Monday Night Raw
June 24, 1996
Green Bay, WI
Brown County Expo

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Shawn Michaels (3/31/96)
Intercontinental Champion: Ahmed Johnson (6/23/96)
World Tag Team Champions: The Smoking Gunns (5/26/96)

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

• Non-title match: WWF Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
  

Ahmed controls to start as HHH can’t do anything to the man. He finally misses a charge and flies out to the floor. Helmsley delivers a baseball slide and tosses him into the steps. He comes back inside with a flying double sledge to Ahmed’s back. On the split-screen, we meet up with Goldust and Marlena. “I’ll be back.” The Terminator, 1984. He calls Ahmed ‘Mandingo’ again. He then vows to pour dirt on the Undertaker’s poor, pathetic soul. Alright, let’s take a commercial break. When we return, Ahmed bearhugs HHH and then tosses him around. Spinebuster connects, but HHH avoids the PRP. Helmsley continues with his slow, boring offense until thankfully Ahmed nails him with the PEARL RIVER PLUNGE to end the match. (10:25 shown) Way too long. Ahmed should have been hot and ready to take out whoever he faced tonight after his IC title win. I’m being real kind here with this rating, because I do like Ahmed for whatever reason. *½

Dok Hendrix interviews Ahmed Johnson and bills him as the first-ever African American IC champion. Lawler calls him the “Buster Douglas of the WWF”. First Ahmed calls Dok “Mike”, and then says he’s the first African American champion of the world. People will cheer anything, I tell ya. He tries to declare himself as the champion of the people. Dok asks him about a return match with Goldust. Ahmed says he’s not too hard to find. On the other hand, he’s not too easy to understand.

KOTR PPV replay ad airs.

• The Bodydonnas (w/Kloudy) vs. The Brooklyn Brawler & Jerry Fox
  

The lovely Sunny joins Vince and King obviously to make snide comments about her replacement in the Bodydonnas. Kloudy resembles Santino Marella if he were trying to be Sunny for Halloween. Vince announces that the Bodydonnas will face the Smoking Gunns at In Your House, but it will be non-title. Skip hits a Super Frankensteiner on Fox and Zip finishes him with the Whoopie Cushion at 3:57.

• Vader, Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith (w/Jim Cornette & Diana Hart-Smith) vs. Savio Vega, Aldo Montoya & Barry Horowitz
  

Jim Cornette joins Vince and King for this one. The main event for “International Incident” is mentioned: Vader, Owen, and Bulldog taking on HBK, Ahmed, and the ULLLLLTIMATE WOYAH. Really a fun squash match as the enhancement side gets in some well-timed offense. Vader avalanches, Bulldog RUNNING POWERSLAMS, and Owen applies the SHARPSHOOTER on Montoya for the win at 4:20.

Brian Pillman appears on crutches as we take a quick break. They air what comes off like a Ultimate Warrior PSA showing a guy working out who come to find out needs a wheel chair to get around. Unleash the Warrior inside you! When we return, Pillman shows what a “loose cannon” he is by cursing on-air confronting Vince about getting his paycheck. Once he leaves, Vince apologizes for what Pillman said on PPV last night.

• The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Steve Austin
  

Finally Steve Austin is announced as the winner of the King of the Ring. Lawler tries to stir the pot by confronting Paul Bearer about costing his Undertaker the match last night by hitting him “by accident” with the urn. Match doesn’t seem to be really heading anywhere. During some commercials, Taker fought off an attack with a chair. Austin works the leg for a bit as Goldust and Marlena join us for commentary. More commercials. When we come back, Taker misses the Jumping Lariat, but Austin misses the Bossman straddle. Taker hits the Chokeslam, but then Goldust gets up and throws the gold dust in his face for the DQ. (9:47 shown) Taker has to fight off Austin some more before he can celebrate with Paul Bearer. Paul Bearer seems very unsure of what Taker is going to do. As Taker kneels in front of the urn as he always does, Paul is certainly relieved. Once more, Lawler tries to get a word from the Undertaker who drops off the apron before he takes a soupbone to the jaw. Real bland match. I don’t even think my copy that had satellite issues was part of the problem either. **

NEXT WEEK: WWF champ Shawn Michaels battles his former partner Marty Jannetty! Mankind will be in action! Plus, Goldust takes on Marc Mero!