–A video package hypes tonight’s Shawn Michaels-Jerry Lawler main event by playing up King Mabel’s attack on Michaels at the end of last week’s show. Lawler tells Michaels that he is not superman and that he will finish what Mabel started on tonight’s broadcast.
–Vince McMahon and Ted DiBiase are doing commentary and they are live from Worcester, Massachusetts. The tapings drew a sold out crowd of 4,500 fans according to thehistoryofwwe.com. This RAW also debuts a new entr
–Opening Contest: Waylon Mercy (9-0) defeats Doink (8-3) via submission to a sleeper hold at 3:05:
Dink is not with Doink for this bout, a victim of the budget cuts that are afflicting the company in the summer of 1995. There is not much to this match, Mercy’s first feature contest, as he shrugs off some of Doink’s blows and traps him in a sleeper hold, which Doink takes a long time to sell. The highlight of the match is that the crowd works up a loud “Kill the clown!’ chant. Rating: ¼*
–We get our first glimpse of Goldust, who does a promo against a green screen that shows a Warner Brothers studio. Goldust talks about some of his favorite actors and says that he will make WWF Champion Diesel his personal guest in Hollywood, California. This was a creepy promo to introduce the audience to one of the most controversial characters in WWF history.
–Henry Godwinn comes out and yells at DiBiase for saying some negative things about him on commentary. DiBiase tries to soothe things over, but Godwinn is not buying it and after he has DiBiase get on his knees he slops him, thereby turning himself babyface because if there is one thing that 1995 WWF needs it is more wrestlers on the face side of the roster!
–Dok Hendrix comes out to replace DiBiase on commentary.
–The Smoking Gunns (16-3-1) defeat Bill Garrett & Cody Wade after Billy pins Wade after a Sidewinder at 1:35:
Hendrix announces that the Gunns will be taking on the Blu Brothers at SummerSlam. Garrett and Wade have matching red and yellow airbrushed tights and Garrett makes a negative impression right out of the gate, struggling to get himself up for a Bart hiptoss. After that, the Gunns make a good decision to put this thing out of its misery and quickly finish Wade with the Sidewinder. Not surprisingly, Garrett and Wade were never seen again on WWF television or anywhere else for that matter.
–Dean Douglas critiques Bret Hart in his weekly segment, defining the term execution and noting that Bret is not doing that in his matches because he does not hook the leg after his second rope elbow drop. For this error Douglas gives Bret a grade of “F” for “the foundation of failure.” One only has to look at this vignette and compare it to Goldust’s and see why that character got over and this one did not.
–Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels tells the announce team that Jerry Lawler should be more concerned with himself before their match and that he is not feeling any ill effects of Mabel’s attack on last week’s show.
–Hunter-Hearst Helmsley (13-0) pins Jeff Hardy after a Pedigree at 2:07:
Jeff gets a chance to show off his high-flying offense in this match but unfortunately his attempt at a corkscrew dive off the top rope misses. Helmsley proceeds to hit the Pedigree shortly after that, making this one of his shorter squash matches. Obviously, both men would have longer matches against each other in the years ahead.
–Todd Pettengill hypes SummerSlam via the SummerSlam “Insider” segment. Pettengill announces two new matches for the SummerSlam card: Barry Horowitz against Skip in their third encounter and the 1-2-3 Kid will face Hakushi.
–Henry Godwinn (17-5-2) defeats Russ Greenberg after a Slop Drop in 56 seconds shown:
This match is joined in progress and there is not much to see as Godwinn quickly hits the Slop Drop and slops Greenberg, which will become part of his babyface act.
–Isaac Yankem is shown drilling the mouth of a patient and giving them more novocaine. The patient screams in pain as Jerry Lawler continues to hype Yankem’s SummerSlamencounter with Bret Hart.
–Barry Didinski cannot get the mat caps from Savio Vega and the 1-2-3 Kid so he has to hype an uncut sheet of mat caps. Get yours, as well as a three month subscription to WWF Magazine, a gold slammer, and game mat for $19 (plus shipping & handling)!
–Non-Title Match: Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental Champion) (15-1-1) beats Jerry Lawler (3-1) via disqualification when Sid interferes at 6:03 shown:
Although Lawler has not wrestled very often in 1995, this match had a good build, with Lawler taking shots at Michaels on commentary in the weeks leading up to the bout and Michaels clowning Lawler’s gimmick. Wrestlers in the WWE Performance Center should have to watch this bout today in learning to play to the crowd as Michaels works up a loud “Burger King” chant and then Lawler tries to get in a shot on Michaels in the corner, telling the crowd “Here’s a Whopper for ya!” (and he subsequently misses). Sid wanders out during the encounter, picking up the Intercontinental title and glancing at it. Lawler successfully controls much of the match, but Michaels kips up after a failed Lawler splash off the top rope and blasts Lawler with Sweet Chin Music. However, Lawler falls out of the ring and Sid takes advantage of the opportunity to run in and attack the Intercontinental Champion. Rating: **
–After the bell, Sid sets Michaels up for a powerbomb but Razor Ramon makes the save. Michaels wants to blast Sid with Sweet Chin Music, but Ramon pushes him out of the way to go for a Razor’s Edge, but that does not work because Lawler pulls Sid down. Ramon and Michaels then have a tug of war over the Intercontinental title, with Ramon winning and dumping the title at Michaels feet. It seems like they are going to brawl but WWF Champion Diesel comes out and separates them as we go off the air.
–Tune in next week to see the Undertaker face Tatanka!
The Last Word: The main event could have been better if it was given more time but it did a good job setting up a potential tag team match down the road between Sid and Jerry Lawler against Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. The interference also helped transfer the heat from the Michaels-Lawler encounter to the Michaels-Ramon ladder match at SummerSlam as the company prefers to keep Michaels and Ramon in a babyface role for that match. In retrospect, this would have been a good time to turn Ramon heel since he was not doing anything other than losing tag team matches with Savio Vega and a different character direction might have encouraged Ramon to stay with the company in 1996.
Up Next: WWF Superstars for August 19, 1995!