What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – 06.29.96

Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect are in the booth, taped from LaCrosse, Wisconsin. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on June 25 and drew 3,523 fans.

Opening Contest: The British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette & Diana Hart Smith) (6-4-2) pins Buck Zumhofe after the running powerslam at 3:01:

Zumhofe was trained by Verne Gagne and made his professional debut in 1972. He reached his highest fame in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), winning the promotion’s Light Heavyweight title three times. He was also a Tag Team champion with Iceman Parsons in World Class. Zumhofe started doing enhancement work for the WWF in 1987. In 1995 he made three appearances, serving as the first televised opponent for Hunter Hearst Helmsley and losing other matches to Kama and Men on a Mission. Zumhofe would become one of the darker characters in the wrestling business as he was convicted of sexually abusing his daughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2014. Despite having a rap sheet of other misconduct against minors dating back to 1989, the WWF continued to use him at television tapings like this one.

The most that Zumhofe gets is a headlock. The Bulldog lifts him for a long vertical suplex with ease and kips up to a chorus of boos. The match allows the commentary team to talk up the In Your House 9: International Incident main event. The squash ends with the Bulldog avoiding a Zumhofe blind charge and planting him with the running powerslam.

Dok Hendrix’s Slam Jam hypes In Your House 9. Hendrix dubs the Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, and Ultimate Warrior team as “The People’s Posse.” Michaels promises to burn Camp Cornette to the ground. Ahmed talks about how he will run through a concrete wall to defend his title. The Warrior, who wears sunglasses but no face paint, talks of clipping Cornette’s puppets into the palms of destiny.

Duke Droese (6-4) pins the Brooklyn Brawler after the Trash Compactor at 2:01:

Droese has not been seen since a loss to Vader on the May 13 edition of Monday Night RAW. During Droese’s entrance, McMahon welcomes T.L. Hopper, a plumber, to the WWF. Hopper is Tony Anthony, best known to Southern wrestling fans as the Dirty White Boy of Smoky Mountain Wrestling fame. The announcers do not want Hopper’s plunger near them. It is unclear whether Hopper is meant to be a babyface or a heel but he is portrayed as an ignorant bumpkin. The Brawler attacks Droese before the bell and gets a lot of offense until Droese throws him off the top rope. The Trash Compactor is also a lazier variation as Droese does not whip the Brawler into the ropes to deliver the move. The win stops a three-match losing streak for Droese in singles competition.

After recapping the King of the Ring Tournament, Ross announces that Steve Austin will face Marc Mero in a rematch of the semi-finals at In Your House 9.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (11-7) defeats Jerry Fox after the Pedigree at 2:45:

The lady who accompanies Helmsley to the ring is not given a name. Brian Pillman joins the broadcast, hyping himself as a world class athlete who will have a triumphant comeback. Ross makes the questionable claim that Helmsley has been on a roll lately when he lost to Jake Roberts several weeks ago in the first round of the King of the Ring Tournament and then lost on Monday night to Ahmed Johnson. After a high knee, Helmsley slaps Fox several times and finishes him with the Pedigree.

Ross does an in-ring interview with Sunny, who calls Cloudy grotesque and reminds people that the Bodydonnas are nothing without her. Sunny pivots, saying she feels bad about what she has done to Phineas Godwinn. Phineas joins the segment and Sunny talks about how she wants to start their relationship on a new footing. When she asks Phineas to tell her how he feels about her, Phineas meekly says that he loves her. As he says this, WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns come to ringside. Sunny asks him to bend down for a kiss but she slaps him because she would never be with a hillbilly like him. The Gunns then get in the ring to attack Phineas, drawing some heat and then Hillbilly Jim and Henry Godwinn make the save. They take care of the champions, leaving Sunny alone. Henry hands Phineas the slop bucket and when Sunny tries to flee, Jim and Henry corner her. Phineas does a great job roping the crowd in by feigning that he cannot slop Sunny but after she blows him a kiss, he slops her. According to the Godwinns, the slop bucket had all kinds of genetic and bodily contributions from members of the locker room who hated Sunny.

Marc Mero (w/Sable) (10-2) defeats Don Callis after a left hand at 2:30:

Callis was a Canadian talent who was trained by Tony Condello and he started working in 1989 for Condello’s West Four Wrestling Alliance (WFWA) promotion in Canada’s Manitoba province. He went on to win the promotion’s Heavyweight title and Tag Team titles multiple times. The day before this taping he had a tryout against Barry Horowitz.

Mero has a match against Goldust on RAW in two days so this match is meant to build him. Goldust and Marlena watch the match backstage and Goldust quotes The Jungle Book, promising the burn down Mero’s jungle. When Marlena is asked about Sable, she talks about inviting her to a special casting call. After a technical exchange, Mero dazes Callis with a flying double axe handle and finishes him with the old Kiss That Don’t Miss from his Johnny B. Badd days, which the WWF cannot use lest they infringe on a WCW trademark while they are suing WCW for violating WWF trademarks.

Goldust (w/Marlena) (9-6-2) pins Todd Becker after the Curtain Call at 2:09:

Becker was a Minneapolis talent who started his career in the late 1980s. In 1989, he made his first enhancement appearance for the WWF while doing the same work for the AWA. In 1995 he appeared in two matches, losing to Razor Ramon and the Allied Powers.

Goldust has started wrestling more aggressively in recent months – a good turn for the character – and Becker pays for it today, getting slammed into the ring post. In the split screen, Marc Mero, with Sable, warns Marlena not to make any passes at Sable. McMahon says that is in relation to something that happened in the parking lot before the show. When an ailing Becker steps into the ring, Goldust finishes him with the Curtain Call.

Freddie Joe Floyd defeats Justin Bradshaw (w/Zebekiah) (10-2-1) with a cradle at 4:49:

Floyd was Tracy Smothers, an accomplished veteran who had been in the wrestling business since 1982 after receiving training from the Fabulous Ones. Smothers spent much of the 1980s in Southern promotions like Continental and Championship Wrestling from Florida, wrestling a bear in the former and winning singles and tag team gold in both. In 1990 Smothers jumped to WCW and teamed with Steve Armstrong as the Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, resuming a partnership that first began in Florida. They had a feud with the Midnight Express and, after a heel turn, they became United States Tag Team Champions in late 1991. Both men left WCW the following year and Smothers found success in Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling, becoming a significant piece of the promotion for much of its history and winning all of its major titles. When Smoky Mountain closed, Smothers went to the USWA, winning Tag Team gold with Jesse James Armstrong, best known to WWF fans a year earlier as the Roadie. Not much was expected of Smothers as he entered the WWF because he was there to fill out the bottom of the card along with other recent signees. With this gimmick he was billed as a good old boy from Bowlegs, Oklahoma and his name was reportedly a rib on the famous Briscoes as former NWA World Champion Jack Brisco’s birth name was “Freddie Joe” and his brother Jerry, who was a WWF road agent, had a birth name of “Floyd.”

Floyd uses different takedowns to keep Bradshaw off balance until the big Texan blasts him with a big boot. Floyd is able to excite the crowd by avoiding a second big boot moments later and knock Bradshaw down with two jumping kicks for a near-fall. Bradshaw uses his power to regain the advantage and devastates Floyd with several slams. However, he goes to the well too often at Zebekiah’s behest and Floyd rolls through one of them. That should be a cradle upset pin but, according to Smothers, Bradshaw was not happy that he was losing and intentionally got his shoulder up at two. As a result, the fall has to be recounted twice as Floyd has to legitimately keep Bradshaw’s shoulders on the canvas to earn an inaugural victory. Rating: *

The Slam Jam recaps the history the Undertaker has with Goldust. The Undertaker, with Paul Bearer, talks about how Goldust escaped from him once but this time he will rest in peace.

The Footaction Slam of the Week is Ahmed Johnson’s Pearl River Plunge on Hunter Hearst Helmsley on RAW.

Justin Bradshaw, with Zebekiah, says he wants another fight with Freddie Joe Floyd next week.

Tune in next week to see Ahmed Johnson, WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns, and Steve Austin in action!

The Last Word: The first half of this show was going nowhere but the Sunny angle was great stuff, providing a payoff for her overtures toward Phineas since March. There was far more interest for Smoking Gunns-Godwinns so the fact that the WWF is running Gunns-Bodydonnas at In Your House is a strange choice. It was also surprising to see the Phineas-Sunny payoff aired on the B-show. The broadcast provided some interesting hype for Marc Mero vs. Goldust on RAW, once again leading to questions of why that is not being booked for In Your House instead of having both guys thrown against different opponents in matches that will probably not move the needle. Finally, this show saw the debuts of T.L. Hopper and Freddie Joe Floyd. Both acts are not going to be much but, at least in Smothers case, he is a good worker and having a mechanic like that on the roster is not a bad thing when the company is starved for talent.

The WWF continued running shows in Midwest areas after King of the Ring and television tapings were done. Here are the results of some of those shows, courtesy of the thehistoryofwwe.com:

Louisville, Kentucky – The Louisville Gardens – June 27, 1996 (3,256): Duke Droese defeated Aldo Montoya…Aldo Montoya defeated Duke Droese…The Bushwhackers defeated the New Rockers…Savio Vega pinned Justin Bradshaw…Marc Mero beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley…Phineas Godwinn pinned Billy Gunn…The Undertaker beat Mankind…The British Bulldog defeated Yokozuna…Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson defeated Goldust via count out…WWF Champion Shawn Michaels beat Vader via disqualification.

Detroit, Michigan – Joe Louis Arena – June 29, 1996 (5,930): Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson defeated Goldust via count out when Goldust left ringside…The Bushwhackers beat the New Rockers…Savio Vega pinned Justin Bradshaw…WWF Champion Shawn Michaels defeated Vader via disqualification when Goldust interfered…Marc Mero pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley after Sable distracted Helmsley…The Godwinns defeated WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns via disqualification…The British Bulldog pinned Yokozuna after Yokozuna missed the Banzai Drop…Sid (substituting for the Ultimate Warrior) pinned Owen Hart after a chokeslam and powerbomb…The Undertaker pinned Mankind after the Tombstone.

Backstage News*: The Ultimate Warrior missed scheduled house show appearances this week after showing up for the Monday Night RAW taping. Wrestlers were told in Detroit that he was done and fans in Detroit and Pittsburgh by the weekend were told that the Warrior was not showing up because he refused to wrestle in their town. The WWF first called Bret Hart to fill in but he refused. Sid was the second option and was brought in as a babyface, crushing Owen Hart in less than a minute, and this was well received by the Detroit and Pittsburgh crowds. Reasons for the Warrior’s departure range from him taking time off because his estranged father died, the Warrior being unhappy at the WWF merchandising his likeness without permission, and the Warrior not being happy with his WrestleMania payoff. However, the Warrior appears to have called Vince McMahon on Sunday and expressed a desire to return so it is unclear whether he really is finished or if his relationship with McMahon can be repaired to avoid changing the In Your House main event. A clue should be found out by the July 8 edition of RAW as the Warrior was beaten down at the taping by Camp Cornette. If that story continues to July 15, the Warrior is back but if the WWF talks about him disappearing, he would be finished. If the Warrior is written out of the pay-per-view, people think Yokozuna would be inserted into the In Your House main event because it is too late to tape an angle to reintroduce Sid.

-Marc Mero, Sable, the Undertaker, Paul Bearer, Shawn Michaels, and Sunny were sent to the New York licensing fair. Sunny was a big hit with executives, who followed her to the WWF booth. The WWF was said to have made a better impression than WCW, who only had Randy Savage and Glacier and gave executives a piece of paper about their product while the WWF had a media packet with a complimentary videotape.

-Bret Hart is expected to return for a tour of South Africa in September but it is not clear when he will return on U.S. television.

-Aldo Montoya and Duke Droese had to wrestle for 45 minutes in Louisville because of flight delays for the rest of the crew. They wrestled two matches where Droese was a heel and won the first and then Montoya came back and won the second.

-Bart Gunn missed a few shows for a family emergency so that is why Phineas Godwinn wrestled Billy in a singles match instead.

-Ticket sales went quickly for In Your House 11, scheduled for October in Indianapolis, Indiana.

-WCW did a house show invasion of the WWF’s Northeast territory, running shows in Hartford on June 28, Philadelphia on June 29, and the Paramount in New York City on June 30. WCW used former WWF Champion Bruno Sammartino as a special guest referee for Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage matches and also had Pedro Morales get involved in matches. None of the shows were sellouts, which disappointed WCW, especially when they ran a smaller New York venue. But all of the cards netted gates of more than $50,000.

-Christine Rosati of the Rosati Sisters, who made some WWF television appearances on TNT and Prime Time Wrestling and held up ring cards at early Monday Night RAW tapings, passed away on June 27 from E. coli. She was 47 years old.

-In injury news, Steve Austin was off the road this week to manage his upper lip, which was busted open at King of the Ring. Austin consulted with a plastic surgeon but it is not believed that he will need further surgery to heal the injury. Austin will remain out of action until July 5.

-In talent relations news, Barry Windham met with Vince McMahon this week, who was receptive to bringing him in even though Windham is reportedly 20 pounds overweight.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for July 8.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for July 1!

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