Among the names in the battle royal include Sid, Marty Janetty, King Kong Bundy, Bam Bam Bigelow, Fatu, Savio, Owen Hart and the 1-2-3 Kid. Speaking of Bundy, he is out almost immediately thanks to a team effort. Everyone continues to brawl with one another for a good few minutes until our next elimination, Aldo Montoya thanks to Skip. Hunter is nearly eliminated by Bigelow, but Fatu continues to work on the aristocrat, as the pair still have issues from In Your House. Bob Holly is next to be tossed out thanks to Sid. Sid continues by eliminating Duke "The Dumpster" Droese. Skip throws out Hakushi, while Kama eliminates Fatu. Horowitz gets revenge for his friend Hakushi by eliminating Skip as we go to break.
When we return from break the herd has been thinned out significantly. 1-2-3 Kid, Rad Radford, Barry Horowitz, Kama, Godwinn, and Helmsley al gone during the commercial break. Yankem is dumped out by Sid, who then turns his attention to Janetty, who eats a boot. Savio, Owen, Janetty, LaFitte, Sid and Bam Bam are the remaining six. Bam Bam collides into Sid, sending Sid over the top rope. Spin kick to LaFitte by Savio while Marty rams Owen in the buckle.
After a third commercial break, we're down to four. Owen, LaFitte, Savio and Marty. Bam Bam was eliminated by the pirate. Marty locks in a sleeper, but Owen tries to escape. A couple of sloppy fireman's carry spots, which I blame more on Marty than I do Owen. DDT on LaFitte by Savio. Owen survives an elimination and works on the leg of Savio, only to eat an enziguri. LaFitte tries to throw out Savio, but Vega survives. Savio ducks a spin kick by Owen and lands one of his own. Savio turns his attention to Marty, who skins the cat over the ropes and headscissors Savio out. Pierre tries a clothesline, but Marty tosses him over the ropes, leaving us with Marty and Owen.
Marty clotheslines Owen over the rope to the apron and starts hammering him, as Owen dangles further and further down. He does manage to slide back into the ring, but Marty just slides him back out. Guillotine by Owen followed by an enziguri. Owen tries to set Marty on the ropes, but the former rocker counters. Owen throws Marty through the ropes, which does not count as an elimination. Cornette tries to attack Marty, but Marty grabs the tennis racket and stalk Cornette. British Bulldog comes out and attacks Marty on the outside, ramming him into the step. He throws Marty back in, allowing Owen to get the win, throwing Marty to the outside, and earning himself a shot at Razor Ramon's Intercontinental title next week. A decent battle royal, nothing spectacular. I will say that Marty looked a lot sloppier here than he was during the Goldust match at In Your House.
Lawler interviews Owen Hart. Owen says he beat everyone the WWF has had to offer. He promises that next week the world will find out who the real bad guy is as he has his sights on winning the Intercontinental title.
Dok Hendrix is here with the Slam Jam for the 1995 Survivor Series. He's like a more colorful, more annoying Todd Pettengill. Dok tells us about the wild card match at Survivor Series. Shawn Michaels teaming with Sid, British Bulldog and the debuting Ahmed Johnson, taking on Dean Douglas, Yokozuna, Owen Hart and Razor Ramon. We get interrupted by the sight of Bob Backlund, who we haven't seen in months, still on the campaign trail
In one of the most coherent Ahmed promos, he simply says he hopes his partners don't think to do anything against him or it's going to get medieval.
What does everybody want? Avatar, I guess. It's the Raw debut of the man who would later become Al Snow, but right now he's been brought in as Avatar. Another non-Japanese man as a ninja character. But here's the twist. He comes to the ring without a mask on, then upon entering the ring...
On goes the mask! I don't get it either. Supposedly this was Vince's idea to sort of tap into the Mortal Kombat/Power Rangers demographics (or to tap into the Milton Bradley Karate Fighters sponsor for Survivor Series) but it just smells of 1995 cheese.
It's Brian Walsh as the opponent. Leg takedown by Avatar to begin as Walsh kips right back up. Arm bars and wringers are exchanged from both men, but Walsh wins the war. Leapfrog by Walsh, but Avatar avoids contact and knocks Walsh out of the ring. Avatar tries to dive off the top buckle, but loses his balance,so he just planchas over the ropes. He tries a moonsault, but Walsh avoids and lands some clotheslines. Avatar avoids being whipped to the buckle and lands a clothesline. Spinning backbreaker and a moonsault followed by a splash to get the win in a very soppy debut. And just like that, he takes off the mask and that's it.
They found Barry! Barry Didinsky is here to shill those cardboard cutouts. I dunno. I never saw the appeal of having giant cardboard cutouts of people. They just feel creepy.
In our main event, it's the WWF Women's Championship on the line as Alundra Blayze challenges Bertha Faye. Flanked by her main squeeze Harvey Whippleman, and with a top contender for greatest bad theme ever, we recap Bertha's title win back at Summerslam in August. Good pop for Blayze as we go to break.
Running attack by Blayze is met with a collision by Bertha. Bertha follows up with some slams and some leg drops. Cover only gets a two count. Blayze gets in a sunset flip for a two count. Bertha returns with a clothesline. A second sunset flip by Blayze is met with Bertha dropping her weight for a two count. Blayze tries to fight back but Bertha is quick to land some strikes to the back. We go to break again, but when we return, Alundra Blayze locks in a Boston Crab, only for Bertha to turn things around again, whipping Blayze into the corner and landing a splash.
Blayze jumps over the ropes and starts ramming Bertha face-first into the buckle. She follows with a monkey flip and a hiptoss. Blayze goes off the second rope with a dropkick, covering for two. Spinning heel kick by Blayze who covers for another near 2. Windup punch by Blayze followed by some hairpull takedowns. Cover only gets 1 in what feels like a botched spot. Blayze tries for a powerbomb, but to no avail as Bertha back drops her. Body slam by Bertha who then goes to the second rope, only to get caught by the headscissor takedown. Harvey tries to interfere, but Bertha hits Harvey. German suplex from Alundra gets the win and Blayze's third title victory. Post-match, an angry Bertha chases after Harvey. Not a bad match. Certainly no Blayze/Nakano level quality, but compared to their Summerslam outing, this was a far better match.
We end Raw with a Jim Ross interviewing a sullen Shawn Michaels, still reeling from his injuries and his forfeiture of the Intercontinental title. Shawn says he worked hard to get where he at, and he earned the title. He calls Dean Douglas overrated (wow, what a dig), and is glad that Dean didn't hold the belt for long. He says that he has some tests to take, but he hopes to be ready to get back in the ring ASAP. He can either sit home and cry, or be there and be a pain, and he's all done crying.
A decent at best Raw. The battle royal was good, though honestly felt like any battle royal I've seen. Bertha Faye vs Alundra Blayze was a good match, like I said, better than Summerslam. I like that the intercontinental division actually feels like it has a division in it at this point (unlike the tag division), and they've done a great job turning Shawn getting his ass kicked into an angle to garner him sympathy. Also Avatar was certainly... a thing. Overall, not an amazing Raw, but still a solid enough affair to warrant a C+.