WWF Monday Night RAW – August 15th, 1994

August 15, 1994

From the Lowell Auditorium in Lowell, MA

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and “Macho Man” Randy Savage

We are shown highlights from last week’s confrontations between Lex Luger and Tatanka.

Tonight, we will have Ted DiBiase and Paul Bearer as guests on the King’s Court plus Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid.

“King of Harts” Owen Hart w/ Jim Neidhart vs. 1-2-3 Kid

Kid immediately attacks Hart and then starts working the arm as Savage notes Kid almost defeated Bret Hart for the World Title last month on RAW. Owen now works the arm but Kid fights back and lands a kick for a two count. Kid now works a side headlock that Owen eventually escapes from then takes Kid down with a headbutt. Owen catches Kid with an enziguiri for a two count then applies a chin lock. We then end in a standoff after a reversal sequence but Owen brags and gets dropkicked. Owen bails and Kid takes both Owen & Neidhart down with a baseball slide before using a springboard plancha. Kid then boots Neidhart off of the apron as we head to break. The match returns with Owen reversing a suplex from the apron and sending Kid outside. Owen then smashes Kid’s head off of the apron and follows that up with a pescado. Owen picks up Kid and rams him into the post before taking the action back into the ring. Owen whips Kid into the turnbuckle then soon after that uses a flying elbow drop for a nearfall. The crowd gets behind Kid as Owen uses a back drop for a two count. Kid now takes Owen down with a sunset flip that gets two but Owen goes back on the attack. Owen now uses a rear chin lock then after that uses a neckbreaker, which Vince calls a “backbreaker.” Owen now climbs up top but misses a knee drop as both men are down. Owen grabs his knee and Kid targets it and locks on a single leg crab. Neidhart runs in and attacks Kid as Vince screams about it being a blatant disqualification then after about 15 seconds the ref finally rings the bell as Kid wins via DQ (9:58) ***1/4. However, after the match both men attack Kid with Owen locking on the Sharpshooter and Neidhart stomping then holding Kid down. Owen & Neidhart finally stop as Owen slowly climbs the ropes to celebrate and gets booed as Vince wonders if Owen can defeat Bret again and this time become the next champion.

Thoughts: Good match but really designed more to give Owen some heat heading into SummerSlam than anything else. At least Kid was protected in defeat. It was also reported by Wade Keller in the “Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter” that Kid was injured in a match at the Sunday Night Slam taping that took place a week prior when he landed hard on his head and hurt his neck. Kid did not appear to be visibly injured here but they might have slowed the match a little bit as a result.

SummerSlam Report with Todd Pettengill.

We are back from break and see Abe “Knuckleball” Schwartz holding up an “I’m on Strike” sign in the crowd. We then see a clip from earlier tonight with Schwartz in the ring telling us you cannot blame the owners for the strike because they are being good businessman for taking tax money to build stadiums or players for charging money for autographs because they are also good businessman so you have to blame the fans for the strike. Good lord this was awful. This was a WWE attempt to mock the MLB strike.

Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs. Nick Barberri

Barberri takes some shots at Droese but gets caught in a powerslam. Droese now uses a chin lock as Vince says Droese is looking for tough competition as Savage says Jerry Lawler is looking on while Vince plugs the King’s Court later on tonight. Barberri lands a few more punches but Droese comes back with a clothesline and a slam. Droese then yells about it being time to trash and puts Barberri away with a corkscrew elbow drop (1:27).

Thoughts: They are downplaying the Droese/Lawler hype now with Vince saying Droese is looking for competition.

The Leslie Nielsen segment from this past weekend’s “Superstars” airs.

Ted DiBiase is now on commentary and says that Nielsen “couldn’t find the cake at a birthday party” and claims he’ll tell us the truth about The Undertaker later tonight. I liked that line from DiBiase.

Vince plugs the SummerSlam Hotline.

Kwang w/ Harvey Whippleman vs. Tony Roy

DiBiase tells us he will be in Lex Luger’s corner in the match against Crush on “Sunday Night Slam” as Kwang beats Roy down. Savage does not believe DiBiase then Kwang puts Roy away with a spinning heel kick (0:46).

Thoughts: This match was just a backdrop for DiBiase to talk about Luger as DiBiase continues to state that Luger is part of his corporation.

King’s Court starts off with DiBiase in the ring. Lawler calls Vince & Savage the two “airbags” of the WWF before reminding us how DiBiase originally brought Undertaker back into the WWF. DiBiase tells us he has brought us the real Undertaker while we’ve seen nothing from Paul Bearer. Lawler then brings Bearer to the ring and wants to hear him talk. Bearer tells DiBiase his Undertaker will destroy DiBiase’s Undertaker at SummerSlam. DiBiase then tells Bearer to tell his message to Undertaker himself before bringing out his Undertaker to the ring. Bearer tells Undertaker he sees the evil in his eyes but at SummerSlam his eyes will be closed forever because his own Undertaker, the true Undertaker, will destroy him. DiBiase then tells his Undertaker what Bearer just said and wants him to show Bearer what will happen at SummerSlam. Undertaker grabs Bearer by the neck and brings him to his knees but then the lights start to flicker and we hear the gong. The lights are now out then we see Bearer outside of the ring scream that his Undertaker is here and can feel him while the lights slowly return. Much like the entire feud, this segment was a huge flop. At this point even the most dense fan out there could see the actual Undertaker would be returning and what DiBiase has is an imposter. Not even a celebrity angle can save this as its already out of steam.

Mabel w/ Oscar vs. Raymond Roy

Vince cackles like a moron over Savage’s joke about being afraid of the dark then yells “oh yeahhhhhh” during Oscar’s rap. Mabel backs Roy into the corner then lands a chop. Mabel comes back with a clothesline then uses the Curt Hennig neck snap. Mabel clobbers away then catches Roy with a big boot. Mabel now catches Roy with a back elbow smash and follows with a slam as Vince asks Savage about the King’s Court segment. Mabel stays in control and hits an avalanche and a short-arm clothesline before using a middle rope elbow drop for the win (2:32).

Thoughts: The announcers sold the previous segment. Mabel did some things for his size but was really slow between moves here. His match against Jarrett at SummerSlam was pushed a bit on commentary.

We get an ad for Sunday Night Slam that hypes the Lex Luger vs. Crush match. Vince also plugs Diesel vs. Typhoon and a 30 minute live call-in segment with Lawler and himself.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Scott Taylor

Before the match, Jarrett tells the fans they want to hear country music and his singing. Jarrett attacks Taylor then taunts the fans. Taylor slides underneath and uses a sunset flip for two but Jarrett immediately goes back on offense. Jarrett stays in control until Taylor surprises him with a small package for a two count. Taylor then fires away in the corner but whiffs on a crossbody attempt and Jarrett softens up the leg before the figure-four gets the win (1:54). However, after the match, Jarrett’s music gets cut off as Oscar raps Mabel out to the ring. Jarrett mocks Mabel for being a chicken while Oscar raps about Mabel beating Jarrett at SummerSlam.

Thoughts: A segment to further push the Jarrett/Mabel match at SummerSlam with the rap vs. country theme as the basis for this happening.

Vince plugs Sunday Night Slam before the show ends which will also feature Heidi Lee Morgan vs. Bull Nakano and an interview with Bret Hart.

Final Thoughts: Kid/Owen was a good match but the Undertaker angle segment sucked and the rest of the show was pushing midcard matches at the PPV, which is now exactly two weeks away.