What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 09.16.96

A video package hypes tonight’s semi-final matches in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament by highlighting each of the men involved. It also promotes an appearance by WWF President Gorilla Monsoon to discuss the Razor Ramon and Diesel situation as well as an appearance for Bret Hart, who says that his WWF commitments have ended in South Africa.

Kevin Kelly, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross call tonight’s action, ending the long taping in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Before the opening match, Jake Roberts makes a beeline for Jerry Lawler, temporarily chasing him away from ringside. Lawler returns when the Sultan walks to the ring.

Opening Contest: The Sultan (w/Bob Backlund & the Iron Sheik) beats Jake Roberts (10-3-1) via submission to the Camel Clutch at 3:02:

The Sultan is Fatu’s new gimmick, putting him in medieval Arab garb and a red mask over his mouth. It would have been better to have him do a quick squash instead of facing a name talent. That is reinforced by the match having very little action. Backlund, who is doing commentary, barely says a word about the person he is supposed to be managing. Lawler is the one who has the Sultan’s ridiculous backstory: He was held hostage in the Middle East and his captors cut his tongue out. Roberts goes for the DDT when the Sultan puts his head down too early on an Irish whip but he releases his grip to argue with Lawler. Lawler throws a small airline bottle of alcohol at Roberts and the distraction allows the Sultan to weakly hit Roberts from behind and submit him with the Camel Clutch. This was a textbook example of how not to debut a new talent. Rating: DUD

When the match ends, Lawler justifies throwing the alcohol into the ring because he could tell Roberts was thirsty.

Brian Pillman is with Owen Hart backstage. Owen repeats that Pillman got him and Bret back together. Steve Austin crashes the conversation, talking about how he is going to get Bret to answer his challenge at In Your House 10: Mind Games.

The WWF is getting a lot of mileage out of their big Sunny poster as she unveils it before the Smoking Gunns wrestle the next match.

Non-Title Match: Bob Holly & Alex Porteau defeat the Smoking Gunns (WWF Tag Team Champions w/Sunny) (13-2) when Holly pins Billy with an O’Connor roll at 5:45:

Holly has not been seen since he lost in the first round of the King of the Ring Tournament to Steve Austin on the June 3 edition of RAW. Once the match starts, Ross promises viewers that Razor Ramon and Diesel will appear on next week’s program. Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, and Jim Cornette also bring chairs to ringside to watch the match unfold. Ross says that there may be fireworks on the new Livewire program on Saturday morning because Cornette and Sunny are scheduled to host it. To antagonize the Gunns In Your House opponents, Bart hits a running powerslam to Porteau and then refuses to pin him. Holly gets a token hot tag after Billy’s attempt at a corner avalanche fails. He nearly pins Billy after a hurricanrana but when he goes to the top rope, Sunny shakes the ropes and Holly gets crotched and falls into the ring. The Gunns deliver the Sidewinder but Owen and the Bulldog act like they are going to get in the ring and Billy breaks the cover to confront them. Billy slaps a drink out of Owen’s hand but that gives Holly room to trap Billy in an O’Connor roll and score the upset. Holly carried the team as Porteau got nothing and was portrayed as useless. Rating: *½

Gorilla Monsoon tells Ross that the WWF’s official position is that Scott Hall and Kevin Nash will not show up on RAW next week because they are contracted to a rival organization. Monsoon apologizes to WWF fans who Ross is misleading and says he will watch the rest of the program to make sure no further false information is spread. Kelly says that Ross left the announce position during Monsoon’s statement.

Lawler interviews Vader and Jim Cornette. Cornette, who has a towel around his head, says he will embarrass Jose Lothario at In Your House because Vader has been coaching him. Memphis enhancement talent Tony Williams is used as a Cornette workout partner. Williams counters Cornette’s arm ringer and headlock and then takes Cornette down and puts him in a toe hold. Vader intervenes at that point, blasting Williams with a blow and he is tied in the ropes and beaten up and choked. The segment abruptly ends as the show goes to commercial, giving it a mercy killing.

Intercontinental Championship Tournament Semi-Final Match: Marc Mero (w/Sable) (17-6) defeats Owen Hart (9-7) after using Owen’s cast as a weapon at 6:55 shown:

Ross returns to the announce table, saying he was hurt by Gorilla Monsoon’s comments because he does not lie to people. Pat Patterson, the first Intercontinental champion, does guest commentary and it is announced that he will referee the finals of the tournament next week. This is a rematch of the King of the Ring quarter-finals where Mero beat Owen. Owen does a spinning heel kick and in a funny commentary moment Kelly calls it “The punishing maneuver” and then Ross correctly calls the move on a replay. Monsoon pipes in via the split screen when Ross insists that Razor Ramon and Diesel will appear next week and that sparks an argument between him and Ross over Ross’ claims. Owen uses his cast to maintain his advantage on Mero, hitting him with it as he throws Mero to the floor. The match finally gets the attention of the announcers after a commercial break and it steps up a notch when Mero flattens Owen with a tope and nearly beats him with a slingshot splash. Desperate, Owen takes the cast off and uses it as a weapon but Mero surprisingly kicks out. Owen argues with the referee and Mero picks up Owen’s cast, which has fallen to the canvas, and uses it as a weapon to advance to the finals. Like SummerSlam, the referee looks like an idiot to be right on top of the action and not see the cast being used. It was a silly finish as Owen could have lost clean and not lost any momentum, especially since he is being shifted into the tag team ranks with the British Bulldog. Another thing about this match is that the finish was botched at the taping so they had to redo the match. Rating: **

When the match ends, Mero stomps the cast, so that ends that part of Owen’s shtick.

Ross narrates a video package of the WWF’s tour of South Africa. Steve Austin and Hunter Hearst Helmsley are seen looking out across the African savannah. Meanwhile, Savio Vega visited a school. And footage of the event in Sun City airs. The package concludes with Bret Hart telling Brian Pillman that he is a liar because he never made a commitment that he would appear at In Your House. He also shoots down Owen’s claims that they are back together. Bret explains to his fans that he has not decided about his future because he has other things to think about like Hollywood and his family.

Intercontinental Championship Tournament Semi-Final Match: Faarooq (w/Sunny) (5-0) beats Sid (6-0) via disqualification when he uses a chair as a weapon at 6:58 shown:

Considering the undefeated records of both men this year, this match should have received more hype. In the split screen, Ahmed Johnson tells Faarooq and Sunny that they have lit a fire that will eventually burn their asses up. The match starts with a brisk pace as Sid does not sell a Faarooq powerslam and blasts him with a big boot. Faarooq soon responds with a back suplex. Sadly, they cannot sustain that pace. After a commercial break Faarooq goes for his inverted powerslam but Sid flips out of it and chokeslams Faarooq. Sunny hops on the apron and Faarooq grabs a chair and brings it into the ring. He hits Sid with it a couple of times but Sid kicks out. Sid quickly grabs the chair and even though the referee warns him, Sid uses it as a weapon and gets disqualified. This match had some enjoyable moments and there were flashes of chemistry here. But the focus during the match was on the Ahmed promo and finding a way to protect Sid, who has bigger dreams than wearing the Intercontinental belt. Amazingly, this match also had to have its finish reshot at the taping because something got messed up. Rating: *½

The crowd barely cares that Sid lost, cheering him for wearing Faarooq out with a chair.

The Undertaker does a taped promo about how he is going to check off Goldust’s name on his way to Mankind and Paul Bearer.

The announcers review the rest of the In Your House card.

Tune in next week to see Marc Mero battle Faarooq in the finals of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament!

The Last Word: It would have made more sense to put the Intercontinental finals on the pay-per-view but the WWF sees it as a way to grab some ratings next week so that is why it is placed there. The tournament matches went as expected and the tournament has been littered with weird or bad finishes. Faarooq would appear to be the favorite as he is the newcomer with all of the momentum while Marc Mero has failed in the midcard all summer. The show as a whole had more life in it than last week but In Your House does not feel like an important card. Normally, Mankind would be a strong threat to WWF Champion Shawn Michaels but since he has not finished his program with the Undertaker, people know that he is unlikely to win the belt. As for the drama with Razor Ramon and Diesel, it is not drawing and may be having the opposite effect. The WWF has been bleeding viewers since mid-July and WCW’s Monday Nitro won the night by 1.6 ratings points, a record win for WCW in the Monday Night Wars. It seems like the two botched finishes in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament are a bad omen for where the WWF is going.

Monday Night War Rating: 2.1 vs. 3.7 for Nitro (Main Event: Lex Luger vs. Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael in a handicap match)

Up Next: WWF Superstars for September 21!

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