WWF Monday Night Raw Results
February 19, 1996
Cincinnati, Ohio (Cincinnati Gardens)
Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler
Results by: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
“The World Wrestling Federation: for over fifty years, the revolutionary force in sports entertainment.” The WWF video leads us into the show.
Video: Sunny is on the beach in a tiny black bikini. She warns that tonight’s show will have content that’s too extreme for some. Viewer discretion is advised.
Mike’s Thoughts: With these vignettes happening nearly every week, you can quickly see why Sunny will become one of the most recognizable personalities for the WWF throughout 1996. They’re clearly positioning her as a sex symbol, and at the time, it works. She’s charismatic, confident on camera, and understands how to give the presentation the company wants from her.
Watching this with hindsight, though, it’s hard not to feel a sense of sadness. Sunny’s later life would unravel in very public and tragic ways, including actions that caused real harm and took a life. There’s no excusing that. But it’s also impossible to ignore how much trauma, manipulation, and substance abuse surrounded the wrestling business in this era, especially for someone so young being thrust into the spotlight. She went through quite a bit. When she was on, she was genuinely very good at her role, and these vignettes show why the WWF saw her as such a valuable on-screen personality at the time.
Video: Last night at In Your House, WWF Superstars swung into overdrive on the Road to WrestleMania. The Steel Cage match for the WWF Championship ended in an eerie manner. The Undertaker pulled Diesel into the darkness. Tonight, Razor Ramon will be going after Goldust for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. We’ll hear about the Ultimate Warrior, as well as see a segment of Larry Fling Almost Live on Monday Night Raw.
Video: The WWF Raw video plays to open the show.
We are live in Cincinnati Gardens. Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler welcome us to the show.
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon vs. Goldust (c) w/ Marlena
Referee: Earl Hebner
As Goldust makes his entrance with Marlena, she tries to seduce Razor Ramon before blowing the smoke from her cigar in his face. An irate Ramon attacks Goldust while he’s still in his robe.
The bell rings to start the match, and Ramon throws him across the ring. Ramon sends him to the opposite corner and avalanches him. Feathers from Goldust’s robe go flying. Ramon rips the robe off and throws it out of the ring. Ramon tries to hit him with the Intercontinental Championship, but the referee stops him. Ramon then clotheslines Goldust over the top rope. Goldust recovers with Marlena at ringside.
Goldust gets in the ring and crouches down before getting up and rubbing himself. Ramon spits in his face. Ramon ducks a punch and punches Goldust down. Ramon wrenches the arm and slaps Goldust a few times before slamming him down. Ramon slams him down again and spits on him. Ramon flips him over and sets up for the Razor’s Edge. Goldust quickly counters with a back body drop over the top rope.
-Commercial Break-
Back from the break, Goldust picks up a two-count. Goldust hits the Bad Guy with a clothesline and poses on the ropes. During the commercial, Goldust knocked Ramon off the apron with a running hip attack. Goldust puts Ramon’s head between his legs and jumps up. Goldust sends him into the ropes and applies a sleeper hold. Ramon whips him off and applies a sleeper hold, but Goldust quickly gets out with a jawbreaker. Goldust heads to the top rope, but Ramon crotches him up there. Ramon climbs to the second rope and hits a superplex. Ramon sends Goldust into the ropes, but Goldust ducks a clothesline. Ramon catches him attempting a running crossbody and hits a fallaway slam over the top rope to the floor!
Ramon gets on the apron and hits a vicious diving clothesline. Ramon gets Goldust back in the ring. Goldust tries to avoid Ramon, but Ramon catches him and puts him on the top rope facing the crowd. Ramon hits a back superplex, and Goldust immediately rolls out of the ring. Goldust and Marlena run to the back, and the referee counts him out.
Winner by Countout: Razor Ramon
Goldust retains the WWF Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon grabs the microphone and tells everyone to listen to him. Ramon says he doesn’t want Goldust’s belt… he wants his ass! Ramon says he’s been hearing so much about the return of the great one, the legend from the glory days is back. He’s our new president, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Ramon says he once heard Piper say he has six kids. That makes him Hot Rod. Ramon loves little kids. Piper is like him. Piper is from the streets. Different neighborhoods, same streets. Ramon doesn’t want his kids to watch the kind of stuff like Goldust on TV.
Ramon says the only thing missing from Piper is to make a match. Ramon wants Goldust anywhere, anytime. Everyone knows Goldust wants him. Goldust thinks he’s hot and sexy. Goldust is right. Ramon mocks Piper and calls him a big shot. Ramon challenges Piper to make him a match. Ramon wants a date with Goldust.
Mike’s Thoughts: Another super stiff match between Goldust and Razor Ramon. I know they’re rivals on television, but it really feels like there’s real-life hatred between these two guys. Those punches are super snug, and the high spots seem to be done with a little more recklessness than you would expect from professionals. Maybe they were trying to sell the intensity to set up a big WrestleMania angle (which, spoiler alert, never actually happens), but as you may have read in previous retro recaps, Ramon was not exactly thrilled about working with Goldust and the vignettes they had to do together.
Believe it or not, this ends up being Razor Ramon’s/Scott Hall’s final match and appearance on WWF Raw for this entire series. We’re still months away from what comes next, but this is quietly the end of an era on Monday nights. Big changes are coming, and I’ll cover that with a History Corner at the end of this recap.
Later tonight, Tatanka will battle the Undertaker. We also see footage of the Ultimate Warrior.
Backstage Segment
Paul Bearer is standing in front of a casket. The Undertaker emerges from it.
-Commercial Break-
Video: Buy some T-shirts from the WWF Shop.
Monday Night Raw is brought to you by Edge Shave Gel. Ultimate Comfort… that’s the Edge!
Dok Hendrix is standing with the Raw Band. Hendrix talks about Shawn Michaels defeating Owen Hart last night at In Your House 6 to keep his spot in the WWF Championship match at WrestleMania XII. Shawn Michaels will be facing Bret “Hitman” Hart for the title, who retained it in a Cage Match at the show. The Undertaker broke through the ring and pulled Diesel under, letting Hart pick up the victory.
Hendrix starts to talk about the trouble in Camp Cornette, but Vader and Jim Cornette head down to the ring. Aldo Montoya and Barry Horowitz are supposed to be facing the BodyDonnas, but Vader has other plans. Vader attacks Montoya and Horowitz. Vader hits Montoya with a chokeslam that nearly spikes him on his head. Vader gets Horowitz in the corner and viciously punches him down. Vader throws Horowitz out of the ring and poses. Vader then stands Montoya up and takes him out with a knockout punch. Vader celebrates as the crowd boos.
Mike’s Thoughts: Vader destroying Aldo Montoya and Barry Horowitz is infinitely more preferable than watching those two battle the BodyDonnas.
Video: The Ultimate Warrior is coming back!
Mike’s Thoughts: You have to chuckle at the incredible hypocrisy here. WWF has spent an inordinate amount of time (and will give even more time to it at the end of this very show) criticizing WCW for relying on aging stars and nostalgia (among other things). What does the WWF do in response? Sign an aging star whose whole act will be relying on nostalgia in the Ultimate Warrior, with a horrendous backstage attitude and personality to boot.
Video: WrestleMania XII is coming to Hollywood. Get your tickets now!
-Commercial Break-
Video: Sunny lies on a table in a red dress and seductively sings, “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.”
In the Cincinnati Gardens, Mr. Bob Backlund is in the crowd. Backlund is campaigning for president.
Marty Jannetty vs. Million Dollar Champion The Ringmaster w/ “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase
Referee: Mike Chioda
Vince McMahon calls the Ringmaster a “Stone Cold” individual. The Ringmaster has shaved his head and has the makings of a goatee. He is also sporting black trunks and white boots.
The bell rings, and they lock up before the Ringmaster applies a hammerlock. Jannetty turns it on him, so Ringmaster takes him down. Jannetty gets to his feet, and a hammerlock is applied. The Ringmaster quickly gets to the ropes. McMahon says the Ringmaster has all the tools to get to the top. Jannetty applies a side headlock, but Ringmaster whips him off. Jannetty ducks a pair of clotheslines and hits a running crossbody. Ringmaster rolls through for a two-count. Ringmaster rolls him up and pulls the tights for another two-count. The Ringmaster then dumps him out of the ring.
The Ringmaster coldly looks into the hard camera and smirks. McMahon says he is Stone Cold and heartless. Jannetty gets on the apron and punches him back. Jannetty takes it to the Ringmaster and sends him into the ropes for a dropkick to pick up a two-count. Ringmaster reverses a whip and hits a hotshot into the top rope.
-Commercial Break-
Back from the break, the Ringmaster misses an avalanche against the ropes. Jannetty punches him down and picks up a two-count. Jannetty hits the ropes and goes for a big splash, but the Ringmaster gets the knees up. The Ringmaster whips him hard into the corner, and Jannetty collapses. The Ringmaster pulls him into the center of the ring and applies an STF. The Ringmaster cinches it in, but he releases the hold when Jannetty gets close to the ropes. The Ringmaster smashes Jannetty’s knee into the mat and punches him down for a two-count. The Ringmaster pulls him down and puts his leg on the back of Jannetty’s neck before pulling his head back. The Ringmaster releases him and sends him to the corner, but Jannetty boots him back.
The Ringmaster grabs him and sends him into the ropes, but he lowers his head, and Jannetty counters with a facebuster. Jerry Lawler says Jannetty pulled the Ringmaster’s hair. Jannetty sends the Ringmaster into the ropes for a back elbow. Jannetty sends him into the ropes and punches him in the midsection before hitting a knee lift for a two-count. The Ringmaster flips through a back suplex attempt and applies the Million Dollar Dream. The referee checks Jannetty and calls the match.
Winner by Submission: The Ringmaster
Vince McMahon says the Ringmaster’s eyes are Stone Cold.
Mike’s Thoughts: That’s pretty awesome to hear the beginnings of the transition from the Ringmaster to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The Ringmaster buzzed off the crew cut he debuted with, grew a goatee, and threw on some black trunks. He is still sporting white boots, but he’s starting to look like someone I know.
Video: Mankind is shown in some kind of dungeon. Mankind says, “And on the eighth day, God created Mankind. Why was he having such a bad day? Why’d he create all of you normal and forget so many important parts of me? He made the teeth that I swallowed, the ear that was ripped from my skull… a face that no longer exists! And fingers that no longer play music. Normal? You think you’re normal? Deep inside, you’re merely a mirror image of all my atrocities. The ugliness that exists outside lives inside every one of you! Yeah, on the eighth day, God created me. Maybe he should have slept that day, too.” Mankind clutches a rat and seems to be crying.
Mike’s Thoughts: Awesome stuff from Mankind here. These vignettes are really startling, nothing like the WWF had been doing. They started flirting with some brilliance with Waylon Mercy, but Dan Spivey was too broken down to make the gimmick work. Mick Foley has more than enough juice in the tank to get this going. You can tell already that this is going to be a special character.
Back in the Cincinnati Gardens, Tatanka is heading to the ring with “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. He’ll battle the Undertaker next.
-Commercial Break-
The WWF Slammy Awards take place on WrestleMania weekend. You can cast your ballots now.
Video: Next week on Raw, Yokozuna battles the British Bulldog and Owen Hart in a Handicap Match. Diesel will also be in action. Jake “The Snake” Roberts will face Isaac Yankem, DDS. WWF Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart and Shawn Michaels will also go face-to-face.
Tatanka w/ “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase vs. The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
Referee: Tim White
The bell rings, and Undertaker immediately goozles Tatanka before throwing him to the corner. Undertaker kicks him and sends him to the opposite corner for a clothesline. Undertaker grabs Tatanka by the throat in the corner and releases when the referee gets to five. Tatanka chops Undertaker and is startled because the Dead Man doesn’t react. Tatanka reverses a whip, but Undertaker pulls him down by the hair. Undertaker kicks and punches Tatanka before bouncing him in the corner. Tatanka reverses a whip to the corner, but Undertaker big boots him back. Undertaker hits the ropes and ducks a clothesline, but Tatanka catches him on the rebound with a Samoan Drop.
Diesel walks down to the ringside area with an axe, grabs a cameraman, and pulls him to the back.
-Commercial Break-
We come back from the break to see Diesel backstage in front of the Undertaker’s casket. Diesel begins to beat it with the axe.
In the ring, the Undertaker hits a back suplex and sits up. Undertaker wrenches the arm, walks the top rope, and comes down with a club, unaware that his casket is being destroyed by Big Daddy Cool. In the ring, Tatanka fights back with a piledriver. Tatanka kicks him and leans over him, but the Undertaker grabs him by the throat. Undertaker gets to his feet and hits a Chokeslam. Backstage, Diesel has completely destroyed the casket.
In the ring, the Undertaker hits Tatanka with a Tombstone Piledriver for the win.
Winner by Pinfall: The Undertaker
Undertaker and Paul Bearer stand in the ring when the video wall shows a replay of Diesel destroying the casket. An angry Undertaker charges to the back. The commentators talk about Undertaker and Diesel battling at WrestleMania. Jerry Lawler gets up and heads to the back.
Mike’s Thoughts: Just a match with the Undertaker and Tatanka. Tatanka is back after a suspension for a few months for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s honestly not a story worth covering because it’s super disturbing. All I’ll say is that Jimmy Del Ray was a sick individual.
The angle with Diesel destroying the casket was… just ok. Yes, the Undertaker is a Dead Man who is followed around by a mortician. This would have been stronger if they had shown the Undertaker residing in caskets and emerging from them in the weeks leading up to his big matches, but they didn’t. Why would anyone care that this random casket was destroyed? Undertaker can build a new one.
The angle also brought a little controversy with it. Shortly after this taping (which he’ll also wrestle on), Diesel would miss a few house shows, claiming he separated and fractured his shoulder in the Cage Match with Bret Hart at In Your House 6. For someone with a fractured/separated shoulder, he really swung a mighty fine axe.
Larry Fling Live
A ripoff of Larry King named “Larry Fling” on FNN is with Billionaire Ted. Fling greets all the women he’s married, is currently dating, and his masseuse. Billionaire Ted says he owns Fling. Fling talks about watching In Your House with Bobby DeNiro. They loved the show, and Ted agrees. Randy from Sarasota, Florida, calls in to complain about thinning hair. They quickly hang up on him. Next up is Terry from Tampa, Florida. Ted recognizes him as the Huckster. The Huckster wants next Monday off after being hit by a lady’s shoe. Ted allows it. The next caller is Jane from Hanoi. This is a play on Ted’s wife, Jane Fonda, famously known as Hanoi Jane. Jane says Ted’s suits are ready from Macy’s.
Fling says there has to be a good reason Ted hasn’t talked to the media, much of which he controls, about the alleged personal vendetta against the WWF, the monopolistic activities, the predatory practices, and the suggestion that tens of millions of dollars of losses haven’t been disclosed to the shareholders. Also, the Huckster’s contract is allegedly charged to other profitable divisions in the corporation. What’s the story on the FTC investigation? Is there a convicted stock swindler in Time-Warner? Ted starts to stutter and cannot speak. Fling says Ted has laryngitis and must have caught it from his wrestlers. Hopefully, he doesn’t catch anything else. Fling says he’ll have the Huckster and the Nacho Man on next week to address their WrestleMania XII match. Ted says he’ll be the guest referee before going back to having laryngitis.
Mike’s Thoughts: These keep getting worse and worse. The joke is more than over. I get that Vince McMahon is trying to educate his audience as to what Ted Turner is attempting to do, but it’s way overstayed its welcome and is doing more harm than good at this point. These skits, again meant to educate fans, also don’t speak well of how intelligent the WWF thinks its fans are. It is also making McMahon look supremely weak to just about everyone.
Backstage Segment
The Undertaker and Paul Bearer find the destroyed casket. Bearer yells in horror at the sight.
Quick Match Results
— Razor Ramon def. Goldust (c) via CO in a WWF Intercontinental Championship match; Goldust retains the title
— The Ringmaster def. Marty Jannetty via Submission
— The Undertaker def. Tatanka
Mike’s Wrap-Up: What We Learned from Raw
We’re firmly on the Road to WrestleMania with this episode of Raw, no doubt about it. They spent this live episode focusing firmly on two of the co-main events heading into the show: Goldust vs. Razor Ramon, and the Undertaker vs. Diesel. In the interim, we also got a look at the transition from the Ringmaster to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, another fantastic Mankind vignette, and more Vader destruction. Oh, and another one of those stupid Billionaire Ted segments. Can’t win them all, I guess. It is still early 1996 for the WWF.
While I did like a lot of the build for the WrestleMania matches, you can’t help but scratch your head a bit. This is a live show, one of only two they’ll have for the rest of WrestleMania season, and they chose not to put out WWF Champion Bret Hart or his challenger, Shawn Michaels. Instead, they’re saving that for next week’s taped episode. I don’t totally get that logic, but they’ve done this before. When Bret Hart won the title in November 1995, he didn’t appear on Raw until the week after as well, embarrassingly being attacked by Bob Backlund at the end of the segment. Who knows? Maybe they were worried the live crowd would be more for Bret Hart than Shawn Michaels, and didn’t want to hurt Michaels’ reaction? There is no doubt that it is super important to get everything right with Shawn Michaels as they set the rocket off at WrestleMania, so in an effort to control things, they can do some crowd noise sweetening for a taped show. Just my thought.
In any event, this show unexpectedly proves to be a very consequential episode of WWF Raw. As I alluded to earlier, let’s take a trip to the History Corner.
History Corner: The End of Razor Ramon on Raw
Who knew that a countout victory against Goldust in a match that was once again super hard-hitting and heated would be the final time we’d see Razor Ramon wrestling on Raw (or at all for that matter) until a match against Spike Dudley in March 2002? But that is the case here. This obviously wasn’t framed as a farewell to the character. If anything, they were going hard with the idea that he was here to stay, priming him for a match against Goldust that would be a major feature at WrestleMania XII. This is the only thing Ramon would do on this taping of Raw (and also the next few weeks of taped episodes, unless they taped some backstage stuff). He’d show up at the WWF Superstars taping the next night and continue the build to this WrestleMania, doing an in-ring segment with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Vince McMahon, as well as participating in a Tag Team Title Tournament with Savio Vega in a winning effort.
Then, after giving absolutely no sign to anyone at the television tapings that he was anything but fully on board with the WWF crew, Scott Hall went home and sent Vince McMahon his 90-day notice via telegram on Wednesday, February 21. That same day, a furious Vince McMahon suspended Hall for six weeks, allegedly due to drug use, but the timing sure is convenient. It would mean that Hall was available to return on April 3, which would mean he would miss the big WrestleMania XII payday on March 31, as well as the Raw and Superstar tapings that would last through April 1996. Hall, working with less leverage than Kevin Nash (more on him in a few weeks), was made an example of. WWF opted to let one of their bigger stars quietly fade out during WrestleMania season to send a message.
So how did we get to this point?
In early 1996, Razor Ramon was still a character who was over with the crowd, but it’s clear they’d cooled off on him. There’s no doubt that Scott Hall’s issues were well known even during this time, but he had the demons a little more in control than a few years from now in WCW. He was still a mid-to-upper-midcard guy, but he was definitely not in the company’s long-term plans, despite the fact that his best friend, Shawn Michaels, was about to win the WWF Championship. He’d also been saddled with two back-to-back angles that really soured him: working with Goldust in an angle that blurred a lot of lines, and a Crybaby Match with the 1-2-3 Kid. Requests to have a feud with his other Kliq member, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, were denied.
Hall was frustrated, but he was also facing a lot of pressure at home. His wife, most likely worried about how reckless he could get while out on the road with the WWF’s brutal schedule, wanted him to leave. While working that brutal schedule, Hall earned less in 1995 than he had before in the WWF. With a lack of upward momentum, a brutal schedule, lower pay, and personal life pressures, something had to give. WCW was offering guaranteed money, a lighter schedule, and a fresh creative slate. Due to all these factors, how could he not send the 90-day notice?
Scott Hall becomes the first major star to walk away during the war. Lex Luger showed up as an opening shot, but now that things are churning, this is the first major defection (if you want to call it that). It sets a precedent, and what happens next will ripple through the entire wrestling industry. This really was the first crack in the dam that was about to burst wide open in 1996. Within months, Scott Hall wouldn’t just be gone from the WWF. He’d be standing in a WCW ring, and the Monday Night War would never look quite the same again.
Anyway, back to the recap.
Last week, WWF Raw was off because of the Westminster Dog Show. WCW was on a two-week winning streak. WCW Nitro, unopposed by Raw, scored a solid 3.7 rating. How did these two shows, going live head-to-head once again, fare against each other?
WWF Raw (USA Network, live): 3.1 (Record: 10-10-2)
WCW Nitro (TNT, live): 2.9 (Record: 10-10-2)
Winner: WWF Raw
WWF Raw is back on top. The curiosity coming off the PPV had to be a factor in this. You can tell from the head-to-head records that this is a very evenly matched war early on, but things will be changing in the months to come, in large part because of the news that broke shortly after this Raw taping, as well as other items to drop in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Email – mike@wrestleview.com
X – @MikeTedescoWV
In Your House 6 | Raw two weeks ago | Last week’s Nitro
Thanks for reading!
Part of Wrestleview’s Monday Night War: 30 Years Later series, with weekly Raw and Nitro recaps every Thursday.