Monday Night Raw – June 10, 1996: The One With Ultimate Warrior’s Hat
Monday Night Raw
Date: June 10, 1996
Location: Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Attendance: 5,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler
We’re less than two weeks away from King Of The Ring and the tournament has already started. That’s the kind of thing that can carry a show, but we also have Mankind still wanting to hurt the Undertaker. In addition, we have Shawn Michaels dealing with the British Bulldog. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Opening sequence.
King Of The Ring First Round: Owen Hart vs. Yokozuna
Hart, with Jim Cornette, jumps him from behind to start fast but Yokozuna headbutts his way out of trouble. The big elbow misses Hart though and he’s back with a running crotch attack on the ropes. A running spinwheel kick drops Yokozuna for two but for some reason Hart tries a headbutt. Yokozuna drops him with a headbutt of his own and tries the Banzai Drop, only to fall off the ropes and give Hart the pin (with feet on the ropes) at 3:59.
Rating: C-. Yokozuna cannot do much right now and that’s becoming more and more obvious. He’s so big and it’s becoming obvious that his size is all he has at this point. Hart beat him in about four minutes, which isn’t a great sign for Yokozuna’s future. Nothing match, but they did about all they could.
Yesterday on the Action Zone, Jake Roberts talked about his drug issues.
In the back, Yokozuna can’t believe he lost again and talks about how he wants to get his hands on Jim Cornette. For now, he’s going to leave and figure out what he wants to do.
King Of The Ring First Round: Marc Mero vs. Skip
Jake Roberts is on commentary and Sable is here with Mero. They take their time to start with Mero backing him into the corner and giving him quite the stare. A hiptoss and armdrag have Skip on the floor but he moves before Mero can dive. Back in and Mero charges into a boot in the corner, followed by Skip’s middle rope fist to the face.
Mero catches him on top but gets knocked down, only to dropkick Skip out of the air. Skip catches him on top for a change but a super hurricanrana is blocked. Mero’s top rope sunset flip gets two and we take a break. We come back with Skip grabbing a gutwrench suplex and we hit the chinlock.
Mero fights up and hits the running knee but misses a charge and crashes out to the floor. They change places and Mero hits a flip dive to the floor, followed by a slingshot dive (the Bad Day as it was called in WCW) for two. A super hurricanrana gives Mero the pin at 14:27.
Rating: C+. Mero was starting to figure this stuff out, which mainly included showing off his athleticism. He was someone with a good enough look and who could move out there, even with Sable out there. She’s not a huge focal point yet, but that’s going to be the case, as it tends to be with women managing good guys.
Jerry Lawler is in the ring for a chat and Vince McMahon brings out the Ultimate Warrior, who is in a hat for no apparent reason. Lawler praises the artwork in Warrior’s comic book and presents him with a (rather nice) portrait of Warrior that Lawler did himself. Warrior says Lawler is a CON artist, and while he appreciates the art, there is only one king and that is Warrior himself.
Lawler hits him with the portrait and runs off, with Warrior giving chase (without even going down) I’m assuming the hat was covering up a pad of some kind. If that’s the case, it makes Lawler complaining about the hat on the infamous Warrior DVD all the worse. It’s a fine angle, but was anyone overly interested in Warrior vs. Lawler?
Undertaker vs. British Bulldog
Owen Hart, Diana Smith and Paul Bearer are here too. Before the bell, we get a split screen interview with Shawn Michaels at the WWF Studios, but Jim Cornette jumps on commentary to ask how it felt to lose to the Bulldog. Cornette has a surprise: there is going to be a guest referee at King Of The Ring and Cornette gets to pick him.
Michaels knows he’s in trouble and we get the opening bell. They take their time to get going until Undertaker throws him into the corner to hammer away. Bulldog bails outside for a breather but comes back in for Old School, with Cornette not understanding how that is possible. A nice legdrop gets two but Bulldog is back up with his delayed suplex. Undertaker fights back until a powerslam puts him down for two more.
We take a break and come back with Bulldog holding a chinlock, naturally complete with his foot on the rope. The comeback doesn’t take long but Bulldog knocks him down again to restart the chinlocking. Undertaker fights up again, this time with a belly to back suplex for the break. Back up and Undertaker slips out of the running powerslam as we take another break. We come back again with Undertaker hitting a chokeslam and they go outside, with Bulldog being sent into the steps. They head back inside…but Mankind pops out from underneath the ring to grab Undertaker for the DQ at 11:24.
Rating: C. Well there was no way we were getting a clean finish when these two have big matches coming up at King Of The Ring. It would be insane to go that way so this was more about waiting for Mankind to come out and do something. That’s a fine enoughw ay to go and the match wasn’t bad, but dang there was a good deal of chinlocking.
Mankind beats Undertaker down and hits a piledriver to end the show.
Overall Rating: C+. This show was definitely a step up from the previous week, if nothing else due to having some better action. Undertaker and Mankind is a hot feud and overshadows the dull stuff that is Bulldog vs. Michaels. That’s about all you can ask for here and it was a good enough show on the way to the pay per view.
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