Coming off one hell of an In Your House event in Mind Games, we open Raw with the finals of the Intercontinental Title Tournament. It's Marc Mero taking on Faarooq. Pat Patterson being the referee. Sunny, who of course fired The Smoking Gunns, managing Faarooq for this match. Fast back and forth early on until Faarooq catches Mero with an enziguri. Mero recovers with an arm drag and a clothesline that sends Faarooq to the outside. Somersault plancha over the ropes connects. He then goes up top and hits a nice moonsault off the top with a sloppy landing. Cover only gets a two. Faarooq back drops Mero over the ropes and takes a breather.
Faarooq grabs Mero, clubs his chest, then bumps him into the barricade. We hear from Ahmed Johnson via phone saying he'll be back before you know it. As it pertains to the finals, he wishes Marc all the luck in the world, he promises it'll be a cold day in hell in the WWF when he gets back. Powerslam by Faarooq who covers for two. Lawler takes a cheap shot at Jake Roberts, but Ahmed promises that Lawler will be the first to take a beating when he comes back. Standing Samoan Drop off the top. Cover, but Pat Patterson counts super slow, allowing Mero to kick out.
Sunny chokes Mero on the apron, to which Pat Patterson throws her out from ringside. This gets boos for obvious reasons. After the break, Faarooq tries a dominator, but Mero turns it into a backslide for two. Faarooq keeps in a rest hold until Mero tries to recover. But that's met with a knee to the gut. Mero gets a sunset flip, but Faarooq kicks out with ease. He goes back into the rest hold. Jim Ross returns to hyping Diesel and Razor for tonight, but also says that Double J will be exposed. Mero recovers with a clothesline, but misses an elbow.
Faarooq slams Mero and goes up top, only to get crotched. He hits a frankensteiner and slowly scrabbles for a cover, getting a two. Double clothesline from both men takes both men down. Sunny returns to ringside with a black bag that she leaves on the apron. Sunny and Sable begin so slap one another as Patterson is discracted. Faarooq tries to use the bag, but Mero dodges and hits Faarooq with it. Mero sets him up and hits the shooting star press (the Wild Thing) for the win and the title. Overall, a decent match. Slow in spots, but Mero looked really good throughout, which was the clear intention.
Jim Ross interviews Marc Mero. Mero thanks Jesus, then the fans and his partner in and out of the ring, Sable. And one more thanks to Mr. Perfect. Jim asks "what about me?" and gets told that he's a great guy.
We get a recap from July of 1995 where Shawn Michaels beat Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental title. Roadie infamously tripped Jarrett. We also got to perform his hit song "With My Baby Tonight", tonight, after like two years of this build, we get Jarrett exposed. And thus, they finally reveal that Jarrett was indeed lip syncing his song. Vince promises the man who was ripped off by Double J, "The Real Double J" will be live next week.
Up next in non-title action it's The Body Donnas taking on the new WWF Tag Team Champions, Owen Hart and British Bulldog (with Clarence Mason). Zip and Owen start off with fast counters early, including the ol' headlock and shoulder block spot. Loud ECW chants as yet again there are some ECW stars in the crowd. This time being Taz. A quick cut to break. When we return, Bulldog slams Skip then tags in Owen. Headscissors by Skip. Owen takes him to the corner, where Bulldog tags in. He tries a press, but Skip rolls him for two. Skip tries a cross body, but Bulldog dodges.
Jim Cornette, looking angrier than if he was forced to watch a Kenny Omega match, says that he signed a paper to sue Jose Lothario, but he got hornswoggled out of a tag team. He also promises revenge on Jose as he and Vader will face Shawn and Jose next week, then he promises revenge on Mason. Back in the ring, Zip hits a powerbomb and follows with a splash by Skip. Cover only gets a two. Cheap shot by Bulldog and a wheel kick by Owen. Sharpshooter by Owen gets the win in a quick tag match.
We get a video from the Undertaker who says the scars from Summerslam are healing, but he'll carry the scar of betrayal for all eternity. Last night, they witnessed who truly is the master of the mind game. He has condemned Mankind to eternal damnation. He is going to bury Mankind alive and he will never rest in peace.
Dok Hendrix backstage tries to get an interview with Diesel and Razor Ramon, but gets a door to the face instead.
Up next, in our main event it's The Stalker taking on Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Well, I guess more a final match then a main event. Stone Cold on commentary says that he can't say one word, but he'll rhyme it by saying he SPITS on the family Bret Hart. And if his parents would have practiced safe sex, he wouldn't have to deal with him now. Arm drag by Stalker early on followed by more arm work. This includes a hammerlock body slam. Stalker follows with a back body drop. Jim Ross wants this match over so he can get to Razor and Diesel. Austin asks that if Bret's so great, why won't he show up? Lawler calls him a gutless wonder. Austin says he wants to find out how good Bret really is.
Mr. Perferct is at ringside to watch this match. Hunter avoids contact from Stalker, but focuses in on Mr. Perfect. Back suplex by Stalker as we go to break. When we return, Stalker is in control until Hunter recovers. Knee drop and a cover only gets a two. Sleeper by Hunter, but Stalker counters with a jawbreaker. Austin knows the Stalker's Barry Windham, so why's he got all that paint on his face?
Stalker throws Hunter to the ropes and hits a clothesline and a leg drop. Hunter hits a back suplex, but Stalker comes back with a stalling variant. Mr. Perfect takes away Hunter's valet while Hunter hits a bulldog in the ring. Hunter is distracted, allowing Stalker to crotch him on the ropes and hit a superplex for the win. A decent technical match, but kinda dull overall.
Jim Ross immediately jumps into the ring to promise Razor and Diesel. But instead we cut to a video of Mankind and Paul Bearer in the cemetery. Paul says tht they still hav the power of the urn. Mankind says he can't figure out how Taker got in the casket. Last night was Undertaker's gravest mistake. He took something that was his, now he has no choice to take something from Taker.
After another commercial, we finally get to Jim Ross' big reveal. But before he does, he begs the crowd's indulgence for something he's been holding for a long time. He has no loyalty to the WWF, he only has loyalty to Good Ol' JR. He left a great job in Atlanta Georgia in 1993 to go to the WWF. He came here to be primary play man in the WWF. He's the best play by play man in the whole business. And on day one, he's put in a toga. At King of the Ring 1993, he carried that broadcast. But where did he go after that? Because the egotistical owner of the WWF Vince McMahon couldn't stand the competition, so he disappeared.
Then on Super Bowl Sunday in 1994, he suffered Bell's Palsy. Mr. McMahon was so warm hearted on February 11th, 1994 and fired him. He drives home to his hell hole in Connecticut trying to find out how to tell his family. When Vince was indicted during the summer, they called him back, only to fire him again. They hired him back for 50 cents on the dollar for a front office job. You think all the guys leaving the WWF was an accident. He's been busy bringing some back. He then introduces one of them, Razor Ramon. The music hits to a big pop and out comes...
Razor Ramon? So yep, you can already see the fix is in here. They were never getting Scott Hall and Kevin Nash back considering their contracts with WCW and the white hot NWO angle. When Jim Ross touted bringing back Razor Ramon and Diesel, he meant so in name only. So instead we get Rick Bogner as Razor Ramon. Fake Razor poses in the ring and says that "Chico, take a look at the bad guy."
Savio rushes the ring and brawls with fake Razor as Raw goes off the air.
So, what was the real point of this whole Razor and Diesel build? Well, the obvious is a clear ratings ploy, but the other is that the company was still embroiled in a lawsuit with Hall and Nash over the rights to the gimmicks. It's why Hall dropped the Cuban accent over time. The other intention was to turn Jim Ross heel by having him be a man with a grudge and an ax to bury. But to turn the guy who has a right to hold a grudge for being fired twice seems lopsided. His promo was kind of in the right. Either way, this isn't going off to a very strong start.
In the end, Raw was chaotic, but not a very strong show overall. Started hot with the finals of the Intercontinental Title tournament, and regardless of how messy it is, ended strong with Jim Ross's turn and worked shoot. But the middle was kind of bland with the Donnas vs Owen/Bulldog and Stalker vs Hunter being okay at best, with more focus given to other angles than the matches themselves. Not the hottest way to follow up a show like Mind Games unfortunately. I'll give Raw a B, but that feels kinda generous.
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