The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 12.26.94
Taped from Liberty, NY, in some dude’s basement.
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Shawn Michaels.
The British Bulldog v. Tatanka
Bulldog overpowers him to start, and really shouldn’t there be a built-in issue here? Something about Tatanka getting all pissed off about Bulldog’s ancestors stealing his land or something? Tatanka throws some chops, but walks into a delayed suplex and bails to the floor. Back in, Tatanka blocks a powerslam for two and we randomly take a break there. Back with Tatanka in control, but Bulldog comes back with a flying bodypress for two and Tatanka dumps him. Back in, Tatanka to the top, but Bulldog catches him and makes the comeback with clotheslines before Dibiase pulls the rope down and puts him on the floor. This brings out Lex Luger for the historic formation of the ALLIED POWERS and the match is a schmoz at 6:45. You’d THINK this would lead to the Luger/Bulldog team entering the tag tournament and going to the finals against Tatanka/Bigelow, and you’d of course be completely wrong because Vince wanted a random team to win it instead. **
Royal Rumble Report with Todd. My money is on the Man O’War.
Henry O. Godwinn v. Mike Khoury
I think he was supposed to be a heel here in his debut, but this gimmick is such a loser that it gets no reaction either way. HOG stomps him down and scratches himself a lot, then finishes with the Slop Drop at 3:31. Just a terribly boring squash debut.
The King’s Court with Diesel, and they’re STILL pushing the Diesel-Backlund “feud” even though it was killing houses dead. Lawler rants on and on about how he hopes Backlund will beat Diesel, and then finally Diesel tells him off and steals his crown. According to the Observer at the time, this initially flopped with the crowd, so they went back and reshot it until they actually got a reaction from the fans.
Kwang v. Rich Myers
Oh boy, more Kwang. I know it’s the Boxing day show and literally no one is watching but COME ON. Kwang kicks him down and blows a combination of green and red mist in celebration of Christmas, but Myers fires back while Vince continues plugging a Vinny Pazienza boxing match for some reason. Leg lariat finishes for Kwang at 2:40.
And then we get a PROMO from Pazienza. Was Titan promoting this show or something? In case you’re wondering, he did win the fight against Roberto Duran.
Kama: The Supreme Fighting Machine is coming soon. Sure, barely avoid jail time, bring in more roided monsters that no one gives a shit about. Like really, houses are plummeting and the solution is to bring in Mark Canterbury and Charles Wright? No wonder Nitro destroyed them.
The Undertaker v. The Brooklyn Brawler
Usual destruction from Undertaker, with the ropewalk, flying clothesline, tombstone at 3:15.
Next week: We finally bid farewell to this awful year and welcome 1995 with Luger & Bulldog v. Tatanka & Bigelow.
I quite liked Kama and thought Charles Wright did a really good job with the gimmick and would have been happy if he got the Mabel push in 1995.
ReplyDeleteHow would WWE know that house shows were bombing when this show was filmed? It would have been only a couple weeks after the title win.
ReplyDeleteHow did Kama keep getting re-hired? He was a black Jim Neidhart.
ReplyDeleteWas there an angle leading to the Allied Powers? All I remember was a Wrestlemania 11 report where it was announced Luger and Bulldog were facing the Blue's.
Oh I don't even blame Nash at this point. He won the title and got forced into being a character that the fans didn't want, and had no strong heels to face. But once it was six months in and he's dogging every match and sleepwalking through promos, it was clearly time to pull the plug on him. And then they kept him as champion for another six months after that point.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, makes sense. I suppose that's why they don't bother mentioning the location of SNME at the show's opening haha.
ReplyDelete"According to the Observer at the time, this initially flopped with the crowd, so they went back and reshot it until they actually got a reaction from the fans."
ReplyDeleteHow...does that even work?
"Attention fans in attendance: the doors are locked from the outside until you cheer for Big Daddy Cool. Thank you for your time."
ReplyDeleteVince had no idea at this point. The guy who is going to be the #1 heel at the biggest show of the year is doing a comedy act on commentary
ReplyDeleteThey were taping four weeks of shows here. No reason to even pretend kayfabe was alive.
ReplyDeleteIf only someone with more talent could've done the Papa Shango gimmick. I think The Godfather character was the only character Charles Wright ever did well.
ReplyDeleteRoyal Rumble did a pretty decent buyrate and from what I remember the Diesel/Bret match got a pretty good build as WWF treated it like a big time match between 2 super faces.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can remember Allied Powers were booked as on screen friends and then became a full time tag team at WM11 without any explanation. If you noticed in the 95 Rumble match, they never hit each other once despite being in it for a long time.
ReplyDeleteRemove the shame of 1994......attach the shame of 1995!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big mark for the MMA gimmick too and I thought Charles Wright did a fine job with it as he lost a bunch of weight and actually seemed motivated. The only thing that was detrimental to the the gimmick was the way WWF booked him. I would have had Kama feud with Bret instead of Undertaker in a wrestling technician vs MMA fighter type of feud.
ReplyDeleteHow could it drop that badly? Wasn't Diesel legit over when he won the strap? Or was this a case of where "true" draw or not, the fans wanted Bret on top?
ReplyDeleteThey lost to Steve Regal and Jimmy Garvin in the AWA. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I think the Freebirds were involved.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I lived about 5-10 miles away from Liberty, NY, and had friends in that area. They had much nicer basements than the "gym" WWF taped Raw in.
ReplyDeleteVinny was a hell of a fighter. He just faded a bit before his time.
ReplyDeleteJoke of the Night. Probably accurate, too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the problem was that they saddled him as a Million Dollar loser and stuck him in a losing to Undertaker feud. That was pretty much it for Kama, he appears randomly in the Rumble but Summerslam was pretty much the end for him.
ReplyDeleteAnd Robert Duran in 1994 would be comparable to Flair today.
ReplyDeleteDiesel was over, but hadn't yet had any credibility as a main eventer. Hell, just before winning the world title, he was a tag champion feuding with the new Headshrinkers at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd now for the final ordeal, the paddling of the swollen ass... WITH PADDLES!
ReplyDeleteToken comment because you didn't have one.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the structure of this early run for Wrestling Challenge and Superstars is weird, as they have jobbers teaming with established guys.
Kama was a drug abusing nut-job who only had his job because of Bret babysitting him?
ReplyDeleteThat's true, Kama received two deathblows that year: 1) being managed by DiBiase and 2) feuding with the Undertaker as WWF had a habit of firing wrestlers soon after the Undertaker feud reached its climax so in kayfabe terms, made it seem like Undertaker was kicking everyone out of the promotion.
ReplyDeleteIt's 1994 and you have 20 bucks... you go pay to watch Diesel v. Mr. Backlund at the local show or spend the money on literally anything else. My choice is the latter.
ReplyDeleteVince sometimes just fell in love with guys and would keep trying again and again and again. Charles Wright was clearly one of those guys.
ReplyDelete"During the autumn of 1994, there were rumors that the Papa Shango character would be brought back to participate in a storyline involving Bob Backlund, wherein Shango's voodoo spells would explain the traditionally good-natured Backlund's erratic and villainous behaviour."
That could have been fun, terrible but still fun.
"But 47-year-old Sid, who as a softball player "never
ReplyDeletecounted the homers unless they went off the light tower," is not only back in the ring, he wants to make one last run in WWE."
--http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2007/08/04/4393889-sun.html
No idea how true it is. I've always wondered if he was one of those guys good enough to get paid to play softball (yes, there are guys who get paid for it) or if he just didn't give a shit whether or not he was fired.
I heard Shango was rumored for a return sometime between Supreme Fighting Machine Kama and Nation Kama, but Pat Patterson hated the gimmick and it never came to be, again.
ReplyDeleteNot just with Charles Wright, but back then it was common practice to keep repackaging a wrestler until they got over. If it wasn't for that, Glen Jacobs never would have broken out as star.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit strange considering Survivor Series '94 with Bob Backlund on top saw a big increase in buys that year.
ReplyDeleteUnless everyone bought the show for Chuck Norris?
Diesel vs Chuck Norris on the house show circuit? Probably would have drawn better than Backlund or Bundy.
Who knew that a gimmick that was penciled in for a shelf-life of less than a year would still be active 17 years later? Assuming rumors that Kane was intended to be written off after Mania 14.
ReplyDeleteKing Of The Ring '98 seemed like the genuine end of the road for Kane at the time, at least to me.
ReplyDeleteI mean ending Stone Cold's world title reign already? No chance in my books.
At least Vince was vindicated with the Godfather gimmick.
ReplyDeleteI wonder who holds the record for most gimmicks required to catch on. Godfather? Kane? Rikishi?
Do Diesel vs Shawn at Summerslam'95? Or just burn off the Bret/Isacc Yankem feud on Raw and program Diesel vs Bret a few months early?
ReplyDeleteSid was over that spring but he wouldn't have been a good choice at least not long term.
When you've got Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in the ring, you also need a Security Officer Smith to take the pin.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird that would even need to be in a contract. Why would you purposefully point out their unhealthy lifestyle in the first place?
ReplyDeleteI mean, I know they ended up running that angle with Hawk always being drunk, but they could've done the same storyline with someone who wasn't a drunk and it still works (well, it doesn't because it was a terrible storyline but you get my meaning).
I know I'm always appreciating your posting of these shows from this era (I cut my pro wrestling teeth on these) Bayless but goddam' thanks again -- That Jake + Macho promo was/is incredible...
ReplyDeleteYeah, Wright got a lot of chances. I think it was because he was a Taker buddy- Taker probably didn't ask for a lot in those days despite being such a good company man (he was loyal to Vince, was willing to wrestle the WORST guys in the WORST feuds, and was not hated by a huge chunk of the locker room), and so they were probably willing to give all of his friends chance after chance. Canterbury is another Taker Pal, as is Dennis Knight.
ReplyDeleteChris Benoit.
ReplyDeleteYeah I noticed that trend, too- Kamala was gone not too long post-Taker, as was IRS.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Godwinns are the only gimmick that I absolutely love as heels but hate as faces. It also doesn't work as a singles gimmick at all so of course it took two years to make it a team.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly didn't help that Sid went into business for himself, playing to the crowd to get even more cheers.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine them pushing a tall babyface with long, dark greasy hair who got some cheers as a big monster in tag matches as the be all face savior of the company even though he's totally not ready to carry the ball today? They'd never be that stupid.
ReplyDeleteYou can also count Jake the Snake, Giant Gonzales, Mr Hughes, Yoko disappeared for bit after Survivor Series 94, also Mabel and even a main event guy like Diesel couldn't escape the Taker curse. The first guy to break it was Mankind.
ReplyDeleteThey should have put the title on Sid at the first IYH to mix things up a little more. Part of the reason the In Your Houses felt like a really bad afterthought was you knew you were not seeing a title change on one. Diesel chasing to get it back until Summerslam and then dropping to Bret at Survivor Series would have worked better than the Mabel stuff.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since Backlund is now a chump who couldn't last 10 seconds with Diesel. Plus a world title change at a house show was a horrible idea in 92 when they did it with Flair *then* with Bret. It was an even worse one in 94.
ReplyDeleteI had completely forgotten about King Curtis Iaukea and Kamala! It gives all those terribadific Dungeon Of Doom segments a new wrinkle.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally, a one handed chokeslam as well. Not Taker's "lift them with one hand and hold them in the air for a second or two", which is cool too. But, lift them with one hand and just dump them to the mat like a sack of garbage.
ReplyDelete"He's dead, Gorilla."
ReplyDeleteRaw's color was even changed around this time to a beautiful sky blue
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteIt is much appreciated.
That Jake/ Savage promo is genius.
Imagine Heyman with him in the Fed back in '92. My client Sid Justice...
ReplyDeleteI hated how Bobby and Gorilla would try to plant seeds of doubt about whether Hogan could slam Sid or not. He slammed Earthquake, and hmm, who else? Some other 9 foot tall 2,000 pound, stinky giant named Andre who caused Hulk to tear every muscle in his back.
ReplyDeleteIn short, yeah guys totally not sure if Hogan can slam Sid or not.
I had CHCH out of Hamilton growing up in Nova Scotia. I remember getting a "main event" of Haku vs Paul Roma and thinking, "really?"
ReplyDeleteOrndorff was/is so underrated it's ridiculous.
ReplyDelete"Bulldog overpowers him to start, and really shouldn’t there be a
ReplyDeletebuilt-in issue here? Something about Tatanka getting all pissed off
about Bulldog’s ancestors stealing his land or something?"
I know you were making a one-off joke, but we have an entire region of the country that hangs a flag that stood for slavery. There is almost no chance that, as polarized as our country is, we would acknowledge the way our ancestors treated Native Americans.
I still remember Diesel and Bret having dueling promos on "Live Wire" via satellite from their homes.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Bret/Diesel draw at RR '95 still pisses me off to this day.
+1 for the pity post
ReplyDeleteI still remember people getting angry at Hogan in 2002 by calling Wright, "Papa Shango." It is who Hulk knew him as for crying out loud.
ReplyDeleteKama, the supreme fighting machine was a bad gimmick. Had bad matches with Taker that even I found boring. Although I found Diesel vs. Bulldog to be somewhat watchable. Then again, I thought the first Sid match was surprisingly decent.
If Vince wasn't so vain - I'd had Godwin come in as a Shanghai Pierce type wrestler. Although heel Godwin was better than face Godwin.
ReplyDeleteAs Thunder and Impact have proven, going to blue is NEVER a good idea for a wrestling show.
ReplyDeleteIn defense of Kevin Nash:
ReplyDeleteHad **** match with Bret Hart.
Had **** match with Undertaker
Had **** match with Shawn
Had a decent match with Sid
The vignette of Kama riding in a motorcycle (ala Jeff Wincott in Street Law!) looked quite badass.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately they made the mistake of putting him in the loser stable to end all loser stables when he should had been a loner that didn't have any allies.
Serious answer to a non-serious post: UT/Yoko was the closest thing to a hot program at the time. That may have been it.
ReplyDeleteThere is no frigging way they were retiring Kane after all they had invested in him. That match was 10 months in the making--Bearer was making noise about a "secret" before King of the Ring. I dont know where that rumor started but it doesn't pass the laugh test on its surface.
ReplyDeleteYou mean to tell me he had great matches with 3 of the greatest superstars in WWF history?
ReplyDeleteYep. Bret Hart, too!
ReplyDelete(Someone's gonna take that silly joke way too seriously, even with me posting this disclaimer.)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't even put that in my top 1000 Bret Hart jokes.
ReplyDeleteFor real, the heel buddy of HBK they put the title on a house show wasn't Hulk Hogan the first taping? Shocking. This would be like Batista getting the World Title in December 2004 and then defending at Mania 21 against HHH. Give me cool tope'ing Nash kicking people in the face over 2nd Coolest Hart on the Roster and Bob Backlund anyday. DIESEL POWER
ReplyDeleteWell done lol. I don't care what anyone else says, I got a laugh out of it. Plus, Sid is the master and the ruler of the world.
ReplyDeleteShanghai was eventually unmasked in WCW.
ReplyDeleteI was "sure" Kane was beating Taker at Mana 14. Love that show.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who likes Kwang better than Savio Vega? He was more bad ass in the ring and I didn't had to see his "baby" face. ;-)
ReplyDeletePapa being the reason for Backlund's change would have been like the original script to Groundhog Day that revealed it was all a spell by his ex to teach him a lesson.
ReplyDeleteOr in short ''a perfectly bad way to ruin a good idea.''
I don't like weak finishes, but I was okay with the Rumble draw just because the whole point of the match was to give Diesel main event credibility and even though he didn't win, he showed he could hang with the best of them.
ReplyDeleteThere were both that year, the Winter Games were in France and the Summer in Barcelona. They changed the cycles afterwards and there were Winter Games in 1994 in Norway
ReplyDeleteScott I hope you find 1995 more enjoyable. They're by no means good but at least Shawn is entertaining...and Sid in his own way as well.
ReplyDeleteI laughed, even though I'm a big Bret fan.
ReplyDeleteOk, then I'll take the wait and see approach
ReplyDeleteThe list of things I like better than Savio Vega is plentiful, but yeah Kwang is on there. At least Kwang didn't do that awful little dance.
ReplyDeleteDecent match with Sid? I remember one where Sid had him in a chinlock for about 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with a chinlock?
ReplyDeleteI think (hope?) he means the lumberjack match. That was at least peppy. I think they probably got their time cut cause the show was running long.
ReplyDeleteWait. Hog farmers somehow work * better* as a tag team gimmick?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Kane, they did one of those "best of the worst" segments on Fake Diesel and fake Razor, but didn't outright say who fake Diesel was.
ReplyDeleteMe too! About Kane going over. Kane losing should have killed the character dead but it worked anyway.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but he was *already* champion. He should have been portrayed as better than everyone else, not able to hang with them. He should have been killing big heels at this time, unfortunately they didn't have any.
ReplyDeleteSmackdown being the exception to the rule?
ReplyDeleteBut as we've since learned, Backlund is kind of that nutcase in real life. I'm not sure he would've been able to go back to Howdy Doody babyface.
ReplyDeleteI was at a Raw/Shotgun taping in 97 where they redid the finish of the Mankind/Sultan match by having the Fink announce "Sultan wants a rematch RIGHT NOW!!!!" And the fans bought it, and literally all they did was the finish again.
ReplyDeleteMore Sid in the main event" is never the answer.
ReplyDeleteShawn was hurt and this was a way to keep him visible.
ReplyDeleteI think what happened here lead to the first Bulldog/Luger teaming against Tatanka and Bigelow on the following show.
ReplyDeleteNo. The first match at IYH where Vince screams powerbomb and Sid powerbombs Nash. Devastating maneuver!!! And Dok Hendrix on color telling Sid to finish it!!!
ReplyDeleteI like Savio for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteSavio made a good first opponent for new heels (like Goldust and Vader), and he was just good enough that he could pull an upset. But when he turned heel, he became incredibly boring. (and I don't get Scott's utter hate for Kwang. What's wrong with a martial arts/ninja gimmick? Sure he never won any big matches, but that's on the company, not the character)
ReplyDeleteSo you're saying it's a 4/10.
ReplyDeleteThat feud was so weird.
ReplyDeleteMatch #1: Sid powerbombs Diesel, and he KICKS OUT.
KOTR tag match: Diesel invites Sid into the ring, and he WALKS AWAY, PROVING HE IS SCARED OF DIESEL.
In Your House 2: Diesel vs Sid in a lumberjack match. That way, Sid can't run away , and his finishing move has been proven that it can't beat Diesel. BUY THE PPV!!!
Even Bret admitted in his book that he probably should have been booked to lose to Diesel there, and it hurt his title reign right from the start. And for Bret to admit that, is a pretty big deal.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you say "Not a bad start" when just last week this episode was given the WrestleCrap treatment. Of course, that was mainly due to Ernie Ladd's commentary.
ReplyDelete"Tag out, Scotty! Come on, tag! Reach!"
ReplyDelete"I canna do it, Captain. I don't have the power!"
I always thought Heenan was impressive for putting all the excitement he possibly could into re-calling Flair's win in that short clip.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget First Lieutenant Sean Mooney hosting Battle of the Superstars!
ReplyDelete'I love the smell of oatmell in the morning...smells like...breakfast!"
Who did these opening graphics- an intern? Shane?
ReplyDeleteWithout a shadow of a doubt!
ReplyDeleteHogan...smh. Sid walks out on him and he can't take a job to Undertaker and Ric Flair? Sid bailing, then a Tombstone and figure four (with Hogan already out cold) for the three hand drops would have totally worked as a ratfuck heel "win" without making Hogan look bad in the least.
ReplyDeletevs. Benoit, but that's not happening
ReplyDeleteIf you are counting the World Heavyweight Championship in WWE, Booker T. fits the criteria as much as Benoit
ReplyDeleteYou're da best!
ReplyDeleteHell yeah! That's what made his eventual turn years later even better, in my opinion. We saw a darker side of him before. It was always there; he just needed something to bring it out.
ReplyDeleteSo you're not including WWE?
ReplyDeleteIt semantics I guess but I'm focusing on guys that won both titles when they were two separate companies.
ReplyDeleteWhich Chris Benoit did. He won the WCW World Title, and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
ReplyDelete