–Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette are in the booth and they are taped from Macon, Georgia.
–Lex Luger recaps his feud with Tatanka and says that Chief Jay Strongbow will be in his corner tonight when he looks to finish Tatanka for good. The beginning of this promo was humorous as Luger struggled to speak and flex his pectoral muscles at the same time.
–Opening Contest: Lex Luger (w/Chief Jay Strongbow) (3-0-1) defeats Tatanka (w/Ted DiBiase) (3-0-1) via count out at 12:51 shown:
DiBiase is carrying around the urn, so not to be outdone Strongbow wears a Native American headdress laden with red, white, and blue colors to back his guy. This is yet another bad Tatanka match as he spams the chop and then has to sell chops from the aged, overweight Strongbow like he has been hit by a truck. It also does not help that there are two commercial breaks during the match, ruining any type of flow that this bout could have for a televised audience. Luger does his best to get the match back on track by preventing Tatanka from leaving and hitting some crisp power moves, but Tatanka keeps bailing and eventually quits, angering Luger who runs to the locker room after the bout. Sadly, this means that this string of bad matches will continue. Rating: *
–Lawrence Taylor is shown in a studio setting in deep thought as he tries to think of how he is going to address Bam Bam Bigelow on tonight’s show.
–McMahon and Cornette discuss Bret Hart contributing to Jerry Lawler’s elimination in the twenty man battle royal on the recent edition of Superstars.
–Owen Hart (4-1) beats Larry Santo via submission to the Sharpshooter at 3:46:
Santo was an enhancement talent for several significant promotions in the 1990s, working for the WWF, WCW, and Smoky Mountain, and made a career working independent promotions in Tennessee and Alabama under the ring name Larry Santana. Owen appears headed for the tag ranks as he has challenged the Smoking Gunns, but McMahon and Cornette do not discuss that, preferring to talk more about Lawrence Taylor during the match.
–Bam Bam Bigelow is shown getting ready for his verbal confrontation with Lawrence Taylor.
–Lawrence Taylor talks with the commentators from a studio, saying that he meant no disrespect to Bam Bigelow at The Royal Rumble and that trying to fight Bigelow after he was shoved would have been childish. He says footage of him being pushed by Bigelow has been played too much and has gotten under his skin, but he is weighing his options to decide if he wants to face Bigelow at a later date. Cornette gets Bigelow to join the discussion, with Bigelow saying he is more of a man than Taylor. Taylor tells Bigelow that he will be at the WrestleMania press conference. Bigelow did a good job carrying this segment, but Taylor also did a good job building his anger, going from respectful and soft spoken to angry at the barrage from Cornette and Bigelow.
–Call 1-900-737-4WWF to hear updates about the WrestleMania press conference on Tuesday. It will cost you $1.49 per minute, though!
–Doink (w/Dink) (2-0) defeats Bob Cook after the Whoopie Cushion at 3:31:
It is interesting to watch Doink matches in this period as children seem to laugh at Dink’s antics of randomly running into the ring and messing with his opponents and the older, male audience resents it and yells at the referee for not keeping him out of the ring. This is a weird technical contest that goes through some basic wrestling school sequences until Doink tires of it and finishes things.
–Todd Pettengill narrates a video package about the recent rivalry between Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog since both men are facing each other next week on RAW.
–Kama (4-0) defeats Ken Raper via submission to the STF at 3:35:
Raper, who carried an unfortunate last name, was a stalwart in Memphis, competing for the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He had decent size, but had more of a light heavyweight build so he not fit into the WWF or its long-term plans. Kama keeps screaming about needing competition as he demolishes Raper with a series of strikes and his STF finisher.
–The British Bulldog tells McMahon and Cornette that he looks forward to facing Shawn Michaels next week but that Sid does not scare him and will not prevent him from winning.
–McMahon hypes the WrestleMania press conference at the Harley Davidson Café in New York City tomorrow at noon. Pettengill also hypes the press conference, which he says will be a media extravaganza.
–Tune in next week to see the British Bulldog face Shawn Michaels!
As we round out February, here are some updated win/loss and appearance statistics for 1995:
Top Ten Overall Records (Minimum of Six Matches):
1—King Kong Bundy (10-0)
2—Mantaur (8-0)
T3—Hakushi (7-0)
T3—Duke Droese (7-0)
T5—Bob Backlund (5-1)
T5—Adam Bomb (5-1)
T5—Henry Godwinn (5-1)
8—The British Bulldog (9-2)
9—Lex Luger (5-1-1)
T10—Mabel (6-2)
T10—Jeff Jarrett (6-2)
Top Ten Singles Records (Minimum of Five Matches):
1—King Kong Bundy (9-0)
2—Mantaur (8-0)
T3—Hakushi (7-0)
T3—Duke Droese (7-0)
T5—Kama (5-0)
T5—Bob Backlund (5-0)
7—Lex Luger (4-0-1)
T8—Adam Bomb (5-1)
T8—Henry Godwinn (5-1)
T8—Owen Hart (5-1)
Top Five Tag Teams (Minimum of Three Matches):
1—Blu Brothers (4-0)
2—Men on a Mission (3-0)
3—The Smoking Gunns (2-0-1)
4—Bob Holly & The 1-2-3 Kid (5-2)
5—The New Headshrinkers (2-1-1)
Top Ten in Televised Match Appearances (Iron Worker Award):
1—The British Bulldog (13)
2—King Kong Bundy (12)
T3—Tatanka (10)
T3—Bob Holly (10)
T3—Mabel (10)
T3—Mantaur (10)
T7—Duke Droese (9)
T7—The 1-2-3 Kid (9)
T9—Lex Luger (8)
T9—Jeff Jarrett (8)
T9—Henry Godwinn (8)
T9—Adam Bomb (8)
T9—Owen Hart (8)
The Last Word: The confrontation with Taylor and Bigelow was interesting and it was definitely a draw as this was the highest rated episode of RAW since August 1994. However, the rest of the card was sub-par with squashes that were too long and dull and a feature bout that left a lot to be desired. It is also really strange that the company devoted the last ten minutes of the show to hyping a press conference as if tons of fans were going to descend on New York City to see it, but I think part of that was to try to drive traffic to the hotline the day after this show.
Up Next (on Tuesday): WWF Superstars from March 4, 1995!