Friday, February 25, 2022

Monday Night Raw 7-18-94 Review

Original Airdate: Monday, July 18th, 1994
Fernwood Resort
Bushkill, Pennsylvania

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They show a recap of the Heartbreak Hotel segment with Tatanka before going to Jim Ross and Randy Savage. 

Intercontinental Championship Match
Diesel vs. Lex Luger

This one has all of the makings of a styles clash, but maybe they will surprise me. They have a physical start to the match, with Diesel shoving his hand in Luger's face against the rope. That actually gave this match a little legitimacy to give it some character. After getting mauled in the corner, Luger fights back with a powerslam and then knocks Diesel out of the ring. It looks as if the crowd has been heavily sweetened here. Back in the ring, Diesel ducks a charging Luger and he goes flying over the top rope and to the floor. They show Ted DiBiase sneaking a peak from up in the arena before we go to commercial break. When we come back, he's not there any more and Diesel is still in control. Diesel locks in the sleeper for a considerable amount of time. Luger eventually gets out of it and avoids a boot to the face and he hits the DDT. The crowd definitely was into that false finish. Luger accidentally throws Diesel into the referee. He puts Diesel up in the Torture Rack, but Michaels comes in and superkicks him. He wakes up the ref and Diesel crawls onto Luger, but he kicks out at 2. Razor Ramon is making his way out and starts chasing Shawn Michaels around the ring. Michaels ends up in the ring and Luger attacks him. Diesel attacks Razor and the bell rings. Diesel and Michaels get the best of Razor while Luger is out of the ring. Luger eventually makes the save while they were going for a spike piledriver. DiBiase comes out briefly as well and they announce a double disqualification. This was actually a little better than I was thinking it would be. 

Match Rating: **

Mabel vs. Austin Steele

Mabel hits a big suplex on Steele and this one is going to be over quickly. Mabel catches Steele for the Rock Bottom and gets the quick victory. Nothing to see here. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for a SummerSlam Report and they're still talking about the same matches they were announced on Superstars. 

Owen Hart vs. Reno Riggins

Don't worry, folks. Leslie Nielsen is on the case to figure out the double Undertaker mystery. Apparently Bruce Hart is siding with Bret, so there's another big scoop. Owen hits a belly-to-belly suplex and slaps on the Sharpshooter for the victory. He doesn't release the hold, claiming he can't hear the ref while Jim Neidhart laughs from outside the ring. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Next week on Raw, it's Adam Bomb vs. Yokozuna. This one may have been better to wait until next week to announce. Tatanka will take on Nikolai Volkoff as well. Yeesh.

Sparky Plugg vs. George South

This is pretty much the same exact squash that we saw on Superstars except Sparky is wearing green instead of purple. He is one of the many aimless lower mid-carders right now on the roster. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

We get the whole Undertaker package that they showed on Superstars again. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Gary Sabaugh

Bam Bam is another guy that still really hasn't had a purpose, despite being a guy they probably could have given an upper mid-card push to. Sabaugh gets in a couple of clotheslines, but Bam Bam powerslams him and puts him in the Million Dollar Dream, but turns it into a bulldog for the victory. Yeah, that's not a great finisher. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

When we come back from commercial Savage and JR are with DiBiase. He tells them that he has a big announcement this weekend. Out comes Tatanka and he confronts him about Lex Luger. What a great ending to the show.

The opening match was good enough to keep me entertained, but the rest was pretty flat overall. DiBiase's continued takeover of storylines is such a drag on everything else going on. I remember SummerSlam being a good show, but they are going in extremely flat so far. Let's see how the next month goes to build some more interest in it. 

Overall Rating: 45%

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