What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 05.27.96

Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler commentate a new set of television tapings, live from Fayetteville, North Carolina. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, a sellout crowd of 5,000 fans were in attendance, 4,200 of which paid.

Opening King of the Ring First Round Contest: Goldust (Intercontinental Champion w/Marlena) (8-4-1) wrestles the Ultimate Warrior (3-0) to a double count out at 12:37 shown:

Unlike previous years, the WWF is not doing qualifying matches for the King of the Ring Tournament. Instead, the first matches are billed as first round bouts. McMahon assures fans that the match will be better than what they saw in Omaha at In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies, but it does not start that way as Goldust stalls a lot. Eventually there is some action, with the Warrior dominating. Goldust tries to leave after an electric chair drop but Ahmed Johnson stops him before a commercial break, carrying him back to the ring. When the action resumes there is more “destrucity” from the Warrior until a blind charge hits buckle and Goldust tosses him to the floor, sending the Warrior through Marlena’s director’s chair. Sadly, the camera misses that bump. The Warrior is clearly blown up, sucking wind as he backdrops Goldust and does a belly-to-belly for a near-fall. As a result, Goldust does a long chinlock to help him get his wind back. The Warrior goes into a comeback routine after, hitting a powerslam for a near-fall and shaking the ropes. Goldust flees after a flying shoulder block and instead of the Warrior taking the count out to advance, he stupidly decides to stalk the champion and both men are counted out and eliminated from the tournament. The longer match showed that the Warrior had lost a step or two in the ring as he moved in slow motion for his clotheslines and other moves off the ropes. Rating: *

To add to the stupidity, Lawler leaves the announce booth and grabs Marlena’s director’s chair, presumably to hit the Warrior from behind. The Warrior turns around before Lawler gets close and chases the King away, throwing the remnants of the chair into the ring and destroying it in frustration, even though his own silliness cost him the match.

McMahon recaps how Sunny was a co-manager of the Godwinns last night and how the Godwinns lost the titles. Fans are shown photographs of last night’s pay-per-view, learning that Marc Mero beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Fans are also treated to footage of matches in the dark air. It appears that for those in the arena they could not see a lot of what was going on. McMahon argues that people still had fun, though. When it comes to whether those who ordered the Sunday edition of the show can get the replay for free, McMahon wipes his hands of it, telling people if they call their pay-per-view provider and explained what happened that they “should do the right thing.” Fans are reminded that tomorrow night’s encore will show the two matches that aired on Sunday and then the three matches that did not air will happen again live.

Ted DiBiase, with Steve Austin, talks with the commentators from the backstage area. DiBiase complains that the dark caused Austin to lose to Savio Vega last night. To sweeten the deal for the rematch, DiBiase says that if Savio wins again that he will leave the WWF. Austin, who does not seem to be on the same page with DiBiase judging by his nonverbals, appears to have some gears turning his head after that announcement.

Non-Title Match: The Smoking Gunns (WWF Tag Team Champions w/Sunny) (6-0) beat the Bodydonnas (10-3) when Bart rolls through a Skip flying body press at 9:25 shown:

Sunny comes out as the new manager for the Gunns, clad in Western gear. The Bodydonnas are not happy as they make their way to the ring as their old manager has abandoned them. Hillbilly Jim does guest commentary, talking about how the Godwinns are going to fight back and regain the titles soon. He also talks about how Phineas is under Sunny’s spell. McMahon announces that the Godwinns will get a rematch against the Gunns per the orders of WWF President Gorilla Monsoon at The King of the Ring. As the match proceeds, Harvey Wippleman is in the aisle, continuing to assemble facts for his report on refereeing in the WWF. From a booking perspective the match has a weird layout as Sunny has mostly been a heat magnet so her association should turn the Gunns heel. However, the Gunns still wrestle mostly as babyfaces and the Bodydonnas stick to their heel tendencies. Skip has a good back-and-forth with Billy, which does not lead anywhere except to have Skip confront Sunny, just to be hit from behind by Billy. But again, the fans prefer to cheer the Gunns over the Bodydonnas. Bart is placed in peril but fans are distracted when Phineas tries to get to Sunny, held back by Henry and Jim. They eventually get him back to the locker room. Frustrated at not being able to tag in, Billy interjects himself and is sent out of the ring when the Bodydonnas double suplex him across the top rope. The former champions deliver a double slingshot suplex to Bart only to see Bart roll through Skip’s flying body press to give the champions a win. The extracurriculars distracted a bit from the match but there were flashes of good work throughout. Rating: **¼

Footage of Shawn Michaels being served with legal papers at last night’s In Your House airs, along with photographs of his title defense against the British Bulldog. McMahon announces that a rematch between Michaels and the Bulldog will take place at The King of the Ring.

The controversy over who won last night’s WWF title match is the Sega Saturn Slam of the Week.

King of the Ring First Round: Vader (w/Jim Cornette) (8-0) pins Ahmed Johnson (13-0) after Owen Hart interferes at 9:00 shown:

In many ways, it is wild that this is a first round match as a clash between these two power wrestlers would be quite a pay-per-view attraction. The winner of this was supposed to face the winner of the Goldust-Ultimate Warrior match – talk about a ridiculously tough quadrant – but since the opener went to a draw the winner of this match advances to the semi-finals. Owen joins the commentary team, explaining that he is wearing a cast on his arm for a legitimate injury. The crowd immediately digs the hoss fight element of the contest, getting to its feet and popping loudly for Ahmed beating down Vader in the corner. When Cornette hits Ahmed with his tennis racquet, Ahmed does not sell it and Cornette runs to the locker room. Vader throws his weight around to assert himself but when he goes for a moonsault, Ahmed rolls out of the way. Cornette returns to ringside during Ahmed’s comeback, distracting the referee after Ahmed does a powerslam off the ropes. Ahmed throws Cornette into the ring and whips him into Vader. After a spinebuster, Ahmed covers but Owen leaves the commentary table and comes off the top rope, blasting Ahmed in the back of the head with his cast, and Vader hands Ahmed the first loss of his six-month WWF career. Overall, this was a fun power match that left a few things on the table but with television that is to be expected. Rating: **½

Ahmed is put on a stretcher and wheeled to the locker room because he was knocked unconscious. They are stopped backstage by Goldust, who insists that Ahmed needs mouth-to-mouth. That revives Ahmed, who freaks out and goes after Goldust. He is not able to give chase because of being knocked loopy by Owen but he stumbles down some steps and comes across Bob Holly, pinning him to the wall by his throat, screaming “Where is he?!?!” After putting Holly down, Ahmed comes across Marc Mero, who quickly surmises who Ahmed is looking for and points him in the right direction. Not that it would be hard to find Goldust’s locker room door has Goldust’s name in a star on it. A bodyguard who is dressed in a pink sleeveless undershirt blocks the way so in an awesome moment, Ahmed shoulderblocks him through the door. Not finding Goldust, Ahmed hits the cameraman and knocks things off tables to end the show. The anger that Ahmed showed in this last segment was genuine as he was infuriated that Goldust actually kissed him on the lips.

The Last Word: Last night’s pay-per-view may have been a debacle but this was a good, energetic episode that flipped a switch toward some new programs for The King of the Ring. The Goldust-Ahmed Johnson angle sets up Ahmed for his first title program, Sunny continued her run through the promotion’s tag teams, and Ted DiBiase juiced the stipulations for In Your House: Beware of Dog 2 as the WWF presents it as more than a re-running of the original pay-per-view. Despite this, the WWF’s aim of undercutting WCW’s first two hour Monday Nitro did not work as Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) made his WCW debut and began the New World Order (NWO) invasion angle that would soon shift the momentum of the Monday Night Wars in WCW’s favor. Sometimes you can do a lot right and still end up behind.

Monday Night War Rating: 2.3 vs. 2.8 for Nitro (Main Event: Scott Steiner vs. Sting)

Up Next: In Your House: Beware of Dog 2!

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