Monday Night Raw – July 17, 1995: The Lumberjacks
Monday Night Raw
Date: July 17, 1995
Location: Danville High School, Danville, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 2,700
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Vince McMahon
It’s the last Raw before In Your House and the big story is still Sid, who may or may not be scared of Diesel. Other than that, there is a lot of focus on Jeff Jarrett around here, which can’t be the best idea. We might get something else added to the show this week, though the card seems pretty full. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
IRS says Shawn Michaels is going to learn what it’s like to pay the tax man.
Shawn Michaels doesn’t seem worried.
Opening sequence.
Tag Team Titles: Yokozuna/Owen Hart vs. Gus Kantarrakis/Jim Dimitre
Yokozuna and Hart, with Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette, are actually defending here for some reason. Hart works on a wristlock to start and then flips out of Gus’ version. A clothesline and dropkick put Gus down and it’s off to Yokozuna for a wishbone. Hart trips Gus for the big leg from Yokozuna and the Sharpshooter finishes Jim at 2:57.
The In Your House Control Center runs down the card and focuses on the lumberjack match. The rest of the show gets some attention as well.
Jean-Pierre Lafitte vs. David Thornberg
Lafitte knocks him against the ropes to start and splashes him in the back. They head outside to keep up the beating, followed by a Cannonball for the pin at 2:31.
Fatu is back where he grew up and now he wants to make a difference. Sweet goodness what a lame gimmick. It’s a perfectly nice idea, but they couldn’t have been more ham handed with it if they tried.
For the third straight week, here is the With My Baby Tonight video.
Shawn Michaels vs. IRS
Ted DiBiase is here with IRS. Michaels, in the always awesome looking black trimmed with red, takes IRS down to start and works on the arm to send him outside. Back in and IRS bails to the floor again, with Michaels grabbing the tie. A headlock takeover lets Michaels grind away a bit, and it works so well that he does it a second time. IRS finally manages to send him over the top for a crash out to the floor and the pace slows down a bit. Sidenote: I know it happens a lot, but IRS is so drenched in sweat that I thought he was in a light blue shirt. My goodness man that’s insane.
Michaels’ comeback doesn’t last long as he misses an elbow, allowing IRS to grab a chinlock. We take a break and come back with the chinlock continuing, as it tends to do. Michaels fights up and slugs away but gets dropped with a clothesline. Back up and the superkick finishes for Michaels out of nowhere at 12:14.
Rating: C. It’s not a good sign when the part of the match that stands out the most is IRS’s sweating. As usual, IRS isn’t interesting in the slightest but he’s perfectly fine from a technical standpoint. That was the situation again here, with Michaels just shrugging off whatever was thrown at him and kicking IRS in the face for the pin.
Merchandise shill.
Isaac Yankem DDS, again with Jerry Lawler in his office, pulls out a child’s tooth, which is censored due to the pain involved.
Kama Mustafa vs. Billy Mack
I wonder if he’s related to Willie Mack. Mustafa, with Ted DiBiase, hammers away to start but spends too much time yelling at the crowd, allowing Mack to hit a missile dropkick. That’s it for the comeback, as Mustafa hits him in the face for the win at 2:02.
Vince McMahon brings in Diesel to introduce his lumberjacks. First though, Diesel insults Sid and suggests he’s a CHICKEN. He insists he’ll keep the title and brings out the midcarders extraordinaire as his lumberjacks. Some of them say what they have planned for Sid if he goes outside, including Shawn Michaels promising a little chin music (for some reason, I’ve remembered the way he said that line for thirty years). Sid comes out for the staredown but walks away. The lumberjacks and Diesel celebrate (for some reason) to end the show.
Overall Rating: C-. What was the big draw here? Michaels had a perfectly watchable yet uninteresting match and then….here are the midcarders who will be watching the main event of the pay per view? That’s about it, and I’m going to need more than that to make the show worth a watch.
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