Monday Night Raw – July 10, 1995: And It Could Have Been Worse
Monday Night Raw
Date: July 10, 1995
Location: Danville High School, Danville, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 2,700
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Vince McMahon
We’re less than two weeks away from In Your House II and that means we are firmly in the Sid Show. Sid is on his way to challenging Diesel for the WWF Title again, this time in a lumberjack match. Other than that, Shawn Michaels is ready to go after Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett, who feels more than in over his head. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
The opening video recaps Sid vs. Diesel, which is somehow about to headline its third straight pay per view.
Sid is rather menacing.
Opening sequence.
Roadie vs. Jerry Flynn
Jeff Jarrett is here with Roadie. Flynn grabs an armdrag into an armbar to start before Flynn strikes away in the corner. An enziguri misses though and Roadie pulls him into a half crab. Roadie gets caught holding the ropes, so instead he settles for countering a hurricanrana into a powerbomb for the pin at 2:39.
Jeff Jarrett shows a rather large man around some country music offices but gets thrown out. This was stupid.
Now it’s off to Las Vegas, where Jarrett is with a rather flamboyant man and goes in to see Paul Anka.
Just like last week, here’s the With My Baby Tonight video. That’s four straight segments featuring Jarrett if you’re counting.
The Allied Powers are ready for Tatanka and Henry Godwinn.
Merchandise shill.
Savio Vega vs. Mike Khoury
Vega wins an early battle over arm control to start and gets in a slam. Back up and Vega hits a running corner clothesline, followed by some hard chops in the corner. A rollup (actually what Orange Cassidy would call the Mouse Trap) finishes for Vega at 1:47.
The WWF was at the Special Olympics. Still cool.
Here is Sid, with Ted DiBiase, for a chat. DiBiase insists that Sid is NOT a coward and we meet the lumberjacks (the midcard villains of course). Diesel is going to find out that he can’t run and hide, but a DIESEL chant cuts DiBiase off. Sid hits the catchphrase and we get an extreme closeup of his face (that is some serious nostril flaring).
We look at Barry Horowitz beating Skip over the weekend in one of the biggest upsets in company history.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Matt Hardy
Helmsley takes him down for a knee to the back as Vince talks about all of the fans comments on the “internet” after King Of The Ring. I’m sure they were entirely positive of course. A suplex drops Hardy again but he gets a boot up in the corner. Hardy misses a moonsault though and the Pedigree (good one too) finishes Hardy at 3:03.
Rating: C. The Pedigree alone makes this work, as Helmsley took his time with it and cinched it in much more than would become his norm. Other than that, it was just a squash with commentary ignoring the whole thing. That’s a running theme around this time and that’s not the easiest thing to sit through, but what else are you supposed to do?
In Your House Control Center so we run down the card and look at Mabel beating up Razor Ramon at King Of The Ring, setting up a tag match with Ramon and Savio Vega vs. Men On A Mission.
Allied Powers vs. Tatanka/Henry Godwinn
Ted DiBiase is here with the heels. They start fast and Tatanka gives Luger a DDT to put him in early trouble. The stomping ensues before it’s off to Godwinn for a slam out of the corner. Godwinn chokes away and we take a break. We come back with Luger still in trouble and getting elbowed in the face for two.
The big elbow misses for Godwinn though and Luger makes the tag as Vince goes on about how safe the WWF is compared to wrestling in general. Everything breaks down and Godwinn trips Bulldog from the floor to cut off the comeback. Back up and Bulldog hits a quick powerslam for the pin out of nowhere at 9:19.
Rating: C-. Nothing to see here again, but what were you expecting? The Bulldog can work with anyone and Tatanka isn’t bad, but the other two are just big guys who work power styles. That doesn’t make for an interesting match and yet somehow it would have been worse under the original plan of King Kong Bundy rather than Godwinn.
We get a quick Isaac Yankem DDS vignette, as Jerry Lawler talks about Bret Hart while Yankem does some painful dental work to end the show. This stuff scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. Today it still scares me, but for entirely different reasons.
Overall Rating: D+. Bleh. I’m very quickly remembering why this time was sup bad and it’s not getting any better every week. At the end of the day, the wrestling is bad, the characters are worse, and the stories just aren’t there. While there are a few interesting people on the show, they’re not around enough to carry things and the lack of depth is showing very badly.
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