We open the April 4th edition of Raw with an argument backstage between Adam Bomb and Earthquake. Adam Bomb claims Earthquake delivered a cheap shot at Mania and Quake just sorta yells while his face becomes a great shade of cherry red. It's the final Raw from the six pack of Poughkeepsie, New York. Vince is at the table...
Or more in this case, a bad green screen, with Gorilla Monsoon. Yes, indeed it is a happening tonight on Raw.
Speaking of a happening, it's the Wrestlemania rematch between Earthquake and Adam Bomb to open Raw this week. Adam Bomb wastes no time by getting a cheap shot on Quake, but Quake turns around with a hip toss and a clothesline sending Adam out of the ring. Adam Bomb tries some tackles, but they aren't effective. Earthquake instead takes him out with a clothesline. Adam Bomb guillotines Quake off the rope and hits a slingshot shoulder block. Big elbow drop only gets a two count.
Adam Bomb hits a clothesline which gets Quake caught in the Andre rope spot. Meanwhile, Harvey Whippelman argues with Howard Finkel backstage. Adam Bomb misses an elbow, but Quake follows suit. Adam Bomb goes up top and lands a flying clothesline for two. Quake is whipped to the buckle, but gets a big boot to the face followed by a belly to belly suplex. Big elbow drop and a leg drop follow. Quake lands the aftershock for the three.
Not a bad opener honestly, Quake put in some great offense, Adam Bomb put on a decent performance, and it didn't have any real slow down spots compared to last week's Luger/Martel opening. This was a great way to open this Raw.
We go to a replay of Mr. Perfect's screwjob of Lex Luger at Wrestlemania X. Luger, still seething from said screwjob is waiting for his moment to get his hands on the perfect one. You know, it's just now I realized that this whole thing with Perfect screwing Luger stems from the fact that they were feuding back at Wrestlemania IX. Roles reversed, but still it's definitely well thought.
Gorilla Monsoon is in the ring to interview Mr. Perfect. Monsoon brings up how both Luger and Yokozuna agreed to Perfect as the referee because of his integrity, but that integrity was lost at Wrestlemania when he cost Luger the title. Perfect says he has nothing against Luger or Yokozuna. He called the match perfectly down the middle. Because Luger threw in Cornette and Fuji and pushed Perfect that was grounds for disqualification. Monsoon claims that Perfect has a vendetta, which as I said previously, the history between the two at Wrestlemania IX, it makes sense. Monsoon says that on the back of Perfect's jacket it say "Mr. Perfect" after Luger's done with him, it'll say "Made in the USA". Wow, way to take a dump on American workmanship there Gorilla.
Razor Ramon is in action next against Austin Steele. Some hard chops and a hip toss from Razor to start followed by a body slam and a stomp. He locks in an STF and some paintbrushes agross the back of the head. Irish whip and an elbow follow. He follows with an abdominal stretch for a a good minute. He follows with a fallaway slam while Gorilla mentions that Jack Tunney was close to signing John Madden, which goes to show how out of his mind Vince is. We also get a quick mention that the WWF Tag Team titles changed hands twice over the week, as Men on a Mission won the tag titles, only to lose them back to the Quebecers. Chokeslam and a Razor's Edge gets the three in a full on squash.
We get an interview with Johnny Polo and the Quebecers who won't be putting the tag titles on the line against the Headshrinkers next week, but will gladly defeand against Men on a Mission, The Smoking Gunns or the Bushwhackers. You know what that means? HEY KIDS! VINCE WANTS YOUR DOLLAR!
It's time for the ten man tag match that was originally booked for Wrestlemania X. It's IRS, Jeff Jarrett, Rick "The Model" Martel and the Headshrinkers against the Smoking Gunns, the 1-2-3 Kid, Thurman "Sparky" Plugg and... ugh... Tatanka. In our weekly Clinton talk, it's Vince talking about how Bill threw the opening pitch while the Bushwhackers, Doink and Dink were throwing eggs at the white house. What even. Also, don't worry, IRS called us tax cheats.
Samu and Billy Gunn open as Samu hits a nice hip toss. Some hard chops from Samu, but Billy gets a rough sunset flip followed by a backslide for two. Billy ducks a leapfrog and takes a full clothesline that sends him flipping. Fatu is tagged in as he hits a backbreaker to Billy. Tag to Jarrett who lands a sidewalk slam. He goes for a second, but Billy gets a headscissors. Tatanka is tagged. And what does Jeff Jarrett do first? Why what
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He rams Tatanka into the buckle, but we don't get the whole war dance this time around. He does however just get into a house of fire, landing a few slams on Jarrett. Tag to Bart Gunn who does what he does best, work the arm and little else. He ducks an elbow and goes for a roll up for two. Bart gets a dropkick and goes back o the arm. Jarrett rams Bart to the buckle and follows with a sell. Tag to IRS, who gets some Irwin chants. Bart reverses a ram to the buckle and gets a shoulder block as we go to break.
When we return, Sparky is tagged in as is Martel. Sparky works the arm a bit and follows with a cross body for two. More work on the arm including a nice leg drop. Martel whips Sparky to the ropes as IRS gets a cheap shot. He's tagged in, but so is the Kid, who gets a nicke kick to the face. He grabs the tie of Irwin and guillotines him off the rope. He follows with a springboard clothesline for two. Crossbody off the top for two as all the competitors enter the ring to brawl. The Kid gets a spinning heel kick while it's all out of control. The kid misses a boot in the corner as IRS folds him in two for the three.
A bit of a sloppy match honestly. A lot of dull wristlock spots, and not a lot of action despite the talent in the ring. The end bit with the brawl was easily the best part of a surprisingly rushed to hell match.
Our final match of the evening is Yokozuna in action against Scott Powers. Powers ducks one clothesline, but gets another hard one from the former champ. Vince shills an airing of House Party on Saturday. Okay, after Weird Science last week, the Kid 'N Play mention is really balls deep in the 90's. Yoko lands a belly to belly, a leg drop and a Banzai drop for three in a quick squash.
We end the show with Vince and Gorilla shilling next week's tag title match. Be sure to give Vince your dollar and we'll see you next week!
Overall, a decent Raw this time around. The ten man tag was very underwhelming, but otherwise nothing else was offensively bad. The Razor/Yokozuna squashes were decent, the Mr. Perfect segment did a good job building the feud with Luger, the Heartbreak Hotel segment was strange, but intriguing and the Earthquake/Adam Bomb match surprised me with how action packed it actually was. No restholds, just hard hitting move after move. It makes for a decent show that does what I love most, and that's further storylines. So with that said, this Raw gets a decent B rating.