It's Monday, November 28th, 1994, less than a week removed from the Survivor Series. And even with the shift in championship from Bret to Backlund, that would not be the end of the story. As just three days later, Diesel would defeat Backlund in a mere eight seconds to become the WWF Champion. We have the new flag bearer for the WWF's New Generation Movement. And thus we now enter the strangest days and the roughest era of the company. Welcome to the beginning of the Days of Diesel.
We open Raw with a recap of both the Survivor Series and Diesel's historic title win. Raw is in Poughkeepsie, New York for the next two weeks as we get a bit closer to the end of the year. It's Vince and Jerry Lawler back at the table this week as they advertise Owen Hart and an interview with the new champ himself, Diesel. Plus Adam Bomb taking on IRS.
Speaking of Owen Hart, he's in action first against John Paul. Owen has around his neck the pink and black towel that was thrown at Survivor Series, costing Bret the championship. Vince mentions that Bret is currently in Calgary, recovering from his injuries. Both Owen and Paul trade arm wringers and hammerlocks early on, but Owen gets a dropkick. Paul gets a shoulder block, but eats a spinning heel kick.
Bret is on the interview line while Owen continues his in-ring offense. Bret says that he has stretched ligaments and tendons. He's sore, but he'll be back in the new year. Owen gets a suplex and an interted atomic drop followed by a double underhook suplex. Bret shills the PPV replay saying he'll watch to see what happened. Owen lands an enziguri to the back of the head of John Paul and follows with a neckberaker and a leg drop. John Paul stops a back drop, and gets a dropkick to the face of Owen. Owen reverses a a whip and gets a belly to belly suplex. Owen locks in a sharpshooter for the win in a decent squash, even with the interruptions.
Adam Bomb is up next against IRS. The newest gimmick is mixing his new taunt with bomb footage. IRS is flanked by Ted Dibiase, and what appears to be a druid in a robe. Irwin says that Taker won't rest in peace until he's paid IRS. "Irwin" chants as IRS starts with some strikes in the corner. Adam Bomb counters a whip turning it into a hiptoss and a headlock. He lands a shoulder block and another headlock. IRS escape, but misses an elbow drop, sending him to the outside.
After a brawl outside, Adam Bomb gets a slingshot clothesline for two. He tosses Irwin hard into the ropes and then grabs at his tie. Dibiase distracts the ref, allowing IRS to get a cheap shot on Adam Bomb, sending him outside. After some more stomps by Irwin, he lands a guillotine off the ropes. When Adam Bomb gets back in, he gets a couple Elbows and a cover for two from Irwin.
Adam ducks a clothesline and gets a cross body for two as we go to break. We recap the kickout as we return from break. IRS is now locking Adam Bomb in the stretch, using the ropes for leverage. Adam Bomb gets a roll up for two. Irwin puts in a chinlock, using the ropes. Adam Bomb manages to escape, but gets rammed into the buckle, but he turns it around with some buckle rams of his own. Both men exchance blows, but it's Adam Bomb who gets a hiptoss and some clotheslines. He goes to the top, but the druid knocks him off the buckle. Irwin gets a leg drop to the back of the head for the three. Post-Match the druid and IRS get in some stomps. Lex Luger makes the save.
A rather dull match honestly. Very basic stuff from both men and it felt slow to sit through, but at the very least it was short. While Irwin's antics out of the ring have been a hoot lately, his in-ring is still very bland. And there just feels like something missing with Adam Bomb, especially in this face turn.
Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly is up next against Tony DeVito. Holly leapfrogs DeVito and gets a dropkick early on, followed by a powerslam. He gets a knee drop right to the ear of DeVito. DeVito reverses a whip and gets a clothesline and some strikes. He rams Holly into the buckle and lays some more strikes. Whip and an elbow by DeVito for a one count. More clubbing blows from DeVito and a big body slam. He drops a big elbow. Holly comes back with some strikes and a forearm to the face. Devito eats a boot to the face. Holly goes up and lands a clothesline off the buckle for three. Kind of a bland one. Honestly made DeVito look better than Holly, which I doubt was the intention.
Up next it's a vignette for the newest WWF Superstar Henry O. Godwinn. He's a hog farmer literally named Hog (get it? Oh 90's wrestling). People think hogs are mean, ugly and nasty, but the meanest, nastiest and ugliest is him. When he gets to the WWF he's going to be in hog heaven.
Vince is in the ring to interview the new WWF Champion Diesel. Vince brings up the incident at Survivor Series involving Shawn Michaels getting involved. Diesel mentions that when he ran out of gas (err, Diesel) he stayed in until Shawn made the tag. He's got a message for Shawn Michaels. He may have gotten away, but if Diesel got his hands on him, he wouldn't have survived. Vince confirms that the tag titles are vacated and brings up Diesel's title win. Like Jackie Gleason said "how sweet it is" because Big Daddy's got the gold. When it comes to Bob Backlund, he acknowledges him as a real wrestler, but calls his finisher the "Crosswing Chicken" and taunts Backlund, saying he's gotta get it on him. When it comes to Bret, he calls him a hell of an athlete. But Diesel wants to be the fighting champion like Bret. Overall a really bland promo with Diesel now just your basic white meat babyface, already sapping the coolness from Big Daddy Cool. These are going to be quite the days ahead.
Our last match of the show is the Heavenly Bodies (with Jim Cornette) against Gary Scott and Buck Quartermaine.
But never mind that, Bob Backlund has joined the announce table.
Quartermaine gets sone hiptosses and an arm lock early on. He manages a dropkick after some offense. Tag to Gary Scott who gets hit with a facebuster. Scott gets an arm lock and tags to Buck. Backlund is more focused on kids throwing mothers out windows, or some crazy stuff. Pritchard gets a vertical suplex and tags Jimmy Del Ray who gets back dropped on to Buck. He gets a hiptoss and tags in Pritchard as they get an assisted leg drop.
Bob Backlund was reading about Sigmund Freud at the library while Pritchard gets a gutwrench powerbomb. Tag to Del Ray as they hit a double team splash for three. Good offense, but hard to focus with a lot of camera focus to Backlund. Bob knows Diesel's mother's name and will procure the chicken wing on him. He should be exterminated from the WWF like the Tyrannosaurus. Dammit, I love Bob Backlund.
They show the recap of Diesel's title win. Backlund promises to win the title and before he retires, he will put the chicken wing on Vince. Next week we have Jeff Jarrett vs the British Bulldog in action and we shill the Survivor Series replay as Raw goes off the air.
A pretty boring episode of Raw all things considered. Owen's squash was fine, but the rest were rather lackluster, or muddled with too much focus on either Bret's condition or the situation between Bob Backlund and Diesel. Even the big match of the week with IRS and Adam Bomb was a snoozer. And Diesel's promo was white bread. After such a strong event like Survivor Series, we're back into the Middling Monday Malaise with Raws it appears. Overall, this Raw gets a C-.
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