What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night Raw – October 23, 1995

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

Monday Night Raw

-A quick video package shows Diesel and Bret Hart fighting after last night’s WWF title match at In Your House 4 and announces that Razor Ramon is the new Intercontinental champion.

-We have a more upbeat theme now for Monday Night Raw because evidently the old one wasn’t good enough. I didn’t see a problem but change is change.

– Vince McMahon and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Brandon Manitoba, Canada.

-Opening Contest: 20 Man Battle Royal:

The stipulation is that the winner gets an Intercontinental title shot next week on Raw. When we get on the air most of the guys are already in the ring but Marty Jannetty, Sid, and Isaac Yankem get an entrance. Sid cuts a promo where he proclaims himself as Master and Ruler of the World and all that jazz. We get a huge contrast in interview styles with happy go lucky Marty Jannetty going right after him. Let’s see in this match we have: Sid, Jannetty, Yankem, Rad Radford, Skip, Aldo Montoya, Adam Bomb, Owen Hart, Barry Horowitz, Bam Bam Bigelow, Hakushi, Duke “the Dumpster” Droese, Jean Pierre LaFitte, Henry O. Godwinn, “the Supreme Fighting Machine” Kama, Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly, Savio Vega, the 1-2-3 Kid, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, “Making a Difference” Fatu, and King Kong Bundy.

King Kong Bundy is the first to go after several guys decide he’s the biggest threat. Skip tosses Montoya off screen but the WWF production crew is nice enough to give us an instant replay. Fatu and Helmsley renew their battle from last night’s In Your House pay-per-view. Sid throws Holly out and knocks Droese out with a big boot. Hakushi and Horowitz double team Skip to continue that storyline and Skip fights out and tosses Hakushi. Kama eliminates Fatu after a right hand. Skip tries to hit Horowitz with a right hand but just gets back dropped out. Couldn’t they let Skip win at least ONCE here? After Skip’s elimination we head to a commercial break.

We return with almost almost everyone gone. Seriously, if you eliminate the commercials and put one screen on top of the other you wonder where everyone went. We’re left with Sid, Jannetty, Bigelow, Yankem, Owen, LaFitte, and Savio. They do show us Godwinn and Radford’s eliminations in slow motion. Sid backdrops Yankem out and that gets us down to six. Jannetty and Owen have a small wrestling match for fun while everyone else brawls. Bigelow eliminates Sid with a shoulder block, which is probably the last big moment in Bigelow’s WWF career, and then it’s time for another break.

When we get back to the action Bigelow has been eliminated thanks to a LaFitte clothesline. Jannetty and Owen continue their wrestling match and get the crowd gets behind Jannetty. LaFitte and Owen tease eliminations but won’t go out. Jannetty acts like a real friend by taking a breather as Savio gets double teamed and Savio tries to toss him in response. However, Jannetty hangs on and takes Savio out with a head scissors and skins the cat back in. Jannetty eliminates LaFitte with a backdrop and Owen teases an elimination after Jannetty hurls him out of the ring. Jannetty tries to clothesline Owen out but he does a 360 and ends up on the apron. Owen hangs on by one hand as Jannetty fires away. Owen then hangs onto the middle rope for dear life and then the bottom rope. Finally, Owen drops Jannetty’s neck across the top rope to safely get back into the ring. Owen celebrates after he uses his momentum to hurl Jannetty to the floor through the second rope but since Jannetty didn’t go over the top rope he’s not eliminated yet. Jannetty grabs Jim Cornette’s tennis racquet and stalks him on the outside which prompts the British Bulldog to come out and smash Jannetty’s face into the ring steps. Bulldog tosses Jannetty back in and after a few more seconds Owen uses Jannetty’s own momentum against him to hurl him out and win at 15:52 shown. This was a pretty boring battle royal before it came down to Marty and Owen.

-Lawler interviews Owen Hart about his victory.

-We see clips of Diesel shoving Bret Hart, who did guest commentary for the main event at last night’s In Your House, and of Bret causing a disqualification by attacking the British Bulldog later in the match. Afterwards, Diesel and Bret come to blows and I don’t blame Diesel one bit for being mad.

-Doc Hendrix brings us the Survivor Series preview show. He announces the first ever Wild Card match. This was a concept that I’m shocked the WWF never brought back because that match was one of my favorite Survivor Series matches of all time.

-Bob Backlund is shown yelling at fans in the arena. He gets in a heated argument with one guy and security steps in to make sure he can get out of there.

-In our latest Ahmed Johnson vignette Ahmed says that he has Shawn Michaels back at Survivor Series, thereby establishing himself as a face. He warns Sid and the British Bulldog that they had better get in line or he’ll get medieval on them.

-Shawn Michael’s appearance on the Danny Bohaduce show is highlighted.

-Avatar vs. Brian Walsh:

Avatar was Al Snow’s initial WWF gimmick where he carried a mask to the ring, put it on before he wrestled, and then took it off afterwards. The gimmick was that he transformed into a different person after he put on the mask. Walsh gets a monkey flip but Avatar knocks him to the floor. Avatar goes for a top rope move but he loses his balance so he settles for a pescado instead. The crowd gets on him for that. You might want to be careful Al, some of these people may have attended In Your House 4 last night and might be in an unstable state of mind. Avatar rolls Walsh in and a moonsault off the top rope misses. Walsh gets some clotheslines and they slowly call a spot where Walsh whips Avatar into the corner and Avatar hits Walsh with a clothesline on the comeback. Avatar hits a sidewalk slam and a standing moonsault and then a splash from a double stomp position finishes it at 2:33. Not a very good debut and the match fell apart near the end. Even Vince was unsure about what was going on.

-Call 1-800-TITAN-91 to get a life size Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart stand up. You can get them for $25. Wow, what a rip-off for a piece of cardboard. You can get the WWF classic video tape for free if you order.

-WWF Women’s Championship Match: Bertha Faye (Champion w/Harvey Wippleman) vs. Alundra Blayze:

Faye starts the match by using her weight to knock Blayze off her feet and she follows it up with a gorilla press slam. A slam and two legdrops gets one. After going to the eyes, Faye avalanches Blayze in the corner but Blayze gets a fluke sunset flip for two. Faye hits Blayze with a clothesline and Blayze goes for a second sunset flip but Faye sits on her for two. Faye thinks of hitting a gutwrench suplex but just chooses to toss Blayze down by her hair instead. I’d think a suplex would be more to your advantage. Faye continues the beat down as we head to the break.

When we get back from the break Blayze has Faye in a Boston crab but that lasts all of about five seconds before Faye slings Blayze into the corner and avalanches her again. Running out of moves Bertha? Blayze does the Flair flip after being tossed into the corner but somehow acting like Ric Flair gives Blayze the energy for a comeback. A missile dropkick off the second rope gets two. A high karate kick off the ropes gets two. The crowd starts to feel that this match has gone on too long and begins turning on it as Blayze gets some hair takedowns off the ropes for two. Blayze goes for a piledriver but there’s no way in the hell that’s going to happen and Faye backdrops her. Faye slams Blayze and goes to the second rope but waits there and Blayze gets a hurricanrana. Wippleman jumps on the apron and grabs Blayze but heel miscommunication results and Blayze hits her German suplex to regain the title at 6:41. Afterwards, Faye chases Wippleman back to the dressing room. Going the Randy Savage route with Blayze here was not a good idea. Grade: D-

-Jim Ross interviews a despondent Shawn Michaels. He admits that he’s not a very popular wrestler and that he’s angry he had to give the Intercontinental championship to an overrated wrestler like Dean Douglas last night at In Your House. He says he has some more medical tests and that will determine when he’ll be able to get back in the ring.

-Tune in next week to see Razor Ramon defend the Intercontinental title against Owen Hart. Savio Vega also squares off against Goldust.

The Final Report: What happened here? There were some great shows to start off the month but the last two have been nothing to write home about. I’d like to say that there was something redeeming about this particular show but that would be a lie. The only reason this show is significant is that it was the last time the women’s championship would be defended on WWF television for three years. Notice, though, that although Diesel is the champion he’s not the focus of this show. That was a bad sign for his title reign and you could already tell that Michaels was in the process of being elevated so that he could get the belt.

Show Grade: F

Logan Scisco has been writing wrestling reviews for Inside Pulse since 2005. He considers himself a pro wrestling traditionalist and reviews content from the 1980s-early 2000s. Most of his recaps center on wrestling television shows prior to 2001. His work is featured on his website (www.wrestlewatch.com) and he has written three books, available on Amazon.com.