What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.15.96

Vince McMahon narrates a video package to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.

McMahon and Jerry Lawler are in the booth, concluding a long taping in Newark, Delaware.

Dok Hendrix tells fans that Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon is heading to the arena to confront Goldust.

Opening Contest: Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette) (1-0) defeats Marty Jannetty with a half nelson bridge cradle at 5:41 shown:

Jannetty spent the first three quarters of 1995 on the independent circuit after the WWF fired him in early 1994. After a few matches in ECW, he wrestled at Smoky Mountain Wrestling’s Super Bowl of Wrestling, losing the Midwest Territorial Wrestling (MTW) Heavyweight Championship to Al Snow. Jannetty’s former tag team partner Shawn Michaels was at the show and helped Jannetty get back to the WWF. It was the third time Jannetty returned after being fired. Due to his history, the WWF was hesitant to give him a strong push so he won a handful of enhancement matches and was used to put over the British Bulldog twice and was the first opponent for Goldust at In Your House 4. His biggest win of the year happened with Razor Ramon at In Your House 5 as the duo defeated Sid and the 1-2-3 Kid, giving Jannetty a measure of revenge for getting beaten by the Kid at Survivor Series in the closing stages of the opening elimination match.

Jannetty ruins whatever impact the WWF is trying to build to with Owen’s enzuigiri move by kicking out at one. There is some good technical wrestling but the match lacks any degree of intensity, just two guys filling time on a television broadcast so that McMahon and Lawler can talk about The Royal Rumble. Cornette does not interference and the match has a surprisingly clean finish as there are some standing switches and then Owen bridges Jannetty into a cradle position and wins. The lack of any chicanery does not signal a good start to the year for Jannetty. Rating: **

Todd Pettengill does the Slam Jam segment, doing pay-per-view hype right. The big announcement is of the Free for All on the Preview Channel thirty minutes before The Royal Rumble. It will have a match where two individuals who draw blanks in the Rumble drawing wrestle. The winner gets #30 and the loser gets #1. Fun concept. Diesel tells fans they can set their clocks to him winning the Rumble. A Vader video package re-airs highlights that have been shown before.

Hendrix confirms that Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon is on his way to the arena.

Sunny shoots billiards as she says that everyone, including her “likes it raw.”

The Ringmaster (w/Ted DiBiase) beats Matt Hardy via submission to the Million Dollar Dream at 4:37:

As noted before, the Ringmaster was Steve Austin, a Chris Adams trainee who began his career in Texas in 1986, working for World Class and then working for USWA Dallas. He moved onto WCW in 1991, gradually rising up the card by winning the Television, Tag Team, and United States titles. By 1994 some thought he was being groomed for a main event push but Hulk Hogan’s entry into the company displaced some of the old guard and Austin found himself jobbing the United States belt to Hacksaw Jim Duggan at Fall Brawl and his momentum never recovered. He did little in WCW in 1995, sidelined by a knee injury and doing a quick job to Randy Savage in a tournament for the U.S. title. During a tour of New Japan while under WCW contract, Austin suffered a triceps injury and was fired in September. He quickly jumped to ECW, working under former manager Paul Heyman, and gave arguably the best promo of the year, shedding his old “Stunning” gimmick and promising to become the superstar he knew he could be. Austin’s run in ECW was short, unable to win the ECW World Championship from Mikey Whipwreck and the Sandman, but it was for the best as he used his ECW time to refine his promo skills and experiment with new characters. Still, Vince McMahon was not keen on his hire, not seeing as much in Austin as Jim Ross, who pushed for him.

Hardy, Jeff’s older brother, was from the Carolina pipeline of enhancement talent that has been featured on some of these early 1996 shows. He and his brother were self-trained, working on the trampoline of their home and then wrestling as a tag team in the Carolinas. In 1994, his second year in the business, Hardy started doing televised squash matches. In 1995 he wrestled nine matches on WWF television, losing to Hakushi, Kama, Tatanka, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the Roadie, the Blu Brothers, Rad Radford, Owen Hart, and Buddy Landel.

The first move Austin lands is a Lou Thesz press and some punches, although Matt reverses it into a roll up for a near-fall. Austin is too generous in this debut, giving Hardy too many hope spots. That extends to having Hardy kick out of a gourdbuster. Hardy runs into a stun gun, Austin’s old WCW finisher, and then Austin finishes him off with the Million Dollar Dream. After the match, Austin puts the boots to Hardy to put over that he does not care about others. This was not a good debut.

A video package puts over Shawn Michaels as the most exciting athlete in the WWF, has him discuss his recent health struggles, and reiterates his participation in the Royal Rumble. Michaels pledges to outlast 29 superstars, win the Rumble, and put himself back in a WWF title match at WrestleMania.

Hendrix tells fans that Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon is just a few minutes from the arena.

Non-Title Match: The Smoking Gunns (WWF Tag Team Champions) (2-0) defeat the Spiders when Billy pins Spider II after the Sidewinder at 1:05 shown:

The original match must have been poor as it is joined in progress and very little of it airs. Or maybe the WWF did not like how the crowd was reacting as there is a loud chant for the Spiders. Bart gets a quick hot tag, cleans house, and Spider II, who has lost his royal status, is wiped out with the Sidewinder.

In a new Billionaire Ted sketch, Ted talks about how he has bought sports teams and classic movies but cannot buy the WWF. Frustrated, he asks why the WWF product is better than WCW and is told that the WWF has better athletes and WCW just has “greedy, disloyal, scheming has beens from the 1980s.” Ted throws out calling the Huckster “The Boy Toy.”

McMahon does an in-ring interview with Goldust, uncomfortable with Goldust’s provocative behavior. Goldust quotes Tootsie to emphasize how much he wants Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon, who he calls “a naughty boy.” At the end of the segment, Lawler says Goldust “might be queer” but the audience better get used to it.

Ramon shows up to the arena, blowing by Hendrix.

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) pins Isaac Yankem (1-0) after the Tombstone at 7:31 shown:

The Undertaker had been with the WWF for a little more than five years and had settled into a predictable pattern the last few of slaying big, fat monsters. In 1995 some of that continued but had a twist of people trying to take the Undertaker’s urn. That started after the Undertaker vanquished Irwin R. Schyster, who desecrated the grave of “John Dough,” at The Royal Rumble. This led to a battle with King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania, where the Undertaker preserved his WrestleMania winning streak, but Kama stole the urn and melted it into a gold chain. Kama cost the Undertaker a match against Mabel in the King of the Ring Tournament but the Undertaker triumphed in the feud by winning a casket match at SummerSlam. However, Mabel took the urn chain, leading to a feud in the fall that the Undertaker won in another casket match at In Your House 5. In that program, Mabel broke the Undertaker’s orbital bone, requiring the Undertaker to wear a protective face covering while his eye socket healed, giving the Undertaker a Phantom of the Opera-like look. Fans liked seeing the Undertaker win and he remained over but people wanted to see him in the title hunt again so those so-called “Creatures of the Night” were happy when WWF President Gorilla Monsoon named the Undertaker as the number one contender to the WWF Championship during the main event of In Your House 5. That did not please Diesel, though, who confronted the Undertaker at the end of the pay-per-view. It seemed like the two were on a collision course sooner rather than later.

Lawler gives Yankem a pep talk, settling his ally down. The Undertaker dominates most of the match, leading to Lawler trying to grab the urn chain from Bearer. He fails to obtain it, though, and races back to the locker room. After a commercial break, Yankem is in control and works rest holds as Hendrix comes into the split screen and talks of interviewing Goldust at the end of the show. McMahon emphasizes that Goldust does not represent the gay community. For some reason, Yankem tries to do a Tombstone and they mess up the finish, disguised by the camera cutting back to Hendrix pacing backstage. So the Undertaker drops an elbow when the camera cuts back and finishes Yankem with the Tombstone. A really poor match that did not flow well, died quickly when Yankem got control, and then the botched finish took it down further. Rating: ¼*

Sunny, covering in a bubble bath, talks about how the audience has just lasted for a whole hour and that is raw.

Hendrix interviews Goldust in the hallway. Before he can talk much about facing WWF Champion Bret Hart next week, Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon destroys him, laying in some stiff blows with trash cans. Goldust stops the assault with a low blow.

After McMahon and Lawler remind viewers of The Royal Rumble card, Goldust tries to get out of the arena but Ramon intercepts him again, throwing him hard into the arena doors and fighting him in the snow. Attempted murder with a snow shovel occurs and Goldust escapes in his car.

Tune in next week to see WWF Champion Bret Hart against Goldust in a non-title match!

The Last Word: Goldust has received such a strong push since In Your House 5 that it does not create a lot of doubt concerning the Intercontinental Championship match at The Royal Rumble. The brawl between he and Razor Ramon was a good way to end the show and Sunny in risque positions was a selling point to teenage fans but the rest of the show was a mess. The main event was bad, the Smoking Gunns squash was poorly put together, and Steve Austin’s debut was boring. It was not a good “go home” show for the Rumble and it is not surprising that Monday Nitro annihilated this show in the ratings. A lesson Vince McMahon should have learned by now was that dead shows late in a taping cycle would not compete well with WCW but it took him much longer to pivot television production.

Monday Night War Rating: 2.4 vs. 3.5 for Nitro (Hulk Hogan vs. Meng)

Up Next: WWF Superstars for January 20!

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