Monday Night Raw
January 15, 1996
Newark, DE
Bob Carpenter Center

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Bret Hart (11/19/1995)
Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon (10/22/1995)
World Tag Team Champions: The Smoking Gunns (9/25/1995)

TONIGHT: Vince is thinking about the Royal Rumble while Sunny lounges on a pool table in some lingerie. Undertaker might be the next WWF champion this Sunday, but first he’s got to deal with an evil dentist. Also, Goldust has an interview, but can he contain himself this close to the Royal Rumble when he finally gets his hands on Razor Ramon? Dok Hendrix says the WWF IC champ Razor Ramon is on his way to the arena to ensure some man-on-man violence if Goldust tries to go too far with him. Plus, we’ll stop by Billionaire Ted’s Wrasslin’ Warroom to see what those goofs are up to this week. Let’s get RAW and find out what happens, folks.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler.

• Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Marty Jannetty
  

Marty starts flipping Owen all around by his arm to start. Owen wants an O’Connor roll, but Jannetty blocks holding onto the top rope and clotheslines Owen down. Owen fights out of a chinlock and delivers a Belly to Belly Suplex to take over. Crossbody out of the corner by Jannetty, but Owen makes him pay with the MOST DEADLY ENZIGURI KICK EVER! Owen tries the SHARPSHOOTER, but Jannetty kicks him away. Hart delivers a gutwrench suplex as we take a break. When we return, Marty mounts a comeback and hits a somersault bulldog out of the corner. Nice! Jannetty clotheslines Owen to the floor to allow Vince to plug the Rumble again. Owen flips out of a suplex back inside and hooks Jannetty up in a lucha-style bridge for the 1-2-3. (5:57 shown) Not bad, but Jannetty was clearly JTTS material here by this point. Come on people! This could have been a GOOD match. *½

YES! Todd Pettingell is hanging out in the Dok Hendrix WWF shrine to hype the Royal Rumble. He talks up the Free For All match this Sunday where the winner gets the #30 spot and the loser gets the #1 spot in the Rumble match. I like that idea and they half way did this most recently with Truth and Miz. Participants announced to be in the Rumble match: Owen Hart, Tatanka, Dory Funk Jr., Yokozuna, Barry Horowitz, Jerry Lawler, British Bulldog, Savio Vega, Doug Gilbert, Jake Roberts, Fatu, Henry O. Godwinn, Marty Jannetty, Kama, Steve Austin, Isaac Yankem DDS, Hakushi, Mr. Bob Backlund, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, King Mabel, 1-2-3 Kid, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, and VADER! Okay, that’s 24 people. The six included that weren’t mentioned: Bob Holly, Takao Omori, Squat Team 1 & 2, Aldo Montoya, and Duke “The Dumpster” Droese.

Other matches for the Royal Rumble include:

Bret Hart vs. Undertaker for the WWF title
Razor Ramon vs. Goldust for the WWF IC title
The Smoking Gunns vs. The Bodydonnas for the WWF tag team titles
Ahmed Johnson vs. Jeff Jarrett

The Rumble match looks weak, but it’s really not a bad overall show on paper.

Elsewhere, Dok Hendrix assures that Razor Ramon will tear Goldust apart – TONIGHT!

Also elsewhere, Sunny plays some pool wearing just lingerie and tells us she likes it RAW! Yes miss, broccoli does taste best that way.

• Million Dollar Champion The Ringmaster Steve Austin (w/Ted DiBiase) vs. Matt Hardy
  

Hardy has a UNC Chapel Hill scheme going on here with his attire. He’s also got HV on the back of his tights. Can’t help but wonder if the “I” is missing from the middle there or if HV actually stands for something. Never know with those CRAZY Hardy Boyz. Great squash here as Austin is just so intense as he destroys Hardy. Austin hits the STUNGUN and locks in the MILLION DOLLAR DREAM for the win at 4:36.

Video montage for the return of Shawn Michaels at the Royal Rumble.

Backstage, Dok Hendrix is still waiting around for Razor Ramon to show up. He REALLY wants to see Goldust get beat up.

• WWF Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns vs. The Spiders
  

We JIP to the crowd chanting for the SPIDERS. No joke! However, it’s not enough to rally a victory as the SIDEWINDER puts away one of these masked men at 1:05 shown. Those wacky Delawareans.

Here’s the latest installment of Billionaire Ted’s Wrasslin’ Warroom.

Goldust heads to the ring to meet Vince McMahon for an interview. He flirts a little with Vince before they get started. HILARIOUS! Anyways, Goldust wants Razor Ramon more than anyone could possibly want another human being. Dang! Vince’s disgusted expression throughout the segment is priceless.

Meanwhile, Dok Hendrix is STILL waiting now close to 40 minutes into the program for Razor Ramon to show up. He announces that Razor has just pulled into the parking lot. When Ramon walks through the backdoor, Dok is going to try to get a word with him.

After the break, Razor walks into the arena searching for Goldust. Oh man.

• The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Isaac Yankem DDS
  

Who cares about this match, right? But then all it took was a big gimmick change and a great angle to make this an interesting feud. In case you children didn’t know, Yankem is better known as Kane. Also, Isaac Yankem was brought into the WWF by Jerry Lawler, so you’ve still got that connection happening then too. Lawler tries to psych up Yankem before the match. They do the face to face stand-off, which was MUCH cooler two years later. UT whips Yankem from corner to corner and goes for the TOMBSTONE early, but Yankem slips out over the ropes and to the floor. On the outside, Taker runs Yankem into the post. Meanwhile, Lawler tries to steal what’s left of the urn that was melted down into a gigantic Ice T-style gold necklace by Kama in 1995. Taker scares Lawler away, which leaves Vince all alone. However, that allows Yankem to run UT into the ringpost as we take a commercial break. When we come back, Yankem is working the back while Dok Hendrix pops in to tell us that Goldust wishes to speak again this time about his match planned for next week against Bret Hart. Meanwhile, looks like somebody flubbed the TOMBSTONE reversal finish as they had to cut to Dok Hendrix for no reason to cover it up. UT delivers the TOMBSTONE for real this time for the 1-2-3. (7:32 shown) Just not that interesting and nobody felt Taker was in any danger of losing since he has a title shot that following Sunday. 3/4*

In the back, it’s no surprise that Razor Ramon interrupts the Goldust interview as soon as it starts. Agents and refs can’t slow Razor down from beating up Goldust, but an uppercut to the balls will stop ANYBODY.

That’s enough pool for Sunny. She’s now in the tub enjoying a bubble bath telling us that she can’t believe we did it for almost an hour and how ‘raw’ that is. She’s still talking about watching Monday Night Raw, right?

Let Us Take You Back To Moments Ago: Oh nothing. Just some “gay” bashing and then Razor got his balls bashed by a “gay”.

After Vince hypes the Royal Rumble one last time, we go backstage again to see Razor Ramon attacking Goldust as he tries to leave the building. They fight out into the snow where Ramon finds a snow shovel. Swing and a miss though. Finally, Goldust starts to drive away in his Cadillac as Razor heaves a trash can at his car. That’ll do for now!

Next week: Bret Hart vs. Goldust!