It's the season premiere of Monday Night Raw as we recap the victory of Shawn Michaels at Summerslam in the grueling ladder match. Because tonight, Michaels will take on Sid. Meanwhile, Razor Ramon has to deal with the turncoat British Bulldog. Also, this means we get a brand new intro. It's the "I Like it Raw" intro as the superstars do battle on top of Titan Tower. A lot of the footage used in the intro would later be incorporated into the Degeneration X titantron and The Rock's Hollywood titantron.
Openign action for Raw is Razor Ramon vs the British Bulldog (who nas a heel haircut). We learn that the British Bulldog will face Bam Bam Bigelow at the next In Your House on the 24th of September. Razor throws a toothpick at Jim Cornette as we start action. An exchange of arm wringers until Razor gets a right to the face of Bulldog and follows with a clothesline. Hammerlock by Razor turned into an arm bar and some paintbrushing of the head of Bulldog.
Bulldog reverses a whip and slams Razor hard into the buckles, following with a delayed vertical suplex. Bulldog works some strikes to the lower back of Razor until Razor comes back with a right. Razor tries a back drop, but gets hit with a facebuster and a clothesline by Bulldog. Cover only gets a two. Bulldog picks up Razor and drops him with a press slam as we go to break. When we return, Bulldog hits another slam and covers for two. Bulldog tries a powerslam, but Razor puts his weight on Bulldog. But Bulldog comes right back with a body slam. Bulldog goes up top, but Razor catches him and throws him off the buckle. Razor lands another right and hits a fallaway slam, covering for two. Razor ends up whipping Bulldog into the ref and tries for a Razor's Edge, managing to land it.
Dean Douglas shows up and drops a knee off the buckle on to Razor. The 1-2-3 Kid tries to make a save, but is quickly dispatched of. Due to this, Bulldog gets Razor up and lands a running powerslam. The Kid tries to attack Bulldog with a splash off the top...
But ends up getting Razor instead. The Bulldog immediately goes after the Kid, dropping him neck-first into the top rope. Cornette and Bulldog lay stomps and fists into Razor and the Kid as we go to break.
An okay opener for Raw. Basic offense from both men with what felt like a faster pace considering how brief the match was. In the end it was more of an angle to build on the Razor Ramon/Dean Douglas feud, along with the beginning of the cracks of Razor and Kid's friendship, but for what we got this was still decent.
Vince is in the ring with the Kid and Razor. He talks about the interference of Dean Douglas and the Kid's actions costing Razor the match. The Kid mentions that Razor cost the Kid the match against Dean Douglas last week. He's unhappy with being treated like a kid (but... but your name is the 1-2-3 KID). He brings up beating Razor before and challenges him to a match next week to finally get some respect from the bad guy. He promises to beat him next week and walks off. Razor calls the Kid his little buddy the Kid, the one he made famous, and accepts the challenge.
Up next is The Smoking Gunns taking on Brooklyn Brawler and Rad Radford. For a moment I thought I wouldn't be able to mention Radford, AKA Louie Spicolli. Radford and Brawler sneak attack early, but Billy comes back with a double clothesline and the Gunns continue with a double dropkick. Billy works the arm of Brawler and tags in Bart, who gets hit with a knee by Radford. Stomp to the lower extremities by Brawler who tags in Radford. Neckbreaker by Radford. Tag to Brawler as they hit double elbows on Bart. Brawler goes up top, but gets caught in a slam by Bart. Tag to Billy who peppers in some shots in the corner. Billy and Bart whip Radford and Brawler into each other and hit the sidewinder for the win in a decent squash.
We have another Goldust vignette as he quotes Night of the Living Dead. He focus is on the creatures of the night who follow the Undertaker. Gold sheds no darkness, it sheds light. He calls Undertaker a black evil cloud that will be sent to the heavens courtesy of Goldust.
Isaac Yankem is in action next against Scott Taylor. Lawler defends his actions at Summerslam, claiming he attacked because Bret said bad things about his mother. Yankem slams Taylor in the corner and follows with a choke slam. He then yanks at the mouth of Taylor and follows with a body slam and an elbow drop. Hangman choke on Taylor by Yankem who then follows by dropping Taylor throat first into the ropes. DDT gets the win in a dominant squash.
It's the In Your House report as we learn about our upcoming card for In Your House 4. The main event is a Triple Header match with every title on the line. It's Diesel and Shawn Michaels defending their IC and WWF titles against Yokozuna and Owen Hart who are defending their gold. And if there's a DQ or count out, the losers lose their gold. Also on the card is Razor Ramon vs Dean Douglas, Bret Hart vs Jean Pierre LaFitte, Savio Vega taking on Waylon Mercy and Bam Bam Bigelow vs The British Bulldog.
Up next, it's Sid vs Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Title. But first we have Barry Didinsky's shill of the week. A really bad looking WWF shirt that looks like it barely made it out of the printer and a Shawn Michaels hat, heart glasses. Also you get an L.T Poster, because sure, why not.
Sid comes back in with a headlock. Shawn breaks out, but gets caught in a spinebuster. Sid lands a hard strike in the corner and follows with a whip to the corner and a clothesline to the outside. With the referee distracted, Ted Dibiase gets a few shots on Michaels. Sid stands in the ring like a goof, letting Shawn almost get counted out, meaning he took the Lex Luger lesson on title wins. Shawn gets in at 9 as we go to break. When we return, Sid gets a chokeslam on Michaels. Sid stalls, asking for his belt and goes for a powerbomb, but gets back dropped instead.
Shawn lands several fists on to Sid, eventually taking down Sid. He goes to the top buckle and lands a cross body for two. Boot by Sid, but Shawn comes back with three superkicks. Cover gets the win for Shawn Michaels. Overall, not a horrible match, but nothing special either. Sid's offense feels bland as usual, and even compared to a lot of Shawn's performances lately, this felt really subdued. Overall, not as good as I think I was expecting.
Dok Hendrix interviews Shawn Michaels and Diesel about the triple header match at In Your House. Shawn is heavily focused on righting the wrongs of his life. He's united with Diesel, won back the IC title, and conquered the ladder match. Diesel says their the two dudes with attitudes. We end Raw with a preview of next week's taped episodes of Raw, which includes Razor vs the 1-2-3 Kid and Men on a Mission vs Owen and Yokozuna.
A pretty mediocre episode of Raw. Bulldog vs Razor underwhelmed, as did Sid vs Michaels. Maybe it's just the high from the quality episode of Nitro the previous week, but going back to standard WWF wrestling immediately after shows just how different and stationery the work in the company is at the time. With a fast-forward mentality going into In Your House 3, I can't say it's helping me get too hyped over it. And that definitely hurts this Raw, which gets a C+ rating.