Welcome to another look at the Monday Night Raws from fall 1996. This was a period of time where business was going down in the company, as several big names jumped ship to WCW and the WWF was scrambling to make new stars out of a thin roster. This batch of shows was taped in Hershey, Pennsylvania and featured a handful of solid matches, and a mountain of bad promos, segments and matches. Let’s dive in, shall we?
September 23, 1996
This week is a big one. It’s the night after Mind Games and we’ve been promised a new Intercontinental Championship and the return of two characters without the people that made the fans care about the characters.
First off we get Marc Mero facing off against Faarooq (still prepping for his enlistment in the U.S. Space Force) in the final match in the Intercontinental Championship tournament.
This felt like a big deal, as the tournament had been going on for weeks, we’re guaranteed a first-time champion and Pat Patterson is the referee. The pace is pretty fast, and both men give their all. Mero hits several planchas and high flying moves.
Also during this match is a phone interview with the walking elbow pad Ahmed Johnson. He talks about his plans to come back and beat up Faarooq. He says this in his own unique language that took an hour to decipher.
The finish comes when Sunny gives her loaded purse to Faarooq to use to hit Mero with. He avoids it, decks him and hits the Wild Thang for the win and his only Intercontinental Championship.
He cuts a promo afterward, thanking his partner Sable, Mr. Perfect and his lord and savior Jesus Christ for the victory. A very good match for the time.
After this we see a vignette calling out Double J, Jeff Jarrett (who’s making his debut on Nitro soon) for not actually singing his signature hit song, “With My Baby Tonight.” We’re told that next week we’ll get an expose and learn who the real “Double J” is. I’m sure this will work out well.
We then get The Bodydonnas facing Owen Hart and British Bulldog, the new tag team champions. It’s the usual affair, until the crowd gives massive ECW chants and Tazz and Bill Alfonso jump the security rail with signs, most notably one that reads “SABU FEARS TAZ” to build ECW’s first pay per view, Barely Legal.
It’s always fun to see these invasions, and I can’t wait to get to February 1997 when it comes full circle. Also, the Harts win over the Donnas.
Our main event is Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs The Stalker. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is on commentary and trash talks Kevin Kelly and plugs his challenge to Bret Hart, while poking fun at The Stalker gimmick saying: “Why the hell does Barry Windham have all that stupid paint on his face? Everyone knows who he is!”
Mr. Perfect once again steals one of Helmsley’s valets and causes him to lose. At least we got to hear some classic Austin.
Then, we get Jim Ross in the ring to bring out Razor Ramon and Diesel. Yet before he does that, he goes on a fantastic worked-shoot rant about the WWF mistreating him, ousting McMahon as the owner of the company and gets the crowd completely on his side.
He introduces the Fake Ramon, played by Rick Bognar. At first, the crowd loses their minds, hearing the music and seeing the silhouette. Then he comes out and everyone gets the air deflated out of them. It’s actually kind of funny to see.
Then Ramon gets in the ring, and before Ross can interview him Savio Vega comes out of nowhere to get vengeance for the sneak attack that happened at Mind Games. Raw then frantically goes off the air and this angle will be dragged on for a few more weeks. Oh joy.
Overall, this was a much better Raw than the ones we’ve seen the past few weeks. Faarooq and Mero put on a very solid match and the JR promo was fire.
Rating: 3 out of 5
September 30, 1996
This show starts out with Hunter Hearst Helmsley cutting a promo on Mr. Perfect, the man who continues to steal his valets. He challenges Perfect to a match to settle their score in the near future. He especially notes that he’ll show Mr. Perfect “How we do it in the New Generation.” We’ll see how that turns out.
Next up is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin taking on Jake Roberts. This is a rematch from the King of the Ring finals where Austin cut the promo of his life. Three months later he is still in the mid-card and can barely beat Roberts without help from Jerry Lawler.
Late in the match, after the interference, Austin pins Roberts and helps King in double teaming him and beating on him until Savio Vega comes in for the save with the Carribean strap. Austin then runs away like 2015 era Seth Rollins.
The next match is The Godwins facing The Grimms. I have no idea who The Grimms are, but they get crushed by the ‘Wins in four minutes. I stress again, the Godwins are all over these shows and do nothing of note.
Following this we get more information on the travesty of Jeff Jarret not singing “With my Baby Tonight” almost a year and a half prior to this show. Doc Hendrix has the scoop and reveals that the Roadie, or future Road Dogg, Jesse James is the “Real Double J.” We see some in-studio footage of him singing the song and we’ll get even more unnecessary information about it next week.
We then get to see the greatest gimmick in our sport, Fake Razor Ramon going one on one with Savio Vega. It’s a trite affair that goes on for nine minutes too long. Gorilla Monsoon joins commentary and spends the whole time arguing logistics with Jim Ross about if it’s proper to refer to Rick Bogner as Razer.
The match ends when The Christmas Creature The Unabomber Isaac Yankem THAT’S GOTTA BE KANE Fake Daddy Cool Diesel attacks Vega and puts the boots to him with his fake counterpart.
The main event is a refreshing affair, as Shawn Michaels teams with his manager/mentor Jose Lothario against Vader and Jim Cornette. It’s a nice little back and forth match, and the managers don’t do much besides posturing and cheap shots every now and then.
In the end, Vader manages to hit a powerbomb and a Vader Bomb on Michaels for the win in about 10 minutes. This kept Vader looking strong and he gained some momentum after the SummerSlam debacle. Unfortunately, he’ll lose it all to Sid in a few weeks.
All in all a decent show with a solid main event. There wasn’t anything insulting besides the Fake Outsiders affair.
Rating: 2 out of 5
October 7, 1996
This show begins with the real top draw in the WWF, Fake Diesel facing off against Marc Mero. It’s a dreary affair where Mero gets some offense in here and there, then Fake Razor gives a picture in picture interview and later interferes in the match for the DQ at the nine-minute mark.
It mercifully ends there, but my god JR is into this stuff. He’s trying with all his might to get this stuff over, but it won’t happen. Unfortunately, we have a few more months of this crap to go.
Next up we get The Smoking Gunns vs The New Rockers in a heel vs heel match that no one cares about. At this point, Sunny has left the Gunns since they are no longer champions, which makes Billy sad.
Even though the team is showing dissension, they cheat and get the win over Al Snow and Marty Jannetty, who will become the Marty Jannetty of his own team.
After this we get the next chapter of the expose about the real “Double J.” Road Dogg is in the studio singing parts of “With My Baby Tonight,” a song that I can’t help but sing along to after hearing it 20 times in a row. We have about three more segments of this stuff to get through, so look forward to that.
The next match is a quick squash, with The Sultan beating Aldo Montoya handedly. At least it was short.
This week’s main event is Sycho Sid vs Goldust. Yet before we get that match, Jim Cornette and Vader make some good points about the logic behind The Mastodon having to beat Sid for a title shot when he pinned Michaels last week.
Of course, the commentary team doesn’t answer these questions and Sid beats Goldust easily after no selling several minutes of offense. Then Vader ambushes Sid and hits a picture perfect Vader Bomb. So what does Sid do? He no sells it and hits a poor chokeslam on Big Van.
This Raw had nothing to write home about, and is really treading water until Bret Hart comes back. For some unknown reason Stone Cold isn’t seen at all on this show. Way to build up the hottest guy in the company.
Rating: 1 out of 5
October 14, 1996
Finally, we reach the end of this batch of Raw tapings and the go-home show for Buried Alive. While it started off strong we’ve been going on a sharp decline after the introduction of the Fake Outsiders. This week doesn’t start off much better, however.
Vader faces off against Phineas Godwin, in what is sure to be a mat-wrestling classic. Spoiler alert: it’s not and Vader wins in a quick affair. Sid shows up in an effort to intimidate him before their impending match.
After this Jerry Lawler does his usual bit of making alcoholism jokes about Jake Roberts that in reality are true. It seems that the commentary team is as sick of it as us and they just talk throughout the promo.
Then Roberts comes out, staggering with a whiskey bottle in hand. It’s clear that he’s faking it because the announcers say so. Gorilla Monsoon comes out and flanks Roberts and tells him he’s not fit to compete. Then Jake, in full view of the camera, tells Monsoon about the ruse and hits Lawler with a quick DDT for the 10-second win.
This would’ve been a great payoff to this angle, if it wasn’t spoon fed to us that Roberts was faking it, and if Roberts was in control of his demons in real life, which he unfortunately was not. He then sics Damien the snake on the King and that’s always a fun spot.
Now it’s time for the fourth installment of “Jeff Jarrett sucks, and here’s our replacement for him,” with Jesse James talking about his history and respect for country music and his time serving in the military. He’s also joined by Jim Johnson, the writer for most of the WWE themes you know and love since the 80’s, who gets a few words in.
I think we get one or two more weeks of this stuff and then we get to see “The Real Double J” wrestle (shudder).
Next, we see Sunny, who is on commentary for the next match, Faarooq vs The Pug. The match is nothing, but Sunny is pretty fun to listen to and she talks about how she is no longer managing the gladiator due to hitting him with a brick accidentally.
Managers like Sunny and Jim Cornette are a bright spot in these shows, as they knew their role and wouldn’t shut their mouth, which created some captivating interviews.
We then get a clip from Livewire (which should be on the Network) where Ahmed Johnson is in the studio, wearing a glorious jacket. Faarooq calls in, and both men threaten violence against each other instantly. It’s a great back and forth exchange that moves this feud forward, while Todd Pettengill and Sunny stand awkwardly in the background. Awesome segment.
Following this, Hunter Hearst Helmsley battles Freddie Joe Floyd for the right to have three names. To combat Mr. Perfect’s constant interference, Helmsley handcuffs his lady valet to the ring post. It’s kinda weird and it does bring up some questions.
Why is this woman ok with being handcuffed? Is she even a wrestling fan? Where does Helmsley get all these pretty women from to watch him perform fake athletics? Why does he have them there anyway? Do they give him special power in order to win matches? He’s losing left and right at this point, so they can’t be that much of a benefit to him.
Anyway, Perfect miraculously has the key to the cuffs, lets the woman go and punches Helmsley in the face when he tries to intervene. Perfect leaves, and Helmsley follows, getting counted out in the process. We’ll see the blow-off to this feud next week. Will it be worth it?
This week’s main event is a dream match that will main event a WrestleMania in two years, but the WWF could care less about it on this night. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin faces Shawn Michaels in a non-title match.
It’s pretty solid, as the two have a good feeling out process. Pre neck injury Austin is just great as a brawler/grappler, and they have some fine technical sequences. However, during the match, there are two picture in picture interviews with Sid and Vader, as they hype their upcoming match.
Then, just as the match starts to pick up, Vader runs in for the DQ and Sid runs out to even the odds, teasing the upcoming Sid-Michaels feud to begin next week.
All in all, there were some bright spots in this show, such as the main event and the Livewire segment, but everything else was either forgettable or bad. Luckily, business is about to pick up next week.
Rating: 2 out of 5
That’s it for this batch of Raw episodes. Check back next Monday where we’ll look at the Raws following In Your House: Buried Alive. We’ll see the ending of the Mr. Perfect vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley feud, one of the most controversial segments in the history of Raw and the return of Bret “Hitman” Hart. Keep it here next time for more of the Wolski Wrestling Rewind!
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor