Raw History: Episodes 154-155 and Reliving Nitro: Episode 31

Raw History
Episode #154
April 8th, 1996 | Orange Pavilion in San Bernardino, California

With Jerry Lawler in action tonight, Mr. Perfect is in the commentary booth with Vince.

Vader w/ Jim Cornette def. Yokozuna w/ Mr. Fuji via ref stoppage in 3:45
The two behemoths trade blows in the center of the ring. Vince points out that despite Vader being 450 pounds, he has a 200 pound weight disadvantage when it comes to Yokozuna. This was supposed to be the WrestleMania match. Yokozuna hits a Samoan drop but is already gassed. Vader hammers away on Yokozuna in the corner before Yokozuna comes back and slams him down. By the way, when did Mr. Fuji randomly return? Yokozuna misses a charge in the corner and falls backwards. His leg is draped on the bottom rope, so Vader drops a Vader Bomb on it. It makes a gross noise and the referee calls for the bell. Not much of a match here but it added to the aura of Vader. *

Vader takes the time to do it twice more while Yokozuna screams in agony. Since he’s so fat, Yokozuna can’t be stretchered out. They fail when trying so they must resort to taking him out on a forklift.

It’s incoherent promo time because the Ultimate Warrior is back! Vince McMahon is in the ring to conduct an in-ring interview with him. Warrior says that while away, he was in places that can’t be found on a map. The one thing that never stopped was the voices of his warriors. While Warrior rambles on, Goldust and Marlena stroll to the ring. Vince announces that Warrior has an Intercontinental Title match against Goldust at the next PPV. One win earns you a shot huh? Goldust does his scoff thing so Warrior retaliates by snorting. Goldust flirts with him a bit, causing Warrior to respond by calling him a freak and saying that he doesn’t give a shit what Goldust is in to. Warrior also says he’s gonna kick Goldust’s ass. 1996 WWF. Edgy stuff. Warrior knocks him down and poses to the crowd while Goldust escapes.

We see Yokozuna still being fork lifted out of the arena. Vader shows up and pounds on his injured leg with a steel chair several times.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley def. Duke Droese in 4:31
Oh man, is this feud still a thing? Duke is quick on the offense, charging in and sending Hunter over and out of the ring. Duke really dominates for the first minute or so until Hunter avoids a charge and he falls outside. Hunter sends him into the stairs before an insert promo from Marc Mero comes up. He creepily whispers about the wild surprises starting next week. Duke fires up and begins a rally that gets a surprisingly decent pop. He tries a tilt-a-whirl slam but Hunter slips free and wins with the Pedigree. Nothing to see here, let’s move along. ¾*

LAST WEEK ~ Mankind’s attack on the Undertaker is recapped.

Vince is back in the ring to host an Arm Wrestling Contest between Ahmed Johnson and British Bulldog. Owen Hart comes out with Bulldog to hype him up. Diana Smith is highlighted in the front row. Owen complains about the “oil, grease and slime” on Ahmed’s body, saying it is an unfair advantage. Ahmed wipes it all off on the referee’s shirt. Owen then complains about the position of Ahmed’s elbow, while Mr. Perfect agrees with all of it on commentary. Jack Doane ejects Owen for simply wanting a fair contest. They finally get started and Bulldog has an advantage but Ahmed of course makes the rally and wins. Funny enough, he grabbed hold of the table for leverage so he actually did end up cheating. Bulldog whacks him with a chair a few times. Ahmed fights back but gets sent into a table in the corner. He bounces off and the table is just FULL of oil, grease and slime. It doesn’t break so Bulldog has to do it again and it still doesn’t break, so he just slams it on Ahmed. This segment lasted far too long.

NEXT WEEK ~ Savio Vega goes one on one with Goldust for the Intercontinental Title!

Non-Title Match: WWF Champion Shawn Michaels def. Jerry Lawler in 8:12
Diesel is out for commentary and he does so sporting a Shawn Michaels shirt. He instantly wants Perfect to do the pencil flip and catch. He plays it cool on commentary while Lawler and Shawn stall a bunch. Shawn outsmarts Lawler and hits him in the corner. Diesel talks about already being champion and that their match isn’t about that. He only wants the title to ruin Shawn’s life since he worked so hard to attain it. Shawn takes time to high five fans around the ring. Lots of generic Lawler stuff and it’s so very boring. Lawler nails the piledriver but Shawn kicks out. Shawn starts the comeback ending with the Sweet Chin Music. Shawn was on a roll when he tried in 1996 but this was just too much Jerry and he was so dull to watch. *

Shawn Michaels dares Diesel to enter the ring. Diesel gets on the apron and Shawn starts firing away. Mr. Perfect leaves the booth and hops on the apron to distract Shawn. That frees up Diesel for a big boot. Perfect throws the belt to Diesel and he clocks Shawn with it.

Raw History
Episode #155
April 15th, 1996 | Orange Pavilion in San Bernardino, California

We start with a video package reminding us that Bret Hart has been silent since losing at WrestleMania. We’ll hear from the “Hitman” tonight!

Marc Mero w/ Sable def. Leif Cassidy w/ Marty Jannetty in 6:35
Sable is Mero’s “wild surprise”. Sable went from Mero to Lesnar and those two guys could not be any different. They trade arm work early before Mero shows off his quickness. The Rockers were always known for being fast, but Cassidy has nothing on Mero. Leif does the HBK corner bump and sticks his tongue out at Mero, leading to him getting punched. Mero chases Cassidy around the ring, right into a Marty cheap shot. Heel Marty is the strangest thing. Cassidy gets a near fall inside heading to break. Cassidy just keeps acting like a dork in between offense. He applies the Masterlock because no man has ever broken it. Mero slips free though and does a tilt-a-whirl head scissors. Mero then somersaults out onto him. He then wins with a flying sunset flip. Fine little high flying match that included decent character work from Cassidy. **

Diesel calls in from Germany while footage is shown of their brawl last week and Diesel turning on him back in March. Diesel just says that the fans were in his corner last Monday and that he had to teach Shawn a lesson.

Steve Austin w/ Ted Dibiase def. Bart Gunn in 7:57
Vince wants to know when Austin will put up the Million Dollar Title, like it actually has any prestige. They trade early holds but the crowd doesn’t seem to care about much of it since Austin isn’t established and Bart has almost never been interesting. They fight outside a bit before Austin gains a near fall inside. For some reason, this goes through a commercial. Austin drives knees into Bart’s back and works a chinlock. DO THAT DURING THE COMMERCIAL DAMMIT. Both guys pick up near falls that Vince totally thinks end the match. Ted trips Bart, opening the door for Austin. Bart still pulls him into several flash pin attempts. He slaps on a sleeper but Austin counters into a jawbreaker (or the future Stunner). He wins it with the Million Dollar Dream. This went too long for my taste. Bart isn’t a credible singles guy. The same match with someone else may have worked better. Instead, this was kind of just there. *¾

Vince McMahon brings out Vader and Jim Cornette for promo time. Cornette puts over Vader’s destruction of Gorilla Monsoon and Yokozuna while Vader grunts and poses. Vince asks about their thoughts on Vader’s upcoming match with Razor Ramon at In Your House. Cornette predicts that it will be the end of Razor Ramon and that Razor’s career will take a downward spiral. I mean, he wasn’t wrong.

A short video of Sunny in various bikinis and such is shown along with the “I Know You Want Me” song. It has no relevance to anything on the show but I’m not mad about it.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Goldust (c) w/ Marlena vs. Savio Vega ends in confusion in 9:27
Vince spends his time putting over Goldust’s antics as mind games. It’s as if he wanted the character to be gay judging by the Razor angle, but has changed his mind. It’s actually for the better as I like this game plan instead. Goldust bothers Savio and takes a powder. Vince asks if Goldust wears boxers or briefs. Goldust gets mad at the fans and gets on the mic, threatening to kiss each of them if they don’t shut up. Vega nails a cross body for two before Goldust comes back and starts to toy with him. He squats over a fallen Savio only to be rolled up for two. Savio spanks Goldust to set up a superplex but Goldust fights off and kisses/bites him. Goldust does the jump into your boot spot, which I hate. After a break, we get a ref bump. Malena grabs the title and slides it in the ring. Goldust takes a superkick and another after missing with the belt. Savio picks it up and clocks Goldust with it. The referee wakes up and count the three to a pretty good pop. A second referee, who was checking on the first, says that Savio should be disqualified. Gorilla Monsoon comes out and announces that Goldust’s run as champion I over, but Savio isn’t champion either so there will be a rematch next week. This was a pretty spirited effort from both guys. Goldust’s mind games were working and Savio put in a good effort. Hopefully they can match it next time out. **½

EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE ~ Bret Hart is shown kicking the camera crew out of his locker room after losing to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania. He then walks out of the arena without showering and told the camera team to “fuck off”. We hear from Bret in Germany, where he says that the match was supposed to be sixty minutes, not sixty-two. Shawn made the careless mistake that Bret knew he would around the 59 minute mark. He says that Shawn had to beat him, he didn’t have to beat Shawn and Shawn didn’t do it within the 60 minutes. “If there needed to be sudden death, why ring the bell at all?” Bret says he can’t see himself working for another company because it’s a step down (it really was for him). Bret made all valid points, which would be a trigger for his awesome heel run in 1997.

Reliving Nitro
Episode #31
April 15th, 1996 | Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia

After a week off, Nitro is back!

Hulk Hogan w/ The Booty Babe def. Arn Anderson and Kevin Sullivan w/ Elizabeth, Jimmy Hart and Woman in 4:12
The Booty Man is injured so Hogan goes it alone. If Hogan wins, he gets five minutes alone with Elizabeth or Woman and if the heels win, they get five minutes alone with Kimberly. That’s a strange stipulation that feels like it could yield some creepy results. Hogan charges the ring and starts hot. The heels turn it around but that doesn’t last long because Hogan isn’t in the mood to take any legitimate offense. He even totally no-sells Sullivan hitting him with a chair. He takes it and delivers three of the weakest chair shots ever to both guys. Hogan calmly drops the leg inside a little while later and wins like nothing. The worst kind of Hogan match. DUD

Hogan chooses Woman and Elizabeth, bringing them inside. He holds both ladies before turning his attention to Jimmy Hart. Hogan starts kicking his ass so the Giant, client of Jimmy, comes out and Chokeslams him. Hogan is still in no mood to sell, so he gets to his feet immediately and starts firing away. It takes multiple big boots and a slam to get him down. Mean Gene comes in to interview Hogan, who instantly lifts him for a slam as well. He puts him down safely as the Giant gets away. I thought we were done with Hogan and the Giant. Gene tries to interview him but the microphone is all messed up. You can kind of make out Hogan saying that his Hulkamaniacs are behind him and such. I don’t believe he does much more, if anything, until the July return.

Street Fight: The Nasty Boys def. Public Enemy in 9:17
The Nasty Boys attack during Public Enemy’s entrance and bring the weapons. WCW does their shitty split screen thing. Look, a split screen is a fine idea to capture the action but they give us two tiny images in front of the Nitro logo and some bad looking fire graphics. This is literally just four guys wailing on each other with chairs and trash cans. Rocco goes high risk but it’s hard to enjoy because of the split screen. Knobbs literally just throws various items on Grunge. He must be really upset about the trick they pulled two weeks ago. A cameraman takes a spill just before Rocco nails a bulldog on an open chair. We get more mindless brawling until PE set up a table in the ring. They lay Knobbs on it and Grunge goes up top. Knobbs moves out of the way, causing Grunge to fall on his ass attempting a leg drop. He covers and gets the win. Fine brawl here that would have been more enjoyable with better camerawork. **½

Public Enemy are pissed about the loss and attack the Nasty Boys. They put Saggs through a table when Rocco somersaults into Grunge and they both fall on him.

Randy Savage def. Earl Robert Eaton w/ Jeeves in 3:57
Savage is nuttier than usual due to the Flair/Liz stuff. IT’S 1992 ALL OVER AGAIN! Boy, Eaton doesn’t look to be in the best of the shape. Bischoff plugs a new cartoon that Savage will be starring in, called “Dial M for Monkey” on Cartoon Network. They show a man dressed as Fred Flintstone in the audience. Bobby Heenan, with the quickest of wit, says “it looks like Mrs. Okerlund made it tonight.” Savage kicks Eaton’s ass but once Eaton gets offense, he starts strutting like Flair and even applies a Figure Four. Jeeves even hands Eaton a Horsemen shirt to taunt Savage. Savage turns the submission over, kicks his ass some more and wins with the elbow.

An angry Savage tosses the official and goes up for another elbow. Alex Wright, Jim Duggan and other faces try to stop him but he leaps over them and hits the elbow anyway. The faces hold him down and security cuffs him before escorting him out of the building. I get what they were going for, but the match didn’t really make him feel like a loose cannon.

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Lex Luger and Sting (c) def. The Giant and WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair w/ Elizabeth and Woman in 10:34
WCW keeps churning out these big main events but not hyping them up enough. Flair stops to hit on Debra McMichael again. Flair begins the match by taking a beating from both Luger and Sting. He continues to try and take breathers but Giant rolls him back inside several times. Ric runs out and chops Giant, who responds by chasing him to the back into a commercial break. Returning, Flair is still getting beaten up. According to Heenan, Woman calmed things down. Giant comes in and gets his guys in the driver’s seat. Once he does, Flair wears down Luger and applies the Figure Four, complete with Woman helping his leverage. Sting comes in and does the hot tag stuff. He nails a superplex and tries the Scorpion Death Lock. Woman gets on the apron with the DREADED CUP OF COFFEE. She tosses it at Luger, who ducks and it catches Sting in the face, leading to the disqualification. A fun main event. Flair continues to be the Nitro MVP so far, with Sting and Luger following him. I enjoyed the continuing build of Flair/Giant and Sting/Luger. ***

The Giant plants both champions with a Chokeslam. Up in the booth, Heenan has a pair of handcuffs and Bischoff ends up trapping him in them. Heenan’s sell of this is hilarious.

Raw Rating (4/8): 4.7
Raw Rating (4/15): 3.1
Nitro Rating (4/15): 2.8

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Raw 4/8: From a storyline advancement standpoint, this show did well. Diesel/HBK was forwarded well, as were feuds between Ahmed/Bulldog, Hunter/Mero (a bit) and Warrior/Goldust. Vader came out looking like a beast too, so all of that clicked. The downside to the show was the matches just weren’t good at all. That’s going to hurt the overall score every single time. 5.0

Raw: 4/15: For a while, this was going to be rated lower than last week’s show. The match quality here was certainly better but it didn’t set up the next PPV or move many angles forward early on. However, the Vader segment was fine, I thought the main event was actually pretty solid and then Bret came out and stole the show. Bret wasn’t the best promo but he was always believable. 5.0

Nitro: Half of this show was pretty good and half of this show was lackluster. The Hogan match was awful and the Savage stuff ultimately fell flat. I thought the Street Fight was about as good as possible and the main event was fun. It forwarded two main event angles in one good match. A mixed bag of a show for sure. 5.0