What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – August 7, 1995

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

Monday Night Raw

-We are shown clips of last week’s tag team championship match between Owen Hart & Yokozuna and Razor Ramon & Savio Vega. If you recall it went to a time limit draw because the show went off the air. As a result, we have a rematch tonight. Sir Mo and Diesel also cut brief promos against each other. Diesel welcomes Mo to the “Castle of Coolness.” Oooookay.

-Vince McMahon and Jerry “the King” Lawler are in the booth and are presumably back in Louisville, Kentucky. I wonder how they justified having the same tag team match at the same taping.

Opening Contest for the Tag Team Championships: Owen Hart & Yokozuna (Champions w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) vs. Razor Ramon & Savio Vega:

McMahon announces that the interim WWF President is Gorilla Monsoon and that he has changed the Shawn Michaels-Sid match at SummerSlam for the Intercontinental title to a Shawn Michaels-Razor Ramon ladder match for the belt instead. Sucks to be Sid. Yokozuna starts with Ramon and they exchange blows until Yokozuna slams Ramon. However, a big fat elbow drop misses and Ramon tags in Savio. Savio works the arm but cannot prevent Yokozuna from tagging in Owen. Savio works his arm and gets two after a stomp. Savio gets two after taking Owen down with a headlock. Tag Ramon and he works the arm and when Owen puts Ramon in a hammerlock Ramon manages to throw him out of the ring. Savio quickly tosses Owen back in where he tags Yokozuna and Yokozuna works Ramon’s arm. Tag Owen and he gets two after hitting Ramon with a DDT when he runs the ropes after Yokozuna hits Ramon in the back of the head from the apron. Owen works in another near fall before applying a chinlock. Ramon fights out but gets caught with an enziguri for two. False tag spot where the champions deliver a double headbutt to Ramon behind the officials back and Yokozuna locks Ramon in a nerve hold as we go to a commercial break.

We return with Owen choking Ramon on the second rope and he gets a two count with his feet on the ropes. Owen applies a chinlock but Ramon fights out. However, Owen just throws him over the top rope and tags in Yokozuna. As the referee is distracted by Savio Vega, Owen beats on Ramon on the floor and tosses him back into the ring. Back in, Yokozuna fires away and chokes before applying a nerve hold to Ramon. Ramon’s arm only falls twice, though, and as he unloads Yokozuna takes the blows and just tags in Owen. Never seen that before but that’s pretty smart. Owen attacks Ramon from behind and hits him with a spinning heel kick off the ropes for two. Ramon blocks a hiptoss and gets a fluke backslide for two. Owen slams Ramon and delivers a flying headbutt off the top rope for two. I’ve never seen Owen hit that move before. Ramon applies a sleeper to give us another resthold in the match. If Yokozuna had applied chinlocks instead of nerve holds I would understand the psychology better. Ramon scrambles out and side suplex Owen for a double KO spot. Ramon crawls over and covers for two. When both men get back to their feet their heads collide off the ropes for double KO spot #2. Owen tags Yokozuna and Ramon gets the momentum swinging tag to Savio who unloads on Yokozuna and floors him with a spinning heel kick off the ropes. Savio gives the champions a double noggin knocker. All hell breaks loose after that and the champions try to hit Savio with a double clothesline. However, Ramon trips up Owen and drags him to the outside. Despite that, Yokozuna still manages to hit Savio with a Samoan drop and then hits a leg drop off the ropes for the pin at 12:08 shown before Ramon can break up the count. Not as good as last week’s match because of a deader crowd and because all of the participants were gassed from the previous match. This was just not a good booking decision in hindsight. Grade: C-

-The Report Card with Dean Douglas. He discusses teamwork and he points to the flaws in Savio and Ramon’s teamwork and gives them a grade of two T’s which stands for “terrible twosome.”

-Jerry Lawler and Isaac Yankem D.D.S. are back in the dental office. Yankem is doing dental X-Rays to patients.

“Making a Difference” Fatu vs. Tony DeVito:

DeVito tries to attack Fatu at the opening bell but Fatu repels him and whips him into the corner with authority. Fatu delivers a backdrop and takes DeVito to the buckle several times. DeVito gets an eye rake and takes Fatu to the buckle but that’s no sold because his head is invulnerable to pain and Fatu delivers a thrust kick. Fatu unloads in the corner and hits a headbutt. Fatu hits a powerslam off the ropes and delivers some second rope corner punches to try to wake up the crowd. Fatu nails a Diamond Cutter, which Vince calls a Samoan bulldog, dances, and hits a splash from the top rope for the pin at 2:42. The last two moves looked very devastating.

-Todd Pettengill gives us the Stridex SummerSlam report. Interim WWF President Gorilla Monsoon makes an appearance and says that he won’t be bowing to corporate interests so he can make whatever matches he wants. At least he has it in his blood to be a politician. He announces that Alundra Blayze will be facing Bertha Faye at SummerSlam in a defense of her WWF Women’s Championship.

-Goldust vignette with Howard Finkel just giving his ring introduction.

“The Supreme Fighting Machine” Kama vs. Troy Hayes:

Kama tosses Hayes outside of the ring and uses the opportunity to follow him to the floor so that he can yell at the Creatures of the Night who are camped out at ringside. He also tosses their black wreath into the crowd. Kama rolls Hayes back in as McMahon interviews Sid on the phone. Sid isn’t happy that Gorilla Monsoon took away his shot at the Intercontinental championship and calls Shawn Michaels a “hip shaking idiot.” Kama works the arm and tosses Hayes down after a hammerlock. Kama then locks in a cross arm breaker for the submission at 1:24. Afterwards, he yells at the Creatures of the Night again.

-Call 1-800-TITAN-91 to get your new Shawn Michaels shirt that has his quotes on it. The shirt is $16 and you can get a free cage magazine. Did they just release a new Michaels shirt every week in 1995? This is arguably the worst one they’ve come out with.

Non-Title Match: WWF Champion Diesel vs. Sir Mo:

Mabel doesn’t accompany Sir Mo to ringside for this one. Diesel gets a pretty good pop from the Louisville crowd. After stalling, Mo gets a cheap shot over the referee in the corner and beats on Diesel. Diesel recovers quickly and destroys Mo in the corner. Diesel whips Mo into the opposite corner and clotheslines him against the buckles for two. Mo comes back and hits a spinning heel kick off the ropes for two. That rally is short lived as Diesel whips Mo into the corner again, slams him, and then drops down on him when Mo is draped over the second rope for two. Diesel hits a big boot causing Mo to fall to the arena floor and that prompts Mabel to come out and get on the ring apron. Diesel dares Mabel to step into the ring but Mabel thinks better of it. The distraction allows Mo to throw Diesel over the top rope and distract the referee. However, when Mabel tries to attack Diesel on the floor Shawn Michaels comes out and stops Mabel from doing anything. Meanwhile, Mo throws Diesel into the ring post and rolls him into the ring as we cut to commercial.

We return with Mo getting a two count on Diesel and delivering an elbow drop for two. Mo applies a reverse chinlock and then releases it. That’s never a good idea and sure enough, Mo misses a top rope elbow smash to give us a double KO spot. Both men get to their feet and Diesel gets a sidewalk slam. Diesel hits a big boot and a Jackknife finish at 6:54. Match was serviceable from both guys although I question allowing Mo to get tons of offense on Diesel when he’s much shorter and not a well established guy. McMahon and Lawler tried to play up Diesel’s prior injuries but there was no story told in this match that would show that those injuries were hampering Diesel. Grade: D+

-Afterwards, Mabel attacks Diesel from behind and delivers a leg drop before Michaels comes into the ring and dropkicks Mabel to the floor. However, when Michaels tries to pescado onto Mabel, Mabel catches him and rams his back twice into the ring post. The interesting thing there is that he didn’t slam him through the Spanish announce table which was right there for the taking. Diesel then dives off the apron onto Mabel to rescue his friend and Mabel retreats to the dressing room. Lawler then taunts Michaels from the announce table to hype their match for next week.

Next week tune in to see Shawn Michaels collide with Jerry “the King” Lawler!

-The Final Report Card: Although I had hopes that this could be a good show those hopes were quickly dashed after the first match. It’s pretty hard to blame those four guys for not putting on a second good match, though, as they were all clearly tired and not very enthusiastic about being there. As far as storylines go, the Kama squash served its purpose and I thought the aftermath to the Diesel-Mo match was well booked. Therefore, this show was good from a storyline perspective but lacking in the in-ring department.

Show Grade: C-

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.