WWF Monday Night RAW (June 17, 1996)

Original Airdate: June 17, 1996 (taped May 27)

From Fayetteville, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

King of the Ring Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Steve Austin v Savio Vega: King of the Ring was never the same for me once they started running part of the main tournament on TV instead of pay per view. It's kinda funny that they show highlights of Savio beating Austin at the Beware of Dog makeup show 'last month,' when this show was actually taped a day before that match even happened. Austin attacks before the bell, and stomps Vega down in energetic fashion. Into the corner for some chops, but Savio turns the tables, and hits Steve with a leg-feed enzuigiri for two. Austin bails to regroup, and manages to sweep Savio's legs from the floor, and bashes the knee into the post a few times, then clips the leg on the way back in. Austin goes to work on the leg, as they hype up the rest of the card via split screen graphic inserts, and man, Jake Roberts looked like a middle school science teacher in 1996. Austin dumps him to the outside, but that backfires when Savio sweeps the leg, and returns the favor of bashing Steve's  knee into the post a few times. Not the same without Gorilla talking about geese and ganders, sorry. Vega works the leg for a while until Austin manages to drop him into the turnbuckles, but a bodyslam attempt gets him toppled for two when the knee gives out. That allows Vega a bodypress for two, and a kneebreaker is worth two. Splash, so Austin lifts his knees to block, but that aggravates his bad leg, and he's slow on the follow-up. He tries to keep it simple with a ropechoke, but a straddling version misses, and Vega unloads with right hands, then takes a sweeping kick at the leg. Spinheel kick looks to finish, but Austin is in the ropes at two, and he drops Vega with the Stunner (still unnamed) as Savio tries to pull him up for another move at 9:12. I believe that's actually the first time Austin used the move, though a match taped a day after this that featured the move technically aired first. It was completely different than the move we've come to know since, as it was basically just done as a defensive maneuver to escape a waistlock as opposed to the now familiar kick-pivot-move execution. This wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. * ¼

Mankind's been kicking Undertaker's ass all over the promotion for months, and he will pay at King of the Ring! At the time, this totally felt like they were just building up another monster for Undertaker to slay like he’d done countless times before, and if he'd done the usual decisive win at the pay per view, that probably would have been the ceiling for the Mankind character

The Sega Saturn Slam of the Week sees Jake Roberts hitting Justin Hawk Bradshaw with the DDT. Kind of a lame choice, considering you could see him doing that exact move every night for the last ten years at this point

Dick Murdoch tribute video

King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Marc Mero v Owen Hart: Austin sticks around to do commentary for this one, since he'll be facing the winner in the next round. Feeling out process to start, with Owen loudly complaining to the referee to keep Mero off of his bad, cast covered arm. Owen was just the greatest. Mero hits a hiptoss, prompting a long bitch session from Hart about how he's targeting the arm. Marc responds with a wristlock, but Owen fights him off with a headlock, and a criss cross leads to Mero hitting a monkeyflip. Armdrag and a drop-toehold leave Owen in an armbar, so he tries his own monkeyflip, but Mero hangs on to the hold through it. Mero with a backdrop and a bodyslam to set up a flying sunset flip, but Owen moves, and Marc wipes out in dramatic fashion. That allows Hart to work a chinlock, but Mero fights free, so Owen whacks him with a spinheel kick for two. Backbreaker and a gutwrench suplex get two, so Owen uses a standing dropkick to put Marc down for a ropechoke. Mero fights back with a sunset flip for two, and manages a turnbuckle smash, so Hart goes to the eyes, and vertical suplexes him down for a Boston crab. Sable was at least getting better looking comfortable on camera by this point. Mero escapes the hold, leading to a chopfest, which Hart controls with a fisherman suplex for two. Bodyslam sets up a flying splash, but Marc lifts his knees to block, and starts making a comeback. Owen tries going to the eyes to cut it off again, but Mero counters a side suplex with a double-underhook cradle to advance at 10:36. Afterwards, Owen attacks him with the cast like the good sportsman he is, leaving Mero out cold. Like the opener, this was technically fine, but felt ice cold. * ½

Weird bit of business next, as we cut to Jim Ross interviewing Davey Boy Smith and Diana in the ring at another event, which they imply is happening at a house show live right now. In reality, this appears to be the arena from Beware of Dog II, where they also taped some episodes of Superstars after the makeup show ended. So, for those trying to keep up, this episode of RAW was taped on 5/27 but aired 6/17, and cuts to a 'live' interview that actually took place neither on 6/17 or even 5/27, but actually a day after this episode was taped (5/28), in which they talk about a match that will happen 'this Sunday' at King of the Ring - which wasn't until 6/23. Even Doc Brown would be pulling his hairs out trying to keep up with this shit. Anyway, Bulldog says all sorts of shit about WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, until Shawn runs out for a pull-apart brawl

Backstage, Marc Mero is being wheeled out on a stretcher

Aldo Montoya is in the ring waiting to get squashed by Hunter Hearst Helmsley, but Jerry Lawler wants to demonstrate what he's going to do to Ultimate Warrior at King of the Ring, and decides to kick the crap out of Aldo before HHH can even make his entrance. Lawler destroys him, so Jake Roberts runs out to make the save. Some hero, he didn't show up until after Lawler was already done delivering the beating, and was already picking up his gear to leave

Earlier, the WWF held the worlds most poorly attended parade outside of Titan Towers (you know it's Connecticut because even the rent-a-cops drive BMWs), and inside there was a press conference for Brian Pillman's contract signing. He's all humble and tearful here, and it seems like it's all building up to him snapping and taking it all back at any moment, but instead he's being completely sincere. What a weird way to introduce a hot act that had all sorts of street cred coming in

Goldust v Jake Roberts: Goldust's Intercontinental title is not on the line here. Vince has said "expect the unexpected" probably two dozens times in each match tonight, so I suppose that was meant to be the new hot catchphrase for the WWF for 1996. But given that I can't remember it at all, I'm guessing that one didn't catch on quite like "anything can happen in the WWF" did. Funny bit, as Lawler calls Ahmed Johnson an 'ingrate' for his behavior after Goldust 'saved his life' with mouth-to-mouth a few weeks ago, to which Vince forcefully responds, "that's no ingrate, that's Ahmed Johnson!" as if they're mutually exclusive. He may not be technically good, but I can't not enjoy Vince as a commentator. Goldust with an extended stall session at the bell, and he threatens walking out at one point, as we get split screen clips of Jake talking about his substance abuse issues, and how he hopes he can help keep the younger guys in the locker room from making the same mistakes he did. Well, Razor and Kid are both out of the promotion, so that's a start, I suppose. Roberts works a hammerlock as they finally make contact, but Goldust fondles him, so Jake chases him around with the title belt, leading to more stalling. Jake with a hiptoss, so Goldust starts fondling the snake, and bails again, as we take a split screen look at Roberts DDT'ing Bradshaw again. Seriously, ten years he's been dropping guys with that move and suddenly we're supposed to lose our collective shit over it? Goldust suckers him into the post, which leaves Jake barely conscious, and results in some kissing. Roberts responds with an inverted atomic drop, and he stomps on the crotch to make sure the champion gets the message. DDT, but Goldust counters with a backdrop, as we take another split screen to Mr. Perfect backstage with Jim Cornette, promising to reveal the special guest referee for the title match at King of the Ring before we go off the air tonight. It says a lot about this match that they keep cutting to other shit to try and keep us even remotely interested. Goldust with more sexual stuff between moves, and he works a grapevine, as we get yet another split screen with Perfect and Cornette joking around in the back. They might as well just put a ticker on the screen saying 'PLEASE DON'T SWITCH TO NITRO! GOOD STUFF HAPPENS EVENTUALLY! WE PROMISE!!' at this point. Goldust with a headvice, until Jake finally mounts a comeback, so Goldust throws gold dust into his eyes, and hooks the leg at 11:45. Oh, but referee Harvey Wippleman spots the gold dust covering Jake's face, and decides to reverse his decision to a DQ win for Roberts. I love the idea of a referee who used to be a heel manager (and thus knows all the tricks), but that's bullshit. You can't call what you don't see. Jake could have been trying to snort that dust for all we know. Eddie Guerrero would have a field day with that sort of officiating. This one featured two guys who built their careers on mastering psychology, so you'd think this would have to be even a little bit interesting just by default. You'd be very wrong. DUD

Backstage, Mr. Perfect reveals that the special guest referee for the main event at King of the Ring is going to be... himself

BUExperience: Some of the stuff booked looked good on paper, but man, what a stale, boring episode. No wonder this lost to Nitro by over a full rating point.

Monday Night Wars Rating Chart

	6/17/96
Show	RAW	Nitro
Rating	2.3	3.4
Total Wins	17	18
Win Streak		1
Better Show (as of 6/10)	8	25