Original Airdate: Monday, December 11th, 1995
Wicomico Civic Center
Salisbury, Maryland
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork22
We get a short Bob Backlund/Bret hype video into the intro.
Owen Hart vs. Jeff Hardy
It's Hardy time. Jeff hits a hip toss and works on the arm. As you'd expect, that's about it and Owen hits a big clothesline. Diesel is watching in the back and Diana Hart is watching in the crowd. Owen hits the missile dropkick and goes for the Sharpshooter, but then decides to roll and pin him instead. After the match, Owen pulls Hardy to the corner and has Yokozuna squash him. Owen puts on the Sharpshooter and in comes Diesel. Owen sneaks out, but Diesel hits a clothesline and a big boot to knock Yoko out of the ring.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Aja Kong vs. Chaparita Asari
Asari hits some nice offense, but when she goes for a crossbody, she hits a brick wall in Kong. Kong uses the size advantage by hitting a delayed vertical suplex and then a package piledriver, but pulls her up at the count of 2. Kong continues to pull up Asari up before the count of 3. Kong misses with a second rope splash, but Asari misses with her impressive corkscrew off the top rope. Kong hits the spinning backhand and picks up the win. Kong looked dominant here, as was intended. It looks like Asari got hit pretty hard in the nose here.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Todd Pettengill is with Shawn Michaels for a sit down interview. Todd keeps hinting at retirement and then Shawn accuses him of just trying to get a reaction for TV. Shawn says that this isn't a job, this is his livelihood. He refuses to answer and we go to commercial.
We get an In Your House preview featuring British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart.
Ahmed Johnson vs. Rick Stockhausen
Stockhausen jumps Ahmed and he no sells it. Ahmed hits a weird looking spinbuster thanks to Stockhausen running the ropes off balance. He decides to hit him with another one and then hits the Pearl River Plunge for the quick victory. To say that Ahmed is raw is an understatement, but I can't help but want to watch. I mean honestly, Ahmed was more of my version of Goldberg, who I never cared for.
Match Rating: 1/4*
After commercial, Lawler interviews Ahmed. Lawler insults him again and Ahmed doesn't like it. Lawler cowardly heads back to his announce table.
We go to Dok Hendrix and he hypes up the denim jackets. Adjusting for inflation, the jackets cost $124 in 2024 money. We then get the iconic WWF Happy Holidays commercial that is just so stupid that you know Vince had something to do with it.
We get a Raw Bowl commercial featuring Freddie Blassie and it's a much better commercial.
Vince is in the ring now with Ted DiBiase, 1-2-3 Kid and Sid. This trio all just feels so bizarre. Kid is also just so ineffective on the mic. He's just one of those guys that is better served having someone talk for him and let his wrestling do the talking. This was really bad.
Next week on Raw, Yokozuna will take on Razor Ramon.
Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart
I'd really like to know what made this match happen. Backlund basically hasn't wrestled since their underwhelming match at WrestleMania. Maybe Bret wanted one more chance to pull off a good match with him. He probably is Hitman's worst opponent in terms of match quality. Lawler goes out into the crowd and interviews Diana, who is just not someone who is comfortable in this type of role. She gives credit to Jim Cornette for getting Bulldog a title shot. Unfortunately, this one is falling in the same traps as their other two matches. We get a commercial break, which I feel like I need. I'll pay more attention to this one now. We get a notice that Vince will be on AOL for a live chat following Raw. Bret goes to put on the Sharpshooter and British Bulldog comes in the ring. Backlund puts on the Cross-Face Chickenwing and Bulldog stomps away. All of that for this? A bunch of officials attempt to get Backlund off of Bret and this all just feels really flat.
Match Rating: *1/4
This was a very poor episode of Raw, even for a December episode. The whole thing felt flat and did nothing to really get you excited about In Your House, even though the card is halfway decent.
Overall Rating: 29%
No comments:
Post a Comment