Monday Night Raw
July 4, 1994
White Plains, NY
Westchester County Civic Center

The current WWF champs were as follows:
World Champion: Bret Hart (3/20/1994)
Intercontinental Champion: Diesel (4/30/1994)
World Tag Team Champions: The Headshrinkers (5/2/1994)

It’s America’s birthday again! Hotdogs and hamburgers are running wild! Wait, and Lex Luger is not on the show? He must not love America as much this year.

Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage.

• Tatanka vs. Jeff Jarrett
  

What better way to celebrate Independence Day but with a showdown between a Native American and a guy who thinks he’s a country music singer? This one is mostly headlocks. When they get off the mat, Jarrett sidesteps a charge and tosses Tatanka to the floor. He gets in the habit of dropping double axe handles off the apron on Tatanka, but the third one gets him a punch in the gut. Jarrett still manages to shove Tatanka into the ringpost to win via countout at 6:14.

Jarrett gets back in the ring and says unlike the Macho Man, he refuses to take a countout victory. Restart the match! So the match continues during the commercial break. They have changed from headlocks to chinlocks. Eventually, Tatanka starts up his WAR DANCE and chops away on Jarrett. DDT gets two. Flying Head Chop connects, but Jarrett gets his foot on the bottom rope. When Jarrett decides to walk out on the match, Dink appears and sprays JJ with his flower lapel. WHY YOU LITTLE! Doink cuts through the curtain and chases Jarrett back into the ring with a bucket of water, I think. During all the confusion, Tatanka rolls up Jarrett for the win. (13:40 shown) Disappointing match. Just going through the motions. *½

Well, it’s time for another edition of the King’s Court. Lawler’s guest is the 1-2-3 Kid. Lawler gives the Kid some advice and tells him to not care what all these “imbecilic idiots” think because that will get you nowhere in life. He’s also rooting for the Kid because of how much he *hates* Bret Hart. Kid puts over Bret as the greatest wrestler in the world today. He’s part of the Kliq, but he’s not part of the Kliq at the same time. Lawler says that Kid has the wrong attitude if he wants to beat Bret next week. Kid plans to give it 110% like always and just hopes that Bret makes a mistake. Since King will be cheering for him, he wants Kid to win the WWF title for him. Kid says he’s only winning the WWF title for himself and for the people. What a ham!

• Jim Neidhart (w/Owen Hart) vs. Gary Scott
  

Total annihilation squash here. Savage worries for Owen’s psychological well-being. Coming from him, that’s a scary thought. Neidhart destroys Scott with a Running Powerslam in 4:00. Sign of things to come, or that Neidhart doesn’t have a wide selection of moves to choose from?

• Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs. Iron Mike Sharpe
  

Sharpe proves to be a little more competition than the enhancement guy in the previous match. Dusty Rhodes elbow drop wins in 4:00.

We cut to Ted DiBiase who is in a very dark room: “Coming up next, *my* Undertaker!”

• The Undertaker (w/Ted DiBiase) vs. Mike Bell
  

Brian Lee did as good a job of imitating the Undertaker as possible. Monsoon and Savage wonder where Paul Bearer is, who was supposed to be here. Standard UT squash as Bell is finished with a TOMBSTONE at 4:00.

Ah, here’s Paul Bearer. While DiBiase prepares the body bag for Bell, Bearer appears in the aisle trying to catch Undertaker in a trance to come back to him. DiBiase fails at first to get Taker’s attention with a handful of hundreds, but TWO handfuls of hundreds brings the Undertaker back under his spell. There’s got to be some social commentary there that’s better suited for a different blog. Paul Bearer walks away shaking his head and leaves empty handed. He’s got to know at this point that’s not *his* Undertaker. Right? I’m just trying to play along here.

After a break, Jerry Lawler stops Ted DiBiase backstage and asks him to be on his King’s Court next week. DiBiase doesn’t want to be out in the ring around all those humanoids, so Lawler suggests that DiBiase picks the place to hold King’s Court. That’s fine with DiBiase.

NEXT WEEK: Bret Hart vs. The 1-2-3 Kid – for the WWF title!