WWF Monday Night RAW (January 8, 1996)

Original Airdate: January 8, 1996 (taped December 18, 1995)

From Newark, Delaware; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. New intro this week, which features clips of stuff that hadn’t even happened yet (like Piper slapping Goldust, which wasn’t taped until much later), so I’m guessing this was edited in after the fact, for whatever reason

Jeff Jarrett v Hakushi: Jarrett drops him with a bodyslam early on, and a backdrop sends Hakushi over the top, but he lands on his feet, and dive back at Jeff with a flying shoulderblock. Dropkick follows, and Jarrett bails. He sweeps Hakushi on the way back in, and hits him with a straddling ropechoke, then works an abdominal stretch, but gets caught using the ropes. Jarrett keeps coming with a sloppy swinging neckbreaker, so Hakushi tries a dropkick again, but Jeff dodges, and covers for two. Hakushi tries a 2^nd rope flying bodypress, but Jarrett dodges that as well, and covers for two. Vince's enthusiasm level here is way over the top for what we're seeing here. Jarrett works a chinlock, but Hakushi escapes, and spinkicks him. He lands the handspring backelbow, and manages a jumping double-ax for two. Bodyslam sets up a springboard splash, but Jarrett lifts his knees to block, and the Figure Four finishes at 7:33. Nothing notable here, just kind of a match. *

Jim Ross is in Dok Hendrix's man cave to talk about the Royal Rumble. The captioning department has a more difficult time with Ross than Ahmed Johnson. And then Scheme Gene shows up to talk about the participants for the Rumble match, but he can't talk about it

Ahmed Johnson v Jeff Brettler: Listening to Vince go on and on about how Johnson is 'all man' in his enthusiastic growl is odd. And speaking of odd, what the hell is this jobber wearing. It's like someone made a pair of Hammer pants out of their grandmother's curtains. Johnson squashes him in sloppy fashion, and finishes with the Pearl River Plunge at 1:32. Jeff Jarrett runs back out swinging his guitar, but Ahmed ducks, and Jeff takes off running - Johnson getting hold of the instrument, and smashing it. Riveting. DUD

Next week, Undertaker battles Isaac Yankem, and Owen Hart faces Marty Jannetty

The Brother Love show with Ted DiBiase. DiBiase has been hyping a new Million Dollar Champion on the weekend shows, and tonight he unveils him: Ringmaster. Yep, it's the WWF debut of Steve Austin. It's interesting, because his overall look here isn't that different than the Stone Cold look, yet he looks like a total dork here. The goatee really made a world of difference. I get bringing back the Million Dollar belt gimmick, but sticking Austin with DiBiase pretty much neutered him right from the get-go

Earl Hebner defends his decision not to stop the Bret Hart/Davey Boy Smith match from In Your House, despite the blood loss. He wouldn't want poor Bret to feel screwed in a title match, after all

Goldust v Aldo Montoya: Goldust attacks from behind, with Vince noting that you should 'never turn your back on a man like Goldust.' Heh. Meanwhile, Lawler makes jokes about his favorite topic: Stu and Helen Hart. I love how he never let that go. Goldust works him over in dull fashion, as the crowd naps. Aldo makes a minor comeback, but runs into the Curtain Call at 2:17. Really shitty. DUD

Earlier today, Shawn Michaels conducted a press conference to discuss his future in wrestling, and announce that he will be coming back for the Royal Rumble match. I have no idea if those were actual reporters, but based on their condescending sneers at Shawn's comments, I'm going to guess that they were. Points to the WWF for sticking a bunch of fans (or actors) in the back to pop for the announcement

Diesel, Razor Ramon, and Owen Hart all offer brief taped comments on Shawn Michaels' announcement

WWF Title Match: Bret Hart v Davey Boy Smith: From In Your House V, aired in its entirety. Lawler notes that Bulldog is wearing the same tights as at SummerSlam '92, but that isn't even remotely accurate. They don't even look alike! The world was a much simpler place before you could just pop out your smart phone and do a quick Google search. Feeling out process to start, with Hart trying to fight off the powerful challenger by keeping things grounded. Bodypress gets Bret two, but Smith kicks out with authority, and the Hitman ends up on the outside. He slides back in right through Davey's legs to hit an inverted atomic drop, and he latches on a hammerlock, taking Bulldog to the mat in it. Davey powers out, and drives a knee to the midsection during a criss cross, then drops Bret with a hairpull slam. He hangs Bret in a tree of woe for some abuse, as pretty Diana Hart-Smith watches from ringside. Chinlock, but Bret escapes and tries a crucifix, so Davey drops him like a Samoan for two. Smith chokes him on the ropes, allowing Jim Cornette to get in a cheap shot with the tennis racket for two, and Smith goes back to the chinlock. Davey with a cross corner whip for two, and a backdrop is worth two. Bret is doing all the work here, and even still, Bulldog has to go back to the chinlock again. Hart tries to escape, so Smith wrenches it into a headlock to keep the champion grounded. Hart manages to escape on the second go around, and he hits a monkeyflip. Inverted atomic drop sets up a headbutt drop to the groin, and Bret bulldogs him for two. Piledriver is worth two, and a Russian legsweep sets up a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop. Bret takes him upstairs for a vertical superplex, but Davey counters by dropping Hart crotch-first across the top rope - with authority! Bret bumps all the way out to the floor on that one, and Bulldog follows - nailing the Hitman from behind to send the champ crashing into the steps. Hart is absolutely pouring blood after hitting the steel, but Davey shows no mercy, ramming him into the post next. This is a gory bladejob too, the mats at ringside stained with pools within seconds. Back in, Bulldog goes to work with another cross corner whip, and he drops Hart with a piledriver for two. Bret is bleeding so damn much that Bulldog's tights are already getting stained red, and it's only been, like, a minute. Davey with a hanging vertical suplex for two, and a press-slam gets two. Bodyslam sets up a flying headbutt for two, but it knocks Smith silly as well. I don't know if that was meant to be a shout-out to Dynamite Kid, or what, but it looked awkward. Bulldog with a Mexican surfboard, but Hart counters to the Sharpshooter, only for Bulldog to block. Nice sequence there. Smith sends him crashing to the outside with a shoulderblock, but an attempt to suplex him back in is countered with a bridging German suplex for two. Bret keeps coming, but a criss cross results in a double knockout spot, and Hart manages to backdrop his challenger over the top as they recover. Bret dives after him with a plancha, and thankfully doesn't nearly snap Bulldog's neck with it like he did at SummerSlam. Bret keeps it going with a springboard dive, but Smith catches him with the Running Powerslam on the floor! He pulls the mats up for a suplex on the floor, but Bret counters by dropping Bulldog crotch-first across the rail, then clotheslining his ass off! Back in, Bret hits a backbreaker for two, and he vertical superplexes his brother-in-law for two. Hart argues the count, allowing Bulldog to try a rollup, but Bret reverses for two. Backdrop follows, and Bret unloads on him in the corner, but a cross corner whip gets reversed. Bulldog charges in after him, but hits boot, and a groggy Hitman ties him up in a magistral cradle to retain at 21:09! I know it's blasphemous to some people, but I actually liked this one better than the overrated SummerSlam match, which I thought went back to the mat too often so Bret could guide an out of shape Smith through the sequences. Mind you, those sequences were insanely good, but Hart having to play nurse to Smith at every turn hurt the flow a lot for me. Davey may have been more in the zone here than at SummerSlam, but even still, this was all Hart. Bulldog seemed keen to do his usual chinlocky main event match before Bret kicked it into high gear with the bladejob. It's almost like a tale of two separate matches - one before the blade, and one after. Before the blood, Davey wasn't really getting over with the fans as any kind of real threat to Hart, but once Bret started pouring buckets all over the place, suddenly everyone was taking Bulldog seriously. Also very shrewd, as the house was packed with ECW fans, and adding in a gory bladejob won over even their most hardcore of believers. Another brilliant performance by Hart, in a series of them. For those keeping score, that's his third pay per view match in a row at four-stars, or better. Sadly, that would not keep into 1996. **** ¼

Undertaker pretty much threatens to murder Bret Hart at the Royal Rumble

Billionaire Ted's Wrasslin' War Room, as Billionaire Ted tries to find a new slogan for his promotion. Funny stuff again, though the WWF getting all high and mighty about how all their performers are drug free came across poorly

BUExperience: After a pretty strong showing last week, this was a terrible episode. Everything fell flat here, even the big Shawn Michaels announcement. And don’t get me wrong, Hart/Bulldog is a phenomenal match, and I loved that they aired it as a kid because I hadn’t seen the pay per view, but the move reeked of desperation.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	1/8/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	3.0	2.8
Total Wins	8	7
Win Streak	2
Better Show (as of 1/1)	3	11