-Clips are shown of Kama on WWF Superstars ripping up a black wreath of the Creature of the Night and attacking one of the Undertaker’s Creatures of the Night. It is announced that the Undertaker’s match with Kama at SummerSlam will be a casket match and the Undertaker warns Tatanka that he had better prepare to rest in peace.
-Vince McMahon and Jerry “the King†Lawler are in the booth and coming to us from Worcester, Massachusetts again.
–Opening Contest: Men on a Mission vs. Joe Hancock & Joe Raymond:
Mabel gets the royal treatment of being carried to the ring by some jobbers. Man, I would have hated to one of the guys that had to carry that throne. Men on a Mission attack the jobbers from behind to start and Mabel knees Hancock in the corner and gives him some knife edge chops. Mabel pinball’s Hancock between the buckles and then gives him a clothesline. Mabel lifts Hancock up in a choke hold and then tags in Mo. Men on a Mission give Hancock a double clothesline and Mo gorilla press slams Hancock. Men on a Mission double team Hancock for another minute before Mabel delivers a brutal looking piledriver to Hancock. Raymond gets tagged in as Mabel taunts the crowd and he tries to attack him from behind but that gets no sold and Mabel squashes him against the turnbuckles like a bug. Mo nails Raymond with a top rope elbow smash but picks him up at two as the crowd chants for Diesel. Mabel then gets tagged in to finish the match with a belly-to-belly suplex at 3:46. It just wasn’t Hancock and Raymond’s night to be matched up against these guys. After the match, Mabel puts on his crown and tells the crowd that they are the greatest tag team of all-time. He then challenges the Allied Powers to a SummerSlam warmup match but they don’t immediately respond.
-The Report Card with our teacher Dean Douglas. He’s in his satellite classroom and he grades Men on a Mission’s tag team match. He defines the word dominate for us and gives Mabel a grade of NC for “new champion†because he will be the new WWF Champion after SummerSlam this Sunday.
-Vince hypes a chat on America Online with….himself at 10:00 p.m. Don’t miss it!
–The 1-2-3 Kid vs. The Brooklyn Brawler:
The Brawler attacks the Kid outside of the ring to start the match. Inside of the ring, the Brawler whips the Kid into the buckles and when the Kid tries a reverse body press off the second rope the Brawler ducks. Maybe he is motivated by Barry Horowitz getting a match with Skip at SummerSlam. The Brawler hot shots the Kid and beats on him. The Kid strikes back with a karate kick and a series of kicks in the corner. The Kid then hits a spinning heel kick and cradles the Brawler for the pin at 1:32. Fun squash and after it Vince and Lawler draw pimples on the Kid’s face and then brush them away with a Stridex pad. And no, I am not making that up.
-We are shown footage of Henry O. Godwinn slopping Ted DiBiase last week.
-Call 1-800-TITAN-91 to get the latest Undertaker t-shirt. You can get it for $16. Like many of the others during this period it looked like something you wouldn’t want to be caught dead wearing. Or maybe you would if you are an Undertaker fan. If you buy the shirt you get a free three month subscription to WWF magazine. Honestly, WWF magazine in the Russo days wasn’t that bad if you were a mark. Once he left as editor the whole magazine really went downhill.
–“Native American†Tatanka (w/Ted DiBiase) vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer):
The Undertaker shows his anger at Kama messing with his Creatures of the Night by attacking Tatanka seconds after coming into the ring. The Undertaker rams Tatanka’s head into the canvas and gets the top rope arm ringer/ropewalk spot. The Undertaker chokes Tatanka in the corner and then whips him into the opposite corner. Tatanka fires out of the corner and slams the Undertaker and acts shocked when the Undertaker sits up. C’mon Tatanka, he’s been in the company since 1990, you should know better. Tatanka catches the Undertaker with a slam off the ropes and punches the Undertaker as he’s on the canvas. Tatanka stalls and takes the Undertaker to the buckle and then slams him for two. Chinlock time as the camera cuts to some nerdy Undertaker fan in the audience. The Undertaker delivers a side suplex to get out of the chinlock and we have a brief double KO spot. Tatanka gets up first but a blind charge eats boot and we go to a commercial break.
We return from the commercial break with the Undertaker hitting a flying clothesline off the ropes and he goes for the Tombstone but Tatanka wiggles out and clotheslines the Undertaker for double KO #2. The Undertaker goes under a Tatanka clothesline, hits a chokeslam, and gets the Tombstone this time for the pin at 6:41. Crowd was with this one all the way which brings up its rating. Grade: D+
-Todd Pettengill brings us the Stridex sponsored SummerSlam Report. Order it this Sunday on pay-per-view!
-Men on a Mission dare the Allied Powers to accept his challenge for a tune up match tonight.
–Jean Pierre LaFitte vs. Scott Taylor:
LaFitte attacks Taylor before the bell, which seems to be the trend tonight, but Taylor gets a series of dropkicks to stop the onslaught. Taylor gets a top rope bodypress for two but LaFitte stops himself in the ropes when Taylor tries a dropkick and its stomp city. LaFitte delivers a stomachbreaker, a slam, and elbow drop from the second rope. McMahon criticizes LaFitte for stealing a pair of Bret Hart shades from a fan on a recent episode of WWF Superstars. LaFitte ties Taylor in the ring ropes and splashes onto him twice. LaFitte delivers a backbreaker and then drapes a pirate flag over Taylor before Cannonballing onto him for the win at 3:05. The pirate flag was a nice touch but LaFitte never did it again.
-Goldust vignette where he is superimposed on a landscape image of Hollywood, California. He says there will soon be a permanent vacancy in the Heartbreak Hotel. After the vignette Lawler says that Goldust’s first appearance had the Internet go crazy. This is great when you consider how rare it is for the WWE to even mention the Internet on the air these days….well at least outside of the NXT.
–WWF Champion Diesel has a special interview with Vince McMahon in the ring. He says he was born ready and he’s ready for his SummerSlam title defense against King Mabel. He weighs for a few moments whether he can Jackknife Mabel. Suddenly, the British Bulldog interrupts the interview and says that Lex Luger is not there because of a medical emergency so they cannot answer the challenge laid down by Men on a Mission. He asks Diesel to be his partner and Diesel accepts. Grade: C
–WWF Champion Diesel & the British Bulldog vs. Men on a Mission:
Diesel and the British Bulldog are already in the ring so Men on a Mission just come down to ringside. After the commercial break we are ready to start the match and Diesel starts with Mo. Diesel says that he wants Mabel but Mo says no go. Diesel tears Mo apart before hitting him with a big boot. Bulldog asks for a tag but before Diesel can tag him in Mabel steps into the ring. When Diesel turns to face Mabel, the Bulldog comes in and clotheslines Diesel from behind allowing Mabel to catch him in a Bossman slam and we have a no contest at 2:10. Jim Cornette makes an appearance as the Bulldog slaps Diesel as Mabel holds him in place. Diesel is able to escape Mabel’s grasp but the Bulldog hits him with a running powerslam and Mabel leg drops him. The crowd boos the Bulldog as he hands Mabel the WWF Championship belt and walks over Diesel. This was an effective turn and long overdue for the Bulldog, but it did give us a series of horrible Diesel-Bulldog matches so maybe I shouldn’t look on it too kindly. Grade for the Match/Angle: B
-Jerry “the King†Lawler is with the heels in the locker room backstage and Jim Cornette warns Diesel that the surprises are going to keep on coming. Vince McMahon sounds disgusted when recapping the action at ringside.
-Tune in on September 11th to see Sid get an Intercontinental title match against the winner of Shawn Michaels-Razor Ramon as Raw will not be in the air because of the U.S. Open on USA!
The Final Report: During its first three years there were not many episodes of Monday Night Raw that built on a storyline during the entire show. This was the exception and it helped to make the British Bulldog’s heel turn effective. Looking back, I’m not sure why they didn’t turn someone like Razor Ramon or Lex Luger, who arguably had a bigger following than the Bulldog, so that Diesel would have had more quality heels to face. That said, they could have done worse than the Bulldog as Diesel’s next heel challenger. The Diesel bandwagon really starts to slow down after the SummerSlam show and Shawn Michaels star really takes off.
Show Grade: C+
