Shawn baseball slides again, but is caught by Dr. Tom Pritchard. The Heavenly Bodies try to double team Shawn on the outside, but HBK manages to outwit both of them. Back in the ring, Del Ray drops Shawn with a DDT and mocks HBK's classic pose. Delayed cover gets only a two. Del Ray distracts the ref allowing Pritchard to choke Shawn. Shawn gets a sunset flip for two. Clothesline by Del Ray...
As we get some of the gyration sensation.
Del Ray lands a neckbreaker, covering for two. Del Ray gets a chinlock, but Shawn eventually escapes. Del Ray gets back control and goes up for a splash, but Shawn avoids, kipping up and laying in some strikes. Flying forearm and a stomp from Shawn followed by a slam and an elbow drop. He goes for Sweet Chin Music, but goes for Dr. Tom Pritchard instead. Del Ray tries to come back, but gets hit with a Sweet Chin Music as well as Shawn covers for the three. Post-match, Shawn is literally about to pull his tights all the way down, but eventually comes to his senses.
A pretty solid opener. Moved pretty quick and never really dragged. Some great looking offense from Del Ray as usual, and Shawn as usual is looking crisp as hell in the ring. Not to mention some patented Del Ray gyrating always makes for a great time. For Shawn's first match as the new IC champ, it was a great way to get this run started.
But unfortunately, just as we get this gyration train started, it's time once again to say goodbye as this is the end of the line for Gigolo Jimmy Del Ray. The Heavenly Bodies would continue on as a team, eventually working in ECW for a period of time. After that, Del Ray would wind up in WCW as Jimmy Graffitti. However an injury in 1997 would end his wrestling career. He would continue to train wrestlers until leaving wrestling entirely not long after, finding a career in flooring. Sadly, Jimmy Del Ray passed away of a heart attack on December 16th, 2014 at the age of 52. Will I miss jimmy Del Ray? Definitely. He was a definite unexpected treat on this blog. Despite his shlubbish look, he was crisp in the ring and surprisingly athletic. Plus that gyration. So here's to the gigolo. May you be shaking it in the ring up in the sky.
The Smoking Gunns are in action next against John Faulkner and Rick Stockhauser. Vince brings up that the WWF is going online with their own website. Wow, now this really feels dated. Faulkner shoulder blocks Billy, but Bill comes back with a hiptoss and an arm bar. Faulkner fights back and tags in Stockhauser sa they hit a double elbow. Billy avoids a charge in the corner and lands some rights. Tag to Bart who hits some strikes and a body slam, followed by a leg drop. Tag to Billy And a Sidewinder gets a quick win for the Gunns.
Barry Didinsky is hocking the Jeff Jarrett "Ain't I Great?" shirts this week. I guess considering that Jarrett is already out the door they're going to have to get a lot of those shirts out of the warehouse post haste.
We get our first quick vignette for Goldust. Oh boy, do we have a lot to talk about here.
Dustin Runnels, the son of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes started wrestling in 1988 for Championship Wrestling in Florida before showing up in World Championship Wrestling. He left WCW and after some brief work for All Japan Pro Wrestling and the USWA, appeared in the WWF in late 1990 to support his father. After the Rhodes family suffered a loss to Ted Dibiase and Virgil at the 1991 Royal Rumble, both Dusty and Dustin left for WCW, where Dustin would see success as a tag team champion and United States champion. Things came to a head at Uncensored 1995 as while in the infamous "King of the Road" match (A wrestling match in a moving flatbed truck) with Blacktop Bully (Barry Darsow, former Smash/Repo Man) both men had bladed, despite blood being against corporate policy. This would lead to Dustin's firing from the company.
He returned to the WWF in the tail end of 1995 as "Goldust", an androgynous, bisexual movie buff. Dressed in gold robes and his face painted gold, as if to resemble an Academy Award, Goldust would be dubbed "the bizarre one", as his antics in the ring were often very much that. Bizarre, and definitely crossing the line of what would be considered decent. Whether this whole thing was another dig at Dusty by Vince, by making his son out to be ridiculed by homophobes isn't well known. What is definitely well known is that Dustin has played this character well over the years, as he's still using the Goldust character to this day in the WWE. Granted in a terrible stable with R-Truth, but the point still stands.
Another Fatu vignette as he continues to wander the streets of San Francisco. He brings up the Cow Palace, and how he had to dance in the street to make enough money to go to the wrestling shows. He talks about how not doing drugs helped him become the man he is. I'll admit the Fatu gimmick is pretty cheesy, but I do feel its heart is in the right place. And a man coming from nothing and trying to help his community feels a bit more "politically correct" than Samoan savage with a hard head.
Waylon Mercy is up next Gary Scott. He shakes the hand of the referee and his opponent (who looks like a dwarf compared to Waylon) and gets a cheap shot on Scott early. Irish whip and a clothesline by Mercy, followed by a series of hard chops. He follows with a shoulder block and a choke. USA Network shill: A bunch of Schwarzenegger movies including Conan, The Terminator, and Kindergarten Cop. Waylon stomps Scott out of the ring and follows with a slam on the floor. He brings him back in and covers, only to quickly break it and lock in another manic sleeper hold for the win in a decent squash. Not as good as the one against Jeff Hardy, but still did a good job to show how demented Waylon Mercy is.
After another recap of In Your House, we learn of our first match for Summerslam as Diesel will defend against King Mabel, stemming off the king's attack on Diesel in the lumberjack match. Mabel says that Diesel isn't worthy of being in the WWF and, akin to Mr. T, says that he pities the fool. He's going to drop Diesel like a bad habit.
It's main event time. It's Bret Hart taking on Hakushi. The culmination of a feud that's gone on for the past several months. Hakushi is still carrying around the wax head of Bret, presenting it to the crowd. A great pop for the real Bret Hart as he heads to the ring. Shinja sneak attacks Bret, allowing for a cheap shot by Hakushi, who whips Bret into the steps and drops Bret throat-first into the barricade. He brings Bret back in and stomps at Bret. Body slam by Hakushi, but Bret gets his knees up to stop a slingshot splash.
Inverted atomic drop and a clothesline by Bret. He rakes the eyes of Hakushi over the top rope and hits a headbutt and a few elbow strikes. Hakushi reverses a whip, sending Bret sliding ribs first into the steel post. We go to break, and return as Hakushi whips Bret into the buckle and lands a handspring elbow. He follows with a bronco buster, groin first into the face of Bret. Bret blocks a strike and lands a Russian leg sweep.
Hakushi lands a gutwrench into a backbreaker, covering for two. Hard whip to the buckle by Hakushi. He drags Bret to the center of the ring and lands a flying headbutt to the ribs. Cover only gets a two however. He locks in a vise grip, but unlike a Yoko lock, it's broken out of quickly. However, Bret's recovery is stopped as Hakushi throws him out of the ring. He goes to the top rope, but chooses not to fly out as we go to break. However, when we go to break.
Hakushi lands a handspring moonsault over the top rope on to Bret. Bret comes back with some strikes and comes back with a slingshot splash off the middle rope on to Hakushi. Backbreaker and elbow combo by Bret, covering for two. Bret knocks down Shinja and hits a bulldog on Hakushi, covering again for a two count. Small package by Bret still only gets a two. Hakushi comes back with a backbreaker and goes back up for a headbutt, but Bret gets out of the way in time. Bret follows up with a superplex and the Sharpshooter to get him the win. Post-match, Bret drops Shinja with a piledriver. We also see Jean Pierre LaFitte stealing the bag with Bret's wax head in it.
A really good match, even better than their outing at In Your House 1. Started a bit slow, but when the offense got hot, it got really hot. Lots of unique spots, from Bret sliding into the post, to that beautiful handspring moonsault over the ropes. Even Bret trying his hand at high flying maneuvers. As usual, you put Bret in a match with someone, and you're bound for something solid, and this definitely delivered for a satisfying conclusion to this rivalry.
It's time for another debut vignette. It's Dean Douglas (AKA Shane Douglas). He runs his fingernails over the chalkboard to get the class to remain quier. His lesson is on knowledge. Particularly that Dean Douglas is the personification of knowledge. And in the WWF, the superstars will know that about Dean Douglas. He chastises his students for cheating on their tests, but the superstars of the WWF will be graded by him. This is a dull, dull promo, but considering he's a teacher, I think that's the point.
We end Raw with an interview with Shawn Michaels. Lawler chastises Shawn saying that a three time champion doesn't make Shawn a great wrestler. Shawn isn't too concerned about other challengers as we finish this edition of Raw.
After a pretty dull month for Raw leading to In Your House 2, we've come back strong with a great post-PPV edition of Raw. Shawn Michaels vs Jimmy Del Ray was good, the squashes of the Smoking Gunns and Waylon Mercy were quick and decent, and Bret vs Hakushi was, as expected, an amazing match. Also a lot of heavy focus on newcomers like Goldust and Dean Douglas, Raw's usually strongest when there's a lot of new things happening and a lack of stagnant action. So, for the first time in a while, Raw is back to an A-.