Sunday, November 20, 2016

A Taste of the New Generation: Days of Diesel: WWF Monday Night Raw: April 10th, 1995




We open Raw by recapping what we didn't get to see last week. Sid's attack on Shawn Michaels. We'll get more on this situation tonight, along with some build up for tonight's main event. Bret Hart, Bob Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid taking on Hakushi, Yokozuna and Owen Hart.


Raw is continuing the Poughkeepsie tapings as it's Vince and Jerry Lawler on commentary tonight (and totally in the arena for this you guys).


Opening action is Adam Bomb taking on Tatanka. Vince and Lawler are still talking about the fallout of the L.T/Bam Bam match as Tatanka starts with clubbing chops. Adam Bomb reverses a whip and lands a hiptoss, followed by a body slam and a dropkick, sending Tatanka rolling out of the ring. Tatanka comes back in and rams Adam Bomb into the buckle. Whip by Tatanka, but Adam Bomb ducks a clothesline to get one of his own as we go to break.

When we return, Tatanka is back in control, stomping down Adam Bomb and laying in some kicks in the ribs. More football talk from Vince and Lawler (along with references to Larry Holmes)  as Tatanka hits a big DDT. Cover gets a two count. Tatanka locks in a chinlock. Adam Bomb escapes, but gets a knee to the gut, sending him right back down. Boots by Tatanka. He goes to ram Adam Bomb into the buckle, but Bomb slams him into it instead. I almost miss the days when he'd no-sell that. Big hiptoss by Adam Bomb and a series of clotheslines, sending Tatanka to the outside again. Both men brawl outside as we get a double count out. A pretty bland match, honestly. Basic stuff from Tatanka, and not enough offense from Adam Bomb to make it interesting.


The Headshrinkers are in action as Vince shills Duckman. Lawler refers to Duckman as the new generation of ducks. That is a strange as hell analogy. It's Tony Devito and Mike Bell as our jobbers for this week. Bell goes for a double noggin knocker, but that proves ineffective. Fatu rams the jobbers heads  and hits a big clothesline to Bell. Bell misses a clothesline, but eats a kick to the face.  Devito tries a kick to the back, but gets a strike for his troubles. Bell comes in with some strikes, but Sione gets a knee to the back. Tag to Sione as both men hit a double headbutt.

More Duckman shilling (Particularly the fact that Heather Locklear is in the episode) as Sione tosses Bell to Devito forcing the tag in. Hard whip to the corner and a clothesline from Sione. Bell ducks a clothesline, but eats a boot instead. Splash off the top rope from Fatu for the three in a fast, but efficient squash.


We cut to a vignette of one Jean Pierre LaFitte. Why, it's our old buddy Quebecer Pierre, now repackaged as a pirate. Complete with eye patch over his glass eye. He revels in his pouch filled with gold coins that were once stolen from his grandfather, the greatest pirate of all time, Jean LaFitte. He promises revenge.


After we recap the Sid attack on Shawn last week (complete with the stretcher job for Shawn), we go to our next match. It's Kama in action against Scott Taylor. Kama is now wearing a gold chain. The gold chain made from the Undertaker's Urn as promised back at Wrestlemania. We also get an ad for the WWF Opinion Line, which means yes, Vince wants your dollar.

Takedown from Kama early on. Taylor tries a go behind, but is quickly rolled up. Slamming takedown from Kama. He tries a boot, but Taylor ducks and lands a couple arm drags. But Kama picks him up with a double choke slam. Several punches to the ribs followed by a hard ram into the corner. Another hard whip to the buckle, followed by a flaplack and punch. Splash off the second rope gets the three for Kama in what is easily his best squash at this point. Far more coordinated and some unique offense shown.


We get another shill of the house that's being given away at the WWF In Your House PPV as we go to our main event. It's Yokozuna, Owen Hart and Hakushi taking on Bret Hart, Bob Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid. Yoko and Bret start. Headbutts by Yoko followed by a whip. Bret ducks, goes for a cross body, but gets slammed. Yoko tries and elbow, but Bret misses, allowing for several punches. Tag to Holly  who tries for arm wringers, but Yoko stops that. Tag to Hakushi who after some criss crossing, gets dropkicked by Holly, who then lands some super fast slams as we go to break.

Tag to the Kid, but Hakushi is quickly in control. Tag to Owen who locks a headlock in, followed by a shoulder block. The Kid manages a big spin kick to the face. Cover gets a two. Cheap shot by Hakushi allows Owen to get a spinning heel kick. Cover gets a two. Tag to Yokozuna who hits a headbutt and followed with a long nerve hold. The kid breaks free, but gets hit with a massive clothesline, to the delight of Mr. Fuji. Tag to Hakushi who lands some hard chops and a hard ram to the buckle.


Body slam and a slingshot splash by Hakushi out of the corner only gets a two count.  He rams the Kid into Owen's boot as the crowd chants "We Want Bret". Backbreaker by Owen as we go to another break. When we return, the Kid gets a slingshot cross body for two. Owen keeps the Kid down while tagging Yokozuna, who squashes the Kid with a leg drop. Owen waves the Japanese flag while Hakushi gets tagged back in. Hard slap to the face and a dropkick by Hakushi, followed by a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.

The kid ducks a clothesline, and catches Hakushi in a sitout powerbomb. Tag to Bret and tag to Yokozuna. Bret gets some strikes and hits several clotheslines to take the big man down. Bulldog out of the corner followed by an elbow drop. He throws Hakushi in and punches out Owen. Bret attacks Hakushi in the corner, but Yoko comes back. Tag to Owen who hits an enziguri to the back of Bret's head. Bret tags in Holly and dropkicks Owen, allowing Holly to get a roll up three.

A really good six-man tag match. Lots of fast paced action throughout. Well, with the exception of when Yoko was in. But I will admit Yoko looked a lot better in the ring on this occasion than he did at Wrestlemania. I also liked the ending with the dropkick into the roll up, very innovative.


Hey, did you know Duckman is up next after Raw? If it hasn't been made clear yet, they have people in the crowd with shirts chanting for him (including a lot of kids, which was definitely NOT the demographic for Duckman. In fact, a kid friendly product like mid 90's WWF and Duckman is in contention for the oddest choice for back to back TV I've ever seen).  We end Raw recapping the entrance for Lawrence Taylor yet again as we shill the encore of Wrestlemania again. Also, next week it will be Owen Hart and Yokozuna defending the titles against Bob Holly and the Kid.

A very by-the-books edition of Raw this week. Nothing bad in terms of in-ring, even though the Tatanka/Adam Bomb match was a dud. Kama looked good in his squash, the Headshrinkers looked destructive as always, and we had a solid six-man tag. Other than that, the Jean Pierre LaFitte promo was interesting (though strange) and the heavy sell for Duckman was entertaining. That makes for a Raw worthy of a B+ rating. Nothing really worth coming back to watch, but still some fun stuff within.

No comments:

Post a Comment