WWF Monday Night RAW (January 2, 1995)

Original Airdate: January 2, 1995 (Taped December 12)

From Liberty, New York; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Shawn Michaels – which is kinda weird, considering Vince did the entire cycle with Shawn up to this show. I guess he was too busy to dub commentary that week? The kayfabe excuse is that he’s ‘under the weather’

Opening Match: Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith v Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow: Big brawl to start, until the dust settles on Bigelow and Smith. Bam Bam controls, but a tag to Luger allows Lex a 2^nd rope clothesline for two. He goes after the arm, but a cheap shot from Tatanka on the apron takes the pep out of Luger's step. Bigelow with a couple of headbutts before he makes the tag, and Tatanka unloads tomahawk chops. A pair of elbowdrops get two, and a flying tomahawk chop is worth two. Series of knife edge chops in the corner, and I guess Luger's Flair-tolerance was pretty low by late 1994, because he's selling and everything. Bearhug, but Lex slugs free, and hits a side suplex. Tag to Bigelow for a splash before Lex can capitalize, but he gets too cocky, and walks into a powerslam. Both men tag, and Davey's a doghouse of fire, but a four-way brawl ends in a double countout at 8:43. Cheap ending aside, this was decent, well paced action. *

Royal Rumble Report. Todd: 'I don't think anyone made a new years resolution that went, 'oh, I'd love to see a double-countout match.'' Heh. Also, what's with the lame sax intro? It's like the score from Taxi Driver meets every shitty 80s teen island movie ever made

Duke Droese v Mike Bell: Some old lady in the front row is really into Duke, so he's got that going for him, at least. Hey, it may not be selling out the Silverdome, but when the oldest of the 1,500 people in attendance is into you, you know you're on your way. Quick squash this week, as Duke slams him around, and hits the Trash Compactor at 1:30. DUD

Kama vignette. Sure, the character never really got over, but I bought it as a kid. But then, I bought Duke the Dumpster, too, so what did I know, ya know?

In a tag title tournament match on Superstars over the weekend, Owen Hart got himself and Jim Neidhart disqualified in their Quarterfinal bout against The Headshrinkers. Just noticed that all these clips were clearly taped at the same venue, so basically whoever showed up that night probably got the whole tournament (save for the finals) in one night

Jerry Lawler hosts The King's Court with guest Owen Hart. They could have at least kept Neidhart around long enough for the Rumble, considering how thin the field was. Owen's still carrying around the towel from Survivor Series, and uses it to taunt brother Bret

Next week, it's Monday Night RAW's two year anniversary!

Jeff Jarrett v Buck Quartermaine: This is just background, as Jarrett has promised to regale us with his singing after the bout, and Roadie has been shown setting things up in the background all night. Well, not 'all night,' but 'all night' during this hour of the taping. Would be kinda cool if they showed him doing it since the first hour, spanning three shows, but alas. Nothing of note here, as Jarrett polishes the guy off with the Figure Four at 3:00. ¼*

And now, as promised, the worldwide singing debut of 'Double J' Jeff Jarrett! Oh, but Jeff goes all diva, complaining about the microphone, and the lighting, and calls the whole thing off. Interestingly, this all did eventually build to a pay off. I remember as a kid, I totally bought his bullshit claims, and would always look for his supposed record whenever we'd pass the record store at the mall, and was always disappointed when I couldn't find it

Super Dave Osbourne joins us via satellite to hype his new Las Vegas show. Holy shit, Bob Einstein did a cameo on RAW? My mind is blown

Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith v Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow: Okay, so no one was happy with the ending of the opener, so they decide to 'restart' the match, and we're joined in progress with Bigelow unloading on Luger with a suplex, and the heels cutting the ring in half. Lex manages to clothesline them both to allow the tag to Davey, and he's a doghouse of fire again - slamming both guys around. Four-way brawl ends with Davey whipping Tatanka into Bigelow on the apron, and diving on top for the pin at 5:00 shown of 11:13. Much slower here, though if it were actually one continuous match, it would have been fine. As a standalone match, pretty dull, though. My bet is that they went back to retape the match with a different finish (which was something they did fairly frequently during this period), and then just decided to turn it into a show-long angle instead, which is why this match has the first half cut out. I’m also guessing that this had something to do with the switch to Monsoon to redub the commentary. No rating, since it was heavily clipped.

BUExperience: Pretty dull way to kick off the new year, as it’s just some warmed over stuff from weeks earlier, and nothing especially notable at that