WWF Monday Night RAW (January 1, 1996)

Original Airdate: January 1, 1996 (taped December 18, 1995)

From Newark, Delaware; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. This episode features the RAW Bowl, and has a football theme, with a marching band, cheerleaders, a green colored canvas, and other cute details

WWF Tag Team Title RAW Bowl Match: The Smoking Gunns v Owen Hart and Yokozuna v Razor Ramon and Savio Vega v Sycho Sid and 1-2-3 Kid: Everyone is wearing football jerseys here, as part of the theme. During the entrances, Goldust has flowers delivered to Razor, which earns his usher a beating. I guess Ramon never heard the expression about not shooting the messenger. Bart Gunn starts with Owen, and dominates him with hiptosses, so Hart decides to stick it to him by tagging Billy Gunn in. They Gunns mess around without actually hurting each other, and then stick it right back to Owen and Yoko by tagging them both in. That leads to a funny bit where they try to do a criss cross like the Gunns, but Yokozuna is so big that Owen can't help but collide with him. He tags to Savio, and Vega comes in hot on Yoko with rights, but runs into a bodyslam. Yokozuna tags to Kid, and a criss cross with Vega ends in Savio hitting a clothesline for two. Spinheel kick gets two, so Kid tags out to Owen. Vega tries to keep it going, but runs into a spinheel kick from Hart for two. A bunch of tags in and out, until things settle on Bart and Sid, with Sid choking him down. Bart fires back with a clothesline for two, and actually delivers a hanging vertical suplex for two. Cool! Elbowdrop misses, however, and Bart quickly passes to Savio before big Sid can thump him. Sid thumps Savio instead, so Vega stupidly tries a bodyslam, and gets toppled for two. Owen tags in to nail Vega with a leg-feed enzuigiri for two, and Vince is quick to note that this is the same move that put Shawn Michaels on the shelf. They really got that thing over as a killer. Sharpshooter, but Vega blocks, so Owen passes to Kid to drill Vega with a spinheel kick for two. The heels all work together to cut the ring in half on Vega, but Kid misses an elbowdrop, and Razor gets the tag. He goes to town on his former little buddy, but Kid calls a timeout ahead of the Razor's Edge, and since this is the RAW Bowl, he's actually allowed one! Unfortunately, Ramon ignores that, and hits the move anyway, so the referee blows a whistle and throws down a flag, in some nice touches. That distraction allows Sid to clobber Ramon, and he puts Kid on top for the pin at 10:44. Vega tries to claim that he called a timeout at two, but the referee isn't hearing it. Dust settles on Sid and Kid cutting the ring in half on Bart, and they tag Owen in to let him get in on the fun as well. Owen misses a flying splash, allowing the tag to Billy, and he comes in hot on all four heels! Five, counting Jim Cornette! Unfortunately for him, he gets overwhelmed fighting a five front war, and Owen clobbers him. Banzai Drop from Yoko, but Bart pulls Billy out, and replaces him with Hart - Yoko inadvertently dropping on his own partner! That allows Billy to pin Owen at 15:53! Nice! Sid rushes right in an absolutely stomps the life out of poor Billy, and Kid corner dropkicks him to set up a clothesline from Sid for two. They cut the ring in half on Billy, but Razor runs back out to shove Kid off the top rope to prevent a double team, and Billy cradles Sid at 20:22! Like the Wild Card match a few months before, this wasn't necessarily a great match, but it was fun to see them try something different, and there were all sorts of cute booking touches here. ***

Dok Hendrix is at the RAW Bowl control center with a halftime report, to discuss the second half of the show, and Royal Rumble. Why is Jim Ross wearing an overcoat and gloves while trying to get a locker room interview? I know Delaware is cold in December, but indoors too?

Arkansas Hog Pen Match: Henry Godwinn v Hunter Hearst Helmsley: This is the match from In Your House V, aired in its entirety. Hillbilly Jim acts as the special guest referee for this one. Godwinn chases him around with the bucket of slop, but one of the ringside attendants ends up getting a face full instead. And a bunch of the fans, too. Nice. Godwinn with a backdrop, as some guys in the crowd hold up a five piece 'Hogan' sign. That's perhaps the most offensive sign you could have in 1995. Offensive to the WWF because he's with the competition. Offensive to WCW because they're doing everything short of outright paying people to cheer Hogan on the shows where he's actually performing. And offensive to ECW because, well, Hogan. Godwinn manages to get HHH tied up in the ropes, and he feeds him some slop, but eats a swinging neckbreaker himself. What's the point of even having a referee in the ring for something like this? There are no pinfalls, submissions, countouts, or disqualifications. His only job is to make an official ruling when someone goes into the pen. Nothing more, nothing less. Watching Hillbilly Jim get in there and spot everything like he's scoring this on points is pretty funny. They spill to the outside, when Henry takes a trip into the steps, and they brawl over to the pen, where Hunter whips him into it. Pedigree, so Godwinn counters with a backdrop, but HHH lands on the pen without going in. That allows him to dive off the pen with a flying elbowdrop, as Lawler trips over himself to make Jeff Foxworthy jokes. And I don't mean jokes about Jeff Foxworthy. I mean he's literally reciting his material. They go back into the ring, where Godwinn hits a pretty impressive wheelbarrow facebuster, and Hunter bumps all over the place through a few corner whips, finally ending up on the outside. Henry slugs him over to the pen, but Hunter blocks a Slop Drop in the aisle, as Lawler continues to rip off Foxworthy. Henry manages to whip him into the pen to set up the Slop Drop, and poor HHH is bleeding from the back from his bump into the enclosure. Henry goes for the kill, but a charge backfires when HHH backdrops him right into the pen with the win at 8:58. And then, of course, Godwinn press-slams him into the pen afterwards to get his heat back. Helmsley bumping into pig shit with an open wound may be the most dangerous thing to happen on this show. The match was trash, but was relatively short, and paid off the angle. ¾*

Next week, they're airing another match from In Your House (the Bret Hart/British Bulldog main event), plus Hakushi faces Jeff Jarrett

Diesel v Mabel: Diesel attacks from behind before the bell, and hits the big boot for three at 0:08. And then he beats up Mo too, for good measure. Where was this at SummerSlam? Afterwards, Diesel comes over to the announce table, and steals Miss Raw Bowl away from Jerry Lawler. Seriously, where was this guy for all of 1995? DUD

Backstage, Brooklyn Brawler presents the Smoking Gunns with the 'Lombardi Trophy' (one with his picture on it, haha), but the Gunns trash it, and dump a cooler of water over his head. They're really going all in with this, aren't they? Love it!

Vader vignette, hyping his debut in the Royal Rumble

Billionaire Ted's Wrasslin' War Room! Oh shit! Funny stuff too, with Huckster and Nacho Man faced with having to pull off more modern offense, but deciding to pose instead

BUExperience: From getting creative with the RAW Bowl, to airing pay per view matches in their entirety in an era when they generally wouldn’t even show anything beyond still images from pay per views on TV, to taking direct shots with the Billionaire Ted stuff, they were obviously feeling the pressure from WCW in a major way. Good news for the fans though, since this was a fun episode.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	1/1/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.6	2.5
Total Wins	7	7
Win Streak	1
Better Show (as of 12/25)	3	11