What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 04.22.96

Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler call the action, wrapping up the taping in San Bernardino, California.

Savio Vega yells at the camera in Spanish before he heads to the ring, confusing McMahon and Lawler.

Opening Contest for the Intercontinental Championship: Goldust (w/Marlena) (6-3-1) beats Savio Vega (3-2-2) after Steve Austin interferes to win the title at 10:58 shown:

McMahon and Lawler make a good observation that a new champion could be crowned via count out or disqualification since the title is vacant. Someone needed to get that memo to Savio as he stops Goldust from leaving after a minute of action. Lawler has a random factoid about the number of bosses that check their employees e-mail and McMahon loses it on him, maybe because the joke hit too close to home. Unlike the first match, Goldust dominates more of this one, meaning that it moves slower as the former champion works the leg and then switches to a rear chinlock. In the split screen, the Ultimate Warrior gives a non-sensical bit about how he is not coming to get the metal on the Intercontinental Championship but to blow a hole in Goldust’s house. Steve Austin and Ted DiBiase walk out and stop in the aisle at the eight-minute mark just before a commercial break. Goldust goes for the Curtain Call but Savio floats over and hits a standing spin kick for a close near-fall. A schoolboy roll up after a blind charge nearly wins the title as well and Marlena provides a distraction when Savio does an O’Connor roll. That allows Austin to blast Savio with the Million Dollar Championship Belt when Goldust kicks out, enabling Goldust to become a two-time Intercontinental champion and go to In Your House 7 as champion to face the Ultimate Warrior. After a slow middle portion, this had a good finish, continuing the Savio-Austin feud. Savio also did a good job selling his leg throughout. Rating: **¼

Vader (w/Jim Cornette) (3-0) pins Fatu (0-4) after a moonsault at 1:55 shown:

Lawler announces that next week the Warrior will face Isaac Yankem. The Vader-Razor Ramon match booked for In Your House was a dream match but due to Ramon leaving it has not gotten much hype. The match is joined in progress and does little for the Fatu character, who manages his finishing splash off the top rope just to have Vader pop up. After clotheslining Fatu out of his boots, Vader listens to the crowd and does a moonsault for the win. The finish would look better if Vader put Fatu further out from the corner so he would land more flush but the WWF’s camera work covered for it. McMahon emphasizes how Vader destroyed Fatu so it is an open question how much longer Fatu’s run is going to last.

Footage is shared of the WWF’s tour of Germany, emphasizing Bret Hart’s popularity and the finish of a Jake Roberts-Owen Hart match. Roberts gives a DDT but before a pinfall occurs, the British Bulldog, who is back to short tights, interferes. The Bulldog beats down Roberts until Roberts knocks the Bulldog down with punches, does an inverted atomic drop, a short-arm clothesline, and dumps Revelation on the Bulldog. All of this is meant to hype the planned Roberts-Bulldog match at In Your House.

The Godwinns (w/Hillbilly Jim) (7-1) beat Yoshihiro Tajiri & Tim Patterson when Henry pins Patterson after the Slop Drop at 3:32:

An aspiring kickboxer, Tajiri was inspired after watching Mexican wrestling and, after receiving training from Animal Hamaguchi, broke into the business in 1994 for IWA Japan. After a stint in Mexico’s Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libra (CMLL), he went back to Japan to work for hardcore outfit Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW). He would find greater fame in 1998 working for ECW.

WWF Tag Team Champions the Bodydonnas and Sunny talk about wanting to give the Godwinns a taste of their own medicine at In Your House. Lawler comes back from visiting the Bodydonnas, talking about how he has seen Sunny’s “surprises” for the Godwinns. Tajiri gets a double feature from a standing moonsault on Phineas and then he tags in Patterson, who gets hoisted in a bearhug so Sunny can come to ringside with the Tag Team titles. Sunny taunts Jim, who chases her to the locker room, and then Patterson is finished with some non-descript offense.

After the match, the Bodydonnas run in and attack the Godwinns. There is a nice move on Phineas as Zip clotheslines Phineas as Skip trips him from behind. To humiliate Phineas, the Bodydonnas take some of the Godwinns slop and dump it on him and try to shove it in his mouth. The crowd does not care about any of this, which reflects poorly on the champions and the challengers.

Mankind (2-0) defeats Aldo Montoya (0-4) via submission to the Mandible Claw at 3:28 shown:

Mankind’s vicious attack on the Undertaker has received surprisingly scant attention since it occurred three weeks ago. Montoya lands a few dropkicks but Mankind stops a dive off the top rope with an elbow to the face. Mankind adds a new move to his arsenal with a pulled piledriver as he experiments with a different way to set up his finisher. Rating: ½*

Diesel does a taped promo from Germany, promising to teach WWF Champion Shawn Michaels a lesson. He notes that he does not want the WWF title as he held it for a year and it was the worst in his life. Diesel proclaims himself as the leader of the New Generation because he is a unique individual and a “genetic wonder.” To close the promo, Diesel threatens to go after McMahon once he is done with Michaels at In Your House. It is a shame that Diesel is leaving for WCW because this character orientation was the best he had during his three-year run with the company.

Tune in next week to see the Ultimate Warrior face Isaac Yankem!

The Last Word: After fans saw the opening match for the Intercontinental Championship they could have flipped over to Monday Nitro. There were attempts to create interest for the Tag Team title match at In Your House but fans only care about Sunny so if he she is not involved, they will not react to the Bodydonnas. Also, as 1996 moves along acts like Fatu and Aldo Montoya are becoming more dated by the week and the illusion that they have a chance against guys like Vader and Mankind is a joke.

Monday Night War Rating: 3.3 vs. 2.7 for Nitro (Main Event: WCW Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger vs. WCW World Champion Ric Flair & the Giant in a match where all of their titles were on the line, including Luger’s Television Championship)

Up Next: WWF Superstars for April 27!

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