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Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Monday Night Wars from a fans perspective - WWE week of 5/27/1996

This is my continued look into the most profitable era in wrestling history for an extensive breakdown of what I am doing click here.

RAW: We open up with Goldust in the ring as we get ready for a first round match in the King of the Ring tournament. The Ultimate Warrior enters to a huge pop from the crowd and we are treated to a really fun back and forth match until Goldust decides he has had enough and tries to leave. His exit is thwarted by Ahmed Johnson who throws Goldust over his shoulder and carries him back to the ring. Shortly after Warrior begins to “Hulk up” and Goldust calls it quits while being chased to the back by Warrior. Both men are counted out and neither man advances in the tournament. Jerry Lawler inexplicably leaves his announce position and grabs Marlena’s directors chair that was broken earlier on during the match and gets chased to the back by Warrior. 3 stars

We come back for an interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Ted Dibiase. The pay per view the night before was disrupted by a storm that cut the power so three matches will take place on Tuesday night in a special broadcast. One of those matches is a Caribbean strap match. Dibiase is so confident that Austin will beat Savio Vega that he puts his career on the line and vows to leave the WWF if Vega wins. Dibase continues to be polarizing and an incredible promo man. The look on Austins face through the second half of this promo is priceless. 4 stars

Smoking Gunns accompanied by Sunny vs the Body Donnas is next up. Hillbilly Jim joins the commentary and we are treated to a phenomenal match until Phineas Godwinn comes to ringside to talk to Sunny. Henry Godwin and Hillbilly Jim confront Phineas and bring him to the back while the gunns get an impressive victory when Bart Gunn reverses a top rope cross body for the win. The match itself was really good, but the lack of focus by the announce team and outside shenanigans really brought this down. the match 4 stars overall 2.5 stars.

We get a recap of last nights title match between Davey Boy Smith and Shawn Michaels and due to a controversial ending we will get the rematch at the King Of The Ring.

Cut to the final match of the night and we are treated to Ahmed Johnson vs Vader in a King Of the Ring first round match with Owen Hart doing guest commentary. Ahmed opens the contest really taking the fight to Vader until Jim Cornette hits Ahmed with the tennis racket. Ahmed chases Cornette to the back and we go to commercial. We come back with Vader in control and setting up for a Vader Bomb. Vader climbs up to the top rope and delivers a very impressive 400+ pound moonsault that misses. More shenanigans by Jim Cornette result in a pinfall victory by Vader after Own Hart knocks out Johnson with a hit from his cast. 3.5 stars

When we come back from commercial break we see Johnson getting wheeled out on a stretcher only to be stopped by Goldust who administers mouth to mouth resuscitation. Magically the lifeless Johnson is brought back to life and after he realizes what had happened he starts throwing furniture. He then remembers he is hurt with a concussion and staggers down the stairs until he meets Bob Holly. After choking Holly he confronts Mark Mero then trucks a security guard and takes out a cameraman. 2 stars

The in ring product was good if you could get around all the other nonsense. Jerry Lawler delivered a great heel performance and Billy Gunn looked like a superstar on the rise. Goldust had amazing character development and all in all the show was good. The commercial break and the cluster $@%! 0f characters in and out of every match hurt the finished product but all in all I was entertained. 3 stars

Beware of Dog 2: Since a storm knocked out the power during Sunday nights Pay per View we are treated to a special encore presentation of the three blacked out matches. Jim Ross and "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig are announcing.

Caribbean Strap Match - Savio Vega vs Stone Cold Steve Austin with Ted Dibiase's stipulation that if Austin loses Dibiase leaves the WWF.  Austin rolls outside and Vega uses the rope to pull Austin into the ring apron. Back and forth with very little wrestling moves. Savio spent the majority of the match wearing out Austin with the straps both inside and outside the ring. The best part of the match took place after Austin dumps Savio over the top rope and goes to the corner. He gets pulled of the top turnbuckle and into the guardrail. A weird spot at the end where the uninterrupted touching of the turnbuckles goes out the door All in all Austin took a hell of a beating and Savio ended up winning this match. Austin walks out on his manager and leaves Dibiase in the middle of the ring for Savio Vega to taunt 2.5 stars only because Austin made an interesting decision to just walk out on his manager and not stick around for the goodbye to Dibiase.

Vader vs Yokozuna is next in the special broadcast. Over 1100 pounds of massive humanity in this one with some great heel work by Vader to begin the match. He spent the opening avoiding Yoko and teasing the crowd by faking a massive sumo style crash in the middle of the ring. As usual Jim Cornette gets involved and Vader eventually saves him from a banzai drop. After some work on the leg Vader hits the Vader Bomb for the win. 2.5 stars

Goldust vs The Undertaker in a casket match for the intercontinental title was next up to close the show. They gave us a punch and kick fest with a couple of moves thrown in for good measure. Two incredibly athletic big man and I was hoping for a little bit more out of them. Goldust put the Undertaker to sleep and rolled him to the casket only to have taker stop him from closing the casket. The casket lid gets torn off the top in the melee and the two go back to the fight. A couple minutes later and Goldust is hit with the tombstone. Taker goes to open the casket lid to find Mankind inside. Mandible claw knocks out taker and Mankind closes the lid. Goldust wins the match and retains his title. 2.5 stars

After the match smoke starts pouring out of the casket as mankind locks the lid. He leaves and they finally get the casket open to reveal that the Undertaker is gone. 4 stars

WWE had a good week with two shows to start off this journey the TV presentation and entertainment factor was through the roof even though they took away from a couple of very good matches with hi-jinks galore. A few things felt like there was just too much going on and was hard to follow but all in all I will give the WWE a solid 3.5 stars for the week.


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