We are kicking off Raw with yet another match between 1-2-3 Kid and Razor Ramon. This chapter in the feud culiminates from when the Kid interfered in Razor's match against Dean Douglas and the former friends coming to blows. Speaking of rematches, we will also see Jean Pierre LaFitte taking on Bret Hart in a rematch from In Your House 3. Razor easily throws the kid over the top ropes to begin this match. Lawler brings up that Ted Dibiase is interested in the 1-2-3 Kid.
Razor whips Kid to the corner, but Kid ducks a clothesline and lands some kicks. Kid avoids another trip to the corner and lands even more fast kicks. Kid ducks some clotheslines, but gets himself caught into the fallaway slam, covering for two. Enziguri to the back of the head of Razor as the Kid tries another cover, only for Razor to kick out. Dean Douglas is back up on the entrance way taking notes as Razor covers for another two. Spin kick by Kid who covers for another two. Douglas nods and makes his leave. Fast leg drops by the Kid. He misses a spin kick, as Razor lands a clothesline for the three. A super fast match, but definitely the most intense of their matches so far with a lot of fast, effective offense.
The Kid, not happy with his loss tries to attack Razor some more as the mach is somehow back on, but Razor is quick to throw him into the corner and lay in some boots. Razor beals him in the corner and locks in an abdominal stretch, along with some paint brushes. Kid slaps Razor again, but Razor continues to punish him as we go to break.
When we come back from break we find out that Razor pinned the Kid again with a powerbomb, and yet here we are with a third match between the two in the span of eight minutes. Sunset flip by the Kid, but Razor easily strikes him. Back suplex off the Razor who is now just toying with the Kid at this point. Razor calls for the Razor's Edge, though he can't bring himself to do it. He pins the prone Kid in a roll up for three. Razor slaps the Kid to get him to stop, and the Kid raises the hand and goes for a roll up for two. This still isn't over! The kid lays down and asks for a Razor's Edge, much to the chagrin of the bad guy. Another hand shake ends this bizarre, but compelling Raw segment.
Up next, it's Barry Horowitz taking on Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Can he defeat the blue blood?
"Fat Chance."
Hey kids, Vince wants your dollar... to talk about O.J Simpson? Yes, it's perhaps the most bizarre thing I've seen on Raw since Vince never delivered on that Woody Allen/Mia Farrow cage match. Trust me though, if you think this is the strangest use of the O.J Simpson trial on WWF TV, wait til we get to Wrestlemania 12. Also kids under 18, who really give a damn about this trial, get your parent's permission before calling.
Oh right, there's a match. Hunter works the arm early on with some arm bars. Barry tries to come back, but Hunter backs off into the corner. Waistlock by Hunter is turned into a takedown by Barry. Hunter tries to escape, grabbing the ropes. Vince will not shut up about the O.J stuff a Hunter lands hard stikes into the corner. Loud "Barry" chants as Hunter drops a knee. He takes a bow as Lawler and Vince are actually arguing if O.J is guilty or not. Stalling suplex by Hunter. Barry comes back with some elbow and a sunset flip, covering for two.
Hunter stomps down on Barry and chokes him with his knee. Vince turns his focus on O.J to the Pope, who is being welcomed by the WWF apparently. What the hell is even this commentary? Backslide by Barry only gets a two. Hard clothesline by Hunter who covers for two. Barry lands another elbow to the jaw of Hunter and lands a Lou Thesz press for two. He goes for a roll up for two. Barry tries a back drop, but gets caught in the pedigree by Hunter for the win. A really good back and forth match, and easily Hunter's best performance so far on Raw since his debut.
Up next, it's the Raw debut of JC Ice and Wolfie D, Otherwise known as PG-13. The USWA Tag Team Champions. I believe they are literally using the Men ona Mission face theme. We cut to a backstage video of PG-13 challenging the Smoking Gunns to a tag title match. Russian Leg sweep and a dropkick by PG-13 to Sunny Rogers. Quick dropkick by JC Ice and a tag to Wolfie D as the team land some elbows. Cover only gets a two.
Slam by Wolfie who mocks Sunny Rogers. Tag to JC Ice as the duo land a Hart Attack of some sort. Tag back to Wolfie who goes for an elbow but misses. Tag to Al Brown who hits a hard body slam. Wolfie avoids contact in the corner and lands a back suplex. Tag to JC Ice as Wolfie lands a facebuster off the top rope. Tag back in to Wolfie as the hit a double bulldog, a double dog as Lawler puts it. Tag again to JC Ice as they do a double team tilt-a-whirl slam for the win in an interesting squash. They're super fast and good at double teams, but other than that, I don't think much of PG-13.
It's main event time as Jean Pierre LaFitte is in action against Bret Hart. Dok Hendrix has our shill tonight for a Bret Hart T-Shirt and tape combo. Somehow I'm surprised this merch isn't O.J Simpson related.
Bret and Pierre exchange blows early on, but Pierre wins the battle with some hard ax handles to the back. Hard whip to the buckle and a clothesline follow for the pirate. Elbow drop by Pierre followed by even more fists to the head. Bret breaks out of a headlock, but gets caught by an elbow. Pierre throws Bret into the corner and continues to yell at the pro-Bret crowd. He goes for an attack in the corner, but Bret avoids, sending Pierre tumbling outside. Bret takes the fight outside and slams Pierre back-first into the steel steps.
Pierre reverses a whip, but Bret is quick to get control in the corner, landing a boot to the face and a second rope clothesline. He lays some fists in to Pierre but gets caught in a press slam to the ropes. He continues to work on the neck of Bret, locking in a chinlock. Bret gets some fists, but his hiptoss attempt is met with a clothesline by Pierre as Lawler chimes in on how beautiful the maneuver was. Pierre lands a slam and follows with a beautiful diving headbutt over halfway across the ring, covering for two. Lawler is wanting badly to get into the ring to get some of Bret.
Draping Bret on the ropes, Pierre lands a knee to the back of Bret. Slow cover only gets him a two count. He follows up with a whip to the corner and a big splash. He continues to jaw jack instead of going right into offense. After some more fists to the back of the head, he whips Bret, only for Bret to reverse into a small package for a two count. Clothesline by Pierre as we go to break. When we return, Pierre drops a leg to Bret and covers for two. The "Let's Go Bret" chants continue to bother him as he lands a sidewalk slam. Pierre ascends the buckle for the cannonball, but Bret avoids, leading the pirate to get an ass full of mat.
Pierre ducks a clothesline by Bret and follows with an elbow. Cover, but Bret throws Pierre to the outside, landing on a cameraman. Some brawling leads to Pierre whipping Bret hard into the steel steps as Lawler cackles at Bret's pain. Pierre tries to suplex Bret over the ropes, only for Bret to escape, however Pierre quickly keeps on the offense. Bret comes back with his patented moves. The leg sweep, the back breaker and the elbow off the second rope. Cover only gets a two count.
Bret whips Pierre into the corner, but gets caught into a rolling slam by Pierre, covering for two as Lawler gets concerned. Bret hits some more rights, but gets caught in a back suplex. Pierre goes to the top for another cannonball attempt, as Lawler his excited at the possibility. However Bret quickly gets up and lands a superplex as Lawler screams in horror. The sharpshooter gets locked in, ans Bret gets the win.
A really good match. Even better than their In Your House 3 affair. Pierre looked strong, landing some excellent offense that looked painful, while Bret played the underdog well, coming back from everything Pierre threw at him. But the MVP of the match is Jerry Lawer, whose biased commentary added to the match. His pride at every damaging move from Pierre and his disgust and horror whenever Bret made a comeback. He made an already great match even better.
Post-match, Lawler is far from done with Bret and challenges him to a fight. Bret obliges and brawls with the king on the outisde, until Isaac Yankem makes the save, nailing Bret with a DDT on the floor. The crowd chants for Diesel, despite him not being involved with the match. After everything calms down, we learn from Vince that Bret will face Isaac Yankem in a cage match sometime in the near future, as Lawler complains about Bret hitting him in the eye.
We get some build to next week's six-man tag match between Yokozuna, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog vs Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Diesel. Basic heel and face promos backstage from both sides who think they'll be the ones coming out on top. Also I just realized that four out of the five men in "Camp Cornette" are dead, and that's depressing as hell.
But the real question we answer to end this Raw is what the fans thought of O.J Simpson with 51% believing him to not be guilty. And trust me, if it's an opinion from a wrestling fan, there must be a lot of validity from it.
This was a fun episode of Raw. Perhaps the best in a while. I like the heat of the Razor Ramon/1-2-3 Kid feud, even if it became bizarre with how the match continued multiple times despite the definitive win. I especially like that Razor may have issues with the Kid, but isn't willing to truly finish him off. Hunter vs Horowitz was better than expected, PG-13 are... interesting, and we finish off with a strong Bret Hart vs Jean Pierre LaFitte match, which in turn continues the feud with Bret and Isaac Yankem D.D.S. Overall, this Raw never felt slow, and kept the excitement throughout the hour. An easy A this show gets.