What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.08.96

The show has a new opening, going back to the old show theme and providing action silhouettes of the main superstars. This replaces the opening that had wrestlers fighting on top of Titan Towers.

Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are in the booth, taped again from Newark, Delaware.

Opening Contest: Jeff Jarrett defeats Hakushi via submission to the figure-four leglock at 6:15 shown:

Jarrett started 1995 strong, winning the Intercontinental Championship from Razor Ramon at The Royal Rumble and holding the title for six months. However, he was not booked as a strong champion, having a Honky Tonk Man-like run where he was lucky to retain, often by disqualification from his manager, the Roadie. The WWF built a storyline where Jarrett had a hit song “With My Baby Tonight” that played weekly on WWF television in the summer but it was going to be revealed that the Roadie sang it and Jarrett was taking credit. Accompanying this story was the Roadie developing more in-ring success, advancing to the semi-finals of the King of the Ring Tournament whereas Jarrett was knocked out in the qualifying round. The feud was supposed to kick off between them at In Your House 2 where Jarrett did a live music performance and lost the Intercontinental Championship to Shawn Michaels due to the Roadie’s interference backfiring. However, Jarrett believed that his character would be hurt too much by losing the title and being exposed as a fraud so he and the Roadie abruptly left the company and headed to his father’s USWA promotion. Jarrett wrestled there for a while in 1995 until coming back to the WWF at In Your House 5 as he was still under contract. At that pay-per-view he returned to his old gimmick, albeit without the Roadie, and there was no mention of his old hit song. His intention was to join the Royal Rumble but WWF President Gorilla Monsoon tossed his name out and forced him to face Ahmed Johnson at the pay-per-view since Jarrett attacked Johnson at In Your House.

Hakushi was trending downward on the card, owed to a babyface turn that was not getting over. He started 1995 as a heel, managed by Shinja (Akio Sato in white facepaint) and quickly engaged in a feud with Bret Hart. Bret got the best of him in televised matches, beating him in a fun opener at the inaugural In Your House and then besting him again in a good match on Monday Night RAW in late July. That July match wrote Shinja out as Hakushi’s manager. Hakushi also lost other allies as Jerry Lawler was angry at him for accidentally costing him his match with Bret at The King of the Ring and Owen Hart and Yokozuna, who he tagged with in the spring, had no more interactions with him. Left alone, Hakushi’s standing fell, losing to Barry Horowitz due to Skip’s interference the day of SummerSlam on The Action Zone, so Hakushi returned the favor later in the evening, helping Horowitz defeat Skip. Horowitz then embarked on a campaign to teach Hakushi English and American culture, a gimmick that seems to be the death of any foreign talent. Sure enough, after SummerSlam Hakushi piled up losses to Dean Douglas, Lawler and Isaac Yankem, the 1-2-3 Kid, and did not survive the Skip-Horowitz elimination tag match at Survivor Series. It seemed like time was running out on Hakushi’s WWF run as he did not fit into existing storylines. It did not help that his aerial style did not mesh well with other WWF talent in the period, so he was in the wrong company as WCW was transitioning to more of a light heavyweight style in its midcard.

Jarrett now brings a guitar to the ring with him. Hakushi does not get an entrance, boding ill for his chances in the match. There is a nice spot early of Jarrett backdropping Hakushi over the top rope but Hakushi lands on his feet and then catches Jarrett strutting in the ring with a flying shoulderblock. Jarrett slows down the action, not allowing Hakushi to build much momentum throughout. Thankfully, a lot of stalling is kept to a minimum. Hakushi knocks Jarrett down with a flying forearm but when he tries to a springboard splash, Jarrett raises his knees and locks in a figure-four leglock for a submission. It is annoying when a wrestler wins a feature match with a submission when they have not worked over the body part at all. Rating: *½

Jim Ross does the Slam Jam segment leads to a new Vader video, where he hypes himself as “The Prince of Power.” He screams about how it is “Vader time!” New entrants for the Rumble match include Henry Godwinn, Kama, Skip, Marty Jannetty, and Takao Omori.

Ahmed Johnson (1-0) pins Jeff Brettler after the Pearl River Plunge at 1:31:

Brettler wrestled for the Dallas-based Global Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s as an enhancement talent, working as Jeff Grettler and then Rico Suave. He was Ahmed’s tryout opponent for the WWF in July 1995.

Bretler wears some loose-fitting pants and Ahmed murders him with some suplexes reminiscent of what Taz was doing in ECW at the time. The crowd pops big for it, in stark contrast to what they were doing for the opening match, and Ahmed wins again with the spinebuster and Pearl River Plunge.

After the match, Jarrett tries to hit Ahmed with his guitar but Ahmed avoids the blow and Jarrett breaks it against the corner. Jarrett runs off before Ahmed can touch him so Ahmed has to be content smashing the remains of the guitar over the ring post.

Brother Love interviews Ted DiBiase, who welcomes the Ringmaster as the new Million Dollar champion. This is Steve Austin, a former WCW United States, Television, and Tag Team champion. Austin quickly establishes his bona fides on the microphone for the WWF audience, telling people that he was born to be a champion and that he is entering the Royal Rumble to become the WWF Champion. One small criticism is Austin spams “man” at the end of his sentences like Hulk Hogan does “brother.” Austin had presence and immediately took charge of the segment but the name and his look of a blonde crew cut, green tights, and white boots was bland. There was no reason yet for fans to take him seriously. Austin himself attests that he knew quickly that the WWF viewed him as a ring mechanic and nothing more so he had to do something to stand out.

Referee Earl Hebner argues that he did not stop the Bret Hart-British Bulldog match at In Your House 5 because Bret responded to his directions.

Goldust defeats Aldo Montoya after the Curtain Call at 2:16:

Goldust was an androgynous character given to Dustin Rhodes, who the WWF signed from WCW after Rhodes was fired for blading in a King of the Road match against Barry Darsow at Uncensored. The son of wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, the gimmick allowed Dustin to get out of his dad’s shadow but came at a time when homosexual activity was still criminalized in parts of the United States and attitudes in the wrestling world were less tolerant. Early on, the character did not do anything suggestive but Savio Vega encouraged Dustin to start wrestling that way on house shows in their matches and something clicked for him. Goldust was an edgier character than anything the WWF had used in its history, debuting at In Your House 4 against Marty Jannetty. The match was poor but the WWF was desperate for heels so Goldust kept winning, defeating the outgoing Bam Bam Bigelow in another poor match at Survivor Series. At the following In Your House 5 pay-per-view, Goldust began to make overtures to Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon, leading to questions of if he was attracted to the Bad Guy or merely using mind games to keep the champion off balance. As noted already, Scott Hall was not a fan of the program, arguing that he did not think it was acceptable for his children to watch but his attempts to kill it went nowhere.

Montoya was a lower card babyface talent, hyped as the “Portuguese Man O’War.” The gimmick gave Peter Polaco something to do other than jobs as P.J. Walker, although fans laughed at a gimmick where it looked like Polaco cut a mask out of a yellow jock strap and put it around his head. Montoya lost to most name stars he faced in 1995, including the likes of Mantaur, Hakushi, Sid, Jerry Lawler, and Goldust. His only significant achievement outside of beating enhancement talents was defeating Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett in a non-title match in April, but that was simply used to give Jarrett a legitimate title defense, which he won via submission. As the WWF moved into a new television format, Montoya was a glorified enhancement talent. Not as low as enhancement talents of old like Mike Sharpe or Russ Greenberg but someone who hardly won significant matches in his own right.

Like Hakushi earlier, Montoya does not get an entrance. The crowd knows he does not have a chance because Goldust is getting an Intercontinental title match at The Royal Rumble. Goldust beats down Montoya throughout and Montoya gets a token comeback but Goldust reverses a backdrop attempt into the Curtain Call and wins his first match of 1996.

The Slam Jam shows footage of Shawn Michaels’ press conference, announcing that he will be competing in the Royal Rumble, pledging to win it and carry the WWF Championship into a new era. “Scheme Gene” interrupts the broadcast to say that Vader is going to be in the Royal Rumble.

Reactions are done to Michaels’ decision. Diesel says that he will put their friendship aside if it comes down to them in the match. Razor Ramon argues that it is too soon for Michaels to return but Michaels is still his pick to win. Owen Hart suggests that Michaels is not ready for the Rumble and will be a marked man in the match.

The Bret Hart-British Bulldog WWF title match from In Your House 5 is shown, carrying with it a warning that “Viewer discretion is advised.” McMahon emphasizes that The Royal Rumble matches will be shown exclusively on pay-per-view, rebutting criticisms that the WWF was delegitimizing its pay-per-view strategy by airing those matches on television later.

The Undertaker and Paul Bearer do a taped promo, arguing that they are going to give the Creatures of the Night what they want.

McMahon announces that Kathy Schreck of Chicago, Illinois is The Royal Rumble contest winner, giving her tickets to the event.

A new Billionaire Ted sketch sees him ask his “Wrasslin’ Warroom” about a new slogan. Vince Russo and other people around the table propose old WWF slogans to illustrate that WCW is not original. One advisor suggests “Where the old boys play.” That irritates the Huckster and Ted, who says it is “Not the time to start telling the truth.” The Nacho Man suggests “Where the big boys play” and Ted thinks that is a lie loose enough to work. Then the sketch gets really nasty, as the Nacho Man asks if they will have to take tests for steroids, which Ted waves away. The show ends with the WWF saying that it will put out a drug program advisory on America Online later in the evening.

Tune in next week to see the Undertaker face Isaac Yankem! Also, Marty Jannetty wrestles Owen Hart! The Ringmaster will be in action as well!

The Last Word: This show was built around the In Your House 5 title match and the Shawn Michaels press conference announcement, so it checked off those boxes in a satisfactory way for fans. Young WWF fans had no idea who Steve Austin was, so next week will be their first time seeing him in the ring. The Ringmaster name was a classic cartoonish WWF spin on a longtime talent and Austin’s look did not help matters. However, he noted that it was a foot in the door and something he could start working with to hopefully break out in a promotion that was giving him a second chance after his stock fell rapidly in WCW after the arrival of Hulk Hogan.

Monday Night War Rating: 3.0 vs. 2.8 for Nitro (Main Event: Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson)

Up Next: WWF Superstars for January 13!

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