WWF Monday Night RAW (September 12, 1994)

Original Airdate: September 12, 1994 (Taped August 15)

From Lowell, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Randy Savage

Opening Match: The Undertaker v Kwang: Okay, now this is weird territory, as this is the first RAW after SummerSlam, but it was taped a month prior - i.e. when Brian Lee was still playing the character. But since this is airing post SummerSlam, we have purple-Undertaker, and Mark is back to playing the role. Must have been quite confusing to the live crowd, since Undertaker is wearing different colors, and back with Paul Bearer, despite SummerSlam still being weeks off. This is also a shitty excuse for a feature match, but you take what you can get, I suppose. Bearer also still has the original small urn here, as I guess they hadn't come up with that detail yet. Mark gets back into the swing of things as he runs through his usual stuff, and finishes Kwang with a chokeslam at 8:21. For the record, I prefer the original grey. DUD

Ad for SummerSlam on Coliseum Video

Cute RAW Girl Sign of the Week: We Be RAW

Jim Neidhart v Tim McNeany: To the live crowd, this is just an Anvil squash, but since the commentary is dubbed later, this gives the announcers a spot to talk about the Cage Match at SummerSlam, as well as the extracurricular activities with Davey Boy Smith. Neidhart tosses him around for a few minutes, and hits a high elevation backdrop before finishing the jobber off with a camel clutch at 3:00. DUD

On Superstars over the weekend, Jerry Lawler popped all of Dink's balloons, since that was apparently the best they could come up with for them. You know, this worked better for me when I was a kid, because I thought Dink was Doink's son, and it was mean of Lawler to pop his balloons like that. But now, I just see an adult man crying over $.25 balloons, and I wonder what the fuck is wrong with him. Well, at least they didn't force Lawler to apologize the next week for using a needle, or something.

Speaking of Doink and Dink, Jerry Lawler has them both as guests for this week’s edition of the King's Court. Lawler gets right into insulting them, naturally, but ends up getting his foot stomped. Oh man, I wish I could go back in time to throw my money at them for this blowoff!

Hart Attack Tour promo

Shawn Michaels and Diesel v Tony DeVito and Paul VanDale: This is another weird one, as Shawn and Diesel had won the WWF Tag Team Titles at a house show the night before SummerSlam, but that hadn't happened yet when this was taped, so they don't have the belts. Also, Diesel is sans Intercontinental belt, as that change was booked well enough in advance. And no wonder Vince decided to hotshot the belts onto them, because their dynamic is just off the charts awesome, with Shawn flying around and Diesel coming in for the power stuff. Kinda like what Hercules and Roma were meant to be, only better. Shame that we didn't get more of them as a proper team, actually - though the tag division in 94/95 wouldn't have given them too many fun pairings anyway. They also debut their awesome finisher here, with Shawn hitting a flying splash off of Diesel's shoulders, and that's enough at 4:23. One of the more entertaining squashes in a while. ¾*

On Superstars over the weekend, Ted DiBiase makes an open challenge for anyone to come down and face Bam Bam Bigelow, so Adam Bomb responds to kick off their forgettable feud

Adam Bomb v Duane Gill: Again, like with the Neidhart match earlier, this squash makes more sense as of airing more so than it did during taping. Bomb looks energetic here in his babyface role, and squashes Gill with a slingshot clothesline and the Meltdown at 3:25. Bomb was looking good here; it's a shame they didn't do anything with him outside of this dead-end gimmick. ¼*

WWF New Generation promo. It's the one with the priest in confessional, and frankly, they missed the boat on questioning why a man of the cloth is sitting alone in the dark, watching muscular men in tights. Of course, one could say the same about most of us, but that’s a thread I think you’d rather I don’t pull on

The Bushwhackers v Barry Hardy and Bert Centeno: An overhead shot here shows what a dinky 'arena' they're in this week. Seriously guys, it is what it is, but no reason to accentuate it with bad angles. Anyway, the 'Whackers torture the poor jobbers with their usual comedy spots, and finish with the Battering Ram at 4:00. I guess they figured the 'Whackers would make sense for this card, since they weren't involved in any angles at the time. DUD

BUExperience: Considering next week is also part of this pre-SummerSlam taping, don’t expect better then.