WWF Monday Night RAW (April 29, 1996)

Original Airdate: April 29, 1996  

From Sioux City, Iowa; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Last night, after In Your House went off the air, Davey Boy Smith stormed down the aisle, interrupting Shawn Michaels' victory celebration to accuse Michaels of trying to sleep with his wife. The look on Gorilla Monsoon's face when Smith makes that accusation is absolutely priceless

Mankind v Bart Gunn: Mankind unloads with some right hands at the bell, and it looks like one of them got away from him, because there's suddenly blood splatter on his hands, on Bart's shoulder, and on the ring. I'm not even sure where the blood is coming from though, as Bart doesn't appear to be bleeding. In fact, it looks like Mankind may be bleeding from the hand for some reason, so maybe the claw nicked him in some way while throwing one of those punches. They spill to the outside to continue this extended slugfest, and Mankind manages a bodyslam on the way back in, but misses an elbowdrop. That allows Bart to grab a wristlock, and I'm still not sure where the juice is coming from here. Mankind fights him off in the corner, and uses a baseball slide to send Gunn to the outside, then follows to beat on him out there. Back in, Mankind hammers him in the corner, and drives him a running kneesmash, then heads out to bash his own head into the guardrail for whatever reason. He's got a nasty bruise on his face there. Bart fights him off and heads up with a missile dropkick for two, and a bodyslam sets up a flying elbowdrop for two. Spinebuster leads to mounted punches, but Mankind counters with the Mandible Claw at 10:47. Based on the close-up, I think the source of the blood is a bandaged cut on Mankind's hand, which got opened up when a punch got away from him right at the start of the match. And what a weird match this was. They weren't even on different pages, they were on different books here. And I hope they at least threw Bart an extra hundred in his envelope for the night for having to take those bloody, bandaged fingers down his throat. ¼*

Backstage, Jim 'Mr. Sensitivity' Ross shoves a microphone in Bart Gunn's face the second Bart gets through the curtain, wanting to know how the Mandible Claw felt. Bart doesn't really feel like talking, so Mankind shows up to help demonstrate by slapping it on him again. He should have used it on JR, since he wanted to know how it felt so badly

Steve Austin v Scott Taylor: Savio Vega sits in on commentary for this one, issuing a challenge to face Austin in a Caribbean Strap match at In Your House. Lawler has all sorts of shit to say about that idea, and he nearly gets into a fight with Savio as Austin works Taylor over, finishing with the Million Dollar Dream at 2:37. Afterwards, Vega grabs the microphone to make his challenge official, but Austin tells him to where he can shove that strap, so Vega attacks him with it. ¼*

Vince brings out WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, Davey Boy Smith, Diana Hart-Smith, and Jim Cornette to discuss the allegations of sexual misconduct Bulldog made against Michaels at last night's In Your House. Cornette rants and raves against Michaels, unloading some great stuff in his usual motor mouth style, building this angle into something interesting out of nothing. See, apparently during Bulldog's match last night, Shawn had a production assistant get Diana to go backstage by telling her Cornette is in some kind of trouble, and then Michaels cornered her in a dark corridor, and tried to have his way with her. Shawn totally denies it, and Vince thinks the allegations are 'ridiculous.' So wait, a woman accuses a man of sexual misconduct without any evidence, and said man is not immediately vilified and ostracized? I'm confused. Diana pipes up, accusing Shawn of 'wanting her,' to which Michaels declares that she shouldn't 'flatter herself' - leading to a brawl with her husband. I can't even imagine what this angle would look like in 2018, but it was a great angle, with character motivations that were grounded in realism, as opposed to some of the more cartoonish stuff. Cornette was especially brilliant at getting this over by hitting all the important points in concise but bombastic fashion

#1 Contender's Match: The Godwinns v The New Rockers: It feels kind of silly having top contender's matches in a division with only, like, four teams. It also feels silly calling it a 'division.' Phineas Godwinn starts with Marty Jannetty, and it's stall city, as Sunny pops up on split screen to distract us with a much better pair. Marty works a front-facelock, and he suckers Phineas into an armdrag, then brings Leif Cassidy in for some double teaming, but Phineas fights them off with his farm boy antics. The Rockers stall out there as Phineas fusses, until Leif tries a sneak attack, but Phineas easily fights him off. That drags Sunny out to show off that tag team of hers again, as the camera completely ignores the match to focus on her. Good call. The Rockers cut the ring in half on Henry Godwinn, but Marty eats boot while trying a 2^nd rope flying splash, and Phineas gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! It spills to the outside, where Sunny is quick to taunt Phineas, and we have a double countout at 8:24. This was really boring stuff, with both teams in cruise control. DUD

Jim Ross tracks Mankind down in a dark stairwell to talk about the mechanics Mandible Claw. No word on whether or not it's the same darkened stairwell as Shawn Michaels' alleged encounter with Diana

Ultimate Warrior v Isaac Yankem: They make a big deal about how this is Warrior's first ever match on RAW, but given that the show has only been around for three years, that's not really THAT big of a moment. Warrior's still adjusting to working these smaller buildings than he's used to from the glory days, running all the way to the ring, around ringside, back to the dressing rooms, and then back out again. I guess when you're used to running the aisle at the Skydome or Wembley Stadium, the Sioux City Civic Auditorium doesn't quite do it for you. Lawler does a bit where he does commentary for the match while standing in Yankem's corner here, which is cute. Warrior barrels him over with a shoulderblock to start, and he dives Isaac into the corner with a turnbuckle smash, then hits a corner clothesline. Warrior tosses him over the top, and back in, he unloads with clotheslines like they're going out of style. Jumping shoulderblock and a splash finish at a brisk 3:16, in what would be Yankem's last TV appearance. Lawler is beside himself, and wants to show us how it's done, but sadly for the King the 'cord on his headset is too short,' so he can't. People laugh at him, but I'd never rag on his cord, man. DUD

BUExperience: This was a pretty bad episode. Nothing good going on between the ropes this week, though Mankind getting his finisher/gimmick over, and the new main event angle were major highlights.  

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	4/29/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.9	2.1
Total Wins	14	14
Win Streak	4
Better Show (as of 4/22)	8	18