The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 04.03.95
Live from…ugh…Poughkeepsie, NY. Why not just go back to the Manhattan Center for a while? Was it a cost issue?
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jim Cornette.
This would be the first actual “Night after Wrestlemania” show, as the previous couple of years have been taped shows due to the taping cycle. And this is a big one.
Bob Holly v. Hakushi
Kid is still hanging around with Holly, in addition to seconding Razor Ramon. I think the Holly relationship would be the more healthy one, but Ramon was certainly better for his career. Holly with a hiptoss of a criss-cross and Hakushi misses a blind charge, but Holly goes up and misses a flying bodypress as the NEW tag champions join us at ringside. We take a break and return with Hakushi working the arm while Kid looks on with an expression on his face like he’d rather be visiting his dealer…
…allegedly.
Kid brawls with Owen at ringside while Holly fights off a superplex attempt and hits a flying clothesline to make the comeback. Baaaaaaaack body drop gets two. Dropkick gets two. Yokozuna trips him up, however, and Hakushi finishes with a senton at 10:00. This was fine. **1/4
Wrestlemania Report with Jim Ross. Bam Bam Bigelow is a bit concerned about his place in the Million Dollar Corporation.
Diesel is out to give Shawn Michaels a rematch whenever he wants, but he thinks that perhaps Sid might not be looking out for Shawn’s best interests. Talk about rushing through a storyline.
The Allied Powers v. Well Dunn
Bulldog presses Well and a double-team elbow gets two for Luger, but he quickly gets caught in the heel corner and double-teamed. Man, it’s too bad Luger is in such rough shape, because doing a nostalgia Lex Express deal and then having Rusev crush him would be pretty awesome, actually. Luger fights them off pretty easily as the Network feed just goes to shit, and honestly this has been happening WAY too often lately, cutting out on the Roku for sometimes a minute at a time. Hot tag Bulldog and he powerslams Dunn for two, and they finish with a Hart Attack at 4:00 or so. Tough to tell because the feed kept cutting out on me.
The “celebrities” from last night all cut promos about the great time they had. To think Jenny McCarthy was only known as a B-list celeb at that point, and not the full-on batshit crazy anti-vaccine idiot she is now.
WWF Women’s title: Bull Nakano v. Alundra Blayze
Alundra with a quick headscissors out of the corner, but Bull tosses her around and drops a leg for two. She goes to a vicious anklelock, but Blayze makes the ropes. Bull keeps coming with a bulldog, but Blayze comes back with clotheslines and a high kick TO THE FACE. Missile dropkick gets two. Bull blocks a sunset flip for two and then hooks Paige’s Scorpion Crosslock, but Blayze fights out. So Bull piledrives her instead for two. Bull goes up and Blayze knocks her to the floor and follows with a dive, but a rana is blocked with a powerbomb for two. Bull to the top with a flying legdrop for two, but Blayze rolls her up for two and hits the german suplex for two. Another one gets two. She goes up and Bull pushes her into the stairs, but tries a dive and splats on the floor. Blayze hits another german suplex on the floor, but Bull sends her into the stairs. Back in, Bull misses a moonsault and one last german suplex gives Blayze the title back at 6:41. So long, Bull Nakano. This was a million miles an hour and it was FUCKING AWESOME. ***1/2 Why was this not on Wrestlemania? And then as they try to go to break, the future Bertha Faye debuts, still in her Ronda Singh/Monster Ripper black outfit, and totally destroys Blayze. That storyline went south in a hurry, sadly.
Men on a Mission v. Ben Jordan & Tony Roy
MOM are full on heels now, double-team Jordan in the corner before Mabel lays him out with the Bossman slam. Over to Roy, and he gets destroyed as well before Mabel pins him with a belly to belly at 2:00. Now that was an effective squash to get them over as heels.
Meanwhile, you can win a house.
Shawn Michaels joins Vince to accept Diesel’s rematch offer, and also he’ll be just fine without a bodyguard and doesn’t need Sid. So for the rematch, Sid can stay home. Sid doesn’t take that too well and Vince wants to take a break. We return and Shawn is dead on the mat with Diesel making the save to end the show. That was an odd way to do the Shawn turn, given we saw none of it. Also, the reaction of the fans made it sound like Shawn was being an ass and it was SID who was turning, although they quickly put him with Ted Dibiase to make sure no one would ever cheer him.
Next week: Some sort of six-man with the new champs against Kid & Holly!
The Pulse
I dunno if this one was on that giant “Best of RAW” set, but it should have been. Absolutely one of the hottest shows from top to bottom you’ll see from this era, with a classic match and a huge angle to end it. Too bad Wrestlemania was such a pile of shit.
