5-Jan-2012 - What the World Was Watching: Monday Night Raw – September 23, 1996

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by Logan Scisco -A picture of Diesel and Razor Ramon beating up Savio Vega backstage at last night's In Your House pay-per-view is shown. -Kevin Kelly, Jim Ross, and Jerry "the King" Lawler are in the booth and they are live from Hershey, Pennsylvania. -Opening Intercontinental Title Tournament Finals Contest:  "Wildman" Marc Mero (w/Sable) pins Faarooq after the Wild Thing at 9:50 shown to win the title: Pat Patterson is the guest referee and Mr. Perfect comes out to do color commentary.  In a nice touch, the headstone for the Buried Alive match that will headline the next pay-per-view is in the aisle and people have to walk around it to get to the ring.  Faarooq was sort of the quasi-favorite going into this match since he originally was supposed to face Ahmed Johnson for the title at SummerSlam before Ahmed was nike nfl jerseys injured and the tournament seemed like a formality for him.  During the match, Ahmed Johnson calls in and when Lawler attacks him, Ahmed rips him a new one and it's hilarious.  Faarooq actually uses some high-risk offense in this, but Samoan dropping Mero from the second rope early in the match.  The match has a great pace in the early going, but it slows considerably after the break.  The finish is caused by Sunny trying to toss her man a loaded pursue, which gets intercepted, and you can figure out the rest.  In retrospect, the right guy when over because Faarooq needed to be repackaged for the Nation of Domination.  However, it's unfortunate that considering Mero's abilities he received such a short title run.  Rating:  **½ -After the match, Ross interviews Mero, who thanks Sable and Mr. Perfect for guiding him to victory. -Most of the faces in the locker room congratulate Marc Mero on his victory over Faarooq. -Vince McMahon says that Jeff Jarrett was country music's version of Milli Vanilli because he didn't sing his "With My Baby Tonight" song and the man who actually sang the song is going to show up next week. -Non-Title Match:  The British Bulldog & Owen Hart (WWF Tag Team Champions w/Clarence Mason) defeat The Bodydonnas when Owen forces Skip to submit to the Sharpshooter at 4:21 shown: Early in the match ECW star Taz appears and hops the guardrail as the crowd goes nuts.  The WWF makes this appear like a shoot by quickly going to a commercial break.  The Bodydonnas still don't have any heat, which really hurts the match.  Come to think of it, this was one of their last matches as a team and their gimmick is beyond stale at this point.  Despite this, the Bodydonnas still give a good effort, but the clipped version of the match does not leave us with anything but a footnote for the show.  Rating:  * -The broadcast team discusses the Shawn Michaels-Mankind match at In Your House last night. -The Undertaker appears in the graveyard and discusses how he needs to avenge Paul Bearer's act of betrayal at SummerSlam. -Dok Hendrix appears outside of the locker room of Razor Ramon and Diesel, but they don't want to talk to him. -Shawn Michaels and Mankind going through the announce table as In Your House last night is the Playstation Slam of the Week. -Call 1-900-737-4WWF to find out why Diesel and Razor Ramon attacked Savio Vega last night at In Your House. -The Stalker defeats Hunter Hearst Helmsley after a superplex at 7:17 shown: Steve Austin appears for guest commentary and he says he doesn't like Bret Hart and wants to face him.  The match is boring as can be and Ross goes into quasi-shoot mode by saying that he wishes the match would end so he can interview Razor Ramon and Diesel.  Helmsley starts a pattern here of losing matches because of Mr. Perfect, as Perfect comes down and takes Helmsley's woman, thereby allowing the Stalker to take advantage nfl jerseys supply and get the win.  Austin calls the result of the match a ripoff, but that might only apply to the fans who decided to watch this entire match instead of flipping over to Nitro.  Rating:  ½* -Mankind and Paul Bearer talk about the buried alive match.  Mankind says that he will take the Undertaker's last breath at In Your House. -Ross gets into the ring to do his interview, but gets peeved when they have to go to a commercial break.  After the break, Ross spends a couple of minutes to talk about his life story and why he has no loyalty to the WWF.  The crowd is digging everything he's saying and he makes it clear that Vince McMahon is the owner of the company, a fact not acknowledged on television at the time.  Unfortunately, this intense segment ends with the unveiling of the fake Razor Ramon and it goes over as well as you would expect.  Before we have to endure fake Diesel, Savio Vega does a run in and that plays us out. -Tune in next week to see Shawn Michaels and Jose Lothario face off against Vader and Jim Cornette! The Final Report Card:  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the dark ages of WWF history.  The beginning of the show is great and feels important, but after that the show turns into an embarrassing sideshow.  The Helmsley-Stalker nfl trade jerseys main event is a snoozer and Ross's promo, while well delivered, leaves a sour taste in your mouth when you see the end result.  You can tell by the look on Ross's face that he was embarrassed to have to end his promo with the introduction of a fake, whose sole purpose was to prove in court that the WWF needed to retain the rights to the Razor Ramon character.  Although a decent legal move, because the WWF won a settlement from WCW and it later helped pave the way for the WWF acquiring WCW when it went belly up, this is example 101 of how to antagonize your fan base.  If you like shoot promos, you should give Ross's a look, but if you otherwise do yourself a favor and just watch the first match of this show and turn it off and find something else to do. Monday Night War Rating:  2.0 (vs. 3.4 for Nitro) Show Evaluation:  Thumbs Down

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