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Raw History: Episode 153 and Reliving Nitro: Episode 30

October 24, 2016 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
Monday Night War WWE WCW Raw Nitro
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Raw History: Episode 153 and Reliving Nitro: Episode 30  

WrestleMania XII Results (I haven’t reviewed the entire show, only a few matches)
The Bodydonnas def. The Godwins to win the WWE Tag Team Championship Tournament in 5:23
British Bulldog, Owen Hart and Vader def. Ahmed Johnson, Jake Roberts and Yokozuna in 13:08 (***)
Steve Austin def. Savio Vega in 10:09
Ultimate Warrior def. Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 1:39
The Undertaker def. Diesel in 16:46
Roddy Piper def. Goldust in the Hollywood Backlot Brawl in 16:47 or so
Shawn Michaels def. Bret Hart (c) 1-0 to win the WWE Championship in 61:52 (***½)


Raw History
Episode #153
April 1st, 1996 | Orange Pavilion in San Bernardino, California

Vince and Lawler narrate a WrestleMania recap that abruptly ends. They’re still using the original Raw theme after changing it up for a while in 1995.

Mankind def. Bob Holly in 3:22
It’s the debut of Mrs. Foley’s baby boy! Mankind kicks Holly’s ass early and celebrates by ripping his own hair out. That’s certainly a way to stand out. They go outside where Mankind drops Holly on the apron with a hot shot. Mankind is doing all of his weird noise making while working Holly over. He then applies the Mandible Claw and Holly gives up. A squash match, but a relatively effective debut. He’s also the first guy to have different win music. I loved his post-match symphony.

LAST NIGHT ~ Marc Mero made his debut and was interviewed. Hunter showed up and blamed his valet, Sable. Hunter and Mero got into a brawl. Tonight, Sable is in the front row.

Marc Mero def. Isaac Yankem D.D.S. in 4:26
Hey, two debuts in one night. The post-Mania Raw effect is in. Right off the bat, Mero’s all about the high flying, really playing into the “Wildman” gimmick. He hits a somersault to the outside and a flying headscissors in the early stages. Yankem nails a big clothesline while Hunter Hearst Helmsley comes out to talk with Sable, who wants to hear none of it. Yankem stays on offense for a bit and it isn’t very pretty. Even as Mero tries to land on his feet on a backdrop, it comes off as awkward from both men. Mero pulls out a sunset flip for the win. This had potential but came off sloppy at times and Yankem’s offense was dire. *½

After the match, Mero saves Sable from having to listen to Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

VIGNETTE ~ The Ultimate Warrior is back!

Non-Title Match: WWF Tag Team Champions The Body Donnas w/ Sunny def. Aldo Montoya and Barry Horowitz in 5:31
The Body Donnas won the belts because Sunny flashed her Slammy Award Winning buns at Phineas last night. Vince informs us that a rematch has been signed for In Your House. Oh joy. This is the start of Sunny basically being the Tag Team Champions for a long period of time. Montoya gets the start for his team and has some alright exchanges with both Skip and Zip. Horowitz gets the upper hand on Zip and tags Montoya who works the arm. A blind tag puts the champions back I control until Montoya suplexes Skip to the outside and follows with a splash. Horowitz nearly has it with a small package but Sunny distracts the referee. Skip nails a German for two. These guys are working hard tonight. Skip then hits a headscissors off the top and Zip finishes with the whoopee cushion. Much better than I expected. All four men had their working boots on and pulled out some good spots. **½

Vince McMahon brings out the leader of the “New Generation”, the new WWF Champion Shawn Michaels. Shawn panders to the fans and thanks them for all of their help. Vince brings up a match between Shawn and Lawler next Monday on Raw. During that match, Diesel will be on commentary. Before talking about Diesel, Shawn puts over Bret and says that he believes all of the “best there is” stuff after last night. As Michaels talks, Vince is gushing like a kid seeing their first crush. He panders on for a bit before getting to the point of Diesel and saying that he and the Kliq will dance all over his face.

The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer def. Justin Hawk Bradshaw w/ Uncle Zebekiah in 4:54
Think about this. In about nine years, this is a SummerSlam WWE Title match. Bradshaw attacks before the bell and holds serve going into a commercial break. Lawler yammers on about Bearer leaving an open contract that Bradshaw signed. That’s an odd angle. Undertaker catches Bradshaw off the top with a slam and goes into his offense. Undertaker is still in some trouble and reaches for the power of the urn. He plants Bradshaw with the Chokeslam and signals for the end. He it’s the Tombstone but out runs Mankind to attack the cause the DQ. There was nothing to the match before the finish.

Mankind continues to beat on the Undertaker, knocking him outside. He throws Undertaker into the steps and then delivers an awesome Cactus Elbow. He makes his odd noises while applying the Mandible Claw and causing the Undertaker to pass out.


Reliving Nitro
Episode #30
April 1st, 1996 | Convocation Center in Cleveland, Ohio

The Giant w/ Jimmy Hart and Sting wrestle to a no contest in 2:41
The show opens with these two across the ring from each other. Impromptu match time. Sting’s attempts at offense are mostly futile. Commentary explains that Giant and Sting were to team up, but Jimmy Hart paid off their opponents, Harlem Heat, to take a walk. So much for the Giant’s fun attempts at a face turn. Giant kicks Sting’s ass until he gets dropkicked off the apron. Lex Luger shows up and enters the ring. For some reason, the referee throws the match out. I won’t rate this since it wasn’t much of a match. Odd all around though.

After the intro video plays, they show footage of Jimmy Hart paying off Harlem Heat.

Triangle Match: The Steiner Brothers def. The Nasty Boys and The Road Warriors in 12:37
For the first time ever, we have a triangle match on Nitro. The three teams spend most of the match just clubbing away at each other. In fact, that’s literally how it begins. Rick and Knobbs literally just wail on each other. Rick wears down Animal with crossface punches right in front of the camera. Scott comes in and just suplexes the hell out of Animal. While this chaos ensues, Bobby Heenan talks about the upcoming Lethal Lottery at Slamboree. Shortly after, Hawk turns Rick inside out with a shoulder block. Rick ends up getting worked over for a while as he takes most of the abuse throughout. He gets an opening to tag, but Scott is stupidly standing in the ring instead of on the apron. He finally gets out but it isn’t really a hot tag. Mongo just wants to see what happens if two teammates become the legal men against each other. The crowd is pro-LOD. As things break down for about the fourth time, Public Enemy run out. They send Knobbs under the ring, while Johnny Grunge, dressed as Knobbs, slides in and plays dead so Scott can pin him and win. A pretty big mess. With the idea of a triangle match being so new, WCW didn’t really know how to lay these out yet. That gave things no real flow. **¼

The Booty Man and Hulk Hogan w/ The Booty Babe def. Arn Anderson and Kevin Sullivan w/ Elizabeth and Woman in 6:45
Kevin Sullivan just looks odd having valets. I’ll say it each week; the Booty Man gimmick sucks a big fat one. Bobby Heenan starts the match off by saying that tonight is his last night in the booth and that he’s retiring. Arn does his best to get something watchable out of the Booty Man in the first bit of the match. Hogan cares so little about this that he’s not even in his usual trunks. Its tights tonight like he’s about to beat Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX. He comes in and does a bit of offense before tagging back out. Booty Man gets his eyes raked by Woman while the Booty Babe does nothing. Hogan gets the mild tag and does the DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Hogan hits the big boot but Woman gives her SHOE OF DEATH to Sullivan. Kimberly gives her shoe to Hogan, who clocks Sullivan first and gets the victory. Typical, boing Hogan and Brutus stuff. Booty Babe plants a kiss on Booty Man after and there goes another benefit of being Hogan’s buddy. *

Arn Anderson attacks Booty Man after the match and does the throat cut signal from the aisle. Heenan claims the heels that the ladies of this match were wearing weigh five pounds. Mean Gene enters to interview the winners as Booty Man shakes off the attack. Hogan is mad that the heels always get the upper hand (laughable) and Booty Man promises that he has a secret weapon for next week if Hogan teams with him again. Oh boy, we have to watch them again.

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) w/ Elizabeth and Woman def. Lex Luger in 10:57
This is kind of a big time main event, but it got absolutely no hype. Flair stops to hit on Debra McMichael even though he has two ladies on his arm already. Classic Flair stalling in the early stages. Luger press slams him and, judging by his performance and crowd reaction so far, he might as well be full-fledged babyface by this point. Luger slams Flair off the top, causing him to go outside and take a long powder. Once back in, Flair lights him up with chops only for Luger to come back with right hands and another press slam. SCREAMING CLOTHESLINES! Luger tries to chase off the valets but they return quickly. Flair turns it around and stats wearing down Luger before applying the Figure Four. Luger turns it over using wrestling physics and puts the pressure on Flair, who breaks it. As Luger begins to rally, Elizabeth distracts the official and Woman steals hot coffee from a fan. Luger sees her coming up the steps but still applies the Torture Rack so Woman enters and throws the coffee in his face. Flair rolls Luge up to steal it. Pretty fun match here. Not a mark on their best work but Flair continues to consistently put on good matches on a weekly basis. **Âľ

Before going off the air, Bobby Heenan shakes Mongo and Bischoff’s hands on his last night. BUT WAIT…APRIL FOOLS! No Nitro next week due to a TNT movie premiere.

Raw Rating: 2.9
Nitro Rating: 2.8

5.5
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
Raw: This episode worked on many levels. They managed to debut two new stars and really did a great job of establishing Mankind as a big time player. The Shawn Michaels promo wasn’t anything special, but it gave the new champion shine and announced his upcoming PPV defense. Then, there was the tag match which was better than expected. It was the first post-Mania Raw to feel like a bit of a big deal. 7.0

Nitro: A decent at best edition of Nitro. Most of it was mediocre but, outside of the Hogan tag match, none of it was really bad. The triangle match wasn’t as good as it could have been, but was still watchable. Add in a pretty fun main event and things worked out there. I wasn’t a fan of the Giant reverting back to straight up heel though. 4.0

legend

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Nitro, RAW, Raw History, WCW, WWE, Kevin Pantoja