Original Airdate: August 12, 1996 (taped July 22)
From
We start off with an announcement that WWF Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson underwent surgery this week as a result of the kidney injury he sustained at the hands of Faarooq. And apparently he's convalescing in a brothel, if his outfit is any indication
Skip v Faarooq: Skip tries a sneak attack, but gets immediately shrugged off, and dumped to the outside. Faarooq follows to continue his assault out on the floor, and back in, Skip tries a bodypress, but gets caught in a fallaway slam. Faarooq put some mustard on that one. Bodyslam sets up a headbutt-drop, as Sunny taunts her former charge from the outside. Another bodyslam, but Skip manages a cradle for two, so Faarooq kills his ass with a clothesline to cut that shit off. Powerslam hits, but Skip tries another comeback, so Faarooq quickly powerslams him a second time, and uses the Dominator to finish at 4:32. Felt more like an hour, as Faarooq lumbered through this thing. A complete squash too, as Skip had been reduced to a total jobber at this point. It's hard to believe he was only a few months removed from a tag title reign. ¼*
Last week, Jerry Lawler defeated Aldo Montoya, and poured booze down his throat to taunt Jake Roberts, leading Jake to call in right now to continue his absentee build for this feud. I hated Lawler as a kid, but I remember having a really tough time getting behind Jake in this feud. Not only because he looked like a weak old man, but because he wasn't even really ever around to build up his side of it. It was all phone calls and protégés representing him all the time
Savio Vega v Crush: Crush is revealed as the mystery man that Clarence Mason (sitting in on commentary for this) had been petitioning President Gorilla Monsoon's office to reinstate, and he looks nothing like what we remember the character looking as when we last saw him. Such a weird choice for them to acknowledge his real life legal troubles, especially in this era. Like, usually they would bury the fact that a guy got arrested on a drug and weapons charges, not make it his gimmick. Regardless of whether or not he was actually convicted. Like, why not just bring him back as the same Crush as before? That wasn't a bad character. Anyway, Crush works him over with punch-kick stuff to start, and takes Savio to the outside for a trip into the post. Back in, Crush uses a bodyslam to set up a 2nd rope fistdrop, but Savio dodges. That allows Savio to hit a facebuster, and Crush is just looking terrible here. His execution of everything is poor, his muscle tone is all but gone, and he's lumbering around sucking wind through his punch-kick offense. Crush takes control again with a headvice, and cross corner whips Vega, but misses a charge. Yeah, no shit, at that speed. That allows Savio a schoolboy for two, but Crush grounds him in a camel clutch. Vega fights free, and uses a bodypress for two, but Crush cuts him off with a big boot for two. Vega ducks a clothesline and throws some chops to set up a spinkick, but misses a spinheel kick, as the crowd starts getting restless with this shit. Thankfully, Crush grabs a full-nelson, and we're done at 8:24. Fuck Skip, but what did Savio do to deserve getting squashed like this? Would it have killed them to stick Crush in there with one of their designated JTTS guys, like the plumber or the hockey player, or whatever? Bad reintroduction for Crush here. I get that they needed to beef up the roster, but damn, based on that performance, I'm surprised even Jim Cornette himself wasn't getting title runs. –½*
Undertaker/Mankind Boiler Room Brawl hype video
Backstage, Sunny is getting naked to hype the
We take a look back at Ahmed Johnson's last couple of weeks, leading to footage of him in the hospital getting surgery over the last week. Given how injury prone he was, I'm surprised he made it. This leads to Kevin Kelly sitting down with Ahmed in the brothel to discuss his future, and Johnson isn't sure if he'll ever return. See, now this was a good way to incorporate a real life situation into a storyline
The Godwinns v TL Hopper and Who: Bob Backlund comes out to sit in on commentary for this one, and he's still playing his character so perfectly. Henry Godwinn starts with Who, and you have to wonder, in this era when they were so desperate for any sort of star power, why the hell did they put Jim Neidhart under a mask? I mean, he wasn't a big star by any stretch, but he did have some name value. Anyway, the Godwinns dominate them both, until Who takes a cheap shot at Phineas Godwinn, which allows Hopper to turn the tide. They hit Phineas with a tandem backdrop, as Backlund rants and raves about the education system, and the fact that they won't teach the kids how to "not acquire AIDS." Jesus. He wishes someone would tell them to simply abstain, rather than teaching them to apply a condominium. This is fantastic! Sadly, Bob starts spinning so out of control that he can't stay seated, and goes off into the night. How did this dude not land a cable news show? With Bob gone, we get a split screen with President Monsoon, who announces that he's stripping Ahmed Johnson of the Intercontinental Title as a result of the injury. Oh, there's apparently still a match going on too, and Henry pins Who with the Slop Drop at 5:15. No one was even paying attention to this one. Give the WWF credit, if they had a shit match, they usually kept you entertained in other ways. DUD
Mr. Perfect and Bret Hart are aboard the Wrestle Vessel cruise, where Perfect sits down with Bret to discuss his potential return WWF, but Bret won't commit to anything. Boy, did he find the right guy to have that conversation with
Backstage, Vader and Jim Cornette are jerking Owen Hart off. Not literally speaking, of course
Last Friday at
WWF Champion Shawn Michaels was recently on the set of Baywatch. Man, that show had a lot of wrestler cameos, didn't it?
Shawn Michaels v Owen Hart: Shawn's WWF Title is not on the line here. Feeling out process to start, and Owen doesn't waste time getting some cheating in. He tries for the leg-feed enzuigiri, but Shawn counters with a sweep, and a criss cross ends in Shawn sending him over the top with a headscissors, immediately followed with a plancha! Owen beats the count in and tries a spinheel kick, but Michaels ducks, and throws a bodypress for two. He grounds Hart in a headlock, as we take a look back at the November 1995 night Owen put Shawn on the shelf with an enzuigiri. Shawn continues to dominate on the mat with an armbar, and a cross corner whip leads to a clothesline for two. Owen forces a criss cross to allow him an overhead belly-to-belly suplex, and he stomps Michaels in the groin to keep him calm. Pair of backbreakers follow, and Owen slaps on a camel clutch, but Shawn fights free, so Hart blasts him with a spinheel kick for two. Chinlock, as we take a split screen look at Vader pinning Michaels at the previous In Your House. Man, they just can't let anything breathe tonight, can they? Shawn escapes the hold, so Owen tries a dropkick, but Michaels counters with a somersault cradle for two. Hart cuts him off with a clothesline to set up a legdrop, and a neckbreaker leads to a missile dropkick. Hart mocks Shawn's theatrics for the superkick as he tries an enzuigiri, but Michaels ducks again, and hits a powerslam. HBK goes up with a flying elbowdrop, and it's Superkick time, but here comes Vader! Shawn dropkicks him off of the apron, which allows Owen to recover, but Michaels ducks the sneak attack, and hits a pair of Superkicks at 10:42. No reason Owen couldn't have picked up a cheap win here. He would have benefitted from it a lot more than Shawn did. Afterwards, Vader grabs a chair to go after Michaels, but Shawn gets hold of Owen's nasty cast, and we have a show-down. Owen tries another sneak attack, but Shawn AGAIN fights him off, but that at least allows Vader to come in and get some heat on this guy as we go off the air. ** ¾
BUExperience: The only real thing of interest this week was the main event, and it wasn’t an especially good match for either guy. Other than that, a really boring episode, which felt largely unfocused, especially for the go-home show to SummerSlam.
This one also got murdered in the ratings, which WCW taking it’s largest margin of victory ever to that point. Not a good night for the WWF.
Monday
Night Wars Rating Chart
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|
8/12/96
|
|
|
Show
|
RAW
|
Nitro
|
|
Rating
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2.0
|
3.3
|
|
Total Wins
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17
|
26
|
|
Win Streak
|
|
9
|
|
Better Show (as of 8/5)
|
11
|
30
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