Monday Night Raw
Date: November 4, 1996
Location: War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Attendance: 4,555
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler

The march through the first four years continues and….oh boy it’s this show. The show has officially moved to 8pm and they wanted to start with a bang. In this case, that means Steve Austin going to Brian Pillman’s house and Pillman is going to be waiting on him. Oh yeah, it’s THIS show. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a recap of Steve Austin being thrown out of the WWF studios by the police over making such a ruckus. In addition, Shawn Michaels and Sid just might not be able to trust each other. Yeah yeah. Back to Austin already.

Opening sequence, complete with someone coughing.

Kevin Kelly is live at Brian Pillman’s home in Walton, Kentucky for an interview. Steve Austin has promised to show up, despite Pillman recovering from ankle surgery.

Goldust vs. The Stalker

Goldust’s entire Survivor Series team, plus Mr. Perfect and Marlena, are here with him. Stalker (better known as Barry Windham) has his team with him too (including one Rocky Maivia, making his Raw debut). They start on the floor before Stalker (or Barry Windham as Vince calls him) takes him inside and falls down armdragging him.

We go split screen to hear from Doc Hendrix, who patches in a phone call from Steve Austin, on his way to Brian Pillman’s house. So yeah, we’re looking at half a screen of someone who basically handed Vince the phone. Anyway Austin is on his way as Windham gets two off a powerslam. Austin isn’t worried about any gun Pillman threatens to have because he’s a big star and hangs up.

Goldust is sent outside but gets thrown back inside by Windham’s team, drawling Jerry Lawler (also part of Goldust’s team) off commentary. Goldust catches Windham on top and kisses him down, only to dive into a raised boot as we take a break. Back with the two of them crashing out to the floor and yeah it’s time for the teams to start fighting, which is enough for the double DQ at 7:32.

Rating: D+. Understated historic debut aside, there was only to much to be done here, as most of the match was focused on the phone call and then they only had about 45 seconds after the break. Then again, it isn’t like the upcoming Survivor Series match was going to be anything more than a showcase for Maivia. Was anyone that interested in Barry Windham in 1996?

Doc Hendrix hypes up Survivor Series, focusing on Undertaker vs. Mankind. We see a clip from what appears to be a special called Bing Bang Boom (granted the RAW set kind of makes that feel off), with Mankind promising to destroy Undertaker. Cue Undertaker’s voice to promise pain, plus a one person cage for Paul Bearer, complete with a dummy inside. Note that the Executioner, better known as Terry Gordy, is here for a mini (and of course unmentioned) Freebirds reunion.

We go to Brian Pillman’s house where Pillman, with his wife Melanie, says Steve Austin has made this personal. Vince cuts in to say Steve Austin is circling the neighborhood but Pillman says he knows Austin better than anyone. Pillman doesn’t feel like he’s a hostage, because when Austin 3:16 meets Pillman 9mm Glock…..and Austin is apparently outside, as Pillman pulls out a gun.

With that cut away, we go back to the Karate Fighters tournament, with Sid beating Marlena. This was a toy that sponsored Survivor Series, giving us this kind of thing week after week. And yes, there were brackets.

Back at Pillman’s house, Austin beats up Pillman’s friends outside his house. One of them even gets his head crushed in a Jeep door while the other gets beaten up in a kid’s pool. Austin tries to go inside but has to go around to the back (with Vince calling it a publicity stunt, which is about as ironic as you can get). Worked in Home Alone…kind of.

Alex Porteau vs. The Sultan

Bob Backlund and the Iron Sheik are here with the Sultan. Before the match, Backlund insists that the Sultan will bring you into the 21st century as a respectable WWF Champion. Sultan sweeps the leg and grabs a belly to belly as commentary is all about Austin/Pillman. A backbreaker and the camel clutch finish for Sultan at 2:09. Of note: Vince says Austin and Pillman are former Tag Team Champions, a rare reference to another company’s title reigns.

Austin breaks a window and Pillman gets up with the gun pointed….as we lose the satellite feed.

Jim Ross brings out Shawn Michaels (with Jose Lothario) and Sid for a face to face meeting before their title match at Survivor Series. We see a clip of Sid turning on Shawn and powerbombing him over and over about a year ago, but Shawn says he has already forgiven him. That’s why he brought Sid back again, because ultimately, they are still friends. Sid: “THAT’S BULL****!”

Shawn says Sid has to know who he should thank for getting back in the WWF, but JR asks why Sid hit Shawn from behind last week. Sid calls JR fat and says it was just a mistake, which Shawn seems to accept. We hear a voiceover from Vince saying we now return you to Cincinnati where they have reestablished their satellite feed. Vince: “No….sorry, we don’t have it.”

Sid agrees that he is the favorite going into the match because of his size, but Shawn says Sid’s ability will be his downfall. Shawn says Sid isn’t in his league, with Sid saying that’s true: he isn’t in Little League. Violence is teased but here are Jim Cornette and Owen Hart/British Bulldog, who are facing Shawn and Sid next week.

The brawl is on with Vader getting involved too and Owen hits Sid with a chair. Shawn takes the chair away and makes the save but Sid thinks Shawn hit him. The villains come back again, only to get cleared out again. This went a bit long but it did build some tension for the title match at Survivor Series, even if it is feeling miles beneath anything involving Austin.

We recap Steve Austin beating up Brian Pillman’s friends and Pillman pulling the gun.

Marc Mero vs. Fake Razor Ramon

Sable and Fake Diesel are here too. As usual, Diesel looks like someone who might actually resemble the real thing if you’re about fifty feet away and only catching a glance but Razor…my goodness no. Jim Ross joins commentary to continue his heel run, which still doesn’t work no matter how much they try. Razor takes him into the corner for a weak slap to start but Mero punches his way out of trouble.

We get a phone call from Kerwin Silfies, who is in the production truck in Cincinnati. Brian Pillman’s power seems to be out as Mero armdrags him into an armbar. Silfies heard some noises but isn’t sure if they were gunshots. What kind of a roving reporter is he supposed to be?

We take a break and come back with Mero slugging Razor down as the scintillating phone call continues. The cops are still not at Pillman’s house and Vince is getting annoyed at them not being around yet. Razor works on the arm for a change but something happens at the truck and Silfies’ call drops. The chinlock goes on as even Lawler is sick of hearing about Austin and wants to talk about the match.

Mero finally fights up as Vince is in his serious voice talking about Pillman’s house. A missile dropkick gets two on Razor and a super hurricanrana (ignored by commentary to talk about Mr. Perfect appearing on Livewire) gets the same. Cue Mr. Perfect as we take ANOTHER break. Back again with Mero hitting a fall away slam but HHH (here with Perfect) breaks up the Wild Thing. The Razor’s Edge finishes Mero at 12:35 as Vince apologizes for a lack of enthusiasm over the match.

Rating: D-. This was the exact same thing that used to drive me nuts on Nitro: commentary completely ignoring everything in the match, even if it wasn’t very good, to talk about something else. Yes the Pillman/Austin stuff is more important but could you at least pretend what is going on in the ring matters? Granted it doesn’t help when the match is downright appalling, but don’t just ignore it entirely for the sake of one other angle that has dominated the show.

We look back at Pillman pulling the gun on Austin.

We go back live (with just two minutes left in the show for an amazing stroke of luck) and commentary asking if anyone was shot. Pillman is being held back by his friends (I like that UK shirt one of them has on) but Austin comes in again. The friends go after him and Pillman rants a bunch, including dropping an audible F bomb and waving the gun around to end the show.

Ok so that was a lot. To say this was a game changer for the WWF would be an understatement, as we go from what was still the cartoon era to Pillman literally pulling a gun on Austin. USA had wanted something new and edgier to combat Nitro but then took this REALLY badly and nearly canceled the show. Granted then it wound up being the style that made Raw a juggernaut and finished WCW off for good, but this really didn’t go well at first and it’s easy to see why. It’s such a jarring change from everything the WWF had been doing but yeah, it more than worked in the end.

Overall Rating: D+. Historic nature aside, this was a show that felt like Nitro and not in a good way. It was all about one story with everything else, including the World Title, feeling like a distant second. If you’re in on that story then you’ll have a good time, but other than that, there was nothing worth seeing here and it was painfully obvious. The times are certainly changing though and that is something that absolutely needed to happen. It could have been a bit more smooth, but this was the kind of thing that saved Raw and they are diving into it head first.

 

 

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Monday Night Raw
Date: October 7, 1996
Location: Hersheypark Arena, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 3,923
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Things have picked up a bit since we left off about ten months ago. Shawn Michaels is now the reigning WWF World Champion and the company is in a nosedive with the NWO running roughshod over the wrestling world. We’re coming up on In Your House: Buried Alive, meaning it’s going to be a lot of Undertaker vs. Mankind. Let’s get to it.

The opening video previews tonight’s events, including Shawn and Vader, Goldust vs. Sid and an interview with the REAL Double J (oh yeah that thing).

Opening sequence.

Mark Mero vs. Fake Diesel

Mero’s Intercontinental Title isn’t on the line. Jim Ross comes out with Diesel here as this stupid angle continues. For those of you not around at the time, the idea here was that JR turned heel (just go with it) and said he was the reason Diesel and Razor Ramon were around in the first place so he was bringing them back.

Now this could have been a good dig at WCW if the WWF was going with the idea that it was the WWF who created the characters and the people didn’t matter, but instead they were acting like these were the real people, thereby making JR look stupid. It didn’t help that Fake Razor looked like he was in a Razor Halloween costume. Fake Diesel on the other hand looked a lot like Diesel, at least if you didn’t get a good shot of his face. You would know Fake Diesel better as Kane.

Diesel charges into a boot in the corner to start and a dropkick puts him on the floor for a no hands dive. Back in and Diesel drops him throat first across the top rope to take over and slow things WAY down. The slow beating continues and we go to Fake Razor and WOW it’s even worse than I remember. His Cuban accent is as good as Lana’s Russian and thankfully we go to a break without having to listen to much more. Back with Mero rolling Diesel up for two and Razor coming out to watch. Mero dives onto Razor, which is probably the best thing he’s done all night. Ramon comes in for the DQ a few seconds later.

Rating: D. Mero and Diesel were actually having a half decent match but my goodness this has to be one of the dumbest stories I’ve ever seen. It’s not funny, it’s not clever, THEY DON’T EVEN LOOK LIKE THE PEOPLE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE and the matches aren’t that good. Oh and stop trying to make JR a heel. It’s stupid.

The beating continues post match.

Undertaker has dug a grave for Mankind.

You can get a denim shirt with Bret, Undertaker or Shawn on the back for FORTY NINE BUCKS EACH. Sweet goodness no wonder I’ve never seen anyone wearing one of those things.

Mr. Perfect will be back in two weeks. Well kind of but not as they’re implying.

New Rockers vs. Smoking Gunns

I still can’t believe the Gunns were a thing in late 1996. Sunny has left the Gunns due to them losing the Tag Team Titles so they’re definitely on their last legs. With the Gunns in the ring, we go to pre-recorded comments from the two of them, saying they want the titles back so they can get Sunny with them. Sunny calls in to the show and isn’t happy that Ahmed Johnson will be on Livewire with her on Saturday.

Billy and Cassady (Leif Cassady, better known as Al Snow which I’m sure we’ve covered before) start things off as Sunny brags about how awesome she is and lists off the Livewire fax and e-mail contact information. Bart and Marty come in as Kelly apologizes for not calling the first two and a half minutes of the match. It’s not like anything was happening but it wasn’t the nicest thing in the world. Marty gets two off a small package and it’s time for JR to go on a rant about how much he hates Vince McMahon.

Bart gets punched down by Cassady (Marty was in there too but his punch didn’t make anything close to contact so I’m not counting him) and Leif plants him with a swinging Rock Bottom. Billy finally does something by kneeing Marty from the apron as the crowd is just silent. A low bridge sends the now legal Billy out to the floor and it’s Leif cleaning house with right hands. Billy makes a blind tag though and the Sidewinder puts Cassady away.

Rating: D. Long, slow and boring here which is one of the worst combinations you can have in a match. The tag division was such a mess around this time and it would take years to improve, oddly enough with Billy Gunn as one half of the least likely tag teams in wrestling history. But yeah, bad stuff here.

We recap the REAL Double J angle which involved Jeff Jarrett pretending to sing his big song With My Baby Tonight when it was really the Roadie singing the whole time. Both guys left for over a year and are finally back to reignite the feud. Of note here, as Roadie talks about everything that’s happened, Jim Johnston is seen next to him and is even mentioned by name. We see Jammes (Yes Jammes, not James.) accidentally tripping Jeff to cost him the Intercontinental Title, which was his last appearance for a long time. We’ll get more next week, even if Jarrett would be WCW by the end of the month.

Goldust isn’t worried about Sid.

Livewire ad, complete with the yet to be named Vince Russo in the background.

JR brings out Jim Cornette and Vader for a chat. Vader gets to face Sid at Buried Alive in a #1 contenders match but Cornette has no idea why that’s necessary when he’s beaten Shawn four times since July, including last week. Very fair point but Vader will be fine with beating Sid again.

Ad for the Hall of Fame/Survivor Series.

The Sultan vs. Aldo Montoya

Sultan has Bob Backlund and Iron Sheik in his corner with the former sitting in on commentary. Aldo speeds things up as Bob says he can’t hear without his glasses on. A suplex drops Montoya as Backlund is on an anti-drug rant. Sultan whips him hard into the buckle and a German suplex gets one. The camel clutch makes Montoya give up.

Rating: D-. Just a squash here but the commentary was dominating everything with Backlund doing his ranting and JR talking about being vice president with twelve names signed under his watch. Sultan clearly wasn’t going to go anywhere but it was an interesting idea to give him two famous managers like this.

Mankind gets in the grave but doesn’t want to be buried alive.

Goldust vs. Sycho Sid

Goldust jumps Sid from behind as JR is still babbling on about how much he hates Vince. Sid comes right back with an atomic drop and a clothesline as Shawn Michaels calls in to say he’ll have to be more than resilient to beat Sid or Vader. Goldust drops Sid across the top rope and stomps away as Shawn starts swearing a bit too much. Cue Jim Cornette as we take a break. Back with Sid hitting the chokeslam and powerbomb for the pin. There was no need for that commercial.

Rating: D-. This only existed to have Shawn call in, which wasn’t exactly thrilling stuff. It’s a boring match with two guys who weren’t exactly thrilling around this time and it was clear that things needed to change. You can only get so far with Goldust being a toned down version of what made him great and he had long since hit that wall.

Post match Vader comes out to beat on Sid, who no sells a middle rope splash and hits a chokeslam to end the show.

Overall Rating: F. This was absolutely horrible and one of the worst episodes of the show I’ve ever seen. They were obviously running out of ideas here and there was almost no reason for them to keep going in this direction, especially with WCW killing them the way they were. At some point you have to put on something interesting and that’s just not what was happening here.

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