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The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW–07.17.95

The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 07.17.95

Nothing terribly interesting in the Observer for this week, aside from Meltzer’s incredulous note that he never would have believed that a UFC PPV could actually beat a WWF one, but that actually happened with King of the Ring. Now of course it’s a disaster if UFC doesn’t double or triple the WWE shows. King of the Ring, by the way, did 130,000 buys, which at the time was a “Wall Street stockbrokers jumping off the Empire State building” type of buyrate, but now would be a decent B-show number. How times have changed. He does get one zinger in with “Killer Kowalski is disavowing any knowledge of having ever trained the Renegade.” Ha!

Taped from Danville, PA, the place my soul will go to die. Thank GOD next week starts a new taping cycle.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler

Owen Hart & Yokozuna v. Jim Dimitri & Gus Kantarrakis

How the hell am I supposed to be able to spell those kind of jobber names on the fly? At least they got an on-screen graphic. The jobbers have matching blue wrestling singlets for some reason, not that it helps. They double-team Owen for a bit, but Owen dropkicks Kantarrakis to take over and Yoko beats on them at will. Owen finishes one of them with the Sharpshooter at 3:00.

In Your House 2 Report with Todd. I may have to watch this one again to clarify my thoughts on it, I dunno.

Jean Pierre Lafitte v. David Thornberg

Thornberg tries some clotheslines, but can’t blow, blow, blow the man down, and Lafitte tosses him and follows with a dive. Back in, Lafitte ties him in the ropes and beats on him, then finishes with the cannonball at 2:30.

Meanwhile, Fatu is MAKIN’ A DIFFERENCE. Someone should have told Umaga that drugs are wack.

Jeff Jarrett is still really anxious to have some cuddle time with his significant other, and expresses that desire in musical form.

Shawn Michaels v. IRS

Meltzer noted a couple of weeks before this match that IRS was retiring to become a road agent, but clearly he’s still around. He would actually “retire” after In Your House next week, though, and then show up on the debut of Nitro again. Stalling to start, and Shawn runs him around the ring by the tie and necksnaps him for two, then goes to work on a headlock. Irwin dumps him and Shawn comes back in with a sunset flip for two, but IRS pounds him in the corner and goes to the abdominal stretch. We take a break and return with a chinlock, but Irwin goes up and lands on Shawn’s foot. Vince goes right for the kill on Lawler with that one, so kudos to him. Shawn comes back with the double axehandle for two, but misses the superkick and Irwin hits the lariat. Another superkick hits for the pin at 10:35. Shawn was definitely a miracle worker if he could get a good match out of IRS. ***

Meanwhile, Isaac Yankem pulls out some kid’s tooth.

Kama v. Billy Mack

Kama takes the jobber down a few times, so the guy goes up with a missile dropkick and slugs away, only to run into a spinkick. Kama punches him in the face a few times for the pin at 2:00.

Diesel joins us, and he thinks Sid is a CHICKEN. So if you beat a chicken, what does that say about you then? The goal should be to play up how big and scary Sid is so that going over him is a big deal. Diesel introduces his lumberjacks, including such luminaries as the wrestling garbageman, Erik Watts, the other guy who isn’t Erik Watts, the guitar player, and the race car driver. In fact, I’m pretty sure Tekno Team got canned before they even made it to the PPV, but then this WAS taped a month before that show. Diesel pretty much laughs Sid off, but then Sid comes out and we take a break. Back with Sid’s lumberjacks out now too, and OH MAN THEY’RE TOTALLY GONNA HAVE THEIR MATCH NOW, but no, they don’t. Sorry, the prospect of Sid v. Diesel is just too exciting.

Next week: Bret Hart v. Hakushi, plus another “new look” for RAW. Only three episodes left on the Network to go!

Comments

  1. If diesel choked the chicken, would that be better?

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  2. Random thing I noticed: I.R.S. wears a blue shirt for this match instead of his traditional white. That's all I got. I've ran out of ways to badmouth 1995 for both WWF and WCW.

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  3. I subscribe to the theory that the shittier the show, the better the rant. You have to suffer for your art, Scott. It's totally worth it.

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  4. He'd probably blow a quad doing that, too.

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  5. WE WANT NITRO! WE WANT NITRO!

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  6. ''Someone should have told Umaga that drugs are wack.''

    :(

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  7. LOOK AT THE ADJECTIVE!

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  8. White shirt? Blue shirt? ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!

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  9. Not only was Lawler doing a good job selling his own storyline, but he tried to sell the Sid-Diesel match too by stressing that Sid wasn't scared. What a concept.

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  10. That's why Scott's '99 Thunder reviews were the best.

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  11. I'm surprised Vince hasn't done a Somalian pirate gimmick.

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  12. I know I've said it a bunch of times in other posts but that hart v hakushi match is awesome.

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  13. Powder Blue = bye bye.


    One of many things I learned from the first HTM YouShoot.

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  14. Did everyone already know that they added tons of attitude era raws. I saw 1999 and 1998 had like over 20 episodes now. It drives me crazy they aren't going in order but that's good. Is this a thing people knew about already or is this new? Cuz I had no clue

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  15. That's why I'm pushing for Scott to review the WWE pay per views he hasn't seen. He's bound to find some shitty ones in there.

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  16. With farming implements?

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  17. They're doing ATTITUDE ERA WEEK or some stupid shit like that. They're not adding them on a regular basis, just as a special deal right now and then likely back to ignoring them again.

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  18. WE'RE OUTTA TIME BOBBY!

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  19. Never mind that shit.

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  20. I dare Scott to review Starrcade 84!

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  21. And they didn't even throw us any more 1997 RAW.

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  22. He was really incredible until about 1997, when then didn't really need him to be a top guy anymore anyways. But I'm a huge fan of him in his first 4 or 5 years in the wwe.

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  23. Just skipped up and watched the irs match. Yeah Shawn was definitely the MAN in 1995.

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  24. He would spend too much time arguing who was the captain in tag team matches

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