by Logan Scisco
-Michael Cole
narrates a video package that recaps last night’s Fully Loaded pay-per-view.
-Jim Ross and Jerry
“The King” Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Anaheim, California. One of the best signs, in a sea of them, is
one that reads “Bret Hart = Work” near the front row.
-The Undertaker
comes out with both WWF Tag Team title belts.
He makes clear that he and Steve Austin might be champions, but they are
not partners until Austin comes out and apologizes to him. Vince McMahon walks out instead, with stooges
in tow, and says that the Undertaker has not convinced him that he is not
working with Kane. In a nice piece of
logic, McMahon points out that the Undertaker had to use three Tombstones to
beat Kane at WrestleMania, so beating him with one at Fully Loaded is
suspicious. McMahon demands an apology
from the Undertaker for attacking him last week and books a tag team title
match between the Undertaker and Austin and the New Age Outlaws. Austin then walks out, causing McMahon and
company to flee, and says that while he will help the Undertaker defend their
tag team titles, he will not apologize to him.
He gives the Undertaker the bird before leaving. 1 for
1
-Get your free
Triple H poster by buying a box of Stridex medicated pads!
-Opening Non-Title
Contest: Vader beats D-Lo Brown
(European Champion) by count out at 4:18:
D-Lo is refusing to defend his European title for the
second consecutive night, which Ross explains is due to his representatives
thinking it would not be prudent to defend the title against Vader. D-Lo slams Vader twice, but that just
rejuvenates Vader. Vader rips off D-Lo’s
chest protector and splashes him on the floor, securing a count out win. This is Vader’s first win on RAW in a while
and since he went over via count out, why did they not just make this for the
title? Rating: ** (2 for 2)
-A video package
shows us “Droz’s World.” He shows off
his exotic pets.
-Brawl for All
Quarter-Finals: Bart Gunn defeats Steve
Williams by KO at 2:51 of the third round:
As most of the readers of this article will recall, this
is the Brawl for All match that ruined the entire purpose of the
competition. The WWF thought Williams
could easily run through the competition without rigging it, but Gunn had other
plans here as he uses his reach advantage to keep Williams at bay. You can sense Ross getting nervous on
commentary as his enthusiasm for Gunn’s performance wanes by the end of the
second round. Trailing by ten points
entering the third, Gunn manages a takedown, causing Williams to tear his
hamstring, and after an exchange of punches, Gunn lands the first knockout of
the Brawl for All competition to score the big upset. Ross never forgave Gunn for knocking his guy
out of the competition. 3 for 3
-Owen Hart comes to
the ring and gloats about beating Ken Shamrock in the Hart Dungeon last
night. He issues an open challenge to
the locker room and Jason Sensation, dressed as Owen, walks out to a pretty big
pop. Sensation leads a “nugget” chant
and when Owen goes after him, Dan Severn walks out and intercedes. This is taken as evidence of Severn accepting
Owen’s challenge.
-Open Challenge
Match: Owen Hart beats Dan Severn by
disqualification when Ken Shamrock interferes at 49 seconds:
This match barely gets started as Owen and Severn share
offense until Shamrock runs in and places Owen in a Dragon sleeper. Severn gets Shamrock off of Owen by placing
Shamrock in a Dragon sleeper and Steve Blackman has to walk out to break that
up with some WWF officials.
-Sunday Night Heat
is coming to USA Network this Sunday!
-Michael Cole gets
pushed into the RAW is War backstage interview set when he tries to ask
Shamrock some questions about what just happened.
-The Disciples of
Apocalypse (w/Paul Ellering) wrestle Faarooq & Scorpio to a no-contest at
3:23:
Bradshaw is on commentary, still ranting about Terry Funk
not telling him that he was going to leave the company before last night’s
Fully Loaded pay-per-view. At least
Bradshaw’s commentary is more tolerable than what we have to endure every
Monday night these days. This is Faarooq
and Scorpio’s debut as a team on RAW, as they had been teaming and winning
matches on Shotgun Saturday Night in the weeks leading up to this. Conventional wisdom would hold that this
match would be important in the tag rankings as both teams won last night at
Fully Loaded, but instead it is used as a vehicle to make us care about
Bradshaw as he attacks both teams and creates chaos until WWF officials
intervene. Rating: *¼ (3 for 4)
-Intercontinental
Champion The Rock tells the announce team that he is going to make Triple H and
X-Pac famous when they square off with him in a triple threat match tonight.
-Chyna’s
interference in the two-out-of-three falls match between the Rock and Triple H
last night at Fully Loaded is the Stridex Triple Action segment.
-Triple Threat
Match for the Intercontinental Championship:
Triple H (w/Chyna) & X-Pac beat The Rock by count out at 6:54:
Was the Rock drunk when he signed the contract for this
match? Predictably, DX works together in
the early going, but then turn on each other when it is time to finish the Rock
off. That brings back fond memories of
playing those elimination four-ways on the N64.
One thing is clear from this match:
Rock vs. X-Pac > Triple H vs. The Rock. After Triple H and X-Pac get angry and start
fighting each other, the Rock slithers out of the ring and takes a count out, which
is a finish that I’ve never seen again in a triple threat match. Normally, that would be an awful finish, but
it makes perfect sense here with the way the match unfolded. I wish they had run this match last night at
Fully Loaded and given it twenty minutes instead of giving us the overbooked
two-out-of-three falls match. Rating:
***¼ (4 for 5)
-Cole interviews
the New Age Outlaws, who pledge to regain their title tonight.
-Brakus beats
Jesus with a spinebuster in 50 seconds:
To give a nice time stamp on this show, Ross and Lawler
talk about Ryan Leaf’s big contract with the San Diego Chargers. This is Brakus’s wrestling debut and he does
a few token power moves before winning.
This never led to anything. I mean,
seriously, who thought a German wrestler wearing CHAINMAIL to the ring would
get over in the Attitude Era?
-Val Venis is shown
sharing the shower with Yamaguchi-San’s wife.
-Val Venis pins
“Too Sexy” Brian Christopher (w/Scott Taylor) with a fisherman’s suplex at
2:10:
Before the match, Kaientai appears near the entrance,
with Yamaguchi-San carrying a sword and Men’s Teioh carrying a few pieces of
salami. Venis counters Too Much’s
attempts to fight the match two-on-one and quickly finishes Christopher
off. When Too Much tries to attack Venis
after the match, Taka Michinoku comes down and makes the save.
-After the bell,
Kaientai challenges Venis and Michinoku to a match next week and Yamaguchi-San
vows to “choppy choppy” Val’s “pee pee” before taking his sword and chopping up
some salami. Now we know why Japanese promotions aren’t big Russo
fans…
-Cole interviews
LOD 2000, who are facing the Godfather & Mark Henry tonight. Animal is excited for the match, but Hawk
looks out of it.
-The Godfather
& Mark Henry (w/Hos) beat LOD 2000 when the Godfather pins Animal with a
Death Valley Driver at 3:49:
This was where the Godfather added hos to his
gimmick. During their entrance, Hawk is
stumbling around, is not wearing his spikes, and trips over the middle rope
when getting into the ring. Hawk fails
to tag in throughout the match and then falls off the top rope when the LOD try
their Doomsday Device. I was never a fan
of this angle, as it was quite tasteless, but the Godfather and Henry are a
good tag team combination. Animal kept
this thing together as a one man wrecking crew too. Rating: ** (5 for 6)
-Lawler is in the
ring to present the trophy to the winner of last night’s bikini contest. Lawler informs the crowd that Sable did not
win because Vince McMahon did not consider her attire a bikini. Mero does his usual overly excited dance when
Jacqueline is announced as the winner.
Sable questions McMahon’s manhood for not telling her that she was
disqualified, which brings him out. As
McMahon runs down Sable, someone from the crowd hits Vince with a cup, leading
him to chastise the audience. McMahon
reminds Sable that she is easily replaced and when he turns to leave, Sable
gives him the bird and strips to reveal a new bikini. I just never cared for Sable or this entire
“feud” with McMahon. It’s like they
wanted to make Sable the female Austin, but she did not have the mic skills to
carry that out. 5 for 7
-WWF Tag Team
Championship Match: “Stone Cold” Steve
Austin & The Undertaker (Champions) defeated The New Age Outlaws when
Austin pinned the Road Dogg after a Stone Cold Stunner at 8:09:
It is so refreshing for Ross to tell me that RAW won’t
have any commercials for the main event, since nowadays we get one or two
commercials that interrupt nearly every match on the show. After the opening bell, some idiot fan throws
a beach ball into the ring, which Austin boots into the upper deck. I’m glad WWF fans never resorted to WCW
craziness of littering the ring with trash on a regular basis. Austin does a funny pose down with Billy Gunn
where he flexes and then flips him the bird.
The Outlaws try to wear down the Undertaker’s leg, but Austin cleans
house after the hot tag and wins the match on his own. A fun TV main event that made the Outlaws
appear capable, albeit overmatched. Rating:
*** (6 for 8)
-After the match,
Austin gets a beer from ringside to drink and tosses one to the
Undertaker. The Undertaker decides to
drink it, but Kane and Mankind attack Austin near ringside as we end the show.
The Final Report Card: The Austin-Undertaker pairing continues to do
the slow burn toward SummerSlam and the attack at the end of the show sets the
stage for a Fully Loaded rematch down the road.
The good continues to outweigh the bad on RAW, topped by Bart Gunn’s
stunning victory in the Brawl for All.
Monday Night War Rating: 4.9 (vs. 4.7 for Nitro)
Show Evaluation: Thumbs Up