Monday Night Raw – August 19, 1996: The Scariest Thing In Wrestling
IMG Credit: WWE
Monday Night Raw
Date: August 19, 1996
Location: Civic Center, Wheeling, West Virginia
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Kevin Kelly
We’re wrapping up the month here due to the US Open tennis tournament and THANK GOODNESS it’s a new taping cycle. Summerslam has come and gone with the huge surprise of Paul Bearer turning on Undertaker to join Mankind. If nothing else felt different about this feud, that was a game changer after years of Undertaker and Bearer as a team. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
We recap Bearer turning on Undertaker, who is totally gone for good.
Opening sequence.
Tonight will see the start of a tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Title so we’ve got brackets:
Owen Hart
British Bulldog
Steve Austin
Marc Mero
Sid
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Savio Vega
Faarooq Asaad
Intercontinental Title Tournament First Round: Owen Hart vs. British Bulldog
There’s no Cornette for either of them. Bulldog starts fast and monkey flips Owen over, setting up a dropkick to the floor. He’s even nice enough to hold the ropes open like a polite villain. Back in and Owen hits his own dropkick to the floor but Bulldog is right back in to power Owen down. The chinlock goes on, followed by a gorilla press as the screen goes staticy because Undertaker isn’t happy (seriously).
Bulldog chinlocks him again and we hear a NITRO SUCKS chant. Ok to be fair, they were opening with Jim Duggan vs. VK Wallstreet so this is likely the better starter. Granted they also had Chris Benoit vs. Bobby Eaton, Dean Malenko vs. Steven Regal and the Giant vs. Randy Savage so….yeah Nitro is probably winning. Anyway Bulldog hits a quick powerslam but Owen has his foot on the rope. Cue Sunny for no apparent reason and we take a break.
Back with Bulldog missing a running knee in the corner so Owen can start stomping away. Sunny goes on about how bad Cornette is as a manager so we go to an interview with Cornette, who rants about how the company is against him. You have two of his men facing off in a tournament, plus Vader beats Shawn twice but can’t get a rematch??? Don’t worry though because Yokozuna can crush Shawn Michaels tonight since they’re back together.
Jim pauses while Owen grabs the Sharpshooter (or Scorpion Deathlock according to JR) and panics enough that we go back to the full screen for Bulldog’s grab of the rope. Sunny calls Cornette fat as Bulldog suplexes Owen over the top and out to the floor. Owen is fine enough to hit a spinwheel kick to drop Bulldog, followed by a clothesline to put Bulldog into Sunny’s lap for the countout.
Rating: C. The action was good but the ending seems to be setting up something rather than just having a one off match. Owen advancing is as good as anything else so maybe we’ve got something going with the tournament. Couple that with Cornette ranting and raving while Sunny insults him with the best of them and everything else was more entertaining than the match.
Post match Sunny throws a drink in Bulldog’s face and says that Bulldog tried to look up her skirt. Cornette comes out to yell at Sunny, calling her a sl**.
We look at Faarooq attacking Ahmed Johnson and possibly ending his career.
Ahmed Johnson has vacated the title and while he isn’t happy with it, he’s accepted it. JR and King can be heard talking over this.
Newcomer Mark Henry signs autographs for fans at ringside.
Vader vs. Freddy Joe Floyd
Vader gets in Henry’s face during his entrance and Henry laughs at him. We take a break just after the bell and come back with Cornette on commentary as Vader destroys Floyd. The screen starts to go out again and comes back to a pair of Vader Bombs for the pin in a hurry.
Here are Paul Bearer and Mankind for a chat. JR asks the big question and Bearer talks about how sick he was of carrying the Undertaker. He’s done it for six years…and the lights flicker again. Bearer insists that it’s Mankind and not the Undertaker and we see Mankind giving Shawn Michaels the Mandible Claw three weeks ago. Mankind is still sore from the Boiler Room Brawl but he likes the pain.
Now he’s going to be taking the WWF Title at In Your House and making Shawn Michaels a very unsexy boy while destroying the Kliq at the same time. That makes him happy as the lights keep flickering. JR insists that Undertaker is here but Bearer disagrees….and the gong strikes. Bearer’s shocked face is GREAT here as the lights go out and we’ve got druids. They carry Undertaker’s body to the ring, just as they took him away last night. Have they been carrying him around all night? That must be really uncomfortable.
Bearer says this was all his plan and this is just the Undertaker’s dead body. The vermin is probably spitting out his body…but Undertaker pops up and raises his arms to make pyro come out of the posts (it must run in the family). Bearer and Mankind run as they know that they’ve screwed up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is nothing scarier in wrestling than a ticked off Undertaker. Side note: how great is it to just have the next title match set without some big, elaborate segment getting it ready?
The Stalker is coming. Yeah totally better than just having him be Barry Windham?
Battle Royal
Goldust, Savio Vega, Sid, Steve Austin
For the #1 contendership as we’re repeating the final four eliminated from the battle royal two weeks ago because Ahmed is hurt. Goldust jumps Sid during the entrance and we start in a hurry. Sid is triple teamed out in about twenty seconds but comes back in to chokeslam everyone. Austin and Goldust go after Vega until Austin turns on him in a hurry as we take a break.
Back with Vega and Austin down but Austin gets back up and clotheslines Goldust again. A superplex brings Austin off the top and for some reason, Goldust and Austin team up AGAIN, this time with Vega beating them both up. Vega tosses Austin but gets faceplanted by Goldust. The Curtain Call is escaped and Vega hits the spinwheel kick, only to get tossed out to give Goldust the win.
Rating: D. This was pretty worthless but they didn’t have a choice after Ahmed’s injury. It’s not like Shawn vs. Goldust is all that interesting but what else were they supposed to do? I’m not sure if they were going to do Ahmed vs. Shawn in the first place so maybe this is where they were going, though it’s not exactly interesting either way.
Cornette isn’t worried about Shawn.
Shawn Michaels vs. Yokozuna
Non-title and Shawn has Jose Lothario with him. Yokozuna shoves him away to start but Shawn is back with enough right hands to put Yokozuna down in the corner. Cue Cornette as Yokozuna drops Shawn with a headbutt and we take a break. Back with Cornette beating up Lothario on the floor and Yokozuna scoring with the spinning belly to belly. Shawn is back with the forearm and a top rope splash for two. Sweet Chin Music is countered with a Samoan drop but Shawn avoids the legdrop. Now Sweet Chin Music can finish Yokozuna off.
Rating: C-. That would be it for Yokozuna on regular TV and really, it’s hard to argue against it. Yes he could still have a passable match with Shawn but that’s not exactly shocking. He was just so big and there wasn’t much that he could do from a storyline perspective. Other than “he’s big and evil”, what else is there?
Overall Rating: C. It wasn’t a good show but this was an all timer compared to last week’s nightmare. That being said, it might not matter all that much as they’re going to miss the next two Mondays due to the tennis tournament. Mind Games could be interesting with Mankind vs. Shawn, but the lack of TV time to build it up isn’t going to help things. The Undertaker segment is pretty awesome though, as he, Mankind and Shawn continue to be some of the only worthwhile parts of this show.
Remember: no show until September 6, which is a Friday special.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:
https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/
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