WWF Monday Night RAW (March 25, 1996)

Original Airdate: March 25, 1996 (taped March 11)

From San Antonio, Texas; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Shawn Michaels v Leif Cassidy: Shawn carries a camcorder to the ring (dubbed the Kliq Cam), since his character wasn't cloying enough already. And even THAT wasn't enough apparently, as he introduces Jose Lothario to stand in his corner too. It was one thing to have Jose be a part of the training vignettes, or out as a one time thing here in San Antonio, but as regular manager, no bueno. WWF Champion Bret Hart comes down to sit in on commentary as they get started, running off Lawler in the process. Criss cross sees Michaels try a rollup, but Cassidy blocks, and a second criss cross sees Shawn block a Boston crab, and armdrag Leif into an armbar. Good, crisp sequences here. Reversal sequence ends in a stalemate, leading to another criss cross, with both guys trying a bodypress at the same time. Michaels gets the better of the exchange, and armdrags Cassidy down for another armbar, as Bret does a great job of building up the WrestleMania match on commentary. Another criss cross sees Leif drop him with a nasty sitout spinebuster, and a swinging uranage sets up a modified surfboard, as Marty Jannetty comes down to stand in Cassidy's corner. Leif with a vertical suplex to set up a chinlock, and Shawn has a small gash on his forehead from who knows what. Must be hardway, because it's tiny, and there was definitely no spot setting it up. Reversal sequence sees them trade cradles for multiple nearfalls, until Cassidy goes to the eyes, and nearly kills Shawn while trying a powerbomb. They made it look intentional, but the WrestleMania main looked to be in jeopardy right there. That would have been the beginning and the end of Cassidy in the WWF if it was, you can bet. Cassidy takes him upstairs with a vertical superplex for two, but Shawn starts to fight back, so Leif tries a second superplex, but Michaels counters with a gourdbuster this time, then dives with a flying clothesline. Shawn adds an atomic drop, followed by a sloppy inverted version, and he unloads in the corner - only to have Marty trip him up! Jannetty tries to hold Shawn in place for Cassidy to finish, but Bret intervenes, and the Superkick finishes at 11:16. Afterwards, Michaels goes after Jannetty, but pushes past Bret in the process, which Hart takes as a show of disrespect, and they get in each others faces until Jose can separate them. There were some awkward bits here, but they were trying a lot of interesting stuff in between all of the angles. *** ¼

Hunter Hearst Helmsley v Aldo Montoya: Aldo tries to score points with Hunter's valet by holding the ropes open for her, but that just earns him a beating in the corner. Montoya manages to fight back with a backdrop, but hits the knees while trying a splash, and HHH stomps him down. High knee follows, as the crowd gets distracted by something going on in the stands, and ignores the match. They're not missing much. HHH with a vertical suplex to set up a kneedrop for two, and a backelbow is worth two. Aldo tries fighting back with a sunset flip, but Hunter stomps on his face to block, and goes to work in the corner. Montoya manages to dive with a 2^nd rope flying bodypress for two, and this time is able to add a dropkick. HHH tries killing it with a tilt-a-whirl, but Aldo counters with a headscissors, and throws a clothesline to set up a flying bodypress for two. Backdrop, but Helmsley counters with the Pedigree at 4:42. Really dull match, though it picked up a bit at the end. I like how they're building up HHH as the guy who's going to destroy Ultimate Warrior through competitive squashes of Aldo freakin' Montoya. ½*

Goldust is out on the Hollywood back lot, where he quotes Pinocchio while rubbing down a Roddy Piper mannequin, before smashing it to pieces. If Tony Soprano were here, he'd probably make a joke about the finocchio quoting Pinocchio, but James Gandolfini is dead, so that won't be happening

Right now, for only $180, you can get a WrestleMania XII jacket with your name embroidered on the breast - only at the WWF Store!

Next week, Mankind debuts!

Vince McMahon brings Undertaker and Paul Bearer out to review the Diesel feud up until this point, and talk about WrestleMania. There's no reason this needed to be a live segment. There was no interaction with anyone... this could have just as effectively and more economically been done with pre-recorded footage

This weekend, the Slammy Awards are coming to USA. Why are these not on the Network?

We get a new video package highlighting Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels' training ahead of WrestleMania. This did a much better job of building up the match than having one of them come out and cut a simple promo, like they had Undertaker doing in the previous segment. Great bit in here, as Bret talks about how he always admired Randy Savage, and then one day, he realized he had overtaken him. And now Shawn is trying to do the same thing to him, but "I'm not ready to leave yet." All of this stuff really works on an additional level when you look at how things played out over the next couple of years. This was great stuff, especially the bits with Bret just calmly sitting and talking about the psychology of the match, and such. No yelling, no screaming, just breaking it down in an intelligent manner

Owen Hart v Ahmed Johnson: Ahmed's got a wedgie before he's even down the aisle tonight. If there was ever a dude who really needed to switch to longer tights, it's Johnson. Ahmed powers Owen around to start, as spot Diana Hart-Smith in the front row for this. Johnson wants a test-of-strength, but Owen isn't sure, so Ahmed kneels down to offer him an advantage - which proves stupid, as Hart just stomps on him. Owen tries a front-facelock, but Ahmed easily powers out, and drops him with a sloppy spinebuster. Bearhug follows, so Davey Boy Smith distracts Johnson from the outside, allowing Owen to spinheel kick him over the top. Hart sends him into the rail, and uses a jumping shoulderblock on the way back in, but runs into another spinebuster. Pearl River Plunge looks to finish, but Bulldog attacks for the DQ at 5:34. Ahmed fights them both off, so Vader runs in to back his boys up, and they work Johnson over three-on-one. That goes on until Yokozuna and Jake Roberts waddle out (Yoko actually moving faster than Jake!) for the save. Man, they ran that same exact thing three weeks in a row with the same players. The match was just a quickie to hype WrestleMania. ¼*

And here's Bret Hart's Tell Me a Lie music video to send us home. I always liked that one

BUExperience:  Even the go-home show for WrestleMania couldn’t derail Nitro from extending their winning streak to four (the longest streak of the war thus far), though it was a pretty decent episode. The opener gave us a very good match coupled with some strong hype for the Iron Man match, and the rest was laser focused on hyping various things for WrestleMania, with every single segment in some way pushing the big show. Some bits worked better than others, but it definitely made you want to see that main event.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	3/25/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.8	3.1
Total Wins	10	14
Win Streak		4
Better Show (as of 3/18)	5	17