It's six days before Christmas, 1994 as Raw continues its Liberty, New York tapings. It's Vince and Shawn Michaels still at the table tonight. Opening action is Lex Luger taking on IRS. Irwin is being accompanied again by Ted Dibiase and one of the druids. He's so focused on tonight's match that he doesn't even cut a tax cheats promo. But since this was the same crowd that got the promo last week on the King's Court, I guess it's overkill to do it twice?
Luger is distracted early on by the druid, but locks in a headlock and follows with a shoulder block. Lots of stalling as Luger fixes his trunks and the crowd chants Irwin. Another headlock and shoulder block spot from Luger as Irwin exits the ring for even more stalling. Luger fixes his trunks some more. Irwin rams Luger into the buckle and gets in some strikes. Luger reverses a whip and gets a hiptoss and a body slam followed by a big clothesline for a two count. Luger tries to attack the druid, but gets kicked to the outside. The Druid gets some kicks in while the ref is distracted.
Irwin continues to stomp as we focus on the ring on the druid. When we return from break, Irwin drops Luger on a backbreaker for two. He follows with some big elbow drops for two. Louder "Irwin" chants rain down. Shawn says that because Luger never sold out, he should have gotten the starring role in the number one movie Dumb and Dumber. Another great line from Shawn: "Have you ever taken integrity to the car dealership and walked out with a new Mercedes? I don't think so."
Luger gets whipped and is met with a knee to the midsection and a leg drop for two. Luger blocks Irwin's strikes and lays some rights and a back suplex. Irwin whips Luger to the corner, but eats a boot and a knee lift and a clothesline. The druid grabs at the leg of Luger and gets a punch in. Irwin tries a roll up, but gets a two. Luger fights with the druid, removing the hood to reveal the druid as Tatanka.
Luger gets counted out and IRS gets another cheap shot as he and the corporation celebrate their win.
A pretty boring match honestly. Basic fare from both men and nothing that could be considered all that entertaining. Basic strikes, holds and moves. I really wish we were done with Luger and Tatanka's feud as it's been mostly boring, so the big reveal didn't wow me that much. Luger ends up looking again like a goon at the end as his stock continues its hard freefall. Overall, not a good match.
We get a cut to backstage as the Bushwhackers and Howard Finkel are getting ready for their match against Well Dunn later tonight.
Jeff Jarrett is still in Vegas talking about how great he is. He's at Bally's, and is confronted by Rip Friggin' Taylor! Sadly, no confetti is thrown as Rip brings up how Double J's name would look great on the marquee. Rip asks if Jeff gambles as the duo head into Bally's.
The Smoking Gunns are in action next against Roy Raymond and Chris Avery. Shawn refers to the Gunns as a pair of Rexall Rangers as Billy starts with wringers to Roy. Roy leapfrogs, but gets caught in a slow hiptoss. Tag to Bart, who lands a suplex and a leg drop. Tag to Billy who gets a body slam and a knee drop to the face. Tag to Bart who works the arm, until Roy counters, managing a tag to Avery, who keeps in a headlock. Bart gets out and lands a shoulder block.
Shawn never liked cowboys and the whole John Wayne thing. He's a Bruce Dern type. Drop toe hold and an elbow drop by the Gunns. Bart gets some chops and a hiptoss. Tag to Billy as both of them hit a double leg sweep. Billy hits a suplex and tags in Bart. Another tag to Billy as a sidewalk slam and leg drop combo is hit. Tag right back to Bart as they finish with a sidewinder for the three. Some innovative double teaming, but he rest of the offense was bland.
It's time for the King's Court. As Lawler is introduce his guest Bob Backlund, Vince and Shawn are still yammering on commentary. Vince refers to Backlund as a role model. Lawler apologizes to Backlund on behalf of the "imbecilic idiots". He mentions that Backlund fulfilled a mission to become champion only to have it snatched away by Diesel and Jack Tunney. Backlund knows what he is and he walks tall and he knows where the plebieans stand in this world.
He knows exactly what's coming from his mouth. He brings up Bret Hart, which gets a pop, he says the fans deserve him because he's better than his and now they have to come up to his level. When he had the Chicken Wing on Bret, it was like he had the Chicken Wing on everyone of Bret's fans. If Bret wants more of the Chicken Wing, he'll be happy to oblige. On the topic of Diesel, he wants him to shake his hand like a man, but was cheap shot. Backlund goes a bit off script and refers to Diesel as Kevin Nash, also calling him a neanderthal, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And like the T-rex, he walked tall and destroyed all his predators, then went extinct. Backlund seems to be getting lost in his promo as he wraps it up quickly saying the Chicken Wing will exterminate Diesel.
Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly is up next against Chris Kanyon (or Canyon in this case). Side headlock and a shoulder block spot from Holly, who follows with a whip and a hiptoss followed by a crisp dropkick. He follows with an arm bar, but gets taken to the corner by Kanyon, but counters with a headscissors and a scoop slam. He locks in an arm bar and then whips, only for Kanyon to get a pull of the hair. He gets a body slam and mocks the race car driver. Kanyon gets a back suplex and covers for two. Holly comes back with a ram to the buckle and a clothesline. Holly gets a whip and boot, following with a chinlock. Holly gets a suplex, a scoop slam and finishes up with a big elbow drop off the top for three.
It's Todd Pettengill with the first Royal Rumble 1995 report. This year's Royal Rumble is a beach party in Tampa Floida. The focus being Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson as the guest host. Todd makes a Schwing joke. Oy. On the card for the Rumble is Bret Hart challenging Diesel for the WWF title.
Even Diesel's like "Damn Bret, I didn't think you'd be challenging me for the title already." He talks about the integrity of Bret and that he respects him. Far change from the last time they fought and Diesel was calling him a coward. He jokes about the pink and black, but the black and chrome are man's colors. But at the Royal Rumble, they will both be black and blue.
As it pertains to the Royal Rumble, the rules are the same as always. Two men start. Thirty men total with a new entrant every 90 seconds. When someone goes over the top, they are eliminated. Last man in the ring gets a WWF title shot at Wrestlemania. Ten entrants have been announced so far and they are...
Last year's co-winner Lex Luger (no need for a petition this year)
Bob Backlund
King Kong Bundy
Doink
Kwang
Henry Godwinn
Duke "The Dumpster" Droese
Aldo Montoya
Adam Bomb
And...
Dick Murdoch? Because, why not I... guess?
Up next it's Well Dunn (With Harvey Whippleman) against The Bushwhackers (with Howard Finkel). Luke and Butch take down Well Dunn early with clotheslines, sending both members in retreat. Fink and the Bushwhackers march around like a trio of goons. Shawn makes assumptions that he's going to hongie Pamela anderson while Steven Dunn pulls Luke into the ring, but he ends up knocking Timothy Well out of the ring. Cover is broken by Well.
Tag to Luke as both Bushwhackers hit a double elbow. Well leapfrogs, sending Luke into the boots of Dunn. Tag to Dunn who hit a flying elbow to the face. Cover only gets a two thanks to a Butch save. Well is back in and hits a few strikes to Luke and following with a harder whip to the buckle. Well dives off the second turnbuckle, but eats a boot. Luke stumbles, but tags in Butch. Shot to the gut and a knee lift to Well followed by clotheslines. Well Dunn try a double team as Harvey grabs at Butch, but Luke keeps Dunn from getting involved. Finkel makes the save...
By de-pantsing Whippleman!
Butch gets the roll up for the three for the win. Again, a harmless match. The in-ring was fine as Well Dunn have definitely shown improvement over the year. Finkel added some fun to the match and while the whole de-pantsing was dumb, it did what it intended to. Add comedy to a comedy match. Sadly this won't be the end of the stripping of either Finkel or Harvey.
We cut to a video of Mabel with "The Real Santa Claus" as Mabel is sitting on Santa's lap, nearly killing the jolly old elf. Eventually they turn things around.
Our last match of the match tonight is Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart against Nick Barberri. Anvil yells at the Spanish announce team before getting in the ring to lay offense to Barberri. "We want Bret" chants play out while more clubbing strikes are given. Anvil sends Barberri over the top rope as we get our USA Network Shill of the week: Bill Murray in Scrooged. Anvil slams Barberri on the mat outside of the ring and follows with another slam inside following by a camel clutch for the win in a dull squash.
We get an ad for the Royal Rumble as it's now quite clear that the focus of the event is less about going on to become WWF champion, but to have Pamela Anderson as arm candy. I mean, I understand, this was the mid 90's and she was considered one of the world's hottest women, but the fact remains that this is already showing signs of what is due to be one of the worst Mania builds in a long time.
We end Raw with a run through of the Boxing Day edition of Raw next week. Tatanka vs The British Bulldog, The Undertaker in action, Henry Godwinn debuts and Diesel is on the King's Court.
A pretty average Raw, but compared to the last few weeks, it felt like more was actually crammed inside. Granted, none of it was all that good. The Luger/IRS match was dull, the squashes were basic and the Bushwhackers/Well Dunn match was pretty much what we got last time. I do like that we're building to the Royal Rumble pretty quickly and I hope to see this continue in the coming weeks. Overall this Raw gets a C+.
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