What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – 07.20.96

Vince McMahon, Mr. Perfect, and Jim Ross are in the booth, taped one last time from LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Opening Contest: Marc Mero (w/Sable) (12-3) defeats Hunter Hearst Helmsley (12-7) after a super hurricanrana at 10:12 shown:

As part of Helmsley’s punishment for the Curtain Call he has been removed from feuds and is not on the In Your House card. After some basic action, Marlena comes to ringside and presents Sable with a small gift in gold wrapping paper. This distracts Mero, who is upset that Sable accepted the gift. Mero grabs the gift from Sable’s hands and throws it down, demonstrating some toxic behavior. Like Goldust two weeks ago, Helmsley takes advantage of the distraction. Helmsley takes too much time going to the top rope, though, and gets thrown off. Helmsley makes a mess of a Flair flip spot and then also messes up getting crotched on the top rope to set up the finish. However, the match had a good flow before all of that. Rating: **

Dok Hendrix hosts the Slam Jam. Goldust, with Marlena, quotes A Touch of Blue and promises that all hell will break loose at In Your House 9: International Incident. He is confident that the Undertaker has dug his own grave. The Undertaker, with Paul Bearer, fires back that Goldust is facing the most dangerous entity in the WWF and he is going to send a message to Mankind through him.

The Goon defeats Dan Jesser via count out at 4:20:

The Goon is Bill Irwin, who wrestled a match against Duke Droese on Superstars in March. Irwin pitched the WWF on the idea of a hockey player who was so violent he was kicked out of professional hockey, part of his own background in youth hockey where he served as a team enforcer. However, there have been other reports that the idea of an evil hockey player was also pitched by Canadian wrestler Scott D’Amore and that the gimmick was offered to ECW Television Champion Chris Jericho, who turned it down. As the Goon makes his entrance, a video shows his dirty play, although all intensity is removed from his violations of the rules and the video only shows him playing someone one-on-one as the WWF was unable to enlist other players to mimic an actual game. In a Tony Atlas-Saba Simba callback, Perfect tells viewers that the Goon is Irwin. One unique bit of the gimmick is that the Goon’s boots look like hockey skates as they narrow on the bottom. The announcers reel off hockey puns as the squash overstays its welcome, aided in part by Jesser getting a run on offense by targeting the Goon’s arm. A few cross checks put Jesser away, one that knocks him out of the ring and another that knocks him head-first into the apron. One can appreciate the thought put into the gimmick but, like so many of these lower card characters, this was not a good debut.

There is a recap of the Savio Vega-Justin Bradshaw feud. Perfect announces that both men will face off on the Free for All tomorrow night.

Footage of “The Wrestle Vessel” where fans were on a cruise with Perfect, the Bushwhackers, Duke Droese, and Bret Hart airs. This includes Perfect being perfect at horseshoes and skeet shooting.

The Bushwhackers (4-1) beat R.T. Williams & Rod Bell when Butch pins Bell after a Battering Ram to the back at 2:41:

Bell was an Indiana-based wrestler who wrestled with the nickname “Hot Stuff” on the independent circuit. He did some WWF enhancement matches in 1993 and 1994 but did not appear in 1995.

The Bushwhackers have not been seen since late May. Perfect complains about being on the cruise with them even though footage before this match showed him smiling and carrying on with the Kiwi duo. The Bushwhackers Kangaroo mascot has disappeared and they are content to throw boomerangs into the crowd. McMahon also makes sure to plug their restaurant a few times. The squash is basic and the Bushwhackers avoid doing many of their usual comedy spots. Bell thinks he has outsmarted the Bushwhackers by avoiding the Battering Ram by stopping his rebound off the ropes. However, he turns to his partner and talks for a while, forgetting about the match. So the Bushwhackers, after fumbling around a bit, decide to blast him in the back with their finisher and Williams goes flying off the apron due to the impact. Despite being long in the tooth, the Bushwhackers at least got a reaction from the crowd, which has not been given a lot to cheer for in this television taping.

Brian Pillman hobbles to the ring on crutches and mimics the Bushwhacker’s arm swing. Butch comes out and hugs him. But after licking the Loose Cannon, Pillman speaks for traumatized kids everywhere by blasting Butch over the back with one of his crutches. Luke must not care about this because he never comes out to help or tend to his partner as Pillman limps off.

Sonny Rodgers beats Steve Austin (18-4-1) via forfeit:

Like the bit with Aldo Montoya a few weeks ago, Austin does not find Rodgers suitable competition. Austin calls Rodgers “The King of Losers” before forfeiting the match. After the referee raises Rodgers hand, Austin beats him down and delivers a Stone Cold Stunner. As Austin walks to the back, he pops up in the split screen and tells Sable to admire Marc Mero’s face while she can because he will not look the same after In Your House.

The Slam Jam highlights the Jake Roberts-Mankind match booked for In Your House. Roberts talks about teaching Mankind a lesson. For his part, Mankind talks about how Roberts will deal with the most crushing loss of his career.

Vader, the British Bulldog & Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette & Diana Hart Smith) (2-0) beat Bill Payne, Rex Royal & Kevin Krueger when the Bulldog pins Krueger after the running powerslam at 4:25:

Even though Payne is announced as “Bill Payne” this is actually Bull Pain, a Tom Stone trainee who started his career in 1984 and was a longtime enhancement worker for the AWA from 1984-1989. Billed as Rick Gantner he did WWF enhancement matches from 1987-1988 and then popped up in Memphis for a handful of shows between 1991-1994. In 1995 he wrestled a bit for ECW, appearing twice on the promotion’s weekly television program and then beating the Broad Street Bully in a bad match at Gangstas Paradise.

The squash allows the heels to demonstrate their offense to build the six-man tag team match at In Your House. Krueger draws the short stick by having to wrestle Vader and the big man puts him against the buckles twice to lay in a lot of punches. The squash drags because of Vader running out of ideas of what to do, eventually tagging in the Bulldog, who finishes Krueger with the running powerslam. After the match, Payne and Royal charge into the ring and get beaten up. Payne gets off easy when Owen quickly knocks him down.

The Last Word: This month has been rough for WWF Superstars as the new glorified enhancement acts have littered the show and zapped a lot of its energy. Today was no exception, although the glorified enhancement acts are not the sole cause. Last month the WWF had King of the Ring tournament bouts to fill the show and give it a sense of purpose. But the poor build for In Your House has left the show devoid of any meaning. Maybe next month will get better to build SummerSlam.

Up Next: In Your House 9: International Incident!

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