Monday Night Raw
July 15, 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)

Earlier tonight, Camp Cornette were waiting for Shawn Michaels, Jose Lothario, and Ahmed Johnson as they arrived at the building. No Psycho Sid!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson vs. Bart Gunn (w/Sunny)
  

It’s a different kind of test of strength to start. Bart tricks Ahmed into a handshake and clotheslines him down. He works the arm and shoulder while Shawn nervously watches from the back. Lots of arm stuff. Sunny helps out with some leverage. Bart delivers a few bulldogs, but can’t finish off the big guy. Ahmed crotches Bart and shoulderblocks him to the floor. Back inside, the Spinebuster leads to the PEARL RIVER PLUNGE to help Ahmed retain. (11:26 shown) Crowd could not care less as you never felt like Bart was ever going to actually win the IC title. Plus, we’re at the end of a taping loop, so I’m sure the crowd is tired. *½

In the back, Shawn Michaels tells us that spreading yourself thin is part of being the WWF champion. He’s got to worry about Billy Gunn tonight, Sunny and Bart, Camp Cornette, and then he’s got the big six-man tag this Sunday. As to whether or not he can trust Sid, Shawn believes in Sid and says there’s a relationship there that nobody knows about.

Over on the WWF Superstar Line on Option 6, an unidentified source has revealed plans to destroy Shawn Michaels’ confidence at International Incident. Call 1-900-737-4WWF and find out who it is!

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Sudden Death” Slam of the Week: Ahmed Johnson delivering the Pearl River Plunge to Bart Gunn just moments ago.

• Marc Mero (w/Sable) vs. TL Hopper
  

This is the Raw debut for the “Dirty White Boy” Tony Anthony of SMW fame. TL Hopper is a wrestling plumber. He beat the wrestling trash man Duke “The Dumpster” Droese on Superstars this past weekend to become ‘the best wrestler who has a terrible blue collar job’. His thing is that he sticks a plunger on your mouth after he beats you. Goldust’s movie usher delivers a present to Sable. She doesn’t even open it and leaves it on the ground. This is a more boring than usual match. Lots of punches and kicks from Hopper. They have to bring Steve Austin in on the split-screen to keep us entertained. Mero gets a weak comeback and delivers the Kiss That Don’t Miss for the win. (9:12 shown) Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit are wrestling right now on the other show. What do you think more people are watching? ½*

In the back, Jim Cornette cuts a promo telling us they have no intention of interfering in Shawn’s WWF title match tonight. He then hypes up his camp. Vader is the first man to pin Ahmed Johnson, Davey Boy Smith has given Shawn Michaels a run for his money and nearly took his WWF title on two separate occasions, Owen Hart put the WWF champion on the shelf for several months last year, and they have a plan for Sid as well. They don’t seem like a team to mess with to me. Typically awesome promo from one of the Mount Rushmore heads of managing.

Undertaker music video. You know it best as a “TitanTron” video.

• WWF World Champion Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario) vs. Billy Gunn (w/Sunny)
  

Billy softens up Shawn with a pair of shoulderblocks, but then gets pitched out to the floor. Ahmed jibber jabbers something on a split-screen. Sunny hops up on the apron and gives Shawn an ear full, so of course he kisses her. He ducks a slap and kisses her again. Looks like somebody is having a “sunny day”. Shawn gets on a roll and Billy avoids Sweet Chin Music. He gets caught coming off the top and hit with the Rocker Dropper for two. Shawn rallies back and posts Billy’s nuts before nailing him with a slingshot clothesline. He goes up again, but Billy slams him off and clotheslines Shawn to the floor to take us into commercial. When we return, Shawn is stuck in a chinlock. Shawn fights out, but Gunn punches him down and gives him a hard corner whip. Billy abuses Shawn in the tree of woe while Sunny and Jerry have an early celebration. On the split-screen, we see Cornette saying his goodbyes to his camp. Another commercial break. When we come back, we get the VINTAGE HBK comeback ending with SWEET CHIN MUSIC to retain. (11:56 shown) Tonight, Sunny doesn’t get what she wants. To be honest, neither one of the Gunns are very interesting – especially in singles matches. **

Backstage, Jim Cornette leads Shawn and Ahmed into an ambush by Camp Cornette outside the building. All of a sudden, PSYCHO SID drives up running over trash cans to scare away Cornette and his boys as they screech out and get the heck out of Dodge. You know Sid, Randy Savage would have jumped on the hood to get at those boys because that’s what a babyface does. Just saying.

NEXT WEEK: Nothing mentioned. PPV is this Sunday! New set of tapings!