of playing some bagpipes to end the segment as Marlena directs “an extreme close-up”. 

• Vince McMahon narrates a retrospective of Ultimate Warrior’s career and, despite his focus on the New Generation and mocking WCW for employing old men from the Hulkamania era, is excited to tell us that he’s back and will wrestle at Wrestlemania 12. 
• Hakushi wrestles Justin Hawk Bradshaw. For longtime fans that’s Bradshaw/JBL making his Raw debut. I know I’ve said it twice now but this really is the final Hakushi appearance. I don’t know how I got this so wrong. Bradshaw is managed by Uncle Zekebkiah. Bradshaw’s theme song is pretty awesome honestly. Vince calls him a throw back to the Stan Hansen days, a rugged cowboy. Roddy Piper calls in during this match to discuss Goldust and Wrestlemania. He also hypes up that he’ll be on next week’s Raw in person to announce the Ultimate Warrior’s opponent on the show. Piper calls Goldust’s antics simple mind games and says that next week he will be confronting him too. Sounds like it’ll be a busy week for the acting President. Bradshaw wins the match with a big clothesline and then after the match hog ties Hakushi so that Uncle Zebekiah can brand him. 

• Week five of Mankind’s introduction - I’m not sure what story he’s telling but he’s deranged and demented, talking about his mommy and implying he might have killed his dad? He basically represents all the ugliness of ALL Mankind, hence the name. 
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley has another very pretty blonde lady at ringside with him tonight. Bret and HHH should be a great match and as they go back and forth, Shawn Michaels comes down to ringside for a closer look. He sets up a folding chair and sits with his feet up on the ring apron to scout the WWF Champion. There’s some tension as Bret goes out to confront HBK and asks why he didn’t just watch from backstage. It’s a fair question. Lawler spends the match talking about how these two big babyfaces actually hate each other which is pretty funny in hindsight. HHH gets in plenty of offence and controls a big chunk of the match. Bret shows a lot more focus and intensity in this match than we’ve seen from him before - borderline heel actions like arguing with the referee. He wins with the Sharpshooter and Michaels leaves without incident, applauding Bret as he leaves.

• This week’s Billionaire Ted nonsense is him appearing on a TV quiz show and answering questions about real life quotes said by Ted Turner. This is one of the smarter of these segments as Turner has said some pretty racist, misogynistic and questionable things in his life. The gorgeous blonde he’s competing with gets all the points by pointing out that it was Billionaire Ted himself who said all these horrible and problematic things. 

Monday Night Raw - March 11th, 1996

• Raw opens up with a video package about tonight’s big match. Yokozuna and The Undertaker are teaming up to take on Bulldog and Owen Hart. They do acknowledge Yoko and Undertaker’s previous fierce rivalry and pair of casket matches which is nice to see. 
• In the opening match, Savio Vega battles The Ringmaster. Vince immediately calls the Ringmaster “stone cold” again. They’re definitely setting the stage for a name and gimmick change and it seems like Vince is a step behind because the name plate gives his name as Stone Cold Steve Austin. Jerry Lawler calls him that too so I guess I spoke too soon and THIS match marks the official change. I love it, obviously. The two men brawl to the outside and won’t stop fighting so the match ends via a double count out. They continue to fight and brawl after the match and the referee is totally unable to pull them apart. It’s wild and intense and the fans really get into it. Austin is finally knocked out of the ring by a spinning heel kick and Savio has the last laugh tonight. Austin has grown a goatee now too and just fully looks like Stone Cold as most fans would know him. 

• Sat at ringside, Vince talks about Olympic hopeful, “the world’s strongest man” Mark Henry. This match is full of little glimpses of the future isn’t it? Earlier tonight before the show, Jerry Lawler interviewed Mark in the ring and insulted him so Mark picked him up and slung him out of the ring.

• The WWF Tag Team Championship tournament continues this weekend on Superstars. The tournament was mostly pre-taped so Razor Ramon and Savio Vega advanced to the next round, but Razor is now effectively gone so they’ll need to figure out a way around that. 

• Roddy Piper heads down to the ring to make some Wrestlemania announcements. Well he’s scheduled to but Intercontinental Champion Goldust comes out first. Piper rattles off a bunch of vaguely homophobic comments and jokes and calls him a transvestite. That gets a big reaction from the crowd in Texas. Piper does back off of that a little and tells Goldust he can be whatever he wants BUT, he sees through all of this as the mind games it is and he won’t fall for it. He says all Goldust wants is attention and to embarrass him. Goldust gets on his knees and crawls around, challenging Piper to come to his backlot - they’re not very clear about it but that is a challenge to a match, a backlot brawl specifically. Goldust slaps Roddy in the face, so Piper punches him back and officially accepts the challenge to a backlot fight at Wrestlemania, promising to make a man of him. If you need evidence of how far in advance they used to tape Raw back in the day, that shot of Piper punching Goldust has been in the Raw opening for about three weeks.

• Phineas and Henry Godwin (with Hillybilly Jim and a cute dog?) take on a pair of jobbers. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a jobber squash! The Godwins have advanced to the semi finals of the Tag Team Championship tournament. The Godwins pick up the win, obviously.
• Jim Ross narrates a pair of videos looking at both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart’s preparations for Wrestlemania. These videos were a big source of bitterness between these two as Bret comes across as a heel in his, talking down about Shawn Michaels’ toughness and skills whereas Shawn doesn’t talk about Bret and focuses on himself and his boyhood dream. In his book, Bret said that Shawn’s video makes him look like a superhero, working out and showing off his physical gifts while Bret’s video mostly featured him being stretched and beaten up by his elderly father. Bret might have a point.

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley (with another pretty lady, this one he kisses!) takes on another jobber. Two jobber squashes on one show? Weird. The big news here is that at Wrestlemania, HHH will be the opponent of the returning Ultimate Warrior. It’s a shame that they ended HHH’s undefeated streak last week to Bret. He wins this match with a Pedigree. 
• Vince has been promoting that there will be a geriatric match between the Huckster and Nacho Man on the Wrestlemania pre-show. Scheme Gene shows off some comedy training videos from both men and mocks their age. I swear to God this is about the 7th different person they’ve had play Scheme Gene in these videos - it’s not the same guy from the Billionaire Ted skits. The guy playing The Huckster has changed too. Nacho Man is still the same guy, I think. It's impossible to tell under the wig, hat and glasses.

• In the main event, former bitter rivals Yokozuna and The Undertaker team up against Camp Cornette. Owen and Bulldog don’t have a match at Wrestlemania - yet - but they are still in the Tag Team Championship tournament. The two big men have no problems throwing Owen and Bulldog around and with firm control, Diesel comes down to the ring and attacks Paul Bearer. The Undertaker has no idea it occurred as Diesel lays in punches and beats Bearer up pretty viciously! He leaves and when Undertaker spots him, he gets out of the ring to check on Bearer and then takes off after Big Daddy Cool leaving Yokozuna in a handicap match against Owen and Bulldog. The chaos continues when Vader comes down to the ring to join in and the match ends via disqualification as Vader, Owen and Bulldog beat down Yoko three on one. Just like two weeks ago, Ahmed Johnson runs down to make the save and drops Owen and Bulldog with big spinebusters. He’s overwhelmed by Vader so Jake Roberts arrives to join in two and it’s a chaotic six man brawl with referees and officials trying to split them up. Vince mentions that Diesel has also attacked The Undertaker backstage but we get no footage of that sadly and the show ends with an angry Vader slamming a steel chair into the ring post in frustration.

Monday Night Raw - March 18th, 1996

• Raw kicks off with some BIG news; last night at Madison Square Garden Diesel cemented his official heel turn attacking The Undertaker, Bret Hart AND his best buddy Shawn Michaels with a steel chair. Amazingly the video puts another comedy skit for Billionaire Ted ahead of that in the pecking order. Jesus. The eagle eyed among you will also spot that Razor Ramon has been entirely removed from Raw’s opening too. 

• In the opening match Jake Roberts faces The British Bulldog. I’ll talk about this a little more at Wrestlemania but do you find it hypocritical that Vince was mocking WCW for using old men and hyping up his New Generation while bringing back people like Jake Roberts, Ultimate Warrior and Roddy Piper? Hmm. Food for thought. Vince spends a lot of this match plugging Wrestlemania on PPV telling people to call their cable company and ask for Wrestlemania “by name”. That’s because in 1996 if you called your cable provider and asked for “the wrestling PPV at the end of March” they wouldn’t know if you meant the WWF or WCW’s Uncensored 4 days before it. During this match Vince teases Lawler for being afraid of Jake’s snake which they’ve hyped up for a few weeks now. I’m sure that's going somewhere. They mention that The King will be in a “never before seen” match on WWF Superstars the following weekend. I’m sure I'll find out what that's all about next week on Raw. Jake scores with his DDT out of nowhere but Jim Cornette puts Bulldog’s foot on the ropes to break the pin. Jake gives up on fair play and gets his giant snake to chase Cornette around the ring, getting himself counted out. Hilariously Cornette despite being a chubby non-wrestler is MUCH faster than Roberts and had to pretend to trip to give him a chance.

• Here’s a Jim Ross narrated video about Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart’s respective training regimes ahead of their Wrestlemania 1-hour Iron Man match. I liked this a lot, but once again feel like Bret comes across as the heel in this scenario - you can definitely see some of Bret’s real life dislike for HBK bleeding out. Shawn is very likeable. How good is that music btw?

• Fatu faces Intercontinental Champion Goldust. A woman in the front row is shown wearing a Goldust t-shirt and mimicking his taunt. I’m glad he had some fans and that EVERYONE in the 90s wasn’t deeply homophobic. Goldust is wearing a kilt to send a message to acting WWF President Rowdy Roddy Piper who he’s facing in a (non-title) Hollywood Backlot Brawl at Wrestlemania. Piper calls in during this match and sounds very angry at Goldust, promising no prop weapons or movie magic; he’s going to use real weapons and he’s going to really try to hurt Goldust.The IC Champion wins this match with Fatu, obviously.

• This past weekend on WWF Superstars during an in-ring promo with Yokozuna, Jake Roberts and Ahmed Johnson joined him and challenged Camp Cornette to change the Yokozuna and Vader match to a six man tag team match. On Raw, Jim Cornette, Vader, Bulldog and Owen Hart accept the challenge. Owen, Bulldog and Vader all take a moment to say their own piece. Owen says that Ahmed “doesn’t have a brain in that million dollar body” which is funny stuff. Cornette calls Yokozuna a traitor and a liar and says he needed Jim to do all the talking for him because he’s an idiot. Cornette implies that the reason Mr. Fuji is missing is that he pushed him down the stairs. That’s pretty dark. I think the six man tag is a good thing because it gets Owen, Bulldog and newcomer Ahmed on the PPV and also Yoko can’t really pull his weight in a singles match these days BUT, there’s no mention of what happens if Bulldog and Owen get to the finals of the Tag Team Championship tournament which are scheduled to take place on the same night. The segment rounds out with the reveal that if Yokozuna’s team wins at Wrestlemania, Yokozuna gets 5 minutes in the ring alone with Jim Cornette.

• Barry Horowitz has the scary task of facing Diesel. Before the match Vince recaps what happened at Madison Square Garden with Big Daddy Cool dramatically turning on Shawn Michaels. It was a tag team match of Diesel and Shawn vs. Undertaker and Bret. The match didn’t really start with Diesel and Undertaker brawling all around the ring and out into the crowd before he returned to smack Undertaker, Bret and then Shawn with a steel chair. There’s been no explanation given for why he turned on Shawn but Vince suggests that it's jealousy over Michaels having a title match at Wrestlemania - that’s a fair guess, it's the reason he took such issue with The Undertaker too. Diesel is a little on edge and checks under the ring to make sure Undertaker isn’t hiding somewhere. Diesel beats up Barry as Paul Bearer wheels a casket to the ring, leaving it for Diesel to inspect at his leisure. Vince thinks that The Undertaker is inside it. This match has a hilarious finish as Diesel puts down Barry with a big boot and pins him. Horowitz kicks out so Diesel just punches him and then pins him again which gets the three. Big Daddy Cool grabs a weapon before going to check out the casket and to his (and everyone’s) shock, it’s Not Undertaker inside, it’s Diesel himself! In reality, this was some clever editing where in the arena it was a body double and then in post-production, they inserted a close up camera shot of Kevin Nash himself just laying there. Vince and Lawler are blown away - how did The Undertaker do that?

• In the Million Dollar locker room, Ted Dibiase talks strategy with Tatanka and the 1-2-3 Kid ahead of tonight’s main event. I only really mention it because this is how small the Million Dollar Corporation has gotten. Stone Cold Steve Austin is still the Million Dollar Champion and a member but he’s never once been shown on TV with anyone other than Dibiase himself.
• Tatanka faces Bret Hart (non-title, obviously). This is, finally, the last we’ll see of Tatanka. Amazingly, this was effectively his retirement match as after this show he didn’t wrestle again ANYWHERE until 1999, and between 1996 and 2006 he only wrestled 7 matches total. Even WCW didn’t want Tatanka. Bret has been coming across as a heel in his Wrestlemania promos, basically saying that he respects Michaels in the ring but not outside of it and making it clear he does not like the Heartbreak Kid but the fans still love The Hitman. They don’t wrestle for long before the 1-2-3 Kid comes down to ringside. The distraction allows Tatanka a chance to build some offense and focus on Bret’s back. Bret mounts his comeback, more attempted interference by the 1-2-3 Kid backfires when Tatanka punches him in the mouth and Bret seamlessly rolls him up to pick up the win. Bret celebrates in the ring for almost as long as the match itself while Vince and Jerry talk about his legacy, his title reign and his Wrestlemania match.
• Once again, the show ends with a Billionaire Ted skit. This one is a parody of the movie “A Few Good Men” with Vince poking fun at the fact that Ted Turner has been buying up all of his competition and engaging in unfair business practices with no one stopping him. It is hilarious that Vince McMahon of all people was crying foul about unfair competition and “the world being run by a handful of billionaires”. This one sucked and I can’t wait for Billionaire Ted to disappear. 

Monday Night Raw - March 25th, 1996

• In the opening match this week Shawn Michaels faces one half of the New Rockers, Leif Cassidy. That’s Al Snow in a previous gimmick for long time fans. He debuts a new gimmick for his entrance, the Kliq Cam where Shawn films the fans with an old school camcorder. This Raw took place in HBK’s hometown so before the match he grabs the mic and pumps up the crowd before bringing out his mentor and trainer Jose Lothario who will be at ringside with him for Wrestlemania 12. I’m not sure why he was dressed like a referee. As the match begins, Bret Hart comes down to ringside to join commentary and talk about Shawn Michaels. Jerry Lawler hilariously makes an excuse and leaves very quickly not wanting to be around his old rival. Marty Jannetty also comes down to the ring to  get a closer look at his current tag team partner in the ring against his old tag team partner. This is an ok match but you can see a little of the infamous “asshole in real life” Michaels coming out as after Cassidy makes a mistake Shawn looks visibly pissed off. Marty tries to interfere so Bret goes over and puts a stop to that and Michaels wins with the Sweet Chin Music. He dives out of the ring and goes to confront Marty, shoving Bret out of the way to do so which the Hitman takes exception to. Marty and Leif get away scotfree as Bret and Shawn start shoving and getting in each other’s face until Jose Lothario finally gets between them and breaks it up. Bret goes back over to speak to Vince where he says that while Shawn isn’t a friend of his he certainly isn’t an enemy and he does respect him BUT at Wrestlemania he is going to pound him into the dirt for 60 minutes and give him the beating of his life. This was a good segment heading into Wrestlemania 12. 

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley faces Aldo Montoya. HHH has another beautiful blonde lady with him at ringside for this match and, more importantly, has a match with the returning Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania to worry about. During this match Vince mocks WCW’s PPV from the previous evening for having an 8 minute main event (he doesn’t actually say WCW or Hogan but that’s who he means). Ironic he’s saying that while plugging the Warrior/HHH match. Remember I said that, but you probably already know what happened. Lawler shares a rumour that Ultimate Warrior has gained 200lbs of fat and has a short crew cut now. That would be hilarious. Hunter wins this with a Pedigree of course.
• In a pre-taped segment Goldust is live at the Hollywood Backlot (which is the parking lot of the arena where Wrestlemania is taking place) and cuts a promo while talking to and feeling up a mannequin dressed as Roddy Piper. I didn’t like this one. 

• I know I’ve already captured two but here’s another one ahead of his debut; Mankind, coming soon! We get a better look at Mick Foley in his new gimmick and the promise that he will finally arrive next week on Raw. 

• In a nice bit of timing, that leads neatly into Vince McMahon interviewing The Undertaker and Paul Bearer in the ring. Paul Bearer recaps their entire feud so far and Undertaker promises that after he put his hands on Paul Bearer, Diesel will pay the ultimate price at Wrestlemania. I’m looking forward to this one and its been a while since I’ve said that about an Undertaker match.
• There’s another long video about Bret and Shawn’s training for the Wrestlemania Iron Man match. It repeats a lot of the comments and talking points from the previous videos.
• Owen Hart battles Ahmed Johnson ahead of their six man tag team match at Wrestlemania. Owen’s sister Diana is shown watching in the front row and shortly after, her husband the British Bulldog comes down to ringside to chat to their manager Jim Cornette. Johnson dominates the match and likely has the victory in hand so Bulldog attacks him to cause the disqualification. Vader comes down to join in and the three of them beat down Ahmed three on one until the 600lbs Yokozuna and the old and broken down Jake Roberts - perhaps the worst two people to have running down to save you - hobble to the ring to help out Ahmed. They succeed in clearing out Camp Cornette and stand tall in the ring.

• The show ends with a special music video focused on WWF Champion Bret Hart. It's cooler than the one they did for him at Wrestlemania 9 using the song R-E-S-P-E-C-T.