Raw continues through their latest taping with Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly in action against British Bulldog. Tonight on Raw we have a big edition of Raw with Razor Ramon defending his Intercontinental Title against Dean Douglas, plus SId taking on Marty Jannetty. Lock up early on, but Bulldog is the more powerful of the duo. Holly with a headlock is broken by Bulldog, but Holly comes back with a hiptoss, a body slam and a pair of clotheslines, sending Davey Boy in retreat.
Bulldog locks in a headlock, but Holly escapes, does some dodging and lands a powerslam. Arm bar by Holly, but Bulldog turns it into a press slam, sending Holly groin-first into the ropes. Bulldog rams Holly into the buckle and works in some fists. He goes for a suplex, but Holly rolls him up for two. Bulldog comes right back with a hard clothesline. Second attempt at the stalling suplex is successful. Bulldog locks in a chinlock, but Holly escapes, getting a sunset flip for two. Big knee by Bulldog stops Holly's momentum dead.
Big leg drop by Bulldog. He goes for a clothesline, but Holly ducks and lands a dropkick. Strikes by Holly including an elbow to the face. Another big dropkick by Holly, who covers for two. Hard whip to the buckle by Holly who succeeds with the ten punches in the corner. Cover still only gets two. Bulldog reverses a whip, catches Holly and lands the powerslam for the win. A solid opener to kick Raw off with lots of back and forth. Doesn't make Bulldog look all that dominant going in to his match with Bret, but it was still a better than expected match.
Bob Backlund has been on a reign of terror. First he locked the chicken wing on Bret Hart last weeko n Raw, then on Superstars he took his aggression on Jim Ross. Lawler interviews Backlund, talking about his non-title match with Bret. Backlund freaks out, yelling that he wants to be god again. He had dreams of being god again so he could reign supreme over the plebeians and put them in the right frame of mind. He says that we don't need more hitmen in our society. He continues to rant as we go to break. They literally hold a sign up saying to go to break. God do I love psycho Bob Backlund.
Fatu is in action againt the Brooklyn Brawler while Bob Backlund is on the hunt for the sound engineer. Sneak attack by Brawler early on. He whips Fatu and lands a knee to the abdomen. Eye poke by Brawler. He tries a hiptoss, but Fatu turns it around into a backbreaker. Running neckbreaker out of the corner and a splash gets the win for Fatu in a quick match.
We cut to Dok Hendrix, but never mind that as we go to Bob Backlund who has found the sound engineer. He picks him up and locks in the crossface chicken wing while the guy's headphones are still attached to his head. I cannot overstate it, I adore Bob Backlund. Back to Hendrix who has news on Owen Hart's open challenge for In Your House, and that's Diesel.
Up next, Intercontinental gold is on the line as Razor Ramon defends his title against Dean Douglas. Douglas slaps the toothpick out of the mouth of Razor before we even start things. Razor, like an idiot, turns his back to Dean to remove his chains, allowing for Douglas to sneak attack him. He goes to whack Razor with the belt, but referee Earl Hebner puts a stop to the attempt. Douglas lays in fists, but Razor regains control, landing a fallaway slam and a clothesline that sends Dean to the outside. Razor brings him in and lands a hiptoss.
Razor starts work on the arm with an arm bar as we see the word "Shawn" taped on Razor's boot. Considering a Razor's Edge aided in Shawn's injury, this act of sincerity doesn't feel warranted. Dean gets a boot out of the corner and lands a bulldog off the buckle. Body slam by Douglas who is selling a bad back as we go to break. When we return, it's the old "abdominal stretch with the arm on the ropes" spot made famous on this blog by our old friend IRS. Hebner forces a break. He tries again, but Razor turns it into a stretch of his own. Hiptoss by Douglas who goes to the top. Flying body press turned around by Razor who covers for two. He calls for the Razor's Edge and gets him up, succeeding. Cover and the three for Razor.
A good match. Nothing amazing about it, and honestly it felt about the same as all their other matches. However, even if it felt like the "same old same old" they still work pretty well together, and in the end, it still was a decent watch.
It's the Brother Love show. His guest this week is King Mabel. Mabel still has the urn chains that he stole last week around his neck. Mabel brings up that he's missing Sir Mo, who was the victim of the Undertaker last week. Brother Love brings up that Mabel will be facing Taker in a casket match. Mabel says he's the first man to pin the Undertaker (false) and the first to take him out of action (also false) and he'll be the first to stuff him in his own casket (also false. Did he not see Royal Rumble 1994?).
Brother Love mentions he has a surprise for Mabel, much to the dismay of the king. He brings out a casket being pushed by someone under a hood. The man under the hood is Sir Mo. And the casket is the Undertaker's casket covered in graffiti. Mabel is pleased and promises to stuff Undertaker in the casket. He thanks Brother Love for his token of love and promises that there will be no love for Undertaker, but 568 pounds of pure hate.
We get a shouty promo from Vince hyping the Raw Bowl, airing on January 1st of 1996. I have heard many a tale about the Raw Bowl, so color me intrigued.
Up next, it's our main event match of the night. Sycho Sid taking on Marty Jannetty. This stems from Sid's interference in Marty's affairs at Survivor Series and the powerbomb to Marty two weeks ago. But first we got Barry Didnsky shilling the Diesel and Undertaker standees. I'm sorry, but I can't help but think of that Family Guy bit with Peter and the Kathy Ireland standee every time I see these get shilled. Needless to say a lot of holes were likely poked in 'em.
Pearl Harboring by Jannetty who lands several strikes an a cross body before bouncing Sid's head off the mat. Sid eventually catches Marty and lands a slam. He bounces the face of Marty on to the mat as he continues to yell about him being the master and the ruler of the world. Hard blows by Sid in the corner followed by a blatant choke. He follows up with boots to the midsection. Hard whip to the buckle, but Marty gets some boots in the corner and lands a flipping neckbreaker off the top. Running fist drop by Marty who covers for two. Razor watches on backstage as we go to break.
When we return, Marty ducks a clothesline, only to eat a far harder one that sends him flipping. Marty tries a sunset flip, but Sid goes for a fist drop, only for Marty to avoid. However, Marty gets caught again by a clothesline. Cover by Sid only gets a two count. Chinlock by Sid. Marty breaks free and lands some strikes, only for Sid to catch him and throw him right over the top rope. Dibiase lays in a few cheap shots, but Marty turns his attention to the million dollar man.
1-2-3 Kid ambushes the Kid. Razor makes the save and sends Sid over the top rope. Kid runs off into the crowd with Razor in tow. Back in the ring however, Sid catches Marty and hits another powerbomb. Dibiase stuffs money down Marty's throat as the pair make their leave. Overall, it was an okay match. Marty looked pretty good, and Sid, while still his basic work, still held his own. In the end it was more angle than match building to their tag match at In Your House, but it was still good.
We end Raw with an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Unger, the personal physician of Shawn Michaels. He says that he was concerned for Michaels as he felt he cleared him too early, which after the collapse on Raw, that seems like the case. He talks about post-concussion syndrome which is what is currently plaguing Michaels. Any indication of bringing him back to the WWF is premature. He doesn't know when Shawn will come back. We recap the beatings Shawn had this year. The Rumble win, the powerbomb to Sid after Wrestlemania, the Ladder match, and most recently the Syracuse assault. Dr. Unger says that any blows to the head could be fatal. He says that Shawn is not progressing neurologically and it wouldn't be wise to come back at all.
We end with Vince monologuing about how we separate the superstar from the human being. He says how the facade of superstardom was smashed in an instant due to Shawn's collapse, and how superstars do feel pain. They risk their bodies time after time, taking it one step closer to the edge to thrill the crowd. Overall, it's a really classy "do not try this at home" PSA.
A pretty good edition of Raw this week. Very packed with a good deal of focus towards In Your House 5. The in-ring was basic stuff, nothing really blew me away. Nothing terrible mind you as everything was good. But Sid/Marty, Razor/Douglas and Bulldog/Holly were just okay matches. The Brother Love show with King Mabel was decent as we build to the casket match with Undertaker. And while they're doing a strong job building the seriousness of Shawn Michaels' injury, I can't help not feeling that bad since again, this whole angle stemmed from him being a prick to a marine at a Syracuse bar. But what gives the Raw the edge this week is Bob Backlund. It had been a while since he was really being used in all his manic glory, and this delivered. From attacking the sound guy to him yelling that he wants to be god again, it was just glorious. Glorious enough to earn some strong points for this edition of Raw which ends with a B rating.
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