What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night Raw – October 16, 1995

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

Monday Night Raw

-Isaac Yankem, Bret Hart, and Jerry Lawler cut some cool promos inside of the cage with sparse lighting to build up the steel cage match tonight.

-Vince McMahon and Jerry “the King” Lawler are our hosts as we start the broadcast with some audio problems.

-Opening Contest: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Doink:

Vince announces that Mabel and Dean Douglas were fined $7,500 for their actions last week and that the Undertaker has suffered a crushed face because of Yokozuna and Mabel’s actions last week. Remember when wrestlers were assessed financial penalties for their actions? Doink and Helmsley lock up and Helmsley complains of Doink’s makeup rubbing off on him. Doink delivers a hip toss and grabs Helmsley by the nose before striking him across the face. Doink slams Helmsley and then rings his ears. However, Doink taunts Helmsley too much like an idiot and gets clotheslined. Helmsley stomps away and hits Doink with an elbow off the ropes. A blind charge eats boot and Doink hits a sidewalk slam. An elbow drop off the ropes misses and Helmsley hits a knee drop for two. A suplex gets two. Chinlock time, but Doink fights out and gets a small package for two when Helmsley puts his head down too early on a whip. A backslide gets two. Doink tries a reverse body press off the second rope but Helmsley ducks and quickly hits a Pedigree for the win at 3:48. There was too much stalling in this one. Grade: D+

-Backstage, Barry Horowitz talks to Hakushi about baseball because he’s teaching him American culture.

-PG-13 say that they are going to defeat the Smoking Gunns for the tag team championships.

-Gorilla Monsoon says that since the Undertaker can’t fight at In Your House 4, Yokozuna will take his place because he helped Mabel injure the Undertaker.

-WWF Tag Team Championship Match: The Smoking Gunns (Champions) vs. PG-13:

Billy and Wolfie D start and Billy hiptosses Wolfie out of the corner. JC Ice gets tagged in but PG-13 run into each other when they try a double team. Billy makes fun of PG-13 and tags Bart, who clotheslines JC Ice after he flips around. Bart backdrops Ice but Ice lands on his feet. Ice taunts the crowd so Bart waits and clotheslines him again. You’d think Ice would get the picture by this point. Bart gorilla presses Ice onto Wolfie as the USWA tag team champions bail. Back in, Billy gets the tag and tangles with Wolfie. PG-13 cheat to gain the advantage and they double team Billy behind the referee’s back as we head to the break.

We get back as PG-13 deliver a double elbow off the ropes and a double elbow drop for two. However, Billy catches Wolfie in a slingshot and it knocks Ice off the apron. Bart gets the momentum swinging tag and he cleans house. Tag Billy and a Sidewinder finishes at 5:03 shown. You might wonder why this was on Raw but the sad fact is that the Gunns lacked credible challengers. Of course, you could then argue that PG-13 were hardly credible opponents because they participated in only one televised match before this and were dwarfed by every other team on the roster. Grade: D

-Doc Hendrix conducts an interview with the British Bulldog and Jim Cornette. Cornette says that it was the Bulldog’s master plan to gain Diesel’s trust and defeat him.

-Ahmed Johnson discusses honor in his latest vignette.

-Footage is shown of Shawn Michaels getting beaten up by Dean Douglas on last week’s Raw.

-Dean Douglas vs. Jobber:

We never hear the jobber’s name because Vince is talking about Michaels getting beaten up by “ten thugs” outside of a Syracuse night club. Douglas outwrestles the jobber but gets hiptossed and dropkicked. Douglas just shrugs it off and delivers a clothesline. Shawn Michaels talks to McMahon on the phone as Douglas slams the jobber and drives knees into him near the ropes. Douglas drops the jobber across the top rope and hits a fisherman’s suplex for the pin at 2:06.

-Call 1-800-TITAN-91 to get your Diesel & Shawn Michaels t-shirt. You can get it for $20 and get a free WWF classic video as well!

-Goldust vignette where he says that he will give Marty Jannetty a makeover. He also quotes Gone with the Wind.

-We revisit the 1995 King of the Ring to see Mabel defeat the Undertaker and then see Mabel destroy the Undertaker on the last several episodes of Raw.

-Paul Bearer cuts a promo where he cries that the Undertaker’s face has been crushed and he may never look the same again. However, he says that Yokozuna and Mabel will never be the same again either.

-Steel Cage Match: Isaac Yankem D.D.S. vs. Bret “the Hitman” Hart:

Yankem begins by choking Bret and beating on him in the corner. Yankem takes Bret to the buckle and whips Bret into the corner. Blind charge eats buckle and Bret unloads. Bret nails Yankem with an inverted atomic drop and gets a clothesline. Bret delivers a headbutt to the midsection and takes him to the buckle. Bret gets a slam and drops an elbow. Bret tries to climb out of the cage but Yankem grabs his foot and pulls him back in. Lawler claims that Bret has won over 50 cage matches, while may or may not be correct. Yankem and Bret take turns climbing out and stopping each other. Bret chokes Yankem with his boot and stomps for a while and then tries to exit by the door. However, referee Tim White has trouble getting the lock off the door and Bret can’t exit. Lawler shows us that he has the padlock that White’s key opens underneath his crown. I’ve got to admit that’s a pretty shrewd move.

We come back from commercial with Yankem climbing but Bret stops him and throws him off the top rope. Showing some intelligence other wrestlers don’t have, Bret starts going out of the cage backward to watch Yankem and when Yankem starts pursuing him he delivers a flying clothesline off the top rope. Bret locks in the Sharpshooter and then releases it so he can climb out. However, Lawler climbs up the cage and knocks Bret back inside. Gorilla Monsoon comes out with a troupe of WWF officials and they demand Lawler get down off the cage so that they can place him in a special cage at ringside. Lawler doesn’t want to get down so Bret climbs back up the cage and knocks him off. However, that allows Yankem to attack him as officials toss Lawler into his special cage and hoist it in the air. Nothing of note happens in the ring except for both men failing to climb out of the cage as we head to another commercial break.

We return with Bret biting Yankem in the corner and Yankem slugging away. Bret reverses a take to the cage, fires away in the corner, and delivers a backbreaker. Bret gets over the top of the cage again but Yankem drags him back in by the hair. Yankem hits the DDS but he climbs too slowly and Bret crotches Yankem on the ropes. Bret delivers some second rope punches in the corner but ends up getting whipped into the corner chest first. Lawler tosses the correct padlock key down to Yankem, who goes to unlock the door, but Bret rolls him up from behind and punches him in the jaw. Bret throws the key and the chain away and gets a second wind. Bret hits his second rope elbow drop and climbs out for the win at 15:34 shown. For a cage match that was supposed to end a feud this thing was very boring as the climb out sequences didn’t have much drama and these two never clicked. Grade: D

-McMahon tells Lawler there are problems with the cables and he can’t get him down right now.

-Tune in next week to see Bertha Faye defend the Women’s Championship against Alundra Blayze and we will have a 20 man battle royal with the winner of it getting an Intercontinental title shot.

The Final Report: This Raw banked everything on the cage match and it wasn’t good. Next week promises to be a better show with some battle royal action and Blayze getting a rematch for the Women’s championship.

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.