What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night Raw – August 14, 1995

Reviews, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

Monday Night Raw

-Clips of Mabel’s attack on Shawn Michaels last week are shown. Jerry “the King” Lawler then has some unkind words to say about the Heartbreak Kid to hype their match tonight.

-Vince McMahon and “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase are in the booth and they are coming to us live from Worcester, Massachusetts.

Doink vs. Waylon Mercy:

No Dink with Doink and I can’t blame Doink after Dink cost Doink a chance to be in the King of the Ring tournament a couple of months back. Doink refuses to shake hands with Mercy to start and greets him with a series of armdrags instead which prompts Mercy to bail to the floor. Doink gives Mercy a shoulder thrust when he tries to get back into the ring. However, when Doink tries it again Mercy sidesteps and when he tries it a third time off the ropes Mercy moves and Doink ends up on the floor. Mercy opens the bottom rope for Doink and then snaps it on his back when he tries to re-enter the ring to showcase his psychotic persona. Doink ends up cornerning Mercy but Mercy works in a cheap shot and kills Doink with a lariat. Mercy then finishes Doink with a sleeper as the crowd chants “kill the clown” at 3:04. The match was boring but the finish was awesome. This was also the last appearance for Doink on Raw. Grade: D

-This is our first look at Goldust and he comes to us from Hollywood, California. He makes some Wizard of Oz references and says that he will make Diesel his personal guest in Hollywood. I’ll never forget seeing this as a mark and thinking that this Goldust character was one weird dude. I didn’t make the connection to Dustin Rhodes, but when you’re a mark you develop blinders for that stuff.

-Henry O. Godwinn makes his way to the announce table with his slop bucket. He calls DiBiase out for some negative things he had been saying about him on commentary. He forces DiBiase to get on his knees and when DiBiase won’t squeal like a pig he just slops him. Well at least he got off better than one of those guys in Deliverance.

-“Handsome” Doc Hendrix is now with us to replace DiBiase on commentary. Seems like a fair trade to me.

The Smoking Gunns vs. Bill Garrett & Cody Wade:

Bart and Bill Garrett start but Bart shoulder blocks him down and Garrett screws up a hiptoss which results in Bart dumping him like a sack of potatoes. That gets a negative reaction from the crowd. Tag Billy and Garrett sells a punch that hasn’t even been thrown. Man, this guy is terrible. Wade gets tagged in only to eat a Sidewinder and get pinned at 1:35. Bart dropkicks the awful Garrett for good measure during the referee’s counting of the pinfall. Really bad squash match thanks to Bill Garrett.

-The Report Card with Dean Douglas sees him critique Bret Hart. He defines execution and he criticizes Bret for not hooking the leg for his elbow drop from the second rope that never gets a three count. He also criticizes him for arguing with the referee over the pinfall count. As a result, he gives Bret an F and calls him the “foundation of failure.” I can’t really disagree with his analysis this week.

-Vince McMahon interviews Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and he says he’s good to go for this week and that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t keep him from gyrating again.

Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Jeff Hardy:

Don’t you just love watching main events over a decade before they became main events? Jeff doesn’t like when Helmsley pushes him down out of a lockup and he hiptosses Helmsley. Helmsley retaliates with a strike to the gut and knife edge chopping Hardy in the corner. However, Jeff floats over on a Helmsley blind charge but a top rope dive eats canvas and Helmsley does some mud hole stomping in the corner. Helmsley chokes Hardy with his boot and hits an elbow off the ropes. A Pedigree finishes things at 2:06. Good, fast paced squash match.

Todd Pettengill gives us the Strides SummerSlam report.

Henry O. Godwinn vs. Russ Greenburg:

So much for Vince saying that Godwinn wasn’t scheduled to be here. Godwinn assaults Greenburg from behind to start and slams him for one before releasing the cover. Godwinn chokes Greenburg on the bottom rope and then legdrops the back of his head from the apron. Godwinn delivers a kick to Greenburg’s mid-section and a Slop Drop finishes in 53 seconds. Godwinn then slops Greenburg when he rolls out to the arena floor. I’d hate to be on the cleanup crew for tonight’s Raw.

-We go back to Isaac Yankem D.D.S. office where some kid is whining that the drilling is hurting too much. Yankem just gives him another shot of Novocain and drills harder.

-Call 1-800-TITAN-91 to get an uncut sheet of “mat caps.” These are pogs. Why would anyone want an uncut sheet of WWF pogs? Did they have value? You can get them for $19 along with a free three month subscription to WWF magazine.

Non-Title Match: Intercontinental Champion “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels vs. Jerry “the King” Lawler:

A lockup starts us off and Lawler refuses to give Michaels a clean break. However, Michaels just goes under Lawler’s legs on a whip and then trips him up from the arena floor. Michaels prances around in the aisle and then gets back into the ring. A second lockup sees Lawler back Michaels into a corner and not give a clean break again. However, after Lawler whips Michaels into the opposite corner a blind charge eats buckle and Michaels sweeps Lawler’s legs. The crowd gets on Lawler at Michaels’ behest and they lockup for a third time with Lawler proclaiming that he’s going to give Michaels a whopper but Michaels moves and gives Lawler a back body drop. Michaels puts his head down too early on a subsequent whip and Lawler tries to hit him with a piledriver but Michaels shifts his weight to block it. That was a nice counter. Michaels takes Lawler to the buckle as Sid makes his way out to ringside and plays around with the Intercontinental title belt. Lawler regains the advantage and Michaels takes a Flair flip after he’s whipped into the corner and falls to the floor as we go to a commercial break.

We return from the break with Lawler delivering a suplex and a series of fist drops. Lawler hits a DDT and then taunts the crowd. Sid screams for Lawler to finish him and Lawler covers for two. Lawler delivers a slam but a top rope splash misses and Michaels kips up. Michaels unloads, whips Lawler into the corner with authority, and then hit a flying forearm off the ropes. Michaels gets in a few stomps, delivers a slam of his own, and nails a top rope elbow smash. Michaels hits Sweet Chin Music and Lawler sells it like he’s been blasted with a shotgun. This prompts Sid to get into the ring and that draws the disqualification at 6:04 shown. Why didn’t Sid just trip Shawn there? I mean he was in the corner when Michaels set up for his finishing move. It seems to me like it would have been more productive to just do that. Too short and too much stalling to have a good match but it was fine for what it was. Grade: D+

-After the referee rings the bell, Sid tries to hit Shawn with the Intercontinental title, which Michaels avoids, but Sid eventually gets the better of him with a chokeslam. Sid sets up Michaels for a powerbomb but Razor Ramon runs out to stop it. Then, in an interesting bit, Michaels gets ready to deliver Sweet Chin Music to a dazed Sid but Ramon pushes him out of the way so he can give Sid a Razor’s Edge. Ramon gets Sid up in a Razor’s Edge but Lawler pulls Sid out of Ramon’s grasp. After they leave, Ramon and Michaels argue and have a brief tug of war over the Intercontinental title that causes Diesel to come out and try to settle the issue.

-Next week tune in to see the Undertaker battle Tatanka!

The Final Report Card: A very blah show until the Ramon-Michaels confrontation at the end. However, I have to give it to the crowd that they were hot for the action that they did see. The only thing this show has going for it is the initial encounter between Helmsley and Jeff Hardy. I can’t say I’m really looking forward to Undertaker-Tatanka because I saw a match of theirs on Coliseum home video and it wasn’t very good but I’ll go into it with an open mind.

Show Grade: D+

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.