Monday, June 5th, 1995
Struthers, Ohio
Struthers Auditorium
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They show the WWF blimp flying high above the "arena" and then they pan down to Bob Backlund campaigning. Yes, in 1995 they were holding Raw tapings in towns of 10,000 people.
Savio Vega vs. Kenny Kendall
I like how Vince tells us that we didn't know who Savio was when he debuted but that he is the "Caribbean Legend". It takes quite the legend for no one to know who they are. He isn't particularly impressive here and puts on an abdominal stretch type submission for the win.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We get a Diesel music video that leads to going to Ted DiBiase, Sid and Tatanka in the high school locker room.
They show Skip running up and down the stairs in the high school with Sunny hyping him up.
Don't forget to buy the King Of The Ring shirt! You'll definitely want a shirt to remember that show!
Skip vs. Barry Horowitz
I didn't realize that these two fought in Skip's debut. Vince even is hyping up the fact that Barry has never won on Raw. Barry hits a Lou Thesz press for a 2 count and then gets leveled by Skip with a clothesline. Skip hits a top rope leg drop and gets the easy victory.
Match Rating: 1/4*
It's time to go to Todd Pettengill with the King Of The Ring Report.
King Of The Ring Qualifying Match
Owen Hart vs. British Bulldog
We go to an actual arena and we are lucky enough to get Mr. Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross on the announce team. Gorilla isn't as good with JR, but he's definitely better than yelling for no reason Vince. Both of these guys are kind of stuck in the tag team division now, so this is probably pretty refreshing for them. We get some good action to start and it leads to JR apologizing that we have to take a break and Gorilla being dumbfounded because the action is heating up. When we come back, they are telling us that there are only 4 minutes left in the time limit. Bulldog gets out of the sleeper hold and makes his comeback. He hits a fisherman suplex for a 2 count. They try to keep us posted on the time limit, but the wrestlers aren't really wrestling like it. Owen goes for a backslide and the bell rings. He acts as if he won, but the referee puts his arm down and we have a time limit draw. Both are eliminated from the tournament and we have one spot open as a result. They go to Vince and Jerry and they put the pressure on Jack Tunney to make a decision on who will take on Razor Ramon. The match was solid, but they didn't sell the drama of the time limit and it felt like the live crowd was confused by it.
Match Rating: **1/4
We see the same Jerry Lawler foot promo from Superstars.
Bret Hart is in the ring with Vince for an interview. He talks about how sick Lawler is and dedicates the match to his family and fans. Meanwhile, Lawler has his foot out on the announce table.
Jean Pierre Lafitte vs. Jerry Flynn
We come back from commercial just as the match begins here. Flynn shows off those kicks that would make him a household name as a jobber on WCW early on. Lafitte just dumps him out of the ring and then hits the somersault dive over the top. He quickly goes back in the ring and hits a side suplex. Vince announces that Lex Luger and Yokozuna will square off for that last King Of The Ring spot. Lafitte goes up top and hits the Cannon Ball for the victory. Lafitte is one of my favorites on the roster right now.
Match Rating: 1/2*
They show Bob Backlund still outside campaigning in the dark with no one there.
Next week it's the aforementioned qualifying match, Bam Bam Bigelow, Man Mountain Rock and Lawler is going to debut his exclusive training video. They go to Backlund and they let him know that Man Mountain Rock will be there, so Backlund says that he will be there to get rid of his music.
We get a Todd hype video for the Yokozuna/Luger match. They put that together pretty quickly.
This was a solid episode for the time. It was nice to see some fresh faces on here and we got a pretty good match in Bulldog/Owen. The bar is pretty low with them being in a high school gym, so that probably isn't saying a whole lot.
Overall Rating: 58%
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