WWF Monday Night RAW (August 21, 1995)

Original Airdate: August 21, 1995 (Taped August 14)

From Worchester, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

On Superstars over the weekend, Kama destroyed one of the wreaths Undertaker's goth henchman left, and then destroyed the henchman too, for good measure. Guy kind of had it coming. He's been stalking Kama for weeks, and this time even got physical: throwing the remnants of the wreath in Kama's face. What did he expect?

Men on a Mission v Joe Hanlock and Roy Raymond: This building is so tiny, that Mabel looks downright ridiculous riding out on his throne. Good thing he's not a hair taller, he may have bumped his head on the ceiling. Also, why does Mo get a crown? He didn't win the King of the Ring! The really shitty jobbers this week somehow mess up a cross corner whip (twice!), but then, MOM aren't giving them much to work with here: sloppiness abounding at every turn. Mabel with a belly-to-belly for the pin at 3:40. It was the least of his problems, but Mabel really needed a cooler finish than that if they wanted him to get over at that level. Afterwards, Mabel grabs a microphone, and challenges the Allied Powers to a match later tonight. If I were Mabel, I'd probably conserve my energy for my WWF Title shot that weekend, but whatever. DUD

Finally out of his mothers basement and into a real studio, Dean Douglas positively critiques Mabel's performance, and predicts he'll win the title at SummerSlam. How are we supposed to buy Douglas' constant real-life ragging on Flair when we have video of the guy praising Mabel and knocking Bret Hart. Kinda kills the credibility. He also notes that no one dominates like Mabel. Fifty Shades of Purple?

Vince shills a toll free number to call, and receive a disc with ten free hours of America Online!

1-2-3 Kid v Brooklyn Brawler: Some kid in the front row nearly loses his shit for Kid. Guess they gotta stick together. Brawler attacks during the entrances, and goes to work, but walks into a spinkick during a criss cross, and Kid adds a spinheel kick before pinning him with an Oklahoma roll at 1:30. Though still popular, Kid was totally directionless at this point, until the heel turn a few months later. DUD

Last week, Henry Godwinn slopped Ted DiBiase to turn face

Barry Didinsky wants you to buy the new Undertaker t-shirt! Luckily, their merch would get better as the Attitude Era rolled around. Also, Shawn Michaels is making his best duck-face on the new WWF Magazine cover!

The Undertaker v Tatanka: Undertaker attacks right away, and faceslams Tatanka, then hits the ropewalk forearm. He whips Tatanka around for a bit, but Ted DiBiase distracts him to allow Tatanka a bodyslam. Undertaker no-sells, so Tatanka hits him with a sloppy End of the Trail instead, then grounds him with a chinlock. They really should have turned Tatanka back into a face sometime around here. It's been a year, and clearly the heel turn isn't working, nor has he learned to work as a heel yet. Undertaker escapes the chinlock with a side suplex, and adds a jumping clothesline. Tombstone attempt pops the crowd, but Tatanka counters into a lariat - only to walk into a chokeslam, and get Tombstoned anyway at 8:42. Always cool to see Undertaker in a star/star match on RAW in the early days, but the match was total shit. DUD

SummerSlam Report. Even on paper, this looks like a horrible show, outside of Shawn/Razor II. I remember being really excited for it as a kid (the Ladder Match and the Bret/Yankem match), but looking back, it's a really weak card

Tee Vee Trivia! This is a weird mock game show, basically designed to toot RAWs horn as the premiere Monday night wrestling show, ahead of Nitro's debut in two weeks. A really cheesy and poorly done one, however.

Jean Pierre Lafitte v Scott Taylor: It's been months, and they still haven't really found anything for Lafitte to do, or give him any direction. Nothing wrong with building a guy up with a bunch of squash matches (especially in those days), but at this point he's just treading water. Cannonball finishes Taylor at 3:04. ¼*

Goldust vignette. He's calling out Shawn Michaels, I guess setting up an Intercontinental Title level feud for his debut, which thankfully was scrapped so Shawn could move up to the main event

Vince brings WWF Champion Diesel out for an in-ring interview to hype SummerSlam. Nothing of note said, until Davey Boy Smith comes down - apparently unable to find Lex Luger to answer Men on a Mission's challenge, so he wants to recruit Diesel. Of course, in reality, Luger had already bolted for WCW - making Bulldog's line about Lex having to 'go home to Atlanta for emergency medical attention' all the more hilarious

Men on a Mission v Diesel and Davey Boy Smith: There's only a few minutes of airtime left here, so don't expect much. Then again, even if they had an hour, I doubt this would break a star. Diesel starts with Mo, and goes right to work with a kneelift and a pair of cross corner clotheslines. Elbows and knees in the corner, and he passes to Davey Boy - who immediately turns on him for a no-contest at 1:30. Jim Cornette runs out as well, and the heels deliver a beat down on Diesel - though I'm not sure what Bulldog's beef with Diesel is, anyway. Not like they've had a lot of interaction up to this point. Also, having him walk around with the title belt while Mabel stands there lamely isn't exactly a great way to hype up SummerSlam, but I guess they knew that feud was dead in the water anyway, and wanted to get a jump start on promoting the next feud. And, in that regard, this worked, because I remember everyone in school being shocked by this, and wanting to see Diesel get his revenge. DUD

Backstage, Davey Boy laughs it up with MOM and Cornette, but still doesn’t really explain his motivations

BUExperience: Nothing noteworthy in-ring, but the closing angle was terrific, and worth checking out.

With that, RAW took the next two weeks off due to USA Networks coverage of the US Open, and in that time, WCW debuted Nitro – starting what would come to be known as the Monday Night Wars. Now that we’re at that point, I will start covering Nitro as well – alternating between that and RAW.