With Wrestlemania 12 only a couple weeks away, things have been getting more intense. At a house show in Madison Square Garden over the weekend, Diesel interrupted the main event, attacking Undertaker, Bret Hart, and most surprisingly, his best friend Shawn Michaels. So no more shades of grey with Big Daddy Cool at this point, he's full heel. Diesel will be in action tonight. We also get an ad for more Billionaire Ted, because that's more important than the fact that the WWF Champ Bret Hart's in action, isn't it Vince?
Opening action for this edition is British Bulldog taking on Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Arm work from both men early on, but Jake turns things around into an attempted DDT, only for Davey Boy to escape. This prompts a "DDT" chant from the crowd. Whip by Bulldog, but Jake hits a really terrible hiptoss. Jake tries another attempt at the DDT, but Bulldog escapes again. Bulldog then takes Jake the to the corner and whips him to the buckle, laying in a forearm. He distracts the referee while Cornette gets in a shot to the fact with the tennis racket.
Bulldog continues the work the back with clubbing blows and beats down Jake. He tries for a leg drop, but Jake rolls out of the way. More punches and a shot to the face. Cornette grabs the boot of Jake, allowing Bulldog to get a sneak attack. Jake slides out and hits the DDT. Cover, but Cornette drags him off Davey Boy. Jake grabs the bag containing Revelations, his snake and goes for Cornette. Cornette runs off as Roberts gets counted out.
We get another set of training videos for Shawn and Bret as we get closer to the iron man match. Shawn is still training with Jose Lothario, talking about being a rookie, not knowing how to have a wrestling match. Jose told him to just listen, but since Shawn's opened his mouth, he's never shut it. Alternately, in Calgary, Bret is still training in the dungeon, getting stretched by Stu. We get a good look at a lot of the memorabilia he's amassed over the years including championship belts and magazine covers. He talks about family, especially how his son has been wearing Shawn Michaels merchandise lately. Bret says despite that, he still has his fans, even if lately he's been working in a less than favorable way in his matches against Taker and Bulldog. He doesn't care for Shawn's dancing, as it won't be a dance marathon in the 60 minute iron man match. He says that you're better off looking up to someone like Bret for someone with respect.
Up next, it's "Make a Difference" Fatu taking on Goldust. We get a great camera shot of a female Goldust fan in the audience doing the Goldust mannerisms while wearing a Goldust T-Shirt, much to the shock of Vince. Lawler makes a reference that that woman is Chastity Bono. This would have been after Chaz Bono had come out as a lesbian, so yeah, timely.
Goldust comes to the ring wearing a kilt akin to Roddy Piper. Mind games going cloer to the Hollywood Backlot Brawl. He rubs himself a bit and yells at the crowd. Fatu gets in a few strikes and a back body drop. He goes for a second, but Goldust slides under and hits a slap. He whips Fatu and tries to get a hip attack, but Fatu begins to slap Goldust in the butt, following with a headbutt to the head, followed by one to the groin. We go to break as Fatu is still in control. He goes for a splash, but Goldust avoids. He hits a clothesline. He grinds atop Fatu then hits a final cut for the win. Piper, on the phone talks about how he's not playing around and is plenty P'Oed, ready for the backlot brawl.
Camp Cornette make their way to the ring to discuss the six-man tag match at Wrestlemania 12 involving Owen Hart, Bulldog and Vader against Ahmed, Jake "the Snake" Roberts, and Yokozuna. Cornette says that Vince has a friend that's still in the hospital thanks to Vader (referring to Gorilla Monsoon of course), so he'd better not get excitable. They easily accept the challenge to the 6-man tag. Owen says that he'll squeeze the life out of Jake, that he carried Yoko, and that Ahmed is brainless. Bulldog says that Ahmed isn't the strongest athlete, he is. Cornette calls Yokozuna a traitor, an ingrate, and a stupid idiot. He called all the shots and took him to the top. He says that Fuji's out of action with a knee injury. He doesn't know how Fuji fell down those stairs, he was right behind him (a clever way to write Fuji off since he hasn't been around for months. Hell, even I barely noticed). He says that they are dying to get the three faces in the ring because they're gonna make cream wheat out of all of them.
We get a video from Ahmed, Jake and Yokozuna. Yoko says that at Wrestlemania, he's going to get even with Cornette. Jake says that they should always check the fine print, since it won't take more than five minutes to do what he wants to with Cornette. Yoko then drops a banzai drop on a dummy of Jim Cornette. So now if the faces win at Wrestlemania, Yokozuna will get five minutes alone with Jim Cornette, which sends the Louisville Lip in a panic.
Up next, it's Diesel taking on Barry Horowitz. Just before the match starts, we get a recap of the mania that went down at Madison Square Garden the prior night. Shawn and Diesel teamed against Bret and the Undertaker. The tag match turned into a slugfest from the get go as Taker and Diesel brawled in the entrance way. Diesel would then attack Taker and Bret with a chair, finishing Michaels with a chair shot afterwards. Like I said prior, the shades of grey that Diesel once had are long gone.
Diesel hits some elbows in the corner followed by stiff knees followed by a clothesline. Paul Bearer is seen dragging a casket to ringside. Diesel continues to focus on Bearer while hitting a sidewalk slam. Horowitz tries to fight with a distracted Diesel, but his efforts are in vain as Diesel gets in a big boot. Cover, but Horowitz kicks out. One more punch finishes Horowitz off. Diesel grabs a wrench from the timekeeper and heads to the casket, worried that Undertaker is in the casket. However...
Upon opening the casket, he instead sees himself. A picture perfect wax figure of Diesel inside the casket. A perfect way to tell Diesel that he will rest in peace at Wrestlemania. Diesel quickly closes the casket lid and walks off, looking shook. This really is one of the coolest moments ever, in terms of how technically amazing the dummy looks, to how it continues what has been a great build between Diesel and Undertaker for Wrestlemania. It also feels very different from how we've often seen Undertaker mess with his opponents. Usually it's something like a black wreath, or the "creatures of the night", but going the extra mile to get a wax doppleganger to screw with his opponent? How can that not be a check in the win column?
It's our main event as WWF Champion Bret Hart takes on Tatanka. The native American starts off by laying in punches. He whips Bret to the corner, but Bret gets the boots up and follows with a second buckle clothesline. Bret begins to work the arm, locking in an arm bar. Tatanka breaks free, but Bret comes back with a cross body, covering for two. Bret conrinues working the arm. Tatanka comes back with a clothesline while the 1-2-3 Kid makes his way to ringside. Tatanka chokes Bret in the corner with his boot then whipping Bret hard into the buckle. Sidewalk slam by Tatanka who covers for two.
He follows up with a chinlock until Bret breaks free. Bret ducks a clothesline, only to get caught with a knee to the midsection. Body slam by Tatanka followed by an elbow drop and a cover for a two count. Tatanka whips Bret, but Bret turns around a back drop attempt into a small package for two. Tatanka comes back with a clothesline as we go to break. When we return, Bret is back in the chinlock. Bret breaks free again, but Tatanka gets in a cheap shot in the face, allowing for a body slam.
Tatanka goes for a diving chop off the top buckle, but Bret gets a shot to the midsection. Russian leg sweep followed by an inverse atomic drop and clothesline. Sidewalk slam and the patented second buckle elbow drop. Bret sets Tatanka for a sharpshooter as Dibiase distracts the ref. Kid grabs Bret, but Tatanka accidentally hits the Kid. Roll up by Bret gets the win in a pretty basic Bret match. Nothing bad, but nothing amazing. Your standard stuff from the Hitman. But most importantly right now, it's time to say goodbye to an old friend.
And that person is Tatanka. Yes, after almost three and a half years, our favorite punching bag on this blog is finally taking his leave as this would be his last appearance on WWF television. Tatanka would end up in UCW in 1997, and work around the indies for a good chunk of his career. Out of seemingly nowhere in 2005, Tatanka returned to the WWE, notably finding himself a spot on the Smackdown roster. The highlight being an angle where Tatanka would be adopted the Lakotan Oglala Sioux Tribe. He would leave in 2007, and since then would make sporadic appearances in the company, usually for legends shows. His most recent appearance was in the Wrestlemania 32 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. So, despite this being the "end of the trail" for Tatanka on the blog, it's nice to know he's still alive and well, and still around in some capacity.
Will I miss him though? Not really. Not because I had any real issue with the guy (other than naming him worst superstar of 1994) , but he was really in no major position in the company since mid 1995. In hindsight, I think he deserved better, and the heel turn did him no favors in the end. Especially causing him to stop doing the war dance after the spot that
what...
EVERY
SINGLE
PERSON
HAS
DONE
IN
A
FRIGGING
TATANKA
MATCH
So thanks for the run Tatanka. We may not have gotten along a lot, but you were an integral part of the early days of this blog.
But of course, this show isn't done yet. We have to have our latest edition of Billionaire Ted as he is face to face with the Federal Trade Commission (or the Federal Turner Commission). And this is just a lame "A Few Good Men" parody with Turner portraying Jack Nicholson's Colonel Nathan R. Jessup. And again this spirals less into how corrupt Turner actually is and yet again another edition of "How dare Ted Turner try to be competition to the WWF? How dare he try to put us out of business? You know like how we put the territories... err, never mind that. BOO Ted Turner! BOO!"
Turner makes the comment of "You realize how many lives I've destroyed? (Compared to the deaths and ended careers that the WWF have caused) You have any idea how many companies I've put out of business (again the territories of the 80s)." In the end this sounds less like a serious take on Turner and the Time Warner merger and more like VInce talking in the mirror to himself at night, wishing and praying he had the power of Turner to control the media. This is continued next week in (thank you god) the last Billionaire Ted skit before the angle dies at Wrestlemania 12.
We end with the WWF putting up a disclaimer for people to call the chairman of the federal trade commission to stop Ted Turner from succeeding with the Time-Warner merger. This has gone from arrogant at best to absolutely pathetic.
And that's another Raw in the books. A solid episode this week, though nothing in-ring was all that great. Bret vs Tatanka was standard, while Goldust/Fatu was simple stuff, Jake vs Bulldog and Diesel vs Horowitz were more storyline focused than the action in the ring. They all did their job in building to Wrestlemania, especially Diesel's match with its freaky aftermath of the wax Diesel in the casket. I also like the building of Bret vs Shawn as it makes a match as massive as an hour-long iron man match feel important. A far cry from 1995's focus being on a footballer in the ring. As usual, Billionaire Ted puts the screws on this show being solid, but in the end, Raw earns a B-.
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