Raw History: Episode 169 and Reliving Nitro: Episode 45

WWF International Incident Results
Free for All: Justin Hawk Bradshaw def. Savio Vega in 4:43
The Body Donnas def. The Smoking Gunns in a non-title match at 13:05 (*½)
Mankind def. Henry Godwin in 6:53 (*¾)
Steve Austin def. Marc Mero in 10:46 (**¾)
The Undertaker def. Goldust via disqualification in 12:05 (*½)
Camp Cornette def. Ahmed Johnson, Shawn Michaels and Sycho Sid in 24:32 (****)

Raw History
Episode #169
July 22nd, 1996 | Key Arena in Seattle, Washington

WWF Champion: Shawn Michaels (1) since 3/31/96
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Ahmed Johnson (1) since 6/23/96
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Smoking Gunns (3) since 5/26/96

Vince starts the show by fawning over Seattle while we get shots of the city. This has to be one of the biggest and most relevant arenas to host Raw up to this point.

The show is supposed to open with a Tag Team Title match pitting the Smoking Gunns against WWF Champion Shawn Michaels and Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson. It’s HBK’s birthday and Sunny brings out a cake for him. The Gunns attack quickly but Shawn and Ahmed turn it around because the Gunns aren’t in their league. Sunny tries to put the cake in Shawn’s face but Ahmed cuts her off and shoves it in her face instead. Shawn licks some of it off. The match never begins. Gorilla Monsoon moved the Tag Team Title match to later on because Billy Gunn is disoriented after getting hit with Sweet Chin Music.

Marc Mero w/ Sable def. The Goon in 7:15
Is Mero just going to keep wrestling jobbers in overly long matches? The Goon is infamous for his gimmick of being a hockey player. Steve Austin joins commentary. He beat Mero last night and faces the Undertaker next week. Austin says he wants to face Ahmed, HBK and brings up Bret Hart, knocking him for leaving. Jake Roberts, who missed the PPV with bad ribs, calls in only to get berated by Austin and Lawler. That’s the only interesting thing to happen here. Mero eventually wins with a slingshot leg drop. This took far too long. Mero went from unbeaten to losing to Austin twice and barely being able to beat scrubs. ½*

Ahmed and HBK are interviewed in the back. They just basically say that they’re coming for more gold tonight.

Bob Backlund campaigns in the crowd.

Footage is shown from earlier today where Clarence Mason argued with Gorilla Monsoon about bringing someone into the WWF.

Mankind def. Freddie Joe Floyd in 3:52
Floyd is actually Tracy Smothers. Vince plugs the first ever Boiler Room Brawl set for SummerSlam between Mankind and the Undertaker. Floyd shows off some of his skill early on. Mankind takes over but misses his tree of Joey Lawrence offence. Floyd fires up but takes the obvious loss to the Mandible Claw.

NEXT WEEK ~ Marc Mero faces Vader, while Sid does battle with Justin Hawk Bradshaw.

Goldust w/ Marlena def. Barry Horowitz in 2:19
About a year ago, Horowitz had a spot on SummerSlam and was on a winning streak. That quickly died. Brian Pillman joins commentary and threatens to say the “seven words you can’t say on TV”. Goldust dominates for the most part. Merc Mero discusses Goldust on a split screen since they’re feuding now. Goldust promptly wins via Curtain Call.

Backstage, Sunny calls Shawn and Ahmed imbeciles and she guarantees that she is going home with titles. It was going well until the Gunns speak and then it all goes to shit. They’re so bad at promos.

SLAM OF THE WEEK ~ Lawler hypes this like a big deal. It is Vader hitting the Vader Bomb on Shawn at the PPV.

Vince McMahon interviews Jim Cornette with Vader in the ring. Cornette yells a lot and announces that Gorilla Monsoon has awarded Vader a shot at the WWF Title at SummerSlam since Vader pinned Michaels last night.

WWF Tag Team Championship: WWF Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson and WWF Champion Shawn Michaels w/ Jose Lothario def. The Smoking Gunns (c) w/ Sunny via disqualification in 15:10
The Gunns attack instantly, trying to show how angry they are. It backfires and they get sent packing so Sunny can console them. Even with the cake in her hair, she looks great tonight. Shawn pretty much toys with Billy for the first few minutes. Ahmed also tosses Billy around through a commercial break. He nearly kills Billy on a sloppy powerslam spot. Finally, the Gunns take over when Shawn gets dropped throat first on the top rope. They do the false hot tag spot which the crowd eats up. The match lasts through a second commercial break. When the real hot tag comes, Ahmed just runs through the Gunns. A spinebuster on Billy looks to be the end but Bart pulls the top rope down on Ahmed. The debuting Faarooq runs out in his ridiculous gladiator getup and beats on Ahmed for the DQ. This was much better than I ever expected from a match involving Ahmed, Billy and Bart. Shawn was a great face in peril, Ahmed’s fire was fun and the crowd ate it up. ***¼

Faarooq beats on Ahmed until Shawn and officials back break things up. Shawn and Faarooq actually come to blows as the broadcast ends.

Reliving Nitro
Episode #45
July 22nd, 1996 | Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida

WCW World Heavyweight Champion: The Giant (2) since 4/29/96
WCW United States Champion: Ric Flair (5) since 7/7/96
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Harlem Heat (5) since 6/24/96
WCW Television Champion: Lex Luger (1) since 3/696
WCW Cruiserweight Champion: Dean Malenko (1) since 5/18/96

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko handle hour one again and talk about Muhammad Ali lighting the torch at the 1996 Olympic games. Due to that, they show random footage of him in the ring for a past WCW event. The same gets done for Shaq, who just recently signed with the Lakers. This feels like them screaming WE ARE RELEVANT!

Squire David Taylor w/ Jeeves def. Scott Norton via disqualification in 1:45
On WCW Saturday Night, Norton walked out on Ice Train in a tag match, officially breaking up the team. Norton shows off some power stuff here. He gets fed up with Taylor doing some uppercuts and launches him over the top for the DQ. Taylor poorly sells being thrown into the ring post before Norton slams him on the ground. This was just here to further sell Norton as a pissed off monster.

Mean Gene interviews the Horsemen at their buffet table. However, only Arn, Benoit and Mongo are there with the ladies. Gene questions where Ric Flair is but Arn has no worries because he loves to be fashionably late. Mongo brings up the Outsiders for no reason. Benoit says the “silent but violent” stuff to awkwardly end the promo.

Non-Title Match: Mexican Heavyweight Champion Konnan def. VK Wallstreet in 5:17
VK gets IRS chants during his entrance. The crowd seems into Konnan here. Wallstreet takes over and kick away at Konnan’s leg. Step over toe hold time. Larry points out that it is a good strategy since Konnan has a big speed advantage. After Wallstreet does some of his dull offense, Konnan starts the comeback. Wallstreet still hits the Stock Market Crash (Samoan drop) and Konnan rolls him over into a crucifix pin that gets the win. Not as bad as I expected. Wallstreet was boring but not unbearable and Konnan didn’t botch. *½

Gene interviews Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting in the aisle. Luger says that he was beat up last week but that’s because Sting and Savage were off in Japan. Tonight, they’re together and they’re coming for the Horsemen. I like that just because the NWO is around, Savage and company haven’t forgotten their issues with the Horsemen.

VIGNETTE ~ For the first time, we get an actual look at Glacier. He’s a 100% rip off of Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat.

Alex Wright, Jim Powers, Joe Gomez and The Renegade vs. The Barbarian, Hugh Morris, Kevin Sullivan and the Leprechaun w/ Jimmy Hart ends in a no contest at 5:29
They actually do a horrible video package for the babyface team before the match. It is literally just Gomez, Power, Renegade and Wright walking in the heat, removing their shirts and just continuing to walk. Like a shitty Baywatch. It was completely pointless. Schiavone hypes the debut of the Leprechaun but horrible WCW production team cuts away just as he runs out and barely catches him running around the ring. This match is so useless that a cameraman actually walks off to find the Outsiders in the production truck. Maybe they caused the Leprechaun gaffe. They want the guys in the truck to pan the crowd to find a friend of theirs. They don’t say who and security shows up to take them away before we find out. Back to the ring, where fat Teddy Long shows up to say something to Jim Powers. He fires up and the match breaks down. WCW Champion the Giant gets sick of these jobbers and runs out. He chokeslams the world to give us the no contest. At least I think so. I can’t rate this since we missed most of the match.

Gene “I conduct enough interviews to almost justify my paycheck” Okerlund is in the ring to talk to the Giant about Hulk Hogan’s challenge. The Giant eagerly accepts the challenge after saying some generic babyface stuff. The match goes down at Hog Wild.

Diamond Dallas Page def. Prince Iaukea in 1:39
It is the Nitro debut for the Prince. Iaukea gets in some high fly offense, including a springboard cross body. He quickly loses to the Diamond Cutter though. Short and sweet squash for DDP.

VIDEO PACKAGE ~ A recap of the Benoit/Sullivan rivalry is shown.

Dean Malenko def. Chavo Guerrero Jr. in 8:10
Another Nitro debut! Eddie’s nephew gets his first Monday night match. Fast paced start that allows Chavo to show off his athleticism. Malenko destroys him with a big gut buster. Malenko spends some time tossing Chavo around and then working him down on the mat. We reach hour two as commentary switches and we get the commentary swap. They show off the fireworks instead of the match. Like, who watches wrestling to see wrestling? Jimmy Hart shows up to give encouragement to Dean. He powerbombs Chavo but stops to look at Jimmy and gets rolled up for two. Chavo gets in a few more flash pins before submitting to the Texas Cloverleaf. I thought this was okay. Chavo was always solid but never on the level of the top workers in whatever promotion he was in. **¼

Meng w/ Jimmy Hart def. Ice Train via disqualification in 6:20
The two big men brawl outside in the early stages. Teddy Long is back, this time to cheer on Ice Train. Since the start of hour two, Bischoff hasn’t shut up about Sturgis. These two just continue to pound away with a lot of dull stuff. Meng hits a weak looking headbutt. I love me some Meng, but his recent Nitro singles stuff has been pretty lame. He has control until Ice Train begins to rally. Scott Norton shows up and rams Meng into the ring post outside, causing the DQ. Apparently, Norton wants Ice Train at 100% for the PPV. If that’s the case, why not do this a few seconds into the match? ¾*

VIDEO PACKAGE ~ Recap of the NWO forming and their actions since then. Honestly, they haven’t done much since Bash at the Beach. Like, they put their letters over the WCW logo and beat up Bubba and Luger last week. That’s it.

Eddie Guerrero def. Psychosis in 7:24
Two weeks ago, these two met on Nitro. Like that match, these two work at a fast pace. They go to break in the first minute or so and when they come back, Psychosis chops away at Eddie. He runs into a modified monkey flip that gets him stuck on the top rope like a stun gun. Eddie follows out with a plancha. After some stuff inside, Psychosis hits a suicide dive to the outside and a guillotine leg drop inside. Eddie comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Psychosis nails a slow looking rana that only gets two. Powerbomb and corkscrew senton get Psychosis a near fall. Eddie connects on a top rope rana and moves Psychosis to 0-3 on PPV and Nitro with a frog splash. Good win for Eddie in another fun match. Not quite as good as the first match two weeks ago, but still strong. ***¼

Lex Luger, Randy Savage and Sting def. Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit and Steve McMichael w/ Debra, Elizabeth and Woman in 7:38
Ric Flair is still not here and there’s a limo outside. Bischoff questions if Flair has joined the NWO. The first of many speculations of who joins the group. Mongo replaces Flair and I’d ask for my money back. Benoit and Sting go at it, giving us the most interesting pairing possible in this match. Then Mongo tags and it all goes to shit. Sting plays the face in peril and nearly breaks his neck on a piss poor Mongo back suplex. Luger gets the hot tag and you know what time it is. SCREAMING CLOTHESLINES! Debra goes to give Mongo the briefcase but for some reason, the women fight over it. Savage comes over and takes it, causing Bischoff to say that he got his money back. So all this time, she didn’t have Randy’s money through divorce? It wasn’t in a bank or anything. It was in a briefcase that Debra carries? Whatever. Luger pins Benoit after he gets hit with the briefcase. Outside of Mongo, this was decent fun. **

Gene interviews the winners and Sting says that Hog Wild is going to be a bad day for the Outsiders. He also mentions some horoscope stuff but it isn’t very good. Luger vows revenge on the NWO.

Raw Rating: 2.2
Nitro Rating: 2.6

4.8

The final score: review Poor

The 411

Raw: For the most part, that was an enjoyable episode. The opening segment was fun and the Cornette promo was short and to the point. The Mankind squash was fine but the Mero one went on for way too long. The main event over delivered to cap off a solid show in relatively strong fashion. 6.0

Nitro: For the first time in a long time, Raw annihilated Nitro. Most of this week’s Nitro felt like filler. No NWO was not a good move and the Ric Flair not showing up angle was just odd. The Guerrero/Psychosis match was the only thing that I’d consider to be good. Everything else was kind of just there. 3.5