WWF Monday Night Raw
January 16, 1995
Houston, TX
The Summit
(taped on 1/9/1995)

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Diesel (11/26/1994)
Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon (8/29/1994)
World Tag Team Champions: vacant (11/23/1994)
Women’s Champion: Bull Nakano (11/20/1994)

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels! Heck yeah.

• 1-2-3 Kid & Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly vs. The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette)

This is a rematch from Superstars from the previous weekend where the Kid and Holly took the Heavenly Bodies out of the tag team titles tournament. The Bodies dump the Kid out and double-team the crap out of Holly for a while. They even give him the HUMAN COUGH DROP, but Holly kicks out. Holly rolls through a flying crossbody and gets a nearfall. Uh oh, Bam Bam Bigelow, Tatanka and Ted DiBiase are standing in the aisleway. Holly dives into a double clothesline which causes the Heavenly Bodies to crash into one another to set up the HOT TAG TO THE KID! Pritchard cools him off with a sledge to the back for a double-team suplex, but Holly spears Del Ray down as the Kid takes Pritchard over with a fisherman’s suplex for the 1-2-3. (4:35) Short and sweet tag formula. Bigelow and Tatanka don’t seem too impressed. **

In the back, Bret Hart and William FN Shatner are hanging out together. Tonight’s match will be Bret’s first match since Survivor Series. Vince asks him if he’s got any ring rust? Nope. What’s even better is, Shatner has his back. This is going to be great.

• Mantaur (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Jason Ahrndt
  

YES! It’s MANTAUR! Wait a minute. Where’s the head dress? Now he just looks like Man-in-tights-who-makes-weird-noises-taur. Oh, who am I kidding? He was always that guy. To the best of my knowledge, this is the worst wrestler that Jim Cornette ever managed. Just a King Kong Bundy style squash. Running body attack gets the win. (1:44) Mantaur’s going to be the Royal Rumble, folks! Call your cable operator and order it right now!

What’s up yall! It’s Todd Pettingell with the Royal Rumble report. I miss this guy. He was like the Sarah Palin of the WWF. He could make any feud seem folksy and fun! Here’s the card:

• If Mantaur wasn’t reason enough to order, Pamela Anderson is going to make an appearance too!
  
• 30-Man Rumble Match
  
• The Undertaker vs. IRS
  
• WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals: 1-2-3 Kid/Bob Holly vs. Tatanka/Bam Bam Bigelow
  
• WWF World Championship: Diesel vs. Bret Hart
  
• WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett
  

• Bret Hart (w/William Shatner) vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/The Roadie)
  

Shatner’s here to support the Hitman and oh yeah, his new TV series TekWar. Roadie is of course the future Road Dogg Jesse James. This is fairly early in his run as Jarrett’s lackey. I would go as far as to say only a couple weeks as they push Jarrett up the mid-card ladder. Vince makes a point to say that Bret is wrestling more aggressive than ever when he rakes Jarrett’s eyes across the rope. Bret grounds Jarrett with a Russian Legsweep and works the arm. Jarrett escapes with a back suplex. Commercial break! We come back to see Bret pulling Jarrett’s pants down to show a little crack on a sunset flip, but Jarrett punches him down. Jarrett drops down across Bret’s shoulders for the double-bicep pose, which gets hooked by Bret’s legs for a near fall. Meanwhile, Shatner tries to get the fans going. Jarrett whips Bret hard into the corner and connects with a flying double-sledge, but gets caught on the way down when he tries a second one. HERE COMES BRET! Inverted atomic drop and a Russian legsweep gets two. Suplex gets two. Backbreaker and the flying vertical elbow drop connects for another two. SHARPSHOOTER? Nope. Jarrett goes to the eyes. Bret ties Jarrett up in the ropes and charges, but Roadie helps his man get loose and causes Bret to collide into the ropes. FIGURE FOUR is applied! Shatner pushes the ropes to help Bret reach the ropes. Jarrett tries a rollup off the ropes, but Bret reverses into a rollup of his own for 1-2-3. (9:00) Roadie tries to attack the Hitman afterwards, but Shatner gives him a swift forearm and throws him over the top rope. Well, you know your career is going nowhere when you’re having to sell William Shatner offense. This was like Bret in Good finish though because Bret has to go over since he has a WWF title match the following weekend, but so does Jarrett so you have to not make him weak either and yet he has to take the fall. **½

King’s Court with the Million Dollar Corporation: Ted DiBiase has invested a lot of money so that his stable is victorious at the Royal Rumble. He promises IRS will defeat the Undertaker, Bigelow and Tatanka will win the tag team championship over the 1-2-3 Kid and Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly, and that King Kong Bundy will win the Rumble match and walk down that aisle at WrestleMania XI with Pamela Anderson. I’m sure she’s thrilled now. The funniest part about this whole segment is that Ted DiBiase couldn’t be MORE wrong about everything for this year’s Royal Rumble.

• Mabel (w/Oscar) vs. Lee Toblin
  

Another big man squash. Mabel wins with the LEGDROP. Due to his enormous size, he’s probably the only guy who can execute a legdrop worse than Hogan. (2:35) King Kong Bundy breaks up a post-match Mabel interview since neither man can decide who’s going to win the Royal Rumble. Funny because Shawn Michaels is standing in between them. Mabel challenges Bundy right then and there, but DiBiase advices against it.

A Diesel hype video airs. He powerbombs and side slams people a lot.

And we out!