Monday, July 24th, 1995
Louisville Gardens
Louisville, Kentucky
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They show actual video footage of Shawn Michaels defeating Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Championship last night at In Your House.
Shawn Michaels vs. Jimmy Del Ray
Vince is at that point where he is beyond insufferable when Michaels comes out. Michaels outsmarts his opponent until Del Ray is able to hit a DDT and then mock Michaels. Tom Prichard gets in a cheap shot behind the referee's back. I'm shocked that they even bother having Jim Cornette come out with them at this point. Michaels is able to move out of the way of a top rope splash and then hits a flying forearm. Michaels hits a top rope elbow drop and gets a 2 count. He goes for Sweet Chin Music, but Del Ray ducks and he hits Prichard instead. Del Ray tries to capitalize, but he gets hit with Sweet Chin Music and puts him away. This was decent enough for what it was. Del Ray didn't seem quite as sharp as he was before. During his celebration, Michaels teases stripping and then points to Vince slapping him on the wrist.
Match Rating: *3/4
They show a clip of Jeff Jarrett's performance and then once again the finish to the match. They talk about the dissention between Roadie and Jarrett, with Roadie claiming that he sang the song.
They show the backstory between Hakushi and Bret Hart.
Smoking Gunns vs. John Faulkner & Rick Stockhauser
These are some new jobbers. They keep referring to Jacob and Eli Blu, as if they have a rivalry or something. This one is over pretty quickly, with the Gunns hitting a different finisher than usual where they have their opponent draped over Bart's shoulder and Billy comes off the top.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We get a Goldust vignette, where it just shows his name written and Fink announcing his name.
We get a Fatu vignette. He's going to make a difference.
Waylon Mercy vs. Gary Scott
Mercy shakes Scott's hand and kicks him in the gut. He hits a clothesline and chops him down. Mercy puts on the sleeper hold and that's all. His moves still have impact, but his balance just seems to be a little off.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We go to Todd Pettengill and he hypes up SummerSlam brought to you by Stridex. He then shows us some still photos of last night's results. Todd says that Sid is blaming Shawn Michaels for his loss against Diesel. We then get an interview of the self proclaimed #1 contender, Mabel. He says that he's going to drop Diesel like a bad habit at SummerSlam.
Hakushi vs. Bret Hart
Hakushi has the Bret Hart head in a bag again. Hakushi goes on the attack right away, throwing Bret into the steps and dropping him on the guardrail. Hakushi sends Bret with an Irish whip and he slides into the ring post as we go into commercial break. Hakushi continues his dominance and is able to dump Bret through the ropes into another commercial break. We come back just in time for Hakushi to hit a moonsault over the top rope and to the floor. That was pretty awesome. Bret comes back and jumps on the second rope and drops himself on both Hakushi and Shinja. Bret hits the second rope elbow for a 2 count. Shinja gets involved and Bret hits him with a right hand. He hits a bulldog and a small package for a nearfall. Hakushi hits a back suplex and then misses with a top rope headbutt. Bret hits a top rope superplex and slaps on the Sharpshooter for the victory. This was a very good main event for Raw. After the match, Shinja comes in and Bret beats him up before hitting a piledriver. Vince then says that could be the last we s Shinja. Why would a piledriver be the last you see of someone?
Match Rating: ***1/2
After the match, Jean Pierre Lafitte is out and grabs the bag with the fake Bret Hart head in it.
It's time for the debut of The Report Card. Dean Douglas asks for our attention and then scrapes his nails on the chalkboard. He talks about knowledge. This nearly put me to sleep.
Next week, Savio Vega and Razor Ramon will challenge Owen Hart and Yokozuna.
Vince and Lawler interview Michaels backstage. Lawler tells Michaels that he is a marked man and Shawn jokes about being scared.
This was about as good as you were going to get in 1995. You got a really good main event and two of the top stars on the show. They didn't lay much groundwork as far as visual storytelling, but did basically tell us that Mabel will challenge Diesel and Sid wants revenge on Michaels at SummerSlam. Other than that, this was a good one.
Overall Rating: 70%
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