Original Airdate: Monday, January 1st, 1996
Bob Carpenter Center
Newark, Delaware
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We get a Raw Bowl preview including them hyping up Billionaire Ted and all of that crap. They even have a marching band performing in the crowd. Lawler is wearing his custom Browns jersey. I think a lot of people hated this, but it's stupid fun in my opinion.
Raw Bowl
Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Razor Ramon & Savio Vega vs. Sid & 1-2-3 Kid
They show Brother Love in the locker room while Owen and Yoko are entering for whatever reason. Goldust's usher presents Razor with a box of flowers and he takes them and hits him over the head with it. Goldust is shown lurking. Bart Gunn and Owen start things off. After they make contact, Owen tags in Billy Gunn and the two partners have to make contact. They do some basic stuff and then tag in both Owen and Yoko. Obviously that doesn't take much and they are able to tag out. Earl Hebner is wearing a white hat like the football refs do and the mat is green. All of these types of things are nice little touches. Now that I'm thinking about it, was this the first ever multi-tag team match in WWF history? Bart hits a delayed vertical suplex on Sid, which is pretty impressive. They show Brother Love again in the back. Kid misses a kick in the corner and gets hung up, but it's his own corner, so Sid is able to help him recover. Razor finally gets his hands on the Kid, but then Kid calls a timeout. Razor hits the Razor's Edge anyways and that's a penalty. Then DiBiase gets on the apron and that may be a penalty too. Sid then attacks Razor from behind and the Kid is able to eliminate Razor. Savio claims to have called timeout, but the referee declines. Lawler then does the Magistrator, showing us how Razor was eliminated. Owen misses Bart with a top rope splash and Bart is able to tag in Billy. He takes care of the entire opposition, including Jim Cornette. Kid gets a cheap shot in to slow down his momentum. Yoko gets up for the splash, but Bart pulls him out of the way and they move Owen in there. Billy rolls over and pins Owen despite Yoko calling for timeout. Sid quickly comes in and attacks Billy. Sid hits a big chokeslam on Billy. Lawler keeps interviewing some Ashley lady and she has the charisma of a zucchini. Kid goes off the top, but out comes Razor and he shoves him off behind the referee's back and the Gunns win the first and only Raw Bowl. This was goofy fun, with my only complaint being all the stupid football puns from Vince and Lawler.
Match Rating: **1/4
Lawler claims that Shawn Michaels is definitely retiring.
We go to the Wrigley's Halftime Report with Dok Hendrix. We have a countdown clock in the corner and we go to Jim Ross who says that Diesel told him that he's going to kick the king's can. Dok then runs over the announced card for Royal Rumble and then we go back to Vince and Lawler.
We are now going to see the Hog Pen match from In Your House. Here is my review from that show.
Hog Pen Match
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Henry Godwinn
Godwinn misses with the slop bucket outside the ring but then about a minute later is able to shove some in the face of Helmsley. Helmsley recovers and takes control. The action goes out to the aisle and Helmsley throws Godwinn into the metal door of the hog pen. Helmsley goes for the Pedigree in front of the hog pen but Godwinn counters it. Helmsley is able to catch himself on the fence and hits an elbow drop off of it. They head back to the ring and Godwinn runs into a boot from Helmsley in the corner. It doesn't take long for the match to go back to the pen and Helmsley this time is thrown into the metal door. Godwinn hits the Slop Drop right outside the pen. Godwinn charges at Helmsley and he gets dumped into the pen to win the match to remain undefeated in singles competition. He swats away Hillbilly Jim's arm as he raises it so Godwinn attacks him and military presses him in the pen. Helmsley's back is bleeding pretty good and then he does a spot where he keeps slipping in the mud. The pigs want nothing to do with him though. This was a fun enough novelty of a match even if it wasn't anything great in terms of action.
Match Rating: *3/4
Next week, Hakushi takes on Jeff Jarrett and then they're going to show another match from In Your House. No better way to insult the paying audience then to give away two of the matches for free. As someone who did not order the show, I was excited, but that's beside the point.
King Mabel vs. Diesel
Diesel attacks Mabel, hits the big boot and picks up the quick victory. He then throws Mo in the ring and gives him a Jackknife. He's got a new attitude and he's taking it to WCW. Stay tuned! For the time being, Diesel will be in the Royal Rumble.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Lawler and Vince fight over interviewing Diesel and Lawler eventually says he'll do it. He tries to, but Diesel takes Ashley instead and heads to the back.
Brooklyn Brawler presents the Smoking Gunns with the Lombardi Trophy. Steve Lombardi, get it? The Gunns smash it and attack the Brawler.
They keep teasing a "monster" announcement for a new entrant in the Royal Rumble.
They announce Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Dory Funk Jr., Savio Vega, King Mabel, Bam Bam Bigelow, Barry Horowitz, Yokozuna, Tatanka and the big surprise, Vader. He gets a vignette showing off his skills.
Now it's time for the beginning of the both legendary and terrible Billionaire Ted skits. Yes, this includes Nacho Man, the Huckster and Scheme Gene. Keep in mind that this is the same company that just trotted out Bob Backlund in the main event of their last Raw.
This episode was all over the place. The Raw Bowl stuff was a blast and took up a good portion of the show. The inclusion of the Hog Pen match was kind of odd and makes this kind of hard to rate as a whole. The Diesel build continued and we got the Vader announcement. I'd say this was more bad than good.
Overall Rating: 51%
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