–Vince McMahon recaps how the Blu Brothers cheated on last week’s show to defeat Savio Vega and the 1-2-3 Kid. That set up today’s six man tag team match where the Blu Brothers and Uncle Zebekiah will face Savio, the Kid, and Razor Ramon.
–McMahon and Dok Hendrix are our commentary team and they are taped from Evansville, Indiana. According to thehistoryofwwe.com these tapings drew 5,000 fans.
–Opening Contest: Fatu (0-1) beats Rad Radford (7-1) with a small package at 5:48:
This is Fatu’s debut with his colorful “making a difference” gimmick. For his part, Radford gets a jobber-style entrance and is treated as an afterthought by McMahon and Hendrix. Hendrix brags about getting all of his predictions right at In Your House despite the fact that he incorrectly thought Henry Godwinn would beat Bam Bam Bigelow. In spite of the gimmick change, Fatu still has a head of steel, and that triggers his comeback when Radford’s attempt to take him to the buckles and DDT effort goes astray. Fatu is using the Diamond Cutter as a trademark move, although not as a finisher, which is a very curious decision since Fatu scores an underwhelming win with a small package. Rating: **
–After the bout, Radford attacks Fatu but when Fatu is not selling the beating, Radford jumps out of the ring and runs to the locker room showing that we might have the beginning of a new feud here.
–Stan Lane does Live Event News now that Stephanie Wiand has been released from the company. He hypes SummerSlam in Pittsburgh and the August 12 Madison Square Garden card. Bret Hart cuts a promo about how Jean-Pierre LaFitte is not taking him seriously and he is going to prove him wrong when they face off in the Garden.
–King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) (8-1) pins Gary Scott after a belly-to-belly suplex at 2:24:
Jason Miller is the guest fan ring announcer, with Hendrix joking that he needs to use some Stridex pads since Miller is a teenager. For his part, McMahon announces that Diesel has accepted Mabel’s challenge and will face him at SummerSlam for the WWF title. Mabel destroys Scott, tossing him over the top rope and into the ring steps, and then hits a belly-to-belly suplex for his sixth straight victory in singles competition.
–After the match, Mabel cuts a promo, telling the crowd that they need to respect him and that he will walk away from SummerSlam as the king of the WWF and the WWF Champion.
–Goldust is coming!
–Write to the WWF and let them know how they can put on a show to help your local charity!
–McMahon recaps how Jeff Jarrett had a bad night at In Your House 2 and how he has split from the Roadie, who claims that he is the one who actually sang “With My Baby Tonight.”
–Barry Didinski has no voice so Hendrix has to do the hard sell for fans to buy a Jeff Jarrett “Ain’t I Great – Not!” t-shirt and cassette tape of “With My Baby Tonight” for $17 (plus $3.95 shipping & handling)!
–Razor Ramon, Savio Vega & the 1-2-3 Kid defeat The Blu Brothers & Uncle Zebekiah when the Kid pins Zebekiah after a spinning heel kick at 10:20 shown:
Long-time fans would recognize that Zebekiah was Dutch Mantel and was not a pushover in this match, but to fans who only watch the WWF this was more of a punishment for the Blu Brothers manager who was reportedly forced to participate in this match. Who made that decision is unclear since Jack Tunney is no longer WWF president and a new one has yet to be named, but those are the circumstances that gave us this contest. And this match proceeds like most tag matches with managers, as Zebekiah’s role is limited except when a member of the face team is too weakened to retaliate against him. Eventually, heel cheating backfires when Zebekiah eats a big boot from one of his men when he holds Ramon in place for a blow. And not surprisingly, Zebekiah eats the fall for his team after the Kid catches him with a spinning heel kick. This was a solid six man tag match, with the heels doing a great job beating up Ramon during the heat segment and the crowd was really into the finish. Rating: ***
–Dean Douglas’ first vignette, which was shown on RAW, is replayed.
–Call 1-900-737-4WWF to hear from the “pitbull” of the WWF, Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. McMahon promises a candid interview but you have to pay $1.49 a minute to hear it!
–Waylon Mercy (6-0) beats Major Yates via submission to a sleeper hold at 1:54:
Despite the name, Yates is not sporting a military gimmick and he was a regular enhancement worker for the WWF during the 1990s, doing jobs for the likes of the Orient Express, the Mountain, the Repo Man, and others before allowing Mercy to annihilate him today. In fact, Mercy does very little here before the finish but the post-match antics are funny as Mercy pulls Yates off the canvas, appears to be trying to revive him like a good sport, and then tosses him out of the ring like a bag of garbage.
–Lane provides another Live Event News report. The Madison Square Garden card has had a change of main event as Diesel and Shawn Michaels will now square off against Men on a Mission instead of Sid and Jeff Jarrett since Jarrett has left the company. Jean-Pierre LaFitte cuts a rebuttal promo against Bret Hart as well, arguing that nothing can stop him because he is younger, bigger, and faster than the Hitman.
–Isaac Yankem’s new vignette sees Jerry Lawler announce that Yankem will debut at SummerSlamagainst Bret Hart. Yankem gives a patient a violent numbing injection as Lawler says that Yankem will knock Bret out the old fashioned way at the pay-per-view.
–Hendrix interviews Skip and Sunny, who say that Skip’s loss to Barry Horowitz was nothing but a fluke. Sunny says that she does not understand why women like Shawn Michaels, a hilarious comment in hindsight of what we know about this period, while Skip says he will beat Michaels just like Horowitz beat him on The Action Zone. Skip then spazzes out as we go off the air.
–Tune in next week to see Shawn Michaels square off against Skip for the heart of Sunny!.
The Last Word: The feature matches were good enough to make this show worth watching and its pacing was great, announcing several major bouts for SummerSlam, while building to next week’s show. That show should feature a fun match between Skip and Shawn Michaels, even if I do not like Skip’s chances. After all, how can a guy who cannot beat Barry Horowitz be deemed a sufficient challenger for someone of Michaels’ caliber?
Up Next: The Action Zone for July 30, 1995!