July 1994 Week 3: Monday Night Raw & Superstars

Week 3 July, 1994
Richmond Coliseum--Richmond, VA (Mid Atlantic region)

12, 907 fans in attendance

Dark:  IRS & Nikolai Volkoff defeat Men on a Mission

Dark: Todd Pettengill peddles merchandise (66)

Dark: The Powers of Pain w/ Luna defeat The Rock n’ Roll Express (62)

Dark: Johnny Polo defeats Jacques Rougeau after Pierre interferes (55)

Dark: Tony Chimel counts down until we go live... (30)

Raw opening video package featuring The Superstars of the WWF: Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Diesel, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Shawn Michaels (78)

Jim Ross and Randy Savage, tonight’s commentary team, discuss tonight’s Main Event: Bret Hart will face the big, intimidating Bam Bam Bigelow and the WWF Championship will be on the line! Also,by order of “interim president” Gorilla Monsoon, Monday Night Raw has been extended by 30 minutes, starting next week on the USA Network!  (75)

Lex Luger comes out and grabs a mic. He wants Owen Hart, and he wants Owen Hart now! Owen comes out with the Anvil and says that the only way he will get in the ring with Luger is if Luger puts his no. 1 contendership for next week on the line. Gorilla Monsoon comes out. He asks Luger what Luger wants to do. Lex says he will do it. Gorilla announces next week that Luger will meet Owen Hart for the no.1 contendership and will face either Bam Bam Bigelow or Bret Hart--depending on how tonight’s title match goes… (69)

Razor Ramon, the clear favorite and superstar defeats veteran jobber “Iron” Mike Sharpe in a short match, quality match designed for Razor to shine. (64)

Vince McMahon is in the ring with Mr. Fuji and the giant,Yokozuna. Fuji begins to recap Yokozuna's list of impressive victories, including wins over The Undertaker, Bret Hart and Lex Luger. Fuji insists that it should be Yokozuna competing for the WWF Championship. Yokozuna can defeat anyone in the WWF. In response, the arena speakers begin playing the music of the ultimate underdog, the 123 Kid...(70)

123 Kid immediately brings all of his energy and heart against the much bigger Yokozuna. After a series of quick punches and kicks, the big man is wheeling much to the surprise of commentators, Jim Ross and Randy Savage. The kid comes off the ropes with a high-cross body which seems will finally knock the big man down. Yokozuna counters by catching The Kid and putting him down with a giant slam! The Kid is obviously winded and hurting. He's clearly outmatched and undersized in comparison to the former WWF Champion. Eventually the Kid slides to the floor to try and get his breath. After a few moments of taunting in the ring, Yokozuna comes to floor and begins stalking the much smaller Kid. Yokozuna is clearly in no rush at all and slowly walks behind the scrappy underdog as the Kid crawls along the ground, ringside. Yokozuna finally picks the youngster up and reaches back for a giant overhead chop, but the ever quick 123 Kid ducks and darts behind the big man. Yokozuna spins his giant girth around to catch the The Kid but is too late as he's counted out! The 123 Kid shocks the world again by gaining a count-out victory of the mammoth Yokozuna! (63)

A video vignette highlighting Jeff Jarrett plays. In the video, Double J shows some of favorite concert venues in Nashville, TN where he claims he brought down the house as "the greatest country singer of all time!" Being the greatest wrestler in the WWF is only a natural career choice. After the video plays, we cut to the commentary table where The Macho Man can't help but comment on the video he just saw: "You know something Jim Ross, I'm not saying that this guy isn't a good wrestler...but his attitude really rubs me the wrong way. Yeah. I think someone needs to shut this guy up! Yeah."(73)

The Main Event: Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (with Ted DiBiase in his corner) face off the WWF Championship. The match is pretty open, with neither man gaining a clear advantage in the early minutes.

Eventually, the bigger, more menacing challenger, Bigelow, begins overpowering the Hitman. He whips Hart from corner to corner punishing the back but can get nothing more than a 2 count on the fighting champion.

After a fallaway slam and bit of taunting of the Richmond faithful, Bam Bam looks to drop one of his signature headbutts on the downed champion.

But Hart must have been playing possum because he rolls out of the way and gets the opening he needs to take over the match. After a punishing bulldog, The Excellence of Execution begins targeting the lower back and legs of the large Bigelow, clearly setting up for the Sharpshooter.

It's almost textbook from there. After 20 minutes of quality action, the Hitman gets Bam Bam Bigelow to submit in the Sharpshooter and Bret Hart retains the WWF Championship. (84)

Raw goes off the air with Bret Hart celebrating his win in the ring and posing for the fans as Jim Ross and The Macho Man wonder if it will be Owen Hart or Lex Luger stepping up to challenge the Hitman next... (76)

Overall Show Rating: 78  

TV Ratings: 5.71 USA; .94 Sky; .12 RTL

***

Spartanburg Auditorium--Spartanburg, SC (Mid- Atlantic Region)

3,831 fans in attendance

Dark:Headshrinkers defeat Reno Riggins & Tony Devito (46)

Dark: Pierre defeated PJ Walker (42)

Dark: The Heavenly Bodies defeated Koko B Ware and Duke Droese (53)

Dark: Bob Backlund defeated Kwang (61)

Superstars Open Video shows featuring WWF Superstars: Bret Hart, Owen Hart, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Randy Savage, and Diesel (76)

Jim Ross and Jim Cornette welcome fans and announce tonight's main event: Shawn Michaels and Diesel vs. The Smoking Gunns and hype next week's Raw's Main Event: Lex Luger vs. Owen Hart with the number one contendership to the WWF Title at stake...(72)

Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart defeats “Sparky Plugg” Holly (62)

The King’s Court features Harvey Wippleman and Kwang who promo on Adam Bomb (62)

Crush defeats Virgil (54)

Vince McMahon interviews Paul Bearer. Bearer says DiBiase is parading around an impostor and "the real" Undertaker will be returning soon…(56)

The IRS defeats Barry Horowitz (52)

Replay of events between Diesel, HBK, Razor Ramon and Tatanka (79)

HBK and Diesel defeat The Smoking Gunns (72)

Overall Show Rating: 70 

.33 Rating US Medium Syndication