-Our hosts are Vince McMahon and “Handsome†Doc Hendrix who will hopefully give us a better show than last week.
-Jerry “the King†Lawler is shown walking in a horse stall in his bare feet so he can make his feet all ugly for the “Kiss My Foot†match with Bret Hart at the King of the Ring. The only redeeming thing about this vignette was Vince’s facial expression after watching it.
–Opening Contest: Henry O. Godwinn vs. Bret “the Hitman†Hart:
Well they are getting down to business early this week. I am actually looking forward to this match because Godwinn had a pretty good battle with Diesel a few weeks prior to this. Godwinn wrestles with Bret to start and uses his mass to overpower Bret but a blind charge into the corner eats boot and Godwinn gets dropkicked and taken down with an armdrag that follows into an armbar. Bret goes under a clothesline and applies a headlock. Godwinn gets out of it and a fight over a hiptoss results in Godwinn hitting a nice looking lariat. Bret tries to roll up Godwinn from behind but Godwinn uses his momentum to toss Bret out of the ring. Wow, nice work there from the Arkansas hog farmer. Bret even looks surprised at that reversal. Bret gets back on the apron, though, and sunset flips back in for two. Godwinn fights out of an armbar and hot shots Bret before delivering an elbow drop for two. Godwinn hits a slam and another running elbow drop gets two. Godwinn whips Bret into the corner with authority and log roll stomps his back. Godwinn hits an elbow off the ropes for two. Camel clutch is applied, but the back has not been worked enough and Bret elbows out of it. Bret gets a fluke sunset flip off the ropes for two. Godwinn hits a slam but a second rope knee drop eats canvas and Bret unloads and nails a bulldog for two. Side Russian leg sweep gets two. Backbreaker and Bret’s trademark elbow off the second rope that never gets a three count gets two. Bret tugs Godwinn away from the ropes and delivers a headbutt to the midsection. Bret hits a headbutt as Lawler makes his way to the ring with one of his boots off. I don’t have a good feeling about this. Bret hits a body press against Godwinn on the ropes and then exits the ring to chase after Lawler. Lawler runs underneath the ring and Bret tries to drag him out which leads to Godwinn assaulting him from behind. This leads to a double count out at 8:00 as Bret reverses a Godwinn whip into the ring post and then chases Lawler back to the dressing room. Didn’t care for the ending but it was good while it lasted. ***
-Hendrix interviews Bret in the locker room and Bret vows another match with Godwinn. He’s so riled up he almost picks a fight with Hendrix.
–The Blu Brothers (w/Uncle Zebekiah) vs. John Smith and Gus Kannarrakis:
Jacob and Gus tangle to start and Jacob delivers some elbow drops. The Blue Brothers hit a double running shoulder block and Eli dumps Gus into the corner before hitting a belly-to-belly suplex. Tag Jacob and he hiptosses Gus into the corner so John Smith can come in and hit a few punches before Jacob merely whips him chest first into the ropes, which Smith sells like he has been smacked across the chest with a Hacksaw Jim Duggan 2×4. Tag Eli and he delivers a running ax handle to Smith’s back and then hits a side suplex. Tag Jacob and he runs Smith into the corner in a running powerslam position before hanging him a Tree of Woe that goes nowhere. Double boot from the Blu Brothers and they stomp away. Eli hits a running knee drop off the ropes and that finishes at 3:40. Felt like it went on a bit too long for what it was but it did make the Blu Brothers look like a dominating force so it served its purpose.
-Highlights of the Lex Luger-Yokozuna King of the Ring qualifying match from Monday Night Raw are shown. Yokozuna wins the final spot because of a count out after he tossed Luger into the ring post. This loss was devastating for me as a young fan because I was very convinced Luger would win since SummerSlam 1993 was one of the few tapes I had at the time.
-Live Events News with Stephanie Wiand who says the shows at Madison Square Garden and the Meadowlands have tickets on sale. The WWF comes back to Madison Square Garden on August 12th. WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart and Yokozuna along with Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji say they are not concerned with the Allied Powers who are coming after their tag team championships.
-Mr. Bob Backlund is shown destroying Man Mountain Rock’s guitar on Monday Night Raw because Man Mountain Rock’s music is garbage. Backlund then spazzes out and rolls on the floor as he yells “GARBAGE!â€
–Man Mountain Rock vs. The Jobber with No Name:
Man Mountain Rock plays his electric guitar for the crowd. The jobber does not get a name so he’ll just be the Jobber with No Name as far as I am concerned. Jobber tries to clothesline Man Mountain Rock but he’s too big and won’t be moved. Rock slams the jobber and hits a running elbow drop. Rock with a snapmare and drops another elbow off the ropes. The Jobber tries to fight back but it goes nowhere because he’s a jobber and Rock hits a suplex. Rock hits a double underhook suplex as McMahon and Hendrix just talk about WWF house shows that are coming up. Rock hits a slam and then applies the Whammy Bar for the win at 2:13. No real setup but I think if someone was jerking on my arm like that I would give up too. I think this is one of the last times we will see Man Mountain Rock in action because he was fired from the WWF for his marijuana habit shortly after he debuted.
-Intercontinental Champion “Double J†Jeff Jarrett is shown getting ready to head to the ring.
–Intercontinental Champion “Double J†Jeff Jarrett vs. John Senowski:
No Roadie this week. Jarrett sweeps Senowski’s legs to start and then works them over. He argues with the ref about something and Senowski gets a schoolboy for two. Jarrett goes right back to the leg and works that over. Senowski gets a fluke small package out of nowhere for two. Jarrett decides to show this jobber who’s boss and hits a superplex. The figure-four finishes at 2:11. At least he worked the legs this time.
-McMahon interviews WWF Champion Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow about their upcoming appearances for the WWF and their King of the Ring tag team match against Sid and Tatanka. Diesel says he’s day-to-day and has not received clearance from the WWF doctors to compete yet. Bigelow says they have a game plan and it doesn’t matter if Diesel and he have been able to tag together yet. It’s sad to know that Bigelow’s run at the top of the WWF would end right after the King of the Ring as he’d be jobbing to Goldust by November and be out of the company.
–Jean Pierre LaFitte vs. Reginald Walker:
Walker applies a headlock to start and a shoulder block off the ropes by Walker gets nowhere. LaFitte applies his own headlock before hitting a shoulder block, a falling headbutt off the ropes, and tosses Walker into the corner. However, an avalanche against the buckle misses and Walker gets a schoolboy for two. LaFitte chokes Walker on the ropes and then jumps on his back when he’s over the second rope. Walker goes to the floor and LaFitte dives onto him from the top rope. Back in, LaFitte ties Walker in the ropes and dives onto him several times. LaFitte hits a DDT and a Cannonball finishes at 2:38.
-The second WWF Hall of Fame ceremony is announced and the inductees for 1995 include Antonio Rocca, Ernie Ladd, Fabulous Moolah, Ivan Putski, the Grand Wizard, Pedro Morales, and George “the Animal†Steele.
-It’s time for our weekly Waylon Mercy vignette. He’s enjoying worms but not when they are crawling on him and to prove his point he smashes one that is on his forearm. It’s too bad Spivey was too riddled with injuries to have a lengthy run with this gimmick because it was a winner.
-Savio Vega is shown at a Puerto Rican dance parade. And that helps to get him over how?
-Call 1-800-TITAN-91 to get your brand new Diesel t-shirt. It looks very NWO-ish with its black and white design but I wouldn’t buy it.
–Savio Vega vs. Bob Cook:
We have a guest ring announcer for this match and the poor kid is not enthusiastic at all. Again, where do they find these people? Savio kicks a lot to start, so much so that I thought I was watching Kwang in the ring….oh wait. Savio gets some knife-edge chops in the corner and grounds Cook with an elbow off the ropes. Savio ties Cook up and pins him in a crucifix-type combination at 1:20. Well that came out of nowhere.
-Todd Pettengill gives us the weekly King of the Ring report. He says this is going to get the greatest King of the Ring ever and all we have to do to see that he’s right is to just look at the card. Well, I guess he had a point but it was the booking and execution of that card that made the pay-per-view a downer.
-Hendrix makes us close with footage of Aldo Montoya being forced to kiss Lawler’s feet last week. We get a close up replay of it several times just for good measure. That man has issues.
-Next week tune in to see Bam Bam Bigelow square off against Mantaur, Shawn Michaels will be here, and so will the Undertaker!
FINAL REPORT: The Bret-Godwinn encounter made one of the better episodes in the last several weeks. After that match the show really fell off but the squashes were serviceable outside of the Savio Vega one that came at the end. You will notice that many of these squashes involve recently debuted superstars as the WWF was desperately trying to get new wrestlers onto the scene. The only noticeable winner of the 1995 class, though, was Hunter Hearst-Helmsley.
