MONDAY NIGHT RAW

September 25, 1995

Marty Jannetty . . . looks like he’s still got what it takes to be a big name in the WWF.

Owen Hart . . . bounces for everybody involved in his match, including his own tag team partner.

Davey Boy Smith . . . looks like anything but a World Title contender with a mediocre main event performance.

MARTY JANNETTY vs. SKIP

At first, this looks more like something out of Memphis than it does the WWF, and that’s not a bad thing. So, I guess it’s appropriate to end the match with a fistdrop. There’s crowd playing from both men, and Sunny’s interference backfiring to give the crowd something to laugh about. The only time the match seems to drag is Skip’s heat segment, which is cut off by the commercial break, but we don’t see much more from him other than punches and a lariat (which gives Marty an excuse to take the inside out bump). But, there are still moments to remind you of how good they both can be. The German suplex wasn’t exactly commonplace at this time, and Marty countering Skip’s hurricanrana into a powerbomb was a good spot. Marty winning here is probably more an indication of how little that the WWF thought of Candido, rather than any high opinions of Jannetty. Marty certainly looks good here, but, the (very short) window of him being used in any major role with the company had already closed a long time ago.

OWEN HART/YOKOZUNA © vs. BILLY GUNN/BART GUNN (WWF World Tag Team Titles)

The work isn’t anything mind-blowing, but, this is another fun match. It’s clear that Yoko’s weight was catching up with him by this point, he doesn’t add very much to the match as far as the actual wrestling goes. Well, there is the segment before Billy’s hot tag, where Yoko misses the legdrop and gives Billy the opening to tag out, but Billy decides to try an elbow drop, which also misses. Yoko follows up by also missing a splash, and after that, Billy heads for the corner and tags. But, other than that, Yoko’s main contribution is being an unintentional foil for Owen, between the bump Owen takes from the whip into Yoko, and Yoko’s miscue that leads to Owen getting pinned.

Luckily, Owen is able to make up for Yoko and bring some nice work to the match. Owen had good exchanges with both Billy and Bart early on, and there’s more once the match settles down with Billy getting worked over. There’s a great moment when Billy rolls through Owen’s flying body press, which wakes up the crowd with a tease of Billy making a comeback. The only thing really missing from the heat segment is some sort of focus, especially with Yoko dropping down on Billy to block the crucifix, it’d seem natural to focus on the midsection. Then again, once Bart makes the hot tag and the match breaks down, Billy is no worse for wear, so, overall, it’s probably best that the heels didn’t focus on a certain area to work him over. Owen’s big bounce when he gets whipped into Yoko is hilarious, and if the Sidewinder wasn’t going to be enough to beat Owen, then the splash from Yoko (intended to break up the pin), definitely would.

THE UNDERTAKER vs. DAVEY BOY SMITH

The disqualification finish sucks, but, this wasn’t shaping up to be anything special anyway. The only worthwhile aspect to the match is Davey attacking UT’s knee, mostly because of how well UT puts it over. Aside from the half crab, Davey doesn’t do anything interesting to work it over, preferring to just stomp it. UT sells it consistently throughout the whole match. It doesn’t hamper him all that much, he still pulls off his rope walk without a hitch, but, there’s still the doubt as to whether or not he’ll be able to do the spot. There’s another nice moment when Davey picks him up for the powerslam and UT slides out and does a backdrop suplex. But aside from that, there’s really nothing else to see. Davey does a bunch of perfunctory spots for near falls, and then Mabel hits the ring to attack UT, some babyfaces make the save, and that’s all for this week.

Conclusion: Disappointing main event aside, there’s still two very fun undercard matches that are certainly worth checking out.