We open Raw with a recap of Superstars from Halloween of 1993 where Ludvig Borga and Yokozuna managed to take out Tatanka. Tonight, Tatanka gets his chance at revenge against the hellraiser from Helsinki. We cut to a rather awful Tatanka promo where he very stiffly says he'll defeat Borga.
It's a special Holiday Edition of Raw, with Vince and his guest co-host of the evening, The "Real Intercontinental Champion" The "Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. Owen Hart is in action tonight along with Men on a Mission and Adam Bomb, as well as the debut of Jeff Jarrett.
Or next week if the card they used is to be believed.
No, in fact is is this week, and it's the first match of the night. Jarrett's attire is strange indeed. An all white number with multple straps above the waist. Even Vince is confused as he thought Jarrett would dress more like a country music star and less like... whatever the hell that is. Jeff grabs the mic and cuts the same promo he's been putting for the last few months.
PJ Walker is the opponent for the week as Texan Shawn Michaels says he can relate with Jarrett in terms of the corruption in the country music industry. Lots of strutting by Jarrett early on as VInce hypes the Royal Rumble next month. Headlock by Jarrett and a shoulder block, but he gets hiptossed by Walker. Jarrett dodges an arm drag and lays in a clothesline to the back of the head. Some vicious stomps and a big dropkick.
As Jarrett hits a clothesline and poses, Vince brings up that Lex Luger has still been denied entry into the Royal Rumble due to being denied another shot at the WWF title due to his Summerslam blunder. Some strikes by Jarrett and a ram into the buckle. Jarrett lands a nice vertical suplex, followed by a body slam. He misses a fist drop off the rope. Jarrett kicks Walker off a whip and lands a DDT for three in a rather dull debut to be honest. For two months of build, we're really not starting off too strong.
It's this week's edition of "HEY KIDS! GIVE VINCE A DOLLAR!" as we have the phone poll up for this week asking if Jack Tunney should allow Luger into the Royal Rumble? My opinion is no he shouldn't. He had his chance, tried to cheat to win, and couldn't be assed to try and actually bring Yokozuna in for the pinfall. It's his bed, he lays in it.
It's the Merry Men on a Mission in action, as the sound is so bad you can barely hear what Oscar is saying. Pretty much just rapping about Christmas. Meh, Run DMC did it better. It's Barry Hardy and Duane Gill this week as the opposition. Mo starts with arm wringers and a drop toe hold to Gill. Gill whips Mo in the corner, but misses the charge. Mabel gets the tag as Mo lands a arm drag and a leg drop to the arm by big Mabel.
We get a random reference about an Argentinian pig eater who died as Mabel counters a double team attempt, and hits a double bulldog to Hardy and Gill. Mabel stacks up both men and slams them both. Clothesline to Hardy as he tags in Mo. Double elbows by M.O.M connect. More wringers by Mo for at least a minute plus. Powerslam only gets a two by Mo. Mo gets rid of Gill and tags in Mabel who goes to the second rope and lands a splash for three. Not a bad tag match, but Mabel definitely is a better worker than Mo, who is pretty dull.
We abruptly cut the celebratory rap to got to Todd Pettingill for the Royal Rumble Report. The main event is a casket match for the WWF Championship between champion Yokozuna and the Undertaker. Also announced is Razor Ramon vs I.R.S for the Intercontinental title. As for the rumble match itself, the entrants announced so far are Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Mabel, Crush, Kamala (Which is random as he was pretty much done this past summer), Doink, and Scott Steiner.
We cut to a promo with Ludvig Borga who says last time he put Tatanka in the hospital, and this time he's going to keep him there. Which means it's time for our match between Tatanka and Borga, which Michaels makes a reference to Shannen Doherty being fired from 90210.
Tatanka comes in full of fire. He lays in some strikes on Borga and brings him into the corner for some more punches. A tomahawk chop sends Borga out of the ring where he continues the chops until he rams Borga into the ring post. He brings him back in for another chop and a big body slam, followed by a big elbow. Instead of pinning Borga, he goes up top and lands a sloppy cross body for a two count. More chops and strikes, but a whip goes Borga's favor as he avalanches Tatanka.
Borga lays in the body blows. Tatanka tries to fight out of the corner, but get gets more lefts and rights. Whip to the buckle as Borga gets a splash in the corner. Tatanka no sells it and continues to hit chops. Borga hits a light power slam for two. Borga hits a body slam and as always, misses the elbow drop. More clotheslines by Tatanka until he manages to take down Borga.
Yokozuna comes down to ringside which begins to distract Tatanka. He still manages a powerslam. He ascends the rope, but gets hit with the flag by Mr. Fuji. Yoko comes in and tries to attack, but Tatanka lays in more chops and strikes. He almost gets Yoko down, but Borga gets in a shot from behind. Lex Luger runs in for the save and gets rid of Borga. He turns his attention to Yoko as he hits the forearm and a body slam to get rid of the WWF champion.
This was an okay match for what it was. It was supposed to be more a brawl than a technical affair, and for a month and a half of buildup, it did its job. I still can't stand Tatanka, but this was definitely one of his better outings so far.
Captain Lou wanders to ringside again as we enter our next matchup.
Adam Bomb is up next against Mark Thomas. Nothing new added to the bomb gimmick this week, but Adam confronts Albano as he's still just roaming around. Headlock by Bell gets turned into a shoulder block. He tears into the face of Thomas for a bit, as Vince posits that Mark's purple singlet must mean he's a fan of Barney the Dinosaur. Now come on Vince. Clearly he's a fan of Grimace. Clothesline, back suplex, and Atom Smasher gets the win in a quick match.
Holy crap, It's friggin' Hardcore Holly. We're finally entering the upcoming debut for stock car racer Thurman "Sparky" Plugg. Now where a lot of these gimmicks were based on nothing, Bob Holly actually did do some racing in the past. "Sparky" is coming to the WWF to put the pedal to the metal. I'm already more excited to see Sparky Plugg than I am for Jeff Jarrett.
We recap the Hart situation last week with Owen's challenge to Bret. Bret of course declines the offer. This leads to our next match with Owen Hart taking on Mike Bell. Owen tries to escape an arm lock, but Bell keeps it applied. Owen turns it into a headscissor and turns around the work on the arm.
Owen gets in an arm drag and a nice vertical suplex. This is followed by an elbow drop similar to that of Bret. Owen follows up with a gutwrench suplex and an uppercut. Bell gets a clothesline in the corner and a knee to the gut, followed by an elbow for 1. Another snap suplex whiile Vince shills the movie Wild Card. Big belly to belly suplex and a sharpshooter get the win for Owen in a decent little squash match for Owen Hart.
We're taken to the workshop of the Undertaker as he's working on the "double deep, double wide" casket for Yokozuna. We even get to see the casket for Kamala. Paul Bearer and the Undertaker promise that inside the casket will be the inscription of "Rest in Peace".
Our final match of the night is the Headshrinkers taking on Phil Apollo and Jerry Seavey. Samu starts and attacks both men, tossing Apollo over the top rope. Gutwrench suplex on Seavey and a tag to Fatu. Double clothesline and a series of hard body slams. Vince talks about the marriage of Donald and Marla Trump. Tag to Samu who takes down Seavey some more and gets a bite to the face of Seavey. He takes down Apollo and gets a spin kick. He rams Seavey into the hard head of Fatu and rips the shirt off Seavey, hittilng a rough powerbomb right after. Tag to Fatu as both men hit a double facebuster and a splash from Fatu to get the three in a good dominant squash match.
We end Raw with shilling the finals of the women's title tournament, along with Razor Ramon, and Lex Luger in action. And the big match next week being Marty Janetty against Johnny Polo.
A better Raw than last week's, but not by too much. The Tatanka/Borga match was good, as was the Headshrinkers and Owen squashes. I even thought Shawn Michaels did well enough on commentary. However, that's the best I can do for praise as the rest of the show was kinda bland, especially Jeff Jarrett's Raw debut. So this Raw gets a C.