Monday, January 9th, 1995
The Summit
Houston, Texas
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Not only are we live, we are in an actual legitimate venue. No ceiling shots tonight. They talk about William Shatner being Jerry Lawler's guest tonight and we get a pre-taped interview of Shatner backstage.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Razor Ramon vs. Owen Hart
Owen rips the title belt out of the hands of the referee, so Razor nails him before clotheslining him out of the ring. Razor gets in all the early offense here, including catching Owen and hitting the fall away slam. He signals for the Razor's Edge, but Owen is able to dump Razor to the floor before hitting a dive through the ropes. Back in the ring, Owen hits a top rope crossbody, but Razor rolls through and gets a 2 count. Owen hits a dropkick as we are going to a commercial break. When we come back, Owen hits an enzuigiri for a nearfall. Owen hits a nice spin kick on Razor as he's running the ropes faster than I have ever seen him run them. Owen leaps up on the back of Razor to slap on the sleeper hold in the center of the ring. It's nice to hear an actual crowd reaction for these matches and it's clear that Razor is over. He's able to power out of it with a back suplex and both men are down. Owen crotches Razor on the top rope and he accidentally falls to the outside. Razor climbs in and gets hit with a missile dropkick. Owen slaps on the Sharpshooter and out comes Bret to attack Owen. I'm surprised they booked Razor like this ahead of his match at Royal Rumble. Out comes Jeff Jarrett and Roadie. Razor and Bret dominate and the crowd loves it. This is Bret's first televised appearance since Survivor Series. This was a good match despite the surprise that they made Razor look weak with the finish.
Match Rating: ***1/4
It's time for the Royal Rumble Report. Diesel wonders how rusty Bret is after sitting up in Calgary.
Hakushi vs. Matt Hardy
I would have loved to have seen this match in about 4 years from this date. The presentation of Hakushi was really well done, especially in this era of so much crap. Hakushi hits a nice superkick after a backflip before hitting a top rope shoulder block. He hits a a slingshot elbow drop for the quick victory. This felt a little rushed.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We're back in the ring with Jerry Lawler for the King's Court. He brings out William Shatner, who is here to hype up TekWar on USA Network. Lawler is actually complimentary, but Shatner is firing shots right away. They get into an altercation and it leads to Shatner giving Lawler a variation of a monkey flip. Out comes Bret Hart to raise his hand in celebration. Jeff Jarrett and Roadie come down to try and calm Lawler down. Even though this was clearly just corporate synergy, this was still a good get for Raw at the time.
We get the Pamela Anderson Royal Rumble commercial.
King Kong Bundy vs. Gary Sabaugh
King Kong Bundy is one of the favorites in the Royal Rumble is everything you need to know about the roster in 1995. Bundy hits a splash in the corner and that's all. Thankfully he doesn't get paid by the hour. After the match, Bundy goes over to Shawn and Vince, where Shawn says he'll be the one to win the Rumble.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We get a recap of what went down for the tag team tournament on Superstars.
The Bushwhackers are backstage getting Howard Finkel psyched up and Well Dunn is doing the same with Harvey Wippleman.
We get another Kama video.
Tuxedo Match
Harvey Wippleman vs. Howard Finkel
The fact that there are still 8 minutes left in the show has me worried here. Finkel is immediately able to rip off Harvey's jacket in a match that resembles mud wrestling. It looks like Harvey and Michael Cole have the same tattoo guy. We're down to both guys wearing Raw underwear for some reason. Harvey thinks he won, but the small piece of the cummerbund still on. Fink gets him on his shoulder and rips off the rest of his outfit for the victory. I assure you you won't see anything much worse than this. If anything, I learned how to spell cummerbund.
Match Rating: 0 Stars
Next week, we're getting Jeff Jarrett vs. Bret Hart, which is another big main event by 1995 standards. Vince and Shawn recap the King's Court and Jeff Jarrett is out for the third time tonight.
You know the drill here. When the feature match is good and at least one other positive thing happens, it's a thumbs up in this era. The Shatner interaction was entertaining, as he actually looked like he wanted to be part of the show. The Intercontinental Championship match was an entertaining match that featured two of the best things going during this time period and was given a proper amount of time. The squashes were squashes and the main event was terrible, but not enough to sour the show.
Overall Rating: 60%
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