Monday Night Raw 1-8-96 Review

Original Airdate: Monday, January 8th, 1996
Bob Carpenter Center
Newark, Delaware

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork22

They tease a major announcement from Shawn Michaels and another Billionaire Ted skit. 

Hakushi vs. Jeff Jarrett

Why wouldn't you have had this been the match for Jarrett to re-debut with instead of Fatu? We get your typical Jarrett stuff here, including grabbing the ropes for leverage during an abdominal stretch. Hakushi ducks too early and hits the swinging neckbreaker. Hakushi does finally get some offense in, hitting the cartwheel elbow in the corner. He goes for the springboard splash, but Jarrett gets his knees up. He slaps on the Figure Four and gets the victory. Again, why did they not do this with Fatu? 

Match Rating: 3/4*

We go to Jim Ross for the Slam Jam. This feels rare. Doug Gilbert of the USWA will be in the Royal Rumble! Plus, Jerry Lawler, Fatu, Isaac Yankem and Jake Roberts making his return. We then hype up Vader making his debut at the Rumble. Ross then rattles off that Henry Godwinn, Marty Jannetty, Kama and Skip will be in the Rumble. Plus, Takao Omori!

Ahmed Johnson is on his way and then we will find out who the new Million Dollar Champion is going to be. 

Ahmed Johnson vs. Jeff Brettler

Brettler's attire is definitely a choice. This is a squash in case you had any doubts. The Pearl River Plunge is enough to take care of Brettler. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Jeff Jarrett tries to smash Ahmed with the guitar after the match, but Ahmed avoids it and smashes it himself as Jarrett runs away. 

Next week on Raw, it's going to be Undertaker taking on Isaac Yankem. Just what I need to see is more of those two wrestling each other. Plus, Marty Jannetty will take on Owen Hart. 

It's time for more Brother Love and he's with Ted DiBiase to make his big announcement. He finally found his guy, the Ringmaster. Total jobber. He holds his hand up to the camera so that everyone at home can touch their own hand to the screen to feel good about themselves. He says that he is in the Royal Rumble and that he'll tossing everyone over the top rope, man. He says the WWF Championship doesn't mean as much as the Million Dollar Championship, man. 

Goldust vs. Aldo Montoya

They sure gave up on Montoya pretty quickly and probably rightfully so. Aldo is able to get a back body drop in, but Goldust blocks the hip toss and hits the Curtain Call for the easy victory. This is the most Superstars feeling episode of Raw in some time. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

We go back to Jim Ross for the Slam Jam. He shows us an interview from earlier today from Shawn Michaels saying that the doctors don't think he should compete. He says sorry, but he's throwing his name in the Royal Rumble and that he's going to WrestleMania to face the WWF Champion. Scheme Gene is involved in all of this. 

Lawler says that this is the biggest mistake in Shawn Michaels' life. Not career, life. Diesel wishes his best friend luck. Razor thinks it's too soon to come back. Owen Hart says that he hurt him bad and that he's not ready for the Royal Rumble. He'll make sure he never wrestles again. 

Well, now it's one again time for another In Your House match shown for free. Again, I was very excited to be able to see this match, especially since it got great reviews. I just don't know how I would have felt if I paid for it. 

WWF Championship Match
British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart

Let's see how this one holds up. After feeling each other out, Bulldog puts Bret in the tree of woe and we get a weird spot with Bulldog hitting the referee and him playing it up like it was accidental, but not in a heel way. We get an "E-C-W" chant with Bulldog still on offense, but it doesn't last too long. Vince makes an announcement that Undertaker will take on the winner of this match. In 1995, this wasn't a bad thing to do since they didn't really do a ton of babyface vs. babyface matches during this time. Cornette gets in a cheap shot and Bulldog goes back to rest holds. We do get the big Bret sternum-first turnbuckle spot as well. Bret makes his comeback with a monkey flip and hits a bulldog on the Bulldog. Bret goes for a superplex, but Bulldog crotches him on the top rope and Bret falls to the floor. Bulldog lifts Bret up and drives his back into the ring post. Bret is gushing blood now and Bulldog throws him back into the ring. Bulldog hits a piledriver and the delayed vertial suplex while Vince says the match needs to be stopped. Bulldog puts on the bow and arrow submission, but Bret leaps out of it and tries to put on the Sharpshooter in a nice little momentum shift attempt. Bulldog knocks Bret with a shoulder tackle and Bret rolls out of the ring. Bret is always so good at timing his little spots. He makes a comeback and hits a dive onto Bulldog to the outside. He tries to do a reverse jump on top of Bulldog, but he catches him and hits a powerslam to the floor and Bret continues to bleed. Bulldog rolls up the protective padding outside and Bret blocks the suplex attempt by crotching Bulldog on the guardrail. He clotheslines him and Bulldog falls to the floor. We go back to the ring and Bret hits a top rope superplex. Bret works on Bulldog and goes for a quick pin attempt and pulls off the victory. Diana is not happy about it and comforts her husband to the back. This was a very good main event. With that being said, for whatever reason, I don't like the Bret/Bulldog matches as much as a lot of people do. 

Match Rating: ****

Funny that right after they just showed an exclusive pay per view match, Vince promises that the Royal Rumble matches will only be shown on pay per view. We hear from Undertaker and he says that he intends to deliver for the creatures of the night. Kathy Schreck wins the Royal Rumble Sweepstakes and are going to fabulous Fresno, California. 

Don't forget to watch next week to see two morons square off when Isaac Yankem faces Undertaker. Plus, the Ringmaster makes his debut. 

It's time for Billionaire Ted again. They even make steroids again. Vince is really the master of being a hypocrite. 

Again, this is another episode that is hard to rate. Obviously, the Bret/Bulldog match ruled and took up most of the time. However, everything else sucked. The Ringmaster debut felt flat, the matches were really short and basically just filler and the Billionaire Ted stuff is god awful. Hard to say anything other than a thumbs down. 

Overall Rating: 34%

Superstars 1-6-96 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, January 6th, 1996
Stabler Arena
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

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Ahmed Johnson vs. Jerry Lawler Royal Spider

Lawler comes out on crutches and says that he's not in any condition to wrestle today, so instead we get the Royal Spider. This is Thrasher from the Headbangers. Out comes Jeff Jarrett already to provide a distraction that allows Spider to dropkick Ahmed out of the ring. Ahmed chases after Jarrett but realizes he would get counted out and gets back in the ring. Ahmed hits a scissor kick to the back and the Pearl River Plunge for the easy win. I'm not really sure what the point of all of this is. Lawler walks to the back. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go to Dok Hendrix at the Slam Jam. He announces that Goldust will now challenge Razor Ramon at Royal Rumble. Goldust gives a long promo on Razor. I wasn't really listening. We get Fatu, Jerry Lawler, Isaac Yankem, Doug Gilbert and Jake Roberts is coming back!

They show clips of Diesel beating Mabel at the Raw Bowl in 11 seconds and Diesel walking away with the young lady. 

Isaac Yankem vs. Brian Walsh

Are we really still doing this? Why is this match longer than 30 seconds? Please go away.

Match Rating: 1/4*

Next week on Superstars, it's Henry Godwinn vs. Owen Hart. Yes, please. 

Mr. Perfect is in the ring to bring out Razor Ramon for an interview. Perfect rambles on and on to get under Razor's skin about how Goldust is getting under his skin and that Razor can't sleep at night. He said he talked to Goldust earlier on and he asked him for a favor. He hands Razor a teddy bear like Goldust and Razor knocks it down and heads to the back. 

They hype up Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog from In Your House being shown on Raw on Monday. Plus, Hakushi will take on Jeff Jarrett. 

We see Ted DiBiase is talking to Brother Love on the phone and he confirms that he'll be on Raw and he's hyping up the new Million Dollar Champion he found. DiBiase was so terrible as a manager. 

Skip vs. Rad Radford

We finally are getting the big payoff to this scorching hot storyline. Radford runs in the ring and hits a series of clotheslines with the final one knocking Skip to the floor. He hides behind Sunny but picks her up and moves her out of the way. That allows Skip to attack from behind and take control of the match. Radford gets a little burst of offense until he misses with the elbow drop. We even get a commercial break during this one. Skip goes up to the top rope but Radford meets him ther and hits a superplex. Skip is back on offense but not for long when Radford shoves Skip off the top rope when he goes for his hurricanrana. Radford hits a spinebuster and then a northern lights suplex. Sunny distracts the referee and a guy dressed up like Skip interferes, giving Skip the win. The celebrate together and Sunny says that his name is Zip and he is Skip's twin brother. Couldn't they have just said brother? Zip is 13 years older than Skip. The match was decent enough. 

Match Rating: **

They show a hype video for Vader. As a kid, this was a very big deal to me. Even though I didn't know a lot about WCW at the time, I knew Vader and Sting were the two guys I wanted to jump over to WWF. 

We now get a Mankind vignette just showing his missing ear. They don't say who he is or anything. Do you know how annoying it is that we finally get to one of my favorite years as a fan and now I can't even watch Raw anymore? 

It's now time for the replay of the Undertaker/Mabel match from In Your House just in case you weren't insulted enough if you actually bought the show by this time. 

Casket Match
King Mabel vs. Undertaker

Boy, I am excited for this one. Taker hits a splash in the corner but Mabel comes back with a Boss Man Slam. Taker sits up so Mabel hits a body slam. Mabel goes to the second rope and misses with a splash after Taker sits up. Taker hits a couple of clotheslines but then Mo grabs his ankle for the distraction. Mabel hits the belly-to-belly suplex and hits the leg drop. Taker tries to sit up but he can't do it. Mabel hits a big splash and then Mo drags Taker out of the ring. Mo carries Taker on his shoulder and puts him in the casket. They don't close the door and then Mo grabs Mabel's crown and puts it on. Mabel struts over and Taker naturally blocks it. Taker is back in the ring and hits some more clotheslines. The leaping clothesline finally knocks Mabel off his feet. Taker kicks Mabel in the back and he falls into the casket. Mo attacks Taker before he can close the door. Taker hits a chokeslam on him and rolls him into the casket on top of Mabel. Before he closes the lid, Taker grabs the gold chain from Mo and then slams it shut to put us out of our misery. At least it was short. After the match, Undertaker gives the signal that he wants the WWF Championship. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

For the record, I did not watch this again. We go back to Dok and he does the worst impression of Michael Jackson that you will ever hear. He hypes up Diesel being in the Rumble before talking about the title match between Undertaker and Bret Hart. We're only 2 weeks away!

We now see the Raw Bowl queen and she's with Hunter Hearst Helmsley drinking wine sitting by the fireplace. He says that 1996 will be the best year yet. 

Now it's time for Billionaire Ted. This was such a stupid and desperate campaign. 

Next week they will show us highlights of Shawn Michaels' press conference. On top of Owen/Godwinn, we are also getting Goldust vs. Barry Horowitz. That show sounds better. The Skip match was pretty good and actually gave us some storyline but the rest of the show was awful. 

Overall Rating: 36%

Off The Grid, Volume 60: Clash Of The Champions XXVIII Review

Wednesday, August 24th, 1994
Five Seasons Center
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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Off The Grid, Volume 60:

We get a disclaimer that this is the most complete version of the show due to technical difficulties. It seems as if the intro must have been what they are referring to since the Nasty Boys are the first thing you see and they reference that the national anthem was sung.

Nasty Boys vs. Pretty Wonderful

The Nasty Boys are usually a pretty good time. As I say that, I'm already not paying attention to the match. Orndorff just always feels so old when I see him during this run. I don't necessarily mean it in a mean way, just that he seems like he's just from such a different era. Orndorff goes for the piledriver, but Sags is able to hit the back body drop and tag in Knobs. He gets double teamed after he gets in a bunch of right hands. Things break down with all four in the ring. Orndorff hits a suplex and Roma hits the splash. Sags hits an elbow off the top on Orndorff and picks up the win despite not being the legal man. This was a fun enough Clash style match. 

Match Rating: **1/4

We get a Hulk Hogan hotline commercial. I bet that's not a scam. 

Mean Gene brings out the "most awesome force in WCW history"...Hulk Hogan. There's no way at this point that you could even really say that. As Hogan comes out (following Jimmy Hart first), a masked man attacks Hogan from behind and he sells it like it's the most insane beating ever taken. Gene keeps saying "Look at that knee!". It looked like absolutely nothing. You'd think a guy who has starred in movies would be a better actor. Mean Gene wants to get a word with him but then says he is in way too much pain and starts yelling "Get him out of here!". This is just so bad. 

United States Championship Match
Ricky Steamboat vs. Steve Austin

Oh good, they're just going to talk about Hogan instead of this match that should rule. We get a pretty slow pace here to start. We get news that Sting saw what happened on TV and is taking a plane to get to the arena. He will wrestle in Hogan's place tonight if needed. It should be noted also that Barry Darsow is in the front row and the now have acknowledged him as a "loud mouthed fan". Surprisingly, there hasn't been a lot of note in here until Steamboat crotches Austin on the top rope. Steamboat goes for a superplex, but Austin shoves him off. Steamboat comes back and slams Austin face-first into the mat. Steamboat shows some more fire and the crowd loves that. We get a series of pin attempts, which is probably one of my favorites of the more frequently used spots in a match. It goes on for quite a bit and then eventually works for Steamboat and we have a new champion. The match started slower than I expected but picked up to some good stuff at the end. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

Oh, don't worry. It's time for more Hulk Hogan. They go to Eric Bischoff and see Hogan coming out of the ambulance at the hospital. He says Hogan felt something snap in his knee. 

It's now time for a new music video from Honky Tonk Man, who is coming to WCW. Talk about striking while the iron is hot. His song is basically his usual song except he says "baby" instead of "man". This was as pointless as you would think it would be in 1994. 

Mean Gene is now with Nick Bockwinkle. If Hogan is unable to wrestle tonight, he will have to relinquish the title. 

We go to a segment with Dusty Rhodes is in the ring with Dustin to talk about some of the opponents in the way and that Dustin is a future world champion. Dusty wants to be Dustin's partner. They embrace and the crowd goes wild. 

Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes

We get to hear one of the worst entrance themes of all time with Dustin's. Luckily, they get right to business and we don't have to hear much. Schiavone speculates that this was always their plan to get Dusty back in the ring. Dustin gets most of the action to start before tagging in dad. Dusty is 48 years old here and the crowd loves all of his elbow shenanigans. We get the classic spot where Bunkhouse hits Funk on accident and out comes Arn Anderson. I will say, all four men are putting in a good effort here. It all breaks down and Arn comes in and DDTs Dustin for the stupid DQ finish. Meng is now out and Dusty hits him with a wooden chair, which smashes over his head and Meng no sells it. We get a melee with the heels destroying the Rhodes family and officials trying to break it up. We take a commercial with chaos still continuing. This was more of a storyline match but the effort here was really good and the crowd loved all of it. 

Match Rating: ***

Back to this stupid Hogan drama with Bischoff. They are very concerned about the severity of his knee injury. If Hogan forfeits the title, he will get the first title shot but Hogan wants to wrestle tonight. Jimmy Hart says whatever Hogan wants to do is what he'll do. 

Back to Mean Gene in the arena and he brings out Ric Flair. If Hogan can't wrestle, Flair wants Hogan to walk down the aisle and hand him the title. We get lots of yelling here from both Flair and Sherri. 

We come back from commercial and Mean Gene says that he has heard that Hogan is on his way back to the arena and Heenan can't believe it. 

Lord Steven Regal vs. Antonio Inoki

Regal starts as the aggressor as Heenan and Schiavone tell us how Inoki has wrestled Muhammad Ali and Andre The Giant. Just in case you were worried about Hogan since we haven't heard about him for about 2 minutes, they show him limping into the arena. Nick Bockwinkle joins the announce team just in case you needed more Hogan news. He says that he advised Hogan not to wrestle. Meanwhile, the action in the ring is mostly on the mat. Then out of nowhere, Inoki puts the choke sleeper hold on, which seems like it should be illegal. I mean, this is the same organization that disqualifies you if you throw someone over the top rope. Anyway, that's the finish. This was dull. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Call the Hulk Hogan hotline. 

WCW Championship Match
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

We get the delayed Hogan entrance with Flair on the mic calling for him. He comes out with his knee wrapped and a limp. Hogan goes right after Flair before his robe is even off. Hogan is his usual cheating self and starts biting Flair. Flair pulls Hogan out of the ring but it's Hogan so of course it doesn't work. Flair goes up top and Hogan slams him to the mat. Hogan then starts brawling with him up the entrance ramp. Hogan misses with a chair and that allows Flair to get his first offense in. Flair hits a vertical suplex and of course Hogan no sells that too. To his credit, the crowd absolutely loves this. Sherri comes in and hits Hogan's knee and Flair starts to focus his attack there. Flair puts on the Figure Four in the center of the ring and naturally Hogan the good guy is able to rake the eyes of Flair to get out. Hogan hulks up and hits a leg drop but that hurt him. Flair puts on the Figure Four again and I should comment on how good Heenan is here. Hogan reverses the hold and rolls to the ropes. Sherri hits Hogan's knee with her shoe and Hogan rolls out of the ring. Flair wins by countout and the crowd absolutely hates that. They announce Flair as the new champion for some reason and then they announce Hogan as the winner by disqualification. Leave it to WCW to ruin a good main event. Out comes the masked man and he helps Flair attack Hogan. He puts the Figure Four on again and the masked man runs away. Out comes Sting to make the save. You know, if you're going to do an injury angle, it would have been ok for Hogan to lose here. This was one of the best Hogan WCW matches that I can remember though before the stupid ending. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

Shows like this are so hard to rate. I enjoyed everything for the most part but at the same time the Hogan stuff was so obnoxious, and the finish was your typical crap Hogan finish. However, 3 of the 5 matches were pay per view quality and that's enough for me to recommend it. If you for some reason like Hogan, this one's for you. 

Overall Rating: 68%

Monday Nitro 1-1-96 Review

Monday, January 1st, 1996
The Omni
Atlanta, Georgia

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork22

Eric Bischoff welcomes into 1996 along with Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael. Bischoff says that just in case you were vacationing in a third world country, Ric Flair is the new WCW Champion. What a weird comment. 

Arn Anderson vs. Randy Savage

Savage runs in and Arn is ready for it. Savage fights him off and tosses him out of the ring. They remind us of Savage not being healthy during his title reign and that he's the ultimate working man's champion. McMichael is sick of all the interference, so Heenan says he should do something about it. Arn rams Savage's arm into the ring post and goes to work on it. Bischoff is more annoying than normal so far here. Arn hits a DDT and gets a big pop from the Atlanta crowd. Arn tries to use a foreign object but Savage is able to knock it out of Arn's hand. He hits him with a right hand and picks up the victory. Brian Pillman and Chris Benoit are out but its too late, as Savage escapes to the back. This was a decent enough TV match.

Match Rating: **

Steven Regal vs. Chris Benoit

Classic WCW with having Benoit just out in the ring and then having him go to the back and come right back out for his match. We see Hank Aaron in the audience, which is pretty cool. We get a piledriver reversal by Benoit and he is able to hit it on Regal. Benoit misses with a dive to the outside. Regal rolls him into the ring and picks up the victory? All they talk about is how the other Horsemen are always around and then they have two of them job in the first matches of the night. This was disappointing. 

Match Rating: *

Mean Gene is in the ring now with Pillman, Anderson and Benoit. Pillman isn't happy about them being 0-2. Benoit said it took pure luck for Regal to beat him tonight. Sure. Benoit then makes a comment about naked women in the limo and you can tell Gene is about to lose it. Arn tells them they prosper as a unit. Out comes the Dungeon of Doom. Giant grabs Zodiac and Sullivan and drags them back. 

Super Assassins vs. Sting & Lex Luger

I completely forgot that Warlord was with WCW ever during this time period. And here we go again with Sgt. Craig Pittman. This time he wants to talk to McMichael while two of their absolute top stars are wrestling. He wants Mongo to be his manager. Mongo declines but says to that he doesn't need anyone because he used to be a Sgt. and he's got this. Meanwhile, the Assassins are taking care of business here. Sting tags in Luger but the referee doesn't see it and the beatdown continues. Luger finally gets tagged in and gets Warlord up in the Torture Rack. He lasts a lot longer than most because they want to wait for Sting to get the Scorpion Death Lock in too. No surprise that the Atlanta crowd loves their Sting and Luger victory here. 

Match Rating: *1/2

Mean Gene interviews Jimmy Hart and Giant. Jimmy asks Gene if he's standing in a hole or if he's really that short, which is great. 

Clash of the Champions is coming January 23rd. 

WCW Championship Match
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

Look at me watching these two wrestle twice in the same day. We get the usual stuff here with these two. Despite these two having quite a few matches up to this point, the crowd is just 100% behind this. Hogan hits the big boot and out comes Jimmy Hart. He distracts Hogan and Arn Anderson comes from behind and nails Hogan. Hogan of course no sells it and being the idiot that he is, shows the referee and he calls for the bell. Pillman is out here and Giant and Savage. Savage saves Hogan and the heels back off? The match was good enough for what it was but nothing more. 

Match Rating: **

We hear from Savage and Hogan and we find out they will face Flair and Anderson next week. Bischoff brags about being #1 and that numbers talk. 

This was a pretty good show, but they continue to just stick to the big names and not really feature so many of their midcard stars. I'm not sure when that shifts but I am looking forward to it. For the meantime, this was an entertaining hour of pro wrestling. 

Overall Rating: 61%

Monday Night Raw: Raw Bowl 1-1-96 Review

Original Airdate: Monday, January 1st, 1996
Bob Carpenter Center
Newark, Delaware

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork22

We get a Raw Bowl preview including them hyping up Billionaire Ted and all of that crap. They even have a marching band performing in the crowd. Lawler is wearing his custom Browns jersey. I think a lot of people hated this, but it's stupid fun in my opinion. 

Raw Bowl 
Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Razor Ramon & Savio Vega vs. Sid & 1-2-3 Kid

They show Brother Love in the locker room while Owen and Yoko are entering for whatever reason. Goldust's usher presents Razor with a box of flowers and he takes them and hits him over the head with it. Goldust is shown lurking. Bart Gunn and Owen start things off. After they make contact, Owen tags in Billy Gunn and the two partners have to make contact. They do some basic stuff and then tag in both Owen and Yoko. Obviously that doesn't take much and they are able to tag out. Earl Hebner is wearing a white hat like the football refs do and the mat is green. All of these types of things are nice little touches. Now that I'm thinking about it, was this the first ever multi-tag team match in WWF history? Bart hits a delayed vertical suplex on Sid, which is pretty impressive. They show Brother Love again in the back. Kid misses a kick in the corner and gets hung up, but it's his own corner, so Sid is able to help him recover. Razor finally gets his hands on the Kid, but then Kid calls a timeout. Razor hits the Razor's Edge anyways and that's a penalty. Then DiBiase gets on the apron and that may be a penalty too. Sid then attacks Razor from behind and the Kid is able to eliminate Razor. Savio claims to have called timeout, but the referee declines. Lawler then does the Magistrator, showing us how Razor was eliminated. Owen misses Bart with a top rope splash and Bart is able to tag in Billy. He takes care of the entire opposition, including Jim Cornette. Kid gets a cheap shot in to slow down his momentum. Yoko gets up for the splash, but Bart pulls him out of the way and they move Owen in there. Billy rolls over and pins Owen despite Yoko calling for timeout. Sid quickly comes in and attacks Billy. Sid hits a big chokeslam on Billy. Lawler keeps interviewing some Ashley lady and she has the charisma of a zucchini. Kid goes off the top, but out comes Razor and he shoves him off behind the referee's back and the Gunns win the first and only Raw Bowl. This was goofy fun, with my only complaint being all the stupid football puns from Vince and Lawler. 

Match Rating: **1/4

Lawler claims that Shawn Michaels is definitely retiring. 

We go to the Wrigley's Halftime Report with Dok Hendrix. We have a countdown clock in the corner and we go to Jim Ross who says that Diesel told him that he's going to kick the king's can. Dok then runs over the announced card for Royal Rumble and then we go back to Vince and Lawler. 

We are now going to see the Hog Pen match from In Your House. Here is my review from that show.

Hog Pen Match
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Henry Godwinn

Godwinn misses with the slop bucket outside the ring but then about a minute later is able to shove some in the face of Helmsley. Helmsley recovers and takes control. The action goes out to the aisle and Helmsley throws Godwinn into the metal door of the hog pen. Helmsley goes for the Pedigree in front of the hog pen but Godwinn counters it. Helmsley is able to catch himself on the fence and hits an elbow drop off of it. They head back to the ring and Godwinn runs into a boot from Helmsley in the corner. It doesn't take long for the match to go back to the pen and Helmsley this time is thrown into the metal door. Godwinn hits the Slop Drop right outside the pen. Godwinn charges at Helmsley and he gets dumped into the pen to win the match to remain undefeated in singles competition. He swats away Hillbilly Jim's arm as he raises it so Godwinn attacks him and military presses him in the pen. Helmsley's back is bleeding pretty good and then he does a spot where he keeps slipping in the mud. The pigs want nothing to do with him though. This was a fun enough novelty of a match even if it wasn't anything great in terms of action. 

Match Rating: *3/4

Next week, Hakushi takes on Jeff Jarrett and then they're going to show another match from In Your House. No better way to insult the paying audience then to give away two of the matches for free. As someone who did not order the show, I was excited, but that's beside the point. 

King Mabel vs. Diesel

Diesel attacks Mabel, hits the big boot and picks up the quick victory. He then throws Mo in the ring and gives him a Jackknife. He's got a new attitude and he's taking it to WCW. Stay tuned! For the time being, Diesel will be in the Royal Rumble. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Lawler and Vince fight over interviewing Diesel and Lawler eventually says he'll do it. He tries to, but Diesel takes Ashley instead and heads to the back. 

Brooklyn Brawler presents the Smoking Gunns with the Lombardi Trophy. Steve Lombardi, get it? The Gunns smash it and attack the Brawler. 

They keep teasing a "monster" announcement for a new entrant in the Royal Rumble. 

They announce Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Dory Funk Jr., Savio Vega, King Mabel, Bam Bam Bigelow, Barry Horowitz, Yokozuna, Tatanka and the big surprise, Vader. He gets a vignette showing off his skills. 

Now it's time for the beginning of the both legendary and terrible Billionaire Ted skits. Yes, this includes Nacho Man, the Huckster and Scheme Gene. Keep in mind that this is the same company that just trotted out Bob Backlund in the main event of their last Raw. 

This episode was all over the place. The Raw Bowl stuff was a blast and took up a good portion of the show. The inclusion of the Hog Pen match was kind of odd and makes this kind of hard to rate as a whole. The Diesel build continued and we got the Vader announcement. I'd say this was more bad than good. 

Overall Rating: 51%

Superstars 12-30-95 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, December 30th, 1995

Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2

Unfortunately, this is a 1995 recap show rather than an actual episode of Superstars. We get a Todd Pettengill narrated introduction before sending us to Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect in the television studio. They briefly talk about the top stars before going into Bam Bam Bigelow (does he even work here any more?) and Lawrence Taylor. 

This leads to Todd doing a terrible old timey sports announcer voice as they show us the story of Bam Bam and LT. We get highlights of the match, which was solid for what it was. Vince is his phony mood today and sounds like he's running an infomercial. They show Bob Backlund declaring that he's running for president before the first commercial break. 

We get our next 1995 Superstar Moment and it's Jerry Lawler and his nosebleed as he dangled over the cage match between Isaac Yankem and Bret Hart. This leads into the Kiss My Foot match. They go through this one more quickly than the LT one and focus more on Lawler's comeuppance. That then leads into Isaac Yankem. 

They then go back to Survivor Series...1994? They talk about Owen making Martha to throw the towel in and costing Bret the title. This leads to a highlight package of Bret's 1995 up until Survivor Series 1995. Jim Ross then narrates a brief moment where they show Bret/Diesel for a second. 

Even though it's a recap show, we still have to see Dok Hendrix for the Slam Jam. He talks about Bret Hart vs. Undertaker and we hear from Paul Bearer and Undertaker. Taker says the creatures of the night are calling for him to win the WWF title. He then talks about the big match between Ahmed Johnson facing Jeff Jarrett. He'll tell us about 4 new names later on. They then show fake Bill Clinton flirting with Sunny. 

We come back to Barry Horowitz's first victory and then Vince and Perfect mocking JR's call. That naturally leads into them talking about...Razor Ramon. They recap the saga with 1-2-3 Kid. It's interesting how much focus is going to be put on him and Diesel when they are going to be leaving 4 months or so. 

They go on to start talking about Razor's new rival, Goldust. Vince thinks Goldust is just getting in the head of Razor. Perfect then says that he'll interview Razor next week. 

It's time to pretend that Jeff Jarrett didn't leave for a few months over a contract dispute. They hype up the Royal Rumble match and remind us that he won't be in the actual Rumble match thanks to Gorilla Monsoon. 

It's now time to talk about Kama and the feud with Undertaker. This is kind of surprising since Kama is basically a nothing at this point. It's time to talk about Mabel too and he's also basically a nothing. Diesel isn't too happy about Undertaker's title shot. 

We get a clip of the Smoking Gunns winning the tag titles from Owen Hart and Yokozuna. 

They start talking about Diesel and basically openly admit how he was booked poorly by kissing babies and doing media appearances. They think his schedule may have caused him to lose the WWF title and they show a few highlights of the Survivor Series match and his interview the next night. 

It's back to Dok for the Slam Jam. He announces some new entrants starting with British Bulldog and we hear from him and Jim Cornette. Savio Vega gets a rare interview spot and he's also in the Rumble. He's my pick to go all the way. Dok then announces King Mabel and Dory Funk Jr...

It's time to talk about the heartbreak around Shawn Michaels. We get to hear "Tell Me A Lie" one more time. 

Next week we get Ahmed Johnson vs. Jerry Lawler and Skip vs. Rad Radford. Vince asks Perfect his favorite moment and of course it is him coming back and Vince does some terrible comedic acting. Ted DiBiase says his best moment was acquiring Sid. Henry Godwinn's favorite was slopping DiBiase and throwing Hunter Hearst Helmsley in the mud. Bret's was winning the WWF Championship. They then go back to Mr. Perfect who is still rambling. Hilarious.

1995 in many regards is the worst year in WWF history. A weak roster, poor booking and watering down the product with monthly pay-per-views really left a sour taste in most people's mouths. However, this is the year I fell back in love with wrestling. I don't really know what it was that drew me back in to pro wrestling, but I was hooked once again. With that being said, this recap wasn't really that great. It didn't really do anything particularly well and Vince was pretty poor as a host here. 

Overall Rating: 40%

Starrcade 1995 Review

Wednesday, December 27th, 1995
Nashville Municipal Auditorium
Nashville, Tennessee

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Well, my main gripe is that I had no idea what the matches were tonight and they kick off the show running through them really quickly as part of the short intro. We're then welcomed by Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan. 

Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger

We get some good wrestling, which is shocking, I know. The crowd is behind Benoit because of this being the World Cup. Liger shows off some of his submission mastery by putting on about 3 holds in the matter of a minute. This was the obvious choice for the opener and it is paying dividends because Benoit really hasn't been featured a ton on Nitro lately. He hits a superplex and that gets a nice pop from the crowd. Benoit misses with the diving headbutt and Liger hits a sitdown powerbomb for a 2 count. Benoit comes back with some German suplexes and then a traditional powerbomb. He hits the diving headbutt this time and out comes Kevin Sullivan with Jimmy Hart pulling him back. It distracts Benoit and Liger sort of hits a hurricanrana into a pin and picks up the victory. A rare botch by Liger. This was a solid match and made the whole World Cup thing feel important. 

Match Rating: ***1/2

Eddie Guerrero is with Mean Gene and he struggles getting out his words on how he felt about Kevin Sullivan interfering. This is a great example of how far Eddie came in his time from WCW to headliner in WWE. 

Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright

Kanemoto is not someone I am familiar with other than the one time I watched this show years ago. The crowd chants "USA" despite neither man being from there. Wrestling fans at their finest. Wright hits a dive over the top rope and to the floor. Kanemoto kind of no sells it and yells at a fan instead. This one has kind of felt like a bunch of moves here so far. Kanemoto then hits a dive of his own. Kanemoto hits a moonsault and decides not to pin Wright and the announcers are baffled. Wright hits a German suplex into a bridge and gets a 2 count. Kanemoto comes off the top rope and Wright hits him with a dropkick. He then climbs up top and hits a big missile dropkick. Wright hits a superplex and gets a 2 count. Kanemoto then sneaks in a pinfall and picks up the victory to go up 2-0. This was not a bad match, but I didn't really get the story they were trying to tell. 

Match Rating: **1/2

Mean Gene hypes up the hotline before talking to Sonny Ono. He talks about wanting to go up 5-0, which Mean Gene corrects him and says they would stop at 4-0. Sonny then says that maybe he'll buy WCW and Iowa because everything in America is for sale. 

Masahiro Chono vs. Lex Luger

It really is crazy to me how over Luger is in WCW coming off an absolutely awful first half of 1995 in WWF. Chono hits a big boot and finall slows down Luger. For the record, Luger is the first of the 3 competitors to represent WCW that is actually from America. Chono slaps on the STF and this match has really slowed down quickly after a solid start. Dusty makes fun of Tony for knowing the names of moves. Chono goes off the top rope and Luger hits him with a back elbow. He throws him up in the Torture Rack and that's all. He celebrates with Jimmy and they insist the crowd is cheering him because of the World Cup. I don't think that's the case here. This was pretty meh.

Match Rating: *

Mean Gene is now with Sting. Sting is so cheesy, but there really is something about his honesty that is enjoyable. 

Johnny B. Badd vs. Masa Saito

Ono gets on the mic and says that Kimberly is everything that is wrong with America and then she gets on the mic and this is all bad. Saito is 53 years old here. After some stalling, they begin to start slapping chests. I'm not sure I've ever seen Badd do that. The crowd is absolutely dead for this one as Saito is slowly just working on Badd. Badd makes a comeback and hits a sunset flip off the top rope for a 2 count. Badd grabs Ono on the apron and Saito attacks him and we get kind of a botched finish with Saito struggling to get Badd over the top. He eventually does and we get a DQ finish to tie everything up at 2-2. Badd dropkicks Saito out of the ring and this was all not very good. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Jimmy Hart and Luger are with Mean Gene. This is what WCW is all about according to Luger. He calls Savage a pathetic, one-armed champion. This is a really long interview for some reason. 

Shinjiro Ootani vs. Eddie Guerrero 

Please explain to me why Ric Flair doesn't have a match against NJPW and why Sting's match is right before the triangle match? I always felt like WCW was stupid about things like that. Our first bit of action ends with Guerrero hitting a hurricanrana. Guerrero slaps on the Boston crab and Dusty plays the role of Gorilla Monsoon saying that he isn't doing it correctly. Eddie hits a couple of high impact moves with a powerbomb and brainbuster. Ootani comes back with a springboard missile dropkick and then a dive to the floor. We're kind of getting some slower action than I thought and then they are hitting some high impact moves. Eddie hits a top rope hurricanrana and a sit down powerbomb for a 2 count. Eddie hits a springboard reverse crossbody to Ootani on the floor. Guerrero hits a hurricanrana into a pin and we get a few counters into pins and Ootani gets the better of it for the victory. This was a solid match that felt like it could have been better had they worked a little bit better pace. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

Savage has a backstage interview with Mean Gene and we get a very early 90s style interview here from him in a great way. This was a fun moment. 

Tenzan vs. Randy Savage

I still think it's so weird that they booked a triangle match where the winner faces Savage and then made these guys be part of the World Cup. Why not have some of your other wrestlers take those spots? The crowd is pretty quiet for a Savage match, which tells you how this World Cup is going. Tenzan mostly dominates and it's pretty plotting. HE hits a top rope headbutt, but it's not enough. Dusty Rhodes trying to tell Savage how to do a suplex is fun. Savage goes up top and hits the elbow drop for the win. He ties it up for WCW, leaving it up to Sting. Who could have seen that coming? 

Match Rating: 1/2*

Flair cuts a promo and I'm starting to feel like this is WrestleMania VIII all over again. Flair's hair during this era is such a crime. 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Sting

The crowd is definitely a little more invested in Sting here tonight. Does anyone actually care who wins the World Cup though? Sasaki puts Sting into the Scorpion Death Lock and Tony is just amazed. It doesn't take long for Sting to make his comeback and he slaps him in the Scorpion Death Lock. Sasaki lasts for a few, but he eventually has to tap. This was nothing. 

Match Rating: *

Gene is now in the ring with all of the WCW competitors who participated and talks about how historic this night is. I promise you it isn't. Again, we get "U-S-A" chants even though Wright, Guerrero and Benoit aren't from there. Gene wants this to become an annual event. Don't worry, it won't be. 

Triangle Match
Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair vs. Sting

All three of these guys are entertaining in their own way, but so far I haven't been captivated. I should note that in this variation of the three person match, one competitor stands on the apron and has to be tagged in. So this is a lot less chaotic than what we are accustomed to these days. We finally get our first tease of the Luger/Sting friendship, but they let it go. It really is amazing that Vince dumped so much money on the Lex Express and it failed miserably and all he had to do was jump back over to WCW in a surprise move and he's over big time. Flair finally makes it Luger vs. Sting and we get a slow build. They eventually get going and Sting gets Luger down and calling for timeout. This match is starting to feel like it's been going on forever at this point. This just isn't really a compelling match for whatever reason. Luger gets Sting up in the Torture Rack and Sting's leg hits the referee. This allows Flair to interfere and knock both men out of the ring. Sting tries to get back in before the 10 count, but Luger grabs his arm and both men are counted out. Flair advances to take on Savage. This was like watching paint dry way too often considering who was involved. 

Match Rating: **

WCW Championship Match
Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

We're getting some more mediocre action here and then out comes...Paul Orndorff in a neck brace? Why is he anywhere near a main event in 1995? Savage gets Flair outside, but Flair hits Savage in the midsection on the way down from his top rope double ax handle. I really wanted to like this show, but it's actually worse than I remember. This is just so dead. I'm not sure which is worse. WCW having a hot TV product and better roster, but then mostly not delivering on pay per view or WWF having a terrible roster and having occupational gimmicks? Jimmy Hart distracts the ref and throws the megaphone to Flair. Savage takes it away and hits Flair with it. Jimmy still has the ref distracted. Flair is bleeding and Savage hits the top rope elbow drop. Out comes Pillman, but Savage throws him off the top rope. Out comes Arn Anderson and he hits Savage with the brass knuckles. Flair is your new champion and that wakes the crowd up. I mean that was a lot of shenanigans for such a short match. WCW just never executed those as well for whatever reason. Pillman takes the title belt and whips Savage with it while Flair celebrates. 

Match Rating: **

Like I said, I really wanted to like this show. It just didn't click. The World Cup was pointless and the main events didn't deliver what you would expect from these guys. It wasn't terrible and the Liger match was solid, but that just isn't enough to make you ever need to see this. 

Overall Rating: 46%