Monday Night Raw
June 12, 1995
Struthers, OH
Struthers Auditorium

The current WWF champs were as follows:
World Champion: Diesel (11/26/1994)
Intercontinental Champion: Jeff Jarrett (5/21/1995)
World Tag Team Champions: Owen Hart & Yokozuna (4/2/1995)
Women’s Champion: Alundra Blayze (4/3/1995)

Big hype for Lex Luger and Yokozuna. No mention of the WrestleMania 10 match, it’s all based on what happened on the USS Intrepid and SummerSlam 1993.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

Earlier today, Bob Backlund was doing some more campaigning for the POTUS.

• Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Duane Gill
  

We hear from Diesel who joins us via telephone. His elbow won’t be 100% come King of the Ring, but he’s got to be there for Bam Bam. Of course, Lawler tries to discourage him from even showing up. This was actually a pretty fun squash since Duane Gill knows how to work a squash and make this big man look good. You truly knew where Vince’s attention would rather be during this match though. That’s for sure. Bigelow wins with the Flying Headbutt at 2:31.

Waylon Mercy promo. He’s got a worm crawling on him. He doesn’t like worms crawling on him. He doesn’t like wrestlers touching him either. He squashes the worm just like he’ll do to a wrestler if they touch him. KnowwhutImean? So he’s one part Max Cady, one part Ernest P. Worrell?

The WWF Blimp! Hey, it’s 1995. There’s not a whole lot to get excited about, okay?

• Kama (w/Ted DiBiase) vs. David Haskins
  

Some creepy goths sitting in the front row, and they’ve brought with them a black wreath! I didn’t know goths even liked wrestling. Kama destroys this guy with a Belly to Belly Suplex in 2:08. Afterwards, Kama goes over to intimidate those Undertaker fans in the front row. DiBiase tries to cool him down.

In the back, Yokozuna is working on eating an entire pail of rice. He’s 641 pounds now! He’s gained almost 100 pounds since the Stars & Stripes Challenge in 1993!

• Man Mountain Rock vs. Bob Cook
  

Bob Cook throws a series of fantastic punches, but goes down quickly to the WHAMMY BAR at 1:03. You know it best as the Fujiwara armbar.

In the back, Bob Backlund runs across Man Mountain Rock’s guitar. I believe the proper term is axe, though. Backlund drops the guitar on the floor and stomps it one good time. Then he goes on a rant about how rock music is ruining the minds of children. They don’t know how to read anymore and it’s all because of the Crawling Stones, as he calls them. He gets way too excited, loses his mind, and starts throwing things around until the feed goes to black.

• Tekno Team 2000 vs. John Chrystal & Mike Khoury
  

Here’s another RAW debut for you. They are Troy and Travis, but you may know them as Erik Watts and Chad Fortune from WCW. It is strange that they both kind of resemble Sean O’Haire, who debuted in WCW in – you guessed it – the year 2000! Chrystal and Khoury are both wearing cut-off jeans for some reason. Somewhere, Tobias Funke is smiling. Travis hits one of the jobbers with a Flying Bodypress for the win at 3:25. I believe this is their one and only match on RAW this year.

Backstage, Man Mountain Rock cries over his axe. He will deal with you, Backlund. Not that I’m complaining, but I don’t remember this ever having a blow-off on TV.

• Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette) – KOTR Qualifier
  

Lex has an American flag bearer with him. No, it’s not Jack Victory. It’s Scotty Anton who would soon join WCW to become Scotty Riggs as one-half of the American Males. The dude is so patriotic. Luger wins a slugfest, but walks right into a slam. He avoids an elbow drop and cranks on a wristlock and armbar. He blocks a turnbuckle smash and returns the favor multiple times. With Yoko dazed, Luger punches him out to the floor for what appears to be a repeat from SummerSlam 93. Yoko beats the count and shoves off a ten-count corner punch, but misses a legdrop. Fuji distracts and Yoko beats Luger senseless down into the corner. Scotty waves the US flag trying to rally up Lex as we go to break. When we return, Luger mounts a comeback with a bunch of flying double axe handles and clotheslines. Eventually, a flying clothesline takes Yoko off his feet. When Lex calls for the Bionic Elbow, Fuji walks over and slaps Scotty so he can take the US flag away. That brings Luger to the floor. Cornette considers whacking Luger with his tennis racket, but gets punched away. Lex returns the flag to Anton, but gets ran into the ringpost by Yoko. With Lex knocked down, Yoko finishes the job with a Legdrop. That’s all he needs to roll back in the ring to win by countout. (8:07 shown) Poetic justice alluding to the SummerSlam finish. Yoko heads to the KOTR to face Razor’s replacement: Savio Vega. Better than WrestleMania 10, but not as strong a match as what we saw at SummerSlam, which wasn’t really that bad. *½

Here are the final 1995 KOTR brackets heading into the tournament.

Time to see Jerry Lawler’s training video. He walks around in manure at his royal stable. Seems like a royal stable wouldn’t be that filthy. We go back to the June 10 Superstars to see Jerry Lawler beat Aldo Montoya with his Piledriver. Afterwards, he makes Montoya kiss his nasty, dirty, disgusting, royal feet. I’ll be glad when this part of the feud is all over.

NEXT WEEK: Sid and Tatanka battle the New Headshrinkers six days before the King of the Ring! Shawn Michaels will be here! The Undertaker will be in action!