–Waylon Mercy says that he is going to put Diesel to sleep on today’s show.
–Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross are in the booth and they are still in Valparaiso, Indiana.
–Opening Contest: Razor Ramon & the 1-2-3 Kid beat The Blu Brothers (w/Uncle Zebekiah) (15-2-2) when Ramon pins Eli after a Kid missile dropkick to Ramon’s back at 8:51 shown:
Ramon and the Kid have been reunited as friends and are now plugged into the tag team ranks since there is very little for either man to do as a babyface in singles competition. McMahon notes that Ramon and the Kid will face the Smoking Gunns for the tag team titles at In Your House and in doing so ruins any drama that this match might have had. Along with Savio Vega, Ramon and the Kid had a summer feud with the Blus and Zebekiah, but the announcers do not delve into that. This follows your usual tag formula and the Blus do a good job building drama by cutting off the Kid’s tags and the Kid knows when to get in some hope spots to freshen up the heel offense. Things get a little sloppy during the four way brawl, but heel miscommunication sees the Blus take each other out and Ramon gets some momentum for a cover after the Kid missile dropkicks his back when Eli lifts him for a bodyslam to win. After the match, the Blus try to attack Ramon and the Kid but get driven off and that writes them out of the company. They would head to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) to do some work as the Bruise Brothers and briefly return to the WWF as the Grimm Twins the following year. Rating: **¾
–Dok Hendrix recaps the Madison Square Garden benefit show that took place over the previous weekend. Shawn Michaels says that he, Bret Hart, and Diesel will defeat Mabel, the British Bulldog, and Yokozuna at the next Nassau Coliseum show because they are upset over the recent events on RAW. Hendrix says that Bob Backlund will referee that match. Also scheduled for Nassau Coliseum are bouts featuring Razor Ramon against Hunter-Hearst Helmsley, the Smoking Gunns against Sid & Kama, and the Undertaker squaring off against Goldust.
–Brief footage of Bam Bam Bigelow fishing is shown. It seems appropriate the audience is getting this footage because Bigelow has had more success doing that than wrestling in recent months.
–Bam Bam Bigelow (17-5) beats Tom Knox after a flying headbutt at 1:48:
After failing to take out the Million Dollar Corporation, Bigelow takes out some frustrations on Knox, throwing him around the ring before finishing him with the flying headbutt. No new plans are revealed for Bigelow, with McMahon emphasizing that he loves to fish.
–Hendrix shills a Two Dudes with Attitudes (Diesel & Shawn Michaels) t-shirt. Buy yours by calling 1-800-TITAN-91 and paying $20 (plus shipping & handling)!
–Ahmed Johnson screams about honor and how his mother worked for minimum wage but found the money to help him go to a WWF event.
–Call 1-900-737-4WWF to hear the latest news and rumors from the WWF.
–Non-Title Match: The Smoking Gunns (WWF Tag Team Champions) (21-3-1) defeat A.C. Connor & Scott Stevens after Billy pins Stevens after a Sidewinder at 3:29:
Billy plants Connor right on his head after a headscissors and Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid mock their amazement at the Gunns offense by the entrance. Stevens gets a chance to throw in some generic offense after Connor does a low blow to Bart, but he soon succumbs to a Sidewinder.
–After the match, Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid tease getting into the ring to face the Gunns but no confrontation results.
–Skip (w/Sunny) (8-8) pins Sonny Rogers after a super hurricanrana at 3:44:
Being on a four match losing streak means that Skip is in desperate need of getting a win, even if that win has to happen against an enhancement talent like Rogers. In the early stages of the match, Rad Radford runs out because he is a “Bodydonna in training.” Rogers gets a series of quick near-falls, but there is no Horowitz moment today as Skip gets back over .500 in singles competition in a painfully long squash.
–A replay of the ending of the six man tag team match on RAW between Diesel, Shawn Michaels & the Undertaker against Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, and Yokozuna is shown, along with the beatdown of the babyfaces at the end of the match by the heels. There is also a replay of Jim Cornette and the British Bulldog’s backstage promo.
–Jim Ross interviews WWF Champion Diesel, who denies the fact that he is on a losing streak and that he is going to make an example out of Waylon Mercy.
–Non-Title Match: Waylon Mercy (11-2) beats Diesel (WWF Champion) (9-0-1) via count out at 1:55:
Although the win/loss records would signal this as an epic encounter, there is not much to this one as both men exchange strikes until the British Bulldog walks out. Diesel cannot help himself and goes after his In Your House challenger and the ensuing brawl causes the WWF Champion to get counted out. After WWF officials get the Bulldog and Dean Douglas to head to the locker room – Douglas had come out to back up his fellow heel while Michaels came out to help Diesel – Diesel runs back into the ring and gives Mercy a Jackknife. There was a rumor going around for a few years that Diesel really messed up Mercy’s back with the Jackknife here and forced him to retire, but the reality is that Mercy was already going to retire because of other career injuries. In fact, Mercy worked the WWF’s European tour before calling it quits, but this was his last appearance on television after a cup of coffee run with this interesting gimmick.
–Hendrix does another Slam Jam segment, with the Undertaker and Paul Bearer cutting a generic promo against Goldust for the next Nassau Coliseum house show. Hendrix tells the audience that on November 12 in the Meadowlands Ahmed Johnson will make his debut; a six man tag will take place between the Smoking Gunns & Henry Godwinn against Sid, Kama & Hunter-Hearst Helmsley; Razor Ramon faces Goldust; and Bret Hart will face the British Bulldog. In addition, Diesel & Shawn Michaels face Owen Hart & Yokozuna in a lumberjack match.
–Shawn Michaels tells the announcers that he will catch up with Dean Douglas sooner or later and that tensions are boiling so high in the locker room that several wrestlers may not make it to In Your House. Little did he know he was talking about himself…
–Tune in next week to see the Undertaker face Kama where the Undertaker will try to regain the urn on the chain (which the Undertaker must have forgotten to grab at SummerSlam)! Also, Hakushi squares off against Dean Douglas and WWF Champion Diesel will give a special interview.
The Last Word: It is nice to see Diesel showing some intensity after acting like a tool for much of the year and serving as the company’s resident jokester. Him “snapping” at the end of the broadcast foreshadowed the character that Diesel would adopt after Survivor Series. The churn continues on the heel side of the roster, though, as the Blus departure means that the company is down to a mere four active tag teams and two are makeshift in Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid and Owen Hart and Yokozuna. Mercy’s departure is also disappointing after the promise that the character held but Spivey was just too beaten down for a full-time run and his bump card was up.
The Action Zone broadcast on October 15 featured an exclusive match, which was taped in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the site of the month’s Monday Night RAW broadcasts. Todd Pettengill said that this match was supposed to air on RAW but did not due to the heel beatdown that took place on the previous RAW telecast:
–Marty Jannetty (2-0) pins Duke Droese (13-3) after a flying fist drop at 4:09:
Droese has not appeared on television since mid-July, when he lost to Hunter-Hearst Helmsley on Superstars. Droese works as a heel in this match, showing that the company might have been experimenting with his role, but it is not something that stuck because when Droese began to be used again in a full-time capacity by the end of the year he was back to being a smiling trash man. Jannetty spams the Irish Whip during his comeback and Droese argues with the referee at the wrong time, allowing Jannetty to hit a dropkick off the second rope and set up the finish. This covered the basics that any match should have and Jannetty did a good job guiding Droese through it. Rating: *
The WWF continued its tour of Europe abroad while continuing its tour of East Coast cities back in the States. Here are the results of a few of those cards (courtesy of historyofwwe.com):
Springfield, Massachusetts – Civic Center – October 10, 1995 (1,900; 1,400 paid): Hakushi beat Skip…King Kong Bundy defeated Barry Horowitz…Savio Vega beat Kama…The 1-2-3 Kid defeated Bob Backlund…Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels beat the British Bulldog…WWF Women’s Champion Bertha Faye beat Alundra Blayze…WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns defeated Men on a Mission…The Undertaker beat Isaac Yankem.
Cologne, Germany – Sporthalle – October 10, 1995 (5,300): Henry Godwinn beat Rad Radford…Waylon Mercy beat Bob Holly…Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Sid…Jean-Pierre LaFitte beat Aldo Montoya…Hunter-Hearst Helmsley beat Henry Godwinn…Owen Hart defeated Fatu…Razor Ramon beat Hunter-Hearst Helmsley via count out…WWF Champion Diesel beat Yokozuna.
Binghamton, New York – Broome County Arena – October 13, 1995 (1,400): Hakushi pinned Skip…King Kong Bundy beat Barry Horowitz after Skip and Sunny interfered…Isaac Yankem beat Marty Jannetty (substituting for the Undertaker)…The 1-2-3 Kid pinned Bob Backlund after a rollup…WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns defeated Men on a Mission when Billy pinned Sir Mo after the Gunns double dropkicked Mabel to the arena floor…WWF Women’s Champion Bertha Faye defeated Alundra Blayze…Savio Vega beat Kama…Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defeated the British Bulldog.
Syracuse, New York – October 14, 1995: Hakushi beat Skip…King Kong Bundy defeated Barry Horowitz…Marty Jannetty won a battle royal that was used on the card because of injuries suffered by the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels…The 1-2-3 Kid beat Bob Backlund…WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns beat Men on a Mission…WWF Women’s Champion Bertha Faye defeated Alundra Blayze…Savio Vega beat Kama…Marty Jannetty (substituting for Shawn Michaels) beat the British Bulldog.
And here were some news items concerning the company at this time (courtesy of The Wrestling Observer from October 23 and historyofwwe.com):
*Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels was reportedly assaulted by up to ten servicemen at a bar in Syracuse, New York on the evening of October 13. Michaels suffered injuries when he was thrown on top of a car, had a car door slammed on his head, and was then kicked and stomped. Michaels was in the company of other WWF talents the British Bulldog and the 1-2-3 Kid when the incident occurred. The Bulldog suffered a black eye, while the Kid suffered no injuries. This was Michaels second incident in a week as he got into a backstage confrontation with the Blu Brothers at Madison Square Garden on October 6. The Blus allegedly pinned Shawn against a wall to scare him. Michaels injuries could result in him missing In Your House, where he is scheduled to face Dean Douglas, and if so it is unclear what the company might do about the Intercontinental title situation. (Note: It eventually came out that Michaels was not attacked by ten men, or even eight, as WWF television later claimed. Instead, he was attacked by one individual, Douglas Griffith, a twenty-three-year-old corporal in the U.S. Army, stemming from a conflict over a woman at the bar that evening. Prosecutors wanted to charge Griffith with second degree assault, but as James Dixon notes in Titan Sinking: The Decline of the WWF in 1995, Michaels decided against pursuing charges in May 1996 before the case went to trial).
*Bill Watts, after being introduced to talent at In Your House 3 as the company’s head creative mind, reportedly quit the company after a disagreement with Vince McMahon on October 13. Watts grew frustrated over McMahon overruling his decisions after initially being promised full control of the company’s booking. It also rumored that both men disagreed over whether there needed to be more strict discipline in the locker room, with Watts favoring a more serious approach and McMahon feeling that the status quo was fine.
*The Undertaker was injured wrestling Mabel in Providence, Rhode Island on October 7. The Undertaker suffered a broken orbital bone and will be out of action for at least a month. The Undertaker had no idea he was initially injured but severe pain after working some house show matches against Isaac Yankem forced him to receive medical attention, where the injury was discovered. This is the second injury for the Undertaker in a month as an injured foot also plagued him over the past week. This injury will definitely require a reshuffling of the In Your House card as the Undertaker was booked to face Mabel at that show. The company hopes to have him back for Survivor Series.
*Other injuries are plaguing the roster, even if they are not costing talent ring time. Dean Douglas has a bad ankle, Razor Ramon has a neck injury, and Rad Radford has an eye injury.
*WWF talent will reportedly participate in a show at the Stampede Corral in Calgary to honor the fiftieth anniversary of Stu Hart’s first match in the city. WWF talents Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, the 1-2-3 Kid, Razor Ramon, and the British Bulldog are expected to participate, with Bret facing Michaels, Owen facing the Kid, and Ramon facing the Bulldog on the card. WCW talents Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman will reportedly be on the card as well.
*Due to poor gates, as evidenced by the company’s recent East Coast tour, “B”-level house shows have been eliminated. Twenty-two wrestlers will be scheduled for “A” shows and for other talent to get work the company has contacted independent promoters, who are reportedly thrilled at the opportunity to book WWF talent. However, the idea is already running into problems as the company has refused to release some talent after initially agreeing to do so and has been slow to get back to promoters after they inquire about contracting some talent. Furthermore, the reduction of house shows means that the likelihood of the company ditching its women’s division by the end of the year is high.
Up Next: Monday Night RAW for October 16, 1995!