–Jim Ross and Todd Pettengill are in the booth and they are kicking off a new set of tapings in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The tapings were held on June 28, 1995.
–Ross and Pettengill recap the Bret Hart-Jerry Lawler “kiss my foot” match at The King of the Ring. The audience gets another viewing of Lawler hyping his dentist, Isaac Yankem, D.D.S, who he says is coming to the WWF to get some revenge on Bret.
–Opening Non-Title Contest: Owen Hart & Yokozuna (WWF Tag Team Champions w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) (8-0) defeat Chuck Williams & David Thornberg after Owen pins Thornberg after a Yokozuna leg drop to the back of the head at 2:52:
Williams is the Rockin’ Rebel of early Eastern Championship Wrestling fame and he is outwrestled by Owen at the beginning of the bout. Owen and Yokozuna showcase a good finisher here, with Owen giving Thornberg a drop toe hold and Yokozuna making Thornberg dead to rights with a leg drop to the back of the head.
–The Allied Powers say that they have gone through all of the teams in the WWF tag team division and now it is time for them to become tag team champions. The British Bulldog says he plans to slam Yokozuna at In Your House.
–Ross and Pettengill recap how Mabel became the King of the Ring at the recent pay-per-view and how Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 suffered at beatdown at the hands of Men on a Mission when the final tournament bout concluded.
–Bob Holly (7-7-1) pins Tony DeVito after the Pit Stop Plunge at 1:38:
Pettengill tries to chalk up Holly’s loss to the Roadie at The King of the Ring to outside interference despite the fact that Holly lost that match cleanly. Holly makes very quick work of DeVito to try to build him up for another feature match down the road.
–Vince McMahon recaps Diesel’s participation in the celebrity softball game for children affected by the Oklahoma City terrorist attack.
–Ross and Pettengill recap the tag team main event at The King of the Ring. Ross and Pettengill then describe the lumberjack match between Diesel and Sid that will take place at In Your House 2.
–In a taped promo, Ted DiBiase tells the world that Sid is not a coward and Sid says that he will end Diesel’s career for good at In Your House 2. It is really tough to take these Sid promos seriously after how he has been portrayed as a big coward on television.
–Hakushi (w/Shinja) (19-1) beats Russ Greenberg after a springboard splash at 2:44:
Hakushi continues to remind the audience of his issues with Bret Hart by pulling the severed Bret head out of a bag before the match. Hakushi pounds away to start and Greenberg responds with two AWFUL dropkicks, making the Erik Watts effort at Starrcade 1992 look Bob Holly-like by comparison. Hakushi shows Greenberg how to throw a real dropkick before finishing him and becoming the first WWF talent to win twenty matches in 1995.
–There is a replay of the Waylon Mercy lifeguard vignette.
–Barry Didinski, after enduring some ridicule from Ross and Pettengill about not knowing the announcer’s names, tries to sell a Shawn Michaels and Adam Bomb t-shirt. Fans can get one by calling 1-800-TITAN-91.
–Duke Droese (12-2) pins Mike Bell after the Trash Compactor at 1:58:
Droese has not been seen on WWF television since an episode of Wrestling Challenge in late May. Bell nearly lands on his head after a backdrop and that is the lone highlight of this match as Droese wins easily.
–Pettengill discusses the WWF’s participation with the Special Olympics.
–Call 1-900-737-4WWF and pay $1.49 per minute to find out about Razor Ramon’s continued injury and how Ted DiBiase felt about Sid walking out on Tatanka at The King of the Ring.
–Rad Radford (5-1) beats Jeff Hardy after a Northern Lights suplex at 2:10:
Jeff is rocking a really short haircut in this match, something that is weird to see after being used to his long hair look for the past two decades. Radford does his usual good job of flying around the ring and gets a better crowd reaction than anything he has received to this point. A nice flying forearm off the second rope and Northern Light’s suplex sends Jeff to the showers with a loss.
–A recap of the Jeff Jarrett-Savio Vega Intercontinental title match on RAW is shown, as are the post-match antics between Jarrett, the Roadie, and Shawn Michaels.
–Jarrett’s “With My Baby Tonight” music video gets its debut showing on The Action Zone.
–Ross and Pettengill do a hard sell for the Bam Bam Bigelow-Sid match that is going to take place on RAW.
–Tune in next week to see Waylon Mercy and the 1-2-3 Kid in action!
The Last Word: Although the squash matches were fine, this show sent a message to fans that The Action Zone was no longer a priority for the company as it lacked a feature match. The fact that no feature match is highlighted for next week’s show either just reinforces the fact that this show might be on borrowed time.
Wrestling Challenge did not feature any additional contests but here were the results of a WWF house show in Baltimore, Maryland on June 30:
Baltimore, Maryland – Arena – June 30, 1995 (4,500; 3,000 paid): Skip beat Doink…WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze defeated Bertha Faye…Smoking Gunns beat the Blu Brothers…Sir Mo defeated the 1-2-3 Kid…Bam Bam Bigelow beat Jean-Pierre LaFitte…Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett defeated Adam Bomb…Hunter-Hearst Helmsley defeated Aldo Montoya…Savio Vega beat King Mabel via count out…WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna defeated the Allied Powers…WWF Champion Diesel beat Sid in a steel cage match.
Here were some news items concerning the company for the first week of July (courtesy of The Wrestling Observer from July 3 and 10):
*There is a significant possibility that the In Your House 2 buy rate could be negatively affected by going after UFC 6 (headlined by the first Ken Shamrock-Dan Severn fight) and WCW’s Bash at the Beach.
*The WWF has recently inked a sponsorship deal with Burger King, which Dave Meltzer says is long past due because of how they have given the fast food joint free publicity for more than a year when babyfaces make jokes about Jerry Lawler being “the Burger King.” The WWF has also signed on with the National Dairy Council but it is losing Nintendo, a big sponsor, which is going over to WCW in the fall. Stridex is a big sponsor for SummerSlam this year, reportedly spending 25% of their advertising budget on the WWF.
*Shane Douglas seems to be headed for the WWF as he was fired by Tod Gordon on ECW’s July 1 show. Some think he could be the Isaac Yankem, D.D.S. character that is being advertised on television.
*King Kong Bundy has been out of action with pneumonia. There were some rumors that he was going to face Bam Bam Bigelow at In Your House 2 but those plans may have been changed.
*The Undertaker recently participated in a match for the USWA, highlighting its Monday night Memphis show by tagging with Bill Dundee to beat Doug Gilbert and Jim Harris in a bodybag match.
*Smoky Mountain Wrestling is losing some major talents. Unabomb (Glenn Jacobs) is headed to the WWF and Al Snow is receiving interest from WCW and the WWF. Snow has a WCW try out scheduled for July 11.
*Independent wrestlers Tony Norris and Rico Suave will be getting try-outs at the next company television tapings in Texas.
*The WWF will be switching up its television taping schedule next month. Instead of taping from three different locations, the company will go to two, adding one hour to each taping. As a cost-cutting measure there will be fewer matches shown on Action Zone and Wrestling Challenge, with both shows recapping more of what happens on RAW and Superstars.
*The recent Action Zone/Wrestling Challenge tapings saw the debut of the Spellbinder (Harry del Rios), called Phantasio. He was sporting a magic gimmick.
Up Next: Monday Night RAW from July 3, 1995!